Hong Kong: Pact reached on depot site devt

The Development Bureau announced today that the Government has reached agreement with the Mass Transit Railway Corporation on the in-situ land exchange for the housing development at the Siu Ho Wan Depot Site and the proposed Oyster Bay Station.

The bureau said the pact signifies that the development project will be entering the construction stage and will provide about 20,000 public and private housing units upon completion.

The 30-hectare Siu Ho Wan Depot Site, a large-scale railway maintenance depot on the Tung Chung Line, was rezoned, as announced in the 2020 Policy Address, with potential to provide about 2,000 housing units, of which around half of them will be subsidised sale flats.

The Government's vision is to make good use of the depot site through comprehensive planning to develop a new community with public and private housing, a shopping arcade, community facilities and a waterfront promenade. In support of this development, the MTRC will construct Oyster Bay Station, a new railway station on the Tung Chung Line.

The bureau explained that the Government and the MTRC have been working at full steam to take forward the project. Various development procedures were executed concurrently, including the preparation of the layout plan for seeking planning permission, gazettal of road works and the railway scheme, detailed design and handling the in-situ land exchange required for Oyster Bay Station's development and project agreement.

After two years of hard work, the preparatory work for the project is near completion. The Lands Department will execute the land exchange documents with the MTRC shortly and the corporation will dispose of the first development package by tender as early as possible within this financial year, the bureau added.

The development of the Siu Ho Wan Depot Site involves the MTRCs in-situ revamp of the depot layout to allow construction of a deck over the depot and the development of private residential buildings and related facilities atop, and timely handover of the land parcels for public housing to the Housing Authority for constructing public residential buildings.

The project is a challenging one as the depot conversion works and topside development will proceed in parallel and in the process, normal railway operations have to be maintained throughout, the bureau emphasised.

As the depot will be converted in stages, the housing development project will be completed in four phases. Phase 1, with a total of around 6,000 public and private housing units, is expected to be gradually completed with population intake from 2030 to 2032. The new railway station is expected to complete construction and be ready for commissioning in 2030 to cater for the first population intake.

The bureau stressed that the Siu Ho Wan Depot Site development demonstrates the Government's determination in creating more land and it will continue its multipronged approach to find land from diversified sources to increase land and housing supply.

The MTRC applied to the Government for lease modification by way of an in-situ land exchange and is required to pay land premium at full market value. The premium amount is assessed in accordance with the established mechanism applicable to lease modifications in general, taking into account the land use before and after the modification and the costs for development.

The Transport & Logistics Bureau has signed a project agreement with the MTRC to take forward the proposed Oyster Bay Station through the ownership approach under which the corporation will be responsible for the financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of the railway station.

The MTRC accepted the binding basic terms offer issued by the Lands Department for the in-situ land exchange. The formalities for the execution of the lease modification documents is expected to be completed within a few months.

Upon registration of the relevant documents at the Land Registry, the land transaction record will be uploaded to the departments webpage for public inspection.

This story has been published on: 2022-09-23. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Huge flower basket installed in Tian'anmen Square for National Day

Chinadaily.com.cn) 09:19, September 23, 2022

Photo taken on Sept 24, 2020 shows a "flower basket" at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing, capital of China. [Photo/Xinhua]

A huge flower basket arrangement with the theme "blessings to China" will be installed in Beijing's Tian'anmen Square as part of the plan to decorate the square and Chang'an Avenue  the capital's main thoroughfare  for the upcoming National Day holiday next month.

Since 1984, Tian'anmen Square in the heart of Beijing has hosted huge displays to celebrate the National Day holiday, with their design and related technology developing over the years.

The Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau unveiled the plan for this year's flower basket arrangement on Thursday. The bureau said that construction work commenced on Sept 15 and is expected to be completed by Sunday.

Besides the main basket, 14 flower terraces bearing different good wishes to the country and showing the nation's achievements will be displayed along Chang'an Avenue.

Meanwhile, flowers will be planted covering a total area of 7,000 square meters between Jianguomen and Fuxingmen along Chang'an Avenue through the heart of the capital to create a celebratory atmosphere, said Liu Mingxing, head of the bureau's afforesting division.

The main floral arrangement in the center of the square, which has been an annual National Day decoration since 2011, will be 18 meters high, the same as last year, and the overall area of the decorations in Tian'anmen Square will be 5,050 square meters.

The 14 flower terraces along Chang'an Avenue will display different types of flowers and showcase a variety of themes related to the nation's development, such as innovation and green development.

Two of the flower terraces  one in the shape of a rainbow and the other resembling a Chinese knot  celebrate the upcoming 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which is proposed to be convened in Beijing on Oct 16.

According to the bureau, up to 100 species of flowers will make their debut on the terraces  both local and imported, which will help make the decoration more vivid and colorful.

In addition to the square and Chang'an Avenue, all of the districts in the city will also have their own floral decorations, said Liu.

"Beijing will have a total of 50 themed flower terraces during the period and around 19 million plants will be used," he said. "All of the work will be completed by the end of this month."

Li Yunlu, a 30-year-old Beijing resident, said she would bring her parents to the square during the National Day holiday to take a family photo in front of the flower basket, which has become a tradition for the family.

"We feel very happy and cherish our good life more every time when we see the beautiful flowers and the smiles on the people's faces around us," she said.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Du Mingming)
Im trying to imagine why a person would look around in this particular moment and decide that drag queens reading storybooks to children are a menace that must be thwarted.

I know the mind reels at the number of ways and places our kids can be harmed: Gun violence is now the leading cause of death for American children; COVID-19 variants continue to evolve; the American West is running out of water and kids are choking on wildfire smoke; close to half of all Americans live in areas with hazardous air quality levels; the proportion of high school students reporting persistent sadness or hopelessness increased by 40% over the last decade.

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Persistent sadness or hopelessness.

I know some of the scariest and hard-to-pin-down threats live terrifyingly close, but theyre infuriatingly out of parental reach  and on the phones and other devices that are rarely more than a few inches from our kids fingertips.

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I know our hearts are stretched and weary and sad.

But drag queens? Reading storybooks? And playing bingo? And creating balloon animals, along with joy and laughter and levity and a spark plus kindling for the imagination and curiosity and openheartedness and flexible thinking that will serve young people in every one of their endeavors?

Not a menace. If anything, a balm.

And yet. All around Illinois, libraries and cafes and other venues that host family-friendly drag events have been fielding threats and canceling shows and even cleaning up from vandalism. UpRising Bakery and Cafe in Lake in the Hills had its windows smashed in and hateful messages sprayed on its walls before it was scheduled to host Starry Night Brunch Drag, a sold-out event for families.

Similar threats and cancellations are taking place across the United States and the United Kingdom. In Florida, state Rep. Anthony Sabatini called for legislation that would terminate the parental rights of adults who take their kids to drag events.

There seems to be a lot of confusion as to, like, drag has to be sexual, performer Ginger Forest told the Chicago Tribune. And that is not true at all. Our show specifically, we dont wear revealing clothing. We dont use profanity. We dont do songs that are not children-appropriate. So, basically, what I would say is, go experience a show and see for yourself, how magical it can be.

Magic like a certain kingdom in Florida? Where millions upon millions of parents bring their kids each year to delight in the company of grown-ups dressed as mice and ducks and chipmunks and princesses and whatever Goofy is?

Children dont need everything to fit neatly into socially constructed rows. They need love. And wonder. And hope. And new experiences. And stories. And radical acts of kindness.

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So do adults. Including the adults doing the performing.

Life is not an old-timey carnival, where the dominant culture gets to subjugate the folks theyve deemed misfits or less than, and then charge admission for the crowds to point and gawk.

Its reprehensible that people who set out to bring some joy and inclusivity and a sense of belonging to kids would be on the receiving end of threats. Its ridiculous that policymakers would dream up ways to penalize parents who want their kids to take part in that joy and inclusivity and sense of belonging, parents who want their kids to know the full, three-dimensional humanity and range and experiences of the people with whom they share this Earth.

I dont know how to make the world less scary to raise kids. I dont know how to curb gun violence or solve the water crisis or even log in to Snapchat, which maybe isnt even the thing kids use anymore.

I know we can love our kids through it all. And I know we can teach them humanity and curiosity and kindness toward others. And I know we can protect and cherish all the individuals who help us teach them humanity and curiosity and kindness toward others  no matter what those individuals are wearing.

If drag queen brunch is not your jam, you are perfectly welcome to sit it out. Drag queens will not hunt you down and force you to join their joyful reverie. They are busy enjoying life and, besides, your scowls would probably scare the children.

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If drag queen brunch is your jam  or, just as importantly, if your jam is a world where drag queen brunch is open and available and safe for anyone who would like to partake  then now is a good time to show up.

Show up for brunch. Show up for bingo. Show up to counterprotest. Show up with a letter to the editor or a supportive post on social media or a voice of sanity and reason at a dinner party. Show up at the polls in November.

The fear and the hate are loud and organized right now. I suppose they always have been. That doesnt mean they have to win.

Heidi Stevens is a Tribune News Service columnist. You can reach her at heidikstevens@gmail.com, find her on Twitter @heidistevens13 or join her Heidi Stevens Balancing Act Facebook group.
Colombias former President Ivan Duque warned that his successors calls to change course on the war on drugs would turn Colombia into a "narco state" that could threaten the security of the United States and other countries "in the hemisphere."

"Now, what worries me is that there is now the possibility of getting into the permission, or the legalization of cocaine and consumption," Duque, who had been in New York to attend the Concordia Summit, told Fox News Digital. "I think that it will be very bad for Colombia and that will be very bad for the countries in the hemisphere, and I think that could generate also a major security threat to the United States."

Duque, who left office in August, continued: "So by no means I'm in favor of the legalization of the cocaine trade  But I also have to say it, Colombia cannot turn into a narco state. I think the world now has unified in the concept of prohibition, and I think if just one country, let's say Colombia, decides to legalize cocaine, it'll turn itself into a narco state."

In contrast, Duque cited his administrations "holistic approach" to the challenges of illegal drugs, from the highest drug seizures ever, to extradition, to health care policies to treat addicts. He further called on more being done to curb demand "in the countries where the consumption of the game has spiked."

A bill presented by the current administration of President Gustavo Petro to legalize recreational marijuana reflects an effort to shift away from what he has called the "irrational war against drugs." Petro, Colombia's first left-wing president and a former guerilla leader, called for a "new international convention" during his inaugural speech, claiming "the war on drugs has failed."

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS CONTINUE IN VENEZUELA, ACCORDING TO UN EXPERTS

According to an Office of National Drug Control Policy estimate, Colombia in 2020 was the world's leading producer of cocaine, cultivating more than the two closest nations, Peru and Bolivia, combined.

Story continues

During his address to the United Nations General Assembly, Petro again stated "The war on drugs has failed."

"What is more poisonous for humanity, cocaine, coal or oil?" Petro said. "The opinion of power has ordered that cocaine is poison and must be persecuted, while it only causes minimal deaths from overdosesbut instead, coal and oil must be protected, even when it can extinguish all humanity."

STATE DEPARTMENT MADE CALCULATION TO PRIORITIZE IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL OVER HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES

President Duque also addressed border security and the crisis on the U.S. southern border. He said one way to help solve it would be to bring greater investments to the Americas. "Bringing those investments here will create jobs, will create opportunity, will create aggregated value chains and I think that could disincentivize the pressure on the southern border of the United States."

He noted that the focus on climate change as a major issue means that Colombia must adapt or suffer in the long-term. He explained that 40% of Colombias exports come from oil and gas, with much of the national profit derived from taxation of and foreign investment in that sector.

He insisted that Colombia can be a leader in pursuing alternative fuels, but that the issue is "not a matter of black and white."

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, shakes hands with his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro MAXIM SHEMETOV/AFP/Getty Images

"There's a transition going on and Colombia can turn itself in the next decade into an exporter of green hydrogen, but so far, we need to keep the balance of doing a good job when it comes to oil and gas in terms of exports on production," Duque argued. "At the same time, we need to keep on expanding on non-conventional renewable energies."

"I think we have to continue becoming leaders in the energy transition with non-conventional renewable energies, but we need to keep  the conventional energy that is a source of funding for the social programs that we have in Colombia," he said.

BIDEN IN UN SPEECH ACCUSES RUSSIA OF EXTREMELY SIGNIFICANT VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL CHARTER

Oil also provides Venezuela with power and wealth, which it uses to build ties to nations such as Russia and Iran. Duque warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin sees Venezuela as a "mechanism to destabilize the Western Hemisphere," with Putin having said he also sees Colombia as "a future strategic partner."

"I condemned it when I was president. And we also expelled spies, Russian spies from the Colombian territory, and I think we need to keep on demonstrating [to] the world of that interest that Russia has in Venezuela," Duque said.

"I think at this point in time, all the Western Hemisphere countries need to reject that intention of Vladimir Putin to bringing to the Western Hemisphere a capacity to destabilize," he continued. "We have seen how they have tried to get involved in elections and destabilize elections and influence elections by the manipulation of algorithms with local media and also by espionage."

"So I have been clear, and I can say it again, that intention of Russia, of using Venezuela as  the point of entrance to try to destabilize the region has to be very clearly denounced, and [Putin] has to receive also a message that he cannot mess with the Western democracies." Duque also called for Putin being "tried by the International Criminal Court" for his actions involving Ukraine.

Former President Duque also discussed new projects that he is overseeing since leaving office. One such project he said was to help revive the Amazon in a project known as the Amazon Initiative which is a way to revive and sustain the area.

During the interview Duque also discussed the influence China plays on the continent, the appeal of leftism in Latin America, pro-market economic reforms, the war in Ukraine, and the National Liberation Army, a designated foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. Department of State.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This report has been updated to clarify the approach of Colombian lawmakers regarding the country's drug policies.

Fox News' Andrew Murray contributed to this report.
By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) - Elijah McClain, an unarmed Black man killed in 2019 after an encounter with police in Aurora, Colorado, died of an overdose of the powerful sedative ketamine that was injected by paramedics, a new autopsy report released on Friday concluded.

Dr. Stephen Cina, a forensic pathologist who had initially concluded that McClain's cause of death was "undetermined," wrote in his new report on Friday that he had had insufficient information during his 2019 autopsy.

Three police officers and two paramedics were criminally charged in McClains death in 2021, following protests.

I believe that Mr. McClain would most likely be alive but for the administration of ketamine, Cina wrote in Friday's report.

McClain, 23, was walking home from a convenience store in the Denver suburb of Aurora on August 24, 2019, when he was confronted by police responding to a report that he was acting suspiciously, although he was not suspected of a crime.

The officers subdued McClain with a carotid neck hold and handcuffed him, according to an indictment. Paramedics then arrived and injected him with a dose of ketamine too high for someone of his weight, according to the autopsy. McClain went into cardiac arrest and died days later at a hospital.

Months after his death, a local prosecutor declined to prosecute the first responders, citing the initial autopsy.

The McClain case drew national attention following the 2020 death of George Floyd under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer, which sparked global protests over the treatment of Black Americans by law enforcement.

Following the outcry, Colorado Governor Jared Polis appointed the states attorney general to review McClain's death. In September 2021, a grand jury indicted the three Aurora police officers and two paramedics.

All five are charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide and are set to enter pleas in November.

Last November, the city of Aurora agreed to pay McClains parents $15 million to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit. Also last year, Colorado's attorney general determined that Aurora's police routinely violated the law by engaging in racially biased policing and excessive use of force.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman, Editing by Donna Bryson and Bill Berkrot)
At Indiana University, our graduate students and student academic appointees (SAAs) are crucial members of our academic community. They are central to our research, vital to undergraduate teaching, and a source of energy that permeates the university.

Rahul Shrivastav

Though I am in my first year leading my alma mater as provost, from my earliest days back on campus it was clear that our institutional support for some of our SAAs did not match the significance of their personal and professional contributions.

Concerns raised by students were valid and timely, and we have worked diligently to pursue progress and rebuild trust.

Advocates rightfully called for increases in SAA stipends. They rightfully urged action on student fees. And they rightfully called for greater equity for international student SAAs. Action from the university on these topics, and many others, was overdue.

In news:Indiana University gives grad workers all they've asked for  except a recognized labor union

It was critical not only for us to recognize these issues, but to meaningfully address them as a community.

The Task Force on Graduate Education is the product of our campus-wide consensus toward action, and I am deeply grateful to the faculty, staff, and students who make up each of the task forces many working groups.

Through their work and due to their recommendations, weve secured important and permanent improvements for our SAAs.

The increase in SAA minimum stipends to $22,000 for a half-time, 10-month appointment puts IU in the top half of the Big Ten when it comes to graduate student compensation. Weve committed to periodic review and increases in stipends to ensure we remain competitive based on bi-annual benchmarking against peer institutions in the Big Ten.

The university has waived mandatory graduate student fees and the international student fee for SAAs, as well as course-specific fees in the programs that charge them.

We are also pursuing strengthened and more transparent grievance processes, creating a new graduate student advisory committee, and enhancing support for SAA health and wellness needs on matters ranging from sick leave to health insurance.

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Finally, new committees within the Bloomington Faculty Council and the College of Arts and Sciences will provide important forums for ongoing dialogue and action on issues of importance to SAAs, while also providing oversight and transparency regarding the universitys pledged actions.

Election season:Will Indiana's near total abortion ban motivate college students to vote?

On each of the primary concerns raised by student advocates, weve been able to make substantive improvements and meaningful progress  yet our work is far from complete. Additional working groups will lead to action on subjects ranging from healthcare, diversity, equity and inclusion, career and professional development, and more.

I understand the skepticism from those who may have initially questioned our willingness to act, but I hope the progress shown thus far demonstrates our good faith in seeking to permanently improve graduate education at IU, and to honor the personal and professional contributions of our SAAs.

Against this backdrop of progress, I join others in urging students to reconsider their calls for a work stoppage. The consequences of a strike would be costly to our entire community, and most critically, for our undergraduate students, who  pending the extent of a work stoppage  could face major academic disruptions, financial implications and other significant ramifications.

I have every faith in the sincerity of the concern from graduate students, but I urge them to pursue progress alongside us.

I believe our goals are largely the same  to create at IU one of the nations leading research institutions for graduate education. I know this aspiration is within our reach if we choose to continue working together.

Rahul Shrivastav is provost and executive vice president of the Indiana University Bloomington campus.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Provost Shrivastav urges grad workers not to vote for work stoppage
Sep. 22WASHINGTON  Congressman August Pfluger (R-San Angelo) will be hosting a Service Academy Night on Tuesday at the Midland Army Air Field Museum.

The event will take place from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Midland Army Air Field Museum located at 9600 Wright Drive.

Students, parents, counselors, and educators are encouraged to attend and learn more about enrolling in a U.S. military service academy.

Service Academy Night provides the opportunity to learn about the Academy nomination process and meet with representatives from the U.S. Military Service Academies, Reserve Officers' Training Corps, and Congressman Pfluger's office.

Pfluger stated in the press release: "One of my greatest honors of serving in Congress is having the ability to nominate future leaders to one of our esteemed military academies. As a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, I can tell you first hand there is no greater privilege than answering our Nation's call, and swearing an oath to defend this country and keep it secure. This Nation, enshrined in the ideals of freedom, liberty, and opportunity, is held up by the men and women who don the uniform and valiant defend this great country. In the 11th District, we have incredible young men and women. I challenge each and every one of you to think about a service academy. We need your skills, we need your leadership, we need your service. The country needs your service."
Shadowland - Season 1

Shadowland Credit - Peacock

A psychiatric nurse practitioner repeatedly disrupts school board meetings because she believes mask mandates are facilitating child sex trafficking. A formerly stable husband and father stumbles down the QAnon rabbit hole, claims to experience mysterious visions, and ultimately grows so obsessed that his wife sees no choice but to leave him. A disabled veteran becomes convinced that Americans are being systematically replaced by immigrants and announces that hes running for governor of Texas, on a secessionist platform. A restaurant owner, her business devastated by the pandemic, faces trial for her role in the January 6 insurrection. Cameras capture her in the Capitol Building, screaming They all need to hang!

These are some of the most disturbing anecdotes in Peacocks Shadowland, an uneven but frequently insightful documentary on the conspiracy theories currently ravaging the American public. Across six episodes, executive producer Joe Berlinger (Conversations with a Killer, the Paradise Lost trilogy) assembles portraits of the true believers, profiteers, and innocent victims of a constellation of false, deeply destructive right-wing myths, including Q, anti-vax, the Great Replacement, and more. The series can be harrowing to watch. On a human scale, families are destroyed and communities riven. More chilling still is the prospect that, even after Jan. 6, the most cataclysmic fallout of the proliferation of conspiracy theories is yet to come.

Christopher Key in 'Shadowland' Peacock

For a sense of how bad things can getin a society that rarely lives up to its own melting-pot rhetoriclook no further than Ken Burns latest PBS docuseries, The U.S. and the Holocaust. University of Maryland history professor Jeffrey Herf spells it out in Shadowland: The most important and famous conspiracy theory of the 20th century was the Nazis argument that the Jews started World War II. As Germany descended into poverty and factionalism after the First World War, Herf says, it explained things. And the explanation went along with a face. Hitler didnt have to work hard to sell new versions of conspiracy theories that dated back millennia and would, tragically, survive the fall of his genocidal regime. Shadowland subjects bizarre fixations on Illuminati and lizard people have roots in antisemitic lore that predates the Nazis.

Some of those delusions even originated on American soil. Burns typically textbook-like but genuinely illuminating series revisits the familiar story of how the Third Reichs exploitation of its own Big Lie led to the Holocaust. But its unique contribution is to trace the conspiracy theorys connection to and power over the United States, where Henry Ford had published screeds against the international Jewish community that helped inspire Mein Kampf and a President as progressive as FDR, fearing a public backlash, repeatedly failed to offer asylum to European Jews fleeing Hitler.

One of the most upsetting things about The U.S. and the Holocaust is its well-supported argument that Americas muted response was not a result of ignorance about what was happening in Germany as much as it was an expression of widespread, homegrown bigotry too tenacious to be debunked. Throughout the series, Burns and his co-directors Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein point out that American newspapers and wire services were reporting on the Nazis persecution of Jews for years before the U.S. entered the warand that pollsters continued to find most Americans unsympathetic to their plight, or at least unwilling to give them sanctuary. Government officials all the way up to the White House even entertained the baseless and ridiculous notion that German Jewish refugees might become spies for the Fuhrer.

Party meeting or rally. Sign in the back reads: "Kauft nicht bei Juden"- Don't buy from Jews. Heinrich Hoffmanncourtesy of National Archives and Records Administration

Watching Shadowland alongside Burns series, its hard to avoid the conclusion that the U.S. is amassing all the necessary ingredients for a combustion of world-historical proportions. Of course, America in 2022 is not Germany in the 1930s, for reasons as varied as population size, diversity, shifting geopolitical realities, and a century of technological advancements that have altered just about every aspect of life in the developed world. Jews are only one among many groups targeted by the paranoid and hateful. Still, as Ellen Cushing of The Atlantic (whose reporting is the basis of Shadowland) puts it: Conspiracy thinking has a body count. In the U.S. that looks like not just Jan. 6, but also decades worth of mass shootings and other hate crimes targeting Jews, Muslims, immigrants, people of color, the LGBTQ community, and other minorities. These beliefs also filter up into mainstream politics and policies (see: the rise of the QAnon candidate) in ways that cause material harm to perceived outsiders.

The time to stop a genocide is before it happens, says the prominent historian Deborah Lipstadt in The U.S. and the Holocaust. But when so many Americans are already willing to abandon their families, poison themselves with fake COVID cures, go to jail, even kill and die in the name of perverse conspiracy theories, how can we avert tragedy? It seems like it should help to understand what motivates their adherents. Shadowlandwhich too often skirts the ugly prejudices that so many individual conspiracy believers endorseoffers a wealth of strong, if not novel, explanations: anxiety, loneliness, narcissism, money troubles, trauma. Some of the series subjects are exploiting disinformation for fame and profit. But many, from a woman who lost her retirement savings when her employers stock crashed to a veteran injured in pursuit of nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, have good reason to resent the rich and powerful.

Robert Chapman in 'Shadowland' Peacock

Unfortunately, both documentaries also illustrate how limited not just facts but empathy can be as a tool in the fight against conspiracy theories. If a devoted wife or a concerned child cant pull a loved one out of the depths of delusion, what chance does anyone else have? Meanwhile, when the government cracks down on or the mainstream media debunks or social media sites ban accounts for harmful, conspiracy-related practices like the sale of bleach solutions as a panacea, it only further convinces true believers that theyre being silenced by a New World Order that doesnt want people to find out the dark secrets they know. Many of the people in Shadowland really do appear to inhabit a sort of informational Upside Down, where theyve discerned the truth and its people who trust science, journalism, and other fact-based epistemologies who are irrational, hysterical victims of brainwashing and groupthink.

The series has no obligation to solve the problem it documents, obviously. Still, the thinness of the solutions Shadowland floats is worrying. In a series finale that tackles the all-important question of how conspiracy theories end, Herf, the UMD professor, notes that in the past theyve been squashed by a unified, nonpartisan message from trusted authorities in all sectors of a communitys public lifepoliticians and clergy, right and leftthat they are lies. But considering how many of the series characters already vociferously mistrust officials across the political spectrum, it seems likely that the U.S. has passed the point at which such an effort, which doesnt seem to be forthcoming anyway, could work. What happens in America instead may not turn out to be as extreme as the events revisited in The U.S. and the Holocaust, but theres no denying that it constitutes the more convincing account of how conspiracy theories end.
The dining area inside the Sherman Oaks restaurant Casa Vega, which won a 2022 American Classics Award from the James Beard Foundation. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)

What makes for a great classic Mexican restaurant? Maybe it's the decor and local charm. Maybe it's the delicious food: handmade tortillas, pink margaritas, sizzling fajitas, massive combo plates that could last you multiple meals. Or maybe it's the memories that are made there.

After The Times published a series on old-school Mexican restaurants and their essential place in Los Angeles cuisine, dozens of readers responded to a callout, sharing their favorite places to get great Cal-Mex food and what it is about these culinary institutions that keeps them coming back. Here's what they had to say. (Answers have been edited for length and clarity.)

Casa Del Rey in Sierra Madre is our family's favorite Mexican restaurant. We love their combo plates, mine being a beef hard-shell taco and two cheese enchiladas with rice and beans. My wife likes the chile relleno with cheese enchiladas. They have two house salsas. The one they serve you with chips when you first sit down is their "hot" version. You have to ask for the "mild" salsa, my favorite. I can put it on my taco, beans, rice, and dip my chips in it and to me it is so tasty with no burn at all. We have used them for catering events at our house and we always have plenty of leftovers. When our younger son, who is now 39, used to go with us as a kid, he would only get a bean and cheese burrito. Pretty soon, they would remember that and ask him if he wanted a bean and cheese burrito. Eventually, they stopped asking and just brought one. I walked in about a year ago during the height of the pandemic, fully masked with sunglasses to pick up a to go-order, and the server said, "Hi, Domingo, we have your order ready." How many places do that?



31 N. Baldwin Ave., Sierra Madre, (626) 355-6060, casadelreyrestaurant.com

 Domingo Torres-Rangel

La Cabanita in Glendale. The tacos de rajas con crema are to die for and they have a great selection of chile rellenos (including chiles marineros). In fact, all their food is delicious. Been there a long time and I believe they're family-owned (though changed hands a few years back). Longtime servers, survived the pandemic  it's a great family and neighborhood place. Not just my favorite Mexican restaurant, but my favorite restaurant in Los Angeles.



3445 N. Verdugo Road, Glendale, (818) 957-2711, lacabanitarestaurant.com

Story continues

 Nina Woodson

Can't believe you didn't include Avila's El Ranchito!!! Their first location in Huntington Park is legendary, and our family has been going to the Santa Ana location since it opened in 1983! We even had my Italian mother's memorial service there because she loved it so much. Today, we dine at most all locations because they have their own local charm. Huntington Park, Costa Mesa and Santa Ana still make handmade tortillas (soooo good!!!). And the beach locations have so many local specials.



(Multiple locations) 6703 Santa Fe Ave., Huntington Park, (323) 585-5055, avilaselranchito.com

 Patty Mitchell

For as long as I can recall, Barragan's was our family's go-to Mexican restaurant. It was an Echo Park midcentury pillar. When it ultimately closed, I went to the Glendale branch. It sadly closed and the only existing Barragan's is in Burbank. So I try to get there as often as I can. Thousands upon thousands of community members, far and wide now, have looked to the family-owned enterprise with love and respect. It is and has been a constant in our lives. Great people and happy memories, the family recipes, the menu, the margaritas, the tastes and flavors are embedded in our experiences there.



730 N. Victory Blvd., Burbank, (818) 848-2325, barragansrestaurants.com

 Elena Velarde

When I worked at an aerospace company in Northridge, I was introduced to Los Toros in Chatsworth. It was just my kind of place: dark and a little run down. To my mind, they had the best bean dip, cheese enchiladas and pink margaritas in that long-ago little corner of my world. Pure comfort.



21743 Devonshire St., Chatsworth, (818) 882-3080, lostoros.com

 Claudia Mitchell

La Fiesta Grande in Pasadena: The BEST traditional Mexican food in the region. Family-owned for over 40 years  a Pasadena institution. Recently reopened after having to move due to the previous building owner not renewing their lease. Come for the enchiladas, fajitas, carne asada, tacos, and stay for their AMAZING margaritas and of course the chips and salsa. Camerina (the owner's daughter) runs the place, and the staff have been with them for years. They're like extended family! My family and I started going over 17 years ago as part of a fundraiser for my oldest daughter's preschool. My youngest daughter's first trip was when she was 2 weeks old ... . It was a Friday night after-work/after-picking-up-the-kids tradition.



181 E. Glenarm St. #110, Pasadena, (626) 298-6272, instagram.com/la_fiestagrande

 Tricia Miranda

You did miss a great, longtime hole in the wall in Santa Monica, Gilbert's El Indio, on Pico next to a car wash. It's small (cozy), comfortable and very, very good. The menu has about everything from south of the border anyone could want. The huevos rancheros, for reasons hard to identify, are perhaps the best in town (Gilbert's El Indio happens to be a good breakfast place). The margaritas are superb (breakfast or cocktail hour). They make a diablo salsa that is great, but you have to ask for it. The service is on point, the staff is friendly and makes customers feel welcome.



2526 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 450-8057, gilbertselindio.com

 Rob Webb

Rosa's La Cabana in Torrance. Family-owned  Rosa herself will take care of you most days. Besides all the standard Sonora-type fare, Rosa's has terrific flat enchiladas with savory green sauce, excellent posole (pork or chicken, your choice), healthy salads  the fish salad is topped with a large grilled filet  and so much more. Also, they make the best agua de jamaica: tangy but not overly sweetened like some. Been coming here for years and have never been disappointed. I grew up on the Eastside and have pretty high standards for Mexican food. This is the best I've found in the South Bay.



24403 Hawthorne Blvd., Torrance, (310) 378-3667

 Hilary Cohen

Although I'd argue the best Mexican food is in my mom's kitchen, I'm very surprised Pancho's in Manhattan Beach didn't make the cut for your list. The restaurant is worth a try; I highly recommend a margarita to complement any meal and definitely save room for a sopapilla for dessert.



3615 Highland Ave., Manhattan Beach, (310) 545-6670, panchosrestaurant.com

 AJ Guerrero

I have been going to Mi Casa in Costa Mesa since I can remember. If you love cheese, this is THE place to go. The three-item combo (beef or chicken taco, cheese enchilada and chile relleno) will last you for multiple meals ... although the taco never makes it out the door with me. The nachos are also a cheese lover's dream and the pickled jalapenos give it the perfect amount of heat and break from the richness. They make a mean Cadillac margarita, a must with the meal. Their salsa is one of my all-time favorites, but I could be biased since I was raised on it. It's always homemade, so spice levels vary (which I love when it's got that added kick). They've added some newer items to the menu in recent years which I don't find to be all that great, but the original combo plates will not disappoint. It's pretty cost-friendly too, so this was a weekly treat with my friends back in high school.



296 E. 17th St., Costa Mesa, (949) 645-7626, www.micasa1.com

 Nathan Mulhern

Las Fuentes in Reseda! Or Melodies just across the street. They are owned by the same family and the food is so delicious! They are both local joints that are always busy. The decor in both is really fun Mexican kitsch and they've both been around for years. I know nobody thinks to head to Reseda for some good food but it's worth the trip. The portions are generous, the salsa is authentic. I love the caldo de pollo at Melodies and the tacos at Las Fuentes. We've celebrated birthdays there, and it's always a bit with the out-of-town guests.



18415 Vanowen St., Reseda, (818) 708-3344, lasfuentes.com

 Danielle Moreno

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Henderson, Polk and Transylvania Counties District Attorney Andrew Murray says Deputy Alan Brackett's use of force on a child was not excessive.

FLETCHER - Henderson County District Attorney Andrew Murray says that the force used by Deputy and School Resource Officer Terry Alan Brackett on a fifth-grader was not excessive.

As a result, Brackett will face no criminal charges.

"After a thorough review of the SBIs comprehensive Investigative Report regarding the alleged use of excessive force on a juvenile by Henderson County Deputy Alan Brackett, I have determined that the force used by SRO Brackett during his encounter with a juvenile in the lobby area of Fletcher Elementary School on May 10, 2022, was not excessive," Murray wrote in an email to the Citizen Times. "As such, I have determined that SRO Brackett did not commit any crimes, assaultive in nature or otherwise, against the juvenile on May 10, 2022."

More:SBI investigating school resource officer's use of force on Fletcher Elementary student

"I am sensitive to the fact that this incident involved an investigation where a juvenile was involved," he wrote. "It is the obligation of the courts to ensure any law enforcement records concerning a juvenile are withheld from public inspection. Because of the constraints surrounding investigations where a juvenile is involved, I have determined that it would be inappropriate to disclose or release any facts or circumstances associated with the encounter between the juvenile and SRO Brackett. Any actions to the contrary could be interpreted as inconsistent with the provisions of North Carolina General Statute - Juvenile Code  7B-300."

The incident happened May 9, according to past news releases from Henderson County Public Schools and the Sheriff's Office.

DA, Sheriff decline to discuss

Neither Murray nor a Henderson County Sheriff's Office spokesperson would discuss the incident beyond news releases.

"I do not plan on commenting beyond my email," Murray told the Citizen Times in a text message.

Similarly, beyond saying that the HCSOe was grateful for a "thorough and complete investigation of the alleged incident" involving Brackett, spokesperson Johnny Duncan declined to comment.

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"The District Attorney has made his decision regarding any potential criminal process known," he wrote in an email. "This office cannot comment on any personnel actions other than those allowed by North Carolina and Federal Law."

"As this investigation is now formally closed, there will be no further comment from the Henderson County Sheriffs Office," the email said.

He did not respond to questions asking whether Brackett would continue working as a school resource officer or if he would be disciplined for any conduct offenses.

In May, an anonymous source told the Citizen Times that Brackett seriously assaulted the fifth-grader, in part by pinning the child down with his knee and restricting the child's breathing.

More:Fletcher Elementary SRO investigated by SBI: Officer fired more than once previously

In a May 9 message to Henderson County's school board, then-Superintendent John Bryant said that the child was in the main office for being disruptive when Brackett grabbed the elementary school student by the back of the hoodie, knocked the child out of a chair and pinned the child to the ground "by placing his knee on (their) chest."

The student repeatedly asked the SRO to let go and stated that they could not breathe, the message says. Fletcher Elementary Principal Tammy Deaver "had to also repeatedly ask the SRO to let the student go which resulted in the SRO placing the student in another chair.

When the child continued to be disruptive, Brackett struck them in the face, the message says.

The Citizen Times obtained the message through a public records request for Griffin's emails. The sheriff shared the message with some of his employees the day of the incident. He requested that the SBI investigate May 10.

The child's guardian did not respond to requests for comment on the afternoon of Sept. 23.

Brackett could not be reached for comment.

Ryan Oehrli is the breaking news and social justice reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Send tips to coehrli@citizentimes.com.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Cop's force was 'not excessive'; no charges, says Henderson DA
In the U.S., corporal punishment is legal in 19 states. (Photo: Getty Creative)

When children head to school each morning, they have a lot on their minds. They might be worried about whether there will be a pop quiz or if they'll be able to smooth things over with a friend. But, in a stunning 19 states where corporal punishment is still legal, students also walk into school knowing they might be paddled or spanked that day.

Corporal punishment, which can take the form of paddling, spanking or another deliberate infliction of physical pain, is the harshest form of punishment that can be delivered in schools. The United Nations (UN) calls it a human rights violation. According to UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang, corporal punishment, "conflicts with the child's human dignity and the right of the child to physical integrity. It also prevents children from reaching their full potential, by putting at risk their right to health, survival and development. The best interests of the child can never be used to justify such practice."

What happens when a child is paddled at school?

Tessa Davis from Little Rock, Ark. thought corporal punishment was best for her now 9-year-old son. When her son was 5, Davis received a call from his school asking for permission to paddle the then-kindergarten student because he had been physically aggressive towards another student. Davis asked to see a video of the incident, but says the school wouldn't show it to her. The school told her if she din't agree to paddling, her son would be suspended for three days instead.

Davis says she and her husband agreed, in part because they grew up in an environment where the statement, "they just need a good spanking," was ingrained into their way of life. Another major factor in their decision was that both parents work full-time and could not afford to take three days off if their son was sent home. Davis didn't think she really had a choice at all.

Davis' son was paddled by the school's assistant vice principal. "When I picked [my son] up from school he was defeated and he was sad," she recalls. The then-5-year-old, who had been through the foster care system and is adopted, had already been through a great deal of trauma in his short life. "I realized we had caused him more pain," she says, noting the incident broke his trust in the assistant vice principal and made him afraid to go to school.

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The punishment was also confusing for him because he was punished for, "putting his hands on someone," by someone, in turn, putting their hands on him. Davis immediately regretted her decision to consent to the paddling.

Does corporal punishment breed shame and fear in kids?

Despite all of this, Davis says many parents in her community support the practice because they were spanked at home and school, "and turned out just fine." She wonders how well they really turned out, saying she was spanked at home as a child and it only taught her to lie to cover up her mistakes, hide her feelings and shut herself off because she was afraid of getting hit. "I was afraid to admit I made a mistake or ask for help," Davis says, explaining that even telling someone she didn't understand how something should be done might have led to a spanking if an adult in her life thought wasn't following the rules.

Since her son was paddled, Davis has sought out support for alternatives to paddling. She thinks schools need to do a better job understanding how trauma affects children like hers, leading to bad behavior. Davis' son also has multiple learning disabilities, and she says his frustration sometimes results in meltdowns. She's now working with a therapist to come up with alternatives, including working on her son's self-esteem and giving him color-coded cards he can use to indicate when he needs a break to address the root cause of why he acts out. Although he struggles at times, his behavior has improved.

The alternative to corporal punishment

Ross Greene, founder of Lives in the Balance, thinks adults should address children's behavior when they act out, whether it's at home or at school. However, since consequences like corporeal punishment harm children while not doing anything to hold them accountable, he does't believe paddling is the right approach.

Instead, Greene explains, children who act out are struggling. Like Davis' son, they may be having a hard time understanding class material or coping with a past trauma. Alternatively, they might be having problems concentrating. They may be preoccupied with a bully or problems at home. According to Greene, children do well when they can, and they may act out when they can't meet expectations. That means corporal punishment is not likely to lead to any lasting change because the root cause of what led to the behavior in the first place is never addressed.

Instead of using behavior modification strategies like corporal punishment, Greene thinks parents and school administers should focus on problem-solving. He advocates for the use of collaborative and proactive solutions that identify the problems that are leading to outbursts, then working with the child to solve those problems. With this model, the child is fully accountable and engaged in problem-solving rather than being the passive recipient of punishment. Using collaboration also avoids many of the risks of corporal punishment to the child, including the loss of trust of adults in their life and an unwillingness to ask for help or talk about their problems.

Since Davis started using a similar approach with her son, she's noticed a big difference. Now, instead of hiding things from his mom because he's afraid of getting in trouble, Davis' son will tell her if he's had a bad day and they talk about what he could have done differently.

Greene stresses schools are currently spending an inordinate amount of time addressing discipline. Instead of putting their resources towards punishment, he thinks their time and efforts would be much better spent focusing on why kids are acting out. Schools that have moved away from punishment and started using a collaborative and proactive approach have universally reported this approach saves time, with better outcomes. According to Greene, some of these schools have gotten to the point where they no longer have any behavioral referrals.

What's it like to administer corporal punishment to kids?

Jeffrey, an administrator from Arkansas who prefers to keep his last name anonymous for privacy reasons, saw the harm of corporal punishment firsthand and sees the benefit of a collaborative and proactive approach. In his previous job he was the person responsible for paddling students. He usually paddled a child at least once a day, although he did not make the decision about whether a child should be paddled or not. Offenses ranged from not staying on task in class to physical altercations.

At first Jeffrey just picked up the paddle because it was part of his job. However, eventually he began questioning what he was doing and why.

"[There was no] change in the behavior whatsoever," he tells Yahoo Life. "All it did was give the adults satisfaction because they saw the kid cry on their way back to class." On top of that, Jeffrey started noticing the long-term impact paddling had on some children including, "trauma, humiliation and even being subjected to teasing from peers when they returned to the classroom."

He also realized parents were offered only a "false choice" in opting out of paddling. This is because, just as at the school Davis' son attended, if parents opted out of paddling, children were suspended for three days as an alternative and most parents could not afford to take off of work for so long. Jeffrey finally reversed his pro-paddling stance completely once he realized Black students were paddled more frequently, even though they made up a small percentage of the student population at his school.

The long-term affects of spanking and paddling

At that point, Jeffrey started looking into the practice  which he hadn't before questioned because he grew up with paddling and thought it was common everywhere. Once Jeffrey learned more about how harmful paddling can be, he started advocating for children and playing a role in the, "school to prison pipeline." According to the United States Department of Justice , "for identical offenses, those punished severely were more likely to be in prison than those who were punished lightly, or not at all."

Although Jeffrey no longer works at the school where he was responsible for paddling students, he still works as a school administrator in Arkansas. Now, he uses, "restorative approaches, conscious discipline, trauma-informed care and teaching conflict resolution skills."

"I believe in building relationships and 'connecting before correcting' with students," he says.

Davis and Jeffrey now advocate for banning the use of paddling in schools through Arkansans Against Paddling . Both emphasize they don't hold anything against their friends, family and co-workers who are still pro-paddling, but think more education is needed about both the risks of corporal punishment and alternatives to the practice.

Progress is slow because in some communities, corporal punishment has been used for generations and is accepted as a way of life. Although Davis reaches out to teachers directly to talk to them about why she is against corporal punishment, she believes federal legislation might be the only way to end the practice nationwide.

For now, Davis' son is much happier in school. He never again trusted the assistant principal who paddled him when he was in kindergarten. However, his mom's efforts to get him the support he needed and work with his school on appropriate strategies to help him cope with his trauma and learning disabilities have paid off. He feels safe at school and is happy and kind to others.

Wellness, parenting, body image and more: Get to know the who behind the hoo with Yahoo Life's newsletter. Sign up here.
A correctional officer at the Anamosa State Penitentiary was assaulted by an inmate Thursday night.

The unnamed officer was working in a living unit around 7:30 p.m. Thursday night when an inmate began striking him, according to a news release from the Iowa Department of Corrections. The inmate assaulted the officer unprovoked, the release said.

Other staff members responded to stop the inmate from harming the officer further. The officer was treated for his injuries at a local hospital and was later released, according to the release.

AFSCME 61 union president Rick Eilander said he is concerned the attack is indicative of a worrying trend at the facility.

"I've heard from officers down there that management is allowing the facility to fall back into the old ways of doing things," he said. "Someone is going to get hurt again."

Anamosa State Penitentiary has struggled with lack of staffing and funding, factors which likely contributed to the March 2021 killings of two staff members by inmates. Eilander said staff and funding shortages have continued at the facility, creating security issues that he said the DOC needs to address.

"The more staff we have, the more protected staff are, the more protected inmates are, and the more protected citizens are," he said.

The Iowa DOC did not respond to requests for comment.

Two guards were killed in 2021

The Anamosa State Penitentiary is located in Jones County, approximately 26 miles northeast of Cedar Rapids. The 150-year-old prison has been under scrutiny since two staff members were killed by inmates in March 2021.

Michael Dutcher and Thomas Woodard were both serving extended sentences at Anamosa State Penitentiary for robbery when allegedly beat to death registered nurse Lorena Schulte, 50, and correctional officer Robert McFarland, 46. The inmates were attempting to escape.

Another inmate, McKinley Roby, suffered severe head injuries after trying to help the staff.

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More: What to know about the Iowa prison attack and the Anamosa State Penitentiary victims

A Des Moines Register investigation following the deaths revealed the Anamosa State Penitentiary was underfunded and suffered from staff shortages. In 2020, the Iowa Department of Corrections had close to the lowest number of correctional officers guarding its prisons in at least 30 years and the ratio of prisoners to correctional officers rose above the national average. Following the attacks, a $21 million dollar budget increase and a months-long push to fill positions left the prison with one fewer worker.

A report conducted by consultants CHL Companies confirmed the prison struggled with staff retention and recruitment. The report also said that while "progress has been made" in improving prison security, "The lack of adequate staffing levels in certain facilities coupled with significant recruitment and retention issues have hampered the Departments efforts."

More: Review ordered after Anamosa killings finds Iowa prisons have staffing, security shortcomings

More: Anamosa prison sought to boost staff after 2 employees were killed. The months-long push yielded 1 fewer worker

Woodard pleaded guilty in August 2021 to first-degree murder in the killings of Schulte and McFarland and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

He admitted to personally striking the blows that killed McFarland and Schulte during a failed escape attempt March 23.

Woodard also pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of Roby, an inmate employed in the infirmary who tried to help McFarland and Schulte, and one count of second-degree kidnapping for helping Dutcher hold dental assistant Lorie Matthes against her will.

More: Inmate charged with murdering two employees at Anamosa prison pleads guilty; another inmate still faces trial

Dutcher pleaded guilty to all charges in September 2021: Two counts of first-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping and attempted murder. He is now serving a life sentence without parole, according to court records. Dutcher previously planned to plead not guilty and claim self defense, but later decided to plead guilty.

Francesca Block is a breaking news reporter at the Des Moines Register. Reach her at FBlock@registermedia.com or on Twitter at @francescablock3.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Anamosa State Penitentiary officer assaulted by inmate, hospitalized
The coronavirus pandemic shut down the entire country in the spring of 2020, halting the production of goods, sending millions of people to work from home and making one virus seemingly disappear -- the flu. However, as COVID-19 restrictions were lifted and people returned to offices and classrooms, the number of flu cases came back, and this year's cases could skyrocket to pre-pandemic levels.

"Every flu season is unique," Alicia Budd, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Influenza Division epidemiologist said to AccuWeather in an interview. "It certainly keeps us on our toes."

Budd explained that the Influenza Division at the CDC watches a variety of different things throughout the year to get a gauge on what to expect for the upcoming flu season. One way to try and predict what will happen in the United States is to look at other places in the world, in particular, the Southern Hemisphere, which is just starting to wrap up its flu season.

And Australia is wrapping up one of its worst flu seasons in five years. Australia health officials noted flu cases spiked nearly two to three months earlier than normal, a recent AARP report noted.

"Flu viruses don't really respect borders," Budd said, explaining that sometimes a worse-than-average flu season for the Southern Hemisphere could spell trouble for the Northern Hemisphere. Budd warned though that this isn't always the case -- some years influenza activity in the Southern Hemisphere is not always a good predictor of what's to come for the U.S.

Getty Images

In the U.S., flu seasons typically cross calendar years, running from October of one year to May of the next. During the 2020-21 flu season, which was the first flu season after COVID-19 emerged, there was "very little flu activity within the U.S.," Budd noted.

Looking back at the 2021-22 flu season, Budd said, flu activity started to reemerge. Budd explained that the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions across the U.S. is one reason flu case numbers started to rise again.

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"I think that is probably at least in part what has accounted for the change between the 2020-21 and 2021-22 season," Budd said. "Even in that amount of time, we saw schools getting back in session in person and more international travel happening."

As the U.S. population heads into the colder months, more and more people will spend time indoors, and with additional COVID-19 restrictions being lifted since the end of the last flu season, Budd expects the flu virus will have an easier time circulating this year.

"I certainly would expect to see something more along the lines of what is a normal flu season this fall," Budd said. "But again, normal has a wide range, so exactly what it's going to look like, it's not possible to tell at this point."

Getty Images

So even though the specifics of the upcoming flu season can't be spelled out yet, doctors recommend getting the flu vaccine, as that is the best way to be prepared for the flu season.

"It's critically important to get the flu shot," chief medical officer at WebMD, Dr. John Whyte said to AccuWeather in an interview. "Influenza can be deadly, particularly for senior citizens."

But making sure everyone is vaccinated is an important step in preventing serious illness, hospital admission and death. The CDC target goal for adults immunized for the flu shot annually is 70%, but that goal of 70% is for all adults, including racial and ethnic groups.

By looking at 2021 vaccination rates provided by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and the CDC, it is apparent that there are notable gaps in vaccination coverage for certain racial and ethnic groups.

Vaccination rates for black individuals were the lowest among the four groups specified in the KFF data, with only 42.7% of individuals being vaccinated. Hispanic individuals were the second lowest group, with a total of 44.9% of individuals vaccinated.

Making sure flu vaccines are available to people of these racial and ethnic groups is one of the first ways to reduce serious illness, hospitalization admission and death, Budd explained.

"[The] CDC has a new grant program called 'Partnering for Vaccine Equity,' and that's funding community partners at the national, state and local level to try and increase vaccine confidence and access to knowledge among racial and ethnic minority groups," Budd said. "The ultimate goal, of course, [is] to increase the uptake so that they can have greater degrees of protection within their community."

Although the U.S. is in a much better place now than it was at the beginning of the pandemic, COVID-19 will still be a major respiratory virus that will circulate, along with the flu, this fall and winter as people head back indoors. Whyte recommends people stay on top of their COVID-19 boosters as the virus continues to mutate.

"We do know that only a small percentage of Americans are keeping up with boosters. Given immunity wanes over several months and the virus continues to mutate, we likely will [have] an uptick in COVID cases in the fall," Whyte said. "COVID is going to be around for a while, and we need to protect ourselves and our families."

Want next-level safety, ad-free? Unlock advanced, hyperlocal severe weather alerts when you subscribe to Premium+ on the AccuWeather app.AccuWeather Alerts are prompted by our expert meteorologists who monitor and analyze dangerous weather risks 24/7 to keep you and your family safer.
WAUKESHA - Darrell Brooks Jr. will head into his Oct. 3 trial without a lawyer if a motion by his attorneys to withdraw from the case is accepted by Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Dorow.

Brooks, 40, of Milwaukee is accused of 77 criminal counts, including six of first-degree intentional homicide, tied to the Waukesha Christmas Parade tragedy in November 2021. The motion, which will be heard Tuesday, indicates that he now intends to represent himself at the trial.

That leads to speculation about such a strategy on proceedings expected to involve dozens of witnesses and run several weeks and possibly involve complex legal issues that Brooks would have to address on his own.

It also comes just weeks after Brooks withdrew his insanity defense plea and raised a question about whether his intent would be to delay the trial, which could severely affect the specialized process to screen jurors months in advance as part of an effort to ensure a fair trial.

The surprise development arose Thursday when Brooks' attorney Jeremy Perri, a regional attorney manager in the Waukesha office of the State Public Defender, filed the withdrawal motion, just three days after what was expected to be the last hearing before the trial.

Neither Brooks, who is also represented by Assistant State Public Defender Anna Kees, nor his attorneys made any reference at that hearing about the last-minute move that could reshape how the trial is conducted.

Dorow previously indicated she would consider any last-minute issues with the intent of wrapping up everything by Sept. 30, the last business day before the trial.

Darrell Brooks Jr. appears in Waukesha County Court for a hearing in August. He is charged with killing six people and injuring more than 60 after plowing through a Christmas parade with his sport utility vehicle on Nov. 21.

What if Darrell Brooks represents himself?

Brooks' plans to proceed without either Perri or Kees at the defense table during the trial was included in Perri's motion. "This motion is pursuant to Mr. Brooks' request that he represent himself," it read.

That raises several legal and strategy questions, including some about whether it could affect the trial date scheduled months ago.

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Waukesha County District Attorney Sue Opper, the lead prosecutor in the case, addressed the possibility in a brief statement to the Waukesha Freeman on Thursday night, noting action on the motion is still up in the air.

"Judge Dorow will have to hold a hearing to decide the motion," she reportedly said in an email. "Unknown what effect it will have on the upcoming trial date. Thats about all I can say right now."

Opper was not available to comment further, referring only to the motion filed in court. Support staff said she was not returning phone calls as she prepares for the trial.

Perri was also not immediately available to comment or confirm Brooks' intentions to represent himself.

But the idea is far from unprecedented and carries certain legal ramifications, according to one expert.

Waukesha defense attorney Anthony Cotton, who is not involved in the case, said that since Brooks is nearly guaranteed to be convicted and sentenced to life, it might actually be a decent strategy to try to defend himself and make the trial a chaotic circus, and hope some appealable issues emerge.

But judges generally despise holding trials with non-lawyers representing themselves. It slows down nearly every step in the process. Judges must walk a fine line between helping the party navigate and providing actual legal assistance.

Cotton expects Dorow will examine Brooks' request closely, to make sure he remains competent, and that the request is not solely an attempt to delay the trial or force a mistrial once it starts.

Denying a defendant his right to represent himself, however, can also backfire.

In high-profile case from 2006 in Waukesha, the judge denied Sean M. Young's request to stand trial without a lawyer  who had been Cotton. The judge allowed Young to proceed with Cotton as stand-by counsel, but decided after the trial began that the approach wasn't working, and denied Young's active participation, and his request to make his own closing argument. He then stopped communicating with Cotton, who continued Young's defense at trial. Young was convicted.

The Court of Appeals granted Young a new trial, on the basis he wrongly had been denied his constitutional right to represent himself.

Defendants have legal right to represent oneself but it's not always absolute

But laws providing for self-representation aren't so clear cut as some might believe.

Michael O'Hear, who teaches criminal law at Marquette Law School, said that although a defendant does have a constitutional right to represent himself, that right is not absolute.

O'Hear said Dorow will consider a few things in deciding whether to allow Brooks to proceed in what's technically termed "pro se."

First, is she convinced he's knowingly and intelligently waiving his right to a lawyer under the Sixth Amendment? That analysis would usually involve explaining the various pitfalls a defendant faces at trial without a lawyer.

For example, she would explain that the rules of evidence  which dictate what is and is not admissible at trial  are complicated even for lawyers. Without legal training, Brooks could fail to object to evidence and testimony that might be inadmissible. And without knowing how to preserve issues during trial, Brooks might not be able to prevail on appeal.

"Pro se defendants don't get any special breaks on that," O'Hear said.

Brooks would also have to convince Dorow he has some minimal competence to try his own case.

O'Hear said the law is clear that doesn't mean Brooks would have a lawyer's level of ability, or need a college degree. For instance, he said, some defendants with little formal education but lots of experience as defendants can develop enough knowledge of the legal process to competently represent themselves.

Lastly, O'Hear said, a judge might still deny a request for self-representation to a defendant who "has been disruptive, or seems likely to make a mockery of the trial, or continually do inappropriate things."

A single outburst might not be enough to support that decision, he said. (Brooks was involved in such an outburst recently shortly after Dorow ruled against several motions filed by his defense team.)

And though Brooks has been found competent to proceed so far, and has dropped an earlier insanity plea, any mental issues  perhaps unknown to the public  could still bear on Dorow's decision on whether to allow him to represent himself, O'Hear said.

Judge in Brooks case has denied many of his requests

If Brooks does proceed as his own lawyer, he will face a long list of charges to defend plus mounting roadblocks resulting from recent decisions by Dorow.

Brooks initially was charged Nov. 23, 2021, with six counts of first-degree intentional homicide. But soon afterward, dozens of charges were added, most notably 61 counts of recklessly endangering safety by use of a dangerous weapon tied to those injured and others along the parade route.

In various court actions since the criminal complaint was amended in January, Brooks and his attorneys had tried to push for a change in venue, sought to suppress statements made to investigators after the incident, sought to have the case dismissed outright because of a jail search that they claimed violated his attorney-client privileges, and sought competency exams to support his special plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

Dorow, in separate decisions, denied most of those key points. The sealed reports of three doctors who examined Brooks for mental competency likely contributed to his decision to withdraw his insanity defense.

The trial, which is expected to begin with several days of jury selection involving 315 eligible jurors, is scheduled for Oct. 3- 28. However, a recent stipulation, which reduced the need for as many as 75 witnesses to set the foundation for the legal reliability of numerous videos from the parade incident, prompted Opper to estimate the state could fully present its case in five to seven days.

Contact Jim Riccioli at (262) 446-6635 or james.riccioli@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jariccioli.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Darrell Brooks intends to represent himself at Waukesha parade trial
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty

Nearly 10 percent of all Americans will experience symptoms of depression every year. One of the common forms of treatment includes a combination of therapy and antidepressants. According to the CDC, around 13 percent of Americans over the age of 18 were taking antidepressants between 2015 and 2018. The most commonly prescribed form of these are called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), developed to alter serotonin flux in the brain.

Im one of the millions that takes an SSRIone called sertraline, to manage symptoms of anxiety, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder. Before I talked with a psychiatrist about getting on this medication, I dealt with feelings of impending doom and dread that appeared on a whim, as well as dozens of intrusive thoughts and emotions every minute. Basically, its like having your very own heckler yell at you all day long. Taking the medication has been immensely helpful for me, as it has for many others.

And that makes it all the more strange to recognize that, as with many other complex diseases, researchers still arent sure exactly what causes depression, and whether serotonin is one of the main culprits. In the 1960s, scientists serendipitously discovered that certain drugs being used as sedatives helped alleviate depression. Since these drugs acted on the serotonin system, it led to a very simplistic idea that low levels of serotonin lead to depression, Gerard Sanacora, a psychiatrist at Yale University and the director of the Yale Depression Research Program, told The Daily Beast.

The Promising New Treatment for Depression? Giant Magnets.

Most scientists now adhere to the idea that there are many genetic, social and biological contributors to depression; and yet the idea of a chemical or serotonin imbalance is stuck in the popular zeitgeist. It has lingered on in large part thanks to its prominent placement in advertisements for drugs like Prozac in the late-1980seven when psychiatric research was already shifting its perspective.

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That brings us to the current debate around SSRIs. Most neuroscientists, psychiatrists, and clinicians who study and treat depression agree: Antidepressant drugs like SSRIs work as well as cognitive therapy. With the right treatment, remission rates for depression can range between 5 and 50 percent. There is no question people like myself are finding real relief thanks to these drugs.

But if depression is not quite as tied to serotonin levels as we once thought, then it raises the issue that we dont really know how SSRIs work and why they may help some depressed people. There are several promising theories suggesting they play a role in mediating gut bacteria, to helping the brain grow new cells and require itself, to creating larger and more complex physiological changes beyond simply raising serotonin levels. But none of these theories have been proven out yet.

The ensuing discussion has boiled over into a full-on debate, pitting mainstream psychiatry against a minority of researchers who dont think antidepressants actually work.

Every few years, a new spate of studies pops out from the shadows, supposedly debunking the notion of the serotonin hypothesis. These studies suggest that depression is either a result of social factors or caused by traumatic experiences, and that antidepressants either dont work, numb emotions, or actively cause harm. Instead of medication, they believe that depression is better treated solely through therapy.

The spats between competing academics and researchers are just as intense and vicious as any other fight that takes place on the internetfeaturing Twitter feuds, op-eds for think-tanks, and news outlets themselves. The shady history of the pharmaceutical industry further feeds skepticism around the efficacy of antidepressants. When antidepressant clinical trials didnt bear out the results that were hoped for, drug companies essentially buried the evidence and biased the record in favor of antidepressantswhich has only exacerbated mistrust over these drugs and their makers.

Adding fuel to the fire, one recent review study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry reevaluated decades of past data on serotonin levels in depression, finding no evidence of the link between the two and offering this up as evidence that SSRIs dont work or only work by blunting emotions. This conclusion drew criticism from many psychiatrists and cliniciansthe study didnt even analyze whether antidepressants workbut with support from the studys authors, right-wing media pushed this message out anyway.

If there are benefits, I would say that they are due to this emotion numbing effect, and otherwise, what the evidence shows is these very small differences between the drugs and placebo, Joanna Moncrieff, a psychiatrist at University College London who led the study, told The Daily Beast. Antidepressants are drugs that change the normal state of your brain, generally, it's not a good idea to do [that] on a long term basis.

Antidepressants May Not Be All Theyre Cracked Up to Be

Moncrieff herself is an influential figure in whats being called critical psychiatry, The Critical Psychiatry Network, which Moncrieff co-chairs, describes the movement on its website: It mounts a scientific challenge to claims about the nature and causes of mental disorder and the effects of psychiatric interventions. The researchers associated with this movement advocate against using drugs for mental health conditions, and have even promoted COVID-19 conspiracies.

If depression is caused by the interaction of stressful events and biology, as some within the Critical Psychiatry Network argue, Sanacora doesnt follow why this means that antidepressants dont work. I just don't follow the logic, he said.

Four other experts who spoke to The Daily Beast specifically pushed back on Moncrieffs findings, most notably emphasizing that hers and her teams paper crudely conflates two hypotheses under the serotonin theory. Theres the chemical imbalance hypothesis thats pretty well known, which suggests a deficit in the serotonin neurotransmitter in the body leads to depression. But according to Roger McIntyre, a professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at the University of Toronto, the notion of chemical imbalance in your brain has never been put forward as a coherent, comprehensive, evidence based proposal.

Instead, the more prevailing serotonin hypothesis that psychiatry takes seriously and which McIntrye and others argue is supported by evidence, is that a dysregulation of the bodys whole serotonin system is what contributes to clinical depression. This includes problems in the amount of receptors available to bind serotonin, issues with how the cells fire, and numerous other disruptions on the biomolecular level. They argue that Moncrieff gets it wrong when it comes to making the grand claim that there isnt any evidence of serotonins involvement in depression.

Moreover, not knowing a drugs mechanism isnt a good enough reason to prevent its usage if its demonstrably helping people. We're very confident that SSRIs work for depression, Tyler Randall Black, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the University of British Columbia, told The Daily Beast. There's reams and reams of evidence showing us that they work, but not why they work. McIntrye pointed to the fact that we dont even completely know how Tylenol works eitherdespite the fact that its one of the most widely used pain-relievers around the world. Tylenol also impacts the brain in unexpected waysalthough it numbs social or psychological pain, it isnt grounds for removing it from the market.

Vilifying these drugs can have unintended consequences because therapy is often unavailable, making SSRIs the only accessible option. The demand for mental health care far outstrips the available access, Sanacora said, adding that many Americans need to wait months to see a good cognitive behavioral therapist. Additionally, abruptly deciding to stop taking SSRIs can be dangerous: One in five patients who do this will experience flu-like symptoms, insomnia, imbalance, and other symptoms that can last for a year.

While the psychiatrists who spoke with The Daily Beast emphasized that the serotonin hypothesis was a way of simply explaining a complex disorder like depression, they did highlight it has fostered downsides over time. The story of a chemical imbalance narrative has negatively influenced patient decision-making and patient self-understanding, Awais Aftab, a psychiatrist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, told the Daily Beast.

Phil Cowen, a psychopharmacologist at the University of Oxford in the U.K, told The Daily Beast that socioeconomic status is a contributing factor to depression, leading those in the critical psychiatry space to believe it gives power to doctors and industry over patients. Ironically, it ignores the millions of people with experience who were helped through antidepressants.

Still, the million dollar question remains: How do SSRIs work? Aftab explained that a new leading hypothesis is that they encourage the creation of new neurons and new connections between neurons inside the brain. The hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped region of the brain important for memory and learning, shrinks and loses neurons when depression hits. SSRIs seem to stimulate the production of neuronal stem cells, which integrate into the hippocampus to restore its function and structure. Other studies suggest SSRIs help the brain rewire the connections that cause the clinical symptoms associated with depression.

He also added that SSRIs might work through different mechanisms in different individuals, so treatments may have to be more tailored to a case-by-case basis.

Why Scientists Invented a Magic Mushroom That Has No Magic

And more specific, individual treatments might require psychiatrists to be more honest with their patients about what we know and dont know about these medications, versus trotting out an oversimplified (and downright inaccurate) explanation.

Black already tries to do so with his patients: I say we know for sure it affects serotonin, but we don't know how that changes your brain and we don't know that you're lacking serotonin to begin with. Hes found that these open discussions over what we know so far about therapy and medications pay off in the long run, and many of his patients will still opt to take the antidepressant as part of their search to find what works best for them.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Welcome to Yahoo News' Politics Briefing: Midterms Edition. Every week between now and Election Day, Yahoo News' team of political journalists will pull together everything you need to know about the November midterm elections. And it will all be in one place: your inbox.

Sign up to receive free updates from Yahoo News reporters as they keep track of the biggest races all over the country.

THE BIG IDEA: Democrats warn of massive GOP turnout in November

A major Democratic group is warning party donors to expect a MAGA surge in the midterms that will benefit Republicans, Yahoo News Chief National Correspondent Jon Ward reports.

Democratic consultants are telling party donors that while the shifting political landscape will give their candidates a fighting chance this fall, they are likely facing a huge increase in Republican turnout, Ward writes.

Voters in Tampa at a polling place on primary election day, Aug. 23. (Octavio Jones/Getty Images)

"The 'MAGA surge' is real," said a presentation for donors by America Votes, a Democratic group that coordinates get-out-the-vote efforts.

"Democrats know that they are competitive in many races that might have been blowouts a few months ago, for a few reasons: The Supreme Court's decision eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion, as well as ebbing gas prices and a string of legislative accomplishments by Democrats.

BUT," warned the presentation, which was provided to Yahoo News, "what were up against: GOP turnout will be very high."

"Democrats expect this 'MAGA surge' largely because turnout in Republican primaries so far this year has been sky-high, just as it was in 2021."

The term "MAGA surge" might be something of a misnomer  the presentation didn't specify whether the GOP's votes would be coming mostly from hard-core supporters of former President Donald Trump or more moderate Republicans. The presentation also didn't delve into why Republicans have been turning out in droves.

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It did, however, warn that Democrats will need to embrace traditional means to get out the vote, such as door knocking, and not just rely on an improving national environment. As Ward notes, "In 2020, Democrats stopped meeting voters in person at their homes, out of concern over the spread of the coronavirus. Republicans did not, and in states like Texas, Democrats concluded afterward that Republicans turned out more voters than they had in part because they had not been going door to door.

"In the 2022 cycle, Democrats know that college-educated supporters who are engaged with politics are likely to vote and don't need much help," Ward writes. "But lower-income voters who often don't pay as much attention to politics, if any, need that face-to-face visit. And in an election they expect to be close in many key states, those votes could be the difference."

POLLS, POLLS, POLLS

Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., at a campaign rally in Conyers, Ga., in August. (Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Three polls this week highlight how Georgias high-profile Senate race could still break either way. Marist College found Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock leading his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, by 47% to 42%, with Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver taking 4% of the vote. But a University of Georgia/Atlanta Journal-Constitution survey has Walker leading Warnock by 2 points, 46% to 44%, and Oliver netting 3% of the vote.

The Cook Political Report rates the Georgia Senate race as a toss-up. FiveThirtyEight currently gives Warnock a 55% chance of holding on to his seat.

The Marist poll and the University of Georgia/AJC survey also found Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp with a healthy lead over Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams. Marist found Kemp at 50% support, with 44% going for Abrams. The University of Georgia/AJC also has Kemp at 50% and Abrams stuck at 42%.

A CBS News/YouGov poll also found Warnock doing better than Abrams. Their survey showed Warnock (51%) leading Walker (49%), and Kemp (52%) running ahead of Abrams (46%).

FiveThirtyEight gives Kemp an 85% chance at reelection, while the Cook Political Report says the race leans Republican.

SOUND LIKE A NERD

John Fetterman, lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania and Democratic Senate candidate, at an abortion rights rally in September. (Michelle Gustafson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

In Georgia, Republicans hope that a strong showing for Kemp can help carry Walker across the finish line. In Pennsylvania, Democrats have their fingers crossed that their nominee for governor, Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is facing far-right GOP state Sen. Doug Mastriano in November, will be a boon for Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who is running for an open Senate seat against Republican nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz.

If Kemp and Shapiro win big in November, it stands to reason that it will benefit their parties' respective Senate candidates. But it's also not unheard of for voters to split their votes, supporting a Republican gubernatorial candidate and a Democratic Senate candidate, or vice versa.

In 2018, for example, Arizonans easily reelected GOP Gov. Doug Ducey. But that wasn't enough to save Sen. Martha McSally, the other big Republican name on the Arizona ballot, who lost her race to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema.

AD OF THE WEEK

Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz holds a press conference with Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., in Philadelphia in September. (Mark Makela/Getty Images)

Speaking of ticket splitting, a new ad from the Mehmet Oz campaign is looking to win over Shapiro voters. To do this, it highlights a supposed 2019 spat between Shapiro and Fetterman, when both men were on Pennsylvania's Board of Pardons.

Whatever their past disagreements, Fetterman and Shapiro have embraced each other on the campaign trail this year. We know of at least one person who may be supporting both Oz and Shapiro, however: Sheryl Bartos, who co-hosted a fundraiser for Shapiro this week, according to Politico. Bartos is the wife of Oz campaign co-chair Jeff Bartos.

APPOINTMENT VIEWING

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott at a press conference in Houston in September. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Debate season kicks off in earnest next week when Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott squares off against former state Rep. Beto O'Rourke, his Democratic challenger. Abbott has been leading in the polls for months, but O'Rourke is known for his fiery debate performances.

SLEEPER RACE ALERT

Oregon Republican gubernatorial nominee Christine Drazan at a debate in July. (Jaime Valdez/Pamplin Media Group via AP)

Christine Drazan has a shot at becoming Oregons first Republican governor in a generation this November. Polls show her in a dead heat with Democrat Tina Kotek, and the Cook Political Report moved the race to its "Toss-Up" column this week.

Oregon last elected a GOP governor in 1982, but Drazan is likely benefiting from an independent run by Betsy Johnson, a former Democratic state lawmaker who is polling just a few points behind her and Kotek. Still, even if Johnson acts as a spoiler, a Drazan victory might help solve a conundrum for Republicans nationwide: Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, how does an anti-abortion candidate win over a pro-abortion-rights electorate?

Drazan's answer, in so many words, is that while she is against abortion, she wouldn't be able to outlaw the practice in Oregon if she tried. And somewhat like Joe O'Dea, Colorados GOP nominee for Senate, she's argued that her views on abortion are basically moderate and in keeping with public opinion on the issue.

GAMBLE OF THE WEEK

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnells PAC has canceled the ads it purchased to support struggling Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters in Arizona.

According to Axios, which first reported the news, McConnell expects outside Republican groups and major GOP donors like Peter Thiel to step up and help narrow the big fundraising gap between Masters and his opponent, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly. But Thiel has so far appeared reluctant to invest more of his personal fortune on Masters, his former employee, who has been hammered on the airwaves by Kelly.
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Denmark will not extend a ban on mink breeding when the current ban expires at the turn of the year, the country's agriculture ministry said on Friday.

The government introduced the temporary ban after it ordered the culling of about 17 million mink in 2020 over fears of the animals spreading a mutated coronavirus variant.

The decision caused controversy after it emerged there had been no legal basis to call for healthy mink to be culled.

The lift of the ban was made after an assessment by health authorities showed there was limited risk to public health by resuming a "significantly reduced mink production and by introducing infection prevention measures".

"For the government, it has only been about public health when it comes to the question of mink breeding in Denmark," Agriculture Minister Rasmus Prehn said in a statement.

(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen, editing by Anna Ringstrom)
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said during a recent speech that no one had considered abolishing slavery until the American Revolution.

On Tuesday, Mr DeSantis shared a video to his Twitter account of him giving a speech about "critical race theory" and the teaching of the USs history with slavery in schools. During his speech he claimed the abolition movement was birthed from the American Revolution.

It was the American Revolution that caused people to question slavery. No one had questioned it before we decided as Americans that we are endowed by our creator with unalienable rights, he said.

However, in Colonial America, German Quakers and some evangelical Christians were championing abolition almost a century before the American Revolution took place. While movement to ban the international slave trade did start shortly after the revolution  and was banned in 1808  slavery would continue in the nation until the Civil War 60 years later.

Abolition movements in Colonial US were influenced by similar movements in Europe.

By the time of the American Revolution there was already a sizeable abolition movement in the British Empire, again led primarily by religious movements.

A gracious reading of Mr DeSantis's words could allow him credit on one point; the state of Vermont was the first sovereign state to ban slavery in 1777.

However, the US ban on the international slave trade did not begin until 1808. The British Empire beat the US by a year, banning the international slave trade in 1807, and both were beaten by Denmark, which banned slave trafficking in 1792, though the law didn't take effect until 1803.

Mr DeSantis's claim seems to fall in line with his "civics excellence" initiative. According to a report by the Tampa Bay Times, educators in Florida were disturbed after attending conferences in which facilitators reportedly tried to downplay the US's role in the international slave trade.

According to the teachers who spoke to the Tampa Bay Times, it appeared there was an effort to argue that the US was far less involved in slavery than other countries. That is true, but only because the US had only come into existence as a nation at a time when abolition movements were already gaining steam.

The teachers also said they were shown slides claiming both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson wanted to end slavery without noting that both men were slave owners themselves.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is facing mounting scrutiny in his home state over his controversial decision last week to fly dozens of mostly Venezuelan migrants to the elite resort island of Marthas Vineyard, Mass.

While the move was lauded by conservatives as a powerful protest of the Biden administrations approach to border security, it has sparked a wave of criticism from Democrats and members of Floridas vast Hispanic community, a politically influential force in the Sunshine State.

With this move, this stunt, obviously he made his base very happy, said Adelys Ferro, the executive director of the Venezuelan American Caucus. But there are many people more toward the middle and people who are independents that are very disgusted and that reject all of this.

We are Venezuelan Americans and we vote, and were going to vote in November, she added. And were never going to vote for somebody who does this.

The migrant flight from Texas to Marthas Vineyard  and DeSantiss promise of more to come  have already prompted a slew of legal activity. A Texas sheriff said on Monday that his office would investigate the legality of the flight, while a Florida state lawmaker is preparing to file a lawsuit seeking to block DeSantis from transporting more migrants from the southern border.

But whether the migrant flights  dubbed a political stunt by critics  will weigh on DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential contender who is facing reelection this year, remains an open question.

On one hand, the move risks running afoul of Latino voters, especially in South Florida, a vote-rich part of the state with a massive community of exiles who fled oppressive governments in Latin America. The GOP has strengthened its position among Latinos in recent years, though strategists on both sides of the aisle say those gains arent set in stone.

I think we need to be cautious about taking Hispanics for granted in the same way that Democrats took them for granted, one Republican strategist who has worked on campaigns in Florida said. Were talking about voters who like Republican policies, but maybe dont consider themselves Republicans. Theyre still open to hearing the other side.

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Still, the migrant flight also carries the potential to further endear DeSantis to conservatives ahead of a prospective bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

This is a story that has put him at the forefront of the national conversation for the last couple of weeks, said Fernand Amandi, a Miami-based Democratic pollster who helped former President Obama win the state in 2008 and 2012. So from his perspective, as long as he doesnt get charged, I think he sees it as a good thing.

And as far as his reelection bid goes, DeSantis appears well positioned to defeat his Democratic rival Charlie Crist, a former congressman and Republican Florida governor. Not only does polling in that race regularly show DeSantis in the lead, but he also has a steep financial edge. DeSantis has raised more than $130 million for his reelection effort so far.

Steve Schale, a Democratic strategist who ran Obamas campaign operation in the Sunshine State, also noted that the migrant flight isnt the only controversial move that has paid off politically for DeSantis. The Florida governor rose to national prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic by taking a laissez-faire approach to the outbreak despite warnings from public health officials.

He made a gamble on COVID and it paid off, Schale said. In the eyes of the public, it was a successful win. The lesson here was: He can lean into these divisive issues and he doesnt pay a penalty for it.

Schale said that DeSantis and his campaign have already bet that the support of the GOPs conservative base will be enough for him to clinch a second term in November and that theres little actual political risk in potentially turning off persuadable voters.

Guys on my side dont always give him the credit he deserves, Schale said. They dont think they need to win persuadable voters to win reelection. They made the calculus that theyre safe being in this space.

Ana Navarro, a longtime GOP strategist who is a co-host of ABCs The View, agreed with Schales assessment that DeSantis is worried only about appealing to the most conservative voters  and that includes Republican voters who fled repressive foreign governments themselves.

Seems like his game plan is to raise his national profile and bring out as much of his base as possible and not really worry about appealing to those in the middle, said Navarro, who is based in Miami. Without a doubt, most of his base likes what hes doing, sadly, including other Floridians who came to this country fleeing repression, but seem to have forgotten. I really dont get it.

One poll from Morning Consult released on Wednesday found that while voters are split on the propriety of sending migrants to more liberal parts of the country, the tactic is still popular among Republicans. Sixty-six percent of GOP voters said that it is appropriate, while only 19 percent said it is improper.

Thats not to say that there couldnt be consequences for DeSantis. In addition to the criminal investigation being carried out by Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar in Texas, some of the migrants who were flown from Texas to Marthas Vineyard last week filed a class action lawsuit in Massachusetts on Tuesday, arguing that DeSantis and other state officials engaged in a fraudulent and discriminatory scheme.

The migrants are seeking unspecified damages in that case.

DeSantis isnt the only Republican governor whos shipped migrants away from the U.S. southern border and into more-Democratic leaning parts of the country. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), whos also up for reelection, has been doing so for months, as has Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R).

But what made DeSantiss effort even more controversial was the fact that none of the 48 migrants sent to Marthas Vineyard had ever set foot in Florida. Whats more, the migrants were reportedly misled about their destination.

DeSantis has defended the move, arguing that illegal immigration isnt just an issue for border states to deal with. Officials in his administration have also argued that the migrants sent to Marthas Vineyard were homeless, hungry, sleeping outside in parking lots prior to making the trip, seeking to put a humanitarian spin on the endeavor.

Still, DeSantiss critics say theres no moral ambiguity when it comes to what the governor did. Ferro, the Venezuelan American Caucus executive director, accused DeSantis of playing politics with a humanitarian crisis, saying that people  even many Republicans  are mortified and disgusted.

Amandi, the Democratic pollster, also said that Republicans he has spoken to in the state arent pleased.

In their heart of hearts, they know this will have repercussions, he said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Detroit has many dangerous streets and the city knows it. A new published report, the Detroit Comprehensive Safety Action Plan, says as of 2020, Detroits traffic crash fatality rate per capita was the second highest among large cities in the United Sates and the pedestrian fatality rate was the third highest. Eboni Dozier said she wasnt surprised to hear Gratiot is a particularly dangerous street. Not at all. Its been this way for many years, Dozier said. She wants to see the city take action. Fix up the roads. Fix the street lights, the signs. Make things visible, Dozier suggested.
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty

I have a hand in every potwhich means I have a lot of hands, offers Abigail Disney.

Indeed, the 62-year-old filmmaker, activist, and Disney heiressher grandfather is Disney co-founder Roy O. Disney, and her beloved great-uncle is Walt Disneyhas kept herself busy over the past two decades producing a number of impactful documentaries. Among them are Pray the Devil Back to Hell, about Leymah Gbowees peace movement in Liberia; The Invisible War, exploring the sexual-assault epidemic in the U.S. military; Cameraperson, a riveting doc on the life of cinematographer Kirsten Johnson; and On the Record, exposing a number of womens sexual-assault allegations against hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. Disney also prides herself on producing features from female filmmakers, including Karyn Kusamas underrated thriller The Invitation, Jennifer Foxs The Tale, and Kitty Greens The Assistant.

But no film of Disneys has hit as close to home as her latest.

In the new documentary The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales, Disney investigates allegations of worker exploitation within the theme parks that bear her family name, sitting in on meetings with the Disneyland Workers Unions and learning about how many of them are scraping by just to survive. Weve had cast members whove had to make the decision between medication or food, one worker tells Disney.

Peter Dreier, professor of politics, urban & environmental policy at Occidental, says in the film that they conducted a survey of Disney employees and the results were astonishing: 1 out of every 10 full-time workers was homeless at some point in the previous two years, and two-thirds didnt have enough money to pay for food. At the same time, in 2018, Disneys CEO Bob Iger collected $65 millionor 1,424 times the median salary of a Disney employee. And the pandemic only made things worse.

Workers Reveal Disney Is Covering Up Its COVID Cases

In a wide-ranging talk with The Daily Beast, Abigail Disney opened up about her new documentary and why shes chosen to shine a light on her family company.

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Im curious about your relationship to Disney growing up. What was your perspective on this huge thing your grandfather and great-uncle had created?

It is weird to come to awareness, slowly, of how big a deal that is. Im sure Angelina Jolies kids and Beyonces kids will have to deal with this slow awakening that happens. Little by little, I started to sense something big was happening. And it was fun, mostly, when I was young, because we would go and tear the place up. But sometimes it was a little bit of a bummer, because there were openings wed have to show up for in our very nice clothes. We knew we didnt have a normal relationship to it. My grandfather would sometimes take me there by myself, so I have this emotional relationship to the park because I worship my grandfather. He was so kind and warm. That emotional relationship is part of whats causing me to invest so heavily now, because it extended to the people who work there.

When did that idyllic vision of Disney that you had as a kid start to show cracks?

In college. I was in college in the late-70s and early-80s, so there wasnt as much distance between that and the McCarthy hearings as there is now. You talk to young people now and they dont understand how far of a right turn my grandfather and great-uncle took. I went to an Ivy League school, and Ivy Leaguers will let you know about it if your pedigree isnt right, politically speaking. Thats when I started to develop an awareness and pay attention to, how did I feel about it? How did I relate to these misdeeds from the past? Certainly, for me, Song of the South is one of the worst things I can think of. It was hard because you love your familyyou really dobut you see the wrongs. You have to hold these things in your head at the same time. Its this constant dance between, Im proudits wonderful, and so many people love it! and Theres all this darkness.

Jane Fonda, June Diane Raphael and Abigail Disney demonstrate inside the Russell U.S. Senate office building during "Fire Drill Friday" climate change protest on November 15, 2019, in Washington, D.C. John Lamparski/Getty

So, Im assuming youre in favor of overhauling Splash Mountain then.

Yes! Oh my god. [Michael] Eisner brought the film [Song of the South] out again in the 1980s, and that was its best run. It did better in the 1980s than it did in the 1950s. How dark is that?

Thats dark. And they only made the decision to change Splash Mountain two years ago.

I know, right? So, thats cynicism in action. At the end of the day, this all comes back to cynicism: Im going to pay people as little as Im legally permitted, Im going to do as little as I possibly legally can, and Im not going to change Splash Mountain, even though its the right thing to do, until Im backed against the wall.

One thing thats not explored much in the documentary but did happen is that Disney bought Miramax, Harvey Weinsteins company. How did you feel about that merger?

I have no illusions about who knew what and when. I mean, lets be real about this: Theres no way the folks at the top of the company didnt know what Harvey was and what he was doingand it wasnt a dealbreaker. Its pretty horrifying. My parents were very conservative and strait-laced, and they were always uncomfortable with the deal with Harvey. But Michael Eisner had come in, he was given free reign, and he wanted a studio in the old-school sense. And I think thats the way a lot of men thought studios were.

Has your outspokenness toward Disney led to a lot of friction between you and members of your family?

My parents and I really, really went at it for years. I didnt like it. I felt like I was at Donald Trumps Thanksgiving table. My mom loved Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. She was really on the right wing, and very much in the great new troll tradition of the right wing, which is the baiting, and the owning libs, and all that. It was excruciating for me, because I didnt want to be in constant opposition. At the same time, there are things I know for surethat truth is better than not, and justice is better than not. I sound like a Girl Scout, but Im just trying to be a good person. And, given the cards I was dealt, its actually much harder to be a good person when you get born with a lot of resources. The challenges to your moral rectitude are numerous and you have to fight them all the time.

Are the Disney kids like the Roy kids on Succession?

[Laughs] You know, when I started watching that show, I thought, Oh, Im Shiv! Then Shiv took this dark turn and I was like, Oh, I want nothing to do with Shiv!

I know you mentioned your mother was very right-wing, but how would you characterize Disneys politics as a company? We saw what happened in Florida with the Dont Say Gay bill, where it was revealed that the company had donated to the architects of it, which led to a huge uproar. Do you think theres a conservative streak that runs through Disney?

I think its neither conservative nor liberal. Its the most ferocious and ugly form of apolitical you can have: pro-money. I wrote an opinion piece in The Washington Post while all of that was happening, and my opinion is: They dont really care. Its neither a woke company or a Trumpian company. Its purely about the money. End of story. And one of the reasons Im sad about that, and this is the way the worlds worked for a while now, is it didnt always work this way. My great-uncle and my grandfather thought of themselves as starting a company that did good in the world. They really, genuinely thought that. And they didnt see making money as necessarily antithetical to doing good in the world.

They did not do anything right, they didnt always pay everyone wellthey had a big strike in 1941so Im not trying to paint them as these saints, but I do know that they saw there was a transcendent purpose to the corporation. They took seriously that if workers spend many of their waking hours there, they should feel like they have meaning, dignity, and respect, and that is what they offered most of their workers, most of the time. My grandfather was very proud that people who worked at Disney Land raised families on their salaries, were able to have houses and send their kids to college. There was an assholification that happened in the 80s and 90s. The structure is churning out nothing but assholes, because thats the only way to succeed. If you say nowadays that you want a company to have a transcendent purpose, theyll laugh you out of every boardroom in America. And thats what Im fighting against.

Any time theres a hint of something progressive in a Disney movielike, say, a brief flash of a gay couple in the film Lightyearconservatives lose their minds. Or Moses Ingram in Obi-Wan Kenobi, who received a torrent of racist backlash just for being a Black woman in a Star Wars series. Why do you think people get so riled up about Disney trying to diversify in order to more accurately reflect the world around them?

The conservatives see those as attempts at bringing real life in this direction, and people who lean liberalprogressivessee those things as just reflections of the way it is. Theres a different theory of change in operation on the two sides, which accounts for the radically different way of understanding things. Disney has matured into a massive multinational corporation thats traded on the New York Stock Exchange for billions of dollars, so risk is something that must be managed all the time. That is not a consistent way of operating with being creative. So, when they do step out with a gay character or something like that, the executives come running in and say, Lets cut that back! Lets cut that back and it turns into this nothing-thing.

If we were a creative company, the representation would be happening organically. Disney has a two-headed problem: corporate cynicism and risk-aversion just kills imagination, so the organic expression of whats genuine in the world cant break through; and on the other hand, its iconic status, especially for conservatives, creates mayhem whenever they try to step off a really mainstream narrative. Its a cyclone of these two things hitting each other, and I dont know how to fix it for them. They have Wall Street saying, Dont ever lose money or well kill you, and they have conservative America telling them, Theres only one way to roll. If they continue on the course theyre on with the inability to balance corporateness with imagination, I think theyll eventually start losing money. And then theyll have to either change or die.

A man holds a sign in front of Disneyland Resort calling for higher safety standards before its reopening July 17, amid the coronavirus pandemic in Anaheim, California on June 27, 2020. Apu Gomes/AFP/Getty

What led you to first speaking out publicly against Disney? It was the spring of 2019 that you sent some tweets out criticizing CEO Bob Igers compensation package and how out of control it was. You mention in the documentary that your grandfather, Roy Disney, made about 78 times the pay of the lowest Disney worker.

Seventy-eight times the lowest and only about 49 times the median workers pay. I watch this company closely and know it inside and out. In 2018, I was reached out to by a cast member. There were no cameras. I went out there and wanted to sit, one human being to another human being, and get to know them. I went home, wrote an email to Bob Iger, and got a very unsatisfying answer. It was enraging, in a way, but also unsurprising to me. I thought, Oh gosh, I should do something about this. Months went by of me feeling stumped, then I went on CNBC and talked about raising taxes on rich people, and Andrew Ross Sorkin threw me a question about Bob Igers salary, and I said, Jesus Christ himself isnt worth 500 times his median workers pay. Apparently, that went a little viral. So, I decided to do what Donald Trump doeshonestly, Donald Trump was my inspirationand laid it all out in a series of tweets to get at why I thought the issue was important and mattered to workers.

What were some of the most damning revelations you learned about the way Disney workers are treated?

Theres no way they dont know that people arent putting food on the table. Theres just no way. But what they told me was, Weve been polling our workers, and 98 percent of them are very, very happy and proud to be at Disney. And all I had to do was walk in that room [with workers] and ask them a few questions, and I got the truth. It wasnt hard to get the truth. I dont for a minute believe that they dont know, and if they dont know, theyre choosing not to know. One of the things that drove me the craziest was that youd take home $66 million [like Iger] knowing thatat the same company, at the same time, less than 40 miles away, there are people who are not putting food on the table, who arent optimistic about the futures of their children. Shouldnt you be like a ships captain and stay on the bridge of the Titanic until everybody is on the lifeboats then you can have your $66 million?

How far has Disney gone to try to shut you up? Has there been surveillance?

I do know that the publicity department has contacted every journalist whos interviewed me over the last couple of years at some point after the interviews come out. It started with the op-ed editor at The Washington Post who got an angry phone call demanding corrections when there was nothing wrong. But they havent reached out to me once. Not even a little. There may be someone watching my phone or emailsthats always possiblebut I dont know that. They dont want to come right at me directly, because theyll only look bad, but theres been some weird little right-wing stories, so they may try to seed something somewhere else. I thoroughly expect some kind of attack when the film drops and am waiting to see what it is. But honestly, I dont give a shit. It only increases visibility for the film. People are welcome to think Im crazy, and a self-promoting bitch, and whatever else they want to think, but I have nothing to gain by being right about this.

At the end of the film, its mentioned that Disney will soon raise its minimum compensation to $18.50 an hour, though you argue that number falls short in places like Anaheim. What fixes would you like to see Disney impose to improve the lives of their workers?

OK, so Im gonna say something insane now, and people are welcome to think Im crazy: I want to see Disney become a B Corp. The B Corp movement is very stringent about social justice and transparency. It would be a massive systemic change, and by leaps and bounds the biggest company in the world that would make that move, but it relieves you of the legal obligation to be shareholders-only. There are companies that have shareholders who have voted to take companies B Corp. Thats what Id like to see. Id like to see them become the largest socially responsible company in the world, because thats the only thing thats in keeping with their brand. And right now, the cynicism is leaking out all over the place and its damaging the brand. So, I would like to se it become a company that rejects short-termism and embraces a broad range of social-justice issues, a la what Ron DeSantis wants to never happen ever. But this is bigger than one company.

Walt Disney is shown on the beach at Waikiki playing on a ukulele, while his brother and business manager, Roy, makes him the subject of a movie. Bettmann/Getty

Since you are a filmmaker, and a Disney, I feel compelled to ask what you think about Martin Scorseses contention that Marvel superhero films do not qualify as cinema and are merely these assembly-line products meant to generate massive profitswhile also pushing small films out of the cinema.

If all you have is risk-aversion you cant have imagination, and all you get are tentpoles and Marvel superheroes. That is the most risk-averse strategy that will also bring you massive profits. And after the pandemic, nobodys leaving their couch for anything less than a million special effects. Everything is coming together to kill the small, meaningful drama. I completely agree with what [Scorseses] saying. I hate these superheroes. And I know people who love them, and Im glad for them, but just not if its the entire landscape, which is what we have now. It makes me very sad.

Theres a fun scene in the film where youre about to testify before Congress and you put on your clitoris ring, and you say to the camera, I like to wear it in the most patriarchal places. How do you wield the clitoris ring?

I love wielding that thing. It makes me so happy. A handful of people who previewed the film said, Oh my godyou have to take that out. And they were all men. Ive been working around issues that are raised by patriarchy my entire adult life. I was at a dinner with Gloria Steinem and the artist Swoon, and Swoon gave me that. Honestly, every time Im somewhere where it feels all about patriarchy, I wear that ring. Its a magic juju ring.

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General views of the Walt Disney at Magic Kingdom on April 03, 2022 in Orlando, Florida. AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

Philly police have been inaccurately logging crimes with unknown locations to Disney World.

The inaccurate logging practice appears to have been going on for more than a decade.

Crime analysts don't support this practice because it can encourage laziness and create confusion.

For more than a decade, when Philiadelphia officers couldn't determine where a crime occurred, they logged it as happening at Fantasyland, part of the Disney Work park in Florida, NBC10 in Philiadelphia first reported.

Over the last six years, more than 5,000 crimes have been plotted to the park  more crimes than were pegged to any other location in Philly, the outlet reported.

When police write reports, they log the GPS coordinates where the crime occurred so analysts can map out the data.

The practice of using a fake location for unknowns not only creates a false record, but having that option also creates an environment in which officers don't feel they have to put in the extra effort to accurately map the incidents, Christopher Herrmann, a former crime analyst supervisor with the New York City Police Department, told Insider.

"It's pretty common that unknowns go somewhere," he said. "As a former supervisor, I always got frustrated because it gives the people doing that work sort of an easy out. In the long term, it's not a big deal because it's a small number, but it discourages them to dig deeper."

Herrmann said police departments should be able to accurately map at least 95% of crimes. At some departments that have been crime mapping for a long time, like the NYPD, the data can be over 99% accurate.

When there are unknowns, though, it's a better practice to log them somewhere that is clearly not the location of a crime  like the middle of the Atlantic ocean  and not at Disney World or even police headquarters, which is also a common practice.

"You don't want that data to get out because then you can give Disney World a black eye," Herrmann said. "The preferred method would be to just to put it the middle of the ocean."

Story continues

Usually, when analysts are reviewing the data internally they are able to determine that crimes mapped to an unusual location  like Disney World  are not accurate.

When that data is requested by a member of the public, though, it could be less clear, he said.

"You'd end up with a hotspot at Fantasyland at Disney World," he said.

Disney World didn't immediately return a request for comment from Insider.

The Philadelphia Police Department's director of research and analysis, Kevin Thomas, told NBC10 that the practice of mapping unknowns this way was started more than 10 years ago.

"In no way was this meant to be in any way humorous," Thomas told the outlet.

Read the original article on Insider
IRYNA BALACHUK  FRIDAY, 23 SEPTEMBER 2022, 22:41

One of the Russian kamikase drones shot down in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast on 23 September fell into the yard of a private house, causing a fire and injuring six civilians.

Source: Mykola Lukashuk, Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Council, on Telegram; Yevhen Yevtushenko, Head of the Nikopol District Military Administration, on Telegram

Quote from Lukashuk: "On the evening [of 23 September], [Ukrainian] defence forces shot down two [Russian] Shahed-136 suicide drones. One of the drones fell into the yard of a private house, causing a fire. Six people were injured, one of whom has been hospitalised. Three outbuildings were destroyed, and a private house and two cars sustained damage."

Details: The remnants of the second drone were found on one of the roads in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast; it damaged 100 square metres of road surface.

Lukashuk shared photos of sites where the Russian drones landed.

Meanwhile, Yevtushenko reported that Russian forces damaged 15 residential houses and eight outbuildings during the morning attack on the city of Nikopol, as well as 90 private houses, around 50 outbuildings, several shops and pharmacies, and gas pipelines and power lines in Marhanets. Two residents of Marhanets were killed, and another nine sustained injuries.

Background:

Earlier on 23 September, Air Command Skhid [East] reported that two Russian UAVs were shot down in the sky over Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

On the morning of 23 September, Valentyn Reznichenko, Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration, reported that Russian occupiers blanketed the cities of Nikopol and Marhanets with rocket fire, killing two people.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Become our patron, support our work!
WASHINGTON In recent weeks, former President Donald Trump has openly embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory in his social media postings and at political rallies, even as the number of real-world violent episodes  including killings  associated with the group continue to grow.

Trump's rally a week ago in Youngstown, Ohio raised concern when he spoke over a signature song tied to the group while his supporters raised their arms and their pointer fingers skyward in support. The same sequence happened again last night at a Trump rally in North Carolina, but private security guards asked at least some supporters to put their arms down, according to video of the event and reporters who were present.

"Confirmed w people at Trump rally who held 1 finger up that they meant it as a symbol of QAnons Where We Go One We Go All and further Security staff here fanned out and told people to take down their fingers," PBS NewsHour correspondent Lisa Desjardins tweeted.

In return, followers of QAnon, which the FBI has called a domestic extremism threat, have celebrated Trumps public support. Trump's actions confirm their belief he is leading a clandestine mission to destroy the so-called Deep State, reclaim the presidency and bring the Democrats, the media and other anti-Christian enemies to justice, religious extremism experts and some QAnon followers say.

What has Trump said and done as of late to signal his support for QAnon after years of maintaining a friendly but arms-length relationship with the group? And what are the potential repercussions? USA TODAY conducted research on the organization and interviewed experts about it to decipher what is going on, why it matters  and what might happen next.

More: Do Trump's attacks on DOJ cross a line? Comments raise concern about illegal incitement.

What did Trump do to openly embrace QAnon?

On Sept. 3, Trump raised eyebrows by referencing QAnon themes in his speech during a campaign rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, for Republican candidates he is supporting. A song almost identical to QAnons theme song, Wwg1Wga," was also played to close out the rally.

Story continues

The same song also appeared in a recent Trump campaign-style video. And while a Trump spokesman said its actually a different song, it sounds virtually identical to QAnon's, which is an acronym and abbreviation for the group's rallying cry, Where we go one, we go all.

And then last Saturday night, Trump again used the same song during the Youngstown rally for GOP Senate candidate J.D. Vance. It came at the end of one of Trumps speeches about the decline of America and the dangers posed by the administration of President Joe Biden, who Trump again claimed falsely he beat in the 2020 election.

As the ominous music played during Trumps closing remarks, some supporters in the crowd raised their arms and held aloft their index finger. Some QAnon experts claim that was not only the group members way of saluting Trump, but of telling him that they had heard some sort of secret call to action that he was giving to them.

Trump Sending a Clear Message Patriots, one QAnon-linked account posted in response on Truth Social.

Trump also reposted an image of himself on his Truth Social platform on Sept. 13 wearing a Q lapel pin with the words The Storm is Coming. Thats a common reference in QAnon parlance to Trumps final victory when he regains power and vanquishes his opponents.

More: Trump mocks J.D. Vance, saying the Ohio GOP candidate is trying to get on his good side

Donald Trump supporters held their index fingers in the air during a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on Sept. 17, where Trump spoke in support of Republican candidates running for state and federal offices.

Trump's veiled QAnon support goes back years

Trump has referenced QAnon before, but much more indirectly, according to Media Matters, which has monitored the social media presence and public statements of both Trump and QAnon influencers and adherents.

Trump last engaged with QAnon in the spring of 2020 by retweeting QAnon-related social media posts, Carusone said, but there was an arm's length. It was much more wink and nod, and maybe even just a wink.

After that, Trump began retweeting some QAnon influencers on a variety of topics, which prompted some followers to tweet about how Trump was listening to them. But it was much more spaced out. And it was before QAnon had fully metastasized, so the community was smaller, Carusone said. And they were having to jump through a couple of hoops in order to connect the dots regarding what they believed was Trumps support.

That summer, as QAnon began growing in prominence, then-president Trump said he wasnt really aware of the movement, but that its supporters were patriots who should be credited for backing his administration.

Ive heard these are people that love our country, he said at a White House press briefing in August 2020. I dont really know anything about it, except that they do supposedly like me.

When a reporter mentioned how QAnon believed Satan-worshiping pedophile Democrats controlled the Deep State, and how only Trump could vanquish them, he responded, I havent heard that, but is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing? If I can help save the world from problems, Im willing to do it.

By earlier this month, more than a third of the accounts Trump has amplified on his Truth Social platform in recent weeks have promoted QAnon by sharing the movement's slogans, videos or imagery, according to an Associated Press analysis of Trump's social media activity.

Will Trumps embrace of QAnon have repercussions?

Many QAnon and Trump watchers say yes.

Angelo Carusone, president and CEO of Media Matters for America, said Trumps newfound embrace of the group could easily spark more violence, even as QAnon followers already have been accused of going after people and government institutions they believe are blocking Trumps return to power. He cited the case of a Michigan man allegedly obsessed with QAnon who shot and killed his wife and seriously injured his daughter on Sept. 11.

The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland examined 100 QAnon sympathizers who committed crimes in the United States through August 2021. It found "that while QAnon presents a danger, it is not a traditional terrorist threat" that can easily be monitored or thwarted.

Some examples:

In 2018, according to FBI documents, a Nevada man used an armored truck to block traffic at the Hoover Dam and was later arrested with body armor, rifles, ammunition and a flash-bang device inside his vehicle. The FBI said the man talked to authorities about various QAnon conspiracy theories, and that he sent letters from jail with QAnon slogans "to President Trump and other officials claiming he wanted to expose government corruption and lies," according to an FBI intelligence assessment circulated in 2019.

In early 2019, a man influenced by QAnon, Anthony Comello, allegedly shot to death a reputed top-level mobster outside his home on Staten Island. At a court hearing, Comello opened his hand to display a large "Q" symbol surrounded by pro-Trump slogans like MAGA forever. His lawyer told The Washington Post that QAnon and "other extreme right-wing conspiracy websites, as well as statements made by the president" would be central to his client's defense.

Last year a California man took his two young children to Mexico and killed them with a spearfishing gun, claiming he had been enlightened by QAnon and other conspiracy theories that foretold how they would turn into monsters.

And earlier this month, a QAnon-linked Pennsylvania man wearing a rainbow clown wig allegedly stormed into a Dairy Queen with a loaded gun and told authorities he was trying to "kill Democrats and liberals" and restore Trump to the presidency.

It's one thing when a QAnon personality who has a show or is an influencer is encouraging vigilantism or extra-legal measures. It's another thing though, when Trump himself starts to validate it  and that's what is distinct about this moment, said Carusone, a longtime Trump and QAnon watcher and authority on right-wing and religious extremism.

Mike Rothschild, author of the 2021 book, The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything, agreed Trumps messaging to the group is potentially perilous given the polarization that already exists in America over Trump and his continuing false claims of a stolen election.

This is still the leader of the Republican Party. This is the presumptive nominee for 2024. And he is deepening his embrace of a conspiracy theory cult that has been responsible for a number of crimes, said Rothschild. So it's definitely concerning.

Rothschild said it doesnt matter to what degree Trump is intentionally reaching out to QAnon supporters. What is concerning, he said, is the amping up of his rhetoric and the intensity of his support. These are people who are ramping up for real violence or some sort of real organized opposition, and they will take [Trumps support] and run with it and interpret it for whatever they want it to mean.

Former President Donald Trump enters the stage at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on Sept. 17.

What is QAnon?

According to Carusone and other QAnon experts, the group began in 2017 as one of many online pro-Trump conspiracy theory organizations. The short version is that one person named Q, or possibly several people, held super-high clearances within the federal government, and were working in secret with Trump to expose and neutralize evildoers within the government and the broader U.S. political apparatus. They believed that these enemies, including Hillary Clinton and numerous Hollywood celebrities, are Satanic cannabilistic pedophiles who have trafficked children amongst each other and even drank their blood.

The theory has been widely debunked by a range of experts and there is no credible evidence to back it up. Nevertheless, Q became this mysterious online entity who began dropping mysterious clues and messages, known as Q Drops, to an increasingly large group of followers and supporters so they could decipher them. It was portrayed as the ultimate battle between good and evil, Carusone told USA TODAY.

And because QAnon followers believed they were part of the solution, however outlandish, they became very invested  and even obsessed with it, he said.

Many QAnon adherents believed the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was the storm they had been waiting for and working toward. But when Trump didnt regain the presidency, some followers became disillusioned, and even more anti-government. More recent events, including the FBIs Aug. 8 search of Trumps Florida estate Mar-a-Lago, have made QAnon supporters even more convinced of the narrative that the ultimate battle between good and evil is at hand.

How big is QAnon?

Estimates vary widely. At the outset, it gained popularity rapidly, especially as its Christian nationalistic and anti-government message overlapped with many other groups, especially those supporting Trump's "big lie" about the stolen election.

QAnon became an international phenomenon thanks to a large and expanding presence on social media like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. After the Capitol attack, most social media platforms got far more aggressive in shutting down accounts linked to QAnon. But that only drove its followers underground, making it virtually impossible to determine the breadth and depth of its support, according to Carusone and Rothschild.

But Robert Pape, a University of Chicago professor and expert on political violence, believes QAnon has a wide following among Americans, especially those with an anti-government bent who might be inclined to act on it if they believe Trump is asking them to.

After Trump's most recent rally, Pape warned he is intentionally reaching out to QAnon supporters in a way that is "threatening" and "extremely disturbing."

"The former president is willing to court not just supporters of his but those who support violence for his goals  number one of which is being restored to the White House," Pape said during an appearance on CBS News' Face the Nation.

Pape's research found 13 million Americans "support the use of force to restore Donald Trump to the presidency." And QAnon followers, he warned on CBS, could become a particularly active element of that opposition group.

Donald Trump supporters hold up the index fingers while the former president spoke at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on Sept. 17.

Is QAnon dangerous?

The FBI believes it is, and has been warning about it since at least May 2019.

That month, the bureau's Arizona field office circulated a detailed intelligence bulletin assessing what it said was the growing threat posed by people who believed in fringe conspiracies including Qanon and "Pizzagate" a similar theory about secret government conspirators and child sex traffickers.

The FBI said such fringe political conspiracy theories very likely motivate some domestic extremists to commit criminal, sometimes violent activity. Trump himself was mentioned in the intelligence bulletin, as being at the center of the QAnon theory and for being the impetus for at least one incident committed by one of the group's followers.

Following Jan. 6, 2021, the FBI said, it arrested more than 20 self-identified QAnon adherents who participated in the attempted siege of the Capitol.

That June, it circulated an unclassified intelligence assessment to law enforcement agencies concluding that, "The participation of some domestic violent extremists (DVE) who are also self-identified QAnon adherents in the violent siege of the US Capitol on 6 January underscores how the current environment likely will continue to act as a catalyst for some to begin accepting the legitimacy of violent action."

More: A White House summit on hate-fueled violence and another QAnon murder

The FBI bulletin said Ashli Babbitt, the 35-year-old Air Force veteran and fervent Trump supporter shot and killed during the Jan. 6 insurrection, had been sharing QAnon-related content on social media as early as 2019.

On Jan. 6, 2021, the FBI said, it arrested a self-identified QAnon adherent from North Carolina in Washington on charges of interstate communication of threats after allegedly bringing firearms and ammunition to the capital and making threats against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The next day, the FBI said, it arrested an Oregon-based self-identified QAnon adherent on charges of destroying government property after allegedly firing several rounds at an Oregon federal courthouse.

The FBI bulletin also noted that "QAnon narratives are constantly expanding" to include false information about current events, including alleged election fraud, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the dangers of 5G technology that are "then woven into the QAnon master narrative."

And it warned that some QAnon followers will become increasingly agitated as Trump fails to re-assume the presidency.

"We assess that some (domestic violent extremist) adherents of QAnon likely will begin to believe they can no longer 'trust the plan' referenced in QAnon posts and that they have an obligation to change from serving as 'digital soldiers' towards engaging in real world violence  including harming perceived members of the 'cabal' such as Democrats and other political opposition instead of continually awaiting promised actions which have not occurred," the FBI warned.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump embrace of QAnon draws concern amid violence connected to group
Donald Trump

As Donald Trump's legal woes mount, donors and the Republican party have paid millions in dollars of his legal fees.

His newest legal headache saw him and three of his children hit with a fraud lawsuit, which alleges they lied about the value of property "by billions".

Financial data shows that he has already spent more than $1m (890,000) of donations fighting the case in 2022.

Mr Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

The latest lawsuit, announced by New York state Attorney General Letitia James, was the culmination of a long-running civil investigation which began in 2019.

Funded by supporters' donations

Millions of dollars spent combatting these charges have come from Mr Trump's Save America political action committee (PAC) - which takes donations from Trump supporters across the country - Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings show.

Save America has paid more than $1.12m this year alone to law firms hired to defend Mr Trump in the New York case. As a so-called "Leadership PAC", it can use money to pay for expenses that cannot be funded by campaign committees, such as some personal travel or some leadership expenses.

The website of Save America's Joint Fundraising Committee - which contributes both to Save America and a second Trump PAC, Make America Great Again - makes no mention of legal bills, saying only that "the future of our Country [sic] is at stake and President Trump is calling on all Patriots to join his fight to Save America".

Of the $1.12m spent, more than $942,000 has gone to the firm of Alina Habba, a New Jersey-based attorney who has doubled as a Trump spokeswoman.

Another lawyer, New York-based Alan Futerfas, received nearly $185,000 in July. Mr Futerfas is representing Mr Trump's children - Don Jr, Ivanka, and Eric - in the New York fraud case.

It is unclear how much of his own money Mr Trump has spent on his legal cases.

One donor told the BBC the idea of funding the lawsuits didn't bother him at all.

"In my opinion, he can do whatever he wants with the money," said Rom Solene, a Republican from Arizona.

Story continues

"The non-stop nonsense and antics being conducted by the Democrats on a man who no longer holds political office shows the extent to which the Democrats are willing to go to persecute a political opponent. Not to mention, it shows how much the Democrats and other Washington insiders fear Mr Trump."

The fraud investigation is just one of several expensive legal challenges facing the former president, however.

The other cases include:

A criminal investigation into possible property crimes, which is linked to the civil fraud case in New York. The state attorney general referred evidence to federal prosecutors and the Internal Revenue Service. The Manhattan District Attorney's office is also investigating.

Allegations Mr Trump mishandled classified documents, which saw FBI agents search his Mar-a-Lago property on 8 August. He is also being investigated for obstruction of justice.

The chief prosecutor of Georgia's Fulton County is investigating potential state election crimes related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Part of this revolves around a phone call, in which the former president told a top state election official to "find 11,780 votes".

A congressional committee has accused Mr Trump of inciting "an insurrection" when his supporters ransacked the Capitol on 6 January 2021. There have been no charges arising from this investigation, which is ongoing.

Various lawsuits by police officers who have accused Mr Trump of inciting the 6 January attack in which they suffered injuries.

In August alone, Mr Trump spent more than $3.8m on legal fees in the wake of the FBI's search of his Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago, the bulk of which - about $3m - went to a nearby Florida firm.

Smaller amounts went to lawyers involved in his other legal issues, including a Georgia investigation into whether he and his allies tried to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

But there is no indication the former president's method of settling his legal bills violates any statute.

Erin Chlopak, a campaign finance expert at the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington DC-based non-profit, told the BBC that legal expenses often fall into a "grey area", where it is left up to the Electoral Commission to decide if the expense is "personal" or whether it would exist "irrespective of a person's status as a candidate or officeholder, in which case the money can be used".

"That's a real problem in campaign finance law," Ms Chlopak said. "We've seen that not just in the context of legal expenses, but in even more blatant personal uses, like personal travel, dining out at expensive restaurants and staying in hotels."

In Mr Trump's case, Ms Chlopak added, the subject is complicated by the array of legal issues he is currently facing.

"The results of applying the same standard would likely be different in circumstances related to business dealing that has nothing to do with one's status as a former president, as opposed to actions that someone took based on their status as an officeholder."

In the past, the Republican National Committee (RNC) has also helped pay for some of Mr Trump's legal bills, including some related to the New York attorney general's investigation.

In late August, however, Politico reported that the RNC would not pay legal fees related to the Mar-a-Lago search - and that it would completely stop paying legal fees if Mr Trump were to formally announce his intention to run for president in 2024.

Ms Chlopak noted that the RNC is free to use funds as it sees fit.

While he has hinted at the prospect, Mr Trump is yet to announce that he'll run for the White House again in 2024.
Mark Makela

Pennsylvania GOP Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz released copies of his medical records on Friday in an attempt to keep questions about the health of his Democratic opponent John Fetterman front-and-center in the race.

And while Oz boasted that he was giving the states voters full transparency about his health, he also inadvertently revealed that he travels to Manhattan for his annual physical examsonce again drawing attention to his tenuous ties to Pennsylvania.

In a letter written by Dr. Rebecca Kurth, released by Ozs camp, the physician said it was a pleasure to see [Oz] for a check up on 9/22/22 before noting that he is in overall excellent health. The report also provided Ozs basic vital signs, weight, and blood test results, which Kurth noted were all favorable.

The letter, though, also disclosed that Kurths office is located on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, revealing that the celebrity TV doctor travels to New York Cityin a ritzy neighborhood bordering Central Park, no lessto be examined by his primary physician.

News: Dr. Mehmet Oz has released medical records in response to a recent editorial from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.



A letter (dated yesterday) from a physician released by the Oz campaign deems Oz to be in "overall excellent health."



Here's the first page of the letter: pic.twitter.com/aVM27TWHXy  Justin Sweitzer (@justin_sweitzer) September 23, 2022

Fettermans campaign, which has been laser-focused on painting Oz as an elite carpetbagger because hes long resided in New Jersey, immediately pounced on the New York revelation.

Today Dr. Oz confirmed that he does not actually live in Pennsylvania, because no one who does would have a primary care doctor on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, Fetterman said in a statement released by his campaign.

Story continues

The Pennsylvania lieutenant governor, who is recovering from a stroke he suffered this spring, also pushed back on Ozs attempt to make his health a top issue in the hotly contested campaign.

In June, I released a letter from my doctor where he clearly stated that I am fit to serve, Fetterman stated. Dr. Oz built his entire career by lying to people about health. I trust my actual doctors over the opinion of a charlatan who played one on TV.

It isnt just Oz and Republicans, though, whove raised questions about Fettermans health as the race enters its final stretch and Pennsylvania voters prepare to cast mail-in ballots any day now. (Polls still show Fetterman with a rather comfortable lead, though the race has tightened.)

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazettes editorial board, for instance, recently published an op-ed demanding that both Oz and Fetterman release their medical records. This comes on the heels of the paper editorializing earlier this month: Voters have a right to know whether their prospective senator can do the jobincluding handling the give-and-take of a vigorous debate.

Furthermore, both the Post-Gazette and Washington Post have said that Fetterman needs to debate Oz more than once before the election, especially as the Senate frontrunner hasnt held any recent news conferences and still exhibits some speech issues on the campaign trail.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
"RuPaul's Drag Race UK" contestant Cherry Valentine has died. (Shirlaine Forrest / Getty Images)

The stars and artists of the "RuPaul's Drag Race" franchise are paying tribute to performer Cherry Valentine, a contestant on "RuPaul's Drag Race UK" who died Sunday at age 28.

Valentine, whose real name is George Ward, gained popularity competing on the sophomore season of the spinoff series, where she was eliminated on the second episode. Ward's publicist confirmed to The Times that he died on Sept. 18. A cause of death was not confirmed.

It is with the most heart wrenching and deepest sadness to inform you that our George  Cherry Valentine  has tragically passed away. This will come as a profound shock to most people & we understand there is no easy way for this to be announced," his family said in a statement provided to The Times. "As his family, we are still processing his death and our lives will never be the same. We understand how much he is loved and how many lives he has inspired and touched."

In January 2021, Cherry Valentine entered the workroom of "RuPaul's Drag Race UK" and immediately made a fellow queen laugh. While making her grand entrance, Valentine bumped her elaborate headpiece against a door frame and nearly knocked it down.

"Roses are red and violets are blue, here's your winner of Season 2," she said after brushing off the mishap.

Before debuting on "Drag Race UK," the Darlington artist described Cherry Valentine as "glamour, she's club kid, she's dark, she's gothic." In addition to being a drag performer, Ward prided himself on his work as a mental health nurse.

"I think it's put me in that right position to be able to understand people a bit more, and if you're a drag queen, you're working with people, and to understand people I think you go the extra mile," he said as Valentine.

The official "Drag Race UK" Twitter account remembered Valentine as a "kind soul who brought joy and a distinctive laugh to everyone she met."

"She brought flair, verve and charm to #DragRaceUK, we will miss her so deeply," the show tweeted.

Story continues

Drag icon RuPaul remembered Valentine as a "bright star and a lovely person," while inaugural "Drag Race UK" winner the Vivienne said she was speechless.

"Drag Race UK" Season 2's Miss Congeniality winner, Bimini, said Valentine was "one of those souls so pure, so raw, so real."

"I'm incredibly lucky to have known George and witnessed their infectious spirit," she tweeted. "Their patience and kindness was their superpower. They saw you for you and not many people have that empathetic trait. My heart."

See more tributes from the "Drag Race" community below.

Rip cherry valentine I love you and your insane artistry forever   Gottmik (@gottmik) September 23, 2022

So very sad to hear of the passing of Cherry Valentine. You were a healer, what a beautiful thing to be. Sending love to family, friends and community grieving the loss of this beautiful person. Rest In Peace   Scarlet Envy (@ScarletEnvyNYC) September 23, 2022

"As an artist, nurse and an activist Cherry will always remain a beloved member of our Drag Race family," wrote "Drag Race" producer World of Wonder. "Cherry's love and irresistibly infectious laugh touched the lives of so many."

RIP Cherry Valentine   Adore Delano (@AdoreDelano) September 23, 2022

"RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 2" winner Alaska tweeted, "My heart is breaking for the loss of one of our sisters ... We will miss you Cherry Valentine ... I'm sending so much love to her family and loved ones today ..."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Ducks Unlimited has a variety of wetland restoration projects in northeastern South Dakota, and the local water development district helps with those efforts.

Randy Meidinger, regional biologist for Ducks Unlimited, appeared before the James River Water Development District Board earlier this month when it met in Aberdeen. He sought support for Ducks Unlimited's latest wetland restoration projects.

Historically, most requests are before the work is done. But, Meidinger said, this request is to help pay for seven wetlands restored last fall near Frederick.

Meidinger said at the time the work was being done Ducks Unlimited didn't think it would be eligible for support from the water development district. To receive support, the water must filter from these wetlands to the James River or a tributary that eventually flows into the James River.

Meidinger said the group later discovered that water from these wetlands ends up in the Maple River. Given that the restoration work is completed, and that a wetland restoration project in Sandborn County came in under budget, Meidinger asked for a 50% cost share, or $12,500 instead of the typical 75%.

"Sandborn County came in $14,000 under budget," he said.

Meidinger said one contractor bid restoration work for 12 wetlands in Sandborn County, seven in Faulk County, six in Marshall County and seven in Brown County, which resulted in a savings.

The cost share request was approved as was with a 75% cost share request of $15,089 to restore three wetlands in western Marshall County. This water drains into Crow Creek, he said.

Meidinger said through these projects, Ducks Unlimited strives to restore shallow wetlands where property owners have cut a ditch to drain the area. In some cases, the work is done on private land, he said, and in other cases Ducks Unlimited purchases the property, restores the wetlands and then sells the land on the open market.

When sold, he said, the land goes back into private hands with the understanding that the wetlands remain in place.

Story continues

Overall, Meidinger said, the goal of the restoration projects is to not only reduce flooding, but also help remove excess nutrients going into the rivers.

He said another seven wetlands in Brown County will be restored this year in the Barnard area. The $40,010 cost share for that project was approved by the water development district in July.

This article originally appeared on Aberdeen News: Ducks Unlimited receives funding for wetland restoration work
Emma Raducanu is through to the Korea Open semi-finals (Ahn Young-joon/AP) (AP)

Emma Raducanu described her first WTA Tour semi-final as pretty cool as her positive week at the Korea Open continued.

The 19-year-old had not won a match on the main tour when she lifted her first grand slam title at the US Open and now, just over a year later, she is through to the last four for the first time.

Raducanu is yet to drop a set in Seoul and played her best match so far to defeat third seed Magda Linette 6-2 6-2, making it three successive match wins for the first time since her New York triumph.

I think Magda was feeling it a bit physically, Raducanu told reporters. Shes had a lot of matches and good wins because shes a really tough player, and sometimes it catches up with the body.

I think its pretty cool to make my first semi-final and build my way on tour the right way, to go through the stages.

Raducanu, who fell at the first hurdle in defence of her US Open title last month, has slipped to 77th in the world rankings from a career-high of 10th but could return to the top 50 if she can win the title.

She made a flying start, twice breaking Linette and comfortably holding her own serve on her way to a 5-1 lead before sealing the first set after 35 minutes.

Linette, who lost to Czech Republic teenager Linda Fruhvirtova in the Chennai Open final last week, immediately hit back in the second, winning her opening service game to love.

The 30-year-old Pole then led 0-40 on Raducanus serve, but the British number one dug deep to save three break points before breaking the Linette serve twice in succession.

Linettes physical struggles were becoming more and more evident and, although she held to force Raducanu to serve it out, that proved no problem for the Kent teenager.

Raducanu will meet Latvian top seed Jelena Ostapenko on Saturday for a place in the final.
A group of employees who work for the internal watchdog at the Department of Homeland Security are calling on President Biden to remove their boss, saying theyve lost hope the ship will right itself.

The request comes after numerous congressional panels have asked DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari to step aside from various investigations after he failed to alert lawmakers in a timely manner that Secret Service text messages for Jan. 6 had been erased.

An anonymous letter shared by the Project on Government Oversight was signed by concerned DHS OIG employees representing every program office at every grade level who added that for fear of retaliation, we cannot identify ourselves.

Providing effective oversight of the newest and third largest Cabinet department is difficult enough, it should not be made more difficult by our own leadership, the employees wrote.

We need help. We can no longer be silent when faced with continuous mismanagement of DHS OIG at its highest levels. IG Cuffari has made clear that he wishes to remain in his position, even in the face of prolonged, deserved criticism in the media, from Congress, from other oversight entities and from his own staff. A true leader would recognize the effect of his actions on his workforce and understand the right thing to do would be to step aside. However, IG Cuffari is not a true leader. He instead acts to weaken and undercut his career staff at every step.

Cuffari has faced scrutiny nearly his entire tenure as inspector general at DHS since being nominated by former President Trump in 2019, tapped for the role after working as an adviser on military issues for Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R).

In the past he has been accused of removing information from OIG reports, and failing to act on a startling sexual harassment survey at DHS or a request to investigate Secret Services role in clearing protesters from Lafayette Park so Trump could take a photo holding a bible.

Story continues

But the revelation that he failed to alert Congress to missing Jan. 6 texts both from Secret Service agents and two agency leaders has ignited the most recent criticism.

The letter lays out a string of issues, many of which have been laid out in pieces through various congressional letters to Cuffari over the last few years asking him to justify his decisions.

The employee letter says Cuffari has refus[ed] to move forward with important proposed work without reason, delayed investigations for months or years, shutting out career staff so that only he and his inner circle assign most reviews, interfering with staff efforts to gather information, and significantly editing reports to remove key findings, which weakens the impact of the reports.

The White House did not respond to request for comment.

In a statement from Cuffaris office, he pointed to an employment satisfaction survey indicating higher employee engagement over his tenure and noting that in in-person meetings staff feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

As he promised during his confirmation process and hearing, Dr. Cuffari has transformed DHS OIG to a model workplace, the statement read.

Cuffari has been asked to step aside from his Jan. 6 investigation by both the House Oversight and Homeland Security committees, in light of the cascading revelations about your failure to conduct this investigation effectively and communicate truthfully with Congress.

The Senate Judiciary Committee asked the Justice Department to instead take over the investigation.

In responding to the committees, Cuffari posted his response publicly and sent it out to all DHS OIG employees, something they said was a warning sign to staffers.

His actions do not represent this 700-plus workforce. His actions continue to damage his own, and DHS OIGs, reputation. His actions are not the actions of a true leader. His actions embarrass the entire agency. His actions impede and greatly hinder our mission, the letter from the employees said.

You are the only one who can help us before DHS OIG are forever damaged by IG Cuffari, they said to Biden.

 Updated at 6:22 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
UPDATE: 2:55 p.m.

The Endangered Missing Adult Alert has been canceled.

INITIAL REPORT:

A statewide Endangered Missing Adult Alert has been issued by the Miami County Communications Center for an 88-year-old man.

Joe Newnam drove away from a restaurant on Weller Drive in Tipp City at 8:11 p.m. Thursday and has failed to return home, according to authorities.

>>New changes could be on the way for tornado sirens in Miami County

Newnam is described to be 59 tall, weighs 200 lbs., and has gray hair and green eyes.

Newnam suffers from dementia, and police are concerned for his safety.

The vehicle involved is a red 2009 Chevrolet Impala with OH plate number JN01.

Anyone who sees Newnam or the vehicle involved is asked to call 911.
The Los Angeles Unified School District is at a moment of turmoil, emerging from a COVID-19 pandemic that has taken a dramatic toll on students, teachers, staff and their families, both academically and emotionally.

Academic performance has slipped, with about 72% of students not meeting state standards in math and about 58% not meeting standards in English, reversing a trend of gradual progress and setting back kids who were already behind. Enrollment is declining, there arent enough teachers and counselors, and theres been a troubling rise in the percentage of students who are chronically absent.

A new superintendent, Alberto M. Carvalho, is pledging to make up for lost ground, and he will need the support of a prepared and smart school board to do so. We believe that Maria Brenes and Kelly Gonez, who are running in the Nov. 8 election for seats on the seven-member school board, are best equipped to guide the district through a time of great challenge.

District 2: Maria Brenes

Monica Garcia represented this school board district for 16 years. For her replacement, voters have a choice between Rocio Rivas, an ally of the teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles, and Brenes, a school reformer backed by charter school advocates and Service Employees International Union, Local 99, which represents classified school staff including instructional aides, custodians, bus drivers and cafeteria workers. Voters in this district spanning downtown L.A., Los Feliz, Highland Park, Boyle Heights, El Sereno and East L.A. are fortunate to have two smart and well-informed candidates: Rivas is a policy deputy to school board member Jackie Goldberg, and Brenes is the executive director of East L.A. advocacy group InnerCity Struggle.

Both are focused on achieving educational equity for low-income students of color who are struggling. But Brenes is the better choice because she has worked for years to bring urgency to improving educational outcomes in underperforming schools that had low expectations for their mostly Black and Latino students. She was a leading force behind the districts equity funding index to send more money to schools with the most educational challenges.

Story continues

That experience is needed now more than ever, given the damaging and ongoing effects the pandemic has had on Black and Latino students, who have been set back even further than they were before. Brenes would push harder for the type of reforms that will make Los Angeles schools deliver for these children.

In her work for Goldberg, Rivas has focused on critical issues, including early education and dual-language and arts education. She raises valid concerns about charter schools, but she offers fewer creative solutions than Brenes.

L.A. Unified school board member Kelly Gonez (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

District 6: Kelly Gonez

Incumbent board member Kelly Gonez has been a solid representative for this district covering much of the east San Fernando Valley. The former charter school teacher was first elected in 2017, when she was seen as a charter-backed reformer. But she has proved to be more pragmatic than ideological, taking balanced positions that place the needs of underserved students first, with less of a pro-charter bent than the forces who backed her in the first race.

In her first term, she has helped bring more dual-language education to her district, which had few programs relative to other parts of L.A. Unified, supported a shift in hiring practices to give top priority to high-needs schools and helped create an enriched studies program with more parental involvement and advanced courses.

Its significant that UTLA, which supported her opponent in the 2017 election, is now endorsing Gonez.

Her opponent in the Nov. 8 election, Cleveland High School Spanish teacher Marvin Rodriguez, promises to resist privatization efforts, fight for better compensation for teachers and empower parents to make more decisions within schools. Those are reasonable goals, but he lacks Gonezs understanding of the big issues facing the district and her experience addressing them.

Updates:

12:42 p.m. Sept. 23, 2022: This endorsement was updated to include additional details on the supporters of Maria Brenes.



This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The campus of UW-Milwaukee.

The ongoing enrollment decline at Wisconsin's public universities continues this school year, with preliminary numbers released Thursday showing more than half of the University of Wisconsin System campuses down by 3% or more.

Large enrollment drops drain millions in tuition revenue from campus budgets, challenging the schools to make up for demographic shifts and a slide in the state's college-going rate in other ways.

UW-Oshkosh and UW-Stout took the largest hits, losing 6% of students compared to last fall. UW-Milwaukee is down 3%, or 837 students.

Overall, the UW System's enrollment dropped just 1%, or 1,550 students, which was offset by massive growth at UW-Madison. The state's flagship university enrolled nearly 2,200 more students than it did last school year, a 5% increase that tips the UW-Madison student body past the 50,000 mark.

Remove UW-Madison from the enrollment report and the data shows a loss of 3,727 students from the other campuses year-over-year.

UW System President Jay Rothman cast the decline as "relatively slight" and "not unexpected for us" because the freshman classes that came in during the COVID-19 pandemic were smaller than projected.

This year, the number of new students on main campuses is the highest since 2018, suggesting to Rothman that the pandemic's effect on first-year enrollment is waning and changes UW has made to the admissions process are paying off.

Among the changes are a temporary shift to an admissions test-optional policy for ACT and SAT scores, removal of an application fee, and a new application system that makes applying to multiple universities easier.

"Whats exciting to us is the fact that we seemed to have turned a corner on the pandemic with the numbers (of incoming first-year students)," he told reporters on a call.

Rothman also is hopeful that next year's numbers lead to more low-income students going on to college. A new tuition promise program launching next fall will fully cover tuition for new students whose family income falls below $62,000.

Story continues

Aside from UW-Madison, two other campuses saw enrollments rise. UW-Superior reported a 4% increase and UW-Green Bay went up 3%. UW-La Crosse held enrollment flat.

Enrollment at the UW System's branch campuses, which merged with various four-year schools in 2018, fell 9%, or about 500 students, from last fall. Rothman said the UW System is committed to keeping these schools open and trying new strategies to reverse a decade-long decline.

Here are the enrollment increases or decreases by campus as collected by the UW System based on the first day of classes. Because the data is preliminary, the percentages could change. Branch campuses are included in overall percentages.

UW-Madison: +5%

UW-Superior: +4%

UW-Green Bay: +3%

UW-La Crosse: 0%

UW-Milwaukee: -3%

UW-Parkside: -3%

UW-Stevens Point: -3%

UW-Whitewater: -4%

UW-Platteville: -5%

UW-River Falls: -5%

UW-Eau Claire: -5%

UW-Oshkosh: -6%

UW-Stout: -6%

Like many universities around the country, most UW campuses have been filling fewer seats since 2010, when the number of high school graduates began dropping nationwide due to shifting birth rates.

The enrollment declines will likely worsen in the coming years, with Wisconsin projected to have even fewer 18- to 24-year-olds in 2026 and beyond. That's because beginning around 2008, many families who would have sent their children to college delayed having kids, resulting in a decline in high school graduates 18 years later.

Contact Kelly Meyerhofer at kmeyerhofer@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KellyMeyerhofer.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: University of Wisconsin System continues overall enrollment drop
By Supantha Mukherjee

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Ericsson said on Friday it is only providing software and technical support to Russian clients and has not sold any telecommunications equipment to mobile operators there since the Ukraine war started, after Swedish media reported the company had continued its exports.

Shares of the company fell 4% in morning trading.

Ericsson suspended its business in Russia in April and said in August that it would exit the country in the coming months. It recorded a charge of 900 million Swedish crowns ($81 million) and made 400 employees redundant in the country as it winds down operations.

"Compliant with the sanctions we provide the software and technical assistance for those products that we have shipped prior to the invasion making it possible to withdraw while fulfilling contractual obligations," a spokesperson said.

"When the sanctions were announced we stopped shipments to customers in Russia," he said.

Rival Nokia, which has also announced plans to exit Russia before the end of the year, had said it does limited maintenance of critical networks to fulfill its contractual and humanitarian obligations.

Sveriges Radio Ekot reported that Ericsson had applied for 12 permits for exemptions from sanctions from Sweden's Inspectorate of Strategic Products and was granted seven.

The sanctions list by the Swedish authority include software and technology linked to telecommunications.

The media outlet also said the products which Ericsson received permission to export to Russia could be used for the military.

Ericsson said its products are designed for civilian use, not military.

The Swedish authority issued a statement saying exemptions were related to civilian use and civilian end-users.

Two analysts said the Russia report is not going to look good for Ericsson which faced a scandal in February about payments to the Islamic State militant group in Iraq, triggering investigations by different U.S. agencies and eroding more than a third of its market value.

Story continues

"Ericsson hasn't breached any sanctions as it has obtained approval ... but it still stands in pretty clear contrast to the statement in their Q2-report where they announce suspension of 'all deliveries to customers in Russia'," said Jyske Bank analyst Anders Haulund Vollesen.

"Even though mobile telephony is for civil use an export licence is required mainly because of the advanced encryption technology that is embedded in our products, and this is to applicable for all countries," the Ericsson spokesperson said.

($1 = 11.1164 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Toby Chopra)
(Bloomberg) -- European Union member states are racing to clinch a political agreement within weeks that would impose a price cap on Russian oil.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The push has gained steam since President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of troops in an escalation of Russias war in Ukraine and will likely feature as part of a new package of sanctions to be proposed by the European Commission, according to people familiar with the matter. A cap would align the EU with a US effort to keep the cost of crude from soaring and to hit Moscows revenue.

But despite the new effort from the commission, the EUs executive arm, and some member states, the plan faces many hurdles and a positive outcome is not a given, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. Sanctions decisions require unanimity and are particularly complicated in this situation because each EU member has different energy needs.

Representatives from the member states will meet with the commission over the weekend to discuss the new sanctions, which aside from the oil cap could include additional restrictive measures on individuals and sectors such as technology and luxury goods, said the people.

Group of Seven

Many details still need to be ironed out, including at which price to set the cap, the people said. It also remains unclear how such a cap would be implemented alongside an EU embargo on Russian oil and a ban on the services needed to ship it agreed earlier this year. Either way, there is a degree of urgency as the price cap would need to be adopted before the EUs measures enter into force on Dec. 5.

The EUs economy chief Paolo Gentiloni, speaking after the Group of Seven reached a political agreement on the cap earlier this month, said the commission would work to get the support of all the blocs nations for the measure.

Story continues

Representatives of national governments in Brussels will aim to reach a preliminary deal on the price cap ahead of an informal gathering of EU leaders in Prague on Oct. 6, the people said. But one of the biggest question marks will be Hungary, which has often played the spoiler when unanimous decisions are needed in the EU.

Predictable Supplies

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who was the only EU official to hold bilateral talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, said Friday that Russia remained an indispensable source of energy.

If Russian supplies of natural gas and crude oil were to cease, then Hungarys entire economy may stop working, Szijjarto said in a Facebook video. Thats why its very important for us to have predictable supplies from Gazprom.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has launched a campaign at home criticizing any bloc-wide energy sanctions. Hungary delayed adoption of the EUs sanctions package in June that targeted crude, signing off only after it obtained exemptions that would still allow Budapest to access pipeline oil.

Price Spike

In June, the blocs 27 nations spent weeks haggling over the terms of the current oil measures, which include an embargo on Russian seaborne oil and petroleum products, an exemption on pipeline deliveries and a ban on providing services, such as insurance, to Russian oil shipments anywhere in the world. The US has been pushing to loosen those prohibitions over fears that they could lead to a spike in global oil prices.

It remains unclear how effective a price-cap regime would be, particularly since some of Russias biggest buyers, including China and India, havent agreed to join. US officials have argued that the price cap could work even if many buyers dont officially join the coalition, since they could still use the system for leverage in contract negotiations with Moscow to negotiate lower prices.

Adoption of the cap would also require member states to put national interests aside in favor of European solidarity.

EU countries that won exemptions for oil received through their pipelines will want to ensure that those remain intact, while nations that import via sea could seek to link the price cap to the currently envisioned full embargo on seaborne deliveries in order to level the playing field, one of the people said. Shipping nations, such as Greece, Cyprus and Malta, could also try to protect their respective industries from the measures, the person added.

(Updates with Hungarian ministers remarks in eighth, ninth paragraphs)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2022 Bloomberg L.P.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin

According to these sources, this initiative received a new impetus after Russian dictator Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization in Russia, and is likely to be presented as part of a new package of sanctions from the European Commission.

At the same time, it is noted that this initiative faces many obstacles and a positive outcome is not certain. In the European Union, decisions on sanctions require unanimity, and each EU member has its own energy needs.

Read also: Zelensky calls on G7 leaders to do whatever it takes to finish war by years end

Bloomberg writes that representatives of EU member states will meet with the European Commission this weekend to discuss the new sanctions package  the eighth since the start of the full-scale war. In addition to limiting oil prices, these may include additional sanctions against individuals, as well as the technology sector and luxury goods.

Bloomberg sources say that many details still need to be agreed on, in particular, at what price to set the limit, and it is not yet clear how exactly this scheme would function in practice. It also remains unclear how such a limit will be applied along with the EU embargo on Russian oil and the ban on services necessary for its delivery.

However, Bloomberg notes that price restrictions on Russian oil must be adopted before the embargo comes into force on Dec. 5.

Read also: EU ministers to impose new sanctions on Russia and in-crease arms supplies to Ukraine

Representatives of national governments in Brussels will seek to reach a preliminary agreement on price caps before an informal meeting of EU leaders in Prague on Oct. 6. Hungary is expected to be one of the biggest opponents of the new restrictions.

According to Bloomberg, the adoption of the restriction will require member states to put aside national interests in favor of European solidarity. EU states that have received exemptions for oil coming through their pipelines will want to ensure that they are maintained, while countries importing oil by sea may try to link the price cap to the current full embargo on maritime supplies to level the playing field.

G7 finance ministers confirmed their intention to set a price ceiling for Russian oil in early September. It was reported then that the restrictions could come into force on Dec. 5.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
A revamped Super Cup to kick off the European season could be played in the United States (Niall Carson/PA) (PA Archive)

European football bosses have admitted they are exploring different ideas as discussions continue behind the scenes about taking a revamped UEFA Super Cup to the United States.

The PA news agency understands substantive talks have taken place over a four-team Super Cup being played as a season-opening event in the US from 2024, potentially featuring the champions of Major League Soccer alongside the winners of UEFAs three mens club competitions.

Nasser Al Khelaifi, who as well as being chairman of the European Club Association and president of Paris St Germain is a UEFA executive committee member, was asked whether taking UEFA matches outside Europe was beyond the realms of possibility at the ECAs General Assembly in Istanbul on Friday.

He said: We didnt discuss America, specifically, we didnt agree anything basically.

What we are trying to do is help to grow and develop our competitions. We have the right to think about it, to explore different ideas and to look at what makes sense or not, but for today, I can confirm nothing.

But why not look for all the opportunities that we have to grow our clubs and our competitions?

UEFA and the ECA see the US as a major growth market. They have achieved a 150 per cent increase in the value of their English-language broadcast rights in the US as part of their new commercial joint venture, compared to the current cycle.

Story continues

That rights deal was brokered by Relevent, a company which has previously tried, without success, to organise regular-season LaLiga matches in the US.

Ajax chief executive Edwin Van Der Sar said it was nothing new for European club games at domestic level to be played abroad (John Walton/PA) (PA Archive)

Ajax chief executive Edwin Van Der Sar, another member of the ECA board, also did not dismiss the possibility of UEFA matches going overseas in the future.

The former Manchester United goalkeeper said: You pretend its completely new or something that the games are played abroad.

The Italian Super Cup and certain cup finals are also played in different countries than the home country itself. National associations and national leagues are already playing abroad in certain finals.

I am not sure how far the idea from UEFA or the ECA (has advanced), but of course its nothing new that certain games are being played abroad.

Sources have told PA that all options to attract families and female fans to a new-look Super Cup would be considered, whether it be placing the matches within a weekend festival or having pop acts perform before games or at half-time.

Formula One president and CEO Stefano Domenicali attended the ECAs General Assembly (David Davies/PA) (PA Wire)

They point out that other sports have successfully taken matches into new markets, such as the NFL playing regular-season games in London.

Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali attended the General Assembly, with the ECA keen to hear from other sports and businesses about how they have generated new revenue streams.

As well as selling broadcast rights, F1 also sells countries the right to host its events, which may be something the UEFA-ECA joint venture could look at with the Super Cup.

We need always to be creative and think out of the box; standing still is going backwards.

ECA chairman Nasser Al Khelaifi

Al Khelaifi paid tribute to Domenicali in his address to the Assembly, saying: I remember the first time we met, I was inspired by your vision, your ideas and your project.

You have made Formula 1 more than a sport. You have created a lifestyle and a brand. Entertainment is at the heart of everything you do. Formula 1 has an amazing leader. I am sure we will be inspired by what you will tell us later today.

He added that the ECAs relationship with F1 was evidence that the ECA was open-minded and pushing forward ideas.

He added: We need always to be creative and think out of the box; standing still is going backwards.
President Macron meets with Prime Minister Liz Truss at UN HQ in New York on September 20 (Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images)

The UK is debating joining a new political "club of nations" in Europe next month, according to reports.

Downing Street wants to see more detail on the European Political Community (EPC), due to be held in Prague in early October, before Prime Minister Liz Truss commits to attending it, the BBC reports. It says no final decision has been made.

The French president Emmanuel Macron has said the group is a new space for co-operation and has suggested it could discuss ideas like energy, transport, security, and movement across borders.

All members of the EU have been invited, as have the UK, Ukraine, Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey. Invitations will likely be sent to Iceland, Lichtenstein, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

But what is the European political community? Heres everything we know.

What is the European political community?

The EPC is a new political grouping proposed by President Macron that would include EU countries, the Balkans, and other countries, including the United Kingdom.

Macron proposed the idea at the meeting of the European Council in June.

The project's goal, according to Macron's proposal, is to provide a platform for European nations to co-ordinate their policies across the continent, and to promote political dialogue and co-operation to address issues of common concern in order to advance the security, stability, and prosperity of the European continent.

Truss previously declined an invitation to the summit but has been reconsidering since the EU has said its keen to get the UK involved.

Truss and Macron are both attendees of this weeks UN General Assembly, along with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, which will provide them with an opportunity to discuss the idea and the UKs involvement in greater detail.

The first summit is due to take place in Prague, on October 6 and 7.

The event will be covered live by pan-European TV network Eurovision.
A white former police officer charged in the fatal shooting of a Black man at a Texas gas station two years ago was acquitted of murder Thursday, the officers lawyer said.

Robert L. Rogers, a lawyer for Shaun Lucas, 24, said he was relieved the jury was able to follow the law and put themselves in my clients shoes when he fatally shot Jonathan Price on Oct. 3, 2020, at a gas station in Wolfe City.

One of Prices sisters, Sabrina Price, wept after the verdict was announced Thursday afternoon, NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reported.

Jonathan Price. (via Facebook)

There was not one person that looked like me, said Sabrina Price, who is Black, referring to the jury, according to the station.

At the time of the shooting, Lucas was one of six white police officers in the small city northeast of Dallas, state records show.

Price, a former college football player, was leaving a convenience store at the same time a person entering the shop initiated a pushing match," family attorney Lee Merritt told the station. Pushing match was over in 5 seconds.

Price was unarmed, Merritt said.

Lucas had been dispatched to the gas station over a possible fight in progress, Lt. Lonny Haschel of the Texas Department of Public Safety said in a statement.

Lucas tried to detain Price, who "resisted in a non-threatening posture" and walked away, Haschel said. He used a Taser, then fired his service weapon  actions Haschel described as "not objectively reasonable."

Lucas, a former jail employee who had been with the Wolfe City Police Department for less than six months, was arrested two days after the shooting and booked on suspicion of murder. The Texas Rangers were investigating the shooting.

On Oct. 8, 2020, Lucas was fired over what local officials called his egregious violation of departmental policies.

Rogers has previously said that Lucas "only discharged his weapon in accordance with Texas law when he was confronted with an aggressive assailant who was attempting to take his Taser.

Merritt described the evidence Thursday as "overwhelming in favor of guilty" and attributed the verdict to an "inherent bias" toward law enforcement, NBC Dallas Fort-Worth reported.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
The United States is preparing to circulate a resolution at the United Nations Security Council on Monday that would establish a new framework for sanctioning Haitis gang leaders, and is not taking international intervention off the table as the country spirals into lawlessness, a senior State Department official told McClatchy.

Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian A. Nichols said in an interview that gang leaders fueling Haitis worst security crisis in decades  and those who finance and support them, including supplying firearms  are in the crosshairs, and their actions to destabilize Haiti will be met with international travel and financial sanctions.

The Biden administration is hoping for swift passage of the resolution in the coming days, Nichols said.

The resolution will create a United Nations framework to place sanctions on gang leaders, and those who support and facilitate and fund their activities, he said. Those sanctions would target their financial resources and ability to travel.

The Haitian government has all but lost control over security in the Caribbean nation, and U.S. officials say the country reached a crisis not seen since the early 1990s.

On Friday, specialized teams of the Haiti National Police from Port-au-Prince were still trying to access a womens prison just north of the capital after 145 women escaped. Gangs blocked the police response by setting fire to a police substation and firing on cops. At the same time, a powerful gang leader  a former cop named Jimmy Cherizier, who goes by the moniker Barbecue  was on his ninth day of holding over 188,000 barrels of fuel hostage, blocking access in and out of the countrys largest fuel terminal.

READ MORE: Haiti verges on anarchy amid fuel hike, power grab. They want us to hit rock bottom.

You will get access to the terminal when we die, Cherizier said, directing comments to interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry while holding up an M-4 automatic weapon and standing amid the flaming barricade his gang coalition had erected in front of the Varreux fuel terminal.

Story continues

Haitis neighbors have called for robust action from the United States and other permanent members of the Security Council. At least one, the Dominican Republic, has publicly requested a return of a multinational peacekeeping force, arguing that Haitis instability and rampant gang violence are increasingly becoming a threat to the region.

Such a move would require Haiti to once more go under what is known as Chapter 7, which is an article of the U.N. charter that enables the Security Council to deploy international forces in a peacekeeping mission. After 13 years, it was ended in Haiti in 2017 when the U.N. Security Council, pushed by the United States and others, finally withdrew its military and peacekeeping operations in Haiti.

If Haitis government asks for that assistance, the international community would certainly consider such a request, Nichols added.

But Haitian authorities have not asked for boots on the ground, he said, and there isnt currently any discussion of a Chapter 7 response to the situation in Haiti.

In lieu of a return of blue-helmet peacekeepers, the United States has been focused on bolstering the countrys beleaguered 12,000-plus Haiti National Police force.

The Biden administration has been vetting members for a new SWAT team for the Haiti National Police, as part of an effort with France to train members of a new anti-gang unit in Port-au-Prince. Canada and the United Nations have been pushing for support for a $28 million security basket fund, where donors can put their money, to help fund the ill-equipped force and a new shipping-container inspection project managed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

At the end of the donors meeting Friday, the United States announced a $3 million contribution to be added to Canadas donation of 10 million Canadian dollars. The Haitian government has also donated $1 million directly to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for the container project.

READ MORE: President Biden acknowledges chaotic Haiti at the United Nations, but he still fell short | Editorial

RESOLUTION MAY TARGET ILLICIT ARMS

This is not the first time sanctions have come up with respect to Haitian gangs. In December 2020, the United States Department of Treasury sanctioned Cherizier and two former members of then-President Jovenel Moises government for their involvement in a 2018 massacre in Port-au-Princes La Saline neighborhood that left scores dead.

Despite the sanctions, and despite massacres being widely condemned by the United Nations Security Council, Cherizier continues to roam freely, tightening his grip on the capital through his heavily armed coalition known as G-9 Families and Allies.

Over the summer, China had pushed for an end to the weapons supply to Haitis gangs and tried to push an embargo as the U.N. Security Council considered extending its political mission in the country. Though Beijing voted for the extension, it was disappointed that the final resolution did not have tougher language on a gang arms embargo.

READ MORE: Haitis civil unrest is being financed by economic interests, top Biden aide says

Haiti observers point out that any sanctions will need to come with heft, given the ability of powerful and corrupt figures in the country to create chaos when their interests are threatened. Though the recent protests flared up after the government announced a hike in fuel prices, the government and others have blamed the violence and pillaging on arms traffickers, smugglers and oligarchs opposed to recent efforts at the seaports to crack down on $600 million in uncollected duties and the shipment of illegal arms and weapons.

At the same time, they would like for the United States to play a more active role in sanctioning and arresting Haitians, especially in light of recent comments by both a top Biden aide and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week that oligarchs and the elite are contributing to the instability in Haiti and influencing the dynamics in the region.

Nichols said that the United States would like to see the resolution include sanctions against those who would provide illicit weapons to the gangs in Haiti, but noted that the resolution had yet to be circulated among Security Council members.

I think thats also a very important step. However, nothing in the resolution should prevent the legitimate transfer of weapons to Haitis governmental security forces, he said. We carefully control the licensing of weapons sales to Haiti already. The challenge is tracking the illicit smuggling of weapons to gangs and other illicit persons.

The assistant secretary said the threat of sanctions in the last few days has had a calming effect on the situation on the ground in Haiti, although details of the potential resolution have not previously been made public.

In his address to the U.N. General Assembly this week, President Joe Biden called on the world to take action on Haiti and said the country is facing an enormous human crisis.

I think that the passage of a resolution and creation of a framework will continue that calming effect, Nichols said. Until specific individuals are referred to a sanctions committee, and then sanctioned internationally, thats when youll see the transformative nature of this. So I dont think just having the framework is sufficient. We have to designate specific people.
By M. Sriram, Aditya Kalra and Aditi Shah

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Blackstone Inc will sell a stake worth up to $400 million in Embassy Office Parks REIT, India's biggest real estate investment trust, via Indian stock exchange block deals, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, one of the world's largest, is likely to pick up at least half of the stake that Blackstone is to sell, one of the sources said.

Embassy Office Parks, India's first REIT to list in 2019, owns and operates more than 42 million square feet portfolio of office parks and office buildings in cities such as Bengaluru and Mumbai. It is the largest office REIT in Asia by area.

In the block deals being planned on the Indian exchanges early next week, Blackstone's sale would be worth about $300-400 million, said the sources, all of whom declined to be named as the discussions are private and sensitive.

Spokespersons for Blackstone and Bengaluru-based Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) in Abu Dhabi declined to comment.

Shares in the Embassy REIT closed at 354.42 Indian rupees on Friday in Mumbai, giving it a market capitalisation of $4.15 billion.

Blackstone currently has a 32% stake in the Embassy REIT and at the current market value the proposed sale by Blackstone would represent 7.2% to 9.6% of its stake, according to Reuters calculations.

The block trade will be Blackstone's third stake sale in Embassy, following two such sales in 2020 and 2021, where the private equity group has sold shares worth more than $500 million collectively.

Blackstone has invested more than $11 billion in Indian companies and assets over the years, but has been trimming its interests over time in Indian REITs.

Earlier this year, it sold its entire stake in India's Mindspace Business Parks REIT for $235 million.

The pricing of the block deals is likely to be finalised early next week, before the block trade is executed, the sources added. The final shape of the block deals and asset sale are subject to changes.

Story continues

ADIA INTEREST

ADIA is likely to pick up about $200 million of Blackstone's stake sale, with talks also ongoing with other possible investors, the first source said.

For ADIA, the investment would expand its interest in the Indian office market. As the COVID-19 pandemic has waned, many workers have returned to offices, making office space an attractive bet for investors.

Two of the sources said ADIA plans to buy the stake in the Embassy REIT through a $590 million fund it set up in June with India's Kotak Investment Advisors in commercial real estate.

In June, ADIA said the fund would focus on "opportunities associated with long-term demand for Indian office space, which is being driven by global organisations seeking to capitalise on the country's skilled workforce."

Embassy has appointed Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Securities to run the process, the three sources said.

"Banks are doing full-on marketing to make sure book is well covered," said the third source with direct knowledge.

Bank of America declined to comment, while Kotak and Morgan Stanley did not immediately respond.

(Reporting by M. Sriram, Aditya Kalra and Aditi Shah; Additional reporting by Scott Murdoch in Hong Kong and Abhirup Roy in Mumbai. Editing by Jane Merriman)
(Reuters) - Ukraine will never forgive Russia for a shameful conflict which has thrown back Russia's development by half a century to Soviet times predating Mikhail Gorbachev, journalist and Nobel Peace laureate Dmitry Muratov told Reuters.

Russia's military campaign in Ukraine has killed tens of thousands, left some Ukrainian cities wastelands and triggered Moscow's biggest confrontation with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Muratov, the long-time editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, one of the last independent media outlets in Russia, said Ukraine would never agree to peace or to the annexation of any of its territory.

"Ukraine will never forgive Russia," Muratov, who co-founded Novaya Gazeta in 1993 with money from Gorbachev's Nobel Peace Prize, said in an interview in his office, which is adorned with ice hockey sticks and dozens of front pages from the paper.

Muratov said that modern technology had brought the horrors of the war home to people, along with the devastation of the battle for Mariupol in southern Ukraine and the claims of war crimes against Russian soldiers in Irpin and Bucha.

"You many want to forgive everything, but you click in the search engine: Mariupol, Irpin or Bucha. And you can't forgive a goddamn thing anymore," Muratov said. "Every step of this war, every crime and every shot, every torn scrotum will now remain forever."

Ukraine has accused Russia of war crimes. Russia says such accusations are a lie. The Russian government did not respond to a request for comment on Muratov's remarks.

President Vladimir Putin says Russia's soldiers are "heroes" and that all Russia's aims will be achieved.

Putin casts the operation in Ukraine as an attempt to foil a Western plot to rip Russia apart. Ukraine says it is fighting an illegal occupation and will never give in.

RUSSIA BACKWARDS

The war, Muratov said, was a "huge national shame" that was wiping out not just half a century of development but also extinguishing hope, love and confidence in the future among Russians.

Story continues

The war had destroyed the reputation of the land of Gorbachev, Russian physicist and human rights campaigner Andrei Sakharov and Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, Muratov said.

"We have been thrown back in our development by at least half a century into the pre-Gorbachev era," Muratov said.

Russia, he said, had forgotten the lessons of the past, including the need to end wars.

"We no longer have faith. Russia and Russians are disliked. Love was a very important thing in order to travel, to learn, to believe in your god, to read the books that you love."

Gorbachev, lauded in the West as the man who helped bring down the Berlin Wall and end the Cold War without bloodshed, died on Aug. 30, 2022.. Muratov was his friend.

"Unfortunately, there has been a loss of our reputation globally, a loss of trust," Muratov said. "The loss of reputation is a difficult thing to recover."

ANNEXATION

After Putin backed a plan leading to the formal annexation of Russian controlled areas in Ukraine, including parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, Muratov said many Russians were not interested.

"If you go out onto the street and ask: 'Do you need Kherson?' people will look at you as if you are a moron," he said. "They will ask: 'What? Why are you talking about Kherson? I have a mortgage, not Kherson'."

"For geopoliticans with inflamed brains, victory is associated with the annexation of foreign territories."

In mid-September, Russia's Supreme Court revoked the last media licence of Novaya Gazeta. The newspaper Novaya Gazeta is no longer published in paper form in Russia, though it has a limited online version and has a magazine.

Muratov said he has no intention of leaving Russia.

"We have 82 people staying here and naturally I am staying with them. And we are going to work here," Muratov said, referring to the newspaper's employees.

"We will work here until the cold gun barrel touches our hot foreheads."

(Editing by Guy Faulconbridge, William Maclean)
The claim: Coloradans will pay 54 cents more per gallon of gas starting in 2023

Gas prices have receded from the historic high reached this summer, but some social media users are claiming residents of one state will soon face more steep gas prices.

How many of you know that starting January 1st, 2023. The People of Colorado will be paying $.54 a gallon more for gas all thanks to Jared Polis!, reads part of a Aug. 27 Facebook post that was shared more than 300 times in one week.

It goes on to claim that Polis, the governor of Colorado, planned to enact a ban on the sale of gasoline-powered cars after 2035 and that inflation is 5 percent higher in the state than in the rest of the country.

In response to USA TODAY's request for comment, the user said Polis had failed to apply for an exemption from a federal fuel tax scheduled to go into effect next year.

Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks

But neither federal nor state fuel taxes are expected to increase to that figure in January. The Internal Revenue Service said the current federal fuel tax rate of 18.4 cents per gallon is in effect until 2028, and a statewide road usage fee going into effect on April 1 will increase the cost of gas by 2 cents per gallon.

Prices per gallon are displayed over labels of various grades of gasoline at a Shell station Thursday, June 9, 2022, in Littleton, Colo.

Federal gas tax not set to change in January

Internal Revenue Service spokesperson Bruce Friedland told USA TODAY the 18.4 cent-per-gallon federal excise tax on gasoline is in effect until Sept. 30, 2028.

The current rate is made up of a 18-cent gasoline tax and a one-cent tax for the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund. It hasn't been raised since 1993.

Once 2028 comes around, Friedland said the gasoline tax would drop to 4.3 cents per gallon without a trust fund tax.

Contrary to the post's claim that the governor is seeking to raise gas prices, Polis is one of several Democratic governors who called for the federal gas tax to be temporarily suspended earlier this year, according to Colorado Newsline. President Joe Biden also advocated for a three-month federal gas tax holiday but the calls ultimately went unheeded by Congress.

Story continues

State's per-gallon gas fee set to go into effect in April

A 54-cent gasoline fee isn't expected on the state level, either.

Dan Carr, a spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Revenue, told USA TODAY he had "not heard of (a) $0.54-per-gallon increase."

Carr said the current gasoline fuel tax is 22 cents per gallon, which will become 24 cents per gallon once a road usage fee starts in April 2023.

Polis signed legislation in June 2021 that imposed a 2-cent-per-gallon road usage fee and an additional 22 cents per gallon bridge and tunnel impact fee on certain special fuels.

Both fees were supposed to go into effect on July 1, 2022, but were later delayed until April 2023.

The fees will increase annually by one cent for the next six fiscal years. They'll be at 8 cents each by July 2028 and remain there through the 2031-2032 fiscal year, at which point they'll be adjusted for inflation.

More: Gas prices drop under $4 nationwide for first time in months. Will they continue to fall?

There is no mention of any fuel tax set to go into effect in January on the fuel fees schedule found on the Colorado Department of Revenue's website.

EPA designation may increase gas prices in the future

Both Polis deputy press secretary Katie Jones and Environmental Protection Agency spokesperson Timothy Carroll told USA TODAY there is no validity" to the Facebook post's claims.

The agency reclassified Denver and other parts of Colorado as "severe" air quality violators in September, according to The Denver Post. Carroll said the designation comes with Clean Air Act requirements to sell reformulated gasoline, which is new for the Denver area.

The requirement won't go into effect for consumers or wholesale purchasers until June 1, 2024. The Denver Post and other outlets reported the change could impact gas prices, but Carroll said the amount mentioned in the Facebook post is not accurate.

"There is no mandated fuel tax associated with an RFG requirement and EPA has no evidence to support the $0.54 per gallon estimate," Carroll said.

Polis threatened legal action to avoid the requirement and wrote in a statement that "an increase in price of any amount is too great."

Polis hasn't implemented ban on gasoline-powered vehicles

California recently moved to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles starting in 2035, but Jones said there is "no validity to the claim that the Governor would support a ban on internal combustion engine vehicles."

Previously, Polis signed an executive order "supporting a transition to zero emission vehicles" and a draft plan to reduce greenhouse gas pollution that included a call for close to 100% of vehicles to be electric by 2050.

Fact check: False claim PNC Bank locations won't have coins starting in October

But Jones said Polis' goal is "increasing choice for consumers, not decreasing choice."

The Colorado Energy Office offered a similar statement to The Associated Press in September.

While the governor shares the goal of rapidly moving towards electric vehicles, he is skeptical about requiring 100% of cars sold to be electric by a certain date as technology is rapidly changing, the office told the outlet.

Inflation rates show higher costs in Colorado, but not a 5-percent difference between the state and the rest of the country. A July report by the Joint Economic Committee Republicans noted that the country saw a 13.3 percent increase in prices between January 2021 and June 2022. Colorado's rate was listed as 14.9 percent.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that Coloradans will pay 54 cents more per gallon of gas starting in 2023. The IRS said the current federal fuel tax rate of 18.4 cents per gallon is in effect until 2028, and a statewide road usage fee going into effect in April will increase the cost of gas by 2 cents per gallon.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: False claim of 54-cent gas tax starting in Colorado
A charred motorcycle stands in a structure destroyed by the Fairview fire near Hemet. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Multiple families have filed a lawsuit against Southern California Edison, alleging the utility failed to properly de-energize its electrical lines and caused the deadly Fairview fire in Hemet, which destroyed dozens of structures.

The blaze ignited Sept. 5 near Fairview Avenue and Bautista Canyon Road and had burned 28,307 acres and was 98% contained as of Wednesday, the most recent day for data, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The fire killed two people and displaced tens of thousands of residents following mandatory evacuations. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

According to the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday, the California Public Utilities Commission authorized Southern California Edison and other utilities to shut down their power grids to prevent wildfires in high fire-threat areas. Edison is accused of failing to shut off circuits.

The families claimed in the lawsuit that "had SCE acted responsibly, the Fairview fire could have been prevented."

David Eisenhauer, spokesperson for Southern California Edison, confirmed the utility had submitted an initial electric safety incident report to the Public Utilities Commission, saying "circuit activity occurred close in time to the reported start time of the fire."

According to the lawsuit, Edison identified its Sprague 12kV distribution circuit as having "activity" at the time the fire started. Eisenhauer said he couldn't provide more specific information.

"Our thoughts are with those who have been affected by the Fairview fire, especially those who've lost loved ones and suffered injuries," he said.

Guillermo Figueroa and Maria Velazco, one of the families suing Edison, said the fire destroyed their 14.5-acre property and horse-boarding facility on Gibbel Road. They say the blaze also killed three of their horses and seven of their dogs and hurt two other dogs.

The fire destroyed the family's vehicles and landscaping equipment used in Figueroa's landscaping business, the lawsuit states. The family said their property also was damaged by mud flows caused by Tropical Storm Kay, which brought thunderstorms and rain to Southern California.

Story continues

"The area where the fire started is designated as a 'High Fire Threat District  Tier 3,' which means there is an extreme risk to people and property from a utility-caused wildfire," said Alexander Robertson, an attorney for the families. "Despite this extreme risk, and during a historic heat wave, low humidity and strong winds, SCE did not de-energize its power lines in the area where the fire started."

Ignacio Hernandez, Sarah Hernandez and their three children also are suing Edison, saying the Fairview fire destroyed their three-acre parcel on Gibbel Road. It burned their vehicles, the roof of their house, solar and electrical panels, and landscaping and trees, they said. The blaze also killed their chickens and injured their dog.

Alexandra Lopez and Rodrigo Arias, who also live on Gibbel Road, said the fire damaged their property and caused Lopez to hurt her ankle while she was evacuating. She was hospitalized because of her injuries.

The fire killed two people: Ian Compton, 40, and his daughter, Mikayla Porter, who died in their car trying to escape the fire.

Tina Compton, Ians wife, was found severely burned outside the car, was taken to a hospital and is expected to survive, according to a friend who did not wish to be named.

Southern California Edison agreed last year to pay more than half a billion dollars in penalties and fines for its role in the Thomas, Woolsey, Rye, Meyers and Liberty fires, which collectively destroyed thousands of homes and burned more than 380,000 acres.

The utility was also sued in May by a group of Orange County homeowners, who claimed that Edison's faulty equipment caused the Coastal fire, which destroyed more than 20 homes in Laguna Niguel.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A farmer found the body of a 53-year-old woman in a remote area of Washington days after she was reported missing, authorities said.

Theresa Bergmans body was found in tall grass along a road around 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 22, in Lincoln County, the county sheriffs office said in a Facebook post.

Bergman was supposed to return home on Sept. 18 after being picked up from an airport by her husband, 54-year-old Charles Bergman, the Grant County Sheriffs Office said.

But the couple never returned home in Moses Lake, deputies said, so family members reported them missing on Sept. 19.

Authorities are still looking for Charles, who was last seen driving a silver 2013 Chevrolet Impala with a Washington license plate of BLU5395.

An autopsy will be done on Theresa Bergmans body to determine the cause and manner of death, deputies said.

Anyone with information can contact the Lincoln County Sheriffs Office at 509-725-3501 or by calling 911.

Moses Lake is about 105 miles southwest of Spokane.

Missing mans dismembered body found in vehicle and Arizona desert, cops say

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13-year-old boy found dead in woods days after going missing, Georgia authorities say
The Food and Drug Administration has told Americans not to cook their chicken in Nyquil, after a viral cooking trend has resurfaced on social media.

In a recent warning issued by the FDA, the government agency addressed the dangers of social media and misusing medicines, as a result of peer pressure.

One social media trend relying on peer pressure is online video clips of people misusing nonprescription medications and encouraging viewers to do so too, the FDA wrote. These video challenges, which often target youths, can harm people  and even cause death.

The warning went on to highlight a social media video challenge where people cook their chicken in NyQuil, which is an nonprescription drug that contains acetaminophen, dextromethorphan and doxylamine, and then eat it.

Since the cooking trend has gone viral once again, the FDA has publicly expressed how unsafe and unappetising it is.

Boiling a medication can make it much more concentrated and change its properties in other ways. Even if you dont eat the chicken, inhaling the medications vapours while cooking could cause high levels of the drugs to enter your body, the FDA said.

It could also hurt your lungs. Put simply: Someone could take a dangerously high amount of the cough and cold medicine without even realising it, the federal agency continued.

In addition, the FDA recalled how they issued a warning about the dangers of taking too much Benadryl in 2020, after the Benadryl Challenge on TikTok reportedly involved people ingesting high doses of the medicine to induce hallucinations and cause them to be hospitalised.

The agent went on to share ways for people to protect their children from potentially harmful trends and tips for using OTC drugs safely.

While the FDAs statement about cooking chicken in Nyquil arrived last week, the trend first emerged on social media back in 2017. In one tweet shared at time, which has more than 4,330 retweets, a Twitter user posted a photo of multiple pieces of chicken sitting in a bowl of Nyquil. The caption of it reads: If she makes you nyquil chicken.... do NOT let her go.

Story continues

if she makes you nyquil chicken.... do NOT let her go pic.twitter.com/ZiQbFcJ4TM  tristan (@trjstn) April 20, 2017

Twitter users went on to respond to the tweet with confusion, as they expressed how absurd the cooking trend was.

Earlier this year, the trend also reemerged on TikTok. In since-deleted video that was reposted in January, as it was initially shared by TikTok account Janelle and Kate, a woman could be seen in front of her stove.

As she stood over a pan that had uncooked chicken in it, she poured some of Nyquil onto the meat. She went on to grab a pair of pliers used them to move the chicken, while it was cooked in the liquid cough medicine.

The video was once again met with angry reactions, as viewers encouraged people not prepare their meals with Nyquil.

Dont do this, it will kill you, one wrote, while another asked: Why would you do this?

While videos continued to emerge of the trend in January, TikTok users began referring to it as the sleepy chicken.
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.  The Air Forces array of 48 fighter squadrons and nine attack squadrons are today being asked to do the work of 60 squadrons, the head of Air Combat Command said Wednesday.

This is stretching the fighter fleet thin, ACC head Gen. Mark Kelly said in a keynote address at the Air Force Associations Air Space Cyber conference here  and, in a major war, will become unsustainable.

Its like a bill that comes to your house  for 60 multirole fighter squadrons, Kelly told reporters in a roundtable later that day. Im trying to pay that bill with 48 fighter squadrons and nine attack squadrons [consisting of A-10 Thunderbolt II planes].

While those 57 combined fighter and attack squadrons are not far off from 60, Kelly said, the A-10 will not be survivable in a future war against a peer or near-peer adversary with advanced air defenses. The Air Force has also for years pushed to retire some or all of the A-10 fleet.

And if A-10 squadrons are retired or unable to engage in a high end fight, that would mean at least a dozen fighter squadrons would be needed to close that gap.

Kelly said the Air Forces recent study of its tactical air requirements is classified and cant be discussed publicly, but noted the services 2018 Air Force We Need study, which former Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson unveiled four years earlier at the same conference, was accurate when it called for growing fighter squadrons to 62.

Wilson said at that time the Air Force needed to grow by 74 operational squadrons in all, to a total of 386 squadrons by 2030. This would allow the service to simultaneously defeat a major adversary such as China or Russia, defend the homeland, provide a nuclear deterrent, counter a medium-sized rogue nation such as North Korea and fight violent extremists such as the Islamic State.

That push, however, failed to generate the budgets necessary to grow the service by almost one-quarter and ultimately fizzled.

Story continues

After the Air Force We Need proposal was released four years ago, some policy experts questioned whether the dramatic growth it called for was feasible, affordable  or even necessary.

And today, with budget concerns growing among many lawmakers, its not clear whether Pentagon leaders would want to push for massive growth in the fighter fleet.

Four key missions, not enough fighters

In his keynote address at AFA, Kelly sought to refocus on the needs of a fighter fleet now significantly smaller than the 134 fighter squadrons the Air Force had during the Gulf War  but juggling many complex and vital duties.

He said the Air Force needs 28 squadrons to project airpower in the Indo-Pacific region, Europe, and the Middle East, and another eight squadrons to respond to unfolding crises.

The Air Force also needs 16 squadrons to defend the homeland and support the president of the United States, Kelly said, and another eight for training and modernization efforts.

But without enough squadrons to fill all those roles, Kelly said  and with homeland defense and presidential support being must-fill areas  missions such as Pacific defense, crisis response, and modernization and training usually take the hits.

To fix this, Kelly said the Air Force needs to buy at least 72 new fighters each year to build a highly capable force that can carry out multiple missions. The Air Force is now in the process of buying fifth-generation F-35As as well as F-15EXs, a modernized version of the fourth-generation fighter with advanced avionics, electronic warfare systems, and other capabilities.

But the Air Force is far from buying 72 fighters per year. Its original budget request for fiscal 2023 calls for buying 57 new fighters, made up of 24 F-15EXs and 33 F-35As, although another seven F-35s could get added by Congress.

Kelly also said the Air Force has to speed up the process of adding autonomous drone wingmen known as collaborative combat aircraft to the force.

In the years to come, he told reporters later, those CCAs will augment the Air Forces capabilities. But it remains to be seen how much capability they will add and how many drones will be necessary, he told reporters at the roundtable.

Kelly stressed that the U.S. Air Force should work with allies and partners such as the United Kingdom and Australia and alliances like NATO to extend its reach in dangerous areas.

When youre operating in a tough neighborhood, travel with friends who know how to fight, Kelly said.

Rachel S. Cohen contributed to this report.
Billionaires Rotenbergs co-founder of Yandex Arkady Volozh are under sanctions of the European Union

The shares of the Rotenbergs' Langvik Capital and its shares in two other companies, as well the accounts of the Finnish division of Yandex, have all been seized.

As a result of the arrest of Langvik Capital, Finnish authorities gained control over the shares of the Helsinki Halli ice arena and the Langvik company, which manages a hotel complex. In addition to the Rotenbergs, Russian oligarch Gennady Timchenko also owns a significant share of Helsinki Halli, and his shares have already been arrested.

Read also: Russias financial sector takes significant hit from Western sanctions

Helsinki has also frozen the accounts of the local division of Moscow-based tech firm Yandex, one of the founders of which, Arkady Volozh, has run afoul of EU sanctions. The company operates the Yango taxi service and a data center in Mantsala.

The arrest means that the property cannot be sold or pledged without the permission of a bailiff.

Read also: EU ministers to impose new sanctions on Russia and in-crease arms supplies to Ukraine

It is worth noting that Rotenberg brothers had used a loophole in British law to circumvent sanctions. The Rotenbergs created a type of company that is not required by law to identify its true owners.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
By Essi Lehto

VAALIMAA, Finland (Reuters) -When 27-year-old Nikita watched Russian President Vladimir Putin announce a military mobilisation while visiting his uncle in St Petersburg, he decided to leave his homeland.

Two days later, he was crossing the border into Finland.

"It is just insane. All my friends (are) in danger," said the sound engineer, minutes after stepping into the Nordic country.

He had first fled Russia after the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine for Turkey and had go back for a brief visit to get some papers. He now plans to return to Turkey.

"It is just crazy. I am just for freedom, Russia (free) from Putin, democracy in Russia," he said, breaking into tears. He declined to give his last name.

Nikita was one of a dozen young men Reuters spoke to at the Vaalimaa border crossing in southeastern Finland, their number growing in the days since Putin announced the call-up of 300,000 military reservists.

They were travelling on tourist visas, but said they were either not coming back or were considering not to.

"I am leaving Russia," said Alexander, 21, who was going to France.

Traffic into Finland over its border with Russia was heavy on Friday. But the Finnish government, wary of becoming a major transit nation, plans to stop all Russians from entering on tourist visas within the coming days, Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told a news conference in New York.

"All tourist travel will be stopped," Haavisto said.

Exceptions may still apply on humanitarian grounds, but avoiding the military conscription was unlikely to constitute grounds for asylum, he said.

The Finnish border guard said the number of Russians who had entered the previous day was more than double the amount who arrived the week before.

About 7,000 people entered from Russia on Thursday, some 6,000 of them Russian, according to the border guards.

Max, a 21-year-old Russian student who declined to give his last name, said he was going to Finland to catch a flight to Germany to visit relatives.

Story continues

"Technically, I'm a student so I should not be afraid of being drafted but we have seen that things are changing very quickly so I assume there is a chance," he told Reuters. "I just wanted to be safe."

A Russian couple, 29-year-old Slava and 35-year-old Evgeniy, also left because of the uncertainty of being called up in the military at some point.

They had decided to leave the moment Putin announced the partial mobilisation on Wednesday, they said. They had left their dog Moby behind with friends. Their families cried when they left, they said.

"At the current stage, we are not in demand, but we do not know what is going to happen tomorrow," Slava told Reuters. "We don't support what is happening now. We don't want to be a part of it."

"It was a difficult decision (to leave). We have plans, we have careers. The best scenario is to go back. On the other hand, (saving our) life is essential."

Finnish land border crossings have remained among the few entry points into Europe for Russians after a string of countries shut both physical frontiers and their air space to Russian planes in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

At Vaalimaa, the busiest crossing point, cars lined up for up to 400 metres (440 yards) on Friday, a longer queue than the day before, a border official said.

"Compared to Friday last week, we have more traffic," Vaalimaa station deputy chief Elias Laine told Reuters. "We expect the traffic to remain busy over the weekend."

Those arriving by car or bus left their vehicles to have their paperwork checked before continuing on with their journeys. Border guards searched some vehicles.

Lines were also "longer than normal" at the second-biggest Nuijamaa crossing.

Finland opted to keep its frontier with Russia open following Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine although it has cut back the number of consular appointments available to Russian travellers seeking visas.

(Reporting by Essi Lehto in Vaalimaa and Anna Ringstrom in Stockholm; writing by Stine Jacobsen and Gwladys Fouche; editing by Terje Solsvik, Angus MacSwan and Jonathan Oatis)
(Reuters) - Pakistan's finance minister said on Friday the South Asian nation was seeking debt relief from bilateral creditors in the wake of devastating flooding but emphasised the government would not seek any relief from commercial banks or Eurobond creditor.

Pakistan's bonds had slumped to just half their face value throughout the day after the Financial Times said a United Nations development agency was urging the cash-strapped country to restructure its debt.

Devastating floods engulfed large swathes of Pakistan this month, killing more than 1,500 people and causing damage estimated at $30 billion, fanning fears that Pakistan would not meet its debts.

"Given the climate-induced disaster in Pakistan, we are seeking debt relief from bilateral Paris Club creditors," Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said in a Tweet. "We are neither seeking, nor do we need, any relief from commercial banks or Eurobond creditors."

A memorandum the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)is set to hand Pakistan's government this week says its creditors should consider debt relief in the wake of the floods, according to the Financial Times.

The memorandum further proposed debt restructuring or swaps, in which creditors would forego some repayments in exchange for Pakistan's agreement to invest in climate change-resilient infrastructure, the paper said.

Neither the foreign office in Islamabad or a UNDP spokesperson in Pakistan immediately responded to Reuters' request for comment on the memorandum. The country's finance and information ministers could also not be reached.

The bond market reaction on Friday strengthened fears of another default by Pakistan, hammering its international market government debt.

One of the main sovereign bonds due for repayment in 2024 slumped more than 10 cents to about 50 cents on the dollar, while another due in 2027 fell to about 45 cents..

Miftah Ismail had told a Reuters interview earlier this week that there was no chance of a credit default risk.

Story continues

The government needs to pay $1 billion on bonds maturing in December. It has interest payments worth around $0.6 billion for the 2022-23 fiscal year but the next full bond redemption is not until April 2024.

Miftah said in Friday's Tweet that the $1 billion bond would be paid on time and in full.

GRAPHIC - Pakistan's bonds show growing fears of debt crisis

https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/dwpkrxoyavm/Pasted%20image%201663936952091.png

DEBT RELIEF

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also appealed on Friday to rich nations for immediate debt relief, saying what had been done was commendable, but adding, "It's far from meeting our needs."

Sharif, who along with Ismail is in New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly, told Bloomberg TV that Pakistan had taken up the debt relief issue with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres and world leaders.

"We have spoken to European leaders and other leaders to help us in Paris club, to get us a moratorium," he said, referring to rich nation creditors.

Sharif and finance minister Ismail said they had also taken up the relief issue with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Ismail said the IMF has "almost agreed" to the request for easing the conditions of Pakistan's $7 billion programme that was resumed in July after being delayed for months.

"They've said almost yes," he told local Pakistani Dunya News TV in New York a day after Sharif met the IMF's managing director.

The IMF's representative in Islamabad didn't respond to a request for comment.

The country of 220 million would not be able to stand on its feet, Sharif added, "unless we get substantial relief".

He said Pakistan would also seek relief from long-time ally China, to which it owes about 30% of its external debt.

Both Pakistan's government and Guterres have blamed the flooding on climate change.

(Reporting by Asif Shahzad and Gibran Peshimam in Islamabad, Marc Jones in London, Jyoti Narayan in Bengaluru, and Charlotte Greenfield in Kabul; Writing by Gibran Peshimam; Editing by Sam Holmes, Clarence Fernandez, Susan Fenton and Diane Craft)
A Florida state lawmaker is suing Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials for orchestrating the transportation of migrants from Texas to Marthas Vineyard in Massachusetts.

State Sen. Jason Pizzo, a Democrat who represents the Miami-Dade area, claims in a new lawsuit that relocating migrants from another state using Florida funds is an illegitimate use of those funds and violates Florida laws. The lawsuit also requests a judge to stop such relocations.

"This is very clear and straightforward," Pizzo said during an interview, the Miami Herald reported. "The governor had legislators carry and pass bills that were designed to suit his agenda and that he subsequently signed into law. And even with that completely privileged position, he still cant comply with the law. He set the rules for the game and then he cant follow them."

The Florida legislature previously approved $12 million in the states transportation budget to relocating migrants who had entered Florida illegally. However, in the lawsuit, Pizzo, an attorney, argues DeSantis is not using those funds in the manner they were appropriated because he moved migrants who are not "unauthorized aliens" and who were not originally in Florida.

RON DESANTIS SENDS TWO PLANES OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TO MARTHA'S VINEYARD

The two planes of 48 Venezuelan migrants were flown from San Antonio to the ritzy Massachusetts island and only briefly landed in Florida.

Taryn Fenske, DeSantis communications director, dismissed the new 15-page lawsuit and said Pizzo was simply seeking his "15 minutes of fame."

"Senator Pizzo never misses an opportunity for his 15 minutes of fame and is challenging an action on an appropriation he voted for," Fenske told the outlet.

The lawsuit also names Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, the Florida Department of Transportation and Jared Perdue, the departments secretary.

In a statement to the paper, Patronis noted Pizzo voted to pass the initial $12 million appropriation bill and said DeSantis office was operating in compliance with it.

Story continues

Devin Galletta, communications director for the Florida Department of Financial Services, echoed this statement and also said his office was exploring options for a countersuit.

RON DESANTIS, OTHER FLORIDA OFFICIALS HIT WITH CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT BY MIGRANTS FLOWN TO MASSACHUSETTS

"Senator Pizzo, along with Minority Leader Lauren Book, voted for the $12 million appropriation to relocate migrants," Galletta wrote. "Now that the law that they voted for is being implemented, and shedding light on the border crisis, Pizzo and Book have gone to their same old handbook, and hired a Democratic operative attorney to go after the executive branch for following the law. We are in receipt of the filing and we are currently exploring options for sanction and/or countersuit measures."

The lawsuit comes after Lawyers for Civil Rights filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of the illegal immigrants flown to Marthas Vineyard.

The lawsuit alleges that DeSantis "designed and executed a premeditated, fraudulent, and illegal scheme centered on exploiting this vulnerability for the sole purpose of advancing their own personal, financial and political interests."

Gov. DeSantis spokesperson Taryn Fenske described the class action lawsuit as "political theater."

"If these activists spent even a fraction of this time and effort at the border, perhaps some accountability would be brought to the Biden Administrations reckless border policies that entice illegal immigrants to make dangerous and often lethal journeys through Central America and put their lives in the hands of cartels and Coyotes," Fenske said.

She added: "The immigrants were homeless, hungry, and abandoned  and these activists didnt care about them then. Floridas program gave them a fresh start in a sanctuary state and these individuals opted to take advantage of chartered flights to Massachusetts."

Some Democratic officials have also urged the federal government to investigate the transportation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Florida man is being charged in at least two Aquidneck Island communities with consuming food and drinks at restaurants and leaving without paying.

Middletown police in a press release Friday said they arrested a 58-year-old man from Palm Beach, Florida, and charged him with two counts of obtaining food with intent to defraud.

Additionally, the man has been charged with one count of obtaining food with intent to defraud by Portsmouth police.

Restaurant, retail and more: Here are the plans for the former Benny's in Middletown

According to police, the man went into Titos Cantina on West Main Road in Middletown on Sept. 15 and consumed food and drinks, then left the restaurant without paying. On Sept. 13, a man with a similar description went into Idas Restaurant on Valley Road in Middletown and consumed food and drinks before leaving without paying.

Police said the man admitted to investigators he did go to Idas and leave without paying. He also admitted to having had food and drinks at Fieldstones on East Main Road in Portsmouth on Sept. 15 and did not pay.

Local restaurants: Middletown police seek information from restaurants hit by alleged dining and dasher

In addition to the listed restaurants, other local restaurants have reported similar incidents involving a man with a description similar to the suspect. The investigation into the other restaurants is ongoing.

Anyone with additional information regarding these incidents is asked to contact Det. Adam Tobias at 401-846-1144, Ext. 7009.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Man allegedly not paying bills at Aquidneck Island restaurants charged
Milton resident Janis Jones' electricity bill more than tripled from $97 to $200 to $400 early this year.

Recently, her bill has started to come down, but after she spoke with Florida Power & Light a few weeks ago, the utility enrolled her in a new program to help keep her electricity bill low.

"When you've got grandkids and the power bill goes up that much in a month and they're used to saying, 'Mom, mom, can you go out the store and get this? Can you go to the store and get that?' and you say you can't because the power bill is so high, I mean it not only hurts them, it hurts you," Jones said.

Rising rates?: With more FPL rate increases on the horizon, customers are seeking answers and relief

Power bills a campaign issue: Charlie Crist stops in Pensacola, hits DeSantis and FPL on power rate increases

Florida Power & Light conducts an inspection at a home as part of its Community Energy Saver Program in Milton on Thursday.

On Thursday, Jones became one of the first homeowners in Northwest Florida to receive a "home makeover" as part of FPL's Community Energy Saver Program.

The Community Energy Saver Program offers homeowners upgrades to help lower their power and water bills, free of charge. Customers can also call Gulf Power to get personalized insight on how to reduce their energy consumption.

An FPL team helped Jones by installing weather stripping around her doors and windows, checking her air conditioning unit to clean and replace filters and replacing light fixtures with LED bulbs rather than incandescent or fluorescent ones. They also installed low-flow shower heads to help reduce her water bill.

External Affairs Manager Steve Rhodes, who assisted Jones in figuring out ways to lower her bills and usage, suggests residents be mindful of every degree that the temperature goes up or down in their home, because as power usage increases, so does cost.

He also suggested that customer invest in upgrades like heat pumps, an energy-efficient alternative to furnaces and air conditioners.

Larry Sanders with Honeywell inspects the heating and air conditioning system Thursday at Janis Jones' home as part of FPL's Community Energy Saver Program.

"It's not an inexpensive endeavor, but over the course of time, it's definitely a cost savings to run a heat pump over conventional heat," Rhodes said.

Story continues

FPL merged with Gulf Power in January and has experienced significant criticism from many residents and local governments regarding customers who have seen substantial increases in their power bills.

Sarah Gatewood, communications manager at Florida Power and Light FPL, has previously told the News Journal that FPL remains committed to making the cost of energy to its Northwest Florida customers more affordable over time and that the company "remain(s) committed to helping customers find ways to save energy and money on their electric bills, while connecting those in financial need with available resources."

Gatewood, speaking to the Community Energy Saver Program on Thursday, said even if residents don't want to take part on the program, FPL can still find ways to help them save money with low-cost upgrades.

"It's critical that we do what we can to help our customers manage their energy usage and identify ways to save, and so this is a great way to partner those together not only be able to talk to them about their usage patterns, but also some of those small things that they can do," Gatewood said.

If someone is not comfortable with crews in their home, they can call in and they can see where energy is being used the most in their home and get suggestions on lowering their costs.

Larry Sanders with Honeywell, right, goes over paperwork with Janis Jones after completing his inspection as part of FPL's Community Energy Saver Program at her home in Milton on Thursday.

Jones said she was thankful for the program and recommends it to others since it is helping her relieve the stress of figuring out how to pay her bills.

"People don't realize that if you live on a fixed income, you have to figure out, 'Am I going to be able to do this this month, or do that this month,' and it causes a lot of problems," Jones said.

People can call 855-801-6192 to schedule an appointment with the Community Energy Saver team to have free energy-saving products installed in their home.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Free FPL Community Energy Saver Program helps cut water, power bills
You are here: Arts

Chinese supermodel Lyu Yan's fashion brand COMME MOI kicked off the Spring/Summer 2023 Shanghai Fashion Week in Xintiandi on Thursday.

Performers from local Jazz bar JZ Club performed percussion music during the show.

The Spring/Summer 2023 Shanghai Fashion Show will last till September 30 and feature over 80 fashion brands.
A former Army reservist and avowed white supremacist has been sentenced to four years in prison for his actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

Timothy Louis Hale-Cusanelli was sentenced to 48 months in prison for a felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding and four related misdemeanors, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) release.

The misdemeanors are entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly or disruptive conduct in the building, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

An NPR analysis shortly after the insurrection found that nearly 1 in 5 people charged with crimes related to the riot at the time had some history in the military.

Court documents revealed that Hale-Cusanelli, a former Navy contractor who worked at a naval weapons station and had a secret security clearance, is an avowed white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer.

The DOJ release states that Hale-Cusanelli came to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 and joined a group of rioters who broke through a police line trying to secure the Capitol grounds. He told fellow rioters to advance on the Capitol and continued to order it after they went inside the building.

Once inside, he made harassing and derogatory statements toward the Capitol Police officers, telling them that a revolution was coming, according to the release. He stayed inside the building for about 40 minutes.

Hale-Cusanelli told a friend days after the insurrection that he was hoping for a civil war and that the tree of liberty must be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants, according to the DOJ.

He was arrested nine days after the riot and found guilty on May 27 of that year.

The court found during his sentencing that he obstructed justice when he made statements under oath and enhanced his sentence as a result. He will be placed on three years of supervised release after his prison sentence is complete and must also pay a $2,000 fine.

Story continues

Prosecutors said in a court filing that Hale-Cusanelli made antisemitic remarks while working at the naval station in New Jersey. Once Navy officer told prosecutors that Hale-Cusanelli spoke constantly about Jewish people and said Hitler should have finished the job.

He was reportedly known for having a Hitler mustache. He was demoted and discharged in October.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Former Scott County Coroner John Goble was sentenced to one year of home incarceration on Friday after pleading guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to defraud the United States government.

On top of his home incarceration, Goble was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. Goble will be on probation for two years following the incarceration period.

The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove.

The recommended sentence for Goble was between six and 12 months. Federal prosecutors were accepting of the option of home incarceration for Goble, who suffers from health issues.

Van Tatenhove reiterated the seriousness of the offenses committed by Goble during the hearing, even magnifying it given Gobles former status as a public official. However, Van Tatenhove also understood Gobles limitations due to health issues and felt a home incarceration sentence was appropriate.

Goble and Michael Crawford, a former Kentucky State Police trooper, have now both been convicted of conspiring together to secure weapons and nearly $40,000 worth of ammunition that belonged to the state police supply branch in Frankfort.

Stolen ammunition was stored in the basement of Gobles office, according to the indictment. Goble had an employee move the ammunition from the office basement to Gobles home in December 2017.

Goble and Crawford also met with another state trooper in 2017 to purchase other weapons that were designated surplus and sold by the state police, according to the indictment. The internal investigation showed Goble received three M1A rifles and 10 Remington shotguns which a state trooper illegally obtained from the state police, the indictment says.

Before being sentenced Friday, Goble wrote a letter to Van Tatenhove, saying he had been a law-abiding citizen for the majority of his life. Goble also mentioned his service in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1970 to 1972, his time with the Kentucky State Police from 1974 to 1992, his service as a city council member and his time as coroner.

Story continues

The criminal case in front of you, for which I am awaiting sentencing, came about due to an instance of extremely poor judgment, Goble wrote in his letter, which was filed into court records. I considered Colonel Michael Crawford an extremely close friend and would do anything for him or with him. I made decisions at that time on advice of friends that I know now were incorrect and illegal.

For this poor judgment and bad behavior, I am sincerely sorry. I apologize to you and the citizens of Kentucky for my misdeeds.

Several other people who worked with Goble in the marines, the state police force or the Scott County Coroners Office also submitted letters to Van Tatenhove to advocate for Goble.

Goble pleaded guilty to the conspiracy back in May. He also resigned as the Scott County coroner.

I conspired to possess ammunition owned by the Kentucky State Police over a four year period with two subjects, Goble said after pleading guilty. In doing so, I stored those weapons in my office, and I knew that it was wrong. I did this with a KSP trooper and a lieutenant, who I knew well. I did not hesitate to get access to this ammunition.

Crawford was convicted in federal court last month for his involvement in the same conspiracy. He will be sentenced on Dec. 13 and faces up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of a $250,000.

Former corner faces additional criminal charges

Earlier this month Goble pleaded guilty in Scott County Circuit Court for a charge of perjury after accepting a plea deal with prosecutors. The plea deal dropped charges of abuse of public trust, first-degree official misconduct, first-degree possession of a controlled substance, first-degree official misconduct and two counts of receiving stolen property.

Court records state Goble committed perjury in May 2018 when he testified under oath to a Scott County Circuit Court Grand Jury.

Court documents say he made a false statement that he used his daughters vehicle to transport donor eyes from the Kentucky Eye Bank to West Virginia when he actually unlawfully used a government vehicle belonging to the Scott County Fiscal Court.

Goble faces one year in prison for the perjury charge. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 3 at 9 a.m.

Reporter Taylor Six contributed to this report
PureWow

One of the most highly-anticipated films of 2022 was Blondea Netflix drama based on the Joyce Carol Oates novel of the same name, which tells a fictionalized version of Marilyn Monroe's life and stars Ana de Armas (Knives Out) in the lead role. And although the film met a mixed reception (including from PureWow) upon its release, it still managed to sit strong at the number-one spot on Netflix's most-watched movies list from the day it premiered. That was, until a new movie just overtook it. Th
Four former Georgia correctional officers were sentenced for their roles in beating a handcuffed inmate and then covering up the assault in 2018.

Officers at the Valdosta State Prison orchestrated an attack of an inmate "in retaliation for an earlier altercation between that inmate and a female officer at the prison," according to the Department of Justice.

Lt. Geary Staten, 31, Sgt. Patrick Sharpe, 30, and deputy correctional officers Brian Ford, 25, and Jamal Scott, 35, all participated in the scheme to assault the inmate and keep the attack secret from supervisors.

The U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

"These officers efforts to organize, execute, and then cover up a retaliatory assault on a handcuffed, compliant inmate are an egregious abuse of power," said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division. "These sentences make clear that no one is above the law, and that when officers violate the civil rights of people under their supervision  through violence or obstruction  they will be held accountable."

DEBBIE COLLIER MURDER: GEORGIA WOMAN REVEALED BLACK EYE AFTER 2020 FALL

U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

On Dec. 29, 2018, Sharpe told Ford and Scott to assault an inmate while he was handcuffed, according to a press release. After escorting the inmate outside, Scott and Ford "took the inmate to the ground and struck him multiple times in the body" in retaliation for an earlier altercation between that inmate and a female officer at the prison.

Staten helped cover up the assault, telling the officers not to file any report and not writing a report himself.

The incident wasnt the first time Sharpe assaulted a handcuffed inmate. He assaulted an inmate in September 2018, also in retaliation for an interaction with a female officer. Sharpe was sentenced for that assault on Wednesday as well.

Ford and Scott provide "substantial assistance" to the government during the investigation, and government attorneys requested lesser sentences for them for their cooperation.

Federal District Court Judge Hugh Lawson sentenced Sharpe to 48 months in prison; Staten to 14 months in prison; Scott to 12 months in prison; and Ford to 12 months and a day in prison for their respective roles.

The FBI and a local task-force-officer partner investigated the case.
Russian President Vladimir Putin. Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/AFP/Getty Images

A former NATO commander said he's not losing "a lot of sleep" over Putin's nuclear threats.

James Stavridis said using such action would "create a huge movement away from" Putin around the world.

Putin threatened nuclear force as he announced a partial military mobilization this week.

Retired Adm. James Stavridis, a former supreme allied commander of NATO, told MSNBC on Friday that he's not particularly concerned about Russian President Vladimir Putin's nuclear threats.

"I don't see Putin deciding to use a nuclear weapon," Stavridis said. "Bottom line: Putin is upping the ante," he added, "but I think the storm clouds are rising for Vladimir Putin."

As Putin announced plans for partial military mobilization earlier this week, taking immediate steps to begin calling up 300,000 reservists, the Russian leader threatened the use of nuclear force in the event of a "threat" to Russia's "territorial integrity."

"We will certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us. This is not a bluff," Putin said.

His recent remarks were not the first time since he launched his war in Ukraine that Putin has issued a warning pertaining to Russia's nuclear arsenal, which is the largest in the world. The US has repeatedly accused Putin of nuclear saber rattling.

"President Putin has made overt nuclear threats against Europe, in a reckless disregard for the responsibilities of the non-proliferation regime," President Joe Biden said of his Russian counterpart during a speech at the UN General Assembly this week..

"A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought," Biden said, decrying Russia for "making irresponsible nuclear threats."

Western officials and Russia watchers have repeatedly warned that Putin could decide to use a nuclear weapon if he feels backed into a corner in Ukraine, with some worrying that the likelihood of such a scenario has increased given Ukraine's recent capture of a significant chunk of territory previously held by the Russian army as part of a counteroffensive. The US has for months privately warned Russia there would be serious consequences if it employs a nuclear weapon, according to a Washington Post report.

Story continues

But Stavridis said he's not losing "a lot of sleep" over Putin's nuclear rhetoric.

The former NATO commander said the use of a nuclear weapon by the Russian leader would "create a huge movement away from him  dramatically  in world opinion."

In an op-ed for Bloomberg published this week, Stavridis said the "nuclear threat is a repetition of Putin's bluster from months ago."

"He is highly unlikely to use even a low-yield tactical nuclear weapon given the obvious threat of starting World War III and also the immense damage it would do in his efforts to keep Brazil, India, Nigeria, South Africa and other large nonaligned countries in neutrality," Stavridis wrote.

Stavridis also said that Putin's military mobilization and nuclear threats were moves that "smack of desperation," a point many other expert observers have also argued.

Ivo Daalder, a former US ambassador to NATO, expressed similar views in comments to Insider on Wednesday.

Putin is "acknowledging that the 'special military operation' isn't going well," Daalder said, adding that "any mobilization  partial or whole seven months into a war means you're losing, not winning."

And in reference to Putin's nuclear threat, Daalder asserted that "anyone who finds it necessary to say that he's not bluffing most likely is."

Read the original article on Business Insider
PANAMA CITY  For local officials, it's crucial to help cultivate a diverse economy.

This week, Bay County Commissioners voted to support three companies the Bay Economic Development Alliance is working with to bring to the area. All were approved to receive both funding from Triumph Gulf Coast, along with a 10-year property tax exemption, if they choose to expand to the area.

They also voted to support a fourth company that already has committed to expanding into Bay County.

Bay County: County lands 4 companies; EDA pursues 7 'hot projects' with potential for 2,200 jobs

Bay County Commissioners on Tuesday voted to support four companies the Bay Economic Development Alliance is working to bring to the area.

"It's just great to have a partner like (the EDA) that has worked and found industries that match up to what we have in Bay County, and fit with Bay County," Commissioner Doug Moore said. "If (these companies) are able to get in, get traction and do well, I think we will see scalable opportunities (that will create) more jobs, more shifts and be able to increase our workforce."

3 companies are not yet public

Three of the four companies discussed still are a work in progress for the EDA, so their names are not yet public. They instead are known by the codenames Project Ballistic, Project Blue Water and Project Tachyon.

According to the meeting's agenda, Project Ballistic is an advanced manufacturer that might create 300 jobs with a capital investment of $10.5 million. Project Blue Water is a marine manufacturer that might create 100 jobs with a capital investment of $11.5 million. Project Tachyon is an international advanced manufacturer that might create 209 jobs with a capital investment of $20 million.

The fourth company approved to receive tax exemptions and grant funding was Mocama Marine, which the EDA announced earlier this month. It will establish a boat manufacturing operation at the Old Bay County Industrial Park off Bay Line Drive.

Mocama Marine: Company to bring 105 jobs to Bay County with average salary over $50,000

The facility is scheduled to open at the beginning of 2023, and it will create 105 jobs with a capital investment of $10.5 million.

Story continues

Becca Hardin, president of the EDA, said incentives such as those approved by the commission Tuesday play a "critical" role in helping her group attract new companies to Bay County.

"That give us authority from the county to move forward with trying to push the projects over the finish line," Hardin said. "When we get to this point, it means that company representatives have already been in our community, they've looked at sites, they've met with our leadership ... and there's definite interest in our community.

"Now we have the greenlight to go forward in getting all of our proposals together to support making their decision to move to Bay County."

5 projects announced by EDA in 2022

The EDA, which works to diversify the economy so it does not solely rely on tourism, has announced five projects in 2022, meaning those companies have committed to expand to the area. They are:

Mocama Marine, which will establish a boat manufacturing operation at the Old Bay County Industrial Park off Bay Line Drive. The facility is scheduled to open at the beginning of 2023. It will create 105 jobs with a capital investment of $10.5 million. The project was announced earlier this month.

Southern Sky Aviation, an Alabama-based aircraft maintenance company that plans to build a fix-based operator  a terminal for private and corporate airplanes  at Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport. The facility is scheduled to open at the end of 2023. It will create about 30 jobs with a capital investment of about $20 million. The project was announced in June.

Resia, a Miami-based real estate company that develops, builds and manages multifamily communities. It plans to build a facility scheduled to open at the beginning of 2024 at the VentureCrossings Enterprise Centre. It will create about 200 jobs with a capital investment of $45 million. The project was announced in June.

Central Moloney, an Arkansas-based manufacture that distributes electrical transformers and their components. It hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony in June for its location at the VentureCrossings Enterprise Centre adjacent to Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport. It will create about 200 jobs with a capital investment of $25 million. The project was announced in February.

FedEx, which built regional distribution center at the Port of Panama City Distribution Center off U.S. 231. The center is scheduled to open at the beginning of 2023. It will create more than 200 jobs with a capital investment of $55 million. The project was announced in January.

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Bay County votes to support 10-year tax exemptions for four companies
FOX13 is learning more about an investigation into one of Memphis-Shelby County Schools deputy superintendents following employee complaints. This comes on the heels of the resignation of former Superintendent Joris Ray.

FOX13 has obtained an exclusive document that was said to be part of an email that was submitted Aug. 28 by an MSCS employee.

The 8-page letter highlights several complaints against Deputy Superintendent of Strategic Operations Dr. John Barker.

MORE: MSCS deputy superintendent placed on paid administrative leave

Although the correspondence has not been confirmed to be the document that caused the investigation, in the letter Barker is accused of intimidation and discrimination.

Back on Sept. 12, FOX13 learned that Barker had been placed on paid administrative leave due to an employee complaint pending review.

The letter was sent to Deputy Superintendent of Academics Dr. Angela Whitelaw, Cced to MSCS Chief Legal Attorney Kenneth Walker, MSCS School Board Chair Michelle McKissack and Co-Chair Althea Greene. The document also shows the employees signature at the end of the letter.

Barker is accused of extreme discrimination, intimidation and continuous attempts to undermine the employees leadership, productivity and mental health.

The letter goes on to say, I have experienced ongoing harassment, intimidation and discrimination by my direct supervisor Dr. John Barker, which has been exacerbated over the past few weeks.

The letter offers up specific examples: Dr. Barker makes me feel as though my voice does not matter and my thoughts are irrelevant as a black woman while taking close interest when white people offer comments and commentary. The document further shared multiple alleged examples and allegations of discrimination, including claims that Barker allegedly hired an employee with less experience.

MORE: Dr. Joris Ray steps down as Memphis-Shelby County Schools superintendent

He required that I type an offer letter that provided over $15,000 more than my salary. This employee had less experience and education than many black female members of the cabinet, yet paid more than many of us.

Story continues

The employee also alleged Barker hired a staff member at the top of the principal pay scale along with an additional $12,000-a-year stipend, alleging the staff member was allowed to skip the interview process, but still attained the job.

FOX13 reached out to board chair Michelle McKissack and co-chair Althea Greene; McKissack referred us to the district.

When we contacted the district, MSCS responded, We do not comment on pending investigations. In a previous comment, the district said it investigates all complaints lodged against employees. The complaints in the letter have not been confirmed by MSCS.

Download the FOX13 Memphis app to receive alerts from breaking news in your neighborhood.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Trending stories:
PARIS (Reuters) -France this week convened a meeting with partners including African nations, United Nations bodies and the European Union to urgently address the international food crisis resulting from the war in Ukraine, said the French Elysee presidential palace.

The meeting, held at the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, comes as President Emmanuel Macron this week urged neutral countries - many of which are in the global South - to side with Ukraine and the West.

"Tensions on the food market are more exacerbated than ever in the context of the war in Ukraine," the French presidency said in a statement, reiterating its warning of a global food crisis caused by the war.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which started in late February, impacted the market for fertilizers and crops, many of which are produced in Ukraine, and this in turn has led to a sharp rise in food prices.

Ukraine was unable to export most of its crops this year due to the war while energy-intensive fertiliser production was severely hit by soaring power prices across the globe.

"The EU recalled the existing exemptions on all agrifood products and the provision of additional guidelines to clarify the applicability of its sanction regime towards Russia," the Elysee said, adding it also planned to launch an emergency fertilizer purchase mechanism for Africa.

A meeting with chief executives of fertiliser-producing companies will be convened in Paris ahead of the next G20 Summit in mid-November to scale-up production as fast as possible, the Elysee also said.

"Finally, we call on gas producers throughout the world to take responsibility for limiting price increases and ensuring market transparency, which are essential to maintain fertilizer production capacity in all regions of the world," added the Elysee.

(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
Sep. 23SHORT GAP, W.Va.  Frankfort will look to avenge its loss to Northern last year on Friday night, and the Huskies will hope for a repeat.

Frankfort rolled into Accident with a 4-0 record in 2021, much like this year, but Northern stunned the unblemished Falcons with a 28-6 drubbing. The Huskies' superior line play, on both sides of the ball, proved to be the difference.

The battle along the line of scrimmage seems to be more even this time around. For two programs that showcase a lot of the same characteristics  power running, quality coaching and attention to detail  Friday's meeting could be one for the books.

At least one coach is hoping it isn't.

"I'm hoping it's similar to last year," Northern head coach Phil Carr said. "They came up here 4-0, we pulled away toward the end. Hopefully, it's that kind of game again.

"I do think they're a little better than they were last year. They score some points, we're going to have to be good defensively and score points ourselves to have a chance."

Frankfort owns an all-time 16-5 edge in the series; however, Northern has won 4 of 6. The Huskies' triumph last year ended a two-game winning streak by the Falcons in the head-to-head.

In one of the best two-week spans in program history, Northern defeated Frankfort and Keyser in consecutive weeks  both were ranked No. 1 in the WVSSAC Class AA point standings at the time.

This year, Frankfort again enters with a 4-0 record, having outscored its opposition 174-17 over that span. The Falcons, ranked No. 3 in the Area Top 5, have been dominant on both sides of the ball, averaging 372 yards of offense and limiting opponents to just 143.3.

With a chance at revenge, Frankfort head coach Kevin Whiteman and his team are chomping at the bit to prevent a repeat of last season.

"We're excited, Northern is always a big challenge for us," Whiteman said. "I can assure you they'll be ready to play. Phil does a wonderful job every year, as do his coaches, of getting their kids to play hard for all 48 minutes."

Story continues

The key for Frankfort is obvious: Get its talented backfield in space. Last week, the Falcons had five rushers eclipse 50 yards on the ground in Luke Robinette, Parker VanMeter, Tyrique Powell, Landen Kinser and Jacob Nething.

"They just physically beat us last year, they did a really good job," Whiteman said. "They put it to us. Our line this year, we're coming along. There's a few young ones in there, they're getting better each day."

"I think it's more even this year," Carr said of the line play. "They're better up front. We've been getting better, we're still young. Should be interesting to see how it's going to go. With the way they're scoring points, we're going to need to keep them off the field."

Frankfort has added more consistency in its passing attack, which could keep Northern honest.

Robinette and wide receiver John Anderson III have connected on big plays with regularity, as Anderson has hauled in seven passes for 309 yards  more than 44 yards per catch  and two TDs.

Robinette, meanwhile, has been efficient completing 13 of 22 passes for 375 yards, three scores and no interceptions.

Frankfort's running game is averaging 8.6 yards a carry, and its aerial attack yields 28.8 yards a completion. If Northern can't limit big plays, then it's going to be a long night for the Huskies on the road.

"You always want to have the ability to throw the ball and make big plays," Whiteman said. "The good thing is we have multiple weapons. We get the ball in four or five people's hands, and it makes it difficult to key on one guy."

In addition to the line of scrimmage, another area of concern for Frankfort is its lack of close-game experience. The Falcons' tightest game is a 28-0 rout at Washington two weeks ago.

Yet, Whiteman isn't too worried. Frankfort won a thriller over Keyser in overtime last year, downed favored Lincoln on the road in the playoffs and nearly won a thriller at Poca in the state quarterfinals.

The Falcons' seniors, namely Robinette, VanMeter, Anderson and Chase Snyder, won't back down from a challenge on Friday night.

"These kids I have, the older kids have played in big games. Overtime games, playoff games," Whiteman said. "If the game is close in the fourth quarter, I have total confidence in all the kids."

Northern, meanwhile, enters the matchup with a 2-1 record, having clubbed Pennsylvania schools Albert Gallatin and Mount Union in back-to-back contests after a loss to top-ranked Fort Hill to begin the season.

The Huskies impressed last week, pounding Mount Union to the tune of 515 yards and seven touchdowns. Kyle Broadwater and Ethan Sebold were unstoppable with performances in excess of 180 rushing yards, and Kellen Hinebaugh finished with 129 yards on the ground himself.

There's little doubt that Northern will present the toughest test Frankfort's defense has seen so far this season.

"We've kind of got three types of backs," Carr said. "Sebold is your power-fullback type back, though it's not like he's slow. He's more of your thunder. A lot of speed in Broadwater. Kellen is long-legged and glides a lot. All three can catch the ball out of the backfield."

Sebold in particular has impressed after having his junior season hampered by an injury he sustained against Moorefield. With Sebold struggling physically, Northern followed suit with three straight losses after a three-game winning streak.

In 2022, a healthy Sebold has rushed for 348 yards and three touchdowns on 46 carries. His 116 yards per game average through three contests ranks second in the area behind only Petersburg's Peyton Day (119.3).

Northern may have dominated Frankfort a season ago, but Carr knows the Huskies can't go in expecting the same.

"They're a good football team," he said. "There's a reason they're 4-0. We have to go in there with the same mindset we did last year. Coach Whiteman will have his kids ready to play. We've had a good week of practice, we just have to go out and play."

If Frankfort does come out on top, it will be the Falcons' first 5-0 start in two years when they finished 7-1 and were the No. 3 team entering the Class AA playoffs before being eliminated by the COVID map.

"We just know it's going to be a physical game," Whiteman said. "They play a similar game as us. We just know, when you play Northern, they're going to be well-coached and disciplined."

Alex Rychwalski is a sports reporter at the Cumberland Times-News. Follow him on Twitter @arychwal.
PARIS (AP)  Frances parliamentary speaker released the first public accounting of complaints to a special unit aimed at fighting sexual harassment and other misconduct, after several cases involving French lawmakers accused of abuse prompted public outrage.

Yael Braun-Pivet, the first female speaker of France's National Assembly, said on public radio France-Info on Thursday that 40 cases of inappropriate behavior in the legislature  including sexual or moral harassment  have been registered since January 2021.

The anti-harassment unit, set up in 2020, is part and parcel of gradual but growing efforts to tackle sexual and sexist abuse in French society. Independent and specialized medics and lawyers provide support to people working in Frances lower house, from lawmakers to deputy assistants or staff.

Under French law, if the situations that have been reported may constitute a crime, it must be reported to prosecutors. One case from last year went through that procedure, Braun-Pivet said.

Internal sanctions can also be imposed, she said, though she didn't specify what happened in each case.

It was important to have a special unit to handle these situations," she said, insisting that there is no code of silence around such abuse in Parliament, and urging victims to speak out.

The new figures were unveiled amid a scandal that has rocked the National Assemblys left-wing opposition: Prominent far-left legislator Adrien Quatennens recently acknowledged slapping his wife, and influential three-time presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon initially defended him.

Quatennens stepped down from his role as party coordinator; Melenchon came under criticism within their leftist camp for not upholding pledges to defend women's rights and fight sexist violence.

Another prominent figure of the left, lawmaker Julien Bayou was suspended from his role as co-president of the Greens party group at the National Assembly on Tuesday, after a former partner accused him of psychological abuse in a complaint to the party's anti-harassment unit. Bayou hasn't commented on the accusation, and the party will rule in the coming week about his future role. An internal investigation by the party is underway.

Story continues

Braun-Pivet stated that it was a lawmakers personal choice to resign if they are accused of wrongdoing, but the law doesnt force them to step down.

Former French minister Damien Abad had to step down from the government after being accused of rape by two women. The case helped galvanize a movement aimed at exposing sexual misconduct in French politics. Abad, also a member of parliament, denied the allegations. Prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation into the accusations.

Braun-Pivet spoke about her own experience at the National Assembly where she was first elected in 2017 and was the target of sexist behavior, including inappropriate remarks and small noises.

But she is hopeful that things will gradually change. She noted that women make up 37% of lawmakers in the National Assembly  down from 39% five years ago but up from 12% a generation ago  and five of the six vice presidents of the National Assembly are now women.

___

Sylvie Corbet contributed to this report.
China's economic landscape has been reshaped over the past decade. From higher incomes to carbon-conscious policies to wider opening-up, phenomenal progress has been achieved in the country.

China's gross domestic product (GDP) crossed the 100-trillion-yuan (about 14.33 trillion U.S. dollars) threshold in 2020, a new milestone for the world's second largest economy. The figure further expanded to over 114 trillion yuan in 2021, contributing over 30 percent to world economic growth.

Back in 2012, its GDP stood at around 53.86 trillion yuan, accounting for about 11.5 percent of the global total.

Sustained economic expansion has brought about encouraging improvements at home: people have more money in hand, and growth has been guided toward a path that features green development and high-level opening-up.

Better life for people

Hu Zucai, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that the country had made historic advances in people's quality of life over the past decade, with visible changes seen in various aspects.

In 2021, China declared the elimination of absolute poverty, having lifted nearly 100 million rural poor out of poverty over the previous eight years.

Supported by rapid growth, Chinese people have become more affluent. Official data showed that per capita disposable income in the country hit 35,128 yuan in 2021, more than double the level in 2012.

Higher incomes have shored up the rise of the middle-income group, with China now boasting over 400 million middle-income earners, compared with the 2010 level of over 100 million.

People's health has been made a policy priority. Over the past decade, the world's most populous country has continued to press ahead with medical and healthcare system reform, seeking to provide affordable and quality medical services for the public.

So far, China has managed several instances of centralized bulk-buying of drugs and high-value medical consumables, helping people slash a total of 300 billion yuan off their medical bills.

Pursuit of sustainability

In 2020, China announced that it will peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, a move that has won wide recognition in the international community.

Domestically, across-the-board improvements in the environment, as reflected in major air and water quality indicators, mirrored its consistent efforts to decarbonize the economy, tackle pollution and protect the natural ecosystem.

The low-carbon shift requires a higher share of renewables in energy structure. During the past 10 years, China has phased out coal used in heating in over 27 million rural households, while stepping up the development of installed renewable energy capacity. The country is top globally in its installed capacities of wind, photovoltaic, hydro and biomass power.

Aimed at spurring carbon-cutting endeavors, China launched a national carbon-trading market in July 2021, the world's largest in terms of the amount of greenhouse gas emissions covered.

Institutional innovation has also been achieved to protect and treasure the ecosystem. After introducing ecological "red lines" in 2017, China completed drawing up ecological conservation lines nationwide last year, demarcating no less than 25 percent of its land area for protection.

Thanks to its green drive, China has cut its carbon emission intensity by 34.4 percent over the past 10 years. Green has become a prominent color in economic and social development, said Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu.

Unwavering opening-up

Uncertain and volatile as the world has been over the past decade, China has remained committed to pursuing high-level opening-up, building itself into a land of opportunity, while engaging more deeply in the global economy.

China's trade in goods and services totaled 6.9 trillion U.S. dollars in 2021, expanding from 4.4 trillion U.S. dollars in 2012 and securing the top position globally for two consecutive years.

Also expanding is its "friend circle." While cementing economic ties with traditional trading partners, the country has actively explored emerging markets in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Africa and beyond.

As a popular destination for foreign investment, China has held its appeal over the past decade with faster institutional opening-up at home.

The country's negative list for foreign investment has been shortened for five consecutive years since 2017, and laws and regulations, including the Foreign Investment Law, were put into force to step up protection for foreign investors.

Even in the pandemic-battered year of 2021, foreign direct investment in the Chinese mainland, in actual use, surpassed 1 trillion yuan for the first time. It marked the country's first double-digit growth in nearly a decade.

On top of that, China has also been active in setting up platforms to facilitate trade. Despite disruptions caused by the pandemic, multiple expos have been hosted, including the China International Import Expo, the China International Fair for Trade in Services, and the China International Consumer Products Expo.

Building on these hard-won achievements over the past decade, the country has set goals for the new development stage, and is poised to pen new stories of economic success.

China will strive to make new strides in economic development, with measures to take new steps in reform and opening-up, achieve new progress in building an ecological civilization, and boost the wellbeing of people, among others, according to the country's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025).
DALEVILLE, Ind.  A major maker of salty snacks is investing in Daleville.

The town has been picked as the site for a 15,000 square-foot distribution center for Frito-Lay, set to be completed by March, according to Traci Lutton, vice president of Muncie-Delaware County Economic Development Alliance.

The center will employ 10 to 15 people when it is up and running, Lutton said. The site for the Frito-Lay distribution center is the property immediately north of Waffle House on Dale Harker Drive.

County growth: Taurus Tool moves moves to new, larger facility and plans expansion

Brad Bookout, director of economic development for Delaware County, said he and Lutton had worked with the contractor hired by Frito-Lay to develop distribution center sites. Daleville was a natural location for a center due to having two state highways, Ind. 67 and Ind. 32, as well as Interstate 69 in the town.

"The county is happy to see more investment in Daleville," he said, noting that the new building will be on the tax rolls providing income for local government.

Building:Mushrooming local construction during pandemic delivers much revenue for Delaware County

There were no incentives offered by the county for the distribution center.

Lutton said she did not have the amount of the investment available last week. The company erecting the new distribution center is Nelson Engineering of Sioux City, Nebraska.

She said that Frito-Lay was having another distribution center built in Rush County. The company has a distribution now nearby the Daleville site just west of Chesterfield at1148 Dilts St., Anderson.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Daleville the site of new distribution center for Frito-Lay
Whether youre bullish or bearish, web3-native or web3-naive, you have to admit nothing remains the same for long in the growing blockchain, crypto, NFT and web3 universe. And the entirety of the rapidly evolving space is under increasing scrutiny  both public and regulatory.

This constant change, combined with plenty of controversy, are just two reasons why were thrilled that Brett Harrison, president of FTX US; Mary-Catherine Lader, the COO at Uniswap Labs; and Cuy Sheffield, the VP and global head of crypto at Visa will join us for a panel discussion at TechCrunch Disrupt on October 1820 in San Francisco.

During a conversation called Structure, Regulation and Markets: The Road Ahead for Crypto Startups, well dig into how these leaders navigate constant product evolution, look at new opportunities the blockchain economy offers and get their take on the future of their respective markets.

Were curious about the big, key regulatory issues looming over all players in the web3 space  trading venues (FTX), traditional companies dipping a toe in the waters (Visa) and crypto-native companies (Uniswap). What are they currently facing, and on what points do they agree  or disagree? No matter their perspectives, it should make for quite a lively discussion.

Under Brett Harrisons tenure, FTX US has become the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S. by valuation. Prior to joining FTX US, Harrison served as head of semisystematic technology at Citadel Securities, where he managed technology for the firm's options, ETF, OTC and ADR trading globally.

Harrison spent the majority of his career at Jane Street Capital, where he led the firm's algorithmic trading system development. He previously worked at Headlands Technologies as a senior software developer. Harrison received his MS and BA in computer science from Harvard.

Mary-Catherine Lader is responsible for growth, ventures, strategy and operations at Uniswap Labs. Previously, as managing director at BlackRock, she served as COO of the firms digital wealth business and as head of its climate tech business, Aladdin Sustainability. Lader also led strategic fintech investments, including BlackRock's blockchain activities.

Story continues

Lader has been a fintech investor, founder and operator for more than a decade and began her career as an investment analyst with Goldman Sachs special situations group. She has a JD and an MBA from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School and a BA from Brown University.

Cuy Sheffield leads the global crypto product team within Visas product organization. He is also a fellow at the Visa Economic Empowerment Institute, a co-chair of the World Economic Forums Global Future Council on Cryptocurrencies and a member of the advisory group for the Digital Dollar Project. Before joining Visa, Sheffield worked on business development and partnerships for TrialPay, a fintech startup acquired by Visa in 2015.

Be sure to check out this interview with Mary-Catherine (MC) Lader in our Chain Reaction podcast.

TechCrunch Disrupt takes place on October 1820 in San Francisco. Buy your pass today and find out why Disrupt is the place where startups go to grow.

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TechCrunch Disrupt 2022? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

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RICHMOND, Ind. (AP)  The funeral procession Monday for an eastern Indiana police officer who died after being shot in the head during a traffic stop will follow U.S. 40 to Indianapolis, her department said.

The funeral for Officer Seara Burton, 28, will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at Richmond High School. Following the funeral, the procession will carry her body to Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, where she will be interred in a section dedicated to public safety heroes.

The procession will go from the high school on local streets to pause in front of the Richmond Police Department for Burton's final call, then continue under a Garrison Flag in Richmond before reaching U.S. 40 for the approximately 65-mile (105-kilometer) journey west to Indianapolis.

A public viewing will be held from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday at the Richmond Municipal Building.

The four-year veteran of the department in Richmond was critically wounded in the Aug. 10 shooting. She was moved to hospice care, two days after she was removed from life support on Sept. 1 at a hospital in Dayton, Ohio.

Prosecutors have charged Phillip Matthew Lee, 47, with three counts of attempted murder, three drug possession counts for methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin and possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon. He has pleaded not guilty.

Authorities have said officers stopped Lee and called Burton to assist with her police dog. The dog indicated the possible presence of narcotics. Court documents say that while officers were speaking with the rider, he pulled out a gun and opened fire toward the officers, shooting Burton. Other officers returned fire and he ran away. Lee was apprehended following a brief foot chase.

No other officers were shot.

Lee was treated for gunshot wounds, police said.
BERLIN (Reuters) - The leaders of the Group of Seven leading industrial democracies, condemned , saying it was an attempt by Moscow to create a "phony" pretext for changing the status of Ukrainian sovereign territory.

"We will never recognise these referenda which appear to be step toward Russian annexation and we will never recognise purported annexation if it occurs," they wrote in a joint statement sent by the German government spokesperson.

Russia launched referendums on Friday aimed at annexing four occupied regions of Ukraine, raising the stakes of the seven-month-old war in what Kyiv called a sham that saw residents threatened with punishment if they did not vote.

(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; Editing by Chris Reese)
By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) - A series of gaffes and controversies is overshadowing South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol's first major overseas tour, sending his ratings plunging and inviting scathing criticism from some lawmakers even within his own party.

This week, Yoon visited London for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth and then New York in his first U.S. trip to attend the U.N. General Assembly, before arriving in Canada on Thursday.

In the highest profile controversy, Yoon was caught cursing on a hot mic as he left an event in New York on Wednesday after a brief chat with U.S. President Joe Biden.

"What an embarrassment ... if these bastards refuse to approve it in parliament," Yoon told Foreign Minister Park Jin in a video aired by South Korean broadcasters, which went viral on social media.

Opposition lawmakers accused Yoon of insulting Biden and disgracing South Korea as media initially reported Yoon was saying Biden would be embarrassed if the U.S. Congress did not pass a bill relating to funding of a global initiative.

His press secretary, Kim Eun-hye, dismissed the accusation, saying Yoon was referring to the South Korean parliament without mentioning Biden.

Reuters could not independently verify what exactly Yoon said.

Yoon's crude comments prompted criticism from some members of his own party, with its floor leader calling it "greatly regrettable."

Officials had hoped the trip would be a chance to show Yoon's vision for what they called a "global pivotal state," deterring North Korea's weapons tests and address other pressing issues including U.S. subsidies for electric vehicles.

Opposition lawmakers also accused Yoon of "demeaning national prestige" by failing to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth on his first day in London, for which his office blamed heavy traffic. Traffic was tightly controlled in London as mourners queued for miles to see the queen's coffin, and some high-level guests including French President Emmanuel Macron arrived there on foot.

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They also criticised Yoon for failing to hold proper summits with Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, describing his trip as a "diplomatic disaster."

Yoon and Biden had planned informal talks in New York, but ended up having just a 48-second chat at the Global Fund. Yoon's office said that was a "Plan B" due to changes in Biden's schedule, and said they also met in London when Yoon raised the EV subsidies issue.

Earlier, controversy erupted after Japanese media reported Kishida had considered cancelling a meeting with Yoon.

An official at Yoon's office said there was a "disparity in opinions" over the timing of the announcement of the talks and Tokyo seemed "cautious" as both sides explore ways to improve strained ties.

The diplomatic controveries could make it more difficult for Yoon to win the support of the opposition that holds a majority in parliament to pass legislation or boost his policy drive and

have helped cut short his voter honeymoon after his May election win. Yoon's his approval ratings fell to 28% in a survey by Gallup released on Friday from last week's 33%.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
ABC News

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, a member of Republican leadership in the upper chamber, said Sunday that he does not "condone violence" after Donald Trump lashed out at Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell and suggested McConnell had a "death wish"-- but Scott stopped short of condemning the former president. Trump, in a post on his Truth Social website last week, wrote that McConnell must have a "death wish" after supporting a continuing resolution to fund the federal government. Trump went on to criticize McConnell's wife in racist terms, writing that he should "seek help and advise [sic] from his China loving wife, Coco Chow!" Trump was referring to Elaine Chao, who is Taiwanese.
Georgia is offering a free fishing day for National Hunting and Fishing Day.

Saturday, September 24 is National Hunting and Fishing Day in Georgia and the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation Take Me Fishing program wants to celebrate with a day full of fun, free events for the family.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

The U.S. Congress and President Nixon established National Hunting and Fishing Day in 1972 to recognize generations of hunters and anglers for the time and money they donate to wildlife conservation programs.

Georgia offers 3 Free Fishing Days in honor of National Fishing and Boating Week and National Hunting and Fishing Day on June 4, June 11, and September 24, 2022.

On these days, residents do not need a fishing license or a trout license to fish on any public waters in the state including lakes, streams, ponds and public fishing areas

TRENDING STORIES:

In celebration of this day, organizers of this event encourage you to take someone outside and introduce them to hunting, hiking, birdwatching, fishing or another outdoor activity.

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IN OTHER NEWS:
By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said his office was replacing some election equipment in a south Georgia county where former officials allegedly allowed unauthorized access to allies of former President Donald Trump in the weeks after the 2020 election.

The step comes after video surveillance footage made public recently showed outsiders accessing Coffee County voting machines and copying sensitive software and data.

The Washington Post has reported that forensics experts working last year for pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell copied virtually every component of the voting system. Powell alleged voter fraud after the 2020 election, but federal and local investigations showed otherwise.

"To allay the fears being stoked by perennial election deniers and conspiracy theorists, we're replacing Coffee County's election machines," Raffensperger said in a statement on Friday, adding that the probe into the former officials who allowed the unauthorized access would continue.

Related video: Computer experts urged Georgia to replace voting machines

"But the current election officials in Coffee County have to move forward with the 2022 election, and they should be able to do so without this distraction," he said.

Separately in Georgia, a grand jury in the Fulton County is probing efforts by Trump to overturn the former president's 2020 election defeat.

Trump has falsely claimed that rampant voter fraud caused his loss in Georgia, a battleground state where President Joe Biden's victory helped propel him to the White House.

The special grand jury in Fulton County is undertaking a criminal investigation into alleged wrongdoing. Trump was recorded in a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call pressuring Raffensperger to "find" enough votes to overturn his loss to Biden in the state.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing. The grand jury had also subpoenaed Trump allies and members of his former legal team.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell)
North Georgia sheriffs deputies have arrested a woman after they say they found 30,000 Xanax pills in the mail.

Lumpkin County deputies say a mail package was intercepted on Thursday. When investigators opened it, they found 30,000 Alprazolam, better known as Xanax, prescription pills.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

While serving a search warrant at a home off of White Oak Lane, deputies say they also found several other prescription pills and guns.

Lorraine Sharp, 57, of was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance with the intent to distribute.

TRENDING STORIES:

Sharp is currently being held in the Lumpkin County Jail.

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IN OTHER NEWS:
You are here: Business

The seventh China-Eurasia Expo concluded on Thursday in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, reporting fruitful cooperation outcomes, according to its organizer.



The expo gathered 864 enterprises from home and abroad at its offline events, with 3,597 companies from 32 countries and regions participating online, Sun Hongmei, vice chairperson of the Xinjiang regional government, said at a news briefing.

Sideline events including three performances were organized online to further people-to-people exchanges between China and other Eurasian countries.

The expo's online platform will continue to provide free services for registered businesses to hold investment and promotion activities for a year, Sun said.
Geron Tate agreed to pay back $1,572,386.21 to Medicaid and faces up to eight years in prison when sentenced on Nov. 2.

Geron Tate has agreed to pay nearly $1.6 million to the Ohio Department of Medicaid as part of his guilty plea.

The prominent leader in Mansfield's Black community pleaded guilty Wednesday in a Medicaid-related theft case involving more than $900,000. The News Journal obtained a copy of his plea form.

Tate, 66, agreed to pay back $1,572,386.21 to Medicaid. He pleaded guilty to aggravated theft, a second-degree felony, and Medicaid fraud, a third-degree felony.

In the plea form, Tate said he knows there is a presumption of a prison sentence for the second-degree felony. According to the form, the counts would merge for sentencing purposes, meaning Tate could receive up to an eight-year sentence.

He will be sentenced Nov. 2 in Richland County Common Pleas Court by Judge Brent Robinson.

Tate is the former president and CEO of Mansfield UMADAOP, which stands for Urban Minority Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Outreach Program. UMADAOP offers a path to drug and alcohol abuse recovery through individualized treatment plans, as well as prevention services.

Current executive editor: UMADAOP not involved in charges

Dennis Baker, the current executive director, said Tate has not been with the local agency since 2007.

"UMADAOP has nothing to do with these charges," Baker said. "The charges that are being referenced are on him."

The time frame for both offenses was June 30, 2015, to July 22, 2021.

In the aggravated theft count, Tate "with purpose to deprive the owner of property, to wit: funds from the Ohio Department of Medicaid Benefits Program, did knowingly obtain or exert control over the property by deception." The value of the property was more than $750,000.

In the Medicaid fraud count, Tate submitted false claims to the Ohio Department of Medicaid Benefits Program. The value of that property was more than $150,000.

He pleaded guilty to a bill of information, meaning his case would not be presented to a grand jury for consideration.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Tate is president and CEO of G. Tate and Associates, an outpatient drug and alcohol treatment organization.

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The case is being handled by the health care fraud section of the Ohio Attorney General's office, which did not respond to a News Journal request for more information.

Columbus attorney John Waddy, who is representing Tate, declined comment.

Tate is a former president of local NAACP

Tate served as president of the local branch of the NAACP for two years, from 2016 to 2018. He also is a life member of the NAACP, joining in 2013.

He grew up in Mansfield and attended Mansfield City Schools. Tate graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a bachelor's degree in political science and from the Methodist Theological School in Ohio with a master's degree in counseling.

Tate most recently was in the news when the city announced the Ocie Hill Neighborhood Center would close. He was a prominent critic, calling the decision a "terrible idea" because of the services Ocie Hill provides for the community.

mcaudill@gannett.com

419-521-7219

Twitter: @MNJCaudill

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Prominent member of Mansfield's Black community to make restitution
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect how Savannah Police's body-worn cameras record audio and video.

The long simmering animosity between two Savannah City Council members turned ugly earlier this month, as Alderman Kurtis Purtee and Alderwoman Kesha Gibson-Carter traded vulgar insults in an exchange outside council chambers.

Purtee called Gibson-Carter a "ghetto b****" in response to her accusing him of being a "child predator and a pedophile." Purtee is a white, openly gay man while Gibson-Carter is a Black woman.

The argument took place following the Sept. 8 council meeting and was recorded on a body camera worn by a Savannah Police officer who witnessed the argument. The body camera footage was obtained using the Georgia Open Records Act.

Warning: The video below includes vulgar language that readers may find offensive.

Previously: Kesha Gibson-Carter reprimanded for calling fellow Savannah council member racist

Past incidents: Savannah City Council spars as Kesha Gibson-Carter removed as chair over calling peer 'racist'

More on Gibson-Carter: Savannah Alderwoman Kesha Gibson-Carter not inclined to participate in city manager search

Purtee admitted using the "ghetto b*****" slur in a telephone interview earlier this week. Contacted about the incident Thursday, Gibson-Carter shared a complaint letter she sent to Georgia Southern University President Kyle Marrero, which listed her grievances with Purtee, a GSU police captain.

Purtee and Gibson-Carter have an acrimonious history, with Purtee twice filing ethics complaints against Gibson-Carter. He frequently tells her to "shut up" during tense council meeting moments.

Alderman Kurtis Purtee gives testimony at the Ethics Board meeting to hear the complaints with Alderwoman Kesha Gibson-Carter.

Contacted for comment on the name calling incident, Gibson-Carter responded with an email that read in part, "It is unfortunate that I continue to have to respond to issues related to attacks against my person. I would rather use space in your paper to address the most pressing issues facing our community; like rising crime, poverty, forced displacement, homelessness and property taxes. Instead, I am continually attacked on council and the attacks are usually ignored by the mayor and the media."

Story continues

What prompted the argument?

Following the Sept. 8 meeting, Gibson-Carter was talking to a constituent outside council chambers. Purtee says he approached the two to add to the conversation, and Gibson-Carter sent him away, calling him boy, which he said he found offensive.

The constituent "expressed that she was not interested in speaking to him. I then asked him to not say anything to her, as she was upset with him and staff," Gibson-Carter said via email.

Purtee says he then proceeded to call Gibson-Carter a ghetto b****."

Kesha Gibson-Carter

Purtee said the constituent Gibson-Carter was speaking with was one of his District 5 residents. According to Purtee, the constituent had come to address a property concern but was denied because the matter was not on the meeting agenda. Purtee said he was familiar with the property and a planned project for the site and wanted to share information.

Purtee said Gibson-Carter confronted him, called him boy twice, and told him to go somewhere else." She then made comments about him being a "child predator and a pedophile."

The way she was dismissive and called me boy twice, when I went out there to try to help talk to this lady, that kind of, that kind of threw me off, Purtee said. And then for her to call me a child predator and a pedophile, that pissed me off right there.

Kurtis Purtee

Gibson-Carter said Purtee's "ghetto b****" comment was especially concerning, since Purtee is a police officer and trained in de-escalation.

"The use of the term 'ghetto' squarely renders the encounter racist. And as a female in leadership, I am not letting this go," Gibson-Carter said in her email. "Kurtis Purtee works at a university with Black people and women. He carries a badge and gun plus has arrest powers. This is a dangerous power for someone who has a disdain of women and African-Americans."

Purtee said he had to call upon his de-escalation training during the interaction, noting, "I had to center myself there for a minute because I thought, here we go."

What does the body cam video show?

The aftermath of the incident was captured on the police officer's body camera. The first few seconds are muted, but the footage shows Purtee talking to Gibson-Carter outside council chambers on the second floor of City Hall, with the officer standing between them.

When an officer activates their body-worn camera, the exported video starts at 30 seconds before they press the button. But the audio does not become available until the time of activation, 30 seconds later. Consequently, when the audio recording commences is not a decision made by an officer: its just how Savannah police's Axon cameras work.

And so, the audio of the bodycam footage comes in around the 30-second mark. The first words heard are Purtee saying, "She treats employees like s*** all the time. I'll be happy when she's gone."

Gibson-Carter, holding her phone in a filming position, tells Purtee "let's go live." Gibson-Carter frequently hosts livestreams on her Facebook page. Purtee then walks away and Gibson-Carter says, "Yeah, that's what I thought."

The aftermath of a Sept. 8 interaction between Savannah council members Kurtis Purtee and Kesha Gibson-Carter, in which Purtee calls her a 'ghetto b****.'

Gibson-Carter then points, phone in hand, toward someone off screen and says, "I guess that makes you one too, cause y'all look alike," before asking the officer if the interaction was recorded on the body camera.

"Did you get that on camera? Him calling me a ghetto b****? Did you get that?" Gibson-Carter says, telling another person outside of the camera's field of view, "He called me a ghetto b****."

The recording also shows Assistant City Manager Heath Lloyd talking to the woman whose concerns both Gibson-Carter and Purtee were trying to address.

More: Alderwoman Kesha Gibson-Carter accused of vulgar profanity, misinformation to the public in ethics complaint by Savannah council member

More: Ethics board: Savannah alderwoman violated ethics ordinance

More: Savannah council accepts apology Alderwoman Gibson-Carter says she didn't make

Gibson-Carter then tells the officer recording the body camera footage, "You know what? I feel sorry for you. Just a real disappointment. Just a real disappointment, and I hate that things have to go to what they are. I really do."

"You know what he does on a daily basis. And it's unfortunate that you have this job," Gibson-Carter says, still directed towards the city hall police officer.

At-Large Alderwomen Alicia Miller Blakely and Kesha Gibson Carter look on as Savannah City Council discusses the details of the city's Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Attorney's Office at Thursday's City Council meeting. Both Blakely and Carter voted against the measure.

What is the history between the two council members?

The current council's term has been marked by similar turbulence. In December 2021, City Council voted to reprimand Gibson-Carter by a 6-3 vote after calling Alderman Nick Palumbo racist earlier that month.

In January 2022, Purtee brought forward an agenda item calling for the reconsideration of city council officers in response to the incident between Palumbo and Gibson-Carter. At the time, Gibson-Carter was serving as chair of council, a position she was selected to hold during the first council meeting of 2020.

Purtee's motion passed, and Gibson-Carter was stripped of her council chairwoman title.

In August 2020, four members of council, including Purtee, filed an ethics complaint against Gibson-Carter stemming from a closed session regarding the search for a city manager.

Alderwoman Kesha Gibson-Carter speaks to the media in 2020 about an ethics complaints filed against her.

In his complaint, Purtee stated a number of ethical issues including that Gibson-Carter has used vulgar profanity toward council members in closed sessions, had physically threatened another council member, made public allegations of unethical practices at city hall without evidence, conveyed misinformation to the public, spoke verbally aggressive and bullied other members of council and the mayor, badgered the city manager search recruiter, and refused to be part of the city manager hiring process.

A three-member ethics board found Gibson-Carter had violated the citys ethics code in a hearing on on Oct. 29, 2020.

Will Peebles is the City Council and County Commission reporter for Savannah Morning News, covering local Savannah and Chatham County decisions. He can be reached at wpeebles@savannahnow.com or on Twitter @willpeeblesSMN

Drew Favakeh is the public safety reporter for Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at AFavakeh@savannahnow.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah alderman directs derogatory slur toward fellow council member
By Joseph White and David Shepardson

TOLEDO, Ohio/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - General Motors Co said on Friday it will invest $760 million at its Toledo, Ohio factory to build drive units for electric trucks, the automaker's first U.S. powertrain facility repurposed for EV-related production.

Th largest U.S. automaker currently builds GMs six-speed, eight-speed and 10-speed rear-wheel drive and nine-speed front-wheel drive transmissions in a variety of Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac at its 2.82-million square foot Toledo, Ohio, transmission plan that it has renamed Toledo Propulsion Systems.

Congress in August approved significant financial incentives for automakers to convert plants producing parts for gasoline-pore vehicles to electric models.

An auto trade group noted the bill sets aside "more than $15.5 billion in incentives and grants to ensure the United States is building automotive supply chains and a globally competitive battery manufacturing platform."

"Once the plant is converted, it will produce GMs family of EV drive units, which convert electric power from the battery pack to mechanical motion at the wheels," GM said, adding the plant will produce transmission products while building drive units simultaneously during GMs EV transition.

The Toledo facility currently employs approximately 1,500 people. Many autoworkers have expressed concerns about the shift to EVs and if it would impact current auto employment.

GM executive vice president Gerald Johnson said GM is looking for ways to increase electric vehicle capacity beyond its current goal of being able to build 1 million EVs in North America by 2025.

But hitting that target "would be outstanding. To do better would be astronomical," Johnson said.

GM said last year it would increase its EV and autonomous vehicle investments from 2020 through 2025 to $35 billion, a 75% increase as it vows to stop selling gas-powered vehicles by 2035.

Story continues

GM and LG Energy Solution said last month they are considering a site in Indiana for a fourth U.S. battery cell manufacturing plant for the companies' Ultium joint venture expected to cost about $2.4 billion.

The U.S. Energy Department said in July said it plans to loan Ultium $2.5 billion to help finance construction of new lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing facilities.

Last week, GM said it would invest $491 million at its Marion, Indiana metal stamping operations to prepare the facility to produce a variety of steel and aluminum stamped parts for future products, including electric vehicles.

(Reporting by David Shepardson and Joseph White; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
GM Executive Vice President Gerald Johnson, left, shakes hands with Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and U.S. Representative Marcy Kaptur, over the new all-electric drive system to be built at the Toledo Propulsion Systems plant.

TOLEDO  Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur and U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown joined Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz, plant workers, General Motors and United Auto Workers officials Friday to announce a $760 million investment in Toledo's transmission plant.

Formerly known as GM Powertrain Toledo Transmission Operations, officials announced that the 2.8 million-square-foot Northwest Toledo manufacturer was renamed GM Toledo Propulsion Systems Facility, and will begin producing drive units for new, all electric vehicles as early as the fall of 2023. The new units will be produced simultaneously with internal combustion engine transmissions, said Gerald Johnson, executive vice president for Global Manufacturing and Sustainability at GM.

"Tomorrow's changing," said Johnson, who praised the efforts of the plant's UAW Local 14 workers and officials in motivating GM's large investment and sustained commitment to the plant and the Toledo community. Johnson noted that the plant had been a part of Toledo's history and economy for more than100 years and that the labors of those assembled were vital.

'Look for another 100 years'

"Let's look for another 100 years in the future," Johnson said. "Well done, Toledo."

Stepping up to the lectern, DeWine said the day's announcement was a testament to the skills of the factory's workers.

"What this announcement means today is that the work is going to continue," Dewine said. "Ohio workers will build the cars and trucks of the future."

Ray Curry, UAW president and director of the GM and Gaming Division, applauded the factory team and detailed that the new drive systems produced at the plant will initially be those used to power the company's all-electric Chevrolet and GMC pickup trucks.

Wayne Blanchard, UAW Region 2B director, said that the Toledo plant is the first of GM's manufacturing plants the company has invested in to begin producing the all-electric drive systems. He noted that GM had announced last week an investment of $491 million in its Marion metal stamping plant.

Story continues

'Three quarters of a billion dollars sounds even better'

'This is groundbreaking," Blanchard said. "Three quarters of a billion dollars sounds even better than a half billion, here in Toledo.

"This is your day," Blanchard told the assembled workers. "You deserve it. Keep up the good work."

Toledo Propulsion Systems worker Stefani Williams checks out an all-electric Hummer, after politicians, and GM and UAW officials made their presentation Friday.

Kapszukiewicz told the crowd that GM, being the largest auto manufacturer in the country and one of the 20 largest manufacturers, could have chosen to locate their investment in any part of the U.S. or abroad, but chose Toledo.

"They could have done this anywhere," the mayor said, but added, "Toledo has built America. They've chosen us to walk hand-in-hand with them into the future."

Kapszukiewicz said that the often juxtaposed concepts of job creation, environmental responsibility, high wages and sustainability can all be successfully brought together, to achieve what Toledo has.

"You never, ever bet against the American auto industry and GM union workers," Brown said when he addressed the audience, noting that government efforts on behalf of industry in the Midwest have begun to turn around the practice of shipping jobs overseas and closing domestic manufacturing facilities.

Burying the term 'Rust Belt'

"We're finally burying the term, 'Rust Belt,'" said Brown. "When you love this country, you fight for workers."

"I have heartfelt feelings for what's going on here," echoed Kaptur, who grew up in Toledo. "General Motors never gave up on Toledo and neither did the United Auto Workers.

"It makes me somewhat emotional," said Kaptur of the successes of those who persevered. "You're going to make it even greater in the years to come."

Al Auden keeps the plant running as officials announce GM's $760 million investment.

mmagnuson@gannett.com

419-332-2674

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: GM invests $760M in Toledo plant to build EV propulsion systems
Sep. 22On Oct. 8, Asleep at the Wheel will join the West Texas Symphony live in concert at the world-class Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center.

Asleep at the Wheel is scheduled to join the West Texas Symphony at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 8.

Tickets for Asleep at the Wheel range from $32 to $52, students are $8. Call 800-514-3849 or may be purchased online at WTXS.ORG.

A valued partnership, this is the third time the symphony will welcome the Texas legends to the stage. Both groups are celebrating milestone anniversaries  the symphony 60 years and Asleep at the Wheel 50 years. The symphony will accompany the band to perform many of their top hits.

Fifty years ago, Asleep at the Wheel's Ray Benson wrote in his journal that he wanted to form a band to bring the roots of American pop music into the present. It seemed like an ambitious goal for a 19-year-old, yet Benson has done exactly that  traversing the globe as an ambassador of Western swing music and introducing its irresistible sound to generation after generation. Although the lineup has changed countless times since its inception, Benson's mission has never wavered.

"I'm the reason it's still together, but the reason it's popular is because we've had the greatest singers and players," Benson stated in the press release. "When someone joins the band, I say, 'Learn everything that's ever been done, then put your own stamp on it.' I love to hear how they interpret what we do. I'm just a singer and a songwriter, and a pretty good guitar player, but my best talent is convincing people to jump on board and play this music."

Asleep at the Wheel has received 10 Grammy Awards and represents an important cornerstone of American roots music. Even though some of its members and audiences represent a new generation, the far-reaching appeal remains a testament to Benson's initial vision.

"How do you keep this music going?" Benson stated in the press release. "Well, you've got to have some young people. If young people aren't doing this, then we're just a museum  and I don't want to be a museum."

The West Texas Symphony is ranked by the League of American Orchestras as a metropolitan orchestra, and proudly holds the distinction of being one of the largest professional performing arts organizations in West Texas.
MILAN, Italy  Greece is working to ramp up its domestic drone industry, which has lagged behind other European countries, with the development of the locally made Archytas aircraft.

Officials presented the vertical-takeoff-and-landing drone for the first time at the International Exhibition of Thessaloniki earlier this month. The fixed-wing aircraft is a joint production between Hellenic Aerospace Industry and the Aristotle, Thessaly and Democritus universities. Representatives said the Archytas unveiling was meant to be the first in a line of upcoming products coming out of the partnership.

Billed as a multipurpose drone, Archytas is capable of operating in both rescue and military operations. According to information provided by Hellenic Aerospace Industry, it can provide situational awareness along the land and sea borders of Greece, monitor ground vehicles, accompany frigates, and detect unmanned marine vehicles moving at high speeds.

Nikos Koklas, director of research and design at Hellenic Aerospace Industry, told Defense News the drone was designed to perform these missions with minimal modifications, which can occur on the spot in the field. The aircrafts excellent surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities manifest a perfect fit for the protection of Greek territory and islands alike, he added.

The surveillance mission is of particular importance to Greece. Locked in a historic rivalry with Turkey, itself a drone powerhouse, the rhetoric between Athens and Ankara has sharpened recently. The two NATO members have been in disagreement for years over airspace and territorial claims in and above the Aegean Sea.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan implied earlier this month that his country could use military action against its neighbor, stating Turkey could come all of a sudden one night.

Depending on the selected payload, Koklas said, the Archytas can cover up to 300 kilometers (186 miles) at a cruise speed of 120 kph (75 mph) and can fly for four consecutive hours. While the UAV is designed to operate without armament, users can modify it to carry light weaponry  a maximum of 14 kilograms (31 pounds).

Story continues

Its vertical-takeoff-and-landing capability is provided by four electric propellers on the longitudinal beam, which links the wings to the negative-V tail. The system is further integrated with four struts to maximize flight durability by generating minimal drag. This allows the drone to reach very remote locations while also enabling it to land on the decks of large vessels without needing a runway, according to the manufacturer.

After unveiling the demonstrator prototype, an Archytas drone is to perform its first flight in late October 2022. The first preproduction system is expected to be integrated and manufactured by December 2023, with a first flight by March 2024. The first customers of the Archytas will be the Hellenic Armed Forces as well as other Greek civil protection agencies.

When asked about international interest in Archytas, Koklas stated that it had already sparked the attention of several other countries besides Greece, formulating an outstanding commercial prospect.
After suffering a heart attack at work, a 57-year-old employee at a security company in New York says he was discriminated against, and now the federal government is suing his employer for disability and age discrimination.

The lawsuit, filed on Thursday, Sept. 22, alleges an employee at Maximum Security NYC, a company based in Queens, New York, was subjected to discriminatory comments and actions following a heart attack at work in 2019, according to a news release.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a federal agency, filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York citing a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which protect employees from discrimination in the workplace based on disability and age.

A representative for Maximum Security Inc. declined to comment when reached by McClatchy News.

The man, who was employed as a fire life safety director, was allegedly told by his supervisor that, on account of his age and condition, he should retire, according to the release.

He was instructed to stop reporting to work in March 2020, purportedly due to lack of work during the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, the release said. However, five months later, the firm asked the man to resign, referencing his age and the desire to avoid another heart attack in the workplace. The man refused to quit and was subsequently fired, according to the release.

The COVID-19 pandemic made employees with disabilities and older employees particularly vulnerable to discrimination based on stereotypes about their ability to work, Jeffrey Burstein, regional attorney for the EEOCs New York District Office, said in the release. Those stereotypes are not a lawful basis for employment decisions.

The amount of age-related discrimination charges filed by workers over age 65 with the EEOC and employers doubled from 1990 to 2017, according to a 2019 study. Between 2010 and 2018, U.S. employers paid $810 million to settle age discrimination suits filed with the EEOC.

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In the lawsuit against Maximum Security, the EEOC is seeking relief with the purpose of remedying and preventing disability and age discrimination, according to the release.

IHOP manager told waitress she could take day off if she had sex with him, lawsuit says

Families sue SoCal Edison over Fairview fire that killed 2, destroyed dozens of structures

Elijah McClain died from ketamine injection, amended autopsy report says
The City of Hendersonvilles Wellness Committee will host its annual Turkey Trot 5k Thanksgiving morning on Nov. 24. This year marks the Turkey Trots 10th anniversary, alongside the City of Hendersonvilles 175th Anniversary, according to a news release from the city. The 5k is a run/walk event open to all ages, all fitness levels, and all family members.

The Hendersonville Turkey Trot starts at 8:30 a.m. at City Hall at Fifth Avenue East and King Street. The course travels through downtown and ends back at City Hall. Walkers and runners should plan to be off the course by 10:30 a.m. The event will take place rain or shine, sleet, or snow.

The entry fee is $13 which includes a short sleeve T-shirt. Event organizers have highlighted a different Hendersonville building with each years T-shirt design, increasing the number of turkeys each Thanksgiving. The 10th Anniversary shirt will be a throwback to the inaugural year.

Registrations received by Nov. 7 at 5 p.m. will be guaranteed their preferred T-shirt size. Volunteers are needed and will receive a free T-shirt.

Race packets may be picked up on Nov. 22 and 23 from 8 a.m.  5 p.m. in the City Hall lobby located at 160 Sixth Avenue East. Packets not picked up by 9 a.m. on race day will be redistributed.

The Turkey Trot is a non-sanctioned event. Costumes are encouraged. Four prizes will be awarded for those pre-registered: farthest traveled, first male, first female, and a mystery time prize.

Visit www.hendersonvillenc.gov/turkeytrot to register for the event as a participant or volunteer.

For more information, contact Lu Ann Welter at 828-233-3204 or at lwelter@hvlnc.gov.

This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Hendersonville's Turkey Trot 5K celebrating 10 years this Thanksgiving
Michael Cohen, right, President Donald Trump's former lawyer, walks past committee member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., center, during a break in Cohen's testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019. AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

New York AG Letitia James announced a $250 million lawsuit against Trump and his business this week.

But the investigation into his business practices was sparked at a 2019 Congressional hearing.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez grilled former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen about Trump's alleged fraud.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's probing questions at a congressional hearing more than three years ago bore legal fruit this week when New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a $250 million civil lawsuit against former President Donald Trump  and credited the Democratic lawmaker with sparking the investigation.

The New York attorney general's office announced Wednesday that it had asked federal prosecutors to investigate Trump's business practice regarding possible federal crimes.

The request comes on the heels of James filing a sprawling lawsuit against Trump, his three eldest children, and the Trump Organization, accusing the former president of inflating his net worth and claiming that his business artificially inflated or deflated asset values for tax purposes.

The announcement is the culmination of James' three-year probe into Trump and his New York business empire. But the story of Trump's most recent legal malady begins at a February 2019 congressional hearing  where a then-freshman lawmaker went toe-to-toe with a convicted criminal.

Just one month into her newfound role as a congresswoman, Ocasio-Cortez stole the show at a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing where Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and fixer, testified publicly against his one-time boss.

Ocasio-Cortez, who sent shockwaves through Washington, DC, the year prior after she unseated a longtime lawmaker in New York's Democratic primary, earned praise for her questions and follow-ups which prompted Cohen to make some enlightening revelations.

The New York congresswoman probed Cohen about whether Trump had ever provided inflated assets to an insurance company.

Story continues

Cohen, who was sentenced in 2018 to three years in prison after pleading guilty to charges in two separate investigations, confirmed that the then-president had offered up fraudulent asset information. Cohen also said several Trump Organization executives, including Allen Weisselberg, Ron Lieberman, and Matthew Calamari, were aware of such practices.

"And where would the committee find more information on this?" Ocasio-Cortez asked. "Do you think we need to review his financial statements and his tax returns in order to compare them?"

"Yes, and you'd find it at the Trump Org," Cohen replied.

The New York attorney general this week credited the 2019 exchange with prompting the probe.

"I will remind everyone that this investigation only started after Michael Cohen, the former lawyer, his former lawyer, testified before Congress and shed light on this misconduct," James said.

Trump responded to the New York AG's suit in a statement on Truth Social, accusing James of being a "failed AG" with a "lack of talent." A lawyer for Trump also released a statement, saying James' office is focused neither on "the facts nor the law" and is instead interested in advancing her "political agenda."

State prosecutors in the case are aiming to permanently ban the Trump family from doing business in New York after James said Wednesday that her office believes there is enough evidence in the civil suit to show that Trump and his organization violated federal criminal law.

It's the most recent legal trouble for Trump, who faces a slew of increasing legal troubles, including an FBI probe into how he handled classified materials.

Read the original article on Business Insider
PANAMA CITY BEACH  Residents will pay more for water and sewer rates next fiscal year.

The City Council on Thursday approved a 1% hike for water rates and a 4% hike for sewer rates that will go into effect Oct.1 at the start of the 2023 fiscal year. This means a household using a standard 6,000 gallons of water per month will pay 26 cents more each month for water and $1.19 more each month for sewer.

While the increases are not drastic, Mary Coburn, a member of the council, said she does not believe they are appropriate amid ongoing inflation. Coburn was the lone member who voted against the increases.

The City Council on Thursday approved a 1% hike for water rates and a 4% hike for sewer rates that will go into effect Oct.1 at the start of the 2023 fiscal year.

"I get it, the city has rising costs, but I feel that our citizens have just been bombarded between our electric bills, cost of food and cost of gas for our vehicles," Coburn said. "I just don't think they need another increase.

"I know the city needs the money, but I don't feel like the people need an increase. It's a Catch-22"

Aggressive budget: Panama City Beach's proposed 2023 utility budget is 85% larger, includes rate hikes

PCB Council: approves record $73 million general fund budget without cutting library funds

Even with the increases, Panama City Beach still will boast the lowest water and sewer rates in Bay County.

The rates were approved two weeks after officials voted Sept. 8 in favor of the city's $78.447 million utility budget for fiscal year 2023. This is about 85% more than the fiscal year 2022 budget of $42.417 million.

Breaking downs the costs

More than 80% of the budget comes from water and sewer fees paid by residents. The rest is funded by additional sources, including impact fees and grants to PCB. Of the total utility fund, about 55% will go to sewer expenses, 41% will go to water expenses and 4% will pay existing debts.

In the sewer portion, a staggering 77% will be spent on capital improvement projects, with 13% covering operating costs and 10% paying department employees.

In the water portion, 50% will be spent on capital improvement projects, with 39% covering operating costs and 11% paying department employees.

Story continues

Officials have said the 2023 budget increase was sparked by multiple upcoming capital improvement projects, many of which involve relocating water and sewer lines in areas slated for construction related to either the Front Beach Road Community Redevelopment Area Plan or the Florida Department of Transportation.

Along with three major segments of the CRA scheduled to break ground in 2023, FDOT plans to begin widening areas of Panama City Beach Parkway (Back Beach Road) from four to six lanes.

"Our staff has a lot of projects on their books that are slated to move forward to help us meet demand," Coburn said.

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Panama City Beach approves hikes for water, sewer rates in 2023
The land corridor through railroad has linked landlocked Afghanistan to China as the first freight train arrived in the border town of Hairatan in Afghanistan's northern Balkh province on Thursday.

"It is a milestone and a positive step towards boosting trade and economic relations between Afghanistan and the neighboring countries," Qudratullah Abu Hamza, governor of Balkh province said after receiving the freight in Hairatan.

Welcoming the opening of the land corridor as a significant step towards enhancing economic relations in the region, Hamza said Afghanistan is determined to develop economic relations with all countries in the region.

Carrying 12 containers, the freight train started its journey from the Kashgar city of China 12 days ago and crossed Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan before arriving in Afghanistan on Thursday morning.
The Biden administration eased some sanctions on Iran in an effort to help boost internet access for Iranian people amid protests.

Meanwhile, a new report found the largest online forum of the incel movement has seen an increase in calls for violence.

This is Hillicon Valley, detailing all you need to know about tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Send tips to The Hills Rebecca Klar and Ines Kagubare. Subscribe here.





Easing back restrictions

The Treasury Department announced exceptions to Iranian sanctions Friday to allow companies to provide more online services in the country after Irans government cut internet access for most of the country amid protests.

The guidance authorized tech companies to offer Iranian people with more options for secure, outside platforms and services, the department said in an announcement.

The update seeks to modernize the existing sanction exemptions for companies to provide internet access by adding exceptions for social media platforms, video conferencing services and cloud-based services.

With these changes, we are helping the Iranian people be better equipped to counter the governments efforts to surveil and censor them, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo said in a statement.



The department will continue issuing guidance to support the free flow of information in Iran in the coming weeks, Adeyemo added.



The update from the Biden administration comes after the Iranian government cut the internet for most of its citizens after the violent crackdown on peaceful protests in the country. The protests were spurred by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, in police custody.

Read more here.





Incel movement ramps up calls for violence

The largest online forum of the incel movement has seen an increase in calls for violence, according to a report released Friday.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate found a 59 percent increase in the use of terms and codewords related to acts of mass violence on the incel forum, after analyzing more than 1 million posts between January 2021 and July 2022.

Story continues

The term incel was created as a shorthand for involuntary celibate but has come to refer to a predominately male movement that promotes hatred and violence against women and other groups.



The incel movement has been linked to dozens of deaths, including a 2014 massacre in Isla Vista, Calif., that left six dead and 14 injured, the report noted.

Hateful and dehumanizing language is central to the movement, with 21 percent of all posts on the incel forum studied for Fridays report featuring misogynistic, racist and homophobic language.

Read more here.





AN EXTREME RISK

Former Twitter employee Anika Navaroli said the companys tolerance of former President Trump led her to take the extreme risk of testifying before the Jan. 6 Committee, according to an interview with The Washington Post.

I realize that by being who I am and doing what Im doing, Im opening myself and my family to extreme risk, Navaroli told the Post. Its terrifying. This has been one of the most isolating times of my life.

The Jan. 6 Committee revealed testimony in July from the previously unidentified whistleblower, who told the committee that for months she had been begging and anticipating and attempting to raise the reality that  if we made no intervention into what I saw occurring, then people were going to die.

On Jan. 5, I realized no intervention was coming and  and we were at the whims, at the mercy of a violent crowd that was locked and loaded, Navaroli testified.

Read more here.





BITS & PIECES

An op-ed to chew on: How the CHIPS and Science act can revolutionize US tech diversity

Notable links from around the web:

The Most Dominant Toxic Election Narratives Online (The New York Times / Cecilia Kang)

Outside audit says Facebook restricted Palestinian posts during Gaza war (The Washington Post / Elizabeth Dwoskin)

U.S. vs. China: The Race to Launch the Next Generation of Space Telescope (The Wall Street Journal)





 Lighter click: Friendly reminder





One more thing: Assessing crypto threats

The innovation office of the U.S. military is introducing an effort to assess cryptocurrency threats to national security and law enforcement, aiding authorities in preventing illegal uses of digital assets.

The program underway here involves mapping out the cryptocurrency universe in some detail, DARPA program manager Mark Flood told The Washington Post.

He continued: We just need to acknowledge that the financial sector may be a component of modern warfare going forward, and anything we can do to reinforce and protect the U.S. financial sector and our allies financial sectors is beneficial.

Read more here.





Thats it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hills Technology and Cybersecurity pages for the latest news and coverage. Well see you next week.





VIEW THE FULL EDITION HERE

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
There is a period in Exeters history that we do not like to talk about. We were once part of Massachusetts.

The English began arriving in Msquamscook in the early 1630s, confident that the region was open for the taking, having obtained patents from the English crown. Historian Charles Bell described the only other English habitations, Strawberry Bank and Dover, as, straggling, small and weak, being self-ruled, for as yet there was no general government in New Hampshire. The Europeans who composed the population had most of them come thither to better their worldly condition by fishery and trade, and with no purpose of a religious character.

Exeter Town Meeting  June 8, 1657  still under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the townsfolk agree to continue their contract with the Rev. Samuel Dudley. Exeter was part of Massachusetts from 1643-1680 and again from 1690-1692.

There were a few English families living at the falls of the Squamscott River, three headed by men named Thomas: Thomas Wiggin, Thomas Leavitt, and Thomas Wilson. The other known inhabitants were Ralph Hall and Edward Hilton.

The Reverend John Wheelwright had not intended to live in the wilds of New Hampshire. He arrived in America to live in Massachusetts Bay Colony along with his Puritan brethren. Caught up in a theological dispute, he was banished from the colony and trekked to the wilderness of New Hampshire, deciding to settle in Msquamscook in the early spring of 1638. There, probably with the help of Edward Colcord, who had some experience trading with the native Abenaki band, he negotiated some basic ground rules with the rightful owners of the area and gave the place the username of Exeter.

Historically Speaking: Dancing through the ages in Exeter

Most of the people who arrived with Wheelwright were his followers  estimated by Bell to be about ten families  from Massachusetts. Not all were banished, like Wheelwright, but this didnt deter them from their dislike of the bay colony. With no central government in New Hampshire, the Englishmen of Exeter decided they had better set to paper how they would govern. After a few drafts and a bit of squabbling about their relationship to God and King, they signed a document on July 4th, 1640, stating, Whereas a certen combination was made by us the brethren of the church of Exeter wth the rest of the Inhabitants, they would essentially govern themselves according to the Kings laws.

Story continues

They set up a town government with a ruler (Isaac Gross) and two officers. This system existed (indeed, still exists as our Select Board) throughout the following years.

All went well. They created common lands, divvied up the remaining land based on a mans social status and needs, and continued along. Rules were laid down to control cattle, swine, fishing rights and the rights accorded to the Squamscott natives. But with no New Hampshire governance, by 1643 the other towns in the province had aligned themselves with the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It just made sense. Legal matters could be dealt with in the organized MBC court system  and these were people who liked to litigate. With the objections of some members, in May of 1643 Exeter sent a petition to the Massachusetts General Court asking that Exeter be under their jurisdiction. Sure, replied the General Court, but you need to abide by our rules. No special conditions.

Historically Speaking: The battle for liquor in Exeter

We do not know what the Exeter delegation had asked for, maybe Starbucks instead of Dunks, but they backed down quickly and agreed to follow the power and might of the esteemed Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Small legal matters were attended to locally. Only the big cases were taken to court in Massachusetts. Puritan austerity prevailed; one husband had to face the court on charges that his wife was displaying excessive vanity by wearing a silk scarf. He defended her by saying she did not wear the scarf year-round. If she did weare her scarfe for pride she would be as proud in summer as she is in winter and in dry weather as in wet.

Behind the scenes, there was a custody battle over the ownership of New Hampshire.

The owner of the patent, John Mason, had died and it was not until 1650 that his grandson, Robert Tufton Mason, was able to reestablish his claim. The government in Britain had undergone civil turmoil but with the restoration of Charles II to the English throne, the question of just who owned New Hampshire began anew. A commission was sent to New England to determine where the boundaries where between New Hampshire and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. On January 1, 1680, New Hampshire, Exeter included, was again restored as a royal province. Bell estimates there were about three hundred inhabitants of Exeter at this point. However, the new royal governor, Edward Cranfield, was disliked universally. Bell describes him as, a needy, arbitrary and unscrupulous man. No doubt there were more colorful words used in the 1680s.

Cranfield was so disliked that a rebellion of sorts occurred in 1683 led by Edward Gove of Hampton. It was poorly planned (alcohol was involved) but it sent a strong message.

To dodge the land claims of Robert Mason, the town kept sparse records. Deeds were misplaced or sometimes the record books disappeared. Governor Cranfield was continually frustrated in his attempts to make money from the colony. Back in England, a new king, James II  a Catholic  gained the throne. Within a few years, he was succeeded by William III  a Protestant. In the shuffle, New England found itself without any royal governor. For two more years  1690-1692  Exeter was again part of Massachusetts. When things calmed down, Exeter, Hampton, Dover, and Portsmouth were finally settled as the Province of New Hampshire. We shall speak of this no more.

Barbara Rimkunas is the curator of the Exeter Historical Society. Support the Exeter Historical Society by becoming a member. Join online at www.exeterhistory.org.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Historically Speaking: Exeter under foreign rule
A former US Army reservist and alleged Nazi sympathiser has been sentenced to four years in prison for his role in last year's Capitol riots.

Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, 32, was a Navy contractor who held a government security clearance when he joined the storming of Congress in January 2021.

A jury convicted him in May on five counts, including a felony charge for obstruction of an official proceeding.

More than 900 people have been charged over their involvement in the attack.

Hale-Cusanelli, who was the seventh riot defendant to go on trial, is among a handful of accused who were on active duty in the military when he joined other Trump supporters in raiding Congress as it met to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Prosecutors said he openly espoused white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideologies, even sporting an Adolf Hitler-style moustache at work, and hoped for a second US civil war.

They added that, over the course of an internal Navy probe into Hale-Cusanelli, 34 of his colleagues said he held "extremist or radical views pertaining to the Jewish people, minorities and women".

One naval officer who was interviewed claimed to recall Hale-Cusanelli saying in an apparent reference to the Holocaust: "Hitler should have finished the job."

The accused took the stand in his own defence at trial, claiming that he "didn't know there was an actual building that was called the 'Capitol'".

"I feel like an idiot," he added.

But lawyers for the government said he was lying, pointing to conversations Hale-Cusanelli had had with his roommate in the days after the attack, in which he described breaching the complex as "exhilarating".

"Hale-Cusanelli is, at best, extremely tolerant of violence and death," prosecutors said. "What Hale-Cusanelli was doing on January 6 was not activism, it was the preamble to his civil war."

The defendant's case was spotlighted at a Trump rally earlier this month, at which his adoptive aunt Cynthia Hughes - who raises money on behalf of riot defendants - spoke.

Story continues

In a letter to support Hale-Cusanelli's defence, Ms Hughes wrote that he was not a violent person and does not have "a racist bone in his body".

At Thursday's sentencing, Judge Trevor McFadden slammed the defendant's testimony as a "risible lie" and an "obvious attempt" to avoid accountability.

Judge McFadden - a Trump appointee - added that Hale-Cusanelli's "racist and anti-Semitic motivation" had set him apart from other rioters.

Another 6 January defendant, Stephen Ayres, also learned his fate on Thursday.

Ayres, an ex-Trump supporter who testified this summer before the congressional committee investigating the attack, will serve 24 months on probation.
A Home Depot store in Northeast Philadelphia could soon become the home-improvement chains very first to unionize, giving yet another boost to an energized U.S. labor movement thats tackling the retail sector.

Vince Quiles, who works in the stores receiving department, filed a petition this week for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board. Quiles, 27, said he gathered more than 100 signed union cards from his orange apron-clad co-workers in a little more than a month.

Labor unions have made a number of breakthroughs at high-profile, historically non-union companies in recent months: Starbucks, Amazon, Trader Joes and REI. Quiles sees no reason why Home Depot shouldnt be next.

Were inspired by Starbucks and Amazon  let us be the catalyst at Home Depot, Quiles told HuffPost. I know the people in that building. ... They arent really being treated like they should [be], with the dignity and respect they deserve.

Quiles and his co-workers are calling their union Home Depot Workers United  an echo of recent successful campaigns like Starbucks Workers United and Trader Joes United. For now, the effort is not affiliated with an established union that would have staff and resources to devote to organizing.

People come in and bust their ass. They work really hard, and its been a struggle during the pandemic.Home Depot worker Vince Quiles

Quiles said he got some legal advice from a pro bono lawyer and did the card-gathering on his own. An NLRB employee in Philadelphia had to sit him down for about an hour and a half to explain the paperwork he would need to file and how the unionization process would work.

She was extremely helpful, said Quiles, who has been working at Home Depot for five years. I was flying by the seat of my pants.

Although union membership is hovering near a historic low, U.S. employers are contending with an organizing wave at the moment. The labor board saw a 58% increase in union election petitions in the first nine months of the 2022 fiscal year when compared to the same period the previous year. The tight labor market has shifted more bargaining power to workers, while the pandemic has undoubtedly altered the way many of them view their jobs.

Story continues

Quiles, the father of a 1-year-old, says many of his co-workers grew to feel unvalued.

I dont think were unique in this experience. I felt like the pandemic just highlighted the dynamic that we knew was there, but maybe people didnt want to acknowledge, he said. Who wants to acknowledge that people dont really respect you and all youre looked at is a means to an end?

Home Depot did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Quiles says he rounded up a little over 100 signed union cards in about a month. (Photo: via Associated Press)

Quiles says he rounded up a little over 100 signed union cards in about a month. (Photo: via Associated Press)

Forming the first retail union at a powerful corporation like Home Depot is an imposing task. (Although no Home Depot stores have a retail union yet, the Teamsters represent some of the companys drivers in Southern California.)

The company has a long history of resisting organizing efforts and subjecting workers to anti-union talking points. Quiles is an underdog by any measure: He acknowledged he has no formal organizing experience and that many co-workers who could be supportive are scared of how their employer will respond.

But the Amazon Labor Unions upset election victory at the JFK8 warehouse in New York City earlier this year made longshot organizing efforts seem more viable. Quiles said hes been in touch with the ALUs president, Chris Smalls, a former Amazon worker who was fired by the company after leading a protest over safety.

The two campaigns share at least one thing in common so far: In both instances, workers requested a union election before they secured a clear majority of support through union cards.

Workers only need signatures from 30% of the workplace for the labor board to greenlight an election. But typically, a union wants to have a supermajority onboard before filing under the assumption the company will unleash an anti-union campaign that peels off supporters. In the election, the union will need to win a majority of the votes cast to become the workers representative.

Labor unions have made a number of breakthroughs at high-profile, historically non-union companies in recent months: Starbucks, Amazon, Trader Joes and REI, among others.

The Home Depot store has an estimated 276 workers, and Quiles says he got cards from a little under 40%, meaning plenty more organizing work lies ahead. (The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported how many workers had signed.)

Quiles said he moved forward when he did because he wanted to demonstrate as soon as possible to skeptical co-workers that the campaign was real.

Once you all [journalists] started hitting me up and the corporate people came into the store, everyone was like, Holy shit, this is the real deal, he said.

A company in Home Depots situation would typically put together an aggressive counter-campaign as soon as possible. That might include what are known as captive audience meetings where either managers or outside consultants try to persuade workers to vote against the union. Supervisors also tend to pull workers off the floor for one-on-one conversations to gauge where they stand on the union and how they might be nudged into the no column.

Before an election can be scheduled, the labor board must certify that Home Depot Workers United rounded up a sufficient showing of interest through union cards. In the meantime, Quiles said the lawyer hes working with is training him and his co-workers on how to spot unfair labor practices in case Home Depot steps over legal lines to combat the organizing campaign.

Whether the union effort succeeds or fails, Quiles said he hopes it changes the job for the better.

People come in and bust their ass. They work really hard, and its been a struggle during the pandemic, he said. Whatever happens, [Home Depot is] going to take us seriously and theyre going to respect the people in that building more.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
Hong Kong has lost its crown as Asia's premier finance centre to Singapore in a global ranking list where New York and London maintained their number one and two spots.

Singapore jumped three places to third in the twice-a-year Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) which assesses 119 cities around the world and was published late Thursday.

Hong Kong has adhered to a version of China's strict zero-Covid rules throughout the pandemic, battering the economy and deepening a brain drain as rival business hubs reopen.

The city still mandates three days of hotel quarantine for all international arrivals while its border with the Chinese mainland is mostly closed.

In contrast, Singapore successfully shifted to endemicity earlier this year and has reopened without restrictions.

The city-state is hosting a slew of financial and business conferences in the coming months as well as a Formula 1 night race next week, while about four million people are expected to visit this year.

In a 600-word statement responding to the latest GFCI ranking, Hong Kong's government focused on the city scoring a higher points rating than the year before.

"We will continue to listen to views and be bold in taking forward reforms to consolidate and strengthen Hong Kong's capital market and our role as an international financial centre," the government said.

The statement did not mention the coronavirus or the ongoing pandemic controls.

San Francisco came in at number five in the survey, up two spots. Shanghai, which was shut down earlier this year under China's coronavirus controls, was number six followed by Los Angeles, Beijing and Shenzhen.

Paris took tenth spot, replacing Tokyo which fell to 16th place.

jta/dan
HONG KONG (Reuters) -Hong Kong will scrap its controversial COVID-19 hotel quarantine policy for all arrivals from Sept. 26, more than 2.5 years after it was first implemented, in a long-awaited move for many residents and businesses in the financial hub.

All international arrivals will be able to return home or to accommodation of their choice but will have to self-monitor for three days after entering the Chinese special administrative hub, the government said on Friday.

"We are aiming in one single direction of allowing people to come with more convenience and they are allowed to go about their activities with maximum possibilities," Chief Executive John Lee told a press briefing.

People will be allowed to go to work or school but will not be allowed to enter bars or restaurants for three days. A pre flight PCR test which was required for travellers to Hong Kong 48 hours before flying will be replaced by a Rapid Antigen Test.

The former British colony is a global outlier outside mainland China in imposing hotel quarantine for international arrivals, in line with the country's "dynamic zero" COVID strategy.

Business groups, diplomats and many residents have slammed the city's COVID-19 rules, saying they threaten Hong Kong's competitiveness and standing as a global financial centre.

All international arrivals currently spend three days in a self-paid hotel followed by four days of self-monitoring where they are allowed to move around the city. Hotel quarantine was as much as three weeks before being gradually eased earlier this year.

The rules have weighed on Hong Kong's economy since early 2020 and fuelled an exodus of both expats and local families that was kick-started by Beijing's efforts to exert control and limit freedoms. Some 113,000 people have left since mid 2021, according to government figures.

Scores of flights have stopped operating to and from Hong Kong, which used to be one of the world's busiest and most efficient airports.

Story continues

The city has lost its position as a global aviation hub due to China's zero-COVID policy, head of airlines group IATA said this week.

Hong Kong still bans public groups of more than four people and masks are mandatory for all, including children as young as two, who must also wear them during school.

DRINKING OK, NO EATING

Scores of events have been cancelled or postponed since 2020, although Hong Kong is planning to host a major finance conference and the international Rugby Sevens in November. Bankers have said quarantine-free travel is a precondition for attending the conference.

Both events have been widely seen as a bid to show that Hong Kong can resume business as usual.

Lee's comments come as the head of the city's Rugby Union announced on Friday that revellers at Sevens this year will be able to drink but eating food was still under discussion with the government.

Staff and media will need to wear protective equipment while spectators will need to wear masks unless drinking and scan their vaccine pass before entering the stadium, according to chief executive Robbie McRobbie.

"We don't believe these are significant barriers to enjoying a day out at the Sevens," said chief executive McRobbie, who said the stadium would have around 30,000 fans at 85% capacity under current government rules.

Any team with five or more positive coronavirus cases will have to withdraw from the tournament, McRobbie said.

HSBC and the city's flagship airline Cathay Pacific, are the two main sponsors of the Sevens.

Rival financial hub Singapore is hosting a slew of high-profile conferences this month that has seen business for hotels and restaurants boom, while Taiwan and Japan announced this week an easing of COVID-19 restrictions for international travellers set to take effect in October.

Hong Kong has reported more than 1.7 million COVID infections and 9,934 deaths since the pandemic began.

(Reporting by Farah Master, Twinnie Siu, Scott Murdoch and Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol was captured on a hot mic reportedly disparaging American lawmakers.

Yoon was overheard calling members of US Congress "idiots" in a now-viral clip.

The remarks were made after Yoon met with US President Joe Biden in New York City.

South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol was captured on a hot mic reportedly disparaging American lawmakers as "idiots" shortly after he met with US President Joe Biden in New York.

"It would be so humiliating for Biden if these idiots don't pass it in Congress," Yoon was heard telling aides in a now-viral clip, according to a translation by The Washington Post.

Yoon and Biden met Wednesday at the Global Fund's Seventh Replenishment Conference in New York City.

The South Korean president's remark was apparently in reference to Biden pledging $6 billion in funding to the Global Fund, an international organization that aims to defeat HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria.

The $6 billion in funding from the US would need approval from Congress.

South Korea's presidential office on Thursday said that Yoon's comments were not directed at the United States, according to The Post.

The news outlet reported that Yoon's spokeswoman said Yoon was actually speaking about South Korea's parliament and that he did not mention Biden's name, but a similar-sounding Korean word.

Michigan GOP Rep. Peter Meijer quipped about Yoon's apparent insults in a tweet, saying, "hey, only we get to say that."

Yoon is a political novice, having never held elected office before. His approval rating has plummeted since his inauguration in May.

The South Korean leader faced criticism last month for not meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as she visited his country. Yoon's office rejected the notion that he was deliberating snubbing the Speaker, and said he was on vacation.

That said, since entering office Yoon has moved to strengthen his country's alliance with the US  particularly when it comes to the issues like safeguarding global supply chains and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Story continues

As Biden visited South Korea in May, Yoon said, "Our two countries, in response to immediate global challenges, will pursue even closer coordination.

"The friendship and trust I have forged with President Biden today will pave the way for further reinforcing our bilateral partnership for a new era," he said. "Towards this goal, I hope our two countries will engage in frequent communication and close consultation with each other."

Read the original article on Business Insider
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol. Seong-Joon Cho/Bloomberg/Pool/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol was captured on a hot mic reportedly disparaging American lawmakers.

Yoon was overheard calling members of US Congress "idiots" in a now-viral clip.

The remarks were made after Yoon met with US President Joe Biden in New York City.

South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol was captured on a hot mic reportedly disparaging American lawmakers as "idiots" shortly after he met with US President Joe Biden in New York.

"It would be so humiliating for Biden if these idiots don't pass it in Congress," Yoon was heard telling aides in a now-viral clip, according to a translation by The Washington Post.

Yoon and Biden met Wednesday at the Global Fund's Seventh Replenishment Conference in New York City.

The South Korean president's remark was apparently in reference to Biden pledging $6 billion in funding to the Global Fund, an international organization that aims to defeat HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria.

Video: Why South Korea's coronavirus curve looks so different from the U.S.

The $6 billion in funding from the US would need approval from Congress.

South Korea's presidential office on Thursday said that Yoon's comments were not directed at the United States, according to The Post.

The news outlet reported that Yoon's spokeswoman said Yoon was actually speaking about South Korea's parliament and that he did not mention Biden's name, but a similar-sounding Korean word.

Michigan GOP Rep. Peter Meijer quipped about Yoon's apparent insults in a tweet, saying, "hey, only we get to say that."

Yoon is a political novice, having never held elected office before. His approval rating has plummeted since his inauguration in May.

The South Korean leader faced criticism last month for not meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as she visited his country. Yoon's office rejected the notion that he was deliberating snubbing the Speaker, and said he was on vacation.

Story continues

That said, since entering office Yoon has moved to strengthen his country's alliance with the US  particularly when it comes to the issues like safeguarding global supply chains and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

As Biden visited South Korea in May, Yoon said, "Our two countries, in response to immediate global challenges, will pursue even closer coordination.

"The friendship and trust I have forged with President Biden today will pave the way for further reinforcing our bilateral partnership for a new era," he said. "Towards this goal, I hope our two countries will engage in frequent communication and close consultation with each other."

Read the original article on Business Insider
A group of House Democrats on Friday called on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to condemn Florida, Texas and Arizona officials for their policy of shipping migrants north to Democratic-controlled jurisdictions.

The 27 House Democrats, led in a letter by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), asked Mayorkas to ensure that Department of Homeland Security officials take no part in aiding or abetting the GOP governors busing and flying asylum-seekers north.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including Customs and Border Protection, should play absolutely no role in advancing the inhumane stunts orchestrated by the governors of Texas, Arizona, and Florida, the lawmakers wrote.

Pressley was joined by Reps. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) and Jesus Garcia (D-Ill.) and Washington, D.C., Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) in leading the letter.

More than 10,000 migrants have been shipped north by GOP Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida, Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona, all three of whom are seen as potential presidential candidates in 2024 and beyond.

DeSantis and Abbott are also facing reelection campaigns; Abbott is running ahead of Democratic challenger Beto ORourke, but DeSantis is facing a tougher challenge than expected from former Rep. Charlie Crist (D).

The Democratic lawmakers compared the GOP governors policy of sending migrants to northern jurisdictions to the early 1960s Reverse Freedom Rides, a form of civil rights counterprotest used to attempt to portray Black Southerners as a burden.

The dishonest relocation programs are acts of gamesmanship rooted in racism and xenophobia. In 1962, southern White Citizen Councils started Reverse Freedom Rides to remove Black people from their states based on false promises. 60 years later, Governors Greg Abbott, Doug Ducey, and Ron DeSantis are using the same ploys to remove immigrants, wrote the lawmakers.

Story continues

They also underlined the health risks faced by migrants on long bus rides, after which many migrants have shown symptoms of dehydration, malnutrition and a range of maladies, from infectious diseases to chronic conditions worsened by lack of access to medicine.

Families with children, including newborn babies, arrive in Massachusetts, Illinois, New York, and the District of Columbia after having medication confiscated and without money or knowledge of their destination, according to immigrant advocates. While community organizations, volunteers, and healthcare providers have responded with care and compassion, no person should have had to endure such unjust hardship, the lawmakers wrote.

In their appeal to Mayorkas, the lawmakers said they want to ensure no DHS agencies or officials aid the busing and flying programs.

It is incumbent upon your agency to unequivocally condemn state officials who dehumanize immigrants and treat them as political pawns, they wrote.

Florida officials in particular have been accused of misleading the migrants by giving them information on the refugee program, which asylum-seekers are not a part of until their court cases have been resolved.

Immigration advocates say the migrants are being led astray in their paperwork, in a system where clerical errors can easily lead to missed court dates and eventually deportation.

The lawmakers called on Mayorkas to prevent in absentia orders of removal for migrants shipped north by Texas, Florida and Arizona and for an official DHS investigation into the relocation programs.

Some claims have surfaced accusing DHS officials of, at times, playing a role in muddling the asylum process for the migrants, even earning a rebuke from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who otherwise defended the migrant transports.

Today I will be demanding answers from @DHSgov about reports from Marthas Vineyard that federal agents assigned random homeless shelters across the country as the mailing addresses of illegal migrants, even after the migrants told them they had no address in the U.S., Rubio wrote on Twitter.

The Democratic lawmakers called on Mayorkas to ensure his agency did not pile on the migrants troubles.

Because the arrival cities are often unknown to migrants, mailed legal correspondence, such as court dates, and locations of immigration hearings are inaccessible, placing them in jeopardy. This dynamic is a result of a calculated decision to prevent proper notification and subvert legal proceedings. DHS must not participate in this malicious scheme that undermines the integrity and purpose of our immigration system, they wrote.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

As he rolled out the first official Republican Party congressional platform in years, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy fittingly invoked the revered father of the GOP: Abraham Lincoln.

At the top of a letter to Republican lawmakers thanking them for their contributions to the Commitment To Americathe policy agenda they are launching near Pittsburgh on FridayMcCarthy included a quote attributed to Lincoln.

Commitment, reads the quote, is what transforms a promise into reality.

For McCarthys purposes, its a pitch-perfect message. Theres just one problem: theres no record of Lincoln actually saying it.

Shitshow on Steroids: The House GOPs Plan to Troll Biden With Investigations

The quote appears often on social media or inspirational websites, attributed to Lincoln. But a review of historical records by The Daily Beast turned up no proof of when or where the beloved president said these words.

Christian McWhirter, a historian at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois, said he could find "no reliable evidence" that Lincoln ever said those words. "They do not appear in his writings and I cannot find them recollected by any of his contemporaries," McWhirter told The Daily Beast.

McCarthys office did not immediately respond to questions about how they sourced the quote.

What may have injected this phrase into the publics bloodstream was not Lincoln but Lehman Brothers, the Wall Street titan that collapsed in the 2008 financial crisis.

In 1986, Lehman Brothers placed a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal thanking its longest-tenured employees. At the top of the page is the full quote that is attributed in some places online to Lincoln.

Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality. It is the words that speak boldly of your intentions. And the actions which speak louder than words. It is making the time when there is none. Coming through time after time after time, year after year after year.

Story continues

Commitment is the stuff character is made of; the power to change things. It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism.

Although McWhirter found the quote himself in 1984 not attributed to Lincoln, the Lehman ad seems to have been a main source for the proliferation of the quote, with witnesses in congressional hearings referencing itwhile sourcing it to Lehman Brothersand business journals quoting it. At some point, Honest Abe was likely given credit for thinking it up.

"It appears to have been unattributed until the internet came along and people began attributing it to Lincoln, which is common with some of these false Lincoln quotes," McWhirter said

House GOP Field Guide Pushes Transphobic Teachable Moments With Kids

On the internet, there is a small epidemic of sage quotes falsely attributed to leaders and U.S. presidents. Although there is no shortage of wise words Lincoln actually said, he is one of the most frequent victims of the trend.

The rollout of the Commitment to America is a big moment for McCarthy, a distant heir to Lincolns leadership of the GOP. The California Republican, who has led the House minority conference since 2019, is the overwhelming favorite to be Speaker of the House next year should the GOP take control of the chamber, as is expected.

The platform is meant to be an updated statement of priorities and a message to voters about what a Republican majority would do. It partially contains decades-old GOP boilerplate on issues like the economy and energy production. Reflecting the partys midterm priorities, its also heavy on border security and pro-law enforcement rhetoric, and nods heavily to cultural wedge topics like trans athletes in schools.

On Friday, McCarthy gathered a select group of GOP leaders and rank-and-file members in Pittsburgh to roll out the platformincluding Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). The entire House GOP apparatus spent the week gearing up for the well-coordinated launch.

The fake Lincoln quote, of course, is a minor speedbump. McCarthy would not be the first prominent Republican to flub a Lincoln quote. In 2017, the Republican National Committee tweeted words they attributed to Lincoln: And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count; it's the life in your years. (It didnt sound very Lincolnesque, NPR charitably noted in an article at the time.)

And in 2020, Lara Trump, wife of the former presidents son Eric, gave a speech at the GOP convention in which she invoked Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln once famously said, America will never be destroyed from the outside, Lara Trump said. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. Fact-checkers quickly found that it was not a real quote.

Memes have now sprouted up warning eager Lincoln admirers to think twice. In one, a black-and-white photo of Abe is paired with the message: Dont believe everything you read on the Internet just because theres a picture with a quote next to itAbraham Lincoln.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
China has launched a special three-year program to promote the role of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in enhancing public health.

According to the relevant implementation plan issued by the National Health Commission and two other departments, the program will be carried out as part of the Healthy China initiative.

It will focus on eight aspects, including the application of TCM in maternal and child healthcare, elderly care, preventative treatment for chronic diseases, adolescent myopia and obesity, as well as popularization of TCM knowledge, according to the implementation plan.

A slew of measures have been devised regarding each aspect, with specific goals to achieve over the period.

According to the plan, by 2025, 90 percent of the top-tier maternal and child care institutions will provide TCM services. The rate of TCM-supported health management among children will reach 85 percent and that among people aged 65 and above will rise to 75 percent.
Lavrov and Szijjarto shake hands

In his post, Szijjarto wrote that peace is the only way to solve rising inflation and soaring energy costs.

According to Szijjarto, he was the only EU foreign minister who agreed to meet with Lavrov.

Read also: Hungarys Orban praises Russia and blasts EU during rally

Lavrov was 90 minutes late to the discussion of the war in Ukraine at the UN Security Council, and left immediately after making his speech.

Ukrainian FM Dmytro Kuleba commented on Lavrovs hasty departure.

Read also: Zelenskyy presents Ukraines formula for peace at the UN General Assembly

I also noted today that Russian diplomats flee as aptly as Russian soldiers, said Kuleba.

The Hungarian government has recently been censured by the European Union, as the country is no longer considered a democracy by the EU. Meanwhile, Hungarian President Viktor Orban has repeatedly pushed for EU concessions to Russia, and is believed to have close relations with the Russian dictator.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Hurricane Fiona. SEBASTIEN VUAGNAT/AFP via Getty Images

Hurricane Fiona lashed Bermuda with strong winds early Friday, as the Category 4 storm's center passed just to the west of the British island territory and headed north-northeast in the Atlantic with top sustained winds of 130 miles per hour, Axios reports.

The storm is expected to approach the Canadian province of Nova Scotia later in the day. The Canadian Hurricane Center issued warnings for "what looks to be a historic storm for eastern Canada."

"It's going to hit us in the face," said Halifax, Nova Scotia Mayor Mike Savage.

Fiona devastated Puerto Rico earlier this week. On Thursday, President Biden promised that the federal government would help the U.S. Caribbean territory recover. "We're not going to walk away," he said.

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An IHOP manager told a teenage waitress she could only take the day off to attend her sisters graduation if she had sex with him  so she refused and promptly quit, according to a lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The general managers history of sexually harassing female workers became well-known, including how he punished those who denied his advances at the IHOP in Frederick, Maryland, court documents state. The EEOCs lawsuit was brought on behalf of two teenage female workers and others.

Now the franchisee running the IHOP, Koerner Management Group, Inc., is paying $125,000 to settle the federal agencys sexual harassment lawsuit, the EEOC announced in a Sept. 22 news release. This comes after the business, which operates IHOP restaurants throughout Maryland and neighboring Virginia, failed to prevent the managers abuse, according to the EEOC.

Unfortunately, sexual harassment remains prevalent in the restaurant industry, the EEOCs Philadelphia District Director Jamie R. Williamson said in a statement. Its critical to remind victims that sexual harassment is against the law, they do not have to tolerate it at work, and they are protected when they complain.

The male IHOP worker was still the general manager of its Frederick location, the highest-level onsite management position, when the EEOC filed its complaint in federal court, according to the agency.

However, he no longer works there as of Sept. 23, an attorney representing the franchisee KMG, Nikki Nesbitt, confirmed to McClatchy News in a statement.

KMG denies the allegations of sexual harassment that were raised by the two employees being represented by the EEOC, Nesbitt said. Nonetheless, in order to avoid the costs and business disruption of protracted litigation, KMG worked closely and cooperatively with the EEOC to resolve the matter.

The case

The case goes back to 2016 when a 17-year-old started working at IHOP as a hostess before she was soon promoted to work as a waitress, according to the complaint.

Story continues

This is when the manager, who was her supervisor, began making vulgar sexual comments toward her and touching her, the EEOC says.

The waitress final straw came after she submitted a request to take off work for her sisters graduation well in advance, according to the complaint.

In response, (her supervisor) made sexual comments about (her) appearance and outfit, told her that if she really wanted that day off she would need to do something for him, and that he would grant (her) request only if she had sex with him and continue to deny the request if she did not, the complaint states.

The waitress was forced to quit, similarly to another waitress who was hired at 17 years old to work at the IHOP in 2017, according to the EEOC.

The second waitress named in the complaint was also subjected to sexual harassment from the manager, including sexually demeaning and degrading comments and questions, the complaint states.

During one incident, the manager tried unbuttoning the waitress shirt in an area believed to be without security cameras, only stopping when (she) threatened to scream, according to the complaint.

Afterward, she was reassigned from morning shifts to evening shifts, resulting in the waitress making less tips than before, the complaint states. When the waitress requested returning to morning shifts, the manager said only if she had sex with him.

When she refused, the manager said he had to keep her on punishment by keeping her on evening and overnight shifts, the complaint states.

This waitress was subjected to further harassment, including the manager exposing himself to her and showing her a pornographic video of himself and two other women, according to the EEOC.

Ultimately, she quit her job at IHOP because the managers actions became intolerable, the complaint states.

Several other female IHOP workers were sexually harassed by the manager, according to the EEOC. Those who complied with his advances were not subjected to his punishment, and given preferential treatment, the complaint states.

The punishment or preferential treatment involved such matters as compensation, scheduling, shifts, table assignments and work duties, enforcement of rules and imposition of discipline, termination/constructive discharge, and other employment actions, the complaint states.

Because KMG was aware of the manager harassing its employees and did not take action, the EEOC says it violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which is in place to prohibit a range of actions including sex discrimination.

We applaud the women in this case for their bravery in coming forward, Williamson said.

As part of the settlement, the franchisee KMG must also enact updated anti-discrimination and harassment policies and reporting procedures across its company, according to the release. In addition, any future complaints must be investigated by a third-party employment law professional.

KMG takes its anti-harassment obligations seriously and is glad to move forward with the EEOCs approval of its training program, policy materials, and complaint handling, Nesbitt told McClatchy News.

Frederick is about 50 miles west of Baltimore.

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla.  GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis refusal to give advance notice before flying migrants to cities is causing chaos among immigrant groups and states trying to anticipate where his next flight will land.

Without a heads up, they are left scrambling  with just hours to help migrants find shelter, food and legal guidance. When DeSantis sent asylum seekers to Marthas Vineyard with little notice, residents were forced to rely on Spanish-speaking high school students to translate and dozens of migrants spent the night in a church, the best shelter available at the time.

Even the White House this week was rushing to coordinate with Delaware officials after a flight was expected to land in President Joe Bidens home state. Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott had previously send several busloads of migrants to Vice President Kamala Harris residence at the Naval Observatory.



Many of those relief groups are now collaborating and preparing for the next plane of migrants, which DeSantis has promised to send. Theyve built upon pre-existing informal networks of immigration, legal and advocacy organizations throughout the U.S. to rapidly deploy services once they get news of the next flight.

There has been the creation of this sort of national infrastructure so there can be help waiting, whether they are coming to the south or going to cities across the country, Luis Mata, the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalitions policy director, said during an interview.

On Tuesday, humanitarian and aid organizations  as well as the White House and state officials  hurriedly organize services after a flight from Texas was scheduled to land near Rehoboth, the summer vacation spot on the Delaware coast where President Joe Biden has a home and regularly visits. The flight was eventually re-routed to Nashville, Tennessee and then to a small airport in Teterboro, New Jersey but apparently wasnt transporting migrants.

Staff communicated with friends and colleagues in New Jersey to give them information that they could be headed your way and to get ready, Mata, who is based in Tennessee, said.



Story continues

The national network of groups offering resources for migrants has long been in place. But they have bulked up recently after DeSantis Marthas Vineyard stunt and as Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott continues to bus thousands of migrants from the southern border to cities like NYC and Washington. Both DeSantis and Abbott are running for reelection this year. Democrats, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, have pressed the Justice Department to investigate DeSantis over the flights and a sheriff in Texas also said he opened a probe into the Florida governor.

The move by these groups to strengthen coordination and increase services speaks to the confusion and disorder DeSantis and Abbotts migrant transports are causing. Chicago, NYC and Washington, D.C. are struggling to handle the influx of migrants flowing into their cities.

But DeSantis isnt backing down. During a press conference in Miami on Thursday, the Florida governor denied he would have avoided such a national backlash against the flights if he would have given advance notice.



Absolutely not, DeSantis replied when asked.

DeSantis has defended the transports despite Florida not being a border state by claiming that the migrants in Texas have indicated they want to go to Florida.

He has promised to continue flying migrants, using $12 million in state funds set aside by the Republican-controlled Legislation. Florida paid $615,000 to a vendor, Vertol Systems Company, Inc., to transport migrants to Marthas Vineyard. The state made a $950,000 payment to the same company on Monday but it remains unclear if and when the carrier will transport more migrants.

Vertol Systems, an Oregon-based company with operations in Destin, Fla. that has done millions of dollars in contract work for the Department of Defense, has not responded to requests seeking comment about its role in the program.

Immigration groups across the country have anticipated DeSantis would continue to surprise jurisdictions with migrants and have highlighted the scramble in Delaware to show that they can react in real time.



As soon as we got word of a possible plane of migrants arriving in New Jersey, we organized to meet them at the airport to provide as many resources as we could, said Michelle Ancil, the communications coordinator for the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, the group that was contacted by the Nashville-based group on Tuesday.

Groups in other Democratic-led states are also preparing to receive migrants from the Texas border. In Illinois, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker had issued a disaster proclamation that will free up more resources for a potential wave of migrants.

Charlie Crist, the Democratic nominee for governor who is challenging DeSantis, has like many Democrats criticized DeSantis transports as a political stunt.

"He should be held accountable by the media and the courts  but no one should fall for this shameful trick, he said in an interview.
Eight individuals have been charged in federal court with taking part in a drug trafficking operation that distributed methamphetamine and other drugs in the city of Akron, and around Portage and Trumbull counties, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Cleveland.

One of the suspects in the case said he picked up a half pound of meth from his source in Akron to sell in Trumbull County every two to three days, according to an affidavit filed with the court.

Portage case:Seizure of about 50 pounds of pot, more than $140,000 in cash in Portage believed to be record

An indictment unsealed Thursday in the U.S. Court for the Northern District of Ohio lists a Kinsman man, three Akron residents and four Warren residents as being part of the group.

Each defendant is charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. In addition, the indictment charges various members of the drug trafficking organization with distribution of methamphetamine, distribution of LSD, possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine, felon in possession of a firearm, felon in possession of ammunition and possession of a firearm by a person with a prior misdemeanor domestic violence conviction.

According to the indictment, the suspects allegedly purchased and redistributed the drugs from October 2021 to April 2022. Members of "the organization," as the group is referred to by the U.S. Attorney, distributed methamphetamine from an Akron woman's residence.

More:Ravenna man awaiting sentencing for trafficking fentanyl has died

Though not all customers were named, the indictment states drugs went from the Akron woman to others, who then distributed the drugs to others in the group and other customers. One of the suspects served as a driver for the Kinsman man.

Members of the organization also allegedly conducted counter-surveillance to identify the potential presence of law enforcement, police said.

The first arrest listed in court records took place during a Nov. 15, 2021, traffic stop in Windham Township, where a Portage County Sheriff's Deputy stopped a vehicle in which one of the suspects had been a passenger. According to an affidavit filed by an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the man admitted he had drugs in the vehicle and the deputy found just over a half pound of methamphetamine, along with a plastic bag of psilocybin mushrooms, suspected cocaine, an unused hypodermic needle, a digital scale and more than $500 in currency.

Story continues

In another affidavit, another Portage County Sheriff's Deputy pulled over a pickup truck Jan. 2, for a traffic violation on Interstate 76. The truck, in which two of the suspects were passengers, was hauling one of the two suspect's Nissan Sentra on a trailer with a fictitious registration. The the deputy found about a half pound of methamphetamine inside a bookbag in the Sentra. The Sentra was being towed because it had broken down at a Ravenna gas station.

According to the affidavit, one of the two later admitted he had been picking up about $2,000 worth of methamphetamine from an Akron-based drug source every two to three days for sale in Trumbull County.

Additionally, the indictment alleges members of the organization used motels and a residence within Trumbull County to store and sell methamphetamine.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Portage County Sheriffs Office, including its Drug and Violent Crime Unit, the Akron Police Department and its Gun Violence Reduction Tactical Unit, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the Niles Police Department and the Warren Police Department.

Eric Marotta can be reached at emarotta@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarottaEric.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Group allegedly ran drug operation in Akron, Portage, Trumbull
Two Americans and eight other former prisoners of war from the Ukraine war have been freed by Russia, thanks to the intervention of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

"It's a fantastic result and shows the importance of continuing to work towards achieving results through engagement and dialogue," said Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News, the foreign minister detailed the months of negotiations that went into the prisoner release by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The two Americans, 40-year-old Army veteran Alexander John-Robert Drueke and 27-year-old Marine Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, both from Alabama, went to Ukraine to help defend it against the Russian invasion.

They were captured by Russian proxies in June during a firefight in the Donbas region of Ukraine and held in Russia as POWs. They, along with five British citizens, one Moroccan, a Swede and a Croatian were released Wednesday as part of a deal that also returned Russian POWs captured by Ukraine.

UKRAINE RECEIVES HUNDREDS OF POWS FROM RUSSIA IN PRISONER SWAP FOR TOP PUTIN ALLY

"His Royal Highness was able to convince President Putin that this is a humanitarian gesture that is worthwhile, and this is how we achieved this result," bin Farhan said.

The foreign minister also said that Crown Prince bin Salman spent months on the issue to free the men and set up a credible communication channel between both sides.

"His Royal Highness has always been convinced that dialogue is the primary avenue to resolve differences, and he made quite clear through the beginning of this conflict when he reached out to both President Putin and President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy that we believe that there should be a negotiated settlement, and we continue to work towards that. And I think that attitude allowed for a really transparent discussion and was able to facilitate this result," said bin Farhan.

He described a long, detailed negotiation that resulted in a prisoner swap, with Ukraine also releasing 55 Russian POWs and a pro-Putin Ukrainian member of parliament who was being held on charges of treason.

Story continues

"Issues like this are always tremendously complex because there are a number of moving parts," bin Farhan said. "There were many issues that had to be addressed. There were other prisoners, Ukrainian and Russian captives, that needed to be exchanged. So, there was a lot of detail that had to be ironed out and worked on.

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"You need to give it time. You need to give it patience. And this is, I think, what the crown prince really put into it."

The Americans' families issued a joint statement, saying, "We are thrilled to announce that Alex and Andy are free. They are safely in the custody of the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia and after medical checks and debriefing they will return to the States."

"I feel great," the foreign minister said. "I just look forward to seeing the pictures of them reunited with their loved ones when they return back to the United States and Alabama."

A Ukrainian tank drives over an infantryman during a training exercise near Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine, on May 9, 2022. John Moore/Getty Images

Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement that said in part, "I look forward to these U.S. citizens being reunited with their families. We also thank our Saudi partners for helping to spearhead this humanitarian initiative."

U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss tweeted that the release was "hugely welcome news" that ends "months of uncertainty and suffering for them and their families."

"Prime Minister Truss is someone I respect a great deal," said bin Farhan. "We are confident that through her prime-ministership we will strengthen further the bonds between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom."

He also said that bin Salman's role as a mediator between Putin and Zelenskyy could set the stage for expanded talks that he hopes will finally lead to an end to the war.

"We believe that engagement is important, that working towards a negotiated settlement is critical, a settlement that respects also, of course, Ukraine and Ukraine's sovereignty and addresses the concerns of all parties in a way that prevents further bloodshed. I think, in the end, what's most important is that we stop the bloodshed, and we stop the suffering of the civilians that are inevitably affected by any conflict," he said.

Fox Producer Laura Prabucki contributed to this report.
Sep. 23EDITOR'S NOTE  In mid-December 2019, Falls police reached-out to reporter Rick Pfeiffer to alert him that they were on the verge of cracking an infamous cold case homicide. They offered Pfeiffer a chance to report, in detail, on the diligent and dogged detective work it had taken to find a suspect in the murder of Terri Lynn Bills. A heavily edited version of this story was first published on March 4, 2020. That story was edited to comply with a protective order requested by Niagara County prosecutors and issued by then Niagara County Court Judge Sara Sheldon. This is the unedited inside story of how Falls cops caught the man who would later admit that he was Terri Lynn Bills' killer.

The call to Terri Lynn Bills' family came in early January 2020.

Falls Police investigators wanted them to come to headquarters for a meeting.

"They thought we were calling them to tell them we had found more (body) parts," now retired Criminal Investigation Division commander Capt. Kelly Rizzo said. "It never occurred to me that they would think that."

But Rizzo, and then cold case Detective, now Criminal Investigation Division Lt. Troy Earp, had other news. They were ready to charge a suspect in the gruesome dismemberment killing of Bills.

The five-year-old cold case had gotten very warm.

A horrific discovery

The investigation into the death of Terri Lynn Bills began unfolding on the night of June 16, 2015.

Two women, passing by an abandoned home on Willow Avenue, noticed a terrible stench coming from inside the home. One of the women decided to investigate the smell and went inside.

When she looked into the stairwell that led to the basement, she saw what appeared to be a human torso. The head and limbs had been removed from the body.

Police were mystified.

"We have a dead body in the house, we don't know if it's a man or woman yet," now retired Falls Police Capt. Mike Trane said at the time. "We don't know how long the body has been in the house."

Story continues

Two days later, the torso was identified as that of Bills, 46. She had not been seen for about 10 days before the discovery of her torso.

A sense of fear immediately gripped the city. The case, already classified as a homicide, bore shocking similarities to the unsolved murder of Loretto Jo Gates almost three years earlier.

The Gates' murder mystery began on Aug. 29, 2012, when Canadian law enforcement agencies recovered a torso that was found floating in the lower Niagara River. DNA testing on the torso led to a preliminary identification of the body as Gates, a then missing Falls mother of three.

A week later, Canadian authorities in Niagara Falls, Ont., recovered an arm and leg that were spotted by a fisherman in the Whirlpool Rapids. Those remains were also linked to Gates.

Two days after that discovery, on Sept. 8, 2012, a passer-by noticed a bag floating in Hyde Park Lake, just off Duck Island, and pulled the bag to shore. Inside the plastic garbage bag, investigators found Gates' head and her other arm.

Gates, who was 30 when she disappeared, had last been seen four days before her torso was found, when she left her home to go to a convenience store across the street.

Some in the city were sure a serial killer was on the loose.

"It is hard not to make that connection due to some of the similarities, most notably the condition of these ladies when they were discovered," Rizzo told reporters not long after Bills' torso was identified. "They are also related through marriage, share some physical characteristics and led similar lifestyles."

But Rizzo said Earp, the lead detective in the Bills case, never bought into that theory.

"Of course, there was the fear it was the same person (in the Gates and Bills cases).You have the fear, is this a pattern?", Rizzo said. "But Troy always stuck to the idea it wasn't the same guy. I don't know how he knew, but he knew."

Chasing leads

Veteran homicide investigators have a saying, "Everyone is a suspect." And that was certainly the case in the Bills investigation.

"A lot of suspects," Rizzo said of the list of potential killers.

And that led Falls cops, in the weeks after the discovery of Bills' body, to seek the assistance of other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. A task force of 90 officers and agents hit the Cataract City streets, knocking on doors and searching fields looking for leads.

They ended up with 700 leads and even more suspects. But in Rizzo's words, "None of them panned out."

As the leads from the task force were drying up, Earp began looking at Bills' two cell phones. He painstakingly traced all the numbers he could find on the phones.

One of the numbers traced back to Yasin Abdus-Sabur. The phone number was subscribed to Abdus-Sabur, and a girlfriend he was living with in the Falls.

There also appeared to be a connection between Abdus-Sabur and Bills.

"Abdus-Sabur had some text message exchanges with Terri," Rizzo said. "There were actually a large amount of exchanges. And the texts stopped on the day she went missing (sometime after June 5, 2015)."

Earp began looking for Abdus-Sabur, without much luck.

"Then suddenly, one day, he just turned his Facebook page back on," Earp said. "So we kinda watched him from afar."

Investigators discovered that Abdus-Sabur had moved from the Falls to Gasport. And that he had a new girlfriend.

Then Abdus-Sabur "went ghost" again.

"We looked at him in the beginning," Rizzo said. "We had him on our radar, but it didn't pan out at first."

Enter the FBI

In 2016, the Federal Bureau of Investigation offered the assistance of a forensic anthropologist, an expert in serial killers and dismemberment slayings. The anthropologist poured over the physical evidence from both the Gates and Bills cases.

In his report, the FBI expert agreed with Earp. He believed that there had probably been two two killers.

"When you have a serial killer, they tend to get better at what they do," Rizzo said. "But (the anthropologist) said the cuts (on the bones) in the Bills case were not as clean as in the Gates case. That suggested to him we had two killers."

The feds were on the same page as Earp. And Earp was working to find Abdus-Sabur's former Falls girlfriend.

Fleeing from violence

"We were looking for the person who lived with him at the time (of Bills disappearance and murder)," Rizzo said. In 2017, Earp located her on the west coast.

The woman said she had dated Abdus-Sabur from 2013 to 2015. At first, she agreed to speak with Earp, but the detective said the woman was extremely guarded.

"Her experience (with Abdus-Sabur) was somewhat brutal," Rizzo said. "He would traffic her. He would beat her. She fled (to a location on the West Coast) to get away from him."

In their conversations in 2017, the woman said nothing to Earp about Bills. But she did tell the detective that Abdus-Sabur had killed her dog in an act of intimidation.

"She just kept repeating her fear of him," Rizzo said. "She was terrified."

In March 2018, Earp and the woman spoke again. This time she offered some assistance to find Abdus-Sabur, but the leads were all dead ends.

"I think it was clear she was afraid of him," Rizzo said. "She didn't want to talk."

A move to South Carolina

While Earp worked to earn the trust of Abdus-Sabur's ex-girfriend, the suspect and his new girlfriend were on the move.

In what that woman would later describe as an effort to re-set their relationship, the pair moved to Spartanburg, South Carolina. The move didn't appear to work.

On April 11, 2018, Abdus-Sabur popped back up on the radar of Falls Police detectives when they learned he'd been arrested on domestic violence and child neglect charges in South Carolina. The complaining victim was the girlfriend he lived with in Gasport and had moved south with.

It was an enormous break in the case. Not only did investigators know where Abdus-Sabur was, they knew he was behind bars and no longer a threat to the public.

"It allowed us to not rush, without worrying he'd (kill) again," Rizzo said.

Earp reached out to the South Carolina woman and she gave investigators their first tie between Bills and Abdus-Sabur.

"She told a victim advocate that (Abdus-Sabur) told her he killed a girl in 2015," Rizzo said.

Building a case

Earp contacted the South Carolina woman and she told a tale not unlike Abdus-Sabur's other girlfriend. The woman said he assaulted her and beat her children.

She also told investigators that Abdus-Sabur had told her the story of killing the dog of his former girlfriend. Rizzo said that indicated to the detectives that the West Coast woman was being truthful with them.

Now, they wanted to know more.

"That's when we started jumping up and down and thinking, this might be it," the detective captain said.

The Pierce Avenue connection

Earp had developed information that Abdus-Sabur and the West Coast woman had lived in a home in the 1500 block of Pierce Avenue at the time of Bills' disappearance. The home was well-known to police, with ties to both gang activity and a 2008 homicide.

In May 2019, Earp and then Crime Scene Unit commander Capt. Nick Paonessa reached out to the home's current owner and asked to take a "walk" though the house. As they went to the stairway that led to the home's basement, Paonessa spotted a tiny spot of red on a door frame.

It was the needle in a haystack.

"That's the joy of having a guy like Nick. It was blood," Rizzo said. "And when it was tested, it came back to Terri Lynn Bills."

Key witnesses

Police arranged to bring Abdus-Sabur's South Carolina victim back to the Falls for an interview and the tale she told was chilling.

Not only did Abdus-Sabur tell her he had killed a woman, he told her how he disposed of the body: by dismembering her.

"He told her he dismembered his victim because the Gates case was still open," Rizzo said. "And he thought if he dismembered (his victim) it would give him an alibi because he was incarcerated when Gates went missing."

She also told detectives that the West Coast woman "would say the same thing."

As the summer of 2019 rolled around, Earp again reached out to the woman on the West Coast. His calls went unanswered.

When he texted the woman, she asked him to stop contacting her. So Earp, undaunted, got on an airplane and flew to the West Coast.

A living nightmare

When Earp arrived on the woman's doorstep, accompanied by a local FBI agent, she let them in.

And then she told them, she had been in the Pierce Avenue home when Bills was killed.

The woman said she was recovering from back surgery, something the South Carolina woman had also told investigators. Though she was lying on a couch, she could hear the voice of a woman, arguing with Abdus-Sabur, in a different room.

"She heard what sounded like a struggle and then a female yelling, 'It wasn't me'," Rizzo said. "The screaming became so loud, she said she knew what was happening."

Then the screaming stopped. Detectives believe Bills was either beaten to death or strangled.

Sometime later, the woman said she heard the sound of a saw and smelled a terrible odor. The woman said she never saw Bills' body, but she saw a lot of blood in a bedroom and a lot of blood on the basement stairs.

"She said (Abdus-Sabur) became paranoid about the smell in the basement," Rizzo said. "Then the next day (after the murder), she said she was taking a shower and (Abdus-Sabur) came in and asked if she wanted to see what a human hand looked like."

Abdus-Sabur pulled back the shower curtain and displayed a severed hand.

Disposing of the body

The woman told Earp she went along with her then boyfriend as he disposed of Bills' body parts.

She said he would put the human remains in plastic bags and then they would take "walks." As they walked through alleyways in the Falls, Abdus-Sabur would throw the body parts into garbage totes.

But getting rid of the torso presented a bigger problem.

So Abdus-Sabur found a shopping cart, that didn't make much noise. He put Bills' torso in a large garbage bag and then placed it in the shopping cart.

Abdus-Sabur then took garbage bags filled with empty bottles and cans and placed them on top of the body in the bag. He told the woman in South Carolina that he did that because, "The cops don't stop guys out at night with bags full of cans."

Rizzo said Abdus-Sabur's planning was perfect.

"He's right. The can collectors, they blend-in like furniture," Rizzo said. "They aren't causing any trouble and (police) stop noticing them. And his ability to think like that is crazy."

Abdus-Sabur pushed the cart about a block and a half, to an abandoned home at 1129 Willow Ave., and dumped Bills' torso inside.

Back to Pierce Avenue

In September 2019, police returned to the home at 1526 Pierce Ave., armed with a search warrant and a transportable storage pod. Detectives with the Criminal Investigation Division, Crime Scene Unit and investigators with the Traffic Division's Crash Management Unit spent four days at the home gathering evidence.

Despite Abdus-Sabur's efforts to clean-up what police viewed as the murder scene, investigators said they found ample amounts of forensic evidence. That evidence, along with the witness testimony, became the foundation of the case against Abdus-Sabur.

The motive for the grisly slaying, however, has remained a mystery. It may never be known.

It's not clear how Abdus-Sabur and Bills originally came to know each other.

"We're learning toward a drug connection between them, but we're not positive," Rizzo said. "She had some addiction issues."

What's next?

With Abdus-Sabur pleading guilty to a charge of second-degree murder and being sentenced to 18 years to life in prison, police and prosecutors believe the witnesses in the case can finally feel safe. An order of protection has been issued for the West Coast woman.

And now Earp has returned to trying to solve the Gates homicide.

"The downside, (with Abdus-Sabur's arrest, conviction and sentence) is it doesn't put us any closer to solving Gates," Rizzo said. "The upside, is the people in this city can put their heads on a pillow knowing there isn't a serial killer running around."
(Connie Goodwin/Facebook )

Connie Goodwin never imagined shed have to bury her son, Edward. After his murder, she knew she needed to bury him the way shed brought him into this world: whole.

But it wasnt so simple. Butler County Sheriffs Office found just 40 per cent of 32-year-old Edward Goodwins remains in a pond in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, in 2017  two years after he was killed and his body was wrapped with barbed wire and concrete blocks to ensure it would sink.

Forty per cent was not enough for Ms Goodwin, but it was enough to make a case against his killers. The sheriffs office moved on with the investigation, promising Ms Goodwin, her husband Ed and Edwards son Gage, who was 15 at the time, that theyd return to retrieve the rest of the body eventually, Ms Goodwin told The Independent.

For two long years, Ms Goodwin and her family hoped for closure, but the version of justice that law enforcement gave them fell short, she said. The two men who took her sons life were arrested, prosecuted and convicted, and yet, 60 per cent of Edward remained on the bottom of that partially drained pond.

It was either the weather was [too] hot or [too] cold, or there was no manpower, [or they were] waiting in the highway department to get caught up, Ms Goodwin said in an interview on Friday. Finally, after five years of empty promises by the Butler County Sheriff, she decided to drain the pond to recover the rest of Edwards remains.

We had to, I wasnt going through another winter without finding my son, she said.

Edward Goodwin was murdered in 2017, with his body dumped in a Missouri lake (Handout)

On 17 September, Ms Goodwin, her husband and her grandson went to the pond off County Road 572 with pump equipment they had rented the day before.

We were there at 8am, hooked the pump up by 8.30am and by 10.30am we were seeing my sons bones sticking up in the water. We kept pumping and then saw the cinder blocks and bobwire, she said.

Ms Goodwin then called Butler County Coroner Jim Akers, who hurried to the scene and got into the mud to help Gage retrieve the bones. It only took five hours to find the rest, she said.

Story continues

When I messaged Akers Saturday, he was shocked and was on the scene in 10 minutes, Ms Goodwin said.

Ms Goodwin said it was a sad day and a day of relief as well. A day that she had been waiting for for seven long years of unanswered pleas and phone calls to the Butler County Sheriffs Mark Dobbs.

Butler County Coroner Jim Akers and Gage Goodwin retrieving Edward Goodwins remains (Connie Goodwin/Facebook)

Gage Goodwing and his grandfather Ed (Connie Goodwin/Facebook)

The excuses about why the department could not retrieve the remains were varied, Ms Goodwin said.

We were told there were no more remains in that pond due to animals carrying them to fox dens, she told The Independent. The last time I talked to Mark Dobbs was August 29, 2021. Ive called and called and hes never in the office, they say.

Ms Goodwin said that after several messages sent to Mr Dobbs Facebook account, she was blocked from sending more. The Independents requests for comment to the Butler County Sheriffs Office are yet to be answered.

Nothing happened, then a day before Veterans Day last year they went and pumped for four hours and told us they would be back in the morning and never showed, Ms Goodwin said.

It only the family five hours to find the rest of Edwards remains (Connie Goodwin/Facebook)

They also found barbed wire and concrete blocks that the Edwards murderers had used to sink his body (Connie Goodwin/Facebook)

The sheriffs office said they did not return to drain the pond because they did not have the required equipment to conduct the retrieval, People first reported.

The highway department has all the equipment they need and use [to recover remains.] I called the main guy out there and he said he hasnt talked to Mark Dobbs. They said all [the sheriff] has to do is get an order and it will be done, Ms Goodwin claimed.

I was promised then and at the so-called trial on 9 August 2021 that we will have our sons remains in two weeks if we agreed to the plea bargain [the killers took].

Two people were charged with Edwards murder, his once close friends Ricky Hurt and Eldred Smit. Their charges were downgraded to second-degree murder and they were sentenced to 18 and 12 years in prison, KWOC reported.

Mr Akers was on the scene within 10 minutes of her call, Ms Goodwin said (Connie Goodwin/Facebook)

The family rented the equipment after the Butler COunty Sheriffs Office said they did not have the one needed to drain the pump last year (Connie Goodwin/Facebook)

Determined to close a painful chapter in her life and bring peace to her sons soul, Ms Goodwin and her husband rented the pump equipment they needed to drain the pond, which was significantly smaller after it was first drained in 2017 by authorities.

I couldnt bury him till I had all I could find. Forty per cent wasnt enough. And I couldnt live knowing where the rest was when I did know due to the findings in 2017, Ms Goodwin told The Independent.

Ms Goodwin said nobody from the Butler County Sheriffs Office has reached out to her to offer apologies about the delay in finding the rest of Edwards remains.

I havent heard from no one, except the coroner, who back then he wasnt the coroner.

On Friday, Ms Goodwin received the totality of Edwards remains from the funeral home.

Although shes not ready to bury her son just yet, Ms Goodwin said, she is relieved she can offer closure to her husband and grandson.
Chinese, Polish FMs meet on sidelines of UN General Assembly

Xinhua) 09:42, September 23, 2022

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, the United States, Sept. 21, 2022. (Xinhua)

NEW YORK, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday met with Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

Wang recalled the third plenary session of China-Poland Intergovernmental Cooperation Committee in June this year, which synergized and implemented bilateral cooperation in various fields.

Not long ago, the two countries' heads of state had a successful phone conversation, providing strategic guidance for maintaining the healthy and stable momentum of China-Poland relations, Wang added.

The two sides have understood and supported each other on issues concerning each other's core interests, offering a solid political guarantee for the development of bilateral ties, he said.

The two countries jointly practice genuine multilateralism, uphold the important principle of non-interference in internal affairs, and continue to inject new impetus into the China-Poland cooperation, Wang said.

China is willing to strengthen strategic alignment with Poland and promote cooperation in various fields including China-Europe freight train services, civil aviation, agriculture, and investment, said Wang, adding that China also wishes to steadily advance the China-Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) cooperation on the basis of deepening bilateral cooperation.

Noting that Poland is a major country in Central and Eastern Europe and an important initiator in the China-CEE cooperation, Wang said China supports the establishment of a China-CEE countries' agricultural wholesale market in Poland to build a regional agricultural products' distribution center.

For his part, Rau said that Poland regards China as a friendly and reliable strategic partner, and that the two countries have maintained close high-level exchanges and communication at all levels. The two sides share common views on safeguarding independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, he added.

Poland adheres to the one-China policy and appreciates China's consistent pursuit of a foreign policy of peace, said Rau, adding that Poland is committed to promoting the China-CEE cooperation and is willing to strengthen agricultural trade cooperation with China.

Poland attaches importance to China's international status and influence, and hopes that China can play an important role in restoring peace in Europe, he said.

Wang said that an expanded, prolonged Ukraine crisis is not in the interests of any party, hoping that the crisis would end as soon as possible and peace talks could resume.

China always stands for the establishment of a balanced, effective, and sustainable European security framework to provide a lasting guarantee for peace, and will remain committed to promoting peace talks, he said.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has effectively safeguarded peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and advanced the process toward the reunification of the motherland over the past decade, a senior official said Wednesday.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has implemented the national rejuvenation strategy within a wider context of the once-in-a-century changes taking place in the world, accurately understood changes at home and abroad, innovated theories and practice in the work related to Taiwan, and maintained the initiative and ability to steer cross-Strait relations, said Chen Yuanfeng, deputy head of the Taiwan Work Office of the CPC Central Committee, at a press conference held in Beijing.

Political exchanges, dialogues

Historic breakthroughs have been made in cross-Strait political exchanges over the decade, Chen said.

"The decade saw the first meeting and direct dialogue between leaders of the two sides since 1949, raising cross-Strait exchanges and interactions to new heights. This was a new milestone in the development of cross-Strait relations," he said.

The departments in charge of cross-Strait affairs on both sides have established regular contact and communication mechanisms on a common political foundation, and the heads of the two departments have exchanged visits and set up hotlines.

The meeting between leaders of the two sides fully showed how firmly the CPC Central Committee upheld the principles in work related to Taiwan and how flexible its strategies were, said Qiu Kaiming, another senior official with the office, at the same press conference.

"New horizons have been opened for cross-Strait dialogues and consultations over the decade," Chen said.

Upholding the one-China principle and the 1992 Consensus, the mainland has pushed forward exchanges between political parties across the Strait and conducted dialogues and consultations on cross-Strait relations and the future of the Chinese nation with relevant political parties, organizations, and individuals in Taiwan, he said.

These efforts have resulted in consensus on multiple issues and joint initiatives, exploring the Two Systems solution to the Taiwan question with all sectors of Taiwan society, Chen added.

Cooperation in various fields

"We have expanded exchanges and cooperations in various areas across the Strait, enhancing connections between people of the two sides and lending impetus to the development of cross-Strait relations," said Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson of the office, at the same press conference.

In 2011, 7.1 million cross-Strait visits were made, of which 5.26 million trips were from Taiwan to the mainland. In 2019, the total number of cross-Strait visits reached 9 million, including over 6 million visits from Taiwan to the mainland.

The institutional arrangements, policies, and measures have been refined to promote cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation and advance the well-being of the people of Taiwan. These included electronic travel passes for Taiwan residents to enter or leave the mainland, the delivery of water from the coastal province of Fujian to Kinmen Island, and residence permits for Taiwan residents.

Taiwan compatriots have been gradually given equal access to public services so as to facilitate their studying, starting businesses, working, and living on the mainland, while constant efforts were made for Taiwan people to benefit first from the mainland's development opportunities.

The cross-Strait trade volume doubled from 160.03 billion U.S. dollars in 2011 to 328.34 billion dollars in 2021. The total number of investment projects from Taiwan enterprises on the mainland increased from 85,722 in 2011 to 124,142 in 2021, up 44.7 percent over the decade.

The mainland remains the largest export market of Taiwan, the largest source of trade surplus for the island, and the largest destination for Taiwan's off-island investment.

Tangible benefits after reunification

"Peaceful reunification and 'one country, two systems' are basic principles for solving the Taiwan question and the best way to achieve national reunification," said Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson for the office, at the press conference.

Noting that "one country, two systems" is the most inclusive plan proposed to address the differences in social systems and ideologies between both sides of the Taiwan Strait, Ma said it is an approach that is grounded in democratic principles, demonstrates good will, seeks peaceful resolution of the Taiwan question, and delivers mutual benefit.

"After the reunification of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan compatriots will embrace greater space for development, have stronger confidence, a greater sense of security and dignity in the international community," said Ma, adding they will share in the glory of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Over the past decade, the general trend of opposing "Taiwan independence" and promoting reunification has been constantly reinforced, said Chen.

"We have been firmly safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity and opposing 'Taiwan independence' and external interference, firmly maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation," Chen said.

Noting efforts have been made to crack down on "Taiwan independence" diehards according to law, effectively deterring separatist forces seeking "Taiwan independence," Chen said issues related to Taiwan's external exchanges have been handled in a sound manner, and the international community's commitment to the one-China principle has been consolidated.

"In the new era, we are stronger in opposing 'Taiwan independence' separatist actions and external interference, and more determined in realizing China's national reunification. The trend toward national reunification can not be altered, regardless of obstruction or sabotage from any force," said Chen.

"We will continue to follow the CPC's overall policy for resolving the Taiwan question in the new era, and implement the CPC Central Committee's decisions and plans on the work related to Taiwan. We will resolutely thwart any attempt to divide our country and any foreign interference, make concrete efforts to boost the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, integrate the development of the two sides, and promote progress toward national reunification," Chen added.
TEHRAN, Iran  Irans army on Friday hinted that it was prepared to deepen its crackdown on protests triggered by the death of a young woman who had been detained by the morality police.

For almost a week, there have been running battles between demonstrators and security forces in almost 90 cities and towns. At least 26 people have died during the demonstrations, according to Iranian state television.

The military said it would confront the enemies various plots in order to ensure security and peace for the people who are being unjustly assaulted, government-aligned Tasnim News Agency reported, according to Reuters.

Protesters can be heard chanting various slogans in videos posted on social media. In one video uploaded on Twitter, a group of demonstrators in the city of Pakdasht shout, "Death to the dictator." Another video shows demonstrators chanting, "Women, life, freedom," and, "I will kill, I will, whoever killed my sister."

Headlines on Iranian newspapers over the death of young women killed in morality police arrest (Fatemeh Bahrami / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Anger over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, presents the government with its worst crisis in decades, according to Roham Alvandi, an associate professor of international history at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

These protests have rocked the very foundations of the Islamic Republic, he said.

The message that a younger generation of Iranians is sending to their rulers and to the world is that the Islamic Republic is illegitimate in their eyes and they demand a secular democratic state that doesnt interfere in their private lives, he said.

The government has responded to demonstrations by blocking access to the internet and to the messaging apps WhatsApp and Telegram  a tactic it has used in the past, such as during protests in November 2019. Amnesty International said at least 300 people were killed during the crackdown that followed that unrest.

Some have warned the crackdown on the ongoing demonstrations will likely intensify.

"I think they will impose a harsh crackdown once [President Ebrahim] Raisi is back from New York," said Ali Ansari, a professor of modern Middle Eastern history at the University of St. Andrews, referring to the Iranian leader's trip this week to the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Story continues

Iranian authorities, however, said Amini died from a heart attack and called the incident unfortunate.

Police said Amini died on Sept. 16 after falling ill and slipping into a coma days earlier as she waited with other women held by the morality police, who enforce the Islamic Republics strict rules requiring women to cover their hair and wear loose-fitting clothes in public.

Raisi has ordered an investigation into Aminis death and has expressed condolences to her father in a phone call, according to Iranian state media.

Still, Raisi has remained steadfast in his public defense of security forces trying to quell the protests. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the UNGA in New York on Thursday, Raisi said, There is freedom of expression in Iran ... but acts of chaos are unacceptable.

Raisi has also showed other signs of his intention of making a statement out of women's clothing.

While in New York, Raisi was scheduled to be interviewed by CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour. But Amanpour said she backed out after one of Raisi's aides said it would not happen unless she wore a headscarf.

Image: Ebrahim Raisi (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)

Amanpour, CNNs chief international anchor, said she planned to ask Raisi about the protests that have swept across Iran.

In a Twitter thread, Amanpour chronicled how her scheduled interview with Raisi on Wednesday night fell apart, characterizing the request as an unprecedented and unexpected condition.

I politely declined, Amanpour wrote. We are in New York, where there is no law or tradition regarding headscarves.

NBC News could not immediately reach Raisi's office for comment because the presidents office is closed until Saturday.

On Thursday, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Iran's morality police, accusing it of abusing Iranian women and holding the unit responsible for Amini's death.

Iranians are literally risking their lives calling for social and political change, said Jasmin Ramsey, deputy director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, a nongovernmental organization headquartered in New York.

Ramsey said Aminis father risked imprisonment by speaking to an Iranian media outlet and disputing the governments version of events surrounding his daughters death.

They said Mahsa had heart disease and epilepsy but as the father who raised her for 22 years, I say loudly that Mahsa did not have any illness. She was in perfect health, Aminis father told an Iranian news outlet.

Ali Arouzi reported from Tehran, Hyder Abbasi reported from London and Rhoda Kwan from Taipei.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Christiane Amanpour Steven Ferdman/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

CNN's Christiane Amanpour has revealed that the president of Iran refused to sit for a scheduled interview with her after she declined to wear a head scarf.

Amanpour, chief international anchor at CNN, explained on the network that she was set to interview Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in New York, only to be told at the last minute that she would have to wear a head scarf.

"I very politely declined on behalf of myself and CNN and female journalists everywhere because it is not a requirement, and it was lobbed at us at the very last minute," she said. "And very unfortunately, they decided to pull the interview."

Amanpour described the request as unusual because the interview was to take place in the United States, not Iran. "In New York or anywhere else outside of Iran, I have never been asked by any Iranian president [to wear a head scarf], and I have interviewed every single one of them since 1995," she said. She also explained the request was made after hours of discussions to plan the interview.

This revelation came during a discussion on CNN about protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after she was arrested for allegedly wearing her head scarf improperly. "This has been going on much, much more stringently since the election of this current government," Amanpour explained, describig her experience trying to interview Iran's president as "very unsettling."

CNN anchor John Berman suggested the true reason Raisi canceled the interview was because "they didn't want to talk to you about what's happening now on the streets," though Amanpour suggested the president "did not want to be seen with a female without a head scarf in this moment."

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DUBAI (Reuters) -State-organised rallies took place in several Iranian cities on Friday to counter nationwide anti-government unrest triggered by the death of a woman in police custody, with marchers calling for the execution of "rioters".

The pro-government marches followed the strongest warning yet from authorities when the army said it would confront "the enemies" behind the unrest - a move that could signal the kind of crackdown that has crushed protests in the past.

The crowds condemned the anti-government protesters as "Israel's soldiers", live state television coverage showed.

"Offenders of the Koran must be executed," they chanted.

The Twitter account 1500tasvir, which has 117,000 followers, reported heavy clashes in the central city of Isfahan between anti-government protesters and security forces.

It also showed anti-government street protests in several parts of the capital and in Shahin Shahr in central Iran.

State TV said 35 people had been killed in the unrest so far based on its own count and an official figure would be announced.

Many Iranians are fuming over the case of Mahsa Amini, 22, who died last week after being arrested by the morality police for wearing "unsuitable attire".

The morality police, attached to Iran's law enforcement, are tasked with ensuring the respect of Islamic morals as described by the country's clerical authorities.

Amini's death has reignited anger over issues including restrictions on personal freedoms in Iran, strict dress codes for women and an economy reeling from sanctions.

The anti-government protests are not expected to pose an immediate threat to Iran's clerical rulers, who have security forces which have put down one protest after another in recent years, analysts say.

But the protests have clearly made the authorities nervous. Women, who have played a prominent role, have challenged the country's Islamic dress code, waving and burning their veils.

Story continues

Some have publicly cut their hair as furious crowds called for the fall of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

'OUR RED LINE'

Iran's police chief Hossein Ashtari weighed in with tough words in an attempt to stop the protests.

"The people's security is our red line," he told state TV. "Those involved in sabotage and creating insecurity based on directives from outside the country should know that they will be strongly dealt with."

The army's message on Friday, seen as a warning to protesters, read: "These desperate actions are part of the evil strategy of the enemy to weaken the Islamic regime."

The military said it would "confront the enemies' various plots in order to ensure security and peace for the people who are being unjustly assaulted".

Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi on Friday also warned "seditionists" that their "dream of defeating religious values and the great achievements of the revolution will never be realized", according to the AsrIran website.

Friday's pro-government demonstrations showed the strength of the Islamic Republic, President Ebrahim Raisi said, adding that turmoil would not be tolerated.

"The people's presence (in the marches) today, is the power and the honour of the Islamic Republic," Raisi, facing the biggest protests since 2019, said on live television after returning from New York where he attended the United Nations General Assembly.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met with Raisi in New York on Thursday and raised human rights issues, a U.N. spokesperson said.

The United Nations is concerned "about reports of peaceful protests being met with excessive use of force leading to dozens of deaths and injuries", spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

HACK ATTACKS, ARRESTS

Human rights group Hengaw said a general strike was held on Friday in Oshnavieh, Javanroud, Sardasht and other towns in the northwest where many of Iran's up to 10 million Kurds live.

Internet blockage watchdog NetBlocks said mobile internet had been disrupted in Iran for a third time.

Twitter accounts linked to Anonymous "hacktivists" voiced support for the protests and said they had attacked 100 Iranian websites, including several belonging to the government.

Websites of the central bank, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several state-affiliated news agencies have been disrupted in recent days.

Iran's clerical rulers fear a revival of the protests that erupted in 2019 over gasoline price rises, the bloodiest in the Islamic Republic's history. Reuters reported 1,500 people were killed.

Rights groups such as Hengaw and HRANA, lawyers and social media users reported widespread arrests of students and activists at their homes by security forces in an apparent effort to curb protests.

Majid Tavakoli, a student leader turned human rights activist, was detained overnight, his brother Mohsen said.

"They raided the home and arrested Majid while he was asleep ... We are unable to do anything. Please spread the word," Mohsen Tavakoli tweeted.

(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; additional reporting by Michelle Nichols in New York; Writing by Michael Georgy, Editing by William Maclean, Mark Potter and Andrew Heavens)
Irans president bailed on a long-scheduled interview with CNNs Christiane Amanpour on Thursday because she declined to wear a head scarf.

The journalist said the interview with President Ebrahim Raisi had been scheduled for weeks, but that Raisi was running at least 40 minutes late.

The interview was planned to coincide with Raisis speech at the United Nations General Assembly in Manhattan.

Amanpour said Raisis aide approached her and suggested she wear a head scarf for the interview. In recent weeks, Iran has been rocked by protests after a young woman, Mahsa Amini, died in police custody after she was arrested for not wearing a head scarf. At least eight people have been killed in the demonstrations.

I politely declined, Amanpour said on Twitter. We are in New York, where there is no law or tradition regarding headscarves. I pointed out that no previous Iranian president has required this when I have interviewed them outside Iran.

Amanpour was raised in Tehran and also interviewed Irans two previous presidents, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hassan Rouhani. Raisis aide insisted, but Amanpour refused and called the demand unprecedented and unexpected.

Raisi never showed up, and Amanpour tweeted a photo that showed her sitting across from an empty chair.

As protests continue in Iran and people are being killed, it would have been an important moment to speak with President Raisi, she wrote.
Giorgia Meloni ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP via Getty Images

Italy could make history on Sunday by electing Giorgia Meloni to be its first woman prime minister and head of the most conservative Italian government since Benito Mussolini. Meloni, leader of far-right party Brothers of Italy, is currently leading in the polls as the general election draws closer.

Brothers of Italy evolved from a post-fascist lineage that began after Mussolini's death, reports The Washington Post. Meloni is running to replace outgoing centrist Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who resigned earlier this year after being unable to salvage his coalition. Meloni was the only party chief to refuse to join Draghi's coalition, causing a jump in her popularity, Reuters reports.

Meloni's conservative opinions include a push to "blockade the Mediterranean against undocumented immigrants and defend a traditional family identity she says is under attack," among others, the Post summarizes. Her rise also represents a bittersweet moment for women's rights activists, who are both excited by the prospect of a female leader but terrified Meloni might set the movement back. For example, Meloni opposes "pink quotas," an Italian policy intended to ensure a certain percentage of women are present in politics and boardrooms. Many activists see the quotas as key to affording women equal access and opportunity, says The New York Times.

"I dream of a nation where people who have had to lower their heads for many years, pretending that they have different ideas so as not to be ostracized, can now say what they think," Meloni said at a rally last week.

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IU Health has opened a $10 million state-of-the-art out-patient family medicine center on the site of the former Wishard Hospital emergency room near Indiana Avenue and 10th Street.

The need was created when the former primary care medical center along Senate Avenue was demolished to make way for the new IU Health Hospital on the medical campus in downtown Indianapolis.

The IU Health Family Medicine Center, 1040 Wishard Blvd., will accommodate more than 60 providers while addressing patient needs; with more than 40 doctors in training IU School of Medicine has the largest family medicine residency program in the state.

Here's what you need to know about the center that opened in July:

New IU medical center has plenty of space

With two floors and more than 46,000 square feet, the center is nearly double the size of its predecessor. The previous center had opened when there were 18 medical residents in the family medicine program.

Now, there are more than twice as many doctors staffing the new center, which makes it one of the largest family medicine practices in the state, said Dr. Deanna Willis, a family medicine doctor at IU Health and vice chair in research and family medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

Family medicine doctors provide primary care for patients of all ages, including obstetrics and pediatrics care. The center serves more than 15,000 patients a year, about 40% of whom are on Medicaid. It accepts most insurance plans.While IU Health officials do not expect to see a dramatic increase in the number of patients they serve in the new center, the extra space gives them flexibility should they see an influx of people needing care.

Novel clinic design will have central workroom for providers

The clinic is comprised of four pods, each with about a dozen patient exam rooms around a large provider workroom.

Every exam room has two doors  one off the hallway that patients walk down, the other that opens into the providers room. In all there are 48 patient rooms, one of which can be used for procedures.

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These donut-shaped pods with the hole of the provider room in the middle help decrease traffic in the patient hallway and place all the providers working the rooms in that pod in one space to help facilitate communication between staff.

Clinic design improves patient privacy

The new design leads to enhanced patient privacy as medical staff are not clustered in a hallway, with patients walking by computers open to other patients' medical records. Decreasing congestion in the halls makes it easier for patients to navigate.

Patient notices major difference

On his first visit to the new facility, Maurice Sanders, 46, and his caregiver Yolanda Smith noticed a difference. Sanders has been coming to the clinic for the past two years for treatment for diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and hypertension.

The new site is far more accessible for patients like Sanders who uses a wheelchair, in part, because the rooms are much bigger.

"I like that the doctors and nurses are coming from that end," Smith said, gesturing toward the door from the exam room that leads to the provider workroom. "It feels more private.

Who provides care in clinic

The center is part of Indiana University School of Medicine's family resident program. The bulk of the physicians there have completed medical school but continue to learn from IUSM faculty physicians, making communication between learners and teachers an essential part of the practice.Often patients are seen by both a resident physician and a faculty physician and the more seasoned physicians oversee the care the residents provide.In addition to the medical doctors, clinic employees include nurses, pharmacists, social workers and students in these fields, as well as medical students may also cycle through the center as part of their education.

Central provider room improves communication

From the provider standpoint, the pod concept helps decrease how far providers have to walk as they go from patient room to patient room.

In the old space, one might have to walk from one end of the often crowded clinic to the other, Willis said.

While the aspect of the design proved a boon for providers, the open work space took a little longer to catch on, said Mohit Limdi, practice administrator.

It was a little bit of an adjustment; youre all going to be in the same space, he said. Other places have shown this to work.

By bringing everyone into the same place, the shared space sparks more conversation between residents and faculty, said Dr. Molly Rettinger, a second-year resident in family medicine.

Theres a lot more learning that happens because everyone is there at the same time, she said. I think its a huge step up.

Model may improve care

When clinic officials began considering what they would want in a new space, they looked to other places for a model close to their vision. They liked an approach in use at Creighton University, Willis said.

Creighton professors showed in a published paper that after they implemented the model, their highest-risk patients experienced fewer hospitalizations and emergency room visits.

Once Willis and colleagues identified what they wanted to do, they had to find a place in which they could do it.

It was such an innovative design, Willis said. We were lucky to have this space that was shell because there arent that many buildings designed with a donut space in the middle.

How to make an appointment

For more information or to make an appointment, contact the IU Health Family Medicine Center at (317) 962-8893 or check their website.

Contact Shari Rudavsky at shari.rudavsky@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter: @srudavsky.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IU Health opens one of largest family medicine centers in Indiana
On Sunday, September 25, Im A Star Foundation Teen Influencers, Duval County Public Schools and JaxParks are hosting The Mississippi Water Drive to collect safe drinking water to send to Jackson, Mississippi. The event will take place from Noon to 4 p.m. at James Weldon Johnson Park.

In response to a direct request from Jackson Public Schools, the water will be sent to help pregnant women and children under six years of age.

Although Mississippi health officials lifted the boil-advisory and are no longer distributing free water, state officials are raising the alarm for the possibilty of lead in some of the pipes; describing it as dangerous to pregnant women and young children. Both are being advised to still use bottled water.

Experts are saying that children in Jackson who drink the tap water remain at a high risk of lead poisoning. Medical experts are warning that lead is a poison that can cause serious health problems including mental retardation and learning disabilities. Experts agree that there are no safe levels of lead. Even low levels can harm children; especially those under six.

First Coast residents are invited to drop off bottled water at 135 W Monroe St, Jacksonville, FL 32202.
Anti-fracking messages on security gates at a Cuadrilla drilling site near Blackpool, Lancashire - Anthony Devlin/Bloomberg

Opposition to fracking in the UK has been funded by the Putin regime, Jacob Rees-Mogg claimed on Thursday, as he faced backlash from his own party for lifting a three-year moratorium on shale gas extraction.

The Business Secretary accused those who oppose fracking of "hysteria" and "ludditery" and announced drilling will recommence in the national interest, even if it risked causing earthquakes.

Ministers argue that accessing reserves of subterranean shale gas will increase the UKs energy security and could bring down the price of gas.

But the Government also faces backlash in Parliament, including from Conservative MPs who are unconvinced local people will be consulted about the drilling.

On Thursday Mr Rees-Mogg told MPs he is "well aware" there are people who support the fracking ban, but noted that some opposition to drilling has been funded by Russia.

"I'm well aware that there have been objections to fracking, but I would also note that there have been stories widely reported that some of the opposition to ... fracking has been funded by Mr Putin's regime, he said.

The claim was previously made by Anders Fogh Rasmussen, then secretary general of Nato, in 2014.

The defence chief said Russia was running sophisticated information and disinformation operations to support opposition to shale gas in the UK.

A Nato spokesman later said Mr Rasmussen was expressing a personal view.

Ed Miliband, the shadow climate change secretary, said Mr Rees-Moggs claim was an absolutely outrageous slur.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats both oppose lifting the moratorium on fracking and have respectively described it as a dangerous fantasy and of showing callous disregard for our communities and countryside.

The fracking ban was first put in place by the Conservatives after the 2019 election, following a 2.9 magnitude tremor at a site in Lancashire owned by Cuadrilla.

In April, following Russias invasion of Ukraine, ministers asked the British Geological Survey (BGS) to conduct an investigation into the link between shale gas extraction and earthquakes.

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The resulting report, published on Thursday, concluded that predicting tremors remains a scientific challenge for the geoscience community and that more data would be required to make an accurate assessment of the likelihood of seismic events.

But in a written statement to MPs on Thursday, Mr Rees-Mogg suggested that the risk of further earthquakes was worth taking, and that more data could be collected when drilling resumes. While HM Government will always try to limit disturbance to those living and working near to sites, tolerating a higher degree of risk and disturbance appears to us to be in the national interest given the circumstances described above, he said.

With this in mind, it is important that the policy relating to shale gas extraction reflects this.

The announcement was opposed by several Tory MPs in the Commons chamber.

Sir Greg Knight said: "Is it not the case that forecasting the occurrence of seismic events as a result of fracking remains a challenge to the experts?

"Is it not, therefore, creating a risk of an unknown quantity to pursue shale gas exploration at the present time?

"Is he aware the safety of the public is not a currency in which some of us choose to speculate?"

Mark Menzies, a Lancashire Tory MP, said ministers must set out how they will obtain local consent from fracking if Ms Truss is a "woman of her word".

Mr Rees-Mogg said that while he did not have a formal thing to announce about local consent, fracking companies will be asked to provide compensation packages for those who live near their sites.

"We should not be ashamed of paying people who are going to be the ones who don't get the immediate benefit of the gas but have the disruption, he said.

He added: The hysteria about seismic activity, I think, fails to understand that the Richter scale is a logarithmic scale.

"This (fracking) is of such importance, and it is sheer ludditery that opposes it."
Doug Jensen, a January 6 rioter who stormed the US Capitol wearing a QAnon t-shirt and chased after the lauded Capitol police office Eugene Goodman, was found guilty on Friday of all seven counts he was facing.

The Iowa man was one of the first rioters to enter the Capitol building, according to the government.

"Doug Jensen would not be stopped on January 6 until he got what he came for: to stop the peaceful transfer of power," federal prosecutors said during their closing arguments.

The most serious charge, obstructing an official proceeding, carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.

A penalty hearing is planned for 16 December.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated with new information.
VINELAND, N.J.  A man was pronounced dead after his body was found Monday morning inside a kettle cooker at a food processing facility in south New Jersey, officials say.

The man, identified as Dale R. Devilli, 63, an employee at the Lassonde Pappas and Company, Inc. Plant in Seabrook, New Jersey, about 40 miles south of Philadelphia. New Jersey State troopers and the local fire department were dispatched around 7:49 a.m. Monday and found Devilli inside the kettle after arriving at the factory, according to Trooper Brandi Slota.

Slota said the investigation is still ongoing but that "nothing suspicious appeared in nature." No further information is available, she said.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened a case Monday and is currently investigating the incident, according to the OSHA database.

Industries Lassonde Inc., a Canadian firm that owns Lassonde Pappas, issued a statement Tuesday about the death. "We are devastated by the loss of our friend and colleague and our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time," said spokesperson Alexander Roberton.

An online obituary described Devilli, of Millville, New Jersey, as "an avid outdoorsman, and handyman." He leaves behind two daughters and his wife of 28 years, according to the obituary.

WANT MORE NEWS?: Sign up for the only evening roundup youll ever need.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: New Jersey man found dead in kettle cooker at food processing plant
Using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), or the "China Sky Eye," an international group filmed, for the first time, the magnetic ebb and flow nearby of a fast radio burst from out of the Milky Way.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are the brightest, highly-dispersed millisecond-duration astronomical transients in radio bands with yet unknown origins.

Chinese and U.S. astronomers led by those from the National Astronomical Observatories under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, reported the detection of 1,863 bursts in 82 hours over 54 days from the repeating source FRB 20201124A.

Those observations revealed a complicated, dynamically evolving, magnetized immediate environment within about an astronomical unit (or distance between Earth and the Sun) of the radio source, according to the study published in the journal, Nature, on Wednesday.

The scientists found for the first time that the Faraday rotation measure, an indicator for the magnetic field strength, jolted irregularly in the first 36 days, followed by an 18-day stability.

The findings showed that the vibrant, fast radio burst had quenched within 72 hours, a phenomenon previously undetected.

Then, they used the Keck Telescope in Hawaii to observe its Milky-Way-sized, metal-rich host galaxy.

The galaxy is a barred spiral with the FRB source residing in a low-stellar-density region between two arms, which is at an intermediate distance from the galactic center, according to the study.

Some recent observations of a fast radio burst within the Milky Way suggested that at least some FRBs originate from magnetars.

But the results in this study showed that the repeating source FRB 20201124A is unlikely to be a young magnetar engine formed during an extreme explosion of a massive star that resulted in a long gamma-ray burst or superluminous supernova, bringing more complexity to the origin of FRBs.

Located in a naturally deep and round karst depression in southwest China's Guizhou Province, FAST started formal operation in January 2020 and officially opened to the world on March 31, 2021. It is believed to be the world's most sensitive radio telescope.
Sep. 22MUSKOGEE  A federal judge will make a report of findings and recommendations after hearing argument Thursday on a motion to suppress a McAlester man's statements made to investigators following his daughter's 2016 death.

Attorneys for Devin Sizemore, 27, argue Sizemore did not have the required competency needed to understand his rights under Miranda prior to agreeing to speak with investigators following his arrest.

Sizemore was indicted in May 2021 in the Eastern District of Oklahoma for murder in Indian Country, second degree murder in Indian Country, voluntary manslaughter in Indian Country, child abuse in Indian Country, and assault resulting in serious bodily injury in Indian Country.

He is accused of drowning his 21-month-old daughter, Emily, in a pond off of Krebs Lake Road on July 15, 2016, and assaulting then-Krebs Police Officer Jack Suter during his arrest after Sizemore allegedly attempted to drown the officer.

In their motion to suppress, Sizemore's attorney asks a federal judge to suppress any and all statements made by Sizemore claiming an agent from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation violated his constitutional rights under the Fifth Amendment.

"Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Agent John Jones continued to interrogate Mr. Sizemore after he unambiguously invoked his rights to silence and counsel under Miranda v. Arizona," the motion states.

During testimony held Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jason Robertson, Jones testified that after Sizemore said "no" to speaking with him, he only asked Sizemore to clarify if that is what Sizemore wanted.

An audio recording of the interview was played in the courtroom that showed Jones asked Sizemore again if he would speak with him about what happened without an attorney present with Sizemore agreeing and signing a consent form.

The defense claims that Sizemore a "watered down version" of Miranda. Jones contends he read all of Miranda to Sizemore and only clarified on what Sizemore wanted to know after he asked "what do you mean."

Story continues

During the interview, Sizemore said he took Emily from his mother's home because people were being "mean" to him for talking about God and ultimately spent a night in a barn because something had told him "to go to the barn."

Sizemore is then heard saying he baptized Emily "because of all the evil in the world" and that he estimated to have held her under the water for maybe 30 seconds and claimed that "something went wrong" but he was able to save Emily by performing CPR.

He then is heard saying that something told him to get a horse and when he returned to get his daughter he was "attacked" by police.

"God told me to forgive them," Sizemore said about the "attacking" police.

When asked by the defense if he believed Sizemore was okay to speak with him during the interrogation, Jones said he had no concerns prior to speaking with Sizemore.

"I was satisfied that he could visit with me after being medically cleared," Jones said. "He was able to respond to the questions and give his version.

Defense attorneys asked Jones about Sizemore's statements about God and other statements made not in relation to the investigation.

Jones responded that the responses were "abnormal" and "not typical."

"I wasn't sure if he was faking him out or not," Jones said. The investigator also testified that he told Sizemore's mother after the interrogation that he expected Sizemore's competency to be brought up due to his responses.

The defense also argued that Sizemore had considerable mental deficits that he did not have the mental ability to comprehend and waive his Miranda rights.

Dr. Matthew Clem, a Neuropsychologist, testified Thursday that Sizemore had a "neurocognitive disorder" due to multiple causes throughout his life  meaning Sizemore does not have the cognitive ability or the intelligence required to understand the Miranda rights as they were read to him.

Robertson will now issue a report of findings and recommendation that will be filed at a later date for U.S. District Judge Ronald White to take into consideration prior to making a ruling on the motion to suppress Sizemore's statements.

Contact Derrick James at djames@mcalesternews.com
A federal judge ruled Thursday that the select Congressional committee investigating the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6, 2021, may subpoena the phone records of the head of Arizonas Republican Party.

The Select Committee, in January, sent a subpoena asking for phone records of Kelli Ward, the chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, that would have covered activity from November 2020 through January 2021.

That span of time would include when Ward convened an uncertified and unauthorized slate of electors to grant Donald Trump the states electoral votes even though he lost Arizona.

Those fake electoral votes were sent to Congress for members to consider counting during its Jan. 6, 2021, session, which was interrupted for hours after the U.S. Capitol was breached by rampaging Trump supporters.

Although it wasnt apparent when it occurred, testimony and records obtained by the Select Committee have suggested the fake Arizona electors were part of a larger plot that would have weaved through byzantine election procedures and pronounced Trump the winner of the 2020 election.

The scheme would have required Vice President Mike Pence, tasked with officially counting the Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, 2021, to either decide to count the alternate slates sent in by Arizona and seven other states. Or to say the election was in doubt and toss the question of the winner to Congress, through a procedure laid out in the U.S. Constitution.

More: The next Jan. 6 committee hearing is set. Here's how to watch it and what might come up

It is not clear exactly how the plan was hatched or who was involved.

The eight states that cast phony Electoral College votes on Dec. 14, 2020, sent remarkably similar paperwork to Congress and the National Archives. At least one Trump adviser, Stephen Miller, knew of the plan, saying in an interview on "Fox and Friends" that day, that alternate slates of electors were meeting and would send their votes to Congress.

Story continues

Ward had filed a lawsuit in federal court in February asking that the subpoena sent by the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol to her cellphone provider, T-Mobile, be quashed.

Ward said, in arguments filed with the court, that the records would have included logs of calls of clients at her medical weight loss clinic, records she said were protected by federal privacy laws.

Ward also said the subpoena was overly broad and violated First Amendment rights of free association. In an August filing, her attorneys argued that forcing T-Mobile to produce the call logs could have a chilling effect on Republicans speaking with their partys leader.

Republicans, according to the motion filed by Wards attorney, Alexander Kolodin, will be made to feel that every time they communicate with party leadership, they risk having those communications disclosed to law enforcement followed by a knock on the door (or worse) from federal investigators.

Diane Humetewa (Phoenix): U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Arizona. Formerly, U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona and counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs.

U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa dismissed those arguments in her ruling Thursday, deciding that the Select Committee has a valid reason to seek the records and any argument about a chilling effect was highly speculative.

Humetewa also said the argument about medical privacy doesnt pass muster since the records sought dont include any medical information, just records of interactions.

Kolodin did not have an immediate reaction to the dismissal on Thursday. On Friday, he filed a notice of appeal.

Ward herself has been subpoenaed by both the Select Committee and the FBI.

She did not return an interview request sent through a spokesperson for the Arizona Republican Party.

The Republicans that met at party headquarters on Dec. 14, 2020, were the same 11 whose names appeared on the general election ballot as nominated electors for Trump.

They included Ward and her husband, Michael, as well as Rep. Jake Hoffman, former Rep. Anthony Kern and Tyler Bowyer, the chief operating officer of Turning Point Action, an advocacy organization started by conservative personality Charlie Kirk.

Turning Point Action's Chief Operating Officer Tyler Bowyer speaks on stage at the Unite and Win Rally in Phoenix on Aug. 14, 2022.

In an August court filing, Ward argued that the sending of the alternate slate of electors was done as a failsafe of sorts. Those fake electors acted to send an alternate slate of electors to Washington in the event that the legal challenges to the Arizona results succeeded, the motion read.

The motion said the connection between sending up fake electors and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot was far from obvious.

Footage shown during televised hearings by the Select Committee showed that the rioters became incensed upon hearing that Pence had decided to certify Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election and not consider any alternate scheme that would have kept himself and Trump in office.

In the footage, rioters started chanting, Hang Mike Pence.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Judge: Jan. 6 committee can see phone records of Kelli Ward
A juvenile murder suspect has plead not guilty Friday to the Aug. 13 killing of Jerry Walton Jr.

The 16-year-old minor was arrested on Wednesday, Sept. 21.

Cpl. Adam Moyer of Columbus Police said a witness saw the minor engage in a tussle with Walton. Following the altercation, shots were fired and Walton was struck in the back of his head while driving a pickup according to Moyer.

The pickup then crashed into an apartment and both the vehicle and building caught fire according to Moyer.

Police found 9 mm shell casings at the crime scene. The juvenile was in possession of a 9 mm firearm at the time of his arrest.

If you or anyone you know has information on this case please call Cpl. Adam Moyer at (706) 225-4435 or email amoyer@columbusga.org.

You can also call the Homicide Unit at (706) 225-3161.
Kansas City police were asking the public for help on Thursday evening to find a 15-year-old girl reported missing Monday in the citys Marlborough Heights neighborhood.

Jada White was last seen near the intersection of 81st Street and Wabash Avenue, police said. Police say she is believed to be a runaway, and her family is concerned for her well-being.

White was wearing a black shirt, blue sweatpants and flip flops when she was last seen, police said. She stands roughly 5 feet, 11 inches and weighs about 195 pounds, police said.

Police were asking anyone with information regarding her whereabouts to call the Juvenile Section at 816-234-5150.
A copy of the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers' Standards and Training report on Jackson County Sheriff's Deputy Matthew Honas case is seen on a desk. The Kansas Commission on Peace Officers' Standards and Training chose to reprimand him instead.

On Feb. 23, Matthew Honas, then a Jackson County sheriffs deputy, used his taser on a 12-year-old autistic boy. That boy was sitting handcuffed, shackled and hogtied in Honas vehicle. Honas tased him without warning.

Honas knew the boy was autistic. The boy was restrained and not a threat. Nevertheless, Honas used profanity. He threatened to tase the boy again. Honas failed to use de-escalation techniques or other means to persuade the boy to comply.

The Topeka Capital-Journals Tim Hrenchir reports the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers' Standards and Training on Aug. 22 issued an order of reprimand to Honas. While Honas was discharged March 3 from his deputy's job in Jackson County, the commission chose not to revoke his certification as a law enforcement officer. That means he one day could be employed by other law enforcement agencies. Hopefully, a Google search and common sense will keep that from happening.

Honas and Jackson County failed that child, and the commission failed Kansas by only reprimanding Honas. The commission has the authority by Kansas Statute to suspend, condition or revoke the certification of a police officer or law enforcement officer. His certification should have been revoked.

RELATED:A Kansas deputy tased a 12-year-old autistic boy who was handcuffed, shackled and hogtied

Honas actions are yet another black eye for public mistrust of law enforcement and evidence that further training for law enforcement to handle traumatized youths. When is enough enough?

The state's law enforcement oversight body says Honas used excessive force multiple times on the boy, including tying him up in a manner that threatened "his ability to breathe properly.

While Honas wasn't wearing a body camera during the Feb 23 incident, Hrenchir reports, most of the interaction was captured by his in-car camera.

The public needs to see that video. The Capital-Journal attempted to obtain a copy via an open records request but was denied by Jackson County counselor Lee Hendricks, who cited a section of the Kansas Open Records Act that allows criminal investigation records to be kept secret.

Story continues

"The disclosure and publicity of recorded encounters with law enforcement is not in the public interest," Hendricks wrote. "Persons who know their statements and encounters with law enforcement may become public will tend against providing information for fear of that publicity  whether it being identified in the community as a 'snitch' or for fear of embarrassing information being disclosed."

The public has a right to know about law enforcement misconduct. That outweighs any concerns about "snitching."

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas deputy should have lost certification for excessive force on boy
Rapper and fashion designer Kanye West, who changed his name to Ye last year, isnt letting his failed 2020 presidential campaign rule him out in 2024.

West, who recently claimed hes never read a book, weighed in on his political future in a Good Morning America interview with ABC News reporter Linsey Davis on Tuesday.

The Donda rapper, who conceded his presidential run after he received roughly 60,000 votes in 2020, reportedly gave $6.8 million to his own campaign, ABC News reported.

He told Davis that he absolutely still has political aspirations, answering with a faith-based message.

[2020] wasnt in Gods time. Im sure theres lives that were saved, Im sure God had me fall on the sword and say this is not the time, but hes a redeemer, West said.

West also said he thinks Miami Mayor Francis Suarez (R) would make a really good president, too.

You can watch a clip of his interview with Davis below.

The rapper has previously teased he might announce for a 2024 presidential run.

West, who conceded the day after the 2020 election, wrote Kanye 2024 above a picture of himself.

The rapper hasnt posted a tweet since his hint at a future campaign.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
Princess Kate Middleton has revealed what questions her children - nine-year-old Prince George, seven-year-old Princess Charlotte, and four-year-old Prince Louis - expressed during the preparations for their great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth IIs funeral.

On Thursday, the Prince and Princess of Wales arrived at Windsor Guildhall, marking their first royal engagement since the Queens funeral on 19 September.

After expressing her appreciation for the volunteers and operational staff who helped organise event, she addressed how her three children had watched the funeral preparations take place.

When weve been doing the school run, weve been able to see the preparations going up. Weve seen it growing, she said at Windsor, as reported by Hello!.

It must have been quite a mission, the royal continued. Having gone backwards and forwards last week, we could see it slowly growing. It seemed so well organised.

The royal went on to recall how George, Charlotte and Louis were beady-eyed, as they noticed security drones flying around Windsor, prior to the funeral. She went on to share that after her children spotted the drones, they were prompted to ask her and husband Prince William about it.

On Thursday, Kate also addressed how she felt the Queens presence around her, following the announcement of the monarchs death on 8 September.

To a crowd of funeral staff and volunteers, Prince William shared that when he was in Balmoral, as thats where his grandmother died, he saw five rainbows in the sky. In response, his wife noted that the rainbows were a sign, as she said: aaHer Majesty was looking down on us.

Additionally, Kate and William thanked a group of supporters who were at Windsor to pay tribute to the Queen and watched the procession of her coffin up to the castle, before her service on Monday.

The Prince and Princess also arrived at Windsor Guildhall in all black, as they are still observing the royal mourning period for the Queen, which will end on Monday.

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Kates royal engagement on Thursday wasnt the first time that she shared details about her children, in the wake of the Queens death. Speaking to well-wishers outside of Windsor Castle on 10 September, Kate revealed how Louis reacted to his great-grandmothers passing.

My little Louis - this is just so sweet - said Mummy, dont worry because shes now with great-grandpa, she recalled.

She also spoke to Australias governor-general David Hurley at a meeting in Buckingham Palace ahead of the Queens funeral, and was quoted as saying that Louis is asking her a lot of questions about the monarchs death.

The younger one is now asking questions like, do you think we can still play these games when we go to Balmoral and things like that, because shes not going to be there?, Hurley said.

The Prince and Princess of Wales are currently living in Windsor with their children, after moving out of their official residence in Kensington Palace in London at the end of the summer.
Kern County Sheriff's homicide investigators seek the publics help regarding the June 2021 death of Gabriel Barraza-Acosta 33, from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico

The Kern County Sheriffs Office seeks the publics assistance in a homicide investigation, as the victim had contacts in San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties.

Sheriffs officials reported that on the morning of June 6, 2021, deputies responded to Highway 58 in Tehachapi for a person on the shoulder of the freeway.

The person, later identified as Gabriel Barraza-Acosta, 33, from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico, was pronounced dead at the scene, sheriffs officials reported.

More news: Barstow PD shutters local bank due to bomb threat

KCSO reported that at 6 a.m., deputies were called to an area of Hwy. 58 west of the Sand Canyon exit where they found a dead person just off the roadway.

A cause of death was not provided at that time, but homicide detectives were called to the scene to assume the investigation.

Anyone with information regarding the death of Barraza-Acosta is asked to call the Kern County Sheriffs Office at 661-861-3110, or the Secret Witness Hotline at 661 322-4040.

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Kern County authorities seek publics help in homicide investigation
Associated Press

Thousands of people in hundreds of cars took over northern Nevada parking lots and intersections Friday night and into Saturday, performing stunts in souped-up vehicles and leading to crashes and arrests, police said. Police beefed up nighttime staffing after social media posts urged people from San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, to come to the sideshow in Reno, Police Lt. Michael Browett said. The disturbances started late Friday as several hundred cars and their occupants met in the parking lot of a still-open Walmart store.
Kevin Holland has suggested that he intends to retire from mixed martial arts following his decisive submission loss to Khamzat Chimaev earlier this month.

Holland fought Chimaev on one days notice in the co-main event of UFC 279, losing to the promotions fastest-rising star in the first round.

Chimaev dominated the American from the opening bell before submitting him with a DArce choke within two-and-a-half minutes to stay unbeaten, continuing a remarkable start to the Russian-born Swedes MMA career. Chimaev, 28, is 12-0 as a professional with 11 stoppage wins, and he has already risen to No 3 in the UFC welterweight rankings.

Had a good run, 30 [years old] in a little over a month, Holland wrote on Instagram. Got paid, Im out. Next career choice??

Holland (23-8) faced Chimaev in a 180lbs catchweight bout, after the latter missed weight for his scheduled welterweight main event with Nate Diaz. Holland and Chimaev predominantly compete at welterweight (170lbs), but both have fought at middleweight (185lbs) in the past.

Diaz went on to submit Tony Ferguson as the UFC 279 card in Las Vegas was reconfigured, with Hollands original opponent Daniel Rodriguez outpointing Li Jingliang, who was previously set to face Holland.

Rodriguez is rumoured to be fighting Neil Magny next month, and it is thought that the potential match-up has irked Holland.

Before hinting at his retirement, Holland shared an Instagram post of a side-by-side picture of Rodriguez and Magny and wrote: Lol, [didnt] I just ask for this scrap? Thats wild.

It is unclear whether he was referencing a bout with Rodriguez or with Magny, though it is likely that he was referring to the former, given their previously scheduled UFC 279 contest.
 Flash

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday said China is ready to work with Japan to upgrade the all-round, wide-ranging and multi-level cooperation, noting that China welcomes the Japanese business community to continue seizing development opportunities and actively expand its presence in the Chinese market to achieve win-win results.

Li made the remarks during a high-level video dialogue with representatives of the Japanese business community. He exchanged views with the representatives on a wide range of topics, including China-Japan relations, economic and trade cooperation, global economic and financial challenges, climate change, and aging populations.

Noting that China and Japan will mark the 50th anniversary of their normalization of diplomatic relations in a few days, Li said China and Japan are important neighbors and the world's second and third-largest economies, respectively. Maintaining the sound and steady development of bilateral ties serves the interests of both sides, promotes the well-being of the two peoples, and safeguards the peace, stability and development of the region and the world.

Over the past 50 years, China-Japan relations have made great progress overall. The two sides should strive for peaceful and friendly coexistence, abide by the principles set out in the four political documents between the two countries, view each other's development in an objective and rational way, and push for the steady and long-term development of China-Japan relations, Li said.

China and Japan have complementary economic advantages, and their cooperation shows great resilience and potential, Li said. China is ready to work with Japan to upgrade the all-round, wide-ranging and multi-level cooperation, and make good use of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to tap regional economic growth potential.

"China will increase direct flights between China and Japan in an orderly manner to further facilitate personnel exchanges on the premise of COVID-19 prevention and control," the premier said.

He said China is firmly committed to peaceful development, calling on the two countries to respect each other, treat each other as equals, enhance mutual trust, handle differences properly, jointly maintain a peaceful external environment and stable regional environment, and realize the common development of China, Japan and other countries in the region.

Li noted that this year, the downward pressure on the Chinese economy has increased due to the impacts of factors that exceeded expectations. China has responded decisively, made timely adjustments, and worked to stabilize employment and prices. The Chinese economy has continued to run within an appropriate range and is showing an overall recovery trend.

Li stressed that China will take a realistic approach and do its best to work toward reasonable results in economic development for the whole year. China remains committed to the basic state policy of opening-up and will only open its doors wider to the outside world.

China will continue deepening reform to delegate power, streamline administrative procedures and optimize government services, Li said. It will also create a market-oriented and law-based international business environment, and ensure regulations are transparent, stable and predictable, he said.

China will also relax market access further and ensure intellectual property rights are protected strictly, Li added.

"We hope the Japanese business community will continue seizing China's development opportunities, actively expand its presence in the Chinese market, strengthen cooperation with Chinese partners, and achieve more mutual benefits and win-win results," Li said.

Representatives of the Japanese business community said that Japan and China are very important cooperative partners. The Japanese business community is optimistic about the prospects of China's economic development, and said it will actively expand its business in the country and strive to build Japan-China economic relations that meet the requirements of the new era.

The representatives also expressed hope that the two countries would take the opportunity of the RCEP's enforcement to expand cooperation on the economy, trade, environmental protection, health and aging populations, enhance people-to-people exchanges, and promote peace and development of the two countries, the region and the world.
King Charles III

Victoria Jones/PA Wire King Charles

King Charles went straight to work.

In a newly released photo shared Friday, Charles is seen at a desk in Buckingham Palace with the famous red box containing documents needing his attention.

In a scene so often associated with his late mother Queen Elizabeth, the King is seen in his first days of work as monarch on September 11, just days after the Queen's death on September 8. The red box is the daily dispatch of papers from ministers around the U.K. and the realms, like Canada and Australia, of which Charles is also King. There may also be correspondence from representatives from the Commonwealth and other countries around the world.

"Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth received Red Boxes, which were made upon her Coronation in 1952, almost every day of her reign, including weekends and holidays, but excluding Christmas Day," the palace said on Instagram.

Behind Charles is a black and white photograph of his late parents, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. It was given by the couple to her father, King George VI, for Christmas in 1951  the last holiday season before he died in February 1952.

The newly-released photograph was taken by Victoria Jones from the Press Association. King Charles was photographed in the Eighteenth Century Room.

RELATED: Funeral Guest Says 'You Could Hear a Pin Drop' as Queen's Coffin Was Lowered into Royal Vault

In this handout image released on February 6, 2022, Queen Elizabeth II is photographed at Sandringham House to mark the start of Her Majestys Platinum Jubilee Year, on February 2, 2022 in Sandringham, Norfolk.

Chris Jackson/Buckingham Palace via Getty Queen Elizabeth's portrait released on February 6, 2022 to mark the start of her Platinum Jubilee year

In February, when the Queen hit her 70-year milestone on the throne, the palace released a picture of her sitting with her red box. She was photographed in the saloon at Sandringham House, where she traditionally spent the anniversary as it is where her father died.

This week, King Charles headed to Balmoral in Scotland, where he is believed to be staying in his Birkhall home with his wife, Queen Camilla. There, he will also be tackling his papers and also making calls as he plans the early days of his reign.

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Their break in the highlands of Scotland followed an intensely busy period of public events and ceremonies, which King Charles had to carry out amid his own mourning at his mother's September 8th death. She died "peacefully" at Balmoral Castle.

Prince William, Prince of Wales, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, King Charles III, Camilla, Queen Consort, Princess Anne, Princess Royal and Princess Beatrice observe the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II as it is transferred from the gun carriage to the hearse at Wellington Arch following the State Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey on September 19, 2022 in London, England. Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born in Bruton Street, Mayfair, London on 21 April 1926. She married Prince Philip in 1947 and ascended the throne of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth on 6 February 1952 after the death of her Father, King George VI. Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on September 8, 2022, and is succeeded by her eldest son, King Charles III.

Andy Stenning - WPA Pool/Getty

Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!

Though the national period of mourning for Queen Elizabeth has come to a close across the United Kingdom, her family will remain in mourning until one week after the funeral, a wish King Charles expressed soon after her death. Members of the Royal Household Staff, related representatives and troops with ceremonial duties will also honor this period of grievance, set to end September 26, Buckingham Palace said.
An anti-abortion activist from Upper Bucks County is facing federal charges for allegedly twice assaulting and injuring an elderly male volunteer acting as a patient escort for a Planned Parenthood clinic in Philadelphia.

Mark Houck, 48, of Kintersville, was charged by indictment with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrance Act, which makes it a federal crime to use force with intent to injure, intimidate or interfere with someone providing reproductive health care.

Houck made his initial appearance in U.S. Eastern District Court in Philadelphia on Friday. If convicted, he faces a maximum possible sentence of 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and up to $350,000 in fines.

UPDATE:FBI denies anti-abortion activist's claims that SWAT force was used in Bucks County arrest

On Saturday, Doug Mastriano, the Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, released a statement in support of Houck and blasting the FBI and president.

"The continued weaponization of the FBI and persecution by Joe Biden's DOJ against ordinary Americans is an outrage, Mastriano said in the statement.

"This morning, a heavily armed SWAT team of dozens of FBI agents raided the home of Mark Houck of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with his wife and terrified children inside over a case that was long thrown out by the District Court in Philadelphia. Mark and Ryan-Marie Houcks seven children were traumatized and in tears as they witnessed their parents held at gunpoint and their father hauled away in handcuffs."

The charge against Houck stems from two incidents that occurred on Oct. 13, 2021, at the Planned Parenthood Elizabeth Blackwell Health Center on Locust Street, where he allegedly assaulted a 72-year-old volunteer escort identified in documents by the initials B.L.

In the first incident, B.L. was attempting to escort two patients exiting the clinic, when Houck shoved him to the ground, according to federal prosecutors. In the second incident, Houck verbally confronted B.L. and again shoved him to the ground in front of the Planned Parenthood center, causing injuries that required medical attention.

Story continues

Assault is always a serious offense, and under the FACE Act, if the victim is targeted because of their association with a reproductive health care clinic, it is a federal crime, U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero said in a statement.

Online sources list Houck as the founder of a Catholic men's organization called "The King's Men." He has been protesting outside the Blackwell clinic for the last 20 years, according to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer earlier this year.

"Citizens across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania join me in expressing our outrage at this early-morning raid executed on a young family," Mastriano said. "This show of force carried out by the Biden regime against ordinary Americans is an abuse of power that stands against the fundamental principles on which our country was founded.

"As governor, I will not allow the police state of Joe Biden to enforce his persecution against his political enemies on sacred Pennsylvania soil. Not on my watch."

More on the abortion rights issue'We've got your backs': AG Shapiro says PA won't cooperate with other states' abortion bans

More on DobbsBucks County women call Roe v. Wade decision 'heartbreaking,' say fight will continue

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Upper Bucks anti-abortion protestor charged with shoving clinic escort
Danielle Sandoval, who is running for Los Angeles City Council, canvasses in the Wilmington neighborhood. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

Eight years ago, restaurant worker Jose Higareda filed a wage complaint against the Caliente Cantina restaurant in San Pedro, telling state investigators he was not paid for more than 100 hours of work.

Isaac Garcia, a chef who earned $10 per hour, testified that the same establishment failed to pay him $480 in 2014. Dishwasher and prep cook Jose Flores Esqueda lodged yet another complaint, saying Caliente Cantina did not compensate him for $1,080 worth of work that same year.

All three identified the restaurant's owner as businesswoman Danielle Sandoval, according to filings in their wage cases, copies of which were reviewed by The Times. Two turned over a text message exchange in which Sandoval, now a candidate for Los Angeles City Council, allegedly acknowledged that they were owed money. A third said he spoke with her directly.

Sandoval "kept giving excuses for not paying," according to testimony provided by Flores Esqueda in 2015, which was summarized in an order issued by the hearing officer in his case.

The hearing officer, acting on behalf of the states labor commissioner, found that the restaurant failed to pay the three workers, committing violations of the state labor code that are commonly known as wage theft, said Paola Laverde, spokeswoman for the states Department of Industrial Relations.

Caliente Cantina is now closed, and Sandoval is running in the Nov. 8 election to represent a district stretching from Watts to San Pedro. But the wage claims filed by those three workers, along with a fourth, are still outstanding and have not been paid, Laverde said Thursday.

On June 30, three weeks after Sandoval placed second in the June 7 primary election, the nonprofit Wage Justice Center sent two demands for payment to Cantina Investments LLC, a company Sandoval helped form in 2014. The letters said two of those workers are owed a combined $12,271, with the total growing as interest accrues.

"The longer this judgment is left unpaid, the more your company will owe," wrote the nonprofit group, which is retained by the labor commissioner, whose office investigates wage theft complaints.

Story continues

The letters were addressed to Cantina Investments LLC, dba Caliente Cantina, c/o Danielle Sandoval.

Sandoval, in an interview, denied engaging in wage theft. Last week, she said she was unaware of the four employees' claims. She said the restaurant had a company that handled payroll.

"I did not submit any hours. I did not write the schedules. We had supervisors that did all of that. We had a bookkeeper that sent out the bills," she said.

Sandoval told The Times on Friday that she was the owner of Caliente Cantina. On Monday, she said she was a managing partner. She would not clarify her role with Cantina Investments LLC, saying the company has been dissolved  and that she is now conferring with her lawyer.

"We are looking forward to resolving this as soon as possible," she said.

State business records from 2014 identify Sandoval as one of two organizers of Cantina Investments LLC, the company listed as the sole defendant in the four wage cases. The other organizer was San Pedro resident Quinn Padilla, who later married Sandoval, according to business and court records.

Both Sandoval and Padilla signed the company's articles of organization. However, an organizer of an LLC is not necessarily an owner.

Padilla initially told The Times he would be available for a phone call, but later stopped responding to inquiries.

Sandoval would not define the relationship between Cantina Investments and her restaurant. In their filings, state labor officials said Cantina Investments LLC was doing business as Caliente Cantina.

Laverde, spokeswoman for the Department of Industrial Relations, which oversees the office of the labor commissioner, said it can be difficult to collect money from LLCs that are found to have violated state labor laws.

"If warranted, the state would need to conduct additional investigation and bring new legal action in court in order to collect against these entities," she said.

A state business filing from 2014 also lists Sandoval as the agent for Cantina Investments, which would have made her the company's contact for legal correspondence. The document said the company had more than one manager but did not identify them.

In 2015, state agencies placed more than $37,000 in liens on Cantina Investments, with nearly a third stemming from the unpaid wages, damages and penalties that were owed in the restaurant's four wage cases, according to state and county records.

Sandoval accused attorney Tim McOsker, her rival in the council campaign, of carrying out "a political hit job."

"This is an inside job, a hit job from my opponent," she said.

City Council candidate Tim McOsker, pictured in the L.A. harbor in 2020, said the district needs someone who "stands with working families." (Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times)

McOsker shot back at Sandoval, saying Caliente Cantina's wage claims were filed several years ago, well before the campaign began. He also pointed out that Sandoval put $37,000 of her own money into her campaign.

That money could have gone to pay the "real people" who were financially harmed while working at Caliente Cantina, McOsker said.

"We need a council member who stands with working families, not one who exploits them," he said.

Sandoval and McOsker are running to replace Councilman Joe Buscaino in a district that includes the neighborhoods of Wilmington, Harbor City and Harbor Gateway.

Despite being heavily outspent, Sandoval has waged a competitive campaign, picking up endorsements from United Teachers Los Angeles and the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times, which operates separately from the newsroom.

In recent weeks, Councilwoman-elect Eunisses Hernandez, who unseated Councilman Gil Cedillo in June, has urged her supporters to donate to Sandoval's campaign. City controller candidate Kenneth Mejia has also promoted Sandoval's council bid. On Sunday, he showed up in San Pedro to knock on doors on behalf of her and other candidates.

Still, the wage theft complaints could slow Sandoval's momentum, sparking questions about her business background and her commitment to workers.

Sandoval identified herself on the ballot as an entrepreneur and community leader. While campaigning, she has described the difficulties she faced as she opened a restaurant.

"What I found was that our city is not small business friendly," she told the radio program Valley Views. "By the time you finish opening, you're already in debt almost $100,000."

Caliente Cantina opened on 7th Street in San Pedro in 2014 and quickly drew attention. Sandoval appeared on the cover of San Pedro Today, a monthly magazine, along with an article that identified her as the "sole owner" of Caliente Cantina.

That same year, Sandoval highlighted her work at Caliente Cantina while running for a seat on the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council. In her candidate statement, she described herself as a business owner who had chosen to "re-open and revive a once cherished restaurant."

Sandoval joined the neighborhood council and Caliente Cantina closed soon afterward. The following year, workers at Caliente Cantina appeared at a hearing of the state's labor commissioner, where they described their experiences.

Garcia, who worked for nearly six weeks as a chef at the restaurant, testified that at one point, Sandoval paid him with a personal check. He submitted a text message exchange in which Sandoval acknowledged that she owed him and Higareda for work they performed, according to the order issued in his case.

Higareda, who earned $10 per hour at the restaurant, reported to investigators that he lost out on 94.5 regular hours of pay and about seven hours of overtime. He also submitted the text exchange, according to the hearing officer's order.

Flores Esqueda, who worked at the restaurant in July and August 2014, testified that he alerted Sandoval that he had not been paid for 90 hours of work. Sandoval responded by giving excuses, he said.

"One day she told him that she was not going to pay him," the order said.

No one from Caliente Cantina, including Sandoval, attended the 2015 hearing or provided written responses to the allegations, according to the state's order. The hearing dealt with civil, not criminal, violations, Laverde said.

Asked about the workers' claims, Sandoval told The Times that she fired some of her employees for engaging in theft and drug use, but did not provide names.

The Times could not determine if she was describing the employees in the wage theft cases. Sandoval also said the issues faced by Caliente Cantina  such as taxes, permits and "red tape"  show that small businesses "get the short end of the stick."

"That's why small business owners are unable to survive," she said. "I couldn't even last a year with all the money that I lost."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A $1-million grant will allow Los Angeles Community College District students to ride Metro buses and trains for free for the next school year. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

The Los Angeles Community College District has received a $1-million grant to continue providing free Metro passes for about half a million students through the current academic year, officials said.

The initiative, called GoPass, provides a free Metro TAP card to L.A. community college students for use on all Metro buses and trains, as well as 13 additional transit agencies. The program benefits up to 500,000 students across the county.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) secured the $1-million funding through a congressionally directed spending grant, supporting GoPass' extension into the 2022-23 school year for all 21 community colleges in Los Angeles County, according to a news release from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

"Lack of transportation is one of the leading barriers for students seeking to complete their education, and thats particularly true in large metropolitan areas like Los Angeles, Feinstein said.

The majority of L.A. community college students come from low-income communities, and the district says more than half of its students live at or below the poverty line. Metro U-Passes cost $160 or more per semester.

The GoPass helps eliminate that cost barrier, Metro officials said.

The initiative launched in December 2021, following a push from student advocates. The GoPass added 20 school districts in its second year and plans to add 10 more, Metro officials said, as well as offering free transit passes to students at participating K-12 schools.

The agency said it seeks to double participation over the next year.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Lakeland's City Hall.

LAKELAND  Lakeland commissioners adopted a $730 million budget Thursday night that prioritizes public safety while holding the city's tax rate flat. Residents, however, will likely see increase in their property taxes.

The city commission voted unanimously to approve a tax rate of $5.43 per $1,000 of assessed property value for fiscal year 2023, which starts Oct. 1. This is the same tax rate of the current year, less than the previously advertised rate of $5.76 per $1,000.

The 2023 budget places an emphasis on improving public safety as it contains more than $9.2 million in public safety improvements. It will fund the hiring of 13 officers for Lakeland Police Department.

Previously: Lakeland officials reverse course, hold city tax rate flat while funding public safety

Meanwhile: Polk County officials approve $2.4 billion budget

Police Chief Ruben Garcia previously provided the following breakdown on how the 13 new hires would be allocated:

Eight officers on patrol

One homeless liaison officer

One community liaison position

One school resource officer to provide coverage and relief

Two neighborhood liaison units

The Lakeland Fire Department will be provided with funding for 12 additional positions to staff a new station. The budget contains funds designated for the city to purchase property to serve as site of future fire station 8 to be located in North Lakeland. Commissioner Phillip Walker has suggested there be consideration given to creating a police substation within the firehouse to improve response times and provide relief to LPD officers.

Budget Highlights

In the approved General Fund budget, the city will spend approximately $2 million on infrastructure improvements aimed at the city's traffic and transportation needs. City Manager Shawn Sherrouse said these projects include installing electrical vehicle chargers at the soon-to-open Bonnet Springs Park and expanding the city's red-light running detection program, known as iCASP.

Story continues

There will be roadway improvements to the Providence Road project, which includes traffic signal improvements, and $1.5 million set aside for the South Wabash Avenue extension.

Also: Bartow officials cite need for more firefighters and police in proposal for tax increase

More than $3.4 million dollars is budgeted for projects aimed at economic development across the city, Sherrouse said. The city has committed about $1.83 million to the redeveloped of the Oak Street parking with Tampa-based developer Onicx Investments LLC to build at high-rise apartment building of at least 200 units with a parking garage. The developer has committed to 15 apartments being affordable housing for those who make 80% or less of Polk's average median income for at least 15 years.

The city will commit $100,000 to the development of its Catalyst 2.0 plan that conceptualizes a 3D rendering of the city to take aim at potential development opportunities. High on the city's priority list is developing existing surface-level parking, like Oak Street, for higher-density uses.

The commission has heard the complaints of Southwest Lakeland residents and will allocate more than $1 million in the budget for drainage improvements along Hamilton and Medulla roads.

Moving on: As Lakeland police chief nears retirement, a panel is getting to work to select the next one

Related to economic development, the city will spend about $534,000 to support educational initiatives including Lakeland's Power Academy at Tenoroc High School, expanding the city's internship program, and improving tuition reimbursement for city employees.

There is approximately $3.7 million set aside for various projects that take aim at addressing affordable housing within the city. Sherrouse said the money will be used toward construction of multi-family apartments by helping finance qualified builders and loan programs to private developers willing to build affordable units.

Parks and Recreation has about $985,000 in the General Fund for additional projects outlined in the city's Capital Improvement Fund. The funds will go toward a water education and conservation program to be hosted by the Florida's Children Museum, set to open Nov. 4 in Bonnet Springs Park. The city has received an additional $985,000 in via a state grant to begin construction on an educational center at Se7en Wetlands Park.

How it affects taxes

the average Lakeland homeowner whose property has an assessed property value of $123,500, without considering exemptions, would pay about $670 in property taxes.

Despite the city holding the line on taxes, many property owners will wind up paying slightly more in taxes next year. The average assessed value of a Lakeland home rose from $107,000 to $123,500 over the last year, which amounts to a difference of about $90.

Did you kniow: Lakeland planning board approves another 252 apartments off West Pipkin and Yates roads

Polk County's municipal tax rate for 2022-23 is now set at $6.69 per $1,000 of assessed property values. The average Lakeland homeowners, within city limits, should expect to see about a roughly $10 increase in what they pay to Polk. Combined, it will result in approximately a $100 increase in annual property taxes.

Sara-Megan Walsh can be reached at swalsh@theledger.com or 863-802-7545. Follow on Twitter @SaraWalshFl.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lakeland commissioners approve $730 million budget for 2023
The logo of the CIA is seen at the CIA headquarters on 21 January 2017 in Langley, Virginia (Olivier Doulier - Pool/Getty Images)

The CIA has launched its own podcast, in a bid to bring the intelligence agency out of the shadows.

The Langley Files launched on Thursday (22 September). A description of the program says it will aim to educate and connect with the general public, sharing insight into the agencys core mission, capabilities, and agility as an intelligence leader  and to share some interesting stories along the way! Langley, Virginia, is where the CIAs headquarters are located.

The first episode is titled CIA Director Bill Burns Brings the Agency Out from the Shadows. More will follow, with each episode lasting between 15 and 30 minutes.

We do usually operate in the shadows, out of sight and out of mind, Mr Burns, who has been the CIAs director since March last year, says in the first episode. Our successes are often obscured, our failures are often painfully visible, and our sacrifices are often unknown.

He acknowledges that a certain amount of discretion certainly comes with the territory, then adds: But Im convinced ... that in our democracy, where trust in institutions is in such short supply, that its important to try to explain ourselves as best we can and to demystify a little bit of what we do. So thats why Im glad youre launching this podcast and glad to be with you.

Asked to dispel some of the biggest misconceptions about the CIA, Mr Burns said that while he loves spy movies, intelligence work is not nearly as exciting as they make it out to be.

One big misconception that a lot of those really entertaining movies feed is that intelligence in real life is just a glamorous world of solo operators in the world of James Bond and Jason Bourne and Jack Ryan, Mr Burn says on the show.

A world of heroic individuals who drive fast cars and defuse bombs and solve world crises all on their own every day. That, I have to tell you, is a constant source of amusement for my wife and daughters. They never cease to remind me that I dont exactly fit that image since Im most comfortable driving our 2013 Subaru Outback at posted speed limits and that, for me at least, the height of technological daring is when I can finally get the Roku remote to work at home.

The Langley Files can be streamed on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and on the CIAs own website, where transcripts are available.
AccuWeather meteorologists are warning of the possibility that Hurricane Ian in the Caribbean could continue to intensify moving forward, with the storm's sights set on striking the west coast of Florida -- an often missed target.

After making the trek from the Caribbean into the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the current forecast track of for Ian shows the hurricane continuing to intensify after moving over Cuba, reaching a Category 4 strength on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, and then impacting the United States by the middle to end of this week.

According to a historical database provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), there have been about 160 hurricanes, excluding tropical storms, that have affected Florida. Only 17 of the 160 have passed close to the west coast, north of the Florida Keys.

Of those 17, there is no record of a hurricane having tracked entirely up the west coast of Florida since reliable records began in 1944. If the potential track of the storm stays along the west coast, it could be a "very unusual track," AccuWeather Senior Weather Editor Jesse Ferrell explained, stating that most storms typically travel northeast or northwest, not up the coast.

Hurricane Ian just off the coast of western Cuba, shortly after becoming a Category 3 storm. (College of DuPage)

"In fact, there was only one hurricane before 1944, a Category 5 hurricane in 1935, that hit the Keys then ran up the west coast," Ferrell said.

Tampa's highest storm surge on record, however, came from the unnamed Hurricane of 1921. Downtown, the water rose 10.5 feet. That hurricane plowed directly into the west coast north of Tampa, delivering a worst-case-scenario storm surge that was funneled into Tampa Bay. The surge destroyed much of the seawall that existed then, inundating much of the area and reducing buildings to rubble.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, which covered the 90th anniversary of the 1921 storm in 2011, the population of the five-county area was around 135,000 people when that storm hit. According to Census.gov, that population had expanded to 3.38 million in 2021.

Story continues

"It's important to note that Florida has had recent hits from storms that were hurricanes but were downgraded to tropical storms before landfall," Ferrell said, noting the two most recent storms that made landfall as tropical storms -- Elsa in 2021 which made landfall just west of Tampa on Treasure Island and Eta in 2020 which made landfall north of Tampa in Cedar Key.

Ferrell narrowed the data down even further to six of the biggest hurricanes to affect the west coast of Florida. While the current brewing threat likely won't follow the exact same path as any of these storms, understanding how previous storms made landfall on Florida's west coast gives insight into comprehending how unusual the storm's track is right now.

Starting with the most recent, Hurricane Irma came crashing into Marco Island in southwestern Florida as a Category 3 major hurricane in 2017.

"Hurricane Irma took that extremely unusual north-northwest track up the western half of Florida as a Category 1, causing widespread damage in the state," Ferrell said. "It was a wake-up call for west coast Floridians [who were] not prepared."

Irma resulted in more than $320 million in damages across southwestern Florida, according to a report from NOAA.

In this geocolor GOES-16 satellite image taken Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017, at 18:30 UTC (2:30 p.m. EDT), the eye of Hurricane Irma moves northwest just off the coast of Cuba and south of Florida. (NOAA via AP)

Twelve years earlier, Hurricane Wilma took advantage of the warm Caribbean waters and low wind shear in the atmosphere and the storm underwent a record-setting and staggering period of intensification, strengthening from a Category 1 to a Category 5 hurricane in just 24 hours. After making landfall in Mexico, Wilma took aim at the Florida Peninsula, making landfall as a Category 3 hurricane near Cape Romano, Florida.

The aftermath was devastating. Wilma was the ninth-costliest hurricane to impact the U.S. in history, with a total estimated cost of more than $25 billion, according to the 2020 Consumer Price Index adjusted cost.

Just one year before Wilma wreaked havoc on Florida's southwestern coast, Hurricane Charley left its mark. Charley made landfall just west of Cape Coral in 2004 as a Category 4 hurricane and was one of the most severe hurricanes to make landfall on Florida's west coast.

It rapidly intensified from a Category 2 to a Category 4 hurricane just before landfall. After landfall, Charlie sliced through the center of the state and worked its way up the East Coast. By the time it crossed North Carolina, it had weakened into a tropical storm.

Hurricane Charley shortly before peak intensity near landfall in Florida on Aug. 13, 2004 (NOAA)

Charley was blamed for killing more than a dozen people in the Caribbean and the U.S. combined, with damages estimated to cost close to $17 billion.

Hurricane Gladys in 1968 and Hurricane Donna in 1960 both had similar tracks. Gladys made landfall as a Category 2 between the Florida Panhandle and Tampa, which is considered to be a rare track for any hurricane, much less a Category 2, Ferrell explained. Gladys sliced through northern Florida and continued as a hurricane to the Outer Banks, just off North Carolina.

Although Hurricane Donna carved a similar path as Hurricane Gladys, it made landfall farther south, hitting just south of Cape Coral as a Category 3 hurricane. Donna then sliced through Florida and continued as a Category 2 hurricane, making landfall in North Carolina. But instead of fizzling out and weakening after making landfall in North Carolina, Donna continued up the East Coast, making another landfall in Long Island as a Category 2 hurricane.

A Tampa man found the going rough when he stepped out to check the weather at one of the residential sections bordering Tampa Bay on Sept. 10, 1960. Wind gusts picked up considerably later and threatened to uproot trees in this section after dark as Hurricane Donna approached from the South. (AP Photo)

Donna was one of the most destructive hurricanes to affect Florida in modern times, according to the NWS, which noted that there were 12 fatalities in Florida. Damage estimates have ranged from $36 million to $350 million.

Last but certainly not least, Hurricane Easy in 1950 was a "nightmare storm" for western Florida, according to Ferrell.

Hurricane Easy made its first U.S. landfall in Florida as a Category 3 hurricane, just north of Tampa near Cedar Key. It meandered around and made a second landfall 24 hours later in Spring Hill, which is about 55 miles south of Cedar Key as a Category 2 hurricane.

Post landfall, Easy weakened into a tropical storm that continued north through Florida before becoming a tropical depression in Georgia and finally fizzling out in Arkansas.

Hurricane Easy dumped 38.7 inches of rain in 24 hours in parts of Florida and caused $3.3 million in damages, NOAA reported.

Once again, people along the Gulf coast of Florida, as well as elsewhere in the state, should remain vigilant and be prepared for a strike by an intense hurricane in the days ahead, according to AccuWeather forecasters.

Want next-level safety, ad-free? Unlock advanced, hyperlocal severe weather alerts when you subscribe to Premium+ on the AccuWeather app.AccuWeather Alerts are prompted by our expert meteorologists who monitor and analyze dangerous weather risks 24/7 to keep you and your family safer.
ABC News

The National Archives has still not recovered all the presidential records that should have been turned over at the end of the Trump administration, according to a new letter to Congress from the acting archivist. "We do know that we do not have custody of everything we should," Debra Steidel Wall, acting archivist of the United States, said in her letter to Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., suggesting that former officials had still not turned over electronic messages of official business done on personal accounts. Wall's letter was a response to a Sept. 13 request from Maloney seeking an "urgent review" of "whether presidential records remain unaccounted for and potentially in the possession of the former president."
A bridal shop in Lenexa sued a bride and members of her bridal party for allegedly libelous statements left in online reviews and social media posts.

The One Bridal filed the lawsuit against bride Alix Schiraldi of Shawnee, Kansas, Monday, claiming she and other members of her party left negative and false reviews and social media comments about the store that were meant to hurt its business.

According to the lawsuit, Alix Schiraldi had an appointment in late January 2022, when she ordered a gown and veil for her Nov. 5 wedding. An invoice given to Schiraldi and Shelly Chambers, another defendant named in the case, states the date of the ceremony, which Chambers signed, according to court documents.

The store also gave Schiraldi a pamphlet, which said custom dresses like hers take at least six to nine months to arrive in store, at which point she would be contacted to pick up the gown, according to the lawsuit. Chambers also signed that she understood all shipping times given for the dress were an estimate and that delays could occur.

The order began processing on Feb. 7, after an issue with a bounced check was resolved, according to the lawsuit.

In April, Schiraldi informed the store her wedding date had moved up a month to Oct. 8, the lawsuit said. Store employees told Schiraldi this didnt seem to pose an issue, as the dress was expected to come in August. Schiraldi did not express concern about the August arrival date at that time, the lawsuit said.

Fraud claims begin

Beginning Aug. 8, Schiraldi and her wedding planner called the store multiple times asking when the dress would arrive. Schiraldi was panicked and wondering if she needed to come in to find a new gown, but store employees told her it was in the quality control phase and would arrive within the month, according to the lawsuit.

A week later, Schiraldi came to the store to tell employees her final payment had not gone through, according to the lawsuit. Employees were able to complete the payment by wire transfer the next day.

Story continues

Schiraldi came to the store a few days later with her fiance. They allegedly wanted the store to give them answers and accused employees of lying about payments going through and the shipping date of the gown. Her fiance said the store needed to own up to it and make it right, the lawsuit said.

The store told Schiraldi and her fiance that the payment had recently gone through and they were waiting to get shipping information from the designer.

But Schiraldi allegedly said she had visited other stores that sold Galia gowns, who she said told her that the dress was ready. She also said the other stores told her that The One Bridal lied about needing time to perform quality control, according to the lawsuit.

Later that afternoon, the store emailed Schiraldi to summarize the information the store had and inform her they received a complaint from the Better Business Bureau in which Schiraldi claimed she was promised her dress in June, the lawsuit said.

The Better Business Bureau complaint appeared to be a direct copy of an online review left by Gina Schiraldi, another defendant listed in the case, according to the lawsuit.

Schiraldi and Chambers also claimed the store was lying about the bounced check, according to the lawsuit. Around that time, the lawsuit alleges that Schiraldi claimed the store acted like debt collectors to get your money upfront.

The store said these allegations were false, as Schiraldi, Chambers and others knew the check had bounced and made the decision to pay the full balance upfront.

Schiraldis fiance allegedly emailed the store the next day, requesting a full refund of the gown and threatened legal action to get one, even though Schiraldi signed and acknowledged the stores no-refund policy, the lawsuit said.

The store had its lawyer contact Schiraldi to correct some of the false statements she allegedly made, including calling other stores and saying The One Bridal took her money and ran, and request she stop making such statements, according to the lawsuit. That letter, which was sent Aug. 25, also told Schiraldi she could pick up her dress the next day.

Schiraldi picked up her dress on Aug. 26, six months and two weeks from when her dress deposit cleared the bank and within the six to nine month estimate the store provided, according to the lawsuit. She allegedly refused an offer to try it on.

Alix Schiraldi, along with Gina and Shelby Schiraldi, later claimed they were issued a cease and desist order from the store for leaving negative reviews and social media comments about the store, which the lawsuit characterized as a campaign of defamation toward The One Bridal with the purpose of injuring the store, the lawsuit said.

Online claims

Gina Schiraldi allegedly wrote a Google review, saying the store tried to use scare tactics to silence my sisters truth by issuing her a cease-and-desist order and called the store completely fraudulent  scamming brides left and right, according to the lawsuit.

She made similar claims in a Facebook post on The One Bridals page, saying the store called her stepfather every day, for multiple days demanding payment and that once they get your money, they ROB PETER TO PAY PAUL, the lawsuit said. Gina Schiraldi also claimed her sister did not have her dress, after the date she picked it up, according to the lawsuit.

Also in social media posts, Gina Schiraldi claimed the store used a common swindle technique to give bridesmaids dresses that required more alterations. The store disputed this, saying its standard procedure to order a standard size and then alter the gown.

After learning her gown was ready to be picked up, Alix Schiraldi made multiple false statements on social media sites, saying the store lied and that They took my money and basically ran and wont answer me, the lawsuit said.

The day after she picked up her gown, Alix Schiraldi allegedly claimed on social media that her gown hadnt arrived, she had to pick up a back-up gown and that the store called her wedding venue rather than herself to say the dress was ready. After refusing to try on the gown, Alix Schiraldi commented on a Facebook post saying the dress was a size too small even though the store had taken her measurements, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims Alix Schiraldi may have orchestrated the defamation after setting an appointment with another bridal shop, as she posted a review of Ricca Sposa bridal boutique in late August, saying she had an appointment three weeks prior.

Shelby Schiraldi allegedly also made posts claiming the store was scamming customers and posted that After they have your money, all professionalism or any sort of business ethics are out the window, according to the lawsuit.

Shelly Chambers also allegedly posted that the stores integrity and business ethic is non existent when it comes to the final piece of the bridal experience, which is actually getting your dress, according to the lawsuit.

The Schiraldis were contacted for comment, but said they had not known about the lawsuit previously.
 Flash

A Chinese envoy on Wednesday rejected accusations by the United States, Britain and the European Union that China commits human rights abuses against its ethnic minorities.

China's permanent representative to the United Nations Zhang Jun called the accusations unfounded.

Speaking at a high-level meeting to mark the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, Zhang said that over the past three decades, progress has been made in implementing the declaration.

However, minorities still face challenges like racism, discrimination, xenophobia, violence and hatred, he said, adding that the international community still has a long way to go to translate the commitments set out in the declaration into reality.

He said countries must continue their relentless efforts to better protect the rights of minorities and take a multi-pronged approach involving policy, legislative and administrative measures to eliminate racism, discrimination and hatred.

There is a need to incorporate equal development for minorities into overall national development, and combine it with achieving Sustainable Development Goals, said Zhang.

"We must make targeted efforts to address the practical problems facing minorities, such as poverty, education and health care. And we must stay committed to dialogue and cooperation, and oppose the use of human rights issues to provoke division and confrontation for political self-interests. Together, we must truly create a peaceful and just environment for minorities to survive and thrive," he said.

Zhang said China's Xinjiang is home to 56 ethnic groups, including the Han, the Uyghur and the Kazak, adding that with the joint efforts of people from all ethnic groups, Xinjiang has enjoyed sustained economic growth, social harmony and stability, continuous livelihood improvements, cultural prosperity and religious harmony. These facts are there for all to see, he said.

Unfortunately, representatives of the United States, Britain and the EU, in total disregard of facts, are abusing the General Debate of the UN General Assembly and the high-level commemorative meeting to make unfounded accusations against China, which China categorically rejects, said Zhang.

Ironically, the United States, Britain and the EU have listed all sorts of unfounded charges against other countries but are afraid to face their own problems. The United States ought to face up to the genocide of Native Americans and ensure accountability and compensation, eradicate systematic racial discrimination against Asians and other ethnic minorities, eliminate social injustice, and allow ethnic minorities to breathe freely and develop equally, he said.

"We call on the Human Rights Council and the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues to continue to follow the infringement on minorities' rights by countries like the United States. We urge those few countries to stop the politicization of human rights issues, stop their double standards, stop their interference in other countries' internal affairs, and work earnestly to address their own human rights issues," said Zhang.
Laenor Velaryron played by John Macmillan

Editor's note: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 1, Episode 5.

As part of our new ritual, my boyfriend and I tuned in to watch House of the Dragon this past Sunday, along with about 29 million other viewers. We both let out a collective aww when, halfway through the episode, the show introduced its first queer storyline. In one scene, Princess Rhaenyra, played by Milly Alcock, discusses her soon-to-be marriage to her betrothed, her cousin, Laenor Velaryon, played by John Macmillan. In a seemingly modern agreement of sorts, Rhaenyra and Laenor decide they will have an open marriage. This gives the couple the freedom to explore their separate love interests. We know from previous episodes that Rhaenyra has been intimate with a knight of the Kings Guard, Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), while we learn in the next scene in Episode 5, Laenor has a romantic relationship with his own knight, Ser Joffrey Lonmouth, played by Solly McLeod.

My boyfriend, Carlos, and I were ecstatic when we saw the shows first queer storyline introduced in a way that went beyond the subtle suggestions of Laenors sexuality as we had watched in earlier scenes. In watching this scene, I realized how rare it is to see a relationship in a mainstream show like House of the Dragon that mirrors my own. Carlos and I looked at each other and smiled as Joffrey and Laenor shared a passionate kiss on a Westerosi beach. We are lucky, I told him, to live in a time when we finally get to see ourselves.

Its pretty cool, huh? Carlos replied before we shared a kiss of our own that mirrored that between the two young men on our TV.

Though the joy did not last long. We know from Game of Thrones that weddings in Westeros never end without bloodshed. A fight interrupts the celebration at Rhaenyra and Laenors wedding, held in the Throne Room of the Red Keep. After Joffrey warns Criston that he knows Rhaenyra, Criston begins brutally attacking Joffrey in front of the weddings attendees. Its not just that this fight takes the attention away from the wedding reception  if you could even call it a fight. Its more like a ruthless beating the viewer is forced to watch. Several minutes after the shows first queer love story gets introduced, we see it quite literally crushed by Ser Cristons fist as he murders Joffrey in the Throne Room by smashing his head into the marble floor until he is unrecognizable in a spectacle of that famous HBO gore weve all become too familiar with.

Story continues

Was that really necessary? I say aloud as I shield my eyes with my hand as Laenor, on-screen, sobs uncontrollably over his lovers limp, practically headless shell of a body.

What the fuck was that? Carlos seems to summarize it plainly for both of us. Just like that, we were instantaneously brought back to a reality where queer characters cannot fully exist without tragedy.

In 2016 the queer feminist site Autostraddle made a list of 225 Dead Lesbians and Bisexual Characters and How They Died after the death of a lesbian character on the show The 100 made headlines. Its important to point out that this list does not feature gay and bi male characters, nor does it cover trans characters. It also doesnt include those LGBTQ+ deaths found on film.

House of the Dragon is the latest example of the tragic queer storyline. After Sundays episode, I wondered what intention the shows creators had in introducing this romance to the audience before snatching it away from us no more than 20 minutes later with an unnecessarily graphic death. What good is queer representation if whats being portrayed goes against the interest of the queer viewer? At a moment when LGBTQ+ rights are under the microscope in the Supreme Court, with the Senate planning to hold a vote on marriage equality after the midterms, and hate crimes on the rise, just months after members of the Patriot Front, a white supremacist group, were arrested for planning an attack at an Idaho Pride festival, it is more than tone-deaf for the creators of House of the Dragon to represent violence against queers in this way; it is blatantly irresponsible.

Mey Rude published a list for Out this week of 15 Recent, Especially Brutal, Examples of the Bury Your Gay Trope. Rude prefaces the listicle by writing, This goes back to the Hays Code, a rule in early Hollywood that said sexual acts considered perverted, including suggestions of same-sex relationships were banned, and that any sex outside of straight sex between a husband and a wife had to always be shown in a negative light and with negative consequences  usually meaning death.

I think its essential that while we demand there be more representation of LGBTQ+ characters in TV and film, and perhaps, even before we rightfully petition for these characters to be played by queer and trans actors, we get specific about exactly the type of representation we are looking to see. Queer viewers are hungry to see themselves reflected on the screen, but they do not deserve lazy romantic plots that lead nowhere but to the tired gruesomeness of queer trauma and death. My boyfriend and I were ecstatic to see this gay romance at first, not because it was just any gay characters but because we got to see two gay characters in love. We live in a society where young queer and trans people have to question their whole lives if they will ever find happiness. The least we can expect from a fantasy show like House of the Dragon is the depiction that queer love is possible. When Joffrey was murdered senselessly, I was reminded how gay characters often cant fully exist even in fiction without punishment. I couldnt help but internalize this trauma between the shows two gay characters. It made me question if my love, in real life, could be one void tragedy. LGBTQ+ viewers need to know that trauma is not the only ending for our stories. We dont need just any queer representation, we need a representation of queer joy so that viewers know such a thing is possible on-screen as it is in real life.

Andrew Sciallo has an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from The New School, and now works as a freelance journalist and content creator on TikTok @generationshallow. He was recently hired as an Adjunct Professor of English at Pace University for the Fall 2022 semester. His writing has appeared in Lithub, Backstage, Ruxwood Journal, and Greenpointers.

Views expressed in The Advocates opinion articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, EqualPride.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks in Tampa on July 22. (Phelan M. Ebenhack / Associated Press)

To the editor: Columnist Jonah Goldberg notes that the federal government has transported immigrants throughout the country for years. That is its right by law. The federal government has programs that coordinate these moves with the communities to which refugees are sent. ("No party is innocent when it comes to Americas lack of an immigration policy," Opinion, Sept. 20)

But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis transported asylum seekers across state borders, and he may have done so illegally.

As for the immigrants arriving at Martha's Vineyard, there was no coordination with authorities in Massachusetts. Reportedly falsified documents were given to these people, and they were sent to areas far from the courts where they were supposed to appear, putting their cases for asylum in jeopardy.

Goldberg failed to address the possible illegality of these actions, and that's dangerous considering the volatile climate in this country.

Jann Shaw, Porter Ranch

..

To the editor: Goldberg provides another example of the pundit's fallacy, advocating for something to "solve the problem."

Immigration is an example of one of the most basic traits existent in all human populations, the search for a better place to live. Sadly, we do not teach history as a movement of peoples, but so much of history is that movement.

When one looks at nearly every place in the world, the dominant culture today is an immigrant culture. Where the immigrants come from will be dependent on conditions out of our immediate control, whether it is a potato famine or war or political repression or climate change. And, the language and behavior of bigotry echoes across the centuries and continents.

There will always be immigration to the U.S., and the only thing that can be done is to provide resources sufficient to manage it humanely.

Norman Rodewald, Moorpark

..

To the editor: Thanks to Goldberg for providing a smidgen of balance in the news.

He calls out Republicans and Democrats. He proclaims disturbing truths about both sides, a refreshing sabbatical from the monotonous one-sided news reporting almost everywhere in the country.

Story continues

He says that the vice president's statement that the border is secure is "insulting to your intelligence." It is; thank you.

He calls DeSantis' action a "cynical stunt." It is; thank you.

He blames both parties for treating migrants like political pawns. They do; thank you.

Goldberg made my day with some balanced commentary.

David Waldowski, Laguna Woods





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The Action News Jax First Alert Weather Team is continuing to track Tropical Storm Ian as it impacts Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia.

Follow along with live updates below as Florida prepares for the storm:

For locations to find and fill up sandbags click HERE.

WATCH THE FORECAST | DOWNLOAD THE APPS

September 30, 2022

8:01 p.m.: The city of St. Augustine will begin collecting storm debris on Saturday, Oct. 1. in residential areas impacted by Hurricane Ian. Residents are urged to place yard debris curbside to allow collection by city crews. For more information on what should and should not be done visit the Citys website.

4:52 p.m.: Clay County District Schools will resume normal operations on Monday, October 3.

4:25 p.m.: All Duval County Public Schools and school activities will resume on Monday, October 3.

3:20 P.M.: St. Johns County has opened the Solomon Calhoun Community Center, 1300 Duval St., as a post-impact shelter for those who are unable to return to their homes. All other shelters are now closed.

St. Johns County has opened four Points of Distribution (PODs) for those affected by Hurricane Ian to receive water. The PODs will be available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 1, and Sunday, Oct. 2. Water distribution will be limited to two cases of water per car.

St. Augustine Amphitheatre, 1340C A1A S, St. Augustine

Solomon Calhoun Community Center, 1300 Duval St., St. Augustine

Flagler Estates Community Center, 9960 Oliver Ave., Hastings

Al Wilke Park, 6150 South Main St., Hastings

For updates on Hurricane Ian recovery efforts in St. Johns County, please visit www.sjcfl.us/hurricane or call the St. Johns County Emergency Management Citizen Information Line at 904.824.5550.

12:07 p.m.: Duval County beaches -- Atlantic, Neptune and Jacksonville -- are back open effective immediately, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry says.

10:59 a.m.: The St. Johns County School District said all District Offices will be open to resume normal operations on Monday, October 3. Extracurricular activities, athletic contests and practices can also take place as scheduled. School make up days will be determined soon and communicated to families and staff.

Story continues

8:18 a.m.: Hurricane expected to remain at 90 mph as it heads towards the South Carolina coast.

1:50 a.m.: Storms winds reach 85 mph.

September 29, 2022

8:12 p.m.: Category 1 storm strengthening as it moves closer to the Carolinas.

5:49 p.m.: The Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) will restart regular bus service Friday by noon

5:41 p.m.: The Jacksonville International Airport will reopen Friday with limited food service.

Jacksonville International Airport will be open for operations on Friday (9/30) w/limited food service. Some airlines will operate on reduced schedules, so its important to check flight status w/them before heading to the terminal. The TSA security checkpoint will open at 7 am. pic.twitter.com/BZQIVlYZyX  JAXairport (@JAXairport) September 29, 2022

5:01 p.m.: Storm is once again a Category 1 hurricane.

1:19 p.m.: Fernandina Beach storm surge exceeds height of Hurricane Irma.

11:58 a.m.: Storm surge in St. Augustine exceeds height of Hurricane Matthew storm surge.

11:50 a.m.: Flagler County urges residents in Woodlands neighborhood (Evacuation Zone C) to leave immediately.

9:43 a.m.: The Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine has partially closed, according to the St. Augustine Police Department.

7:42 a.m.: President Biden approves Florida disaster declaration.

5:05 a.m.: Ian downgraded to a tropical storm.

September 28, 2022

11:20 p.m.: Hurricane Ian has weakened to a Category 1 with winds of 100 mph.

At 11 pm Wed Hurricane Ian was located 70 mi south of Orlando FL or 80 mi southwest of Cape Canaveral FL. Ian had max sustained winds of 90 mph and a central pressure of 972 mb/28.71" Ian was moving to the NNE at 8 mph and is expect to move offshore over the Atlantic Thursday. pic.twitter.com/mQqi2J3yLI  NWS Eastern Region (@NWSEastern) September 29, 2022

9:19 p.m.; Hurricane Ian has been downgraded to a Category 2 with winds of 105 mph, hours after making landfall on the southwest coast of Florida Wednesday afternoon with Category 4 force.

7:22 p.m.: Hurricane Ian has weakened to a Category 3 with winds of 125 mph.

5:16 p.m.: Hurricane Ians eye makes landfall on mainland Florida at Pirate Harbor, which is in Charlotte County.

3:17 p.m.: The eye of Hurricane Ian has made landfall on Cayo Costa, which is north of Captiva and Sanibel Islands.

11:12 a.m.: Hurricane watch issued from Flagler/Volusia County, Fla. north to South Carolina

8:33 a.m.: Flagler County issues evacuation orders for zones A, B & F.

Evacuations effective 1 p.m. - leave as early as possible - general population (with pets) and special needs shelters to open at 1 p.m. - https://t.co/mRle5PTULO pic.twitter.com/WdME1cxi7K  Flagler County Emergency Management (@FlaglerEOC) September 28, 2022

8 a.m.: Nassau County issues evacuation orders for zones A & D.

Evacuation Order Issued

As of 8:00 a.m. this morning, Nassau County has issued an Evacuation Order for Evacuation Zones A and D. pic.twitter.com/DqKKsORlI3  NassauEM (@NassauEM) September 28, 2022

7:20 a.m.: Storm winds reach 155 mph, just shy of a Category 5.

6 a.m.: St. Johns County evacuation begin.

5:06 a.m.: Hurricane Ian reaches Category 4 strength.

September 27, 2022

7:11 p.m.: Duval County Public Schools shared the following update: Mayor Curry announced at 4:17 via Twitter that he is considering evacuations in zone A. Because of the possibility of evacuations, all Duval County Public Schools will now be fully closed on Wednesday, Sept. 28. All school operations and activities are canceled. This is in addition to closures already announced for Thursday and Friday.

6:16 p.m.: Walt Disney World will temporarily close its theme parks on Wednesday, Sept. 28 and Thursday, Sept. 29:

Magic Kingdom Park

EPCOT

Disneys Animal Kingdom Theme Park

Disneys Hollywood Studios

Disneys Typhoon Lagoon water park (Disneys Blizzard Beach water park is currently closed for the season.)

Winter Summerland Miniature Golf

Fantasia Gardens

Fairways Miniature Golf

Partially used multi-day theme park tickets with a usage window impacted by Hurricane Ian related park closure will automatically be extended to use the remaining entitlements through any date through September 30, 2023.

5:55 p.m.: Orlando International Airport will cease flights at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 28.

Operational Update  Hurricane Ian

Commercial operations at MCO will cease at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, 09/28/22. Entry to all parking facilities will be closed at that same period. Please contact your airline for flight updates. pic.twitter.com/P75DooP2EA  Orlando International Airport (@MCO) September 27, 2022

4:24 p.m.: Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said citizens should be prepared for the possibility of evacuations. He tweeted Tuesday afternoon, As Hurricane #Ian moves closer to the @CityofJax, we are watching closely to determine if evacuations in Zone A is the safest option for citizens. We will make this decision early Wednesday morning, but if you live in Zone A please be prepared for this possible scenario.

4:22 p.m.: Camden County Board of Commissioners have issued a State of Emergency Declaration effective Tuesday until rescinded. Officials from the Camden County Board of Commissioners and the Cities of Kingsland, St. Marys, and Woodbine jointly agreed to close all local government offices Wednesday September 28, 2022, through Friday, September 30, 2022.

4:05 p.m.: SeaWorld Orlando, Discovery Cove and Aquatica will be closed Wednesday and Thursday due to Hurricane Ian. Busch Gardens Tampa Bay will be closed Tuesday through Thursday.

2:45 p.m.: Clay County officials have issued evacuations for Zones A, B, C, and North Prong and South Prong. The order goes into effect Wednesday at noon.

1:48 p.m.: The USS Orleck will not open to the public on Wednesday as originally planned. Due to Hurricane Ian, it will open NEXT Wednesday, Oct. 5.

1:38 p.m.: St. Johns County officials announced that at 6 a.m. Wednesday, an evacuation order will go into effect for Zones A, B (including entire city of St. Augustine), and zone F south of County Road 214.

Northeast Florida evacuation information ahead of Hurricane Ian

12:46 p.m.: Due to Hurricane Ian and impending weather, the Duval and Nassau County Courthouses will be closing at noon on Wednesday, September 28 through Friday September 30.

The Clay County Courthouse will close all day Wednesday (Sept 28) through Friday (Sept 30).

No hearings or proceedings should be conducted after 12 p.m. Wed (Sept 28) except first appearances.

12:06 p.m.: A state of emergency has been declared for Duval County, effective Wednesday at noon.

Declaring a state of emergency allows the city to allocate dollars and resources, Mayor Lenny Curry said.

The city will open Legends Center for anyone who needs emergency shelter. At this time, that will be the only shelter opening, but Curry said that could change.

Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Diana Green said for Duval County Public Schools, Wednesday, students will be dismissed 2.5 hours earlier than normal. Wednesday was an already-scheduled early release day. Athletic activities are canceled until Oct. 3.

Thursday and Friday, Duval schools will close. The Oct. 14th weather day will be a regular school day.

11:43 a.m.: Several Northeast Florida cities and counties will be giving news conferences about preparations ahead of Hurricane Ian. Action News Jax will stream all of them and they are as follows:

City of Jacksonville at 12:05 p.m.

St. Johns Countys Emergency Operations Center at 1 p.m.

Clay County Emergency Management at 2:30 p.m.

5 a.m.: Tropical storm watches placed on Bradford County, Western Duval County, Western Clay County and Western Putnam County.

4:15 a.m.: Ian makes landfall in Cuba with significant winds (125 mph) and storm surge as a Category 3.

2:39 a.m.: Ian reaches Category 3 strength.

September 26, 2022

11 p.m.: Putnam County Emergency Management released the following information:

In light of the serious threat to lives and property in Putnam County posed by Hurricane Ian, it is recommended that residents in evacuation zones A and F, low-lying areas, areas that have a history of flooding, and mobile homes evacuate beginning Tuesday, September 27, 2022.

Shelters will be open starting Tuesday, September 27, 2022, at 6 p.m.

General Population Shelters

Robert H. Jenkins, Jr. Elementary School (formerly Interlachen Elementary School), 251 County Rd 315, Interlachen, FL

QI Roberts JR-SR High School, 901 State Rd 100, Florahome

Browning-Pearce Elementary School, 100 Bear Blvd, San Mateo

Middleton-Burney Elementary School, 1020 Huntington Rd, Crescent City

Pet-Friendly Shelter

Ockwilla Elementary School, 299 N. State Rd 21, Hawthorne

Special Needs (Run Through the Department of Health)

Kelley Smith Elementary School, 141 Kelley Smith School Rd, Palatka

For more information and to find out your evacuation zone, please visit eoc.putnam-fl.com or call the EOC call center at 386-329-1904.

6 p.m.: Green Cove Springs City Council declared a State of Emergency due to Hurricane Ian. The state of emergency will remain in effect in accordance with the State of Floridas Executive Order, as needed.

5:49 p.m.: Our area is now under a Tropical Storm Watch, according to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center.

The following information was shared during Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Currys 5 p.m. update:

The mayor urged residents not to panic, but to prepare. Curry said the city is currently NOT ordering evacuations or opening shelters BUT that could change. All city offices will be open for now.

JEA said more than 2,000 employees ready to respond. Mutual aid crews and contractors are also on standby from across the country. JEA lobby & call center will be open.

Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Diana Greene Duval County Public Schools said Tuesday will be a normal school day. Wednesday is already scheduled early release. A decision about any potential closures this week will be made by Tuesday at noon.

Jacksonville does not offer sandbags because officials said if people use them incorrectly, they can do more harm than good.

4:02 p.m.: Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry will provide an update at 5:05 p.m. on the citys storm preparations ahead of Ian.

2:03 p.m.: The St. Johns County Emergency Management Citizen Information Line is now open to help answer residents questions about Hurricane Ian.

For more information, please call the St. Johns County Emergency Management Citizen Information Line at 904-824-5550.

Residents can find tips and resources such as supply kits, pets, and other emergency response information at www.sjcemergencymanagement.com.

1:51 p.m.: JEA leadership is closely monitoring Hurricane Ian to ensure the utilitys readiness for the storm. JEA Managing Director & CEO Jay Stowe ordered JEAs Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to operate at partial Activation status. At this level, the EOC will perform around-the-clock storm monitoring and release scheduled communications to internal teams, field crews and customers with pertinent storm updates.

JEA is preparing for potential widespread outages and flooding in low-lying areas.

In addition, mutual aid crews from outside the impact area are on standby and already are mobilizing to assist in the restoration process as needed.

As part of normal storm preparation, starting Tuesday, JEA will temporarily suspend customer disconnections for non-payment as we mobilize to support our community.

Customers are encouraged to ensure their mobile phone number and email address are up to date on their jea.com account and to sign up for voice, email or text alerts. This will allow JEA to contact customers directly with updates on a power outage.

JEA has worked throughout the year to prepare for severe weather in a number of ways:

Storm Hardening : JEA has made significant investments to harden our electric, water and sewer systems to make them more resistant to storm-related disruptions. These critical repairs and improvements help us restore power and return to normal operations more quickly after a major storm

Year-Round Tree Trimming : While strong winds and heavy rains cause their share of storm damage, most storm-related power outages result from tree branches falling on power lines.

Water & Sewer Upgrades: The utility has made significant investments in upgrading our water and sewer facilities, and has installed backup generators to reduce the risk of storm-related service interruptions.

1:44 p.m.: Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services Nikki Fried and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) are sharing the following information on how to avoid scams surrounding natural disasters and best prepare for Hurricane Ian.

Hurricane Fuel Plan Preparations:

FDACS recommends the following tips for hurricane preparedness, along with important fuel safety reminders:

Keep all vehicles at least half full during hurricane season.

Keep at least one vehicle filled with gasoline once the earliest predictions indicate a storm may threaten the state.

Pre-purchase fuels (LP gas and gasoline) for generators at the start of hurricane season  properly stored fuels will last at least six months and can be transferred into a vehicle for use should no emergency arise.

Use gasoline fuel stabilizer to keep gasoline fresh and ready to use when it is needed.

Fuel Safety:

Refill fuel containers on the ground, not in the truck bed or trunk.

Transport and store fuel ONLY in appropriate containers  look for DOT approved containers that close tightly and do not leak.

NEVER store or transport gasoline in milk jugs or open top containers.

Store fuel in a safe and well-ventilated location.

Report Outages/Quality: To report fuel outages or quality issues before or after a hurricane, consumers should contact the departments Division of Consumer Services at 1-800-HELP-FLA, 1-800-FL-AYUDA en Espanol, or FloridaConsumerHelp.com.

Consumer Anti-Fraud Tips

Clean-up and repair scams: After disasters, unlicensed contractors and scammers may appear with promises of quick repairs, clean-up, and debris removal. Some may demand upfront payment and not do the work, claim youll get a discount but quote outrageous prices, or lack needed skills. Before you do business with any company providing these services:

Do your research: Ask for IDs, licenses, proof of insurance, and references. See if local contact information is on their trucks. Check with FDACS Division of Consumer Services for complaints.

Get another estimate: Check if other companies offering similar services are providing quotes with comparable prices.

Review contracts carefully: Ensure all promises a company makes are in writing and that you understand what youre signing.

Never use cash: Always pay with a check or a credit card and never make the final payment until the work is complete.

Disaster Charity Scams: Scammers will often try to take advantage of the misfortune of others, including when disasters strike. Review FDACS consumer tips on donating wisely and avoiding charity scams.

What should consumers do?

File a consumer complaint: To file a complaint, complete our online form or call 1-800-HELP-FLA (435-7352) or 1-800-FL-AYUDA (352-9832) en Espanol.

Share your story: Share your story with friends and family or on social media to help others avoid falling victim.

Review consumer resources: Consumers can find helpful tips and recourse on our website: FloridaConsumerHelp.com

9:00 a.m.: Hurricane Ian slowly making turn more northward while intensifying. There will be impacts this week to virtually all of Florida.

5:00 a.m.: Ian becomes a Category 1 hurricane.

September 25, 2022

11:00 p.m.: Tropical Storm Ian grows in strength nearing hurricane-level intensity. The official track has moved slightly east.

8:00 p.m.: Tropical Storm Ian increased in strength Sunday evening as it traveled over warmer water. According to the National Hurricane Centers 8 p.m. advisory, the storm now has maximum sustained winds of 60 mph and is still moving northwest at 12 mph.

5:00 p.m.: A Tropical Storm Watch has been issued for the lower Florida Keys from Seven Mile Bridge southward to Key West, including the Dry Tortugas.

Tropical Storm Ian weakened slightly Sunday afternoon, but forecasters still expected it to develop into a major hurricane when it reaches the Gulf of Mexico over the next few days.

The hurricane center said Ian is expected to take a turn toward the northwest by Sunday evening, followed by a north-northwestward motion on Monday.

8 a.m.: The track shows Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia in the forecast cone.

Ian is forecasted to rapidly strengthen later today with an increased risk of significant wind and storm surge for western Cuba.

September 24, 2022

11: p.m.: The track for Tropical Storm Ian has continued to shift west. First Alert Meteorologist Corey Simma said impacts from the storm can extend outside of the cone presented.

5:00 p.m.: The latest track for Tropical Storm Ian shows a slight westward shift, with First Alert Meteorologist Corey Simma saying there is still lots of uncertainty in where the storm will make landfall in Florida.

Ian is expected to become a Cat. 4 before weakening upon landfall along the Florida Gulf Coast on Thursday.

1:50 p.m.: Florida Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio sent a letter to President Joe Biden in support of Floridas request for a federal pre-landfall disaster declaration in anticipation of Ian. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecasts Ian to become a major hurricane that could impact Florida as early as Wednesday, September 28.

Read the full letter HERE.

1 p.m.: Gov. Ron DeSantis has expanded his state of emergency declaration to include the entire state of Florida.

Click here to read the updated Executive Order.

10:21 a.m.: Artemis I update: NASA says it is foregoing a launch opportunity Tuesday and preparing for rollback, while continuing to watch the weather forecast associated with Tropical Storm Ian.

9:27 a.m.: The St. Johns River Water Management District is preparing for Tropical Storm Ians potential impacts by taking the following actions:

The Districts emergency operations team is closely monitoring the storms path and water levels to provide information to the public and be prepared to assist local government partners and other regional and state agencies as needed.

In the Upper St. Johns River Basin and Upper Ocklawaha River Basin, the District manages a system of spillways, pump stations, levees, and canals. Using these structures, the District can adjust water levels for additional flood protection.

Currently, the District has sufficient capacity to handle the current forecasted rainfall. Pump station operators throughout the Upper Basin are ready to ensure continued operations throughout the storm.

Note that structures such as locks, spillways, pump stations, levees and canals in the headwaters of the St. Johns River in Brevard and Indian River counties and in the Harris Chain of Lakes in Lake County are the Districts only structural controls of water levels.

9:01 a.m.: The latest track for Tropical Storm Ian shows Northeast Florida in the forecast cone, but First Alert Meteorologist Corey Simma said there is still lots of uncertainty in where the storm will make landfall.

September 23, 2022

10:49 p.m.: Tropical Storm Ian has formed in the Caribbean. Forecast to impact Cuba early in the week next week and the Gulf Coast of Florida mid-week

6:21 p.m.: The St. Johns River Water Management District is proactively preparing for the storm by taking the following actions:

The Districts emergency operations team is closely monitoring the storms path and water levels, so we can provide information to the public and be prepared to assist our local government partners and other regional and state agencies as needed.

In the Upper St. Johns River Basin and Upper Ocklawaha River Basin, the District manages a system of spillways, pump stations, levees, and canals. Using these structures, the District can adjust water levels for additional flood protection.

Currently, the District has sufficient capacity to handle the current forecasted rainfall. Pump station operators throughout the upper basin are ready to ensure continued operations throughout the storm.

Note that structures such as locks, spillways, pump stations, levees and canals in the headwaters of the St. Johns River in Brevard and Indian River counties and in the Harris Chain of Lakes in Lake County are the Districts only structural controls of water levels.

Property owners should act now to be prepared for the storms heavy rains by:

Keeping debris out of storm drains and ditches,

Reporting clogged ditches to local governments,

Cleaning out gutters and extending downspouts at least four feet from structures.

5:31 p.m.: Putnam Countys Emergency Management department is urging preparedness ahead of Tropical Depression 9.

If you havent done so already, make sure you are prepared. Have your disaster supply kit stocked, make sure you have food and water, and discuss your emergency plan with your family, the agency wrote in a post on its Facebook page.

5:13 p.m.: Ahead of potential impacts from Tropical Depression 9, Clay County Emergency Management shared a video on how people can make a disaster plan for their pets.

5:07 p.m.: Bradford County Sheriffs Offices Emergency Management Division is reminding residents that self-serve sandbags are available for this storm or future storms.

Those who think they may need sandbags for this or future storms can visit the self-serve sites at Bradford County Fire Rescue Stations 40 & 90. More information will be announced if additional sites open up.

4:55 p.m.: The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is reminding boaters to secure their vessels in the event of severe weather. FWC has issued the following reminders:

Move your vessel if you can and protect it if you cant.

Cover all lines to prevent chafing.

Charge batteries and make sure they can run automatic bilge pumps throughout the storm.

Do not stay onboard.

Monitor weather broadcasts frequently and comply with evacuation orders when issued.

For more information, visit the FWCs website.

4:50 p.m.: Attorney General Ashley Moody activated Floridas Price Gouging Hotline with Tropical Depression Nine approaching the state. The activation comes following Governor Ron DeSantiss state-of-emergency declaration for 24 counties.

In areas covered by the state of emergency, Floridians can report instances of severe price increases on essential commodities needed to prepare for the storm. Floridas price gouging law only applies to commodities and services essential to preparing for, or recovering from, a storm within the areas of a declared state of emergency.

Anyone who suspects price gouging can report it to the Florida Attorney Generals Office by using the No Scam app, visiting MyFloridaLegal.com or calling 1(866) 9NO-SCAM. Attorney General Moodys No Scam app can be downloaded for free on Apple and Android devices through the app store by searching No Scam.

4:46 p.m.: St. Johns County Emergency Management is sharing the following tips ahead of Tropical Depression 9s potential impacts on the state:

Make a Hurricane Plan. A key way to cope with a disaster is to have a plan. Following an emergency or disaster, you may lose access to basic services, such as power and water, and be subject to limited or no access to essentials like food and water. The Florida Department of Emergency Management provides an interactive online tool, Get a Plan! , to help families and businesses stay prepared.

Determine risks to your home and property. Update your emergency plans and supplies before a storm threatens Florida. Its important to stay prepared before and after a storm.

Know your evacuation zone . Develop an emergency evacuation plan and review the plan carefully with your family and children. Dont forget to include your pets in your evacuation plans.

Keep Gas Tanks At Least Half Full  Residents are encouraged to keep their vehicles gas tanks at least half full during hurricane season to ensure they have enough fuel to evacuate as soon as possible without worrying about long lines at gas stations and to avoid gas shortages before a storm. For more information, please visit the following website: www.FloridaDisaster.org/HalfwayFull

Stay informed and connected. Identify your trusted sources of information for any severe weather event. Credible and timely information is critical to taking the appropriate actions in an emergency.

Make a Disaster Supply kit . The Florida Division of Emergency Management recommends that you maintain a well-stocked emergency preparedness kit to last you and your family for a minimum of seven days. Each individual or family disaster supply kit differs based on personal needs. The following is a list of basic items to include:

Water (at least one gallon a day per person for 5-7 days)

Non-perishable packaged or canned food (enough for at least 5 to 7 days)

Any necessary medications in their prescribed bottles (enough for two weeks)

First aid kit

Flashlights with extra batteries

Weather band radio

Lanterns, candles, and matches

Fuel and propane

Pet care items (including any pet medications)

Other vital documents (stored in a waterproof container)

4:28 p.m.: Columbia County officials are encouraging residents to monitor the countys Emergency Management Facebook page for updates.

Residents and visitors should use this time to establish their personal emergency plans with their families, said Shayne Morgan, Columbia County Emergency Management Director. Make sure you have the necessary items such as, cash, medicines, food and water for all members of the family.

4:23 p.m.: Northeast Florida counties and cities are urging preparedness ahead of any possible impacts Tropical Depression 9 could have on Florida. Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry issued the following statement:

The City of Jacksonville Emergency Operations Center is monitoring the Tropics for local impacts. We are in communication with Florida Department of Emergency Management & local teams are communicating and closely watching any forecast changes that could impact the City of Jacksonville.

Curry encouraged residents to visit the JaxReady website to know their evacuation zone.

4:10 p.m.: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency for 24 of Floridas counties that are potentially in the path of Tropical Depression 9.

Today, I signed an Executive Order issuing a State of Emergency due to the threat of Tropical Depression 9, said Governor Ron DeSantis. This storm has the potential to strengthen into a major hurricane and we encourage all Floridians to make their preparations. We are coordinating with all state and local government partners to track potential impacts of this storm.

So far, no Northeast Florida counties are included in the declaration.

Click here to read DeSantis executive order on TD 9.

Follow Action News Jax Meteorologists on Twitter for updates:

Mike Buresh | Garrett Bedenbaugh | Corey Simma

LISTEN: Mike Buresh All the Weather, All the Time Podcast

INTERACTIVE RADAR: Keep track of the rain as it moves through your neighborhood

SHARE WITH US: Send us photos of the weather youre seeing in your area 
Protests: Mahsa Amini SENSITIVE MATERIAL. THIS IMAGE MAY OFFEND OR DISTURB People take part in a protest following the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran, in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, September 23, 2022. REUTERS/Christian Mang

Demonstrators in Canada, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Lebanon, Turkey, and the United States rallied in solidarity with protesters in Iran who have filled the streets over the death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who died in police custody on September 16.

Amini was from the Kurdish minority and was with her brother in Tehran when she was arrested by morality police for wearing an improper hijab. She allegedly had some hair visible under her headscarf. She fell into a coma after collapsing at the Vozara Detention Centre. She died three days later.

Aminis death has sparked widespread protests in Iran, with women burning headscarves in a defiant act of resistance against the Islamic Republic's strict dress code.

Now, the world is joining the women who are at the forefront of the fight against Irans government.
(Bloomberg) -- The Malaysian government will push forward to table a bill that seeks to ban smoking and vaping for those born from 2007, after making amendments following resistance from some lawmakers.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said he hopes the bill -- dubbed a generational endgame -- will receive the support of lawmakers when it is tabled at the next parliament session in October. It was referred to a parliamentary select committee in August for further scrutiny amid criticism that some of its features would infringe on personal freedom.

The enforcement powers really are focused and restricted only against distribution, manufacturing and supply, Khairy said in a group interview on Friday. Weve clarified that in the latest amendments, so if you contravene the law in terms of GEG smoking offense, then the enforcement officer cannot frisk you, they cannot take away your computer or your phone or things like that.

Malaysian lawmakers last month delayed a vote on the bill and referred it to the select committee to examine and make recommendations for improvement. The bill also bans those born after 2007 from buying, possessing or using tobacco and other related products even after they reach 18. Shopkeepers and distributors will be prohibited from selling such products to anyone in the age group under the proposal.

(Updates with ministers comments in third paragraph)

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2022 Bloomberg L.P.
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been given medical clearance to return to prison after completing rehabilitative treatment at a Kuala Lumpur hospital, the health ministry said on Friday.

Najib, 69, started a 12-year prison sentence on Aug. 23 after Malaysia's top court upheld a graft and money laundering conviction against him in a case linked to a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal. He pleaded not guilty.

Since Sept. 4, Najib has been in and out of hospital for issues related to stomach ulcers and high blood pressure, according to his daughter and government officials.

The Health Ministry said on Friday Najib was in good health after undergoing several checks in hospital.

He has also been taught by the hospital's physiotherapists techniques on how to exercise by himself, the ministry said in a statement.

Najib, who has also been fined nearly $50 million, remains on trial in four other corruption cases. He has consistently denied wrongdoing and has applied for a royal pardon.

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff)
An optometrist found warning signs of a possible tumor in the back of the man's eyes. DjelicS/Getty Images

A man was diagnosed with brain cancer after he got blurry vision and went to an optometrist.

The optometrist found warning signs in the back of his eye, which can be caused by a tumor.

Doctors diagnosed Matt Voice with brain cancer, and he had urgent surgery to remove 70% of the tumor.

A man who has brain cancer said that an appointment with an optometrist saved his life.

Matt Voice, 40, a former mechanic from the UK, experienced headaches and dizziness for seven years from the age of 32.

In April 2020, Voice's headaches became excruciating, he began collapsing unexpectedly, and "black orbs" tarnished his vision. He had one episode, while driving, when he felt sick and his vision became so blurry that he had to pull over.

"I started suffering seizures and the light would go out in my eyes. It was horrible for my children  Mason, 11, and Darcy, 15  to witness," he told the UK news agency SWNS.

Voice said that doctors thought that his blackouts and vision changes were caused by problems with his blood pressure.

However, as his eyesight got worse, Voice sought an optometrist appointment, which nearly got canceled due to COVID restrictions at the time.

"But I pushed to go," he said.

During the appointment, the optometrist found warning signs that he could have a tumor or brain bleed.

Gliomas cause symptoms like vomiting by pressing on the brain

The optometrist referred Voice to an eye clinic at a local hospital, and in May 2020 doctors diagnosed him with a brain cancer, called an astrocytoma, which arises from the cells that surround the nerve cells in the brain.

"I was told it was on the left and right side of my brain and that it would become aggressive," Voice said.

Astrocytomas are a type of brain cancer called a glioma. Around 33% of brain cancers are gliomas, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. Brain cancers are rare, and the chance that a person in the US will develop a malignant tumor of the brain or spinal cord in their lifetime is less than 1%, according to the American Cancer Society.

Story continues

Gliomas cause symptoms by pressing on the brain or spinal cord. The most common symptoms, which can occur slowly and be subtle, include: headaches, seizures, personality changes, weakness in the arms, face, or leg, and problems with speech. They can also cause: vomiting, vision loss, and dizziness, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Voice said: "I'm just glad I went to the opticians when I did  otherwise I don't think I'd be here for my children." In the UK, an optometrist is colloquially known as an optician.

Voice had surgery to remove part of the tumor that was the size of a fist

In July 2020, Voice underwent surgery to remove 70% of the tumor on the right side. He then had intensive radiotherapy for 6 weeks, followed by three chemotherapy sessions until January 2021 when he could no longer tolerate it.

"I lost all my hair, and I could see the children looking at me differently," he said.

Though his cancer has been controlled, Voice has short term memory loss and mobility problems, which means he can no longer work as a mechanic, uses a stair lift, and lives with his mom, who is a part-time nurse.

He is waiting for the results of an MRI scan to see if his tumor has grown.

"I just have to pray it hasn't each time," he said.

Correction: September 26, 2022: An earlier version of this article misidentified the profession of the person Matt Voice consulted for help. The person was an optometrist, not an optician.

Read the original article on Insider
Seattle police are investigating after a man rode a bicycle to the hospital after being shot in the University District on Friday.

According to police, officers were called to the 4700 block of Seventh Avenue Northeast after receiving reports that a man had shot a gun in an alley just after 1 p.m.

When officers arrived, they found blood in the alley but no victim. A witness told police that the shooter had ran away after firing the shots.

About 20 minutes later, a 35-year-old man with a gunshot wound arrived on a bike at an area hospital. He was immediately treated for his injuries.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Violent Crimes Tip Line at 206-233-5000.

More news from KIRO 7

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An investigation is underway after a man was fatally shot in Seattles Chinatown-International District on Thursday.

Seattle Police Department officers responding to the intersection of 13th Ave. South and South Lane Street after 2 p.m. found a 35-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound.

Although lifesaving measures were performed on the man, he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to reports.

Seattle police are currently investigating the incident and searching for the perpetrator, who fled the scene.

More from NextShark: Elderly Asian Woman Aided by Good Samaritan in SF Robbery

Police have not made any arrests as of this writing. Information about the suspect and potential motives behind the incident have yet to be released.

Residents who knew the victim said the man was trying to get his life back on track before he was fatally shot, reported KIRO 7. People in the area also expressed frustration and concern over the recent string of violence in Chinatown.

I love this area. You know, Im born and raised here, but it kind of makes me want to leave the area honestly because its every day. Its consistent, a resident told KIRO 7. I wish it would stop and I hope this would stop, but I dont think it will any time soon.

More from NextShark: Student protesting Islamophobia sparks outrage by 'throwing away' thousands of flags honoring 9/11 victims

Chinatown-International District has so far experienced the highest rate of deadly shootings in Seattle this year, according to crime statistics from the Seattle Police Department. The community has also received multiple reports of open-air drug dealings, thefts and break-ins.

I dont feel like the city cares about us. I think the problems are getting worse and worse, Hoi Ning Chim, the manager of A+ Hong Kong Kitchen, told KOMO News. I think we need more police in the area to come by a little more. I think that would help a lot.

Anyone with information regarding this case is urged to contact the Violent Crimes Tip Line at 206-233-5000.

Story continues

More from NextShark: Two Asian American Business Owners Attacked and Robbed in Separate Incidents in Maryland

Featured Image via KIRO 7

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with his Portuguese counterpart, Joao Gomes Cravinho, on Wednesday on the sidelines of the ongoing 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

Noting that the Chinese people have friendly feelings towards the Portuguese people, Wang said the China-Portugal relationship has stood the test of the international landscape changes and achieved sound development on the basis of mutual understanding and mutual trust.

The two countries have advanced their practical cooperation while overcoming the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wang said, adding that exports of Portuguese agricultural and food products to China are growing rapidly, and that cooperation between large companies from both sides and tripartite cooperation are progressing smoothly.

Both China and Portugal are committed to practicing true multilateralism, he said.

In the face of the turbulence and transformations in the international situation, China is willing to work with Portugal to jointly uphold the UN's core role in international affairs, and promote the cause of human peace, development and progress, he said.

Wang said Portugal, as an important EU member, has been playing a positive and constructive role in China-EU exchanges.

China, he said, expects mutual understanding, mutual appreciation, peaceful coexistence and mutually learning with European countries, including Portugal, as well as respect for each other's development path chosen on the basis of their respective historical and cultural legacy.

He also expressed the expectation that the EU side will take an objective, rational and impartial attitude, and hold on to the mainstream of China-EU cooperation, so as to yield win-win results.

For his part, Cravinho said friendly exchanges between Portugal and China have lasted for centuries, and bilateral practical cooperation in various fields has developed fast.

Portuguese companies have a strong interest in investing in China, he said.

China plays a critical role in addressing common challenges such as safeguarding peace and security, and tackling climate change, he said.

The Portuguese side appreciates China's positive role in international affairs, and stands ready to maintain high-level exchanges and promote strategic dialogues with the Chinese side, he said.

Portugal agrees on the diversity of civilizations, calling for enhancing mutual understanding through open and candid dialogue to create favorable atmosphere for Portugal-China and EU-China cooperation, he added.

The two sides spoke highly of the smooth handover of Macao through friendly negotiations between the countries, which created a cooperation highlight, and pledged to jointly increase support for the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries.

Calling the practice of "one country, two systems" in Macau effective, Cravinho said he expects Macau to continue to act as a bridge to facilitate Portugal-China cooperation.

The two sides also exchanged views on the Ukraine issue. Wang briefed China's basic position of promoting peace talks and the constructive role it has played.
Ana de Armas as Marilyn becomes a sex object reduced to a sex organ in Blonde (Netflix)

Blonde, the new Netflix film from Andrew Dominik, adds as much nuance to the idea of Marilyn Monroe as can be gleaned from a gynaecological exam. The bombshell movie star has long been established as a tragic figure, a woman who was abused by Hollywood studios, her husband Joe DiMaggio and, as a child, her unwell mother. Rather than challenge the conventional narrative, director Dominiks nightmarish film, adapted from Joyce Carol Oatess fictionalised 2000 novel, takes it somewhere even darker and even more invasive. If you want to understand Marilyn Monroe, it suggests, first you have to get inside her uterus.

This grim drama takes us into the previously unexplored depths of Marilyn Monroes vagina several times across its astonishing 2-hour-45-minute runtime. I wont spoil them all, but in the films first hour, we watch Monroe, played with distressing frailty by Ana de Armas, excitedly clutch her belly as the camera cuts to her glowing womb  complete with a spectrally backlit foetus. A few scenes later, we follow Marilyn onto the operating table, where doctors perform an abortion she hasnt consented to. Please, wont you listen? Ive changed my mind, she begs, as her doctor inserts the speculum  a procedure thats gruesomely depicted head-on, from the point of view of Marilyns own cervix.

Dominik is insistent on his films animating principle, which itself feels derivative of that famous Rita Hayworth line about her most iconic and alluring movie role: Men go to bed with Gilda and wake up with me. In Blonde, sycophants and bigwigs hoping to get a piece of the Hollywood starlet instead find a more timid, desperate woman called Norma Jeane, who just happens to look identical to Marilyn Monroe. That might be interesting as a passing observation, but the movie makes this point over and over again. Shes pretty, but she isnt me, Norma Jeane says, looking at a glamorous photo of herself in a magazine. F*** Marilyn, Norma Jeane later screams into the phone. Shes not here.

If Dominiks point is that Marilyn is an invention  babys first plaything, one of her lovers notes cryptically  then maybe these scenes of excruciating body horror are the directors sadistic means of reminding us that shes more than her two-dimensional projection. If you subject Marilyn Monroe to the duress of an unwanted abortion, does she not scream in wordless agony? And if Norma Jeane becomes pregnant again years later, does her unborn foetus not acquire the capability for human speech?

I promise you, you read that right. In one of the films most disturbing bodily sequences, Marilyns surprisingly chatty foetus  which somehow also possesses knowledge of her previous abortion  pleads with its host to let this pregnancy proceed. Its not just alive in the eyes of Blonde, it has a will. Marilyn can hear it. She responds to it aloud as though theyre in conversation. I had to watch this scene several times to be sure I wasnt hallucinating, but no  right in the middle of Blonde, theres a deranged Look Whos Talking prequel.

As a matter of politics, these scenes of a woman burdened with years of abortion regret are highly controversial. As a mode of storytelling, theyre entirely alienating. Marilyn Monroe never seems less real to me than when shes cheerfully dialoguing with the unborn child in her fantastically radiant womb. Am I to believe all movie stars are spotlit from the inside?

Marilyn also never feels more like a Hollywood plaything than when Dominik is subjecting her to gory sexual and medical violence, probing her literally, and barbarically depicting what it feels like to be one of the 20th centurys most famous women from the inside out. Blonde isnt a movie about Marilyn Monroes exploitation, but a new low watermark in Hollywoods treatment of her  a sex object reduced to a sex organ.
Law enforcement agencies raided four Terrebonne businesses for prostitution.

Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's Office charged eight people on counts relating to prostitution by massage and drug charges. The owners, a married couple, were charged with human trafficking. The arrests were part of a weeks long investigation of prostitution and possible human trafficking.

On Thursday, the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's Office, assisted by several agencies, raided several Terrebonne-based businesses.

Locations raided included My Massage, at 685 D Corporate Drive; Moon Spa, at 1515 Polk St.; LA Spa Massage, at 193 Corporate Dr.; and Best Spa Massage, at 246 N. Hollywood Rd.

Several unlicensed massage therapists were taken into custody, said a spokesperson with Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's Office. The raids led to the seizure of cocaine, approximately $20,000 in cash and several vehicles.

Detectives discovered evidence suggesting that two individuals were responsible for the management of the establishment, the sheriff's office said. Evidence also indicated that human trafficking was connected to the day-to-day operation of the businesses.

The sheriff's office identified the two as a married couple, Yuhan Gao, 39, and David Kellow, 55, both of Houma.

They were booked and jailed at the Terrebonne Parish Criminal Justice Complex.

Gao was charged with massage parlor prohibited sexual conduct and human trafficking.

More:New details regarding UTV crash that led to the death of a Lafourche teen

Gao was later released on a $150,000 bond and remanded to the custody of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Kellow was charged with human trafficking and pandering. He remains jailed on a $1,500,000.00 bond by local judges.

More:Houma man found guilty of attempted murder in 2020 Raceland shooting

The investigation is ongoing to determine if there are links to other criminal elements, said a spokesperson for the sheriff's office.

Other arrests included:

Story continues

Du Huiying, 55, of Houma, on charges of prostitution. Huiying was released on a $20,000 bond.

Xiuling Jiang, 55, of Waggaman, was arrested on charges of prostitution by massage and possession of cocaine. Jiang remains jailed on a $2,500 bond.

Jinling Ma, 44, currently living in Houma, was arrested on charges of prostitution by massage. Ma remains jailed on a $500 bond.

Yuan Qirong, 54, currently living in Houma, was arrested on charges of prostitution by massage. Qirong was later released on a $500 bond.

Randy Tyler Richards, 22, of Houma, was arrested on charges of solicitation for prostitution. Richards was later released on a $500 bond.

Guimei Huang, 59, of Des Allemands, was arrested on outstanding warrants through Jefferson for pandering. Huang was released to the custody of the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office.

Our ability to bring offenders to justice is more effective when the community is involved," Sheriff Tim Soignet said. "Hopefully this investigation leads to more arrests and the recovery of victims of human trafficking."

Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's Office was assisted by several agencies, including Louisiana State Police Criminal Investigations Division, United States Customs Emergency Removal Operations, Thibodaux Narcotics Division, Homeland Security Investigations and Terrebonne Parish SWAT.

This article originally appeared on The Courier: Married couple charged with human trafficking in their massage parlors
migrant bus photo Bloomberg / Contributor/ Getty Images

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has announced he is considering putting up large tents as temporary shelter for the influx of relocated migrants the city is struggling to accommodate, The Associated Press reports.

The proposed tent city is one of many options city officials are considering to house the estimated 13,000 migrants that have arrived from Texas and Arizona. Cruise ships and summer camps are also on the table.

"This is not an everyday homelessness crisis, but a humanitarian crisis that requires a different approach," Adams said in a statement Thursday.

Despite its extensive system of homeless shelters, New York City is struggling to find accommodations for the newcomers. At the helm of the unexpected influx are a number of GOP governors, who have shuttled thousand of migrants to liberal areas like Martha's Vineyard, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. in protest of President Biden's immigration policies.

Adams said the city is considering opening 38 more emergency shelters in addition to the 23 opened since relocated migrants began arriving in May. NYC officials also recently opened a multimillion-dollar intake shelter to streamline the process of helping newcomers get settled.

The first proposed location for the tents is a parking lot in the Bronx's Orchard Beach, per the New York Post. Officials say the tent will house up to 1,000 adults for one to four days for health assessments before placing them into the city's shelter system.

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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is giving the confrontational right flank of the GOP conference a seat at the table as he aims to shore up their support for Speaker if Republicans take the chamber next year.

McCarthy is eyeing having to manage a conference next year that is expected to tilt further to the right with a higher proportion of allies loyal to former President Trump.

And hes starting now by including controversial figures and members of the House Freedom Caucus in high-profile events in an effort to seemingly win them over  unlike some of his GOP predecessors.

Firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) will be at a rollout event outside Pittsburgh on Friday for McCarthys Commitment to America policy platform, a list of policy priorities inspired by the 1994 Contract with America.

Im really happy with it, Greene said of the plan. The reason why Im involved in  going to be actively involved is to make sure that we can push to get the right things in there when it comes time to put the bills to the floor.

The rollout of the plan marks not just a formal statement of policy priorities aimed at wooing voters, but the culmination of McCarthys work to unify an ideologically and stylistically diverse conference around his leadership.

More than a year ago, McCarthy formed several task forces intended to craft policies that members could run on during the midterms. The vast majority of such Republican members were on the panels, including Greene and House Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry (Pa.), among others.

That has helped McCarthy gain buy-in from the right for his vision of a GOP majority.

McCarthy told reporters that the conference was very much unified around the Commitment to America plan, and that he didnt hear one negative word about it.

You know the conference, right? The different philosophical makeup. You could go from John Katko  a more moderate New York Republican who is retiring  to Marjorie Greene he said, reflecting on the partys political spectrum.

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But some members have stopped short of giving full-throated support for the plan or his Speakership bid, raising questions about whether he would have enough votes should the chamber remain closely split in the new Congress.

I think its a pretty good start. Weve got a plan. I think weve got to put some  a little more meat on the bones. But it gives us a place to land, and all be kind of on the same page as we go after the last month here, Perry said.

Asked whether she would support McCarthy for Speaker, Greene told reporters that she was not thinking about the leadership election yet.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) expressed approval of the plan for uniting the conference around a midterm message, but hinted at keeping up pressure on House GOP leadership.

As someone whos a conservative in the Freedom Caucus, part of my job is also accountability for the Republicans to do what we said we would do, Roy said. So, as we unite around a message to take our country back, Ill be making sure that theres some specificity and what that means should we win the majority.

The plan also does not address some of the biggest demands from the right wing, like the potential of impeaching President Biden.

I think the Republican controlled majority if they want to be successful, especially going at 2024, theyll definitely make that a priority, said Greene, who has introduced multiple impeachment resolutions against Biden.

McCarthy has watched up close the right-wing turmoil that previously plagued GOP House leadership.

Ive learned from the other mistakes, McCarthy, in a March interview with Punchbowl News, said of former GOP Speakers John Boehner (Ohio) and Paul Ryan (Wis.).

Boehner, for his part, was punished by those in the right flank who publicly challenged him, such as former Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a founding member of the Freedom Caucus which was formed around that time. Meadows was removed from a subcommittee chairmanship after clashing with the Speaker on a procedural vote.

More procedural moves from Meadows helped propel Boehner to a surprise retirement in 2015, stunning Washington one year after former Virginia Republican Rep. Eric Cantor became the first sitting House majority leader to lose his congressional seat to a political newcomer, and eventual Freedom Caucus member, Dave Brat.

Ryan spent much of 2016 doing a delicate dance around Trumps candidacy  despite at times getting hammered by the Republican presidential nominee over the course of the election and during his early tenure in the White House before Ryan himself retired.

The Wisconsin Republican often had to tread between voicing support of his partys president while disavowing some of Trumps more inflammatory remarks on immigration and minority groups.

That type of intraparty turmoil seems to have evolved under McCarthy, unlike other previous leaders of the GOP conference.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), another founder of the House Freedom Caucus, challenged McCarthy to lead House Republicans four years ago. But instead of being banished by leadership, he has been elevated.

Jordan is now ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee and eyeing leading numerous probes as chair of the panel in a majority. He has repeatedly said he is supporting McCarthy for Speaker.

Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker who was the architect of the 1994 Contract with America that preceded a massive midterm win for the party, had high praise for McCarthys handling of the diverse caucus as he walked out of a House GOP meeting unveiling the plan to members.

Hes a much better manager than I was, Gingrich said. I was amazed at members who normally find some reason not to be together getting up and saying, Were on the same team.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Viktor Medvedchuk

Read also: Pro-Russian traitor Medvedchuks transfer driven by Putins darker motives, thinks political scientist

We have 200 people under our control, Erdogan said.

On one of them (Medvedchuk - ed.) Putin insisted in particular. We have already sent him to Russia.

According to him, the persons released as part of the exchange are guests of Turkey.

On Sept 21., Ukraine returned 215 defenders from Russian captivity in the largest prisoner swap since the beginning of the full-scale war. 108 of them members of the Azov Regiment, captured following the fall of Mariupol.

Five of the released Azov commanders were exchanged for 55 Russian soldiers. They will re-main in Turkey under guarantees of protection and security.

Read also: Who was swapped and why: Ukraines largest prisoner swap of the war

In exchange for the remaining 210 fighters, Ukraine transferred Medvedchuk, who is charged with treason, to Russia.

The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said that the exchange was traumatic for Medvedchuk.

As a political factor, as an oligarch, as a businessman, as an agent of influence, he is completely declassed, they noted.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Themokarst lakes found in Alaska are so full of methane, the gas rises to the surface in big bubbles. NASA / Sofie Bates

NASA is studying "thermokarsts" in Alaska, lakes that appear as permafrost there thaws.

These lakes can release high levels of methane, a dangerous gas for climate change.

As temperatures rise and more of these lakes appear, this could create a negative feedback loop.

Lakes appearing in Alaska because of melting permafrost are "belching" methane into the atmosphere, a scientist working with NASA said.

These lakes, called thermokarsts, are so full of the climate-damaging gas that it can be seen bubbling to the surface.

More and more of these lakes are appearing as Alaska's permafrost thaws with rising temperatures and increasing forest fires, according to a 2021 study.

NASA's Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) project is studying their effect on climate change, according to a NASA blog post published Thursday.

Thermokarsts can be so full of methane that they can be set on fire. University of Alaska Fairbanks

Thermokarsts are born after the earth thaws and collapses

Thermokarst lakes appear when permafrost, ground that is meant to stay frozen throughout the year, starts to melt. As this happens, massive blocks of ice that are wedged into the ground also melt, which causes the ground to collapse several feet.

"Years ago, the ground was about three meters taller and it was a spruce forest," said Katey Walter Anthony, an ecologist at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, describing a thermokarst called Big Trail lake in Alaska.

Walter Anthony has been working with NASA's ABoVE project to study Big Trail lake's effect on climate change.

As water invades the sinkholes left behind, so do bacteria.

"At Big Trail Lake, it's like opening your freezer door for the first time and giving all the food in your freezer to microbes to decompose," said Walter Anthony.

"As they decompose it, they are belching out methane gas," she said.

Walter Antony is seen in a kayak on Big Trail lake in Alaska. Sofie Bates / NASA

There are millions of lakes in the Arctic, but most are thousands of years old and don't give off much gas anymore, per the NASA blog post.

It's only the newer lakes, like Big Trail, which appeared less than 50 years ago, that give off high levels of the gas.

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And this is far from a small amount. Insider previously reported that these type of lakes gives off so much methane that it is easy to set them alight after a quick jab in the ice, as can be seen in the video below.

Methane is a devastating greenhouse gas

Though carbon dioxide (CO2) remains the main long-term driver of the climate crisis, methane leaks have become a hot-button issue for helping control climate change in the short term.

Methane is a greenhouse gas, meaning it keeps heat that is radiating from the ground trapped in the atmosphere instead of letting the Earth cool down.

It is much more potent than CO2, about 30 times more effective at trapping heat. But it also dissipates more quickly than CO2, which lingers in the atmosphere, per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

"Reducing methane emissions is an important tool we can use right now to lessen the impacts of climate change in the near term, and rapidly reduce the rate of warming," Rick Spinrad, the head of NOAA, previously said.

Methane also "contributes to ground-level ozone formation, which causes roughly 500,000 premature deaths each year around the world," Spinrad said.

Human activities like agriculture, fuel exploitation, and landfills are big contributors to methane emissions. For instance, gas leaks from methane pipeline are increasingly being targeted because they can be spotted from space and are easily fixable.

But natural sources such as wetlands can also be big contributors of methane, per NOAA. Understanding how they could progress is important because rising temperatures could cause a "feedback loop" that "would largely be beyond humans' ability to control," NOAA said in April.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Some progressive district attorneys "may have tarnished the brand," Memphis' new top prosecutor told Fox News, noting that he's taken lessons from their mistakes.

Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy was sworn in on Aug. 31, making him the first Democrat to hold the position in decades. He campaigned on a progressive agenda, vowing to prioritize violent crime, fix the "broken bail system," implement restorative justice and expand Juvenile Court jurisdiction to age 25, among other policies.

"I think that there have been a few high profile reform DAs or progressive DAs that have gotten into trouble that may have tarnished the brand for your viewers," Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy told Fox News. "I want them to know that me and a lot of other people who consider themselves reform DAs also think that violent crime needs to be punished severely."

"We also think that quality of life matters and that crime matters," Mulroy continued. "We just think that there's a better way of doing it."

MEMPHIS COMMUNITY LEADER SAYS ALL CRIMES SHOULD BE A TOP PRIORITY' AFTER NEW DA VOWS TO FOCUS ON VIOLENCE

Mulroy pointed to mistakes from other progressive district attorneys, like San Francisco's Chesa Boudin and Manhattan's Alvin Bragg.

Boudin implemented progressive criminal justice policies such as eliminating cash bail and gang enhancements. Critics blamed Boudin for the increased murder rate, violent crime, shoplifting and open-air drug trade, culminating in a successful recall campaign and his ouster in June.

"If you preside over record crime, voters are going to vote for change," Mulroy said. Eight out of 10 San Franciscans considered crime to have worsened while Boudin was in office, a San Francisco Chamber of Commerce poll showed.

INNER-CITY MEMPHIS RESIDENTS SOUND OFF ON SAFETY AFTER LIVESTREAMED SHOOTING, ELIZA FLETCHER KILLING

San Francisco's former district attorney, Chesa Boudin, was recalled in June. Justin Sullivan

Mulroy told Fox News quality of life offenses matter.

"People have the right to walk down the street without seeing people urinating next to their house," he said.

Story continues

Bragg, meanwhile, faced backlash over a memo he issued days after taking office instructing prosecutors to avoid seeking jail time for a variety of crimes, including robberies, assaults and gun possession.

"You can't just impose these reform policies from day one without consulting with the community and getting their input," Mulroy told Fox News. "The idea of doing this without consultation with the staff, with the community, that's a problem."

Mulroy plans to meet individually with all 115 of his attorneys. He said he's already made substantial inroads.

"In my one-on-one meetings, the first thing I want from them is their input about what works in the office, what could be improved," Mulroy said.

ELIZA FLETCHER AND MEMPHIS TARGET ABDUCTIONS HIGHLIGHT VIOLENT CRIME IN CITY: OUTPOURING OF PUBLIC CONCERN

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg faced backlash after sending out a memo instructing prosecutors to avoid seeking jail time for certain crimes. Barry Williams for NY Daily News via Getty Images

Bragg clarified a month later that prosecutors were not bound to the memo.

"It's a difference of opinion about what works, but our goals are the same," Mulroy told Fox News. "We do value victims. We do care about crime. But the way I put it is, do you want to do what works or what makes you feel good?"

Mulroy cited Brooklyn's Eric Gonzalez and New Orleans' Jason Williams as examples of successful reform district attorneys.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Gonazalez's office recently asked a judge to dismiss 378 convictions that relied on police officers who were later convicted of misconduct. Williams in April announced that four teenagers accused of a fatal carjacking would be tried as adults. Other progressive DAs have put blanket bans on charging minors as adults.

Mulroy said the community won't feel alienated if the system were made fairer.

"They will cooperate with law enforcement. They will provide tips, report crimes, serve as witnesses," Mulroy said. "That's the way you really bend the curve on violent crime."
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Friday he met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to discuss a Mexican peace plan for the Ukraine conflict that he presented to the U.N. General Assembly this week.

Mexico has proposed a deal to halt the fighting but Ukraine opposes the plan which it says would be advantageous to Russia.

Ebrard wrote on Twitter that he and Lavrov had a "cordial conversation," and posted a picture of himself and Lavrov sitting across from each other at a table, a day after the Mexican minister held a separate conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart.

Mexico's government has set out a plan that includes creating a "mediation committee" to settle conflicts worldwide, spearheaded by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Pope Francis.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the committee would immediately start talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to achieve "a truce of at least five years."

Still, Lopez Obrador, who has condemned Russia's invasion and criticized Western arms shipments to Ukraine, suggested he was not seeking to discuss the plan personally with Putin when asked earlier this week if the two leaders would speak.

"I don't want to play a leading role, as a government we're making a proposal to see if it's accepted," he said.

Mexico's proposal has drawn criticism from Ukraine, with an adviser to Zelenskiy, Mykhailo Podolyak, last week calling it a "Russian plan" that would "give Russia time to renew reserves before the next offensive."

Ukraine's ambassador to Mexico also rejected the idea, telling reporters that "we have to continue the fight to liberate our territory."

It is unclear whether the proposed members of Mexico's mediation committee have agreed to take part.

The conflict has displaced millions, killed thousands of civilians and left cities, towns and villages in ruins.

(Reporting by Mexico City Newsroom, Edited by Isabel Woodford and Alistair Bell)
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday he had reached an agreement with companies to maintain prices of basic food items, as inflation continues to tick up.

It was a unanimous decision, he said during a regular news conference, without confirming the final number of companies involved but noting that they included producers and distributors of corn, chicken, eggs and beef.

The president said earlier this week that 20 companies would take part in the meeting and would target 24 basic food items.

Lopez Obrador added Friday he will announce new measures to tame inflation on Oct. 3, though he said he had ruled out unilateral price controls on food.

Mexican consumer prices rose more than expected during the first half of September, official data showed on Thursday, keeping inflation near a 22-year high.

Annual inflation in Latin America's second-largest economy hit 8.76%.

Data for the first 15 days of September showed food, beverage and tobacco prices rose 13.27% year-on-year.

Lopez Obrador also announced on Friday plans for a "considerable" rise in the minimum wage, in an additional effort to ease inflationary pressures.

(Reporting by Valentine Hilaire; Editing by Isabel Woodford and Jonathan Oatis)
This story has been updated to clarify that Torri Jacobus is the former head of the City of Albuquerque's civil rights office.

LAS CRUCES  Fewer than seven weeks until the Nov. 8 elections, this is the season for political ads by candidates, political committees and party organizations. It is hard to miss them in print, online or in one's mailbox.

One of the major themes in advertisements paid for by the Republican Party of New Mexico is crime, hitting Democratic candidates, including Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and their party, for past votes on measures which the GOP argues were too soft on crime, hindered law enforcement or "coddled" people convicted of serious offenses.

One negative advertisement, in particular, drew denunciations Thursday for appearing to darken one of two figures in a stock photograph in a manner one community leader called "blatantly racist."

The ads follow a similar provocative style, using somber colors and stark fonts among tinted or filtered images from prison booking photos or featuring obscured and menacing figures. The ad copy alludes to pieces of legislation supported in past sessions by local representatives, often presenting them as favoring criminals over other citizens.

A postcard targeting Democratic lawmakers in several districts, including some in Albuquerque, Las Cruces and Silver City, shows a light-skinned child in a barber's chair getting a haircut. Only the barber's hands are in view, large in comparison to the child's head and with dark skin.

The text over the image conveys menace, claiming the lawmaker "voted to allow convicted sex offenders to receive professional licenses for activities such as cutting hair or working as a nail technician  leaving unsuspecting women and children vulnerable to predators."

The claim is based on a 2022 amendment to New Mexico's statute governing licenses for barbers and cosmetologists. The change removed "habitual drunkenness or habitual addiction to the use of habit-forming drugs" and "conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude" from a list of reasons to deny or revoke a professional license under the act.

Story continues

Photo tinted, hands darkened

The image of the boy getting a haircut is an image licensed for use via Getty Images' iStock service for a fee. In the original image, the hands of the barber appear to be those of a white man. The hands are significantly darker in the Republican Party's advertisement while the child remains light-skinned.

"This doctored ad is a shameful attempt to stoke fear and division," the Rev. Charles E. Becknell, state president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said in a statement. "Digitally darkening the skin tone of the person in this ad, while suggesting they are a sexual predator, is blatantly racist and completely inexcusable."

In this Jan. 31, 2019 photo, Charles Becknell, Sr., 77, holds a copy of 1954 the edition of "The Negro Motorist Green Book" at his home in Rio Rancho, N.M.

Torri Jacobus, former head of the City of Albuquerque's civil rights office and now a community advocate, said, "This ad relies on centuries-old racist stereotypes in an attempt to instill fear in New Mexicans and divide us."

Alison Riley, a spokesperson for the state House Democratic Campaign Committee, likened it to historical use of blackface in performances and cartoons as a way of mocking the appearance of people of color.

State House Majority Leader Javier Martinez, an Albuquerque Democrat, called it "one of the worst dirty tricks I have ever seen from a political campaign."

GOP says image supposed to resemble Grim Reaper

In turn, Republicans accused Democrats of "crying racist" and deflecting from their voting record. The House Republican Whip, Rod Montoya of Farmington, said the figure in the ad was gray, not Black, and called any racial inference "ridiculous."

"What this mailer does depict is the danger in which Democrats voted to put our children," he continued, citing a floor amendment to the measure that had been submitted by state Rep. Stefani Lord, R-Sandia Park. Lord's amendment, which died on the floor, would have restricted sex offenders from obtaining professional licenses.

"Charges of racism are simply a smokescreen to distract attention from progressives' voting records which put the interests of convicted criminal over the safety of law-abiding New Mexicans," Montoya continued in a statement, returning to the thesis of the ad campaign.

Yet the party admitted to altering the colors of the image and darkening the hands. State GOP spokesperson Mike Curtis wrote in a text message: "It was darkened to a gray to resemble a Grim Reaper so as NOT to be interpreted as any race. A true menace."

The Grim Reaper is a centuries-old figure of death, dating to the Black Death in Europe and traditionally portrayed as a skeletal figure in a cowl and carrying a scythe.

Riley said complaints from voters in several districts, allegedly characterizing the flyers as racist themselves, first drew the ad to their attention. "We're talking about what came from our constituents who received this mailer, and that's the problem," she said.

Ralph Arellanes, chairman of the Hispano Round Table of New Mexico, wrote in a statement that "this ad is different because it goes far beyond disagreements on particular issues or questioning the character of a candidate  it's an attack on all New Mexicans of color."

SB 385 had wide Republican support in 2019

The state House Democratic Campaign Committee also pointed out that some of the flyers using the image and scary language about sexual predators trimming hair or painting nails cited a bill from the 2019 legislative session, SB 385, which also would have stricken language from statute making "a crime involving moral turpitude" grounds for denying a professional license.

New Mexico House Democratic Leader Javier Martinez of Albuquerque is seen at a news conference in Santa Fe on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022.

It was sponsored by Republican state Sen. Mark Moores along with two Democrats: State Sen. Bill O'Neill and state Rep. Andrea Romero, all from Albuquerque.

The discovery was not quite a slam dunk, however: SB 385 simply barred the use of vague language as a basis for denying licenses. The bill would have allowed for disqualifications based on specific felony convictions set during the rulemaking process.

Lujan Grisham vetoed the bill, which passed the state Senate 34-2 and unanimously in the House, meaning every Republican who cast their vote supported the bill.

Others are reading:

Algernon D'Ammassa can be reached at 575-541-5451, adammassa@lcsun-news.com or @AlgernonWrites on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: New Mexico GOP ad denounced as racist for darkening figure in stock photo
 Flash

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili met with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday on the sidelines of the ongoing 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

Noting that Georgia and China are reliable friends and partners to each other, Garibashvili said Georgia appreciates China for its help in the country's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, and will continue to adhere to the one-China principle and uphold justice on China-related issues.

Georgia admires China for achieving impressive development achievements, which have greatly improved the people's well-being, supports and actively participates in the Belt and Road cooperation, and looks forward to fully utilizing its geographical advantages so as to develop regional cooperation corridors, he said.

Noting the smooth implementation of the China-Georgia Free Trade Agreement, the prime minister said Georgia welcomes China's investment in the country, and will facilitate Chinese enterprises' doing business in Georgia.

Garibashvili said Georgia pursues practical and constructive policies, is committed to safeguarding the long-term peace and stability of the region, and does not favor the arbitrary imposition of unilateral sanctions.

For his part, Wang noted that the two countries celebrated together the 30th anniversary of their diplomatic ties in June.

The key to the successful bilateral relationship lies in the unwavering mutual trust and mutual assistance between the two countries, as well as the accommodation of each other's major concerns on multilateral occasions, he said.

Wang said he hopes that both sides can work together to carry forward the traditional friendship between the two countries, and bring bilateral relationship to a maturer, stabler, more practical and more efficient level.

China supports Georgia's unique and important role in maintaining regional peace, and appreciates Georgia for actively promoting the Belt and Road cooperation, Wang said.

China stands ready to strengthen the synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative and the "Middle Corridor" vision in an effort to pool more global consensus, seize new opportunities to build a healthy Silk Road, a green Silk Road and a digital Silk Road, and create new growth drivers for mutually beneficial cooperation based upon the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, he said.

Wang said China encourages competent and willing Chinese companies to invest in Georgia and participate in the construction of special economic zones or industrial parks in the country.

China is willing to strengthen bilateral cooperation in such areas as ports, energy and 5G, and fully tap the potential of bilateral cooperation in such fields as education, culture, science, technology, and sports, so as to push for continuous new achievements in the development of bilateral relations, he added.
School Shooting Parole (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Michael Carneal was just 14 when he walked into the lobby of his Kentucky high school on the Monday after Thanksgiving 1997 with a large bag full of weapons.

A member of the school band and a victim of bullying, Carneal loitered in the lobby that morning, then put in earplugs, picked up a handgun hed smuggled in and opened fire on a prayer group meeting before class.

He killed three students and injured five others, including some whod considered him a friend. The teen was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

A quarter-century later, that day has come and its a rare circumstance.

Few fatal school shooters have reached this point. They often take their own lives, are killed by law enforcement during the incident or sentenced to life without parole. Notably, Carneals massacre took place in 1997, even before Columbine footage shocked the world less than two years later, cementing school shootings as a dreaded but oft-spoken part of the US vernacular.

School Shooting Parole (Copyright 1997 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

A female school shooter who killed two and injured nine in 1979 received the same life sentence as Carneal with eligibility for parole in 25 years. Shes been denied it six times.

Earlier this week, Carneals victims and their relatives spoke before two members of Kentuckys State Parole Board; all but one argued for his continued imprisonment. The shooter gave his own testimony the next day, but the members were unable to reach a unanimous decision.

Next week, the full state parole board will consider Carneals case. They have only three options: Let him out, keep him in prison or defer the parole decision for years. There is no option to transfer Carneal to a psychiatric facility instead of prison.

But Carneal himself on Tuesday told the two board members that, despite 25 years of treatment and a course of three psych meds, he still hears voices. He appeared fidgety and nervous during his testimony before chairperson Ladeidra N. Jones and board member Larry Brock.

Story continues

I know now that its not something that I should do, and Im able to not do it and rationalize that its not something that I should do - and what Im hearing is not real, he said.

Even at 14, Carneal said he knew right from wrong but blamed the massacre on a combination of factors.

I was hearing things, and I was extremely hyper suspicious, he told the board. And I had felt for years, feeling alienated and different, and I think that when I startd to develop mental health problems, that it fed into that - and it kind of ... it made my mental health problems worse, that I spent those years feeling like that.

Michael Carneal, now 39, was just 14 when he killed three and injured five at Heath High School; hes up for parole this month (Kentucky Department of Corrections)

And it got to the point where I was hearing things in my mind, to do certain things, and I was doing them. I wasnt strong enough or I wasnt thinking properly enough to evaluate what i was being told to do, and I just found myself doing them.

Heres what Carneal did: He stole guns and ammunition from his father and a neighbour and disguised them as a class project when his sister drove him to school on 1 December 1997. He walked into the lobby of Heath High School, where students were chatting animatedly after Thanksgiving and some were gathering for a prayer group that happened voluntarily before classes.

Carneal had rifles with him, but he didnt use them. Instead, he fired a 22-caliber semiautomatic pistol around 7.45 am. He shot Nicole Hadley, 14, in the forehhead, then fatally shot Jessica James, 17; and Kayce Steger, 15, as well. Carneal injured five more people, including Missy Jenkins Smith, who has been paralyzed from the chest down ever since.

Before that day, several of his victims had considered him their friend. Carneal admitted that hed liked some of his victims while testifying on Tuesday before the two board members.

Jessica James was always a leader, a positive leader, in the band, he said, known for helping the younger people out. He killed her.

Carneal killed and injured eight people before he was approached by the principal, Bill Bond, who took him back into the school offices to wait for police. He faced murder, attempted murder and burglary charges and pled guilty, focusing his defence on mental illness and bullying.

Missy and her twin sister, Mandy, were both in the hallway at Heath High School when Michael Carneal opened fire on a prayer circle in 1997 (Missy Jenkins Smith)

Missy Jenkins Smith, his bandmate whos been wheelchair-bound since that day, was friendly enough with Carneal and admits that Heath High School had a severe problem with bullying.

Before the shooting, she said, there were times where [Carneal] might do something - and I always thought he was funny - but there were some people that, you know, would treat him like he was, you know, annoying or whatever it may be ... so he dealt with that, but that doesnt mean I give him an excuse whatsoever.

She says she remembers being slightly jealous, in fact, at how Carneal seemed able to brush off the bullying - until the day he unleashed a bloodbath in the high school hallway before he stopped shooting.

He was the last person she thought would be responsible for such horror on a day that started so normally. Missy was rushing to leave the house that morning so her older sister wouldnt leave for school without her; to this day, she regrets not telling her parents she loved them as she said goodbye. Shed face her own mortality minutes later.

After getting to school, she and Mandy were in the hallway when the announcement was made for the daily prayer circle, as students gathered before class to reflect and pray about anything that might be on their minds.

Thats when she heard what sounded like firecrackers. She saw Nicole get shot and, she thinks, went into shock - right around the time a bullet hit her, too.

I dont honestly honestly think that he was after the prayer circle, Missy told The Independent. But he was after a big group of people.

Ms Jenkins Smith visited Carneal in prison with her twin, Mandy - who was present for the shooting and tried to shield her sister - ten years after the incident. She then wrote books and became an advocate, and her testimony to the Kentucky parole board on Monday was jarring.

I want you to consider how long its been that hes been taken care of by others, Missy, now a married mother of two, told the board. From the age of 14 years old to his present age of 39, he hasnt had the responsibility to take care of himself and has been cared for for the past 25 years.

Despite being confined to a wheelchair, Missy married her husband Josh, had two boys, wrote books and gives speeches (Missy Jenkins Smith)

How could anyone say with confidence he could to that for the rest of his life? she asked, adding: What if stressors in this new world begin to weigh on him  having trouble finding a job after jail time for murder or attempted murder, running into people who know who he is and what he did? How sure are we that hed be able to handle this new world thats changed around him? What if these problems affect him so much emotionally that he chooses not to take his medication? What if it affects him emotionally enough that his medications arent helping anymore?

There are too many What ifs  to assume that he would be responsible enough to take care of himself and to not let his mental illness cause him to harm anyone again? Continuing his life in prison is the only way his victims can feel comfortable and safe without being haunted, she went on.

Her sentiments were echoed by the parents, brother and sister of Nicole Hadley, but Hollan Holm, who was shot in the head by Carneal and still bears the scar on his hairline, argued for his attackers release.

I was still a child, said Mr Holm, who was 14 at the time of the shooting and will turn 40 in December.

Everyone in the lobby of Heath High School that day, including Michael Carneal, was a child. Its taken me 25 years to fully appreciate how little I knew on that day  how much of life I had not lived and how far from adult I was in my thinking and my capacity. I am a different person today than I was on that day. Ive gone from that day to start a family and have a career.

Still, Mr Holm did not make light of the ramifications of Carneals actions.

Hollan Holm was 14 when Carneal shot him in the head but is arguing for his attackers release (Zoom)

I still have trouble being in crowds of people, he said. I get anxious when Im seated in a restaurant with my back to the door, when a series of small fireworks or popping balloons approximates that deliberate pattern of the gunshots from that morning. I can feel the colour drain from my face in panic.

During Carneals appearance before parole board members on Tuesday, he said he was sorry for his crimes, but Ms Jones pointed out that, from medical records, the inmates prognosis remained poor after decades of treatment. He continued to experience paranoid thoughts with violent visual imagery.

Ms Jones also noted that Carneals family and legal team had sent letters to the board regarding his plea and plan for release, but theyd not received anything from the inmate himself, who seemed ill-equipped to handle the hearing hed anticipating for more than half of his life. He also told board members that he does not pay attention to his mental health diagnoses, only doctors instructions.

Despite that, and his medication, he admitted voices were still telling him to do things as recently as a few days beforehand.

Watching his testimony, Ms Jenkins Smith was unswayed by his plea and shared in a Facebook post on Tuesday that she didnt think things went well for Michael today.

I was surprised the board couldnt come to a unanimous decision, but I trust that the full board will do the right thing next week. I didnt see any evidence that hes any better today, 25 years later, or that he put much effort into preparing for this hearing, and I think the board saw that too, she wrote. From my view, hes functioning and safe in prison, and so are we out here. Lets keep it that way.
LANSING, Mich. (AP)  The Republican candidate for Michigan governor on Friday compared Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's policies to the 2020 plot to kidnap the Democratic incumbent, remarks that Democrats criticized as making light of a serious and dangerous crime.

Tudor Dixon referred to the kidnapping plot at two separate events.

Sad thing is, Gretchen will tie your hands, put a gun to your head and ask if youre ready to talk, Dixon told a crowd at an event in Troy while speaking about the need to cut business regulations. "For someone so worried about being kidnapped, Gretchen Whitmer sure is good at taking business hostage.

At an event later Friday, Dixon referenced an appearance Whitmer made with President Joe Biden at the Detroit Auto Show.

Ill tell you the look on her face, she was like: Oh my gosh this is happening. Id rather be kidnapped by the FBI,' Dixon said.

Two men were convicted last month of plotting to kidnap Whitmer because they were angry about pandemic-related restrictions she imposed. Prosecutors said they were part of a group who conspired to abduct Whitmer at her vacation home and to blow up a bridge to disrupt police so they wouldn't be caught. The FBI said it broke up the plot before it could occur.

The jury's conviction came in a second trial against the two men, Barry Croft Jr. and Adam Fox. At an earlier trial, the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict, while two other men were acquitted. Their lawyers argued the men were big talkers who were set up by the FBI and said there was no actual plot.

The Democratic Governors Association called Dixon's comments utterly disqualifying for the role of Michigan governor, while Whitmer's campaign criticized Dixon for dangerous rhetoric.

Threats of violence are no laughing matter, and the fact that Dixon spent the day making joke after joke about it shows that she is absolutely unfit to serve in public office, Whitmer campaign spokeswoman Maeve Coyle tweeted.

Story continues

Dixon was endorsed by former President Donald Trump during the GOP primary and is now trailing Whitmer in fundraising and support. She campaigned Friday with Trump's son Donald Trump Jr., who called the conspiracy to kidnap Whitmer the fake kidnap plot orchestrated by the FBI.

Dixon criticized the media for not reporting on what she called attacks against her during Biden's recent visit, saying he called me all kinds of names and put my life in danger.

___

Burnett reported from Chicago. ___

Joey Cappelletti 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.
Puerto Ricos National Guard reportedly helped rescue more than 1,000 people impacted by the devastating hurricane that struck the island earlier this week.

Hurricane Fiona made landfall in southwestern Puerto Rico on Sunday, at the time as a category one storm, knocking out power to the entire island and pummeling it with torrential rain.

Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said in a news conference Monday that the National Guard and emergency responders had already rescued at least 1,000 people stranded due to the storm, which has so far killed at least eight, according to reports by Reuters.

Only five years after Hurricane Maria ravaged the Caribbean island, widespread landslides, powerful winds and catastrophic flooding have again devastated Puerto Rico.

Pierluisi activated more than 450 Puerto Rico National Guard members to assist those in need, Pentagon press secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said during a briefing Tuesday, adding that Virgin Island National Guard personnel were also activated to monitor the situation.

Before the storm hit the Puerto Rico National Guard prepositioned soldiers and heavy equipment, including vehicles with high ground clearance, at 10 strategic points around the island to allow it to quickly respond to emergencies such as rescuing stranded or trapped people and clearing roads, Ryder said.

Puerto Rico National Guard Rescues Hurricane Victims:  https://t.co/Ke9aJnfeL9



The @PRNationalGuard is supporting the government response to Hurricane Fiona, which knocked out power to the entire island and caused severe flooding. pic.twitter.com/mcwsdcD9ix  U.S. Army (@USArmy) September 20, 2022

On Monday, the Guards 65th Infantry Regiment rescued 21 elderly and bedridden people whose homes were threatened by landslides, according to an Army press release. Members of the 296th Infantry Regiment rescued 59 people  and 13 pets  from flooding in Mayaguez. Rescues also took place in Salinas, Toa Baja and Anasco, among other municipalities.

Story continues

In one harrowing incident, Guard members with the 125th Military Police Battalion rescued a man in Ponce who had been swept away by a flash flood when he went out for gasoline.

He clung to a concrete beam in Ponce, Puerto Rico, during flooding caused by Hurricane Fiona. He was rescued by members of the 125th Military Police Battalion, & the Puerto Rico National Guard remains on duty tonight, after rescuing hundreds. pic.twitter.com/VgctbW6aZD  General Daniel Hokanson (@ChiefNGB) September 20, 2022

He was clinging to a concrete beam near Mercedita Airport in southern Puerto Rico, where floodwaters were as high as 6 feet, a Puerto Rico National Guard press release stated.

As of early Friday, at least 926,000 Puerto Ricans had been affected by power outages, according to the online tracker PowerOutage.us.

Ryder said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is preparing generators for emergency power and the Civil Air Patrol is providing post-hurricane landfall imagery support and small unmanned aerial system support to the Federal Emergency Management Agencys urban search and rescue teams.

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden approved a major disaster declaration  following an initial emergency declaration on Sunday  that will direct federal aid for the islands recovery efforts.

I especially want to thank the local first responders, Biden said Thursday during a briefing with FEMA. I want to say that again  the local first responders. I want to thank them  including the Puerto Rican National Guard, who have been working around the clock.

The U.S. Coast Guard, which is also assisting in relief efforts, posted a video to its Facebook showing a coastal assessment team flying over Puerto Rico Tuesday to assess damage around the island. Later that day, the Coast Guard reopened all of the remaining ports on the island and in U.S. Virgin Islands.

Adm. Linda Fagan, commandant of the Coast Guard, thanked those troops helping to manage the aftermath of Fiona in a video posted to Twitter.

After leaving Puerto Rico, the storm picked up as it reached the Dominican Republic and Turks and Caicos before today barreling over Bermuda, now as a category four storm. The National Hurricane Center said this morning that Fiona is expected to hit Canada later today and tomorrow.
Social media posts claim an executive order from Joe Biden eliminates cash and enables the government to monitor transactions. This is misleading; while the US president did call for additional research on a central bank digital currency, the order does nothing to limit cash use -- and experts say any such system would be legally required to include privacy protections and involve the independent Federal Reserve, banks and Congress.

"Biden cash-free central bank digital currency coming in December.. y'all just gonna wait till he shut everything down?" says the speaker in a TikTok video viewed more than 97,000 times.

A similar warning was tweeted September 18, 2022 by former congressman Justin Amash, while an Instagram post claimed a digital currency "gives the feds 100% access to everything you own."

On Facebook, talk show host Clay Clark said in a September 18 video that a central bank digital currency "could be turned on and off the way that Twitter can turn on and or off your account."

Pointing to Executive Order 14067, he says: "This is a significant executive order that every American should know about because it would make it where you cannot buy or sell if certain parties aren't a fan of your actions if you voted for President Trump as an example that could turn off your ability to buy or sell."

Screenshot of a TikTok video taken September 21, 2022

Screenshot of a Facebook post taken September 22, 2022

But the US is far from launching a "digital dollar," which experts say would require participation from the independent central bank, the financial industry and Congress.

"Nothing has happened so far," said Josh Lipsky, senior director of the Atlantic Council's GeoEconomics Center, which studies the global development of digital currencies. "All that has happened is a study and an executive order that calls for more research and development."

A US Treasury spokesperson confirmed to AFP that there are no plans to launch a digital currency in December 2022.

Story continues

US exploring digital currency

On March 9, 2022, Biden signed an executive order that called on federal agencies to conduct an "assessment" of a national digital currency. The order said any such effort would "promote democratic values; the rule of law; privacy; (and) the protection of consumers."

Six months later, in September 2022, the White House issued a technical analysis outlining the benefits and risks of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), noting that "it is probably better for privacy and civil and human rights purposes for some pieces of information to be collected by intermediaries rather than the central bank."

The move comes as China is in the process of launching its "digital yuan," raising fears that authoritarian countries could use digital currency to increase surveillance and control.

A September report from the US Treasury Department recognized these risks, saying "a system with a publicly visible ledger ... may result in reduced user privacy," thus highlighting the need for a US model where "payment services would be managed by intermediaries and other private sector participants."

Lipsky said "China is the exception" in moving toward a centrally controlled digital currency, and that other countries are building their systems around existing private financial infrastructure. He said statements from the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department and the White House indicate any US digital currencies would be decentralized and rely on private companies.

"The Fed couldn't shut something off because ... (a CBDC) would be intermediated through the financial system including the banks and possibly (financial technology) providers," Lipsky said.

Darrell Duffie, a Stanford University finance professor who has researched and testified before Congress on the topic, agreed. He said that while digital currencies pose a theoretical risk to privacy, this would be mitigated by an independent central bank and US laws that protect financial privacy.

"The Federal Reserve is independent of the government, it's not part of the government, unlike the PBOC," Duffie said, referring to the acronym for the Chinese central bank.

100 countries

As many as 100 countries are considering or testing digital currencies, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Such currencies could offer speedier transactions and lower costs, notably for international transfers.

However, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a February 2022 speech that privacy remains a key concern.

"In many countries, privacy concerns are a potential deal breaker when it comes to CBDC legislation and adoption," she said. "So, it's vital that policymakers get the mix right."

A Federal Reserve report published in January 2022 said policymakers would examine digital currencies that could "complement, rather than replace, current forms of money," "protect consumer privacy" and "have broad support from key stakeholders."
The former head of a Kremlin-linked engineering institute died Wednesday in an apparent accident, according to CNN  adding to the long list of Russian CEOs and officials who have met a mysterious end this year.

Russian news outlet Izvestia reported that Anatoly Gerashchenko fell from a great height down numerous flights of stairs inside the Moscow Aviation Institutes headquarters, according to The Daily Beast. The institutes press office described his death as the result of an accident.

Gerashchenko, who led the organization from 2007 to 2015, was serving as an adviser to the institutes current rector when he died, according to state-controlled outlet RIA Novosti. He spent 45 years rising through the ranks there and was honored with government awards, such as the Merit to the Fatherland medal.

While the Moscow Aviation Institute might sound like a flight school, the university conducts research in fields with potential military applications, from avionics and aerospace to drones and artificial intelligence, according to Insider. It has ties with the countrys Ministry of Defense.

The institute called Gerashchenkos death a colossal loss and said it would establish an internal commission to investigate. That panel would include members of multiple government bodies and the university itself, it said.

Anatoly Gerashchenko reportedly fell down several flights of stairs. (Photo: Moscow Aviation Institute)

Anatoly Gerashchenko reportedly fell down several flights of stairs. (Photo: Moscow Aviation Institute)

Gerashchenko is the latest in a series of high-profile Russians to die this year under unexpected circumstances.

Ravil Maganov, who chaired Russias second-largest oil company, Lukoil, reportedly leaped to his death from the sixth floor of a hospital earlier this month. Billionaire Alexander Subbotin, a former manager at Lukoil, was found dead in May of an apparent heart attack in the home of a shaman, according to Newsweek.

Meanwhile, local news reported that Leonid Shulman  an executive at the countrys third-largest bank, Gazprombank  hanged himself in his cottage in January, according to Reuters. The next month, former Gazprombank executive Alexander Tyulyakov was also found hanged, the New York Post said.

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Vladislav Avayev, a former vice president at the bank, was found shot to death in April next to the bodies of his wife and daughter. The following day, Sergei Protosenya  an ex-manager of Russias second-largest gas producer, Novatek  was found hanged in a Spanish villa.

Thus far, authorities have not said that foul play caused any of the mens deaths.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
TASHKENT (Reuters) - Uzbekistan's top religious authority urged Uzbeks on Friday not to get involved in the conflict in Ukraine, saying that doing so was against the Islamic faith, after Russia offered fast-track citizenship to foreigners those who join its army.

The Muslim Board said members of some "terrorist organisations" were recruiting Muslims to fight in the Ukraine conflict under the pretext of "jihad" or holy war.

In reality, it said, it was not permissible for a Muslim to participate in any military action except to defend their homeland.

Its statement came after Uzbek state prosecutors said this week that citizens fighting in foreign wars would face criminal prosecution under Uzbek law.

With a predominantly young population of 35 million, mainly Muslim Uzbekistan is the most populous former Soviet republic after Russia and Ukraine, and many Uzbeks are fluent in Russian.

A video circulated on Ukrainian social media this month showed two Uzbeks captured in fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces. The detainees said they were recruited in Moscow.

Hundreds of thousands of Uzbeks live in or regularly travel to Russia to find work and provide for their families at home; some work illegally and risk being deported.

Russia's parliament passed a law this week offering fast-track citizenship to foreigners who join its army, part of a broader drive to strengthen the military amid the stalled Ukrainian campaign which also included partial mobilisation.

On the Ukrainian side, there are some predominantly Muslim foreign battalions, the most prominent of which are made up of ethnic Chechens who have opposed Moscow since it fought wars in their homeland - part of the Russian Federation - in the 1990s.

(Reporting by Mukhammadsharif Mamatkulov; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Gareth Jones)
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO will ramp up its help for Kyiv in response to Russia's "sham" referendums in occupied territories of Ukraine, the alliance's Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, said on Friday.

He spoke as Moscow launched the votes on the four regions joining Russia, in what Kyiv and its allies say is a ruse to annex the territories and escalate the seven-month-old war.

"Our answer, NATO's answer, is to step up support," Stoltenberg told CNN in an interview.

"The best way to end this war is to strengthen the Ukrainians on the battlefield further so they can, at some stage, sit down and reach a solution which is acceptable for Ukraine and that preserves Ukraine as a sovereign, independent nation in Europe," he added.

The votes have raised fears that Moscow could incorporate the four areas and then portray attacks to retake them as an attack on Russia itself.

"That's exactly what we need to be prepared for, that Russia will use these sham votes to further escalate the war in Ukraine," Stoltenberg said when asked about that scenario.

"But these votes have no legitimacy and of course they don't change anything. This continues to be a war of aggression by Russia against Ukraine," he added.

NATO allies have been supporting Ukraine with weapons, ammunition, other military equipment and training.

The four-day referendums were hastily organised after Ukrainian troops earlier this month recaptured large swathes of the northeast in a counter-offensive.

With Russian President Vladimir Putin also announcing a military draft this week to enlist 300,000 troops to fight in Ukraine, the Kremlin appears to be trying to regain the upper hand in the grinding conflict since its Feb. 24 invasion.

Putin maintains Russia is carrying out a "special military operation" to demilitarise Ukraine, rid it of dangerous nationalists and defend Russia from transatlantic alliance NATO.

Moscow maintains that the referendums offer an opportunity for people in the region to express their view.

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold, Editing by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Andrew Heavens)
Nicola Peltz says its "just a bit of a bummer" when people believe there is family drama between her and her mother-in-law, Victoria Beckham.

The actress, who wed Brooklyn Beckham in a lavish wedding in April, maintains that there is no conflict with her in-laws, even though Victoria did not end up designing her wedding dress.

"They're great in-laws," Peltz told Grazia magazine of Victoria and David Beckham.

Nicola Peltz calls Victoria and David Beckham "great in-laws" amid feud rumors. Getty Images

She emphasized that there is no drama surrounding her wedding dress after early reports indicated that her future mother-in-law was supposed to design her gown. Peltz ended up walking down the aisle in Palm Beach, Florida in a custom Valentino gown.

NICOLA PELTZ BECKHAM RESPONDS TO SUPPOSED FEUD WITH MOTHER-IN-LAW VICTORIA BECKHAM

"Well, I was planning on wearing Victoria's wedding dress, and I was truly so excited to be able to wear a design that my future mother-in-law created," she told the outlet. "I thought that was so beautiful and such a beautiful story."

Peltz had a plan for her wedding dress, but it began to unravel when Victorias atelier said she could not go through with the gown she had envisioned.

Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz tied the knot in lavish ceremony in Palm Beach, Florida in April. Gotham

She shared that her friend, Leslie Fremar, and her mother, Claudia, helped her come up with the design for her dress.

VICTORIA BECKHAM SLAMMED FOR BEING OUT OF TOUCH WITH POSH SPICE TIKTOK

"I thought, 'Oh, this is going to be so fun. One of my best friends and my mom.' We connected to start designing the dress, and then a few days went by, and I didn't hear anything," she said.

"Victoria called my mom and said her atelier couldn't make it. So, I spoke to my mom and Leslie, and I was like, 'Well, unfortunately, this can't happen, so what's the next step?' I've been a fan of Valentino and their couture for so long. I was really lucky to be able to travel to [the atelier] to try on the dress. That's really what happened," Peltz clarified to the outlet.

A rift between Victoria Beckham and her daughter-in-law Nicola Peltz Beckham started to make headlines after Nicola didn't wear a wedding gown designed by the "Spice Girl." Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Steve Granitz

Peltz was aware that there were rumors that there was a negative reason behind why she did not walk down the aisle in a gown designed by Victoria, and she told the outlet that those rumors really bothered her.

Story continues

VICTORIA BECKHAM SAYS SHE'S 'LUCKY' TO HAVE FOUND 'SOULMATE' DAVID BECKHAM

"When I read things that say [things like] I was never planning on wearing a [Victoria Beckham] dress or things like that, it does hurt my feelings," Peltz said. "I try not to let it, but it's just not the truth. It's just a bit of a bummer when you're like, 'Oh, people think that,' but it's just not true."

In August, Peltz addressed the rumored feud with her mother-in-law in an interview with Variety. Since her wedding to Brooklyn in April, rumors have been swirling that Peltz doesnt get along with her mother-in-law and that the two are feuding.

Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz first began dating in October 2019 before tying the knot this year. Photo by Arturo Holmes

"I was going to, and I really wanted to, and then a few months down the line, she realized that her atelier couldnt do it, so then I had to pick another dress," Peltz explained to Variety. "She didnt say you cant wear it; I didnt say I didnt want to wear it. Thats where it started, and then they ran with that."

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER

Victoria Beckham started her own clothing line in 2008. Her website describes the line as a mix of pieces to match the evolving style of women and staple pieces every woman should have no matter what current trends are.

Peltzs husband, Brooklyn, who was also present for the interview, had a different take on the whole ordeal. Having grown up in the media spotlight, Beckham seemed to have an understanding of how quickly rumors can spread and how to deal with it.

Brooklyn Beckham addressed the rumored feud between his mother, Victoria and his wife, Nicola Peltz. Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images

"Ive learned theyre always going to try to write stuff like that," Beckham said. "Theyre always going to try and put people down. But everyone gets along, which is good."

The couple began dating in October 2019 and made their relationship Instagram official in January 2020. After less than a year of dating, the couple announced their engagement on Instagram in July 2020 with Peltz Beckham writing Beckham had made her "the luckiest girl in the world."

They tied the knot April 9, 2022, in Palm Beach, Florida, at Peltzs family home.
 Flash

A boat carrying Chinese nationals sunk off southwestern Cambodia's sea on Thursday evening, the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia confirmed on Friday.

According to the Chinese embassy, they received a notification from the Cambodian Police Department on Thursday night, saying that the police found a sunken ship which used to have 41 Chinese citizens on board, with 18 having been rescued and the remaining 23 missing. Two Cambodian crew members involved have been arrested.

According to the rescued personnel, the people on board departed from Guangzhou, China on Sept. 11 and were in distress shortly after arriving in the waters of Preah Sihanouk province.

The embassy said after receiving the information, Ambassador Wang Wentian immediately deployed staff to contact the Cambodian Ministry of National Defense, the police department, the Sihanouk Provincial Government and other relevant departments to request rescuing the missing ones. Li Jie, counselor and consul general of the embassy, rushed to Preah Sihanouk on Thursday night to coordinate relevant rescue operations.

Li on Friday morning got the information from Kuoch Chamroeun, governor of Preah Sihanouk province, about the latest progress in the search and rescue work. Chamroeun said that after the accident, the Cambodian Ministry of National Defense, the National Police and the provincial government carried out rescue work with all their strength.

The embassy said as of 12:00 local time on Friday, another person was successfully rescued, and a victim's body was recovered.

In order to mobilize social forces to participate in the rescue, the Sihanouk provincial government issued a reward notice to fishermen nearby, saying that rescuing each missing person would be rewarded with 500 U.S. dollars.

The search and rescue operation is still going on.
Did Nina Totenberg know a secret that could have changed history?

The question hovers over Dinners With Ruth, Totenbergs new memoir of her four-decade friendship with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, complicating the chronicle of the pairs triumphs and sorrows, lingering in the air like the fishy aroma of the bouillabaisse Totenberg used to bring to the ailing justice.

Its a question whose implications  for womens rights, the Constitution, the future of the republic  are more important than the by now familiar debate over whether a National Public Radio reporters controversial ties to a powerful jurist she covered violated journalism-school best practices.

It was 2020, an election was looming, and RBG was dying. During lockdown, we learn in the book, Totenbergs home was the one place Ginsburg went other than her own apartment. Their weekly Saturday suppers made Totenberg one of the few Americans to lay eyes on the justice during the months of isolation. By July, Ginsburg could not climb the six steps into the house without a bodyguard holding her around the waist. At her apartment, she fell asleep midmeal, a fork still in her hand. She wore clothes meant to disguise how much weight shed lost. Her gloves  which had become a fashion statement  were actually there to cover the IV wounds on her hands.

After a hospital stay, she confessed, for the first time, that she had thought she was going to die there.

Anyone who has watched a loved one fade understands how you can just know, even before you admit it to yourself. I kept thinking, Cmon, Ruth, you can do it, you can do it, Totenberg writes, referencing a scare right before Covid struck. But I was enough of a realist that I would also wake every morning worrying about her. As 2020 progressed, the reality became clearer still. In the beginning, I had conned myself into thinking that there was every reason to believe Ruth would survive this. But as the months rolled on, it became clear that this illness wasnt just lung cancer. It was a return of the old pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest forms of the disease.

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What if Totenberg had gone on the air to lay out what she knew?



I dont mean raiding the HIPAA-protected files of her physician husband, whom Ginsburg had by then made part of her medical team. (Totenberg, sticking to the rough ground rules that enabled her to combine her roles as friend and reporter, kept herself out of the loop on specifics). But maybe she could have broadcast just the things that would have been clear to a dispassionate observer, albeit hard for a devoted friend to accept: that Ginsburg was a desperately sick woman, that her family and friends were engaged in what amounted to an unacknowledged death watch  a report that would have lent flesh-and-blood immediacy to the bland statements from the courts press office.

I, for one, would have been interested to learn that the legendary Nina Totenberg woke up every morning worrying about Ginsburg.

It would, of course, have required either some persuasion or an act of betrayal. But theres a chance that a blunt story about Ginsburgs decline might have changed the trajectory that led to the end of Americans right to abortion. As competitors sensationalist stories focused on Ginsburgs health, activists might have gotten GOP senators (many of them locked in tight elections) on the record promising to not fill the seat until after the voters had a say in the November presidential election. The lurid coverage would surely have undercut the element of surprise that enabled Mitch McConnell to move almost immediately to muscle through a replacement.

Ginsburgs fateful decision not to retire during the Obama years, her death just weeks before Joe Bidens victory and her replacements crucial vote to overturn Roe v. Wade have prompted all sorts of what-if scenarios among those whose overblown devotion to Ginsburg has curdled into an equally overblown posthumous anger at her . What if Obama had leaned harder on her to step down? What if the Notorious RBG meme hadnt turned her into a pop-culture icon with a universe full of digital defenders who would push back against any pressure to call it quits?

Now, Totenbergs book prompts a new counterfactual that boils down to this: What if shed been a more single-minded journalist and a lousier friend?

At different moments in life, there are choices of lasting consequence, she writes in the book, describing her feelings as Ginsburgs health turns. And I had one of those before me. For the next eighteen months, I chose friendship. It was the best choice I ever made.

Totenberg, now 78, dismisses the idea that she had much to add to the public record during the year and a half before Ginsburgs death. There was no big news she sat on. She told me this week that she didnt know until summer just how bad it was. When she started coming to the house eight months before that, she was looking pretty decent in those days, she says. Totenberg only really knew, she says, when she stopped at her sisters house on summer vacation and saw a video of RBG at a memorial event for a recently deceased federal judge. She was wearing a shawl and holding it out to disguise the fact that shed lost even more weight.

And once the court, in its typically dry way, acknowledged pancreatic cancer around this same time (the tumor was treated definitively and there is no evidence of disease elsewhere in the body, the statement said) she says the whole press corps understood. All of us who cover the court, everybody knew, Totenberg says. It was a question of how long. Even if theyd all written over-the-top stories about it, she says, no amount of news-driven maneuvering could have dissuaded Mitch McConnell from getting a conservative replacement seated.

I dont think Totenberg was BSing me. But its clear on every page of Dinners With Ruth that the reporter deeply loved the judge, a woman who had comforted her in widowhood and celebrated her new marriage and taught her much about what it means to show up for your friends. The thing about love is it can make you not want to see stuff thats right before your eyes. That tendency is hard to square with a reporters job. And when youre a powerful reporter covering things that shape the life of a country, the matter of how you do your job is a lot more important than one lovely friendship or some quasi-academic debate about a journalists true duties.



Which brings us back to Totenbergs confounding book, subtitled A memoir on the power of friendships, but actually a remarkable tour of how the connected Washington mind works.

The tome does double duty as a sometimes rollicking account of Totenbergs ground-breaking journalistic career and a heart-tugging chronicle of the various Washington VIPs she befriended. It has some great stories  about the grotesque sexism of media and politics during the early years of her career; about the workplace racism she uncovered in her 1970s-era reporting on mistreatment of Supreme Court janitorial staff; about how she got the story of Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas  but it always comes back to friendships, starting with the story of how a twentysomething Totenberg invited Justice Lewis Powell and his wife for dinner, and continuing on through stories of how Totenberg and her work sisters Cokie Roberts and Linda Wertheimer advocated for younger women journalists at the nascent NPR.

Theyre very sweet, all these tales of fundamentally decent people who have your back amidst grief and triumph alike. But as the pages go by, and Totenberg and her friends become more powerful, the theme becomes increasingly uncomfortable  and increasingly revealing.

Its not that Totenberg pulls punches on the insiders who come to her dinners. She has a code, and while it might not be good enough for journalism-ethics busybodies (like the NPR ombudsman who scolded her for not revealing her RBG friendship), Im willing to believe she keeps to it. Rather, its the way she seems to accept and share her insider friends worldviews. In this universe, it seems, were all on the same team.

The jurists Totenberg spent her career covering, for instance, are invariably portrayed as thoughtful stewards of the Constitution, even when they err. In the months since the end of Roe v. Wade, its become fashionable to think of the court as a blatantly political body. If youre wondering why it took America so long to get to that conclusion, even as leaders of other once-admired institutions were exposed as hacks and nincompoops, look no further than Totenbergs dinner table, where the likes of Nino Scalia (a mensch), Stephen Breyer (he and his wife helped clean up after an I Love Lucy-style dishwasher disaster) and William Brennan (he wrote a thoughtful note to Totenbergs niece) were holding court.

And, of course, Ruth, as the book always calls her, the most admirable of all. One theory about Ginsburgs decision to stay on the court was that, sharp as she was, she lived in a bubble that left her unable to appreciate how mean and extreme politics had become. If so, the convivial vibe depicted by Totenberg didnt do much to clear things up. In fact, Totenberg became part of the RBG hype machine. As the justice became an unlikely celebrity, she and Totenberg developed a sort of stage act, conducting public interviews before ticketed audiences. Totenberg would share questions in advance. The responses were more thoughtful that way, which it seems was really what the evenings were trying to show.

With its odd, priestly culture, the court is particularly susceptible to this sort of veneration. Could you imagine a congressional reporter doing a book called Dinners With Harry Reid, tracing shopping excursions and intimate family moments with the late majority leader, who died the year after Ginsburg? Im not saying Totenberg has to treat the justices as if they were venal, low-wattage members of the Palookaville ward-politics machine. But itd be nice if she held open the possibility  a hard thing to do when youre pals.

As the old journalistic adage goes, if your mother tells you shes just a humble jurist calling balls and strikes, check it out.

In one particularly excruciating passage, the Scalias come to a dinner party shortly after the conservative justice wrote the precedent-shattering decision striking down D.C.s gun laws. Totenbergs husband, a surgeon who she says has operated on hundreds of gunshot victims, adorns every guests soup bowl with a plastic squirt gun. Everyone laughs. Hilarious!

Eventually, Totenberg even comes to rethink some of the damning conclusions she has reached about Washingtons good and great. Of The Last Plantation, her report on mistreatment of Supreme Court janitorial staff, she says shed skip the indignant tone if she could do it again.

Likewise, Alan Simpson is rehabilitated. The Wyoming senator first appears in an ugly story describing how, during the Clarence Thomas hearings, he followed Totenberg to her car following a Nightline taping, screaming so furiously that the networks hired driver told her she ought to get a gun. Totenberg eventually got out of the car and yelled right back at the towering pol, calling him a fucking bully. Not long afterward, though, she invited the bully to a Washington gala. Did he become an awesome source, making the whole hatchet-burying outing worth it? We dont know. But she does describe him as a friend. Simpson couldnt have been a better date, picking me up, and even bringing me a corsage to wear for the evening.

Totenbergs book seems to be cast as a corrective against some national misapprehension that Washington is about nothing but bickering and partisanship. But that misunderstands why so many Americans are down on the capital. Instead, the rage stems from a conviction that the city is full of insiders who are all part of the same contented club, forever scratching one anothers backs. Thats a perception that Dinners With Ruth does absolutely nothing to dispel.

When we spoke, Totenberg waxed nostalgic about the old Washington of cross-aisle comity. It was an incredibly different time and it was a better time, she says. Today, its better than people think it is, because there are people who are still friends even though they dont advertise that. And there are people who still work together even though they dont advertise that. But its much worse than it used to be.

Totenberg would also not concede an inch to the critics of her friendships. Of Kelly McBride, the NPR Public Editor who wrote soon after Ginsburgs death that Totenberg should have done more to disclose their relationship, she says, I am not the only reporter at NPR who thinks that she has a completely unrealistic view of covering Washington. What would a realistic view entail? Think about Washington, D.C., itself and the professions that operate here. There are lawyers and lobbyists. There are politicians and policy people. And reporters who cover it all. And the reporters shouldnt be divorced from all of that. We should know them.

Hard to argue with that. But know is a complicated concept, one that friendship can deepen but also occlude.

If Totenberg were an architect or a history professor or an airline pilot or an actuary, the emotional blind spots would be her business. But shes a reporter, a very influential one. Which means that those of us who have relied on her reporting but didnt experience the heartwarming calls or the gossip-filled evenings are within our rights to apply a certain selfish cost-benefit analysis: What exactly do we get out of her friendships? Totenberg says that intimacy with justices and public officials made her a more thoughtful reporter and a better person. Ill buy it. Yet even if you dont think any amount of scary Ginsburg-health reporting could have deterred Mitch McConnell in 2020, its hard to come away from this book and not think the bonds also cost her something  and us, too.

Harry Truman famously said that if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog. The phrase is usually meant as a cautionary tale  that humans, in a town of ambition, will eventually let you down. Totenbergs book, with its tales of steadfastness and solidarity, disproves that line. But the phrase could also be read as advice. Maybe it means that following true north requires a distance thats made much more difficult by genuine friendship. Which is all just to say that Dinners With Ruth left me wondering whether it would have been better if Nina Totenberg had gotten a dog.


Sep. 23SOUTH PARIS  A Mexico man whose car struck a Rumford police officer during a vehicle chase last year will spend no time in jail, a judge ruled Thursday.

Joshua R. Billings, 28, pleaded guilty Thursday in Oxford County Superior Court to a felony charge of assault on an officer, which carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.

He also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of driving to endanger and operating while license suspended or revoked.

In crafting that agreement with prosecutors, he agreed to be sentenced to up to two years on the felony, but would only be ordered to serve 90 days of that sentence or less time in jail.

Assistant District Attorney Richard Beauchesne argued that Billings should spend some time behind bars so he recognizes and appreciates the wrongfulness of his actions" and send a message to other folks who "might find themselves in a similar situation."

In this case, Beauchesne said, "this is a really serious charge."

The officer who was injured "feared for his life," he said.

No officer who is making a traffic stop should expect this might happen to him, Beauchesne said.

Defense attorney Maurice Porter said his client "didn't need much time" to recognize the seriousness of his conduct.

Billings turned himself in to authorities the same day as the crime and he apologized to the officer who was injured, Porter said.

He said Billings has been working for months for a forestry company, a job that he could lose if he were incarcerated. He relies on that job to pay child support.

Billings suffers from anxiety and is receiving services to help with that, Porter said.

"This felony conviction itself is something that's going to have a pretty negative impact on a big portion of his life going forward," Porter said, even if he doesn't spend him behind bars.

"I am certain that any actual jail time imposed by the court is going to set him back far further than is going to be beneficial to him or the community," Porter said.

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Judge Tammy Ham-Thompson sentenced Billings to two years.

"You put the officer's life at grave risk. Fortunately, there weren't serious consequences," she said.

But she suspended all of that time, noting Billings appeared to be "taking significant strides trying to make better choices and moving forward in a positive direction."

Although incarceration is often used "to punish people for violating the law and making choices that result in such consequences," Ham-Thompson said Billings appears to have started down the road towards rehabilitation.

"If I were to incarcerate you, I'm afraid that . . . the strides that you have made will all be for naught and I don't want to do that," she said.

On the misdemeanor charges, Ham-Thompson imposed fines of $500 apiece; on the charge of driving to endanger, she also imposed a loss of license for 30 days.

Billings handed his license to a marshal in the courtroom.

He will be on probation for two years. If he were to violate his probation, he could be ordered to serve up to two years of his suspended sentence in prison.

Police said Rumford police Cpl. Lawrence Winson was parked on Franklin Street monitoring traffic and saw a silver sports car speed past about 8:30 p.m.

The 2008 Hyundai Tiburon, which police later determined was driven by Billings, went through a blind intersection on the wrong side of the road, according to police.

Winson activated his lights and siren, attempting to stop the car, but Billings continued driving on the wrong side of the road and going through stop signs, police said.

The pursuit continued to Flood Street in Mexico, where Billings pulled into a driveway and shut off teh car lights, police said. As Winson got out of his cruiser and approached the car to order Billings to get out of his, Billings revved the engine.

Winson pounded on the driver's side window and ordered Billings to stop, but he backed the car up, striking Winson's right hand and knocking him to the ground, police said.

When Winson saw the car coming at him, he feared he was about to be run over and rolled out of the way, police said.

Billings sped away with the car lights still off, police said.

About an hour later, Billings' family members notified police he was hiding at his residence and assisted police in arranging for him to turn himself in at the Rumford Police Department, police said.

Winson, who suffered an injury to his hand in the incident, was treated at Rumford Hospital and released, police said.
Donald Trump and his children have already lost their case against New York Attorney General Letitia James  regardless of who the court ultimately sides with.

Anytime a government agency with unlimited funds and limited culpability starts a legal proceeding against an individual or private entity, that person and/or company loses. In this case, the cost of defending this suit will be in the tens of millions of dollars just in legal fees and costs, not to mention the reputational effects that will be felt long term. Trump lost before a hearing date was scheduled and before a judge has even been assigned.

This case concerns whether Trumps company fraudulently overvalued its assets and the accounting principles it used to the tune of $250 million.

The big question though is who was damaged? Why is the attorney general filing this suit without an actual victim? As an attorney who has had experience defending cases like this one, I can tell you why, it's politics!

In fact, James stated that her inquiry originally started based on the Mueller investigation, which spun off the Michael Cohen probe.

Mike Kelly:Letitia James takes aim at Trump's financial games. They go back to Atlantic City

Now, this might sound like a political opinion, but it is not. Anytime any governmental body decides to go after its own citizens, there is a basic unfairness. Win or lose, the Trumps and their companies will take a huge financial hit while the attorney general has nothing to lose and has already gained national attention.

New York Attorney General Letitia James announces that she's filed a civil lawsuit against former President Donald Trump and his family for overstating asset valuations and deflating his net worth by billions for tax and insurance benefits, on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, in New York. James told journalists her office is seeking that the former president pay $250 million in penalties, as well as banning his family "from running NY business for good" and barring him and his company from purchasing property in the state for five years.

Outside of politics, it is unbelievably rare for a case of this size and complexity to be brought without a clear victim.

So, what is this $250 million fraud claim for? This case is not based on the financial damage done to shareholders or defaulted loans. It is for what the government calls ill-gotten gains. In other words, profits that government will have to prove would not have been received without the use of these higher valuations.

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A jury will have to make decisions based on extremely complicated accounting and financial principles that will have to be explained to them by many highly paid experts over many weeks. The technical aspects of this case would be unbelievably difficult to determine by someone with the financial understanding and background much less a typical juror.

Even if the jury can understand these huge complex practices after being lectured to by several opposing experts, it will not end there. The attorney general will then have to show that the Trumps and their companies knew or should have known that what they were doing was wrong.

The next step will be for the jury to determine the actual benefits of the inflated valuations, which will require weeks of even more expert testimony. This is the kind of case that is almost impossible to prosecute or defend in that there will be no panel of jurors who have the ability to fully understand the facts, the testimony, and the issues that will be put in front of them.

Another core issue here is the question of who the actual victim is. A party can be held responsible for bad acts without a victim, but juries typically want to rule in favor of a damaged party. They want to give something to the victim and not just penalize the bad guy.

As we watch the case unfold, despite it being a civil lawsuit and not a criminal proceeding, it will definitely feel like a criminal trial. The attorney generals office will have its attorneys sitting on one side of the room making claims that the Trumps are evil, and the Trumps will be there with their attorneys claiming that they did nothing wrong. Having represented clients in both criminal and civil cases, this one will definitely look more like a criminal one.

So am I defending Trump? No, I am not. I am defending against the idea that anyone, at any time, can have the unlimited weight of a state government dropped upon them.

Earlier in my career, I was working with a client who was poor, and the company he worked for was run into bankruptcy. Floridas Statewide Prosecutors Office came down on him and, in the end, the judge dismissed the case halfway through the trial after the state investigator admitted under oath that he had intentionally hidden evidence at the direction of the prosecutor. The state of Florida spent millions of dollars prosecuting a case clearly for political reasons, and even though my client prevailed in the courtroom, he won the battle and lost the war, and the Statewide Prosecutors Office skipped away getting exactly what they wanted, a political victory.

This matter concerning Trump is just like my client's  the outcome will be meaningless because he has already lost.

Jeff Kaufman is an attorney based in Orlando. He is licensed to represent clients in 18 states, including New York and Florida.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: No matter what the court decides, Trump has lost. Letitia James won
Reporters waited for hours outside of a small Delaware airport this week, waiting on a plane full of migrants to arrive that never came. One state away, in Maryland, with much less media attention, the work to provide stability and shelter for migrants being sent from Southern states continued.

About 1,000 migrants have come through a Montgomery County facility from June 22 until last week, said Tatiana Laborde, managing director of SAMU First Response, a humanitarian nonprofit based in Washington, D.C.

These migrants, being sent by bus to D.C.s Union Station largely from Arizona and Texas, are staying for a couple nights at SAMUs Montgomery County facility before being relocated to their destination, which Laborde said, is in many cases New York City.

More:Border shelters warn migrants about human trafficking after DeSantis flights to Martha's Vineyard

Migrants in the United States to seek asylum

State Attorney General Brian Frosh signed onto to a brief Tuesday with 15 other states, including Delaware, in support of federal guidance to support prioritizing threats to public safety in immigration enforcement efforts.

This means priority for removal can be targeted toward noncitizens who pose the greatest threat to public safety, said Frosh, a Democrat, in a release. The action comes as Republican governors in Texas, Florida and Arizona have transported migrants across the country to send a political message. The office of Maryland's Republican Gov. Larry Hogan did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

Gary Sampliner, a retired federal attorney, emphasized the legal basis for the migrants' stay in the country.

Either 100 percent or very close to 100 percent (are) asylum seekers, said Sampliner, a board member of Jews and Muslims and Allies Acting Together (JAMAAT), a D.C.-area social action organization. Under our law, theyre here, legally, to seek asylum.

Local organizations providing assistance

Sister Sharlet Wagner, a Catholic nun who has been at Union Station this year after the first buses came in April, says the majority of those arriving are originally from Venezuela, but there individuals from Cuba, Colombia, and Brazil too.

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Eighty-five percent of those who arrive at Union Station move on; theyre really not coming here, said Wagner. About 15% decide to stay here.

She said buses have come from Texas to Union Station just about every day, and from Arizona, two or three times a week, ranging anywhere from about a dozen to 40 passengers.

As to why theyre coming to Maryland, honestly, for the most part, its because thats where the bus is taking them, said Wagner, the executive director of Newcomer Network of Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Washington.

More:No more steak. Ordering out less. Here's how inflation is squeezing American diets.

After a short stay at the SAMU facility in Montgomery County, the individuals are placed in hotel space for about a month in the county if they have nowhere else to go, she said. At the hotel, Catholic Charities and other organizations provide case management services, trying to find affordable housing, enroll the children in school, and integrate the migrants into their new community.

I would hope that the decisionmakers would keep in mind that these are vulnerable human beings and treat them in the way that they would want to be treated or they would want their loved ones to be treated if they found themselves in a similar situation, Wagner said.

Dwight A. Weingarten is an investigative reporter, covering the Maryland State House and state issues. He can be reached at dweingarten@gannett.com or on Twitter at @DwightWeingart2.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Migrants come to Maryland by bus; organizations provide support
The families of North Carolina teenagers Devin Clark and Lyric Woods  friends who died in a mysterious double-murder on Sept. 17  will say their final goodbyes on Saturday.

Woods' family will be hosting a memorial service for the 14-year-old girl on Saturday at Crosslink Community Church in Mebane, according to an obituary on the McClure Funeral Services website. Clark's mother said in a Facebook Live video that she plans to host a memorial "ride along" for her 18-year-old son on Saturday, as well.

"Lyric loved life and loved volleyball. She was an angel," Woods' obituary reads. "Lyric was the funniest kid you could ever meet, she loved cracking jokes and being with her friends. She loved her eyelash curler and above all else she loved her Nike Air Jordans. Lyric was a beautiful soul on the inside and out. She is loved more than anyone will ever know. She never met a stranger and was loved by everyone."

The obituary added that the 14-year-old's "laugh and her glow would brighten any room."

NORTH CAROLINA DOUBLE MURDER: AUTHORITIES HUNTING FOR SUSPECT ACCUSED OF KILLING DEVIN CLARK, LYRIC WOODS

Clark's family held a candlelight vigil for the 18-year-old on Thursday. He was a talented football player at East Alamance High School. Friends called him "Deuce 2x," signifying the number four  his jersey number. His aunt, Adriana Bowe, remembered him in a Facebook post as a loved and "very SMART young man."

MOTHER OF NORTH CAROLINA TEENAGER SHOT DEAD IN DOUBLE MURDER SPEAKS OUT: SUSPECT HAD A LOT OF ANGER

"Devin loved to laugh.  [E]veryone knew who Devin was," she wrote. "A young man with a bright future who was taken away from us so soon.

Orange County authorities are still on the hunt for a 17-year-old suspect facing charges in their deaths after Clark, 18, and Woods, 14, were found shot to death off of Buckhorn Road in a rural area of Mebane on Saturday afternoon after their families last saw them on Friday.

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NORTH CAROLINA 17-YEAR-OLD CHARGED WITH 2 COUNTS OF MURDER IN SLAYINGS OF MISSING TEENS, SHERIFF SAYS

The Orange County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday announced that it had filed a petition to charge the juvenile suspect with two counts of first-degree murder in Clark's and Woods' shooting deaths .

"The suspect has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder. While that obviously speaks for itself, this was not a random act," sheriff's office public information officer Alicia Stemper told Fox News Digital when asked if there remains a threat to the public.

NORTH CAROLINA SHERIFF EYES FOUL PLAY AFTER 2 MISSING TEENS FOUND SHOT DEAD IN POWER LINES

The suspect was not in custody as of Thursday, according to the agency, who pointed to a Tuesday statement from Sheriff Charles Blackwood.

"Through the hard work of my investigators, along with the assistance of personnel from many other law enforcement agencies, we have identified a suspect in this case," Blackwood said at the time. "We will now work with local, state and federal authorities to apprehend and present the suspect to the court system."

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and FBI directed Fox News to the sheriff's office when asked about their possible involvement in the search.

Clark was a junior at East Alamance High School in Mebane, where he played football. Woods was a freshman at Cedar Ridge High School in Hillsborough.

It is unclear what the pair were doing together when they disappeared on Friday or how they were shot dead by Saturday afternoon.

Authorities are asking anyone with information to contact Orange County Investigator Keith Goodwin at 919-245-2918.
The North Face is dropping the word sherpa from the name of its fleece jackets this fall, using the opportunity to highlight the heritage of the Sherpa people.

The collection, which was called sherpa fleece jackets and vests, will now be called pile fleece, as will all of the company's fleece products moving forward.

Weve recognized the origins of the term sherpa and how its been applied to the fashion industry, Eric Raymond, director of social impact for The North Face, told NBC News.

A Women's High Pile Nuptse Jacket by The North Face. (The North Face)

The Sherpa people, which means Eastern people in Nepali, are an ethnic group who live along the Tibet-Nepal border. Most live in the surrounding areas of the Himalayas, mainly in the eastern regions of Nepal. They are generally known for their excellent trekking skills and are regarded as expert mountaineers.

The synthetic fabric used in the brands jackets, which mimics real shearling or sheeps wool, resembles the wool-lined clothing worn by the tribe.

The North Face has credited the Sherpa people for helping guide the companys athletes for decades during expeditions in the Himalayan mountains.

The company has enlisted The North Face Global Athlete climber Dawa Yangzum Sherpa and friend of the brand, who are both Sherpa, to represent their culture as Nepalese Americans and how much the outdoors means to them.

I love that I was born in Nepal and I have this whole culture behind me. But at the same time, being in the American culture has introduced me to the outdoor world. And now using the outdoor world, I can bond with both cultures, Shrestha said in the video.

The North Face isnt the only company to use the word "sherpa" to describe products. Companies like Levis, UGG and ASOS are among those who use the term.

Henry Navarro, a multidisciplinary designer and an associate professor in fashion at The Creative School of the Toronto Metropolitan University, said The North Faces decision to change the name and highlight the Sherpa people is a step in the right direction.

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He said the expeditions that took place in the region couldnt have happened without the knowledge and traditions of the Sherpa people, including important clothing to keep warm during treks.

The Sherpa people traditionally wore the fur on the inside because it created an air pocket that insulates while the smooth suede side was used on the outside to protect from the wind, Navarro said.

They shared that knowledge with all these explorers, and that has never been fully recognized, he said.

Tibetan New Year Celebrated In Nepal (Narayan Maharjan / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Navarro said the conversation of cultural appropriation and recognition rarely comes up within the outdoor lifestyle community.

The outdoor lifestyle has a huge debt to Indigenous people. All these companies are mostly owned by white people. When you see all the advertisements about outdoor companies, very rarely do you see a Black person or a brown person in them. So, that kind of solidifies the stereotype that people of color are not savvy in the outdoors. And that is simply not true, he said.

Navarro said because people of color come from places of extreme climates, their history includes clothing to deal with different environments.

So when you see parkas, they were an invention of Native Americans. When you see cowboy gear, a lot of those items were actually created in Latin America, Mexico or in California  when it was a part of Mexico, he said.

Raymond said The North Faces decision to make this change also comes amid conversations about cultural appropriation.

You can point to broad cultural conversations and just a rising interest in making sure that brands are being authentic, making sure that appropriation isnt something thats happening inside your company he said.

He said since the inception of the companys relationship with the Sherpa people, the company has taken steps to uplift the community.

Raymond said the company has also supported the creation of an education and training facility in Nepal, as well as supporting the American Himalayan Foundation and Stop Girl Trafficking, which helps combat the trafficking of young girls in Nepal through education.

Were not saying that it is an offensive term broadly," he said. "We just wanted to be more true to our own connection to the community. And we wanted to have a better reflection of that."

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP)  Authorities in Norway are seeking a second suspect in a deadly shooting attack during the Norwegian capital's annual LGBTQ Pride festival, police said Friday.

A 42-year-old Norwegian citizen originally from Iran was arrested after the June shootings in Oslo's nightlife district that killed two people and wounded more than 20. A second Norwegian man in his 40s now is being sought for a suspected role in the attack, police said.

The hypothesis that the attack was carried out with terrorist intent has been strengthened, prosecutor Brge Enoksen said during a press conference.

The wanted man was well-known to police and currently outside Norway, but we do not want to comment on which country the person is currently in, Enoksen said. Norwegian broadcaster TV2 reported it was Pakistan.

Norwegian media identified the man as a 44-year-old who allegedly posted online statements about killing gay people. The media reports said he knew Zaniar Matapour, the main suspect behind the June 25 attack that the Norwegian Police Security Service has called an Islamist terror act.

Matapour who according to Norwegian media arrived in Norway with his family from a Kurdish part of Iran in the 1990s, faces preliminary charges of murder and attempted murder.
Notre Dame hasnt gotten off to the start they wanted to the 2022 season but getting to .500 after starting 0-2 would be a positive way to end September. Can they pull it off as they travel to unbeaten North Carolina is the question as the Tar Heels feature a high powered offense but struggle quite a bit to get stops.

Can Drew Pyne push the ball downfield to punish that defense? Can the running game take another step after a better showing last week against Cal? And will Notre Dames defense slow down the North Carolina offense like theyve been able to do the last couple of seasons?

Here is what the Fighting Irish Wire staff sees happening this Saturday in Chapel Hill.

Geoffrey Clark (1-2):

Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

The Irish will win this if for no other reason than theyve beaten the Tar Heels two years in a row, and the Heels havent done well coming off bye weeks lately, but I suppose I can elaborate a little more. Drake Maye has done a great job finding each of his receivers early and often, and hell get a lot of help this week with the return of Josh Downs. Still, the Irish have a defense built to shut down most offenses in college football, and wed like to think (hope) that the unit learned its lesson after the loss to Marshall. It wont be easy, especially with Drew Pyne still struggling to find his footing under center after Tyler Buchners season-ending injury forced him into the starting role, but hell be able to find enough holes in the Heels subpar defense and just squeak out a victory.

Notre Dame 24, North Carolina 21

Michael Chen (2-1):

Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

The Irish defense basically stopped the number one current offense in the country in week one, but they had the advantage of having a whole off-season to prepare for the Buckeyes. Another top offense is on the opposing sidelines in North Carolina but this is a bit different as teams have had time to analyze who Notre Dame is. Theyre a mess, with their lone win coming last week in a nail-biter, down-to-the-wire win against a very mediocre Cal team. The Irish are going to have to match scores with the Tar Heels and Im just not so sure they can do that. Yes, UNC will be facing their toughest test defensively of the young season but we all know what this Notre Dame offense is, bad. Until they show me more of a vertical passing attack along with the solid ground game shown last week, I just cant buy into what theyre selling. The offense struggles once again and this week, unlike last, the defense wears down in the second-half which gives the Tar Heels enough room to grab a victory.

Story continues

North Carolina 31, Notre Dame 21

John Kennedy of Always Irish (2-1):

Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

Im not sure anyone knows just what to make of Notre Dame through 3 games. Progress was undoubtedly made last week vs Cal. Winning matters much in this regard. The big question is can this momentum be built on? UNC may present the perfect opportunity. While they sit at 3-0, the wins have been against 3 non P5 opponents and they have surrendered outrageous amounts of yardage through both the run and pass to all of them. Not to mention the 61 points App St. scored. If ever there was a week for Notre Dame to settle in offensively and lean on the run to help a young QB, this is the chance. On the flip side, new young UNC QB gunslinger, the kind Notre Dame fans would die for, Drake Maye is currently tied with OSUs Stroud for most TDs thrown, 11 and is 8th in the country in QBR. He gets his best WR target back off injury, Josh Downs to pair with true freshman standout Paysour and I fully expect him to make some wow throws. But he hasnt faced a defense like Notre Dame and he will learn the hard way on a couple of key plays that this is a different level of talent. Notre Dame grinds this one out of the ground game, a few key mid range pass successes by Pyne offensively while the defense makes the plays it must have. The Irish limp gingerly to the bye to take a deep breath and re-evaluate themselves at a rocky 2-2.

Notre Dame 34, North Carolina 27

Watch Johns video discussing 3 confidences and 3 concerns for ND-UNC

Jeff Feyerer (2-1):

Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

In the course of three short weeks, Notre Dame has taken on three different personas nationally. First, they were the team who almost upset Ohio State on the road and proved they were a playoff contender. Then, they were a national disappointment after a shocking home loss to Marshall. Then they had to regroup after being punched in the mouth and losing their starting QB, which they did. Barely. In spite of all theyve been through so far, I still tend to believe this team, even with Drew Pyne at QB, is closer to that Ohio State team than the other iterations. UNC has an explosive offensive that gets star wide receiver Josh Downs back this week, but I truly do believe the Irish are due for a solid all-around performance, even if its in Chapel Hill.

Notre Dame 38 North Carolina 24

Nick Shepkowski (2-1):

USA TODAY NETWORK

I really didnt feel good about this game coming out of last weekend, even with the victory but I just cant get past North Carolinas defense. The Tar Heels have put up a world of hurt in terms of points this season but havent exactly played a murderers row of a schedule (Florida A&M, Appalachian State, Georgia State). Its still early in the season and the Notre Dame defense has been far from perfect this year but here is why I trust it against North Carolina: They held Ohio State to just 395 yards in the opener, which is 254.5 yards fewer than theyve averaged since. I feel Notre Dame does that again to North Carolina but the offense does significantly more than it did against Ohio State to close September with a victory.

Notre Dame 27, North Carolina 20

Related Links:

Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

Behind Enemy Lines with Tar Heels Wire

Notre Dame releases depth chart for North Carolina game

Notre Dame-North Carolina series history

Notre Dame-North Carolina: best photos over the years

The Athletics two main reasons Notre Dame has struggled in 2022

Story originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is scrapping $1 million in scheduled TV ads for GOP congressional candidate J.R. Majewski after military records reportedly revealed he was never stationed in Afghanistan, despite claiming to have served there after the 9/11 terrorist attack.

Majewski, the candidate running against Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur in Ohio's 9th Congressional District, has been called an Afghanistan veteran for his Air Force service, but military records obtained by the Associated Press reveal that he was never actually stationed there. Following the reports, the NRCC canceled their plans to run ads for Majewski just weeks before the midterm elections.

According to an Associated Press report, military records show that he was in Kadena Air Base in Japan and was later deployed to Qatar, where he spent six months loading and unloading planes at an air base.

The NRCC's move to divest from the advertising was first reported by Medium Buying, a media firm. The NRCC did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

TOP DEMOCRATS TRY TO DISTANCE THEMSELVES FROM THEIR PARTY AND BIDEN, BUT VOTING RECORDS TELL A DIFFERENT STORY

"I am proud to have served my country," Majewski told the AP in the statement regarding the military documents. "My accomplishments and record are under attack, meanwhile, career politician Marcy Kaptur has a forty-year record of failure for my Toledo community, which is why Im running for Congress."

VULNERABLE HOUSE DEMS REFUSE TO SAY IF THEY AGREE WITH BIDEN THAT REPUBLICANS ARE THREAT TO DEMOCRACY

Majewski is competing in a tight "toss-up" race against Kaptur, but the GOP nominee may be at risk this fall if the NRCC pulls their support.

US President Joe Biden is greeted by (L-R) US Representatives Shontel Brown and Marcy Kaptur, US Senator Sherrod Brown Saul Loeb

"The truth matters," Marcy Kaptur said in a statement reacting to the reports. "As the only Ohioan on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, I know so many veterans  including those in my own family  who have served our grateful nation with honor. I have listened closely to their stories; their valor and unselfish heroism drives me to deliver for them each and every day."

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"The idea that anyone, much less a candidate for the United States Congress, would mislead voters about their service in combat is an affront to every man and woman who has proudly worn the uniform of our great country. J.R. Majewski owes each of these heroes a full explanation about his deception," she said.
The COVID-19 pandemic shined a light on the vulnerability of nursing home residents and employees around the country.

Now even with the help of COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, which the industry says have significantly improved conditions in nursing homes, employees and people with loved ones in nursing homes are sounding the alarm to Congress that they still need help.

In a House hearing this week, they point to widespread staff shortages and low pay for nursing home employees.

The crisis in our nursing homes is far from over, said Adelina Ramos, a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) in Rhode Island. We continue to face severe staffing shortages. CNAs are burnt out, mentally, physically. Our pay is so low that some of us have to work two or three jobs.

Ramos said the lack of resources often forces workers to choose between helping one elderly resident in need over another.

I cant describe how painful it feels when we are forced to make those kinds of choices, said Ramos.

Testimony called for improved compensation for the workers caring for the elderly residents.

They also need the resources, compensation, training and support to deliver that care, said Dr. Alice Bonner, Moving Forward Nursing Home Quality Coalition Chair and Senior Advisor for Aging at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

Emotional testimony from a Brooklyn man highlighted the urgency to keep nursing home residents safe during a health crisis like the pandemic.

I had four family members die, said Daniel Arbeeny. My father, my uncle, and two close cousins of the virus. Three of them were in nursing homes.

Arbeeny argues those nursing home deaths are because of a 2020 New York State directive that nursing homes admit COVID-19 patients.

Arbeeny is suing the former Governor of New York and other officials for failing to keep his father and other residents safe.

Those are the ones we are supposed to honor and protect, and we failed, said Arbeeny. We failed miserably.

Story continues

Witnesses called for more accountability from nursing home owners and government agencies tasked with oversight of the facilities.

We are fed up with the lack of respect nursing home owners and lawmakers show our workforce, said Ramos. Change needs to happen now.

Download the FOX13 Memphis app to receive alerts from breaking news in your neighborhood.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Trending stories:
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Hundreds were in attendance at an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of China-Greece diplomatic relations on Thursday evening at the Zappeion Hall in central Athens.

During the event, also held in celebration of the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, 37 Greeks were recognized for their contributions to developing China-Greece relations.

"China now is ready to work with Greece to take the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic ties as a new starting point to consolidate mutual political trust, continuously deepen practical cooperation in the fields of infrastructure, renewable energy, maritime transportation, blue economy, digital economy and green-oriented transformation," Chinese Ambassador to Greece Xiao Junzheng told Xinhua.

"I'm quite confident that the China-Greece comprehensive strategic partnership will be enhanced to a higher level," he said.

Greek Deputy Prime Minister Panagiotis Pikrammenos reviewed the development of Greece-China relations during the past 50 years in his address, noting that Greece is on its way to becoming a regional energy and transportation hub, with China's contribution of great importance.

"There is still great potential for deepening bilateral relations in the sectors of tourism, culture, environment, economy and energy," Pikrammenos said.

"These two civilizations of the East and the West are coming together, and the best is in front of us," said Giorgos Patoulis, the regional governor of Attica, who was among the award recipients.

"The award I received today for the work in the Hellenic-Chinese Chamber is a great honor for me," Constantine Yannidis, president of the Hellenic-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Tourism and Shipping, told Xinhua. "I believe we will work together better ... I am optimistic about the future."
The COVID-19 pandemic shined a light on the vulnerability of nursing home residents and employees around the country.

>>> STREAM CHANNEL 9 EYEWITNESS NEWS LIVE <<<

Now even with the help of COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, which the industry says have significantly improved conditions in nursing homes, employees and people with loved ones in nursing homes are sounding the alarm to Congress that they still need help.

READ: Governors office releases documents after migrants flown to Marthas Vineyard

In a House hearing this week, they point to widespread staff shortages and low pay for nursing home employees.

The crisis in our nursing homes is far from over, said Adelina Ramos, a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) in Rhode Island. We continue to face severe staffing shortages. CNAs are burnt out, mentally, physically. Our pay is so low that some of us have to work two or three jobs.

Ramos said the lack of resources often forces workers to choose between helping one elderly resident in need over another.

I cant describe how painful it feels when we are forced to make those kinds of choices, said Ramos.

Testimony called for improved compensation for the workers tasked with caring for the elderly residents.

They also need the resources, compensation, training and support to deliver that care, said Dr. Alice Bonner, Moving Forward Nursing Home Quality Coalition Chair and Senior Advisor for Aging at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

This week, @COVIDOversight released reports from numerous nursing home residents and staff about how their facilities were severely understaffed and poorly equipped early in the pandemic.https://t.co/OeSiZU9tVw  Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis (@COVIDOversight) September 23, 2022

READ: Senate investigation finds DOJ undercounted nearly 1k deaths in jails or prison in 2021

Story continues

Emotional testimony from a Brooklyn man highlighted the urgency to keep nursing home residents safe during a health crisis like the pandemic.

I had four family members die, said Daniel Arbeeny. My father, my uncle, my two close cousins of the virus. Three of them were in nursing homes.

Arbeeny argues those nursing home deaths are because of a 2020 New York State directive that nursing homes admit COVID-19 patients.

Arbeeny is suing the former Governor or New York and other officials for failing to keep his father and other residents safe.

Those are the ones we are supposed to honor and protect, and we failed, said Arbeeny. We failed miserably.

READ: 2 witnesses claim 5th Amendment in Orange County ayahuasca wrongful death case

Witnesses called for more accountability from nursing home owners and government agencies tasked with oversight of the facilities.

We are fed up with the lack of respect nursing home owners and lawmakers show our workforce, said Ramos. Change needs to happen now.

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.
J.R. Majewski doubled down on claims that he served in Afghanistan as a member of the Air Force but declined to show any documentation. (Photo: Phillip L. Kaplan/The Blade via AP)

J.R. Majewski doubled down on claims that he served in Afghanistan as a member of the Air Force but declined to show any documentation. (Photo: Phillip L. Kaplan/The Blade via AP)

J.R. Majewski, the embattled GOP House candidate in Ohio who embellished his military service, said Friday that he didnt lie about deploying to Afghanistan, following a bombshell Associated Press report.

The orders and the military records that I have been able to obtain from my personal files shows that all of my deployments are listed as classified, Majewski said during a press conference, after the AP reported Wednesday that the Air Force has no records of the MAGA Republican seeing combat in Afghanistan, as hes claimed publicly numerous times.

Majewski, who turned a large swath of his lawn into a mural for then-President Donald Trump in 2020, also said that he may sue the wire services reporters and, if elected, would pursue a law that would make it a crime to besmirch veterans. He also said that he has photos from his time in Afghanistan and was in multiple bases, but he declined to name any when pressed.

Marcy Kaptur and The Associated Press, you are a disgrace to veterans who serve this country. I demand a public apology, Majewski said, referring to his Democratic opponent in the House race. He also called APs investigation a hit piece by a liberal journalist.

The national GOP all but abandoned Ohios 9th District after the revelation, with the House Republican campaign committee canceling nearly $1 million in ads for the Toledo market  a sign that its losing confidence in Majewskis ability to oust Kaptur, the most tenured woman in the chamber.

Majewskis ... misleading claims need to be addressed, and its incumbent upon him to provide honesty and clarity  not continued evasiveness and deflection, said Kapturs campaign, according to local outlet 13abc.

Shortly after the investigation dropped, election forecasters at the University of Virginias Center for Politics changed their rating for the district from Toss-up to Leans Democratic.

Story continues

Majewski has touted himself as an Air Force veteran who deployed to Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, facing tough conditions like a lack of running water. But the AP investigation revealed that the military branch only has records of Majewski being stationed in Japan and Qatar.

A booster of the QAnon conspiracy movement who once said that Republican-leaning states should secede from the country, the Ohioan is among the extremist candidates the GOP nominated to compete in swing districts this year. However, Majewski has recently sought to temper his rhetoric, saying that he regretted being at the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot and removing anti-abortion statements from his website.

Doubling down on his military claims is unlikely to endear Majewski to swing voters in what national Republicans thought would be an easy midterm pickup. GOP legislators had redrawn Kaptur into a conservative-leaning district that Trump won by 3 points in 2020, potentially jeopardizing her reelection prospects.

Still, along with the makeup of the district, demographic shifts that have made Ohio a more reliably Republican state mean Majewskis candidacy isnt over yet.

Lean D is not safe D. If Majewski won, I wouldnt be that surprised, Kyle Kondik, the managing editor of the Sabatos Crystal Ball newsletter at UVAs Center for Politics, told HuffPost.

But I also think that given he has a lot of weaknesses as a candidate to begin with, Kapturs been around forever, and he had this double whammy of news the past few days ... I think thats enough to look at Kaptur as the favorite. Well see how things develop. Theres still time for other groups to get involved.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
J.R. Majewski, Republican candidate for U.S. Representative for Ohio's 9th Congressional District, takes the stage at a campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio, Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. Tom E. Puskar/AP PH

Ohio GOP candidate J.R. Majewski has come up with a new defense about his combat records.

At a Friday rally, Majewski said records related to a deployment to Afghanistan were "classified."

All available military records showed that Majewski never served in Afghanistan, according to the AP.

Ohio GOP House candidate J.R. Majewski backtracked on the claim that he was deployed to Afghanistan, saying that his lips  and records  are sealed on the matter.

At a Friday rally, Majewski responded to an Associated Press report which showed that Majewski had lied about his service in Afghanistan, per military records obtained by the outlet. Majewski claimed that some top-secret documents that only he has access to tell a different story.

"The orders and military records that I have been able to obtain from my personal files shows that all of my deployments are listed as classified," Majewski told his supporters.

He claimed that the reporting on the matter was part of a plan to bring him down, adding that the Air Force said it could not verify whether he did or didn't go to Afghanistan.

Had Majewski seen and participated in combat anywhere, including Afghanistan, he would almost certainly be a recipient of the Combat Action Ribbon, which he did not possess, per the AP. Secret medals are fairly rare, even among the most elite units like Navy SEALs, and the awardee still can wear the medal  it's only the citation on their record that would be redacted from release, not the award itself.

Similarly, significant service in Afghanistan would have resulted in earning the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, whose criteria include aircrews who fly into, within, or out of that country for at least 30 days. It's notable that there's also no record of Majewski receiving the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, which is given to troops, including aircrews, who have deployed abroad in support of the Iraq or Afghanistan wars and served at least 30 days in that deployment.

Story continues

This award is common among veterans who served in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and public data shows that Majewski worked as an airman who supported passenger loading and unloading out of Qatar in support of various wars.

In August, Insider first reported that Majewski had violated a federal law by disclosing his personal finances late in his race. Majewski's campaign did not immediately respond to Insider's inquiry.

In recent weeks, Donald Trump  who has endorsed Majewski  has largely been flippant in discussing how things are classified or declassified. In an interview with Shaun Hannity on Wednesday, Trump suggested he could declassify documents just by thinking about it.

Read the original article on Business Insider
HOLLAND, Ohio (AP)  Republican J.R. Majewski insisted Friday that he would stay in the race for a competitive northwest Ohio congressional seat after The Associated Press reported earlier this week that he misrepresented key elements of his Air Force service.

I flew into combat zones often, specifically in Afghanistan, and I served my country proud, Majewski said at a news conference.

The comments came amid growing fallout for Majewski, who repeatedly said he deployed to Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, but instead served a six-month stint loading and unloading planes while based in Qatar, according to records obtained by the AP through a public records request.

The House Republican campaign arm on Thursday cancelled nearly $1 million in advertising that it had planned to spend on Majewskis behalf, a sign that the GOP was effectively giving up hope of unseating longtime Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur in a district that was recently redrawn to favor Republicans. Meanwhile, advocates for veterans questioned why Majewski has declined to offer proof, or even describe forays he made into Afghanistan.

Throughout his campaign, Majewski has repeatedly said he was a combat veteran who served a tour of duty under tough circumstances in Afghanistan, where by his account he once went over 40 days without a shower due to a lack of running water.

His latest remarks amounted to a far less robust description of what he says he did in the country. Majewski previously said he was deployed to the country, a term which refers to orders assigning servicemembers to a specific base or location.

On Friday he said his service involved flying in and out of Afghanistan from Qatar, but declined to offer additional details or proof because he said it was classified.

While based in Qatar, Majewski would land at other air bases to transfer military passengers, medics and supplies, his campaign previously said. The campaign did not answer repeated and direct questions from the AP before the story was published Wednesday about whether he was ever in Afghanistan.

Story continues

They also gave no indication that he couldn't discuss his service because it was classified, as Majewski said.

I was in multiple bases in Afghanistan and the time frame is clear, in 2002, Majewski said Friday. We flew in and out of the area of responsibility multiple times. Its almost impossible for me to tell you where I was and on what day. Thats why my orders are listed as a classified location.

Experts contacted by the AP say it is possible that Majewski may have entered the country. They also say Majewski is well positioned to prove it, though Majewski's campaign declined to do so Friday.

It was hardly a secret that we were operating in Afghanistan, said Don Christensen, a retired colonel and former military judge who once served as the Air Forces chief prosecutor. It would be pretty easy for him to find a supervisor or coworker that could verify if he was actually there. His (enlisted performance report) would have been signed by his supervisor most likely. That person would know if this was true.

Scott Taylor, a former Navy SEAL sniper and Republican who represented Virginia in Congress, said he doesn't understand why Majewski's campaign refused to explain whether or not he ever went to Afghanistan earlier this week.

Is it possible he went on some night flight to Afghanistan to drop off supplies? Yes it is possible," said Taylor, who was injured in a combat operation in Ramadi, Iraq, and had to be evacuated. "But again, he should have answered those questions right away.

The experts said the discussion about whether he did or did not enter Afghanistan also obscures the broader picture: Majewski for months has presented himself as a combat veteran who deployed to Afghanistan, descriptors that indicate he came under hostile fire while stationed in the country.

The term combat veteran can evoke images of soldiers storming a beachhead or finding refuge during a firefight. But under the laws and regulations of the U.S. government, facing live fire has little to do with someone earning the title.

During the Persian Gulf War, then-President George H.W. Bush designated, for the first time, countries used as combat support areas as combat zones despite the low risk of American service members ever facing hostilities. That helped veterans receive a favorable tax status. Qatar, which is now home to the largest U.S. air base in the Middle East, was among the countries that received the designation under Bushs executive order  a status that remains in effect today.

Majewskis campaign previously said he calls himself a combat veteran because the place he operated out of  Qatar  is recognized as a combat zone. His military records state he has not received a combat medal.

Everybody plays a role. But you have to be proud of what your contribution was and not try to step on someone else's, said Taylor, the former congressman and Navy SEAL. Barring him giving some evidence and filing a petition to get a combat ribbon, hes not a combat veteran.

Majewski's campaign has released several documents on social media that they say either back up his claims or refute parts of the AP's story. None of them address whether or not he was in Afghanistan.

One document from February 2003, when he was still enlisted in the Air Force, indicated Majewski was eligible to reenlist. However, the AP reported that when Majewski was discharged several months later, his paperwork indicated he was considered but not selected for reenlistment.

He also claimed that he provided the AP with a picture that shows him in Afghanistan. The picture, which is also on his campaign website, shows a group in fatigues who are inside what appears to be a shelter, but does not include any indicators of where it was taken.
Courtesy experiencecolumbus.com

I was raised in Ohio, and then I left to earn some degrees and become a professora short-lived career that I decided wasnt for me. But before I exited that exciting life of grading and faculty meetings, it brought me back to Ohio and, so far, Ive stayed.

Ohio is more than the controversial headlines it makes. Its more than beautiful farmland. It is pinned on almost every corner by creative, vibrant cities, cool, small college towns and historic villages, with a flourishing outdoor world in-between. All of that magic of Ohio comes together in the states capital, Columbus. At the invitation of Experience Columbus, I road-tripped down from my place near Toledo, and spent a weekend exploring the citys food scene and its newest greenspacewhich includes a waterfalland I was reminded why Ive stayed in this state.

Situated along the Scioto River in central Ohio, Columbus is south of Toledo and Cleveland and northeast of Cincinnati and Dayton. It is also the 14th largest city in the U.S., with a population of 906,528, a greater metro area of 2 million, and is one of just 6 cities among the nations 15 largest to increase in size during the pandemic. My love for visiting Columbus is that despite being Ohios largest city, it is still small enough to navigate to its various neighborhoods, cultural centers, and food scenes.

My home for the weekend was the 149-room Hotel Leveque, a boutique hotel in the historic 47-story LeVeque Tower that was built in 1927. At the time, this Art Moderne wonder was the fifth-largest building in the world. It still stands out in Columbuss skyline, especially when it lights up at night.

The hotel has an art deco vibe: from its external facade to the furnishings and fixtures of the lobby and the rooms. There is also a celestial motif that appears in the form of symbols and art throughout the hotel, with the inclusion of small telescopes in the rooms and a projector for having a constellation above your bed, and a large and lit tubular abstract sculpture hanging in the lobby that resembles a constellation. Rooms are spacious (king bed from $300+). It is centrally located, making it easy to get around the city by foot, car, scooter, or eBike.

Story continues

Day 1 in Columbus was a busy one, taking me to the new Budd Dairy Food Hall, a chef-driven incubator in Italian Village just north of the citys downtown, which makes for a great lunch stop after a road trip into town. A former dairy plant, it opened in April of 2021 and out of the gate was named one of Fodors 10 best food halls in the country.

Within Budd Dairy Food Hall are restaurants like Boni Filipino Street Food, the comfort food of Modern Southern Table, and Hatch, a rotating kitchen for chefs to test out concepts. Currently, Hatch features Pablos Havana Cafe from Chef Pablo Taura. Craving a Cuban sandwich, I immediately dove into their satisfying El Cubano (pressed Cuban bread with roasted pork, honey ham, Swiss cheese, pickles, and mustard), along with a side of tostones (crunchy salty plantains served with garlic oil). Budd Dairy also has a stylish, but relaxed open rooftop bar for kicking back with drinks.

I then made my way over to 400 West Rich, a collaborative artist space with more than 100 studios in Columbuss ever-growing Franklinton Arts District. The district, which sits west of downtown Columbus, is home to galleries, performance venues, and maker spaces. Their longest-running, and award-winning mural festival, Scrawl, (Oct. 15-16) features mobile murals, artists, vendors, DJs, and food trucks. During Pride month, they put on a Scrawl Pride Group Show, which showcased mobile murals and artwork by LGBTQIA+ Scrawl artists, with 25 percent of sales going to a grant that supports LGBTQIA+ artists.

The creation of an arts district has other benefits as well.

Where the artists go, development follows, the districts Executive Director, Johnny Riddle, told me, leading me across the street to Land-Grant Brewing Company. Land-Grant Brewing sets out to be a sustainable brewery serving the community.

While I was there I had a beer flight. If it is a hot dayand it wastheir pale ale Lemon Glow, (which gets its citrus flavor through its hops), Pool Party (a crisp pilsner with Southern Hemisphere hops), Inflatable Flamingo (a watermelon wheat ale), or the non-alcoholic, CBD Ginger Beer, are always refreshing.

Beer flight at Land Grant Brewery. Courtesy of Brandon Withrow

That night, I darted off to one of my favorite neighborhoods in Columbus, the Short North Arts District. Sitting on North High Street between downtown and Ohio States campus, the Short North is home to galleries and murals, restaurants, stores, and is considered strongly LGBTQIA+ friendly.

Mural of Hodan Mohammed, founder of Our Helpers, in the Short North. Courtesy of Brandon Withrow

The Short North is home to one of my favorite murals: a stunning multi-story portrait of Hodan Mohammed dressed in vibrant red and orange, set against an energetic blue and yellow background. One of the lesser-known facts about Columbus is that it is home to the second-largest Somali community in the United States. Hodan, who I had a chance to meet once right before the pandemic hit, founded Our Helpers, which helps immigrants get established in the Columbus area. The mural is a reminder that Columbus, like the rest of Ohio, is not monolithic.

The Short North is also never short on surprises. For example, at the new TENSPACE, you can have a free immersive experience that allows you to get a taste of an online brand (a brand without a brick and mortar storefront) in real life. Every eight weeks, TENSPACE tells the story of a different brand. The day I showed up, OLIPOP was showcaseda soda company that uses plant fibers and prebiotics botanicals to make a healthy soda that still tastes like the flavored sodas we love and know. Bright colors, large floor-to-ceiling straws, scented flavor roomswhich smelled amazinga flavor voting space, and a vintage soda bar all surrounded their flight tasting space.

While there, I also wanted to get a quick look at ComFesta free annual neighborhood and volunteer-run festival with food trucks and music that shuts down the streetsall done without corporate sponsors.

Look for the half-naked hippies, someone told me earlier in the day.

Instead, I followed the scent of weed off of High Street (no pun intended) to find a crowd gathered in the park. Most werent hippies, or half naked. (Bandaids over nipples classify as clothed, right?) I did, however, have to carefully dodge a boomer hippie in a flowery dress. Holding her shoes up in the air, she spun in circles, dancing to the music of a band playing in a gazebo. She was living her best life. (I made a note to myself to come back next year.)

That night, I ate at DEL MAR SoCal Kitchen, whose menu is inspired by the cuisine of Southern California. DEL MARs open kitchen greets you at the door, and a bright dining space sits between it and the bar. Their menu is centered on sea food. Their shrimp ceviche is refreshing and their salmon (roasted tomatoes, asparagus, squash, white bean puree, and lemon caper vinaigrette) doesnt disappoint.

For later evening drinks, there were plenty of options within walking distance, like Lincoln Social Rooftop Bar, which has a fantastic view of the city. This night, however, I was checking out the new jazz bar, Ginger Rabbit. Housed in a basement, the swanky and moody space shrouded in soft purple and red lights belongs to the speakeasy era. The owners say it is inspired by La La Land. The food menu falls into the smaller, snack arena, like pita and house made hummus or Black Radish Creamery cheese (with crackers and seasonal jam). They also have a range of conservas available (high-end, tinned seafood served with bread, salted butter, and microgreens).

As you can probably tell, one of the things I love about Columbus is the foodif youre not eating your way through Columbus, youre really not doing it right. Every trip there means discovering a new restaurant or revisiting a Columbus staple.

Katalinas. Courtesy of Brandon Withrow

I stopped by one of those staples the next morning for breakfast. The brain-child of Kathleen Day, Katalinas is set up in a 100-year old gas station in the Harrison West neighborhood. With colorful pens left at the tables, the restaurant inside and out is textured with graffiti from guests. Famous for its addictive pancake balls (with fillings like nutella or dulce de leche), the menu at Katalinas is creative, organic, and local. This time around I had their fresh and bright breakfast tacos served with an Mexican elote cob corn.

If food is the first half of my love for Columbus, its balancing half filled the next part of my day: its outdoors.

Waterfall at Quarry Trails Metro Park. Courtesy of Brandon Withrow

Fueled up, I set out for the new Quarry Trails Metro Park just a few minutes from downtown, which features hiking, mountain bike trails, a calming 25-foot waterfall, lakes, and a lot of birding opportunitieslike the great blue heron, great egret, and killdeer. This fall, Quarry Trails will also be home to a new via ferrataa trail built into a vertical cliff face using metal rungs and safety cables. This 800-foot horizontal climb is set to be the first in an urban setting. With easy access to the outdoors both within and surrounding the city, it is easy to make a visit to Columbus about nature. There are 20 parks within Columbuss Metro Parks, which manages the regional park system of over 230 miles of trails, covering seven Central Ohio counties.

Extensive cycling trails can be found running through the city, like the Scioto Greenway trail (12 miles long), which runs along the kayakable Scioto River. There are bike trail connections leading to city neighborhoods and the suburbs of the greater Columbus area (like the Camp Chase trail to the west of the city). In fact, Ohio has a bike trail system that runs the width of the state and Columbus bike trails are key sections of the Great American Rail Trail, a bike trail network created by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy that will eventually reach from coast to coast.

Best of all, Columbuss outdoor connection stretches to its surrounding area.

Just roughly an hour outside of Columbus is Hocking Hills, which offers wild landscapes of preserved land ripe for hiking through forests and waterfalls. A frequent way I like to visit Columbus is to split my time between hiking in Hocking Hills State Park (Old Mans Cave and Ash Cave are must sees) and hitting restaurants in the city. A favorite stay of mine is The Inn & Spa at Cedar Falls to the south of Columbus, which has fantastic boutique yurts ($379+) and geodomes ($379) with forest views for glamping lovers.

But if your idea of being outdoors is in the form of gardens, then Columbuss Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens is for you. Both indoor and outdoor gardens are mixed with other exhibits. Indoor gardens showcase the worlds largest private collection of Chihuly glass artwork. During my visit, visitors could experience the Topiary Takeover outside, featuring 25 incredible topiaries of animals, composed of plants to mimic their colors, fur, skin, or scales, and which are inspired by UNESCO Natural Heritage Sites.

Topiary Takeover at Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. Courtesy of Brandon Withrow

In other words, Columbus is a city woven together by natural spaces.

After spending an afternoon at Quarry Trails Metro Park, the rest of the day was dedicated towait for itmore food. I grabbed lunch at the citys 145-year old North Market, which has no shortage of food options. Hoyos Kitchen has incredible authentic Somali cuisine that ranges in spice. My dessert of choice is always any flavor from Columbuss gift to the world of ice cream, Jenis, which is also at North Market.

Later that evening, however, I found my new go-to stop when Im in townUnderstory. Named for the growth under the tree canopy in the forest, the restaurant combines both Columbuss food scene with its natural spaces. Opened this last January, the restaurant is in an historic 1927 schoolhouse. It includes different conceptsThe Lounge (a bar with re-imagined classic cocktails), Commons (offering a fast-casual menu), and the Patio, which sits under a forested space that runs along the Olentangy River and the 22.5-mile Olentangy Trail.

Crispy shrimp at Understory. Courtesy of Brandon Withrow

The Lounge has a great vibeopen and well-lit by large draping windowsas well as an unforgettable menu. The Crispy Shrimp (firecracker sauce, napa cabbage slaw, and ginger dressing) and the Goat Cheese Croquette (sweet pepper aioli, jalapeno jam, and frisee salad) were the stars of my weekend. Their refreshing Highball (Japanese whisky, umeshu, clarified green apple, kakuto, and bubbles) and their bright Paloma (tequila, sotol, sherry, amaro, citrus, and vegan foamer) are worth the visit.

A German Village in Columbus. Courtesy of Brandon Withrow

Before I left the next day, I stopped in German Village. Hands-down, German Villagewith its historic buildings, tight alleys and cobblestone streetsis the most photogenic neighborhood in Columbus. It is home to Katzingers Delicatessen, a must-eat Jewish deli that is always fortifying and Pistacia Vera, a French-style patisserie whose pastry menu makes it hard to buy only one thing. (Im addicted to their palmier, classic eclairs, and homemade macaron.) If youre there in the evening, dont miss a show at Shadowbox Live, the largest resident theater company in America, where you can enjoy food and drinks while watching a variety of music, comedy, and other high energy performances.

Im always telling people they should visit Columbus, and often they ask me why? This is why: Columbus is a lively, diverse city that never fails to surprise this Ohioan. It reminds me of the reasons I love this state, even when its politics madly frustrate me. Columbus is the Ohio I wish everyone else could see.

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Rosh Hashana is approaching, and Jewish people around the world will gather with friends and family to start a sweet new year.

The holiday marks the beginning of the Jewish High Holy Days leading up to Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. Rosh Hashana represents the beginning of the Jewish New Year, translating from Hebrew to mean the head of the year. Its commemorated with special prayers, foods, gatherings and more.

"These are moments where we come together as a community, where we take time to think about ourselves as individuals, but also think about the ways that we can help others," Rabbi Rob Gleisser, the Peter J. Rubinstein reform senior Jewish educator at Penn State Hillel, told USA TODAY. "Think about the ways that we want to create a safe community, a welcoming community, a warm community and then be able to enrich the world around us after having those moments of introspection."

Here's what you need to know about Rosh Hashana:

Boys play outside as men celebrate the New Year inside at the tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov on Sept. 18, 2020, in Uman, Ukraine. Despite travel restrictions imposed by Ukraine meant to curb the spread of COVID-19, a few thousand pilgrims arrived in Uman for Rosh Hashanah. Uman is home to the tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, founder of a prominent Hasidic movement.

Two Ethiopian Jews perform Tashlich, a Jewish atonement ritual, at a lake formed by the Umanka River on the first day of Rosh Hashanah on Sept. 10, 2018, in Uman, Ukraine.

What is Passover or Pesach? The Jewish holiday explained

What is Hispanic Heritage Month? Latinos and Latino culture can be celebrated year-round

When is Rosh Hashana?

Rosh Hashana starts at sunset on Sunday and continues through Tuesday evening.

The celebration of the new year is the only Jewish holiday that is two days long both inside and outside Israel. Its called yoma arichta, translated as a long day because the 48-hour celebration may be thought of as one extended day.

Why is Rosh Hashana celebrated?

Rosh Hashana is often treated as a time to reflect on the previous year and focus on hopes for the coming year, according to Jordan Rosenblum, the Belzer Professor of Classical Judaism and Max and Frieda Weinstein-Bascom Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

It's the beginning of the Jewish calendar, and like all new years there are, its a time for sort of taking stock, right? ...

Story continues

What do I want to improve? You know, the equivalent of joining the gym in January, he said.

Rosh Hashana is also important for some Jewish people as a celebration of the creation of humanity. It may be referred to as the "birthday of the world," marking the time when God created  or when the breath of life entered  Adam and Eve.

Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff: Rosh Hashana is about a simple question. What kind of world do we want to live in?

How is Rosh Hashana celebrated?

Many Jewish people will attend services at synagogues and other spaces for worship on Rosh Hashana. Jewish congregations will recite special prayers and songs to mark the new year.

Whether in a synagogue or other spaces, "the central component of Rosh Hashana services and really any Jewish festival is community. We come together as a community to experience a holiday in a number of different ways, Gleisser said.

Members of the Ethiopian Jewish community gather in a makeshift synagogue on Sept. 22, 2006, as they celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year in Gondar, Ethiopia.

Some Jewish communities will blow a Shofar, a curved rams horn.

Its meant to kind of stir you, awaken you to the idea of thinking of new year, taking stock, preparing to atone, and in the month leading up to Rosh Hashana it begins to be used as a kind of wake up, Rosenblum said. It really kind of pierces the air, and you can't ignore it.

Some Jews may also pray near a body of water in a Tashlich ceremony, in addition to tossing pieces of bread or other food into the water to symbolize sending off sins.

Joel Friedman and his family observe Tashlich beside the seafront at dusk on Sept. 24, 2020, in Canvey Island, England. The atonement ritual of Tashlich comes from the Hebrew word meaning 'to cast', and refers to the idea of casting away one's sins.

What are some traditional Rosh Hashana foods?

Rosh Hashana celebrations dont just take place within the walls of a synagogue. Many Jews will gather with friends and family to eat special foods and hold commemorations:

Some Jewish people eat apples and honey together to represent a sweet new year.

People may also eat challah, a braided bread, in a round loaf to represent a cycle of the year.

Pomegranate seeds also represent the 613 mitzvot, or commandments, that are cited in the Torah, the Jewish holy book.

"For Rosh Hashana, in particular, there's just a lot of emphasis on sweetness so that you are stepping into the year with good tastes and good feelings, and with this idea that you want to have a sweet and bountiful year ahead," Rabbi Danielle Leshaw, senior educator and campus support director for Hillel International, told USA TODAY.

Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, right, and comedian Deb Filler share apples and honey as is customary in Jewish tradition during a socially distanced Rosh Hashanah celebration at a drive-in on Sept. 20, 2020, in Toronto.

Is it OK to say 'happy Rosh Hashana'?

Yes, happy Rosh Hashana or happy new year are both appropriate greetings if you are talking to Jewish friends, family, co-workers, or classmates around the holiday. You can also say shanah tovah, which means good year in Hebrew.

"Happy New Year is great," Gleisser said. "Happy Rosh Hashana, thats a beautiful thing to say."

Big Rosh Hashana celebrations make a comeback

Leshaw noted that many college campuses are looking forward to seeing their first large-scale celebrations since 2019, due to festivities being canceled or going virtual due to the coronavirus pandemic.

She said the Tashlich ceremony, "in particular, is really meaningful for people."

"What's beautiful about it is that it's an easy access point," she explained. "So if you haven't grown up in a family where there's been a lot of synagogue attendance, or if you've grown up in a family where you're not even necessarily familiar with the meals that accompany the holiday... you can very easily join a group of people who are gathering at a body of water and think about your wrongdoings of the past year."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: When is Rosh Hashana 2022? What is it? Can you say happy holidays?
Kansas City police were investigating a shooting that left one person critically injured in Kansas Citys Lykins neighborhood early Friday morning.

Officers were dispatched around 4 a.m. to the Express Stop gas station at 4815 Independence Ave. in response to a reported shooting, police said. One victim was found on the next block, on East Sixth Street, police said.

The victim had several gunshot wounds. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition, according to police.

Police said the shooting scene was near the intersection of East Sixth Street and Van Brundt Boulevard, where the victim was found.

Further information was not immediately available from police.
Glynn County law enforcement agencies on Monday in collaboration with The U. S. Marshals convened to kick off Operation Coastal Flood.

The participating agencies included the U.S. Marshals Service Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force, Glynn County District Attorneys Office, United States Attorneys Office, Brunswick Police Department, Glynn County Police Department, Glynn County Sheriffs Office, and The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

During the planning phase of this operation, more than 600 felony warrants for Glynn County were discovered.

Operation Coastal Flood began in the early morning hours of September 14, and over three days there were 30 physical arrests, 13 in-custody discoveries and eight collateral investigations sent outside of their jurisdiction.

During the week of September 19th, an additional five arrests were made in Florida, bringing the total to 35 physical arrests.

Specific violent crimes and habitual offenders were identified, such as but not limited to, Gang Violence, Aggravated Assaults, Sexual Assaults and Violent Crimes Against Persons.

One of the many examples of this operation included the arrest of Antonio Duncan for the offense of murder based on an incident that took place at a local Bamboo Lounge.

Brunswick Police Department Chief Kevin Jones advised, " These arrests are a result of a collaborative effort between all agencies involved. Multiagency collaboration provides us with the opportunity to share resources to address a shared goal. In this operation, the shared goal was to bring habitual offenders with active warrants into custody. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners as we strive to keep our community safe. "





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Sep. 23SALEM  A proposed Eastern Oregon transmission line project may soon receive a critical green light from the Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council.

The siting council is set to meet on Tuesday, Sept. 27, in Salem to discuss the status of Idaho Power's proposed Boardman to Hemingway transmission line. The council will first address contested portions of the proposed site plan for B2H and strategies for resolving them, according to the agenda for the meeting sent out by the Oregon Department of Energy. Later the council is scheduled to vote on whether to approve the Boardman to Hemingway site plan.

Approval of the site plan would put the proposed project a major step closer to constructing the transmission line, said Sven Berg, a communications specialist with Idaho Power. Berg is optimistic about the changes of the site plan being approved.

"The process has played out fairly and we are happy with the case we have laid out for the council," he said.

Idaho Power is a major funder of the proposed B2H project, which would run 300 miles from Boardman to the Hemingway transmission line substation near Melba, Idaho.

Berg said he feels good about the connections Idaho Power is making with the public regarding B2H and those who will be near it.

"I'm happy with the progress we've made working with governments, communities and stakeholders along the route," he said.

Berg said Idaho Power's goal is to break ground for the project in 2023 and have lines for the project electrified in 2026.

The transmission line would cost between $1 billion and $1.2 billion. Towers along the line would be as high as 180 feet. In comparison, standard towers are 75-90 feet tall. The proposed line would pass through the Grande Ronde Valley.

Should the site plan be approved by the Energy Facility Siting Council, B2H would still face a number of hurdles.

Jim Kreider, of the Stop B2H Coalition, a grassroots effort of 900 individuals and organizations, said his the coalition will file an appeal with the Oregon State Supreme Court if the site plan is approved.

Story continues

Even if the site plan is ultimately approved, this would not guarantee that B2H would become a reality, since other steps would have to be taken. For example, the public utilities commissioners of both Oregon and Idaho would have to vote to authorize construction of the line, Berg said.

The Sept. 27 meeting will start at 8:30 a.m. at the Oregon Department of Energy building at 550 Capitol St. NE. The meeting can be attended virtually using the online Webex platform.

Dick Mason is a reporter with The Observer. Contact him at 541-624-6016 or dmason@lagrandeobserver.com.
Handwritten notes are displayed near the entrance to a female lavatory at Sindang Station in Seoul on September 19, 2022 (AFP via Getty Images)

The murder of a South Korean woman at a subway station in Seoul has caused widespread fury across the nation, forcing the government to review loopholes in its anti-stalking law.

President Yoon Suk-yeol directed the justice ministry to amend legislation that came into effect last year after a 28-year-old woman was allegedly killed by her stalker at Sindang station earlier this month, reported the South China Morning Post.

Police say the victim, who has not been publicly named, was stabbed by 31-year-old Jeon Joo-hwan, who was due to be sentenced for stalking her.

Unaware she was being watched by her attacker, the victim finished her evening shift at the subway station, as Jeon waited for her over an hour outside the toilets, wearing gloves and a disposable shower cap.

The attacker began harassing the woman in 2019 when she started working for Seoul Metro. He reportedly called her over 300 times, begging her to date him and threatened self-harm on her refusal.

The victim reported him in October last year, following which he was fired from his job and arrested. Jeon, however, was released on bail and not subjected to a restraining order.

He was arrested on charges of murder with the order on his stalking indictment being postponed to 29 September.

The womans death triggered widespread anger against the government, with many calling for tightening of the legislation. While stalking was considered a misdemeanour punishable only by a fine of up to 100,000 won ($63) until last year, the government passed a more stringent law in October 2021, stipulating five years of jail term for those convicted.

But the law, several argue, fails to provide adequate protection to the victim as a perpetrator can be prosecuted only with the consent of the complainant.

It provides an opportunity for the stalker to bully their victims to withdraw cases, including in the current case where Jeon reportedly told police that he killed the woman because he resented her for filing a police complaint.

Story continues

According to SCMP, at least three women were killed by their stalkers in the first six months of this year.

Police have so far arrested 7,152 people under the new anti-stalking law, reported the BBC, citing data from the National Police Agency. However, only five per cent of the suspects were detained.

I felt frustrated at the failure by law enforcement and the court to act more proactively to prevent the murder, said the victims lawyer, Min Go-eun, as she criticised the limitation of the law.

Criminal psychologist and professor Lee Soo-jung, who also advises the government, suggested the ministry remove the clause requiring the victims consent before prosecution, while the Supreme Court has proposed giving restraining order to stalking suspects not in detention, reported the BBC.

The government, however, is also facing backlash for comments made by the countrys gender equality and family minister Kim Hyun-sook, who said the womans murder was not a gender-based hate crime.

I do not agree that this case should be framed as men versus women, she said during a visit to Sindang station.

The minister sparked further fury after she blamed the victim for not taking other preventive measures and seeking advice from a ministry helpline.

Meanwhile, a report by the Korean National Police University found four in 10 murders of close partners were preceded by stalking, reported The Guardian.
ISLAMABAD (AP)  Pakistan deployed thousands more doctors and medics to battle the outbreak of disease as the death toll from the unprecedented floods that have gripped the country this summer surpassed 1,600 on Friday, officials said.

The disaster management agency said 10 more people had died from the floods in the past 24 hours  four in Sindh, the worst-hit province in the deluge, and six in Baluchistan province  bringing the overall number of fatalities to 1,606 across Pakistan.

In Sindh, where thousands of makeshift medical camps for flood survivors have been set up, the National Disaster Management Authority said outbreaks of a spate of illnesses such as typhoid, malaria and dengue fever have killed at least 300 of the flood victims.

Some of the doctors who refused to work in Sindh province have been fired by the government, according to the provincial health department. Floods have killed 728 people, including 313 children and 134 women in the province since July.

The monsoon rains and flooding, which many experts say are fueled by climate change, have also affected 33 million people and destroyed or damaged 2 million homes across Pakistan. About half a million flood survivors are homeless, living in tents and makeshift structures.

Over the past two months, Pakistan sent nearly 10,000 doctors, nurses and other medical staff to tend to survivors in across Sindh. About 18,000 doctors and nearly 38,000 paramedics are treating survivors in the province, according to the latest data from the health department.

Floods have also damaged more than 1,000 health facilities in Sindh, forcing some survivors to travel to other areas to seek medical help.

Waterborne and other diseases in the past two months have killed 334 flood victims, authorities said. The death toll prompted the World Health Organization last week to raise the alarm about a second disaster, with doctors on the ground racing to battle outbreaks.

Some floodwaters in Pakistan have receded, but many districts in Sindh are still submerged, and displaced people living in tents and makeshift camps face the threat of gastrointestinal infections, dengue fever and malaria, which are on the rise amid stagnant waters.

Story continues

Also Friday in Sindh, teams of fumigators fanned out across flood-hit areas, spraying in an effort to keep mosquitos at bay and prevent further outbreaks of dengue fever and malaria. Over 134,000 cases of diarrhea and 44,000 cases of malaria were reported in the hardest-hit areas of Sindh this past week.

Dengue fever is also on the rise, especially in Karachi, the provincial capital, where health teams were spraying insecticide onto puddles of water in the streets.

The devastation has led the United Nations to consider sending more money than it committed during its flash appeal for $160 million to support Pakistans flood response.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who is in New York, spoke Friday at the U.N. General Assembly, detailing the level of the devastation in his country and seeking more help from the international community. Sharif's office said he met earlier with President Joe Biden at a reception for the world leaders gathering in New York.

On Thursday, Sharif tweeted his thanks to Biden for highlighting the plight of flood victims and urging the world community to help Pakistan as it was still underwater and needed help. Washington is a key supporter for Pakistan's response to floods.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry says 123 flights carrying aid from various countries and U.N. agencies have ferried in desperately needed help. Local authorities are distributing these supplies, which include tents, food items, kitchen sets and bottles of drinking water, among flood survivors across the country.

On Wednesday, Julien Harneis, the U.N. resident coordinator in Pakistan, said the humanitarian situation remains dire, with widespread damage to physical infrastructure and ongoing harm to people and livestock. Outbreaks of diarrhea, typhoid and malaria are increasing rapidly as millions of people sleep in temporary shelters or in the open, he said.
One in seven homes have been reported lost due to the monsoon floods across Pakistan

A Guernsey commission will donate 20,000 in aid to help people affected by the Pakistan monsoon floods.

More than 33 million people have been affected by the floods across Pakistan, with one in seven homes reported lost.

The Overseas Aid and Development Commission (OADC) will donate funds to the UK United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The president of the OADC said the impact on the country was "unprecedented".

Deputy Chris Blin said: "The scale of the flooding and the ongoing impact on communities is unprecedented and, in such situations, refugees tend to be the hardest hit."

The government said its donation would support 1,688 households, or up to 10,000 people with basic essentials, such as tents, blankets and mosquito nets.

"The Commission will continue to monitor the situation and will look to provide further support if appropriate," Mr Blin said.

Follow BBC Guernsey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif appealed for a peaceful end to the dispute over Kashmir and deplored regional instability, invoking the perennial themes of Pakistan's U.N. addresses after dedicating the first half of his speech Friday to the ravages of recent floods.

The flood-induced devastation, which Sharif described in biblical terms, means it's incumbent on Pakistan to ensure rapid economic growth and lift millions out of poverty and hunger," he said.

But in order to do so, Sharif said, Pakistan needs a stable external environment  that means peace in South Asia, which he said hinges on a resolution of the decadeslong dispute over Jammu and Kashmir.

At the heart of this longstanding dispute lies the denial of the inalienable right of the Kashmiri people to self-determination, Sharif said, outlining what he called India's relentless campaign of repression and serial brutalization of Kashmiris.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and has been claimed by both since they won independence from the British empire 75 years ago.

Sharif accused India of its own colonial ambitions by trying to change Kashmir's demographics from majority Muslim to majority Hindu. While he described Islamophobia as a global phenomenon, he specifically accused India's Hindu nationalist government of engaging in the worst manifestation of Islamophobia.

India  which has said Kashmir is an internal matter and one of law and order  is scheduled to speak at the General Assembly on Saturday. Rights groups have accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis governing party of looking the other way and sometimes enabling hate speech against Muslims. Modis party denies the accusations, but Indias Muslims say attacks against them and their faith have increased sharply.

The two South Asian nations lobbed barbs past one another later in the night, each invoking the right of reply. An Indian diplomat shot back at Sharif by accusing the prime minister of seeking to obfuscate misdeeds in his own country and to justify actions against India that the world considers unacceptable."

Story continues

During his afternoon speech, Sharif also spoke at length about regional instability and terrorism  of which he called Pakistan the principal victim.

He presented a marked contrast from his flashy yet conservative predecessor, Imran Khan, who dedicated much of last year's speech to accusing the United States of victimizing Pakistan. Khan was ousted in April after losing a no-confidence vote.

Dressed in a sober business suit instead of Khan's favored waistcoat-and-salwar-kameez combination, Sharif didn't once mention the United States by name.

He was impassioned, at times vigorously tapping the rostrum or demonstratively bringing his fists together, but his words struck a less combative tone.

Pakistan is a partner for peace," Sharif said before departing from prepared remarks: But Mr. President, peace can only be ensured and guaranteed when the rights of communities who have been suffering over decades, and subjugated over decades, earn their freedom and are respected.

Sharif's speech also represented a departure from last year, when Khan expressed optimism about the then-incipient Taliban rule in Afghanistan and exhorted the General Assembly not to isolate the new government. A year later, no U.N. member state has recognized the Taliban government.

Pakistan would also like to see an Afghanistan which is at peace with itself and the world, and which respects and nurtures all its citizens, without regard to gender, ethnicity and religion, he said, avoiding direct mention of its current government.

Above all, he echoed a fear common to countries who typically do not dominate the global discourse: My real worry is about the next stage of this challenge, when the cameras would have gone or left this august assembly and the story just shifts away to conflicts like Ukraine, he said of the flooding recovery. My question is, will we be left alone, high and dry?

___

For more AP coverage of the U.N. General Assembly, visit https://apnews.com/hub/united-nations-general-assembly
A 28-year-old mans death at a New York City psychiatric hospital is being treated as a homicide, police said.

Shakim Devega was found unconscious at the Kingsboro Psychiatric Center in Brooklyn shortly before noon on Tuesday, Sept. 20, according to the New York Daily News. First responders rushed Devega to a hospital less than a mile away, where he was pronounced dead.

He died from sustained trauma to the neck and neck area, police told the outlet on Sept. 23.

Neither the New York City Police Department nor the Kingsboro Psychiatric Center responded to a request for comment from McClatchy News.

Devega was convincted of sexually abusing a 6-year-old child in 2019, according to state records, and was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison.

He was released in 2021 after serving two years in prison, according to the New York Daily News.

Devega was a patient at the Kingsboro Psychiatric Hospital at the time of death, according to News 12.

A representative for the Office of Chief Medical Examiner said on Sept. 23 that they had not yet determined how Devega died, according to PIX11.

The case is being investigated as a homicide, according to the New York Post.

Kingsboro Pyschiatric Center offers both inpatient and outpatient care for adults aged 18 and older and provides comprehensive, integrated services 24 hours per day for hospitalized patients, according to their website.

A purported hospital resident was killed earlier this year after being struck by a car in Manhattan, according to the West Side Rag.

Man who was 1 of 8 injured in Chicago apartment blast dies

Elizabeth Chambers Urged Armie Hammers Accuser to Come Forward: Details

Everybody is going to die today: Troy man set woman and duplex on fire, girlfriend says
OLD BRIDGE  A Pennsylvania woman was arrested Thursday in the shooting death of a township woman last Saturday, announced the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office.

Elizabeth Jackson, 61, of Yeadon, Pennsylvania, was charged with murder and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose in the death of Deborah Brown-Hepworth, 65, said Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and Old Bridge Acting Police Chief Donald Fritz Jr. in a news release.

Police received a 911 call around 11:05 a.m. Sept. 17 reporting that a woman was found unresponsive in her home on Hanna Lane by a relative, according to the prosecutors office. Arriving officers located Brown-Hepworth who was pronounced dead at the scene, the prosecutors office said.

An investigation by Old Bridge Detective Addie Spinola and Prosecutors Office Detective Mark Morris revealed Jackson and Brown-Hepworth knew each other, the prosecutors office said.

Anyone with information or surveillance footage of the area is asked to call Detective Spinola at 732-721-5600 ext. 3181 or Detective Morris at 732-745-3927.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Pennsylvania woman charged with Old Bridge NJ murder
The way you drink your tea says a lot about you (Stock)

You may be making your tea wrong, as an afternoon tea expert has just revealed the proper way - and milk does not come first.

According to sommelier and tea expert Neil Phillips, there are quite a few ways people unintentionally botch their tea.

First, and most importantly, the milk must always come last - if you are concerned about appearances.

Milk added first stems from the servants of a large house who used to drink from unrefined clay mugs which could crack when hot tea was poured, so they popped a bit of milk in, before, to act as a coolant, Phillips revealed.

The upper-class, or the upstairs of the house, drank from fine bone china - meaning they didnt have to worry about their tea cracking their teacups, according to Phillips.

So if you want to appear more refined, or follow proper etiquette, Phillips, who has curated a menu of the perfect afternoon tea for the May 5-6th QIPCO Guineas Festival at Newmarket, recommends drinking your tea as if you were a member of the royal family.

Additionally, most British people are actually guilty of under-brewing their tea, as the typical two minutes is just not enough.

Although it does depend on your tea - green tea typically does not have to brew as long - Phillips recommends that most tea brew for at least four minutes.

The 50 best tea rooms

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And while he does admit that it is definitely a personal preference to brew your tea for a strong four minutes, Yorkshire Tea suggests the same on their website, stating: Tea needs time to unlock all its flavour, so give it four to five minutes to do its thing.

Tea-drinkers should also consider how they are stirring their tea and how they are holding their cups - as both are indicative of how refined you are.

A clear giveaway of your elegance when it comes to stirring is how you remove the excess tea from your spoon. While a light flick is fine, even elegant, bashing the spoon on the side of the cup is not, according to Phillips.

Finally, before you accept an offer to high tea you may want to reconsider - as high tea was originally for commoners and servants.

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Afternoon tea is vastly different from high tea (Stock)

First and foremost, you should be clear that afternoon tea is not the same as high tea, Phillips warned.

Afternoon tea was typically served to the upper-class around 4pm, whereas high tea was when servants ate - typically around 6pm after the rest of the house had been served.

And to properly enjoy your quintessentially British afternoon tea, complete with the perfect cup of tea, Phillips insists only crustless sandwiches are served, and, of course, jam before cream on your scones.
The Popular Front of India says it has hundreds of thousands of supporters across the country

The Indian government has banned the Popular Front of India (PFI) - a controversial Muslim group - for five years for allegedly having links with terror groups.

The ban, announced on Wednesday morning, comes amid a crackdown on the organisation - over the past week, authorities have twice raided its offices across several states and arrested many of its leaders.

The PFI, which denies the allegations against it, has held nationwide protests against the raids in recent days.

About the ban

The government says it has banned the PFI and its associate groups for allegedly undertaking "unlawful activities" which are "prejudicial to the integrity, sovereignty and security of the country".

It has cited the group's alleged links with banned Islamist groups - the Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi) and the Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) - as well as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

"The PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts operate openly as a socio-economic, educational and political organisation but, they have been pursuing a secret agenda to radicalise a particular section of the society working towards undermining the concept of democracy," the federal home ministry said in a statement.

Central Government declares the #PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts as an unlawful association with immediate effect, for a period of five years. pic.twitter.com/hff3AOfn2i  All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) September 28, 2022

Reports say that more than 250 people linked to the group have been arrested during raids held on 22 September and 27 September.

The searches were carried out by India's top anti-terror agency, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which fights financial crimes.

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The NIA said that during the searches, it seized "incriminating documents, cash, sharp-edged weapons and a large number of digital devices".

In a statement issued after the first raid, the Popular Front of India had described the action against it as "witch hunting" and accused the NIA of making baseless claims to create "an atmosphere of terror" .

What is PFI?

Formed in 2006, the PFI describes itself "as a non-governmental social organisation whose stated objective is to work for the poor and disadvantaged people in the country and to oppose oppression and exploitation".

Many Hindu groups had demanded a ban on the PFI

The PFI came into existence after the National Development Front (NDF) - a controversial organisation established in Kerala a few years after the Babri mosque was demolished in 1992 - merged with two other organisations from the south. Over the next few years, it developed a broader base as more organisations across India merged with it.

At present, the PFI, which has a strong presence in Kerala and Karnataka, is active in more than 20 Indian states and says its cadre strength is in the "hundreds of thousands".

Why is PFI controversial?

In its mission statement on its website, the PFI claims to want to establish an "egalitarian society where everyone enjoys freedom, justice and a sense of security". It says that changes in economic policies are required so that Dalits (formerly untouchables), tribal people and minorities get their rights.

However, the government has registered a host of charges against the group and its members, including "sedition, creating enmity between different sections of society and taking steps to destabilise India".

The PFI first stepped into the limelight in 2010 after an attack on a college professor in Kerala. The assault came after several Muslim groups accused him of asking derogatory questions about the Prophet Muhammad in an examination. A court convicted some of its members for the attack, although the PFI distanced itself from the accused.

More recently, members from the group were also linked to the beheading of a Hindu man in the western state of Rajasthan in June.

A few months ago, police in the eastern state of Bihar claimed that the group had allegedly circulated a document that spoke of making India an Islamic nation. The PFI had denied the allegations saying that the document - India 2047: Towards Rule of Islamic India - was forged.

One of the main allegations against the PFI has been its connection to Simi, which was outlawed by the government in 2001. The PFI has also been linked to the Indian Mujahideen, another banned militant group.

Karnataka's government has accused the PFI of instigating protests against a school ban on wearing hijabs

Prof P Koya, a founding member of the PFI and its earlier incarnation NDF, had denied these allegations in an earlier conservation with the BBC and said that he established NDF in 1993, years after his relations with Simi ended in 1981.

Authorities have also linked the PFI to several incidents of political violence.

In 2018, in the coastal city of Ernakulam in Kerala, PFI activists were accused of stabbing to death a leader of the left-wing Students Federation of India (SFI).

How popular is PFI?

PFI leaders get a lot of media attention for speeches which some consider to be provocative.

The group claims to have a large supporter-base, but it has not enjoyed much political success so far. Its registered political party - the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) - has participated in local elections in Kerala and has enjoyed modest success, but hasn't won any parliamentary seats.

"The PFI is not a significant political or social force in India. Whatever influence it has is mainly limited to Kerala and some other southern states. Muslims in the rest of India do not even know of its existence as a political entity," says Adil Mehdi, retired prof from Jamia Millia Islamia university in the capital, Delhi.

Earlier this year, the Karnataka government accused the PFI of inciting protests after a school in the state banned female students from wearing hijabs. Observers said the student and women wing of PFI - Campus Front of India, and National Women's Front - actively participated in these pro-hijab demonstrations.

Hindu groups, aligned with India's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had long demanded a total ban on the PFI and the Kerala High Court once described it as an "extremist organisation".

However, the PFI continues to deny any involvement in terror activities and analysts point out that terrorism charges, used to conduct raids and arrests, often fail scrutiny in court.

Read more India stories from the BBC:
Police have arrested a suspect in the August stabbing death of 23-year-old Aaron Flora on Indianapolis south side, according to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

Investigators were dispatched to the 2900 block of Brill Road just after 1 a.m. Aug. 29 where they found Flora with a single stab wound. He died at the scene.

The Marion County Prosecutors Office charged 26-year-old Christopher Rawlings with murder in connection to Floras death, according to IMPD.

Flora and his girlfriend were helping a friend fix cars and mopeds to make money, his girlfriend told police. She and Flora were standing in a shed with Rawlings on Aug. 29 when she reportedly asked Rawlings to leave, according to a probable cause affidavit for his arrest.

She told police Rawlings said "OK" then "out of nowhere" reached over and stabbed Flora in the neck, which cut his right carotid artery and trachea, according to the affidavit. Rawlings allegedly climbed over the back fence and fled.

When they arrived at the scene, investigators found a folding knife with blood on the blade. Multiple witnesses later positively identified Rawlings through a photo array, the affidavit said.

More:Man convicted in 2019 fight and shooting of judges outside Indianapolis White Castle

More crime news:Employment dispute leads to deadly shooting at Fall Creek Parkway and East 29th Street

Rawlings was arrested Tuesday with the assistance of the Greenwood Police Department and booked into the Johnson County Jail, according to IMPD. Anyone with information on Floras death is asked to contact Detective Connie Pearson at the IMPD Homicide Office at 317-327-3475 or by email at Connie.Pearson@indy.gov. Alternatively, those with information can contact Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-8477 to remain anonymous.

Contact Jake Allen at jake.allen@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jake_Allen19.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis crime: Man arrested in stabbing death of Aaron Flora
PORT SHELDON TWP.  The Ottawa County Sheriff's Office is asking residents for information after an 11-year-old boy was approached by an unknown male offering him a ride Thursday.

Police said the incident occurred at about 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, in the 14900 block of Blair Street. Deputies were notified the boy was riding his bike in the area when he was approached by a male subject who spoke with him and offered him a ride.

The man exited his vehicle and spoke to the boy, but made no physical contact with him and did not threaten him, according to police. A neighbor was working in his yard in the area and approached the two. The driver then got back in his vehicle and left the area, driving eastbound on Blair Street.

The subject is described as a white male in his 30s and was wearing sunglasses. He was driving a black SUV, possibly a Toyota, police said.

Police notified area schools and school resource deputies regarding the incident, which remains under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact OCSO or Silent Observer at 877-88-SILENT.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Police investigating suspicious incident of man offering boy a ride
Heaven Carr-Williams was in science class Friday morning when her principal came over the loudspeaker.

"He tells us that it's a lockdown and it wasn't a drill and he wanted us to barricade the doors," she said.

Alarms across the school sounded. She said her friend started to have a panic attack and called her mom.

For the next several hours, Heaven sat in the room with her classmates. There were long stretches of complete silence.

She watched her teacher try to conceal his nervousness. They heard popping sounds outside the door.

"It didn't feel like a hoax," she said.

Now the ninth grader is left with questions. Why hasn't she done any active shooter drills since elementary school? What were those pops? Why was this all handled this way?

"We should still get closure," she said.

Parents wait near Princeton High School after reports of an incident at the school on Friday. (Photo: The Enquirer/ Cara Owsley)

What happened at Princeton High School today?

Princeton High School, home to about 1,600 students, was the target of what officials are calling a nationwide spree of hoaxes. USA TODAY found at least 30 active shooter false alarms and threats made at schools across the country just last week.

The district told parents that a false call about a threat prompted the lockdown at the middle school and high school Friday and partial lockdowns at a nearby elementary school.

Active shooter threats were reported at several schools in Ohio, including Princeton High School in Sharonville, Garfield High School in Akron, Belmont High School in Dayton, Catholic Central High School in Springfield, Findlay High School, Licking Valley High School in Newark, Scott High School in Toledo and St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland.

It was not known Friday afternoon if the threats were connected.

Police response was large and quick

The report prompted a massive police response. Ten ambulances from at least nine jurisdictions rushed to the school.

Sharonville police Lt. Walter Cordes said "over a hundred" police officers from multiple agencies, including Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Montgomery and Sharonville, as well as Cincinnati's SWAT team arrived after a hoax shooting call came in around 10:15 a.m.

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Meanwhile parents poured into the area after hearing the news on social media or getting texts from their children. It wasn't until 11:15 a.m. that the first automated call went out to parents in the district.

"There is and was no active shooter," the message said.

By that point, the streets around the school were crowded with parents. Many doubted the claim it was a hoax because of the terrifying messages they were receiving from inside the school.

Some parents angry over conflicting reports

Markita Richardson's daughter attends Princeton High School.

"Were getting phone calls from our kids that 11 people were shot, but then police are telling us its a hoax?" Richardson said. "And the attitude police were giving over here to parents, who are just worried about our kids, isnt cool."

Other parents were critical of security at the school. Mo Shaw of Sharonville got a text from his daughter, a Princeton student, asking if he knew why the school was on lockdown.

Theyre more worried about optics than security, he said. Were Princeton. Were a great district. We can do better than this. Who cares about optics when kids lives are on the line.

Others were pleased with police response

Robert Brooksbank of Sharonville said the situation was scary, but he was impressed by the rapid police response from so many police departments. He could spot three different cruisers in the Vineyard Church parking lot from where he was standing.

He said he knew to come to the church because Princeton parents were sent there after a bomb scare last year. His daughter is in Princeton Middle School. She was able to text him that the school was locking down.

He then read that people were calling it an active shooter on Twitter. He launched an app on his phone and was able to see his daughters exact location in the school.

Yes, it can be frustrating, he said. The school doesnt want to give out false information. I understand that. The school doesnt want to scare the kids or scare the parents."

He also complimented district Superintendent Tom Burton who spent the morning walking around the Vineyard Church parking lot speaking with parents.

District and police followed protocols

The plans for dismissal at the high school and middle school changed multiple times through the early afternoon. High school students who rode buses and drove were released early to go home the way they came. Students who were dropped off or walked to school were escorted to Vineyard Church to meet their parents.

Cordes said police swept the entire building, checking every classroom. He said no one was injured and all the students were accounted for. He said the police response followed the protocols for a situation like this, and noted that he had never seen this many police in one place outside of a funeral for a fallen officer.

"The dispatcher doesn't waste any time," Cordes said. "We're going to get to the school as soon as possible, address the threat, eliminate it, whatever we need to do to save as many lives as possible."

Cordes could not say if the call Princeton received was connected to the other false reports made across the country, but he said it is being investigated. He said the department will release more information as soon as it's available.

Superintendent Burton said extra counselors will be at Princeton school next week to support students and staff.

The Vikings football team was scheduled to play Friday. The game has been rescheduled to Saturday and will take place in Fairfield.

Quinlan Bentley, Victoria Moorwood and Cheryl Vari contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Princeton High School: 'There ... was no active shooter' in Cincinnati
Asian American residents in San Francisco feel less safe than other groups, according to a recent poll by the San Francisco Chronicle.

As part of its SFNext project, the paper conducted a survey of 1,653 local residents belonging to different racial groups and released its findings on Sept. 14.

Based on the results, only 14% of the 490 Asian respondents believed that living in San Francisco will be better in the next two years.

The figure is the lowest rate among all ethnic groups and significantly lower than the overall 22% of all the respondents who are positive that living in the city will soon change for the better. Meanwhile, 44% of Asian Americans think that living in the city will even be worse in two years, which exceeds the 35% overall who similarly think so.

More from NextShark: Ex-CEO of Atlanta nonprofit accused of misusing funds meant to assist refugees and minorities

The poll, conducted in late June and July, asked over 90 questions about different facets of living in San Francisco.

Asian Americans, who make up over a third of the population in the city, cited mostly safety/crime as San Franciscos biggest issue. The other groups mostly selected homelessness as the top problem.

Among the Asian respondents, only 20% praised Mayor London Breed for doing an excellent or good job, 16% said the same about the police and only 9% for the Board of Supervisors.

More from NextShark: Award-Winning Author Who Put Chinese American Women in Spotlight Passes Away at 74

The rest of the respondents ranked the performance of city officials a few percentage points higher overall.

Tenderloin resident Jade Le, a victim of four unprovoked attacks during the pandemic, lamented that shes often terrified to leave her apartment.

While they acknowledged the crime problem in the city, Asian respondents were found to be the least likely to report being victimized by a crime.

More from NextShark: Seattle man charged with assault, hate crime for attacks on 3 Asian women

However, some Asian residents have been able to exhibit their growing dissatisfaction by contributing to civic efforts, including the recalls of three school board members and District Attorney Chesa Boudin this year.

Story continues

Featured Image via KTVU FOX 2

More from NextShark: SF students create a resolution urging the city to apologize for its anti-Chinese past
President of the European Council Charles Michel, via translator, called out the Kremlin for acting like a blackmailer while speaking at the United Nations General Assembly. The Russia-Ukrainian war has been a very prominent topic at the General Assembly with most leaders speaking about the horrendous war. Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022 and since then, the atrocities have been astounding. Before the beginning of the second day of the conference, President Putin released a speech from Russia saying that he was going to draft another 300,000 Russians to go fight in the war. He also threatened the use of nuclear weapons.

MICHEL: The Kremlin brought war to Europe and is acting like a blackmailer. We cannot allow the destructive actions of one of us to imperil our common, fierce determination to act for the common good. The European Union is extending its hand which is sincere and loyal. We have many challenges to tackle together.
Mykhailo Podolyak urged residents of Buryatia and Sakha not to participate in

According to him, the Russian provinces of Buryatia and Yakutia, the homeland of the Buryat and Sakha ethnic groups, are suffering the most from the Kremlin's partial mobilization.

Read also: Russians google how to leave Russia, get deferred from conscription ahead of Putins address

"Disproportionate mass forced conscription in national republics of Russia  Buryatia and Yakutia  is a real ethnic cleansing of local population from the Moscow, Podolyak wrote.

Time for Russias ethnic groups to remember their national dignity and not send their children to die in someone else's war.

Putin announced a "partial mobilization" in Russia on Sept. 21. According to Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, Russia has plans to send another 300,000 reservists to the front lines in Ukraine.

After the announcement, Russians began to buy tickets abroad en masse to avoid participation in their countrys full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Read also: Websites of major Russian airports hacked, displaying calls to evade mobilization

In turn, the Kremlin's puppet in Chechnya, warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, said that he was not going to mobilize locals as the republic had already surpassed the target.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Supporters of Putin with his portrait in Belgrade, Serbia

I think he wants to hold him by the throat and once again poke him in the face with the data that Medvedchuk and Pogrebinsky showed him, promising 73% to 80% support of the local population, Davidyuk explained.

Read also: Ukrainian defenders return from Russian captivity  photo report

They promised Putin that Ukrainians would meet Russian troops with open arms, but what he got here was super-frantic resistance, perhaps the coolest in the last 100 years. Well, it is clear that Medvedchuk stole and squandered the money for this operation.



Davydyuk also thinks that the desire of the Kremlins master to take Medvedchuk away from Ukraine is to settle personal scores or use it for an alleged "Ukrainian provocation."



Well, now, I think, Putin will take him at least for torture, at most for cleansing, which he will later blame Ukraine for, he continued.

But it is very good for Ukraine that we got rid of him. It is not necessary that our land endure this garbage, and it is very important that just diplomatically we were able to trade him for so many of our heroes.

Read also: Former Azov command speaks out on returned fighters health

Putins motives for the return of Medvedchuk to Russia is just personal revenge, Davidyuk speculated, since Putin may see the pro-Russian traitor as responsible for misleading Putin about Ukrainians actual resistance to the full-scale invasion.



On the one hand, this humiliated him as a monarch that his daughters godfather is in captivity with us, and on the other hand, as a politician and commander who has lost everything, he wants to bring the culprit to himself in order to hang him by his legs, Davidyuk said.

Read also: Viktor Medvedchuk, fugitive long-time ally of Putin, caught by SBU

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
HOUSTON (AP)  A NASA researcher and Texas A&M University professor pleaded guilty to charges related to hiding his ties to a university created by the Chinese government while accepting federal grant money.

Zhengdong Cheng pleaded guilty to two counts  violation of NASA regulations and falsifying official documents  during a hearing in Houston federal court on Thursday.

Cheng's conviction was part of a program called the China Initiative, which was first started under the Trump administration. But in February, the Justice Department abandoned the program after complaints it chilled academic collaboration and contributed to anti-Asian bias. The department had also endured high-profile setbacks in individual prosecutions, resulting in the dismissal of multiple criminal cases against academic researchers in the last year. The Justice Department said it planned to impose a higher bar for such prosecutions.

Cheng had originally been charged with wire fraud, conspiracy and false statements when he was arrested in August 2020. But he pleaded guilty to the new charges as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen sentenced Cheng to the time he had already served during his pretrial incarceration  about 13 months.

Cheng also agreed to pay restitution of $86,876 and pay a fine of $20,000.

Philip Hilder, Cheng's attorney said the professor was relieved that this unfortunate chapter of his life is behind."

But Hilder was critical of the China Initiative program, saying while its original purpose was to fight economic espionage ... that was not the case in his matter."

The China Initiative ... has now been phased out as a Justice Department priority. The overall mission stays the same, to ferret out economic espionage, but the focus is to target wrongdoers by their deeds and not by their ethnicity," Hilder said.

Prosecutors accused Cheng, who was hired by Texas A&M in 2004, of concealing his work in China even as his team of researchers received nearly $750,000 in grant money for space research. NASA is restricted from using funds for any collaboration or coordination with China, Chinese institutions or any Chinese-owned company.

Story continues

But, prosecutors say, Cheng violated those restrictions by maintaining multiple undisclosed associations with China, including serving as director of a soft matter institute at a technology university in Guangdong, China, that was established by Chinas Ministry of Education.

Texas A&M and the Texas A&M System take security very seriously, and we constantly are on the look-out for vulnerabilities, especially when national security is involved, John Sharp, chancellor of the Texas A&M System, said in a statement Friday. We will continue to work with our federal partners to keep our intellectual property secure and out of the hands of foreign governments who seek to do us harm.

Cheng was fired from Texas A&M shortly after his arrest. Texas A&M is located about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Houston.

Hilder said Cheng loves academia but is evaluating his options on what he does next.

Hes a proud, loyal United States citizen and he looks forward to getting back to being a productive member of our society," Hilder said.

In a tweet Friday, FBI Houston Special Agent in Charge James Smith said his agency prioritizes investigating threats to academia as part of our commitment to preventing intellectual property theft at U.S. research institutions and companies."

In February, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen told reporters he believed the initiative was prompted by genuine national security concerns. He said he did not believe investigators had targeted professors on the basis of ethnicity, but he also said he had to be responsive to concerns he heard, including from Asian American groups.

___

Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter at https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
Solana Beach became the latest California city to crack down on flavored tobacco. (Courtesy )

California voters will decide in November whether to uphold or block a law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in 2020 that banned the sale of certain flavored tobacco products, an effort by anti-tobacco advocates to stop a youth vaping crisis and weaken the industry's influence in the state.

Senate Bill 793 would have prohibited retailers in California from selling flavored tobacco products, popular among teens, with exceptions made for hookah, some cigars and loose-leaf tobacco. The bill passed the Legislature with bipartisan support, despite intense lobbying by the tobacco industry and other interest groups.

After it was signed, opponents gathered enough signatures from Californians to put the issue on the statewide ballot, which delayed the law's implementation until voters could weigh in on the new policy. It will appear on the Nov. 8 ballot as Proposition 31.

A "yes" vote means the law will go into effect, while a "no" vote means it won't.

Proponents of the ballot measure said the new rules would help prevent tobacco use among younger people, who often gravitate toward e-cigarettes that contain what the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls "kid-friendly" flavors such as cotton candy, berry and cherry.

The opposition said the ban would incentivize a black market and remove products that smokers use as a way to quit standard cigarette smoking.

Lindsey Freitas, advocacy director for the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, said passing Proposition 31 is critical to stopping the sale of products she describes as the industry's way "to hook a new generation."

"These youth are drawn in by the flavors but hooked by the nicotine," Freitas said.

A CDC youth survey in 2020 found that 20% of high school and 10% of middle school students reported current e-cigarette use.

"This policy is really about protecting our kids from an industry that sees them as dollar signs and nothing more. If not us stepping up and standing in the way, they will spend millions and millions of dollars to go after them," Freitas said.

Story continues

The "Yes on 31" campaign is supported by Newsom, the California Democratic Party, the California Teachers Assn. and a slew of organizations representing doctors, dentists, nurses and public health professionals. The campaign to pass Proposition 31 has raised more than $6.1 million, according to state campaign finance records.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Philip Morris USA are supporting the campaign against Proposition 31, and the California Republican Party endorsed a "no" vote against the initiative. The opposition has raised more than $1.7 million.

These groups argue that the flavored tobacco ban is akin to "prohibition," and that it was would disproportionately affect those who favor menthol-flavored products, particularly people of color.

They've also pointed out Proposition 31's likely reduction of state tobacco tax revenues. The independent Legislative Analyst's Office estimates that loss could range from "tens of millions of dollars to around $100 million annually," depending on if tobacco users stop smoking altogether or simply switch to unflavored products.

Beth Miller, a spokesperson for the "no" campaign, called Proposition 31 a "sweeping ban" on products that are already heavily regulated.

Federal law prohibits the sale of tobacco products to anyone under 21. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has in recent years cracked down on flavored tobacco and e-cigarette products and in April announced a plan to ban the sale of menthol cigarettes. Dozens of California cities have already passed some level of restrictions against the sale of flavored tobacco products.

"What Proposition 31 would do is take this adult choice of what adults want to choose away from them," Miller said. "We believe that prohibition doesn't work."

Miller said the "no" campaign agrees that kids shouldn't have access to these products but that Proposition 31 would make it harder to enforce the law "because there's nobody selling underground cigarettes who is going to stop and ask kids for ID."

The "yes" side has countered those claims by saying some products will still be available on the California market.

"This is not something that is going to ban [all] tobacco products," said Dr. Michael Ong, chair of California's Tobacco Education and Research Oversight Committee and a professor in residence of medicine and health policy and management at UCLA.

"But it's going to ban specific flavors that unfortunately are addicting kids, and also unfortunately are sustaining addiction among particular populations that is unfair, because they've been targeted by the tobacco industry."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Chinese, Hungarian FMs meet on ties on sidelines of UNGA session

Xinhua) 09:49, September 23, 2022

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (2nd R) meets with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto (2nd L) on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, the United States, Sept. 21, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

NEW YORK, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met here on Wednesday with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

Wang said that thanks to the strategic guidance by the two countries' leaders, China and Hungary enjoy a good relationship, as both countries always adhere to an independent policy, sincere friendship with each other and win-win cooperation.

China appreciates Hungary's firm stance on friendly policies towards China, firm adherence to the one-China principle and upholding of a fair stance on issues related to China's core interests, said Wang.

The high-level development of the China-Hungary ties is in line with the fundamental interests of the two countries and their people, Wang said, adding that facing changes unseen in a century, China will continue to design bilateral relations from a strategic height, cement strategic mutual trust, practice genuine multilateralism, resist unilateral bullying and uphold the basic norms of international relations.

Wang said that China will keep on encouraging capable Chinese enterprises to invest in Hungary, expecting Hungary to maintain policy continuity, stability and persistence.

Noting that Hungary is the first European country that has signed the Belt and Road cooperation documents, Szijjarto said Hungary-China cooperation has played an important role in boosting Hungary's economic development.

Hungary firmly adheres to the one-China policy and opposes confrontation between camps, he said, adding that Hungary will continue to unswervingly carry out cooperation with China and take an active part in China-Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) cooperation.

For his part, Wang said that China and CEE countries have carried out mutually beneficial cooperation on a voluntary basis and have continuously yielded fruitful results, which not only meets each other's needs, but also helps to draw on each other's strengths and opens new cooperation channels.

China is fully confident in the future of China-CEE cooperation, he added.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican of Florida, listens during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, December 7, 2021. J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

Prosecutors will not recommend charging GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz with sex trafficking, The Washington Post reported.

Sources told The Post investigators have concerns about the credibility of two key witnesses.

Gaetz has been under investigation since at least 2020 and could still be charged if new evidence emerges.

Prosecutors will not recommend charging GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz in the Justice Department's investigation into if the Florida congressman violated federal sex-trafficking laws, according to The Washington Post.

Citing anonymous sources, The Post reported that prosecutors were concerned with the credibility of two key witnesses and think they'd be unlikely to secure a conviction if they indicted Gaetz. Justice Department officials typically take the advice of career prosecutors but haven't made a final decision on the matter yet, the report said.

The Justice Department has been investigating Gaetz since the summer of 2020.

According to NBC News, prosecutors were examining if the congressman committed three separate crimes: if he sex-trafficked a 17-year-old; if he violated the Mann Act, which prohibits the transportation of "any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose" across state lines; and if he obstructed justice.

The existence of the investigation first became public last year, when The New York Times reported that investigators were examining if Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old in 2019 and paid for her to travel with him.

One person familiar with the conversations told The Times that Gaetz told some women to say that he paid for dinners and hotel rooms as part of their dates if anyone asked about the nature of their relationships.

The FBI executed a search warrant in late 2020 and seized Gaetz's cell phone, as well as a phone belonging to his former girlfriend, who testified before a federal grand jury earlier this year.

Gaetz has denied wrongdoing and said last year that the allegations were part of an "organized criminal extortion" scheme against him. Last month, the Florida businessman Stephen Alford was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to attempting to extort Gaetz and his father for $25 million.

"Those who told lies about Congressman Matt Gaetz are going to prison, and Congressman Matt Gaetz is going back to Congress to continue fighting for America," a spokesperson for Gaetz's office told Insider.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A protester lights a fire on the court at the Laver Cup (John Walton/PA) (PA Wire)

A protester set fire to his arm during the opening session of this years Laver Cup at the O2 in London.

The incident happened during the match between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Diego Schwartzman on the first day of the competition.

Tsitsipas clinched the first set 6-2 and during the changeover a man ran on to the court and lit a fire, which briefly set his arm ablaze.

Stewards remove a protester after setting fire to the court (John Walton/PA) (PA Wire)

The individual was wearing a t-shirt which read: End UK Private Jets and was quickly dragged out of the court after the fire had been extinguished.

After a brief delay, the match, the second of day one, was able to resume.
The Nashville Public Library system was forced to close its branches Thursday after receiving an anonymous bomb threat via email  the latest in a line of similar scares across the country recently.

Police determined that the message likely came from outside of Tennessee and was not credible, according to NewsChannel 5 in Nashville. But library management opted to temporarily shutter its locations after receiving the email, which hadnt targeted a specific branch.

This is so common now. This is domestic terrorism, Nashville Councilwoman Ginny Welsch told NewsChannel 5. This is trying to make us all afraid, and a library is really the perfect target for this kind of stuff because it is a place of knowledge and information and history.

Libraries nationwide have likewise received threats in past weeks, which tend to arrive over the internet from somewhere other than the targeted location, though its unknown if they are linked.

Earlier this month, Salt Lake City Public Library employees received a bomb threat that didnt mention a specific branch, according to ABC4 in Utah. A staff member found an unattended bag near one building, but local law enforcement found no explosives in a search and said the public was not at risk.

More threats came this week.

On Monday, a Fort Worth Public Library employee in Texas received three emails indicating a bomb threat, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. A library spokesperson said the messages didnt contain any explanation for the threat, but 17 branches were evacuated and closed early. Law enforcement determined that the emails originated from outside of the United States and werent credible. The libraries reopened the following day.

Then the Denver Public Library shuttered its branches Wednesday after receiving an unspecified threat overnight, reported 9NEWS in the Colorado capital. A nearby high school also closed that day after a threat circulated on social media,according to local outlet 11 News.

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Hoax threats appear to be an escalation of a conservative culture war that has taken off over the past year, with right-wing groups focusing their ire on public libraries for hosting events and books with LGBTQ or racial justice themes.

Extremists have protested drag queen story hours, calling the family-friendly events a haven for pedophiles. A record number of books are facing bans. Religious organizations have mounted campaigns to block people from reading books about LGBTQ communities, and library employees have left their jobs amid harassment.

Then there are the conservative parents determined to remove books that they dont like from the facilities. A town in Michigan voted to defund its own library because it had books with LGBTQ characters, which some residents theorized were actually pornography or a stepping stone to child abuse.

And many Republican officials have not been shy about joining the faux panic. Last year, Texas state Rep. Matt Krause circulated a list of hundreds of books that he suggested school districts should review. Officials in Llano County shut down the public library system  despite it not being a part of the school system  to check the titles and remove any deemed questionable. Residents have since filed a lawsuit.

The source of the bomb threats and messages targeting libraries is still a mystery. But their effect is similar to that of the other campaigns against the facilities this year: sowing chaos and confusion while harassing staffers  and closing down the institutions, even if temporarily.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
The main challenge the Russian military faces after almost seven months at war looks likely to remain a basic one: manpower.

The partial mobilization President Vladimir Putin rolled out Wednesday aims to add an additional 300,000 reservists to the front, according to Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, primarily those with some kind of military experience. This comes after the Kremlin had already aimed to boost its military machine to 1.15 million last month, the Pentagon said.

But it is unlikely that anywhere near all of the 300,000 will have true combat experience or training, or get it once in the field, said Jeff Edmonds, who served as the National Security Councils director for Russia in the Obama administration.

Realistically, most of these guys havent been through recent training, and a 300,000 input is incredibly high, he said. Most Russian soldiers receive most of their training in the units now, but its hard to imagine the units that are in Ukraine being in any state to train recruits.

Ukraine had nearly 200,000 active duty soldiers at the start of the war, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a British research institute in London. Kyiv bolstered that number with new recruits and volunteers that are trained in Ukraine and in partner countries, such as Poland and the United Kingdom.

Russia had about 1 million active personnel at the start, according to the institutes estimates, though it did not dedicate all its troops to Ukraine.

Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said Thursday that Putins mobilization appeared to expose that the Russian military was struggling with personnel shortfalls in Ukraine and that this could further exacerbate command and control, the logistics, the sustainment, and importantly, the morale issues that weve seen Russian forces in Ukraine experience.

Ryder said it would take time for Russia to train and prepare and equip these forces, with estimates ranging from weeks to months, meaning that these reinforcements could arrive closer to Ukraines bitter winter months when the front lines could freeze until the spring.

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In many ways, this is just bad after bad, Edmonds said.

Image: Russian servicemen on patrol (Olga Maltseva / AFP via Getty Images file)

A depleted military

The Russian military has sapped much of its training infrastructure to support a war that has gone disastrously wrong for them in many ways, Edmonds and retired Marine Col. Mark Cancian said. The officer stock has also taken significant casualties. Both of these have made it hard to identify how the new additions to the Russian military could be trained or used effectively in this war.

The Kremlin does not have a reserve military to draw on the way the U.S. does, said Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington. The U.S. maintains a reserve force that it puts through military drills one weekend a month, two weeks in the summer and several months before deployment, he said.

The Russians dont do that, Cancian said. After you serve in the military  and this has been true for decades  your name is on the list, but you dont really do any training. So you might have been discharged five years ago and now youre being called up all of a sudden.

Analysts and current officials noted a tougher ecosystem for Russian recruiters as well. They cited a report by OVD-Info, a Russian human rights group, that claimed that recently arrested anti-war protesters in Moscow were drafted into military service. Many also noted a viral video of the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary outfit, recruiting prisoners as new soldiers for the Ukrainian front.

Forcing dissidents and unwilling Russians into the military would likely exacerbate what are widely believed to be deep problems with morale within the rank and file. This week, the Duma, Russias parliament, passed legislation that would further punish deserters and those refusing to fight.

Adding a large number of poorly trained soldiers lacking motivation would not provide much beyond cannon fodder, said Glen Howard, the president of the Jamestown Foundation, a security think tank dedicated to Russian and Eurasian study in Washington.

Sticking these guys in the front lines shows theres no military unit cohesion, and thats not the point, he said.

New territory takes time

The partial mobilization comes after Ukraines successful counteroffensive broke through Russian lines outside Kharkiv, Ukraines second most populous city. They then drove farther into the contested Russian proxy-controlled Donbas region, forcing the Kremlins units to fall back quickly, losing soldiers and military hardware.

Officials in Russian-occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions have since announced a referendum on accession to Russia as Ukraines offensive continues.

The military support of mobilization and the veneer of territorial security that annexation could provide will likely take a while, however. Time would appear to be the Kremlins bitterest enemy, Ekaterina Schulman, a Russian political scientist and Putin critic living in Germany, said on her Telegram channel.

The administrative side of adding new territory takes time, mobilizing and integrating newly mobilized troops takes time, and theyre assuming the opposing side is going to stop and wait, evidently out of respect for the Russian legislative process, she said with a touch of sarcasm.

Will the West meet Russias escalation?

While Russias military is on its back foot, risks remain for Ukraine. Among them is the willingness of its allies to arm and continue supporting Kyiv, but it appeared the immediate aftermath of Putins announcement brought good tidings.

Since the Russian invasion began in February, the United States has pledged about $25 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Kyiv, and the Biden administration has already requested additional funding to provide military aid to Ukraine into 2023. Many partner countries have sent military packages as well.

Meanwhile, Russia is coming under pressure from the West. Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu told NBC News that he had met on Wednesday with all the foreign ministers of the European Union member states attending the U.N. General Assembly in New York to discuss fresh sanctions against Russia and new military aid for Ukraine in an effort to ramp up the price for the aggressor.

Howitzer in Donbas (Anna Opareniuk / Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Ukraine is focused on bolstering its missile and air defense capabilities in talks with partner countries, said former Ukrainian Vice Defense Minister Leonid Polyakov, who now works for a Kyiv-based think tank advising Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelenskyy. That would help them hold onto the territory they have retaken. Secondarily, he said, they still need more artillery pieces and munitions where they remain outgunned by Russia.

Any delay or crack in Western unity, however, could work in the Kremlins favor, some said. This is especially a concern as the winter could be particularly costly for European energy prices.

Ukrainians appear to remain clear eyed on that festering issue, which Zelenskyy said Putin was attempting to use as a cudgel to soften Western support in a recent warning to his European allies.

The fear that that support could waver in the coming months remains great in Kyiv and among those on NATOs eastern flank, particularly as Putins partial mobilization will at least lead the war to drag on longer and further threaten the West.

I dont think it will make a dramatic difference, Reinsalu said, referring to the mobilization. But of course it is a major escalation by the Russian Federation in both directions: toward Ukraine and the Western community, and also towards its own society.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
By Alvise Armellini

ROME (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin was "pushed" into invading Ukraine and wanted to put "decent people" in charge of Kyiv, former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi has said, drawing fierce criticism just ahead of Italy's election.

The Italian leader, whose Forza Italia party belongs to a right-wing coalition expected to win Sunday's parliamentary election on Sunday, is a long-time friend of Putin and his comments are likely to alarm Western allies.

"Putin was pushed by the Russian people, by his party, by his ministers to come up with this special operation," Berlusconi told Italian public television RAI late on Thursday, using the official Russian wording for the war.

Russia's plan was originally to conquer Kyiv "in a week", and replace the democratically elected Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskiy with "a government of decent people" and get out "in another week," he said.

"I haven't even understood why Russian troops spread around Ukraine while in my mind they should have only stuck around Kyiv", said the 85-year-old Berlusconi, who once described Putin as being like a younger brother.

Putin's stated war aims have varied during the seven-month war. Ukraine initially chased his troops from the Kyiv area, and more recently from parts of the northeast near the Russia border. Putin now says the main aim is to secure territory in the Donbas region partly controlled by pro-Russia separatists.

Facing widespread condemnation from opponents, Berlusconi released a statement on Friday saying his views had been "oversimplified".

"The aggression against Ukraine is unjustifiable and unacceptable, (Forza Italia's) position is clear. We will always be with the EU and NATO," he said.

'TOTALLY OUTRAGEOUS'

The leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, Enrico Letta, described Berlusconi's comments on the war as "scandalous".

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"If on Sunday night the result is favourable to the right, the happiest person would be Putin," Letta told RAI radio.

Centrist leader Carlo Calenda, another election contender, said on Radio24 said Berlusconi had spoken "like a Putin general".

Asked about Berlusconi's comments, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said he believed the former Italian premier liked "to take the side of the winners, and this is definitely not Russia and not Putin".

"I believe the Italian people, and specifically Mr. Berlusconi, are quite pragmatic and understand that, based on the current internal political situation in Russia and based on the situation at the front, it would be a mistake to support Russia in the medium term," Podolayak told Reuters.

Two pollsters Reuters spoke to downplayed suggestions that Berlusconi's statements were driven by electoral calculations.

"These kind of remarks shift very few votes, people are not very interested in foreign policy," said Renato Mannheimer, head of the Eumetra polling agency.

"I think he let slip something that he believes in but which he didn't want to say out loud," said Antonio Noto, head of Noto Sondaggi.

Under outgoing Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Italy has been a staunch supporter of Western sanctions on Russia following the invasion.

Giorgia Meloni of the far-right Brothers of Italy, tipped as the next premier, has pledged to stick to that position, but her allies Berlusconi and Matteo Salvini of the League have been more ambivalent.

Berlusconi said on Thursday that Moscow's decision to invade followed an appeal by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, who allegedly told Putin, "please defend us, because if you do not defend us, we don't know where we could end up."

Voting began on Friday in four Ukrainian regions mostly held by Russian forces including the separatists, the start of a plan by Putin to annex a big chunk of Ukraine.

(Additional reporting by Angelo Amante in Rome and Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Gareth Jones)
Sep. 23From 2019 to 2021, the Southeast Whitfield High School football team won three games.

After going win-less in 2019, the Raiders finished 1-8 in 2020 and 2-8 in 2021.

It took three years for Southeast to get those three wins, but the 2022 Raiders are already there just four games into the season.

Southeast Whitfield has started 3-1.

It's the best start to a season for a Raiders team since the 2017 team went 5-0 on its way to a 7-4 finish.

For Raiders seniors like running back Brady Ensley, this season has been an opportunity to see all those long hours of work finally be reflected in the win column. Those three years of three combined wins coincided with the first three years of varsity football for Southeast.

"I'm really proud of the start," Ensley said. "We put in the work all year for the last four years. When you finally start winning, it feels like it really pays off. Compared to the past few years, it feels so much better."

Southeast can notch another victory tonight as the Raiders host Druid Hills. The 1-2 visitors visit Raider Stadium at 7:30 in Southeast's final game before returning to region play.

Southeast played a non-region schedule in 2020 and 2021, making the Raiders ineligible for the playoffs but allowing them to have scheduling freedom.

A Region 7-4A game next week against Heritage marks the first region contest for Southeast since Nov. 8, 2019, a 48-28 loss to Ridgeland.

Todd Murray, who became the Raiders' head coach prior to the 2020 season and who has overseen the rebuild during those non-region seasons, said the 3-1 start has Southeast believing as the players and coaches have prepared to return to region action.

"It's great just for the kids. Especially this year's senior class," Murray said. "They put in a lot of hard work, and it's good to see that it's paying off for them. We're headed into a difficult region, but it's given our kids confidence knowing that they can do it."

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With that region slate will come a step up in difficulty for Southeast. Southeast's first four opponents have combined for a 5-11 record entering tonight. Region 7-4A includes Cedartown, ranked No. 1 in the state in Class 4A, and Northwest Whitfield, which finished its non-region slate against tough competition at 4-1.

"I hope we can put out the same output that we are right now," Ensley said. "We'll treat it like any other game and do the best we can."

Ensley has been a big reason the Raiders have been able to get off to a fast start. The bruising back has 316 yards and seven touchdowns on 49 carries so far this season.

"I told him when we went into spring practice that he'd be one of the workhorses this year," Murray said. "He's a big, physical fullback, and he's going to carry the load."

Running behind 6-foot-5-inch offensive lineman Jayden Calhoun helps provide running lanes for Ensley, as does a much-improved passing game, led by quarterback Brayden Miles.

"We've been able to throw more, and that opens up the playbook more," Murray said. "Teams aren't able to stack the box on us."

The Raiders defense is stepping up, too.

After allowing 46 points to Gordon Lee in the Raiders' lone loss on Sept. 2, Southeast's defense held Armuchee down after two early scores last week. A couple of big forced turnovers helped the Raiders turn a 14-6 deficit into a 28-14 late lead. Southeast won 28-21.

"Our defense was flying up and making a bunch of tackles," Murray said. "They're getting better each week."
Rajah Caruths love of fast cars extends back a long time. He says,  I would watch races on TV, and play NASCAR video games. I watched my first race when I was 12. This love of fast cars has put the 20-year-old Winston-Salem University Junior on the path to becoming the GOAT of NASCAR racing. Rajah, who came into professional racing by way of NASCARs Drive for Diversity program, is one of only a handful of Black professional NASCAR drivers, and hes already had a big impact on the sport. From finishing 3rd in the 2021 ARCA Menards Series East to grabbing three late model stock car wins in the same year, hes accomplished so much in his four year NASCAR career.

He believes that having the right set of tools has set him up for success, including the right tech and being in the right environment. He spoke with Blavity about the future of NASCAR and the importance of diversity in the sport. He acknowledges that both he and NASCAR have a long way to go, and were all geeked to see what he can do.

For Rajah, tech plays a major role in his sport in big and small ways. If its not streaming one of his fav artists like Rod Wave or Lil Baby to get in the right headspace for a race, then hes using tech to help him get better on the racetrack. Tech plays a huge role in how advanced everything is on the engineering side of it, he said. And from a driver development standpoint, I havent been to a lot of the racetracks, and Im racing there for the first time. So to be able to hop on my simulator at my apartment or go to the Pratt and Miller Chevrolet simulator, it puts me on game so by the time I get to the racetrack, Im ready to go, and I know where Im at. I know where my markers are for apex and things like that.

Tech has helped Rajah to propel his career forward when other opportunities were lacking. He started his racing career at 16, driving in the virtual 2018 eNASCAR Ignite Series on iRacing simulators when he couldnt get to an actual racetrack. Fortunately a lot more HBCU students will be introduced to the world of racing via iRacing simulators being donated by Xfinity to Bowie State University, Delaware State University, Texas Southern University, and Spelman College in preparation for the Xfinity HBCU tour. Rajah believes tech will help provide other kids with similar opportunities and continue to shape the racing world.

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Rajah had this to say about the future of NASCAR not only driving but going over the wall or being a mechanic or an engineer, or working at NASCAR, theres so many different opportunities to be successful in the sport. And I think by doing things like with XFINITY in the eNASCAR college seriesdonating those rigs to HBCUs I think thats huge because it gets people involved and gets their foot in the door to racing where otherwise they wouldnt have heard anything about.

Tech is certainly not the only thing helping Rajah reach his goals. He credits having the right environment as well. For him, Winston-Salem University, one of the most highly regarded historically Black universities in the country, was the right environment. He says Winston-Salem, where he studies motorsport management, was the right place for him for one very important reason: being there helped me to learn to make good decisions. Rajah said. When you consider how he was raised, that makes a lot of sense. His father, Howard University Professor Dr. Roger Caruth, and mother, Samantha Caruth, assistant admissions director at Sidwell Friends, drove home the importance of education in their conversations with Rajah. When it was all said and done, he said, attending an HBCU was a given for me. Like many Winston-Salem students, Rajah is using every tool at his disposal to become the best in his chosen profession.

Unlike many of his classmates, Rajah is balancing a career as a pro-athlete and a full-time students course load. That can make prepping for races a bit more challenging, especially when the school year is getting into full swing. The week prior, is a big balancing act, right? Because school starts next week. So its balancing that, its balancing simulator time, and its balancing workouts. Its balancing meetings and different work I have to do on the race car and to myself, and on top of that, not trying to go insane to like having a personal life. So its a huge balancing act getting ready for each race, he said. With so much on his plate, its tough to imagine the Xfinity Series hopeful managing it all.

Theres more for him to consider as well. Rajah knows more diversity can only make NASCAR better, and the D.C. native wants to be sure that the kids watching NASCAR and coming from where he did get the same opportunities hes had. For Rajah, racing is more than fast cars and wins, giving him a chance to rep what matters to him. Whether its putting a sponsorship from his parents birthplace, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, on his car or repping Winston-Salem on the track, he knows eyes are on him for more reasons than his racing record. That kind of pressure would be a lot for anyone, but Rajah carries himself with the cool and calm hes becoming known for on and off the racetrack. Its got a lot of people questioning how he manages it all. For now, as Rajah said, its all a balancing act.

This editorial is brought to you in collaboration with Xfinity.

#XfinityHBCU
If you want to be part of the resistance against Russian disinformation, Rep. Adam Kinzinger said, join the fellas.

Its an admittedly unorthodox way to begin an interview with the outgoing Republican congressman, one of two on the House select committee investigating Jan. 6 and an outspoken opponent of former President Donald Trump.

But then, Kinzinger is equally outspoken about his support for Ukraine. He is the first and only sitting U.S. legislator to enlist in the North Atlantic Fella Organization, or NAFO, an increasingly influential online army of activists who savagely mock pro-Kremlin trolls and Russian diplomats on Twitter and are instantly recognizable by their individually stylized or militarized Shiba Inu avatars.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Kinzingers own Twitter profile picture proudly displays his bespoke fella in a jumpsuit manning a toy-sized F-18 fighter jet. A former U.S. Air Force pilot who had tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he doesnt mind that playful rendering. F-18 are Navy planes and I dont like the Navy, he teases.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov briefly adopted a cartoon dog avatar as his Twitter profile picture, and on Aug. 28 the ministry tweeted its gratitude to the grassroots organization, featuring a Ukrainian fella with an oh my expression standing in front of a High Mobility Rocket Artillery Systems (HIMARS) launch. Theres even NAFO merchandise, some of which has already shown up on the battlefield in Ukraine.

This will be a marker in history in terms of countering a hostile states lies and propaganda, Kinzinger said of NAFO. Id love it if we could do that with op-eds in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. But its a meme world. Trump was elected on memes, and now NAFO is using that weapon brilliantly against the Russians.

For someone about to be out of a job come January after 12 years in Congress, Kinzinger sounds incredibly upbeat, even jaunty, on the phone. When I got back from Iraq and ran for Congress, I thought: If were going to ask 19-year-olds to die for my country, I have to be willing to give my career up for it.

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Kinzinger at the Capitol in 2010. (Bill Clark/Roll Call via Getty Images)

A year ago, Democrats eliminated his Republican-leaning district in Illinois, although his chances of winning if they hadnt were greatly diminished anyway. Hes been vocal in denouncing Trumps baseless claims of electoral fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Kinzinger voted to impeach Trump last year for incitement to insurrection, one of just 10 Republicans in the House to do so.

And his agreement to join that lawmaking bodys Jan. 6 committee investigating how a legion of Trump-supporting rioters violently raided the seat of American government  the only other Republican besides fellow lame duck Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., to do so  made him a heretic to members of his own party still in thrall to the former president. Trump has taunted him as Cryin Adam Kinzinger.

The congressman wont answer any questions about forthcoming findings from the Jan. 6 committee, including about the review of thousands of exhibits from Secret Service agents, many of whom used their personal cellphones to communicate on the day of the insurrection.

Theres this expectation that were going to announce charges against Trump, he said. Thats not our job. This committee  weve proven our case, done our job. Now the torch is handed to the [Department of Justice].

What hopes does Kinzinger have for the GOP, which is widely expected to retake the House of Representatives in the November midterms? Not very high ones, with or without its scandal-ridden and twice-impeached standard bearer.

Former President Donald Trump rallying the GOP base in Youngstown, Ohio, Sept. 17. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

Trump can go away and it wont matter much, Kinzinger said. Others have learned from him. ... Either the Republican Party dies or it comes back to some modicum of normalcy. If the latter happens, itll take 10 years. Either an angry generation passes away or a charismatic leader that can pull people into a different vision emerges. Trump was charismatic, much as I hate to admit it.

Asked if not having to answer to a constituency has made his tongue a bit looser, Kinzinger admits it has. Prior to making the mental decision I wasnt running again, I filtered stuff, he said. If something pissed me off, Id ask if I needed to say so. You have to pick your battles in politics. But the night of the election, when Trump said it was stolen or going to be stolen  that was a defining moment. That is the kind of thing that can mark the complete downfall of a civilization, the trust in democracy thats torn out.

One of the reasons for Kinzingers optimism is the unexpected survival of a democracy under existential threat on another continent.

A member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, hes been pleasantly surprised at Western resolve on continuing military support for Ukraine even in the face of Vladimir Putins latest mobilization order (far from partial, as the Russian president characterized it) and continued nuclear blackmail. Ukraines unannounced but remarkable counteroffensive in Kharkiv, in the northeast, in which it has so far recaptured more than 1,428 square miles of terrain in weeks, has been a shot in the arm, particularly for Europe.

Before the counteroffensive, people were fatigued, Kinzinger said. There was talk of a frozen conflict. The counteroffensive woke people up again.

Kinzinger isnt just struck by how well the Ukrainians have fought but by how badly the Russians have, despite being heralded as the second-best army in Europe. We saw how they used Javelins and Stingers early on, and the most mind-boggling thing is that the Russians never gained air superiority. In some places, the Ukrainians have it.

A Russian soldier is taken prisoner after the Ukrainian city of Izyum was recaptured from Russian forces on Sept. 11. (Laurent Van der Stockt for Le Monde/Getty Images)

One result of the war, he said, is that its a windfall for U.S. and NATO intelligence about Russias true capabilities and will dramatically alter, if not upend, some of the core strategic assumptions of the past several decades. A few years ago the congressman traveled to Latvia, a NATO member state, where military officials briefed him on the likely outcome of a Russian invasion there, one that would automatically trigger Article 5, the organization's collective security guarantee.

The Russians will take down all our comms, I was told. The Latvians were practicing signaling to each other with flags like old cavalry officers. They were going to be mere speed bumps before Russian tanks rolled deeper into Europe. Yet wheres all this electronic warfare genius the Russians were meant to have? Their drone capability? It just didnt show up in Ukraine. I dont know if we were able to counter that in the last five years or they just never had it to begin with. The T-80 tank the Ukrainians captured  it looks like an old tank with a new shell on it.

Russias Potemkin army, the result of effective external propaganda as much as internal corruption and mismanagement, is one reason Kinzinger believes the United States and its allies can afford to bolster security assistance to Kyiv. The escalation argument: Im over it. Its like a husband saying, If you leave me, Ill hit you harder and so you cant go. We should stop self-deterring like this because all the evidence points to the Russians not being able to do much about anything. HIMARS arent even our best shit, and theyre helpless to counter them.

The latest putative Kremlin red line is on long-range artillery known as the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), with 500-pound warheads that can be fired from HIMARS and travel as far as 190 miles. Thus far the White House has (at least publicly) ruled out sending such missiles to Ukraine for fear theyd be used to strike inside Russian territory, a fear Kinzinger believes is misplaced: First of all, its disrespectful to the Ukrainians, whove been incredibly disciplined and faithful in not using U.S. weapons to strike Russia. Second, its not like theyre going to invade Moscow.

Lt. Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces. (Yuliia Ovsiannikova / Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Theres been some speculation as to how the Ukrainians managed to strike the Saki air base, in occupied Crimea, last month, destroying more than half of Russias Black Sea Fleet naval aviation group in the course of an hour. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander in chief of Ukraines armed forces, recently claimed in print that the attack was a series of successful missile strikes, leading to further speculation that perhaps Ukraine already has or had a limited stockpile of ATACMS, which could have been provided either covertly by the U.S. or inconspicuously by another country.

Kinzinger wouldnt comment on the Saki operation, but he did venture to say that if we send ATACMS, theres a benefit in doing it a little off the record; a certain number with preapproved targets. The Ukrainians can do a good job with a small supply of them. There are strategic supply lines 200 miles from the frontline they can easily hit. So I wish the administration wouldnt counter-message on this question.

One weapon system the U.S. did provide to Ukraine, in June with no publicity or fanfare, was the HARM anti-radiation missile, which Ukrainian technicians have managed to jury-rig so as to be fireable from their native MiG-29s and Su-27s. The HARM, according to Kinzinger, turned the tide of the war in Ukraines favor, tracking and destroying Russian radars unimpeded.

Kinzinger is also a proponent of training Ukrainian air force pilots on F-16s immediately. Ive met with some of their MiG pilots and our F-16 pilots," he said. "Itll take three months to get the Ukrainians cross-trained to a competent degree. Then maybe Egypt can give Ukraine the airframes and well backfill their inventory.

Even if the war ends tomorrow, Kinzinger said, Ukraine will need a Western fleet of fighter jets to fend off another Russian attack, which he believes is inevitable  assuming Putin survives his calamitous invasion.

Theres no doubt in five or 10 years hell try again.
Richard Nixon and his wife Pat were exposed to radiation during his visit to the Soviet Union in July 1959 during the Cold War, according to newly declassified documents.

Nixon was exposed to potentially harmful ionising radiation while staying at the US ambassadors residence in Moscow during the first days of his trip, said secret service documents obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

He was vice president at the time.

The threat was not made known to the vice president following a decision taken by then US envoy to Moscow, Llewellyn Thompson, and a senior member of Nixons entourage, Vice Admiral Hyman Rickover.

The state department was informed of the incident 17 years later in 1976, when a member of Nixons secret service team, James Golden, revealed detection equipment known as Radiac Dosimeters, had measured significant levels of radiation in and around the vice presidents sleeping quarters at Spaso House.

Golden claimed he was later informed that he had been exposed to massive dosages of ionising radiation emanating from an atomic battery used by the Soviet intelligence to power bugging devices such as radio transmitters.

Analyst William Burr, who made the request to the Nixon Presidential Library to obtain the records, said: This unusual and virtually unknown Cold War episode deserves more attention so the mysteries surrounding it can be resolved.

The Spaso House was reportedly the location of a previous Soviet eavesdropping operation.

American technicians in 1952 discovered a small, sophisticated listening device hidden in a wooden carving of the Great Seal of the US, which was a gift from Soviet girl scouts to the wartime and post-Second World War US ambassador Averell Harriman in 1946.

The device remained a secret for six years because its power source was generated by radio frequency waves beamed at Spaso House from a van parked across the street.

Prior to his visit to Soviet Moscow, Nixon was asked by a member of his secret service if he wanted radiation detection devices taken on the trip. The vice president agreed to more discreet dosimeters, while refusing to wear one himself to keep the discussion a secret.

Story continues

On 23 July 1959, dosimeters brought to detect the radiation levels provided readings of up to 15 roentgen per hour during an inspection of Nixons quarters.

While the levels were far from lethal exposure, the permissible standard for occupational exposure in the US was 5 roentgen per year.

Assuming the rooms were bugged after the discovery of radiation levels, secret service agents, the next morning, started berating the Russians in loud voices and cursing them for pulling a trick like this.

We sat down on the beds facing each other and began berating the Russians in loud voices cursing them for pulling a trick like this and wondering in loud voices why they were taking us for fools and asking each other if they thought they were going to get away with doing this, Golden said.

The radiation stopped by the afternoon.
Along about 1898, however, F. D. Power, a minister at the Vermont Avenue Christian Church in Washington D.C., James D. Meehan wrote in "Bethany Beach Memoirsa long look back," told a convention of his sect (also known as the Disciples of Christ) about his idea to create a Christian meeting ground on the Atlantic shore  where they could spend summers and Christian fellowship.

"A special committee later suggested the Delmarva Peninsula and eventually selected the area now known as Bethany Beach.

By 1900, Bethany Beach had been divided into 40 by 125 foot lots, offered for sale at prices that ranged from $75 to $200. Lots could be purchased for as little as $10 down with payments of only $1 a week.

In addition to the residential lots, the Christian Church reserved a large area near the center of town to serve as the Assembly Grounds, where they erected an idiosyncratic auditorium known as, The Tabernacle.

Traffic along Route 1 in Rehoboth Beach. The highway now connects Rehoboth to Bethany Beach.

Milford Chronicle reported on May 29, 1903, The new auditorium, which is being erected by the Bethany Beach Company, is rapidly nearing completion and will add very much to the appearance of the beach.

Bethany seemed to have it all: a great beach, the Atlantic surf, inexpensive lots, and a distinctive building The tall, octagon-shaped auditorium was designed with sides that could be opened to allow the sea breeze to cool the audience.

The brown-shingled Tabernacle was used for religious services, slide presentations, political meetings and musical concerts. In addition, the building was used to show some of the first motion pictures at the beach.

The only thing that Bethany lacked was good, hard-surface roads. The roads in and about the budding resort were unpaved, and vehicles were often stuck in the sandy soil. That, however, did not deter Louis Drexler, a native of Pittsburgh, a Delaware state senator, and an early leader of Bethany Beach.

Drexler was also a car enthusiast at a time that automobiles were still called, horseless carriages; and if a car broke down, the driver was subjected to mocking cries of, Get a horse! On June 10, 1904, the Milford Chronicle reported, Mr. Drexler, of Pittsburgh, has shipped his automobile to Ocean View, and will arrive with wife and boys in the near future.

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An entrance to the beach along the boardwalk at Bethany Beach on June 15, 2022.

Despite the conditions of Delaware roads, Drexler dreamt of a time when cars would move freely along coastal roads. After he shipped his car to Bethany Beach, it did not take long before more horseless carriages joined Drexler, bumping their way along the primitive roads of coastal Delaware.

In the next 10 years, the popularity of driving your own vehicle increased as cars were improved, and many roads, particularly between cities and towns were paved. Coastal roads, however, remained in poor shape.

In 1913, when State Senator Drexler attended the organizational meeting of the Sussex County Automobile Association in Rehoboth, there was no road across the dunes from Bethany Beach to the older resort south of Cape Henlopen. Drexler could take a circuitous route inland to Dagsboro and around the western shore of Rehoboth Bay, or he could take the boat from the Loop Canal to Rehoboth.

He chose to take the boat that day; but Drexler continued to dream for better roads in southern Delaware.

Two decades later, in November 1933, a modern, hard-surfaced road was finally opened linking Bethany Beach and Rehoboth. The Delaware Coast News commented: About thirteen miles of Senator Drexlers dream has come true.

Michael Morgan

Principal sources

James D. Meehan, "Bethany Beach Memoirsa long look back," Bethany Beach: Harold E. Dukes Jr., 1998, pp. 17.

F. D. Power, Bethany Beach as Seen from the Dome, The Christian Worker, Sept. 29, 1905, p. 4.

Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 24, 1903, Newspaper Abstracts, http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/link.php?action=detail&id=53982

Delaware Coast News, Aug. 2, 1935.

Milford Chronicle, May 29, 1903; June 10, 1904.

This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: A road from Bethany to Rehoboth: A senator's dream finally comes true
Rob Schneider surprised his fans by working the drive through window at a Raising Canes in Arizona in an effort to promote his new movie "Daddy Daughter Trip."

In addition to handing out chicken to customers, Schneider also passed out free tickets to the world premiere of his film, which is set to take place Tuesday in Scottsdale. One of those lucky fans who go to the screening will win free Raising Canes chicken for an entire year.

The actor chose to surprise his fans in Arizona because the state holds a special place in his heart and plays a huge role in the movie, as it was filmed there.

"Our company, Mandalini Films, is now based in Scottsdale, and we are very proud to have made our film Daddy Daughter Trip entirely here in Arizona," Schneider said in a statement. "Its truly a postcard for the states picturesque cinematic locations. We are grateful to the people of Arizona for their support and generosity of spirit in what we hope is the first of many family-friendly films we want to make right here in our new home."

Rob Schneider handed out chicken and surprised his fans while working at Raising Cane's to promote his latest film, "Daddy Daughter Trip." Leon Bennett

ROB SCHNEIDER SAYS 'SNL' WAS 'OVER' AFTER KATE MCKINNON'S PERFORMANCE OF 'HALLELUJAH' AS HILLARY CLINTON

Schneider and his family have also lived in Arizona for a few years and have fallen in love with the state.

"My wife Patricia and I chose to make the great state of Arizona our home to raise our family not just for its incredible natural majesty and beauty but also for all that it has to offer," he said in the release.

Written, directed and produced by Schneider, "Daddy Daughter Trip" follows the story of a little girl who wants to go on a vacation the family cant afford, but decide to take her on anyway. Another reason the movie is so special to him is because it stars his daughter Miranda Scarlett Schneider in her first acting role.

Schneider's newest movie follows a little girl and her dad as they embark on a vacation together for spring break. Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

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The real-life father and daughter play the daddy-daughter duo in the film who take an eventful trip to Arizona for spring break. Just like in every adventure/comedy, the vacation doesn't go as planned, but the duo have a great time just being together.

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Aside from showcasing a positive father-daughter relationship, the movie also acts as a sort of love letter to Arizona, featuring many of the states geographical landmarks, as well as some of its most iconic businesses.

"Daddy Daughter Trip" takes place in Arizona and features many of the state's iconic businesses. FilmMagic.com/FilmMagic

"Daddy Daughter Trip" features the Bashas' grocery chain, Changing Hands Bookstore, Agritopia, the Arizona Boardwalk, Butterfly Wonderland, Bearizona Wildlife Park, Flagstaff Extreme Adventure Park and Saguaro Lake Guest Ranch, as well as many other businesses in the state.
A 3D printer, pistol receivers and switchblade knives seized during a probation search at a Ventura residence.

Here's a roundup of recent incidents and announcements from Ventura County agencies:

Probationer accused of 3D printing gun parts

VENTURA  A 31-year-old Ventura man was charged with multiple felony firearm violations after he was suspected of manufacturing gun parts at his home using a 3D printer, according to the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies first made contact with the man at 5:45 p.m. Sept. 15 in the 1200 block of North Ventura Avenue.

The man was pulled over during a traffic stop and detained under the conditions of his probation. A probation search was later conducted at his home in the 300 block of Barry Street.

The search yielded four pistol receivers which appeared to have been created by using a 3D printer at the residence. Officers also found a pistol magazine, switchblade knives and a rifle magazine.

The suspect is prohibited from owning or possessing firearms and their parts under terms of his probation, according to authorities. He was arrested and booked into county jail on suspicion of firearms violations.

On Monday, the Ventura County District Attorney's Office filed four charges of felony possession of a firearm by a prohibited person due to probation term conditions. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and has since been released on his own recognizance, according to online court records.

Vigil set for brothers killed in 2020 crash

Mark and Jacob Iskander

WESTLAKE VILLAGE  The public is invited to attend a community vigil marking the two-year anniversary of a crash that killed a pair of brothers in Westlake Village.

Mark Iskander, 11 and Jacob Iskander, 8, died after they were hit by the driver of a Mercedes SUV while they were crossing Triunfo Canyon Road at Saddle Mountain Drive in 2020.

A vigil in their memory will be held from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sept. 29 at Three Springs Park, 3000 Three Springs Drive. The park is in the neighborhood where the brothers grew up and is of personal significance to the family, organizers said.

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Those wishing to attend are encouraged to RSVP at markandjacobvigil.com. Attendees are encouraged to wear white or light colors. Visitors must bring their own chairs and water to the park. No candles are permitted during the vigil.

Additionally, a charity named in the boys' honor will be collecting donations to support underserved children. All donations to the charity will be matched through the end of the month. More information is available at markandjacobfoundation.org.

Juvenile charged in Oxnard teen murder

Flowers and candles rest at a bus stop where a 14-year-old Oxnard boy was shot and killed on Sept. 12 in the 1300 block of South C Street.

VENTURA COUNTY  The Ventura County District Attorney's Office filed a petition in juvenile court on Thursday charging a 15-year-old Oxnard teenager with the murder of a 14-year-old victim last week. Prosecutors also released new details about the case.

The homicide occurred shortly before 8 p.m. on Sept. 12 in the 1300 block of South C Street.

The victim, identified by Oxnard police as Leonardo Gonzalez Jimenez, 14, of Oxnard, was confronted by the male suspect earlier in the evening near Durley Park, according to the DA's office. Jimenez walked away from the confrontation and went to a bus stop on C Street where he waited for a family member to pick him up.

While Jimenez was standing on the sidewalk near the bus stop, the suspect allegedly rode by in a vehicle and shot the victim multiple times. Jimenez was pronounced dead that night. Oxnard police arrested the suspect on Sept. 18.

The DA's filing also alleges personal use of a firearm by the 15-year-old.

The juvenile will be arraigned on the murder charge at the Juvenile Justice Courthouse at 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 3 in courtroom J4. He remains in custody at the Juvenile Justice Facility.

Ramp, lane closures set for Seacliff

The Seacliff entrance to southbound Highway 101 in June. Ongoing construction work will close the southbound on- and off-ramps at Seacliff from Friday night to Monday morning over the weekend of Sept. 23, 2022, impacting access for southbound motorists to beach areas along old Pacific Coast Highway.

VENTURA COUNTY  Construction crews will close the on- and off-ramps at the Seacliff interchange on southbound Highway 101 this weekend, as well as narrow a 4-mile stretch overnight, according to the California Department of Transportation.

The southbound ramp closures will be in place continuously from 7 p.m. Friday until 6 a.m. Monday, impacting access to beaches along Pacific Coast Highway south of Mussel Shoals over the weekend.

Drivers headed to state beaches from southbound Highway 101 can exit at Main Street in Ventura, take a U-turn onto northbound 101 and exit at the State Beaches off-ramp. Southbound drivers headed to La Conchita can also make the U-turn at Main Street and head north on the 101.

In addition to the ramp closures, the right lane of southbound Highway 101 will be closed every night between Mussel Shoals and Faria Beach. A bypass lane for the southbound side and both northbound lanes will remain open during the overnight closures.

The lane closures will be in place from 10 p.m. Friday until 9 a.m. Saturday, 9 p.m. Saturday until 9 a.m. Sunday and 10 p.m. Sunday until 6 a.m. Monday.

The ramp and lane closures are expected to repeat during the weekend of Sept. 30 and will likely be scheduled on additional weekends. All work is subject to change based on weather or construction-related issues.

Mail theft suspects caught in Simi

SIMI VALLEY  The Simi Valley Police Department arrested two suspects after they were reportedly caught snooping through mailboxes early Thursday.

The suspects were apprehended at 3:52 a.m. in the 3700 block of Red Hawk Court.

A bystander told police two men had been walking down the street and looking inside mailboxes before leaving in a vehicle parked nearby. Officers responded and pulled over a vehicle that matched the provided description.

Two men from the San Fernando Valley area, a 42-year-old from Reseda and a 28-year-old from Panorama City, were found in the vehicle along with stolen mail, burglary tools and drug paraphernalia, according to police. Both were arrested and booked into county jail.

Jeremy Childs is a breaking news and general assignment reporter for the Ventura County Star. He can be reached at 805-437-0208, jeremy.childs@vcstar.com, and on Twitter @Jeremy_Childs.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Roundup: 3D-printed gun parts spur arrest, vigil for Iskanders, more
Consequences of enemy shelling of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast

Read also: Dnipro and Nikopol under Russian attacks

According to Reznichenko, the barrage included around 30 rounds, and killed two people in Marhanets, leaving nine more injured. First responders rescued three people from beneath the rubble.

Read also: Russians use Iranian combat drone in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast

At least 18 residential buildings were damaged across the two cities, while infrastructure damage left 2,200 households without power.

Read also: Russian troops exploit Zaporizhzhia NPPs status to shell Nikopol, says ISW

Emergency services are working on site, and further damage reports are still coming in.

Help NV continue reporting on the Russian invasion



Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
A giant pro-military mural in Moscow on September 22, 2022. Getty Images

Putin announced that some Russians would be forced to fight in the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The new decree is supposed to only only affect those with prior military training.

Reports suggest this is being ignored in a scramble to reinforce the Russian war effort.

Russia is drafting up obviously unsuitable candidates in a scramble to bulk up its army in Ukraine, according to multiple reports.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial military mobilization on Wednesday, pledging to call up 300,000 people, but only from Russia's existing pool of military reservists.

Conscripts and students would not be drafted and the new decree would affect only those with previous combat experience, Russian officials added.

However, evidence is emerging that these standards are being ignored in practice.

A 26-year-old PhD student and lecturer at a prominent Russian university told the BBC this week that two men turned up at his house to draft him, despite his student status.

The student, identified only as Sergei, told the BBC he was confused by the call-up because he has no military experience.

A 63-year-old man from the Volgograd region was also drafted as part of the mobilization, the independent Russian news site The Insider reported. (The outlet has no relation to Insider.)

The man, identified only as Yermolaev, has second-degree diabetes and a brain condition known as cerebral ischemia, The Insider reported. Yermolaev had previously served in the army is retired.

On Thursday, he was still summoned to a medical examination center where he was told by doctors that he was "fit to go to the front," The Insider reported.

Insider was unable to independently verify the accounts.

"People say a lot of men are being taken away, regardless of the criteria"

While Russian officials have promised that only those with military experience would be called up, a clause in Putin's mobilization decree means that it is possible to ignore that norm at any time, experts said.

Story continues

One man from Buryatia, a mountainous region in eastern Siberia, told The Insider that recruitment officers are "combing through the villages."

"People say a lot of men are being taken away, regardless of the criteria. There are 400 people in our village, and they took 20 men," the man, who was not named, told The Insider.

A video shared on social media showed one such recruitment drive in an unnamed location in Russia. In it, a recruiting officer yells at a room full of men that they now belong to the military, and will be sent to fight after only two weeks of training.

A BBC reporter tweeted on Friday that a 17-year-old boy was conscripted after being arrested at an anti-war protest in Moscow, and shared a document saying so. The minimum age to be drafted into the Russian army is 18 .

Russia's conscription obliges men aged 18 to 27 to serve one year in the military.

"President Putin's call to partially mobilize Russian citizens, directing them to fight in Ukraine, reflects the Kremlin's struggles on the battlefield, the unpopularity of the war, and Russians' unwillingness to fight in it," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

"President Putin is not operating from a position of strength; rather, this is another sign of his failing mission."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Photo credit: Kalibr cruise missile. - Getty Images

An examination of Russian weapons has revealed many rely on aging electronics now considered obsolete.

Other electronics parts were sourced from countries that have slapped export sanctions on Moscow.

Russia will have difficulty rebuilding its war machine, no matter how the Ukraine war ends.

Some of Russias most high-tech equipment relies on obsolete electronics and parts it can no longer source from the rest of the world. The countrys inability to produce enough semiconductors, essential for the production of modern weapon systems, means it must use older microchipsincluding commercial chips imported from the rest of the world. This shortage will have serious implications for the future of the Russian military, and for Russian arms exports abroad.

 Dont miss any of our best-in-class military and defense news. Join our squad with Pop Mech Pro.

The New York Times reports that experts at Conflict Armament Research (CAR) examined parts from several downed Russian weapon systems. (CAR identifies and tracks conventional weapons and ammunition in contemporary armed conflicts, according to the organizations website.) The parts were recovered from the 3M14 Kalibr ship-launched land-attack cruise missile, 9M544 300-millimeter guided rockets from the Tornado rocket launcher system , Kh-59 Ovod air-to-ground missiles, and Kh-101 aircraft-launched land-attack cruise missiles.

Photo credit: Future Publishing - Getty Images

Together, the four weapons cover a broad array of launch systems and a considerable amount of Russias land-attack weapons. All four used the same electronic components, marked SN-99, that were revealed to be satellite navigation receivers.

Even more surprisingly, the SN-99 components were not manufactured in Russia and instead were sourced overseas. Having documented the printed circuit boards inside the satellite navigation signal receiver blocks of these four missiles, CAR explained, they were all made of the same non-Russian components, manufactured between 2012 and 2020. CAR did not explain exactly which country the circuit boards came from.

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Photo credit: DIMITAR DILKOFF - Getty Images

CAR explains on its website that it has identified a total of 144 non-Russian manufacturers of more than 650 unique component models in Russian material used in the war on Ukraine. In addition to the four types of air-to-ground munitions, foreign electronics were found in the Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopter, drones including the Orlan-10, military radios, and electronic warfare equipment.

Russias high-tech manufacturing sector is relatively underdeveloped compared to other major countries, meaning Moscow must import semiconductors and other electronics. Importing chips is not an unheard of tactic, but it does leave defense contractors at the mercy of international sanctions designed to starve Russia of advanced military technology.

A CAR researcher explained the organization intended to ask the manufacturers how the chips ended up in Russia, whether through legitimate purchase or a shell company or similar cut-out. Countries under sanctions often set up dummy companies to buy military or dual-use military-civilian equipment abroad.

Photo credit: SERGEY BOBOK - Getty Images

Will international sanctions cripple Russias ability to manufacture new weapons? Historically, Russia has had a great deal of success in getting its hands on sanctioned equipment. In the 1980s, Soviet submarines inexplicably became much quieter and capable of evading detection. Western intelligence tracked this breakthrough to the sale of CNC machines , then advanced manufacturing technology, by Japans Toshiba and Norways Kongsberg to front companies operated by the KGB. These CNC machines were used to make advanced submarine propellers that reduced the noise a submarine made underway.

Russia has incurred a tsunami of second-order effects stemming from its invasion of Ukraine, including broad international sanctions. It has also used a tremendous amount of rockets and missiles, all requiring technology it cant build itself. If it cant get them, Russia could find itself unable to defend itself, let alone conquer Ukraine.

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War crime prosecutor of Kharkiv Oblast stands with forensic technician and policeman at the site of a mass burial in a forest during exhumation on September 16, 2022 in Izium, Ukraine. Photo by Yevhenii Zavhorodnii/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

A team of investigators commissioned by the UN has concluded that Russia committed war crimes in Ukraine.

Among the crimes are torture and rape of children, some as young as four years old, the chair of a UN inquiry said.

It also found evidence of executions, indiscriminate rocket attacks, and forced deportation.

Russian soldiers have committed a long list of nightmarish war crimes in Ukraine, including torturing and raping children, some as young as four years old, a United Nations investigation found.

Erik Mse, who led an independent UN mission tasked with investigating human rights violations and crimes against humanity in Ukraine, presented a series of findings to the organization's Human Rights Council on Friday.

Gathering evidence from dozens of towns across Ukraine, interviewing victims, witnesses and authorities, and inspecting mass graves and sites of torture, Mse concluded that "war crimes have been committed in Ukraine."

Mse said the commission determined that Russian soldiers engaged in sexual and gender-based violence, including various other terrible human rights violations such as torture, sexual violence, and "cruel and inhuman treatment."

"There are examples of cases where relatives were forced to witness the crimes," Mse said. "In the cases we have investigated, the age of victims of sexual and gendered-based violence ranged from four to 82 years."

He added that the commission "has documented cases in which children have been raped, tortured, and unlawfully confined. Children have also been killed and injured in indiscriminate attacks with explosive weapons."

"The exposure to repeated explosions, crimes, forced displacement and separation from family members deeply affected their well-being and mental health," Mse said.

Ukrainian authorities exhume bodies of people killed as a result of war at the Izium city after Russian Forces withdrawal in, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine on September 16, 2022 Photo by Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Mse said the UN team uncovered a slew of other war crimes, such as the use of explosive weapons that have wide area impacts in densely populated areas. He added that many attacks were carried out "without distinguishing" between Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.

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Additionally, the investigators found evidence of the usage of cluster munitions, multi-launch rocket systems, and airstrikes in crowded areas, as well as a "large number" of civilian executions. Victims of these crimes, Mse said, often had "common elements" and signs of prior detention and execution, like "hands tied behind backs, gunshot wounds to the head, and slit throats."

Witnesses also reported torture, illegal confinement, and kidnappings by Russian troops. Some victims said that after they were initially detained, they were sent to prisons inside of Russia, which aligns with Russia's well-documented and notorious "filtration system"  a sprawling network of interrogation, detention, and processing centers.

"Interlocutors described beatings, electric shocks, and forced nudity, as well as other types of violations in such detention facilities," Mse said. "After being reportedly transferred into detention in the Russian Federation, some victims have disappeared."

An explosion is seen in an apartment building after Russian's army tank fires in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, March 11, 2022. AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File

Evidence of Russian war crimes is not a new aspect of the seven-month-long war in Ukraine. Local authorities, civilians, and journalists have documented scenes of torture, mass killings, and indiscriminate attacks on civilians. International agencies and organizations have said since early March, just days after the Russia launched its invasion, that they would probe war crimes and other human rights violations.

As recently as last week, officials discovered a mass burial site near the newly liberated city of Izium, where some bodies were found with clear evidence of torture. Ukraine's ambassador to the US said it represented "war crimes of massive proportions."

Friday's UN conclusion comes amid a particularly turbulent week in the devastating war. Pro-Moscow separatists in four occupied regions in southern and eastern Ukraine have launched referendums on jointing Russia  a move that the West and Ukraine have labeled a sham and illegitimate. And Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial military mobilization of the country's reservists and new stop-loss policies, all while threatening to use nuclear weapons.

Ukrainian forces, meanwhile, have reclaimed thousands of square miles of territory that was previously under Russian occupation through successful counteroffensives along the brutal war's northeastern and southern fronts.

Read the original article on Business Insider
STANISLAV POHORILOV  FRIDAY, 23 SEPTEMBER 2022, 08:38

Valentyn Reznichenko, Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration, has said that Russian forces opened fire on the cities of Nikopol and Marhanets on the morning of 23 September, killing at least two civilians.

Source: Reznichenko on Telegram

Quote from Reznichenko: "A tragic beginning to the day, with [Russian] attacks and fatalities. The Russians have once again opened fire on the Nikopol district."

Details: Reznichenko reported that Russian forces used Grad multiple-rocket launchers to fire nearly 30 rockets on Nikopol and Marhanets.

Two civilians, a man and a woman, were killed. Early reports indicate that another nine civilians sustained injuries; rescue workers rescued three of them from the rubble.

One house caught fire, which has been extinguished by firefighters. A total of eight houses were damaged, and one was completely destroyed.

Around 2,200 households have been left without power. Emergency teams of electrical engineers are already repairing the damaged power lines.

Preliminary reports indicate that 10 homes have been damaged in Nikopol.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!






The Tigr vehicle (illustrative photo)

The governor noted the vehicle is not in best shape  its operators reportedly had to make repairs with a cooking pot lid.

Thats no matter, well fix it up and send it into battle, said Kim.

Read also: Mykolayiv governor rules out possible Russian offensive on city

The Tigr vehicle was sold for $5,000, and the governor also said how much the Russians can expect get for other kinds of military kit:

Tanks  $50,000;

Armored personnel carriers  $25,000;

Rocket artillery systems  $15,000;

Howitzers  $10,000.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Ryan Grantham on "Riverdale." The CW

"Riverdale" actor Ryan Grantham was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his mother.

The Canadian actor shot his mom with a rifle while she played the piano in 2020.

"Riverdale" star Lili Reinhart tweeted "We do not claim him" in response to a report on the news.

Ryan Grantham, an actor who appeared on "Riverdale and in the 2010 movie "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to the second-degree murder of his mother Barbara Waite at their home in Squamish, British Columbia, in March of 2020, CBC reported on Tuesday.

The Canadian actor, who was 21 at the time of the crime, confessed to shooting Waite in the back of her head with a .22 rifle while she played the piano. Shortly afterward, he took a GoPro video (shown in court) confessing to the murder and showing his mother's body. The next day, he covered her body with a sheet and surrounded it with lit candles, according to CBC, and also hung a rosary from the piano.

The court heard that Grantham then got into a car with guns, ammunition, and Molotov cocktails. He was headed to Ottawa with the intention of killing Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, CBC reported.

Instead, the actor turned around and headed toward Hope, British Columbia, with "thoughts" of committing mass murder at Simon Fraser University, where he was a student at the time, or Lions Gate Bridge, according to CBC.

Grantham didn't act on those thoughts and turned himself into the Vancouver Police Department in East Vancouver later that night.

Justice Kathleen Ker said while reading her sentencing decision that it was a "saving grace" that Grantham decided not to commit a mass shooting. He was charged with second-degree murder, which carries an automatic life sentence in Canada, and will be eligible for parole in 14 years.

He was reportedly having mental health issues and was "consumed" by suicidal and homicidal thoughts around the time of the murder. He was also watching violent videos on the dark web, according to the CBC.

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Ker said there were mitigating circumstances involved in her sentencing decision, including the fact that Grantham appeared to be genuinely remorseful about killing his mother when he apologized for his actions in June. Ker also said he's receiving psychiatric help in prison and the CBC reported that he's receiving "positive reviews" on his progress.

In response to a Variety article reporting on the sentencing on Friday  in which the outlet referred to Grantham as a "Riverdale actor," "Riverdale" star Lili Reinhart tweeted to the outlet: "We do not claim him, thank you."

Reinhart tweeted on September 24. Twitter

Grantham only appeared in one episode of "Riverdale" as Jeffrey Augustine, a character who accidentally kills Fred Andrews (main character Archie's father and played by the late Luke Perry) in a hit-and-run after stealing his father's truck. The episode premiered in 2019.

Read the original article on Insider
Associated Press

Residents in central Florida donned fishing waders, boots and bug spray and canoed or kayaked to their homes on streets where floodwaters continued rising Sunday despite it being four days since Hurricane Ian tore through the state. Ben Bertat found 4 inches (10 centimeters) of water in his house by Lake Harney off North Jungle Street in a rural part of Seminole County, north of Orlando, after kayaking to it Sunday morning. Only a day earlier, there had been no water.
Debbie Aguilar founded A Time of Grieving and Healing. This photograph was taken on Dec. 04, 2019.

Parents who mourn their children killed, and victims of gun, gang and domestic violence.

These are the people who represent a city-wide effort to put an end to the violence. On Oct. 1, Salinas leaders are partnering with local organizations to host a March for Peace.

Monterey County residents are invited to join the march from Foods Co parking lot on East Alisal Street to Closter Park.

The park has been a hot spot for violence and gang activity, according to residents.

In February, a case of mistaken identity led to the shooting deaths of Jesus Arias Villa, 22, and Karina Chavez Vargas, 23. The young couple was sitting in a car across the street from the park when gunshots were fired.

The park is also where a former community activist, Debbie Aguilar, held rallies and prayer vigils for mothers whose children were killed by gun violence. Her son was also a victim of gun violence.

Debbie Aguilar founder of A Time of Grieving and Healing is photographed in front of city hall on on Dec. 04, 2019.

Aguilar has since died, but Jose Arreola, Salinas Community Safety Administrator, says he holds her memory close to his heart.

"We chose Closter park for a few reasons and one of them is for Debbie," Arreola said. "There's a tree out there called the Tree of Life by the playground. It's there to memorialize those who lost their lives to violence and she would always host a vigil there every holiday season."

The Tree of Life memorializes victims of community violence at Closter Park in Salinas, Calif.

Organizers say they expect at least a few hundred people to be in attendance and encourage more people to join.

"There's a great response from our youth community and a lot of high school students are going to be a part of it," Arreola said. "There's a lot of people that suffer alone in silence and this allows them to gather and call for peace and call for change."

Officials say the march was prompted by the community's long-standing concerns of ongoing gun violence.

Following the recent death of a teenager who was shot and killed in South Salinas on Sept. 15, Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo expressed concerns of that violence is affecting local youth.

Story continues

"The March for Peace in Salinas is an important way for our community to heal, to never forget those we have lost to violence, and to call for peace in our neighborhoods," Alejo said. "With the recent homicides in our city, we can't just stand by. We must do everything possible to save lives, and call for an end to violence in our community."

Officials say they were also inspired by a similar march that's been held in Watsonville for nearly three decades.

Organizers hope to make the march an annual event. The March for Peace will begin at 2 p.m.

Upcoming March for Peace will begin at the Foods Co parking lot on Alisal Street in Salinas, Calif.

This article originally appeared on Salinas Californian: Salinas holds March for Peace, calling for an end to community violence
Sam Asghari has shared an impassioned message with his fans amid ongoing protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini.

The Iranian-American actors post comes as demonstrations take place across the country, sparked by anger over the 22-year-olds death in custody after she was arrested by Irans so-called morality police for wearing an improper hjiab.

Asghari has now decided to speak out against the Iranian government in a video shared with his three-million followers on Friday (23 September).

He began the video by explaining what Iran was like before 1979, describing it as being run by a great leadership.

The Iranian people of this time had freedom, hope, Asghari said, and the country and its rich culture were respected by others.

But after 1979, the Islamic Republic regime took over and forced its ideology, propaganda and dictatorship on the people, Asghari, 28, continued. It slaughtered, murdered and stole from innocent people.

The country is now known for being the biggest sponsor of terrorism. Its now hated by every single country because of this horrible government. But they are the biggest terrorist for its own people.

In April 1979, the Iranian Revolution saw the Islamic republic come into power under Ayatollah Ruholiah Khomeini.

Iran underwent huge changes, including strict laws that imposed a dress code forcing all women in the country to wear a hijab, regardless of their religion or nationality.

Protests against the mandatory dress code have broken out in the past. However, the death of Amini last week caused mass protests to erupt in cities throughout the country and have also resulted in deadly clashes between demonstrators and police.

By Thursday (22 September), at least nine people have died since the violence began over the weekend, according to the Associated Press.

Rolling outages of Instagram and WhatsApp have also been reported by protesters, who use the platforms to share information about the Iranian governments crackdown on the unrest.

Story continues

Protests have also raged across the western Kurdish provinces from which Amini, an ethnic Kurd, hailed. Demonstrators chanted against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and ripped down Islamic Republic flags and insignia.

On TikTok, Iranian women have been shaving their heads and burning their headscarves in protest, while others have filmed themselves defying orders from men to put on their headscarves.

A picture obtained shows Iranian demonstrators taking to the streets of the capital Tehran (AFP via Getty Images)

In his video, Asghari continued: The biggest protest for basic human rights in Iran is happening as we speak. Weve seen videos of people getting murdered and slaughtered on the streets, innocent people.

He pointed to the 2019 protests, when nationwide civil protests in Iran triggered a similar internet shutdown by the government and led to hundreds of deaths.

[Were] asking how we can help the Iranian people as outsiders. People can help by simply sharing and becoming their voice, Asghari urged his followers.

Asghari, who is married to pop star Britney Spears, shared a TikTok video explaining the events in Iran alongside a post by The Women of Cyprus, a group that promotes womens rights.

He also shared a black screen with text that read: To all my non-Iranian friends. We stood by Ukraine, we stood by Afghanistan, we stood by Black Lives Matter, we reacted and stood up against all the cruelties in the world; its time for you to stand by us. Share whats happening in Iran. Be our voice.
(Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met on Friday with U.S. Senior Advisor for Energy Security Amos Hochstein and the White House National Security Council's Middle East policy coordinator Brett McGurk in Jeddah, the Saudi state news agency SPA reported.

"The bilateral relations between the two countries were discussed, and the active follow up from the Jeddah Summit, particularly in the fields of energy security and investment in the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, as well as the developments in the region including Yemen," SPA said.

(Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi; Writing by Enas Alashray; Editing by Chris Reese)
OSLO (Reuters) - A second man is now wanted on suspicion of involvement in a mass shooting that killed two people and wounded 21 in and around an Oslo gay bar in June, Norwegian police said on Friday.

"The hypothesis that it was an act of terrorism has now been strengthened," police lawyer Boerge Enoksen told a news conference.

He said the second suspect was a Norwegian citizen in his 40s previously known to police for criminal activity and who was currently abroad.

Only one suspect, named by police as Zaniar Matapour, was arrested at the scene of the June 25 shooting.

An international arrest warrant has now been issued for the second suspect, who was not publicly named.

(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche and Terje Solsvik; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Sep. 23Hoping to counter Republican attacks over his support for the Inflation Reduction Act, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden got its controversial author to tout both the measure and the Maine lawmaker who helped him pass it.

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, said the $433 billion bill he created and pushed, which President Joe Biden signed into law last week, will put the country on the path to long-term energy independence, advance efforts to cope with the climate crisis and reduce the cost of health care.

Manchin told Maine reporters on a Zoom call arranged by Golden, a two-term congressman from Lewiston, that everything in the new law had bipartisan support, except its new requirement that major corporations pay at least a 15% tax on their earnings. Some pay nothing now, he said.

"It's not a spending bill," Manchin said. "It's an investment bill."

Golden said he invited Manchin to speak about the measure because "back home, there's literally millions of dollars being spent" to spread misinformation about this bill by "super PACs and dark money groups."

"The people of Maine ought to know what the truth it," Golden said.

A few GOP-aligned groups have assailed Golden in a barrage of advertising for his support of Manchin's legislation, making dubious claims it "could make inflation worse, increase taxes on nearly everyone and add up to 87K new IRS agents who could harass the middle class," as one commercial from the Congressional Leadership Fund asserted.

They are angling to help a former congressman, Republican Bruce Poliquin of Orrington, reclaim Maine's 2nd District seat from Golden, who defeated him in 2018. Also in the running in the Nov. 8 election: independent Tiffany Bond of Portland.

Manchin, who blocked much of Biden's legislative agenda, said he favors politicians who will not cater to party leaders.

He called U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, "my dearest, dearest, dearest friend," and hailed Golden for following in her footsteps.

Story continues

Manchin told Mainers, "If you don't send people like Jared Golden back to Washington, we're really going to have a problem, because we need the balance" that moderates provide.

"That's what it's all about," Manchin said.

He said it amazes him that "Maine has such a heritage and such a history" of sending people to Washington from both parties "that are liked-minded and committed to Maine."

"They don't follow the party lines," Manchin said. "Susan is the first to break from the Republican Party. Jared's the first to break from the Democratic Party, when it's not good for Maine. And that is so refreshing."

Manchin said with support from lawmakers like Golden, the Inflation Reduction Act managed to pass both houses of Congress, and put in place "just outstanding energy policy" that will put the country on a path to long-term independence from foreign oil. Collins, though, voted against it, calling the measure "another reckless spending bill that will further fan the flames, adding to the pain that Mainers are experiencing right now."

Manchin said his push for the act was motivated in part by watching the Biden administration asking countries, such as Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Iran, to produce more oil.

"That enraged me," Manchin said.

The bill he produced in response opens more land to drilling, clears up a confused permitting system and takes many steps to encourage both conservation and new energy sources, including help for the biomass industry, from which Maine can benefit, he said.

The bill also caps the price of insulin, limits individual Medicare prescription costs to $2,000 annually and allows the federal government to negotiate prescription drug prices for the first time. The end result, Manchin and Golden said, is health care costs should go down.

Within the new law, Manchin said, there are "opportunities galore" for investors to pursue clean energy projects that will help the climate and the country's supply of energy.

Poliquin's campaign spokesman took issue with Manchin's support for the bill and Golden.

"Manchin's comments about breaking with the party are laughable, when both he and Golden together gave Joe Biden the deciding votes to increase inflation-driving spending on the eve of a recession and add more than 85,000 IRS workers to go after Americans," Roy Mathews, a Poliquin aide, said.

Manchin said the idea of bolstering the Internal Revenue Service came initially from "my Republican senators" working on the infrastructure bill pushed through during Biden's first year in office. He said GOP lawmakers told him the IRS needed to modernize. Everyone agreed, he said, but in the end, the provision could not stay in the infrastructure bill because of Senate rules.

Manchin said Republicans are now claiming "the craziest thing I've ever heard" in their assertions that a bunch of armed IRS agents are going to crack down on ordinary Americans.

"It's just a lie," Golden said. "I hate to say that."

He said the upgraded IRS will not conduct additional audits for people making less than $400,000 annually, which may mean almost nobody in his sprawling, rural district needs to worry.

Manchin said the IRS will, instead, beef up its poor customer service and improve its ability "to go toe-to-toe with the richest Americans" to ensure everyone pays his or her fair share.

As it is, Golden said, the IRS is "getting out-lawyered" and losing out on revenue the country needs.

Manchin and Golden said they have developed a friendship on Capitol Hill.

Manchin said when the House of Representatives is taking up partisan bills, Golden is "the first go-to person I call to get some sanity back."

"We're both rural Democrats," Golden said, and fiercely independent-minded, determined to look across the aisle to benefit their districts.

Manchin, who endorsed Collins in her difficult 2020 Senate race, said Maine voters ought to choose Golden in this year's congressional contest.

Do not vote for the party, Manchin said. "Vote for the person."
The worlds top diplomatic stage at the UN Security Council (UNSC) devolved into the Russian foreign minister calling Volodymyr Zelensky a b*****d and walking out after a round of condemnation and accusations of war crimes aimed at Russia.

Almost all foreign ministers of the 15 UNSC members present at Thursdays meeting expressed growing frustration with Russias invasion of Ukraine, with even Moscows closest allies taking an increasingly dim view.

Many called out Vladimir Putin for the recent nuclear threats he has made, with the strength of tone of that criticism depending on their governments stance on the war.

Eventually Russias foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called the Ukrainian president a b*****d and slammed the collective west for regarding him as their b*****d.

Such outrages remain unpunished because the United States and their allies with the connivance of international human rights institutes have been covering up the crimes of the Kyiv regime based on the policy of Zelensky might be a b*****d, but hes our b*****d, the foreign minister said.

He walked out after his speech and remained absent for most of the session having already arrived 90 minutes late  missing the UN chief Antonio Guterress briefing.

Whats particularly cynical here is the position of states that are pumping Ukraine full of weapons and training their soldiers, Mr Lavrov said.

The goal is to drag out the fighting as long as possible in spite of the victims and destruction in order to wear down and weaken Russia.

The intentional fomenting of this conflict by the collective west remains unpunished.

Addressing the council immediately after Mr Lavrov, Britains foreign secretary James Cleverly said he was not surprised that Russias foreign minister left the chamber after receiving the collective condemnation of this council.

He said the Kremlin had tried to lay the blame on those imposing sanctions and that every day, the devastating consequences of Russias invasion become more clear.

Story continues

Russias allies  India, China and Brazil, which have often shunned or outright opposed western views on the invasion  also spoke about the grave consequences of war upending food and energy securities in the world in a harsher tone than before.

The trajectory of the Ukraine conflict is matter of profound concern for the entire international community. The future outlook appears even more disturbing, said Indian foreign minister Subramaniam Jaishankar.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a high level meeting of the United Nations Security Council (REUTERS)

If egregious attacks committed in broad daylight are left unpunished, this council must reflect on the signals we are sending on impunity. There must be consistency if we are to ensure credibility, he added.

Without mentioning Russia in a carefully worded statement, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi laid out Chinas firm stance that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be respected. The purposes of the principles of the UN Charter should be observed.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken slammed Mr Putin for his veiled reference to use of nuclear weapons in war.

Every council member should send a clear message that these reckless nuclear threats must stop immediately. Tell President Putin to stop the horror he started, Mr Blinken said.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken asked Russia to stop nuclear threats immediately (Getty Images)

One man chose this war. One man can end it, he added. Because if Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends.

Foreign ministers and top officials from Albania, France, Ireland, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Kenya, Mexico and Norway offered similar rebukes of Russia and the war.

Russias actions are blatant violation of the Charter of the United Nations, said Albanian foreign minister Olta Xhacka. We all tried to prevent this conflict. We could not, but we must not fail to hold Russia accountable.

Mr Lavrov was not in the meeting when Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba demanded a special tribunal to hold Russias leaders accountable for alleged war crimes.

There will be no peace without justice, Mr Kuleba said. None of the crimes of Russia in Ukraine would be possible without the crime of aggression.

He ridiculed Mr Lavrov for leaving the room, saying: I notice that Russian diplomats flee almost as quickly as Russian soldiers.

Mr Guterres branded Russias nuclear threats against the west totally unacceptable and warned the latest developments in Ukraine were dangerous and disturbing. He said it was a step closer to an endless cycle of horror and bloodshed.
It's going down this Saturday on the Ayres Hall lawn

Everything you need to know  https://t.co/GlGMxPy2I5 pic.twitter.com/ynu4shAPsi

 College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) September 22, 2022
Seoul  South Korea's president has denied insulting key security ally the United States, claiming to have been mistranslated, prompting further domestic incredulity on Friday. Yoon Suk Yeol was overheard on a hot mic and seen on camera seemingly insulting U.S. lawmakers after briefly meeting with President Joe Biden at the Global Fund in New York.

From left, French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, President Joe Biden, Connie Mudenda (RED) ambassador and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol pose for photos during the Global Fund's Seventh Replenishment Conference, September 21, 2022, in New York. / Credit: Evan Vucci/AP

"How could Biden not lose damn face if these f****rs do not pass it in Congress?" he appeared to be saying about Mr. Biden's drive to increase the U.S. contribution to the Global Fund, which would require congressional approval. The video quickly went viral in South Korea, with a YouTube video racking up five million views in less than a day and the Korean expletive Yoon purportedly used trending on Twitter. But the president's office spokeswoman, Kim Eun-hye, said Yoon had "no reason to talk about the U.S. or utter the word 'Biden.'" Speaking at a press briefing in New York on Thursday, Kim claimed that Yoon did not actually say "Biden" but a similar-sounding Korean word, and that he was referring to South Korean, not U.S., lawmakers. Yoon also pledged more support for the Global Fund from his country at the event this week, and he will face a political battle getting South Korea's lawmakers in the National Assembly to approve it.

South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol during his first official news conference since taking office in May, marking 100 days in office, in Seoul, South Korea on August 17, 2022. / Credit: Chung Sung-Jun/Poll/Reuters

One ruling-party parliamentarian suggested the television station that first reported the hot mic comments should be prosecuted.

"MBC should gravely be held accountable for its report that has damaged the irreplaceable U.S.-Korea alliance," wrote MP Yoon Sang-hyun on his Facebook account. But online, many expressed doubt about the government's response. "It is utterly shameful and embarrassing for our kids that our presidential office has come up with such an excuse," one commentator wrote on YouTube. "I've listened to it 10 times now. It's 'Biden' for sure," another added. The opposition said Yoon's official denial was akin to telling South Koreans they were "hearing impaired," Democratic Party MP Chun Jae-soo said in a radio interview on Friday.

Story continues

The United States is a key South Korean key security ally, with Washington stationing about 27,000 troops in the country to help counter nuclear-armed North Korea. Yoon, a former prosecutor, is struggling with low domestic approval ratings, with the latest survey Friday after the hot mic incident showing it stood at 28%.

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South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol (C) talks with US President Joe Biden (L) after attending the seventh replenishment conference of the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria in New York, New York, USA, on 21 September 2022

South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol has denied insulting US Congress in remarks made after meeting US President Joe Biden last week in New York.

He was caught on a hot mic and seen on camera seemingly calling US lawmakers a Korean word that can be translated as "idiots" or something much stronger.

The footage quickly went viral in South Korea.

But his spokeswoman says he had "no reason to talk about the US or utter the word 'Biden'".

The remark is said to have occurred as part of a conversation about Mr Biden's drive to increase the US contribution to a global initiative known as the Global Fund, which would require congressional approval.

"How could Biden not lose face if these [expletive] do not pass it in Congress?," Mr Yoon apparently said to his aides afterwards.

Presidential spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye said in New York on Thursday Mr Yoon did not actually say "Biden", but a similar-sounding Korean word, and that he was referring to the South Korean parliament, not the US Congress.

Many were unconvinced by the government's defence - an opposition MP said it was like telling Koreans they were "hearing impaired".

Mr Yoon is a former prosecutor who only entered politics last year and won the presidential elections earlier this year by less than 1%.

He is known as being prone to gaffes and has been struggling with low approval ratings soon after being elected, correspondents say.

He also drew criticism for failing to attend the Queen's lying-in-state on his first day in London, for which his office blamed traffic issues.

Last year, he had to backtrack on his comment that the authoritarian president Chun Doo-hwan, who was responsible for massacring protesters in 1980, was "good at politics".
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Thursday that Spain supports a "mutually acceptable political solution" regarding Western Sahara.

"We fully support the work of the UN Secretary Special Envoy, work that we deem to be absolutely crucial," Sanchez said during his speech to the United Nations General Assembly.

"Spain will also continue to support the Sahrawi population in the refugee camps as it always has done, as the main international donor of humanitarian assistance in this context."

Earlier this year, Spain angered its main gas supplier Algeria by supporting a Moroccan plan to offer autonomy to Western Sahara. Morocco considers the whole territory its own, but an Algeria-backed independence movement demands a sovereign state.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Leslie Adler)
By Uditha Jayasinghe

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan authorities will formally hold talks with international creditors on Friday to start the process of restructuring billions of dollars of its debt and share plans to tackle the island's worst economic crisis in more than seven decades.

The success of the restructuring process is critical for the nation of 22 million to secure final approval for a $2.9 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund and subsequent financing from other global agencies.

The money will help the island nation overcome an acute shortage of food and fuel that sparked sweeping street protests for months this year and led to the ouster of then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Sri Lanka's finance and other officials plan to hold a virtual interactive session to share the objectives of its loan package agreed with the IMF on Sept. 1 and the next steps of the debt restructuring process.

Its presentation to the creditors will be made public after the event. The government has already held preliminary restructuring talks with neighbour India and diplomats based in Colombo.

"There was a very positive response from the meeting with ambassadors chaired by the president on Thursday," an official at the president's office said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Sri Lanka is focused on trying to get the IMF deal finalised by December or early next year."

Sri Lanka's foreign currency debt was $47.3 billion as of end-2021 and local-currency debt at $53.6 billion, according to an update from the Ministry of Finance in August. China, Japan and India are its top bilateral creditors.

The foreign currency debt includes $13 billion in international sovereign bonds held largely by private creditors, such as asset managers BlackRock and Ashmore.

(Writing by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former President Donald Trump's administration has not turned over all presidential records and the National Archives will consult with the Justice Department on whether to move to get them back, the agency has told Congress. A congressional panel on Sept. 13 sought an urgent review by the National Archives and Records Administration after agency staff members acknowledged that they did not know if all presidential records from Trump's White House had been turned over. "While there is no easy way to establish absolute accountability, we do know that we do not have custody of everything we should," acting Archivist Debra Wall said in a letter Friday to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
Dozens converged at Carnegie Mellon University on Thursday for a gathering in memory of a young woman who died in Iran following her arrest.

Mahsa Amini, 22, died soon after she was taken into custody by the nations notorious morality police, who enforce strict dress laws. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/iranian-woman-dies-arrested-morality-police-sparking-protests-rcna48135

The police claim Amini died following a heart attack, while witnesses have reported she was brutally beaten following her arrest. She entered a coma and died on Friday.

She was not the first and shes not going to be the last if the regime stays, said Fayezeh Haji Hassan. It could have been me, it could have been my nieces, my mom, any other woman. For us, its not only about her, its what she represented: the oppression of women.

Haji Hassan, an Iranian native who now lives in the Pittsburgh region and attended Thursdays gathering, told Channel 11 that women are stripped of basic human rights in Iran.

All of us have experienced that, so this is in one way a support for all of us, to show each other that we are not alone, and to be a voice for all of those who are fighting there, said Shima Rasapour.

Its just quite awful. I dont know how else to describe this extreme feeling of anger  anger towards the people that have done this and remorse for the people who go through this on a day-to-day basis, said CMU Professor Ali Shourideh.

Aminis death has sparked violent protests across Iran. As a result, the nation has reportedly shut down internet access.

We are here to be their voice, Rasapour said.

Many of the Iranian natives in attendance opted not to speak on camera or to be filmed, out of fear of government retaliation.

The United Nations has reportedly called for a thorough investigation into what happened to Amini.

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When asked to recall the popular children's book series 'The Berenstain Bears,' many people make the same error by spelling it 'The Berenstein Bears.' Stephen Osman/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Imagine the Monopoly Man.

Is he wearing a monocle or not?

If you pictured the character from the popular board game wearing one, youd be wrong. In fact, he has never worn one.

If youre surprised by this, youre not alone. Many people possess the same false memory of this character. This phenomenon takes place for other characters, logos and quotes, too. For example, Pikachu from Pokemon is often thought to have a black tip on his tail, which he doesnt have. And many people are convinced that the Fruit of the Loom logo includes a cornucopia. It doesnt.

We call this phenomenon of shared false memories for certain cultural icons the visual Mandela Effect.

People tend to be puzzled when they learn that they share the same false memories with other people. Thats partly because they assume that what they remember and forget ought to be subjective and based on their own personal experiences.

However, research we have conducted shows that people tend to remember and forget the same images as one another, regardless of the diversity of their individual experiences. Recently, we have shown these similarities in our memories even extend to our false memories.

What is the Mandela Effect?

The term Mandela Effect was coined by Fiona Broome, a self-described paranormal researcher, to describe her false memory of former South African president Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s. She realized that many other people also shared this same false memory and wrote an article about her experience on her website. The concept of shared false memories spread to other forums and websites, including Reddit.

Since then, examples of the Mandela Effect have been widely shared on the internet. These include names like the Berenstain Bears, a childrens book series that is falsely remembered as spelled -ein instead of -ain, and characters like Star Wars C-3PO, who is falsely remembered with two gold legs instead of one gold and one silver leg.

Story continues

The Fruit of the Loom logo has never had a cornucopia. Wikimedia Commons

The Mandela Effect became fodder for conspiracists  the false memories so strong and so specific that some people see them as evidence of an alternate dimension.

Because of that, scientific research has only studied the Mandela Effect as an example of how conspiracy theories spread on the internet. There has been very little research looking into the Mandela Effect as a memory phenomenon.

But understanding why these icons trigger such specific false memories might give us more insight into how false memories form. The visual Mandela Effect, which affects icons specifically, was a perfect way to study this.

A robust false memory phenomenon

To see whether the visual Mandela Effect really exists, we ran an experiment in which we presented people with three versions of the same icon. One was correct and two were manipulated, and we asked them to select the correct one. There were 40 sets of icons, and they included C-3PO from the Star Wars franchise, the Fruit of the Loom logo and the Monopoly Man from the board game.

In the results, which have been accepted for publication in the journal Psychological Sciences, we found that people fared very poorly on seven of them, only choosing the correct one around or less than 33% of the time. For these seven images, people consistently identified the same incorrect version, not just randomly choosing one of the two incorrect versions. In addition, participants reported being very confident in their choices and having high familiarity with these icons despite being wrong.

Put together, its clear evidence of the phenomenon that people on the internet have talked about for years: The visual Mandela Effect is a real and consistent memory error.

The correct version of Pikachu is the one on the left. Most participants in the study not only chose a wrong version of the popular cartoon character, but they also chose the same wrong one  the Pikachu with the black tip on its tail. Wilma Bainbridge and Deepasri Prasad, CC BY-SA

We found that this false memory effect was incredibly strong, across multiple different ways of testing memory. Even when people saw the correct version of the icon, they still chose the incorrect version just a few minutes later.

And when asked to freely draw the icons from their memory, people also included the same incorrect features.

No universal cause

What causes this shared false memory for specific icons?

We found that visual features like color and brightness could not explain the effect. We also tracked participants mouse movements as they viewed the images on a computer screen to see if they simply didnt scan over a particular part, such as Pikachus tail. But even when people directly viewed the correct part of the image, they still chose the false version immediately afterward. We also found that for most icons, it was unlikely people had seen the false version beforehand and were just remembering that version, rather than the correct version.

It may be that there is no one universal cause. Different images may elicit the visual Mandela Effect for different reasons. Some could be related to prior expectations for an image, some might be related to prior visual experience with an image and others could have to do with something entirely different than the images themselves. For example, we found that, for the most part, people only see C-3POs upper body depicted in media. The falsely remembered gold leg might be a result of them using prior knowledge  bodies are usually only one color  to fill in this gap.

But the fact that we can demonstrate consistencies in false memories for certain icons suggests that part of what drives false memories is dependent on our environment  and independent of our subjective experiences with the world.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Deepasri Prasad, Dartmouth College and Wilma Bainbridge, University of Chicago. The Conversation has a variety of fascinating free newsletters.

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The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Women participate in a sit-down protest in Seoul in solidarity with the victim of a subway murder

Outside the women's restroom at a subway station in the South Korean capital is a plaque that reads: "Women Friendly Seoul."

The words, meant to assure women of their safety, have become tragically ironic. Last week, inside the restroom, a young woman who worked at the station was brutally murdered. The man suspected of killing her had been stalking her for years.

The wall underneath the plaque has since become a shrine of messages left as notes, with women and men of all ages coming to express their fury, fear, and sorrow.

"I want to be alive at the end of my workday," reads one. "Is it too much to ask, to be safe to reject people I don't like?" reads another.

The mother of a teenage girl cries as she scans the messages. "Where have we gone so wrong?" she asks, now questioning whether to allow her daughter to travel to school alone.

Shocking murder

The details of this murder have shocked the country. The 28-year-old had been working her usual evening shift at the subway station, unaware she was being watched.

Her alleged attacker, 31-year-old Jeon Joo-hwan, waited for over an hour outside the toilets, wearing gloves and a disposable shower cap, before following her inside and stabbing her to death.

It was the day before he was due to be sentenced for stalking her.

People have left Post-it note messages at the murder scene expressing their anger and fear

The harassment started in 2019, a year after the pair began working together. Jeon called his colleague more than 300 times begging her to date him, threatening to harm her if she refused.

When she reported him last October, he was fired from his job and arrested. But despite a police investigation and a request to the courts for him to be detained, he was never imprisoned or given a restraining order.

The victim was placed under police protection for a month, until they concluded there was nothing significant to report. Jeon then continued to threaten and stalk.

Since their daughter's death, her parents and two younger sisters have barely left the funeral home, where her body still lies, surrounded by flowers from remorseful politicians.

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The family are devastated, not only by their loss, but because she never told them what she was going through. So traumatised is her mother, she struggles to speak. She has decided to protect her daughter's identity.

The victims' uncle looks at flowers sent to the funeral home where his niece's body lies

"We never worried about her," her uncle tells me. "She was so smart and independent". With pride he recalls how she was top of her class, winning herself a scholarship to university in Seoul.

As the oldest of three girls, she looked out for her sisters. These past years she had showed no sign of suffering, he says, suggesting this was because she had not wanted to burden them.

The only person she confided in was her lawyer, who she last messaged on the morning of her murder, the day before her stalker's sentencing. "We are almost there", she wrote.

Her family are now watching, along with the rest of the country, the horrifying details of her case unfold. They have exposed weaknesses in South Korea's stalking laws and led to accusations the country does not treat violence against women seriously enough.

Anti-stalking laws

Until last year, stalking was classed as a misdemeanour, punishable only by a small fine. An anti-stalking law was finally passed in October, but many argued it was insufficient and would not protect victims, primarily because of its stipulation that a perpetrator can only be prosecuted with the consent of the victim.

This loophole, they say, makes it possible for stalkers to bully their victims into withdrawing cases - in the same way Jeon attempted to threaten his victim. Jeon reportedly told police he murdered her because he resented her for taking legal action.

A note posted outside the subway station reads: "How many more women need to die for this country to change?"

Data obtained by the BBC from South Korea's National Police Agency shows that since the stalking law came into force last year, 7,152 stalking arrests have been made, but with only 5% of the suspects detained. In cases where police applied to the courts to get the suspect detained, one in three requests were denied.

South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol has acknowledged the country's stalking laws are insufficient and has ordered the Justice Ministry to strengthen them.

Prof Lee Soo-jung, a criminal psychologist who advises the government, says she could not sleep after she heard about the murder. "We were not able to protect her, so yes, we failed her," she admits.

The professor is recommending the ministry remove the clause that requires victims to agree to a prosecution. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has proposed that stalking suspects who are not detained should be given restraining orders.

South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol has ordered the strengthening of the country's stalking laws

But despite these promises, anger is growing. This week, hundreds of people gathered in Seoul dressed in black, to protest and mourn the victim.

She was failed, the protestors shouted, by her employer, the police, and the courts, making her death symptomatic of a much bigger problem. They fear it could happen to any of them, that no space is safe.

Safe spaces

It has evoked memories of a similar murder six years ago, when a woman in her 20s was stabbed to death in a public restroom near Gangnam station, by a man who later said he killed her as revenge for all the women who looked down on him.

To the protesters, this murder is proof that nothing has changed. "We've been fooled before, that change is coming", the organisers bellowed over the loudspeakers. "Let's see what happens this time."

"We don't need new laws," said Choi Jin-hyup, director of the group Women Link. "What we need is to change authorities' attitudes towards victims." She blames the government, which has tied itself in knots over women's rights.

During the recent election campaign, the president pledged to close the Gender Equality Ministry, declaring it obsolete because structural sexism no longer existed. When the gender minister visited the scene of the murder, she told reporters she did not believe this was a case of gender-based violence. There are now calls for her to resign.

Museum curator Lee Chai-hui, 23, does not feel safe as a young woman in South Korea

At the subway station, 23-year-old Lee Chae-hui lays a white flower and bows her head.

"I'm very angry," she says. "We keep reporting these crimes as just another mindless murder, but women are continuously stalked and attacked, and our politicians are ignoring it. People talk about how South Korea is a safe place, but as a woman in my 20s I can't relate to this at all, I feel I live in a very dangerous society."

Chae-hui's friends have a phrase they use to congratulate each other: "We survived another day."

The sentiment is echoed in dozens of Post-it messages asking: "How many more women need to die for this country to change?"
The suspect in last week's deadly shooting in an alley near North Lyon Avenue was found dead in his home after an hours-long stand-off with police Thursday night, police said.

Robert Parmley Jr., 40 of Springfield, was identified as a suspect in the shooting of Charles Tart, 52 of Springfield, who was shot and killed in an alley on Lyon Avenue last Friday.

More:Homicide victim remembered as jokester, suspect still on the loose

Parmely reportedly fled the scene following the shooting, and Springfield Police had been looking for him ever since. Thursday night around 10 p.m. Springfield police reportedly got a tip about Parmley's whereabouts, that he was at his house on North Lyon and was making "suicidal comments with a gun."

According to the Springfield Police Department, when officers arrived and ordered that Parmley come outside, he refused to exit the house and a perimeter was established with the Springfield Police Department's Special Response Team. When officers got a warrant to search Parmley's home, they say they found him dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Earlier this week, Greene County Prosecutors had charged Parmley with second-degree murder and armed criminal action.

Jordan Meier covers public safety for the Springfield News-Leader. Contact her at jmeier@news-leader.com, or on Twitter @Jordan_Meier644.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Shooting suspect found dead in home
By Summer Zhen

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Swiss private bank Union Bancaire Privee (UBP) is back in Chinese markets, its chief investment officer said, making its way back to the world's second-largest economy after withdrawing last year.

UBP has more than $150 billion of assets. It returned to China in August after having exited all positions in Chinese equities and credit by the third quarter of 2021, Norman Villamin, CIO of wealth management, told Reuters.

We went from zero to neutral," Villamin said.

While many institutional investors have reduced exposure to China since 2019 amid a regulatory crackdown on tech giants, a deterioration in Sino-U.S. relations and strict zero-COVID policies, UBP is among the few that is re-allocating to the country.

Villamin said UBP saw some hope that there would be more stimulus measures ahead of and after the Communist Party Congress in October.

If some of the COVID restrictions start to ease, even if it is gradual, at least we're moving in the right direction, Villamin said.

UBP deemed an underweight exposure in China "tactically risky", he added.

"China has gone through a recession, while Europe is in the midst of recession, and the U.S. is likely entering a recession in 2023, Villamin said.

UBP has however only bought China A-shares, which is the domestic sector, and is avoiding companies that might have exposure to geopolitical issues.

Chinese markets have been facing unprecedented challenges this year, with both the CSI 300 index and Hang Seng Index down over 20% each, while hedge funds that invest in Greater China are seeing their biggest net fund outflows in at least 15 years.

UBP believes China is slowly poised to recover although it will not be a smooth sailing. Some deep-seated problems, such as the real estate debt crisis, will take a long time to resolve.

We think (Chinas) objective on property is to shrink the sector as a share of the overall economy to wind down the amount of leverage in the sector, said Villamin.

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We don't see a lot of growth opportunities there."

(Corrects second paragraph to say the bank exited positions in all Chinese equities, not just mainland-listed equities)

(Reporting by Summer Zhen; Editing by Stephen Coates)
BERLIN (Reuters) - "Sham referendums" currently taking place in Ukrainian territories partially occupied by Russia are illegal under international law, the Swiss government said on Friday.

The Swiss foreign ministry summoned the Russian ambassador over the matter on Thursday, the government said, adding that it would consider joining the European Union in imposing new sanctions on Russia.

(Writing by Rachel More; Editing by Paul Carrel)
Associated Press

Chinese billionaire and JD.com founder Richard Liu agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by a former University of Minnesota student who alleged he raped her in her Minneapolis apartment after a night of dinner and drinks with wealthy Chinese executives in 2018, attorneys for both sides announced late Saturday. Richard Liu, who stepped down as the CEO of Beijing-based e-commerce company JD.com this year amid increased government scrutiny of Chinas technology industry, has denied raping the woman, Jingyao Liu, and prosecutors never filed criminal charges. A joint statement from attorneys for both sides called the encounter a misunderstanding. The incident between Ms. Jingyao Liu and Mr. Richard Liu in Minnesota in 2018 resulted in a misunderstanding that has consumed substantial public attention and brought profound suffering to the parties and their families," the joint statement said.
A Navy recruiter fatally shot his wife in their Texas home Thursday and injured an agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) before he was later killed by Texas authorities, officials said.

The shooting occurred when two NCIS agents were talking with a woman about domestic violence issues with her husband at a home in the Houston suburb Atascocita, said Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, who described the incident as "something out of a movie."

The woman was described as being in her mid-30s with two young children, ages 1 and 3. Both children were home at the time. The couple had other children who were in school at the time of the killing.

As the agents were leaving, the husband arrived at the home and shot his wife, who was holding one of the children, Gonzalez said. He then picked up one of the kids and ran outside and exchanged fire with the agents, authorities said.

TRIAL TO START FOR SAILOR ACCUSED OF IGNITING NAVY WARSHIP

One NCIS agent was injured in the shooting and was taken to a hospital. An NCIS spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital that the agent was in stable condition as of Thursday night.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims family and loved ones," NCIS spokesperson Jeff Houston said. "We also pray for a speedy recovery for our wounded Special Agent."

TEXAS FARMER NEAR BORDER SAYS MIGRANTS BULL-RUSHED HIS PROPERTY, BROKE INTO ELDERLY GRANDPARENTS' HOUSE

The unidentified suspect fled the location and authorities later learned he may have headed to a family member's home. When deputies found him, he got out of a vehicle and shots were fired, Gonzalez said.

The unidentified suspect was killed. Both children were found bloodied but uninjured, Gonzalez said.

"We are aware of the shooting incident in Harris County, TX, involving one of our personnel, and we are fully cooperating with NCIS and law enforcement as they continue their investigation," the Navy said in a statement. "Our hearts go out to the family of the victim, the injured NCIS agent, and to those affected by the tragedy."

The NCIS is the civilian federal law enforcement agency responsible for investigating felony crimes and protecting secrets for the Navy and Marine Corps.
A woman who was filmed hurling racist remarks at a group of Indian American women outside a restaurant in Plano, Texas, last month is now facing a lawsuit from one of the victims.

The incident, which was caught in a now-viral video, occurred in the parking lot of the restaurant Sixty Vines in the 3700 block of Dallas Parkway at around 8:15 p.m. on Aug. 24.

The group of four Indian American women were heading back to their cars after having dinner when the perpetrator, later identified as Esmeralda Upton, approached them and said, Go back to India.

Everywhere I f*cking go, you Indians are f*cking everywhere, Upton can be heard saying in the video. Please, Im trying to be civil here. If life is so great in India, why the f*ck are yall here?

More from NextShark: San Jose Police ID Suspect Who Targeted Asian-Owned Businesses For Vandalism

At one point in the video, she is also seen striking the person filming the incident. She then reaches into her purse while telling the person she would blow your f*cking brains out.

Plano police arrived that night and allowed Upton to leave. However, she was arrested the following day on charges of assault and making terroristic threats. She was ordered to be held on a $10,000 bond, which she posted after her arrest.

More from NextShark: Neo-Nazi Mosque Shooter Who Killed Chinese Sister Gets 21 Years in Prison

Last week, one of the four victims, Dr. Bidisha Rudra, sued Upton for compensatory and punitive damages in a Collin County civil court.

Life has not been the same since the incident, to put it lightly, Rudra told the Dallas Observer. Theres a lot of trauma, emotional distress and a feeling of insecurity that keeps haunting me all the time. The assailant's words keep ringing in my ears when I go to sleep.

More from NextShark: Torrance Karen Will NOT Face Hate Crime Charges Over Racist Rants, City Attorney Says

Rudra, who was born in India, is a naturalized American citizen. She has lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years and obtained her Ph.D. in the country. North Texas has one of the largest Indian American populations in the U.S.

Story continues

Rudras lawyer, Veronica S. Moye, said Upton needs to face serious consequences for her actions.

We think there has to be serious, serious consequences for Ms. Upton to send a message that this kind of behavior will be dealt with in the strongest possible way, Moye told The Dallas Morning News. An apology would be nice, but certainly would not remedy all of the harm that these women had suffered.

More from NextShark: Man in India dies by self-immolation after his boss asks for sex with his wife in exchange for transfer

Plano police are investigating the incident as a hate crime. Additional charges against Upton are reportedly expected.

Featured Image via CBSDFW
BANGKOK (AP)  Thailand's government will lift an emergency decree it imposed in March 2020 to battle the coronavirus, officials said Friday, as it relaxes most pandemic restrictions.

From Oct. 1, foreign visitors will no longer be required to show proof of being vaccinated, and people found to be infected will no longer need to quarantine.

The emergency decree, which has been renewed repeatedly despite opposition, will not be extended at the end of this month, officials said. The decree, which allowed the government to take actions such as curtail movements, limit crowd sizes and close private establishments, was also used against anti-government protesters.

The overall trend globally of the COVID situation is improving. The number of new cases is in decline and the number of deaths is falling, said Taweesin Visanuyothin, spokesperson for the governments Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration. He said the center will also halt operations and be dissolved.

At present, the public and businesses can live and move forward with economic activities," Taweesin said.

He said the changes result from the Public Health Ministry's downgrading the status of COVID-19 from a dangerous communicable disease to an infectious disease under surveillance.

The center reported 752 new COVID-19 cases on Friday and nine deaths. It said the percentage of hospital beds allocated for coronavirus patients that are occupied has fallen to 8.3% from 15.8% in July.

We may have small waves after this. And we will ask the public to continue practicing general preventive measures, including continuing to wear masks in public, although they will not be mandatory, Taweesin said.

Thailands huge, lucrative tourism industry was devastated by local and worldwide measures to contain the pandemic. So far this year, it has seen arrivals rebound with 5.2 million visitors to date.
The car was stolen from outside a home in Quarrington Hill, County Durham. (Google Maps)

Police are hunting for thieves who stole a car with a two-year-old girl inside, leaving her family terrified.

The car was found shortly afterwards with the toddler safely inside but the family's cat, which was also inside the vehicle, hasn't been found.

Police said the incident happened in Quarrington Hill, near Durham City, County Durham, at about 7pm on Wednesday (21 September).

The family had parked their silver Vauxhall Vectra outside a relatives house to drop some shopping off, leaving the engine running and the two-year-old strapped into a car seat while one member of the family stood by the car door and others took items inside.

A dark Nissan X-Trail drove slowly past then reversed back along the street to pull alongside the Vauxhall and a man, dressed in a blue hooded jacket and black joggers, jumped out and climbed into the drivers seat, taking off at speed as the distressed family tried to stop him.

Police siren flashing blue lights at accident or crime scene

The Vectra was found about three miles away around Sherburn Beck, near Ludworth, with the toddler unharmed.

She was reunited with her family but their pet cat, which was also in the vehicle at the time, has yet to be found.

The Nissan X-Trail has not been located, police said.

Read more: Shoppers 'stepped over' woman, 42, dying from allergic reaction to Pret a Manger wrap

Detective Inspector Malcolm Bell, of Durham Constabulary, said: "This has been an extremely distressing incident for the family, who were terrified for the welfare of their child. We are appealing to anyone who may have seen this car being stolen or abandoned to come forward.

"We are also looking for anyone who may have seen the Nissan X-Trail at the time, or in immediate time before and after this incident. Thankfully, the child was located inside the car, safe and well, and was quickly reunited with her family."
Cliff Tam (left) with his wife Tam Wai Jia and their two daughters. (PHOTO: Cliff Tam)

By Lyn Chan

SINGAPORE  Cliff Tam said he never intended on becoming a stay-at-home father although the 42-year-old was hands-on from the time his first daughter was born.

I took care of her in the US when my wife pursued her Master of Public Health degree, said Tam, a Canadian on a Long-Term Visit Pass. Upon returning to Singapore to serve her government bond in 2019 with another baby on the way, the couple flipped the vision of the Singapore family comprising the breadwinner father and the homemaker mother, and joined the nations sliver of stay-at-home dads.

They had made the calculation that millions of mothers had previously made: We could both work, and I could send both of my girls to daycare but Id spend a great deal of my income on that. And instead of having strangers look after my children, it made sense for me to look after them while I myself pursued my masters degree online.

Theirs was a conscious choice, both economically and for family life, at a time when swapping the traditional roles in a family was only just becoming more common in Singapore. The number of men not working because of family responsibilities in 2021 was 14,000, double the number a decade earlier, according to the Manpower Ministry.

Still, the switch in roles hasnt been entirely easy.

Singapores culture was a challenge. I told my wife that I sometimes felt like a zoo exhibit when I went out," Tam, a former pastor said. He added people stared at him "as if he was from Mars" with one daughter in a carrier and another in his arm, and on top of that he was carrying groceries.

His learning curve, too, was steep. Back then, taking both girls to the mall and back unscathed was a noteworthy feat. Efficiently packing the right items for a day out and homing in on the diaper-changing spots soon became part of his skills repertoire, together with adroitly managing toddler tantrums in public.

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Identity crisis

Tam shared that he struggled with the emotional dips that occasionally swallowed him.

Because work is a strong identity for me, there were times when I felt lost. Some days, I felt like I was wasting my time, and asked myself, What am I doing? At times, I also wished I was in the office instead of looking after my girls," he said.

He added: Part of this sense of loss might be because I wonder about my value in society. How much we make or the work we do is tied so intrinsically to our self-worth. Any job that felt menial, like looking after children, initially made me feel depressed.

While the world may not yet fully embrace the concept of stay-at-home dads, Tam understands the rewards his role brings about in his world.

He says, Anyone can replace me at work. No one at home can replace me as a father. The funny thing is: Before I use to dread being a stay-at-home dad. But now, I wake up and look forward to spending time with my family. Whats even weirder is that even though I spend almost all of my time with them, I still want to spend more time with them."

Re-entering the workforce is on the table after the girls settle into the school structure. Tam sees himself working in a Christian non-governmental organisation that can utilise his information technology background.

Till then, he will continue to bask in the joy derived from the time spent with his girls. Tam, who is an Ironman triathlete, shares with Yahoo Finance Singapore some thoughts on being a stay-at-home dad.

How has your arrangement impacted your investment strategy?

I am not against working. We need to work to pay bills. Working is healthy. The problem I have is when parents earn more than enough to take care of the home yet continue to work long hours at the expense of their kids development. How does this impact children? Every child is different but for many of these young adults I counselled, many of them struggle with mental illnesses contributed by absent parental figures in their early lives.

We are investing our time in my children such that when they grow up, they will be resilient from mental health conditions, low-esteem and depression. I cant fix my childrens mental health issues even if I have all the money in the world.

We live simply  my wife has scaled back on work and we are surviving on one part-time income  and believe in inculcating in our children values of hard work and generosity. We are happy.

My wife and I have invested in mutual funds for our kids education. I wouldn't call myself an active investor because I don't spend a lot of time on research. But I started buying equities the last few months. The change arose because both my children are now in pre-school. This frees me more time to do my own thing, which includes looking at investments. Previously, my investment strategy was put on hold.

Right now, the market is not doing so well due to the impending recession. This is a great time to consider investing into companies that are solid and have good value. I am not interested in being a day trader, whether in stocks, currencies or commodities. My investment approach is to look at companies with good value and invest in them long-term. This is why mutual funds are very attractive to me. Sure, I may lose a few commission percentages, but I have someone who can invest for me in the long run.

I find day trading to be like gambling. Also, it requires me to spend a lot of time and attention in front of the computer every day, which is not feasible since I watch over our kids.

What are the most fulfilling aspects of being a stay-at-home dad?

I had a liver transplant when I was 10. I am now 42 and the idea that, one day, my liver might expire on me is becoming more real.

If tomorrow were my last day, what would I do? Will I be more joyful going to work or spending time with my children? Of course, the latter. I must make the best of the time I have right now  and that is spending time with my family.

What advice would you give to other men and/or couples considering such a move?

Spousal support is very important. I cant do this without my wife! She is my partner in our Team Tam tag-team!

If I have to do this all over again, I would have tried to learn a few things on child development. This would have helped me tremendously to enjoy my childrens developmental stages more.

I would say to these men that their identity is not based on their work or how much money they bring home. Money is important but it is not the end all and be all. Relationships, whether between husband and wife or parents and children, require investment. Youll be making the most worthwhile investment you can by spending time with your children.

We all want our children to grow and prosper in their own way, and know that their parents love and support them in whatever they are going to do.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.
One person, facility administrator Jorge Carballo, will face criminal charges stemming from 12 nursing home deaths that occurred after winds from the edge of 2017s Hurricane Irma turned the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills into a powerless hotbox.

As the Broward County State Attorneys Office announced Thursday morning it was dropping its prosecution of night shift supervisor Sergo Colin, registered nurse Althia Meggie and licensed practical nurse Tamika Miller, it also announced the trio would be listed as prosecution witnesses against Carballo.

Carballo, a resident of Miramar, has been charged with nine counts of aggravated manslaughter against an elderly adult. Jury selection in Carballos trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 18 with a Nov. 7 scheduled trial start.

The Associated Press reported Carballos lead attorney, James Cobb, said in a letter to Broward State Attorney Harold Pryor Ive never seen a more malicious, misguided prosecution in my life; claimed prosecutor Chris Killoran told Cobb that Carballo will be acquitted; and Pryors office has no good faith reasonable belief that you can obtain a conviction of Mr. Carballo.

Pryors response in a letter released by his office Thursday: I was particularly disturbed by your allegations. Nonetheless, I must be clear. I am aware of the challenges that lie ahead; however, we do believe we have a good faith basis to proceed against your client.

North Maimi Beach resident Colin was facing 12 counts of aggravated manslaughter against an elderly or disabled adult. North Miamis Miller was being charged with six counts of that crime and three counts of tampering with physical evidence. Meggie of Lauderdale Lakes had been charged with two counts of aggravated manslaughter against an elderly or disabled adult and two counts of tampering with physical evidence.

The arrest and prosecution of Mr. Colin was false from the very beginning, his attorney, David Frankel, said via email. The Hollywood police withheld information and suppressed evidence that showed Mr. Colin and his co-workers never committed any crime, and in fact acted heroically to keep patients safe as long as they could after former Gov. Rick Scott and FPL failed to respond to more than a dozen calls for help over three days after Hurricane Irma passed.

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The Broward State Attorney chose to continue the prosecution knowing there was no evidence, refusing to drop the charges until he was forced to do so.

Meggies attorney, Lawrence Hashish, said in a Thursday night text message to the Herald that there was no agreement linking the charges being dropped against his client to being on the prosecution witness list against Carballo.

Irma winds took power, air conditioning and, eventually, lives

The edge of Hurricane Irma lashed South Florida with tropical storm force winds and hurricane strength gusts on Sept. 10. Power outages were common  the Florida Health Care Association reported 150 of 700 nursing home facilities lost some power  but it was at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills that residents began dying on Sept. 13.

Without power or enough generator backup, the nursing home had no sufficient answer for the late summer high heat and humidity. The Sept. 12 temperature reached 90 with a peak heat index of 99.

The deaths began the following morning. Eight residents died on Sept. 13 in a nursing home thats across the parking lot from Memorial Regional Hospital. Eventually, 12 people died, but criminal investigations and finger pointing began even before the death toll stopped rising.

Then-U.S. Senator Bill Nelson declared, This is an inexcusable tragedy that frail patients would die of heat exhaustion without it being recognized and taking them to the hospital next door, while then-Gov. Rick Scott called it unfathomable.

But, Rehabilitation Center employees say they were ignored after leaving messages on Scotts cell phone asking for help, using a number hed given out before Irma hit so administrators could call him directly for help. Scott said his staff destroyed the voice mails after transcribing them. In 2020, Cobb and Frankel would claim in a filing that was destroying evidence. Scotts office  he was U.S. Senator Rick Scott by then  said their clients shouldve dialed 911 when the situation grew perilous.

Civil lawsuits were filed against the nursing home, owner Larkin Community Hospital, Carballo and even FPL before autumn was a month old. But it wasnt until Aug. 27, 2019, almost two years later, that criminal charges were filed against Carballo, Colin, Meggie and Miller, four medical professionals with unblemished licenses.
By Daphne Psaledakis and Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Countries on the front lines of the climate crisis are fed up.

During the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations this week, low-lying island nation Vanuatu stepped up a fight to get the world to focus on combating global warming by calling for a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty.

"The time is up - action is required now," Vanuatu's President Nikenike Vurobaravu told the U.N. General Assembly on Friday.

The treaty would aim to scale down coal, oil and gas production to limit the rise in temperatures to the globally agreed 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

It would also "enable a global just transition for every worker, community and nation with fossil fuel dependence," said the leader of the carbon-negative country.

A U.N. climate science panel - the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - has warned that global emissions are on track to blow past the 1.5 degrees C warming limit and reach some 3.2 degrees C by the end of century.

Vanuatu has also asked the International Court of Justice to issue an opinion on the right to be protected from the adverse impacts of climate change, a move that Vurobaravu said "is not a silver bullet for increasing climate action, but only one tool to get us closer to the end goal of a safe planet for humanity."

In Pakistan, devastating floods this month engulfed large swaths of the country, killing more than 1,500 people and causing damage estimated at $30 billion. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asked world leaders why his people were paying the price of global warming.

"Pakistan has never seen a more stark and devastating example of the impact of global warming. Life in Pakistan has changed forever," Sharif told the General Assembly. "Nature has unleashed her fury on Pakistan, without looking ... at our carbon footprint."

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'CLIMATE CHANGE MONSTER'

Around the world on Friday young activists rallied for climate action, staging protests from New Zealand and Japan to Germany and the streets of New York to demand rich countries pay for global warming damage to the poor.

The protests take place six weeks before this year's U.N. climate summit, known as COP27, where vulnerable countries plan to push for compensation for climate-related destruction to homes, infrastructure and livelihoods.

"We renew our call to the world to declare total war on this century's greatest challenge: the climate change monster. And yet, after all these years, the world has failed to break our addiction to fossil fuels," Marshall Islands President David Kabua told the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.

Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the least responsible for climate change are suffering the most.

"The Philippines is a net carbon sink, absorbing more carbon dioxide than we emit. And yet, we are the fourth most vulnerable country to climate change," he told the U.N. gathering.

U.N. chief Antonio Guterres on Friday warned that the world is "not even close" to making enough progress on climate change, telling a meeting of Pacific Island leaders: "Those who did nothing to create this crisis are paying the highest price."

Guterres has also urged rich countries to tax windfall profits of fossil fuel companies and to use that money to help countries harmed by the climate crisis and people who are struggling with rising food and energy prices.

The United States and China are the world's biggest carbon emitters. On the fight against global warming, U.S. President Joe Biden warned at the United Nations this week: "We don't have much time."

Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama condemned the climate war as being fought with "apathy, denial, and a lack of courage to do what we all know what must be done."

He appealed for the world to step up.

"Fiji is ready to make the coming years count for our people and for the planet  our question to you is this: Are you with us? Don't tell us yes unless you plan to show it."

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols and Daphne Psaledakis at the United Nations and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Editing by Mary Milliken and Jonathan Oatis)
Women veterans are finally getting access to life-saving reproductive health care, but it is already under threat.

Women represent the fastest-growing cohort of veterans. Today, more than two million living women veterans have fought for and defended our countrys core founding principle: freedom.

Its why they served, and it is why they continue to serve in greater numbers than ever before. There is no doubt women veterans deserve our thanks, but more importantly, they deserve access to comprehensive health care benefits, including reproductive health care. Until now, they have never had such access to care at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

It was not until 1992 that VA was first authorized to provide reproductive health care services to women veterans. However, that original authority excluded pregnancy care, infertility services, and abortion. In 1996, the Veterans Health Care Eligibility Reform Act authorized the VA Secretary to determine what kind of care is needed and to design VAs medical benefits accordingly. VA has since added pregnancy and delivery care to its medical benefits package, and veterans can also now receive certain infertility services at VA.

However, when VA first issued regulations to establish its medical benefits package in 1999, it continued to prohibit both abortions and abortion counseling. These prohibitions meant that women veterans have had far more limited access to reproductive health care as veterans than they did while still serving. And their VA medical providers have been subject to a gag rule  forbidden from discussing all available treatment options with patients experiencing unwanted pregnancies, pregnancy complications, and high-risk pregnancies.

On abortion, American service women deserve better

While todays women veterans were wearing the uniform, Department of Defense providers could fully inform them of all potential treatment options, and since 1996, DOD has covered life-saving care through abortion counseling and abortion services in cases of rape, incest, or risk to the life of the service member. VA patients have always been forced to go out on their own, at their own expense, to find reproductive care that has been diminishing or unavailable in many states. In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Courts recent decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, women veterans found themselves further under threat.

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Fortunately, on Sept. 2, VA took action to correct this life-risking injustice and avert imminent and future harm to veterans. VA published an interim final rule, or IFR, that updates its medical benefits package. It removes the departments longstanding prohibition on providers ability to discuss abortion with patients and authorizes VA medical facilities to provide abortions in cases of rape, incest, and the life or health of the veteran  a strong first step that finally puts VA on par with other federal health care programs.

However, this life-saving action is already under threat.

The House Committee on Veterans Affairs recently held a hearing on women veterans access to health care. What we heard from Republican Committee members was appalling.

The remarks made by our colleagues across the aisle during this hearing made it abundantly clear that Republicans have no interest in listening to the voices of women veterans. These Republican members prioritized their personal political views over the rights and health of women veterans.

We think it is past time to listen to what women veterans actually want and need. We have traveled to several states over the last six weeks to host listening sessions with women veterans, and what we heard unequivocally was that women veterans want access to the full spectrum of reproductive health care at VA. We applaud the recent regulatory action taken by VA Secretary Denis McDonough, which is a major step in that direction.

Now, VA can provide the abortion care necessary to save veterans lives when their communities and states wont. The IFR also removes the gag order on what VA doctors can discuss with their women patients, ensuring better equity between men and women who go to VA for care. No such gag order has ever existed for men who receive VA health care, and it is unacceptable and discriminatory to exercise this harmful policy against women veterans who served alongside their brothers in arms.

The IFR will save countless women veterans lives and protect their health and reproductive freedoms. VA came to this decision after listening to VA health care providers and veterans across the country  Congress needs to do the same.

Women veterans have courageously served this country. It is past time for us to do right by their service. They fought for our freedom, and they too deserve freedom: freedom to choose, freedom to privacy, and freedom to access the comprehensive health care they deserve.

Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., represents Californias 41st Congressional District. He is the House Committee on Veterans Affairs chairman.

Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif., represents Californias 26th Congressional District. She is the chairwoman of the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Health.

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This article is an Op-Ed and as such, the opinions expressed are those of the author. If you would like to respond, or have an editorial of your own you would like to submit, please email us.

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Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay has ruled that Topeka police acted justifiably June 24 when they fatally shot Christopher Kelley as he charged at them with a knife.

Kelley, a 38-year-old Black man who struggled with mental health issues, cut himself several times with the knife before charging with it at three Topeka officers, who each shot him, said Topeka Police Chief Bryan Wheeles.

An autopsy showed Kelley had methamphetamine and marijuana in his system, Kagay said.

The names of the officers have not been made public. They will not be subject to criminal prosecution, Kagay said.

He said he has met with Kelleys family and notified them of his decision.

The circumstances involved were tragic for the family and friends of Mr. Kelley, for the officers involved and their families and for this community as a whole, Kagay said.

Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay has ruled that Topeka police acted justifiably June 24 when they fatally shot Christopher Kelley after he charged at them with a knife in the area shown here.

What did Kelley do to cause police to shoot?

Kagay said police were called about 9 a.m. June 24 to the area of S.E. 4th and Holliday, on a report that a person was trespassing on BNSF Railroad property and had threatened a BNSF employee with a knife.

The employee subsequently told officers that Kelly had thrown rocks at him, come at him with a knife, then started cutting himself with the knife before police arrived, Kagay said.

"Officers set up a perimeter around Kelley to keep him from entering a nearby residential neighborhood," he said. "For roughly an hour they attempted to negotiate with Kelley to gain his compliance and get him to relinquish the knife."

Kagay did not respond, Kagay said.

"On multiple occasions officers attempted to gain compliance with 'less lethal' tools available to them, including the use of 'super sock' (bean bag) rounds as well as 40mm impact rounds (foam/rubber projectiles)," he said. "Those methods had no impact on Kelley and he continued to disobey commands and on occasion continued inflicting injuries to himself with the knife."

About 10 a.m., Kelley began screaming and charged with the knife extended over his head at the officers, who fatally shot him, Kagay said.

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The Kansas Bureau of Investigation investigated circumstances of Kelley's death, then forwarded a report to Kagay's office.

What did the DA take into account?

In reviewing such incidents, Kagay said, his responsibility is to determine if the actions of the law enforcement officers were reasonable.

Kansas law says an officer is justified in using deadly force only if the officer reasonably believes that such deadly force is necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm to that officer or someone else, Kagay said.

If the actions were not reasonable, then the the district attorney must decide if the actions rose to the level of criminal conduct that can be prosecuted, he said.

In determining reasonableness, the DA must consider the severity of the crime being investigated, whether the suspect posed an immediate threat to the safety of officers or others and whether the suspect was actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight, Kagay said.

He said he analyzed the circumstances involved and concluded that in Kelley's situation, the officers' actions were justified.

Even before officers arrived, he said, there had been reports that Kelley was trespassing on railroad property, was armed with a knife and had threatened a railroad employee, Kagay said.

Officers also had a responsibility to keep Kelley from entering the nearby residential area in his condition, he said.

"The threat level escalated when Kelley began using the knife to inflict injury to himself while disobeying law enforcement commands and eventually wielding the knife in a threatening manner," Kagay said. "Finally, the threat level culminated nearly an hour later when Kelley raised the knife and charged at law enforcement officers."

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: District attorney rules fatal Topeka police shooting was justifiable
On Saturday, September 5, Jacksonvilles Representative Tracie Davis partners with Northeast Florida Healthy Start Coalitions The Magnolia Project and Healthy Start programs to host the sixth annual community baby shower for expectant and new mothers from 9 a.m. to noon at Magnolia Project East.

The free, drive thru baby shower baby is described as providing mothers the necessary tools for raising healthy infants. The event is also noted to help increase awareness for Jacknsvilles high infant mortality rate; that is, the death of an infant before his or her first birthday.

Numbers released in their recent press release showed that in 2019,136 infants died before their first birthday. In 2020, Jacksonvilles infant mortality rate was 7.8 percent, a number higher than Floridas state rate of 5.8 and the national rate of 5.6.

Bringing our community together to provide our new and expectant mothers with the tools they need to care for their newborn is invaluable, said Davis. For the sixth year in a row, it has been my pleasure to surround these families with the love, education, and encouragement that is key to establishing a solid foundation and bright future for all of our children.

This marks the sixth year of partnership with Davis and the Northeast Florida Healthy Start Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing infant death and improving the health of pregnant women, babies, fathers and their families.

Magnolia Project East, 6024 Merrill Road Jacksonville, Florida 32277.




Judaism possesses an elaborate system that determines what foods Jews can eat and which ones can be eaten together. Rafael Ben-Ari/Photodisc via Getty Images

The end of August inaugurated the Hebrew month of Elul, when Jews all over the world start getting ready for the High Holidays: the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashana followed 10 days later by the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.

Rabbis are polishing their sermons for one of the few times they can be confident of a large congregation ready to hear what they have to say. Cantors, who lead congregants in worship, are practicing the special nusach, melodies used during the High Holidays for prayers. Choir leaders meet with their group members to rehearse hymns and other songs. And those who cook are thinking about the meals they will serve.

Although Yom Kippur is a day of fasting, it is preceded by a large dinner and concludes with a meal to break the fast. Rosh Hashana, by contrast, summons up many meals. A large, multicourse feast opens the first evening, to be followed by another full dinner midday on the first day of the holiday and then a third substantial meal for the second day of the holiday. These feasts traditionally include fish, soup, meat, vegetables, fruit, bread, wine and, of course, a sweet dessert.

The wish for a sweet year gets expressed in food. Honey is a key ingredient. So are apples, since they are plentiful in this season.

As a historian of American Jews, I have been fascinated by the changing character of what are considered Jewish foods as expressed in cookbooks. These recipes have shaped the foods that American Jews have eaten, guiding what scholars call vernacular religion, or religion as it is lived.

Jewish American cookbooks across the 20th century have influenced the shifting tastes of American Jews vernacular religion, even as they have often reflected those tastes.

How kosher food changed in America

Judaism possesses an elaborate system that determines what food observant Jews can eat and which ones can be eaten together. Following these guidelines is called keeping kosher: either something is kosher and can be eaten or it is not.

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In the United States, the growth of industrial food production for profit stimulated a wide array of products that could receive a symbol that labeled them as kosher. These range from the Orthodox Unions OU symbol to a simple K to symbols that have a male rabbis name attached to them indicating his approval of the product. These multiple branding systems mean that Jews encounter a supermarket of Jewish choices, allowing each individual to decide just what products to buy.

Some people buy only products labeled glatt kosher, a reference that originally referred to meat and the inspection of an animals lungs. In the U.S., Jews expanded the definition to emphasize a stringency that labeled only some foods sufficiently kosher to be eaten. Other people adopt a wide range of individual options.

Some reflect the prosperity of American Jews, such as having two sets of dishes, silverware and pots  one for meat and the other for dairy. Other variations register Jewish desires to enjoy eating out and tasting tref, or nonkosher, combinations.

Still other versions of kosher stem from industrial food production and the development of labels that allow each consumer to decide just which ones they will follow. The result leads to a kind of personalized form of kosher practice, one potentially with almost infinite variety.

As literary scholar Josh Lambert observed in his essay One Mans Kosher is Another Mans Treif, my parents have never tasted swordfish, but adore caviar. In other words, they  like many people  have a kashrut [kosher] standard that makes sense to nobody but themselves.

Cookbooks and changing tastes

This diversity leaves American Jews, especially women who still do most of the food preparation in Jewish homes, with a complex conundrum. Which foods should they cook? How should they cook this food? Should they turn to recipes handed down by mothers and grandmothers? Or should they try something new and different?

The conundrum is not new. Jews initially came to the United States as immigrants. Many left behind their parents and grandparents. Most possessed a limited knowledge of food preparation. Into this gap stepped women who wrote cookbooks.

Although the earliest Jewish cookbooks date to 1815 in Europe, the first American Jewish cookbook did not appear until 1871. Esther Levys Jewish Cookery Book on Principles of Economy Adapted for Jewish Housekeepers was published in Philadelphia.

Aunt Babettes 1889 Cookbook soon eclipsed Esther Levys. Bertha F. Kramer, who wrote the Aunt Babettes Cookbook, included American foods alongside Jewish ones, promoting integration of two types of foods.

Soon competition flourished as other publishers and writers saw the potential market with increasing numbers of Jewish immigrants arriving on American shores.

These Jewish cookbooks, written in Yiddish and German as well as English, guided women in how to prepare traditional Jewish foods even as they also promoted American food, such as apple pie. In a sense, they stepped into the breach within families caused by immigration, teaching their readers what to do and how to do it. Many also included explanations of the kosher system as well as holiday menus.

Even after Jewish families became intergenerational, and children often had access to traditional Jewish recipes through their grandparents, the popularity of Jewish cookbooks did not diminish. As Joan Nathan wrote in her 2004 Jewish Holiday Cookbook, Like many Jews in America, I have become passionately involved in discovering my roots. And that passion has led her, as a food writer, to seek to discover the origin of Jewish dishes and their ingredients along with the recipe.

Bagels and Jewish history

Bagels came to be seen as Jewish food even though they have no particular association with Jews. Vicki Jauron, Babylon and Beyond Photography/Moment via Getty Images

The ongoing interest in Jewish food as expressed in diverse cookbooks prompted Nurith Gertz, an Israeli scholar of Jewish culture, and me to include excerpts  both recipes and the stories often told that accompanied them  from Jewish cookbooks in an anthology for The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization.

We recognized the recipes and the stories told around them as forms of vernacular Judaism  what Jews, especially American Jews, turned to when they wanted to cook Jewish food. Jewish foods as presented in recipes formed part of Jewish culture just as much as poetry and sermons, paintings and memoirs.

One of the recipes we decided to include was one for baking bagels by Matthew Goodman in Jewish Food: The World at Table. The round roll with a hole in it arrived in America with Jewish immigrants. Over the course of the 20th century, the hole grew ever smaller and the bagel ever more plump. But the bagel makers union kept a pretty tight lock on the two-step process of making bagels  first boiling, then baking  until frozen bagels were introduced.

After frozen bagels came all sorts of other innovations, like blueberry bagels, not to mention bagels that were only baked and so not particularly chewy. As it turns out, Jews began to celebrate bagels as a distinctively Jewish food as they became more popular: Bagels were leaving the Jewish fold and starting to be seen as an American food, with no particular associations with Jews.

Although bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon are still popular among American Jews to break the fast at the end of Yom Kippur, many Americans put all kinds of foods on bagels, including lots of nonkosher combinations.

Jewish food on the move

Only some of what American Jews ate for Rosh Hashana a century ago, or even 50 years ago, endures today.

Chicken soup and gefilte fish, which came to the United States with Russian Jews as foods associated with the Friday evening meal at the beginning of the Sabbath, are still part of the Jewish American palate. But brisket and even turkey have retreated before preferences for tastes such as Moroccan or Persian chicken dishes or vegetarian stews drawn from less familiar Jewish cultures.

I particularly miss a sweet dessert called taiglach. The small cubes of baked dough drenched in spiced honey, decorated with nuts and shaped into balls appeared on our table only during the High Holidays. Everyone pulled pieces to eat and licked their fingers. Neither my mother nor my grandmothers nor I ever made it  although my more adventurous sister did. We bought it from Jewish bakeries. But those bakeries are long gone.

The memory remains, as does the wish for a sweet new year that can be tasted.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Deborah Dash Moore, University of Michigan. Like this article? subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

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Deborah Dash Moore received funding from American Jewish Archives to research an article on Jewish cookbooks published by Reform Jewish Sisterhoods.
With overhauled tourism policies (and new fees), Bhutan reopened today, Sept. 23. Here, our guide on how to visit the country, from two travel writers who visited ahead of the country's reopening.

Anne and Mike Howard/HoneyTrek

Our plane descended between the 18,000-foot peaks of the Himalayas into the narrow, temple-dotted valley of Paro, Bhutan. Its a very technical airport landing, in a country with extremely tight tourism policies, but no one said it was easy to reach Shangri-La. This tiny Buddhist kingdom, landlocked between India and China, only got roads to the outside world in 1962 and opened to travelers less than 50 years ago.

Today, Sept. 23, the country reopened to foreign travelers. Placing incredible value on their cultural heritage, happiness of their citizens, and sustainability of their carbon-negative country, Bhutan has always had a mindful approach to tourism. And in reopening, they've significantly raised the tourism tax, which now costs $200 daily (up from $65 a day); the tax is called a Sustainable Development Fee (SDF) and is meant to fund social programs, infrastructure, and environmental protections. These protocols are meant to prevent overtourism, as visitation numbers have shot up in the last 20 years, increasing 4,052% since 2000, per the World Tourism Organization.

Anne and Mike Howard/HoneyTrek

The inflated Sustainable Development Fee is not the only change. Pre-planned tours are no longer required, giving travelers more freedom. Our strategy for the revamp of the tourism sector brings us back to our roots, of High Value, Low Volume tourism, where we meet the needs of tourists while protecting our people, culture, values, and environment, said Dorji Dhradhul, director general, Tourism Council of Bhutan. Ensuring its sustainability is vital to safeguarding future generations. While some in the travel community applaud this commitment to excellence, there are grumblings that the price hike discriminates against non-wealthy travelers. In our travels, we found that, within the Bhutanese hospitality industry, locals are not only scared that such a high SDF will slash visitation numbers, but also that lifting the mandatory tour packages that filled the hotels, restaurants, and attractions will further hurt those businesses.

How to Get Into Bhutan

To complete the visa process, you will need a passport (that will not expire in the next six months); travel insurance (we swear by Allianz AllTrips); dates of arrival and departure; and payment details. Proof of COVID-19 vaccination is not required, though you could be selected at the airport for random RT-PCR testing. To stay up to date on the latest guidelines, see the Tourism Council of Bhutan's FAQ page. The visa application fee ($40) can be paid by credit card and processed in conjunction with the Sustainable Development Fee ($200 a day for adults, $100 for kids ages 6 to 12, and free for those 5 or younger). You can apply for the standard 90-day visa online or let your guide do the processing (its typically included in their service). To start the visa application process, visit Bhutan's newly launched tourism website and the Department of Immigration website.

For flights, Drukair and Bhutan Airlines fly to Paro International Airport, the countrys only international airport. Departures are available from Singapore; Kathmandu, Nepal; Dhaka, Bangladesh; five Indian cities (New Delhi, Kolkata, Guwahati, Gaya, and Bagdogra); and Bangkok. Flights tend to be cheaper from India, though youll need to get India's visa ($25) for this move. (We flew from New Delhi and used our Indian visa as an excuse to extend our trip for two weeks in the incredible subcontinent.) The government website Bhutan.Travel offers a comprehensive list of approved guides, tour operators, hotels, itineraries, and more. And while, the abundance of choices can be overwhelming, it surfaces wonderful family-owned businesses that travelers may not find otherwise.



Why Go Now

Anne and Mike Howard/HoneyTrek

During the 916 days without visitors running around, Bhutan took this quiet time to polish every facet of its tourism sector, including hotel renovations, transportation improvements, and personnel training. Walking into the Paro International Airport, we felt as if we had entered a monument to Bhutanese art and architecture. His Majesty King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck commissioned 60 artists to work around the clock to turn it into the countrys largest art gallery and exhibition space, adorning it down to a baggage carousel that rotates around a replica of a 17th-century dzong (monastery). When we drove from the capital of Thimphu to the western district of Haa, the freshly built Damchu-Chukha bypass cut down the mountainous drive by an hour. When we stayed at Pamtsho Hotel, the owners were celebrating the grand opening of their chic cafe, made possible with time and money from the pandemic relief. In 2019, there were more than 3,000 registered guides nationwide; now with the governments new Tour Guide Readiness Assessment, they are culling that number to a top-notch fleet, presently at 481. The Tourism Council of Bhutan knows that their Sustainable Development Fee is asking a lot of visitors and they want to make sure to give a world-class experience in return.

Whats New in Bhutan

Anne and Mike Howard/HoneyTrek

Bhutan is known for its temples precariously perched on cliffs, vibrant festivals, 20,000-foot mountains, and fortified monasteries reminiscent of Tibet, but they arent just resting on the classics to bring in visitors. The much anticipated Trans-Bhutan Trail, the centuries-old footpath and main thoroughfare connecting the country until the 1960s, has been restored for locals and foreign trekkers alike. With our guides at Bridge to Bhutan, we got the chance to bite off a piece of this 250-mile trail, and were impressed by not just the lush flora and fauna, but the botanical signs, historic markers, and QR codes along the way. We ended at the 108 hand-painted chortens (Buddhist shines) of Dochula Pass, hungry for more trail time.

Along the river in downtown Thimphu, the Centenary Farmers Market has a brand new outdoor counterpart with artisanal food stalls, a music stage, a childrens park, and trendy eateries. In Paro, the National Museum of Bhutan has just reopened after nine years of restoring this 17th-century building and enlivening their encyclopedic offering. We had so much fun exploring the stone passageways and wonky stairwells of this seven-story watchtower, each leading to multi-media exhibits covering everything from the countrys traditional dress to their modern monarchy.

And when it comes to tour operators, they are leveling up their offerings with more personalized and unique experiences to differentiate themselves. We will definitely have to be creative and carve new and interesting itineraries and activities, said Fin Norbu, co-founder of Bridge to Bhutan. We are already scouting a few new treks in the Haa, Paro, and Thimphu regions. To enhance our trip, Norbu invited us to his familys ancestral home in Dorica to participate in a Buddhist house blessing ceremony, which had us sitting cross legged in a hand-painted temple with a circle of monks, playing horns, chanting verses, and sharing fruit offerings.

Partially Guided Trips

Anne and Mike Howard/HoneyTrek

While you still cant go renegade around the country, the Tourism Council of Bhutan is modernizing its systems to give travelers more mobility, choice, and luxuries. They are doing away with the requirement of a 24/7 guide, the mandate to follow pre-approved itineraries, and stops at immigration checkpoints. Now that the three-star package tours arent the de facto choice, you can land at the airport, hail an (electric) taxi, and be whisked away to Paro or Thimphu for a stay, whether at the newly completed Six Senses or a locals home. You can wander the lanes of artisan shops, nibble your way between food stalls, catch an archery tournament (it's the countrys national sport), and rub elbows with locals in the plazas and parks.

However, to visit the cities main attractions, go trekking, or explore outside of Thimphu and Paro, a guide is still required. Travelers can book a guide on the fly, by using a luxury hotels guides or meeting an independent guide (though, of course, booking through a tour operator in advance also still works). The tour company we worked with, Bridge to Bhutan, charged $185 daily per person (separate from the SDF), which covered a driver, guide, monument tickets, all meals, hotels, visa fees, and their concierge services. We stayed at charming family-run guesthouses (and opted for a night at Le Meridien Paro), ate farm-to-table meals, and were chauffeured to every attraction. They handled the logistics of visas and made every hotel, restaurant, and site booking as well.

When selecting your accommodations (either by yourself or working in collaboration with your guide), we'd recommend a mix of lodging; try a farm stay for a glimpse into local life, then treat yourself to one of the new wellness experiences at Gangtey Lodge or a couple nights at the much-anticipated andBeyond Punakha River Lodge opening next year.

Anne and Mike Howard/HoneyTrek

Anne and Mike Howard/HoneyTrek

Bhutans well-preserved heritage is deeply layered and all the more beautiful when peeled back with local guidance. No part of your tourism experience in Bhutan is watered down for Western consumption. While Bhutans new approach to tourism is contentious, it also draws a clear line in the sand. They dont want just any tourists; they want people who care about their culture and environment and believe in preserving it.



For more of Mike and Anne's coverage of Bhutan, follow their Instagram and visit their travel website HoneyTrek.com.
The podcast Tracking the Tropics with Bryan Norcross is now available to stream.

Updated at 8:30 a.m. ET

Tropical Depression Nine formed out of the disturbance we've been following in the Caribbean. It appears that the hostile upper-level winds that were limiting development let up just enough for thunderstorms to form near the center of rotation. The fact that we now have a well-defined center helps the forecasting. The computer forecast models have a better starting point to latch onto.

Now that the system is a tropical depression, we get a cone from the National Hurricane Center. Hopefully, that will get more people in Florida to pay close attention to the potential threat, which is harder to accomplish for a disorganized disturbance on the other side of the Caribbean Sea.

The NHC cone shows the threat zone as the Florida peninsula. The cone is a compromise of the key computer forecast models, some of which show landfall close to Tampa Bay and others that take the storm closer to Miami. A consensus of the models  in other words, a kind of average  is historically the most accurate predictor of where the storm is going to go.

But there are a couple of important points. Bear in mind that, on average, the center of the storm stays inside the cone about 2/3 of the time. And when a system is just forming, forecasts are poorer, so the accuracy is even less.

The projected path and intensity of Tropical Depression Nine.

While the current cone is the best estimate of the system's track based on the available information. As the depression gets better developed and turns into a tropical storm with a well-defined center, the forecasts should improve, and we can have more confidence in the cone. The point is that we should expect adjustments in the coming days.

The timeline with this storm is compressed. It's not like when Irma was approaching when we watched the storm's progress for more than a week. Plans are going to have to be implemented in a hurry.

If the storm were to move toward the Keys and extreme South Florida, the current timeline puts the storm there as early as Tuesday. If it were to move toward Central Florida, it would be more like Wednesday. If it went outside the cone to the northern Gulf coast, it would arrive on Thursday plus or minus.

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The timeline is subject to change, of course, but it's unlikely to be radically different.

A strong jet-stream dip is forecast to reach the Gulf of Mexico Sunday and Monday. That feature should scoop up the storm and arc it north and east. Since we don't know exactly where the system will be when the dip grabs it, we don't know exactly where the arcing track will end up.

People in the northern Bahamas should also monitor the progress of the system.

The water is very warm on the storm's track. There is no obvious reason it won't steadily intensify. The only inhibiting factor would seem to be whether the upper-level winds are conducive. The forecast shows the environment as essentially ideal for intensification before the system gets to Cuba. In the Gulf, some dry air might come into play as well as slightly more hostile winds. But if the storm intensifies significantly, that might not be a factor. Strong storms can better throw off outside influences.

Right now, the National Hurricane Center is forecasting the system to be a strong Category 2 hurricane at landfall in Florida. This means that all planning has to assume it could be at least a Category 3. We always assume at least a one-category error this far in advance.

If you live in the threat zone, do your friends and neighbors a favor and be sure they are paying attention.

Hurricane Fiona is now just past Bermuda on its way to eastern Canada. The Canadian weather service is warning that Fiona is shaping up to be a severe event for Atlantic Canada and eastern Quebec. A large area will experience hurricane-force winds. Strong storms are not uncommon there, but normally they are in the winter when there are no leaves on the trees. Prolonged and widespread power outages are predicted.

Tracking the tropics

Flooding is also possible from continuous rain, and the coastline will be battered by waves over 30 feet, causing significant erosion in some areas.

This is all forecast to begin later today and continue into Saturday.

Tropical Storm Gaston is doing a loop over the northern Azores - islands in the northeast Atlantic. The storm isn't terribly strong, but it is going to be relentless.

Tropical Disturbance #1 is a disorganized mass of showers. It has a slight chance of developing into a tropical depression.

Tropical Disturbance #2 is a robust system in the waters just off the African coast. It has a good chance of developing into at least a depression as it moves to the north.

Tropical Disturbances #1 and #3 are in a race to get named first. The next name on the list is Hermine, and the one after that is Ian.

Stay well-informed in the Florida threat zone to be sure you have the latest information. Things will develop quickly over the next few days.
Amazon's freight safety chief says its goal is "zero accidents, zero fatalities." Paul Hennessy/Getty Images

A driver for a company used by Amazon was convicted of driving while high after crashing into a ditch.

The Wall Street Journal unearthed from public records that the driver was caught with a crack pipe.

Amazon said it would have cut ties with the company sooner had it known about the crash.

A truck driver for a company used by Amazon was convicted of driving while high after he crashed into a ditch in Minnesota and was caught with a crack pipe, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The online retail giant uses many external freight companies to help it transport goods and make deliveries. An investigation by the newspaper found that Amazon used some companies with unsafe driving scores that had raised red flags at the Department of Transportation.

Amazon told The Journal, which unearthed the Minnesota case from public records, that it would have cut ties sooner with the company in question if it had been aware of the crash. The newspaper did not name the company or give further details about the incident.

Steve DasGupta, safety director of Amazon's freight unit, told the publication: "Our goal is zero accidents, zero fatalities. We run a very safe network of tens of thousands of carriers."

Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, told Insider that the WSJ article contained "misleading and inaccurate assertions".

"It's misleading to use a small sample of carriers who intermittently work with us to make pointed assertions about the safety of our network of more than 50,000 carriers. In reality, our safety standards are more stringent than the federal government's  99% of carriers we contract with are compliant with those standards, and any that aren't are investigated, suspended, and/or terminated. This is a complex industry and there will always be some bad actors, but we're invested in making sure every one of our partners meets our industry-leading high bar of compliance."

Since 2015, trucking companies hauling freight for Amazon have been involved in crashes that killed more than 75 people, The Journal reported.

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Amazon told the newspaper that the rate of fatalities per vehicle mile for its contractors was about 7% below the industry average in 2020.

Per the report, Condor Riders, MJS Enterprises, and Marrosso were three companies used by Amazon whose drivers were involved in accidents that were sometimes fatal.

Condor Riders, which is no longer trading, had an unsafe driving score that placed it among the most dangerous trucking companies in the US in March and April 2020, according to the DoT data reported by The Journal.

Edmund Miller Jr., 70, and Jose Luis Venegas Nuno, 36, died after an MJS driver crashed into a line of cars in October 2020 as they slowed down in northeastern Louisiana.

The truck driver, Dilshod Abdurasulov, was fined for careless driving and still works for MJS. The company continued to be used by Amazon until at least September 2021, according to the report. MJS declined to comment to The Journal.

In April Insider followed a truck driver as he traveled cross-country to join a protest against vaccine mandates. The report highlighted how truck drivers work long hours, enough to equal two full-time jobs, without an adequate salary.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The Biden administration is reportedly considering replacing World Bank President David Malpass, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2019, for his reluctance to accept the science of climate change, but Malpass said he wont resign, setting up a potential showdown over control of the international lending institution.

Concerns about Malpasss climate convictions date back to the time of his appointment, when critics noted that Malpass  then a Treasury Department official  had in 2007 promoted a claim about historical global warming that has been widely debunked by scientists.

David Malpass, president of the World Bank, at an economic forum in Moran, Wyo., on Aug. 26. (David Paul Morris/BloombergPaul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

But the current kerfuffle began on Wednesday, when former Vice President Al Gore said at a New York Times event, We need to get a new head of the World Bank. This is ridiculous to have a climate denier as the head of the World Bank.

At a later event that same day, Times reporter David Gelles asked Malpass onstage to respond to Gores comments. But Malpass avoided directly addressing the issue. When Gelles followed up by asking, Do you accept the scientific consensus that the man-made burning of fossil fuels is rapidly and dangerously warming the planet?

Malpass gave a response long favored by Republicans: I dont even know  Im not a scientist and that is not a question, so ... what we need to do is move forward with impactful projects, he said.

Climate activists and diplomats swiftly condemned Malpasss comments. Its simple. If you dont understand the threat of #climatechange to developing countries, you cannot lead the worlds top international development institution, tweeted Christiana Figueres, who led negotiations of the 2015 Paris climate agreement as executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

This is not the first time someone has called for Malpasss ouster. In October 2021, a coalition of 77 environmentalist groups including Friends of the Earth sent a letter to World Bank governors and executive directors asking for him to be replaced. The activists argued that the World Bank should no longer be lending money for fossil fuel projects.

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Former Vice President and environmental activist Al Gore at the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November 2021. (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)

Since the Paris Agreement, the World Bank has provided $12 billion in direct project finance to fossil fuels, more than any other multilateral development bank, the groups wrote. The figure does not include billions more in support to fossil fuels through policy based lending and financial intermediaries.

Friends of the Earth and other environmental advocacy organizations reiterated their opposition to Malpass on Thursday. The investments by the World Bank in Africa continue to fuel the impacts of the climate crisis experienced by communities across the continent, said Dean Bhekumuzi Bhebhe of Power Shift Africa. There is no time for climate denialism. The World Bank must act now to end all fossil fuel finance and invest in sustainable, renewable energy for all.

On Thursday, Malpass went on CNN and changed his answer. Its clear that greenhouse gas emissions are coming from man-made sources, including fossil fuels, methane, agricultural uses and industrial uses, he said. And so we're working hard to change that."

And in a note to World Bank staff that was obtained by Reuters, Malpass said the sharp increase in the use of coal, diesel, and heavy fuel oil in both advanced economies and developing countries is creating another wave of the climate crisis.

On Friday, Malpass told the Wall Street Journal he is not planning to resign. Its clear that greenhouse-gas emissions from human activity are adding to, are causing, climate change, he told the newspaper.

A coal-fired power plant near Niederaussem, Germany. (Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

A spokesperson for the World Bank told Reuters that the bank has limited financing for coal-fired power plants and oil and gas drilling. But the news service noted that the World Bank has so far resisted pressure from European board members and climate campaigners to phase out fossil fuel financing entirely. Last year, the bank invested $620 million in a liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique.

Malpasss comments acknowledging the human causes of climate change werent enough to quiet the controversy. On Friday morning, Axios reported that the White House is considering how it could remove him. As the World Banks largest shareholder, the United States appoints the head of the bank. However, the bank president typically serves a five-year term, rather than at the pleasure of the U.S. president. Firing Malpass would be the prerogative of the banks board of executive directors, who do not answer to the Biden administration.

Citing unnamed administration sources, Axios reported that the White House has discussed potentially appointing Gore, climate envoy John Kerry or former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg as a replacement for Malpass. Countries in the developing world have also called for the World Bank  which finances development in those nations  to be led by someone from one of them.

Options include Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Nigerian-American economist who now heads the World Trade Organization, and Minouche Shafik, an Egyptian-born British-American economist who is director of the London School of Economics, Axios reported.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the first woman and first African leader of the World Trade Organization. (Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images)

Malpass may also be tagged with some guilt by association: He was appointed by a president who has falsely described climate change as a hoax, and his wife is the president of the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Daily Caller is a right-wing tabloid website that has run stories casting doubt on climate science.

At the time of his appointment, there were widespread fears that he would undermine or dial back the World Banks programs lending money for clean energy or climate change adaptation and resilience, but he quickly demonstrated that he had no intention of doing so. Advocates of more aggressive climate action, however, want the World Bank to couple those efforts with a phaseout of lending that creates new greenhouse gas emissions.

Asked about the controversy at the White House on Friday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, We disagree with the comments made by President Malpass. We expect the World Bank to be a global leader of climate ambition and mobilization as well. She would not say whether President Biden still has confidence in Malpass.
Tucker Carlson

As attacks on hospitals across the country providing gender-affirming care services to trans children increases, with the latest target being a hospital in Ohio, far-right Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson is adding fuel to the fire.

During a segment on his show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, on Wednesday, Carlson, who has often made anti-LGBTQ+ comments, attacked hospitals providing gender-affirming health care to transgender young people.

Carlson said that being transgender is a fad, and he repeatedly claimed that gender-affirming medicine harms children and called it a crime.

Following a series of tweets from right-wing extremist influencer Matt Walsh accusing Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee of opening its gender-affirming care division for financial gain, Carlson joined online trolls in targeting the facility.

As a result, the hospital received an influx of hate and vitriol, leading to its having to shut down its website, as the Daily Beast reported.

Carlson directs his viewers to engage in threatening behavior with a wink and a nod.

In what experts describe as an example of stochastic terrorism tactics, Carlson said on his program that hospital employees were criminals who shouldnt be surprised they are receiving threatening phone calls.

As the latest attack on childrens hospitals that provide gender-affirming care, right-wing social media accounts have targeted Akron Childrens Hospital, the Akron Beacon Journal reports.

In August, right-wing influencers, news outlets, and social media accounts targeted Boston Childrens Hospital, which runs what was the first transgender health program in the country.

A Massachusetts woman was arrested last week for allegedly making a fake bomb threat at Boston Childrens Hospital, where doctors and staff have been harassed and threatened because of the hospitals transgender health program.

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Providing care to transgender patients looking for characteristics that align with their gender identity is the ambition of gender-affirming medicine, a field involving medical and social work professionals. For LGBTQ+ youth and their families, services can include wellness checks, mental health care, puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and other daily medical services.

Right-wing radicals like Chaya Raichik, who runs the online Libs of TikTok account, and Jaimee Michell, the founder of Gays Against Groomers, have amplified false claims that doctors across the country are drugging and mutilating children.

For months, conservative hate groups have attempted to spread a conspiracy theory that hospitals are conducting genital surgeries on minors. They are not. The Endocrine Society does not recommend genital surgery for minors. The only surgeries available to patients as young as 16 years old in rare cases are mastectomies or top surgery for transmasculine youth. For the vast majority of patients who seek gender-affirming care, social support is provided, and the effects of puberty are safely delayed to allow the patient more time to understand their gender identity.

Trans rights advocates say these "mutilation" conspiracy theories aim at generating outrage and inspire attacks against medical facilities and professionals providing essential health care to trans children and adults.
Tudor Dixon, the Republican Partys pick to run the state of Michigan, mocked her incumbent opponent on Friday for being the target of a kidnapping plot that landed some of the organizers in federal prison.

More than a dozen men were arrested in 2020 for conspiring to capture Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) by force, potentially to kill her.

Dixon attempted to draw a parallel between the kidnapping scheme and Whitmers policies, which Dixon says are bad for Michigan businesses, but she ended up delivering a bizarre punchline.

The sad thing is that Gretchen will tie your hands, put a gun to your head and ask if youre ready to talk. For someone so worried about being kidnapped, Gretchen Whitmer sure is good at taking business hostage and holding it for ransom, Dixon said.

Her comments elicited applause from the crowd of about 300 at the American Polish Cultural Center in Troy, Michigan, according to The Detroit News.

Whitmers campaign responded with a statement emphasizing the severity of the conspiracy against her.

Threats of violence  whether to Governor Whitmer or to candidates and elected officials on the other side of the aisle  are no laughing matter, and the fact that Tudor Dixon thinks its a joke shows that she is absolutely unfit to serve in public office, it read.

This was at an event Tudor Dixon was doing with Kellyanne Conway. Gretchen Whitmers campaign responded with this: pic.twitter.com/iy1WYF5ZtT  Omar Jimenez (@OmarJimenez) September 23, 2022

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, said Dixons comments were repugnant.

Anyone who would make light of such an effort is not fit to hold public office at any level, Nessel wrote in a tweet.

This statement is repugnant. @GovWhitmer is the victim of a very serious plot to kidnap and assassinate her. Anyone who would make light of such an effort is not fit to hold public office at any level. https://t.co/CUSCbWBMsE  Dana Nessel (@dananessel) September 23, 2022

But Dixon was not deterred, mocking Whitmer at a different event later on Friday. She recalled the governors meeting with President Joe Biden at last weeks North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

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The look on her face was like, Oh, my gosh, this is happening. Id rather be kidnapped by the FBI, Dixon said, describing Bidens hand touching Whitmers.

Dixon went on to repeat her earlier line for Detroit crowd, too.

Earlier today I said, You know, Gretchen Whitmer, since shes so worried about kidnapping, she shouldnt have held our businesses hostage. And they were like, She made this joke about kidnapping, Dixon said. And Im like, no, that wasnt a joke. If you were afraid of that, you should know what it is to have your life ripped away from you.

It was an apparent reference to Whitmers handling of the pandemic.

Whitmers communications director, Maeve Coyle, responded Friday to the escalation.

Here's Tudor Dixon doubling down on jokes about threats of violence against Gov. Whitmer:



"The look on her face was like... I'd rather be kidnapped by the FBI"



"No that wasn't a joke. If you were afraid of that, you should know what it is to have your life ripped away from you" https://t.co/puRz89Y7W2pic.twitter.com/8MwXJiHR59  Maeve Coyle (@maevemcoyle) September 23, 2022

Dixon supports eliminating personal income tax and slashing nearly in half what her website calls Michigans enormous regulatory code in order to unlock economic growth and attract new businesses and workforce talent to the state. Dixon would rapidly enact pro-growth policies and rehabilitate the states image as hostile to business, but her website does not offer much detail.

She secured an endorsement from former President Donald Trump this summer.

In October 2020, the FBI charged six men with federal crimes for plotting to kidnap Whitmer, while several others accused of being involved were charged with state crimes.

The men were particularly angry about the precautions Whitmer enacted to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the early stages of the pandemic. One of them told an FBI informant that he needed 200 men to storm the state Capitol so they could capture Whitmer and put her on trial in Wisconsin for treason, according to the FBI affidavit.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
ISTANBUL (AP)  The 25-year-old translator by day and trans drag performer by night felt overwhelming panic and anxiety when several thousand demonstrators gathered and marched Sunday in Turkey to demand a ban on what they consider gay propaganda and to outlaw LGBTQ organizations.

The Big Family Gathering march in the conservative heart of Istanbul attracted parents with children, nationalists, hard-line Islamists and conspiracy theorists. Turkey's media watchdog gave the event the government's blessing by including a promotional video that called LGBTQ people a virus in its list of public service announcements for broadcasters.

We need to make all our defense against this LGBT. We need to get rid of it," said construction worker Mehmet Yalcin, 21, who attended the event wearing a black headband printed with Islams testimony of faith. We are sick of and truly uncomfortable that our children are being encouraged and pulled to this.

Seeing images from the gathering terrified Willie Ray, the drag performer who identifies as nonbinary, and Willie Ray's mother, who was in tears after talking to her child. The fear wasn't misplaced. The Europe branch of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association ranked Turkey second to last, ahead of only Azerbaijan, in its most recent 49-country legal equality index, saying LGBTQ people endured countless hate crimes.

I feel like I can be publicly lynched, Willie Ray said, describing the daily sense of dread that comes with living in Istanbul. The performer recalls leaving a nightclub still in makeup on New Years Eve and hurrying to get to a taxi as strangers on the street called out slurs and tried to hunt me, basically.

Sundays march was the biggest anti-LGBTQ demonstration of its kind in Turkey, where civil rights for a community more commonly referred to here as LGBTI+  lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and other gender identities and sexual orientations  have been under assault in the years since an estimated 100,000 people celebrated Pride in Istanbul in 2014.

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In a visible sign of the shift, the anti-LGBTQ march went ahead without any police interference. Conversely, LGBTQ groups have had their freedom to assemble severely curtailed since 2015, with officials citing both security and morality grounds.

Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the Pride march planned for that year. Government officials have since banned the event. Activists have tried to gather anyway, and more than 370 people were detained in Istanbul in June.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's views also have grown more stridently anti-LGBTQ over time. Before the 2002 election that brought the Justice and Development Party (AKP) he co-founded to power, a younger Erdogan said at a televised campaign event that he found mistreatment of gay people inhumane and legal protections for them in Turkey a must.

And now, 20 years into this, you have an entirely different president that seems to be mobilizing based on these dehumanizing, criminal approaches to the LGBTQ movement itself, said Mine Eder, a political science professor at Bogazici University in Istanbul.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu has called LGBTQ people "perverts." In 2020, Erdogan defended the head of religious affairs after he claimed homosexuality brings disease and causes the generation to decay. While championing his long-held belief that the identities of women are rooted in motherhood and family, the Turkish leader last year urged people to dismiss what lesbians schmesbians say.

Turkey also withdrew from a European treaty protecting women against violence, after lobbying from conservative groups that claimed the treaty promoted homosexuality.

The country could become more unwelcoming for the LGBTQ community. The Unity in Ideas and Struggle Platform, the organizer of Sunday's event, said it plans to push for a law that would ban the alleged LGBTQ propaganda that the group maintains is pervasive on Netflix and social media, as well as in arts and sports.

The platform's website states it also favors a ban on LGBTQ organizations.

We are a Muslim country and we say no to this. Our statesmen and the other parties should all support this," said Betul Colak, who attended Sunday's gathering wearing a scarf with the Turkish flag.

Haunted by the feeling that you can be attacked anytime," Willie Ray thinks it would be a total catastrophe if a ban on the LGBTQ organizations that provide visibility, psychological support and safe spaces were enacted.

Eder, the professor, said it would be simply illegal to close down LGBTQ civil society based on ideological, Islamic and conservative norms  even if Turkey's norms have indeed shifted to using violent language, violent strategies and legalizing them.

The Social Policy, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association, a nongovernmental LGBTQ advocacy and outreach organization in Istanbul commonly known as SPoD, is among the LGBTQ groups that stopped posting their addresses online after receiving threatening calls.

Its easy for a maniac to try and hurt us after all the hate speech from state officials, said SPoD lobbyist Ogulcan Yediveren, 27. But these security concerns, this atmosphere of fear, doesn't stop us from work and instead reminds us every time how much we need to work.

Gay activist Umut Rojda Yildirim, who works as SPoDs lawyer, thinks the anti-LGBTQ sentiments on view Sunday aren't dominant across Turkish society, but that the minority expressing them seem "louder when they have government funds, when theyre supported by the government watchdog.

You can just shut down an office, but Im not going to disappear. My other colleagues arent going to disappear. Well be here no matter what, Yildirim said.

___

This story has been corrected to show that the name of the nongovernmental organization is the Social Policy, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association, not the the Social Policies, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association.
Police responded to a fatal shooting in 2021 at a convenience store on West Kearney Street.

Two Springfield men have now been sentenced for their roles in a 2021 fatal shooting at a convenience store on West Kearney Street and subsequent robbery.

On Aug. 13 of last year, police say Cody Westmoreland, 25, and Garrett Eagle, 23, were present when 49-year-old Jason Masters was fatally shot outside of the Conoco Village Mart. They then fled the scene in a silver Pontiac. Roughly 30 minutes later, police say the pair robbed a man walking near North Glenstone Avenue.

After their arrest, Westmoreland and Eagle were both charged with murder (under Missouri's felony murder law), armed criminal action and first-degree robbery. Westmoreland was also charged with unlawful use of a weapon.

More:Second suspect charged with murder in shooting outside of Springfield convenience store

Friday morning, Westmoreland changed his original plea of not guilty and pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The other charges, which included murder, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon, were dropped as a part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Last month, Eagle pleaded guilty to all counts. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Jordan Meier covers public safety for the Springfield News-Leader. Contact her at jmeier@news-leader.com, or on Twitter @Jordan_Meier644.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Two Springfield men sentenced after 2021 shooting at convenience store
By Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will discuss Taiwanese security during bilateral meetings with the leaders of Japan and South Korea when she visits the region next week, a senior administration official said on Friday.

The conversations with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will come days after Chinese officials were roiled by an explicit pledge by U.S. President Joe Biden to defend the Chinese-claimed island.

"We are very much aligned with our partners and this will be an opportunity for the vice president to discuss the recent developments and the way forward with the leaders of both Japan and the Republic of Korea," the official said. "You can assume that Taiwan will come up."

Harris' trip will include stops in Tokyo and Seoul, the official said, where leaders have warily watched increased tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Washington has also started considering options for a sanctions package against China and other options to deter it from invading Taiwan, sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters earlier this month.

China sees democratically governed Taiwan as one of its provinces. Beijing has long vowed to bring Taiwan under its control and has not ruled out the use of force to do so.

Taiwan's government strongly objects to China's sovereignty claims and says only the island's 23 million people can decide its future.

Biden's comments were the most explicit to date about committing U.S. troops to the defend the island, although the White House insisted its Taiwan policy had not changed. Those statements followed an Aug. 2 visit to Taiwan by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi that also angered China.nL1N2ZH00B]

In a phone call with Biden in July, China's leader, Xi Jinping, warned about Taiwan, saying, "Those who play with fire will perish by it."

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Leslie Adler)
It was not continuous: under the influence of external (conquest) and internal (civil strife) reasons, Ukrainian territories repeatedly fell under the power of conquering states, our people became their subjects and objects of denationalization policies.

During the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921, Ukrainians managed to restore their state. It changed names and forms several times: the Ukrainian Peoples Republic (1917-1918), the Ukrainian State (Hetmanate, 1918), again the Ukrainian Peoples Republic (the Directorate era, 1918-1921), the West Ukrainian Peoples Republic (1918-1919).

The formation of the state took place simultaneously with attempts to restrain external aggression from Russia and Poland. The Ukrainian Peoples Republic was defeated in this struggle, and Ukrainian politicians representing the state continued their activities as a government in exile.

Western Ukraine was divided between neighbouring countries  Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia where they became integral but without any special status.

As a result of the armed aggression of Bolshevik Russia, a communist (Bolshevik) regime was established in the rest of the Ukrainian Peoples Republic territory. The Soviet government had little local support and relied on a powerful repressive apparatus, and its functioning was directly linked to its center of power in Moscow.

The impulse of state formation and national revival, which the Ukrainian revolution gave, was so powerful that the Russian Bolsheviks had to reckon with it. In order to maintain power during the 1920s, the Ukrainianization policy was introduced, the result of which was the rise of national culture and the partial involvement of Ukrainians in governing bodies.

The creation of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was a forced concession of the Russian communist government to the Ukrainian national movement.

The Uk.SSR had some formal signs of a state (borders, authorities, symbols) but the main one  sovereignty  was missing. Therefore, it was not independent, neither in terms of internal nor foreign policy.

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As the communist totalitarian regime strengthened, Ukraines political and economic dependence grew.

This caused growing resistance, which resulted in a movement aimed at restoring independence.

The Ukrainian liberation movement developed in armed (1920-1950s) and non-violent (1960s-1980s) struggles.

Read also: 10 reasons why Ukraines resistance during the first month of the Russian invasion will make the history books

In the late 1980s, this movement, together with national-democratic revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe, played an important role in the fall of the communist regimes, and achieved the restoration of Ukrainian independence.

On 16 July 1990, the Verkhovna Rada of the Uk.SSR, under the pressure of the democratic opposition and mass street demonstrations, adopted the Declaration on the State Sovereignty of Ukraine and on 24 August 1991, the Act of Proclamation of Independence of Ukraine was adopted. The final confirmation of Ukraine as an independent state took place on 1 December 1991, when more than 90% of citizens supported this choice through the All-Ukrainian referendum.

The results of the referendum marked the beginning of Ukraines international recognition. After that, the formal signs of statehood that the Uk.SSR had, such as borders, limited participation in international relations (membership in the UN and other international organizations, the conclusion of international treaties) were filled with real meaning.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the Russian government headed by Vladimir Putin set out to restore its influence in the post-Soviet space. In Ukraine, it actively used pro-Russian politicians, economic pressure, public organizations and the media that were under their control. In 2010, Viktor Yanukovych, a convenient politician for the Kremlin, became the president of Ukraine. His attempts to create an anti-democratic regime, similar to the Russian one, caused mass civil protest.

Read also: The most comprehensive answer to the question: is Russia a fascist state?

As a result, he was forced to flee Ukraine, and Russia resorted to armed aggression in Crimea and Donbas in order to maintain its influence.

Since 2014, 23 years after the declaration of independence, Ukrainians have again taken up arms to defend their freedom and the integrity of their state.

Our century-long war for independence continues. And it is we who have the chance, obligation, opportunity and honour to end this century-old war with victory.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
 Ukraine and Russia conduct the largest prisoner swap since the start of the full-scale invasion.

215 Ukrainians were traded for 56 Russian prisoners on Sept. 21, including 108 members of the Azov Regiment. Notable figures from the Ukrainian side include five top Azov commanders, as well as ten international volunteers  many of whom had previously been sentenced to death by a court of the Donbas puppet authorities. Ukraine, meanwhile, sent Russia Viktor Medvedchuk  the pro-Russian politician whose daughter is Putins goddaughter.

 Photos of the momentous event have been made available. Meanwhile, some of the Ukrainians that have been returned are survivors of the Olenivka POW camp, which was struck by a Russian false flag attack.

 The EU has agreed to step up sanctions on Russia in light of its partial mobilization.

EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Josep Borrell said that Russias recent statements "showed panic and desperation, and a result, "It's clear that Putin is trying to destroy Ukraine. After a briefing by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, EU ministers agreed to instruct their teams to prepare an eighth package of sanctions, which will target "more relevant sectors of the Russian economy and continue targeting people responsible for the war of aggression in Ukraine.

 The International Atomic Energy Agency has begun negotiations on the creation of a safe zone around the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Following a meeting between IAEA head Rafael Grossi and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Kuleba revealed that the discussions revolved around ways to restore security at the ZNPP and stressed that Russia must withdraw its troops and specialists from the plant, and return it to Ukrainian control. Grossi also met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, presumably on the same topic. During a press briefing following the meeting, the IAEA Director General said he hoped to travel to Ukraine and Russia soon to speed up security talks, and stressed that a decision must be made as soon as possible.

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 A Russian strike on the Kharkiv train station destroys several refrigerated carriages carrying the bodies of killed Russian servicemembers.

The number of carriages destroyed was not specified by the Ukrainian government. However, Ukraines General Staff has continuously reported on efforts by the Russian military leadership to hide the scale of losses the Russian army has taken in Ukraine. According to official data from the Russian Ministry of Defense, only 6,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine  compared to Ukraines claim of over 55,000 killed. Documents leaked from the Russian Federation suggest the Ukrainians number is more accurate, however.

 The World Bank has invested in Ukraine for the first time since the start of the full-scale war.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is part of the World Bank, has allocated $30 million for investments in Ukraine and Moldova, according to a statement released by Ukraines Economy Ministry. The funds will be channelled through a $200 million trust fund managed by U.S-Ukrainian investment company Horizon Capital. It is reported that the funds will be channelled through a $200 million trust fund managed by the U.S-Ukrainian investment company Horizon Capital.

 Capping off his New York trip, Foreign Minister Kuleba makes an appearance as a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Commenting on Ukraines counter-offensive in Kharkiv Oblast, Kuleba said that it demonstrates that Ukraine knows how to win. It proves not only to us but to the entire world that we know how to win and we will, he said. After this, the audience gave the minister a standing ovation. In turn, Kuleba forwarded this applause to the Ukrainian people and the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

 The days long-read: NV interviews former U.S. ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.

During the 17th Yalta European Strategy summit on Sept. 9-10, NV was able to catch the former ambassador, now a lecturer at the prestigious U.S. School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, for a brief chat regarding her time in Ukraine, Russias actions, and Donald Trumps involvement.

 Dont miss: Military expert Oleksandr Musienko on Putins desire to fight until the last Russian.

Musienko believes that Putin is deliberately stretching out the war, because his imperial obsession with Ukraine, and even the huge losses that Russia continues to suffer in the invasion are not enough to dissuade the dictator.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Vovchansk deputy mayor provided Russian forces with lists of Ukrainian veterans and activists living the city

The message also said two locals of the recently-liberated town of Kupyansk were detained.

Read also: SBU identifies two collaborators in liberated Kupyansk

The 67-year-old (Ukrainian) citizen served as Vovchansk deputy mayor, and voluntarily aided and abetted the enemy during the occupation of the city, the message said.

SBU Press Centre

According to the SBU, one of the other collaborators, a woman, provided Russian forces with lists of Ukrainian veterans and activists living the city. She helped the occupation authorities procure construction materials to erect fortifications, and took part in taking down Ukrainian flags from administrative buildings across Vovchansk. She will remain under arrest and stand trial for treason, facing up to 15 years in prison.

SBU Press Centre

SBU also said it detained two residents on Kupyansk, who were ideologically compelled to assist the occupying Russian troops in policing the city.

Read also: Ukraines SBU captures collaborator in Kharkiv Oblast

The two men are accused of actively helping enemy troops to maintain order in Kupyansk, including taking punitive measures against patriotic citizens.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
(Bloomberg) -- On the eve of the wars seven-month mark, voting began in four Moscow-occupied territories on whether to join Russia. Ukraines government and its allies have slammed the referendums as shams, reminiscent of a similar ballot in Crimea in 2014 ahead of annexation.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The ballots in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, mark an escalation in Russias plans to annex swaths of its neighbor. They follow recent military setbacks by Russian troops and President Vladimir Putins move to call up as many as 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine.

The draft triggered protests around the country, the biggest since the early days of the war, and conscription-age men rushed to find ways to flee. Workers in some industries will be exempt, authorities said.

(See RSAN on the Bloomberg Terminal for the Russian Sanctions Dashboard.)

Key Developments

Putins Conscripts Wont Win His War But May Drag It Out

Russia Stages Referendums to Annex Occupied Ukraine Lands

EU Rushes to Agree on an Oil Price Cap After Putins Threats

Russias Lavrov Scorns West by Arriving Late at UN, Walking Out

Abramovich Met Saudi Prince for Russia-Ukraine Prisoner Exchange

Wheat Rises to Two-Month High as War Again Threatens Black Sea Deal

On the Ground

Ukraines General Staff said Russian forces continue to suffer losses, including among leadership, including a Major General wounded in a recent strike at Svatove in Luhansk region. The claim cant be verified. Nataliya Humenyuk, spokeswoman for Ukraines southern military command, said Kyivs forces are gradually taking ground in their counteroffensive campaign. Russia overnight struck the city of Zaporizhzhia with missiles, regional governor Oleksandr Starukh said. A loud blast was heard in Melitopol, also in the Zaporizhzhia region, early Friday. Over the past day Ukrainian forces repelled Russian attacks near eight settlements, including in the vicinity of Donetsk and in the Kharkiv region.

Story continues

(All times CET)

Finland to Significantly Limit Entry of Russians (6:10 p.m.)

The decision by the president and key ministers came after Russias order of partial mobilization. Officials cited harm to Finlands international standing. Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto is set to announce details later on Friday.

Toyota Decides to End Vehicle Production in Russia (3:40 p.m.)

Manufacturing at the Saint Petersburg plant was suspended since March 4 due to the interruption in supply of key materials and parts. Six months later, the company still has not been able to resume normal activities and sees no indication that it can re-start in the future.

Russia Punishing Crimean Tatars, Envoy Says (2:44 p.m.)

Draft notices are being handed to Crimean tatars as a way of punishing them for a lack of support in Russias war, Volodymyr Zelenskiys representative to the occupied peninsula Tamila Tasheva said on Facebook.

Crimean Tatar men have received at least 1,000 mobilization notices across the Russia-seized peninsula, Tasheva said, describing this as a catastrophe for the indigenous ethnic group.

They want to use mobilization in order to annihilate Crimean tatars, she wrote.

Abramovich Met MBS for Prisoner Exchange (1:04 p.m.)

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh in August for talks that led to Russia and Ukraine swapping prisoners of war, said three people familiar with the matter.

In the swap this week, Ukraine turned over 55 captives, including pro-Russian tycoon Viktor Medvedchuk. Russia handed over 215 prisoners, the majority of whom were involved in the defense of Ukraines Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.

Saudi Arabia said Wednesday that the crown prince was involved in mediation efforts that led to the release of ten prisoners, without giving further details on the process.

Russia Exempts Workers in Some Sectors From Military Draft (12 p.m.)

Russias Defense Ministry announced that workers in certain segments would be excused from the draft ordered Wednesday by President Vladimir Putin.

The exemptions apply to people working for IT companies, information and communications services, media, and organizations responsible for the stability of the national payment system and financial market infrastructure. Companies and organizations in these industries should submit lists of employees to apply for exemptions, the ministry said in a Telegram post.

It earlier said university students also wont be called up. The announcement comes amid signs some Russians are rushing to flee the country or otherwise avoid the prospect of being sent to join the war in Ukraine.

China Says Its Committed to Promoting Peace Talks (11:55 a.m.)

Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Ukrainian counterpart that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be respected, when the two met at the UN General Assembly in New York, Xinhua reported.

Beijing always stands on the side of peace and continues to play a constructive role in the Ukraine conflict, the minister said, without offering details.

Earlier, Wang Wenbin, a Foreign Ministry spokesman sidestepped a question at a regular press briefing in Beijing about Russias referendums in areas of Ukraine it occupies.

Baltics Fear Blackouts if Russian Disconnects Them From Grid (10:02 a.m.)

Estonian Premier Kaja Kallas said Russia delayed plans to test disconnecting its exclave of Kaliningrad from the electricity system on Saturday. Such a move could be a precursor to desynchronizing the three Baltics countries and potentially lead to blackouts.

This doesnt mean that they will not do it on another day and pick a worse time for us, be it winter, Dec. 24, or something like that, Kallas told Estonias public broadcaster.

We have been preparing for desynchronization, or the disconnection of power grids from Russias frequency range, for years, but if Russia does this abruptly, we may have blackouts, Kallas said.

Russia Stages Referendums to Annex Occupied Lands (9:40 a.m.)

Russia on Friday began staging UN-condemned votes on annexing the roughly fifth of neighboring Ukraine it occupies in a step that marks a new escalation in the spiraling conflict between President Vladimir Putin and the US and its allies.

State media reported overwhelming support for accession to Russia in the four regions that its troops partially control. In Moscow, officials vowed to move quickly to finalize the absorption of the territories.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the votes a violation of the UN Charter and international law.

Putins Conscripts May Merely Drag Out His War (9:31 a.m.)

Russian President Vladimir Putins move to draft in 300,000 reservists to reinforce his troops in Ukraine is likely to extend the war rather than influence its outcome.

Still, it could buy him time to execute a wider strategy -- including exacerbating Europes energy crisis and threatening a nuclear strike on unspecified targets -- aimed at undermining foreign military and financial support for Kyivs war effort.

Read more: Putins Conscripts Wont Win His War But May Drag It Out

Putin Loyalist Criticizes Prisoner Swap With Ukraine (9:23 a.m.)

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov added to domestic criticism over Russias exchange of prisoners of war with Ukraine announced on Wednesday. The whole situation is incomprehensible, he wrote on Telegram to his 2.6 million followers, while being careful to declare that any order by President Vladimir Putin must be implemented.

Kadyrov also indicated he had no plans to round up reservists following Putins order for partial mobilization, claiming volunteers in the largely Muslim southern Russian republic had already over-fulfilled by 254% its quota before the call-up was announced.

The Chechen, regime has been accused of repeated human rights abuses, has become increasingly critical of the conduct of Russias war recently, while declaring total loyalty to Putin.

Zelenskiy Said Russias Votes, Mobilization Bury Peace Prospects (8:30 a.m.)

Moscow was burying the prospects of talks with Kyiv with this weeks actions, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an address to the nation on Thursday.

Russia declares that it supposedly wants negotiations, but announces mobilization, Zelenskiy said. Ukraines position on the impossibility of diplomacy after sham referenda was clear, he said.

Putins new draft also meant the war in Ukraine for the majority of Russian citizens is not something on TV or on the internet, but something that has entered every Russian home, he said.

Read more: Russia Hurries to Tighten Grip on Occupied Ukraine, Ups Stakes

Among EU, Only Hungary Held Bilateral Talks With Russia at UN (8:20 a.m)

Hungarys Peter Szijjarto was the sole EU foreign minister to hold talks with Russias Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, underscoring the special relationship between Budapest and Moscow.

The pair discussed Hungarys reliance on Russian energy, Szijjarto said after the meeting. Russia has cut gas supplies to much of the continent in retaliation for EU sanctions for Moscows invasion of Ukraine.

Hungary, whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban this week called for the withdrawal of trade restrictions against Russia, has been rewarded with additional gas volumes on top of contracted amounts.

Putins Mobilization Will Take Time, Wont Solve Problems, US Says (9:46 p.m.)

Putins mobilization of as many as 300,000 reservists wont happen quickly and wont solve problems of morale and weak command that have hobbled Russian troops in Ukraine, according to the Pentagon.

It would take time for Russia to train and prepare and equip these forces, Brigadier General Pat Ryder, the Defense Departments spokesman, told reporters at the Pentagon. While in many ways this may address a manpower issue for Russia, what is not clear is whether or not it could significantly address the command-and-control, the logistics, the sustainment and importantly the morale issues that we have seen Russian forces in Ukraine experience.

Russias Lavrov Scorns West by Arriving Late at UN, Walking Out (9 p.m.)

The UN Security Council gave Russias Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov an icy reception when he went before it to defend his nations invasion of Ukraine. The veteran diplomat made sure he didnt stick around to hear the criticism.

In a show of defiance toward Western condemnation, Lavrov arrived well after the council opened a special meeting to discuss the Ukraine conflict on Thursday. He gave his speech -- accusing the West of forcing Russia to invade to protect itself -- and then walked out.

EU Rushes to Agree on an Oil Price Cap After Putins Threats (8:36 p.m.)

European Union member states are racing to clinch a political agreement within weeks that would impose a price cap on Russian oil.

The push has gained steam since Putin announced a partial mobilization of troops in an escalation of Russias war in Ukraine and will likely feature as part of a new a package of sanctions to be proposed by the European Commission, according to people familiar with the matter. A cap would align the EU with a US effort to keep the cost of crude from soaring and to hit Moscows revenue.

Despite the new effort from the commission, the EUs executive arm, and some member states, the plan faces many hurdles and a positive outcome is not a given, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.

EU Rushes to Agree on an Oil Price Cap After Putins Threats

Russia Outlines Reduced Gas Flows Over Next Three Years (5:32 p.m.)

Russia set out just how much its gas flows to the global market will fall in the next three years -- and the numbers underscore the scale of the challenge facing Europes energy consumers.

Annual pipeline gas exports are set to drop by almost 40% to 125.2 billion cubic meters in 2023-2025, according to the nations three-year draft plan, seen by Bloomberg News. Pipeline gas exports is estimated at 142 billion cubic meters this year, the draft showed.

Read more: Russia Sets Out How Much Its Going to Cut Gas Flow Through 2025

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KYIV (Reuters) - Ukrainian farms have started the 2022 corn harvest, threshing 92,200 tonnes of the commodity from 0.5% of the sown area, the agriculture ministry said on Friday.

The ministry said in a statement that the corn yield stood at 4.41 tonnes per hectare.

The ministry has said Ukraine could harvest 25 to 27 million tonnes of corn this year versus 42.1 million tonnes in 2021 and the Russian invasion was the main reason for the decrease in the harvest.

Ukraine is a major global grain producer and exporter but is likely to register a significant drop in output this year, falling to about 50 million tonnes from a record 86 million tonnes in 2021 because of the invasion.

The ministry said farmers had harvested a total of 26.1 million tonnes of grain from 61% of the sown area in 2022 as of Sept. 23. and the average grain yield stood at 3.84 tonnes per hectare.

It said the country had completed its 2022 wheat harvest with output at 19.2 million tonnes in bunker weight and the yield at 4.1 tones per hectare.

Farms also harvested 5.5 million tonnes of the barley from 100% of the area and 250,700 tonnes of peas from 98% of the sown area.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Hundreds of bodies have been exhumed from a mass grave in the recaptured town of Izium, the governor of Kharkiv region said.

Oleh Synyehubov told reporters on Friday that 30 of the 436 corpses showed signs of torture.

The mass grave was discovered after Ukrainian troops retook Izium on 10 September. Three others have also been located this month in territory previously occupied by Russian troops, according to Mr Synyehubov.

The exhumation comes as the UN said Russian had committed war crimes in Ukraine, including executions, rape and torture.

Erik Mose, who leads the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that Moscows troops were guilty of a large number of crimes.

There were only two cases involving Ukrainians ill-treatment of Russian soldiers, he added.

In other developments, voting has begun in sham referendums in four Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.

The results are expected to be announced on Tuesday and are likely to dramatically escalate the seven-month war, as experts fear Putin will use the referendum results to justify self-defence.

Key Points

436 bodies exhumed from mass grave in Izium, says Ukraine

Russian deputy foreign minister: Moscow is not threatening anybody with nuclear weapons

Ukrainians start voting in sham referendums to become part of Russia

Finland traffic on border with Russia remains busy as citizens entering more than doubles

Putin's mobilisation move shows its regular army crumbled - Zelensky

Ukraine putting pressure on territory critical to Russia - British MoD

More than 1,300 arrests at Russian anti-mobilisation protests

West scrambles to bridge North-South divide aggravated by Ukraine war

17:00 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari told the General Assembly that the war in Ukraine would hinder our capacity to work together to resolve conflicts elsewhere, especially in Africa, the Middle-East and Asia.

He said the war was making it more difficult to tackle the perennial U.N. issues, such as nuclear disarmament, the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, Palestinians statehood aspirations and a reduction of inequalities within and amongst nations.

Story continues

Some countries have also called out double standards exposed by how the West has responded to Russias war in Ukraine.

South Africas International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor said founding U.N. principles had not always been applied consistently and fairly, describing the problem as: We believe international law matters when this one is affected, but doesnt matter when this other one is affected.

She said global solidarity was needed to meet other challenges such as energy and food insecurity, climate change, other conflicts and the existential threat of nuclear weapons.

Instead of working collectively to address these challenges, we have grown further apart as geopolitical tensions and mistrust permeate our relations, Pandor said.

Polish President Andrzej Duda used his U.N. address to tell a few words of truth to us the leaders of the rich North, or AAA as others might like to put it - of the West.

He questioned whether the West was equally resolute during the tragedies of Syria, Libya, Yemen and whether equal weight was given to condemning the invasion in Ukraine and issues such as fighting mercenaries who seek to destabilize the Sahel and threaten many other states in Africa?

This is how I see the lesson learnt from this war: if the United Nations is truly to be united, every response to violations of international law should be identical - decisive and principled, Duda said.

436 bodies exhumed from mass grave in Izium, says Ukraine

16:45 , Rory Sullivan

Several weeks after Ukraine recaptured the strategic town of Izium, 436 bodies have been exhumed from a mass grave there, the governor of Kharkiv region said.

On Friday, Oleh Synyehubov told reporters that 30 of the bodies showed signs of torture.

Three other grave sites have been found in areas retaken by the Ukrainian army this month, he added.

France and international partners announce plans to aid food production hit by Ukraine war

16:30 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

France this week convened a meeting with partners including African nations, United Nations bodies and the European Union to urgently address the international food crisis resulting from the war in Ukraine, said the French Elysee presidential palace.

The meeting, held at the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, comes as President Emmanuel Macron this week urged neutral countries - many of which are in the global South - to side with Ukraine and the West.

Tensions on the food market are more exacerbated than ever in the context of the war in Ukraine, the French presidency said in a statement, reiterating its warning of a global food crisis caused by the war.

Russias invasion of Ukraine, which started in late February, impacted the market for fertilizers and crops, many of which are produced in Ukraine, and this in turn has led to a sharp rise in food prices.

Ukraine was unable to export most of its crops this year due to the war while energy-intensive fertiliser production was severely hit by soaring power prices across the globe.

The EU recalled the existing exemptions on all agrifood products and the provision of additional guidelines to clarify the applicability of its sanction regime towards Russia, the Elysee said, adding it also planned to launch an emergency fertilizer purchase mechanism for Africa.

A meeting with chief executives of fertiliser-producing companies will be convened in Paris ahead of the next G20 Summit in mid-November to scale-up production as fast as possible, the Elysee also said.

Finally, we call on gas producers throughout the world to take responsibility for limiting price increases and ensuring market transparency, which are essential to maintain fertilizer production capacity in all regions of the world, added the Elysee.

Ukraine will never forgive Russia - Russian Nobel laureate

16:00 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Ukraine will never forgive Russia for a shameful conflict which has thrown back Russias development by half a century to Soviet times predating Mikhail Gorbachev, journalist and Nobel Peace laureate Dmitry Muratov told Reuters.

Russias military campaign in Ukraine has killed tens of thousands, left some Ukrainian cities wastelands and triggered Moscows biggest confrontation with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Muratov, the long-time editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, one of the last independent media outlets in Russia, said Ukraine would never agree to peace or to the annexation of any of its territory.

Ukraine will never forgive Russia, Muratov, who co-founded Novaya Gazeta in 1993 with money from Gorbachevs Nobel Peace Prize, said in an interview in his office, which is adorned with ice hockey sticks and dozens of front pages from the paper.

Muratov said that modern technology had brought the horrors of the war home to people, along with the devastation of the battle for Mariupol in southern Ukraine and the claims of war crimes against Russian soldiers in Irpin and Bucha.

You many want to forgive everything, but you click in the search engine: Mariupol, Irpin or Bucha. And you cant forgive a goddamn thing anymore, Muratov said. Every step of this war, every crime and every shot, every torn scrotum will now remain forever.

Ukraine has accused Russia of war crimes. Russia says such accusations are a lie. The Russian government did not respond to a request for comment on Muratovs remarks.

President Vladimir Putin says Russias soldiers are heroes and that all Russias aims will be achieved.

Putin casts the operation in Ukraine as an attempt to foil a Western plot to rip Russia apart. Ukraine says it is fighting an illegal occupation and will never give in.

I dont want to die: Russians continue exodus after Putins call-up orders to join Ukraine war

15:12 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Some 7,000 people entered Finland from Russia on Thursday, a more than 100 per cent increase on the same day the week before, the latest figures from officials in Helsinki have revealed.

The exodus comes in the days after Vladimir Putin announced mobilisation of reservists for the war in Ukraine, with some reports that up to one million people will be called up.

Amid grim scenes of farewell across Russia, traffic at Vaalimaa, the busiest crossing point between the two countries was busy on Fridau, with cars lined up for up to 400 metres, a longer queue than the day before, a border official said.

Read more here:

I dont want to die: Russians continue exodus after Putins call-up order

Berlusconi, on eve of Italian election, says Putin was pushed into war with Ukraine

14:30 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Russian president Vladimir Putin was pushed into invading Ukraine to put decent people in charge, former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi has controversially claimed, just days before an Italian general election where his party could help form the new government.

The comments by Berlusconi - whose Forza Italia party belongs to a right-wing coalition expected to win the Sundays general election - are likely to alarm Western allies.

Putin was pushed by the Russian people, by his party, by his ministers to come up with this special operation, Berlusconi told Italian public television RAI late on Thursday, using the official Russian wording for the war.

Berlusconi, on eve of Italy election, says Putin was pushed into Ukraine war

Russian deputy foreign minister: Moscow is not threatening anybody with nuclear weapons

14:00 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Friday that Moscow was not threatening anybody with nuclear weapons and that open confrontation with the United States and NATO was not in Russias interests, Russian state news agencies reported.

Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov (AP)

Russia has committed war crimes in Ukraine, including executions and sexual violence, says UN

13:54 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Electric shocks, forced nudity and executions are some of the war crimes committed in Russian detention centres in Ukraine, the UNs human rights body have found.

Testimonies from former detainees revealed shocking accounts of human rights violations in the facilities, and expressed grave concerns about executions in the four regions.

The investigators of the Members of the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine visited 27 towns and settlements in four of the worst hit regions of Ukraine: Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy.

Read more here:

Putins Russia has committed war crimes in Ukraine, says UN

Watch: Berlusconi says Putin wanted to replace Ukraine government with 'decent people'

13:30 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Vladimir Putin was pushed into invading Ukraine and wanted to put decent people in charge of Kyiv, former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi has said, drawing fierce criticism just ahead of Italys election.

The Italian leader, whose Forza Italia party belongs to a right-wing coalition expected to win the general election on Sunday, is a long-time friend of Putin and his comments are likely to alarm Western allies.

Panic exodus is good sign that many Russians dont want to join Ukraine war, Germany says

13:00 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Germany said on Friday many Russians being called up to fight in the war in Ukraine do not want to take part, adding that this was welcome.

Many Russians who are now being called up do not want to take part in this war either. This is a good sign, a government spokesperson told a regular news conference.

Police officers detain a protestor in Moscow following Putins call for partial mobilisation in Russia (AFP via Getty Images)

A way must be left open for Russians to come to Europe and also to Germany, the spokesperson added.

More than 1 million Ukrainians may have been deported, U.S. envoy says

12:30 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

A U.S. envoy said that Russia has forcibly deported between 900,000-1.6 million Ukrainians, citing unnamed sources, and urged a U.N.-mandated commission of inquiry to investigate.

We urge the commissioners to continue to examine the growing evidence of Russias filtration operations, forced deportations and disappearances, U.S. Ambassador Michele Taylor told the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, referring to a commission of inquiry into Ukraine.

Numerous sources indicate that Russian authorities have interrogated, detained and forcible deported between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, she said.

Kazakhstan reports higher influx of Russians amid conscription

12:00 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Kazakhstan has seen an increased number of arrivals from neighbouring Russia, Kazakh authorities said on Friday, after Moscow announced a conscription drive this week the war in Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered Russias first mobilisation since World War Two and backed a plan to annex swathes of Ukraine, prompting an exodus of conscription-age men from the country.

Four of 30 road checkpoints on the Russian-Kazakh border - the worlds second-longest - were particularly congested, Kazakhstans border guard service said in a statement, without providing any numbers on arrivals.

A witness who asked not to be named, fearing for his safety, told Reuters they had been in a queue at a border checkpoint since Thursday morning and saw unusually heavy traffic from the Russian side and lengthy, thorough checks of Russian cars by Russian border guards.

Many of those seeking to cross the border were men who appeared to be of conscription age, under 35, the witness said.

Switzerland condemns "sham referendums" in Ukraine, summons Russian ambassador

11:30 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Sham referendums currently taking place in Ukrainian territories partially occupied by Russia are illegal under international law, the Swiss government said today.

The Swiss foreign ministry summoned the Russian ambassador over the matter on Thursday, the government said, adding that it would consider joining the European Union in imposing new sanctions on Russia.

Ukrainians start voting in sham referendums to become part of Russia

11:01 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Voting has begun in hastily-organised and highly-disputed referendums in four occupied regions of Ukraine to become part of Russia.

State media in Moscow said voting got underway - in the liberated territories of Luhansk, Kherson and the partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions - at 8am local time.

The results are expected to be announced on Tuesday and are likely to dramatically escalate the seven-month war.

Our international editor David Harding has more:

Ukrainians start voting in sham referendums to become part of Russia

Russia excludes some IT professionals, bankers and state journalists from mobilisation

10:40 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Some Russian technology professionals, bankers, and journalists at state media outlets will be not be called up to serve in Ukraine as part of Russias mobilisation drive, the defence ministry said on Friday in a statement.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said earlier this week Russia would seek to call up 300,000 additional troops for Russias war in Ukraine in what the Kremlin has called a partial mobilisation.

The section of the official decree announcing mobilisation which included the number of people who would be drafted was kept classified and unpublished, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

He rejected a report by the independent Novaya Gazeta paper on Thursday, citing a government source, that said the Kremlin is actually seeking to recruit up to one million people for the campaign.

The defence ministry said some employees working in critically important industries would be excluded from the draft in a bid to ensure the work of specific high-tech industries, as well as Russias financial system is unaffected by Russias first military mobilisation since World War Two.

The exceptions apply to some IT workers, telecommunications workers, finance professionals, as well as some employees at systemically-important mass media outlets, the ministry said in a statement.

It said heads of companies should draw up lists of their employees who meet the criteria and can be excluded from the draft.

ICYMI- Russia could draft up to one million soldiers to fight in Ukraine

10:10 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Moscow is looking to mobilise up to one million reservists for the Ukraine war, not 300,000, according to Russian media reports.

A secret clause in Russian president Vladimir Putins partial mobilisation decree permits the Kremlin to draft far more soldiers taht was announced, a source told the Novaya Gazeta Europe newspaper.

They changed the figure several times and eventually settled on a million, the source said.

My colleague Rory Sullivan has more:

Russia could draft up to one million soldiers to fight in Ukraine

Justifying self-defence: Votes seen as paving the way for Russian escalation

09:40 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

By incorporating the four areas voting today into Russia, Moscow could justify military escalation as necessary to defend its territory.

Vladimir Putin said Russia would use all the means at our disposal to protect itself, an apparent reference to nuclear weapons. This is not a bluff, he said.

(AP)

Encroachment onto Russian territory is a crime which allows you to use all the forces of self-defence, Dmitry Medvedev, who was Russias president from 2008 to 2012, said in a post on Telegram.

Referendum results in favour of Russia are considered inevitable. The vote in Crimea in 2014, criticised internationally as rigged, had an official result of 97 per cent in favour of formal annexation.

ICYMI- Number of Russians crossing border has intensified after Putins mobilisation order, Finland says

09:10 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

The number of Russians crossing the Finnish border intensified overnight after Vladimir Putins dramatic announcement that Moscow would begin military mobilisation for the war in Ukraine, officials in Helsinki said.

The Finnish border guards head of international affairs, Matti Pitkaniitty, told Reuters that 4,824 Russians had arrived in Finland via the eastern border on Wednesday, up from 3,133 on the same day a week earlier.

On Wednesday there were reports of flights to countries including Turkey and Georgia selling out after the Russian leader spoke.

Traffic at the Finnish-Russian border intensified during the night, said Pitkaniitty. The number clearly has picked up.

Border queues and flights sell out as Kremlin denies Russians fleeing

Britons freed from Russian captivity in Ukraine evacuated by Roman Abramovich on his luxury jet

08:30 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

A British prisoner of war held by Russian-backed forces in Ukraine has expressed his disbelief on being welcomed by Roman Abramovich on his luxury jet.

John Harding is one of the five British prisoners who were released after Saudi Arabia brokered an exchange between Russia and Ukraine.

The British nationals had an emotional return to the UK after spending six months in captivity by Russian separatists.

The former Chelsea club owner treated them like royalty in a drastic switch from their previous life of being beaten regularly in cramped cells.

My colleague Shweta Sharma has more:

Britons freed from Russian captivity in Ukraine welcomed by Roman Abramovich on jet

Finland says traffic on border with Russia remains busy

07:50 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Traffic into Finland across its southeastern border with Russia continues to be busy, the countrys border guard told Reuters on Friday, adding that the number of Russian citizens entering more than doubled on Thursday compared to the week before.

Finland is considering barring most Russians from entering the country as traffic arriving from its eastern neighbour intensified on Thursday following president Vladimir Putins order for a partial military mobilisation.

This morning it remains busy ... maybe increasing a little bit from yesterday, a spokesperson for the border guard said early on Friday.

The queue was longest at the busy Vaalimaa crossing with cars lining up for around 500 metres, which was longer than on Thursday, the spokesperson said. Lines were also longer than normally at the second-biggest Nuijamaa crossing.

(Lehtikuva/AFP via Getty Images)

Russia referendums: Moscow-held regions of Ukraine vote whether to join Russia

07:15 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Voting has begun in Moscow-held regions of Ukraine on referendums to become part of Russia, Russian-backed officials there said.

The Kremlin-orchestrated referendums, which have been widely denounced by Ukraine and the West as shams without any legal force, are seen as a step toward annexing the territories by Russia.

The votes are being held in the Luhansk, partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions. In Kherson, which is almost fully controlled by Moscow, the balloting was also expected to get underway on Friday morning.

The vote, which asks residents if they want their regions to be part of Russia, is certain to go Moscows way.

That would give Russia the pretext to claim that attempts by Ukrainian forces to regain control are attacks on Russia itself, dramatically escalating the 7-month-old conflict.

The referendums follow President Vladimir Putins order of a partial mobilization, which could add some 300,000 Russian troops to the fight.

Polls also opened in Russia, where refugees from the occupied regions can cast their votes.

Denis Pushilin, separatist leader of Moscow-backed authorities in the Donetsk region, called the referendum on Friday a historical milestone.

'Britain needs a strategy for standing with Ukraine  for as long as it takes'

07:00 , Arpan Rai

A long-term strategy will reassure Ukrainians and send an unequivocal message to Putin that Britain will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes to see off Russian aggression, writes John Healey, the shadow defence secretary and Labour MP for Wentworth and Dearne.

Such a plan would be the best response to Russias latest escalation in rhetoric, and the best way Britain can help ensure Ukraine wins and Putins invasion really does end in failure, he writes.

Read the full article here:

Read the full story here:

Opinion: Britain needs a strategy for standing with Ukraine  for as long as it takes

Ukraine putting pressure on territory critical to Russia - British MoD

06:37 , Arpan Rai

Ukraine is now adding pressure on Moscow by fighting for territory seen as critical to Russia, the British defence ministry said today.

The battlefield situation remains complex, but Ukraine is now putting pressure on territory Russia considers essential to its war aims, the MoD said in its latest intelligence update on the war in Ukraine.

It added: In the last three days, Ukrainian forces have secured bridgeheads on the east bank of the Oskil river in Kharkiv oblast.

Russia has attempted to integrate the Oskil into a consolidated defensive line following its forces withdrawal earlier in the month.

To the south, in Donetsk oblast, fighting is ongoing as Ukrainian forces assault the town of Lyman, east of the Siverskyy Donets river, which Russia captured in May, the ministry added.

Ukraine presses ahead with offensive against Russia

06:29 , Arpan Rai

Ukrainian troops continue to advance their military counteroffensive against Russia, claiming this resulted in losses among Moscows military leadership.

A shelling attack by Ukraine wounded a Russian general in the Luhansk region, the Ukrainian general staff said today.

The enemy continues to suffer losses, in particular among the leadership, it said on Friday.

Russia has reportedly lost several high-ranking commanders during the seven-month war.

Ukrainian soldiers have repelled Russian attacks in the areas of Kupyansk, Spirne, Mayorsk, Zaitseve, Avdiivka, Novomykhailivka, Opytne and Kamianka settlements, the official added.

Referendum begins in Ukraines separatist regions today

06:02 , Arpan Rai

Four regions in Ukraine occupied by Russian-backed forces will start voting Friday in referendums led by the Kremlin seeking to become a part of Russia.

The voting process is spread out over five days and will take place in the absence of independent monitors, amid widespread concern that the result will be rigged in favour of Russia.

If Moscow gains these territories  cumulatively amounting to around 15 per cent of Ukraine  by next week, Moscow is expected to annex these areas and intensify its military offensive against Ukraine from there.

Volodymyr Zelensky has called the referendums noise to distract the public.

18 Russian soldiers killed, howitzers and tanks destroyed - Ukraine military

04:46 , Arpan Rai

Ukrainian troops killed 18 Russian troops, officials from the countrys southern operational command said in the latest war update.

At least 18 Russian troops were killed, and three Msta-S and Msta-B howitzers, two tanks, and two armored vehicles were destroyed on Thursday, the military unit said, reported The Kyiv Independent.

Russias mobilisation move shows its regular army crumbled - Zelensky

04:22 , Arpan Rai

Volodymyr Zelensky has said Vladimir Putins decision to announce partial mobilisation in Moscow is a frank admission of the Russian armys failure in its war against Ukraine.

Russias decision on mobilisation is a frank admission that their regular army, which has been prepared for decades to take over a foreign country, did not withstand and crumbled, he said in his nightly address on Thursday.

The war has swept into every Russians home, he added.

And now, due to mobilisation, Russias war against Ukraine for the majority of Russian citizens is not something on TV or on the Internet, but something that has entered every Russian home, Mr Zelensky said.

Britons home with families after traumatic experience

03:10 , Jane Dalton

In case you missed it: Britons released by Russian-backed forces in Ukraine thanked supporters as they flew back to Britain. All five have now all returned home:

Britons held by Russian forces in Ukraine arrive home after traumatic experience

Tearful farewells for Russian reservists and families

02:20 , Jane Dalton

Families have bid a tearful farewell to men leaving from military mobilisation centres in Russia.Video footage from the eastern Siberian city of Neryungri showed men emerging from a stadium. Before boarding buses, they hugged family members waiting outside, many crying and some covering their mouths with their hands in grief.

A man held a child up to the window of one bus for a last look.In Moscow, women hugged, cried and made the sign of the cross on men at another mobilisation point.

A 25-year-old who gave only his first name, Dmitry, received a hug from his father, who told him Be careful, as they parted.Dmitry told Russian media company Ostorozhno Novosti he did not expect to be called up and shipped out so quickly, especially since he still is a student.No one told me anything in the morning. They gave me the draft notice that I should come here at 3 pm. We waited 1.5 hours, then the enlistment officer came and said that we are leaving now, he said. I was like, Oh great! I went outside and started calling my parents, brother, all friends of mine to tell that they take me.

A video showing mobilised Russian men leaving to go and fight in the war. You can hear a child crying "Daddy, goodbye, please come back!" I've spoken to several locals, including one who was there, the video is genuine. pic.twitter.com/9McubXicjK  Will Vernon (@BBCWillVernon) September 22, 2022

How Western allies helped secure Britons release

01:30 , Jane Dalton

Months of secret international negotiations lay behind the release of captured British and Ukrainian fighters.

Also released were more than 200 fighters from the Azov Battalion.

In return, Moscow received 55 prisoners, including Vladimir Putins friend Viktor Medvedchuk, writes Kim Sengupta:

How Western allies helped secure release of Britons captured in Ukraine

Why Moscow is calling referendums

Friday 23 September 2022 00:40 , Jane Dalton

Four occupied regions in Ukraine are set to start voting Friday in Kremlin-engineered referendums on whether to become part of Russia. Heres why:

EXPLAINER: What's behind referendums in occupied Ukraine?

Tailbacks at border crossings amid panic for tickets

Thursday 22 September 2022 23:50 , Jane Dalton

Long tailbacks have formed at border crossings from Russia into Georgia as Russian men continued to try to escape the country.

One news site in Russian gave a list of where to run away right now from Russia.

A Russian man, who gave his name only as Vasily, travelled to Istanbul, Turkey, with his wife, teenage daughter and six suitcases.

The mobilisation was inevitable because there was a shortage of human resources. I am not worried because Im already 59 years old and my son lives abroad, he said.

A lorry driver who crossed the Russian-Kazakh border on Thursday said he saw unusually heavy traffic from the Russian side.

A tourism industry source said there was desperation as people sought to find air tickets out of Russia.

This is panic demand from people who are afraid they wont be able to leave the country later - people are buying tickets not caring where they fly to, the source said.

Exodus reports exaggerated, Russia insists

Thursday 22 September 2022 23:00 , Jane Dalton

Russia says reports of a mass exodus from the country are exaggerated.

Dmitri Peskov, President Putins press secretary, said: The information about the hype at airports and so on is very much exaggerated ... There is a lot of fake information about this. We need to be very careful about this so as not to become a victim of false information on this matter.

Russian news agencies reported that 10,000 people had volunteered to fight even before their call-up papers had arrived, citing the Russian General Staff.

President Putins defence minister says the reserve mobilisation is intended to enlist about 300,000 men.

Anti-war protests in 38 Russian cities led to more than 1,300 arrests on Wednesday, a monitoring group said.

Some of the detainees had been ordered to report to enlistment offices on Thursday, the first full day of conscription, independent news outlets said. More rallies are planned for the weekend.

UN chief warns of endless' horror and bloodshed

Thursday 22 September 2022 22:10 , Jane Dalton

The UN secretary-general has warned that the latest developments in the war in Ukraine are a step closer to an endless cycle of horror and bloodshed.

Antonio Guterres branded Russias nuclear threats against the West totally unacceptable during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Watch here:

UN chief deems Russias disturbing nuclear threats as totally unacceptable

Plane tickets out of Moscow sell out even at record prices

Thursday 22 September 2022 21:20 , Jane Dalton

Prices of one-way air tickets from Moscow have rocketed as Russian men continued to head to the countrys borders after Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilisation.

Plane tickets out of the capital to the nearest foreign locations soared above $5,000 (4,440), with most airline seats sold out completely for the coming days.

Traffic at frontier crossings with Finland also continued to surge, and social media groups popped up with advice on how to get out of Russia.

War is horrible, Sergei, a Russian who declined to give his surname, told Reuters as he arrived in Belgrade, the Serbian capital. Its okay to be afraid of war and of death and such things.

One Russian man who gave his name as Alex said he had left Russia partly due to the mobilisation.

The partial mobilisation is one of the reasons why I am here, he said. A very poor step it seems to be, and it can lead to lots of problems to lots of Russians.

He said he felt not many Russians would want to be sent to fight.

Released hostage in good spirits after harrowing time'

Thursday 22 September 2022 20:30 , Jane Dalton

The family of Shaun Pinner, one of five Britons captured in Ukraine by pro-Russian forces who have returned to the UK, said it has been a harrowing time for him.

In a statement released by the Foreign Office, the family said: We would like to thank everybody involved in Shauns release, especially all at the Foreign Office, Liz Truss and her team, Boris Johnson and President Zelensky.

Shaun would also like to thank the hospitality of the Saudi Government and Prince Mohammed bin Salman al Saud who also assisted in the negotiations for his freedom.

Its a very emotional time as you can expect and we are unable to currently discuss so early in his release any details fully. Its been a harrowing time for Shaun and our family which has now had such a happy resolution.

Shaun is in good spirits and still has his sense of humour intact. He is looking forward to steak and a glass of red wine tonight.

We are now enjoying some family time and would appreciate the privacy at this moment.

Shaun Pinner (dark top) pictured back in the UK with his family (Debbie Price)

At least seven people reportedly killed in missile strikes

Thursday 22 September 2022 19:45 , Jane Dalton

Russian and Ukrainian forces have exchanged missile and artillery barrages as both sides refused to concede ground.

Russian missile strikes in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia left one person dead and five wounded, Ukrainian officials said.

Officials in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk said Ukrainian shelling killed at least six people.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy of the Ukrainian presidents office, said a hotel in Zaporizhzhia was hit and rescuers were trying to free people trapped in rubble.

The governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, Oleksandr Starukh, said Russian forces targeted infrastructure and damaged apartment buildings.

Vladimir Putin has begun calling up reserve troops to supplement his forces.

Russia could draft up to one million soldiers

Thursday 22 September 2022 19:00 , Jane Dalton

Moscow is looking to mobilise up to one million reservists for the war, not 300,000, according to Russian media reports.

A secret clause in Vladimir Putins partial mobilisation decree permits the Kremlin to draft far more soldiers than was announced, a source said:

Russia could draft up to one million soldiers to fight in Ukraine

Cleverly calls on nations to reject Putins sham referenda

Thursday 22 September 2022 18:30 , Jane Dalton

James Cleverly called on countries to reject the charade of referenda he said Vladimir Putin will use to annex swaths of Ukrainian territory and further escalate his aggression.

He told the Security Council: Today I have listened to further instalments of Russias catalogues of distortions, dishonesty and disinformation.

Hes left the chamber. Im not surprised. I dont think Mr Lavrov wants to hear the collective condemnation of this council.

Mr Cleverly argued that Moscow planned to fix the results of referenda on becoming parts of Russia due to be held in Russian-controlled regions in eastern and southern Ukraine.

He said: We have information which means that we know that Russia is about to hold sham referenda on sovereign Ukrainian territory with no basis in law under the threat of violence after mass displacements of people in areas that voted overwhelmingly for Ukrainian independence.

We know what Vladimir Putin is doing. He is planning to fabricate the outcome of those referenda, he is planning to use that to annex sovereign Ukrainian territory, and he is planning to use it as a further pretext to escalate his aggression.

We call on all countries to reject this charade and to refuse to recognise any results.

Russia is outnumbered on the Security Council, but any meaningful action on Ukraine by the 15-member body has been hampered because it is a veto-wielding permanent member.

Thursday 22 September 2022 18:00 , Jane Dalton

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly says the devastating consequences of Moscows invasion of Ukraine are becoming clearer by the day.

Every day the devastating consequences of Russias invasion become more clear, he told a special foreign minister-level meeting of the UN Security Council.

We see the mounting evidence of Russian atrocities against civilians, including indiscriminate shelling and targeted attacks on over 200 medical facilities and 40 educational institutions and horrific acts of sexual violence, he said.

He said in parts of Ukraine under Russian control, civilians are subject to torture, arbitrary detention and forced deportation to Russia.

Blinken calls on countries to tell Russia to end nuclear threats

Thursday 22 September 2022 17:25 , Jane Dalton

Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on every UN Security Council member to send a clear message to Russia that it must stop its nuclear threats in the war in Ukraine.

Mr Blinken condemned Russias invasion and pressed other countries to join in Washingtons forceful condemnations of the conflict.

He listed atrocities he said were committed by Russia  and suggested that more could come.

Every council member should send a clear message that these reckless nuclear threats must stop immediately, he said.

The Security Council has held dozens of contentious meetings on Ukraine since the war began in February, but todays meeting had special stature: It was held during the annual UN General Assembly gathering of world leaders and brought multiple foreign ministers to the table.

Lavrov claims Russian culture victim of Ukrainian attacks

Thursday 22 September 2022 16:47 , Jane Dalton

Russian books are being destroyed in Ukraine and Russian is being removed from the school curriculum, the Russian foreign minister has claimed.

Russo-phobic statements have gone unpunished, Sergei Lavrov told the UN Security Council.

Ukraine is strengthening its crackdown on dissidents and Russian TV channels have been closed, he said.

We have no doubt Ukraine has become a totalitarian Nazi-like state, claimed Mr Lavrov, in a rambling speech that touched on neo-Nazi formations and slated the West for providing equipment to Kyiv. It was overt racism, he claimed.

And there were no military targets in Donetsk, but peaceful citizens had been targeted by Ukrainian shelling.

Voices | Britain needs a strategy for standing with Ukraine  for as long as it takes

Thursday 22 September 2022 16:07 , Andy Gregory

Writing in The Independent, Labours shadow defence secretary John Healey warns that Vladimir Putins announcements yesterday show he believes he can still bully the West into accepting the long-term Russian retention of illegally-occupied Ukrainian territory.

He writes: Our Western leadership challenge is to demonstrate we will stand with Ukraine for the long-term and we will face down such intimidation.

 ... A long-term strategy will reassure Ukrainians and send an unequivocal message to Putin that Britain will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes to see off Russian aggression. This is the best response to Russias latest escalation in rhetoric, and the best way we can help ensure Ukraine wins and Putins invasion really does end in failure.

You can read his thinking in full here:

Opinion: Britain needs a strategy for standing with Ukraine  for as long as it takes

Watch: Liz Truss tells UN Putin is trying to justify his catastrophic failures'

Thursday 22 September 2022 15:51 , Andy Gregory

Liz Truss has pledged that the UK will continue to support Ukraine during a speech at the UN general assembly, warning that we cannot let up on dealing with the crisis.

No one is threatening Russia, yet as we meet here this evening, in Ukraine barbarous weapons are being used to kill and maim people, the prime minister said. Rape is being used as an instrument of war and families are being torn apart.

And this morning we have seen Putin trying to justify his catastrophic failures.

Putins sabre-rattling designed to deter West from supporting Ukraine'

Thursday 22 September 2022 15:28 , Andy Gregory

Pressed in the Commons about Vladimir Putins nuclear threats, UK defence minister James Heappey described it as the act of a desperate man who knows this is not going his way.

Asked if the UK believes Mr Putin is bluffing, the minister said: The governments exact intelligence assessment is not something to be shared in the House.

But he added: We believe that it is sabre-rattling and we believe it is designed to try and put a wedge amongst the cohesion of the Western alliance and to deter us from supporting Ukraine at the exact moment Ukrainian troops seem to have the upper hand.

Questioned about Natos response if Russia does use one of its weapons, Mr Heappey said: Im not going to discuss nuclear doctrine at the despatch box.

Estimated 25,000 Russians killed in Putins war, UK defence minister says

Thursday 22 September 2022 15:12 , Andy Gregory

The UK believes that 25,000 Russians have been killed in Vladimir Putins war in Ukraine.

Speaking in the Commons earlier, defence minister James Heappey told MPs that Russia lacks sufficient manpower in the field to achieve its objectives, adding: Not only do Russian casualties continue to climb, with an estimated 25,000 Russian dead, but tens of thousands have been injured and tens of thousands more have already deserted.

Russias war machine is now severely depleted with more than 3,000 armoured and protected vehicles destroyed, more than 400 artillery pieces decimated and scores of fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and UAVs downed.

Seven months into this conflict, Russia lacks sufficient manpower in the field to achieve any of its objectives and the mood of Moscow is changing quickly.

Analysis | How Western allies helped secure release of Britons captured in Ukraine

Thursday 22 September 2022 15:07 , Andy Gregory

Months of secret international negotiations lay behind the release of captured British and Ukrainian fighters this week, the largest prisoner swap of the war so far.

A Western official told The Independent that it became very clear that the Russians were very keen to get Medvedchuk as part of any agreement, they were pretty adamant, adding: It seemed Putin felt he had a duty to get him out.

There was a lot of discussion in Kyiv about this. They obviously saw him as a major bargaining tool.

Our world affairs editor Kim Sengupta has the full report here:

How Western allies helped secure release of Britons captured in Ukraine

Putins dramatic moves spur Germany to continue supporting Ukraine

Thursday 22 September 2022 14:04 , Andy Gregory

Russias partial mobilisation and the planned referenda in occupied parts of Ukraine will not dampen Germanys military backing for Kyiv, the countrys defence minister has said.

Rather, this reaction from Putin to Ukraines successes spurs us on to continue to support Ukraine and send this clear signal, Christine Lambrecht said in Berlin following a meeting with her French counterpart.

Teenager among six killed in strike on Donetsk market

Thursday 22 September 2022 13:55 , Andy Gregory

A teenager was among at least six civilians killed in a missile strike on the centre of the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk, Russian-backed authorities have alleged.

Both sides have blamed each other for the strike on a covered market in the centre of the regional capital of Donetsk, which is about to hold a so-called referendum on joining Russia.

Ukraines military are firing on the centre of Donetsk, the military headquarters of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic said on social media.

A Reuters journalist at the scene saw the body of a teenager and four others, along with several wounded citizens.

According to the information received, six people were killed and six people were injured, Alexei Kulemzin, the Russian-installed mayor of Donetsk, claimed in a post on his Telegram channel.

Zelensky hails superheroes freed in Russian prisoner swap

Thursday 22 September 2022 13:41 , Andy Gregory

Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed the superhero Ukrainian commanders, including those who led the defence of Mariupol, who were freed by Russia as part of a huge and unexpected prisoner swap.

Under the terms of the deal, which Turkey helped broker, 215 Ukrainians  most captured after the fall of the port city  were released on Wednesday. In exchange, Ukraine sent back 55 Russians and pro-Moscow Ukrainians.

Five superheroes have been exchanged for 55 of those who deserve neither compassion nor pity, Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address, welcoming the broader release as a victory for the country.

EU will need joint position on Russians fleeing war'

Thursday 22 September 2022 13:27 , Andy Gregory

The European Union will need to establish a joint position on requests for entry by Russians fleeing Vladimir Putins war in Ukraine, the blocs executive has said.

However, member states will have to assess requests on a case-by-case basis, taking into account fundamental rights and asylum procedure legislation, the European Commission said.

There have been protests in a number of cities across Russia, Commission spokesperson Peter Stano told a news briefing. This is showing that the Russians are voting with their feet.

We as the European Union, in principle we stand in solidarity with the Russian citizens who have the courage and bravery to show their opposition to what the regime is doing, especially when it comes to this illegal war in Ukraine, he added.

Baltic nations refuse asylum for Russians fleeing Putins war

Thursday 22 September 2022 13:12 , Andy Gregory

The three Baltic states have said they are not prepared to automatically offer asylum to Russians fleeing Vladimir Putins partial military mobilisation order, instead hoping that discontent with the Kremlin will grow in Russia.

In Latvia, foreign minister Edgars Rinkevics said his country would not issue humanitarian or other visas to Russians seeking to avoid mobilisation, citing security reasons.

We must not give in to (Mr Putins) blackmail and must support Ukraine as much as we can. Russia today is as dangerous to Europe and world peace as Nazi Germany was in the last century, said Mr Rinkevics, according to the Baltic News Service (BNS).

Meanwhile, Lithuanian defence minister Arvydas Anusauskas said being drafted into the army is not enough of a reason for Russians to get asylum in his country, which borders the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, telling the Associated Press: Political asylum is granted to those who are persecuted for their beliefs or other similar reasons.

Yesterday, Estonian interior minister Lauri Laanemets called Russias invasion of Ukraine the collective responsibility of Russian citizens and said allowing in those fleeing possible army service would violate European Union sanctions aimed at Moscow.

Moscow protesters shout 'send Putin to the trenches'

Thursday 22 September 2022 13:00 , Andy Gregory

More than 1,300 people were arrested in at least 39 cities across Russia yesterday as Vladimir Putins mobilisation order sparked the first mass anti-war protests in months.

Crowds in Moscow  where at least 530 people were detained  could be heard chanting send Putin to the trenches.

Captured British nationals released by Russian-backed forces return to UK

Thursday 22 September 2022 12:30 , Andy Gregory

Five British nationals released by Russian-backed forces have landed safely in the UK.

The Presidium Network, which is supporting one of their families and helping get aid to Kyiv, said that Shaun Pinner, Aiden Aslin, John Harding, Dylan Healy and Andrew Hill had been reunited with their families on Thursday morning.

We know theyre safely in the UK and [have] been reunited with their families, said Presidium co-founder Dominik Byrne. We dont know exactly if theyve all returned back to their homes yet, but we do know theyre with families at the moment.

Kremlin does not deny protesters served with draft papers

Thursday 22 September 2022 11:58 , Andy Gregory

The Kremlin has insisted that reports of an exodus of draft-age men following Vladimir Putin's announcement of a partial mobilisation are exaggerated.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also declined to deny Russian media reports that some anti-mobilisation protesters detained on Wednesday night had been given draft papers, saying: This is not against the law.
OLENA ROSHCHINA  WEDNESDAY, 21 SEPTEMBER 2022, 14:33

Oleksii Reznikov, Minister of Defence of Ukraine, has mocked the partial mobilisation in Russia, quipping that the Kremlin's plans to recruit 300,000 reservists for the war are linked to the Moskvich car factorys annual plans to produce the same number of cars.

Source: Oleksii Reznikov on Twitter

Details: The minister recalled that on 22 June, the Moskvich car factory announced plans to produce 300,000 cars a year.

And on 21 September, the Kremlin said that 300,000 reservists would be mobilised in the "partial mobilisation" announced by Vladimir Putin.

Reznikov interpreted this as a "challenge accepted" statement from the Russian Presidents administration.

Quote from Reznikov: "russian soldiers are dying in the war against Ukraine. Their relatives receive a car as a reward. The value of life and support for the economy in russia."

The cars plant Moskvich plans to produce 300,000 cars a year.

The kremlin: the challenge is accepted - 300,000 reservists will be mobilized.

rus soldiers die in the war VS Ukraine. Their relatives receive a car as a reward.

The value of life & support of the economy in russia. pic.twitter.com/OcgZYxSuu0  Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) September 21, 2022

Previously:

On 21 September, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilisation of Russian citizens, due to start the same day. Russian citizens who are in the reserve will be called up during the mobilisation.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has announced that 300,000 reservists would be mobilised in Russia.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Become our patron, support our work!
STANISLAV POHORILOV  FRIDAY, 23 SEPTEMBER 2022, 20:07

The Armed Forces of Ukraine repelled Russian attacks near the city of Kupiansk and the villages of Zaitseve and Novomykhailivka over the course of Friday, 23 September.

Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook, information as of 18:00 on 23 September

Details: Russian forces are continuing to focus their efforts on attempting to establish control over the entire Donetsk Oblast and on maintaining control over previously occupied territories. They are also focused on thwarting the activity of Ukraines defence forces [collective name for all Ukrainian military formations involved in the ongoing combat in this country - ed.] on some of the fronts.

There were no significant changes on the Volyn and Polissia fronts.

On other fronts, the Russians continued to fire on military and civilian targets using tank guns, mortars and various types of artillery:

On the Sivershchyna front : areas in and around Shalyhyne, Volfyne, Izdetske and Myropilske (Sumy Oblast);

On the Slobozhanshchyna front : areas in and around Hlyboke, Strilecha, Morokhovets, Vesele, Sotnytskyi Kozachok, Vovchansk, Hatyshche, Dvorichna, Husynka, Kamianka, Kupiansk, Artilne, Osynove and Mikhuvatka;

On the Kramatorsk front : Bohorodychne, Yatskivka, Yarova, Tetianivka, Sviatohirsk, Pryshyb, Sloviansk, Platonivka, Donetske, Sydorove, Zakitne, Ozerne, Shchurove and Raihorodok;

On the Bakhmut front : Siversk, Spirne, Zvanivka, Mykolaivka, Rozdolivka, Soledar, Bakhmutske, Bakhmut, Vesela Dolyna, Odradivka, Vesele, Bilohorivka, Rozivka, Zaitseve, Yakovlivka, Maiorsk;

On the Avdiivka front : Krasnohorivka, Avdiivka, Kamianka, Opytne, Marinka, Vodiane and Novomykhailivka;

Russian forces did not undertake active combat operations on the Novopavlivka and Zaporizhzhia fronts , but used artillery to fire on the following cities, towns and villages:Mykilske, Vuhledar, Volodymyrivka, Prechystivka, Novoukrainka, Velyka Novosilka, Neskuchne, Vremivka, Pavlivka, Mala Tokmachka, Huliaipilske, Zaliznychne, Poltavka, Novopil and Novosilka;

On the Pivdennyi Buh front, Russian forces fired on over 37 towns and villages.

Story continues

Over the course of 23 September, Ukrainian aircraft struck 10 areas where Russian military personnel and equipment were concentrated and two anti-aircraft defence systems.

In addition, Ukrainian air defence units destroyed two Russian UAVs.

Ukraines rocket and artillery units struck four Russian command posts; two areas where Russian military personnel, weapons and equipment were concentrated; three anti-aircraft systems; one artillery system; and three ammunition storage points.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda!
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan used his address before the United Nations Thursday to accuse Azerbaijan of "unspeakable atrocities" during the latest clashes between the two rivals, including mutilating the bodies of dead soldiers.

Fighting flared up last week between the Caucasus countries, leaving nearly 300 dead in the worst violence since a war in 2020.

"There are evidences of cases of torture, mutilation of captured or already dead servicemen, numerous instances of extra-judicial killings and ill treatment of Armenian prisoners of war, as well as humiliating treatment of the bodies," he told the UN General Assembly.

"The dead bodies of Armenian female military personnel were mutilated, and then proudly video recorded with particular cruelty by the Azerbaijani servicemen."

As Pashinyan spoke, Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, who is set to address the global body this weekend, watched impassively.

Pashinyan went on: "No doubt, committing such unspeakable atrocities is a direct result of a decades-long policy of implanting anti-Armenian hatred and animosity in the Azerbaijani society by the political leadership."

He also accused Azerbaijan of shelling civilian facilities and infrastructure deep inside his country's territory, displacing more than 7,600 people, as well as leaving three civilians dead and two missing.

"This was not a border clash. It was a direct, undeniable attack against the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Armenia," he said.

The speech comes just days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged peace between the two sides in a meeting where he hosted both countries' top diplomats.

"Strong, sustainable diplomatic engagement is the best path for everyone," Blinken said.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, during a visit Sunday to the Armenian capital Yerevan, blamed Baku for "illegal" attacks on Armenia, condemning an "assault on the sovereignty" of the country.

Washington's ties are deepening with Yerevan whose traditional ally Moscow is distracted with its invasion of Ukraine.

Story continues

Russia has close ties with both former Soviet states. It is obligated to intervene if Armenia is invaded under a security pact, but did not rush to help despite an appeal from Yerevan.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars -- in the 1990s and in 2020 -- over the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-populated enclave of Azerbaijan.

A six-week war in 2020 claimed the lives of more than 6,500 troops from both sides and ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire.

Under the deal, Armenia ceded swathes of territory it had controlled for decades, and Moscow deployed about 2,000 Russian peacekeepers to oversee the fragile truce.

ia/mlm/md
The state Attorney General's Office has created a new division that will focus exclusively on helping the victims of violent crime and intervening with those most likely to commit violence.

Announced Friday by acting Attorney General Matthew Platkin, the Division of Violence Intervention and Victim Assistance will unite New Jersey's existing victim services with violence intervention and prevention programs to make sure police are using trauma-informed approaches, create connections between authorities and community-based services and help victims of violent crime address trauma and avoid revictimization, according to a statement.

Ensuring that we have a systematic, statewide approach for critical victim services is not only the right thing to do for people who have suffered pain and loss, but it is also a proven strategy for making our communities safer," Platkin said. "We are making clear that the states approach to public safety, one done with the support of the Murphy administration, puts community-based interventions and victim assistance alongside traditional, and essential, prosecution and policing.

It's the first time the state has an office dedicated to policy, training, coordination and management of victims' services, which includes those who have survived domestic and sexual violence, the acting attorney general said.

State acting Attorney General Matthew Platkin has created a new division that will focus exclusively on helping the victims of violent crime and intervening with those most likely to commit violence.

Patricia Teffenhart, a senior vice president at the state Chamber of Commerce, will lead the new division, Platkin said.

Teffenhart, of Holmdel, worked for eight years as the executive director of the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault, the statement said. During her tenure, she successfully advocated for the passage of the state's Sexual Assault Survivors Protection Act of 2015 and co-chaired the Campus Sexual Assault Task Force.

New resource:Want to know how many police are being investigated in your town? Go to NJ's new dashboard

Included in her new division will be the Office of Violence Intervention and Prevention, headed by Steven Campos of Lyndhurst, which will develop community-based violence intervention programs and build an infrastructure for community-based public safety throughout New Jersey, the statement said.

Story continues

Read next:Want to carry a gun in NJ for self defense? Prepare to train, spend  and get sued.

Also included will be the Office of Victim Support and Assistance, which develops and expands victims services; the Victims of Crime Compensation Office, which provides victim aid; and the Office of Trial and Criminal Justice Process, which will set policy for and advise the state's victim witness advocacy office, among other things.

Elected officials and public advocates lauded the division's creation.

Gov. Phil Murphy said in the statement that the unit will "address the very serious needs of victims and survivors of violence," while social justice advocate the Rev. Dr. Charles F. Boyer said he supports its mission to prioritize the community in peacekeeping work.

Jeannine Frisby-LaRue, a 71-year-old sexual assault survivor and womens advocate, said the division is a "critical step in addressing how domestic and sexual violence is dealt with in the law enforcement arena."

"While it should always be the goal to apprehend and prosecute domestic violence and sexual assault offenders, the victim is often left physically, emotionally, and spiritually broken," Frisby-LaRue said. "[The division's] focus on policy, training, and coordination of services affecting these victims is simply brilliant and a game-changer."

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ AG unit will help violent crime victims deal with trauma
TheStreet.com

Shrinking capacity plus growing demands means higher prices and that may force people used to flying full-fare airlines like Delta and United Airlines to consider alternatives. For some, that may mean taking a look at Southwest, an airline that really has no peer in the industry. It's not that Southwest does things radically differently than its rivals, but it does have some unique policies and practices.
Let's talk about the popular Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO). The company's shares saw significant share price movement during recent months on the NYSE, rising to highs of US$604 and falling to the lows of US$501. Some share price movements can give investors a better opportunity to enter into the stock, and potentially buy at a lower price. A question to answer is whether Thermo Fisher Scientific's current trading price of US$520 reflective of the actual value of the large-cap? Or is it currently undervalued, providing us with the opportunity to buy? Lets take a look at Thermo Fisher Scientifics outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change.

See our latest analysis for Thermo Fisher Scientific

What Is Thermo Fisher Scientific Worth?

According to my price multiple model, which makes a comparison between the company's price-to-earnings ratio and the industry average, the stock price seems to be justfied. Ive used the price-to-earnings ratio in this instance because theres not enough visibility to forecast its cash flows. The stocks ratio of 27.4x is currently trading slightly above its industry peers ratio of 25.79x, which means if you buy Thermo Fisher Scientific today, youd be paying a relatively reasonable price for it. And if you believe that Thermo Fisher Scientific should be trading at this level in the long run, then there should only be a fairly immaterial downside vs other industry peers. Furthermore, it seems like Thermo Fisher Scientifics share price is quite stable, which means there may be less chances to buy low in the future now that its priced similarly to industry peers. This is because the stock is less volatile than the wider market given its low beta.

What kind of growth will Thermo Fisher Scientific generate?

Investors looking for growth in their portfolio may want to consider the prospects of a company before buying its shares. Buying a great company with a robust outlook at a cheap price is always a good investment, so lets also take a look at the company's future expectations. With profit expected to grow by a double-digit 12% over the next couple of years, the outlook is positive for Thermo Fisher Scientific. It looks like higher cash flow is on the cards for the stock, which should feed into a higher share valuation.

Story continues

What This Means For You

Are you a shareholder? It seems like the market has already priced in TMOs positive outlook, with shares trading around industry price multiples. However, there are also other important factors which we havent considered today, such as the financial strength of the company. Have these factors changed since the last time you looked at TMO? Will you have enough conviction to buy should the price fluctuate below the industry PE ratio?

Are you a potential investor? If youve been keeping an eye on TMO, now may not be the most optimal time to buy, given it is trading around industry price multiples. However, the optimistic forecast is encouraging for TMO, which means its worth diving deeper into other factors such as the strength of its balance sheet, in order to take advantage of the next price drop.

If you'd like to know more about Thermo Fisher Scientific as a business, it's important to be aware of any risks it's facing. In terms of investment risks, we've identified 2 warning signs with Thermo Fisher Scientific, and understanding these should be part of your investment process.

If you are no longer interested in Thermo Fisher Scientific, you can use our free platform to see our list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential.

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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BUSAN, South Korea (AP)  The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan arrived in the South Korean port of Busan on Friday ahead of the two countries' joint military exercise that aims to show their strength against growing North Korean threats.

The joint drills will be the first involving a U.S. aircraft carrier in the region since 2017, when the U.S. sent three aircraft carriers including the Reagan for naval drills with South Korea in response to North Korean nuclear and missile tests.

The allies this year have revived their large-scale military drills that were downsized or shelved in previous years to support diplomacy with Pyongyang or because of COVID-19, responding to North Koreas resumption of major weapons testing and increasing threats of nuclear conflicts with Seoul and Washington.

The South Korean navy said the training is meant to boost the allies military readiness and show the firm resolve by the Korea-U.S. alliance for the sake of peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

The commitment of the U.S. carrier strike group operating in and around the peninsula illustrates our commitment to stand together and our desire and focus ensuring that we are interoperable and integrated to face any challenge or threat whenever we are required, Rear Adm. Michael Donnelly, commander of the carrier strike group, said in a news conference.

The North Korean threat is also expected to be a key agenda when U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris visits South Korea next week after attending the state funeral in Tokyo of slain former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The Reagans arrival in South Korea comes after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told Pyongyangs rubber-stamp parliament this month he would never abandon his nuclear weapons and missiles he needs to counter what he perceives as U.S. hostility.

North Korea also passed a new law that enshrined its status as a nuclear power and authorized the preemptive use of nuclear weapons over a broad range of scenarios where the country or its leadership comes under threat.

Story continues

Sung Kim, the Biden administrations special representative for North Korea, met with South Korean counterpart Kim Gunn on Thursday in Seoul, where they expressed serious concern over the Norths escalating nuclear doctrine spelled out in the new law, South Koreas Foreign Ministry said.

The diplomats reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea in the event of a nuclear war with the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear. The allies also maintained their months-old assessment that North Korea is gearing up to conduct its first nuclear test since 2017 and discussed stern countermeasures to such an action, the ministry said.

North Korea has dialed up weapons testing to a record pace in 2022, launching more than 30 ballistic weapons including its intercontinental ballistic missiles since 2017, as it exploits a divide in the U.N. Security Council deepened over Russias war on Ukraine.

While North Koreas ICBMs garner much of U.S. attention because they pose a potential threat to the American homeland, the North has also been expanding its arsenal of nuclear-capable, shorter-range missiles designed to evade missile defenses in South Korea.

North Koreas expanding arsenal and threats of preemptive nuclear attacks have triggered concerns in South Korea over the credibility of the U.S. nuclear umbrella protecting its allies in the event of war.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative who took office in May, has vowed to enhance South Koreas conventional missile capabilities and work with the Biden administration to develop more effective strategies to deter North Korean attacks.

Senior U.S. and South Korean officials met in Washington this month for discussions on the allies deterrence strategies and issued a statement reaffirming that any (North Korean) nuclear attack would be met with an overwhelming and decisive response. The statement said the United States reiterated its ironclad and unwavering commitment to draw on the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear (one) to provide extended deterrence to South Korea.

North Korea has so far rejected U.S. and South Korean calls to return to nuclear diplomacy, which have been stalled since 2019 over disagreements in exchanging the release of U.S.-led sanctions against the North and the Norths disarmament steps.

North Korea has harshly criticized Yoon for continuing military exercises with the U.S. and also for letting South Korean civilian activists fly anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets and other dirty waste across the border by balloon, even dubiously claiming the items caused its COVID-19 outbreak.

South Korean activists have continued to launch balloons after North Korea last month warned of deadly retaliation, triggering concern North Korea may react with a weapons test or even border skirmishes.

South Koreas Unification Ministry, which deals with inter-Korean affairs, pleaded for activists to stop, citing safety reasons. Lee Hyo-jung, the ministrys spokesperson, also said Friday that South Korea was prepared to sternly respond to any North Korean retaliation over leafletting.

___

AP video journalist Yong Jun Chang contributed. Kim Tong-hyung reported from Seoul.
A US aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea Friday for the first time in nearly five years, ahead of joint drills in a show of force aimed at the nuclear-armed North.

The nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan and vessels from its strike group docked in the southern port city of Busan, part of a push by Seoul and Washington to have more US strategic assets operating in the region.

South Korea's hawkish President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, has vowed to beef up joint military exercises with the United States, after years of failed diplomacy with North Korea under his predecessor.

"The deployment of the carrier USS Ronald Reagan to Busan demonstrates the strength of the South Korea-US alliance," a South Korean defence ministry official told AFP.

The visit aims to "deter North Korea's nuclear and missile threats", the official added.

Pyongyang has conducted a record-breaking blitz of weapons tests this year, and earlier this month revised its nuclear law, enshrining a "first strike" doctrine and vowing never to give up its nukes.

The US Navy said the USS Ronald Reagan is accompanied on the South Korea visit by two vessels from its strike group -- the USS Chancellorsville, a guided-missile cruiser, and the USS Barry, a guided missile destroyer.

They will take part in joint drills of South Korea's east coast this month, the Yonhap news agency said, adding that the nuclear-powered submarine USS Annapolis is also expected to participate.

The carrier's visit comes after months of warnings from South Korean and US officials that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is preparing to conduct another nuclear test.

The isolated regime has tested nuclear weapons six times since 2006. Its last and most powerful one in 2017 -- which Pyongyang claimed was a hydrogen bomb -- had an estimated yield of 250 kilotons.

Washington is Seoul's key security ally and stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect it from the North.

The two countries have long carried out joint exercises, which they insist are purely defensive but North Korea sees them as rehearsals for an invasion.

Last month, the United States and South Korea staged their biggest combined military drills since 2018 -- the resumption of large-scale training sessions that had been scaled back due to Covid-19 and the bout of failed diplomacy with Pyongyang.

sks-ceb/qan
US aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan is escorted into Busan Naval Base in Busan, South Korea (AP)

The nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier has reached the Korean peninsula for the start of major joint military exercises between the US and South Korea.

Washington and Seoul had announced on Monday that they would carry out joint drills aimed at boosting the military readiness of both allies for the first time in half a decade, in a show of strength directed at North Korea.

The aircraft carrier and ships from its accompanying strike coalition docked at a naval base in South Koreas southern port city of Busan on Friday.

The countries called it a diplomatic display of the firm resolve by the South Korea-US alliance for the sake of peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula even as analysts have said this was sending a clear message over Kim Jong-uns increasing nuclear ambitions.

When Rear Admiral Michael Donnelly, serving as the strike group commander, was asked about what message the joint military exercise would give to Pyongyang, he replied: We are leaving messaging to diplomats.

Mr Donnelly added that the visit was designed to build allied relations and bolster interoperability between both the navies and pointed out that the joint drill will ensure the allies were able to respond to all threats.

Its an opportunity for us to practice tactics and operations, the top US naval officer said.

The arrival of the premier US aircraft carrier in Busan is being viewed as the most significant deployment yet under a diplomatic policy between both countries to have more US strategic assets operate in the area to deter North Korea.

Rear Adm. Michael Donnelly, commander of the carrier strike group answers a reporters question during a news conference on the deck of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (AP)

A long queue of crew members was seen after the ship docked at the port as they took Covid tests before being sent into the city by buses.

Neither Washington nor Seoul have shared details of the upcoming joint drills but said the carrier will be stationed at the port for several days.

One of the crew members aboard the aircraft carrier said they were looking to catch a break but were aware of the constant presence of the geopolitical tensions between the US and South Koreas neighbour to the north.

Story continues

You cant ever really forget what were all here for, the crew member said.

These are among the largest military exercises being carried out between both the nations since 2017 and the first involving an American aircraft carrier since 2018.

The pandemic had scaled back diplomatic drills between the US and South Korea and were further delayed as concerted diplomatic efforts were aimed towards North Koreas denuclearisation.

This is also the first such exercise after the new South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol took office earlier this year.

Military analysts have called the joint drills a useful political signal in the geopolitical domain as it reassures Seoul and trains the countrys forces in the face of the threat of missiles from North Korea.

The USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), a US Navy Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, arrives at a port in the southeastern coastal city of Busan on 23 September (EPA)

But it does little to deter North Korea, said Mason Richey, a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.

A carrier group visit certainly doesnt do much  in fact, it likely does the opposite  to discourage Pyongyang from developing more nuclear weapons and delivery systems, as well as conventional capabilities, Mr Richey said.

It does, however, helps underscoring the image of Mr Yoon as a leader with whom allies see tighter military coordination and interoperability as a counter to North Korea, the professor added.

Officials in the US last week had called the carriers visit a clear demonstration of its commitment to deploy and exercise strategic assets to discourage North Korea and boosting regional security.

The US navy had made no mention of North Korea while announcing the visit and called it a regularly scheduled port visit.

It added that American crew members are visiting Busan to volunteer at orphanages and explore the K-pop music scene.
Fugitive Leonard Glenn "Fat Leonard" Francis, who was allegedly behind one of the largest bribery scandals to hit the U.S. Navy, was arrested in Venezuela on Tuesday after successfully evading American authorities for two weeks.

According to authorities, the Malaysian businessman was under house arrest in San Diego, California, when he managed to cut off his ankle monitor on Sept. 4 and travel across the Mexican border.

From Mexico, Leonard traveled to Cuba and eventually made his way to Venezuela. Francis was apprehended at Simon Bolivar International Airport in the city of Maiquetia.

Interpol Venezuela Director General Carlos Garate Rondon posted details about the arrest on Instagram, noting that Francis was going to board a plane to Russia before his arrest.

More from NextShark: Lawyer Journalist Who Risked Life to Reveal Conditions in Wuhan Now Reported Missing by Mother

Francis is set to be turned over to the countrys judicial authorities to initiate extradition proceedings. It is not immediately known what date Francis might be extradited to the U.S.

Experts noted that Francis was captured just in time as Russia could potentially have turned down an extradition request from the U.S.

More from NextShark: Ohio missing persons case of Vietnamese mother and children from 2002 reaches breakthrough

The extradition process with Venezuela could also face some challenges since President Bidens administration does not officially recognize the socialist government run by President Nicolas Maduro.

While the U.S. has an extradition agreement with Venezuela, there is currently no American embassy in the country.

Prior to his escape, Francis was set to be sentenced in a federal court in California last Wednesday for the bribery case he pleaded guilty to in 2015.

Story continues

More from NextShark: Cambodian refugee who came to US as 1-year-old is deported after no pardon from California Gov. Newsom

Francis was allowed to remain in home confinement while receiving medical attention and helping the prosecution secure convictions of 33 of 34 defendants, including over two dozen Navy officials.

During his tenure as president/CEO of Singapore-based defense contractor Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA), Francis allegedly bribed a significant number of officers from the Navys 7th Fleet with cash, travel expenses, luxury items and prostitutes, among other things.

The bribes were purportedly given in exchange for classified information detailing the movements of U.S. ships and submarines, confidential contracts and the eventual law enforcement investigations into GDMA.

Despite his non-appearance, Francis sentencing hearing was held Thursday to address the recent incident.

Prosecutors have indicated that should Francis get charged for his failure to appear at his sentencing hearing, his potential sentence of 25 years could have another five years added to it. He will require new lawyers upon his return.

Featured Image via @carlosgarate14
The U.S. has privately been warning the Kremlin for months of consequences if they use a nuclear weapon in their conflict with Ukraine, according to officials.

Anonymous officials told The Washington Post that the White House has publicly been purposefully vague about what those consequences would be in an attempt to build concern among Russian leaders, a method of nuclear deterrence called strategic ambiguity.

President Biden underlined his opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putins threat to use nuclear weapons in an interview with CBSs 60 minutes on Sunday, where he warned the Russian leader not to change the face of war.

Dont. Dont. Dont. You will change the face of war unlike anything since World War II, Biden said when host Scott Pelley asked for a message to Putin concerning weapons of mass destruction.

Biden added that the U.S. response to Russian use of nuclear weapons would depend on the extent of what they do.

Deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev stoked fears about Russias possible use of weapons when he announced on Thursday that the country would be willing to use strategic nuclear weapons to protect itself.

The protection of all joined territories will be significantly strengthened by the Russian Armed Forces, wrote Medvedev on Telegram.

Russia announced that not only mobilization capabilities, but also any Russian weapons, including strategic nuclear weapons and weapons based on new principles, could be used for such protection.

Ukrainian Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, commander in chief of the countrys armed forces, and Lt. Gen. Mykhailo Zabrodskyi predicted earlier this month in an article that nuclear war was a threat.

It is hard to imagine that even nuclear strikes will allow Russia to break Ukraines will to resist, the two wrote for state news outlet Ukrinform.

But the threat that will emerge for the whole of Europe cannot be ignored.

The pair encouraged Ukraines Western allies to employ their entire arsenal of means to prevent the possibility of nuclear war.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
SYDNEY (AP)  The United States is quickly identifying itself as a stellar defensive squad by using its athleticism to make it difficult for opponents to score.

Shakira Austin scored 19 points, Kahleah Copper added 16 and the U.S. played suffocating defense to rout Puerto Rico 106-42 on Friday in the women's World Cup.

We talk every day about being hard to play against, getting deflections, and the team has really bought into that, U.S. coach Cheryl Reeve said.

The Americans (2-0) forced Puerto Rico into 21 turnovers and contested nearly every shot, making every point tough to come by.

Its fun playing on a team that loves to play defense. It really fuels our offense, said Alyssa Thomas, who had six of the Americans' 13 steals.

The U.S. jumped out to a 27-11 lead after one quarter as Thomas had 10 points and five steals in the opening 10 minutes. The Americans forced nine turnovers in the period. The U.S. kept the pressure on in the second, holding Puerto Rico without a point for nearly the first five minutes of the period.

Mya Hollingshed finally ended the drought, making a contested 3-pointer that made it 40-17. The Americans led 54-21 at the half. There was little drama in the second half as the U.S. kept extending its lead.

The Americans contained guard Arella Guirantes, who had 26 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in Puerto Rico's opening win over Bosnia and Herzegovina. She was held to seven points on 2-of-12 shooting. The U.S. threw four or five different defenders at her, starting with Copper.

We like to be aggressive on both ends, Breanna Stewart said. We can and will guard multiple positions and make it hard for the other team. Our activity and awareness of one and another on the defensive end will go a long way in the tournament.

The U.S. now has won 24 consecutive World Cup games since losing in the 2006 semifinals to Russia. The Americans are two wins short of matching their record 26-game run from 1998-2006.

Story continues

Puerto Rico (1-1) was coming off its first-ever World Cup win. Hollingshed, who played in college at Colorado, finished with 10 points.

The U.S. is the most important team in the tournament, but for us we are just trying to win one more game, Puerto Rico captain Pamela Rosado said.

REINFORCEMENTS

Chelsea Gray and Kelsey Plum landed in Sydney after celebrating the Las Vegas Aces' first WNBA championship with a parade on Tuesday. They sat on the U.S. bench and cheered on their teammates. A'ja Wilson, the third member of the championship team, was expected to land in Sydney later Friday.

We'll get some time in the morning with them before we play against a really good China team tomorrow," Reeve said. The depth will be helpful.

SCOREBOARD

In other games Friday, Serbia topped Japan 69-64; China routed Bosnia and Herzegovina 98-51; and Belgium beat South Korea 84-61. Canada faced France, and Australia played Mali later Friday night.

BENCH PLAY

Led by Austin, the U.S. reserves outscored Puerto Rico's 47-21. Brionna Jones added 15 points and nine boards.

RECORD WATCH

As good as the U.S. defense was, it wasn't the lowest scoring total by an American opponent. Argentina had 22 points in 1953. ... The Americans also fell short of the margin-of-victory record held by the 2014 team that beat Angola 119-44. ... Thomas also fell one short of the U.S. record for steals in a game set by Cheryl Miller in 1986. Tamika Catchings had six against Russia in 2002. Olga Gomez of Cuba holds the World Cup record of 10 against France in 1994.

UP NEXT

Puerto Rico: Faces Belgium on Saturday.

U.S.: Plays China on Saturday.

___

More AP womens basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday warned Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi against Beijing providing any support to Russia related to its invasion of Ukraine, during a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

China maintains close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin but has held back from explicitly endorsing the invasion and has avoided carrying out actions that would directly position itself as violating U.S.-led global sanctions on Russia.

Blinken reiterated the United States condemnation of Russias war against Ukraine and highlighted the implications if the PRC [Peoples Republic of China] were to provide support to Moscows invasion of a sovereign state, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in the statement.

He underscored that the United States remains open to cooperating with the PRC where our interests intersect.

Blinken stressed the need for the U.S. to maintain open lines of communication with Beijing to deescalate tensions, Price said in the statement.

The meeting came amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing following President Bidens remarks in an interview published Sunday that the U.S would defend Taiwan if China decided to invade.

[Blinken] emphasized that the United States is committed to maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, consistent with our longstanding one China policy, Price said.

The Secretary stressed that preserving peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is critical to regional and global security and prosperity.

The U.S. position toward Taiwan, and Bidens statements that American forces would defend the democratic island, which have been issued repeatedly, have infuriated the Chinese, which views the island as a rogue territory that will eventually unify with the mainland.

Relations between Washington and Beijing have continued to devolve over a host of security, military, geopolitical, economic and environmental issues.

Blinken last met with Wang on July 9 in Bali, Indonesia, following a meeting of Group of 20 foreign ministers, where the two top diplomats emphasized the need to maintain communication on the most thorny issues.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The View co-host Sunny Hostin landed herself in hot water for the second time this week when she suggested Republican Latinos vote against their own self-interest.

The shows hosts were discussing recent comments by former Trump White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, who said that President Bidens push to overturn former President Trumps border policies has created a catastrophe at the southern border and that seeing migrants being used as political pawns one way or the other is very troubling to me.

Hostin said: Thats whats so interesting to me, that there are so many Latinos that vote Republican because they vote against their own self-interest. If you really are interested in these types of issues, then youre a Democrat.

Sunny Hostin: "Thats whats so interesting to me that there are so many Latinos that vote Republican, because they vote against their own self-interest. If you really are interested in these types of issues, then youre a Democrat."pic.twitter.com/ZMnUZMpkrA  Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) September 23, 2022

Hostins comments on Friday are far from the first time she has suggested people of color must be Democrats.

I dont understand either of you, Hostin told her Republican co-hosts Lindsey Granger and Ana Navarro back in May. I dont understand Black Republicans and I dont understand Latino Republicans.

She also previously came under fire for claiming black Republicans are an oxymoron and for accusing CNN commentator Van Jones of being a chameleon and giving racial cover to former president Donald Trump.

Earlier this week she was widely criticized for suggesting former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley uses Nikki as her first name to hide her Indian heritage.

There are some of us that can be chameleons and decide not to embrace our ethnicities so that we can pass, so that we dont have to go by  Hostin said on Tuesdays show.

Story continues

She was then interrupted by co-host Sara Haines who said: Sunny! You go by a different name!

Hostin, who was born Asuncion Cummings and goes by the nickname Sunny, replied: Thats because most Americans cant pronounce Asuncion because of the undereducation in our culture.

Haley responded to a clip of the interaction in a tweet on Tuesday saying: Its racist of you to judge my name. Nikki is an Indian name and is on my birth certificateand Im proud of that. Whats sad is the lefts hypocrisy towards conservative minorities. By the way, last I checked Sunny isnt your birth name

Haley, who was born Nimarata Nikki Randhawa, has been called Nikki since she was born. Her parents immigrated to the U.S. from India.

USA Today debunked claims last year that Haley had changed her name to get ahead in politics. Nikki is a common nickname that means little one in Punjabi.

Haley is the former governors married name that she adopted after she wed husband Michael Haley in 1996  six years before she entered politics, according to USA Today.

More from National Review
KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO  THURSDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER 2022, 22:39

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not link the possible end of Vladimir Putin's regime in Russia with the end of the war in Ukraine.

Source: Zelenskyy in an interview with the German newspaper Bild, the video was published on Zelenskyy's Telegram

Quote from Zelenskyy when asked whether the war will end only when the Putin regime collapses: "I do not associate this with the end of the war. Putin's regime will definitely end when the people of Russia decide. We do not influence this.

But who will come instead? The question is not about the person. The question is in the philosophy of their regime, in the philosophy of preserving their power, the philosophy of their attitude to Ukraine. If they don't change it, if they don't change their doctrine, it doesn't matter who will be there instead  a young man, an old man, etc."

Details: The journalist also told Zelenskyy that last week he asked Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President, if she would be happy if Putin died. She replied that no one should be happy about someone's death. The journalist asked if Zelenskyy agrees with this opinion.

Quote from Zelenskyy: "I disagree with that. I have a different opinion about the military and political leadership and every Russian military man who came to our land. I'm sorry, I don't wish them anything good and I don't want them to have a long life. As soon as they come here, I wish them to get off our land, and if they don't, I wish them all a happy ending

I don't need to look for any diplomacy here. I believe that all people, starting from President Putin and ending with his entourage, including all the military personnel who came to our land, I don't wish any of them a long life for sure."

More details: When asked if he has a favourite joke about Putin, Zelenskyy laughed and said that he does, but he is not ready to tell it. "You will laugh, but in Russia, they will cry. I'm not sure if this is appropriate. This is called black humour," the President said.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
ATLANTA (AP)  Georgia's secretary of state on Friday announced plans to replace election equipment in one county following unauthorized access to the equipment that happened two months after the 2020 election.

A computer forensics team hired by allies of then-President Donald Trump traveled to Coffee County, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southeast of Atlanta, on Jan. 7, 2021. A company representative has said they made complete copies of the election management system server and other election system components. Later that month, two men who have been involved in efforts to discredit the 2020 election results also spent hours inside the elections office with access to the equipment.

Trump and his supporters pushed false claims about certain voting machines after he lost his bid for reelection. Authorities have said there was no evidence of widespread problems with voting equipment.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said an investigation into the unauthorized access to the equipment by former Coffee County election officials continues.

Anyone who broke the law should be punished to its full extent," Raffensperger said in a news release. But the current election officials in Coffee County have to move forward with the 2022 election, and they should be able to do so without this distraction.

Footage from security cameras shows former election officials in Coffee County permitting access by unauthorized individuals to equipment that under Georgia law should have been secured, the release said. The footage was produced in response to subpoenas issued by plaintiffs in a long-running lawsuit against state election officials that claims the state's touchscreen voting machines aren't secure.

The county's election management server and central scanner workstation were previously replaced in June 2021, officials have said. The county will receive 100 new touchscreen voting machines, 100 printers, 10 precinct scanners, 21 tablets used to check in voters and new flash cards and thumb drives to be installed and tested before early voting begins next month.

Story continues

Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, a plaintiff in the voting machine lawsuit, said the election management server and central scanner workstation should also be replaced. She said that's because they were used with the other potentially contaminated equipment in elections since their replacement last year.

Separately, election officials in the state's most populous county, in and around Atlanta, said Friday that they had fired a worker after learning that personally identifiable information was shared with an individual outside the organization," news outlets reported.

The individual responsible for the incident no longer works with Fulton County, the county said in a news release. Fulton County is committed to the safety and security of all citizens and employees. Each individual affected by this incident will be notified and will receive credit monitoring services.
The bankruptcy case of beleaguered crypto lending platform Celsius has a new interested party: the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions.

In a motion filed Thursday evening, the states Assistant Attorney General Stephen Manning asked Judge Martin Glenn, who is overseeing the case, to admit him on behalf of Washingtons financial regulator.

Securities regulators in Washington, Alabama, Kentucky, New Jersey and Texas began an investigation into Celsius after the company suspended customer redemptions in June.

While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been working with its counterparts to regulate crypto via Washington, D.C., states such as Washington have taken a more active approach in regulation as theres a growing belief that the Feds are moving too slowly.

The Vermont Department of Financial Regulation perhaps had the strongest words regarding Celsius when it suggested in September that the companys structure resembled a Ponzi scheme.
Heres whats on TV tonight.

College Bowl: Duke vs. Columbia (8 p.m., NBC)

Peyton and Cooper Manning host this quiz show featuring college students competing in a playoff-style format. Tonight, Duke University takes on Columbia University.

20/20: Last Seen in Lakeland (9 p.m., ABC)

This ABC news magazine starts its 45th season with the story of Leo Schofield, who has been in prison for three decades for the stabbing murder of his wife, Michelle Schofield, in Florida in 1987. But did he do it? There was no physical evidence linking him to the murder, and developments since his conviction  including fingerprint evidence and a confession from another man  have some thinking Leo Schofield is wrongfully imprisoned.

Tonights report, anchored by Amy Robach, includes an exclusive interview with Leo Schofield from prison, plus interviews with Leos current wife (whom he met while in prison) and his daughter, among others. Also in tonights episode: exclusive access to Lava for Goods upcoming podcast Bone Valley hosted by Gilbert King, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, as well as an interview with King regarding his 3-and-a-half-year investigation into the Schofield case.

Dateline: Wreckage (9 p.m., NBC)

Josh Mankiewicz reports on the 2017 rape and murder of 22-year-old Molly Matheson of Fort Worth, Texas. While investigating the case, detectives uncovered a trail of sexual assault crimes pointing to a repeat offender, Reginald Kimbro. In tonights episode, survivors connected to the case speak out for the first time about their fight for justice. Mankiewicz also presses local police on why they let the perpetrator out of their sight years earlier.

Lou (Netflix)

In this new original movie, Jurnee Smollett plays a mother searching for her kidnapped daughter during a massive storm, with the help of a mysterious woman next door, played by Allison Janney.

Some programming descriptions are provided by networks.

Sign up for the Happiness is a Warm TV newsletter here.
Scientists have found liquid water trapped in crystals within rock samples returned from the asteroid Ryugu about 300 million km (186 million miles) from Earth.

Samples of the asteroid were found to contain a range of minerals, including calcium and aluminium-rich particles, magnetic minerals like magnetite, as well as carbonated water containing salts and organic matter.

The samples were returned to Earth for analysis by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agencys (JAXA) Hayabusa2 mission in 2020.

The findings, published in the journal Science on Friday, offer more evidence supporting the theory that life  or life-precursor molecules  on Earth might have originated from space.

Liquid water trapped in crystals in the sample was found. The water was held in micron-sized vacancies, JAXA said in a statement.

In the study, scientists analysed 17 Ryugu samples measuring about 1-8mm and found an iron sulphide pyrrhotite crystal containing carbonated water.

Researchers suggested that the parent space rock from which the Ryugu asteroid descended was born in the darkness of a stellar gas cloud located far from the reaches of the Suns light.

In this parent body, they said there would be variations in the ratio of water to rock between the surface and the interior, with rocks deeper underground containing more water.

Simulations conducted by the scientists suggested Ryugus parent body accumulated about 2 million years after the formation of the Solar System, and then heated up to about 50C over the next 3 million years, resulting in chemical reactions between water and rock.

The asteroids samples were found to contain some material near the surface of the parent body before its impact destruction and some from the interior of the parent space rock.

Scientists likened the hardness of the samples to that of volcanic igneous rocks on Earth, making them soft and allowing them to be easily cut with a blade.

Researchers found a diverse set of minerals in these rock fragments, whose differences, they said, can be explained by the different conditions for chemical reactions with water.

Story continues

Scientists said the hydrous minerals, including silicates and carbonate compounds discovered in the asteroid sample, likely formed when raw materials in the parent body reacted with water and carbon dioxide in the interior of the giant space rock.

Based on the state and stability of some of these minerals, researchers said the water temperature in some parts of the parent rock may have been about 25C.

Other studies have also suggested that the magnetite iron minerals in the Ryugu samples formed surprisingly low temperatures of under 40C.

The new analysis also revealed coral-like crystals grew from Ryugus liquid water.

Based on these findings, researchers said an environment similar to the Earths oceans existed in Ryugus interior, adding that such water-bearing asteroids are more widely distributed in the Solar System than water-free objects.
The government has set out plans in a mini-budget designed to boost economic growth and tackle soaring inflation.

These include cuts to stamp duty and income tax, reversing a recent rise in National Insurance, ending the cap on bankers' bonuses, and scrapping a planned increase in corporation tax.

We asked households and businesses how the plans would make a difference to them.

'We'll be lucky to keep our heads above water'

Raj Patel is very concerned about whether his restaurant business will survive

Raj Patel, 65, is the owner of restaurant Vegetarian Food Studio in Grangetown, Cardiff.

He says there is "nothing for small business" in the government plans.

"This budget is for the rich," he says. "Everything is for the rich, not for the poor."

He says scrapping the planned rise in corporation tax would help big business, but not his restaurant.

"If you don't make a big profit, it's not going to make a difference."

Raj is due to sign a 10-year lease on his restaurant in December, but is wary of doing so because he doesn't know if he can pay the rent. His landlord could take him to court if that happened.

Due to food, fuel and energy price rises, he recently put the prices in his restaurant up by 1 per dish. However, over two months, the amount of money the business took dropped by more than a third, and he is worried that this could get worse as people tighten their belts.

"We'll be lucky to keep our heads above water," he says.

'I think the government has done a good job'

Hotel manager Wendy Timewell says the package from the government will help her business

Wendy Timewell, manager at Hotel Wroxham in Hoveton, Norfolk, says the government plans "will certainly help".

"I think the government has done a good job," she says.

The cut to National Insurance "will help hugely", both for the business, which since April had been having to make higher contributions, and for employees, who would get more take-home wages.

In addition, government support on energy bills will help, although it is still unclear by exactly how much.

Wendy says she is "really grateful for all the things the government has done", and that the support will help her cope with "spiralling costs", including food, energy and fuel.

Story continues

However, despite the hotel being in a strong position, she is still apprehensive about what will happen over the winter.

"We're going into the unknown," she says. "We're not sure how [price rises] will affect the general public. It's terrifying."

One of the first ways people look to save money is by spending less on hospitality, she says.

"Only the strong will survive. The top earners will be fine."

However, businesses that had not been prudent or had been hit hard by the pandemic could go under, Wendy believes.

Hospitality firms are "still paying out huge amounts of Covid debt", she says, while the government has started "aggressively going after businesses for payment".

'The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer'

Chrissy Thornton says she can't see anything in the mini-budget that benefits her

Chrissy Thornton runs the Disability Families of Middleton charity in Leeds on a voluntary basis and looks after her two grandchildren.

She was hopeful the government would provide her with help in the mini-budget.

But at home on Friday, she voiced her disappointment at the measures.

Chrissy gets income support benefit, alongside disability living allowance and carer's allowance as her grandson has multiple conditions, including Raynaud Syndrome.

She can't see anything in the announcement to benefit her.

"The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer. People are struggling, it's getting worse," she says.

"My heart goes out to the elderly and vulnerable and those who are doing two jobs and still can't afford to provide for themselves."

'I'm still worried about energy bills'

Lesley, a nurse from Staffordshire, who didn't want to giver her surname, is in her 50s.

She says the government plans "don't feel like they're going to make a big difference" to many people's lives.

The cut to National Insurance will help, but many people will still be struggling, she says.

She is particularly concerned about energy bills, saying she is "worried about how much further it's going to go up" in October, even with the government's Energy Price Guarantee scheme.

"My husband and I are already talking about how much of the winter we could manage without the heating on," she says.

"You don't think in this day and age you'd be saying: 'How many blankets do I need to put around my knees?'"

Lesley is worried about elderly relatives getting cold and about discharging elderly patients.

"It puts pressure on us as nurses," she says. "If we discharge them, we think: 'Are they going to be sat at home, freezing cold?'"

Lesley's husband is disabled, and she is the main income-earner in her household.

She is noticing higher food prices and has started shopping more at discounters.

"We're thinking: 'What do we really need?'" she says. "It's changed my shopping practices. I used to go out and not even look at the prices of things."

Lesley is also doing more batch cooking to try to save energy, and car-sharing with colleagues to get to work due to higher fuel prices.
The West Carrollton City Beautiful Commission is seeking volunteers to help with their annual Rake Rally event at 10a.m. on Saturday, November 12, according to a press release from city representatives.

>>Annual Oktoberfest at Dayton Art Institute kicks off today

Many times, some of our residents arent able to physically get all their leaves to the curb for pickup, Parks Director Christian Mattingly said, and thats where we come in and help.

Volunteers will disperse throughout the city to help residents in need rake the leaves in their front-yard and get them ready for pickup, the release said.

>>OVI checkpoint to be held in Butler Co. tonight

Materials such as rakes, gloves and bags will be available for volunteers including a Rake Rally t-shirt for their participation, the spokesperson said. Volunteers are encouraged to bring their own rakes, leaf blowers or tarps if possible.

Residents who would like to sign up to receive help, or anyone looking to volunteer during the event should contact 937-859-5182 or parks@westcarrollton.org. by Thursday, November 10.

The city asks that you provide your name, address and phone number when signing up for help or to volunteer.




By Michelle Nichols and John Irish

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -The Western argument to internationally isolate Russia over its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has been simple: it breaches the founding charter of the United Nations by violating Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Western leaders are making that case at the annual high-level gathering this week for the U.N. General Assembly.

"Let us speak plainly. A permanent member of the United Nations Security Council invaded its neighbor, attempted to erase a sovereign state from the map," U.S. President Joe Biden told the assembly.

But as the West vies with Russia for diplomatic influence it is also recognizing that some states - particularly in the global South - are concerned about paying the price for being squeezed in the middle of an intense geopolitical rivalry.

Africa is worried about what it means for food security, aid, investment, trade and health. Latin America commodity exporters fret about market access.

"I have come to say that Africa has suffered enough of the burden of history, that it does not want to be the place of a new Cold War but rather a pole of stability and opportunity open to all of its partners," Senegalese President Macky Sall told the gathering.

Ultimately the world wants the war in Ukraine to end. Within a week of Russia's invasion, two-thirds of the 193-member U.N. General Assembly reprimanded Russia and demanded it withdraw its troops. But as the conflict has dragged on some countries have been reluctant to be seen taking sides.

French President Emmanuel Macron said in an impassioned speech that Western states would work to convince those who sit on the fence to do more to pressure Russia to end the war.

"It is neither revenge against the West, nor opposition of the West against the rest. It is urgent to build a new contract between the North and the South, an effective and respectful contract for food, the climate, biodiversity and education," he said.

Story continues

To kickstart those efforts, Macron hosted a dinner in New York with eight countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America.

'WORDS OF TRUTH'

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari told the General Assembly that the war in Ukraine would hinder "our capacity to work together to resolve conflicts elsewhere, especially in Africa, the Middle-East and Asia."

He said the war was "making it more difficult to tackle the perennial" U.N. issues, such as nuclear disarmament, the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, Palestinians statehood aspirations and a "reduction of inequalities within and amongst nations."

Some countries have also called out double standards exposed by how the West has responded to Russia's war in Ukraine.

South Africa's International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor said founding U.N. principles had not always been applied consistently and fairly, describing the problem as: "We believe international law matters when this one is affected, but doesn't matter when this other one is affected."

She said global solidarity was needed to meet other challenges such as energy and food insecurity, climate change, other conflicts and the existential threat of nuclear weapons.

"Instead of working collectively to address these challenges, we have grown further apart as geopolitical tensions and mistrust permeate our relations," Pandor said.

Polish President Andrzej Duda used his U.N. address to tell "a few words of truth to us  the leaders of the rich North, or  as others might like to put it - of the West."

He questioned whether the West was "equally resolute during the tragedies of Syria, Libya, Yemen" and whether equal weight was given to condemning the invasion in Ukraine and issues such as "fighting mercenaries who seek to destabilize the Sahel and threaten many other states in Africa?"

"This is how I see the lesson learnt from this war: if the United Nations is truly to be united, every response to violations of international law should be identical - decisive and principled," Duda said.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols and John Irish; Editing by Mary Milliken and Grant McCool)
The 10-part miniseries "Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story" that landed on Netflix on Sept. 21 features a number of moments pulled from original reporting about the horrific murders perpetrated by Dahmer over several years and discovered in July 1991.

Was everything in the show as it happened, or were some details glossed over a bit? As any fan of true-crime television will tell you, "based on a true story" can often mean a wide range of interpretation of the facts.

Niecy Nash plays Glenda Cleveland, the Milwaukee woman who tried to get police to investigate her neighbor, Jeffrey Dahmer, in the new Netflix series "Dahmer. Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story."

This particular series played things pretty faithfully to the reported information, though there were a couple notable story beats that diverted from reality.

(Reviews of the series have thus far been mixed.)

With the guide of original reporting from the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Sentinel, as well as former Journal reporter Anne E. Schwartz's book on the topic ("Monster: The True Story of the Jeffrey Dahmer Murders"), here's a look at the fact and fiction of each episode.

More: The building where Jeffrey Dahmer committed gruesome murders was torn down in 1992, and the lot at 924 N. 25th Street still sits empty today

Warning: Some details may be unsettling to readers, and these details will reveal the events of the series.

EPISODE 1: EPISODE ONE

Glenda Cleveland, a witness who questioned police action in the Konerak Sinthasomphone incident, watches news reports on the dismissal of the officers involved. With her is her daughter, Sandra Smith, and her grandson, Andrew.

Glenda Cleveland didn't live in the Oxford Apartments building

One of the biggest changes to real events is the character of Glenda Cleveland (Niecy Nash). In the show, she lives adjacent to Jeffrey Dahmer (Evan Peters), who resides in apartment 213 in the Oxford Apartments on 25th Street in Milwaukee.

The real-life Cleveland lived in a building next door. It seems likely that the show attempted to amalgamate Cleveland and neighbor Pamela Bass into one character. It's Bass who said that Dahmer made sandwiches for others in the building, which becomes the subject of an unsettling exchange between the Dahmer and Cleveland characters later in the show.

The Milwaukee Police incident on the news might not have happened

For as many details as the show gets right, it makes some curious choices on its newscasts. The first words you hear in the series are from a television news program being watched by Cleveland, starting with, "Five white police officers stand accused of beating a fellow officer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a Black man on undercover assignment," going on to indicate that the event happened during a traffic stop.

Story continues

If that happened, we couldn't find any record of it, and certainly not in the months leading up to the 1991 arrest of Dahmer (which happens in subsequent scenes after this newscast is airing).

There was, however, an incident that fits the description that took place in Nashville, Tennessee, in December 1992.

Dahmer did show Tracy Edwards 'The Exorcist'

Dahmer indeed showed the movie "The Exorcist" to Tracy Edwards (Shaun J. Brown), the man who escaped Dahmer's apartment and later led police back to the scene where Dahmer was discovered (though in one interview he said it was "The Exorcist III"). Another of Dahmer's preferred movies, "Return of the Jedi," is also mentioned in the series.

Tracy Edwards, who escaped from Dahmer's apartment, testifying during the Jeffrey L. Dahmer trial.

How many locks were on Dahmer's door?

The episode chronicles the night of July 22, 1991, when Dahmer was captured after 32-year-old Tracy Edwards escaped his apartment and flagged down police. Edwards is shown on the show fiddling with the locks and trying to escape, which actually became a point of contention in real life.

Edwards' story changed throughout the aftermath of Dahmer's arrest, including appearances on talk shows in which he talked about the numerous locks on the door, while photos of the scene showed only two.

The other evidence police find in the apartment during the episode, from the painted skulls to the heads in the refrigerator, were real details from the scene.

EPISODE 2: PLEASE DON'T GO

Milwaukee police officers John Balcerzak (left) and Joseph Gabrish, shown in a 1992 photograph, were fired when they were accused of returning Konarek Sinthasomphone back to killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

Milwaukee police officers did return victim Konerak Sinthasomphone to Dahmer, then radioed about needing to be 'deloused'

"Ten-four. It'll be a minute, my partner's gonna get deloused at the station."

They are the words of officer John Balcerzak, who reported to the Oxford Apartments with partner Joseph Gabrish on May 27, 1991, for an encounter that would become a major wedge between the Milwaukee citizenry and its leaders.

After infamously returning Dahmer victim Konerak Sinthasomphone to Dahmer  the killer had convinced the cops that the disoriented 14-year-old was actually his 19-year-old lover who'd had too much to drink  the officers returned to their car and radioed in. They later reported that the smell they observed in the apartment resembled someone recently using the bathroom and not something more sinister, and "deloused" was a word emphasized by critics as an indication of law enforcement's flippant or recoiling attitude toward the gay community.

Both officers, as well as a third who assisted (Rick Porubcan) were suspended once Dahmer's murders were discovered, including five more after that night. The two were fired by police chief Philip Arreola, then reinstated by a judge in 1994 and continued a long career in law enforcement.

Dahmer indeed stole a mannequin from a department store

It was a Boston Store  a now-defunct Milwaukee-based chain.

Dahmer did get angry about tadpoles he gave a teacher

The episode pulled a real-life anecdote from Dahmer's childhood, when he became upset when the tadpoles he gifted a teacher were handed off to a friend. Even more sinister than the show portrayed, Dahmer said he angrily went to the friend's house and killed the tadpoles by pouring motor oil into their jar.

Dahmer was convicted for sexually assaulting the brother of one of his future victims

Dahmer was convicted of sexual assault of a minor  Sinthasomphone's brother  in 1988. This has largely been regarded as a horrifying coincidence. On the show, he buys Konerak beer from a convenience store and doesn't make the connection between the two brothers when Konerak brings it up. Dahmer in real life said he met Konerak at Grand Avenue Mall.

EPISODE 3: DOIN' A DAHMER

Ohio police let Dahmer go with damning evidence in the back seat

Dahmer revealed in his testimony that in 1978, after killing his first victim at age 18 (Steven Hicks), he was pulled over near his Ohio hometown with garbage bags in the backseat that contained Hicks' remains.

Though he was swerving and pulled over at 3 a.m., Dahmer convinced the officers to let him drive off. This interaction is portrayed in the episode.

He eventually stored the body and disposed of it two years later after returning from military duty, scattering the remains all over the yard of his parents' home.

Investigators found the remains in late 1991.

Dahmer's jogger story is partially accurate

Dahmer in real life did say that he became fascinated with an area jogger and thought about attacking him with a baseball bat, though it doesn't appear he ever did, vowing that if the jogger came by again, he'd finally act (but the jogger never came back).

In the show, Dahmer winds up stalking the jogger and approaching him aggressively with the bat but then bringing the jogger back to his house for a drink  an interaction that is revealed to be a fantasy.

Dahmer did pose with the Honor Society for yearbook photo, even though he wasn't in the group

It's true that Dahmer once posed in his school's honor society yearbook photo even though he didn't belong to the organization. His face was blacked out, just as it was portrayed on the show.

EPISODE 4: THE GOOD BOY BOX

Edna Parker of Milwaukee used her new video camera to tape the exterior of the Oxford Apartments at 924 North 25th Street, the scene of the Jeffrey Dahmer slayings in 1991.

Dahmer did work at the Milwaukee Blood Plasma Center but didn't drink bags of blood

One scene on the show shows Dahmer getting a job as a phlebotomist at the Milwaukee Blood Plasma Center and bringing a bag of blood home to drink.

The real-life incident Dahmer described to law enforcement was less gory but also more daring.

Dahmer said he tried a vial of blood to see how it tasted and did so on the roof of the center. Dahmer said he spit the blood out on the rooftop.

Yes, Dahmer was arrested for indecent exposure at the Wisconsin State Fair and was kicked out of a bathhouse

His fine was $50 for the former offense and he was accused by the manager of drugging two patrons in the latter incident. The manager later testified at Dahmer's trial.

Dahmer said he killed his first Milwaukee victim at the Ambassador Hotel

As portrayed on the show, Steven Tuomi (Dahmer's first victim in Milwaukee) was murdered at the Ambassador Hotel, though Dahmer was never forthcoming with details about that night, saying that he'd blacked out. It's portrayed that way on the show.

Dahmer was not officially charged with Tuomi's death because no remains were ever recovered, though Dahmer did describe parts of the encounter.

EPISODE 5: BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS

Ron Flowers' close call

In Schwartz's book, Dahmer said he didn't eventually decide to kill Ron Flowers  a man he led back to his grandmother's house in West Allis and drugged  because Flowers weighed 250 pounds and Dahmer wasn't sure he could move the body.

The Ron Flowers in the show (Dyllon Burnside) isn't that imposing, but he does get saved thanks to vigilant attention from Catherine Dahmer (Michael Learned). It's unclear if she was as hands-on in real life as she was in the show.

Just as in real life, Dahmer had offered to give Flowers a lift after Flowers' car broke down. Flowers remembered going back to the house and then waking up in a hospital, and he believed he'd been assaulted (the show doesn't include this). Police did question Dahmer afterward but found Dahmer's story to be credible.

TV news reports share odd information

Again, the TV news reports in the background are interesting; one mentions a house fire in Stafford (a community that does not exist) and another cites the Allis-Chalmers plant shutting down its tractor operation by the end of the year. Allis-Chalmers closed in 1985 before the events depicted.

Dahmer was sentenced to spend a year in the House of Correction, which was more casual than depicted

The correctional facility in Milwaukee where Dahmer was sentenced to spend a year looks like a jail on the show, but it's more of a "dormitory" setup in real life according to Schwartz.

Judge William Gardner received much more attention in real life than on the show

Gardner received significant criticism for this leniency in sentencing Dahmer for the sexual assault of a minor, though he doesn't wind up emphasized in the series.

It's unclear if he indeed struggled with the patriarch Sounthone Sinthasomophone's broken English and asked that he enlist one of his children as a translator (as was the case on the show). Schwartz's book indicates that the family wasn't even present at the sentencing hearing because no one had informed them it was happening.

Donna Chester, a probation officer who had appointments with Dahmer during his killing spree and never grew wise to his murders, also received widespread criticism but does not appear in the show.

EPISODE 6: SILENCED

Tony Hughes, one of Jeffrey L. Dahmer's victims.

Tony Hughes and Dahmer knew each other for more than a year, according to a witness

The show ostensibly set out to tell a tale about the victims and those who unwittingly allowed Dahmer's crimes to continue, but this is the first episode that spends prolonged time with characters other than Dahmer.

Tony Hughes first met Dahmer in 1989. The deaf man and Dahmer are shown in this episode having a lengthy relationship, at least by the show's standards.

The real-life Dahmer said in his confession that he never met Hughes before the night he was murdered, but a friend of Hughes' told police that Dahmer and Hughes had been friendly for more than a year, coming to her house six times from October 1989 to December 1990 looking for Hughes.

Another friend verified they knew each other for two years before Hughes became a victim.

Milwaukee newspapers reported on Hughes' disappearance after he went missing, before the Dahmer discovery.

Dahmer did call family members of his victims

He menacingly told them to stop looking for their loved ones, as portrayed in the show.

EPISODE 7: CASSANDRA

The Reverend Jesse Jackson visits Milwaukee in 1991 and shakes hands with people in a crowd along N. 25th Street during his visit.

Glenda Cleveland did repeatedly follow up with Milwaukee police about her suspicions

Glenda Cleveland, who witnessed the May encounter between Dahmer, Sinthasomphone and police, did follow up repeatedly, believing Sinthasomphone was a younger child and not a 19-year-old. She called again after she saw a story in the newspaper about Sinthasomphone going missing, recognizing him from that night.

Police did not act on her suspicions, and she called the FBI, which decided it did not have jurisdiction. Seven weeks went by before Dahmer was arrested.

In the show, Cleveland said she was making calls for "months and months."

Cleveland did get to meet the Rev. Jesse Jackson in Milwaukee

Cleveland was eventually hailed by the city as an example of citizen action, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson came to Milwaukee to highlight the double standard in how law enforcement looked at Black and white citizens, where Cleveland did get to meet him, as she did in the show.

Tenants in the Oxford Apartments did complain about the smell and did hear screams

The manager spoke to Dahmer about the issue at least three times, though it's unclear if he was threatened with eviction as he was on the show.

The manager even helped Dahmer clean out a freezer at one point in an attempt to alleviate the aroma.

But as mentioned above, there's no indication Cleveland and Dahmer ever met, so the menacing exchange in which Dahmer insists she eat a sandwich he gave her probably didn't happen.

Cleveland died in 2011 and never moved from 25th street.

EPISODE 8: LIONEL

Rita Isbell, older sister of Errol Lindsey, shouts at Jeffrey L. Dahmer after she addressed the court in 1992.

The families' testimonies are nearly word-for-word from court transcripts, and they're the most effective part of the show

It wouldn't be surprising to see this show draw criticism for falling short of providing a greater story to the families of victims.

The most effective scene in the series comes toward the end of this episode, when family members are able to speak in court how Dahmer's murders have impacted them. The speeches are almost word-for-word from actual transcripts, but unfortunately, we haven't spent enough time with these people to get a sense of their stories.

That includes a passionate demonstration of rage from Rita Isbell (DaShawn "Dash" Barnes), the sister of victim Errol Lindsey. Isbell really did attempt to lunge across the table to attack Dahmer in the trial.

A representative from the Isbell family questioned the purpose of another re-telling of the Dahmer story with the Netflix release.

Lionel Dahmer did petition Judge Gardner to keep his son locked up

Lionel Dahmer, father of serial killer Jeffrey L. Dahmer, talks with his wife, Shari, during first day of testimony in Dahmer's sanity trial.

Much of the show focuses on the complicated relationship between Lionel Dahmer (Richard Jenkins) and his son. It's true that Lionel petitioned judge William Gardner to not release Dahmer, believing he needed treatment for alcohol and his other urges, something Dahmer did not receive during his stay in the correctional facility while serving his sentence for sexual assault.

There was a Jeffrey Dahmer comic book in 1992

On the show, Dahmer acknowledges that he'd heard of another notorious Wisconsin serial killer, "Butcher of Plainfield" Ed Gein, through a comic book. It's unclear if there really was an Ed Gein comic book that Dahmer read when he was younger (there's definitely a graphic novel today), but the Jeffrey Dahmer comic book shown in the series was real, to the horror of family members, in 1992.

EPISODE 9: THE BOGEYMAN

Milwaukee police officers Balcerzak and Gabrish did not receive 'Officer of the Year'

One of the show's biggest inventions, a brief scene shows the two police officers at the center of the feud between citizens and law enforcement  John Balcerzak and Joseph Gabrish  receive an "officer of the year" commendation.

That never happened, though both were reinstated to their jobs in 1994, with back pay, and Balcerzak later became president of the Milwaukee police officers union.

Cleveland was, however, formally honored by the Common Council and County Board, and mayor John Norquist called her a model citizen. Her recognition is portrayed in the show.

The police chief confirmed that he believed police officers were calling the Sinthasomphone family

In real life, police chief Philip Arreola offered 24-hour protection to the family of Konerak Sinthasompone after they received threatening phone calls in the wake of disciplinary action against the officers who returned their son to Dahmer in May.

Arreola said in a TV interview that the family had received phone calls from other officers and the spouse of an officer. The family did not pursue the offer of protection and the calls supposedly stopped when a tracing device was placed on their phone.

Robert Slattery, who filed a lawsuit against the city and officers on behalf of the family, said his office also received threatening calls.

There's nothing to suggest the officers directly involved in the interaction outside Dahmer's apartment took part in these phone calls.

It appears on the TV show that the officers shown making one of the calls are played by different actors, though they bear some resemblance to those playing Balcerzak and Gabrish.

We couldn't find information on Sandra Smith's arrest

In the show, Sandra Smith (the daughter of Glenda Cleveland) is arrested for assaulting a gawker and shattering his camera. We couldn't find record of that ever happening and it might be a show invention. The real-life Smith was present the night the police returned Konerak Sinthasomphone to Dahmer.

The lot where Jeffrey Dahmer's apartment building used to be Friday, Sept. 23, 2022, at 924 N. 25th St., Milwaukee. The Oxford Apartments were purchased by the Campus Circle Project, a public/private organization affiliated with Marquette University, and razed in 1992.

It's true that the apartments were razed and nothing took their place

The Oxford Apartments were purchased for $325,000 by the Campus Circle Project, a public/private organization affiliated with Marquette University, and razed in 1992. Even today, the lot at 924 N. 25th Street is vacant, surrounded by a black fence.

EPISODE 10: GOD OF FORGIVENESS, GOD OF VENGEANCE

Christopher J. Scarver, Inmate, being held in the slaying of Jeffrey L. Dahmer.

In what might be seen as one of the series' flimsiest episodes, characters (including Dahmer) try moving on, with a theme of faith and forgiveness.

Christopher Scarver, the convicted murderer who killed Dahmer and another inmate (Cedarburg murderer Jesse Anderson) at the Columbia Correctional Institution, is portrayed as someone seeking God's advice in how to deal with Dahmer.

The real-life Scarver has given testimony saying he believed he was a million years old. He also professed to be the son of God. So he may be prone to embellishment.

Investigators determined that prison staff were not culpable in the double murder. Two life sentences were added to Scarver's initial life sentence.

JR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Whats real, fiction on 'Monster: the Jeffrey Dahmer Story on Netflix
Case files belonging to a special government team in Gsttingen, Germany, that investigates online speech-related crimes. (Felix Schmitt/The New York Times)

When the police pounded the door before dawn at a home in northwest Germany, a bleary-eyed young man in his boxer shorts answered. The officers asked for his father, who was at work.

They told him that his 51-year-old father was accused of violating laws against online hate speech, insults and misinformation. He had shared an image on Facebook with an inflammatory statement about immigration falsely attributed to a German politician. Just because someone rapes, robs or is a serious criminal is not a reason for deportation, the fake remark said.

The police then scoured the home for about 30 minutes, seizing a laptop and tablet as evidence, prosecutors said.

Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times

At that exact moment in March, a similar scene was playing out at about 100 other homes across Germany, part of a coordinated nationwide crackdown that continues to this day. After sharing images circulating on Facebook that carried a fake statement, the perpetrators had devices confiscated and some were fined.

We are making it clear that anyone who posts hate messages must expect the police to be at the front door afterward, Holger Munch, the head of the Federal Criminal Police Office, said after the March raids.

Hate speech, extremism, misogyny and misinformation are well-known byproducts of the internet. But the people behind the most toxic online behavior typically avoid any personal major real-world consequences. Most Western democracies such as the United States have avoided policing the internet because of free speech rights, leaving a sea of slurs, targeted harassment and tweets telling public figures theyd be better off dead. At most, Facebook, YouTube or Twitter remove a post or suspend their account.

But over the past several years, Germany has forged another path, criminally prosecuting people for online hate speech.

German authorities have brought charges for insults, threats and harassment. Police have raided homes, confiscated electronics and brought people in for questioning. Judges have enforced fines worth thousands of dollars each and, in some cases, sent offenders to jail. The threat of prosecution, they believe, will not eradicate hate online, but push some of the worst behavior back into the shadows.

Story continues

In doing so, they have flipped inside out what, to American ears, it means to protect free speech. Authorities in Germany argue that they are encouraging and defending free speech by providing a space where people can share opinions without fear of being attacked or abused.

There has to be a line you cannot cross, said Svenja Meininghaus, a state prosecutor who attended the raid of the fathers house. There has to be consequences.

But even in Germany, a country where the stain of Nazism drives a belief that free speech is not absolute, the crackdown is generating fierce debate: How far is too far?

A Turning Point

Walter Lubcke was a well-liked if unassuming local politician in the central German state of Hesse. He was known among constituents more for his advocacy of wind turbines and a bigger airport than provocation. But as a supporter of then-Chancellor Angela Merkels immigration policies, he became a regular target of online abuse after a 2015 video of him had circulated in far-right circles. In the video, he suggested to a local audience that anyone who did not support taking in refugees could leave Germany themselves.

In June 2019, he was shot and killed by a neo-Nazi on the terrace of his house at close range, shocking the public to the depths of far-right extremism in the country and how online hate could lead to grave real-world violence.

Publicly displaying swastikas and other Nazi symbolism is illegal in Germany, as is denying or diminishing the significance of the Holocaust. Remarks considered to be inciting hatred are punishable with jail time. It is a crime to insult somebody in public.

But authorities struggled to translate the speech laws to the internet age, where the volume of toxicity is seemingly endless and often masked by anonymity.

At first, policymakers in Germany attempted to put more pressure on internet companies such as Facebook to crack down. In 2017, the country passed a landmark law, the Network Enforcement Act, that forced Facebook and others to take down hate speech in as little as 24 hours of being notified or face fines.

Companies beefed up their content moderation efforts to comply, but many German policymakers said the law did not go far enough because it targeted companies rather than the individuals who were posting vile content. Hate speech and online abuse continued to spread after the law passed, as did the rise in far-right extremism.

The assassination of Lubcke represented a turning point, intensifying efforts to prosecute people who broke the speech laws online. And in the last year, the government adopted rules that made it easier to arrest those who target public figures online.

Daniel Holznagel, a former Justice Ministry official who helped draft the internet enforcement laws passed in 2017, compared the crackdown to going after copyright violators. He said people stopped illegally downloading music and movies as much after authorities began issuing fines and legal warnings.

You cant prosecute everyone, but it will have a big effect if you show that prosecution is possible, said Holznagel, who is now a judge.

The Internet Police

Red evidence files fill the hallways, bookshelves and desks of the special task force located in a converted courthouse in Gottingen. The files are full of printouts of words and images that no one sharing them probably ever imagined would be collected by government prosecutors in real life: Facebook comments, tweets and Telegram posts depicting antisemitism, racism, violent threats, insults and more.

This person was only 17 years old, Meininghaus, who works in the unit, said as she thumbed through more than 20 pages of abhorrent images and memes, some lionizing Hitler, others making jokes about Anne Frank.

No national figures exist on the total number of people charged with online speech-related crimes. But in a review of German state records, The New York Times found more than 8,500 cases. Overall, more than 1,000 people have been charged or punished since 2018, a figure many experts said is probably much higher.

Much of the daily work policing the internet falls to local teams such as the one in Gottingen that is responsible for covering cases across Lower Saxony, a vast state in northern Germany. Created in 2020, the group of six lawyers and investigators is one of the most aggressive in the country. Last year, it investigated 566 internet speech-related crimes, a figure the unit expects to more than double in 2022. About 28% of those investigations resulted in a fine or other punishment. In one case involving a man making death threats on Telegram, the prosecutors had him committed to a psychiatric institution.

The team is stretched thin, constantly gathering evidence for prosecutions, drafting search and arrest warrants, responding to lawyers asking to have their clients devices returned and preparing for court. Authorities in Lower Saxony raid homes up to multiple times per month, sometimes with a local television crew in tow.

Frank-Michael Laue, who started the unit after a two-decade career as a criminal prosecutor, said that stiff penalties draw attention and change behavior. He boasted of fining a well-known painter in the community the equivalent of roughly $10,000 for sharing insults about Turkish immigrants.

When people refuse to give access to their smartphones for evidence, Laue said, the device can be sent to a lab operated by the federal government that uses software that can bypass passwords. Made by a company called Cellebrite, it is the same kind of software used by the FBI in the United States.

Investigators scour social media feeds, publicly available records and government data to build cases. Swen Weiland, a software developer turned internet hate speech investigator, is in charge of unmasking people behind anonymous accounts. He hunts for clues about where a person lives and works, and connections to friends and family. After an unknown Twitter user compared COVID-19 restrictions to the Holocaust, he used an online registry of licensed architects to help identify the culprit as a middle-aged woman.

I try to find out what they do in their normal life, Weiland said. If I find where they live or their relatives then I can get the real person. The internet does not forget.

Police officers and prosecutors say detective work is required because social media companies rarely turn over user information unless there is an imminent threat of violence. Meta, Google and Twitter recently won a court challenge to stop an expansion of the Network Enforcement Act that would have required the companies to notify the government when they detected online hate speech and other illicit content, a rule that could have led to thousands of new cases per year.

Google said in a statement that it provided information in 85% of requests from authorities, but that the proposed law to provide authorities user data without a legal order undermines fundamental rights. Twitter said it worked closely with law enforcement in Germany, while balancing protecting freedom of expression. Meta declined to comment.

I Couldnt Sleep

The misleading Facebook post with the made-up statement on immigration had followed Margarete Bause, a former Green Party member of the German parliament, since at least 2018. She would know it had gone viral again when people would reference it when calling her office to hurl abuse.

Bause was a champion for human rights and humanitarian aid while in parliament. The fake remarks had twisted her support for immigration into an extreme view to incite far-right activists.

And it was that post that eventually led to the raid of that 51-year-old fathers house in northwest Germany. The father, whose name was not shared by authorities because of Germanys strict privacy laws, is still under investigation in Lower Saxony as police examine the contents of his devices. Even if he did not know the comment attributed to Bause was fake, he still faces punishment because the accused bears the risk of spreading a false quote without checking it, prosecutors said.

The father faces a fine of about 1,400 euros (about $1,378), a penalty welcomed by Bause. Thats a warning shot that they cant just accuse and hurt people with impunity, she said.

Most perpetrators, though, go unpunished. With limited resources, authorities only prosecute a fraction of posts considered illegal speech, often because the person behind it cannot be quickly identified.

Hassmelden, a nonprofit based in Berlin that helped people file complaints, used to receive more than 4,000 submissions per day. The group closed last year after it could not keep up with the case load.

People withdraw from debate more and more and dont dare to express their political opinion, said Josephine Ballon, legal director at HateAid, a nonprofit in Berlin that provides legal aid for victims of online abuse. Too many cases are abandoned.

Amina Yousaf, 32, a political activist in Gottingen, said she had been a target of abuse and violent threats from far-right activists since writing a 2015 blog post about the difficulties of being a woman of color in Germany. Yousafs home address was published online, making her fearful that her sister, whom she resembles and lived with at the time, would be mistakenly attacked. Another person tweeted the address of a shop her parents owned and lived next to, saying they should be careful.

A lawyer helped her file criminal complaints, but the police did nothing more than give her a brochure about online hate, saying the comments did not break the law or they could not identify the perpetrators. Twitter removed some threatening posts, but most remained online. Facebook refused to turn over information about the administrators of a group page targeting Yousaf.

Abuse like this brings lasting psychological trauma, victims said.

What really got me was this really sexual aggression, all kinds of things that very explicitly said should happen to me, with pictures, said Stefanie von Berg, a local politician in Hamburg targeted by far-right activists. She said it took years of therapy to overcome the resulting fear and anxiety. I couldnt sleep, she said.

Sometimes, victims decide to do the sleuthing themselves.

Last year, Christian Endt, a journalist in Berlin whose coverage of COVID-19 drew a steady stream of insults online, reached a breaking point. After an anonymous Twitter user had called him stupid and mentally ill, he embarked on a mission to see if he could get the person prosecuted.

The persons account did not include a real name, but it had a photo on the profile page. That allowed Endt to perform an image search to see where else on the internet the image could be found. It led him to a LinkedIn page of a small-business owner. From there, he found the individuals company website, phone number and home address.

Endt compiled his finding in a memo and sent it to the local district attorney. In December, the case landed with the online hate unit in Lower Saxony, where the culprit lived. After reviewing the evidence, they sent the man a fine worth about 1,000 euros.

I was not even sure if what this guy wrote was a crime or not, Endt said. In the end, Im happy they did something about it and this person got a signal that there are some limits on free speech.

A Criminal Insult?

Last year, Andy Grote, a city senator responsible for public safety and the police in Hamburg, broke the local social distancing rules  which he was in charge of enforcing  by hosting a small election party in a downtown bar.

After Grote later made remarks admonishing others for hosting parties during the pandemic, a Twitter user wrote: Du bist so 1 Pimmel (You are such a penis).

Three months later, six police officers raided the house of the man who had posted the insult, looking for his electronic devices. The incident caused an uproar.

Activists printed stickers of the Twitter remark and plastered them around Hamburg, forcing the police to clean them up. Then activists painted a mural with the phrase, forcing the police to paint it over more than once.

The case, which quickly gained the moniker Pimmelgate (Penisgate) made national headlines. It raised concerns that illegal speech was too vaguely defined and gave local prosecutors and the police too much discretion about enforcement.

Not long after the incident, Alexander Mai, 26, a climate activist who lives in the Bavarian city of Augsburg, got into a Facebook argument with a local far-right politician named Andreas Jurca. In response to a message by Jurca criticizing Muslims, Mai posted a link to a picture of the mural.

Several weeks later, four police officers pounded on Mais door at 6 a.m. with a warrant to confiscate his electronics. Jurca had filed a police report claiming the link to the photo was an insult.

The police spent over an hour rummaging through his drawers and belongings before leaving with several laptops and phones. Mai said he believed the raid was politically motivated because of his climate activism. He is working with a lawyer to fight charges of making a public insult.

They were not here because Im suspected of murdering someone, Mai said in an interview. I was just suspected of insulting someone online.

Judging Speech

Several internet speech-related cases are now winding their way through the German legal system. The outcomes have the potential to create a new area of case law about what can and cannot be said online, potentially diminishing the role of internet companies as the main arbiters of online speech by moving more to the courts.

Germanys experience is being closely watched in other countries such as Britain and France, where policymakers want to more tightly regulate internet speech, but have wavered about how to find the right balance with free expression.

In June, in the town of Kassel in central Germany, a 49-year-old man was on trial for comments made on Facebook that said Lubcke, the politician murdered in 2019, had himself to blame.

Dirk B., the defendant whose full name is being withheld because of Germanys strict privacy laws, told a judge that the comments were taken out of context. His Facebook post, he said, had been about Lubckes refusal of police protection and that he had, in the same comments, expressed condolences for Lubckes family.

This falls under the freedom of expression in our free democratic state, the defendant said. He added that he would post the same thing again.

The judge disagreed. At the end of the two-hour hearing, she said he had effectively condoned Lubckes murder. He was ordered to pay a fine of 2,400 euros.

 2022 The New York Times Company
LONDON  Protests led by women have erupted across Iran following the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody.

Mahsa Amini, from Kurdistan, was visiting Tehran on Sept. 13 when she was detained by Iran's so-called morality police, reportedly for violating the dress code. According to Sky News, Amini was told by the authorities that she was wearing her headscarf too loosely. She died on Sept. 16 after three days in a coma.

Activists and Aminis family claim she died from injuries sustained from a beating by police. Authorities in Iran, however, deny any mistreatment and claim that Amini suffered sudden heart failure.

Protesters in Cologne, Germany, hold images of Mahsa Amini on Wednesday after her death in police custody in Iran. (Ying Tang/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The news of Aminis death sparked anger nationwide, and thousands of Iranians took to the streets. As of Thursday, protests had spread to at least 80 towns and cities across the country. State television has put the death toll in the clashes at 17, but a human rights group says at least 31 have been killed.

On Tuesday, footage circulated on social media of women burning their hijabs in demonstrations and of a woman cutting off her hair in an act of public defiance. A wave of videos has been posted online of women cutting their hair in solidarity.

In response, the Iranian government shut off internet access to several cellular networks and blocked access to a number of Western apps, including Instagram and WhatsApp.

On Friday, the U.S. Treasury announced sanctions on leaders of military and police forces in Iran. Mahsa Amini was a courageous woman whose death in Morality Police custody was yet another act of brutality by the Iranian regimes security forces against its own people, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote in the statement.

The Treasury statement added: "These officials oversee organizations that routinely employ violence to suppress peaceful protesters and members of Iranian civil society, political dissidents, women's rights activists, and members of the Iranian Baha'i community.

Story continues

A picture obtained by AFP outside Iran on Sept. 21 shows demonstrators burning a garbage can in Tehran at a protest for Amini. (AFP via Getty Images)

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Nada Al-Nashif, called for Aminis death to be investigated, in response to reports that the morality police beat her with a baton. Miss Aminis tragic death and allegations of torture and ill-treatment must be promptly, impartially and effectively investigated by an independent competent authority, that ensures, in particular, that her family has access to justice and the truth, the statement read.

Aminis father, Amjad, told BBC Persian that he was not allowed to see his daughters body, which had been wrapped for burial, leaving only her feet and face visible. "There were bruises on her feet," he said. He added that the authorities were lying in claiming that she had suffered from poor health. "She has not been to any hospital at all in the past 22 years, other than for a few cold-related sicknesses, he said.

But what are the laws surrounding hijabs? At the end of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Irans authorities imposed a dress code that required all women to wear what they deemed as proper clothing. This included a headscarf and loose-fitting garments.

Before this, women were free to decide whether to wear a hijab, with some bowing to family pressure or following tradition. In charge of enforcing these dress codes were the Gasht-e Ershad (Guidance Patrols), also known as "morality police."

Protected by young men, a group of young women protest having to wear the veil at a march in Tehran on March 10, 1979, during the Islamic Revolution. (Bettmann Archive via Getty Images)

Women who do not wear the hijab can be fined or imprisoned, Tara Sepehri Far, the Iran and Kuwait researcher of Human Rights Watch, told Yahoo News.

And for 40 years, women have been resisting it through individual collective acts of resistance. I think over the past 10 years or so, this has become part of the mainstream political discourse. For the past five years, we have seen more acts of defiance by people who actually take it as activism.
Calendar for Chinese 24 Solar Terms: Autumn Equinox

10:19, September 23, 2022 By Xue Yanyan, Zhang Wenjie, Xiang Shizhen ( People's Daily Online

The Autumn Equinox, or Qiufen in Chinese, the 16th of the 24 solar terms in the Chinese Lunar Calendar, falls on September 23 this year. During this period, autumn colors can be seen in many parts of China. China's "Chinese Farmers Harvest Festival" is held on the same day to celebrate the harvest season.

Qiufen is the midpoint of autumn. From here on, days will be shorter and nights will be longer in the Northern Hemisphere.

Worshiping the moon

In the past, Qiufen was the day for people to worship the moon. However, the specific date of Qiufen was unfixed, so the moon-worship day was rescheduled for the Mid-Autumn Day, when the moon was at its brightest and roundest.

Eating wild amaranth

Villagers in southern China will pick and eat wild amaranth, a typical autumn vegetable, to clear the liver and intestines and keep healthy.

Standing eggs on end

It is believed that the autumn equinox is a perfect time to standing eggs on end, because people have more responsive mind and agile act.

Blessing farmers with cattle-plowing paintings

Folk rap talkers will bless farmers with a good harvest, and farmers in response will buy cattle-plowing paintings from the rappers for auspicious omen.

Flying kites

In ancient times, people did not have good medical resources. So to pray for health, they wrote their medical issues on paper kite. When the kite was in the air, people would cut off the string to let the paper kite float away, symbolizing the flying away of diseases.

Related:

Calendar for Chinese 24 Solar Terms: White Dew

Calendar for Chinese 24 Solar Terms: End of Heat

Calendar for Chinese 24 Solar Terms: Start of Autumn

Calendar for Chinese 24 Solar Terms: Major Heat

Calendar for Chinese 24 Solar Terms: Minor Heat

Calendar for Chinese 24 Solar Terms: Summer Solstice

Calendar for Chinese 24 Solar Terms: Grain in Ear

Calendar for Chinese 24 Solar Terms: Grain Buds

Calendar for Chinese 24 Solar Terms: Start of Summer

Calendar for Chinese 24 Solar Terms: Grain Rain

Calendar for Chinese 24 Solar Terms: Qingming

Calendar for Chinese 24 Solar Terms: Spring Equinox

Calendar for Chinese 24 Solar Terms: Awakening of Insects

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Du Mingming)
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Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349
Finding a business that has the potential to grow substantially is not easy, but it is possible if we look at a few key financial metrics. Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount of capital employed. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. With that in mind, the ROCE of Altria Group (NYSE:MO) looks great, so lets see what the trend can tell us.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?

If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. To calculate this metric for Altria Group, this is the formula:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT)  (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.43 = US$12b  (US$37b - US$8.3b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2022).

Therefore, Altria Group has an ROCE of 43%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Tobacco industry average of 19%.

See our latest analysis for Altria Group

roce

In the above chart we have measured Altria Group's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report for Altria Group.

What Can We Tell From Altria Group's ROCE Trend?

Altria Group has not disappointed in regards to ROCE growth. We found that the returns on capital employed over the last five years have risen by 69%. That's not bad because this tells for every dollar invested (capital employed), the company is increasing the amount earned from that dollar. Speaking of capital employed, the company is actually utilizing 25% less than it was five years ago, which can be indicative of a business that's improving its efficiency. A business that's shrinking its asset base like this isn't usually typical of a soon to be multi-bagger company.

Story continues

What We Can Learn From Altria Group's ROCE

In a nutshell, we're pleased to see that Altria Group has been able to generate higher returns from less capital. Since the total return from the stock has been almost flat over the last five years, there might be an opportunity here if the valuation looks good. With that in mind, we believe the promising trends warrant this stock for further investigation.

If you want to continue researching Altria Group, you might be interested to know about the 3 warning signs that our analysis has discovered.

High returns are a key ingredient to strong performance, so check out our free list ofstocks earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.

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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The Real Bling Ring, a new documentary on Netflix, revisits the story of the Bling Ring (Netflix)

In the late 2000s, a string of robberies befell the rich and famous. Houses in and around Calabasas, California  the flashiest of the flashy neighborhoods, home to Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Will Smith, and many, many more  were being ransacked. Paris Hilton, Audrina Patridge, Rachel Bilson, Orlando Bloom, and Lindsay Lohan were all targeted in less than a year. When five suspects were arrested between September and October 2009, the media attention was prompt and insatiable: The suspects were all aged between 18 and 19. Some of them were high school classmates. All were teenagers.

Nick Prugo, Rachel Lee, Alexis Neiers, Diana Tamayo, and Courtney Ames became known as the Bling Ring, a nickname packed with all the flavors of a tabloid saga. While the case made its way through the legal system, it also became a pop culture oddity, many times analyzed, deconstructed, and put back together again. There was a Lifetime movie. There was a memorable Vanity Fair write-up by Nancy Jo Sales, titled The Suspects Wore Louboutins. Perhaps most notably, there was the 2013 Sofia Coppola movie The Bling Ring, based on Saless article, which dramatized the groups story and even featured Hilton herself.

A new three-part docuseries, Netflixs The Real Bling Ring, re-examines this mythology. For 13 years now, people have looked at the story with a hunger for yet another narrative about fame, wealth, and those who would do anything they could to obtain them. The kids in the Bling Ring wanted to be famous, we have been told. They yearned to become the very celebrities whose designer dresses and cash they pilfered.

It was a narrative that made sense. It wasnt hard to believe in the idea of a group of teenagers so fame-hungry and looks-obsessed they became criminals. I had never heard of the Bling Ring until Coppolas movie came out in 2013. For years after, their story was, in my mind, impossible to dissociate from Coppolas skilled dramatization. The words Bling Ring immediately called to mind an American-absented Emma Watson  who portrayed a character based on Neiers in the movie  impishly telling her friends: I wanna rob.

Story continues

But there is another narrative to be found in The Real Bling Ring. Look past the documentarys styling effects  such as scripted voiceovers by Neiers and Prugo, the only members of the Bling Ring who participated in the series  and you will see a new story emerge. One more banal, more believable, and altogether more human than the one we have heard until now.

Alexis Neiers (left) and Nick Prugo (right) take part in The Real Bling Ring (Courtesy of Netflix)

Emma Watson in Sofia Coppolas 2013 movie The Bling Ring' (YouTube)

This oral history of the Bling Ring, at times fractured, is based primarily on the firsthand accounts of Prugo and Neiers, whose memories sometimes clash spectacularly. Yet, they both agree that things started on Prugos side, after he met Lee. (Lee did not participate in the documentary, and did not comment when The Real Bling Ring contacted her, according to a disclaimer at the end of the program.) Per Prugos recollection, it all began after Lee, on her way back from a party with Prugo, pulled on the door handle of a car only for the vehicle to open. The two stole from the car, and ended up with all these credit cards, Prugo says in the show.

Presumably high from the thrill of the steal, Lee and Prugo kept going. Every time they left a party, theyd do this thing we called checking cars, Prugo says, meaning the two looked for unlocked cars to rob. One night, according to Prugo, Lee stole one of the cars after finding its key.

Thats how it began. Not with celebrities. Not with gossip websites. Not with Paris Hiltons house. But with two adolescents robbing their neighborhood cars. The Bling Ring story, at its heart, began with petty theft  and escalated quickly.

Audrina Patridge, whose house was robbed by the Bling Ring, in The Real Bling Ring (Courtesy of Netflix)

This isnt to say that the Bling Ring saga is entirely detached from materialism and status. We felt like we were such hot s***, Prugo says in the series of driving around in the stolen car. It made me feel like who I was. I felt like it was a reflection of me. It was a great feeling.

Its impossible to ignore, too, that the Bling Rings antics were in part shaped by the shifting geometry of their teenage friendships. I was not raised to steal. I had never stolen, Prugo says. But with Rachel, Id never had a friendship like that. It gave me that confidence, and I didnt want to give that up. Later on, when the group grows from two to four to go rob Orlando Blooms house, its only because of tensions between its members: the way Prugo recalls it, Lee wanted to bring Tamayo, which made him feel like hed been traded in as a friend, and so he brought Neiers.

Both Neierss and Prugos recollections of Neierss involvement with the group differ widely. Prugo contends Neiers asked to join; Neiers denies that, but says she was open to the idea of robbing a house to get money for drugs. Neiers is steadfast in that characterization: She was addicted to opiates and benzodiazepines, and to her, the robbery of Blooms house served an entirely utilitarian purpose. Neiers contends she doesnt remember the robbery in full, because I was under the influence of opiates and benzos. (Prugo maintains she was not out of it.) Neiers says she wasnt aware of whose house it was the night the group robbed Blooms home; Prugo says she was very much aware that she was outside of Orlando Blooms house.

As for Prugos motive, throughout the documentary, he presents the robberies as a way to secure friendships through material ways. He paid for drinks. He redistributed stolen designer clothes. (Neiers says she didnt know where the clothes came from and was under the impression Prugo was a stylist; Prugo asserts the contrary.) I never knew how to make genuine friendships and connections without showing off, Prugo says. I was trying to buy a friendship, in a sense.

Surveillance footage of a robbery committed by the Bling Ring (Courtesy of Netflix)

So why were the teens robbing celebrities, when they could have targeted anyone else? Again, the way Prugo recalls it, it was in large part a matter of practicality. Through news and gossip websites, the group found out which celebrities were going to be out of town. They found their addresses online and studied their properties terrain, also online. The personality that [Hilton] gave off on her reality show [The Simple Life] was [that of] a ditzy blonde, Prugo says bluntly. So we thought she would be more prone to maybe leaving something unlocked. The Bling Ring didnt rob the celebrities they admired, at least not at first. They robbed the ones they thought might leave the door open.

The documentary cares to humanize those celebrities too. A question that will often surface when the Bling Ring is discussed is the victims wealth: Do these ultra-rich people really care about missing possessions? Did they even notice? Is that really going to hurt them?

Materially, perhaps not, at least on the surface, but there is a form of victimization here: Audrina Patridge, once a star of The Hills and the only one of the groups targets to have participated in The Real Bling Ring, recalls fearing for her life when she realized someone had broken into her home.Watching surveillance video of the robbery, she experiences an evident feeling of violation.

Its sickening to watch, she says. ... They took sentimental things that were passed down from grandmothers and great-grandmothers. The robbery, she says, left her more guarded and not trusting of anyone or anything. Later on, Christine Kee, a deputy district attorney at the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office, calls residential burglary a very serious offense, because you can never regain that sense of safety within your own home.

Prugo, Neiers, Lee, and Tamayo all pleaded no contest in the case. Prugo was sentenced to two years in jail and ultimately served one. According to The Real Bling Ring, he runs an online business with his husband and has applied for a governors pardon as well as a certificate of rehabilitation. Neiers was sentenced to 180 days in county jail (she ended up serving one month) and three year of probation. She now works as an advocate for people with substance abuse, has been sober for 11 years, and has two children. Lee was sentenced to four years in prison and served 16 months. According to US Weekly, she graduated from cosmetology school as a hairstylist in 2018. Tamayo was sentenced to three years of probation. Both she and Lee have largely avoided the public eye over recent years.

If there is a timeless narrative to be found in the Bling Ring, it is less about teenagers purported obsession with fame, and more about the shifting shape of celebrity. The late 2000s marked a time when reality TV, shows such as MTVs Cribs, and websites like TMZ and Perez Hiltons blog (all referenced in The Real Bling Ring) collided to create an unprecedented feeling of intimacy and immediacy between stars and their public. The lines seemed to blur between celebrities and the rest of us.

The Bling Ring happened right at the onset of the social media boom. By taking control of their own platforms, celebrities found ways to foster an impression of intimacy between themselves and the public, often on their own terms. But there is a fallacy in this impression of proximity: of course, celebrities have remained remote, and their lifestyles unattainable. That has always been the whole point.
Willcox officers reviewed surveillance footage, which captured a white Cadillac and a man, later identified as 30-year-old Ronald Stroud, near the blast site.

Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested a Willcox man on Wednesday, several days after reports that a pipe bomb exploded.

Willcox police searched the area near Curtis and Haskell Avenues on Sunday evening where they found "material, components, and fragmentation consistent with the deployment of a PVC pipe bomb" and contacted ATF agents, police said. No one was reported injured in the explosion.

Willcox officers reviewed surveillance footage, which captured a white Cadillac and a man, later identified as 30-year-old Ronald Stroud, near the blast site.

Willcox Police Chief Dale Hadfield said Willcox police, the Cochise County Sheriff's Department and the Arizona Department of Public Safety assisted ATF agents in executing a search warrant near the area of West Henry Street and North Douglas Avenue where they found evidence of bomb making.

Stroud was arrested and booked into Cochise County Jail on multiple felony counts.

Reach the reporter Perry Vandell at 602-444-2474 or perry.vandell@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @PerryVandell.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Ronald Stroud arrested on suspicion of detonating pipe bomb in Willcox
WASHINGTON  Wisconsin will receive more than $16 million in federal grant money to help people struggling with substance abuse and further address the opioid epidemic, the White House announced Friday.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services is expected to receive $16.9 million as part of the $1.5 billion package of grants to states and tribal communities. Six of the state's tribal nations will receive about $1.8 million of their own to combat the crisis.

The funding is part of a federal program that aims to increase access to treatment for substance abuse, make medications like naloxone more readily available and expand access to recovery support services.

More: 76 billion opioid pills: Our past investigations exposed drug companies' role in the prescription painkiller epidemic

Some of the funding, distributed through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will also go toward overdose education and peer support services, according to the White House.

It comes as President Joe Biden declared September National Recovery Month.

"President Biden recognizes the devastating impact the overdose epidemic has had on this nation  reaching large cities, small towns, tribal lands, and every community in between," a statement from the White House read. "Thats why in his first State of the Union, President Biden made beating the opioid crisis a key pillar of his Unity Agenda."

More: Legislators pass Republican-drawn plan for deploying $31 million in opioid settlement funds that directs more funds to law enforcement

The nationwide opioid crisis has worsened in recent years, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate 107,622 people died from overdoses in the U.S. in 2021  an increase of about 15% from 2020, which also saw more deaths than the previous year.

In addition to the more than $16 million heading to the state's health department, the following tribal communities will receive funds:

Story continues

The Sokaogon Chippewa Community in Crandon will get $150,000.

The Oneida Nation will get $475,000.

The Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Bowler will get $238,701.

The Lac Courte Oreilles Tribal Government in Hayward will get $249,900.

The St. Croix Chippewa Indians in Webster will get $500,000.

The Forest County Potawatomi Community will get $249,991.

A spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the majority of the new funding will go toward existing projects, including those aimed at increasing access to medications to treat opioid use disorder.

The new funds will be used through September 2024.

More: Milwaukee County is receiving $71 million in an opioid settlement. Here is how the funds can be deployed

Contact Lawrence Andrea at landrea@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @lawrencegandrea.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin, tribes to receive nearly $19 million to combat opioids
Two of the three books in Dame Hilary's Wolf Hall trilogy won the Booker Prize

Dame Hilary Mantel, author of the best-selling Wolf Hall trilogy, has died aged 70, her publisher has confirmed.

She won the Booker Prize twice, for 2009's Wolf Hall, the first in the Thomas Cromwell series, and its 2012 sequel Bring Up the Bodies.

In a statement, her publisher said: "We are heartbroken at the death of our beloved author, Dame Hilary Mantel.

"Our thoughts are with her friends and family, especially her husband, Gerald.

"This is a devastating loss and we can only be grateful she left us with such a magnificent body of work."

HarperCollins said Dame Hilary had died "suddenly yet peacefully" on Thursday, surrounded by family and friends, after suffering a stroke.

Wolf Hall was a fictional account of Thomas Cromwell's rise to power in the court of Henry VIII.

The third and final book in the series, The Mirror and the Light, was published in 2020 to much critical acclaim, became a fiction best-seller and was longlisted for The Booker Prize 2020.

The trilogy sold more than five million copies globally and has been translated into 41 languages.

In an interview with The Guardian, Dame Hilary said it took years to research the books to ensure they were historically accurate portrayals.

She said it was her aim to put the reader in "that time and that place, putting you into Henry's entourage".

"The essence of the thing is not to judge with hindsight, not to pass judgement from the lofty perch of the 21st Century when we know what happened," she said.

"It's to be there with them in that hunting party at Wolf Hall, moving forward with imperfect information and perhaps wrong expectations, but in any case moving forward into a future that is not pre-determined, but where chance and hazard will play a terrific role."

'Outstanding body of work'

Harry Potter author JK Rowling led the tributes to Dame Hilary, writing: "We've lost a genius."

Author and journalist Caitlin Moran tweeted: "Hilary Mantel's mind was one of the most powerful and magic machines on Earth. We were lucky she wrote as much as she did, but holy hell, it's devastating that we've collectively lost something so astonishing."

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Dame Hilary was the first woman to receive the Booker Prize twice

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: "Such terribly sad news. It is impossible to overstate the significance of the literary legacy Hilary Mantel leaves behind. Her brilliant Wolf Hall trilogy was the crowning achievement in an outstanding body of work. Rest in peace."

Fellow Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo tweeted: "So very sorry to hear about Hilary Mantel's passing. We were so lucky to have such a massive talent in our midst. I met her a few times and she was always so warm, down-to-earth and welcoming."

Broadcaster Stig Abell added: "Hilary Mantel wrote historical novels that will be read for centuries to come. Brilliant, moving, fascinating, modern yet transporting. One of the greats. What a contribution to our national life and culture."

In 2009, a lady came to a conference we had at Hampton Court, about the life of Henry VIII. She sat quietly at the back making notes. She was reputed to be a novelist. I did not know then that a goddess was walking among us.  Lucy Worsley (@Lucy_Worsley) September 23, 2022

Bill Hamilton, Dame Hilary's agent at literary agency A M Heath, said it had been the "greatest privilege" to work with her.

He said: "Her wit, stylistic daring, creative ambition and phenomenal historical insight mark her out as one of the greatest novelists of our time.

"She will be remembered for her enormous generosity to other budding writers, her capacity to electrify a live audience, and the huge array of her journalism and criticism, producing some of the finest commentary on issues and books."

Born in Derbyshire in 1952, Dame Hilary studied Law at the London School of Economics and Sheffield University.

She worked as a social worker and lived in Botswana and Saudi Arabia before returning to the UK in the mid-1980s.

Dame Hilary pictured with Ben Miles, who co-wrote and starred in the stage adaptations of her work

She married the geologist Gerald McEwan in 1972. The couple later divorced but remarried soon after.

In 1987 she became the film critic of the Spectator magazine, and in her later career continued to review for a wide range of publications.

By this point, she had begun to regularly win literary prizes and her fourth novel, Fludd, claimed the Cheltenham Festival Prize, the Southern Arts Literature Prize and the Winifred Holtby Prize.

Her fifth novel, A Place Of Greater Safety, won the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award, while Beyond Black, published in 2005, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize.

Once described as the best-kept secret in English fiction, she was an intense and troubling writer and her subjects were unpredictable - including performing psychics in Suburbia and the French Revolution.

The publication of Wolf Hall in 2009 marked a significant turning point in her career, attracting rave reviews and ultimately winning the Booker Prize.

Damian Lewis as Henry VIII (right) and Sir Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell in the BBC TV adaptation of Wolf Hall

Wolf Hall and its sequel Bring Up The Bodies were turned into a six-part BBC TV series starring Sir Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell, Damian Lewis as Henry VIII and Claire Foy as Anne Boleyn.

The two books were also adapted for the stage and enjoyed a run in London's West End, as did a 2021 adaptation of the third novel in the trilogy, The Mirror and the Light.

Actor and playwright Ben Miles, who helped Dame Hilary bring her work to the stage, described her as "an extraordinary woman", as well as "a good friend and a close colleague".

"I feel so honoured to have known her and to have contributed in a small way to the work of one of the greatest writers of our time," he told the BBC on Friday. "I shall dearly miss her kindness, her humour and her gentle tenacity. The indisputable genius of her words remains as some small consolation to this tragic loss."

Dame Hilary wrote 17 books, including The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, Vacant Possession and Every Day is Mother's Day, as well as the memoir Giving up the Ghost.

In 2017, she delivered the Reith Lectures on BBC Radio 4, discussing the role that history plays in culture.

Mantel was made a Dame in 2014 for services to literature

She was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in In 1990 and was awarded a damehood in 2014 for services to literature.

Throughout her life, Dame Hilary suffered from a severe form of endometriosis that took many years to diagnose.

She required surgery, a surgical menopause in her late 20s, leaving her unable to have children, and she continued to need treatment all her life.

Asked by the Financial Times earlier this month whether she believed in an afterlife, Mantel said she did, but that she couldn't imagine how it might work. "However, the universe is not limited by what I can imagine," she said.
A woman from Louisiana carrying a fetus that was incapable of being born had no choice but to travel to New York for an abortion. Due to the laws in her state which make abortion illegal.

The 36- year- old, Nancy Davis terminated her pregnancy on September 1st. Two and a half months into her pregnancy she learned that the fetus had developed acrania. Acrania is a rare condition in which the skull of the baby does not take form inside of the womb. The condition is fatal.

Doctors Recommended Abortion

Doctors told Davis if she were to give birth to the child, it would only survive for a short period. Possibly anywhere between a few minutes to a week. Davis was advised by multiple physicians in Louisiana to get an abortion, but the doctors there could not perform the procedure due to the recent overturning of Roe V Wade.

Basically, they said I had to carry my baby to bury my baby, said Davis. They seemed confused about the law and afraid of what would happen to them.

Any doctor in Louisiana that performs an abortion on a patient will face up to 15 years in prison.

The only abortions the state will allow are if the patient is at risk of death or impairment in carrying. Unfortunately, when the fetus has an abnormality the patient must follow through with the pregnancy. Rape and incest is also excluded as an exception.

Effects Of Overturning Roe v. Wade

However, during the time Davis was seeking to get an abortion, Louisiana trigger laws were heavily criticized by both Davis and abortion-rights advocates for being vague and confusing.

Getty Images

When Davis was searching for a doctor in Louisiana to perform the abortion, many abortion-rights advocates believe the new laws werent clear. As a matter of fact many advocates across the country find that the new laws are confusing.

Ms. Davis was among the first women to be caught in the crosshairs of confusion due to Louisianas rush to restrict abortion, but she will hardly be the last, stated by Davids attorney, Ben Crump.

Story continues

Currently, about a dozen states have completely banned abortions no matter the stage of the pregnancy. Although, some of those states are accepting of cases such as rape or incest, just not in Louisiana.

Recently, the city council in New Orleans are directing law enforcement to not use the citys resources to enforce the ban and make it the lowest priority for enforcement.

Since June, when Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, Democratic and Republican leaders have been feuding within the red states across the country.
NEW YORK (AP)  The tide of international opinion appears to be decisively shifting against Russia, as a number of non-aligned countries are joining the United States and its allies in condemning Moscows war in Ukraine and its threats to the principles of the international rules-based order.

Western officials have repeatedly said that Russia has become isolated since invading Ukraine in February. Until recently, though, that was largely wishful thinking. But on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, much of the international community spoke out against the conflict in a rare display of unity at the often fractured United Nations.

The tide had already appeared to be turning against Russian President Vladimir Putin even before Thursdays U.N. speeches. Chinese and Indian leaders had been critical of the war at a high-level summit last week in Uzbekistan. And then the U.N. General Assembly disregarded Russias objections and voted overwhelmingly to allow Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be the only leader to address the body remotely, instead of requiring him to appear in person.

That shift against Russia accelerated after Putin on Wednesday announced the mobilization of some additional 300,000 troops to Ukraine, signaling the unlikelihood of a quick end to the war. Putin also suggested that nuclear weapons may be an option. That followed an announcement of Russias intention to hold referendums in several occupied Ukrainian regions on whether they will become part of Russia.

Those announcements came at the very moment that the General Assembly, considered the premier event in the global diplomatic calendar, was taking place in New York.

Numerous world leaders used their speeches on Tuesday and Wednesday to denounce Russias war. That trend continued Thursday both in the assembly hall and at the usually deeply divided U.N. Security Council, where, one-by-one, virtually all of the 15 council members served up harsh criticism of Russia  a council member  for aggravating several already severe global crises and imperiling the foundations of the world body.

Story continues

The apparent shift in opinion offers some hope to Ukraine and its Western allies that increasing isolation will add pressure on Putin to negotiate a peace. But few are unduly optimistic. Putin has staked his legacy on the Ukraine war and few expect him to back down. And, Russia is hardly isolated. Many of its allies depend on it for energy, food and military assistance and are likely to stand by Putin regardless of what happens in Ukraine.

Still, it was striking to hear Russias nominal friends like China and India, following up on last weeks remarks, speak of grave concerns they have about the conflict and its impact on global food and energy shortages as well as threats to the concepts of sovereignty and territorial integrity that are enshrined in the U.N. Charter.

Brazil registered similar concerns. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa make up the so-called BRICS bloc of countries, which has often shunned or outright opposed Western initiatives and views on international relations.

Only one country, Belarus, a non-council member and Russia ally that was invited to participate, spoke in support of Russia, but also called for a quick end to the fighting, which it called a tragedy.

We hear a lot about the divisions among countries at the United Nations, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. But recently, whats striking is the remarkable unity among member states when it comes to Russias war on Ukraine. Leaders from countries developing and developed, big and small, North and South have spoken in the General Assembly about the consequences of the war and the need to end it.

Even a number of nations that maintain close ties with Moscow have said publicly that they have serious questions and concerns about President Putins ongoing invasion, Blinken said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was careful not to condemn the war but said that Chinas firm stance is that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be respected. The purposes of the principles of the U.N. Charter should be observed.

Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said the trajectory of the Ukraine conflict is a matter of a profound concern for the international community. He called for accountability for atrocities and abuses committed in Ukraine. If egregious attacks committed in broad daylight are left unpunished, this council must reflect on the signals we are sending on impunity. There must be consistency if we are to ensure credibility, he said.

And Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos Alberto Franca said immediate efforts to end the war are critical. The continuation of the hostilities endangers the lives of innocent civilians and jeopardizes the food and energy security of millions of families in other regions, especially in developing countries, he said. The risks of escalation arising for the current dynamics of the conflict are simply too great, and its consequences for the world order unpredictable.

Foreign ministers and top officials from Albania, Britain, France, Ireland, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Kenya, Mexico and Norway delivered similar rebukes.

Russias actions are blatant violation of the Charter of the United Nations, said Albanian Foreign Minister Olta Xhacka. We all tried to prevent this conflict. We could not, but we must not fail to hold Russia accountable.

Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard called the invasion a flagrant breach of international law and Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said: If we fail to hold Russia accountable we send a message to large countries that they can prey on their neighbors with impunity.

Unsurprisingly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was unapologetic and defensive at the same time and specifically targeted Zelenskyy. Citing a phrase often attributed to President Franklin Roosevelt, Lavrov called Zelenskyy a bastard," but said Western leaders regarded him as our bastard.

He repeated a long list of Russias complaints about Ukraine and accused Western countries of using Ukraine for anti-Russia activities and policies.

Everything Ive said today simply confirms that the decision to conduct the special military operation was inevitable, Lavrov said, following Russian practice of not calling the invasion a war.

Russia has denied being isolated and the foreign ministry used social media to publicize a number of apparently cordial meetings that Lavrov has held with foreign minister colleagues at the UN in recent days.

Still, Blinken and his colleagues from other NATO nations seized on what they believe to be growing opposition to and impatience with Putin.

And, several speakers, including Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, pointed out that Lavrov skipped the meeting except for his speaking slot.

I notice that Russian diplomats flee almost as quickly as Russian soldiers, Kuleba said, referring to Lavrovs hasty exit along with recent Russian troop retreats in Ukraine.

___

This story has been corrected to show the Indian official's title and name are Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, not Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jayashankar.
A Royal Bank of Canada sign in Ottawa. Reuters

A protester escaped a prison sentence after gluing himself to a Royal Bank of Canada branch in April.

Vic Brice won't be allowed to take glue outside his home while he serves 12 months of probation.

Judge William Jackson said Brice's actions came from "sincere concern" for the planet.

A member of Extinction Rebellion who stuck himself to a bank has evaded a spell in jail  as long as he doesn't take glue outside his home for a year, court documents show.

Vic Brice, a spokesman for the environmental campaign group, glued himself to a branch of the Royal Bank of Canada in Nanaimo, British Columbia in April to protest against CEO David McKay's support of a gas pipeline.

Brice, a pharmacist for 34 years, was arrested alongside other protestors and was tried in August.

He was given a conditional discharge with 12 months of probation by Provincial Court Judge William Jackson. The judge said he had not heard of someone gluing themselves to a door, but pointed out "it would certainly be an effective way of protest or at least causing disruption at the bank."

The conditions of Brice's parole included keeping the peace, 40 hours of community service and not attending the bank branch in Nanaimo.

But in another unusual condition, the judge told Brice: "You must not possess any glue, Super Glue, adhesive, fixative, or resin outside your residence, except with the prior written permission of your probation officer."

"The basis for Mr Brice's actions were a very obviously sincere concern for the immediate and long-term effects of climate change and frustration with the lack of political movement," said Jackson.

"It is not an issue that a conditional discharge is in Mr Brice's best interest. I do not believe that a conditional discharge in this particular set of facts with this particular accused would undermine public confidence in the administration of law."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Nicole Spencer, who suffers from Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, prepares to record a video for her Instagram account (Reuters)

Frustrated by what they felt were misperceptions of people with disabilities, Logan Kelble began posting dance videos on TikTok and bold, colorful fashion and makeup looks on Instagram  often with their feeding tube on full display.

Kelble, a 22-year-old living in West Virginia who uses they/them pronouns, said sharing glimpses of their life with a feeding tube and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), a rare disorder that affects connective tissue and causes chronic pain for Kelble, has been a way to show the world that people with illnesses or disabilities are not defined by their conditions.

I started the accounts just honestly to make friends because I didnt know anybody who had what I had, they said. People often will treat me differently or feel sorry for me, or almost pity me because I have a feeding tube. Disabled people are not physically the same but mentally we are just as capable of being complex and intelligent people.

Logan uses sterile materials to clean and change their central medical line (Reuters)

Editing a video before uploading it to Instagram and TikTok, to help others like them (Reuters)

Kelble and Nicole Spencer, a medical student who also lives with EDS, are among a number of young people using social media to fight misperceptions of disabilities and talk frankly about their mental and physical health.

Their use of social media is especially poignant at a time when social media companies are reckoning with backlash from lawmakers, health experts and even their own users, who say apps like Instagram and TikTok encourage people to post glossy highlights of their lives, leading to lower self-esteem among young users.

Nicole photographs her emotional support dog, Tara, while preparing a package containing medical and motivational accessories for Shannon Mcmullen, who has the same medical condition (Reuters)

Logan takes out their emotional support dog Dwayne (Reuters)

For example, Facebook, which has since renamed itself Meta Platforms, was at the centre of controversy last year when whistleblower Frances Haugen leaked documents that she said showed Facebook knew Instagram was harming some teenagers self-images but failed to address the problem. The company said in response that the documents were used to paint a false picture.

The key for users is to avoid mindlessly scrolling social media feeds and passively consuming content, said Jacqueline Sperling, a clinical psychologist and co-founder of the McLean Anxiety Mastery Program at McLean Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Story continues

Gabe Urbina helps Logan fix their fluid pump (Reuters)

Social media is used to share Nicoles personal journey and provide advice for other patients like her (Reuters)

When youre scrolling through the news feed or other peoples posts, that creates an opportunity for comparison when you may notice someone else has more likes, she said.

Social media can be rewarding when used to facilitate real connections, like making plans to meet and spend time together, Sperling said. Translating online scrolling into real-world impact has come naturally to Spencer, a 24-year-old medical student at SUNY Upstate Medical University, who was diagnosed with EDS and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), which affects blood flow and leads to low energy.

Nicole at her weekly IV infusion session (Reuters)

Haley Carey, who also has POTS, interviews Nicole about her medical condition. They met through social media, share similar symptoms and support each other (Reuters)

Spencer has packed and shipped more than 400 personalised care packages to children and young adults with chronic illnesses through an Instagram page she oversees called Potsie Packs, funded by donations.

Typical items in the care packages might include electrolyte drink mixes or compression socks. But they also include fun items like stickers or tube tape with colorful patterns, which can be used to tape feeding tubes in place.

Spencer said recipients have told her the packages have helped them feel accepted and that theyre part of this community now. Still, the darker side of social media has at times reared its head.

Logan tidies up their room while they carry their IV bag (Reuters)

Resting after taking afternoon medications (Reuters)

Strangers on TikTok and Reddit have criticised Kelbles appearance or accused them of fabricating their illness and using fake stick-on tubes. Its absurd, Kelble said. I just block them and move on.

A Reuters reporter reviewed medical records and spoke with doctors for Spencer and Kelble who confirmed their conditions. A Reuters photographer accompanied them to doctor appointments and documented their daily routines of prepping multiple medications at home and filming videos for social media.

Nicole studies for her final exams at the library in Upstate Medical University (Reuters)

Vika Rauzina joins Nicole, and their respective pets, in their student buildings park (Reuters)

With chronic conditions that make it difficult to travel or leave the house for long periods of time, the apps have helped both Kelble and Spencer form friendships with people in different corners of the country.

What began as direct messages on Instagram eventually became near-daily FaceTime calls between Kelble and three friends. Forming a connection with friends, all of whom also live with a chronic illness or disability, has helped Kelble move past difficult times.

They genuinely saved my life several times, said Kelble.

Dwayne, Logans emotional support dog, comforts them (Reuters)

A note is seen above Nicoles desk, which she wrote to herself when she went back to university after a year off due to medical absence (Reuters)

Some followers have also helped support Kelble by purchasing items through an Amazon wish list or sending donations.

After several life-changing experiences, which she said included losing her childhood best friend to cancer and then living with her own chronic illness, Spencers plan after medical school is to become a pediatrician and work with children and teenagers as a doctor who can relate to them.

Through all of the experiences that Ive had, through being sick myself or seeing my friends go through much more challenging illnesses... if I could make one kid feel a little less alone, that would be my dream, she said.

Reuters
A heated exchange between Virginia Reps. Bob Good (R) and Abigail Spanberger (D) over Gov. Glenn Youngkins (R) recent policy on transgender students interrupted a meeting between the governor and the states congressional delegation, according to aides.

A few aides who attended the meeting or heard about it afterwards told The Washington Post anonymously that the two lawmakers engaged in a skirmish over whether the new policy protects or endangers children.

Good said that children are being forced to undergo transgender surgeries, which he called the mutilation of children, he confirmed to Punchbowl News.

This is the party that believes not only in grooming and encouraging gender confusion of elementary and middle school students  which is up some 4,000 percent from just a couple years ago because of what is happening in our schools  but this is also the party that supports the surgical procedures on minor children. Irreversible, harmful procedures, Good claimed that he told the delegation.

The aides told the Post that he added: The fact that these kids are killing themselves is because of grooming.

Thats not f*cking true, Spanberger allegedly said.

Youngkins rule, released this weekend, requires transgender students to use facilities like bathrooms and participate in activities including sports that correspond to their sex assigned at birth, issues that have created sharp divisions between Democrats and Republicans across the country.

The policy also requires Virginias school districts to obtain parental permission before making official changes to childrens names or pronouns.

Reps. Jennifer Wexton and Don Beyer backed Spanberger in her opposition to the new rule, according to aides. The congress members questioned its constitutionality and raised concerns about its effects on childrens mental health.

Youngkin allegedly defended his policy as a statement on parental rights in education, a hot-button issue for his party.

Story continues

A spokesperson for Spanberger told The Hill that the congresswoman always appreciates the opportunity to have a candid conversation with the Governor about the issues facing Virginias Seventh District.

In Tuesdays meeting, she brought up her concerns about emergency preparedness in the Commonwealth, her conservation priorities related to the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, and her perspective as a parent related to recent education policy announcements made by the Governors administration, the statement from Spanbergers office said.

Separately, she will always stand up against QAnon conspiracy theories that harm or attack Virginias students, their parents, and their educators  as was the case when one of her congressional colleagues did just that.

The Hill has reached out to Good and Youngkin for comment on the incident.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
ALONA MAZURENKO  THURSDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER 2022, 22:13

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine has urged all Russians to take part in protests against their government if they do not want to lose more soldiers in the war with Ukraine. He said he was certain that children of Russian government officials would not have to fight. Meanwhile, Russia does not care enough to even properly bury children of ordinary civilians killed in battle.

Source: Zelenskyys video address

Quote from Zelenskyy: "Protests against mobilisation took place in [many] Russian cities. They were not huge, but at least they did take place. And they are continuing to take place. This is an indicator [of opposition to the Russian government], not just in Moscow and St. Petersburg. We know what the mood really is in [more remote] Russian regions.

We see that people in Dagestan, in Buryatia, in other national republics and regions of Russia understand that they were just abandoned, abandoned to die.

Why is it, for example, that the people of Dagestan, or any other people, have to die in Kharkiv Oblast or near Donetsk? Because one person in Russia made this decision on behalf of every Russian citizen. There is no other reason. Thats what he wants.

You are already accomplices in all these crimes, in the murders and torture of Ukrainians. Because you remained silent. Because you continue to remain silent.

And now it's time for you to choose. For men in Russia, this is a choice between death and life, between becoming a cripple or preserving good health. For women in Russia, the choice is between losing their husbands, sons and grandchildren forever and trying to protect them from death, from war, from that one person.

Just think about the number of people they want to [mobilise]!

We know for sure that the conscription letters for 300,000 people were printed and signed in advance, even before this decision on mobilisation was announced. Our intelligence has uncovered it. But the Russian leadership is preparing to take up to a million men into the army. This is the main issue that remains shrouded in silence.

Story continues

We know that they will [mobilise] everyone, indiscriminately. Not only the reservists, but every man [in Russia is at risk of being mobilised]. [Russian officials] will intimidate every man to the point that he is more afraid of evading the war than of dying in the war.

A total of 55,000 Russian soldiers died in this war in its first six months. Tens of thousands have been wounded and maimed. You want more? No? Then protest. Fight back. Run away, or surrender to Ukrainian captivity. These are the options you have available that will allow you to survive.

Russian mothers! Have no doubt that the children of the top officials of your country will not be sent to [fight in] the war against Ukraine. Those who make decisions in your country take care of their children. Meanwhile, they do not even bury your children."

Details: Zelenskyy addressed the Russians in Russian, so they could better grasp his message.

He said that Russias decision to announce mobilisation is a "frank admission" of the fact that the countrys regular army, which has spent decades training to take over foreign countries, did not withstand the war in Ukraine and has begun to crumble. "And now, as a result of the mobilisation, Russia's war against Ukraine will no longer remain something broadcast on TV or on the Internet for the majority of Russian citizens, but something that has entered every Russian home."

Zelenskyy said that the Russian leaderships change of tactics and attempts to draw even more Russian citizens and resources into the war are the countrys response to Ukraines strength.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. (NYSE:ZIM) is a global shipping company with a diversified fleet of vessels. The company operates in all major trades, including containers, dry bulk and crude oil. It has a solid balance sheet and generates healthy cash flow.

Despite being a well-established company with a strong track record of profitability, its shares are trading at a deep discount to intrinsic value. As a result, Zim could be an extremely attractive opportunity for value investors.





Zim Is Undervalued Despite an Astounding Payout Record

The dividend is not in trouble

Zim offers a wide range of services, including container shipping, dry cargo shipping and reefer shipping. The company has a strong network of vessels and terminals, providing reliable and efficient customer service. It also offers value-added services, such as container maintenance and repair, cargo tracking and port clearance. In addition, it provides a wide range of data and analytics to its customers, which helps them optimize their supply chains.

Investors can largely thank higher freight bids for Zim's recent good performance. Management deserves credit for staying the course, but the rebound in freight rates has boosted the company's free cash flow. Container freight rates dramatically increased over the past several years, spiking in September 2021 at nearly $10,400. Since then, global freight rates have been stabilizing but remain elevated. In June 2022, the global freight rate index stood at almost $7,100.

For Zim, the average twenty-foot equivalent unit was $3,596 in the second quarter of 2022 versus $2,341 a year ago.

Due to the positive momentum, net income for the year's first half came in at a very healthy $3.05 billion, a 50% uptick versus $1.48 billion in the prior-year period. Zim confirmed the guidance for the fiscal year of $6.7 billion in earnings before interest and taxes could be possible.

Story continues

With business booming, Zim wants to reward its shareholders with up to 50% of its annual net income and 30% of its quarterly earnings, which is quite a generous offer in this hostile environment.

At 104.04%, Zim also offers one of the highest dividend yields in the market. Invstors can thank the depressed stock price and the handsome dividend payments for that. As a result, investors have been patient despite the stock not doing well. It is hard to deny the macroeconomic environment has been volatile recently, but soon it will be time to reap the benefits.

Meanwhile, investors will be happy with the generous payouts. In August, the Israeli international cargo shipping company declared a quarterly dividend of $4.75 per share, which was 30% of second quarter 2022 net income, plus an additional 10% from last quarter.

The company's strong financial position allows it the flexibility to maintain its current dividend policy even if earnings decline. Zim's dividend policy is sustainable, so investors should not be concerned about its ability to keep paying dividends at the current rate.

A global recession could put a spanner in the works

Zim Integrated Shipping is one of the world's leading shipping companies and has made great strides in recent years. With 149 vessels and very little debt on its balance sheet, things are looking great for the company. However, there is always a risk that things might move in the wrong direction if freight rates decline. This would be a major blow to the company, reducing the demand for its services and putting pressure on its bottom line.

A drop in shipping rates is possible if a global recession occurs. Trade is lower during a recession, which negatively affects the world economy. With falling demand for goods and services, it also becomes harder to make shipping viable economically. This results in lower shipping rates as carriers compete for business. A global recession can also lead to an increase in maritime piracy as shipowners look to cut costs by sailing through areas known for piracy.

Furthermore, a global recession may cause some countries to default on their debt payments, leading to a decrease in the value of their currency. This would make it more expensive for carriers to ship goods to these countries. As a result, a global recession could significantly impact the shipping industry, causing rates to decline and increasing piracy and currency volatility.

Despite being one of the world's largest shipping companies and maintaining a dividend for years, Zim could suffer immense financial losses if a global recession were to occur. Its business heavily depends on global trade, so a recession would lead to a sharp decline in demand for its services. In addition, the company would likely suffer from increased competition from other shipping companies as they attempt to survive the downturn. As a result, Zim's dividend would likely be cut. This would be a devastating blow to shareholders, who have come to rely on the high dividend payments.

While it is not set in stone that a global recession will occur, investors should be aware of the situation and make adjustments as necessary.

Takeaway

Zim's prospects as an income investment are appealing. The company has virtually no debt and a strong business model, which will help it maintain its healthy dividend. Its dividend yield is higher than the industry's average and its regular dividend hikes are proof of management's commitment to shareholders.

In addition, Zim's stock price is currently trading at a discount to its book value, which makes it an attractive investment for value investors. Overall, the company appears to have a solid business model and a strong dividend that is attractively priced.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Try to identify a different piece of Lynchburg-area history every week. If you have any mystery pictures of your own (or any old photos of Lyn
Lynchburg's Jones Memorial Library, which specializes in genealogy and history, has named a new executive director.

Deborah Smith succeeds local resident Carolyn Sherayko, who served as interim director since February, according to a news release from the library.

Smith earned a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and a master's in library and information science from Kent State Universitys iSchool. She is certified in developing local history digital collections by the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

Smith formerly was executive director of the Essex Library Association in Essex, Connecticut. She has worked in public libraries in West Hartford and Wethersfield, Connecticut, and has worked at the University of Hartford and Miss Porters School in Farmington, Connecticut.

Jones Memorial Library, open Tuesdays through Saturdays, is located above the Lynchburg Public Library at 2311 Memorial Drive. For more information, visit www.jmlibrary.org.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Thursday offered general ideas for how Virginia's community colleges can revitalize themselves after a decade of shrinking enrollment, calling for a bold, new way of thinking about community college.

Speaking to the State Board for Community Colleges, Youngkin discussed the importance of finding a new chancellor to lead Virginia's 23 community colleges, the need for more short-term credential programs and expanding dual-enrollment for high school students.

He struck a friendlier, let's-work-together tone, less than three months after telling members of the board they needed to comply with his vision or resign.

"It's an exciting moment to work to work together," Youngkin said. "It's an exciting moment to envision what Virginia's community college system can and must become."

Between 2011 and 2021, Virginia's community colleges lost 50,000 students  a decrease of 25%.

The outlook for 2022 is optimistic. According to early enrollment estimates released by the State Council of Higher Education, the number of community college students grew this year by almost 2% to roughly 147,000. It would be the first growth year in more than a decade. The figure is considered an estimate because enrollment numbers can fluctuate the first few months of the year.

The first step to rebuilding community colleges, Youngkin said, is finding a permanent chancellor to lead them. The last chancellor, Glenn DuBois, retired in June. Before he left, Youngkin asked the board to include his administration to help find a replacement.

Instead, the board disregarded the governor's request and hired Russell Kavalhuna, a Michigan community college president, as the new chancellor. Kavalhuna accepted the job but after meeting with Youngkin decided to stay in Michigan.

The board then named Sharon Morrissey its interim chancellor. It hopes to hire a permanent replacement by early 2023, a spokesperson for the system said Thursday.

In June, Youngkin doubled down on his request to be a part of the search, telling members of the board they should agree or resign. The board capitulated and added Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera as a non-voting member to the search committee.

Defending his involvement Thursday, Youngkin said, "I feel like I was hired for a reason, and that is to help, to support."

The governor made a pitch for expanding the number of short-term workforce credentials the colleges offer, which he says will help fill open jobs. Companies interested in expanding in Virginia ask the governor if they can build a sufficient workforce, he said.

The colleges' FastForward program allows students  who are mostly adults  to take classes for six to 12 weeks and become certified one of many industries, including welding, health care, information technology and skilled trades.

Since the program launched in 2016, 48,000 students have earned credentials. Graduates have increased their salaries by an average of 35%, or $7,000 annually.

While the number of degree-seeking students slid in the past decade, students earning credentials has grown in popularity.

Another initiative, the Virginia Infrastructure Academy, aims to produce 35,000 workers in the next five years to improve the state's roads, bridges and airports. In another, Brightpoint Community College in Chesterfield County plans to train future employees of Civica Rx, a nonprofit that manufactures low-cost drugs that is building a laboratory testing facility in Chesterfield.

Colleges need to quickly adapt to meet the needs of the business community, Youngkin said. "We need to be more nimble."

Expanding dual-enrollment is another path to growing community colleges. Dual-enrollment programs allow high school students to earn an associate's degree by the time they graduate high school.

Youngkin asked the board to imagine a world in which every high school student earns an associate's degree or credential by graduation, allowing the student to immediately enter the workforce or go to college more prepared. Doing so could exponentially expand community colleges, he said.

"We can add zeroes to our numbers," Youngkin added.

Richard Bland College, a junior college in Prince George, has grown recently by expanding its dual-enrollment offerings.

One initiative Youngkin didn't mention is the G3 program  "Get a skill, get a job, get ahead"  a scholarship that allows low- and middle-income students enrolled in high-demand fields to pay no tuition.

Youngkin spoke about letting go of certain things to make room for what's most important, but he didn't specify what.

The governor also stressed the importance of affordability. One year of tuition and fees at a community college in Virginia costs $4,600  less than half the average cost of a four-year public college in the state.

This summer, Youngkin asked every public college and university to keep tuition flat. Each school acquiesced except for George Mason University, which is still considering the matter.

"It hasn't been an argument, but a commitment, from this group of leaders," Youngkin said.
TOKYO, Sep 22 ( sportstar ) - Naomi Osakas woes deepened when the struggling former world number one pulled out of Japan Open in Tokyo complaining of abdominal pain on Thursday.

The 24-year-old Japanese was set to play Brazils Beatriz Haddad Maia in the second round later in the day but withdrew saying her body wont let her compete.

Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam winner, was looking to end a poor run of form in Tokyo, where she is the defending champion from the last time the tournament was played in 2019.

She has plummeted to 48 in the womens world rankings after a wretched run that saw her crash out in the first round of her previous three tournaments.

Osakas first-round match in Tokyo against Australias Daria Saville lasted just seven minutes before her opponent collapsed with an injured knee.

Saville retired from the match and was later found to have torn her anterior cruciate ligament.

... continue reading
TOKYO, Sep 23 ( Japan Today ) - The Unification Church in Japan pledged Thursday to prevent followers from making "excessive" donations, after criticism of its practices following the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Abe's alleged assassin is believed to have resented the sect over massive donations his mother made to the church, leaving his family bankrupt.

He reportedly targeted Abe believing he was linked to the church, whose followers are sometimes known colloquially as Moonies.

The group has denied any wrongdoing and disavowed Abe's murder, but church executive Hideyuki Teshigawara said it would now "take into consideration the financial situation of followers and ensure that donations are not excessive".

The church will "respect the independence and free will of followers" on donations, Teshigawara, who heads the group's new reform committee, told reporters.

The group says it took measures to regulate donations in 2009, but will now bolster them. ...continue reading
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New Delhi: The Indian government today cautioned Indian nationals and students from India in Canada and those proceeding to Canada for travel/ education are advised to exercise due caution & remain vigilant

The Foreign Ministry today said that they have asked the authorities in Canada to investigate the crimes and take action.

The Ministry said, the perpetrators of these crimes have not been brought to justice so far in Canada.

The Government has also urged the Indian nationals and students in Canada to register with the Indian mission in Ottawa or consulates in Toronto and Vancouver.

This will help the High Commission and the Consulates General to connect with Indian citizens in Canada in the event of any requirement or emergency.

Read Full Advisory Here

Hindu temple in Canada defaced

Earlier this month, the BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir was defaced alleged by Khalistani elements in Toronto.

Also, this comes after the so-called referendum in Canadas Brampton on the creation of a separate Khalistani state held on September 19.

We strongly condemn defacing of BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir Toronto with anti-India graffiti. Have requested Canadian authorities to investigate the incident and take prompt action on perpetrators. @MEAIndia @IndiainToronto @PIB_India @DDNewslive @CanadainIndia @cgivancouver  India in Canada (@HCI_Ottawa) September 15, 2022 Vandalism of Toronto BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir by Canadian Khalistani extremists should be condemned by all

This is not just an isolated event. Canadian Hindu temples have been targeted in the recent past by these kinds of hate crime

Hindu Canadians are legitimately concerned  Chandra Arya (@AryaCanada) September 15, 2022 I am distraught by the act of vandalism that has taken place at the #BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir in Toronto.

We live in a multicultural and multi-faith community where everyone deserves to feel safe. Those responsible should be located to face the consequences of their actions.  Sonia Sidhu (@SoniaLiberal) September 14, 2022

According to the data, over 1.6 million people of Indian origin and non-resident Indians lives in Canada.
Mt. Hope United Methodist Church

Mt. Hope United Methodist Church, 290th and Highway 6, McClelland, would like to invite all to join us on Sunday mornings for our worship service at 9:30 a.m. Children are welcome for the regular worship service and childrens sermon during the worship service. Upcoming events: On Sunday, Sept. 25, from 4 to 7 p.m. will be our Soup Supper/Bake Sale at McClelland Town Hall.

You do not have to be a member to participate in our church activities. Everyone is welcome.

Underwood Lutheran Church

Underwood Lutheran Church, 10 Third Ave., will hold Sunday activities. Education begins at 9 a.m., followed by in-person worship at 10:15. Pastor Scott Dalen will deliver a sermon based on Luke 16:19-31. The online video will be available later in the day.

Gethsemane Presbyterian Church

Gethsemane Presbyterian Church, 224 Wallace Ave., invites you to worship with us. Our service runs from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Children are invited to participate in Sunday School. Join us for refreshments following the service.

Adult Bible study meets on Mondays and Thursdays from 9 to 10 a.m. Our Food Pantry is open on Mondays and Thursdays until 10:30 a.m.

Oink Oink Bingo will be held on Thursday, Oct. 6, with dinner at 6 p.m. and bingo starting at 6:30. For $10, participants will receive a pulled-pork sandwich, chips, a drink and 20 games of bingo. Additional sandwiches and bingo cards can be purchased.

Our church is collecting Iowa 5 cent-refund cans/bottles for one of our mission projects, the Kanesville Honor Guard Society. Your donations help! Bags can be dropped off anytime at our front door. For more information, contact the church office at 712-366-2513 or visit us on Facebook at gethsemanepresbyterianchurch.org.

Timothy Lutheran Church

Timothy Lutheran Church, 3112 W. Broadway, offers services at 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. on Sundays. The church alternates between traditional services and praise services each week. Bible study and Sunday school at 9:15 a.m. If a month has a fifth Sunday, the church hosts a combined service at 9 a.m. Food and fellowship after service on fifth Sundays and there is no Bible study or Sunday school on those days. The church is handicap accessible.

St. Pauls Evangelical Country Church

St. Pauls Evangelical Country Church rings the church bell each Sunday at 10:30 a.m. to welcome people to worship at 11055 Dumfries Ave. There are directional signs from Wabash Avenue and Pioneer Trail leading to the church. We are a growing, friendly, Bible-teaching church led by Pastor Jason Kinney. Sunday School for all ages, including adults, begins at 9:15 a.m. This Sunday, the sermon title is The Pursuit of Life, and the scripture reading is from James 1:9-11. Each Sunday following worship we enjoy donuts and coffee in the Fellowship Hall. Greeters are Dale Spetman and Lori Kirkpatrick. The Ladies Bible Study and Youth Groups meet on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. The Mens Breakfast will be Saturday, Oct. 1 at 9 a.m. Visit our website at www.stpaulsecc.org for more information. We are handicapped accessible.

Compass Christian Church

Compass Christian Church welcomes you to worship with us Sundays at 10:30 a.m. We are located at 2007 S. Seventh St., just west of the South Expressway. The church is handicap accessible. During worship, a cry room is available, along with childcare for children ages 1-4. Compass Kids grades K-5 meet downstairs for special Bible lessons during the sermon. You may also worship with us at compasscb.online.church or on YouTube.

On Mondays from 7 to 8 p.m., mens and womens Bible study meet.

On Tuesday, Sept. 27 at 6:30 p.m., The Bridge young adults (ages 18-30) will meet at Compass Christian Church with childcare provided. The group meets bi-weekly  bring a friend and join us for supper, fellowship and Bible study.

On Wednesdays from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., adult prayer group, students in grades 6-12 and kids in kindergarten through fifth grade meet.

For questions or more information, visit our Facebook page, Compass Christian Church CB, our website compasscb.org or call the church office at 712-366-9112.

Broadway United Methodist Church

Broadway United Methodist, First Street and Broadway, is seeking, growing and serving with unconditional love and acceptance. Broadway holds traditional worship Sundays at 8:30, followed by coffee and donuts in the DeLong Lounge. Contemporary worship is held at 10:30 a.m. Services are held in person and livestreamed to our Facebook page or broadwayunitedmethodist.com/live. Masks are optional.

Activities include Student Life Breakthrough, Sundays at 6:30 p.m. On Mondays, Philips Cupboard is open noon-2 p.m.; Boy Scout Pack 40 meets at 6 p.m.; and Bibles @ Barleys is at 8:30 p.m. Womens Bible Study will be held Wednesday at 5 p.m. in the DeLong Lounge. Praise Band Rehearsal will be at 5:30. A Community Meal will be served at 6 p.m., followed by Foundations Groups and Bell Choir rehearsal at 6:30. Choir will practice at 7:30. Mens Brown Bag: The Bible Year, meets Thursdays at noon. Philips Cupboard, a nonfood pantry, is open noon-2 p.m. on Fridays.

September is Spirit Month at Broadway. Sept. 25 will be New Member Sunday.

For more information, visit our website at broadwayunitedmethodist.com or call the office at 712-322-7741 (closed Fridays).

Fifth Avenue United Methodist Church

Fifth Avenue United Methodist Church, 1800 Fifth Ave., invites the public to participate in our live worship service at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings. The Sunday worship service will be recorded live and can be viewed on our Facebook page: Fifth Avenue UMC, Council Bluffs. Face masks are optional. Upcoming Events: Friday, Sept. 23 at 6 p.m., Movie Night; Sept. 27 at 6 p.m., Meal & Message. The church office can be reached at 712-323-7374 or through our email at fifthaveumchurch@gmail.com.

Bethany Presbyterian Church

Bethany Presbyterian Church, 1900 S. Seventh St., will have worship at 10:30 a.m. Pastor Nancy Ross-Hullingers message will be Godliness and Contentment, and the scripture is 1 Timothy 6:6-19. Liturgist is Ava TomcykowskiShari Dillehay, and greeters are Barb Hough and Linda Cody. There will be a childrens chat.

There will be a Friends of Faith meeting Saturday, Sept. 24 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Sept. 25 is our mission project after worship. There will be a Deacons meeting Thursday, Sept. 29 at 6 p.m. Cleaning of the church will be Friday, Sept. 30 at 9 a.m.

We are a handicap accessible facility.

Community of Christ Church

Community of Christ Church, 140 W. Kanesville Blvd., invites people to attend Sunday worship at 10:15 a.m. Our theme this week is A Word of Hope. Our scripture for this week is Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6:15; Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16; Luke 16:19-31; 1 Timothy 6:6-19. Sunday school starts at 9:15. We also have prayer service Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. Please call our office at 712-323-4498 for any questions. There are virtual ministries out on our World Church Website under Ongoing Ministries at www.cofchrist.org.

Epworth United Methodist Church

Epworth United Methodist Church, 2447 Ave. B, worships on Sundays at 9:25 a.m. The people are friendly, the worship is meaningful and the building is handicap accessible. Masks and hand sanitizer are available. We also invite you to our Bible study on Thursdays at 9 a.m.

We keep in prayer for the healing of our community and nation for God. If you want us to pray for you personally, let us know your prayer requests by phone or online at Friends of Epworth UMC Facebook. Office hours are 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. Phone: 712-323-3124.

Faith Lutheran Church

Faith Lutheran Church, 2100 S. 11th St., invites you to join us for creative worship at the 9 a.m. Sunday service. The Faith LWML Mite box will be out to accept donations to support LWML missions around the world. On Tuesday, there is a 9:30 a.m. adult Bible study in the downstairs fellowship hall that is open to everyone. Please enter by the rear door. The Faith Praise Team meets for practice Wednesday at 5:30. Services are available on Faiths Facebook page and on YouTube by searching for Ron Rosenkaimer. For more information, contact the church office at 323-6445.

New Horizon Presbyterian Church

New Horizon Presbyterian Church has three services on Sunday, with traditional services at 8 and 11 a.m. and the praise service at 9 a.m. Sunday school for kindergarten through eighth grade and adults meets at 10 a.m. On Wednesday, the Praise Team will meet at 5:45 p.m., and Chancel Choir will meet at 6:30. Sunday services are available on our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/NewHorizonPC.

Westminster Presbyterian Church

Westminster Presbyterian Church, 517 S. 32nd St., welcomes everyone to join us for worship on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Following worship, there will be a Coffee Time in fellowship hall. We are handicapped accessible through the northeast door of the church.

Corpus Christi Catholic Parish

The month of September is dedicated to The Seven Sorrows of Mary. Join us as we celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass every day of the week at Corpus Christi  Queen of Apostles, 3304 Fourth Ave., Council Bluffs; and Corpus Christi Our Lady of Carter Lake, 3501 N. Ninth St., Carter Lake. Everyone is welcome.

Our Weekend Mass in English is celebrated on Saturday at 4 p.m., on Sunday at 8 and 10 a.m. (Council Bluffs) and at 9:30 a.m. (Carter Lake). Our Sunday Spanish Mass is at noon (Council Bluffs). Readings are Amos 6:1a, 4-7; Psalms 146:7, 8-9, 9-10; 1 Timothy 6:11-16; Luke 16:19-31.

Daily Mass is celebrated as follows: In English Tuesday through Friday at 8 a.m. (Council Bluffs) and in Spanish on Monday and Thursday at 6 p.m. (Council Bluffs).

Eucharistic Adoration is held every Monday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. at Corpus Christi Queen of Apostles.

The Christ Our Life Conference will be held on Sept. 24-25 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. This is the seventh life-changing conference! Once again, world-class speakers will present topics of critical importance to all. Join thousands s we celebrate Mass, enjoy time with Jesus in adoration, avail ourselves to Reconciliation and fill our hearts with music and prayer! In person and livestream available; for tickets and more information, go to ChristOurLifeIowa.com.

A blood drive will be held Oct. 9 from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Corpus Christi Queen of Apostles. Appointments at 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767 or by visiting RedCrossBlood.org and entering CorpusChristigives.

The Corpus Christi Parish Annual Chicken Dinner will be held Nov. 6 at St. Albert Catholic School, 400 Gleason Ave. The meal will include Staleys Broasted Chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, corn, coleslaw, dinner roll and dessert. Gift baskets, raffles and crafts.

For more information, call the parish office at 712-323-2916 or 712-323-4716 (Spanish) or visit our parish website at www.corpuschristiparishiowa.org.

Emanuel Lutheran Church

Emanuel Lutheran Church, 2444 N. Broadway, welcomes everyone to come as you are and be who you are! Our weekly worship service is at 9:30 a.m. each Sunday. Our worship service and weekly Sunday school show can be found on our YouTube channel or Facebook page. Visit us online at emanuelcb.org.

Saint John Lutheran Church

Saint John Lutheran Church, 633 Willow Ave., holds worship at 5:30 p.m. on Saturdays and 8:30 and 11 a.m. on Sundays. Worship is also available to watch on YouTube. Our website is www.SaintJohnELCA.org. Our Facebook page is Saint John Lutheran Church Council Bluffs IA.

Wednesday morning Bible study meets at 9 a.m., and Wednesday evening Bible study meets at 6:30 p.m. Confirmation and high school youth also meet at 6:30. Bell choir practices at 6:30 p.m., and Chancel Choir starts at 7:30. New member classes to join St. John will begin Sept. 25 at 9:45 a.m.

The building is handicap accessible. Please call the church office with any questions, 712-323-7173.

Broadway Christian Church

(Disciples of Christ) The Rev. Carol Hall and members of our congregation invite you to join us for Sunday worship at 9 a.m. at Broadway Christian Church, 2658 Ave. A. We celebrate communion weekly; communion is open to all. A hearing loop is installed for those who need it. Guests are invited to join us in fellowship after worship for coffee and donuts.

Pieceful Hearts Quilters will hold its next meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 11 at 9:30 a.m. Bible study will meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21.

Overeaters Anonymous meets Mondays at noon. Alcoholics Anonymous meets Tuesdays at 6 p.m. and Fridays at 7:30 p.m. The church is ADA-accessible. Masks are optional. To submit prayer requests or for more information, call the church office at 712-323-7741 or email us at office@bcccb.org. Visit us online at www.bcccb.org or on Facebook.

First Congregational UCC Church

Come and join us for worship at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at First Congregational Church (United Church of Christ), located at 611 First Ave. Coffee is available. Our service is also provided via Zoom. Please email the church for information on how to join the Zoom meeting: cbfirstcong@gmail.com.

First Congregational offers a free Community Dinner the last Friday of each month. Everyone is welcome. The next dinner is Friday, Sept. 30 from 5 to 6:30. Come and enjoy a meal and fellowship!

Our Saviors Lutheran Church

Our Saviors Lutheran Church, 600 Bluff St., can be reached at 712-322-6655. Everyone is welcome. Worship services are Saturday at 5:30 p.m. and Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Adult Sunday School begins at 9:15 a.m., and Youth Sunday School (skit, music, Bible story and games) at 9:30.

For more information, see our Facebook page under Our Saviors Lutheran Church of Council Bluffs or the website at oursaviorscb.org.

Thursday morning Bible Study meets at 9:30 a.m., and prayer time is at 11:15 a.m. Bell choir practice is at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, followed by choir practice at 7:30 p.m.

Other activities this week include Al-Anon meetings Monday and Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Education Building. The Food and Pet Food Pantry is open Thursday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. To schedule an appointment, please call the pantry directly at 712-522-3522 on Thursday only between 9:30 and 11 a.m.

St. Pauls Episcopal Church

St. Pauls Episcopal Church is located at 22 Dillman Drive in Council Buffs. Our services are held each Sunday morning beginning at 11 a.m., and we invite visitors to attend and share with us these very enjoyable and enlightening services. For additional information, please contact the church at 712-323-7188.
Second-graders from Bloomer Elementary School met students in kindergarten through fifth grade from Iowa School for the Deaf Tuesday at the Council Bluffs Public Library for a joint activity.

It was a good opportunity for hearing and deaf children to interact, said Jenna Smith, an American Sign Language teacher and specialist at ISD.

Its good to get out in the community, she said. The hearing people can learn that deaf people really do have their own culture, so they will have that experience of being together. A lot of our students had not had previous ASL exposure before attending ISD, she said.

Smith also works with small groups of students to teach them expressive and receptive ASL  signs they use to express themselves and signs or variations they may not use but can recognize and understand when someone else uses them.

The students began by watching a video, Calvin Cant Fly: An ASL Storybook Video, produced by Sally is Sarah Productions and based on a book by Jennifer Berne.

Calvin is a starling who doesnt learn to fly when other birds his age are learning. Instead, he becomes a bookworm and reads about adventures, science and other topics. He loves to read and learn new things and doesnt miss flying too much until its time to fly south for the winter. His relatives wrap him with yarn and twine so they can tow him along behind them.

As they are flying, the wind comes up and Calvin, remembering something he had read, realizes that they are heading into a storm. He directs his relatives to take shelter in a cave. After the storm passes, they realize Calvin has saved them and are overjoyed  especially Calvin.

The lesson is we can all be experts at different things, said Anna Hartmann, youth services director at the library. We can all teach each other certain things.

Throughout the story, a narrator spoke and used American Sign Language, making it understandable to both hearing and deaf students. After the story, the narrator explained Calvins sign name and hers and showed viewers the signs for jump, dance and fly.

Then ISD students presented a couple skits. In one of them, students in kindergarten and first grade  with the help of masks, ears and tails or wings, as appropriate  portrayed a mouse, butterfly, rabbit and other animals and an interpreter demonstrated the sign for each of them.

After that, students used paint markers to decorate puzzle pieces that would be put together to make two completed puzzles after they dried, Hartmann said.

Well put those together after they leave, she said. Each puzzle will be half ISD students and half Bloomer students (work).

Katie Naughton, teacher of the second-grade class from Bloomer that participated, said she was glad Hartmann had invited them over for the activity.

We always are looking for ways to find  how were alike and how were different and get to know other people and their ways of life, she said. Its just been a fun opportunity for us to get to know others in our community.
Though they were known for their work in different areas, Amelia and Dexter Bloomer supported each others causes.

The Bloomers will be the focus in a free program, Council Bluffs First Power Couple, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 29 at the Council Bluffs Public Library, 400 Willow Ave.

The Bloomers met and married in New York, headed west to Ohio, then pushed on to the frontier town of Council Bluffs, according to a press release from the Historical Society. Dexter may not have been completely enamored with the town, noting that virtually every available building had been converted into a saloon, but nonetheless Council Bluffs became their home.

Dexter set up a law practice and took an active role in the education system, becoming the citys first school board president while Amelia was busily engaged in writing newspaper articles, primarily on the subject of womens rights. Amelia helped found the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association, serving as its president in 1871. She was inducted into the Iowa Womens Hall of Fame in 1975.

The pair worked tirelessly for the things they believed in and supported each others goals: she supported his efforts to start the school district, and he supported her ideas of co-educational schools and equal pay for women teachers.

A historical marker was dedicated in May in honor of Amelia Bloomer on the grounds of Bloomer School. The marker is part of the National Womens Suffrage Marker program. The school was renamed Amelia and Dexter Bloomer School on Jan. 25.

The program is sponsored by the Historical Society of Pottawattamie County, with support provided by the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs; and the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
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Disruptions in food supplies caused by Russias war in Ukraine have deepened the struggles of millions of Africans to survive, more than 60 farmers associations from 11 Central African countries have warned.

Calling on the regions governments to help people cope with food shortages, the farmers say scarcity, high prices and a worsening economic situation are reducing access to food for most households across central Africa. During a meeting on Tuesday (13 September) in Cameroons capital Yaounde, the farmers representatives asked the governments of 11 central African countries to invest in agriculture and ease dependency on food imports. We need governments in central Africa to give means, resources so that we can produce a good amount of seeds because we dont have sufficient seeds to have food sovereignty, Nadine Mballa, coordinator of Gabons Farmers Union, said and added that hunger will decrease if the right steps are taken.

In April, economic ministers meeting via video conferencing said Russias invasion of Ukraine disrupted food exports from both these countries and deprived central African states of more than 55% of wheat normally imported from both Ukraine and Russia. Central African states also claim Western sanctions on Russia imposed in response to the invasion have further hurt Africas economy. Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe took part in the conference. The United Nations has noted that, besides the war in Ukraine, conflict, climate shocks, floods and droughts are also contributing to central Africas dramatic food crisis.
The U.S. has donated military equipment including vehicles to the Nigerien armed forces to fight terrorism in the Sahel country.

The United States of America has just donated a significant amount of equipment to strengthen the capacity of the Special Forces Training Center in Tillia and the Peacekeeping Training Center in Ouallam, two strategic entities in the fight against terrorism, the Defense ministry of the African country said in a statement.

With an overall cost of $13 million, the equipment consists of armored personnel carriers, Land Cruisers, several other pieces of equipment that will be used by both centers, as well as the Special Intervention Battalion (SIB), the statement added.

Defense Minister Alkassoum Indattou received the donation that will go to the two centers located near boarder with Mali. The West African country located in the Sahel region has been reeling with terrorism activities by terror groups in Diffa (South-East), Tahoua (North-East) and Tillaberi (West).

Diffa near the border with Nigeria is an attack ground for Boko Harm militants. Tahoua and Tillaberi have been attacked by terror groups hiding in Mali.
The army of Burkina Faso said it has killed more than 80 terrorists in a period of one month, in several regions of the West African country grappling with terrorism activities.

The forces said over the period August 15 to September 15, their Offensive actions have continued the in-depth disorganization of terrorist groups and reduced to the maximum their freedom of maneuver and their operational capabilities in some places.

The brutality of the fire, combined with the surprise effect, made it possible to destroy several of these bases and dealt a major blow to the terrorist organization operating in the area. At least 50 terrorist fighters were neutralized and important equipment destroyed, the Burkinabe army said.

The army also claimed that following the ambush against the patrol sent to reinforce the detachment of Deou (Sahel), the National Armed Forces have launched a response that has neutralized several terrorists including cadres.

A major terrorist base was also destroyed in a Special Forces action in the locality of Soam (Gourma Province, eastern region) on Sunday, August 28, 2022. Some twenty terrorists were neutralized in the operation.

These actions have made it possible to neutralize dozens of terrorists and to question others, according to the army, which says it has carried out actions to support the resilience of the population through several civil-military activities during this period.

Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been the target of terrorist attacks that have killed many people and displaced thousands.
The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jose Manuel Albares, welcomed, the intense strategic partnership between Spain and Morocco which reflects a new stage based on transparency, permanent communication and mutual respect.

We have an intense bilateral program covering all aspects of our bilateral relationship, based on transparency, permanent communication and mutual respect. These are the principles of a sincere cooperation between two strategic partners like Spain and Morocco, said the head of Spanish diplomacy at the end of talks with his Moroccan peer Nasser Bourita, on the sidelines of the 77th UN General Assembly.

This is a new stage in relations between Madrid and Rabat, he said, adding that his talks with Bourita were an opportunity to establish the basis for next steps.

We have achieved a more-than-significant progress that the Moroccan and Spanish people are already enjoying, he said, referring to the resumption of links, which also allowed thousands of families to be reunited this summer through the Marhaba operation after the years of pandemics.

He also stressed that he has agreed with his Moroccan counterpart to hold, as planned, the high-level meeting before the end of the year.

For the Spanish minister, this meeting will be a new opportunity to take stock and continue to move forward together and reaffirm the Spanish-Moroccan friendship.

While recalling that this high-level meeting has not been held since 2015, he noted that, since last April, all the working groups created in accordance with the roadmap of the Joint Declaration issued at the end of discussions between King Mohammed VI and the President of the Spanish government, Pedro Sanchez, have held several sessions and are meeting the planned schedule.

Regarding the regular and orderly movement of goods, the Spanish minister noted that Spanish exports to Morocco have increased by 30% in just one year, reaching 6,000 million euros, consolidating Spains position as the Kingdoms leading trading partner.

But we want to go further, thats why we are working with the objective of achieving a land passage for goods next January, he said, stressing that as part of the reactivation of bilateral cooperation, both sides have agreed to work for the orderly and gradual passage of goods through land customs posts to begin in January.

Albares also announced that the Spanish government will approve a project for a fund to promote development worth 20 million euros, the first project over 20 years in Morocco to provide microcredit to promote the inclusion of youth and women in the productive system.

He said that cooperation between the two countries will also focus on technical assistance in the railway sector, the water sector and for the establishment of integrated systems.

As for migration, the Spanish minister referred to evidence of excellent cooperation, noting that the figures of irregular arrivals have been reduced by 20% in the last four months compared to the same period last year.

This is the result, among other things, of the joint work against the criminal networks of human trafficking. We have agreed to continue strengthening this cooperation, especially on the Atlantic coast, he said.

Echoing him, Nasser Bourita described Moroccan-Spanish cooperation relations in the field of migration management as exemplary and unique.

Partnership dynamics on this component will have positive repercussions both bilaterally and regionally, he said.

The Moroccan minister announced on this occasion, that Rabat and Madrid intend to coordinate their efforts at a meeting scheduled for December to involve other countries in this approach to manage the migration issue and fight against trafficking networks.
TEHRAN, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said if the United States fulfills its commitments, lifts the sanctions on Iran and refrains from breaking its promise, it will be possible to reach an agreement on the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal, official news agency IRNA reported on Friday.

Raisi made the remarks during a press conference held late Thursday in New York on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

Responding to a question on the possibility of reaching a deal in the Vienna talks, Raisi said if the United States seeks to return to the nuclear agreement, it must first return to its commitments, fulfill them and lift the sanctions.

He stressed that the Americans must honor what they have committed to within the framework of the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

On the future of the nuclear negotiations, he said the ball is now in the U.S. court, and it is Washington that has to decide to act correctly and based on its commitments.

Iran signed the JCPOA with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to curb its nuclear program in return for removing sanctions on the country. However, former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to drop some of its commitments under the pact.

The talks on the JCPOA's revival began in April 2021 in Vienna but were suspended in March this year because of political differences between Tehran and Washington. The latest round of the nuclear talks was held in the Austrian capital in early August after a five-month hiatus.

On Aug. 8, the European Union put forward its final text of the draft decision on reviving the JCPOA. Iran and the United States later indirectly exchanged views on the EU proposal in a process that has so far failed to produce any favorable outcome. 
The UN Secretary General Antonio has voiced appreciation for Moroccos cooperation with his personal envoy for the Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, while Morocco has renewed commitment to support the efforts of the Secretary-General and his personal envoy aimed at relaunching the political process.

This came during a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York between the Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the Moroccan delegation to the 77th UN general assembly, which is led by Head of the Government Aziz Akhannounch

Guterres thanked Morocco for its cooperation with his Personal Envoy for the Moroccan Sahara and with MINURSO, and expressed his gratitude to the Kingdom for the invaluable contribution of the Royal Armed Forces to UN peacekeeping operations.

The Head of Government reaffirmed Moroccos commitment to support the efforts of the Secretary-General and his Personal Envoy aimed at relaunching the political process in accordance with Resolution 2602, and in respect of the Kingdoms consistent position on the national question.

Guterres also expressed his high appreciation of the important role played by Morocco on the various issues on the agenda of the United Nations, reiterating his gratitude to the Kingdom for its active support to the initiatives and proposals of the Secretary-General to revitalize the Organization and face global challenges.

He also congratulated Morocco for its constructive role in the Libyan issue, as well as its initiatives for interfaith and intercultural dialogue.

Akhannounch reiterated the Kingdoms commitment to continue supporting the work of the United Nations under the leadership of Guterres. He also praised his courage to face the current global challenges and his determination to work for the establishment of a more equitable world order, towards developing countries, particularly in Africa, which are severely impacted by the energy and food crisis.
Morocco has called on the Non-Aligned Movement to contribute to a new world order dedicated to joint action that consolidates collective security and responds to current and future challenges.

Addressing the ministerial meeting of NAM, convened in New York on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, Foreign minister Nasser Bourita reaffirmed his countrys steadfast commitment to strengthening international peace and security and fostering regional economic integration.

He voiced Moroccos adherence to a multilateral system, based on cooperation and pragmatism, while ensuring that national policies are in harmony with the UN agenda, citing in this regard Moroccan project launched for the manufacturing of anti-epidemic vaccines to meet national and African needs.

The Minister also cited Moroccos cooperation with international partners to address issues and challenges related to illegal migration, human trafficking, the fight against terrorism and organized crimes.

On the Sahara issue, Bourita said that Morocco continues to work for a peaceful resolution of this regional dispute within the framework of its sovereignty and territorial integrity, under the exclusive auspices of the United Nations.

Morocco remains convinced that the resolution of this artificial dispute will strengthen regional stability, spur sustainable development and protect North Africa and the Sahel from the dangers of separatism, balkanization, extremism and international terrorism, underlined the FM.

If the international community calls for a realistic, pragmatic, sustainable and consensual solution to this regional conflict, and if the Moroccan autonomy initiative is supported by the international community as the only serious, realistic and credible proposal, then Algeria must shoulder its responsibility and abandon its double rhetoric, he said, calling on Algiers to engage seriously and constructively in the political process of round tables sponsored by the United Nations.

Morocco continues the socioeconomic development of its southern provinces and the advanced regionalization project to ensure the inhabitants of the Moroccan Sahara manage their own local affairs in democracy and stability, added Mr. Bourita.

He voiced Moroccos deep concern over the catastrophic humanitarian situation prevailing in the Tindouf camps, where Algeria has abandoned its responsibilities and delegated control of the sequestered population to a separatist armed group, in blatant violation of international humanitarian law.
Cameroons military has admitted that three members of its airborne battalion had earlier this week attacked civilians and killed two mothers in Nylbat, an English-speaking village in Andeck district.

According to a statement by the military, the troops, who were dispatched to fight separatists in the troubled northwestern region, violated orders from military hierarchy and started shooting indiscriminately on civilians, killing two harmless mothers. The government says family members of the killed mothers rushed to the scene and collected corpses when the government troops left. Speaking via the messaging app WhatsApp from Andeck, a relative of one victim said civilians sealed their businesses and refused to go to their farms for three days as a sign of protest against Mondays killings.

The government said it had arrested the three troops that fired upon unarmed civilians. But Eyong Tarh, an official with the Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, says rights groups in Cameroon will continue exerting pressure until the military punishes all of its troops who have committed atrocities. I have a worry whether the culprits will be brought to book, because similar cases have taken place but we dont know what has happened to the perpetrators, Tara said. Rights groups have repeatedly accused both Cameroons military and anglophone separatists of killing civilians and torching their homes during their five years of fighting. Each side rejects the accusations as intended to tarnish its image.
Guatemala announced on Thursday its decision to open a consulate in Moroccan Saharan city of Dakhla and voiced support to the autonomy plan offered by the Kingdom for a lasting resolution of the Sahara regional conflict.

Guatemala deems the autonomy plan under Moroccan sovereignty as the solution to the Sahara issue and decides to open a consulate in the city of Dakhla to take advantage of its economic potential and openness onto the African continent, said a joint statement released following a meeting held in New York between Moroccan FM Nasser Bourita and his Guatemalan peer Mario Bucaro Flores on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Speaking to reporters after their talks, Mr. Flores said: We support Morocco on the Sahara issue and we will continue to support it forever, hailing the reforms made in Morocco under the leadership of King Mohammed VI and the role of the Sovereign and his contribution to conflicts resolution in Africa and the Arab world by peaceful means.

For his part, Bourita thanked the Republic of Guatemala for its supportive stand on the Sahara and praised the role played by President of this Latin American country, Alejandro Giammattei and his government at the regional and international scene for peace.

Morocco and Guatemala have decided on this occasion to step up their cooperation ties in tourism, training, energy, agriculture and fertilizers.
The Sahrawi Movement for Peace, created in April 2020, as a political movement and as an alternative to the polisario front, is advocating the reunification of the Sahrawis and the quest for a peaceful solution to the Sahara conflict through a Sahrawi-Sahrawi dialogue.

This is the purpose of the first international conference for Peace and Security organized by the Movement in Las Palmas this September 22  23.

The International Conference is attended by several Spanish politicians, sheikhs and notables from the Southern Provinces, a number of Mauritanian figures and other guests.

The Mayor of Las Palmas Augusto Hidalgo inaugurated the opening ceremony, followed by a speech by the former speaker of parliament and former Minister of Defense of Spain, Jose Bono, who highlighted the courage of the first Secretary of the SMP and his determination to organize a meeting for the Sahrawi-Saharawi dialogue.

Jose Bono expressed his admiration for Morocco, stating that it is the one and only country in the Arab world to establish an open model on the promotion of human rights, under the leadership of a King who was able to put an end to the years of lead (when human rights abuses were common in the country). On the other hand, he highlighted the historical relations between Morocco and Spain, citing quotations by the late King Hassan II on dialogue and neighborliness.

Dealing with the intransigence of the Polisario, Jose Bono hinted that in Politics, the winner is always the one who agrees to negotiate. He also denounced the appalling living conditions of the population living in the Tindouf camps, insisting that the only victim of this conflict are the populations living in these camps.

Mauritanian Mohamed Ahmed Val, representative of the Unity and Developments Network in Mauritania, took the floor to make a presentation on the historical relations between the Mauritanian tribes and those present in the Moroccan Sahara indicating that they form an unbreakable unit. The Mauritanian human rights expert promised to set himself up as a spokesperson for all Sahrawis who have suffered violations of their rights and were abused by the Polisario.

The sheikhs and notables of the Southern Provinces affirmed in their addresses that the Polisario, despite its pretensions, is not the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi population, while the traditional elected representatives of the tribes and the sheikhs have demonstrated their ability to unite the Sahrawi families on both sides of the border. The sheikhs also underlined that this conference is an appeal to the Sahrawi population to contribute to a peaceful solution to the conflict and recalled that the Sahrawi Movement for Peace is betting on peaceful means and dialogue to settle the conflict.

To this end, they called on the international community to encourage the movement and to consider its effective contribution to the resolution of the conflict.
The Algerian regime and its puppet, the polisario front, have been slammed for the massive violations of human rights, humanitarian atrocities and summary executions committed in the Tindouf camps against the background of the Sahara conflict.

The harsh criticism was voiced during a symposium held in Geneva on the sidelines of the 51st session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), by the NGO Promotion of Economic and Social Development (PDES) and the International Observatory for Peace, Democracy and Human Rights  Geneva (IOPDHR-GENEVA).

The participants in the symposium on Violations of the right to life: the systematic nature of arbitrary executions committed by the Polisario and the responsibility of the host country, Algeria, underlined that since the settlement of the Tindouf camps in southwestern Algeria, the Algerian security services and the Polisario front have committed massive violations of human rights.

Although the Polisario has acknowledged that human rights violations have occurred in the past, it has not provided clear data relating to enforced disappearances, abductions, extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, torture in detention centers, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, according to the organizers.

The Polisario remains an organization escaping all control, despite the serious crimes and violations it has committed since its creation. Indeed, the Polisario has made the Tindouf camps a platform to order kidnappings, lootings and arbitrary detention, and terrorist attacks, causing thousands of victims, not only among the residents of the Tindouf camps, but also in Mauritania, Mali, South Korea, France, Spain and Morocco. Thus, the Polisarios armed operations, on land or at sea, against boats and ships near the coasts of neighboring countries, resulted in hundreds of victims.

Nearly five decades of violations and inhuman treatment, the most significant of which having been torture and arbitrary executions, have passed by in total impunity, where the Algerian recourse mechanisms, the only authority responsible for investigating all violations committed on its territory, refused to process or examine any file relating to the violations committed by the Polisario.

The Polisario, was imposed by the Algerian authorities to carry out its role in the management of the affairs of the camps, in violation of the provisions of international law, benefiting from the immunity and protection of the host country, regardless of the gravity of violations, escaping the control of the UN mechanisms concerned with the protection of human rights.

Although the right to life is guaranteed by article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, exceptional circumstances, including a state of war, the threat of war, internal political instability or any other emergency situation, cannot be invoked to justify extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

However, the Polisario has continued, for decades, to flagrantly violate the right to life through arbitrary and extrajudicial executions, while inciting violence and murders, through successive calls by its leadership and media outlets calling for escalation, resistance and struggle on all fronts. In this context, the Polisario exploits and mobilizes women and children to export violence and murder outside the camps, as the only way to intimidate its detractors.

The symposium urged Algeria to implement its national laws throughout Algerian territory, including the Tindouf camps, calling Algerian authorities to carry out a prompt and impartial investigation into the allegations of extrajudicial execution, in order to determine with certainty the causes, and the moment of death, the persons responsible, as well as the circumstances in which it was committed.

It also called on the competent authorities to take the necessary measures to prevent cases of excessive use of force against defenseless refugees, and to sue the perpetrators and instigators of these violations in fair trials, while denouncing as illegal the delegation of powers from the Algerian State to the Polisario in the management of the Tindouf camps, in flagrant violation of the rules of international law.

It likewise called for the recognition of refugee status for the residents of the Tindouf camps, with the obligation for the host country, Algeria, to register them, in application of the relevant Security Council resolutions, and in accordance with the Geneva Convention on Refugees and its Optional Protocol.

The Symposium which appealed to the international community to move forward to hold the Polisario accountable for the massive violations committed against the residents of the camps, as a non-State entity and an armed group, denounced the phenomenon of forced recruitment of children, adolescents and young people into the army, and their indoctrination to the ideology of militias and hate speech, violence and propaganda war.

It also drew the attention of the international community to the direct threat to security and peace in the region and the neighborhood due to the nexus between the separatist front and terrorism and connivance with armed groups and terrorists and urged the international community to intervene to dismantle the camps, find peaceful ways of dialogue and guarantee the refugees the right of return.
Gambias President Adama Barrow has reiterated at the United Nations his countrys strong support for Moroccos autonomy plan offered for a lasting and peaceful resolution of the Sahara regional conflict.

In his speech made Thursday at the ongoing 77th session of UN General Assembly convening in New York, Mr. Barrow said the Government of Gambia reaffirms its strong support for the Moroccan Autonomy Initiative, which offers a realistic compromise in accordance with UN resolutions for the settlement of the Sahara dispute.

He also called on the international community to support Moroccos sovereignty and territorial integrity.

For his part, the President of the Comoro Islands Azali Assoumani has expressed at the UNGA unwavering backing to Moroccos full sovereignty over its entire Saharan territory.

I would like to reiterate the firm support of the Union of the Comoros for the Moroccanness of the Sahara, he said, describing the autonomy initiative proposed by Morocco for the Sahara under its sovereignty as the best basis to reach a rapid, pragmatic and lasting solution to this regional conflict.

President Azali Assoumani said his country encourages dialogue between Morocco and Algeria, and welcomes all initiatives that could help to bring in peace to this region and re-launch of the UN-led political process on the basis of UN Security Council resolutions.

The Moroccan delegation, attending the 77th session of the UNGA, has responded to the false allegations made by Algerian delegate on the Sahara issue in a bid to mislead the international community and dodge Algiers responsibility and involvement in this regional dispute.

Algeria created the polisario armed separatist group. It hosts it on its territory, finances it generously, provides it with weapons and supports it diplomatically, said the Moroccan the delegation.

Contrary to Algerias misleading statements, the question of the Moroccan Sahara is a matter of territorial integrity and national unity, added the delegation, noting that it was Morocco that put the question of the Moroccan Sahara, in 1963, on the agenda of the United Nations, to definitively recover its southern provinces.

The Moroccan delegation also affirmed the referendum option has been buried definitely by the UN Security Council which calls, henceforth, for a political, realistic, pragmatic and lasting solution that is offered by the Moroccan autonomy initiative.
MUMBAI, India, September 23, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Speaking at Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2022, at a fireside chat with Smita Aggarwal, Global Investments Advisor of Flourish Ventures, Mr. Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech Officer, Monetary Authority of Singapore, said, "In the new architecture of Web 3.0, asset transfers are not only done traditionally, therefore we need a new form of money that transacts on a distributed ledger. Therefore today, the central bank needs to come up with a new form of money - a legal tender that excludes private currencies, as it doesn't act like a payment instrument." GFF 2022 was organised and presented by the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, Reserve Bank of India, International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), National Payments Council of India, the Payments Council of India (PCI) and the Fintech Convergence Council (FCC). It was held between September 20 and 22, 2022 at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai. Pre-event festivities began virtually on September 19, 2022.

"Under the new architecture, tokenisation will enable both asset ownership and transfer of value to happen in real-time," Mr. Mohanty added.

Talking about the role of new technologies, Mr. Mohanty added, "The new form of money will lead to massive disintermediation whereby the connectivity between the central banks of different nations will not just bring down the cost of cross-border transfers but will also enable one to seamlessly use his local UPI anywhere in the world."

"We have successfully connected the UPI equivalent network of Singapore known as PayNow, with Thailands PromPay, to facilitate seamless cross-border transfers. We are now planning to connect to India by end of this year, and also in Malaysia, which will bring about a significant drop in the cost of cross-border transfers," he added.

According to Mr. Mohanty, wholesale CBDC will not just make cross-border transfers more efficient and cost-effective but will also address challenges pertaining to regulations, processes and compliances.

Story continues

Elaborating on the new design of retail CBDC, Mr. Mohanty said, "The biggest debate for the central bank is how to deal with this new form of money, which will rest on the four-pronged architecture of  cryptography, ledger, consensus protocol and distribution. The uncertainty really is not around cryptos or smart contracts but around the validation protocol and therefore if we get that right it will transform the entire sector. This is now gradually changing with Ethereums transition to proof of stake."

"Additionally, the new form of money instead of retail CBDC should be designed as programmable money which can be programmed for specific use-cases just like in the case of Covid grants. The retail CBDC can be extremely efficient and cost-effective and can even avert the need of a UPI rail for money transfers. This space needs to be watched out for especially for low-value transfers," he added.

GFF 2022 is being supported by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), National Investment Promotion & Facilitation Agency (Invest India), Startup India, Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) and ONDC. Special Partners of GFF 2022 are World Bank Group, United Nations Capital Development Fund, BIS Innovation Hub, KNOMAD, Better Than Cash Alliance and International Finance Corporation (IFC).

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220922005486/en/

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On Saturday, 48 Hours will be airing an episode about the disappearance of Auburn resident Lori Ann Slesinski and the man convicted for her murder, Rick Ennis.

Titled A Man with a Past, it will air at 9 p.m. CST on CBS and can be streamed on Paramount+. It contains portions of an interview with Ennis.

Murray Weiss, a producer for 48 Hours, said he heard about the Slesinski case from a federal agent while working on another story in Miami.

Weiss said he was intrigued and began to research it.

I thought it was an interesting, important, emotional and multi-layered story, he said. I think its a real, rare, powerful story.

Weiss has covered numerous criminal cases throughout his career in the newspaper and television industry. He said what makes this story extraordinary is all of the different elements within it.

Slesinski was 24 years old when she went missing in June 2006. Her car was found four days later engulfed in flames at the dead end of Dekalb Street in Auburn, but her body was never found.

During the investigation, police said they were almost certain they knew Ennis was the responsible for Slesinskis disappearance, but they didnt believe they had enough evidence at the time.

Two cold case investigators with the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation, special agents Mark Whitaker and John J.W. Barnes, were hired in 2016 to focus on solving the case.

Ennis was arrested in Pilot, Virginia, in 2018, and Lee County District Attorney Jessica Ventiere began preparing to prosecute the case in court.

On April 14 of this year, a jury in the Lee County Justice Center in Opelika found Ennis guilty of two counts of capital murder, including capital murder burglary and capital murder kidnapping.

I believe Lori and all her family in Heaven are celebrating today, Slesinksis mother, Arlene, said after the trial.

After Ennis was found guilty, three of his stepsisters released a statement to media revealing that in 1993, when Ennis was 12 years old, he murdered his mother and stepfather. He was released from the juvenile system at age 21.

Ive seen a lot of bad people in my career that have done a lot of bad things, but he is one of the most evil people Ive ever seen in my life, Whitaker said in an interview with the Opelika-Auburn News.

48 Hours and correspondent Peter Van Sant investigated the case and interviewed detectives, friends and family who were close to Slesinski and Ennis, and he also interviewed Ennis.

Rick Ennis has a genius-level IQ, Van Sant said, and when you talk to him, he has an attitude that hes the smartest person in the room and that he can, through his reasoning, convince you of just about anything.

Ennis believed hed outsmarted everyone until Whitaker took on the case and bested his genius, Van Sant said.

Van Sant said Ennis told him his own mother had sexually abused him, which triggered him to murder her and his stepfather.

There is absolutely no evidence of this whatsoever, Van Sant said. Speaking with him, it was just disturbing in that he is willing to tarnish those who cant defend themselves, those who are dead.

In 1993, Ennis told authorities the reason he killed his parents was because they were planning to move and he didnt want to go to a different school, Van Sant said.

That side of the story is about as disturbing an incident as Ive ever reported on in my 20 years on this broadcast, Van Sant said.

During the interview, Ennis denied having anything to do with Slesinskis disappearance and told Van Sant, I never murdered Lori Slesinski. She was a very close, dear friend of mine. I never would have hurt her.

Van Sant said Whitaker helped piece the story together for them.

We had a top-notch investigator willing to cooperate with us and work with us, Van Sant said. He took us on a fantastic journey over the course of this case of how eventually it was solved.

Weiss, who also attended the trial, said he thought the prosecutors and investigators did a very thorough job of building and presenting the case against Ennis.

During the trial, Ennis took the stand to testify, which Weiss said was unusual.

There was quite a bit of testimony that was enlightening, illuminating Im sure for the jury, but similarly its very unique for a defendant in a murder case to take the stand in his own defense, he said.

Van Sant said this is a personal and heartbreaking story that is also inspiring because Slesinskis family and the investigators involved never gave up on pursing justice.

To tell a story like this and see it through to justice is incredibly satisfying to me and my colleagues at 48 Hours, he said.
After an investigation that lasted several weeks, Lee County Sheriffs Investigators have arrested an Auburn woman on a drug trafficking charge and other charges.

Cindy Zheng, 23, was arrested on Thursday and charged with one count of drug trafficking, five counts of possession of a controlled substance and one count of drug paraphernalia, according to a press release from Lee County Sheriffs Office.

The investigation was a joint operation with Lee County Sheriffs investigators, agents from the U.S. Army Criminal Intelligence Division and the Auburn Police Department.

According to the release, investigators said they determined that people buying drugs were placing orders with their cell phone and picking up the drugs at certain times that were given to them by the dealers.

On Thursday, a search warrant was executed in the 2000 block of Downs Way in Auburn where investigators said they recovered multiple types of illegal drugs including marijuana, Psilocybin mushrooms, THC wax and oils, a quantity of pills, drug paraphernalia associated with the sale of drugs and approximately $100,000 in U.S. currency, according to the release.

Zheng was booked into the Lee County Detention Center and released after posting bond at $60,000.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Lee County Sheriffs Office at 334-749-5651 or Central Alabama Crime Stoppers at 334-215-STOP (7867).
ADEN, Yemen, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Chief of Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) on Thursday called on the international community to drastically change its long-standing approach to dealing with his country's years-long crisis.

Rashad al-Alimi said during his speech at the general debate of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York that there's a necessity for the international community to adopt a new approach to Yemen's crisis and put an end to the world's worst humanitarian sufferings.

According to the state-run Saba news agency, al-Alimi confirmed the PLC's commitment to the peace option as the only solution to Yemen's deadly conflict.

"The PLC has opted for peace approach since the first day in order to put an end to the humanitarian sufferings, eliminate the coup, restore the state and go on establishing freedoms, human rights, equal citizenship, empower women and youths to contribute to building up sustainable peace," said al-Alimi.

He blamed Houthi militias for prolonging the conflict, worsening the Yemeni peoples' sufferings by blocking all regional and international peace proposals and efforts.

"Since the early days of the Yemeni crisis, we sought for peace, but the militias have never honored any agreement it has signed. We engaged in negotiations with the militias several times, starting on the eve of the militias' taking over the capital Sanaa in September 2014," he noted.

"We do confirm in this regard the PLC's principled stance that we welcome renewing the truce provided that it should not be at the expense of the Yemenis' future, it should not offer the militias more time to prepare for a new cycle of bloody war," al-Alimi continued.

He urged the international community to support the Yemeni government's efforts to establish peace, saying "there is no better way to help the Yemeni people than sustaining the legitimate government's efforts to establish freedom values, peace and civil co-existence."

Yemen and the Saudi-led Arab coalition accuse Iran of aggravating instability in Yemen by backing and supplying Houthi rebels with weapons, which has been repeatedly denied by both Houthis and Iran.

The Houthi rebels backed by some anti-government army units have been controlling much of Yemen's north by military force, including the capital Sanaa since 2014.

The Yemeni civil war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 4 million, and pushed the country to the brink of starvation. 
Opelika Police detectives with a warrant to search for illegal drug activity in the 1000 Block of Lake Street made an arrest on Thursday.

Police charged Reginald Swint, 34, with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, first degree.

Swint was also arrested on a felony bond revocation warrant for a prior illegal narcotics charge and an illegal firearm charge, according to the police report.

Police said Swint will remain incarcerated until his trial date because of his bond revocation warrant.

This case remains under investigation and police said additional charges are pending.

Anyone with information on this case is asked to contact the Opelika Police Department Narcotics Unit at 334-705-5220 or the Secret Witness Hotline at 334-745-8665. Anonymous tips can also be submitted through our Opelika Police Mobile App.
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The annual Alabama Water Resources Conference, or ALWRC, one of the states largest and longest-running forums for water resources, garnered record-breaking attendance at this years conference.

More than 340 registrants and more than 320 active participants from at least 10 statesmore people in nearly 35 yearsattended sessions earlier this month at the Perdido Beach Resort in Orange Beach, Alabama. The Auburn University Water Resources Center facilitates the annual event.

The ALWRC provides a platform for water professionals and academics across the Southeast to come together in sharing novel research, programs and outreach methods. The conference features presenters from a broad spectrum of water resources research, management, policy and outreach backgrounds, as well as keynote speakers who are regional and national authorities in water resources.

This year, a highlight was the keynote panel on Blackbelt infrastructure with Daniel Blackman, Environmental Protection Agencys Region 4 administrator; Sherry Bradley, director of the Alabama Department of Public Healths Bureau of Environmental Services; and Lance LeFleur, director of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

The three-day long event opened with the Alabama Chapter of the American Water Resources Symposium. This years keynotes highlighted ecological infrastructure and featured speakers Michael Roberts, president of the Coastal Trust, and Judy Haner, marine program director with The Nature Conservancy of Alabama. A follow-up panel discussion on sea level adaptation featured Renee Collini, coastal climate resilience specialist with the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium; Leslie Gahagan, environmental director with the City of Foley; and Jeff Collier, mayor of the City of Dauphin Island.

Two days of concurrent sessions allowed presenters to share information about emerging research, interagency programs and funding opportunities. Over 120 concurrent session speakers and 38 poster presenters created a new record for information transfer at the conference.

The ALWRC provides opportunities for conversation about multidisciplinary aspects of water resources and connects stakeholders to improve understanding of complex water issues important to this state, the region and the nation and is planned in conjunction with a multi-agency committee and the Alabama Chapter of the American Water Resources Association.

Several students at Auburn University received awards for their oral and poster presentations. Winners of the student competitions were as follows:

Oral Competition

First Place: Benjamin Webster, Auburn (Department of Crop, Soils and Environmental Sciences)

Second Place: Giacomo DeLuca II, University of South Alabama (School of Marine and Environmental Sciences)

Third Place: Anna Powell, Auburn (Department of Crop, Soils and Environmental Sciences)

Poster Competition

First Place: Danyal Aziz, University of Alabama (Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering)

Second Place: Kelly Kaye, Auburn (Department of Geosciences)

Third Place: Mehrzad Shahidzadehasadi, Auburn (Department of Biosystems Engineering)

The 2023 ALWRC will be held Sept. 6-8 at the Perdido Beach Resort. More information can be found at the Auburn University Water Resources Center webpage.

The mission of the Auburn University Water Resources Center is to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration among Auburn faculty and staff on water-related research, outreach and instruction; conduct innovative research to find practical solutions for current and future water issues and empower private citizens to become active stewards of water resources.
The ruse is now up for Putin at home. He can no longer pretend this isnt a war or that its just a simple operation with few casualties that the Russian public can easily rally around. No amount of media control can now cover up a military mobilization. So, the cat is out of the bag, so to speak, and its not going to go well at home. (Over 1,000 arrests by the end of the night following the mobilization call speaks volumes).

This suggests that all is not well among the Kremlin elite, and Putins damage-control efforts will create even more damage to controlsuch as the partial mobilization he just ordered, resulting in mass protests, mass arrests, and a rush to the exit for military-aged men.

The military defeat now clearly shows a breakdown in reality at the Russian Defense Ministry. Voices that have only been praising the Russian special operation on the podium are now coming out with a very different tone. The most notable voice is that of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has all but point blank suggested that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has no idea whats going on on the ground in Ukraine. Kadyrov would be happy to show him, of course, and it is interesting that he has not been chastised for his statements.

Putin is not Peter the Great. That is a good starting point for examining the position in which the Russian leader now finds himself.

Putin is not Peter the Great. That is a good starting point for examining the position in which the Russian leader now finds himself.

The military defeat now clearly shows a breakdown in reality at the Russian Defense Ministry. Voices that have only been praising the Russian special operation on the podium are now coming out with a very different tone. The most notable voice is that of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has all but point blank suggested that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has no idea whats going on on the ground in Ukraine. Kadyrov would be happy to show him, of course, and it is interesting that he has not been chastised for his statements.

This suggests that all is not well among the Kremlin elite, and Putins damage-control efforts will create even more damage to controlsuch as the partial mobilization he just ordered, resulting in mass protests, mass arrests, and a rush to the exit for military-aged men.

The ruse is now up for Putin at home. He can no longer pretend this isnt a war or that its just a simple operation with few casualties that the Russian public can easily rally around. No amount of media control can now cover up a military mobilization. So, the cat is out of the bag, so to speak, and its not going to go well at home. (Over 1,000 arrests by the end of the night following the mobilization call speaks volumes).

Dont expect a coup. This isnt the beginning of the end, but it has weakened Putin in the face of the siloviki. And the silent masses who dont openly oppose the war because of the repression associated with doing so and because it was not directly affecting them will now start to see things differently.

Militarily, defeat continues, and without a major structural change in the military leadership or without resorting to a nuclear optionas has been threatenedUkraine will continue to take advantage of this setback.

On the weaponized gas front, there is no meaningful victory, despite Europes looming energy crisis. By most accounts, Europe can survive the winter, with its gas storage nearly full already. Next year will be tough if Russia fails to restore Nord Stream 1 flows, for which it is sacrificing major revenues.

Perhaps Putin can claim a collection of other emerging victories that can be used for future leverage, as well. One of those victories will be the strengthening of the far-right across Europe, suggesting a potentially prolonged period of disunity. The far-right has emerged stronger against the backdrop of the crisis, and if nothing else, Russia is adept at fomenting and instigating such developments.



None of what is happening in Ukraine, however, is any sort of definitive defeat. Not by a long shot. Its a fracture in Moscows machine, but its also a very dangerous one that has cornered Putin both at home and abroad. It would be unwise to grow complacent at this point. Its going to be a very bloody winter.
Protests in Iran over the death of a young Iranian Kurdish woman under unclear circumstances after being arrested by morality police for a headscarf violation have so far led to the deaths of 12 people (those who can be accounted for by the Kurdistan Human Rights network). The group has also been able to verify 530 arrests, of which 150 are injured. Information is difficult to verify as Iran has cut off the internet as protests spread nationwide, after starting in the Iranian Kurdistan area in the northwest. The protests remain most intense in that area.

Violent clashes that started on Sept 14 on the border of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan left more than 100 people dead before a ceasefire was signed earlier this week for what is still considered a shaky truce or the demarcation line.

Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya regions - four territories in Ukraine occupied by Russian forces - started holding snap referendums on Friday on joining Russia. The referendum vote will run until Sept 27. The vote on annexation will be used by Putin in an attempt to demonstrate that these territories desire to be part of Russia and are indeed Russian, which will justify greater use of force following Russia's defeat in Kharkiv at the hands of Ukrainian forces.

Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict

Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya regions - four territories in Ukraine occupied by Russian forces - started holding snap referendums on Friday on joining Russia. The referendum vote will run until Sept 27. The vote on annexation will be used by Putin in an attempt to demonstrate that these territories desire to be part of Russia and are indeed Russian, which will justify greater use of force following Russia's defeat in Kharkiv at the hands of Ukrainian forces.

Violent clashes that started on Sept 14 on the border of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan left more than 100 people dead before a ceasefire was signed earlier this week for what is still considered a shaky truce or the demarcation line.

Protests in Iran over the death of a young Iranian Kurdish woman under unclear circumstances after being arrested by morality police for a headscarf violation have so far led to the deaths of 12 people (those who can be accounted for by the Kurdistan Human Rights network). The group has also been able to verify 530 arrests, of which 150 are injured. Information is difficult to verify as Iran has cut off the internet as protests spread nationwide, after starting in the Iranian Kurdistan area in the northwest. The protests remain most intense in that area.

Iraqs new state-run oil marketing company, SOMO, has informed international companies that legal action will be taken against anyone buying crude directly from the Kurdistan Regional Government. This comes after the Iraq Federal Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that all contracts for crude extraction and export with the KRG are now invalid.

Energy Crisis in Europe

Germany has moved to nationalize troubled utility and largest gas importer, Uniper. Finland, however, said last week that it would not accept such a move from Germany without compensation. The move to nationalize the company is part of Germanys efforts to stave off an energy shortage this winter. Germany has decided to take a 99% stake in Uniper and 8% of its Finnish parent, Fortum. Uniper has struggled to keep its head above water all summer as gas prices skyrocketed and Russia cut its deliveries.

Germany has also announced that it was seizing control of three Russian-owned oil refineries, two of which belong to Rosneft. Rosnefts subsidiaries hold 12% of Germanys total refining capacity. The companies are being put under the administration of the national network regulator for an initial period of six months.

Bulgaria has launched three tenders to purchase LNG to increase its stockpiles ahead of winter. Russia supplied the majority of Bulgarias gas prior to cutting its deliveries in August when the country boldly refused to meet Gazproms terms for payment. Bulgaria is in talks with Azerbaijan for additional gas and is considering purchasing gas from Turkey as well, stressing that they were not closing the door to anyone--not even Russia. Bulgaria said it would push Gazprom to make good on its contracts for gas supplies, which were made at much cheaper rates than spot market prices. Bulgaria consumes 3 bcm of gas per year.

Deals, Mergers & Acquisitions

Privately held U.S. GoM producer QuaterNorth Energy is mulling a sale that could fetch $2 billion, including debt, and is soliciting bids from potential buyers. QuarterNorths EBITDA is expected to be around $850 million this year.

Chevron is putting its non-operating minority stakes in more than 2,000 of its wells in Alaska up for sale, reminiscent of its Alaska exit in the early 90s, only to come roaring back there with its massive Unocal purchase. The stakes cover three oilfields, including the Endicott field, in which Chevron holds a 10% stake, the Kuparuk field (5%), and Prudhoe Bay (1.2%). Bids are due in September. Chevron values the proved and developed portion of the assets at $655 million, although it is unlikely to fetch that amount at current prices.

Origin Energy is selling its interests in the Beetaloo basin, a basin likened to the Marcellus shale play. The buyer, Tamboran, has agreed to pay $40.3 million for the assets. Tamboran is a JV between Tamboran Resources and Bryan Sheffield. The play has been a thorn in the side of Origin Energy given its capital intensity and emissions concerns, not to mention it is still in the exploration and appraisal phase. Origin will still be entitled to a 5% royalty from any future production and has secured a gas supply agreement as part of its exit.

More reports this week that Qatar and Germanys Uniper are still working through a potential LNG deal. Rumors this week are that a long-term dealsomething that Germany has been opposed to before staring down the barrel of a potentially disastrous winter, energy-wiseis now near. With the flow of gas from Russia to Germany severely limited, the urgency to sign a deal has intensifiedespecially a long-term deal that could derail climate goals. The gas, which will come from Qatars North Field Expansion project, isnt expected to come online until 2026, and therefore certainly wont be of any help this winter or next. Longer term, however, they would offer Germany an increased level of energy security.

Pieridae Energy has asked the federal government to ensure TC Energy will be able to get permits for a pipeline expansion that would aid Pieridae in its LNG gas terminal project located on Canadas east coast.

Iraqs state-run oil marketing company sold another batch of contaminated fuel oil. Between 600,000 and 700,000 barrels of fuel oil were contaminated with a cleaning agent and sent to term customers.

Hurricane Watch

While this years hurricane season has until recently been extremely mild, Fiona, now a Cat 4 storm, has the potential to affect North American oil and gas infrastructure. For now, its looking like Atlantic Canada, home to Irving Oils 300,000 bpd refinery in New Brunswick, is most likely to find itself in Fionas path.
With rising concerns over water scarcity, mainly due to climate change, there are fears that the big transition to renewable energy will be hindered even further.

For years, the energy sector, and almost every other sector, has taken water for granted, viewing it as an abundant resource. But as we move into a new era of renewable energy, the vast amounts of water required to power green energy operations may not be so easy to find. And its not just renewables that are under threat from water scarcity, as it also hinders fossil fuel production and threatens food security.

In recent months, we have seen extreme droughts across Europe and the U.S., which are finally making people realise the significance of water security. Stefano Venier, CEO of the Italian energy infrastructure company Snam, highlights the huge impact recent droughts have had on both food security and energy production. Labelled as Europes worst drought in 500 years, the low water levels have restricted shipping capabilities, as well as drying up soil and reducing summer crop yields.

Venier explains, For a long time, water was considered [as being] for free, as something that is fully available in any quantity. He went on to say, Now, we are discovering that with climate change  water can become scarce. And so, we have to regain the perception of importance, and the value [that]  the water has, also, with respect to  energy production we have discovered that without water, enough water, we cannot produce the energy we need, or we cant ship the fuels for filling the power plants, he added.

The drought has already raised concerns for nuclear power plant operators that rely on water from rivers to cool their nuclear reactors. EDF typically uses water from the Rhone and Garonne but rising water temperatures mean that nuclear power output could be reduced during hot periods. The falling water levels have also hindered traditional energy operations such as coal output, according to several European energy firms.

But the issue of water scarcity is perhaps most detrimental to hydropower projects. In the U.S., several hydropower operations are located along rivers with falling water levels, with a higher risk of water scarcity by 2050. Montana, Nevada, Texas, Arizona, California, Arkansas and Oklahoma are the most affected states. A recent study published in the Journal Water found that 61 percent of all global hydropower dams will be in basins with very high or extreme risk for droughts, floods or both. In addition, one in five hydropower dams will be in high flood risk areas, an increase from one in 25 today.

World Wildlife Funds Global Freshwater Lead Scientist Jeff Opperman explains, Hydropower projects must deal with a range of hydrological risksranging from too little water to too muchand these risks are projected to increase in many regions due to climate change. Already, weve seen regions, such as the southwestern US, southern Africa, and Brazil, where hydropower generation has declined due to falling water levels, he adds.

And its not just the U.S. that is facing these challenges. In August, Norway threatened to limit its power exports due to low reservoir levels. The country, which relies on hydropower for around 90 percent of its electricity production, increased regulations on power production to prevent hydroelectric reservoir levels from running out of water. This news came just days after the worlds longest under-sea power cable began transferring hydroelectric energy from Norway to the UK.

Norways Minister of Petroleum and Energy Terje Aasland explained, We need a management mechanism or security mechanism that safeguards national security of supply so that we do not run out of water in our reservoirs. He added, We are now introducing a system where, when we come to a situation where the magazine capacity is below what is normal for the time of year and down to a critically low level, there will be a restriction on exports.

These kinds of restrictions could become commonplace if these severe weather events, and related water scarcity, continue to take place. Europes recent heatwave far exceeded the expectations of climate experts, with several countries reaching record highs which led to wildfires in areas that had never previously experienced such events, showing the reality of the effects of climate change.

As well as the detrimental effect water scarcity has on energy output, it also has a hugely negative impact on food production. With several areas of the world seeing poorer harvests year on year, as temperatures soar and water scarcity becomes a challenge, many countries are worried about their food production levels. And the water-food-energy nexus is raising concerns over the impact of the two other factors on the energy sector. Were already seeing this nexus work the other way, with increasing gas prices causing fertiliser shortages, which have exacerbated the impact of water shortages on agricultural yields further.

With rising concerns over water scarcity, mainly due to climate change, there are fears that the big transition to renewable energy will be hindered even further. However, even traditional fossil fuel production cannot escape from the effects of water scarcity, and the water-food-energy nexus may further exacerbate the situation, meaning that plans to mitigate this scarcity must be quickly established to avoid a major energy crisis.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com
BAGHDAD, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said on Friday that his government is interested in developing relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries at all levels, according to a statement of the ministry.

Hussein made the remarks when meeting with GCC Secretary-General Nayef bin Falah Al-Hajraf on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, where "the two sides discussed ways to enhance cooperation," the ministry said in the statement.

The minister said the Iraqi government is interested in developing relations with the GCC countries at all levels and called on foreign companies to invest in Iraqi infrastructure.

For his part, Al-Hajraf affirmed "GCC's support for the security and stability of Iraq," stressing the keenness of GCC countries to advance their relations with Iraq in the service of common interests.

The two sides also discussed some regional and international issues of common concern, especially the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict on food security and the need to work collectively to confront the possible repercussions of the crisis. 
- Thanks to strong growth last year China has become the largest global market for EVs, though

- Western European gasoline and diesel demand peaked in 1992 and 2006, respectively, and have been declining since currently assessed at 1.8 million b/d and 5.6 million b/d.

- Rising costs of battery materials, exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine war, will slow down the pace of fleet turnover and ramp up the overall price of new EVs.

- European fuel producers have started urging EU authorities to reconsider their recently introduced 2035 ban on selling new internal combustion engines, Platts reports.

- If there is no disruption to the pace of loading this month, September 2022 is set to witness the highest monthly rate of crude exports, maybe even reaching 3.7 million b/d.

- The ICE Brent-WTI spread rose to almost $7 per barrel lately so the temptation to move barrels into more expensive European markets has been guiding US crude exporters lately.

- With no hurricane to disrupt loadings so far this year, the robust transatlantic flows have been taking place in spite of soaring freight costs, to the tune of $5-6 per barrel, tripling year-on-year.

- With US crude benchmark dropping to a mid-$80/barrel environment lately, the continuous discrepancy between ICE Brent and WTI is incentivizing crude exports out of the Gulf Coast.

1. WTI-Brent Gap Makes US Crude Exports Attractive

- With US crude benchmark dropping to a mid-$80/barrel environment lately, the continuous discrepancy between ICE Brent and WTI is incentivizing crude exports out of the Gulf Coast.

- With no hurricane to disrupt loadings so far this year, the robust transatlantic flows have been taking place in spite of soaring freight costs, to the tune of $5-6 per barrel, tripling year-on-year.

- The ICE Brent-WTI spread rose to almost $7 per barrel lately so the temptation to move barrels into more expensive European markets has been guiding US crude exporters lately.

- If there is no disruption to the pace of loading this month, September 2022 is set to witness the highest monthly rate of crude exports, maybe even reaching 3.7 million b/d.

2. European Carmakers Want Slower EV Rollout

- European fuel producers have started urging EU authorities to reconsider their recently introduced 2035 ban on selling new internal combustion engines, Platts reports.

- Rising costs of battery materials, exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine war, will slow down the pace of fleet turnover and ramp up the overall price of new EVs.

- Western European gasoline and diesel demand peaked in 1992 and 2006, respectively, and have been declining since currently assessed at 1.8 million b/d and 5.6 million b/d.

- Thanks to strong growth last year China has become the largest global market for EVs, though forecasts are suggesting that Europe will account for 37% of new purchases by 2025.

3. Germany Ready to Live Without Russian Oil

- Germany has placed subsidiaries of Russian oil company Rosneft, comprising minority stakes in two Bavarian refineries and a controlling 54% stake in the Schwedt refinery near Berlin, under its trust administration.

- With the Russian side already vowing to take the issue to court, Germany might stop Russian crude imports even before the December 05 deadline set by the European Union.

- Europes largest oil consumer, Germany has more than doubled its sources of imported crude recently, with non-Russian imports now making up two-thirds of its total intake.

- Before the Russia-Ukraine war, Germany was the worlds second-largest buyer of Russian crude after China, importing almost 700,000 b/d last year.

4. Europes Energy Woes Fuel Coal Bonanza

- Europes ongoing energy crisis has reinvigorated the long-declining coal industry, adding a new impetus to coal production around the world as fuel-strapped European buyers are ready to pay up.

- With sanctions on Russian coal kicking in in early August, EU thermal coal imports from Australia, South Africa, and Indonesia rose more than 11-fold in the months since Russia invaded Ukraine.

- Global seaborne thermal coal imports reached 97.8 million tons in July, the highest level on record and a 9% increase year-on-year, driven by European buying.

- Even though August imports were lower, due to rainfall disruptions in Australia, Q4 coal deliveries are expected to remain strong as coal prices trend at $420-430/mt.

5. Chinese Output Constraints Send Lithium Flying

- Lithium prices have risen to record highs as robust demand from growing EV sales has been amplified by lower Chinese metal production as heatwave-induced power cuts hit lithium-rich regions.

- The price of lithium carbonate in China surpassed the 500,000 mark (equivalent to $71,500), tripling year-on-year, though analysts expect it to fall off once supply constraints subside.

- Lithium was tangibly boosted by exceptional EV sales this year, with 4.2 million battery electric vehicles sold globally in H1 2022, a 63% increase year-on-year.

- Chinese demand remains a key factor in the lithium markets, accounting for almost 60% of EVs sold and more than 16% of global lithium production.

6. US Ethanol Production Hamstrung by Weak Crops and Strikes

- US corn-based ethanol output has plummeted to 901,000 b/d in the week ended September 16, the weeks lowest output in eight years and the weakest for any week in 20 months.

- Whilst the mid-September drop could have been triggered by prospects of a nationwide railway strike, poor crop prospects and meager gasoline demand will hinder ethanol production further ahead.

- Agricultural forecasts are seeing this years corn yields to be the weakest in 10 years amidst poor weather in western states, though the USDA expects a more modest 3% year-on-year drop.

- US corn prices have been on the increase since mid-July, currently trading slightly below the $7 per bushel threshold.

7. Bearish Sentiments Weighs on Copper Despite Thin Stocks

- Global inventories of copper have dropped to unprecedentedly low levels, with the current LME inventory of 118,000 tons representing only two days worth of global consumption.

- The markets seem to be shrugging this off, betting on Europe falling into a prolonged demand-hindering recession and China failing to rebound swiftly from its lockdowns.

- Despite tight stocks and backwardation in the futures curve, the LME three-month copper contract is still trading at $7,710 per metric ton, a 20% decrease since the start of 2022.

- Seeing that there has been no price upswing on the inventory news, it seems that the market anticipates ample shadow stocks stored off-market and in Shanghai bonded storage.
If we fail to defend this principle, when the Kremlin is so flagrantly violating it, we send a message to aggressors everywhere that they can ignore it, too, Blinken said.

Putin is trucking in Russian citizens and violently uprooting Ukrainians in a bid to manipulate referendum results in territories he wants to be annexed.

UN Secretary of State Antony Blinken is calling on UN Security Council members to stand up to Vladimir Putins annexation ploy.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on UN Security Council members to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, warning that the Kremlin leaders invasion of Ukraine and attempts to annex more of its territory was threatening to destroy the international order.

Putin is pushing four Kremlin-controlled territories of Ukraine to hold disputed votes for annexation into the Russian Federation beginning on September 23 amid the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II.

The very international order that we have gathered here to uphold is being shredded before our eyes. We cannot -- we will not -- allow President Putin to get away with it, Blinken said on September 22 in New York.

Blinken said international support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity is about protecting an international order, where no nation can redraw the borders of another by force.

If we fail to defend this principle, when the Kremlin is so flagrantly violating it, we send a message to aggressors everywhere that they can ignore it, too. We put every country at risk, he said.

He said Putin was violently uprooting thousands of Ukrainians and busing in Russian citizens to manipulate the results of this week's vote on annexation, calling it a diabolical strategy.

The top U.S. diplomat also told the Security Council there is mounting proof of Russian war crimes in Ukraine and said he supported international efforts to collect and examine the evidence.

He described the violence as a pattern of behavior by Russian soldiers and not isolated acts of rogue units.

The UN must hold the perpetrators accountable for these crimes, he said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan were set to brief the 15-member Security Council on investigations into possible war crimes in Ukraine.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and representatives from several EU states and Belarus were expected to speak.

Ukraine's chief war crimes prosecutor is reportedly investigating nearly 26,000 suspected war crimes since Russia's invasion in February. Ukraine has charged 135 people with war crimes and officials have recently said they uncovered fresh mass graves containing bodies, some with their hands tied behind their backs, when Ukrainian forces retook the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum during a major counteroffensive.

Russia has denied targeting civilians during what it calls its "special military operation," describing accusations of human rights abuses as a smear campaign.

The September 22 meeting marks the 20th time the Security Council has met to discuss the war in Ukraine this year. But despite Russia's unprovoked invasion and subsequent accusations that its forces have committed war crimes, the Security Council has been unable to take any meaningful action against Moscow because of Russia's veto powers as one of the body's five permanent members.

Ukrainian President Zelenskiy has called for Russia to be stripped of its veto rights.

In a prerecorded message to the General Assembly on September 21, Zelenskiy demanded that a special United Nations tribunal impose "just punishment" on Russia for its invasion.

Earlier the same day, U.S. President Joe Biden said Moscow "shamelessly violated the core tenets" of the UN Charter with its "brutal, needless war."

China, which has friendly relations with Moscow and also holds veto powers as a permanent member of the Security Council, will also be represented at the September 22 meeting.

During a discussion on the sidelines of the General Assembly on September 21, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Lavrov that his country would maintain an "objective" and "fair" position regarding the war in Ukraine, which is one of China's biggest trading partners.

The same day, China called for a "cease-fire through dialogue" and for all countries' "territorial integrity" to be respected.

The comments from Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin came after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial military mobilization to bolster its forces in Ukraine.

Putin's decree followed the September 20 announcement that Russian-occupied regions in eastern and southern Ukraine plan to hold votes on being incorporated into Russia.

The move to hold the referendums, which contradict international law and the UN Charter and which Western countries have already refused to recognize, are to begin on September 23 in Ukraine's Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya regions. All of the regions are partially controlled by Russian forces and are areas where Moscow has recently lost territorial gains.

Parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, which collectively make up Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, have been under Russian-imposed administration since Moscow-backed separatist forces began fighting against Kyiv in 2014.

Putin has said his aim is to "liberate" Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, claiming without providing any proof that most people in the region did not want to return to what he called the "yoke" of Ukraine.

By RFE/RL

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Belgium announced on Friday that its Doel 3 nuclear reactor will disconnect from the grid and cease operations, even as the country fears blackouts this winter. It is one of four reactors at the Doel plant near the port of Antwerp, and is the first nuclear reactor to shut down in Belgiums plan to exit nuclear power completely.

The move moves even as thousands of Belgians took to the streets on Wednesday to protest soaring electricity prices and high costs of living. In a recent Belgian media poll, 64% of Belgians are concerned that they might not be able to pay their energy bills.

It also comes as Belgium stainless steel maker Aperam was forced to stop production as the high energy prices became untenable.

The decision to shut the reactors was made years ago, well before Europes energy crisis took hold. In 2011, it was decided to shut Belgians oldest reactors by 2015, and the rest by 2025. At that time, nuclear energy accounted for over half of the nations power consumption. In addition, under Belgium law, nuclear reactors have to stop producing electricity 40 years after installation, although some reactors in the country have been afforded extensions. While the Federal Interior Minister called for an extension for Doel 3, it was not granted.

The plan for Belgiums nuclear power exit, hatched in 2011, was supposed to be contingent on finding enough energy from alternative sources to prevent power shortages.

The shutdowns are set to continue after Doel 3. In February, Belgium is planning to shutter Tihange 2a nuclear reactor that has the unfortunate distinction of being located near the German border where nuclear power is decidedly out of favor, and as such, has found itself the target of activists.

For Belgium, the energy situation is dire. Earlier this week, Bart De Wever, Antwerp mayor and leader of the nationalist New Flemish Alliance party, said that Europes crisis could not be pinned on Putin. Instead, the crisis is one that Europe has brought on itself by phasing out its own primary energy production this century.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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As Moscows military operation in Ukraine falters against a counteroffensive, war chest revenues from fossil fuels may take another hit as Indias imports of Russian thermal coal look set to fall for the first time in four months.

In a note to clients cited by Reuters, Coalmint now says it expects Indias September imports of Russian thermal coal to drop by 30% from the previous month to 1.4 million tonnes.

A second consultancy, DBX Commodities, told Reuters that Indian shipments of power generation fuel should drop from 1.9 million tonnes in August to 1.5 million tons in September.

In June, Indias imports of thermal coal from Russia hit an all-time high, and in July, Russia earned status as the third-largest supplier of coal to India.



On Wednesday, Reuters cited an unnamed Indian source as saying that India has imported some $2.4 billion worth of Russian coal since the invasion of Ukraine in late February, representing a value four times higher than the same period of 2021.



It is a challenging time for more losses to the war chest, which is heavily funded by fossil fuels and very dependent on sales to India and China.



The new estimations of Indias reduced coal imports from Russia come just over two months away from the implementation of a European Union ban on Russian seaborne crude oil and a planned price cap on Russian oil by the G7.



With the recent defeat in Ukraines Kharkiv, where Russian troops were pushed back and lost large swathes of territory, Russian President Vladimir Putin is now under severe pressure to maintain the upper hand. So far, this has resulted in the first call for troop mobilization since World War II, leading to mass protests and arrests in Russia, while conscription-age men attempt to flee the country in droves.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Astana has closed a loophole that was allowing Russian and Belarusian truckers to bring European Union cargo across Russia to Kazakhstan without the correct paperwork.



The clampdown comes as Kazakhstan continues efforts to comply with international sanctions against Russia and Belarus  fellow partners in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), a free trade zone  to avoid Western countries targeting Kazakhstan with secondary sanctions.

Kazakh customs officials have halted on the border at least eight Russian articulated trucks carrying goods from the EU this week, Russian newspaper Izvestiya reports.

On September 20 Astana explained that truckers must comply with a rule requiring them to present two documents: one from the cargos place of origin, and one from the place where it has been reloaded onto Russian or Belarusian trucks for transportation out of the EU and onward to Kazakhstan.

With Russian and Belarusian trucks banned from the EU, they will struggle to secure those documents.

Since the introduction of sanctions by the European side against Russian and Belarusian haulers, most cargo loads from European countries to Kazakhstan are currently carried out via load switching (reloading) of cargos at terminals located on Belarusian border territories, the Ministry for Industry and Infrastructure Development said.

According to the rules laid out by international agreements and the Republic of Kazakhstans domestic legislation, in the course of such deliveries the foreign hauler must carry two permits. The first form is issued on the side where the hauler carried out transportation of the load to the terminal in the border territory. The second form is one issued on the side where the hauler carried out the load switching from the terminal to the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Many countries, including Kazakhstan, ban load switching to protect their own truckers interests.

Related: Putin's Meeting With Xi Highlights Russia's Waning Status On The World Stage

Russia and Belarus had bans in place that they lifted after sanctions were imposed at the start of the Kremlins war on Ukraine, to allow haulage companies more freedom of maneuver as business with Europe ground to a halt.

That was done without consultation with fellow EAEU member Kazakhstan, which subsequently, after talks with the Russians, exempted Russian and Belarusian rig drivers from the ban on load switching from July 1 to the end of 2023, as a goodwill gesture.

That was to the chagrin of Kazakh drivers.

Atameken, a business lobby association, warned at the time that it could reduce Kazakh truckers share of the market on international routes to Kazakhstan, already low at 31 percent, to just 10 percent.

Russian truckers say they were not previously being asked on the Kazakh border for a permit issued within the EU, Izvestiya reported.

But Astana insisted this had been the rule all along.

A reminder of the rules of application of the regulatory approval system when transporting cargos from third countries via load switching and the need for foreign haulers to observe it has been sent to countries of the EU, EAEU, CIS, Ukraine and Georgia, the ministry said.

The reminder came just as Halyk Bank, Kazakhstans largest, suspended the use of Russia's Mir payment cards  one of the few cards still available to Russian bank clients  after a U.S. Treasury Department warning that sanctions could be imposed on institutions accepting them

By Eurasianet.org

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Banking and financial firms in London are closely studying and updating contingency electricity supply plans to protect themselves and their customers in case power outages hit the UK this winter.

Some banks are discussing the idea of again encouraging the work-from-home policies from previous Covid lockdowns or using offsite locations, representatives of the trade association UK Finance, coordinating the talks, told Bloomberg.

The UK and the rest of Europe are preparing for potential blackouts this winter, especially if the weather is colder than usual and gas and power shortages strain the grids. Governments in Europe are asking people to conserve energy to avoid rolling outages.

In the City of London, banks are paying closer attention to plans for backup power supply in case of blackouts.

There is no sense of panic, just everyone is making sure that their ducks are in a row, Andrew Rogan, director of operational resilience at UK Finance, told Bloomberg in an interview.

This summer, London narrowly avoided a blackout in the eastern part of the city at the end of July. While London and much of the UK were reeling from the hottest day on record in Britain, high power demand and a bottleneck on the grid left parts of East London close to blackout. The UK, however, managed to avoid a blackout in London by buying more electricity from Belgium at a mind-blowing price of $11,812 (9,724) per megawatt-hour (MWh), which was more than 5,000% higher than the typical price.

Outside the UK, banks across Europe are bracing for energy rationing and possible power outages this winter by getting backup generators ready so that they wont leave bank transactions and ATMs in the dark if the energy crisis worsens, sources familiar with plans told Reuters earlier this month. As governments in Europe appeal for voluntary gas and electricity conservation and even consider rationing, banks are also bracing for a difficult winter. The banking system is too important for Europe and its economy to be left affected by power outages.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Meta Platforms has denied accusations by Iranian activists that its WhatsApp messaging platform has been working with the government to disrupt communications outside the country amid growing civil unrest over the death of a 22-year-old after she was arrested by morality police for failing to adhere to the country's strict rules on wearing a hijab.

Tehran has restricted the popular messaging service inside Iran as the protests over the death of Mahsa Amini last week spread countrywide. State TV says as many as 26 people may have died so far in the unrest.

Late on September 22, some users reported that their access to WhatsApp accounts abroad had also been disrupted, accusing tech giant Meta of collaborating with the Iranian government.

Iranian right activist Hossein Ronaghi was one of those who raised the question of whether Meta, the owner of WhatsApp, was intentionally causing such a disruption.

The company quickly denied any tie between the disruption and its actions.

"We exist to connect the world privately. We stand with the rights of people to access private messaging. We are not blocking Iranian numbers. We are working to keep our Iranian friends connected and will do anything within our technical capacity to keep our service up and running," WhatsApp said in a post on Twitter after the accusations surfaced.

The demonstrations were sparked by an emotional outpouring over the death of Amini, who authorities say died of a heart attack while in custody for allegedly violating the strictly enforced dress code regarding the hijab. Activists say she was beaten by security forces.

They also come on top of months of unrest over rising prices and poor living conditions that many Iranians blame on the country's leadership.

Despite the strong denial by Meta, some still questioned the company's role in the disruption and demanded a technical explanation about the reason for the disruption in WhatsApp -- and other Meta platforms such as Instagram -- of Iranians abroad.

Anonymous, the international activist hacker group, accused Meta of censoring the protests in Iran on its Twitter account, just like they did to Myanmar, Syria, Palestine.

Manoto TV, a London-based Persian-language television station, accused Meta of deleting a large number of videos from its Instagram page that were related to the protests in Iran and which were shared by the station with its 10 million followers.

Many Iranian journalists and social media activists have reported previous incidents where they say Meta had also removed many of their posts related to anti-government protests and accused Instagram's content-review subcontractor of blocking content related to the rise in anger against the authorities.

Bammad Esmaili, a German-based Iranian journalist, quoted several sources from the German branch of Telus International, a Canadian contractor that provides content moderation on Instagram, as saying that the Iranian government has offered financial rewards for the deletion of accounts opposing the Iranian government.

Esmaili did not provide any evidence. Meta has not commented on the accusations.

By RFE/RL

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Poland has secured its supply of natural gas and coal for the coming winter heating season, the country's largest oil and gas firm and a senior politician from the ruling Polish party said on Friday.

Polish energy firm PGNiG said in a statement on Friday that it has secured its gas supply for the 2022/2023 heating season and will utilize 100% of the capacity on the new Baltic Pipe Project expected to start operations on October 1. The Baltic Pipe will carry gas produced offshore Norway to demand centers in Poland.

In recent weeks, PGNiG has secured additional gas supplies from companies operating on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. As a result of those additional supply contracts, in addition to domestic production and LNG imports, the company will be able to meet all the demand from its customers this winter, PGNiG said.

Poland was among the first EU member states to have its pipeline gas supply from Russia cut off entirely at the end of April after refusing to pay in rubles for Russian gas as Putin had ordered.

At the end of last month, a gas interconnector between Poland and Slovakia entered into operation, aiming to ensure affordable supplies and diversify supply routes.

"The project aims to decrease the EU countries' dependence on a single natural gas supplier, open access to new supply sources to Central-Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, facilitate the market between Northern and Southern Europe and increase the integration and coordination of regional gas markets," the European Commission said at the time.

Poland has also secured its coal supply for the short term by boosting domestic production and importing coal from the United States, Colombia, Tanzania, South Africa, Australia, and Indonesia, Krzysztof Sobolewski, secretary general of the ruling Law and Justice party in Poland, told the Polish press agency, PAP, in an interview on Friday.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Russian natural gas exports to Europe have dropped by more than 82% in one year, according to Spain's Energy Transition Minister Teresa Ribera.

"In just a year, the flow of gas from Russia fell by more than 82%. In fact, in January 2021, supplies from Russia accounted for about 40% of the gas consumed in Europe. At the moment, this figure does not reach 10%," Ribera was quoted as telling a Spanish broadcaster on Friday.

Spain, which does not depend on Russia for gas supply, has sufficient resources to help its closest neighbors, France and Italy, the Spanish minister added.

Earlier this week, Ribera said that an existing natural gas pipeline from Spain to France via the Pyrenees has boosted its capacity by 18% and could be used immediately if France requests it. The interconnector which passes through Irun has successfully completed the technical start-up tests to increase capacity by 18% over current levels, which means that if fully utilized in the direction of France, the interconnector could provide 6% of France's natural gas consumption.

Russia's natural gas exports to the European Union this year are expected to decline by 50 billion cubic meters (bcm)or by one-third of last year's volumesRussian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said last week.

Russia has drastically cut gas supply to Europe since the invasion of Ukraine, with cuts to gas deliveries culminating (so far) in the shutdown of the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany. Russia said earlier this month that the key gas export route to Germany wouldn't reopen until Western sanctions impeding gas turbine repairs in the West are not lifted.

Europe, for its part, is looking to diversify gas imports away from Russia, and has managed to reduce its gas dependence on Putin materially.

"Last year, Russian gas accounted for 40% of our gas imports. Today it's down to 9% pipeline gas," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in the 2022 State of the Union speech last week.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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ACCRA, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- China's Zhejiang University of Technology (ZJUT) and the University of Ghana pledged on Thursday to enhance their cooperation in Chinese language education to help more Ghanaians grasp one of the most spoken languages in the world.

The pledge was made during a one-day online China-Ghana International Conference on Chinese Language Education, which was attended by officials and faculty members of the two universities as well as some prominent Chinese and African scholars in this field.

Speaking at the conference, Yu Xiaofen, vice president of the ZJUT, said the two universities cooperated in establishing the Confucius Institute at the University of Ghana in 2013, which had become a model of China-Ghana educational cooperation.

She said the institute has played a vital part in boosting the cultural exchanges between China and Ghana with its current enrollment figure standing around 3,500, and more than 20,000 Ghanaians having been trained since its inception.

Yu pledged the ZJUT's full support for the institute's development, saying the cooperation on Chinese language education would move forward with the consistent efforts of both sides.

Felix Ankomah Asante, vice president of the University of Ghana, commended the Confucius Institute for its significant contribution to the teaching of the Chinese language and culture at the university.

"In addition to teaching, the institute has created great opportunities for students to learn and build their knowledge and skills in the Chinese language and culture," said Asante.

He said the conference was critical for sharing ideas about the development of Chinese language education in Africa.

"It is my expectation that this conference will mark the beginning of a platform for more engagements and academic exchanges among all stakeholders of Chinese language education," he said.

Noting next year will mark the 10th anniversary of the institute's establishment, he expressed the hope that the two sides will conduct more effective cooperation. 
Even though the UK has brought online additional coal-fired power generation plants to survive the winter, it could still face energy shortages, according to a report from consultants Lane, Clark & Peacock.

Even if the UK increases its coal use, the country could still see 10 hours when supplied power is unable to meet the demand. As a result, the grid operator could be forced to cut off power to some energy-intensive users, the report said.

Gas and power prices are expected to be exceptionally high this winter in the UK.

Earlier this week, UK Prime Minister Liz Truss promised that the UK would not ration energy, and would not encourage her people to use less energy like some other countries in Europe. Truss is still firmly committed to standing up to Russia and enduring the resulting high electricity prices.

LCP reviewed one pessimistic simulation that factored in no interconnector imports, as Frances nuclear plant outages and Norways low hydro levels strips away supply during peak cold days. In that scenario, there could be 29 hours where power demand exceeds supply. That could be reduced to 10 hours if it taps into its winter reserves and supplements with coal-fired power generation.

The irony is that as Europe baked during this summers heatwave, it was simultaneously sowing the seeds for further pain this winter. As a result of the extreme droughts and the lack of water that is hitting hydroelectric systems in key interconnector markets like Norway, coupled by the issues we are seeing in France with their nuclear reactors, there are significant doubts about the availability of electricity coming into GB from the continent which is critical to our security of supply, Chris Matson, partner at LCP said.

Maston added that the current market pricing for the winter months are factoring in a much bleaker outlook as well as possible gas supply issues throughout Europe.

I expect that this winter we will see coal play a crucial part in providing energy security, Matson said.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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The United States is not currently considering a ban or restrictions on oil products exports, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Friday.

With WTI falling below $80 per barrel earlier on Friday morning, the pressure for such moves is cooling, even as product inventories in the United States continue to fall.

Total motor gasoline inventories in the United States fell another 1.6 million barrels during the week ending September 16, and now sit 5% below the five-year average this time of year. Distillate inventorieswhich include diesel fuelrose during the week, but are 18% below the five-year average.

Gasoline prices have trended down in recent months, although the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline rose on Friday to $3.689, according to AAA, up from $3.684 on Thursday.

Last month, the Energy Secretary warned U.S. refiners that if they failed to build inventories of crude oil products, the government would be forced to employ emergency measures or additional federal requirements to address fuel exports, with gasoline and distillate inventories at low levels in the Northeast region. Meanwhile, U.S. refined products exports were exceptionally high.

Those emergency actions could be avoided, Granholm explained, by prioritizing a buildup of refined product inventoriessomething that only could be achieved by refiners self-regulating how much product is supplied to buyers outside the United States.

Since that time, total gasoline inventories in the United States have actually fallen by 1 million barrels. Distillate inventories, on the other hand, have risen by 5.7 million barrels, according to an Oilprice analysis of EIA Weekly Petroleum Status inventory data.

Despite gasoline inventories falling, Granholm said there were no current plans to employ those emergency measures.

Restrictions are not being considered at this time, Granholm said.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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Earlier this week, the UK government lifted the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in England, removing what seems the biggest obstacle to greater energy security. According to geologists, however, this is not the case.

Shortly after the news broke, geologists reacted by saying that the kind of shale rock in England was not the same as the shale rock in the United States and that getting oil and gas out of these formations would be a challenging task.

Liz Truss hopes to frack us out of the energy crisis by drilling thousands of wells to produce shale gas, said Professor John Gluyas from Durham University, as quoted by PA Media. It wont work  societal objections aside, we have the wrong kind of shale and geology which is far too complex.

Another geologist, Professor Stuart Haszeldine from Edinburgh University went further, saying there may not even be any gas to extract from shale formations in England.

We are massively late by 280 million years, he said, explaining that most of the gas had already escaped through cracks and faults in the shale formation.

There have been only two shale wells drilled in the UK but an exploration company, Cuadrilla, and both were plugged when the moratorium on fracking came into effect in 2019.

Cuadrilla has understandably welcomed the news of the moratoriums removal and sought to immediately quench any concern among people living in the vicinity of shale formations.

Communities across the North of England stand to benefit most from todays announcement. Cuadrilla is determined that a portion of all shale gas revenue should be delivered to local residents as a community dividend, chief executive Francis Egan said.

Opposition against fracking remains strong in the UK, however, including in parliament and in the ruling Conservative party. The removal of the moratorium caused a backlash and doubts the shale industry is economically viable in the UK.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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Two minutes of silence will be observed Monday across the United Kingdom at the end of Queen Elizabeth IIs state funeral at Westminster Abbey. That's to give the British public a chance to pay their respects to the late monarch. Buckingham Palace released details Thursday of the state funeral and a ceremony at St. Georges Chapel in Windsor ahead of her private interment later Monday. After the state funeral, which will be attended by 2,000 guests including U.S. President Joe Biden, the late queens coffin will be transported through the historic heart of London on a horse-drawn gun carriage before being driven to Windsor, where the queen will be interred alongside her late husband, Prince Philip.
DETROIT (AP)  Some Hyundai and Kia cars and SUVs are missing a "key" anti-theft device, and thieves know.

An insurance industry group says these cars are stolen at nearly twice the rate of the rest of the auto industry because their keys lack computer chips for theft "immobilizer" systems.

The thefts apparently started in the Milwaukee area two years ago and spread to multiple Midwest cities and as far away as Colorado and New Mexico after instructional videos appeared on social media.

The Highway Loss Data Institute, a unit of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, found that Hyundais and Kias without immobilizers had a vehicle theft claim rate of 2.18 per 1,000 insured vehicle years. The rest of the industry combined had a rate of 1.21. An insured vehicle year is equal to one vehicle insured for one year.

The institute, which issued its findings on Thursday, compared vehicles from the 2015 through 2019 model years. It studied vehicle theft claims from 2021.

Chip keys, which started to show up in the 1990s, communicate with another chip in the ignition switch. If they match, the engines will start. If they don't match, a thief can't start the engine.

Keys don't have an immobilizer system in several lower-priced versions of vehicles from the two South Korean automakers such as the Kia Rio and Sportage and the Hyundai Accent, the institute said.

"Our earlier studies show that vehicle theft losses plunged after immobilizers were introduced," said Matt Moore, senior vice president of the institute. "Unfortunately, Hyundai and Kia have lagged behind other automakers in making them standard equipment."

In the 2015 model year, immobilizers were standard on 96% of other manufacturers' models, the institute said. But they were standard on only 26% of Hyundai and Kia models. The carmakers haven't explained their decision to not include immobilizers on some models.

Videos show thieves prying the ignition cover off the Hyundai and Kia vehicles, then using a screwdriver or USB cable to start them and drive away.

Last year in Milwaukee, 66% of the 10,476 stolen vehicles were Hyundais or Kias, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper. The number of thefts has slowed in the city so far this year. Through Sept. 12, 6,048 vehicles were taken, but 58% of them were Hyundais or Kias, Milwaukee police said Thursday.

One 17-year-old theft suspect in a viral video about Kia thefts was arrested after police used the video and an anonymous tip to track him down, the Journal Sentinel reported. He could face up to 22 years in prison.

Hyundai and Kia both conceded in statements that thieves are stealing some of their vehicles and said they meet federal safety standards. "It is unfortunate that criminals are using social media to target vehicles without engine immobilizers in a coordinated effort," Kia said.

All 2022 Kias got immobilizers either at the start of or during the model year. Hyundai said all models produced after Nov. 1, 2021 have immobilizers as standard equipment.

Kia says it's working to provide steering wheel locks at no cost to authorities in affected areas to deter thefts. Hyundai said it's also providing the locks to police, and that in October, it will start selling a security kit that targets the thieves' methods.

The institute's Moore said the vulnerable Hyundais and Kias rank among the 20 most popular vehicles with thieves, a distinction normally reserved for high-powered or expensive vehicles, or pickup trucks. The Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat had the highest rate of theft claims.

Many of the vulnerable Hyundais and Kias are often bought by lower-income people. "These are relatively inexpensive vehicles when purchased new," Moore said. Owners of some of the models may have dropped comprehensive insurance to save money, and may have had to replace the cars on their own, he said.

To help prevent theft, owners should roll up windows, lock doors and take the key or fob with them, the National Insurance Crime Bureau says. They should park in well-lighted areas or a garage. If they have to park outdoors, owners should consider installing motion-sensor lights.
The U.S. Treasury Department announced Tuesday that it has approved $87.7 million for Nebraska to increase access to affordable broadband internet to an estimated 21,000 homes and businesses.

The funds come from a $10 billion pool allocated by the American Rescue Plans Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund.

Nebraska was one of five states, including Indiana, Connecticut, North Dakota and Arkansas, added Tuesday to the fund to increase affordable broadband internet access. More than 90,000 homes and businesses in those states now will be eligible to be connected to affordable high-speed internet.

The money will be distributed through the Nebraska Broadband Bridge Program. However, the money wont be distributed right away, according to the Nebraska Public Service Commission, because the program is in the midst of a $20 million grant cycle using funds from the state.

The commission, which is working with the Nebraska Department of Economic Development to administer the federal money, said an application window for those funds will open later.

The distribution of the money will follow conditions set by Legislative Bill 1024, which passed during this years legislative session. The commission said $40 million each is designated for the states 1st and 3rd congressional districts.

This new funding along with what is currently in place will make a big impact on helping to provide broadband to the unserved and underserved areas of our state, Commission Chair Dan Watermeier said in an email.

Nebraska State Sen. Curt Friesen, chair of the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee, said the Legislature had expected to get the money and had considered it when setting up a $128 million fund meant to support broadband internet service throughout the state. The $87.7 million accounts for about 68% of that total.

As outlined by the program, affordable broadband constitutes speeds of 100 megabits download and upload. Each of the internet service providers that are funded by the broadband bridge program participates in the Federal Communications Commissions Affordable Connectivity Program.

Under the FCC program, households that are at or below 200% of federal poverty guidelines can qualify for high-speed internet at $30 per month via a federal subsidy. A household also can qualify for that subsidy if a member of the household qualifies for some variety of assistance programs.

Friesen said the program will help connect rural areas of Nebraska.

I think the need for broadband across the state is apparent, he said. Its a tremendously expensive project to get done in the rural areas, where you maybe have one or two customers per mile.

I think its appropriate, if were going to have economic development in the state, Friesen said, that we try to get broadband out to as many citizens of the state as we can.

A spokesman for Gov. Pete Ricketts said Nebraskas plan should help connect more than 20,000 homes and businesses with fast and reliable internet service.

Its encouraging to see the federal government approve the States proposal to use these funds to expand broadband access in Nebraska, spokesman Justin Pinkerman said in an email.

Bryan Slone, president of the Nebraska State Chamber of Commerce & Industry, said his group has advocated for broadband expansion to recruit and retain Nebraska workers.

Ultimately, its going to be done by the private sector, Slone said. But what this government support does is it just hastens and moves things a lot faster, which is really critical for us.
Roughly 200 people filled an Omaha conference center Thursday to take in and pitch ideas for $335 million worth of recovery dollars earmarked for underserved areas of the state.

It was the last of four public hearings held by a special legislative committee created to identify projects for the funding. Through all four hearings, 77 people testified with ideas, according to legislative staffer Trevor Fitzgerald, including 30 on Thursday.

None of the testimony counted as an official proposal, however. State Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha, the leading lawmaker on the project, said all ideas must be submitted on the projects website, omahaeconomicrecovery.com, for them to be considered.

Among the ideas pitched Thursday: expanding a Malcolm X memorial, a 56-bed youth shelter, multiple health care centers and expanding several Creighton University programs.

Those who testified ranged from vice provosts and CEOs to everyday residents. Outside the main conference center, Wayne said the committee invited multiple architects and engineers with whom attendees could work to hash out project details.

We dont want to turn down any ideas, Wayne said.

One of the most common proposals pitched Thursday was affordable housing, with at least four people testifying in favor of specific developments.

Housing is desperately needed all over the state, one attendee said.

About $20 million of the $335 million is already devoted to an affordable housing project in Omaha, along with $60 million for an industrial park near Eppley Airfield. However, Fitzgerald said that doesnt necessarily mean that additional affordable housing proposals will be considered a lower priority.

The special committee is working with engineering firm Olsson to vet all proposals for their generational impact, according to Wayne. Ideas can be submitted until Oct. 9, at which point Olsson will review all the proposals and submit recommendations to the committee by early December.

The committee will then use the recommendations to draft a bill to allocate the money for the selected projects during the Nebraska Legislatures next session, which begins in January.

The first step of this project, Legislative Bill 1024, dubbed the Economic Recovery Act, was signed into law this year. It set aside the funding to help historically underserved areas in North and South Omaha, along with some other low-income communities in Lincoln and rural Nebraska.

Of the $335 million allocated for LB 1024, about $250 million comes from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. Most of the remaining money comes from Nebraskas general fund, cash reserve and a coronavirus capital projects fund.
LINCOLN  Nebraska officials announced Friday that they have chosen three health plans to manage the bulk of the states $1.8 billion Medicaid program.

The three are Molina Healthcare of Nebraska, Nebraska Total Care and United HealthCare of the Midlands. Two, Nebraska Total Care and United HealthCare, have current contracts with the state. Molina Healthcare is new to Nebraska but provides Medicaid, Medicare and Affordable Care Act marketplace plans in several other states.

Were excited to work with these three health plans to ensure Medicaid members in Nebraska continue to receive the health care that they need, said Dannette R. Smith, CEO of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

HHS plans to contract with the three companies to manage physical and behavioral health care, pharmacy services and dental benefits for almost all Medicaid patients in a program called Heritage Health. Together, they will oversee the care of some 347,000 Nebraskans.

The winning bidders were selected from among five contenders. Not chosen were Community Care Plan of Nebraska, doing business as Healthy Blue, which currently contracts with the state, and Medica Community Health Plan, which currently offers health coverage to Nebraskans through the ACA marketplace.

It remains to be seen whether either of the losing bidders will appeal the states decision, as occurred when the current contracts were awarded.

State lawmakers have criticized Nebraskas procurement process after at least three cases in which the process led to the selection of a low-cost bidder that ended up failing to do the job.

State Medicaid Director Kevin Bagley said he was extremely pleased with all five bids. He said they were scored based on quality, appropriateness and thoroughness, and officials did an optional interview with each bidder to find out more about their plans and priorities.

Bagley said key issues during the interviews included incorporating dental services within the health plans, actively using voluntary care and case management to improve members lives, standardizing certain requirements for providers, providing innovations to add value to members health care experiences and improving access to providers across Nebraska.

The new contracts are slated to start Jan. 1, 2024, six months later than previously planned. Bagley said officials will be working with the three plans during that time to provide for an orderly transition from the current contracts.

In addition, he said, Medicaid officials will be meeting with people across Nebraska, both in person and online, to talk about the changes, answer questions and adjust plans as needed. A listening tour will be held in mid- to late October, with more details to come.

The current Heritage Health contracts date to 2017, when the state signed with three private companies to administer what was then $1.2 billion worth of Medicaid services. Since then, two of the original three companies merged, which led to the state signing a contract with Healthy Blue.

Heritage Health does not cover nursing home care and other long-term support and services for the elderly and people with disabilities.
Botswanan President Mokgweetsi Masisi speaks during the General Debate of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, on Sept. 22, 2022. TO GO WITH "Botswanan president says to diversify economy, reduce reliance on diamonds" (Cia Pak/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Botswana should diversify its economy to reduce its heavy dependence on diamonds, President Mokgweetsi Masisi on Thursday told world leaders attending the general debate of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

Botswana is facing "an uphill battle" to attract investors to diversify its economy away from dependence on diamonds, the president said, while pointing out the resource is still the "bedrock" of its economy.

When Botswana achieved independence 56 years ago, it was among the world's poorest countries, but now it is an upper-middle-income country, Masisi noted, adding it was fortunate to discover "what has turned out to be the largest diamond reserve across the Kimberley Belt."

The president stressed that Botswana's recovery plan includes strengthening its protection system to ensure the inclusion of vulnerable groups and persons living with disabilities.

As adequate financing is needed to achieve sustainable development, an effective mobilization of domestic and international financial resources, as well as their prudent use, are imperative, he said.

The president voiced support for the call of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a world in which "power, wealth and opportunity are shared more broadly and fairly" at the international level, saying Botswana aims to further broaden conversations with partners including the United Nations, governments, civil society and the private sector as it endeavors to realize the 2030 Agenda.

On COVID-19 vaccination, the president said that many countries in the Global South, especially in Africa, did not meet the World Health Organization's 70 percent vaccination rate by mid-2022, stressing the urgent need for vaccine equity. 
Nebraska Commissioner of Education Matt Blomstedt announced Friday his intent to resign Jan. 3 after nine years leading the Nebraska Department of Education.

Blomstedt, 50, said he intends to take a job at a consulting firm next year.

Im excited for the opportunity, and a little sad to be leaving what Im doing, too, he said.

He headed the department during unprecedented times, as it responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and to an uprising of parents concerned over whats being taught in public schools.

I cant deny its been rough the last couple of years, Blomstedt said Friday.

But he added, I wouldnt trade any of that stuff, good, bad or otherwise. Im super grateful for being in that role, even in the tough times.

In a letter to state board members, Blomstedt said that in the meantime he will stay on and offer my complete dedication to making this transition successful.

He wrote that he was proud of his service to the state and most proud of the opportunity to work with so many dedicated board members, staff and partners in this work over the years.

We have sought, he wrote, to change the very nature of the work of the agency from compliance to support and to modernize functions of the agency.

He did not reveal the firm to which he will go, but he said it would give him an opportunity to work on education policy.

Commissioner Blomstedt has been a champion for all students and families, and a great leader of the Department of Education, said State Board President Patricia Koch-Johns. During his tenure, our state has become a national leader in education, and he inspired us to work in the best interest of all Nebraskans. We wish him well and thank him for his service.

In the early days of the pandemic, Blomstedt surprised many people when he predicted that the coming 2020-21 school year would not be normal  a prediction that proved right. He frequently joined Gov. Pete Ricketts in briefing the public on the states response to the pandemic, elevating the profile of what had been a more behind-the-scenes position.

The department fell under intense public criticism in March 2021 after it released proposed voluntary health education standards that were eventually shelved.

It also has not escaped flak in the nationwide debate over critical race theory and over the boards embrace of equity, a term some conservatives have described as trojan horse full of harmful ideas for kids.

Ricketts last year called for removal of the 1619 Project and another curriculum resource, the Zinn Education Project, from a list of educational resources posted on the Nebraska Department of Educations website.

The department subsequently was targeted by a petition drive aimed at eliminating the state education board and making the department accountable to the governor. It fell short of enough signatures.

Blomstedt said the criticism has been loud, but a lot of people have appreciated all the work that takes place in the department.

He said the politics havent bothered him the way people might think. The politics distracted from the things that he felt education should be addressing, he said.

For example, he had hoped before the pandemic to put emphasis on helping kids with the highest needs, such as those who are incarcerated.

He said he has always believed that there are no silver bullets to improve education and that improvement comes through systemic changes.

The basic blocking and tackling of education shouldnt be controversial or offensive to anyone, he said.

He said he counts among his accomplishments the creation of a school accountability system as the country transitioned from the federal No Child Left Behind law to the Every Student Succeeds Act.

His job was to build the system.

I can be really pleased with that and still not have a ton of fans, he said. Schools dont historically love accountability.

But he said accountability is important to get the sense of how were doing and measuring up and, if used properly, can help improve educational outcomes.

While the pandemic was raging, he also oversaw securing a new building for the Lincoln offices of the department.

He said he has tried to shape the department to provide a full system of supports for education instead of an array of disjointed federal programs, he said.

Looking back, he said it would have been better to defer creation of health standards until after the pandemic. He said the department kind of got fixated on sticking to timelines.

It could have been better for him and the department to wait until things settled down, he said.

I still believe we need health standards, whether we call them health standards or something else, it just doesnt make sense to leave that hole there, he said.

I dont know that theres a need for the state board to adopt all of the content area standards other than the required ones, he said. But I do believe theres a need to provide lowercase standards for all those content areas.

Correction: This story has been corrected to note Blomstedt is resigning.
A seemingly simple act in Nebraska  sending aloft weather balloons  is part of a broader, ramped-up effort to learn more about a potentially devastating hurricane that could strike the U.S. next week.

Starting Saturday, National Weather Service offices in Valley and North Platte are sending up extra weather balloons to gather data on the atmosphere.

Weather balloons are a twice-daily practice at weather service offices, but for this potential hurricane theyll be going up four times a day, according to Brian Barjenbruch and Nathan Jurgensen, meteorologists at Valley and North Platte respectively.

Every little bit of information helps, Barjenbruch said. This will provide a snapshot of the atmosphere.

Weather-sensing equipment on the balloons track the temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction and air pressure as they climb.

Joel Cline, tropical weather coordinator for the National Weather Service, said the information will be useful because upper level systems moving across the central U.S. over the next several days will play a role in the path and intensity of the storm.

National Weather Service offices from the Dakotas to Texas and eastward are assisting in the ramped-up effort by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its various agencies.

Tropical Depression/Storm Nine, which was in the Caribbean on Friday, is forecast to develop into Hurricane Ian by early next week, according to the National Hurricane Center. Its current projected path would take it across Cuba and into Florida by the middle of the week.

To aid preparations, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency Friday for parts of his state.

Cline said atmospheric information gathered across states like Nebraska could help forecasters narrow the likely path of the storm by a couple of hundred miles.

Sensors on weather balloons send data back to the weather service nearly every second as they climb as high as 100,000 feet, Barjenbruch said. At a certain point, the balloons burst, a parachute deploys and the sensors drift back to Earth. They carry identifying equipment so that they can be returned to the weather service.

The information will be fed into NOAAs supercomputers, which take billions of bits of data and run an analysis at a speed of several quadrillion calculations a second. That level of supercomputing is necessary to understand the complexity of the atmosphere.

Cline said the weather models generated by the computers are so complex they can only be run four times a day. With the doubling of the frequency of the weather balloons, now each model run will have fresh data, he said.

While these kinds of extra weather balloons are routine for hurricane forecasting, sending them up from Nebraska happens less frequently, perhaps once a year or once every couple of years, forecasters say. It just depends upon the path of the jet stream and weather systems expected to influence the tropical storm.
UNITED NATIONS  The United States urged other nations to tell Russia to stop making nuclear threats and end the horror of its war in Ukraine as all three countries top diplomats spoke  but didnt quite meet  at a high-profile U.N. Security Council meeting Thursday.

Held alongside the annual U.N. General Assembly gathering of world leaders, the session followed a striking development in the war this week: Russia called up a portion of its reserves for the first time since World War II. At the same time, President Vladimir Putin said his nuclear-armed country would use all means available to us to defend itself if its territory is threatened.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken saw Putins remark as particularly menacing given plans for referendums in Russian-controlled parts of eastern and southern Ukraine on whether to become part of Russia.

Western nations have condemned those votes as illegitimate and nonbinding. But, in their wake, Moscow might see any Ukrainian attempt to retake those areas as an attack on Russian territory, Blinken warned.

Every council member should send a clear message that these reckless nuclear threats must stop immediately, he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov didnt mention his countrys nuclear capacity or the new troop mobilization during his own remarks at the council meeting, which France called to discuss accountability for alleged abuses and atrocities during the nearly seven-month-long war.

Instead, Lavrov repeated his countrys frequent claims that Kyiv has long oppressed Russian speakers in Ukraines east  one of the explanations Moscow has offered for the invasion  and that Western support for Ukraine is a menace to Russia.

Whats particularly cynical is the position of states that are pumping Ukraine full of weapons and training their soldiers, he said, maintaining that their goal is to prolong fighting to wear down and weaken Russia.

That policy means the direct involvement of the West in the conflict, said Lavrov. He added that Ukraine had become an anti-Russia staging ground to create threats against Russian security and his country wouldnt accept it.

The Security Council has held dozens of contentious meetings on Ukraine since the war began in February, but Thursdays session had special stature.

That President Putin picked this week, as most of the world gathers at the United Nations, to add fuel to the fire he started shows his utter contempt and disdain for the U.N. Charter, the U.N. General Assembly and this council, Blinken told foreign ministers around the groups famous horseshoe-shaped table.

Tell President Putin to stop the horror he started. Tell him to stop putting his interests above the interests of the rest of the world, including his own people, Blinken added.

Regardless, no one expects the council to act against Russia, since Moscow has veto power as a permanent member.

But the meeting was still a rare moment for top diplomats from Ukraine and Russia to appear in the same room  made all the more extraordinary for the fact that Lavrov is under U.S. sanctions.

In a sign of the charged atmosphere, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba apparently objected as council staffers prepared to put a placard marking Ukraines seat next to Russias. The placard was ultimately moved to another spot.

Ahead of the meeting, Kuleba wryly told reporters that he planned to keep a social distance from Lavrov. But it turned out he didnt have to: The Russian appeared only just before speaking and left right after, prompting Kuleba to quip later in his own speech that Russian diplomats flee almost as quickly as Russian soldiers.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said he thought Lavrov didnt care to hear the collective condemnation of this council.

And in an interview with the Associated Press, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre called Lavrovs decision not to hear other speakers in person a sign of insecurity.

Blinken argued that Russia should face further censure and isolation for its invasion, pressing other countries to join in Washingtons forceful condemnations of the conflict. He cited the discovery of mass graves in Ukraine and repeated allegations from Ukrainians that they were tortured by Russian soldiers.

The International Criminal Court opened an investigation in March into possible crimes amid the war and sent teams to gather evidence. Prosecutor Karim Khan told the council Thursday that hes dispatching more ICC staffers next week to look into allegations emerging from eastern Ukraine.

Khan hasnt yet announced any charges linked to the conflict, but he reiterated that he believes there are reasonable grounds to think that crimes have been committed.

The picture that Ive seen so far is troubling indeed, he said.

The meeting came less than a week after Ukraines Zelenskyy announced the discovery of a mass burial site near a northeastern city, Izium, that had recently been recaptured from Russian forces. Zelenskyy said investigators found evidence that some of the dead were tortured.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told the council that the discovery prompted her country to send more investigators to join others who have been in Ukraine since hundreds of civilians were found dead in another city, Bucha, after a Russian withdrawal in late March.

There are so many violations of the laws of war and so many actions for which Russia must be held accountable, she said.

Other council members also called for accountability, but in varying tones.

Investigations into violations of international humanitarian law should be objective and fair, based on fair facts, rather than an assumption of guilt, and without being politicized, said Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China, which has maintained strong ties with Russia.
BLOOMINGTON  City workers on Friday removed a chalk display of rainbow hearts that had been created to celebrate PRIDE Fest in downtown Bloomington, sparking criticism from some who said it should have been left to rinse away over time.

Jan Lancaster, owner of The Bistro at 316 N. Main, installed the hearts in front of her business for the annual festival held Aug. 13. Though the paint is made to fade naturally, the vibrant hearts remained visible on the street as of Thursday afternoon.

In a Facebook post Tuesday, Lancaster wrote that a city official had previously given her permission to paint the hearts on the street, but she was since ordered to remove them and warned that failure to do so would jeopardize future PRIDE events.

"This makes me very sad; for me it represents a beautiful message of LOVE and only enhances Downtown," she said.

Dozens of people commented and shared the post, with some saying they had reached out to city officials to voice their displeasure with the removal.

Katherine Murphy, communications manager for the city of Bloomington, said the removal of the hearts had nothing to do with the art itself and everything to do with a special use permit issued for the event.

"The permit for the August 13th event stated any markings need to be made while the street is closed at the start of the event and it requires the artwork be removed, while the road is closed, at the end of the event, prior to the street reopening," she said in a statement on the city's behalf. "It would apply to anyone who has a special use permit for an event. If a business four blocks over had markings out for the occasion  the rules would also apply to it. We were happy we were able to work with Ms. Lancaster and The Bistro to get the situation taken care of."

Lancaster had initially sought help with removing the display, but it was washed away Friday morning by workers operating a City of Bloomington truck.

In a follow-up post on Friday, Lancaster thanked the community for their support and said the confusion was a miscommunication.

"To say the least," Lancaster posted, "the last few days (sic) events have snowballed  that certainly was not my intention."

She said, "This is a lesson we all need to learn: better communication."

In the post, Lancaster thanked the city for supporting PRIDE.

Editor's note: Calls to City Manager Tim Gleason and Deputy City Manager Billy Tyus were returned by the city's communications manager. This story has been corrected to include the city's response.
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BLOOMINGTON  A new partnership is training people with lived experiences with substance use and mental health disorders to help others in their recovery.

Heartland Community College is working with the McLean County Center for Human Services (The Center) to provide internships for students in the colleges recovery support specialist program. Recovery support specialist certification is for people who have been through their own challenges with substance use and mental health, and aims to further prepare them to help others.

Cecilia Johnson is one of the students doing an internship right now.

Johnson learned about the Heartland program after returning to Bloomington-Normal from a recovery program in northern Illinois. One person she knew up there shared about being a recovery support specialist.

I heard a class was forming at Heartland and I said, Wow, that was like God aligning things, she said.

Sonja Workman is the developer and project manager of the Learning Lab at The Center, which runs the internship program. The program is guided by the principles laid out by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, she said.

The Center believes that the Learning Lab offers tangible hope, Workman said.

Students can do the academic classes in a single semester, and upon completion, can receive certification as recovery support specialists, said Heartlands Interim Dean of Health Science Kelly Pyle.

The school received a $710,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Human Services to provide funding for students, including for tuition, fees, books and certification costs, a January press release from the college said.

Workmans role includes coordinating with other agencies for placements, meeting with students and teaching courses, along with The Centers Chief Executive Officer Joan Hartman.

Right now, at least four other agencies have agreed to host interns, and Workman anticipates that will grow further, ideally to around 10 organizations, which will let students cater their experience to specific fields of behavioral health.

The classes teach future recovery support specialists the professional side of the role alongside their own experiences, Workman said. The classes include practice scenarios and academics.

Theyre trained and prepared as they enter their practicum, Workman said.

Having people with varied backgrounds and experiences with recovery is central to the value of recovery support specialists, Pyle said.

Recovery happens in lots of different ways, she said. () There is not a right or wrong way.

As a person in recovery herself, Johnson feels that recovery support specialists can do things, like go to meetings, that other professionals cannot do with their clients, while also maintaining that client relationship. She still attends Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and said it took decades for recovery to work for her. Even now, it is never easy.

To know whats healthy for me, its a struggle every day, she said.

Health is a big part of recovery, even beyond abstinence from substances, she said. It can include actions like looking to fruit and other healthy foods to replace alcohol or narcotics.

Being part of the certification program has helped Johnson with her own recovery, she said. She has learned about the work recovery professionals do and has found support in being around people going through similar experiences who also want to help others.

I never got going into the class, how far the class would help me to go, she said.

She had wanted to help others in recovery before, but did not think she had the educational background to pursue that goal. The Heartland program has given her that opportunity, she said.

The students are trying to spread word about the the class by talking about it in the recovery community, Johnson said.

Johnson said she sees incredible potential for the program and for increased numbers of recovery support specialists. Workman and Pyle said that is the goal of the program.

This class is going to revolutionize the way treatment centers are going to treat clients now, Johnson said. ()I think the success rate of these recovery programs is going to flourish.
WAUKEGAN  A former suburban Chicago police officer who was fired after he shot into a car two years ago, killing a Black man and seriously wounding the man's girlfriend, has been charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, authorities announced on Thursday.

In a news release, the Lake County State's Attorney's office said it had unsealed grand jury indictments against former Waukegan police Officer Dante Salinas in the Oct. 20, 2020, shooting that killed a 19-year-old local man, Marcellis Stinnette, and wounded his girlfriend, Tafara Williams, according to the Lake County State's Attorney's office. Salinas also was indicted on felony counts of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm and official misconduct.

On the night of the shooting, another Waukegan officer stopped the couple's car and was questioning them when Williams suddenly drove off, according to investigators. The officer pursued them and Salinas responded to his call for help and joined the chase.

Williams drove off a roadway and crashed, then put her car in reverse in an attempt to leave the area, the Lake County State's Attorney's office said in a news release Thursday.

Salinas had climbed out of his squad car and was not in the path of Williams' car but he "fired several shots into the driver's side of the vehicle as it continued to reverse past him," according to the news release.

Williams was wounded and Stinnette, who prosecutors said had committed no crime, was killed.

An expert analyzing the trajectory of the bullets was able to determine the location of Salinas and the trajectory of his bullets, Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart said in the statement.

Salinas surrendered to authorities on Thursday and a judge ordered that he be held on $350,000 bond, prosecutors said. Second-degree murder carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and manslaughter carries a maximum term of five years. If Salinas is convicted of both charges, the sentences would run concurrently.

Douglas Zeit, an attorney who represented Salinas in court on Thursday, declined to comment when reached by phone.

Williams has been charged with aggravated fleeing. She turned herself in to authorities as well and a judge ordered that she be released on a $50,000 recognizance bond.
JOLIET  More than two dozen people have been charged in Illinois with fraudulently obtaining pandemic relief money, with authorities alleging that some of them were behind bars when they used their relief money to post bond and free themselves from jail.

Joliet Police Chief William Evans said Wednesday that 25 people were part of the alleged fraud scheme to get Paycheck Protection Program checks while not operating actual businesses.

Fifteen of the defendants had been arrested by Wednesday, and arrest warrants were pending for 10 other people. They all face charges including wire fraud, theft and loan fraud, officials said.

Evans said each fraudulently obtained loan was for between $19,000 and $20,000, with the fraud costing taxpayers upwards of $500,000.

Investigators found that some of the defendants were inmates at the Will County Jail in Joliet, a Chicago suburb, when they applied for and received loans through the pandemic program, and then used the money to bond out of jail on their felony cases.

Evans said some of the defendants were in custody and used jail phones "to complete the fraudulent PPP loan process."

"Some of the targets bonded out on their felony cases days after receiving their fraudulent PPP loan," he said Wednesday at a news conference.

Joliet Police Detective James Kilgore said investigators obtained bank records, and it "appeared that some of these individuals did, in fact, use this money to bond out on a felony case."

A message was left Thursday with Joliet police by The Associated Press seeking additional information on the allegations.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Labor's Inspector General Office and the Will County State's Attorney's office also took part in the investigation.

Emergency loans made to small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic were added last year to a list of government programs considered at high risk of waste, fraud or mismanagement.

In August, the U.S. Secret Service said it had recovered $286 million in fraudulently obtained pandemic loans and was returning the money to the Small Business Administration.

"This is like the pandemic. It's absolutely everywhere as well," Homeland Security Special Agent in Charge Sean Fitzgerald said at Wednesday's news conference in Joliet.
Education Minister Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum has urged African countries to seriously consider their current educational curricula.



Speaking at an event on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the minister indicated that the current education curricula of Ghana and other African countries does not engender critical thinking among students in order to put them in the position to find solutions to the many challenges in the continent.



According to him, the current educational system at best, forces students to learn for examination purposes where the students forget all the things they have learnt afterwards.



I go to schools upon schools and I speak with the students and when I finish, I ask them, I will say do you have any questions for me? No hand goes up. A hand is yet to go up in all my counters in Ghanaian classrooms.



We have tamed the children. We just want them to write down what we tell them at the day of exams, they should put down what we have told them and we say youre the best student the country has ever known.



That kind of education system will not transform Ghana. That kind of education system is not going to give us critical thinking individually, especially since we are in the 21st century and education 4.0 and the industrial revolution, he said.



He added that You cant memorise your way out of poverty but you can critically think and innovate out of poverty. So, Ghanaian schools, African Schools must begin to take a look at what I call an assertive curriculum. A curriculum that empowers the African child to ask questions and challenge the status quo respectfully within the African culture contest.







Source: ghanaweb.com









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Charles Owusu has called on Ghanaians, especially the youth, to stop seeking quick ways to enrich themselves.



The former Head of the Monitoring Unit at the Forestry Commission was alarmed by recent news of the murder of a 25-year-old trainee nurse at Mankessim in the Central Region.



Two suspects have been arrested in connection with the murder



According to a Police statement, the two - a self-styled Pastor, Michael Darko alias Nana 1, and Christopher Ekow Clark, Tufuhene (Chief) of Akwakrom - confessed to murdering the victim for money rituals.



During Police interrogation, suspect Michael Darko, who is the alleged boyfriend of the senior sister of the deceased victim and was last seen with her, led police to the location where they had buried her after the murder.



The body has since been exhumed and deposited at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital morgue for preservation and autopsy.



The two accused persons were today, 22nd September 2022 arraigned at the District Court II in Cape Coast and have been remanded to reappear before the court on October 4, 2022.



Speaking on "Kokrokoo" programme on Peace FM, Charles Owusu wondered why people would kill to have money.



He charged the citizenry to know that it is good for one to be prosperous but this ambitious desire to be rich at all cost, thus resort to money rituals, is not the right way.



He asked the public to use appropriate means through hardwork to gain riches.



"Money cannot buy life. Let's be careful about our desires for quick riches", he stated.







Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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ABUJA, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in Nigeria's northeastern state of Gombe on Thursday declared an outbreak of cholera after recording at least 10 deaths arising from the disease.

A total of 236 cases of cholera were recorded as of Tuesday, Habu Dahiru, the commissioner for health in Gombe, told reporters in Gombe city, the state's capital, while declaring an outbreak of the disease in at least eight wards of the Balanga local government area.

Cholera is a highly virulent disease characterized in its most severe form by a sudden onset of acute watery diarrhea that can lead to death by severe dehydration.

According to Dahiru, the northern Gombe state had recorded sporadic cases of cholera in the Balanga area from June.

Amid efforts by the health authorities to largely subdue the outbreak, the official said Gombe has continued to experience an increased downpour of rain and flooding in many parts of the state and this has resulted in cholera outbreaks.

The state government has established 13 cholera units for treating the cases free of charge, he said, adding the decontamination of wells and boreholes in affected communities would also be carried out.

The cholera outbreak is frequently reported in Nigeria due to the lack of potable water supply, especially in densely populated areas. 
Dr Ishmael Yamson, Board Chairman, MTN Ghana, has expressed frustration over the countrys slow pace of development and blamed the situation on bad leadership, corruption, and greed.



In an interactive session with some young people in Accra today, Wednesday, September 21, 2022, he said the living conditions of people in the colonial era through to independence were better compared to today.



Dr Yamson, who is also a management consultant, recalled events in the colonial era, where he said his grandfather, a farmer, could sell a bag of cocoa for 13 shillings  and could use that money to fend for his 26 children, grandchildren and nephews.



Today all our farmers are poor, the eighty-year-old-man said, adding: If you take the life of an average Ghanaian today, it is much worse than what I experienced.



I have seen Ghana from colonial days up to today I saw King George VI reign before Queen Elizabeth II and before we had the independence agitations, and I can tell you that life for me under colonial rule and the transition to independence and Republican was better than life for me today, Dr Yamson said.



His encounter with the youth on Wednesday formed part of activities for the 2022 Inter-Generational Dialogue under the auspices of the Passionate Africa Leadership Institute (PALI).



Dr Yamson mentioned greed and corruption as the two major issues undermining the progress of the nation.



He said the country would not develop until we find a government that says I want to leave a legacy free of corruption and greed.



He urged all persons occupying leadership positions in the country to build on what was bequeathed to them and work to make the lives of the people better.



My frustration has been our leaders have not demonstrated enough vision, integrity in the way theyve managed this country. Our leaders have not just performed what they promised they have to do, Dr Yamson said.



Ghana is not that we dont have people with good minds, goodwill. Our problem is that when it comes to executing those plans we are corrupt, greedy and those things will never allow us to develop, he added.



Dr Yamson also expressed concern over the inability of businesses to grow and expand their operations after the demise of their founders.



He observed that many businesses were operated under the dictates of their founder without structures and proper succession plans.



One of our biggest tragedies is that many of our entrepreneurs die with their businesses the business is run in the head of the founder so when he dies, the business disappears, Dr Yamson said.



He urged the youth to rise up, abstain from corruption and greed and vote for a leader who would make their lives better.



Mr Frank Paa Kumi, Convener for PALI, said the Dialogue formed part of initiatives intended to connect young people with distinguished personalities to share their experiences with them.



He said it was the expectation of the Organisation that many young people would be impacted positively to help raise an army of young people who would contribute positively to the development of the nation.





Source: GNA









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The mother of the murdered lady who went for a nursing training interview at Ankaful in the Central Region, Maame Akua Anowa, has narrated how her daughter, 22-year-old Asor, was murdered.



22-year-old nurse trainee, Ms. Georgina Asor Botchwey, was killed and buried inside a traditional leaders kitchen at Mankessim.



The Mankessim Divisional police command in collaboration with the Central regional police command has arrested Nana Clark Onyaa, Ms Georgina Asor Botchwey, and buried her inside his kitchen at Mankessim.



The Tufuhene of Ekumfi Akwakrom, Nana Onyaa, was nowhere to be found after he had information that his accomplice, a pastor, had been arrested.



He was, however, arrested at his girlfriends house at Ekumfi Akwakrom Hilltop.



Maame Akua Anowa, who spoke to host of Atinka AM Drive Kaakyire Ofori Ayim narrated that her daughter left Yeji in the Bono East Region in Ghana for the Ankaful Nursing Training in the Central Region in pursuit of a nursing education.



She revealed that after days of not hearing from her daughter, she alerted her eldest son, who is a military officer based in Takoradi.



Maame Akua Anowa added that the family resorted to a Facebook post after all efforts to reach the deceased by phone proved futile.



She told Kaakyire Ofori Ayim that it took a guy from Yeji who was also at the interview to remind the family that Asor had informed him that her sisters boyfriend was picking her up after the interview.



Asor is a lively and bubbly person, and so when the guy saw the posts on Facebook announcing that Asor was missing, he called his mom to tell her that Asor had informed him that her sisters boyfriend was picking her up after the interview. That was when my son tracked the pastor and apprehended him at a drinking spot. He confessed on the spot, Maame Akua Anowa told Kaakyire Ofori Ayim.



She confirmed that Nana Onyaa and the pastor, who doubles as the boyfriend of the murdered students sister, first kidnapped the victim, raped her and demanded GHS15,000 as ransom from her family.



A statement from the police said the chief and the pastor killed the lady and buried her in the chiefs kitchen after the family failed to pay the amount.





Source: ghanaweb.com









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The US Ambassador to Ghana, Virginia Palmer, has expressed the commitment of the US Embassy to clear the backlog of visa applications from prospective Ghanaian students seeking to pursue studies in the US.

She said the embassy was currently working around the clock to get students visa interview appointments on time to enable successful ones to travel ahead of time.



Ms Palmer, therefore, encouraged prospective students desiring to undertake undergraduate, post-graduate and doctorate degree in the US not to be deterred by delayed appointment interviews in going ahead to apply to US universities.



Non-emigrant visas



Welcoming prospective students to the opening of the 2022 Education USA College Fair in Accra, Ms Palmer said I have, with permission, taken every officer with the Consulate and put them to work on the visa line.



The Consulate section has opened up lots of appointments for non-emigrant visas and I will encourage people that need to go to the United States to go ahead and apply for visas, she said.



Education fair



The two-day fair brought together about 40 high education institutions in the US to offer the students accurate, comprehensive, and current information about opportunities for students to study at accredited universities in the US.



Some of the participating universities are Howard University, Drexel University, Emory University School of Law, Millersville University, Iowa State University of Science and Technology and Middle Tennessee State University.



The rest are New York Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, Taxes Technology University, PACE University, Webster University, University of Houston-Victoria, University of Arizona and University of Kentucky.



Interview waiver



The US ambassador said given the concerns over visa application backlog, the embassy had instituted another programme, dubbed, Interview waiver programme to support people who already had expired visas to renew them without going back to the embassy.



You can just send visa application to us by mail and those renewals are very straightforward, she assured the public.



She also said the embassy had instituted a procedure by which prospective students could request for expedite visa appointments.



With about 4,200 students studying currently in 630 different educational institutions in the US in 2021 alone, Ms Palmer said Ghana was the second highest sender of students to the US.





Additionally, the ambassador indicated that Ghana was also among the top 25 countries globally that sent graduate students to the United States.



Consequently, she said, she had already encouraged Ghanaian students to go and study in the United States.



Bond



A Deputy Minister of Education, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, was happy that education had kept the bond between Ghana and the US together over the years.



He noted that the partnership with the US Embassy had been mutual, enabling Ghana to enjoy teaching and learning materials from the US Embassy.









Source: graphiconline.com









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Pollster Ben Ephson has advised former President John Dramani Mahama to desist from throwing his weight behind any candidate in the chairmanship race of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).



According to him, the former president risks having a hard time in his bid to lead the party in 2024 if his preferred candidate loses the vote.



Speaking on Metro TV on September 22, the Managing Editor of the Dispatch Newspaper said the NDC in it current state was suffering political bruises after losing both the 2016 and 2020 elections.



He posited that the party will need a chairman who brings confidence to the grassroots as well as a personality who is well respected in the party.



On the reported Chairmanship contest between incumbent Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo and current General Secretary Asiedu Nketia, he said both were almost at par in terms of longevity and credibility in the party.



He suggested that how the party treats the race will serve as a litmus test in determining how it will perform in the 2024 elections.



You will need to have a chairman who would be respected across board. You need to have a Chairman who inspires confidence in the grassroots and for the two of them, the nature of their positions, Asiedu Nketia has been General Secretary. He has worked at the various levels in the party.



He used to be a former Member of Parliament. The same with Ofosu Ampofo  former Member of Parliament, National Chairman. So these two come in with credibility and longevity in the partys history.



The partys performance in 2024 will depend on two main things. How whoever is the flagbearer conducts himself because if John Mahama is the flagbearer for example and he supports A and A does not win, you can be sure the relationship between Mahama and the person he doesnt support will not be cordial. I think that for the partys own future towards 2024, Mahama will have to be as neutral as possible, Ben Ephson said.



The Managing Editor of the Dispatch Newspaper added however that even if biases are going to be shown, it should done discreetly.



Even if you are going to support someone you have to do it discreetly because these are leading members with big stature in the party. So the partys unity and coherence towards 2024 will be how the flagbearer or how the party hierarchy is non-partisan in terms of these two leading members, he emphasized.



The NDC is expected to elect it national executives on December 17.







Source: ghanaweb.com









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A very popular youth group belonging to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Northern Region, BIG-6 has joined the camp of the trade and industries minister, Alan Kojo Kyeremanteng ahead of the partys flagbearership race.



In an interview on Radio Tamale evening political talkshow dubbed  Alan Dundongni last night, some members of the group made the announcement, disclosing that their chairman and one other member are not part of those joining the Alan camp.



They explained that out of a total of 43 members, one member is with the Agric Ministers camp, while the chairman who is their leader is with the Dr. Mahamadu Bawumias.



We have taken this decision to join Alan camp against the will of our chairman. We know he is not happy, but this is good for us. About 40 of our members are all poling station executives. And that makes us delegates, one the members, Alhassan Bawa said.



When asked why the Alan Kyeremanteng team and not any of the persons availing themselves for the position, another member, Choggu Zagban Naa answered, We have done our research and Alan is the right man to lead the NPP to break the 8. And again we have not been treated well as members of the ruling party.



Few weeks ago, Alhaji Abdul Mumin Salifu C.O.P. also declared his support for Mr. Alan, also describing him as the right man for the job.



Jack who was the firsr runner up in the last NPP regional executive elections in the Northern Region in a Facebook post yesterday assured the Alan Kyeremanteng that he shall avail himself to work for his interest 24/7.



I know that change only happens when ordinary NPP people get involved in your team and I have no regret meeting you. I will work with you hand in hand 24/7, Jack wrote on Facebook.





Source: Peacefmonline.com









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To mark his 45th birthday yesterday, September 19, gospel musician Nii Okai has released a new album Revealing Jesus.

The eight-track album was unveiled at a ceremony which took place at Alisa Hotel in Tema on Saturday, September 17.



Four of the songs namely Moko be (Praise), Breaking Seals ft MOG Music, Kron (Holy), Naano Lala had earlier been released and enjoying playing time.



Other songs on the album are Weep No More ft Eugene Zuta, Worthy is the Lamb, To Him Who Sits on the Throne and Reign Forever. The album was produced by KODA and also features the likes of Pastor Isaiah Fosu-Kwakye.



In an interview with Graphic Showbiz, Nii Okai said that the latest album marks a new beginning of his career.



This album marks a new beginning in my ministry as I look forward to what is to come. I have come to appreciate that Jesus has to be revealed through us. This album was started in 2020 during the lockdown, when the Lord in a single night gave several heavenly melodies put to varied scriptures from the book of Revelation, Nii Okai said.



The album launch was graced by media personnel such as Fiifi Folson, religious leaders, and notable figures like Dr. Zanetor Rawlings and Samuel Atta Mensah, General Manager of Citi FM. Frema Adunyame was the host for the night.



From the inception of Nii Okai Ministries (NOM) in 2003, the Mokobe hitmaker has grown his craft and making impact both in Ghana and beyond for the past 19 years.



He has earned a reputable image with his commitment to integrity, trustworthy approach to Ministry, charity projects such as Save a Heart foundation which has been a means to support the medical bills of people with heart conditions.



Next year marks his 20th anniversary and Nii Okai told Graphic Showbiz that he is gearing up for [email protected].









Source: Graphic Showbiz









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A popular beauty influencer has been threatened with a six-year jail sentence for using Instagram in Russia.



Veronika Loginova, 18, who runs a beauty and fashion account, has been accused of "extremist activity". According to the influencer, two state prosecutors called at her home claiming she "stands out too much".



In a post to her followers, the influencer said: "This can now happen to anyone in Russia.



"Any day prosecutors can come to your house. I never touched politics and now I face six years in jail for running an Instagram account." Beauty influencer, 18, facing six years in Russian jail because she Veronika was accused of "extremism" by "performing actions to attract users to social networks Facebook and Instagram".



She said: "I am going to get to the bottom of it and to cover it here. Thankfully, I have the support from people who understand that this is not normal.



"This is totally f****d up, and I want as many people as possible to know about this story. And while we dont speak about such things, I will still speak."





A Moscow court banned Instagram and Facebook in March during a crackdown on western social media giants.



Meta, the parent company which owns Facebook and Instagram, was classed as "extremist" in response to the companys relaxing of hate-speech towards Russian soldiers.



Russia has now created its own version of the app called Rossgram, after the ban left influencers in tears.













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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The impacts of air pollution on human health, economies, and agriculture differ drastically depending on where on the planet the pollutants are emitted, according to a new study that could potentially incentivize certain countries to cut climate-changing emissions.

Led by the University of Texas at Austin and the University of California San Diego, the study, which was published Sept. 23 in Science Advances, is the first to simulate how aerosol pollution affects both climate and air quality for locations around the globe.

Aerosols are tiny solid particles and liquid droplets that contribute to smog and are emitted from industrial factories, power plants and vehicle tailpipes. They impact human health, agricultural and economic productivity in unique global patterns when compared with carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions, which are the focus of efforts to mitigate climate change.

Although CO 2 and aerosols are often emitted at the same time during the combustion of fuel, the two substances behave differently in Earth's atmosphere, said co-lead author Geeta Persad, an assistant professor at the UT Austin Jackson School of Geosciences.

"Carbon dioxide has the same impact on climate no matter who emits it," said Persad. "But for these aerosol pollutants, they tend to stay concentrated near where they're emitted, so the effect that they have on the climate system is very patchy and very dependent on where they're coming from."

The researchers found that, depending on where they are emitted, aerosols can worsen the social costs of carbonan estimate of the economic costs greenhouse gasses have on societyby as much as 66%. The scientists looked at eight key regions: Brazil, China, East Africa, Western Europe, India, Indonesia, United States and South Africa.

"This research highlights how the harmful effects of our emissions are generally underestimated," said Jennifer Burney, co-lead author and the Marshall Saunders Chancellor's Endowed Chair in Global Climate Policy and Research at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. "CO 2 is making the planet warmer, but it also gets emitted with a bunch of other compounds that impact people and plants directly and cause climate changes in their own right."

The work, which was supported by the National Science Foundation, represents a collaboration between Persad and Burney, who are physical scientists, and a group of economists and public health experts. Co-authors include Marshall Burke, Eran Bendavid, and Sam Heft-Neal at Stanford University and Jonathan Proctor at Harvard University.

Aerosols can directly affect human health and the climate independently of CO 2 . They are associated with negative health impacts when inhaled, and can affect the climate by influencing temperature, precipitation patterns and how much sunlight reaches the Earth's surface.

To study aerosols' influence in comparison to CO 2 , the team created a set of climate simulations using the Community Earth System Model version 1 developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research. They ran simulations in which each of the eight regions produced identical aerosol emissions and mapped how temperature, precipitation, and surface air quality were affected across the globe. Then they connected this data with known relationships between climate and air quality and infant mortality, crop productivity, and gross domestic product across the eight regions.

In a final step, they compared the total societal costs of these aerosol-driven impacts against the societal costs of co-emitted CO 2 in each of the eight regions, and produced global maps of the combined effects of aerosols and CO 2 . The researchers said the study is a big step forward from previous work, which either only estimated the air quality impacts of aerosols or didn't consider their diverse global climate effects.

The outcome paints a varied and complicated picture. Emissions from some regions produce climate and air quality effects that range from two to more than 10 times as strong as others and social costs that sometimes affect neighboring regions more than the region that produced the aerosol emissions. For example, in Europe local emissions result in four times as many infant deaths outside Europe as within.

But the researchers note that aerosol emissions are always bad for both the emitter and the planet overall.

"While we might think about aerosols, which cool the climate, as having the silver lining of counteracting CO 2 -driven warming, when we look at all these effects in combination, we find that no region experiences overall local benefits or generates overall global benefits by emitting aerosols," said Persad.

Researchers also said the findings create potentially new motivations for countries to cut emissionsand to care about other countries cutting emissions. For example, the study found that adding aerosol costs to CO 2 costs could double China's incentive to mitigate emissions. And it switches the impact of local emissions in Europe from a net local benefit to a net cost. The study also shows that some emerging economies, like East African nations and India, might be motivated to collaborate on emission cuts since they are strongly impacted by each other's emissions.

The framework developed in this study can also be applied to maximize societal benefits from current mitigation strategies being considered by policy makers. For example, the researchers applied it to the "fair-share" approach laid out in the Paris Climate Agreement in which all countries target the same per-capita CO 2 emissions. They found the approach, while beneficial for climate stability, does not improve the mortality and crop impacts from combined aerosol and CO 2 emissions because it focuses mitigation in regions that already have fairly low aerosol impacts, like the U.S. and Europe.

"By expanding societal cost calculations to include the geographically-resolved societal impacts of co-emitted aerosols, we're showing that the incentive for individual countries to mitigate and collaborate on mitigation is much higher than if we only think about greenhouse gases," Burney said.

Explore further Particulate pollution's impact varies greatly depending on where it originated

More information: Jennifer Burney et al, Geographically resolved social cost of anthropogenic emissions accounting for both direct and climate-mediated effects, Science Advances (2022). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abn7307 Journal information: Science Advances Jennifer Burney et al, Geographically resolved social cost of anthropogenic emissions accounting for both direct and climate-mediated effects,(2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abn7307
A NASA mission to deliberately smash a spacecraft into an asteroid blasts off on Monday.

After NASA deliberately smashes a car-sized spacecraft into an asteroid next week, it will be up to the European Space Agency's Hera mission to investigate the "crime scene" and uncover the secrets of these potentially devastating space rocks.

NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) aims to collide with the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos on Monday night, hoping to slightly alter its trajectorythe first time such an operation has been attempted.

While Dimorphos is 11 million kilometers (6.8 million miles) away and poses no threat to Earth, the mission is a test run in case the world someday needs to deflect an asteroid from heading our way.

Astronomers around the world will watch DART's impact, and its effect will be closely followed to see if the mission passed the test.

Then, the European Space Agency's Hera mission, named after the ancient Greek queen of the gods, will follow in its footsteps.

The Hera spacecraft is planned to launch in October 2024, aiming to arrive at Dimorphos in 2026 to measure the exact impact DART had on the asteroid.

But scientists are not only excited to see DART's crater, but also to explore an object that is very much out of this world.

'A new world'

Dimorphos, which orbits a larger asteroid Didymos as they hurtle together through space, provides not only a "perfect testing opportunity for a planetary defense experiment, but it is also a completely new environment," the ESA's Hera mission manager Ian Carnelli said.

Hera will be loaded up with cameras, spectrometers, radars and even toaster-sized nano-satellites to measure the asteroid's shape, mass, chemical composition and more.

NASA's Bhavya Lal said that it was critically important to understand the size and composition of such asteroids.

"If an asteroid is made up of, for example, loose gravel, approaches to disrupt it may be different than if it was metal or some other kind of rock," she told the International Astronautical Congress in Paris this week.

So little is known about Dimorphos that scientists will discover "a new world" at the same time as the public on Monday, Hera mission principal investigator Patrick Michel said.

"Asteroids are not boring space rocksthey are super exciting because they have a great diversity" in size, shape and composition, Michel said.

And because they have low gravity compared to Earth, matter there could behave completely differently than expected.

"Unless you touch the surface, you cannot know the mechanical response," he said.

'Behaved almost like fluid'

For example, when a Japanese probe dropped a small explosive near the surface of the Ryugu asteroid in 2019, it was expected to make a crater of two or three meters. Instead, it blasted a 50-meter hole.

"There was no resistance," Michel said.

"The surface behaved almost like a fluid," rather than solid rock, he added. "How weird is that?"

One way the Hera mission will test Dimorphos will be to land a nano-satellite on its surface, in part to see how much it bounces.

Binary systems like Dimorphos and Didymos represent around 15 percent of known asteroids, but have not yet been explored.

With a diameter of just 160 metersaround the size of the Great Pyramid of GizaDimorphos will also be the smallest asteroid ever studied.

Learning about the impact of DART is not only important for planetary defense, Michel said, but also for understanding the history of our Solar System, where most cosmic bodies were formed through collisions and are now riddled with craters.

That's where DART and Hera could shine a light not just on the future, but on the past.

Explore further The incredible adventures of the Hera mission

 2022 AFP
Ten years of research on a carp virus has uncovered new perspectives on the mechanisms of action of cellular proteins involved in serious pathologies. Credit: Dan Nacu

One of the fascinating aspects of scientific research is certainly the serendipity that comes with it, which is something the team of Prof. Alain Vanderplasschen, virologist and immunologist at the FARAH (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine) of the University of Liege can only agree with. His team has just published in Nucleic Acids Research the results of ten years of research on the study of an original protein of a carp virus.

"This scientific project began more than ten years ago when researchers in Lisbon discovered that a carp virusthe Cyprinid herpesvirus 3 or CyHV-3had stolen a cellular gene coding for a protein domain called Z during the course of evolution. It is a virus that we know very well here at the University of Liege because we have been studying it for many years," explains Vanderplasschen.

The Z domain allows proteins that possess it to recognize double-stranded DNA or RNA in a rare conformation different from that described by Watson and Crick in 1953. In fact, the Z domain specifically recognizes nucleic acids when the double helix exhibits a left-handed conformation instead of a right-handed conformation. This Z domain is found in important proteins of the immune system of many animals including humans.

"These proteins are involved in important and diverse pathological processes such as cancers, genetic diseases and autoimmune diseases. By studying the functions of the Z domain of the carp virus, we discovered that it possesses properties that were previously unknown for the Z domains of cellular proteins," says Vanderplasschen.

Remarkably, by genetically engineering the Z domain of the virus into the Z domains of cellular proteins from various animal species and humans, the researchers found that the new properties discovered for the Z of the carp virus were present in some cellular proteins. This study, conducted by researchers from ULiege and published today, broadens the functional diversity of Z domains and stimulates new hypotheses concerning the mechanisms of action of proteins containing Z domains. It is a discovery that opens new perspectives on the mechanisms of action of Z domain-containing proteins involved in serious pathologies.

Explore further Scientists identify mechanism crucial for COVID-19 virus replication

More information: Mamadou Amadou Diallo et al, A fish herpesvirus highlights functional diversities among Z domains related to phase separation induction and A-to-Z conversion, Nucleic Acids Research (2022). Journal information: Nucleic Acids Research Mamadou Amadou Diallo et al, A fish herpesvirus highlights functional diversities among Z domains related to phase separation induction and A-to-Z conversion,(2022). DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkac761
ACCRA, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Confucius Institute is deepening China-Ghana relations by creating more job opportunities for Chinese language graduates in Ghana, according to Josephine Dzahene Quarshie, the Ghanaian director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Ghana.

In a speech at the China-Ghana International Conference on Chinese Language Education held in Accra, the capital of Ghana, Thursday, she observed that apart from teaching Chinese language courses, the Confucius Institute has been bent on linking more Ghanaian students to Chinese enterprises operating in Ghana.

"We also recommend our students to work at the Confucius Institute and other Chinese institutions and help them get the Chinese government scholarships, and currently several of our students are studying in China," the Ghanaian director said, adding that this has also improved the people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.

Chen Xuli, the human resource director for Chinese tech giant Huawei in Ghana, spoke highly of the institute's teaching and voiced the company's willingness to create more job opportunities for graduates.

"As a Chinese company, we want our staff to know more about our Chinese culture. In 2019, we started cooperating with the institute to design a Chinese course for our staff so they can better cooperate and collaborate with each other," Chen told Xinhua.

Established in 2013 through cooperation between the University of Ghana and the Zhejiang University of Technology, the institute has trained more than 20,000 Ghanaians since its inception. 
An overhead shot of a volcano crater in east Java, Indonesia. Credit: Shutterstock

Volcanic eruptions cannot be predicted with 100% certainty. However, details about an upcoming eruption can be estimated using the hot and smelly gases a volcano produces.

These gases provide clues about the timing, duration or severity of upcoming eruptions which can help local authorities decide if and when the surrounding communities need to be evacuated.

On average, there are up to 50 volcanoes actively erupting on the planet at any given time. Many of these volcanoes are more likely to be spewing hot gaseslike steam and carbon dioxidethan lava. Collecting these gases is key to understanding the mysterious ways of volcanoes, but it can be dangerous.

Now, drones are making it safer and easier than ever before.

Gassy volcanoes

For the better part of the last decade, I have been visiting such gassy volcanoes regularly to catch them just before, during or after an eruption.

I have worked with other scientists and engineers to measure volcanic gases with a variety of devices attached to drones.

Our latest research uses drones to capture volcanic carbon dioxide at Poas volcano in Costa Rica. We measured the isotopes of carbon in this carbon dioxide and discovered a pattern in the way these chemical fingerprints change during different stages of activity.

Unique carbon makeup

Carbon dioxide is everywhere: in the air we exhale, in vehicle exhaustand dissolved in magma. At volcanoes, it escapes from magma to the surface through cracks and hydrothermal systems (like the geysers in Yellowstone National Park), by seeping through the soil or by puffing out in a plume of gas.

By obtaining a sample of this volcanic carbon, we can measure the stable carbon isotopic ratio, a unique chemical makeup which reflects the source and pathway the CO 2 took to the surface.

Each volcano around the world produces a unique range of these carbon isotopes which change when the volcanic system changes.

However, it took a long time to collect each sample when researchers needed to hike down into a crater, putting them at risk each second they remained in the danger zone. With the evolution of unoccupied aerial systems (UAS, also known as drones), researchers have started sending these machines into the danger areas.

A drone equipped to sample volcanic gas captures carbon dioxide. Credit: Fiona D'Arcy, Author provided

Employing drones

To do this, we used switches and electronics parts to connect gas sensors to the onboard communications systems of the UAS. The volcanic CO 2 would be sucked in through a series of tubing with the help of a pump and sensors that would send a signal back to the pilot when we entered the gas plume. With the flick of a switch on the remote control, the pilot could choosefrom a safe distancewhen and where to collect the gas sample.

We arrived in Costa Rica in April 2019 with our shiny new drone set-up, which we launched at the rim of Poas volcano and which crashed almost immediately. Thankfully, our team whipped up a quick solution for our second dronea pump and switch hanging from the drone in a laundry bag. It worked flawlessly.

To avoid further losses, we got up close to the crater and flew our assembly directly above it. Later that day, we looked at the stable isotopes of carbon in our drone samples and in the samples we took from the ground. After we accounted for the mixing with the regular air in the drone samples, the two results were strikingly similar. Our drone assembly worked!

A pattern emerges

When we started compiling our data with all the carbon isotopes measured at Poas volcano in the past, we noticed a trend in how the balance of isotopes shifted when the volcano was behaving differently.

During eruptive phases, when Poas was making wet explosions releasing extra hot, sulfur-rich gas, the isotopes of carbon slipped down to lighter values. Meanwhile, during quieter phases when the volcano was sealed, the isotopic balance rose to heavier values.

With this new insight, we could look back even further and stitch together our data with isotope data from older activity. We saw that this pattern was repeating itself, with the carbon isotopes alternating between heavy an light values over the last 20 years of activity at Poas. There were relatively heavy values when the volcano was sealed and there were relatively light values when the volcano was open.

We now have a blueprint of what warning signals to look for in future isotopes of carbon sampled at this volcano when it's gearing up to erupt.

Future research

Thanks to drones, we captured the first CO 2 from Poas volcano since 2014. Volcanic gases sampled before our work were all taken by hand by brave volcano scientists climbing down into the crater of Poas. These expeditions were few and far between.

We hope that with the onset of gas-capturing drones, carbon dioxide at volcanoes can start to be sampled more frequently. This will fill the gaps in the timeline and help us understand and forecast eruptions.

Explore further Degassing data suggests Mt. Etna began showing signs of pressure buildup months before 2018 eruption

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
ESA has chosen Harmony, to move to the next phase, Phase-A, of development as the tenth Earth Explorer mission. Harmony is envisaged as a mission with two satellites that orbit in formation with one of the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites to address key scientific questions related to ocean, ice and land dynamics. Credit: ESA

Following preparatory activities and a stringent process ESA Member States today formally selected Harmony for implementation as the tenth Earth Explorer mission within the FutureEO program. This unique satellite mission concept is, therefore, now set to become a reality to provide a wealth of new information about our oceans, ice, earthquakes and volcanoeswhich will make significant contributions to climate research and risk monitoring.

Pivotal to ESA's FutureEO program, Earth Explorers are pioneering research missions that show how novel observing techniques lead to new scientific findings about our home planet. Advancing science and technology, they address questions that have a direct bearing on climate change and societal issues such as the availability of food, water, energy, resources and public health.

Earth is a highly dynamic system where the transport and exchanges of energy and matter are regulated by a multitude of processes and feedback mechanisms. Untangling these complex processes to better understand how Earth works as a system is a major challenge.

Thanks to Harmony, the picture is set to become a whole lot clearer.

By advancing science, Harmony will, in turn, also help address societal issues such as those laid out in the World Climate Research Program's Grand Challenges and a number of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

This exciting new mission will comprise two identical satellites orbiting Earth in convoy with a Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite. Each Harmony satellite will carry a receive-only synthetic aperture radar and a multi-view thermal-infrared instrument.

Together with observations from Sentinel-1, Harmony will deliver a wide range of unique high-resolution observations of motion occurring at or near Earth's surface.

Harmony's Lead Investigator, Paco Lopez-Dekker, from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, explained, "Harmony will, for example, be used to quantify the processes that govern the exchange of momentum, heat and moisture between the ocean surface and the air above. These exchanges influence processes in the lower atmosphere, drive weather patterns, and affect our climate.

"It will also be used to study deformation and flow dynamics at the rapidly changing ice-sheet edges for a better understanding of sea-level rise.

"In addition, Harmony will observe the motion of mountain glaciers, which are essential in providing freshwater to hundreds of millions of people, so the importance of understanding how they are changing cannot be overstated.

"And, Harmony will be used to measure small shifts in the shape of the land surface such as those related to earthquakes and volcanic activity, and therefore contribute to risk monitoring."

Over the last four years, the Harmony concept has undergone strict feasibility scrutiny and a pre-development process, culminating in ESA's Program Board for Earth Observation (PB-EO) accepting ESA's proposal, based also on the science advise and the recommendation from the Advisory Committee for Earth Observation (ACEO).

Rene Forsberg Acting Chair of ESA's Advisory Committee on Earth Observation, said, "ESA's pioneering Earth Explorer research missions are fundamental to Europe's position as a world leader in Earth observation. We are extremely happy to see Harmony join this extraordinary family of missions and we are certain that will bring significant advances in our understanding of the workings of our fragile planet."

Simonetta Cheli, Director of ESA's Earth Observation Programs, added, "Indeed, Earth Explorers are pivotal to our FutureEO programa program that harnesses novel ideas to develop pioneering satellite missions and concepts and to test innovative technologies. By nurturing imaginative new ways of using Earth observation, FutureEO enables scientific excellence to flourish to address societal challenges of tomorrow.

"The novel technology and observing techniques proven by the Earth Explorers are also key to developing 'operational' missions, such as Europe's Copernicus Sentinel missions, which deliver systematic data for environmental services.

"In the case of Harmony, we envisage that its technology will be important for enhancing the capabilities of the Copernicus Sentinel-1 Next Generation mission."

For Harmony, the next step will then involve fine-tuning the mission design and the subsequent build, with a view to launching the satellites in 2029.

Explore further ESA moves forward with Harmony
In this handout photo courtesy of the US Air Force a 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron aircrew from Keesler Air Force Base, Missouri, flies a data collection mission into Hurricane Fiona on September 22, 2022.

The beach chairs and umbrellas were put away, storefronts were covered and a lighthouse illuminated racing clouds overhead as Bermuda braced Thursday for Hurricane Fiona, a powerful Category 4 storm that has left a trail of destruction in the Caribbean.

Wind and waves were picking up as darkness fell over the British territory, and Bermudians rushed to the safety of their sturdy homes ahead of the storm, whose center will pass more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the west-northwest of the island early Friday, according to the Bermuda Weather Service.

Fiona remained a Category 4 storm, the second-highest level on the Saffir-Simpson scale, though Accuweather forecasters said it could be downgraded to a Category 3 as it passes Bermuda around 5:00 am (0800 GMT).

With a storm of that strength and size, residents were taking no chances.

"This storm is going to be worse than the last one," Richard Hartley, owner of the Torwood Home store in the capital, Hamilton, told AFP as he and his wife covered the shop's cedar-lined windows with metal sheets.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the Fiona was packing maximum sustained winds of near 130 miles per hour, with higher gusts.

Hurricane force winds extend more than 70 miles from the storm's eye, and tropical storm force winds up to 200 miles, the NHC said, predicting up to four inches (10 centimeters) of rain and "large and destructive" waves and storm surge.

The outdoor furniture has been removed and windows boarded up at Henry VII restaurant on Bermuda's South Shore ahead of Hurricane Fiona on September 22, 2022.

The island of some 64,000 people is no stranger to hurricanesbut it is also tiny, just 21 square miles (54 square kilometers), and one of the most remote places in the world, 640 miles from its closest neighbor, the United States.

That means there is nowhere to evacuate to when a big storm hits.

"You have to live with it because you live here, you can't run anywhere because it's just a little island," said JoeAnn Scott, a shopworker in Hamilton.

Bermudians try to "enjoy it as it comes," she said. "And pray and pray. That's what we do, pray and party," she added with a laugh.

At Bermuda's famed Horseshoe Bay Beach, where onlookers came to assess the pounding waves and stretch their legs ahead of a long night inside, resident Gina Maughan said the island would be ready.

"It's always interesting to come down and see the surf," she said, watching two kitesurfers soar into the air.

"These guys are a little crazy," she added.

Waves pound the shoreline at popular snorkelling spot Church Bay, Bermuda, ahead of Hurricane Fiona on September 22, 2022.

Construction 'built to last'

Because of the island's isolation, preparations are taken seriously.

Many boats were taken out of the water earlier in the week, outdoor furniture was moved inside, and the storm shutters bordering windows on most houses were checked.

Public schools will be closed on Friday, and the government announced that an emergency shelter will be opened. Buses and ferries had stopped running by late Thursday.

The Royal Bermuda Regiment was on standby to help with clearing operations, and National Security Minister Michael Weeks implored residents to stay inside until the all clear was given.

"Please Bermuda, no driving around, no venturing out to take pictures, no reckless behavior," he told a press conference.

In addition to laying in supplies of candles and food, some Bermudians were also drawing buckets of water and filling bathtubs from the tanks at the side of their homes ahead of expected power outages.

This image obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Fiona at 10:50 EDT (14:50 GMT) on September 22, 2022.

There is no fresh water source on the island, so all buildings have white, lime-washed roofs that are used to catch rainwater that is directed into tanks and pumped into homes as the main water supply.

Bermuda, whose economy is fueled by international finance and tourism, is wealthy compared to most Caribbean countries, and structures must be built to strict planning codes to withstand storms. Some have done so for centuries.

"The construction is really built to last, and we don't see the devastation ever that the Caribbean has experienced over the years," shop owner Hartley's wife, Elaine Murray, said.

Fiona killed four people in Puerto Rico earlier this week, according to US media, while one death was reported in the French overseas department of Guadeloupe and another in the Dominican Republic.

President Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency in Puerto Rico, a US territory that is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria five years ago.

In the Dominican Republic, President Luis Abinader declared three eastern provinces to be disaster zones.

A man boards up a store in Hamilton, Bermuda on September 22, 2022 as Hurricane Fiona churns towards the Atlantic island.

Farther north in Bermuda, islanders were calm.

"I've been through a lot of hurricanes, so no, I'm not worried," said resident Rochelle Jones.

But if things do go wrong, Bermudians will "all come out together and we help each other," she said.

Explore further Hurricane Fiona heads toward Bermuda, US advises citizens to defer travel

 2022 AFP
A female fig wasp (Tetrapus americanus), pollinator of Ficus maxima, has just emerged from her natal fig and is cleaning herself, getting ready for the long one-way flight to a flowering tree where she can lay her eggs. Credit: Christian Ziegler

Researchers from Uppsala University and elsewhere have been studying the effect of rising temperatures on the lifespan of pollinating fig wasps. The findings show that the wasps lived much shorter lives at high temperatures, which would make it difficult for them to travel the long distances between the trees they pollinate.

Fig trees are very important components of tropical forests around the world, as they ensure there is a food source for forest birds and mammals, even during periods when other plants do not bear fruit. Fig trees produce fruit all year round, but only if the fig is first visited by its pollinating fig wasp. Each species of fig tree is pollinated by its own species of fig wasp. Fig wasps are only two to three millimeters long and live an average of two to three days, but often fly 10 kilometers or more to get from a ripe tree to a flowering tree.

Global warming is expected to lead to temperature increases worldwide, including in tropical regions. In the area of Panama that the researchers focused on, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts a temperature rise of one to four degrees by 2100.

The research group looked at what happens to the lifespan of fig wasps if temperatures rise that much. The researchers used experiments in which the fig wasps were allowed to spend their entire adult lives in carefully controlled temperatures. All five pollinator fig wasp species studied lived shorter lives at higher temperatures. When the temperature rose to 36 degrees, the wasps only lived an average of two to ten hours.

In addition to a warmer future shortening the lifespan of the wasps, deforestation of tropical forests is increasing the distance between fig trees, which also makes pollination more difficult. Possibly fig wasps might be able to avoid higher temperatures by adapting their behavior, such as flying at night when it is cooler. If the fig wasps are no longer able to pollinate, fig trees will not be able to produce fruit. This could have major consequences for all animals in tropical forests that depend on figs for food.

During the study, ripe figs were collected from five different species of fig trees: Ficus obtusifolia, Ficus citrifolia, Ficus popenoei, Ficus insipida and Ficus maxima. The figs were opened in the lab, and the wasps that had developed inside the figs were kept in climate chambers at different temperatures. The number of wasps still alive was counted about every four hours. In total, the researchers tested over 40,000 wasps from about 400 figs.

The research was published in Ecology and Evolution.

More information: Lisette van Kolfschoten et al, Rising temperatures threaten pollinators of fig treesKeystone resources of tropical forests, Ecology and Evolution (2022). Journal information: Ecology and Evolution Lisette van Kolfschoten et al, Rising temperatures threaten pollinators of fig treesKeystone resources of tropical forests,(2022). DOI: 10.1002/ece3.9311
Tintagel Castle in Cornwall was visited by Britain's new king Charles III and his wife Camilla in 2020.

The cliff-top ruins of an ancient castle long claimed as the birthplace of the legendary King Arthur is "at risk of being lost for ever" as climate change quickens the pace of coastal erosion, a UK heritage body warned on Friday.

Tintagel Castle in Cornwall, southwest England, attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year, fuelled by the legend of King Arthur and his fabled Round Table.

But the structure is now among six important historic coastal sites at risk "as a result of accelerating coastal erosion", charity English Heritage said.

"Erosion along England's coastline is nothing new but the rate of land loss that we have seen over the past few years is alarming, and some scenarios indicate that sea levels could increase by up to a metre (3.2 feet) by the end of the century," said English Heritage Estates director Rob Woodside.

In the last century sea levels rose by 14 centimetres along the southern coast of England, according to the body.

"Climate change is accelerating the issues faced by our coastal heritage. Rising sea levels and more regular storms pose a real risk to the future of many of our sites," Woodside added.

The legend of the ancient English king and his Round Table of knights has inspired numerous filmmakers over the years.

Although researchers have never established if King Arthur was a real person or a mythical hero, some historians believe there was an important English leader called Arthur around the fifth century, although not necessarily a king.

English Heritage said parts of the cliff directly in front of Tintagel Castle's visitor centre recently fell into the sea due to coastal erosion.

This and other damage caused by storms last winter alone would cost 40,000 ($44,000) to repair, the charity said.

"Protecting our coastal heritage from the effects of erosion and flooding is one of the greatest challenges English Heritage has ever faced," it said.

"Sea levels are rising at their fastest rate for more than 2,700 years and are predicted to surge by up to a metre before the end of the 21st century."

Other sites in southwest England listed by English Heritage as being at risk include Hurst Castle and Calshot Castle, both built by the 16th century king Henry VIII in Hampshire, southern England.

English Heritage said it was launching a public appeal via its website to raise funds to shore up the sites and make them less vulnerable to coastal erosion.

"If these coastal properties are to survive the coming decades, we will need to strengthen their walls and build sea defences to protect them," it added.

Explore further Archaeologists carry out first dig at tomb linked to King Arthur

 2022 AFP
The Artemis I unmanned lunar rocket sits on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 25, 2022. Credit: NASA

NASA announced Thursday that the cryogenic fueling test this week at Kennedy Space Center did well enough to keep moving toward a launch attempt as early as Tuesday.

"Based on data from the test, teams are fine-tuning procedures for the next launch opportunity, targeted for no earlier than Sept. 27," reads a statement on the NASA website. "The rocket remains in a safe and flight-ready configuration at the launch pad."

The nearly 10-hour test at Launch Pad 39-B on Wednesday saw several issues with liquid hydrogen leaks, some similar to what caused a scrub on the last attempt to launch on Sept. 3.

But mission managers were able to troubleshoot and push through to accomplish all the goals for the test setting the rocket up for what would be its third attempt to get off the ground.

NASA will host a discussion about the next chance to launch that will be streamed on its website at nasa.gov/live at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time Friday.

One uncertain factor is whether or not the U.S. Space Force will give NASA the OK to try for a launch despite not having checked the batteries on its flight termination system since before Aug. 16, the last time the massive 5.75 million-pound, 322-foot-tall combination of Space Launch System rocket, mobile launcher and Orion spacecraft was in Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building.

The Space Force controls the Eastern Range over which the rocket would launch, and had only a previous 25-day window allowed between times the rocket's self-destruct mechanism could go without having been checked.

But if a waiver is allowed, NASA could pursue two previously announced potential launch dates. Tuesday's is a 70-minute window that opens at 11:37 a.m. that would fly on a nearly 40-day mission that would land back on Earth on Nov. 5. The second is Sunday, Oct. 2, a 109-minute window that opens at 2:52 p.m. and fly for roughly a 41-day mission and land on Nov. 11.

Artemis I is the first of a series of missions NASA plans to return humans to the moon and eventually to Mars. This first uncrewed flight looks to prove the Orion spacecraft can support humans as it will travel farther out beyond the moon and bring it back home to Earth faster than any other previous human-rated spacecraft.

If successful, it would be followed by a crewed Artemis II mission to orbit the moon in 2024 followed by Artemis III as early as 2025, which aims to return humans including the first woman to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.

2022 Orlando Sentinel.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Clouds provide a large feedback to the processes that cause global warming. Credit: Hua Zhang

Extreme climate warming has been shown to change how cloud cover behaves throughout East Asia (EA). Recent research suggests that in a warmer climate with greater amounts of CO 2 in the atmosphere, slow cloud responses to meteorological mechanisms can cause a cooling effect over certain regions of EA. However, in some areas within Asia, fast cloud responses may have the opposite effect. This new dynamic is concerning to climatologists who are working to better understand how CO 2 and clouds interact.

"Clouds play an important role in balancing the radiation budget, and they have a large feedback on global warming caused by the increase of greenhouse gases," said Prof. Hua Zhang, a climate scientist at the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences. "The uncertainty of cloud feedback has the most impact out of all the climate feedbacks."

Prof. Zhang and her teama group of researchers from Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Beijing Climate Center have recently published a comprehensive cloud-climate feedback study in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

"We can obtain the clouds' responses to increased greenhouse gases from climate models and divide the feedback into fast responses with time scales of days to months and slow responses with time scales of years to decades," continued Dr. Zhang.

In the study, scientists separated fast and slow cloud responses to an abrupt atmospheric CO 2 quadrupling over EA. They used a general circulation model, BCC_AGCM2.0, developed by the China Meteorological Administration to obtain quantitative data.

The study also considers a total cloud response, which contains the following components: the total cloud cover (TCC), low cloud cover (LCC), and high cloud cover (HCC). All of these variables showed an increase north of 40N and a decrease south of 40N with the exception of the Tibetan Plateau (TP).

Within the total cloud response, the mean changes of the TCC, LCC, and HCC over EA are 0.74%, +0.38%, and 0.38%, respectively. The fast cloud cover responses are generally opposite of the slow responses. Furthermore, the total responses are dominated by the slow responses, but in the case of the TP, the fast response determines the HCC change.

Under the quadrupled CO 2 warming scenario, the mean net cloud forcing (NCF) over EA is 1.80 Watts per meter squared (W m2), indicating a cooling effect alongside a slow cloud response. Scientists suggest that this can partially offset the warming effect caused by quadrupled CO 2 concentrations. That said, the NCF over the TP, south China, and northeast China are 6.74 W m2, 6.11 W m2, and 7.49 W m2, respectively, which can offset or potentially amplify the climate warming effect much more noticeably.

"Studying cloud responses to quadrupled CO 2 over EA provides a better understanding of the changes and effects of clouds under extreme warming in the future," said Prof. Zhang, "and our research especially reveals the role of the slow response of clouds."

Explore further Studying short-term cloud feedback to understand climate change in East Asia

More information: Xixun Zhou et al, Decomposition of Fast and Slow Cloud Responses to Quadrupled CO 2 Forcing in BCC-AGCM2.0 over East Asia, Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (2022). Journal information: Advances in Atmospheric Sciences Xixun Zhou et al, Decomposition of Fast and Slow Cloud Responses to Quadrupled COForcing in BCC-AGCM2.0 over East Asia,(2022). DOI: 10.1007/s00376-022-1441-7
Individual wasps on their nest. Credit: Solenn Patalano

An international team of biologists and theoretical physicists from Dresden (Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems), Cambridge, UK (Babraham Institute) and Athens (B.S.R.C. "Alexander Fleming") has tackled this paradox using experiments on paper wasps. Paper wasps are social insects that display societal division of labor, with some insects specializing in foraging and other tasks (workers) while a single insect becomes the queen that specializes in producing offspring.

While this division of labor remains stable for the entire lifetime of the queen, when the queen is removed from the nest or dies the remaining workers can rapidly change their behavior and establish a new queen. Due to this behavior the paper wasps serves as an experimental testing ground to study biological plasticity.

During field trips to the wasps' native habitat in Panama the scientists conducted experiments where they removed the queen from nest societies and then measured how the remaining workers reestablish a new queen.

Computer vision analysis of global nest movement. Credit: Cell Systems (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2022.08.002

In these experiments, the research combined different experimental tools like video recordings and detailed molecular profiling of the insects' brains to follow this process simultaneously on vastly different spatial scales of biological organization in order to investigate the interplay between molecular processes and societal interactions.

"Using social insects to study plasticity gave us the unique opportunity to relate molecular, individual and societal processes over time on the level of individual insects, something that is not feasible when studying cells in mammalian tissues," says Dr. Solenn Patalano who conducted the experiments.

Forager resting on a leaf. Credit: Solenn Patalano

By employing theory, the researchers, led by Dr. Steffen Rulands, then disentangled the different processes that lead to the establishment of a stable society and the capability of workers to establish a new queen. They found that paper wasps counterbalance the expression of genes that establish queen-like behavior with aggressive fighting that represses the same genes.

Their calculations showed that this enables these societies to distinguish between different kinds of perturbations affecting the nest: intrinsic perturbations affect insects independently of each other and they are actively suppressed by the society. Extrinsic perturbations affect the entire society and the society reacts plasticly.

"It is fascinating to see how these societies manage to combine processes occurring on scales order of magnitude apart in order to overcome a seeming paradox," says Adolfo Alsina, who performed the theoretical work. The insights gained from social insects might in the future be applied to understand plasticity in other biological systems, such as the reprogramming of cells into stem cells in regenerative therapies.

The research was published in Cell Systems.

Explore further In dueling ants vying to become queen, behavioral and molecular cues quickly determine who will win

More information: Solenn Patalano et al, Self-organization of plasticity and specialization in a primitively social insect, Cell Systems (2022). Journal information: Cell Systems Solenn Patalano et al, Self-organization of plasticity and specialization in a primitively social insect,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2022.08.002

Provided by Biomedical Sciences Research Center Alexander Fleming
Credit: Netflix

In an era when the Indian government has prioritized women's menstrual health and movies like Netflix's "Period. End of Sentence" are garnering worldwide attention, the distribution of disposable sanitary pads to women in India's rural areas has been widely celebrated.

The question is, though, does it solve problems for these girls and women?

Shobita Parthasarathy, professor of public policy and women's and gender studies at the University of Michigan, addresses this question in a recent research article in the journal Social Studies of Science.

"I immediately noticed that although these solutions are supposed to be helping adolescent girls and women, no one was asking them what they needed," she said. "You're trying to promote social equity and justice, yet the way we talk about them is as if they are ignorant and primitive. We act like we can't trust people who have limited incomes or are marginalized with identifying solutions or to know what is right for themselves."

Focusing on the case of menstrual hygiene management and disposable sanitary pads in India, Parthasarathy examines the politics of knowledge that are shaping the recent turn toward inclusive innovation in international development. She argues that the convergence of scientific and market priorities defines the choice of solutions and our understanding of global development problems.

"India is such a fascinating and unique place, especially regarding innovation. It has a long history of taking indigenous knowledge seriously and emphasizing local capacity building," Parthasarathy said. "But by saying that disposable pads will save these women, we are reinforcing the idea that innovation is primarily about market generation and commodification.

"International development institutions, governments and social entrepreneurs are increasingly enthusiastic about 'inclusive innovation,' which, to solve problems in low- and middle-income countries, focuses on developing technologies for and by the poor."

Inclusive innovation differs from previous development efforts by focusing on devices instead of infrastructure. Other issues to consider with disposable sanitary pad distribution are societal, health-related and environmental. Is this solution really addressing the challenges that these girls and women face in society? Does it really value girls' and women's knowledge? Does India have the proper infrastructure to manage sanitary pad disposal?

"Claiming to be based on scientific evidence and rooted in local knowledge and expertise, they rely on market logic to achieve humanitarian ends," Parthasarathy said. "However, in the process, they reinforce narrow understandings of both inclusion and innovation in international development."

Explore further Sanitary pad record in India to promote menstrual hygiene

More information: Shobita Parthasarathy, How sanitary pads came to save the world: Knowing inclusive innovation through science and the marketplace, Social Studies of Science (2022). Shobita Parthasarathy, How sanitary pads came to save the world: Knowing inclusive innovation through science and the marketplace,(2022). DOI: 10.1177/03063127221122457
Satellite image shows Hurricane Fiona on September 23, 2022, at 14h00 GMT.

Bermuda assessed damage Friday after Hurricane Fiona brushed past the island overnight, causing flooding and leaving most of the population without power as it set course for Canada.

Hurricane conditions were expected to hit Nova Scotia province by evening, with the US National Hurricane Center saying Fiona had again strengthened to a Category 4 storm as "it races toward Atlantic Canada."

Emergency officials in Bermuda called on residents to remain inside as strong winds raked over the British territory, which was buffeted by gusts of more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour and pounding seas.

But no fatalities or major damage were reported as Fiona passed roughly 100 miles to the west of the island.

The Belco power company said 29,000 out of 36,000 households were without power.

"We are not in the clear. Stay off the roads," Premier David Burt tweeted, adding no major incidents were reported.

The Royal Bermuda Regiment and Belco said they were waiting for winds to die down before clearing roads and restoring power.

Residents posted images of downed power lines and some flooding on social media.

"This morning (it is) very windy outside. We had some minor damage to the premises but nothing serious," Jason Rainer, owner of a souvenir shop in the capital Hamilton told AFP, saying some doors and windows had been blown out.

Store owners had covered windows with metal and wood sheets.

The island of about 64,000 people is no stranger to hurricanesbut it is also tiny, just 21 square miles (54 square kilometers), and one of the most remote places in the world, 640 miles from its closest neighbor, the United States.

Empty outdoor dining space at a restaurant in Horseshoe Bay, Bermuda, as Hurricane Fiona passed by the island.

A well-prepared island

"You have to live with it because you live here, you can't run anywhere because it's just a little island," said JoeAnn Scott, a shopworker in Hamilton.

Bermudians try to "enjoy it as it comes," she said. "And pray and pray. That's what we do, pray and party," she added with a laugh.

At Bermuda's famed Horseshoe Bay Beach, onlookers watched pounding waves on Thursday before the storm hit, while two kitesurfers risked extreme conditions out at sea.

Because of the island's isolation, preparations are taken seriously.

Many boats were taken out of the water earlier in the week, public schools were closed, buses and ferries stopped and an emergency shelter opened.

In addition to laying in supplies of candles and food, some Bermudians drew buckets of water and filled bathtubs from the tanks at the side of their homes ahead of the expected power outages.

There is no fresh water source on the island, so all buildings have white, lime-washed roofs that are used to catch rainwater in tanks that is then pumped into homes.

Bermuda, whose economy is fueled by international finance and tourism, is wealthy compared to most Caribbean countries, and structures must be built to strict planning codes to withstand storms. Some have done so for centuries.

"The construction is really built to last, and we don't see the devastation ever that the Caribbean has experienced over the years," resident Elaine Murray said.

Fiona killed four people in Puerto Rico earlier this week, according to US media, while one death was reported in the French overseas department of Guadeloupe and another in the Dominican Republic.

President Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency in Puerto Rico, a US territory that is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria five years ago.

In the Dominican Republic, President Luis Abinader declared three eastern provinces to be disaster zones.

Explore further Strong winds, heavy rains hit Bermuda as Hurricane Fiona skirts by

 2022 AFP
US hijacks UNGA to stage anti-Russia slamming campaign, urged to walk the talk when Biden claims 'not seeking cold war'

By Chen Qingqing (Global Times) 11:00, September 23, 2022

Following Russia's partial mobilization of the nation's military reserves, the US-led West ramped up efforts to launch a collective campaign of denouncing Moscow on the global stage, particularly when Western leaders such as US President Joe Biden have tried to turn the ongoing 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) into an anti-Russia platform. They have fully underscored their hostility toward the Kremlin, which only aggravates the confrontation and goes against the common aspiration of countries for security and development.

With their ill-intentioned attempts, Biden, along with his major allies such as the UK and Japan, tried to associate the Taiwan question with the Ukraine crisis despite their completely different nature, which is seen as a reflection of Washington's Cold War mentality that defines both Russia and China as its strategic rivals, some experts said. And addressing the Taiwan question - China's internal affair - in a UNGA speech is a reckless and dangerous move, showing the duplicity of the US' China policy, in which the White House failed to fulfill its promises.

While some Western countries echoed the US call for UN reforms by expanding the membership of permanent and non-permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) and restricting the use of the veto, Chinese observers said if the UN becomes a "battlefield" for geopolitical wrestling, the organization itself will lose its value for existence.

From a perspective of balancing power, Russia, as a major member of UN, plays an irreplaceable role in energy and supply chain security, and the US-led West suppressing Russia at the UN is hurting the overall effectiveness of the UN system, some observers said.

In the latest meeting between Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the sideline meeting of the UNGA on Wednesday, Wang said that as permanent members of the UNSC and responsible major countries, both China and Russia should play their due role, making the international order fairer and more reasonable, while jointly opposing unilateralism and power politics.

On the Ukraine crisis, Wang said China will continue to uphold an objective and fair position in promoting peace. It's hoped that all parties will not give up on dialogue and resolve security concerns through peaceful talks.

"With the escalation of the Ukraine crisis, the confrontation between the West and Russia will be further exacerbated, and being anti-Russia has become politically correct in some Western countries and such confrontation has expanded to other multilateral mechanisms such as the UN," Zhao Huirong, an Eastern European studies expert from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Some Western countries have been trying to contain Russia and China at the same time by slandering Russia-China cooperation and provoking China's bottom line over the Taiwan question, as both countries have been perceived as either a direct threat or systematic challenge to the West, she said.

'Reckless move'

In a speech that lasted about 30 minutes on Wednesday at the UNGA, Biden first condemned Russia, in front of nearly 200 world leaders who gathered for the first in-person UNGA meeting since the COVID-19 outbreak, for "having shamelessly violated" UN principles, and called out Russian President Vladimir Putin for "making irresponsible nuclear threats" , NBC News reported.

Besides denouncing Russia, Biden also addressed the Taiwan question by saying that the US opposes "unilateral changes in the status quo by either side," and seeks to uphold "peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits." The Voice of America pointed out that the remarks were the first in which a sitting US president had explicitly laid out US policy toward China and the island of Taiwan in a UNGA speech since 1971.

"Although the Ukraine crisis and the Taiwan question are completely different in nature, the US has always been treating China and Russia as its major strategic rivals," Lu Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday.

If the US can't protect Ukraine, it can't maintain its foothold in Europe, and if it can't protect the island of Taiwan, it will affect its West Pacific strategy, which explains why the US has increased its interference in the Taiwan question after the Ukraine crisis began, he said.

"But addressing the Taiwan question - China's internal affair - at the UN meeting is highly reckless, which also violates the US-China joint communiques, and Washington's actions on the Taiwan question betray its words," Lu said.

While Biden said the US does not seek conflict or a cold war with China, some Chinese observers believe that the US has been launching an all-out containment effort against China from economy to national security. Meanwhile, US house speaker Nancy Pelosi's provocative trip to Taiwan in August has changed the status quo of the Taiwan Straits.

In response to Biden's remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Thursday that China maintains continuity and stability in its US policy, and urged the US to handle the Taiwan question prudently.

Political wrestling hurts

Besides the UNGA sessions, the UNSC is scheduled to meet on Thursday, a day after Putin ordered the mobilization of 300,000 additional personnel, and some Western media such as Reuters said a "UN showdown looms" as Ukraine called for Moscow's veto at the UNSC to be scrapped.

Biden also called for an expansion of the number of countries with the seats on the council, which was hailed by Japanese leader Kishida. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also expressed on Wednesday his country's willingness to join the council.

Pushing forward the reform of the UNSC, especially in expanding its membership, should better reflect the latest changes in global political forces and promote the transparency and democracy in the working mechanisms, which is a long-existing problem, Tang Bei, associate professor at the school of international relations and public affairs at Shanghai International Studies University, told the Global Times on Thursday.

"China supports the [UN] reform but emphasizes that it should be gradually pushed forward without setting a timetable or forcing an agenda for them. The reform should also ensure the council's representativeness and effectiveness in its decision-making procedures," she said.

The council's meeting on Thursday will be at least the 20th time that it has met on the Ukraine crisis this year, Reuters said. The council has been unable to take any meaningful action on Ukraine "because Russia is a permanent veto-wielding member along with the US, France, Britain and China," according to the media report.

The veto mechanism has been put under the spotlight since the Ukraine crisis began, but some Chinese experts pointed out that Russia was not the first permanent member to exercise its veto as a party to the conflict. "Britain and the US have used a veto on the Iraq issue, and France has exercised a veto on the Mali issue. The West should not use double standards on the issue [of veto]," Tang said.

Although the US-led West is trying to turn the ongoing UNGA sessions into an anti-Russia platform, some Chinese observers believe that as a major power that possesses nuclear weapons, Russia plays a highly important role in the global system, especially in energy and supply chain security.

The confrontation between the US and Soviet Union in the Cold War era stalled the UNSC mechanism for a long time, which was only revived when the Cold War ended. If Russia is rejected now, the format of the UN may remain but its legitimacy and effectiveness will face challenges, Tang noted.

"And the US-led containment of Russia through the UN is hurting the overall system," she said.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Du Mingming)
NAIROBI, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese telecoms giant Huawei on Friday said it had partnered with Absa Bank Kenya to promote digital banking services in the country and ensure financial services were aligned with evolving needs of a young clientele base.

Through a partnership with Absa Bank Kenya, Huawei technologies will support the establishment of a cutting-edge platform to power the bank's corporate digital transformation, said the Chinese technology firm in a statement issued in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.

"The partnership involves establishing a software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN), hailed as the next generation technology and service designed to connect the bank's branches, and promote smart branch upgrades by constructing a powerful network based on cost-effectiveness, agility, flexibility, scalability, security, and compliance," read the statement.

It noted that Absa's 83 branches countrywide alongside 212 Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), and internet and mobile banking services will benefit from the digital platform.

The Huawei, Absa Bank Kenya partnership is anchored on the bank's digital transformation process that includes creating a cloud-based network between its headquarters and branches to facilitate service expansion.

Moses Okudi, the Absa Bank Kenya Chief Information Officer (CIO), said that a robust digital infrastructure will be critical to quality service delivery in a rapidly evolving financial services landscape.

"We strive to offer our customers a real-time, seamless digital experience to enable them to bank and transact seamlessly at the convenience of wherever they are," said Okudi.

Technical teams from Huawei and Absa Bank Kenya have already conducted in-depth discussions and surveys to ensure the rollout of the bank's digital transformation strategy was devoid of hitches.

By transitioning to digital and intelligent customer care services, the bank will sustain the momentum that peaked at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when cashless transactions became the norm, said Okudi.

He added that digital banking is set to accelerate in Kenya thanks to supportive infrastructure, policies, and regulations as well as a critical mass of tech-savvy youth. 
Wind and waves were picking up as darkness fell over the British territory, and Bermudians rushed to the safety of their sturdy homes ahead of the storm.

Gusts of 100 miles an hour and driving rain buffeted Bermuda early Friday, leaving thousands without power and fearing coastal damage as Hurricane Fiona, a powerful Category 3 storm, slid past the Atlantic island.

At 6:00 am local time (0900 GMT), Fiona's center was located about 155 miles (250 kilometers) northwest of the British territory, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), which downgraded the storm to Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale in its latest advisory.

Overnight, several areas reported power outages, with more than 7,000 people affected, according to the main electric utility.

On Thursday, with hurricane warnings in effect and the NHC forecasting sustained winds at the center of the storm of more than 125 miles per hourwith even higher gustsBermuda residents said they were taking no chances.

"This storm is going to be worse than the last one," Richard Hartley, a store owner in the capital Hamilton told AFP as he and his wife covered the shop's cedar-lined windows with metal sheets.

Hurricane-force winds extend more than 70 miles from the storm's eye, and tropical-storm-force winds up to 200 miles, the NHC said, predicting up to four inches (10 centimeters) of rain along with "large and destructive" waves and storm surge.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Fiona was packing maximum sustained winds of near 130 miles per hour, with higher gusts.

The island of about 64,000 people is no stranger to hurricanesbut it is also tiny, just 21 square miles (54 square kilometers), and one of the most remote places in the world, 640 miles from its closest neighbor, the United States.

That means there is nowhere to evacuate to when a big storm hits.

"You have to live with it because you live here, you can't run anywhere because it's just a little island," said JoeAnn Scott, a shopworker in Hamilton.

Bermudians try to "enjoy it as it comes," she said. "And pray and pray. That's what we do, pray and party," she added with a laugh.

At Bermuda's famed Horseshoe Bay Beach, where onlookers came to assess the pounding waves and stretch their legs ahead of a long night inside, resident Gina Maughan said the island would be ready.

"It's always interesting to come down and see the surf," she said, watching two kitesurfers soar into the air.

"These guys are a little crazy," she added.

Waves pound the shoreline at popular snorkelling spot Church Bay, Bermuda, ahead of Hurricane Fiona on September 22, 2022.

Construction 'built to last'

Because of the island's isolation, preparations are taken seriously.

Many boats were taken out of the water earlier in the week, outdoor furniture was moved inside, and the storm shutters bordering windows on most houses were checked.

Public schools will be closed on Friday, and the government announced that an emergency shelter would be opened. Buses and ferries had stopped running by late Thursday.

The Royal Bermuda Regiment was on standby to help with clearing operations, and National Security Minister Michael Weeks implored residents to stay inside until the all clear was given.

"Please Bermuda, no driving around, no venturing out to take pictures, no reckless behavior," he told a press conference.

In addition to laying in supplies of candles and food, some Bermudians were also drawing buckets of water and filling bathtubs from the tanks at the side of their homes ahead of the expected power outages.

This image obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Fiona at 10:50 EDT (14:50 GMT) on September 22, 2022.

There is no fresh water source on the island, so all buildings have white, lime-washed roofs that are used to catch rainwater that is directed into tanks and pumped into homes as the main water supply.

Bermuda, whose economy is fueled by international finance and tourism, is wealthy compared to most Caribbean countries, and structures must be built to strict planning codes to withstand storms. Some have done so for centuries.

"The construction is really built to last, and we don't see the devastation ever that the Caribbean has experienced over the years," resident Elaine Murray said.

Fiona killed four people in Puerto Rico earlier this week, according to US media, while one death was reported in the French overseas department of Guadeloupe and another in the Dominican Republic.

President Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency in Puerto Rico, a US territory that is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria five years ago.

In the Dominican Republic, President Luis Abinader declared three eastern provinces to be disaster zones.

Many boats were taken out of the water earlier in the week, outdoor furniture was moved inside, and the storm shutters bordering windows on most houses were checked.

Farther north in Bermuda, islanders were calm.

"I've been through a lot of hurricanes, so no, I'm not worried," said resident Rochelle Jones.

But if things do go wrong, Bermudians will "all come out together and we help each other," she said.

Explore further Fortified Bermuda braces for powerful Hurricane Fiona

 2022 AFP
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

King Charles's decision to visit all four corners of the U.K. in the first week of his reign has highlighted the fact that question marks hang over the future of the union.

The argument about the Northern Ireland Protocol reflects, in part, concern within both the U.K. government and the unionist community that the introduction of checks on goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland (and the absence of any such checks between the North and the Republic) will weaken the links between them.

Meanwhile, with polls in Scotland suggesting almost 50% support for leaving the U.K., the Scottish government is pushing for a second referendum on independence.

Northern Ireland and Scotland were, of course, the two parts of the UK where a majority voted to stay in the EU. And a chapter in the latest British Social Attitudes report published by the National Center for Social Research (NatCen) shows how, since the 2016 ballot, attitudes towards Brexit have come increasingly to color attitudes towards the union across the U.K.

Scotland

When the Brexit referendum was held in 2016, how people in Scotland voted bore no relationship to their attitude towards Scotland's constitutional status. According to the Scottish Social Attitudes (SSA) survey of that year, when presented with the choice between independence, devolution or no Scottish parliament at all, 44% of those who voted Remain were in favor of independence, as were 45% of those who voted Leave.

Despite the fact that the SNP's vision of independence is one of "independence in Europe," voters themselves did not necessarily see the link between the two debates.

Now, however, the two issues are intertwined. In the most recent SSA, nearly two-thirds of Remain supporters say that they support independence. Just 22% of Leave supporters take the same view.

Given the predominance of Remain supporters north of the border, this divergence of views helps explain why, at 52%, the overall level of support for independence in the latest SSA survey is six points up on what it was in 2016a trend that mirrors the opinion polls.

Northern Ireland

Much the same process has occurred in Northern Ireland. According to the Northern Ireland Life and Times survey, back in 2016 a majority of those who voted Remain (64%) and those who voted Leave (83%) were in favor of Northern Ireland being part of the U.K.

At 82% in the latest survey, the level of support for the union among those who identify as a Leaver has held steady. However, among Remainers the position is very different. Just 37% now say that Northern Ireland should be part of the U.K., while slightly over half (52%) feel that Northern Ireland should either unify with the Republic (44%) or become an independent state (8%).

It is this movement among Remainers that helps explain why, across Northern Ireland as a whole, support for being part of the union has slipped from two-thirds (66%) in 2016 to just under half (49%) now. Meanwhile, support for unification has increased over the same period by eleven points, from 19% to 30%.

England

Brexit has also become a line of division when English people are asked about Scotland. According to the British Social Attitudes survey, support for Scottish independence among Remain supporters in England stands now at 35%, whereas only 19% of those who back Leave take the same view.

In contrast, in 2017 it was Leave supporters (27%) rather than their Remain counterparts (21%) who were more inclined to say Scotland should become independent. However, because Remain and Leave supporters have moved in opposite directions, at 25% the overall level of support for Scottish independence in England is only slightly up on the 22% who expressed that view in 2017.

Remain and Leave supporters across Britain as a whole also have rather different views on the status of Northern Ireland. Among those who back Leave as many as 62% think that Northern Ireland should remain part of the U.K., while just 32% believe it should reunify with the Republic of Ireland.

In contrast, among Remain supporters the balance of opinion is tilted somewhat in the opposite direction, with 48% backing reunification and only 41% saying that Northern Ireland should remain part of the U.K.

The current U.K. government faces a dilemma over the future of the union. The Brexit policy it has implemented has instigated a diminution in public support for a union that it wishes to preserve.

Those who would like to become part of a different union (the EU) have become more inclined to question the merits of the union represented by the U.K. If it is to strengthen public support for the Union in the future, it looks as though the U.K. government will have to persuade Remainers that exiting the EU has indeed been worthwhile.

Explore further Study explores how Scotland and Northern Ireland can fulfil aspirations post-Brexit

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Field experiments tracking root dynamics under control and eCO 2 conditions. (A) The BIFoR FACE experimental facility is situated in mature deciduous woodland near Stafford, UK, and contains three eCO 2 (red) and three control (blue) 'arrays'. (B) Arrays consist of scaffolding (gray) supporting pipes carrying eCO 2 or ambient air to the forest canopy. Each array has four minirhizotron installation sites. (A-B) adapted from Ref. (Hart et al., 2019). (C) Minirhizotron sites consist of a transparent tube embedded at a 45 angle in the soil, covered and sealed when not in use. (D) A camera and lighting system (i) is inserted into each of these tubes (ii) to take belowground images of in situ root systems around the tube circumference and along its length. The imaging system is connected (iii) to a field power supply and to a computer running real-time image acquisition software (iv). (E) Illustration of data acquired from minirhizotrons; this composite consists of many images concatenated and embedded on a cylindrical manifold for illustrative purposes. Credit: Science of The Total Environment (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158661

Increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causes trees to put more resource into developing root systems below ground.

This flow of extra carbon below ground is an important, and often overlooked, way in which the natural world will respond to ongoing and future greenhouse gas emissions.

In a new study, led by the Universities of Birmingham, in the U.K., and Bergen, in Norway, researchers have shown that atmospheric CO 2 pumped into a mature forest at levels predicted to be the norm by 2050 will cause trees to produce more and longer roots.

The research, published in Science of the Total Environment, was carried out in the Free-Air CO 2 Enrichment (FACE) facility, operated by the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR). It complements earlier research which shows the same trees will increase their rate of photosynthesis by up to a third under elevated CO 2 conditions.

BIFoR FACE is a "sci-fi" forest, representing one third of the world's largest experiment investigating the effect of global change on nature. It forms a giant "ecosystem-o-scope" with sister facilities near Sydney, in Australia, and Manaus, in the Amazon. In each of these facilities, extra CO 2 is introduced, bringing the air to what is predicted to be the norm globally by 2050. To maintain the naturalness of the forest, the CO 2 -rich air is added using an "invisible curtain" approach without roof or walls.

In the study, a research team gathered thousands of images of tiny tree roots, sometimes less than a millimeter wide, assembled over two years in the BIFoR FACE forest. These images were used to build a mathematical picture of the birth, growth, and death, of roots in an oak forest. Some images were taken of the roots in place, using a high-res camera sent under the forest floor in a set of long Perspex tubes. Other images were from roots painstakingly teased out of cores of soil extracted from the experiment.

Professor Iain Johnston, who led the study from Birmingham and then Bergen, explained, "It's obviously hard to view these processes going on beneath the ground. But a combination of innovative engineering and careful field and lab work from our team have helped us shed new light on this behaviorand on how confident we can be in our findings."

Mathematical modeling and data analysis of the images, carried out at BIFoR and at the University of Bergen, concluded that more and longer roots appear beneath the trees growing in the high carbon dioxide atmosphere.

Representing the closely-knit team of four women scientists who carried out the fieldwork and mathematical analysis, Birmingham researcher Clare Ziegler said, "This work represents a great deal of collaboration, from student volunteers to the BIFoR leadership team. The researchers echoed this collaborative spirit, using our individual strengths in environmental science, biosciences, and mathematical modeling to gain an understanding that was greater than the sum of its parts, and would not have been possible with a single-disciplinary approach."

The results support other evidence that trees do, and may continue to, provide limited protection against fossil-fuel derived increases in carbon dioxide and, hence, climate change, by absorbing and storing the carbon. Although this is by no means enough protection to significantly offset our emissions.

Colleague and researcher Angeliki Kourmouli said, "We usually take soil for granted, but it forms a crucial part of many ecosystems and plays a significant role in carbon storage. Understanding what goes on below ground when the forest experiences not only increased CO 2 , but also the additional stresses of climate change such as extreme weather, gives us really important insights into what we can expect in the future."

Professor Rob MacKenzie, founding Director of BIFoR, added, "Now we have hard evidence that the extra carbon is being used, in part, to help the trees explore the nutrient-rich world beneath them. I'm tempted to say that the roots live long and prosper under the future atmosphere, but it will take more years of careful observation to be sure that is indeed the case."

Explore further Increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere teaches old oaks new tricks

More information: Clare Ziegler et al, Quantification and uncertainty of root growth stimulation by elevated CO2 in a mature temperate deciduous forest, Science of The Total Environment (2022). Journal information: Science of the Total Environment Clare Ziegler et al, Quantification and uncertainty of root growth stimulation by elevated CO2 in a mature temperate deciduous forest,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158661
GLENS FALLS  The 49th Annual Adirondack Balloon Festival had a windy start in Crandall Park on Thursday.

Crowds gathered around a turquoise and purple balloon laid out on the field with bated breath as the crew tried to fight the windy conditions to inflate the hot air balloon. It was one of 10 that could not launch on Thursday afternoon at the festivals opening ceremonies.

Families toted kids around in wagons and strollers from the bounce house to the various food trucks and tents set up around the perimeter of the field.

Jasmine, a young girl attending with her family and her dog, stood in front of a failed launch. She said she was looking forward to seeing the balloons inflate.

Theyre trying to catch the air in there to make it go up, she explained as she motioned to the balloon behind her.

Live music flowed from the stage beneath the trees as balloon pilots unpacked their gear and wished the winds away.

Well at least we have it untangled for tomorrow, one man could be heard saying as he gave up trying to inflate.

The crowds did not seem to be discouraged as they moved around the field looking at the balloon baskets and standing in the souvenir line, which was at least 25 people long at all times.

Festival organizer Mark Donahue gave an opening speech to the crowd in between the band sets.

He described the colorful strips of fabric that will flap in the wind attached to the basket of the hot air balloon on Saturday morning that will honor Walt and Joan Grishkot, founders of the festival.

I saw it at another festival and it just really is a beautiful sight to see, Donahue told the crowd about the tribute.

Donahue was followed by Glens Falls Mayor Bill Collins, who welcomed the crowd with the energy of a rock band member.

Welcome to Glens Falls and Warren County, Collins shouted to the crowd. They stopped the rain just for you guys. Welcome to a wonderful weekend.

The mayor urged attendees to support local businesses that sponsor the event.

This is one of the anchor events in the community  the fact that its a nonprofit and these guys are all volunteers that put this together and pay for the balloon pilots to come and their hotel rooms, Collins told The Post-Star after his welcome.

This event brings millions of tax dollars into Glens Falls. We need to support them, he said.
Tea, instead of the customary champagne of today, was the beverage of choice when Carlotta landed her hot air balloon at a farmers field at South Granville in 1888.

She (the farmers wife) had a large kitchen, and it was full of people, some of whom came far and wide to see me, Carlotta told The Morning Star of Glens Falls, at the time. They had a dispute as to whose farm I first landed on, but finally the momentous question was satisfactorily settled.

Balloon flights over Warren and Washington counties are common today, as a result of local interest in ballooning that has been sparked by the annual Adirondack Balloon Festival in Queensbury and Glens Falls, which opened Thursday and runs through Sunday.

Balloon flights were a novelty in the 19th century.

When we first saw the big thing a-coming, we didnt know what to make of it, said Maurice Sheehan, whose father owned the farm next to the farm of James Wilson, where the balloon landed. But afterward we remembered reading about the ascension in the papers.

No one seemed to be upset about the damage the balloon caused when landing.

The grappling irons made big gaps in four or five stone walls, and tore up a big swath of corn through the 5-acre lot, The Morning Star reported.

Carlotta, the stage name of Mary Myers, an aeronaut from Mohawk, N.Y, had launched from the Warren County Fair at Glens Falls at 3:50 p.m. on Sept. 12, 1888.

Myers, the daughter of former Glens Falls resident John B. Hawley, had flown about 300 previous balloon flights, including several flights over Saratoga County in 1887.

Her first flight was at Little Falls, in Herkimer County, on July 4, 1880.

She was married to C.E. Myers, an aeronaut and inventor of ballooning equipment, including a machine that varnished fabric to make it impervious.

The major event at the week-long fair was advertised as the first balloon ascension in the vicinity in a quarter of a century.

Indeed, it drew unusually large crowds to the fairgrounds, located then at the intersection of Glen Street and Lincoln Avenue at Glens Falls.

Commencing at noon yesterday, and continuing for at least two hours, a stream of humanity poured through the various avenues leading to the Warren County Fair Ground. Horse cars, buses, and private conveyances, all heavily laden, coursed through the thoroughfare, The sidewalks were thronged with pedestrians, and all seemed to have but one objective point in view, The Morning Star reported on Sept. 13. It was a happy gathering, and reminded the thoughtful onlooker of a large social reunion  cosmopolitan, healthy and fun-loving in character.

Setting up the balloon and inflating it began at 11 a.m.

Balloons today are fueled by propane.

In the 19th century, the fuel was a mixture of water, iron filings and sulphuric acid that combined to produce hydrogen.

The apparatus used consisted of four large casks, each having a capacity of 280 gallons. Each of these casks is connected by means of tin pipes with a tub filled with water, into which sets a barrel from which the bottom is removed. From this barrel, a tube of oiled linen extends to the neck or opening of the balloon.

Carlotta arrived at the launch site a little after 3 p.m.

She is about thirty-five years of age; of medium height; has a lithe figure, and business-like, take-care-of-myself air, characteristic of the ideal American woman, The Morning Star reported. She was attired in a gray suit, cut short after the school-girl style, so as not to interfere with a hasty exit from the basket in case of necessity. Her hands were incased in brown cloth gloves and she wore a jaunty hat.

When the balloon ascended about 30 feet, a swift breeze threatened to crash it.

Carlotta saw the impending danger and hurriedly threw out two of her sandbags, The Morning Star reported. The balloon, thus relieved of a burden, rose rapidly.  Carlotta waved her handkerchief in a farewell signal to the thousands with upturned faces below.

Balloonists in the 19th century did hot have chase vehicles to follow the flight path.

The balloonist relied on the neighborliness of those where they landed to get the balloonist back to the starting point.

Carlotta asked Edward Graves, a farm hand for the Wilsons, to transport her and her balloon back to Glens Falls.

But he had only one horse, and had to milk nine cows before starting, Sheehan said. Then she heard I had a smart team and was ready to come at once, and she hired me.

A large crowd congregated outside The Rockwell House hotel, at what is now the opening of the entrance from Hudson Avenue in the Centennial Circle roundabout, cheered when Sheehan and Carlotta arrived back in Glens Falls, about five hours after she had launched.

The temperature was delightful, she said, of her flight. The sun was reflected on the clouds, giving the air about me a delightful warmth that was in pleasing contrast with what I have heretofore felt.
FORT EDWARD  A special meeting is scheduled for Wednesday at 6 p.m. to discuss the future of the village of Fort Edward Police Department.

The former chief of police, Justin Derway, retired in July after pleading guilty to charges related to providing false information.

In January, both Derway and police Sgt. Dean Watkins were placed on administrative leave pending an investigation after charges filed against the officers claimed they falsified police training records.

Since then, the Police Department has relied on an interim police chief, Phil Lindsey, a retired Glens Falls police officer.

In July, after Derways retirement, the village mayor spoke to The Post-Star about the future of the department.

The Village Board is looking at all different options available for the Police Department, Mayor Matthew Traver said.

At the time, the mayor said the Village Board had not reached any decisions regarding how to proceed, but stated the Police Department, consisting of three full-time officers and several part-time, has been receiving assistance from the Washington County Sheriffs Office.

Traver said conversations were ongoing with Washington County Sheriff Jeffrey Murphy about the possibility of the shared coverage.

However, the mayor said the decision would include listening to the input of residents before any changes were made.

Village officials could not be reached for comment ahead of the meeting scheduled at the Fort Edward firehouse.

Derway and Fort Edward police Sgt. Dean Watkins initially pleaded not guilty to 11 felony counts of offering a false instrument for filing in Albany City Criminal Court in March, but later pleaded to a lesser charge.

According to court officials, Derway was sentenced to a conditional discharge, which included the requirement to comply with a stipulation. The stipulation of the conditional discharge has not been made available to the public.
ATLANTIC CITY  Mary Anne Mulhern said she was never an artistic person until five years ago.

Mulhern, 51, was living on welfare and staying at Adelaides Place, a daytime sanctuary for homeless and disenfranchised women seeking a refuge in the city.

Adelaides Place also facilitates social engagement and has programs for women, so after seeing Dorrie Papademetriou teach clay sculpting every Thursday, Mulhern decided to give it a shot.

It took me a while to get into it, but I got the hang of it eventually, said Mulhern. Now I love it.

Once Mulhern got into it, she and other women looked forward to clay day, when Papademetriou taught women how to create their own works.

At first, the women made gifts for family and friends, but over time, Papademetriou introduced the women to designs, and standard pieces were produced.

Youngsters add artwork to new AtlantiCare facility ATLANTIC CITY  What started as arts-and-crafts projects for children will become a mural in

Dorrie changed my life, said Mulhern about being one of the first women who became a part of MudGirls Studios. She helped me improve my life, and Im so happy now.

MudGirls was founded by Papademetriou after working with the women in Adelaides Place in 2016. The nonprofit focuses on empowering disadvantaged women by teaching them how to work with clay and ceramics, while also employing them.

Papademetriou said many disadvantaged women are chronically unemployed, or unemployed for a long time. The women at MudGirls can transition to work part time for the studio or go on to work somewhere else with the clay crafting skills they learn.

MudGirls creates ceramic bowls, mugs, plates and other functional tableware. Other pieces include soap dishes, vases, tiles and, most recently, jewelry.

People, when given the chance, have the ability, said Papademetriou, who studied ceramics while attending Bowling Green State University, where she graduated with a Bachelors in Fine Arts and worked in graphic design before dedicating much of her time to MudGirls. They can work in clay and make beautiful things. This gives them the opportunity.

Papademetriou said it takes a little while for the women to hone their craft, noting experience is key to doing things like tiles and glazing. But all the women at MudGirls are enthusiastic and have an eagerness to come to work every day.

Stockton recognized for innovation by national college association GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP  Stockton University is being recognized by the American Association of S

Art has that power to connect to people, to speak to people. All art does that, but this in particular is a physical object, said Papademetriou as she held a small bowl with the word believe in the center with her two hands. Knowing the hand that made it just builds that much more of a connection.

Besides teaching artistic skills, MudGirls gives disadvantaged women of all ages and backgrounds the chance to learn life skills, business and marketing while they develop their confidence.

I make better decisions and have more self confidence, said Mulhern about the fresh start her MudGirls career has given her. I feel like a million bucks now.

Tajah Gay said shes never been homeless, but MudGirls has helped her pay her bills, put food on the table and made her realize she wants to pursue a hands-on career, potentially in the arts.

Gay, 20, is one of the youngest women working at MudGirls. She said MudGirls helped her learn stability and a new skill set to which she otherwise would not have had access.

Im proud to tell people what I do, that I work with clay, said Gay, who joined MudGirls two years ago thanks to the Jewish Employment and Vocational Services workforce program she was in.

Chelsea awarded $681,000 to implement neighborhood plan ATLANTIC CITY  The citys Chelsea neighborhood will get a much-needed facelift, as well as 

The women who work at MudGirls vary in age and background, many coming from social agencies, such as Covenant House or Enlightened Solutions, and others by word of mouth or recommendation.

As the demand for their products has grown, so has the need for MudGirls to expand its building and workforce.

Theres not much manufactured here in the city. Its nice to have something made in Atlantic City from a small-batch shop, said Papademetriou.

In 2017, MudGirls moved from the Parish of St. Monicas to St. Michaels Loft, the second floor of St. Michaels and the location of the former St. Michaels School.

A job training grant from Ocean Inc. allowed MudGirls to hire 10 women. Meanwhile, the studio has won commissions from the likes of the Atlantic City Development Corp. to design and produce ceramic tiles for Stockton University, as well as from South Jersey Gas, which was a major turning point for the business. Resorts Casino Hotel, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City, Meet AC and Atlantic Shores are also clients.

Atlantic City Community Fund awards $50,000 to local organizations ATLANTIC CITY  The Atlantic City Community Fund awarded $50,000 to 11 organizations in its 

This year the studio is celebrating five years of success. On Friday, it hosted its first ever fundraiser at Stockton Universitys Campus Theatre, which included the airing of the documentary Fired Up: The Story of MudGirls Studios and a cocktail hour.

The documentary was produced by ArtC Films, a local organization that seeks to promote the arts in South Jersey, and Glasstown Productions.

Papademetriou hopes to expand the MudGirls concept throughout the area and nationally, so she can help more than just local women.

Its nice to have a consistent national following, but I believe in the power of good, said Papademetriou, who said the intention of expansion isnt to sell more pieces. Its more about raising awareness. We want to give more women an opportunity.
ATLANTIC CITY  The Clean and Safe Atlantic City group has a straightforward goal: Get the streetlights on to prevent crime, increase public safety and show the world a functional city.

But after the groups most recent meeting Friday morning, it was clear that lights are not getting fixed in a timely manner, despite years of complaints to the city, the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority and Atlantic City Electric.

The group, organized by Council Vice President Kaleem Shabazz, has had some success working to help the mentally ill and substance abusers, and stopping them from committing quality-of-life offenses such as shoplifting and aggressive panhandling.

But the streetlight issue is proving a tough nut to crack.

Part of the problem is varied ownership.

Some lights are owned by the city, some by Atlantic City Electric and some by private businesses, said CRDA Director of Project Implementation and Management Tom Meehan. CRDA has funded streetlight repairs.

Resident Myra Corbin-Gibson said she has been waiting more than a month for the city to fix a light in her neighborhood at Kentucky and McKinley avenues, which she reported to both the city clerk and Public Works Department multiple times.

Tuesday this past I called back to public works and told my story again ... and said, Its dark, Corbin-Gibson said.

Atlantic City Clean and Safe group tackles lighting problems ATLANTIC CITY  A group working to crack down on repeat shoplifting and other offenses is no

A supervisor told her the light was fixed three weeks ago, she said.

But the light remains out, Corbin-Gibson said.

Here I am one month later, still waiting for a streetlight to be replaced, she said.

Meehan said the city has asked the CRDA for more funding to handle streetlight outages and maintenance.

Five years ago, CRDA provided $500,000 to repair and replace streetlights, and Calvi Electric was contracted to do the work, Meehan said.

A lot of lights are now back in service. What remains are areas within the city missing lights (that) may be under Atlantic City Electric ownership, Meehan said.

Atlantic City Electric did not send a representative to the meeting, although one was expected to attend.

In January 2021, Atlantic City Electric promised to quickly repair about 130 company-owned streetlights that were not working, after City Council members complained their constituents didnt feel safe.

Atlantic City Electric spokesperson Frank Tedesco said late Friday that the company has completed repairs to more than 1,030 company-owned streetlights in Atlantic City and continues to fix those reported to the company.

Currently, there are 82 company-owned streetlights reported as being out in the city, some of which have been repaired as of today, Tedesco wrote. We have crews assigned to work in Atlantic City only to help expedite the repairs, and we expect to have all company-owned lights that are currently out repaired within the next six weeks, but expect to make good progress in making repairs by the end of next week.

Tedesco said some lights require underground work, which takes more time, and the company will continue to update the city on its progress.

Atlantic City Electric has an online method for reporting broken lights anywhere in its service area at atlanticcityelectric.com. Under outages, click on report a streetlight problem.

Customers also can also call the utilitys Customer Care Center at 800-642-3780.

Complaints about broken lights are constant, said Assemblyman Don Guardian, R-Atlantic, who lives in the city and sees for himself large swaths of dark areas.

He suggested using the system he used when he was mayor  having a city worker check streetlights one night a week, arrange to have city lights fixed or replaced, and report Atlantic City Electric and privately owned light problems to their owners.

It takes about four hours to drive the whole city, he said.

Atlantic City launches new online services ATLANTIC CITY  Applying for a marriage license, requesting a vital record or submitting a c

Atlantic County Prosecutor William Reynolds said Gov. Phil Murphys chief of staff George Helmy has even asked him to help fix the problem.

He asked me, Can you help me get the lights turned on (in the city)? Reynolds said.

Lighting doesnt just prevent crime, it helps solve it, Reynolds said, by providing light needed for security cameras to capture images at night.

Mayoral adviser and former state senator and Superior Court Judge Steven Perskie said the city has compiled lists of all city lights and those owned by others.

But Murphys adviser and former state Sen. Chris Brown said the city needs funding to conduct an audit of all streetlights to determine ownership and get each marked with an identification number and sign instructing people whom to call if it is not working.

We have been talking about this for 10 to 12 years, said state Sen. Vince Polistina, R-Atlantic. We need somebody to take the lead on those issues.

Hopefully we are edging closer to that, Shabazz said.

The mayors view is at the end of the day the ultimate responsibility for keeping the city lit belongs to the city, Perskie said. As usual with Atlantic City, life is a little more complicated than that.

Reynolds and members of his staff walked center city and reported dozens of lights and pedestrian crossing signals out in the city weeks ago, but he has received no feedback from the city or Atlantic City Electric about them, he said after the meeting.

The next Clean and Safe meeting will be 8:30 a.m. Oct. 7 in Council Chambers at City Hall, 1301 Bacharach Blvd. Shabazz said he hopes to have updates from the city and Atlantic City Electric on the lighting situation at that meeting.
Staff Writer

PLEASANTVILLE  An 11-month controversy concerning the local school superintendent may have reached a critical point.

The Pleasantville Board of Education has requested state approval to fire Superintendent Natakie Chestnut-Lee. The request was sent in a July 13 letter to acting state Education Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan and obtained this week by The Press of Atlantic City.

It came nine months after the school board suspended Chestnut-Lee.

The position of superintendent is the epitome of trust and responsibility, said the letter, which was prepared by Board of Education attorney James Carroll. As a result of her failure to act in accordance with the standards required of her position as superintendent the Board of Education  does hereby seek to terminate (Chestnut-Lees) contract.

Chestnut-Lee responded to a request for comment by sending a copy of a lawsuit she has filed against the school board, board President Jerome Page, a group of other board members and several other political figures in the city.

Pleasantville school board president admits to quid pro quo favoring Callaway influence PLEASANTVILLE  The president of the local school board admitted Wednesday he agreed to supp

The board lays out seven charges of misconduct against Chestnut-Lee that it argues warrant her termination. These charges pertain to a job application she sent to the district and her past job history; intervention in district legal matters in which Chestnut-Lee allegedly had a conflict of interest; and a campaign to remove a state monitor assigned to oversee the district that the board alleges was inappropriate.

She also is accused of handling confidential and sensitive information via her personal email, which the board said is against district policy.

In her lawsuit, Chestnut-Lee said she had achieved the goals set in her contract by the district and made extraordinary accomplishments, such as retiring the districts food-service debt. She argued the charges were grossly deficient, omitting relevant exculpatory evidence, and broadly argued that her enemies on the board had ulterior motives.

Page delivered a stunning speech at Wednesdays board meeting corroborating that point, alleging four board members were under the influence of the Callaway family.

David Callaway declined to comment on Pages comments, and a request for comment left for former Atlantic City Council President Craig Callaway has not been returned.

The letter to Allen-McMillan indicates the board voted 6-3 during a July 12 executive session to approve the request. Members of the board broke down along similar lines as they did in previous votes concerning the superintendent.

State authority approves plan to build new school in Pleasantville PLEASANTVILLE  The state Schools Development Authority has approved a proposal to build a n

The board requested that Chestnut-Lee be suspended without pay upon the certification of the charges. Chestnut-Lee had been on leave with pay.

Page, who voted in favor of the termination request, told The Press that Chestnut-Lee had abortively requested a state arbiter dismiss the termination request.

Dr. Chestnut-Lee has to prove that the charges are not true, Page said.

The school board first voted to suspend Chestnut-Lee on Oct. 12, 2021. The initial suspension came after former board President James Pressley had written a letter dated Sept. 12, 2021, to Allen-McMillan about the superintendent. He alleged Chestnut-Lee had not been honest on a job application to the district when indicating why she left a previous position.

The action accentuated a schism on the board, with members sorting into a bloc that supported the superintendent and a bloc that opposed her. Attendees at school board meetings have periodically admonished the board for the suspension and asked that the board either restore Chestnut-Lee to her position or otherwise resolve the situation. The meetings themselves have often collapsed into inane procedural disputes and caustic personal feuds, derailing board business and heightening district tensions.

The board has since appointed Karin Farkas acting superintendent. It also appointed J&J Investigations in January to investigate Chestnut-Lees tenure, later voting to conclude that investigation in June. The board voted Sept. 13 to hire two law firms to represent Chestnut-Lee and Page in an ongoing legal dispute, with payments to each firm not to exceed $50,000.
Patients infected with dengue fever are treated inside mosquito nets at a hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, on Sept. 23, 2022. Dengue rampage continues in Pakistan with over 1,000 new cases reported. (Photo by Sajjad/Xinhua)

ISLAMABAD, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan continues to face a growing momentum in the spread of dengue fever as death toll from the disease in the country's southern Sindh province in September has reached 30, the provincial health department reported Thursday evening.

A total of 402 new cases of dengue fever were detected in Sindh in the last 24 hours, the health department said. The worst-hit area was Karachi, the provincial capital, which reported 297 new cases.

The number of dengue infections in Sindh in September has risen to 4,319, bringing the local total to 6,888 this year.

Moreover, in the last 24 hours, 363 more people were diagnosed with the disease in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the provincial health department reported on Thursday night. The number of active cases in the province stands currently at 1,710 and the total number of patients this year has reached 5,869.

Additionally, the eastern Punjab province reported 196 new cases in the last 24 hours, the provincial health authorities said on Thursday. Punjab's Rawalpindi city reported 67 new cases, followed by its capital Lahore with 63 cases. The total number of cases in Punjab this year has gone up to 4,063.

The country's capital Islamabad reported 77 new cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the city's tally this year to 1,734, the health authorities said on Thursday night.

The Pakistani government has launched an anti-dengue campaign including raising public awareness in response to the alarmingly high level of cases and has taken special measures at the dengue hotspots in order to curb the spread of the disease. 

Patients infected with dengue fever are treated inside mosquito nets at a hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, on Sept. 23, 2022. Dengue rampage continues in Pakistan with over 1,000 new cases reported. (Photo by Sajjad/Xinhua)

Patients infected with dengue fever are treated inside mosquito nets at a hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, on Sept. 23, 2022. Dengue rampage continues in Pakistan with over 1,000 new cases reported. (Photo by Sajjad/Xinhua)

A woman gives her blood sample for a dengue test at a hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, on Sept. 23, 2022. Dengue rampage continues in Pakistan with over 1,000 new cases reported. (Photo by Sajjad/Xinhua)

A patient infected with dengue fever is treated inside a mosquito net at a hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, on Sept. 23, 2022. Dengue rampage continues in Pakistan with over 1,000 new cases reported. (Photo by Sajjad/Xinhua)

A patient infected with dengue fever is treated inside a mosquito net at a hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, on Sept. 23, 2022. Dengue rampage continues in Pakistan with over 1,000 new cases reported. (Photo by Sajjad/Xinhua)

Patients infected with dengue fever are treated inside mosquito nets at a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Sept. 23, 2022. Dengue rampage continues in Pakistan with over 1,000 new cases reported. (Photo by Saeed Ahmad/Xinhua)

Patients infected with dengue fever are treated inside mosquito nets at a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Sept. 23, 2022. Dengue rampage continues in Pakistan with over 1,000 new cases reported. (Photo by Saeed Ahmad/Xinhua)

Patients infected with dengue fever are treated inside mosquito nets at a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Sept. 23, 2022. Dengue rampage continues in Pakistan with over 1,000 new cases reported. (Photo by Saeed Ahmad/Xinhua)

A patient infected with dengue fever is treated inside a mosquito net at a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Sept. 23, 2022. Dengue rampage continues in Pakistan with over 1,000 new cases reported. (Photo by Saeed Ahmad/Xinhua)

A patient infected with dengue fever is treated inside a mosquito net at a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Sept. 23, 2022. Dengue rampage continues in Pakistan with over 1,000 new cases reported. (Photo by Saeed Ahmad/Xinhua)
CHICAGO  One theme throughout New York Attorney General Letitia James multimillion-dollar fraud lawsuit against former President Donald Trump is that he undervalued property if it would save him money and overvalued property if it helped him get bigger loans.

The showcase Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago is cited as an example of how Trump allegedly sought to have it both ways. When he needed collateral, he and his team placed a high value on the property and when he wanted a tax break, he called the property worthless, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday by James office.

Once touted as a jewel of the Trump portfolio, the Chicago Trump Tower was, in reality, mired in questionable financing for years.

The 220-page lawsuit said the downtown Chicago property, owned officially by 401 North Wabash Venture LLC, was appraised at $133 million in recent years by Deutsche Bank, which lent Trump money for the project, but he gave a different story  saying it was worthless  when reporting his taxes.

In an attempt to try to avoid detection, Trump and the Trump Organization intentionally didnt include the skyscraper in his various statements of financial condition so that it wouldnt expose the differing values he gave the property, the lawsuit stated.

Since 2009, its value has been excluded from the Statements of Financial Condition, which are essentially balance sheets reviewed by lenders and others that show assets and liabilities, the lawsuit said.

Based on sworn testimony, the reason for the omission was that Trump did not want to take a position on the Statements that would conflict with a position about the propertys value he has represented to tax authorities, the lawsuit stated. (The) investigation revealed that the tax position taken was that the property had become worthless according to Mr. Trump, and thus formed the basis of a substantial loss under the federal tax code.

The Chicago hotel and residence is relevant in the case filed by James office because Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization obtained bank loans on the building or its components as collateral and the statements were part of the loan transaction, the lawsuit said.

Any use of differing property values could put Trump in a difficult position given he allegedly certified his statements of financial condition as true and accurate in multiple loan agreements, including in loans he personally guaranteed for the skyscraper on the bank of the Chicago River.

Among the loan transactions cited in the lawsuit was one in which the Trump Organization paid down a loan from $98 million to $19 million with proceeds from condo sales at the Chicago property, but then successfully increased the loan from Deutsche Bank by $54 million  to a $73 million loan  with Trumps personal guarantee.

Included in collateral, the lawsuit said, were unsold condominium units and the Trump International Hotel Chicago.

By 2015, the lawsuit said, the Trump Organization had paid down what it owed to a remaining loan balance of $45 million.

But since the property had been appraised at $133 million, that was to Trumps advantage because the appraisal triggered specific provisions in his loan deal that meant Mr. Trumps personal guarantee was eliminated, according to the lawsuit.
Families lined the street and the smell of tacos filled the air as a crowd gathered this week in Moline to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.

Hispanic Heritage Month runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. It became law under President Reagan in 1988. Sept. 15 was chosen as the start date because it is the independence day of five Central American countries.

Since the last census, the U.S. Hispanic population stands at 62.1 million. It is projected to be 133 million by 2050. Today in the United States, there are more than four million Hispanic-owned businesses with a GDP of more than $660 billion.

Data also shows that the Hispanic population in the Iowa and Illinois Quad-Cities stands around 11%. These numbers will be ever-increasing in the coming years as the Hispanic population continues to climb, according to chamber director Janessa Calderon.

In the Quad-Cities, supporting the Hispanic community is vital for growth, she said.

"Bringing the culture brings different diversity," she said. "In the future, when we embrace then go to their small mom-and-pop shops and support them, they'll have success."

Founded in 2008, the Hispanic Chamber now has about 300 members. With the Latino population experiencing an uptick through the 2020 census, she has high hopes more members will join soon.

"It's important to recognize that Latino businesses are seen as a different culture, but they have an impact on the culture in the Quad-Cities area," Calderon said.

Dwight Ford, executive director of Project Now, said his organization recently joined the Hispanic Chamber. In an effort to help support the community, Project Now teamed up with Head Start and the Moline Public Library to provide a literacy program for immigrant families.

Ford said helping individuals live a self-sufficient life was what having a community was all about. Living separate is a thing of the past, and moving forward, community needs to be about being accountable and accessible to one another, he said.

"The truth is this isn't just about us," he said. "This is about seeing beyond our personal self-interests and to a collective interest. The city of Moline is strong today ... because of our ability to see beyond ourselves."

Head Start Director Andrea Flannery said on average, immigrant families had fewer than 10 books in their household, compared with English-speaking families who have about 50 on average. Building literacy is critical for the success of these families and the children who will grow up in the community, she said.

Reading a proclamation on behalf of the city of Moline, Mayor Sangeetha Rayapati said the Hispanic Chamber has a goal to support and grow diversity in the area. The businesses in the city that take a chance in entrepreneurship and growth are all reflections of how the country was founded, she said.

"I am so thankful that so many people want good for this community," she said.
CAMBRIDGE, Ill.  A Kewanee man has been charged with Class X felony terrorism after he allegedly stated he would kill employees of Great Dane Trailers, 2006 Kentville Road in Kewanee.

Richard A. McDonald of 127 W. McClure St. was arraigned Thursday in Henry County Circuit Court regarding charges and penalties. The penalty for conviction of a Class X felony offense is 6-30 years in prison.

Judge Dana McReynolds set bond at $150,000, and a preliminary hearing was set for Sept. 26. McDonald was found to be indigent, and the public defender's office was appointed to the case.

The alleged threat happened on Wednesday. According to the Kewanee Police Department, police responded to Great Dane in reference to a former employee who was making threats toward the business and employees. Officers provided security while an investigation took place, which led to McDonald's arrest. According to Kewanee police, McDonald is 57.

Charges included two Class 3 felony counts of being a sex offender and failing to register a Facebook account under the name of Rich McDonald and failing to register a change of employment with the Kewanee police chief.

McDonald remained in jail as of Thursday afternoon.
Developing south of the Rock River has been a longtime goal for growing Moline since the 1990s.

But sprinkle in a recession, COVID-19 and other roadblocks, plans for possible development have yet to come to fruition.

The first plan was adopted in 1995 and analyzed development opportunities for land south of the river. Land south of the airport, west of U.S 150, east of the Indian Bluff Forest Reserve, and north of 78th Avenue were studied and showed that the proximity of the airport served as a catalyst for future development and employment.

"It was a very rudimentary plan and focused mostly on population projections for the next 25 years," Hvitlk said.

Ryan Hvitlk, director of community and economic development, discussed future development in the area at the city council meeting Tuesday. The presentation was to spur discussion about future development with the council members.

A few challenges working against the possible development are the topography of the land, utility and roadway infrastructure, needing to revise a few ordinances and include subdivision regulations.

According to Hvitlk, the subdivision ordinance was killed and moved into the zoning ordinance among others.

At-Large Ald. James Patrick Schmidt asked what they would be looking at when it comes to the subdivision ordinance and if it would apply to all subdivisions and residential throughout the city.

The ordinance would cover any subdivision, residential, commercial, industrial or any division of land within the city.

City Administrator Bob Vitas said it would work similar to the form-based code that is in the works for downtown development for land around the old I-74 bridge.

The land also presents a challenge since it is a mix of hills and bluffs it compared to the traditional grid system of streets and necessitates the need for additional infrastructure.

Follow-up plans have analyzed roadblocks the city faces and what would need to be considered for potential development.

The 2001 Comprehensive Plan addressed that future land use would need to be a low density residential south of the airport with commercial use north and southeast of the airport.

Hvitlk said that as of today there is not enough room for additional housing and commercial purposes.

That plan adopted the South Rock River Planning District that encompasses about 10 square miles bordered by the Rock River to north, 106th Avenue to the south, and the annexation boundaries with Coal Valley and Milan to the east and west.

Follow-up plans in 2009 looked at a private development plan for retail and office use for the Case Creek area; in 2011 TIF district number seven was created that is 134-acres southwest of the airport, north of 78th Avenue and Indian Bluff Road, and east of the Milan Beltway; in 2013 the then-council adopted a plan to provide a more detailed and focused plan for the area.

Third Ward Ald. Mike Wendt said he is all for the development but pointed out that it is going to be expensive and need to go about it in a methodical way.

"I want to make sure we are doing this in a methodical, smart way," Wendt said.

To achieve a thorough and updated plan, Hvitlk told the Dispatch-Argus/Quad-City Times that they plan on putting together a comprehensive annexation plan for development and working with property owners who would like to see their land developed along with those who are interested in city utilities for annexation into the city.

"The council and staff both share the desire to work collaboratively with owners on annexing their property into the city of the time of development," Hvitlk said.

The next stop in the process is updating plans from 2001 and 2013 for next year and looking at methodically growing south of the Rock River.
Most of the old twin spans of the I-74 bridge will be dismantled piece-by-piece, but a plan is pending approval for the use of explosives to take down certain sections.

The Iowa Department of Transportation, DOT, recently announced the superstructure will not be blown out of the water, but added that some explosives will be used.

Specific plans must be approved by the DOT, which will review those details in 2023, said I-74 Corridor Manager George Ryan.

"We do not have details on the use of explosives just yet, but the contractor has stated they plan to use explosives on select areas, including the cables and towers," Ryan said.

The towers are the tall, green steel structures that flank the Mississippi River's navigation channel and support the bridge cables. It is not yet known whether the concrete bases that rise from the riverbed and anchor the towers will be included in the explosion plans.

"We will have more information next year after the DOT has reviewed and approved the contractors methods for using explosives," Ryan said.

The bulk of the superstructure will be dismantled in order to limit the amount of debris that must be retrieved from the river while minimizing the impact on endangered mussels and the overall environment.

Helm Civil, which was awarded a $23 million demolition contract, currently is breaking up concrete on the bridge decks. When materials such as steel beams are dismantled, they will be lowered onto barges for removal, according to the DOT.

Some plans already are in place and meet certain handling rules.

"This area of the Mississippi River is environmentally sensitive and there is criteria the contractor must meet to minimize impacts, such as having methods in place to catch debris," Ryan said. "Silt fences will be installed in various locations to catch debris."

Two decades-old piers on the Illinois side of the river in Moline will remain standing to protect known concentrations of mussels in that area, Ryan said.
SPRINGFIELD  State Sen. Emil Jones III pleaded not guilty in federal court Friday to three felony counts stemming from an alleged bribery scheme involving a red light camera company.

Jones, 44, is a Chicago Democrat who has served in the Senate since 2009. He is also the son of former Senate President Emil Jones Jr., who served in the Senate from 1983 to 2009.

The charges are the result of a long-running investigation into public corruption in the Chicago area that has resulted in indictments against several state legislators. Part of that investigation has focused on officials ties to companies that operate automated traffic enforcement systems, or red light cameras.

Those are devices that can detect when a motorist runs a red light and issue automatic traffic tickets. The companies provide that service to certain municipalities in exchange for a percentage of the revenue generated.

In 2019, Jones proposed legislation calling on the Illinois Department of Transportation to conduct a statewide study to evaluate those systems. The bill passed out of the Senate Transportation Committee but was never voted on by the full Senate.

The charges, which were made public Tuesday, allege that in exchange for a payment of $5,000 and a job for an unnamed associate from a company that operates red light cameras outside the city of Chicago, Jones agreed to focus the study only on red light cameras in Chicago.

Jones was also charged with facilitating the scheme by using a Google email account and with lying to federal investigators.

Combined, the three charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison followed by nine years of supervised probation and fines up to $750,000.

During Fridays arraignment, which was conducted by teleconference, Jones waived his right to a formal indictment by a grand jury and allowed prosecutors to file the charges through whats known as an information.

He remains free on an unsecured bond of $10,000, meaning he would only have to pay that amount if he fails to show up at any court proceeding. He was also ordered to surrender his passport and not to leave the United States without permission from the court.

Prosecutors said Friday that there is voluminous evidence that Jones defense team is entitled to review.

He is also running unopposed for reelection from the 14th District. On Thursday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker called on him to resign his seat but Jones has not responded to that statement.

His next court appearance will be a status hearing scheduled for Nov. 4, four days before the general election.
SPRINGFIELD  Gov. J.B. Pritzker called on two Democratic state senators Thursday to resign their seats amid allegations of misconduct.

Sen. Emil Jones III, D-Chicago, was charged in federal court earlier this week with soliciting a $5,000 bribe from a red light camera company. And Sen. Michael Hastings, D-Frankfort, faces accusations of domestic violence against his estranged wife, according a report by public radio station WBEZ in Chicago.

Both have given up their roles in the Senate Democrats leadership team but remain in the Senate.

Senator Jones is accused of accepting bribes. And Senator Hastings is accused of abusing women. They should answer the charges and have their day in court, Pritzker said in a statement Thursday. But in the best interests of their constituents, these men must resign from their offices. Resigning only their leadership roles falls short of what the public should expect. I want to send a clear message to the people of Illinois: Corruption and abuse have no place here.

So far, however, Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, has not gone that far.

The gravity of the accusations required immediate action and consequences, which is why the Senate president demanded and received resignations from their leadership posts, his spokesman, John Patterson, said in an email statement. Now it is up to these individuals and their constituents to determine their futures.

The governors statement came just a little more than six weeks before the Nov. 8 general election in which both senators are on the ballot.

Jones is running unopposed in the 14th District, which includes portions of Chicago and its southwest suburbs. He is the son of former Senate President Emil Jones Jr.

Hastings faces a challenge from Republican police officer Patrick Sheehan in the 19th District in the citys south suburbs. Once considered a rising star in the Democratic Party, he is an attorney and Army veteran and was awarded the Bronze Star for his service in Iraq.

Hastings legal troubles began more than two years ago when he was sued for racial and gender discrimination by his former chief of staff. The state hired a private attorney to defend him and eventually agreed to pay $100,000 to settle the case.

But according to WBEZ, he now faces accusations of domestic abuse from his estranged wife, including an allegation that in 2020, he put her in a headlock and slammed her into a door repeatedly.

The allegations made therein are baseless and without merit, Hastings said in a statement Thursday through his spokesman. I look forward to continuing to serve the best interests of the hard-working men and women of the south suburbs.

His Republican rival, however, joined Pritzker in calling for Hastings resignation.

"I have done my best to run a positive campaign on my record of supporting and defending our families and community," Sheehan said in a statement. "However, the abuse allegations against my opponent have become too serious to ignore.

Jones did not respond to a request for comment.
As my parents walked down a street in China, a man sidled up next to my mother and asked if they had a Bible.

In accented English, he explained that some Americans brought Bibles to give away in that Communist country. My folks were Illinois hog farmers who over the years visited their counterparts in China, Ukraine, Poland and Denmark to exchange ideas.

When Mom related that story more than 30 years ago, I felt so grateful to live in a nation where the government didnt tell people what they could read.

Im not sure I live in such a place anymore.

Unfortunately, we live in a society where folks on both the left and right are trying to determine what others can read.

Im bullheaded enough that when someone tells me not to read something, its the first thing I add to my reading list.

Years ago, a fellow Protestant mocked me for my curiosity about the Apocrypha, the four books of the Bible recognized by the Catholic Church but not by most Protestant denominations.

My response was to read it. It has helped me understand the differences in Catholic and Protestant teachings. It adds greater context to the 400 years before the birth of Jesus and its prose is beautiful.

Today, race is often the fulcrum on the book-banning debate. I recently interviewed the Republican candidate for governor, Darren Bailey, and he said critical race theory shouldnt be taught in schools.

Supporters of teaching critical race theory contend race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies. Conservative critics counter that the foundation of the theory is that the United States is fundamentally racist and that it leads students to feel guilty for past actions by white people.

How about letting the kids read the works and decide for themselves?

Critics of Critical Race Theory often point to the 1619 Project, a Pulitzer Prize-winning endeavor by the New York Times Magazine looking at the legacy of 400 years of slavery on what is now the United States.

For Christmas last year, my wife gave me a copy of the 1619 Project. It was a fascinating read. Some conclusions in the book I agreed with. Others I didn't. But that's OK. When you read something, it should provoke thought, not adherence.

I also make a point of reading authors I know I will disagree with. Sometimes, I even read material that I know going in I will find revolting.

For example in 1995, in the wake of the Oklahoma City Bombing, I entered a bookstore in Davenport, Iowa, and asked if they had a copy of the Turner Diaries, a racist tome that is said to have inspired the bombers.

The older woman who owned the store narrowed her eyes and snarled, We dont sell that here. Do you want to bomb something?

No. But I did want to derive some understanding of what hate motivated the terrorists. When I eventually obtained a copy, I found the ideas it espoused disgusting. But it has given me insight into the warped reasoning behind the white-nationalist movement.

One of my favorite books is To Kill a Mockingbird. When I read the novel as a teenager, I was mesmerized by the tale of a lawyer standing against a racist legal system in the South. I loved the book so much that when we were expecting our second daughter, I wanted to name her Scout after the books protagonist. (My wife nixed the idea.)

Today, there is a push to ban the book in schools. Some folks dont like it because it uses a racial epithet in the context of the Southern culture of the time. Others say its misogynistic because its about a false rape accusation. Still others dont like that a white man is cast as the hero trying to save a Black man.

All these criticisms would seem to make good fodder for a discussion in a classroom. Instead, wimpy school administrators are banning its use.

So, what am I reading during Banned Books Week? Well, Diary of a Misfit is an excellent non-fiction read. Its about a lesbian journalist returning to rural Louisiana, where she grew up, to create a documentary of a transgender man her grandmother knew in the 1940s.

Im not done with it, but so far it is a brilliant read.

Im also reading Every Good Endeavor by Timothy Keller, an evangelical pastor who discusses finding spiritual purpose in our work. I enjoy discussing it with others early on Wednesday mornings.

Reading creates bridges of understanding between disparate groups. In our divided society, what could be a better goal?
Aldermen next week plan to debate where to end two-way traffic conversion on Davenport's two downtown east-to-west one-way streets.

The city council plans to culminate a decades-long debate with a final vote Wednesday on whether to eliminate one-way traffic on two of the city's downtown streets  3rd and 4th.

Already, the measure has squeaked passed the council in the last two votes  Mayor Mike Matson broke a tie-vote in the most recent.

But a sticking point remains on how many city blocks should allow two directions of traffic.

Currently, the ordinance applies to River Drive to Marquette Street. At-Large Alderman JJ Condon, a downtown resident and staunch supporter of converting the streets said Wednesday he was "considering" introducing an amendment that would extend the two-way traffic flow to Division Street, where it would then end and continue as one-way traffic to Telegraph Road.

Condon said he thought if the city could afford it, the conversion should've extended the full 2.5 miles of each roadway, but he said the two-way conversion in any form he believed would be beneficial to Davenport.

"No version of this conversion would be impervious to critique, but I will let you know that I can support multiple versions of this conversion," Condon said. "For me, it's important that we let this progress happen in whatever version that our majority body decides."

Last week, Alderman Robby Ortiz, 4th Ward, said he'd support the conversion so long as the distance was extended. A business-owner himself, Ortiz said he wanted to bring the economic benefits promised by a two-way conversion further to the west of the Downtown Davenport Partnership's jurisdiction.

Much of 3rd and 4th Street further onward is residential, which Ortiz said he believed wouldn't see the same business benefits of two-way traffic.

Another supporter of the two-way conversion  Marion Meginnis, Ward 3, said she would prefer the terminus to be at Marquette Street, but would still vote for extending a few city blocks if that's what it took to pass.

"My preference is Marquette. I understand that for many reasons we've got people in the West who are concerned about the possibility of an extension, and I accept that concern," Meginnis said. "However, this is so important to me  and it is very important to me that this conversion go forward  that if in the end, my only choice is an amendment to Division, then I will support that."

In a city staff presentation in July, city staff estimated the cost of extending the conversion of two-way traffic to be: $1.6 million to convert River Drive to Marquette Street, which is what is currently proposed; an added $450,000 to extend to Division Street, and an additional $1.2 million to extend all the way to Telegraph Road because of rail road signal replacement at car-rail intersections on 3rd and 4th Streets.

Davenport isn't the only city to consider doing this. Cedar Rapids has converted 19 street segments since 2019, according to the city's website. Des Moines, Indianola, and Peoria have also either converted or are planning to convert their one-way streets to two-ways.

Proponents point to planning and urban development studies that show two-way streets make areas more pedestrian-friendly by reducing lanes and slowing traffic, which attracts more businesses, residents, and patrons. Plus, advocates say two-way traffic makes traveling less confusing for first-time visitors and would allow two directions of traffic on 4th Street in case flooding would close 3rd Street.

Opponents then, point to lost parking spaces for patrons who want to visit downtown businesses as the city considers creating designated loading zones for delivery vehicles that currently take up a lane of traffic on 3rd and 4th Streets. Many residents who disapprove also worry about cost overruns and express that the funds should go toward street repairs instead.

"Philosophically, to me, we have a downtown that can't support itself by the residents that live there," said Alderman Ben Jobgen, Ward 6, who voted 'no' on the proposal last week. "...People have to come downtown purposefully, right? And people are coming down town purposefully in automobiles."

Jobgen said although he's opposed to the conversion, he did believe if it does go through, the conversion should extend at least to Division Street. His other "bugaboos" with the project, he said, included the proposal converting some intersections to four-way stops and an uncertainty of whether the city will be responsible for changing the grade of the intersections of River Drive and 3rd and 4th Streets.

"If the city's on the hook for approximately $1 million on this conversion project, maybe we can use that money to fix those intersections now," Jobgen said.

City Engineer Brian Schadt told council members on Wednesday that the Iowa Department of Transportation could ask the city to change the turn radius at River Drive and 3rd and 4th Streets regardless of whether the city goes forward with the conversion. And it would cost the same to correct regardless of traffic flow  between $1.2 and $1.5 million, he said.

Owners of businesses in the heart of downtown, including the Hotel Blackhawk, Analog, and several apartment building owners, have urged the council to support the proposal.

But business owners further west, including the owners of Sweet Delite, remain staunchly opposed to the conversion.
As Jackie Giago makes her way down Main Street during the Native American Day Parade, there may be a cutout of an important person by her side  her late husband Tim.

Giago will serve as the grand marshal for the Oct. 8 parade celebrating Native American culture. Her role as grand marshal is intended to honor the memory of Tim, who helped found Native American Day along with former Gov. George Mickelson. Tim died July 24 at age 88.

The parade returns after a two-year hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic. It coincides with the Black Hills Powwow, which also returns for the first time in two years Oct. 7-9.

Giago said she was a little shocked when she found out she was going to be the grand marshal. She said the last time she was in the parade was with Tim.

"The weather was beautiful and we had a convertible," she said. "You couldn't have asked for a better day for a parade."

She said they would see people they haven't seen in a long time. When COVID came around, they didn't leave the house for about two years, she said.

"The last six months has been sad," she said.

But Giago said she's been keeping busy. She said she just really got back into running the business, Native Sun News, again. She said they had to find a new office while Tim was getting treatment, but the Native Sun News crew jumped in and searched for a new location.

With the loss of her husband, Giago also had other challenges. She said their vehicle was totaled in a car wreck and her cat died.

"It was just a bad six months," she said. "You didn't want to ask. If you said (anything), something was going to happen."

Giago said they've had to delay the publication of Native Sun News and take things in stride, but she says, "What would Tim have done?" and they do it.

"He was a good leader, a very good leader," she said. "We worked well together, we had 25 years of a good life."

Giago said next for her is the powwow, the Lakota Invitational and accepting a national Native American Hall of Fame Award on Tim's behalf in November.

"That's about as long as I'm planning out because I found out that no matter what you do day by day, you make a list, this is what you're gonna do," she said. "If I get one thing done on that list, I'm happy."

The Native American Day Parade, sponsored by the Rural America Initiatives, will be at 8 a.m. Oct. 8 in downtown Rapid City.
A reception is held by the Chinese embassy in Japan to celebrate the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan in Tokyo, Japan, Sept. 22, 2022.

Participants at the event expressed wishes that the two countries will take the 50th anniversary as an opportunity to further strengthen dialogues at all levels, deepen practical cooperation in various fields, and push for the long-term, sound and steady development of China-Japan relations. (Xinhua/Zhang Xiaoyu)

TOKYO, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese embassy in Japan has held a reception here to celebrate the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan.

Participants at the event expressed wishes that the two countries will take the 50th anniversary as an opportunity to further strengthen dialogues at all levels, deepen practical cooperation in various fields, and push for the long-term, sound and steady development of China-Japan relations.

Kong Xuanyou, Chinese Ambassador to Japan, said in his speech that nowadays China-Japan relations have reached a new historic starting point and come to a critical crossroads about where to go from here.

Facing opportunities and challenges, both sides should embrace a strategic vision and global perspective, abide by the principles set out in the four political documents between China and Japan, continue to enhance political mutual trust and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, and properly resolve differences and disputes under the guidance of the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, Kong added.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said that Japan and China should take the anniversary as an opportunity to review their original aspiration of normalization of diplomatic relations, strive for peaceful coexistence, jointly safeguard regional prosperity and stability, and make greater contributions to the international community.

On behalf of the Japanese government, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Yuumi Yoshikawa congratulated on the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the PRC and the 50th anniversary of the normalization of bilateral diplomatic relations, voicing hope that Japan and China will strive to build a constructive and stable bilateral relation.

Makiko Tanaka, former Japanese foreign minister, reviewed the history of the normalization of bilateral diplomatic relations, hoping that the two countries will seize the opportunity to actively carry out exchanges in various fields, and strive for peaceful coexistence and common prosperity.

Natsuo Yamaguchi, leader of Japan's Komeito party, expressed wishes that both countries will strengthen exchanges in various fields and at various levels so as to lay a solid foundation for friendly bilateral relations.

More than 300 people including representatives from Japanese political and business circles, Chinese companies in Japan and overseas Chinese groups, as well as foreign envoys in Japan attended the event. 

Kong Xuanyou, Chinese Ambassador to Japan, addresses a reception held by the Chinese embassy in Japan to celebrate the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan in Tokyo, Japan, Sept. 22, 2022.

Participants at the event expressed wishes that the two countries will take the 50th anniversary as an opportunity to further strengthen dialogues at all levels, deepen practical cooperation in various fields, and push for the long-term, sound and steady development of China-Japan relations. (Xinhua/Zhang Xiaoyu)

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda addresses a reception held by the Chinese embassy in Japan to celebrate the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan in Tokyo, Japan, Sept. 22, 2022.

Participants at the event expressed wishes that the two countries will take the 50th anniversary as an opportunity to further strengthen dialogues at all levels, deepen practical cooperation in various fields, and push for the long-term, sound and steady development of China-Japan relations. (Xinhua/Zhang Xiaoyu)

Japan's Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Yuumi Yoshikawa addresses a reception held by the Chinese embassy in Japan to celebrate the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan in Tokyo, Japan, Sept. 22, 2022.

Participants at the event expressed wishes that the two countries will take the 50th anniversary as an opportunity to further strengthen dialogues at all levels, deepen practical cooperation in various fields, and push for the long-term, sound and steady development of China-Japan relations. (Xinhua/Zhang Xiaoyu)
Rapid City offices and organizations will collect diaper donations from the community Sept. 26 through Oct. 3.

Rapid City Mayor Steve Allender proclaimed the week as Diaper Need Awareness Week in Rapid City Thursday afternoon. To honor the week, Volunteers of America, in partnership with Mommy's Closet, will host a diaper drive.

City Hall, the Rapid City Police Department, Rapid City Fire Department, Pennington County Sheriff's Office and Black Hills Pregnancy Center will host donation drops, and many other organizations partner with Mommy's Closet on donations year-round.

Sarah Howard, community outreach coordinator with Volunteers of America, works with Mommy's Closet and said the organization at its heart is a diaper bank.

"We serve local families with things like diapers, wipes and formula and we advocate and fight what's called diaper need," she said.

Diaper need is the inability to afford diapers and access diapers.

"At the heart of it, it's that feeling where you have this frustration, this shame, almost, where you can't provide diapers for your baby and... you can't change your diaper when you want and how often you want over the course of months," Howard said.

She said 80% of the diapers distributed from Mommy's Closet are from donations from the community.

"Our community shows up for us and we're asking that they continue to show up for us by helping us reach our goal of 20,000 size five diapers over the course of Diaper Need Awareness Week," she said.

Howard said newborns grow into size five and seem to stay there for a while. She said it's the most requested diaper and the one they get the least of.

Allender said in his proclamation that the poorest 20% of the U.S. families spend 14% of their income on diapers. He also said infants require up to 12 diapers a day, and disposable diapers can cost $70-$100 per month per baby.

The proclamation states 57% of parents experiencing diaper need who rely on child care said they missed an average of four days of school or work in the past month because they don't have diapers, and 48% of families delay changing a diaper to extend their supply in an effort to lessen economic hardships.

Allender said diaper need is a particularly important issue in the community. He said he's typically asked about why this drive is something the city wants to partner on. He said if people haven't had the type of economic hardship that forces a baby to wear a dirty diaper for an extended period of time because they can't afford them, then they can't understand poverty and what it's like to have to seek survival.

He also said the people who are in need aren't total strangers.

"These are the children of our community," Allender said. "These are the little people that are going to grow up here, and they're going to be news reporters and mayors and city council people, and they're going to work for volunteer organizations. They're going to build things in our community."

Allender said half of peoples' time should be dedicated to figuring out how to address the needs that are apparent today and the other half should be geared toward preventing those problems from occurring in the future. He said the drive addresses the first of those two issues.

Howard said any primary caregiver of a child can utilize Mommy's Closet, including dads, uncles, aunts and grandparents. They will need to fill out some paperwork at the facility, which is located at 111 New York Street.

Collection locations for packaged or boxed diapers and diaper wipes, which will look like Pack and Play playards, include:

 City Hall, 300 Sixth Street

 The Public Safety Building, 300 Kansas City Street

 Rapid City Fire Department main station, 10 Main Street

 Black Hills Pregnancy Center, 1774 Centre Street, Suite 1

Monetary donations will also be accepted. Checks can be mailed or dropped off to Mommy's Closet or online at www.voanr.org/diapers.
Rapid City's Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board will receive $475,000 from the federal government to aid in opioid responses, while other South Dakota tribal entities and state organizations will receive just under $5 million collectively.

President Joe Biden announced Friday morning that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), awarded about $1.5 billion to support states, tribal lands and territories' efforts to address the opioid crisis and support individuals in recovery. The action is part of National Recovery Month and SAMHSA's Stat Opioid and Tribal Opioid Response grant programs.

Brandon Ecoffey, public relations and communications director of the Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board, said the nonprofit organization applied for the grant. The funds will go to continue the organization's Great Plains Tribal Opioid Response program.

Ecoffey said the program is for the Rapid City area and the Crow Creek reservation. He said they also provide technical support to 17 different tribes in the region to help apply for grants and give guidance on how to pursue funding.

From the organization's program has come an animated series on social media, which will have a Facebook Live release Sept. 29 for "Brave Fox and the Cuff of Wisdom that follows "Skyhawk Reborn", equine therapy, virtual and in-person yoga classes, community events, and access to pharmaceutical treatments.

"The health board recognizes the dangers of opioids in our community and the impact it's had," Ecoffey said. "We are grateful for the funding to combat these issues."

The federal grant programs provide funding to states and territories to increase access to treatment for substance use disorder, remove barriers to public health interventions like naloxone, and expand access to recovery support services such as 24/7 Opioid Treatment Programs. The funds will also allow states to increase investments in overdose education, peer support specialists in emergency departments, and allow states to invest in other strategies that will help save lives in hard-hit communities.

South Dakota's Department of Social Services will receive $4 million, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe will receive $474,719; Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate will receive $250,000 and the Yankton Sioux Tribe will receive $249,713.

South Dakota's State Opioid Response will expand upon infrastructure and capacity built through the state Targeted Response and Opioid Response efforts to date in support of increased access to medication-assisted treatment, life-saving naloxone distribution, telehealth access to care, prevention service delivery, and expanded access to recovery support services.

The state's Division of Behavioral Health through the state Department of Social Services will lead the project in collaboration with ongoing efforts with the Department of Health and community providers to identify and enhance community-based resources in prevention, treatment, recovery and peer support services.
Bitterroot Building Industry Association is hosting the Bitterroot Tour of Homes, Sept. 23-25.

Builders on the Bitterroot Tour of Homes include Big Sky Builders, Clearwater Builders of Montana, Hansen Tomlinson Fine Homes, Pigman Builders, Red Ladder Construction, Schrock Construction, Inc., and Treasure State Builders.

The builders were touring each others homes on Wednesday.

Casey and Caleb Tipton of Big Sky Builders have participated in the tour since the mid-'90s and said the builder tour is the best aspect of the Tour of Homes.

The best is meeting all the people and the other builders, Casey Tipton said. We dont have a lot of chances to get together and see each others work. We love what we do. We get to talk to other builders, and talk about experiences, products and the economy and the difficulties in getting products.

He said the challenge of obtaining products when they are needed is getting better but that Big Sky Builders orders early for products that take a while to arrive, particularly cabinets, windows and garage doors.

We ordered these back in October last year, he said. Some garage doors are out 30 weeks, windows are up to only about 10 weeks now and cabinets are 17 to 19 weeks out, so a five-month lead time.

Caleb Tipton agreed that waiting for products to get delivered is challenging because completing a project on time is important.

Last year we had some struggles and the normal lead times changed, he said. What do you do when you are expecting cabinets and windows to come at a certain time? It was difficult for us because delays are not what we are used to. Weve adapted to order things earlier, it is just different.

Big Sky Builders have already started ordering for next years Tour of Homes house.

Casey Tipton said Big Sky Builders completes 12 to 16 houses a year and that the construction increase in the Bitterroot Valley has been good.

Were just managing that along with the difficulty of getting product, he said. Its been a balancing act. We got the subs that are part of the normal team so it makes it easier.

He said the Big Sky Builders team and sub suppliers have pulled together well.

Weve been working with most of them for years and years, he said. They are easy to work with, everybody is friendly, they work together and there are no difficulties.

For the home on the Tour, Big Sky Builders worked with sub suppliers of Alpine Granite Accents, Inc., Alpine Painting, Inc., Big Sky Rain Gutters, Custom Plumbing, Freds Appliance, Grizzly Garage Doors, Ivans Roofing, Lorens Carpet One, Massa Home Center, Quest Insulation, The Closet Guy and Western Montana Lighting.

The Seeley Farmhouse in the Daly Estates is a single-level, three-bedroom, two-bath home featuring a zero-step entry, 1,954 square feet, and a three-car garage.

Its one of our model homes, Casey Tipton said. It has wide hallways, an open floor plan and a beautiful view. Gorgeous sunsets dip right through the Blodgett Canyon and the Bitterroot Mountains.

BBIA Executive Officer Angela Previte-Barnhouse said the builders tour is unique.

This is the only time they get to see each others homes and build camaraderie, she said. They can see what their peers are doing and what creative ideas they are using in the marketplace.

Previte-Barnhouse said this is the 28th year of the tour.

I think Pigman Builders has had a home on the tour every year, she said. I am proud of the homes and the builders we are showcasing this year. BBIA is one of the few associations in Montana who have continued to host a Tour of Homes consistently through the recession and pandemic.

RAN Pigman of Pigman Builders said his reasons to participate have evolved over the years.

We participated every year, we didnt have a house in the tour every year, but some years we had two, he said. We had 30 houses in 28 years.

He said starting the tour increased business and community connections.

We started with my folks house that we built and it got good response, he said. My brother, Chip, started the Bitterroot Building Industry Association. The tour became the viability of the BBIA and it was the big fundraiser for the year. During slow years we would put one or two community houses (like in The Arbors and Stonegate Meadows) on the tour. It was great to get the traffic through the community.

Pigman said that during the building down cycle years of 2008, 2009 and 2010 the tour struggled.

But the Bitterroot has continued the tour every year since it started, he said. Some years we would have a nice big house on the tour and wed add a community house. The larger homes are a lot more work to get done on time, but having them on the tour was good for the BBIA.

Pigman said every builder has struggled with getting the products they needed to build.

The last three years have been chaos for the supply chain, he said, and in 40 years weve never seen anything as broken as in the last 18 months.

That delay caused houses to be unfinished and this year also moved the Tour of Homes from its usual time in August. But, the tour participants will benefit as the smoke is gone and they can enjoy the homes with the beautiful views.

Pigman Builders built Three Sisters with progressively larger scissor timber trusses to open the living room to a view of the Three Sisters Mountains.

After the builders tour on Wednesday, Pigman said the tour this year is exceptional.

Im really impressed, more than I was expecting to be and Ive been taking the tour for 28 years, Pigman said. There are affordable homes but there are four that are one level over the top, what Id call a dream home. Its nice to see those, they are stellar. Its the best to see all the homes and visit with the builders. Unless you go on the tour you never see each others work.

Thursday night was the 10th year for Taste of the Bitterroot  a celebration of local culinary delights, tied to the Tour of Homes. Previte-Barnhouse said, The Taste of the Bitterroot returned after a two-year COVID-induced absence.

Taste of the Bitterroot was initially started by Previte-Barnhouse and BBIA member Flora Bouy of Alpine Granite. This year B & B Cabinetry and Design hosted the Hamilton stop on the Taste event of local chefs and brewers for 50 guests.

Wendy Bauder said the evening was filled with quality adventure and tasting of appetizers, wines, beers and spirits made locally. Participating restaurants included The Catered Table, Mission Bistro, Backyard Tap House, Struggle Chef Catering, Lolo Creek Distillery and Willow Mountain Winery.

Ticket holders tasted the offerings then boarded busses to take the Tour of Homes, Bauder said. Flora and I each led a bus and everyone had food and beverages, played games, won prizes and enjoyed seeing a pre-public tour of the homes.

The Bitterroot Tour of Homes is open to the public 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 23-25. Tickets cost $15 and are available at the BBIA website www.bitterrootBIA.com or Facebook page, Massa Home Center, or Farmers State Bank.
The Hamilton City Council once again heard testimony on how to best approach the numerous feral rabbits living within the city limits on Tuesday night after a bunny was found with a blow dart through its head last week.

The rabbit was found in Hamilton Mayor Dominic Farrenkopfs yard on Wednesday, Sept. 14, but was not captured until Friday despite numerous attempts.

Farrenkopf said he originally noticed the rabbit hopping around his yard on Wednesday and called the Hamilton Police when he realized the rabbit had a blow dart through its head. After speaking with Chief Steve Snavely, Farrenkopf tried to catch the rabbit but was unsuccessful. On Thursday morning Farrenkopf called the Hamilton Police again and asked for assistance catching the bunny. Chief Snavely, along with a Hamilton police officer, Mayor Farrenkopf and his wife, chased the rabbit around the yard in an attempt to capture it but were also unable to catch the rabbit and could tell it was becoming distressed.

Around that time KC York of Trap Free Montana came over and offered to set a live trap for the animal, but the rabbit could not enter the trap because of the blow dart protruding from its head. On Friday morning York and a number of volunteers went to Farrenkopfs house and were finally able to capture the rabbit who was taken to Skalkaho Veterinary Clinic to have the dart removed.

It was pretty intense," Farrenkopf said. You know, to see that dart that KC brought to the meeting, and from what I understand it really was bad for the animal. It was through the nasal passages and it was deeper than I thought. I thought that it was like a needle, like a pinprick. Well it's not, it actually has like a broad head, like an arrow and it was deep in the rabbits face.

The rabbit survived the ordeal and Trap Free Montana is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of the person who darted the bunny. The city is still investigating the incident according to Snavely. He encouraged anyone with information regarding the blow-darted rabbit to call the Hamilton Police Department.

I believe it falls under our statute or our city ordinance regarding bow and arrow restrictions, Snavely said. Under the city ordinances, under 932 015, bow and arrow restrictions, subsection two, it says No person shall shoot fire, or otherwise discharge any arrow or projectile through the use of a bow or other device in any or over any street, road park or public ground. So I would say that, you know, depending on where this animal was hit, it's possibly in violation of that ordinance, he said.

We are really concerned about the cruelty to the animals, more so than the manner in which the animal was wounded, Farrenkopf said. We're not going to go out and confiscate blow guns and things like that. We're not against blow guns, we're against them being discharged in a city in a manner that harms an animal.

In late June the Hamilton Committee of the Whole moved forward with a plan to pay a trapper to catch and dispose of the animals. The rabbit meat would then be used for consumption, with some of the meat going to Raptors of the Rockies in Florence. $2,000 has been set aside in the citys budget for the rabbit removal project.

York gave a presentation to the Hamilton City Council meeting on Tuesday after helping catch the rabbit, and voiced opposition to the plan, suggesting non-lethal methods of dealing with the rabbit population such as removing attractants, utilizing fencing, spay and neuter programs and adoption.

We have to institute a humane, compassionate and responsible proactive response, and that takes a community effort, York said. We're willing to help, Trap Free is willing to help and fund all these non-lethal methods. Were willing to help with sprays, fencing, doing it, installing them, catching the bunnies, spaying and neutering and the adoption, but we can't do it alone. We need help and cooperation.

According to Farrenkopf, neither the county nor the state manage the rabbits. The rabbits exist in the city similar to a bird, or a squirrel. Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks has also advised the City of Hamilton not to relocate the animals.

On Tuesday night the council decided to send the rabbit issue back to committee for further discussion. The rabbits are tentatively scheduled as an agenda item for the Tuesday, Sept. 27 council meeting.
On a Thursday in early August, Helen Weems and the two nursing assistants at All Families Healthcare in Whitefish had, by their standards, a typical day.

They arrived at the clinic early that morning, using a back entrance that routes them away from the anti-abortion protesters who post shifts in front of the building twice a week. Inside, they opened a key-coded door and entered a small waiting area with soft lighting, white walls, and a collage of bright thank-you cards. As they prepared for patients, one of the nursing assistants turned on an oldies radio station. The days first abortion was scheduled for 9 a.m.

In an interview later that day, Weems, the clinics founder and sole abortion provider, said the first patient was also fairly typical. The woman had decided to end her pregnancy, Weems said, because she and her partner were super clear they werent interested in having kids at the time. Like many of Weems patients, she was also feeling the emotional fallout of the June U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, upending the precedent that had made abortion legal for nearly 50 years.

She felt like this was so important that she be able to have this option, Weems recounted as the refrain of Billy Joels My Life played quietly in the waiting room. And she became really angry and tearful when we talked about how we could lose this right in Montana.

All Families Healthcare is one of three organizations that provide abortions in Montana. An advanced practice registered nurse, Weems provides abortions either by prescribing a two-dose medication regime or performing in-clinic procedures for patients who are up to 12 weeks pregnant. She estimates her clinic scheduled 75 abortion appointments between June and August, in addition to other health services including birth control appointments, STI testing and pregnancy counseling.

Weems has been providing those services since she first opened the clinic in 2018. During that time, she said, shes considered politics a verboten topic with her patients, but thats changed in the post-Roe era. For the first time, Weems is now warily watching the coalescence of a political movement in Montana that could make her close her doors. With passionate anti-abortion politicians holding the states highest elected positions and Republicans poised to win a supermajority in the Legislature this November, Montanas abortion opponents are more empowered than they have been in decades.

For abortion-rights advocates like Weems  and for those who want abortion banned  the stakes in Montana are especially high: All of the states immediate neighbors have advanced strict abortion limits, bans and penalties since the overturn of Roe v. Wade, making abortions difficult to obtain in Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota and North Dakota. In that context, Montana stands out as both a legal haven and a political target.

Weems has had to adjust to the intensified political climate. She designed All Families Healthcare to be a comforting and uplifting space for patients to navigate an intensely private and personal decision, decorating her exam room with colorful posters and twinkling string lights. Increasingly, though, Weems feels like public politics have cast an unavoidable shadow over her conversations with patients.

Typically people will say, What can I do to help? Weems said. And Ill say, Are you registered to vote? Voting to support access to abortion is probably the most important thing you can do.

HELPING PEOPLE BE THE PEOPLE THEY WANT TO BE

Weems first job out of college was at an abortion clinic in Seattle, where she grew up. Seeing the work there inspired her to become a nurse practitioner, and she eventually took a job in Seattle public schools as an adolescent health provider. Years later, her husband wanted to move back to Whitefish, where he had lived for a time in the 1990s.

When Weems, now 54, began researching health care in Montana, she realized abortion access was strongly protected and that, at the time, there were no abortion clinics in the Flathead Valley. She started envisioning how she could fill that gap and provide the region with what she sees as an essential service.

People choose abortion oftentimes because they dont have the resources, they dont have the energy, they dont have the capacity to raise their children in the way that they would want to, Weems said. Its so positive, its so rewarding. Its like youre helping people be the people they want to be.

But Weems also knew that being an abortion provider in the Flathead wouldnt be easy. In 1994, an anti-abortion activist firebombed a Kalispell abortion clinic, among others in the region, operated by the physician James Armstrong and physician assistant Susan Cahill. Two decades later, in 2014, Cahills new clinic in Kalispell, also named All Families Healthcare, was vandalized beyond use by a man whose mother sat on the board of a local anti-abortion ministry. After that incident, Cahill decided not to reopen.

While preparing to move to the Flathead, Weems asked Cahill to mentor her. Cahill eventually agreed and the two ultimately reopened All Families in 2018, this time in Whitefish. They worked together for a year before Cahill retired.

Today, Weems clinic is the only abortion provider in the Flathead area. The next closest provider offering the same services is Blue Mountain Clinic in Missoula, 133 miles to the south. Planned Parenthood of Montana operates four health clinics around the state. As of September only one, in Helena, is providing in-clinic abortions for pregnancies after 11 weeks in addition to earlier-term medication abortions. Another provider at an independent clinic in Bozeman, who did not publicly advertise her abortion services, shut her doors this summer, citing high costs and the strain of the current political environment.

Weems said shes had patients drive to her clinic all the way from Havre, more than four hours to the east, and Glasgow, a seven-hour, 400-mile one-way trip.

Were pretty alone in this state, Weems said. Its Blue Mountain. Its All Families. And its Planned Parenthood. Its not very much for a huge state.

INCREMENTAL STEPS

Since the U.S. Supreme Court struck federal protections for abortion in June, Montanas clinics have continued to operate legally on the basis of the precedent laid out in Armstrong v. State, a 1999 case named after Cahills former partner. In its Armstrong ruling, the Montana Supreme Court unanimously defined abortion as a protected, private medical procedure that may only be restricted if lawmakers identify a compelling state interest distinct from political ideology.

Despite the national tumult created by the end of Roe, Montanas abortion providers have been mostly resolute about continuing to provide services. Planned Parenthood of Montana temporarily stopped providing medication abortion to patients from abortion-ban states out of fear of litigation, but reversed that decision in August. Montanas primary abortion access fund, the Susan Wicklund Fund, raised more than $15,000 in July and August of this year, compared to less than $4,500 during the same months in 2021, to help people afford abortions and related costs like travel and childcare. A board member for the fund, Aileen Gleizer, told Montana Free Press the number of funding requests it has received from in-state and out-of-state residents also jumped this summer compared to last year, from 36 to 77.

And some Montana abortion providers, including All Families and Blue Mountain Clinic in Missoula, have expanded their telemedicine and medication-abortion-by-mail programs to serve more people in the states rural areas. Nicole Smith, Blue Mountains executive director, credits the clinics current operations to Montanas strong legal protections and lack of restrictive laws intended to discourage abortions.

We have access in Montana, and we come to work every day and we dont have barriers, Smith said. Our patients dont have waiting periods or forced ultrasounds or any of that.

Yet Montana abortion access advocates are acutely aware of how the states current political dynamics threaten their cause. For 16 years, while many other states steadily whittled away at reproductive choice, Democratic governors in Montana blocked abortion restrictions passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature. Now, Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte and the conservative majority in the state Legislature have made opposing abortion a top priority.

Last year, Gianforte signed a handful of abortion restrictions into law, including a bill that would restrict medication abortions and ban the distribution of that medication by mail. After being challenged by Planned Parenthood of Montana, that law and two others were temporarily blocked from taking effect last October with a preliminary injunction issued by a Billings judge who cited the Armstrong precedent.

Throughout the legal fight, Gianforte and Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen have urged the state Supreme Court to reconsider the Armstrong case, a decision Knudsens office has called wrong from the day it was decided. In August, the court upheld the district courts injunction but declined to deliberate on Armstrong. The case is now scheduled to continue in Billings.

While the new laws are on ice, Weems is tracking other political developments she said could undermine abortion rights, including a potential Republican supermajority in the Legislature that could ask voters to consider a constitutional amendment to ban abortion outright or change the Constitutions privacy provision on which Armstrong is based.

In her office, Weems ticked through a mental list of levers Republicans in the Capitol could pull to advance their longtime anti-abortion crusade: Win their legal fight against the Armstrong precedent, enact more abortion restrictions that bypass the Armstrong ruling, or revise the Constitution.

Suddenly were like, oh, my God, its not so protected. Were incremental steps away from losing this right, Weems said.

In an August radio segment produced by the Montana Family Foundation, a conservative policy group, president and lobbyist Jeff Laszloffy endorsed the rollback of the Armstrong decision. Abortion policy, he said, should be decided by state lawmakers.

The executive and legislative branches, along with the U.S. Supreme Court, have put the Montana Supreme Court on notice, Laszsloffy said. Roe was flawed. Armstrong is flawed and the Legislature wants that power returned to its rightful venue, the Peoples House.

But advocates on both sides of the issue, including Laszloffy, have acknowledged that bringing Montanas abortion policy in line with the restrictions in neighboring states would require a long fight. Smith, from Blue Mountain Clinic, sees the same possibilities on the horizon but is hesitant to call any of them an imminent threat. Access in Montana could change, but also it could stay exactly the same, she said.

Im not spending a whole lot of my time speculating on what could happen, because I think that theres also a lot of reason to be optimistic that we are going to hold the line and that our status here is going to stay the same, Smith said. We have to wait and see. We just dont know.

Smith and Weems agree that one hypothetical future risk for abortion access could be a conservative tilt on the Montana Supreme Court leading to rulings that weaken the protections laid out in Armstrong. Theyre closely watching this years Supreme Court races, particularly for the seat held by Ingrid Gustafson, a longtime district court judge in Billings who was appointed to her seat by Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock in 2018. Gustafson is facing a challenge from Republican attorney James Brown, the state GOPs former counsel and current president of the Montana Public Service Commission, where he was elected as a Republican in 2020.

The candidates, constrained by judicial ethics requirements, have been careful to avoid commenting directly on how theyd rule on abortion cases. Nonetheless, defenders of abortion access are rallying behind Gustafson, who has pledged to uphold and protect the rights laid out in the Montana Constitution. Brown has been explicitly endorsed by anti-abortion conservatives, including Gianforte and Knudsen. While Brown, Like Gustafson, has promised to protect Montanans constitutional rights, hes also openly criticized the Montana judiciary as having a liberal bent and for blocking democratically passed legislative enactments the Republican-held Legislature passed last year.

The outcome of Novembers Supreme Court races could also affect the decision in one particular case that looms large for the Whitefish provider: Weems v. State.

As she and Cahill were working to reopen All Families in Whitefish, Weems realized that Montana law codifying the 1999 Armstrong decision did not explicitly allow advanced practice registered nurses like her to provide abortions, instead authorizing only physicians and physician assistants. Represented pro-bono by the Center for Reproductive Rights, a national advocacy group, and the ACLU of Montana, Weems sued the state to clarify that nurses with her license and appropriate training are qualified to provide abortions in line with the Armstrong decision.

In 2018, a temporary ruling by a Helena district court judge allowed Weems to open her clinic. After years of litigation, the same judge in February struck down the law entirely, saying the state had not established a compelling interest in restricting the performance of abortions to physicians and physician-assistants. Attorney General Knudsen appealed that decision to the Montana Supreme Court later that month, writing that the district courts ruling made abortion less safe for Montana women and re-exposes abortion patients to back-alley medical standards.

The future of All Families hinges on the cases ultimate resolution.

Im definitely sitting on pins and needles, Weems said. Its my livelihood, its my business, its my passion, she said.

THE TWAIN SHALL NEVER MEET

John ONeil, 82, and Bette Schultz, 77, are among the rotating cast of protesters who can often be found waving anti-abortion signs and soliciting honks from drivers outside Weems clinic.

On that Thursday in early August, ONeil was wearing a cowboy hat and blue jeans. Hes been protesting long enough to have laminated business cards he distributes without invitation. Are you Pro-Life? one side reads. There is an Abortion Clinic in the Flathead  Prayer Vigils conducted every Tues and Thurs 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

The clinics entrance for patients and staff is on the back side of the building, shielded from the busy street that funnels traffic into downtown Whitefish. ONeil said the protesters choose to stand near the street, in full view of passing cars, so they can spread their message to as many people as possible.

We never know if weve turned someones mind, ONeil said. Even if protesters dissuade 10% of patients from going through with their appointments, thats great for us, he said.

In the span of five minutes that Thursday, the reactions of passing drivers to the protesters were mixed. Some honked and flashed thumbs-up. Others rolled down their windows to shout profanities. ONeil and Schultz appeared unfazed by the latter, saying the vast majority of responses are positive.

Montanas continuing legal access to abortion while nearby states enact restrictions is only more cause for prayer, ONeil said. Beyond that, he said, Montanas abortion laws will change, or not, through the ballot box. He said hes paying particular attention to the states legislative races, the contests that could deliver a GOP supermajority capable of taking abortion policy directly to voters.

Its going to wake up a lot of folks, we hope, to pay attention to whos going to get elected this November, he said.

Inside All Families, Weems knows some of the regular protesters by name. She and ONeil have spoken several times.

We are equally passionate in our positions, Weems said with a wry smile. I think he really believes that he is fighting for what is right. And I, too, with equal passion, believe that I am doing what is right. I just think that hes misguided and Im sure he thinks Im misguided. And the twain shall never meet.

What they have in common is an appreciation for what the November election could mean for the future of All Families Healthcare and other Montana abortion providers.

Weems said her daily work routine  helping patients and soliciting donations for her clinic  supports her belief that abortion access matters to Montanans from all walks of life. Thats a big part of the reason, she said, that All Families Healthcare was voted Best Family Practice in the Best of Whitefish competition this year.

Were totally supported in this community, she said, gesturing to a copy of the annual Whitefish Pilot award magazine on a nearby table. That was not about me, that was not about All Families. That was about the community  Im going to start crying  that was about the community being like, We believe in abortion. We believe this is a human right. That was a huge deal.

Google reviews for All Families Healthcare also indicate that Weems and her staff have a great deal to do with winning that support in Whitefish. Former patients praise the clinician for creating a welcoming and supportive space. Their customer service feels like family, one patient wrote two years ago.

Another client, writing about her abortion at All Families last year, said she had been feeling unsure about the procedure. In the end, she said, going to the clinic was the best choice ever, in part because Weems was caring and patient.

I felt okay to cry and talk to her, the patient wrote. She makes you feel comfortable to talk honestly and gives you space when its needed.

Weems responds to almost every review, thanking patients for the kind words and saying how happy she is to hear about their positive experiences.

Weems used to see politics as incompatible with the calming atmosphere shes tried to create at the clinic. But as anti-abortion advocates keep working to eliminate the procedure in Montana, she said shes reconsidered. Some of her patients have only a general awareness about the laws and court cases and state elections that keep Weems preoccupied.

When it comes to abortion access and reproductive health care, Weems said, she wants her patients to feel empowered to advocate for their rights. If and when they cast their ballots, she wants them to feel like they have a choice.

There are so many people whove moved here recently. And then theres other people who just arent voters, Weems said. Ill be like, Hey, maybe you havent been active in voting. But if this right is really important to you, we need to protect it. Because were at risk of losing it.
COLUMBIA FALLS  A recent early morning walk through a Columbia Falls neighborhood along the banks of the Flathead River revealed a few tell-tale signs of the challenges the Flathead Valley community faces this fall. First off, the number of trash cans left out at the end of the drive a day or two after pickup has dropped significantly. Youll occasionally need to step over a pile of bear scat on the sidewalk. And you might even need to consider altering your route after seeing a crudely written sign declaring, BEWARE! BLACK BEAR SEEN ON THE TRAIL.

Bears have long been a part of life in the Flathead Valley and western Montana, but officials with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks say this year has been particularly challenging when it comes to bear-human conflicts. The number of town bears, as one FWP specialist called them, getting into trouble this year has increased so much that Columbia Falls passed an emergency ordinance earlier this month to address the problem.

Were expecting a very busy fall, said Justine Vallieres, a bear conflict management specialist for FWPs Region 1, which covers all of northwest Montana. Fall is always a busy time of year for us, but I think this fall will be harder than most.

This year, the number of calls about black bears and even grizzly bears breaking into garages, sheds, cars and more has increased dramatically, Vallieres said. She pinned the blame on a bad berry crop this year and more people moving into areas where bears once roamed unnoticed.

Traditionally, shell get a number of complaints about bears in the spring, when they first emerge from hibernation. But the number of calls tends to drop come mid-summer when huckleberries and other fruit ripen. Once all that has been eaten  either by bears or tourists  the number of calls will again tick up in the fall as the bruins search for their final meal before hibernating.

But this year, the calls never stopped, and now, with winter just around the corner, the bears are in a frantic rush to pack on the pounds before the snow flies. That means theyre getting bolder in their exploits and are spending more time in town.

Vallieres said she and the other bear conflict management specialists in Region 1 have been getting upwards of 60 calls per day about bears, especially around Whitefish and Columbia Falls. In August, one black bear got his 15 minutes of fame when a video of him wandering around the Kalispell Center Mall parking lot downtown was posted online. Vallieres said its very rare to see bears that far into populated areas, but she expects it could happen more this fall.

In response to the problem, the Columbia Falls City Council has passed an emergency ordinance, effective Sept. 6, to deal with bear attractants in town. The ordinance will last for 90 days and require residents to put their trash cans out only on the morning of pickup; to pick all fruit from trees and off the ground on their property; to remove or empty bird feeders at night; and to store indoors any coolers, grills, smokers or anything else with a food scent. Chicken coops also are required to have electric fencing around them.

Caleb Sobczak, building, planning and public works clerk for the city of Columbia Falls, said people can be fined $500 for violating the ordinance, though she said collecting fines is not the ordinances goal and only repeat offenders will be ticketed. He said the most important thing is educating the public on why its important to eliminate attractants when they can.

Vallieres said thats particularly important because trapping and relocating the bears away from town is a band-aid solution and not an easy one. More often than not, the animals will just come right back.

Its harder to get a bear to go into one of our traps, she said, when there are so many attractants around town.
In a unique move to protect 634 acres from subdivision near Henrys Lake on the western edge of Yellowstone National Park, The Nature Conservancy and Beartooth Group collaborated on a recent purchase.

To move quickly, the Bozeman-based conservation investment group bought the 1,072-acre Slash E Ranch in May, breaking off the portion that went to The Nature Conservancy in a September sale. Because the Conservancy only wanted part of the property, and the landowner wanted to sell all of it, Beartooth Group founder Robert Keith stepped in to acquire the additional acreage.

Variety

The area is well-known to fishing guides who called the Howard Creek Ranch in one corner of the property a home for wayward fishing guides. Its location is why: 15 miles from the Madison and Henrys Fork rivers as well as Hebgen Lake.

The Audubon Society calls it a keystone landscape in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, noting its importance to a variety of wildlife, waterfowl and birds. The Bureau of Land Management has designated its public lands near Henrys Lake an Area of Critical Environmental Concern.

Snowmobilers ride a myriad of trails in the region, making it a popular destination in the winter.

Listed at $8.75 million

The property was owned by Tom and Sue Cole and the Cole Family Trust. It was initially listed by Fay Ranches for $8.75 million and includes four log buildings. Neither group would disclose the final sale price.

We dont buy property that often, said Tess OSullivan, land conservation strategy lead for TNCs Idaho staff.

Consequently, the group hopes to resell its portion of the ranch once it has been protected by a conservation easement.

Theres a lot of appeal to property in this area, OSullivan said. For better or worse theres a lot more awareness of Idaho and people wanting to have land in the West.

The conservation easement will take away some of the value of the land for resale, she added. In a similar acquisition, TNC bought property in the Pioneer Mountains near Craters of the Moon National Park in Idaho and sold it to a rancher in about two years.

A portion of the newly acquired TNC property is leased to a local rancher for seasonal grazing, which will continue.

Im just so happy to see this property not getting developed, local resident John Spencer said in a TNC press release. And, it is staying in agriculture. I cant think of a better outcome.

Conservation

The land the Conservancy bought from Beartooth Group is located at the intersection of Highways 87 and 20 along Howard Creek, not far from the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. The land had been approved for subdivision by Fremont County and could be divided into 80 tracts for 20-acre home sites, along with an RV park.

This is really a critical crossroads, or critical pinch point for the wildlife coming out of Yellowstone moving up and down the Madison Valley and heading west to the Centennial (Mountains), Keith said.

OSullivan agreed, noting, A lot of us realize that national parks dont support wildlife year-round, nor does public land support wildlife and their needs year-round. So we have this important ecosystem of the Greater Yellowstone Area, and private lands are a critical part of wildlifes life-cycle throughout the year.

In a press release, The Nature Conservancy described the areas native sagebrush steppe, open grasslands and wetlands as valuable habitat for a diversity of wildlife, including at-risk species like peregrine falcons, gray wolves, bald eagles, grizzly bears and trumpeter swans. Pronghorn rely heavily on the property seasonally and during migration. The property also encompasses portions of Howard Creek, which is a critical spawning stream for Yellowstone cutthroat trout.

Values

The purchase by Beartooth Group is different than what it originally set out to do when Keith formed the investment firm in 2005 with Carl Palmer. Back then, the company was Beartooth Capital, and the goal was to buy ranches and fix them up, while also providing investors an opportunity to use the lands for hunting, fishing and other recreation. Eventually, sometimes with conservation easements in place, the ranches were sold at a return to investors.

Keith said about two years ago Beartooth Group created a different pool of capital to make purchases, like the Slash E Ranch, that werent necessarily going to see a financial return on investment.

Really, the returnis far more than financial, Keith said. Its ecosystem services. Its climate change. Its elk migration. It is antelope movement. Its grizzly bears. Its small scale local agriculture. There are all of these other elements of return beyond the almighty dollar.

He noted the Slash E Ranch was a very complicated transaction with a lot of moving parts because of the secondary sale to The Nature Conservancy.

As the challenges to conservation continue to rise and the need to do our work, we just want to be creative and bring as many partners into the work as we can, OSullivan said.

Those challenges can be a lack of money or a landowner unwilling to bargain, she added.

Its really cause for celebration when all of the pieces come together.
The new Richmond Folk Festival poster created by Richmond artist Cassandra Kim was revealed on Wednesday night at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond.

The new Folk Fest poster features a lively trio of animals in vintage clothes and playing instruments.

I like to work in acrylic and oil, and my pieces are animal-based paintings with a surrealistic twist, typically inspired by art of the past, Kim told the Richmond Folk Festival.

I wanted my poster to be my pop-surrealistic ode to some of my favorite illustrators. ... The back circle has a Maxfield Parrish style gradient, she said, and the James River Railway Bridge under the circle is playing on similar design elements I saw in Leyendecker and Rockwell illustrations on their covers of The Saturday Evening Post.

She said the most challenging part was drawing the paws playing the instruments.

I also love animals and enjoy the challenge of painting them jamming out as a musical trio in some classy clothes, she said.

Originally from Leesburg, Kim moved to Richmond to attend Virginia Commonwealth Universitys art program. After graduating, she moved to Northern Virginia before moving back to Richmond in 2013. She is married with 5-year-old twin girls and says she is constantly trying to balance painting with parenthood.

Kim joins a strong pedigree of Virginia artists who have created the Folk Fest poster, including Mickael Broth, Chris Milk and Hamilton Glass, to name a few.

The 2022 Richmond Folk Festival poster will be available for sale for $5 at the Folk Fest on Richmonds riverfront Oct. 7-9.

It will also appear on Richmond Folk Festival beer cans brewed by Hardywood Park Brewing Co.

The original artwork is also up for sale by auction with the most recent bid at $1,600 as of this writing.

For more information, visit the Richmond Folk Festival website at richmondfolkfestival.org.
Virginia Union University has agreed to pay the state $35,000 annually to keep four illuminated logos atop an on-campus tower that was designated as a historic landmark.

VUU violated a contract it made with the state that prohibits large signs from being displayed on the tower, said Julie Langan, director of the states Department of Historic Resources. Langan plans to sign the agreement next week.

Authorities are concerned about the 83-year-old Vann Memorial Tower and whether it can safely hold the 17-foot-tall signs without causing damage.

Weve been put in a very awkward position, said Langan, noting that Virginia Union voluntarily made the agreement that prohibited putting large signs on the tower. They knew what they were agreeing to.

A spokesperson for VUU did not respond to a request for comment.

The private university, in Richmonds North Side, reconstructed the 165-foot tower at its current site more than 80 years ago.

In 2010, VUU agreed to a deed of easement, which allowed the university to receive $340,000 from the National Park Service to fund the restoration of the tower and adjoining Belgian Building.

As part of the easement, VUU agreed not to alter the tower or building. The contract specifically restricts large signs, billboards or other advertising on the buildings exterior.

But in January 2020, VUU installed on each side four 17-foot-tall, illuminated signs visible from miles away.

If VUU had chosen to put a sign on any other building on campus, the state wouldnt have a problem with it, Langan said.

The tower and Belgian Building are the only parts of campus restricted by the easement.

The Department of Historic Resources initially asked for the signs to be removed, but VUU refused, Langan said. Allia Carter, a vice president for VUU, told the Board of Historic Resources that the tower was a campus focal point and a light in a dark time.

Last year, the Board of Historic Resources proposed an agreement to keep the signs. VUU would add a preservation section to its master plan, hire a structural engineer who will inspect the tower, sponsor two historical markers on campus and pay to keep the signs in place.

The state proposed a $50,000 annual fee. Virginia Union asked for $25,000, and the two sides settled in the middle.

If it is determined that the signs damage the tower, VUU agreed it would remove them. The historical markers are intended to educate the public about the history of VUU and the Belgian Building.

The tower is named for Robert L. Vann, a VUU alumnus. The Belgian Building was designated as a historic landmark by the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.

It was originally constructed by Belgian architects for the 1939 New York Worlds Fair. At the beginning of World War II, Belgium decided to give the building to an American college as a gesture of friendship.

Virginia Union was picked as the recipient, and the building was disassembled, shipped to Richmond and rebuilt in 1941.

The state isnt the only government entity concerned with the signs. According to Richmond BizSense, the city of Richmonds Commission of Architectural Review determined that the signs violate the citys historic preservation guidelines.

The City Council can override the commission and award a certificate of appropriateness, which the city says the university needs.

The states agreement with Virginia Union has no effect on the city and its decision to approve or deny the signs, Langan said.
Richmond Police Chief Gerald Smith and city officials set out this month to hold community meetings and improve his departments public standing. They did not succeed with some people who had questions or wanted to talk to him.

The police department convened the four community conversations after the publics trust in Smith was damaged by recent revelations that his own police detectives were not confident in his claim that police had thwarted a mass shooting planned for an Independence Day celebration at Dogwood Dell.

Officials say they didnt plan the meetings in reaction to the controversy. They said it was meant to build rapport and trust with the community. But as the organizers required all questions to be written down and tried to prevent direct questions from the crowd, some left the meetings dissatisfied.

At the start of a meeting at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School on Wednesday, one person let the chief and the city officials know that it did not meet his expectations.

This isnt a community conversation if theres no actual dialogue, he said after the emcee for the meetings, Clovia Lawrence, a local radio personality also known as Miss Community, tried to prevent him from asking a follow-up question to an answer the chief gave.

Throughout the meetings this month, Smith not only addressed questions about the alleged mass shooting but also answered ones about violent crime, vandalism, traffic concerns and prostitution. He discussed how the department is understaffed by about 150 positions.

Answering for the chief in an interview after the meeting on Wednesday, city spokeswoman Petula Burks said the format for the meetings was based on best practices.

Let the case speak for itself

Burks said the city specifically wanted to use the format as it was the chiefs first time meeting with the public openly since he was hired in summer 2020. Sometimes you want to know what the questions are, she said. We wanted to make sure every question is [answered], and this is one of the best ways to do it.

The chief, however, didnt answer every question.

After the meeting on Wednesday, Tracy Reed, a Henrico County resident who said her son was wounded in a shooting in the city last year, said Lawrence read only two of the three questions she had submitted in writing. Reed said she declined to ask her question about when officials would be held accountable for the inadequacy of crisis units deployed to respond to people in a mental health crisis.

I figured they werent ... going to touch it, Reed said. And thats part of the problem.

When asked specifically about criticisms that it let the host and officials censor questions and preclude back-and-forth dialogue, Burks said they only intended to prohibit repeat questions and derogatory comments.

In the first meeting at Liberation Church in South Richmond, former Richmond City Councilwoman Kim Gray asked about what evidence the department had to support the chiefs claim that police had stopped a mass shooting on July 4.

In a July 6 news conference and in subsequent interviews with national news outlets, Smith and Mayor Levar Stoney said police had arrested two people after receiving a tip about a mass shooting at Dogwood Dell.

They spoke authoritatively, saying they had prevented it from happening, but records obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch and other local media outlets show that police had told the chief before the news conference that they were unsure of where the alleged plot might take place.

Local prosecutors did not charge the two suspects of conspiracy, but the pair now face federal immigration and weapons charges after police confiscated guns and ammunition during one of the arrests.

Smith continues to say that he is certain that they were plotting a shooting at Dogwood Dell.

There was evidence, and Ill let the case speak for itself, Smith in response to Grays question.

Officials plan more meetings

Before the meetings were announced, Brian N. Williams, a professor from the University of Virginia, said he hoped Richmond police would take an intentional approach to correct the mishandling of the July 6 news conference.

From what I understand, Richmond police might have said a little too much too early, he said.

Williams studies community policing and the methods by which law enforcement builds trust within a given community. Although Williams has never served as a law enforcement officer, he is familiar with common police practices and how police conduct internal and external investigations.

Williams also teaches courses about community policing or what he describes as relational policing.

He said he was impressed by the willingness of Richmond police to engage with the public on this matter, but questions whether they were intentional in their response.

I like that theyre engaging and sharing with the public because from my perspective theres no trust within the community right now, and the sooner they acknowledge their past, the sooner they can start to build trust, Williams said.

Burks said Wednesday that city and department officials had been planning to hold community meetings with the chief earlier this year, but that it had been on the back burner due to scheduling, staffing issues and in-person meeting restrictions and challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Burks said the city is hoping to hold more community meetings with officials from other departments as well.

From a civic engagement side, this is something that we have to do, she said. We were doing everything on Zoom and [Microsoft] Teams and whatnot, but this is one way for people to get to know [Smith] as not just the chief, but also a human being, and to start getting him out in the community.

After the third one, Smith said he felt the meetings had been a success.
CANBERRA, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Australia's government scientists have demonstrated that Computed Tomography (CT) technology can be used to detect wildlife being trafficked illegally in cargo.

In a study, researchers from the federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) and some other institutions used three-dimensional X-ray CT scanners for the use of wildlife protection for the first time, according to a media release from DAFF on Friday.

The team taught artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to detect animals from the scan, achieving an 82-percent success rate for lizards, birds and fish, and a false hit rate of just 1.6 percent.

Chris Locke, deputy secretary of the DAFF Biosecurity and Compliance group, said the technology could complement existing human and canine biosecurity protection measures around the world.

"Illegal wildlife trafficking poses a significant biosecurity risk to Australia as it could introduce pests and diseases that could impact on the environment, as well as human and animal health," Locke said in the media release.

"This paper demonstrates the boundless potential the 3D X-ray algorithm has in helping to stop exotic wildlife from being trafficked, protecting Australia's agricultural industries and unique natural environment from exotic pests and diseases

"This innovative technology is an invaluable complementary platform to our existing biosecurity and wildlife detection tools at Australian international borders, with potential worldwide applications in the future."

According to the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) there is a large international market for exotic Australian animals.

In a report on the illegal trafficking of Australian wildlife, it said international black market prices for reptiles can be up to 28 times higher than the domestic price.

It is illegal for any individual or business to export a living Australian native mammal, reptile or bird to another country for commercial purposes, with offenders facing up to 10 years in prison under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.

"Taking animals from the wild poses risks to the species' conservation, local populations, habitats and ecosystems, and stopping wildlife from being trafficked into Australia protects our unique natural environment from exotic pests and diseases," Sam Hush, acting Assistant Secretary for Environment Compliance at DCCEEW, said.

"It is also extremely cruel. Smuggled animals often suffer stress, dehydration or starvation and many die during transit." 
A deadly hurricane that battered multiple island nations in the Caribbean this week is now impacting Bermuda before crashing into Canada this weekend, where residents are being warned to prepare for dangerously high winds and heavy rainfall.

Officials in Bermuda as well as Canada's Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island are urging those in the storm's path to be on high alert and prepare for the impact of Hurricane Fiona, which has already claimed the lives of at least five people and shut off power for millions this week.

"Fiona is projected to be a significant and historical weather event for Nova Scotia," said John Lohr, the minister responsible for the provincial Emergency Management Office.

"It has the potential to be very dangerous. Impacts are projected to be felt across the province. Every Nova Scotian should be preparing today," Lohr added during an official update Thursday.

Residents should brace for damaging winds, high waves, coastal storm surge and heavy rainfall that may lead to prolonged power outages, Lohr said. Emergency officials have encouraged people to secure outdoor items, trim trees, charge cell phones and create a 72-hour emergency kit.

Fiona is a powerful Category 4 storm but is on track to weaken slightly to a strong Category 3 as it passes near Bermuda during the overnight hours into Friday, CNN Meteorologist Robert Shackelford said.

"Once Fiona passes by Bermuda, the storm is forecast to impact Nova Scotia by Saturday afternoon. Fiona will become extratropical before impact, but this will do little to hinder the damage that Fiona will cause," Shackelford explained.

Across Atlantic Canada, winds could be around 100 mph (160 kph) as Fiona makes landfall on Nova Scotia, Shackelford said.

The storm was packing sustained winds of 130 mph early Friday and was about 185 miles west of Bermuda and 1,000 miles south-southwest of Nova Scotia, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Bermuda, which is under a hurricane warning, closed schools and government offices Friday in preparation for the storm, according to Michael Weeks, the island's minister of national security.

In Canada, hurricane warnings are in place for Nova Scotia from Hubbards to Brule and in Newfoundland from Parson's Pond to Francois. Prince Edward Island and Isle-de-la-Madeleine are also under warning.

Prince Edward Island officials are imploring residents to prepare for the worst and hope for the best as the storm looms.

Tanya Mullally, who serves as the province's head of emergency management, said one of the most pressing concerns with Fiona is the historic storm surge it's expected to unleash.

"Storm surge is certainly going to be significant. ... Flooding that we have not seen nor can we measure against," Mullally said Thursday during an update.

She added the northern portion of the island stands to bear the brunt of the storm due to the direction of the winds, which will likely cause property damage and coastal flooding.

Fiona's power outages continue

Earlier this week, Fiona damaged homes and upended critical power and water infrastructure for millions of people across Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Turks and Caicos.

Days after Puerto Rico experienced an island-wide blackout as Fiona made landfall Sunday, only 38% of customers had their power restored Thursday, according to power grid operator LUMA Energy.

The mass power outage is happening as much of Puerto Rico endures extreme heat, which caused temperatures to feel as hot as 112 degrees Thursday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.

Daniel Hernandez, director of renewable projects at LUMA, explained critical places including hospitals will be prioritized before repairs can begin on an individual level.

"This is a normal process. The important thing is that everyone is calm ... we are working to ensure that 100% of customers have service as soon as possible," Hernandez said.

Nearly 360,000 customers were experiencing intermittent water service or no service at all as of Thursday evening, according to the government's emergency portal system.

As of Wednesday, more than 800 people were housed in dozens of shelters across the island, according to Puerto Rico's housing secretary, William Rodriguez.

President Joe Biden has approved a major disaster declaration for the US territory, FEMA said. The move allows residents to access grants for temporary housing and home repairs as well as low-interest loans to cover uninsured property losses.

In the Dominican Republic, Fiona affected 8,708 households and destroyed 2,262 homes, according to the nation's head of emergency operations, Maj. Gen. Juan Mendez Garcia.

He said more than 210,000 homes and businesses were still in the dark Thursday morning, and another 725,246 customers were without running water.

"This was something incredible that we've never seen before," Ramona Santana in Higuey, Dominican Republic, told CNN en Espanol this week. "We're in the streets with nothing, no food, no shoes, clothes, just what's on your back. ... We don't have anything. We have God, and the hope help will come."

Fiona also menaced parts of the Turks and Caicos Tuesday, and areas of the British territory were still without power earlier this week, namely on Grand Turk, South Caicos, Salt Cay, North Caicos and Middle Caicos, said Anya Williams, acting governor of the islands.

The-CNN-Wire

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A former University of Virginia doctor who pleaded guilty to transmitting child pornography got his jail sentence on Tuesday and his freedom on Thursday.

He was released an hour ago, Col. Martin Kumer said Thursday afternoon when asked if David Ari Lapides, 38, was still incarcerated at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. Kumer, the jails superintendent, said Lapides had been there since July 22, 2021, the day of his arrest.

Lapides pleaded guilty in January to two counts of receiving or transmitting child pornography. He was sentenced on Tuesday to five years in prison for each count, with five years of probation. The sentences were ordered to be served consecutively, meaning that he effectively received a 10-year sentence with all but a year and two months suspended, the time which he was in jail.

Its a serious and significant sentence, said Charlottesville Commonwealths Attorney Joe Platania, who prosecuted the case. Its more than double the high end of the guidelines. And he lost his career, his wife and his children; and hell have to register as a sex offender.

Previous reporting indicated that the Kik messaging application, which is known for its privacy, detected two videos allegedly shared by Lapides that might contain depictions of sexually exploited minors and then notified authorities.

The case was picked up by a regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in coordination with the Charlottesville Police Department.

The videos allegedly depict prepubescent girls engaged in sexually exploitative positions, according to a prior report.

That sharing led to the distribution charges and may have ended his career as a neurologist reportedly licensed to practice medicine in 29 states.

His court file is filled with requests from numerous state medical boards asking for records from Charlottesville. That includes the board in Richmond.
Early voting began with a trickle on Friday in key congressional races across Virginia, but the torrent is coming as voters focus on elections on Nov. 8 that will determine majority control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Local election officials already have mailed thousands of absentee ballots to voters in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads districts featuring nationally watched races, as well as potentially less competitive elections in the Richmond area.

Oct. 17 is the deadline to register online or to postmark registration sent through the mail. Starting this year the deadline to register in person is election day.

More than 1.19 million Virginians voted early in the 2021 general elections for statewide offices and the House of Delegates, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

Negative television ads, many of them financed by outside political organizations, already are being aired in the 7th District, where Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, faces Prince William County Supervisor Yesli Vega, and in the 2nd District, where state Sen. Jen Kiggans, R-Virginia Beach, hopes to unseat Rep. Elaine Luria, D-2nd.

Those largely suburban districts represent the kind of place where elections are going to be won and lost across the country, said Stephen Farnsworth, director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, the heart of the newly drawn 7th.

With fall weather making its first appearance in Virginia, Spanberger and Vega are launching early voting pushes on Saturday.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., will join the two-term Democratic congresswoman for a rally in Prince William County  which has the largest number of voters in the new district  on Saturday afternoon, following earlier Spanberger rallies in Spotsylvania and Stafford counties.

Vega plans an early voting rally on Saturday morning in Triangle in eastern Prince William.

Prince William, the second-most populous locality in Virginia, is divided between the 7th District and the 10th District, where Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-10th, is running for a third term against Republican challenger Hung Cao.

Three early voting centers opened on Friday in Prince William  one in Woodbridge, in the 7th; and in Manassas and Haymarket, both in the 10th. The county plans to open two more two weeks before the election.

Initial turnout was light, Prince William Registrar Eric Olsen said. I would describe it as a steady trickle today.

However, Olsen said the county already has mailed more than 16,000 absentee ballots to voters. Similarly, Virginia Beach, the largest locality in the 2nd District, has mailed about 17,000 absentee ballots to voters, Director of Elections Christine Lewis said Friday, It was a huge push for us.

A little more than 200 people had voted in Virginia Beach by midday on Friday, similar to the numbers seen in Henrico and Chesterfield counties, both of which are divided between the 1st and 4th congressional districts.

In the 1st, Rep. Rob Wittman, R-1st, is a 15-year incumbent running in a district redrawn to include the Richmond suburbs  including western Henrico County, western Chesterfield County, New Kent County and most of Hanover County  instead of the Fredericksburg area.

He faces Democrat Herb Jones, a former New Kent treasurer, and Independent David Foster.

In the 4th, Rep. Donald McEachin, D-4th, faces a rematch with Republican challenger Leon Benjamin, who lost their first matchup in 2020 by about 92,000 votes.

The other congressional race affecting the Richmond area is in the new 5th District, which includes part of Hanover, as well as Goochland and Powhatan counties. Rep. Bob Good, R-5th, faces Democratic challenger Josh Throneburg in the sprawling district.

The election ballots in both Henrico and Chesterfield also include bond referendums to pay for capital projects.

Henrico proposes to issue a total of $511.3 million subject to voter approval on four separate ballot questions to pay for new public safety, school, flood prevention, and parks and recreation projects. Chesterfield proposes to issue $540 million in bonds for schools, libraries, public safety, and parks and recreation projects combined under one referendum.

Chesterfield also will hold a special election to fill the unexpired term of former Midlothian District Supervisor Leslie Haley, who resigned to join the Virginia attorney generals office. Tara Carroll will serve as interim supervisor until voters choose between Democrat Mark Miller and Republican Jennifer McNich, who defeated Carroll in the Republican primary.

Henrico already has mailed 13,845 absentee ballots to voters, and Chesterfield has mailed about 13,6000.

Nothing too extravagant but enough to keep us busy, newly appointed Chesterfield Registrar Missy Vera said Friday.

Farnsworth, at Mary Washington, said changes in Virginia law have made it easier for people to vote earlier than ever before, but suggested that initial turnout is light because voters are still getting used to the new rules and just beginning to focus on the elections.

I dont think anybody should expect a rush like Black Friday at the mall on the first day of early voting, he said.
Michael Paul Williams Follow Michael Paul Williams 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

Once in the not-so-distant past, before jurisdictions gained local control, the Commonwealth of Virginia enacted laws to protect Confederate monuments.

Today, in Mathews County, the Board of Supervisors is mulling privatization as a means of preservation.

Why not surrender the courthouse also?

The symbolism would be the same.

In a November 2021 referendum, 80% of county voters opposed the relocation of this Soldiers and Sailors Monument. Thats a result you might expect in a conservative Virginia county whose Black population is 8%.

But that vote wasnt good enough for folks who fear that overwhelmingly Republican Mathews, in an outbreak of wokeness, will somehow, someday, reverse that decision.

Democracy is democracy, says Edith Turner, president of the Mathews NAACP. But they dont believe in democracy or that democracy works. So rather than let the vote stand, they feel like they need something else.

That something else has the tiny Mathews NAACP seeking aide from big legal guns.

Joseph G. Davis of the Washington law firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher and Kaitlin Banner, deputy legal director of the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, wrote a letter on behalf of the Mathews NAACP. They argued that the countys support of Confederate displays creates a hostile and unwelcoming environment for Black families in Mathews.

The Board of Supervisors consideration of deeding the Soldiers and Sailors Monument and surrounding land on the Historic Courthouse Square to pro-Confederacy groups would move Mathews County backwards, and likely be in violation of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, they wrote.

The statue in question, like many Confederate monuments, was erected during the early 20th century, a time when white Southerners brutally reasserted their dominance over African Americans.

During a public hearing Wednesday, Sharon Dequaine told the board that the Mathews statue was erected in 1912 during a peak time for lynchings of Black men in Virginia, several years before the release of the film Birth of a Nation spurred a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan.

It was a declaration and a daily reminder of who holds power and who doesnt, she said.

In a county with gateways prominently featuring Confederate flags, where tiny Confederate flags until two months ago festooned the Confederate monument, Dequaine predicted that once that land is private, those flags will grow larger and larger.

The threat of a lawsuit has further raised temperatures in Mathews, a rural Chesapeake Bay locale of about 8,500 people.

All eyes are on Mathews, speaker Randall Dobson said at the hearing. Why are they all on Mathews? Because we had the nerve to push back against what we dont like, he said, adding that government cant keep taking from one group and giving to another.

Williams: Britain's royal family, like the U.S., needs to atone for slavery "The death of Queen Elizabeth II should be viewed less as the end of a era than the beginning of a serious conversation about unatoned sin," writes columnist Michael Paul Williams.

Wake up. Show the rest of America that you can get some backbone and push back and say were not gonna knuckle under.

Another resident called the NAACP a Marxist, activist, segregationist organization  an over-the-top description of a fundamentally mainstream, historically integrated civil rights group.

Turner  who claims enslaved ancestors and those who fought for the Union  said during an interview that some residents are still salty about the renaming of Lee-Jackson Elementary School to Mathews Elementary in May 2021.

She cited a prevailing sentiment that the Black residents are being stirred up by white liberals who have moved to Mathews from elsewhere.

I dont need anyone to tell me what to say or think, she said. I have a mind of my own.

Christine Ulrich told the supervisors that public land is a sacred trust held for the good of the whole community.

But now, you apparently are considering a proposal to sell that public spot ... to a private group that of course wants to fly the flag of a government and a way of life defined and made possible by slavery. She added that when the Civil War started, 42% of the residents of Mathews were enslaved.

Perhaps the problem in the framing of the debate over Confederate monuments is that its invariably framed in Black and white. But our moment of racial reckoning has morphed into a real question of whether American democracy can survive.

The Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection demands clear eyes about how an unresolved and mythologized past threatens our future as a cohesive nation. The folks who supported an attempt to violently overturn a presidential election are spoiling for a new Civil War. Now is no time to wax romantic about the old one.

This board must not place its foot on the scale to celebrate the wrong side of history. It needs to step off.

This isnt just about the tender feelings of Black people. It never was.
Roanoke County officials announced Thursday that police chief Howard Hall will retire at the end of the calendar year.

Hall notified Roanoke County Administrator Richard Caywood last week of his plan to retire, a press release said.

Hall has worked in law enforcement for nearly 40 years, the county press release said. He served 26 of those years in Baltimore County, Maryland.

Hall was sworn in as Roanoke Countys chief of police in August 2012. Since then, he has led an agency of 140 sworn and 16 civilian personnel.

Hall has received several recognitions, including the Public Service Award from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, as well as the J. Stannard Baker Award for lifetime contributions to traffic safety from the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Hall was inducted in 2019 into the Evidence Based Policing Hall of Fame at the Center for Evidence Based Crime Policy at the George Mason University. He is also a graduate of the FBI National Academy.

The police chief has also served in leadership roles with the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, the Virginia Highway Safety Committee, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program, the Blue Ridge Transportation Safety Board and the Washington-Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas.
CHRISTIANSBURG  U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, stood on a patch of grass along Cambria Street as Nicholas Devereux assisted him with a task on his phone.

Am I actually going to get what I ordered? Warner asked company Wings policy and governmental affairs manager, who confirmed that the senator in a few moments would in fact receive a package delivered to him by a drone.

Warner turned his attention back to the drop site minutes later after a noisy buzz from above interrupted a brief interaction with reporters. He saw the package lowered toward the ground by the small aircraft and again carefully inquired.

Now that its safe, I can go and get it right? Warner asked before proceeding to pull most of the contents out of the small box.

Holding up a can of tuna and a small bottle of water in one hand, he looked toward the cameras nearby and quipped.

Looks to me like I got lunch, said Warner, who went viral over two years ago for a video in which he is shown making a tuna melt sandwich.

Warner getting the main ingredient to one of his favorite recipes flown over to him punctuated a stop the senator made to Christiansburg Friday morning, when he went on a brief tour of Wings drone delivery facility in town.

Wing, a subsidiary of Googles parent company Alphabet Inc., has gained much local and national publicity over the past few years for its provision of a drone delivery service in Christiansburg.

Warner on Friday spoke about his efforts to try to grow the employment of drones in functions such as the one Wing brought to Christiansburg and about some key changes the technology could bring in the future. The senator, who repeatedly cited the support the Wing delivery service has received, also spoke on his view of the Federal Aviation Administration still not moving quickly enough to ease the expansion of drone services.

My hope has always been that Virginia would become the national and, hopefully, the international leader in this field, Warner said. I remember being here when it was still in the experimental stage in 2018. I think it was burrito deliveries. Now over the last couple of years, post-Covid, this has moved from experimentation to an actual delivery service.

Warner was joined by a handful of elected and municipal officials from Christiansburg and Montgomery County, among others.

While at the site, referred to as the Nest, Warner took part in a brief meeting with the local officials before Wing employees showed him around certain parts of the facility. The senator took a look at a drone model and was invited to dabble with the device used to attach the packages and prepare them for delivery.

Warner said the technologys value is evident when looking at where the delivery was made Friday.

The senator received the tuna and water at a public delivery zone that Wing recently established just outside the Christiansburg Recreation Center. The company created the zone as part of an effort to expand the availability of the drone service.

Despite the praise the operation has received, the deliveries have been limited to certain parts of Christiansburg since they started a few years ago.

Warner pointed to the Huckleberry Trail, which passes by the recreation center. He said people can come to the delivery zone to pick up lunch after walking on the trail.

Thats the good news, he said.

The bad news, Warner said, is they still need to try to get more relief from the FAA to fill out services across Virginia and the rest of the country.

One point Warner brought up is Virginia Tech, via a poll it conducted, finding that nearly 90% of responders in the community support the service. And he said drones have also shown to be useful in functions such as the inspection of utility lines, roads and bridges.

Warner recalled the recent flooding disaster in Buchanan County.

This is a perfect solution, he said. How can you get food, water and medicine to those communities who got cut off with flooding or [another natural disaster]. This has to be part of a full systemic response program. FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] ought to be all over this. FEMA ought to be one of our allies as we try to move the FAA to go ahead and move forward on the regulations.

Warner said he thinks the idea of drones is here to stay.

I think theyve proven to be safe, effective and actually can provide a great service, he said.
A data privacy watchdog's lawsuit says a Northern California utility routinely fed customers power use information to police so they could target illicit marijuana grows, without requiring a warrant or suspicion of wrongdoing
Mobilization is a term used when certain groups are called up to serve in Russia's armed forces. It's different from a general mobilization, which is when people from the general population are drafted. Czar Nicholas II ordered a general mobilization of the Russian Army July 30, 1914. Two days later, Germany declared war on Russia.

Retired Marine Corps Lt. Colonel David Jonas, who also served as a nuclear nonproliferation planner for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the partial mobilization will mean the call up of reserve soldiers and the movement of other troops to the Ukraine theater. "It is at least definitionally less than a full mobilization, which means that all national military resources are to be organized and directed in support of a military objective."

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Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu said Sept. 21 that Russia could call as many as 300,000 reservists.

Those are likely to be reservists who have already served in the Russian military and those with special military skills or combat experience. All current Russian military service contracts are also expected be extended indefinitely.
University of Kansas researcher Taejoon Kim will lead research into boosting rural 5G access, hardening commercial wireless networks for national defense, and imagining 6G. Credit: Institute for Information Sciences (I2S) /KU

Look closely at any mobile service provider's map of nationwide 5G coverage, and you'll notice huge swaths of the countryrural areasdon't have 5G service.

A new three-year, $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation will support a University of Kansas researcher's work to improve the design of 5G connectivity and computing for rural areascommunities with unique network demands based around agricultural and community patterns of living and working.

It's one of a trio of new NSF-funded projects to be headed by Taejoon Kim, assistant professor of electrical engineering & computer science and researcher at the Institute for Information Sciences (I2S) at KU.

"The 5G network system was developed by companies with a profit motive," Kim said. "Because of this economic incentive, all these 5G networks have been deployed in urban areas, but people living in rural areas still need to pay subscription for their cellphones, including for 5G service. But they haven't benefited as much as people in urban areasfrom the spread of information, the faster speeds, the ability to transfer large amounts of data that really transform our life at a different level.

"How can a company solve the problem in a way that allows them to produce more revenue?"

The KU researcher said a major hurdle in deploying 5G to rural communities has been "nonuniformity" in the spatial distribution of people as well as the demand for data on the network over time.

"In a city, the population is spread out in a way that is mostly uniform, but in rural areas you have a cluster of population there, another cluster therethat's spatial nonuniformity," Kim said.

Then there are needs of agriculture. Automated machinery, like combines controlled by GPS, are performing high-level computation and require a lot of communication.

"A huge amount of data must go to the cell tower and then the core network," Kim said.

"They'll also want to collect all those data to get statistics," he said. "But this heavy data use only happens during harvesting time. That's temporal nonuniformity."

Kim and his teamKU EECS assistant professor Morteza Hashemi and collaborators from Purdue Universityplan to streamline design of rural connectivity and computing, partnering with California-based commercial firm Blue Danube to run tests on a massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) platforman advanced antenna technology for wireless communications. Kim and his colleagues will use machine learning to understand how 5G can be better deployed to meet rural spatial and temporal demands.

"What's the main technological approach or hardware or software that will be different in a rural area than in urban areas?" Kim said. "Artificial intelligence can learn this complicated and nonuniform behavior."

The group will explore using AI to learn uniform and nonuniform behaviors and will seek approaches tailored for rural areas. Kim said one idea is to focus 5G signals more like a beam at specific communities and agricultural operations rather than providing coverage throughout vast, mostly unpopulated regions to get service to a town or two.

"Because it's nonuniform, it's more efficient if we focus the energy to a specific direction," Kim said.

In addition to re-imagining rural access to 5G, two additional NSF awards to Kim will enable him to harden commercial 5G networks for U.S. government, military and infrastructure operator use and develop technology for sixth-generation (6G) wireless technology.

Kim is the principal investigator for a yearlong $750,000 phase one award from the NSF's Convergence Accelerator program to assist the Department of Defense with enhancements to end devices and augmentations to 5G infrastructure, providing capabilities to U.S. military, government and infrastructure operators to operate through public 5G networks while meeting security and resilience needs.

"The key motivation for this project is the pursuit of 'Zero Trust' principles (an approach to designing information technology requiring all devices on a network to be verified) to combat design weaknesses of 5G networks, so we'll integrate various security solutions to increase the level of trust of 5G," Kim said.

A third NSF grant for three years and $285,000 will support Kim's work helping define 6G wireless communications requirements, using artificial intelligence to design advanced wireless-network architecture for the microwave spectrum.

Kim said 5G can provide orders of magnitude improvement in speed, connectivity and latency reduction. However, this improvement hasn't come from work within the millimeter wave, part of the electromagnetic spectrum that has had limited research success in the U.S. Rather, a boost in network throughput has come from acquisition of new frequency bands and advances in massive MIMO technologies.

Instead of using today's radio access network architecture, which depends heavily on cellphone towers, Kim will explore how to efficiently use large-scale cellfree massive multiple-input multiple-output (CFmMIMO) networks.

"We must still be looking into using the neighborhood around 5 gigahertzstill microwave, but using a different architectural network," Kim said.

The current cellphone network is based on all the cellphone towers designed to serve the user within that cell.

"There's a new concept of 'cell-free MIMO' involves removing all the cell boundaries, but we'd have a very strong central unit that controls a massive number of distributed base stations as access points," Kim said.

He said this work also would encompass cybersecurity aspects, strengthening the resilience of AI algorithms and architecture, as well as cloud radio access networks.

Provided by University of Kansas
FLORENCE, S.C.  Four All Saints Episcopal Day School student government officers attended the South Carolina Independent School Associations Student Government Middle School Fall Conference in the Senate Chamber of the State House on Monday.

The officers were Josh Warren, president; Walker Clark, vice president; Marshall Campbell, secretary; and Lilah Bleu Havekost, treasurer

All Saints was one of 18 schools from the South Carolina Independent School Association that participated in this conference.

Student government representatives from South Carolina Independent School Association schools gathered to learn about and practice the bill-writing process.

Additionally, the students took part in voting on the 2022-23 statewide South Carolina Independent School Association student government officers.

All Saints student government includes fourth- through sixth-graders.

Student government members are elected by their peers to serve for one school year. Students can serve as class representatives or school officers including the positions of treasurer, secretary, vice president and president.

In addition to representing their classmates, student government representatives and officers work on projects throughout the year to promote school spirit and to lead service and philanthropic projects that benefit the Florence community, Head of School Evan Powell said.

Two notable projects are the Florence Area Humane Society Calendar Sale and Animal Food and Supply Drive and the Fall Canned Food Drive that benefits the Manna House, ASEDS Student Government sponsor Melody Haigler said.

The ASEDS Student Government meets monthly and as needed. As part of the South Carolina Independent School Association, ASEDS gets to attend the SCISA student government conferences each year with the student government representatives of other SCISA schools.
VIENTIANE, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- A total of 25,546 cases of dengue fever have been recorded across the country since January 2022, according to the Lao Ministry of Health.

A report issued by the Center of Information and Education for Health under the Lao Ministry of Health on Friday said the country reported 162 new cases of dengue fever, bringing the total number of infections to 25,546 with 18 deaths recorded.

The 18 deaths included five in Lao capital Vientiane and Attapeu province each, three in Saravan province, two each in Luang Namtha province and Xieng Khuang province, and one in Oudomxay province.

The highest number of dengue patients was reported in Lao capital Vientiane with 12,890, while 3,614 cases were recorded in Luang Namtha province, and 1,454 in Attapeu province.

Lao Ministry of Health suggested five simple measures as the most effective method of dengue control, which are being practiced by households across the region.

These measures consist of closing and sealing all unused containers, flushing out all water vessels, placing small guppy fish in water jars as they eat mosquito larvae, cleaning areas around homes, and remembering to do these four tasks each week.

According to the World Health Organization, dengue fever is one of the fastest growing infections, with Thailand, Laos, the Philippines and Singapore also seeing high incidences.

The number of dengue cases in the Western Pacific region has more than doubled over the past 10 years. 
Director Houman Seyyedi, who produced the film and co-penned the script with Arian Vazirdaftari and Azad Jafarian, follows a widowed and homeless day laborer named Shakib as he works himself tirelessly to spend the wage in a brothel.

There is more than meets the eye, however. Shakib lost his wife and son in an earthquake he survived. The entire village blamed him for leaving his family to die under the rubble.

Outrooted from his village, without a home and stable income, he lives in a friend's ramshackle shop. When going to the brothel, he remains loyal to only one girl, a mute prostitute named Ladan. Shakib maintains contact, even when he's working. Ladan remains his only lifeline in a senseless world and aimless existence after suffering the crushing loss of his family.

When his hard work lands him a steady job on a construction site, Fortune starts turning in Shakib's favor. The construction site is a film set for a historic movie about WWII atrocities. The protagonist soon moves from lugging wood to starring on camera as a prisoner herded into a gas chamber.

Day laborers become extras in the Holocaust movie that seems to take rather unconventional creative license. Seyyedi segues from poverty and existentialism porn into a meta-film satire suddenly, defusing the masochistic vibe of a particularly bleak social realist drama.

Surprisingly enough, the director pushes the comical envelope even more, when the actor playing Adolf Hitler collapses on the set. And the producers put up an impromptu casting on the spot with available extras.

Illiterate laborer Shakib soon dons the infamous mustache and Nazi regalia. The in-film director picks him as the stand-in despite his protests. Being the leading man comes with perks. He is relocated from guarding water-leaking gas chambers to a prop house of the Nazi elite, where he can spend nights.

Seyyedi flips the genre switch once again as Shakib reveals his favorite prostitute and only confidante that he has been promoted, career- and accommodation-wise. Ladan comes knocking on Shakib's proverbial door as a damsel in distress.

The appropriation of the damsel-in-distress narrative would be a bit on-the-nose and cliche if Seyyedi did not flip his storytelling switch once again, which he does, revealing the core of World War III as a socio-political drama.

Mob extortion, Ladan's maybe-not-so-virtuous motifs, and Shakib's lying to conceal Ladan's forbidden presence on the promises snowball, putting Shakib under pressure. Ultimately, the protagonist is led into a rabbit hole of radicalization.

Seyyedi puts the pedal to the metal in the third act in a thriller fashion of the transformative rebirth of somebody who has nothing to lose anymore and goes into a frenzy (in the full Hitler costume).

Seyyedi retorts to a meandering plotting in his bleak and darkly comic allegory. His setups have longer delays, yet he offers a payback in a comic takeaway. The collective of writers is perfectly aware of possible cliches and narrative templates and plays them out wisely as they contribute to the drama about totalitarian oppression.

World War III hops from naturalism of social realism to melodrama as Seyyedi uses a theatrical approach to staging Shakib's downfall. As a homeless laborer, Shakib is always a tool of somebody else's agency.

After acquiring a superfluous sliver of privilege, he becomes an even bigger pawn with an illusion of control over the situation. World War III turns into the slapstick of a moral thriller as the virtuous protagonist attempts to make the right choices while being juiced for personal benefit from every possible direction.

Mohsen Tanabandeh excels in the leading role of Shakib as he transforms from an illiterate wage slave to a vengeful anti-hero. Seyyedi orchestrates Shakib reclaiming his agency in a cinematical trope of a rebirth into a dark version of himself, within the territory of re-engineered Greek tragedy.

World War III unfolds as an Iranian take on Dostoyevsky's The Idiot with Seyyedi putting a tongue-in-a-cheek final twist. The Iranian director turned a class thriller that would otherwise end up too didactical into a genre-hopping tragicomic absurdist meta-fictional parable.

The film won the Orizzonti Award for Best Actor and the Orizzonti Award for Best Film at the 79th edition of the Venice Film Festival.
Mayor James Perkins Jr. shakes hands with Col. Jeremy Chapman, Mobile District commander for Army Corps of Engineers, after signing an official agreement at Songs of Selma for the corp to take over design and construction of a system to prevent the excessive erosion of the riverbank along Water Avenue.
 "How Governors Can Use Categorical Clemency as a Corrective Tool: Lessons from the States" | Main | Is Sally Yates on track to be the next US Attorney General? 

November 20, 2020

After SCOTUS lifts stay by 6-3 vote, federal government completes it eighth execution of 2020

As reported here via SCOTUSblog, the "Supreme Court on Thursday night allowed the government to proceed with the execution of Orlando Hall, who became the eighth federal inmate to be put to death since the Trump administration resumed federal executions in July." Here is more:

Hall was sentenced to death for his role in the kidnapping, rape and murder of 16-year-old Lisa Rene in 1994. In a one-sentence order, the Supreme Court lifted a district judges last-minute injunction that had temporarily blocked Halls execution. Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented and would have left the injunction in place. The court also rejected three separate emergency requests filed over the past two days in which Hall asked the justices to postpone his execution. There were no noted dissents to the three brief orders rejecting those requests. Shortly after the courts orders, Hall was put to death at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. He died at 11:47 p.m., according to local news reports. Halls case reached the Supreme Court after a flurry of litigation in the lower courts over the execution, which the government had scheduled for Thursday at 6 p.m. On Thursday afternoon, Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an injunction blocking the execution. The injunction was based on an earlier finding from Chutkan that the governments method of execution violates the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act because the government uses a lethal dose of sodium pentobarbital without obtaining a prescription for that drug. The government immediately appealed Chutkans injunction. The government argued that the prescription requirement in the FDCA does not apply to lethal-injection drugs. It also argued that Hall was not entitled to an injunction based solely on the lack of a prescription. The Supreme Court sided with the government, issuing an order just before 11 p.m. that lifted Chutkans injunction. The majority did not explain its reasoning, and none of the three justices who noted their dissent wrote an opinion explaining why. At the same time, the court denied Halls three emergency applications, each of which presented separate legal arguments for a postponement of his execution.... Halls case was the first case involving a pending execution in which Justice Amy Coney Barrett participated since she joined the bench in October. Barrett, a devout Catholic, co-wrote a 1998 article on the moral and legal dilemma that Catholic judges face in capital cases due to the churchs opposition to capital punishment. That article raised questions in her confirmation hearings about possible recusals from such cases. Barrett cited her full participation in capital cases as a law clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia and as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.

A few prior recent related posts:

November 20, 2020 at 08:39 AM | Permalink

Comments

Saints preserve us if the Voice of the Sentencing Blog thinks "I'm a martyr" Sally Yates is anyone to applaud so far as a role in criminal justice.

Posted by: Fluffyross | Nov 20, 2020 2:12:23 PM

The Supreme Court's 6-3 decision to okay the execution of Orlando Hall was not only racist (anti-black) but sexist (anti-male/misandrist). It also exposes Amy Barret not only for both a misandrist and racist, but as welcher for breaking her promise to recuse herself on all death penalty cases due to her SUPPOSED concern about the sanctity of life.

I hope prisoners at Terre Haute and other death rows will quit being so passive and one day rise up against their prisons.

Posted by: William R. Delzell | Nov 20, 2020 2:56:40 PM

Post a comment
 Council on Criminal Justice releases "Justice System Disparities: Black-White National Imprisonment Trends, 2000 - 2020" | Main | Noticing notable aspect of SCOTUS vote on Alabama execution stay 

In prior posts about executions that were ultimately completed, but involved some ugly particulars, I resisted using the adjective "botched" because the standard definition of that term is "unsuccessful because of being poorly done." As I see it, an execution is fundamentally "successful" if it concludes with the termination of the life of the condemned, even if that task was completed poorly. I stress those semantics to explain why I think what happened in Alabama last night qualifies as a "botched" execution. This local article, headlined "Alabama halts execution of Alan Eugene Miller, citing time constraints and vein access," provides these details:

Alan Eugene Miller was set to be executed Thursday night by the state of Alabama for his August 5, 1999 shooting spree that left three men dead in Shelby County. But it was called off minutes before midnight, when the states death warrant was set to expire.

The execution was called off at approximately 11:30 p.m. because Millers veins couldnt be accessed within execution protocol time limits, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm told reporters gathered at the prison system media center. Miller, 57, was returned to his death row cell.

Hamm said the victims families were informed of the decision to call off the execution and that Gov. Kay Ivey was sending her thoughts and prayers to the victims families. Due to the time constraints resulting in the lateness of the court proceedings, the execution was called off once it was determined the condemneds veins could not be accessed in accordance with our protocol before the expiration of the death warrant, Hamm said.

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling just after 9 p.m., giving the state nearly three hours to conduct the execution before the death warrant expired. Hamm said the execution team did start trying to access Millers veins to insert the intravenous lines for the three-drug lethal injection cocktail, but he isnt sure how long the team worked to try to access a vein. Im not sure... I wasnt looking at that. We were more focused on the time that the court, the Supreme Court, sent their order. Before we start accessing veins, we have other things we have to do that take time.

When pressed what was being done during that nearly three-hour period, Hamm would not elaborate. Like I said, there are several things that we have to do before we even start accessing the veins. And that was taking a little bit longer than we anticipated.

Ivey released a statement shortly after the cancellation was announced. In Alabama, we are committed to law and order and upholding justice. Despite the circumstances that led to the cancellation of this execution, nothing will change the fact that a jury heard the evidence of this case and made a decision, the governor said. It does not change the fact that Mr. Miller never disputed his crimes. And it does not change the fact that three families still grieve. We all know full well that Michael Holdbrooks, Terry Lee Jarvis and Christopher Scott Yancey did not choose to die by bullets to the chest. Tonight, my prayers are with the victims families and loved ones as they are forced to continue reliving the pain of their loss.

Hamm visited with the victims families prior to announcing the cancellation and relayed the governors prayers and concerns. A spokesperson said Ivey anticipates that the execution will be reset at the earliest opportunity....

The failed execution comes after weeks of legal wrangling, most recently in a flurry of filings on Thursday when the Alabama Attorney Generals Office asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court judges ruling that effectively stayed the execution.

At approximately 9:08 p.m., the U.S. Supreme Court granted the states application to vacate the injunction, clearing the way for Alabama to execute Miller via lethal injection. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson voted to deny the application and block the execution. No opinion was issued.

Millers legal battles centered around his claims that in June 2018, he completed a form distributed to death row inmates at Holman electing to die by the states newly approved method of execution, nitrogen hypoxia, instead of the default method of lethal injection. The AGs Office argued there is no record of that form being submitted, and that he should be executed using lethal injection instead.

But a federal judge on Monday stated Miller has presented consistent, credible, and uncontroverted direct evidence that he submitted an election form in the manner he says was announced to him by the (Alabama Department of Corrections), along with circumstantial evidence that the ADOC lost or misplaced his form after he turned it in.
(Reuters) -SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Friday that he would activate the firm's satellite internet service, Starlink, in response to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's tweet that the United States took action "to advance internet freedom and the free flow of information" to Iranians.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday issued guidance expanding internet services available to Iranians despite U.S. sanctions on the country, amid protests around Iran following the death of a 22-year-old woman in custody.

A Treasury official briefing reporters said: "Our understanding of Starlink is that what they provide would be commercial grade, and it would be hardware that's not covered in the general license; so that would be something they would need to write into Treasury for."

A U.S. State Department spokesperson later said of Friday's updated license that it was self-executing and that "anyone who meets the criteria outlined in this general license can proceed with their activities without requesting additional permissions."

Musk could not be reached for comments or clarification regarding Starlink's clearance to operate in Iran.

Iranians have been protesting over the death of Mahsa Amini last week while in police custody after being arrested by the morality police for wearing "unsuitable attire".

Musk said on Monday that the company wanted to provide Starlink satellite broadband service - already provided to Ukraine for its fight against Russia's invasion - to Iranians, and would ask for a sanctions exception.

The U.S. State Department spokesperson added that if SpaceX were to determine that some activity aimed at Iranians requires a specific license, "OFAC would welcome it and prioritize it".

"By the same token, if SpaceX determines that its activity is already authorized and has any questions, OFAC also welcomes that engagement," the State Department spokesperson said.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Kanishka Singh; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Sandra Maler)
FILE PHOTO: A logo of Renault carmaker is seen in Paris

By Gilles Guillaume

PARIS (Reuters) -French carmaker Renault will control 80% of its electric vehicle value chain well ahead of its 2030 target as it develops partnerships in batteries, electric motors and power electronics, its chief executive said on Thursday.

Luca de Meo said the research and development costs were too high to go it alone and drew parallels with Apple's business model, which he described as relying on a variety of partnerships when it first ventured into smartphones.

"Our old recipes are not enough anymore. The huge investments they (the shifts to electrification) require are not sustainable," de Meo told the Auto Motor and Sport congress in Stuttgart, Germany.

"We want to co-invest, co-develop and co-create."

Renault is pushing ahead with plans to split its electric vehicle (EV) and combustion engine businesses as it seeks to catch up with rivals such as Tesla and Volkswagen in the race to cleaner driving.

It expects to unveil a detailed blueprint for the new EV entity at a capital markets day this autumn.

Three years ago, Renault controlled just 10% of the EV value chain. That figure now stood at 30% and would hit 80% well before the end of the decade, de Meo said.

Renault was forging partnerships "all along the EV value chain", he continued.

Alliance partners Nissan and Mitsubishi have not yet said whether they will take part in Renault's future EV unit.

Nissan chief executive Makoto Uchida told the Nikkei newspaper this week that discussions continued on the Japanese group's participation, whether through an investment or another form.
Choking risk is highest among older adults and children under 5. (Getty Images)

Theres a good possibility you will witness someone choking at some point in your life: Choking is the fourth-leading cause of unintentional injury death, according to the National Safety Council.

Youve been warned about the risk of choking since you were young, but would you actually know what to do if someone around you were choking? If not, its crucial to learn, experts say. "With choking, theres an obstruction in a persons airway and failure to act will unfortunately lead to eventual suffocation and asphyxiation," Dr. Eric Adkins, an emergency medicine physician at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, tells Yahoo Life.

Its also essential to act fast, Dr. Danelle Fisher, chair of pediatrics at Providence Saint Johns Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., tells Yahoo Life. Sometimes you have minutes or even seconds to reestablish that airway before permanent damage is done, she says. Its a scary situation that needs an immediate response.

Many organizations, including the Red Cross, offer courses on what to do if someone is choking. But if you dont have time to take a course or just know youll never get around to it, its important to at least have some basic knowledge of what to do in an emergency. Here's what experts recommend.

First, who is most likely to choke?

Choking can happen to anyone, says Dr. Zeeshan Khan, associate professor at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, but added that kids under 5 and older adults are at the highest risk.

Children under 4 in particular are more prone to choking because they have smaller airways to begin with, and theyre not used to handling different textures of food, Fisher says. Theyre also impulsive about what they put in their mouth, she adds.

With older adults, the swallowing function can change, making people more prone to choking, Adkins says.

Common causes of choking

Choking can happen in a range of situations, but experts say that the main causes in children are food, coins, toys and balloons.

Story continues

In adults, the most common causes of choking almost always involves food, Khan says. However, he adds, the elderly may have problems with chewing and swallowing that can lead to choking.

What to do if a baby is choking

If anyone else is there, Fisher recommends asking them to call 911 while you take action. And, if youre alone, try to dislodge the food first. Your first attempt will be more lifesaving than calling 911 first, she says.

If a child is under the age of 1, youll want to hold the baby face down and do back blows, Fisher says. That means taking the heel of your hand and aiming between the shoulder blades, she says. This creates a strong vibration and pressure in the airway, which can usually dislodge the object, she says.

The British Red Cross specifically recommends that you give up to five back blows while holding the baby face-down along your thigh with their head lower than their butt and supporting their head. If the back blows dont help, turn the baby over so that they are facing up, place two fingers in the middle of their chest just below the nipples, and push downward sharply up to five times. This squeezes air out of the babys lungs and may help dislodge the blockage, according to the British Red Cross.

If a baby is choking, the British Red Cross recommends giving up to five back blows while holding the baby facedown. (Getty Images)

What to do if a child is choking

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends using the Heimlich maneuver on children who are choking. Again, ask someone to call 911 if they are available, while you take action. You can do this when the child is lying down, sitting or standing.

If they are sitting or standing, position yourself behind them and wrap your arms around their waist, the AAP says. Place the thumb side of your fist in the middle of their abdomen, grab that fist with your free hand and press inward with rapid, upward thrusts. Repeat these thrusts until the object is coughed up or the child starts to breathe or cough.

If the child is unconscious, you'll want to do what's called a tongue-jaw lift. To do this, the AAP says to open their mouth with your thumb held over their tongue and your fingers wrapped around the lower jaw (this draws the tongue away from the back of the throat). You may be able to clear the airway this way. If you can see whats causing the blockage, try to remove it with a sideways sweep of your finger  just be careful, since this could push the object down even farther.

If the child hasnt started breathing again, tilt their head back gently and lift their chin, the AAP says. Then, place your own mouth over their mouth, pinch their nose shut and give two breaths lasting one-and-a-half to two seconds. Then, return to the Heimlich maneuver. Keep repeating the steps until the child starts breathing again or help arrives.

What to do if an adult is choking

For adults, its important to first ask if theyre choking, Adkins says. If they indicate that they are, youll take similar steps to those youd do for a child, according to the American Red Cross. Give them five back blows, followed by five abdominal thrusts, if the blows didnt dislodge the object.

Keep repeating this cycle or call 911 if you cant dislodge the object.

After the choking episode is resolved, its a good idea to see a doctor, Khan says. There may be complications from the episode, he says.

Wellness, parenting, body image and more: Get to know the who behind the hoo with Yahoo Life's newsletter. Sign up here.
SIOUX CITY  Mike Pompeo promised a crowd of more than 1,500 people gathered Thursday night for the annual Siouxland Chamber of Commerce dinner that they'd see an "unplugged" version of the former secretary of state and CIA director.

During the course of his 17-minute set, which, at times, had the tenor of stump speech, Pompeo, a Republican, told those at the Sioux City Convention Center that they had decency, values and common sense and that some of those core American values had fallen by the wayside in the 20 months since he and his former boss, President Donald Trump, were in office.

"I think here in America, we are less secure," he said of leadership under President Joe Biden though Pompeo, a former congressman from Kansas, never once mentioned Biden by name in his remarks.

The Chinese Communist Party came up at least three different times with Pompeo saying at one point "This community force in China threatens our very existence here. Our way of life. Xi Jinping is determined to change the way we live." In 2021, after he left office, Pompeo was placed under sanctions by China. In March of this year, he traveled to Taiwan (the Republic of China) which is not formally recognized by the United States or a number of other countries as being a wholly separate nation from the People's Republic of China.'

Earlier in the day

Thursday afternoon, Pompeo, who served as CIA director from 2017-18 and secretary of state from 2018-21 under former President Trump, also spoke about threats to America both at home and abroad and shared his take on "American greatness" with a cluster of local media in advance of his scheduled keynote address at the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce's annual dinner. He touched on those topics while shying away from questions about a possible run in the 2024 presidential election.

Classified documents

Asked about his former boss' handling of classified government documents, which FBI agents seized from Trump's Florida home as part of the Department of Justice's ongoing criminal investigation, Pompeo said "no one gets to keep classified documents outside of the appropriate setting."

As for what accountability for mishandling records would look like, Pompeo said it "depends what was there, depends how they were handled and depends on how the conversation had been. But people can make mistakes about classified information and have it some place it shouldn't be."

On the matter of the seizure itself at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, Pompeo suggested "there's something more going on" but didn't elaborate.

Presidential run

Trump, who lost re-election to Joe Biden in 2020, has not ruled out making another run for the White House in 2024.

Pompeo didn't have a lot to say on the topic of his own possible bid, though numerous political outlets have talked about him taking steps to run including holding events, within the past month, in New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina, which have been three of the first four states in the presidential primaries.

"I'm here in Iowa to speak to a bunch of patriots who are coming to the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce," Pompeo told local reporters. "There's certainly time for that, my wife and I will pray and figure out precisely what we're going to do. There's two things I can assure you: I'm not going to leave the fight. I've been working on the cause of America for 30-plus years now."

In a one-on-one with a Journal reporter, Pompeo said his priority is on helping GOP candidates get across the finish line.

"So the decision about what I'll do next, the place I'll find myself whether that's helping someone run for president or putting myself forward as a candidate, will depend on my judgment about the most effective way to deliver what the American people deserve," he said.

Immigration

Pompeo called the Biden administration's immigration policy "indecent," "immoral" and "dangerous for the United State of America to not protect its sovereignty."

When asked what a moral immigration policy would look like, the former Republican congressman said it would be one where immigrants aren't "encouraged" to "trek across Mexico and have their children raped and their lives destroyed by the cartels." Pompeo then added that the U.S. system should include a protected southern border as well and "lawful migration to our country, not just from Mexico, but from people all across the world."

Just this week, while responding to a question about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sending migrants to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, Pompeo said "I'm mostly worried about the 50 that came across while I was speaking this morning." He repeated a similar line and figure at the Convention Center.

Winding down

Near the end of his time with the dinner crowd, Pompeo said for all of the threats to America that exist beyond its borders; such as China, Russia and Iran; the greatest threat to the continued prosperity of the country was an internal one.

"If we allow inflation to rage, if we can't put stuff on our store shelves, if we regulate in a way that denies agricultural communities the capacity to be good stewards of their land, then there's an enormous risk to our republic," Pompeo said.

He then told folks to not worry too much about such threats and threw in a joke.

"Thank you for keeping your focus of the central idea of America as an important place and an important country. When we get that right, we'll be fine. We'll push back against the Chinese Communist Party or any other threat, even from the teachers unions."

This story has been updated to include Mike Pompeo's remarks as the keynote speaker and comments he made to a Journal reporter.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP)  Denmark's government said Friday that a temporary ban on mink breeding will expire Jan. 1, allowing mink production to resume in the country but at a significantly reduced" level than before the coronavirus pandemic.

The government nearly two years ago ordered a cull of millions of minks and banned their farming to minimize the risk of the small mammals retransmitting the virus to contain a mutated version that could spread to people.

At first the ban was set to expire at the end of 2021 but was extended for a year. As of Jan. 1, it will again be permitted to keep mink in Denmark.

It was not immediately clear whether there would be a cap on the number of animals per farm. There will be limits on the number of people allowed to visit farms, and farmers will be required to register the names of visitors.

The Environment and Food Ministry said health officials now think there is a limited risk to public health by resuming significantly reduced mink production and by introducing infection prevention measures."

The government said the decision to lift the temporary ban was based on an assessment by the Statens Serum Institut, a government agency that maps the spread of diseases in Denmark.

Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Rasmus Prehn and institute officials plan to meet later Friday with representatives of the Danish mink industry to review the infection prevention measures for the industry.

The government said veterinary and health authorities have drawn up a model with requirements for handling COVID-19 in mink herds that breeders must implement and comply with in order to be able to keep mink again after the turn of the year.

There are absolutely no good reasons to reopen large mink farms with millions of animals crammed in small wire cages until they are killed for their fur, said Britta Riis, head of Animal Protection Denmark. It is bad for the animals, the environment and the climate.

Keeping mink in the existing cages is not acceptable, she said and added that several European countries have either banned or are phasing out mink farming. On Thursday, Latvia became the latest country to ban mink farming from 2028.

Denmark was one of the worlds main mink fur exporters, producing an estimated 17 million furs per year. Kopenhagen Fur, a cooperative of 1,500 Danish breeders, accounts for 40% of global mink production. Most of its exports went to China and Hong Kong.

The 2020 decision to wipe out Denmarks entire captive mink population stirred strong controversy, particularly as the necessary legislation for such a drastic move was put in place more than a month after the cull had started.

In June 2022, a Parliament-appointed commission harshly criticized the Danish government for its decision to cull millions of healthy mink. The report said Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had been grossly misleading during a 2020 press conference when she announced that all mink  infected and healthy animals alike  should be culled. The report also criticized other top Danish officials.
HONG KONG (AP)  Hong Kongs leader announced the city would no longer require incoming travelers to quarantine in designated hotels as it seeks to remain competitive and open up globally after nearly two years.

Incoming travelers will also no longer need a negative PCR test within 48 hours before boarding a plane to Hong Kong, the city's chief executive John Lee said Friday at a news conference. Instead, they will need to present a negative COVID-19 result from a rapid antigen test conducted within 24 hours before the flight.

The measures will come into effect Monday.

While we can't control the trend of the epidemic, we must allow the maximum room to allow connectivity with the world so that we can have economic momentum and to reduce inconvenience to arriving travelers, said Lee, who also said that authorities will not roll back the measures announced Friday.

He said that there must be a balance between risks and economic growth."

From Monday, travelers into Hong Kong will have to undergo three days of home monitoring. If they test negative for COVID-19 after three days, they will be allowed into venues such as restaurants and bars. They must also undergo several mandatory PCR tests, including one on arrival, as well as on their second, fourth and sixth days in Hong Kong, coupled with daily antigen rapid tests every day for their first week.

Hong Kongs easing of travel curbs sparked a rush for flight bookings, with airline Cathay Pacifics website experiencing high traffic after the announcement was made. Visitors to the site had to wait in a virtual queue to enter.

The city's daily COVID-19 infections have fallen to below 6,000 cases a day, from over 10,000 daily cases early this month. A large majority are local infections.

For nearly two years, Hong Kong required overseas arrivals in the city to serve a period of mandatory quarantine in designated hotels. At one point, the city had among the worlds longest quarantine periods at 21 days of mandatory isolation.

Neighboring Taiwan is expected to do the same next month. This leaves mainland China as one of the only places in the world that will still require travelers to quarantine on arrival.

Hong Kong has for most of the pandemic aligned with Chinas zero-COVID strategy.

Over the past 2 1/2 years, Hong Kong authorities have imposed strict social distancing measures and locked down residential buildings with confirmed COVID-19 infections to mass-test residents.

As the rest of the world reopened borders, businesses urged Hong Kong authorities to come up with an exit strategy to the pandemic in order to remain competitive amid a brain drain as tens of thousands of residents left the city.

Several companies also moved their offices to countries like Singapore as they sought relief from the city's restrictions.

Singapore had eased travel curbs and relaxed coronavirus restrictions months before Hong Kong, sparking concerns that Hong Kong may lose out in competitiveness as an international financial center and regional business hub.

Lee said authorities will keep monitoring the epidemic situation in Hong Kong to determine if further relaxation is possible, adding he was optimistic that the loosening of requirements will be welcomed by those who wish to enter Hong Kong.

If there are positive developments as we progress  there will be more room for us to do extra measures so that we can have more movement, more activities and more room for us to go about different (activities), he said.

The easing of measures comes as Hong Kong prepares to hold several high-profile events, including the Rugby Sevens tournament in November and an international banking summit.

The Rugby Sevens is making a comeback in the city for the first time since the pandemic began. In a news conference Friday, organizers said that risk mitigation measures will be taken for the tournament, which includes making sure that all players and officials involved have at least two COVID-19 vaccinations.

Other measures taken include operating within a competition bubble," which ensures that competing teams will be sequestered on arrival, during the tournament and until departure.

On arrival, teams will be transported directly from the airport to designated hotels and will have dedicated team transport and training venues.

Organizers said 10,000 Rugby Sevens tickets will go on sale to the public Sept. 28.

The return of the Hong Kong Sevens means business is returning too. And I know we cant wait for both to fill the stands, and the streets and shops, restaurants and hopefully bars as well, said financial secretary Paul Chan at the Rugby Sevens news conference.

The momentum will keep on building. And long beyond. There will be no stopping our many prestigious international events, Chan said.

The relaxation of travel requirements drew optimistic reactions from some residents in the city.

I think (reopening) has to be step-by-step, its positive, said Samuel Tsang, a Hong Kong resident.

However, there are others who believe that three days of monitoring for arrivals is still an inconvenient measure.

Its too late. Everybody else has opened up for such a long time," said Eva Leung.

The economy has become like this, no one is coming, she said, adding that it's still a hassle, especially for business travelers who have to move around the city for work. "Its still not convenient.

AP news assistant Karmen Li contributed to this report.
ISLAMABAD, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Three terrorists were killed in two separate operations in Pakistan's southwest Balochistan and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provinces, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of the police said on Friday.

The CTD personnel conducted an operation in the Sorgar area of Khuzdar district of Balochistan during which the terrorists opened fire on the police personnel, according to the CTD in Khuzdar.

An exchange of fire took place between terrorists and the police, killing two militants on the spot, the CTD said, adding that three of their accomplices managed to escape.

A search operation has been launched in the surrounding areas to arrest on-the-run terrorists, said the police.

In a separate operation in Swat district of KP province, security forces along with CTD personnel thwarted a major terror bid and killed a wanted terrorist of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

A huge cache of arms and ammunition, including explosives, hand grenades and assault rifles, were seized during the operations. 
FRIDAY, Sept. 23, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- If you are one of the millions of people with type 2 diabetes, losing weight can help reverse the blood sugar disease even if you arent overweight or obese, new research reveals.

Here's the proof: 70% of people with type 2 diabetes who were a normal weight during the study went into remission after they lost roughly 10% of their body weight.

Type 2 diabetes is the form of the disease most closely tied to obesity, yet around 15% of patients aren't overweight or obese. They may, however, be pushing their personal "fat threshold."

Everyone has a level at which they can no longer store fat safely inside the body  that is determined by genes, said study author Dr. Roy Taylor, a professor of medicine and metabolism at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom.

If you cant store more fat under your skin, the fat spills over and starts building up inside the liver, he explained. When this happens, too much fat goes to the rest of the body, including the pancreas. Insulin-producing cells in the pancreas then stop working correctly, triggering diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes happens to those who are susceptible, but only when they have become too heavy for their own body, Taylor noted.

No test can say "you have exceeded your personal fat threshold" yet, but some blood markers of stress in fat may one day prove to be a reliable way to measure that threshold, he added.

For the study, 20 people with diabetes who werent overweight or obese ate 800 calories a day (from low-calorie soups and shakes and non-starchy vegetables) for two to four weeks. They did these three times, with each cycle followed by four to six weeks of weight maintenance.

They lost about 10.7% of their weight overall, and kept it off for six months to a year.

Fourteen people achieved diabetes remission, based on their HbA1c levels. This provides a snapshot of average blood glucose levels over several weeks. Folks in remission no longer needed to take diabetes medication.

This mirrors what is seen among people with type 2 diabetes who are overweight or obese and lose weight, Taylor said.

MRI scans showed declines of fat inside the liver and pancreas that were in line with what is seen in people without diabetes. Specifically, fat in the pancreas fell from an average of 5.8% to 4.3% among people with diabetes, and the activity of the insulin-producing cells returned to normal.

It doesnt take much extra fat to thwart the activity of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. You only need an extra half gram of fat in the pancreas to prevent normal insulin production, Taylor said.

Regardless of body mass index [BMI], people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes have more fat inside the body than they can cope with, he said. There is a good chance of remission if they can lose around 10% of their starting weight.

The study was presented this week at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting in Stockholm. Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

The relationship between obesity and diabetes is consistent and strong, said Dr. Scott Kahan, director of the National Center for Weight and Wellness, in Washington, D.C.

Even exceedingly small amounts of weight gain or excess weight can increase the risk for type 2 diabetes significantly  even in people who are relatively thin," Kahan noted.

The good news is that small weight losses, often on the order of just a few pounds, can improve blood sugar control and diabetes risk.

This study further supports the importance of weight management for the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes, and strongly suggests that weight management guidance, support and intervention will likely be valuable even in persons with only small amounts of excess weight, Kahan said.

More information

The American Diabetes Association provides tips on how to lose weight if you have diabetes.

SOURCES: Roy Taylor, MD, professor, medicine and metabolism, Newcastle University, Newcastle, U.K.; Scott Kahan, MD, director, National Center for Weight and Wellness, Washington, D.C.; European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting, Sept. 19-23, 2022
During his official remarks before the Siouxland Chamber, Pompeo said America is "less secure." Earlier, when asked about a presidential run in 2024, Mike Pompeo said he was in Iowa to "speak to a bunch of patriots" but wasn't going to "leave the fight."
SIOUX CITY  A previously convicted sex offender faces a 25-year federal prison sentence after pleading guilty to taking pictures of himself having sexual contact with an underage girl.

Kenneth Miller, 29, of Sioux City, pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Sioux City to one count of sexual exploitation of a child. According to court documents, he has entered a plea agreement in which he will receive a 300-month prison sentence. There is no parole in the federal system. A sentencing date has yet to be set.

Miller pleaded guilty of persuading or enticing the girl to engage in sexually explicit conduct with the intention of taking pictures of it from approximately September 2020 to March 24, 2021, when, according to court documents, his girlfriend found photos of him engaged in sex acts with the girl on his Gmail account. He was arrested in May 2021 and charged in Woodbury County District Court with three counts each of second-degree sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of a minor. Those charges were dismissed earlier this year after Miller was indicted in federal court.

Miller, who was convicted in Nebraska in 2016 for possession of child pornography, initially faced three additional counts of possession of child pornography and commission of a felony involving a minor while being required to register as a sex offender. Those charges will be dismissed as part of his plea agreement.
SIOUX CITY -- A Bronson, Iowa, man who used homemade chloroform to abduct his ex-girlfriend was sentenced Friday to more than 10 years in federal prison.

Zack Smith, 22, pleaded guilty in March in U.S. District Court in Sioux City to one count of kidnapping. As part of a plea agreement, he had agreed to a 121-month prison sentence.

There is no parole in the federal system, and Smith must serve three years on supervised release upon completion of his prison sentence. As part of his plea agreement, prosecutors dropped a charge of interstate violation of a protection order, and Smith agreed to give up his right to appeal his conviction and sentence.

Smith hid for three hours in the South Sioux City woman's vehicle on June 3, 2021. When she got in and after she had dropped a friend off at school, Smith threatened her with an Airsoft pistol and forced her into his vehicle, where he blindfolded her, bound her with zip ties and duct tape, and rendered her unconscious with homemade chloroform.

The victim told investigators she awakened alone in a shed at Smith's home in rural Bronson and was able remove rope and duct tape from her ankles and escape. She was found at a rural Woodbury County intersection by a family member who was looking for her.

Investigators later found Smith in possession of a backpack containing condoms, lubrication, ropes, ties and duct tape. Smith told investigators he had used items in the backpack during the abduction and had been planning the kidnapping for more than two weeks. He said he planned to keep the woman for a week, but did not know what he would do with her after that.

A judge issued a no contact order against Smith a month earlier after he was arrested and charged in Woodbury County with two misdemeanor counts of false imprisonment for an incident in which he posed as his father and sent emails to the ex-girlfriend, telling her that Smith had committed suicide and asking her to come to his home to pick up her belongings. The ex-girlfriend and a friend went to the home, where Smith, armed with a BB gun, was waiting. He locked the door and would not let them leave. Police later rescued the women.

Smith pleaded guilty to the false imprisonment charges and was sentenced to 75 days in jail. He was initially charged in Woodbury County District Court in the kidnapping case, but those charges were dismissed after he was indicted in federal court.
PRIMGHAR, Iowa -- A Calumet, Iowa, man has pleaded guilty of shooting at his wife during a domestic disturbance.

Paul Long, 41, entered written guilty pleas Wednesday in O'Brien County District Court to single counts of intimidation with a dangerous weapon and willful injury resulting in bodily injury. The charges were amended as part of a plea agreement from attempted murder and domestic abuse assault.

He has agreed to a 15-year prison sentence, and two other counts of domestic abuse assault will be dismissed. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 14.

Long struck his wife in the head with the butt of a 12-gauge shotgun, then fired a shot at her as she ran from the house in the 200 block of South Morse Avenue in Calumet during the Feb. 13 incident.

Long was involved with a short standoff with authorities who responded to the incident. The standoff ended when Long exited the home and was taken into custody.

According to court documents, in addition to striking his wife with the gun, Long also choked her three times with his hands during the alleged assault.
According to court documents, Hills possessed a 9mm handgun while he was using marijuana at the time of the Sept. 16, 2021, incident, in which he is suspected of firing a shot into an occupied car while a mother and her two children were getting out
SIOUX CITY  A woman who says her lawsuit against a plastic surgeon was dismissed because her lawyers missed a filing deadline has sued them and a Sioux City law firm for legal malpractice and negligent misrepresentation.

Jessica McHugh says in her suit that Goosmann Law Firm's "exaggerated" claims about its attorneys' health care law experience on its website led her to choose them to represent her in her medical malpractice lawsuit against former Sioux City plastic surgeon Adam Smith. McHugh's lawsuit also says Goosmann attorneys Joel Carney and William Hale breached their duties of "skill, prudence and diligence that lawyers of ordinary skill and capacity commonly possess" by filing an affidavit more than four months past the date it was due.

District Judge Patrick Tott cited the missed deadline in his 2020 ruling dismissing the lawsuit, a decision later upheld by the Iowa Court of Appeals.

The dismissal, McHugh said, prevented her from recovering damages from Smith and his then-employer, Tri-State Specialists.

In an answer to the lawsuit, the firm, Carney and Hale deny McHugh's allegations, saying they acted in good faith and believed they were complying with the law while representing her.

"Defendants exercised reasonable professional judgment in discharge of their duty and, as such, should not be held liable to the extent (McHugh's) claims attack that independent professional judgment," Alexander Wonio, a Des Moines attorney representing the firm and lawyers, said in his answer to the lawsuit.

McHugh, of Sergeant Bluff, sued Smith and Tri-State, saying the surgeon botched her 2017 plastic surgery, leading to infections in her surgical wounds that required hospitalization and additional operations to correct the damage.

When looking for legal representation for a medical malpractice lawsuit, McHugh visited the Goosmann Law Firm website, which said its attorneys know and understand health care law.

"With backgrounds in healthcare and litigation, Goosmann attorneys are ready to tackle any litigation challenge," the website says.

McHugh retained Carney and Hale, who filed the lawsuit in Woodbury County District Court in August 2019. Smith and Tri-State filed an answer a month later, starting the countdown on a 60-day deadline for McHugh's attorneys to provide to the court a certificate of merit affidavit for their expert witness. Due by Nov. 24, 2019, the affidavit wasn't filed until Feb. 7, 2020 -- 136 days past the deadline, leading to the defense's motion to dismiss that was granted by Tott.

That failure to comply with the deadline was a breach of duty, McHugh's current attorneys, Ryland Deinert and Timothy Clausen, both of Sioux City, said in her lawsuit.

"Goosmann Law Firm appears to have exaggerated its trial experience and experience in the medical malpractice field in order to attract and induce clients," the lawsuit says.

McHugh is seeking a judgment awarding her an unspecified amount of damages for past and future medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, permanent disfigurement and legal fees.

Smith, who now lives in Minnesota, was sued for malpractice by a number of other Sioux City-area patients and later surrendered his Iowa medical license to resolve charges of professional incompetency and unethical conduct. A federal judge in Michigan also ordered Smith to pay more than $236,000 in damages and penalties for filing dozens of fraudulent Medicare claims when he practiced in Michigan before moving to Sioux City.
SIOUX CITY -- The Siouxland Chamber of Commerce presented its annual W. Edwards Deming Business Leadership and Entrepreneurial Excellence Award to longtime Great West Casualty Co. executive Jim Jensen.

Jensen, who recently celebrated 47 years with the South Sioux City-based insurance company, including 15 years as chief executive officer, was lauded for his corporate and community leadership during the Chamber's 36th annual fundraising dinner Thursday night.

Speaking at a sold-out dinner at the Sioux City Convention Center, Jensen fondly recalled his local roots, and acknowledged the opportunities the company gave him.

I am so grateful for my employment with Great West, which began just after I graduated from high school. It continued through college and included leadership assignments in Denver and Boise, before culminating with my role as the chief executive officer of this outstanding organization, he told the audience.

I am humbled by this recognition, and indebted to Great Wests remarkably dedicated employees and unbelievably loyal customers.

Jensen said he and his wife, Carla, "owe a significant debt of gratitude to Siouxland, and we have done our level best to make sure that we give back to this community, which has sustained us, both personally and professionally, for nearly five decades.

While attending Briar Cliff University in the late 1970s, Jensen worked part-time at Joe Morten & Son in South Sioux City, where he graduated from high school. He performed almost every odd job imaginable at the insurance agency, from answering phones to cleaning floors to washing office windows.

Jensen's employment with Great West, the nations leading over-the-road semi-tractor/trailer insurance company, began at age 17 when he was hired to mow the lawn. While attending Briar Cliff, he worked part-time at the companys corporate headquarters as a dispatcher answering emergency phone calls. After college, he joined the companys underwriting department. His career eventually took him to leadership roles in Colorado and Idaho before returning to South Sioux City in 2007 when he was named CEO. During his career with Great West, company revenues grew from $12 million to a staggering $1.2 billion annually.

The Deming Business Leadership & Entrepreneurial Excellence Award, the Chamber's most prestigious honor, recognizes local leaders who have "exhibited outstanding leadership and corporate citizenship, within the Siouxland community, as well as originality, quality, productivity, and performance within the realm of their business." First presented in 1991, the award is named for Dr. W. Edwards Deming, a Sioux City native and world-renowned statistician, philosopher, and educator.

Rich Waller, a former Security National Bank CEO and past recipient of the Deming award, of Security National Bank, described Jensen as a welcome addition to the exceptional Siouxland leaders who have received the award over the years.

"His subtle contributions, critical thinking, and bold vision for what his company and this community can be, have made a profoundly positive difference for both, said Waller, who served with Jensen on board of The Siouxland Initiative, the Chamber's economic development arm.

Jensen also chaired the Siouxland Chamber board from 2011-12.

His service to the community over the years also included serving on the boards for Briar Cliff University and UnityPoint Health-St. Lukes. He also was served as the honorary chair of the Boys and Girls Home and Family Services' tailgating fundraiser for kids.

Since returning to Siouxland, Jim has distinguished himself as one of the key advocates for our community," Siouxland Chamber President Chris McGowan said. "While he can be a very vocal and outspoken leader, he has most often chosen to quietly lead by example, which I believe is the gold-standard for servant leadership.
SIOUX CITY  Over 175 Rotarians from three states are gathering in Sioux City for a two-day conference that features decorated Navy Seal Boyd Renner.

The Rotary Club of Sioux City will host members from 40 clubs from Northwest Iowa, Southwest Minnesota and South Dakota during the District 5610 conference at the Stoney Creek Inn.

Steve Harrington, chair of the 2022 Rotary Celebration Event, said it's been at least 25 years since the metro area has hosted the annual conference, which rotates between the cities in the district.

"This is a really big event," Harrington said. "We're so excited. This is a feather in the hat for Sioux City and Siouxland."

While in town, visiting Rotarians will be offered tours of various local attractions such as the downtown historic districts, the riverfront and the Public Museum. Sioux City Rotarians also will highlight major employers like Palmer Candy and Jolly Time Pop Corn, Harrington said.

"We're going to really take advantage of promoting the community," Harrington said.

The convention, which began Thursday night with a dinner from the Plymouth County Pork Producers, also will include feature guest speakers and breakout topics on various topics, including Rotary International's continual efforts to eradicate polio globally. Since 1985, Rotary volunteers have helped vaccinate over 2.5 billion people.

Rotary also finances projects that provide clean water and sanitation, protect the environment, support mothers and children and promote literacy and economic development.

Another breakout session will focus on fighting human trafficking in Siouxland, Harrington said.

Additionally, the conference will help teach delegates on how to become better Rotarians and better serve their communities, he said.

Boyd Renner, who served for more than 23 years with the Naval Special Warfare Development Group before retiring, will be the keynote speaker at the dinner that starts at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Stoney Creek Hotel and Conference Center. The dinner is open to the public, and a limited number of complimentary tickets will be available at the conference registration table earlier in the day.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Renner completed 10 tours in Afghanistan and two tours in Iraq. He also was deployed in Albania, Sarajevo and to the Arabian Peninsula.

As a member of Seal Team Six, Renner was part of the second extraction team to search for Marcus Luttrell, the lone survivor of a 2005 Navy Seal mission in Afghanistan after the first attempt failed. Renner was the senior enlisted member of the team that recovered the bodies of his fellow SEALs killed during Operation Red Wings.

Today, Boyd is co-founder of Endeavor Life Sciences, a company that has patented a way to safely add DNA to a new or existing tattoo and jewelry. He is also currently the chief operations officer at FINAO Coastal Group in Virginia Beach, Va.

At 2 p.m. Friday, Renner is also scheduled to address students at Bishop Heelan.

"He's going to give life and leadership lessons," Harrington said.

The Rotary district conference concludes around noon Saturday.
ULAN BATOR, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia's foreign exchange reserves have shrunk to 2.6 billion U.S. dollars at the end of August, down around 1.9 billion dollars from the beginning of this year, the country's central bank said Friday.

The significant decrease in the forex reserves is largely related to a current account deficit of the payment balance, the Bank of Mongolia said in a statement.

Current account of the payment balance had a deficit of 2.2 billion dollars at the end of the second quarter, 2.1 times higher than the same period last year, Mongolia's National Statistics Office said.

The country's forex reserves stood at 4.9 billion dollars at the end of April 2021, hitting an all-time high, said the central bank.

In recent days, Mongolian commercial banks have limited foreign-exchange transactions amid dwindling forex reserves. 
SIOUX CITY  Vangarde Arts didn't garner enough online votes to bring a free outdoor series to Cook Park in 2023.

The Sioux City-based nonprofit announced in a Facebook post Thursday that its concert proposal didn't crack the top 20 in the public voting phase of the Levitt AMP Grant Awards.

The Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation regularly grants funds to projects utilizing music in public spaces. The Top 20 Levitt AMP finalists are now in the running to receive a $90K multi-year matching grant to present 10 free outdoor concerts in an underused public space.

"Unfortunately there were not enough people in the area with that same dream. Sioux City is one of the larger cities that was in the running for the Levitt grant, yet finished 24 out 36 cities. Several cities half our size will enjoy the benefits of a free live music series. Maybe another time," the post from Vangarde Arts read.

Over the years, Vangarde Arts has had musicians like Ray Wylie Hubbard, John Primer and David Lindley at its 416 Pierce St. location.
SIOUX CITY -- West High School and two other Sioux City schools were placed in lockout status briefly Friday after authorities were notified of a potentially threatening social media post.

West High students notified school administrators and police of the post, which showed ammunition and a message that "seemed like a veiled threat," Sioux City Police spokesman Sgt. Jeremy McClure said.

Sioux City Community School district director of communications Leslie Heying said West High was placed on lockout, in which no one is allowed to enter or exit the building, at approximately 8:13 a.m. while police investigated the threat. West Middle School and Loess Hills Elementary School were added at 8:24 a.m. The lockout at all three schools was lifted at 9:07 a.m. Heying said the lockout caused no disruptions to the school schedules, and classes continued uninterrupted.

McClure said police identified the juvenile male student who made the social media post and questioned him.

The post was not a direct threat, McClure said, and police referred the case to the Woodbury County Attorney's Office to review for possible charges.
ATMORE, Ala. (AP)  Alabama officials called off the Thursday lethal injection of a man convicted in a 1999 workplace shooting because of time concerns and trouble accessing the inmate's veins.

Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said the state halted the scheduled execution of Alan Miller after they determined they could not get the lethal injection underway before a midnight deadline. Prison officials made the decision at about 11:30 p.m. The last-minute reprieve came nearly three hours after a divided U.S. Supreme Court had cleared the way for the execution to begin.

"Due to time constraints resulting from the lateness of the court proceedings, the execution was called off once it was determined the condemned inmate's veins could not be accessed in accordance with our protocol before the expiration of the death warrant," Hamm said.

Hamm said "accessing the veins was taking a little bit longer than we anticipated." He did not know how long the team tried to establish a connection, but noted there are a number of procedures to be done before the team begins trying to connect the IV line.

Miller was returned to his regular cell at a south Alabama prison.

The aborted execution came after the state's July execution of Joe Nathan James took more than three hours to get underway after the state had difficulties establishing an intravenous line, leading to accusations that the execution was botched.

Miller, 57, was sentenced to death after being convicted of a 1999 workplace rampage in which he killed Terry Jarvis, Lee Holdbrooks and Scott Yancy.

"Despite the circumstances that led to the cancellation of this execution, nothing will change the fact that a jury heard the evidence of this case and made a decision," Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement. She added that three families are still grieving.

"We all know full well that Michael Holdbrooks, Terry Lee Jarvis and Christopher Scott Yancey did not choose to die by bullets to the chest. Tonight, my prayers are with the victims' families and loved ones as they are forced to continue reliving the pain of their loss," Ivey said.

An anti-death penalty group said the situation with Miller's attempted lethal injection sounded similar to other "botched" executions.

"It is hard to see how they can persist with this broken method of execution that keeps going catastrophically wrong, again and again. In its desperation to execute, Alabama is experimenting on prisoners behind closed doors  surely the definition of cruel and unusual punishment," Maya Foa, director of Reprieve US Forensic Justice Initiative, a human rights group opposed to the death penalty, said in a statement.

Prosecutors said Miller, a delivery truck driver, killed co-workers Holdbrooks and Yancy at a business in suburban Birmingham and then drove off to shoot former supervisor Jarvis at a business where Miller had previously worked. Each man was shot multiple times and Miller was captured after a highway chase.

Trial testimony indicated Miller believed the men were spreading rumors about him, including that he was gay. A psychiatrist hired by the defense found Miller suffered from severe mental illness and delusions but also said Miller's condition wasn't bad enough to use as a basis for an insanity defense under state law.

Justices in a 5-4 decision lifted an injunction  issued by a federal judge and left in place by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals  that had blocked Miller's execution from going forward. Miller's attorneys said the state lost the paperwork requesting his execution be carried out using nitrogen hypoxia, a method legally available to him but never before used in the U.S.

When Alabama approved nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method in 2018, state law gave inmates a brief window to designate it as their execution method. Miller testified that he turned in paperwork four years ago selecting nitrogen hypoxia as his execution method, putting the documents in a slot in his cell door at the Holman Correctional Facility for a prison worker to collect.

U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr. issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday blocking the state from killing Miller by any means other than nitrogen hypoxia after finding it was "substantially likely" that Miller "submitted a timely election form even though the State says that it does not have any physical record of a form."

Nitrogen hypoxia is a proposed execution method in which death would be caused by forcing the inmate to breathe only nitrogen, depriving him or her of the oxygen needed to maintain bodily functions. Nitrogen hypoxia is authorized for executions in three states but none have attempted to put an inmate to death using the method. Alabama officials told the judge they are working to finalize the protocol.

Many states have struggled to buy execution drugs in recent years after U.S. and European pharmaceutical companies began blocking the use of their products in lethal injections. That has led some to seek alternate methods.
World opinion shifts against Russia as Ukraine worries grow

NEW YORK (AP)  The tide of international opinion appears to be decisively shifting against Russia, as a number of non-aligned countries are joining the United States and its allies in condemning Moscows war in Ukraine and its threats to the principles of the international rules-based order.

Western officials have repeatedly said that Russia has become isolated since invading Ukraine in February. Until recently, though, that was largely wishful thinking. But on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, much of the international community spoke out against the conflict in a rare display of unity at the often fractured United Nations.

The tide had already appeared to be turning against Russian President Vladimir Putin even before Thursdays U.N. speeches. Chinese and Indian leaders had been critical of the war at a high-level summit last week in Uzbekistan. And then the U.N. General Assembly disregarded Russias objections and voted overwhelmingly to allow Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be the only leader to address the body remotely, instead of requiring him to appear in person.

That shift against Russia accelerated after Putin on Wednesday announced the mobilization of some additional 300,000 troops to Ukraine, signaling the unlikelihood of a quick end to the war. Putin also suggested that nuclear weapons may be an option. That followed an announcement of Russias intention to hold referendums in several occupied Ukrainian regions on whether they will become part of Russia.

Those announcements came at the very moment that the General Assembly, considered the premier event in the global diplomatic calendar, was taking place in New York.

Russian men join exodus, fearing call-up to fight in Ukraine

ISTANBUL (AP)  Military-aged men fled Russia in droves Friday, filling planes and causing traffic jams at border crossings to avoid being rounded up to fight in Ukraine following the Kremlin's partial military mobilization.

Queues stretching for 10 kilometers (6 miles) formed on a road leading to the southern border with Georgia, according to Yandex Maps, a Russian online map service.

The lines of cars were so long at the border with Kazakhstan that some people abandoned their vehicles and proceeded on foot  just as some Ukrainians did after Russia invaded their country on Feb. 24.

Meanwhile, dozens of flights out of Russia  with tickets sold at sky-high prices  carried men to international destinations such as Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Serbia, where Russians don't need visas.

Among those who reached Turkey was a 41-year-old who landed in Istanbul with a suitcase and a backpack and plans to start a new life in Israel.

Dow sinks to 2022 low as recession fears roil world markets

Stocks fell sharply worldwide Friday on worries an already slowing global economy could fall into recession as central banks raise the pressure with additional interest rate hikes.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.6%, closing at its lowest level since late 2020. The S&P 500 fell 1.7%, close to its 2022 low set in mid-June, while the Nasdaq slid 1.8%.

The selling capped another rough week on Wall Street, leaving the major indexes with their fifth weekly loss in six weeks.

Energy prices closed sharply lower as traders worried about a possible recession. Treasury yields, which affect rates on mortgages and other kinds of loans, held at multiyear highs.

European stocks fell just as sharply or more after preliminary data there suggested business activity had its worst monthly contraction since the start of 2021. Adding to the pressure was a new plan announced in London to cut taxes, which sent U.K. yields soaring because it could ultimately force its central bank to raise rates even more sharply.

Amended autopsy: Black man died due to sedative, restraint

DENVER (AP) 

A Black man died after a police encounter in a Denver suburb in 2019 because he was injected with a powerful sedative after being forcibly restrained, according to an amended autopsy report publicly released Friday.

Despite the finding, the death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old massage therapist, was still listed as undetermined, not a homicide, the report shows. McClain was put in a neck hold and injected with ketamine after being stopped by police in Aurora for being suspicious. He was unarmed.

The original autopsy report that was written soon after his death in August 2019 did not reach a conclusion about how he died or what type of death is was, such as if it was natural, accidental or a homicide. That was a major reason why prosecutors initially decided not to pursue charges.

But a state grand jury last year indicted three officers and two paramedics on manslaughter and reckless homicide charges in McClains death after the case drew renewed attention following the killing of George Floyd in 2020. It became a rallying cry during the national reckoning over racism and police brutality.

Hurricane Fiona heads for Canada after whipping at Bermuda

CAGUAS, Puerto Rico (AP)  A hurricane expected to transform into a huge post-tropical storm will bring hurricane-strength wind, heavy rain and big waves to Atlantic Canada, meteorologists said Friday in warning that it has the potential to be one of the most severe storms in the countrys history.

Hurricane Fiona, which had weakened a bit to a Category 3 storm, was forecast to make landfall Saturday morning.

The Canadian Hurricane Centre issued a hurricane watch over extensive coastal expanses of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Fiona should reach the area as a large and powerful post-tropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds.

This is is definitely going to be one of, if not the most powerful, tropical cyclones to affect our part of the country," said Ian Hubbard, meteorologist for the Canadian Hurricane Centre in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Its going to be definitely as severe and as bad as any Ive seen."

Fiona was a Category 4 hurricane when it pounded Bermuda with heavy rains and winds earlier Friday as it swept by the island on a route heading for northeastern Canada. Authorities in Bermuda opened shelters and closed schools and offices ahead of Fiona. Michael Weeks, the national security minister, said there had been no reports of major damage.

Arizona judge: State can enforce near-total abortion ban

PHOENIX (AP)  Arizona can enforce a near-total ban on abortions that has been blocked for nearly 50 years, a judge ruled Friday, meaning clinics statewide will have to stop providing the procedures to avoid the filing of criminal charges against doctors and other medical workers.

The judge lifted a decades-old injunction that blocked enforcement of the law on the books since before Arizona became a state. The only exemption to the ban is if the womans life is in jeopardy.

The ruling means the state's abortions clinics will have to shut down and anyone seeking an abortion will have to go out of state. The ruling takes effect immediately, although an appeal is possible. Planned Parenthood and two other large providers said they were halting abortions.

Abortion providers have been on a roller coaster since the U.S. Supreme Court in June overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing women a constitutional right to an abortion. At first providers shut down operations, then re-opened, and now have to close again.

Planned Parenthood had urged the judge not to allow enforcement, and its president declared that the ruling takes Arizonans back to living under an archaic, 150-year-old law.

Roger Federer retires after teaming with Nadal in last match

LONDON (AP)  This day, this match, had to come, of course, for Roger Federer, and for tennis, just as it inevitably must for every athlete in every sport.

Federer bid adieu Friday night with one last contest before he heads into retirement at age 41 after a superlative career that spanned nearly a quarter-century and included 20 Grand Slam titles and a statesmans role. He wrapped up his days as a professional player with a loss in doubles alongside his longtime rival Rafael Nadal for Team Europe in the Laver Cup against Frances Tiafoe and Jack Sock of Team World.

The truth is that the victors, the statistics and the score (OK, for the record it was 4-6, 7-6 (2), 11-9) did not matter, and were all so entirely beside the point. The occasion was, after all, about the farewell itself. Or, better, the farewells, plural: Federers to tennis, to the fans, to his competitors and colleagues. And, naturally, each of those entities farewells to Federer.

It's been a perfect journey, Federer said. I would do it all over again.

When the match and, with it, his time in professional tennis ended, Federer hugged Nadal, then Tiafoe and Sock. And then Federer began crying. There were plenty of tears to go around; Nadal wiped his own away, too.

Pro-government rallies held in Iran amid mass protests

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  Iranian counterprotesters gathered across the country on Friday in a show of support for authorities after nearly a week of anti-government protests and unrest over the death of a young woman who was being held by the morality police.

Thousands attended a rally in the capital, Tehran, where they waved Iranian flags, and similar demonstrations were held in other cities. The government claimed the demonstrations of support were spontaneous. Similar rallies have been held during past periods of widespread protests.

The pro-government demonstrators chanted against America and Israel, according to state media, reflecting the official line that blames the latest unrest on hostile foreign countries.

State TV suggested late on Friday that the death toll from this week's unrest could be as high as 35, raising an earlier estimate of 26. Anti-government protesters and security forces have clashed in several major cities in the most severe political violence since 2019, when rights groups say hundreds were killed amid demonstrations against a hike in state-controlled gasoline prices.

Iran has also disrupted internet access and tightened restrictions on popular platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp, which can be used to organize rallies.

Ohio Republican stays in campaign amid scrutiny of service

HOLLAND, Ohio (AP)  Republican J.R. Majewski insisted Friday that he would stay in the race for a competitive northwest Ohio congressional seat after The Associated Press reported earlier this week that he misrepresented key elements of his Air Force service.

I flew into combat zones often, specifically in Afghanistan, and I served my country proud, Majewski said at a news conference.

The comments came amid growing fallout for Majewski, who repeatedly said he deployed to Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, but instead served a six-month stint loading and unloading planes while based in Qatar, according to records obtained by the AP through a public records request.

The House Republican campaign arm on Thursday cancelled nearly $1 million in advertising that it had planned to spend on Majewskis behalf, a sign that the GOP was effectively giving up hope of unseating longtime Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur in a district that was recently redrawn to favor Republicans. Meanwhile, advocates for veterans questioned why Majewski has declined to offer proof, or even describe forays he made into Afghanistan.

Throughout his campaign, Majewski has repeatedly said he was a combat veteran who served a tour of duty under tough circumstances in Afghanistan, where by his account he once went over 40 days without a shower due to a lack of running water.

'Fat Leonard' may be Venezuela bargaining chip, experts say

SAN DIEGO (AP)  A fugitive defense contractor nicknamed Fat Leonard who claims to have incriminating sex photos of U.S. Navy brass could become the latest bargaining chip in Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduros efforts to win official recognition from the Biden administration, according to experts.

But its unclear how hard the U.S. government will fight for the return of Leonard Glenn Francis, the Malaysian owner of a ship servicing company in Southeast Asia who is the central character in one of the largest bribery scandals in Pentagon history.

He fled home custody in San Diego on Sept. 4 and was arrested by Venezuelan police Tuesday attempting to board a flight at the Simon Bolivar International Airport outside Caracas. Francis had his first court appearance Thursday, according to a law enforcement official in Venezuela who spoke Friday to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss judicial proceedings.

The official, who had been briefed on the case, said now it is up to the United States to make the next move. U.S. authorities have 30 days to formally request his extradition, something that the official viewed as unlikely given that the Biden administration recognizes opposition leader Juan Guaido  not Maduro  as the countrys legitimate ruler.

Venezuela and the United States have an extradition agreement but it's not clear if U.S. authorities have made a formal request. In an email, a Department of Justice spokesperson said the agency does not comment on extradition-related matters. Even under normal circumstances, extraditions can take many months or even years to complete.
Trump's legal woes mount without protection of presidency

WASHINGTON (AP)  Stark repudiation by federal judges he appointed. Far-reaching fraud allegations by New Yorks attorney general. It's been a week of widening legal troubles for Donald Trump, laying bare the challenges piling up as the former president operates without the protections afforded by the White House.

The bravado that served him well in the political arena is less handy in a legal realm dominated by verifiable evidence, where judges this week have looked askance at his claims and where a fraud investigation that took root when Trump was still president burst into public view in an allegation-filled 222-page state lawsuit.

In politics, you can say what you want and if people like it, it works. In a legal realm, its different, said Chris Edelson, a presidential powers scholar and American University government professor. Its an arena where there are tangible consequences for missteps, misdeeds, false statements in a way that doesn't apply in politics.

That distinction between politics and law was evident in a single 30-hour period this week.

Trump insisted on Fox News in an interview that aired Wednesday that the highly classified government records he had at Mar-a-Lago actually had been declassified, that a president has the power to declassify information even by thinking about it.

US urges world to tell Russia to stop its nuclear threats

UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The United States urged other nations to tell Russia to stop making nuclear threats and end the horror of its war in Ukraine as all three countries' top diplomats spoke  but didn't quite meet  at a high-profile U.N. Security Council meeting Thursday.

Held alongside the annual U.N. General Assembly gathering of world leaders, the session followed a striking development in the war this week: Russia called up a portion of its reserves for the first time since World War II. At the same time, President Vladimir Putin said his nuclear-armed country would use all means available to us to defend itself if its territory is threatened.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken saw Putin's remark as particularly menacing given plans for referendums in Russian-controlled parts of eastern and southern Ukraine on whether to become part of Russia.

Western nations have condemned those votes as illegitimate and nonbinding. But, in their wake, Moscow might see any Ukrainian attempt to retake those areas as an attack on Russian territory, Blinken warned.

Every council member should send a clear message that these reckless nuclear threats must stop immediately, he said.

Tears and hugs for Russians called up to fight in Ukraine

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP)  Russia escalated its military and political campaign Thursday to capture Ukrainian territory, rounding up Russian army reservists to fight, preparing votes on annexing occupied areas and launching new deadly attacks.

A day after President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization to bolster his troops in Ukraine, dramatic scenes of tearful families bidding farewell to men departing from military mobilization centers in Russia appeared on social media.

Video on Twitter from the eastern Siberian city of Neryungri showed men emerging from a stadium. Before boarding buses, the men hugged family members waiting outside, many crying and some covering their mouths with their hands in grief. A man held a child up to the window of one bus for a last look.

In Moscow, women hugged, cried and made the sign of the cross on men at another mobilization point. A 25-year-old who gave only his first name, Dmitry, received a hug from his father, who told him Be careful, as they parted.

Dmitry told Russian media company Ostorozhno Novosti he did not expect to be called up and shipped out so quickly, especially since he still is a student.

Biden vows US won't walk away from storm-struck Puerto Rico

SAN SALVADOR, Puerto Rico (AP)  President Joe Biden said Thursday the full force of the federal government is ready to help Puerto Rico recover from the devastation of Hurricane Fiona, while Bermuda and Canada's Atlantic provinces prepared for a major blast from the Category 4 storm.

Speaking at a briefing with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials in New York, Biden said, Were all in this together.

Biden noted that hundreds of FEMA and other federal officials are already on the ground in Puerto Rico, where Fiona caused an island-wide blackout.

More than 60% of power customers remained without energy on Thursday, and a third of customers were without water  and local officials admitted they could not say when service would be fully restored.

Biden said his message to the people of Puerto Rico who are still hurting from Hurricane Maria five years ago is: Were with you. Were not going to walk away.

Officials: Navy bribery case fugitive tried to get to Russia

SAN DIEGO (AP)  Since escaping two weeks ago, officials say the fugitive Malaysian defense contractor nicknamed Fat Leonard  who orchestrated one of the U.S. Navys largest bribery scandals  zipped between countries to find a place where he could become virtually untouchable for American authorities.

It almost worked.

After cutting off an ankle monitor and slipping away from house arrest in San Diego on Sept. 4, U.S. and Venezuelan officials say Leonard Glenn Francis went across the border into Mexico, then traveled to Cuba and Venezuela, where he was arrested Tuesday at Simon Bolivar International Airport outside Caracas.

Francis was planning to travel to Russia, according to Interpol Venezuela Director General Carlos Garate Rondon, who disclosed the arrest in a statement posted Wednesday on Instagram. He said Francis would be handed over to the countrys judicial authorities to begin extradition proceedings.

Greg Rinckey, a former Army lawyer who is now in private practice, said he believes Francis was trying to play the angle of using some countries to get outside the jurisdiction of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Celtics suspend coach Ime Udoka for 2022-23 season

BOSTON (AP)  The Boston Celtics have suspended Ime Udoka for a full year, banning the coach who led them to the NBA Finals last spring for the entire 2022-23 season over what two people with knowledge of the matter said was an improper relationship with a member of the organization.

The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team did not reveal that detail publicly. In a statement issued Thursday night after a full day of wrangling over the terms of the punishment, the Celtics said Udoka violated team policies and left open the possibility that a longer separation could follow.

A decision about his future with the Celtics beyond this season will be made at a later date, the team said.

Assistant coach Joe Mazzulla will take over as interim coach, one of the people who spoke with The AP said. The defending Eastern Conference champions are scheduled to hold media day on Monday and open training camp on Tuesday in preparation for the Oct. 18 season opener.

In a statement published by ESPN, Udoka apologized to our players, fans, the entire Celtics organization, and my family for letting them down.

Millennials, assembled: At UN, younger leaders rise

A young president at the U.N. General Assembly touted millennial status symbols like coffee, outdoor adventure and Bitcoin. Another admitted in front of the famous green marble that it was harder to govern a country than to protest in its streets. A foreign minister, once shunned for having only a bachelors degree, warned against indifference.

Shaped by the borderless internet, growing economic inequality and an increasingly dire climate crisis, the Generation Y cohort of presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers and other excellencies is making their mark at the largest gathering of world leaders.

This week at the United Nations offers a glimpse of the latest generation of leaders in power, as a critical mass of them  born generally between 1981 and 1996  are coming to represent countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Some millennial leaders were making their debuts at the 77-year-old diplomatic institution built in the aftermath of WWII, while there were other notables who didnt show up but had already arrived on the world stage. Those include Kim Jong Un, who took over the reclusive North Korea in his 20s, and the 36-year-old Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, who faced controversy recently for a video of her dancing at a private party that went viral.

Jennifer Sciubba, an author and political demographer affiliated with the Wilson Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, said many came into power buoyed by their generations disaffection for the status quo, and in that sense millennials and baby boomers are echoes of each other. One stark difference: Life by most measures was getting better after WWII, yet many young people today dont harbor the same hope.

4.4M Americans roll up sleeves for omicron-targeted boosters

U.S. health officials say 4.4 million Americans have rolled up their sleeves for the updated COVID-19 booster shot. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted the count Thursday as public health experts bemoaned President Joe Bidens recent remark that the pandemic is over.

The White House said more than 5 million people received the new boosters by its own estimate that accounts for reporting lags in states.

Health experts said it is too early to predict whether demand would match up with the 171 million doses of the new boosters the U.S. ordered for the fall.

No one would go looking at our flu shot uptake at this point and be like, Oh, what a disaster, said Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. If we start to see a large uptick in cases, I think we're going to see a lot of people getting the (new COVID) vaccine.

A temporary shortage of Moderna vaccine caused some pharmacies to cancel appointments while encouraging people to reschedule for a Pfizer vaccine. The issue was expected to resolve as government regulators wrapped up an inspection and cleared batches of vaccine doses for distribution.

At least 9 killed as Iran protests over woman's death spread

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  Clashes between Iranian security forces and protesters angry over the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody have killed at least nine people since the violence erupted over the weekend, according to a tally Thursday by The Associated Press.

The scope of Iran's ongoing unrest, the worst in several years, still remains unclear as protesters in more than a dozen cities  venting anger over social repression and the countrys mounting crises  continue to encounter security and paramilitary forces.

To prevent protests from spreading, Iran's biggest telecom operator largely shut down mobile internet access again Thursday, said Netblocks, a group that monitors internet access, describing the restrictions as the most severe since 2019.

An anchor on Iran's state television suggested the death toll from the mass protests could be as high as 17 on Thursday, but did not say how he reached that figure.

In a country where radio and television stations already are state-controlled and journalists regularly face the threat of arrest, the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard urged the judiciary on Thursday to prosecute anyone who spreads fake news and rumors on social media about the unrest. Widespread outages of Instagram and WhatsApp, which are used by protesters, also continued Thursday.

Alex Jones testifies in trial over his Sandy Hook hoax lies

WATERBURY, Conn. (AP)  Alex Jones took the stand Thursday at his Connecticut defamation trial, acknowledging he had promoted the conspiracy theory that the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax, but angrily refusing to keep apologizing for that.

More than a dozen relatives of the 26 shooting victims showed up to observe his often contentious testimony in Waterbury Superior Court, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Newtown, where the shooting occurred.

Jones was found liable last year by default for damages to plaintiffs without a trial, for what the judge called his repeated failures to turn over documents to their lawyers. The six-member jury is now deciding how much Jones and Free Speech Systems, parent of Jones Infowars media platforms, should pay the families for defaming them and intentionally inflicting emotional distress.

On Thursday, Jones admitted calling parents crisis actors on his show and saying the shooting was phony as a three-dollar bill.

Plaintiff attorney Christopher Mattei accused Jones of putting targets on the parents' backs, pointing to the family members in the courtroom and saying these are real people.
World opinion shifts against Russia as Ukraine worries grow

NEW YORK (AP)  The tide of international opinion appears to have decisively shifted against Russia, as a number of non-aligned countries joined the United States and its allies in condemning Russias war in Ukraine and its threats to the principles of the international rules-based order. In what many believed earlier this year was Western wishful thinking, much of the international community spoke out against the conflict in rare displays of unity at the often fractured United Nations. The coalescing condemnation picked up steam when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the mobilization of an additional 300,000 troops to Ukraine, signaling the unlikelihood of a quick end to the war and suggested nuclear weapons may be an option.

Russian men join exodus, fearing call-up to fight in Ukraine

ISTANBUL (AP)  Military-aged men have joined an exodus from Russia on the second full day of a partial military mobilization. They filled planes and caused traffic jams at land borders in desperate bids to avoid being rounded up to fight in Ukraine. A traffic jam of 10 kilometers (6 miles) formed on a road in southern Russia leading to the land border with Georgia. That's according to Yandex Maps, a Russian online map service. The lines of cars at the border with Kazakhstan were so long that some people abandoned their vehicles and headed to the border on foot. Meanwhile, dozens flights out of Russia carried men to Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Serbia, among other destinations.

Dow sinks to 2022 low as recession fears roil world markets

Markets sold off around the world on mounting signs the global economy is weakening just as central banks raise the pressure even more with additional hikes to interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at its lowest point since 2020 Friday. The S&P 500 fell 1.7%, close to its 2022 low. Energy prices also closed sharply lower as traders worried about a possible recession. Treasury yields, which affect rates on mortgages and other kinds of loans, held at multiyear highs. U.K. government bond yields snapped higher after that country's new government announced a sweeping plan of tax cuts.

Amended autopsy: Black man died due to sedative, restraint

DENVER (AP)  A Black man died after a police encounter in a Denver suburb in 2019 because he was injected with a powerful sedative after being forcibly restrained. According to an amended autopsy report publicly released Friday, Elijah McClain death is still listed as undetermined. The 23-year-old massage therapist was put in a neck hold and injected with ketamine after being stopped in Aurora for being suspicious. The case drew renewed attention following the killing of George Floyd in 2020, leading to the indictment last year of three officers and two paramedics on manslaughter and reckless homicide charges in McClains death.

Fiona bears down on northeast Canada as big, powerful storm

CAGUAS, Puerto Rico (AP)  Hurricane Fiona has transformed into a post-tropical cyclone, but meteorologist warn it could still bring hurricane-strength wind, heavy rain and big waves to the Atlantic Canada region. They say it has the potential to be one of the most severe storms in Canadas history. Fiona is expected to make landfall in Nova Scotia early Saturday. The Canadian Hurricane Centre issued a hurricane watch over extensive coastal expanses of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Fiona should reach the area as a large and powerful post-tropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it is going to be a bad one.

Cards' Pujols hits 700th career home run, 4th to reach mark

LOS ANGELES (AP)  St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols has hit his 700th career homer, becoming the fourth player to reach the milestone in major league history. Pujols connected his second home run of the game, a three-run drive against Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Phil Bickford in the fourth inning. The ball landed in the first few rows of the left-field pavilion, the same location homer No. 699  a two-run shot  landed in the third inning off left-hander Andrew Heaney. Pujols has driven in all five of the Cardinals runs and they lead the Dodgers 5-0.

Arizona judge: State can enforce near-total abortion ban

PHOENIX (AP)  An Arizona judge says the state can enforce a near-total ban on abortions that has been blocked for nearly 50 years. Fridays ruling by a judge in Tucson came after the states Republican attorney general sought an order lifting an injunction that was issued shortly after the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Roe was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in June. Friday's ruling means clinics across Arizona will likely stop providing abortions. The law was first enacted decades before Arizona became a state in 1912. The only exception is if the mothers life is in danger. Another law that bans abortions after 15 weeks takes effect Saturday.

Pro-government rallies held in Iran amid mass protests

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  Iranian counterprotesters have rallied across the country in a show of support for authorities after nearly a week of anti-government protests and unrest. Thousands attended a rally in Tehran, where they waved Iranian flags, and similar demonstrations were held in other cities. Authorities claim the rallies are spontaneous. State TV, meanwhile, suggested late on Friday that the death toll from this weeks protests and clashes with security forces, sparked by the death of a young woman being held by the morality police, could be as high as 35. It's the most severe unrest in years, and internet access has been disrupted for days. Many of the protesters are calling for the fall of the Islamic Republic.

Ohio Republican stays in campaign amid scrutiny of service

HOLLAND, Ohio (AP)  Republican J.R. Majewski insisted Friday that he would stay in the race for a competitive northwest Ohio congressional seat after The Associated Press reported earlier this week that he misrepresented key elements of his Air Force service. I flew into combat zones often, specifically in Afghanistan and I served my country proud, Majewski said at a news conference. The comments came amid growing fallout for Majewski, who repeatedly said he deployed to Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, but instead served a six-month stint loading and unloading planes while based in Qatar, according to records obtained by the AP through a public records request.

Roger Federer retires after teaming with Nadal in last match

LONDON (AP)  Roger Federer has ended his superlative professional tennis career at age 41 with a loss in doubles alongside longtime rival Rafael Nadal at the Laver Cup. Federer and Nadal paired up for Team Europe and were beaten by Frances Tiafoe and Jack Sock of Team World 4-6, 7-6 (2), 11-9 in London on Friday night. Federer is a 20-time Grand Slam champion who announced last week that this team event founded by his management company would be his final event before retirement. Then he made clear that Fridays doubles outing would be his last match. He had not competed anywhere since a quarterfinal loss at Wimbledon in July 2021. Shortly after that, the Swiss star had a third operation on his right knee.
MONONGAHELA, Pa. (AP)  House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy on Friday confronted President Joe Biden and the Democratic majority in Congress with a conservative midterm election agenda filled with Trump-like promises, working not only to win over voters but to hold together the uneasy coalition of his own party that has struggled to govern.

McCarthy, who is poised to seize the speakers gavel if Republicans take control of the House in the fall, never once mentioned the former president. Instead, the GOP leader traveled to battleground Pennsylvania hoping to replicate the strategy that former Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia used to spark voter enthusiasm and gain a majority in 1994.

What the Commitment is, its a plan for a new direction, McCarthy said at a manufacturing facility in a historic building along the Monongahela River.

The House GOPs Commitment to America gives a nod to the earlier era but updates it in the age of Donald Trump, with economic, border security and social policies to rouse the former presidents deep well of supporters in sometimes-overlooked regions like this rusty landscape and rolling farmland outside Pittsburgh.

Slim enough to fit on a pocket card, which McCarthy pulled from his suitcoat, the agenda uses broad strokes  A Future Thats Built on Freedom  supplemented by more detailed proposals on energy, security and an end to liberal social policies, particularly in schooling.

President Joe Biden hit back quickly in a speech to the National Education Association.

He dismissed McCarthy's agenda as a thin series of policy goals with little or no detail. But he provided his own details in urging support for Democrats in the midterm elections.

If Republicans win control of the Congress abortion will be banned, Biden said. He also criticized other GOP lawmakers for proposals to require reauthorization votes for Social Security and Medicare and opposition to gun control laws and efforts to lower prescription drug costs.

In 46 days, Americans are going to face a choice, he said. We have a real alternative here."

In Pennsylvania, McCarthy said that if Republicans win the House, the first bill next year will be to repeal funding approved by Democrats to bolster the Internal Revenue Service with more employees.

On Friday, he stood with a wide cross-section of lawmakers  from far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to less extreme GOP members of Congress  offering a portrait of unity despite the wide range of views that make up the House minority  and the Republican Party nationally.

The GOP in the Trump-era has shifted from its focus on small government, low taxes and individual freedoms to a more populist, nationalist and, at times, far-right party, essentially still led by the former president, who remains popular despite the deepening state and federal investigations against him.

Propelled by Trump's Make America Great Again voters, the Republicans need to pick up just a few seats to win back control of the narrowly split House and replace Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But even so, McCarthys ability to lead the House is far from guaranteed.

While Republicans and Trump did pass tax cuts into law, the GOPs last big campaign promise, repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, collapsed in failure. Republican speakers, including Gingrich, John Boehner and Paul Ryan, have been forced from office or have chosen early retirement, often ground down by party infighting.

House Republicans are really good at running people out of town, said Matt Schlapp, chair of the Conservative Political Action Coalition.

McCarthy, first elected to office in 2006, is among the remaining survivors of those House Republican battles, a leader who, somewhat like, Trump has shown more ability to communicate than to legislate.

A key architect of the Republican tea party takeover in 2010, the California Republican personally recruited the newcomers to Congress  many who had never served in public office and are now long gone. McCarthy was an early Trump endorser and has remained close to the former president, relying on Trump's high-profile endorsements to propel GOP candidates for Congress. He abandoned an earlier bid to become speaker when support from House colleagues drifted.

He spent more than a year pulling together the House GOPs often warring factions  from the far-right MAGA to whats left of the more centrist ranks  to produce a mostly agreed-upon agenda.

In traveling to swing state Pennsylvania, where Biden holds emotional ties from his early childhood, McCarthy sought to counter the Democratic presidents fiery Labor Day weekend speech, in which he warned of rising GOP extremism after the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

McCarthy he and fellow lawmakers chose Washington County not Washington, D.C. Because its about you, its not about us.

Along with as many as five House seats Republicans believe they can pick up in Pennsylvania in November, the state has one of the most watched Senate races, between Democrat John Fetterman and Trump-backed Dr. Mehmet Oz. At the top of the ticket is the governor's matchup between the GOP's Doug Mastriano, who was seen outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, and Democrat Josh Shapiro.

If you are a hard-line populist and you really want anger, Kevins a little frustrating because hes not going to be angry enough for you, Gingrich said. On the other hand, if what you want is to have your values implemented and passed in the legislation, he is a really good leader and organizer.

Gingrich has been working with McCarthy and his team to craft the style and substance of the proposal.

Conservative Republicans complain privately that McCarthy isnt leaning hard enough into their priorities, as he tries to appeal to a broader swath of voters and hold the party together.

Many are eager to launch investigations into the Biden administration and the president's family, with some calling for impeachment. Legislatively, some House Republicans want to fulfill the partys commitment to banning abortion, supporting Sen. Lindsey Grahams bill prohibiting the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Former McCarthy rival Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio who joined the event Friday, vowed to launch investigations including into the COVID-19 crisis if Republicans win the House.

Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, has advocated for withholding federal funds as leverage for policy priorities, a tactic that engineered past government shutdowns.

Putting out like, you know, principles about, Well, well secure the border. I mean, OK, but what are we gonna do about it? Roy said.

It's notable that McCarthy alone has proposed a plan if Republicans win control of the House chamber. In the Senate, Republican leader Mitch McConnell has declined to put forward an agenda, preferring to simply run against Biden and Democrats in the midterm election.

Kevins done a very good job of being in position to become the speaker. And then the question is, what do you do with that? Schlapp said. This helps as a roadmap.

Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim, Kevin Freking and Farnoush Amiri in Washington and Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.
SOFIA, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Two Bulgarian municipalities along the border with Turkey declared a state of emergency on Friday due to migration pressure, authorities said.

The state of emergency will be in force until next Thursday on the territories of the municipalities of Svilengrad and Topolovgrad, the Haskovo Regional Administration said in a statement.

It said the state of emergency was declared by Minko Angelov, governor of Haskovo Region, due to the mounting migration pressure along the Bulgarian-Turkish border.

The goal was to avoid loss of human lives, prevent huge damages to the property of the population and the economy, as well as to prevent significant environmental consequences, it said.

The Bulgarian Ministry of Interior has frequently reported illegal migrants recently. The latest case was reported on Thursday, when a boat with 38 illegal immigrants on board -- including 22 men, eight women and eight children -- was detained in the northern Bulgarian Black sea area. 
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP)  A property management company owned by the family of former President Donald Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has agreed to pay a $3.25 million civil penalty and restitution to settle a 2019 lawsuit in Maryland over allegations of charging tenants illegal fees and failing to maintain properties, Attorney General Brian Frosh announced Friday.

Frosh announced that his office's Consumer Protection Division has reached a settlement with Westminster Management, LLC, a New Jersey-based corporation, and the 25 companies that own or owned 17 residential communities managed by Westminster Management in Maryland.

The settlement addresses charges that Westminster and the property owners violated the Consumer Protection Act.

The attorney general said in a news release that the properties in question contained more than 9,000 rental units across Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Prince Georges County. The settlement will potentially pay restitution to thousands of current and former residents of the communities, the attorney generals office said.

The settlement, contained in a final order entered by the Consumer Protection Division, requires Westminster to return to consumers excessive application fees; improper agent fees, writ fees, and court costs charged in summary ejectment actions; small credit balances that were improperly retained by the company; and security deposit interest that was not paid to vacating tenants.

Tenants in Westminster properties suffered with mold, leaks, floods and infestations of rodents, roaches and bedbugs, Frosh, a Democrat, said. Management hid these conditions only to reveal them to their tenants after they were locked into long-term leases. Westminster knew the condition of its properties, and it charged tenants illegal fees to live in those miserable conditions. Westminsters conduct was unconscionable.

Westminster is not admitting wrongdoing under the settlement.

Westminster is pleased to have settled this litigation with no admission of liability or wrongdoing, Peter Febo, Kushner Cos. chief operating officer, said in a statement. We look forward to moving past this matter so that we can focus on our ever-expanding real estate portfolio.

Kushner stepped down as chief executive of Kushner Cos. in 2017 when he became a senior White House adviser to President Donald Trump.

To address the charges, the settlement provides for a claims procedure where current and past tenants of properties managed by Westminster can make claims to a special master, who can return rent to consumers if, during their tenancies, they faced serious maintenance issues that impacted their use and enjoyment of their apartments, including leaks or floods; rodent, roach, or bedbug infestations; or a lack of electricity, water, hot water, heat or air conditioning.

Kushners family real estate firm owns thousands of apartments and townhomes in the Baltimore area. Some have been criticized for the same kind of disrepair and neglect that Trump accused local leaders of failing to address, when he referred to Baltimore as a rat and rodent infested mess" in 2019.
Police on Thursday identified the woman who was stabbed to death in a north Lincoln mobile home park Tuesday night as 36-year-old Jasimin Champion.

The Lincoln woman died at a local hospital sometime after she was stabbed multiple times in the torso at around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday at the mobile home park where she was staying off of North First Street near Interstate 80, according to police.

Less than 12 hours after the stabbing, police arrested Charles Alexander, a 61-year-old Lincoln man, at around 10 a.m. Wednesday near 11th Street and Lincoln Mall after a Lancaster County judge signed a warrant for his arrest stemming from the stabbing.

At a Wednesday afternoon news conference announcing his arrest, Assistant Lincoln Police Chief Jason Stille said witness interviews led investigators to Alexander.

Prosecutors charged Alexander with second-degree murder in Champion's death. Judge Laurie Yardley set the 61-year-old's percentage bond at $2 million at his initial court hearing Thursday afternoon. Alexander must pay $200,000 to be released from the Lancaster County jail.

"You said 20 years?" Alexander asked Yardley, after she read the possible penalty he faces if convicted of the crime.

"Twenty-to-life, sir," the judge said. "You're charged with second-degree murder."

At Wednesday's news conference, Stille said Alexander and Champion knew each other, but the exact nature of their relationship remained unclear to police.

Investigators haven't recovered a suspected murder weapon, Stille said, but he said it was thought to be a knife.

It remains unclear what led up to Tuesday night's stabbing. Stille said investigators were still working to determine a timeline of events.

The affidavit for Alexander's arrest  the document that outlines what gave police probable cause to arrest the 61-year-old  was sealed by a judge Wednesday, according to court filings.

Champion's death marks the ninth suspected killing in Lancaster County in 2022  a total that surpasses all of 2021 with still three months left in the year. Her death is the seventh suspected killing to occur within city limits this year.

Austin Gress, 26, was stabbed to death July 1 amid what police said was "somewhat of a mutual fight" at a gas station near 27th and Dudley streets. Police later arrested and charged Steven A. Alexander with manslaughter, first-degree assault and use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony after a three-day manhunt in Lincoln.
In the not-so-distant past, the United States and its European allies were seemingly a stones throw away from clinching a nuclear agreement with Iran after 16 months of arduous talks.

Western officials were downright giddy. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, the man responsible for shepherding the negotiations across the finish line, told reporters last month that he was hopeful a deal could be finalized in a matter of days. U.S. officials joined the chorus of optimism, with White House national security spokesman John Kirby observing were closer now than we had been in  weeks and months thanks to Tehrans decision to drop extraneous demands.

What a difference a few weeks makes. The Americans and Europeans are no longer using phrases such as cautiously optimistic to describe things. The same European governments that once applauded Iran for at least working with them in a constructive manner are now seriously questioning whether Tehran has the willingness and capacity to take "yes" for an answer.

On Sept. 12, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken put the onus squarely on Irans shoulders for yet again stalling the process. What weve seen over the last week or so in Irans response to the proposal put forward by the European Union is clearly a step backward and makes prospects for an agreement in the near-term ... unlikely, Blinken assessed.

If this isnt bleak enough, the normally patient Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is getting exceedingly frustrated with Irans utter lack of cooperation. Even before the Iranians removed some of the IAEAs cameras from several nuclear facilities in June, the agencys experts have been unable to evaluate the full extent of Tehrans nuclear activities.

What the international community regards as deliberate nuclear brinkmanship, the Iranian government views as necessary leverage to push Washington into signing an agreement on its terms. And that leverage is only growing  according to the latest IAEA report, Iran possesses more than 55 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%, enough fuel for a nuclear bomb if enriched to weapons-grade levels.

At this point, its increasingly obvious that the U.S. and Iran are talking past each other. While the Iranians are no longer insisting that Washington delist the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization, they remain strongly opposed to reimplementing the 2015 nuclear deal (officially named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA) until the IAEA drops its ongoing investigation on unexplained uranium traces found in facilities Tehran didnt even bother to declare.

The IAEA, as well as the U.S. and the United Kingdom, France and Germany, have emphatically rejected this demand as the diplomatic version of gaslighting. If the Iranians want the investigation dropped, Western officials say, all they have to do is answer questions to the agencys satisfaction.

Another major issue concerns economic relief. Spurned financially after then-President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal and reimposed broad-based sanctions on the Iranian economy, Tehran has no intention of reliving the experience. Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has tasked his negotiators with pressing for a U.S. guarantee that any foreign entities conducting business inside Iran will be able to continue their operations in the event another U.S. president leaves the deal.

But theres a big problem: President Joe Biden cant bind his predecessor to such an arrangement any more than former President Barack Obama could have prevented Trump from shredding the deal and creating this mess in the first place. Even if Biden had the supermajority on Capitol Hill to formalize a renewed Iran nuclear deal as a treaty, the kind of support Biden could only dream about, a future president who despised the agreement could simply nullify the treaty by withdrawing participation. Practically speaking, the best the Biden administration can offer is a promise that U.S. sanctions relief will continue for as long as Biden or a Biden-esque successor is in office. Such a promise, however, is likely to be insufficient to the Iranians, who despite their apparent ignorance of the U.S. system of checks and balances nonetheless have a decent understanding of how controversial the 2015 deal is inside the Beltway.

Therefore, after nearly a year and a half of intense negotiations, the diplomatic process may be stuck at a point where the most the U.S. is willing to give still comes short of what Iran is able to accept. If this is indeed the case, then the entire affair is treading on the thinnest of ice. In a situation such as this, when both sides are impervious to more concessions and patience is all but exhausted, the only way the participants can reach the top of the summit is if one of them concludes that the benefits of clinching a good-enough deal are worth the costs of modifying (or dare I say, backing down) from their position.

Is there still a faint glimmer of hope the U.S. and Iran can upend the grim expectations of the pessimists, just as they forced the optimists to hold off on the Champagne toasts? Yes, there is. But for a negotiation that has proved to have as many ups and downs as the Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Great America, confidently predicting the outcome would be a fools errand.
The old way a financial brokerage made money was to charge a fee whenever someone bought or sold stock. A company like TD Ameritrade or Charles Schwab would charge $4.95 or $6.95 (or whatever) in exchange for facilitating the buying and selling. That was a big cost of trading, and it was in addition to the user paying fractionally more than the last price to buy, or getting fractionally less than the last price to sell. Maybe this was a good thing to some extent. Maybe it discouraged people from trading too often, and maybe that was useful because buying and holding stocks has often been a sound strategy. Putting a cap on trading by making it a pain, for a lot of people, was useful.

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This isnt how it is anymore, though. There are still trading methods that require a commission, like if you ask a human for help, but the Schwabs and Ameritrades of the world stopped charging those fees for standard online trades in 2019 or so. This shift was a long time in the making, but the firm most credited for pushing the industry over the edge to commission-free trading is Robinhood. The company says its mission is to democratize finance, and while thats brandspeak, its a fair reflection of how it has operated. More people are going to be more inclined to do something if they arent paying a fee. Robinhood helped to build that world.

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Something has to replace commissions, because brokers still have to make money. What Robinhood settled on was a practice called payment for order flow. It works because Robinhood doesnt actually hold stocks. Robinhood connects a person who wants to trade stocks with a market-maker who actually has the stock or can quickly get it. The market-maker makes its money by buying stocks for a tiny hair less than it sells them and pocketing that spread many millions of times on many millions of trades. The market-makers need trades for this to work, and Robinhood provides them en masse. The companies pay Robinhood to fill those tradesfor that order flowand that makes up most of Robinhoods revenue. It was about 63 percent of Robinhoods receipts in the second quarter of 2022, and it was closer to 80 percent in recent quarters in which the stock and crypto markets were not careening into a crater, according to a recent federal filing. Payment for order flow for crypto is slightly different but mechanically similar; Robinhood calls it transaction rebates.

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For the past year, a cloud has hung over Robinhood and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the online brokerage industry. The Securities and Exchange Commission has been skeptical of payment for order flow, and its chairman, Gary Gensler, said in August 2021 that the SEC might ban the practice. Robinhood argued against that, pointing out that the lack of commissions made trading more accessible, particularly in small amounts. Robinhood is now a public company, so it has to be bracingly honest with investors about risk factors, and it has been clear in its filings that anything bad that might happen to payment for order flow would also be very bad for Robinhood. Even negative publicity around it would be bad. But now, that cloud has just about lifted. The SEC will not ban payment for order flow, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. It could yet curtail it in ways that would make it less profitable, the paper said.

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Its great news for Robinhood, which avoids the evaporation of most of its business model. But more than that, it entrenches something fundamental about how stock trading will work for retail investors in the United States for the foreseeable future. Well have more freedom and access to the stock market than ever. Well also be subject to a range of negative forces that Robinhood, for instance, has exerted on its users before. Theres good in it, and theres bad in it. But mainly, theres no going back from it.

Before legacy brokerages followed its lead into the zero-commission world, Robinhood arguably had as much in common with Facebook or Visa as it did with E*TRADE. Facebook and Visa make their users the product, by selling their huge communities of social networkers and credit-card holders to advertisers and merchants, respectively. Robinhood does the same by way of payment for order flow. Its main customers arent the people who download its app, but the market-makers who fill those peoples orders. (Robinhood does have a subscription product that makes up a minority of its revenue, its worth noting.)

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This is good for many people who want to trade stocks. They dont pay any money to trade, instead of paying $5 increments (or whatever) that add up over time. The technology on these apps is mostly good, I think, although I have never done anything more than thumbed around on Robinhood. Some have argued that its too good, even, for how attractive it makes it to trade. Payment for order flow sounds slimy, because you can imagine (and actually dont even need to imagine) a company like Robinhood sending trades to a market-maker that wasnt offering the best prices for its users and then taking payments that smell a lot like kickbacks. Robinhood says that the private market-makers it uses tend to offer better prices for users than a public stock exchange would. On the whole, it usually does not seem to be that insidious. Trading has a cost for the user, and this structure lowers it a lot, even as it makes a fortune for a market-maker and keeps Robinhoods entire business afloat. The SEC not banning payment for order flow means that trading will remain cheap if you want to trade for cheap.

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There are uncomfortable conflicts, though, even beyond cases where a brokerage might be tempted to take sides between a market-maker and someone trading on an app. Robinhood has not gotten in any trouble on that front for a few years now. The more fundamental conflict is the one between Robinhoods interests and those of the actual usersor between users and any other brokerage relying on payment for order flow. Robinhood calls payment for order flow transaction-based revenue, because thats what it is: money that Robinhood makes when users trade, even if it doesnt take it in commission form.

Robinhood wins when you trade more. Of course, that would also be the case under a commission structure. But a commission is a natural brake pedal on trading a ton, and Robinhood has something more like the opposite: no fees, a platform that the company designed to look almost like a video game, and a parade of features and bugs that have over the years encouraged users to trade, trade, trade, and trade again, leading to a $70 million fine that the company paid shortly before going public in 2021.

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If it turns out that it is good for retail investors to be relentlessly encouraged to trade stocks and crypto, rather than to buy and then hold for long periods, then this will be a situation in which everybody wins. Robinhood has in the past declined to talk about how its users portfolios perform. Several academics released a paper in the Journal of Finance in 2020 that found that Robinhood users did worse than the market. They acknowledged that the platform draws inexperienced traders but wrote that the gap was driven in part by the apps features. Itd be interesting to learn how that compares to freelance stock-pickers who try to beat the market on other platforms. It would also be nice to get comprehensive data on how investors in payment-for-order-flow environments do compared to market averages.

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None of this is to say that the SEC needed to ban payment for order flow. Gensler, the boss of the SEC, knows quite a lot about financial markets and has a regulatory aggression that has annoyed Wall Street. (That seems like a useful trait in an SEC chairman.) His agency spent some time on the issue and isnt banning it. Meanwhile, it would be infantilizing to say that retail investors need to be saved from themselves, arent smart enough to use apps like Robinhood safely, and would be better off paying commissions. But the pendulum shouldnt swing too far in the other direction, either. Apps like Robinhood can be a good place for people to make their money work for them in a less burdensome and expensive way than ever. They can also be a way for a company to guide its navy of users directly into a bank of rocks while getting paid to do it. Whatever the larger truth of Robinhood is, well all get to find out, likely in perpetuity.
Long before she became a bestselling novelist (and two-time Booker Prize winner) writing about Thomas Cromwell, Hilary Mantel, who died Thursday at the age of 70, had learned two things by direct experience: that authority cannot be counted on and that evil is real. This presented a conundrum to anyone raised Catholic, as Mantel was. Born in 1952, she grew up in the particularly dreary part of northern England, a place where the people were distrustful and life-refusing, but where the authority of the church promised an escape from Satan and the general nastiness of life as long as you submitted to it, unquestioning. Mantel gave up on all that at the age of 12, but her apostasy really began when she was seven and encountered a fundamentally indescribable presence just beyond her back yard. It is as high as a child of two, she wrote in her memoir, 2003s Giving Up the Ghost. Its depth is a foot, fifteen inches. The air stirs around it, invisibly. I am cold, and rinsed by nausea. I cannot move. What was it? The Devil, probably. At any rate, it seemed more present and powerful than God. She believed this force invaded her, and never truly left her alone afterwardseven the final sentence of her final book of stories published in America, this years Learning to Talk, returns to this presence, which wrapped a strangling hand around my life.

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Mantelwho studied law and was employed as a social worker before leaving England in 1977, when her husband accepted a job in Botswanasuffered for most of her 20s from unexplained pain and fatigue. Her doctors insisted this affliction was psychosomatic, prescribing anti-depressants, sedatives, and antipsychotics, the last of which, she wrote, make you feel like every fiber of your being is possessed by panic. In Botswana, she decided to research her symptoms herself and soon realized that she suffered from endometriosis. She returned to England, got a hysterectomy and a divorce. Two years later, she re-married her ex-husband (they remained together for the rest of her life), and she followed him on a new job in Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia, where they lived for four years. It was in Jeddah that Mantel began to write novels, in a country she described in a vivid essay for the Guardian as oppressive and inscrutable, governed by innumerable unwritten rules, where foreigners were regarded as just a bit of international flotsam with a temporary use and a short expiry date.

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From the first novel Mantel wrote, A Place of Greater Safety (initially rejected by publishers, it was the fifth of her books to be published, in 1992), she showed a liking for figures customarily seen as bad guys. A Place of Greater Safety, set during the French revolution, depicted Robespierre as more sympathetic than the romantic revolutionary, Danton. This seems less a matter of ideology than a stubborn resistance to conventional wisdom, since the inflexible moral purity of Robespierre, when embodied in the person of Thomas More in the Wolf Hall novels, is depicted as deplorable in the eyes of that consummate pragmatist, Cromwell. I am glad I am not like you, Cromwell tells More, who was executed in 1535 for refusing to validate Henry VIIIs separation from the Catholic Church. I mean, my mind fixed on the next world. I realize you see no prospect of improving this one.

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Not that Mantels Cromwell is a do-gooder. The product, like Mantel herself, of a comfortless and often harrowing childhood, he finds himself obliged to commit unconscionable acts in the process of dragging a tradition-loving kingdom and its recalcitrant, vain, and self-serving aristocracy a bit closer to modernity. Mantel told the New Yorkers Larissa MacFarquhar that her appreciation for Cromwells pragmatism, and for his sheer ability to get things done, was a factor of her age. She had lost the idealism of her socialist youth. But its also easy to see a parallel between Cromwells commitment to the publication of an English-language Bible (opposed by the Vatican)so that people could read the book for themselvesand Mantels resolve to crack open medical texts and discover what was ailing her on her own.

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Before she turned to Cromwell, Mantels novels found modest success. Select readers and many critics admired her work. These books were, if anything, frequently darker than the realpolitik of her Tudor novels. They have a delirious gothic tenor. Her first published work, 1985s Every Day is Mothers Day, presents a petty nightmare of British family life, featuring a half-demented mother who keeps her (possibly) developmentally disabled daughter in seclusion. When the daughter somehow gets pregnant, the mother decides the infant is a changeling, and drowns it in an effort to reclaim the real child from the fairies. In the sequel to this novel, 1986s Vacant Possession, the daughter returns from the mental institution where she was sent after her mothers death to wreak terrible vengeance on those responsible for putting her there. These novels are savage yet funny, and their characters primarily motivated by spite.

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The best and most acerbically Mantellian of these pre-Cromwell novels is 2005s Beyond Black. Its the story of a traveling medium (spiritualists figure in more than one Mantel novel), who relays bogus heartwarming messages from beyond. But the novel doesnt present her as a charlatan; she does communicate with the dead, only theyre just as seedy and disagreeable as the living. Her spirit guide, Morris, is a repellent former client of her prostitute mother. His ghost buddies are the revenants of the men who abused the medium during her horrific childhood. She wants nothing more than to escape all of them, but as any trauma survivor can attest, this is easier said than done.

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She wants nothing more than to escape all of them, but as any trauma survivor can attest, this is easier said than done.

Its not hard to see why Mantels pre-Cromwell novels found a limited, if enthusiastic, audience. Part of the ruthlessness of these books is the smallness of the lives depicted, people constrained by both their modest circumstances and their inability to imagine anything outside of their blinkered spheres. But finding Cromwell gave Mantel scale, and the energy that comes with it. Mantels own early family lifethe inspiration for so much of her fictionwas as tangled and intrigue-filled as Henry VIIIs court, but the fate of a nation didnt hang on the outcome. You can sense her confidence at taking on this challenge in the surge of Wolf Halls opening chapter, the sentences as blunt and forceful as the blows young Thomas Cromwell receives from his drunken blacksmith father before he leaves home to seek his fortune as a soldier. To MacFarquhar, Mantel described writing the novel as gleefully liberating, the pages unscrolling before her, like a film. It felt like after swimming and swimming youve suddenly found your feet are on ground thats firm. I knew from the first paragraph that this was going to be the best thing Id ever done.

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Most often depicted (in what Mantel dismissed as cheap popular romantic fiction) skulking at the edges of the stories of more glamorous figures from the Tudor era, Cromwell appealed to Mantels desire to overturn commonplace assumptions and scrutinize the workings of moral compromise. In her novel, Cromwell is a man who is at home in courtroom and waterfront, bishops palace or inn yard. He can draft a contract, train a falcon, draw a map, stop a street fight, furnish a house and fix a jury. Who can fail to admire such a man, or to marvel at his ability to manipulate his capricious monarch and to outmaneuver his enemies? Although he does terrible things to preserve Henrys power while delivering England from the mire of its feudal past, he regrets the worst of it and actually tries to do a bit of good as well. In a classic twist of Mantel irony, its exactly those efforts that render Cromwell vulnerable to his many, many enemies. Above all, Mantels Cromwell is a creator, a builder of great houses and thriving business and the administrative practices that enabled his nation to function so effectively. In him, she found a subject as potent as her own formidable talent, each of them ended too soon.
This week, Adnan Syed was released from prison, nearly eight years after the debut of Serial, the This American Life-spawned podcast about his conviction for the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee. On Slates podcast about internet culture, ICYMI, Rachelle Hampton, Daisy Rosario, and Rebecca Lavoiehost of Crime Writers Ondiscussed Syeds release and the legacy of Serial. Though the groundbreaking podcast drew attention to Syeds case, it also cast doubt on his innocence using disproven evidence, and for years never posted a correction or update. What role did Serial play in this remarkable development? And what are the ways Serial fell short? This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

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Daisy Rosario: I want to acknowledge Rabia Chaudry, whom Rebecca has worked with and become friends with, shes one of the hosts of Undisclosed.* But more than that, anybody who listened to Serial knows who Rabia is because Rabia is the person who brought Sarah Koenig the story. And one of the things that Ive been seeing online a lot are peopleand this has been going on for yearspeople telling Rabia that she should feel so grateful.

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Rebecca Lavoie: Imagine a situation where you know, with 100 percent certainty, that your loved one is innocent. And you have a bunch of evidence that he didnt do it, and you bring it to a reporter and that reporter rightly says, I cant just take everything in its word. Im going to reinvestigate it and try to do my own thing. And that reporter does that, elevates the story way up, and so you think, Finally something is going to happen. But eight years later, people are still saying, But Sarah said there was a Nisha call. But Sarah said that the pings put Adnan Syed at the burial site. But Sarah said that Adnan went to Kathy Not Kathys house that day.

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Rosario: This is something that Rabia tweeted on Sept. 16: People keep telling me we wouldnt be here without Serial. True, but heres the best analogy I can come up with about it. Imagine you ask someone to help renovate your house. Instead, they set fire to it. The story about the fire brings thousands to your aid that rebuild the house. Serial set fire to Adnans story, to some extent deliberately and has never apologized or made amends. Should I be grateful? I find it hard to be. But I am grateful to the thousands that responded to the fire to help rebuild this house.

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Lavoie: Yeah, but the fires still burning, thats the problem. I have a haircut tonight and if in two chairs down from me, some lady asked the woman cutting her hair says, Hey, Im just getting into podcasts. What should I listen to? The person in the chair next to them will say, You should listen to Serial.

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Rachelle Hampton: One of the things I remember most from the immediate aftermath of Serial is the way it became fodder for party chatter, where people would be like, Do you think Adnan did it? Do you think Jay did it? We are almost discussing it the way we talked about Game of Thrones. Theres something specific about the way that Serial presented the case that made that kind of discussion feel okay.

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Lavoie: I think its because these are all high school kids, frankly. It was the diary, the passing notes in class, the dating. The story was framed around high school gossip. A lot of high school gossip was used as potential evidence in the storytelling about whether or not Adnan was lying, whether or not  And so that, I think, lit something on fire in us that brought to life our innate high school gossip. You know what I mean?

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So Ill tell you, my day job, I work in public radio. I dont, generally speaking, hate This American Life. There are many of This American Life episodes that I love, there are things they do very well. They make you feel it. They make you care a lot about it. But you think about using those same techniques here and it really did in retrospect cause some harm.

I think we can also agree that an investigation, especially when were taking their police at their word, should not be done in real time.

Rosario: Absolutely.

Lavoie: Because its going to send you places that are probably not the right places to go. It was a cool experiment if you think about it, but it also put a tremendous amount of pressure on the team to come up with some sort of conclusion. I think the Dana Chivvis monologue about luck is incredibly harmful. I cannot believe that was left in the podcast. I actually couldnt believe it at the time.

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Rosario: Correct. If you dont remember it, its that Dana basically says, Well, after having done all of this, I can only come to two conclusions. He either did it or he had the unluckiest day ever. So yeah, thats another example of something that just doesnt fit. And the idea of not taking police at their word: There have always been people that have been pushing for that. Especially families of victims in poorer communities where theyre not necessarily getting the respect and the treatment that they deserve as citizens.

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Lavoie: I was talking to somebody about this the other day and they were like, Well, it was a different time, like 2014, 2015. And Im like

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Hampton: For who?

Lavoie: Baltimore was still Baltimore in 2014 and 2015. I still just cant believe that in a piece of reporting done at any point after the year, I dont know, 1980 something that someone would characterize Baltimore detectives as basically good guys.

Hampton: I cant help, but think that it has a lot to do with the demographic makeups of the Serial team and of This American Life, which was based in Chicago for the longest time. Im from Chicago. Chicago and New York are some of the most diverse cities in the United States, and having an almost entirely white team in those cities is, at that point, a very deliberate choice. It comes through in a lot of the reporting.

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Lavoie: I think that this team, to some extent, is made up of the kind of people that dont have TVs and that arent really on Twitter. Really, I really think so. I really do think theres an intentional horse-blinders approach. I dont think its an intentional slightliterally they just are unaware that these issues are around the world, that people feel this way. That it would actually feel good for a lot of people to hear, We got that wrong. And thats something that would have been so easy for them to write.
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,

A few days ago, I was looking through my 14-year-old daughters phone. I do this once a week, just to check shes not being rude or anything (there was once an issue at her school where several unnamed children were being very rude online). Everything seemed okay, but then I suddenly decided I should probably look through her messages, too. I found a WhatsApp chat called Wonderful People Only. On the group there was about 60-70 children, all of them about her age. I think they are all from her school, but Im not sure.

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Id never seen this WhatsApp on her phone before, so I scrolled to the top. The chat was created in December, and she was one of the original 20 people to be added. To start with, the group seemed to revolve around those 20 people (including my daughter) saying extremely rude things about another girl, Millie. I wasnt happy about this. But then, in January, Millie was added to the chat so she could see what horrible things were being said. They called her a spoiled brat, a b***h, a freak, and more. And my daughter was the ringleader. After reading this I immediately sat my daughter down and asked her what the heck was she doing. My daughter replied that Millie had been being extremely rude to her and the other people in the group since Millie joined the school in November. So these people got together and made a WhatsApp group so they could rant about their frustrations. Apparently it was never intended for Millie to be added.

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I asked my daughter to give examples, and my daughter replied that Millie had refused to download social media, didnt wear trendy clothes and barely used her mobile phone. I explained to my daughter that doing these things was not being extremely rude and Millie simply had different interests to her peers. My daughter said that it was wrong for Millie to not be like anyone else. I tried to talk to her, showing her videos about diversity, etc., but they didnt work. And then I found out that Millie had been invited to our house the following Saturday. I told my daughter that Millie could still come round, but if I heard any rude comments she would be leaving. When Millie came round, I found out that she is Black, bisexual, and transgender. I dont have a problem with any of those things but apparently my daughter does. I immediately took Millie home. Ive confiscated my daughters phone but she still makes random comments to me about how stupid Millie is. How can I explain to my daughter that this isnt okay?

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Not So Wonderful People Only

Dear NSWPO,

Im not sure that youre going to like what I have to say here. Your daughter was part of what sounds like a significant cyberbullying incident targeting a girl of marginalized identities. She and the other kids ought to be held accountable for what they did to Millie, and I think you should inform the school of what took place and who was involved. There have been too many tragic stories of children taking their own lives after being targeted in such a way for this to be taken lightly. Your daughter still clearly doesnt understand the potential dangers of what she has gotten herself involved with, as made evident by her willingness to make fun of this girl in front of you.

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The school may see fit to punish your daughter and the other bad actors in this situation, and I think that would be appropriate. I also wonder if you have given any thought at all to how you might enforce consequences yourself. Does your daughter still have access to the phone she used to harass her classmate? Perhaps there should be some limitations on her phone communications until she can prove capable of conducting herself responsibly. If social media use and trendy clothes are the metric by which she feels empowered to judge other kids, perhaps she should experience a period of time without access to either of those things. I personally cant fathom the idea of allowing my child to engage in such cruel behavior without making it very clear that it would not be tolerated and that she can expect to be punished if ever shes caught doing such a thing again.

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Furthermore, you need to talk to your daughter about Millies humanity. She is a person with thoughts and feelings, and theres nothing she could have done to warrant being singled out for abuse. It must be incredibly difficult for her to exist in a space where most of the kids arent Black or LGBT, and she deserves to be protected, not picked on. Your conversations about how to treat people who are different will need to be frequent and serious. Did she tell you straight out that she has a problem with Millies identity? (Im so curious as to why this child ended up in your house, and what led to you taking her home.)

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Also, let your daughter know that while Millies identity makes her more likely to be targeted, that the same kids who were happy to bully Millie with her could easily turn on her in the future. Talk to her about what cyberbullying is and why it is so dangerous. Keep that phone largely away from her for the foreseeable future and make it so she cant download any chat apps at all. Make it clear that bigotry and hatred will not be tolerated and that she is expected to treat everyone with respect. And, again, I think you should report what happened to Millie to the school. Her parents need to know what shes endured, and she deserves whatever sort of support mechanisms that may be available to her. This will likely upset your daughter, but it will also help her to understand the gravity of what she has doneand, hopefully, prevent her from behaving the same way in the future.

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Dear Care and Feeding,

Im twelve, and at my secondary school the boys get to do Gigajam (which is when you play an instrument that is connected to a computer) while us girls have to dance. This is the same every year, in every class. Our schedules are kept for the entire school year. I would not feel comfortable approaching the head teacher about this as he told off my 42-year-old dad for not using a cross walk! Is there a way I can fix this?

Sexist School

Dear SS,

I am so sorry that your school has such an outdated, sexist tradition. I dont know how possible it is to change things, but I think that you should talk to some of your classmates to see how they are feeling about the gender division and perhaps you all can rally together to challenge it. You can start a petition calling for a change, ask parents and students to sign on and deliver the collected names to school leadership. You can also assemble a group of fellow concerned students and parents and attempt to schedule a meeting with the head teacher and other officials to discuss your feelings. Traditions like this one only change when the people impacted by them come together and demand something different. I doubt you are the only one who feels as you do, though there may be some kids who are totally fine with their assigned activity and, thus, likely wont be compelled to support any effort to change it. But if a significant number of parents and students have a problem with dividing boys and girls up this way, I think you may have a good chance at seeing the practice change in the future. I urge you to rally up some supporters and to challenge your school to do a better job at serving the needs of a modern student body. Wishing you lots of luck!

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Catch Up on Care and Feeding

 If you missed Mondays column, read it here.

 Discuss this column in the Slate Parenting Facebook group!

Dear Care and Feeding,

Im a lucky mom of 5 adult children, all in the early stages of adulthood. I gave birth to the first four kids and we adopted our youngest from China as a toddler. My kids are super close to each other and to my husband and me. They have been delightful, truly, throughout their childhoods and I have always managed to figure out how to help them best when they had challenges. I know Im lucky and I feel bad even asking for help about something that I think might be petty, but I cant tell for sure.

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My youngest daughter is 19 and a freshman in college. She lives at home, but has her car and gets herself to school and does her thing with minimal involvement from me. Theres just one way that I feel like Ive failed her. Her hygiene is poor. Her breath is awful. Weve talked to the dentist, but he finds nothing wrong. She just doesnt regularly brush her teeth and admits this. She only showers every other day and can smell bad. Her hair and skin are very greasy if she doesnt wash every day, and I cannot convince her of the importance of daily bathing for her bodys needs. Part of the problem is that the four biological kids inherited my skin, which tends towards eczema and psoriasis, so, on the advice of the pediatrician, we never bathed them daily when they were kids, but when they would start to stink or if they were dirty. But my younger kid has the opposite issue in that her hair and skin are very oily.

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Its hard. She tells me shes just not in the habit of brushing her teeth (which we were consistent with when she was growing up) and showering. The other day, she had massive flakes of dandruff on her head. I picked them out for her and asked her if the dandruff was a me problem or a her problem and she very clearly told me told me that she didnt care if she had dandruff. Im beginning to wonder if its a mental health concern, but she seems happy and content otherwise. And shes 18, so should have total bodily autonomy. I wonder if theres some early trauma that happened before we adopted her that might be causing her to care for her body so poorly. It makes me feel like Ive failed her. She thinks Im overreacting, and Im worried that I will cause a rift between us if I hound her too much. I would love to know if Im overreacting or if I should talk to her about therapy.

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Still the Luckiest Mom Ever

Dear StLME,

This isnt petty at all, this is a very major concern. Hygiene is incredibly important, for our health, for maintaining our relationships with other people, and youre right that failing to attend to it can be a sign of a mental health issue. I think that you, along with some of her siblings and your partner (if applicable), should stage an intervention of sorts with her daughter. She should hear from all of you that you are deeply concerned about the way she is caring for herself. Talk about the unpleasant scents, as well as how other people outside of the family are likely to react to a person who smells and looks unkempt. Explain that it will invariably have an impact on both her professional and personal life. Let her know that you dont wish to hurt or embarrass her, only to figure out just what is keeping her from taking proper care of herself. Identify local therapists whom she can speak to and encourage her to consider visiting with one.

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You may have to have this dialogue again and again with your youngest before it takes hold, but you mustnt give up. Theres a reason for this neglect, and you want to get to the bottom of it so that your daughter can live a happier, healthier life. Wishing you and her all the best.

Want Advice From Care and Feeding?

Submit your questions about parenting and family life here. Its anonymous! (Questions may be edited for publication.)

Dear Care and Feeding,

Im the parent of a tween and am wondering the best/easiest way to help my daughter discover and listen to music. I was about her age when I got my first CD player and CDs by mail. Im confused about what the modern-day equivalent might be. Im not ready to give her a smart phone and all of the internet all of the time just so she can listen to music, but I also think that having access to music is important for kids this age. Got any suggestions? Should I just bust out an old boom box? FWIW my husband and I already own a turntable and records on vinyl.

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Where Are the Tunes

Dear WAtT,

Though they have been largely rendered extinct by smart phones, MP3 players still exist, and they are more affordable than ever. There are models perfect for kids at Amazon and Best Buy, many well under fifty bucks. You can sit at the computer with your daughter and select music for her to enjoy together without leaving the entire internet at her disposal. You can also purchase her a boom box for CDs and allow her to experience the old school thrill of purchasing physical copies of her favorite tunes. Happy listening!

Jamilah

More Advice From Slate

I need to discuss WAP. Yes, that WAP. My 11-year-old daughter asked if we could have WAP for breakfast the other day. I asked her what she thought that meant, and she said a girl from her softball team had told her it meant waffles and pancakes (information that came from her parents). Fast forward a week, and my daughter came home from school asking if WAP also means worship and prayer, because thats what her friends grandma had told her. What should I say?
If you pay attention to the religious symbolism evoked by MAGA crowds during rallies, protests, and campaign events duringand sincethe Jan. 6 insurrection, youll notice a few common themes: Donald Trump is a messianic figure, Jesus Christ is a Trump supporter, and the Bible inspires violence in the name of fighting agents of Satan.

But you can also find symbolic items that, in a realm of American politics that can veer dangerously near (and often, directly into) white supremacy and antisemitism, may seem strangely non-Christian. For example, the shofar.

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The shofar, a ritualistic musical horn most often made from a rams horn, has been used in Jewish ceremonies and festivals for centuries. Today, they are blown during Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. They are instruments that belong in a synagoguenot household items meant for personal use.

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But starting in the 1960s and 70s, Pentecostal Christians and other charismatic Christian groups began to use shofars to punctuate worship services and pro-Israel rallies, inspired in part by the Zionist movement and the charismatic Jesus movement. That appropriation may have irked many Jews, but at the time, the instrument was at least used to call on angels and plead for divine healing and inspire the gift of tongues, and not for anything more political. In the past couple of years, that has changed.

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Conservative evangelical Christians have begun to adopt the shofar as a symbol of spiritual warfare, inspired by the biblical retelling of the siege of Jericho. According to the Book of Joshua, the walls of Jericho fell after the Israelites, acting on Gods instruction, blew rams horns and shouted. (For more of a refresher on the story, these 90s kids have a superb music video for you.)

At the Dec. 12, 2020, Jericho March on the National Mall, which was held ahead of the Jan. 6 protests, Michael Flynn promised the crowd that, like the Israelites, an army of Trumps supporters would bring down the deep state. There were shofars at this event, blown as a battle cry. (Confusingly, at one point at the Jericho March, two people also blew smoke out of their shofars.)

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There were also shofars at Black Lives Matter counterprotests and at Sean Feuchts COVID-related worship protests. Militia members in Oregon blew shofars as battle trumpets. (To be fair, more progressive groups also blew shofars to protest family separations.) Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee in the Pennsylvania gubernatorial race and a staunch Christian nationalist, announced his candidacy with a shofar blast (from a Pastor Don), and later complained that he was lambasted for having too much Jewish symbology in our announcement. Some of the shofars are decked out in patriotic colors. Theyre blown in ways that just feel right to the users, not following any ritualistic script.

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MAGA Sen. Doug Mastriano announced his candidacy for Gov of PA today. They opened the proceedings the same way they opened J6 in DC, by blowing the Shofar, signaling that this political battle will also be spiritual. pic.twitter.com/Rrt6QXURPB  Ron Filipkowski  (@RonFilipkowski) January 8, 2022

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The story of how Christian nationalists linked spiritual warfarewinning souls for Christto actual violence on behalf of Trump is a serious one. But theres something a little funny about the militarized shofars showing up at Stop the Steal events: Theyre often unusually large.

Ashkenazi Jewsthe majority of Jews in the U.S.and Sephardic Jews use shofars made from the domestic ram. Yemeni Jews, working with different geography, have long, spiraling shofars made from the horn of a kudu, a type of antelope. Its these long onessome three times larger than the standard shofarthat appear again and again in pro-Trump events.

David Zvi Kalman at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America wrote in an email that he had noticed that Christians seemed to love the Yemeni shofar. So maybe its fair to say that while Jews use a variety of shofar types, Christians have gravitated to the one particular versionperhaps because the shorter ones arent quite so photogenic.

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Hillary Kaell, a professor at McGill Universitys religious studies and anthropology departments who has researched Messianic Jews, agreed that Christians were mostly using jumbo-sized shofars but stopped short of suggesting any kind of mines bigger than yours mentality behind it. (How does any style catch on? she asked.) All she could say was that the right-wing Christian shofar blowers seemed to be inspired by one another, probably through the internet.

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Sarah Imhoff, a professor of religious studies at Indiana University who agreed that the shofars that show up in these public Christian nationalist ways are much, much larger than what youd see in a Jewish home, said the drama of the large shofar was a natural fit for a loud, boisterous political rally. As far as I can tell, when Christians are using shofars, theyre not connecting to Yemenite Jewish tradition at all, she said. Theyre just impressed by the size. And I guess this makes a certain amount of sense, because if what youre trying to do is call upon Gods might in a way that recalls armies fighting in the Bible, maybe you just want a bigger symbol.

Online sellers of shofars seem to have picked up on this, as Kaell noted, and have begun marketing larger (and typically more expensive) products to Christian audiences. (Some Christians may also buy non-kosher shofars made in Chinese factories at tourist shops in Jerusalem.)

In all of this, it seems that American evangelicals have missed that the shofar, in Jewish tradition, is not an instrument of war. It is a ritualistic item that invokes penitence, spiritual inspiration, and other more complex elements of religious life. But Trump loves things to be big, strong, masculine, and military. And so do his supporters.
It checks whether youre swimming the backstroke or with a kickboard. It checks if youre buying spaghetti at the grocery store. It also checks for temperature changes to estimate when youre ovulating. At least, thats how Apple advertises its newly released Apple Watch Series 8the latest iteration in the companys smart wearable devices.

Apple has built its brand on privacy, and there are many good reasons for this perception. Years ago it built end-to-end encryption into iMessage, for example, which ensures only the sender and receiver can see a message. It famously touted its security focus when it refused to help the FBI open the San Bernardino shooters iPhone (although it maintains an FBI relationship). And unlike Google, Facebook, and some other tech giants, it doesnt make most of its revenue from online advertising.

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But having a pro-privacy brand doesnt eradicate real privacy questions. If the company is collecting deeply invasive data in the first place, then corporate goodwill is the only thing preventing abuseand corporate goodwill, whether Apples or that of any other company, can only go so far.

Smart watches and menstrual cycles are hardly the first time this problem has arisen. In April 2021, Apple released the AirTag, a portable location tracker that it said helps keep track of and find the items that matter most with Apples Find My app. The company put the products privacy and security features front and center. The second sentence of Apples press release stated that AirTags can help locate a lost item, all while keeping location data private and anonymous with end-to-end encryption. Kaiann Drance, Apples vice president of worldwide iPhone product marketing, emphasized the AirTags built-in privacy and security features. Protecting users information was portrayed as part and parcel of the companys ethos.

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Immediately after Apple released AirTags, however, data privacy experts warned that stalkers could weaponize the product. AirTags are easy to hide in a targets bag or car, Albert Fox Cahn and Eva Galperin wrote, giving an abuser an easy way to track their location. Apple had created a mechanism to warn people with iPhones about unknown AirTags in their vicinity, the authors wrote, but if you dont check your iPhone, or if you dont have an iPhone (like half of America), youre out of luck. The sound AirTags make when separated from their owner for 72 hours, Cahn and Galperin added, was only 60 decibels, about the same volume as a dishwasher or casual conversation. Around the same time, a Washington Post reporter tested all this by allowing a colleague to follow himand found the audible alarm unnoticeable.

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Apple responded in July 2021 by changing the beep interval, so AirTags would make a sound if apart from their owners device for more than eight to 24 hours. (The beep would be timed randomly in that window.) It also said it would develop an Android application people could download to look for unknown AirTags nearby (which it did, called Tracker Detect). But the grave risks persisted: As Galperin pointed out to the Post, someone could simply use a persons own AirTag to stalk them, which would not trigger the iPhone alerts. An abusive individual with access to a persons phone could also simply turn off item safety alerts in that persons iPhone settings. Defending its product, Apple kept leaning into its privacy narrative. In February it said we design our products to provide a great experience, but also with safety and privacy in mind and noted that it reminds people when they set up an AirTag to not stalk others (literally).

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Despite this stern warning, numerous women have reported people stalking them with AirTags since the products launch. In many cases, this involved an ex or person already familiar with their life, which also increases the likelihood an abusive individual has access to a targeted persons device. For all that Apple might cooperate with law enforcement on investigations into AirTag-related stalking, the product remains on the shelf, and serious privacy and physical safety threats persist.

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Apples recent decision to embed fertility tracking in the Watch Series 8 has a similar flavor of leaning on a pro-privacy brand to sideline real privacy concerns. The watches, according to the company, will track peoples body temperatures through two sensors to predict ovulation. Users who already track their cycle through the iPhones Health app or the Apple Watchs Cycle Tracking App can also get menstrual cycle deviation alerts. Executives have pitched the monitoring technology as a pregnancy support system, too: If youre trying to conceive, knowing if and when you ovulated can inform your family planning with your health care provider, Sumbul Desai, Apples vice president of health, said at its launch event.

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The fertility and cycle tracking both come with some privacy and security protections, such as encrypting health data synced to iCloud both in transit and on servers. Apple highlighted this fact when debuting its new devices, and that is certainly a good move. [Update, Sept. 24, 2022: After publication of this article, Apple said in an email that that phones locked with a passcode encrypt all Health app fitness and health data (but not the users Medical ID), and that if you use Cycle Tracking with two-factor authentication enabled, health data synced to iCloud is end-to-end encrypted, where Apple does not have the decryption key and cannot read it.] But it doesnt change the fact that a multinational technology companywith, by some estimates, more than 100 million watch users worldwideis proposing tracking period information for people with the capacity to get pregnant. It doesnt change the fact that said company is doing so, and thought it was a good idea to do so, following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States and an even faster-growing surveillance threat to women and other people. Some Apple customers might enjoy this ovulation-tracking feature, and they might choose to use it even with knowledge of the collected datas sensitivity. At the same time, companies have struggled with responding to the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade and with handling questions about potential law enforcement requests for pregnancy-related data. Despite this uncertainty, Apple is rolling out a tracking feature that might exacerbate these risks.

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Apples investments in privacy and cybersecurity protections are better for users than little investment at all, and the company has been more vocal than some peers about privacy issues. But these technical measures dont eliminate the always-present risk that a company is hackedand highly sensitive information that it didnt have to collect in the first place, like menstrual health data, is leaked and exploited. (While the Apple Watch appears to allow users to keep health data on their device, people with both a watch and an iPhone will almost guaranteed want to sync the data through iCloud, especially given the iPhones frequent prompts for users to make iCloud backups.) Privacy brand narratives and cybersecurity investments also dont eliminate the risk that law enforcement agencies, such as those enforcing anti-abortion laws, approach a company with legal demands to access health data. It also doesnt change the fact that highly sensitive information about a persons body is collected in the first placea step often glossed over when the public and policy conversation takes collecting data as a given, and spends the rest of the discussion arguing over how to store, transfer, and use it.

Narratives of its fine if we collect it, because were pro-privacy may be grounded in differences between how that company and its competitors handle users information. But it obscures the fact that harms can still occur, that companies dont have to collect data just because they find it financially lucrative, and that people are still relying on corporate goodwill to prevent data abuse. Decisions like tracking peoples menstrual information still generate serious risksand a corporate privacy brand doesnt change that fact.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
BEIJING, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments in the Ukraine crisis:

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for international efforts to de-escalate the conflict in Ukraine.

"I will continue to spare no effort for peace -- peace in line with international law and the Charter of the United Nations," he told a Security Council meeting on Ukraine.

Guterres welcomed Wednesday's news that more than 250 prisoners were exchanged between Ukraine and Russia and expressed the hope that the two sides will build on this with further exchanges aimed at an "all-for-all" formula.

Since the signing of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, global food prices have dropped sharply, although they are still almost 8 percent higher than a year ago. It is vital that these food shipments continue and increase, so commodity markets further stabilize, said Guterres.

The United Nations also signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia on the full access of Russian food and fertilizers products, including ammonia, to global markets.

The situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, located in the middle of a conflict zone, remains a cause of grave concern. The International Atomic Energy Agency is consulting with all parties involved on measures to ensure the safety of the plant and surrounding areas, said Guterres.

- - - -

Ukraine and Russia have carried out their largest prisoner exchange since the start of the conflict, in which 215 Ukrainians, including 124 officers, were released by Russia, the Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said Thursday.

Meanwhile, 55 military personnel of Russia, Donetsk and Lugansk were delivered from the territory of Ukraine controlled by Kiev on Wednesday night to Russia, where they are receiving the necessary psychological and medical assistance, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

In addition, Ukrainian opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk was also released, Donetsk authorities announced.

- - - -

The grain export deal reached in Istanbul in July is being implemented just in part where the West and Ukraine are interested, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday.

In order to extend the deal, it must be carried out in full, Ryabkov told reporters.

- - - -

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that an additional 87 Canadian citizens have been indefinitely barred from entering the country in response to Ottawa's anti-Russian sanctions.

The newly-blacklisted are Canada's regional leaders, senior military officers, heads of companies supplying Ukraine with weapons and dual-use technologies, the ministry said in a statement. 
This story was originally published by Knowable magazine

On Sept. 27 at noon Eastern, Knowable Magazine, Annual Reviews, and Future Tense will host an online event on disaster insurance, featuring Alice Hill, senior fellow for climate change policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Carolyn Kousky, associate vice president for economics and policy at the Environmental Defense Fund. Register here.

When Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2005, surges of seawater more than 20 feet higher than normal tide levels crested over the levees surrounding New Orleans. Within hours, the levees started to fail, flooding 80 percent of the city. More than 1,800 people across several states died in the storm or its aftermath, and thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed. The economic losses totaled more than $100 billion in 2020 dollars, and experts estimate that private insurance covered just $40 to $55 billion of the damage.

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Carolyn Kousky, then a Ph.D. student in public policy at Harvard University, was alarmed by the slow and uneven recovery from Katrina. Failures in both public disaster programs and insurance had contributed not only to a human tragedy, but to the most expensive natural disaster in history. Kousky decided to study how people recover from floods and other extreme weather eventsand how poor insurance coverage can exacerbate existing inequalities.

In the 17 years since Hurricane Katrina, climate change has made extreme weather events more frequent and expensive, as recent record-breaking floods, heat waves, and wildfires show. Kousky, now associate vice president for economics and policy at the Environmental Defense Fund, is carefully tracking how communities and insurers are responding to the onslaught. The author of the forthcoming book Understanding Disaster Insurance: New Tools for a More Resilient Future, Kousky wrote in the 2019 Annual Review of Resource Economics about how insurance can be crucial for recovery from natural disasters, and how new models of insurance could make communities and ecosystems more resilient.

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This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Emily Underwood: How is disaster insurance different from other types of insurance, like car insurance? Why is it so expensive?

Carolyn Kousky: The original concept of insurance was risk pooling. A group of people all put money in a pot. Every year, something bad might happen to a few people. Then they get to take the money and contribute again when theyre fine. This is formalized through insurance companies, where the contribution is the premium and the claim is what people get when they suffer a loss.

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This type of insurance works really well when risks happen to individuals in a random way. When you get into a car accident, for example, it doesnt mean that all your neighbors got into a car accident. The number of accidents every year is more or less stable when you look at it in aggregate around the country. This means insurers have a very good idea what their losses are going to be in the coming year, and they can charge premiums to match that.

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For a big disaster, though, like a hurricane, wildfire, or an extreme flood, entire communities get hit at the same time, and hit hard. This means that the losses that a disaster insurance company faces are not stable year to year like auto insurancetheyre very spiky. Theyve got years where there are no losses at all, and then theres a huge loss.

In order to cover those huge losses, insurers have reserves, the equivalent of a savings account for a household. They also buy their own kind of insurance, called reinsurance, and use other financial tools to avoid bankruptcy. But none of those things are free. That means that the premiumthe priceof disaster insurance is higher than for more idiosyncratic risks. Sometimes the cost is so high that it cant be offered at a price thats profitable for the company and that households can afford. Then theres a breakdown in the market.

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What happens when the private insurance market breaks down?

The availability of insurance dries upit gets harder to get insurance in some areas. In fact, a lot of disasters arent covered by private insurance companies any more. Instead, the government has set up programs to sell disaster insurance to consumers who can no longer buy it privately. In the U.S., the federal government has been providing flood insurance for over 50 years because early on, major riverine flooding made the private sector pull out of providing flood coverage. We have state-level insurance programs for hurricanes along the Gulf of Mexico and in the Southeast, and a state program thats increasingly taking on wildfires in California. We also have a state program for earthquakes in California.

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How do these public sector insurance options measure up to private insurance?

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It varies. Often the public insurance options are more expensive or more limited. For a household, it means having to pay more for not having as good or as broad coverage as you might have been able to buy through a private company. But they are all run a bit differently and vary in how they price policies.

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Take a look at the National Flood Insurance Program. In this program, pricing had not been modernized in decades. Some people have been paying too little and others too much. But recently, the federal flood insurance program has started to let the price of insurance more accurately reflect a households risk. So now, if your prices are higher than someone elses, its almost certainly because your risk of flooding is higher. This has meant lower rates for some people, but others are seeing costs go up.

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For some, like those in areas at high risk of rainfall-related flooding, this can be a surprise, since the governments flood maps typically dont include flooding from extreme rain. People dont like buying disaster insurance anyway, and if it is expensive, they often wont do it.

Are we in a disaster insurance crisis?

There are clear signs of stress. Were at a point where we need to be carefully thinking about both our private and public sector insurance. This gets into some difficult questions about how much risk and cost we want taxpayers to be taking on through lower-cost insurance programs or disaster aid, versus putting those costs on the people who choose to live in risky locations. Some people, though, are trapped in risky areas and unable to afford a safer area. Right now, we dont have any extra assistance with the costs of disaster insurance for people with low incomes.

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Some countries, like Spain, France, and New Zealand, have taken an approach where they mandate that property insurance, like your homeowners insurance, cover all natural disasters. Then the government provides either reinsurance or a backstop to make sure that requirement doesnt bankrupt a company. The thing I like about that model is that it takes a lot of the burden off households. Right now, in the U.S., private insurance companies are choosing to exclude a whole bunch of risks. So you buy an insurance policy, and you think youre protecting your house against bad things that might happen to it. But then you find out that your policy doesnt cover what you thought it did.

Way too often, consumers go to rebuild and theyre like, Wait, I dont have enough to rebuild, and I thought that I took care of that. Thats not right. But asking them to read lots of legal fine print is unrealistic. We should make it easier on households.

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How does climate change alter the picture?

Climate change has really stressed the system. Risks that the private sector used to cover because they werent that bad have gotten much worse. Wildfire is a good example. For a very long time, wildfire was part of your homeowners policy, covered in the private market. But the rapidly increasing risk of wildfires means that the private sector has started to pull back in high-risk areas. They saw incredibly steep losses from the 2017 and 2018 wildfires and it really woke up the industry. Weve seen similar dynamics play out over time along the Gulf Coast and the Southeast because of hurricanes. Very large homeowners insurance companies have largely left the state of Florida, and you see insurers leaving the Gulf Coast all the time. Several just went bankrupt with Hurricane Ida in Louisiana.

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Theres no way around the fundamental problem that risk is going up.  Carolyn Kousky

Public sector programs arent immune from climate stress either. So theyre going to have to increase prices or limit coverage to maintain their own solvency. Or, were going to have to decide as a society that were going to subsidize that riskor radically invest in risk reduction. Theres no way around the fundamental problem that the risk is going up.

Radical investment in risk reductionwhat do you mean by that?

What really needs to be done is to stop emitting carbon. But putting that aside, we know the things we need to do in terms of adaptation. We know how to build better. We know how to have better zoning that doesnt put people and capital at such risk. For instance, researchers at the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety have drafted building standards for wildfires and hurricanes that could save buildings. And yet we often lack the will to build stronger or to limit development.

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We also need to do a better job of telling people that the risk and cost of living in some places is going to go up. A lot of that communication should focus on the home-buying process, because thats a decision point where it really matters that you understand the risks youre facing when you make a long-term financial commitment to a place. That can be done through better state disclosure laws about risk, but it also requires better free and public data on those risks.

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For instance, Im on the advisory board of the First Street Foundation and it is working to provide information on weather-related disasters for every house in the country, and how those risks are changing with climate change. They are now integrated into some real estate websites to help potential buyers better understand the risk of where they might move.

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Youve written about the potential for using insurance to protect and restore ecosystems. Can you share some examples of how that could work?

There are a few ways insurance can help. First, insurers are very large holders of capital. They have to hold all these funds in order to pay claims, and theres been a push for them, as with other large investors, to screen their investments and not put them into fossil fuels or other carbon-intensive sectors. And some insurance companies have started to do that. But they could also screen their investments for other environmental impacts and even actively invest to promote greater conservation and restoration.

They also can choose not to offer insurance at all to companies that are contributing to biodiversity loss or other harmful environmental impacts. Or to offer the insurance only if they improve their practices. Then there are other new tools and types of insurance that can help restoration companies or land trusts or other players with their specific needs. Finally, there is also one case of insuring a natural asseta coral reeflike you would insure property.

So after a hurricane damaged it, the insurance paid out for divers to go and help repair the reef.

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We can also use insurance to prevent disasters, rather than just responding after they happen. What does that look like?

Insurance has always been about paying people for things they lost. But recently there have been some programs that turn that thinking on its head and say, what if we can use it to pay people to make sure they dont suffer a loss?

An example of this is the Kenya Livestock Insurance Program, which actually aims to prevent losses in the first place. Severe droughts in Kenya can lead to the death of livestock for pastoralists, which puts them into much deeper poverty. Insurance would typically pay them for the dead livestock after the fact. But this program instead says, lets pay people ahead of time when the drought is starting, to buy additional feed so that their cattle dont die. The premium for some people is paid by the government, because these are very poor populations. And the program is coupled to another public sector program that makes feed available.

Thats nice, because the financing mechanism is directly tied to a plan to make sure that disaster doesnt cause as much harm.

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The Kenya program is an example of whats called parametric insurance, which pays out a predetermined amount when a hazard hits a certain threshold. In Kenya, that threshold is drought. In hurricane-prone regions it could be wind speed, and in flood-prone areas it could be when water reaches a certain height. This model of insurance doesnt require an adjuster to go to your house and assess the damage in person, which saves time and lowers the cost to the insurance company. It can also avoid drawn-out disputes over whats covered and whats not. In some cases, the money gets deposited automatically into your bank account.

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Parametric insurance can open up all sorts of new models, like that program in Kenya. Another good example is microinsurance, which has been offered around the globe and is now starting to be offered in Puerto Rico. Many people cant afford disaster insurance that will reimburse all their losses after a disaster, but they might be able afford a policy that automatically dispenses a certain amountsay $6,000to cover immediate needs. Parametric insurance is not a replacement for homeowners insurance. But it could help more people plan ahead for disasters and recover more quickly after they happen.

Planning aheadwhat a concept!

Its surprising how bad we are as individuals and a society at planning ahead. But planning ahead can make so much difference, and insurance can help give people the extra push to do it.

Want to learn more about disaster insurance? Join Kousky and Underwood to continue this conversation in an online event on Sept. 27 at noon Eastern. Register here.

This Q&A originally appeared in Knowable Magazine, a nonprofit publication dedicated to making scientific knowledge accessible to all. Sign up for Knowable Magazines newsletter.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
Al Gore, long one of the worlds foremost advocates for climate action, appears to be running out of fucks to give. Case in point: On Tuesday, during a series of climate-themed, investment banksponsored fireside chats hosted by the New York Times, the former vice president went off on the World Bank and its president, David Malpass. For Gods sake, this is ridiculous to have a climate denier as the head of the World Bank, Gore scoffed.

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Getting increasingly amped as he went on, Gore noted that if youre, say, a Brazilian wind-farm developer who wants to finance a new domestic project with the help of a World Bank loan, you have to pay back interest three times higher than what the U.S. would pay for a similar loan. This totally belies the purported mission of World Bank, the ex-veep bellowedi.e., to support poor nations with money they need for essential investments, such as renewable energy: We need to get rid of that leadership, put new leadership in, and I hope President Biden will take that initiative. Gores comments kicked off a multiday press cycle that is continuing even as I write this.

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Some background about the man at the center of it all: Malpass is a longtime Republican insider who worked in the Reagan and H.W. Bush administrations and ran a Senate campaign in 2010, during which he denied that carbon dioxide emissions were warming the planet. (He was beaten in the New York GOP primary that year by Joe DioGuardi, who said he believed in climate change. DioGuardi then lost to Kirsten Gillibrand.) Malpass is also notorious in the financial worldhe was chief economist at Bear Stearns until the investment firm was leveled by the Great Recession, then pivoted to punditry and gained a reputation for being wrong about economics basically all of the time. Donald Trump took Malpass on as his 2016 campaigns economic adviser; as president, he appointed Malpass to a Treasury position before naming him head of the World Bank. (The World Bank, one of the biggest institutions to emerge from the postwar Bretton Woods negotiations, is basically understood to be Americas baby; an agreement between the U.S. and Europe ensured that the former would be all but in charge of the World Bank, while the latter would lead the soon-to-be-controversial International Monetary Fund.)

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Back to this weeks happenings. On Tuesday, at a later Times chat, Malpass was asked right up top to address Gores harangue. He may present himself as a climate person, but I dont know the impact thats having, the World Bank head responded. When pressed on whether he buys in to the broad scientific consensus on climate change, Malpass dodged the question before offering a classic response that has been a favorite of climate skeptics for years: Im not a scientist.

Per the Times (which reported on news stemming from one of its own events), World Bank staffers bristled after the remarks and wondered whether Malpass would get pushed out soon. At yet another fireside chat that day, the United States climate envoy, John Kerry, said hes been pushing for months, along with others in the [Biden] administration  to have a major restructuring with respect to the multinational development banks. About as diplomatic a way of saying that guys got to go.

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Soon after climate activists and officials from Germany to France reiterated Gores calls for Malpass ousting, the World Bank leader went on CNN International Thursday to claim hes not a denier, clarifying that he doesnt always do the best job in answering the questions or hearing what the questions are. (Seems like a pretty basic requirement for the globes most influential financier, but OK!) That same day, again per the Times, he sent a memo to his staff stating in part, its clear that greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are causing climate change. Yet the blowback, remarkably, has not abated, both inside and outside the house. Axios reported Friday that the Biden administration is indeed seeking viable ways to expel Malpass, who that same day told a Politico reporter he will not leave his post and that he shouldve said no when the Times asked whether he was a climate denier. He further resolved to accept training from climate scientists to improve his knowledge of the science behind climate change, according to Politico, leaving free the implication that he knows jack all about the centurys most pressing crisis.

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Shortly after Joe Biden took office in 2021, Malpass had gone from speaking cagily on climate change to explicitly incorporating it into his leadership style, speaking to concepts such as green growth and a just transition while also launching a Climate Change Action Plan. Yet environmentalist critics attacked the plan as unambitious and pointed out that the World Bank has not agreed to halt funding of fossil fuel projects. Throughout Bidens term, climate officials have accused the bank of being nontransparent about its loans, deliberately fudging financing labels to make its climate investments seem larger than they really are, and failing to disburse anywhere near enough money to the countries that need it most for mitigating climate effects.

Perhaps part of the reason Malpass has escaped large-scale censure of the kind hes facing now is that World Bank presidents have not historically been the most distinguished bunch; one particularly infamous example is Paul Wolfowitz, the former Iraq war architect who was forced out of bank leadership after just two years following a corruption scandal.

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But now that Malpass has really stepped in it, its worth reflecting on what weve learned here. One: When climate changemagnified disasters are near-weekly occurrences, dithering on the science of it all just doesnt cut it. Two: Its just not acceptable anymore, on the global stage, to publicly profess any form of climate skepticism (though actions are a different matter). Three: If youre the head of a massive international institution and have a somewhat sketchy record on, well, just about everything, maybe dont bring more attention upon yourself by fumbling an interview question about our worlds most urgent issue. Four: Dont piss off Al Gore, who knows a thing or two about dealing with climate deniers. When it comes to Malpass, especially, Gore has a point: Even if he doesnt identify as a climate denier, if you look at his record, he functionally is one. And right now, action is far more important than belief.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
Peed off: Ryanair flight to Spain diverted when drunk passenger urinated on seat



The wild passenger dropped his trousers and urinated in an empty seat aboard a Manchester-Tenerife flight

A busy Ryanair flight from Manchester to Tenerife was forced to divert to the Portuguese island of Porto Santo when a drunk and unruly passenger refused to stay in his seat and ended up urinating.

The pilot had no choice but to make an emergency landing en route to Tenerife when the tipsy tourist ignored crew member instructions since he was too far gone, having hit the airport bar hard when the flight was delayed in the UK.

One passenger described the ordeal: The flight was delayed at Manchester Airport so there was more drinking time.

Usually when you get on a delayed flight, the first thing you hear is the captain and cabin crew welcoming you on board and apologising for the delay.

But straight away the first announcement on the system was anyone found drinking their own alcohol or smoking in the toilets will be dismissed from the plane and if needs be well divert, so they were aware of this passenger straight away.

The guy was just wild. He was very drunk and was up and down out of his seat and was told to sit down loads of times.

Eventually, he wanted to go to the toilet but he was told no, so he stood up and there was an empty seat adjacent to him and he just revealed himself and had a wee on the seat.

Local police were waiting for the rowdy passenger when the plane touched down in Portugal and he was escorted off the aircraft by the officers.

Other travellers praised Ryanairs flight attendants for how well they handled the tricky situation, which is, unfortunately, becoming all too common. Earlier this month it was revealed that a 55-year-old Leeds man was jailed for two months after he assaulted an airport staff member who refused to let him board because he was intoxicated.

Now see: Ryanair flight from Dublin to Portugal winds up in Spain

Image: Archive
Another dose of top 10 Bratislava events. Search for meteorite pieces.

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Last Saturday, September 17, fire fighters in Trencin saved a stag from a canal which is part of the River Vah. The male deer could not jump out of the water due to the steep concrete slope of the riverbed. (Source: TASR)

Slovak praline named one of the worlds best

Chocolatier Zuzana Vargas passion fruit bonbons have been awarded three stars at the Great Taste Awards 2022, becoming one the most delicious pralines in the world.

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Her sour cherry-chocolate ganache bonbons received two stars, just like her chocolate bars with nougat filling. The chocolate spread Zsutella gained a 1-star accolade.

Great Taste, sometimes referred to as the Oscars of the food world, brings together several hundreds of chefs, food writers and other experts to test thousands of food products every year, but only a few hundreds receive one, two or three stars.

Last year, the Slovak Hungarian was awarded one star for her Zsutella for the first time. Her blackcurrant bonbons obtained two stars.

Vargas company and store, Zax, is based in Komarno, a town by the Danube located just a few metres away from the Hungarian border.

Restaurant: Vapiano, a German restaurant franchise firm offering Italian food, should open its first restaurant in Slovakia next Friday, September 30. According to the Startitup website, the restaurant will be located in Bratislavas shopping mall Nivy.

Fashion of the past that continues to wow

The Western Slovakian Museum in Trnava has opened a new exhibition, The Beauty of Folk Clothing, to showcase the tradition of lace making in western Slovakia.

Mens and womens costumes are presented. Their decorativeness is rich not only in embroidery, but also in lace. Lace making is not a technique unique to Slovakia. However, lace making with five archaic bobbins rounded on one end, known as babky in Slovak, is.

The way of this specific lace making was documented only in several villages of western Slovakia, such as Krakovany and Trebatice.

The costumes are on display until January 15.

A lace hat with a pattern typical for the village of Krajne, Trencin Region. (Source: TASR - Martin Palkovic)

Interior design: At the Vtedy Museum in the Jablon Gallery in Prievidza, a faithful copy of a Czechoslovak flat from the seventies can be seen anew by visitors.

GO-TO EVENTS IN BRATISLAVA

Mall: The shopping mall Nivy in Bratislava celebrates its first birthday. Concerts and competitions will be held throughout this weekend in the mall. A farmers market and wine and exotic fruit tasting will also take place at the malls market.

Market: Dobry Trh (Good Market) will be held on September 24 on Jakubovo Square, Panenska Street and the Old Market Hall.

The last edition of Dobry Trh took place in late April 2022. (Source: TASR - Michal Svitok)

Classical music: Bratislava Music Festival, a festival of classical music, starts on Friday, September 23. The event will run until early October.

Foreigners: The [fjuzn] festival, which brings the stories of foreigners in Slovakia to the fore, runs until September 25.

For more events that will take place in the coming days, check out the latest Top 10 events in Bratislava for foreigners.

Other developments from this week

Meteorite: In June, a meteor was spotted in southwestern Slovakia. Pieces of the meteorite are expected to be found in and near Puste Ulany, Trnava Region, Comenius University scientists have said. The first piece, weighing 8.6 g, has been found by Mateusz Zmija, an astronomy enthusiast from Poland. Scientists have noted the pieces found in Slovakia are the property of the state and people should hand them over to local authorities or scientists. A photo taken in Veseli nad Moravou, Czechia, captures a bolide 28 km above the ground. (Source: Czech Institute of Astronomy)

In June, a meteor was spotted in southwestern Slovakia. Pieces of the meteorite are expected to be found in and near Puste Ulany, Trnava Region, Comenius University scientists have said. The first piece, weighing 8.6 g, has been found by Mateusz Zmija, an astronomy enthusiast from Poland. Scientists have noted the pieces found in Slovakia are the property of the state and people should hand them over to local authorities or scientists. Environment: The town of Stupava, Bratislava Region, has opened a new eco centre to educate people about the environment and its protection.

The town of Stupava, Bratislava Region, has opened a new eco centre to educate people about the environment and its protection. Archaeology: Archaeologists researching a Stone Age settlement in Vrable, Nitra Region, have unearthed the remains of three dozen people who may have been killed in cult ceremonies.

Thats it for this week. Have a restful weekend. - Peter

Do you have any tips? You can reach Peter at peter.dlhopolec@spectator.sk
He has tracked down Roger Maris with homer No. 61, and New York Yankees star Aaron Judge is still chasing a Triple Crown.

The hallowed baseball achievement is reached when a hitter leads his league, AL or NL, in batting average, home runs and RBIs in the same season. Detroit Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera won MLB's last Triple Crown in 2012, breaking a decades-long drought that had stretched since Carl Yastrzemski did it for the Boston Red Sox in 1967.

For much of the summer, the preeminent 2022 Triple Crown threat appeared to be St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. But just as Goldschmidt has fallen off the homer pace in the NL, Judge has ramped up his assault on the batting average leaderboard in the AL. Since mentioning a goal of hitting .300 in July, citing Cabrera's greatness, Judge has gone supernova. He's batting .371 since the All-Star break, by far the best among qualified MLB hitters. That has lifted his overall average from .284 to a peak of .317 this week.

With his home run and RBI leads looking insurmountable, Judge is basically racing a handful of AL stars for the batting title to determine whether he will add the Triple Crown to what will surely be a ridiculous list of honors in 2022.

So, with just over a dozen games remaining, we'll monitor his pursuit here at the end of each night.

Aaron Judge is closing this regular season in spectacular fashion for the AL East-leading Yankees. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Is Aaron Judge in line for the Triple Crown?

Saturday, Oct. 1: NO. Judge went 0-for-2 with two walks and a hit by pitch as the Orioles pitched around him. That aided a Yankees victory, but didn't help him make up ground on Twins' contact-hitting extraordinaire Luis Arraez for the batting title.

Here's how the full leaderboards look now.

Friday, Sept. 30: NO. A 1-for-4 night off Baltimore Orioles starter Jordan Lyles didn't help Judge. He's still a tick behind Arraez.

Thursday, Sept. 29: NO. Arraez went 2-for-4 on Thursday night, while the Yankees were off, to reclaim the lead in the race for the batting title. He's now at .315. Judge will begin the series against the Orioles at .313.

Story continues

Wednesday, Sept. 28: YES ... by the slimmest of margins.

We're going extra decimal places to determine the AL batting average leader at this point. Judge is clinging to a tiny advantage over Arraez.

Live look at the AL batting race:



Judge - .313406 (1-for-4 today)

Arraez - .313321 (2-for-5 today)  Do-Hyoung Park (@dohyoungpark) September 29, 2022

Tuesday, Sept. 27: YES. Judge is beginning to get a version of the Barry Bonds treatment. He walked four times in the Yankees' division-clinching win over Toronto. He remains a smidgeon ahead of the AL competition in the race for the batting title (and miles ahead in homers and RBIs).

1. Aaron Judge, .314

2. Luis Arraez, .313

3. Xander Bogaerts, .310

Monday, Sept. 26: YES. Every game where Judge doesn't hit homer No. 61 feels like a letdown now, but he maintained his lead in the batting title race with a 1-for-3 evening against the Blue Jays that included two walks. He's sitting at .314, with Luis Arraez now a hair ahead of Xander Bogaerts in second at .313.

Sunday, Sept. 25: YES. As the Yankees took a rain-shortened series finale from the Red Sox, Judge inched back ahead of Xander Bogaerts for the batting lead with a 1-for-2 night that included a double and a walk.

The margin? Well, it's found in decimal points not usually displayed in a batting average.

Judge .31433

Bogaerts .31379



See you in Toronto.  Pete Caldera (@pcaldera) September 26, 2022

By normal rounding, Judge and Bogaerts both sit at .314, but the man with 60 homers is slightly ahead. Twins infielder Luis Arraez is in third at .313.

Saturday, Sept. 24: NO. For the first time since summiting the batting average leaderboard, Judge fell behind with a frustrating 0-for-4 against the Boston Red Sox Saturday. Overtaking him? Xander Bogaerts, the Red Sox shortstop who went 2-for-5 to raise his average to .315. Judge is sitting at .314. Twins infielder Arraez could also have something to say about that leaderboard when Minnesota takes the field later.

Friday, Sept. 23: YES. But it's even closer. Judge again went homerless in a 1-for-4 night against the Red Sox. That knocked down his batting average down just a smidge, bringing him even closer to Xander Bogaerts, who was off for the game.

Where the batting average stands:

Aaron Judge: .31540 Xander Bogaerts: .31358 Luis Arraez: .31274

Thursday, Sept. 22: YES. But it's still close. Judge posted his first hitless game since Sept. 7, but it's not like the Red Sox gave him many chances. Judge went 0-for-2 with three walks and a strikeout. It looked like he had reached 61 homers on his final at-bat until the ball fell just short of the center field wall, to the surprise of Yankee Stadium.

Fortunately for the Judge partisans, Boston Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts's batting average fell even further on an 0-for-5 night. Here's how the batting average leaderboard now sits:

Aaron Judge: .31589 Xander Bogaerts: .31358 Luis Arraez: .31262

This one's going down to the wire.

Here's how the leaderboards look now.

Wednesday, Sept. 21: YES. Judge's closest competition now is Boston Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts. After strong nights for both, Judge is ahead by the slimmest of margins. The leaderboards will show them both at .317, but Judge's average is a touch higher if you go further down the decimals.

Aaron Judge: 169x533 (.3170).



Xander Bogaerts 164x518 (.3166).



Not that the Triple Crown will necessarily be decided, but it's going to be an interesting four days in the Bronx.  Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) September 22, 2022

Making this all more interesting? The Yankees and Red Sox begin a four-game series on Thursday in the Bronx.

Tuesday, Sept. 20: YES. On the same night he crushed home run No. 60  and sparked a game-winning rally  Judge moved into the lead for the AL batting title for the first time. He started the evening behind Luis Arrarez and Xander Bogaerts before pulling ahead thanks to his ninth-inning blast.
https://sputniknews.com/20220922/another-social-media-giant-is-making-its-play-for-the-metaverse-future-1101108436.html

Another Social Media Giant is Making its Play for the Metaverse Future

Another Social Media Giant is Making its Play for the Metaverse Future

ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, purchased the Chinese VR manufacturer Pico in 2021. Focused on enterprise headsets and the Chinese consumer market, it... 22.09.2022, Sputnik International

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ByteDance, the company that owns popular social video sharing app TikTok, announced a new virtual reality headset on Thursday, giving Meta* its first real competition in the VR space since it took over the market with the Oculus Quest stand-alone headset in 2019.Pico has been making stand-alone headsets for even longer than Meta has, but they previously either lacked features to compete with Metas offerings or were focused on the enterprise market. They also avoided selling them in the West until recently.That changed in May with the launch of the Pico Neo 3 Link, which was essentially a clone of the Meta Quest 2, with a similar price point and feature set. It was also their first foray out of Asia, with the headset being sold in Europe for the first time. Their new headset, the Pico 4, was announced in a video stream and press release on Thursday and goes one step further by beating the Meta Quest 2 on paper in terms of specs and features while keeping the price point lower.The Pico 4 will be released on October 18th in 13 European territories, along with Japan and South Korea. A Singapore and Malaysia launch is expected later this year, and its release in China will be announced on September 27. The device will launch with two variants in Europe, a 128GB model for 429 and a 256GB model for 499. The Quest 2 starts at 449 in Europe, with its 256GB model coming in at 549. No US release has been announced, though a job posting at Pico and FCC regulatory filings indicate that it may happen eventually.The most striking change from the Neo 3 Link and Meta Quest 2 is the much slimmer design. The Pico 4 uses pancake lenses and moves the battery to the back of the users head, resulting in a much slimmer (35.8mm thick at its thinnest part), lighter, and balanced headset. The Pico 4 will weigh a mere 295 grams without the strap, with Pico comparing it to the weight of a soda can. The Quest 2 weighs 503 grams without its strap.Most headsets use older fresnel style lenses and keep the battery on the front of the head behind the display. Not only will the new design be lighter and more comfortable, separating the battery from the rest of the headset should result in cooler running temperatures for the CPU.The display is also getting an upgrade, increasing to a per-eye resolution of 2160 x 2160, compared to the Quest 2s 1832 x 1920. Pico also claims that the field of view of the headset has been increased, jumping to 105 compared to just 89 with the Quest 2.While both the Meta Quest 2 and the Pico 4, along with the Pico 3 and Metas upcoming Quest Pro, all use the same Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chipset, ByteDance is increasing the RAM of the Pico 4 to 8GB (Quest 2 and the Pico Neo 3 have 6GB of RAM).The controllers are also getting an upgrade, moving the tracking ring down and over the hands of the user, which should allow the user to move their hands closer together without tracking interference. The design is reminiscent of the newly revealed Playstation VR2 controllers. Along those same lines, Pico says it upgraded the vibration feedback of the controllers to allow more precise emulation of physical actions. Whether the controllers will match those seen in the far more expensive Playstation VR2 system remains to be seen.Finally, the Pico 4 will also include motorized and more precise interpupillary distance (IPD) adjustment, supporting eye distances of 62 - 72mm. That may not seem like a big deal, but if a VR headsets lenses are not lined up with the users eyes, it can cause double vision and intense nausea. The Quest 2 has only three IPD adjustment levels, and while it is close enough for most people, those with abnormal eye distances were essentially unable to use the headset. The Pico 4 IPD system should open up the hardware to more people.ByteDance also announced the Pico 4 Pro at the same event, though details are scarce on that device. It will include face and eye tracking, which should increase the price significantly. Metas Quest Pro, like the Pico 4 Pro, will also include pancake lenses and face and eye tracking, but that device is expected to cost well-over $800, according to a Meta insider. It will be interesting to see how the Pico 4 Pro compares price-wise when it is revealed, possibly at the Chinese Pico event later this month.Meta has been dominating the VR space since the release of the original Quest in 2019. That was the first consumer standalone headset to include inside-out tracking, six degrees of freedom (6DoF) for both the headset and controllers and came in under $500. The Quest 2 was released in 2020 and initially launched for $300 (Meta increased the price this year, raising the cheapest model to $400).As of July, it was estimated that Meta had sold just under 15 million Quest 2 headsets, making it by far the most popular consumer headset of all time. It shifted the VR industry from one focused on headsets tethered to a PC to standalone devices like the Quest. Meta has had virtually no competition since, especially in the West.This was in large part because Meta sold the Quest 2 with a huge subsidy, losing money on every headset sold. While Meta certainly hopes that software sales will offset that, it was also designed to grab as much market share as possible in an industry that was still growing. No other VR companies could hope to compete with the price of the Quest 2, because few could afford to sell at a loss.ByteDance is the first VR competitor of Meta that has the financial backing and desire to compete with the social media giant on an even playing field. If the Pico Neo 3 Link was the first shot in the Metaverse war, then the Pico 4 and 4 Pro is the first real battle. Meta has the first mover advantage, but it is now facing a well-funded, fast-moving competitor that, as Meta has with Facebook, has an in-built advertising platform through a major social media platform.If the metaverse is set to be an internet-level change to how we work and live, as VR industry proponents say, this battle could set the stage for how we interact with it and who builds it.*Meta is a company banned in Russia

https://sputniknews.com/20220503/new-tech-advancement-could-pave-way-for-worlds-first-vr-kissing-booth-says-media-1095237889.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220922/klyushins-lawyers-find-contradictions-in-testimony-of-fbi-agent---defense-team-1101108009.html

Klyushins Lawyers Find Contradictions in Testimony of FBI Agent - Defense Team

Klyushins Lawyers Find Contradictions in Testimony of FBI Agent - Defense Team

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The defense team of Russian national Vladislav Klyushin, who is accused in the United States of committing economic crimes, has found... 22.09.2022, Sputnik International

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"Vladislav Klyushin's defense insists on holding a hearing on errors and omissions in the affidavit of FBI Special Agent Kang, which was used to obtain search warrants for access to Klyushin's electronic data, and the exclusion of insider trading from the charges," the representative said.The corresponding petitions were filed by the lawyers of the Russian businessman in a federal court in Massachusetts.According to the representative, FBI special agent B.J. Kang unreasonably obtained a search warrant for Klyushin, relying only on the possible similarity of the transactions of another defendant in the case.According to him, the FBI agent did not have enough evidence to request access to all the data in Klyushin's iCloud and Google accounts but simply used numerous conjectures. At the same time, Kang had previously been caught in distorting facts and evidence in another high-profile case against businessman Raj Rajaratnam, the representative added.A motion to drop the insider trading charge against Klyushin could become a high-profile court precedent. According to the arguments of the defense, Klyushin can only be accused of allegedly "hacking" corporate networks, but not of insider trading in securities. A positive decision on this petition could set a precedent in the state of Massachusetts, which will inevitably lead to changes in the law, writing the name of the judge in the state's judicial history.The next motion review meeting will be held on October 31, with a pre-main hearing scheduled for January 5, 2023. The main hearing in the form of a final meeting with the participation of the jury will take place on January 30.

https://sputniknews.com/20220914/russian-citizen-klyushins-defense-to-file-motions-in-us-court-postponing-trial---lawyer-1100786629.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220922/tanzania-mozambique-pen-deal-for-joint-security-defense-cooperation-amid-daesh-aligned-insurgency-1101109688.html

Tanzania, Mozambique Pen Deal for Joint Security, Defense Cooperation Amid Daesh-Aligned Insurgency

Tanzania, Mozambique Pen Deal for Joint Security, Defense Cooperation Amid Daesh-Aligned Insurgency

At a meeting in the Mozambican capital of Maputo on Thursday, Presidents Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania and Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique agreed to two memoranda... 22.09.2022, Sputnik International

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One MoU provides for cooperation on peace and security, while the other covers defense cooperation, according to AFP. They were signed by defense ministers Stergomena Tax of Tanzania and Cristovao Chume of Mozambique.At its height, Al-Shabab controlled much of the province, including the port city of Mocimboa da Praia, and raided the major city of Palma in April 2021. However, the group has also launched cross-border raids, attacking Tanzanias port of Mtwara, a major oil and gas export hub just north of Cabo Delgado.Al-Shabab has since been routed from Cabo Delgado, but retreated to the interior of the continent, where it has regrouped. The war has killed roughly 3,000 people and displaced more than 800,000. It has also created a food crisis in the impoverished region, which has created opportunities for corruption, including authorities coercing needy women into sex in exchange for food aid.Repairing Bilateral TradeThe situation has caused cross-border trade to steadily dwindle, declining from 53 billion Tanzanian shillings ($22.84 million) in 2020 to 46 billion ($19.82 million) in 2021, according to The East African.However, according to a June report by Turkeys Anadolu Agency,  informal business through porous border routes goes on unabated in some areas thanks to strong networks and relationships that persist without the knowledge of the authorities.That is why Suhulu and Nyusi also penned deals on Thursday to enhance trade and investment, energy, tourism, and education, including beginning the teaching of Swahili in Mozambican schools. The language is spoken across East Africa and is an official language in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, while being recognized as a minority language in Mozambique, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.The deals follow discussions about enhancing cooperation at the 15th Joint Permanent Commission on Cooperation (JPCC) between Tanzania and Mozambique last month.*Al-Shabab, Daesh (IS/ISIL/ISIS) - terrorist groups banned in Russia and many other countries.

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https://sputniknews.com/20220922/united-states-secretary-sanctions-iranian-police-amid-mahsa-amini-outrage-and-protests-1101108253.html

United States Secretary Sanctions Iranian Police Amid Mahsa Amini Outrage and Protests

United States Secretary Sanctions Iranian Police Amid Mahsa Amini Outrage and Protests

Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, died while in the custody of the Islamic republics morality police last week after she allegedly broke hijab rules. In... 22.09.2022, Sputnik International

2022-09-22T22:27+0000

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Protests ignited across Tehran after news broke of a 22-year-olds brutal death at the hands of Irans morality police after she allegedly broke conservative dress codes relating to her hijab. Amini died on Friday in northern Tehran after being arrested on Tuesday and taken to hospital shortly thereafter. She suffered multiple blows to the head, one source reported, leaving her brain dead.On Thursday, the U.S. Department of the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued sanctions against Irans notorious morality police and seven senior security officials within the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), the Armys Ground Forces, Basij Resistance Forces, and Law Enforcement Forces, for what theyre labeling as abuse and violence against Iranian protestors and for the death of Amini.Todays action to sanction Irans Morality Police and senior Iranian security officials responsible for this oppression demonstrates the Biden-Harris Administrations clear commitment to stand up for human rights, and the rights of women, in Iran and globally, Yellen added.The statement adds that the sanctions imposed on Irans military police and senior security officials is in accordance with Executive Order 13553, which first came into effect under former President Barack Obamas administration in 2010, and blocks the property of certain people with respect to serious human rights abuses by the government of Iran and taking certain other actions.Protests have broken out across cities and towns in Iran, with protestors chanting Death to the Dictator and damaging police vehicles. On Thursday, it was reported by the Associated Press that at least nine people had been killed during the protests, though that number is estimated to be higher. Internet watchdog Netblocks said on Wednesday evening that mobile networks were shut down in the country amid the protests, with disruptions to Instagram and WhatsApp occurring, and that Irans biggest telecom operator shut down a majority of mobile internet access again on Thursday.During a United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Aminis death would be investigated but also claimed that her death was not caused by police abuse.

https://sputniknews.com/20220920/iran-to-start-getting-9mln-cubic-meters-of-gas-daily-from-russia-via-azerbaijan-reports-say-1100992642.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/1101144721.html

Tens of Thousands Rally Across Russia in Support of Referendums in Donbass, Zaporozhye and Kherson

Tens of Thousands Rally Across Russia in Support of Referendums in Donbass, Zaporozhye and Kherson

The Donbass republics, as well as the liberated territories of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, are holding referendums on joining Russia on September... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

2022-09-23T15:41+0000

2022-09-23T15:41+0000

2022-09-23T15:46+0000

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Tens of thousands of people are rallying across Russia on September 23 in support of the ongoing referendums in the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, as well as the liberated territories of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.People in the Donbass republics as well as the two regions are voting on whether to join Russia. The votes are being held on September 23-27.Residents of Moscow are also taking part in a concert called "We Don't Abandon Our Own," which is dedicated to the people living in Donbass and the liberated areas of Ukraine.

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ANKARA, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police detained seven suspected foreign members of the Islamic State (IS) in the southern province of Adana, the local Demiroren News Agency reported on Friday.

The police found out that the suspects, who were involved in IS activities in Syria and Iraq, entered Turkiye illegally and then lived in Adana, according to the report.

The Turkish government designated the IS a terrorist organization in 2013, blaming it for a spate of deadly attacks in the country since 2015.

Turkiye's southern border with Syria has been a major crossing point for Syrians and foreign fighters since a civil war broke out in Syria in 2011.

In 2016, Turkiye launched its first cross-border operation in northern Syria, dubbed Operation Euphrates Shield, to eliminate the IS militants around the Jarablus and Azaz region. 
https://sputniknews.com/20220923/a-look-at-history-of-dpr-lpr-kherson--zaporozhye-regions-1101118920.html

A Look at History of DPR, LPR, Kherson & Zaporozhye Regions

A Look at History of DPR, LPR, Kherson & Zaporozhye Regions

The Donetsk and Lugansk Peoples Republics, which proclaimed their independence from Ukraine in 2014, announced their plans to hold referendums to join Russia... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

2022-09-23T11:46+0000

2022-09-23T11:46+0000

2022-09-23T14:27+0000

donbass, kherson & zaporozhye referendums to join russia

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Referendums on accession to Russia in the Donetsk and Lugansk Peoples Republics (DPR and LPR), as well as Russian-controlled parts of the regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye are to be held from 23 to 27 September.On 21 February, Russia formally recognized the DPR and LPR as independent states. Russian president Vladimir Putin announced the start of a special military operation in Ukraine on 24 February in response to calls for help from the two breakaway republics, whose predominantly Russian-speaking population faced intensifying attacks on the part of Kiev. The nationalist regime that came to power on the back of a West-backed coup in 2014 had killed thousands of civilians over the course of eight years, with all attempts to resolve the conflict peacefully, promoted by Russia, foiled by Ukrainian officials.During the course of the operation, significant areas of the DPR and the entire territory of the LPR were liberated. Russian forces also took control of the Kherson region and the Azov part of the Zaporozhye region, with new administrations established in both regions. Since then, Russian TV channels and radio stations have begun broadcasting there, and trade and transport links with Crimea are being restored.The DPR and LPR announced their plans on 20 September to hold referendums simultaneously to join Russia after the requests from their civic councils. The Russian-controlled parts of the regions of Zaporozhye and Kherson also announced plans to hold similar referendums, hoping that the initiative would result in securing the territories of the region, opening new opportunities for a return to a fully fledged peaceful life.According to Volodymyr Rogov, a member of Zaporozhye region's civic council, the area of the liberated territories where the referendums will be held is about 113,000 square kilometers. After the accession referendums held by the LPR, DPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, the population of Russia could potentially increase by five to six million people.Here is a detailed look at the areas, which are determining their future.Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR)The Donetsk People's Republic (within the borders of the Donetsk region) is in the south of the East European Plain. Washed by the Sea of Azov from the south, it shares borders with Ukraine (Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporozhye and Kharkov regions), Russia and the Lugansk People's Republic.The region's area (within the borders of the Donetsk region) is 26,500 square kilometers. According to the DPR's main department of statistics, as of 1 March 2022, the population is estimated to be about 2,198,000. The DPR is a presidential republic, with Donetsk, Makeevka and Gorlovka its three largest cities.The city of Donetsk grew from a mining settlement in the early 1860s. It received city status in May 1917, and at the end of that year, Soviet power was established in the city during the revolution.From January / February - March 1918, Donetsk was part of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). At the second All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets between 17 and 19 March 1918, it was incorporated within the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. After the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty on 3 March 1918, between the new Bolshevik government of Russia and the Central Powers (German Empire, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire), that ended Russia's participation in the First World War, Donetsk was occupied by German troops at the end of April 1918. Until the end of 1918, the city remained part of the Ukrainian state of Cossack commander; or "Hetman", Pavlo Skoropadsky. In December 1919, during an offensive launched by the Red Army, Soviet power was restored in Donetsk.From the end of the 19th century, the region experienced an industrial boom, with metallurgical and machine-building plants, railways, and mines built. On 2 July 1932, the Donetsk region was formed as part of the Ukrainian SSR. On 3 June 1938, it was split into the Stalin and Voroshilovgrad (now Lugansk) regions.During the Second World War (The Great Patriotic War), on 20 October 1941, Donetsk was occupied by German troops and 92,000 people are estimated to have died in the three concentration camps set up by the fascists in the city and surrounding areas. On 8 September 1943, Donetsk was liberated by Soviet troops during the Donbass offensive operation.After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the territory that is now the Donetsk Peoples Republic found itself a part of Ukraine.However, in 2014, protests began to erupt in the south-eastern regions as people became increasingly dissatisfied with the new leadership of Ukraine, after then-President Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown in a coup d'etat orchestrated by Washington and Brussels, giving rise to the Ukrainian crisis and sparking a civil war in Donbass.On 13 April 2014, acting president of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov announced a "large-scale anti-terrorist operation" involving the army against the predominantly Russian-speaking south-eastern regions.On 11 May 2014, a referendum on secession was held in the Donetsk region amid fears that new nationalist politicians would stop them speaking the Russian language freely. On 12 May, on the basis of the declaration of sovereignty of 7 April, DPR proclaimed its independence. Besides Russia, the independence of the DPR was recognized by the Lugansk People's Republic, the Republic of Abkhazia, the Republic of South Ossetia, North Korea and Syria.Since 24 February 2022, most of the DPR within its administrative boundaries, including the large port city of Mariupol, has been liberated from forces of the Kiev regime.Throughout its history as a part of Ukraine, the economy of the Donetsk region was predominantly focused on metallurgy, mechanical engineering, chemical and coal industries, electric power, food and light industries.The DPR has deposits of coal; rock salt; limestones and dolomites; refractory and ceramic clays; kaolin; mercury; asbestos; gypsum; chalk; building and facing stone.In 2020, the basis of the DPR economy was metallurgy (36 percent) and electricity generation (27 percent). The food industry accounted for 12 percent, resource extraction, 9 percent. According to the DPR Ministry of Industry and Trade, the republic's economy is export-oriented, with its enterprises exporting pig iron, rod iron, rolled steel, coke, pipes, cable and wire. Among the main enterprises are the Yenakievsky Metallurgical Plant, the Makeevka Metallurgical Plant, and the Yasinovatsky Coke and Chemical Plant.Lugansk Peoples Republic (LPR)The Lugansk People's Republic (within the borders of the Lugansk region) is to the south of the East European Plain, bordering on Ukraine (Kharkov region), Russia and the DPR. The area of the territory is 26,700 square kilometers and the population (as of 1 May 2022, according to the state statistics committee of the LPR) is about 1,390,000 people. The republics largest cities are Lugansk, Krasny Luch, Alchevsk.The city of Lugansk was founded in 1795/6 as a settlement at the Lugansk iron works, being built by decree of Empress Catherine II. The enterprise was created to provide the Black Sea Fleet and coastal fortresses with guns and shells.In 1882, the Lugansk Plant was merged with the village of Kamenny Brod into the city of Lugansk - the center of the Slavyanoserbsky district of the Yekaterinoslav province (1882 to 1920).On 8 November 1917, Soviet power was established in Lugansk. During the revolution and the Civil War (1917 to 1922) in April to November 1918, the city was occupied by German and Austrian troops. On 24 December 1919, units of the Red Army finally liberated the city. Over the years, Lugansk has been an administrative, county and district center of the Donetsk province, subsequently the Donetsk region of the Ukrainian SSR.The Lugansk region was formed on 3 June 1938 as the Voroshilovgrad region, after it was separated from the Donetsk region. In 1958 it was renamed Lugansk.During the Second World War, on 17 July 1942, Lugansk was occupied by German troops. It was liberated on 14 February 1943 during the Voroshilovgrad offensive operation. After the collapse of the USSR, the territory of what is now the Lugansk Peoples Republic became part of Ukraine.In 2014 the actions of the new leadership of Ukraine stirred the same sentiments across Lugansk territory as in that of the Donetsk region, with protests erupting in the south-eastern regions of the country. On 11 May 2014, a referendum on self-determination was held in the Lugansk region, and independence was proclaimed on 12 May 2014.As a result of the Russian special operation launched on 24 February, the entire territory of the republic within its administrative boundaries was liberated.The industrial potential of the Lugansk Peoples Republic hinges on heavy industry branches, such as mechanical engineering, chemical, petrochemical, food, woodworking, textile and building materials industries.In 2021, 73 percent of LPR exports were metallurgical products, with Krasnodonugol, Rovenkianthracite, and Alchevsk Metallurgical Plant some of the leading enterprises.Kherson RegionKherson region, located in the steppe zone, shares a border in the north with the Dnepropetrovsk region of Ukraine, with the Crimean peninsula in the south, the Zaporozhye region in the east, and the Nikolayev region of Ukraine in the west.The total area is 28,500 square kilometers.The territory is divided by the lower reaches of the Dnieper River into two parts - right-bank and left-bank. The Kherson region has access to the Sea of Azov from the south-east and to the Black Sea from the south-west. The Black Sea ports are Kherson and Skadovsk.Kherson, New Kakhovka and Kakhovka are some of the areas largest cities.Empress Catherine II decided to found the city of Kherson on 29 June 1778, on the site of a fortification built by Russian troops during the Russian-Turkish war (1735 to 1739). In 1785 to 1794, the administration of the Black Sea Fleet was located in Kherson (in 1794 it was transferred to Nikolaev along with military shipbuilding).After the revolution, from November 1917 to January 1918, the city was under the control of the authorities of the Ukrainian People's Republic. Soviet power was established at the end of January 1918. During the Civil War of 1917 to 1922, on 9 to 10 March 1919, Kherson was captured by the detachments of Ataman Nikolai Grigoriev. On 3 February 1920, it was taken over by units of the Red Army.Kherson was a county town of Kherson (1920), Nikolaev (1920 to 1922) and Odessa (1922 to 1923) provinces of the Ukrainian SSR. Subsequently, Kherson became the district center of the Nikolaev (1937 to 1944) region of the Ukrainian SSR. During the Great Patriotic War, Kherson was occupied by German troops on 19 September 1941. It was liberated by Soviet troops on 13 March 1944.The Kherson region was formed on 30 March 1944 by a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR "On the formation of the Kherson region as part of the Ukrainian SSR".In pre-revolutionary times, the territory was a typical agrarian region, with industry represented mainly by processing of agricultural raw materials, small shipbuilding and the production of agricultural implements. During the socialist years, Kherson region developed into both an industrial and agrarian region, boasting highly developed machine building, oil refining, light and food industries. The region was provided with electricity by the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station and the Kherson thermal power plant.In the course of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, Russian troops took control of the Kherson region.Zaporozhye RegionZaporozhye region shares borders with the regions of Kherson, Dnepropetrovsk, and Donetsk, occupying a territory of 27,200 square kilometers. It is divided into three natural and agricultural zones: the steppe zone (50.8 percent), arid steppe (34.8 percent) and dry steppe (14.4 percent).The southern borders of the region are washed by the Sea of Azov, the coastline of which exceeds 300km within the boundaries of the region.The large cities of the region are Zaporozhye, Melitopol, Berdyansk, Tokmak and Energodar.The history of Zaporozhye dates back to the 18th century. In 1768, Russian Empress Catherine II launched a war against the Ottoman Empire and in 1770 and decided to build the so-called Dnieper defensive line. Seven fortresses from the Dnieper rapids to the Sea of Azov were to offer protection against attacks of the Crimean Tatars.The northernmost and largest fortress, Aleksandrovskaya, was named in honor of the commander of the First Russian army, Alexander Golitsyn.After the construction in 1873 of a branch of the railway to Yekaterinoslav (now Dnieper), and then to Sevastopol, Aleksandrovsk became a hub for the transit of grain through Odessa to Europe.In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Aleksandrovsk became a center of mechanical engineering.During the Civil War (1917 to 1922) in April to November 1918 Aleksandrovsk was occupied by German and Austrian troops. The city changed hands successively, and in 1919 to 1920 was captured several times by detachments of Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary Nestor Makhno.In January 1920, Aleksandrovsk was taken over by units of the Red Army and by 1921 was renamed Zaporozhye. In 1921 to 1922 it became the center of the Zaporozhye province of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1939, the city became the center of the newly formed Zaporozhye region.After the construction in 1927 to 1932 of the DneproGES, the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station, the largest hydroelectric power station on the Dnieper river, Zaporozhye became one of the largest centers of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy and energy in the USSR.With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the enterprises of the city switched to military production. In 1941 to 1943 the city was occupied by the German army. During the occupation, more than 44,000 residents died and all industrial buildings were destroyed. The city was liberated from fascists by Soviet troops in 1943. Since 1991, after the dissolution of the USSR, Zaporozhye has been a region of Ukraine.Zaporozhye region is one of the largest producers of agricultural products and food industry products. At least 12 percent of wheat and 16 percent of Ukrainian barley have been cultivated in this region, rich in chernozem, or black soil, containing a high percentage of humus.Ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, mechanical engineering, energy, chemical and petrochemical, food and light industries, agriculture, and pharmaceutical production are developed in the region. More than 160 large industrial enterprises operate here, including the steel and iron producer Zaporozhstal. The region also produces about 25 percent of Ukraines electricity.The Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is located in the city of Energodar. Zaporozhye NPP was built in the Eighties. Since the commissioning of the sixth power unit in 1996, the NPP is the largest in Europe and third-largest in the world.The NPP has come under shelling by Kiev's troops for almost two months, despite calls from Moscow to stop to avert a nuclear disaster. Kiev shelled the facility in a bid to provoke a retaliation and pin the blame on Russia.A recent IAEA report on the situation at the Zaporozhye NPP called on shelling of the facility to end because of international concerns over a possible nuclear accident.During the military operation in Ukraine, launched by Moscow on 24 February, the nuclear plant and surrounding area fell under the control of Russian forces. The Russian military also claimed control of the Azov part of the Zaporozhye region, which accounts for more than 70 percent of this region's territory.

https://sputniknews.com/20220923/live-updates-dpr-lpr-zaporozhye-kherson-regions-hold-referendums-on-joining-russia--1101112395.html

https://sputniknews.com/20220724/ukrainian-troops-target-donetsk-using-grad-rockets---dpr-mission-to-jccc-1097733210.html

https://sputniknews.com/20220714/watch-lugansk-peoples-militia-shows-off-heavily-damaged-british-made-m777-howitzer-1097316422.html

https://sputniknews.com/20220923/key-aspects-of-referendums-in-dpr-lpr-kherson-and-zaporozhye-1101113821.html

https://sputniknews.com/20220922/observers-nato-complicit-in-ukraine-crisis-referendums-to-shield-donbass-kherson--zaporozhye-1101094434.html

https://sputniknews.com/20220919/russian-fm-lavrov-discusses-security-at-zaporozhye-npp-with-his-french-counterpart-colonna-1100974207.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/afrocom-chair-door-to-africa-is-open-russia-should-build-on-this-momentum-1101126498.html

AFROCOM Chair: Door to Africa is Open, Russia Should Build on This Momentum

AFROCOM Chair: Door to Africa is Open, Russia Should Build on This Momentum

On September 22, the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry and AFROCOM held a conference titled "Prospects of Russian-African Cooperation" aimed at... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

2022-09-23T11:19+0000

2022-09-23T11:19+0000

2022-09-23T11:21+0000

africa

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"The door to Africa is open for Russian business," says Igor Morozov, chairman of AFROCOM. "There are opportunities that are not available on any other continent. Africa today is waiting for Russians, waiting for Russian regional businesses, which have already risen and are competitive. Russian businesses can acquire highly profitable positions now by coming to Africa. But only when they are still waiting for us. In five or seven years, we will be fighting so hard for Africa. And it won't be easy."Russia is returning to Africa, seeking to revive and expand partnerships with the continents players. During his Africa tour in July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made it clear that the new foreign policy guidelines developed by the Kremlin envisage enhancing ties between Russia and African countries regardless of the actions that Western nations take. During the five-leg Africa trip, the top Russian diplomat visited Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda, and the Republic of the Congo to discuss cooperation, regional issues, global food crisis and the preparation for the second Russia-Africa summit in mid-2023."Given the current situation and the current activities undertaken by the West, objectively the role of the African continent will grow in our work," Lavrov stated during a joint presser with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on July 26.Russia has a long record of cooperation with the continent. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union forged close relationships with many African nations by supporting the continent's de-colonization efforts and national liberation movements.Currently, Moscow maintains ties with a plethora of African states in terms of security, trade, cultural exchanges, education, and health. In light of this, AFROCOM  Coordination Committee on Economic Cooperation with African Countries  has become a bridge between Russian businesses and African countries and a platform for restoring active economic cooperation with the continent.Thursday's gathering in St. Petersburg dedicated to the prospects of Russian-African cooperation included such issues as development of Russian-African economic ties amid global geopolitical changes; African markets, with Nigeria being seen as a "window to Africa"; and bringing Russia's medical products to the African market, to name but a few.Russian Africa experts interviewed by Sputnik unanimously agree that Russia has a lot to offer to the continent. They noted that in addition to deliveries of food, fertilizers, medicines, and raw materials, Moscow could share its unique expertise in building nuclear and hydroelectric power stations, railways, infrastructure projects, IT hardware and software, automation of management processes, secure networks, etc. Last but not least, Russia could provide security assistance and military instructors, they said.The West is voicing concerns about Russia's growing influence in Africa, which has manifested itself, in particular, in the refusal of many African delegations to condemn Moscow's special military operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine, and Africa's recent unwillingness to echo the US' Ukraine crisis narrative at the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.Still, the EU and the US are far from losing their grip on the continent: they have become more active in Africa, trying to throw a wrench into Russia's plans to strengthen its positions there."Today, we are losing in almost all positions," says Morozov. "And this is despite the fact that Africa is huge, not only with regard to the consumer, but also the technological market that can accept everything that Russian entrepreneurs can deliver to African regions. But Europeans and Americans have already built a defense system against Russia over there. Look at the complex fortification procedure that Russian businessmen have to go through for any position inside Africa. Look at all the difficulties created by administrative barriers where the Europeans and the West in general have already gained a foothold."To complicate matters further, China has also emerged as Russia's worthy competitor in the region:"We see how actively and practically aggressively China is taking over infrastructure projects. There is also not much free space," the AFROCOM chair admits.Nonetheless, these circumstances shouldn't dishearten Russian businesses and project-managers, since "the leaders of African countries want to diversify their risks," Morozov underscores.

https://sputniknews.com/20220726/lavrov-russia-would-enhance-presence-in-africa-regardless-of-wests-actions-1097813564.html

https://sputniknews.com/20220912/energy-experts-russia-could-be-instrumental-in-building-central-african-oil--gas-pipelines-1100691562.html

https://sputniknews.com/20220920/why-nigerien-protesters-want-french-army-out--wave-russian-flags-1101019233.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/ancient-palmyra-could-have-fallen-because-of-hunger-new-study-shows-1101113634.html

Ancient Palmyra Could Have Fallen Because of Hunger, New Study Shows

Ancient Palmyra Could Have Fallen Because of Hunger, New Study Shows

In AD 273, emperor Aurelian destroyed the city of Palmyra, putting an end to the short-lived Palmyrene Empire which defied Rome. Its majestic ruins were only... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

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A team of Scandinavian researchers from Norway and Denmark have challenged the received wisdom about the fall of the ancient city of Palmyra, which is in present-day Syria, adding more depth to the overall picture.Until recently, Roman might has been seen as the sole cause for the destruction of the historic city nearly 2,000 years ago, as the short-lived Palmyrene Empire was brought to an end. Although the Palmyrene rebellion was one of the most serious in the long history of the Roman Empire, it also happened at a time when the climate in the Middle East became noticeably drier. This led researchers to think that a lack of food was one of the reasons for losing the war.One of the questions they asked was how much food could have been grown for a big landlocked city in the middle of the desert. Even using advanced techniques such as collecting rainwater with the help of dams and reservoirs, the researchers found - using computer models and factoring in data about known rainfall - that Palmyreans could only grow enough food for about 40,000 people in the area around the city each year.According to Iza Romanowska of Denmark's Aarhus University, food safety has always been the priority for big cities in inhospitable environments.Rubina Raja, a professor of classical archeology at Aarhus University, argued that this method not only presents the history of Palmyra from a new angle, but also allows us to assess how essential food security is to historical development. According to Seland, the same method can be extrapolated to apply to other historic cities, areas and times.Between AD 260 and AD 273, Palmyra was a thriving metropolis in the Syrian desert and the capital of a short-lived breakaway state from the Roman empire. From AD 272 it was ruled by Queen Zenobia who challenged the Romans. At the time, the empire - under the control of a new emperor, Aurelian - was plagued with civil war and Zenobia felt this was the perfect time to agitate to advance the interests of her own son Vaballathus.She lost the fight and in AD 273, Aurelian destroyed the city. Its majestic ruins were rediscovered by western travelers at the end of the 17th century, only to be partially destroyed by Daesh* terrorists in 2015 during the war in Syria.*Daesh is a terrorist organization banned in Russia and many other countries.

https://sputniknews.com/20220714/russian-syrian-specialists-finish-first-phase-of-restoration-of-palmyras-1700-yo-arch-of-triumph-1097319039.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/armenia-and-azerbaijan-accuse-each-other-of-ceasefire-violations-on-border-1101115062.html

Armenia and Azerbaijan Accuse Each Other of Ceasefire Violations on Border

Armenia and Azerbaijan Accuse Each Other of Ceasefire Violations on Border

Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed to a ceasefire later on September 13, which failed overnight. Another ceasefire went into effect late on September 14. 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

2022-09-23T07:51+0000

2022-09-23T07:51+0000

2022-09-23T07:51+0000

world

azerbaijan

armenia

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Both the Armenian and Azerbaijani militaries accused each other of ceasefire violations on joint border on Friday morning.The Armenian defense ministry said the Azerbaijan forces opened fire at the Armenian positions in the country's east. As a result of "retaliatory actions," the fire was ceased, the ministry stressed, adding that Armenia suffered no losses.The Azerbaijani defense ministry, in turn, said that Armenia shelled its positions in 3 border regions.In the night from September 12-13, new clashes broke out on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Baku and Yerevan accused each other of ongoing shelling and reported losses in their ranks.By the morning of September 13, the parties agreed on a ceasefire. Grigory Karasin, the head of the Russian upper house's foreign affairs committee, told Sputnik that a truce was achieved thanks to Russia's efforts, including a conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. According to the Russian official, despite the ceasefire, there is still a lot of work to be done, since Yerevan applied to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).On September 13, the CSTO Permanent Council held an extraordinary meeting, during which its members expressed extreme concern about the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and considered proposals to activate the CSTO mechanisms for the resolution of the conflict. The CSTO Collective Security Council reached an agreement to send a mission led by CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas to Armenia.To date, the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border remains tense, with the parties accusing each other of violating the ceasefire.

https://sputniknews.com/20220920/armenia-expresses-readiness-to-normalize-relations-with-azerbaijan-1100990923.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/congress-presidential-polls-to-have-no-bearing-on-future-electoral-prospects-political-analyst-says-1101123895.html

Congress Presidential Polls to Have No Bearing on Future Electoral Prospects, Political Analyst Says

Congress Presidential Polls to Have No Bearing on Future Electoral Prospects, Political Analyst Says

Sonia Gandhi had been the Congress president since 1998, when her son, Rahul Gandhi, became the party chief in 2017. However, he had to quit in 2019, taking... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

2022-09-23T14:33+0000

2022-09-23T14:33+0000

2022-09-23T14:33+0000

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congress

indian national congress

sonia gandhi

rahul gandhi

priyanka gandhi

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After a years-long wait, the stage is finally set for an election of the president of Indias main opposition party, Congress, scheduled to take place on October 17. Currently, Rajasthan state chief Ashok Gehlot appears to be the frontrunner, whereas Shashi Tharoor, an erudite Congress parliamentarian, may also contest the polls. Media reports citing sources suggest senior politicians Kamal Nath and Manish Tewari may also be in the fray.Political expert Shekhar Iyer in an interview with Sputnik talked about the impact of change in the leadership of the countrys grand old party. Sputnik: Do you think a change in the top leadership of the Congress party could foster a political revival?Iyer: It all depends on who is going to get the leadership, because still, there is total confusion, as a lot of Congress-ruled states are still requesting Rahul Gandhi to become the party chief again. However, he is very firm that he will not take the post.Ashok Gehlot was sounded and he is even ready to take up the post, but doesnt want to quit as state chief of Rajasthan, at least till the next state assembly elections, because he doesnt want Sachin Pilot to become the state chief. He rather wants his close aide to take up the post. Gehlot even said that he can hold three posts at a time. But Digvijaya Singh (former Madhya Pradesh state chief) raised the issue of the "one man, one post" rule, which was adopted in the partys Udaipur conclave. Now, even Rahul Gandhi has stated that whoever becomes party chief has to abide by this rule. This means Gehlot cant become party president until he is willing to give up the top post in Rajasthan.So, all this shows that there is a sort of confusion and lack of direction.So, I think that the party has to win the elections for its revival. It is important to see what Congress is doing to win the elections.Sputnik: Why do you think there is confusion?Iyer: I have been told that within the Gandhi family there is [some] confusion. It is also to be noted that whoever becomes the party president cant continue forever. We saw that after the P.V. Narasimha Rao-led (Congress) government was voted out of power in the 1996 parliamentary elections, Sitaram Kesari became the (party) president, but he was replaced in 1998 by Sonia Gandhi.So, all these things raise doubt -- will they really allow a non-Gandhi family person to continue, or is it only till such time that Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are ready to take charge.Apart from this, amid all this the party has started "Bharat Jodo Yatra" (a political campaign to unite the people of the country). They are spending 18 days in a small southern state like Kerala when they should be traveling in north India, where they [are facing] the real challenge.They will be moving out of Kerala only after September 30 and reaching Karnataka, where the assembly elections are scheduled for next year. But what about Gujarat (in west India) and Himachal Pradesh (north India), where the elections are scheduled in the coming two months. There is no major campaign of the party in these two states.We should also understand that the elections for the top post of party are happening not because they wanted to change the president, but rather because of the Election Commission of Indias (ECI) stipulation. The ECI says that to remain a recognized political party, you have to follow the party constitution, which calls for regular internal elections, while Congress has been postponing it for the last three years.Sputnik: If we talk about succeeding in the polls, then it's important to unite the cadre. Do you think that a non-Gandhi family member, if elected party chief, will be able to do so?Iyer: I think a non-Gandhi family person will not have the (kind of) authority which a Gandhi family member would likely possess. Because [being] Congress president means that he or she should have the power to decide. Do you really think that the Gandhi family will give complete power to someone from outside the family?They are building a narrative that the charge of the party was given to a non-Gandhi family person and under his or her leadership also the party lost the elections, so the Gandhi family takes over again.As far as I understand, Rahul Gandhi is not willing to take up the party president post because the Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat assembly polls are scheduled to be held in November and December respectively. And Congress is not in a strong position. So, he doesnt want to take the blame for losing elections once again.Sputnik: Do you think that a change in leadership would boost Congress' chances of reuniting the opposition?Iyer: A united opposition is a major challenge. To have a united opposition, there should be a pre-poll formula like Sonia Gandhi in 2016 shared with Mamata Banerjee to let the opposition field a candidate of the political party having a mass base in that particular constituency to have a direct contest against the BJP.No regional party will agree to this idea. I am saying so because every regional party will want to win a maximum number of seats to claim a larger share in the government. The regional parties will also want their leader to become the next prime minister.However, there is a twist in this situation. The regional parties, despite performing well in the elections, will not be able to win more than 100 seats, assuming they win all the seats in their respective states. In order to attain the majority figure of 272 (in parliament), Congress will have to win the rest of the number of seats, which seems a distant target as of now.So, the talk about "a united opposition" starts every time before elections, but the above mentioned things are the practical problems. Therefore, I think that elections for Congress party president have no bearings on future electoral prospects.Sputnik: We've been talking about uniting the cadre, as well as reviving the party -- but with the list of contestants for the Congress president's post expanding, won't it become a major challenge for the partys unity?Iyer: Of course it will. With so many candidates in the fray for the top post of the party, Congress will say that we have conducted the presidential elections with democracy. But only the one having the backing of the Gandhi family will become the chief, as happened in 1996, when Sonia Gandhi supported Sitaram Kesari instead of Sharad Pawar (now Nationalist Congress Party chief) or Rajesh Pilot (deceased).On the one hand, the Gandhi family wants to show that the elections for party chief have been conducted in a fair manner. On the other hand, close aides of the Gandhi family are asking Pradesh Congress Committees (state units of the party) to bring a resolution in favor of Rahul Gandhi.If the Gandhi family wants to give a message that the elections have been held in a democratic manner, they should have appointed someone from outside as party chief. But they are worried about their image only, and not the party.

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/ecowas-leaders-decide-to-introduce-progressive-sanctions-against-guinea-1101121601.html

ECOWAS Leaders Decide to Introduce Progressive Sanctions Against Guinea

ECOWAS Leaders Decide to Introduce Progressive Sanctions Against Guinea

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The leaders of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countries decided at an extraordinary summit on the sidelines of the UN... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

2022-09-23T09:49+0000

2022-09-23T09:49+0000

2022-09-23T09:49+0000

africa

economic community of west african states (ecowas)

guinea

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"We have decided to impose progressive sanctions against individuals and the junta in Guinea... In a short period of time the ECOWAS president and head of commission will determine the list of persons who will be subjected to sanctions, and we will gradually introduce the sanctions," the statement read, as quoted by the French radio station RFI.Additionally, ECOWAS leaders also decided to send a high-level mission, which will include the presidents of Togo, Senegal and Ghana, to Mali very soon, the radio station reported, adding that this trip could take place on September 27. The heads of ECOWAS countries demand the immediate release of 46 Ivorian soldiers detained in Mali in July.On September 5, 2021, Col. Mamady Doumbouya came to power through a coup in Guinea. The military dismissed the government, abrogated the constitution, and closed borders. Then-President Alpha Conde was arrested and, according to Doumbouya, placed in a safe place under military supervision. ECOWAS suspended Guinea's membership in the organization and demanded the president be released. Doumbouya was sworn in as transitional president by the Supreme Court on October 1 and pledged to remain committed to the country's sovereignty and to fulfill his functions in the interests of the Guinean people.In May of last year, the Malian armed forces led by then-Vice President Assimi Goita removed interim President Bah Ndaw and acting Prime Minister Moctar Ouane from office after accusing them of breaking transition rules. A military council took control of the country and announced its intention to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in 2022. In June 2021, the Constitutional Court of Mali declared Goita the interim president.In July 2022, the authorities of Mali made the decision to suspend the rotation of the military in the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), including those already announced and planned. The decision was made against the background of the detention of 49 soldiers from the Ivory Coast, who, according to the Ivorian authorities, arrived as part of a UN mission. Malian authorities said that the soldiers were allegedly mercenaries and planned a coup. In early September, three women from the detained military were released.

https://sputniknews.com/20210927/insurgents-who-detained-president-of-guinea-declare-transitional-charter---reports-1089466872.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/eu-struggles-to-find-more-russian-individuals-to-target-with-sanctions-reports-say-1101117245.html

EU Struggles to Find More Russian Individuals to Target With Sanctions, Reports Say

EU Struggles to Find More Russian Individuals to Target With Sanctions, Reports Say

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The European Union is struggling to find any more Russians to sanction as all "big fish" have already been targeted, the EUobserver online... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

2022-09-23T08:31+0000

2022-09-23T08:31+0000

2022-09-23T08:31+0000

russia's special operation in ukraine

russia

eu

sanction

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"There are no big fish left," one of the sources told the newspaper, adding that "we've already got the full collection of oligarchs and everybody in the political and defense establishments."Despite the fact that European diplomats are considering the possibility of imposing sanctions against media workers, the EU "does not like to blacklist media people," according to the source.Another source said that Russia lacks "unicorns" that the EU could potentially sanction. The "unicorn" is a start-up company that reached a valuation of $1 billion without being listed on the stock market.The EU has introduced seven packages of sanctions against Russia since the start of hostilities in Ukraine in late February. Among other targets, restrictions applied to Russian government and military officials, business people, and a number of prominent media officials, including Sputnik and RT Editor-In-Chief Margarita Simonyan.

https://sputniknews.com/20220914/eus-anti-russian-sanctions-may-affect-oil-transportation-through-danish-straits---reports-1100743640.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/in-latest-swipe-bjp-dubs-congress-president-polls-fake-remote-controlled-by-gandhis-1101147702.html

In Latest Swipe, BJP Dubs Congress President Polls 'Fake,' 'Remote Controlled by Gandhis'

In Latest Swipe, BJP Dubs Congress President Polls 'Fake,' 'Remote Controlled by Gandhis'

The process to elect a new chief of India's main opposition party, Congress, will commence on Saturday with contestants filing their nominations for the post... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

2022-09-23T15:45+0000

2022-09-23T15:45+0000

2022-09-23T15:45+0000

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rahul gandhi

sonia gandhi

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India's federally ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took a fresh dig at the Congress on Friday, declaring that its polls to elect a new party president were "fake" and were "remote controlled" by the all-powerful Gandhi family.Sonia Gandhi is the longest-serving Congress chief, having first been elected to the post in 1998. She stepped down for a brief period from 2017 to 2019, when Rahul Gandhi was elected as chief of the party. After Rahul stepped down from the position three years ago, taking responsibility for the party's second consecutive defeat to the BJP in parliamentary elections, Sonia stepped in, becoming the interim chief. She has been leading the party in that capacity since then.The BJP's strong reaction to Congress' presidential polls came after Ashok Gehlot, who heads the government in Rajasthan state, was asked if he would resign from his post in case he became the party boss."Party president Sonia Gandhi will decide further proceedings (for Rajasthan) along with general secretary in-charge Ajay Maken when I become the party president," Gehlot told reporters in Kerala.Gehlot's reply, however, gave ammunition to the BJP to blast the Congress. "This is the proof that the next president of Congress will be a proxy of the Gandhis and will be remotely controlled by Gandhis like Manmohan Singh was remotely controlled by Sonia Gandhi," the BJP spokesperson added.Earlier in the day, Gehlot had confirmed that no member of the Gandhi family will contest the polls. He also stated that he will be one of the candidates."It's decided that I'll contest (for the post of Congress President). I'll fix the date soon (to file nomination). It's a need for the Opposition to be strong, looking at the current position of the country," Gehlot said.Elections for Congress president will be held on October 17, and the winner will be declared two days later. Nominations for the post can be filed on September 24-30.

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/lavrov-guterres-confirm-need-for-full-implementation-of-grain-deal---foreign-ministry-1101111289.html

Lavrov, Guterres Confirm Need for Full Implementation of Grain Deal - Foreign Ministry

Lavrov, Guterres Confirm Need for Full Implementation of Grain Deal - Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW, September 23 (Sputnik) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres have discussed the implementation of the... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

2022-09-23T01:51+0000

2022-09-23T01:51+0000

2022-09-23T01:51+0000

russia

sergei lavrov

antonio guterres

antonio rudiger

un general assembly

grain

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"[They] substantively discussed the implementation of the Istanbul agreements on the export of Ukrainian food products from the Black Sea ports and the unimpeded export of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers. The parties confirmed the need to ensure their package nature and full implementation," the ministry said in a statement following the meeting on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.Moreover, the sides have discussed the cooperation between Russia and the United Nations and specific initiatives to improve the effectiveness of the organization and its secretariat.On July 22, Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey signed an UN-brokered initiative to provide a humanitarian maritime corridor for ships with food and fertilizer exports from Black Sea ports. Three key Ukrainian ports  Odesa, Chornomorsk, and Yuzhne  were unblocked to resume exports. The Istanbul-based Joint Coordination Center (JCC) was set up to monitor the implementation of the initiative, including ensuring that cargo ships do not carry unauthorized goods or personnel.

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Syrian Foreign Minister Tells Sputnik Ukraine Conflict Not in Interest of Ukrainian People

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - The conflict in Ukraine is absolutely not in the interest of the Ukrainian people and the negotiating table is the place where all the issues must be resolved, Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs Faisal Mekdad told Sputnik.

"I think this war is absolutely not in the interest of the Ukrainian people, and the negotiating table is the place to solve all these problems," Mekdad said on Friday.

The Syrian Foreign Minister also noted that the crisis in Ukraine has affected the entire world.

"I put the entire responsibility on the Ukrainian side, on the Western side. The support given by the United States and Western countries to Ukraine is counterproductive," Mekdad said.

The Syrian Foreign Minister also said that it seems to him the United States and its allies want to "fight until the last Ukrainian."
Turkiye mediates Russia-Ukraine prisoner swap involving 200: Turkish president

Xinhua) 13:12, September 23, 2022

ANKARA, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that Russia and Ukraine had exchanged 200 prisoners of war under the mediation of Turkiye.

"As a result of diplomatic traffic I conducted with Mr. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and Mr. (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky, the exchange of 200 war prisoners between Russia and Ukraine was accomplished today (Sept. 22)," he told journalists on the presidential plane on his way back to Turkiye after attending the UN General Assembly in New York.

"This exchange that took place under Turkiye's mediation is an important step for ending the war," state-run TRT broadcaster quoted the Turkish president as saying.

Erdogan noted that he will continue phone diplomacy to make further efforts for peace between Russia and Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine have carried out their largest prisoner exchange since the onset of their conflict on Feb. 24, in which 215 Ukrainians, including 124 officers, were released by Russia, the Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said Thursday.

Two civilians were also released as part of the swap.

Besides, Saudi Arabia mediated a release of 10 foreigners by Russia under the exchange, according to the Saudi Foreign Ministry.

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Liang Jun)
ANKARA, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Turkish intelligence detained two senior members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in an operation on the Turkiye-Iraq borderline, the state-run TRT broadcaster reported on Friday.

One of the PKK members was Atilla Cicek, who was wanted on a red notice and responsible for the PKK's activities in Iraq and Iran, according to the TRT.

He was one of the perpetrators of the 2012 bomb attack in Turkiye's eastern Tunceli province that killed seven people, including six soldiers. He was also among the perpetrators of the 2020 attack in eastern Agri province that killed two soldiers.

The other PKK member Huseyin Yildirim was an executive responsible for operations in Iraq and Syria, the TRT reported.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the United States, and the European Union, has rebelled against the Turkish government for more than three decades.

The Turkish forces frequently carry out ground operations, airstrikes, and artillery bombardments against the group's positions in northern Iraq, especially the Qandil Mountains, the main base of the PKK. 
https://sputniknews.com/20220923/mccarthy-lays-out-gops-commitment-to-america-platform-six-weeks-before-midterm-election-1101151119.html

McCarthy Lays Out GOP's 'Commitment to America' Platform Six Weeks Before Midterm Election

McCarthy Lays Out GOP's 'Commitment to America' Platform Six Weeks Before Midterm Election

With a little over a month to go before the 2022 midterm elections, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has laid out four main talking points he hopes... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

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The agenda, called the Republican Commitment to America, is summarized in four points so broadly worded that their meaning is almost indiscernible: an economy that's strong, a nation that's safe, a future that's built on freedom, and a government that's accountable, according to McCarthys website.The name is modeled on Newt Gingrichs successful Contract With America, with which the GOP attained an astounding victory in the 1994 midterm elections, winning majorities in both houses. It, too, was introduced just six weeks before the election, and focused on broad conservative talking points such as reducing the size of the government, cutting taxes, and addressing what they described as out-of-control crime in US cities - much like McCarthys program."We have a plan for a nation that's safe. That means your community will be protected, your law enforcement will be respected. Your criminals will be prosecuted. We believe in a future that's built on freedom - that your children come first."Kellyanne Conway, a one-time adviser to former US President Donald Trump, told the crowd that it was important to focus on the economy instead of other issues Democrats are likely to use to attack the GOP, such as abortion, climate change, and the January 6 insurrection, according to Politico.The races for control over the House and Senate are tight: the most recent polls released last weekend show the two parties neck-and-neck. At present, the Democrats have a slim majority in the House and are evenly split with the Republicans in the Senate, but command a de facto majority thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris ability to cast a tie-breaking vote. However, its common for the presidents party to lose in the midterm elections following his own election victory.If the GOP does retake the House, as Politicos projections suggest is likely, then McCarthy would be elevated to Speaker, taking Rep. Nancy Pelosis (D-CA) job.The success of Trump-backed candidates in GOP primary races across the country seems to give credence to that claim, even if McCarthy and his Senate counterpart, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), are both quick to draw Trumps ire.Trump has yet to comment on McCarthys program. However, McConnell, who gave Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) the cold shoulder after he unilaterally dropped a Rescue America agenda in March that became a lightning rod for withering liberal criticism, decided to endorse McCarthys program, saying it would bring the peoples priorities back into the peoples House.

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/modi-slams-urban-naxals-for-stalling-sardar-sarovar-dam-construction-says-even-nehru-supported-it-1101140629.html

Modi Slams 'Urban Naxals' For Stalling Sardar Sarovar Dam Construction, Says Even Nehru Supported It

Modi Slams 'Urban Naxals' For Stalling Sardar Sarovar Dam Construction, Says Even Nehru Supported It

Speaking at the National Environment Conference, the Indian prime minister said the country is focused on green growth and green jobs, in particular... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the National Conference of Environment Ministers at Ekta Nagar in Gujarat on Friday, criticizing "Urban Naxals" for protesting against the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam and, as a result, stalling it by several years. He mentioned India's first PM, Jawaharlal Nehru, as an example, recalling that Nehru himself was a strong supporter of the dam.Modi said that the development of Ekta Nagar is a prime example of an environmental pilgrimage when it comes to water conservation, forests, and tourism.He also added that the Gujarat conference is being held at a time when India is setting new environmental goals.The prime minister further explained that India is a rapidly developing economy and that it is also constantly strengthening its ecology.

https://sputniknews.com/20220923/india-set-to-achieve-net-zero-emissions-by-2070-science--technology-minister-says-1101120583.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/over-20-chinese-tourists-missing-after-boat-capsizes-off-cambodias-coast-reports-say-1101117886.html

Over 20 Chinese Tourists Missing After Boat Capsizes Off Cambodia's Coast, Reports Say

Over 20 Chinese Tourists Missing After Boat Capsizes Off Cambodia's Coast, Reports Say

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - As a result of a storm that capsized a wooden boat off Cambodias southwestern coast 23 Chinese citizens went missing, Cambodian newspaper... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

2022-09-23T08:49+0000

2022-09-23T08:49+0000

2022-09-23T12:26+0000

world

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The boat was caught in a storm and capsized on Thursday night. Cambodian rescuers, police officers and fishermen managed to save 18 Chinese citizens, according to the report.In total, 41 Chinese citizens were on board the wooden ship, sailing from the port city of Guangzhou to the Cambodian coastal city of Sihanoukville. All of the passengers were heading to Cambodia as tourists, the report said.The group had left the port of Guangzhou on September 11 on a speedboat and then they were transferred to a wooden boat on September 17, accompanied by two Cambodian guides. The wooden boat had a leak and started to flounder in heavy waters. Soon another boat came to pick up the two Cambodians but left the 41 Chinese on the damaged wooden boat, according to one of the rescued passengers.Beijing has asked Phnom Penh to make every effort in carrying out search and rescue operations.Search and rescue operations are continuing at the site.

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/pashinyan-says-peace-treaty-possible-if-azerbaijan-recognizes-armenias-territorial-integrity-1101114256.html

Pashinyan Says Peace Treaty Possible If Azerbaijan Recognizes Armenia's Territorial Integrity

Pashinyan Says Peace Treaty Possible If Azerbaijan Recognizes Armenia's Territorial Integrity

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Recognition of Armenia's territorial integrity in its internationally recognized boundaries by Azerbaijan could allow both countries to sign... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

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In any other case Azerbaijan will use the border delimitation issue to make new territorial claims and escalate the situation, the Armenian prime minister expects.Pashinyan considers a comprehensive settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to be one of the key factors of regional stability, where the rights and security of Armenians living in the region must be guaranteed.Armenia's aim is the establishment of long-term stability, security and peace and the country is committed to continuing diplomatic efforts to reach this goal, Pashinyan said.Hostilities broke out on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in the early hours of September 13, in an area unrelated to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Azerbaijan said it started an offensive responding to an Armenian "provocation." Armenia said Azerbaijani forces shelled Armenian civilian towns with no military infrastructure. Both countries agreed to a ceasefire later on September 13, which failed overnight. Another ceasefire went into effect late on September 14.The long-standing conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh flared up in September 2020, marking the most serious escalation in relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan in years. The hostilities ended with a Moscow-brokered trilateral declaration signed in November 2020. Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to completely cease fire and exchange prisoners. However, the situation in the region has remained tense, with intermittent clashes between the two countries.

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/spains-civil-guard-says-arrested-49-members-of-drug-dealer-group-1101154427.html

Spains Civil Guard Says Arrested 49 Members of Drug Dealer Group

Spains Civil Guard Says Arrested 49 Members of Drug Dealer Group

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Spanish Civil Guard said on Friday that it arrested 49 members of a drug trafficking organization and seized more than 14 tonnes (almost... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

2022-09-23T20:14+0000

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world

spain

spain's civil guard

drug trafficking

drug smugglers

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"The Civil Guard, within the framework of the Baree operation, has arrested 49 members of a criminal organization that transported large quantities of hashish on the coast of [southwestern Spanish city] Cadiz and along the Guadalquivir river. In total, more than 14 tonnes of hashish have been seized," the agency said in a statement.According to the statement, this organization had huge volumes of drug trafficking, and in one month the criminals managed to transport 20 tonnes of hashish from Morocco to Spain.The investigation began in December 2021, when law enforcement officers discovered that a criminal organization, led by several people with criminal experience in drug dealing, was transporting large amounts of hashish along the coast of Cadiz.

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/the-world-needs-to-unite-against-a-world-war-iii-scenario-1101109248.html

The World Needs to Unite Against a World War III Scenario

The World Needs to Unite Against a World War III Scenario

On todays episode of The Backstory, host Lee Stranahan discussed current events including CNN's Jake Tapper being promoted to the primetime slot, and Tesla... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

2022-09-23T08:51+0000

2022-09-23T08:51+0000

2022-09-23T08:51+0000

the backstory

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The World Needs to Unite Against a World War III Scenario On todays episode of The Backstory, host Lee Stranahan discussed current events including CNN's Jake Tapper being promoted to the primetime slot, and Tesla recalling over one million vehicles.

Scott Ritter - Former UN Weapons Inspector & WMD Whistleblower | We Live in Interesting Times, Putin Mentions Nukes, and TurkeyThom Nickels  Author, Journalist | John Fetterman Wants to Turn Pennsylvania into a Philadelphia, The Pennsylvania Republican Party, and Trump's Messy BaggageIn the first hour, Lee spoke with Scott Ritter about Turkey's position on the Donbass recognition, China, and talks of using nuclear weapons by NATO. Scott discussed India's border problems and Russia's involvement in the Asia Pacific partnerships. Scott explained the status of the Russian special military operation and the mobilization of three hundred military reservists.In the second hour, Lee spoke with Thom Nickels about the 2022 Pennsylvania Senate race, Philadelphians living in their cars, and John Fetterman obsessed with marijuana. Thom explained his prediction for the Pennsylvania Governor race and why Pennsylvania Republicans are so weak Thom talked about the clear cognitive issues with John Fetterman and the media's avoidance of the obvious health problems of Fetterman.We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.comThe views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of Sputnik

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/trial-over-2016-brussels-terrorist-attacks-postponed-due-to-arrangement-works---reports-1101153509.html

Trial Over 2016 Brussels Terrorist Attacks Postponed Due to Arrangement Works - Reports

Trial Over 2016 Brussels Terrorist Attacks Postponed Due to Arrangement Works - Reports

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) - The trial over the 2016 Brussels attacks, which was scheduled to begin on October 10, has been postponed by several weeks due to... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

2022-09-23T19:37+0000

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world

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In early September, Brussels held preliminary hearings on the case that is expected to become the largest in Belgium in terms of the number of participants. Then the defense expressed dissatisfaction with the conditions of the defendants' detention in the courtroom. In particular, individual closed cabins prevented those accused from communicating with lawyers in a normal way, which, according to the defense, violated their rights. As a result, works on arranging the courtroom were launched.On Friday, the country's justice ministry notified the trial's participants of the impossibility of preparing the premises by the appointed date, the media outlet reported. According to the department, the work is expected to take several more weeks.In total, there are 10 defendants in the case of the 2016 Brussels bombings. One of them has died in Syria, according to unofficial data. He will be tried in absentia. Six of the persons also figure as defendants in a trial in France over the 2015 Paris attacks. In particular, those accused include Salah Abdeslam, who has already been sentenced to life imprisonment in France for the Paris attacks.Meanwhile, 960 people figure as affected in the bombings, which makes the trial the most significant case in Belgium.On March 22, 2016, two explosions hit Brussels Airport, with a third bomb detonating inside a train car at Maalbeek metro station in the Belgian capital soon afterward. As a result of the terrorist attacks, 32 people were killed and over 300 were injured. The Islamic State terrorist group (banned in Russia) has claimed responsibility for the bombings. The same terrorist cell is believed to be involved in the November 2015 Paris attacks that killed 130 people.

https://sputniknews.com/20220922/four-terrorist-suspects-arrested-in-iceland---reports-1101107769.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/trump-2nd-term-would-bring-back-best-ever--relationship-with-hungary-foreign-minister-says-1101137629.html

Trump 2nd Term Would Bring Back 'Best-Ever' Relationship With Hungary, Foreign Minister Says

Trump 2nd Term Would Bring Back 'Best-Ever' Relationship With Hungary, Foreign Minister Says

During his stint in the Oval Office Donald Trump praised Hungarian Prime Minister, describing him as like me, a little controversial, and brushing off... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

2022-09-23T13:09+0000

2022-09-23T13:09+0000

2022-09-23T13:09+0000

world

hungary

us

donald trump

viktor orban

peter szijjarto

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If former President Donald Trump was reelected for a second term in office in 2024 Hungary could hope to resume the "best-ever political relationship" the two countries had enjoyed during his administration, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told Fox News Digital.The 77th session of the UN General Assembly takes place in New York on September 20-23, 2022.Trump has repeatedly hinted at making another run for office in 2024, in spite of threats of criminal prosecution by the Justice Department over the alleged illegal removal and handling of classified documents.Indeed, during his tenure, the ex-president dismissed concerns voiced by some members of the US Congress about Hungarys downward democratic trajectory.Trump had also lauded Orban for sharing his tough stance regarding the issue of immigration.Patriotic Center-RightWhen asked to comment on accusations that Hungary, where Prime Minister Victor Orban was reelected to his fourth term this year, had been violating European values, Szijjarto said the European Union only defines democracy as "in case the liberals are governing."The Hungarian Foreign Minister hailed "revolutionary changes" to his countrys automotive industry over the past decade. As an example, he cited the launch of electric battery manufacturing in Hungary as one of the "five biggest investments in Europe." He also mentioned that Hungary was the first European Union country to approve the Paris Climate Agreement and had reduced its emissions, with a goal toward going carbon-neutral by 2050.Sanction Policy Has Not DeliveredThe Hungarian Foreign Minister reiterated his countrys vehement opposition to further sanctions on Russia in response to its special military operation in Ukraine. The self-harming restrictive measures already in place have hurt other countries much more, despite being introduced to cripple the Russian economy, Szijjarto said.For months now, since Russia launched its special operation in Ukraine on February 24, Hungarian PM Orban has criticized the European Union over its sanctions policy. Furthermore, while the US and its European allies have committed tens of billions of dollars in military and economic support for the Kiev regime, Budapest has refused to allow NATO military equipment to be transferred to Ukraine through Hungary. It repeatedly called for urgent peace negotiations between Moscow and the West to end the security crisis.Russia has been repeatedly warning of the dangers of weapons shipments only serving to prolong the Ukraine conflict, as well as the threat that they could wind up on the international arms black market thanks to the corruption rampant there under the Kiev authorities.

https://sputniknews.com/20220923/trump-us-needs-president-who-can-go-toe-to-toe-with-fierce-smart-tough-leaders-like-xi-putin-1101122497.html

https://sputniknews.com/20220922/hungarys-orban-declares-war-on-brussels-russia-sanctions-policy-in-closed-door-party-meeting-1101082967.html

https://sputniknews.com/20220915/hungary-urges-eu-to-solve-real-energy-crisis-instead-of-making-false-accusations-against-budapest-1100829181.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/turkey-refutes-accusations-over-work-of-mir-payment-system-in-country-1101154194.html

Turkey Refutes Accusations Over Work of Mir Payment System in Country

Turkey Refutes Accusations Over Work of Mir Payment System in Country

ANKARA (Sputnik) - The accusations against Turkey over work of the Mir payment system in the country are unfounded, Ankara is looking for alternative ways to... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

2022-09-23T20:12+0000

2022-09-23T20:12+0000

2022-09-23T20:12+0000

world

turkey

recep tayyip erdogan

mir

mir payment system

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier he could decide on the further use of the Russian cards Mir in Turkey on Friday. Earlier in the day, the Yeni Safak newspaper reported that the United States was threatening Turkish banks with sanctions for using Russia's Mir payment system.When asked whether the Mir system would operate in Turkey as before, whether there would be any changes, Kalin said that banks were considering various options."Banks are looking for various alternatives," he said.On Monday, Turkish banks Ishbank and Denizbank told Sputnik that they had stopped servicing Russian cards Mir. They noted that the decision had been made in connection with US and UK sanctions against Russia. Acceptance and servicing of cards of the Mir payment system in foreign banks, in particular, in Turkish ones, will depend on the position of the credit institutions themselves, the press service of the payment system told Sputnik.

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/turkish-cypriot-leader-says-does-not-expect-progress-on-settlement-issue-after-elections-1101151753.html

Turkish Cypriot Leader Says Does Not Expect Progress on Settlement Issue After Elections

Turkish Cypriot Leader Says Does Not Expect Progress on Settlement Issue After Elections

UNITED NATIONS, (Sputnik) - Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly told Sputnik that he does not foresee any... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

2022-09-23T18:38+0000

2022-09-23T18:38+0000

2022-09-23T18:41+0000

world

north cyprus

turkey

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"There are three people who are running for the presidency [in 2023] - they are all students of [Cyprus President Nicos] Anastasiades," he said. "If you look at their CVs, they all came from the same background as Anastasiades. Therefore, I dont expect anything to develop after the election because their election campaign is [run] more on nationalism. In fact, they are competing with each other who is more radical and I expect the more radical one to win the election."In April, Cypriot diplomat Menelaos Menelaou became the new chief negotiator of Greek Cypriots on the Cyprus issue, replacing Andreas Mavroyiannis. In June, Anastasiades met with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Madrid and expressed his readiness to resume UN-brokered negotiations on Cyprus.Tatar said his special representative does meet the envoy in Cyprus often, but no official talks are underway.Northern Cyprus, he added, will not agree to negotiations until Cyprus recognizes their sovereign equality."What Mr. Erdogan hinted in Madrid is our common policy, that we will only start to resume to talk seriously in a formal manner... if and when the Greek Cypriots accept... Turkish sovereign equality," Tatar said. "This is very important for us."Tatar said they have to protect themselves while being constructive and forward-looking.Under any agreement, Turkish Cypriots will insist Ankara's guarantee continues and some Turkish troops remain on the island as safeguards for their security, Tatar added."Otherwise, we will not be definitely feeling secure, because we will again be potentially attacked," he said.Gas Well Discovered Offshore Cyprus Should Be SharedIn August, the French energy company TotalEnergies and the Italian oil and gas company Eni announced a natural gas discovery at the Cronos-1 well offshore Cyprus. According to preliminary estimates, there are about 2.5 TCF of gas in place.Climate Action and Energy spokesperson Tim McPhie said in August that it was still premature for the European Commission to comment on Cyprus' announcement related to the well given that the issue needs further exploration and analysis.Meanwhile, Cypriot Energy Minister Natasa Pilides said that the discovery could help secure gas supplies to Europe amid the energy crisis.The island of Cyprus has been split since 1974 between Greek Cypriots, who represent the island nation in the European Union, and Turkish Cypriots, who are recognized by Turkey.

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ANKARA, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- The number of foreign visitors arriving in Turkiye saw a 58.3-percent increase year-on-year in August to 6.3 million, the data from the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry showed on Friday.

The number of foreign visitors to Turkiye in the first eight months of the year climbed by 108.5 percent to 29.3 million compared to the same time last year.

With a share of 13.6 percent, Germany was atop countries sending tourists last month, followed by Russia, 12.8 percent, and Britain, 8.7 percent. Britain was followed by Bulgaria and Iran.

In the first eight months, Germany also held the top spot by sending 3.85 million tourists to Turkiye, or 13.13 percent of the total. Russia came in second with 3 million tourists and a 10.2-percent share, followed by Britain with 2.4 million tourists and a 8.1-percent share.

The number of foreign tourists in Turkiye is already back to pre-pandemic levels. The country was aiming for 47 million tourists and 37 billion U.S. dollars in tourism revenues this year, said Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Ersoy in early July.

The weakening of the Turkish currency against the U.S. dollar and the euro since the start of 2021 has also made Turkiye a popular tourist destination. 
https://sputniknews.com/20220923/ukraine-russia-exchange-prisoners-legal-blows-for-trump-1101104442.html

Ukraine, Russia Exchange Prisoners; Legal Blows for Trump

Ukraine, Russia Exchange Prisoners; Legal Blows for Trump

Were talking surprise prisoner exchanges, a new role for Saudi Arabia, and the end of the run for Fat Leonard. 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

2022-09-23T08:38+0000

2022-09-23T08:38+0000

2022-09-23T11:01+0000

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Ukraine, Russia Exchange Prisoners; Legal Blows for Trump Were talking surprise prisoner exchanges, a new role for Saudi Arabia, and the end of the run for Fat Leonard.

Author Jeremy Kuzmarov, managing editor of CovertAction Magazine, joins Misfit Michelle Witte to talk about the Saudi-brokered prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine. He also gets into the cost of living protests in Europe, and the impact of upcoming elections in Italy on EU solidarity.Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African Newswire, joins the show to talk about developments in Ethiopia, where a major new phase of the war between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front appears to be underway. He also discusses calls by the African Union at the UN General Assembly for more geopolitical recognition of the African continent.Law and Public Policy Professor Robert Hockett, who is also senior counsel at Westwood Capital and a fellow of The Century Foundation, joins the show to talk about cryptocurrency fraud and its implications for the broader financial system, as well as the possibility of a commercial real estate crash in the US.Journalist and author Dan Lazare discusses the decision by a judge to allow the DOJ access to classified documents taken from Donald Trumps residence, and the sticking power of fraud charges made against Trump and his associates. He also discusses the steady social decline of the US, the revelation that a key Russiagate figure was a paid FBI informant, and the possibility of reconciliation between Syria and Turkey.Investigative journalist Greg Palast discusses voter suppression in Georgia, and how to prevent tactics used in that state from spreading across the country.We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.comThe views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of Sputnik

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/us-lawmakers-reportedly-urge-pentagon-to-speed-up-delivery-of-heavy-strike-drones-to-ukraine-1101138446.html

US Lawmakers Reportedly Urge Pentagon to Speed Up Delivery of Heavy Strike Drones to Ukraine

US Lawmakers Reportedly Urge Pentagon to Speed Up Delivery of Heavy Strike Drones to Ukraine

Rumors on the possible handover of the sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicles began to swirl in the summer. However, US media later reported that the Biden... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

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2022-09-23T13:16+0000

2022-09-23T13:16+0000

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A 17-member-strong bipartisan group of lawmakers have penned Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin an appeal urging him to pick up the pace on getting MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones to Ukraine, Reuters and the Wall Street Journal have reported, citing the letter.In addition to MQ-1Cs, the lawmakers urged the Pentagon to consider sending Kiev MQ-9A Reapers.The United States military has previously used Gray Eagles in the wars of aggression and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, and in secrecy-laden missions in Central Africa, including Niger. Developed and manufactured by General Atomics, the drones have four hard points and can fire Hellfire air-to-ground or Stinger air-to-air missiles, or four Viper Strike glide bombs. They can also be used for reconnaissance. The UAVs have a range of 400 km. The drones have suffered a range of technical problems throughout their service history, including poor reliability of onboard computer components, as well as software and sensor failures. At least three Gray Eagles were lost in Iraq and Niger between 2015 and 2021.The Gray Eagle is a heavily upgraded variant of the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper, a mass produced drone used by the US Air Force, Air National Guard, and Customs and Border Protection, and sold to Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. The US military has deployed Reapers in Afghanistan and Iraq, Somalia, Mali, Yemen, Libya, and Syria. Like their Gray Eagle cousin, Reapers have been prone to accidents, with 20 lost in 2015 alone due to starter-generator failures, and two slamming into one another in a mid-air collision over Syria in 2020. The weapons have also been linked to the killings of hundreds of civilians in countries where they have been deployed, with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimating that between 2010 and 2020, up to 2,200 innocents died in US strikes in Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen.The strategic significance of the possible deployment of Gray Eagles and Reapers in Ukraine is hard to estimate. In the course of the special military operation, Russias Defense Ministry has reported shooting down more than 2,050 UAVs operated by Ukraine, ranging from tiny reconnaissance micro-drones to Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 heavy strike drones.The United States and its allies have delivered over $33 billion in military aid to Ukraine since January -equivalent to about half of Russia's military budget in 2021. The vast amount of weapons pouring into Ukraine from the West has prompted Moscow to classify the crisis as a proxy conflict with NATO.Moscow has repeatedly slammed Washington and its allies over their continued arms deliveries to Ukraine, pointing to the danger they pose in escalating the crisis, setting the stage for future conflicts, and facilitating weapons smuggling.

https://sputniknews.com/20220914/us-awards-191mln-unmanned-drone-contract---pentagon-1100789110.html

https://sputniknews.com/20220804/exclusive-ukrainians-sell-nato-supplied-weapons-abroad-1098120922.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/us-lifting-cyprus-arms-embargo-will-fuel-weapons-buildup-on-both-sides-of-island---tatar-1101114431.html

US Lifting Cyprus Arms Embargo Will Fuel Weapons Buildup on Both Sides of Island - Tatar

US Lifting Cyprus Arms Embargo Will Fuel Weapons Buildup on Both Sides of Island - Tatar

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - The US decision to lift the weapons embargo on the Greek Cypriot administration will spark an arms buildup on the north and south... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

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The State Department last week lifted all defense trade restrictions on Cyprus after determining it met US legal requirements by denying Russian vessels access to ports and implementing anti-money laundering reforms.On Saturday, Turkey's defense ministry, in a statement condemning the move, said Ankara will continue to guarantee the existence, security and serenity of the Turkish Cypriots.North Cyprus and Turkey, he added, protested this decision because it will provide more ammunition to Greek Cyprus, which already has plenty of arms.Lifting the embargo has complicated the situation, he added, and does not help prospects for a solution in Cyprus.The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was declared in 1983 with Turkey's backing, although the island has been de facto divided since 1974. In late June, Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiades expressed his readiness to resume negotiations under UN auspices.

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/watch-as-bojo-accidentally-praises-inspirational-leadership-of-vladimir-putin-1101119891.html

Watch as BoJo Accidentally Praises 'Inspirational Leadership of Vladimir Putin'

Watch as BoJo Accidentally Praises 'Inspirational Leadership of Vladimir Putin'

During his first speech as a backbench MP on Thursday, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson apparently intended to criticize Russian President Vladimir... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

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A video has been making the rounds on social media, showing Johnson giving a speech during a general Commons debate on the Ukraine conflict. "Thanks to the heroism of the Ukrainian armed forces, thanks in part to the weapons that we are proud to be offering, I congratulate my right honorable friend (James Heappey) on his description of the work of the UK armed forces, the weapons that we're sending, the huge list...Thanks also, of course, to the inspirational leadership of Vladimir Putin," Johnson can be heard saying. The British ex-prime minister was quick to correct himself and apologize to the audience. During his prime ministership, Johnson was an ardent supporter of Ukraine and its President Volodymyr Zelensky. He visited Ukraine three times after the start of Moscow's special military operation, while his Cabinet introduced a series of tough sanctions against Russia and approved extensive aid to Kiev worth billions of dollars.

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/west-will-have-to-change-its-mind-about-referendums-in-donbass-zaporozhye--kherson-analyst-says-1101149196.html

West Will Have to Change Its Mind About Referendums in Donbass, Zaporozhye & Kherson, Analyst Says

West Will Have to Change Its Mind About Referendums in Donbass, Zaporozhye & Kherson, Analyst Says

Referendums on territorial affiliation are taking place in the Donbass, Kherson, and Zaporozhye regions on September 23-27. Earlier, surveys showed that a... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

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2022-09-23T16:47+0000

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donbass, kherson & zaporozhye referendums to join russia

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Voting in referendums on joining Russia began on September 23. Earlier, on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered an address to the nation to ensure security at the forthcoming plebiscites, and announced partial mobilization in the country. Putin's speech was met with hostility by the US and its NATO allies, who branded the self-determination right of the referendum participants as a "sham" and vowed to never recognize the outcome of the votes.The collective West, in particular Europeans and Americans, wants to keep an unquenchable long-term conflict in the region in order to weaken Russia, according to Khorsand. However, the ongoing referendums could create the conditions for bringing the conflict to an end, he underscores."Russia started its special [military] operation in Ukraine only for security reasons," the Iranian expert notes. "If the government of Ukraine, after the tensions of 2014, had adhered to its obligations under the Minsk agreements, we would have never witnessed these hostilities, this conflict. It would have never begun in the first place."Donbass' Thorny Way to IndependenceAfter the US-backed February 2014 coup d'etat, Ukraine's eastern regions called for autonomy resisting the rule of the military junta in Kiev. In response, Kiev started a "counter-terror operation" seeking to suppress "separatists" in the east. The Normandy Four, a format comprising Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine, worked out a roadmap, the Minsk accords, to stop the bloodshed in Donbass and provide the breakaway regions with an autonomous status. Nevertheless, Kiev's successive governments routinely sabotaged the provisions of the Minsk agreements preventing Donbass from gaining legitimate autonomy. In addition to that, the Ukrainian nationalist leadership made NATO membership the centerpiece of its policy, ramping up military training and resorting to the weaponization of the country.Moscow repeatedly called on the other guarantors of the Minsk agreements, Paris and Berlin, to pressure Kiev to observe the accords. As these attempts failed, Russia came up with draft security agreements requesting guarantees of Ukraine's non-admission to NATO. Moscow handed the drafts to the US and the transatlantic alliance in December 2021, reminding them of Western leaders' pledge to not expand NATO to Russia's doorstep. The Russian leadership made it clear that it takes its national security seriously and would resort to military-technical options if the West were to ignore the drafts. Nonetheless, the US, the EU, and NATO rejected key provisions of Moscow's proposals."Russia, given the seriousness of the topic of Ukraine's accession to NATO, did not see any other solution than the start of a special [military] operation to resolve the security problem," Khorsand says.Referendums as Path to Get Protection From Yoke of Kiev Regime"We expect the referenda to end up with the majority of the inhabitants of these regions voting in favor of joining Russia. I do not rule out that the hostilities will end after the referendum," Khorsand notes.Russia recognized the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics on February 22; still, this decision made the regions merely a "buffer zone" between Russia and Ukraine, which did not guarantee their safety, the Iranian expert explains.If admitted to the Russian Federation, the aforementioned regions, including Kherson and Zaporozhye, will have security guarantees as inalienable parts of Russia. The Donbass republics and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regional authorities announced on September 19 and 20 their intent to simultaneously hold referendums to join Russia. In his Wednesday speech, President Putin made it clear that Russia would protect its territorial integrity and sovereignty by all modern military means, adding that he wasn't "bluffing.""As for the legality of the referendums, it is worth noting that the autonomy of the regions of Donbass (LPR and DPR) was fully accepted in the 2014 agreement (Minsk agreements) and mentioned in the terms of this document, respectively, this referendum, reflecting the will and desire of the people of the autonomous and sovereign republics of Donbass to join Russia is a legitimate action," Khorsand says.Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov explained in an interview with Newsweek that the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR), the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions used their sacred right to self-determination, which is codified in the UN Charter, when they announced their intention to join Russia.

https://sputniknews.com/20220923/majority-of-donbass-kherson--zaporozhye-residents-in-favor-of-their-regions-joining-russia---poll-1101134341.html

https://sputniknews.com/20220401/nazism-is-disease-texan-came-to-donbass-to-protect-people--tell-the-truth-about-8-year-long-war-1094369347.html

https://sputniknews.com/20220921/checkmate-putins-address-marks-game-over-for-kievs-us--nato-backers-analysts-say-1101056726.html

https://sputniknews.com/20220922/observers-nato-complicit-in-ukraine-crisis-referendums-to-shield-donbass-kherson--zaporozhye-1101094434.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220923/world-bank-chief-says-he-is-not-climate-denier-after-reports-that-biden-admin-mulls-ousting-him-1101144652.html

World Bank Chief Says He Is Not Climate Denier After Reports That Biden Admin Mulls Ousting Him

World Bank Chief Says He Is Not Climate Denier After Reports That Biden Admin Mulls Ousting Him

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  President of the World Bank Group David Malpass said on Friday he is not a climate denier, following reports that the Biden... 23.09.2022, Sputnik International

2022-09-23T15:18+0000

2022-09-23T15:18+0000

2022-09-23T15:25+0000

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"When asked are you a climate denier? I should have said no. I didn't even really go in that direction. Because it's no one said that other than Al Gore and it was pretty much off-topic," Malpass said during a virtual conversation organized by Politico. "You know, I was at a seminar on Tuesday, where we were supposed to be talking about impact, and I really wasn't prepared and didn't do my best job in answering that charge."On Tuesday, Al Gore, vice president under the Clinton administration, called on President Joe Biden to remove Malpass from office, calling him a "climate denier."On Friday, Axios reported that the Biden administration is weighing ousting Malpass.

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Spotsylvania County School Board Chair Kirk Twigg signed a contract with prospective superintendent Mark Taylor on Sept. 16, the same day Twigg and other board members told the public that contract negotiations with Taylor were continuing.

The School Board held a special meeting Sept. 16 and approved a motion to submit the contract and negotiations forward as discussed in closed session.

This is all under further deliberation, Twigg told the public as the special meeting adjourned.

When Taylor begins his appointment as superintendent Nov. 1, he will be the second-highest-paid school division leader in the region.

Although Taylor has no background in public education, he qualifies for a superintendents license based on Option IV of the Virginia Codes licensure regulations, which lays out the requirements for obtaining a superintendents license without a background in education.

Candidates must have a masters degree or equivalent, three years of successful senior leadership experience and a recommendation from a Virginia School Board interested in hiring them.

Taylor will receive an annual base salary of $245,000, which is $5,000 less than Stafford County Superintendent Thomas Taylor, who has a doctorate in education and a masters degree in business administration and worked as a teacher, principal, chief academic officer, chief operating officer and deputy superintendent in several Virginia school divisions prior to becoming superintendent in Stafford.

Spotsylvania Public Schools has about 24,000 enrolled students, as compared to Staffords more than 30,000, and about 1,200 fewer employees than Stafford.

Taylor will make more than King George County schools Superintendent Robert Benson, who retired in June after 10 years as division leader; and more than Caroline Superintendent Sarah Calveric and Fredericksburg Superintendent Marci Catlett, who both have decades of teaching and administrative experience.

Bensons salary, according to his most recent contract, effective July 1, 2020, was $195,722. Calverics is $186,963, as of Aug. 17 and Catletts is $199,500 as of July 1, 2021.

Taylor will make $30,000 more per year than his predecessor, Scott Baker, who was making $215,000 when he was fired without cause in January.

Bakers contract was renewed most recently in June 2020. Twigg and board member Rabih Abuismail voted against renewing the contract, which increased Bakers pay from $205,000 to $215,000 annually.

Taylor will also make more than Spotsylvania County Administrator Ed Petrovitch, who makes $210,000 annually, according to his most recent contract.

Taylors contract is the only one of all regional superintendents contracts that guarantees him full salary and benefits for more than 12 months if he is fired without cause.

He will receive an amount equal to all salary, compensation and benefits through June 2026, according to the contract.

All other area superintendentsthose employed by the school boards in Fredericksburg, Stafford, Caroline County and King George Countywould receive pay for 12 months or until the expiration of their four-year contracts, whichever time period is shorter, if they are terminated without cause.

Bakers contract specified that he will receive salary, compensation and benefits for one year after his termination in January.

Taylors contract also differs from other local superintendent contracts in that the amount of deferred compensation he is to receive is not specified.

The Board will make an annual contribution to a deferred compensation plan on behalf of the Superintendent, if any, designated from time to time by the Superintendent, the contract states.

Deferred compensation is an arrangement in which a portion of an employees income is paid out at a later date, after the income was earned. Taxes on the income are also deferred until the employee receives the income.

The contracts for the other four superintendents either specify an annual dollar amount or percentage of base salarybetween $20,000 and $25,000 or 9.5% to 10%, in the case of local contractsto go toward the superintendents deferred compensation plan.

Taylors contract also notes that The Superintendent shall be entitled to hear and respond to any Board discussion of matters pertaining to the Superintendent personally.

No other local superintendents contract contains that language.

Taylor will be paid up to $5,000 to cover moving expenses from Greene County to Spotsylvania County, some 60 miles away.

School Board members were informed Monday that Taylors contract had been signed and executed.
Dobbys Frontier Town was a busy little town this weekend during the 32nd annual Fall Festival. The grounds and all 27 buildings were cleaned up and ready to give visitors a chance to experience history.

Countless tiny Rexs Hamburgers, made at 18 burgers per pound just like back in 1950, were served up, live music was performed, old time photos were taken by Steph Mantooth at Josiephines Photo Parlor, and shots of sarsaparilla was served up at the Lone Duck Saloon.

It was a wonderful weekend, said Dobbys Frontier Town Board President Lori White. It was honestly our most laid back and financially productive fundraiser that weve ever had. Im so happy! The bills are paid for the winter and we have a fresh start for the spring.

White thanked all who attended to support Dobbys.

Dobbys will entertain over 100 Alliance 4th graders on Friday for Pioneer Days.

During Dobbys Fall Festival, Lyn Messersmith and Deb Carpenter-Nolting with Humanities Nebraska offered stories, songs, and poems about women who left footprints on history by stepping out of place. The ladies spoke of just a few of the not-so-well-behaved women of our history.

Im going to talk to you about some working girls, said Messersmith, a third-generation Cherry County rancher.

A hometown gal Tad Lucas from Cody, Neb. was a trick rider and the only person inducted into all three Cowboy Halls of Fame, she said. She was quite famous in her day.

A tiny lady bronc rider from the Nebraska Sandhill country, Tad Lucas was the youngest of 24 children born to a pioneer family in 1902. She rode bulls in the main streets of Cody during World War I to raise money for the Red Cross. Trick riding was a contest event in the 1920s and Lucas won the event at the Cheyenne Frontier Days eight consecutive times.

Ive always been fascinated with Tad and love sharing her stories, said Messersmith. I remember hearing that name once when I was growing up then after I was grown I began to hear more of her stories.

She spoke of Baby Doe Tabor who was born Elizabeth McCourt in Oshkosh, Wis. in 1885. As a child she was known as a tomboy but was very beautiful.

She entered and won a figure skating contest, she said. That was something that was not proper for a young lady to do at that time. It was very much a mans sport. She got a lot of attention and not a lot of it positive. She caught the eye of Harvey Doe. They moved to Central City, Colo. so he could work the silver mine (that his father had given him as a wedding gift). He wasnt crazy about working in the mine so his wife put on miners clothes, picked up a shovel, and went to work.

Doing so attracted negative attention from the ladies of the community but the miners liked it and nicknamed her Baby Doe. She divorced Harvey after growing tired of making a living for both of them.

She decided she would just make a living for herself, she said.

She moved to Leadville, Colo.: the second largest city in Colorado in 1880. She met Horace Tabor who was a very wealthy but married miner and businessman. At the age of 25, Baby Doe married the 49 year old Horace. The two lived a very happy life spending the fortune that Horace made. During the silver panic of 1893, however, Tabors financial empire collapsed; Horace soon died and she became a penniless widow. She grieved for the remainder of her life, and in 1935 friends found her frozen to death, her feet wrapped in rags, in a shed at the Matchless Mine in which she lived alone.

That was her life, said Messersmith.

Carpenter-Nolting, from Bushnell, is a retired teacher who taught at many Nebraska schools from elementary to high school along with Western Nebraska Community College and Chadron State College. She is listed in Whos Who Among American Teachers and was awarded Instructor of the Year at Oglala Lakota College.

She told a story and sang a song about Nebraskas own Mari Sandoz; an author that went against the norm of romanticizing the West by writing the realities of the hardships. She was born in Hay Springs in 1896 and became one of the Wests foremost writers.

Back then, people wrote about how beautiful the West but she wrote about the realities of life and told things like they were, said Carpenter-Nolting. She always wanted to be a writer; when she was just 12 years old she had a short story published in the Omaha Bee which is now the Omaha World Herald. Her dad, Old Jules was not very fond of that he always discouraged her from writing and often instilled harsh punishments for it.

When she was a teenager, she snuck off to Rushville to take the teacher exam and he wasnt really happy with that either until she started bringing home money, she said. She enjoyed teaching but it wasnt as much of a passion as writing and one day when she was teaching at Bridgeport the kids came to school to a note tacked on the door that said, sorry, teacher is gone.

Sandoz went on to publish many non-fiction and fiction books including Old Jules.

Questions from the audience included: why is sharing stories of these women important to you?

For me, who we are has a lot to do with where we grew up, the traditions, the culture and the people that came before us, said Messersmith. It brings history to life as a real thing and not just dates and information that you learn in school. I hated history class when I was a kid because it wasnt about the people. History is about the people and how it affects who we are and where we are today.

For me, its about helping women find their voices, said Carpenter-Nolting. When you look at Mari who was look down on for telling the truth about her family and community we struggle with that. Women in this area especially have conservative backgrounds and were taught to be good little wives and mothers so not everybody had their own voice Its important to give these women that voice and to encourage other women to have a voice.
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers reintroduced legislation Thursday to provide more resources for tribal law enforcement, an issue they say has become more urgent as Congress begins to consider how to respond to a July Supreme Court case that complicated state-tribal criminal jurisdiction.

The bill, introduced in the House by U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona and in the Senate by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, both Democrats, seeks to improve data sharing between tribes and state and federal authorities.

It would also allow the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs to conduct background checks on tribal police applicants and establish grant programs to coordinate efforts on missing and murdered persons cases.

Reps. Sharice Davids, a Kansas Democrat, Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, and Dan Newhouse, a Washington Republican, cosponsored the House bill.

The bulk of the bill was introduced in 2019, but its supporters say the issue is now more important after the U.S. Supreme Courts ruling in the Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta case this summer.

That ruling held that states had concurrent jurisdiction with tribes and the federal government to prosecute non-Native American people accused of committing crimes on tribal lands, an expansion of state authority some saw as coming at the expense of tribal sovereignty.

The decision overturned almost 200 years of precedent, U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez of New Mexico said at a Tuesday House Natural Resources Indigenous Peoples Subcommittee hearing exploring the implications of the ruling, Source New Mexico reported.

Under tribes nation-to-nation arrangements with the federal government, states did not have the authority to prosecute alleged crimes on tribal lands.

The expansion of state authority came at the expense of tribal power, critics of the ruling have said.

Ultimately, the courts decision restricts the ability of tribal nations to seek self-sufficiency and build strong governments, Teri Gobin, the chair of the Tulalip Tribes in Washington State, testified. And it disregards the connection between sovereignty and safety.

Gallego called the decision yet another blow to tribal sovereignty.

Others, though, have argued adding another layer of law enforcement could only bolster public safety.

State prosecution would supplement federal authority, not supplant federal authority, Mithun Mansinghani, who represented the winning side in the Castro-Huerta case as Oklahomas solicitor general, said at the hearing. The state being forced to turn a blind eye when non-Indians abuse Indians doesnt serve anyones interest  not state interests, not federal interests and not tribal interests.

Leger Fernandez, the chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Indigenous Peoples, said the goal of the hearing was only to begin a conversation about the decisions impact, not to endorse any particular solution.

GAO report required

The bill introduced Thursday would not address the constitutional issues raised by the Supreme Court decision. Former U.S. Sen. Mark Udall and former Rep. Deb Haaland, both New Mexico Democrats, introduced a similar version in 2019, before the case even reached the court.

The bill would require a Government Accountability Office report to review evidence collection issues state and local police encounter for cases on tribal lands.

Most problems the bill addresses are longstanding, Cortez Masto said.

For too long, Indian Country has experienced barriers to justice because law enforcement agencies dont have what they need, she said in a statement. Thats unacceptable, and this bill will help support law enforcement and make sure that crimes can be prosecuted and offenders brought to justice.

As tribal agencies deal with a perceived attack on their sovereignty, they need more federal resources that the bill could provide, Gallego said.

The federal government has for years failed to provide Indian Country the resources needed to ensure public safety and support Tribal law enforcement agencies, he said in a statement. In the aftermath of the Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta decision, finding solutions that support Tribal justice systems is more important than ever.

Tribal law enforcement agencies can struggle to hire and retain sufficient staff, Gallego said at the Tuesday hearing. The bill would allow the BIA to conduct background checks on applicants to speed hiring. And in an effort at retaining officers, it would direct federal agencies to ensure that tribal law enforcement officers have access to counseling.

It would also require a GAO report to identify staffing needs and propose how the Justice Department could meet them. And it would require an Interior Department study on staffing and infrastructure needs.

It would also authorize a five-year DOJ grant program to create statewide or regional centers to track missing persons cases.

The bill comes one day after the Justice Department announced it would provide nearly $250 million in grants for tribal law enforcement and justice.
A shooting in Statesville led to a chase involving multiple law enforcement agencies before the suspects were apprehended in Charlotte.

Jaheim Tavares Vandive and Tahilyia Amari Mitchell, both of Charlotte, were taken into custody and brought back to Iredell County after the pursuit.

Both were interviewed and then taken to the Iredell County Jail. Statesville police said charges are forthcoming on both after consulting with the District Attorneys Office.

The Statesville Police Department received a call in reference to a person who had been shot in the 300 block of Vernon Lane on Thursday and patrol units soon arrived on the scene. They located a person in the road suffering from a gunshot wound to the left leg, according to police. After rendering aid, the person was able to give a description of the suspect and vehicle. Criminal investigations personnel arrived on the scene to gather evidence and speak to witnesses.

Soon after, the Iredell County Sherriffs Office became involved as the suspect vehicle was spotted and the pursuit followed down Interstate 77 and ultimately ended in Charlotte when the vehicle wrecked. The two were apprehended after a foot chase, said Iredell Sheriff Darren Campbell.

Campbell said a gun was dropped out of the vehicle during the chase. Statesville police said that the handgun, which is suspected of being used in the shooting, was recovered.

According to the Sheriff's Office's mobile app, Vandive is behind held without bond on charges of fleeing arrest, aggressive driving, speeding, and an expired plate. driving while license revoked, resisting and delaying a public officer, lane change violation, and failure to stop at sign/red light.
A retired New York Police Department officer rescued the driver of a vehicle who ended up in the water off Williamson Road on Wednesday afternoon.

Mooresville Fire-Rescue said in a news release that a call was received around 3:02 p.m. Wednesday regarding a vehicle in the water at 643 Williamson Road. When crews arrived, they found the driver had been rescued by a passer-by, the retired officer.

The vehicle left the road, ended up in Lake Norman and was filling up with water when the retired officer jumped into the lake, unbuckled the drivers seat belt and got the driver out of the vehicle. A boater jumped into the water and assisted with swimming the driver to a nearby dock.

The driver was taken to Carolinas Medical Center for treatment.

The Mooresville Police Department is investigating the accident. Mooresville Fire-Rescue remained on the scene until the vehicle was retrieved.
Alan Rose is the guest author at the 7 p.m. Sept. 29 Northwest Voices event in the Longview Public Librarys auditorium, 1600 Louisiana St., Longview.

He will read from his novel about the AIDS epidemic, As If Death Summoned, and take part in a discussion with library staff and attendees at the event.

As part of the program, he also will present a workshop open to the public on how to develop stories. The workshop takes place from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Sept. 28 in Lower Columbia Colleges Health and Sciences Building lecture hall, across the street from the library.

The book was published on World AIDS Day, Dec 1, 2020, by Amble Press, an imprint of Bywater Books.

The first AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) case became known in 1981 when gay men in San Francisco and New York City began dying from a mysterious illness. It was a scary and uncertain time, Rose is quoted in a previous TDN story. Friends were suddenly falling ill and in the hospital, and no one knew why.

In 1983, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) determined a retrovirus known as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was causing the mounting deaths.

Roses novel takes place in 1995, 14 years into the epidemic, when more than 300,000 Americans had died of AIDS.

Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to The Daily News.

In his book, Rose captures the pathos, resilience and the death-defying humor of those days, notes the TDN story. The book won the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award for the LGBT category in 2021. Foreword Review editors called it as heartwarming and hope-giving as it is heartbreaking. As If Death Summoned showcases the best and worst aspects of the fight against HIV.

Rose added a forward to the book which explores the similarities and differences between the AIDS epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic.

From 1993 to 1999, Rose was the mental health specialist and later prevention program manager at Cascade AIDS Project in Portland. Before that, he volunteered with the Victorian AIDS Council (now Thorne Harbour Health) in Melbourne, Australia. He came to Longview in 1999 as the director of community services at the Lower Columbia Community Action Program. He retired from Lower Columbia CAP in 2015 to write full time.

Rose also coordinates the monthly WordFest events; hosts the KLTV program, Book Chat; and reviews books for The Columbia River Reader.

Northwest Voices events are free and open to the public. The events are funded by the Longview Public Library, Lower Columbia College, the Friends of the Longview Library, the Longview Library Foundation, and the LCC Foundation.
Editors note: Information is provided by the Cowlitz County Corrections Department and local law enforcement agencies. Each individual named in this report is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Eluding police and malicious mischief  Longview police Tuesday arrested Xavier Felder Thomas, 25, of Atlanta on suspicion of felony malicious mischief, attempting to elude police, reckless endangerment, obstructing a public servant and resisting arrest.

Robbery, burglary, assault  Kelso officers Wednesday arrested Andick Andreas, 28, of an unknown location on suspicion of first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary and third-degree assault of a police officer.

Attempting to elude  Cowlitz County deputies Thursday arrested Gary Dean Clark Isaacson, 27, of Kelso on suspicion of attempting to elude, DUI, resisting arrest and carrying a concealed weapon.

Burglary  Cowlitz County deputies Wednesday arrested Sandy Joe Jones, 43, of Vancouver on suspicion of residential burglary.

Drugs  Longview police Wednesday arrested Thomas Nathan Joy, 34, of Longview on two counts of possession of controlled substances with intent to deliver.

Burglary  Cowlitz County deputies Wednesday arrested John Francis Kellis, 46, of an unknown location on suspicion of second-degree burglary.

Possession of stolen property  Longview police Wednesday arrested Kaley Jane Nohr Hanley, 19, of Longview on suspicion of second-degree possession of stolen property.

Editors note: A software switch at Cowlitz County dispatch has prevented the agency from temporarily supplying 911 call logs and officer notes past June 6. The agency is working to create new reports to supply media outlets.
Longview police were recently awarded about $200,000 in state funds to help respond to people in mental health crisis.

The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs announced Thursday the department was one of eight agencies that received funding for similar services for a total of roughly $3.2 million.

The grants are part of the state Legislature and the Washington State Health Care Authoritys efforts to link mental health professionals with those in crisis.

The state set aside $2 million in the 2020 and 2021 supplemental operating budgets for the sheriffs and police chiefs organization to help agencies start mental health response teams, according to the organization.

Washington State Health Care Authority awarded the sheriffs and police chiefs organization another $1 million to use from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022. The Longview Police Department received nearly $200,000 during that time period as well.

An annual report from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs says, during that time period, 429 people were contacted by Longviews mental health response team, which also includes countywide services.

Members of Longviews Behavioral Health Unit wear bulletproof vests labeled counselor, and join officers on calls involving suspected mental crises, from trespassing reports to bomb threats. They help people connect with needed services, like medication and housing. They dont carry caseloads like a social worker, Longview Capt. Branden McNew previously said, but follow up with people they encounter in the field to ensure they get the help they need.
WOODLAND  A Woodland native released a fictional tale based off one of Washington states largest recorded forest fires, which occurred 120 years ago this month.

The Yacolt Burn destroyed nearly 240,000 acres in Cowlitz, Clark and Skamania counties from Sept. 11 to Sept. 13, 1902, and killed 38 people, according to a historylink.org article.

Douglas Maynard grew up hearing about the fire. He could see the scars of burnt trees near his grandparents home near the Lewis River Valley.

Later, as a history teacher in locations including Kalama, he read about an unidentified man who walked into the oncoming blaze to save his neighbors.

The mysterious man inspired Maynard to write the fictional Hero of the Yacolt Burn, which was released last June and is available on sites like amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

Maynard named the legendary man Thomas Merriman, describing him as a loyal, hardworking dreamer who reached the west by wagon with the Bidwell-Bartleson Party  the actual first wagon train to reach California.

Years later, Maynard writes Merriman headed into the Yacolt Burn blaze at age 79 to rescue his neighbors and friends.

No organized fire response existed in the area in 1902, according to the historylink.org article, allowing the fire to grow wildly, and leaving at least 146 families without homes.

The following year, a state fire warden was established in response to the blaze, according to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. The 90,000-acre Yacolt Burn State Forest is named after the fire, the DNR says.

Maynard said the tale will shed light on past regional events.

I recommend people read the book because its a great story and relates to our local history, he said.

The 164-page piece is Maynards second published book. He also wrote the 2016 coming-of-age novel Three Summers: The Greatest Game.
ISTANBUL (AP)  Military-aged men fled Russia in droves Friday, filling planes and causing traffic jams at border crossings to avoid being rounded up to fight in Ukraine following the Kremlin's partial military mobilization.

Queues stretching for 10 kilometers (6 miles) formed on a road leading to the southern border with Georgia, according to Yandex Maps, a Russian online map service.

The lines of cars were so long at the border with Kazakhstan that some people abandoned their vehicles and proceeded on foot  just as some Ukrainians did after Russia invaded their country on Feb. 24.

Meanwhile, dozens of flights out of Russia  with tickets sold at sky-high prices  carried men to international destinations such as Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Serbia, where Russians don't need visas.

Among those who reached Turkey was a 41-year-old who landed in Istanbul with a suitcase and a backpack and plans to start a new life in Israel.

"I'm against this war, and I'm not going to be a part of it. I'm not going to be a murderer. I'm not going to kill people," said the man, who identified himself only as Yevgeny to avoid potential retribution against his family left behind in Russia.

He referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "war criminal."

Read the full story here:

MORE RUSSIA-UKRAINE DEVELOPMENTS

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PHOTOS FROM THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

Warning: Some of the images in this gallery are graphic
Oregon students reading, writing and math skills plummeted due to pandemic-induced disruptions to schooling, and students who were already trailing far behind grade level experienced the most harm, somber Oregon Department of Education officials announced.

The staggering blows to students academic skills, as measured by the first reliable statewide test scores since spring 2019, could take years to repair and may in some cases never be made up for, they acknowledged.

Across grades three through eight, just 39% of students scored as proficient at reading and writing last spring, down from the previous low of 51%, and just 28% scored proficient in math, far below the previous low point of 40%.

Still, state schools chief Colt Gill struck a determined and even optimistic note, referring to the multibillion-dollar infusion of money that Oregon schools are receiving from the states $1 billion-a-year business taxes for education plus another one-time $1.7 billion in federal pandemic aid.

The results tell us that we need to double down on what we know works when were addressing unfinished learning, he told The Oregonian/OregonLive. Citing the additional billions, he said Districts can aim those funds  to accelerate academic learning and support mental health and well-being so that kids are really feeling like they are ready to learn.

In Oregon, unlike most national findings about pandemic learning lags, white students didnt fare better than students of color during school closure and disruptions. In grades three through six, the share of white students, Latinos students and Indigenous students who mastered English or math all fell 8 percentage points from 2019 to 2022, an analysis by The Oregonian/OregonLive found. Black students and students with disabilities experienced smaller drops but had far lower proficiency rates to begin with.

A small share of schools and districts defied the distressing statewide and nationwide trends. For example, Portland Public Schools, the states largest, saw no change in overall elementary reading and writing proficiency from 2019 to 2022 and its elementary students math performance was higher this spring than before the pandemic. District officials credited a new elementary math curriculum they put in place last fall.

Portlands middle schools were another story, however, as student proficiency levels fell significantly, particularly in math. And district leaders condemned as dismal and unacceptable the yawning gap between relatively high proficiency levels among their while students and the low proficiency among their Latino and Native American students and rock bottom rates for Black students. On Thursday, they laid out strategies including new curricular materials, stepped up teacher training and deployment of new learning acceleration specialists who will work directly with students in high-need schools to gain skills beyond those taught during regular grade-level English and math classes.

Test scores paint an important but incomplete portrait of how much students have learned and the strength of the trajectory theyre on toward college and career success. But they are the most reliable tool we have to understand the pandemics impact on student learning, said state testing director Dan Farley.

Because fewer than 60% of 11th-graders took the English or math tests, the high school scores arent reliable, state officials said. That was true even before the pandemic, and state officials say they are working to find ways to meaningfully measure how well high schools are helping students master academics.

Oregon as a whole and its individual school districts should use the 2022 test score results to redistribute resources to provide more effective instruction to those with the greatest unmet learning needs, Farley said. Those include students who were years below grade level when the pandemic struck, students with disabilities, and Black, Pacific Islander, Indigenous and Latino students. State education officials said they believe students navigating poverty also need more school support. But they said the 2022 test scores didnt measure socioeconomic performance gaps because all children were declared eligible for free school meals last school year, so neither schools nor the state got information about which students had low family incomes and which did not.

One place that stands out as needing emergency instructional upgrades is the Reynolds School District, which stretches from Northeast Portland through North Gresham and Fairview to Troutdale. Three schools in that district, Davis and Salish Ponds elementaries and Reynolds Middle, had virtually no students who tested as proficient in math, scores showed. (The state only reports that fewer than 5% of all students tested were proficient in any school or district with such troubling results; it doesnt specify if, say, 4% proved proficient or none did.) Another Reynolds school, Alder Elementary, had virtually no students register as proficient in reading and writing.

Reynolds officials did not return phone calls requesting comment Wednesday.

The scores released Thursday come from the Smarter Balanced Assessments, which include open-ended questions and performance tasks as well as multiple-choice items. Nine other states, including Washington, also use Smarter Balanced tests to measure school performance.

Oregons new business tax for education was imposed beginning in 2020 and distributed to districts beginning with the 2020-21 school year. But its effects have yet to be measured, since school spending and operations have been mostly upended by COVID closures, operating restrictions and quarantines since then. Oregon districts have three years to spend slightly more than $1.7 billion in federal pandemic aid. This is the second of those three school years.

Gill said districts should focus that money on techniques and services that have proven to accelerate learning. Those, he said, include immediately providing teachers with regular student performance data from short, frequent tests and giving them time to meet together to interpret that data to adjust instruction on the fly. He also said wrap-around services such a mental health supports that focus on the whole child prime students to learn. And he said schools should make sure they feel welcoming and engaging to all students.
When it comes to the Interstate 5 Bridge, there are nearly as many ideas for replacing it as there are vehicles crossing it.

That is how it should be. Any potential replacement project will help define Clark County for generations to come, and public input is essential for finding optimal solutions and generating community support.

No plans for the bridge have been set in stone. The preferred local alternative calls for the inclusion of light rail, three travel lanes and an auxiliary lane in each direction, and 116 feet of clearance above the Columbia River.

Decisions on whether traffic lanes will be stacked or side-by-side are not expected until 2024 at the earliest. That leaves plenty of room for debate and discussion and differing opinions, and an article by Columbian reporter William Seekamp recently took a look at some of those opinions.

As Seekamp writes, Administrator Greg Johnson of the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program doesnt consider the alternative ideas bad, but he said none of them meet the programs purpose and need to address seismic vulnerability, bike and pedestrian paths, public transportation, safety, freight movement and congestion.

Among the frequent suggestions from the public: A tunnel under the river, rather than a bridge; a bascule bridge, which is a form of drawbridge; a third bridge across the Columbia River before an I-5 replacement; and a four-part plan that includes keeping the current bridge but reconfiguring a downstream railroad bridge to reduce the number of bridge lifts.

In particular, the proposal for a third bridge has drawn much outspoken support. While a third bridge is necessary to accommodate a growing region, we believe the I-5 Bridge must take priority. Reaching into the center of Vancouver and Portland, it is the regions most important conduit, and its proximity to the ports of both cities makes it essential for the regions economy and the movement of freight.

Eventually, a third bridge should be constructed, but that raises as many questions as it answers. A bridge between Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 sounds enticing, for example, but the location of Portland International Airport prohibits it. A crossing near Woodland is a possibility, as is one to the east near Camas or Washougal. But connecting arterials in those areas would take even longer to figure out than the I-5 proposal.

Another common suggestion involves an immersed tunnel. A tunnel would address concerns about bridge height and river clearance, but it would bypass downtown Vancouver and Hayden Island on the Oregon side. As Johnson says: We wouldnt be at odds with the Coast Guard or the Federal Aviation Administration with a tunnel, but it creates so many other problems. Its not feasible to do, and it doesnt meet purpose and need.

The purpose, of course, is to improve the flow of people and freight, improve seismic safety, and create a bridge that will effectively serve the region for generations.

There are concerns current proposals too closely echo the failed Columbia River Crossing plan of a decade ago; a plan scuttled in the Washington Legislature.

This time around, the Legislature has provided funding ahead of finalized plans, providing hope the bridge will survive last-minute challenges. Getting to that point, however, will require the vetting of numerous ideas from the public.
MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell has sued the FBI, demanding the return of a cellphone agents seized from him.

MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell has sued the Department of Justice and the FBI, demanding the return of an Apple iPhone agents seized from him outside a fast food restaurant in southern Minnesota last week, apparently as part of an investigation into an alleged scheme to breach voting system technology.

Lindell alleges in the complaint, filed Tuesday in federal court in Minnesota, that the confiscation of his iPhone violated his constitutional rights against unlawful search and seizure and an attempt to chill his freedom of speech. Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the 2020 presidential election, asked the court to order the return of his phone and to prohibit federal authorities from using any data they've accessed from it or from his cellular service provider.

FBI agents stopped Lindell at the drive-through window of a Hardee's restaurant in Mankato on Sept. 13, when Lindell says he was on his way home from duck hunting with a friend in Iowa. They came with a search warrant, signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Tony Leung on Sept. 7, that authorized them to seize his cellphone and data on it pertaining to Dominion Voting Systems, as well as to a Colorado county clerk and other alleged co-conspirators.

The complaint also says Lindell has been served with a grand jury subpoena dated Sept. 7 that seeks similar information to what the search warrant covered.

The scope of the federal grand jury probe in Colorado isn't known, but local authorities there have charged Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters in what they've described as a deceptive scheme, which was designed to influence public servants, breach security protocols, exceed permissible access to voting equipment and set in motion the eventual distribution of confidential information to unauthorized people.  She has pleaded not guilty.

Peters has appeared at several events with Lindell over the past year, including his cybersymposium in August 2021 in South Dakota at which a digital copy of Mesa County's election management system was distributed.

According to Lindell's complaint, the FBI agents boxed in his truck at the drive-through, then questioned him for 25 to 30 minutes about Dominion and Peters. It says the agents allowed Lindell to leave only after he handed over his phone.

Lindell says he needs the iPhone back because it's the main way he runs MyPillow and affiliated businesses. His complaint alleges the government obtained the warrant in bad faith, and without apprising the magistrate judge of Lindell's role in the Colorado case. He also alleges the government must have used his cellphone signals  or a tracking device on his truck  without a warrant, to find him at the Hardee's.

Lindell is already the subject of a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion in the District of Columbia that says Lindell falsely accused the company of rigging the 2020 presidential election. In a separate case, a federal judge in Minnesota on Monday said a defamation lawsuit against Lindell by a different voting machine company, Smartmatic, can go forward.
Disgruntled Airbnb guests are taking to Twitter and TikTok to vent about everything from cleaning fees to misleading listings. But they aren't the only ones with complaints: Airbnb hosts themselves have become increasingly disillusioned with the platform and its disrespectful guests.

On message boards and Facebook groups, hosts are sharing their own challenges and horror stories. One host claimed that a group of guests was unwilling to leave the property despite receiving a full refund from Airbnb.

I went to the apartment to check what was going on, and I was in shock to discover that the tenants were still in the apartment, the host wrote on the website AirbnbHell. They immediately called the police on me and I was kicked out of my own apartment by a team of the police  a complete shock.

While these anecdotes might seem like the natural byproduct of the largely unregulated short-term rental industry, they speak to larger trends impacting hosts. A 2021 report from Bloomberg detailed how Airbnb's secretive crisis team spends millions of dollars to cover up crimes and other publicity nightmares in its listings. And the platform recently launched anti-party technology  in an effort to defray hosts' frustrations with large, destructive gatherings.

These issues raise the question: Is Airbnb itself the problem  or are the guests?

SILLY STRING AND FOUL ODORS

In May of this year, Airbnb launched a new AirCover protection plan for guests and hosts . It promises quick reimbursement for hosts and up to $1 million in damage protection. And while many hosts consider this policy generous, it still comes with plenty of gray areas.

Emily Muskin Rathner , a digital marketing professional living in Cleveland, began renting her house on Airbnb in August 2021. She says that hosting has been a pleasant and profitable enterprise overall, but a few guests have caused major problems, including a family that rented the house this June.

They left the house a mess, she says. There was human feces on our laundry. They sprayed Silly String all over the place. I don't care about Silly String, but can you pick it up? It left stains, oddly.

Muskin Rathner received reimbursement from Airbnb for most of her claims. But some damage, such as nail polish smeared on the bathroom tile, didn't qualify for reimbursement because she wasn't able to provide documentation for the cost of the tile. And then there was the smell.

It really, really stunk. The air conditioning had been left off for a week  in June.

RED TAPE EVERYWHERE

The early days of short-term vacation rentals offered hosts a simple proposition: Rent your home and earn some extra money. Yet as the industry has matured, it's been met with regulation efforts from local governments.

Cities such as Denver and Portland, Oregon, have been cracking down on unlicensed short-term rentals, levying fines against hosts and requiring expensive permits. These policies allow local governments to collect taxes and regulate problematic behavior, but they add one more layer of complexity for hosts, many of whom have little experience in hospitality.

Furthermore, many local governments place the burden of tax collection on hosts, not Airbnb. A 2022 analysis by the National League of Cities, an advocacy organization composed of city, town and village leaders, estimated that 82% of cities require hosts to remit taxes themselves, while only 5% require the platform to do so on hosts' behalf.

Hosts must now not only act as full-time customer service agents and hospitality experts, but also navigate local regulations and master convoluted taxation laws.

COMPETITION FROM MANAGEMENT COMPANIES

The romantic notion of home sharing as a means for homeowners to pay their mortgages has given way to management companies inserting themselves and aiming to maximize profits. And small-time hosts can't keep up with these corporate competitors.

A study of short-term rentals in the U.K. found that the number of listings managed by hosts with a single property dropped from 69% in 2015 to 39% in 2019. And data from the nonprofit Inside Airbnb suggests that only 39.1% of properties in Los Angeles are managed by single-property hosts.

These mega-hosts are able to operate at scale, maximizing efficiency on everything from pricing adjustments to cleaning staff. Single-property hosts can't keep up, or are unwilling to deal with the hassle, and are being elbowed out of the ecosystem.
NASA informed that an asteroid which has the potential to cause mass destruction just flew close past Earth today. Did it cause any damage?

Nearly 100 tons of space dust and sand sized particles hit Earth every day, according to NASA. Astonishingly, a vehicle-sized asteroid hits Earth's atmosphere, creates an impressive fireball, and burns up before reaching the surface nearly once every year. However, this year has been unusual. There have been numerous close calls with asteroids as large as an aircraft. Although only once every few million years, a space rock large enough to annihilate the planet comes along. Impact craters on Earth and other planets are signs of such previous encounters.

Asteroid 2022 QH8 hurtled past Earth today

NASA informed that an asteroid named Asteroid 2022 QH8 just flew past the planet during early hours today, September 23. The asteroid is humongous in size with a width of nearly 160 feet which is the same size as a commercial aircraft. The asteroid was clocked at a blistering speed of 55,000 kilometers per hour.

It made a close approach with the planet during today's early hours at a distance of nearly 4 million kilometers. Asteroid 2022 QH8 had huge destructive potential due to its sheer size and speed and could have caused mass destruction if it deviated slightly from its path. NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office had red-flagged it as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid due to the close proximity it flew past the planet.

Asteroid 2022 QH8 belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids which are located in the main asteroid belt near Jupiter. The asteroid was recently discovered on August 29 2022 and takes nearly 1395 days to complete one orbit around the Sun. During this orbit, the asteroid's farthest distance from the Sun is 613 kilometers while its nearest distance is 118 million kilometers.

Know the tech?

NASA can track the orbital path of the asteroid using the infrared data from its repurposed Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and can even predict its orbit years into the future. NASA then uses its ground-based radar to gather precise data about the asteroid's path and its characteristics.
A former Twitter employee who was convicted of spying for Saudi, said he deserves a new trial.

A former Twitter Inc. employee who was convicted of spying for Saudi Arabia by turning over personal information of platform users said he deserves a new trial because prosecutors didn't tell him about a whistle-blower's report on security lapses at the company.

Ahmad Abouammo said in a court filing Thursday that the explosive report might have helped him because, as his lawyer argued to the jury, Twitter threw him under the bus to deflect from the company's careless handling of its users' data.

He said whistle-blower Peiter Zatko, a former Twitter security chief, submitted the report in July to multiple government agencies, including the Justice Department. But it didn't become public until after Abouammo's trial ended in August, when it sparked a congressional hearing and gave Elon Musk new ammunition in his effort to back out of an agreement to buy Twitter for $44 billion.

Abouammo's allegation that prosecutors committed misconduct by withholding the report is one of several arguments his lawyers made in Thursday's filing to try to get a judge to set aside the jury's Aug. 9 guilty verdict. Such motions are routine in criminal cases and rarely succeed.

The contents of Zatko's report include information that clears Abouammo of wrongdoing and reflects powerful impeachment evidence for multiple government witnesses who testified about the purportedly ironclad protection of user data at Twitter, his lawyers wrote.

Given the government's and its witnesses' focus on Twitter security and efforts to fend off foreign interference, the information provided by Zatko would have been a central and compelling aspect of the defense case, according to the filing.

A spokesman for the US attorney's office in San Francisco and a Twitter spokesperson declined to comment on the filing.

In his testimony to the Senate, Zatko described a ticking bomb of security vulnerabilities at Twitter as a result of outdated software, broad employee access to personal user data and a reactive security policy that had engineers running from fire to fire.

Twitter has said it fired Zatko in January for poor performance and that he has given a false narrative about Twitter and our privacy and data security practices that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context.

The company has disclosed it reached a $7.75 million separation agreement with Zatko on June 28.

Abouammo, a US resident born in Egypt, was found guilty of charges including acting as an agent for Saudi Arabia, money laundering, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and falsifying records, following a two-week trial. He faces 10 to 20 years in prison when he's sentenced.

The case is US v. Abouammo, 19-cr-00621, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).
Kittyhawk, the air-taxi company backed by billionaire Google co-founder Larry Page, will be closing down, dealing a setback to the long-elusive dream of developing flying cars.

Kittyhawk, the air-taxi company backed by billionaire Google co-founder Larry Page, will be closing down, dealing a setback to the long-elusive dream of developing flying cars.

We have made the decision to wind down Kittyhawk, the company said on Twitter. We're still working on the details of what's next.

The company's technology is expected to live on in the form of its Wisk Aero joint venture with Boeing Co. Wisk's operations won't be affected by Kittyhawk's shutdown, Boeing said on Wednesday.

Kittyhawk traces its history to 2010, when a company then known as Zee. Aero set out to pioneer the market for so-called eVTOLs -- electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft -- ultimately with the goal of democratizing the skies. The secretive company was run by Sebastian Thrun, a Google veteran who worked on self-driving cars, augmented-reality glasses and other projects.

The business was one of several startups working on the concept, which has proven to be a greater challenge than some expected. Air taxis have suffered crashes during testing in recent months, raising concerns about their safety.

Insider previously reported on Kittyhawk's plans to close.

Kittyhawk formed its Wisk venture with Boeing Co. in 2019, and the airplane manufacturer went on to invest $450 million in the partnership. Earlier this week, Boeing and Wisk presented their vision for a world where eVTOLs can coexist with larger commercial aircraft.

Kittyhawk's decision to cease operations does not change Boeing's commitment to Wisk, a spokeswoman for the plane manufacturer said in an email. We are proud to be a founding member of Wisk Aero and are excited to see the work they are doing to drive innovation and sustainability through the future of electric air travel.

The aviation titan helped showcase Wisk's rotor-powered Cora aircraft at the Farnborough International Airshow in July. Along with financing the business, Boeing has been providing engineering resources for a larger, electric four-seater aircraft that Wisk intends to eventually certify with US regulators.

The air-taxi market still has numerous competitors, including Joby Aviation Inc., Archer Aviation Inc., Germany's Lilium NV and Brazil's Eve, but they face uncertain prospects for these futuristic vehicles. Aviation regulators haven't yet certified the new generation of flying machines to transport humans.

Kittyhawk's goal was to make an air taxi that could be remotely piloted, was smaller and lighter than other eVTOLs, and could take off from nearly anywhere. The company was targeting a cost of less than $1 a mile, which would have made the taxis cheaper than ride-sharing services.

Now Kittyhawk's shutdown closes a chapter for one of the highest-profile eVTOL pioneers -- and shows how hard the market is to crack. As of Wednesday, the company still had this message on its home page: If anyone can do this, we can.
Optus is investigating a cyberattack that may have led to the unauthorized access of customers information.

Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. said its Australian unit Optus is investigating a cyberattack that may have led to the unauthorized access of current and former customers' information.

Customer names, birth dates, phone numbers and email addresses are among the data that may have been exposed, SingTel said in a statement to the Singapore exchange Thursday. The attack may have exposed the addresses and identification-document details of a smaller number of customers, it said.

As soon as we knew, we took action to block the attack and began an immediate investigation, Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said in the statement. While not everyone may be affected and our investigation is not yet complete, we want all of our customers to be aware of what has happened as soon as possible so that they can increase their vigilance.

The company said it's working with the Australian Cyber Security Centre to mitigate risks to customers, and it also notified the Australian police, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and key regulators. Optus services, including mobile and home internet, weren't affected and the company says its services remain safe to use.

Australian markets are closed Thursday for a national public holiday to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II.
If you are worried that your personal information including number, address and email comes up on Google search, then you can relax. Google is making removing this information easier.

In the era of increasing digital intrusion into private life, there has been little anyone could have done to fight it. In fact, most of us have ourselves provided personal information to one website or the other. Whether it is a social media platform like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter or ecommerce websites like Amazon, Flipkart and Myntra, we have all added our name, phone number, address and email at the very least. But these are large websites which have strong privacy policies. But there are countless small and shady websites which do not protect user data. On top of that, many websites fall for security breaches and data leaks and often our personal information ends up online, including our bank accounts. And the problem worsens when it shows up in Google search results. But Google recognizes the issue and is making the process to remove such information easier.

Google makes removing personal information from search results easier

The Google Results about you' feature has begun rolling out to users, according to a report by 9to5Google. The feature is designed to simplify the process of removing search results from Google that contain personal information of users. Google announced this feature in its I/O event earlier this year and said that it would be coming to the Google app later this year.

Users could remove their personal information earlier as well, but the process used to be more time consuming and complicated. In case a user found their phone number, address, or even financial information floating around, they would have to go to a Google support page and fill out a form mentioning the URL they wanted to be removed from the search result. Needless to say, it would take a considerable amount of time for Google to verify the form and take action.

With the new Results about you' tool, users will be able to make the request for removal directly from the search page. Users can simply click the three dots next to the URL text and access the About this result' page. From there, just clicking on the Remove result' option will begin the process to remove the page.

The tool also has an option to let users track their removal requests. Users can go to the Google app and click on their profile picture to pop open the Results about you' screen where they can monitor the status of their requests directly. According to 9to5Google, this screen will also allow users to add new requests for search result removal as well.

Do note that this process just deindexes the information showing on Google search results. People can still visit the website by typing the URL and access the information.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Optus fears data on up to 9.8 million of its customers has been accessed in a sophisticated cyberattackincluding, for some customers, passport and drivers license details, as well as phone numbers, dates of birth and email addresses.

It made the announcement through the media, in the middle of Thursday's national day of mourning public holiday, and during the four-day long weekend in Melbourne in the lead-up to the AFL grand final.

At first, it didn't text or email its customers. Instead, it issued a press release in the belief this was "the quickest and most effective way to alert as many current and former customers as possible, so they could be vigilant and monitor for any suspicious activity."

Trust in the media is at an all-time low. Communications authority Edelman reports that globally, only 50% of people trust the media, down from 62% a decade ago. Far more people (61%) trust businesses.

Tweets rather than texts

It has been conventional wisdom that brands should take an integrated approach to marketing communications. Many channels are better than one, increasingly so as audiences for traditional channels continue to fragment.

An integrated marketing approach need not mean communicating through every available channel, but it should mean strategically selecting channels that are trusted and consumed by the brand's customers.

One of the best channels Optus has is its own phone network, and it is experienced in using it to contact its customers.

Customers are likely to expect this where Optus has something important to say, and they are likely to trust a direct message from Optus more than one filtered through the media.

They are even likely to spread it via word of mouth through friends who also use Optus, giving the company a continuing role in shaping the message.

Instead, Optus backed up its press release with tweets.

Hi Marie, we issued a press release and proactively reached out to media as this is the quickest way to inform all our existing and former customers so they can be on high alert for anything suspicious. Kartik  Optus (@Optus) September 22, 2022

Optus has around 5.8 million active users, around 21% of the Australian population. They are a cross-section of the population, having little in common other than the fact they use Optus for communications.

Some of Optus' customers, especially those in Gen Z, might not use traditional news media. They wouldn't have received the message through that channel.

Former customers dating back to 2017 are also likely to be affected by the breach, taking the total affected to around 9.8 million, about one third of the population.

Twitter is used by about only about 18% of the population, and the overlap with Optus customers might not be large.

We'll be contacting impacted customers soon with more information and details on how we'll support them. Optus will not be sending links in any emails or SMS messages. If you believe your account has been compromised, you can contact us on My Optus app (2/2) ^George  Optus (@Optus) September 23, 2022

What can brands learn from Optus?

As marketing and branding experts, we've distilled three lessons, each well known before the data breach.

When you have news affecting your customers, tell them before anyone else, in a personalized, one-to-one approach. Use channels that are trusted and consumed by your customers. Encourage word of mouth through your relationships with your brand community and loyal customers.

Explore further Building resilient telecommunications infrastructure

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Facebook may lift former president Donald Trump's suspension in January 2023, Meta Platforms executive Nick Clegg said Thursday.

Trump lost his direct link to supporters when he was booted from the nation's top social media platforms after the Capitol siege.

Returning to Facebook would be a boon for political outreach and fundraising should Trump run for president again in 2024. In 2016 and in 2020, Trump tapped Facebook to energize his base and raise campaign cash.

Without his social media bullhorns, he has relied on his Truth Social app which has much more limited reach.

At an event sponsored by news organization Semafor, Clegg said the company would consult experts and weigh the risk for public harm, Clegg, president of global affairs, said.

"When you make a decision that affects the public realm, you need to act with great caution," Clegg told Semafor editor-at-large Steve Clemons. "You shouldn't throw your weight about."

Trump had 35 million followers on Facebook and also had a presence on Instagram.

CEO Susan Wojcicki said last year that YouTube would lift the Trump ban "when we determine the risk of violence has decreased."

Twitter permanently barred Trump. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is trying to quash his deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion, has indicated that he would allow Trump back on the social media platform where he had more than 88 million followers.

The deplatforming of Trump sparked outrage among conservatives who said Facebook and other major social media platforms routinely censor their speech.

At the time Trump called Facebook, Twitter and Google's YouTube "a total disgrace and an embarrassment to our country."

Angelo Carusone, president of liberal media watchdog group Media Matters for America, issued a statement.

"Nick Clegg confirmed what we have known and warned about all along: Facebook has every intention of restoring Donald Trump's account," Carusone said.

"Clegg could have easily noted that Trump's active promotion of QAnon and continued attempts to overturn the 2020 election would not only be a violation of Facebook's policies but is certainly an indicator of real-world harms that make it unlikely the platform will restore his account. Instead, he indicated that, as when Trump was active on the platform, Facebook remains unwilling to apply or enforce its own rules against Trump."

Explore further Trump social media platform faces money woes, modest following

(c)2022 USA Today

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
College Station school board members voted unanimously to expand its School Resource Deputy program to include two deputies who will be assigned to the elementary and intermediate campuses.

The expansion is reflected in an amendment in the districts five-year interlocal agreement with the Brazos County Sheriffs Office, which provides the school resource deputies in the district. The amendment increases the number from seven to nine deputies.

The district currently has an assigned school resource deputy at each middle school and high school with one rover, who does not have an assigned school. The two new school resource deputies will be considered rovers as well, but specifically to provide support at the districts elementary and intermediate school campuses.

Chief Administrative Officer Molley Perry told the board during the Sept. 20 meeting, While they will have a home base and an office, they will be serving our intermediate and elementary campuses districtwide.

The law enforcement officers will serve as mentors, problem solvers and a presence to provide positive police-student relationships in the schools, she said.

Perry said she anticipates the two new deputies to be in place by the end of the fall semester.
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A Roanoke racial justice group planted a blue historical marker Wednesday near the city intersection where newspaper accounts documented the hanging of a Black man by a white mob nearly 130 years ago.

About 150 onlookers witnessed the observance and contributed jubilant cries to finally see public acknowledgement of victim Thomas Smiths seizure from authorities and brutal slaying on Sept. 21, 1893.

He had had no trial, much less been convicted, and authorities determined after his death that he played no role in an assault on a white woman for which he was accused, according to the presentation.

A Vinton woman who attended the observance at Franklin Road and Mountain Avenue described Thomas as her great-grandmothers brother.

My family never thought something like this would happen, Teresa Smith, 55, told the crowd in a soft voice.

The group behind the project, the Roanoke EJI Community Remembrance Project Coalition, had put out feelers some time ago to find a Smith family member but no one came forward  until Teresa Smith approached coalition Chairwoman Brenda Hale at the Henry Street Heritage Festival Saturday, Hale said.

The marker project, three years in the making, arose from an ongoing conversation about the citys history and a shared desire to counteract racism, organizers said. The Equal Justice Initiative, a Montgomery, Alabama, legal defense and advocacy organization, provided the sign through its community remembrance project and has helped guide local organizers.

As the moment of the unveiling drew near, a pastor called for a moment of silence  and silence came, except for the tweets of a group of swallows high overhead.

All of us must make peace with this, all of Roanoke city, said Amy Christine Hodge, pastor at Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in Roanoke.

Smiling committee members pulled off the signs temporary plastic covering and then stooped to collect soil from below into a jar. The act of collecting soil was to commemorate the blood and the tears that fell into the soil of those who were lynched, said committee member Jennie Waering.

The soil will go to EJI headquarters, which operates the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, sometimes called the national lynching memorial, and a museum about slavery and its legacy. EJI said it has documented 4,400 racial terror lynchings.

This is what Roanoke is about, Hale said. This is true diversity. This is what it looks like.

Spectator John Johnson of Roanoke, a white man who attended with his wife, said he wanted to be part of something our community is doing in remembrance of something we hate to know happened.

Dashielle Larson-Harris, a white Roanoke native who grew up in walking distance of the site, knew nothing of the Smith lynching until his Roanoke history teacher at Community High School taught about it, he said. Before, he knew white people had lynched Black people, but it was just kind of this thing in history, Larson-Harris, 16, said. Finding out a lynching happened down the street at a location he passes by often is pretty crazy and he felt empathy, he said.

Powerful, long overdue, as we know, said Felicia Johnson, a Black retired preschool teacher from Vinton, who was in the crowd.
The following was told as a true story from George Phillips of Meridian, Mississippi.

George was going to bed when his wife told him that hed left the light on in the shed. George opened the door to turn off the light but saw several people in the shed stealing things. He immediately phoned the police, who asked, Is someone in your house?

George said, No, just in the shed. They explained all patrols were busy, and he should lock the door and an officer would be there when available.

George said, OK. He hung up and counted to 30, and phoned the police again.

Hello, I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people in my shed. Well, you dont have to worry about them now because Ive shot them all. Then he hung up. Within five minutes three squad cars, an Armed Response Unit, and an ambulance showed up. Of course, the police caught the burglars red-handed.

One of the police said to George, I thought you said youd shot them!

George said, I thought you said there was nobody available!

Where do we go when theres an urgent need for help? Who do we call? Jesus developed a reputation as the one to go to for help. The mighty power of Jesus was spreading in the area around the Sea of Galilee. Even people in Jerusalem (a seven-day journey) had heard of this miracle worker.

Jesus often stayed in Peters house when he was in the area. One day as Jesus was speaking the word to them, there was noise coming from the roof, a hole opened up, and a man was lowered on a pallet down to Jesus. There was no room in the crowded house to get in any other way. The man on the pallet was unable to walk or take care of himself. (Mark 2:1-12)

All eyes were now on Jesus and this man. Perhaps the man was shaking with fear. Jesus knew what to say, Take courage my son, youre sins are forgiven. Somehow Jesus could sense the man was burdened with guilt and remorse as well as his physical burden.

Immediately, the religious leaders who had come all the way from Jerusalem, questioned Jesus authority to forgive sins. They accused Jesus of blasphemy. Jesus asked them, Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise, take up your pallet and walk? But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins  he said to the paralytic  I say to you, rise take up your pallet and go home. (Mark 2:9-11) And he did.

What a marvelous story. I would love to hear Jesus say, Take courage my son! Sometimes I imagine him saying those very words. We learn a lot about Jesus individual care and compassion. Jesus took the interruptions of life as an opportunity to teach and to help others. When we are in need of help where do we go? Who do we go to? Do we think of Jesus first or last?

Prayer: Our Lord, were glad to know you want us to come and youre ready to help and you care so much. Amen.
Army veteran Erin Colson has long wanted to gather female veterans from across the state in one place to talk about the unique issues facing women who have served in uniform.

Ive been thinking about it for a very long time  before I even got this job, said Colson, 43, who is the state womens coordinator for the Nebraska Department of Veterans Affairs.

This weekend its finally happening. More than 150 women veterans will gather Saturday and Sunday in Kearney for the first Nebraska Women Veterans Symposium.

The event, at the Holiday Inn, will feature panel discussions, listening sessions and a keynote address by Denise Rohan, past national commander of the American Legion.

The New Century Art Guild will put on an exhibition of art by women veterans, and Warrior Writers will conduct a journaling exercise. Interviews will be conducted for the Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress, an oral history collection created in 2000.

The symposium will also include a screening of Lioness, a documentary about some of the first women to serve with previously all-male Marine combat units in Iraq in 2004.

Its thought to be the largest gathering of female veterans in Nebraska since the Flight of Honor for female veterans to Washington, D.C., which took place exactly four years ago.

Were super-duper excited for the symposium, said Jen Jelinek, founder of a new support group called Nebraska/Western Iowa Women Veterans that is focused on suicide prevention.

Women currently make up about 16% of the U.S. armed forces, according to a 2020 report by the Brookings Institution on diversity in the armed forces. They have served in uniform at least since World War II. But only in the post-9/11 era have women become fully integrated at all ranks and in all kinds of jobs, including combat arms.

Jelinek, 36, served in the Army from 2007-13 as a behavioral health specialist. Shell take part in a panel called Celebrating Who I Was and What Ive Become.

Now we have a chance to reflect on the long term of service since 9/11, she said. We all come from different walks of life. But we have the same story.

Every woman veteran has had the experience of serving in a male-dominated institution. Colson said that includes those set up to serve veterans.

The VA has come a long way, but it hasnt gone far enough, she said.

Colson said she sometimes visits the VA with her husband, who is a twice-wounded combat veteran.

They automatically assume that hes the veteran, when its me coming in for the appointment, she said.

She has also had the experience of being left out when male veterans around her are thanked for their service.

There was a little twinge like, Hey, me too,  she said.

Colson said she also hopes to use the conference to draw in women vets from rural areas, who often feel isolated from the veteran community. Kearney was chosen for this first symposium because it is closer to more of those areas than the urban centers of Omaha and Lincoln.

Rural veterans in Nebraska are underserved, she said. Rural women veterans in Nebraska are very underserved.

Colson said women veterans may still sign up to attend the symposium through the website: veterans.nebraska.gov/womenveterans. There is no registration fee.

I am hoping for a tighter veteran community. Im hoping that women will be better-served, she said. I want them to know that, somewhere in the state, theres someone they can talk to. Theyre not forgotten.
Two Grand Island men were among 23 defendants indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday in Omaha.

Scott Matthew Simmons, 42, and Scott Lee Meyer, 33, are charged in an eight-count indictment. The federal Grand Jury for the District of Nebraska returned 21 unsealed indictments charging 23 defendants.

Indictments are charging documents that contain one or more individual counts that are merely accusations, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Count I charges Simmons and Meyer with conspiracy to produce child pornography beginning on or about 2018 and continuing to on or about Aug. 15 of this year. The penalty if convicted is not less than 25 years and not more than 50 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, not less than a five-year up to life supervised release and a $55,100 special assessment.

Count II charges Simmons and Meyer with committing Count I while on the sex offender registry beginning on or about 2018 and continuing to on or about Aug. 15 of this year. The maximum possible penalty if convicted is 10 years imprisonment consecutive to Count I, a $250,000 fine, not less than five-years up to life term of supervised release and a $100 special assessment.

Count III charges Meyer with production of child pornography beginning on or about 2018 and continuing to on or about Aug. 15 of this year. The penalty if convicted is not less than 25 years and not more than 50 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, not less than five-year up to life supervised release and a $55,100 special assessment.

Count IV charges Meyer with committing Count III while on the sex offender registry beginning on or about 2018 and continuing to on or about Aug. 15 of this year. The maximum possible penalty if convicted is 10 years imprisonment consecutive to Count I, a $250,000 fine, not less than five-years up to life term of supervised release and a $100 special assessment.

Count V charges Simmons with production of child pornography beginning on or about 2018 and continuing to on or about Aug. 15 of this year. The penalty if convicted is not less than 25 years and not more than 50 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, not less than five-year up to life supervised release and a $55,100 special assessment.

Count VI charges Simmons with committing Count III while on the sex offender registry beginning on or about 2018 and continuing to on or about Aug. 15 of this year. The maximum possible penalty if convicted is 10 years imprisonment consecutive to Count I, a $250,000 fine, not less than five-years up to life term of supervised release and a $100 special assessment.

Count VII charges Meyer with possession of child pornography beginning on or about Aug. 25 of this year. The penalty if convicted is not less than 25 years and not more than 50 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, not less than five-year up to life supervised release and a $55,100 special assessment.

Count VIII charges Simmons with possession of child pornography beginning on or about Aug. 26 of this year. The penalty if convicted is not less than 25 years and not more than 50 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, not less than five-year up to life supervised release and a $55,100 special assessment.
Once, members of the Otoe-Missouria tribe lived and hunted along Salt Creek and its tributaries, harvesting salt from its deposits on the Southeast Nebraska land that now includes Lincoln.

On Wednesday, 189 years after the Otoe-Missouria nation signed the first of two treaties ceding land to the U.S. government, members of the tribe gathered at the University of Nebraska-Lincolns Center for Great Plains Studies  a formal welcome home to their ancestral lands.

Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird greeted the roomful of guests, reading a proclamation making Wednesday Otoe-Missouria Day, an act of good faith and acknowledgement that the Capital City sits on their ancestral lands.

The large group was drawn there by friendship, a desire to confront and heal from a painful past, to develop relationships and reconnect with the last place their ancestors and relatives chose to live, said Margaret Jacobs, a history professor and director of the Center for Great Plains Studies.

You have so much to teach us about how to persist through hard times, how to face up to and honor our histories and our ancestors, she said during the ceremony. How to build and restore one's culture and society, how to become stewards to our precious lands and waters and how to be good relatives. I'm really humbled to be here today among you, and hope that this is only the beginning of a long and fruitful kinship between us.

Just being in Nebraska, the place so many of the stories handed down by relatives took place, is powerful, said Christina Faw Faw, a tribal education specialist and member of the Otoe-Missouria tribe who traveled from Oklahoma for Wednesdays ceremony.

Theres just something special about coming up there and being on the land, she said in an interview. Just kind of knowing our ancestors once walked those lands. That kind of thing is very powerful.

The ceremony Wednesday  part of a larger reconciliation movement across the country to reconnect indigenous people with their ancestral lands  began with a chance encounter more than a year ago.

Jacobs and Kevin Abourezk, a journalist with Indianz.com, began a multimedia project in 2018 called Reconciliation Rising in which they produce podcasts and short films showcasing Natives and non-Natives working together and moving toward reconciliation.

As part of that work, they met Cory DeRoin, a member of the Otoe-Missouria tribe who came with his aunt, who was doing an interview for a podcast on a seed preservation project by the Pawnee. He joined her again when Jacobs and Abourezk filmed them harvesting corn.

I just felt an immediate connection with him, Jacobs said in an interview. She asked if the Otoe-Missourias would be interested in reclaiming their lands  and DeRoin said yes.

Jacobs and Abourezk had interviewed people in at least two other communities that had done similar reconciliation work, including one in California that returned some land to the Indigenous people who had once lived there.

In May, they invited a group of Otoe-Missourias to come to Lincoln, where they met with city officials, environmental groups, UNL officials and local Native leaders. That trip led to Wednesday's proclamation and ceremony.

Its a beginning, Jacobs said, hopefully creating a day where the Otoe-Missourias can come home to celebrate their history, and a way to educate people in Lincoln about that history.

After the treaties ceding the land where Lincoln now sits to the U.S. government, the Otoe-Missourians moved to the Big Blue reservation near Beatrice until Congress sold their land and removed them to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma in 1880-81.

Nebraska gets its name from two Otoe-Missouria words for the Platte River: Ni Brathge, which means water flat. The town of Yutan, where an Otoe village once stood, is the anglicized version of a chiefs name.

Jacobs said the work is about building relationships, which is also empowering to non-Natives.

As non-Native people we shouldnt be dictating the outcome of restoring relationships, she said. Our role is to be open to restoring relationships, to promote dialogue and respect, and then work really closely to support the aspirations of our partners.

Eventually, Faw Faw said, theyd like a place to return to for ceremonies, she said, on land returned to their people.

DeRoin said it was important to bring their young people with them for Wednesdays ceremony, so they can continue the work for years to come.

That is very important to me, DeRoin said. I would like for the relationship we build with the people of Lincoln and Nebraska as a whole to last for many, many generations, so our people always have a place to go home and we have a friendly relationship with the current residents.

This journey home, he said, is important.

Its just such a magical feeling when were up there, he said. When we come to Nebraska, it feels like home.
When asked about the strategy for reaching the level of support the bill would need to clear the House and the Senate, Cardenas told States Newsroom that he plans to push back on the medical research industry criticism that the measure is too onerous.

I dont buy that, he said.

Cardenas also hopes more of his colleagues will voice support for the legislation.

Monica Engebretson, North America campaign manager for Cruelty Free International, said 15 states require animal research facilities to offer for adoption dogs and cats they no longer want. But she believes a nationwide law is needed.

Engebretson said the group has had some success in the past getting policy changes enacted through the annual legislation that funds the NIH, which is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, and hopes to do so again with this current policy proposal.

The NIHs website says that its committed to continuing to develop non-animal model alternative methods, though it notes we are not at a point where alternative approaches can completely replace the use of animals at this time.

The alternatives simply cannot accurately replicate or model all the biologic and behavioral aspects of human disease, NIH writes. Until that time, animal models will remain integral for NIH-supported research.

The NIH also has an Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare.

But neither its Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals or its Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals includes any proposals or suggestions for whether cats, dogs and bunnies should be available for adoption after they are no longer needed.

The Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare notes on its website that it supports the safety and protection of animals and reminds institutions that their policies must clarify the disposition of animals acquired for research once the research has ended, which may include adoption. It also says it will not assume legal or financial responsibility for any adoption program of research animals.
That release could not be found.
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:
MARION  Williamson County States Attorney Candidate Marcy Cascio-Hale has appealed a decision made by the Williamson County Election Board to the circuit court to remove her from the election ballot.

Jeff Diederich, chairman of the Williamson County Republican Party, Amy Eckert and Alexia Denly had previously filed objections to Cascio-Hales petition to run for states attorney.

The objections were heard by the countys election board, consisting of County Clerk Amanda Barnes, Circuit Clerk Justin Maze and Treasurer Ashley Gott. Gott filled Cascio-Hales seat on the election board because she is the respondent to the objections.

The election board found in favor of count one of the objections which said Cascio-Hale failed to include all the required information on her petition to run. They found against count two, which said the Democratic Party of Williamson County could not caucus her as a candidate because they had not reorganized after the primary elector.

Because they found in favor of one count, their decision meant that Cascio-Hales name would be removed from the ballot pending an appeal.

In a press release sent this week, Cascio-Hale said her name will remain on the ballot pending an appeal, as no action will be taken until the case is settled.

In an effort to clarify previous erroneous news stories, I am issuing this statement: I am on the ballot. And I will continue to fight to stay on the ballot. Ill fight through the circuit court and the appellate court, if necessary. Giving the people of Williamson County a choice is paramount, Cascio-Hale said.

At Fridays election board meeting when the decision was published, Cascio-Hale and her attorney attended. Counsel for Cascio-Hale confirmed with all three members of the election board that Cascio-Hales name would remain on the ballot pending the outcome of the appeal. That appeal was filed on Monday, Sept. 19.

Cascio-Hale said the issue is one of statutory construction.

I am a fighter. I am on the ballot. I will be on the ballot. I am here to give the voters a choice, she said.

This issue isnt about Democrat or Republican, its about doing the right thing, and giving the voters a choice in this election. Im proud of our candidate. Marcy has integrity and is a fighter, and thats what the people need in a states attorney. That is why the voters should get to have a voice in this election, Brandi Bradley, chair of the Williamson County Democratic Central Committee, said.
Chicago police say a 3-year-old boy was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting. They say the boy was riding in an SUV with his mother and three other children around 8:40 p.m. Friday on Chicagos southwest side when someone in the rear seat of a car opened fire, striking the boy in the head. Police say the boy was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead hours later. No other injuries were reported. Police say no arrests have been made in the case.
The Southern Baptist Convention's top administrative body voted to cut ties with two congregations on Tuesday  an LGBTQ-friendly church in North Carolina that had itself quit the denomination decades ago and a New Jersey congregation it cited for "alleged discriminatory behavior."

The votes of the Executive Committee came at the end of a two-day meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, even as the committee copes with a Department of Justice investigation. The federal-level scrutiny follows a blistering report by a consultant earlier this year into sexual abuse in Southern Baptist settings and mistreatment of survivors by past Executive Committee officials.

The committee on Tuesday approved a statement that College Park Baptist Church of Greensboro, North Carolina, was not in "friendly cooperation" due to its "open affirmation, approval and endorsement of homosexual behavior," which conflicts with the denomination's theological conservative positions.

In fact, College Park had voted in 1999 to leave the denomination, and its website makes a point of stating it's not a member of the Southern Baptist Convention but rather of more progressive Baptist bodies.

It wasn't immediately clear why the Executive Committee decided now to put the matter to a vote. But Executive Committee Chairman Jared Wellman said afterward that the convention still had the congregation on its rolls until now.

On its website, the church describes itself as an "LGBTQIA Affirming Baptist Church" and says it "fully welcomes and affirms all persons without distinction regarding race, ethnicity, national origin, class, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other human category."

The committee, in a separate vote, declared that Amazing Grace Community Church of Franklinville, New Jersey, was no longer in friendly cooperation. It cited its "lack of cooperation ... to resolve concerns regarding alleged discriminatory behavior."

Requests for comment from both congregations via phone and email were not immediately returned.

Since Baptist congregations are self-governing, the denomination can't force them to follow their policies, but it can effectively expel them by declaring them not in "friendly cooperation" if they don't conform to denominational stances in particular areas, such as for pro-LGBTQ polices, alleged support for racism or alleged failure in responding adequately to child sexual abuse, such as employing offenders as pastors.

There could be more congregations in the last category in the pipeline.

The committee learned that more than 200 referrals had been made to a newly established hotline about alleged mishandling of abuse cases by SBC churches or organizations.

That news came from the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force  created after the release of consultant Guidepost Solutions' scathing report earlier this year into the sexual abuse of children in SBC settings and the mistreatment of survivors by the Executive Committee.

Mike Keahbone, vice chair of the task force, said it is working to hire personnel to receive and investigate reports of abuse and of mishandling abuse in Southern Baptist circles.

The convention said in August that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the convention. The DOJ didn't confirm the report, but the convention suggested in a statement that it related to sexual abuse. On Tuesday, the committee voted to transfer $500,000 from investments to its operating budget, in part to respond to that investigation.

The Executive Committee on Tuesday also added a "Caring Well Sunday" to the official Southern Baptist calendar of activities, which would aim to spread awareness and education about abuse. Churches have the option whether to observe such dates. But Wellman urged them to do so: "We want to be building a culture that addresses and prevents abuse, and this is a really great educational opportunity."

"Our dream ... is that our churches would be safe for the vulnerable and unsafe for abusers," Wellman said, citing numerous reforms underway. "There is no place, there is no tolerance for abuse in a Southern Baptist church."

Some abuse survivors, following the meeting on social media, found the committee's actions lacking. Long-time advocate and survivor Christa Brown criticized it for "self-congratulatory" talk on Twitter and said it's failed to take concrete steps toward making amends to survivors or to take disciplinary steps toward former officials faulted in the Guidepost report.

Keahbone said he understands the criticism and that compared to what survivors endured, "there's nothing we could say or do that would be worthy of any praise at all." He said the task force is doing what it can to implement reforms correctly.

"We're not celebrating anything," he said. "We're just trying to have markers of improvement."

Wellman echoed the thought. "I've just grieved and been broken-hearted for what they've experienced," he said. "We recognize we have a really long way to go."
Bamberg County is looking to use money from the countys C Fund Committee to repair, maintain and improve county roads.

Bamberg Countys C Fund Committee distributes road-paving funds generated by the state gasoline tax.

County Administrator Joey Preston reported during a council meeting last week that the county had several C Fund Committee projects underway, with the largest being the improvement of roads within Denmark Technical College.

Were not talking about just resurfacing a road. Were talking about making it look like a college campus, he said. The work includes crosswalks for pedestrian safety.

Were trying to get Dominion to work with us on interior lighting on the campus, Preston said.

The administrator said Salty Road and Lazy Lane, which have had major drainage issues, are set to be graveled.

That work, the paving work at Denmark Tech, combined with the paving work that were doing out at the (old) hospital, were going to bid that all out together to try to get the best price, Preston said.

The C Fund Committee also allocated some money for gravel for the county, which I think is a good practice. Weve been able to go out and to gravel some small roads and serve a lot of people. Thats something that we didnt have before. So were working well with them right now. Well be having another meeting before too much longer, the administrator said.

Preston also updated council on the countys transformation of its defunct hospital into a multi-service complex.

Theyre inside the building. Theyre moving along pretty good. We think the law enforcement center is probably going to be the first part of that building thats going to be completed on the interior. Youll see some exterior work going on that side of the building to coincide with the work thats been completed. So the sheriff is probably going to be the first one to get to move in, he said.

The second part of that is going to be the health department and veterans affairs. Thatll come a little bit later, not much, Preston said.

The county courthouse renovation project is ongoing.

Weve got it completely cleared out, and theyve started the asbestos abatement. All the permits have been applied for. When DHEC gives us the approval, were going to go in and start to remove the asbestos, he said.

The project will then go out for bid.

Based on the construction process, were working with the architects and engineers to figure out the best way to approach it. You could do small parts of it at a time, or you can do it all at one time, Preston said.

The administrator also gave the following dates and times for upcoming events:

 Council retreat at 9 a.m. Friday, Oct. 7 at the county airport conference room

 County fire service banquet at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4 at Ghents Branch Baptist Church in Denmark

 Denmark fire station groundbreaking at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11 in the Jamisonville community

Preston also reported that the S.C. State 1890 Research & Extension Program was seeking farm assistants to work at its 200-acre Research and Demonstration Farm at 1678 Alligator Road in Olar.

Finance

County Treasurer Alice Johnson gave the July financial report, stating the county had $200,975.64 in income and expenditures of $1,219,857.54, leaving a negative balance of $1,018,881.90.

When the positive bank balance at the end of July ($154,673.62) was added, the countys regular account stood at a negative $864,208.28.

Councilwoman Sharon Hammond asked, Why did we have such a large deficit?

Johnson said, There are a lot of bills which come due in July, which is not a good time for them to be due.  Its not when our income from taxes are at a very good level.

County Finance Director T.M. Thomas reported that the countys general fund had year-to-date revenues as of the end of July of $171,681, with expenses coming in at $719,524, for a negative general fund balance of $547,843.

He said the county departments continue to operate within their budgets.

County Controller Gina Smith said the county was working to get its books ready for the annual audit.

Other items

Bamberg County resident Miriam Beard requested a report on airport operations and the revenue coming in for that. She also asked why a portion of the $2 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds the county received couldnt be used to fund the creation of an animal control department.

That is a quality of life issue here in Bamberg County, Beard said.

Beard said some county citizens were displeased that none of the council members attended a Sept. 6 open forum which The Concerned Citizens of Bamberg County held in Ehrhardt.

They want to ask questions. They want transparency.  They want to know whats going on. Youre seeing all these projects going on, and nobody has any answers for them, Beard said.

Councilman Clint Carter, the only council person to address their absence, said his daughter, a high school senior, had a volleyball match he did not want to miss.
A 22-year-old man charged in a Cameron burglary is now charged in an armed robbery in Orangeburg.

Shidarius Ahmad Tyre Ellis of Mack Street, St. Matthews, is charged in Orangeburg with armed robbery, possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, possession of a weapon by a person convicted of a violent felony and grand larceny valued at $10,000 or more.

A woman was robbed at gunpoint outside of an Ellis Avenue home around 7:30 a.m. Monday.

The robber got away with a 2015 GMC Acadia, keys and a pocketbook.

A City of Orangeburg camera didnt video the robbery itself, but recorded a person near the residence just a few minutes before the robbery occurred. The person matched the description of the suspect, according to an Orangeburg Department of Public Safety incident report.

The stolen vehicle was located in the backyard of a Cameron home on Monday afternoon as Calhoun County Sheriffs Office deputies were investigating a burglary.

An incident report claims deputies found a stolen 9 mm Glock 19 and the keys to the stolen Acadia in the rear bedroom where they found the burglary suspect. The handgun was stolen in St. Matthews.

In the Cameron incident, Ellis is charged with first-degree burglary, possession of a weapon by a person convicted of a violent felony, possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, possession of a stolen pistol and first-offense possession of less than one gram of cocaine base.

For those charges, Calhoun County Magistrate Joseph Teague set his bond at $1.3 million on Tuesday.

In the Orangeburg cases, Municipal Judge Chasity Avinger deferred setting Ellis bond for consideration by a circuit judge at a later date.

Ellis has a 2017 conviction for attempted armed robbery.

If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.
A 30-year-old Orangeburg woman is facing the charge of felony driving under the influence resulting in great bodily injury.

Raquetta Roberta Shanelle Johnson, of Fred Street, was taken into custody by the S.C. Highway Patrol on Wednesday.

Her charge stems from a Sept. 17 collision on U.S. Highway 178, also known as Charleston Highway, SCHP Lance Cpl. Tyler Tidwell said.

Tidwell claims Johnson was driving a 2007 Honda west on U.S. 178 when it rear-ended a 2014 Freightliner tractor-trailer.

The tractor-trailer driver didnt report any injuries, Tidwell said.

Johnson and her passenger, a 34-year-old man from Orangeburg, were injured, he said.

Orangeburg County EMS transported Johnson and her passenger to the hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries, Tidwell said.

Orangeburg County Chief Magistrate Derrick Dash set Johnsons bond at $10,000, but released her on her personal recognizance and ordered her to wear GPS monitoring.

If convicted, Johnson faces a mandatory fine of up to $10,000 and 15 years in prison.
Authorities say a 63-year-old worker died in the public bathroom of a South Carolina department store, but her body was not discovered for four days. Columbia police say Bessie Durham cleaned the Belk at Columbiana Centre for an outside company. Investigators say her body was found Monday after her family filed a missing person report. Her cleaning cart was outside the restroom. Investigators say she was seen on camera going into the restroom Thursday morning and didn't come out. The Lexington County Coroners Office says there are no signs someone killed Durham or that she was using drugs. Police say the store was open regularly over those four days and they are investigating to see if anyone was negligent.
In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic did what hurricanes and tornadoes could not: cancel the annual Raylrode Daze Festivul in Branchville.

After a successful return in 2021, the famous festival is back in 2022 for its traditional run.

Few of South Carolinas festivals can match the tradition and longevity of Raylrode Daze  a reunion during the last full weekend of September for 51 consecutive years until 2020. Quite a run for an event that has attracts as many as 5,000-6,000 people annually.

Consider the past.

In 1989, Hurricane Hugo delivered its blow to South Carolina. It was a time of recovery after the overnight storm of Sept. 20-21. Many people were without power. Damage in Branchville and surroundings was very real.

But the festival, albeit in an abbreviated and different form, went on anyway that Saturday.

Call it the spirit of Raylrode Daze, that kinship that makes the festival one of the most popular in what is a sea of festivals in the state.

Fast forward to July 18, 1995. In the early morning hours, tragedy struck in Branchville when fire ravaged the historic railroad depot that is the symbol of the town's claim to fame as "The World's Oldest Railroad Junction."

Again, even the loss of the festival's very symbol did not spell demise for Raylrode Daze. Thanks to the leadership and continuing involvement of a long line of Branchville citizens, rebuilding ensued and the festival went on that September.

Another huge test came in March 2008 when a tornado went through the town. The twister left major destruction, including at the festivals center, Branch Junction. But by the time for Raylrode Daze in September, even though rebuilding and repair were not complete, the show had to go on.

The town and its people are proud of their festival and their railroad history, which began in 1832 when the South Carolina Railroads tracks reached the settlement. It became the worlds first railroad junction when the company extended tracks that paralleled the Indian trails to the west and north. The western route reached Hamburg, a small town outside of Augusta. The other track went north to Orangeburg and Columbia.

Today Branchville is not the daily hub of activity it came to be more than 150 years ago via the railroad, but if you want to experience a festival with the hometown feel of a reunion, complete with lots of people who want to be part of it, check out Raylrode Daze this weekend.
The Luxembourgish government wants to focus more on hydrogen technologies in the future and has announced that the country's first hydrogen station will be constructed in Bettembourg.

Luxembourg's first hydrogen station is expected to come into operation in early 2023. It will be located in the logistics hub of the Luxembourg National Railway Company (CFL) in Bettembourg and will be accessible to all hydrogen-powered vehicles.

The government decided to pursue the construction of the Grand Duchy's first hydrogen station as part of Luxembourg's transition to renewable energies and emission-free traffic.

Until now, the share of hydrogen, which is still entirely derived from fossil fuels, has been relatively small in the industry. However, the aim is to obtain 100% of hydrogen from renewable energy sources by 2030. Another application for hydrogen is expected to be in transportation, particularly for heavy vehicles such as buses and lorries.
On Thursday, Minister for Mobility Francois Bausch officially presented the new RGTR national bus network.

Since 2016, the RGTR bus network has been gradually reorganised in different phases in order to improve the mobility offer for users. This restructuring came to an end on 17 July 2022 with the implementation of the last phase of the reorganisation, accompanied by a new numbering of the lines of the entire RGTR network.

On Friday, the Ministry of Mobility launches a major information campaign in the Grand Duchy's three official languages (Luxembourgish, German, French) as well as English. Over the course of four weeks, the Ministry hopes to inform as many people as possible about the new public transport offer.

During the press briefing on Thursday, the Minister explained that the campaign is "necessary" because over the past years, the Ministry noticed through enquiries and comments submitted by the public that many residents are not really aware of the RGTR offer. For this reason, the RGTR network will also be promoted on social media.

Bausch noted that he finds it "a bit surprising" that such a marketing campaign is necessary in the first place, seeing as "99.92% of residents in this country have a public transport stop in their area". In spite of this, the Ministry is regularly confronted with criticism, which it takes seriously, according to Bausch, who pointed out that the authorities have processed, for instance, 800 complaints that were submitted through municipalities. However, the Minister also stressed that "there are limits".

"We mustn't forget that the bus network isn't a taxi network," Bausch stated. "There are of course always people who are unhappy because they have fewer options in the area where they live," the Minister explained, adding that "we will never be able to achieve 100% satisfaction, that's not possible with bus lines alone".

For this reason, Bausch argues that the bus has to be connected "as best as possible" with other means of transport. There are 183 RGTR lines which are covered by 1,400 buses and about 4,000 drivers. Luxembourg-based companies will be exclusively in charge of the network's management, Bausch stated. In addition, there are plans to cover the entire RGTR network with electric vehicles by 2030.

 RTL

According to RGTR Director Alex Kies, the main challenge with this plan is to equip the bus depots with the necessary infrastructure to charge electric buses. "This is certainly a challenge, but we were welcomed with open arms to make it a reality," Kies stated.

Mitigating the bus driver shortages and connecting rural areas to the network are the main points that the RGTR hopes to improve upon in the future. The information campaign will cost 130,000. This price includes a new, updated map of the bus network, which will be available in digital and paper form. The new map of the RGTR national network has been adapted to provide users with "a structured and clear map of the bus routes".

Residents can order and download the new map of the new national bus network at www.rgtr.lu

The full report by RTL Tele (in Luxembourgish):
The Association for Organic Farming in Luxembourg calls on the government to finally assume responsibility to achieve this ambitious goal.

"An agricultural sector that is mindful of resources, protects animals, and is based on the principle of a circular economy could provide many solutions in these uncertain times", the non-profit association argues.

According to its members, the Luxembourgish government should therefore promote the consumption of organic products, particularly within public structures such as school canteens. The transition to organic agriculture alone "is not enough", a cohesion between the farmer, the processor of the product, and the retail sector must also be established. The ecological transformation of eating habits and the farming system is a task "for the whole of society" and requires "an appropriate policy framework and investment".

A key part of society  the agricultural industry and its farmers  is also under pressure. Luxembourg's National Strategic Plan was approved by the EU on 13 September 2022 and the resulting agricultural law is in the process of being adopted.

Luxembourg's ammonia emissions are too high and do not meet the agreed climate targets. Minister of Agriculture Claude Haagen has suggested to reduce livestock, a proposal which has been heavily criticised by the country's farmers.

Closely related to this is the lack of communication and constructive exchange between the relevant ministry and farmers, which has already been denounced several times and strongly criticised. Organic farmers bemoan that their ideas and proposals are not heard either.

The non-profit argues that organic farming is the best option for future generations, pointing out that "no synthetic chemical fertilisers are used". The plants are fed with organic fertilisers from livestock and leguminous crops. "Legumes fix nitrogen, an important plant nutrient, from the air with the help of nodule bacteria," the association writes in its press release.
A number of motorists who left their vehicles parked in the capital overnight on Wednesday noticed scratches and other damage on Thursday morning.

According to police, over 100 cars were affected by the vandalism.

A suspect was taken into custody on Thursday and brought before magistrates. The suspect has since been transferred to Schrassig while the investigation takes place.

As the police were unable to contact all the owners of the vandalised vehicles, they have asked people to come forward if they were parked on the below-listed roads and have noticed recent damage to their cars.

Witnesses may also get in contact with the police, on (+352) 244 40 1000 or by email: police.luxembourg@police.etat.lu.

The cars were parked in the following streets:

rue St. Zithe

rue Goethe

rue Michel Welter

rue d'Anvers

Bvd de la Petrusse

Bvd Prince Henry

rue des Etats Unis

rue des Romains

rue Caspar Mathias Spoo

Val St. Croix
Protests in Iran are growing and so is the media coverage. But we, the Western media, need to ensure that we focus on the right issue here.

Like the rest of the world, I have been following the events in Iran pretty closely. At the time of writing, 36 people have died in protests over Mahsa Amini's death.

Amini, aged 22, died last week after being arrested by the Islamic Republic's Guidance Patrol - more commonly referred to as the 'morality' or 'fashion' police - for allegedly wearing a hijab headscarf in an 'improper' way.

According to eyewitnesses, Amini's head was hit against a police car

while she was being beaten by the Guidance Patrol. She died in police custody three days later, due to bleeding on the brain and a stroke.

Now that the protests are growing, Iran has shut down the internet in parts of Tehran in an attempt to control the dissemination of news, which has spread mainly through social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram.

Living in a world where we depend on citizen journalism, this is a kick in the teeth of free speech and democracy. Values the country does not seem to care about. And while not a totalitarian system, with some traces of democracy, one could argue that the Iranian regime is nevertheless authoritarian.

The regime is actively controlling people's personal and non-political affairs. With the most prominent example being women needing to dress modestly in public.

And this is where the Western world gets it wrong. For many, the requirement to dress modestly is not a symptom of a regime that does not care for basic human rights, but a symptom of a religion that they see as oppressive.

It's not about the hijab, but about the fact that Iran is practicing a politics that does not allow people to choose for themselves

Madeleine Alizadeh, an entrepreneur from Vienna with Iranian roots, was asked in an interview if she was glad that she does not need to wear a hijab. Alizadeh highlighted this on her social media and argued that this is not the right approach when it comes to this conflict.

It's not about the hijab, but about the fact that Iran is practicing a politics that does not allow people to choose for themselves if they want to wear a hijab or not.

Alizadeh pleads for the public discourse to not transform into an anti-Muslim one, but to concentrate on the real issue in question: the Iranian regime.

And if you take a look back at Iran's history, you can see that until the 1980s, Iran was a completely different country. Before the Islamic Revolution, the women in the country were allowed to dress in Western clothes and choose for themselves if they wanted to wear a hijab.

This is the way it should be. And also evidence in itself that it's not the religion oppressing women. The country has never been the same since then.

On Thursday word got out that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi refused to be interviewed by Christiane Amanpour in New York because she was not wearing a hijab. When asked to wear one, Amanpour politely declined because the interview took place in a country that does not have any law or traditions when it comes to wearing a hijab.

Amanpour, who grew up in Tehran, explained that she always wore a hijab in Iran when reporting, but that she would not cover her head when interviewing Iranian officials outside of the country. Something no other Iranian president ever demanded her to do.

The hijab has become an instrument in controlling women, even outside of Iran. We should therefore follow the advice of Alizadeh and see this for what it is: it's not about religion, it's about a political system exerting their power above basic human rights.
Wyoming women and health care providers are asking a Teton County judge to block state lawmakers and an anti-abortion group from joining an ongoing lawsuit over Wyomings abortion ban.

Right to Life Wyoming and lawmakers Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, and Rep. Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, filed a motion last month asking to join the lawsuit as intervenors. If accepted, they would plan to make additional arguments about abortion as a procedure and the legislative process.

While an attorney representing the state said he isnt against that group intervening, he would ask that they keep their arguments legal since the lawsuit is mainly concerned with whether or not the abortion ban is constitutional or not. The ban is on pause while the case is active, meaning abortion remains legal in Wyoming for the time being.

Facts or evidence are not necessary to decide the merits of the issues, the response filed by Special Assistant Attorney General Jay Jerde states.

In a response filed Thursday, attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit said they dont believe the intervenors have standing to join.

The state, by defending the ban, is already representing their biggest interest in the case, attorneys said.

The lawmakers requesting to intervene also said that the case is infringing on their right and ability to make laws that will be enforced. Plaintiffs disagreed, saying that courts routinely rule that lawmakers dont have standing in cases like these simply because they involve laws they wrote.

If Judge Melissa Owens were to decide that Rodriguez-Williams and Neiman could intervene on those grounds, plaintiffs argued, then any lawmaker would have the right to participate in every case involving a constitutional challenge to a state statute.

Wyomings constitution has a rare and explicit protection of health care rights, added by a popular vote in 2012 in response to concerns over Obamacare. That amendment allows lawmakers to pass only reasonable and necessary exceptions to that  language that has become a major focus of the abortion ban lawsuit.

Courts are frequently called upon to determine whether legislative acts are reasonable and necessary, the plaintiffs response says.

As for Right to Life, the plaintiffs argued that any outcome of the lawsuit would not interfere with the groups mission to advocate for life and alternatives to abortion.

The anti-abortion group said when it asked to intervene that it would bring arguments related to the harms to women and unborn children posed by abortion.

The plaintiffs response also cites several other abortion-related cases from outside Wyoming in which state lawmakers and anti-abortion groups were not allowed to intervene.

Right to Life and the lawmakers are represented by attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom, a prominent conservative Christian legal network involved in similar lawsuits in several other states. The organization has helped draft anti-abortion laws across the country, including the one that sparked the case that eventually overturned Roe v. Wade.

Earlier this week, other attorneys from ADF filed a separate lawsuit on behalf of the Wyoming Rescue Mission following complaints that the organization discriminated against a job applicant whom it did not hire after learning she was not Christian.

Even if the judge decides not to allow this group to intervene in the abortion case, they may be invited to join the lawsuit on an amicus curiae, or friend of the court basis. That would still allow them to add arguments, but they could not call for a hearing.

Plaintiffs asked the court to limit the scope of the intervenors participation in the case, if the judge does allow them to intervene, protect against any intervention becoming a mere reprise of political arguments over the ban.

Owens, the judge presiding over the case, will now have to make that call. She will also have to rule on a request from the state to send certain questions in the case up to the Wyoming Supreme Court before the lawsuit is resolved, a move which the plaintiffs have also opposed.

A scheduling meeting is set for Oct. 27, which will likely lay out a timeline for the rest of the case.
Early voting for Wyomings upcoming general election opens today.

Wyomingites can request and return absentee ballots or vote in person at locations around the state. In Natrona County, early voting takes place at the county courthouse at 200 N. Center St.

You can ask for an absentee ballot from your county clerks office and return it at the office, by mail or at drop-boxes around the state.

If you arent registered to vote, you can still register in person at a county clerks office when you go to vote or ahead of time if you plan to vote on Election Day. You will also need a valid ID to vote, thanks to a law passed last year. If you dont have one, the drivers license department can issue you an ID specifically to vote.

Election Day, the last day to cast a vote in the general election, is Nov. 8.

This years primary election, held in August, saw the highest voter turnout in a primary on record, and the highest turnout in any election since 1994. WyoFile reported that 40% of eligible voters in the state cast votes, a 31% increase from the last midterm election in 2018.

Much of that turnout was spurred by people voting for Harriet Hageman, a land attorney who ousted sitting Rep. Liz Cheney by a landslide. Many Natrona County voters said on Election Day that they voted specifically to see Cheney leave office. On the flip side, a large portion of Wyomings independent and Democratic voters switched their parties in the primary to vote for the incumbent representative because of her choice to condemn the events of Jan. 6 and the widespread belief among many Republicans that the 2020 election was stolen.

Now, Hageman faces a Democratic challenger, Lynette Grey Bull, who opposed Cheney in 2020. There are two other candidates: Libertarian Richard Brubaker, and Marissa Selvig, the Constitution Party candidate.

Local elections including Casper City Council, Natrona County commission and other local council and mayor positions will also be on the ballot. Those races had their fields narrowed in the August primary.

Voters can also choose from candidates for school board, a race not included in the primary.

Current Gov. Mark Gordon is facing Democratic challenger Theresa Livingston, as well as Libertarian Jared Baldes. Gordon won his primary race with around 62% of the vote, winning 19 of the states 23 counties.

Megan Degenfelder, who won the Republican nomination for the states top schools administrator, will be pitted against Democratic nominee Sergio Maldonado.

Aside from the governor and superintendent, other statewide positions were all but decided in the August primary.

Casper Rep. Chuck Gray is running unopposed for secretary of state, the number two position in the state. He beat Cheyenne Sen. Tara Nethercott in August by around 13,000 votes. A committee of lawmakers proposed taking away the secretary of states election supervision powers following Grays primary win, given Grays assertions that the 2020 election was fraudulent despite a lack of evidence. The state Republican Party denounced the committees efforts at a meeting Saturday.

State treasurer Curt Meier and auditor Kristi Racines are also unopposed on Novembers ballot.
There are now 11 applicants vying for the interim secretary of state post.

Some of the applicants are candidates who lost their races in last months primary elections, and several of them expressed concerns about election integrity. Wyomings secretary of state oversees elections and business registration, among other things.

Republican nominee for secretary of state Chuck Gray defeated his main opponent, Sen. Tara Nethercott, by about 13,000 votes in the primaries. His primary campaign focused on voter fraud, even though instances of voter fraud in Wyoming are very rare, and hes called for getting rid of ballot drop boxes. Hell likely be the next secretary of state since there are no challengers facing him in the general election.

But the position will be vacant for about three months because former Secretary of State Ed Buchanan resigned from the post before his term ended to become a judge in Goshen County. Whoever takes the position will have mere weeks before overseeing the November election. Given the short timeline, GOP leadership asked Buchanan to stay until the next secretary of state assumes the role in January. But Buchanan nevertheless went ahead with his plans and left the post last week.

The Republican State Central Committee will hear from and choose three applicants for the role during a meeting on Saturday. Gov. Mark Gordon will then appoint one of those three candidates to the interim secretary of state position.

The applicants are Mary Lankford, Mark Armstrong, Marti Halverson, Karl Allred, Bob Ferguson, John Holtz, Pete Illoway, Jennifer James, Janet Marschner, Bryan Miller and Patrick Miller.

The deadline for candidates to submit their applications was Wednesday evening. According to an email from GOP Executive Director Kathy Russell to committee members, there was a 12th candidate who withdrew shortly after submission.

Lankford, a Wyoming native, was the Sublette County clerk for 32 years, according to her application for the position. During that time, she administered 16 primary and 16 general elections. She retired four years ago and has since been a lobbyist for the County Clerks Association of Wyoming. In that role, she has worked with county clerks throughout the state as well as staff from the secretary of states office. Lankford is also a past president of the County Clerks Association of Wyoming, past president of the Wyoming Association of County Officers and a past member of the University of Wyoming board of directors, and has served several terms as the Sublette County state committeewoman.

Armstrong garnered 9.3% of the Republican vote in the primary election for secretary of state. Like Gray, hes concerned about voter fraud in Wyoming. According to his application, he has made 17 public records requests demanding information regarding the 2020 election and he has questioned the integrity of absentee and mail-in ballots, suggesting they should be limited to people with special circumstances... Hes currently the Albany County GOP committeeman.

Halverson is a far-right former lawmaker, the president of Wyoming Right to Life, an anti-abortion advocacy organization and currently chairman of the Lincoln County GOP. She said in her cover letter that uniformity is surely lacking in the applications and operations of Wyomings elections. Her goal as interim secretary of state would be to try to inject some uniformity in the conduct of our statewide elections.

Halverson also applied for the interim state superintendent of public instruction position when the previous state superintendent, Jillian Balow, left the post to take a similar job in Virginia. Despite having no experience in education, she was one of three candidates that the GOP State Central Committee referred to Gov. Mark Gordon. Gordon, however, ultimately chose Brian Schroeder, formerly head of Veritas Academy, a private Christian school in Cody, to take on the interim role. (Schroeder lost to Megan Degenfelder in the August Republican primary for state superintendent of public instruction.)

Patrick Miller is currently assistant attorney general and advises three of the boards and commissions that the secretary of state sits on, according to his resume.

Allred, the Uinta County GOP committeeman and a foreman at a gas plant, brought a failed lawsuit against former Gov. Matt Mead over the capitols reconstruction and other contracts in the state in 2017. He ran for a legislative seat in House District 19 this year and lost to Jon Conrad. He said in his cover letter that he has fought tirelessly for conservative values and strict adherence to the Constitution both Wyoming and US.

Holtz, an attorney, ran for U.S. Senate in 2020 and lost in the primaries to Sen. Cynthia Lummis. He said in his cover letter that his priority as interim secretary of state would be to protect Wyoming in a crisis.

Another former lawmaker, Illoway, ran for secretary of state eight years ago. (He came in third for the primaries after Buchanan and Ed Murray). Hes a consultant and lobbyist, according to his resume. As interim secretary, he would not propose to disrupt or change anything in the office, according to his cover letter.

Bryan Miller, chairman of the Sheridan County GOP, was another primary candidate who lost to Cyrus Western in House District 51. He said in his cover letter that he has been actively engaged with election processes as a resident, as a candidate, and as a Party leader.

Marschner also vied for a legislative seat in Senate District 31 in the primaries this year and lost to Evie Brennan. She said in her application that her objective is to simply serve the people of Wyoming and to provide for all the needs of the incoming elected Secretary of State.

James is the owner and director of the Wyoming Healthcare Training Centers and formerly assistant director of the Wyoming State Board of Nursing. She lost against Tony Niemiec in the House District 60 primary race.

Ferguson served for two years as the treasurer for the Wyoming GOP and has a professional background in finance. He said in his cover letter that, if chosen as interim secretary of state, he plans to visit Wyomings county clerks to discuss any outstanding issues from the August primary and from the 2020 general election.

The selection meeting will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Wind River Recreation Center in Pavillion and is open to the public.
If there is a word to sum up the Chabad Jewish Center of Wyomings focus for this years Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services, it would be this: community.

The center, which is in Jackson, will celebrate the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah (literally meaning head of the year) on Sunday through Tuesday, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, on Oct. 4-5, by embracing themes of unity and togetherness.

These High Holidays, the center says, are especially important due to the high levels of political divisiveness within Wyoming, as well as the residual effects of the coronavirus pandemic, which decreased the number of group events in many places.

To counter that, the Jewish community will be embracing the once-in-seven years Jewish tradition of Hakhel or Gathering, which begins this Rosh Hashanah, the center said in a press release.

As is customary with Jewish holidays, each will begin at sunset the day before and continue until nightfall of the last day. The center says that record attendance is expected. For many, these will be their first in-person events since 2019.

The blowing of the shofar, a horn made from a kosher animal (typically a ram), on Monday and Tuesday is an integral part of the prayer service that will welcome in the New Year for Jewish people.

In an interview with the Star-Tribune, Chabad Rabbi Zalman Mendelsohn said he expected about 100 people, give or take, to attend the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services. Many of them will be from Jackson, he said, but there will also be people traveling from all across the state  including Casperites.

All services will take place at the SpringHill Suites by Marriott in Jackson Hole. A more accessible, one-hour tashlich (a symbolic casting-off of sins into a body of water) and abbreviated shofar-sounding service will be held at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in Miller Park in Jackson. That service will be free.

The center will also host a community Rosh Hashanah dinner at 6 p.m. Sunday. Reservations are required, though the event is open to everyone.

The High Holidays, Mendelsohn said, are some of the most important times of the year for Jews.

This is the big one. So, in terms of the ideas behind Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, these two upcoming holidays, Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, and it symbolizes a time for renewal and reconnection and a time for taking stock of the year that passed and committing themselves to a better future in the year ahead, he said. So, oftentimes, people make New Years resolutions on, you know, Jan. 1, but this is more of a spiritual-in-nature type of gathering where people come together for prayer services in a synagogue.

Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement. It symbolizes a day of reckoning for any mistakes or misdeeds that we had in the past. We ask for forgiveness, we ask for a new start and a fresh opportunity to be able to reconnect in the year ahead and ... lets call it baggage from the year that passed. And we try to toss out that baggage and start fresh anew in an effort to be able to connect with our souls, connect with family, community, things of that nature.

The 10-day period in between those two holidays is not celebrated with any particular traditions, but is simply a time for deep reflection, Mendelsohn noted.

He encouraged Casperites to join in on these traditions, if not with the center in Jackson, then in their own communities.

  Now, more than ever, community has to be the centerpiece for peoples lives. Politics has proven to be the most divisive element of communal get-togethers, he said. And so, we have to find other ways for people to come together, and theres no better way, with self-improvement and personal development, connection to God, connection to spirituality, connection to tradition and connection to community  its apolitical, its a great time to reconnect with oneself and ones past and ones traditions and so I encourage all members of the Casper Jewish community to partake in services, ideally in Jackson but wherever they can find services, to partake in those.

The center will have Hebrew and English prayer books available, as well as yarmulkes, the caps worn by Jewish men during prayer, and prayer shawls. There will also be a childrens program held simultaneously.
A teenager was one of two people arrested for a shotgun and seven rounds of ammunition in Pe
PRIME MINISTER, Dr Keith Rowley came out swinging on Friday night addressing a captive audience at the Mt Hope/Mt Lambert community centre as he responded to the Oppositions, bad news and bile, critique of the 2022-2023 budget.
BODY REMOVAL: Undertakers remove one of the two security officers from the bullet-riddled Mitsubishi Triton van, in which three security officers were killed on Monday afternoon in the vicinity of Pennywise Super Centre, La Romaine. The guards, from Allied Security Ltd, were ambushed after they collected the days sales from Pennywise Super Centre. Photo: DEXTER PHILIP
Arizona Theatre Companys highly-lauded artistic director, Sean Daniels, is leaving ATC after landing an associate director position in Florida.

Daniels has served as ATCs artistic director and co-CEO since 2019, helping to produce and present award-winning dramas, comedies, musicals, world premieres and more, a news release said.

He will leave ATC in the spring when hell join the Florida Studio Theatre. A nationwide search will be conducted for his replacement.

Until then, Daniels will work with the board of trustees to develop a succession plan. He is directing the 55th season-opening show The Lion, which runs through Oct. 15 in Tucson. And, Daniels will also direct the world premiere of Pru Payne in the spring.

ATC has an exciting season coming up, and Im dedicated to ensuring the success of every production, Daniels said in the news release. Im proud of the work weve done during my tenure at Arizona Theatre Company, as we worked through the greatest challenges ever to face the theater world. I am likewise very proud of the team currently in place, poised to lead ATC into the future.

Prior to joining Arizona Theatre Company, Daniels served as artistic director of Merrimack Repertory Theatre and Dads Garage (which he co-founded), as well as associate artistic director at California Shakespeare Theatre and Actors Theatre of Louisville.
Luxembourg committed to deepening friendly relations with China: Grand Duke Henri

Xinhua) 13:44, September 23, 2022

BRUSSELS, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg expressed his commitment to deepening friendly cooperation with China when Hua Ning, the new Chinese Ambassador to Luxembourg, presented his credentials on Wednesday.

During their meeting, the Grand Duke recalled his unforgettable experience at the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics in China's capital Beijing earlier this year.

He said relations between China and Luxembourg have improved tremendously since their establishment of diplomatic ties five decades ago, adding that the two countries will make concerted efforts to expand new areas of cooperation and bolster bilateral relations.

Ambassador Hua said bilateral relations between China and Luxembourg have stood the test of time and pressure from changes in the international situation.

The ambassador said he looks forward to working with Luxembourg to organize a series of activities marking 50 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries and to implement the important consensus reached by the two Heads of State during their meeting early this year. Enditem.

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Liang Jun)
Foes of universal school vouchers say they turned in 141,714 signatures Friday to give Arizona voters the last word.

Hanging in the balance is the plan approved earlier this year by the Republican-controlled Legislature to provide vouchers of taxpayer funds to any of the 1.1 million students in public schools to instead attend private or parochial schools. Those vouchers, which average close to $7,000 each, also could be used for costs of home schooling.

State and county election officials will perform the first reviews to determine, after invalid signatures are eliminated, whether there are still 118,823 left in the petitions gathered by the group Save Our Schools to hold up enactment of the voucher law until the 2024 general election. Thats when voters would get to decide whether to ratify or reject the law.

After that, however, supporters of what are formally known as Empowerment Scholarship Accounts will do their own examination of the petitions with an eye on disqualifying more signatures  and leaving the referendum petition drive short of the required number.

We will be ready to defend the parents of our state, said Steve Smith, state director of the group American Federation for Children.

We would very much make sure that the signatures that are turned in, that those are valid and theres not an attempt to derail this program through invalid and improperly collected signatures, said Matt Beienburg, director of education policy for the Goldwater Institute.

Beth Lewis, executive director of Save Our Schools, acknowledged that the signatures submitted provide a margin of error of just 20%. Companies that collect petitions generally seek a 25% cushion.

She said, though, organizers are confident there are enough valid signatures. At least part of the reason, Lewis said, is because virtually all of the collection was done by volunteers who, as a whole, have a higher validity rate than paid petition circulators.

There is another reason, too. Opponents of ballot measures routinely seek to disqualify petitions gathered by paid circulators who are required to comply with a host of technical requirements. Those rules, however, dont apply to volunteers.

Legislature could step in

Even if the referendum attempt clears all those hurdles, theres one more potential snag to getting the public vote in 2024.

Legislative supporters of universal vouchers could simply vote next year to repeal the legislation, make a few changes, and reenact it. That act would make the petition drive legally moot, forcing foes to start over again next year.

The record suggests voter antipathy toward making more students eligible for vouchers.

Lawmakers approved a vast expansion of the program in 2017, only to have Save Our Schools refer the measure to the 2018 ballot. Voters rejected it by a margin of close to 2 to 1.

But House Majority Leader Ben Toma, R-Peoria, said that occurred because some voucher supporters opposed the 2017 plan because it had some limits on the number of vouchers that would have been available. He said they feared voter ratification would have frozen that limit into law.

By contrast, he said, the new version has no limits, eliminating that concern.

Lewis rejected Tomas explanation  and his contention that people are more likely to support universal vouchers now than they were four years ago.

I was out in the field in 2017 and 2018 and people were confused, she told Capitol Media Services. They were like, Whats a voucher? 

Now, she said, there is a better understanding of the concept of using tax dollars to send children to private and parochial schools.

They know exactly what this is, Lewis said. And they dont want it.

Funding, accountability issues

Central to the issue is the question of whether public funds should be used for private education.

At the end of the day the purpose of the ESA program and school choice is to give parents the ability to pursue the best education for their kids, regardless of what form it comes in, said the Goldwater Institutes Beienburg. We are focused on individual student aid, not an institution or a particular form of education.

Lewis acknowledged that there is some sentiment for the concept of school choice.

But they dont want their dollars going to unaccountable private schools, she said.

One version of the 2022 legislation included a requirement for annual testing of students who get those tax dollars, similar to what occurs in public schools, with results reported on a school-by-school basis. But that requirement was removed before the final bill went to Republican Gov. Doug Ducey for his signature.

Beienburg said such testing isnt necessary.

Nobody is going to be a stronger advocate for their children than a parent, he said.

Lewis said thats based on a false premise.

Ive been a teacher in Arizona for 12 years and a parent for just as long, she said. And I can tell you that parents dont know as well as teachers whether theyre learning.

Lewis said schools need certified teachers who can make those evaluations.

And then theres the question of who is picking up the tab.

If a school wants to take public funds, they need to take public accountability, Lewis said.

Backers have promoted universal vouchers as a way for families of limited means to have access to the same education choices as those who already can afford private school tuition.

Lewis said she understands that sentiment. She said lawmakers could have crafted a measure with means testing to limit the new vouchers to those in real need.

And we encouraged them to do so, Lewis said. But they wrote a bill that benefits all students.

Costs and beneficiaries

That has come into sharp focus with the Arizona Department of Education reporting that more than 75% of the 10,338 applications for the new universal vouchers received so far have come from students not now in public schools, leading state officials to conclude these were students whose parents already were paying to send them to private schools. At about $7,000 apiece, that comes out to more than $54 million.

That figure exceeds the $30 million that legislative budget analysts told lawmakers before they enacted the law would be the first-year cost of providing vouchers to those already in private schools or those being home schooled. That doesnt count another $2.2 million in new administrative costs.

And by the third year, the report said, the price tag for paying for kids picking up vouchers versus paying their own way will approach $120 million.

That is above and beyond the $176 million the state is now paying for vouchers for students who have been eligible under prior standards.

Vouchers, first approved in 2011, were limited to students whose special needs could not be met in public schools.

Since that time there has been an incremental expansion of eligibility, to the point where vouchers are now available to foster children, children of military families, reservation residents and students in schools rated D or F.

The new law would scrap all preconditions, potentially allowing vouchers to go to all 1.1 million students now in public schools.

With the current status of applicants, it is not achieving those goals. Instead, it is just a taxpayer funded coupon for the wealthy. said state schools chief Kathy Hoffman, a Democrat who is running for reelection in November against Republican Tom Horne.
PHOENIX  The Republican candidate for secretary of state defended his attendance at the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, saying at a debate that his presence there did not make him a participant.

The last time I checked, being at a place where somethings happening is not illegal, said Mark Finchem.

During a half-hour televised debate Thursday, Finchem said he went to Washington to deliver a book of evidence to federal lawmakers about claimed irregularities in the 2020 vote in Arizona, material that came out of a hearing in Phoenix involving attorney Rudy Giuliani and other supporters of former President Donald Trump.

Adrian Fontes, the Democratic nominee for secretary of state, said he does not buy that explanation. He said it shows Finchem was not interested in following the legal procedures to contest election results.

What he did is engage in a violent insurrection and try to overturn the very Constitution that holds this nation together, Fontes said.

Finchem responded: For him to assert that I was part of a criminal uprising is absurd and frankly, it is a lie.

There is no evidence Finchem entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 as Congress was certifying the Electoral College win for Joe Biden.

He was, however, part of the crowd just outside. He posted a photo on Twitter of the rioters, saying this is what happens when people feel they have been ignored, and Congress refuses to acknowledge rampant fraud.

He acknowledged hes been interviewed by the Department of Justice and the Jan. 6 congressional committee, though he said it was as a witness to the events of that day.

Some of Thursdays debate focused on Finchems continued insistence the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

Finchem previously said he would not have certified the results if he had been secretary of state. But on Thursday, he dodged the issue.

There are too many hypotheticals to really answer that question because we didnt know what we knew after the election until after certification of the canvass occurred, Finchem said. But knowing what we know today, there are certain counties that should have been set aside as irredeemably compromised, he said, specifically naming Maricopa and Yuma counties.

Weve got the evidence, Finchem said. The media has just refused to look at it.

For example, he said there are more than 140,000 ballot images out of Maricopa County that were allegedly scanned by Dominion equipment that have no audit head stamp. He pointed out that two people have pleaded guilty in Yuma County to ballot harvesting, including filling out and casting ballots for others. No evidence has been uncovered to show problems large enough to change Trumps loss in Arizona.

Finchem, however, provided no answer of what he believes should have been done at the time.

Im not talking about overturning an election, he said. But he said there needs to be some remedy when an election is mismanaged, especially if there is evidence it altered the outcome.

Fontes said he sees something else behind the conspiracy theories about the 2020 vote.

What we now have is an entire set of fiction that has somehow managed to make a lot of money for some people outside of the regular norms that we expect, he said. This is a chaotic way of redressing a political loss.

But much of the discussion was about who was fit to be not only the states chief election officer but also first in the line of succession if the governor leaves office.

You can decide between community building and stability or conspiracy theories and cantankerousness, Fontes said. And he said the conspiracy theories and lies advanced by Finchem end up eroding the faith we have in each other as citizens.

Finchem, for his part, pointed out that Fontes, then the Maricopa County recorder, had to be stopped by a judge from pursuing his plan in the 2020 presidential preference primary to send ballots to all voters, regardless of whether or not they had asked for an early ballot.

Fontes was unapologetic. He said he was trying to address the fact that there were people who, due to the COVID pandemic, were afraid to leave their homes.

Finchem also cited problems in the August 2018 primary where some polling places did not open on time.

In fact, people stood in line for hours, said Finchem. He was fired by the taxpayers, noting Fontes loss in his 2020 bid for reelection.

Finchem, a state legislator from Oro Valley, said the secretary of state should not make law but should follow the laws approved by the Legislature.

He used that to dodge questions about whether he wants to kill early voting, a system that has proven wildly popular, what with close to nine out of every 10 ballots cast in 2020 sent early to voters.

That is up to the Legislature, he said.

But youve called for that, Fontes interjected.

What I want doesnt matter, Finchem responded.

Fontes said if Finchem got his way, the only way to vote would be on Election Day, standing in line at an assigned polling place.

What if youre one of Arizonas hundreds of thousands of older voters, or a disabled veteran? Fontes asked.

Finchem called that a false choice, saying he supports absentee votes, like in Tennessee. That state allows ballots to be mailed, but only to people who meet certain conditions such as being 60 or older, being outside the county on Election Day, or being hospitalized or physically disabled.

That is similar to the system Arizona had prior to 1991, when the Republican-controlled Legislature enacted the current no excuse early voting. A lawsuit by the Arizona Republican Party to scrap that law was dismissed earlier this year.
Virtually all abortions in Arizona are now illegal.

Late Friday, Pima County Superior Court Judge Kellie Johnson rejected arguments by Planned Parenthood of Arizona that a law, on the books since Arizonas territorial days, was replaced when lawmakers earlier this year approved a ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The territorial-era law, a version of which dates to 1864, has only a single exception: to save the life of the mother. It prohibits the procedure including in cases of rape or incest.

The old law was never repealed, but could not be enforced, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1973's Roe v. Wade case that women had a constitutional right to abortion.

Planned Parenthood attorney Andrew Gaona had argued Johnson needed to harmonize the old law with what has been enacted since. That includes the 15-week ban approved this year by the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature, which was set to take effect Saturday, Sept. 24.

Planned Parenthood asked Johnson to rule that the new law applies only to doctors, with the old outright ban applying to everyone else.

She refused, saying her job was only to determine whether the injunction against enforcement of the territorial-era law, issued by the Arizona Court of Appeals in 1973  after the Roe ruling  is still valid.

The judge said it is not, now that the U.S. justices overturned Roe this summer. What happened since, including approval of the 15-week ban, is legally irrelevant, Johnson said.

"The court finds modifying the injunction to harmonize laws not in existence when" the injunction request was filed "is procedurally improper,'' the judge wrote.

She said a carve-out exempting doctors from the outright 1864 ban  the argument advanced by Planned Parenthood  "is not consistent with the plain language (of the territorial law) which contains no such exception.''

There is also the fact that when lawmakers approved the 15-week ban  before the Supreme Court overturned Roe in June  they spelled out they were not repealing the old law.

Johnson has now given Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich permission to enforce the old law.

We applaud the court for upholding the will of the legislature and providing clarity and uniformity on this important issue, Brnovich said in a written statement. I have and will continue to protect the most vulnerable Arizonans.

However, C.J. Karamargin, press aide to Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, pointed out that while Johnson said the 1864 law can be enforced, the judge never specifically voided Senate Bill 1164, the 15-week ban the governor signed into law earlier this year.

And Karamargin said that, as far as Ducey is concerned, that law takes effect as scheduled Saturday.

That sets the stage for someone to ask the Arizona Supreme Court for guidance on which law takes precedence.

There was no immediate response from Planned Parenthood.

Pima County Attorney Laura Conover, a Democrat who sided with the organization, said her office now will be looking at available legal remedies, though she did not spell out what those are.

Having a near complete ban on abortion procedures puts people at risk, Conovers statement said. ... Additionally, the near total ban provides no consideration for victims of rape and incest, making society more vulnerable to these violent crimes. My priorities as Pima County Attorney are public safety and public health. I join our Sheriff and our Tucson Police Chief in reassuring the residents of Pima County of those priorities.

Cathi Herrod, president of the anti-abortion Center for Arizona Policy, said there are dozens of pregnancy resource centers throughout Arizona that can provide help to women, from prenatal care and adoption support to car seats and strollers.

Arizona can and will care for both mother and her unborn child, Herrod said.

Johnson emphasized she was not ruling on the constitutionality of the old law but dealing only with the 1973 injunction.

There have been arguments advanced that the statute runs afoul of the privacy provision of the Arizona Constitution. Kris Mayes, the Democratic candidate for attorney general, has advanced that theory and promised not to enforce the law if elected.

"While there may be legal questions the parties seek to resolve regarding Arizona statutes on abortion, those questions are not for this court to decide here,'' Johnson wrote.
Tucson-based Raytheon Missiles & Defense has won a contract worth up to nearly a billion dollars to develop an air-launched, hypersonic cruise missile for the U.S. Air Force, beating out two competitors.

The contract for the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, or HACM, has a potential value of up to $985 million, and calls for the work to be performed in Tucson through March 2027, according to a Pentagon contract notice.

Fiscal year 2022 research and development funds of $100 million have been initially obligated for the HACM effort, which includes weapon system design, development and initial delivery through the performance of model-based critical design review, qualification, integration, manufacturing and testing, the Air Force said.

Raytheon rivals Lockheed Martin and Boeing had also bid for the competitive program, which is among several hypersonic missile programs fast-tracked in the face of advanced development of hypersonics by Russia and China.

HACM is an air-launched, scramjet-powered hypersonic weapon designed to attack high-value targets in contested environments from standoff distances. Scramjet engines achieve hypersonic speeds  Mach 5 or higher  by burning fuel rapidly in a supersonic airstream within the engine.

HACM is a powerful example of developing and integrating combat capabilities alongside our partners from the beginning, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown Jr. said in announcing the contract. HACM will provide our commanders with tactical flexibility to employ fighters to hold high-value, time-sensitive targets at risk while maintaining bombers for other strategic targets.

Wes Kremer, president of Raytheon Missiles & Defense said the company continues to be at the forefront of hypersonic weapon and air-breathing technology development.

With advanced threats emerging around the globe, the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile will provide our warfighters a much-needed capability, he said.

The HACM program stems from a bilateral project with Australia begun in 2020, the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment or SCIFiRE, to develop air-breathing hypersonic cruise missile prototypes.

The Air Force awarded three 15-month SCIFiRE contracts in June 2021 to Raytheon, Boeing and Lockheed Martin to complete preliminary designs of a hypersonic cruise missile.

Raytheon developed its prototype for the HACM program, the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept, using scramjet components made by Northrop Grumman.

The HACM program will now operationalize the Raytheon SCIFiRE prototype design for fighter aircraft integration and deliver two operational systems, the Air Force said.

We have over a decade of cooperation with our Australian allies in the advancement of hypersonic technologies, and now we will bring that shared knowledge to bear to address urgent national defense requirements, said Andrew Hunter, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics.

Through the SCIFiRE agreement, the U.S. and Australia will continue collaborating on HACM design and development, including using Australian test infrastructure for the initial all-up-round flight tests, the Air Force said.

Raytheon, the Tucson regions biggest employer with more than 13,000 local workers, is involved in other hypersonic missile programs, including a boost-glide vehicle under development with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Raytheon with partner Northrop Grumman also is developing a counter-hypersonic missile, called the Glide Phase Interceptor, for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.

This week, Raytheon announced that its Glide Phase Interceptor has passed a key system requirements review, moving the system to a preliminary design phase.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP)  North Dakotas attorney general on Thursday condemned the violent death of an 18-year-old allegedly struck by a man who said he drove his SUV into the victim after the two had a political argument, and he offered to help a county attorney prosecute the case.

The driver, Shannon Brandt, told a 911 dispatcher that he struck Cayler Ellingson early Sunday in McHenry because the teenager was threatening him, and that the teen was part of a Republican extremist group, according to a probable cause affidavit.

A breath test after Brandt was arrested Sunday showed his blood alcohol level was above the legal limit to drive, officials said.

The case has provoked an outcry from conservatives, with many going on social media to decry Ellingson's death and the alleged motive. Joe Bidens America! tweeted Donald Trump Jr.

Investigators said Thursday they have so far been unable to corroborate Brandt's claims. The 41-year-old man has been charged with criminal vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident that resulted in death.

There has been no corroboration that this was even politically motivated at all," North Dakota Highway Patrol Capt. Bryan Niewind told The Associated Press.

Niewind said investigators haven't found witnesses to the SUV striking Ellingson, but they interviewed several people who were near the two men shortly before. Brandt was the only one to make the claim of a political argument, Niewind said.

According to the probable cause affidavit, Brandt told investigators that he struck Ellingson because he had a political argument with the pedestrian and believed the pedestrian was calling people to come get him.

Niewind said the investigation was continuing.

Attorney General Drew Wrigley, in his statement Thursday, called on political leaders to stop the rhetoric that leads to violence. Wrigley, a Republican, also offered to help the Foster County states attorney prosecute the case.

Brandt, who was freed on $50,000 bond, did not immediately respond to a message left Thursday at a number listed for him. Ellingson's parents have not responded to messages.

McHenry is about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Bismarck.
PHOENIX  The House committee investigating the events around the Jan. 6 riot is entitled to get the phone records of the head of the Arizona Republican Party, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Court Judge Diane Humetewa rejected the arguments by Kelli Ward that the subpoena lacks a valid legislative purpose. It is clear that the House, in setting up the panel, empowered it to look into not only the events of that day but also make recommendations for changes in laws, policies and procedures as the committee may deem necessary, she said.

And Humetewa said that courts generally defer to the decisions of lawmakers about the scope of their investigations.

The judge was no more impressed by Wards arguments that the subpoena will endanger not only her rights but those of the entire Arizona Republican Party.

It seeks the phone numbers of those she called or texted, or who called or texted her, as well as those of her husband, Michael. He, like his wife, were part of a slate of fake electors submitted to Congress saying, incorrectly, that Donald Trump had won the states 11 electors.

If the subpoena is not quashed, members of the AZGOP will be made to feel that every time they communicate with party leadership, they risk those communications disclosed to law enforcement followed by a knock on the door (or worse) from federal investigators, argued Alexander Kolodin, her attorney. A stronger risk of associational chilling can scarcely be imagined.

Kolodin also argued that because the House panel is controlled by Democrats that it would use the information in the phone records to harass or persecute political rivals by inquiring into their dealings with the party chair.

And he even claimed that giving the list of Wards phone contacts might induce people to quit the Arizona GOP and dissuade others from joining it because of fear of exposure of their beliefs through their associations and the consequences of this exposure.

But Humetewa called those contentions highly speculative.

Plaintiffs have provided no evidence to support their contention that producing the phone numbers associated with this account will chill the rights of plaintiffs or the Arizona GOP, the judge wrote. She said that, at best, the claims constitute a subjective fear of future reprisal, something that federal appellate judges have said is insufficient to show any infringements on associational rights.

And, if nothing else, Humetewa said she has to presume the committee will exercise its powers responsibly and with due regard for the plaintiffs rights.

The judge also said she was not buying arguments that the records from any phones that Ward and her husband were using  both are doctors  would violate the rights of their patients who used those numbers to contact them. She said the House panel was not seeking confidential contents of any patients medical records.

And she called it irrelevant that the subpoena might unearth the names of patients.

If the disclosure of the patients name reveals nothing of any communication concerning the patients ailments, disclosure of the patients name does not violate privilege, Humetewa said. And she said the fact that it is known the medical practice focuses exclusively on weight loss change any of that.

The court finds it implausible that a patients phone number would inevitably expose information about a patients medical history, condition, or treatment, an potentially reveal information the patient had divulged in confidence, she wrote.

Ward already has filed paperwork asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the ruling.

In refusing to quash the subpoena, Humetewa agreed with arguments by Douglas Letter, the general counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives.

He told the judge in his own legal filing that the committee wants only call data, things like the numbers of calls and texts sent and received, not actual content.

The Select Committee is not seeking sensitive donor information, he said.

But the real key, Letter said, is that this is not some wide-ranging request. He pointed out what the committee wants covers only from Nov. 1, 2020, just prior to Election Day, through Jan. 31, 2021.

That date range was specifically designed to obtain information referring are relating to activities surrounding the 2020 presidential election, including false assertions that the election had been stolen and actions related to the appointment of an alternative slate of electors from Arizona, he said. And Letter told Humetewa those are activities that directly concerned the Jan. 6 attack.

It is Wards role in all of that the committee seeks to discover.

Central to the legal fight, Letter said, is the legitimate power and role of the committee in finding out the causes of the attack. And he said the committee does not view the her actions in Arizona and the riot as unrelated.

Dr. Kelli Ward participated in multiple aspects of these attempts to interfere with the electoral count in Jan. 6, he said. She told officials in Maricopa County to stop counting ballots and promoted inaccurate allegations of election interference by Dominion Voting Systems.

In sending the set of unauthorized set of electoral votes to Congress, Letter said Wake mischaracterized (them) as representing the legal votes of Arizona.

And thats not all.
Tulsa Ports largest grant in its 51-year history  $22.3 million from the federal government  will position the waterway-manufacturing complex to become a mega-site for future operations, the ports director said Thursday.

At its monthly meeting, the City of Tulsa-Rogers County Port Authority voted to accept the award that will be earmarked for Port of Inola Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant. The authority also oversees a port in Catoosa.

The money is part of $38.2 million the Tulsa region received as one of 21 recipients of a Build Back Better Regional Challenge. Winners were announced this month by the Biden administration and the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA).

The local funds will be used by a Tulsa-based coalition of organizations from government, nonprofit, academia and private sectors to create the Tulsa Regional Advanced Mobility  or TRAM  Corridor.

Dennis Alvord, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of commerce for economic development and chief operating officer, was in Tulsa on Thursday to celebrate the regions award.

Specifically, the Port of Inola project will receive $22.32 million toward its total estimated cost of $27.9 million, with Tulsa Ports paying the $5.58 million balance (20%).

There were a lot of projects in the Tulsa metro area that were originally included in this, Ports Director David Yarbrough said. The goal was to demonstrate a regional approach to attracting jobs that fit not only with the investments youve heard about with Tulsa Innovation Labs and the drone projects but also a project like ours, which is very likely to provide 10,000 jobs.

The Inola plant will be located in a 2,400-acre industrial park at the Port of Inola. In 2018, tissue maker Sofidel purchased 240 acres at the Inola River-Rail Site to build a $360 million facility that encompasses about 1.8 million square feet.

The following year, Public Service Company of Oklahoma entrusted Tulsa Ports with the future development of the Inola industrial site through a land transfer of about 2,000 acres.

Plans also are under way for the Inola Rail Project, which will encompass about 5.3 miles of new and upgraded railroad track and includes the building and development of a 3-mile rail spur connecting Sofidel to the freight mainline railway.

Having a wastewater treatment plan in Inola will allow the port to target manufacturing in the electric vehicle, EV battery and capacitor sectors, Yarbrough said.

We have a mega-site capable property. Weve never been able to compete for mega-sites with our own property, he said. There are others in our region that have.

It (federal award) brings us to the table. What we found out last year in some of our competitions (for employers) was we werent making it past the first round because we did not have a solution for our industrial wastewater.

The Inola plant is scheduled to begin construction within two years and be completed within three.

You couldnt ask for better timing, said Port Authority board member and longtime port director Bob Portiss, speaking about the recently established Port of Inola.  This is literally the largest grant that this port has ever received. I think this is absolutely wonderful.

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An Oakhurst woman will serve 15 years in prison after she pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to voluntary manslaughter in Indian Country and attempted arson in connection with a 2019 strangulation death.

Jessica Lavon McBride, 30, admitted she strangled Tracy Elaine Russell, 49, on March 17, 2019, at Russells home in the 4900 block of North Johnstown Avenue after the pair argued over food stamps.

McBride also admitted to trying twice, unsuccessfully, to burn down the home that contained Russells body.

The binding plea agreement with prosecutors, still subject to a district judge approval, calls for McBride to also serve three years of supervised release in addition to the prison time.

The plea agreement, among other factors, took into account McBrides alcoholism and intoxicated state at the time of the murder.

Jessica McBride stayed in the home of the victim, and in return, she took her life because of missing food stamps, said U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson. My office and our law enforcement partners at the Tulsa Police Department and FBI will continue to hold perpetrators, like McBride, accountable for their criminal acts.

Russell had previously allowed the defendant and her boyfriend to stay with her in exchange for assistance with groceries but later asked the two to leave her Tulsa residence.

Prior to this month, McBride had faced federal second-degree murder as well as attempted arson and evidence destruction charges in Tulsa federal court.

Federal prosecutors filed a felony information Sept. 12 that dropped the evidence destruction charge and reduced the murder charge to manslaughter.

A superseding felony information filed Monday mostly mirrored the Sept. 12 information.

McBride, reading from a prepared statement, told the U.S. Magistrate Susan Huntsman Friday that she killed (Russell) by strangling her until she died and tried to set fire to Russells home.

A federal grand jury originally indicted McBride in April 2021 on charges of second-degree murder, attempted arson and attempted evidence destruction.

The federal case followed the dismissal of state first-degree murder charges against McBride in March 2021 on jurisdictional grounds.

At the time, state district and Oklahoma appellate criminal courts were dismissing criminal cases if either the victim or the suspect was an American Indian and the crime occurred within one of six recently recognized tribal reservations.

In McBrides case, Russell was an American Indian while McBride is not. The crime occurred within the Cherokee Nation reservation.

The dismissals were in keeping with the U.S. Supreme Courts 2020 McGirt decision and companion state appellate court rulings, the latter of which expanded the original ruling from the Muscogee Nation reservation to include the Cherokee and four other tribal nations.

However, in June, the U.S. Supreme Court, with its decision in the Oklahoma v Castro-Huerta case, reaffirmed Oklahomas right to prosecute non-American Indians when they victimize tribal members on one of the six reservations.

A sentencing date has not been set for McBride, who has been in custody since her initial arrest in March 2019.

Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said through a spokeswoman that his office was monitoring the federal sentencing proceedings before deciding on whether to resume their prosecution of McBride in state court.

The federal charge of voluntary manslaughter carries a prison term of up to 15 years while prison time for an attempted arson conviction ranges from five to 20 years.
Everything, according to cybersecurity expert Theresa Payton, can be hacked.

Well, she said, except for VHS tapes.

But with the determination of those wishing to inflict financial and psychological harm upon others via the internet, and the ease with which the tools to inflict that damage can be obtained, Payton joked that probably not even such antiquated technology as videocassette tapes are beyond the reach of hackers.

Payton spoke Friday at the Tulsa PAC to open the 2022-2023 season of Tulsa Town Hall, to discuss Securing the Future: Unmasking Cybercriminals & the Triple Threat Facing Business and You.

Payton served as chief information officer at the White House during the George W. Bush administration, the first woman to hold the position. She is the founder of Fortalice Solutions, one of the nations leading cybersecurity firms.

She also starred in the reality series Hunted and is the author of Manipulated: Inside the Cyberwar to Hijack Elections and Distort the Truth.

Payton said the No. 1 cybercrime is not identity theft but business email compromise, where criminals often use freely available programs to track the internet activity of a given target, usually the CEO of a major company.

Once the hackers have gathered all the information they can find  including travel itineraries, possible passwords, even recordings of the persons voice that can be manipulated to create certain phrases  they use it to initiate wire transfers of large sums of money.

And because everything can be hacked, Payton predicts that before 2023 is out, someone will attempt  and maybe succeed  in hacking into some of the low Earth orbit satellites now in operation, from the International Space Station to the commercial objects that provide everything from GPS information to cellular phone service to worldwide online shopping.

Payton outlined other potential threats that include what she termed a black swan banking event, in which a cyberattack on a single financial institution creates a run on banks; the artificial intelligence now being used to generate computer code will create dormant security flaws that will later disrupt whatever business uses that program; and that forgeries and theft will rock the world of cyber-currency such as Bitcoin.

The key, she said, to protecting ones own interests is to diversify  not using the same email address for every place one visits on the internet, for example, and managing ones online presence regularly to avoid unpleasant and costly surprises. She also recommends having a back-up plan, to know what you would do should some part of ones online presence is compromised.

Payton described many peoples approach to cybersecurity as comparable to the time she was on her way to work and noticed a man carefully locking his very expensive bicycle to a tree. When Payton passed by later in the day, she saw that bike lock was still in place, as was the bicycles front wheel. The rest of bike was gone.

He had locked up what was the least expensive part of his bike, she said, but the most important and most expensive part of the bike someone had taken.

Cyber crime is going to happen, Payton said. Thats why its important to be resilient, and protect what matters the most.

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Statewide scores from the spring 2022 edition of the Oklahoma School Testing Program indicate a partial rebound from the academic impact of COVID-19.

According to data released Friday morning by the Oklahoma State Department of Education, students across the state posted single-digit test score improvements in all but three areas compared with 2021.

The Oklahoma School Testing Program measures whether each public school student has met or exceeded the states academic standards in reading and math across grade levels 3-8 and again in grade 11. Students in fifth, eighth and 11th grade are also tested in science.

The exams are scored to indicate four levels of student mastery of a subject: below basic, basic, proficient and advanced.

Oklahoma students who score at a below basic or basic level in a subject are considered to have unsatisfactory or limited knowledge, and therefore are that much further off the mark toward college or career readiness by the time they graduate from high school.

Statewide, the rates of students testing at a proficient or advanced level increased for all grades in language arts, all grades except 11th in math and in science among fifth- and 11th-grade students.

By comparison, in 2021, the rate of students testing at a proficient or advanced level dropped in every subject and grade except 11th-grade science.

The largest gains were in 11th-grade language arts, fifth-grade science and fourth-grade math. With 38.39%, 11th-grade language arts also had the highest percentage of students testing at a proficient or advanced level across all grades and subjects, followed by fifth-grade science, with 37.4% of students testing at a proficient or advanced level.

Although they improved from 2021, many of the scores were not at pre-pandemic levels. For example, 28.8% of Oklahoma third-graders tested proficient or better in language arts and 33.38% hit that benchmark for math, representing 3.86% and 4.04% increases respectively from 2021.

Those figures still trail the 2019 results, when 39% of Oklahoma third-graders tested proficient or better in language arts and 43% were proficient or better in math. The state did not administer exams in spring 2020.

Spring 2021 test scores created a new baseline for student performance reflective of more than a year of pandemic disruptions to public education nationwide, state Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said. In light of more than two school years of COVID-related instructional challenges and interruptions, these results show that local and statewide recovery and academic acceleration investments are clearly having a positive impact. These are encouraging results representing the hard work of our teachers, students and families.

Additionally, the student participation rate was higher statewide, with 98% of public school students in testing grades sitting for exams, compared with 92% one year ago.

The U.S. Department of Education usually requires a participation rate of at least 95% for statewide exams, but the state received a waiver in 2021 due to the pandemic.

July 2022 video: Legislative report says Oklahoma public schools affected by poverty more than most but funding does not always reflect it
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  Two of the worlds most persistent conflicts punctuated debate at the United Nations on Friday, as the annual gathering of world leaders deviated from the dominating issue of the war in Ukraine.

Addressing hostilities thousands of miles apart and sharing little more than their decades of longevity, the Palestinian and Pakistani leaders nonetheless delivered similar messages, accusing a neighbor of brutality and urging world leaders to do more.

Our confidence in achieving a peace based on justice and international law is waning, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said. Do you want to kill what remains of hope in our souls?

With Israels military occupation of the West Bank in its 55th year and no substantial peace talks in 13 years, it was a stark if perhaps unsurprisingly pessimistic assessment. Israel's prime minister backed a two-state solution to the conflict in his own speech a day earlier  but there is almost no prospect for one in the near term.

Speaking to the U.N. General Assembly after the Palestinian leader, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif of Pakistan similarly addressed a generations-old fight, accusing India of a relentless campaign of repression in Jammu and Kashmir. Those mountainous lands have been claimed by both sides since British rule of the subcontinent ended 75 years ago and India and Pakistan were born.

Sharif urged world leaders and the U.N. to play their rightful role in resolving the fight and said India must take credible steps too.

Indias external affairs minister, S. Jaishankar, might provide a rebuttal to Sharif when he gets his turn at the rostrum on Saturday. India has called the region an integral part of its nation.

After days of world leaders returning again and again to Ukraine, Sharif and Abbas provided a reminder of the other problems facing the international community.

Later, Iraqi caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi spoke of the political impasse gripping his country for nearly a year and preventing the formation of a new government. He called for serious and transparent dialogue among the various factions.

And Bangladesh's prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, repeated complaints that 1 million Rohingya refugees in crowded camps in her country are a threat to its security.

The situation can potentially fuel radicalization, she said of those who fled a harsh crackdown by Myanmars military.

Hasina has said that repatriation is the only solution to the crisis, but that Bangladesh would not force them to go back to Myanmar, where members of the Muslim minority face extensive discrimination.

Throughout the first three days and 104 leaders speeches, many criticized how Russia had managed to block U.N. action on Ukraine because of the veto it wields as a permanent member of the Security Council. Abbas shifted the attention to the power of Israel and its allies, which he said meant no matter how many hundreds of resolutions pass, none would be implemented.

Do you know who is protecting Israel from being held accountable? The United Nations, he said in a speech more than three times the 15-minute limit leaders are asked to respect.

Israel, in turn, has complained that it has been treated unfairly by the world body and has been held to a different standard from other member states, as when it comes to complaints about human rights violations. Its ambassador to the U.N., Joshua Lavine, issued a statement calling Abbas' speech a lie-filled rant.

Even as other issues bubbled up, many leaders continued to call for action against Russian President Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine.

He wont stop at Ukraine if we dont stop him now, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Friday.

Major battlefield developments in Ukraine cast a shadow over the week  nuclear threats by Putin, the activation of some military reservists and votes in Russian-held territories derided by many world leaders and seen as a prelude to annexation.

Russia and Ukraine faced off Thursday at a Security Council meeting  an extraordinary if brief encounter during which the top diplomats from nations at war were in the same room exchanging barbs and accusations, albeit not directly to each other.

Meanwhile, on Friday, a team of experts commissioned by the U.N.s top human rights body, said its initial investigation turned up evidence of war crimes committed in Ukraine since Russias invasion.

Besides Ukraine, familiar refrains have resounded in U.N. speeches, with repeated mentions of climate change, economic crises and inequality. The gathering is a rare moment for many leaders to grab the spotlight on a global stage dominated by the biggest, richest and most militarily mighty countries and issue calls for action.

The obligation of each leader before history is not to overlook failings and shortcomings in favor of wishful thinking or flattery, President Nicos Anastasiades of Cyprus said Friday in his final General Assembly speech as leader of the Mediterranean island nation.

Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.

For more AP coverage of the U.N. General Assembly, visit https://apnews.com/hub/united-nations-general-assembly
Twenty-five years ago, the late Danney Goble published a history of Tulsa subtitled Biography of the American City. In it, Goble contended Tulsa is both unique and typical, singular as one of the most American of American cities.

That same theme played out Thursday as federal officials discussed the reasons a consortium of Tulsa interests received one of the 21 regional Build Back Better grants awarded by the Biden administration.

Theres a lot about Tulsa that looks like a lot of this country, said Scott Andes, project lead for the U.S. Economic Development Administration. One of the things that we said is we want anyone in America to be able to look at one of the winners and say, We could do that.

There is something about these communities that is aspirational for us, said Andes. There is a lot about Tulsa that looks like a lot of places that want to be successful. Thats everything from things that went poorly in the last 100 years and some of the things that were negative, and then how you come back from it. People can see their home communities in what you have done.

Andes was one of several EDA officials, including the agencys chief operating officer (and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce) Dennis Alvord, in town to formally acknowledge the $39 million grant to the Tulsa Regional Advanced Mobility Cluster.

We came in force because this is a really important project for us, said Alvord. I dont think EDA has ever made investments this large that have the potential to be so impactful and so transformative.

TRAM, led by the Indian Nations Council of Governments, involves at least a dozen partners, including the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma State University, the Osage Nation, Tulsa Regional Chamber of Commerce, Tulsa Ports, Tulsa Airports Improvement Trust and the George Kaiser Family Foundation.

With the Build Back Better grant, TRAM plans is to quickly ramp up research, development, manufacturing in the field of unmanned aircraft and other autonomous vehicles.

Besides the grant, TRAM is receiving $32 million in cash and in-kind assistance, including $10 million from GKFF and $6 million from Oklahoma State University.

LaunchPad, the research component of TRAM, will be located in the Helmerich Research Center at OSU-Tulsa. The Osage Nations Skyway36, off 36th Street North and the Tisdale Expressway, will serve as a test site.

The TRAM proposal notes OSU-Tulsa is in what was for decades the heart of Tulsas Black Greenwood District, and pledges to make sure the programs economic benefits reach all ethnic, economic and geographic groups in the area.

Tyrance Billingsley II, founder of Tulsas Black Tech Street, said the project framework includes specific measurements and evaluations to make sure that the commitment we have to equity is not something that is lip-service.

Mayor G.T. Bynum compared the enterprise to some earlier investments, such as the construction of a World War II bomber plant at the Tulsa Airport thats now home to one of the worlds largest bus factories, and the years that went into planning and completion of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System.

The original public investment grew far greater private investment than those involved could ever have predicted, Bynum said. Im thinking now of where we will be with mobility in 10 or 15 years.

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TOKYO -- An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.5 briefly struck the southern part of Japan's Ibaraki prefecture on Friday, authorities said, shaking buildings in Tokyo.

Ibaraki is in the Kanto region of Japan's main island of Honshu that includes the greater Tokyo area. There were no immediate reports of injury or damage.
Vietnamese State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc will attend the state funeral of late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo, Japan, from September 25-28, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced.

Within the state funerals framework, President Phuc will attend the main events and meet with former PM Abes family members, Japanese leaders and as well as leading officials from certain countries, said foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang at a press briefing on Thursday.

Phucs attendance at the funeral shows Vietnams affection and recognition for former PM Abe Shinzo's great contributions to promoting the two countries' relations, and at the same time affirming the importance of the strategic partnership between Vietnam and Japan, Hang emphasized.

During his time in office, the former PM visited Vietnam four times and made important devotions to promoting the comprehensive cooperation between the two countries in all fields, the spokeswoman said.

Abe was assassinated on July 8 morning while giving a speech in Nara City as part of his campaigning support for a parliamentary candidate of the Liberal Democratic Party in Nara Prefecture.

The former PM died at the hospital later the same day due to blood loss after being shot in the back twice with a homemade gun by the Japanese suspect killer, 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami.

The Japanese government decided to hold a national mourning for Abe on September 27 with the attendance of about 6,000 international guests.

Abe, passing away at 67, was Japans longest-serving prime minister, holding the post in 2006-07 and later from 2012 to 2020.

In addition to President Phuc, the funeral will also be attended by about 50 leaders and former leaders of other countries, including U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indian PM Narendra Modi, former British PM Theresa May, and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, among others.

Since their establishment of diplomatic ties on September 21, 1973, Japan and Vietnam have fruitfully developed their bilateral relationship and are looking forward to celebrating their 50th year of the diplomatic relations in 2023.

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Security guards of a high school in Thu Duc City under Ho Chi Minh City handed over a two-meter-long python to local forest rangers after discovering it on a tree in the school hall earlier this week.

The municipal Forest Protection Department announced on Friday the reception of the python from Duong Van Thi High School in Thu Duc Citys Tang Nhon Phu A Ward.

Huynh Hoang Tuan, a security guard of the school, went for a check after hearing a dog barking on Wednesday morning.

Tuan then found the python wrapping itself around a bonsai in the school hall area.

He asked for help from another security guard to catch the python and reported it to the school administration.

The school management board and the security guards then agreed on handing the python over to the Forest Protection Department of Ho Chi Minh City, according to Pham Thi Tinh, deputy principal of the high school.

On Thursday afternoon, forest rangers came to the school to receive the python.

The forest rangers initially identified the large snake as a female python, about two meters long and five kilograms in weight.

It has the scientific name of Python reticulatus and belongs to Group IIB in the list of rare and endangered forest animals.

The security guards believed the python had crawled into the school campus from outside.

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Heeding complaints from the public, the administration of Soc Trang Province in Vietnams Mekong Delta region has halted a project involving the construction of two massive carp-shaped fountains on the banks of a local river.

The provincial Peoples Committee issued a document asking authorities in Soc Trang City, the provincial capital, to cease the construction of a VND15 billion (US$632,000) decorative project, Tran Van Lau, chairman of the committee, said on Tuesday.

Nguyen Van Quan, secretary of the Soc Trang City Partys Committee and chairman of the citys Peoples Committee, confirmed that the project would be halted and said the standing board of the committee is working on resolving the issue.

There are many who oppose the project, so we will likely stop construction. Provincial authorities already agreed to suspend the project, Zing News  a local publication  quoted a leader of the Soc Trang City administration as saying earlier.

Prior to Quans statement, the Soc Trang City administration had issued a resolution to launch the project on the two banks of the Maspero River, with construction expected to start in 2023 and be completed in 2025.

The bill for the project was expected to be footed by the citys state budget.

After the information about the project was announced, the public began voicing concerns that the money would be better suited for infrastructure that benefited local residents.

According to the projects blueprint, each bank of the river was meant to have a sculpture depicting a carp transforming into a dragon, built from white stone and a granite-covered concrete base.

One of the statues was designed to measure 5.6 meters tall while the other was envisioned to be 8.32 meters tall.

They were set to be located the Bridge 30-4 and Bridge C247.

The base of each statue was desinged to feature the words Carp turning into a dragon in Soc Trang - Vietnam

An artistic LED lighting system was planned to decorate the statues, and a fountain was meant to shoot water from their mouths.

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The construction of a low-cost housing project consisting of nearly 1,000 apartments was initiated in Binh Duong Province, southern Vietnam on Friday morning.

The groundbreaking of the project, developed by Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUD) under the Ministry of Construction, was organized in Chanh My eco-urban area in Thu Dau Mot City.

The project covers an area of 2.7 hectares and consists of six 12-story blocks with 978 apartments.

At the ceremony, Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi praised authorities, businesses, and investors in Binh Duong for their efforts in providing sufficient affordable housing for workers and low-income earners.

Vo Van Minh, chairman of the Binh Duong People's Committee, said that provincial authorities always support the construction of budget housing, with a series of projects developed and funded by not only state-owned enterprises but also private investors.

The implementation of another housing project with nearly 1,000 apartments was recently kick-started in Tan Dong Hiep Ward, Di An City.

The project is executed by Le Phong Group JSC, a private enterprise.

In addition, Becamex IDC Corporation, a state-owned company, is also speeding up the construction of about 20,000 low-cost houses at local industrial parks.

According to Minister Nghi, Vietnam currently has 301 finished low-cost housing projects with about 156,000 units.

Around 401 other projects are being implemented, the official stated, adding that the country needs at least one million budget houses for low-income people.

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A recent inspection identified several poor quality speedboats, jet skis, and floating restaurants operating in Vinh Hy Bay, one of Vietnams most beautiful bodies of water.

The Traffic Safety Board of Ninh Thuan Province, home of Vinh Hy Bay, said on Wednesday that the list of substandard vehicles and venues operating in the bay included 17 speedboats, 14 jet skis, and three floating restaurants.

Tran Quoc Nam, chairman of the Provincial Peoples Committee, has ordered related agencies to increase inspections of the area and deal with businesses that fall short of tourism safety regulations in Vinh Hy Bay.

Those that cannot ensure safety must be suspended, Nam said.

A floating restaurant collapses in Vinh Hy Bay in Ninh Thuan Province, Vietnam, in this photo taken in 2016. Photo: Minh Tran / Tuoi Tre

In 2016, the collapse of a raft operating as a floating restaurant in Vinh Hy Bay caused two deaths and injured three people.

More than 300 tourists, including many children, fell into the sea.

Vinh Hy Bay, a small inlet dotted with fishing vessels and woven coracles, is a popular destination for tourists thanks to its charming scenery and delectable seafood.

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Though Bach Mai and Viet Duc University Hospitals in Hanoi are both overloaded, authorities have done little to push forward with two public hospital projects in neighboring Ha Nam Province that have been left abandoned for nearly a decade.

The two abandoned hospital projects, carrying an estimated price tag of VND10 trillion (US$421.2 million), were recently included in an inspection authorized by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and leaders of the Ministry of Health.

The inspection led to orders that bottlenecks be removed from these two projects, named Bach Mai 2 Hospital and Viet Duc University 2 Hospital, and that they be put into operation as soon as possible.

Existing hospitals overwhelmed, new projects in limbo

Bach Mai Hospital currently welcomes between 6,000 and 9,000 visitors per day, far above its designed capacity.

Both outpatient and inpatient numbers are on the rise, and the demand for medical check-ups and treatment is huge," a representative of Bach Mai Hospital said.

Post-operative patients are often left to rest in hallways and some have to be discharged or transferred to lower-level hospitals.

[The patient overload] affects the quality of surgeries [at Bach Mai Hospital] and the safety of our patients.

We hope the hospitals satellite campus will be put into operation soon and that it will ease the overwhelming at our main campus."

Though satellite hospitals for both Bach Mai and Viet Duc University Hospital were approved by the prime minister on January 16, 2014, bottlenecks have caused serious delays in both projects.

The second campus of Bach Mai Hospital in Ha Nam, with a capacity of 1,000 beds, has been left vacant and the facilities have begun to deteriorate. Photo: Nam Tran / Tuoi Tre

The two hospitals were originally meant to house 1,000 beds and be completed by the end of 2017, but both failed to meet that deadline.

Despite not being completed, Bach Mai 2 Hospital did finish work on its outpatient department and was able to open its doors in October 2018, but it was shut down within a year because there were no other departments in the hospital yet open for outpatients to be referred to, causing significant losses for the hospital.

In 2019, with both projects still far behind schedule, the Ministry of Health proposed extending the deadline for each projects completion to December 31, 2020.

Construction on both projects has since been completed, but the missed deadlines mean the capital budgeted by the state in 2017 and 2018 for each hospitals operation cannot be handed over without new approval.

Causes

A representative from the Ministry of Health attributed the two projects slow progress to the ministrys lack of experience, noting that this is the first time we have launched such projects, so we could not anticipate the problems that arose during their execution.

A major contributor to these delays was the changes made to each hospitals design during the construction process.

Both hospitals were designed by foreign design companies using standards set forth by overseas medical institutions, according to the representative.

During the construction phase, however, changes were made to the design plans, including to the planned air conditioning systems, water heating systems, elevators, and residence area.

Other factors in the delay included bottlenecks in the implementation of construction contracts, payment, and the capital disbursement.

According to Tran Binh Giang, director of Viet Duc University Hospital, the new satellite campus has yet to be handed over to staff and a recent inspection uncovered that the facility still lacks medical equipment while some outdoor areas have become overgrown with weeds.

To prepare for the facility to open its doors, we have recruited many doctors and nurses. We also have plans to detach one-third of staff from our main campus to our second campus, Giang said.

Work on the two projects has been suspended and both are currently closed, according to a recent report from the Ministry of Health delivered at a meeting with the prime minister.

The report also noted that the capital disbursement for the two projects has reached between 55 and 57 percent.

At a meeting to discuss the report, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh highlighted that the governments original plan was to launch five central hospitals during three government tenures.

Three of these five planned hospitals have been completed while the other two  Bach Mai 2 and Viet Duc 2 Hospitals  are lagging behind.

The prime minister has since called for the establishment of a working team, led by a leader of the Ministry of Health and populated by leaders of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice, the Government Office, and the Peoples Committee of Ha Nam Province.

Within a maximum of two months, the working team must propose solutions for removing legal and technical obstacles and shortcomings standing in the way of opening the two hospitals.

The prime minister also underlined that the two hospitals must be put into operation in 2023.

Hundreds of people await medical check-ups at Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi. Photo: Nam Tran / Tuoi Tre

According to a leader from Bach Mai Hospital, once the second campus is put into service, each department will be able to function in conjunction with one another in order to meet treatment demands.

The leader also noted that there are currently 1,300-1,500 employees tapped to work at the new hospital.

The hospital has plans to staff the new campus. Apart from young medical workers, experienced doctors and nurses will be appointed to ensure the hospitals quality, the hospital leader said.

Following the prime ministers inspection, leaders from both Bach Mai 2 and Viet Duc 2 Hospitals said they are hopeful that the long-stalled projects will be resumed.

A representative of the Department of Medical Equipment and Constructions under the Ministry of Health also reiterated that the department has been working with the relevant units to remove obstacles of the two projects and that the ministry is working to ensure proper medical equipment is provided to the two hospitals.

A huge waste

National Assembly (NA) deputy Do Thi Lan, deputy head of the NA Social Affairs Committee, said large hospitals like Viet Duc are often overloaded and forced to house patients in hallways.

Given the situation, it is extremely unfortunate that the two satellite campuses have sat inoperable for many years.

The second campus of Viet Duc University Hospital in Ha Nam, with a capacity of 1,000 beds, is overgrown with weeds. Photo: Nam Tran / Tuoi Tre

While working with the Ministry of Health, we discussed the status of the two projects. The Ministry of Health explained that a lack of equipment and unqualified personnel are major roadblocks to opening the two facilities, Lan said.

During the inspection, the prime minister attributed the slow progress to weaknesses and shortcomings in the formulation, consultancy, appraisal, investment, and selection of contractors for the projects.

In the near future, it is important to determine the status of each project and any roadblocks they face. It is also important to prepare the necessary human resources to open each project.

NA deputy Tran Van Lam, a standing member of the NA Finance-State Budget Committee, shared Lans view, saying that the two projects cost a whopping VND10 trillion but still lag behind schedule and have begun to deteriorate, causing huge waste.

The causes for the slow progress were pinpointed by the prime minister but the poor preparation and execution of the projects have obviously led to technical adjustments and the cost overruns.

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9Now screens a 2 hour highlights special of The 2022 Global Citizen Festival on Monday, September 26, on 9Now.

Taking over two international stage sat New York Citys Central Park, and to Black Star Square in Accra, Ghana, are Metallica, Charlie Puth, Jonas Brothers, MANESKIN, Mariah Carey, Usher, SZA, Stormzy, Mickey Guyton, Rosalia, and more.

Hosting is actor, producer and Global Citizen ambassador, Priyanka Chopra Jones.

The Global Citizen Festival, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, is an annual event where artists, fans, activists, corporate leaders and world leaders come together for a common goal. This years goals include investing in the future of women and girls, closing the climate finance gap, alleviating the global food crisis, and relieving crushing debts, culminating in one collective mission: End Extreme Poverty NOW.

The festival is timed to coincide with the UN General Assembly to leverage opportunities to get policy and financial commitments from government, corporate and philanthropic leaders to defeat poverty, demand equity, and defend the planet. Tickets are awarded through points earned by taking action to fight extreme poverty, such as signing petitions, calling your political representatives, participating in challenges, and more.

The 2022 Global Citizen Festival is a global campaign event that everyone, everywhere can get involved in to support the rallying cry to End Extreme Poverty NOW. You can sign up on www.globalcitizen.org or download the app to take action today.

For more information about The Global Citizen Festival, visit their website and follow @glblctzn on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube.

Monday, September 26 on 9Now.
Former Play School host Benita Collings has paid tribute to former co-host John Hamblin, who died this week at the age of 87.

Speaking to ABC she recalled, He was great to work with. You never quite knew it was scripted  he knew the script, however, he was deliciously just a little bit off key at times, and that was lovely because it made him a very different presenter and not straight  it was great fun.

Hamblin spent nearly 30 years as a Play School host, drawing the nickname Naughty John for his cheeky humour aimed at the grown ups watching.

Collings says while they didnt socialise, their rapport on camera was genuine.

We had our own lives, we had our partners, wives or husbands, whatever it was, she explained.

We always rehearsed Play School one week, and then you go home and learn the script, you learn your camera cuts and so you knew what camera was on at what time,so when you came back to the studio, it was all sorted. I do remember the cameramen were gorgeous because if you were looking at the wrong camera, you looked up and looked at the camera, youd see this arm coming out of the camera that you should be looking at pointing at it.

So  it was great fun. It was a joy to do.

Asked about favourite moments working with Hamblin, she was hard-pressed to choose.

I dont know because there was never a sort of favourite moment . with John you knew you had to be on your toes- ready for anything. He would make such a joy out of the script. That was the thing, it was a script you learnt and you came in and you did it, she said.

Oh my gosh, he would alter something just a tiny bit that it would throw you, and youd go with the flow. That was the joy of working with him.

Like Collings, Hamblin was also busily working as a jobbing actor with shows such as Class of 74, The Young Doctors, The Restless Years and The Disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain.

Initially it was just like a job and Im not putting it down, but it was a job and we often did other dramas and television and film and theatre and so on, and then came back and did some more Play Schools.

It wasnt until some years down the track, I suddenly thought, Hang on, this is actually having an impact on not only the children, but as you said the parents, you know.

Asked how she woukd remember Hamblin, Collings replied, As somebody who was wicked, was funny, always there for you, you know, you never kind of went, Oh, what is happening? You knew if you stumbled or forgot your line or something like that, he would pick up and continue on.

(I have) very fond memories of him. And last night when I heard the news, it was a shock because you sort of think people just go on forever and they dont.
Cast have been announced for NITVs coming-of-age childrens series Barrumbi Kids.

The 10-episode live action series stars Nick Bonson (12) and Caitlin Hordern (14) in their debut acting roles, with Sherona Tiati, Zeallion Andrew, Ronan Bonson also making their debut.

Supporting cast members include Justine Clarke (Play School, The Justine Clarke Show!), Jacob Junior Nayinggul (High Ground), Frances Djulibing (Ten Canoes, Operation Buffalo), Adrienne Pickering (Rake, House of Bond), Christopher Sommers (The Water Diviner, Unfinished Sky), Sophie Emberson-Bain (Aquaman, Harrow, Neighbours), Finn Treacy (Ten Pound Poms), Serene Yunupingu (Mystery Road: Origin), Penelope Thomas, Stephen Mahy and Scott Hall.

Barrumbi Kids tells the story of two children Tomias (Nick Bonson) and Dahlia (Caitlin Hordern)  best friends growing up in a remote Northern Territory community. Through fishing, hunting and schooling, the children learn about themselves, each other and living in both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cultures.

Filming took place in Beswick (Wugularr), Barunga, Katherine and Bitter Springs on the lands of the Jawoyn, Dogoman, Wardaman and Mangarrayi peoples in the Northern Territory.

Marissa McDowell, Acting Head of Commissions NITV, said: We are thrilled to be working with talented, up-and-coming actors like Nick and Caitlin, as well as big names like Justine Clarke to bring Barrumbi Kids to life.

NITV creates ground-breaking childrens programming that explores diversity and celebrates the stories and culture of our mob to share with all Australians. Just like the wildly celebrated animated series Little J & Big Cuz, Barrumbi Kids plays an integral part in creating more representation on screen and giving Aboriginal kids a national platform to see their own faces and hear their own voices  something that is so important for our mob. An honourable mention to Kyas Hepworth, former NITV Head of Commissions, who helped bring this flagship series to screens.

Producers Danielle MacLean, Monica OBrien and Julia Morris said: Barrumbi Kids has been many years in the making with elders past and present, Djilpin Arts and Beswick community members. Creating this series with our First Nations partners, Esther Bulumbara, Frankie Lane, Revonna Lane and Scott Hall has been an incredible experience. Their contribution to story and cultural guidance allowed us to authentically bring to life the stories of the fun and mischief experienced while growing up on Country. Their children and grandchildren will watch this series and yell out with big smiles of pride and joy  Hey thats me, thats my family and my Culture!

Grainne Brunsdon, Screen Australias Head of Content, said, We are excited for this charming series to premiere on NITV. With adventurous, cheeky characters and clever scripts, Barrumbi Kids is set to delight young viewers and importantly give children living in remote communities the chance to see their lives and experiences represented onscreen.

Bernadette OMahony, Head of Content at the Australian Childrens Television Foundation (ACTF), said, Barrumbi Kids is a delightful coming-of-age story, full of fun, action, humour and heart. With the spectacular locations and a delightful young cast, this series captures the essence and joy of friendship and the sense of freedom and adventure that comes with growing up in a remote Top End community.

Barrumbi Kids premieres on NITV later this year.

Barrumbi Kids is co-produced by Danielle MacLean (True Colours, Mystery Road, Grace Beside Me, Little J & Big Cuz, Redfern Now) of Tamarind Tree Pictures, Monica OBrien (Muster Dogs and Drop Dead Weird) of Ambience Entertainment and Julia Morris (Finding Maawirrangga, Around the World in 80 Dishes with Manu Feildel), and is based on the popular book series by Territory author Leonie Norrington.

Barrumbi Kids is a Tamarind Tree Pictures and Ambience Entertainment production for NITV. Major production investment from Screen Australia in association with NITV, Australian Childrens Television Foundation (ACTF), Screen Territory and Screen Queensland.
On Four Corners next Monday, reporter Sean Nicholls sits down with Federal Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton.

When Peter Dutton became Federal Opposition Leader in May, he declared that he wanted Australians to see the entire person  not just the persona shaped by his reputation as a former Queensland policeman-turned-Liberal party hard man.

On Monday Four Corners reporter Sean Nicholls puts that declaration to the test with a rare in-depth interview.

Why have you decided to do this interview? Sean Nicholls, reporter.

Sometimes the public only see a snapshot of you through a very quick grab in a news package or during question time. And in this role, you can show people a little bit more of the true  the full picture. Peter Dutton, Liberal leader

In this program, Peter Dutton speaks about some of the issues that shaped him and his vision for Australia. Colleagues whove known him for many years also offer their insights.

I think that what Peter Dutton has demonstrated over his time in parliament is that hes incredibly capable of growth and of evolving as a human being into a better person. Former Dutton colleague

Sean Nicholls also speaks to people whose lives have been directly affected by Peter Duttons words and actions as a powerful cabinet minister.

Like many politicians, he has attempted a makeover and is attempting a major makeover now as the new Leader of the Opposition. The leopard has not changed its spots. He still remains the leopard. Dutton critic

Monday 26th September at 8.30pm on ABC.
Im a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here UK is shooting in South Africa, filming a special All Stars edition for 2023.

This is probably the worst kept secret in television, but we can confirm that were doing a very special series of Im a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here in South Africa! said Dec.

The reality show hosted by Ant & Dec will still be seen in the Australian site for their 2022 season.

The sites are shared by international productions due to their jungle infrastructure and facilities.

Australia in 2022, and South Africa in 2023. You get the idea, said Dec.

Meanwhile 10 is rumoured to be returning to South Africa for 2023, with network Upfronts due on October 6.
The Simpsons have done it again, says a TikTok video, claiming the show predicted the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

One video features an animated Her Majesty adjacent to a coffin with 1926  2022 visible.

The clip also shows a sticker, superimposed in the background, that even displays the date Sept. 8, 2022, the day of the Queens death. Now youre just trying too hard.

The most viral video featuring the image was posted on September 14 and has 23 million views. It shows a short clip from season 15, episode three of the show, titled The Regina Monologues, which first aired in 2003 and depicted Queen Elizabeth II putting Homer on trial after he crashes into her carriage with his car. Doh.

Fact-checking website Misbar speculated that the image is a variation on an animated image of Donald Trump in a coffin, which went viral on Twitter in 2020.

No episode of The Simpsons ever included the dates of the Queens death, according to further fact-checking organisations including PolitiFact and Lead Stories.

Source: Variety, Insider
ZURICH (Reuters) - The Swiss government will release petrol, diesel, heating oil and kerosene from its strategic reserves from Oct. 3 to ensure the supply of oil products to the domestic economy, it said on Friday.

It cited limited freight capacities on the Rhine river and logistical problems with foreign rail transport for a lack of conventional supply.

The government has already twice this year effectively released fuel reserves by allowing companies required to contribute to them to underfill by almost 20%.

Strategic reserves, or compulsory stocks, for petrol, diesel oil and heating oil cover around 4.5 months of normal consumption. In the case of kerosene, reserves suffice for around three months, the government said in a statement.

The ordinance releasing stocks will remain in force "for as long as the situation absolutely requires", it said.

Compulsory stocks of petroleum products were last released in 2005, 2010 and 2019.

It also recommended companies that can switch to using heating oil from natural gas do so from Oct. 1.

(Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Jan Harvey)
TAIPEI, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Taiwan's Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) celebrated Solution Day at 1:30 PM on September 20 in Pathum Thani, Thailand with an event to promote exchanges and business cooperation between Taiwanese system integrators and Thai manufacturers. At the event, manufacturers with operations in Taiwan-Thailand Smart Park and Taiwanese system integrators showcased some of the best examples of "made-in-Taiwan" system integration (SI) technologies, with the goal of furthering collaborations between the two regions to drive the development of smart city solutions. Taiwan-Thailand Smart Park proved to be an ideal venue for face-to-face communications between manufacturers concerning integration of smart technologies. With the introduction of many solutions, Solution Day is expected to serve as a platform through which Taiwanese systems integrators can enter the Thai market. The results of the international SI market survey and trends were also shared at the event.

Group photo of Taiwan and Thailand manufacturers on Solution Day in SynHub Digi-Tech Community, Thailand

IDB deputy leader Michael Yen said in his speech that the export of Taiwanese SI solutions has achieved good results with the support his organization has provided throughout. This year, Solution Day is being celebrated on the same day as the opening of Taiwan-Thailand Smart Park, in the hope of empowering Thai manufacturers to learn more about what Taiwan system integrators can offer in terms of smart cities and to establish partnerships.

Six major Taiwan manufacturers were invited to the event where they shared opinions on what is trending in the sector and on the solutions that each is currently offering, including air quality monitoring and AI analysis from CAMEO, intelligent transportation from FETC International, smart building from Chicony Power, energy storage management from 3Egreen, AIoT technology-based fall detection and SOS positioning applications from Chiun Mai Communication Systems, the conversational artificial intelligence solution AI Chatbot from Sofun Technology, as well the water and sewage treatment intelligent management platform from GSD Technologies. At the same time, the exhibition hopes to highlight Taiwan's focus on global sustainable development issues and the sharing of specific and quantitative research results, to enhance the international image of Taiwanese SI as well as increase Taiwan's exposure in world markets.

Story continues

SOURCE Institute For Information Industry (III)
NEW YORK (AP)  Sudans ruling military general, who mounted a coup nearly a year ago, said he will not run in future elections for a civilian-led government but offered no timeline on when a vote might happen in order for him to relinquish power.

Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan spoke with The Associated Press on Thursday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly's high-level leaders' meeting. It marked nearly one year after the coup upended the Arabic-speaking African nations short-lived transition to democracy after three decades of repressive rule by strongman Omar al-Bashir.

Asked if he would consider running in future elections, Burhan replied: I dont think so. When pressed further, he said: I do not have a desire to put myself forward (as a candidate) nor do I want to continue in this work.

Underpinning last years coup were tensions that had been building between supporters of military rule and those who support civilian rule, with both sides frustrated by the countrys worsening economic conditions.

Sudan has been mired in political turmoil for over three years. Its economy has teetered and inflation was expected to hit a staggering 245% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Since the coup last October, pro-democracy protesters have marched through the streets demanding the generals hand over power to civilians. Theyve denounced Burhans takeover, which occurred when the military dissolved the transitional government of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok as well as the Sovereign Council, a power-sharing body of military officers and civilians that had been ruling Sudan since late 2019.

Troops have opened fire at protesters, killing some of the marchers and detaining hundreds. While no police or security forces have been convicted in the deaths, Burhan said around five or six are under investigation.

No one killed protesters in the way thats being depicted, he said. Protesters clashed with police, and the police dealt with them according to the law to protect public property.

Story continues

Burhan said that once an elected government is in place, the armed forces would be another institution of that government rather than retain a higher status.

During the interview, Burhan said he wouldn't run in future elections. But he stopped short of giving a date for when elections will be held, despite previously saying a vote could be held in July 2023. Instead, he said the gridlock lies with political groups that need to agree on a date for the vote. He insisted the military had no role in that discussion.

We are talking about political participation and widening that participation, whether that is Hamdok or someone else, this person will not succeed without a wide base to rule Sudan, Burhan said. The only authority to rule is through elections, with no one imposing their will on another.

He also brushed aside strains within his own transitional government, denying there were any disagreements with the deputy chief of Sudans ruling military council, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known by his nickname Hamedti. Local media over the past weeks reported disputes between the two generals. Dagalo has also acknowledged the failure of the October military takeover.

In February 2020, Burhan met with then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Uganda, in a major diplomatic breakthrough that paved the way for Sudan to normalize ties with Israel. The meeting was part of a series of U.S.-brokered deals between Israel and four Arab countries.

Israel and Sudan have since crafted security and intelligence relationships that have seen officials exchange meetings repeatedly in unannounced trips.

Asked if he, as Sudans leader, would visit Israel, he said: The basis of relations is reconciliation. Therefore, if an invitation was presented and there is the means for this, I will go.

Amid the political upheaval, millions of Sudanese are suffering from high prices and a currency thats dropped dramatically in value against the dollar. The ruling military leader blamed countries and institutions, which he did not name, for being behind Sudans deteriorating economic situation.

Sudan is in the midst of a deepening food crisis caused by 'a cocktail of factors, according to the countrys World Food Program representative, Eddie Rowe, who spoke at a U.N. news conference on Friday.

Sudan has seen two years of poor harvests, a summer of devastating flooding and is struggling to access vital grain imports from eastern Europe following the war in Ukraine. In response to Octobers coup, many major UN donors have withdrawn funding from the country.

To help ease Sudan's crisis, Rowe called for lasting peace, a reliable government, and further international aid and support.

Following the coup, the Biden administration suspended $700 million in financial assistance intended to support Sudans transition to a fully civilian government. The State Department said the full aid package, which may have included other aid beyond the $700 million, had been put on pause pending a review of developments in Khartoum.

There are those who promised to provide assistance to Sudan, but they did not honor their promises," Burhan said. There was much support from those external actors but regretfully this assistance ceased for political purposes.

___

Aya Batrawy, an AP journalist based in Dubai, is on assignment covering the U.N. General Assembly. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ayaelb and for more AP coverage of the U.N. General Assembly, visit https://apnews.com/hub/united-nations-general-assembly
House of the Dragon star Olivia Cooke says she was very hungover on first day of filming after drinking with Alan Carr

Olivia Cooke revealed she had a rough first day on the set of House of the Dragon, after a night of heavy drinking with Alan Carr.

The actor plays the older version of Alicent Hightower in the HBO prequel series to Game of Thrones. She will be introduced in the next episode of the series airing Sunday (25 September), as the events of the show jump forward 10 years.

In a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! the actor revealed her career on HotD did not begin in the way she would have liked.

I was very hungover. Really bad, actually. Really bad, she told the host of her first day filming.

Cooke explained that she began drinking with presenter and comedian Alan Carr after appearing on his Lifes a Beach podcast the night before.

I never do that, but theres this comedian in England who I love, Alan Carr, and hes got a podcast, she said. He invited me to be on the podcast, and I was very excited.

And my call time the next day wasnt until 11 so I brought a bottle of wine just as a gesture, she added.

She said that after theyd finished recording, the pair carried on drinking and chatting.

The podcast finished, and were just chatting, chatting, chatting. Hes telling me loads of gossip. More wine, more wine, more wine, Cooke said.

The actor ended up getting so drunk that she doesnt remember getting home; I tipped my head down to put my hair in a pony, fell over, she recalled.

Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower and Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower in House of the Dragon (HBO)

Not only was she hungover, but the fall resulted in her chipping her tooth.

I woke up the next day and I had a chip on my tooth. Very slight chip, but enough that the tongue magnifies it, she said. And youre like, What have I done? No one knew on set, until now.

Despite the hangover, Cooke stipulated that her first day on set was amazing.

On Instagram, Carr reacted to the news, writing, OMG!!! Ive broken America, alongside a clip of Cooke giving the anecdote.

Doesnt sound like me!!!, he wrote sarcastically in the caption alongside wine emojis and laughing crying faces. Love you @livkatecooke dont forget Lifes A Beach.
Cambodias Khmer Rouge tribunal has rejected the appeal of a genocide conviction by the communist groups last surviving leader Khieu Samphan.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, a UN-backed tribunal charged with prosecuting the crimes of the Khmer Rouge regime, spent $337m and 16 years to convict the former leader and two other defendants in connection with the reign that caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people.

Khieu Samphan, 91, who served as head of state in Cambodias 1975-79 Khmer Rouge government, was convicted in 2018 of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes and sentenced to life in prison.

It is clear that through me, the chamber was, rather, targeting the Communist Party of Kampuchea, he told tribunal judges in a final statement last August while appealing against the conviction.

Khieu has denied having had any real say in policies when the Khmer Rouge sought to establish a utopian agrarian society, causing citizen deaths from execution, starvation and inadequate medical care.

No matter what you decide, I will die in prison, he said to the court last year.

I will die always remembering the suffering of my Cambodian people. I will die seeing that I am alone in front of you. I am judged symbolically rather than by my actual deeds as an individual.

Responding to the verdict, Amnesty Internationals Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns Ming Yu Hah said: "For all its well-documented flaws, the Khmer Rouge tribunal has shown that those responsible for crimes under international law can and will be held responsible. Todays ruling should serve as another reminder that accountability for the most serious crimes has no expiration date.

The former leaders co-defendant Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouges second in command leader and chief ideologist, was convicted twice and received the same life sentence.

In 2019, Nuon Chea died at age 93.

The courts latest ruling comes as Khieu is already serving another life sentence over a 2014 conviction for crimes against humanity connected with forced transfers and disappearances of masses of people.

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The tribunal had also convicted Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, in 2010 of crimes against humanity, murder and torture.

In 2020, he died at age 77 while serving a life sentence.

He had served as the commandant of Tuol Sleng prison, where roughly 16,000 people were tortured before being taken away to be killed.

The Khmer Rouges real chief, Pol Pot, died in the jungle in 1998 at the age of 72, while the remnants of his movement fought their last battles in a guerrilla war launched after they lost power.

Additional reporting by agencies
Queues have sprung up along Russias border as men attempt to leave the country to avoid a military call-up for the war in Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin announced a partial military mobilisation on Wednesday with 300,000 reservists summoned to serve in the war.

On the border with Georgia, miles-long queues of vehicles have formed including men trying to escape the war.

One man, who did not want to be named, told the BBC he had grabbed his passport and headed to the border, without packing anything else, immediately after President Putins announcement - because he fell into the group that could potentially be sent to the war.

Some witnesses estimated the queue of cars at the Upper Lars checkpoint to be some 5km (3 miles) long, while another group said it had taken seven hours to get across the border. Video from the scene showed some drivers leaving their cars or trucks temporarily in standstill traffic.

Georgia is one of the few neighbouring countries that Russians can enter without needing a apply for a visa. Finland, which shares a 1,300km (800 mile) border with Russia, does require a visa for travel, and also reported an increase in traffic overnight.

Airline tickets to Istanbul, Belgrade or Dubai , which have not banned Russian flights, saw ticket prices soar immediately after the military call-up was announced. Meanwhile flights to non-visa destinations can cost thousands of euros.

Germanys interior minister indicated on Thursday that Russians fleeing the draft would be welcome in her country.

Nancy Faeser said deserters threatened by severe repression would receive protection on a case-by-case basis, following security checks. Meanwhile thousands of protesters have taken part in demonstrations across Russia against Putins announcement of a partial mobilisation.

Russia claims the reports of men fleeing are exaggerated.
CAGUAS, Puerto Rico (AP)  A growing number of businesses, including grocery stores and gas stations, are temporarily closing across Puerto Rico as power outages caused by Hurricane Fiona drag on in the U.S. territory, sparking concern about the availability of fuel and basic goods.

Hand-written signs warning of closures have been popping up more frequently, eliciting sighs and groans from customers on an island where nearly 60% of 1.47 million clients still do not have power five days after the storm hit.

Betty Merced, a retiree who lives in the southern coastal city of Salinas, said she has spent several days looking for diesel to fill up her generator to no avail. She uses a sleep apnea machine and cannot risk going without it.

There are a lot of people with a lot of needs, she said. If there is no diesel, we're going to be very much in harm's way.

Merced said she would travel to the nearby town of Santa Isabel on Friday, and if she doesn't find diesel there, she will drive more than an hour to the northern city of Caguas, where at least one convenience store had a No gas sign on its door Thursday evening.

I didn't think we were going to be so many days without power, she said.

Gasoline also was unavailable in Salinas after all gas stations shut down Wednesday, said community leader Wanda Rios Colorado.

When I saw that, my stomach almost turned, she said, adding that it gave her flashbacks of Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm that hit Puerto Rico in September 2017, resulting in nearly 3,000 deaths and sparking severe shortages of fuel, food, water and cash.

People also have struggled to get their prescriptions as some pharmacies temporarily close.

Puerto Ricos Department of Consumer Affairs said there is no shortage of fuel, but rather a disruption to the system as a result of flooding, landslides and an island-wide power outage caused by Fiona when it slammed into Puerto Ricos southwestern corner Sunday as a Category 1 storm.

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Some fuel stations were unable to reopen or could not be refilled in the storms early aftermath, officials said.

Consumer Affairs Secretary Edan Rivera sought to temper concerns, saying that there is no basis to talk about a fuel shortage in Puerto Rico. He added that his agency also has found sufficient supplies of basic goods.

On Friday, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi of Puerto Rico activated the National Guard to help distribute diesel fuel to hospitals and supermarkets. The force is also supplying generators used to operate potable water plants and telecommunications towers.

On Thursday evening, Rivera announced that crews finally restored power to a gasoline distribution terminal in the southeastern town of Yabucoa that had been operating at a third of its capacity because it was running on a generator.

Rivera said this would speed up distribution of fuel across the island because the terminal could now operate 24 hours a day until the island recovers from the storm.

He said there is 14 days worth of regular gasoline, 25 for diesel and 11 for premium.

Theres a peak in demand in the most affected areas, but it has been normalizing as trucks arrive, he said.

Rivera added that some wholesalers have taken measures to prevent retailers from hoarding fuel.

Some will say they have received less product, but its not that theyre getting less. They asked for a lot, and to err on the side of caution, theyre not being given everything they ask for, he said.

Rivera also noted that a container ship carrying 300,000 barrels of diesel would arrive Friday and the product would be distributed starting Saturday.

Meanwhile, Puerto Rico's Water and Sewer Authority said that of the 956,000 customers out of 1.32 million who have had water service restored since Fiona, more than 400,000 clients have water thanks to generators that depend on diesel.

Government officials said they expected to restore power by Friday in areas that were not severely affected by the storm, although they have not said when people living in storm-ravaged areas might have electricity.

U.S. President Joe Biden pledged Thursday to help Puerto Rico recover from Fiona, saying, We are with you, we are not going to walk away.

He recently approved an emergency disaster declaration and a major disaster declaration, which would free up more federal assistance to those affected by the hurricane. Biden also announced 100% federal funding for debris removal, search and rescue efforts, power and water restoration and shelter and food for one month.

Well do everything we can to meet the urgent needs you have, he said. And we know theyre real, and theyre significant.

___

Associated Press journalist Maricarmen Rivera Sanchez contributed to this report.
Russia has launched its plan to annex around 15 percent of Ukrainian territory via referendums in four regions controlled by Russian forces  a move the West says is a gross violation of international law that significantly escalates the conflict.

After nearly seven months of war and a critical battlefield defeat in north-eastern Ukraine earlier this month, President Vladimir Putin explicitly backed the referendums after the Russian-controlled regions lined up to ask for swift votes to join Russia.

Votes will be held in the self-styled Donetsk (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republics (LPR), which Putin recognised as independent just before the invasion, and Russian-installed administrations in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions will hold votes.

The voting, which the West and Ukraine says is a sham, is due to begin on Friday and will end on Tuesday, with results expected soon afterwards.

Russia will formally annex the areas after the results.

Democracy vs autocracy

"The Kremlin is organizing a sham referenda to try to annex parts of Ukraine," U.S. President Joe Biden told the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

"Ukraine has the same rights that belong to every sovereign nation. We will stand in solidarity with Ukraine," said Biden, who cast the war as part of a global contest between democracy and autocracy.

Ukraine, whose post-Soviet borders Russia recognised under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, says it will never accept Russian control of any of its territory and will fight until the last Russian soldier is ejected.

Putin, Russia's de facto leader since 1999, said Russia would never abandon those in the regions it controls and whom he said wanted to secede from Kyiv.

He casts the war as both a battle to save Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine from persecution and as a way to foil what he says is a Western plot to destroy Russia.

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Ukraine denies Russian speakers have been persecuted.

In a direct nuclear warning to the West, Putin said he would defend Russian territory  and these regions of Ukraine will be considered Russian territory by Moscow shortly  with all means at his disposal.

'Sham votes'

It is unclear exactly how the votes will work in a war zone when so many people have been displaced.

Russia controls most of Luhansk and Kherson, around 80% of Zaporizhzhia and just 60% of Donetsk.

As fighting continues in all four regions, the results are not in doubt.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Russian-installed officials in the regions were setting targets for invented voter turnouts and approval rates, with some turnout figures already agreed.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine's Maidan Revolution and Russia annexed Crimea, while Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas - which is comprised of Donetsk and Luhansk - sought to break away from Kyiv's control.

After Russian forces took control of Crimea, which has an ethnic Russian majority and was transferred to Ukraine in Soviet times, on 27 February 2014, a referendum on joining Russia was held on 16 March.

Crimea's leaders declared a 97% vote to secede from Ukraine.

Kyiv and the West said the referendum violated Ukraine's constitution and international law.

As of next week, Russia will consider these Ukrainian territories as being part of Russia, and they will claim any Ukrainian attempts to retake their own sovereign territory as an 'invasion of Russia'.
Russian forces committed horrific war crimes in Ukraine, such as rape and torture, and sometimes even made the families of victims watch, UN investigators find

War crime prosecutor of Kharkiv Oblast stands with forensic technician and policeman at the site of a mass burial in a forest during exhumation on September 16, 2022 in Izium, Ukraine. Photo by Yevhenii Zavhorodnii/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

A team of investigators commissioned by the UN has concluded that Russia committed war crimes in Ukraine.

Among the crimes are torture and rape of children, some as young as four years old, the chair of a UN inquiry said.

It also found evidence of executions, indiscriminate rocket attacks, and forced deportation.

Russian soldiers have committed a long list of nightmarish war crimes in Ukraine, including torturing and raping children, some as young as four years old, a United Nations investigation found.

Erik Mse, who led an independent UN mission tasked with investigating human rights violations and crimes against humanity in Ukraine, presented a series of findings to the organization's Human Rights Council on Friday.

Gathering evidence from dozens of towns across Ukraine, interviewing victims, witnesses and authorities, and inspecting mass graves and sites of torture, Mse concluded that "war crimes have been committed in Ukraine."

Mse said the commission determined that Russian soldiers engaged in sexual and gender-based violence, including various other terrible human rights violations such as torture, sexual violence, and "cruel and inhuman treatment."

"There are examples of cases where relatives were forced to witness the crimes," Mse said. "In the cases we have investigated, the age of victims of sexual and gendered-based violence ranged from four to 82 years."

He added that the commission "has documented cases in which children have been raped, tortured, and unlawfully confined. Children have also been killed and injured in indiscriminate attacks with explosive weapons."

"The exposure to repeated explosions, crimes, forced displacement and separation from family members deeply affected their well-being and mental health," Mse said.

Ukrainian authorities exhume bodies of people killed as a result of war at the Izium city after Russian Forces withdrawal in, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine on September 16, 2022 Photo by Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Mse said the UN team uncovered a slew of other war crimes, such as the use of explosive weapons that have wide area impacts in densely populated areas. He added that many attacks were carried out "without distinguishing" between Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.

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Additionally, the investigators found evidence of the usage of cluster munitions, multi-launch rocket systems, and airstrikes in crowded areas, as well as a "large number" of civilian executions. Victims of these crimes, Mse said, often had "common elements" and signs of prior detention and execution, like "hands tied behind backs, gunshot wounds to the head, and slit throats."

Witnesses also reported torture, illegal confinement, and kidnappings by Russian troops. Some victims said that after they were initially detained, they were sent to prisons inside of Russia, which aligns with Russia's well-documented and notorious "filtration system"  a sprawling network of interrogation, detention, and processing centers.

"Interlocutors described beatings, electric shocks, and forced nudity, as well as other types of violations in such detention facilities," Mse said. "After being reportedly transferred into detention in the Russian Federation, some victims have disappeared."

An explosion is seen in an apartment building after Russian's army tank fires in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, March 11, 2022. AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File

Evidence of Russian war crimes is not a new aspect of the seven-month-long war in Ukraine. Local authorities, civilians, and journalists have documented scenes of torture, mass killings, and indiscriminate attacks on civilians. International agencies and organizations have said since early March, just days after the Russia launched its invasion, that they would probe war crimes and other human rights violations.

As recently as last week, officials discovered a mass burial site near the newly liberated city of Izium, where some bodies were found with clear evidence of torture. Ukraine's ambassador to the US said it represented "war crimes of massive proportions."

Friday's UN conclusion comes amid a particularly turbulent week in the devastating war. Pro-Moscow separatists in four occupied regions in southern and eastern Ukraine have launched referendums on jointing Russia  a move that the West and Ukraine have labeled a sham and illegitimate. And Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial military mobilization of the country's reservists and new stop-loss policies, all while threatening to use nuclear weapons.

Ukrainian forces, meanwhile, have reclaimed thousands of square miles of territory that was previously under Russian occupation through successful counteroffensives along the brutal war's northeastern and southern fronts.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Several hundred protesters in Tokyo are calling for the cancelling of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe's state funeral.

The country's longest-serving leader was fatally shot at an outdoor campaign in July in the city of Nara.

Protesters dubbed Mr Abe's policies as pro-war, noting his consistent efforts to raise defence spending and his close ties to the controversial Unification Church, which critics call a cult.

The state funeral will take place next Tuesday, but protesters are calling for it to be cancelled.

Yoshiko Kamata, a part-time worker at a convenience store, said the protest was a good opportunity to send a message that Mr Abe never stood with regular people.

She said: "Just because he is dead, we aren't going to forgive Abe."

Protests and marches opposing the state funeral have been popping up nationwide.

Anger mounted on Wednesday when a man in his 70s set himself on fire near the prime minister's residence in an apparent protest at the state funeral, Japanese media reported. He was taken to hospital, conscious.

Some 62% of respondents in a recent poll by the Mainichi newspaper said they opposed holding a state funeral for Mr Abe.

Opposition to the state funeral is also linked to Mr Abe and ties between lawmakers in the party he led, the Liberal Democratic Party, and the Unification Church.

The former prime minister's suspected killer, Tetsuya Yamagami, accused the church of impoverishing his family, according to police. In social media posts before the killing, he blamed Mr Abe for supporting the group.

State funerals are often for emperors

In Japan, state funerals have been historically reserved for the emperor.

The official public bill for the funeral is about 1.7 billion yen (11m), but experts note that hidden costs such as security add to the total.

The decision to hold one for the former prime minister was made by the cabinet and did not go through parliamentary approval. Some lawyers' groups have challenged its legality.

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While Mr Abe was loved by nationalists and many on the right for his defence and pro-market policies, he was reviled by many who want to keep the country's pacifist constitution unchanged.

A private funeral for Mr Abe was held on 12 July and next Tuesday, around 6,000 guests are expected to gather for the state funeral.

Yamagami is reportedly undergoing a psychiatric examination.
Russia Ukraine War (Ukrainian Interior Ministry Press Office)

Ukraine announced a high-profile prisoner swap early Thursday that culminated months of efforts to free many of the Ukrainian fighters who defended a steel plant in Mariupol during a long Russian siege. In exchange, Ukraine gave up an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

President Volodymr Zelenskky said his government had won freedom from Russian custody for 215 Ukrainian and foreign citizens. He said many were soldiers and officers who had faced the death penalty in Russian-occupied territory.

Russia officials didnt immediately confirm or otherwise comment on the swap.

Of the total, 200 Ukrainians were exchanged for just one man  pro-Russian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk, who is Ukrainian. The 68-year-old oligarch escaped from house arrest in Ukraine several days before Russia's invasion Feb. 24 but was recaptured in April. He faced up to life in prison on charges of treason and aiding and abetting a terrorist organization for mediating coal purchases for the separatist, Russia-backed Donetsk republic in eastern Ukraine.

Putin is believed to be the godfather of Medvedchuk's youngest daughter. His detention sparked a heated exchange between officials in Moscow and Kyiv. Medvedchuk is the head of the political council of Ukraines pro-Russian Opposition Platform-For Life party, the largest opposition group in Ukraine's parliament. The government has suspended the party's activity.

It is not a pity to give up Medvedchuk for real warriors," Zelenskyy said in a post on his website. "He has passed all the investigative actions provided by law. Ukraine has received from him everything necessary to establish the truth in the framework of criminal proceedings.

In another swap, Ukraine gained the release of five more citizens in exchange for 55 Russian prisoners it was holding, Zelenskyy said.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the exchanges, calling them no small feat, but adding that much more remains to be done to ease the suffering caused by the war in Ukraine, his spokesman said. The U.N. chief reiterates the need to respect international law on the treatment of prisoners and will continue to support further prisoner exchanges, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

According to Zelenskyy, many of those freed belonged to Ukraine's Azov regiment, whom he called heroes. More than 2,000 defenders, many in the Azov unit, marched out of the Azovstal steel plant's twisted wreckage into Russian captivity in mid-May, ending a nearly three-month siege of the port city of Mariupol. Five of the released Azov commanders are now living in Turkey, according to a post on Zelenskyy's website.
Almost three-quarters of electric vehicle (EV) owners are unhappy with the UK's public charging system, a new survey has found.

The poll of almost 1,500 drivers of electric, or plug-in hybrid vehicles, by Which? highlights the difficulties many motorists face in finding a charger that works.

Some 74% of respondents said they were dissatisfied with charging infrastructure.

Two out of five (40%) reported finding a non-working charger, while 61% have suffered difficulties making payments.

The vast majority of EV owners (84%) who use public chargers want the option of paying by a contactless bank card, the survey also found.

Most charge points require drivers to pay through an app.

Almost half (45%) of those questioned estimated that the nearest public on-street charge point to their home is more than a 20-minute walk away.

Government urged to do more

Sue Davies, head of consumer protection policy at Which?, said: "Our research shows that the public EV charging infrastructure is falling short as many drivers struggle to find reliable charging points in good working order, have to navigate confusing payment systems, or are unable to rely on adequate charging points close to their homes or to get them through a long journey.

"The government must move quickly to implement its plans to improve the consumer experience of using the public charging networks by extending reliability standards across the full network and ensuring proposals for payment roaming make paying to charge much simpler.

"Charging must be easy, reliable, and seamless to support people making the move to an electric car."

Many of these public EV charge points are operated by local councils.

David Renard, transport spokesman for the Local Government Association, which represents more than 350 local authorities across England and Wales, said: "Reliability and ease of use of the charging infrastructure will be vital to continue attracting more people to make the switch to greener transport.

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"Councils need long-term financial support from Government so they can help ensure there are robust and accessible local charging networks to support our communities and businesses to adopt cleaner travel and tackle climate change."

EV sales slow

It comes as figures suggest there the rapid increase in sales of new pure electric cars has slowed in recent months.

The number of registrations during the first three months of the year was 102% more than during the same period in 2021.

At the end of August, the year-to-date increase had fallen to 49%.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: "We have one of the largest charging networks in Europe, and are working to ensure drivers can access charge points across the country which are reliable, consistent, and seamless to use.

"Since 2020 we have committed 1.6 billion to improve the charging network and are on track to have 300,000 public charge points by 2030."
Hungary's governing party wants to poll the country's citizens on whether they support European Union sanctions imposed against Russia over its war in Ukraine.

Fidesz plans to call for a national consultation on energy sanctions which he said had been decided on by the EUs Brussels elite," the party's caucus leader, Mate Kocsis, said at a Thursday news conference following a closed-door meeting.

The sanctions are causing harm. They are destroying Europes economy," Kocsis said. We have to convince European decision-makers, the members of the elite, that they shouldn't maintain the energy sanctions because big problems will come out of it.

The poll, which the government calls a national consultation, is an informal survey available to every adult in Hungary which can be returned by mail or filled out online.

Such surveys, issued several times by the governments of nationalist-populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban since he came to power in 2010, have been criticised by pollsters and opposition parties for containing biased and leading questions, and for having no binding legal relevance.

In the news conference, Kocsis acknowledged that the consultation is a political tool that the government can use in its debates with the EU over whether to extend or impose further sanctions against Russia. He said the government would decide on the timing of the survey.

Hungary's government has vocally opposed EU sanctions against Moscow, arguing they were doing more damage to European economies than to Russia. Budapest has also refused to supply neighbouring Ukraine with weapons or to allow their transfer across its border with the embattled country.

Pro-government newspaper Magyar Nemzet on Wednesday reported that Orban -- who has for years nurtured a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin -- had told the Fidesz conference that sanctions against Russia should be scrapped and that doing so would curb inflation and cut gas prices in half.
Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

If Liz Truss believes wholeheartedly in one thing, its that nobody likes being told what to do. People dont want to be nagged about their weight, or nudged to eat less and move more. They dont want to be told what they can say on social media. And above all, businesses want to be free to make piles and piles of money, unhindered by regulation and red tape and what David Cameron famously called green crap. But when she said she didnt mind making herself unpopular in the process of unleashing all that growth, she didnt mean with the people doing the growing.

What to make, then, of the fact that this week more than 100 big corporate names from Ikea to Amazon, Coco-Cola and Sky signed an open letter urging the government not to backtrack on net zero, following hints that Truss might be considering doing exactly that? This wasnt in the script, either for the deregulatory right or arguably that part of the left convinced that capitalism loves nothing more than warming its rapacious hands over a bonfire of crackling red tape, while watching the planet burn. What, exactly, is going on?

CEOs arent monsters, obviously. They see the same fires and floods and droughts on the news as everyone else, and presumably have the same teenage children berating them at breakfast. They know that being seen to go green matters both to younger customers and employees, with generation Z increasingly squeamish about working for brands their friends consider toxic.

For some, like a water industry enduring its driest summer in 30 years, the climate crisis already represents a direct threat to their operations; others, like renewable energy providers, have built their businesses around decarbonisation. But what has really changed, following the conflict in Ukraine, is that big business is now significantly more worried about rocketing fossil fuel prices. Cheap, secure, renewable energy looks increasingly key to their ability to keep turning a profit.

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That said, it would be naive to imagine that big polluters arent already lobbying this new government to water down some net zero policies, or that plenty of companies didnt have tweaks theyd like to make. But there is a surprisingly big swathe of business that would be rattled by a sudden change of direction now.

The letter was organised by the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), whose recent poll of 700 senior business leaders found nearly 70% already had their own company net zero plans (some doubtless more convincing than others, but thats another column) and 80% had earmarked funding. Telling them at this late stage that actually they neednt have bothered spending the money seems more exasperating than liberating.

The same is true of scrapping the sugar tax now, after companies have already been through the pain barrier of reformulating snacks and fizzy drinks to avoid the tax. Sometimes red tape isnt just about protecting the public but creating stable and predictable conditions in which to make money, plus a level playing field of obligations where well-run companies arent undercut by bad ones or made to feel like suckers. Almost three-quarters of respondents to the CISL poll, tellingly, said that far from being a drag, regulation mattered to their companys business model.

True, it often shifts costs from the state on to business, which business naturally resents. But the logical, if unpopular, corollary is that scrapping it just shunts those costs back on to taxpayers, something the government seems rather less keen to discuss. As Polly Mackenzie, the former chief executive of the thinktank Demos, tweeted recently, you can scrap the rules that stop businesses fuelling things such as obesity or workplace stress or air pollution but your health costs are going to be massive, quite apart from the human suffering caused. Someone still has to pay: its just a question of who.

Related: Our country yearns for unity - but Trusss government is mercilessly dividing it into rich and poor | Gordon Brown

Mackenzie knows this territory well, having been a Liberal Democrat special adviser in the 2010 coalition government, whose own much-hyped bonfire of red tape fizzled out when it emerged that most rules actually exist for a reason, and the reason is often that people like them. One early candidate for scrapping was apparently rules governing the flammability of childrens nightwear, on the grounds that most families now have radiators not riskier open fires. But still, is anyone crying out for kids pyjamas that go up in flames more readily? Is that really what progress means?

Even rules that were fiercely resented at first tend to settle in over time, becoming part of the wallpaper. The working time directive, which protects employees from being forced to work more than 48 hours a week, was controversial back in 1998 when it was first introduced. But binning it  as Jacob Rees-Mogg is reportedly considering  feels curiously last century now, in a world where companies anxious to boost productivity are instead experimenting with four-day weeks.

The idea of freedom, or getting the government the hell out of your life, remains a heady one and for many leavers was part of the itch to Brexit. But if it still thrills a certain kind of Tory voter, it feels increasingly retro. Weve come a long way from the days when greed was good, lunch for wimps and caring about the planet strictly for hippies. If you want to drag Britain back to the 1980s, dont expect us to come quietly.
Soldiers take cover behind their sandbagged armoured cars on Bloody Sunday (PA) (PA Media)

The discontinued prosecution of a military veteran known as Soldier F for two murders on Bloody Sunday in Londonderry in 1972 is to resume.

Northern Irelands Public Prosecution Service (PPS) announced that court proceeding are to recommence against the former paratrooper on two counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder.

Last year, the PPS announced a halt to the prosecution citing concerns that the case could collapse if it proceeded to trial.

However, earlier this year, the Divisional Court of the High Court in Belfast overruled that move after it was challenged by the family of one of the victims.

And earlier this month, the court rejected the PPSs bid to have its appeal referred to the UK Supreme Court.

The PPS has now reviewed its position and has decided to resume the prosecution.

The service originally announced it was halting the prosecution of Soldier F for the murders of James Wray and William McKinney amid concerns the case could collapse in light of a separate court ruling on the admissibility of evidence which caused the collapse of another Troubles murder trial involving two military veterans.

The McKinney family then successfully challenged the original decision by prosecutors by way of judicial review.

Bloody Sunday was one of the darkest days in the history of the Northern Ireland Troubles, when members of the Parachute Regiment shot dead 13 civil rights protesters in the Bogside area of Derry.

Another man shot by paratroopers on January 30 1972 died four months later. While many consider him the 14th victim of Bloody Sunday, his death was formally attributed to an inoperable brain tumour.

Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Michael Agnew said: The judgment delivered by the Divisional Court in March 2022 has been carefully examined and a fresh review of this case carried out.

It has been concluded that, in order to give effect to the Divisional Court judgment, the original decision to prosecute Soldier F should stand.

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Therefore, the committal proceedings that were put on hold should now proceed.

The PPS has written to representatives of the families and victims directly involved in the prosecution of Soldier F to confirm this decision.

We have offered to meet with the families to answer any questions they may have and to outline the next steps to be taken to progress the case. Soldier Fs legal representatives have also been informed.

I am very conscious of the upset caused to the Bloody Sunday families by the PPS decision to withdraw proceedings against Soldier F last year. It is our role to keep under review the evidence presented in every case.

This case has presented difficult and complex legal issues for prosecutors, as was acknowledged by the Divisional Court. The PPS is committed to progressing court proceedings against Soldier F without any further delay.

The Soldier F prosecution is now listed for a review hearing at Londonderry Magistrates Court on September 27.

Mickey McKinney, brother of William McKinney, said: We are delighted that the prosecution of Soldier F will resume next week.

We hope that the PPS secure an early date for the resumption of the committal proceedings and that Soldier F is returned for trial to the Crown Court without further delay.

We hope to meet with the PPS to discuss the future progress of the case in the coming weeks.
By Jamie Freed

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Labour shortages and supply chain snarls are making it harder for airlines and lessors to return airplanes grounded during the pandemic to the skies as quickly as they would like, operators and maintenance providers say.

A global squeeze on maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) capacity is one of the factors contributing to higher airfares for travellers, as demand has rebounded faster than aircraft can be made available and costs are rising.

"Some suppliers are coming out with double-digit escalations and surcharges," said Mahesh Kumar, chief executive of Asia Digital Engineering, the maintenance arm of Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia.

"The airlines keep increasing their fares but that is not a sustainable business," he added at the MRO Asia-Pacific conference in Singapore.

Complications of that kind mean that just about 110 of AirAsia's fleet of 200 planes have returned to service, he added.

Yet getting the rest back in the air is challenging because of the scarcity of MRO slots that also drives up their prices.

The bottlenecks at MROs have been compounded because airlines returned planes to lessors at a much higher rate than usual during the pandemic, which crushed travel demand.

PAINTED INTO A CORNER

Aircraft switching to a new airline need maintenance checks, cabin interior changes and livery repainting at MROs that are often short-staffed after pandemic lay-offs of workers while facing delays at parts suppliers struggling with similar woes.

"We've had real issues with the number of paint shops that can take aircraft and in addition to that, the inability of some of the paint shops to get some of the specialist paint," said Robert Martin, chief executive of aircraft lessor BOC Aviation Ltd

"If you've got some logo on the back of the aircraft with multiple colours, if you are missing one colour, that's a bit of a problem."

Now it takes about three months to make the changes required to shift a narrowbody plane from one customer to another, up from one before the pandemic, Martin added.

Story continues

Hangar capacity and workers were not sufficient to meet customer demand, said Jeffrey Lam, commercial aerospace president of Singapore Technologies (ST) Engineering Ltd.

"The ST Engineering network, we are full and so customers are always asking for more slots," he said.

"We have operations in the United States, Europe, China and Singapore. Apart from China, all of our operations are facing labour challenges."

The strong demand is driving up labour costs as MROs compete for staff and available workers are being asked to do more overtime, Lam said.

"We don't want to too much overtime, because you have concerns around safety and quality," he said.

"We wish we could add more labour and take on more work. So we are worried about schedules, redelivery schedules, costs and all that."

Lessor BBAM has not had much success getting MRO slots this winter, leaving out in the cold some airline customers who sought planes quickly to meet demand in next year's summer peak, said Patrick Low, its vice president for technical matters.

"The speed of recovery is really determined about whether we can get MRO slots," he said. "I think the earliest an MRO is telling us is, come back June next year, possibly we have slots for you."

(Reporting by Jamie Freed; Additional reporting by Anshuman Daga; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Ryan Grantham on 'Riverdale'

The CW Ryan Grantham on 'Riverdale'

Former child star Ryan Grantham has been sentenced to life in prison for fatally shooting his mother in 2020.

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Riverdale actor, 24, was given a life sentence in the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver on Tuesday, and will not be eligible for parole for 14 years, according to the CBC.

Grantham's sentence was expected, as he had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, which carries an automatic life sentence in Canada. It was not known, however, how long he would have to wait to apply for parole.

Prosecutors said in a June hearing that on March 31, 2020, Grantham shot his 64-year-old mother, Barbara Waite, in the back of the head as she played piano. The court reportedly learned that Grantham rehearsed the murder and took videos throughout the proceedings, including one in which he confessed and showed his mother's body.

Grantham also allegedly loaded his car the next day with three guns, ammunition, a dozen Molotov cocktails, camping supplies, and directions to the home of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, with the alleged intention to kill him. However, he instead turned himself in to police in Vancouver.

At the sentencing this week, CBC reports that Justice Kathleen Ker considered it a "saving grace" that Grantham chose not to go through with a killing spree. She also noted the "life-shattering" impacts of the crime, as made evident by victim impact statements from the actor's sister.

According to a CBC report in June, psychiatric reports indicated Grantham was going through an "intense period of clinical depression" before the murder, with "urges to commit violence and kill himself." Grantham allegedly decided to kill his mother, who was battling cancer at the time, "to spare her from seeing the violence he intended to commit."

On Tuesday, Ker said she considered the actor's mental health problems to be a mitigating circumstance in the murder. She also note that Grantham is currently receiving psychiatric help in prison.

Related content:
(This content was produced in Russia where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine)

By Alexander Marrow

KAZAN, Russia (Reuters) - The reach of Russia's alternative to the SWIFT international messaging system has grown at record pace this year, the central bank said on Friday, as Moscow ramps up efforts to resolve financial shortcomings wrought by sanctions.

Sweeping Western sanctions on many of Russia's top banks in the wake of Russia sending tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine have sorely limited lenders' access to the global financial system. SWIFT underpins financial transactions globally.

Alla Bakina, director of the central bank's national payment system department, said 50 new entities had joined Russia's alternative system this year, taking the total number to 440, of which more than 100 are non-residents.

"The System for Transfer of Financial Messages has shown expansion this year because more foreign participants have joined," Bakina told a banking forum in Kazan.

"More participants joined the SPFS in the first half of the year than in all previous years of the system's existence," she said.

The central bank does not disclose the list of countries whose institutions have joined the SPFS, Bakina said.

Some banks in Russia, including units of some foreign financial institutions blocked from exiting by recent Kremlin laws, still have access to SWIFT and can process payments heading overseas.

More than 11,000 financial institutions in more than 200 countries and territories use SWIFT.

Sanctions have increased the use of the SPFS and the issuance of Mir bank cards, Russia's alternative to Visa and Mastercard, companies that suspended operations in Russia and their cards that were issued in Russia stopped working abroad.

Bakina said a third of all bank cards in Russia are now Mir cards.

But Mir - which means 'world' or 'peace' in Russian - is facing headwinds abroad. Banks in so-called "friendly" countries - Turkey, Kazakhstan, Vietnam and Uzbekistan - have halted Mir transactions after the latest round of U.S. sanctions.

Story continues

Washington included National Card Payments System (NSPK) head Vladimir Komlev on its sanctions list, prompting some foreign banks to withdraw support.

Cuba, South Korea and a handful of former Soviet republics have allowed Mir cards' use, but Komlev on Thursday said the NSPK had stopped disclosing the list of countries where the cards are accepted.

(Reporting by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Jan Harvey)
Due to the pandemic restrictions of previous years, the 2022 planning committee wanted the event to be an opportunity for people to be able to connect and socialize in a relaxed environment.

Oconee has two scholarship funds that are supported by this fundraiser. One supports students who attend UNG's Oconee Campus and another supports Oconee County residents who attend any UNG campus, Herring said.

The presenting sponsors for the event are Piedmont Athens Regional and Peach State Federal Credit Union.

Herring said Peach State Federal Credit Union's "continued support and engagement are part of why we are able to continue this event and it be as successful as it is."

"We feel very strongly that education is a progressive endeavor and not all paths to completion are the same. UNG's Oconee Campus is a critical component of the process for students to succeed in completing their journey of reaching their individual goals of higher education," Ryan Hawk, executive director of Peach State Federal Credit Union Board and director of community outreach, said. "We are very excited to continue our long standing support of UNG's Oconee Campus for years into the future."

The event is free, but the public is asked to RSVP to Savannah Plumly at savannah.plumly@ung.edu or 678-717-3927 by Oct. 14 and anyone wanting to learn more about sponsorships and donations is encouraged to reach out to Plumly.

Founded in 1873, UNG is celebrating 150 years of scholarship, leadership, and service this academic year. The Sesquicentennial Celebration honors UNG's legacy of producing outstanding civic, professional and military leaders who serve throughout Georgia and beyond.
HA NOI  About 170 direct meetings between nearly 100 Vietnamese importers and 25 enterprises from Incheon City, South Korea, took place at the Ha Noi-Incheon trade fair organised by the Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA Hanoi) this week.

Incheon is one of South Koreas largest export hubs with many key industrial production complexes. Its businesses introduced diverse products ranging from cosmetics-beauty equipment, instant food, smart home appliances to education products, medical instruments, electronic devices and industrial equipment.

Kim Yo Keun, director of Prime Co Lt, which specialises in manufacturing dishwashers, said: The Vietnamese market is still a potential market for Korean businesses. Our company is working hard to meet Viet Nam's demand for dishwashers. Currently, Prime's exports to Viet Nam reach 300 million won (US$213 million)/year.

Pham Ngoc Ba, director of Viet-Han VIC Media JSC, highly valued the role of the trade fair and wished to find potential Korean partners at this event.

Businesses faced many difficulties in the past two years due to the pandemic. Direct meetings in trade promotion activities will help businesses quickly find their product sources as well as reliable partners, Ba said.

The year 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Viet Nam and the Republic of Korea. Over the years, the two countries have continuously strengthened their extensive cooperation in many fields and recorded many great achievements. Korea and Viet Nam have become each other's strategic partners and Viet Nam has always been a key partner and top priority in the South Korea's New Southern Policy.

In 2022, KOTRA Hanoi plans to connect more than 1,300 Korean businesses with more than 1,000 Vietnamese buyers through 80 trade events in both face-to-face and online forms.  VNS
NEW YORK  Standing Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh attended a banquet hosted by US President Joe Biden and met senior foreign officials on September 22 (US time), within the framework of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 77) in New York.

At the banquet, Minh thanked President Biden for supporting the Viet Nam - US relations for many decades.

He affirmed Viet Nam always views the US as one of the most important partners, and that it wishes to continue intensifying their comprehensive partnership for the sake of the two peoples and for peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the region and the world.

The US leader highlighted his sentiment towards Viet Nam since he was a senator, adding he always supports the strong development of bilateral relations.

President Biden also recalled Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trongs historic visit to the US in 2015 and said he hopes to pay an official visit to Viet Nam at an appropriate time.

Talking to US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, Minh expressed his delight at the progress in the Viet Nam - US comprehensive partnership, recommending the two sides further increase discussions and dialogues at all levels and strengthen ties in all fields to substantively develop bilateral relations.

He also called on the US to continue assisting Viet Nam in war aftermath settlement, digital transformation, energy transition, and climate change response.

Sherman said the comprehensive partnership has been flourishing, noting meetings and delegation exchanges have been resumed to help sustain momentum for their ties.

She highly valued the Vietnamese Governments efforts in digital transformation, energy transition, and engagement in the discussion of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity. The official also affirmed the country's commitment to continue helping Viet Nam with climate change response and war aftermath settlement.

At a reception for US Ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Cindy McCain, Deputy PM Minh appreciated tireless efforts by her husband - late Senator John McCain, who joined generations of the countries leaders to turn the two former foes into comprehensive partners.

He emphasised that efforts by John and Cindy McCain have helped turn the cooperation in war aftermath settlement into a bright spot in bilateral relations, promote reconciliation, built up trust between the two countries, and opened up many cooperation chances in other areas.

Cindy McCain expressed her pride to join her husband in contributing to the growth of bilateral relations.

As the US Ambassador to FAO, she applauded Viet Nam's achievements in agricultural development, climate change response, and water resource security in the Mekong Delta. She also called on Viet Nam to share agricultural development experience with the international community.

The same day, Deputy PM Minh had a meeting with President of the Marshall Islands David Kabua.

Discussing bilateral cooperation, they suggested the two sides increase all-level mutual visits and boost ties in the fields that both sides hold potential for such as fishing, agriculture, tourism, air transport, climate change response, and food security.

Minh affirmed that Viet Nam always attaches importance to and is grateful to the Marshall Islands for supporting its candidacy for important international positions over the past years. He asked the country to continue advocating Viet Nam's candidacy for a seat in the UN Human Rights Council for 2023-25 term.

At another meeting, the Vietnamese official and Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi highly valued the vigorous growth in the two countries strategic partnership as seen in flexibly maintained meetings at all levels and great strides in economic and trade links.

They agreed to step up all-level delegation exchanges, especially when the countries mark the 10th anniversary of their strategic partnership in 2023, effectively implement the action plan for 2019-23, and prepare to build another for 2024-28.

The two officials also exchanged views on some regional and international issues of common concern. They reaffirmed the support for the maintenance of ASEANs solidarity and principles agreed upon on the East Sea issue, as well as for the compliance with international law and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Deputy PM Minh underlined Viet Nam's support for Indonesia to successfully hold the ASEAN Chairmanship in 2023.  VNS
HA NOI  Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son held a working session with representatives from Britannica Education in the US on September 21.

Britannica Education is the world's largest encyclopedia publishing organisation. With a large repository of educational resources, including e-learning resources, this organisation is coordinating with many countries and territories to implement digital transformation in education.

At the working session, Minister Son expressed his interest in the field of testing, science of assessment, and particularly in improving the quality of education, including the teaching and learning of foreign languages and information technology.

He stressed that having good and full educational resources is very important for students.

At present, the educational resources for Vietnamese students have been improved but are still limited, particularly in remote and mountainous areas. Therefore, the education sector has a plan to prioritise resources and policies to develop the system of school libraries and increase educational materials.

Minister Son said he wished to receive support from Britannica Education to increase educational resources, particularly materials for students to study foreign languages, information technology and issues relating to cultures of other countries in the world.

He proposed the organisation provide Viet Nam with assistance in educational materials, tools and skills and help Viet Nam to expand and improve the quality of foreign language teaching and learning to help students better integrate into the world.

A representative from Britannica Education affirmed that this is not a challenge only for Viet Nam but for many other countries in the world and affirmed that the organisation is willing to support Viet Nam in the educational issues proposed by Minister Son.  VNS
Accordingly, agriculture will be steered towards sustainable, ecological, organic, circular development and low carbon emissions in order to improve growth quality, increase added value and competitiveness, reduce environmental pollution in agricultural production and rural areas, and use effectively and efficiently energy and natural resources towards a carbon-neutral economy by 2050.

A high-tech honeydew melon farm in Phuoc Tien commune of Bac Ai district, Ninh Thuan province (Photo: VNA)

Specifically, the GDP growth rate of the agricultural sector is set to reach 2.5-3% per year.

The agriculture sector will focus on improving efficiency in the use and protection of land, water, aquatic resources, forests, and biodiversity conservation. Forest coverage rates will be maintained at 42% with one million hectares receiving sustainable forest management certificates.

The sector has set a target that the proportion of organic fertiliser products and biological plant protection substances of the total fertiliser and plant protection substances produced and consumed will top 30%, and at least 30% of total crop area will apply advanced and water-saving irrigation methods.

Along with converting 300,000 hectares of rice land to planting other crops with higher economic and environmental efficiency, the agricultural sector strives to expand the area of organic cultivated land to over 2% of the total area while the percentage of organic livestock products is to account for about 2-3% of the total livestock products produced in the country.

At the same time, the application of good agricultural production practices will be expanded to improve quality, added value and competitiveness as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions in agricultural production.

The process of new rural development must be accelerated to meet green and sustainable growth goals and form a lifestyle in harmony with the environment and nature.

To achieve the above goals, the cultivation sector will change the crop structure in line with market advantages and needs, adapting to climate change in each region so as to form specialised and large-scale commodity production areas.

The sector will promote the application of advanced production processes to reduce the use of fertilisers and chemical pesticides that cause environmental pollution and the degradation of arable land and greenhouse gas emissions.

For the livestock industry, small-scale production will be switched to large-scale farms to form key livestock production areas associated with environmental protection, biosecurity and technology application.

All livestock production establishments, slaughterhouses, and livestock product processing establishments must have appropriate environmental control solutions to ensure that they do not cause environmental pollution and effectively use livestock waste sources for the demands of cultivation, aquaculture, insect breeding and renewable energy production.

For fisheries, the industry has to synchronously implement solutions to protect and develop sustainable aquatic resources in accordance with international standards and practices as well as raise new aquaculture species with high efficiency, good disease resistance and adaptability to climatic conditions.

The industry will adjust the intensity and structure of fishing to ensure efficiency and sustainability associated with biodiversity conservation.

In forestry production, it is necessary to expand concentrated planting material areas, restore natural forests, develop agro-forestry and non-timber forest products in the direction of commodity production.

In addition, the sector will focus on expanding forest areas certified for sustainable management, maximising forest environmental services to generate revenue as well as exploiting potential new services such as eco-tourism, carbon sequestration and storage services.

In the processing of agricultural, forestry and fishery products, environmental pollution must be addressed.

Preserving and developing traditional craft villages, linking economic activities with tourism services, preserving traditional culture, and creating jobs and incomes will be promoted.

Businesses and households in craft villages and production establishments in rural areas will be given assistance to invest in technology and equipment innovation to improve energy efficiency and reduce pollution in production, and develop OCOP (One Commune One Product Programme) in the direction of a circular economy.

The Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development will continue to research, review and complete the national set of criteria for new rural areas at all levels to meet the requirements of green and sustainable growth.

The ministry will also complete mechanisms and policies of promoting agricultural green growth and enhances human resource training for green and ecological agriculture, digital transformation and advanced technology applications serving the effective use of natural resources and environment protection.

In order to have investment capital for the green growth goals, the ministry focuses on mobilising social resources, especially from businesses, and strengthening international co-operation to call for financial support and technology transfer in order to make Vietnams agriculture a model for green, low-carbon, safe agricultural products, and improve competitiveness in the global agricultural chain, contributing to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, especially methane in crop production, animal husbandry and deforestation.

Financing the net-zero transition Recent projections continue to show Vietnam as the fastest-growing economy in Southeast Asia coming out of the pandemic. Srinath Komarina, programme manager at the Global Green Growth Institute in Vietnam, explains how using innovative instruments like green bonds can meet the countrys targets, both for the environment and the economy.

Private sector expected to support the green growth model in Vietnam Last year Vietnam made a remarkable commitment to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Patrick Lenain, senior associate of the Swiss-based Council on Economic Policies, shares some recommendations to encourage the private sectors role in this ambitious target.
The starting point of Giza is a facility and workshop developer for industrial zones. After nine years, the group has expanded operations to supporting industries. What is the story behind this transition?

Ngo Huu Tiep, chairman of Haast Industry Vietnam, a subsidiary of Giza E&C

Many years ago, our close partner Eva Haiphong Precision Industries Co., Ltd., which is located in the northern city of Haiphong, suggested we jump into the industrial production sector to become their vendor. Evas director also said that they would support us to train engineers and a skilled labour force.

At the time, we had experience in workshop construction in collaboration with the partners supporting commitment. We also forecast that the opportunity in the long-term would be widened. Thus, we decided to establish Haast Industry Vietnam as the starting point for the roadmap to industrial production.

Since early 2021, the factory has operated smoothly and our portfolio of partners has expanded. We have also received much support from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, as well as through training courses organised by Samsung and Panasonic, among other factors.

Vietnam boasts big potential for industrial development. Do you think there will be a trend in the transition of enterprises into industrial production?

Investing in the supporting industry, especially in precious mechanics, is hard going and requires determination. This is because domestic enterprises have to cover the entire works, from ensuring input materials and product standards to offering competitive selling prices and looking for partners.

Domestic suppliers have to compete with foreign-invested vendors which enjoy massive incentives, including imported taxes on materials. In general, as satellite enterprises for large-scale groups, foreign-invested vendors have an available output for their products. Besides that, they are proactive in materials and receive massive support from parent companies.

Investing in this sector needs a large capital volume and it is a long-term investment, but some credit organisations and banks have yet to be interested in offering long-term loans with incentive lending rates. Meanwhile, foreign-invested suppliers enjoy a lending rate at an average of 2 per cent a year, while local manufacturers have to suffer a rate of over 10 per cent annually. Thus, they face woes in arranging capital for the mid- and long-term.

As a result, such a transition will not become a true trend anytime soon, and Haast is quite alone on this path.

How can an ecosystem be built for domestic supporting industries?

It is quite challenging because there is a problem that domestic enterprises just prefer choosing orders with simple requirements or available designs instead of spending time, capital, and brainpower deeply studying to create key products.

To improve the situation, enterprises need to have the aspiration and determination to participate in global supply. Besides that, the government should have more support policies, especially incentives relating to capital, for businesses which have aspirations and dare to face obstacles to make the supporting industry take off.

We see that many foreign experts in countries with developed industrial sectors want to look for career opportunities in developing countries such as Vietnam. They are a precious human resource to improve the domestic supporting industry. Meanwhile, many domestic enterprises are willing to hire foreign experts with high salaries and convenient accommodation. Thus, we hope that ministries and relevant authorities will be intermediate units to connect the two parties.

What are the opportunities for local suppliers once their capacity is standardised?

The government is doing a great job to promote Vietnams image overseas and encourage capital inflow. That community highly appreciates Vietnams investment environment and the capital inflow is improving this year.

During the process of working with foreign partners, although foreign-invested groups may have a group of satellites in Vietnam, they really have a demand for increasing the localisation ratio with the main purpose of avoiding dependence on vendors and to ensure on competitive selling prices between them. They encourage Vietnam to foster the development of the supporting industry and open more factories.

The barrier remains available, but once local manufacturers overcome challenges, opportunities arise. You can look back at Chinas supporting industries 20 years ago. Chinese supporting industries starting point was similar to Vietnams situation now but it now boasts global supporting vendors such as Foxconn and Pegatron. Local manufacturers will establish room for themselves if they dare to be pioneers and pave the path ahead.

Hanoi to develop supporting industries The capital city of Hanoi has set up many solutions to develop other supporting industries, aiming to increase the municipal supporting industry development index.
VIR hosted the webinar "Buy Now Pay Later - The Future of E-commerce Spending?" to provide a platform for experts and business leaders to exchange ideas and discuss the potential of BNPL services in Vietnams e-commerce landscape.

Speaking at the event, Nguyen An Son, head of the Project Development Department at the Centre for Informatics and Digital Technology, the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy, said that BNPL allows consumers the option to pay for purchases in interest-free instalments over a relatively short period.

BNPL lenders rely on big data to assess the credit scores of customers. The larger the database, the more accurate the credit scores.

He cited a report indicating that that Vietnam's overall online retail sales hit $13.7 billion in 2021. With a CAGR of about 20 per cent, Vietnams online retail sales are predicted to rise to $16.4 billion in 2022. The boom in e-commerce opens up a lot of opportunities for BNPL expansion.

However, the general difficulties of the e-commerce market will also affect the potential of BNPL. In particular, around 73 per cent of online shoppers in Vietnam chose cash on delivery (COD) as their shipping and payment method. 27 per cent of non-cash payments are made by customers who already have a reliable source of income, a bank account, and a credit card. Thus, they are able to cover the cost of the item they wish to purchase rather than opting for a BNPL service. It is challenging for the BNPL service providers to convert 73 per cent of COD usage to BNPL or other cashless payment methods, he added.

According to Lu Duy Nguyen, senior director at Tiki Corporation, BNPL is quite prevalent in developed countries like Australia, the US, and Europe. Vietnam is a lucrative market for BNPL services given that a small percentage of the Vietnamese population uses credit cards. This trend is also driven by technological advances, big data, and online transactions.

BNPL products are gaining increasing traction among consumers in Vietnam as both startups and established corporates bet big on them. From local BNPL platforms to big regional players, the deferred payment market is expected to gain widespread adoption in the country.

Online payments have gained traction during the pandemic. Among them, BNPL allows customers to split up payments into equal instalments over time. E-commerce platforms will benefit from the rise of BNPL since customers can increase their purchasing power and spending on online products. With the support of BNPL partners, we have pushed marketing and promotion activities to bring more value to customers, Nguyen noted.

As stated in a report by Research and Markets, the adoption of BNPL payments is expected to grow steadily in Vietnam over the forecast period, recording a CAGR of 45.2 per cent from 2022 to 2028. The BNPL Gross Merchandise Value in the country will increase from $496.4 million in 2021 to reach $10.5 billion by 2028.

To promote BNPL methods, Nguyen Anh Cuong, co-founder and CEO of Fundiin said that it is crucial to identify the persona of online users. New chip-based citizen ID cards have been introduced by the state so that personal data can be collected and coordinated.

This will lay a foundation to develop a platform for financial institutions and fintech startups so they can make better assessments of their customers based on data. Some nations, including Singapore, Indonesia, and India, have made great strides in this area. Hopefully, Vietnam will achieve some progress in the field soon.

There is also no legal framework for new business models like BNPL. The application of the regulatory sandbox will create an environment in which regulators can assess the risks, fees, and benefits of fintech enterprises and promote the progress and development of related tech according to the demands of the market.

Le Van Duong, partner of Indochine Counsel said, Assuming the transactions are legal, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) needs to add more regulations to protect payments between service providers and buyers.

BNPL lenders act as the third-party player in e-commerce transactions, which involve customers and e-commerce operators. The SBV needs to request the development of a technology platform to ensure the payment safety of BNPL for buyers, sellers, and service providers. At the same time, SBV or service providers have to assess the credit scores of buyers, added Duong.

Michal Skalicky, CCO of Home Credit Vietnam said, Our BNPL product Home PayLater complies with the company's credit rating guidelines. We have also chosen Tiki as our first partner for the BNPL product. The main reason is the trust of customers in this e-commerce platform. We also make it more convenient for our customers so they can shop online quickly. Besides Tiki, we are also looking for other e-commerce partners to further expand our cooperation and promote the popularity of BNPL methods in Vietnams e-commerce market.

Buy Now Pay Later - The future of retail payment? Foreign and Vietnamese companies are placing large bets on the buy now, pay later approach in Vietnam, thanks to a significant increase in the use of the payment method, but the sector still presents certain dangers.

BNPL products come to aid of consumers The adoption of short-term financing by consumers continues to grow in Vietnam as local and foreign financial companies gear up to meet the soaring demand.
New York  Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh on September 22 met representatives from the US Chamber of Commerce, the Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU), the US-ASEAN Business Council (USABC) and US firms operating in many different areas in New York.

At Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh's working session with the US community (Photo: VNA)

Highlighting the sound economic, trade and investment partnership between the two countries, Minh noted that two-way trade reached nearly 87 billion USD in the first eight months of this year, up about 20% year on year.

The US has been the largest export market of Vietnam, while Vietnam is also the biggest trade partner of the US among the ASEAN countries, he stressed.

The official affirmed that the Vietnamese Government will continue to create optimal conditions for foreign businesses, including those from the US, to expand their business and invest in Vietnam in the areas of high technology, digital transformation, green transition, innovation, finance and banking, smart agriculture, renewable energy, infrastructure development and R&D, thus contributing to the countrys efforts in completing commitments announced at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Minh highly valued ideas from US associations and businesses, expressing his hope that they will continue contributinh to the promotion of the harmonious and sustainable economic, trade and investment partnership between the two countries.

US representatives hailed efforts by the Vietnamese Government in COVID-19 control and economic recovery as well as maintaining the macro-economic stability, creating confidence for foreign investors to expand their operation in Vietnam.

US businesses said they are impressed at Vietnamese economic growth amid the complicated pandemic developments, commenting that Vietnam is a dynamic and potential market as well as one of the attractive Southeast Asian destinations for companies that wish to stabilise and re-establish supply chains.

They welcomed Vietnams efforts in digital transformation, energy transition and climate change response, holding that the countrys development targets are suitable to the common development trend of the world. Many US firms showed their interest in connecting with Vietnamese partners to seek new cooperation opportunities in the fields of digital transformation, energy transition, as well as their willingness to support Vietnam in achieving emission reduction and sustainable development goals.

Hanoi holds dialogue with business community Representatives from the Hanoi Peoples Committee, departments, and agencies, as well as businesses, gathered at the first Cafe Business programme on March 10 to help solve companies' current difficulties.
According to a recent Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) survey, 86 per cent of Japanese businesses would like to raise their purchase ratio in Vietnam over the next three years.

The coronavirus pandemic, disruptions of global supply chains, and increases in logistics fees have left foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) eager to tap into domestic suppliers.

Currently, factories in China are relocating to Vietnam, while South Korean companies are also creating more factories and investment projects here. Investment and manufacturing activities in Vietnam are promising to develop strongly in the future, said Matsumoto Nobuyuki, JETROs chief representative in Ho Chi Minh City.

In one example, the Towa Industrials factory that produces brakes for Japanese Shinkansen trains has a ratio of only 18 per cent local supply, which it would like to raise to a higher level.

At present, the number of local vendors is quite small. To accelerate the production, we are looking for more Vietnamese vendors to reduce dependence on imported materials and spare parts from overseas, said Yutaka Watanabe, general director at Towa.

However, Vietnamese suppliers can only meet a part of the total demand of foreign-invested enterprises. For example, they may be able to produce 100 or 1,000 items, but if we ask for 10 or even 100 times this amount, they cannot meet supply or ensure the quantity and quality.

Additional local businesses are making a mark in global supply chains, photo Le Toan

The Ho Chi Minh City Association of Mechanical and Electrical Enterprises said that, despite the difficulties encountered last year, its member companies still reported fairly positive outcomes, with a rise in the number of key partners and orders from the likes of Japan and South Korea. This year, the number of orders from FIEs increased by 20 per cent.

Do Phuoc Tong, chairman of the association, said, Enterprises are busy because there have been many orders since early this year. There are many large partners with new orders in large quantities.

More and more local businesses are setting foot in global supply chains. Last year, Samsung advised 260 Vietnamese enterprises to increase productivity, reduce errors, decline inventory, and enhance their opportunity to join new supply chains.

Hanpo Vina JSC supplies plastic injection products to Samsung. Its product defect rate decreased by 53 per cent, and the factory has been redesigned to easily locate inventory and manage the quantity of its inventory.

Thinh Vuong Manufacturing and Trading Co., Ltd. provides plastic display tray products for Samsung. The company has reduced its defect rate, mould replacement time, and loss rate.

Samsungs number of domestic vendors has improved significantly from four enterprises in 2014 to nearly 200 in 2020.

According to the Vietnam Association of Foreign-Invested Enterprises, the domestic purchasing rate of such enterprises in Vietnam has increased, though not much, while in several regional countries it has decreased.

A few months ago, numerous Japanese businesses in supporting industries started to build factories in Hanoi Southern Supporting Industrial Park, manufacturing components for aircraft, trains, automobiles, ships, agriculture, fisheries, and more.

The investment of Japanese businesses in supporting industries will contribute to raising the domestic purchase of FIEs in manufacturing, as well as facilitating supply chain leaders to develop, said Nguyen Hoang, chairman of the Hanoi Supporting Industries Business Association.

Against the sharp increase in domestic purchases and the rapid development of FIEs in supporting industries in the future, local businesses are facing difficulties in seizing opportunities to join global supply chains.

In Ho Chi Minh Citys Saigon Hi-tech Park, foreign investment accounts have hit 85 per cent, but the domestic purchase rate is just 10 per cent, far worse than expectations.

Links between local and foreign suppliers have not been good previously, so we have yet to utilise FIEs resources to develop domestic production. Processing and manufacturing industries should be developed strongly in quality and efficiency, not just in quantity, said Tran Anh Thi, head of the Saigon Hi-Tech Park Management Board.

According to the Vietnam Association for Supporting Industries, there are as many as 400 Vietnamese companies in supporting industries that can participate in the supply chains of FIEs and export. The demand is soaring, but if they cannot meet the orders, the ability of domestic vendors to invest and innovate in technology will become even more challenging.

Watanabe of Towa added, The Vietnamese government and also banks should provide more policies to deliver further capital to domestic suppliers to improve production capacity, expand factories, and also catch up with the development needs of supply chain leaders.

International businesses seek restoration of supply chains While Vietnam is working to spur economic recovery and development, international businesses are seeking stronger actions to develop supply chains to facilitate their future expansions.
Bernd Lange, chairman of the European Parliaments Committee on International Trade, has visited Vietnam four times in the past three years, with the latest visit concluding last week as he aimed to oversee Vietnams implementation of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), and assess the operations of domestic organisations in charge of supervising the deployment of FTAs and Vietnams policies.

The EVFTA is a strong foundation for boosting the EU-Vietnam trade and investment ties. The agreement has had positive effects on both sides, with larger trade and investment flows recorded, Lange said, confirming that the European Parliament will continue supporting Vietnam in EVFTA implementation, and expanding sustainable development cooperation given the EU actively deploying a series of new policies and initiatives in Asia-Pacific.

EU keen to cement obligations in EVFTA - illustration photo

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the EU is now one of the most important sources of foreign direct investment for Vietnam. As of August 20, EU investors have registered about $25.8 billion for nearly 2,250 projects. The most recent project is Danishs Lego Group which a few months ago got licensed to invest over $1 billion in the 44-hectare site in the southern province of Binh Duong for a carbon-neutral factory, which will be Legos sixth manufacturing site and second in Asia. This project will generate 4,000 jobs over the next 15 years.

However, the EU Delegation to Vietnam said that both intellectual property rights protection and sustainable development conditions are crucial elements for the attraction and retention of investment from the EU.

Increased investments will allow Vietnam to better integrate into global value chains, thereby diminishing the dependence of Vietnam on its current main investors, the delegation said. EU investors are bound by the highest standards for workers rights and environmental protection, thereby contributing to the wellbeing and further development of the Vietnamese society and economy.

To make it more favourable for EU investors and businesses to maximise the EVFTAs benefits, the European Commission has established a new portal called Access2Markets, which is designed for small- and medium-sized EU enterprises in particular. The portal provides useful and detailed information on applicable tariffs, rules of origin, product requirements, customs procedures and formalities, VAT/excise duties/sales taxes, trade barriers, and trade statistics. It is available in all 24 official EU languages.

It is expected that the leaders of Vietnam and the EU will continue meeting with each other to beef up bilateral trade and investment relationships. Two months ago, European Union Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski visited Vietnam to boost trade in agriculture within EVFTA commitments.

I am particularly encouraged by the progress of our FTA: between 2020 and 2021, EU-Vietnam agri-food trade overcame challenges to grow by 9 per cent, reaching 3.5 billion ($3.57 billion) in total. These figures reach even higher levels if we also consider fishery and forestry products, both of which have particular prominence in Vietnams exports, Wojciechowski said.

As a result of the EVFTA, EU citizens enjoy increased access to Vietnamese tea and coffee, along with an impressive range of nuts, spices, and tropical fruit. Some of these products are protected as geographical indicators via the EVFTA, such as Bao Lam seedless persimmon and Luc Ngan lychees.

The EU will provide support for the sustainable development of the cocoa sector in Vietnam through a new project: Circular Economy Cocoa: From Bean to Bar, with an EU co-financing grant of 1.55 million ($1.58 million). This adds to a significant list of other EU-supported projects designed to help address the climate and environmental challenges faced by Vietnam and to develop sustainable agriculture, in particular for small farmers.

Peter Bernhardt, team leader of the ARISE+ Vietnam programme funded by the EU to support Vietnams new trade commitments, told VIR that to maximise EVFTA benefits, much remains to be done by Vietnam.

Dropping tariffs is one good thing, but non-tariff measures still remain and should be prioritised such as the simplification of the Vietnamese customs clearance process, which will improve trade and shipping facilitation, Bernhardt said. EU specific regulations for imported products must be well-known to Vietnamese manufacturing companies as all EU sectors are highly regulated and products must be conforming to a number of health, safety, and environmental protection regulations.

He added that each Vietnam agricultural or processed food product is subject to special entry conditions in the EU market to check for contamination risks as some substances are banned in the EU. Vietnamese farmers and exporters must be aware, and the Vietnamese government has to set up sufficient control capacities and capacity building efforts to inform about safety for human consumption according to EU standards to avoid products rejection of products at the EU border, Bernhardt said.

According to Vietnams General Department of Vietnam Customs, in the first eight months of this year, total export-import turnover between Vietnam and the EU hit $42.2 billion, up from $36.87 billion recorded in the same period last year.

In the first eight months of this year, Vietnams export turnover hit $31.9 billion, up 23.6 per cent on-year, while the nations import turnover sat at $10.3 billion, down 6.9 per cent on-year.

Both sides trade turnover was $56.45 billion in 2019 (including Vietnams exports and imports of $41.5 billion and $14.95 billion, respectively). However, in 2020, trade was reduced to $50 billion.

The situation became brighter last year when the bilateral trade value reached $63.6 billion, including Vietnams exports worth $45.8 billion, up 14.2 per cent on-year; and the countrys imports of $17.9 billion, up 16.5 per cent on-year.

EVFTA underpinning growth in Vietnamese tech market Changes in consumer behaviour and market trends over the past few years have forced us to rethink the role of technology. Eunjung Han, consultant at Rouse Legal Vietnam and vice chair of the Digital Sector Committee of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, looks at how the implementation of EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement and relevant government policies make impacts on the growth of the local tech market.

Room for agro-exports to grow through EVFTA deal While the export turnover of agro-products has taken off since 2020s arrival of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, ample room still remains neglected due to failure to meet the demand for quality.
According to Decision No.1012/QD-TTg released in August on assigning medium-term public investment plans of the central budget for 2021-2025, nearly VND31.4 trillion ($1.36 billion) of the Ministry of Transports medium-term capital is set to be transferred to seven localities across the country.

The government is urging acceleration of infrastructure ventures in order to boost socioeconomic development, photo Le Toan

The prime minister has asked ministries to direct the localities  Hanoi, Hung Yen, Bac Ninh, Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai, Binh Duong, and Long An  to detail every project and task of the spending plan, which is hoped to help meet annual spending targets.

Instead of immediately assigning the capital plan and then trying to disburse, plans are now considered carefully based on demand and capacity before capital allocation.

Strengthening decentralisation for localities is a flexible management solution of the government to enhance the efficiency of public investment disbursement, said Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Duy Dong.

The $1.36 billion will be partly allocated to the projects for Ring Road No.4 in Hanoi and Ring Road No.3 in Ho Chi Minh City. Such decentralisation will contribute to speeding up disbursement.

The government and the prime minister have boosted decentralisation for localities, especially in large-scale projects. Thereby, localities will utilise their own capital, as well as mobilise the private sector  for example, in the form of public-private partnership or build-operate-transfer models that we are applying everywhere, Dong said.

Investment portfolios, preparation, construction, and settlement are seen as the most important tasks to boost the disbursement of public investment.

Ninh Binh province, one of the localities with the highest rate of public disbursement, is having success in investment portfolios, which is shortening construction time and speeding up disbursement. The project road connecting National Highway 12B with National Highway 21B has a total investment of nearly $5.5 million with a total construction time of 33 months. However, after reviewing and rearranging capital sources, the project completion time was shortened to just six months.

Thanks to allocating sufficient capital for the contractors, they can approve the payment soon for construction, said Ninh Quang An, deputy general director of Cuong Thinh Thi Investment Group JSC which partakes in the project.

Vu Van Ha, vice director of Ninh Binhs Traffic Works - Construction Investment Project Management Board, said, Currently, the capital has been allocated, so we will set up machinery and equipment, trying to complete the construction this year.

Ninh Binh Department of Transport is holding weekly meetings to review progress and resolve difficulties quickly, according to Bui Tien Thanh, director of the departments Project Management Unit 1.

By the end of August, Ninh Binh had disbursed more than 53 per cent of the total public investment capital for the year ($262.1 million), one of the highest disbursement rates in the country. A local government representative said that this year, they had focused on making a list of investment projects prioritising high-performance and eliminating those not eligible for disbursement.

In addition to the investment portfolio, the province also asked departments and authorities to reduce investment procedures by at least 20 per cent to set up special working groups to speed up site clearance.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, in the first eight months of this year, 39.2 per cent of the total yearly plans public investment $23.76 billion has been disbursed, which is modest compared to the same period last year (40.6 per cent). In addition to the governments strong measures, localities are also making innovations in implementing and disbursing public investment.

Many localities have returned public investment to ensure the efficiency of disbursement. Localities with good disbursement rates have the political systems strong support, an innovative management mindset, and promptly review and transfer capital to projects making better progress.

The government has also implemented other measures to speed up public spending. In the last few months, the prime minister has established six working groups to continue inspecting and urging ministries and localities with low disbursement rates to provide measures to speed up disbursement for the rest of the year.

Deputy PM asks Hanoi to accelerate public investment disbursement Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh has asked Hanoi to clarify the causes behind the sluggish disbursement of public investment.
Seoul  A delegation from the northern province of Thai Binh, held a conference in Seoul on Sept. 22 to call for investment from RoK firms into the province.

Thai Binh and RoK delegates to the conference pose for a group photo (Photo: VNA)

The event, organised with the coordination of the Vietnamese Embassy in the Republic of Korea and the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME), is part of activities to enhance trade connectivity between Vietnam and the RoK to mark the 30th anniversary of their diplomatic relations (November 22, 1992  2022).

In his opening remarks, Secretary of Thai Binhs Party Committee Ngo Dong Hai, affirmed that for Thai Binh, the RoK has been an important partner in various fields. The province is hosting 26 projects of Korean investors with total capital of 128 million USD.

He invited Korean investors to the province to survey investment and business opportunities, pledging to create the best possible condition for them, including providing support not only in investment procedures but also throughout the operation duration of their projects.

Standing Vice Chairman of Thai Binhs Peoples Committee Nguyen Quang Hung presented the potential and strengths of the province, which is located in the northern coastal economic corridor, and only 110km from Hanoi.

He emphasized that Thai Binh has a big land fund for industrial production, with eight established industrial parks with total area of 1,930ha. In particular, the province is home to a 30,583ha economic zone, and the province has issued many preferential policies for investment in the zone.

Representatives from Korean firms with investment in Thai Binh shared their experience in doing business in the province.

Earlier, the Thai Binh delegation paid working visits to Gyeongsangbuk and Chungcheongbuk to look into cooperation possibilities. It also had working sessions with Korean firms which are interested in investment in infrastructure and smart city.

Conference promoting Thai Binh-South Korea investment cooperation The conference promoting investment cooperation between Thai Binh province and South Korea on July 6 featured the presence of nearly 100 South Korean investors and businesses.
Bangkok - The Thai Cabinet has approved a 45-day stay for tourists entitled to visa exemptions and 30 days for those eligible for the Visa on Arrival programme in order to help boost the tourism sector during the travel season.

Tourists at the Grand Palace in Bangkok (Photo: AFP/VNA)

The measure was proposed by the Ministry of Interior and approved on Sept. 20. It extends the period of stay from 30 to 45 days for tourists arriving from countries that receive visa exemptions, while those eligible for Visas on Arrival can stay up to 30 days instead of the previous 15 days.

The extension will be temporary, running from October 1 to the end of March 2023, to correspond with the peak tourist season, when many tourists from Europe and the United States are expected to travel to Thailand to escape the cold winter.

According to Acting Government Spokesperson Anucha Burapachaisri, about 5 million foreign tourists have arrived in Thailand so far this year, including about 1 million this month alone. The government estimates that the number of foreign tourists will reach 10 million by the end of 2022, generating 2.38 trillion THB in tourism revenue.

Thai national oil and gas conglomerate shifts to EV industry With the Government of Thailand having launched electric vehicle (EV) incentive packages benefiting both manufacturers and buyers early this year, several major corporations are pushing for production of EVs and batteries and building of charging facilities.
The EU provides Vietnam with an annual quota of 80,000 tonnes of rice, comprising 30,000 tonnes of milled rice, 20,000 tonnes of unmilled rice, and 30,000 tonnes of fragrant rice, in accordance with the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

As of mid-August, the harvested yield reached roughly 28 million tonnes. Photo: Duc Thanh

The EU will entirely liberalise broken rice, enabling Vietnam to export an estimated 100,000 tonnes of rice to the EU annually. After three to five years, the EU will eliminate taxation on rice goods.

In 2022, rice shipments to the EU will continue to increase. The quota of 80,000 tonnes that qualify for the preferential tax rate of 0 per cent from the EVFTA was not met in 2021 and there has been a rising trend of rice consumption in the EU as a result of the attractiveness of Asian cuisine.

Traditional markets for Vietnamese rice include Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and Poland.

The modest downward adjustment of 25 per cent for broken rice is not a cause for concern.

The Vietnam Food Association (VFA) predicts that Vietnam's rice exports to the EU in 2022 will not be less than 60,000 tonnes, since the quality of Vietnamese rice has improved from the importers' perspective.

According to the VFA, the prospects for rice exports to the EU will increase in the near future if the United States is aggressive in its supply. Despite the pandemic, Vietnam's rice shipments to the EU in 2021 totalled 60,000 tonnes worth $41 million, a rise of roughly 1 per cent in volume but an increase of more than 20 per cent in value compared to the previous year.

Pham Thai Binh, general director of Trung An Hi-tech Farming JSC, said, "Europe has become the most important market for this firm, with high-quality rice being the most supplied commodity to this market."

According to Binh, following two years of the EVFTA's implementation, several Trung An exports have been shipped to the EU market with tariff benefits. Specifically, in the first six months of 2022, Trung An's rice export turnover surged by 68 per cent, while overall turnover rose by 19 per cent.

According to data compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development up to the middle of August, the whole nation planted 6,7 million hectares of rice, a decrease of 0.7 per cent compared to the same time in 2021, harvested around 4,4 million hectares, an increase of 2.1 per cent, and the average return reached 63.3 quintals per hectare.

Vietnam exports first batch of rice to UK under UKVFTA The batch of 60 tonnes of jasmine rice was exported to the UK with the price of 15.5 ($21.15) per 10 kilogrammes.

Vietnam exports $4.8 billion into EU after the effect of EVFTA After the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) came into effect last August, Vietnam's export value to the EU has increased 18 per cent on-year in the first three months this year. The total export turnover to the EU was estimated at nearly $4.8 billion over the last eight months.
Hanoi  Vietnam is ranked 63rd out of 113 global economies in a global ranking of digital environment and support systems for entrepreneurs, a new index developed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Illustration. (Photo: diendandoanhnghiep.vn)

Released earlier this week as part of the Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2022, the Global Index of Digital Entrepreneurship Systems (GIDES) puts Singapore in the first place, followed by the United States and Sweden.

Digital entrepreneurship helped economies stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it can become a major engine of growth and innovation in the post-pandemic world, said ADB Chief Economist Albert Park.

For this to happen, there needs to be a supportive environment enabled by conducive policies and incentives. While the environment for Asias digital entrepreneurs made substantial strides in the past couple of years, theres still a lot of room for improvement.

The index measures the quality of the environment for digital entrepreneurs by looking at the level of digitalisation in eight areas, namely culture, institutions, market conditions, infrastructure, human capital, knowledge, finance, and networking.

In addition to investing in digital infrastructure such as broadband networks, governments need to promote political stability, reliable legal systems, open and competitive markets, and strong property rights.

For Asia and the Pacific as a whole, an insufficiently supportive culture is among the biggest weak spots when it comes to nurturing digital entrepreneurship. One example is a general lack of public appreciation for the vital role that entrepreneurs play in economic progress. One way to change this is to improve the public perception of entrepreneurship through education.
On September 10, VinFast delivered the first 100 VF8 electric vehicles (EVs) to early depositors. Le Thi Thu Thuy, general director of VinFast, said that the group would fulfil all VF8 orders in Vietnam within the next six months.

VF8 electric vehicles

In light of a wave of electrification and the volatility of fuel costs, several manufacturers are rushing to introduce EVs in Vietnam. Luxury automobile manufacturers such as Audi with its e-tron GT, Porsche with its Taycan, and Mercedes-Benz with its forthcoming EQS are hoping to lead the way.

EV specialist Nguyen Thuc Hoang Linh said, The majority of this automobile groups clients possess the financial ability to handle their own charging requirements, such as having a home charging station. This group also typically has multiple vehicles, so they are not reliant on a single automobile, which is something average EV users are concerned with.

High-end EVs offered in Vietnam are usually available with a spectrum of charging methods, ranging from portable and small to high-capacity.

Hyundai debuted the Ioniq 5 model at the end of April, although it has not yet been released for general sale. The estimated price of the Ioniq 5 will be comparable to that of premium vehicles, at almost $85,000.

The Kia EV6 has also not yet been given a release date. Several automakers are set to offer EVs but only VinFast is so far prominent in this crowded market, having already delivered the VF e34 and VF8 to consumers.

Linh said that some well-known electric car manufacturers are not keen on the Vietnamese market for multiple reasons, including the fact demand for EVs is not that considerable, despite Vietnamese consumers being more interested in electric cars than in the past.

Similar to gasoline, diesel, or any other commercial commodity, producers only enter the market when they foresee a return. I am aware that several big automakers have a long-term plan to introduce EVs to Vietnam, Linh said. Hopefully, these companies will be able to effectively deploy them so that domestic customers have more green transportation alternatives.

With the exception of VinFast, no automaker has thus far revealed a plan to construct EV charging station infrastructure. VinFast is vigorously distributing and completing 150,000 charging ports for the end of 2022, spanning all 63 cities and provinces to fulfil the demand. Additionally, the group provides automobile chargers for consumers to use at home. Despite the existence of various obstacles, it is evident that this systems capacity and function are growing, allowing it to service a range of VinFast automobile models that will hit the market in the future, according to Linh.

However, in addition to charging stations installed in basements or car parks, VinFast may want to explore placing charging stations in business hubs and tourist hotspots, as well as selling retail charging point installation packages for home customers, Linh explained, saying that this would effectively fulfil the practical demands of electric car owners.

I believe that, currently, VinFasts charging infrastructure is sufficient for the number of vehicles available, Linh added.

VinFast halts manufacturing of petrol cars VinFast Commercial and Service Trading Co. Ltd. announced on July 15 that it will halt production of petrol-powered vehicles after the last batch of Lux and Fadil models were ordered by customers.

VinFast and IRONMAN announce global partnership The automotive manufacturer VinFast will become the first-ever naming rights partner of the IRONMAN US Series from 2022.
The capital will help Virtual Internships to further scale its education platform as demand for remote work and learning continues to grow. The global nature of the fundraiser, made up of investors across three continents, reflects the business ambitions to continue to expand the platform internationally and make internships at the most exciting companies accessible to all, according to the companys statement.

Founded in 2018 by Daniel Nivern and Ed Holroyd Pearce, Virtual Internships operates in 25 countries around the world

Daniel Nivern, CEO of Virtual Internships, said that the company has seen a clear societal shift towards remote work, a trend that it believes will continue to accelerate at pace.

We should embrace the opportunities that this presents, and platforms like Virtual Internships help students and graduates from around the world to acquire new skills that will accelerate their career growth and prepare them for the 21st-century workplace. Our mission is to bridge the gap between education and the workforce by making global remote work experience accessible to all in a digital and borderless world, Nivern said.

Virtual Internships offers programmes across all industries in more than 100 countries worldwide, creating opportunities for the more than 250 million students in higher education to undertake a virtual internship. The unique platform ensures intelligent, rapid matches between students and companies globally, guaranteeing an internship match for every student within one month, regardless of their background, major, location, or desired career field.

According to the latest report released by EdTech Agency in July, Vietnam's edtech market is estimated to exceed $3 billion by 2023 and is in the top 10 markets with the largest growth rate in the world. Total investment capital in startups in this field in Vietnam has reached $20.2 million.

Meanwhile, market research organisation Ken Research released that the global edtech market is expected to reach a value of $319.7 billion by 2029 with a compound annual growth rate of 17.8 per cent.

Edtech startup MindX lands $3 million in new funding MindX, an edtech startup based in Vietnam, has raised a $3 million Series A round led by Southeast Asian venture capital firm Wavemaker Partners, Vietnamese investment bank Thien Viet Securities, and a US-based investor. Gender lens investor Beacon Fund also participated with debt funding.

Vietnamese edtech market attractive to investors Educational technology (edtech) startups in Vietnam have drawn many domestic and foreign venture capital funds thanks to their high development potential.

Edtech platform Azota secures $2.4 million led by GGV Capital EdTech platform Azota, which allows teachers to create and grade online tests efficiently, has just raised $2.4 million in a Pre-Series A round led by GGV Capital. Other backers include Nextrans and existing investor Do Ventures.

Education investment dips increasingly into edtech If previously, Singaporean education investors saw opportunities in opening new training facilities in Vietnam or joint training programmes with existing educational institutions, the market in recent times has witnessed the entry of more Singaporean funds into the edtech sector.
A former Connally Primary School teacher is back in jail on charges that he stalked female employees of a local store, just weeks before he is set to stand trial on 2021 charges involving stalking and soliciting teen girls.

Timothy Bruner, 60, of Waco, was arrested Monday on a third-degree felony stalking charge after he was accused of sending lewd and harassing Instagram messages to the employees, court records show.

An affidavit lists a string of sexually graphic and demeaning electronic messages sent around April 1 from accounts known to belong to Bruner.

One of the employees told detectives she and another woman were in fear of sexual abuse, not knowing if the person sending the messages was in their store, an arrest affidavit in the case says.

An employee told detectives Bruner went to her checkout line, then sat in his vehicle for an extended period of time watching her through the front door, the affidavit states.

The woman told a detective she was in fear of leaving her residence during this time.

Bruner lost his job as a second-grade teacher at Connally Primary School about 11 months ago after he was arrested on charges involving sexual misconduct, the Tribune-Herald reported at the time.

He was first arrested Oct. 14 on charges of online solicitation of a minor, after a sting in which he exchanged online messages with a sheriffs office detective posing as a 16-year-old girl, and invited her to join him in sexual activities, the Tribune-Herald reported.

The next day, while Bruner was out of jail on bond, he was arrested again on stalking charges when investigators found incriminating evidence on his phone, the Tribune-Herald reported. Investigators said messages on his phone confirmed the report from a 19-year-old woman who said Bruner had been stalking her with sexually explicit messages for three years and that she was in fear of being sexually assaulted.

He was indicted in those cases May 26, with a trial scheduled to start Oct. 10 in 54th State District Court.

Bruner remained in McLennan County Jail on Thursday on the new stalking charge with bail set at $75,000.
Marine Corps Col. Jared C. Voneida, a 1992 Midway High School graduate, assumed command of the Defense Information Systems Agency Pacific Regional Field Command during a July 15 ceremony aboard the USS Missouri at Ford Island, Hawaii.

Voneida replaced Marine Corps Col. Matthew R. Simmons, who served as the DISA Pacific commander since July 2019.

He is the son of Susan and the late John Voneida, of Waco.

This is Voneidas second tour with DISA. He was the chief of DISA PACs Contingency and Exercise Branch at Ford Island, Hawaii, from 2007 to 2010. Hes returning to DISA after his most recent assignment as the assistant chief of staff G-6 for the generals communications officer for III Marine Expeditionary Force in Okinawa, Japan.

DISA PAC was my first choice for command, Voneida said. Its great to be back here with the agency and see so many familiar faces.

In his current role, Voneida is responsible for the engineering, operation, defense and command, and control of the Pacific portion of the Department of Defense Information Network. He directly supports U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, U.S. Forces Japan, U.S. Forces Korea, Alaska Command, and Pacific mission partners, service components and agencies.

Col. Simmons did a great job at DISA PAC and provided superb support throughout the Pacific, Voneida said. Im going to continue his work and focus on maintaining an integrated joint force with our service components throughout the Indo-Pacific Theater and ensure we are interoperable with our coalition partners and NATO forces operating in theater.

Voneida is a 1997 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. He and his wife, Sara, have two children, Claire, 12, and K.J., 8.

Voneida has served in Rome, Stuttgart, Germany, and Okinawa, Japan.

His father was a 23-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and retired as a lieutenant colonel. John and Susan moved to Waco in 1988. John worked for L-3 Communications, then Merrill Lynch and also M. Lipsitz and Company under Tom Salome.

Jared Voneidas brother, Ryan, is a U.S. Air Force colonel in Colorado Springs at the Air Force Academy. Ryan is a 1995 Midway graduate.
The Rev. Nick Mumejian is the new senior pastor at Lake Shore Baptist Church. He was officially installed during a ceremony Sept. 11 after being selected by the congregation in January.

Mumejian delivered his first sermon as Lake Shore pastor on Easter Sunday, and then he and his wife, Virginia, and their twin sons, Declan and George, moved to Waco in June. During the past two years, Mumejian served as Interim senior pastor of Riverside Baptist Church in Washington, DC, following pastoral positions in Connecticut and North Carolina. He holds a Master of Divinity from Duke University and is continuing postgraduate work in reconciliation and interfaith relations. For nearly 12 years, Nick also has been managing editor of The Muslim World, founded in 1911, the worlds oldest academic journal dedicated to Islamic studies and interfaith relations.

Laura Davalos-Lind, current chair of the board of deacons, said Rev. Nick will bring to Lake Shore his energy and knowledge. We will greatly benefit from his faith journey and interfaith relationships. His engaging personality will move us forward.

Founded in 1959, Lake Shore Baptist Church is a welcoming and affirming community of Christians, attempting to discover, articulate, and embody the meaning of the Gospel in the world today. It is affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and the Association of Welcoming & Affirming Baptists.
James Clapper, a retired air force lieutenant general who served two tours in South Korea and then as President Barack Obamas director of national intelligence from 2010 to 2017, has shocked a virtual forum by asking, rhetorically, if our policy of demanding North Korean denuclearization is going to work.

The United States has been imposing sanctions forever, said Clapper, who directed intelligence for the U.S. Forces Korea Command for two years in the 1980s and visited Pyongyang eight years ago to bring home two Americans imprisoned there. Our approach, he argued, has not been successful.

Washington, he said, should accept the reality that North Korea should be recognized as one of nine nuclear powers. He added, Of course, we should allow a North Korean presence in Washington  a liaison office in exchange for a similar U.S. office in Pyongyang.

Clappers comments were largely at odds with others at the forum, conducted by the Institute for Corean-American Studies in Philadelphia. An immediate question was whether facing the fact that North Korea will never give up its nuclear program would encourage others in the region also to go nuclear. South Korea and Japan are widely believed to be ready to produce nuclear warheads anytime they have a pretext or rationalization for doing so. Taiwan is also getting close to that distinction.

I also asked him whether Japanese conservatives, if North Korea were recognized as a member of the nuclear club, would get their way and manage to throw out Article 9 of Japans post-war peace constitution banning Japanese forces from waging war overseas. He acknowledged the danger of letting that genie out of the bottle, as I put it in my question, recognizing the potential for Japans renaissance as a great military power.

For sure, adding all these countries to the nuclear club would mean that Northeast Asia has five of the nine nuclear powers when you include Russia, a nuclear menace from the Soviet days with more warheads than the United States, and China, far behind Russia in numbers of nukes but far ahead of North Korea. Then, when you add all the warheads that U.S. forces keep on planes, ships and bases in the Western Pacific, from Hawaii to Japan and Guam, you can imagine a nuclear war erupting in which hundreds of millions would die.

Clapper, to be sure, envisions quite a different scenario. North Korea wants badly to be recognized as a member of the nuclear club, he said. Now the question is, How could we induce the North Koreans to behave responsibly? He called strategic patience, a term that came into vogue during Obamas presidency and now seems to be President Bidens policy too, a euphemism for exasperation.

To questions suggesting his views might be a little unrealistic given the total lack of communication between North Korea and either the U.S. or South Korea, Clapper said the current approach toward North Korea is not succeeding. He insisted he was trying to be pragmatic here by asking, What can we do to better influence North Koreas behavior?

Clapper had no ready answer, though, when I asked where or how to begin as long as Kim Jong-un is not responding to messages from either the U.S. or South Korea, and the relationships formed in his summits with the former presidents of South Korea and the United States, Moon Jae-in and Donald Trump, had evaporated. He said he simply did not know.

Nor was there any guarantee that North Korea, if the U.S. said, OK, we now recognize you as a member of the nuclear club, would say or do a thing in return. Its far from certain that North Korea would rejoin the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, from which it withdrew in January 2003. Undoubtedly, the North would stick by familiar demands for removing U.S. and U.N. sanctions and reiterate calls for the withdrawal of all American troops and bases from South Korea.

Declaring our policy is denuclearization and were not going to do much unless you do that is a non-starter, Clapper observed. Fair enough, but whats going to work short of the U.S. withdrawing from South Korea and leaving the South to the mercies not only of the North but also of China and maybe Russia?

Maybe there are no solutions other than shoring up defenses and hoping the South can go on living in peace and prosperity.
The National Cattle Congress Fair was shut down early Saturday night by a string of skirmishes and a short time later a 12-year-old boy was shot in the arm about a mile away.
WATERLOO  A Waterloo man has pleaded in an investigation into a Benton County home burglary than netted rare coins and a commemorative Tommy gun.

Salih Golubovic, 39, on Wednesday entered an Alford plea  not admitting guilt but agreeing a jury could convict him if the matter went to trial  to charges of trafficking in stolen weapons, first-and second-degree theft and third-degree burglary.

The plea came shortly after a jury was assembled to take the case to trial. The charges covered break-ins in Elberon and Waterloo in 2018.

According to court records, burglars hit a home on Iowa Highway 21 in Elberon in February 2018, removing coin collections, collectibles and firearms including a semi-automatic Auto Ordnance Thompson rifle with gold accents commemorating the Vietnam War.

A vehicle stolen during the burglary was spotted in Waterloo on Valentines Day 2018, and a chase ensued when police attempted to stop it. The pursuit reached speeds of up to 70 mph. It ended when the driver, Antonio Scott McGhee of Waterloo, crashed into a snowbank, according to court records.

A search of McGhees home turned up several stolen items including a 20-gauge shotgun that had been taken from the Elberon address, court records state.

Officers also searched Golubovics Randolph Street home and found the Tommy gun at the foot of his bed. A stolen stamp collection from Elberon and other items were also discovered at the house.

In addition, investigators recovered stolen coins and a gun box from another suspect, Adis Didovic.

Then in June 2018, sheriffs deputies found Golubovic and Didovic removing items from a shed at a home on Independence Avenue in rural Waterloo. Officers found four kayaks loaded into a rented moving truck, according to court records. Snowmobile equipment apparently taken from an earlier visit to the Independence Avenue address was also found in a garage linked to Didovic, records state.

Sentencing for Golubovic will be at a later date.

McGhee of Waterloo pleaded to attempted burglary charges in 2019 and was sentenced to two years in prison.

Didovic was granted a deferred judgment with probation during a January hearing.

Counties with the most seniors in Iowa
WATERLOO  When war broke out in February, there was international outrage, but it took a personal toll on Ellada Thrall.

Thrall moved to the U.S. from Ukraine in April 2021 after meeting her husband, Joseph, through an app that connects people learning each others languages. According to her, while Ukraine and the Hawkeye State may seem like theyre worlds apart, they have much in common.

When people ask me: Whats the difference between Iowa and Ukraine, its kind of the same. Its fields, its a lot of corn, its a lot of farms and all of that, Thrall said. The difference is probably people.

People here in America are more open. We dont have anything in Ukraine like small talk and it was kind of like, Oh, wow. Why are you talking to that person? Do they know him?

Thrall had been in America for less than a year before the invasion. She and her family had dismissed the reports of troop buildups on the border and didnt believe that war would come. But on Feb. 24, Thrall watched the nightmare unfold on Facebook.

I remember that for me, it was late at night, for my parents, it was early morning, Thrall said. I remember that feeling when I started shaking, I couldnt say it, I couldnt walk  its like a moment of frozenness  I was like, No way, its going.

Watching footage of the war and hearing the reports was bad enough for Thrall. In those first days, she had trouble eating and sleeping as she became drawn into every update about the invasion and what it meant for her family back home. However, the worst was still to come.

Her father, Oleksandr Zhyhylii, was called up from the reserves to fight in early March. Before his deployment, they spoke one more time. In those moments, Zhyhylii tried to set his daughters mind at ease.

My mom called me  FaceTime  before my dad went to the front lines, Thrall said. And it was a picture of my dad hugging mom, and saying: Hey, dont worry. Everythings going to be okay. Ill be right back.

It was the last time they spoke. Zhyhylii was sent to Donetsk and for days, there was no word from him.

Then on March 30, Thralls mother received news from the front  Zhyhylii had been killed two weeks earlier in an artillery barrage. A military funeral was arranged for her father, but Thrall had to settle with attending through a screen.

Six months later, its still difficult for her to talk about.

When I got my green card, or when I got my job, I couldnt call him and share whats going on with me, Thrall said. And its just really, really hard inside and Im still in the healing process.

As the war continued, Thrall realized that her life needed to as well. In August, she took a job with the University of Northern Iowas Center for Urban Education as an academic coordinator for Upward Bound, a federally funded program centered around developing collaborative relationships between low-income students, parents, schools and the community.

Having experience as a teacher and working with children with special needs, she jumped at the opportunity to do what she saw as a fulfilling career.

When I got this opportunity with UNI, I was like: Wow. Its something that Im really enjoying doing. Its something that I want to do because its rewarding to change the lives of young people and their families, Thrall said. Im always thinking about the future goal and thats what keeps me moving and Im just not letting myself give up.

In the month shes been there, Thrall has gained the respect of her colleagues. UNI-CUE Executive Director Robert Smith is one of them. After reading her resume and learning more about her, Smith said he knew he had to have her on the team.

He said shes rewarded his intuition by becoming an asset for Upward Bound.

Just the in-depth (knowledge) that she brought to us and how valuable she is, were going to learn more from her and how to continue to keep fighting through than we could probably ever teach her, Smith said. Its an honor to have her here. Were excited to have her as part of her family and helping us. And we want to be there for her and help her through all this.

Thrall says her co-workers arent the only ones helping her through this time. The community that bewildered her with its small talk when she first arrived was about to surprise her again.

It wasnt long after the conflict broke out that Thrall started to notice little things around the community. Soon, there were Ukrainian flags flying and being displayed at peoples homes. Signs started popping up reading: We Stand with Ukraine. The people of the Cedar Valley were doing more than welcoming her to their home  they were letting her know that she had their support.

It was a reminder that while she cant be with her family back home, shes far from alone.

I take pictures and send them to my friends and mom to show them how Americans support the fight for freedom in Ukraine, how people stand with Ukraine, Thrall said. It gives me the understanding that people here really care.
WATERLOO  A Wednesday night forum assembled six state office candidates to discuss their platforms inside the Hawkeye Community College Van G. Miller Adult Learning Center.

But one question from the audience allowed the participants to dive deeper into their views on public versus private school funding.

Jail's health care services up for discussion The Black Hawk County Jail is halfway through its contract for medical and mental health services  but the provider is looking for an amendment.

Five participants, at the event organized by the Black Hawk/Bremer League of Women Voters and the NAACP of Black Hawk County, were Democrats who will be on the election ballot Nov. 8.

Two are running in contested races.

Timi Brown-Powers, a Waterloo resident whos running for re-election to House District 61, is opposed.

Shell face Libertarian, John Bothwell, a Waterloo resident who was the sixth candidate in attendance.

The other Democrats were newcomers Jerome Amos Jr., a Waterloo City Council member, and Kate Wyatt, a Hudson City Council member, running for first terms in House District 62 and House District 76, respectively.

Bob Kressig, of Cedar Falls, who currently serves House District 59, is running to represent District 75. And Bill Dotzler, of Waterloo, is running for re-election to Senate District 31.

Derek Wulf, a Republican from Hudson running against Wyatt to represent District 76, was invited but had a prior commitment.

Lots of focus was placed on the funding of public schools and how more can be done to better support teachers and retain them, rather than demonize them.

But the conversation heated up when candidates were asked How do you work for public education and discourage public funding for private schools?

Kressig, who attended a private school, said resources are needed to the fully support public education, whether that be teachers and para-educators, or support staff and bus drivers.

But he noted there is a big downturn in the number of teachers who actually want to be teacher.

Like some in the room, he also agreed that private schools receive around $100 million in state funding every year.

To say that private schools arent receiving resources from the state is totally inaccurate, Kressig said.

Wyatt, whose mother and aunts went to Catholic private school, agreed with Kressig in that public schools should be a focus during legislative sessions.

Until we can fund our public schools with public tax money, we should not be concerned with private schools, she said. Members of a community have a choice on where to send those children to, and you have every right to send your child to that private school. I support what your choice is.

Dotzler, a student of Catholic private school, said public education dates back to the founding of the country, and is one reason it should remain a priority. Charter schools cant offer everything public schools can offer.

And then you add on top of it the busing issue, how far are you going to have to bus, and are we going to consolidate schools farther and farther, he said.

Amos, who spent time teaching at Hawkeye Community College, said the Iowa public schools ranking has plummeted, and its noted its not helpful when teaching time is cut.

For me, as a state, we need to provide even more dollars than what we are providing before we even think about adding more dollars to the voucher system, he said.

Bothwell said he differs in opinion on the school voucher system from many in the Libertarian party.

I also believe the public funding should not be going to fund any private schools. I just cant get over that fact, he said.

Brown-Powers, who had a son go through private, public and online schooling, said parents have a choice on where to send their child and shes supported tax credits for the private schools and parents when they do their taxes.

But what we dont do is we dont do our due diligence when it comes to our public schools, she said. When we fund our schools, it has been at such a low rate and our schools are still not able to get new textbooks in their classrooms.

Other issues

A focus of Dotzler and Amos, both who are retired from John Deere, were supportive of workers and unions, and finding a way to attract and grow talent in Iowa, whether it be with various enhancements to the state, or by making investments in job training, childcare and housing.

I have the view that in order for workers to succeed, businesses have to succeed, and workers contribute to the success of a business, said Dotzler.

Brown-Powers zeroed in on womens health care, and a womens right to choose, as one of several crucial issues, as well as health equity and women empowerment.

She said Medicaid is still a gigantic hassle for families to maneuver around. Struggles getting unemployment benefits continues to be felt in the Cedar Valley.

Several candidates, including Brown-Powers, Kressig and Wyatt, talked about the mental health crisis and how Iowa is behind other states.

Ive been speaking with a lot of constituents and a lot of the people that actually live in District 76, and their concerns are the same  mental health, our womens rights, our schools being funded  those are the main concerns people have, Wyatt said.

Kressig also noted Iowas infrastructure is failing and also how the working relationship between Iowas Democrats and Republicans has fallen off a cliff.

No longer are they debating, and then talking about their personal lives over a cup of Joe, he said.

Bothwell had similar feelings.

The reason why Ive decided to devout my time and money to doing this is Im a little disgusted with what our political system has become. Im not sure when things got so tribalistic, but I just dont see us getting anywhere recently, said Bothwell.

He also harped on the education system for focusing on which books students should read, and which bathrooms they should use, instead of teaching them to be well-rounded adults that are employable and life schools.
Former Vice President Mike Pence will headline a fundraiser alongside Iowa Rep. Bobby Kaufmann next week in Wilton, marking another visit to Iowa and bolstering speculation around a 2024 presidential run.

According to an invitation for the event, Pence will be joining the 15th annual Kaufmann Family Harvest Dinner on Sept. 29 in Wilton. The invitation says other candidates and state leaders will be at the fundraiser, but only Pence and Kaufmann are named.

Bobby Kaufmann has been a champion for Iowa, his district, and the conservative movement, Pence said in a statement. I look forward to joining Bobby at the Kaufmann Family Harvest Dinner and meeting Republicans from his district to discuss our shared conservative values and vision for Iowas future.

Pence was last in Iowa in August at the Iowa State Fair, and made a stop in Waverly. Hes attended party fundraisers and speaking engagements intermittently in the state since the 2020 election, including a speech at the University of Iowa in November.

Bobby Kaufmann is running for re-election to Iowas 82nd House District, which covers Cedar County and parts of Muscatine and Scott counties. He faces a challenge from Libertarian Clyde Gibson of Montpelier.

The fundraiser begins at 5:30 p.m. Basic tickets are $50, with optional donations up to $2,500 for a private roundtable before the event with Pence.

Vets for Grassley

Incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassleys campaign announced a coalition of veterans supporting his re-election on Wednesday.

The coalition includes veterans from all 99 counties and its leadership team includes Republicans Sen. Joni Ernst, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and former Gov. Terry Branstad, all of whom are veterans. The group is chaired by Republican former Iowa attorney general and retired Army Reserve Maj. Gen. Evan Hultman of Waterloo.

Grassley is seeking re-election to his eighth term in the U.S. Senate, facing Democratic challenger Mike Franken, a retired Navy admiral.

Our veterans dedicated their lives to serving our country, Grassley said in a news release. I work to make sure the federal government keeps its promises to them, which includes my support for the PACT Act this year, every step of the way. Im proud to represent veterans and honored to have their support.

In a statement, Frankens campaign spokesperson highlighted the Democratic candidates military experience and his opposition to the war in Iraq.

Admiral Mike Franken spent nearly four decades in the military fighting for American democracy here at home and around the world, Frankens spokesperson C.J. Petersen said. As a veteran who knows the cost of war, Admiral Franken will always seek to avoid war whenever possible, and isnt afraid to speak truth to power  which is why he opposed the disastrous failed invasion of Iraq, something Senator Grassley supported.

New Reynolds ad

Gov. Kim Reynolds newest re-election campaign ad (https://youtu.be/jxPI1P8Eo7A) starts with some sleight of hand to tie her political opponent to a policy stance she has not taken.

Reynolds, a Republican who has been Iowas governor since 2017, is running for another four-year term. The Democratic challenger is Deidre DeJear, a Des Moines small businesswoman.

Reynolds latest ad begins with her watching a TV that shows an interview in which U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, a Democrat from Missouri, is shown saying, Defunding the police has to happen.

Bush is a Black woman, like DeJear. But DeJear has not called for any manner of reducing law enforcement agencies budgets. In January, she told Axios (https://www.axios.com/local/des-moines/2022/01/18/deidre-dejear-sits-kim-reynolds-state-address) that Iowa law enforcement officers, deserve more than a pat on the back and a one-time $1,000 bonus (that Reynolds created).

After the clip of Bush, Reynolds in the ad says, Watching the news you wonder, has the rest of the country lost its mind? Attacks on police, open borders, paying people not to work. Arent you glad you live in Iowa?

Libertarian Party candidate Rick Stewart also is on the ballot in Iowas gubernatorial campaign.

Stewart ad

Rick Stewart, the Libertarian Partys candidate for governor, released a new campaign ad (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srP6EfTP5qs) that features his call to legalize marijuana in Iowa.

In the ad, Stewart notes that marijuana is legal in other states, including Iowas eastern neighbor, Illinois.

How come I can grow corn but I cant grow weed (in Iowa)? Theyre both plants, Stewart says in the ad.

Stewart is running against Republican incumbent Gov. Kim Reynolds and Democratic challenger Deidre DeJear.
Lhyfe announced it has inaugurated the worlds first offshore renewable hydrogen production demonstrator which is due to be launched off the coast of Saint-Nazaire in France.



Lhyfe produces its renewable green hydrogen by using water and wind or sun to power its electrolysers. Water is fed into the electrolyser, which is split into hydrogen and oxygen meaning the only by-product is oxygen. The electrolyser is installed on GEPS Techno's floating platform.



After six months of operations at the quayside in Saint-Nazaire the offshore unit will be deployed at the SEM-REV site. It is to be connected to several offshore energy sources, including the the floatgen floating wind turbine.



Lhyfe's demonstrator is expected to validate the offshore hydrogen production technology with the company envisaging large-scale industrial deployment in 2024. It is anticipated to produce 440 kg per day.



"At Lhyfe, we have only one objective: to leave a more breathable planet to our children. That's why we wanted to take up a major technological challenge: to prove - by producing hydrogen at sea for the first time - that it is possible to do it today. By opening the way to the massive production of renewable hydrogen at sea, Sealhyfe is fully involved in the European deployment of the offshore hydrogen sector, and wishes to contribute to building the energy sovereignty of countries," said Matthieu Guesne CEO of Lhyfe.



Earlier this month, Lhyfe announced the launch of its first UK operation to identify opportunities to deploy production facilities to support the countrys net zero ambitions. Lhyfe is developing green hydrogen solutions for regions, industry, transport and fuel distribution. It has ambitions for more than 3 GW of electrolytic hydrogen in operation by 2030.

Back in June Lhyfe and Chantiers de lAtlantique announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for the development of offshore hydrogen production platforms. Lhyfe and Chantiers de lAtlantique will collaborate on offshore renewable hydrogen production projects with on-grid or off-grid wind farms. Chantiers de lAtlantique will design, build and install the platforms, while Lhyfe will be in charge of the design and operation of the renewable hydrogen production facilities.






Possible New Business

Sydney, Sep 23, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - The directors of I M Quarries Limited ( NSX:IM1 ) wishes to announce that the Company had on 22 September 2022 entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Straits Biopharma Pte Ltd (Straits) and B.Health Asia Pte Ltd (B.Health) in relation to a possible establishment of a partnership entity to bring into China market, products and services and expertise of Straits through the collaboration afforded through the Company's business network in China, assisted and coordinated by B.Health in the area of marketing development.



Straits, in partnership with Nanyang Technological University (NTU), a major publicly-funded university in Singapore, is developing chronic disease treatment options through research and development in plant biologics. In particular, it has developed a range of scientifically-validated biologic solutions which are designed to provide effective physiological and neurological health and well-being support using European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved and/or peer reviewed phytonutrient ingredient formulations, including a range of products under the Phytor brand.



B.Health holds exclusive marketing rights to products produced or developed by Straits.



The scope of the collaboration envisaged under the MOU includes:



1. For the import and distribution of Phytor products, any other of its sub-brands and all related brands under Straits in China, B.Health will appoint the Company (or its locally incorporated subsidiary) as its master sales distributor for the China market. B.Health will provide IMQ advice and consultation to develop its sales strategy in China.



2. For the clinical trials aspect of the collaboration, the Company shall assist Straits to achieve adjuvant oncology drug status for its products in China via the clinical trial path as prescribed by local Chinese regulations.



3. For the joint research aspect of the collaboration, the Company shall arrange for leading medical and academic institutions in Chongqing and/or other cities of China to conduct joint research and development of plant biologics, phytonutrients and phytochemicals to address treatments for chronic diseases such as cancer and other diseases. Straits shall made available the expertise of relevant principals from NTU for such joint research.



4. For the processing and manufacturing aspect of the collaboration, the Company shall be responsible for sourcing of ingredients, overseeing the planting of traditional medicinal herbs required for the manufacturing process, and the setting up and development of processing centres, either on its own or in collaboration with suitable local partners.



Directors wish to caution that notwithstanding that the Company had entered into the MOU, there is no assurance that the a definitive agreement in relation to the proposed collaboration with the parties will be entered into or, even if such a definitive agreement is entered into, the partnership entity to be established under the definitive agreement will be set up and/or commence business.





About I M Quarries Limited





I M QUARRIES LIMITED (NSX:IM1) holds the Houyao Garnet Tenement, the company's single largest mining asset, bearing some 20.43 million tonnes of JORC Defined Mineral Resource. The Company strives to seek new assets and investment opportunities to bring even greater shareholder value.
WASHINGTON  Stark repudiation by federal judges he appointed. Far-reaching fraud allegations by New Yorks attorney general. Its been a week of widening legal troubles for Donald Trump, laying bare the challenges piling up as the former president operates without the protections afforded by the White House.

The bravado that served him well in the political arena is less handy in a legal realm dominated by verifiable evidence, where judges this week have looked askance at his claims and where a fraud investigation that took root when Trump was still president burst into public view in an allegation-filled 222-page state lawsuit.

In politics, you can say what you want and if people like it, it works. In a legal realm, its different, said Chris Edelson, a presidential powers scholar and American University government professor. Its an arena where there are tangible consequences for missteps, misdeeds, false statements in a way that doesnt apply in politics.

That distinction between politics and law was evident in a single 30-hour period this week.

Trump insisted on Fox News in an interview that aired Wednesday that the highly classified government records he had at Mar-a-Lago actually had been declassified, that a president has the power to declassify information even by thinking about it.

A day earlier, however, an independent arbiter his own lawyers had recommended appeared perplexed when the Trump team declined to present any information to support his claims that the documents had been declassified. The special master, Raymond Dearie, a veteran federal judge, said Trumps team was trying to have its cake and eat it too, and that, absent information to back up the claims, he was inclined to regard the records the way the government does: Classified.

On Wednesday morning, Letitia James, the New York State attorney general, accused Trump in a lawsuit of padding his net worth by billions of dollars and habitually misleading banks about the value of prized assets. The lawsuit, the culmination of a three-year investigation that began when he was president, also names as defendants three of his adult children and seeks to bar them from ever again running a company in the state. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

Hours later, three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit  two of them Trump appointees  handed him a startling loss in the Mar-a-Lago investigation.

The court overwhelmingly rejected arguments that he was entitled to have the special master do an independent review of the roughly 100 classified documents taken during last months FBI search, and said it was not clear why Trump should have an interest in or need for those records.

That ruling opened the way for the Justice Department to resume its use of the classified records in its probe. It lifted a hold placed by a lower court judge, Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee whose rulings in the Mar-a-Lago matter had to date been the sole bright spot for the former president. On Thursday, she responded by striking the parts of her order that had required the Justice Department to give Dearie, and Trumps lawyers, access to the classified records.

Dearie followed up with his own order, giving the Justice Department until Sept. 26 to submit an affidavit asserting that the FBIs detailed inventory of items taken in the search is accurate. Trumps team will have until Sept. 30 to identity errors or mistakes in the inventory.

Between Dearies position, and the appeals court ruling, I think that basically there may be a developing consensus, if not an already developed consensus, that the government has the stronger position in a lot of these issues and a lot of these controversies, said Richard Serafini, a Florida criminal defense lawyer and former Justice Department prosecutor.

To be sure, Trump is hardly a stranger to courtroom dramas, having been deposed in numerous lawsuits throughout his decades-long business career, and he has demonstrated a remarkable capacity to survive situations that seemed dire.

His lawyers did not immediately respond Thursday to a request seeking comment.

In the White House, Trump faced a perilous investigation into whether he had obstructed a Justice Department probe of possible collusion between Russia and his 2016 campaign. Ultimately, he was protected at least in part by the power of the presidency, with special counsel Robert Mueller citing longstanding department policy prohibiting the indictment of a sitting president.

He was twice impeached by a Democratic-led House of Representatives  once over a phone call with Ukraines leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the second time over the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol  but was acquitted by the Senate on both occasions thanks to political support from fellow Republicans.

It remains unclear if any of the current investigations  the Mar-a-Lago one or probes related to Jan. 6 or Georgia election interference  will produce criminal charges. And the New York lawsuit is a civil matter.

But theres no question Trump no longer enjoys the legal shield of the presidency, even though he has repeatedly leaned on an expansive view of executive power to defend his retention of records the government says are not his, no matter their classification.

Notably, the Justice Department and the federal appeals court have paid little heed to his assertions that the records had been declassified. For all his claims on TV and social media, both have noted that Trump has presented no information to support the idea that he took any steps to declassify the records.

The appeals court called the declassification question a red herring because even declassifying a record would not change its content or transform it from a government document into a personal one. And the statutes the Justice Department cites as the basis of its investigation do not explicitly mention classified information.

Trumps lawyers also have stopped short of saying in court, or in legal briefs, that the records were declassified. They told Dearie they shouldnt be forced to disclose their stance on that issue now because it could be part of their defense in the event of an indictment.

Even some legal experts who have otherwise sided with Trump in his legal fights are dubious of his assertions.

Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor who testified as a Republican witness in the first impeachment proceedings in 2019, said he was struck by the lack of a coherent and consistent position from the former president on the classified documents.

Its not clear, he added, what Jedi-like lawyers said that you could declassify things with a thought, but the courts are unlikely to embrace that claim.

___

More on Donald Trump-related investigations: https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump

_____

Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP


Police found a person dead inside the home where they had gone to serve a search warrant Thursday afternoon in Northeast Albuquerque.

Daren DeAguero, an Albuquerque police spokesman, said around 4:30 p.m. officers went to search a home in the 12200 block of Vienna NE, near Tramway and Montgomery.

Once the officers arrived they discovered a lifeless individual inside the residence, he said. Homicide detectives are currently conducting the investigation.

DeAguero did not give any other details.
Article V of the state Constitution says a person must have resided continuously in New Mexico for five years prior to the election to be eligible to serve as governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, attorney general or commissioner of public lands.

But Article VII of the state Constitution says no one absent New Mexico while employed in the service of the United States or the state shall lose residency in New Mexico, no matter how long theyve been gone. The states Uniform Military and Overseas Voters Act takes it a step farther, stating New Mexicans overseas are still eligible to register at their last place of residence in New Mexico, even if their last address is no longer a recognized residential address.

The competing principles of the five-year live-in-New Mexico requirement to hold a state office and allowing military members to retain their residency status in New Mexico came to a head recently in a Democratic-backed lawsuit challenging Republican candidate Jeremy Gays eligibility to run for attorney general.

Democrats claimed Gay, a former judge advocate in the Marine Corps, moved to Gallup in 2019  about a year and a half short of the constitutional requirement. According to the lawsuit, Gay was registered to vote in Florida through 2018 and was stationed in California when he left the Marine Corps in May 2019 and moved to Gallup.

However, state GOP chairman Steve Pearce says Gay has called New Mexico home since 2014. Gays campaign manager says Gays wife was born and raised in Gallup.

First Judicial District Court Judge T. Glenn Ellington ruled the lawsuit filed Sept. 7 was too late in the process since ballots for the Nov. 8 election have already been certified, and that removing Gay from ballots would disenfranchise GOP voters because a statutory deadline to fill ballot vacancies has passed. Gays attorneys noted he was chosen as the Republican nominee for attorney general at the GOP preprimary convention in February.

Even an attorney representing Democratic Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver testified in favor of dismissing the lawsuit, saying the deadline to remove candidates from the ballot was Aug. 30.

Still, details about Gays New Mexico residency remain in dispute.

State and federal laws show great deference to our military members when it comes to maintaining residency in their home states, as they should. Its unfortunate the judges ruling didnt specifically address Gays residency and clear up conflicting clauses in the state Constitution, and it is important to get some clarity. No New Mexican serving our nations armed forces overseas or out of state should be required to rent or buy a property here so they can also serve our state by running for office.

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.
Land corridor via rail connects Afghanistan to China as 1st freight arrives

Xinhua) 13:52, September 23, 2022

HAIRATAN, Afghanistan, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- The land corridor through railroad has linked landlocked Afghanistan to China as the first freight train arrived in the border town of Hairatan in Afghanistan's northern Balkh province on Thursday.

"It is a milestone and a positive step towards boosting trade and economic relations between Afghanistan and the neighboring countries," Qudratullah Abu Hamza, governor of Balkh province said after receiving the freight in Hairatan.

Welcoming the opening of the land corridor as a significant step towards enhancing economic relations in the region, Hamza said Afghanistan is determined to develop economic relations with all countries in the region.

Carrying 12 containers, the freight train started its journey from the Kashgar city of China 12 days ago and crossed Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan before arriving in Afghanistan on Thursday morning.

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Liang Jun)
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

A political flyer sent across the state by the Republican Party of New Mexico that shows dark-skinned hands cutting a boys hair with the implication that the barber is a criminal is being called racist because Democrats contend the barbers hands were intentionally darkened.

The mailer was sent out to voters in at least nine state House districts in central and southern New Mexico. The advertisement accuses the various Democrats of voting to allow convicted sex offenders to receive professional licenses for activities such as cutting hair or working as a nail technician.

Several House Democrats and others gathered at a Martin Luther King Jr. memorial near the Albuquerque Convention Center on Tuesday to condemn the ad.

This is one of the most vile examples of racist dog whistles that I have ever seen, said New Mexico House Majority Leader Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque.

At the news conference, Democrats showed the original stock image of a white person cutting a white childs hair. The altered version shows the hands have been darkened.

Republicans, in response, said a shadowy, gray figure doesnt fit a racial category.

Any charge of racism over this mailer is ridiculous, said Rod Montoya, New Mexico House Republican whip. Charges of racism are simply a smokescreen to distract attention from progressives voting records which put the interests of convicted criminals over the safety of law-abiding New Mexicans.

The districts that received the mailers were in the Albuquerque and Las Cruces areas. The individual Democratic legislator was swapped out but much of the ad stayed the same when it was sent to the House districts, according to Democratic officials.

One of the bills in question was proposed during the 2021 legislative session and sought to modernize the states laws governing barbers and cosmetologists, in part by removing a requirement such hair professionals have at least some high school education.

During the House floor debate on the bill, Rep. Stefani Lord, R-Sandia Park, proposed an unsuccessful amendment that would have allowed a barbers license to be denied or revoked if they failed to register as a sex offender after conviction.

The bill ultimately passed the House on a 48-15 vote, but stalled in a Senate committee. Martinez said another bill that was referenced in the mailer was also related to occupational licenses.

I thought that we were better than this, said the Rev. Charles Becknell Sr., the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. It is time we put an end to this kind of crap.  Were better than this.

New Mexico Republicans are trying to cut into majorities that Democrats hold in both chambers. One of the messages they have been campaigning on is crime rates in New Mexico.

House Republican candidates at an event last week promoted a series of bills they said they would support if elected. The bills address pretrial release, firearms trafficking laws, DWI laws, organized retail crime and other elements of the criminal justice system.

Journal Bureau Chief Dan Boyd contributed to this report.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

A judge awarded a former sex crimes investigator more than $1.4 million after finding the city failed to accommodate her disability, but rejected her and her two coworkers claims that they were retaliated against under the Whistleblowers Protection Act.

Judge Nancy Franchini determined the three sex crime investigators failed to prove the city retaliated against them for raising concerns that their supervisor stymied their work clearing the rape kit backlog, implementing trauma-informed interview techniques and investigating serial rapists.

Franchini also determined that the Albuquerque Police Department failed to accommodate Teresa Caryn Romeros post traumatic stress disorder  which she had developed from her work in the Violent Crimes Division and the Sex Crimes Unit.

Romero was awarded $1,087,000 for her emotional distress and $330,193 to make up for her economic losses. The combined $1.4 million is a wonderful credit to the reality of the anguish of the loss of her ability to be a sex crimes detective and anguish about the betrayal of the department, her attorney said.

The ruling comes after a five-day trial in 2nd Judicial District Court last month.

Franchini issued her findings and conclusions of law in writing on Thursday.

She found the claims made by Romero, Sally Dyer and Mandi Abernathy under the Whistleblower Protection Act were instead related to their private interests  such as personal work conditions and personal disagreements with legitimate managerial decisions.

The lawsuit had alleged that Sgt. Amanda Wild, who led the Sex Crimes Unit, was vindictive, quick to scream at and humiliate them, and told the investigators to lower their expectations for testing and investigating the thousands of rape kits that had been in a backlog.

Dyer alleged she had created a list of 22 serial offenders and Wild told her to take it off her cubby wall and out of an internal database system. Then, Dyer, a former APD officer who had returned as a civilian investigator, faced roadblocks when she wanted to be re-hired in a sworn capacity.

Abernathy contended that, when she tried to train detectives on forensic interview techniques, she was shut down. She said she had to choose between her mental health and her career, and decided to quit APD.

Romero said she told Internal Affairs that Wild was mismanaging the department and then was not able to take the steps necessary for her to return to work after bouts of PTSD triggered during training exercises.

In her closing arguments, city attorney Lauren Keefe argued that, although the women claimed APD failed to investigate and prosecute sex crimes from the rape kit backlog, the facts do not bear out this claim. She said the city had changed its process to investigate the backlog and achieved unprecedented success.

The facts show that the City of Albuquerque made an unprecedented effort to investigate sex crimes through increased funding and resources, the development of new databases and policies, and the coordination of interagency efforts, the attorneys wrote. What plaintiffs actually assert is that the citys reform effort created personal dissatisfaction in each.

The city administration did not wish to comment on the judges ruling.

Attorney Shannon Kennedy, who represented the three former investigators, said she is glad they got a chance to speak out against the mismanagement in the sex crimes unit.

They are all just ecstatic for (Romero) and this result, and so proud that they stood up and exposed the departments mismanagement in the sex crimes unit, Kennedy said. But most importantly in terms of exposing the ways in which the city of Albuquerque discriminates against officers who suffer from PTSD and trauma while on the job.

She said they plan to appeal the findings on the whistleblower claims because its a legal question about whether their speech is a personal dispute or of public concern.
SANTA FE  New Mexicos Republican nominee for secretary of state has removed an online campaign flyer that offered the chance to receive a firearm in return for $100 donations to her campaign.

The gun giveaway offer on a Facebook campaign website for candidate Audrey Trujillo appeared to run afoul of a state prohibition on the use of raffles to raise funds for an individual running for office.

Contacted Thursday by the Associated Press, Trujillo said she was removing the gun giveaway flyer out of concern it might not be compliant. She said her campaign would offer refunds for any possible contributions linked to the gun offer.

Trujillo is challenging incumbent Democratic Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver in the November general election for New Mexicos top elections regulation post that also oversees campaign finance and ethics provisions. The small-business owner from Corrales is campaigning for large-scale changes to elections as part of the America First Secretary of State Coalition.

Trujillo said she was aware of restrictions on raffles for campaign purposes and had intended simply to give away a gun that was provided to her campaign in honor of the constitutional right to bear arms. She said the notice was posted without her review and that she took it down after seeing the wording.

I know  for a fact that were not supposed to do raffles or sell anything  it was being given away, Trujillo said. We took it down immediately. Were not doing it because we want to make sure that we comply.

The campaign flyer, with an image of Trujillo, announced an October gun giveaway and that, with each $100 donation, you will be entered for a ticket. Only 200 tickets will be sold  winner is responsible for background check fee. A QR code was linked to a campaign contribution processing website.

The gun displayed on the flyer was a 12-gauge, semi-automatic shotgun with a magazine for multiple shells.

Trujillo campaign manager Freddie Lopez said the campaign spoke with an official at the state Gaming Control Board to inform the agency that the gun offer had been removed.

It was a mistake on our part, and we corrected it, he said.

Gaming Control Board staff representative Richard Kottenstette said the agency is satisfied for now with the voluntary compliance after an enforcement agent contacted Trujillos campaign manager to confirm that the campaign notices were removed, with no apparent campaign contributions received.

Its been made public before that political campaigns should not be using raffles for fundraising, he said. Its out there. Its not hard to find.
SANTA FE  Defendants must be informed about the possibility of facing additional prison time if their plea agreement involves multiple offenses and they violate probation, the New Mexico Supreme Court said.

The split ruling issued Monday came in the case of a woman who admitted to having prior felony convictions.

The courts majority affirmed a district judges decision to lengthen the sentence of Christina Banghart-Portillo because of probation violations after her release from prison in 2016. She was a little over halfway through a three-year probationary period and had argued that the enhancement for being a habitual offender amounted to double jeopardy.

The Supreme Courts majority found that the district court had structured the defendants probation as a cumulative amount of time for her two felony convictions rather than individual back-to-back segments of 18 months of probation for each conviction.

The court suggested that language outlining the terms of how a sentence is to be carried out should be specified in plea agreements or risk creating ambiguity.

The courts majority wrote that Banghart-Portillos written plea agreement was silent about the possibility of enhancement of either count if she violated probation. However, the majority concluded that the district court during the defendants sentencing hearing had resolved any ambiguities by informing her of the potential consequences if she violated probation.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice David K. Thomson wrote that allowing the district court to enhance the sentence on the first count violated concepts of double jeopardy. Justice Briana H. Zamora joined in the dissent.

Banghart-Portillo had pleaded no contest to counts of evidence tampering and conspiracy to commit evidence tampering. She and another man were arrested in 2014 on outstanding warrants. After being booked, a dispatcher saw her attempt to swallow a plastic bag of heroin handed to her by the man.

After multiple probation violations, the district court revoked Banghart-Portillos probation and imposed six years of habitual offender time on her sentence.
NEW YORK  The tide of international opinion appears to be decisively shifting against Russia, as a number of non-aligned countries are joining the United States and its allies in condemning Moscows war in Ukraine and its threats to the principles of the international rules-based order.

Western officials have repeatedly said that Russia has become isolated since invading Ukraine in February. Until recently, though, that was largely wishful thinking. But on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, much of the international community spoke out against the conflict in a rare display of unity at the often fractured United Nations.

The tide had already appeared to be turning against Russian President Vladimir Putin even before Thursdays U.N. speeches. Chinese and Indian leaders had been critical of the war at a high-level summit last week in Uzbekistan. And then the U.N. General Assembly disregarded Russias objections and voted overwhelmingly to allow Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be the only leader to address the body remotely, instead of requiring him to appear in person.

That shift against Russia accelerated after Putin on Wednesday announced the mobilization of some additional 300,000 troops to Ukraine, signaling the unlikelihood of a quick end to the war. Putin also suggested that nuclear weapons may be an option. That followed an announcement of Russias intention to hold referendums in several occupied Ukrainian regions on whether they will become part of Russia.

Those announcements came at the very moment that the General Assembly, considered the premier event in the global diplomatic calendar, was taking place in New York.

Numerous world leaders used their speeches on Tuesday and Wednesday to denounce Russias war. That trend continued Thursday both in the assembly hall and at the usually deeply divided U.N. Security Council, where, one-by-one, virtually all of the 15 council members served up harsh criticism of Russia  a council member  for aggravating several already severe global crises and imperiling the foundations of the world body.

The apparent shift in opinion offers some hope to Ukraine and its Western allies that increasing isolation will add pressure on Putin to negotiate a peace. But few are unduly optimistic. Putin has staked his legacy on the Ukraine war and few expect him to back down. And, Russia is hardly isolated. Many of its allies depend on it for energy, food and military assistance and are likely to stand by Putin regardless of what happens in Ukraine.

Still, it was striking to hear Russias nominal friends like China and India, following up on last weeks remarks, speak of grave concerns they have about the conflict and its impact on global food and energy shortages as well as threats to the concepts of sovereignty and territorial integrity that are enshrined in the U.N. Charter.

Brazil registered similar concerns. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa make up the so-called BRICS bloc of countries, which has often shunned or outright opposed Western initiatives and views on international relations.

Only one country, Belarus, a non-council member and Russia ally that was invited to participate, spoke in support of Russia, but also called for a quick end to the fighting, which it called a tragedy.

We hear a lot about the divisions among countries at the United Nations, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. But recently, whats striking is the remarkable unity among member states when it comes to Russias war on Ukraine. Leaders from countries developing and developed, big and small, North and South have spoken in the General Assembly about the consequences of the war and the need to end it.

Even a number of nations that maintain close ties with Moscow have said publicly that they have serious questions and concerns about President Putins ongoing invasion, Blinken said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was careful not to condemn the war but said that Chinas firm stance is that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be respected. The purposes of the principles of the U.N. Charter should be observed.

Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said the trajectory of the Ukraine conflict is a matter of a profound concern for the international community. He called for accountability for atrocities and abuses committed in Ukraine. If egregious attacks committed in broad daylight are left unpunished, this council must reflect on the signals we are sending on impunity. There must be consistency if we are to ensure credibility, he said.

And Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos Alberto Franca said immediate efforts to end the war are critical. The continuation of the hostilities endangers the lives of innocent civilians and jeopardizes the food and energy security of millions of families in other regions, especially in developing countries, he said. The risks of escalation arising for the current dynamics of the conflict are simply too great, and its consequences for the world order unpredictable.

Foreign ministers and top officials from Albania, Britain, France, Ireland, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Kenya, Mexico and Norway delivered similar rebukes.

Russias actions are blatant violation of the Charter of the United Nations, said Albanian Foreign Minister Olta Xhacka. We all tried to prevent this conflict. We could not, but we must not fail to hold Russia accountable.

Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard called the invasion a flagrant breach of international law and Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said: If we fail to hold Russia accountable we send a message to large countries that they can prey on their neighbors with impunity.

Unsurprisingly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was unapologetic and defensive at the same time and specifically targeted Zelenskyy. Citing a phrase often attributed to President Franklin Roosevelt, Lavrov called Zelenskyy a bastard, but said Western leaders regarded him as our bastard.

He repeated a long list of Russias complaints about Ukraine and accused Western countries of using Ukraine for anti-Russia activities and policies.

Everything Ive said today simply confirms that the decision to conduct the special military operation was inevitable, Lavrov said, following Russian practice of not calling the invasion a war.

Russia has denied being isolated and the foreign ministry used social media to publicize a number of apparently cordial meetings that Lavrov has held with foreign minister colleagues at the UN in recent days.

Still, Blinken and his colleagues from other NATO nations seized on what they believe to be growing opposition to and impatience with Putin.

And, several speakers, including Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, pointed out that Lavrov skipped the meeting except for his speaking slot.

I notice that Russian diplomats flee almost as quickly as Russian soldiers, Kuleba said, referring to Lavrovs hasty exit along with recent Russian troop retreats in Ukraine.

___

This story has been corrected to show the Indian officials title and name are Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, not Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jayashankar.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  Iranian counterprotesters gathered across the country on Friday in a show of support for authorities after nearly a week of anti-government protests and unrest over the death of a young woman who was being held by the morality police.

Thousands attended a rally in the capital, Tehran, where they waved Iranian flags, and similar demonstrations were held in other cities. The government claimed the demonstrations of support were spontaneous. Similar rallies have been held during past periods of widespread protests.

The pro-government demonstrators chanted against America and Israel, according to state media, reflecting the official line that blames the latest unrest on hostile foreign countries.

State TV suggested late on Friday that the death toll from this weeks unrest could be as high as 35, raising an earlier estimate of 26. Anti-government protesters and security forces have clashed in several major cities in the most severe political violence since 2019, when rights groups say hundreds were killed amid demonstrations against a hike in state-controlled gasoline prices.

Iran has also disrupted internet access and tightened restrictions on popular platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp, which can be used to organize rallies.

In response, the U.S. Treasury Department said it would allow American tech firms to expand their business in Iran to boost internet access for the Iranian people. Iran is under heavy U.S. and international sanctions.

A state TV newswoman said late Friday that 35 protesters and policemen had been killed since the protests erupted last Saturday after the funeral of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, without elaborating. She said official statistics would be released later, but authorities have not provided a full accounting of deaths and injuries during past unrest.

A tally by The Associated Press, based on statements from state-run and semiofficial media, shows that at least 11 people have been killed. Most recently, the deputy governor of Qazvin, Abolhasan Kabiri, said that a citizen and paramilitary officer had been killed there.

The crisis unfolding in Iran began as a public outpouring of anger over the the death of Amini, a young woman who was arrested by the morality police in Tehran last week for allegedly wearing her Islamic headscarf too loosely. The police said she died of a heart attack and was not mistreated, but her family has cast doubt on that account.

Aminis death has sparked sharp condemnation from Western countries and the United Nations. Iranians across at least 13 cities from the capital, Tehran, to Aminis northwest Kurdish hometown of Saqez have poured into the streets, voicing pent-up anger over social and political repression.

The death has tapped into broader antigovernment sentiment in the Islamic Republic and especially the frustration of women, wrote political risk firm Eurasia Group. It noted that Irans hard-liners have intensified their crackdown on womens clothing over the past year since former judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi became president.

The prospect of the leadership offering concessions to Iranian women is minimal, it said. In the cold calculus of Iranian leaders, the protests have likely gone far enough and a more forceful response is required to quell the unrest.

Raisi condemned the protests as he arrived back in Iran after addressing the United Nations General Assembly earlier this week.

We have announced many times that if anyone has a fair comment, we will listen to it. But anarchy? Disturbing national security? The security of people? No one will succumb to this, he said.

Videos on social media show protesters in Tehran torching a police car and confronting officers. Others show gunfire ringing out as protesters bolt from riot police, shouting: They are shooting at people! Oh my God, theyre killing people!

In the northwestern city of Neyshabur, protesters cheered over an overturned police car. Footage from Tehran and Mashhad shows women waving their obligatory headscarves, known as hijab, in the air like flags while chanting, Freedom!

Separately, hackers have targeted a number of government websites in recent days, taking some of them down at least briefly. On Friday, hackers interrupted Irans Channel 3 on a popular streaming website and played videos in support of the protests. Normal programming was restored a couple of minutes later.

The protests have grown into an open challenge to the theocracy established after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The chants have been scathing, with some chanting Death to the dictator! and Mullahs must be gone!

Local officials have announced the arrest of dozens of protesters. Hasan Hosseinpour, deputy police chief in the northern Gilan province, reported 211 people detained there on Thursday. The government of the western Hamadan province said 58 demonstrators had been arrested.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday that at least 10 reporters have been arrested since the start of the protests, many of them during late night raids on their homes by security forces who did not identify themselves.

London-based watchdog Amnesty International has accused security forces of beating protesters with batons and firing metal pellets at close range. Videos show police and paramilitary officers using live fire, tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators.

Iran has grappled with waves of protests in the recent past, mainly over a long-running economic crisis exacerbated by American sanctions linked to its nuclear program. In November 2019, the country saw the deadliest violence since the revolution, as protests erupted over gas price hikes.

Economic hardship remains a major source of anger today as the prices of basic necessities soar and the Iranian currency declines in value.

The Biden administration and European allies have been working to revive the 2015 nuclear accord, in which Iran curbed its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief, but the talks have stalled for months.

The Eurasia Group said the protests make any immediate return to the agreement less likely, as Irans government will be more hesitant to make concessions at a time of domestic unrest and the United States will be reluctant to sign a deal as Iran violently cracks down on dissent.
NEW YORK  Frustrated, anxious but also a tad hopeful, young activists staged a coordinated global climate strike Friday to highlight the effects of global warming and demand more aid for poor countries hit by wild weather.

In New York, as leaders of developing disaster-struck nations pleaded their cases at the United Nations, more than a thousand protesters, many of them skipping school, marched through the streets to tell their leaders they were sick of inaction on climate.

The oceans are rising and so are we, they chanted. Protesters also took to the streets in Jakarta, Tokyo, Rome, Berlin and Montreal carrying banners and posters with slogans such as, Its not too late.

Its one thing to worry about the future, and its another to get out there and do something about it, said 16-year-old Lucia Dec-Prat at the protest in New York. I honestly feel that the adults arent listening.

Dinah Landsman, 17, said every day she asks herself about what kind of future shell have as she grows up because of climate change. Her generation has to act, she said.

No one else is going to do it, said Landsman, also in New York. Its us who have the most at stake.

The protests follow warnings from scientists that countries arent doing enough to meet the 2015 Paris climate accords top-line target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) this century compared to preindustrial times.

Michael Taft, a 27-year-old graduate student in New York, said a lot of kids here are scared about what the next 20 years are going to look like for them.

But Taft said he still has hope. He looks around at those listening to the speakers and said they arent like past generations. They arent looking to become finance majors and make lots of money.

Theyre all here because theyre motivated to make change, Taft said. And probably one of the people here or in another climate rally in a different country is going to be the person that has a massive role in change and fixing this.

The demonstrations were organized by the Fridays for Future movement that took its cue from activist Greta Thunberg, who began protesting alone outside the Swedish parliament in 2018.

Were striking all over the world because the governments in charge are still doing too little for climate justice, said Darya Sotoodeh, a spokesperson for the groups chapter in Germany.

People all over the world are suffering from this crisis, and its going to get worse if we dont act on time, she said.

Police said some 20,000 people attended the rally in Berlin, which featured calls for the German government to establish a 100-billion-euro fund for tackling climate change.

In Rome, some 5,000 young people turned out for a march that ended near the Colosseum.

One placard read: The climate is changing. Why arent we? Students highlighted among their priorities the need to rethink Italys transport policies. The countrys ratio of cars to inhabitant is one of the highest in Europe.

In Italys election campaign, which wraps up on Friday evening ahead of the Sept. 25 vote for Parliament, climate change policies didnt figure heavily at candidates rallies.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders this week that the fossil fuel industry, which is responsible for a large share of planet-warming gases, is feasting on hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies and windfall profits while household budgets shrink and our planet burns.

Guterres urged rich countries to tax the profits of energy companies and redirect the funds to both countries suffering loss and damage caused by the climate crisis and those struggling with the rising cost of living.

Demands for poor nations to receive greater financial help to cope with global warming, including the destruction already wrought by deadly weather events such as the floods in Pakistan, have grown louder in the run-up to this years U.N. climate summit.

___

Jordans reported from Berlin. Pietro de Cristofaro in Berlin and Frances DEmilio in Rome contributed to this report.

___

Follow APs climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
ISTANBUL  Military-aged men fled Russia in droves Friday, filling planes and causing traffic jams at border crossings to avoid being rounded up to fight in Ukraine following the Kremlins partial military mobilization.

Queues stretching for 10 kilometers (6 miles) formed on a road leading to the southern border with Georgia, according to Yandex Maps, a Russian online map service.

The lines of cars were so long at the border with Kazakhstan that some people abandoned their vehicles and proceeded on foot  just as some Ukrainians did after Russia invaded their country on Feb. 24.

Meanwhile, dozens of flights out of Russia  with tickets sold at sky-high prices  carried men to international destinations such as Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Serbia, where Russians dont need visas.

Among those who reached Turkey was a 41-year-old who landed in Istanbul with a suitcase and a backpack and plans to start a new life in Israel.

Im against this war, and Im not going to be a part of it. Im not going to be a murderer. Im not going to kill people, said the man, who identified himself only as Yevgeny to avoid potential retribution against his family left behind in Russia.

He referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal.

Yevgeny decided to flee after Putin announced a partial military call-up on Wednesday. The total number of reservists involved could be as high as 300,000.

Some Russian men also fled to neighboring Belarus, Russias close ally. But that carried risk.

The Nasha Niva newspaper, one of the oldest independent newspapers in Belarus, reported that Belarusian security services were ordered to track down Russians fleeing from the draft, find them in hotels and rented apartments and report them to Russian authorities.

Russian authorities tried to calm an anxious public about the draft.

Legislators introduced a bill Friday that would suspend or reduce loan payments for Russians called up for duty. News outlets emphasized that draftees would have the same status as professional soldiers and be paid the same, and that their civilian jobs would be held for them.

The Defense Ministry said that many people who work in high tech, communications or finance will be exempt from the call-up to ensure the operations of those fields, the Tass news agency reported.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the fact that Russians were leaving their country to avoid conscription shows that the war in Ukraine is unpopular.

What Putin is doing  he is not coming from a place of strength, Jean-Pierre told reporters. He is coming from a place of weakness.

The exodus unfolded as a Kremlin-orchestrated referendum got underway seeking to make occupied regions of Ukraine part of Russia. Kyiv and the West condemned it as a rigged election whose result was preordained by Moscow.

German government officials voiced a desire to help Russian men deserting military service, and they called for a European solution.

Those who bravely stand up to Putins regime and thereby put themselves in great danger can apply for asylum in Germany on the grounds of political persecution, the spokesman for German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said.

The spokesman, Maximilian Kall, said deserters and those refusing to be drafted would receive refugee status in Germany if they are at risk of serious repression, though every case is examined individually.

But they would first have to make it to Germany, which has no land border with Russia, and like other European Union countries has become far more difficult for Russians to travel to.

The EU banned direct flights between its 27 member states and Russia after the attack on Ukraine, and recently agreed to limit issuing Schengen visas, which allow free movement across much of Europe.

Four out of five EU countries that border Russia  Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland  also recently decided to turn away Russian tourists.

Some European officials view fleeing Russians as potential security risks. They hope that by not opening their borders, it will increase pressure against Putin at home.

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said Thursday that many of those fleeing were fine with killing Ukrainians. They did not protest then. It is not right to consider them as conscientious objectors.

The one EU country that is still accepting Russians with Schengen visas is Finland, which has a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border with Russia.

Finland border guards said Friday that the number of people entering from Russia has climbed sharply, with media reporting a 107% increase compared with last week.

At Vaalimaa, one of the busiest crossings on the border, the line of waiting cars stretched for half a kilometer (a third of a mile), the Finnish Border Guard said.

Finnish broadcaster MTV carried interviews with Russian men who had just crossed into Finland at the Virolahti border crossing, including with a man named Yuri from Moscow who said that no sane person wants to go to war.

A Russian man from St. Petersburg, Andrei Balakirov, said he had been mentally prepared to leave Russia for half a year but put it off until the mobilization.

I think its a really bad thing, he said.

Valery, a man from Samara who was heading to Spain, agreed, calling the mobilization a great tragedy.

Its hard to describe whats happening. I feel sorry for those who are forced to fight against their will. Ive heard stories that people have been given these orders right in the streets  scary.

___

Associated Press writers Frank Jordans in Berlin; Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Poland; Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark; and Zeynep Bilginsoy in Istanbul contributed.
UNITED NATIONS  Two of the worlds most persistent conflicts punctuated debate at the United Nations on Friday, as the annual gathering of world leaders deviated from the dominating issue of the war in Ukraine.

Addressing hostilities thousands of miles apart and sharing little more than their decades of longevity, the Palestinian and Pakistani leaders nonetheless delivered similar messages, accusing a neighbor of brutality and urging world leaders to do more.

Our confidence in achieving a peace based on justice and international law is waning, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said. Do you want to kill what remains of hope in our souls?

With Israels military occupation of the West Bank in its 55th year and no substantial peace talks in 13 years, it was a stark if perhaps unsurprisingly pessimistic assessment. Israels prime minister backed a two-state solution to the conflict in his own speech a day earlier  but there is almost no prospect for one in the near term.

Speaking to the U.N. General Assembly after the Palestinian leader, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif of Pakistan similarly addressed a generations-old fight, accusing India of a relentless campaign of repression in Jammu and Kashmir. Those mountainous lands have been claimed by both sides since British rule of the subcontinent ended 75 years ago and India and Pakistan were born.

Sharif urged world leaders and the U.N. to play their rightful role in resolving the fight and said India must take credible steps too.

Indias external affairs minister, S. Jaishankar, might provide a rebuttal to Sharif when he gets his turn at the rostrum on Saturday. India has called the region an integral part of its nation.

After days of world leaders returning again and again to Ukraine, Sharif and Abbas provided a reminder of the other problems facing the international community.

Later, Iraqi caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi spoke of the political impasse gripping his country for nearly a year and preventing the formation of a new government. He called for serious and transparent dialogue among the various factions.

And Bangladeshs prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, repeated complaints that 1 million Rohingya refugees in crowded camps in her country are a threat to its security.

The situation can potentially fuel radicalization, she said of those who fled a harsh crackdown by Myanmars military.

Hasina has said that repatriation is the only solution to the crisis, but that Bangladesh would not force them to go back to Myanmar, where members of the Muslim minority face extensive discrimination.

Throughout the first three days and 104 leaders speeches, many criticized how Russia had managed to block U.N. action on Ukraine because of the veto it wields as a permanent member of the Security Council. Abbas shifted the attention to the power of Israel and its allies, which he said meant no matter how many hundreds of resolutions pass, none would be implemented.

Do you know who is protecting Israel from being held accountable? The United Nations, he said in a speech more than three times the 15-minute limit leaders are asked to respect.

Israel, in turn, has complained that it has been treated unfairly by the world body and has been held to a different standard from other member states, as when it comes to complaints about human rights violations. Its ambassador to the U.N., Joshua Lavine, issued a statement calling Abbas speech a lie-filled rant.

Even as other issues bubbled up, many leaders continued to call for action against Russian President Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine.

He wont stop at Ukraine if we dont stop him now, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Friday.

Major battlefield developments in Ukraine cast a shadow over the week  nuclear threats by Putin, the activation of some military reservists and votes in Russian-held territories derided by many world leaders and seen as a prelude to annexation.

Russia and Ukraine faced off Thursday at a Security Council meeting  an extraordinary if brief encounter during which the top diplomats from nations at war were in the same room exchanging barbs and accusations, albeit not directly to each other.

Meanwhile, on Friday, a team of experts commissioned by the U.N.s top human rights body, said its initial investigation turned up evidence of war crimes committed in Ukraine since Russias invasion.

Besides Ukraine, familiar refrains have resounded in U.N. speeches, with repeated mentions of climate change, economic crises and inequality. The gathering is a rare moment for many leaders to grab the spotlight on a global stage dominated by the biggest, richest and most militarily mighty countries and issue calls for action.

The obligation of each leader before history is not to overlook failings and shortcomings in favor of wishful thinking or flattery, President Nicos Anastasiades of Cyprus said Friday in his final General Assembly speech as leader of the Mediterranean island nation.

___

Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.

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For more AP coverage of the U.N. General Assembly, visit https://apnews.com/hub/united-nations-general-assembly
MINNEAPOLIS  In-person voting for the midterm elections opened Friday in Minnesota, South Dakota, Virginia and Wyoming, kicking off a six-week sprint to Election Day in a landscape that has changed much since the pandemic drove a shift to mail balloting in the 2020 presidential contest.

Twenty people voted in the first hour as Minneapolis opened its early voting center, taking advantage of generous rules that election officials credit with making Minnesota a perennial leader in voter turnout. First in when the doors opened was Conrad Zbikowski, a 29-year-old communications and digital consultant who said he has voted early since at least 2017.

I like to vote early because you never know what might happen on Election Day, said Zbikowski, displaying his civic pride with a T-shirt that bore the sailboat logo of the City of Lakes. You might get sick, you might get COVID, you might get in a car crash, theres many things that can happen. But what you do have control over is being able to vote early and getting that ballot in.

The start of in-person voting comes as the nation continues to grapple with the fallout from nearly two years of false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump due to widespread fraud and manipulation of voting machines. Those conspiracy theories, promoted by a constellation of Trump allies in the campaign, on social media and at conferences held across the country, have taken a toll on public confidence in U.S. elections.

Theyve also led to tightening of rules that govern mail ballots in several Republican-led states as well as an exodus of experienced election workers, who have faced an onslaught of harassment and threats since the 2020 election.

But nearly two years since that election, no evidence has emerged to suggest widespread fraud or manipulation while reviews in state after state have upheld the results showing President Joe Biden won.

Saturday also is the deadline by which election officials must send ballots to their military and overseas voters. North Carolina started mailing out absentee ballots Sept. 9.

Early in-person voting is offered in 46 states and the District of Columbia, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. States may use different ways to describe it, with some calling it in-person absentee voting or advanced voting. In some cases, it mirrors Election Day voting with polling locations equipped with poll workers and voting machines. Elsewhere, it involves voters requesting, completing and submitting an absentee ballot in person at their local election office.

Early voting periods vary by state, with some offering as few as three days and others extending to 46 days. The average is 23 days, according to the conference of legislatures.

This year, voting will unfold in a much different environment than two years ago, when the coronavirus prompted a major increase in the use of mail ballots as voters sought to avoid crowded polling places. States adopted policies to promote mail voting, with a few states opting to send mail ballots to all registered voters and others expanding the use of drop boxes.

While some have made those changes permanent, others have rolled back them back. For instance, Georgia will have fewer drop boxes this year and has added ID requirements to mail ballots under legislation pushed by Republican state lawmakers.

In Wyoming, a steady stream of voters filed into the lone early polling place in Cheyenne, which offered a refuge from winds that toppled a Vote Here sign. About 60 people had voted there by midday, Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee said.

Its less people and we dont have to worry, said one early voter, Brent Dolence of Cheyenne. Things move faster and you dont have to wait so much.

Unlike elsewhere in the U.S., poll workers in Laramie County havent been subjected to threats and harassment, Lee said, but theyve received plenty of questions from voters about machines and the countys lone ballot drop box.

Theyre really looking at things and asking questions, Lee said. In a good way. You know, wanting information. Theyre curious.

Minnesotas ballot includes races for governor and other statewide offices, with control of the Legislature at stake, too.

Zbikowski declined to say for whom he voted. But he said he doesnt take the right to vote for granted, given that his family came to America from Russia when it didnt have free elections. As a part-time poll worker  he was off-duty Friday he said hes seen Minnesotas safeguards firsthand and has full confidence in the integrity of the process.

Other early voters included first-timers Ronald Johnson and his wife, Judith Weyl, who voted on Election Day in 2020. They both said they voted a straight Democratic ticket.

It just feels like this election is so important, life is so busy, I just wanted to have closure on this as quickly as possible, Johnson said.

Johnson, a 74-year-old mental health counselor, said he wanted to support candidates who will preserve a Minnesota election system that he said has integrity.

He said he absolutely supports the states chief elections officer, Secretary of State Steve Simon, over GOP challenger Kim Crockett, who has called the 2020 election a train wreck and has advocated for a return to voting mostly on Election Day. Simon, in contrast, calls the 2020 election fundamentally fair, honest, accurate and secure, and defends the changes that he oversaw to make voting safer in the pandemic.

We really care about protecting democracy, said Weyl, 73.

Aaron Bommarito, a 48-year-old teacher who also said he voted a straight Democratic ticket, said he has no concerns about his votes being counted properly and has absolute confidence in the system. He said voting early was a spur-of-the moment decision. He just happened to be driving by the voting center and seized the moment.

I dropped my two kids off at school, and the Vote Here sign was the next thing I saw, he said.

___

Cassidy reported from Atlanta. Associated Press reporter Mead Gruver contributed to this story from Cheyenne, Wyoming.
After two and a half years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, this years festive season in India will be the first one with no restrictions or holdbacks. With a return to normalcy becoming a closer reality, consumers across the country are expected to dramatically scale their festive shopping budgets this year. Online festive sales in India are predicted to grow significantly, driven by competitive prices, ease of returns, increase in the festive offers and expansion of products within the affordability range of the buyers.

Benori Knowledge, a new-age startup providing custom research and analytic solutions, has launched a survey-led report, with the aim to gauge consumers' shopping behaviours and spending habits this upcoming festive season. The survey was trifurcated into three regions: Delhi NCR (North), Mumbai (West) and Bangalore (South), to better understand local variations in consumer behaviour.

The Benori survey found that 67% of Indian consumers are planning an increase in their shopping budgets, with Mumbai (82%) and Bangalore (71%) taking the lead. Compared to the other cities, more than half (52%) of the shoppers in Delhi NCR are planning to either stick to the same budget or decrease their spending this year. The disparity in seasonal shopping spends between the national capital and the two large metros is primarily attributed to stricter COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns that Mumbai and Bangalore faced in the previous year, whereas Delhi NCR had a fairly normal festive season.

Around three-fourths (77%) of respondents from Bangalore and 57% from Mumbai cited return to normalcy after the pandemic as the factor behind their budget increases. The second strongest motivator for Bangaloreans (34%) was the pent-up needs from not shopping as much in previous years, whereas according to 53% of Mumbaikars and 45% of Delhiites, it is income growth that is allowing them to scale their spending accordingly. Across India, seasonal discount deals (35%) and pent-up needs (32%) were the other factors guiding consumers budgeting decisions.

44% of respondents across India are planning to spend beyond 25,000 INR. Mumbai and Bangalore ranked high in terms of spending this season, with over 50% of consumers holding a budget above 25,000 INR. 14% of Mumbai consumers plan to spend more than 60,000 INR. In Delhi on the other hand, the majority (73%) of consumers reported having a budget of less than 25,000 INR.

When it comes to what Indian consumers will shop for, fashion (clothing, shoes and accessories) will be the most popular (76%) category, followed by home appliances & electronics (59%), home furnishing (45%), phones & accessories (43%), and gold & silverware (39%). More people (43%) from Mumbai plan on purchasing gold and silverware compared to residents of the other cities.

Most (81%) shoppers across the country expect to do their shopping through major e-commerce platforms, followed by category-specific platforms (56%) and direct-to-consumer websites/apps (38%). Despite these top three purchase locations being online portals, 58% of respondents from Bangalore revealed that they would patronise traditional department stores this season.

With interest in sustainable business practices becoming a more prominent consumer trend over the years, Benoris research demonstrated that this festive season, most (76%) consumers will factor in product sustainability when making a purchase decision. Almost 90% of buyers from Bangalore revealed that they are very conscious about considering sustainability when making a purchase.

Reflecting on the findings from the buyer survey, Ashish Gupta, Co-Founder and CEO of Benori, said, After two years of a reduced scale of festivities, especially in Bangalore and Mumbai, consumers are looking forward to celebrating this festive season with renewed enthusiasm. Post pandemic, this will be the first normal festive season where people can celebrate and enjoy the festivities with their family and friends without any restrictions. This provides a great opportunity for brands to engage with their audience and increase awareness. Understanding the nuances of regional buying behaviour can help them drive purchase intent for the brand through relevant offers.

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India dot com Digital Pvt Ltd. (Zee Digital), one of Indias largest digital media company, to host its first edition of Health Awards 2022 at New Delhi, to acknowledge and recognise the movers, leaders and achievers in the health sector of India. The awards night will be an amalgamation of awards and turnaround discussions.

The awards will be honored by Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, who will also address the gathering and share his insights on the health care system. He will also be joined by Dr. Shiv Kumar Sarin, Vice Chancellor - Institute of Liver and Biliary Science, New Delhi.

Speaking of the event, Shridhar Mishra, CRO (digital) says, Healthcare and health has become the center of everyday conversations, post pandemic. We have also seen how technology has revolutionized the sector and created a way for affordable and accessible healthcare. This is our attempt to recognize the efforts of the people who have led this from the forefront,

Covid-19 outbreak has transformed the healthcare system, and the sector has gone through fast-paced changes that was led by digital revolution. Not only did the pandemic lead to innovations, and the emergence of telehealth, E-ICU, and a changed scenario of Emergency Care, it also created a new world order built on the foundation of collaboration, backed by scientific advancements, driven by data making healthcare affordable and accessible.

Sharing insights on the event, Puja Sethi, Group Editor, Digital says, The pandemic has reinforced the importance of a robust healthcare system. This award recognizes the efforts of the warriors who have carried the revolution of the healthcare system, The summit will address the concerns of the Indian Healthcare Ecosystem and what needs to be done to alleviate the pain-points. Panelists will also speak on Indias preparedness to deal with emerging diseases in the post pandemic World

The summit will see a line-up of esteemed panelists and guest speakers such as Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, Medical Director, Max Hospitals; Dr.Raajiv Singhal, Founding member, MD & CEO, of Marengo Asia Healthcare; Dr Nandita Palshetkar, IVF Specialist; Dr. Praveer Agarwal, Executive Director, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute; Dr Abhay Sinha, Director General, Services Export Promotion Council; Dr. Suresh Sankar, a leading Nephrologist, Sr VP-Clinical Affairs, NephroPlus; Dr. Sanjay Mittal (Director, Clinical and Preventive Cardiology, Heart Institute, Medanta Hospital Gurgaon); Dr Ashok Jhinghan, Chairman, Delhi Diabetes Research Centre; Dr. Nand Kumar, Prof. In charge ICMR CARE in Neuromodulation for Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, AIIMS, New Delhi; Dr. Vikram Jaggi, Pulmonologist. Asthma Chest Allergy Hospital, Delhi; and OP Yadava, CEO, National Heart Institute.

The summit will be promoted on Zee News, The HealthSite.com and India.com. It will also be cross promoted on social media handles for a larger reach.

The summit is sponsored by LIC and Freedom app.
Things are getting interesting as regards our neighbor to the north. They suffer the same creeping tyranny that America does, but handle it a bit differently.

We all remember -- or should remember -- the preacher Artur Pawlowski, of Calgarys street church. He fearlessly called out the police who invaded his church over ridiculous COVID regulations, calling them Nazis.

Police were kicked out of a church in Calgary over Easter weekend, with a pastor calling them Nazis, after responding to a call related to COVID-19 concerns. Pastor Artur Pawlowski of The Fortress (Cave) of Adullam congregation in Canada recorded a video Saturday in which he called the local authorities Nazis, gestapo and communists while demanding they leave the church and not return unless they had a warrant. -- The Hill

Like an Old Testament prophet, Pastor Pawlowski has thundered wrath and fulmination down upon a corrupt state -- which in this case was not a wayward Israelite monarchy, but the Canadian establishment. And Canadian government agents regularly harass him.

But like Jeremiah of old, he does not back down. In 2022, he supported the truckers freedom convoy,

And the state reacted again. He was jailed, and even thrown in solitary confinement.

Pawlowski, who leads Street Church and the Cave of Adallum in Calgary, Alberta, was released Wednesday after spending 51 days in custody. The preachers release comes about six weeks after he was arrested for allegedly inciting mischief while addressing a crowd of Freedom Convoy participants at the U.S.-Canada border in Alberta, according to CBC News. -- CBN

And what was his crime, according to the Canadians?

A Calgary pastor has been granted bail after his arrest more than six weeks ago for his involvement with protesters at a border blockade in southern Alberta. Calgary Street Church minister Artur Pawlowski is charged with breaching an order to keep the peace and with committing mischief by inciting others to block use of public property. The charges relate to his joining a rally at a roadblock on Highway 4 outside Milk River, Alta., and later giving a speech heard on video telling protesters to continue their fight against government mandates. (Emphasis mine)

He was giving video encouragement to the truckers. Egad!

Pawlowski of the Cave of Adallum Church and Street Church in Calgary, Alberta, was arrested at his home Tuesday as he was about to depart for a church service at a border blockade -- Christian Post

Well, the modern state cannot allow that. However, in court, he has won another battle. In the meantime, last year, Pastor Pawlowski did a speaking tour here in America where he was cheered as a hero.

We should not think that in America we are any better. In California, there were some positively confounding rulings regarding COVID restrictions:

While Californias new stay-at-home order has shut down restaurant dining, shuttered salons and kept church services outside, two strip clubs in San Diego are still welcoming patrons nightly, protected by a court order. -- AP News (2020)

Strip clubs were allowed to remain open, but church gatherings were not?! Even if California is not Canada, one can see the same mindset at work. Though a California court did offer some relief, by overturning fines against a Pentecostal Church for defying the restrictions.

A California church that defied safety regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic by holding large religious services won't have to pay about $200,000 in fines, a state appeals court ruled. -- ABC News

Nor is the harassment confined to Christians. In both Montreal and New York, Hasidim had been harassed regarding COVID regulations.

But it seems that the Canadians do have options that are somewhat foreclosed here in the United States, namely secession. With no historical equivalent of the bloody American Civil War to deter them, Canadian provinces are not so jittery about entertaining separation.

Here in the USA, the American Civil War ended the recurring threat of secession as a political option. No state has seriously entertained it since then, though some are starting to reconsider it.

Texas Republicans are pushing for a referendum to decide whether the state should secede from the U.S. -- Newsweek

However, Canadas constitution does entertain the possibility of secession. In 1995, a referendum concerning secession was allowed in Quebec. It almost passed. But in 1998, the Canadian Supreme Court tightened the rules to declare that such a secession cannot be unilateral.

The Supreme Court of Canada says the French-speaking province of Quebec does not have the right to separate unilaterally under either Canadian or international law. -- Radio Free Europe

What is clear is that Canadian provinces have a more autonomous relationship with their federal government that American states do. That includes Alberta, where Pastor Artur Pawlowski resides.

And so, Artur Pawlowski has just been elected as leader of the Independence Party of Alberta.

The Independence Party wants to congratulate and welcome Artur Pawlowski to his new role as Leader of The Independence Party. Today we move forward stronger; this grassroots movement united to bring back accountability, prosperity and freedom to the people of Alberta. -- The Independence Party website

The Albertans have been furious with the controlling regime in Ottawa for some time. The party has an on/off history going back to 2001.

Now, should Alberta become independent, it would have serious problems. It would be a landlocked, with no ports. However, the Independence Party has an answer to that.

We already have access to tidewater through the US and through the Trans Mountain pipeline. We will negotiate a fair deal, nation to nation, with Canada that is mutually beneficial to both nations. If by chance Canada wants to play hard ball, we will excerpt our rights to our railways, highways and airways. Landlocked Canada from the province of British Columbia will be much more detrimental to Canada than Alberta. As time goes on we expect other prairie provinces to secede which will provide access to Churchill and Alaska or northern British Columbia. -- IP FAQ page

If Alberta goes, the Canadian West might follow suit.

Happily, the Albertans do not seem to be as violently boastful as the fire-eaters of the American South in 1860. They seem to be willing to work slowly. There is none of the One Southerner can lick twenty Yankees attitude that was prevalent in 1861. Rather the Albertans seem willing to wean themselves off of Canada in steps.

The objective of The Independence Party is to provide effective government that reduces Albertas dependence upon Canadas federal government as it works towards establishing an independent Alberta nation. Upon forming government, The Independence Party will name a date for a referendum on independence within the first year. -- The Independence Party website

But Albertan politeness should not be confused with weakness. They are prepared to be defiant.

If the Federal Government engages in hostile behaviors (acts in bad faith) or attempts to interfere in or obstruct the separation process, we will achieve de facto unilateral secession through a declaration of independence signed by the Premier. -- IP About Page

What is important is not so much that Alberta becomes independent -- it probably wont -- but rather that the option is now out there on the playing field. And with Pastor Pawlowski in a leadership role, it will get a hearing.

Image: Artur Pawlowski
Emily Hanford became famous over the last several years for talking constantly about the Science of Reading. That's where children learn to read in the simplest, most efficient way and go on to enjoy many hundreds of books. Long story short, what she means by the Science of Reading is phonics  nothing less, nothing else.

The problem is that the left in our country forced phonics into oblivion starting in 1931. So what was going on for those 90 years from 1931 to now? A titanic and quite stupid con, that's what.

Basically, the professors of education at Harvard and such places identified and codified the things that work  and then (this is my summary) they made sure that none of those things are allowed in the schools. Only methods known not to work are praised in our classrooms. The simplest, most appropriate name for this approach is the Science of Illiteracy.

Sometimes the impression is given that these professors drifted around from one method to another. That's actually not true. They have only one method  but it has many names (such as sight-words and Whole Word)  and they are content to hide inside the confusion they create.

Reading consists of learning two things: letters and sounds. If you're not focusing on letters and sounds, you don't have phonetic instruction of a phonetic language.

Note how precise the pseudo-reading program is. You get rid of letters and sounds. You don't mention an alphabet, and you don't teach children what the alphabet represents. The Science of Illiteracy is really easy. You just leave out the valuable parts and let kids struggle.

One of the oddest spectacles you'll ever see is the top brains in American education all agreeing that the alphabet serves no useful purpose. How do you find fanatics like this?

These professors were monolithic; each one parroted the wisdom of the others. Each one finds a slightly different way of making the same dubious claims. Notice the smug, Olympian tone.

"Current practice in the teaching of reading does not require a knowledge of the letters," says Dr. Donald D. Darrell.

"The skillful teacher will be reluctant to use any phonetic method with all children," says Dr. Paul Witty.

Dr. Roma Gans tells it simply and starkly: "In recent years phonetic analysis of words at any level of the reading program fell into disrepute."

"Little is gained by teaching the child sounds and letters as a first step to reading. More rapid results are generally obtained by the direct method of simply showing the word to the child and telling him what it is." Thus spake Anderson and Dearborn.

"The words should be recognized as whole words. It is detrimental indeed to have the children spell or sound out the words at this stage." That's Bond and Wagner.

We have to thank Rudolf Flesch for creating a time capsule circa 1940 in the first chapter of his famous book Why Johnny Can't Read. He quotes all the schemers shaping our culture. A dozen of these people took children down the wrong path so they would become victims of the Science of Illiteracy.

The success of Flesch's book in 1955 was the first sign of resistance by ordinary citizens. The Education Establishment didn't wait six months before it set up the counter-group known as the International Reading Association. This was a massive organization intended to keep teachers and parents in line. It succeeded to a tragic degree.

How do the professors refer to their voodoo reading? In the most respectful terms, as if Einstein had written it out for them. On the other hand, Rudolf Flesch complained that teaching children to read English with sight-words means eliminating 4,000 years of progress, as we moved from difficult symbol languages (such as Egyptian hieroglyphics) to more efficient ways to let great masses of people read their language.

Nineteen thirty-one was the beginning of the end of our school system. Yes, 1931. That's when the education professors pushed phonics out of the public schools and imposed a sham method that virtually guaranteed that most students would become functional illiterates, evidently the goal of the Science of Illiteracy.

This power-grab in 1931 was historically remarkable. The Depression had just started. The country was nervous and unstable. The professors thought they had enough leverage to pull off a coup, almost as ambitious as the attack on Pearl Harbor but with even greater ramifications for the future.

I wouldn't be surprised if all these professors quoted by Flesch were members of the Communist Party (AKA the Communist International). They were clearly in control of K12 education in America. All they had to do was befuddle and outwit the public.

Money was a big factor. All the top professors made millions by creating a series of little books often referred to as Dick and Jane basal readers.

Please remember that Dr. Samuel Orton did a famous study in 1928 that determined that sight-words would mess up a child's brain. Education professors had to pretend for decades that they believed in a method that they knew was fake. Their deception ushered in the Science of Illiteracy.

Throughout this saga, the Education Establishment bullied recklessly as they announced their visions, denounced all research that didn't support their chicanery, and forced the children and parents to accept their Science of Illiteracy.

We see this reckless swagger now in the way the Democrats try to control government the same way they control education. Americans can learn so much about weaknesses in our democracy by studying K12. Our ideals break down quickly when ruthless people break all the rules.

We can easily save the public schools, but only if we adhere to the Science of Reading. Here's a four-minute version of that.

Bruce Deitrick Price's new novel is Frankie, about a robot designed to engage in smart conversation with humans. No other skills. Harmless. Chaos ensues. (For an excerpt, visit Frankie.zone.)

Image: Movidagrafica Barcelona via Pexels, Pexels License.
This past week New Orleans reclaimed the title of Americas deadliest city after seeing murders jump 141% over the last couple of years. In New Orleans, the murder rate is a staggering 52 per 100,000 people. That compares to the national average of 6.9, the highest its been in a quarter century, and the 50 per 100,000 in Venezuela, the most dangerous country in the world.

If New Orleans were an outlier, it would be a shame; the fact that its not is a tragedy. Instead, New York, Chicago, Portland, LA, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and other American cities are part of the club. Crime has been up across America over the last two years, in most cases dramatically.

Weve always had crime in Americasuch is the price of freedombut what we are experiencing today is something altogether different. Its not just crime. America can sometimes be a dangerous place. Everyone knows working the midnight shift at a convenience store is riskier than working the day shift at your local library, just as common sense tells you the odds of getting into a fight in a bar on a Saturday night are far higher than at church on Sunday morning.

And to be clear, this is not Antifa thugs and BLM cultists burning down cities. Protest, even violent protest, has been part of American history since its founding and is mainly event-driven, like Shays Rebellion, the Vietnam War protests, the riots after MLKs assassination, or the acquittal of the police in the Rodney King video.

Image: Criminal (edited) by h9images.

No, this is something different. Its one thing to rage against the machine; its another to commit violence against citizens, particularly when they are unsuspecting innocents or compliant victims. This is todays issue, which we see taking place across the county, from urban jungles like New York City to Midwestern communities like Salt Lake City.

What Americas experiencing today is exponentially worse than the typical crime that America is used toand the truth is, young Black men and, increasingly, young Black women are perpetuating most, although far from all, of it.

Violence is not only going to a new level in terms of frequency but also its locales. Its no longer limited to dark corners or deserted parking lots. It now occurs in the middle of the regular hustle and bustle of Americans daily lives. Its taking place in broad daylight, in full view of video camerasoften with others videoing the carnage to share on social media. Violent crime occurs on Main Street USA, in schools, drugstores, fast food restaurants, subway platforms, high-end retail stores and, of course, homes.

We see large groups of young people blitzing stores, grabbing merchandise off shelves, and running out with smiles on their faces. We see shoplifters methodically clear store shelves of merchandise and simply stroll out the door, unconcerned about getting stopped or arrested and often assaulting employees along the way.

Moreover, an element of violence seems unprecedented in its scale. Almost daily, we see random innocent people on subways or stairs or in restaurants getting shoved, kicked, or punched. We see fast food workers attacked as customers come over or around counters and spark mayhem. We see bus drivers attacked, shop owners beaten, and cops spat upon. Indeed we see countless instances where robbers beat or shoot victims even after taking whatever they were after. We also read daily of innocents of all ages killed in the crossfire while sleeping in their beds, standing in a bar, or sitting in their cars.

There also seems to be a racial element to this new crime wave, with black perpetrators targeting a disproportionate number of White or Asian victims. Make no mistake, though. Now, as always, the single largest group of victims of this crime wave is black citizens.

The question is, why is this happening? What has caused an increasing number of black Americans to believe they can rob, beat, and even kill their fellow citizens with impunity?

No doubt, there are countless contributing factors, from missing fathers to failing schools to social media, but those problems (at least the first two) have existed for quite some time. No, the reason for the sharp jump in violent crime and unhinged behavior on the part of large numbers of primarily young Black Americans is the Democrat proposition that everything bad that happens to Blacks results from racism. As such, Blacks are not responsible for their choices. Therefore, they should not be held accountable for their actions.

Ronald Reagan once said, If you want more of something, subsidize it. That is precisely what the Democrats have been doing with violent crime. While they are not yet directly paying criminals to attack their fellow citizens and rob local businesses, they are subsidizing crime nonetheless.

On the one hand, George Soros-backed Democrat prosecutors from coast to coast are demonstrating their pro-criminal empowerment bona fides by refusing to seek bail for most arrestees, refusing to prosecute countless misdemeanors, and simultaneously undercharging countless violent crimes as said misdemeanors. On the other hand, you have Democrats effectively decriminalizing an entire swath of crimes or eliminating bail for almost every offense.

Indeed, the lunatics running Illinois have just passed a law that eliminates bail for virtually every offense below 1st-degree murder and prohibits police from arresting or removing trespassers caught in the act while burglarizing a home or business. That means that, if someone breaks into your house in the middle of the night and you call the police, first, youll be lucky, given the Democrat Defund the police movement if police respond while the trespasser is still there and, second, police are literally no longer allowed to remove them from your home.

All of this is happening exactly when Americas cultural and political elites are telling young Black Americans that the system is rigged against them; that theyre incapable of succeeding when playing by the rules; that most white people hate them; and that, if they break the law, there are no consequences to be had. That is literally a recipe for societal collapse.

Today in Democrat-run America, only the criminals rights matter, never the victimsand the fact is that most of the victims of this American renaissance of violence are, in fact, Black Americans. That is, the new rules victimize the very people about whom Democrats pretend to care.

To accumulate power, Democrats have leveraged the fictions of systemic racism and millions of White supremacists running wild, and Americans of all races are paying the price. But this is exactly what happens when politicians pursue policies of balkanization and victimization, setting groups of Americans against one another to achieve power. The Democrats and their grifter partners thrive, while all of Americas citizens suffer.

America was founded on the principle that all men were created equal in the eyes of God and in the laws of man. While the execution of those truths has been imperfect from the beginning, it has consistently improved for over 200 years, bringing Americans freedom and prosperity unmatched in human history. Those benefits include black Americans, who make up fully 8% of American millionaires.

In just half a generation, Democrats have undone 200 years of progress and created a violent cage match between demographics in the public square. The result has been a body blow to civil society, mayhem in cities, and blood on the streets (most of it Black). Yet somehow, Black America continues to vote Democrat in Stalin-like numbers. Perhaps they should reconsider....
Most of us are familiar with the concept of a trojan horse. Derived from Greek mythology, the trojan horse was a giant wooden horse constructed by the Greeks and rolled to the gates of Troy as a concession of defeat during the Trojan War. Unbeknownst to the people of Troy, the Greeks had filled the giant wooden horse with an elite force of soldiers. Under the cover of darkness, this elite force slipped out of the horse and opened the gates to the city, allowing the Greeks to launch a full assault from within while the people of Troy slept.

Today, we often refer to trojan horses in software terms. In this instance, a trojan horse is a piece of malware that we unwittingly but willingly bring into our computers and devices that wreaks havoc on them from within. Similarly, we willingly adopt harmful policies and ideas dressed in a sanitized package with the best intentions, only for those ideas and policies to corrupt us from the inside.

Our political class understands the trojan horse concept well, and they understand that Americans are particularly susceptible to it. Americans are good people at heart, and this leaves the population subject to being taken advantage of. Many proponents of those policies which we most fiercely oppose often believe that the ideas they espouse will lead to a better future, and we all want a better future. We disagree on how it is we arrive there and what a better future looks like, and the political class is all too eager to promote those ideas that best perpetuate their influence.

One recent trojan horse of national conversation is ranked-choice voting. Ranked-choice voting is a system whereby voters rank candidates in order of preference. Rounds of voting proceed, and the bottom vote-getter is eliminated until at least one candidate has reached greater than fifty percent of the votes, thus giving them a majority. In this system, candidates with less support often surpass candidates with more support, as was the case in Alaskas recent congressional special election.

In Alaskas recent special election to replace long-time Republican representative Don Young, dozens of candidates vied for the seat. After the first rounds, three candidates remained, with a Republican garnering two of three slots. The third slot went to Democrat Mary Peltola. Because the Republicans in the first two slots essentially diluted their share of the vote, that left Democrat Peltola as the winner.

Alaskas ranked-choice voting was passed as a matter of ballot initiative in 2020, and it was made possible by the campaign of moderate Republican U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski. Hidden camera footage by media outlet Project Veritas uncovered the push for ranked-choice voting on behalf of Senator Murkowskis campaign. The reasoning behind it is simple, ranked-choice most benefits the most moderate candidates. This scheme has recently been promoted and failed in states like Missouri, reportedly with the support of moderate Republican Governor Mike Parson.

Having recently successfully escaped a contested primary season here in Idaho, Idahos good old boys are up to their same tricks and promoting ranked-choice voting as their next electoral ploy. During the primary, they utilized the captured press to paint their opposition as extremists and appeal to the minority Democrats in the state to cross the aisle and crown their guys as sane alternatives. Organized as TakeBackIdaho.com, insiders like former Idaho Supreme Court Justice Jim Jones have begun to headline the papers with calls for ranked-choice voting here at home.

Citing Alaskas primary results as sensible electoral reform, Jones limps through his recent victory lap and lauds the results of their newly adopted ranked-choice system. Im not sure on what bizarro planet two candidates of your own party getting leap-frogged by the opposition party is considered a victory. Republicans would do well to immediately dismiss any and all opinions of the nonagenarian and start to defend their own turf. Idaho did go sixty-five percent for Trump, after all.

Subversive electoral schemes like ranked-choice voting are allowed to take root because conservatives have been asleep at the wheel. Most engaged conservatives in red states will reject schemes like this outright, while most liberal democrats in red states will support them outright. The battle for the countrys future falls in the middle, largely with the moderate and uninvested voters. This is why schemes are concocted to appeal to this demographic. The challenge then consists of educating conservatives on why these schemes will be our undoing before we are undone.

Photo by KEMAL HAYIT

Brian Parsons is a paleoconservative columnist in Idaho, a proud husband and father, and saved by Grace. You can follow him at WithdrawConsent.org or find his columns at the American Thinker, in the Idaho State Journal, or in other regional publications. Email | Gab
The Constitution guaranteed equality under the law. There is no distinction between Congress and the people.

Currently, it is illegal to lie to members of Congress while giving testimony. But it is not illegal for them to lie to those they question, or the American people as a whole. To have true equality under the law, let every congressman be placed under oath from the moment Congress opens until both bodies adjourn.

It should not be legal for them to lie while expecting those they question to speak the truth.

Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, claimed during the first impeachment of then-president Trump to have evidence of Trump's collusion with Russia. He clearly lied.

The fact that the chairman of the Intelligence Committee claimed he possessed information from his privileged position led people to believe he did, in fact, have classified material that Trump had colluded with Russia.

Those of us who paid attention early on already knew that the false dossier was from Hillary Clinton's campaign. It was already known to be her opposition research, of which Schiff and others were well aware.

Had Schiff been under oath, would he have made the same assertions while in session, or only casually lied while giving interviews? There is no way to know for certain. If placed under oath at the time, it is possible his wording would have been far less clear.

Had he been under oath, he could have been charged with perjury for every lie he told. It did become known that he was aware there was nothing behind the claims he made. He lied in his official capacity as a congressman and continued to lie afterward when granting interviews with establishment media.

Per George Khoury, Esq.:

Perjury and lying to the federal government are both crimes that could land a person in some serious legal trouble. If convicted of either crime, a person could be looking at up to five years in prison. This means that if a person is found to have lied during a congressional hearing or investigation, or simply lied to an FBI or other federal agent, actual jail time could result.

Would Schiff have risked five years in prison for each lie he told for cheap political gain? Or for that matter, any member of Congress? Given how many lied to the American people while in session during both of the sham impeachments, and considering that then-president Trump never did have his promised day to defend himself and call witnesses as required by congressional rules, it is clear a law is needed to bring equality for perjury.

Congress should be placed under oath. That maximum sentence for the American people should be the only option available. Five years for every count of perjury is fitting for those who write the laws.

Cleaning up Washington means being willing to bring charges against congressmen in both chambers. I have no problem with any member of Congress who lies ending up in prison for five years or the rest of his life, given enough counts of perjury.

The next Republican president, be it Trump or anyone else, should demand equality under the law for Congress and demand they all be sworn in while in session.

Bob Ryan is a writer who has an MBA. He is an American Christian Zionist who staunchly supports Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. He has been a weekly blogger at the Times of Israel since 2019.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license, no attribution required.
The Eleventh Circuit issued an unconstitutional ruling against President Donald Trump in the Mar-a-Lago matter. The U.S. Supreme Court has made clear that the president himself, not any other part of the U.S. government, has the final say over what constitutes a classified document. No one can second-guess the president, yet that's what the Eleventh Circuit did by issuing an order ceding control over classification decisions to the Department of Justice.

A district court judge granted Trump's motion for a special master to review the documents the FBI seized from his property, many of which Trump argued were privileged. The DOJ appealed, seeking a stay of the order as it related to documents it claims are classified. The appellate court framed the issue this way:

We decide only the narrow question presented: whether the United States has established that it is entitled to a stay of the district court's order, to the extent that it (1) requires the government to submit for the special master's review the documents with classification markings and (2) enjoins the United States from using that subset of documents in a criminal investigation. We conclude that it has.

The determinative factor was the court's conclusion that the DOJ had established its entitlement to possess, review, and control documents with "classification markings." (The word "classified" shows up 62 times in the decision.) The decision focuses entirely on who has the right to have possession and control of "classified documents."

But of course, that's the wrong issue. The real question is who gets to decide whether documents are classified. Is the answer bureaucrats and judges whom, the American people did not elect, or the American president, who has complete and total (that is, plenary) power over the entire issue of information classification?



Image made using "splat" by Pharion.

The latter, of course, is the correct answer. The president may delegate that plenary power to agents in the bureaucracy or Judiciary, but it is always and ultimately the president's power. The judges and bureaucrats have no authority when they're lined up against a president.

Why am I so certain about this? Because the United States Supreme Court said so. In Navy v. Egan, 484 U.S. 518 (1988), the Court was asked to determine whether a civil service board can review the case of a "laborer" denied a national security clearance. The Court concluded that the president is the one vested with the power to determine national security matters:

The President, after all, is the "Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States." U.S.Const., Art. II,  2. His authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security and to determine whether an individual is sufficiently trustworthy to occupy a position in the Executive Branch that will give that person access to such information flows primarily from this constitutional investment of power in the President, and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant. See Cafeteria Workers v. McElroy, 367 U. S. 886, 367 U. S. 890 (1961).

On the facts in Navy v. Egan, that principle prevented Congress from limiting the president's ultimate authority or delegating the authority. However, the same principle means that both the Judiciary and the president's subordinates in the bureaucracy lack any authority unless the president has delegated it. And in this case, by removing the documents from the White House, President Trump asserted his authority over the documents' classification status, overriding any hack bureaucrat or judge.

This means that every word of the 29-page decision justifying letting the DOJ hang onto the documents is garbage. The analysis is meaningless because the core principle is wrong. It's irrelevant that the court writes, "When matters of national security are involved we 'must accord substantial weight to an agency's affidavit.'" President Trump's authority, exercised while he was still in office, supersedes any agency actions.

Likewise, the court grossly overreached when it said, "We cannot discern why Plaintiff [i.e., Trump] would have an individual interest in or need for any of the one-hundred documents with classification markings." That officious dictum is none of the court's business and outside its authority. There are similar effluvia through the decision, all overreaching and erroneous.

Bottom line: The Judiciary and bureaucracy cannot intrude on the Executive's authority  and in this case, the Executive is the president, not his out-of-control minions. Agents cannot have greater say than the principal. The documents' classification status all devolves to Trump and his conclusions about the documents' status, not anyone else's theories.

What the Court should have done was to rule on its own initiative that the DOJ had grossly overreached and ordered that the DOJ return to Donald Trump every government document, photograph, newspaper clipping, personal letter, and article of Melania's clothing. It's telling in a Deep State kind of way that it chose not to do so.
On any given day in American public schools, students are blatantly violating the standards for student conduct and dress code policies. During the first week of school, the traditional assemblies are scheduled so administrators can discuss and clarify these policies. In addition, teachers take class time to review important aspects of these policies and communicate classroom expectations. Being an educator for many years, I will admit that the standards for student conduct and dress code policies are usually clearly stated and available for both students and parents.

So how is it possible that students are deliberately violating these policies with no fear of disciplinary action? In my experience, there are three main reasons why public schools are not enforcing discipline.

Equity

The actual behavior a student exhibits is no longer the only determining factor in the disciplinary action. If it were, schools would not receive discipline reports detailing the number of disciplinary referrals based on subgroups. For those who are not familiar with the term subgroups, it is basically a breakdown of the student population into groups such as race and ethnicity, gender, students with physical or learning disabilities, and socioeconomic status.

Schools receive these reports and are tasked with implementing strategies and programs to deal with the disproportionate number of discipline referrals for certain subgroups. The process is similar to what we see when dealing with achievement gaps.

What does it say when we are focused on a particular subgroup and not the behavior itself? Do you think it is possible that administrators may deal with students belonging to this particular subgroup differently, whether consciously or subconsciously, to "balance" the numbers?

Lack of Support

As an educator, you are limited when it comes to discipline. Generally, teachers will first have a discussion with an unruly student, call home if necessary, and if all else fails write a discipline referral. Once a teacher writes a discipline referral, he cedes power to an administrator.

Two things can happen. The administrator can assign some disciplinary action based on the offense, or he can just give a verbal warning. The punishment is completely out of the teacher's hands.

In order to discuss how an administrator's action can impact both the student and teacher, here is a real-life scenario. Let's say a teacher notices a student in the hallway who is clearly violating the dress code. The teacher nicely asks the student to please "cover up" because what she is wearing is not appropriate. The student deliberately ignores the teacher and continues walking. The teacher says, "Excuse me  I was speaking to you and asked you to cover up." The student says, "Shut up, leave me alone." The teacher eventually gets the student's name and submits a discipline referral.

Based on the actions of the administrator, two very important questions will be answered.

Will the student think twice before being blatantly disrespectful to a teacher or staff member? Will the teacher take the time and effort to address students who are violating school policy in the future?

A weak response will tell the student that such behavior is apparently not a serious infraction, and at the same time, it will tell the teacher he has no support from the administration. What do you think will happen the next time a teacher addresses this student for some unruly behavior or dress code violation?

Another issue when discussing lack of support has to do with the parents. While there are some very supportive parents, there are also parents who will fight disciplinary action and defend their child regardless of the offense committed. They will argue  it is their child's disability, it is the teacher's fault, it was because of another student. The list of excuses is endless. Parents may even request their child be switched out of a class to be put in a different teacher's class. Oftentimes, this request is granted. What does that say to the student and the teacher?

Fear

To put it bluntly, many school systems are afraid of being sued, and many teachers are afraid of losing their job. As stated before, parents will vehemently fight discipline action against their child and are very quick to threaten lawsuits. Teachers are afraid of being called a racist, being accused of sexual harassment, being charged with assault, or just receiving a letter in their file because some action was deemed inappropriate.

Imagine the safety issues when a fight breaks out in a public school. Since some male students are much bigger and stronger than some teachers, it would clearly take physical force and multiple teachers to break up a fight. What happens if one of the students is injured as teachers are trying to stop the fight? Well, you probably already know the answer to that.

This issue is compounded if two female students are involved in a fight. Some may think a fight between female students is easier to handle, but trust me: this is not the case. Teachers are usually forced to physically restrain or separate students involved in a fight, regardless of sex. I think you see the potential risk for a male teacher if he needs to physically restrain or separate female students.

The lack of enforced discipline is yet another issue we have to deal with in American public schools. Combine this with teacher shortages, woke ideology, decreasing achievement, student anxiety and depression, social promotion, technology addiction, secularism, cancel culture  okay, uncle! Basically, the American educational system is in bad shape.

Unchecked discipline, combined with all the other issues, is a cancer within the educational system. Will there be a cure for our American public schools?

Image: jarmoluk via Pixabay, Pixabay License.
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(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 23 - League leader Matteo Salvini said Friday his rightwing party will file a censure motion against European Commission President Ursual von der Leyen for vowing to treat Italy like Hungary and Poland if the League and ally Brothers of Italy (FdI) as expected win Sunday's Italian elections and introduce nationalist policies and threaten civil rights - though an EC spokesman said his boss had not meddled in Italian elections and only referred to procedures against the other two countries.

The EC on several occasions has censured Hungarian Premier Viktor Orban and Poland's ruling Law and Justice party for rule-of-law and rights issues, levying sanctions against them unless they came fully back into line with the EU's democratic values.

The League and Fdi last week abstained in a European Parliament vote saying that Hungary under Orban was no longer a fully functioning democracy, but an autocracy.

Orban is a key ally of the two Italian parties while Law and Justice sits in the EP conservative caucus chaired by FdI leader Giorgia Meloni, along with Spain's far right Vox party.

Meloni, who is poised to become Italy's first woman premier and the most rightwing since the Second World War, has often praised the policies of Orban and her Polish allies.

Von der Leyen said Thursday that if the general election ushers in an autocratic, nationalist and Euroskeptic shift then "we have the instruments, as in the cases of Poland and Hungary." However, she added that "we are ready to work with any democratic government that is disposed to work with us".

Salvini branded her statement as squalid and arrogant meddling in Italian domestic politics.

Announcing the censure motion against von der Leyen Friday, Salvini said "it is a squalid threat, an invasion of the field that was not requested." He said "the lady represents all Europeans, her salary is paid by all of us, and it was a disgusting and arrogant threat.

"The League's EP group will file a motion of censure".

Salvini added: "On Sunday Italians are voting, not Brussels bureaucrats, and if I were the president of the EU Commission I would be (more) worried about energy bills".

EC spokesman Eric Mamer on Friday denied Salvini's charge of interfering in the Italian elections saying "I think it is absolutely clear that President von der Leyen did not intervene in the Italian elections and referred to ongoing procedures in other countries".

Meloni has assured Italy's international partners that under hew lead Italy will cleave to EU and NATO positions and will continue to back Ukraine in its defence against the Russian invasion.

But she has also voiced Euroskeptic views as well as railing against immigrants and alleged gay and woke lobbies, and promising to give women an alternative to abortion.

The 45-year-old plain-speaking working class Roman unmarried mother has stressed her identity as a Christian mother and is campaigning under the slogan God, family and fatherland.

She has also endorsed the 'great replacement' theory positing the substitution of white nationals by Muslim immigrants.

Though her party has post-Fascist roots she has stressed that it shares values and policies with Britain's Tories and US Republicans. (ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 23 - The father of Saman Abbas, an 18-year-old Italian-Pakistani woman believed to have been killed by her family for refusing an arranged marriage in Pakistan, has been caught on an intercept saying he killed his daughter.

Saman disappeared form her home at Novellara near Reggio Emilia on the night of April 30 2021 and has not been seen since.

She was being pressured to marry her cousin in Pakistan and wanted to leave home, Italian prosecutors say.

Her father Shabbar Abbas fled to Pakistan with his wife shortly after Saman's disappearance and was heard saying in a phone conversation with a relative in Italy on June 8 2021: "I killed my daughter".

The phone tap is among the evidence that will be presented that will begin in February in Italy against family members accused of murdering Sama, including her uncle.

On trial on February 10 next year are three relatives caught in France and Spain recently: uncle Danish Hasnain and two cousins Ikram Ijaz e Nomanhulaq Nomanhulaq, as well as her parents, Shabbar Abbas and Nazia Shaheen, still hiding somewhere in Pakistan.

The father, Shabbar, said in the phone tap: "For me the dignity of others is not more important than mine...I left a son in Italy (a younger son now in a shelter who has accused his uncle in the case). I killed my daughter and I left, I don't care about anyone else at all". (ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 23 - League leader Matteo Salvini said Friday his rightwing party will file a censure motion against European Commission President Ursual von der Leyen for vowing to treat Italy like Hungary and Poland if the League and ally Brothers of Italy (FdI) as expected win Sunday's Italian elections and introduce nationalist policies.

The EC on several occasions has censured Hungarian Premier Viktor Orban and Poland's ruling Law and Justice party for rule-of-law and rights issues, levying sanctions against them unless they came into line with the EU's democratic values.

The League and Fdi last week abstained in a European Parliament vote saying that Hungary under Orban was no longer a fully functioning democracy, but an autocracy.

Orban is a key ally of the two Italian parties while Law and Justice sits in the EP conservative caucus chaired by FdI leader Giorgia Meloni, along with Spain's far right Vox party.

Meloni, who is poised to become Italy's first woman premier and the most rightwing since the Second World War, has often praised the policies of Orban and her Polish allies.

Von der Leyen said Thursday that if the general election ushers in an autocratic, nationalist and Euroskeptic shift then "we have the instruments, as in the cases of Poland and Hungary." However, she added that "we are ready to work with any democratic government that is disposed to work with us".

Salvini branded her statement as squalid and arrogant meddling in Italian domestic politics.

Announcing the censure motion against von der Leyen Friday, Salvini said "it is a squalid threat, an invasion of the field that was not requested." He said "the lady represents all Europeans, her salary is paid by all of us, and it was a disgusting and arrogant threat.

"The League's EP group will file a motion of censure".

Salvini added: "On Sunday Italians are voting, not Brussels bureaucrats, and if I were the president of the EU Commission I would be (more) worried about energy bills".

Meloni has assured Italy's international partners that under hew lead Italy will cleave to EU and NATO positions and will continue to back Ukraine in its def ence against the Russian invasion.

But she has also voiced Euroskpetic views as well as railing against immigrants and alleged gay and woke lobbies. (ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 23 - League leader Matteo Salvini said Friday his rightwing party will file a censure motion against European Commission President Ursual von der Leyen for vowing to treat Italy like Hungary and Poland if the League and ally Brothers of Italy (FdI) as expected win Sunday's Italian elections and introduce nationalist policies.

The EC on several occasions has censured Hungarian Premier Viktor Orban and Poland's ruling Law and Justice party for rule-of-law and rights issues, levying sanctions against them unless they came into line with the EU's democratic values.

The League and Fdi last week abstained in a European Parliament vote saying that Hungary under Orban was no longer a fully functioning democracy, but an autocracy.

Orban is a key ally of the two Italian parties while Law and Justice sits in the EP conservative caucus chaired by FdI leader Giorgia Meloni, along with Spain's far right Vox party.

Meloni, who is poised to become Italy's first woman premier and the most rightwing since the Second World War, has often praised the policies of Orban and her Polish allies.

Von der Leyen said Thursday that if the general election ushers in an autocratic, nationalist and Euroskeptic shift then "we have the instruments, as in the cases of Poland and Hungary." However, she added that "we are ready to work with any democratic government that is disposed to work with us".

Announcing the censure motion against von der Leyen Friday, Salvini said "it is a squalid threat, an invasion of the field that was not requested." He said "the lady represents all Europeans, her salary is paid by all of us, and it was a disgusting and arrogant threat.

(ANSA).


ATHENS - "Russian gas imports in Greece has gone down from 40% to 20%". Maria Rita Galli, the CEO of the Greek net operator DESFA, explained this to Reuters. Prior to the war in Ukraine, Athens depended on Russian gas for approximately 40%. It used the Turkstream pipeline which also distributed gas to Serbia and Hungary.



This year instead, Greece was able to reduce its dependency on Russia by half, thanks to the increase of imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to its regasifier on the isle of Revithoussa, at 40 km from Athens. The plant can stock 225,000 cubic meters of gas and convert to gas 1,400 cubic meters per hour.



"The plant is attracting growing interest on the part of national and regional importers", stated Maria Rita Galli to Reuters. She explained how the plant played a fundamental role in the energy strategy of Greece to improve and guarantee its provisions for winter.



The amount of LNG arriving at Revithoussa has doubled compared to last year. Even Bulgaria has increased its LNG imports through the terminal after having been cut out of Russian gas provisions due to its refusal to pay in rubles.




(di Massimo Lomonaco)

TEL AVIV - The 'Two-State Solution', kept on hold for a while, is now brought back to life and evoked by Israel itself. It was Israeli Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, to revive this solution and bring it back to the negotiating table at the UN's General Assembly in New York, at the very tail end of his mandate before upcoming elections on 1 November. His was a very emotional speech - with the term 'peace' often used, except when referring to Iran. The speech however, some part of which had already been leaked in his home country, were met with more criticism than approval, even among ministers of his own government, such as Aylet Shaked. Benyahim Netanyahu's reaction was very harsh: "A weak and defeatist speech" he stated.



However, at international level, these words were most likely be welcomed, beginning from the US and Europe.



"An agreement with the Palestinians, based on two States for two peoples is - highlighted Lapid at his very first speech at the UN General Assembly - the right thing for the security of Israel and its economy and for the future of our children". The only condition, he added, which is shared by the majority of Israelis, himself included, is just one: "The future Palestinian State will have to be peaceful". He explained that "It cannot become another launching base used to threaten the well-being and the existence of Israel. And Israel must have the ability to protect the security of all its citizens at all moments".



This is clearly in reference to what is happening in Gaza since Hamas took over in 2005 on the Gaza Strip: Lapid then recalled how over 20 thousand missiles were launched from Gaza into Israel.



Israel, he continued, is read to remove "starting tomorrow" any "restriction" on the Palestinian enclave and to help its economy. "The sole condition is: halt the launching of missiles against our children", he stated. After having mentioned the success of the Abraham Accords and the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, as symbols of peace, the PM went further, speaking to the other countries of the Arab world, starting from Saudi Arabia and Indonesia: "Come and speak to us, our hand is ready to reach out to you".



If the speech appeared to some to reminisce the strength of the choices made by former PM Yitzhak Rabin, now we will have to see what the reaction of the interested parties will be. While waiting to hold his speech, Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian President met with the UK's Prime Minister, Liz Truss who stated that London "is considering" moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, following the US. If this should take place - according to analysts - it will have direct repercussions.



However, for the moment, no one is a prophet in his own country. Netanyhu- historically against the two-state solution might become the next PM- has declared in a video that Lapid's concession "puts all of Israel's future in danger". "Lapid, brings Palestinians back on the world stage and places Israel in the Palestinian pit". "Lapid, he continued, is giving Palestinians a terrorist state in the heart of the state, a State that will threaten us". The nationalist right and the religious entities reacted strongly and spoke about a cowardly backing-down before terrorism. The November vote will also voice its opinion on this issue.
NEW YORK - "It is clear that Israel has decided not to be our partner for the peace process and continues to destroy the possibility of a two state solution. It does not believe in peace but wants to impose its status quo by force". These are the words of the president of the Palestinian National Authority (commonly known as the PA), Mahmoud Abbas at the UN's General Assembly. "We no longer have a partner in Israel, it was Israel's choice not ours", he added, after Israeli PM, Yair Lapid, yesterday in the same premise had stated he was in favor of a two State solution.



Abbas said that Lapid's speach brought a "positive development", but added that the "real test for Israel's credibility" on the matter is weather it will sit down immediately for peace talks.



Mahmoud Abbas also accused Israel of targeting "our sacred sites, for Muslims and Christians". "They are an apartheid regime and they are doing this to our people before and under the eyes of the international community", he said.



He accused the United Nations of allowing Israel to escape its responsibilities for the "massacres it committed". "We will go to the international penal court, we are the only ones on this planet to live under occupation", he continued. Lastly, the Palestinian leader accused an Israeli sniper for the "deliberate killing" of the American-Palestinian journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh. During Abbas' intervention, the Israeli representative at the General Assembly left the room.
Catalonia to ban smoking in proximity schools, open bars Nearly 23-24% of Catalonians smoke

(ANSAmed) - MADRID, 23 SET - The regional (and autonomous to a vast extent) government of Catalonia is preparing a law introducing the ban on smoking in the open air areas in bars and restaurants, near schools and at bus stops: this is what the Health councilor, Joseph Maria Argimon, said during at interview on public TV3. This initiative comes in addition to the one already applied in the municipality of Barcelona where smoking on beaches was prohibited. Argimon added that, in Catalonia, approximately 23-23% of the population smokes. (ANSAmed).




Council of Europe pressures Turkey to free activist Kavala Detained despite EU Court of Human Rights ruling for release

(ANSAmed) - STRASBOURG, 23 SET - Turkish authorities, including the judiciary, must comply and insure the immediate release from prison of Osman Kavala, a renown businessman and political opponent who has been imprisoned since 2017, despite a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) of 10 December 2019 which requested the man's immediate release. The Council of Europe continues to exercise pressure on Ankara with a decision reached by the committee of ministers. This decision comes a few weeks after the ECHR reiterated that by not setting Kavala free, Turkey is in breach of its obligations as a member state of the Council of Europe.



The renewed pressure goes hand in hand with the request by the Irish presidency to begin to examine which further action could be taken to convince Turkey to set Kavala free and, what needs to be done in case Turkey should refuse to comply. Should Ankara continue for a prolonged period to refuse to free Kavala, it risks expulsion for the Council of Europe.



Last February, the judges of the Caglayan court in Istanbul decided the activist, arrested 4 years ago, should remain in prison despite the request for his release by the ECHR in 2019.



Kavala, together with Kurdish Selahattin Demirtas are the most popular and known face of the opposition to Erdogan. Despite the fact that their imprisonment has damaged EU-Turkish relations, pushing Ankara's possible EU adhesion further and further away, the Turkish head of state has already shown on many occasions that he refuses to back down.



Kavala was imprisoned for his alleged role in the attempted coup against the Turkish leader of the summer of 2016 and he had been previously accused of financing the anti-government protests in Istanbul in 2013. Erdogan has repeatedly pointed his figure against the activist, accusing him of being the representative in Turkey of George Soros' interests, leading to the closure of the Open Society offices, belonging to the Hungarian magnate, in Ankara in 2018. (ANSAmed).




A miniature artist who had not painted in 24 years has said creating five-by-five centimetre portraits is her way of getting art to everybody.

Anna Howard, 49, said she is overwhelmed by the hundreds of reviews left for her miniature sculptures and portraits that require her to use tiny, tiny brushes with just five bristles, and that have gained her over 5,000 followers on Twitter.

She dropped out of Glasgow School of Art at 24, working in catering ever since, and had not picked up a paintbrush in over 20 years when the pandemic hit and she decided to revive her passion for nature-themed artwork  later being persuaded by a friend to sell her illustrations on online marketplace Etsy.

I cant believe it, its been such a lovely journey, Ms Howard, who lives with her husband Grant and 13-year-old daughter just outside of Glasgow, told the PA news agency.

Anna Howard said she is partly inspired by her love of woodland creatures for her miniature pieces (Anna Howard/PA)

When someone suggested to me, Why dont you try and sell what youve made? I thought, Well no-ones going to be interested.

And I got sales almost straight away I was blown away.

Ms Howard accidentally fell into creating miniatures of animals such as rabbits, mice, and frogs after working with small clay sculptures that required intricate paintwork.

Her love of animals and birds, in particular, spurred her on to take to small-scale projects of woodland creatures, less than two inches in height and width and paired with a tiny easel.

One portrait depicts a curled-up hedgehog with brown and white spikes against a blue background and another, an orange-eyed green frog nestled behind a bright blue plant.

Ms Howard is based near Glasgow (Anna Howard/PA)

She said that selling original art for lower prices on her Etsy shop, Earth and Sand by Anna, is part of the inspiration behind her work.

I thought, Im going to try miniatures because not everybody can afford large artworks  not everybody wants things on their wall, Ms Howard said.

And not everybody wants to pay a lot of money for that.

Ms Howard said she has been blown away by the online support for her artwork (Anna Howard/PA)

So for me, its a way of getting art to everybody.

Her miniatures, at just five-by-five centimetres, take over an hour and a half because of the detail and tiny strokes.

After setting up her shop in April 2021, Ms Howard has sold 199 pieces of work, including wall-hangings and larger portraits, after a 24-year hiatus from art.

Nearly 200 and (I am) absolutely shocked, but so so delighted, she said.

The mother-of-one has worked in catering for most of her life (PA)

Its amazing because I literally hadnt picked up a paintbrush since I was about 24.

And then I just dropped tools and went on with my life.

I didnt even know if I could still do it.

Ms Howard described the last 17 months as fabulous and said her dream is to be able to paint full-time.

The portraits are five-by-five centimetres and require the use of a brush with just five bristles (Anna Howard/PA)

A lot of people I (sell) to, I still talk to them  weve sort of become friends, she said.

And Ive really enjoyed that aspect of it, keeping in touch with buyers.

Sometimes I think, Have they got the wrong person? Is it somebody else they are talking about? Because it cant be me.

She also creates wall-hangings and clay sculptures (Anna Howard/PA)

But Ive made so many friends online because of it.

Ms Howard added that her daughter often helps out with the hobby: Shes like, I think the paws are too small  she helps.
A man has admitted plotting to steal a number of luxury vehicles, including a 70,000 Range Rover belonging to TV presenter Declan Donnelly.

Oliver Hart, 30, appeared at Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court on Friday where he admitted conspiracy to steal in relation to an alleged car theft operation running between January and July last year.

He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to burgle in connection with 11 electric bikes from Velospeed, in Thatcham, Berkshire, between June 14 and June 17 2021.

Hart appeared at the south-west London court alongside several co-defendants, speaking only to confirm his name and enter guilty pleas.

Declan Donnelly (Ian West/PA)

He is one of a number of defendants who have pleaded guilty to charges in relation to the alleged car theft operation.

Other defendants, including Ryan Crafts, 29, from Wokingham, Berkshire, and Charlie Kavanagh, 27, from Ashford, Surrey, have pleaded not guilty.

Judge Anne Brown listed their trial date for September 4 2023.

Those who have pleaded guilty, including Hart, are expected to be sentenced after the trial has concluded, the court heard.

Police were called to Mr Donnellys west London home in the early hours of April 6 2021.

The Im A Celebrity  Get Me Out Of Here! presenter, his wife and their three-year-old daughter were reportedly asleep at the time.

No vehicles were taken.
Retail bosses have welcomed plans to reintroduce tax-free shopping in the UK for global tourists.

The Chancellor said the Government will consult on a new tax-free shipping scheme for Great Britain and modernise the existing scheme in Northern Ireland.

The 2 billion tax reduction forms part of 45 billion tax-cutting plans unveiled by Kwasi Kwarteng in Parliament on Friday.

This is a priority for our great British retailers  so it is our priority, too, the new Chancellor said.

The scheme will allow tourists to be refunded VAT on goods bought at UK airports and high street shops when they take it back home.

Comment from our CEO @josscroft We are incredibly pleased that @hmtreasury has listened to the tourism & retail industries and will be introducing a VAT-free shopping scheme. This is a significant win for Britain PLC that will drive growth & export earnings into the UK. https://t.co/itwcX6qxH4  UKinbound (@UKinbound) September 23, 2022

Retailers and other businesses benefited from the scheme until January 2021, when former chancellor Rishi Sunak halted the policy after Brexit.

The Government said it will now gather views on how to approach the scheme ahead of a likely relaunch in 2024/25.

UK Travel Retail Forum chairman Nigel Keal said: This is a fantastic announcement by a government that has been clear from the start of its intention to put aside Treasury orthodoxy and find new ways to generate growth for the UK economy and industries.

The travel retail industry welcomes todays news.

When the previous government removed tax-free shopping as a part of Brexit, the effects on a travel sector already struggling with the Covid pandemic were substantial.

The restoration of tax-free shopping will be a boost to the recovery of our industry, and will put UK travel retailers on a level footing with their competitors around the world.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, added: We welcome the reintroduction of tax-free shopping for tourists, which will boost sales and bring the UK back in line with other European nations.

However, she was among industry leaders disappointed that the Government did not cut VAT or address bumper business rates for high street firms.
Canadians living along the eastern coastline battened down for the arrival of what could be the most powerful storm to ever strike the nation.

Hurricane Fiona hurtled past Bermuda Friday morning with maximum sustained wind speeds topping off at 125 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. Fiona was downgraded to a Category 3 storm as it cleared Bermuda, briefly re-upgraded to Category 4 status and then downgraded back a Category 3 storm as it roared through the chilly North Atlantic.

Meteorologists said Fiona would make landfall in Canada early Saturday morning. The storm is expected to lash the Great White North with severe rain and intense winds. Though Bermuda experienced similar conditions, no major damage was reported Friday evening on the British territory.

The massive storm system will likely make landfall along Canadas Atlantic coastline as a large and powerful post-tropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds, the National Hurricane Center said. It has triggered a hurricane watch for large swaths of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.

Its going to be a storm that everyone remembers when it is all said and done, said Bob Robichaud, warning preparedness meteorologist for the Canadian Hurricane Centre.

This image provided by the National Hurricane Center National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows a satellite view as Hurricane Fiona moves up the United States Atlantic coast, Thursday night, Sept. 22, 2022. Hurricane Fiona pounded Bermuda with heavy rains and winds as it swept by the island on a route that has it reaching northeastern Canada as a still-powerful storm late Friday.



This image provided by the National Hurricane Center National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows a satellite view as Hurricane Fiona moves up the United States Atlantic coast, Thursday night, Sept. 22, 2022. Hurricane Fiona pounded Bermuda with heavy rains and winds as it swept by the island on a route that has it reaching northeastern Canada as a still-powerful storm late Friday.

Florida could be hit with major hurricane as Tropical Depression 9 may strengthen into Category 3 storm

Hurricanes are rare in Canada, in part because the storms core cools when it reaches colder waters  stripping it of its main energy source  which results in an extratropical storm system. But while Fiona may not be a hurricane when it makes landfall in the country Saturday morning, it still has the potential to be very dangerous for the region. Such cyclones still boast hurricane-strength winds, but with a cold core instead of a warm one and no visible eye.

A similar downgrade did not stop Superstorm Sandy from wreaking havoc across the East Coast in 2012.

Forecasters have warned of winds in excess of 100 mph and flooding rainfall of up to 10 inches for much of the Canadian coast. Large waves, especially for the Atlantic coasts of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and eastern portions of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, triggered by the storm are also likely.

Every Nova Scotian should be preparing today and bracing for impact, John Lohr, the minister responsible for the provincial Emergency Management Office, said in a news conference.

The storm is expected to bring severe and damaging wind gusts, very high waves, and coastal storm surges, intense and dangerous rainfall rates and prolonged power outages, Lohr said.

As of 8 p.m. Friday, the center of the storm was located about 215 miles southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, where it was predicted to make landfall Saturday morning.

Before reaching Bermuda early Friday, Hurricane Fiona slammed into Puerto Rico on Sunday, some five years after Hurricane Maria knocked out power across the island nation. According to outages.com, more than a million residents remained without power early Friday. Many people across the island still lacked access to running water.

Fiona so far has been blamed for at least five deaths  two in Puerto Rico, two in the Dominican Republic and one on the French island of Guadeloupe.

The storm is expected to miss the mainland U.S., but the National Hurricane Center warned that Fiona could cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions along much of the east coast of the United States over the weekend and into next week.

With News Wire Services
The daughter of the late Desmond Tutu has reportedly been prohibited from leading her godfathers funeral by the Church of England because she is married to a woman.

Mpho Tutu van Furth, who is a practicing Anglican priest in the US, had been asked to officiate the funeral on Thursday in Shropshire.

In a statement carried by the BBC, the Diocese of Hereford said: Advice was given in line with the House of Bishops current guidance on same-sex marriage.

Ms Tutu van Furth reportedly told the broadcaster the decision seemed really churlish and hurtful.

The Church of England does not allow same-sex marriage in its clergy, but The Episcopal Church in the US  of which Ms Tutu van Furth is a part  does.

She had her licence rescinded in South Africa when she revealed her sexuality.
The star-studded D23 event was a potent reminder that this is Walt Disney's world... and we all just live in it. Founded by its namesake as a simple animation studio nearly ninety years ago, the company has since grown into a global multi-media conglomerate that dominates the pop culture discourse and often dictates the way the business of Hollywood is run. And few people understand the power of  and passion for  the Mouse House better than Abigail Disney, the grandniece of Walt Disney and granddaughter of the studio's co-founder, Roy O. Disney.

"Whenever I give someone my credit card and they see my last name, I experience that passion for Disney," the 62-year-old filmmaker and philanthropist tells Yahoo Entertainment when asked about witnessing the outpouring of fan affection at D23. "I think the online culture has only amped that up and given people more of an intensity than they used to have. It's not how I am, but I understand that Disney means a lot to people."

That name and what it represents understandably means a lot to Disney as well, which is why she's emerged as one of the Walt Disney Company's most prominent critics. A longtime champion for economic equality, Disney raised eyebrows in 2019 when she posted a lengthy Twitter thread that called the financial compensation for then-CEO, Bob Iger, "insane."

Disney has since continued to hammer home the monetary disconnect between the company's executive class and its everyday workers, an argument that forms the basis for her new documentary, The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales. Co-directed by Disney and Kathleen Hughes, the movie  which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and arrives on VOD on Sept. 23  profiles some of the employees who work at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., and are having trouble staying financially afloat even as the theme parks see record profits.

Watch a scene from The American Dream below

"Now is the right time to release this documentary, because during the pandemic we saw billionaires get richer and nothing being done for essential workers," Disney says. "We did not match our language with action. Americans see Disneyland as this treasure and the people who work there are really important to them. It makes people miserable to think that Cinderella is sleeping in her car! And that's an important feeling to pay attention to, because it's your conscience speaking."

Just like Jiminy Cricket, though, Disney has discovered that being other people's conscience also makes her a target for their ire. As seen in The American Dream, her criticisms of executive pay and calls for higher taxes on corporations were often met with dismissals and snide commentary from those within the financial sector, as well as the financial news media. But they also trickled down to ordinary people on Twitter, who seemed surprisingly eager to stand up for CEOs rather than workers. Disney and Hughes both say that attitude is reflective of how corporate tycoons have been elevated to celebrities since the "Greed is good" days of the 80s.

"There's been several decades of building toward that kind of worship," Disney notes. "We are worshiping them for making money, both for investors, but also for themselves. They have cultivated this idea that no one else can do the job they do  that they are so uniquely talented and so special that nobody can replace them. I'm sorry, but I don't buy that."

"Remember [former General Electric CEO] Jack Welch in the 80s and 90s?" Hughes says. "He became a hero for laying thousands of people and destroying communities. Somehow he became admired for being 'tough' enough for doing what had to be done and enriching the corporation. This was a time when we we all became enamored with of the notion that greed was good, and greed was going to make us all rich."

Disney employees protest the economic inequities outside of Disneyland in The American Dream. (Photo: Courtesy of Fork Films)

Many American workers are still paying  some quite literally  for that attitude today. The Disneyland cast members profiled in The American Dream come from a variety of backgrounds, from a husband and wife trying to provide for their children to a single woman seeking stable housing. But all of them share the same story of living on stretched budgets and limited resources stemming from paychecks that haven't risen to meet today's cost of living.

Hughes says that some of the film's subjects  several of whom are no longer working at Disneyland  were initially "nervous" about participating in the documentary, but never experienced any intimidation from the company. "They felt it was important to speak out, and swallowed their fears. I think the fact that they do have a union gave them comfort." Disney adds that she and Hughes made overtures to Disney World employees in Orlando, but received a warier response. "That's a statement to how weak unions are in Florida," she says, noting that Florida is a right-to-work state where fewer Disney employees are unionized.

As The American Dream reminds us, Walt Disney himself was no fan of unions. In 1941, Disney animators launched a five-week strike until the studio agreed to recognize the Screen Cartoonist's Guild. And Abigail Disney believes that her granduncle and grandfather would stand by those beliefs today. "They were both very, very, very politically conservative," she admits, while also suggesting that Roy Disney, at least, would be light years removed from an executive like Jack Welch. "He was the warmest, most genuine man you would ever be lucky to know. As a matter of decency, I just don't see him operating the way any corporation today operates  I just don't see it."

Abigail Disney appears before a Congressional committee in a scene from The American Dream. (Photo: Courtesy of Fork Films)

For the record, Disney also thinks that her relatives would also have embraced the push for diversity that's happening in the studio's modern fare. D23 audiences were treated to early footage from live-action versions of The Little Mermaid and Snow White, starring Halle Bailey and Rachel Zegler as the respective Disney Princesses. Images and footage that later appeared online were predictably received with the usual griping from a small, but vocal group upset that traditionally white characters were being portrayed by performers of color  a reaction that makes Disney shake her head.

"I mean, it's all made up people!" she says, laughing. "I don't understand why it's controversial. I live in New York City and the world to me looks like everything and everyone all the time, and I love that. That makes me feel alive. I don't want to live in a world where everybody's just boring and white. My grandfather and granduncle were men of their time, and that wasn't always a good thing. But they were also creatives, and they understood the value of a vibrant, changing and eclectic culture."

Public service announcement for those freaking out about Hallie Bailey's not looking realistic enough: it is useful to remember that a) there's no such thing as a mermaid and that therefore b) there's no such thing as a Causasian mermaid. You're welcome  Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) September 13, 2022

In the years since Disney first took her case against the modern-day Walt Disney Company public, the corporation has issued statements deflecting her criticisms, pointing to employee benefits like career development programs and health insurance. Bob Iger himself avoided publicly acknowledging her comments, and that policy has continued under his successor, Bob Chapek, who was front and center at D23. Disney says that she hasn't had any direct contact with Chapek and doesn't expect to anytime soon.

"They're very different men," she says of the two CEOs. "Let's give [Chapek] some more time. I haven't reached out, because I'm just assuming they don't want to talk to me. We'll see as time goes on."

Disney CEO Bob Chapek (l) presents Frozen star, Idina Menzel, with a 2022 Disney Legends award at this year's D23 Expo (REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni)

At the same time, being a thorn in the company's side has seemed to effect change. Disney says that minimum wage rates have notably risen in the years since she and Hughes began interviewing Disneyland workers. "When we started talking to folks in 2018, they were at about $11.25 an hour, and then it went to $15 because they fought really hard," she says. "After more fighting it got to $18.50, and one hotel in Anaheim just agreed to a contract at $23.50 an hour. The living wage in Anaheim is $24, so that's a big change. It would be nice if we could declare a tiny victory, but the credit really goes to the unions and the workers who were brave enough to speak up."

Disney plans to continue speaking up, both through films like The American Dream and on social media. Recently, she tagged Disney in an angry Twitter post after it was revealed that Disney+ ads were running during a podcast hosted by right-wing political figure, Steve Bannon.

"I'm horrified," she says of that news. "I'll cut them some slack: you buy ads in bundles and somebody else goes out and actually chooses a specific [program]. But it doesn't take an enormous amount of foresight to say things like: 'No Nazis, no insurrectionists.' Taking the politics out of it, in terms of the divisiveness and ugliness, you don't want to do that to the [Disney] brand. Obviously, that's not a CEO decision, but it is a leadership problem."

Disney is also critical of the way the company's leaders have dealt with Florida's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, a major proponent of the state's controversial "Don't Say Gay" bill. After initially declining to speak out against the legislation, Chapek reversed course following an employee outcry, leading DeSantis in turn to threaten to revoke the company's special tax district in Orlando that allows for private services including district-specific police and fire departments. Both sides have since quieted their rhetoric, which suggests to Disney that conversations are now continuing behind-the-scenes.

"There's a reason it went quiet: because everybody recognized that nobody was winning the argument," she explains. "The special tax district was the work of my grandfather, who was a brilliant and crafty man, and really believed in making sure the government accommodated him. I wish he hadn't done that, because I don't think a private corporation should have its own police force. I think that's a bad idea! So hard questions need to be asked about that."

"But what Ron DeSantis did was say, 'I am going to capriciously enforce a law because I disagree with your political position,'" Disney continues. "This sounds like a hysterical word to use, but that's nothing short of fascism. That is how fascist regimes rule and get the co-operation of highly powerful, wealthy people. It's not that [DeSantis] saw that Disney was winning  he achieved what he wanted to achieve, which was to go after the most powerful corporation in his state in order to send a message to every other corporation in his state."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a May press conference at Seminole State College in Sanford, Florida. In April, he signed a bill dissolving the longtime special tax district in April. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Looking forward to the future, Disney feels that the societal pendulum might be swinging away from corporations and back to the power of the people. In taking The American Dream around the country for pre-release screenings, she's been struck by the way the stories of the Disney employees interviewed in the film resonate with audiences.

"I think people have had enough of the idea that it's right for one person to take home $66 million while other people can afford to put food on the table," she says. "I keep saying that we have structured an economy as though we've been architects building a building and we forgot that people need to live in it. We need to go back to the foundations and rebuild. There was to be a way to rethink the nature of a company. You cannot just reward ownership  you have to reward work."

The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales is currently playing in limited theatrical release and premieres Sept. 23 on VOD
A former Canadian kid star who acted in the hit television shows Riverdale and Supernatural has been sentenced to life in prison for the killing of his mother.

Ryan Grantham, 24, pleaded guilty in March to second-degree murder for the killing of Barbara Waite. He admitted to fatally shooting his 64-year-old mother on March 31, 2020, with a single gunshot to the back of the head while she played the piano.

The shooting took place in their home in Squamish, British Columbia, about 50 miles north of Vancouver.

Grantham wont be eligible for parole for 14 years, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Wednesday.

Actor Ryan Grantham arrives at 2013 UBCP/ACTRA Awards on November 24, 2013 in Vancouver, Canada.

Actor Ryan Grantham arrives at 2013 UBCP/ACTRA Awards on November 24, 2013 in Vancouver, Canada. (Andrew Chin/)

In a video that was taken with a GoPro camera and shot shortly after the murder, Grantham confessed to the killing and showed his mothers body.

I shot her in the back of the head, he said in the clip. In the moments after, she would have known it was me.

During his sentencing hearing in June, authorities revealed that the then-21-year-old man also planned to drive to Ottawa to kill Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The following day, he packed his car with guns, ammunition, as well as 12 Molotov cocktails. He also brought Google Maps directions to Rideau Cottage, where Trudeau lives.

Grantham also thought of driving to the university where he was enrolled to commit a mass shooting, authorities said. But later that night he drove to the Vancouver Police Department building in East Vancouver and turned himself in.

In June, on the third and final day of his sentencing hearing, Grantham told the court that he was sorry and that his mother did not deserve to die.

I cannot explain or justify my actions. I have no excuse, said Grantham. It hurts me to think about how badly Ive wasted my life.

He added, In the face of something so horrible, saying sorry seems so pointless. But from every fiber of my being, I am sorry.
Photo credit: Car and Driver

When it comes to cars, the only thing stranger than French exterior design is French intake runners. Thats what the crew found out this week with a challenge to find something from the land of brie for la somme genereuse of $50,000. They went everywhere but France to do it.

Road & Track senior editor John Pearley Huffman headed to Belgium for a chunk of French history: a Panhard Dyna Z rarer than a truffle and no more pleasant to look at. Panhard was an innovator, creating some of the earliest clutch pedals and steering wheels, building the first series production car, and inventing us the Panhard Rod. This Dyna Z was avant garde all over until it opened its hood. Then it was a Hungry Hungry Hippo, a look that has no French translation.

Senior editor Joey Capparella, who used this show to reveal he has a degree in French, opted for beauty and another hemisphere over innovation. His Peugeot 406 Coupe located in Argentina could be considered the least French car of the lot, designed as it was by Pininfarina without a weird line on it. It could also be considered the most French car of the lot in that its gorgeous, comfortable, and underpowered.

Contributor Jonathon Ramsey alighted on a Peugeot 505 Turbo sedan pulled out of a barn in Vermont. The 505 was the standard bearer of Peugeots misadventure in North America, but panelists were more interested in peculiarities like the hub bolt pattern, the umbrella in the back seat, and the startling fact that Pug set up assembly operations in 14 countries.

Executive editor K.C. Colwell went to that most French of American cities, Phoenix, Arizona, to cruise the boulevards in a Paris icon, the Citroen XM Berline. A set of anonymous 1990 aftermarket wheels couldnt hide the ultimate Frenchness of Syd Mead sci-fi lines, a pneumatic suspension, and an ashtray half as large as the radio. The manual transmission might make it tough to enjoy a cafe au lait on the morning commute through Scottsdale, though.

Editor-in-chief Tony Quiroga swung by Portugal for a French legend, the Peugeot 205. The rally maestro was almost everything youd want from a hot hatch named GTI, including a (more) reasonable price. Shame about the ride quality, but Quiroga set a new benchmark for accessory shopping to allay that.

Cue up the latest weekly episode for diversions into Michelin, European versus U.S. headlights, Capparellas French translations, and how long it takes air in a 205 engine to travel from the intake to the manifold. No Le Cars were hurt in the making of this video. Although they were insulted.

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This photo provided by Will Sideri shows a 700-year-old manuscript that was used in the Beauvais Cathedral in France. Sideri bought the medieval manuscript for $75 at an estate sale on Sept. 3, 2022, in Waterville, Maine. An expert on manuscripts said the document, first reported by the Maine Monitor, could be worth as much as $10,000. (Will Sideri via AP)

PORTLAND, Maine (AP)  A bargain hunter who went to an estate sale in Maine to find a KitchenAid mixer, a bookshelf or vintage clothing walked away with a 700-year-old treasure.

Instead of a kitchen appliance, Will Sideri stumbled upon a framed document hanging on a wall. It had elaborate script in Latin, along with musical notes and gold flourishes. A sticker said 1285 AD. Based on what hed seen in a manuscripts class at Colby College, the document looked downright medieval.

And it was a bargain at $75.

Academics confirmed the parchment was from The Beauvais Missal, used in the Beauvais Cathedral in France, and dated to the late 13th century. It was used about 700 years ago in Roman Catholic worship, they said.

An expert on manuscripts said the document, first reported by the Maine Monitor, could be worth as much as $10,000.

After spying the unusual manuscript, Sideri contacted his former Colby College professor, who was familiar with it because there's another page in the college collection. The professor reached out to another academic who'd researched the document. They quickly confirmed the authenticity.

The parchment was part of a prayer book and priests' liturgy, said Lisa Fagin Davis, executive director of the Medieval Academy of America and a professor of manuscript studies at Simmons University in Boston.

The full missal was once owned by William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper publisher, before being sold in the 1940s and, much to the consternation of todays academics, was divvied up into individual pages, she said.

The practice was common in the early 20th century. Thousands of unique manuscripts were destroyed and scattered this way, Davis said.

Davis has painstakingly researched The Beauvais Missal, and has tracked down more than 100 individual pages across the country. All told, the missal numbered 309 pages in its original form.

The page purchased by Sideri is of particular interest to scholars.

Its a treasure both because of its age and condition, which is far better than the other page in the Colby collection, said Megan Cook, Davis' former professor, who teaches medieval literature at Colby.

The parchment is worth upward of $10,000, according to Davis. But Sideri said he has no intention of selling it.

He said he likes the history and beauty of the parchment  and the story of how he stumbled upon it.

This is something at the end of the day that I know is cool, he said. I didnt buy this expecting to sell it.

___

Follow David Sharp on Twitter: @David_Sharp_AP
Boeing will pay $200 million to settle an investigation into its misleading claims following two deadly crashes of its 737 Max aircraft.

Federal regulators said Thursday that Boeing executives deceived shareholders after the crashes in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people.

Boeing and [then-CEO Dennis] Muilenburg put profits over people by misleading investors about the safety of the 737 Max, all in an effort to rehabilitate Boeings image, said Gurbir S. Grewal of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A Boeing 737 Max lands in Seattle on Sept. 30, 2020 during a test flight.



A Boeing 737 Max lands in Seattle on Sept. 30, 2020 during a test flight. (Elaine Thompson/)

Muilenburg agreed to pay $1 million out of his own pocket, according to an SEC press release. He was canned in December 2019 amid the 737 Max scandal.

Neither Muilenburg nor Boeing admitted or denied any findings from the SEC investigation, the commission noted. The aircraft maker did not immediately comment on the settlement.

After the first 737 Max crash  Lion AIr Flight 610, which killed 189 people after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia  Boeing issued a press release claiming the 737 Max was as safe as any airplane that has ever flown the skies.

Just months later, another 737 Max flight on Ethiopian Airlines crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa, killing 157 people.

In response, the jet model was quickly grounded worldwide. The SEC said its investigation revealed Boeing executives knew about the problems with the 737 Max, specifically its flight-control system, but kept them hidden.

In times of crisis and tragedy, it is especially important that public companies and executives provide full, fair, and truthful disclosures to the markets, SEC chair Gary Gensler said. The Boeing Company and its former CEO, Dennis Muilenburg, failed in this most basic obligation.
McDonald's, the largest fast-food company in the world, has been at the forefront of dodging responsibility for restaurant workers. (Charlie Neibergall / Associated Press)

Political PR and advertising firms in California are going to owe Gov. Gavin Newsom a huge favor. That's because by signing the so-called Fast Recovery Act on Sept. 5, he opened the door to what could be hundreds of millions of dollars in spending by fast-food companies to kill it.

The act  formally the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act, or AB 257  creates an appointed council that could set wage and other workplace conditions for fast-food workers.

The council would be empowered to set a minimum wage as high as $22 an hour in 2023, though there is reason to doubt that wages would hit that ceiling.

Fast-food corporations are looking to buy their way out of a law intended to lift pay for their workers, ensure their stores are safe and healthy and improve the industry for everybody.

Mary Kay Henry, Service Employees International Union president

(The state minimum wage, currently $15 an hour for employers of 26 workers or more, and $14 for smaller businesses, will rise to $15.50 for all on Jan. 1.)

The restaurant industry has already taken steps to place the law before voters through a ballot measure.

If the industry can collect about 623,000 valid voter signatures by the first week of December, the referendum would go on the November 2024 ballot and the law would be suspended until then. If the referendum qualifies, voters can expect McDonald's, Burger King, KFC and their ilk to spend gigantic sums to overturn the law.

We've witnessed this spectacle before. It has long been evident that California's initiative and referendum system has become a playground for rich corporations.

In 2020, some $205 million was spent by gig companies to pass Proposition 22, a measure designed to circumvent AB 5, the state law designating app-based drivers as well as other gig workers as employees of the parent firms, not independent contractors.

The spending by Uber, Lyft and other gig companies set a national record for a ballot measure campaign, swamping the $19 million raised to defeat the measure.

For the proponents of Proposition 22, this was money well spent.

Uber's revenue came to about $17.5 billion last year and Lyft's more than $3.2 billion. Neither company has ever recorded a profit, and their paths to black ink would be even more tortuous if they had to pay their drivers a living wage along with benefits such as healthcare, retirement and workers' compensation and unemployment insurance.

(Proposition 22 has been in abeyance since a state judge ruled it unconstitutional in August 2021. Its fate is now before a state appeals court.)

Corporate spending on a ballot fight over the Fast Act might make those gig companies look stingy.

The fast-food franchisers and franchisees have a lot more money than Uber and Lyft. McDonald's, which says it collected $23 billion at the corporate level in 2021 and its franchisees collected $102 billion, declared a corporate-level profit of $7.5 billion last year. Yum Brands, the owner of the KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut brands, had a corporate profit of $1.58 billion and Restaurant Brands, the Canada-based parent of Burger King, $1.23 billion.

Whatever one might think of the virtues or sins of AB 257, the main question confronting California voters is whether we want to place legislative power in the hands of corporations determined to write laws specifically for the benefit of their executives and shareholders, and to pass them via campaigns of unexampled dishonesty.

The Proposition 22 campaign was a perfect example: The gig companies claimed their alternative to AB 5 would be a boon for their drivers and other front-line workers. As soon as Proposition 22 passed, it became crystal clear that they had lied and the workers were vastly worse off.

It's a fair bet that the fast-food industry's plan to overturn the Fast Act at the ballot box will resemble the Proposition 22 campaign.

Service Employees International Union President Mary Kay Henry calls its plan "an act of extraordinary greed and cowardice" in which "fast-food corporations are looking to buy their way out of a law intended to lift pay for their workers, ensure their stores are safe and healthy and improve the industry for everybody.... This isnt how companies act when theyre proud of their business model."

The fast-food companies are sure to play on concerns of restaurant operators statewide that the Fast Act will drive costs up not only for big chains but for all dining categories. That's the fear voiced by Blair Salisbury, the owner of the Pasadena Mexican restaurant El Cholo and a member of the family that operates a half-dozen El Cholo locations across the Southland. It's not unreasonable.

"If my cook is making $18 or $19 an hour," Salisbury told me, "he'll go work for one of these fast-food chains that has to pay $22 an hour. Everyone's going to lose their cooks or have to raise their salaries. So it is going to affect the small mom-and-pop restaurants, not just the chains."

Salisbury recently signed a deal to open a Southern California location for the fledgling chain Daddy's Chicken Shack and line up franchisees for 19 other regional locations. But he says there's little interest in launching the chain in California, as opposed to Texas, Florida and Arizona, in part because of laws like AB 257. With inflation taking a bite out of restaurant incomes, a law posing the prospect of higher labor costs "couldn't have come at a worse time."

Before examining the specifics of the Fast Act, let's examine the conditions that gave rise to its enactment. All told, fast-food franchisers employ more than a half-million workers in California, according to the Service Employees International Union, which sponsored AB 257.

As I've reported before, the fast-food industry has long been a dark corner of the American workplace.

Much of the problem stems from the franchiser-franchisee relationship, through which "powerful global corporations like McDonalds ... extract profits" while pushing expenses down to smaller business owners operating franchised locations, Catherine L. Fisk and Amy W. Reavis of UC Berkeleys law school observed in a 2021 report. They control the prices and much of the power over quality, hours, and other operations, and the franchisee ... has no way to increase its profits other than cutting labor costs.

The result, they wrote, is that operators fail to pay wages to which workers are entitled, deny sick leave, ignore harassment, safety hazards, or disease transmission  they are so squeezed by their franchisors that there is little incentive to comply with the law.

David Weil, a former Department of Labor official whose nomination to an agency post by President Biden was scuttled earlier this year by the franchise industry and other big business interests, documented in his 2014 book, The Fissured Workplace, that unpaid back wages were 50% higher at franchisee locations than at company-owned locations.

The original version of AB 257 would have made the big franchise companies jointly liable for any penalties and fines levied for workplace violations at franchised locations. Labor regulators such as the National Labor Relations Board have been trying to implement such a standard for years, with only mixed success, and fast-food franchisers such as McDonald's have been fighting it for just as long.

A joint-employer rule would end the big companies' ability to dodge liability for the workplace violations that are rife in the fast-food industry by hiding behind the franchisees. But it was removed from the bill as one of several changes aimed at making it more palatable for employers, and surely the most significant.

Among other changes made before the measure was passed by the Legislature and signed by Newsom, the fast-food council was reduced to 10 members from 11, and restructured to give employers a larger plurality. The membership was changed from four representatives of employees and two of employers, along with five state regulators from agencies responsible for labor standards and public and occupational health; the final version encompassed four representatives of employees and four of employers, and only two regulators.

The definition of fast-food employers subject to the law was changed from chains with at least 30 locations nationwide to those with 100 or more. Employee scheduling, the topic of persistent worker complaints about unpredictable working hours, was explicitly removed from the council's jurisdiction, as were benefits such as sick leave and vacation time.

Instead of unlimited authority to set the minimum wage for fast-food workers, the final version capped the permissible minimum wage at $22 an hour in 2023, with increases in subsequent years of no more than the rate of inflation and in no case more than 3.5% a year, even if inflation is much higher (as it is currently).

In response, the fast-food industry demonstrated that nothing would please it short of killing the measure in its entirety. Within days of Newsom's signing of the bill, the International Franchise Assn., the National Restaurant Assn. and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had launched their campaign under the rubric of the Save Local Restaurants Coalition.

The very name shows that the industry has read the textbooks of the gig firms, bail bond companies and others that have used AstroTurf methods to portray themselves as grass-roots avatars of the common people.

"Restaurants are the heart and soul of the communities they serve," declared Michelle Korsmo, chief executive of the National Restaurant Assn. (Question: Does anyone really consider their street-corner McDonald's the "heart and soul" of their community?)

Korsmo also referred to the "unchecked governing council created by the FAST Act"; never mind that the authority of the council is specifically limited by the law, and any recommendations it makes would be subject to review by the Legislature, which would have up to nine months to approve or reject the council's proposed standards.

How the law would work in practice is unclear. The fast-food council won't even exist until after a petition signed by 10,000 fast-food workers is submitted to state officials.

Although the panel would have the authority to jump the minimum wage for fast-food workers up to $22 an hour in 2023, that's probably not a reasonable expectation, since worker advocates will be in the minority on the council and the members in general will be aware that as a full-time wage $22 is more than a third higher than the median income in the state and close to the median starting salary of schoolteachers. In any event, the Legislature might well reject any decision that seems that far out of the mainstream.

If the fast-food companies manage to get their referendum on the 2024 ballot, California voters will get yet another lesson in how big business manipulates the initiative and referendum system for its own ends. The lesson businesses learned from the Proposition 22 campaign, and which fast-food companies are counting on, is that it's always cheaper to spend money working over the California voting public than doing right by their workers.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Lorena Colunga of Dallas wanted to do something to help her family.

Her 71-year-old father, Gustavo Gomez, was killed Tuesday afternoon when a car collided with Gomezs 18-wheeler, which forced the semi-truck to go over a barrier at an overpass on U.S. 75 in Allen, crash onto a service road and burst into flames.

Gomez had been the sole provider for the household.

So Colunga began a GoFundMe account to help her family with the loss of a father who had been a truck driver for 20 years.

I have started this for my mom and my siblings, Colunga wrote on the GoFundMe account. We appreciate all the prayers and thoughts we have received. At this time we ask for assistance while we have time to transition as our world has come crashing down. Thank you to everyone again.

As of Friday, the family had raised over $2,000, trying to reach a goal of $10,000.

Gustavo Gomez, 71, was killed Tuesday afternoon near Dallas when his 18-wheeler veered off U.S. 75, crashed onto a service road and burst into flames. His wife, Helen Torres, is in the photograph.

Allen police said Gomezs truck collided with a car on the highway and veered over a 32-inch barrier and off an overpass, crashing onto the service road.

The driver of the other vehicle involved in the crash wasnt hurt, police said.

The fatal wreck occurred just before 3 p.m. Tuesday in the 2000 block of northbound US 75 in Allen.

Dash-camera video from a witness obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram shows the tractor-tractor falling off the overpass and then bursting into flames.

Gomezs wife, Helen Torres, told WFAA on Wednesday that her husband was delivering mail for the US Postal Service to Missouri.

He was a very hard worker, Torres said. He always has been for his family. Whatever it was, whether it was driving across the country or not, he always made sure we were taken care of and provided for.

Torres told WFAA that after their marriage, Gomez became a father to the three children she had from another relationship. The couple later had two kids of their own.

Torres said Gomez loved cars and felt that driving trucks professionally was a great fit. She said that you dont drive trucks for two decades without prioritizing safety, WFAA reported.

Torres told WFAA that she tried to call her husband Tuesday afternoon, but her calls went to voicemail. She believed her husbands phone had died.

On Wednesday morning, Allen police notified her of her husbands death.

He was supposed to come home, Torres said. This shouldnt have happened.

Torres said Bancroft and Sons Transportation, the company her husband worked for, has offered to pay for Gomezs funeral.

Allen police are asking anyone who witnessed the accident to call them at 214-509-4288 as the investigation continues. The Texas Department of Transportation also is investigating.
Families mourn as at least 76 die on Lebanon migrant boat People gather following the sinking of a migrant boat

By Timour Azhari and Laila Bassam

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - At least 76 people died when the migrant boat they were aboard sank off the Syrian coast after sailing from Lebanon this week, the Lebanese transport minister said, as search operations continued on Friday.

It marks the deadliest such voyage yet from Lebanon, where mounting economic desperation has led many to board often rickety and overcrowded boats in the hope of reaching Europe.

Syrian authorities began finding bodies off the coast of Tartus on Thursday afternoon. The Syrian transport ministry has quoted survivors as saying the boat left from Lebanon's northern Minyeh region on Tuesday with between 120 and 150 people onboard, bound for Europe.

There were reported to be around 45 children on the boat, none of whom had survived, Lebanese transport minister Ali Hamiye said, though he could not confirm the number.

The family of Mustafa Misto, a Lebanese man who was on the boat with his wife and three young children, were accepting condolences at their apartment in the impoverished Bab Al-Ramel neighbourhood of the northern city of Tripoli.

"We have no one but God," an elderly relative cried as mourners paid their respects.

People who feared their relatives were among the dead gathered at the border crossing with Syria, awaiting the bodies.

Dozens of people on the boat came from the Nahr al-Bared camp for Palestinian refugees near Tripoli, Mahmoud Abu Heid, a camp resident said. Already difficult living conditions for Palestinians had worsened during the economic crisis that has devastated Lebanon for the last three years, he added.

Hamiye said 20 survivors were being treated in Syrian hospitals, the bulk of them Syrians - around 1 million of whom live in Lebanon as refugees.

Hamiye said the boat was "very small" and made of wood, describing such sailings as an almost daily occurrence organised by people who did not care for safety.

The spate of such voyages has been fuelled by Lebanon's financial collapse in the last three years - one of the worst ever recorded globally. Poverty rates have sky-rocketed among the population of some 6.5 million.

Cyprus scrambled search and rescue crews late on Monday and Tuesday when in the space of hours two vessels carrying migrants from Lebanon put out distress signals; there were 300 in one vessel, 177 in the other. In those cases, all on board were rescued, the island's Joint Rescue Coordination Center said.

The number of people who have left or tried to leave Lebanon by sea nearly doubled in 2021 from 2020, the United Nations refugee agency told Reuters earlier this month.

It rose again by more than 70% in 2022 compared with the same period last year.

In April, a migrant boat that set off from near Tripoli sank during an interception by the Lebanese navy off the coast.

About 80 Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian migrants were on board, of whom some 40 were rescued, seven were confirmed dead and around 30 officially remain missing.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut, Kinda Makieh in Damascus, and Michele Kambas in Nicosia; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Alex Richardson, Kim Coghill, Frances Kerry and David Gregorio)
Dr. Katherine McHugh is an ob-gyn in Indiana who has been practicing medicine for about 10 years and has provided abortion care to thousands of women. In late June, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade  the decision that legalized abortion nationwide  the clinic where McHugh works was flooded with calls from patients in states where the procedure became illegal following the high courts decision.

Instantly our phones lit up and we had an incredible wait, because we were being called by people from the waiting rooms of other abortion clinics in different states who were saying that they had an appointment, they were gonna have their abortion that day and now they couldn't get it because of the [Supreme Court] decision, and people were so afraid and so desperate to receive this care, McHugh told Yahoo News.

Following the Supreme Court ruling, abortion remained legal in Indiana until about 20 weeks after fertilization, or 22 weeks after the mothers last menstrual period. These last couple of months, McHugh said, the state has become an important regional hub for abortion services. Shes worked longer hours seeing so many more patients from neighboring states such as Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, where the procedure was banned. But she has also taken care of people traveling farther distances, including from Alabama and Texas.

After Roe was overturned, Indiana was poised to pass legislation restricting abortion.

McHugh explained, The tempo over the last few months is this sort of race to try to take care of as many people as we could.

In August, lawmakers in the state passed a near-total abortion ban with extremely narrow exceptions for rape, incest, lethal fetal abnormalities and serious medical complications. The ban, Senate Bill 1  which was challenged in court by several abortion care providers in Indiana  took effect on Sept. 15. On Thursday, however, it was temporarily blocked by a judge, making abortion legal in Indiana until 22 weeks of pregnancy. In a statement reacting to the preliminary injunction, Republican state Attorney General Todd Rokita said Indiana was planning to appeal and continue to make the case for life in Indiana.

But for now, doctors in Indiana like McHugh can continue to provide abortion care to Hoosiers and women in other states. But for how long isnt yet clear.

The U.S. Supreme Court is seen through a fence that stands around the building. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

At least 13 states, many of which had so-called trigger laws in place, have completely banned or severely limited abortions since the high court ruling on June 24, and more are expected to do so. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group focused on reproductive health, 26 states are certain or likely to ban abortion now that Roe has been repealed.

For doctors like McHugh and many other reproductive health providers in states where abortions are now illegal, navigating work post-Roe has been stressful. One of the challenges theyve faced is that the language in abortion laws has created confusion and uncertainty.

I think what youll find in many of these states, these laws are written by nonmedical people to regulate the practice of medicine, Dr. Nisha Verma, an ob-gyn in Atlanta and a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health, told Yahoo News. They often dont make sense for the doctors that are actually on the ground providing this care in terms of how to interpret them, how they apply to a particular situation.

In many states where abortions are banned, an exception was carved out to allow the termination of a pregnancy in order to preserve the life or health of the mother. However, in some places, these exceptions are even narrower, allowing abortion only in cases of medical emergencies. But what constitutes an emergency, doctors say, is not clearly defined in any of the legislation.

The exceptions in Indiana include the life or serious health risk of the mother.  The concern there is that we dont know what a serious health risk is, McHugh said. Theres not a list in a textbook that says, These are serious health risks, and these are not serious health risks. We know that different people respond to disease and illness in different ways, and the long-term outcomes are not up for us to decide how risky it is and how much risk we are willing to take. So it is a complicated exception to navigate.

Abortion-rights protesters in the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis on Aug. 5 as lawmakers vote on a near-total abortion ban. (AP Photo/Arleigh Rodgers, File)

Dr. Tani Malhotra, a maternal-fetal specialist in Cleveland, Ohio, said the abortion law in her state puts physicians in an absolutely impossible position, because they now have to prove that someone is sick enough to be able to get the necessary care.

Previously, when patients came in, if they had health conditions, we would talk about, you know, what the implication of a pregnancy would be on that health condition. Would it make their health worse? Would it not really impact their health? Is there risk for progression of their disease as theyre pregnant or postpartum? And then ultimately the decision lies with the patient, whether she wishes to accept those risks or not, Malhotra said.

Under the new law, however, she can no longer just offer a patient the option to terminate the pregnancy, even if it is medically justified care, she said. Instead, she has to run it by the hospitals lawyers to determine whether she can legally perform the procedure.

Thats a really poor position to put physicians and their patients in, Malhotra said.

Last week, a judge blocked Ohios six-week abortion ban for a period of 14 days. In the meantime, Ohio abortion providers can continue to perform procedures until 22 weeks of pregnancy.

Verma said that having to involve lawyers when making these medical decisions has also disrupted an important part of medical care  the confidential relationship between physician and patient.

Traditionally, its been the doctor and the patient working together to come up with the best decision, and, you know, that could include the patients family.  Now thats involving a lot of people, a lot of things that are outside of that physician-patient relationship, she said, adding that what her patients really want is for their doctor to be able to create the best plan with them without having to worry about facing possible criminal charges for providing the best medical care.

While penalties vary by state, under most abortion laws, doctors who provide this type of medical care can be charged with some class of felony. Punishments can include fines, prison time and loss of medical licenses.

These are not light consequences to be facing, McHugh said. We all want to think that in the moment we will do whatever it takes to save the patient in front of us. But what about the next patient in the next room? How do I guarantee that I can take care of that patient if Im in jail for taking care of the patient in front of me? Its a really complicated mental gymnastics that were trying to weigh the balances of taking care of people and doing what is right and doing what is legal, which are not the same thing.
The United States is preparing to circulate a resolution at the United Nations Security Council on Monday that would establish a new framework for sanctioning Haitis gang leaders, and is not taking international intervention off the table as the country spirals into lawlessness, a senior State Department official told McClatchy.

Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian A. Nichols said in an interview that gang leaders fueling Haitis worst security crisis in decades  and those who finance and support them, including supplying firearms  are in the crosshairs, and their actions to destabilize Haiti will be met with international travel and financial sanctions.

The Biden administration is hoping for swift passage of the resolution in the coming days, Nichols said.

The resolution will create a United Nations framework to place sanctions on gang leaders, and those who support and facilitate and fund their activities, he said. Those sanctions would target their financial resources and ability to travel.

The Haitian government has all but lost control over security in the Caribbean nation, and U.S. officials say the country reached a crisis not seen since the early 1990s.

On Friday, specialized teams of the Haiti National Police from Port-au-Prince were still trying to access a womens prison just north of the capital after 145 women escaped. Gangs blocked the police response by setting fire to a police substation and firing on cops. At the same time, a powerful gang leader  a former cop named Jimmy Cherizier, who goes by the moniker Barbecue  was on his ninth day of holding over 188,000 barrels of fuel hostage, blocking access in and out of the countrys largest fuel terminal.

READ MORE: Haiti verges on anarchy amid fuel hike, power grab. They want us to hit rock bottom.

You will get access to the terminal when we die, Cherizier said, directing comments to interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry while holding up an M-4 automatic weapon and standing amid the flaming barricade his gang coalition had erected in front of the Varreux fuel terminal.

Haitis neighbors have called for robust action from the United States and other permanent members of the Security Council. At least one, the Dominican Republic, has publicly requested a return of a multinational peacekeeping force, arguing that Haitis instability and rampant gang violence are increasingly becoming a threat to the region.

Such a move would require Haiti to once more go under what is known as Chapter 7, which is an article of the U.N. charter that enables the Security Council to deploy international forces in a peacekeeping mission. After 13 years, it was ended in Haiti in 2017 when the U.N. Security Council, pushed by the United States and others, finally withdrew its military and peacekeeping operations in Haiti.

If Haitis government asks for that assistance, the international community would certainly consider such a request, Nichols added.

But Haitian authorities have not asked for boots on the ground, he said, and there isnt currently any discussion of a Chapter 7 response to the situation in Haiti.

In lieu of a return of blue-helmet peacekeepers, the United States has been focused on bolstering the countrys beleaguered 12,000-plus Haiti National Police force.

The Biden administration has been vetting members for a new SWAT team for the Haiti National Police, as part of an effort with France to train members of a new anti-gang unit in Port-au-Prince. Canada and the United Nations have been pushing for support for a $28 million security basket fund, where donors can put their money, to help fund the ill-equipped force and a new shipping-container inspection project managed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

At the end of the donors meeting Friday, the United States announced a $3 million contribution to be added to Canadas donation of 10 million Canadian dollars. The Haitian government has also donated $1 million directly to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for the container project.

READ MORE: President Biden acknowledges chaotic Haiti at the United Nations, but he still fell short | Editorial

RESOLUTION MAY TARGET ILLICIT ARMS

This is not the first time sanctions have come up with respect to Haitian gangs. In December 2020, the United States Department of Treasury sanctioned Cherizier and two former members of then-President Jovenel Moises government for their involvement in a 2018 massacre in Port-au-Princes La Saline neighborhood that left scores dead.

Despite the sanctions, and despite massacres being widely condemned by the United Nations Security Council, Cherizier continues to roam freely, tightening his grip on the capital through his heavily armed coalition known as G-9 Families and Allies.

Over the summer, China had pushed for an end to the weapons supply to Haitis gangs and tried to push an embargo as the U.N. Security Council considered extending its political mission in the country. Though Beijing voted for the extension, it was disappointed that the final resolution did not have tougher language on a gang arms embargo.

READ MORE: Haitis civil unrest is being financed by economic interests, top Biden aide says

Haiti observers point out that any sanctions will need to come with heft, given the ability of powerful and corrupt figures in the country to create chaos when their interests are threatened. Though the recent protests flared up after the government announced a hike in fuel prices, the government and others have blamed the violence and pillaging on arms traffickers, smugglers and oligarchs opposed to recent efforts at the seaports to crack down on $600 million in uncollected duties and the shipment of illegal arms and weapons.

At the same time, they would like for the United States to play a more active role in sanctioning and arresting Haitians, especially in light of recent comments by both a top Biden aide and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week that oligarchs and the elite are contributing to the instability in Haiti and influencing the dynamics in the region.

Nichols said that the United States would like to see the resolution include sanctions against those who would provide illicit weapons to the gangs in Haiti, but noted that the resolution had yet to be circulated among Security Council members.

I think thats also a very important step. However, nothing in the resolution should prevent the legitimate transfer of weapons to Haitis governmental security forces, he said. We carefully control the licensing of weapons sales to Haiti already. The challenge is tracking the illicit smuggling of weapons to gangs and other illicit persons.

The assistant secretary said the threat of sanctions in the last few days has had a calming effect on the situation on the ground in Haiti, although details of the potential resolution have not previously been made public.

In his address to the U.N. General Assembly this week, President Joe Biden called on the world to take action on Haiti and said the country is facing an enormous human crisis.

I think that the passage of a resolution and creation of a framework will continue that calming effect, Nichols said. Until specific individuals are referred to a sanctions committee, and then sanctioned internationally, thats when youll see the transformative nature of this. So I dont think just having the framework is sufficient. We have to designate specific people.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  Iranian counterprotesters gathered across the country on Friday in a show of support for authorities after nearly a week of anti-government protests and unrest over the death of a young woman who was being held by the morality police.

A few thousand people attended a rally in the capital, Tehran, where they waved Iranian flags, and similar demonstrations were held in other cities. The government claimed the demonstrations of support were spontaneous. Similar rallies have been held during past periods of widespread protests.

The pro-government demonstrators chanted against America and Israel, according to state media, reflecting the official line that foreign countries are fomenting the latest unrest.

State TV, meanwhile, suggested the death toll from this week's unrest could be as high as 26. Anti-government protesters and security forces have clashed in several major cities in the most severe political unrest since 2019, when rights groups say hundreds were killed amid demonstrations against a hike in state-controlled gasoline prices.

Iran has also disrupted internet access and tightened restrictions on popular platforms used to organize rallies like Instagram and WhatsApp.

A state TV anchor said late Thursday that 26 protesters and policemen had been killed since the protests erupted last Saturday after the funeral of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, without elaborating on how authorities reached that figure. He said official statistics would be released later, but during past periods of unrest authorities have not provided a full accounting of deaths and injuries.

A tally by The Associated Press, based on statements from state-run and semiofficial media, shows that at least 11 people have been killed. Most recently, the deputy governor of Qazvin, Abolhasan Kabiri, said that a citizen and paramilitary officer had been killed in unrest that rocked two cities in the northwestern province.

The crisis unfolding in Iran began as a public outpouring of anger over the the death of Amini, a young woman who was arrested by the morality police in Tehran last week for allegedly wearing her Islamic headscarf too loosely. The police said she died of a heart attack and was not mistreated, but her family has cast doubt on that account.

Amini's death has sparked sharp condemnation from Western countries and the United Nations, and touched a national nerve. Hundreds of Iranians across at least 13 cities from the capital, Tehran, to Amini's northwest Kurdish hometown of Saqez have poured into the streets, voicing pent-up anger over social and political repression. Authorities have alleged that unnamed foreign countries and opposition groups are trying to foment unrest.

The death has tapped into broader antigovernment sentiment in the Islamic Republic and especially the frustration of women, wrote political risk firm Eurasia Group, noting that Irans hard-liners have intensified their crackdown on womens clothing over the past year since former judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi became president.

The prospect of the leadership offering concessions to Iranian women is minimal, it said. In the cold calculus of Iranian leaders, the protests have likely gone far enough and a more forceful response is required to quell the unrest.

Videos on social media show protesters in Tehran torching a police car and confronting officers at close range. Elsewhere in the capital, videos show gunfire sounding out as protesters bolt from riot police, shouting: They are shooting at people! Oh my God, they're killing people!

In the northwestern city of Neyshabur, protesters cheered over an overturned police car. Footage from Tehran and Mashhad shows women waving their obligatory headscarves, known as hijab, in the air like flags while chanting, Freedom!"

The scenes of women cutting their hair and burning their hijabs feed into a broader political debate over the role of religious strictures in a modern-day republic  questions that have plagued the Islamic Republic since its founding in 1979.

But the protests have also grown into an open challenge to the government. The chants have been scathing, with some chanting Death to the dictator! and Mullahs must be gone!

Iran's intelligence ministry warned citizens against joining the illegal street rallies on Thursday, threatening prosecution. Local officials have announced the arrest of dozens of protesters. Hasan Hosseinpour, deputy police chief in the northern Gilan province, reported 211 people detained there on Thursday. The government of the western Hamadan province said 58 demonstrators had been arrested.

Tehran University announced that it would move classes online for the next week amid the unrest, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported.

London-based watchdog Amnesty International has accused security forces of beating protesters with batons and firing metal pellets at close range. Videos show police and paramilitary officers using live fire, tear gas and water cannons to disperse the demonstrations.

Iran has grappled with waves of protests in the recent past, mainly over a long-running economic crisis exacerbated by American sanctions linked to its nuclear program. In November 2019, the country saw the deadliest violence since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, as protests erupted over gas price hikes.

Economic hardship remains a major source of anger today as the prices of basic necessities soar and the Iranian currency declines in value.

The Biden administration and European allies have been working to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear accord, in which Iran curbed its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief, but the talks have stalled for months.

The Eurasia Group said the protests make any immediate return to the agreement less likely, as Iran's government will be more hesitant to make concessions at a time of domestic unrest and the United States will be reluctant to sign a deal as Iran violently cracks down on dissent.
L.A. schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho on Thursday announces a plan to stock campuses with the overdose reversal drug naloxone in the aftermath of a student's death at Bernstein High School. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles public schools will stock campuses with the overdose reversal drug naloxone in the aftermath of a student's death at Bernstein High School, putting the nation's second-largest school system on the leading edge of a strategy increasingly favored by public health experts.

The move, which will affect some 1,400 elementary, middle and high schools, is part of the district's newly expanded anti-drug strategy, quickly assembled in response to student overdoses. Officials on Thursday said nine students had overdosed across the district in recent weeks, including seven linked to the Bernstein campus and Hollywood High School. The response plans will also include expanded parent outreach and peer counseling.

The death of 15-year-old Melanie Ramos, who died in a school bathroom last week after ingesting a pill that she bought from another student, has left the campus community reeling and touched off concern among parents throughout the 430,000-student district. The pill contained fentanyl, an opioid that is deadly in small doses.

Naloxone is highly effective at reversing opioid overdoses if administered quickly by a nasal spray or injection. L.A. Unified will be using the nasal version, which is as easy to use as any other nasal spray.Naloxone wont harm someone if that person is overdosing on drugs other than opioids, so its always better to use it in the case of a suspected overdose, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The medication "has a limited but highly effective way of reversing that condition, allowing individuals to restore breathing," said L.A. schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho, adding that this "safe solution" lasts 30 to 90 minutes, providing first responders and medical professionals the opportunity to care for a student.

We have an urgent crisis on our hands, Carvalho said. Research shows that the availability of naloxone along with overdose education is effective at decreasing overdoses and death  and will save lives. We will do everything in our power to ensure that not another student in our community is a victim to the growing opioid epidemic.

The extent of the crisis should not be underestimated, said Dr. Brian Hurley, an addiction psychiatrist and the medical director of the county health department's division of substance abuse prevention.

"We are now in the worst overdose epidemic in the United States history and the worst overdose epidemic in Los Angeles County history," Hurley said. "And a lot of that is attributable to this high potency opioid fentanyl that's found its way into illicitly manufactured pills and to other drugs of abuse."

California law permits K-12 schools to provide and administer naloxone, but does not require it. Michigan has adopted similar rules.

Rhode Island requires all schools to have naloxone, and it can be administered by "any trained nurse-teacher" without fear of liability. School employees also can decline to administerthe medication. New York state offers four free doses of naloxone to every high school, but they don't have to accept it. Currently, New York City schools do not have a policy to keep it in stock, a district spokesman said.

Some California colleges and universities are required to have the drug in stock under a bill signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in August.

At least two other large school districts in the state have it on hand, too, although widespread use among the state's more than 1,000 districts appears to be uncommon.

San Diego Unified, the state's second-largest school system after LAUSD, stocks naloxone at schools with students in sixth grade or higher. Since 2020, Elk Grove Unified, a large district in Northern California, has provided naloxone to school security officers and their supervisors.

In L.A. County, the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District recently had a local physician train all the district's registered nurses on how to administer naloxone and it is available to them at that district's high schools, said Supt. Alexander Cherniss.

Los Angeles Unified school nurses and school police would learn to administer naloxone, but so could other staff. Carvalho cited the example of an assistant principal who had been a military medic.

"He can do it. He has the training," Carvalho said in an interview. "I think we've maintained a pretty myopic view of who can do this. The training is really not that difficult."

The decision to distribute naloxone makes sense, said Dr. Gary Tsai, director of substance abuse prevention and control for the county health department, which issued an alert last week about the growing danger of illicit opioid pills.

"Obviously, the best tool is prevention," Tsai said, but the recent death of the Bernstein student "in and of itself would demonstrate the need to have naloxone on hand," Tsai said. "It tells you that students have been exposed in one way or another. And the likelihood that they might be exposed on campus, bringing counterfeit pills or come into contact with counterfeit pills on campus, that clearly is a risk. It's necessary and appropriate for schools to have naloxone on campus."

The county health department is providing naloxone at no cost to the district, which also is receiving support in this effort from the Los Angeles Trust for Children's Health and Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

Initially, the district will have a total of 300 packages, each containing two doses. School police patrols  about 80 cars  will get a package. There will be enough packages for all high schools and likely all middle schools. Carvalho said he is committed to taking on purchase costs as necessary.

Training for district staff in the use a naloxone will begin in early October.

Providing naloxone at schools can be controversial.

Frances Esparza, the former El Rancho Unified superintendent, said she tried to move forward with naloxone training for staff, but "unfortunately, the [school] board majority stated that there was not a drug epidemic in high schools."

Some parents could interpret naloxone's availability as a school district giving up on educating students on how to reject drug abuse. Some may fear it will even encourage drug use, said Annette Anderson, deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Safe and Healthy Schools.

But she said parents need to keep in mind what she called an "explosion" in the level of risk, noting that law enforcement reported an increase in the number of illegal opioid pills seized from 300,000 in 2018 to about 10 million in 2021.

Research suggests that students already were facing a mental health crisis prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which made things worse. Such trends underscore the need for additional steps beyond making naloxone available, she said.

"We're seeing an unprecedented number of violent events happening in schools," Anderson said. "I think that this is all part of a trend, where our young people are struggling with what it means to cope in modern society. We, as the caring adults, need to be more intentional about how we are connected with our young people, to help them to learn how to problem solve, mediate conflict  basically it's youth development. All of these issues just really point to how COVID, and COVID school closures in particular, put a pause on our young people's growth and social development."

The L.A. Unified announcement also emphasized mental-health and preventive approaches. The Health Information Project organization will be brought in to train high school juniors and seniors to teach health education to their freshmen peers.

"There is nothing better than a student peer to explain the consequences associated with fentanyl to other students," Carvalho said.

Parents' awareness about how to recognize and deal with drug abuse in their children will become a major focus of parent education efforts, Carvalho said.

The school system already provides drug-abuse education at all grade levels  and it was updated to include the risks of fentanyl. Such course materials and strategies undergo ongoing review, officials said.

Another element of the district response is mapping out where overdoses are occurring and focusing law enforcement resources in those areas, said L.A. school police Chief Steven Zipperman. Officials noted that Lexington Park, near Bernstein High, was a location where the pills containing fentanyl were beingsold.

The new rules for higher education require that California community colleges and Cal State campuses supply campus health centers with naloxone. They also require colleges and universities to provide educational materials on preventing overdoses during student orientation.

The law, which also requests similar action from the University of California Board of Regents, goes into effect in January. The legislation "empowers students to prevent any more needless deaths and ensures that maybe one less parent receives a terrible phone call that will change their lives forever, said State Sen. Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger), who introduced the measure, in a statement after the bill was signed.

Times staff writers Debbie Truong and Alejandra Reyes-Velarde contributed to this story.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
DETROIT (AP)  Some teachers and a counselor at a Michigan high school were aware of a teen's troubling interest in guns and violence months before he was accused of fatally shooting four students and wounding others, a lawyer representing victims' families said Thursday.

From literally the beginning of school, Ethan Crumbley was evidencing signs of being a highly troubled individual, to say the least, said Detroit attorney Ven Johnson, citing depositions taken in a civil lawsuit against Oxford Community Schools and some staff at Oxford High School.

Crumbley, now 16, faces trial next year as an adult on murder and other charges in the Nov. 30 shooting.

One teacher said Crumbley drew what appeared to be an ammunition magazine on a note card in late August 2021. Crumbley also responded in a survey that his favorite books included Making Bombs for Hitler, while Dexter and Breaking Bad" were among his favorite television shows.

A week or so later, he wrote in an autobiographical poem assignment for a Spanish teacher that he feels terrible and that his family is a mistake," Johnson quoted from an email the teacher sent to a school counselor.

The teacher who received the note card said in her deposition that she didn't see the drawing until the day before the shooting. There apparently was no follow up to the Spanish teacher's email in September asking the counselor to touch base with Crumbley, Johnson said.

Prosecutors have said Crumbley used a semi-automatic handgun to open fire on other teenagers in the hallway at the school roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Detroit. The four students who were killed were 16-year-old Tate Myre, 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin and 17-year-old Justin Shilling.

Ethan Crumbley, a teenager accused of killing four students in a shooting at Oxford High School, attends a hearing at Oakland County circuit court in Pontiac, Mich. (David Guralnick/Detroit News via AP, Pool)

Crumbley's parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were charged with involuntary manslaughter and pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors accuse the couple of failing to keep the gun used in the shooting secure at home and failing to reasonably care for their son when he showed signs of mental distress.

The day before the shooting, a teacher saw Ethan Crumbley looking at ammunition on his phone while in class. School officials left a voicemail informing his mother about it.

On the morning of the shooting, Crumbley's parents were summoned to the school and confronted with his drawings, which included a handgun and the words: The thoughts wont stop. Help me. Authorities said the parents refused to take him home after the 13-minute meeting and were told to get him counseling.

Several parents attending Johnson's news conference in Detroit Thursday said they had not known about some of the details revealed in the depositions.

School district accused of withholding information

I dont see any excuse to not take these red flags very seriously, said Jill Soave, mother of Justin Shilling. Were learning all these months later that this could have been avoided. These children should be with us today. Theres no excuse. Anyone with any type of common sense could put the pieces together that something was very wrong.

William Myre, Tate Myre's father, accused the school district of withholding information that could have been used to prevent the shooting.

Meanwhile, here we are buying memorial shirts for our murdered kid, he said, holding up a blue T-shirt. Whats Oxford Community Schools doing? Nothing. Nothing."

Schools Superintendent Ken Weaver said Thursday that the district has been cooperating with the criminal investigation into the shooting.

We are also fully cooperating with the civil litigation process and will continue to do so, Weaver said in a statement. I remain confident that the multiple investigations, lawsuits and the school boards third-party review will bring all the facts to light and create the full transparency and accounting of events our community wants and deserves.

Johnson filed the civil suit earlier this year against the school district. It also names Oxford High Schools dean of students, two counselors and three teachers as defendants.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid's call for a two-state solution was a "positive development" but said the proof would be an immediate return to negotiations.

"The true test of the credibility and seriousness of this stance is for the Israeli government to return to the negotiation table immediately," he told the U.N. General Assembly, in a speech that largely lambasted Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Israel captured East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza - areas that Palestinians seek for an independent state - in the 1967 Middle East war. U.S.-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2014.

Efforts to reach a two-state deal, which involves an Israeli and Palestinian state existing side by side, have long been stalled.

Palestinians and rights groups say Israel has entrenched its control of the occupied Palestinian territories through its military rule over millions of Palestinians and persistent settlement construction.

Lapid's mention of a two-state formula was the first by an Israeli leader on the United Nations stage in years and echoed U.S. President Joe Biden's support in Israel in August for the long-dormant proposal.

Lapid spoke less than six weeks before a Nov. 1 election that could return to power the right-wing former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a longstanding opponent of the two-state solution.

(Reporting by Henriette Chacar in Jerusalem, Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Editing by James Mackenzie and Catherine Evans)
You could pick almost any military in the world  including the U.K., France and Germany  and these losses would exceed their total inventories.

According to the open-source database Oryx, Russia has lost 1,183 tanks and 1,304 infantry fighting vehicles since its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. Even more extraordinary is that Ukraine has captured a good percentage of them: 389 tanks and 415 infantry fighting vehicles, many of which, in both categories, have already been repurposed for combat against their former owners. These numbers are just the Russian losses that have been visually confirmed; the actual figures are probably much higher.

Ukraine has lost equipment, too, but not nearly as much, owing to its relative lack of hardware, careful protection of what it does possess, and the defensive nature of its war thus far: 1,627 pieces, including 267 tanks and 244 infantry fighting vehicles, as per Oryx.

A Ukrainian national guard serviceman stands atop a destroyed Russian tank in the Kharkiv region. (AP/Leo Correa)

On the face of it, Russian losses are unsustainable. But even more extraordinary is that its elite units are hemorrhaging the most materiel. After Ukraines Kharkiv counteroffensive, in which Kyiv is estimated to have retaken as many as 3,500 square miles, the 4th Guards Tank Division lost nearly 100 of its T-80U tanks. (The 4th Guards Tank Division is the only unit that operates this model.)

Russia is losing proportionally more of its more modern than its older tank models. For example, the T-72B3  dating from 2010  and T-72B3 Obr. 2016  dating from 2016  are two of the most common tanks lost.

We also know that Russias losses are burning through its reserve vehicles. Very old T-62M tanks have been increasingly appearing, as Russia runs out of newer, more capable tanks. Using these tanks will also exacerbate the Kremlins manpower shortages: The T-62 does not feature an autoloader, which automatically loads shells into the main gun, unlike more modern Russian types, so it needs a four-man crew, compared to the three-man crews required by T-72, T-80, or T-90 models.

Ukrainian servicemen work on a tank abandoned by Russian troops during their retreat. (Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images)

Significantly, the Ukrainians have captured more tanks than they have lost, according to visually confirmed data from Oryx.

Since Ukraine is a former Soviet bloc state, its soldiers also have the advantage of familiarity with the operation of used Russian tanks, meaning that Ukrainian crews can often just repaint them and start using them immediately.

Of course, some captured Russian vehicles are easier to repurpose than others; some tanks are abandoned in near-perfect condition, while others are damaged beyond repair.

The Ukrainian Independence Day parade in Kyiv featured numerous captured Russian tanks that appeared outwardly to be in working condition but had extensive damage to their engines or internal mechanics. Many of the T-80 tanks that were captured by the Ukrainians in the early days of the war apparently simply ran out of fuel. Not only is their turbine engine extremely thirsty, but driving through the rasputitsa  the heavy mud that caked Ukraine at the start of the war  lowers fuel economy even further. Many crews had to abandon their vehicles and retreat when Russias straining logistics corps failed to keep them supplied.

People walk around destroyed Russian military vehicles installed in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Even badly damaged armored vehicles, however, can be a useful source of spare parts, and Ukrainian soldiers also strip any working machine guns from such vehicles to use as infantry weapons. There have been many instances of Ukrainian soldiers taking captured Russian vehicles and upgrading them themselves; for example, adding thermal sights, extra armor and even Starlink satellite internet to captured BTR-82 armored personnel carriers, or by bolting an MT-12 anti-tank gun to the roof of a captured MT-LB armored personnel carrier, turning it into a makeshift but effective tank destroyer. They have also been taking components from destroyed Russian vehicles, such as BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers, and adding them to civilian pickup trucks to create lightly armed but highly mobile rocket-launching vehicles.

Russias sophisticated vehicles will be difficult to replace, given Western import restrictions. The Russian T-72B3 uses a Catherine thermal imaging system made by the French multinational defense contractor Thales. Russia imported these systems because it does not have the capability to build them domestically and because few other sources of this sophisticated equipment are available. China  notionally Russias ally  has scaled back the export of microprocessors necessary for Russias newer missiles, almost certainly because of the fear of secondary sanctions if it is seen to be feeding Putins war machine.

A destroyed Russian MT-LB armored personnel carrier burning in a field on the outskirts of Izium, Ukraine. (Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images)

The Ukrainians have also captured a large number of sophisticated Russian electronic warfare systems. These will not only be of interest to Ukraines Western partners (especially the United States), but studying these systems may help the Ukrainians to counteract Russian electronic warfare efforts more effectively. These systems could also be turned back against their original owners once the Ukrainians have studied them. Again, most modern Russian equipment will operate in ways that are familiar to Ukrainian military officers used to operating ex-Soviet and Russian military equipment.

In the air, Russia has not fared much better, losing significant numbers of its most sophisticated and notionally most capable fixed and rotary-wing platforms. According to Oryx, at least 12 Sukhoi Su-34 strike aircraft have been destroyed. Many of these were shot down by portable anti-air systems, as Russias lack of precision-guided munitions has forced their aircraft to fly low and drop dumb, unguided bombs, bringing them into the range of these shoulder-launched, short-range, surface-to-air missiles. Theyve also lost at least 16 Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopters, their most sophisticated and most recent rotary-wing aircraft.
U.S. aircraft carrier arrives in South Korea as warning to North U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan is anchored at a port in Busan

By Josh Smith

BUSAN, South Korea (Reuters) -A U.S. aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea on Friday for the first time in about four years, set to join other military vessels in a show of force intended to send a message to North Korea.

USS Ronald Reagan and ships from its accompanying strike group docked at a naval base in the southern port city of Busan ahead of joint drills with South Korean forces.

Its arrival marks the most significant deployment yet under a new push to have more U.S. "strategic assets" operate in the area to deter North Korea.

Strike group commander Rear Admiral Michael Donnelly told reporters aboard the ship that the visit was designed to build allied relations and boost interoperability between the navies.

"We are leaving messaging to diplomats," he said, when asked about any signal to North Korea, but added that joint drills would ensure the allies were able to respond to all threats.

"It's an opportunity for us to practice tactics and operations," Donnelly said.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has pushed for more joint exercises and other displays of military power as a warning to North Korea, which this year conducted a record number of missile tests and appears to be preparing to resume nuclear testing for the first time since 2017.

North Korea has denounced previous U.S. military deployments and joint drills as rehearsals for war and proof of hostile policies by Washington and Seoul. The drills have also sparked protests by peace activists who say they raise regional tensions.

Last week the United States said the carrier's visit was a "clear demonstration" of its commitment to deploy and exercise strategic assets to deter Pyongyang and enhance regional security.

In announcing the visit, however, the U.S. Navy made no mention of North Korea, referring only to a "regularly scheduled port visit" and emphasising crew members visiting Busan to volunteer at orphanages and explore the K-pop music scene.

Officials declined to provide details of the upcoming joint drills, but said the carrier would be in port for "several days." Just hours after the ship docked, long lines of crewmembers formed as they took COVID-19 tests before being bussed into the city.

One crew member, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said that they were looking forward to a break but that the geopolitical tensions were a constant presence.

"You can't ever really forget what we're all here for," the crew member told Reuters.

The visit is the first to South Korea by an American aircraft carrier since 2018. Many drills were since scaled back or cancelled due to diplomatic efforts with North Korea or because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The carrier visit is useful for political signalling, reassuring Seoul, and training with South Korean forces, but likely does little to further deter North Korea, said Mason Richey, a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.

"A carrier group visit certainly doesn't do much - in fact, it likely does the opposite - to discourage Pyongyang from developing more nuclear weapons and delivery systems, as well as conventional capabilities," he said.

It nevertheless underscores that under Yoon the allies see tighter military coordination and interoperability as the best way to deal with North Korea, Richey added.

Questions have risen over the role the roughly 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea might play if conflict erupts over Taiwan.

Donnelly said such questions are for policymakers above him, but said that operating with like-minded allies such as South Korea is a key part of the U.S. Navy's efforts to maintain the regional security and stability that has existed for more than seven decades.

(Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Gerry Doyle)
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi shows a photo of slain Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani as he addresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters Wednesday. (Mary Altaffer / Associated Press)

Signaling that the Russian war in Ukraine has triggered an existential crisis for the United Nations, several of its key members on Thursday harshly denounced Moscow's actions, but failed to take new steps to stop the bloodshed and food, energy and humanitarian crises unleashed worldwide.

And in a separate action, the Biden administration imposed economic sanctions Thursday on Iran's notorious "morality police" in response to the death of a young woman in their custody. The unusual move by the U.S.  sanctions typically target military and political entities, not social-control bodies in Iran  came a day after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi addressed the U.N. General Assembly.

Raisi sought to deflect international outrage amid widespread street protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurd who was reportedly arrested because her government-obliged headscarf failed to completely cover her hair. Raisi refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing, citing instead the human rights abuses of the U.S. and other Western countries.

People protest Wednesday against Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi outside the United Nations in New York City over the death of Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman died last week in the custody of the morality police after allegedly allowing some of her hair to show. (Stephanie Keith / Getty Images)

Iran's morality police are men who enforce dress codes and other restrictions on women and broader society. The new U.S. sanctions include some law enforcement figures in response to Iran's crackdown on the protests over Amini's death  repression that has killed several more people.

"The Iranian government needs to end its systemic persecution of women and allow peaceful protest," U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said. "The United States will continue to voice our support for human rights in Iran and hold those who violate them to account."

Accountability, whether for Iran over punishment of dissent or for Russia over alleged atrocities in Ukraine, was front and center at this week's annual U.N. General Assembly as participants discussed a world mired in seemingly insurmountable troubles.

With leaders from around the world convening in New York, delegates used an extraordinary meeting of the United Nations Security Council, the U.N.'s governing body, to chastise Russian President Vladimir Putin for breaking key international rules  those at the foundation of the U.N.  in his ruthless assault on Ukraine.

Workers exhume the body of a civilian last week near the recently recaptured city of Izium, Ukraine, where a mass burial site with hundreds of graves was discovered. Witnesses and a Ukrainian investigator said some of the dead had been shot and others had been killed by Russian artillery fire, mines or airstrikes. (Evgeniy Maloletka / Associated Press)

Russia "is violating the very rules this body was created for," said the foreign minister of Lithuania, Gabrielius Landsbergis, in one of a catalogue of speeches delivered by the council's 15 members and Ukraine.

In a show of support for Ukraine, Landsbergis wore a blue-and-yellow wristband  the colors of its flag  with his dark suit.

"The very international order that we have gathered here to uphold is being shredded before our eyes," Blinken said. "We cannot  we will not  allow President Putin to get away with it."

Yet if the U.N. is seen as increasingly ineffective, it is unclear how world leaders should confront multinational challenges.

Thursday's General Assembly session was convened to discuss peace and security in Ukraine and the issues of impunity and accountability. For most delegations, that meant holding Russia accountable for invading Ukraine and allegedly committing atrocities in numerous Ukrainian towns and regions.

Moscow's representative, however, said Ukraine had enjoyed impunity and should be blamed.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov used his comments to turn the war narrative on its head, repeating Moscow's contention that the conflict was Ukraine's fault because of what he called the abuse and repression of Russian speakers and ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow-backed separatists have operated for several years. And he repeated the Russian assertion that the massive nation is the one under military threat, from Ukraine and its Western backers.

"Of course, the Kyiv regime," Lavrov said, implicitly refusing to recognize the legitimacy of the Ukrainian government, "owes its impunity to its Western sponsors, first of all Germany and France but also the United States.

"Particularly cynical is the states that are pumping Ukraine full of weapons, and training their soldiers," he said, with the goal of "dragging out the fighting as long as possible in spite of the victims and destruction, in order to wear down and weaken Russia."

There had been speculation among U.S. officials that Lavrov might not attend the session to avoid the expected barrage of criticism. He appeared shortly before his turn to speak and left immediately afterward.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, who recently took the job when Liz Truss was named to replace British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, described Lavrov's characterization of the war as "Russia's catalogues of distortions, dishonesty and disinformation."

In a dig, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said after Lavrov departed the chamber that Russian diplomats seem to flee as quickly as their soldiers. It was a reference to reports of massive desertions by troops deployed by Putin ahead of Ukrainian advances.

The Biden administration has sought to shore up support for Western-led efforts to arm, train and back Ukraine in its war with Russia. Some countries that rely on Russian weapons or fuel, such as India, have been reluctant.

In Thursday's speeches, Blinken and others portrayed the war as a tragedy that goes far beyond Ukraine and Europe, affecting the Global South and countries in Asia and Africa that were cut off from food supplies when Russia blockaded Ukraine's Black Sea ports and its shipments of millions of tons of grain, fertilizer and cooking oil.

"At the global level, the conflict has supercharged a triple crisis of food, energy and finance," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in convening the meeting.

"This is driving millions more people into extreme poverty and hunger and reversing years of progress in development," he said, citing problems exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis.

Especially critical, Guterres, Blinken and other diplomats say, is Russia's violation of the U.N. Charter, its foundational documents, by using force to attempt to take over a sovereign neighboring country. Both President Biden and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky also denounced this abuse by Putin and suggested that Russia be stripped of its veto powers in the Security Council.

But no such action was taken Thursday, and it is not clear whether there is a mechanism for stripping those powers. Binding international sanctions against Moscow are next to impossible to put in place through the U.N. due to Russia's veto powers, which have allowed the country to block punitive actions against it.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, addressing the U.N. General Assembly via video on Wednesday, has joined U.S. President Biden in suggesting that Russia be stripped of its veto powers in the Security Council. (Jason DeCrow / Associated Press)

"Defending Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity is about much more than standing up for one nations right to choose its own path, fundamental as that right is," Blinken said Thursday. "Its also about protecting an international order where no nation can redraw the borders of another by force.

"If we fail to defend this principle when the Kremlin is so flagrantly violating it, we send a message to aggressors everywhere that they can ignore it, too," he continued. "We put every country at risk. We open the door to a less secure, a less peaceful world."

Blinken and others noted that far from standing down or seeking a diplomatic solution, Putin this week chose to order tens of thousands more Russians into the battle at the very time the world's leaders were meeting at the U.N.

"This is a war you will not win," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said, addressing Putin without naming him. "Stop sending more of your own citizens to their deaths.... Stop driving hunger around the world.... Stop paralyzing this [U.N.] body."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The super wealthy are laughing all the way to the actual bank, Scotlands First Minister has said after the Chancellor unveiled plans he said would drive economic growth.

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, announcing his so-called mini-budget on Friday, announced the scrapping of the top rate of income tax and a reduction of the basic rate to 19p in the pound.

As a result of the income tax reduction, and a cut in stamp duty, the Treasury said the Scottish Government will receive 600 million over the three-year period covered by the 2021 spending review.

The Chancellor announced the plans on Friday (Aaron Chown/PA)

The rise in national insurance proposed under Boris Johnson has also been cancelled, benefiting 2.3 million people in Scotland, the Treasury said.

Mr Kwarteng also added restrictions to the benefits system and scrapped the cap on bankers bonuses as he spent tens of billions of pounds to drive growth.

The Chancellor said while an increase in jobs, wages and public funding will not happen overnight, the statement sent a clear signal that growth is our priority.

The fiscal strength of the UK Government has allowed thousands of businesses in Scotland to keep more of their own money to invest, innovate, and grow, he said.

The super wealthy laughing all the way to the actual bank (tho I suspect many of them will also be appalled by the moral bankruptcy of the Tories) while increasing numbers of the rest relying on food banks  all thanks to the incompetence and recklessness of this failed UK gov  Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) September 23, 2022

We are cutting national insurance for 2.3 million Scottish workers, saving them an average of 285.

And our Energy Bill Relief Scheme is protecting thousands of businesses across Scotland from rising energy costs with discounts of wholesale gas and electricity prices.

In doing so, our growth plan sets the whole United Kingdom on the path for growth, building on the strength of our Union and releasing the enormous potential of this country.

But Nicola Sturgeon has taken aim at the plans, which she said on Twitter would benefit the rich while working people struggled.

A UK gov budget that benefits wealthiest over poor/middle income earners, tanks the , pushes up the cost of (v substantial) borrowing, and is castigated as reckless. And yet Tories (& right wing commentators) will demand that @scotgov blindly follows suit. Mmm  Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) September 23, 2022

The super wealthy laughing all the way to the actual bank (tho I suspect many of them will also be appalled by the moral bankruptcy of the Tories) while increasing numbers of the rest relying on food banks  all thanks to the incompetence and recklessness of this failed UK Gov, she said on Twitter.

The First Minister later tweeted again, hinting that the Scottish Government would not follow the tax policies of Westminster.

A UK gov budget that benefits wealthiest over poor/middle income earners, tanks the , pushes up the cost of (v substantial) borrowing, and is castigated as reckless, she said.

And yet Tories (& right wing commentators) will demand that @scotgov blindly follows suit. Mmm 

(PA Graphics)

Deputy First Minister John Swinney, who is responsible for the finance brief while Finance Secretary Kate Forbes is on maternity leave, said the statement will be cold comfort to the millions of people across Scotland who have been looking for the UK Government to use their reserved powers to provide support for those that need it most.

Instead we get tax cuts for the rich and nothing for those who need it most, he added.

We estimate that the increase in the price cap to 2,500 will force an estimated 150,000 more Scottish households into extreme fuel poverty.

Instead of offering these people support, the Chancellor is threatening to cut their family budgets further, with a new regime of benefit sanctions.

The growth plan, Mr Swinney said, will only lead to growth in inequality.

He said that the Scottish Government would announce any changes to Land and Building Transaction Tax (LBTT)  the Scottish equivalent to stamp duty  as part of the normal budget process, signalling no immediate changes will be made.

(PA Graphics)



The Deputy First Minister also pledged to keep discussing plans for special investment zones, but said the plans, which would provide tax cuts and more lax planning rules, would have to be the right fit for Scotland.

Scottish Green finance spokesman Ross Greer said the budget was for banks, the super-rich and big polluters.

It is targeting entirely the wrong things and will only serve to help the rich get even richer while punishing people on low incomes and those who rely the most on public services, he added.

But Scottish Secretary Alister Jack hailed the plans as ambitious, adding: A strong economy is the best way to tackle the cost of living challenges we are all facing due to Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Our Plan for Growth will support households and businesses in Scotland, while driving economic growth to deliver jobs, investment and prosperity.

The UK Government is delivering for the people of Scotland when it really matters.


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YEREVAN, 23 SEPTEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 23 September, USD exchange rate down by 1.77 drams to 416.27 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 6.53 drams to 406.03 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.23 drams to 7.25 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 12.49 drams to 459.31 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 93.80 drams to 22375.02 drams. Silver price down by 0.11 drams to 262.11 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.
by Fady Noun

Sally Hafez held up a BLOM Bank branch office with a toy gun withdrawing US$ 13,000 from her familys account of US$ 20,000 to pay for her sisters cancer treatment. Later, pretending to be pregnant, she eluded police. From her hiding place, she says: We are a country of mafias.

Beirut (AsiaNews)  Astounding! No other word can describe Sally Hafezs action. The 28-year-old activist has become the darling of many Lebanese after she pulled a heist at a branch of the Banque du Liban et dOutremer (BLOM), taking US$ 13,000 out of her sister's account.

In October 2019, commercial banks arbitrarily and illegally imposed capital controls overnight on bank accounts.

We are a country of mafias. If you are not a wolf, the wolves will eat you, the interior designer turned national hero told Reuters, speaking from the rugged Beqaa Valley where she is hiding from the police after her spectacular act.

Footage of the spectacular incident was captured on mobile phones and shown by all local TV stations. In it Sally Hafez is seen standing on a bank counter, her nephew's toy gun in hand, telling bank employees to hand over bundles of dollars.

A crowd that gathered outside the BLOM branch in the busy Sodeco neighbourhood widely cheered Sally Hafez's heist.

Maybe they saw me as a hero because I was the first woman who does this in a patriarchal society where a woman's voice is not supposed to be heard," Ms Hafez told the news agency.

She explained that she never intended to harm anyone, but was "tired of the government's inaction.

All in cahoots

They are all in cahoots to steal from us and leave us to go hungry and die slowly, she lamented, noting that she did what she did only after pleading in vain with the bank manager.

For its part, the bank issued a statement saying that the branch had been co-operative with her to satisfy her request for funds but had asked for proof, as they do with all customers requesting humanitarian exceptions to existing informal controls. Except that the latter are illegal.

After her request was turned down, Ms Hafez went back two days later with her nephews toy gun, a perfect replica of a real gun, and a small amount of fuel mixed with water which she poured on herself, threatening to set herself on fire.

Known for her activism, Ms Hafez insists that what she did was to get money for her older sister who has a brain tumour resulting in a loss of mobility and speech and needs medical treatment in hospital.

Exasperated like thousands of Lebanese by three years of financial crisis, Ms Hafez is one of five savers to rob a bank that day. This led banks to close their doors this week, even though people need cash.

As expected, the president of the Bank Employees Federation, Georges Haj, condemned the hold-up, saying that popular anger should be directed at the government, not credit institutions.

Thus far, 6,000 employees in the banking sector have lost their job; what is more, for the World Bank, the countrys current crisis was "orchestrated by the country's elite.

Sally Hafez managed to get US$ 13,000 and 30 million Lebanese pounds out of her familys saving account of US ,000. She was also careful to get a receipt so she would not be charged with theft.

Afterward, she snuck out of a window at the back of the bank, went home, only to find a little later that the building was surrounded by the police.

She then went on Facebook saying that she was already at the airport, on her way to Istanbul. Wrapping herself in a robe and placing a bundle of clothes on her belly to make her appear pregnant, she put on a headscarf and left evading police.

"I went downstairs in front of all of them, she said. They wished me good luck with the birth. It was ... like in the movies. She also noted that once Lebanon's judges ended their strike she would surrender to the authorities. For now, courts are proceeding at a snails pace with many detainees languishing in prison.

An accomplice was detained for helping Ms Hafez carry out the hold-up, but he was later released on bail on Wednesday.

Welcomed triumphantly upon leaving the Beirut gendarmerie building, he said he would help anyone for humanitarian reasons to get their money from their frozen accounts.

Several savers associations have endorsed the young activists action.
Across China: Endangered birds find home in once polluted "coal city"

Xinhua) 14:15, September 23, 2022

HARBIN, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- For 56-year-old Zuo Yutao, protecting endangered birds has become a top priority at work in his home city of Hegang, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

As the director of a national-level terrestrial wildlife epidemic monitoring station, Zuo spent a lot of time in the past summer reinforcing the nests of oriental storks on the Dulu River nature reserve, as the vast wetland within is now an important habitat for the endangered birds.

With a global population of less than 3,000 mature individuals, the oriental stork is under first-class national protection in China. In 2017, oriental storks were spotted on the nature reserve for the first time with their number exceeding 100.

"We were very surprised as oriental storks are quite picky about their living environment, and the discovery reflected the improvement of the environment on the Dulu River," said Zuo.

Zuo wanted these birds to stay, so he turned to other nature reserves to learn from their experience. Among the key things he learned was how to build artificial nests to attract oriental storks to settle in.

In early 2018, braving freezing weather in China's northernmost province, Zuo and his colleagues struggled to build 20 nests. "I doubted whether it would be useful until three nests were occupied by oriental storks later that year," said Zuo. "They even gave birth to baby birds there."

Today, the nature reserve is home to more than 50 such nests, in addition to some 10,000 nests of other species of birds. This year, about 300 oriental storks spent spring and summer here, according to Zuo.

Previously, this would have been unimaginable for Hegang, a major coal-producing city that was notorious for its history of pollution. However, besides the efforts of animal protectors like Zuo, the advances in green development have reshaped the city landscape.

Over the past few years, the city has released more than 100 documents on ecological and environmental protection, treated abandoned coal mines, transformed shantytowns into parks, and cleared city waterways, among other measures.

A total of 46 coal mines have been shut down since 2012. As a result, the skies are no longer grey. According to the Hegang municipal government, the ratio of days with good air quality hit 98.6 percent in 2021, and the average level of PM 2.5 dropped by 39 percent compared with 2016.

Meanwhile, about 4,000 hectares of farmland have been returned to wetlands and 9206.67 hectares of reforestation was completed in the past five years, said Yang Guanghui, director of Hegang's ecological and environment bureau.

Remarkable achievements have also been made in the new energy industry. By the end of this year, the installed capacity of new-energy power generation in Hegang is expected to reach 1.5 million kilowatts, accounting for 50 percent of the city's total, said Liu Lei, director of the development and reform commission of Hegang.

Zuo finds encouragement in the improvements to the environment in Hegang and the achievements of his job. "We will try to seek funding to upgrade the nests so that more birds can have comfortable homes," he said.

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Liang Jun)
by Shafique Khokhar

Ordinary people are providing tents and food, but resources are in short supply. Every day six or seven people die, driving people left with nothing to steal. Children too are helping out, says teacher Saiqa Rehmat. Meanwhile, AsiaNews continues its campaign in favour of displaced people.

Faisalabad (AsiaNews)  In the wake of recent rains that flooded a third of Pakistan, many people have mobilised to bring aid to the victims. Saiqa Rehmat, 47, is one of them.

A teacher from Faisalabad, she has run the New Horizon Kindergarten for Christian children in Warispura since 2013. Over 60 per cent of pupils in her school come from poor families and are provided with books and uniforms free of charge.

She also runs Lok Vehar Development, an outreach organisation that is now involved in setting up tents and donating food to the people displaced by the recent flooding.

Along with international agencies, Lok Vehar Development is helping people from flood-stricken villages.

Speaking to AsiaNews, she said she visited several locations in Sindh and Balochistan provinces, like Kashmore, Quetta, Jacobabad, Bagri, and Sukkur.

Every day six or seven people, including many children, die from contaminated water. Government water tankers are delivering water once a day, but it is not enough for everyone.

For those displaced by the floods, living conditions are very poor after more than 90 per cent of homes and crops were destroyed.

With so many left with nothing, crime has become rampant, so much as that humanitarian workers are forced to distribute aid under police protection in order not to be attacked.

"Even though we did our best, I still think we didn't do anything for these people," Saiqa lamented. They need much more support, but the government does not have sufficient resources to help everyone.

Food, tents, mosquito nets, mats and medicines are in short supply. We need the support of the international community, she added.

Women are the most vulnerable. According to reports, 45,000 pregnant women who need assistance and are not receiving adequate medical care," Saiqa noted.

Meanwhile, consumer goods have quadrupled in price while some businesses are trying to take advantage of the situation.

Still, even children are trying to help. In our school, children have made peace cards and messages for the children affected by the flood, to express solidarity and love, the teacher explained. "They will take them to the children of southern Punjab in the coming days."

AsiaNews and the Fondazione Pime cannot be indifferent to Pakistans plight, so they decided to expand their AN05 campaign in support of Pakistani kiln factory workers to include flood victims.

Donations can be made online here or through the methods shown below, ALWAYS INDICATING AN05 PAKISTAN EMERGENCY as the reason:

- Online payment by credit card (Visa, Cartasi, Mastercard, American Express) or PayPal

- Bank transfer payable to Fondazione Pime Onlus, Credit Agricole  IBAN IT89M0623001633000015111283

Please, always send an email to uam@pimemilano.com to confirm the transfer, with your name, address, fiscal code (codice fiscale) if a resident of Italy (or social security/national insurance number in other countries or equivalent), as well as your place and date of birth. This information is needed to obtain a tax credit receipt.

- Postal account No. 39208202 made out to Fondazione Pime Onlus.

- Cheque or bank draft made out to Fondazione Pime Onlus, mailed to Fondazione Pime Onlus, via Monte Rosa, 81  20149 Milan, Italy
by Vladimir Rozanskij

It is a side effect of Ukraine war. Disputes over the conflict have led to several murders, with highest incidences in southern Russia. Expert: The risk is that it will degenerate into widespread forms of "pogroms" against non-aligned people.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - Criminal tensions are growing amid Russia's great mobilisation, where since the beginning of the aggression against Ukraine citizens are divided between resentment, exaltation and fear. There is now increasing concern of the growing social conflict between those who do not want to 'die for Putin' and those who are prepared to kill to defend their homeland.

In the last few months in southern Russia there have been at least three murders over street arguments about the war in Ukraine. In each of these cases, the investigators denied that this was the cause of the crime, or were simply silent about the motives. An investigation by Kavkaz.Realii sought to shed light on these events, and to comment on their effect on social relations.

On the night of 20 June, in the village of Bolshaja Martinovka (Rostov region), locals beat 49-year-old biker Viktor Goldobin to death. According to the official version, two men aged 18 and 28 argued with him at the billiards table, came to blows and then disappeared, leaving him dead.

The incident was classified as a 'sudden street fight'. A video on Instagram, however, shows that one of the assailants shouted "Do you like Ukraine?", while his wife incited him to "take that b**stard out!". The video circulated online a few days, then was removed, and its author closed the account. An acquaintance of Goldobin says that he openly spoke out against Putin's policies, and after the invasion of Ukraine had told friends that 'the sad and rotten intoxication of the leaders has led Russia to fascism'.

A similar murder took place on the Rostov-on-Don riverside on the night of 15 August, when the 33-year-old captain of the Russian army, originally from Moscow province, shot 51-year-old Roman Govasari, who was carrying materials to earn some extra money, with his Makarov.

According to the local publication 161.ru, initial police interrogations indicate that a heated argument had arisen between the two over Ukraine, but officially there was no comment from the police headquarters or the army, and the officer was held in solitary confinement for two months. The victim's son, Roman jr, gave several interviews, saying that he did not believe the version of the argument about Ukraine, because his father always advised him to avoid talking about political issues.

On 25 August in Gelendzhik, a quarrel between a 32-year-old tourist from Belgorod and a local resident ended in tragedy. It appeared to be a classic drunken argument, but the next day a video appeared on Telegram, circulated immediately after the arrest of murder suspect Nikolaj Pavlov, in which he recounts that the deceased was a Ukrainian and had 'promised to cut my mum's head off'.

Surveillance cameras captured the moment of the murder, showing four men, one of whom is kneeling in front of the others; one of them suddenly hits him in the throat with a knife, later found by investigators. According to some witnesses, the discussion had lasted at least an hour and a half, and was about the war in Ukraine, but the Krasnodar regional police headquarters categorised it as a 'conflict over personal issues'.

The internal tensions in Russian society have reached exasperated levels due to the Ukrainian war, as confirmed by Mikhail Savva, doctor of political science, director of the 'Sova' analysis group: 'The official propaganda has changed. It is no longer only mass propaganda, but also without any possible alternatives, because the expression of different opinions is forbidden by law and must be punished, so whoever dares to support them becomes an outcast for the whole society. If the state does not come to take action, there is then someone ready to do justice with their hands or weapons at their disposal. The risk is that it degenerates into widespread forms of 'pogroms' against non-aligned people.

Professor Savva also points to the increasing number of people returning from combat with shattered nervous systems, thirsty for confrontation with enemies and traitors, as a concomitant cause. Finally, many are consumed with anger by overlapping guilt complexes, against the West and the sanctions, or against the country's leadership and the army, for not being able to do anything to prevent the disaster, and feel the need to take action somehow.
In Assisi young economists and entrepreneurs meet inspired by Pope Franciss call for a truly integral form of development. For Jena Espelita, from the Philippines, if used well, blockchain technology can become an opportunity for the poor. Sri Lankan Sohan Patrick wants his countrys economy to create the future, not just take.

Assisi (AsiaNews)  About a thousand young people from 120 countries are taking part in a meeting centred on The Economy of Francesco, a movement of young economists, business people, and entrepreneurs from around the world whom the pontiff, in a 2019 letter, urged to imagine, together, a new model of integral development centred on people.

Francis will meet them tomorrow in Assisi, and many of those who will welcome him are from Asia. One of them is Jena Espelita, from the Philippines, who said: On this first day I already met young men and women from Indonesia, India, Pakistan, others from South Korea.

Originally from Baguio City, she has been in Italy for four years, studying at the Sophia University Institute in Loppiano, a multicultural university located in Tuscany associated with the Focolare movement.

A graduate in Economy and Management, she has been involved with The Economy of Francesco from the start and today works in Rome managing computer networks at the Dicastery for Integral Human Development.

Speaking about her experience, she said she liked the openness of adults towards us young people. Indeed, today we are told that we are the present of the world, not the future.

What is going on in Assisi is part of a much broader process that brings together different ways of looking at integral development, not only economics, but also technologies and psychology. Pope Francis is the point of reference because he stands with the poor.

The pontiff has invited us to see everyone as brothers and sisters, part of one humanity, and to create peace, development and equality. It is a long journey, of course, but in these meetings, we share experiences and concrete steps to promote possible change.

In the Philippines we have many problems in managing the environment, she said. Water pollution kills children in the poorest areas. Slums grow and forested areas near cities are cleared.

Yet, when asked how her native country should change starting with the ideas shared by young people involved with The Economy of Francesco, she noted that, Answers are coming from below, with innovative ideas.

In fact, One example is in south southern Philippines where blockchain technology is being used to involve the poor to protect the environment; those who clean up a certain area are rewarded with coins in a cryptocurrency that can be used to buy essential goods.

Other important examples include various forms of microcredit that help people outside traditional banking to start a business; or even caring for people, like the experience of Bukas Palad, a foundation that takes care of parents who live in the most difficult contexts.

Sohan Patrick is another young person who travelled to Assisi from Asia. The young economics graduate teaches finance in his homeland, Sri Lanka, a country in a deep economic crisis, the result of an unfair model of development.

He too responded to Pope Franciss appeal in his parish in 2020 where he set up a group to promote concrete actions to build a fairer and more sustainable future.

Speaking to Vatican News, the young man said that much of modern economics is based on taking from the earth, on producing something and maximising wealth. By contrast, inspired by Pope Franciss call, young people in Assisi are working on a new kind of economics, which he hopes to take back home.
Donald Trumps latest legal troubles  sweeping fraud allegations by New Yorks attorney general and a stark repudiation by federal judges he appointed  have laid bare the challenges piling up as the former president operates without the protections afforded by the White House
The city of Aspen is still looking for responses to its Request for Proposals for tenants in the open Yellow Brick Building classrooms. On Monday, Aspen City Council asked for more information about the situation at the Yellow Brick and directed Kids First to focus more on staff recruitment and retention.
SUV

Slotted between the Q5 and Q7 in terms of length, the all-electric model is currently produced in Belgium and China in two variants: a five-doorand a coupe-styled SUV. The latter is marketed Sportback, similar to how Audi calls the five-door variant of the A5. Less efficient than a Tesla Model X in summer driving, the Audi e-tron was also subjected to a safety recall In extreme cases where moisture gets into the battery compartment, the e-tron 55 quattro could experience a thermal event. Three years ago, Audi recalled precisely 1,646 examples of the breed in the U.S., in addition to 232 units in Canada. The remedy came in September 2019 in the guise of a so-called robustness package designed to seal the wiring harness that connects the vehicles lithium-ion battery to the high-voltage electronics.Last year, Audi sold 7,429 units of the e-tron stateside and 20,755 units in Europe, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the increasingly popular Tesla Model Y. The introduction of a third electric motor didnt help either, which is why the premium brand has refocused on the mid-cycle refresh.Spied on many occasions, the 2024 model year Audi e-tron has been previewed by the four-ringed automaker from Ingolstadt with specially designed camouflage that looks rather interesting. The bright orange on the front grille is especially riveting, giving the e-tron a youthful appearance.Audi hasnt mentioned any technical details regarding the facelift, nor do we know for certain whats in the offing. The rumor mill suggests a rename to Q8 e-tron, which seems like a good idea given that the combustion-engined Q8 features a similar footprint, including overall length and wheelbase.What the e-tron truly needs is better efficiency and more driving range; otherwise, Audi will struggle convincing people to buy it over a Tesla Model Y or the likes of the Genesis GV60 and lesser EVs from lesser brands.
ABS

What I want to know is if there is someone who has a six-decade-owned family super sportscar, as a certain Englishman does. Martin Cushway is the inheritor of a legend-status-worthy Mercedes Benz 300 SL. Born in Stuttgart, in 1963, on January 16, the hero of this story probably has the most remarkable survivor story of the iconic car.The 17th from the last ever 300 SL to be produced, this car  this very car  was bought factory-brand-new by Ron Cushway and his wife. They both flew from England to Germany to purchase the automobile on a chilly January day. The car's documentation  a masterpiece of automotive paperwork stores the photographic proof of that exact moment, with the Cushways coming down the airplane.Mr. and Mrs. Cushway enjoyed the Mercedes in every possible way for the rest of their lives. The car  with numbers matching from soft top to broken gearbox  is in stellar shape. At this point, it would be best to mention that Martin Cushway  the son of the original owners  runs a car shop dedicated to 300 SLs.Speaking of Martin, he has had a special connection with this car his whole life. And that is the most literal statement possible  his father rushed Martin's mother to the hospital and brought her back five days later, with a newborn Martin in her arms. Fast forward three years, and we see the road-trip-loving Cushway family jump in their family car and drive from England to Portugal.By "family," we mean all three father, mother, and little Martin. By "family car," we mean the 300 SL, now promoted to this status. I know you might wonder, "where do you fit two grown-ups and one three-year-old in a tiny sportscar"? Well, Martin is bluntly sincere about that aspect of his early childhood.The 300 SL has a small compartment behind the seats (check the gallery to see exactly how small). Perfect for a three-year-old-sized passenger. Not so perfect for a non-stop 27-hour-long drive from England, across the Channel, down through France and Spain, and finally Portugal. Or wherever the Cushway family set their bearings. (Author's disclaimer - this "2022-felony-parenting" was reasonable in the sixties, but please use a vehicle that can correctly accommodate all occupants).The bespoke suitcases  tailored by an Englishman to fit the car's trunk and be comfortable to carry simultaneouslywere nowhere near large enough for a child's vacation wardrobe. But Martin's father was ingenuous and quickly devised a convenient solution. His son's garment would fill in two duffel bags, which would go in the empty side wings space behind the headlamps.So, the car went everywhere in Europe (The Cushway workshop is clad with rally plaques, all run by this beautiful Mercedes). Naturally, its three-liter straight-six received three complete rebuilds along the 380,000 miles it covered (over 611,000 kilometers). As Mr. Cushway puts it, "no one messed with it," apart from himself and his father.The video  courtesy of the Kidd in a Sweet Shop YouTube Channel  shows a very interesting particularity of this fantastic Mercedes. A reverse-lock brass flick on the center console. After pulverizing the gearbox with an accidental reverse shift, the new gearbox received a precautionary fail-safe prevention system. Also, to improve the car's safety, the original owner installed anon it  an actual Mercedes Benz design, of course.The old, broken gearbox is well kept and will accompany this Mercedes to its next owner. The supercar is offered by RM Sotheby's, with an estimated price ranging between $1,700,000 - $2,300,000. But putting a price tag is by no means as simple as valuing a six-decade-family-owned supercar. At least not one with nine documents folders to stand by its history.The papers are so minute that even the mandatory factory gate exit pass is available  a small leaflet allowing everyone inside the Mercedes Benz car plant to leave the facility. In true Germanic organizational spirit, the small paper captures the moment the Benz rolled out on the streets. January 16, 1963, at 09:03 AM.At that exact moment in time, the car  according to the official specs  would hit 62 mph (100 kph) in 8 seconds. Pretty good for a rear-wheel drive, naturally aspirated inline-six engine roadster with a curb weight of 2,930 lb. (1,329 kg).The engine produced 215 bhp (218 PS) and 202 lb-ft (275 Nm), which went to the four-speed manual. Various final drive ratios, engine tuning, and racing engine parts would allow the car to hit anywhere from 135 mph (217 kph) to 160 mph (260 kph). Hence the name "Widow Maker" for the vehicle that spawned the supercar fashion, even though all-wheel disc brakes and coil-suspension all-around gave the 300SL an outstanding road behavior (for early sixties standards ).Repainted once  in 1979  and retrimmed once more, the body is irreproachable . And the same is valid for the Mercedes power plant. Maintained with clockwork scrupulosity, the SL  used as a daily driver by both martin and his father  does not give the faintest hint of its age and road life.The Cushway Mercedes Benz 300SL is one spectacular car with a great history. It doesn't come easy for a man to part ways with his life-long car (and Martin Cushway is entitled to call it that), but the roadster will most probably pass on to another SL enthusiast. Whoever buys this machine is going to ride a piece of automotive history.His current owner  Mr. Cushway  can be seen in one photo (at the 18:30 mark of the video) together with a famous couple of Germans. One would be Rudolf Uhlenhaut  the man behind the 300SL project. The other one is one of the only two 300 SLR prototypes ever built - The "Blue." The other car of the pair - "The Red," currently holds the record for the most expensive car on the planet.
For example, Volkswagens well-known East European subsidiary Skoda recently celebrated a quarter of a century since the introduction of the compact class Octavia Estate, while also noting the station wagons ongoing popularity and sales success. And we mentioned the Czech automakers SW exploits simply because they are the focal point for the good folks over at Kolesa.They now have decided to jump the digital gun ahead of Skoda's unveiling of the fourth Superb generation all the way to the station wagon goodies. Remember, back in summer our ardent spy photographer partners caught the camouflaged 2023 Skoda Superb Estate for the first time, and luckily for the series fans, it looked larger than ever.By the way, if bigness is a dreadful thing, one had better turn away from this model, as the Skoda Superb has always been a mid-size passenger car that rivals the interior space offered by much larger family cars. Not to mention it could shame most mid-size SUVs and crossovers currently on the market in terms of luggage-carrying capabilities. But back to the digital business.The news outlet has imagined the potential looks of the new Skoda Superb Estate iteration based on the most recent set of spy shots that surfaced online mere days ago, so we have enough faith in their virtual artist (thats Nikita Chuicko, the pixel master better known as kelsonik on social media) to be on the right CGI track to make the large Combi look legit.Alas, as always, do take all of this with a pinch of salt. But hopefully, Skoda will dare to do things a bit differently with the Superb as the station wagons rear styling feels quite ritzy and practical at the same time. So, do we give it a CGI hall pass, or not?
And the most recent version of Coolwalk  which users can only be enabled with a rooted Android phone  comes with a welcome refinement for music apps.As revealed here on reddit , Spotify now displays album information right in the Coolwalk view whenever a certain song is playing. The album art seems to be displayed regardless of the Spotify card size on Coolwalk, as the view can automatically adapt to the used layout on the screen.While this example shows this Coolwalk update with Spotify, theres a chance the same feature would be available for all music apps running on Android Auto (including the likes of YouTube Music, Deezer, and others).In the past, whenever Google shipped a feature update for music apps, the company only updated the template for this software category. In other words, all the music apps that offer support for Android Auto benefitted from the same improvements, so this is very likely the case with this Coolwalk update as well.Now the big question: when is Coolwalk supposed to go live for Android Auto users? Of course, no such information is currently available, but Google has clearly missed the deadline here.The company announced at I/O this year that Coolwalk would go live during the summer, but its already obvious the company needs more time to complete the work on this update. More frustrating is that the Mountain View-based search giant has remained completely tight-lipped on an updated ETA, so for the time being, nobody knows for sure when Coolwalk is supposed to start rolling out.At this point, the only way to give this new feature a try is with a rooted phone, but of course, this isnt necessarily the most convenient way to go for all Android users.
TDI

Westfalia is mostly known for the official camper conversions of Volkswagen Transporter vans. But the German automaker wouldnt have chosen the camper company as its partner had it not already been an established player in the motorhome market. The Club Joker is basically Westfalias take on the camper-van theme.Its still based on the Volkswagen Transporter (known as Vanagon here in the U.S.) but with a twist. The Syncro 4x4 transmission ensures impressive capabilities off-road, especially as it is fitted with a Triple Knob locking front and rear differentials and a front axle decoupler. The gearbox is equipped with a Gelande gear, which helps in difficult situations.Also, a solid high-top is used instead of the usual soft pop-up roof. This is thermally insulated, a significant improvement over the fabric tent of a Vanagon Westfalia. A side awning is also provided to offer shelter at camping sites. This Westfalia Club Joker 3 was built in 1986 and sold in Europe before being imported into the U.S. from Belgium in 2013.The current owner acquired it in 2020 and later installed a brand-new 1.9-liter turbodiesel direct injection () engine, which has only 800 miles (1,287 km). This comes with an mTDI mechanical injection pump which replaces the electronic control module with a mechanical counterpart. The outcome is a slight decrease in performance and efficiency, with the added benefit of being more robust and easy to service.The rear cabin features a Westfalia-branded kitchenette with all the usual gear. The two-burner stovetop was converted to use a removable propane tank. Still, the factory-installed tank is also part of the sale. The refrigerator was also removed, and the cabinet was converted into a storage bin. Just like the Vanagon Westfalia, there are two sleeping options. The rear bench folds out into a bed, and a bunk bed is available under the roof.The Westfalia Club Joker 3 is offered on Bring a Trailer , where one gentleman shocked the bidders with a $25,000 offer. It was, of course, outbid by another, so, at the time of writing, $26,000 is the highest bid. There are two days left until the auction closes, so theres still room to improve the offer.
The International Space Station (ISS) will cease operation in 2030, and NASA is already working on a replacement, with investments in the private Starlab , a free-flying commercial station by Voyager Space, Nanoracks, and Lockheed Martin. NASA has already granted early funding for the development of this space station. Hilton is now part of the deal as designer and builder for the crew suites.Hilton Hotels is a name that hardly needs any introduction, but if it does, this should suffice: its a leading hospitality company with an impressive international portfolio that includes 18 brands and over 7,000 properties. This one will be the only one in space, both for Hilton and the hospitality industry in general.That said, this isnt Hiltons first brush with space exploration, as its also the first hospitality brand to bake food in space. This was possible thanks to a 2020 research, which included the worlds first space oven and a batch of the DoubleTree by Hilton cookies, one of which may even end up on display at the Smithsonian.While Starlab will eventually render itself to business and tourism purposes, its initial purpose will be for research. It will offer accommodation for up to four astronauts at a time and include a laboratory called George Washington Carver Science Park.Starlab will be more than just a destination, it will be an experience made infinitely more unique and artful with the Hilton teams infusion of innovation, expertise, and global reach, Dylan Taylor, Chairman and CEO, Voyager Space, says in a statement. Voyager and Hilton are acutely focused on creating innovative solutions for the future of humanity and this partnership opens new doors to what is possible for comfort-focused space exploration and habitation.Hilton and Voyager are working together to design the sleeping quarters, the hospitality suites, and the communal areas. Hilton is also working on a ground-to-space astronaut experience and branding opportunities in tourism , education, and commerce.
If not, then we can relegate you to the recent news that Americas USAF is getting ready to burn through one billion greenbacks just to help Raytheon with the development of said scramjet-powered hypersonic missiles. But why am I telling you that?Well, simply because I have found an automotive correspondent, in my (not-so-humble) opinion. Of course, that is all courtesy of Taehee Tim Lee, the automotive 3D artist better known as timthespy on social media, who has (again) reimagined the cool Hyundai N Vision 74 FCEV in a novel way. And, to me, it just looks like a hypersonic fastback ready to haunt our wettest FCEV high-performance dreams.Probably oblivious to the fact that the rumor mill claims Hyundai Ns halo model  a mid-engined supercar  will not happen anymore, the pixel master has rendered his third or fourth batch of Hyundai Stallion Concept CGIs. But what is a Hyundai Stallion, to begin with, one might ask? Well, it is  first and foremost - an incredible example of how virtual automotive artists can collaborate to present their different visions about the same subject, all coordinated by a single author.And the original idea was to make the Hyundai N Vision 74 fuel cell electric vehicle viable for series production  and then for all sorts of crazy, motorsport-related shenanigans. Anyway, now with the advent of the authors signature  Velocity  specification, the Hyundai Stallion N Vision 74 embarks on the slammed widebody JDM customization journey, as well.Frankly, if you do not like my warmongering hypersonic missile association, it is simply fine. I can also imagine this Stallion as a hungry metal shark dominating the streets and tracks  possibly just to spite those who only seek a 2024 Ford Mustang Dark Horse lifestyle. What do you think, these two thoroughbreds could be virtual rivals, or not?
It's a shame that so many of the other airplanes built by Willy Messerschmitt's prized aerospace company tend to fall by the wayside when telling the story of the air war over the European theater. From light fighters to twin-engined heavy fighters and even the first operational jet fighter before the end of the war, Messerschmitt AG was one of the busiest war-equipment manufacturers in all of Germany from 1938 until the end of the war in 1945.But before the start of World War II , Messerschmitt and the entire German aviation sector were beset with international restrictions that drastically limited the airplanes it could and could not manufacture. Be it in the air, on land, or at sea, the Treaty of Versailles that ended the First World War explicitly forbade Germany from holding a standing army of over 100,000 troops and set limits on the gross tonnage of its warships (which were later ignored) and greatly diminished the level of development of its aviation sector.Much of the aviation within German territory was limited to gliders and sailplanes to compensate for an ostensible lack of options in the German domestic aviation space. As a result, many of the German airplanes built during this time appeared to be little more than gliders with small engines attached to them. From this crucible of technological advancement, all-time greats like Willy Messerschmitt emerged.During this period of aviation, endurance challenges across the world, like the International de Tourisme (FAI International Tourist Plane Contest), brought nations across the globe to test their top-of-the-line aerospace technology against each other in the years immediately preceding the Second World War. It was for the 1934 event that the team which would become Messerschmitt AG designed an all-new airplane.An all-metal cantilever, low-wing monoplane strong and agile enough to compete in a competition that, in many ways, was like a time trial rally in the sky. Consisting of a technical trial circuit to test agility, a max speed trial to test, well, the top speed, and a timed rally over continental Europe. Dubbed the M 37 at the start, the prototype was powered by an eight-liter, 250-ish horsepower Hirth HM 508 air-cooled V8 engine. Coincidentally, the same displacement as the first-gen Dodge Viper GTS, just with half the power.Sadly, in its initial form, the M 37 got its you-know-what handed to it by French and Polish offerings, with Poland taking overall first place at that year's competition. Not that the Bf-108, as it was later renamed, was a sub-par airplane, far from it. It just needed a change under the hood to make things right. Using the final airframe of the Bf-108A, the stock engine was removed in favor of a beefier 17B straight-eight engine.When that also failed to be sufficient, it was decided to go with a 266-horsepower, 12.66-liter (772.99 cu in) Argus Motoren As 10C. A 90-degree, air-cooled V8 that also powered the Arado Ar-66 and the Focke-Wulf Fw 56 Stosser Luftwaffe biplanes. With the engine installed with the heads facing upside down inside the front of the airplane, it's a configuration copied by the Bf-109 fighter, albeit with considerably larger V-12 engines.The Bf-108 was beloved by those who flew it. Pilots marveled at its low stall speed, and uncannily forgiving flight controls for such a low-wing monoplane while praising its record-breaking endurance and top speed of 190 mph (165 kn, 305 kph). In many respects, the Bf-108 mimicked the Bf-109 and vice versa. The biggest difference between their performance was more a matter of the 109's larger engine and the cannon/machine guns it packed than anything to do with flying dynamics or flight characteristics.By the time the great powers of Europe decided it was time to boogaloo in 1939, the Bf-108 was ready to take on a new life as a VIP personal transport plane, liaison aircraft, and an occasional part-time trainer plane. In January 1940, a Luftwaffe Bf-108 carrying plans for a German Attack on the Low Countries of Northwestern Europe crashed in a field.According to some historians, the retrieval of the airplane by the Allies led to a subsequent change in German strategy. Effectively saving the region consisting of modern-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands from attack in the process. A true landmark moment in the early fighting in the European theater.The incident has been christened the Mechelen affair, though the validity of it being a turning point in the war is somewhat disputed. In any case, the Taifun, as it was called, the German word for Typhoon, served not only with the Luftwaffe but also with the militaries of Japan, Italy, Spain, Romania, and Hungary.The type was most astonishingly purchased by both the British Royal Air Force and the U.S. Army Air Corps for evaluation before the war. Dubbed the Messerschmitt Aldon in British service and the Messerschmitt XC-44 with the Yanks. How the tables turned in that whole ordeal.The only American Bf-108 was seized in November 1941, only six weeks or so before the Pearl Harbor attacks brought the country into the war. Once the fighting was done, the Taifun continued to fly with puddle jump commercial airliners around the world, using the two rear seats to ferry high-paying customers. This included a handful of French recreations with Renault engines. Quite a prolific career for such a pipsqueak-looking airplane. Because it never shot down so much as a target drone, it's a much easier airplane to appreciate than its terrifying butcher of an older sibling. A great thumping V8 is just gravy on top.Check back soon for more from V8 Month here on autoevolution.
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kWh

You read that right. Sinopec and PetroChina have more than 50,000 fuel stations across China, and the battery pack swapping stations will be installed in these locations. The first one will be placed at the Shanghai Anting Delivery Center, followed by 39 other stations until the end of the year. In 2023, the partners want to have 300 stations, reaching 3,000 by 2025.SAIC, CATL, Sinopec, and PetroChina created a new company to take care of battery swapping. Its official name is Shanghai Jieneng Smart Electric New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. You may call it just Jieneng Smart Electric for short, but we suspect its international name to be Rising Power, which is even shorter. The company will make its premiere with the Rising Auto R7, the first one from SAICs brand with battery pack swapping capability. In China, Rising Auto is called Feifan.The new electricwas presented as a concept car at the Shanghai Auto Show in 2021, but its world premiere is scheduled for September 27. The R7 is 4.90 meters (192.9 inches) long, 1.93 m (75.8 in) wide, 1.66 m (65.2 in) tall, and has a wheelbase of 2.95 m (116.1 in) that accommodates a 90-battery pack.The swappable component uses cell-to-pack (CTP) construction and uses what Rising Auto claims to be the first double-layer horizontal cell technology. In other words, it is composed of prismatic cells laid laterally instead of standing up. That allowed Rising Auto to put two layers of these cells in the battery pack and still keep it very thin. That allowed the component to present an energy density of 185 Wh/kg (84 Wh/lbs).The range is 642 km (399 miles), probably under CLTC (China light-duty vehicle test cycle). With CATL involved in the project, we thought Rising Auto would use Choco-SEBs, the swappable 26.5-kWh battery modules the Chinese battery maker developed.This is not the only interesting bit about the new battery pack. Thanks to a system called Quick Click, the component is fast to swap: 2 minutes and 30 seconds. NIOs Power Stations 2.0 do that in 3 minutes.With Rising Auto using these swappable battery packs, SAIC should expand the idea to other electric vehicles. We would not be surprised if MG vehicles get them in a few years. That would be a way for SAIC to expand Rising Power to Europe. We shall see.
Unfortunately for that short guy in the Kremlin and the Japanese automaker, the Ukrainian army and partisans held their ground. The southern counteroffensive that began three weeks ago is a testament to their steadfastness. The engagements in the Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts also showed how poorly trained the Russian army is. Low morale and old gear didnt help the Russians either, which is why Putin decided to mobilize approximately 300,000 reservists in a major escalation of his conflict.Since Toyota suspended manufacturing operations in this part of the world, theyve been closely monitoring the situation, evaluating the future sustainability of the business. The company retained its workforce during these past six months, ensuring that its vehicle plant is ready to restart production if the circumstances allow for it. Better late than never, Toyota has finally admitted that it sees no indication for a restart in the future.We must now act in a way that allows us to protect the values and principles that our predecessors built up and be confident that we can pass them on to the next generation." Using pompous words such as values and principles in this context is shameful of Toyota, especially if you remember that Renault caved in to public pressure, selling their Russian operations for one rouble Even though vehicle production has come to a screeching halt, Toyota isnt leaving Russia for good. We have also determined that our operations in Moscow need to be optimized and restructured  with the clear objective of retaining an effective organization to continue supporting the retail network in providing ongoing service to existing Toyota and Lexus customers.On that note, remember that a wise man famously said that Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.
Toyota, for instance, has already suspended several production facilities throughout the year, and now its turning to a similar approach in October.The reason is the same one as before. The semiconductor shortages, the health issue that still causes problems in the supply chain, as well as a series of other factors, all are forcing Toyota to suspend production at no less than half of its plants in Japan.The company has confirmed that next month, the company plans to temporarily shut down the operations at ten lines in seven plants (out of 28 lines in 14 plants).The production of several key models, including the GR Yaris, the Corolla Sport, the Land Cruiser Prado, the 4Runner, the RAV4 , the FJ Cruiser, and multiple Lexus nameplates is impacted.The temporary suspensions will come into effect beginning on October 3 at the Motomachi Plant and will continue until October 28, when the Hamura Plant will go offline for one full day.Toyota explains that all these production struggles are caused by difficult semiconductor inventory, revealing that its monthly production plan is being adjusted as well.The company originally planned to manufacture around 900,000 units per month between September and November, but due to the impact of semiconductor shortages, its now dropping the target to 800,000 units. Toyota plans to build 250,000 units in Japan and 550,000 units overseas.However, despite all these challenges, Toyota isnt changing its annual target. The company still wants to build 9.7 million vehicles during this fiscal year, so it now expects to recover and therefore accelerate production after November. This means Toyota is still confident the chip inventory would improve towards the end of the year, though the consensus right now is that the semiconductor supply will continue to be challenging throughout 2023 as well.
For several years now America and its rivals have been chasing the development of potentially unstoppable hypersonic missiles. Russia says it already succeeded, and it from time to time says it's launching Kinzhals in Ukraine. On the opposite side, soon enough America will reply in kind, and then some, thanks to the many programs it currently runs with this goal in mind.The latest to enter a new phase is the program for a Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missiles (HACM). Thats an idea born back in 2020 and handed over to the great minds from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon to see what comes out of it.This week, the U.S. Air Force ( USAF ) said it eventually awarded the contract for the scramjet-powered hypersonic weapon to Raytheon. The value of the contract is of just shy of one billion dollars ($985,348,124) and will have the company develop and demonstrate HACM prototypes, but also deliver operationally ready missiles.Raytheon will work on the project for this first-of-its-kind weapon together with Northrop Grumman, but also with some Australian partners.As said, the HACM is a piece of hardware powered by an air-breathing engine capable of pushing the missiles to speeds of over Mach 5 (3,836 mph/6,173 kph). Thats blistering fast, fast enough to potentially allow the missiles to evade defense systems.The development of the HACM should go quite rapidly, as the USAF plans to have them operational by the start of fiscal year 2027. Specific details about the project are not known at this time.
Just like every other industry, agriculture is also getting smarter, embracing more and more the use of intelligent, autonomous solutions that can increase efficiency, reduce labor costs, and help farmers reap more. Agricultural drones such as the XAG P100 are a great example to offer.The P100 was announced by the Chinese drone manufacturer last year in December, along with some other new models that were launched this year: the V50, the M2000, and the M500.XAGs P100 fully autonomous drone is now going global, bringing multiple benefits to the table. The drone has numerous uses around the farm, from spraying pesticides to spreading fertilizers, seeds, and more. The P100 is suitable for large fields, thanks to its upgraded payload capacity of 40 kg (88 lb).Vietnam is the first one on the list to benefit from the competitive features of the drone, with the KPT Fly Team promoting the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) to farmers in the Mekong River delta, using the drone to offer farmers various agricultural services such as pest handling, seeding, fertilizer spreading, and more. After setting the parameters on the mobile app, the P100 does all the work autonomously, with minimal human intervention, as explained by Mr. Khuong, cofounder of KPT.One example offered by KPT to demonstrate the abilities of the P100 is a 70-hectare (173-acre) rice field belonging to a farmer named Nhan, where the drone helped cultivate the rice. According to the owner, manually spraying the pesticides required him to hire up to 25 workers, and even so, the uneven spraying led to poor results. Since using the P100 to do the job instead, the farmer says that he only needs two units of these drones, led by a team of four to six pilots, to do the same job, better, and faster.What makes the XAG P100 drone such a popular choice, in addition to offering a generous payload capacity, is the fact that it comes with a detachable design that separates the flying platform from the task systems, meeting various field needs and making the assembly process easier. It also reduces the weight and size of the drone, making it easier to transport.The drone has a 10 m (around 33 ft) effective spraying width, a granule container with a 60-liter (15.8-gallon) capacity, and can reach a maximum altitude of 2,000 m (6,561 ft). When fully loaded, it can hover for seven minutes and up to 17 with no load.More info about the price, specs, and availability of the XAG P100 agricultural drone can be found on the manufacturers website . You can also watch the video below to find out more about the drone.
SUV

The sense of security the flashing beacons give us means nothing when a speeding driver is distracted and fails to heed the lights. Thats why its essential to activate your 360-degree awareness when youre about to cross the street, especially when you have your kids around. The same goes for a driver. One moment of looking at the phones screen or the nearby miniskirt and you could wreck somebodys life and most probably yours too.The video we see below was caught by the dashboard camera in a vehicle that stopped to let a father with two children cross the street. The man follows the rules and pushes the button to activate the flashing lights. But as he started crossing the road, he forgot all the good advice appropriate for the situation. We see that at the most critical moment, when he mustve checked the traffic in the inside lane, he turns his head toward the little girl on the scooter, who ventured faster ahead.At that moment, thezoomed in and out of the picture like a speeding train. It was a very close call indeed, and the scooter was snatched from under the girl, thrusting her to the ground. Fortunately, she appears to be ok, but this couldve ended much worse. Had they crossed just fractions of a second earlier, the little girl or all three of them couldve been killed by the speeding SUV.According to the San Mateo city manager, the driver of the SUV was an inexperienced teenage boy who returned to the scene to talk to the police. Residents in the area demand change after they alerted authorities in the past several years about similar accidents.Weve been writing emails, weve been speaking at city council meetings, resident and nearby HOA president Max Partl said to ABC7 News . I think now, this video finally triggered some actual real action.The city council announced immediate measures, like reducing the speed in the area by temporarily removing a lane in a section of Franklin Parkway. Adding additional pedestrian crossing beacons to improve the visibility of pedestrians is another measure, and more steps are considered in the longer term.
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A demonstrator holds a sign and a candle during a protest near the National Monument in Jakarta to ask for justice following the recent mutilation of four civilians in the Papua region, Sept. 16, 2022.

None of the four people who were killed in a case that implicated six Indonesian soldiers in Papua province had links with rebels, as police claimed, a leading human rights group said Friday in releasing findings from its own investigation.

A 17-year-old boy was among the victims whose mutilated bodies were found after the killings last month in Mimika Baru, a district in Mimika regency. According to the investigation by rights advocacy group KontraS, its findings contradicted allegations by the police that one of the four slain people had ties to a Papuan armed separatist group.

KontraS investigators went to Mimika last week and talked to the victims relatives as well as police, military investigators and hospital staff.

[The allegations by police] contradict the statements given by the families which were supported by evidence, KontraS deputy coordinator Rivanlee Anandar said during a press conference in Jakarta.

The KontraS investigation found no proof that any of the victims were involved in the separatist movement, Rivanlee said.

Ten people have been named suspects in the murder case, including an army mayor, a captain and four privates. The six army personnel have been arrested, while three of the civilian suspects are in police custody. A tenth suspect is at-large.

The Papua region, at Indonesias far-eastern tip, has been the site of a decades-old separatist insurgency where both the Indonesian security forces and rebels have been accused of committing atrocities against civilians.

Police had also alleged that the killings in Mimika Baru were linked to an illegal arms purchase and that the motive was economic.

Papua police spokesman said that the suspects were posing as gun runners and the victims came to them with 250 million rupiah (U.S.$16,500) in cash in order to purchase the weapons.

According to Rivanlee, one of the victims, Arnold Lokbere, was a church caretaker, while the other victim, Rian Nirigi, was a village chief and church administrator in Nduga regency.

Another victim, Leman Nirigi, worked as a boat skipper and the fourth victim, Atis Tini, was a 17-year-old boy, a minor under Indonesian law, Rivanlee said.

Rivanlee said the polices allegation that the victims tried to buy firearms was not backed up with evidence because a homemade rifle, which was cited as evidence, was missing. Police investigators had said that the suspects threw the gun into a river along with the victims bodies.

Papua Police Public Relations Commissioner Ahmad Musthofa Kamal said the investigation was ongoing.

Where 250 million rupiah in cash came from is still being investigated, Kamal told BenarNews.

KontraS deputy coordinator Rivanlee Anandar (left) and Michael Himan, the attorney for the families of the four people killed in a case that implicated six Indonesian soldiers in Papua, hold a press conference in Jakarta, Sept. 23, 2022. [Pizaro Gozali Idrus/BenarNews]

Michael Himan, an attorney for the victims families, said their relatives, including four people who are students in Jakarta, were now living in fear.

Its difficult for them to study and go about their activities because of the trauma and fear, Himan told BenarNews.

Himan said the families needed psychological help to deal with their grief.

I hope that the families can get justice and the perpetrators be given appropriate punishment, including dismissal from the military, he said, adding that the military had yet to issue an apology to the families.

Army spokesman Hamim Tohari said that the suspects from the armed forces branch who were in custody would face a military tribunal.

If the results of the investigation require that they be tried in a civilian court, it is up to the Supreme Court to decide, he added.

Former army officer on trial

Meanwhile earlier this week, a retired army major went on trial on charges stemming from an incident in which Indonesian soldiers fired shots at protesters and killed four civilians in Papuas Paniai regency in December 2014.

The defendant, Isak Settu, is accused of failing to stop his subordinates from using firearms and live bullets against the protesters, said Ketut Sumedana, a spokesman for the Attorney Generals Office.

The defendant  did not take appropriate and necessary action to stop his men from shooting and engaging in violence that resulted in the death of four civilians, the indictment read.

The trial, held in the South Sulawesi provincial capital of Makassar, was adjourned until Sept. 28. It is based on a human rights tribunal law, which parliament passed in 2002. The law allows the creation of ad hoc courts to try rights abuse cases, including those that happened before the law was passed.

Isaks attorney, Syahrir Cakari, said his client was a liaison officer who was not in command of the troops at that time.

The indictment is false because Isak was not a field commander, Syahrir told BenarNews.

The protest in Paniai flared up after soldiers had assaulted local youths for reprimanding one of the soldiers for driving carelessly.

After President Joko Widodo ordered an investigation into the 2014 killings, the National Commission on Human Rights, which investigated them, described the act as a gross violation of human rights.

A member of the commission, Choirul Anam, said he hoped the ad hoc human rights court in Makassar could deliver justice.

We hope that the court can reveal the chain of command and responsibility, he told BenarNews. This is important for the sake of justice for the victims and the Papuan people.

In a statement released Friday, Human Rights Watch said the trial was an important opportunity to provide a measure of justice and compensation to the families of the victims.

The Indonesian authorities should not squander this important opportunity to finally hold someone accountable for crimes committed during the Paniai massacre, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for the New York-based global watchdog group.

This should be the start of further prosecutions of serious human rights abuses in Papua, and not a one-off effort to close the book on Paniai, he said.

Nazarudin Latif in Jakarta contributed to this report.
Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob (bottom center) addresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York, Sept. 23, 2022.

The U.N. Security Council has not taken serious action to remedy the situation in post-coup Myanmar, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said Friday, adding that the elite bodys five permanent members make it impossible to resolve conflicts by often misusing their veto power.

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Ismail Sabri also said that the Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN needed to scrap an agreement it made with Myanmar to return that country to democracy because the junta has done nothing to implement the accord.

But the Malaysian PM reserved the most scathing criticism in his 22-minute speech for the U.N. Security Council, which he called the world bodys biggest problem.

It is very saddening when the Security Council does not take any serious action in dealing with this situation. Some even see the Security Council as having washed its hands off and handing the matter over to ASEAN, he said.

The power of veto is often misused to favor the world powers that have it. It is not democratic and violates the principles of human rights. This makes it impossible for conflicts to be resolved by any of the permanent members of the Council.

For any Security Council resolution to be adopted none of its permanent members  Russia, Britain, China, France, and the United States  can veto it. And China and Russia, analysts say, will prevent any strong action, such as broad, binding sanctions, being taken against the violent Burmese junta.

The juntas security forces have killed more than 2,300 people since the generals seized power by toppling an elected government on Feb. 1, 2021. Just last week, junta forces had fired on a village school in Myanmars Sagaing region, killing at least seven children, in what appeared to be the deadliest incident involving children since last years military coup.

Meanwhile, the Burmese junta has also willfully ignored a five-point agreement it reached with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in April last year. The agreement was seen as a roadmap to return Myanmar to democracy, but junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has not implemented a single point of that agreement, known as the five-point consensus, analysts say.

The Malaysian prime minister, too, said the consensus had gone nowhere.

Malaysia is disappointed that there is no meaningful progress in the implementation of the ASEAN Five Point Consensus especially by the Myanmar junta. In its current form, the ASEAN Five Point Consensus cannot continue any longer, Ismail Sabri said.

Therefore, this consensus needs to be given a new lease of life and refined based on a clearer framework, timeframe and end goal.

Earlier this week Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said that Kuala Lumpur was planning to press the Southeast Asian bloc into deciding the fate of its five-point consensus on Myanmar before the ASEAN summit in November.

If it is not working we have to decide whats next. We cannot go in November and then start talking about it. We have to do the groundwork now, he had told reporters after a meeting with Burmese opposition members in New York.

Meanwhile, Ismail Sabri also said that the political situation Myanmar had made the situation worse for millions of Myanmar refugees, including the stateless Rohingya, hundreds of thousands of whom fled from a brutal military offensive in Rakhine state in 2017 that the United States has since labeled a genocide.

Although Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol, Malaysia, on humanitarian grounds, accepted nearly 200,000 Rohingya refugees, the Malaysian PM said.

Therefore, it is the responsibility of all countries, including the countries participating in the convention, to take in more refugees to be resettled in their respective countries.

Ismail Sabri said it was important for the world to address the root cause of the Rohingya crisis.

He said: I believe that this issue will not be resolved as long as the crisis in the country continues.
Supporters mob UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi after he was acquitted of 40 counts of graft at the Shah Alam Court complex outside Kuala Lumpur, Sept. 23, 2022.

Updated at 12:34 ET on 2022-09-23

A Malaysian court on Friday acquitted Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, the president of the countrys largest party that anchors the ruling coalition, of corruption charges although he is still standing trial in a second graft-related case.

The prosecution can appeal the verdict by the Shah Alam High Court, but Zahids acquittal deals a blow to the political opposition, which had alleged that he was pushing for an early general election because of his court cases, according to an analyst.

After being acquitted, the United Malays National Organization party president and former deputy prime minister told reporters that he had finally gotten justice.

I was humiliated and subjected to all sorts of allegations and punished in the court of public opinion, but today, on a Friday, justice has prevailed, Zahid said in the courthouse lobby before leaving the premises with his wife and children.

The verdict in the trial of the United Malays National Organization president came a month to the day that the Federal Court sent UMNO giant and former Prime Minister Najib Razak to prison for 12 years after rejecting his final appeal in his corruption conviction linked to the 1MDB financial scandal.

In Fridays ruling, Shah Alam High Court Judge Mohd Yazid Mustafa said the prosecution had failed to prove a case against Zahid on all grounds.

I hereby acquit and discharge the accused from all charges without calling for his defense as the prosecution has failed to make out a prima facie case, Mohd Yazid said.

The judge took more than two hours to deliver the verdict.

Zahid was accused of extending a visa-processing companys contract in exchange for 50.56 million ringgit (U.S. $11 million) in bribes as home minister, between 2014 and 2018.

Zahid, an MP who represents the Bagan Datuk constituency in Perak state, was charged with 33 counts of allegedly receiving 43.39 million ringgit (U.S. $9.5 million) from Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd to help extend the contract for the companys one-stop visa processing center and foreign visa system in China.

He also faced seven other charges of allegedly taking bribes in different currencies, including in Singapore and U.S. dollars, and in euros. Zahids alleged offenses allegedly took place at his own private residence and at a former deputy prime ministers official residence.

UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi meets with supporters after his acquittal at the Shah Alam Court complex, Sept. 23, 2022. [S. Mahfuz/BenarNews]

But Zahid is still standing trial in another corruption case.

In April, he was ordered to defend himself against 47 criminal charges in the case related to the alleged misappropriation of a total of 52.25 million ringgit (U.S. $11.42 million) from his family-owned foundation, which was set up to help the economically disadvantaged.

In that trial, Zahid is accused of using the funds to make credit card and car payments.

The UMNO president has been the spotlight in recent days for more than his corruption cases. He has been stridently pushing for early elections  he wants them held this year.

Critics have alleged that Zahids call for early polls is related to his corruption cases, although he has vehemently denied it.

I still believe that our judicial system does not side with anyone. Anyone claiming that I am afraid of being convicted is actually afraid of me, he told some 3,000 UMNO members at a special briefing late last month.

These people are the ones who lack confidence and are afraid of their own shadows.

Not everyone is happy with the verdict.

(Big) step backward in fight against corruption and abuse of power in Malaysia, political analyst Bridget Welsh said on Twitter.

The Prosecution will likely appeal, added the University of Nottingham Malaysia academic.

As of late Friday, there was no immediate public comment from senior opposition leaders.

Still, Fridays verdict will be a shot in the arm for Zahid and UMNO, said Azmi Hassan, senior fellow at Akademi Nusantara, a local think-tank.

The opposition can no longer say that the reason for UMNO to push for elections is because of the court cases. It is no longer relevant, he told BenarNews.

The acquittal will give a boost to Zahids position.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (left) and Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Oct. 9, 2019.

Chinas security pact with the Solomon Islands has highlighted diplomatic gains made over two decades in a vast Pacific region neglected by the United States.

The remote Pacific Island countries, small in population and lacking in economic clout, might not seem an obvious choice for China to influence, but both sides have benefited.

China has become an important and welcome source of loans, infrastructure and aid for the region, which struggles to get finance and is frequently battered by natural disasters.

For Beijings part, it has further isolated Taiwan internationally by flipping some of Taipei's Pacific allies and has potentially secured supportive voices in international institutions. It has gained access to fisheries and mineral resources and has also inched closer to establishing a military presence in the region.

Taiwan, which Beijing views as a rebellious province, explains much of Chinas interest in the region, said Sandra Tarte, an international politics expert at the University of the South Pacific.

Countering Taiwan has been a key thing, she said. That has always been the driver of China here in the Pacific.

The Solomon Islands and Kiribati switched their diplomatic recognition to Beijing from Taiwan in 2019, a victory in renewed Chinese government efforts to whittle away Taiwans few remaining allies and pressure it into reunification. Taiwan is now recognized by just 14 countries, including four Pacific Island states.

In building up its influence, China has pressured the Pacific Islands Forum, an important regional institution, to adopt its One China policy, but without success so far.

Chinas pact with the Solomon Islands, which was signed in April and allows Beijing to send security forces to protect its economic interests, has renewed concerns that it seeks a military outpost in the region. But Beijings efforts to get 10 Pacific nations to also sign a broad agreement that would shape relations were rebuffed. Several Pacific leaders have said they would not welcome a challenge to U.S. military dominance.

Some experts say the vulnerability of Pacific nations has made them a potentially high-reward strategic investment for Chinas government as it pursues its Taiwan aims and other goals such as blunting U.S. projection of military power into Asia and the Pacific.

Lack of economic development and perceptions in Pacific capitals of neglect by the United States and its allies created a void that China has filled with investment, loans and high-level diplomacy, former diplomats and other experts said in a report released by the United States Institute of Peace this week.

Perhaps to a greater extent than any other geographic area, the Pacific Islands offer China a low-investment, high-reward opportunity to score symbolic, strategic, and tactical victories in pursuit of its global agenda, the report from the congressionally funded research institute said.

Pacific countries own agendas also have drawn Chinas involvement.

Fiji, among the most populous of the Pacific Island nations, courted relations with China and countries such as India and Russia after New Zealand and Australia sought to punish it for a 2006 coup.

There was a convergence of interests with China, said Tarte. For Fiji, China was there as a political ally as well as an economic partner and security partner.

Ralph Regenvanu, a Vanuatu lawmaker, has said it is easier to get Chinas assistance for big-ticket projects such as infrastructure compared with the more stringent requirements of other countries.

Some analysts date the start of heightened Chinese interest in the Pacific Islands to its 2006 economic development and cooperation forum in Fiji. Chinas President Xi Jinping attended summits in the region twice in the past decade.

U.S. involvement in the region began to diminish after the breakup of the Soviet Union. In the past two decades Washington has been preoccupied with conflicts in the Middle East.

The U.S. and allies such as Australia and New Zealand have been overtly responding to Chinas increased influence in the Pacific since about 2018. The recent flurry of Western and Chinese diplomatic activity in the region partly reflects that the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down travel for two years has faded and face-to-face meetings can take place again.
U.S. Army Soldiers train alongside Republic of Fiji Military, Australian, New Zealand and British forces during Exercise Cartwheel 2022 in Fiji, Sept. 17, 2022.

Updated at 9:04 p.m. ET on 2022-09-23

A multinational military training exercise involving American, British, Australian, New Zealand, and Fijian troops ended Friday in Fiji, one of the many small island countries in the Pacific, where rival superpowers China and the United States are vying for influence.

The 11-day Exercise Cartwheel, named after Operation Cartwheel  a major military operation for the Allies in the Pacific during World War II  aimed to build up expeditionary readiness and interoperability, the U.S. Embassy in Suva said in a press release.

Around 270 troops from five nations took part in drills conducted in both jungle and urban environments.

The New Zealand Defense Forces land component commander, Brig. Hugh McAslan, told NZ media that Exercise Cartwheel provided a platform for participating forces to work together and build readiness for military action and other crises.

We have an obligation to work alongside these folks  We are part of the Pacific, McAslan said.

The exercise, meanwhile, drew criticism from Chinese state media, which called the exercise another of the U.S.s important battlegrounds in its game with China.

By conducting joint drills in Fiji, the United States wanted to send a signal to China and regional countries in the South Pacific, the hawkish Global Times said.

The drills should be seen as an effort to counter Chinas influence in the region, the newspaper said.

Influence battle

Chinas has been expanding its influence in the South Pacific while competing with Taiwan for bilateral ties and alliances with island-states scattered in the vast maritime region.

In recent years, China has been developing closer ties with countries in the South Pacific, wooing them with infrastructure loans and economic assistance, as well as military exchanges.

Our assistance to island countries is sincere and results-oriented with no political strings attached, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said last week.

One of them is the Solomon Islands, where China signed a secretive security deal with the local government in April, raising concerns among the U.S. and its Pacific allies that Beijing may be able to deploy security military forces there in the future.

Beijing has not hidden its ambition to set up military bases in the region. In 2018, media reports about Chinas plan to build a base in Vanuatu prompted a stern warning from then-Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

However, China failed to achieve a sweeping trade and security agreement  the China-Pacific Island Countries Common Development Vision  during Foreign Minister Wang Yis Pacific tour in May.

For its part, the U.S. in recent months has ramped up its own efforts to engage with Pacific island nations, with top officials for the Indo-Pacific region actively traveling to the region and meeting with their Pacific counterparts.

Last week, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman met with a number of senior Pacific officials in Hawaii, where she discussed deepening relationships with countries in the region.

In July, at the virtual Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting, chaired by the Fijian Prime Minister, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced a series of commitments to strengthen the U.S.-Pacific nations partnership, including the establishment of new U.S. embassies in Tonga and Kiribati, alongside the reopening of the embassy in the Solomon Islands.

The U.S. government also pledged to triple the funding for the Forum Fisheries Agency to U.S. $60 million per year for the next 10 years.

The State Department is close to renewing strategic partnership agreements, called Compacts of Free Association, or COFAs, with the three Pacific island nations of Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands, according to Special Presidential Envoy Joseph Yun.

The COFAs, which were signed originally between the U.S. and the three Pacific island states during the 1980s and will soon expire, allow the U.S. to operate armed forces in the agreement areas as well as to deny foreign militaries access to those countries waters, airspace and land.

And next week, the first-ever U.S.-Pacific Island Country Summit will take place in Washington on Sept. 28-29, the White House announced earlier this month.

This report was produced by Radio Free Asia (RFA), an online news service affiliated with BenarNews.

CORRECTION: An earlier version used the wrong name to refer to the joint military exercise.
Four occupied regions in eastern and southern Ukraine are set to start voting Friday in Kremlin-engineered referendums on whether to become part of Russia, setting the stage for Moscow to annex the areas in a sharp escalation of the nearly seven-month war
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Broward County Crime Commission to Host Webinar: Active Shooters Among Us: Are the Solutions that Complex?
The Maine Legislatures Government Oversight Committee has voted to obtain a subpoena to force the states child welfare agency to turn over documents related to the deaths of four children last year
SPRINGFIELD  A Hampden County Superior Court judge is poised to decide whether a reporter for The Berkshire Eagle must provide information the newspaper says would violate a promise of confidentiality to an anonymous source.

That information is needed to allow the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, its lawyer says, to defend itself against a civil lawsuit filed by a man who says he was raped by clergy, including former Bishop Christopher J. Weldon.

But in a hearing Thursday before Judge Karen L. Goodwin, an attorney for The Eagle said the dioceses need isnt great enough to violate that confidential source relationship and that the diocese failed to question others who might provide the information.

After hearing about 40 minutes of arguments over Zoom, Goodwin said she would reexamine her previous decision this summer to allow the diocese to obtain limited notes and communications from Eagle journalist Larry Parnass  and will release her decision shortly.

Im going to look at my decision again, Goodwin said. It could mean adhering to it ... Im not representing that Im going to change it.

Goodwin had previously narrowed a broader initial subpoena from the diocese to Parnass in March that she had termed a classic fishing expedition.

At the Thursday hearing, Goodwin pressed the dioceses attorney about why it was pushing so hard for information that could identify a confidential source and possibly have a chilling effect on investigative journalism.

We merely want to defend ourselves from these tort claims, said diocese attorney Michael G. McDonough. He said that statements from sources made to Parnass could reveal whether the man suing the diocese has been consistent in his claims. It could also speak to whether his claims match what he told diocese investigators and a review board.

Turning over notes and communications Parnass gathered in the midst of extensive reporting on the sex abuse scandal could endanger future reporting about the diocese  and other reporting, his attorney said. So would a deposition on those same elements of the case, as sought by the diocese.

This story would never have been published by The Berkshire Eagle had not Mr. Parnass been able to ensure confidential sources of his promise not to reveal their identities, and in that respect, this case is much like many other cases that have involved award-winning, societally important journalism, said attorney Jeffrey J. Pyle. The Watergate case, the Pentagon Papers case, Abu Ghraib, NSA spying  all of those brought to you by the legal protection for confidential sources.

The lawsuit by an unnamed plaintiff against the diocese and eight of its officials was filed in January 2021. It stems from a mans claim he was violently raped and abused by Weldon and two other priests when he was an altar boy in the 1960s.

The Eagles coverage, beginning in 2019, revealed that the diocese attempted to cover up Weldons involvement. That narrative was supported by an independent judges report the following year.

Some of this information only saw daylight due to the help of a source who was promised confidentiality by Parnass, now The Eagles managing editor for innovation.

As discovery in the civil litigation ramped up this year, the diocese subpoenaed Parnass. Pyle, acting on behalf of Parnass and The Eagle, challenged the subpoena and deposition request.

Goodwin, the judge, this summer reduced the scope of the subpoena and deposition, but did not stop them.

Parnass said in court filings said even Goodwins decision to limit what he must produce would compromise his source and the newspapers future investigative reporting.

The legal fallout highlights the vulnerability of journalists working on sensitive stories like clergy sexual abuse. Massachusetts does not have a shield law; judges have to weigh each case independently.

Pyle, the newspapers attorney, said he had reviewed the notes and communications requested by the diocese, and said there is no way to produce them without violating the promised privacy of the source.

Pyle told Goodwin that he believes the diocese has not made a strong enough case as to why it required the information from Parnass. There were others who could supply the information who had not yet been thoroughly probed through deposition  people who had been actually present when John Doe spoke before the dioceses internal review board.

Theres been no showing of need to get his secondhand information about what was said at the review board meeting that overcomes the First Amendment, Pyle said.

Pyle said the release of Parnass notes could damage his ability to continue reporting on this case, in particular.

The stakes are very high here, Pyle said.

Attorney McDonough said stakes also are high for the diocese, which is trying to find and assess any evidence that the diocese was wrong about its stance on Bishop Weldon and John Does credibility  a stance that led to seven counts in the lawsuit.

The diocese found John Does allegations against two other priests credible, and have been supportive and paid for his therapy, McDonough said.

We have been nothing but an open door to the survivor as we would to any survivor because we take this as our religious mission, the church, to root out this scourge of clergy abuse, he said.

McDonough said if what was said about Weldon was so clear to Mr. Parnass, the diocese wants to see that information.
Members of the New York state Board of Regents vote in favor of the P-12 consent agenda on Sept. 13 in Albany, N.Y. The agenda included the adoption of revised statewide rules that private schools, including Jewish Yeshivas, face stricter enforcement of long-standing requirements that they provide academic instruction "substantially equivalent" to that in the public sector.
Ralph Gardner Jr. is a journalist whose work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and The New Yorker. He can be reached at ralph@ralphgardner.com. The opinions expressed by columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of The Berkshire Eagle.
Baker reaches to Washington for energy aid lifeline, says governors 'very worried' about energy prices, availability
Jesus Christ came to earth to die and provide a path of salvation for humanity. As He departed and returned to the Father, He promised His disciples a future return, where He would come in full power. It was something He addressed before at various points in His ministry as well  that there would be a return of the heir of David and an end of things as they are.

In the Mount Olivet Discourse, recorded in Gospel of Matthew, He outlines what the world will look like at the end of days  including signs to look for  and advises the church on how to conduct itself. One of the signs and rumblings that Jesus talks about at the beginning of the Mount Olivet Discourse is wars and rumors of wars. Some people interpret this to mean that wars and rumors of wars increasing is a sign that Jesus may return at any moment, while others dismiss that concern.

When examined in context, it is clear that wars and rumors of wars will increase as the return of Jesus approaches, but no one war is necessarily the herald of the end of days, since only the Father knows when that will happen.

What Does "Wars and Rumors of Wars" Mean?

When the Bible refers to wars and rumors of wars, it means large-scale conflicts between people groups and nation states. These are not minor, one-off skirmishes, which would be called battles.

The Bible tends to differentiate between one-time conflicts and small conflicts. In the Old Testament, Israel engages in small and large conflicts, and they are differentiated. For example, the Battle of Jericho was a one-time conflict, but the Israelites had a war against the Babylonians.

When Jesus said there would be wars and rumors of wars, He meant that people would engage in military conflicts and discuss military conflicts.

What Is the Context of This Verse?

The Book of Matthew contains the most complete copies of some of Jesus sermons from His earthly ministry. The two most notable are the Sermon on the Mount and the Mount Olivet Discourse. The latter is where Jesus taught His disciples about the Signs of the End of the Age. Jesus had just finished speaking to a crowd of people where He decried the sins of the Pharisees and the Scribes. He also laments over the rebellion of Jerusalem, and hinted at impending destruction. The disciples tried to engage him about the Temple, and He began to discuss the end times.

Jesus knew not long after His ascension back to the Father, Rome would sack Jerusalem and destroy the Second Temple  known as Herods Temple. When Jesus died, His blood covered the sins of all people, making a path for a relationship with God without needing to go through a priest, make sacrifices to atone for sins, or travel to Jerusalem. Because the works of man are insufficient for true sanctification, grace through faith became the way to a relationship with God because of Jesus sacrifice.

While He was getting ready to go to the cross, He wanted to prepare the disciples for His death, Resurrection, and the church. When they brought up the temple, Jesus took this moment as an opportunity to prepare them for the difficult days ahead.

The Temple of Solomon was destroyed by the Babylonians, and the Second Temple would be destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Romans, which Jesus prophesied, here will not be left one stone upon another that will not be thrown down (Matthew 24:2b). Between the Ascension and the Second Coming, the church would spread the good news, but it would also suffer greatly.

Because the heart of man is wicked and loves evil, and all men are born into sin, Jesus knew that His death and resurrection has the power to transform people, but some would not embrace it. He even tells the disciples, For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man (Matthew 2437-39).

Time continues to march forward, and people live their lives as they please, and many will be unprepared when He comes again, just like people had been warned, but were unprepared, when the flood came during Noahs lifetime.

Is This Verse Tied to the End Times?

Jesus certainly is speaking of the end of days during this sermon, but He assures His disciples not to panic or be worried about it. In fact, He says, And Jesus answered them, See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places (Matthew 24:4-7).

False messiahs, wars, earthquakes, famines, and other disasters will be a part of the cycle of destruction that will occur while the world awaits the return of the Lord. They will increase, just like birth pains, but are not necessarily the specific harbinger or herald of the return. More specific signs Jesus mentions during this sermon include the Abomination of the Desolation in verse 15, great tribulation in verse 29, the sun and the moon going dark and the stars falling in verse 29, and a loud trumpet call.

While wars are a sign, there are more specific calamities the Bible clarifies will occur before the Second Coming. What these signs and events will actually look like when they happen are a matter of great debate among theologians.

Are Wars Today a Sign of the End Times?

In a technical sense, the end times began when Jesus ascended to Heaven. When the Lord said there would be birth pains, He intentionally used the image of a womans labor while giving birth. Labor is an undetermined amount of time. Some births go faster than others, and some are more intense than others, so it is unpredictable about when exactly a baby will arrive. However, contractions get stronger and stronger.

Understanding the signs of the end times like labor, in a technical sense, every war and rumor of war is a sign of the end times. They are a reminder that this earth is groaning for Jesus return, that His return is inevitable, and that mans wickedness will only increase without the Lord and to put hope and faith in Him  not in man. No one person can predict what war, disease, or event may set off the events that will trigger the return of the Lord. But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only (Matthew 24:36).

Anyone who comes forward claiming that he or she can predict the day is a liar and deceiver. The Father has chosen to keep that knowledge secret. Todays wars are part of the heralding of the end of days, though the Second Coming may be far off in time, or it may be today.

The Bible encourages believers to be ready, and challenges unbelievers to prepare themselves and try to pursue a relationship with Jesus Christ, because He will return. The Second Coming and the Judgment Day, though some theologians may disagree about when they will happen, are going to happen. One day Jesus will return in His full power and glory, and it is the job of the Christian to serve Him and pursue a relationship with Him, and tell the world about the gift of salvation, so that everyone has an opportunity to know God and have faith.

Rather than getting caught up obsessing about the End of Days, arguing about whose interpretation of the end times events is correct, or ignoring it altogether, Christians should remember daily their Savior could return at any moment, rejoice, and evangelize.

But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect (Matthew 24:43-44).

Sources

Gibbs, Jeffrey. Jerusalem and Parousia Jesus Eschatological Discourse in Matthews Gospel. St. Louis: Concordia Academic Press, 2000.

Sproul, R.C. The Last Days According to Jesus When DId Jesus Say He Would Return? Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998.

Walvoord, John. Matthew Thy Kingdom Come. Chicago: Moody Press, 1974.

Photo credit: Getty Images/zabelin

Bethany Verrett is a freelance writer and editor. She maintains a faith and lifestyle blog graceandgrowing.com, where she muses about the Lord, life, culture, and ministry.
BOISE - The Idaho State Department of Agriculture says there has been significant interest in hemp and hemp-derived products in animal food.

However, officials say hemp or hemp-derived products, including CBD, are not recognized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or the Association of American Feed Control Officials as legal animal feed ingredients. Similarly, Idaho law does not recognize hemp as a feed or remedy ingredient.

Safe levels of hemp and hemp-derived products in animal feed have not yet been established under federal or state law, say officials. As such, the products are not approved feed ingredients and cannot lawfully be added to, or incorporated into commercial food for animals, including feeds, treats, and remedies intended for pets, livestock, or any other animal.

In 2021, the Idaho Legislature passed House Bill 126, which legalized the licensed production and handling of hemp in Idaho. However, the new law did not legalize hemp in every setting or product type. As hemp manufacturing begins to take place in Idaho, officials with the Idaho State Department of Agriculture say they are working with new hemp licensees and animal feed companies to understand what is legal in the state.

The Idaho State Department of Agriculture enforces animal feed laws across the state. "We recognize that many retailers have been distributing products with hemp or hemp-derived ingredients under the assumption these products are allowed in Idaho. ISDA appreciates the collaborative relationship we have with our customers, and we want to give customers time to comply with the law," says an ISDA release. "Effective November 1, 2022, ISDA will be inspecting for hemp and hemp-derived animal feeds and remedies. These products are not legal in Idaho, and if found on or after November 1, 2022, will be subject to a stop sale and further action from the department."
IDAHO COUNTY - On Thursday, the Idaho County Sheriff's Office is remembering Deputy John Thomas Huston, who was tragically killed by a drunk driver while on duty 33 years ago today.

On September 22, 1989, Deputy Sheriff Huston was operating a roadblock during the search of two escaped prisoners from the North Idaho Correctional Institution when he was struck by a drunk driver. The driver immediately fled the scene, however was arrested a short time later.

Deputy Huston, who was 33-years-old at the time of the incident, had served with the Idaho County Sheriff's Office for nine years and had previously served four years with the United States Army.

He was survived by his wife and three children.

Deputy John Thomas Huston, End of Watch: Friday, September 22, 1989.
OLYMPIA  Gov. Jay Inslee and other representatives from Washington have spent the past week on a trade mission to Finland, Sweden and Norway focusing on energy, technology, sustainability and climate change. Representatives from the Department of Commerce, the Port of Seattle, the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce and employers in the state, such as Microsoft, joined the governor.

In a call with reporters, Inslee said anyone who is anxious about the threat of climate change would be pleased with the meetings they were having.

Anytime we consolidate research, anytime we scale up the size of these industries, anytime we jointly explore innovative new technologies, theyre going to all happen faster, Inslee said. They recognize that, as do we.

In Finland, Inslee learned about the countrys approach to nuclear waste disposal and developing 5G and 6G technologies. In Sweden, he talked with leaders about the countrys transition to a green economy. In Norway, he met with businesses, such as Corvus Energy, a supplier for zero-emission batteries and applications, to discuss partnerships in Washington. He also learned about electric ferries being deployed in Norways transportation system.

Inslee said it was a productive trip that is creating results in Washington through strengthened partnerships with companies. Those companies, such as a number of battery companies, could soon begin operations and hiring in Washington, he said.

Inslee said these businesses main concern with opening in the next year is the speed of permitting in Washington. Inslee said he is interested in accelerating the permitting process to allow that, such as by providing more resources to the Department of Ecology to make permitting decisions faster.

These are relatively short-term investments that are very possible, he said.

When talking with companies in these countries, Inslee said the transition to clean energy is happening extremely fast, and its not just one industry. He pointed to the use of offshore winds, new 5G technology and electric ferries.

Members of the state Department of Commerce also visited Neste, a leading supplier of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel based in Finland. Neste partners with Alaska Airlines, and Washington will continue to work with them to learn more about how to bring a sustainable aviation market to the state, Chris Green, from the Department of Commerce, told reporters.

That market is developing, but its improved and made great strides in the last 10 or 20 years, Green said.

All of the new ideas could mean tremendous job creation in Washington as well as reducing the states carbon footprint, Inslee said.

The trip was paid for by a combination of outside sponsorship, funds provided by the Legislature and delegate fees paid to the Department of Commerce, according to the governors office.
Closing the book on nearly five decades of history as a holding company, Rand Merchant Investment Holdings (RMI) is set to change the group's name on the JSE to OUTsurance.

Source: Reuters.

RMI shareholders will cast their last votes on 8 November.

The firm listed in 2011 and traces its roots to the RMB group of companies founded by GT Ferreira, Laurie Dippenaar and Paul Harris in 1977.

In this time, RMI has delivered 453.5% in total shareholders' return, and is best known for its JSE listing of Discovery and Momentum.

"It is time to accept that our job is done," RMI chief executive officer, Herman Bosman said.

Given the current regulatory environment, the potential of creating financial services startups in the near future such as Discovery and Momentum are unlikely, he added.

The chief executive officer of OUTsurance Holdings, Marthinus Visser, is optimistic about the prospect of OUTsurance being a listed company.

In its most recent financial results, OUTsurance Group achieved gross written premiums of R23.5bn, operating profit and normalised earnings of R2.9bn and R2.3bn, respectively
Bafana Mthembu a senior creative for DNA Brand Architects is a man of many talents.

Picture Supplied.

Inspired by his heritage

An award-winning creative he is also the creator of Asgqoke, a social media series where he uses influences of the Amabhinca culture and his Zulu heritage to create fashion content that airs every Sunday.

I was inspired by all the get ready with me (GRWM) videos trending on social media, then I saw that no one was showcasing South African sub-cultures when getting dressed and I felt the Bhinca subculture has more range than any subculture in Mzansi, thats just my opinion, he says.

An accountant by profession, Mthembu - also known as Eezy Nkabi - always wanted to get into fashion, but did not realise the many other career possibilities available, such as working for an agency as a creative.

I went to a school in Soweto so I did not know about these opportunities - that I could study to be a strategist or to be a photographer. Being in the creative space was something that was very far out of my sight, which is why I studied accounting, he says.

Getting into an agency

After not making the cut to join DNA Brand Architects in early 2018 he started helping the agency out with getting engagement for campaigns on social media.

There was a programme called DNA for Madiba, I saw a post online and I went to that programme. Unfortunately, I didnt make the cut of individuals who were selected to work at the agency. So I befriended a few people in the agency and every time there was an opportunity, they would tell me to apply. I kept applying until I got an interview and bang I got the job, he says.

Mthembu landed a job as a community manager in 2019 and after a while decided to ask for a more fulfilling role as a creative thinker.

I started as a community manager and I didnt [originally] know what that was but I would respond to peoples questions on social media, and then I got bored and told them I wanted a change, and because its a very open agency they gave me the platform to do that, says Mthembu.

He quickly rose up the ranks and became a senior creative who has worked with brands such as Tastic, Bathu, Fattis and Monis, Netflix, Telkom and musician Thandiswa Mazwai.

Working in a small agency helped me see quickly how things come alive and the work that goes behind that, he says.

Content that just lands

Mthembu says he was not expecting the level of engagement he has had with his series but it's affirming that he is on the right path. He is now also not only a Prism award winning creative but a South African Traditional Music Awards nominated content creator.

When I started Asgqoke it was for representation for South African subcultures, I just wanted to create content for fun and for jokes. The first day I started I posted two videos of a taxi driver look and a pantsula look. The reception was great. I really didnt expect the content to blow up like it did. I think what makes people interested is its authenticity, says Mthembu.

Looking towards the future the creative says he wants to see himself in a creative director role.

"I want to be a creative director at some point, but have not set in stone what agency I want to work for. In my opinion an agency is not supposed to make you feel like you made it, its more important to work for the title and have a voice that people feel that they can listen to, he says.
The Rhenus Group has launched a new storage warehouse in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. This strategic addition expands the Rhenus warehousing space to more than 24,000 square metres, strengthening its local capabilities and creating new jobs.

Source: Supplied

The facility measures 7,700 square metres  growing the companys warehousing capacity in Durban by more than 50%. This facility plays an integral role in serving the Port of Durban, which handles 32% of all South Africas ships. The additional premises are set to attract new clients from various industry sectors  including ones that Rhenus currently serves like automotive, healthcare and food and beverages.

The warehouse is located at Northfield Business Park in the north of Durban, just 21 kilometres from the King Shaka International Airport and 24 kilometres from the Durban Container Terminal.

The facility offers a range of solutions such as loading and offloading, packing, cross-docking, and picking, as well as the capability of handling food-graded items. With its new cross-dock area, the warehouse boasts high efficiency and quick loading and unloading turnaround times.

Demand for warehouse space

According to Kishore Kanayelal, regional director, KwaZulu-Natal at Rhenus South Africa, increased demand for warehouse space, as well as more service offerings, have been driving strong growth. With KwaZulu-Natal having experienced many challenging circumstances, the launch of a new warehouse comes as welcome relief to a community in need of good news.

"We are proud that we have created more than a hundred new jobs to service the demand in our area. These additional 7,700 square metres strengthen our local capabilities significantly," Kanayelal explains.

The offering of cross-docking means more efficient goods handling, reduced labour costs and accelerated delivery times  which are real benefits to Rhenus clients. "The launch of this new warehouse marks an exciting time for us as a business. It showcases our commitment to delivering innovative solutions that meet our clients transport and warehousing needs," concludes Kanayelal.
In our continuing series exploring sustainable development and the associated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we turn our attention to SDG 3 which promises to ensure healthy lives. Once again, when we scrutinise this promise it is empty. Through the 2030 Agenda for Universal Health Coverage (UHC2030) it seems that debt-based neocolonialism and oppressive global governance by a global public-private partnership are the real goals.

In the first part of this series, we looked at the United Nations (UNs) Sustainable Development agenda. Contrary to most peoples perception of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this agenda has little to do with environmentalism or reducing CO2 emissions.

Instead, it is a mechanism for introducing global governance and particularly global financial governance into every aspect of our lives and every corner of our society and polity. It enables the continuation of the same debt imperialism long used by the Anglo-American Empire to entrap nations in a new, equally predatory system of global financial governance.

Agenda 2030 was first outlined with General Assembly Resolution 70/1 (A/Res/70/1). In October 2015, this Resolution committed the UN to Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In UN parlance, sustainability is misleadingly used as a synonym for transformation. Nothing about the SDGs is as it first appears. The devil is omnipresent in the detail and, as with all SDGs, we should approach SDG 3, which the UN claims will ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, with considerable caution.

The UHC2030 Public-Private Partnership

The Universal Health Coverage agenda for 2030 (UHC2030) is a United Nations (UN) global public health initiative designed to achieve UN Agenda 2030 SDG 3.

UHC2030 claims to provide a global platform and space for multiple stakeholders to connect, work together and influence national and international commitments. The stated objective of these stakeholders is to make quality health services available for all.

The UHC2030 homepage. Source: UHC2030

In order to supposedly achieve SDG 3, UHC2030 brings together partners, or stakeholders, from both the public and the private sector to collaborate on the transformation of global healthcare. UHC2030 is a global public-private partnership (G3P) attempting to centralise worldwide control of healthcare.

In Part 1 of this series, we considered the 2016 report from UN-DESA, which found that G3Ps were not fit for purpose. The UNs own investigators stated that a number of measures were required to make UN-G3Ps viable. Yet, to date, none of those improvements have been implemented.

UN-DESA noted that the commitment to G3Ps was ideological. The evidence shows that the UHC2030 global public-private partnership (UHC-G3P) is unlikely to deliver the claimed benefits. That is, if the real objective is to deliver quality health services to all.

Controlling public health policy and healthcare regulations at the world, national, regional and eventually local level is what the sustainable development of healthcare is all about. It is the transformation of healthcare everywhere.

So, who are the stakeholders and why do they want to influence national and international commitments to healthcare? Can they be trusted to deliver quality health services to everyone on Earth?

Or is there another agenda behind the stakeholders desire to transform our healthcare systems?

UHC2030 and Stakeholder Capitalism

G3Ps are formed of stakeholders based upon the idea, first promoted during the 1970s, of stakeholder capitalism. It proposes that the world will be a better place if multinational corporations act as trustees of society.

The legal definition of trustee: the person appointed, or required by law, to execute a trust; one in whom an estate, interest, or power is vested, under an express or implied agreement to administer or exercise it for the benefit or to the use of another.

WEF Chairman Klaus Schwab and his book Stakeholder Capitalism.

Through the G3Ps that are set to provide sustainable development across the world, we are invited to accept that the Earth, all life and every aspect of our lives will be improved if global corporations are invested with the power to administer the entire global estate. The primary function of the governments we elect is to enable the transformation to take place.

The UHC-G3P consists of 83 national governments, including Iran, Lebanon, Somalia, Ghana, Uganda, Yemen, Myanmar, France, Germany, the UK, the US and Ukraine. Other nation-state partners contribute via multinational organisations.

For example, the Russian Federation is a UHC-G3P partner through the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Asia-Europe Foundation (AEF). Similarly, China partners with the UHC-G3P through the AEF and Israel via the IPU. Numerous UN agencies, including the UNDP and the WHO, and various philanthropic foundations, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, are also UHC-G3P stakeholder partners.

The primary UHC2030 objective is to influence national and international commitments. It is a G3P engaged in policy development. The subsequent enabling environments, funded by taxpayers, are enthusiastically endorsed by the UHC-G3P, which states:

National governments should progressively increase their investment in health by either moving towards allocating at least 15% of their annual budget to health, or up to 5% of their annual GDP[.] [. . .] This increased budget for health should be raised through mandatory and fair pooling mechanisms (such as improving tax revenue collection, setting up social health insurance)[.]

For most developed countries this wont require any additional spending on their own healthcare. The majority already spend more than 5% of GDP. In 2020, the US spent nearly 19%. Germany was the second highest spender, devoting nearly 13% of German GDP to health.

The same is not true for developing nations. Many spend considerably less on healthcare as a percentage of GDP. Djibouti and the Democratic Republic of Congo spend just 2%, Pakistan and India around 3%. Sri-Lanka, Yemen, Syria, Egypt and Iraq are among the many other nations that would all need to increase relative healthcare spending to meet UHC-G3P sustainability targets.

UHC-G3P Debt for Healthcare Destruction Swaps

Low to middle income countries (LMICs) will need to either re-prioritise spending or significantly increase GDP, to create potential surplus, in order to meet UHC2030 demands. This is going to be difficult because these nations saw debt/GDP ratios escalate wildly as a result of the global policy response to the pseudopandemic.

The association between falling GDP and increased child mortality is well known. Prior to the pseudopandemic, many LMICs were already struggling to maintain precarious public health systems. The additional economic shocks had a predictable detrimental impact upon health care provision, especially for the most vulnerable.

A health worker takes a swab from a woman during mass testing in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19, in Nairobi, Kenya May 28, 2020. Source: Reuters

The United Nations International Childrens Emergency Fund (UNICEF) were well aware of the risk. In July 2020, it estimated that an additional 6.7 million children under 5 would be pushed into malnutrition, suffering all the corresponding long-term health costs and higher associated mortality rates.

UNICEF noted that this disaster would be caused, not by COVID-19, but as a result of the economic, food, and health systems disruptions.

Yet UNICEF, a UHC-G3P stakeholder, inexplicably concluded:

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to increase the risk of all forms of malnutrition. The wasting-focused estimates we present here are likely to be conservative. [. . .] The disruption of other health services during lockdowns will further compromise maternal and child health and mortality. [. . .] [T]he profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on early life nutrition could have intergenerational consequences for child growth and development and life-long impacts on education, chronic disease risks, and overall human capital formation[.]

There was no profound impact from the COVID-19 pandemic. None of the effects UNICEF described had anything to do with a respiratory disease. They were all the result of policy decisions taken in response to an alleged pandemic.

Knowing that the economic and health system disruption would kill vulnerable people, the UHC2030 multi-stakeholder partnership ploughed ahead with that disruption. They urged every government to invest more in COVID-19 response measures and treatments, as recommended by the WHO, a UHC-G3P stakeholder.

Bold emergency regulations and legislation were enforced. Inalienable rights were sacrificed and collective responsibility pursued. Patient safetyrelated to COVID-19was prioritised by governments by providing financial support for innovative solutions.

The impact of this kind of universal health coverage on an LMICs, like Uganda, was devastating. With 74 alleged COVID-19 deaths per million of population (DPM), compared to a claimed 3,190 DPM in the US, Uganda didnt have a pandemic.

Unfortunately, the shutdown of global supply chains and international markets by the developed nations, who claimed they did have a pandemic, hit Ugandas economy hard. Ugandan export markets evaporated, businesses collapsed, unemployment soared as people were forced to migrate from urban areas to the countryside and return to subsistence farming.

As a lucky UHC2030 partner, the Ugandan government also had to borrow heavily to implement the supposedly necessary COVID-19 measures. It did so at the expense of preventative measures against other diseases like malaria, a disease that regularly leads to more than 260-280 DPM in Uganda.

Coerced into throwing everything at fighting a disease four times less dangerous than Malaria, Uganda also embraced additional public health risks. The Ugandan debt to GDP ratio in shot up from 22% to 41% in a single year and, by 2021, 9% of Ugandan revenue was spent on servicing its debts while GDP growth collapsed.

A report from The Center for Global Development revealed the effect of so-called universal health coverage in Uganda. It could be described as the evisceration of Ugandan healthcare:

Deterioration in essential health services[,] [. . .] reduced case finding for HIV/AIDS and malaria. Patients with chronic conditions who continuously relied on drugs for their survival [. . .] were unable to get their refills, while others could not afford medication due to lack of income. Patients who had been newly diagnosed with cancer were not able to be initiated into treatment. [. . . ] [A] majority of patients with these conditions faced an increased risk of complications and death due to inability to access healthcare[.] [. . .] These delayed initiations and interruption of treatment cycles resulted in increased stress, anxiety, disease progression, recurrence, and premature deaths.

In response to this man-made health disaster, as a UHC2030 stakeholder, the World Bank, decided that Ugandas priority was to continue to invest in COVID-19 prevention measures it didnt need. This kind of suicidal economic planning in response to a non-existent pandemic meant that LMICs like Uganda were crushed, not by COVID-19, but by the global policy response to COVID-19.

UHC-G3P Neocolonialism

The chances of many LMICs being able to meet the minimum 5% of GDP healthcare investment required by UHC2030 seems remote, unless they slash spending in other sectors. However, in partnership with the World Bank, the UHC-G3P suggest another way LMICs can meet its targets.

Debt restructuring mechanisms in Low-income countries and debt sustainability/reduction in Middle-Income countries.

In 2020, the G20 agreed a common framework for restructuring government debt. This built upon the previously established debt service suspension initiative (DSSI).

The DSSI enabled struggling LMICs to suspend bi-lateral sovereign debt repayment agreements in order to finance COVID-19 measures. The scheme ended in December 2021.

This made it possible for LMICs like Ghana to create the fiscal space, as described in Part 1 of this series, to enable UHC2030 sustainable healthcare. While population uptake of COVID-19 vaccines in Ghana has been lowat around 30%compared to developed nations, by March 2022 AstraZeneca, whose major shareholders include Blackrock and Vanguard, had secured 57% of that vaccine market.

The AstraZeneca jab is not approved in most European countries due to the blood clots it has caused and irregularities in the limited trial data AstraZeneca released. Yet, unlike its mRNA counterparts, it doesnt require hyper-cooling to store and transport and is therefore relatively cheap.

A picture taken on March 20, 2021 shows empty vials of AstraZeneca vaccines against Covid-19 in Ede, Netherlands. Source: ANP

AstraZeneca and its fellow UHC-G3P partner, the UK government, made a loud public-relations noise about the claimed not-for-profit pricing of its COVID-19 jab. The Anglo-Swedish corporation signed the agreement on the provision that it could determine the date that it judged to be the end of the pseudopandemic. This factor, combined with its relatively inexpensive storage and transportation costs, made it the go-to jab for LMICs.

AstraZeneca struck a deal with another UHC2030 stakeholder, the GAVI alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to provide, $1.3 billion of their vaccines to LMICs. These were supposedly supplied at cost, but it was a cost UHC2030 partner states like Ghana and Uganda could ill afford.

However, the DSSI temporary debt window enabled Uganda, for example, to pay considerably more for its 18 million doses of AstraZeneca jabs than the EU. It paid $7 per jab.

The production cost of the jab to AstraZeneca is unknown. Its development costs were met by UK taxpayers and their charitable donations. Its agreement to sell at cost to its UHC2030 stakeholder partner, the EU, saw it distribute the jabs at a unit price of $2.18.

The necessity for the more than 300% price hike for Uganda isnt clear. It looks distinctly like AstraZeneca profiteered from the Ugandan, debt-based enabling environment.

UNICEF, a UHC-G3P partner, having warned about the disastrous health impacts of the economic decline caused by the cost of COVID-19 countermeasures, supported its UHC-G3P partnersAstraZeneca and the World Bankby agreeing a deal, through the COVAX facility, for the supply of 170 million doses of AstraZenecas jab to LMICs.

AstraZenecas UHC-G3P stakeholder partner, GAVI, is focused on its state mission to create what it calls healthy markets for vaccines. GAVI notes that a sustainable future supplier base is integral to the health of Gavi-supported vaccine markets. Presumably, LMICs paying more than three times the market rate for drugs they dont need is considered a healthy market by GAVI.

None of this predatory market activity, by its stakeholders, meets the UHC-G3Ps aim to:

Expand quality essential health services, strengthen health systems and mobilize resources in health in developing countries

For developing and middle income nations, the promise of stakeholder capitalism is an empty one.

UHC-G3P stakeholders appear to have manipulated LMICs, through their debt obligations, to invest in superfluous pharmaceuticals at extortionate prices. The multi-stakeholder partnership effectively weakened essential healthcare and increased population health risks.

From an LMICs perspective, UHC-G3P stakeholder capitalism looks more like corporate neocolonialism.

This is as expected because, as the UN knows full well, stakeholder capitalism doesnt work as claimed. Public-private partnerships for public health are expensive, have a negative impact on healthcare and health outcomes, are prone to corruption and, broadly speaking, harm population health.

Why the UHC2030 global public-private partnership suggests otherwise requires explanation.

Improving Healthcare For Private Stakeholders

AstraZeneca are one among numerous pharmaceutical, healthcare and bio-technology corporations that are UHC2030 stakeholder partners. Other members include GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi, Merck, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic.

The stakeholder capitalism approach, rhetorically speaking, is exemplified by Merck who state:

As a global health care company that is committed to improving health and well-being around the world, SDG 3 is a core of our business and is aligned with our mission to save and improve lives. [. . .] We work in partnership with a range of stakeholders to improve the global health ecosystem.

Merck claims that it exists to save and improve lives by meeting SDGs. To do this it selflessly acts as a global health stakeholder. This is, perhaps, surprising because announcing a 28% sales revenue increase to $14.6 billion in its 2022 second quarter earnings report, Merck CEO, Robert. M. Davies, said:

Our strategy is working and our future is bright. I am very confident that we are well-positioned to achieve our near- and long-term goals, anchored by our commitment to deliver innovative medicines and vaccines to patients and value to all of our stakeholders, including shareholders.

So Merck isnt entirely selfless. Making money is also important to the corporation, and especially to its shareholders who expect a profitable return on their investment. Consequently, Mercks major shareholders, such as the global investment firms Blackrock and Vanguard, are also UHC-G3P stakeholder partners.

Stakeholder Capitalism: an ecosystem of segmentation and prioritisation, apparently. Source: LLYC

Pfizer, with its major shareholders including Blackrock and Vanguard, reported all-time high revenue, excellent profits and 92% operational growth in 2021, as a direct result of the pseudopandemic. Pfizer states how its commercial interests are well served by its stakeholder role within the UHC-G3P:

Pfizer believes in the promise of UHC. [. . .] As part of a series of bold moves, we have challenged ourselves to dramatically increase the number of patients that have access to our medicines by 2023. [. . .] We are committed to working closely with stakeholders and governments to accelerate these changes and improve overall access.

Through UHC-G3P, Pfizer is seeking to dramatically increase the size of its market. The promise of the UHC-G3P for Pfizer is that it can work with governments to accelerate its market acquisition programme.

The global investment firm Goldman Sachs is currently pushing investors to buy Pfizer stocks. The analysis that this advice is based upon does not reflect a belief that Pfizer will improve peoples health, but rather that people will stay sick for as long as possible and continue using Pfizer products.

In 2018, Goldman Sachs released its report titled The Genome Revolution. Looking to the potential for new genetic medicines to cure disease, Goldman Sachs were concerned that this would reduce long term revenue streams:

Curing existing patients also decreases the number of carriers able to transmit the virus to new patients, thus the incident pool also declines [. . .] Where an incident pool remains stable (eg, in cancer) the potential for a cure poses less risk to the sustainability of a franchise.

While Pfizer did great business during the pseudopandemic, the declining COVID-19 incident pool has seen its share price fall. Ongoing, long term treatment for chronic health conditions is what Goldman Sachs investors want from their pharmaceutical portfolios. Sustainability of the franchise, not improved public health, is important to these UHC2030 stakeholders.

This presents a potential problem to patients. While there is nothing wrong with making a profit, when those profits are based upon sickness, rather than health, evidently there is a conflict of commercial interest at the heart of the UHC-G3P.

As predicted by UN-DESA, UHC2030 has delivered poorer quality services that are less accessible. With multinational corporations acting as the key stakeholders, essential services are less accountable. We have already seen this in Uganda, Ghana and other LMICs.

Having degraded healthcare, the private sector wont face any penalty clauses. The risk for their investors is relatively benign and will instead be shouldered by usthe taxpayers, both financially and in every other sense.

Consequently, it is reasonable to state that UHC2030 is a partnership for nothing more than global health system governance designed to enhance the centralisation of power over nation states for the benefit of the private sector.

The evidence suggests that the real purpose of UHC2030 is to maximise the number of sick people and keep them ill for as long as possible in order to maintain the sustainability of the franchise.

The UHC-G3Ps Impact Upon Developed Nations

Through UHC2030, the people in developing nations are set to endure continued neocolonialism. The populations in developed nations, especially the most vulnerable, can also expect similarly deleterious results.

Making a sustainable profit from healthcare is welcomed by UHC2030 stakeholding shareholders, such as Blackrock and Vanguard. However, private sector control of government policy and global health markets is an even more enticing prospect. For those at the top of the UHC-G3Ps hierarchical, compartmentalised structure, global health governance is a golden ticket.

The UN describe the September 2019 High-Level Meeting (UN HLM) on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) as the most ambitious and comprehensive political declaration

on health in history. One of the key commitments enshrined in the subsequent A/Res/74/2 was to ensure political leadership beyond health.

The UN-HLM declared that member states should:

Implement high-impact policies to protect peoples health and comprehensively address social, economic and environmental and other determinants of health by working across all sectors through a whole-of-government and health-in-all-policies approach[.] [. . .] Provide strategic leadership on UHC at the highest political level and promote greater policy coherence and coordinated actions through whole-of-government and health-in-all-policies approaches, and forge a coordinated and integrated whole-of-society and multisectoral response[.]

In addition to the reduction in healthcare quality, the UHC2030 global health governance policies are set to oppress the whole of society. This will be achieved by committing the whole-of-government to the health-in-all-policies (HiAP) approach.

In the US, the Center For Disease Control (CDC) explain how the whole of the US government has interpreted HiAP:

The places where people live, work, and play greatly impact their health. We can improve Americas health by working across government agencies and with private partners to create healthy and safe communities. [. . .] The Health In All Policies Resource Center supports a collaborative approach to health promotion that recognizes the importance of including health considerations when making decisions about things like transportation, education and other areas that impact our communities.

Private partners (multinational corporations, philanthropic foundations and NGOs) are empowered to work across government to define what they consider to be healthy and safe communities. These will be the communities that receive corporate services, purchase corporate products and advance corporate-funded NGO agendas.

Where, we live, work and play, the transport we use, our education and all other areas, in both our communities and our lives, will be engineered via the decision making of the UHC-G3P stakeholders.

In November 2021 the UHC-G3P leadership issued a statement in support of the WHOs attempt to establish a Global Pandemic Preparedness Treaty. The Treaty is nominally a UK and EU led initative to establish global governance through health security.

The UHC2030 Steering Committee wrote:

Throughout the pandemic the linkages between universal health coverage (UHC) and health security have been clear. [. . .] Strengthening health systems, with a focus on primary health care, provides the foundations for both UHC and health security. [. . .] We are therefore pleased to share a new UHC2030 strategic narrative to guide advocacy and action on health systems for UHC and health security goals.

The associated report, titled Action on health systems, for universal health coverage and health security, is not available via the UHC2030 website but it can be found on the UK Governments official site. The UHC2030 report is a position paper of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO). The private sector is now fully embedded within the UK government.

The WHO definition of health security is referenced therein:

The activities required, both proactive and reactive, to minimize vulnerability to acute public health events that endanger the collective health of populations living across geographical regions and international boundaries.

The WHO lists a myriad of public health events that governments across the world need to prepare for.

These include, but are not limited to, rapid urbanization, environmental degradation, antimicrobial resistance, new diseases, chemical hazards, air pollution, poor nutrition, food-borne diseases, travel, economic interdependence, pandemics, other emergencies, weak health systems, economic shocks and, of course, climate change and population growth.

The whole of government shouldnt simply react to such events but rather take measures to proactively minimize vulnerability to public health events that havent happened yet. As there is no aspect of society that doesnt present the potential risk of a public health event occurring, perpetual population surveillance systems are required to keep us all safe:

UHC also involves [. . .] public health measures that prevent ill health [. . .] and provide health security. These include disease surveillanceincluding linkages to surveillance in the animal health and environment sectors.

Therefore, Global Health Security (GHS) is indivisible from Universal Health Care (UHC). The FCDO document continues:

Strong health systems form the foundation that underpins both UHC and GHS. UHC and GHS both need strong governance and leadership [. . .] adequate financing, the right medicines, and diagnostics, [. . .] strong community systems and good data and data systems for decision making.

Global health security is also best achieved through a global public-private partnership, according to the UK government:

Our programmes are driven by the science and conducted according to the best available evidence [. . .] drawing on UK and global expertise and public-private partnerships. [. . .] We will continue to work closely with important stakeholders such as professional and regulatory bodies, the research community (including research funders), the private sector, NGOs and civil society.

The ideological commitment to G3Ps clearly demonstrates that the health security agenda is not driven by the best available evidence. Something else is behind the push to install health security surveillance systems.

Speaking about global governance for health, the FCDO announced:

We will continue to play our part in getting the global health architecture in the right place to progress a more unified health systems strengthening [HSS] approach. [. . . ] We continue to use the important and influential fora, such as the G7 and the G20, [. . .] as we seek to tackle some of the most challenging global health issues. This includes shaping international discussions on global health security. [. . .] We will also actively seek to bring a HSS lens to conversations on wider international issues, which extend beyond the health sector, for example on climate change.

Everythingwider international issues, which extend beyond the health sectorcan supposedly benefit from global governance for health. The UK government is among those that have already extended public health surveillance beyond the health sector.

In 2018, Public Health England claimed that climate change was the greatest public health threat of our time. The merging of climate change with public health was formalised in 2021 by then UK Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, when he announced the creation of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

Dr. Jenny Harries, Chief Executive of UKHSA. Source: UK Government

UKHSA was created in response to the UK governments alleged need to maintain a relentless focus on our health security. The government stated that it was reforming health protection to prevent and manage health threats. These reforms adopted the whole-of-government and HiAP approaches:

The reforms set out here aim to ensure that the publics health is given the status it deserves  at the very heart of governments priorities for action, policy and investment, nationally and locally, across government and across the NHS. [UKHSA] will work with academics and private organisations to ensure the latest behavioural science insights guide its work with citizens.

This placed the determinants of both national and local policy and investment under the centralised control of UKHSA. As a public-private partnership, this also gives UKHSAs private sector partners influence over policy and investment.

UKHSA has taken over the function of Public Health England, NHS Test and Trace and the Joint Biosecurity Centre. Its surveillance systems are all pervasive. Practically everything is a potential public health threat:

The threats we face in future will be different; from new infectious diseases, new environmental threats or biohazards, to new behavioural challenges. So too will the opportunities to do more about them, through use of new technologies, analytics, cutting edge science and personalised behavioural approaches.

The people of the UK are the source of behavioural challenges. They will be deemed biohazards if they dont follow UKHSAs public orders.

UKHSA will work with its private sector partners to deploy personalised behavioural approaches to alter peoples behaviour if they dont fall in line or refuse to comply. This is allegedly for the public good and will be delivered by the UKHSA public-private partnership:

We will be seeking to work in partnership with a range of public and private providers to develop and test cutting-edge incentivisation programmes that will help to support people in being healthy and active over the coming years.

UKHSA is the embodiment of the UHC-G3P Health in All Polices (HiAP) approach:

The factors most critical to good physical and mental health such as work, education and transport, housing and air quality [. . .] means that transforming public health requires very different ways of working across government. [. . .] Health will no longer only be the business of the DHSC [Department of Health and Social Care], but a core priority for the whole of government. [. . .] We will enable more joined-up, sustained action by national and local government and our partners.

Employment, travel, education, housing and even the air people breathe have all been transformed into core public health priorities. The whole of government will prioritise addressing the challenge of public health behaviour. Every aspect of life in the UK has now become the business of the UKHSA.

UKHSA claims that it possesses world class health surveillance, joined-up data, horizon scanning and early warning systems which enable it to detect new diseases and environmental hazards before they emerge. Consequently, UKHSA asserts the right to respond at pace and scale to public health events that dont yet exist.

It also says it has the apparently magical ability to:

Mitigate infectious diseases and other hazards to health before they materialise, for example through vaccination and influencing behaviour.

Under the all seeing eye of UKHSA, the British will have to change their behaviour, economic activity and lives based upon UKHSAs prediction of threats that will allegedly harm people if they dont do as it commands. This SDG 3 based model is set to be repeated in every developed nation.

The whole-of-government, HiAP strategy is based upon the same circular reasoning common to all SDGs: we have to finance measures to mitigate fictitious events which might be bad if they ever happen.

Not only is this genuinely Orwellian, this form of extortion is also called a protection racket.

The UHC-G3P Command Structure

The private sector has primacy within G3Ps. Governments and intergovernmental organisations enable their business by directing public funds to create fiscal space.

The UHC-G3P is led by the beneficial owners of the private sector. We might look to Blackrock or Vanguard, for example, as representing the investors who stand to gain most from the SDG 3.

In turn, global investment firms are reliant upon the flow of capital and that is controlled by international financiers. This eventually boils down to the debt owed to commercial and central banks.

Ultimately, then, the UHC-G3P is controlled by the global banking industry. However, individuals need to be empowered to guide the SDG 3 project in the best interests of capital.

First and foremost the UHC-G3P is a global network. It is also a hierarchical, compartmentalised structure comprised of many different organisations.

Organised like a corporation, instead of a board of directors it has the UHC2030 Steering Committee. This sets the overall strategic directions and oversight of UHC2030.

Rather than a board of trustees the UHC-G3P has the Political Advisory Panel (PAP). The purpose of the PAP is to strengthen political support for universal health coverage.

PAP members achieve this by promoting the UHC-G3P agenda to high-level political leaders thereby ensuring their commitment translates into action in countries.

This leadership structure is advised by the UHC2030 Secretariat which is a partnership between the WHO, the World Bank and the OECD. Through the secretariat, UHC2030 has global power. The Secretariat terms of reference note:

Collaboration among the three agencies [WHO, World Bank, OECD] will leverage their respective mandates, convening power, unique organizational perspectives and strategic leadership to accelerate progress towards UHC.

Collectively, acting on the advice of the Secretariat, the Steering Committee and the PAP give direction to the UHC-G3P project. They have been empowered by the UN to hold centralised, global authority over the implementation of SDG 3.

The individual members of the Steering Committee and the PAP also have their own network connections to other organisations and groups. Through these affiliated individuals and high-level representatives, other private sector stakeholder organisations can also exert influence over the UHC-G3P and fulfilment of SDG 3.

The Managers of the UHC-G3P

Like any large organisation human beings are required to manage it. When we look at who has been given the responsibility for delivering SDG 3, extremely worrying questions arise.

Justin Koonin is both co-chair of the steering committee and a member of the PAP. He previously worked for the global accountancy giant PwC and is currently a fund manager for the South African multinational investment firm, Allan Gray. The company he serves specialises in asset investments in Africa. The UHC-G3P do not consider this an unacceptable conflict of financial interest in Mr Koonins case.

Alongside Rushinka Singhal, the Vice President of US-based Medtronic Labs, both a UHC2030 stakeholder and the worlds largest medical technology company, sits Edward Booty, CEO of Allied World Asia (AWA). Together, Mr Singhal and Mr Booty represent the private sector stakeholders on the UHC-G3P Steering Committee.

AWA is the Asian arm of Fairfax Holdings Allied World global insurance business. Allied World provide professional medical indemninty insurance to health care consultants and companies that provide consulting services to health care facilities.

The role of both of these private sector Steering Committee members is to encourage governments to finance enabling environments from which their respective corporations can profit. Again this is not considered a conflict of financial interest by the UN as it pursues its business-friendly policies.

Nor are ideological conflicts of interest an impediment to setting global health policy. Emilia Saiz Carrancedo is the founder of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and a member of the PAP.

The UCLG she leads has embraced the communitarian civil society model. As a UHC-G3P stakeholder, UCLG provides another example of the intellectual dislocation required to believe any of the claims made about either SDG 3 or UHC2030.

On first reading the UCLG Global Agenda makes no sense at all:

UCLG believes that development and improvement of peoples living conditions should be undertaken primarily at the local level. We strive to achieve decentralization as a way to democratize public governance at all levels. [. . .] We aim to ensure that our values are shared among our members. [. . .] The major global development agendas can only be achieved if they are integrated into all planning, policy-making and action. [. . .] This is what we call localization: the achievement of the global agendas from the bottom-up.

According to the UCLG, led by Ms. Saiz, localization means total adherence to global agendas. Democracy is achieved through decentralisation as long as everyone agrees with UCLGs globalist values.

The role of local communities, in fulfilling global development agendas, is limited to wholeheartedly agreeing with them. Beyond that, under UCLGs global leadership, local communities have absolutely no say, nor any choice whatsoever.

UCLG is an exemplar of the civil society deception. If they werent so insidious and damaging to peoples lives, this kind of absurd organisation would be comical. The purpose is clearly to disempower local communities and disenfranchise the people.

The former Norwegian Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, was among the founding members of the PAP. She is an avid eugenicist who firmly believes in elitist supremacy and population control, meaning population reduction.

Brundtland is a long-standing member of the influential globalist think-tanks the the Club of Madrid and the Trilateral Commission and is a founding member of the powerful think-tank, the Elders. She is both a former Director General of the WHO and a former UN Secretary General on Climate Change.

She rejects the scientific method and imagines that so-called settled science exists. In May 2007, Brundtland was asked about her thoughts on the climate debate. Commenting upon the climate reports offered by the UN and its intergovernmental climate body, the IPCC, She told gathered journalists:

This discussion is behind us. Its over. The diagnosis is clear, the science is unequivocal  its completely immoral, even, to question now, on the basis of what we know, the reports that are out, to question the issue and to question whether we need to move forward at a much stronger pace as humankind to address the issues.

Brundtland believes that the foundational precepts of scienceobservation, inquiry and scepticismare immoral. Like her fellow PAP stakeholder Emilia Saiz, she advocates a system of authoritarian, dogmatic control where people shut up and do as they are told by their superiors.

In 1987, Brundtland was the chair and lead author of one of the foundational documents for sustainability, Our Common Future. This report has been credited with coining the term sustainable development.

As a science-denier, it is likely that much of her contribution was ideological rather than logical. What became known as the Brundtland Report stated:

[S]ustainable development can only be pursued if population size and growth are in harmony with the changing productive potential of the ecosystem. [. . .] Painful choices have to be made. Thus, in the final analysis, sustainable development must rest on political will. [. . .] The population problem must be dealt with in part by efforts to eliminate mass poverty, in order to assure more equitable access to resources. [. . .] Urgent steps are needed to limit extreme rates of population growth. [. . .] Excessive population growth diffuses the fruits of development. [. . .] A reduction of current growth rates is an
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday that strategic nuclear weapons can be used to defend "the Donbass republics and other territories accepted into Russia" and warned the "retired idiots with general's stripes" at NATO that hypersonic missiles can "reach targets in Europe and in the United States."



From Pravda, 'Dmitry Medvedev: 'Hypersonic arms will reach targets in US and EU faster' ":

Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, warned that "hypersound" (hypersonic weapons  ed.) could quickly reach targets both in the US and Europe. In his opinion, all residents of the NATO states should listen to Russia to understand that Russia has chosen its own path.



- The Russian authorities have decided to incorporate the republics of Donbass and "other territories" into the country.



- The new regions will be protected with the help of those mobilized.



- Russia can use any weapon, "including strategic ones," so "no need to intimidate Moscow."



The above are the conclusions that Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev has made from Putin's address to the nation on September 21, when he announced partial call-up.



"Referendums will be held, and the Donbass republics and other territories will be accepted into Russia. The protection of all the territories that have joined will be significantly strengthened by the Russian Armed Forces.



"Russia announced that it is not only mobilization capabilities, but also any Russian weapons including strategic nuclear weapons and weapons based on new principles that could be used for such protection. Therefore, various retired idiots with [general's stripes] do not need to frighten us talking about NATO attacking Crimea. Hypersound will be able to reach targets in Europe and in the United States much faster, guaranteed.



"The Western establishment, in general, all citizens of the NATO countries need to understand that Russia has chosen its own path. There is no turning back," Medvedev stressed.

"Some senior officials from NATO members have made remarks that it can be possible and acceptable to use weapons of mass destruction against Russia, that is nuclear weapons," Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his speech broadcast on Wednesday.



"I'd like to remind those who make those statements: our country also has various high-impact weapons, in some ways more powerful than those of NATO countries and in case of a threat against our country's territorial integrity, we will certainly use all means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people," Putin said. "This is not a bluff."



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The attorneys representing Ghislaine Maxwell fired the convicted sex trafficker for failing to pay nearly a million dollars in legal fees.

Lawyers representing Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence in a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida, in her effort to acquire money from Jeffrey Epsteins estate have withdrawn their counsel.

Maxwell filed a lawsuit against Epsteins Virgin Island estate in March 2020, seven months after Epstein allegedly killed himself in the Metropolitan Corrections Center in New York.

She alleges Epstein promised indemnification for the advancement of attorneys fees, security costs, costs to find safe accommodation and all other expenses [she has] reasonably incurred and will incur by reason of her prior employment relationship with Jefferey Epstein, according to court filings obtained by Dail Mail.

The costs that she envisioned were, in connection with any threatened, pending or completed suit [in] relation to Epsteinand his alleged victims, the publication notes. Maxwell argued that during her relationship with Epstein he promised that he would support her financially. Her suit states that he made these promisesrepeatedly, both in writing and conversation.'

The socialite is also facing being sued by her criminal defense team for failing to pay over $878,301 in legal fees.

Maxwell is insolvent following a series of suspiciously timed [property] transfers by her estranged husband Scott Borgerson, according to a complaint filed by her criminal defense team, Haddon, Morgan and Foreman, P.C. in Denver District County on August 22.

The Denver-based firm is suing Borgerson, Maxwell and her brother Kevin Maxwell.

Borgeson and Maxwell reportedly secretly wed in 2015 unbeknownst to even their own family members. Borgeson then dumped Maxwell during a confrontational call from prison following her December 2021 conviction.

But according to HMF court filings, Borgeson continued to shield Maxwells assets and worked to shelter millions of her assets from creditors. The complaint also alleges Kevin Maxwell falsely assured the firm that he was on the verge of obtaining financing and personally guaranteed to keep a $100,000 balance in Ghislaines client trust at all times, but the funds were swiftly exhausted.

Mr. Maxwell and the family lawyer repeatedly told HMF that Mr. Borgerson controlled Ms. Maxwells money and was responsible for delaying payments to the firm, HMF allege in the complaint.

Kevin Maxwell insistently made false promises that there was, ample cash and assets to cover the total sums that are either due for payment and are budgeted to become due in the coming months, the suit continues.

In June, Maxwell was sentenced to a 20 years prison sentence for grooming and abusing underage girls for Epstein.

The British socialite had a longstanding relationship with HMF, which also represented in a now-settled 2015 defamation suit filed by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a survivor of Epsteins sex ring, The Daily Beast reports.
Oath Keepers member and Stewart Rhodes, the founder and president of the Oath Keepers

Next week the United States government is holding the trials of several Oath Keepers members who attended the protests in Washington DC on January 5th and January 6th.

The DOJ is hoping to convince a jury that the Oath Keepers were planning an insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6.

Oath Keepers members were working security that day at the Ellipse where President Donald Trump spoke to a million supporters. Several Oath Keepers then walked to the US Capitol where at least two more protests were planned.

Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers founder and president, told all of the members to leave their firearms in their hotel rooms outside of the city.

A handful of Oath Keepers members entered the US Capitol that day where they stood around, picked up trash, spoke with police, and left when they were told to.

Next week, the government starts its trials against the Oath Keepers members they arrested. The trial for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes starts on Tuesday with jury selection.

On Thursday the US government sent a letter to the attorneys of nine Oath Keepers members:

ELMER STEWART RHODES III

KELLY MEGGS

KENNETH HARRELSON

JESSICA WATKINS

ROBERTO MINUTA

JOSEPH HACKETT

DAVID MOERSCHEL

THOMAS CALDWELL

EDWARD VALLEJO

The US government finally admitted in this letter that they were running Confidential Human Sources inside the Oath Keepers organization on January 6.

The government also notified the attorneys that they are issuing a protective order for the operatives they ran inside the organization on January 6.

The feds sandbagged the defense for nearly two years, and then sprang the existence of these Confidential Human Sources at the llth hour!

On Thursday evening sources notified The Gateway Pundit that the government admitted to defense attorneys that there were government operatives inside the Oath Keepers organization.

From todays motion, the government seeks to prevent the defense attorneys from asking about any other investigations or operations the confidential human sources have been involved in.

The government also seeks to keep the identity of these confidential human sources private from the American public.

Read the full motion here.

US Government Admits to Confidential Human Sources Infiltrated Oath Keepers on Jan 6 by Jim Hoft on Scribd

Again, the Oath Keepers trials begin next week.

It would be important to know what role the confidential human sources played that day and if they were urging Trump supporters to enter the building.

On Wednesday we spoke with Stewart Rhodes and he told us the DOJ has indicted two of his top witnesses in the past three months and therefore he will not be able to call them as witnesses in his case  Including Kellye SoRelle, his former attorney who traveled with him that week in Washington DC.
The televised speech yesterday morning by Vladimir Putin and the follow-up remarks by his Minister of Defense Shoigu announcing the partial mobilization of Russias army reserves to add a total of 300,000 men to the military campaign in Ukraine have been widely reported in the Western press. Plans to hold referendums on accession to the Russian Federation in the Donbas republics this weekend and also in the Kherson and Zaporozhie oblasts in the very near future also were reported by the Western press. However, as is very commonly the case, the interrelationship of these two developments has not been seen, or, if seen, has not been shared with the general public. Since precisely this interrelationship has been highlighted on Russian state television talk shows these past two days, I use this opportunity to bring to my readership the key facts on what turn the ongoing conflict in Ukraine will now take and an updated view of when it will end and with what results.

The very idea of referendums in the Donbas has been ridiculed by mainstream media in the United States and Europe. They are denounced as sham and we are told that the results will not be recognized. In fact, the Kremlin does not at all care whether the results are recognized as valid in the West. Their logic lies elsewhere. As for the Russian public, the only critical remark about the referendums has been about the timing, with even some patriotic folks saying openly that it is too early to hold the vote given that the Donetsk Peoples Republic, the Zaporozhie and Kherson oblasts have not yet been fully liberated. Here too, the logic of these votes lies elsewhere.

It is a foregone conclusion that the Donbas republics and other territories of Ukraine now under Russian occupation will vote to join the Russian Federation. In the case of Donetsk and Lugansk, it was only under pressure from Moscow that their 2014 referendums were about declaring sovereignty and not about becoming part of Russia. Such annexation or merger was not welcomed by the Kremlin back then because Russia was not ready to face the expected massive economic, political and military attack from the West which would have followed. Today, Moscow is more than ready: indeed it has survived very well all the economic sanctions imposed by the West from even before 24 February as well as the ever growing supply to Ukraine of military materiel and advisers from the NATO countries.

The vote over joining Russia will likely hit 90% or more in favor. What will immediately follow on the Russian side is also perfectly clear: within hours of the declaration of referendum results, the Russian State Duma will pass a bill on reunification of these territories with Russia and within a day or so, it will be approved by the upper chamber of parliament and immediately thereafter the bill will be signed into law by President Putin.

Looking past his service as a KGB intelligence operative, which is all that Western Russia specialists go on about endlessly in their articles and books, let us also remember Vladimir Putins law degree. As President, he has systematically stayed within domestic and international law. He will do so now. Unlike his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin has not ruled by presidential decree; he has ruled by laws promulgated by a bicameral parliament constituted from several parties. He has ruled in keeping with international law promulgated by the United Nations. UN law speaks for the sanctity of territorial integrity of Member States; but UN law also speaks of the sanctity of self-determination of peoples.

What follows from the formal merger of these territories with Russia? That is also perfectly clear. As integral parts of Russia, any attack on them, and there certainly will be such attacks coming from the Ukrainian armed forces, is a casus belli. But even before that, the referendums have been preceded by the announcement of mobilization, which points directly to what Russia will do further if developments on the field of battle so requires. Progressive phases of mobilization will be justified to the Russian public as necessary to defend the borders of the Russian Federation from attack by NATO.

The merger of the Russia-occupied Ukrainian territories with the Russian Federation will mark the end of the special military operation. An SMO is not something you conduct on your own territory, as panelists on the Evening with Vladimir Solovyov talk show remarked a couple of days ago. It marks the beginning of open war on Ukraine with the objective of the enemys unconditional capitulation. This will likely entail the removal of the civil and military leadership and, very likely, the dismemberment of Ukraine. After all, the Kremlin warned more than a year ago that the US-dictated course of NATO membership for Ukraine will result in its loss of statehood. However, these particular objectives were not declared up to now; the SMO was about defending the Donbas against genocide and about de-nazification of Ukraine, itself a rather vague concept.

Adding another 300,000 men at arms to the force deployed by Russia in Ukraine represents a near doubling and surely will address the shortages of infantry numbers that has limited Russias ability to conquer Ukraine. It was precisely lack of boots on the ground that explains Russias painful and embarrassing withdrawal from the Kharkov region in the past two weeks. They could not resist the massive concentration of Ukrainian forces against their own thinly guarded hold on the region. The strategic value of the Ukrainian win is questionable, but it greatly enhanced their morale, which is a major factor in the outcome of any war. The Kremlin could not ignore this.

At the press conference in Samarkand last week following the end of the annual gathering of heads of state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Vladimir Putin was asked why he has shown so much restraint in the face of the Ukrainian counter offensive. He replied that the Russian attacks on Ukrainian electricity generating plants which followed the loss of the Kharkov territory were just warning shots and there would be much more impactful action to come. Accordingly, as Russia moves from SMO to open war, we may expect massive destruction of Ukrainian civil as well as military infrastructure to fully block all movement of Western supplied arms from points of delivery in the Lvov region and other borders to the front lines. We may eventually expect bombing and destruction of Ukraines centers of decision-making in Kiev.

As for further Western intervention, Western media have picked up on President Putins thinly veiled nuclear threat to potential co-belligerents. Russia has explicitly stated that any aggression against its own security and territorial integrity, such as has been raised by generals in retirement in the USA speaking to national television in the past several weeks about Russias break-up, will be met by a nuclear response. When Russias nuclear threat is directed at Washington, as is now the case, rather than at Kiev or Brussels, the supposition till now, it is unlikely that policy makers on Capitol Hill will long remain cavalier about Russian military capabilities and pursue further escalation.

In light of all these developments, I am compelled to revise my appreciation of what transpired at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting. Western media have focused full attention on only one issue: the supposed friction between Russia and its main global friends, India and China, over its war in Ukraine. That seemed to me to be grossly exaggerated. Now it appears to be utter nonsense. It is inconceivable that Putin did not discuss with Xi and Modi what he is about to do in Ukraine. If Russia indeed now supplies to its war effort a far greater part of its military potential, then it is entirely reasonable to expect the war to end with Russian victory by 31 December of this year as the Kremlin appears to have pledged to its loyal supporters.

Looking beyond Ukraines possible loss of statehood, a Russian victory will mean more than an Afghanistan-like bloody nose for Washington. It will expose the low value of the U.S. military umbrella for EU member states and will necessarily lead to re-evaluation of Europes security architecture, which is what the Russians were demanding before their incursion into Ukraine was launched in February.

Gilbert Doctorow is a Brussels-based political analyst. His latest book is Does Russia Have a Future? Reprinted with permission from his blog.
Chinese president's special representative attends UN high-level meeting on climate change

Xinhua) 14:43, September 23, 2022

Chinese President Xi Jinping's special representative Wang Yi (front), also Chinese state councilor and foreign minister, attends a high-level meeting on climate change and delivers a speech at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York, on Sept. 21, 2022. (Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's special representative Wang Yi, also Chinese state councilor and foreign minister, on Wednesday attended a high-level meeting on climate change at the United Nations (UN) headquarters here and delivered a speech.

Wang noted that Xi has clearly pointed out that the Earth is a big family, that the human race belongs to one community, and that as climate change poses a common challenge to all humanity, mankind should cooperate to tackle the issue.

China believes that global climate governance goals should be advanced in four aspects, Wang said.

The first is to focus on making the UN climate change conference to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh a success, so as to achieve positive and balanced outcomes in such aspects as mitigation, adaptation and finance, Wang said.

The second is to attach importance to implementing actions. It is necessary to follow the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, adhere to the consensuses that have been reached, and accelerate the realization of the temperature control goal set in the Paris Agreement, Wang said.

China supports the universal early warning system initiative launched by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Wang said, adding developed countries should honor their commitments and provide financial, technological and capacity building support for developing countries.

The third is to promote green transformation in a practical manner. Wang called for gradually withdrawing from the mode of traditional energy on the basis of secure and reliable new energy sources.

He also appealed for high-quality and just transformation within the framework of sustainable development.

The fourth is to create a fine political environment. Unilateralism, geopolitical games and green barriers should be abandoned, said Wang.

Developed countries should achieve carbon neutrality well ahead of schedule, make room for developing countries to develop, and restore mutual trust between the North and the South with concrete actions, he said.

Wang also introduced a series of positive measures taken by China to unswervingly follow the path of ecological priority, green and low-carbon development.

China has announced carbon-peaking and carbon-neutrality goals and will complete the world's most dramatic reduction in carbon emission intensity in the shortest time in global history, Wang said.

Noting that China has exceeded the climate action goals of 2020, Wang said China has updated its nationally determined contribution targets, steadily adjusted its energy mix, strictly controlled carbon dioxide emissions, and established a carbon market with the largest coverage of greenhouse gas emissions in the world.

China has also carried out extensive South-South cooperation on climate change, implemented the Global Development Initiative and jointly built a green Silk Road with other parties, Wang said.

Stressing that China will shoulder its due international responsibilities and create a new miracle of green transformation, Wang said that China is ready to work with other countries to take more concrete actions, support the United Nations in playing a central role, protect the Earth and create a better world for future generations.

On the same day, Wang also met respectively with the prime minister of Georgia, French president's diplomatic counselor, the high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy and foreign ministers of Russia, Norway, Hungary, Poland and Somalia.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
It is holiday time around the country. As I write, we have the special public holiday for the late Queen on Thursday. If you live in Victoria, you get the Friday off too, and then for many there are school holidays. This meant, that for the majority we had a four-day week at most. Which, according to recent research might point to increased productivity.

A UK-based not-for-profit organisation, 4 Day Week Global, has just reported on the first three months of a six-month trial of a four-day week. More than 70 organisations signed up for the trial. This represented a sample of over 3300 employees. The sample covered most industry sectors and sizes of organisation. So far, the results appear to be impressive: 95 per cent of organisations who responded reported that their productivity was either unchanged (46 per cent), or had increased (49 per cent).

A four-day working week.

A whopping 97 per cent of responding organisations indicated that the transition to the four-day week was smooth to extremely smooth. This is also a potentially game-changing result because beyond the completely understandable concerns about productivity, employers are also likely to be worried about the disruption caused by such a radical change, and the associated costs of that disruption.

Overall, the vast majority (86 per cent) of responding organisations indicated that at this point in the trial, they are positively disposed to retaining the four-day week permanently.
Like The Dry, the book opens with an abandoned child and a mystery: six-week-old Zoe Gillespie is discovered cocooned in her bassinet in the pram bay of the Marralee Valley Annual Food and Wine Fair while her mother, Kim, has gone missing presumed drowned. There will, nevertheless, be many reported sightings of Kim on that fateful night.

While Falk also appeared in Harpers second book, Force of Nature, set in the fictional Giralang Ranges, Exiles marks a return to the regional landscape and narrative terrain that characterised The Dry, without, thank goodness, the murderous drought.

Exiles, Jane Harpers fifth crime novel, is dedicated to the readers, who make these books what they are. Its an intriguing statement suggesting that the author certainly has her audience in mind as she writes. And with this book, Harper may well have given her legions of readers exactly what they have been waiting for: a beautifully observed crime novel about regional life featuring the reticent and endearing federal policeman, Aaron Falk, whom we first met in Harpers hugely successful first crime novel, The Dry.

Credit:

One year later, and Falk is on his way back to Marralee in South Australia in a second attempt to stage the christening of his soon-to-be godson, Henry Aaron Raco. Henry is the youngest child of Falks policeman friend whom he met some five years earlier in Kiewarra, the small-town setting for The Dry. Harper neatly stitches the backstory of The Dry into the present, with some updates about the characters we met that helps establish the continuity of Falks fictional world.

While the first christening was abandoned because of Kims disappearance, given she was the former partner of Racos brother Charlie, with whom she also had a daughter, there is a determination that the second will go ahead. It will, however, be preceded by an appeal at the annual fair initiated by Kims 17-year-old daughter Zara, who cant accept either that her mother would simply abandon her family or that she would have drowned herself in the local reservoir. Suicide is the go-to solution, although the body has never been found.

While the mystery of Kims disappearance might be the narrative hook on which this crime novel hangs, what renders it so engaging is Harpers keen observation of people and place captured in swift glimpses. Meeting his godson after a year, the toddler fixes Falk with a glassy accusing gaze, while his little sister Eva shyly slides a glittery hairclip into Falks hand. This is what small children do. Falk is clearly touched by this young family and their kindness as he contemplates an alternative country lifestyle on Charlies vineyard miles away from his workaholic existence in Melbourne.

Harper enables these comparisons through a series of flashbacks. They include the occasion when Falk first encounters Gemma Tozer, the director of the Marralee Valley Annual Food and Wine Festival, in a Melbourne bar while they are both waiting for Raco. Falk is one year out of another failed relationship with a woman who like him, always put her work first, though the damage appears to have been minimal, the gaps had closed over as though they had never been there. Ouch.
The Prince and Princess of Wales thank helpers following Queen's funeral

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Sydney has defeated four other cities to host the worlds biggest space congress in 2025, in what bid organisers described as a surprise win over well-financed rivals.

The International Astronautical Congress typically attracts more than 6000 participants from the global space community, including governments, industry, science and academia.

Organisers said Jeff Bezos aerospace company Blue Origin threw its support behind Sydneys bid, helping secure the win over main rival Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia, as well as Beijing, Bangkok and Istanbul.

There was an intense two-hour debate on the floor of this years conference, held in Paris, to decide the 2025 host, during which Saudi Arabias long history of human rights violations was called out.

Head of the Australian Space Agency Enrico Palermo said hosting the congress was a unique chance to show how far Australia has advanced as a space-faring nation, and would create key opportunities for local industry.
Telling anyone youre off to the Melbourne Royal Show is akin to saying you like Simply Red or those spearmint leaf lollies. People are surprised or suspicious. They rewind your words and tone for irony. They wonder if you need a tiny lie down. They just dont get it.

For decades, I didnt either. Cranking out grazing platters in a beachside Victorian joint, I was a show snob. The show was for bogans. Awash with depressing giant teddies and Britney Spears Curious perfume, it wasnt for me and my kids in their Osh Kosh bGosh overalls from Daimaru.

I wasnt much of a show fan. I thought it was for bogans. How did I get it so wrong for so long? Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui

Perhaps it was because I didnt grow up with it. Even though the first photo of my parents together is them aged seven at the Melbourne Show in the 1940s, my only memories of going as a kid are of Dad trailing behind grimly with Bertie Beetle showbags as Mum warned against dangerous rides.

Then my friend Amanda bought a house in the shadow of Adelaides showgrounds and had a crack at show cooking. Her trio of unbaked slices won a blue ribbon. Hooked, she sucked me into the show culture which eventually led me back to Melbourne.
The Victorian Liberal Party is facing a second probe over its fundraising activities following a Ditch Dan blitz last month which raised more than $500,000 for the oppositions state election campaign.

The Victorian Electoral Commission, which is responsible for enforcing the states strict political disclosure rules, is conducting an inquiry into whether the Liberal Party breached electoral laws by failing to disclose within the mandatory 21 days that it collected 28 donations worth about $54,000 during the fundraising push.

The advertising campaign ran on August 25.

On Thursday, Liberal state director Sam McQuestin said the Ditch Dan event, held on August 25, involved the use of a third party entity to collect the donations.

He insisted the entity did not send the cash raised to the Liberal Partys campaign coffers until last Friday, meaning the 21-day disclosure period began on September 16, about three weeks after the actual event.
Scrapping the $880 million luxury car tax could help Australian meat, rice and sugar producers secure greater access to important European Union markets as negotiations over a free trade agreement enter their final months.

Australias automotive industry peak body says the country should scrap the tax in exchange for better market access for agricultural industries while one of the EUs top trade negotiators, Bernd Lange, says the bloc is keen to see the tax go in the give and take of negotiations.

The bloc hopes to finalise a free trade deal by early next year.

We are producing wonderful cars and in Australia, we have this luxury tax on cars, so lets see, said Lange, who chairs the European Parliaments committee on international trade.
In other words, the political mates gained cosy jobs in March in exactly the same way Morrison gave himself extra jobs over the past few years: a legal instrument signed by Hurley. In the AAT case, at least, there was a press release to confirm the appointments. Loading Even so, there was no transparency about the dates of appointment and there was a common problem. Morrison and Cash did not list the appointments in the Commonwealth Gazette. Mason and Katz put their concerns in writing to Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus this week. Dreyfus has criticised political appointments to the AAT in the past and has talked about doing a review of the system. The new government has begun a more open process to decide the next round of appointments. But that does not end the questions about those who now sit on the tribunal after an opaque process to install them to statutory positions.

To offer an example, Mason and Katz cited one person: Karen Synon, a former Liberal senator for Victoria. Defeated at the 1998 election, she was appointed to the Refugee Review Tribunal in 2001 and the Migration Review Tribunal in 2004 and then, after the return of the Coalition to power at the 2013 election, to the AAT in 2015. She was made a non-judicial deputy president of the tribunal in 2020. Her appointment was extended by Cash in the instruments signed on March 31 and announced by press release on April 4, so her time on the tribunal now runs until 2027. The full-time salary for a non-judicial deputy president is $496,560 a year. The legal mystery is that the starting date and terms of her recent appointment are unknown. Synon is only one example of the problem with the process: this is no reflection on her character, her decisions as a tribunal member or her ability to carry out her role. She was just one of 26 members who had their terms extended just before the election, along with 19 new appointments on that day. Former LNP MP for Ryan Jane Prentice, pictured here in 2014, lost preselection for the seat and was appointed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in 2020. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen To announce March 2022 appointments as extensions of existing appointments that have months if not years to run is misleading, say Mason and Katz. Which of Ms Synons appointments is the one currently operative? The original one commencing in 2020 and expiring in 2023 or the one made in 2022 and expiring in 2027? If the latter, was the requisite oath or affirmation taken before 9 May 2022?

If not, they suggest, the decisions of those 26 members might be open to challenge. These are statutory positions, after all, not office jobs where promotions can be agreed with a handshake or a letter. The concerns about the AAT are not new. The tribunal is now populated with allies of the Liberals and Nationals after nine years of Coalition rule. It includes former Western Australian Liberal MP and state attorney-general Michael Mischin, former NSW Liberal MP and state minister Pru Goward and former federal Liberal MPs Jane Prentice and Andrew Nikolic. The most recent years, when the post of Attorney-General was held by two WA Liberals, Cash and Christian Porter, saw the appointment of no less than four former Liberal state MPs from that state: Mischin, Peter Katsambanis, Michael Francis and Michael Sutherland. This is no reflection on the capability or impartiality of any of these individuals. The Coalition government appointed some former Labor political figures to the AAT as well, among them John Rau from South Australia and Philip Dalidakis from Victoria. But the pattern is the problem. When the Australia Institute looked into all the appointments to the AAT from the election of the Howard government in 1996 to the end of the Morrison government this year, it found the Coalition made 109 political appointments over its 21 years in power and Labor made 10 political appointments over its 6 years in power. The detailed analysis by Debra Wilkinson and Elizabeth Morison classified tribunal members as political appointments if they had ever worked for one side of politics or another in a paid or unpaid capacity.
CHENNAI: The nation-wide raids conducted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at the offices of the Popular Front of India (PFI) and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and the houses of their office-bearers on Thursday triggered a series of angry reactions by various leaders and activists and protests at many places in State, where 10 persons were reportedly arrested.

The State President of SDPI Nellai Mubarak described the searches conducted at various premises as fake and the charges made out against PFI leaders as false and alleged that women leaders were harassed during the raids carried out without any women police personnel.

He accused the BJP government of conducting the raids without the knowledge of the State police and by roping in the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel for protection to the officials from the NIA and ED.

Referring to the raid at the residence of State SDPI secretary Najma Begum in Madurai, Mubarak said that the officials had brought in a sack full of currency notes to the house and then wanted the family to sign a declaration that the cash was seized from them.

When Begum and her husband protested against it, they were threatened and prevented from feeding the one-year-old baby that was wailing in hunger, he said.

Demanding the release of Begums husband Idhris, he said the raids were aimed at intimidating all democratic forces that were working for justice, equality and the welfare of minorities. The SDPI would spearhead an agitation against the raids aimed at intimidating the people.

Many other political leaders like M H Jawahariullah, who heads the Manithaneya Makkal Katchi and is a sitting MLA, Naam Tamilar Katchi chief coordinator Seeman, National Confederation of Human Rights Organisations (NCHRO) president A Marx and TMMK leader Hyder Ali also came out heavily on the Union Government for the raids on premises connected with the PFI.

The Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO), in a statement, said the nation-wide crackdown was meant to criminalize dissent and curtailing freedoms. It was another instance of the government abusing the power of investigating agencies to clamp down on dissent and opposition, it said.

Seeman described the raids as vindictive action against the PFI and SDPI, which were functioning as democratic organisations and working against communalism. The raids and the arrests of the leaders were part of the conspiracy of the BJP government at the Centre, he said.

Jawahariullah said that the raids proved the need for dissolving the NIA, which was being used by the Union Government for its political gains and taking revenge on rivals. He said the NIA robbed the powers of the States.

The PFI said NIAs baseless claims and sensationalism are solely aimed at creating an atmosphere of terror, adding that the PFI would be never by intimidated by such scare tactics by a totalitarian regime that uses the central agencies as its puppets.

In Chennai, the PFI organized protests at various places since 12 noon and many other towns also saw people coming to the roads and raising slogans against the Union Government. Road traffic was affected in places like Trichy, Cuddalore, Ambur and in Chennai.

Among those areas that witnessed protests in Chennai were Pallavakkam, Purasawaklam, Pudupettai, Thousand Lights and Koyambedu.
In a class early this year, I posed the following question to a group of students. Which election result in 2022 would have the most significant implications for them: would it be the outcome of the federal or state poll? The majority of the class nominated the federal election, yet the ensuing discussion demonstrated that events since 2020 had given the students a keen appreciation of the state governments reach.

No longer could it be reckoned to be of only marginal impact on their lives.

The reach of the state government is greater as a result of the pandemic. Credit:Chris Hopkins

The interventions to manage the pandemic  most dramatically the enforcement of lockdowns have indeed served as a lesson in the important powers that reside with the states under Australias constitutional arrangements. The pandemic demonstrated that the premiers, far from being mere minions to the Prime Minister, are crucial players in the life of the country. Scott Morrisons establishment of the national cabinet, a forum that institutionalised power-sharing between Australias government heads, features premiers sitting alongside the prime minister as de facto equal partners.

Morrisons prime ministership inadvertently elevated the influence of the states in other ways. With the Coalition federal government inert in various policy areas, the states took up the baton. For example, while Canberra dawdled on the issue of climate change, Victoria and NSW set about meeting ambitious targets for carbon emission reductions.
They say the mobilisation is just of former professional soldiers. But everyone is talking about how the next step will be of anyone who ever had military training of any sort. According to Irina, one neighbour reported that her recently graduated architect son and all his classmates  who had compulsory military training as sappers at university  had got call-up papers. Introducing even partial mobilisation has been a move that the Kremlin had strenuously avoided until now, with Putin making a solemn promise on International Womens Day on March 8 that conscripts do not and will not participate in hostilities. Loading But a nationwide recruiting campaign, both by the Russian Army and by the Kremlin-affiliated Wagner Group private military firm, has clearly failed to produce sufficient volunteers  despite offering signing bonuses equivalent to several months pay and actively recruiting thieves and murderers from Russian prisons. The Kremlins attempt to fight the war with an army of expendables had failed.

On Moscows Old Arbat street, a crowd of about two hundred mostly young people assembled for a protest. Many wore masks to avoid being spotted by facial-recognition cameras. No to War! they chanted in unison  before riot police moved in with lightning speed to bundle them into waiting buses. I am not afraid of anything any more, said Maria, a middle-aged woman who had joined the protest, adding: I will not give my children to fight this bloody war! Another young woman, who clung to two male friends as police dragged them away, shouted: Putin is a traitor! He has ruined Russia! Anti-war groups estimate riot police detained 1300 protesters across Russia. Credit:AP

According to the OVD-Info human right organisation, some 1,300 people were detained at protests in more than 30 Russian cities with most being released after paying fines of up to $1,200. But many military-age male protesters were not so lucky. Several opposition activists, including Kirill Goncharov, a senior member of the Yabloko party, have published photos of call-up papers ordering them to report to local draft offices. Conscripts are, for the moment, still not eligible for front-line military service in Ukraine  but army service is clearly being used as a punishment for dissent. It was only to be expected that [authorities] started using mobilisation from day one to put pressure on the protesters, said Pavel Chikov, head of the Agora association of human rights lawyers. Vladimir Solovyov, a Kremlin propagandist, promised on his Telegram channel that all opponents of the regime would find themselves immediately in uniform. The police will check documents [on] the spot, identify them, detain them and send them to ... military registration and enlistment offices. Russian social media coined a term for Putins call up  mogilizatsita, a mash-up of the Russian word mogila, or grave, and mobilisation.

Loading Unusually long lines to leave Russia were reported overnight and yesterday morning at once-sleepy border crossings, including those with Mongolia and Kazakhstan in the east and Georgia in the south, where hundreds of cars were pictured stuck in a night-time massive traffic jam. In the Chelyabinsk region, which borders Kazakhstan, dozens of men were seen standing near their cars in the vast steppe just after dawn. At Moscow airports, border guards reportedly conducted spot checks on young men, quizzing them about their eligibility to be called up. Putins sudden decision to reverse six months of so-called hidden mobilisation and go public with a nationwide, if so far partial, call-up, took not just ordinary Russians but political insiders by surprise.

Loading I believe many people [in the Russian elite] were taken aback, said one former senior Kremlin official who worked with Putin until 2016. Politically, this is a move that you would not make unless you were desperate. That is a change of message. Everything is not going to plan. Indeed, Putin himself in recent speeches in Vladivostok and Samarkand had gone out of his way to be as boring and low-key as possible, talking about the challenges to the Russian economy but not explicitly mentioning the war at all. Though the protests against mobilisation were small, the sudden rise in visibility of the war is likely to send politically dangerous shock waves through Russian society.

Loading Though a large majority of Russians still claim to support Putin, private Kremlin polling leaked in July showed that Russians were evenly split between supporting a continuation of the conflict or making peace. Some 15 per cent of respondents were strongly in favour of what the Kremlin calls the special military operation, a similar number strongly against, with a 35-35 per cent divide between those who were mildly for and middle opposed. After Putins partial mobilisation, one thing is clear  the Kremlin plan to keep the war low-key and fight it using expendable volunteers, colonial troops from ethnic minority provinces, such as Buryatia and Chechnya, and prisoners has failed. The author of this dispatch remains anonymous because of reporting restrictions. The Telegraph, London
Latest News Major banks shake up fixed rates They take action even before the RBA's announcement...

Broker market share hits all time high There is one caveat to the success, however

Under emergency planning changes, granny flats will be allowed to hit the Queensland rental market over the next three years to help alleviate the states housing crisis.

By allowing Queensland homeowners to rent out their granny flats, the secondary dwellings will be made available to people outside their immediate family and expand accommodation options for smaller households, such as students, single persons, older people, and couples.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the change would mean cheaper properties will enter the rental market, helping thousands of people, ABC News reported.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said secondary dwellings are currently only able to be used by family, while at the same time, some Queenslanders are sleeping in their cars or in tents.

Miles said using under-utilised granny flats was quicker than building new accommodation and will allow homeowners to earn rent, helping them meet the increased cost of living.

Theyll still need to comply with all council regulations, building codes, as well as fire safety regulations, so they may need to get them safety inspected, he said.

Shannon Batch, Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) president, said the changes could address some of the diverse housing needs in Queensland.

This change highlights how good planning can help address our housing challenge and reduce the barriers to more diverse housing forms, Batch said.

The changes will undergo review after three years to make sure there were no unintended consequences and consider future housing supply, Miles said.

The granny flat changes were also supported by deputy opposition leader Jarrod Bleijie, who said, We support anything that gets a roof over a Queenslanders head, ABC News reported.
Latest News Major banks shake up fixed rates They take action even before the RBA's announcement...

Broker market share hits all time high There is one caveat to the success, however

New research has revealed almost 30% of Queensland rental dwellings have vanished from the market in the past two years.

It is believed that more than 160,000 investment properties were potentially sold to homebuyers, according to the 2022 Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA) Annual Investor Sentiment Survey.

The survey found 45.1% of investors sold at least one property in Queensland in the two years to August 2022. Meanwhile, 65% of investment properties were bought by owner-occupiers over the period, resulting in Queensland rental properties potentially falling by 29% in two years.

The survey also revealed 19% of investors nationwide signalled they intend to sell more property in the financial year ahead, with the main reason being Queenslands new land tax law which would penalise owners of property in other states and territories.

The eighth annual report was based on an online survey conducted in August 2022 with 1,618 property investor respondents.

Read more: Rental costs escalate in Brisbane

PIPA chair Nicola McDougall (pictured above) said it was clear that investors have had enough of being the cash cow for all levels of government.

From Coolangatta to Cairns, investors have deserted the Queensland market over the past two years with more rental pain on the horizon as well, McDougall said.

We had an inkling that investors had been selling their holdings over the past year or two, but these results show that even we had underestimated the volume of rental properties that have been jettisoned from the market. The fact that 45.1% of investors sold at least one property in Queensland is mind-blowing  especially since this was mostly a period when the ridiculous new land tax wasnt even law.

McDougall said, over the past two years, investment activity was below historical averages as further analysis of the data showed that it was generally owner-occupiers, including first-time buyers, who had purchased the former investment stock.

With nearly 270,000 former rental dwellings potentially being bought by homebuyers nationwide, it was clear this was one of the main reasons why there is such a critical undersupply of properties available for rent, she said. The number one reason investors sold was due to the positive selling conditions at the time, followed by reducing their total borrowings and changing tenancy legislation, making it too costly or hard to manage.

Read more: FOOP hurts property market

McDougall said these investor insights helped to explain why so many investors - including herself - had sold up.

After the moratoriums on rental evictions ended and prices started to rise, investors offloaded their properties in the hundreds of thousands. That said, even with the strong market conditions last year, after all the costs including capital gains tax that I paid over the 15 years I owned a property in a Brisbane middle-ring suburb, I would have been better off financially driving an Uber in my spare time, she said.

However, the number one reason investors may sell their property over the year ahead is because of the Queensland land tax. The survey provided investors with more than a dozen potential reasons why they may sell a property in the next year and the Queensland land tax was the top reason with nearly 31% of investors.

McDougall said investors were also feeling like they had lost control of their real estate assets as 29% were considering selling a property because of changing tenancy legislation making it too costly or hard to manage.

This was followed by the threat of losing control of their asset because of new or potential government legislation (27.5%) and the threat of rental freezes being enforced by governments (23%). If the percentage of investors who are considering selling winds up doing so, then we are going to see even higher rents as well as a sharp increase in homelessness  especially in Queensland, she said. PIPA has been warning about the potential rental undersupply from lending restrictions on rental supply for five years now, but governments have repeatedly refused listen.

McDougall said it was clear that investors were sick and tired of being treated appallingly by policymakers who continually believed they were an endless supply of revenue for their coffers.

But when nearly 270,000 rental dwellings disappear in just two years  because governments thought private investors would forever shoulder the burden of providing rental housing while being taxed and taxed some more  well, have we got news for you, she concluded.
DALLAS, TEXAS  "Laura and I were honored to have known Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She was a woman of great intellect, charm, and wit. Spending time at Buckingham Palace, and having tea with Her Majesty  and her Corgis  is among our fondest memories of the presidency. Queen Elizabeth ably led England through dark moments with her confidence in her people and her vision for a brighter tomorrow. Our world benefitted from her steady resolve, and we are grateful for her decades of service as sovereign. Americans in particular appreciate her strong and steadfast friendship. Laura and I join our fellow citizens in sending our heartfelt condolences to the Royal family and the British people."

State Dinner at the White House, May 7, 2007. (George W. Bush Presidential Library & Museum.) Download image
E-commerce firm on Friday claimed to have recorded sale of 10 lakh unique offered by small and medium business, startups etc from its platform during the first 36 hours of festive season sale.

The company's festive season sale "Great Indian Festival" started from September 22 as it gave early access to paid users.

The company said that its Prime users, who are paid members, grew 1.9 times than last year and 68 per cent of the total new sign ups were from Tier 2 and 3 cities.

"It is encouraging to witness small and medium businesses, startups, artisans, women entrepreneurs offer a wide selection of to our customer across India. We are humbled by the increase in new Prime member sign ups and customers shopping across categories as they trust as their preferred online shopping destination," said Manish Tiwary, Vice President & Country Manager, India Consumer Business, .

According to Amazon, customers showed preference for television brands like Samsung, OnePlus, Mi, LG and Sony.

The company's Amazon Business segment recorded 50 per cent growth in customers during the present sale.

"Amazon Business saw around 50 per cent growth in customers, over 100 per cent jump in orders and more than 200 per cent jump in sales over last year along with a 2 times growth in customers placing bulk orders for their business or corporate gifting needs. The number of sellers getting at least one business order grew by 23 per cent over last year," the statement said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a good for the hassled home buyers of Amrapali Group, the on Friday was informed that 11,858 flats will be delivered in 2 to 3 months of which 5, 428 units will be handed over the possession in October.

A bench of Chief Justice UU Lalit and Justice Bela M Trivedi was informed by court receiver senior advocate R Venkataramani that in the upcoming festive season next month 5,428 flats which have been completed by the NBCC will be given to the home buyers with electricity and water connection.

"We are facing some issues in providing electricity and water connections to the other 6,430 completed flats and once the connections are provided and they receive completion certificates, these units will be handed over to the home buyers in the next two to three months", he said.

The bench told Venkataramani that it is an important development that out of over 38,000 flats to be constructed more than 11,000 units are being handed over to the flat buyers and asked him to ensure that the flats are handed over to the home buyers only after realisation of full payment.

The senior advocate assured the bench that all these completed flats will be handed over only after the realisation of full payment from the home buyers.

He further gave the breakups of the funds saying that forensic auditors have given a figure of Rs 3870.38 crore as an amount to be realised from the home buyers but after cross-checking, they have found that the amount receivable is Rs 3,014 crore.

Venkataramani said that out of the Rs 3, 014 crores, they have till now received Rs 1,275 crore from 22,701 home buyers and the rest amount is to be received from 7939 home buyers, who have been issued show cause notices in this regard and will be realised by October 2024 as per the payment plan.

He pointed out that when the forensic audit was done the construction cost of over 45,000 flats was estimated at over Rs 8,000 crore with 12 per cent Goods and Services Tax but now the GST has been enhanced to 18 per cent and the total construction cost comes to Rs 9296.81 crore for the remaining flats.

The bench was told by advocate ML Lahoty, who appeared for homebuyers, that there are 1970 defaulters, who despite notices have not cleared their dues and their flats need to be sold through auction.

He said that funds could be generated after selling 5229 unsold flats and 1164 benami flats, whose owners are not found at their addresses nor they have contacted the court receiver or got themselves registered in the portal for home buyers.

CJI Lalit said that he has limited time and would like to deal with three to four major issues of Amrapali, which would give an impetus to the entire construction process and ensure the completion of the stalled projects.

"I have certain limitations, which you all understand. I can ask any of my brother and sister judges to take up the matter but the problem is that issues concerning Amrapali are such that it would be extremely difficult for them to understand the entire gamut of things", the CJI said.

He said that he can afford three to four sessions for deciding on these important issues and the bench will be sitting on October 11, 12, and 13 in the second half to take up these issues.

Lahoty and Venkataramani agreed to the suggestions and flagged that the Floor Area Ratio, outstanding from home buyers, recoveries from ex-directors of Amrapali and private firms are some of the major issues, which can be taken up for hearing.

The bench also extended relief granted to ex-CMD of Amrapali Group Anil Sharma after it was informed that surgery needs to be conducted on him in October.

Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre, said she is not opposing Sharma's application for bail on medical grounds.

The bench also extended the relief of former Amrapali director Shiva Priya till October 11 and allowed the Delhi police to file an affidavit. Priya has been out on bail for treatment of his daughter, who has complained of some liver problems.

On July 18, the top court clarified that its priority is that hassled home buyers of Amrapali Group of get their homes and thereafter at the end it will consider the claims of money lenders of the real estate group, who have given financial assistance before 2019.

On July 12, the top court had put on hold for the time being a proposed policy decision of the court-appointed receiver to collect from Amrapali home buyers additional Rs 200 per square feet of their units to meet the fund crunch as it took note of objections raised by flat buyers to the plan.

The NBCC, which is constructing the stalled projects of Amrapali Group had earlier told the top court that at present, 10 projects in Noida and 12 in Greater counsels are under execution involving 45,957 units with a sanctioned project cost of Rs 8,025.78 crore.

The apex court in its July 23, 2019, verdict had cracked the whip on errant builders for breaching the trust reposed by home buyers and ordered the cancellation of the registration of Amrapali Group under real estate law RERA and ousted it from prime properties in the NCR by nixing land leases.

The top court, which is trying to bring in funds for the stalled projects, had appointed a court receiver as custodian of the properties of Amrapali Group.

(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 latest survey showed disagreement between workers and bosses on the issue of working from home. 87 per cent of bosses say that the workers worked less efficiently from home compared to the office, and 80 per cent of workers said otherwise, as reported by BBC.

Satya Nadella, CEO, and Ryan Roslansky, the boss, said that the working pattern is shifting perhaps in the most significant way in history. Nadella told BBC that the tension between the workers and the managers needs to be resolved.

Currently, most IT firms suffer high rates and are working hard to recruit and retain staff. has allowed its employees to up to 50 per cent of the time.

Several Indian companies, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), have asked the workers to return to offices. Tesla boss Elon Musk has demanded 40 hours a week in office. He wrote an email to the employees saying, "If you don't show up, we will assume you have resigned."

A New York Times (NYT) report in August showed that several in the US are "watching" their employees working from home. Eight of the ten largest private US reportedly track the productivity metrics of individual workers. A big part of tracking is done in real-time.

Trackers, scores, and "idle" buttons are being used widely to track the performance of the employees. The pauses may lead to penalties in several cases.

The that resort to digital surveillance include big names like Amazon, UPS Drivers, and UnitedHealth.

According to the managers, tracking allows the companies to reward industrious employees and root out the ones with lax behaviour.

Several companies also use screenshots and pictures through webcams to track the employees working remotely.

Several workers, according to NYT, have opposed the practice. At the same time, some have said that their productivity has increased since the start of surveillance.
Co. agreed to pay $200 million to settle allegations that the company and its former Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg failed to disclose safety issues with its 737 Max jetliner, resolving one of the final US investigations related to two crashes that killed 346 people.

The settlement, announced by the SEC on Thursday, concludes a probe into whether withheld key information from shareholders about a flawed software system linked to the 2018 and 2019 crashes. The SEC said the company and its former CEO violated securities laws by making materially misleading public statements.

Without admitting or denying the findings, and Muilenburg agreed to pay $200 million and $1 million, respectively, to settle the allegations.

We have made broad and deep changes across our company in response to those accidentsfundamental changes that have strengthened our safety processes and oversight of safety issues, and have enhanced our culture of safety, quality, and transparency, Boeing said in a statement, referring to the two 737 Max crashes. Muilenburg didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.





Boeing shares were little changed after the close of Thursdays trading session. The stock has declined 31% so far this year.

The twin tragedies prompted one of the longest groundings in aviation history. Boeing previously paid a $243.3 million fine as part of a $2.5 billion settlement with the US Justice Department to end a criminal investigation in January 2021.

The SEC probe centered on repeated assurances by Muilenburg that the companys engineers had followed its safety practices in designing a software system, triggered by a single point of failure, that overwhelmed pilots in the two fatal crashes.

About a month after Lion Air Flight 610 plunged into the Java Sea off the coast of Indonesia, Boeing issued a press release edited and approved by Muilenburg that highlighted maintenance shortfalls by the airline and gave assurances of the airplanes safety, the SEC said. The company statement didnt disclose that an internal safety review had already determined that a flight-control system known as MCAS posed an ongoing issue, and that Boeing had already begun redesigning the software.

After a second 737 Max crashed in Ethiopia in March 2019 -- which led regulators to ground 737 Max jets around the globe -- Muilenburg told analysts and reporters that the company had confirmed that we followed exactly the steps in our design and certification processes that consistently produce safe airplanes.

In times of crisis and tragedy, it is especially important that public and executives provide full, fair, and truthful disclosures to the markets, SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement, adding that Boeing and Muilenburg failed in their obligations. They misled investors by providing assurances about the safety of the 737 MAX, despite knowing about serious safety concerns.
The first-year postgraduate medical student suffered deep wounds from multiple bites on her arms, legs and other body parts. She was immediately taken to the hospitals casualty ward for treatment. (Image: PTI)

HYDERABAD: A medico was attacked by a pack of 11 stray dogs in the early hours of Tuedsay at the Government General & Chest Hospital in Erragadda as she was leaving to attend to patients.

The first-year postgraduate medical student suffered deep wounds from multiple bites on her arms, legs and other body parts. She was immediately taken to the hospitals casualty ward for treatment.

The incident occurred about 2 am as the student was walking toward the hospital building when the strays attacked her. On hearing her screams and noticing the incident, patients attendants scared the dogs away and rescued her. However, by the time help arrived, the medical student had suffered significant wounds from dog bites.

This is the second time that hospital staff had been bitten by stray dogs on the premises, most probably by the same pack.

According to Dr S. Srikanth, head of the Osmania Junior Doctors' Association (JUDA), the first incident had occurred a few months ago. He said the terror of strays has gripped doctors and medical staff. No steps were initiated to deal with the dog numbers despite the matter being brought to the attention of officials concerned.

Further, Dr Srikanth said the dog menace was not limited to the Government General & Chest Hospital. Other government hospitals such as the Institute of Mental Health, Erragadda, were also affected. Chest Hospital superintendent Dr Mahaboob Khan, stated that strays frequently prowled the hospital, given the campus' size and proximity to an urban forest.

"Since a year ago, we've been attempting to capture every dog. To that end, we've been calling the municipal dog squad twice a week. They frequently visit and catch some dogs. There have been one or two cases of dog bites. We've done everything we can to prevent such incidents, he said.
State-owned CIL will sign agreements with three public sector enterprises -- Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) and (India)-- in order to set up four surface gasification projects.

Through gasification process, coal is converted into syngas -- a fuel gas -- which can be used in downstream production of value added chemicals.

The government aims to achieve 100 million tonnes of coal gasification in the next eight years in order to reduce the import of crude oil which is otherwise used to produce syngas.

" (CIL), under the aegis of Ministry of Coal, will be inking three major Memorandum of Undertaking (MoU) on September 27," the coal ministry said in a statement.

The proposed projects would reduce forex outgo and create around 23,000 jobs, it said.

The government had earlier said that the target to gasify 100 million tonnes of coal by 2030 will entail an investment of over Rs 4 lakh crore.

This 100 MT coal gasification will happen in three phases, the government had said.

In the first phase from 2020-2024, 4 million tonnes (MT) of coal will be gasified and around Rs 20,000 crore will be invested for the same.

In the second phase from 2020-2026, 6 MT of coal will be gasified which will involve an investment of Rs 30,000 crore.

In the third phase from 2022-2030, 90 MT of coal will be gasified and Rs 3.6 lakh crore will be invested for the same.

(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.)
Gautam Adanis rise to the No. 2 spot in global wealth rankings, crafted chiefly from shares traded in the local market, deserves to be in the spotlight  as much as a poster child of Narendra Modis Make in India self-reliance as an opportunity for some much-needed transparency about the tycoons investors.

In the Indian prime ministers eight years in power, the first-generation entrepreneur from his home state of Gujarat came out of relative obscurity and eclipsed Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com Inc. No other Asian businessman has ever risen this high  not when Japan Inc. was buying up everything in the 1980s, nor when Chinas meteoric rise held the world spellbound 20 years later.

The four Japanese who took the top positions in the inaugural 1987 list of international billionaires  the rich Americans were counted separately back then  had a combined wealth of about $50 billion, or $130 billion in today's money. Adani is worth nearly $145 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Surely thats a good reason for the market to know the major shareholders behind such a large fortune?



Also read: Adani Ports secures Rs 25,000-cr port project in West Bengal

To that end, a felicitation ceremony by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the market regulator, for the offshore funds that have backed the billionaire would be an apt tribute. It would also be a great motivator for the lay investing public. They would get to meet the savvy investors who helped make Adanis commodities, energy and transportation empire the $255 billion stock-market juggernaut it is today, even when the combined annual net income of its seven publicly traded firms is less than $2 billion.

Everyone ought to hear from the managers of the Elara India Opportunities Fund, which has amassed $4.2 billion  practically all of its assets under management  from three stocks: Adani Transmission Ltd., Adani Enterprises Ltd., and Adani Total Gas Ltd. APMS Investment Fund Ltd., whose $3.6 billion portfolio also includes Ltd., has done it with four.

There are three more of these Mauritius-based entities among major shareholders: Cresta Fund Ltd., LTS Investment Fund and Vespera Fund Ltd. A sixth, Albula Investment Fund Ltd., has exited Adani firms, with its portfolio shrinking to about $240 million from $1.6 billion in December, according to Bloomberg data. Between them, these publicity-shy investors own a combined $12 billion of Adani stock.

One can understand these funds reluctance to be in the public glare: Before they lucked out with Adani, four of them  Elara, Cresta, Albula and APMS  held significant stakes in two whose founders fled India and have since been probed for money laundering; another went bankrupt; and a fourth was liquidated after sparring with the Ethiopian government, Bloomberg reported in July last year.



Also read: Gautam Adani earned Rs 1,612 crore a day in 2021: Hurun India

The Indian market wobbled last summer on a media report that three out of the six offshore funds had seen their accounts frozen by the countrys national share depository. Adani called the report blatantly erroneous, the depository issued a clarification, and in a reply to a lawmakers question in parliament, Indias Junior Finance Minister Pankaj Chaudhary said neither the funds nor Adani firms were being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate, the agency that probes serious financial crimes such as money laundering and round-tripping.

As Jugeshinder Singh, the groups chief financial officer, explained back then, Adani firms are new entrants to public markets. They ended up with a similar bunch of shareholders when they were spun off from Adani Enterprises, the flagship. As to who they are and the source of their funds, those questions should be asked of the offshore managers themselves, he said.

Trouble is, Bloomberg couldnt find contact details for Markus Beat Dangel, Anna Luzia Von Senger Burger, and Alastair Guggenbuchi-Even and Yonca Even Guggenbuehl, the names Chaudhary gave in parliament as persons responsible for Cresta, Albula and APMS, respectively.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Offshore Leaks Database lists Beat Dangel as a judicial representative and director at Malta-based Lascaris Capital Fund and Prime Pan-Asia Investment Fund. The ICIJ website has a Swiss address for Beat Dangel. Guggenbuchi-Even is the chief executive and partner at Zurich-based Monterosa Group, according to his LinkedIn profile. When Indian opposition lawmaker Mahua Moitra asked in parliament if people at Monterosa are under investigation by Indian agencies, the minister said no. As part of its job of ensuring the integrity of Indian stock markets, the regulator must have full knowledge of these fund bosses. So it should go ahead and invite them over. Raj Bhatt, the London-based chairman and CEO at Elara Capital, should be easy to get: He hosted an investment event in Mumbai recently, attended virtually by Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

These smart investors must have known early what analysts are starting to recognize now: Adanis is not just any conglomerate. The coal he mines, moves through his ports, and burns at his power stations provides electricity to Indians. Adani supplies families with piped gas when theyre sitting down to dinner, in which the cooking oil is also his, and the wheat probably stored at his warehouses.



Also read: World's second-biggest fortune fails to halt rout in bonds of Adani firms

The new structures that will adorn the landscape of an underbuilt India over the next couple of decades will take construction materials from Adani, who just acquired 70 million tons of cement capacity and now wants to double it in five years. The businessman will collect toll on roads in the states of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, and host Indians data when theyre browsing the internet, waiting for a flight to take off from one of his airports. Hell also help book the airplane tickets. And before you complain about the impact of coal, cement, palm oil and data centers on the environment, Adani says hell invest $70 billion into cooling the planet down with green hydrogen, wind turbines and solar panels.

Throw in forays into media and money-lending to small businesses, and Adani may soon command a bigger share of an average Indians life than Amazon will ever garner from a typical Americans wallet. The investors who backed this grand vision should realize that their reticence is robbing retail shareholders of solid wealth-creation advice, and leaving them at the mercy of pundits who peddle the virtues of diversification.

The lack of publicity for the equity success story  shares of Adani Green Energy Ltd. have jumped 4,500% over the past three years  is also bringing too much attention to debt. The groups bonds are doing nowhere as well as stocks. Fitch Ratings unit CreditSights wasnt exactly revealing a secret when it wrote last month that Adani enjoys a strong relationship with the ruling Modi administration and that policy tailwinds are supporting the development of infrastructure assets. While Adani, 60, has said he doesnt receive or expect special treatment from the government, that alignment has definitely served him well. However, it was CreditSights characterization of the conglomerate as deeply overleveraged that the contested strenuously, asserting that gross debt wasnt the 2.3 trillion rupees ($29 billion) estimated by the research firms analysts, but less than 1.9 trillion rupees.

Subtract the cash in hand and include the full profit-generation potential of projects that havent yet run for a whole year, and net debt is a little over three times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, down from 7.6 times in 2013, the year before Modi came to power. Besides, to CreditSights point that it sees little evidence of promoter equity capital injections into the group companies, Adani said in its 15-page rebuttal that it has raised $16 billion in the last three years from marquee investors, including Frances TotalEnergies SE, Abu Dhabi-based International Holding Co., Qatar Investment Authority and Warburg Pincus LLC.

All thats fine, but what about the non-marquee investors? Once again, the contribution of the Mauritius-based funds to the empire got ignored. This wont do. The silent soldiers behind the worlds second-biggest personal fortune are overdue their recognition. They also deserve some scrutiny.
Global food & beverage conglomerate Nestle SA plans to invest Rs 5,000 crore in India in the next three-and-a-half years by 2025, its CEO Mark Schneider said on Friday.

The move will help the company to accelerate its core business in the country and leverage new opportunities for growth.

The would be on capex (capital expenditure), setting up new plants, acquisitions and expansion of the product portfolio of the company. Nestle, which currently operates 9 plants across India is also looking at new locations to set up manufacturing capacity.

The investment, which would be subject to clearances and approvals, will also help in creating more job opportunities in the domestic market.

Sharing the plans of the Indian market, which is among Nestle's top ten markets, Schneider in a media round table said the Swiss food & beverage company has an plan of Rs 5,000 crore through 2025.

"When you look into the investment in this country and the investment plan through 2025, we are talking about Rs 5,000 crore and that compares to Rs 8,000 crore over the last 60 years when we started manufacturing in this country," he said.

Nestle is present in India for over 110 years but started its manufacturing activity in the early 1960s, he added.

"In 1961, we started our first manufacturing site and so in that whole time period it has been Rs 8,000 crore and now in the next three years, it will be Rs 5,000 crore," he said.

This investment is not only for accelerating and ramping up cpaex alone but also goes into a whole lot of development works, brand building and meaningful contributions on the ground, Schneider said.

Nestl India Chairman and Managing Director Suresh Narayanan said that accelerating the core business of the company would be a focus area.

"It is definitely a highly accelerated plan that we are looking at. This has three pivots" such as continuing the strong momentum of growths that the company has in last 22 quarters," he said adding.

The second part is do it sustainably, and the Nestle had took "significant steps" in that direction.

"And the third part is really to leverage new opportunities for growth, whether it is plant-based proteins, healthy ageing, healthy snacking, leveraging some of the Indian grains into products for the company," Narayanan said.

Schneider further said Nestle India's business has maintained "consistency at very high levels" for 22 quarters, which is "outstanding" and "truly stunning" and is a complete willingness for "open chequebook" support every step of the way.

The investment would be on organic growth such as capex and putting money into facilities such as existing factories or research centres.

However, Schneider also added: "So on top of that, if we see interesting opportunities for M&A, we will be very happy to explore those."



When asked about the investment and capacities details segment-wise, Narayanan said: "It is going to be secular across categories. It is not going to be in particular categories."



However, he also added, "probably we are looking at new locations for factories as well. It could be a big part of the ambition that has as a company."



presently operates nine factories employing roughly 6,000 people.

"The ambition to invest Rs 5,000 crore would have been a significant increase in the direct and indirect employment as well," he well



Nestle India's revenue in 2021 stood at Rs 14,709.41 crore. It had last invested around Rs 700 crore to open its plant at Sanand in Gujarat to manufacture a range of popular instant noodles Maggi.

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The Uttar Pradesh government, through its investment promotion agency Invest UP, has been successful in attracting beverages industrial units in Gorakhpur, Amethi, Prayagraj and Chitrakoot.

Varun Beverages Ltd, all India franchisee of PepsiCo, has been allotted land in these districts through fast-track mode for setting up their units for producing carbonated soft drinks, fruit pulp or juice-based drinks.

The company has proposed to invest Rs 3,740 crore in total in all the four plants with about 5,650 expected job opportunities.

Chief Executive Officer, Invest UP, Abhishek Prakash said: "Under the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and guidance of industrial development minister Nand Gopal Gupta 'Nandi', policy of fast-track land allotment and promotion of mega projects in the state are proving to be significant enablers in attracting investment in the state."

Additional Chief Executive Officer, Prathamesh Kumar said that Varun Beverages Ltd. has been allotted 45-acre land through fast-track mode in Narkatha village of Gorakhpur.

The company proposes to invest Rs 1071. 28 crore here with around 1,500 expected employment avenues.

With allotment of 68. 6-acre land in Bargarh Industrial Area in Chitrakoot, Varun Beverages Ltd has proposed to invest around Rs 496.57 crore with estimated jobs to the tune of 1,000.

Around 24.7-acre land has been allotted in Saraswati Hi-Tech City, Naini-Prayagraj and the investor has proposed to invest Rs 1,052.57 crore with 1,500 employment opportunities, while 26.1-acre area has been allotted in in Trishundi Industrial Area-Amethi, where proposed investment is Rs 1,119.59 crores with 1,650 expected jobs.

--IANS

amita/ksk/

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Reliance New Energy Limited (RNEL)  the wholly-owned subsidiary of Ltd (RIL)  signed definitive agreements to acquire 20 per cent stake for $12 million in Caelux Corporation, a company headquartered in Pasadena, California, USA, engaged in the development of perovskite-based solar technology.

In a BSE filing, RIL said, that the investment will accelerate product and technology development for Caelux, including the construction of its pilot line in the United States, for expediting the commercial development of its technology. RNEL and Caelux have also entered into a strategic partnership agreement for technical collaboration and commercialization of Caeluxs technology.

Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, Limited, said, The investment in Caelux aligns with our strategy to create the most advanced manufacturing ecosystem, backed by world-class talent, and built on the pillars of technological innovation achieved through strategic partnerships. We believe Caeluxs proprietary perovskite-based solar technology provides us with access to the next leg of innovation in crystalline solar modules. We will work along with team at Caelux to accelerate its product development and commercialization of its technology.

Caelux is a research and development-oriented company in perovskite-based solar technology. Its proprietary technology enables high-efficiency solar modules that can produce 20 per cent more energy over the 25-year lifetime of a solar project at significantly lower installed cost. Reliance is setting up a global-scale integrated photovoltaic Giga factory at Jamnagar, Gujarat. Through this investment and collaboration, Reliance will be able to produce more powerful and lower-cost solar modules leveraging Caeluxs products.

Scott Graybeal, CEO of Caelux Corporation, said, Caelux is proud to have Reliance as a lead investor as we move to the next phase of our development and are grateful for Khosla Ventures support of the company over the years. Through the partnership with Reliance, we will accelerate our efforts to build out our manufacturing capabilities to produce products that make crystalline solar modules more efficient and cost effective. We look forward to demonstrating the future of solar power at a scale as we support Reliances global expansion plans and product roadmap.
is eyeing to offer a stake in to Singapore (SIA) as a part of the adjustment to merge with . SIA owns a 49 per cent stake in Vistara's parent company Tata SIA Airlines, a report by Economic Times (ET) added.

With the merger of and Air India, is aiming to keep only one airline brand under its ambit. The group currently owns a 51 per cent stake in .

After the merger, will become India's largest airline behind . The company is also planning to merge other under one brand, including AirAsia India, and Air India Express.

"Consolidating the three  AirAsia, Vistara and Air India  would not only provide the Tatas with greater operational efficiency, but they will also be able to benefit from better bargaining power in their dealings with OEMs such as aircraft and engine manufacturers," Vihang Virkar, partner at Lumiere Law Partners told ET.

Air India has a legacy of over 75 years and is a more dominant brand, the report added.

"With Vistara and AirAsia having recently commenced international operations, using the brand name 'Air India' would most certainly benefit them," Virkar added.

N Chandrasekaran, chairman, had earlier stated that the group's airline businesses are operating on thin margins, and must be consolidated to ensure operational efficiencies and keep control of costs.
Even as the concerned parties seek clarity on the (ED) attaching assets of the distressed borrower ABG Shipyard, Welspun Corp Limited's winning bid of Rs 659 crore has raised hopes of the liquidation process under the (IBC).

According to sources in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Ahmedabad bench and legal fraternity, Welspun Corp Ltd's winning bid is one of the highest among assets under liquidation.

"While clarity is being sought with regards ED attaching assets, the winning bid augurs well for creditors even under the liquidation process since it is one of the highest," said a source on condition of anonymity.

According to Gujarat government officials, the development augurs well for the state's ports and ship building sector as well. "Under the new 2019 policy, the state government has been trying to boost the sector by looking at ways to attract domestic and international business. With this sale of assets, the operations will not take a hit and could potentially help achieve the targets set under the policy," said a senior government official.

had gone under liquidation after no buyers were found during the insolvency process after RBI had directed its creditors to refer to NCLT for the resolution process. liquidator had recently invited bids for sale of specified assets following a Supreme Court (SC) order on August 26, 2022 to conclude such a sale within four weeks.

Spread across 165 acres of leasehold land with 1,000 metres of water frontage, the distressed borrower's assets were successfully bid by Welspun Corp and its wholly owned subsidiary Nauyaan Shipyard Private Limited, which is being used as a special purpose vehicle for organic or inorganic growth in the marine field.

Having paid Rs 589 crore through Welspun Corp Limited and Rs 70 crore through subsidiary Nauyaan Shipyard, the former is now looking to unlock the ABG Shipyard asset's potential. Welspun's proposal entailed using ABG Shipyard's facilities for defence, commercial shipbuilding, green steel, ship breaking and ship repair, among other things.

Among the key facilities, the yard at Dahej includes the world's largest ship lift system with a capacity of 33,000 metric tonnes, and a partially completed ship transfer system with fluidised bed of 27,000 MT capacity.

However, in its filing with the stock exchanges on Thursday, Welspun Corp stated that the partially built obsolete ships and scrap acquired under the winning bid is estimated to be over roughly 150,000 metric tonnes. "It is estimated that its potential value would be unlocked within 12-15 months from completion of the acquisition," it stated.

Further, Welspun Corp stated that it would take "appropriate action" even as the provided immunity to assets sold under liquidation by disallowing investigative agencies from attaching or confiscating the same. An emailed query to Welspun Corp remained unanswered till the time of writing.

On its part, the ED had attached multiple assets including shipyards, land, commercial properties and bank deposits amounting to over Rs 2700 crore, following bank loan fraud allegations against the promoters.

Earlier on Tuesday, ABG Shipyard promoter Rishi Agarwal was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) based on money laundering allegations with claims of Rs 22,059 crore being made by multiple creditors.

Agarwal's arrest follows a complaint filed by the State Bank of India (SBI) whose outstanding loan portfolio to ABG Shipyard stands at Rs 2,400 crore.
Food aggregator is now going to manually check the physical location of any cloud kitchen running more than 10 brands out of a single location. Approved restaurant partners that provide a great experience will be added to a whitelist.

The crackdown comes after a blog post uncovered a Bengaluru cloud kitchen running some 200 different brands.

Over the past few weeks, we have been engaging with the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) and the other restaurant partners to formulate the right approach to curb these practices, said co-founder Mohit Gupta in a blogpost.

It is imperative for us to work together to protect the good work done by so many professionally run restaurants and jointly create parameters to avoid the misuse of the aggregator platforms in such a blatant and abrasive fashion, he added.

"Upon deliberations with Zomato, we felt this was an acceptable interim solution wherein the team carries out a preliminary physical inspection of such locations. We will further work with the Zomato team in ascertaining whether these kitchens comply with acceptable industry norms and suggest solutions thereon. The idea is to create and nurture a healthy ecosystem, " said Kabir Suri, President of NRAI and co-founder of Azure Hospitality.

Restaurants that do not make the whitelist can write to the firm, who will review the restaurants proposed offering, kitchen space and historic customer experience on the Zomato app among other things. The foodtech unicorn will also collaborate with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FFSAI) in this regard.

In addition, Zomato will also showcase the information of multiple brands linked to a kitchen on the restaurants page on Zomato to boost transparency.

While we work with the restaurant industry to together raise awareness and quality of experiences brought to customers, we also realise the important role we play in safeguarding customer experiences. We will keep evolving our policies and guidelines such that a small fraction of bad actors do not spoil the pudding for all of us, said Gupta.

As a responsible industry body, we are equally concerned about the sporadic instances of people misusing the legal loopholes to operate hundreds of brands from a single small kitchen. We reckon this causes harm to the overall reputation of the industry as a whole, the NRAI said in a statement.

The blogpost added that the allows kitchen entities to operate multiple brands on a single license, with some exceptions.

Some fly-by-night operators, who account for less than 0.2% of registered kitchens, misuse this flexibility in law by creating innumerable brands from the same kitchen. These brands have little to no differentiation in the product offering; instead, they confuse/cheat customers by creating a false perception of choice, while none of it actually exists, said Gupta.

Such operators tarnish the reputation of the restaurant industry as a whole, hurting all of us in more ways than one, he added.
The and the KSRTC on Friday informed the Kerala High Court that 70 KSRTC were damaged in the hartal called by the Popular Front of India (PFI) and subsequent in the state.

The state-run public transport corporation submitted before the High Court that it suffered a loss of Rs 45 lakh due to the damages suffered due to the stone pelting and during the dawn-to-dusk hartal called by the .

Justice Devan Ramachandran asked the corporation whether this loss will be recovered from those who held the hartal.

He also said that law was being violated due to lack of fear in the law enforcement system.

The court asked the government to submit the steps taken by it in the incident.

Multi-agency teams spearheaded by the NIA had arrested 106 functionaries of the on Thursday in near simultaneous raids at 93 locations in 15 states for allegedly supporting terror activities in the country.

Kerala, where has some strong pockets, accounted for the maximum number of 22 arrests, officials said.

PFI state president C P Mohammed Basheer, chairman O M A Salam, secretary Nasaruddin Elamaram, former chairman E Abubacker and others were among those arrested.

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The on Thursday pulled up the state government for alleged lapses in regulation of development and housing authorities, in connection with a PIL on a fire incident at a hotel.

The bench of expressed dissatisfaction as the state's lawyer could not place proper replies to its queries in connection with the PIL.

The court had taken suo motu cognisance of the fire at the Levana Suites hotel in the posh Hazratganj area in the city earlier this month in which four guests were killed and several injured.

A bench of justices D K Upadhyay and Saurabh Srivastava was hearing the PIL. On a previous hearing, the bench had sought a detailed response from Development Authority vice-chairman Indramani Tripathi and the chief fire officer.

When state government counsel Shailendra Singh submitted the fire officer's reply in the court, it expressed annoyance on the way the affidavit was prepared.

When the bench asked about this, the counsel demanded more time. At this, the court further asked why a detailed affidavit was not readied when the court had already granted the state adequate time earlier.

Expressing annoyance at the silence of the counsel, the bench fixed November 3 for the next hearing, and directed the state to come with an exhaustive affidavit.

At the time of the hearing, Additional Advocates General M M Pandey, V K Shahi and K P Tripathi were also present.

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CHENNAI: A 72-year-old woman whose obsequies were held at the Guduvancheri crematorium in the presence of the public and relatives on Tuesday after announcing her passing away through wall posters in the locality suddenly turned up at her house on Thursday when a post-funeral ritual  Padayal (offering the favourite eatables of the deceased)  was about to be held.

The pleasantly surprised relatives stopped the ritual and had to rush to the railway police to inform them that the mutilated body of the accident victim that they had received from them after postmortem, was not that of Chandra, the wife of a former railway employee.

Chandras son Vadivelu, who had identified the body, found on the tracks between Chengalpattu and Tambaram, as that of his mother confessed that he presumed it since the saree draped around the accident victims was similar to one worn by his mother. He could not figure out anything from the face as it was highly mutilated, he said.

Vadivelu and his relatives were desperately searching for Chandra who left home to visit a temple and did not return for a long time on Tuesday when they learnt about an unidentified body of an old woman, run over by a train, lying in the Chrompet mortuary.

Vaidvelu identified the body as that of his mother, prompting the railway police to conduct a post-mortem and hand over the remains to the family, which organised a funeral with all the usual trappings, besides printing the condolence posters with her photograph and mentioning the funeral time.

After burying the body, the family also conducted a post-funeral ritual of offering milk at the grave on Wednesday and returned home to prepare for the next days rite of offering the favourite eatables of the deceased to appease the soul. Just as they started the offering, Chandra presented herself in person.

She said that she had gone on a pilgrimage to temples in Singa Perumal Koil and places around and hence could not return home earlier.

The news of the dead woman returning home, however, came as a blow to the railway police as they have to not just reopen the closed case but also send back the body to the morgue and then identify it. To start the process, they have to first exhume the body from the crematorium, which could be done only with the authorisation of the revenue officials.

Even as the railway police were approaching the revenue officials explaining the goof up, the return of the dead woman also created a flutter in the locality.
Busting a major corruption racket at the Patna regional office of the Highways Authority of India, the on Friday arrested four persons, including a chief general manager and a deputy general manager, in a Rs 5 lakh case, officials said.

Chief General Manager Sadre Alam and DGM Prabhanshu Shekhar posted at the regional office were arrested by the for allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from executives of the Nashik-based Limited -- Amit Kumar Gupta and Mukul Kumar -- they said.

The arrests were followed by searches at eight locations, including the residences of the accused officials and the private executives and offices of the company.

During the searches, the recovered Rs 70 lakh in cash, including the bribe amount, and property documents from the residential premises of Alam. Gold jewellery and biscuits worth Rs 80 lakh and Rs 6 lakh in cash were recovered from Shekhar's premises, they said.

It is alleged that Alam and Shekhar were seeking the bribe from officials of in exchange for clearing inflated bills, manipulation of measurement books, etc.

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Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology on Friday joined the debate on moonlighting in the software industry, saying that captive work models would fail and companies should not tether their employees to their jobs.

Chandrasekhar, addressing the annual forum of the Public Affairs Forum of India, said: This is the age of employee-entrepreneurs and companies must now understand there has been a structural shift in the minds and attitudes of the young Indian tech workforce.

He added the days when employees signed up with big tech majors and spent their lives on the job were long gone.

Todays youngsters have every sense of confidence and purpose about wanting to monetise and create more value out of his or her skills. So, the efforts of companies that want to pin their employees down and say that you should not work on your own start-up are doomed to fail, said the minister.

Moonlighting is doing two or more jobs simultaneously. Indias IT and software industry is divided on whether companies should allow their employees to do so even after their work hours.

IT major recently sacked 300 employees after finding them working for its competitors.

Leading IT firms including Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, and IBM have condemned moonlighting, calling it cheating.

On the other hand, C P Gurnani, chief executive officer (CEO) of Tech Mahindra, said moonlighting was all right if employees kept up their efficiency and productivity.

After the pandemic set in, the IT and software services industry adopted a remote-working model, which helped employees work on other projects.

Infosys has warned employees on violating clauses that restrict dual . It might lead to disciplinary action and dismissal, Infosys said in an email to its employees.

The ministers remarks came a day after Debjani Ghosh, president of the Association of Software and Service Companies, said companies should upgrade with changing employee-engagement models in the post-pandemic time.

She termed moonlighting an issue arising from the breakdown of trust between employers and employees.

We have to re-imagine our employee-engagement model for hybrid working, and have to build flexibility. As we do that, we have to ensure that trust becomes the bedrock of any engagement model, Ghosh said.

Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder and executive vice-president of TeamLease, said: The world is moving towards much more fluidity in employment, but then there has to be a consensual agreement when one seeks that flexibility. One also has to realise that rules work both ways. Moreover, the Indian labour code does not allow dual .

The debate over moonlighting has also sparked questions about whether the work contract signed by employees could prevent them from doing another job.

Every signs a contract that spells out what is expected of her or him, and no one is coerced to sign it. But if in future your needs change then you need to sit with your employer and work out a solution, Chakraborty said.

Chandrasekhar, however, said moonlighting should not violate contractual obligations.

Employers expect employees to be entrepreneurial while serving them. The same people can apply it personally to themselves. The time will come when there will be a community of product builders who will divide their time on multiple projects. Just as lawyers or consultants do. This is the future of work.
The government has received people's feedback on a draft policy allowing sale of wines in supermarkets and he was sure that the ruling ally would not oppose it, excise minister Shambhuraj Desai said on Thursday.

The previous MVA government had allowed wine sale in supermarkets but the BJP, then in opposition, had opposed it. "We had put the draft policy in the public domain to seek people's suggestions and objections. By July-end, we received suggestions and objections, however, due to the political developments I could not focus on it," Desai told reporters here. "Once I receive the details, I will further study it region-wise and check the opinions of people from rural as well as urban areas and then brief chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and then the draft will go to the cabinet," said Desai. He was confident that his colleagues in the will not oppose the policy if it was in the interest of the state and benefited farmers by bringing them extra income, said Desai, a rebel Shiv Sena leader belonging to Eknath Shinde faction.

(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.)
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister on Thursday said the country's economy progresses when is strengthened.

The chief minister was addressing a rural development exhibition organised by the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Smriti Mahotsav Samiti in Mathura via video-conferencing from his official residence in Lucknow.

"Deendayal Upadhyaya-ji had said that the standard of the economy of any country is judged by the economic condition of the person in the lowest rung," Adityanath said.

He said emphasis has been laid on the use of technology to reduce the cost of farming and increase the production efficiency of agriculture.

To bring happiness in the lives of farmers, programmes like Soil Health Card, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana etc. are being run in the country, the chief minister said.

He said his government has provided concessions on electricity bills of tube wells used by farmers.

"The state government has collaborated with PepsiCo to set up a food processing centre in Kosi Kalan, Mathura. Millions of quintals of potatoes are being used in this food processing centre, due to which farmers are getting good price for their potatoes," the chief minister said.

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In a further impetus to self-reliance in defence production, the on Thursday signed a contract with for acquisition of additional dual-role capable surface-to-surface BrahMos missiles at an approximate cost of Rs 1,700 crore under 'Buy-Indian' category.

In a statement, the ministry said the induction of these dual-role capable missiles is going to "significantly enhance" the operational capability of Indian Navy fleet assets.

Pvt. Ltd. (BAPL) is a joint venture between India and Russia making crucial contribution to augment the new generation surface-to-surface missiles (SSMs) with enhanced range and dual role capability for land as well as anti-ship attacks, it said.

"Providing further impetus to Aatmanirbharta in defence production, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) signed a contract today with M/s Pvt. Ltd. (BAPL) for acquisition of additional dual-role capable Surface to Surface BrahMos missiles at an overall approximate cost of Rs 1,700 Crore under 'Buy-Indian Category'," the statement said.

This contract is going to give further boost to indigenous production of critical weapon system and ammunition with active participation of indigenous industry, it added.

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Though is almost over for most crops, the on Friday was bullish that some more area could come under in states like Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Odisha till the end of this month. This is owing to a good late rainfall.

If transplanting continues for a few more days, it could narrow the shortfall in acreage as compared to last year. As on September 23, the figure stood at 5.53 per cent at 40.15 million hectares.

This acreage was, however, 1.13 per cent more than the normal area in which is planted. Normal area is the average acreage of the last five years.

The latest sowing data  according to official records  is the penultimate during the current kharif season. It also showed that overall kharif have been sown in around 109.75 million hectares this year. This is 1.24 per cent less than the area covered during the same period last year (see chart).

The fall in paddy acreage is mainly due to drought in eastern India as compared to last year along with some shift to other competing . This could see an almost 6.05 per cent drop in production this kharif season at 104.99 million tonnes. This is according to the first advance estimate of agriculture production for the 2022-23 crop year (July-June) released on Wednesday.

production in the 2021-22 kharif season was a record 111.76 million tonnes. If the numbers hold firm, then this will be the lowest production during the kharif season since the 2020-21 crop year.

However, independent agencies said that fall in rice production could be even steeper.

On Friday, Origo Commodities  in a research report  said rice production this kharif season could be almost 13 per cent lower compared to last year at 96.7 million tonnes. This is because yields have adversely been impacted due to deficient rain in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar.

For other crops, Origo said soybean production for 2022-23 is estimated to be higher by 4.5 per cent at 12.48 million tonnes. Maize production could be higher by 1 per cent at 21.95 million tonnes against 21.77 million tonnes last year.

The food ministry, in a statement on Friday, said domestic rice prices are in a comfortable position. It said prices will remain well under control, a day after it gave a statement to the contrary.

 are used to dealing with weather, but climate change is making it harder by volatile temperatures and rainfall patterns. Climate change has affected crop production in many places. Not all of the changes are negative: Some crop yields have increased in some locations. Climate change is reducing production of staples such as rice and wheat in India, Akhilesh Jain, co-founder, Agrotech India, told Business Standard.

Origo also said soybean acreage is almost flat compared to last year while yield is estimated to gain by 4.7 per cent from last year. This is owing to the favourable rainfall distribution in key producing states this year.

In case of maize, higher production in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan will offset the production loss from Karnataka.
In a shot in the arm for the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction, the Bombay High Court on Friday granted it permission to hold its annual Dussehra rally at the iconic Shivaji Park ground in central .

For the Thackeray faction the development has a symbolic value as Shivaji Park is associated with the Sena since its birth, and his group is locked in a tussle with the rebel group led by Maharashtra Chief Minister to establish itself as the 'real' Shiv Sena.

The Shinde faction had also sought permission to hold the rally at the same venue on the same day (October 5), and opposed the Thackeray group's petition in the high court.

Welcoming the ruling, Thackeray appealed his supporters to maintain discipline while attending the rally on Dussehra. Thackeray supporters celebrated the ruling outside the Sena's headquarters in Dadar, close to the Shivaji Park, as well as near Thackeray's residence Matoshree in Bandra and in neighbouring Thane.

A division bench of Justices R D Dhanuka and Kamal Khata said in the ruling that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) decision not to grant permission to either Sena faction was a "clear abuse of the process of law." The Thackeray faction had challenged the BMC order before the court. "The BMC order refusing permission merely on the ground that there was a second application filed to hold the rally at the same place is a clear abuse of the process of law," the order said. The civic body "misused its power on a flimsy ground," the court remarked. The BMC had on September 21 said it was refusing permission for the rally to both Thackeray and Shinde groups, because if permission was granted to one group, it would lead to law and order problems. The corporation had also cited a report submitted by the local police station expressing this apprehension. MLA Sada Sarvankar, who had sought permission from the BMC for the rally on behalf of the Shinde group, had also moved the HC opposing the Thackeray group's petition. The court should not decide the matter as the dispute as to who represents the real Sena was pending before the Supreme Court, he said. The court rejected the application noting that Sarvankar had no "locus" (right) to intervene, and the present petition had nothing to do with the issue before the SC.

Senior counsel Aspi Chinoy and advocate Joel Carlos, appearing for the Thackeray faction, had argued that it had the right to hold the rally at Shivaji Park as it was a long tradition.

They also cited a 2016 government order allowing Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park. BMC's counsel Milind Sathe contended that nobody can claim to have such a right. welcomed the court's decision and said his party's faith in the judiciary stood vindicated.

"We never stopped holding the congregation on Vijayadashmi at Shivaji Park since the inception of the party, except during the time of coronavirus pandemic. We are taking this tradition forward, he told reporters. The Sena president appealed to Shiv Sainiks to maintain discipline during the Dussehra rally.

His son Aaditya Thackeray thanked the court and said the truth always prevails.

Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis said the administration will follow the court's orders.

Transport minister Uday Samant, who owes allegiance to the camp, said the next course of action will be decided after studying the high court's order. NCP leader Ajit Pawar expressed happiness over the HC order. The Leader of Opposition in the Assembly noted that late Sena founder Bal Thackeray had started the tradition of holding the Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park.

"Balasaheb had said (his son) will lead the Sena after him and had asked Sainiks to stand by the latter," Pawar said.

The Shinde group has already obtained the BMC's permission for Dussehra rally at the MMRDA ground even though it vied to get Shivaji Park for the event.

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An investigation by the (CCI) has found that some of India's largest hospital chains charged exorbitant prices for services and products, abusing their dominance in the market, according to a report by Moneycontrol.

India's fair-trade regulator will soon meet to analyse responses of chains like Apollo Hospitals, Max Healthcare, Fortis Healthcare, Batra Hospital & Medical Research, Sri Ganga Ram Hospital, and St Stephen's Hospital. It will then impose penalties based on the responses.

MC added that the commission might slap steep penalties. The penalty can be up to 10 per cent of the hospital chains' average turnover in the last three years. Apollo's average turnover was Rs 12,206 crore. Fortis Hospitals' average turnover for the last three years was Rs 4,834 crore.

The higher pricing was charged for renting rooms, medicines, medical tests, medical devices, and consumables. In some hospitals, the report added that the room rents exceeded the charges of 4-star hotels.

has been examining the pharma sector in India for the past few years. In April 2020, it cautioned businesses against taking advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic and violating competition laws.

The investigation and penalties, the report added, may help in bringing the prices of medicines and equipment down. They may also bring transparency to the healthcare business.

The hospitals were chosen based on the number of doctors, paramedics, beds, and turnover. These hospitals also do not allow patients to buy consumables, tests, devices, and medicines from outside.

The sent the investigation reports to the hospitals on July 12, 2022, the report added. The fees charged by these hospitals for tests like X-rays, MRI, and ultrasound and consumables like syringes and blades were found to be higher than other makers.
Prime Minister on Friday encouraged state governments and citizens to focus on green growth and green jobs to help achieve the net zero carbon emissions target by 2070.

Now, the focus of the country is on growth, on green jobs. And to achieve all these goals, the role of the ministry of every state is enormous, Modi said at the National Conference of Ministers in Gujarat.

Ahead of the 2022 United Nations Conference, commonly referred to as COP27, the Centre reached out to states to encourage them for devising stronger climate action plans. COP27 will be held in Egypt from November 6 to 18.

Modi also urged state ministers against unnecessarily allowing obstacles in the name of the and to ensure ease of living and doing business, while highlighting the importance of the PARIVESH portal for the single-window forest, wildlife, environment, and coastal regulation zone clearances. Where environment clearance used to take more than 600 days 8 years ago, it takes 75 days today, the PM said, calling for expedited clearance of more than 6,000 proposals for environmental and 6,500 for forest that were pending with the states.

Expedited clearances should also take care of the rules and give priority to the development of the people. It is a win-win situation for both the economy and ecology, he said.

Modi said the role of the was more of a promoter of the environment than a regulator. It should be our endeavour that by raising the name of the environment unnecessarily, no obstacle should be allowed to be created in the quest of ease of living and ease of doing business. We have to remember that the faster the environment clearance is available, the faster the development will also take place.

Stressing the need to maintain equilibrium with nature, the PM said the role of the environment ministries of the states in achieving these goals was of vital importance.

Modi emphasised the need for a participative and integrated approach by the environment ministries and citizens to create awareness about biodiversity.

The PM went on to add that India is a rapidly developing economy and that it was continuously strengthening its ecology as well. Our forest cover has increased and wetlands are also expanding rapidly, he said, asking the states to work on measures, such as vehicle scrapping policy and ethanol blending.

The conference has been convened to improve synergy between the central and state governments in formulating policies on issues such as plastic pollution elimination and for action plans to combat with a focus on the Lifestyle for the Environment (LiFE) Movement. Modi launched LiFE in June for people to have a lifestyle in tune with their planet.

Modi said Indias share in global emissions is negligible. In its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), India has put forth a target of creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent by increasing forest and tree cover by 2030.
Indian High Commissioner to has called on Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena and discussed wide-ranging bilateral issues, including investments, shared heritage and capacity building in the crisis-hit island nation.

has been the biggest provider of aid this year to its southern neighbour, which is fighting its worst in more than seven decades and struggling to pay for imports.

The Indian High Commission last week held the first round of talks with the Sri Lankan Government on restructuring the bilateral official debt of the island nation.

The discussions symbolise India's support to early conclusion and approval of a suitable IMF Programme for Sri Lanka, for which financing assurances from creditors to make Sri Lanka's debt sustainable are required, it had said in a statement after the talks.

"High Commissioner called on H.E PM @DCRGunawardena. Discussed broad ranging bilateral issues of common interest including investments, shared heritage and capacity building," the Indian High Commission tweeted, sharing pictures of the meeting held on Thursday.

and the International Monetary Fund reached a preliminary agreement in early September for a loan of about USD 2.9 billion, which is contingent on the country receiving financing assurances from official creditors and negotiations with private creditors.

The country of 22 million people has been battling shortages of essentials, including fuel, food and medicines, for months after its foreign exchange reserves dropped to record lows, stalling imports and stoking unprecedented public unrest.

The Indian government's assistance to crisis-hit has reached almost USD 4 billion since January this year.

The Indian assistance has also helped Sri Lanka's second-largest export industry - the tea industry - to operate amidst adversity.

Sri Lanka, which was facing shortage of fertiliser and other agricultural chemicals after failed organic agricultural mandate and lack of foreign funds to source them, received 44,000 metric tonnes of urea from in the middle of July in accordance with its credit line, according to an editorial in Sri Lanka's business newspaper Daily FT.

The fertiliser was swiftly transported by Sri Lanka's tea board to more than 100 manufacturers for distribution to smallholders and neighbourhood estates, it said.

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CHENNAI: Protestors gathered at Kannan Roundana in Old Washermenpet, which had earned the sobriquet Chennai Shaheen Bagh in early 2020 when it became the site for a continuous agitation against the CAA and NPR, on Friday to express their anger against the arrest of over 100 office-bearers of Popular Front of India (PFI) and Socialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI) all over the country.

Condemning the raids on the offices and residences of PFI and SDPI leaders on Thursday, over 1000 people, including a large number of women, gathered to revive the Chennai Shaheen Bagh that was given up due to the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.

The protest venue in Old Washermenpet that involves several business streets, on which people sat down for days without break, was named after Shaheen Bagh of Delhi, which was the main protest venue in the country against CAA and NPR that was sought to be brought in by the BJP government in 2019.

In Delhi, the Shaheen Bagh protests that happened from December 15, 2019, to March 24, 2020, were spearheaded by women. In Chennai, too, the number of women participants was overwhelming in 2020.

On Saturday, the same Kannan Roundana resounded with the same spirit of protest as several Islamic movements and the Mosques coordination committee had called for the agitation to express their opposition to the Union Government misusing the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to intimidate people belonging to the minority communities.

The DMK, too, came out against the raids by NIA and ED, saying that it was an instance of misusing the law. The party spokesman, T K S Elangovan, said the PFI leaders had been arrested with no evidence against them.

Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi general secretary Thol Thirumavalavan said the crackdown on PFI and SDPI was an intimidatory tactic employed against all democratic forces. He accused the BJP government of intimidating and oppressing members of the Muslim community.

In a statement on Friday, Thirumavalavan said that both the democratic organizations functioned in a transparent manner and even accommodated members of all communities.

Many other political leaders like the coordinator of Tamil Nadu Makkal Urimai Peravai (Tamil Nadu Peoples Rights Federation), K Kurinji, and Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam, K Ramakrishnan condemned the raids and arrests.

Kurinji called for the dissolution of the NIA and Ramkrishnan said that the BJP was carrying out the raids to create a tense situation with the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in mind.
The Lucknow Bench of the on Friday sentenced former MLA Mukhtar Ansari to five-year imprisonment in a 23-year-old case related to the Gangster Act.

Justice D K Singh passed the order overturning the acquittal by a special MP-MLA court in 2020.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Ansari.

State counsel Rao Narendra Singh said the FIR was lodged with the Lucknow's Hazratganj police in 1999 and a special court had acquitted Ansari in 2020. The state had filed an appeal against acquittal in 2021.

The High Court on Friday allowed the state government's appeal and sentenced Ansari to five years in jail, he said.

On Wednesday, Mukhtar Ansari was awarded seven-year jail in another case for threatening a jailer and pointing a pistol at him.

In 2003, the then Lucknow district prison jailer SK Awasthi had lodged an FIR with the Alambagh police alleging that he was threatened for ordering a search of people who came to meet Ansari.

A trial court had acquitted Ansari in this case also.

Mukhtar Ansari is currently lodged in the Banda jail.

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The government has banned trade with four neighbouring states and also imposed a "lockdown" on the intrastate movement of animals from 28 districts to prevent the spread of lumpy skin disease, Animal Husbandry Minister Dharampal Singh said Friday.

He said the lumpy has spread to animals in 14 states of the country and it is "fatal to animals like coronavirus" is to human.

The viral disease entered through states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi, the minister told the fifth day of the ongoing Monsoon Session of the Assembly.

"In view of this, the import of animals has been banned by sealing the interstate borders for movement," he said.

He said 26,197 cows have been infected with the disease in the state out of which 16,872 have been treated.

He said 28 districts of Jhansi, Agra, Aligarh, Meerut, Saharanpur, Moradabad, Bareilly divisions are affected by this disease in western . "So a lockdown has been imposed on the movement of cattle" to prevent the spread of the disease from western UP to eastern UP, he said.

Singh said a control room for relief and rescue has been set up in Lucknow and the helpline numbers are: 18001805141 and 0522-2741992.

The lumpy affects like cows and buffaloes.

It is transmitted by blood-feeding insects such as mosquitoes and flies. The disease causes fever, nodules on the skin and can also lead to death of the infected cattle.

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The has rejected a plea from the parents of S Swathi (24), a techie, who was murdered at a platform in the Nungambakkam railway station here in 2016, seeking Rs 3 crore as compensation from the due to the "sheer negligence" on the part of the railway authorities.

Justice R Subramanian rejected the plea from K Santhanakrishnan and his wife A Ranganayagi, made in November 2016, on Thursday.

The writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution before the Court is not the right forum to order compensation, the judge said and advised the couple to approach the appropriate one having civil jurisdiction.

The slain woman's parents contended the murder of their young blossoming daughter occurred at a crowded place in day light. It would have been averted if the railway authorities, including the Railway Protection Force (RPF), who were duty bound to provide security to the passengers, had acted in a diligent manner.

The sheer negligence on their part, had emboldened the assailant(s) to murder their daughter. So, the is bound to pay the compensation, they further contended.

Swathi was murdered at the busy Nungambakkam railway station, sending shock waves across the state. The man accused of killing her later allegedly died of suicide in prison.

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Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will inaugurate 'Arogya Manthan' -- a two-day event to celebrate four years of the implementation of Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana and one year of the Digital Mission -- on September 25.

The event will see active participation of global and national experts from the healthcare sector along with representatives from the academia, think-tanks, industry and the media, according to a health ministry statement.

The health minister will interact with beneficiaries of AB-PMJAY from across the country on September 23.

Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Bharati Pravin Pawar, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, and Dr V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog will grace the event, the statement stated.

Senior Government officials from states and Union territories will also be present.

The AB-PMJAY will complete four years of its implementation on September 23 and Digital Mission (ABDM) will be marking its first anniversary on September 27.

Fortnight-long celebrations in the form of 'Ayushman Pakhwara' to mark the anniversary of AB-PMJAY is already underway in all states implementing the scheme, from September 15-30, the statement stated.

Under the 'Ayushman Pakhwara', 33 states and UTs participating in AB-PMJAY are organising awareness programmes, health check-up camps and mass drives for Ayushman Card generation for beneficiaries of the scheme, the statement said.

A Digi Health Expo will bring innovators from the public and private sector exhibiting innovative digital health solutions.

The two-day event will have a total of 12 sessions covering a comprehensive list of agenda.

On the first day, it will have sessions on Universal Health Coverage in India, Promoting Interoperability in Digital Health, Enhancing the Efficiency of PM-JAY, Adoption of Digital Health, Health Technology Assessment for Evidence Informed PM-JAY Decisions, and Privacy and Security Issues related to Digital Health, the statement said.

Sessions lined up for day two include Best Practices by States Implementing ABDM, Digital Health Insurance in India, PM-JAY Best Practices by States, International Best Practices in Digital Health, Ensuring Access, Affordability and Quality in Healthcare through PM-JAY and Way Forwards for Digital Health in India.

The National Health Authority (NHA) will also present the Ayushman Excellence Awards 2022 to felicitate the top performing states, Pradhan Mantri Arogya Mitras and public hospitals under the PMJAY and best performing states and UTs, districts, private and government health facilities and digital health solutions under ABDM, the statement said.

The winners of ABDM Hackathon series round 1 will also be awarded at the ceremony.

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Prime Minister on Friday said that a new enthusiasm has returned to the country from the homecoming of Cheetah in Madhya Pradesh a few days ago.

He added that today India is also a rapidly developing economy, and is continuously strengthening its ecology.

While inaugurating the Conference of Environment Ministers in Narmada, Gujarat via video conferencing, Prime Minister said, "A new enthusiasm has returned from the homecoming of Cheetah in Madhya Pradesh a few days ago."

He informed that Gir lions, tigers, elephants, one-horned rhinos and leopards have increased in numbers in our country over the years.

Modi stated, "Our forest cover has increased and the area of wetlands is also increasing rapidly. Today's new India is moving ahead with new thinking and new approaches. Today India is also a rapidly developing economy and is continuously strengthening its ecology."

Talking about the environment, India had set a target of net zero emissions till the year 2070, he stated.

He further said that now the focus of the country is on green growth, on green jobs. And in order to achieve all these goals, the role of the environment ministry of every state is enormous, he added.

Further, he stated, "I would urge all environment ministers to promote a circular economy as much as possible in the states."

Modi said, " this will also give strength to our campaign of solid waste management and freedom from single-use plastic."

According to Prime Minister's Office, Project Cheetah is in line with the Prime Minister's commitment to environmental protection and wildlife conservation, and will also lead to enhanced livelihood opportunities for the local community through eco-development and ecotourism activities.

The historic reintroduction of Cheetahs in India is part of a long series of measures for ensuring sustainability and environment protection in the last eight years which has resulted in significant achievements in the area of environment protection and sustainability.

Earlier on September 17, PM Modi released cheetahs at two release points in Kuno Park.

The Prime Minister also interacted with Cheetah Mitras, Cheetah Rehabilitation Management Group and students at the venue.

He also addressed the nation on this "historic occasion."

"The release of wild Cheetahs by the Prime Minister in Kuno Park is part of his efforts to revitalise and diversify India's wildlife and its habitat," PMO had said.

The cheetah was declared extinct from India in 1952.

"The Cheetahs that were released are from Namibia and have been brought under an MoU signed earlier this year. The introduction of cheetah in India is being done under Project Cheetah, the world's first inter-continental large wild carnivore translocation project," it had said.

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Outgoing senior woman judge Justice Indira Banerjee Friday hoped that more would be appointed as judges of the top judiciary in the coming days.

Justice Banerjee, who is the fifth senior-most judge in the apex court would be demitting office after serving for over four years.

Besides her, other judges in the apex court are Justices Hima Kohli, B.V. Nagarathna, and Bela M Trivedi.

Justice Banerjee was the eighth woman judge to be appointed to the and now with her retirement, there would be three judges in the apex court.

The Supreme Court, which came into being on January 26, 1950, has seen very few women judges since its inception and in the last over 72 years -- only 11, starting with Justice M Fathima Beevi in 1989.

Other female judges appointed to the apex court were -- Justices Sujata V Manohar, Ruma Pal, Gyan Sudha Misra, Ranjana P Desai, R Banumathi, and Indu Malhotra.

On the last working day, Justice Banerjee shared the ceremonial bench with Chief Justice of India U U Lalit who praised her contribution to the judiciary in her over two-decade-long career.

We all will be missing our sister, Justice Banerjee. In twenty years of judicial career, she has given everything. Hard-working -- yes. Intelligent -- No doubt. She has all the qualities which a judge should have. We all will be missing her on the bench and of course, she will always remain in our hearts. So, good luck sister! Wish you all the best!, said the CJI.

Justice Banerjee, who was elevated to the top court on August 7, 2018, from Madras High Court where she was the Chief Justice, acknowledged the assistance of the bar in judgements delivered by her.

She recalled her first day in the top court as the judge saying that it seemed just like the other day when she was sharing the bench with Justice (since retired) Dipak Misra on August 7, 2018.

I acknowledge the assistance which I have received from the members of the bar. If I gave judgments, it was because of their (lawyers') assistance, she said, adding that the apex court bar is very strong, independent and intelligent.

I do hope that there will be more women in the future...hope there is cooperation for the weaker, and there be equality and justice in the shortest span of time. Thank you all, she said in her concluding remarks.

The retirement of justice Banerjee would bring down the number of serving judges in the top court to 29 against the sanctioned strength of 34 including the CJI.

The SCBA ( Bar Association) would hold a formal function to bid farewell to Justice Banerjee, the senior judge among the four women judges in the top court, in the evening.

As per the Constitution, Supreme Court judges retire at the age of 65.

Attorney General K K Venugopal, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, SCBA president, and senior advocate Vikas Singh paid rich tributes to Justice Banerjee on her last day in office.

We have very few women judges on the bench and it is very sad that we are losing one of the best amongst them, the top law officer said.

Justice Banerjee, born on September 24, 1957, did LL.B from the College of Law of Calcutta University and enrolled as an advocate on July 5, 1985.

She practiced both in the Original and Appellate Sides of the Calcutta High Court in all branches of law except Criminal law, with appearances in the Supreme Court, other Courts, and Tribunals.

She was elevated as a permanent Judge of Calcutta High Court on February 5, 2002, was transferred as the Judge of the Delhi High Court on August 8, 2016, and also became the chairperson of the Delhi State Legal Services Authority.

She was sworn in as Chief Justice of Madras High Court on April 5, April 2017, and was later elevated as Supreme Court Judge on August 7, 2018.

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leader and Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain on Friday approached the challenging a trial court's order to transfer the money laundering case against him to another judge.

Hours after the trial court's order, the plea was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad which allowed it for listing on Monday.

Senior advocate Rahul Mehra, appearing for Jain, said he was challenging the transfer of matter to another judge as it was illegal.

"The transfer (of case) was illegal," Mehra said.

As the chief justice sought to know what was the urgency, the senior counsel said the trial court has kept it for hearing on Friday itself and the matter will be heard on a day-to-day basis.

Jain has challenged the order of a district judge who, during the day, allowed an application by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking transfer of the money laundering case against Jain to another judge.

The agency sought transfer of the case being heard by Special Judge Geetanjali Goel while raising certain contentions.

Principal District and Sessions Judge Vinay Kumar Gupta said the case will now be heard by Special Judge Vikas Dhull.

Jain's bail plea is posted for hearing on Friday before special judge Dhull.

Earlier on September 19, the district judge had stayed the trial court's proceedings before special judge Goel and posted the matter on September 30.

It had also issued notice to Jain and other co-accused in the case on the ED's application seeking transfer of the case to another judge.

Challenging the trial court's order, Jain moved the Supreme Court, which on September 21, had directed the district judge to decide the agency's application for transfer expeditiously by September 22.

On Thursday, the district judge had reserved its order on the ED's application.

The ED had arrested Jain and two others in the money laundering case based on a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR lodged against the leader in 2017 under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Jain is accused of having laundered money through four companies linked to him.

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Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly on Friday passed the Code of Criminal Procedure (Uttar Pradesh Amendment) Bill 2022 which bars granting of anticipatory bail to accused.

UP Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna, while speaking on the amendment bill in the house, said that a provision has been made to not grant anticipatory bail to those accused of offences under the POCSO Act and 'durachaar' (misconduct) with women.

Denying anticipatory bail in sexual offenses against young people and women will reduce the chances of the accused destroying the evidence, he said.

The provision will also help prevent the accused from intimidating or harassing the victim and other witnesses, Khanna said.

The assembly also passed the Uttar Pradesh Public and Private Property Damage Recovery (Amendment) Bill, 2022 which extends the time period in which a claim can be filed from existing three months to three years.

Khanna said that the amendment bill empowers a claims tribunal to compensate anyone killed in riots with Rs 5 lakh.

The compensation money will be recovered from the guilty person, the bill provisions.

Now the victim or the dependent of the person whose life is lost in the disturbance or riot can also appeal for compensation, Khanna said, adding that with the amendment, the claims tribunal will also have the right to take suo moto cognizance of such cases.

The amendment bill also provisions that the cost of police action in such cases will be borne by the guilty.

The government had earlier invoked the Uttar Pradesh Public and Private Property Damage Recovery Act, 2020' to constitute a Claims Tribunal for such recovery.

The mechanism to determine who will be responsible for the loss caused during a demonstration or strike has also been made clear in the amendment.

Both the bills, which were tabled in the house on Thursday, were passed by a voice vote in the absence of the main Opposition Samajwadi Party, and its ally RLD, which had earlier boycotted the proceedings.

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Chief Minister on Friday asked when a separate gurdwara committee can formed for Patna Sahib and Delhi, then why the same cannot be done in .

Khattar made the statement in the wake of the Supreme Court upholding the validity of the Sikh Gurdwara (Management) Act enacted by the state legislature to manage religious places of Sikhs effectively and permanently under the exclusive control of the Sikhs of Haryana.

The Act was enacted under the Congress rule when Bhupinder Singh Hooda was the chief minister of Haryana.

According to a statement, a delegation of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee and other Sikh bodies delegates called upon the chief minister here on Friday.

They hailed the Supreme Court order, the statement said.

The Supreme Court's verdict is a victory of Sikh bodies of Haryana, said Khattar while meeting the delegation.

The CM said the state government strongly defended the formation of a separate gurdwara managing committee for Haryana in the court.

When a separate Shiromani Gurdwara Management Committee can be formed for Patna Sahib and Delhi, then why the same cannot be done in Haryana, he said.

Several gurdwaras in the state certainly have a special connection with many of our Sikh Gurus as they at some point of time had visited these historical gurdwaras, said Khattar.

The chief minister said he was quite hopeful that the entire Sikh Sangat will now work in the spirit of harmony and brotherhood and will do its best in the interest of society.

The delegation included Jagdish Jhinda, Bhupender Singh, Baba Sukhdev Singh, Baba Gurmeet Singh, Harpal Singh, Ranveer Singh, Harpreet Singh Narula, Jarnail Singh and Jagdev Singh Gaba.

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on Friday launched the 'Innovation Roadmap of the Mission Integrated Biorefineries', which would not only identify gaps and challenges in the current biorefining value chain but also provide policymakers with a strategy framework to establish a rising research and development portfolio.

Developed in cooperation with Brazil, Canada, European Commission and the United Kingdom, the launch was announced by the visiting Science and Technology Minister Jitender Singh on the sidelines of the Clean Energy Ministerial being held in this American city. is scheduled to host the next Clean Energy Ministerial in 2023.

I am pleased to launch the Innovation Roadmap of the Mission Integrated Biorefineries developed by co-leads and active inputs from Brazil, Canada, European Commission and the United Kingdom for further implementation with collaborating international partners emphasising the need for increased financing for energy research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) during the next five years to kickstart this objective and unleash a virtuous cycle of public and private investment, Singh said.

This roadmap, he said, aims to fill that void by identifying the gaps and challenges in current biorefining value chains, prioritising eight key actions to support the Mission, and guiding the overall path in achieving its goal.

Singh said it also provides policymakers with a strategy framework to establish a rising research and development portfolio over the next five years, specific financing proposals across the entire spectrum of vital Biorefinery technologies, and rapid action suggestions.

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Boya Haren Satwik of Hindupur in Satya Sai district, who secured first rank in AP EAPCET-2022, got a seat in IIT-Mumbai in CSE course on Friday. (Image: PTI)

KAKINADA: It is noteworthy that top 10 rankers of AP EAPCET-2022, whose results had been announced on Thursday, are not joining any of the states colleges or institutions. They have preferred moving to IITs in Mumbai and Hyderabad after they got admissions into these premier institutes.

Many of the rankers said they have not decided about what they should become in future. They would rather decide on them after they complete their CSE (computer science engineering) courses in the premier institutes that they are joining.

Boya Haren Satwik of Hindupur in Satya Sai district, who secured first rank in AP EAPCET-2022, got a seat in IIT-Mumbai in CSE course on Friday. He said he will join IIT-Mumbai and then take a decision on his goal. His father Loknath is a municipal high school teacher. He said he had not expected first rank in AP EAPCET and 40th rank in on JEE advance. But he is happy over his ranks.

EAPCET 2nd ranker Polu Lakshmi Sai Lohith Reddy of Ongole has also got seat in CSE in IIT-Mumbai. His father Malyadri Reddy is a government school teacher in Ongole. He would like to complete his CSE in the IIT and then decide on what he must do further.

Third ranker Menda Hima Vamsi of Balaga village in Srikakulam district. His father Ravi Sankar and mother Swarajya Lakshmi are also teachers. His brother is doing his fourth year medicine at AIIMS.

Other top rankers who are joining IIT-Mumbai are fourth ranker T. Umesh Karthikeya of Gangada village in Manyam district, fifth ranker Ganja Srinath of Hyderabad, sixth ranker Jasti Yaswanth of Hyderabad, and seventh ranker Busa Siva Naga Venkata Aditya.

Eighth ranker Valavala Charan Teja of Irusumanda village in Malkipuram mandal of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar district got ECE in IIT-Hyderabad and CSE in BITS-Goa. His father V.G. Prasad said that he wants his son to do MS in the US.

Ninth ranker in AP EAPCET Nandan Manjunath Immidisetty got a seat in IIT-Mumbai. He wants to create his own start-up. His father Mallikarjuna Rao is a software professional.

Tenth ranker Nuthakki Ruthwik of Nuthakki village in Mangalagiri also got admission into IIT-Mumbai. His father Dr. N. P. Raju is neurologist. His mother Nirmala is programming officer in family planning department. His brother Varun is doing his second year in IIT Kharagpur.

Incidentally, the first priority of many students, who have got good ranks in the EAPCET, is CSE and related courses like artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on Friday urged the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to work together to eliminate the threat of transnational economic crimes by enhancing mutual trust, understanding, cooperation and communication, the Union said.

Mehta and additional secretary (legal affairs) in the Anju Rathi Rana led the Indian delegation at the 20th meeting of Prosecutors General of member states on Friday in Astana, Kazakhstan.

In a statement, the said the 20th meeting of Prosecutors General was also attended by Prosecutor General of Kazakhstan Asylov B N, Prosecutor of the Supreme People's Procuratorate of China Zhang Jun, Prosecutor General of the Kyrgyz Republic Zulushev K T, Additional Attorney-General of Pakistan Rashdeen Nawaz Kasuri, Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Krasnov I V, Prosecutor General of Tajikistan Rakhmon Yu A, Prosecutor General of Uzbekistan Yuldashev N T and Secretary General Zhang Ming.

A protocol incorporating the deliberations of the meeting was signed and adopted by the member states.

The protocol seeks to strengthen cooperation between the Prosecutor Generals' offices of the SCO member states with respect to the recovery of the proceeds of crime.

It also seeks to develop cooperation between the prosecutors' offices of the SCO member states at international institutions and forums on issues related to combating economic crimes, search, seizure and recovery of the proceeds of crime from states.

Addressing the event, Mehta highlighted the initiatives taken by India to address transnational economic crimes internationally by the ratification of two UN Conventions -- the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (UNCTOC) and its three protocols and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).

At the national level, to stop the threat of transnational economic crimes, India has implemented a number of legislative measures over the years to prevent, detect, and penalise money laundering by specialised legislations, Mehta said, according to the statement.

The Solicitor General also underlined the vital role of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties for the cases where it is necessary to gather information and conduct formal investigations abroad with the help of foreign government, when the accused has fled the country after committing a crime, or when a part or the entire crime was committed outside the country.

In order to seek aid in pursuing such crimes India has signed Mutual Legal Assistance Agreements to request assistance in investigating such crimes.

"In his concluding remarks, Mehta expressed his gratitude to all participating member states and urged them to work together to broaden the scope of the activities of the forum and eliminate the threat of transnational economic crimes by enhancing mutual trust, understanding, cooperation and communication between the member states," the statement said.

The next (21st) meeting of the Prosecutors General of the SCO member states will be held in China in 2023, the statement 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.)
Chief Minister on Friday said that the state is fully ready to adopt crop diversification but the Centre must provide assured mechanism to give remunerative prices for these crops.

The Centre must take this step for ensuring that farmers of the state shift from water guzzling crops to less water consuming crops, said the Chief Minister while addressing a gathering after inaugurating the Kisan Mela here at Agricultural University and Pashu Palan Mela at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University.

On the occasion, Mann also said that in coming days an important decision will be taken to get rid of the menace of straw burning.

The Chief Minister said that instead of paddy, the farmer of the state is ready to sow sunflower, maize and pulses but for that they must get adequate and assured price.

He said that this will help in checking the depleting water table in the state on one hand and making agriculture a profitable venture on the other.

said that this is the need of hour to avert water crisis in the state.

The Chief Minister said that the farmers of the state are really worried about the depleting water table and pollution of environment due to straw burning.

However, he said that they are not able to come out of rut of wheat/ cycle as they don't want to lose assured price mechanism associated with it.

Mann said that is blessed with fertile land where anything can germinate but efforts must be made to save this fertile land and it's water.

However, the Chief Minister said that "the crisis of water can never be ignored as we are pumping out water from the ground at the same depth in which Gulf countries are taking oil, which is alarming for us".

"Rice is not our staple food but for producing one kilogramme of rice we are using 4,000 litres of water. So, we have to adopt alternative crops," Mann said, while adding that the state government is already making sincere efforts in this regard.

Recalling the immense contribution of Punjab in making country self reliant in food grain production, the Chief Minister said that the hard working and resilient farmers of the state had provided food security to country in testing times.

However, he said that for this they had to over exploit their only available natural resources in terms of fertile land and water.

Mann bemoaned that "now when few more states are producing are paddy so attempts are being made to deprive farmers of Punjab from MSP, which is completely unfair".

The Chief Minister said that Union government imports pulses worth millions of dollars annually from other countries whereas it is not ready to provide Minimum Support price to farmers of the state who are ready to cultivate it.

He asked the experts of PAU to reach out to the farmers to acquaint them with new technology in agriculture sector.

He said that farmers work hard in fields and have no time for upgrading their expertise adding that experts must reach out to the farmers to make agriculture a profitable venture.

(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.)
India Inc braces for impact of rupee fall, rushes to take forward cover

Home-grown are preparing for life after the rupee falls to Rs 80 versus the US greenback. without a natural hedge like export earnings are rushing to take forward cover as they expect the rupee to fall gradually in the next year to as much as Rs 86-87 to a dollar. Read More





Moonlighters beware: may start using digital tools to track them

India Inc is not in the dark about moonlighting employees. According to a forensic accountant, companies can easily turn to experts and deploy digital tools that can be used to check if an employee is doing a second job or not  reaffirming fears of many who are wary of the practice in the context of the recent sacking of moonlighters by IT major Wipro. Read More

likely to step up disclosure norms for of new-age companies

The may beef up the disclosure requirements for of new-age companies. The market regulator could also bring transactions in mutual fund (MF) units under the purview of insider trading regulations. The decisions could be taken at Sebis board meeting scheduled for September 30. Read More

Insolvent companies could lose spectrum under the new Telecom Bill

Insolvent telecom companies that do not meet government conditions could lose spectrum under the proposed telecom Bill but some experts suggested that its sections need to align with Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). Read More

Inclusion of in Telecom Bill maybe a risk to digital economy

The expanded definition of telecommunication services in the draft telecom Bill including over-the-top (OTT) platforms like WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and Google Meet  may harm the digital and user privacy in India, according to experts. Read More
The Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) will release its first merit list on September 26, Monday for undergraduate .

As per the official schedule, Jamia will release the merit list for all eligible candidates who have cleared the Common (CUET) 2022 exam. Candidates seeking in Jamia Millia should check the official website - jmicoe.in.

Grants Commission (UGC) has released a tentative timeline for Undergraduate in central universities. As per the tentative schedule, the first merit list is expected to be released on September 26, and the admissions based on it will take place from September 29 to October 1. JMI will release a second merit list on October 6, and the admission process will begin from October 10 till October 12. The third merit list will be released on October 17, and admissions for the same will take place from October 20 to October 21. The final merit list will be released on October 26, and the admissions will be from October 28 to October 31.

Through CUET UG 2022, the candidates will be able to take admissions in the following courses available at JMI- BA (Hons) Turkish Language and Literature, BA (Hons) Sanskrit, BA (Hons) French and Francophone Studies, BA (Hons) Spanish and Latin American Studies, BA (Hons) History, BA (Hons) Hindi, BA (Hons) Economics, BSc Biotechnology, BVoc (Solar Energy) and BSc (Hons) Physics.

According to the officials, the rank list for JMI Admissions will be released based on the CUET 2022 scores secured by the candidates. Candidates are advised to regularly check the official websites of the university for further updates.
Following a stay on cancellation of by Bombay High Court, Pune-based Rupee Cooperative Banks administrator will explore various options. These include conversion into a small bank (SFB), or merger with another sound urban co-operative bank (UCB).

On August 8, the (RBI) had ordered cancellation of the of the ailing UCB from September 22. The high court will take up the matter on October 17.

Sudhir Pandit, administrator, Rupee Bank, told Business Standard that the bank was pursuing a proposal to merge with Cosmos Co-operative Bank and also speaking to some private investors (for forming an SFB).

The top priority is the proposal. Being local banks, it is compatible culturally for both Rupee and Cosmos.

Officials of are likely to discuss a merger proposal with the next week.

While making a plea to to consider the proposal, Pandit said Rupee Bank will ensure that merger does not become a burden for .

In August 2021, had declined the joint merger proposal of the Maharashtra State Co-op Bank (MStC) and Rupee Bank.

In December 2021, the country's largest urban cooperative bank Saraswat Co-op Bank had evinced interest in merger of Rupee Bank with itself.

The Mehsana Urban Co-op Bank had also come up with a merger proposal but that was rejected in January 2022.

Pandit said the losses on the books of Rupee Co-op Bank are around Rs 538 crore. Its liquid investments (in government securities) were Rs 840 crore.

The RBI, in its order dated August 8, 2022, said that it cancelled the of Rupee Bank since the bank did not have adequate capital and earning prospects.

Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) has already paid about Rs 700 crore to eligible depositors.

The high-value depositors (those with amounts above DICGC limits) have money of around Rs 370 crore in Rupee Bank.

These depositors have shown readiness to convert liabilities worth Rs 300 crore into perpetual non-cumulative preference shares, which are treated as tier I capital. This would reduce the negative net worth to Rs 238 crore, he said.

Pandit said the capital adequacy ratio of Cosmos Bank was comfortable to merge Rupee Bank.

Assuming the merger goes through, the capital adequacy ratio would still remain above minimum regulatory capital norms. Cosmos Bank had a capital adequacy ratio of 13.19 per cent as of March 31, 2022.
Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das launched Unified Payments Interface (UPI) Lite on September 20, in a bid to make low-value payments faster.

What is Lite?

It is an on-device wallet feature that will allow users to make small-value payments of up to Rs 200 in real time, without using a PIN. Users will have to add funds from their bank accounts to the UPI Lite wallet. For a real-time payment, users will not need the internet as it is an on-device wallet. At present, only debit from wallet is permitted and all credits to UPI Lite including refunds, will go directly to your bank account.

Transaction limit for UPI Lite

According to a press release issued by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the upper limit for payments has been set at Rs 200. Users will not need a UPI PIN to make payments below Rs 200, according to the website. The total limit of UPI Lite balance for an on-device wallet will be Rs 2,000 at any point in time, stated the press release.

Union Bank of India also issued a press release on the launch day of UPI Lite and stated that the users can perform unlimited transactions during a day.

Can you use UPI Lite without the internet?

In phase-1 of its rollout, UPI Lite will process transactions in near offline mode. This means that the debit payments can be done without the internet connectivity, however, credit payments will be done into the account with the help of the internet. However, UPI Lite is expected to become offline in the future, where both debit and credit payments can be processed in complete offline mode.

How will it benefit the users?

The new interface will provide users with a convenient solution for simpler and faster low-value transactions. The customers will not be required to lose cash anymore. It will also give an extra edge to customers by offering nil transaction failure, even at peak hours.

How to add funds?

The funds will only be added only in online mode and users will need internet connectivity with additional factor authentication, AFA or by using UPI AutoPay, which has been registered by the user in online mode with AFA
Prime Minister made an urgent appeal for debt relief from rich nations as catastrophic floods exacerbated by climate change displaced millions of people in the South Asian nation.

has debt obligations in the next two months, he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in New York, adding that his government had just signed an agreement with the Monetary Fund with very tough conditionalities that include taxes on petroleum and electricity.

should suspend debt repayments and restructure loans with creditors after recent floods added to the country's financial crisis, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing a UN policy memo.
Armenia's defence ministry on Friday accused Azerbaijan's armed forces of opening fire on Armenian positions, in violation of a ceasefire agreement, the ministry said in a post on social media.

"On September 23, at 0740 (0340 GMT), units of the Azerbaijani armed forces again violated the ceasefire regime by firing from different positions against Armenian combat positions located in the eastern area of

the Armenian-Azerbaijani border," the ministry said in a post on Facebook on Friday.

said it had opened retaliatory fire and reported no losses among its service personnel.

There was no immediate comment from on the claims. Earlier this week Baku accused of staging "provocations" along the shared border by firing mortars and grenades at its forces.

Fighting between the two sides erupted earlier this month in clashes that left almost 200 soldiers dead - the bloodiest confrontation since a six-week war between the two ex-Soviet countries in 2020.

The fighting is linked to decades-old hostilities over control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, internationally recognised as part of but until 2020 largely controlled by the majority ethnic Armenian population.

said attacked its territory and seized settlements inside its borders, beyond the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Azerbaijan said it as responding to "provocations" from the Armenian side.

Russia is a military ally of Armenia though also tries to maintain friendly relations with Azerbaijan and has resisted Yerevan's calls to trigger a mutual self-defence clause. Baku is backed militarily, financially and politically by Turkey.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Australian lawmakers on Friday paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, with some also weighing in on the republic debate, after they returned to from a break taken to observe the queen's death.

An obscure and longstanding protocol in bars from sitting for 15 days following a British monarch's death.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had decided to follow the protocol. Albanese has previously said he wants an Australian president to replace the British monarch as the nation's head of state, although he has avoided getting entangled in the republic debate since the queen's death.

Each chamber of Australia's the Senate and the House was spending Friday passing condolence motions for the late monarch as well as congratulating King Charles III on his accession to the throne.

Albanese said it was hard to grasp the queen was now just a memory after her seven-decade reign.

She was a rare and reassuring constant amidst rapid change, Albanese said.

Elizabeth visited 16 times during her reign.

She got to know us, appreciate us, embrace us, and the feeling was very much mutual, Albanese said.

The prime minister offered his condolences to King Charles III.

We think of King Charles, who feels the weight of this sorrow as he takes on the weight of the crown, Albanese said. At the dawn of his reign, we wish his majesty well.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton said Australians had drawn on the wisdom of the queen's words and the comfort of her voice.

She admired that Australian trait to honour those who go about their essential business without fuss or media attention," Dutton said.

But of course, wherever the queen went, crowds choked the streets cheering, and clapping, and waving their flags to express their adoration.

Adam Bandt, leader of the small Australian Greens party, expressed his condolences but reiterated his support for to become a republic.

The queen's passing means that we get a new head of state without having any say in the matter. It is absolutely the appropriate time to talk respectfully about whether that is right for us as a country, he said.

We can offer our condolences to those grieving her personally, while also talking respectfully about what it means for us as a people.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young offered condolences but also spoke about the need for reconciliation with Australia's Indigenous people.

She did not remove children from their parents, or personally attempt to remove and decimate one of the oldest cultures in the world, Hanson-Young told the Senate.

"(But) she was the representative of the government in the institution that did. Generations of oppression, trauma and suffering as the result of colonisation must be reckoned with.

British High Commissioner Vicki Treadell was at parliament to hear the tributes.

(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.)
Croatia's has decreased by 413,056 persons or 9.64 per cent over the past decade, the final results of the country's 2021 revealed.

According to the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, in 2021 the country's was 3,871,833, of which 1,865,129 were men and 2,006,704 women, reports Xinhua news agency.

The results showed that the share of Croats in the country is 91.63 per cent, up from the 2011 when it was 90.42 per cent.

Next were Serbs at 3.20 per cent, down from 4.36 per cent in 2011, followed by Bosnians (0.62 per cent), Roma (0.46 per cent), Italians (0.36 per cent) and Albanians (0.36 per cent), while the share of other members of national minorities is individually less than 0.30 per cent.

A decline has been marked in all Croatian counties, but the biggest exodus of the population was recorded in eastern Croatia, in Vukovar-Srijem County (20.3 per cent).

--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.)
HYDERABAD: A petition was filed before the Telangana High Court complaining that the state government was plotting to allot tenders for supply of items used in KCR Nutritional Kit to one company.

LAAN e-governance and Education Pvt Ltd, which trades in health kits, filed the petition challenging the specifications mentioned in the e-tender process to supply items for KCR Nutritional Kits.

The firm objected to Mothers Horlicks plus, which is only manufactured by Hindustan Unilever, being distributed as part of the kit. The govenrment appeared fully biased towards the industry leader, the petitioner said.

In reply, counsel for the TS Medical Service and Infrastructure Corporation, submitted that it never specified in the bidding process that only Mother Horlicks be supplied. There was a need for quality protein mix as the kits were are supplied to pregnant women, counsel said.

Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy sought clarification from the government. Meanwhile, it directed continuation of the bidding process. Bids were not to be finalised before September 28, the court said.
A downturn in business activity across the euro zone deepened in September, according to a survey which showed the was likely entering a as consumers rein in spending amid a cost of living crisis.

Manufacturers were particularly hard hit by high energy costs after Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent gas prices rocketing, while the bloc's dominant services industry suffered as consumers stayed at home to save money.

S&P Global's flash Composite Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), seen as a good gauge of overall economic health, fell to 48.2 in September from 48.9 in August, as expected by a Reuters poll.

The third decline in a row for the euro zone PMI indicates business activity has been contracting throughout the quarter. This confirms our view a could have already started, said Bert Colijn at ING.

However, in France activity was higher than expected although its PMI showed the euro zones second biggest was still struggling as a modest rebound in services offset a slump in the manufacturing industry.

The euro, German government bond yields and stocks all fell after the PMI data.

Overall demand in the euro zone fell to its lowest since November 2020, when the continent was suffering a second wave of Covid-19 infections.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and his G4 counterparts met to discuss and strategise the reform of the UN Security Council (UNSC) which has been getting wide support from leaders at the high-level meeting of the General Assembly.

Besides Jaishankar, the other participants at Thursday's meeting were Foreign Ministers Carlos Franca of Brazil, Annalena Baerbock of Germany, and Yoshimasa Hayashi of Japan.

Known as the G4, the four countries lobby for reform of the Council and mutually support each other for permanent seats to be added through the reforms.

They received a boost when US President Joe Biden told the Assembly on Wednesday that Washington "is committed to this vital work", reforming the Council and "increasing the number of both permanent and non-permanent representatives on the Council".

"This includes permanent seats for those nations we have long supported," -- India, Japan and Germany, Biden added.

Several leaders from around the world have clamoured for reform and expansion of the Council.

For example, Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Costa said at the Assembly around the time the G4 was meeting that the Council should be reformed so that the African continent, and at least Brazil and India, have permanent seats.

Jamaica Prime Minister Andre Holnes said that the "critical organ" should "be more representative of the world of today".

Uganda's Vice President Jessica Alupo said the need for reform is "now more urgent" and pointed out that "Africa with more than one billion citizens, and with over 70 per cent of issues on the agenda of the Council, continues to suffer the historical injustice of having no representation in the Permanent category of the Security Council".

(Arul Louis can be contacted at aru.l@ians.in and followed at @arulouis)

--IANS

al/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 number of world leaders have joined the United States in seeking reforms in the UN Security Council and including India as one of its permanent members, giving momentum to the demand for expansion of the powerful wing of the .

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stressed reforming the United Nations, including its security council "to return to the vision and principles of the UN Charter, with the strengthening of the UN's functions, including disarmament and non-proliferation".

In his address at the annual session of the UN General Assembly, Portuguese Prime Minister Antnio Costa said, "We need a representative, agile and functional security council that can respond to the challenges of the 21st century without becoming paralysed, and whose actions are scrutinized by other members of the ."



Costa sought a security council that incorporates a comprehensive view of security, recognising the role of climate change as an accelerant of conflict.

Observing that the world of today is quite different from 1945 when delegates from 51 countries met in San Francisco to found the United Nations, he sought a UNSC where "the African continent, and at least Brazil and India, have seats and where small countries are more fairly represented".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also called for reforming the UN Security Council. "There is an imbalance when Africa, Latin America, most of Asia, Central and Eastern Europe comply with the right of veto, that they never had."



"And this is what Ukraine is talking about. Have you ever heard such words from Russia? But it is a permanent member of the security council and for some reason, Japan, Brazil, Turkey, India, Germany and Ukraine are not. The day will come when this will be resolved," he said.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his country has, for many years, been committed to the reform and expansion of UNSC, first and foremost to include the countries of the global south.

Germany is also prepared to assume greater responsibility as a permanent member and initially as a non-permanent seat in 2027/28, he said.

"I kindly ask you to support our candidacy the candidacy of a country that respects the principles of the and which offers and seeks cooperation. It is, to my mind, entirely natural that the up-and-coming, dynamic countries and regions of Asia, Africa and southern America must be given a stronger political voice on the world stage," the German Chancellor said.

Italian President Mario Draghi said his country supports the need to reform the UN Security Council to make it more representative, efficient and transparent.

David Kabua, president of the Marshall Islands, said, The United Nations is in desperate need of a UNSC which is truly fit for purpose and which should be better shaped to the realities of today, not eight decades ago.

"We strongly support better progress in achieving UN Security Council reform outcomes, and in particular, support Japan's bid to be a permanent member of the UN Security Council," he said.

Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos called for a more inclusive UNSC and an empowered UN General Assembly that can hold the council to account.

It is time to do justice to Africa's legitimate demand for security council reform as reflected in the Ezulwini Consensus, asserted Senegal's President Macky Sall, who is also the current chairman of the African Union.

Observing that the conflict in Ukraine serves as a warning, Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro said a reform of the UN is essential to achieve world peace.

"In the specific case of the Security Council, after 25 years of debates, it is clear that we need to look for innovative solutions. Brazil delves into this topic based on an experience that goes back to the beginnings of the UN," he said.

Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khrelskh asserted that the key to the reform of the UN is the reform of the Security Council, which bears the primary responsibility for the maintenance of peace and security.

(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.)
Iranian armed forces held a military parade to mark the 42nd anniversary of the eight-year Iran- war beginning in 1980.

During the military parade on Thursday in the capital Tehran, Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, said favours a region free from threats and full of friendship and cooperation in West Asia, calling the US a threat to the security of the region, Xinhua news agency reported, citing IRNA.

The parade comes at the beginning of Defense Week, the one-week Iranian commemoration of the Iraq- war.

Also on Thursday, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force unveiled for the first time a new prototype of its "Sevom-e Khordad" air defense missile system which has a range of 200 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.)
Turkish President has said that Russia and Ukraine had exchanged 200 of war under the mediation of .

"As a result of diplomatic traffic I conducted with Mr. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and Mr. (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky, the exchange of 200 war between Russia and Ukraine was accomplished today (September 22)," he told journalists on the presidential plane on his way back to after attending the UN General Assembly in New York.

"This exchange that took place under Turkey's mediation is an important step for ending the war," state-run TRT broadcaster quoted the Turkish president as saying.

Erdogan noted that he will continue phone diplomacy to make further efforts for peace between Russia and Ukraine, Xinhua news agency reported.

Russia and Ukraine have carried out their largest prisoner exchange since the onset of their conflict on February 24, in which 215 Ukrainians, including 124 officers, were released by Russia, the Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of of War said Thursday.

Two civilians were also released as part of the swap.

Besides, Saudi Arabia mediated a release of 10 foreigners by Russia under the exchange, according to the Saudi Foreign Ministry.

--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.)
The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan arrived in the South Korean port of Busan on Friday ahead of the two countries' joint military exercise that aims to show their strength against growing North Korean threats.

The joint drills will be the first involving a US aircraft carrier in the region since 2017, when the US sent three aircraft carriers including the Reagan for naval drills with in response to North Korean nuclear and missile tests.

The allies this year have revived their large-scale that were downsized or shelved in previous years to support diplomacy with Pyongyang or because of COVID-19, responding to North Korea's resumption of major weapons testing and increasing threats of nuclear conflicts with Seoul and Washington.

The South Korean navy said its combined training with the Reagan battle group is meant to boost the allies' military readiness and to show "the firm resolve by the Korea-US alliance for the sake of peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula".

The North Korean threat is also expected to be a key agenda when US Vice President Kamala Harris visits next week after attending the state funeral in Tokyo of slain former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The Reagan's arrival in comes after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told Pyongyang's rubber-stamp parliament this month he would never abandon his nuclear weapons and missiles he needs to counter what he perceives as US hostility.

North Korea also passed a new law that enshrined its status as a nuclear power and authorized the preemptive use of nuclear weapons over a broad range of scenarios where the country or its leadership comes under threat.

Sung Kim, the Biden administration's special representative for North Korea, met with South Korean counterpart Kim Gunn in Seoul on Thursday where they expressed "serious concern" over the North's escalating nuclear doctrine spelled out in the new law, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said.

The diplomats reaffirmed the US commitment to defend South Korea in the event of a nuclear war with the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear. The allies also maintained their months-old assessment that North Korea is gearing up to conduct its first nuclear test since 2017 and discussed stern countermeasures to such an action, the ministry said.

North Korea has dialed up weapons testing to a record pace in 2022, launching more than 30 ballistic weapons including its intercontinental ballistic missiles since 2017, as it exploits a divide in the UN Security Council deepened over Russia's war on Ukraine.

While North Korea's ICBMs garner much of US attention because they pose a potential threat to the American homeland, the North has also been expanding its arsenal of nuclear-capable, shorter-range missiles designed to evade missile defenses in South Korea.

North Korea's expanding arsenal and threats of preemptive nuclear attacks have triggered concerns in South Korea over the credibility of the US nuclear umbrella protecting its allies in the event of war.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative who took office in May, has vowed to enhance South Korea's conventional missile capabilities and work with the Biden administration to develop more effective strategies to deter North Korean attacks.

Senior US and South Korean officials met in Washington this month for discussions on the allies' deterrence strategies and issued a statement reaffirming that "any (North Korean) nuclear attack would be met with an overwhelming and decisive response."



The statement said the United States reiterated "its ironclad and unwavering commitment to draw on the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear (one)" to provide extended deterrence to South Korea.

(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 United States called on other nations to tell to stop making nuclear threats and end the horror of its war in Ukraine as all three countries' top diplomats spoke but didn't quite meet at a high-profile UN Security Council meeting on Thursday.

Held alongside the annual UN General Assembly gathering of world leaders, the session followed a striking development in the war this week: called up a portion of its reserves for the first time since World War II. At the same time, President Vladimir Putin said his nuclear-armed country will use all means available to us to defend itself if its territory is threatened.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saw Putin's remark as particularly menacing given plans for referendums in Russian-controlled parts of eastern and southern Ukraine on whether to become part of .

Western nations have condemned those votes as illegitimate and nonbinding. But, in their wake, Moscow might then see any Ukrainian attempt to retake those areas as an attack on Russian territory, Blinken warned.

Every council member should send a clear message that these reckless nuclear threats must stop immediately, he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov didn't mention his country's nuclear capacity or the new troop mobilization during his own remarks at the council meeting, which France called to discuss accountability for alleged abuses and atrocities during the nearly seven-month-long war.

Instead, Lavrov repeated his country's frequent claims that Kyiv has long oppressed Russian speakers in Ukraine's east one of the explanations Moscow has offered for the invasion and that Western support for Ukraine is a menace to Russia.

What's particularly cynical is the position of states that are pumping Ukraine full of weapons and training their soldiers," he said, maintaining that their goal is to prolong fighting to wear down and weaken Russia.

That policy means the direct involvement of the West in the conflict, said Lavrov. He added that Ukraine had become an anti-Russia staging ground to create threats against Russian security and his country wouldn't accept it.

The Security Council has held dozens of contentious meetings on Ukraine since the war began in February, but Thursday's session had special stature.

That President Putin picked this week, as most of the world gathers at the United Nations, to add fuel to the fire he started shows his utter contempt and disdain for the UN Charter, the UN General Assembly and this council," Blinken told foreign ministers around the council's famous horseshoe-shaped table.

Tell President Putin to stop the horror he started. Tell President Putin to stop the horror he started, Blinken added.

Regardless, no one expects the council to act against Russia, since Moscow has veto power as a permanent member.

But the meeting was still a rare moment for top diplomats from Ukraine and Russia to appear in the same room made all the more extraordinary for the fact that Lavrov is under US sanctions.

In a sign of the charged atmosphere, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba apparently objected as council staffers prepared to put a placard marking Ukraine's seat next to Russia's. The placard was ultimately moved to another spot.

Ahead of the meeting, Kuleba wryly told reporters that he planned to keep a social distance from Lavrov. But it turned out he didn't have to: The Russian appeared only just before speaking and left right after, prompting Kuleba to quip later in his own speech that "Russian diplomats flee almost as quickly as Russian soldiers.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said he thought Lavrov didn't care to hear the collective condemnation of this council.

In another undiplomatic exchange, Lavrov accused the US and allies of covering up alleged misdeeds by Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy's government on the rationale that he's a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch. Kuleba later chided Russia for the inappropriate slang.

Blinken argued that Russia should face further censure and isolation for its invasion, pressing other countries to join in Washington's forceful condemnations of the conflict.

He cited the discovery of mass graves in Ukraine and repeated allegations from Ukrainians that they were tortured by Russian soldiers, while suggesting that more could come.

The Criminal Court opened an investigation in March into possible crimes amid the war and sent teams to gather evidence. Prosecutor Karim Khan told the council Thursday that he's dispatching more ICC staffers next week to look into allegations emerging from eastern Ukraine.

Khan hasn't yet announced any charges linked to the conflict, but he reiterated to the council that he believes there are reasonable grounds to think that crimes have been committed.

The picture that I've seen so far is troubling indeed, he said.

Ukraine also wants a special tribunal to be created to prosecute alleged war crimes.

The meeting came less than a week after Ukraine's Zelenskyy said Friday announced the discovery of a mass burial site near a northeastern city, Izium, that had recently been recaptured from Russian forces. Zelenskyy said investigators found evidence that some of the dead were tortured.

The discovery prompted France to send more investigators to join who have been in Ukraine since hundreds of civilians were found dead in another city, Bucha, after a Russian withdrawal in late March, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told the council.

There are so many violations of the laws of war and so many actions for which Russia must be held accountable," she said.

Other council members also called for accountability, but in varying tones.

Investigations into violations of humanitarian law should be objective and fair, based on fair facts, rather than an assumption of guilt, and without being politicized, said Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China, which has maintained strong ties with Russia.

(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 United States is heartened by the recent comment made by Prime Minister to Russian President that this is not the time for war in Ukraine, a senior Pentagon official said on Thursday.

Prime Minister Modi had met President Putin in Uzbekistan city Samarkand on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, which concluded last week, and during the meeting Modi told the Russian president, Today's era is not an era of war, and I have spoken to you on the phone about this."



On his part, Putin told Modi that he was aware of India's concerns over the Ukraine conflict and that Russia will do everything possible to end it as soon as possible. The US has said that it is heartened by the comments made by Prime Minister Modi.

We were heartened by Prime Minister Modi's comments last weekend, Dr Ely Ratner, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs told a group of reporters and think-tank experts during a virtual round table.

Recently, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also told reporters at a White House news conference that what the prime minister said was "a statement of principle on behalf of what he believes is right and just (and) it was very much welcomed by the US."



Ratner said that US shares India's commitment to seeing a swift and peaceful resolution of the conflict and continue to engage regularly on this issue.

We obviously recognise that India has a long and complicated history in terms of its security partnership with Russia and has been in the process over the last many years of diversifying its arms and imports as well as prioritising its own indigenous development, and we want to support them, Ratner said.

We want to support India on both fronts and are doing so. We think the trend lines are heading in the right direction. We are deeply engaged in conversations on exploring opportunities for co-development and coproduction. We are also looking for ways to support India's own indigenisation which we know is a huge priority for Prime Minister Modi and in the military there, said the senior Pentagon official.

Responding to another question, he said the US is taking a hard look at the co-development and coproduction under Defense Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI).

We are taking a hard look now at DTTI more broadly and actively discussing with the Indian government how we can adapt the initiative to meet the scope and ambition of our defense partnership. This is an area where we see a lot of great promise. Our leaders are fairly focused on this and again the Two Plus Two ministerial next spring are hoping to have some progress to announce on this front, he said.

Responding to another question, Ratner said that recent US action with Pakistan on F -6 is not designed as a message to India as it relates to its relationship with Russia.

The decision inside the US government around the F-16 issue was made predicated on US interests associated with our defense partnership with Pakistan which is primarily focused on counterterrorism and nuclear security and as the (Defense) Secretary made clear to (Defense) Minister Rajnath) Singh during their call last week, this case did not include any upgrades or munitions, he said.

We have been engaging with our Indian counterparts, both in advance of the announcement to preview it and during my visit with Assistant Secretary Lew in Delhi as well. So we thought it was quite important to be as transparent as we could with Indian counterparts both in advance and during that decision and it provided a good opportunity to have a healthy exchange on both the US rationale for its limited security partnership with Pakistan as well as a good opportunity to hear India's concerns about that, Ratner said.

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The relationship between India and the United States today are more closely aligned in than ever in the past, a senior Pentagon official has said, noting that they are focused on the long game which is building the partnership into the future and supporting India's ability to shape a favorable balance of power in the Indo Pacific.

We view the US India partnership as central to our vision for a free and open Indo Pacific. While there may be bumps in the road along the way, we are really focused on the long game which is building our partnership into the future and supporting India's ability to shape a favourable balance of power in the Indo Pacific, Dr. Ely S. Ratner, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs told a group of reporters and think-tank experts during a virtual round table.

He said that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is scheduled to meet the Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon on Monday.

This comes on the heels of a lengthy telephonic conversation that Austin had with Defense Minister Rajnath Singh over phone recently.

In the wake of a number of these engagements it has been really clear that the United States and India today are more closely aligned in our relationship than we have ever been before in our history. What we see is converging strategic interests and a shared vision for the region in particular, we've made a number of great strides in the past few years, building on our four foundational agreements, he asserted.

The United States, Ratner said, is supporting India's military modernisation.

This vision informs our top priorities for the Defense Partnership. The first priority is the department's commitment to bolstering India's military capability and its deterrent capability and supporting its rise as a defense industrial power, he said.

In practical terms, that means that the US is going to be working closely with India, on co-producing and co-developing capabilities that will support India's own defense modernisation goals in its ability to export to their partners across the region, including in South and Southeast Asia at affordable price points. This is something that the officials of the two countries have talked about during their recent meetings, he said.

The Department of Defense is having a hard look at near and medium term opportunities to co-produce major capabilities with India, he said, adding that they are having good conversations with the Indian government at the highest levels about their respective priorities in that regard.

We hope to have more to announce on this front before too long, Ratner said.

Secondly, the US and India are pursuing deepening their operational cooperation and coordination with an eye toward countering and out matching their competitors across critical warfighting domains.

In the maritime domain and in our Navy-to-Navy ties, we are achieving levels of cooperation that were previously unimaginable spanning information, sharing new training and exercises, technical exchanges and cooperation on underwater domain awareness, which we know is a priority for the Indian government, he said.

On the industrial cooperation front, the US Navy is looking at additional opportunities for mid voyage repairs at Indian Navy Indian shipyards.

Many of you who follow these issues closely would have taken note of the historic repair of the Charles Drew in Chennai last month, which we thought was really groundbreaking in terms of the development of our partnership and some of our coordination operationally, particularly as we work to extend our collective operational reach both of the United States military but also of the Indian military, he told the participants of the round table.

India and the US are also increasingly focused on working more closely together and in more joint ways across what we've heard referred to as new defense domains, such as cyber space, artificial intelligence in other emerging technology areas.

The two countries are working toward the launch of a new dialogue later this year that will help them expand cooperation across each of these key domains by bringing together a singular dialogue focused on emerging technologies.

As we move toward a more advanced phase in our partnership, we're thinking more expansively about how we work together in the broader regional architecture, including in coalition settings with partners both within and beyond the region, he said.

He acknowledged that the two countries have different approaches on issues like Russia and Pakistan where they have different histories.

We have to work together to manage through near term headwinds, particularly as they relate to areas including Russia and Pakistan, where we have different histories, different strategic environments, and we have to work together to manage through those differences, he said.

Ratner said the two countries have a track record of working through tough issues together through sustained dialogue and deep commitment to the partnership on both sides. And at the end of the day, this partnership is about much more than any individual issue.

It's about that shared vision that we have for the Indo Pacific and working together to ensure that future comes to fruition, he said.

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Russia on Friday began staging UN-condemned referendums to annex the roughly one-fifth of neighboring Ukraine it occupies, marking a new escalation in the spiraling conflict between President and the US and its allies.

The votes are a violation of the UN Charter and law, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

The Kremlin ordered the ballots after its forces suffered their worst defeats to Ukraines military since the early weeks of the seven-month-long invasion. Putin this week also called for a partial mobilization to draft 300,000 reservists.

He stepped up his threats toward Ukraines US and European allies, saying hes ready to use Russias entire military arsenal to protect its territorial integrity which would extend to the newly-seized regions.

The annexation votes mean Russia is burying the prospects of negotiations with its own hands, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address late Thursday. Peace talks have been moribund for months.

Theres no suspense over the outcome of balloting that occupation authorities said would last for five days, with state media reporting immediately that support for annexation would run from between nearly 90 per cent to almost 100 per cent.

Russian troops dont fully control the territory of any of the four regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk where the votes are being held and fighting is raging in all of them.

In Moscow, officials said theyd move quickly to finalize absorption of the territories into Russia. Regional authorities across the country also staged rallies Friday to try to show popular enthusiasm for the annexations, even as thousands of men receive call-up papers that bring the war much closer to home for Russians.

Pre-war polling data showed only about a fifth of people in Ukraines eastern and southern regions favored joining Russia, the Kyiv Institute of Sociology said on its website, citing results of its studies from 2021-2022. The only way to unite these regions with Russia based on referenda is to falsify their results, it said.
Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) members stage a protest outside the office of National Herald newspaper amid a raid by Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials as part of an ongoing money laundering probe, in New Delhi, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022. (PTI Photo)

New Delhi: Days after questioning Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday raided the head office of the Congress-owned National Herald newspaper in the national capital and 11 other locations as parts of its money-laundering investigation. The Opposition party condemned it as vendetta politics, while the BJP said the law would take its own course.

The searches are being carried out under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to gather additional evidence with regard to the trail of funds and they are against those entities who were involved in the National Herald-linked transactions, officials said adding that the action was being undertaken in light of fresh evidence obtained by the ED after the questioning of various people.

Several Congress members held a protest outside Herald House. Party workers accused the Narendra Modi government of indulging in vendetta politics and using the Central probe agencies for political gains. The protesters also raised slogans like Sonia Gandhi zindabad and Rahul Gandhi zindabad.

Terming it a political vendetta, AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh said: The raids on Herald House, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, are a part of the continued attack against Indias principal Opposition  the Indian National Congress.

We strongly condemn this vendetta politics against those who speak up against the Modi Govt. You cannot silence us! he said.

Reacting to Rameshs allegation, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla asked if the denial of any relief to the Gandhi family by the courts in this matter was also a vendetta.

Congress MP Karti Chidambaram claimed that the ED has become a weapon of mass destruction and was known as the hatchet agency of the government. He made these remarks while hitting out at the BJP government over the ED raids.

Comparing the ED with the Stasi of East Germany and Schutzstaffel of Nazi Germany, Chidambaram said: During the Second World War, the Schutzstaffel was used as a hatchet agency by Nazi Germany. When the history of this country is written, the ED will be known as the hatchet agency of the BJP.

Senior Congress politicians Mallikarjun Kharge and Pawan Bansal were also questioned in April by the ED in the same investigation. Kharge said: I am saying the same thing. This is a politics of vendetta. They should not have done that  just because they want to suppress the voice of the Congress Party and to create an atmosphere of fear They want to demoralise Congress workers. The Congress people arent going to be afraid of these things and they will keep on fighting.
India plans to expand its power fleet by about a quarter through the end of the decade as it continues to lean on the fuel to meet growing demand until energy storage costs fall.



The worlds third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases will add nearly 56 gigawatts of power capacity unless theres a substantial drop in the cost of storing electricity, Power Minister Raj Kumar Singh said in an interview this week in New Delhi. India is also planning major investments in renewable energy, but it has to prioritize providing reliable power to spur economic growth, he said.





The plan underscores how energy security concerns are vying with climate targets as countries map out energy transition paths. is enjoying a revival in Europe after Russian gas supplies fell in the fall-out from the invasion of Ukraine. India, which saw power demand surge this summer as temperatures rose to a record, is also delaying shutting older coal plants and increasing mining output.

My bottom line is I will not compromise with my growth, Singh said, adding that India will not hesitate to import coal to meet any shortfalls in domestic supply. Power needs to remain available.

Singh said his ministry is also pursuing a goal announced last year by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to have 500 gigawatts of clean power capacity by 2030 as the country seeks to reach net zero by 2070. Overall, India plans to nearly double its generation capacity from all sources to 820 gigawatts by 2030, he said.

To convert renewable energy into around-the-clock clean power, India will need access to cheaper energy storage solutions, Singh said, adding that his ministry will increasingly seek investment that combines wind and solar power with storage.





He blamed the developed world for not investing enough in storage technology and other decarbonization solutions, and said that China controlling the bulk of the worlds lithium supplies is a concern.

It worries us, Singh said, commenting on Chinas dominance over the critical battery metal. But the silver lining is there are other technologies that have emerged which are promising, especially for grid-scale storage. If that happens, the requirement for fossil fuels will disappear faster.
India's thermal from are expected to fall for the first time in four months in September, two research consultancies said, potentially resulting in lower revenues for Moscow at a time it is mobilising more troops to fight in Ukraine.

Indian consultancy Coalmint expects September thermal from to decline 30% from August to 1.4 million tonnes, it said in a note to clients.

London-based analytics firm DBX Commodities estimates Indian shipments of the power generation fuel to fall to 1.5 million tonnes this month from 1.9 million tonnes in August, Chief Executive Alexandre Claude told Reuters on Thursday.

Energy exports to India and China have been crucial revenue sources to sanctions-hit Russia, but have also helped bridge supply gaps and place a lid on surging global fuel prices.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called up 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine, a major escalation and the first mobilisation of this kind since World War Two, which would require higher spending.

The value of India's from since troops marched into Ukraine on Feb. 24 rose to about $2.4 billion as of Wednesday, said a source who requested anonymity, citing nonpublic Indian government data. This is a four-fold increase compared with shipments during the same period last year.

Traders and analysts say logistical issues have resulted in lower imports in September by India from Russia. Coal shipments from Russia had risen in July and August despite a decline in overall Indian imports of the fuel, making Russia India's third largest coal supplier.

A longer waiting period for vessels, higher traffic congestion in the Baltic region due to Europe's scramble for energy supplies and difficulties in securing insurance were resulting in lower Indian imports from Russia, Coalmint said.

Sanctions have cut many European countries off from supply of power-generation fuels from Russia, the continent's top supplier, resulting in a scramble for coal, natural gas and electricity in Europe amid record high prices.

"India's coal imports from Russia are likely to be in a tight range in the coming months with vessel availability likely to be an issue with the start of winter restocking by various countries, starting October," Coalmint said in the note.

DBX expects India's total thermal coal imports to fall to about 13 million tonnes from 15 million tonnes in August, Claude said.

"(Overall Indian) thermal coal imports have been declining since June as the heatwave then started to recede and the economy started to falter," he said.

(Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan and Aftab Ahmed; Editing by Richard Chang)

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Bombay Dyeing & Manufacturing Company on Thursday (22 September 2022) announced that its board has approved fund raising through issuance and allotment of equity shares for an aggregate amount of up to Rs 940 crore.

In an exchange filing, the company said, The board approved raising of funds through issuance and allotment of equity shares of face value of Rs 2 each for an aggregate amount of up to Rs 940 crore, on rights basis on such terms as may be decided by the board of directors or a duly constituted committee of the board to the eligible equity shareholders of the company, as on the record date (to be notified on a later date), subject to receipt of regulatory/statutory approvals

The board has also approved a Constitution of a committee of the board of directors for the rights issue, namely Rights Issue Committee and authorized the Committee to do all such acts, deeds, things and matters, as it may in its absolute discretion deem necessary, proper, and desirable for the purpose of and in connection with the rights issue.

Bombay Dyeing offers linens, towels, home furnishings, leisure clothing, kids wear and a whole range of other products across 350+ exclusive Bombay Dyeing Retail or 2000+ multi-brand stores.

On a consolidated basis, Bombay Dyeing & Manufacturing Company reported net loss of Rs 76.82 crore in Q1 June 2022 as against net loss of Rs 107.91 crore in Q1 June 2021. Net sales rose 59.21% to Rs 606.37 crore in Q1 June 2022 over Q1 June 2021.

Shares of Bombay Dyeing were down 0.80% to Rs 105.20 on the BSE.

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The drug major on Thursday announced that it has received the Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) from the US drug regulator for its Indore plant, indicating closure of the inspection.

The company had earlier informed that the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has conducted a product specific PreApproval Inspection (PAI) at the Indore plant from 27 June 2022 to 1 July 2022.

Cipla is a global pharmaceutical company focused on agile and sustainable growth, complex generics, and deepening portfolio in our home markets of India, South Africa, North America, and key regulated and emerging markets.

The company's consolidated net profit slipped 4% to Rs 686.40 crore on 2.3% decline in total revenue from operations to Rs 5,375.19 crore in Q1 FY23 over Q1 FY22.

Shares of Cipla were up 0.74% to Rs 1,069.55 on the BSE.

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cancelled the licence of Maharashtra-based The Laxmi Co-operative Bank, citing a lack of adequate capital.

Upon liquidation, every depositor would be entitled to receive a deposit insurance claim amount upto Rs 5 lakh.

According to the RBI, the bank with its present financial position would be unable to pay its present depositors in full and public interest would be adversely affected if the bank is allowed to carry on.

The Reserve Bank cancelled the licence of the bank as the lender does not have adequate capital and earning prospects and the continuance of the bank is prejudicial to the interests of its depositors, the RBI said in a statement.

The Commissioner for Cooperation and Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Maharashtra has also been asked to issue an order to wind up the operations and appoint a liquidator for the bank.

As per the data submitted by the bank, about 99% of the depositors are entitled to receive full amount of their deposits from the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC).

As on 13 September 2022, DICGC has already paid Rs 193.68 crore of the total insured deposits under the provisions of Section 18A of the DICGC Act, 1961 based on the willingness received from the concerned depositors of the bank.

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Schneider Electric Infrastructure surged 9.81% to Rs 183.05, extending gains for the second trading session.

Shares of Schneider Electric Infrastructure have surged 19.68% in two sessions.

The stock had outperformed the market over the past one month, rising 46.68% compared with 1.60% decline in the Sensex.

The scrip outperformed the market in past one quarter, gaining 87.87% as against Sensex's 11.14% rise.

The scrip had also outperformed the market in past one year, climbing 55.47% as against Sensex's 3% fall.

On the technical front, the stock's daily RSI (relative strength index) stood at 78.04. The RSI oscillates between zero and 100. Traditionally, the RSI is considered overbought when above 70 and oversold when below 30.

On the daily chart, the stock was trading above its 50-day, 100-day and 200-day simple moving average (SMA) placed at 129, 118.80 and 116.89, respectively.

Earlier this month, the company's board approved enhancing the production capacity of vacuum interrupters and vacuum circuit breakers. For this, the company's board has approved setting up a manufacturing unit in Kolkata, subject to requisite approvals, as may be required.

Existing capacity of the company stands at 80k MV vacuum interrupters with about 90% capacity utilization. The company proposes to add 180k MV vacuum interrupters and MV vacuum circuit breakers assembly lines.

The proposed capacity addition will complete by FY 2023-24 to FY 2027-28 with progressive investment. First mature production is expected in 2025.

The capacity enhancement will incur an investment of Rs 138 crore over a period of 3 years. The company will finance the expansion through internal accruals and/or borrowings.

The expansion is aimed at "meeting domestic demand as well as increase export to Schneider Electric global entities to accelerate Make in India for Global, aligned with Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative of the Government of India," the company said in a statement.

Schneider Electric Infrastructure is engaged in the business of manufacturing, designing, building and servicing products and systems for electricity network.

Schneider Electric Infrastructure reported net profit of Rs 26.53 crore in Q1 June 2022 as against net loss of Rs 16.08 crore in Q1 June 2021. Net sales rose 28.91% to Rs 371.48 crore in Q1 June 2022 over Q1 June 2021.

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Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy rose 3.52% to Rs 340.80 after its wholly owned step down subsidiary, Sterling and Wilson Solar Solutions Inc, along with its consortium partner signed a MoU with the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In an exchange filing, the company said that its US subsidiary, Sterling and Wilson Solar Solutions Inc, along with its consortium partner Sun Africa LLC , have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to deliver the development, design, construction and commissioning of solar photovoltaic power plants with total installed capacity of 961 MWdc at five different locations in the Federal Republic of Nigeria along with battery energy storage systems with total installed capacity of 455 megawatt-hour (MWh).

The company said that these projects will ultimately be owned and operated by Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), a Nigerian Government owned entity. Financing for these projects are under negotiations between US EXIM, ING and the Government of Nigeria, it added.

The company emphasizes that the said MoU has been entered as a first step towards signing of definitive Development and EPC Agreements, which is subject to the financing arrangement and approval by the board of directors of NDPHC.

Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy was demerged from Sterling and Wilson in March 2018. It is one of the largest non-original equipment manufacturers solar EPC players globally, with a diversified presence across geographies. SWREL was listed on the BSE and National Stock Exchange in August 2019.

The company reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 353.91 crore in Q1 FY23 as against a net loss of Rs 76.12 crore in Q1 FY22. Revenue from operations rose 1% YoY to Rs 1,206.93 crore during the quarter.

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To set up solar photovoltaic power plants in Nigeria

Sterling and Wilson Solar Solutions Inc., incorporated in the United States of America (SWSS), a wholly owned step down subsidiary of the Sterling & Wilson Renewable Energy (the Company) along with its consortium partner Sun Africa LLC (collectively referred to as the Consortium), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to deliver the development, design, construction and commissioning of solar photovoltaic power plants with total installed capacity of 961 MWdc at five different locations (Projects) in the Federal Republic of Nigeria along with battery energy storage systems with total installed capacity of 455 MWh.

These Projects will ultimately be owned and operated by Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), a Nigerian Government owned entity. Financing for these Projects are under negotiations between US EXIM, ING and the Government of Nigeria.

The Company wishes to emphasize that the above said MoU has been entered as a first step towards signing of definitive Development and EPC Agreements, which is subject to, inter alia, financing arrangement and approval by the Board of Directors of NDPHC.

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Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be on a two-day visit to Bihar beginning today, 23 September 2022. Shah will proceed to Purnea and Kishanganj to participate in various programmes.

Shah will address the "Jan Bhavana Rally" at Rangbhoomi Maidan in Purnea today (23 September).

This will be his first visit to Bihar after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Janta Dal (United) broke ties with BJP.

According to the media reports, Amit Shah's visit is significant amid the changed political scenario in the state.

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national chief J P Nadda on Friday mounted a scathing attack on the ruling in accusing it of indulging in petty politics, legitimising corruption and not working in the spirit of .

It was a sorry state of affairs that the leaders of this Dravidian party are playing the blame game whereas Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government and his believed in development and upliftment of all sections of people, he claimed.

The chief lashed out at DMK's ally, the Congress, saying the party which has been representing Sivaganga Lok Sabha constituency (now represented by Karti P Chidambaram) for long, has done precious little for development.

Addressing reporters here, Nadda said people from different political parties besides large number of women, youth and from other sections were joining the BJP in support of pro-development policies of the Prime Minister who has a special place in his heart for .

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes in the principles of and we are trying to see that maximum funds are allocated for development works in Tamil Nadu," he said.

The Centre initiated iconic development projects in the State and was expediting them. "But here also I am sorry to say that govt is playing petty . They are not working in the spirit of . They believe in blame game. I am not here to raise issues which my dear friend Annamalai ji (State chief) had raised yesterday," Nadda said.

He claimed the government which went for power tariff hike, lacked understanding of the subject.

"You should have educated leadership. They should understand who does the price rise, what is state subject, central subject and what is the concurrent subject. DMK doesn't know anything but believes in blame game. This is not fair," he said.

The DMK misguided the people. "This is the sorry state of affairs that leaders at such helm of affairs are trying to play blame game and are not cooperating," he said.

The BJP believed in development. The Prime Minister too believed in development of the State, upliftment of the poor, farmers, women, youth, deprived societies, and marginal sections of the society.

"But DMK government is perpetrating dynasty rule and corruption. They are legitimisng corruption and that's why I said yesterday that DMK stands for Dynasty, Money swindling and Katta Panchayat (Kanagaroo court). Their whole culture is of corruption and to support the dynasty rule," the BJP president alleged.

Summing up his two-day visit to the State, which concluded today, Nadda said through his interaction with party members and eminent personalities he could find a huge surge in favour of his party.

"People of are very enthusiastic to have a double-engine government. And BJP will certainly get support from every section of the society and eventually will meet a great success," he said.

As a mainstream party, the BJP was gaining strength and support because of the love and affection of the people of Tamil Nadu, he added.

Earlier in the day, the BJP president visited the renowned Pillayarpatti Vinayagar temple and offered prayers.

Accompanied by party members, Nadda had breakfast in the house of mandal president of Sakkottai South, A Ramalingam, in the district.

At a meeting of party's booth presidents in Sivaganga district, Nadda urged them to gear up to form the BJP government in Tamil Nadu under the leadership and guidance of Modi.

He wound up his visit by paying floral tributes to the legendary Marudhu Pandi brothers at their memorial at Tiruppattur here. The brothers fought valorously against the then British rulers and sacrificed their lives for the country's freedom.

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VISAKHAPATNAM: Former chief minister and TD national president Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday called on the Governor and Chancellor of NTR Health University Biswabhusan Harichandan to seek his intervention against the bill that renames the university as Dr YSR Health University.

Naidu appealed to the governor to reject the bill, saying it was introduced in the assembly without the knowledge of the chancellor.

Later, Naidu told the media the bill is highly unethical and irrelevant. What was the need for the government to bring in the legislation in such a hurry, he asked.

He said that in the past 24 years, several thousands of students obtained medical degrees from the colleges affiliated to this university. Out of the 32 medical colleges in the state, 16 colleges, including 3 private and five government institutions, were established during the TD terms. But the Jagan government did nothing for the health sector, he said.

Referring to a reply from the Centre to Vijayasai Reddys question in the Rajya Sabha, Naidu said that only three new medical colleges in the state have received approvals during the Jagan government.

Though the TD struggled a lot to get the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS), chief minister Jagan did not even bother to supply water to it, Naidu said.
Senior leader and former Haryana chief minister demanded on Friday that the state government pay compensation to whose crops were damaged due to incessant rain in the past two days.

"Every farmer has suffered a loss of thousands of rupees due to the destruction of standing paddy crop. Due to waterlogging, all crops, including paddy, have been damaged. In such a situation, the government should immediately get the 'girdawari' (survey) done and give compensation to the farmers, he said.

Hooda said the rain has exposed the government's claims of development.

"Today everything from the farmer's field to the modern city of Gurugram is submerged. and common people are feeling helpless. The government should make arrangements for drainage at the earliest, he stated.

Hooda said had suffered losses due to bad weather earlier as well.

"But till now they have not been compensated for the damage caused due to heavy rains, hailstorm and waterlogging. Neither the government nor insurance companies came forward to help the farmers in times of trouble, Hooda, the Leader of the Opposition in Haryana Assembly, said in a statement.

Hooda further said despite repeated demands, the government has not yet started the procurement of paddy.

"Because of this, paddy with a rate of Rs 2,060 is being purchased at Rs 1,700 to Rs 1,800 per quintal. Same is the case with millet farmers. Neither MSP of millet is being given by the government nor are farmers being compensated through the Bhavantar Bharpayee Yojana, as announced by the government, 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.)
The on Friday intensified its campaign targeting Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai with the top party leaders putting up 'PayCM posters' at public places ignoring state government's direction to investigate the matter.

The Chief Minister hit back saying that the has no moral right to speak about corruption.

Former chief minister Siddaramaiah, state chief D K Shivakumar, All India Congress Committee general secretary and in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala and several senior MLAs and others participated in the campaign.

They put up the PayCM poster on the Race Course wall in the city opposite the Volvo office. Later, the Congress leaders were arrested and the posters were removed from the public place.

Congress leaders such as B K Hariprasad and others pasted the posters on the bus which police had brought to take away the leaders to the police station.

The Congress state chief Shivakumar alleged the police did not take action against those who put up birthday and other posters of politicians illegally but arrest only the Congress people.

"This campaign will go to every nook and corner of the state. We will not stop it here," Shivakumar said.

Surjewala who too was arrested, tweeted, "The #40PercentCommission Bommai Govt is so unnerved that it has given # Police the job of tearing up posters & arresting Opposition leaders instead of maintaining law & order. People are waiting to throw out the BJP Govt mired in unbearable stench of corruption."



The party also pasted the 'PayCM' posters at the BJP's Nelamangala office on the outskirts of Bengaluru on Friday.

The party later shared the pictures of its PayCM campaign with media.

Chief Minister Bommai retaliated against the charge on Friday.

He alleged the Congress party was involved in multiple scams and it has no moral right to talk about corruption.

"The BJP had released a book on the Corruption of the Congress Party and being corrupt they are doing a drive on corruption. Let them do anything, ultimately truth will always triumph. The attitude of talking without any evidence will not last long," Bommai said.

He also said the government has given a detailed reply on the corruption charges levelled by a Contractors' Association, which had alleged that ministers allegedly charge 40 per cent commission for the public works.

"The Congress party thinks a lie spoken often will become a truth but they are wrong. People know the truth," Bommai said.

He also said he was ready for a debate on the issue and challenged the Congress to present the evidence instead of indulging in hit-and-run.

"Leader of the Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah must say who had given 40 per cent commission. We were ready to listen and for this reason we sat in the House for the whole day," the chief minister added.

He also alleged that the Contractors' Association was a Congress-sponsored one and hence, they knew well that there was no stuff in it.

"The government is open in this regard and ready to hold an inquiry if a complaint is filed," the Chief minister said.

Rattled with the Congress campaign, the BJP launched a counter-offensive. It started 'Scam Ramaiah' campaign highlighting the various scams that took place during the Congress regime led by Siddaramaiah from 2013 to 2018.

It also released a booklet, targeting Siddaramaiah, saying that he ran a '100 per cent loot Congress government'.

The booklet had the clippings of newspaper reports on scams that had taken place when Siddaramaiah was the Chief Minister.

The BJP legislative council members too staged a demonstration near Mahatma Gandhi's statue holding placards explaining the scams taken place during the Congress regime.

Addressing a press conference, the state BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel alleged that the grand old party, which ruled the country since 1947 gave the major contribution of corruption in the country.

The police, probing the matter on Bommai's instructions had arrested B R Naidu, the former chief of Congress' Karnataka unit social media team, on Wednesday night from his residence.

The PayCM QR code bearing the photograph of the Chief Minister gets directed to a website - '40% Sarkara' - accusing the Bommai-led BJP government was charging 40 per cent commission on public works.

The website was launched a few days ago by the Congress.

Ahead of the Assembly elections in Karnataka next year, the Congress is trying to rake up the issue of contractor Santosh Patil's death by suicide in an Udupi hotel earlier this year.

Patil had accused the then state Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K S Eshwarappa of demanding 40 per cent cut in a public work in his district.

Eshwarappa had resigned following the charge. However, an investigation carried out by the police gave him a clean chit.

Following the PayCM campaign, the BJP started 'Scam-Ramaiah' pointing to the alleged scams taken place during the Congress government in Karnataka led by then chief minister Siddaramaiah.

BJP state chief Nalin Kumar Kateel charged that the Congress has falsely accused the Chief Minister and Karnataka has been insulted by this allegation.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ahead of his youth rally in Himachal Pradesh, on Friday attacked Prime Minister saying he must answer why the BJP-led government failed to address issues of unemployment and the debt the state's burdened with.

Modi is slated to address a youth rally at Paddal Maidan in Mandi on Saturday, to be organised by the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha.

In-charge of Rajeev Shukla said the state government is "misleading" the prime minister by calling him for a youth rally when the young population is in dire straits with about 5,20,000 of them jobless.

"I request the prime minister to pull up the BJP-led government before addressing the rally, as the state is reeling under a 70,000 crore debt, rising by 51 per cent under the current government.

"He (Modi) should answer why so many are unemployed and even with 67,000 posts vacant," Shukla said at a press conference at the AICC headquarters here.

He also alleged that the rally in Mandi is being organised with the public money and urged the Election Commission to take cognizance of the issue.

spokesperson and former Congress Committee chief Kuldeep Rathore said, "We want to remind the PM that he had made a few promises to the people before the last assembly polls. He had said that the government will pull out apple trade from crisis and he will increase the import duty on apple by 100 per cent but nothing happened."



"The PM had said that in aerated drinks like Pepsi and Coke, 5 per cent apple juice will be mixed, what happened to that promise," Rathore said.

The apple trade in Himachal Pradesh is in danger and instead of helping farmers, the government has imposed 18 per cent GST on fertilisers and agriculture equipment, he said.

Rathore also demanded a financial package for Himachal Pradesh.

The government in the state, which has proved without doubt that it is anti-farmer, is hell bent on ruining the apple economy by not providing the farmers with subsidised fungicide, he said.

The farmers are being forced to buy fungicide from the open market at exorbitant prices, he added.

Himachal Pradesh is likely to go to polls in November this year.

(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 and Vadra would participate in the leg of the "Bharat Jodo Yatra" led by Rahul Gandhi that will be entering the state on September 30, state party chief D K Shivakumar said on Friday.

Noting that the has made preparations for the yatra by giving responsibility to leaders, Shivakumar said and will be participating in the yatra here; they will be giving dates. "...I will announce the dates in the future."



AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal along with another AICC General Secretary and in-charge of Randeep Singh Surjewala, state President Shivakumar and a host of leaders on Friday participated in the party's review meeting on the yatra.

"In Karnataka, Congress President may attend the Bharat Jodo Yatra some day, and will also be joining separately," Venugopal said.

Noting that the Karnataka leg of the yatra will begin at Gundlupet on September 30 at 9 AM, Shivakumar said on October 2, Gandhi Jayanti, there is a programme at Badanavalu in Nanjangud Taluk, which is known for its Khadi and Gramodyog Centre.

"There will be two days holiday for Dasara, there will be a public meeting in Ballari, in between Rahul Gandhi will be interacting with youth, women, civil society, students, tribal community and farmers among others each day, and teams have been formed for this," he added.

Not wanting to comment on the demand for Rahul Gandhi as AICC President, Shivakumar in response to a question said, "KPCC has already authorised the Congress President...we all are committed that Rahul ji should lead the party, but it is left to him."



The AICC was fully satisfied with the arrangements made by KPCC for the yatra, Venugopal said, adding the march has been successful so far and the response to it in Tamil Nadu and Kerala is "unimaginable and beyond expectations".

Arrangements have been made in Karnataka to ensure the same success, he said, "for the last ten years, the BJP and Sangh Parivar had one duty- to tarnish the image of Rahul Gandhi, but people are now realising as to who is Rahul Gandhi...this yatra will be a turning point in Indian ."



Responding to a question, Venugopal said, "PayCM' is not a campaign created by the Congress party. The party is only taking up genuine issues raised by people of Karnataka, everyone is saying this is the most corrupt government in the state."



The Congress is not scared of arrests, party workers have enough courage and will raise the corruption issue again and again, come what may, he said.

Surjewala said Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai "lords over" the most corrupt government in the entire country. "This is a one scam a day government that he (Bommai) heads.

(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 Friday staged a walkout from the Assembly after its members were disallowed to raise the issue of students' agitation in the over steep fee hike, and announced a boycott of the proceedings.

As soon as the proceedings of the Assembly began, Akhilesh stood up and tried to speak on the issue but Speaker Satish Mahana did not allow him to speak out of turn.

At this, the agitated SP members raised slogans and walked out of the House.

Thereafter, all SP MLAs, led by Akhilesh Yadav, marched back to their party office.

It is noteworthy that the students of have been protesting against the fee hike for over a fortnight and have also demanded the revival of the student union. The protests have intensified after many hostellers also joined in and took out a march inside the campus.

The protests are continuing even as pointed out that the fee has been hiked after 110 years. Since the inception of the university in 1922 - the university's Executive Council had approved the fee hike for different courses about a fortnight ago.

The university said the fee hike is the need of the hour considering the changes being brought in in accordance with the National Education Policy, under which more teachers have to be hired and new courses introduced.

The university also clarified that none of the current students would be affected as the fee hike would only be applicable for new entrants from the 2022-23 academic year.

--IANS

amita/shb/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rajasthan minister Rajendra Gudha, one of the six BSP turned Congress MLAs, on Thursday said they would not oppose if is made the chief minister in case becomes the party president and quits the CM post.

Gudha, who is Minister of State for Panchayati Raj and Rural Development and considered close to Gehlot, cleared his stand that he is not with any face and said the six MLAs would support anyone whom the party high command chooses to run the government.

The statement of Gudha came after former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi batted for the "one-man, one-post" concept in lines with the party's Chintan Shivir reforms amid possibility of Gehlot contesting election for the post of national president of the party.

Gandhi's statement made in Kochi created a buzz that Gehlot, who is seen as the frontrunner in the party presidential poll, may have to step down as CM if he becomes the party president.

"We are with the decision of the party leadership. Whatever decision Sonia ji, Rahul ji and Priyanka ji take, we all six will welcome that. We are with the party," Gudha told reporters here.

"Even if Bharosi Lal ji is made (CM) by Sonia ji, we are with him," he said when asked whether he would oppose if is made the CM. Bharosi Lal is a Congress MLA.

The BSP turncoats had supported Gehlot during political crisis in July 2020 after the then deputy CM revolted against the Rajasthan CM.

(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.)
Apple's Chinese vendors may soon be allowed to set up manufacturing plants in India by the government. The move will be finalised if assures the government that it has no other option for sourcing components, a report by Economic Times (ET) said.

Sources told ET that the government is open to investments by Chinese entities that promote technology and production capabilities if there are no alternatives available.

ET also added that the manufacturers would be required to import components if there are some concerns around the vendor and no other alternatives are available. The government may also ask the manufacturers to transfer the technology to local manufacturing.

Lately, the government has been asking to set up its manufacturing plants in India. Since the launch of the iPhone 14, the company has been scaling up its production capacity in India, shifting from .

The December quarter might mark Apple's highest-ever shipment of iPhones to India at around 570,000 units compared with 370,000 units in 2021, according to experts.

In April 2020, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), amended the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) rules to add that companies from countries sharing a land border with India will need a prior nod from the government.

With these changes, any foreign direct investment from Bangladesh, China, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, and Afghanistan now requires prior government approval, irrespective of the cap applicable to the sector.
users have sued its parent company Meta in the US for allegedly tracking them via an in-app browser on iOS devices despite tough Apple privacy policies in place.

The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, alleged that Meta follows users' online activity by "funneling them into the web browser built into and injecting JavaScript into the sites they visit".

According to a TechCrunch report, that code makes it possible for the company to monitor "every single interaction with external websites".

Apple introduced a major iOS privacy update via iOS 14.5 last year to stop third-party apps like from tracking user behaviour and their browsing history via App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature.

However, according to the lawsuit, Meta snooped on users "through a workaround".

The proposed class-action lawsuit "could allow anyone affected to sign on, which in Facebook's case might mean hundreds of millions of US users," the report said late on Thursday.

According to it, Meta is not only violating Apple's policies, but also breaking privacy laws at the state and federal level.

A Meta spokesperson said in a statement that the allegations were "without merit" and it will fight them in the court.

"We have carefully designed our in-app browser to respect users' privacy choices, including how data may be used for ads," the spokesperson was quoted as saying.

Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that privacy changes will cost the company a whopping $10 billion in 2022.

Meta has also accused Apple of favouring Google over app-based platforms like Facebook with its privacy policies.

"We believe those restrictions from Apple are designed in a way to carve out browsers from the tracking Apple requires for apps. So what that means is that search ads could have access to far more third party data, for measurement and optimisation purposes, than app-based ad platforms like ours," according to Meta.

--IANS

na/dpb

(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.)
New Delhi [India], September 23 (ANI/NewsVoir): Parminder Chopra, Director (Finance), Power Finance Corporation (PFC) Ltd., has been honoured with the prestigious ET Ascent "Best CFO-PSU" Award at a glittering ceremony held at Taj, MG Road, Bengaluru. This prestigious event by ET honours men, women and organisations whose contributions have significantly affected the business world. The ET Ascent "Best CFO-PSU Award" has been bestowed on Chopra for her exceptional contribution in building the financial strength of the PFC and the country as a whole.

Parminder Chopra, 53 years, holds a Bachelor's degree in Commerce and is a qualified Cost Accountant and MBA. She took over the charge of Director (Finance), Power Finance Corporation Ltd. On July 1, 2020. She has more than 32 years of experience in the power sector, serving in key power sector organizations like the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation of India (NHPC) and Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL). She joined PFC in 2005 and was working as an Executive Director (Finance) before assuming charge as Director(Finance), PFC. She has handled a gamut of finance portfolios such as resource mobilization from domestic as well as international markets, banking & treasury, asset liability management, stressed assets resolution etc.

PFC is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Power. It was conferred the title of a 'Maharatna CPSE' in Oct 2021 and was classified as an Infrastructure Finance Company by the RBI on July 28, 2010. PFC plays a crucial role in the rise of India as a global player. Increasingly, a country's development is gauged by measuring its energy usage. With a large fraction of our nation still, unfortunately, without any access to electricity, PFC will become an increasingly important factor in the years to come. Our shareholders and clients place their full faith in our ability to deliver unbeatable results. Despite the hardships played by the power and financial sectors, PFC continues to maintain a healthy loan book, as well as low levels of NPAs. It is due to PFC's robust evaluation and appraisal processes that this has been possible.

This story has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content in this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pune (Maharashtra) [India], September 23 (ANI/NewsVoir): Bajaj Finance Limited (BFL), the lending arm of Bajaj Finserv Limited and India's largest and highly diversified NBFC company, is making the shopping experience for its customers more exciting this festive season. From September 23, 2022, customers can browse a range of products at Amazon Great Indian Festival at attractive prices and discounts and make payments in No Cost EMIs through Bajaj Finserv EMI Network Card.

Bajaj Finserv EMI Network Card has made shopping more economical for customers by offering easy EMI financing through No Cost EMI, flexible terms for easy repayment and no down payment. Customers can shop for items ranging from furniture, home appliances, gadgets, electronics to apparels, etc. at Amazon Great Indian Festival and pay with the No Cost EMI option. The EMI Card works like a pre-approved loan. It comes with no hidden charges, and most importantly, payment is through No Cost EMIs - which means no more exorbitant interest.

Cutomers can give a missed call on 92100 35555 to get the App link (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.altruist.BajajExperia & shortlink=3a & c=FK_Ecom_FK & pid=E%20Com) and view their card by following a few simple steps - clicking on the 'EMI' icon on the top right corner, enter date of birth, click on "View" to view the EMI card number and enter OTP make to their masked EMI card number visible.

The EMI Network Card can be easily added to the Amazon checkout page by following these steps- First locate and click on 'Payment Options' then click on 'Add a new card' to add their EMI Network card. Lastly, fill in the fields with the 'Card Number', 'Expiry Date' and 'Name on Card'. Enter any future value in Month in the 2030 Year (01/2030).

Further to avail the No Cost EMI option, once a customer adds a product to their shopping card, they can choose 'No Cost EMIs' as a payment mode. Then select 'Bajaj Finserv EMI' and pick an appropriate tenor and enter EMI Network Card details, followed by the OTP received on the registered mobile number. After entering the required details can complete their transaction by clicking on 'Place Order'. The customers can also avail the exchange offer which is available on Mobile, Tablets, Laptops, TVs, ACs, Washing Machines and Refrigerators only by - selecting the product they're looking to purchase, select delivery location to check, look for "with Exchange", enter basic details of the used and hit the "buy Now with Exchange". The used product will be picked up from the customer's address.

Bajaj Finance customers can also choose the tenure most suitable to them for repaying the amount through EMI Network Card. Additionally, customers can choose to foreclose their loan anytime without any extra charges. EMI card enables consumer to buy more products and with a convenience of paying through EMIs while shopping online.

For more information, click - (https://www.amazon.in/l/29701334031?pf_rd_r=KD6BG23KSJ7E1XM605BF & pf_rd_p=6ec84ee3-1829-4b53-aa2b-3da7607fedb0 & pd_rd_r=da59242b-1b8f-4f89-bcf0-0f19ef9f795a & pd_rd_w=Kk5OX & pd_rd_wg=pFv5B & linkCode=sl2 & tag=dpr00-21 & linkId=f5ef80b8edc0f0ecad0ca562f857435a & language=en_IN & ref_=as_li_ss_tl)

Bajaj Finance Limited, the lending arm of Bajaj Finserv Limited, is one of the most diversified NBFCs in the Indian market, catering to 58 million customers across the country. Headquartered in Pune, the company's product offering includes Consumer Durable Loans, Lifestyle Finance, Digital Product Finance, Personal Loans, Loan against Property, Small Business Loans, Wallet, Co-branded Credit Cards, Two-wheeler and Three-wheeler Loans, Commercial lending/SME Loans, Loan against Securities and Rural Finance which includes Gold Loans and Vehicle Refinancing Loans along with Fixed Deposits. Bajaj Finance Limited has the highest domestic credit rating of AAA/Stable for long term borrowing, A1+ for the short-term borrowing, and CRISIL AAA/Stable & ICRA AAA (Stable) for its FD program. It has a long-term issuer credit rating of BB+/Positive and short-term rating of B by S & P Global ratings.

To know more, please visit (https://www.bajajfinserv.in).

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BENGALURU: While, the Congress party is busy in its poster campaign against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and on the other hand former Chief Minister and Janata Dal Secular (JDS) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy on Friday demanded the resignation of Minister for Higher Education Dr Ashwath Narayan over his alleged involvement in the BMS Trust scam, besides, seeking a high-level investigation into the alleged irregularities in the BMS Trust of Bengaluru.

BMS Educational Trust (BMSET) runs institutions in Bengaluru and the Trust was formed in 1957 by B S Narayan son of B M Srinivasaiah. Kumaraswamy alleged that Minister Ashwath Narayan allegedly colluded with private parties and helped a public charitable Trust to be converted into a private one thereby weakening the State Governments role in the functioning of the Trust.

Mr Kumaraswamy demanded that all the assets of the Trust should be confiscated by the State Government. My government in 2018 had flatly rejected BMS Trusts amended proposal of donor trustee and life trustee as such changes were illegal. After my government, the BJP government which came to power gave approval to the amended proposal at a lightning speed, alleges Kumaraswamy.

Linking the name of Minister Ashwath Narayan in the scam, Mr Kumaraswamy questioned the Minister What is the conspiracy behind not acting on the letters of government Trustees and IAS officer Dr Manjula and another retired IAS officer Madangopal highlighting alleged irregularities in the Trust.

Kumaraswamy claimed that the documents placed by him in the Legislative Assembly pertaining to the alleged scam in BMS trust spoke volumes on the irregularities and suspected that a conspiracy has been hatched to make his bullet (allegations) misfire. The Minister Ashwath Narayan denied the allegations of Kumaraswamy.
Before we get into the details of the current case, let's learn some history. In the 1980s, Parvinder Singh inherited Ranbaxy from his father, Bhai Mohan Singh, a wealthy contractor who hailed from Rawalpindi. What had started out as a small pharma business in Amritsar had by then grown into an empire. At a time when most Indian drug-makers were looking inwards, Parvinder decided to take Ranbaxy into international markets. By the time he passed away in 1999, he left behind a global pharma major.

And, the way in which Parvinders sons, Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, squandered away the empire in subsequent years has become the stuff of corporate folklore. According to reports, Malvinder and Shivinder squandered away Rs 22,500 crore over the span of just one decade.

So, what are the particulars of the case in which the latest orders have come? Former Ranbaxy promoters have been accused of concealing information about wrongdoings at Ranbaxy when they sold a majority stake in it to Daiichi Sankyo, a Japanese firm, in 2008. In 2016, the Singapore tribunal awarded Daiichi Rs 3,500 crore in damages. In 2018, Daiichi Sankyo approached the Indian Supreme Court with the allegation that the Singh brothers were diverting funds using a number of shell to avoid the payments. Daiichi had also approached the apex court to stop a deal between Fortis and Malaysia-based IHH Group. As part of the deal, the IHH Group was set to acquire a 30 per cent stake in the Fortis group for 1.1 billion dollars with an open offer of 26 per cent stake. While the deal was signed in August 2018, the SC stayed the IHH open offer in December that same year.

But, this too is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg since there are several other cases against the Singh brothers. In October of 2019, Malvinder and Shivinder were arrested by the Economic Offenses Wing of the Delhi Police for allegedly diverting money and causing losses to the tune of Rs 2,397 crore. The allegations were related to Religare Enterprises Limited, or REL, a company that was once led by the brothers. They were accused of diverting money from Religare Finvest Limited, or RFL, an REL subsidiary. According to the allegations, the brothers and other REL officials took loans in RFL's name and then diverted the money to other firms.

In 2019, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office, or SFIO, was also probing their role in an alleged fund diversion at . After its initial probe, the SFIO had said that it believed that the fraud could be to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore. The Securities and Exchange Board of India and the SFIO suspected that the Singh brothers had diverted public money from to Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas and other religious bodies.

Long before the recent wranglings, there was also the episode with Dinesh Thakur, the whistle-blower who put Ranbaxy in the dock. Thakur joined Ranbaxy in 2003. But, in 2005, Thakur quit and waved a red flag about alleged violations and irregularities at the pharma company. Thakur ended up working with US authorities to expose the fraud and even filed a lawsuit to hold Ranbaxy accountable. Eventually, Ranbaxy pleaded guilty to making fraudulent statements to US regulatory authorities about how it tested drugs at its Indian plants. The firm had to pay $500 million to resolve the civil and criminal violations.

It remains to be seen if the recent developments will be the final chapter of their downfall, or whether more skeletons might tumble out of their cupboard. What we know for sure is that have all but destroyed the legacy of their grandfather Bhai Mohan Singh and father Parvinder.
Telecom spectrum is similar to atma.

Its ajar. Its amar, as the Bhagwad Gita describes.

It has no physical form, yet it is omnipresent. Thats how the government imagines spectrum, in the Explanatory Note to the draft Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022.

The Bill, which will regulate the sector once it becomes an Act, seeks to replace the existing legal framework governing telecommunication in India, comprising the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, the Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933 and the Telegraph Wires (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1950.

The draft Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022 has, for the first time, laid down a clear statutory framework and regulations on assigning spectrum. It says, spectrum should primarily be given through auction. For specific functions related to the government and public interest, like defence, transportation and research, the proposes assignment through the administrative process.

To enable efficient use of spectrum, the Centre may also re-farm or harmonise any frequency range assigned by auction, or administrative process.

The enables sharing, trading, leasing, surrender of spectrum assigned, and a process to return unutilised spectrum.

To address the demand of telecom companies for a level playing field, the telecom department aims to bring in a landmark change by extending the definition of telecommunication services.

It proposes to bring over-the-top (or OTT) communications services such as WhatsApp, Telegram, satellite-based communication services and internet under the ambit of the .

So, communication services have to take a licence now and be subjected to the same conditions governing telecom players in India, like quality of service and security rules, etc.

Shiv Putcha, Founder and Principal Analyst, Mandala Insights says, including under telecom is contentious. May create a level-playing field between telcos and . Language suggests greater centralisation of powers.

The government will also have the power to terminate spectrum allocations partly or in full, if it determines that assigned spectrum has remained unutilised for insufficient reasons over a period of time.

Likewise, the spectrum allocated to telecom companies that are undergoing insolvency and are unable to offer services, pay dues or comply with license conditions, will be taken back by the government.

The Bill also seeks to simplify the framework for mergers, demergers, acquisitions or other forms of restructuring, by only requiring intimation to the licensing authority, while relief, write-off or deferment of dues may be allowed in cases of payment default in extraordinary circumstances.

Next, the draft bill tries to achieve through law a right of way (ROW) enforceable at the state- and at the municipal-corporation level. This legal framework is key to the rollout of 5G services. It lays down a framework in which a public entity that owns the land has to grant right of way permission expeditiously, unless it gives a substantive ground for refusal.

The existing regulatory framework, based on Right of Way Rules, 2016, has had a limited impact in addressing bottlenecks in the rapid expansion of telecom infrastructure.

The Rs 60,000 crore Universal Service Obligation Fund will be expanded into the Telecommunication Development Fund by adding further objectives of underserved urban

areas, R&D, skill development etc.

To prevent cyber fraud, the Bill provides that the identity of the person sending a message through telecom services shall be available to a user receiving it.

Peeyush Vaish, Partner & Telecom Sector Leader, Deloitte India says, govt will not change rules with retrospective effect. OTT services may have to verify their users. Bill says grant of RoW should be non-discriminatory.

DoT has also heeded the unanimous call from companies that the USO Fund levy should be discontinued or suspended for a few years until the large unutilised surplus cash of around Rs 60,000 crore is utilised.

The Bill also raises some concerns. Experts indicate, the Centre cannot take coercive action against states or municipal corporations to impose right of way rules, as land is a state subject.

More clarity is required as to how the government plans to regulate OTT communication services under this Bill.

Analysts also worry that the Bill will adversely impact the consultative role of TRAI, weakening its position. It excludes the obligation of the government to consult on licensing issues.

Overall, the Bill places emphasis on the development of telecom infrastructure while covering new-age services to keep up with the times.

The proposed legal framework seeks to be future-ready, provides certainty regarding spectrum management and reserves the penalty of imprisonment or heavy fines only for a small set of critical offences.
has two components: download and upload. They both are part of the data package, but data plans offered by most internet service providers refer to download speeds only. Let us find out why

The Ookla test

The Speedtest Global Index released by network intelligence and connectivity insights provider Ookla showed that the global median download and upload speeds on mobile networks in August hovered at 30.79 Mbps and 8.62 Mbps, respectively.

Indias median download and upload speeds in the same period stood at 13.52 Mbps and 3.28 Mbps, respectively.

Fixed broadband connection

The disparity between download and upload speeds extends to fixed broadband connections. According to Ooklas Speedtest Global Index, the global median download and upload speeds on fixed broadband in August stood at 69.14 Mbps and 29.02 Mbps, respectively.

Surprisingly, the gap between the download and upload speeds in India is not as glaring. The download and upload speeds on fixed wireless broadband in India stood at 48.29 Mbps and 47.52 Mbps, respectively.

Why is your upload speed slower than download?

One of the factors responsible for the difference in download and upload speeds is the network interface. By design, most of the network interfaces support higher download speeds than uploads. Therefore, irrespective of the device you use for internet services, there is always a gap in the download and upload speeds. This is because download speed makes up the internet experience for most users. In any internet activity, downloading consumes much more data than the uploads.

Why does upload speed matter?

Upload establishes the connection to access web services and download is the after result. To access any service available on the web, you first send the query to the web. This process involves uploading information.

For instance, you are opening the Business Standards website. You enter the domain name in the browser and press Enter'. At this stage, the internet uses upstream to establish a connection with the website host on the web. Once the connection is established, the host sends back data to show the website and its content on the user screen. This downstream of information is called download.

From watching movies available on over-the-top (OTT) platforms to scrolling pictures and videos posted on social media, the size of information downloaded is always on the higher side compared to uploads. Therefore, it is the download speeds that make up for the internet experience for most users. But this does not mean upload speeds are inconsequential, especially today.

The new-age web services such as internet calling, video conferencing, online gaming, cloud data storage, and remote access require healthy upload speeds to deliver an optimal experience. The lack of it results in a choppy video during video conferences, broken audio during internet calls, and slow picture uploads on Instagram, etc.
As the United Nations holds its Mountain Partnership Global Meeting in Aspen next week, Atlantic Aviation and Avfuel Corporation partnered to ensure plentiful supply of Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel for air operations surrounding the event.

Avfuel and Atlantic Aviation will supplement their continuous supply of SAF with two renewable diesel-powered truckloads of the fuel to Atlantics FBO at Aspen-Pitken County Airport (ASE). The fuel is being placed in a newly dedicated SAF tank and an Atlantic Evolve fuel truck commemorating the occasion.

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The event, which includes members from diverse mountainous countries worldwide, is conducted every four years, but 2022 marks the first time it is being held in North America, as well as it being the main event in the United Nations International Year of Sustainable Mountain Development.

The Mountain Partnership Global Meeting brings together hundreds of attendees from the environmental and science communities, along with a number of politicians, which this year includes Colorados Governor Jared Polis. Approximately 40 UN delegates from New Yorks United Nations General Assembly will attend the meeting, some of whom will arrive by air at Atlantic Aviations ASE FBO.

Atlantic Aviation is firmly committed to going higher when it comes to promoting sustainable aviation, especially in sensitive mountain environments for which air travel is critical infrastructure for people, goods and services, said Brian Corbett, chief commercial & sustainability officer at Atlantic Aviation. All of us at both Atlantic Aviation and Avfuel are pleased to increase our constant supply of SAF at Aspen-Pitken County Airport for this landmark event.

In addition to providing Neste MY SAF from Avfuel to both commercial and business aircraft at ASE, Atlantic Aviation offsets all aircraft carbon emissions at the field through the purchase of carbon offsets from Carbonfund.org. Atlantic Aviation is also a primary donor to the methane gas mitigation project led by Aspen COREa major collaborative initiative to curb emissions from abandoned mine shafts in the region.

Keith Sawyer, Avfuels manager of alternative fuels, said, Avfuel is proud to support Atlantic Aviations sustainability mission with the provision of SAF, particularly in the renowned Aspen region. Were further honored to play a role in this historic event by supplying SAF as aviations most effective way to reduce the carbon footprint of air travel, making a meaningful difference that supports the spirit of the United Nations meeting.

With one of the highest average blend ratios available in business aviation to date (30/70 SAF to petroleum-based jet fuel), each truckload of Neste MY SAF reduces carbon emissions by 19 metric tons across its lifecycle. With the events two truckloads totaling 38 metric tons, this reduction is equivalent to the amount of carbon sequestered by 45 acres of U.S. forests per year.

Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by up to 80% compared to fossil jet fuel if used in its neat, concentrated form. It is made from 100% sustainably sourced, renewable waste and residue raw materialssuch as used cooking oil. It is a fully approved drop-in fuel that, once blended with petroleum jet fuel, meets ASTM D-1655 specification for conventional jet fuel and performance standards under all operating conditions. This makes Neste MY SAF an optimum solution to directly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from air travel, requiring no new investments, modifications or changes to aircraft, fuel distribution procedures or airport fuel storage tanks. It is a today solution, commercially available and in use worldwide.
South Africa: Government to work with traditional leaders to resolve SA's challenges, says Mabuza

Government has vowed to continuously work with traditional leaders to find solutions to problems that affect rural areas.

The ongoing interactions between government and traditional leaders in efforts to address obstacles that limit development in rural communities have highlighted the need for a closer working partnership between government and traditional leaders at all levels, Deputy President David Mabuza said on Friday.

Mabuza was talking with traditional and Khoi-San leaders in Mpumalanga, in his capacity chairperson of the Inter-Ministerial Task Team.

As we move along the development path, we need to make sure the decisions we take today and beyond are put into action.

He highlighted unemployment, HIV/AIDS and TB, inequality and lack of water for homes and farming as some of the challenges facing rural communities.

Infrastructure

We must also address the issue of limited access to information and communication technology services in rural communities, said Mabuza.

To achieve this, the Deputy President believes that intentional and targeted investments in rural infrastructure networks are required.

According to Mabuza, the move will provide people with access to clean water and sanitation, electricity, and roads that link them to places of employment, schools, and hospitals.

While the government is making progress on resolving some of the concerns, there are still issues that are in the process of being reviewed and processed.

Government, he said, is committed to responding quickly to any concerns to find sustainable solutions.

Social ills

As part of this commitment, the President set up the Inter-Ministerial Task Team, led by the Deputy President, with a mandate to coordinate government's response to the problems traditional leaders face across the country.

Mabuza has described traditional leadership, as an institution located in the rural areas to play in collaborating with government to resolve these challenges, including social ills of gender-based violence, child abuse, crime, substance abuse and others.

As traditional leaders, you should promote democratic governance and the values of an open and democratic society; progressively advance gender equality within the institutions of traditional leadership, and promote freedom and human dignity.

He also acknowledged the challenges that the traditional and Khoi-San leaders are facing.

We have also been criticised for taking too long to put in place measures to help the traditional communities address your challenges. We admit that we might not have acted quickly enough on some of the issues you have raised.

He said he had heard the demand to accelerate the execution of the necessary measures so that rural areas can catch up to the rest of the nation in terms of development.

Land

Regarding land tenure and administration, we are all aware that this is a complicated subject for those who reside in or seek to invest in traditional regions, said Mabuza.

He said the issue was top of the agenda at the Communal Land Administration and Tenure Reform Summit in May this year.

The summit was successful in adopting resolutions that will go a long way towards the development of appropriate land reform legislation and policies.

We will continue to strive to achieve the development and sustainability of rural communities by ensuring that land rights are provided and that ownership is transferred from the state to rightful owners.

In addition, Mabuza said they would focus more on improving inclusive land use management, building infrastructure, and providing targeted aid to rural populations.

It is critical to prioritise access to land as a crucial asset for rural development and economic transformation, so that the land held in trust by traditional and Khoi-San leaders may be effectively used for agricultural, human settlements, and industrial development.

Together with these leaders, government said it will sure that ordinary people benefit from commercial land use and the extraction of natural resources in traditional communities.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2022-09-23. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Reception held in Japan to mark 50th anniversary of normalization of China-Japan diplomatic ties

Xinhua) 14:47, September 23, 2022

TOKYO, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese embassy in Japan has held a reception here to celebrate the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan.

Participants at the event expressed wishes that the two countries will take the 50th anniversary as an opportunity to further strengthen dialogues at all levels, deepen practical cooperation in various fields, and push for the long-term, sound and steady development of China-Japan relations.

Kong Xuanyou, Chinese Ambassador to Japan, said in his speech that nowadays China-Japan relations have reached a new historic starting point and come to a critical crossroads about where to go from here.

Facing opportunities and challenges, both sides should embrace a strategic vision and global perspective, abide by the principles set out in the four political documents between China and Japan, continue to enhance political mutual trust and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, and properly resolve differences and disputes under the guidance of the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, Kong added.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said that Japan and China should take the anniversary as an opportunity to review their original aspiration of normalization of diplomatic relations, strive for peaceful coexistence, jointly safeguard regional prosperity and stability, and make greater contributions to the international community.

On behalf of the Japanese government, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Yuumi Yoshikawa congratulated on the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the PRC and the 50th anniversary of the normalization of bilateral diplomatic relations, voicing hope that Japan and China will strive to build a constructive and stable bilateral relation.

Makiko Tanaka, former Japanese foreign minister, reviewed the history of the normalization of bilateral diplomatic relations, hoping that the two countries will seize the opportunity to actively carry out exchanges in various fields, and strive for peaceful coexistence and common prosperity.

Natsuo Yamaguchi, leader of Japan's Komeito party, expressed wishes that both countries will strengthen exchanges in various fields and at various levels so as to lay a solid foundation for friendly bilateral relations.

More than 300 people including representatives from Japanese political and business circles, Chinese companies in Japan and overseas Chinese groups, as well as foreign envoys in Japan attended the event.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
The foreign universities, where these students intend to take admission, will obviously take up verification of their credentials. At this point in time, they may face trouble as certificates they submit will have been issued by NTR University of Health Sciences. In the course of inquiry, this university will become non-existing.  Representational Image/DC

VIJAYAWADA: Medical students in Andhra Pradesh are apprehensive over renaming NTR University of Health Sciences after YSR. Many of them, after pursuing graduation or post-graduation in medicine in AP, go to the US, Australia, European or other countries for their masters or doctoral courses.

The foreign universities, where these students intend to take admission, will obviously take up verification of their credentials. At this point in time, they may face trouble as certificates they submit will have been issued by NTR University of Health Sciences. In the course of inquiry, this university will become non-existing. Authorities of the renamed YSR University of Health Sciences will be verifying the certificates.

This is expected to create considerable confusion, especially among foreign universities, as they lack knowledge about local developments and renaming of the health university.

There is another glitch. NTR University of Health Sciences is a registered university from Andhra Pradesh in India. Foreign universities mention its details on their web portals. Its renaming after YSR will hinder processing of applications, unless foreign universities also update the changed name of the university.

Then there is the issue of the transition time. Like MBBS students will get their marks memo for two years in the name of NTR university. When they get their MBBS degree, it will bear the new name. Similar will be the case with PG students and those pursuing doctoral degrees.

AP Junior Doctors Association president Dr. J. Jeshwanth said, We oppose AP governments move to change the name of NTR health university after YSR. It will cause us several technical problems when pursuing further studies locally or abroad. If status quo cannot be maintained, the old name should be mentioned along with the new name of the university to avoid confusion among all stakeholders, he underlined

Moreover, there will be issues of approvals from both centre and National Medical Commission once AP government issues an order changing the name of the university.

AP Government Doctors Association convener Dr. D. Jayadheer said, We appeal to the state government that it address all procedural issues for avoiding trouble to students.

Meanwhile, some medical students getting affected due to change in name are planning to move AP High Court to stall renaming.
Consumer

MaxLinear SoC chips enable network independent home gateway

Date: 23-09-22

With the growth of usage of home gateways in homes for watching streaming media, usage of non-internet cable set-top box is drastically dropping to very low levels. In this consumer electronics market trend, there is a need to have network independent home gateways.

The leading digital/Internet driven consumer-electronics System on Chip developer MaxLinear has made available SOC chips for home gateways where they can connect to any of the high-speed networks such as:

1. GPON, XGS-PON, 10G EPON, Active Ethernet optical fibre networks

2. Copper based cable networks such as Xdsl, G. Fast, and DOCSIS

3.Wireless networks of type 5G FWA, Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 7

4. And others including Ethernet 2.5G and 10G, G.hn, MoCA, Voice FX

The Three new SOC chips are codenamed as MxL25641, URX850, and URX851. OEMs and ODMs designing home gateways are given ultra-scalable architecture through this chips so that they can come out with a single versatile product for service providers such as cable, telco, and wireless.

MaxLinear claims these chips are designed to reduce the development time and bring down the cost of ownership. The another key feature of these chips is companies can design multiple high-speed data access gateway products with a common software framework. These chips support softwares such as prplOS (formerly prplWRT), RDK-B, and MaxLinear UGW. MaxLinear AnyWAN MxL25641, URX850, and URX851 are also power-efficient and reduces supply chain challenges, offering higher return on investment with reduced development costs, and faster deployment of products..



To be successful in increasingly competitive broadband markets, service providers will need to streamline their home routers and gateways to ensure quick subscriber-turn-up and minimize supply chain impacts, said Jeff Heynen, VP, Broadband Access and Home Networking at Dell Oro. Relying on a platform that supports multiple access technologies and in-home software frameworks will be critical to growing broadband subscribers and ensuring high quality of experience.



With over 20 years of experience delivering Access products at scale, MaxLinear understands our customers' demands for raw throughput, power, and value, said Will Torgerson, vice president and general manager, Broadband group for MaxLinear. The challenge for most operators is CAPEX cost. AnyWAN is the solution. When upgrading networks to bring multi-gig solutions to consumers, our products provide the best throughput supporting RDK or PRPL middleware standards, the latest Wi-Fi CERTIFIED and Ethernet connections, and interfaces to any WAN.



While these chips pack ample streamed packet processing ability to take over the processing load from CPUs, they also smartly manage Power consumption by dynamically adjusting the consumption current to the required performance.

MaxLinear states in its release that "These innovative AnyWAN broadband SoCs offload all routine networking traffic which frees up the CPU to perform software-centric and virtualized servicesenabling, for the first time, edge computing capabilities on home gateways. "



The company is making available reference designs/systems, sample chips, and the software (RDK and Open WRT-based SDK) immediately.

More information can be found at: www.maxlinear.com/AnyWAN.
Le president centrafricain Faustin Archange Touadera le 10 octobre 2018 a Lyon en France AFP/Archives/Ludovic MARIN

Constitutional Court annuls body to overhaul Constitution, decision cannot be appealed

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) - The Central African Republics Constitutional Court on Friday ruled that a commission for constitutional reforms set up recently is unconstitutional, dealing the first blow to President Faustin-Archange Touaderas bid to get through legislation allowing him to run for a third term.

Last month, Touadera formed the body to draft a new Constitution of the Central African Republic.

But following a petition filed before the court by civil society group Bloc for the Defense of the Constitution, the court in the capital Bangui ruled that the decree was not in compliance with the countrys constitution."

The presidential decree establishing the committee responsible for drafting the new constitution and designating members of the committee are unconstitutional and are annulled, Constitutional Court president Daniele Darlan said, adding that the courts decision cannot be appealed.

Allies of Touadera had proposed in May amendments to the Constitution to remove term limits, prompting protests from the opposition.

Proponents of the constitutional change claimed it would bring the country into line with many of its neighbors.

The Central African country has been embroiled in conflict since 2013 when mainly Muslim Seleka rebels ousted then-President Francois Bozize, prompting reprisals from mostly Christian militias.

Touadera, 65, was elected in 2016 in a vote that followed a civil war.

The presidential election in December 2020 was the first following the signing of a peace agreement in February 2019 between the government and 14 armed groups. But the vote, which saw Archange Touadera re-elected, was followed by violence.

In recent years, African countries that have changed constitutions to allow presidents stay in office include Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda, Congo Republic and Ivory Coast.

James Tasamba/AA
Jacinda Ardern opposes further nuclearization, choice of disarmament available with nuclear-armed nations

ISTANBUL (AA)  Urging reform within the UN to avoid risk of irrelevancy, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Friday called Russias war on Ukraine as immoral.

Let us all be clear Russias war is illegal. It is immoral, Ardern said, emphasizing significance of the UN remains as relevant today as it was when founded in 1945.

She said Moscows war on Ukraine was a direct attack on the UN Charter and the international rules-based system and everything that this community should stand for.

Russian President Vladimir Putins suggestion that it could at any point deploy further weapons that it has at their disposal reveals the false narrative that they have based their invasion on, said Ardern.

What country who claims to be a liberator, threatens to annihilate the very civilians they claim to liberate?

This war is based on a lie, she added.

The New Zealand prime minister said Ukraine war has severely undermined any confidence that we have the tools as a global community to act swiftly and collectively.

However, striking an optimistic note, she said: We will not give up on the ability of our multilateral institutions to stand up against this illegal war, or to take on the many challenges we face.

- 'Disarmament of nukes, still a choice'

Pointing to use of nuclear weapons, Ardern said the nukes do not make us safer.

In New Zealand, we have never accepted the wisdom of mutually assured destruction, she said, adding in any such situation Wellington would choose the challenge of disarmament than the consequences of a failed strategy of weapons-based deterrence.

She said this choice of disarmament was available with nuclear-armed states.

Notably, in recent past, Australia, a neighbor and ally of New Zealand, signed a trilateral defense pact  AUKUS -- with the US and the UK who will supply Canberra with nuclear-armed submarines.

If and when ready for use, the AUKUS submarines, however, cannot enter New Zealands waters as Wellington maintains a nuclear-free policy.

New Zealands position in relation to the prohibition of nuclear-powered vessels in our waters remains unchanged, Ardern had said after the AUKUS was signed.

By Riyaz ul Khaliq/AA
If secret shipments of Russian oil continue, sanctions will have limited effect, reports Nikkie Asia

TOKYO (AA) - Japan-based news outlet Nikkei Asia has claimed that secret shipments of Russian oil were reaching Europe despite Western sanctions on Moscow over its war in Ukraine.

Since the start of the war on Feb. 24, as many as 41 vessels made ship-to-ship transfers of oil off the coast of Greece with tankers that left Russia and then arrived at European ports.

The report further said Western countries have imposed sanctions to isolate Russia, but if the shipment of Russian oil continues, the effects of the sanctions will be limited.

An oil transfer was seen in the Gulf of Laconia in the south of Greece, and the transfer took place between the Greek-registered Sea Falcon and the Indian-flagged Jak Log, it said.

The story included video footage from the site.

From a civilian boat, reporter Riho Nagao said she was heading to Greek territorial waters, where ship-to-ship oil transfers were taking place. She marked the Gulf of Laconia on the electronic tablet map in her hand.

Noting that the gulf is located outside Greek territorial waters, Nagao said many boats have gathered in the region for the same purpose.

"It seems that there is a lot of ship-to-ship oil transfer in the Laconian Gulf and locals are afraid of environmental destruction.

Looking for an answer to the question "Where is the oil going?" Nikkei Asia stated that they examined data from Refinitiv, a financial market data provider, to determine the route of the tankers that left Russian ports and which vessels contacted them.

The data covered waters off the Mediterranean coast of Greece, where ship-to-ship transfer frequently occurs. Automatic Identification System (AIS) signals from the vessels were monitored to identify their routes.

Changes in the vessels' draft, the distance from the waterline to the bottom of the hull, which increases when a ship is heavily loaded, were checked to determine the number of ship-to-ship transfers.

- Ships to European ports

Nikkei Asia said it detected 175 transfers, including tankers from Russia, off the Greek coast over the six months until the end of August, compared with only nine such transfers in the same period last year.

According to Refinitiv, Russia exported 23.8 million barrels of oil for ship-to-ship transfers off the coast of Greece, compared with 4.34 million barrels in the same period of last year.

The routes of the tankers were followed and it was determined that 89 tankers arrived at ports -- out of which 41 anchored in Greece, Belgium, and elsewhere in Europe.

It was revealed that the waters near Greece are an important hub for oil shipments between Russia and Europe.

- EU restrictions

EU will completely ban the import of Russian oil in February 2023. The UK will impose a full embargo on Russian oil in December.

Russian oil exports to the EU amounted to 2.8 million barrels in July, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). This was recorded as a 26% decrease compared to January.

While the EU and the UK plan to ban the import of Russian oil completely by the end of 2022, companies that continue to buy Russian oil face criticism.

By Ahmet Furkan Mercan/AA
Kagame, Macron and Tshisekedi in New York on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022 AFP

DR Congo president and his Rwandan counterpart met with mediation of French president on sidelines of UN General Assembly

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AA) - The leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda reached a compromise to reduce tensions between their two countries, the Congolese presidency said Thursday.

Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame met with the mediation of French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the 77th UN General Assembly in New York and agreed to reduce tensions on their shared border, it said in a statement.

They also agreed to act jointly in the fight against terrorism and to ensure the withdrawal of M23 rebels operating in eastern DR Congo, it said.

The M23 resumed its attacks in November, displacing thousands of civilians living in the region and causing a crisis between Rwanda and DR Congo.

The DRC government claimed that the M23 was supported by the Rwandan government, while the Rwandan side denied the accusation.

Amid the tensions, flights between the two countries were mutually halted.

By Ahmet Emin Donmez/AA
G7 Flags AA Images

Leaders say they 'will never recognise these referenda which appear to be a step toward Russian annexation'

ANKARA (AA)  G7 leaders said on Friday that they will continue to support Ukraine against Russia for as long as it takes.

After gathering in Germany, G7 leaders released a statement, condemning the planned referendums by Russia in Ukraine.

We, the Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7), strongly condemn the sham referenda that Russia attempts to use to create a phony pretext for changing the status of Ukrainian sovereign territory, which is subject to an ongoing Russian aggression, said the statement.

These actions clearly breach the United Nations Charter and international law and go diametrically against the rule of law among nations, it underscored.

These sham referenda initiated today by Russia and its proxies have no legal effect or legitimacy, as demonstrated by Russias hasty methods of organisation, which in no way respect democratic norms, and its blatant intimidation of local populations.

These referenda in areas that have been forcibly put under Russias temporary control in no way represent a legitimate expression of the will of the Ukrainian people, who have consistently resisted Russian efforts to change borders by force, the leaders said.

We will never recognise these referenda which appear to be a step toward Russian annexation and we will never recognise a purported annexation if it occurs, they underlined.

In addition, we deplore deliberate Russian escalatory steps, including the partial mobilisation of reservists and irresponsible nuclear rhetoric, G7 leaders stated.

Urging the world to unequivocally reject these sham referenda as Russias attempt to give false cover to its violations of international law, the leaders stressed: We stand ready to impose further economic costs on Russia, and on individuals and entities  inside and outside of Russia providing political or economic support for Russias illegal attempts to change the status of Ukrainian territory.

We are steadfast in our commitment to providing the support Ukraine needs to uphold its sovereignty and territorial integrity, to defend itself, and to choose its own future, they noted.

The leaders also reiterated that they will continue to support the war-zone country about financial, humanitarian, military, diplomatic and legal matters, while also adding that they will move ahead on reconstruction efforts, including through the International Expert Conference on the Recovery, Reconstruction and Modernisation of Ukraine in Berlin on 25 October.

We will stand firmly with Ukraine for as long as it takes.

Separatist-controlled Luhansk and Donetsk, as well as Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which are partly under Russian control, announced plans for the referendums earlier this week.

The decision has been widely condemned by the international community, with European states and the US terming them "sham" referendums and saying they will not be recognized.

Voting will run from Friday to Tuesday in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, with people asked to decide if they want these regions to become part of Russia.

Polls will be open from 8 am (0500GMT) to 4 pm (1300GMT) in Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, while the closing time will be 8 pm (1700GMT) in Donetsk.

For security reasons, in-person voting will only take place on the last day, Sept. 27, while the other days will see ballots being organized in communities and conducted door-to-door, according to local media reports.

By Merve Berker/AA
This blog covers software patent news and issues with a particular focus on wireless, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers, connected cars) as well as select antitrust matters surrounding those devices.
During the early 1830s, Samuel F. B. Morse developed a working electric telegraph. In 1838, Alfred Vails assistance created a signaling protocol (Morse code) for sending messages over a telegraph system. On May 24, 1844, in Washington DC, Samuel Morse keyed the first telegraph message sent in the US, What hath God wrought? His message, the first telegram, was transmitted over a 41-mile metallic telegraph line to the B&O Railroad station in Baltimore, MD. In 1850, two brothers  John Brett, a telegraphic engineer, and Jacob, installed an underwater telegraph cable from southern England, across the English Channel, to northern France. Heavy lead weights used for ballast were attached to the cable, so it would sink as workers laid it into the water. Each end of the cable was brought ashore and connected to batteries for powering telegraph messages. Unfortunately, the telegraph operators could not decode the messaging signals due to electrical current dispersions emitted from the metallic conductors of the underwater cable. In 1851, the Brett brothers tried it again using an improved underwater cable with stranded iron wire. Its four metallic copper conductors were insulated inside three layers of water-resistant gutta-percha, a thermoplastic-like material. Gutta-percha is a natural rubber obtained from a tree of the same name. When gutta-percha is heated, it becomes pliable and can be molded. When it is cooled, it hardens like plastic and becomes water resistant. Gutta-percha insulation cores used with telegraph cables were manufactured by the Gutta Percha Company in the United Kingdom. During the 1930s, underwater cables replaced gutta-percha with polyethylene. An armored-wire sheathing protected the brothers new underwater telegraph cable from Dover, England, across the English Channel, to Calais, France, some 52 miles away. Workers prepared both ends of the newly installed telegraph cable for use. Eureka! On Oct. 15, 1851, telegraph operators successfully transmitted and received coded telegrams through the cable. In 1854, Frederic Gisborne, a Canadian inventor from Nova Scotia, and Cyrus W. Field, an American capitalist and financier, undertook the formidable challenge of installing a transatlantic telegraph cable. With assistance from Samuel Morse and specialists in oceanography, they decided upon the best route for laying a telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean. It took three weeks for workers to load and spool the telegraph cable in large, circular coils aboard two naval ships, USS Niagara and HMS Agamemnon. The first portion of the transatlantic telegraph cable consisted of a shallow-water cable line extending five miles into the ocean from the land-based telegraph stations on each side of the Atlantic Ocean. This cable was more heavily armored to protect it from damage caused by rocks, boat anchors, heavy ocean currents, and waves occurring within five miles from shore. Workers spliced the shallow-water cable lines to each naval ships onboard transatlantic cable end. On July 17, 1858, both ships began their historic voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, where they would meet in the middle; the HMS Agamemnon from Ireland and the USS Niagara from Newfoundland. Mechanical machinery maintained and operated by each ships crew controlled the speed at which the telegraph cable was paying out into the ocean from the large cable coils inside each vessel. The underwater telegraph cable contained seven individual strands of twisted metallic wire insulated with three layers of gutta-percha. Ship workers bonded the cables conductor splices with a coal-tar pitch mixture before lowering it into the Atlantic Ocean. On July 29, 1858, the HMS Agamemnon and the USS Niagara rendezvoused in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. There, workers spliced both ships telegraph cable ends to complete the 2,000-mile connection between two land-based telegraph stations on each side of the Atlantic Ocean. On Aug. 10, 1858, telegraph operators understood coded signaling pulses sent and received through the transatlantic cable between Ireland and North America. On Aug. 16, 1858, congratulatory message telegrams were transmitted over the new transatlantic telegraph cable between US President James Buchanan and Queen Victoria of England, the great-great-grandmother of the late Queen Elizabeth II. I was fortunate to obtain a small strand of metallic wire from the telegraph cable carried aboard the USS Niagara during the 1858 transatlantic installation. Charles Lewis Tiffany, who founded New York Citys Tiffany & Co. in 1837, acquired a length of the 1858 transatlantic telegraph cable and sold pieces of it as souvenirs. On Aug. 29, 1860, Minnesotas first telegram via telegraph was sent from St. Paul by Minnesota Senator Morton Smith Wilkinson to former New York Governor and current New York Senator William Henry Seward, located 1,300 miles away in New York. To Governor Seward: Through the courtesy of Mr. Winslow, proprietor, we are enabled to send this, the first dispatch ever transmitted by lightning from St. Paul to the east, as complimentary to you, read Sen. Wilkinsons telegram. Sen. Seward replied, You have grappled New York  now lay hold on San Francisco. It has been 164 years since the first lightning telegrams were sent over a transatlantic telegraph cable with our friends from across the pond. Samuel Finley Breese Morse died April 2, 1872, at age 80.
Holcim completes Cantillana acquisition

23 September 2022

Holcim has completed the acquisition of Cantillana, a specialty building solutions market leader in Belgium with 2022 estimated net sales of EUR80m. Cantillana offers a broad range of facade construction and external thermal insulation systems. This further strengthens Holcims position in building renovation and energy efficiency solutions, building on the recent acquisitions of PRB Group in France, PTB-Compaktuna in Belgium and Izolbet in Poland.

With more than 200 employees and nine production facilities across Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands, Cantillanas footprint and product portfolio will generate additional synergies across the business and accelerate the growth of Solutions & Products in Europe, says Holcim.

Miljan Gutovic, Holcim's region head Europe, Middle East and Africa: I warmly welcome all Cantillana employees to the Holcim family as another step in our expansion of Solutions & Products, advancing Strategy 2025  Accelerating Green Growth. This addition strengthens our presence in Europe even further, especially in building renovation and energy efficiency solutions. We look forward to entering our next era of growth together.

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Empire Cement Factory under fire from local residents

ICR Newsroom By 23 September 2022

The Empire Cement Factory (ECF) in Ghana is coming under pressure from local residents who claim the company is failing to adhere to the Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) directive to cease operations.

According to The Ghanaian Times, instead of halting operations, the plant is believed to have started production of cement at an alarming and accelerated speed, said Eddie Quaynor, chairman of the McCarthy Hill Residents Association in Accra. Three silos are believed to have been installed on the plants site, fuelling concerns that the plant is producing and bagging cement, rather than, as ECF claims, just producing paper bags for cement.

A letter was reportedly sent to ECF on 26 March 2021 directing the company to stop all construction activity until an approval was granted by the EPA. The residents' main concern is the impact on their health from the plant's operations.

It is inconceivable that the EPA was unable to enforce the law in this matter. It is also now clear to us that the EPA does not have stringent financial sanctions to impose on the ECF. The lack of tough punitive measures enabled Empire Cement to disregard the EPAs order to cease operations and continued to work unabated. Laws aimed at strengthening the powers of the EPA to impose stiffer penalties must be enacted, said Mr Quaynor.

He also called on Ghanaians to stand up against foreign agents and businesses who attempt to destroy communities in the country in the name of development. We must use all legal methods and means at our disposal to protect our communities and we should not shy away from doing the right thing even if it may be uncomfortable, he added.

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The State Duma foreign affairs chief called Kyiv a violator and refused to seek a peaceful settlement with Moscow. He added Ukraine has acted in bad faith consistently, which led to this dangerous phase of the conflict.

No More Talks with Ukraine, Russia Says

Senior lawmaker and leader of the Russian Liberal-Democratic Party Leonid Slutsky proclaimed on Wednesday that dialogue with Ukraine would not continue.

The Donbas republics and other regions favor Russia's protection and reject the Ukrainian government, reported RT.

He continues, saying they have ruined all agreements and deals; diplomacy is past the point of no return. Donetsk and Lugansk Republics in the Donbas are expected to hold referendums, and the Kremlin has declared that it will respect the results, whether combined or separate.

Included in the referendum are the DPR and LPR, the Ukrainian Kherson and Zaporozhye region that will start the votes on Friday, noted AA.

Slutsky, the head of the foreign affairs committee in the lower house of the Russian parliament, has conjectured that all votes favor Russian unification. All negotiations with Ukraine are halted once the decision is made final.

The state Duma chief told the TASS news agency that talks had been ruled out of the question for some time. The West and the Kyiv junta it back have stated that they are not prepared to engage in deliberations, mentioned CSM Times.

Ukrainian and Western leaders have spewed vitriol, from Washington to Brussels in a hysterical fit. They deny the Donbas regions self-determination to support a shrilling president Zelensky ranting over it indicated Moscow.

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Ukraine said it would capture the reclaimed territories that it has lost from Russia. A remark from Andrey Yermak made a bold statement they militarily crush Russia, and force is the only way.

Last Wednesday, the West was surprised that Russian President Vladimir Putin had decided on the partial mobilization of reserves. The reason is to protect the LPR and DPR from a genocidal attack directed by the Ukrainian leader.

Russia Stops Major Offensive

The Russian Defense PM said that Ukrainian forces had been thwarted in the south of part of the country, per the Daily Telegraph.

Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu says in his statement the Ukrainians have failed despite what the media claims. Losses suffered by adversary forces that were recently severely battered by Russian troops. He continued by saying that all attempts made by the Ukrainian forces to reach Nikolaev and Krivoy Rog were repulsed.

Furthermore, the Russian official informed that Ukraine had suffered from their offensive. In the last three weeks, about 7,000 men were lost, and 970 units of hardware were in the battle. In the most recent hostilities, 208 tanks, 245 APCs, 186 armored vehicles, and 15 planes were lost.

Shoigu continued by saying that Moscow had relocated troops from the immediate area of the northeastern Ukrainian towns of Izium and Balakleya "to help bolster the striking capabilities of the Russian military in the Donbass."

The following day, Shoigu amended the number of deaths for Russia in Ukraine, placing it at 5,937. He determined the death toll on the Ukrainian side to be 61,207, which is ten times more.

State Duma chief Slutsky remarked that Kyiv would not be talked to by Moscow if the plebiscite in the DPR and LPR. The point of no return is coming for Ukraine.

Related Article: Iranian Leader Has No Intent To Meet With US President Joe Biden at the UN General Assembly

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Sarah Woosley, an interior architecture and design major at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, placed third in a nationwide contest hosted by the National Kitchen & Bath Association.The NKBA Student Design Competition called for students to plan beautiful, safe and functional spaces, incorporating creative design statements and design solutions based on client requests and the plans provided.The project scope for the NKBA competition focused on a fictitious coupleShawn and Jalen Hillin Portland, Or., who bought a forever home on the West Coast.They had an excellent view of the Pacific Ocean and wanted a design that could grow with them into retirement. The kitchen, while functionally move-in ready, was in dire need of some sprucing up; it had last been updated in the early 2000s.That view of the Oregon coast was my biggest inspiration, said Ms. Woosley, a 2007 graduate of Lebanon (Tennessee) High School. I like the idea of being able to walk into something that I may have designed and just seeing it from that perspective.Along with the tremendous portfolio boost of finishing third in a national competition, Ms. Woosleys prizes include:A $1,000 scholarship;Having her design featured in KBB Magazine, an official publication of the kitchen and bath business;Complimentary registration and tickets to the 2023 Kitchen and Bath Industry Expo in Las Vegas, including roundtrip airfare and three nights of hotel accommodations; andAdmission to the 2023 Design Awards Ceremony, where she will be recognized for her achievement.
Cleveland State Community College hosted its signature event on Tuesday eveningthe seventh annual Community First Awards.



The event was held at the Ocoee Crest in Benton and recognized individuals from CSCCs five-county service area who share the Cleveland State value of always putting the community first.

Award winners were: Le-An Thomason, Education; Derrick and Beth Kinsey, Non-Profit Leadership; Chief Eddie Byrum, Public Service; Lauren Brown, Arts; Dan and Janey Cook, Philanthropy; Dr. Madison Torrence, Healthcare; Mason Headrick and Love Patel, Student Leadership; Jeff Rogers, Business; Avery Johnson, Public Service; and Pidge Collette, Don Lorton Volunteer Service Award.

Each year, the Community First Person of the Year is revealed on the evening of the event. This year, there were two persons of the year, Dan and Janey Cook, who took home the prestigious award.
So the SRO was called? Really now! I know some of my neighbors at one time had a habit of calling the cops on innocent fellow neighbors taking a leisurely stroll through the community, reporting them as "suspicious characters in the community." But teachers calling in the SRO because a student allegedly "puffed out his chest in an" alleged "threatening manner?!" That really takes the cake.

But then again students have been arrested and charged with vandalism for writing "okay" on a desk or spraying perfume on their bodies. Guess no one should be at all shocked with the lunacy that can take place when we mix cops and kids.

While this SRO, one by the way who appears to have a troubling history according to WRCB news, is being looked into, perhaps the schools should clarify what constitutes a need and when to bring an SRO into the situation. Otherwise, you're going to end up with a future generation even more desensitized to authority and an even lesser compassionate one as well.

Brenda Washington

* * *

Brenda, Brenda, Brenda,



With all the hearsay and experienced prejudice and police brutality which you and your family have experienced it's a wonder you haven't fled the U.S. for a safer place.



I know the "lunacy" that I experienced when brought together with cops (which I feel is often used as a derogatary term) was quite different.



I was blessed by having a single mother who tried to make life as normal as possible for three boys and in that she got us involved in organized sports at the Metropolitan Police Boys Club #8 at St. Albans Church in D.C.



It was there that as we were coached and mentored that I learned about working hard, listening but most of all respect as these men took time out to invest in those willing to come. Life lessons that I carry with me today. Police officers who taught not only the fundamentals of sports but also life.



It was in that setting that I learned that one begins by respecting authority.



You see that is not being taught and therefore simple interactions between SROs and "students" (one must have a desire to learn to be considered a student) turn ugly because "aint no one going to tell me what to do" has been accepted and is now the norm thanks to the Summer of "peaceful protest" of the BLM embezzlers.



So often we see the culmination or perceived violence without knowing what led up to things getting out of hand when a simple yielding would diffuse the situation.



It's a hard thing for some but respecting those in authority is part of the foundation of a civil society.



Jay Reed

* * *

If that mean deputy had raised this young man better he wouldnt have had to place his hands on him.

By the way, fighting 101, Control the head, you control the body.

Michael Burns
The School of Music at Southern Adventist University invites the community to enjoy a Symphony Orchestra Concert on Thursday, Sept. 29, at 7:30 p.m. in the Collegedale Church of Seventh-day Adventists. Under the direction of Laurie Redmer Cadwallader, the evening program includes Tragic Overture by Johannes Brahms, Trumpet Concerto in E-flat major by Joseph Haydn, and Symphony No. 8 in G major by Antonin Dvorak. Nathan Warner, local trumpet soloist, will be featured in the concert.

Mr. Warner, a versatile trumpeter with abilities ranging from orchestral music to jazz improvisations, currently serves as assistant professor of music at Lee University. He holds degrees in jazz studies and classical trumpet performance and a Doctor of Musical Arts. Mr. Warner has performed in Broadway shows and for two United States presidents.

This event is free and open to the public and also will be livestreamed at southern.edu/streaming. For more information, visit southern.edu/musicevents or call 236-2880.






Here is the weekly road construction report for District 29:

BRADLEY COUNTY I-75 resurfacing from north of SR-311 (US-74 / MM 21) to north of SR-60 (MM 25.5): During this reporting period, the contractor will have lane closures nightly from 7 PM to 6 AM in both directions on I-75 to install pavement markings and rumble stripe. The speed limit will be reduced to 60 mph while workers are present. Motorists are advised to reduce speed in the work zone.

[Talley Construction Company, Inc./Wagner/CNW045]

BRADLEY COUNTY SR-2 (US-11) resurfacing from Old Highway 11(LM 18.2) to near the Hiwassee River (LM 20.9): During this reporting period, the contractor will have lane closures on SR-2 (US-11) to work on curb ramp installation. Shoulders and sidewalks will also be closed through Charleston for curb ramp upgrades. Motorists are asked to reduce speed in the work zone and watch for flaggers assisting with traffic control.

[Wright Brothers Construction Company, Inc./Wagner/CNW158]

BRADLEY COUNTY SR-60 widening from the 4-lane north of I-75 (LM 17.2) to SR-306 (LM19.9): During this reporting period, the contractor will be performing earthmoving operations, utility relocation and storm drainage installation. Motorists are advised to reduce speed in the work zone, watch for flaggers assisting with traffic control and for trucks entering/leaving the highway. Speed limit through work zone will be reduced from 45 MPH to 35 MPH.

[Summers-Taylor, Inc./Wagner/CNV130]

BRADLEY COUNTY SR-74 (OCOEE ST. N.E.) Utility Work northbound at LM 14.16: Shoulder and single lane closures from 6th Street NE and 8th Street NE. Motorists should reduce speed and be prepared to stop. Trucks, signage, drums, and flaggers will be present, 09/22/22 through 10/21/22 from 9 am  2 pm. [2022-331]

BRADLEY AND HAMILTON COUNTY SR-312 microsurfacing from the Hamilton County line (LM 0) to west of White Oak Road (LM 4.8), and SR-312 microsurfacing from east of SR-58 (LM 14.3) to the Bradley County line (LM 17.7): During this reporting period, there will be intermittent lane closures on SR312 as the contractor begins work on this project. Flaggers will be directing traffic as the work takes place during the day with the possibility of pilot cars being used. Expect possible long delays as the flaggers stop traffic. If at all possible, seek alternative route.

[Asphalt Paving Systems, Inc./Curtis/CNW105]

HAMILTON COUNTY I-24 interchange improvement at SR-2 (US-11, US-41, US-72, Broad Street) and SR-58 (Market Street): Williams Street is closed to all traffic at the I-24 underpass to support the installation of new storm drainage structures for the new frontage road. Traffic will still be able to access the ramps to I-24 and US-27, but no through traffic will be allowed on Williams Street between West 21st Street and West 25th Street. Traffic will detour around the closure via West 21st Street and Broad Street. Signs will be posted. The contractor will be working on new bridge construction, storm drainage structures, and utility relocation. Chestnut Street is closed at the I-24 underpass and will remain closed until the construction of bridge #2 is complete. Detour routes are posted. The US-27 NB on-ramp at William St. has been closed and it will be closed until the new alignment for this ramp is completed. There will be marked detour signs to use the Broad St. US-27 on-ramp. On 09/28/2022, the contractor will close the inside lane on US-27 East to the I-24 split. This lane closure will be from 9 PM to 6 AM.

[Wright Brothers Construction Company, Inc./Curtis/CNU011]

HAMILTON COUNTY I-75 concrete repair from MM 6.6 to MM 12.8: During this reporting period, the contractor will be having lane closures in both the Northbound and Southbound directions on I-75 from 9 PM-6 AM. During these lane closures, the contractor might have to temporary close some of the ramps so that they can work on the ramp.

[Summers-Taylor, Inc./Curtis/CNW046]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-153 resurfacing from LM 3.5 to LM 3.7, including bridge expansion joint repair on the railroad overpass bridge (LM 3.6); SR-2 resurfacing on (US-11, US-64) from the NB interstate ramps (LM 20.6) to the Bradley County line (LM 24.4): During this reporting period, the contractor will be performing resurfacing operations between 7 PM and 6 AM. Also, starting 09/23/2020 there will be intermittent lane closures on SR-153, LM 3.6 to perform the bridge expansion joint repairs between 7 PM and 6 AM. The traveling public is encouraged to be aware of safety personnel and construction vehicles entering and exiting the jobsite.

[Wright Brothers Construction Company, Inc./Osbonlighter/CNW131]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-17 (TENNESSEE AVE.) Utility Work southbound from LM 1.7 to LM 1.82: Shoulder and single lane closures from Bellview Ave to First Street. Motorists should reduce speed and be prepared to stop. Trucks, signage, drums, and flaggers will be present, 09/26/22 through 09/27/22 from 9 am  2 pm, with a rain date of 10/03/22. [2022-529]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-17 resurfacing from the Georgia state line (LM 0.0) to SR-2 (US-11, US-64, US-72) (LM2.2): During this reporting period, the contractor will have intermittent lane closures as they start working on this project.

[Talley Construction Company, Inc./Curtis/CNW213]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-29 (US-27) slide repair between LM 29 and LM 30: During this reporting period, TDOT maintenance and contract forces will have traffic reduced to one lane in each direction on US-27 (SR-29) to continue work on a new retaining wall and slope stabilization. Motorists are advised to reduce speed in the work zone.

[GeoStabilization International, LLC /Maint - Chattanooga/MAINT]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-317 (Apison Pike) improvement project from SR-321 (Ooltewah-Ringgold Road) to east of Layton Lane: Lane closures and flagging operations will be required on SR-317, Apison Pike, to install power poles and transfer lines. The flagging operations will be performed on 09/22/22, 09/23/22, 09/26/22, 09/27/22, and 09/28/22 from 7 AM to 1 PM and 3 PM to 7 PM. Closures will last about 2 hours per location. The contractor will have intermittent flagging operations during daytime non-peak hours for utility work, delivery of materials and equipment. A portion of Tucker Road has been closed from Spalding Drive to 5400 Tucker Road to allow for grading and utility operations. A portion of Chestnut Creek Road has been shifted to its new alignment to allow for grading and utility operations.

[Wright Brothers Construction Company, Inc./Osbonlighter/CNT336]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-317 (BONNY OAKS DR.) Utility Work westbound from LM 4.55 to LM 4.54: Shoulder and single lane closures from Lee Hwy and Silverdale Road. Motorists should reduce speed and be prepared to stop. Trucks, signage, drums, and flaggers will be present, 09/22/22 through 10/21/22 from 9 am  2 pm. [2022-475]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-319 (HIXSON PK.) Utility Work both directions at LM 4.63: Shoulder and lane closures from SR-153 and Northpoint Blvd. Motorists should reduce speed and be prepared to stop. Trucks, signage, drums, and flaggers will be present, 09/26/22 through 09/30/22 from 9 am  2 pm. [2022-356]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-58 slide repair near LM 17: During this reporting period, the contractor will have SR58 Northbound lane at LM 17 reduced to one lane for the duration of the project as the contractor starts begins work.

[Talley Construction Company, Inc./Curtis/CNW199]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-8 (CHEROKEE BLVD.) Utility Work southbound from LM 10.48 to LM 10.43: Shoulder and single lane closures from W. Manning Street and Minor Street. Motorists should reduce speed and be prepared to stop. Trucks, signage, drums, and flaggers will be present, 09/28/22 through 09/30/22 from 9 am  3 pm, with a rain date of 10/05/22. [2022-116]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-8 (RINGGOLD RD.) Utility Work eastbound from LM 1.29 to LM .8: Mobile shoulder and lane closures on Ringgold Road as crews transition work zones between Mack Smith Road and Camp Jordan Parkway. This will also impact the North and South on-ramps to I-75. Motorists should reduce speed and be prepared to stop. Signage, cones, and flaggers will be present, 09/13/22 through 09/28/22 from 9am - 2pm. [2019-578]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-8 (US-41, US-76) Bachman Tubes cleaning: On Thursday night of this reporting period, the contractor will close down the tunnels from 8 PM-6 AM to clean them. There will be a signed detour for traffic to follow to get around the closure.

[Diamond Specialized, Inc./Curtis/CNW197]

HAMILTON COUNTY The construction of an S.I.A. to VW: The contractor will be performing operations at the intersection connecting the S.I.A. route, Ferdinand Piech Way, & Volkswagen Dr. The new 4-way signalized intersection has begun operation & traffic has been shifted to the new alignment. Ferdinand Piech Way will still be closed to through traffic. Traveling public should be cautious of the new traffic pattern in effect including a lowered speed limit. The traveling public should also be alert to the entrance and exit of construction vehicles & staff on and around the jobsite and the connecting roadways. Flaggers may be onsite directing traffic.

[Talley Construction Company, Inc./Osbonlighter/CNU221]

HAMILTON COUNTY US-127 (SR-8) grading, drainage, construction of retaining walls and paving from near Palisades Road (LM15.20) to near Sunset Drive (LM 15.44): On Thursday and Friday of this reporting period, the contractor plans to start installing construction signs on the project. In doing this, there will be intermittent lane closures on this project on US127(SR8) (Signal Mountain Road) from about 1/2 MI from Palisade Road to 1/2 Mi past Sunset Drive. This will be done using flaggers in this area. Motorists need to be aware of the flaggers in this area.

[Wright Brothers Construction Company, Inc./Curtis/CNW001]

MCMINN COUNTY SR-163 resurfacing from near SR-2 (US-11 / LM 2.5) to west of County Road 750 (LM 8.9): During this reporting period, the contractor will have daily lane closures from 7 AM to 7 PM to perform roadway striping and guardrail repair. Motorists are advised to reduce speed in the work zone and watch for flaggers assisting with traffic control.

[Wright Brothers Construction Company, Inc./Wagner/CNW112]

MCMINN COUNTY SR-2 (CONGRESS PKWY.) Utility Work westbound from LM 12.93 to LM 12.1: Mobile shoulder closure along SR-2 between the intersection of Congress Pkwy and Dennis Street and the intersection of Congress Pkwy and Rocky Mount Road. Motorists should reduce speed and be prepared to stop. Trucks, signage, cones, and flaggers will be present, 08/15/22 through 04/12/23 from 7:30 am  5:00 pm. [2022-019]

POLK COUNTY SR-33 (US-411) resurfacing from the Georgia state line (LM 0.0) to south of Lowery Road (LM 9.3): During this reporting period, daily lane closures will be in place from 8 AM to 5:30 PM starting Tuesday 09/20/22 as the contractor installs work zone signage and begins resurfacing operations. Motorists are advised to reduce speed in the work zone and watch for flaggers assisting with traffic control.

[Talley Construction Company, Inc./Wagner/CNW188]

POLK COUNTY SR-40 (US-64) bridge over the Ocoee River: During this reporting period, the contractor will have lane shifts and temporary lane closures in place from 8 AM to 5:30 PM to perform final cleanup and punch list operations. Motorists are advised to reduce speed in the work zone.

[Charles Blalock and Sons, Inc./Wagner/DB1802]
Thurman Carl Coleman, 79, from Ringgold, was convicted on Wednesday by a Catoosa County jury for the charges of aggravated sexual battery, aggravated child molestation (two counts), incest (two counts), and child molestation (five counts). The evidence presented over the course of a three day trial, presided over by Judge Ralph Van Pelt, Jr., showed that Coleman engaged in a pattern of child molestation for over a decade.

Colemans family, including his son, daughter-in-law, and their children moved into his residence to assist him with care after his wife passed away in 2011. The family moved into their own residence in the summer of 2021 and shortly thereafter, two children disclosed that he had been molesting them for several years.

One of the victims disclosed the abuse to a counselor at a summer camp, and another victim disclosed to her mother. Coleman had been exposing himself to the victims, digitally penetrating the children, and performing oral sex on them on a regular basis for a number of years when the family was living with and caring for Coleman. The Catoosa County Sheriffs Office was notified of the disclosure of abuse and an investigation was conducted, wherein the victims were interviewed at the Childrens Advocacy Center in Ft. Oglethorpe.

Over a three-day trial, both of the children took the witness stand to confront Coleman and described in detail the sexual abuse he had inflicted on them for years. One of the victims detailed how Coleman would take her for ice cream and then demand she submit to his abuse as payment for the ice cream. Evidence was also presented of Coleman previously molesting another family member. The jury deliberated less than an hour before convicting Coleman.

The state of Georgia was represented by Assistant District Attorney Deanna Reisman during the trial. Victim Advocate Amber Armstrong provided care and assistance to the victims and their family during the course of the trial. The case was investigated by Detective Brittany Gilleland with the Catoosa County Sheriffs Office.

District Attorney Chris Arnt praised the team effort in prosecuting this case. We are proud to work with dedicated professionals like Holly Kittle at the Childrens Advocacy Center and Detective Brittany Gilleland of the Catoosa County Sheriffs Department. Ms. Reisman worked diligently to prepare and present a powerful and compelling case to the jury which enabled them to quickly reach a verdict and bring an end to the defendants sexual predation. This case is another example of my offices dedication to pursuing justice for the most vulnerable victims. If you choose to molest children in the Lookout Mountain Circuit by prepared for a very long stay in a Georgia Prison.

Coleman remains in the Catoosa County Jail awaiting sentencing scheduled for Oct. 26. He faces a minimum sentence of life with at least 25 years without parole.
Every county in Tennessee experienced lower unemployment rates in August, according to new data released by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development. For the month, 89 counties recorded rates below 5 percent, while the remaining six counties came in with rates higher than 5 percent, but less than 10 percent.

Williamson Countys unemployment rate was the lowest in Tennessee during August. At 2.3 percent, the countys rate dropped by 0.3 of a percentage point from its July figure of 2.6 percent.

Cheatham County came in with the states second-lowest rate for the month at 2.5 percent, a 0.3 of a percentage point drop when compared to the previous month. Moore Countys rate was the third-lowest in August at 2.6 percent, also down 0.3 of a percentage point.

Perry County recorded the states highest jobless number for the month at 5.6 percent. Its new rate accounted for a 0.7 of a percentage point drop from its July rate of 6.3 percent.

Bledsoe County had the second-highest rate in August at 5.4 percent but its rate dropped by 0.7 of a percentage point for the month. With the third-highest rate, Shelby Countys new figure of 5.3 percent was down 0.7 of a percentage point from its July rate.

Statewide, seasonally adjusted unemployment did inch up in August. It was the first increase after three consecutive months of a steady rate. It went from 3.3 percent to 3.4 percent between July and August.

Nationally, seasonally adjusted unemployment increased slightly between July and August, up 0.2 of a percentage point to 3.7 percent.

County unemployment rates are not seasonally adjusted to account for different impacts on the workforce.

A complete analysis of Tennessees August 2022 county unemployment rates is available here.

Job seekers can find all the resources and the services they need to start their search, all in one place. TNWorkReady.com is the site to find a new job, develop new skills, or find classes where adult learners can earn a high school equivalency diploma.

The state of Tennessee will release the statewide unemployment data for September 2022 on Thursday, Oct. 20, at 1:30 p.m. CDT.
Joined by his family, State Senator David Crews took the oath of office on Wednesday in the Senate Chambers. Senator Crews was appointed by the McMinn County Commission to represent Senate District 9 for an interim period until Nov. 8, when a new senator is elected. The seat was left vacant in August when former State Senator Mike Bell retired early from the Senate to begin a new role with the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency.I am honored to serve the people of the 9th Senate District, even for this short period of time, said Senator Crews.I will work hard for the citizens in Bradley, McMinn, Meigs, Monroe and Polk Counties and fulfill the duties of the office. I will be available to help with state services in any way I can. I appreciate the McMinn County Commission for trusting me with this responsibility.Crews is a former chairman of the McMinn County Commission.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Russians on Thursday to protest against the partial mobilization that their president, Vladimir Putin, ordered this week.

Zelensky said that thousands of Russian soldiers have already been killed in the conflict, which has been going on for almost seven months, in his daily video address to Ukraine. According to a Pentagon estimate from August, 70,000 to 80,000 Russians have died or have been injured as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.

Putin's Partial Mobilization Order

As the resistance to the invasion rises, anti-war organizations conducted more protests, as per CNN. A day after Putin authorized a partial mobilization, social media footage from Russia's land borders with several nations reveals lengthy traffic jams attempting to escape the nation.

At the border crossings into Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Mongolia, lengthy lines were formed. One video captured the Zemo Larsi/Verkhny Lars checkpoint at the Georgian-Russian border late on Wednesday as dozens of vehicles lined up in front of it.

This queue seems to have become longer on Thursday. A man who said that the line was five to six kilometers long in one video showed a lengthy line that extended into the mountains beyond the crossing. Another image shared on Thursday showed lengthy lineups at the Mongolian border crossing at Khaykhta.

The Russian state news outlet RIA Novosti quoted Maulen Ashimbaev, a top Kazakh official, as saying that Kazakhstan could not impose any restrictions on Russian citizens entering the nation. However, Ashimbaev, the speaker of the upper house of the Kazakh parliament, stated that applicants must have a collection of legal documents to acquire a residency permit.

Flights from Russia to nations where visas are not required are still quite popular and regularly sold out. There were no seats left on Moscow-Istanbul one-way economy flights until Sunday, according to a search on the Aviasales website, with the lowest fare being over $2,900.

Upon the partial mobilization announcement, there were reportedly claims of a mass departure. The Kremlin denied claims that Russians who were eligible for mobilization were making a mad dash for the door, according to CNN. Putin predicted that the conflict to overthrow the Ukrainian government and install a puppet administration would last only a few days.

Read Also: Imagery Reveals North Korea's Plan To Launch New Missile Submarine; Pyongyang Denies Supplying Weapons to Russia

Russia-Ukraine War

However, the conflict has been going on for nearly seven months. Instead, Putin has been forced to fight a tenacious foe who is supported by Western weapons and resources in a bloody attrition war. Even North Korea has stated that it will not provide Russia with armaments since doing so will tarnish its reputation.

Meanwhile, Russian missile strikes in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia reportedly caused five injuries and one fatality, according to Ukrainian authorities. Donetsk officials under separatist control reported that at least six individuals had been killed by Ukrainian bombardment.

Even though the fighting went on, the two sides were able to come to terms with a significant prisoner transfer. The high-profile prisoner swap saw the announcement of an exchange of 215 Ukrainian and foreign combatants, 200 of them for a single person, an associate of President Putin, hours before Thursday's attacks, Daily Mail reported.

Zelensky also declared that the Russian people are complicit in Putin's cruel invasion, which is alleged to have resulted in torture and the killing of civilians. He added that conscripts have the option to live, die, or become cripple if they cannot prevent being pushed into combat.

A Ukrainian official called for the establishment of a special war tribunal and described alleged war crimes committed by Russia in one pre-recorded video. Additionally, Zelensky proposed a single peace plan that would strengthen military ties with Russia and penalize it internationally.

Furthermore, he did it on the same day that Putin called up 300,000 military reservists, setting off huge mass protests in Ukraine, as per BBC.

Related Article: New York Crime: Suitcases Full of Dismembered Body Parts Found in Brooklyn Apartment After Tenant in Her 20s Reported Missing

@YouTube

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Clint Uselton has begun his duties as the new chief of police for the city of East Ridge. He accepted the position upon the recent retirement of former Police Chief Stan Allen.



A resident of East Ridge for nearly 20 years, Chief Uselton joined the East Ridge Police Department in 1999 where he has held the ranks of patrol officer, sergeant, lieutenant and assistant chief, prior to his current rank of chief of police.

He graduated from the FBI National Academy (Class #276) and Tennessee Law Enforcement Executive Development. Chief Uselton has also attended numerous specialized schools on supervision, leadership, instructor development and traffic.



Chief Uselton stated that as chief of police his focus will be to lead a proactive department organized to actively respond to the needs of the citys citizens.



I am excited to be entrusted with the leadership of a department full of dedicated and motivated public servants, said Chief Uselton. Working alongside our citizens and other partners, we can continue to advance our mission of creating a safer East Ridge.

Lieutenant Josh Creel has been chosen as the assistant chief of police for the East Ridge Police Department. He assumed the position after former Assistant Police Chief Clint Uselton was promoted to police chief.



Asst. Chief Creel joined the East Ridge Police Department in 2001 and has held the ranks of patrol officer, detective and lieutenant prior to his current rank of assistant chief of police.



He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy (Class #282) and has attended numerous specialized schools on firearms, narcotics, leadership, instructor development and investigative techniques.



As assistant chief of police, he said his focus will be to transform the chiefs vision into operational readiness, capability and proactivity.



Asst. Chief Creel stated, I am looking forward to forging the men and women of the East Ridge Police Department into the servant leaders our community deserves.
State Rep. Dan Howell has been unanimously elected to serve as the next chairman of the Ocoee River Recreation and Economic Development Fund Board.

The 15-member state board was established by the General Assembly in 2017 to support recreational water activity on the Ocoee River, oversee its management zone and encourage economic growth along the waterway.

Every year, visitors flock to southeast Tennessee to enjoy the Ocoee River and experience the natural beauty of the surrounding area, Rep. Howell said. It is vital that we capitalize on that interest by expanding opportunities for tourists to experience all of the hiking, biking, hunting and river activities that the area has to offer. I am extremely honored to be chosen as chairman, and look forward to serving all of those who benefit from the Ocoee River.

Rep. Howell was elected to a two-year term as board chairman. He can serve up to three terms or six years in the role. The position was previously held by former State Senator Mike Bell who stepped down in August to become the senior advisor for legislative affairs and policy for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

Located in the Cherokee National Forest, the Ocoee River features 10 miles of rapids that are available to raft commercially. It also features the only natural Olympic whitewater course in the world.

With 24 outfitters operating along the stretch of river, the Ocoee remains the most popular tourist attraction in Polk County. The industry accounted for $38 million in total business sales countywide during 2021, according to the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development. There are 363 individuals employed by the industry locally.

Additional information about the Ocoee River Recreation and Economic Development Fund Board can be found here.

Rep. Howell represents House District 22, which includes Meigs, Polk and part of Bradley counties. He can be reached at rep.dan.howell@capitol.tn.gov or by calling (615) 741-7799.






East Ridge officials announced the promotion of Randy Albright to deputy fire chief of the East Ridge Fire Department.

Mr. Albright began as a volunteer firefighter with the city of East Ridge in 2001. In 2003, he was hired full-time as a firefighter/engineer.

In 2014 he was promoted to battalion chief prior to his recent promotion to deputy fire chief.

Mr. Albright has received numerous commendations and life-saving awards. He received Firefighter of the Year in 2005 and again in 2020. He holds several certifications through the State of Tennessee Fire Commission and Medical certification through the State of Tennessee Health Department.

It is an honor to be in a role where I will help shape the future of our department, said Mr.

Albright. I will be steadfast in my duty ensuring the protection, safety, and wellness of the citizens of East Ridge as well as its employees.
On Cobra Kai, John Kreese (Martin Kove)s feud with Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) goes back to 1984. His beef is really with Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) but now Daniels the only one left with the dojo. After Daniels victory in The Karate Kid, Miyagi had to step in to stop Kreese from assaulting his students at the beginning of The Karate Kid Part II. When Kreese punches in the car windows, Kove said, he really punched glass.

Martin Kove | Curtis Bonds Baker/Netflix

Kove spoke with Showbiz Cheat Sheet by phone on Aug. 23. Looking back on the Karate Kid films, he shared the story of The Karate Kid Part II stunts gone wrong. Cobra Kai Season 5 is now streaming on Netflix.

Before Cobra Kai, Martin Kove trained for his fight during The Karate Kid

The parking lot confrontation was originally written as the end of The Karate Kid. Kove did all his training for it before they decided not to film it back then.

Beyond humbled by all the love across the planet! Cobra Kai is strong! We dont show mercy. #cobrakai  Martin Kove (@MartinKove) September 18, 2022

RELATED: Why Cobra Kai Season 5 Was so Emotional for John Kreese Actor Martin Kove

We all worked with Pat Johnson. We all had to work. It was never a prerequisite to know karate to audition. He trained us a couple of hours a day and trained me separately and trained Miyagi and Ralph separately and trained the kids separately. You have the essence of the attitude, the essence if you had specific fights. You would learn that. I always trained to have that fight in Karate Kid II because the fight in Karate Kid II in the parking lot that opens up the movie was originally a scene written for Karate Kid I. All that happens in Karate Kid I, the fight in the parking lot and all. It all ended like that in the original script. Then we waited three hours on the set and I practiced the whole scene. I had to rehearse that scene God knows how long. Ultimately, we waited three hours. [Producer] Jerry [Weintraub] and [director] John [G. Avildsen] had this lengthy conversation and they came out and they wrapped us. Martin Kove, Interview with Showbiz Cheat Sheet, 8/23/22

A special effects mishap remains in The Karate Kid II

When The Karate Kid warranted a sequel, they decided to open the movie with the aftermath of the All-Valley Karate Tournament. Kreese fights Miyagi, who dodges out of the way of Kreeses fists, sending Kreese into the windows. The windows were supposed to blow before Kove hit them, but the timing was off.

Then the effects guy never blew the window so I crashed through the window and had shards of glass sticking through my hand, Kove said. It was a real mess.

RELATED: Cobra Kai: John Kreese Actor Martin Kove Wishes He Could Be a Female Warrior Like Tory

Kove said the shot of him punching the windows was from that incident.

Going into the window is real Martin Kove, Kove said. Going out we shot the next day.

The racial epithets in Karate Kid Part II

That scene in The Karate Kid Part II is one of many in the original trilogy in which Kreese calls Miyagi a slope. The derogatory term for Asian people came from Kreeses time in Vietnam, so Kove understood why that was part of Kreeses dialogue.

Youve got to remember, his recollection of the Viet Cong and even regulars, it was a devastating memory, Kove said. Friends died. In Vietnam, Ive interviewed enough veterans to know how intolerable the war was. It wasnt a fond memory so the vernacular is used. Even the N word is used by people. If youre in a racial situation and someone is being very disrespectful and they came out of the south from the 50s and even the 40s, they would use it out of habit and disdain because theyd never matured. But in that moment, no. It was justified in his world, totally justified. It represented a group of people that did a lot of damage in his world, a lot of damage to his friends.

RELATED: Cobra Kai: How Martin Kove Created John Kreeses Signature Pose
Maren Morris Forgot the Words to 80s Mercedes in the Middle of Her Saturday Night Live Set

Maren Morris is a professional entertainer. Shes wowed millions of fans with her (mostly) country music style that combines pop, R&B, and hip-hop.

However, even the most seasoned performers can get flummoxed at some point, which happened when the bright lights of Saturday Night Live shone down on the Humble Quest songstress.

Maren Morris was already an industry veteran in 2016 when Saturday Night Live came calling

added to the set list  pic.twitter.com/wONfvN0y2K  MAREN MORRIS (@MarenMorris) September 20, 2022

Morris had moderate success touring bars and clubs in her native Dallas, Texas. Shed started at age 11 with the blessing of her parents, according to Wide Open Country. In 2005, at age 15, the country superstar released her first album Walk On.

Then she visited her friend Kacey Musgraves, and Morris got serious about country music. She moved to Nashville, was introduced to some heavy hitters in the industry, and wrote a song for Tim McGraw in 2014 called Last Turn Home.

Her breakthrough happened in 2016. Morriss self-released album Hero sold 2.5 million copies in a month. Columbia Records signed her, and the country music world opened up for Morris.

Maren Morris was in a whirlwind of activity when she performed on SNL

Even though she had been in the music industry for 11 years by the time she made it to Saturday Night Live, Morris still battled performance anxiety. She was already on tour with Keith Urban to market her successful album when she pivoted to performing on SNL.

She said in an interview with Bobby Bones, I was performing 80s Mercedes, and in the middle of it, I blinked. And you cant tell if you watched the video. Like, its probably two seconds of silence for me. But I completely forgot all my lyrics, and then it came back. I didnt have a meltdown, but yeah, thats always going to be around.

This is coming from the young lady who famously performed nine months pregnant at Rodeo Houston in March 2018 in front of 65,000 fans who witnessed one heck of a performance.

80s Mercedes is not Maren Morris top hit

Country star Maren Morris | Steve Jennings/Getty Images

Although part of her breakout album, 80s Mercedes is not Morris No. 1 hit. The Middle, a crossover hit with Zedd and Grey, reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, showcasing the songwriters prowess with non-country fair.

Her most popular hit, according to Billboard, is The Bones, which lasted a whopping 19 weeks at No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs charts  pretty remarkable when fans may consider her top songs Chasing After You, Circles Around This Town, or My Church (also from her 2016 album that launched her career).

Whats Morris up to now?

She finishes her Humble Quest tour in October 2022 before taking a break. In January 2023, she goes to Orlando, Florida, where she will be part of a tripleheader alongside Ellie Goulding and En Vogue at the 2023 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions concert series held in conjunction with the annual LPGA event.

RELATED: Maren Morris Said People Saying Shes Not Country Hurt Her Feelings
TL;DR:

Mick Jagger revealed The Rolling Stones Gimme Shelter is about the apocalypse.

He revealed the song comes from an album that is about the apocalypse.

Despite its popularity, Gimme Shelter was not a single in the United States or the United Kingdom.

The Rolling Stones Mick Jagger | Doug McKenzie / Contributor

Keith Richards said he started writing The Rolling Stones Gimme Shelter, and then Mick Jagger expanded it. Jagger revealed the song and its parent album were about the apocalypse. In addition, he revealed what inspired him while crafting the album.

Keith Richards discussed the storm that inspired The Rolling Stones Gimme Shelter

During a 2022 interview with Rolling Stone, Richards discussed listening to Gimme Shelter recently. And in a way, it reminded me of the day that I wrote it, which was like a rainy day in London, in Mount Street, he said. There was a big storm on and everybody was running for cover, and it really just came out of that simple vision. And then I realized, of course, you know then you have to expand it. And I realized that theres only one storm, but theres plenty more.

Richards said he started writing the song and Jagger expanded it. Expanded it, and especially when I said that we need a female in here, a duet, he recalled. And so that expanded the song into more of a  I dont know, certainly stage-wise, gave it far more visual presence.

RELATED: Mick Jagger Once Responded to Listeners Who Felt 1 of The Rolling Stones Songs Was Anti-Feminist

Mick Jagger said The Rolling Stones album Let It Bleed is about the apocalypse

During a 1995 interview with Rolling Stone, Jagger discussed Gimme Shelters parent album, Let It Bleed (1969). He said it was inspired by watching televised images of the Vietnam War. He described that time period as a very rough, very violent era. He said the Vietnam War felt different from previous wars.

Subsequently, Jagger was asked about Gimme Shelter. Thats a kind of end-of-the-world song, really, he said. Its apocalypse; the whole records like that.

RELATED: The Lord of the Rings: Why The Rolling Stones Mick Jagger Didnt Play Frodo in the 1978 Film

How Gimme Shelter and Let It Bleed performed on the pop charts in the United States and the United Kingdom

Gimme Shelter is a classic rock radio staple today; however, it was not a single. Because it was never a single, it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Meanwhile, Let It Bleed was a massive hit. It reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 44 weeks.

According to The Official Charts Company, Gimme Shelter did not chart in the United Kingdom either. On the other hand, Let It Bleed was No. 1 for a week in the U.K. The album lasted a total of 29 weeks on the chart.

Gimme Shelter is a classic hit  even if it has an upsetting meaning.

RELATED: Marianne Faithfull Wanted All Royalties From a Song She Wrote With The Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

How to get help: In the U.S., call the RAINN National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 to connect with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.
Controlling the spin of electrons opens up future scenarios for applications in spin-based electronics (spintronics), for example in data processing. It also presents new opportunities for controlling the selectivity and efficiency of chemical reactions. Researchers recently presented first successes with the example of water splitting for producing green hydrogen and oxygen. A joint project involving working groups from the Center for Soft Nanoscience at the University of Munster and from the Institute of Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, USA; Prof. David Waldeck) now have the task of advancing the systematic development of spin-selective catalyst materials. To this end, the researchers relate the catalytic activity of various inorganic spin-polarising materials to direct measurements of the spin selectivity. The focus is on oxide materials which were purposely grown with a chiral structure. In addition, the researchers also want to investigate the origin of spin polarisation in these chiral materials. The results of an initial study of chiral copper oxide layers have now been published in the ACS Nano journal.

The results in brief

The team of German and American researchers first examined chiral oxide catalysts  consisting in this case of thin, chiral copper oxide layers on a thin film of gold. The data measured show that the spin polarisation of the electrons depends on which of these layers the electrons come from. The team considers two effects to be responsible for this: the chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect and the magnetic arrangement in the chiral layers. The results are to help in the future production of spin-selective catalytic oxide materials, thus improving the efficiency of chemical reactions.

The example of fuel cells: unwanted electron spin reduces efficiency

Explaining the background: Why electron spin is relevant is shown in the following example. In fuel cells, hydrogen and oxygen react with each other and form water, with electrical energy being released in the process. The hydrogen may have been previously produced through the reverse process, breaking down water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The energy required for this can be provided through electrical power from regenerative sources of energy or directly through sunlight, so that, in future, hydrogen could serve as a source of energy in an energy cycle designed to be CO 2 -neutral.

What is holding back any large-scale commercialisation of the concept  for example, in electric vehicles running on fuel cells  is, among other things, the low efficiency. A lot of energy has to be used to break down the water molecules, which means that at present it is less expensive to use this energy directly for recharging a car battery. This lower efficiency in breaking down water molecules is a consequence not only of the high overvoltage needed for developing oxygen at the anode of the electrolysis cell, but also of the production of unwanted by-products such as hydrogen peroxide and electronically excited oxygen. Due to their high reactivity, these by-products can also attack the electrode material. Both by-products occur in a so-called singlet state, in which the spins of the electrons involved in the molecular bonds are aligned in antiparallel mode to one another. In the product wanted from the reaction  oxygen in the electronic ground state  this is not the case because it forms a triplet state with spins aligned in parallel, and thus generating only one spin direction helps to arrive at this wanted state of oxygen.

New approach: oxide catalyst produces the desired electron spin

This is a new approach because it involves the spins of the radicals adsorbed on the surfaces of the catalysts, from which the by-products are formed, being aligned in parallel. Such a parallel alignment of the electron spins can be achieved by using a chiral material. In this case, the transfer of electrons through the electrodes as a consequence of the CISS effect, or through the structural change in the oxide, can be spin-selective. In consequence, the formation of molecules in the unwanted singlet state is suppressed and the hydrogen yield is increased.

While researchers successfully demonstrated the spin-selective catalysis, there is still no complete understanding of the origin of the CISS effect. The spin-selective transmission of electrons through helical  and, therefore, also chiral  molecules has been demonstrated. However, more recent studies show that spin-selective transmission also occurs in inorganic, non-molecular chiral materials. Inorganic, spin-filtering surfaces are more stable, chemically, than chiral molecular layers and permit greater current densities in the context of spin-selective catalysis.

The current study in detail

In the study now published, lead author Paul Mollers, a PhD student at Munster University, examined chiral copper oxide films with a thickness of just a few nanometres which had previously been electrochemically deposited in a chiral form onto thin gold substrates by researchers from Pittsburgh. UV laser pulses were used to stimulate photoelectrons from the samples and their mean spin polarisation was measured (in a spin polarimeter based on Mott scattering). Depending on whether the samples were hit from the oxide-covered front side or from the reverse side, in the process electrons with different energies were emitted from the gold substrate or from the oxide films themselves, in different proportions. By correlating the energy distribution with the spin polarisation values measured, the Munster researchers showed that the electrons from both layers are polarised to different extents.

The electrons from the gold substrate are filtered, as regards their spin, by the CISS effect as they pass through the chiral layer. The electrons from the chiral copper oxide display an opposite spin polarisation, and in the case of films with a thickness of more than 40 nanometres, there is a preponderance of these copper oxide electrons. Additional measurements carried out by the working group led by Prof. Heiko Wende at the Department of Physics at the University of Duisburg-Essen suggest that this reflects a magnetic arrangement in the chiral layers which is not observed in non-chiral oxide films with the same composition.

In order to follow up this hypothesis, the experimental set-up in Munster will be extended by having the possibility of measuring the spin polarisation in electrons depending directly on their energy. Following on from the study now published, further measurements on chiral copper and cobalt oxide films will enable not only a clear differentiation to be made between both polarisation mechanisms, but also chiral inorganic spin-selective catalyst materials to be designed specifically.
Protected areas along the water are seen, Sept. 9, 2022, in Chattanooga, Tenn. Tennessee Valley Authority's cultural team and police gathered at the Taylor Boat Ramp at the Chickamauga Day-Use Area, to bring awareness to the area's rich history and what to do if artifacts are found. Looting cultural resources is an issue that TVA would like to call attention toward.
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French President Emmanuel Macron warned about what he called a "crisis of democracies," including in the United States following years of pressure and destabilization efforts.

During an interview, Macron was asked by CNN's Jake Tapper if the world leader was worried about American democracy. The French leader replied by saying that he was worried about "all of us."

Crisis of Democracies

Macron said absolutely hated lecturing people and telling them "I'm worried for you," but said that what is currently in jeopardy is what was built in the 18th century. He also warned of a global crisis of Western "liberal democracies" when asked by Tapper regarding the trend in nationalism, populism, and racism spreading in Europe and the US.

He cited one reason being open societies and being open and very cooperative democracies putting pressure on the people, potentially destabilizing them. Macron noted this is why they have to articulate respect for people's willingness, middle references, and all the progress made by democracies welcoming different cultures, as per CNN.

The French president said that it was clear that in the last few years, there has been increasing pressure on societies and it is at a point where different countries have a crisis in middle classes. Macron also noted that social media was playing a very crucial role in what is at stake.

Macron noted that social platforms have been a driver of "fake news" and "new relativism" that he called a "killer for all democracies because it's completely breaking the relationship to truth, and to science, and the basis of our own democracy."

According to the Republic World, talking about the recent developments in the war between Russia and Ukraine, Macron said that President Vladimir Putin is the leader who went to war and "decided to escalate" the situation with his European neighbor.

Read Also: Ex-Russian President Medvedev Claims Nuclear Weapons Can Be Used By Russia in Ukraine War; 'There's No Going Back'

Russia's War on Ukraine

United States President Joe Biden echoed Macron's stance regarding Russia's Putin during his United Nations General Assembly address on September 21. The Democratic leader said that the world should see Moscow's outrageous acts for what they are.

Biden argued that Putin's claims of needing to act because his country was threatened were a false statement. The US president said that there is a contest between "democracy and autocracy" happening on the world stage.

During his address at the UNGA, Biden said that it was obvious that in the contest between democracy and autocracy, the United States and him, as the president, champion a vision that is grounded in the values of democracy. The US president asserted that his government is determined to defend and strengthen democracy at home and around the world.

"I believe democracy remains humanity's greatest instrument to address the challenges of our time," Biden said. During the assembly, Macron also called on other world leaders to act, saying there was a simple choice, war or peace.

The French president added that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) had declared Russia's aggression illegal and called for the withdrawal of its troops, even as Moscow continued to advance within Ukraine, UN News reported.

Related Article: Volodymyr Zelensky Urges Russians To Protest Partial Mobilization; Citizens Flock Border in Bid To Escape

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The Cheshire Police Department introduced a new online tool at the Sept. 13 Town Council meeting that, it is hoped, will provide the public additional transparency into crimes in their community, as well as deployment and use of police resources.

Although much of what the police department does is already public record, there is other information available on this website that will give the public a lot of information about what the (PD) does, said Cheshire Chief of Police Neil Dryfe.

Brian Elionfante, a former Meriden police captain, who now works with both Cheshire PD and the Cheshire Fire Department as a Public Safety Network Administrator, played a major role in bringing the data dashboard to fruition.

As part of the Town Managers goals and objectives, the Cheshire PD was tasked with creating a dashboard where citizens can access data about the police department and different types of calls and offenses, Elionfante explained to the Council.

Being transparent is a big thing in law enforcement right now, Dryfe emphasized. Letting people know what were doing to the extent that we can, while protecting victims and other confidential information  this is our effort at meeting that goal.

According to Dryfe, some other Connecticut towns, including Southington and Glastonbury, have developed similar tools. Providing access to available police data is part of a statewide drive to increase public knowledge of law enforcements efforts on behalf of residents.

The dashboard, which the Department plans to have ready for the public this week, will be accessible through a link on the police website. The plan is to have the page automatically refreshed with new data every morning.

I would encourage members of the public, if theyre interested, to go on the site and play around with it. If they have any questions, they can give us a call and we can walk through it, Dryfe said.

During his presentation to the Council, Elionfante showed how police communication data gets broken down into six pages including calls for service, offenses, crime trends, the police blotter, stolen vehicle list, and stolen vehicle trends.

Calls for service encompass most of what a police department does, from animal rescue to vehicle theft.

The number-one call that the police department engages in every year is what we call location checks, Dryfe explained, meaning the surveillance of places like public parks or local businesses, where officers patrol as a matter of routine or as a response to an alarm or call regarding suspicious activity.

You have to get pretty far down the list of things that we do to get to an actual crime, he also noted, reinforcing the fact that Cheshire is largely a very safe community.

Data for Cheshire will be available going back to 2020, and can be analyzed by types of offenses, by approximate location, and even sorted by the day of the week on which the call occurred. The data doesnt offer proof that a crime was committed but rather refers to the type of call that was made.

Crime trends are represented in graphic charts. Elionfante demonstrated a map overlay tool in which circles correspond to locations of offenses, with a larger circle indicating a greater number.

Privacy is naturally a central concern. Things that are protected by statute, such as sexual assault or juvenile offenses, will not be part of the dashboard, Dryfe stated. Nor will the tool allow a user to know the specific address of an incident. Were trying to keep the data somewhat anonymous. It gives a general vicinity, not an exact address.

The stolen vehicle list, for example, doesnt provide any address connected to the crime but does identify the make and model of pilfered cars.

Data such as police blotter numbers  time and general address of incident response  were already public record but will be more accessible for people using the online tool, Dryfe says.

It gives an indication to the residents about exactly what it is that were doing out there with our time and our efforts to keep the community safe. I hope it will encourage people to look for the information that they have every right to know, he said.
Adam Greenway has resigned as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary three and a half years after he succeeded fired president Paige Patterson.

Greenway stepped down during a trustee meeting on Thursday and will take a role at the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)s International Mission Board, according to a statement from the seminary.

O. S. Hawkins, retired president of the SBC financial services entity GuideStone, will lead the school in the interim. (Update: On September 27, the trustees adjusted plans to have David Dockerywho was a theology professor and special consultant to Greenwayserve as interim president and Hawkins as senior advisor and ambassador-at-large. Dockery was previously president of Union University and Trinity International University/Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.)

Greenway said in a statement:

These days are incredibly challenging in the life of our denomination. They are also challenging times for academic institutions, particularly theological seminaries. In February 2019, Carla and I accepted the call to come back home to Southwestern Seminary with an understanding of these challenges, but also with the strong desire to be part of the solution. What we failed to appreciate was the enormity of the reputational, legal, and financial realities that would welcome us to the Domeonly to be compounded by a global pandemic unlike anything we have ever experienced before. We have done our best to serve Southern Baptists by helping position our seminary for the future, but much, much work remains to be done. Nevertheless, in the Providence of God we sense a release from our duties here.

Since assuming the presidency at Southwestern, Greenway worked to establish a new era at the Fort Worth, Texas, school, removing stained glass windows commemorating Patterson and other Conservative Resurgence leaders from the schools chapel and initially making cuts to recalibrate.

It hasnt been a quiet tenure. On top of ongoing litigation around Pattersons response to abuse, disputes with the previous leadership at Southwestern lingered under the new administration. Last year, the seminary sued to restore donations that were diverted away when Patterson left and called out the former president for taking its property.

At the start of the pandemic, Southwestern cut programs, laid off faculty and staff, and pulled from its endowment for budgetary reasons. Some of the departures have been contentious, including longtime preaching professor David Allen, who left this year.

But in Greenways report to the convention at the 2022 annual meeting, he did not indicate any financial woes. Instead, he said, The Lord is blessing Southwestern Seminary and Texas Baptist College in many ways. The Lord is indeed doing a marvelous work on Seminary Hill. Greenway announced two fully funded endowed chairs at $2 million each.

According the SBC Book of Reports, Southwesterns budget grew from $32.6 million during the first year of Greenways presidency to $37.3 million for this school year. The school more than doubled its revenue from its endowment, up to $4 million, while also tripling its revenue from private gifts, up to $3.7 million.

But the school was pulling in less money from tuition ($14.7 million in 2019 to $13.1 million in 2022) as enrollment declined. According to the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), the seminary had the full-time equivalent of 1,414 graduate students in 2019, 1,306 in 2020, and 1,105 last year.

By that count, Southwestern is currently the fourth-largest SBC seminary, behind Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

At Greenways previous post at Southern, he grew enrollment as dean of the school of evangelism. He has graduate degrees from both Southern and Southwestern, where he met his wife.

Several major Southern Baptist leaders, including Southerns president Albert Mohler and GuideStones O. S. Hawkins, applauded Greenways selection, experience, and theological convictions when he was named Southwesterns president.

In a time where there are voices wanting to sow seeds of discord and disunity and dissension and division all across our landscape, I want you to know that your seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, desires to be an instrument of healing and reconciliation, of Gospel-advance, working to bring people together under a big-tent vision of commitment to a high view of Scripture, confessional fidelity, the Great Commission, and cooperation, Greenway told the SBC in 2021. This vision was the heartbeat of our founder, B.H. Carroll, and we remain steadfastly committed to seeing that vision fulfilled in our day.

He said he sees his new position at the International Mission Board as not a departure from but a continuation along the journey God has always had us walk.
New Zealands High Court has ruled that government officials were not acting unlawfully when they restricted and regulated religious services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The court acknowledged that rules curtailed the protected right to manifest religious beliefs but deemed that allowable in a health emergency.

Starting in December 2021, the New Zealand government limited religious gatherings to 100 vaccinated people or 25 unvaccinated people. Face masks were also required if the house of worship shared the site with any other groups. The governments director-general of health, Ashley Bloomfield, deemed religious gatherings high risk because of the presence of elderly and immune-compromised people.

Some religious leaders complained the restrictions were reminiscent of Nazi Germany, and one was briefly jailed for refusing to comply.

Twenty-four Christian pastors and one Muslim imam sued Chris Hipkins, the minister for COVID-19 response, and Bloomfield, claiming the regulations violated their religious freedom. The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (BORA) says that "every person has the right to manifest that persons religion or belief in worship, observance, practice, or teaching, either individually or in community with others, and either in public or in private.

Justice Cheryl Gwyn ruled, however, that though the COVID-19 rules did restrict religious freedom, that was justified by the need to reduce the risk to public health during a pandemic. The right to manifest religious belief is protected, but not absolute. According to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, also signed by the United States, religious freedom can be limited in the interests of public safety, health, or morals.

The New Zealand ruling contrasts with what a number of other courts have decided. In the United States, Scotland, Switzerland, and Chile, restrictions have been found unlawful, either because they violated protections of religious freedom or because they treated religious gatherings differently than secular ones.

New Zealand religious historian and media commentator Peter Lineham told CT the New Zealand churches argument was a direct mirror of John MacArthurs Grace Community Church in California and similar cases that won in the US.

It is mighty hard for churches to realize that they are risky places, Lineham said.

Lineham is not surprised the New Zealand churches lost. Ideas about the separation of church and state are less deeply embedded than they are in the US, and the right to exercise religion is understood to exist in a context of a range of human rights which often jostle with each other, Lineham said.

During the trial, Christian scholars debated whether the health regulation amounted to excommunication, with the state taking for itself the power to say who could or couldnt attend church. Theologian Matthew Flannagan, a high school teacher in Auckland and a teaching member of Orewa Community Church, one of the churches involved in the suit, argued it was. He told CT it amounted to a serious infringement on religious freedom.

We were segregated, Flannagan said. We could not fellowship together. The restrictions made it practically impossible.

Paul Trebilco, a New Testament professor at the University of Otago, disagreed.

The unvaccinated are not actually being removed or excommunicated from any congregation, he told the court. The number of other believers who are part of a particular congregation with whom they can interact is being limited. They are still part of the congregation, albeit not able to interact with all other members for a time.

According to Lineham, this was a pivotal argument in the case. The churches needed to prove that that they were being prevented from being the church.

Trebilco rightly shows us that the argument that Christians must meet at all times in order to be the church is flawed, he said.

Ninety-five percent of eligible New Zealanders are vaccinated. It is estimated that a disproportionate number of unvaccinated peopleperhaps as many as 10 percentare Christian.

The nations largest churches complied with the regulations. Megachurches, including Arise Church and City Impact Church, switched everything online in December and January. Both churches complained about the regulations, though, and questioned whether the government was right to do what it was doing.

While we appreciate the importance of public safety and wellbeing in response to the pandemic and continue to respect the current measures, we do have significant concerns about the potential temporary and permanent restrictions for religious activities and faith-based gatherings based on the vaccination status of church congregants, said City Impact founder Peter Mortlock. Such restrictions would have a major impact on the mental, emotional and social health and wellbeing of thousands of people that call City Impact Church their church.

Even as restrictions eased by Easter (though were not completely lifted until September), some religious leaders questioned whether the regulations made any difference in combating COVID-19.

I dont think there were any achieved benefitsit was disproportionate, said Jonathan Grant, one of four priests at St. Pauls, a 1,000-member Anglican church in Auckland. I think it was out of kilter with the rest of the world.

Grant, one of the 25 who sued, led smaller services during the pandemic so worshipers would not have to show proof of vaccination. The church also offered online services.

Not all evangelical leaders in New Zealand share these concerns, though.

Grant Harris, senior pastor at Windsor Park Baptist, an Auckland church with 1,500 people, agreed with the ruling.

I was invited to be part of the case, he said. I declined. I agree with the court.

COVID-19 restrictions made things hard, he said. But they did not prevent him or his congregation from manifestation of religious belief.

As far as our freedom of religion, that was not curtailed at all, Harris told CT. We all knew it was a temporary measure. We were still free to worship; we just couldnt meet in one environment, and we just had to be creative.

Alan Vink, who spent 23 years pastoring Baptist churches, said he also thought the regulations were warranted.

Extreme times require extreme measures, he said. Church is more than a Sunday meeting.

Vink is also critical of the pastors who have sued the government, calling it grandstanding and a waste of time. He said he worries more about the ongoing impact of the pandemic on the church.

In the cities, people are nervous about going back to church, Vink said. Thirty percent are not going back.

COVID-19 mandatesincluding face mask requirements at indoor venues such as shops and schools and on public transportwere removed this month.
David Platt explains why people who never hear the Gospel won't see Heaven

Pastor and author David Platt says that God won't condemn people to Hell simply because they haven't heard the Gospel but rather because they are still lost in their sin, warning that the American church should be more invested in bringing the good news to the unreached.

The 44-year-old pastor of McLean Bible Church in Virginia and former head of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board preached a sermon last week before the Watermark Community Church group The Porch, which holds meetings every Tuesday for young adults.

"Somebody will say to me: 'What do you think happens to the innocent man or woman or child in X part of the world who never hears the Gospel?' And if you ask me that question, I would say, based on the Word of God, that person without question goes to Heaven, even though they've never heard the Gospel," Platt said.

"Of course, they go to Heaven. The only problem is they don't exist. There's no innocent people in the world waiting to hear the Gospel. There's guilty people all over the world. That's why they need to hear the Gospel."

Humans have "no clue of the depths of the sinful [nature] of their own hearts and in the world around [them]," according to Platt, stressing that "there is no one who is innocent before God."

"Not only are all people guilty, but there's no amount of good we can do to overcome our guilt. All people are condemned for rejecting God. And that's true regardless of whether or not someone has heard the Gospel," Platt said.

Platt questioned the audience if they think it would be just for God to condemn someone to Hell if they never heard the Gospel.

"I think the answer to that question is 'no.' They're not accountable for what they've not heard," he said. "At the same time, that doesn't mean they go to Heaven because they're condemned for rejecting the God that has been clearly shown to them."

"People start to think, well, 'Well maybe, if, because they haven't heard the Gospel, God will let them into Heaven. God is loving [and] gracious. We know He wants them in Heaven. They haven't heard the Gospel. Maybe He will let them in because they haven't heard,'" Platt continued.

The pastor warned that the problem with this reasoning is that would mean "the worst thing we could do for all the people" who haven't heard the Gospel would be to "tell them the Gospel."

"If they have not heard the Gospel and that is some kind of pass into Heaven, and we get there, and we're like 'we want to tell you the good news,' and because we've come with the good news, now there's a chance we can go to Hell, they would be like: 'Just keep it to yourself,'" he continued.

Citing Romans 3:19-20, Platt said that everyone "stands condemned for rejecting God."

"This is good news that we proclaim to people who have rejected God," he said. "The point here is that regardless of whether or not someone has heard the Gospel, all people stand guilty before God and sin and deserve eternal separation from Him."

"I picture Paul writing the book of Romans. It's been two chapters worth of the sinfulness of man all the way up to Chapter 3, Verse 20," Platt continued. "I picture him with tears in his eyes, but then I picture him picking up that pen and writing, 'But now a righteousness from God apart from the law has been made known, and this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe."

Platt said every Christian should make an effort to "reach the unreached" people groups worldwide with the Gospel before it's too late for many souls.

"What that word 'unreached' means is not just lost. It's not just that they're sinners who are separated from God by their sin," Platt explained. "People are just like that in Dallas, Texas."

"The difference is; there's Christians in churches in Dallas, Texas. [But] in the middle of Saudi Arabia, there's very few Christians and very few churches. And what that means is if you live in Saudi Arabia, the likelihood is you've not been reached by the Gospel."

When someone is unreached, Platt noted, it means that "you'd be born and you'd live, and you'd die, and the likelihood is you'd never hear the Gospel."

Platt continually expressed throughout his sermon that if someone dies without the opportunity to hear the Gospel before dying, they will be permanently separated eternally from the Lord.

"I think for most Christians in America, where the Gospel has come, either we don't realize there are 3 billion people in the world who have never heard the Gospel, or we think they'll be OK when they die, [that] they'll go to Heaven," Platt preached.

"That's the only answer I can come up with for why we are not talking about this all the time in our churches. And everywhere in Christianity today, if we believed 3 billion people were dying and going to Hell without ever hearing about Heaven, I think we'd be talking about that all the time."

Platt asked if there is "any greater injustice than 3 billion people going to an eternal Hell while all the people who know how to go to an eternal Heaven sit back and do little to nothing?"

"We spend most of our money on ourselves. We give some of our money to churches and ministries. And we spend most of that money in churches and ministries on making ourselves more comfortable in our churches and ministries. And then there's a small percentage of the money that we give to churches and ministries that goes toward what we normally call missions overseas to other countries," Platt said.

He added that roughly 1% of American Church funds regularly go to missions to reach the unreached people groups overseas.

"We're fooling ourselves if we think we're passionate about giving to missions while we're ignoring 3 billion people who've never heard the Gospel," he stressed.

As his sermon came to a close, Platt told the crowd that they "have been put in a time and a place where there are more opportunities to get the greatest news in the world to people in the world than ever before."

"Jesus is saying to the room full and other gatherings full of young adults who have this good news: 'I've left you here for a reason. And it's not to waste your life [carving] out a comfortable Christian spin on the American dream. You were created for so much more than this,'" he concluded.
Suspect free on bail after killing teen with car, calls victim a 'Republican extremist'

A North Dakota man is out on bond just days after he was arrested and charged with vehicular homicide in the death of a teen he allegedly described as a "Republican extremist."

Shannon Brandt, 41, was arrested on Sept. 18 in the hit-and-run death of 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson, who police say Brandt ran over with his car during a political dispute, according to an affidavit obtained by The Christian Post.

Police responded to a 911 call just before 3 a.m. on Sept. 18 in McHenry, where prosecutors told local news media Brandt was chasing Ellingson following a local street festival.

According to the affidavit, Brandt told investigators he struck Ellingson because he "was threatening him."

According to police, Brandt said Ellingson "called some people" and that Brandt was "afraid they were coming to get him."

He later admitted to hitting Ellingson and claimed the teen was a "part of a Republican extremist group," according to the affidavit.

Upon arrival on the scene, paramedics reportedly found Ellingson lying in the street and rushed him to a nearby hospital.

A short time later, the victim's and Brandt's families arrived on the scene, according to authorities.

Brandt later called police and reported that he had struck Ellingson.

After investigators went to Brandt's home, he "admitted to consuming alcohol prior to the event" and striking Ellingson with his car over what Brandt said was a "political argument," the affidavit stated.

In addition to admitting that he left the scene to call 911, investigators said Brandt told authorities he also believed Ellingson was calling people to "come get him."

Brandt was arrested on suspicion of DUI and booked at the Stutsman County jail. He later failed a breathalyzer test, authorities said.

Police say Ellingson's mother told authorities at the hospital that while she knew Brandt, she "did not believe" her son knew his alleged assailant.

Brandt's attorneys did not respond to a request for comment by CP as of Thursday afternoon.

In his first court appearance via Zoom on Monday, Brandt was arraigned on felony charges of criminal vehicular homicide and leaving the crash scene. If convicted, he could face up to 30 years in prison.

After Brandt reportedly requested no bond because he has "a family and a job" and is not a flight risk, Foster County District Court Judge James Hovey set bond at $50,000.

Brandt posted bond Tuesday and is scheduled to return to court on Oct. 11.

Since then, the story has garnered national attention from prominent Republicans, including Donald Trump Jr., who shared the story on social media with the caption, "Joe Biden's America!"

Trump claims a connection between Ellingson's death and "Joe Biden and his insane speech of just 2 weeks ago." In a speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Biden called former President Donald Trump and many of his supporters a threat to "the very foundations of our republic."

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also highlighted Ellingson's death, tweeting, "Leftist murders a teenager because he was a Republican. Then, he's promptly released on bail. Twisted. Dems' hateful rhetoric continues to bear toxic fruit."

A GoFundMe campaign to help the Ellingson family raised over $43,000 as of Friday afternoon.
Massachusetts school district promotes book telling students how to use gay sex apps

WARNING: The following article contains sexually explicit content

A book available to students of a public school district in Massachusetts includes instructions on how to use online sex apps, drawing the ire of online critics as debate about the content accessible to students in public schools continues to loom large in American politics.

The Twitter account LibsofTikTok published a tweet Monday reporting that the book titled This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson is "proudly displayed" at a school within the Newburyport Public School District in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

The Christian Post reached out to Newburyport Public Schools for comment. A response was not received by press time.

A photograph posted with the tweet showed This Book is Gay on a bookshelf at an undisclosed location underneath a poster advertising "Banned Books Week." The initiative is backed by the American Library Association in response to an increase in attempts to ban books from schools that critics contend are sexually explicit.

The pornographic book This Book is Gay is proudly displayed in @NBPTDistrict. The book teaches kids how to have sex and use sex apps. pic.twitter.com/CFBJ68lTlo  Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 19, 2022

A screenshot of the book accompanying the tweet shows a section titled "How sex apps work."

The book informs readers that after they "upload a tiny pic of [themselves] to the app," the app "works out your location" and "tells you who the nearest homosexuals are." From there, users can "chat to them," with the book stressing that "because they are near, it's easy to meet up with them."

LibsofTikTok's Twitter thread about the book includes a screenshot from Chapter 9, "The Ins and Outs of Gay Sex." The first page of the chapter notes that "this chapter is about sex" and urges those who "aren't ready for the finer details of same-sex pairings" to skip the chapter.

The book laments that schools "taught you all about straight sex when you were TEN YEARS OLD" and maintains "the fact that they didn't also teach you what same-sex couples do is nothing less than institutionalised homophobia."

"Straight sex was presented as the norm to make five per cent of the population feel abnormal," the book states. "This chapter is simply all the stuff teachers SHOULD be saying if they want to be inclusive of people with same-sex" attraction.

An additional page of the book shared by LibsofTikTok showed the author telling readers not to use vaseline and baby oil in conjunction with condoms during gay sex and referring to anal sex as "bum fun." The book contends that some gay men don't like the sexual act because "it's the hole poo comes out of."

The page transitions from talking about sex between men to "girl-on-girl sex," detailing how "two women can pleasure each other in a variety of fun ways" and suggesting that "a hand can do the job of five penises in one."

LibsofTikTok provided a link to the entire text of the book, warning that "it gets much worse."

While the school district didn't respond to CP's request for comment, Newburyport School Superintendent Sean Gallagher confirmed to The Newburyport Daily News that the book is available in a school library. In an earlier interview with The Daily News, Gallagher said that parents have the right to petition for a book to be removed from circulation and need to submit the proper paperwork.

The inclusion of This Book Is Gay has drawn the ire of the Newburyport-based grassroots coalition Citizens for Responsible Education, which warns that the book is also available for download on an ebook app that allows kids access using their school computer logins without parental knowledge or permission.

"Page 156 of 'This Book is Gay' gives your teenager instructions on how to use sex apps," the organization wrote in a Facebook post. "

A story published on the website Mass Resistance last year contains additional snapshots of the book, which includes a claim that homosexual men have bigger genitalia than their heterosexual counterparts.

In addition to including graphic pictures of male and female anatomy illustrating which parts "FEEL NICE" when touched, the book provides instructions on how to engage in anal and oral sex and give "handies."

A summary compiled by Amazon characterizes This Book is Gay as an "instruction manual" for LGBT people to read after they "come out."

It explicitly highlights the presence of a section dedicated to "the ins and outs of gay sex." LibsofTikTok's post about the presence of This Book is Gay in Newburyport Public Schools came on the second day of Banned Books Week, which organizers describe as "an annual event celebrating the freedom to read."

Characterizing itself as a "response to the sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries," Banned Books Week serves as a collaboration of "the entire book community  librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types  in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular."

This Book is Gay is one of the top 10 challenged books of 2021, as identified by Banned Books Week. Two of the other books on the list, Gender Queer and Lawn Boy, have also garnered national attention not only for their graphic depictions of sex but for the promotion of sex between men and boys.

The Banned Books Week website asserted that both books were "banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content" and because they were "considered to have sexually explicit images," not mentioning the concerns about pedophilia.

Last year, Stacy Langton, whose son attends Fairfax High School just outside Washington, D.C., appeared at a Fairfax County School Board meeting to express outrage over the presence of the two books in high school libraries throughout the largest school district in Virginia. She noted, "One book describes a fourth-grade boy performing oral sex on an adult male," while "the other book has detailed illustrations of a man having sex with a boy."

"The illustrations include fellatio, sex toys, masturbation and violent nudity," she added. "Pornography is offensive to all people; it is offensive to common decency."

Concerns about sexually explicit material in school libraries and curricula, as well as some schools embracing elements of critical race theory, have led to the creation of several advocacy groups.

Such organizations include Parents Defending Education, a "national grassroots organization working to reclaim our schools from activists promoting harmful agendas," and the 1776 Project PAC, which supports "school board candidates that vow to overturn any teaching of the 1619 Project or critical race theory in their school districts."
How innovative ministries are bringing millennials back to church

Despite belonging to a church-attending family, 24-year-old Danielle De Guzman is among the many American millennials who struggled throughout adolescence to find relevance and trust in the church or Christianity.

After high school, she would at times still attend her parents large church in Collin County, Texas, but admits that she would just sit in the lobby and wait for the service to end because she just didnt see the point of going into the service.

Although she spent years going to the church, she struggled to get plugged in or even develop personal relationships with others in her congregation.

Eventually, she began telling her parents that she had to work on Sundays so she could get out of going to church. Her parents respected her freedom and De Guzman stopped going to church for a period of time. Going to college locally, she spent a lot of time  like many other college students  partying.

The experience had by De Guzman is not unique among millennial adults who grew up in the church.

A LifeWay Research poll from January found that about two-thirds of young adults who attended church for at least a year as a teenager ended up dropping out of church for at least a year between the ages of 18 to 22.

But what is less common about De Guzmans story is the fact she eventually made her way back to a church and has become a regularly attending member.

After a while in the party scene, she got the feeling that there must be something more to life.

At the age of 21, after having not enjoyed her experiences at a few young adult groups she tried out in her area, she was connected with a unique community founded with the purpose of serving as the young adult ministry arm of several local churches in Collin County.

After about two years, Elevate Young Adult Ministry helped De Guzman get plugged in to what has become her home church  Chase Oaks in Plano. It was there that De Guzman was finally able to develop the much-needed relationships with fellow Christians that were hard to come by during her upbringing.

[I] struggled with trying to find a home church that I trust. I was feeling like I couldnt trust the church for a little bit, De Guzman, a gymnastics instructor, said.

There are people out there that are probably feeling the same thing. I just feel like now I have more of a responsibility because living the way that I was, I should be dead or in prison or have some sort of illness or something like that. And I am not any of those things. Just the fact that God pulled me out of that and spared me of all of those things, there has to be a reason why that happened.

LifeWay Research data suggests that fewer than one out of three young adults who left the church between the ages of 18 and 22 have returned to a church and attend at least twice per month, while 39 percent report attending church at least once per month or less.

With such a drastic percentage of millennials having dropped out of the church, ministries nationwide are asking themselves what they must do to bring young adults back to church or even attract those who never went to church in the first place.

Some have had more success than others. But largely, young adult ministry continues to be an afterthought in many church budgets, which tend to prioritize family ministries and other programs that are seen as more important because they keep the tithes rolling in.

When we look at young adult ministry, it is one of those ministries that isnt symbiotic: where we're going to provide something for young adults, and they may or may not be here, Antwuan Malone, director of Elevate Young Adult Ministry, a nonprofit that ministers to about 60 to 90 young adults in Collin County and helps connect them with churches in the area, told CP.

[Churches] may or may not be the beneficiary of the benefit of the work theyre putting in because young adults are so transient. I think that the natural way for churches to think about things outside of missions work is to see if their resources can come back to the ministry. Because there's not a lot of immediate benefit in that area, I think that makes it hard for people to put in the proper amount of resources for young adult ministry.

Even for churches that do fund young adult ministries, the funding is typically minimal, according to Scott Pontier, a Michigan pastor who also serves with the consulting firm Ministry Architects, told CP.

Nothing will succeed when it is an afterthought, he warned. We have these great expectations but our strategy for it is, We will see what happens.

What does the data say?

According to LifeWays survey of over 2,000 young adults aged 23 through 30 who attended church at least twice per month for a year as a teenager, 69 percent said they attended church at the age of 17. That number dropped to 58 percent at the age 18, 40 percent at the age of 19, and 36 percent at the age of 20.

Once the respondents reached the ages of 21 and 22, only 33 percent reported attending church regularly.

LifeWay also found that about 39 percent of young adults aged 23 through 30 consider themselves devout Christians with a strong faith in God.

According to the data, the most common reason (96 percent among those who stopped attending) for why young adults stopped attending church after high school was a change in life situation, such as teenagers going to college or moving away from where they grew up.

Honestly, these being the top reasons  moving too far away [from home church] or just beginning college life  those being the main reasons are more concerning to me, said Ben Trueblood, director of Student Ministry for LifeWay Christian Resources, adding that it has less to do with atheist professors convincing students that their faith is wrong.

The reason for that is that it points to the root issue of high school students being involved and active in the church for at least a year and leaving without an understanding of what it truly means to be connected to a church and connected to the body of Christ, he added. They are in the church during their high school years but through the church and student ministry, we are not doing a good enough job of answering questions of Why the church needs me and why I need the church.'

While many might ask what it is churches can do, Trueblood said that an obvious place to start is with parents as they take their children on college visits. He stressed that churches need to do more to instill in parents the importance of making sure their child truly connects with the church during their formative years.

One example that we frequently talk about is a parent on a college visit. Many times on that college visit, that time is spent meeting with people on campus and campus tours and things like that and there isnt a thought given to being connected with a church as a part of that college visit, he said. [Churches should be] awakening parents' hearts and minds to that reality. Helping them see that they are still the No. 1 influence in their childs life.

Part of the issue, Trueblood said, lies in the fact that faith and spirituality do not play a large role in the lives of parents outside the church. Among young adults who were active in church as high school students, only 49 percent indicated to LifeWay that their parents genuinely liked church.

Additionally, only 27 percent of them said that their family regularly discussed spiritual things.

So that was a key statistic for us, Trueblood said. Man, these are teenagers who are active in the church, yet at the same time, less than a third of them have spiritual discussions in the homes as a family. It points to the need for churches to be fully engaged in helping them and training them to figure out how to parent a teenager in discipleship.

As data have shown that women attend church more than men, Trueblood added that LifeWay found a 13 percent increase in the chance a young adult stays connected with the church in their college years if their father attended church with them when they were teenagers. But only 39 percent of respondents to the survey indicated that their fathers attended church as well.

Kenda Creasy Dean, professor of youth, church, and culture at Princeton Theological Seminary, told CP that young adults leaving the church are really a reflection of a shift in the larger culture where there is a more rapid disaffiliation with religious institutions than there used to be.

Faith is not something that people consider believable or necessary [today]. Its not that it is not compelling, it just doesnt even occur to them. It is pronounced in young adults and it is accelerating, she said. It is not just them. They are reflections of the larger society and they are the fastest people to de-affiliate. What they are doing is they are simply holding a mirror up to the society that they are growing up in.

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Mark Driscoll temporarily suspended from TikTok for saying men cant have babies

Mark Driscoll, the outspoken Senior Pastor of Trinity Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, says he was briefly suspended from the popular short-form video hosting service TikTok for declaring on the platform that men cant have babies.

What happens on TikTok when you say that men cant have babies, Driscoll tweeted Saturday with an image of a notice on his suspended TikTok account stating that he was prevented from posting due to multiple violations of the hosting services community guidelines.

The suspension of the account ended on Thursday.

In his reaction to the restriction by TikTok, Driscoll cited Romans 1:18 which says: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Driscoll, who recently kicked off a new nine-week teaching series at his church called Real Men: Act Like a Man, said Wednesday that the problem in our day is not toxic masculinity; its the complete LACK of masculinity.

In a world void of strong men and fathers, we want to build you up to bless women and children, and transform legacies for generations to come, he said about the nine-week teaching series.

What happens on TikTok when you say that men cant have babies.



For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Romans 1:18 pic.twitter.com/QIHswG79g8  Pastor Mark Driscoll (@PastorMark) September 17, 2022

The former leader of the wildly successful but now defunct Seattle-based Mars Hill Church has also been an outspoken critic of the transgender movement and recently interviewed Dr. Michael Miller, former chairman of plastic and reconstructive surgery at The Ohio State University, about the epidemic of transgenderism and what that means for the future of our civilization.

This has existed since antiquity. You can find statuary from ancient Rome, you look at one side of the statue it looks female, you look at the other side of the statue it looks male. They have male organs with breasts that are beautifully carved, Miller told Driscoll. There has been gender confusion for as long as there has been human beings, I believe. Whats new now is the emphasis on it and part of the emphasis thats being placed on it, in Western culture anyway, is the shift thats occurred between some fundamental ways that we think about the world.

Among these fundamental ways that people think about the world, Miller said, is the idea now among some people that reality is malleable.

Driscoll founded Trinity Church in 2016 after he was forced to dissolve Mars Hill Church in 2015 over leadership failures.

Last summer, he was accused by a former employee of immoral, unethical and unbiblical actions.

Chad Freese, who said he attended the church for nearly three years and served on Driscolls security team for eight months, said in an open letter at the time that he resigned after witnessing alleged abuses that went on behind the scenes under Driscolls watch. Freese was director of security at the church for seven weeks.

I served on the security team for eight months. I served as the director of security for only seven weeks (Feb. 27  April 18, 2021,) until I resigned due to the pastors immoral, unethical, and unbiblical actions, Freese wrote at the time.

I did not see these issues until I became part of the inner circle where I attended meetings and participated in top-secret conversations. I acknowledge I was complicit in executing the duties of my position. I did not get fired, nor was I kicked out of the church as others have been. I could not continue down the same path as the leadership of the church, as that is not who I am, nor who God called us to be.


A United States judge warned conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for improper behavior during a trial to determine how much he has to pay the families of Sandy Hook victims for his spreading of lies about the horrifying shooting.

During the Thursday hearing, Jones got into an explosive courtroom exchange with an attorney for the families. The incident prompted an admonishment from Judge Barbara Bellis, warning that they could be held in contempt if they continued to violate court rules.

Alex Jones Hearing

The warning came from a frustrated Judge Bellis as an attorney for the families, Christopher Mattei, questioned the far-right conspiracy theorist about his false claims that the 2021 shooting, that left 26 people dead, was a "hoax," prompting Jones to grow discontent and attack him.

Jones accused the attorney of being disingenuous and said that he was guilty of "ambulance chasing," descending into a rant in court about "liberals." The judge, who previously warned the defendant that some of his outbursts were a violation of court rules, reminded the InfoWars founder that he was inside a "court of law" and should follow her instructions, as per CNN.

Bellis told Jones that the trial was not his show and he had to respect the process, whether he liked it or not, he had to respect the rules. Furthermore, the judge instructed counsel for both parties to behave orderly.

She also warned that anyone who violates court rules moving forward would be subject to a contempt hearing, something that she said she wanted to avoid. The heated exchange capped a day of testimony from Jones, who had thus far not made an appearance in the Connecticut defamation trial.

According to the New York Times, during the Thursday hearing, Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie died in the Sandy Hook massacre, confronted Jones. The conspiracy theorist then erupted in a rant.

Read Also: New York Crime: Suitcases Full of Dismembered Body Parts Found in Brooklyn Apartment After Tenant in Her 20s Reported Missing

Sandy Hook Shooting

"Is this a struggle session? Are we in China? I've already said I'm sorry, and I'm done saying I'm sorry." Jones replied, as his lawyer shouted objections.

Bellis, after the jury had gone, warned Jones and his lawyer, Norm Pattis, that she would enforce a zero-tolerance policy on Friday for ignoring her orders about decorum in the courtroom. The hearing comes as Jones for years spread lies on InfoWars that the Dec. 14, 2012, Sandy Hook shooting massacre was a government pretext for controlling guns.

But late last year, Jones lost four separate defamation lawsuits filed by the families of 10 Sandy Hook victims, who had endured years of online torment and threats from conspiracy theorists who believed Jones' bogus claims.

The sweeping victory of the victims' families set in motion three trials for juries to decide how much the media personality is required to pay the families in compensatory and punitive damages. The first trial awarded Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, parents of Jesse Lewis, one of the victims of the shooting, nearly $50 million, but Texas law capped that verdict at far less.

Jones admitted on Thursday to calling the parents of the victims "crisis actors" on his show and said that the shooting was as "phony as a three-dollar bill." Mattei accused the conspiracy theorist of patting targets on the parents' backs with his lies, the Associated Press reported.

Related Article: Hunter Biden Probe: Democrats Strike Down Request To Release First Son's Financial Documents

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Sexual abuse class-action lawsuit filed against Christian school accused of unwanted exorcisms

Three women have filed a class-action lawsuit against a Christian school and affiliated church in Canada, alleging that a former Sunday school teacher abused them in the 1990s and that administrator covered it up.

The women claim that administrators at Christian Centre Academy and Saskatoon Christian Centre church, now known as Legacy Christian Academy and Mile Two Church, knew about alleged abuse that they claim was done to them by a former school employee, Nathan Schultz.

Schultz is one of the over 20 defendants named in the proposed $25-million class-action lawsuit claiming that multiple officials at Christian Centre Academy and Saskatoon Christian Centre were sexually abusive.

The complaint alleges that Schultz, who no longer works at the school, abused the students when they were 4 to 7 years old, and that school and church officials allegedly hid what transpired.

The allegations, which were reported to police, have not yet been proven in court, nor has a statement of defense been filed, according to a CBC News report.

Schultz and his parents are all named in the suit, with the abuse allegedly occurring when his father was director of the school and both of his parents were elders at the church.

Caitlin Erickson, one of the plaintiffs, told CBC that she had attended the school and church for 13 years until 2005. Erickson said she was sexually abused by Schultz when she was as young as 6. Schultz, a graduate of the school and a Sunday school teacher, would have been 16 or 17 years old at the time.

Erickson recalled that when children's church took place on Sundays, Schultz was "always the guy that would volunteer to take the girls to the bathroom."

Erickson alleged that, on three occasions, Schultz took her to a nearby equipment room first and urged her to reach into his pants pocket.

On one of the occasions, he pressured her to do so after she said no multiple times. Erickson claimed that Schultz had cut out the pocket so that she touched his penis instead.

"After that, I would not go to the bathroom when I was at church," Erickson told CBC.

Earlier this year, 18 former students of Legacy Christian Academy filed criminal abuse complaints against the school and Mile Two Church, alleging that they were coerced into exorcisms and suffered corporal punishment at the hands of school officials.

One of the students, Christina Hutchinson, told Global News about an experience when she was 8 and attended Christian Centre Academy. She allegedly endured spankings and treatment, which she said mirrored an "exorcism."

Hutchinson recounted that she and other students were asked to recite a morning prayer in front of a school instructor. She refused to join because she was too nervous.

"The teacher at the time seemed to think that that meant I had a demon, so she would keep me in at break times and rock me in her lap while she spoke in tongues," Hutchinson said.

"It was an exorcism in the sense that she was trying to drive a demon out of me. I didn't know what she was doing, and I didn't have any control over it."

The church and the school sent a statement to Global News expressing remorse over the reported incidents, noting that "the people that are accused of these actions are no longer here or affiliated with us in any way."

"We are all heartbroken to learn the stories of some former students about their experiences from over 15 years ago. The current staff and leadership are hearing some of these stories for the first time, and we condemn any acts of abuse that previous leaders committed," they stated.
Trans health group removed age recommendations for gender surgeries to protect doctors

The co-author of a leading LGBT health association's new guidelines says they removed a section on the minimum age requirements for children to obtain puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or undergo body-altering surgeries to protect doctors from lawsuits.

Amy Tishelman is the author of the "Child" chapter in the World Professional Association for Transgender Health's (WPATH) Standards of Care 8th Edition guidelines published earlier this month in the International Journal of Transgender Health.

On Monday, journalist Colin Wright tweeted a video of Tishelman explaining at an annual WPATH conference that the group removed its minimum age recommendation for "gender-affirming" hormones and surgeries to protect doctors from liability.

????BREAKING: Amy Tishelman, lead author of the Child chapter in WPATHs new guidelines, admits that minimum age recommendations for "gender-affirming" hormones and surgeries were removed so that practitioners could not "be sued because they werent following exactly what we said. pic.twitter.com/sgFlupRSjf  Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) September 19, 2022

"We were thinking, and it was scary for me, about the potential uses of the chapter for legal and insurance contexts," Tishelman said. "What we didn't want to do was create a chapter that would make it more likely that practitioners would be sued because they weren't following exactly what we said."

"We wanted there to be some clinician judgment without being at risk for being held in court for not sticking completely to these standards," she continued. "So, we did write them in a way I think so that ... there is leeway, that we recommend things, but then we suggest that clinicians use their judgment about what to do in therapy situations and in assessment situations so that they ... can use individualized clinical judgment and not face malpractice suits."

WPATH did not respond to The Christian Post's request for comment about the changes or Tishelman's remarks.

According to Tishelman's LinkedIn page, she works as a clinical psychologist at the Boston Children's Hospital and previously worked in the hospital's Gender Multispecialty Service.

Boston Children's Hospital came under fire last month after the Twitter account Libs of TikTok published a video revealing a doctor there discussing how the hospital provides "gender-affirming hysterectomies."

Screenshots provided by Libs of Tik Tok indicate that Boston Children's Hospital updated its website following outrage over the matter to state that its patients must be at least 18 years or older to qualify for vaginoplasty.

.@BostonChildrens updated their website this week to try to have us believe that they dont perform gender affirming surgeries on minors. Luckily everything was archived. pic.twitter.com/BhkRjC0zHh  Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 14, 2022

A data table featured in an article published earlier this year titled "A Single Center Case Series of Gender-Affirming Surgeries and the Evolution of a Specialty Anesthesia Team" reveals that 65 double mastectomies were performed on minor girls from 2017-2020.

The WPATH guidelines co-authored by Tishelman were published on Sept. 6. The organization issued a correction later in the month, removing sections related to "suggested minimal ages" for offering so-called "gender-affirming care" or "surgical treatment."

Chapter 6 of the new guidelines asserts that double mastectomies can alleviate "chest dysphoria" in girls who identify as the opposite gender. The guide states that performing vaginoplasties  creating a fake vagina using penis tissue  on trans-identified boys can lead to "improved psychosocial functioning."

"While the sample sizes are small, these studies suggest there may be a benefit for some adolescents to having these procedures performed before the age of 18," the guide reads.

WPATH's new guide also recommends healthcare professionals providing "gender-affirming" treatment to youth involve parents or guardians in the process unless deemed "harmful" or unfeasible.

WPATH maintains that helping youth work with their parents or caregivers is the "primary goal," clarifying that a "clinical evaluation process" is necessary to determine if parents have rejected their "child's gender needs."

"In these situations, youth may require the engagement of larger systems of advocacy and support to move forward with the necessary support and care," the new guide advises.

According to a 2017 study titled "Age is Just a Number," published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, more than half of 20 surgeons affiliated with WPATH said they have "performed vaginoplasty [on] minors."
Evangelicals Say Worshiping Alone Replaces Church, Book Banning By Parents, Vanderbilts Trans Surgeries On Minors

link to download the audio instead. link to download the audio instead. 08:16 08:16

For the first time, a biennial survey has found that most Evangelical Christians in the United States believe that worshiping alone or only with one's family can be a valid substitute for going to church, a possible effect of widespread closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The American Library Association has claimed that efforts to ban or restrict books in school libraries are on the rise amid concerns from parents regarding sexually graphic material depicting child sex and pedophilia.

An international coalition of religious freedom advocates and organizations from across the political spectrum are calling on the U.S. State Department to take stronger action on Nigeria.



Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee are calling for an investigation into Vanderbilt University Medical Center following allegations that it has been performing body mutilating surgeries on teenagers suffering from gender dysphoria.
Dozens of religious freedom groups urge State Dept. to take stronger stance on Nigeria

An international coalition of religious freedom advocates and organizations from across the political spectrum are calling on the U.S. State Department to redesignate Nigeria as a "country of particular concern" and appoint a special envoy to evaluate Christian persecution in the West African country.

On Monday, a coalition of 33 organizations and 35 individuals sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking the Biden administration to designate Nigeria as a country of particular concern, a designation signifying governments that have "engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom."

The letter calls for a special envoy to "investigate the situation and make recommendations in consultation with local representatives."

The letter comes as some human rights advocates have warned for years that predominantly Christian farming communities in the country's Middle Belt are often attacked by predominantly-Muslim ethnic herders.

Additionally, the presence of Islamic extremist groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State in northern Nigeria has pushed millions of people from their homes.

The Nigerian government has denied that religious persecution is taking place, calling the violence responsible for thousands of deaths in recent years part of decades-old farmer-herder clashes.

"The CPC designation and Special Envoy are vital to recognizing the gravity of the religious freedom violations occurring in the country and the government's unwillingness to control the problems, as well as its contributions to the problems," the letter states.

The letter was organized by ADF International, a division of the religious liberty advocacy organization Alliance Defending Freedom. Other organizations that backed the letter include the Family Research Council, International Christian Concern, the American Humanist Association, the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the Hudson Institute, the Anglican Persecuted Church Network, In Defense of Christians, the Religious Freedom Institute and Jubilee Campaign USA.

Notable signatories included former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback and former U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., who spearheaded the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 that created the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

The letter to Blinken comes nearly a year after the State Department removed Nigeria from its annual list of countries of particular concern.

The Trump administration added Nigeria to the State Department's CPC list in 2020.

USCIRF, a nonpartisan agency that advises the U.S. government on matters related to global religious freedom, was one of several advocacy organizations that criticized Nigeria's removal from the CPC list.

ADF International Senior Counsel Sean Nelson elaborated on his concerns with the state of religious freedom in Nigeria in an interview with The Christian Post. He cited statistics from the persecution watchdog Open Doors USA, finding that "in 2021, 4,650 Christians were killed in Nigeria for their faith and that's more than all other countries combined."

"Priests are regularly, almost daily, weekly, being kidnapped, being killed by nonstate actors, by militants, by Islamic extremists and the [Nigerian] government has shown an unwillingness to really confront this problem," Nelson said.

Nelson expressed concern about "blasphemy laws that are widespread throughout the north that are leading to people being in prison for decades or even having the death penalty [imposed] on them."

ADF International provides legal support for victims of persecution, including Nigerian Christians accused of blasphemy.

"Throughout the world, we are building alliances with lawyers and with advocates to make sure that ... in every country, where there are serious religious freedom violations occurring, that those victims have legal representation and are able to make their voices heard," Nelson told CP.

Nelson praised the bipartisan group of religious freedom advocates who signed on to the letter.

In addition to the Republican Brownback, Democrat Katrina Lantos Swett, who served as the chair of USCIRF during the Obama administration, has endorsed the call for more decisive U.S. action against Nigeria.

"They're from different parties, but they come together because this is such an important issue and such a clear-cut issue of a country where serious violations of religious freedom are occurring," he said.

Nelson touted the "international support" reflected in the letter, referring to signatures from members of the United Kingdom Parliament.

"Internationally, people really recognize that the situation for religious freedom in Nigeria is terrible and is steadily getting worse," Nelson said.

Robert Destro, the former assistant secretary of state for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor during the Trump administration, also signed the letter.

When asked why he believes the State Department removed Nigeria from the CPC list, Nelson suggested that "many in the State Department do not believe that there are religious motivations behind many of the killings."

This line of thinking extends beyond the United States, Nelson said, noting that the president of Ireland said when sharing his thoughts on a Pentecost Sunday mass shooting that it's not fair to "scapegoat pastoral peoples who are among the foremost victims of the consequences of climate change."

"This is very clearly designed to attack the Christian community there," Nelson added. "It's very clearly designed to say you're not welcome in this country. And I think there's a hesitancy from the State Department to confront that reality, that Christians really are being targeted very clearly."

In its 2021 International Religious Freedom Report, the State Department acknowledged the existence of "pervasive violence involving predominantly Muslim herders and mostly Christian" farmers while suggesting that the violence equally extends to Muslim farmers.

Nelson said that ADF International has "been in contact with the State Department for several years to "regularly update them about the cases that we are supporting there."

Examples of cases ADF International is involved with in Nigeria include "Christians being brought in front of Sharia courts, where they are being accused of apostasy" in addition to "being threatened" and "jailed by the courts as they await their hearings." Nelson reported that his organization works with the State Department to ensure Christian converts can get out of jail and have their cases dismissed.

Nelson said he did not have "any particular individuals in mind" to serve as a special envoy.

"The kind of person who would be good for that is somebody who has deep experience within the region, within the country but also has real concern and expertise on human rights violations and on religious freedom violations and understands just how this is affecting victims and is able to build trust with different religious communities and people on the ground," Nelson said.

The advocate said there are several steps the governments in Nigeria can take to protect Christians and others being persecuted.

"Some of these include repealing the blasphemy laws that are widespread throughout the north, that affect not just Christians, they affect humanists, they affect minority Muslims that disagree with the majority in the region. So that's an important first step," he said.

"The government should really listen to the religious communities to hear how they're experiencing the persecution, to acknowledge the religious dimensions of the violence that's happening. The government should increase security, increase accountability when there are mob attacks against people for their faith that they should make sure that they fully investigate and find all of the perpetrators and bring appropriate charges and see those cases through to conviction."

Nelson urged religious leaders to ensure that their congregations "have a nonviolent peaceful response to their disagreements across all different political and social issues so that the different faiths there can get along without resorting to violence, without resorting to attacks on different communities."
Library group claims 'book banning' at record high as parents oppose sexually explicit books in schools

The American Library Association has claimed that efforts to ban or restrict books in school libraries are on the rise amid parents' concerns about sexually explicit material depicting child sex and pedophilia.

The ALA reported the data on Friday in a press release in advance of Banned Books Week, a September event that raises awareness about frequently challenged books.

Between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31, the organization documented 681 attempts to ban or restrict library resources, aimed at 1,651 titles; more than 70% of the attempts sought to ban multiple titles.

According to the ALA, the ban attempts are "on track to exceed record counts from 2021," when 729 attempts were made that targeted 1,597 book titles.

The unprecedented number of challenges were seeing already this year reflects coordinated, national efforts to silence marginalized or historically underrepresented voices and deprive all of us  young people, in particular  of the chance to explore a world beyond the confines of personal experience, ALA President Lessa Kananiopua Pelayo-Lozada stated in the press release.

Librarians develop collections and resources that make knowledge and ideas widely available, so people and families are free to choose what to read.

Though its natural that we want to protect young people from some of lifes more difficult realities, the truth is that banning books does nothing to protect them from dealing with tough issues. Instead, it denies young people resources that can help them deal with the challenges that confront them, she added.

The ALA did not immediately respond to The Christian Posts request for comment.

Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for education studies at the socially conservative Family Research Council, told The Christian Post that she believes the ALAs characterization of parents' concerns over the content available in school libraries is unfair and self-serving.

She believes the organization is promoting itself as oppressed when its responsible for the systems that influence the reading materials provided to children.

And the fact that they can tolerate no parental input on that whatsoever, I think, says all you need to know, Kilgannon said.

Pelayo-Lozada asserted in the ALA's statement that efforts to prevent libraries from providing certain books are more about politics than they are about protecting children.

Library professionals trust individuals to make their own decisions about what they read and believe, Pelayo-Lozada continued. ALA and our partners in the Unite Against Book Bans campaign are asking readers everywhere to stand with us in the fight against censorship.

Kilgannon, however, asserted that no one is banning books like the ALA claims, noting that parents are free to access the materials elsewhere and put them in front of their children.

No one who's concerned about whether or not public dollars should be spent to purchase sexual content for children is suggesting that sexual content be banned, she said. We're simply asking the question, what is the appropriate use of public resources and what is the responsibility of education experts in making those judgments, and can parents be involved?

Kilgannon added that schools can determine at the local level whether a book should be removed from the library or placed in a restricted section.

I think that good people can come together and come up with a system that allows for this very thing to be determined by each school and each school board, any school district in the country, Kilgannon said. That's why we have local control in schools.

In a statement to The Associated Press, ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom Director Deborah Caldwell-Stone, said most of the books attracting controversy focus on LGBT subjects and racism.

Some of the more heavily criticized books include Maia Kobabes Gender Queer and Jonathan Evisons Lawn Boy, which contain graphic sexual content and promote pedophilia.

During a Fairfax County Public School board meeting last year in Virginia, a mother pointed to the sexually explicit and graphic images depicted in these books. Both titles were available in the districts high school libraries.

The mother, Stacy Langton, pointed out that both books depict sexual acts, with one describing a fourth-grade boy performing fellatio on an adult man. The other contains detailed illustrations of a man having sex with a boy.

I cant wait to have your c*** in my mouth. I am going to give you the b*** j** of your life and then I want you inside me, Langton read aloud from Gender Queer.

She then read from Lawn Boy: What if I told you I touched another guys d***? What if I told you I sucked it? I was 10 years old, but its true. I s***** Doug Gobles d***, the real estate guy, and he s***** mine too.

A school board member advised Langton to watch her mouth, reminding her that there are children in the audience here. The mother argued that the library containing these titles is not an oversight on the part of the school.

Last August, other parents spoke during a Carmel Clay School Board meeting in Indiana about several books made available to students that contain pornographic sex scenes and promoted gender confusion and transgenderism.

In July, the Miami-Dade County School Board reversed its initial decision to adopt two sex education textbooks for middle schools and high schools after parents objected to how the books discussed gender identity, contraception and abortion.
Pennsylvania's Democratic gubernatorial nominee supports school choice proposal

Pennsylvania Democratic gubernatorial nominee and the state's current Attorney General Josh Shapiro has expressed support for at least some private school choice, drawing the cautious optimism of national school choice advocates.

Addressing his supporters Saturday, Shapiro discussed his support for a Lifeline Scholarship bill under consideration that would give parents with children attending failing schools power to reallocate their children's state education dollars.

The candidate also discussed his plans to continue Gov. Tom Wolf's work on increasing state funding to public schools and students' access to technical and vocational courses. After the speech, he provided more information regarding his position on the bill when taking questions from reporters.

"I'm for fully funding public education. I'm for making sure we give parents the ability put their kids in the best situation for them to be able to succeed," he said, according to Penn Live.

"And I'm for making sure we add scholarships like Lifeline Scholarships to make sure that that's additive to their educations. That it gives them other opportunities ... to be able to help them achieve success."

Shapiro called student scholarships a "both/and" proposition regarding public schools. The attorney general also stated that he has always supported fully funding education to provide kids with equal opportunities and ensure the state meets its "Constitutional obligation" to provide fair funding statewide.

The education page on Shapiro's campaign website outlines that "Josh favors adding choices for parents and educational opportunity for students and funding lifeline scholarships like those approved in other states and introduced in Pennsylvania."

The Lifeline Scholarship bill, also known as House Bill-2169, is sponsored by Pennsylvania Republican House Reps. Clint Owlett and Martina White. It passed the GOP-led House in April in a 104-98 vote, with only one Democrat supporting the bill.

In June, the bill passed the Senate Education Committee in a 7-4 vote, but an amendment added to the bill would again require a final vote of passage from the House. Even if it were to pass, Senate leadership would expect a veto due to Gov. Tom Wolf's opposition to school choice proposals.

The bill applies to elementary and secondary school students who attend schools that fall into the bottom 15% based on aggregated standardized test scores.

It would enable parents to spend state money on approved educational expenses, including private school tuition, special needs services, tutoring and instructional materials.

In contrast, Shapiro's Republican opponent, Doug Mastriano, supports expanding school choice and fostering excellence through competition, according to his campaign website.

"While he'll make sure public schools are well-funded, he'll also fight like hell to provide them the competition that will make them great," the website reads.

"Mastriano will work with the legislature to finally bring school choice to Pennsylvania families so that no child is trapped in a failing school ever again."

According to a Morning Consult poll, 77% of Pennsylvania parents support an education savings accounts, while 72% and 74% favor school vouchers and charter schools, respectively. The poll surveyed 1,348 adults, with 706 being parents of schoolchildren.

Jeanne Allen, CEO of the Center for Education Reform, an organization that supports school choice initiatives, believes that "it might be hard to trust that Shapiro will really enthusiastically place his support behind this work once elected" considering he has the strong backing of teachers' unions.

"Officials find all sorts of reasons to get out of commitments they made when they were running," she stated in an email newsletter. "And many will turn their backs on prior commitments, sadly like Senator Cory Booker did when he stopped supporting school choice."

The ongoing debate over school choice has received attention from other 2022 gubernatorial races, including the contest in Texas between Republican Gov. Greb Abbott and his Democratic challenger and former Congressman Beto O'Rourke.

In May, Abbott voiced support for school vouchers, which would allow parents to use tax dollars to send their children to the school of their choosing. However, O'Rourke believes that doing so would cripple traditional public schooling in certain areas.

As The Texas Tribune reported in August, O'Rourke's campaign spent $40,000 on newspaper advertisements, declaring that voters should not "let Greg Abbott privatize public education in Abilene." The former Congressman also claimed in a July speech to rural Texans that Abbott had "left behind" most of their communities.

"For our rural communities, where there's only one school district and only one option of public school, he wants to defund that through vouchers, take your tax dollars out of your classroom and send it to a private school in Dallas or Austin or somewhere else at your expense," O'Rourke said.

In July, Arizona adopted the country's most robust school choice law. The bill makes all K-12 students in the state eligible for scholarship funds. Families can receive over $6,500 per year per child for private school, homeschooling, micro schools, tutoring or other educational services outside the public school system.

In August, the nonpartisan research group Education Next reported that around 2 million fewer students are enrolled in public schools since the spring of 2020 when in-person learning ceased during the pandemic.

From 2020-2022, public school enrollment declined from 81% to 76.5%, while charter school enrollment increased from 5% to 7.2%. In addition, private school enrollment increased from 8% to 9.7%, and homeschooling rose from 6% to 6.6%.
The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p.
The lease of a Manhattan parking garage that former president Donald Trump owned was once paid for with dozens of gold bars, according to a new book.

An excerpt from the upcoming book 'Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America' by New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman, which details the payment and other business activities, was provided to CNN.

Trump's Business Dealings

The book, which will be released on October 4, details Donald Trump's life from his early years as a businessman in New York City to his eventual ascent to the presidency. Trump's companies have gained attention as a result of the legal scrutiny they are receiving for their tax filing and property value estimations.

Wednesday saw the announcement of a $250 million civil fraud lawsuit against the Trump family and the Trump Organization, according to New York Attorney General Letitia James, who claims they defrauded investors and tax officials. The probe has been criticized by several Trump family members as being politically motivated, as per The Hill.

The rise of the Trump Organization is extensively covered in Haberman's book, including the incident in which the owner of the parking garage in Manhattan's General Motors building delivered Trump a box containing a large number of gold bars to pay the lease's cash component.

According to Haberman's book, Trump instructed his former security guard to wheel the gold bars up to his apartment in Trump Tower after telling advisers he didn't know what to do with them. When asked about the destiny of the bricks, Trump referred to it as a fantasy question, Haberman wrote.

Trump reportedly informed advisers after the 2020 election that he would stay in the White House after President Joe Biden's inauguration, according to a previously published section from Haberman's book.

Read Also: French President Emmanuel Macron Is Worried About a 'Big Crisis of Democracies': Here's Why

NY AG Accuses Trump, Children of Engaging Numerous Fraud

At a dramatic press conference on Wednesday, Letitia James revealed the lawsuit against the former president, citing a document that charges Donald Trump and his three adult children with inflating real estate values while applying for loans to build their father's real estate enterprise.

James asserted that the president and his progeny had engaged in many acts of dishonesty in an attempt to block the president from conducting business in her state for years. She singled out Trump and his three adult children, Don Jr., Eric, and Ivanka Trump, claiming that they persistently overstated the value of their possessions.

Despite the apparent extravagance of receiving payment in gold, there were occasions when Trump was sailing close to the wind. Trump responded to James, a black woman, by labeling her racist and accusing her of bringing the matter forward to improve her very awful poll ratings.

According to Haberman, Trump once had to borrow several million dollars from George Ross, one of his own executives. Ross would only say to the author that it wasn't to pay the bills but rather to cover an issue that was disposed of very fast. Ross made an appearance on NBC's The Apprentice as one of Trump's counselors.

She also recalls a time when the magazine was preparing a story indicating that Trump's net worth was much lower than his own claims, and she was alleged to have threatened to go public with suspicions that Malcolm Forbes, the deceased owner of Forbes magazine, was gay. One of the main points of the accusations James outlined on Wednesday was the question of how much money Trump actually has, Daily Mail reported.

Related Article: Gov. Ron DeSantis Faces Lawsuit for Flying Migrants in Martha's Vineyard for 'Fraudulent Scheme'

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@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Boat with Chinese nationals on board sinks off Cambodia's Preah Sihanouk: embassy

Xinhua) 14:48, September 23, 2022

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- A boat with Chinese nationals on board, sank off the Preah Sihanouk province in southwestern Cambodia on Thursday evening, the Chinese embassy in Cambodia confirmed on Friday.

According to the embassy, after it received information from the Cambodian police about the shipwreck involving Chinese people, Ambassador Wang Wentian immediately deployed staff to contact the Cambodian Ministry of National Defense, the police department, the provincial government and other relevant authorities to request rescuing people.

Li Jie, counselor and consul general of the embassy, rushed to Preah Sihanouk on Thursday night to coordinate relevant rescue operations.

The search and rescue operations are underway, according to the embassy.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Documents from the Kremlin that have been made public claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin covertly approved a plan that might have sent a million more men to fight in Ukraine.

The aim, which was made known to a Russian newspaper by a Kremlin source, is more than quadruple the 300,000 figure that was initially stated as part of Putin's "partial mobilization" plan.

Putin Passes 'Secret Law'

The latest figure is likely to intensify the common Russians' worries of being drafted, which have already caused large-scale protests and lines to flee the nation since the proposal was revealed on Wednesday.

It comes amid claims that men without military experience were being called up, despite the Kremlin's assurances it wouldn't happen, and threats to send arrested anti-war protestors to the front lines. There have been reports of university students being dragged out of class in one isolated area.

The redacted Section 7 of Putin's proclamation reportedly states that up to one million men might be mobilized, according to the exiled independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which cited an unnamed Kremlin source. According to the unidentified Kremlin official, had undergone multiple revisions, and the Russian military requested that it be kept secret.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, acknowledged that the redacted figure contained the mobilization target but said the figure of one million was a falsehood when questioned about it. He quoted Sergei Shoigu, the Russian minister of defense, who said on Wednesday that only 300,000 individuals will be summoned by Moscow, as per Telegraph.

The first mobilization by Russia since the Second World War was announced on Wednesday. According to rights organizations, the development spurred the nation's first significant anti-war demonstrations in months, which led to the detention of more than 1,300 people in 39 locations across Russia.

A significant departure of people who might be eligible for the draft has apparently occurred as a result of the enlistment campaign. The number of one-way flights to surrounding nations increased, and there was an increase in traffic at the border crossings with Finland and Georgia.

As a result of the Kremlin's conflict in Ukraine, countries like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland are refusing entry to anyone trying to evacuate, and they began doing so at midnight on Monday.

A source said the Russian tourism sector are battling with desperate people who want to leave the country. The Kremlin asserted these claims were exaggerated, but it did not contest the fact that males at anti-war rallies were receiving draft papers. The president's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, claimed that doing so was not illegal, Inependent reported.

Read Also: Volodymyr Zelensky Urges Russians To Protest Partial Mobilization; Citizens Flock Border in Bid To Escape

Putin: West Wants to Destroy Russia

In a televised speech, Putin claimed that the West wants to destroy Russia and does not desire peace in Ukraine, and that the partial mobilization of its 2 million-strong military Russia's reserves were there to protect its borders.

The West had engaged in nuclear blackmail but Russia had plenty of weapons to retaliate and he wasn't playing games, according to Putin. Russia already views Luhansk and Donetsk as separate states, which together make up the Donbas territory Moscow only partially controlled in 2014.

Both Ukraine and the West consider all of the area taken by Russian forces in Ukraine to have been taken illegally. After making gradual gains after months of fierce combat, Russia now controls roughly 60% of Donetsk and virtually all of Luhansk by the end of July.

These accomplishments are now at jeopardy as a result of Russian forces' expulsion from the nearby province of Kharkiv this month, which resulted in the loss of their key supply routes for a large portion of the front lines in Donetsk and Luhansk.

Pro-Russian politicians declared referendums for September 23-27 in the provinces of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday, which account for 15% of Ukrainian land, or an area roughly equivalent to Hungary, according to Business World Online.

Related Article: 1000+ Russians Protest Vladimir Putin's 'Partial Mobilization' Call for Ukraine War; Citizens Shout 'Life to Our children,' 'No Mobilization'

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The past two years have been stressful for many senior technology executives. When the pandemic first struck in early 2020, CIOs and their teams rushed to deploy technologies that would support people working remotely as governments locked down their citizens.

Now, hybrid work is here to stay as people realise that more flexible working environments, where they alternate between their offices and homes, provide a better work/life balance.

But for CIOs, this presents a number of challenges around deciding which technology infrastructure will best support these environments for years to come and importantly, how data will be effectively secured with so many people operating outside the network perimeter.

Senior tech execs gathered for a luncheon in Sydney recently to discuss the IT infrastructure challenges they have faced over the past two years as their organisations moved to hybrid work environments. The conversation was hosted by CIO Australia and sponsored by GoTo.

Lindsay Brown, vice president and general manager, Asia-Pacific and Japan at GoTo, says organisations have had to learn to adapt their work environments to function remotely. This has resulted in a substantial increase in collaboration and remote working technology.

When this is combined with pre-existing challenges, putting the right structures and solutions in place becomes essential to maintain business success, he says.

As an example, one of GoTos partners, sporting club Sydney FC, was moving out of an old stadium when the pandemic hit and needed a platform that allowed the club to manage its call centre to support members and partners regardless of their location or operation, he says.

At the start of the pandemic, says Brown, many customers had to rely on technology and tools to stay connected with their clients and maintain the same levels of service they provided pre-pandemic.

The transition had to be quick to mitigate loss, which led to a lot of businesses implementing a variety of tools without properly evaluating all solutions in the market.

This created many challenges for customers as the short-term gain many saw in implementing quick solutions eventually created more problems with operations, he says.

A recent survey published by GoTo and Frost and Sullivan found that 31 per cent of challenges related to flexible work were attributed to software that isnt always up to the job or necessarily the right fit.

GoTos customers reported challenges such as user errors, problems with navigating complicated interfaces, as well as not being able to access off-network devices.

Underperforming technology not only made life difficult for employees of any business, but if they are not able to maximise their productivity using it, the business is also likely to be losing out on revenue, he says.

Francoise Gelbard, director, business development and strategy at HumanableCX, says that the organisation has been a cloud-based SaaS business from day one, so there was minimal impact in moving to more flexible work models.

We have always catered to flexible working environments and highly skilled workers who are able to work autonomously, Gelbard says.

However, what is missing in hybrid models  or purely working virtually  is the water cooler moments of organic interaction and conversation, she says.

Gelbard says that this cannot be replicated in an online environment although there is online HR and employee software that can assist in the on-boarding and induction of new hires.

We are also developing employee engagement programs around virtual and highly personalised reward and recognition of internal net promoter scores with our clients.

This level of investment in these virtual tools will see them remain a pivotal part of the hybrid model, which looks set to stay for a foreseeable future. To the millennial and alpha workforce of the future, this will be part of the norm as it has been with schools and universities since 2020, she says.

Fei Teng, chief technology officer at MediRecords, says the software organisation has moved to a flexible work environment where staff are using a mix of personal and corporate devices for different purposes.

We are holding more recorded meetings that can be watched later by people who were absent, conducting more online social activities, and mental health is also being discussed more often, says Teng.

Teng adds that there are also IT infrastructure challenges. New employees can be onboarded without proper security awareness training, and a business continuity plan can depend on a personal home set up, he says.

Auditing company policies that depend on individual behaviours such as a clean desk policy, and giving the IT team only a few days to support people working remotely across the entire organisation have also been challenging, he adds.

Hybrid works real impact

Hybrid working, when done effectively, has an array of advantages, says Elissa Pietrasanta, sales manager, A/NZ and ASEAN at GoTo.

It opens the door to boundaryless collaboration. Offices are no longer a necessity, which means employees can still be productive and connected while working remotely, enabling more successful business practice, says Pietrasanta.

Argubly, and more importantly, hybrid work creates many advantages for employee wellbeing. In an age of employee empowerment, creating a workplace that allows employees to work more flexibly is imperative, she says.

When executed correctly, a hybrid working environment allows employees to achieve a healthier work-life balance.

However, if not utlised well by businesses, hybrid working can have an adverse effect on employee wellbeing. Without the right collaboration solutions and business initiatives, employees can feel disconnected, and always being close to workstations can result in a slanted work-life balance as workloads increase, she says.

Furthermore, if a businesss technology stack is subpar, then they will be underprepared against the likes of cyber-attacks, which grew exponentially with the growth of hybrid work.

GoTos Brown adds that busineses that show a willingness to adapt to new demands and ways of working will be attractive to employees. The mood has shifted regarding the types of workplaces people want to operate in, and businesses that embrace hybrid working will see great success in retaining and attracting staff, he says.

Our survey found that nearly half (44 per cent) of respondents operating on a work-from-office model reported significantly higher turnover in 2021 than in 2020, compared to only 22 per cent of hybrid work organisations that reported a higher turnover, he says.

Improving your cyber security posture

Meanwhile, organisations should look closely at their cyber security postures as the economy enters a new phase of work. Cyber threats are continuing to grow with 80 per cent of organisations hit by ransomware last year.

HumanableCXs Gelbard says her organisation has had ISO27001 certification since 2016 when it started working with banks, insurers and other financial services companies.

We are handling customer data and connecting our APIs to their CRMs etc, so we have always had to meet the highest standards and very strict information security compliance requirements and protocols around user access and authentication, encryption, and workforce security awareness training.

We were well prepared in advance, she says.

GoTos Brown says cybersecurity can be daunting and he suggests that businesses should implement solutions that secure all remote working endpoints and quickly respond to and mitigate issues. Organisations also need a platform that is easy to use and simplifies cybersecurity operations such as zero trust and multi-factor authentication.

Businesses shoulder a heavy burden when expected to appropriately protect their employees from a cybersecurity standpoint and third-party support can be incredibly valuable, especially for SMBs. It is much safer to ask for help, than incorrectly prepare your business, he says.
Ryan Grantham, a former 'Riverdale' actor, was sentenced to life in prison after confessing to killing his mother in March 2020.

The disgraced actor, 24, admitted in March of this year that he had shot his mother in the back of the head while she was practicing the piano in their Vancouver townhouse. He was charged with second-degree murder.

Ryan Grantham Pleads Guilty

At the British Columbia Supreme Court, Grantham was given a life sentence with no chance of parole for the first 14 years. A GoPro footage that was shot soon after the murder was played in court. Grantham admitted to the killing and displayed his mother's body in it.

The ex-child star is alleged to have draped a sheet over the body and hanged a rosary from the piano the day after the murder on March 31, 2020. He drove himself to the police station later that evening and turned himself up. Grantham allegedly wrote about his intentions to assassinate Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a diary and then confessed to the police in a statement, as per Mirror.

The only point on which his lawyers may disagree was the length of time he would have to serve before becoming eligible for parole under Canadian law, which automatically imposes, The punishment for second-degree murder is a life sentence. Back in June, they claimed that because Grantham had acknowledged his guilt and exhibited remorse, he should be eligible for parole after serving 12 years.

The federal government countered that he should serve 17 to 18 years. However, according to CBC, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Ker decided on Wednesday that the actor should only serve 14 years because of his downward spiral in the months before the murder.

She observed that Grantham was sincere in his apology and was pursuing mental health treatment in prison, where staff members were complimentary of his demeanor and development. The fact that Grantham had a strong enough connection to reality and understanding to decide without carrying out a mass murder or assassinating the prime minister was also hailed by Ker as a saving grace.

Read Also: Kim Kardashian Sends Family to Tears with Emotional Speech for Khloe Kardashian

Grantham Urges to Kill Canada's PM Justin Trudeau

Ryan Grantham tried making Molotov cocktails after that, bought beer and marijuana, watched Netflix, and then draped a sheet over his mother's corpse before going to bed. The following morning, according to Grantham, he loaded his car with three weapons, ammo, a dozen Molotov cocktails, camping equipment, and directions to Trudeau's Rideau Cottage in Ottawa before hanging a rosary on Waite's piano and placing lighted candles around her body.

Before changing his mind and considering conducting an act of mass murder at Simon Fraser University, where he had dropped out, he had intended to travel more than 50 hours to assassinate Trudeau.

Before hurting anyone else, he reported himself to the Vancouver police, and in March he admitted to second-degree murder. In the wake of the incident, prosecutors claimed that Grantham shot his mother to death to save her from witnessing the development of his assassination plot against the prime minister of Canada.

According to the psychological assessments, Grantham had despair, self-hatred, a cannabis use disorder, and homicidal and suicidal thoughts months before the murder, Daily Mail reported.

Related Article: Tiffany Haddish, Aries Spears' Accusers Drop Child Abuse Lawsuit; Actress Says She Becomes Jobless After Grooming, Molestation Allegations

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In May, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit struck down most of the provisions of a social media law, enacted by the state of Florida in 2021, that would have made it an offense for any social media company to deplatform the account of any political candidate or journalistic enterprise, punishable by fines of up to $250,000 per day. In a sixty-seven-page decision, the Eleventh Circuit judges ruled that any moderation decisions made by social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, including the banning of specific accounts, are effectively acts of speech protected by the First Amendment.

Last week, however, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit came to a nearly opposite decision, upholding a Texas law, enacted last year, banning the major social media platforms from removing any content based on the viewpoint of the user or another person [or] the viewpoint represented in the users expression or another persons expression. In the Fifth Circuit opinion, the court ruled that, while the First Amendment guarantees every persons right to free speech, it doesnt guarantee corporations the right to muzzle speech. The Texas law, judges said, does not chill speech; if anything, it chills censorship. We reject the idea that corporations have a freewheeling First Amendment right to censor what people say.

The Fifth Circuit court dismissed many of the arguments technology companies such as Twitter and Facebook made in defense of their right to moderate content, arguing that to allow such moderation would mean that email providers, mobile phone companies, and banks could cancel the accounts of anyone who sends an email, makes a phone call, or spends money in support of a disfavored political party, candidate, or business. The court seemingly endorsed a definition used in the Texas law, which states that the social media platforms function as common carriers, providing essential communications tools in much the same way that telephone and cable operators do. NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Associationtrade groups that represent Facebook, Twitter, and Googleargued before the Fifth Circuit that the social media platforms should have the same right to edit content that newspapers have, but judges rejected this idea. The platforms are not newspapers, Judge Andrew Oldham wrote in the majority opinion. Their censorship is not speech.

ICYMI: The end of the pandemic is a bigger story than Biden

This week, Ashley Moody, the attorney general for Florida, asked the Supreme Court to decide whether states have the right to regulate how social media companies moderate content, citing the irreconcilable divide between the two circuit court decisions. Should the court hear the case, its decision could have ramifications beyond just Florida and Texas, affecting dozens of other statesincluding Oklahoma, Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginiathat have either passed or are considering social media laws that explicitly prevent the platforms from moderating content.

This is a really major question: How do we regulate social media platforms? Genevieve Lakier, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, said in an interview with the Washington Post. I think it could shape the operation of the internet really significantly. If these laws are upheld, its going to require the platforms to host a lot of speech that they dont want to host. While neither the Texas nor the Florida law mentions Donald Trump by name, both were passed after the former president was banned by most of the major social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, following the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Republican lawmakers have long claimed that the platforms routinely exhibit anti-conservative bias in their content moderation practices, which researchers have refuted.

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Even before the petition from Florida, several Supreme Court justices had already suggested that they were eager to confront the platform moderation issue head-on. In a hearing in May, when the Supreme Court was asked to keep the Texas law from taking effect, Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a dissenting opinion that the case concerns issues of great importance that will plainly merit this Courts review. Alito went on to say that social media platforms have transformed the way people communicate with one another and obtain news, noting, It is not at all obvious how our existing precedents, which predate the age of the internet, should apply to large social media companiesa statement some took as evidence that Alito is open to questioning whether the First Amendment protects platform moderation.

The common carrier argument could also get a favorable hearing from some on the Supreme Court, based on comments made by Justice Clarence Thomas in a decision last year. Thomas cited a 1914 Supreme Court ruling that said making a private company a common carrier may be justified when a business, by circumstances and its naturerise[s] from private to be of public concern, and that there is a fair argument that some digital platforms are sufficiently akin to common carriers or places of accommodation to be regulated in this manner. In the same decision, Thomas said that the concentrated control of so much speech in the hands of a few private parties was unprecedented, and that the court will soon have no choice but to address how our legal doctrines apply to highly concentrated, privately owned information infrastructure.

What all of this means, Professor Lakier told the Post earlier this year, is that the First Amendment is to some degree up for grabs. Old principles about free speech and rights, she said, are being pushed and pulled and reimagined in light of changing technological conditions and changing political alignments.

Heres more on the platforms and moderation:

Editorial judgment? Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, writes that the First Amendment questions presented by this impending Supreme Court case are immensely importantquestions including whether social media companies exercise editorial judgment when they decide what content to allow on their platforms, in what circumstances governments can override that judgment, and how courts should evaluate laws that burden that judgment in the name of transparency, fairness, or privacy. If the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case, Jaffer said, its answers to these questions will define free speech online for a generation.

Everything in moderation : The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, introduced recently by Senator Amy Klobuchar , wasnt supposed to be about platform moderation; rather, the law would allow media outlets to negotiate with the platforms for payment for their news, similar to a law in Australia . During discussion of the JCPA last week, however, Senator Ted Cruz introduced an amendment that prevents the platforms and news outlets from bringing up issues related to moderation during their negotiations. Senator John Kennedy, cosponsor of the bill, said the amendment bars Big Tech firms from throttling, filtering, suppressing or curating online content. Its not clear whether this restriction applies only to moderating the content of outlets the platforms are negotiating with.

Algorithmic bias? An internal report on Facebooks moderation of Israeli and Palestinian content shows that the platform deleted Arabic content at a far greater rate than Hebrew-language posts last May, as Israeli forces conducted air strikes following Palestinian protests against forced displacement, The Intercept reported . Facebooks actions appear to have had an adverse human rights impacton the rights of Palestinian users to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, political participation, and non-discrimination, and therefore on the ability of Palestinians to share information and insights about their experiences as they occurred, the report states. The report was commissioned by Meta, Facebooks parent company, last year, and was written by Business for Social Responsibility, an independent consulting firm.

Other notable stories:

On Wednesday, Irans president, Ebrahim Raisi, canceled an interview with CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour at the last minute, after Amanpour refused to wear a headscarf for the broadcast. The request came amid protests that have swept Iran in response to the death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who died in detention after she was arrested by Irans morality police for allegedly violating a headscarf ordinance.

British television channels allowed Buckingham Palace to veto the use of certain footage from Queen Elizabeth IIs state funeral, The Guardian reported . Royal staff sent messages to the BBC, ITV News and Sky News during the event with the timestamps of footage they wished to exclude from future news broadcasts and social media clips, The Guardian reported. As a result, five short pieces of video featuring members of the royal family were removed from circulation. The decision reportedly caused unease among some journalists.

On Thursday, CNN announced that Jake Tapper, who currently hosts the networks 4pm news show, The Lead , will take over CNNs 9pm prime-time slot, formerly held by Chris Cuomo, from October 10 through the midterm elections. The schedule change comes as [new CEO Chris] Licht and CNNs new corporate ownership work to rectify the news outlets recently sluggish ratings and move on from a scandal that led to the ouster of Cuomo and the networks former president, Jeff Zucker, The Hill writes . Jon Allsop has written extensively about the changes at CNN for CJR.

A new study, titled Social media sharing of low quality news sources by political elites, found that politicians from mainstream parties in the UK and Germany post far fewer links to untrustworthy websites on Twitter than politicians from the US do. American politicians posted a much higher percentage of untrustworthy content in their tweets, and that share has been increasing steeply since 2020, the studys authors wrote.

Nine major daily newspapers across Canada will stop publishing printed versions on Mondays as of October 17, according to a report from the Toronto Star . Postmedia, a national chain that owns daily newspapers in most major Canadian cities, said there will no longer be Monday print editions of the Vancouver Sun and The Province , in British Columbia; the Calgary Herald , Calgary Sun , Edmonton Journal , and Edmonton Sun , in Alberta; the Ottawa Citizen and Ottawa Sun , in Ontario; and the Montreal Gazette , in Quebec. A Postmedia spokesperson blamed the rapidly changing news consumption habits of their readers, advertisers needs, and high cost of newspaper printing and delivery.

Vox Media published its annual map of the media landscape, showing which tech and/or media conglomerates own specific shows and streaming networks. Reporters Rani Molla and Peter Kafka noted that services like Netflix have lost much of their value , in part because, they write, Wall Street is now much more ambivalent about streaming. Traditional players have also lost much of their value in the past few years, Molla and Kafka report, noting that WarnerMediawhich, as Time Warner, was worth $85 billion in 2016 has been handed over to the Discovery cable networks, which has a combined value of only about $30 billion.

Researchers with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University found that levels of trust in news on social media and messaging apps is consistently lower than audience trust in information in the news media more generally. Their reportthe latest from the Reuters Institutes Trust in News projectdrew on survey responses collected in the summer of 2022 in Brazil, India, the UK, and the US, and found what it called gaps in trust for most platforms in each of those four countries. News about politics is viewed as particularly suspect and platforms are seen by many as contentious places for political conversation, the report states.

Other notable stories were compiled with the help of Pesha Magid, Mercy Orengo, and Emily Russell.

ICYMI: Adnan Syed, Serial, and justice

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Mathew Ingram is CJRs chief digital writer. Previously, he was a senior writer with Fortune magazine. He has written about the intersection between media and technology since the earliest days of the commercial internet. His writing has been published in the Washington Post and the Financial Times as well as by Reuters and Bloomberg.
Mississippis top appeals court has determined a police officer recklessly disregarded the safety of pedestrians in 2018 when he drove over the speed limit and crashed into a car.

The Mississippi Court of Appeals issued the 5-4 ruling Tuesday, overturning a judges finding in favor of the Oxford officer during an April 2021 bench trial. The appeals judges sent the case back to the lower court to assess damages.

The case stems from a wreck that injured a woman in a car with her child. On a weekday in September 2018, the officer drove to the scene of a crash on a residential road, according to court records. The officers car reached 92 mph (148 kph) at its peak and crossed a pedestrian crosswalk at 73 mph (117 kph) in a 30 mph (48 kph) zone. He eventually struck a pedestrians car, causing it to spin.

The pedestrian and her child were taken by ambulance to the hospital. They were discharged the same day, and the mother was later referred to physical therapy by her physician for a shoulder injury. In October 2019, she filed a complaint to recover damages for injuries suffered in the collision.

The officer wrote in his written report that he was still going at a high rate of speed and did not slow down enough to fully clear the intersection before he struck the pedestrian.

During the bench trial, Lafayette County Circuit Judge Gray Tollison noted that the officer was using his flashing lights, siren and air horn to alert motorists, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported.

But Judge Latrice Westbrooks, who wrote the Court of Appeals majority opinion, said the case includes overwhelming evidence that (the officer) acted in reckless disregard to the general safety of the public. The collision with the pedestrian as the patrol car was driving over the speed limit in the middle of an intersection showed the officers failure to comply with public safety policies, the judge wrote.

We find that the minimal precaution of turning on lights and sirens does not give an officer a free pass to engage in other actions that show a reckless disregard for the safety of others when responding to an emergency, Westbrooks said.

Judge Anthony N. Lawrence III wrote in his dissent that the lower court judge correctly balanced the officers use of the tools available to him to ensure a quick response to a serious accident against the need for public safety.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Hurricane Fiona left hundreds of people stranded across Puerto Rico after smashing roads and bridges, with authorities still struggling to reach people four days after the storm smacked the U.S. territory, causing historic flooding.

For now, government officials are working with religious groups, nonprofits and others braving landslides, thick mud and broken asphalt by foot to provide food, water and medicine for people in need, but they are under pressure to clear a path so vehicles can enter isolated areas soon.

Nino Correa, commissioner for Puerto Ricos emergency management agency, estimated that at least six municipalities across the island had areas that were cut off by Fiona, which struck as a Category 1 hurricane and was up to Category 4 power Wednesday as it headed toward Bermuda.

Living in one of those areas is Manuel Veguilla, who has not been able to leave his neighborhood in the north mountain town of Caguas since Fiona swept in on Sunday.

We are all isolated, he said, adding that he worries about elderly neighbors including his older brother who does not have the strength for the long walk it takes to reach the closest community.

Veguilla heard that municipal officials might open a pathway Thursday, but he doubted that would happen because he said large rocks covered a nearby bridge and the 10-foot space beneath it.

Neighbors have shared food and water dropped off by nonprofit groups, and the son of an elderly woman was able to bring back basic supplies by foot Wednesday, he said.

Veguilla said that in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm that struck five years ago and resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths, he and others used picks and shovels to clear the debris. But Fiona was different, unleashing huge landslides.

I cannot throw those rocks over my shoulder, he said.

Like hundreds of thousands of other Puerto Ricans after Fiona, Veguilla had no water or electricity service, but said they there is a natural water source nearby.

Fiona sparked an islandwide blackout when it hit Puerto Ricos southwest region, which already was still trying to recover from a series of strong earthquakes in recent years. Some 62% of 1.47 million customers were without power four days after the storm amid an extreme heat alert issued by the National Weather Service. Some 36% of customers, or nearly half a million, did not have water service.

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency has sent hundreds of additional personnel to help local officials as the federal government approved a major disaster declaration and announced a public health emergency on the island.

Neither local nor federal government officials had provided any damage estimates as Puerto Rico struggles to recover from the storm, which dropped up to 30 inches of rain in some areas. More than 470 people and 48 pets remained in shelters.

Our hearts go out to the people of Puerto Rico who have endured so much suffering over the last couple of years, said Brad Kieserman, vice president of operations and logistics at the Red Cross.

After Puerto Rico, Fiona pummeled the Dominican Republic and then swiped past the Turks and Caicos Islands as it strengthened into a Category 4 storm. Officials there reported relatively light damage and no deaths, though the eye of the storm passed close to Grand Turk, the small British territorys capital island, on Tuesday.

God has been good to us and has kept us safe during this period when we could have had a far worse outcome, Deputy Gov. Anya Williams said.

Fiona was forecast to pass near Bermuda early Friday, and then hit easternmost Canada early Saturday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The center said Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215 kph) on Thursday morning. It was centered about 485 miles (780 kilometers) southwest of Bermuda, heading north-northeast at 13 mph (20 kph).

The hurricane was forecast to pass just west of Bermuda late Thursday. A hurricane warning was in effect for the British territory.

(Associated Press reporter Maricarmen Rivera Sanchez contributed.)

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
An Alabama federal court ruled this week that a builders commercial general liability insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify against two construction defect lawsuits it faces, because it didnt notify the insurer in a timely fashion.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Southern Division, granted American Builders Insurance Companys motion for summary judgment, noting there was no coverage afforded to Riverwood Construction, LLC and its owner, David Null, for two lawsuits filed by David and Brenda Riggs and Courtney and Yolanda Merriweather, alleging defects in their homes construction. Both during and after construction, the plaintiffs in each action complained of defects that went unrepaired.

The Riggs lawsuits sought $283,872 for repair of their home, as well as punitive damages, pain and suffering, and mental anguish.

American Builders issued multiple commercial general liability policies, providing $1 million in coverage per occurrence, to Riverwood/Null during the period of February 2016 and February 2019. The policies required Riverwood/Null to notify the insurer of any occurrence, claim or suit as soon as practicable. In addition, the named insured was required to submit a written notice of claim or suit, and any demands, summons or other legal paper.

After Riverwood/Null was served with the Riggs lawsuits in April 2017, it hired an attorney. The Merriweathers sent a demand letter to Riverwood/Null in March 2017. A lawsuit was subsequently filed in 2018, in which Riverwood/Null provided their own defense.

There is no documentation indicating any notice of either lawsuit to American Builders Insurance Company prior to May 2019. Null admitted he did not submit notice directly to the insurer of either lawsuit. The insureds agent first became aware of the lawsuits in April 2019, when he received a request by Riverwood/Nulls personal counsel to notify American Builders of the pending litigation.

During his deposition, Null could not say why he didnt inform American Builders about the lawsuits sooner than May 2019.

As a result of the late notification of the actions, American Builders defended Riverwood/Null under a reservation of rights while it sought a declaratory judgment on the matters. The declaratory judgment sought to confirm the insurer owed no duty to defend the insured in either case because there was no coverage under the policy for construction defect allegations as outlined in the two lawsuits, and additionally, because the insured had violated the conditions of its policy when it delayed notifying the insurer of the pending lawsuits.

On September 21, 2022, the district court granted summary judgment on American Builders claim for declaratory judgment that it owes not duty to defend Riverwood/Null in either matter.

American Builders Insurance Company v. Riverwood Construction, LLC 2:19-cv-01757-SGC
Two unaccompanied boys, aged barely two and six, are captured in a tragic photo being stopped by border patrol after crossing from Guatemala to Texas.

The unnamed siblings had the phone numbers of US-based relatives written on their t-shirts. Along with a group of over a dozen other Guatemalan migrants, including six more children who were abandoned without legal guardians, the children were discovered by border patrol authorities early on Tuesday morning near La Grulla, Texas.

Southern Border Crisis' Real Victims

In order to transport the two boys to safety, border patrol officials must rely on the information written on the white shirts of a relative in the United States. It is unknown if the kids are on their way to those family members and if the authorities can get in touch with them.

Their predicament clearly demonstrates the ongoing problem at the southern border, where record numbers of individuals have been apprehended while attempting the often-dangerous crossing, with conservatives blaming President Joe Biden's policies for pushing them to do so.

Unlike some illegal immigrants, minors without guardians who enter the US through the southern border are not deported right away. Instead, until their family or other relatives can be found in the United States, youngsters are left in the custody of federal officers.

Unaccompanied minors must be returned to their country of origin if no family is discovered. According to the New York Post, current regulations will allow for the arrival of more than 140,000 unaccompanied minor migrants at the southern border in 2022 alone.

Additionally, it has boosted the quantity of undocumented immigrants who try to pass themselves off as kids to avoid deportation. Since October, the border patrol claims to have detained about 700 juvenile impostors in the El Paso, Texas, region.

This week, new data from border officials showed that during the past fiscal year, more than 2 million illegal immigrants had been detained along the southern border. This number is significantly higher than the 1.6 million arrests made in 2021 and more than 400% more than the 405,000 arrests made in 2020.

According to the border patrol, this year alone, agents in the Rio Grande region have come across more over 70,000 unaccompanied youngsters. GOP leaders around the country have emphasized the gravity of the border situation and the dearth of resources in US border cities to handle the increasing influx of illegal immigrants.

Read Also: IMF Chief Warns Next Year Will Be 'Tougher'; Urges Global Leaders To Bring Down Inflation To Prevent Dire Consequences

Biden Administrations Policies Spur Record Migrant Deaths

When he sent 50 migrants to the exclusive Massachusetts vacation island of Martha's Vineyard last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis received both praise and criticism. More migrants now appear to be being transported to Delaware by the governor, notably to a region close to Vice President Joe Biden's Rehoboth residence.

Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, has been busing migrants from his state to the capital city; most recently, a group was dropped off in front of Kamala Harris' vice presidential mansion.

The governors of the red states have refuted claims that they are acting cruelly, instead highlighting the Biden administration's inability to adequately address the deteriorating situation at the border, as per Daily Mail.

Under President Joe Biden, more migrants have died trying to cross the US-Mexico border illegally than ever before. This is a tragic result of border policies that have forced many migrants over hazardous terrain because ports of entry have mostly been blocked to asylum seekers.

Former President Donald Trump, pictures of immigrant deaths have sparked outrage around the country, especially among Democrats. Although more people have died since Biden took office than during the administrations of Trump, Obama, Bush, or Clinton, Biden's party has not responded in the same way.

More than 50 immigrants were discovered dead in an abandoned, overheated tractor-trailer that was parked in San Antonio, Texas, at the end of May. The driver abandoned the passengers and was later taken into custody. The episode was the bloodiest smuggling incident in US history to date, Washington Examiner reported.

Related Article: Hunter Biden Probe: Democrats Strike Down Request To Release First Son's Financial Documents

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A Chinese man was sentenced to 24 years in jail for brutally attacking female customers in Tangshan in a controversial case that stirred resentment about violence against women in China.

A local court in Hebei province on Friday convicted Chen Jizhi and four others of beating four women with chairs, bottles, punches, and kicks at a barbecue restaurant in June after one of the ladies refused Chen's sexual overture.

One of the victims was threatened by a fifth defendant, who was found guilty of pressuring them not to inform the police.

According to the court, per CNN, Chen was the head of a criminal organization that had perpetrated several crimes during the previous 10 years. He was found guilty of starting fights and making trouble, robbing, opening casinos, illegally holding other people, and hurting people on purpose. He was fined 320,000 yuan.

The court sentenced 27 additional defendants to jail terms of six months to 11 years for their involvement.

According to the court, two of the ladies had "second-degree minor injuries" while the other two had "slight injuries."

Surveillance footage of the incident went viral in June.

Brutal Attack Caught on Cam Sparked National Outrage

In the footage, Chen can be seen walking up to the female diners and putting his hand on one of their backs. Chen smacks the lady when she pulls him away and pushes her to the ground.

Other guys join in, pulling a lady outside by her hair, striking her with bottles and chairs, and kicking her head. One woman attempting to assist her gets shoved aside and severely hits her head on the stairwell's back.

Read Also: Russian State Duma Chief Says Negotiations with Kyiv Is Over; Moscow To Get Serious in Resolving the Conflict

The shocking recordings sparked widespread outrage and anguish, and many women worried for their safety, as per a report from ABC News.

The viral video also brought up memories of the public's desperation over gender-based violence that went unpunished, such as the incident earlier this year in which a video of a woman tied to a wall in a rural home went viral. The authorities discovered that the woman had been trafficked and sold as a bride.

Nine people-seven men and two women-were first detained by police for attacking the four women. The injuries suffered by two of the victims required hospitalization.

An expanded inquiry into criminal activity and corruption has grown out of the first probe into the public attack. The prosecution said that 27 additional persons would face charges for offenses discovered during the investigation.

Feminist Movement Gaining Momentum in China

In August, Communist Party officials announced they were investigating 15 people for wrongdoing involving "evil organizations," including the assailants.

The 15 people, who also include the head of Tangshan's public security department and police officers from several stations, are accused of misconduct, bribery, and other offenses relating to their jobs. During the inquiry, eight of them have been held in custody.

Despite opposition, pervasive censorship, and inconsistent legal assistance for victims of assault, discussions of feminism have become more popular in China.

CNA reported that domestic violence is still prevalent and underreported in China, according to activists for women's rights, and well-known feminists are frequently harassed by the authorities and detained.

Related Article: New York Man Sexually Assaults More People After Receiving Plea Deal of 30 Days in Jail Due to Similar Offense

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A federal department invested over $5.1 million in Colorado to help the state fight and prevent devastating wildfires.

In Colorado, record-breaking wildfires have become more and more common in recent years. At the end of December, Colorado suffered its most destructive wildfire in state history, when the Marshall fire destroyed more than 1,000 homes in Boulder County. Shortly before, the three largest wildfires in Colorado history all occurred in 2020.

The U.S. Department of the Interior announced its investment to fight Colorados wildfires on Thursday  part of a $103 million effort to reduce wildfire risk, mitigate impacts and rehabilitate burned areas nationwide.

As climate change drives harsher heat waves, more volatile weather and record drought conditions, we are seeing wildfire seasons turn to wildfire years, threatening communities, businesses, wildlife and the environment, said Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau. We are investing in Colorado communities, advancing wildfire resilience work across the country, improving resources for the heroic firefighting workforce, and reducing the risk of wildfire.

Colorados $5.1 million will go towards advancing wildfire resilience work and supporting fuel treatment in areas with high wildfire hazard potential across 5,395 acres of land throughout the state.

The money comes from the 2022 fiscal year funding from President Joe Bidens Bipartisan Infrastructure Law  a $1 trillion policy package passed in 2021 to rebuild transportation infrastructure, expand access to clean drinking water and high-speed internet, address climate change and more.

The law includes $1.5 billion delegated to the U.S. Department of the Interior over the next five years to invest in wildfire preparedness, fuel management, post-fire restoration and fire science. It also directs reforms for federal wildland firefighters, such as temporary pay increases.

Earlier this year, the Colorado Legislature passed 11 wildfire-related laws itself, totaling tens of millions of dollars in investments, including increasing firefighting resources, fostering recovery efforts, conserving watersheds and funding wildfire mitigation incentives and outreach.
US President Joe Biden announced Thursday that the federal government is ready to assist Puerto Rico to rebound from Hurricane Fiona.

"We're all in this together," Biden said during a briefing with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials in New York.

In Puerto Rico, where Fiona triggered an island-wide blackout, Biden pointed out that hundreds of FEMA and other federal officials are already deployed, AP News reported.

Over 60 percent of electricity users were still without power on Thursday, and a third of customers were without water. Local officials were unable to determine when the services would be completely restored.

In his message, Biden told the people of Puerto Rico: "We're with you. We're not going to walk away."

Many Puerto Ricans are still aching from the onslaught of Hurricane Maria five years ago.

The latest hurricane was still a Category 4 late Thursday as it passed Bermuda. Authorities opened shelters and canceled schools and offices Friday.

Fiona was forecast to still be a massive and extremely deadly storm when it made landfall in the Atlantic provinces of Canada, most likely late on Friday.

Full Force Relief for Puerto Rico

The cost of Puerto Rico's hurricane Fiona recovery would be covered entirely by the federal government, according to President Joe Biden.

A day after Pres. Biden issued a major disaster declaration for Puerto Rico on Wednesday, the measure would expand federal assistance as funds will be available for debris cleanup, emergency protection, and other services.

"We're laser-focused on what's happening to the people of Puerto Rico," President Biden remarked.

Read Also: Trump Claims Presidents Can Declassify Documents With Just Their Minds

The federal government typically pays 75 percent, and in some circumstances 90 percent, of the cost of disaster recovery, with state and local governments picking up the remaining costs, according to Politico.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, the majority leader in the Senate, urged the federal government to pay the expenses on Tuesday, pointing out the poor financial situation of the Puerto Rican government.

Dire Situation for Puerto Ricans

Following Hurricane Fiona, hundreds of thousands of people in Puerto Rico are still without water and electricity. When it made landfall, Fiona was only a category 1 hurricane. Although it was moving slowly, some locations received more than 30 inches of rain, and the floods washed away roads, cutting off some mountain settlements.

A mudslide in the town of Orocovis prevented locals from getting food, water, and other essentials since the route was blocked. Local construction crews removed tons of soil, grass, and pebbles from the road. By Thursday, one road had been cleared, enabling several trucks carrying supplies of food, water, and fuel to enter the city.

The National Guard of Puerto Rico has visited remote villages to provide residents who are having problems getting into town with food and other supplies, as per an NPR report.

Corporal Alexis Cruz noted that they are "just trying to spread a little bit of happiness among all this mess."

According to Puerto Rico's water administration, more than two-thirds of its customers now have access to service. According to the island's power company, around 40% of its clients currently have access to electricity.

Related Article: US Air Force: Most US Servicemen Fear the Economic Pinch Than Adversaries

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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
By Ray McGovern

September 21, 2022: Information Clearing House -- " Anti War " In the official Chinese and Russian statements regarding Thursdays meeting between Presidents XI Jinping and Vladimir Putin in Samarkand lies not a scintilla of evidence that Chinas support for Putins invasion of Ukraine has weakened.

In my view, if Putin decides to up the ante in Ukraine, XI would be likely to support him. Most analysts of China doubt that this would extend to Chinas stirring up trouble in the South China Sea or opposite Taiwan, but most Chinese analysts did not expect China to tolerate, much less endorse, Russias invasion of Ukraine. So your guess is as good as mine.

Underneath the Dear Friend professions of solidarity lies a concrete-reinforced commitment, so to speak, indeed a China-Russia entente that bespeaks an intention to coordinate closely  including before any major military initiatives against the U.S. or its proxies.

Some of the mutual statements of solidarity may sound boilerplate, but it is important to remember that the boilerplate has acquired additional steel reinforcement, so to speak, in the crucible of this year 2022. Each country has pledged strong support for the others "core interests"  for Russia, re. Ukraine; for China, re. Taiwan.

The "core interest" mutual support was given prominence in the official Chinese readout of the Putin-Xi conversation:

"President XI emphasized that China will work with Russia to extend strong mutual support on issues concerning each others core interests.

"President Putin noted that the world is undergoing multiple changes, yet the only thing that remains unchanged is the friendship and mutual trust between Russia and China.

"The Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination is as stable as mountains.  The Russian side is firmly committed to the one-China principle and condemns provocative moves by individual countries on issues concerning Chinas core interests. Russia will consolidate and deepen bilateral and multilateral communication and collaboration with China and expand cooperation in key areas such as trade and energy."

In his remarks, Putin emphasized the "key role" played by "the foreign policy tandem of Moscow and Beijing" in ensuring global and regional stability and took another potshot at the undefined "rules-based" order promoted by Washington. He also expressed appreciation for "our Chinese friends balanced position in connection with the Ukraine crisis."

Putin also fleshed out the progress in Russias trade with China:

"Last year, trade grew by 35 percent to over $140 billion. In the first seven months of this year, our trade increased by another 25 percent. I am convinced that by the end of the year we will reach new record high levels, and in the near term, as agreed, we will bring our annual trade to $200 billion or more."

On a personal note, in the early 60s when I was responsible for analyzing Sino-Soviet relations, mutual trade amounted to $200 million. Granted: bilateral relations back then were in the pits. But still, $200 million to $200 billion is something we never imagined in our wildest dreams.

The Chinese and Russians can thank the reckless-feckless team of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, as well as their immediate predecessors for helping that increase to be as large as it it.

Finally, right after the Xi-Putin meeting yesterday, ABCs Martha Raddatz read the following words of wisdom into the TV camera:

"Given what has happened in Ukraine, with Russia losing territory and its forces exposed as weak and hapless, even if Russia gets nothing [from XI], the meeting will signal an anti-Western bond which is significant  it IS significant."

I believe Martha got that last part right. We shall have to wait and see how this all plays out regarding Ukraine and Taiwan.

Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. His 27-year career as a CIA analyst includes serving as Chief of the Soviet Foreign Policy Branch and preparer/briefer of the Presidents Daily Brief. He is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
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The medical tourism industry has been growing due to the many benefits of travelling for plastic surgery. Many U.S. residents seeking plastic surgery often travel to Canada and other nearby locations. Canada has seen a rise in rising for plastic surgery, so there is a need for more plastic surgeons to meet the demand. A study predicts that an adequate number of plastic surgeons will be trained within the next ten years to suit the population's requirements.

It can be helpful to travel abroad for plastic surgery as it provides access to a range of specialists, the potential to save money, and a chance to explore a new place. But there are a few questions you need to ask before you confirm your plastic surgery appointment and plan your trip.

How Do I Choose the Right Surgeon?

When you travel abroad for surgery, it's essential to familiarize yourself with the surgeons available in the area and determine what they can offer. The surgeon you choose plays a critical role in your surgery results. If you're considering travelling to Ontario, consider working with plastic surgeons in Mississauga and other cities in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

When looking for a surgeon with the necessary qualifications to perform the surgery you're interested in, ask about their experience and credentials. A reputable clinic will work with board-certified surgeons, simplifying your selection process.

Am I Saving Any Money?

You may want to compare surgery costs among different regions as it will help you narrow down your options when selecting a clinic. Find out what each clinic offers and how much their services will cost. It's important to remember that cheaper isn't always better regarding plastic surgery quality. Speak to a range of surgeons and clinics to find out all the costs associated with surgery and consider their expertise before choosing a clinic.

When Can I Travel Back Home?

Understanding your recovery timeline is one of the most important factors when travelling for surgery. Your recovery time will vary depending on the type of surgery being performed. Smaller, less intensive surgeries may have a shorter recovery time, whereas a more intensive surgery will have a more extended recovery period. It's essential to determine the timeline ahead of time to plan your trip accordingly.

Does the Clinic Use Advanced Equipment?

Ensuring your surgery is conducted in a clean, well-staffed, modern facility that uses advanced equipment is key to ensuring safe and effective surgery. It can be challenging for you to determine the quality of equipment a clinic uses based on photos, so you need to ask the clinic about the equipment they use directly. A reputable clinic that uses high-quality equipment will not hesitate to answer your questions.

How Will I Receive Follow-up Care?

You may face difficulties accessing your surgeon for follow-up care when you travel back home. The best way to handle this issue is by discussing potential follow-up appointments with your surgeon in advance, allowing you to plan your trip and time off work accordingly. You might even be able to transfer your medical records to a local doctor if you want to seek follow-up care after travelling back home.

Travelling abroad for plastic surgery has many benefits, due to which Canada has been witnessing a demand for medical tourism. However, it's important to stay informed and ask the right questions to ensure a seamless process.

See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare
By Kamal Uddin Mazumder*

As the Indo-Pacific region represents the worlds economic and strategic center of gravity, the Indian Ocean today is becoming the centerpiece of all geo-strategic play. Cooperation in the region is crucial to implementing the international communitys global agenda, including achieving the UNs Sustainable Development Goals. Major powers like the US have enhanced and deepened their strategic engagement and leadership roles with countries in the region.

Military diplomacy

Since 1988, Bangladesh has participated in 54 peacekeeping missions in 40 different countries across 5 continents

Because of the prolonged stay of more than 1 million Rohingya refugees in crowded camps, the economy, environment, security, and socio-political stability in the region will be seriously affected. A delegation of top military officials from 24 countries, including the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, Indonesia, India, China, and Vietnam, visited the sprawling Rohingya refugee camps in Coxs Bazar, where Rohingyas expressed their desire to go back to their home country of Myanmars Rakhine State and not to any third country.



Positive role The Bangladesh military's positive and active role has earned the nation an international reputation with political and diplomatic mileage. The Armed Forces of Bangladesh have glorified the country on the global stage through their brilliant participation in UN peacekeeping missions.

As the UN peacekeeping operations have been evolving continuously, Bangladesh has regularly been carrying out the performance appraisal of its peacekeepers and taking measures to cope with future challenges. Despite being a late entrant (in 1988) as a troop contributor, Bangladesh has emerged as a credible UN partner over the last three decades.

Since 1988, Bangladesh has participated in 54 peacekeeping missions in 40 different countries across 5 continents with more than 175,000 uniformed personnel, including over 1,800 female peacekeepers. Currently, there are over 7,000 troops and police deployed in 10 missions (as per data from the Armed Forces Division).

Praising the Bangladesh Army, US Army General Charles A. Flynn said: "The Bangladesh Army is known for its leadership globally because of its contributions to UN peacekeeping operations. Its peacekeeping campus and training center are not just known within the region, they are known internationally. There are many, many things that the US Army and so many other armies can learn from the experiences of the Bangladeshi Army in their international and global commitment to humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and peacekeeping operations. "

This acknowledgment has once again proved that our armed forces are a vital factor in upholding global peace and are able to keep our country safe from the subversive activities of internal and external enemies.

Last but not least, this conference is a critical opportunity to connect with the worlds military leaders to foster alliance partnerships and cooperative relationships. It is expected that dialogues like these will further strengthen ties between the Indo-Pacific countries and the Bangladesh Army and increase possibilities for mutual cooperation to cope with recent challenges in order for the region to move forward in a secure and sustainable manner.

---

*Researcher and Security Affairs Analyst, Dhaka The members of the group witnessed the plight of the Rohingyas firsthand and developed a "clear perception" of the gravity of the refugee crisis and the need for their repatriation to Myanmar.

The Indo-Pacific Army Management Seminar, or IPAMS, is a U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC) initiated conference that is aimed at facilitating and enhancing interactions among the armies of the Indo-Pacific region. This year's 46th Indo-Pacific Armies Management Seminar (IPAMS)-2022, co-hosted by the Bangladesh Army and US Army Pacific (USARPAC), concluded in Dhaka.The objective of IPAMS is to promote peace and stability in the region through mutual understanding, dialogue, and friendship. It is the largest conference for land forces in the region and one of the preeminent army engagements that provide a platform for the senior military leadership of Indo-Pacific regional ground forces to exchange views and opinions on peace and stability.This year's conference brought together senior officers of the military forces of 24 countries. Under the theme of "Possibilities and Challenges for Maintaining Peace and Security in the Indo-Pacific Region," the main focus of the event was "robust peacekeeping," "women empowerment," and "land power in regional cooperation."Apart from these, peacekeeping operations, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, leadership development, countering transnational crime, and empowering women are being discussed. This is the third time Bangladesh has hosted the conference. Previously, Bangladesh co-hosted the event in 1993 and 2014. This is also the first time since 2019 that regional armies have gathered for the annual forum because of the global pandemic.Bangladesh has historically been part of ancient Indo-Pacific connectivity. It is indeed in Bangladeshs interest to advocate and work for an open, resilient and interconnected Indo-Pacific. In a broader sense, its own continuing sustainability as an independent, sovereign, prosperous nation-state depends on this idea.With close to 40 nations comprising its make-up, the Indo-Pacific region covers more than half of the earths surface, home to 60% of the worlds population producing 60% of global GDP, contributing two-thirds of current global growth. By 2030, the overwhelming majority (90%) of the 2.4 billion new members of the middle class entering the global economy will live in the Indo-Pacific.Seven of the worlds 10 largest armies are in the region where border disputes and sovereignty concerns are headline events. Therefore, maintaining peace and security across the region is central to global progress.However, in the Indo-Pacific Army Management Seminar the senior army leaders of the regions engaged in discussions participated in plenary sessions and listened to distinguished guest speakers as they worked out how to improve relationships between national armies and work together to achieve sustainable security in the region.The conference brings army senior leaders together to discuss differences, establish trust, mitigate miscalculations, resolve challenges, and find commonality among multinational-professional soldiers.There are issues that cannot be solved in isolation by just one or two countries. This platform allows military leaders from all the countries in the region to get together, share their ideas, and find a collective solution to pressing and immediate problems. The relationships developed throughout the seminar and through Army-to-Army engagements would help to identify issues of common interest for arriving at pragmatic multi-lateral solutions, and dealing with the escalating threats.Trust should also be built at the strategic level. So, in promoting regional stability in the Indo-Pacific, the armies need to work together with the public sector in policy-making and lay out a development foundation that links economic and social development with the protection of the environment and natural resources. The IPAMS promotes network building among military chiefs at all levels to join forces in coping with the world's various changes and challenges for sustainable advancement of the region.The forums provide a unique opportunity to advance understanding of key issues while showing respect for each others role in promoting security and stability. It would build interpersonal relations, mutual trust, and confidence among the ground forces in the region, which would reduce tensions, enabling the discussion of issues of common interest and concerns.The 46th IPAMS-2022 brings the aspiration of fostering sustained peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region through enhanced cooperation, mutual trust and confidence, and strong bondage among the land forces of the participating countries."The IPAMS can create a sense of friendship and warmth so that peace and stability prevail in the region," PM Sheikh Hasina said while addressing the opening ceremony of the seminar. Charles A. Flynn, commanding general of the U.S. Army Pacific, assured that the United States will cooperate with Bangladesh and other Indo-pacific countries to ensure the security of this important region.The meetings are yet another symbol of the close cooperation between Bangladesh and the United States. It also paved the way for stronger cooperation between the armies of the two countries. The Bangladesh Army Chief said:"The US Army is one of the best in the world and very developed. Working together will give the Bangladesh army a lot of scope to learn. We always find opportunities to learn from each other's experiences, and I always believe that when there is room for improvement. This conference is very encouraging and will strengthen the US-Bangladesh relationship to greater heights.While the militaries of the participating countries discussed disaster management, transnational crime, security issues, and women's empowerment, the issue of Rohingya refugees who have fled from violence in Myanmar is not overlooked. It is undeniable that since the Rohingya crisis erupted in the Indo-Pacific regions heartland, it has all the potential to directly threaten the peace and stability in the region.
September 21, 2022: Information Clearing House -- The subject of this address is the situation in Donbass and the course of the special military operation to liberate it from the neo-Nazi regime, which seized power in Ukraine in 2014 as the result of an armed state coup.

Today I am addressing you  all citizens of our country, people of different generations, ages and ethnicities, the people of our great Motherland, all who are united by the great historical Russia, soldiers, officers and volunteers who are fighting on the frontline and doing their combat duty, our brothers and sisters in the Donetsk and Lugansk peoples republics, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions and other areas that have been liberated from the neo-Nazi regime.

The issue concerns the necessary, imperative measures to protect the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Russia and support the desire and will of our compatriots to choose their future independently, and the aggressive policy of some Western elites, who are doing their utmost to preserve their domination and with this aim in view are trying to block and suppress any sovereign and independent development centres in order to continue to aggressively force their will and pseudo-values on other countries and nations.

The goal of that part of the West is to weaken, divide and ultimately destroy our country. They are saying openly now that in 1991 they managed to split up the Soviet Union and now is the time to do the same to Russia, which must be divided into numerous regions that would be at deadly feud with each other.

They devised these plans long ago. They encouraged groups of international terrorists in the Caucasus and moved NATOs offensive infrastructure close to our borders. They used indiscriminate Russophobia as a weapon, including by nurturing the hatred of Russia for decades, primarily in Ukraine, which was designed to become an anti-Russia bridgehead. They turned the Ukrainian people into cannon fodder and pushed them into a war with Russia, which they unleashed back in 2014. They used the army against civilians and organised a genocide, blockade and terror against those who refused to recognise the government that was created in Ukraine as the result of a state coup.

After the Kiev regime publicly refused to settle the issue of Donbass peacefully and went as far as to announce its ambition to possess nuclear weapons, it became clear that a new offensive in Donbass  there were two of them before  was inevitable, and that it would be inevitably followed by an attack on Russias Crimea, that is, on Russia.

In this connection, the decision to start a pre-emptive military operation was necessary and the only option. The main goal of this operation, which is to liberate the whole of Donbass, remains unaltered.

The Lugansk Peoples Republic has been liberated from the neo-Nazis almost completely. Fighting in the Donetsk Peoples Republic continues. Over the previous eight years, the Kiev occupation regime created a deeply echeloned line of permanent defences. A head-on attack against them would have led to heavy losses, which is why our units, as well as the forces of the Donbass republics, are acting competently and systematically, using military equipment and saving lives, moving step by step to liberate Donbass, purge cities and towns of the neo-Nazis, and help the people whom the Kiev regime turned into hostages and human shields.

As you know, professional military personnel serving under contract are taking part in the special military operation. Fighting side by side with them are volunteer units  people of different ethnicities, professions and ages who are real patriots. They answered the call of their hearts to rise up in defence of Russia and Donbass.

In this connection, I have already issued instructions for the Government and the Defence Ministry to determine the legal status of volunteers and personnel of the military units of the Donetsk and Lugansk peoples republics. It must be the same as the status of military professionals of the Russian army, including material, medical and social benefits. Special attention must be given to organising the supply of military and other equipment for volunteer units and Donbass peoples militia.

While acting to attain the main goals of defending Donbass in accordance with the plans and decisions of the Defence Ministry and the General Staff, our troops have liberated considerable areas in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions and a number of other areas. This has created a protracted line of contact that is over 1,000 kilometres long.

This is what I would like to make public for the first time today. After the start of the special military operation, in particular after the Istanbul talks, Kiev representatives voiced quite a positive response to our proposals. These proposals concerned above all ensuring Russias security and interests. But a peaceful settlement obviously did not suit the West, which is why, after certain compromises were coordinated, Kiev was actually ordered to wreck all these agreements.

More weapons were pumped into Ukraine. The Kiev regime brought into play new groups of foreign mercenaries and nationalists, military units trained according to NATO standards and receiving orders from Western advisers.

At the same time, the regime of reprisals throughout Ukraine against their own citizens, established immediately after the armed coup in 2014, was harshly intensified. The policy of intimidation, terror and violence is taking on increasingly mass-scale, horrific and barbaric forms.

I want to stress the following. We know that the majority of people living in the territories liberated from the neo-Nazis, and these are primarily the historical lands of Novorossiya, do not want to live under the yoke of the neo-Nazi regime. People in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, in Lugansk and Donetsk saw and are seeing now the atrocities perpetrated by the neo-Nazis in the [Ukrainian-] occupied areas of the Kharkov region. The descendants of Banderites and members of Nazi punitive expeditions are killing, torturing and imprisoning people; they are settling scores, beating up, and committing outrages on peaceful civilians.

There were over 7.5 million people living in the Donetsk and Lugansk peoples republics and in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions before the outbreak of hostilities. Many of them were forced to become refugees and leave their homes. Those who have stayed  they number about five million  are now exposed to artillery and missile attacks launched by the neo-Nazi militants, who fire at hospitals and schools and stage terrorist attacks against peaceful civilians.

We cannot, we have no moral right to let our kin and kith be torn to pieces by butchers; we cannot but respond to their sincere striving to decide their destiny on their own.

The parliaments of the Donbass peoples republics and the military-civilian administrations of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions have adopted decisions to hold referendums on the future of their territories and have appealed to Russia to support this.

I would like to emphasise that we will do everything necessary to create safe conditions for these referendums so that people can express their will. And we will support the choice of future made by the majority of people in the Donetsk and Lugansk peoples republics and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.

Friends,

Today our armed forces, as I have mentioned, are fighting on the line of contact that is over 1,000 kilometres long, fighting not only against neo-Nazi units but actually the entire military machine of the collective West.

In this situation, I consider it necessary to take the following decision, which is fully adequate to the threats we are facing. More precisely, I find it necessary to support the proposal of the Defence Ministry and the General Staff on partial mobilisation in the Russian Federation to defend our Motherland and its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to ensure the safety of our people and people in the liberated territories.

As I have said, we are talking about partial mobilisation. In other words, only military reservists, primarily those who served in the armed forces and have specific military occupational specialties and corresponding experience, will be called up.

Before being sent to their units, those called up for active duty will undergo mandatory additional military training based on the experience of the special military operation.

I have already signed Executive Order on partial mobilisation.

In accordance with legislation, the houses of the Federal Assembly  the Federation Council and the State Duma  will be officially notified about this in writing today.

The mobilisation will begin today, September 21. I am instructing the heads of the regions to provide the necessary assistance to the work of military recruitment offices.

I would like to point out that the citizens of Russia called up in accordance with the mobilisation order will have the status, payments and all social benefits of military personnel serving under contract.

Additionally, the Executive Order on partial mobilisation also stipulates additional measures for the fulfilment of the state defence order. The heads of defence industry enterprises will be directly responsible for attaining the goals of increasing the production of weapons and military equipment and using additional production facilities for this purpose. At the same time, the Government must address without any delay all aspects of material, resource and financial support for our defence enterprises.

Friends,

The West has gone too far in its aggressive anti-Russia policy, making endless threats to our country and people. Some irresponsible Western politicians are doing more than just speak about their plans to organise the delivery of long-range offensive weapons to Ukraine, which could be used to deliver strikes at Crimea and other Russian regions.

Such terrorist attacks, including with the use of Western weapons, are being delivered at border areas in the Belgorod and Kursk regions. NATO is conducting reconnaissance through Russias southern regions in real time and with the use of modern systems, aircraft, vessels, satellites and strategic drones.

Washington, London and Brussels are openly encouraging Kiev to move the hostilities to our territory. They openly say that Russia must be defeated on the battlefield by any means, and subsequently deprived of political, economic, cultural and any other sovereignty and ransacked.

They have even resorted to the nuclear blackmail. I am referring not only to the Western-encouraged shelling of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, which poses a threat of a nuclear disaster, but also to the statements made by some high-ranking representatives of the leading NATO countries on the possibility and admissibility of using weapons of mass destruction  nuclear weapons  against Russia.

I would like to remind those who make such statements regarding Russia that our country has different types of weapons as well, and some of them are more modern than the weapons NATO countries have. In the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country and to defend Russia and our people, we will certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us. This is not a bluff.

The citizens of Russia can rest assured that the territorial integrity of our Motherland, our independence and freedom will be defended  I repeat  by all the systems available to us. Those who are using nuclear blackmail against us should know that the wind rose can turn around.

It is our historical tradition and the destiny of our nation to stop those who are keen on global domination and threaten to split up and enslave our Motherland. Rest assured that we will do it this time as well.

I believe in your support.
Question Everything! Purpose and Intent of this website: Russia is not Bluffing - Putin Watch Russia FM rejects Western accusations on Ukraine at Security Council Watch Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday rejected Western accusations at a UN Security Council session on abuses in Ukraine, calling instead for punishment of Kyiv's government. 09//22/2022 Biden UN Speech Ukraine's President Zelenskyy addresses the United Nations General Assembly 9/21/22 UK Prime Minister Truss addresses the United Nations General Assembly 09/21/22 Views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House. 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
Home Search ICH Question Everything! Purpose and Intent of this website: When it comes to nuclear war, there is no pill for regret By Global Times Is the "spectre of a nuclear war" looming? With the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the international community has a growing sense of crisis over a possible outbreak of a nuclear war. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently noted that high-level officials from NATO had threatened to use nuclear weapons against Russia. Russia possesses "lots of weapons to reply," Putin said, while stressing that this is not a bluff. In addition, at the Tenth Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that we are facing "a time of nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War."



Nuclear weapons are the most lethal weapons. If an incontrollable nuclear war breaks out, it will bring human society into the abyss of destruction. A recently released study shows that a full-scale nuclear war between the US and Russia would lead to deaths of more than 5 billion people worldwide.



Now, a dangerous signal is emerging: Whether or not the parties are venting anger or talking big, the frequency of discussions on nuclear weapons is increasing. But nuclear weapons are by no means a grenade that can be tied up on the waist, and taken out to show off at one's whim to scare people. The spiral escalation of war is often unpredictable. On the issue of nuclear war, there is no pill for regret.



Therefore, it is imperative for relevant parties to cool down the situation as soon as possible and create conditions for promoting peace talks. It should be noted that the current "nuclear tension" stems from a strong sense of insecurity in geopolitical games. An important reason is that the possibility of conflict between major powers is on the rise, and global strategic stability is being swayed rapidly. And a simple truth is that the more peaceful and stable the environment is, the thicker the dust will be on nuclear weapons. But once the world is caught in the vicious circle of "seeking greater security - becoming less secure - wishing more for absolute security," nuclear weapons will be likely taken out and polished.



To make matters worse, the nuclear non-proliferation system is more fragile than ever. In this regard, the US and the West should bear the main responsibility. Over the years, the "nuclear double standards" of the US and the West have been like a needle, which pricks on the global nuclear non-proliferation efforts, forming loopholes one after another, resulting in lower nuclear threshold and a predicament in which it is difficult to prevent nuclear proliferation.



In addition, the US, driven by the Cold War mindset, has strengthened bloc politics and military alliances, sought absolute strategic advantage, provoked confrontation between camps in both ends of the Eurasian continent, and promoted the forward deployment of nuclear missile and other strategic forces. The series of negative moves is the crux of the "nuclear tension."



Today, Washington is the most active player in the international arena in expressing "concerns" about nuclear war. We believe that if Washington means what it says, as a nuclear power and the world's only superpower, it should do more by taking concrete actions to alleviate the sense of insecurity in the international community, especially among the major powers.



For instance, it can stop developing and deploying global anti-missile systems, stop seeking to deploy ground-based intermediate-range missile systems overseas, withdrawing nuclear weapons deployed abroad as soon as possible, and refraining from replicating "nuclear sharing" arrangements in any form in the Asia-Pacific region, etc. Only if the US does these first will it be in a position to issue demands on others.



The US and Russia, which possess the largest nuclear arsenals, should effectively fulfill their special and preferential historical responsibility for nuclear disarmament and further reduce their respective nuclear arsenals significantly and substantially in a verifiable, irreversible and legally binding manner, so as to create conditions for the eventual achievement of all-out and complete nuclear disarmament. Furthermore, we call on the nuclear-weapon states to abandon their nuclear deterrence strategies that focus on pre-emptive strikes. As is well known, China is the only one among the five nuclear-weapon states to have pledged to "no first use" of nuclear weapons. It will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states or nuclear-weapon-free zones. It plays an extremely important role in reducing nuclear risks and preventing nuclear conflicts. We hope other nuclear-weapon states, especially the nuclear powers, could follow China's lead.



Earlier this year, the leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states, including China, Russia, the US, the UK and France, issued the Joint Statement of the Leaders of the Five Nuclear-Weapon States on Preventing Nuclear War and Avoiding Arms Races, affirming that "a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought." The prevention of nuclear war is fundamental to maintaining global strategic stability and ensuring undiminished security for all. Only in this way can the nuclear weapons at hand "serve defense purposes, deter aggression, and prevent war," and create a safe environment more conducive to promoting disarmament and ultimately building a world free of nuclear weapons. Views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House. 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.
By Finian Cunningham

September 23, 2022: Information Clearing House -- " Strategic Culture" Foundation " - Helen Caldicott warns that the sharpening military confrontation between the United States and Russia puts global security, peace and ultimately our very existence in more danger than ever before.

Helen Caldicott, a world-renowned author and film-maker, warns that the sharpening military confrontation between the United States and Russia puts global security, peace and ultimately our very existence in more danger than ever before. The U.S. has gutted arms-control treaties one after another, and its NATO allies have long-pushed Russia into an existential predicament.

Based now in her native Australia, she also deplores how successive governments in Canberra have pandered to the relentless U.S. agenda of antagonism towards China and Russia. She says this subordination and lack of independent foreign policy is undermining Australias national economy and eroding peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region.

Dr Helen Caldicott was born in Melbourne in 1938. She is an M.D. and author of several books including Sleepwalking to Armageddon. A recipient of multiple international awards, she also has been the subject of several films, including Eight Minutes to Midnight, nominated for an Academy Award in 1981 for best documentary feature.

Interview

Question: As a seasoned campaigner for global nuclear disarmament are you more or less concerned by the danger of a catastrophic war erupting today compared with earlier times?

Helen Caldicott: Yes, we have never been closer to nuclear annihilation now since the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. I knew Robert McNamara who was President Kennedys secretary of defense and was in the Oval Office at the time of the crisis, and he later said to me, Helen, we came so close, to within three minutes of nuclear war.

Question: What factors do you see as increasing the risk of a world war and nuclear conflagration?

Helen Caldicott: Well, for the first time since the Cuban missile crisis, the two nuclear powers, each armed with thousands of nuclear weapons, many on hair-trigger alert, are opposing each other on the battle field, and as the United States has refused to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin who asked that the Ukraine not join NATO and for the U.S. to remove the missiles placed in the NATO countries, targeted on Russia, Putin has his back to the wall, and at some point, as he has suggested, could use a small tactical nuclear bomb which would vaporize and burn hundreds and thousands of people with many more dying of acute radiation illness, and that action could well trigger a nuclear response from the U.S., which could then escalate into full-scale nuclear war.

However, I will add here that Putins invasion of the Ukraine and the dreadful killing that is going on makes my heart sick.

Question: Do you view the United States as having an onerous responsibility for undermining world peace given that it is the U.S. that has primarily abandoned key arms-control treaties, such as the ABM, INF, and Open Skies Treaty?

Helen Caldicott: Yes, I do. I do not understand their motivation except that if one examines the neocons who have always hated Russia even though it is now a capitalist country, including Victoria Nuland, Robert Kagan, Antony Blinken and others whom Biden has elevated to his cabinet, we are in serious trouble. These people are well funded by the ever-powerful military-industrial complex which profits enormously from all wars including of course the Ukraine.

Question: More than 30 years after the supposed end of the Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union  and high promises back then of historic peace dividends  the world seems to be polarizing under the U.S.-led NATO military bloc. What accounts for this seeming anachronism and lack of global peace dividend?

Helen Caldicott: Well, the end of the Cold War did not suit the American military-industrial complex at all, so Norman Augustine, head of Lockheed Martin, set off on a crusade to persuade the newly liberated countries to join NATO and to become democracies, and in so doing they each had to spend millions of dollars equipping themselves with weapons, purchased of course from Lockheed Martin et al. So the peace dividend disappeared. And NATO, which is actually the US, has surrounded the southern border of Russia with missiles targeting Russia. No wonder Putin is deeply concerned. Guess what the U.S. would do if the Warsaw Pact had set up a similar situation on its northern border in Canada. It probably would blow up the world as it came close to doing during the Cuban missile crisis.

Question: U.S. President Joe Biden recently made his first trip to the Asia-Pacific region, or what Washington now refers to as Indo-Pacific. Are you reassured by Bidens declaration of the U.S. defending the rules-based order?

Helen Caldicott: I dont even know what the so-called rules-based order is. Obviously, something dreamt up by the US. Somehow America thinks in its naivety, stupidity and arrogance that it needs to control the world militarily. It now has over 800 military bases in 80 countries and has metastasized like cancer throughout the world

Question: Are you concerned that Australia is being sucked into a U.S.-led militaristic confrontation with China?

Helen Caldicott: Yes, I am, and our politicians in Australia seem to blindly accept the U.S. dictates, even Im very afraid, our new Labor government.

We already host Pine Gap, a sophisticated CIA base in the middle of our country which is the nidus of control of the U.S. strategic arsenal and would coordinate a nuclear war with Russia. Gough Whitlam, our former PM (Labor, 1972-75) was about to name the operatives at Pine Gap the next day in parliament when he was removed from office by the then Governor-General Sir John Kerr.

We also are hosting U.S. Marines in Darwin, the U.S. has a naval facility in Western Australia called Northwest Cape, and we have participated in American wars, including Iraq, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, etc.

Question: Notably, Australias new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (Labor party) made it his first duty in office to attend the Quad summit in Japan where he voiced strong support for U.S. policies towards China and Russia. Albaneses predecessor Scott Morrison (Liberal party) was a staunch promoter of U.S. interests and antagonism towards China. What is the outlook for the new government in Canberra in terms of international relations?

Helen Caldicott: Well, we will have to wait and see. I am, though, very nervous that they will follow the U.S. in its antagonism towards China regarding Taiwan and Hong Kong. Already the U.S. is provoking China by sending more military vessels into the South China Sea

Question: How do you think the Australian public judges the recent policies of various governments in Canberra? Regardless of nominal differing political stripes, the official position of Australia appears to be one of undermining international security by promoting U.S. adversarial relations with China. This is also undermining Australias economic relations with China. Does the public see this apparent anomaly of their governments acting in a way that erodes economic development and the living conditions of Australian workers by damaging relations with China, the countrys biggest trading partner?

Helen Caldicott: Well, our previous PM Scott Morrison (2018-22) goaded China by implying that Covid originated in a lab in Wuhan, and the Chinese government was so annoyed that they cut off trading wine, barley, beef, lobsters, coal, cotton and other important exports from Australia which has really hit our economy.

Question: One might wonder why Australians voted for one party over another if there is not much fundamental difference in terms of important foreign policies?

Helen Caldicott: Yes, I am wondering that also, but as our media is almost totally controlled by one private owner, Rupert Murdoch, the people are not really well-educated, informed or up-to-date with these policies and events.

However, to my great relief and that of others, the Greens now hold the balance of power in the Senate and many independent candidates, mainly intelligent, powerful women, also won many seats in the lower house, and so the new prime minister will have to negotiate with them. So although things look grim, there may be some improvement in policies. Although I doubt much will change regarding our relationship with the U.S. and its war-like policies.
U.S. rotten legacy in Afghanistan exposes ugly truth behind its foreign aid

Xinhua) 15:29, September 23, 2022

BEIJING, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Farid, a local Afghan bus driver, just arrived in Kabul from the country's southern Kandahar province.

"The road is completely broken," the 35-year-old grumbled after bumping along the Kabul-Kandahar highway. "If the road were in a good condition, I would have arrived in four hours, but now it takes 12 hours."

Nineteen years after its completion, the Kabul-Kandahar highway is in dilapidated condition from poor construction, years of landmine explosions, heavily loaded trucks and a lack of maintenance.

Once the showpiece of America's reconstruction effort in Afghanistan, the 483-km highway, at a cost of at least 300 million U.S. dollars, has now become a glaring symbol of America's failures.

"U.S. once spent billions of dollars in Afghanistan but everything has been wasted and stolen," Farid moaned.

Since 2001, Washington has sent more aid in Afghanistan than in any country ever, allocating 145 billion dollars for reconstruction, aid programs and the Afghan security forces.

However, U.S. aid to developing countries has never been aimed at promoting the economic development and social progress of recipient countries, but as a means of exporting American values and instigating internal changes in other countries, analysts say.

SO-CALLED "AFGHANISTAN RECONSTRUCTION"

In October 2001, the United States launched the war in Afghanistan to defeat al-Qaeda and its Taliban hosts. In the following 20 years, Washington has poured massive resources in the landlocked country, backing its government, training its army. But as yet the upshot of it all has been far from what was intended.

The foreign aid-built infrastructure in Afghanistan, including roads, schools and health facilities, is not a self-sustaining private sector, critics point out.

The money often went into projects that were "not sustainable with existing Afghan revenues or other ways they could support it going forward without the U.S.," according to Brown University's Professor Catherine Lutz.

Much of the aid flowed through U.S. contractors to allay the U.S. prime concerns, such as counterinsurgency and counterterrorism, in contrast with meagre scraps reaching Afghans and Afghan-owned businesses.

In his 2010 memoir, "Decision Points," former U.S. President George W. Bush wrote that Washington had a moral obligation to leave behind something better. "We also had a strategic interest in helping the Afghan people build a free society," he wrote.

But two decades later, Afghanistan is more volatile, divided and impoverished than it was in 2001, with terrorist groups still rampant, transnational crimes including drug trafficking posing a huge threat to national security and more than half of the Afghan population in need of humanitarian assistance.

America during its presence in Afghanistan frequently described its mission as fighting terrorism, building governing system, ensuring security and building infrastructure, but "we Afghans can't see it in our life," said Najibullah Jami, a professor of politics and international relations at Kabul University.

"Instead of improving our living conditions, America had dropped bombs on, killed and arrested Afghans, created enmity between Afghanistan and its neighboring countries, and backed extremist groups in central Asia," he said.

"America's 20-year presence in Afghanistan had no results. All of them were here for their own interests," said Khair Mohammad, a local Afghan in his sixties. Mohammad makes a living by helping others lift heavy items but can only earn 2,000 afghani (22 dollars) per month at most.

Adding to the Afghan people's sufferings was Washington's confiscation of 9.5 billion dollars in Afghanistan's currency reserves last year, which is equivalent to about 40 percent of its economy. This, coupled with the U.S. sanctions on the Taliban, is paralyzing Afghan banks and plunging the country deeper into an economic and humanitarian crisis.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, over 24 million people -- more than half of the Afghan population -- are in need of humanitarian assistance in 2022, an increase of 30 percent from last year.

"Twenty years ago when Americans came to Afghanistan, we didn't have electricity and we don't have it now. Twenty years ago, poor people didn't have houses and they don't have houses now either," said Nasir Ahmad Amiri, a teacher at a disability rehabilitation center in Kabul.

"U.S. gave the aid because of the expansion of its hegemony, presence and survival in Afghanistan. When U.S. left Afghanistan, it took everything away," said the 50-year-old man.

"The U.S. presence in Afghanistan under the name of democracy was a deception," said political analyst Abdul Nasir Rishtia.

STAGNANT INFRASTRUCTURE PLANS

Besides Afghanistan, the United States has tried to woo developing countries in other regions into its camp by presenting aid programs, but few of them prove to be trustworthy.

In June, U.S. President Joe Biden announced the G7's Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) initiative, pledging to mobilize by 2027 600 billion dollars in public and private funding for developing countries in four areas: health and health security, digital connectivity, gender equality and equity, and climate and energy security.

However, the PGII, according to analysts, is nothing new but a rebranding of the Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative, put forward at the 2021 G7 summit to "help narrow the 40+ trillion dollars infrastructure need in the developing world."

Since its launch, the B3W has "languished" with announced projects worth "a paltry 6 million dollars," a far cry from the billions Biden has promised, said Foreign Affairs in an article published in June.

"There is a generalized agreement that B3W has not delivered what it promised," said Jorge Heine, former Chilean ambassador to China.

As a result of internal challenges and Washington's underlying aim of exerting influence on other countries, the PGII is facing a grim prospect, analysts say.

Domestically, due to the strong opposition of Republicans and months of Democrat infighting, a roughly 2 trillion-dollar domestic infrastructure plan unveiled in 2021 was finally reduced to 1 trillion dollars, and the United States itself faces 2.59 trillion dollars shortfall in infrastructure needs from 2020 to 2029.

"The question is, if the U.S. Congress won't put up hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild its own country, how might Biden convince lawmakers to offer comparable amounts to build infrastructure in other countries?" said a South China Morning Post columnist.

Given possible risks, U.S. private companies have little appetite for investing overseas. The approach of the PGII is actually "a gamble," said Conor Savoy, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonprofit policy research organization headquartered in Washington.

"To date, this notion remains more promise than reality," he wrote in an article in June.

Observers say the fundamental purpose of Washington's global infrastructure projects, including the B3W and the PGII, is to exert influence on other countries.

The country has "often worked to overthrow democratically elected governments that didn't follow a course that business interests in the U.S. wanted," said Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research based in Washington.

The United States completely ignores African reality and puts its interests above those of Africans, Bissau-Guinean international politics commentator Seco Cassama told Xinhua.

"It only wants hegemony in Africa," he said.

VACCINE NATIONALISM

Apart from development aid, Washington has long boasted about its efforts to provide humanitarian aid to other countries, such as COVID-19 vaccines. Actually, the United States has become "one of the world's leading practitioners of vaccine nationalism," the Harvard Political Review reported.

By February 2021, Washington has hoarded 1.11 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines, far more than 656.4 million for two doses for every American, and its surplus doses were estimated to reach 1.27 billion by the end of 2022, reports said.

Though Washington has pledged since June 2021 to donate at least 1.1 billion doses of vaccines, only 616.6 million doses have been delivered to date, data from the U.S. State Department showed.

The United States also exported vaccines very close to expiration to Africa, leading some African countries to destroy them and even refuse its further donations.

For instance, early donations of AstraZeneca shots to Africa often arrived with little time left before they expired. It is reported that a batch of 191,000 AstraZeneca vaccines rejected by South Africa and reallocated to South Sudan last year arrived there just two weeks before their expiry date. Some 59,000 vaccines were destroyed as a result.

The African Vaccine Acquisition Trust, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and COVAX issued a joint statement last November, calling for "predictable and reliable" donations, while the United States discarded 82.1 million vaccine doses from December 2020 through mid-May in 2022, just over 11 percent of the doses the federal government distributed, NBC News reported.

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Liang Jun)
More Disinformation from Israel



Biden caves to Jewish pressure, as usual



By Philip Giraldi

September 23, 2022: Information Clearing House -- Joe Biden ran for president in 2020 with a pledge to restore the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran, which Donald Trump had withdrawn from in May 2018 under pressure from Republican Party Jewish donors, most notably underwritten by an estimated $100 million coming from now deceased Sheldon Adelsons Las Vegas casino fortune. The JCPOA might plausibly be regarded as the only major diplomatic success for the Barack Obama Administration, which featured Biden as Vice President, and it was good for the US due to its curb on proliferation, as well as being a benefit for the entire Middle East region as it made less likely a weapons of mass destruction arms race involving the Egyptians and Saudis.

Predictably, however, the pledge did not please the state of Israel. For three decades, Israel has been urging the United States to use force to eliminate what it refers to as the Iranian nuclear weapons program, a program that does not exist and might never have existed. The nuclear weapons threat raised by Israel might be seen as a disinformational wedge issue to bring about the complete destruction of the Iranian military capability by the United States. Israel seeks to exploit its influence over the US government and media to bring that about.

To be sure, weakening Iran and possibly even replacing its government is the most compelling issue for Israel and its powerful US domestic lobby, but the Israeli plan is much broader than that, to make the United States the junior partner providing the money and weapons in an effort to militarily dominate the Middle East. Knowing that both Donald Trump and Joe Biden were willing to concede actual US national interests in response to Israeli pressure, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his replacement Yair Lapid have sent waves of top-level officials to cajole both Congress and the White House into giving Jerusalem whatever it wants.

This flow of experts arriving with their maps and charts in hand has increased as the realization that a politically weak and clueless Joe Biden will cave under even the slightest pressure has grown. Biden has demonstrated particular gutlessness in his recent failure to seek a full investigation and consequences for the Israeli Army murder of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, deferring to Israels complete unwillingness to establish some form of accountability and Prime Minister Lapids declaration that the current level of his armys use of force against the Palestinians will continue. Biden has also backed down on rejoining the JCPOA, declaring that the issue is now off the table. Secretary of State Tony Blinken has confirmed that decision, declaring that any new arrangement with Iran is unlikely.

Preceding the Administrations decision to ignore American interests in deference to Israeli concerns, there were frequent visits to Washington by Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz and also by other senior officials who arrived in DC to sell a product. The latest pitch involves the Iranian threat and the continuation of a free hand to attack neighboring Syria but there also has been a bizarre drive to have the US State Department declare that the Palestinian civic and human rights organizations that Israel has been shutting down are terrorist organizations. Even though a US intelligence and law enforcement agency review has declared that not to be the case, the Biden team is predictably waffling under Israeli pressure. This is how State Department spokesman Ned Pencil Neck Price responded to a question regarding the Israeli claims: Our Israeli partners have in recent days provided us with additional information. They provided this information not only to the department but also to a range of our interagency partners. We are continuing to review this and that process is ongoing. Price added that he didnt want to prejudge the information. Pretty gutless Ned, huh? Even for you, who also excused the killing of Abu Akleh, saying it was a horrific tragedy, but not one that should be prosecuted. This was not an intentional, targeted killing. This was the tragic result of a gunfight in the context of an Israeli raid in the West Bank. Interestingly, Ned surely knew that there was no gunfight anywhere near where she was killed, which makes him a liar as well as a man bereft of any morality. And I love the fact that Ned declares we Americans are partners with Israel. Junior partners, clearly.

Israel has never provided any actual hard intelligence to back up its claims, though it has several times been caught fabricating evidence. Senator Bernie Sanders Foreign Policy Advisor Matt Duss tweeted after the latest round of pressure to call the Palestinians terrorists that This isnt about intel sharing or security. Its political pressure to justify political repression. The admin knows, as our allies do, that the designations are false. The question is whether [the Biden Administration is] willing to do anything about it.

One should consider that what for Israel, the United States, Russia, Ukraine and nearly everyone else what is passed off as intelligence is anything but. It is instead more often than not a tightly woven argument to convince other countries, the public and the media that something that is supportive of ones policies is true and should be considered corroborative. This is how we the people have now come to see global events through the prism of an official lie factory. Another recent ploy by Israel to enable its continued bombardment of neighboring Syria is a tale of how Israeli intelligence has developed information that Iran is using Syria to construct technically sophisticated weapons that will be used against the Israelis. Defense Minister Benny Gantz, speaking in New York City last Monday, claimed that Iran has used 10 military facilities in Syria to produce advanced missiles and weapons for its proxies.

One might observe that Gantzs use of a map to show where the alleged facilities are located was convincing of nothing as it was a graphic produced by the Israeli government, somewhat like the dreck that is flowing out of Ukraine at the moment. And there is a bit of logical inconsistency in the tale in that Iran has its own arms industry and does not need to build weapons in Syria. There is also the question of why is Gantz speaking in New York? The answer is obvious. Israel is speaking to a gullible American audience about the alleged Iranian threat and Syrian culpability. Predictably, nothing was said about Israels recent war crime bombing of the international airport in Aleppo.

And theres more, as there always is with Israel. The Israeli government is also running full speed with brand new claims about an alleged secret Iranian nuclear weapons program. The information was presented to the US and German governments by Prime Minister Yair Lapid with the claim that it proves the Iranians are cheating as we speak. Lapid told the Germans that the Biden Administration had hardened its stance against Iran vis-a-vis the JCPOA negotiations in response to the new information. What the new intelligence consists of might lead to some speculation, but Israels claims along those lines have been frequent for the past twenty years and also regularly found to be both malicious and fabricated.

Finally, who says that the Israelis and their rabid Jewish supporters in the United States dont have a sense of humor? A story making the rounds in the Jewish media in the US and featured in the Jewish News Syndicate asks the question [Why] 21 years later, [the] US still doesnt recognize Irans role in 9/11.? The discussion features Caroline Glick and David Wurmser, two noted neocons and Israel-firsters. Wurmser is of course described as an expert on Middle East affairs rather than as a Zionist extremist while Glick, who lives in Israel, is among the most rabid journalists calling for deterrence and containment of Iran, with the US military doing the heavy lifting. Glick also recalls 9/11, stating that Americas willful blindness to Irans role in global terrorism, including in the September 11 attacks, is part of the collective amnesia about the events of September 11. When I stopped laughing, I continued reading to see if the two honorable Zionists would also mention the Israeli art students who were all over the place spying on the US and the five Israeli dancing Shlomo movers who clearly had prior knowledge of what was about to take place and were seen celebrating the sight of the burning twin towers. And then there was the quote by then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu concerning 9/11 that We [Israelis] are benefitting from one thing, and that is the attack on the twin towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq. So, Israel actually had a motive. Makes you wonder Who really did 9/11?

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org.
Today I can only throw myself on readers mercy as I confess that, aged 11, I jumped the queue for Sir Winston Churchills lying-in-state in Westminster Hall. Whats more, I would eagerly have done the same thing again last week, had I been lucky enough to be handed a press pass to witness the same state occasion for our beloved late Queen.

Then again, perhaps I should be grateful that, this time, nobody thought to offer me priority. Otherwise, internet trolls might even now be heaping foul abuse on my head, as theyve been doing all week to poor Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield.

But more of them in a moment. First, I must tell you how I came to jump the queue back in 1965.

It happened that a fellow pupil at my posh boarding prep school was the son of a Peer, who had agreed very kindly to take his boy, plus a friend, to Sir Winstons lying-in-state.

View of the coffin of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill's lying in state in Westminster Hall surrounded by Guards in January 1965

I was the plus-one in question. I remember, with a twinge of shame, that I was not selected for the honour by the Peers son himself, but by the headmasters wife, who had a soft spot for me since she and my mother had served together as nurses in the Voluntary Aid Detachment during World War II.

Anyway, our noble host treated us to lunch (or was it tea?) in the House of Lords, after which we walked from the dining room into Westminster Hall through a side door, thereby avoiding a queue that stretched for many hours along the embankments on both sides of the Thames.

Strangely enough, not a word of vitriol was directed against me when I recalled that day in a column I wrote here seven years ago. Nobody called me an evil scumbag, who deserved to rot in hell  as so many have described Miss Willoughby and Mr Schofield. Nor did anybody sign a petition saying that I should be sacked and lose my livelihood as a punishment for jumping the queue.

Indeed, the only critical message I received came from my old schoolfellow Edward Alport, whose father was the Peer Id named in that article as my host. He told me he had no recollection of going with me to pay homage to Sir Winston.

Holly and Phil have faced growing backlash over claims they 'skipped the queue' at Westminster Hall - they deny the claims and say they were given official permission to access the hall

This makes me think I may have got my Lords mixed up, and it could actually have been the Earl of Kimberley  two of whose sons were also at my school  who took me to the lying-in-state. If so, my belated thanks to him.

All I can say for certain is that the scene that greeted me when I walked into Westminster Hall for that first time in my life, as an 11-year-old, will be etched in my mind to my dying day.

As if it were yesterday, I remember standing open-mouthed in awe at the magnificence of that room, under its massive medieval double hammer-beamed roof, where Charles I stood trial for his life.

The morning TV stars were pictured entering the hall through a door which was clearly marked as not for public access - thought to be the entrance for media representatives

I remember the total silence of the queue filing past the coffin to pay their last respects, and the guardsmen standing as still as statues, with their hands resting on the hilts of their swords.

I even recall being struck by the distinctive smell of the place. It was slightly musty, with a hint of the scent of wax from the candles at the four corners of the catafalque.

As I discovered many years later, when I walked through that hall almost daily during my time as a parliamentary journalist, it retained that smell for decades. For all I know, it may be a chemical they use to guard against woodworm in those mighty rafters. But to my 11-year-old imagination, it smelt like the odour of centuries.

Above all, I remember the coffin, draped in the Union Flag, in which lay the mortal remains of the man we all regarded as the greatest Englishman of our time.

This was the hero who had sworn defiance of Hitler. He was the man who had led our country through the Battle of Britain, which we constantly re-enacted in the dormitory at night, leaping from bed to bed, with our arms outstretched as Hurricane wings, chanting ducker-ducker-ducker to represent machine-gun fire.

And there I stood in my school uniform, only yards away from the great mans body, with the hairs standing up on the back of my neck.

Now scroll forward almost four decades to the Queen Mothers lying-in-state after her death in 2002. You may be relieved to hear that on that occasion, I had no privileged access. Instead, I queued with my wife, along with tens of thousands of others.

Tom Utley: 'For heavens sake, lets stop vilifying Mr Schofield and Miss Willoughby. As far as I can see, they did absolutely nothing wrong'

I cant remember how long we waited, but I reckon it must have been roughly four hours before we reached the hall, since the end of the queue when we joined it was only a few yards east of Lambeth Palace.

Looking back, I was pleased that we had to queue. This was because I found it a deeply moving part of the experience to talk for so long with friendly, patient, like-minded strangers, united by our fondness for the Queen Mum.

Indeed, I reckon that Miss Willoughby and Mr Schofield missed out on something valuable by being ushered straight into the hall, as I was all those years earlier.

As for the Queens lying-in-state, last week I wrote that I was determined to go late on Friday night. More fool me, I thought that the queue might be shorter at that hour. As it turned out, however, this was the worst of all times to join it, with the Governments official tracker putting the wait at a daunting 24 hours. The long and the short of it is that I wimped out.

Oh, I have lots of excuses. I didnt want to miss my daughter-in-laws 40th birthday party on Saturday evening. Less selfishly, I also felt that since Id already been to two of these occasions, I ought perhaps to make way for others to experience a lying-in-state for the first time.

The great thing, it seemed to me, was that there should be an enormous turnout for her late Majesty, to prove to the world how much she was loved. Since she was assured of that, without any help from me, I stayed at home to watch the live stream on TV.

Tom Utley: 'Isnt there something profoundly depressing about the trolls pathological need to find something or someone to hate, even in a ceremonial occasion as moving and dignified as a lying-in-state?'

But if Im to be wholly honest, I must admit that I had another reason to dread that queue. You really dont want to hear about the state of my prostate gland. Enough to say that Ive reached a time of life at which the cast-iron bladder on which I used to pride myself, like my memory, is simply not what it was.

So as I doff my cap to my fellow oldies who stood the course, I hope the late Queen, whom I revered, will understand and forgive my absence.

But for heaven's sake, let's stop vilifying Mr Schofield and Miss Willoughby. As far I can see, they did absolutely nothing wrong. They took nobody's place in the queue, any more than I did as an 11-year-old. Indeed, not a single person had to wait even a split-second longer than if they hadnt been there. Look at the photographs if you doubt me.

Furthermore, they were on duty. Of course, you may argue that their physical presence in the hall may not have been strictly necessary for their morning show. But there can be no doubt that they were there principally to report on the lying-in-state for the benefit of the many who couldnt make it.

God knows, I carry no special torch for either of them. If anything, I find their doll-like good looks and permanent smiles slightly irritating (though they get on my nerves somewhat less than the BBCs royal correspondent, Nicholas Witchell, particularly when hes in lugubriously solemn mode). But thats my problem, not theirs.

Isnt there something profoundly depressing about the trolls pathological need to find something or someone to hate, even in a ceremonial occasion as moving and dignified as a lying-in-state?

Dry your eyes, poor Miss Willoughby. These people are not worth your tears.
Kwasi Kwarteng sat nonchalantly in the Commons, head back, legs splayed, almost as though he was reclining on a deck chair on a sun-kissed beach.

For a man about to deliver a speech which could arguably decide the fate of the Government  if not the entire country  the Chancellor was one cool hombre. All that was missing was a rum cocktail adorned with a jaunty umbrella beside him, a bottle of Piz Buin and a dog-eared copy of the latest Jeffrey Archer potboiler.

Such a lackadaisical demeanour was all the more impressive when it turned out he was about to unleash the brashest and boldest fiscal announcement in decades. A veritable bonfire of taxes, sending great flaming embers of regulation and red tape fluttering over Westminster.

Gung-ho Tories greeted this crash course in Kwasinomics with a sonic boom of cheers. More cautious types gawped nervously

His so-called mini-Budget was not so much a rabbit-out-the-hat trick than a series of Paul Daniels-style eye poppers which left much of his audience stunned. Not all of them for the same reason.

Gung-ho Tories greeted this crash course in Kwasinomics with a sonic boom of cheers. More cautious types gawped nervously. Sajid Javid leaned forward, staring vacantly at the floor. Former party chairman Oliver Dowden, a man so frugal one imagines him reusing his teabags, turned a worrying shade of green. Will Kwartengs plans work? Who knows. But as debuts go, this was a gargantuan statement of intent.

The Chancellor was summoned to his feet by Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle at 9.34am. The chamber was full but far from chocka. Word was government whips had advised some of their more bolshy MPs to head off for an early weekend.

This is a new approach for a new era, Kwarteng announced confidently. While his predecessor Rishi Sunak could have done with a beer crate to stand on, Kwartengs vast frame dwarfed the dispatch box, his fingers clasping it tightly, as though attempting to strangle a particularly stubborn battery chicken.

The Chancellor was summoned to his feet by Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle at 9.34am. The chamber was full but far from chocka

Prime Minister Liz Truss with Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, who delivered his mini-budget on Friday

The voice too is deep and strong, like a fine marinade of armagnac and cigars. Even when Kwarteng reeled off the details of his vast relief package for domestic energy bills he almost sounded soothing.

As it was a mere mini-Budget, the Chancellor was given only half an hour to speak. But goodness he crammed enough in.

Bit by bit, the spendaholic tax-and-spend splurge of the Johnson era was consigned to the waste-disposal unit. Out with the hated national insurance rise. Hooray! Out, too, with the proposed rise in duty on beer and cider. Double hooray!

There would also be VAT-free shopping for overseas visitors. That sound you might have heard as he said that? Oh, just the collective popping of champagne corks in Bond Streets fancy emporiums.

Nodding approvingly alongside him was brainy Levelling-up Secretary Simon Clarke, his spectacle lenses as thick as two Coca-Cola bottles.

On the other side was Prime Minister Liz Truss looking impressively polished considering shed just touched down from New York.

As the Chancellor continued to lay out his daring economic vision, Labour MPs grunts and guffaws grew ever louder

Of her predecessor Boris Johnson there was no sign. Absent too was Rishi Sunak. Manning his Yorkshire constituency, perhaps. Or slumming it at his third home in sunny California?

Meanwhile, as the Chancellor continued to lay out his daring economic vision, Labour MPs grunts and guffaws grew ever louder. There was particularly loud mooing at the much-trailed pledge to scrap the cap on bankers bonuses.

Toward the rear of the chamber, noted crypto-communist John McDonnell resembled a man who had just had a particularly piqant gorgonzola placed beneath his nostrils. No reaction, I noticed, from City kingpin Ian Blackford. Then came the juice. Mr Speaker, we come to the issue of personal taxation, Kwarteng said. We believe it is an important principle that people should keep more of the money they earn.

His voice by now was beginning to croak. Were it Budget day, this was the point at which a large Scotch and soda would have come in handy.

Dividends tax was also for the chop. A hefty cut too to stamp duty. But the big zinger was the 5 per cent cut in the top rate of tax to 40 per cent.

The initial reaction from Tory backbenchers though was surprisingly muted. Its possible that Kwarteng didnt tee it up enough. Either that, or MPs were nervy at having to sell it to their more hard-up constituents.

An admission of 12 years of economic failure, was the verdict of Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves, in one of her flatter  and quieter  Common performances.

Had Rachels advisers told her to dial it down a bit? Some of the deafer members will at least be able to switch their hearing aids back on.

To an extent, Reeves was right, of course. For far too long, our economy has staggered along, marching limply to the beat of Treasury boffins and all their softly, softly orthodoxy.

In Kwarteng yesterday one sensed a willingness to cast off its shackles and throw caution to the wind. Westminsters tectonic plates are well and truly shifting.
Social media users have commenced manhunt - after a tube passenger overheard a conversation between two other travellers which appeared to reveal an affair between a woman's boyfriend and her sister.

Twitter user Paisley, from Birmingham penned a post online about a scandalous interaction she heard on a London Underground Metropolitan Line tube to Hillingdon.

She said a man called 'Ben' was discussing having an affair with his female companion - who turned out to be his girlfriend 'Rosie's' sister.

Users have rallied behind Rosie, claiming 'it's on sight' if they see her boyfriend and urged the alleged cheating victim she 'deserves better'.

Many flooded Twitter with the hashtag #JusticeForRosie, with posts coming in from all over the world, warning the woman: 'Your boyfriend and sister ain't sh**'.

Paisley's post now has more than 128,400 likes and has been shared more than 2,360 times.

Yesterday Paisley, from Birmingham (pictured) penned a post about a scandalous interaction she heard on a London Underground

Paisley has since posted a list with descriptions of the accused paramour offenders, and said that she has been DM'd photos with suggestions of who Ben could be

Paisley has since posted a list with descriptions of the accused paramour offenders, and said that she has been DM'd photos with suggestions of who Ben could be.

The original tweet said: 'Hello if your name is Rosie from Uxbridge and your boyfriend is called Ben...

'He's cheating on you with your sister Ellie.

'They're currently sat opposite me and my best mate on a near empty tube on the met line to Hillingdon, whispering about how "you're never going to deep it" x.'

Paisley's post (pictured) now has more than 128,400 likes and has been shared more than 2,360 times

She added: 'This is literally never going to reach its target audience but whatever. Justice for Rosie. If she sees this I hope she boots him in the head.'

She later released a list outlining Ben and Ellie's appearance.

Ben was described as being 'pretty tall' with dark hair and donning a red Kenzo shirt.

Meanwhile Ellie, who wore a necklace with her name on it, had short wavy hair, round silver glasses and wore a white tank top with blue jeans.

Paisley added: 'Just leaving this here bc people in my dms are asking if i recall what they look like so me n my pal wrote this up the best we could.'

She later went on to share that many other Twitter users had started messaging her with photographs of different 'Bens' to try to identify

She also warned: '...allow that it might not be 100 per cent accurate cos time has passed and we didn't exactly spend the whole journey staring them down.'

A later update from Paisley suggested Ben has yet to be found.

'We're being sent pictures in my direct messages and so far seven people have sent up various images of This One Ben,' she tweeted last night.

'It's not him. Heard he's a bit of a character though. Your lucky day pal.'

Users have flooded the comments with messages of support for Rosie.

Users have flooded the comments with messages of support for Rosie, with many saying she 'deserves better'

'Oh Rosie, you don't need them. Twitter has your back,' one wrote.

Another penned: 'This girl is out here doing the lords work. Rosie, girl if you ever see this you deserve better babes.'

A third added: 'This is how to look out for people.'

'Imagine finding this out about your boyfriend on Twitter,' another wrote.

The manhunt for Ben appears to be global as users wrote in from The States, Puerto Rico and South Africa.
Lady Amelia and Eliza Spencer have shared a glimpse of their glamorous trip to Milan after attending the city's Fashion Week.

Princess Diana's twin nieces, 30, posted snaps of their holiday to Milan on Instagram, just days after they revealed they went to Michael Kors' Spring Summer 2023 show in New York.

The blonde beauties were dressed in all their finery for Delcore's Fathom fashion show in Milan on September 21.

The pair previously shared snaps of themselves in New York as they made the most of their American getaway and enjoyed some sightseeing, and dinner at the world famous Carlyle Hotel, which was beloved by JFK during his administration.

The model twins seem to be enjoying exploring what Amelia dubbed 'her favourite city' as they made the 'most special memories.'

Princess Diana's twin nieces, 30, posted snaps of their holiday to Milan on Instagram , just days after they revealed they went to Michael Kors' Spring Summer 2023 show in New York

The twins previously showed how they made the most of their New York trip, with Eliza photographing herself hopping into a yellow cab

Amelia opted for a chic black shirt dress with Veja trainers, while Eliza wore a grey sweatshirt dress with white trainers

The two twins, who grew up in South Africa but recently moved to London, played tourist around the Big Apple.

They posed up a storm in Times Square, with Eliza donning a grey sweatshirt dress with white trainers and a quilted leather bag, and Amelia sporting a shirt dress in black with Veja trainers.

Eliza took a playful snap of herself getting into one of the iconic New York yellow cabs, while Amelia's pictures revealed they also went for a walk near the Silvercup Studios, one of the largest film and television production facilities in New York City.

During their down-time at their hotel, the twins revealed they enjoyed a Sex and the City re-run to fit the theme of their getaway.

The pair were in Milan together for Delcore's Fathom fashion show. They both had hair styled by Vladyslav Rotaru

Eliza (left) wore a figure-hugging maroon dress with an intricate silver belt. Her sister Amelia (right) sported a black blazer with a white crop top with a stylish throw off her right side

The twins are nieces of Princess Diana and grew up in South Africa. Eliza flaunted her blonde locks as she posed in Milan

Princess Diana's nieces Lady Amelia and Lady Eliza Spencer took on the New York Fashion Week last week

Eliza, left and Amelia, right, smarted it up to attend Michael Kors Spring Summer show at Fashion Week. The twins also had dinner at the Carlyle

The two models played tourist and posed up a storm in Times Square during their visit before exploring the city further

The two models shared snaps of the fashion event, with Eliza looked resplendent in silver, wearing a high pony

Later, they smarted it up and headed to the Carlyle restaurant, where they enjoyed some cocktails and oysters.

The hotel is one of New York's most famous locations as it was beloved by JFK, and was dubbed 'the New York White House' during his administration, because the president kept a suite on the 34th floor of the hotel for the ten last years of his life, including during his administration.

The establishment is still a hit with A-listers today, with Isabella Rosselini, Elizabeth Taylor, Princess Diana, Tom Cruise, Madonna and Lady Gaga having all stayed at the New York hotel.

The twins enjoyed some down time at the hotel with a re-run of Sex and the City to stay in theme

Amelia was keen to explore the Big Apple, which she said is her 'favourite city,' while Eliza also liked to relax with an ice coffee

The two sisters, who were staying at the Carlyle, the hotel beloved by A-listers, cut a casual look during the day

Amelia and Eliza's glamourous trip wouldn't have been complete without a stop by New York Fashion Week.

The two sisters both attended the Michael Kors Spring Summer Show, which saw Bella Hadid and other models strut their stuff in the designer's new resort-inspired collection.

For the fashionable evening, Eliza opted for a sparkling silver asymmetrical mini dress with strap on heels, while Amelia wore a black mini number with matching heels.

Both of them wore their hair up in a sleek ponytail, and sported diamond earrings.

After the two siblings shared snaps of their travel, Amelia said she and her sister had 'the most amazing' time together in New York.

But there was no rest for the beautiful models as the twins returned to London. Last week, they put on glamorous displays as they attended the David Koma SS23 show during London Fashion Week.

Coffee in hand, Eliza looked like a true New Yorker as she took on Times Square, left, guiding her sister through the city

Amelia and Eliza revealed they made the most of the Carlyle's restaurant and ordered some oysters and cocktails

The Carlyle Hotel is beloved by celebs and used to be dubbed the 'New York White House' during the JFK administration

The twins attended the event on Sunday in eye catching cut-out mini dresses as they posed for the cameras while sat on the front.

Amelia stood out from the crowd in a busty white mini dress flashing a black bra through a large chest cut-out boasting pink feathers.

The beauty elevated her frame in a pair of gold heels and carried her belongings in a black and silver dazzling clutch.

Amelia slicked her long blonde tresses up in a high ponytail revealing a chic pair of drop earrings.

On Sunday, the two beauties attended David Koma's Spring/Summer 2023 show in London for London Fashion Week

Meanwhile her twin Eliza looked nothing short of sensational in a short black mesh panelled dress which donned one sleeve.

She beamed while flashing half of a sparkling silver bralette and strutted her stuff in a pair of strappy jewelled towering heels.

Like her sister, Eliza slicked her locks up in a stylish ponytail and carried her belongings in a black velvet clutch.

Princess Diana's nieces sat front row at the fashion show ahead of the Queen Elizabeth II's funeral on Monday.

Their father, Charles Spencer, was among the mourners who attended the late monarch's state funeral at Westminster Abbey and her committal service in Windsor. However, Amelia and Eliza did not attend the event.
Gwyneth Paltrow has opened up about owning her past mistakes, embracing her aging body, and learning to set boundaries ahead of turning 50 this month.

The Goop founder, whose milestone birthday is on September 27, penned a candid essay about her past and her hopes for her future that was published on her lifestyle website on Thursday.

Paltrow reflected on the regrets and mistakes that still keep her up at night, saying that she hopes she has 'learned from them all.'

'I have hurt people, never intentionally, but I have done so just the same. I have let people down by not being who they needed me to be. I have betrayed myself to keep the peace,' she wrote.

Gwyneth Paltrow penned a candid essay about her past and her hopes for her future ahead of her 50th birthday on September 27

The Goop founder (pictured in 1996) reflected on the regrets and mistakes that still keep her up at night, saying that she prays she has 'learned from them all'

'I have crossed lines, the thoughts of which sometimes rip me from sleep and suspend me into the hollowness of shame for a long, dark night. Most regretfully, and so often, I have not spoken my truth to spare some perceived consequence, that hurting someone will tear us both apart.'

Paltrow admitted that she used to have a hard time standing up for herself and setting boundaries in both her personal life and career because she was afraid of upsetting people.

She had appeared in a number of movies at a young age and won an Academy Award for her breakout performance in Shakespeare in Love in 1999.

The actress also had high-profile romances with actors Ben Affleck and Brad Pitt, whom she broke up with just a few months after they got engaged in 1996.

'My most lasting mistakes and the mess that comes with them have all stemmed from me not standing fully in my truth and speaking from it, come what may,' she explained.

Paltrow (pictured with then-boyfriend Brad Pitt in 1996) admitted that she has 'hurt people' and 'crossed lines'

The actress (pictured with then-boyfriend Ben Affleck in 1999) noted that her 'most lasting mistakes' have stemmed from 'not standing fully in [her] truth'

Paltrow, who wrote about learning to set boundaries and call out inappropriate behavior, was instrumental in bringing down convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein (pictured in 1999)

'Saying the words that could have spared seasons of heartache and repercussions. No. This does not feel right to me. Your expectations are not appropriate. Your behavior is not appropriate. This relationship is no longer right for me. This project is not right for me. You are no longer right for me.'

Paltrow noted that she isn't sure if she would go back in time to correct her mistakes because they have taught her 'meaningful' lessons.

'If nothing else, they have led me to a path of questioning. Of seeking a better version of myself,' she wrote. 'People often ask, "If you could go back to your 21-year-old self and give her some advice" Well, I would know my boundary and hold on to it more tightly than my life itself.'

The mother of two has given similar advice to her children Apple, 18, and Moses, 16, whom she shares with her ex-husband, Chris Martin. She has encouraged them to trust their instincts and make decisions based on how they feel, especially when it comes to love and sex.

Paltrow was instrumental in bringing down convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein, who had produced a number of her films, including Shakespeare in Love.

Paltrow (pictured with her then-husband Chris Martin in 2014) noted that she isn't sure if she would go back in time to correct her mistakes because they've taught her 'meaningful' lessons

The mom said she'd advise her 21-year-old self to 'know [her] boundary and hold on to it more tightly than [her] life itself.' She's given similar advice to her children Apple, 18, and Moses, 16

The disgraced movie mogul was kicked out of the Academy in 2017 after he was accused of rape and sexual harassment by a slew of actresses.

The lifestyle guru shocked Hollywood when she joined the clamor of voices accusing him of abusing his power over women in the industry.

Paltrow alleged that Weinstein came on to her at the start of filming Emma in 1995, saying he summoned her to his hotel room, put his hands on her, and then asked her for a massage.

'I had one really uncomfortable, weird experience; then he was never inappropriate with me again in that way,' she told Variety in 2019.

Paltrow had previously shared that Pitt, her then-boyfriend, had confronted Weinstein for sexually harassing her, saying he threw the Hollywood heavyweight against a wall and said: 'If you ever make her feel uncomfortable again, I'll kill you.'

The lifestyle guru also opened up about embracing her aging body, saying she 'accepts the marks and the loosening skin, the wrinkles'

Paltrow shared photos of herself frolicking in her yard in a bikini ahead of her birthday

'I do what I can to strive for good health and longevity, to stave off weakening muscles and receding bone,' she said

In 2020, she explained that she lost interest in her acting career at a young age after enduring an abusive working relationship with Weinstein, who is serving 23 years in prison after being convicted of felony sex crimes.

The businesswoman, who now spends most of her days running her Goop brand, wrote in her 50th birthday essay that she wants to take more time for herself in the future and to continue to build on her relationship with her husband, Brad Falchuk.

'I would like to slow down. I would like to retreat a little bit. I would like to make my circle smaller. I would like to cook dinner more. I would like to see misunderstandings become understandings,' she said.

'I would like to continue to open the deepest part of myself to my husband, even though it scares me. I would like to sing more, even if its just in the shower. I would like to tell anyone that had a negative experience with me that I am sorry. I would like to fully acknowledge myself.'

Paltrow admitted that she is 'imperfect' while sharing both her flaws and strengths.

The cookbook author (pictured in 2011) shared that she wants to 'slow down,' 'retreat,' and 'cook dinner more' in the future

'I would like to continue to open the deepest part of myself to my husband [Brad Falchuk], even though it scares me,' she added

'I can shut down and turn to ice, I have no patience, I swear at other drivers, I dont close my closet doors, I lie when I dont want to hurt feelings,' she explained. 'I am also generous and funny. I am smart and brave. I am a searcher, and I can bring you along on my quest for meaning. When I love you, you will feel it encompass you through time and space and till the end of the earth. I am all of it.'

With her 50th birthday less than a week away, she also discussed how she has come to terms with her aging body over the years.

'My body, a map of the evidence of all the days, is less timeless. A collection of marks and irregularities that dog-ear the chapters. Scarred from oven burns, a finger smashed in a window long ago, the birth of a child. Silver hair and fine lines. The sun has left her celestial fingerprints all over me, as if she soaked a brush in dark-taupe watercolor, flecking it over my skin,' she wrote.

'And while I do what I can to strive for good health and longevity, to stave off weakening muscles and receding bone, I have a mantra I insert into those reckless thoughts that try to derail me: I accept. I accept the marks and the loosening skin, the wrinkles. I accept my body and let go of the need to be perfect, look perfect, defy gravity, defy logic, defy humanity. I accept my humanity.'

Paltrow noted that she could remember both of her parents' 50th birthdays, saying they were dramatically different celebrations.

Paltrow recalled her parents' 50th birthdays, saying the milestone was a 'culmination of the wonderous' for her mother, Blythe Danner, and a 'culmination of sorrows' for her father, Bruce Paltrow (pictured together in 2002)

Paltrow wondered if her children will remember her 50th birthday, saying she wants them to know they are 'the greatest accomplishment of [her] life'

She recalled how her mom Blythe Danner's 50th birthday was held at Michael's restaurant in Los Angeles in February 1993, saying the 'dinner was delicious' and 'the good wine flowed.'

'Everyone was asked to contribute a poem instead of a typical gift,' she explained. 'I remember uproarious laughter, happy tears. I remember my mother full of life and joy at the convergence of the love on display, the deliciousness, and wonderful/heartfelt/brilliant/messy poems.'

Paltrow said the following November she and her younger brother, Jake Paltrow, traveled to the island of Nevis with their parents to celebrate their dad Bruce Paltrow's birthday.

In addition to the 'grey and unseasonably cool' weather, she could tell her father was going through something, but she couldn't figure out what.

'He said he was "fine," but I found him swallowed by something  he felt bereft, unanchored in some way. It was unsettling,' she said. 'He could not embrace the milestone, this marking of the passage of time. Perhaps on some level he knew it would be his last decade.'

Paltrow's father was 58 when he died from complications of oral cancer and pneumonia in October 2002.

'I am struck by how, for both of my parents, 50 seemed like a reckoning. For my mother, it was a culmination of the wonderous, the highs, the loves, the art. For my father, a culmination of sorrows,' she noted.

Paltrow's memories of her own parents' birthdays have made her wonder what her teenage daughter and son will take from her 50th birthday celebration.

'I think of my children, now old enough to remember this "big" birthday of mine into their own adulthoods,' she said. 'Perhaps their memory of it will be neither that I was solely elated, nor grieving the things I lost or did not bring to fruition.

'I hope that they can feel me feel all the things and hold in the complexity of that notion. That they know I am both good through and through, yet sometimes not. That my feelings of regret and my mistakes can act as scaffolding for what I build from now on. That they are the greatest accomplishment of my life.'
Ukraine - Dissecting Some War Propaganda News Items

Many media, who republish the Reuters feed, repeated that headline:

Kyiv: Ukrainian authorities have found a mass grave of more than 440 bodies in the eastern city of Izium that was recaptured from Russian forces, a regional police official said on Thursday, adding some of the people had been killed by shelling and air strikes. Serhiy Bolvinov, the chief police investigator for Kharkiv region, told Sky News that forensic investigations would be carried out on every body. "I can say it is one of the largest burial sites in a big town in liberated (areas)... 440 bodies were buried in one place," Bolvinov said. "Some died because of artillery fire ... some died because of air strikes," he said. Thousands of Russian troops fled Izium at the weekend.

Notice the wording. It is a 'large burial site' with '440 bodies in one place'. That does not have to mean a mass grave with 440 bodies but could also describe a graveyard with a total of 440 people buried there.

And indeed an AP video team visited the site and their video shows quite a different scenario (h/t Tore). In a wooded area there are a large numbers, maybe one hundred or two, of single graves with orthodox and other crosses. There is also one grave that has a cross which says that 17 soldiers were buried there.

In the AP video several soldiers and investigators are moving around. One Ukrainian soldier says he saw a video that the Russians made when the soldiers were buried in that one mass grave. From it, he says, he estimates that more than 17, maybe 25 or 30, he says, were buried in that grave.

The video he refers to is likely this one (h/t Elena Evdokimova) which was published on May 8. It seems to show the same graveyard with that one mass grave. One sees civilians with red cross armlets collecting and burying bodies of dead soldiers. I count a total of 17 dead bodies but there may be one or two more. One Russia soldier is around and explains what is happening. The title in Russian translates to:

Ukraine refuses to take away the bodies of dead soldiers. Russian military bury them in mass graves

There is also a link to a Russian news site called Giport or Hyport which says (machine translated):

Ukraine refuses to take the bodies of the dead soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the Russian military is forced to bury them in mass graves

Ukraine again refuses to take away the bodies of its dead soldiers, who have to be buried in mass graves. The Russian side several times offered the enemy to take the bodies for burial by organizing a corridor for medical workers, but did not receive a response from the Ukrainian command. Some time ago, the bodies of dead soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were collected by Russian soldiers on their own and transported to the morgue under mortar shelling from Ukraine. As a result, Ukraine did not take them from the morgue either. Today, Russian servicemen had to bury the dead soldiers in mass graves. According to one of the soldiers involved in the burial, the bodies of the killed soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were taken from the front line a week ago. He said that negotiations with the current government of Ukraine were unsuccessful. The Ukrainian side simply refused to take the bodies, so the Russian Armed Forces buried the dead on their own in one of the city cemeteries. If the current Ukrainian authorities took the bodies of their fighters, their relatives could say goodbye to them in a human way. And now they were buried in plastic bags in mass graves. But this is better than becoming food for the beast, as it would happen if it were not for the Russian military. At least the relatives will at least have a chance to find the dead by going through the procedure of taking DNA. This is not the first such story. Back in March, we wrote that Ukraine refuses to make contact and take the bodies of dead servicemen from the territories of the LPR and DPR. As a result, all of them were also buried in mass graves. Some had nameplates, other soldiers remained unidentified.

The Reuters headline was 100% false. That may have been because the editor misinterpreted what the Ukrainian police investigator said. Or it intentionally exaggerated the case to increase the propaganda value of that news item. I suspect the latter to be the case.

There is otherwise nothing unusual with that graveyard. During a war people on both sides die. Civilians suffer as much as soldiers while fighting around them is going on. The city had been heavily defended by the Ukrainians and it took the Russian military the whole of March to take it. A lot of the buried casualties were likely killed by artillery fire. There is no way to tell from which side that fire had came.

That the graveyard is in the woods and not in some open place also makes sense. With camera drones around and being in reach of hostile artillery one would not want to be caught while shuffling graves in open fields. The trees give at least some protection from being seen from above.

A different obvious propaganda fake was published in today's Washington Post:

The letters left behind by demoralized Russian soldiers as they fled

The 10 handwritten letters, dated Aug. 30, were left behind in a two-story residential house where Russians were squatting and later found by Ukrainian soldiers who provided the letters to The Washington Post for review. They paint a portrait of dejected troops desperate for rest and concerned about their health and morale after months of fighting.

...

The similar style in which the 10 letters were written suggests the troops, weary and disheartened, banded together to draft them. The letters caught the attention of Ukrainian soldiers when they first arrived in Izyum, which the Russians abandoned hastily in retreat, and some were shared on social media. The authenticity of the letters has not been confirmed by independent forensic experts ...

One can tell right away that the story makes little sense. The Russian security forces that were in Izium after the initial fighting were from the Rosguardia (Rosgvardiya), the National Guard of Russia which is more like a border police force with some additional tasks. There was little fighting in Izium after the end of March. The guards station there were regularly supplied. In that context they had no reason to feel like "dejected troops desperate for rest and concerned about their health and morale".

The Rosguardia were evacuated without losses by Russian military forces before the Ukrainians surrounded and recaptured the city.

That the ten letters were written in 'similar style' makes it likely that they were written by the same team of Ukrainian intelligence that uses the Washington Post and other media to spread their lies to the public. They intend to portray the Russian military as an exhausted and morally broken force. Neither seems to be the case.

While I wrote the above Reuters published a new piece that changes its earlier reporting but does not correct it:

Around 200 wooden crosses seen at site near Ukraine's Izium

It in fact repeats the earlier false claims that the AP report had debunked:

IZIUM, Ukraine (Reuters) - Around 200 wooden crosses were found on Friday at a site near Izium in northeastern Ukraine, Reuters witnesses said, possibly marking a second mass grave in an area recaptured in recent days by Ukrainian forces. Men in white overalls have begun exhuming bodies at the site, located on the edge of a cemetry in the northwest of Izium, the witnesses said. Some 20 white body bags were visible. Ukrainian authorities earlier reported the discovery of a mass grave containing around 440 bodies in the city of Izium, a frontline Russian stronghold until Ukraine's counter-offensive across the Kharkiv region during the past week.

It is not the 'fog of war' that clouds such new reporting. It is the propaganda that was ordered up to incite the 'western' population against Russia and its citizens and soldiers.

Without further backup and and proof one can not, and should not, believe any news item coming from the Ukrainian and other wars.

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Myke is proud of what he has achieved, and now wears a size medium

In just four months he lost 30kg through high intensity interval training (HIIT)

The 27-year-old set himself a goal in November 2020 to workout every day

A young Australian man has shared how he lost 34kg in 10 months and completely changed his lifestyle without visiting a gym.

In July 2020, Myke Jay recalls tipping the scales at 124kg but stopped weighing himself because he 'hated how he looked'.

Four months later in November the now 27-year-old knew something needed to change and set himself a goal.

'Every morning seven days a week I would do a HIIT workout (high intensity interval training) for 30 minutes - non-negotiable,' Myke, from Brisbane, said in a TikTok video.

'Even if I felt like cr*p, I had to do it.'

Scroll down for video

Myke Jay (pictured) shared a video with thousands on TikTok how he lost 34kg in 10 months

In November 2020 he decided to make a change and set himself the goal to workout everyday for 30 minutes. At the start of his weight loss journey (left), Myke tipped the scales at 124kg and stopped weighing himself

After one month of doing HIIT workouts everyday (high intensity interval training) he lost 11kg. By April 1 - just five months later - Myke lost 30kg and dropped from a size 3XL to size medium

In the video, Myke shared a snap of a workout completed on November 15 where he burnt 428 calories in 29 minutes.

'By doing that everyday and limiting the amount of sugars and stuff I had, I went down by almost 11kg in one month,' he said.

The following month the weight seemed to 'drop off' as he went on to lose 16.7kg, and by March 2021 he had lost 29.4kg.

By April 1 - just five months later - Myke lost 30kg and dropped from a size 3XL to size medium.

Myke also changed his mindset on food by not thinking of food as 'good' or 'bad'. He kept off the weight by understanding self control when it comes to eating

Myke's HIIT workouts also consisted of 45 second of exercising then a 15-second rest break for 30 minutes

'At the start of 2021 I started walking for about an hour or so by myself or with a friend,' he said, adding: 'But the way I looked at food really changed.'

Myke explained how he stopped 'demonising food' as either 'good' or 'bad' and instead accepted that 'it's all food'.

'You just decide what you put in your body, and how much you put in there,' he said.

'What a lot of people don't talk about is the self control part is the reason people lose weight - because instead of having two family blocks of chocolate, you would have one king-size bar.

'And THAT is how I kept it off.'

Myke's HIIT workout: Myke shared a second video detailing his simple HIIT workout Every workout consisted of 45 seconds of exercising then a 15-second rest break for 30 minutes The beauty of this type of workout is the exercises can be based on what you enjoy doing most Exercises included knee taps, skipping, jump squats, bicep curls with resistant bands, skull crusher, side lunges, dumbbell lunges and abdominal crunch Advertisement

The inspiring TikTokker said during the weight loss journey he still 'lived life' and always 'had a balance'.

'The most important part is to find what works for you, go at your own pace and, don't do it for a guy - we're doing it for ourselves,' he said.

In just 48 hours the video was viewed more than 153,000 times and received over 19,000 likes.

Myke's HIIT workouts also consisted of 45 second of exercising then a 15-second rest break for 30 minutes.

Exercises included knee taps, skipping, jump squats, bicep curls with resistant bands, skull crusher, side lunges, dumbbell lunges and abdominal crunches.
Posted: 'It was a pleasure to meet just a small number of staff and volunteers today - we are hugely grateful for all of your efforts'

The couple went on to share a swish video of the engagement on Instagram

William and Kate took part in first royal engagement since funeral yesterday

Prince William could be seen studying a Paddington tribute to the Queen on a phone during his first royal engagement after the late monarch's funeral yesterday.

The Prince of Wales, 40, joined Kate Middleton as they thanked people who had worked to stage Queen Elizabeth's funeral in Windsor.

The couple went on to share a swish video from the engagement on their official Instagram page, posting: 'Thank you to all those who have worked so tirelessly to ensure that everyone visiting Windsor over the past two weeks has had a safe and positive experience.

'It was a pleasure to meet just a small number of staff and volunteers today - we are hugely grateful for all of your efforts.'

In the clip, Kate and Prince William could be seen beaming as they spoke with volunteers, as well as studying tributes to the late monarch.

Prince William could be seen studying a Paddington tribute to the Queen on a phone during his first royal engagement after the late monarch's funeral yesterday

Elsewhere on the engagement, the Princess of Wales said she believed the late Queen was looking down on them when five rainbows appeared in the sky over Balmoral.

Kate, 40, who opted to wear her recycled 2,150 Dolce & Gabbana collarless long coat in black, made the comment as she and William thanked people who had worked to stage Queen Elizabeth's funeral in Windsor.

It came as the Royals remarked at seeing the colourful weather phenomenon as they spent time in Scotland.

The Prince of Wales, 40, said the unusual sight had left them surprised, adding 'In Scotland, how many rainbows turned up? You hardly ever see rainbows up there, but there were five.' Kate smiled as she replied: 'Her Majesty was looking down on us.'

Kate, Princess of Wales, and Prince William attended Windsor Guildhall, three days after the funeral of Her late Majesty the Queen, to speak with staff and volunteers who helped organise and run the committal service at St George's Chapel in Winsdor on Monday

In the video clip, the couple appeared in good spirits and could be seen chatting with volunteers and staff members at Windsor

And during the engagement, which was the first in person engagement for the Prince and Princess of Wales since the state funeral, William said he found himself 'choked up' when he saw Paddington Bear tributes to his grandmother, but had found comfort in the public outpouring of support for the Royal Family.

The stunning skies seemed to say a last goodbye to the Monarch, on Sunday, who has been a central figurehead of the country for over 70 years, and Britain's longest reigning monarch.

Elizabeth II was synonymous with Windsor Castle, where rainbows also appeared, and where she spent much of her time especially after the death of her beloved husband, Prince Philip, in April last year.

And the rainbows were seen also overhead the Queue, which saw around 250,000 mourners lining up throughout the night to see the Queen lying in state.

Her Majesty also gave her name to the tower which holds the bell of Big Ben, which was renamed the Elizabeth Tower in 2012 to mark her Diamond Jubilee, and also saw the stunning phenomenon.

It comes as rainbows were also spotted outside Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle on the day of Her Majestys death, on Thursday, September 8.

Natures own memorial: A rainbow appeared yesterday over Westminster Abbey and Parliament while Londoners revel at a stunning red sky over Big Ben

A rainbow also appeared when people gathered outside Buckingham Palace on the day the Queen died, aged 96, in Balmoral on Thursday, September 8

The Union flag is pictured being lowered on Windsor Castle as a rainbow covers the sky on September 08, when the Queen died

The Princess of Wales remained elegant and composed as she met with staff and volunteers and spoke to them about how they managed to organise a seamless, poignant ceremony to say farewell to Her late Majesty

Kate appeared to duck out of the way as Prince William shook hands with a volunteer from St John's Ambulance, who were on standby throughout the day to ensure the crowds of mourners were safe

It came as the Royal couple told volunteers and operational staff who helped to organise the Queen's Committal Service that moments of sadness still caught him out.

The Royal Family were not expected to carry out any official engagements during their mourning period, after more than a week of being under the world's gaze while performing ceremonial duties following the Queen's death.

Yet royal duties recommenced yesterday for William, with the father-of-three making his first speech since his grandmother passed away with a pre-recorded address to the Earthshot Prize summit in New York. The prince was due to attend but cancelled his trip following the Queen's death.

Buckingham Palace has said a small number of engagements will be undertaken during royal mourning to thank those involved in the delivery of HM Queen Elizabeths Funeral and associated ceremonial events, and to recognise the service to King and country of those on deployment overseas.

William also said: 'It is the things you don't expect that get to you,' he said, adding that he got 'choked up' over the Paddington tributes. He went on: 'It is always very comforting that so many people care. It makes it a lot better.

'There are certain moments that catch you out. You are prepared for all but certain moments catch you out.'

They also thanked the group for supporting the large crowds that gathered in Windsor to commemorate the Queen and watch the procession of her coffin up the Long Walk to the castle before the service.

The Prince and Princess of Wales met with staff, who were also dressed in black to pay their respects to Her late Majesty during the period of mourning

A rainbow is seen in a semi circle over Westminster Hall on Sunday before the Queen's funeral

The Prince and Princess of Wales (pictured) have met with volunteers and operational staff to thank them for their work on the Queen 's committal service at Windsor Castle

The Royal Family were not expected to carry out any official engagements during their mourning period, after more than a week of being under the world's gaze while performing ceremonial duties following the Queen's death.

But yesterday William made his first speech since his grandmother passed away with a pre-recorded address to the Earthshot Prize summit.

Buckingham Palace say a small number of engagements will be undertaken during royal mourning to thank those involved in the delivery of HM Queen Elizabeth's Funeral.

Princess Anne, 72, has also stepped out at Portsmouth Naval Base, where she shook hands with Royal Navy personnel who took part in the procession.

It was her first engagement since attending her mother's funeral on Monday.

Speaking to staff, the prince asked whether the Queen passing away at Balmoral 'made it complicated'. He added: 'I think I heard it was the ''least planned for plan". It was seamless, you could feel it.'

William and Kate spoke of the extraordinary public response to the Queen's death as they met with volunteers and workers who helped in Windsor on the day of the State funeral.

It was the couple's first official engagement since the funeral on Monday, as several senior royals returned to their duties, while continuing to mourn for the Queen.

The prince and princess arrived dressed all in black as they continue to observe the royal mourning period which lasts until Monday

A rainbow is seen over the Big Ben on the eve of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest-reigning monarch and a rock of stability across much of a turbulent century

The pair (pictured) have passed on their appreciation to volunteers and staff who worked on the service at St George's Chapel on Monday afternoon

Kate waved as she left the meeting in which she and the Prince of Wales said a heartfelt thanks to the staff and volunteers in Windsor, in their first public engagement since the Queen's funeral

A rainbow forms as people queue to pay their respects to Britain's Queen Elizabeth following her death, in London

Windsor Guildhall, pictured, where Kate and William are speaking to volunteers and operational staff to thank them for their work on the Queen's committal service at Windsor Castle

Her late Majesty's only daughter, 72, was seen at Portsmouth Naval Base, where she shook hands with Royal Navy personnel who took part in the procession

Catherine, Princess of Wales, Princess Charlotte of Wales and Prince George of Wales pictured arriving at Westminster Abbey

Britain's William, Prince of Wales, Catherine, Princess of Wales, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Prince George and Princess Charlotte at the day of the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey

(Top to bottom) The Prince of Wales, Prince George, the Princess of Wales, Princess Charlotte, the Duke of Sussex and Duchess of Sussex at the committal service for Queen Elizabeth II held at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle

SEPTEMBER 8 -- The Prince and Princess of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on the Long Walk at Windsor Castle

Kate spoke about seeing all the infrastructure like barriers going up along the roads 'coming back and forwards from the school run'.

The group spoke about the number of people in the crowds, with one of the logistics staff saying it was about 110,000.

William said: 'We did not see the whole town come to a standstill. That's what we were worried about, that it would disrupt everyone's lives.'

Later, when one of the staff talked about how difficult the last few days must have been, he said: 'If you flip it on its head, it is always very comforting that so many people care. It makes it a lot better. There are certain moments that catch you out. You are prepared for all but certain moments catch you out.'

The engagement is one of their first since William became the heir apparent and became known as the Prince of Wales, after the death of his grandmother and the accession of his father, Charles, to become the King.

William also inherited the title Duke of Cornwall and is now the Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge. Kate is now known as the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge.

The Prince and Princess of Wales' outing comes after a royal book claimed William and wife Kate felt 'relief' when Prince Harry (pictured here with Prince William during a special vigil for the Queen) and Meghan Markle announced their decision to move to the US, because they felt that the 'drama was gone'

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Catherine, Princess of Wales stand at the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II lays on the catafalque at Westminster Hall on September 14

The Prince and Princess of Wales' outing comes after a royal book claimed William and wife Kate felt 'relief' when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their decision to move to the US, because they felt that the 'drama was gone'.

In a book soon to be published about The Firm, The New Royals, author and journalist Katie Nicholl addressed the deepening division between the Sussexes and other members of the Royal Family after Harry and Meghan decided to step down as senior royals and begin a new life in the US in 2020.

William is reported to have held a summit of aides - which came to be known as the Anmer Summit after the couples Norfolk home - to discuss the Royal Family's future in the wake of Harry's move to the States.

Meanwhile, Prince Harry apparently suggested bringing in a mediator to solve his rift with the rest of the Royal Family, causing Camilla to 'splutter over her tea'.

The book quotes an unnamed family friend who told the author the Duke of Sussex met with his father in spring this year and wanted 'to clear the air' - but the awkward meeting left relations strained.

After the Duke and Duchess did not attend the Duke of Edinburgh's memorial service at Westminster Abbey in March amid a reported dispute over their UK security arrangements, Nicholl wrote that a glimmer of hope was on the horizon when the couple stopped off in the UK before a visit to The Hague for an Invictus Games event a few weeks later.

The Prince of Wales, Prince George, the Princess of Wales, and Princess Charlotte during the State Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on Monday

In an extract of the book published in Vanity Fair, Nicholl said King Charles, who was then Prince of Wales, insisted on a meeting with Harry over tea before he had an audience with the Queen.

'The meeting with Charles and Camilla was more awkward than their cordial tea with the queen,' Nicholl wrote, adding that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were late to the meeting which left Charles with just 15 minutes to catch up with his youngest son and daughter-in-law before he had to attend the Royal Maundy Service at Windsor Castle where he stood in for the Queen.

The family friend said: '[Harry] actually suggested that they use a mediator to try and sort things out, which had Charles somewhat bemused and Camilla spluttering into her tea.'

They added the Queen Consort told the Duke his suggestion was 'ridiculous' and that they would resolve their differences within the family.

Despite the rift between the Sussexes and the rest of the family, there have been glimpses of a potential reconciliation following the Queen's death.

It had originally been reported that Harry and Meghan were not planning on meeting with William and Kate during their stay in the UK.

But on the Saturday after the monarch passed away, the Prince and Princess of Wales made their first public appearance outside the Windsor Estate to read tributes that had been left to Her late Majesty and greet mourners.

In an unexpected appearance, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex joined the couple as the 'Fab Four' were reunited in their grief.
Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis had been 'beady-eyed' about spotting drones in the sky which were used as part of the security operation for the Queen's funeral, the Princess of Wales revealed yesterday.

Kate, 40, was speaking to the team of staff and volunteers at Windsor Guildhall, Berkshire, who were involved in coordinating the funeral services for Her late Majesty on Monday.

She explained Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, seven, and Prince Louis, four, were particularly observant about the drones in the sky.

The Prince and Princess of Wales previously said they wanted to 'keep things as normal as possible' for their three children following the death of the Queen, according to reports.

Prince George , Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis had been 'beady-eyed' about spotting drones in the sky which were used as part of the security operation for the Queen's funeral, the Princess of Wales (pictured) revealed yesterday

She explained Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, seven, and Prince Louis, four, (pictured together in June) were particularly observant about the drones in the sky

The Prince, 40, added that while they hadn't been roused by any of the 3am rehearsals in preparation for the funeral, younger ears in the family may have been awoken.

It comes as Prince William could be seen studying a Paddington tribute to the Queen on a phone during his first royal engagement after the late monarch's funeral yesterday.

He and Kate thanked people who had worked to stage Queen Elizabeth's funeral in Windsor.

The Princess of Wales, Princess Charlotte and Prince George attend the state funeral and burial of the Queen

King Charles III and members of the royal family follow behind the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard with the Imperial State Crown and the Sovereign's orb and sceptre, as it is carried out of Westminster Abbey after her State Funeral

The couple went on to share a swish video from the engagement on their official Instagram page, posting: 'Thank you to all those who have worked so tirelessly to ensure that everyone visiting Windsor over the past two weeks has had a safe and positive experience.

'It was a pleasure to meet just a small number of staff and volunteers today - we are hugely grateful for all of your efforts.'

In the clip, Kate and Prince William could be seen beaming as they spoke with volunteers, as well as studying tributes to the late monarch.

Elsewhere on the engagement, the Princess of Wales said she believed the late Queen was looking down on them when five rainbows appeared in the sky over Balmoral.

The State Gun Carriage pictured carrying the Queen's coffin as it left Westminster Abbey on Monday

Kate, who opted to wear her recycled 2,150 Dolce & Gabbana collarless long coat in black, made the comment as she and William thanked people who had worked to stage Queen Elizabeth's funeral in Windsor.

It came as the Royals remarked at seeing the colourful weather phenomenon as they spent time in Scotland.

The Prince of Wales said the unusual sight had left them surprised, adding 'In Scotland, how many rainbows turned up? You hardly ever see rainbows up there, but there were five.' Kate smiled as she replied: 'Her Majesty was looking down on us.'

And during the engagement, which was the first in person engagement for the Prince and Princess of Wales since the state funeral, William said he found himself 'choked up' when he saw Paddington Bear tributes to his grandmother, but had found comfort in the public outpouring of support for the Royal Family.

The Imperial State Crown pictured being removed from the Queen's coffin during the Committal Service at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle on Monday

The stunning skies seemed to say a last goodbye to the monarch, on Sunday, who has been a central figurehead of the country for over 70 years, and Britain's longest reigning monarch.

Elizabeth was synonymous with Windsor Castle, where rainbows also appeared, and where she spent much of her time especially after the death of her beloved husband, Prince Philip, in April last year.

And the rainbows were seen also overhead the Queue, which saw around 250,000 mourners lining up throughout the night to see the Queen lying in state.

Her Majesty also gave her name to the tower which holds the bell of Big Ben, which was renamed the Elizabeth Tower in 2012 to mark her Diamond Jubilee, and also saw the stunning phenomenon.
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Prince William 'simply cant forgive' Prince Harry for the way he has behaved - and 'always thought his brother would be his wingman', a royal expert has claimed.

Katie Nicholl, author of The New Royals - Queen Elizabeths Legacy and the Future of the Crown, claimed the new Prince of Wales, 40, is unlikely to let bygones be bygones - despite putting on a united front with the Duke of Sussex, 38, during a walkabout in Windsor following the Queen's death.

Speaking on Dan Wootton Tonight, Ms Nicholl said: 'William simply cant forgive [Harry], not just for his behaviour and what hes done and how hes done it, but look at how much now rests on William.

'He always thought Harry would be his wingman, now hes doing it on his own. Thank goodness hes got Kate by his side,' added the author.

In the book, soon to be published about The Firm, Ms Nicholl addresses the deepening division between the Sussexes and other members of the Royal Family after Harry and wife Meghan Markle decided to step down as senior royals and begin a new life in the US in 2020.

Following their relocation, the Duke and Duchess have spoken critically of The Firm to American media. Most recently, in her controversial interview with The Cut magazine, Meghan said it takes 'a lot of effort' to forgive and hinted that she can 'say anything', in what was seen by some as a thinly-veiled threat to the Royal Family.

She also said that 'just by existing' she and Harry were 'upsetting the dynamic of the hierarchy' before they stepped down as senior working royals.

Prince William 'simply cant forgive' Prince Harry for the way he has behaved - and 'always thought his brother would be his wingman', a royal expert has claimed. Pictured, the brothers at the Queen's state funeral on Monday

Katie Nicholl, author of The New Royals - Queen Elizabeths Legacy and the Future of the Crown, claimed the new Prince of Wales, 40, is unlikely to let bygones be bygones - despite putting on a united front with the Duke of Sussex, 38, during a walkabout in Windsor (pictured) following the Queen's death

Speaking on Dan Wootton Tonight, Ms Nicholl (pictured) said: 'William simply cant forgive [Harry], not just for his behaviour and what hes done and how hes done it, but look at how much now rests on William'

Elsewhere in her book, Ms Nicholl wrote that William and wife Kate ultimately felt 'relief' when Harry and Meghan announced their decision to move to the US, because they felt that the 'drama was gone'.

William is also reported to have held a summit of aides - which came to be known as the Anmer Summit after the couples Norfolk home - to discuss the Royal Family's future in the wake of his move to the States.

Despite the reported rift between the Sussexes and the rest of the Royal Family, there have been glimpses of a potential reconciliation following the Queen's death.

It had originally been reported that Harry and Meghan were not planning on meeting with William and Kate during their stay in the UK.

But on the Saturday after the monarch passed away, the Prince and Princess of Wales made their first public appearance outside the Windsor Estate to read tributes that had been left to Her late Majesty and greet mourners.

In an unexpected appearance, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex joined the couple as the 'Fab Four' were reunited in their grief.

Meanwhile, a source close to the Queen has claimed Meghan and Harry's decision left Her late Majesty 'very hurt' and unable to think about the situation. Pictured: Her Majesty stood next to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in 2018

Ms Nicholl said the Queen was left 'hurt and exhausted' by Harry and Meghan's decision to step down as senior members of the Royal Family and move to the US.

She says in her book that a source close to Her late Majesty claimed she didn't like to think about the Duke and Duchess's decision to leave the family.

An extract of the book, which has been published in Vanity Fair, revealed the Queen was also disappointed when Harry and Meghan didn't return to the UK in August with Archie and Lilibet, where she was hosting an annual 'sleepover' in Sandringham with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The source told the author: '[The Queen] was very hurt and told me, "I dont know, I dont care, and I dont want to think about it anymore".'

They added it was of more regret to Her late Majesty that the Sussexes' move meant she did not have the opportunity to see as much of Archie and Lilibet as she'd have liked.

The Queen passed away at Balmoral Castle on 8 September at the age of 96, at which point her eldest son Charles automatically became King.

As the monarch, the book claims Charles is keen to heal the rift between the family and his youngest son Harry, 38.

In his first televised address to the nation on 9 September, King Charles said: 'I want also to express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas.'

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (pictured at the Queen's state funeral at Westminster Abbey on Monday) made the decision to leave The Firm in early 2020

King Charles permitted Prince Harry (pictured), who served in Afghanistan, to wear his military uniform as he took part in a vigil on Saturday night in which he guarded the Queen's coffin in Westminster Hall

Some royal fans have claimed the mention of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex was an 'olive branch' towards the couple, who happened to be visiting Europe when the Queen passed away.

Harry and Meghan, who now live in a $14million mansion in Santa Barbara, California, extended their trip and remained in Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor Estate during the period of mourning following the Queen's death and for her state funeral, committal service and private burial on Monday.

King Charles allowed Prince Harry, who served in Afghanistan, to wear his military uniform during a vigil last Saturday night along with the Queen's other grandchildren, in which they guarded her coffin as it lay in state in Westminster Hall.

Despite the fact he is no longer a working royal, King Charles granted his youngest son permission to don the military uniform so he could pay his respects to his grandmother.

After Harry and Meghan left The Firm in February 2020, relations became strained between the Duke of Sussex and his father and brother.

The rift in the family deepened a year later when the Sussexes took part in an explosive interview with US presenter and journalist Oprah Winfrey, in which they made controversial claims about the Royal Family.

These included allegations of racist comments towards Meghan while she was pregnant with their first child, and concerning claims that the family did not act to help her when she was suicidal and it was not safe for her to be left on her own.

Prince Harry is also said to have written a tell-all book on his life within the Royal Family - although questions over whether it will be still be published as planned remain.
Kate Middleton made a subtle nod to the late Duke of Edinburgh when she attended her first public engagement since the Queen's funeral yesterday.

The Prince and Princess of Wales met those who had helped to organise the late Queen's Committal Service in St George's Chapel at Windsor Guildhall on Thursday.

It was their first public appearance since the late monarch's funeral on Monday - and Kate, 40, wore the very same 2,150 Dolce & Gabbana coat she donned for her first engagement after Prince Philip's funeral in April 2021.

The collarless long coat in black was paired with a simple pair of pearl earrings, bringing a touch of class without being ostentatious during the family's period of mourning.

The outfit was near-identical to that worn last April, when the royals paid a visit to Air Cadets of the Royal Air Force in east London - less than a week after Prince Philip's funeral.

Kate Middleton made a subtle nod to the late Duke of Edinburgh when she attended her first public engagement since the Queen's funeral yesterday

Her outfit was near-identical to that worn last April, when the royals paid a visit to Air Cadets of the Royal Air Force in east London days after Prince Philip's funeral (pictured)

The only difference was the addition of dark tights yesterday - and a clutch bag last year.

It comes after Prince William told volunteers and operational staff who helped to organise the Queen's Committal Service that moments of sadness still 'catch [him] out'.

Prince William and Kate arrived at Windsor Guildhall yesterday to pass on their appreciation to those who worked on the service at St George's Chapel - which followed Her Majesty's state funeral at Westminster Abbey.

William said he found himself 'choked up' when he saw Paddington Bear tributes to his grandmother, but had found comfort in the public outpouring of support for the Royal Family.

The Princess of Wales in her 2,150 Dolce & Gabbana coat yesterday (right) and in April 2021 (left)

He said: 'It is the things you don't expect that get to you,' he said, adding that he got 'choked up' over the Paddington tributes.

He went on: 'It is always very comforting that so many people care. It makes it a lot better.

'There are certain moments that catch you out. You are prepared for all but certain moments catch you out.'

They also thanked the group for supporting the large crowds that gathered in Windsor to commemorate the Queen and watch the procession of her coffin up the Long Walk to the castle before the service.

Kate, Princess of Wales, and Prince William attended Windsor Guildhall yesterday, three days after the funeral of Her late Majesty the Queen

The Princess of Wales remained elegant and composed as she met with staff and volunteers

The Prince and Princess of Wales met with staff, who were also dressed in black to pay their respects to Her late Majesty during the period of mourning

The Prince and Princess of Wales (pictured) met with volunteers and operational staff yesterday to thank them for their work on the Queen 's committal service at Windsor Castle

William and Kate, dressed all in black as they continue to observe the royal mourning period which lasts until Monday, were greeted by a small crowd upon their arrival outside the hall.

The Royal Family were not expected to carry out any official engagements during their mourning period, after more than a week of being under the world's gaze while performing ceremonial duties following the Queen's death.

Yet royal duties recommenced on Wednesday for William, with the father-of-three making his first speech since his grandmother passed away with a pre-recorded address to the Earthshot Prize summit in New York.

The prince was due to attend but cancelled his trip following the Queen's death.

Buckingham Palace say a small number of engagements will be undertaken during royal mourning to thank those involved in the delivery of HM Queen Elizabeth's Funeral and associated ceremonial events, and to recognise the service to King and country of those on deployment overseas.
A cute pet pig has become a TikTok sensation after learning how to 'talk' using buttons to communicate his needs.

Merlin, an eight-month-old mini Vietnamese pot belly pig, can ask for food, water or a walk, and even tells his owner he loves her.

Dubbed the 'world's smartest pig' he can also use a litter tray and has made friends with his fellow pet rats.

He has now racked up more than a million followers on TikTok and Instagram, while his owner Mina Alali, 25, from San Jose, California, explained: 'He has a button where he clicks it when he's hungry. Or when he's thirsty, and if he presses outside we'll go outside.'

Merlin can talk using buttons, which say messages about wanting to go for a walk or eat food or play

Merlin swiftly became friends with Mina's two pet rats, Millie and Miracle, who take rides on his back

Animal lover Mina had wanted a pet pig since childhood, and finally bought Merlin earlier this year

Mina said: 'Everyone always comments that he is the world's smartest pig.

'It's something I never expected, but he has learned everything so quickly.

'I just wanted him to have good manners and be house-trained, but it's been so surprising just how clever he is.

'Merlin is the most intelligent, adorable, dramatic and stubborn little pig.'

Mina, a social media manager who describes herself as an animal lover, dreamt of having a pet pig since a child.

Eight-month-old Merlin took to snuggling up in bed with Mina as soon as he arrived at her house

And that dream became a reality when she bought little Merlin for 350 in March this year.

She said: 'I have always wanted a pig. The way people react when they see cute dogs is how I have always felt about pigs.

'As a kid, I used to go to the petting zoo just to see the pigs.

'They are so smart and so cute, and I knew I would adopt one day.'

After bringing him home, Merlin swiftly became pals with her two rats, Millie and Miracle, both one, and her bearded dragon Mochi, who sadly passed away last month.

And he also showed how clever and warm-hearted he was - cuddling up to her in bed and seemingly learning commands, such as 'sit'.

He is regularly walked on a lead and loves to stop and play with other animals, mainly dogs, who get confused when he oinks

Spotting this, Mina began to teach him how to use a cat's litter box.

And hoping to train Merlin to be able to talk, she bought buttons which can be programmed with pre-recorded messages.

Each button has a different message to allow Merlin to communicate with Mina, including asking for food or water, for a walk and even for her to sing and dance with him.

One even says 'I love you' which Merlin hits whenever he senses Mina is sad.

Mina said it never took more than a day to train him - which she did by rewarding him with treats and kisses.

Mina said: 'He was incredibly easy to train, any new trick never took more than day.

'If he did something, I would just repeat the words over and over again.

'He knows music and dance, so I will start singing or pick him up and twirl.'

Merlin has now amassed more than 1 million fans on social media and is quite famous in his local area, being regularly spotted about

Mina then started posting videos of the 25lbs (11kg) hog on her TikTok account.

And she and quickly amassed one million followers from animal lovers across the world.

She said she also felt like a famous person when she began walking him around the block.

She said: 'For the first week, I felt like a famous person because everyone was stopping me for pictures or to pet him.

'The thing people always comment about is how he wags his tail just like a dog, and he smiles like a human when he's happy.

'He's very social and he loves being pet.'

Merlin also loves playing with Mina's two rats and will carry them on his back for tours around their house together.

Mina said: 'Merlin is very gentle with the rats, so when I bring them out for playtime and he would take them on piggybacks.

'It's amazing and just melts my heart.

'I'm confident he would be good friends with any animals. I want to get a dog one day, and I think they'll warm up to each other and become besties.'

Mina's videos on TikTok cataloguing their adventures and training have amassed hundreds of millions of views.

Merlin is so adorable that many have also written to Mina, who is vegetarian, to say that they can no longer eat bacon.

She had previously shared videos on her TikTok of her bearded dragon Mochi, who she also trained, which inspired her to train Merlin when she first adopted him.

Mina added: 'I just want to make the cutest and most wholesome videos I can.'
Netflix's upcoming horror series The Watcher is set to tell the real-life story of a couple who were harassed out of their dream home by a creepy stalker - and whose identity remains a mystery to this day.

The series, which is set to air on the streaming platform in October in the UK, is executive produced by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, who are best known for their hit series Ratched, The Politician and Pose.

It stars Naomi Watts, 52, and Bobby Cannavale, 51, as a married couple who have just moved into their dream home only to find themselves targeted by a stalker, as well as Jennifer Coolidge, 61, as the estate agent who sells them the property.

After they move into the New Jersey home, at 657 Boulevard, the couple are sent cryptic and threatening letters by The Watcher, who wants to force them out of their house.

The Watcher is based on a real-life story of a New Jersey couple who were menaced by a stalker; Derek and Maria Broaddus bought the home in 2014 for $1.4million.

Netflix's upcoming series The Watcher features the story of a real life couple who moved into their dream home at 657 Boulevard (pictured) before being harassed by an anonymous stalker who branded themselves 'The Watcher'

Derek and Maria Broaddus (pictured here with their children) received creepy letters from The Watcher which eventually forced them to sell the property

The series features Jennifer Coolidge as the estate agent who sold the couple their home (pictured here in a promo video for the show, in which she showcases the house)

Between June that year and February 2017, The Watcher sent four letters to their Westfield home.

The stalker's letters claimed they had been 'watching the house for decades' and one of their sinister notes read: 'I am The Watcher. Bring me your young blood.'

According to The Watcher, observance over the house had been passed down through the family.

'657 Boulevard has been the subject of my family for decades now and as it approaches its 110th birthday, I have been put in charge of watching and waiting for its second coming,' the letters stated.

'My grandfather watched the house in the 1920s and my father watched in the 1960s. It is now my time. Do you know the history of the house? Do you know what lies within the walls of 657 Boulevard? Why are you here? I will find out.'

The letters kept the family on edge, with Derek revealing that he was a 'depressed wreck' in an interview with The Cut.

The Broaddus (Derek Broaddus pictured right) sued the prior owners, John Woods (left) and his wife Andrea, in 2015 claiming they also received a letter from 'The Watcher' but never disclosed it

Meanwhile, Maria Broaddus admitted that the letters from The Watcher left her with terrifying nightmares, including one with a man 'wearing these boots and carrying a pitchfork and calling to the kids.'

Her fears around how The Watcher may hurt her children were justified, as they had been mentioned in one of the letters.

It said: 'It has been years and years since the young blood ruled the hallways of the house. Have you found all of the secrets it holds yet? Will the young blood play in the basement?'

'Or are they too afraid to go down there alone. I would [be] very afraid if I were them. It is far away from the rest of the house. If you were upstairs you would never hear them scream,' a letter read.

Police, who were unable to identify the stalker despite an extensive investigation, suspect that the letters came from someone who was within a 300-yard radius of the house - which has a new tenant.

However, some people believe it may have been the couple themselves sending the letters, a claim they have always denied.

Police suspect that the letters came from someone who was within a 300-yard radius of the house (pictured)

Derek said: 'There's a natural tendency to say, "I've lived here for 35 years; nothing's happened to me".

'What happened to my family is an affront to their contention that they're safe, that there's no such thing as mental illness in their community. People don't want to believe this could happen in Westfield.'

In June 2015, the Broadduses sued the prior owners of the house, claiming that they also received a letter from The Watcher but never disclosed it.

The Woods said they had only received one note, that was unthreatening. The suit was dismissed.

Because of the letters, the Broaddus family put the mansion back on the market, and it eventually sold again in 2019 for $959,000, but the identity of The Watcher was never discovered by police.

Their story was at the centre of a bidding war between six studios in late 2018, before Netflix acquired the rights and decided to make a miniseries instead of a film.

The Watcher is set to air in the UK in October, on Netflix.
Prince Edward visited troops on deployment in Estonia and Germany this week to thank them for their commitment to the late Queen.

The Earl of Wessex was photographed greeting crowds in Paderborn, Germany, today - just days after the funeral of his late mother at Westminster Abbey.

In an Instagram post about his trip, the Royal Family said he was thanking troops who are deployed in both countries for their service to Her Majesty.

A series of photographs released by Buckingham Palace picture Edward signing the Town Hall's Golden Book in Paderborn 'in remembrance of Her Majesty's visit in 1977'.

It comes as King Charles continues to privately mourn his mother on the Balmoral estate where the Queen died 12 days ago with him by her side - while other royals including Princess Anne, Prince William and Kate Middleton have all returned to work.

Prince Edward visited troops on deployment in Estonia and Germany this week to thank them for their commitment to the late Queen

The Earl of Wessex was photographed greeting crowds in Paderborn, Germany, today - just days after the funeral of his late mother at Westminster Abbey

The statement added: 'The Earl of Wessex visited troops on deployment in Estonia and Germany this week to recognise their service and their commitment to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth throughout her life.

'His Royal Highness is Royal Colonel of the of 2nd Battalion The Rifles and Royal Honorary Colonel of the the Royal Wessex Yeomanry.

'In Paderborn, Germany, The Earl met residents and viewed tributes to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth from the local community.

'In remembrance of Her Majesty's visit in 1977, His Royal Highness also added his signature to the Town Hall's Golden Book.'

A series of photographs released by Buckingham Palace picture Edward signing the Town Hall's Golden Book in Paderborn 'in remembrance of Her Majesty's visit in 1977'

In the snaps, he appeared to be greeting crowds of royal fans who were happy to chat with the Earl

Prince Edward, the Queen's youngest child, was heavily involved in Her Majesty's state funeral at Westminster Abbey on Monday and Committal Service at St George's Chapel in Windsor.

He attended both with his wife Sophie and children Louise and James.

The Earl of Wessex participated in funeral processions in both London and Windsor.

His return to work came as several member of the Royal Family took part in a number of engagements.

Prince Edward appeared in good spirits during the outing earlier today, and was snapped beaming as he chatted with Mayor of Paderborn Michael Dreier in Paderborn

The Royal Family were not expected to carry out any official engagements during their mourning period, after more than a week of being under the world's gaze while performing ceremonial duties following the Queen's death.

Yet royal duties recommenced earlier this week for William, with the father-of-three making his first speech since his grandmother passed away with a pre-recorded address to the Earthshot Prize summit in New York. The prince was due to attend but cancelled his trip following the Queen's death.

Buckingham Palace say a small number of engagements will be undertaken during royal mourning to thank those involved in the delivery of HM Queen Elizabeths Funeral and associated ceremonial events, and to recognise the service to King and country of those on deployment overseas.

William and Kate aren't the only royals heading back to work in-person; Princess Anne, 72, has stepped out at Portsmouth Naval Base, where she shook hands with Royal Navy personnel who took part in the procession. It is her first engagement since attending her mother's funeral on Monday.
A bride-to-be's beauty prep ended up ruining her wedding after her eyelash extensions landed her in the hospital with sliced eyeballs - leaving her at risk of going blind.

Alexis Theriot, 33, Elkhart County, Indiana, decided to get her lashes enhanced ahead of her big day to achieve a 'glam' look and speed up the process of getting ready ahead of the ceremony.

The mom-of-four went to a lash technician who had done her eyelashes before, just two days before she was due to get hitched to her fiance Cameron Theriot, 33, on September 2.

Alexis Theriot, 33, Elkhart County, Indiana, revealed that her wedding day was ruined after lash extension tape sliced both of her eyeballs

The mom-of-four got eyelash extensions two days before she married her fiance Cameron Theriot, 33, in Tennessee

'I thought instead of applying a lash each day around my wedding day I would just get my lashes done, and they would be there for the whole week of my wedding and after,' she said, 'but I deeply regretted it.'

The beautician applied adhesive tape to Alexis' lower lash line to prevent her eyelids and lashes from getting glued together at the start of the two-hour appointment.

'She put the tape on and it felt very uncomfortable,' she recalled. 'I told her, and she said, "Your eyes are probably sensitive," but my eye felt very irritated, almost to the point of [it] being unbearable.'

Alexis continued with the appointment, but her eye pain continued to increase.

'When she was done, she pulled the tape off, and it was an instant relief, but on the way home my eyes were hurting more and more,' she explained.

'I tried to go to bed, but I kept not getting good sleep because of my eyes. They were irritating me and kept waking me, and the next morning it felt like they were on fire.'

Alexis (pictured with her now-husband before the ordeal) recalled how the technician applied adhesive tape to her lower lash line to prevent her eyelids and lashes from gluing together

Alexis said the pain was immediate and got to the point of being 'unbearable,' but the woman reassured her that her eyes were just 'sensitive'

'The next morning it felt like they were on fire,' Alexis said of the excruciating pain

Alexis was still in excruciating pain when she made the grueling ten-hour drive from her home in Indiana to her wedding venue in Tennessee the day after her lash appointment.

'I just pushed through and got my kids in the car to start my drive,' she said.

Alexis messaged the lash technician, who told her to buy an over-the-counter pain reliever and eye drops, but they failed to soothe her 'burning eyeballs.'

After finally making it to the mountain venue on the eve of her wedding, the mom sought advice from a friend who is an optometrist and was told to see a doctor.

On the morning of her big day, she was forced to drive to a nearby hospital, where she learned the extent of her eye injuries.

The anxious bride-to-be was held up for hours while being examined by doctors and waiting for an essential prescription ahead of the 5 p.m. ceremony.

Alexis messaged the lash technician, who told her to buy an over-the-counter pain reliever and eye drops, but they failed to soothe her 'burning eyeballs'

Alexis was still in pain when she made the grueling ten-hour drive from her home in Indiana to her wedding venue in Tennessee

On the morning of her big day, she was forced to drive to a nearby hospital, where she learned the extent of her eye injuries

'I had some puss and blood drainage from my right eye, so they had to try and clean a lot of that off because it was crusted shut from sleeping,' she explained. 'It was very painful for them to even touch the skin on the right side of my eye and touching my eye was even more painful.

'I started crying because of the pain and my tears actually stung my eyes worse. The pain was unbearable,' she recalled. 'The doctor put dye in both of my eyes and looked at them under a special light and told me that they were both cut and bruised - and one was "severe."

'They said I had a hemorrhage in my right eye - a main one and a smaller one - so possibly two and the pressure was very high.'

Alexis was warned that if the pressure didn't go down, she could face vision loss and even blindness.

'The doctors said the tape rubbing is how I got a cut the entire length of my eye because that is the exact placement of where the lower lash line is and the injury on my eye,' she said.

'The doctor told me that if I didn't get the eyedrops soon and a bad enough infection set in, it could take my eyesight, and I needed to take it very seriously.'

'The doctor put dye in both of my eyes and looked at them under a special light and told me that they were both cut and bruised,' she explained

Alexis was also told that she had a hemorrhage in her right eye, and if the pressure doesn't go down, she could develop vision loss or even blindness

Alexis spent over eight hours at the hospital and pharmacy trying to get an essential prescription on her wedding day

Hospital doctors administered numbing drops to Alexis' eyes, but she said they wore off after an hour, and the excruciating pain set in again.

After leaving the hospital with her prescription, she had to wait two hours for a nearby pharmacy to open. She then learned the medication wasn't in stock, and the pharmacist had to call it in from another location.

Alexis was gone for more than eight hours before she was able to rush back to her wedding venue, saying she 'wasted her whole morning.'

'I made it to the venue at 3:30 p.m. and no one was dressed and my hair and makeup wasn't done,' she said. 'I got all my children ready, but I didn't even have enough time to do my hair and my daughter's hair exactly how I wanted it. It was just very disorganized.'

Alexis felt her wedding day was already ruined and wanted to postpone the ceremony because she was in so much pain, but that wasn't an option.

'I didn't even want to do the wedding anymore, and it's not that I didn't want to marry him. I just wanted to be able to enjoy it, but I was in so much pain that nothing was enjoyable,' she explained.

Alexis wanted to postpone the ceremony because she was in so much pain, but she had no other option but to go through with it

'It really put a huge damper on my vacation and wedding day, and I just regretted getting the extensions so much,' she said

Doctors told Alexis that if her right eye does not start to heal in the next couple of weeks, she could develop glaucoma, a condition that could lead to vision loss and blindness

'I wanted to delay the wedding a few days, but I couldn't because the venue was already taken for all of the other days, and I wouldn't get my money back, so I just felt really forced to proceed with the wedding.

'I wanted to have this awesome family moment, so I just put my brave face on and got through it, but it wasn't at all how it was supposed to go. It really put a huge damper on my vacation and wedding day, and I just regretted getting the extensions so much.'

Alexis said doctors have confirmed that her left eye is healing well, but the pressure in her right eye remains high due to the deeper cut and resulting hemorrhages.

If her eye does not start to heal in the next couple of weeks, she could develop glaucoma - a condition where the optic nerve becomes damaged due to pressure from swelling. It can cause vision loss and blindness.

As she anxiously waits to find out if she will be permanently blinded by her ordeal, the newlywed wants to warn other women about the potential risks of eyelash extensions.

''I'm just hoping that in six weeks I get a clear bill of health for my eye,' she said. 'No lash extensions are completely safe because even if it only happens one in one thousand, you could be that one, so it's just luck of the draw. It could happen to anyone.

'My personal suggestion would be if you want lashes for a special occasion just go with the glue-on lashes,' she advised. 'I would never get eyelash extensions again, beauty is never worth your health.'
The music producer, 33, co-founded Washington, D.C.-based record label 1432 R and is the son of retired State Department officer Jon Eklund, 72, who worked at several US embassies in Africa and his wife Yeshi, 66

Malia and Dawit - an Ethiopian DJ - were first linked on July 26, when the two were caught grabbing takeout food together. Since then, they have been pictured side-by-side on numerous occasions

Missing from the coffee run was Malia's boyfriend, Dawit Eklund. The pair have returned to California after visiting New York City together, as they were seen taking a stroll around the Big Apple last week

She and her unnamed pal stopped to get coffee at upscale cafe Intelligentsia; the Harvard graduate, 24, kept her eyes hidden in a pair of dark shades and kept her long, braided hair pulled back loosely with a clip

The funky, baggy trousers contained small holes throughout, while the tiny belly-shirt contained a twist design that left her flat stomach on full display

The eldest daughter of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama rocked a white crop top while and a pair of khaki pants - as well as some New Balance sneakers

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Malia Obama showed off her toned midriff in a tight, white crop top while out with a male friend in Los Angeles, California, on Thursday.

The eldest daughter of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama completed the look with a pair of khaki pants and New Balance sneakers.

The funky, baggy trousers contained small holes throughout, while the tiny belly-shirt contained a twist design that left her flat stomach on full display.

The Harvard graduate, 24, kept her eyes hidden in a pair of dark shades and kept her long, braided hair pulled back loosely with a clip.

Fashionable: Malia Obama showed off her toned midriff in a tight, white crop top while out with a male friend in Los Angeles, California, on Thursday

The eldest daughter of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama completed the look with a pair of khaki pants and New Balance sneakers

Revealing look: The funky, baggy trousers contained small holes throughout, while the tiny belly-shirt contained a twist design that left her flat stomach on full display

She and her unnamed pal stopped to get coffee at upscale cafe Intelligentsia; she went makeup free for the outing, and held her belongings in a white tote bag, which said 'Circle Line' on it.

The Harvard graduate, 24, kept her eyes hidden in a pair of dark shades and kept her long, braided hair pulled back loosely with a clip

The two seemed in good spirits as they enjoyed the Los Angeles sunshine and headed to their car afterwards, chatting as they made their way down the street.

Missing from the coffee run was Malia's boyfriend, Ethiopian DJ Dawit Eklund. Malia recently returned to California after visiting New York City with her music producer beau, as the pair was seen cozying up while taking a stroll around the Big Apple last week.

Malia and Dawit were first linked on July 26, when the two were caught grabbing takeout food together. Since then, they have been pictured side-by-side on numerous occasions.

In August, DailyMail.com exclusive revealed his identity; Dawit, who recently turned 33, is nine years older than Malia.

He is the son of retired State Department officer Jon Eklund, 72, who worked at several US embassies in Africa and his Ethiopian wife Yeshi, 66.

Dawit co-founded Washington, D.C.-based record label 1432 R, which specializes in Ethiopian music. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he is also a registered Democrat.

A 2016 Washington Post article about the label said: 'Their music seamlessly brings together house music grooves, the stutter of U.K. garage, an uneasy electronic ambience, and  perhaps most notably  Ethiopian folk music.'

Dawit told the paper at the time: 'Ethiopian music is super distinct. There are only four or five musical scales that they play in; each has its own meaning and attitude and mood.'

A separate Post piece called him 'one of Washington's most exciting dance music producers,' adding: 'Its not because hes splicing styles from around the globe, its because he spent a lot of his young life learning how to communicate with different kinds of people.'

Caffeine time: She and her unnamed pal stopped to get coffee at upscale cafe Intelligentsia

All natural! Malia went makeup free for the outing, and held her belongings in a white tote bag, which said 'Circle Line' on it

The two seemed in good spirits as they enjoyed the Los Angeles sunshine and headed to their car afterwards, chatting as they made their way down the street

Missing from the coffee run was Malia's boyfriend, Ethiopian DJ Dawit Eklund

He was educated at the International Community School in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, before going to George Washington University where he studied International Development in Africa.

Dawit  who also goes by David, the Anglicized version of his name  is one of four children. His father Jon was heavily involved in helping the refugee crisis caused by the war in Sudan in the early 2000s, when hundreds of thousands fled to Ethiopia to escape the fighting.

His mother Yeshi comes from a successful family of business people in Ethiopia. His sister Sara Eklund was featured in a 2019 Vogue article for introducing menstrual cups to Ethiopia.

Malia - who is currently working as a screenwriter on Donald Glover's upcoming Amazon show - moved to Los Angeles last year, after graduating from Harvard, to pursue a career as a screenwriter.

In March, Donald revealed that he had given the 24-year-old her first job as a writer on his new series, which is reportedly about 'a Beyonce-type character,' with the actor calling her 'amazingly talented' and 'really focused.'

'Shes just like, an amazingly talented person,' Donald, 38, who is also known by his stage name Childish Gambino, told Vanity Fair at the time. 'Shes really focused, and shes working really hard.'

He did not share how Malia landed the job after she graduated from college but he added that he believed she has a promising future in the industry.

Malia recently returned to California after visiting New York City with her music producer beau, as the pair was seen cozying up while taking a stroll around the Big Apple last week (pictured)

The music producer, 33, co-founded Washington, D.C.-based record label 1432 R and is the son of retired State Department officer Jon Eklund, 72, who worked at several US embassies in Africa and his Ethiopian wife Yeshi, 66

He was educated at the International Community School in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, before going to George Washington University where he studied International Development in Africa

Career-focused: Malia - who is currently working as a screenwriter on Donald Glover's upcoming Amazon show - moved to Los Angeles last year, after graduating from Harvard, to pursue a job as a screenwriter

In March, Donald revealed that he had given the 24-year-old her first job as a writer on his new series, which is reportedly about 'a Beyonce-type character,' with the actor calling her 'amazingly talented' and 'really focused'

He did not share how Malia landed the job after she graduated from college but he added that he believed she has a promising future in the industry

While Malia - who previously interned on Lena Dunham's HBO series Girls in 2015 and at The Weinstein Company in 2017 - is working as a screenwriter, her younger sister, Sasha Obama, 21, is also building her own life in Los Angeles.

The 21-year-old is studying at the University of Southern California, where she just began her final year, after transferring from the University of Michigan.

DailyMail.com exclusively revealed a few months ago that she was in a relationship with Clifton Powell Jr., 24, who is the son of Ray actor Clifton Powell.

Clifton Jr. and Sasha are understood to have met after she relocated to the West Coast, and he is already close with the family, as he has been seen hanging out with Malia a few times in recent months.

In April, Sasha and Malia's mother, Michelle, opened up about how both of her daughters are all grown up during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Ellen, 64, reminded the former First Lady of how Sasha and Malia had first visited the show when they were little girls who wanted to see the Jonas Brothers. But over a decade later, they've graduated from boybands to boyfriends.

'Now they're bringing grown men home,' Michelle said. 'Now they have boyfriends and real lives and all that stuff. They have grown up right before our very eyes and they are doing well.'

While the mom-of-two gushed about the 'amazing young women' her daughters have become - 'Women, I know! Scary,' she said - and divulged that they were both now dating, she was much more discreet about the details of their love lives and didn't share any further details.
If you believe the Assange case to be a historical anomaly, some aberration unique to Trump White House, recall that the CIAs killings have continued in series across administrations. Obama ordered the killing of an American far from any battlefield, and killed his 16 year-old American son a few weeks later, but the mans American daughter was still alive by the time Obama left.

How can we judge the ultimate effectiveness of oversight and reforms? Well, the CIA plotted to assassinate my friend , American whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, in 1972, yet nearly fifty years of reforms did little to inhibit them from recently sketching out another political murder targeting Julian Assange . Putting that in perspective, you probably own shoes older than the CIAs most recent plot to murder a dissident... or rather the most recent plot that we know of .

"Congress should have been told," said [Senator] Dianne Feinstein. "We should have been briefed before the commencement of this kind of sensitive program. Director Panetta... was told that the vice president had ordered that the program not be briefed to Congress ."

Many today comfort themselves by imagining that the Agency has been reformed, and that such abuses are relics of the distant past, but what few reforms our democracy has won have been watered-down or compromised. The limited Intelligence Oversight role that was eventually conceded to Congress in order to placate the public has never been taken seriously by either the committees majoritywhich prefers cheerleading over investigatingor by the Agency itself, which continues to conceal politically-sensitive operations from the very group most likely to defend them.

For some time I have been disturbed by the way CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the Government. This has led to trouble

In 1963, no less than former President Harry Truman confessed that the very agency he personally signed into law had transformed into something altogether different than he intended, writing:

The CIA was founded in the wake of the 1947 National Security Act. The Act foresaw no need for the Courts and Congress to oversee a simple information-aggregation facility, and therefore subordinated it exclusively to the President, through the National Security Council he controls.

September 23, 2022: Information Clearing House -- Our glittering nation of laws observes this year two birthdays: the 70th anniversary of the National Security Agency, on which my thoughts have been recorded , and the 75th anniversary of the Central Intelligence Agency.

It goes beyond assassinations. Within recent memory, the CIA captured Gul Rahman, who we know was not Al-Qaeda, but it seems did save the life of Afghanistans future (pro-US) President. Rahman was placed in what the Agency described as a dungeon and tortured until he died.

They stripped him naked, save a diaper he couldnt change, in a cold so wicked that his guards, in their warm clothes, ran heaters for themselves. In absolute darkness, they bolted his hands and feet to a single point on the floor with a very short chain so that it was impossible to stand or lie down  a practice called short shackling  and after he died, claimed that it was for his own safety. They admit to beating him, even describing the forceful punches. They describe the blood that ran from his nose and mouth as he died.

Short-shackling, as described by survivors

Pages later, in their formal conclusion, the Agency declares that there was no evidence of beating. There was no of evidence torture. The CIA ascribes responsibility for his death to hypothermia, which they blamed on him for the crime of refusing, on his final night, a meal from the men that killed him.

The CIA claimed the complaints of a man they tortured to death  regarding the violation of his human rights  were evidence of a sophisticated level of resistance training.

In the aftermath, the Agency concealed the death of Gul Rahman from his family. To this day, they refuse to reveal what happened to his remains, denying those who survive him a burial, or even some locus of mourning.

Ten years after the torture program investigated, exposed, and ended, no one was charged for their role in these crimes. The man responsible for Rahmans death was recommended for a $2,500 cash award  for consistently superior work.

A different torturer was elevated to the Directors seat.

This summer, in a speech marking the occasion of the CIA's 75th birthday, President Biden struck a quite different note than he did in Philadelphia, reciting what the CIA instructs all presidents: that the soul of the institution really lies in speaking truth to power.

We turn to you with the big questions, Biden said, the hardest questions. And we count on you to give your best, unvarnished assessment of where we are. And I emphasize unvarnished.

But this itself is a variety of varnishing  a whitewash.

For what reason do we aspire to maintain  or achieve  a nation of laws, if not to establish justice?

Let us say we have a democracy, shining and pure. The people, or in our case some subset of people, institute reasonable laws to which government and citizen alike must answer. The sense of justice that arises within such a society is not produced as a result of the mere presence of law, which can be tyrannical and capricious, or even elections, which face their own troubles, but is rather derived from the reason and fairness of the system that results.

What would happen if we were to insert into this beautiful nation of laws an extralegal entity that is not directed by the people, but a person: the President? Have we protected the nations security, or have we placed it at risk?

This is the unvarnished truth: the establishment of an institution charged with breaking the law within a nation of laws has mortally wounded its founding precept.

From the year it was established, Presidents and their cadres have regularly directed the CIA to go beyond the law for reasons that cannot be justified, and therefore must be concealed  classified. The primary result of the classification system is not an increase in national security, but a decrease in transparency. Without meaningful transparency, there is no accountability, and without accountability, there is no learning.

The consequences have been deadly, for both Americans and our victims. When the CIA armed the Mujaheddin to wage war on Soviet Afghanistan, we created al-Qaedas Osama bin Laden. Ten years later, the CIA is arming, according to then-Vice President Joe Biden, "al-Nusra, and Al-Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world." After the CIA runs a disinformation operation to make life hard for the Soviet Union by fueling a little proxy war, the war rages for twenty-six years  far beyond the Unions collapse.

Do you believe that the CIA today  a CIA free from all consequence and accountability  is uninvolved in similar activities? Can you find no presence of their fingerprints in the events of the world, as described in the headlines, that provide cause for concern? Yet it is those who question the wisdom of placing a paramilitary organization beyond the reach of our courts that are dismissed as naive.

For 75 years, the American people have been unable to bend the CIA to fit the law, and so the law has been bent to fit the CIA. As Biden stood on the crimson stage, at the site where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were debated and adopted, his words rang out like the cry of a cracked-to-hell Liberty Bell: What's happening in our country is not normal.

If only that were true.

Edward Joseph Snowden is an American former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency in 2013, when he was an employee and subcontractor. https://edwardsnowden.substack.com
A six-year-old girl had a crowd cheering when she completed a 10m sprint - only to adorably forget to stop at the finish line and instead complete a full 400m lap of the course.

Edie Campbell-Goddard, from Nottingham, was taking part in a 10m sprint for children at the Highland Games in Oban, Argyll and Bute, Scotland.

But after Edie crossed the finish line and saw she was in the lead she was determined to keep going - and ended up running 400m round the track.

In the cute clip Edie, who is wearing a tartan dress, is being cheered on by spectators at the event on August 25.

Scroll down for video

A six-year-old girl had a crowd cheering when she completed a 10m sprint - only to adorably forget to stop at the finish line and instead complete a full 400m lap of the course

Edie Campbell-Goddard (right, pictured with her sister Erin, left), from Nottingham, was taking part in a 10m sprint for children at the Highland Games in Oban, Argyll and Bute, Scotland

Proud mother-of-two Dawn, 47, said she thinks Edie enjoyed the limelight and making people smile.

Counsellor Dawn said: 'Edie kept asking me "do I have to do the race" and I told her no, but as soon as they announced it she was right up there.

'After she crossed the finish line she looked back and saw she was in the lead so just kept going, she was so determined.

But after Edie (pictured with sister Erin and the Duke of Argyll) crossed the finish line and saw she was in the lead she was determined to keep going - and ended up running 400m round the track

'Everyone was cheering and clapping for her, she loved being in the limelight I think, and seeing people smile. When she finished, she said "I have never had such a loud applause".'

Dawn continued: 'She loved everyone's reaction to the video, it's been so amazing to see how people have taken too it. It was nice for people to see her determination and spirit.

'I am so proud of her, it's given her such confidence. Everyone is calling her Speedy Edie now.'
The parents of a baby boy who spent six months fighting for his life in the neonatal intensive care unit asked his doting nurse to be his godmother and always be a part of his life.

Austyn Evans, 28, from Florida, was 35 weeks pregnant when she and her husband, Branden Williams, welcomed their son, Conrad, at Texas Childrens Hospital in Houston on December 15.

The newborn had kidney problems and breathing difficulties that required him to be put on a ventilator. Nurse Carly Miller, 27, cared for Conrad during his first five days in the NICU and developed an immediate bond with his parents.

'The way she talked to him when she was doing his vitals or she was taking blood, she was constantly talking to him in this really cute little mom voice and trying to be as comforting as she could even though he was extremely sedated,' Evans told Today of the 'charismatic' NICU nurse.

Austyn Evans, 28, from Florida, and her husband, Branden Williams, welcomed their son, Conrad, at Texas Childrens Hospital in Houston on December 15

Nurse Carly Miller, 27, (right) cared for Conrad during his first five days in the NICU and developed an immediate bond with him and his parents

Evans had been moved from her local hospital in Florida to Texas Children's Pavilion for Women after her 20-week anatomy scan detected that her son had a kidney blockage and would likely need special care after birth.

The mom-to-be also didn't have any amniotic fluid, a disorder that is known as oligohydramnios. Low amniotic fluid increases the risk of miscarriage or stillbirth and can also cause severe abnormalities, including underdeveloped lungs.

The goal was to have her baby grow as much as possible, but he had to be delivered early after his heart rate started dropping.

The newborn had kidney problems and breathing difficulties that required him to be put on a ventilator, leaving his parents unable to hold him for over a month

Evans found comfort in her communication with Miller, whom she felt was 'the only one who really knew Conrad'

Conrad relied on machines to help him to continue to grow after he was born, and his parents weren't able to hold him for over a month.

Evans found comfort in her communication with Miller, who was 'the only one who really knew Conrad.'

The mom felt so strongly about Miller's presence in her son's life that she requested that she continue to be his primary nurse when he was moved to another pod to start continuous renal replacement therapy, a special type of dialysis.

The mom felt so strongly about Miller's presence in her son's life that she requested for her to continue to be his primary nurse when he started dialysis

Miller was initially hesitant about following Conrad because it was the first time this type of dialysis machine was being used with the hospital's NICU patients, but she eventually agreed

'A lot of the doctors did not think he was going to make it,' Miller told Today. 'He was one of the smallest babies weve ever put on the machine'

Miller was initially hesitant about following Conrad because it was the first time this type of dialysis machine was being used with the hospital's NICU patients. Despite her concerns over her lack of experience, she agreed to take on the challenge.

'A lot of the doctors did not think he was going to make it,' the nurse told Today. 'He was one of the smallest babies weve ever put on the machine, so its pretty groundbreaking for them to have Conrad get through it.'

Miller remained a constant source of information and comfort for the baby boy's parents, who quickly noticed how their son responded to her presence.

Conrad's parents quickly noticed how he responded to Miller's presence, and Evans recalled how her son's eyes 'lit up' when he saw the nurse

Conrad spent six months in the NICU, and the new parents asked Miller to be their son's godmother after he was released from the hospital

Miller was brought to tears and immediately agreed to being Conrad's godmother, saying it was 'the coolest thing' that has ever happened to her

'One of the nights that I was leaving Conrad I was waiting for Carly,' the mom said. 'He was just super fussy  I mean ridiculously so. And the moment he saw Carly his eyes lit up. He was super smiley. And when I tried to grab him go give him a hug before I left, he shooed me away.'

Evans said the thought of never seeing Miller again after Conrad was released from the hospital at six months old was 'heart-wrenching.' She wanted her to be her son's godmother but didn't ask before they left.

She ended up inviting the nurse to visit with a special surprise in mind. She gave her flowers and a note from Conrad asking her to be his godmother. Miller immediately accepted.

'I started bawling. I was like, "Are you serious?" Miller recalled, saying it was 'the coolest thing' that has ever happened to her.
The doctor behind 'game-changing' skincare line MZ Skin has shared the secrets behind her enviable complexion - including a consistent routine, no coffee, beauty sleep and a good eye cream.

Dr Maryam Zamani, from London, was exposed to plastic surgery early on while working in Thailand for Operation Smile - an organisation that helps kids and adults with cleft lips and palates.

Upon returning to medical school she found she enjoyed delicate facial procedures and eventually moved into ophthalmology and oculoplastics - a specialty focusing on the functioning of the eye and the facial regions surrounding it.

She then moved into non-surgical aesthetics and later developed her own practice incorporating all she'd learned.

The doctor behind 'game-changing' skincare line MZ Skin has shared the secrets behind her enviable complexion - including a consistent routine, no coffee, beauty sleep and a good eye cream

Dr Maryam Zamani, from London, was exposed to plastic surgery early on while working in Thailand for Operation Smile - an organisation that helps kids and adults with cleft lips and palates

Dr Zamani's skills combined with her love for skincare and a nightly ritual then grew into her own skincare line, MZ Skin, which she started formulating in 2014.

'I have always loved skincare since my teens when my mother bought my first Lancome moisturiser and that continued through college and med school,' Dr Zamani, 48, told FEMAIL.

'Back then Shiseido was my go-to skincare. I would study, workout, come home, shower, do my nightly skincare ritual, put on pretty underwear and pyjamas and go under my cold duvet.'

After completing her ophthalmology training, Dr Zamani started to notice 'doctor brands' were starting to pop up and while they captured her attention, none were quite right.

Dr Zamani's skills combined with her love for skincare and a nightly ritual then grew into her own skincare line, MZ Skin, which she started formulating in 2014

'I started trying a few but was disinterested as I felt I was medicating my face... that beautiful sensory experience and ritual aspect was lost,' she said.

'I then started working with my own chemist creating formulas to supplement my routine.'

Dr Zamani worked with her formulator and would ask her patients and friends for feedback, tweaking as she went.

'I had no vision of what the future would hold but when a buyer at Harrods wanted my products, MZ Skin was born. It's been a fabulously exciting, challenging and rewarding road,' she said.

The brand's goal is to show clients you can have high-performance skincare that's functional yet still beautiful; Dr Zamani describes it as a combination of 'medically based know-how, feminine passion and determination'.

Dr Zamani keeps her routine simple and says the best regime you can have is one you are consistent with

What are Dr Zamani's top diet and nutrition tips for good skin? I have a holistic view when it comes to beauty and believe the best routine is supported by a healthy, balanced lifestyle. With that in mind, I am a big fan of eating well. * I love green apples with almond butter * Every morning I start my day with a hot water infused with ginger and lemon, then a green smoothie or freshly squeezed half mandarin and half orange juice at the office. * I never drink coffee and rather a matcha with almond milk if I crave something more * My normal breakfast is either porridge (with berries, and a bit of honey) or poached eggs with toast. If I am running late, I will have a late breakfast around ten in my office or avocado toast sprinkled with chilli flakes * I don't like anything fried, I'm also not a huge fan of Chinese food Advertisement

'Like me, most of us want to have that no foundation, foundation look which translates into clear skin; clear from acne, pigment, or redness. My morning regime features products that promote collagen production and prevent damage from daily pollution and environmental aggressors,' she said.

'They are simple to use, and make me feel beautiful.'

Dr Zamani keeps her routine simple and says the best regime you can have is one you are consistent with.

'In the mornings I wash my face with Skin Cleanse & Clarify while I am in the shower. Afterwards, I layer Brighten & Perfect 10 % Vitamin C Serum to combat oxidative damage and promote collagen production while decreasing the appearance of pigmentation, a condition I suffer from,' she said.

'I follow this with Soothe and Smooth to help build collagen in the delicate eye area while deeply hydrating the skin and my last step is Tint & Protect or Skin Hydrate and Nourish to help maintain hydration on my skin while also protecting it with SPF.'

In the evenings she cleanses then enhances with serums, eye cream and a moisturiser.

'It's always nice to have time once or twice a week to enhance this with a relaxing ritual that can include ampoules, masks and a LED mask,' she said

Dr Zamani said what makes her range stand out from the rest is its focus on keeping skincare simple

'It's always nice to have time once or twice a week to enhance this with a relaxing ritual that can include ampoules, masks and a LED mask,' she said.

Dr Zamani said what makes her range stand out from the rest is its focus on keeping skincare simple.

'We do not need lots of different layers of skincare, we need skincare that works effectively and synergistically together,' she said.

'We use actives to promote even, hydrated, glowing skin and key ingredients in the MZ range include performance-proven active that we know to work - antioxidants, retinol, peptides, stem cells and placenta.'

This, she says, is key to resolving one of the biggest mistakes women make with their skincare: overdoing it.

What are Dr Zamani's favourite makeup and hair products?  Makeup: Tom Ford bronzer, Nars orgasm blush, Charlotte Tilbury/Chanel eyeliner, Chanel Les Beigies, Hermes 10 Rose D'Ete lip, Chanel mascara  Perfume: Dolce & Gabbana Red  Hair: Olaplex  SPF: Heliocare gel, Elta MD, Evy  From MZ Skin: A trio - Soothe & Smooth eye cream to help improve dark circles and diminish fine lines, Brighten & Perfect to improve skin tone and texture and Rest & Revive to make it look like I have slept ten hours even when I haven't Advertisement

'Sometimes when seeing different doctors, instead of looking better, they look different. The goal is to be the best version of yourself... remember less is more,' she said

'Often people expect results before giving their skincare enough time or they use too many actives that may or may not work together and then do not know what may be exacerbating skin changes,' she said.

'In terms of in office procedures, sometimes people go to many different doctors for treatments. I think it is best to do your research, perhaps see a couple different people that have been recommended to you, and to build a relationship with your doctor.

'Sometimes when seeing different doctors, instead of looking better, they look different. The goal is to be the best version of yourself... remember less is more.'

As for reducing the effects of ageing, Dr Zamani says eye cream is the most important product.

As for reducing the effects of ageing, Dr Zamani says eye cream is the most important product

'Beauty sleep and hydration is essential... and a smile always makes everything look better,' she said

'The eye area is the first to show signs of ageing so ensure that you are using an effective eye cream, applied lightly using the ring finger,' she said, adding that everyone's night and morning routines should be different.

'The morning is about protecting the skin, you should be wearing SPF every day to avoid premature ageing and pigmentation in later years. In the evening I recommend using a serum to assist in regenerating the skin filled with antioxidants and other ingredients), followed by a night cream.

'My advice to women is to start using skincare products containing retinol to smooth out fine lines, reduce pigmentation and make pores less visible.

'Beauty sleep and hydration is essential... and a smile always makes everything look better.'
A single mother has opened up on her three-month nightmare living in a van after being priced out of her home amid Australia's rental crisis.

Martelle Jackson, 28, refused to renew her lease on a property near Wollongong, south of Sydney, in late 2020 when her landlord initially hiked the rent by $40 per week.

But she was unaware the country was grappling with a housing crisis and she found it impossible to find somewhere to live.

'I thought I'd only live in the van for a week or two and didn't plan it for the long-term at all,' Martelle told FEMAIL, describing the experience as 'horrendous'.

She would bathe in the cold ocean in the middle of winter every morning and wake up at 5am to urinate on the side of the road while no-one was around.

Martelle Jackson (pictured) lived in a van for three months after struggling to secure a new rental property

The now 28-year-old described the homelessness experience as 'horrendous' as she would bathe in the freezing cold ocean every morning and wake up at 5am to urinate on the side of the road while no-one was around (pictured: Martelle with her daughter)

'After being knocked back for quite a few houses I called my real estate and asked if I could stay until I found somewhere as I was scared of ending up homeless and my daughter would have to live with her dad,' Martelle said.

'She (the real estate agent) said "you've got to do what you've got to do. I'll give you an extra week and that's it". After I left they put the rent up by almost $100 a week.'

She then started offering an extra $10 to $20 a week on applications and paying rent up front to get ahead of other applicants.

Martelle, originally from England, had no family to lean on so her four-year-old daughter stayed at her ex-partner's house.

Inside the van, which she purchased spontaneously in 2019, Martelle had a bed, fridge, sink and a fan - but no shower, Wi-Fi or toilet.

She would park her car at various parklands and beaches, but often feared for her safety.

'I did need to drive to a different area a few times at night because I felt uncomfortable or unsafe,' she said.

'It was terrible, and I had mechanical issues with the van - the window would leak and I bad flu in the winter.

'My daughter was my saving grace because I was pushing through it all to get a rental and be home with her again. I still saw her every day but it wasn't the same, I missed the little things.'

Originally from England, she had no family to lean on for support during the difficult time and so her four-year-old daughter stayed at her ex-partner's house

How to negotiate for cheaper rent 1. Do your research on rental prices in the area 2. Check your rental agreement 3. Be prepared with exactly what youre going to ask for 4. Put your request in writing, detailing how much you're willing to pay Source: realestate.com.au Advertisement

Martelle said she would often feel like a 'burden' to others and questioned how she got into the situation in the first place.

At the time she wasn't working and was studying music at TAFE.

She would inspect three or four rental properties a day, but was turned down 48 times because she was a single mum without a job.

'The inspections were always crowded with up to 50 people and real estate agents wouldn't give me a chance - no-one would consider me over a family,' she said.

'I felt really defeated in the end but knew I had to keep going.'

In her spare time she learnt how to play guitar and practiced piano, all in the van.

Inside the van, which she purchased spontaneously in 2019, Martelle had a bed, fridge, sink and a fan but no shower, Wi-Fi or toilet

Martelle had support from Centrelink and charities including Orange Sky and Hope Street Youth & Family Services.

She felt comforted after being offered small but significant gestures that made a world of difference, including hot showers, breakfast and washing machine services.

After the 49th application Martelle was finally accepted for a beautiful rental property with stunning lake views.

'I got all my furniture out of storage and really got my mojo back,' she said.

Martelle believes 'everything happens for a reason' - and is now the owner of barbershop The Shave Cave in Port Kembla, NSW.

After the 49th application Martelle was finally accepted for a beautiful rental property with stunning lake views

'I set up the whole shop myself, spray painted it, decorated it and now we're coming up to our one year anniversary,' she said.

'I've really turned my life around and now my next big goal is to save for a house.'

Martelle said she 'grew up a lot' during the three months on the streets and she was 'surprised at her own strength'.

'I didn't have any mental health struggles thankfully, which really shocked me, but I guess I did what I had to do,' she said.

Martelle is now the owner of hairdressing salon The Shave Cave in Port Kembla

'I trusted the process and think everything happens for a reason - I wouldn't have opened my shop if I didn't go through this.'

Today Martelle's store co-ordinates with Youth & Family Services to give vouchers to the homeless for free haircuts and blow dries.

'It's the little things that make the biggest difference when you're going through something like that,' she said.

To check if you're eligible for rental assistance, visit Services Australia here.

If your current situation is causing stress or impacting your mental health, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue 24/7 on 1300 224 636.
MailOnline's analysis comes after new Health-Sec Therese Coffey pledges 500million to help fix the crisis

Problem has been blamed on social care which is beset by staffing issues as supermarkets offer higher wages

Bedblocking is contributing to distressing A&E and ambulance waits and the NHS's enormous care backlog

Advertisement

Up to a third of beds at England's busiest NHS trusts are occupied by patients who shouldn't be there, according to a startling MailOnline analysis that lays bare the scale of the country's 'devastating' bed-blocking jam.

More than 13,000 hospital beds across the country, or one in seven, are currently filled with patients declared fit for discharge by doctors.

But rates soar to as high as one in three at the worst-hit hospitals, found in Bristol and Coventry as well as parts of Lancashire and Norfolk.

Experts say the numbers are being driven by a separate crisis in social care, leaving medically-fit patients left to languish on wards for up to nine months because there is no suitable nursing accommodation or care available for them in the community.

Newly-appointed Health Secretary Therese Coffey has already vowed to end the scandal, which has soared to record levels and is thought to cost taxpayers roughly 2billion-a-year.

This will help to prevent deadly ambulance delays by stopping paramedics queuing outside A&E waiting for a bed to become available. It will also boost efforts to tackle the Covid-induced care backlog, by freeing up space to allow more patients in.

In an effort to avert an NHS meltdown this winter, Dr Coffey yesterday revealed she would give the crippled social care sector 500million of emergency funds.

Care providers will be encouraged to use the war chest to help plug 165,000 vacancies, given a shortage of care workers is central to the crisis.

Staff may be offered bonuses, pay rises or more generous overtime to prevent more leaving for better paid jobs in retail. There will also be a drive to attract more care workers from abroad, with 15million available to cover areas like visa applications and accommodation.

Dr Coffey described the 500million as a 'downpayment', hinting more money may be coming down the pipeline. Prime Minister Liz Truss promised to divert billions of NHS funding into the social care to rescue the sector during the Tory leadership race.

Some of the trusts with the biggest bedblocking problem, like North Bristol had almost one in three beds taken up by patients which were medically fit to be discharged

The NHS's bedblocking crisis has exploded since the pandemic with the levels of delayed discharge around triple the comparable figures before the pandemic

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting criticised Miss Coffeys Sesame Street plan, which she has called A, B, C, D  ambulances, backlogs, care and doctors and dentists

NHS data show that between August 2010 and February 2020  the month before Covid kicked off, an average of 4,580 beds a day were blocked by so-called 'delayed discharges'.

Even before the pandemic, the situation prompted warnings that the knock-on effects, including having to cancel operations due to a lack of space, were killing thousands every year.

Now official NHS figures analysed by MailOnline show how the scale of the crisis has drastically worsened during the pandemic.

Newly-appointed Health Secretary Therese Coffey has already vowed to end the scandal, which has soared to record levels and is thought to cost taxpayers roughly 2billion-a-year

August just gone was the worst month ever, with an average of 13,000 beds blocked every day in England.

The problem is thought to cost about 5.2million each day, since overnight stays are around 400.

The figure on August 31, the most recent day stats are available for, stood at 13,195  three times more than comparable figures published before Covid hit.

Our probe accounted for the number of patients fit for discharge, as well as general occupancy levels.

While not a direct comparison to bedblocking prior to Covid, the data grasps the scale of the problem.

It suggested roughly 14.2 per cent of beds open across England's 100-plus acute NHS trusts  responsible for running the country's biggest hospitals  were taken up by delayed discharges on the most recent day stats are published for.

But the rate varied massively across regions, standing at nearly 21.8 per cent in the South West, compared to 8.9 per cent in London.

When broken down by individual trusts, North Bristol NHS Trust appeared to have the biggest problem with bed-blockers. Its occupancy rate stood at 32.3 per cent, with around 280 of its 870-plus beds available on August 31 taken up by patients deemed fit enough to leave.

An investigation last month found a patient being cared for at the same trust had waited over nine months to be discharged, with another patient forced to wait eight.

Similar levels were logged at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Kings Lynn (32.0 per cent), Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh (30.5 per cent) and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (30.0 per cent).

NHS England figures show 6.8million patients were in the queue for routine hospital treatment in July, equivalent to one in eight people. Nearly 380,000 have been waiting for over one year

Ambulance response times recovered slightly in August but the time taken for paramedics to arrive on the scene was still well above targets

Therese Coffey pledges 500m war chest to tackle NHS bed-blocking scandal Therese Coffey has vowed to combat the NHS bed-blocking crisis with the launch of a 500million emergency fund. The Health and Social Care Secretary told MPs the money will help free up space in hospitals as she revealed her own nine-hour wait in A&E. Beleaguered ambulance services will also be supported by a new army of volunteer first aiders in a bid to cut delays. More than 13,000 beds in England  around one in seven  are occupied by patients who have been deemed medically fit to leave. But a shortage of carers means they face difficulty finding a place in care or home help. Care providers will be encouraged to use the fund to help plug 165,000 vacancies. Staff may be offered bonuses, pay rises or more generous overtime to prevent more leaving for better paid jobs in retail. There will also be a drive to attract more care workers from abroad, with 15million available to cover areas like visa applications and accommodation. Miss Coffey described the 500million as a downpayment while ministers work to rebalance funding across health and social care. But care charities last night dismissed the sum as insulting. Delayed discharges cost the NHS up to 5.5million a day, while a record 6.8 million languish on waiting lists. Advertisement

Some hospitals did not report their figures for each individual day in August, which may skew the monthly data slightly.

Bed-blockers, despite being well enough to leave hospital, still take up staff time and resources, needing to be washed, fed, and kept active to avoid complications like bed sores.

Elderly patients who have ongoing conditions like dementia can also wander off confused into other parts of the hospital, potentially injuring themselves by falling, so need to be monitored by staff.

People who remain in hospital longer than necessary also risk other hazards such as hospital-acquired infections, delirium and muscle wastage from lying in bed all day.

Age UK claimed MailOnline's analysis demonstrated the 'devastating' scale of the social care problem in England, warning all the signs indicate the problem will only get worse later this year.

'We are extremely concerned about the problem getting worse, particularly as we approach winter and all the challenges that are coming down the road,' a spokesperson said.

'The failure to adequately provide for older peoples health and social care needs creates huge challenges for the entire health and care system. Delayed discharge is a symptom of this failure, with older people and their loved ones paying a heavy price.'

Health think-tanks also slammed what they called the ongoing 'neglect' of the 'not fit for purpose' social care sector.

Johnathon Homes, a policy adviser at the King's Fund, said staffing shortages and underfunding had plagued the social care sector in England for many years but that those issues had been 'dialled up' by the Covid pandemic.

He added that the situation for winter was looking particularly dire.

'It is going to be an incredible, and I hope uniquely, difficult winter for the people working across the NHS and social care.'

He said staffing shortages were the biggest issues facing the council-funded social care sector, and added that this could be made worse as care workers grapple with the cost-of-living crisis.

Emergency unit data shows that three in 10 Britons were forced to wait longer than four hours in A&E departments in August, while nearly one thousand per day waited for 12 hours (monthly data provided by NHS England, which is different to the NHS Digital dataset)

What do the top-10 NHS trusts with the biggest bedblocking problems say that are doing to fix it? The trusts with the worst performing bed-blocking figures for August told MailOnline they were committed to fixing the problem. A spokesperson for the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board, which is responsible for North Bristol hospital said: 'Delayed discharges from acute and community hospitals are a symptom of the significant pressures within our health and care system, including challenges in social care capacity.' 'That is why we are working together across health, social care and voluntary services to tackle the challenge as a system, including investing in discharge processes and new types of community support, like new virtual wards, to make sure everyone can move into the appropriate health and care setting from hospital as soon as they are medically fit to do so.' A spokesperson for Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System, responsible for The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Kings Lynn NHS Foundation Trust said: 'As a health and care system, we continue to work closely together to ensure safe and timely discharges for our patients who are ready to leave hospital.' Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust deputy chief executive officer Mary Fleming issued a joint statement alongside Melissa Maguiness delivery director of the Healthier Wigan Partnership, a collaboration between the NHS and social care providers. They said: 'Our Healthier Wigan approach places an emphasis on integrating care and reducing hospital admissions where it is appropriate.' 'Examples of this include our Integrated Discharge Team with health and social care staff who start to plan for safe discharges as soon a patient is admitted, and the Virtual Ward which provides care and support for patients in their own home.' Yeovil Hospital and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust chief medical officer, Dr Dan Meron, said: 'We face this challenge like many hospitals and are working with NHS and social care partners to support Somerset patients at the point at which they are medically fit to leave hospital.' A Wirral University Teaching Hospital spokesperson also said they were working on the problem and were committed to patient safety. 'Gaps in the provision of community and social care for patients who are medically fit for discharge from our hospitals and no longer meet the "Criteria to Reside" cause a significant impact on the beds available in our hospitals and we continue to work with partners locally and in the Wirral health and social care system to improve patient flow and discharge performance,' they said. And a Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said: 'We know how being in a more familiar and pleasant environment can aid recovery and we are working closely with our partners in social care to ensure patients who no longer require hospital care are able to be discharged as soon as possible.' Airedale NHS Foundation Trust said they disputed the figures, which were submitted by the trust directly to NHS England. University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust, Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust, and the Isle of Wight NHS Trust did not respond to MailOnline's request for comment. Advertisement

'The social care sector is competing with supermarkets, that is not a good place for a sector that requires a level of skill, knowledge and compassion to work in to be,' he said.

Some supermarkets for example are now offering 10.10 per hour wage, 60p more per hour than in social care, for work carrying far fewer responsibilities.

There are roughly 165,000 vacancies in adult social care in England, meaning about one in 10 positions is unfilled, according to the charity Skills for Care.

Some of these workers departed during the now infamous Covid jab mandate last year, before the Government eventually U-turned on the policy.

As to why some hospitals appear to be dealing with crisis better than others, Mr Holmes said this could be partly explained by demographic differences, with some parts of the country have a larger frail and elderly population with more complex care needs than others.

But he added individual NHS management also played a role, with some trusts having far better relationships and integration with their local social care providers than others.

Nuffield Trust deputy director of research, Dr Sarah Scobie, said bedblocking remained a 'serious problem' for both patients and the NHS.

'Delays in sourcing the appropriate care outside of hospital impact patient recovery and the speed at which the NHS can admit or treat patients,' she said.

'Patients stuck in hospital longer than necessary will themselves suffer additional health problems including the risk of infection and issues caused by a lack of mobility.

'Over several years a neglected and deteriorating social care sector and more demand for urgent and hospital care have led to a persistent problem with waits for transfers.'

The term bed-blocker is considered an offensive term by many in the health and care sector.

They argue it unduly blames a patient as taking up a bed needed by someone else, when in fact, it is the fault of the system that can't provide the care they need.

Critical to understanding the problem is that a bed in NHS data is not just a piece of furniture, it also represents the number of skilled staff, like doctors, nurses, and healthcare assistants, needed to look after patients.

Bed-blocking is not only a problem for those patients stuck in hospital beds, often through no fault of their own, but for the general population as well.

The resources needed to look after these patients mean there may not be a bed available for people arriving in ambulances, or for people needing routine operations like hip and knee replacements.

They also cost the health service, through paying staff, feeding patients, supplying necessary medication, heating the room they are in, cleaning their bed sheets, and so on. Previous estimates have put the cost of looking after a patient in the NHS at 400 per day.

Bed-blocking could also be contributing to a rise in excess deaths, which are now 1,500 above normal levels for this year, according to official data.

Previous research by experts at the universities of Oxford, Liverpool, York and Glasgow in 2017, long before the current crisis, linked bedblocking in the NHS to 8,000 deaths per year.

The growing use of virtual wards, where patients are sent home but monitored remotely by staff using technology like apps, is one way NHS England has already tried to grapple the bedblocking issue.

Last month, NHS England revealed it was planning to send 2,500 patients to such virtual wards in a bid to free-up 7,000 extra beds this winter.

Responding to MailOnline's analysis, an NHS England spokesperson claimed the data this website had uncovered served as a reminder of the challenge hospitals faced in addressing bedblocking.

'These figures are yet another reminder of the difficulties faced by NHS staff in ensuring people are able to be discharged, impacting on patient flow through the system and capacity in A&E,' they said.

'We continue to support work for patients to be discharged into the community or social care in a timely manner  not just because it is better for them and their recovery, but because it helps free up beds and staff for the patients who need them most.'

Bedblocking is just one of the issues that is feeding the worst NHS crisis in memory.

The health service is also grappling with the effective collapse of emergency services, with recent data showing more than a million patients faced 12-hour waits in overwhelmed A&E units last year.

The latest data also shows paramedics are still taking about 40 minutes on average to reach heart attack patients  double the target.

Waiting times for elective care, which includes operations like hip replacements and clearing cataracts are also breaching record after record.

Official statistics show 6.8million patients in England were in the queue for routine hospital treatment in July  the equivalent of one in eight people in the country and the highest total since records began in August 2007.

The backlog includes nearly 380,000 Britons who have faced year-long delays, often while in serious pain.
Khosta-2 is classified as a sarbecovirus, a branch of the coronavirus family tree

Yet never-before-seen pathogen was detected in bats swabbed in early 2020

A Covid-like virus lurking in Russian bats could jump to humans, scientists warned today.

American virologists who carried out experiments on the pathogen  called Khosta-2  fear it is 'completely resistant' to vaccines deployed during the pandemic.

They found it was able to latch onto human cells with ease in the same way as the Covid virus.

Russian Government-affiliated experts only acknowledged Khosta-2's existence last May.

Yet the never-before-seen pathogen was detected in bat samples collected between March and October 2020.

Virologists trusted to carry out experiments on the pathogen  called Khosta-2  fear it is 'completely resistant' to vaccines deployed during the pandemic (stock)

Researchers based at the Gamaleya National Research Centre, a branch of Moscow's Ministry of Health, said they were carrying out 'ongoing surveillance' of bats living in Sochi National Park.

The 480,000-acre park, home to hundreds of caves, sits on the outskirts of the city with the same name, which hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Khosta-2 is classified as a sarbecovirus, a branch of the coronavirus family tree.

Other than being a distant relative of SARS-CoV-2  the strain behind Covid  barely anything is known about it.

Washington State University researchers decided to carry out tests on the virus, in hope of learning more.

Dr Stephanie Seifert and colleagues also experimented on Khosta-1  an extremely similar virus detected in the same original samples.

Tests showed Khosta-2 was able to infect human cells in a near-identical fashion as SARS-CoV-2.

Using a spike-like protein on its surface, the virus hooks onto an entry enzyme found on the exterior of human cells, called ACE-2.

The process is often likened to a key being inserted into a lock.

Researchers based at the Gamaleya National Research Centre, a branch of Moscow's Ministry of Health, said they were carrying out 'ongoing surveillance' of bats living in Sochi National Park

What do we know about the virus? When did scientists discover it? Russian Government-affiliated experts only acknowledged Khosta-2's existence last May. Yet the never-before-seen pathogen was detected in bat samples collected between March and October 2020. Where is it found? Researchers based at the Gamaleya National Research Centre, a branch of Moscow's Ministry of Health, said they were carrying out 'ongoing surveillance' of bats living in Sochi National Park. The 480,000-acre park, home to hundreds of caves, sits on the outskirts of the city with the same name, which hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics. What type of virus is it? Khosta-2 is classified as a sarbecovirus, a branch of the coronavirus family tree. Other than being a distant relative of SARS-CoV-2 (the strain behind Covid), barely anything is known about it. Can it infect humans? There's no proof that it's infected any human yet. However, tests showed Khosta-2 was able to infect human cells in a near-identical fashion as SARS-CoV-2. Using a spike-like protein on its surface, the virus hooks onto an entry enzyme found on the exterior of human cells, called ACE-2. The process is often likened to a key being inserted into a lock. Advertisement

Despite being able to latch onto human cells this way, experts concluded it wasn't as efficient at doing so as SARS-CoV-2  which, some scientists believe, has evolved to become more contagious than measles.

Experiments also tested whether Covid vaccines or drugs could destroy it, if it were ever to jump to humans (a process known as zoonosis).

It was 'completely resistant' to one antibody medication made by Eli Lilly.

Khosta-2 was also appeared 'resistant' to two doses of both the Moderna and Pfizer jabs, laboratory work revealed.

Dr Seifert and colleagues said, however, that it was 'still possible' that natural Covid immunity  or potentially even that acquired through vaccines  could beat off the virus.

Results of the experiment were published in PLoS Pathogens.

Writing in the journal, the team acknowledged that the majority of the 'hundreds' of sarbecoviruses discovered are 'not capable' of infecting humans.

But they added their findings demonstrate that they 'pose a threat to global health' and 'highlight the urgent need' to develop universal coronavirus vaccines.

'Zoonotic spillover of sarbecoviruses has led to the emergence of highly pathogenic human viruses,' academics wrote.

They pointed to SARS-CoV-2 as an example, given it was behind 'the largest global pandemic in modern history'.

'Researchers around the world are ramping up the pace of viral discovery efforts, expanding the sequence databases with new animal sarbecoviruses in circulation.

'While some experiments have been performed with the new viruses, several remain untested, and thus their ability to transmit to humans is unknown.'

Dr Seifert and team added: 'SARS-CoV-2 can infect a wide range of species and has now spilled back into both wild and domestic animals.

'Many animal species carry their own coronaviruses.

'With the discovery of additional sarbecoviruses in broader geographic regions, the risk of new recombinant (hybrid) viruses is rising.'

This, they warned, 'opens the possibility of new human-compatible sarbecoviruses'.
Toxic mushrooms, volcanoes and sexual disorders were also behind admissions

Crocodile attacks were behind 10 admissions to hospital in England last year

Crocodile bites, volcanic eruptions and ingesting toxic mushrooms.

Those are just some of the weird ways Britons injured themselves in the first year after lockdown.

MailOnline has analysed the most bizarre reasons people in England needed NHS hospital care between April 1, 2021, to March 31 this year.

One case saw a 65-year-old women being bitten by a crocodile, and three cases of people being sent to hospital after 'contact with a marine animal' in the comfort of their own home.

Natural disasters also played a part, with four admissions for exposure to volcanoes, according to the data released yesterday.

There were also 52 cases of people being poisoned after eating toxic mushrooms  slightly fewer than the previous year.

Having an 'excessive sexual drive' was behind 28 admissions, with hundreds more to remove 'foreign bodies' from rectums, vaginas and urethras.

Up to 10 Britons needed hospital care after being bit by crocodiles in 2021-22, three of which were emergency cases

While the nation's attention was still focused on Covid for a good portion of the year, other pathogens like anthrax and the plague also struck dozens of people.

Meanwhile, two men, one in their 20s and another in their 70s, needed NHS care after being exposed to 'biological weapons'.

The NHS does not include information about patients beyond their age and gender for confidentially reasons.

This means that, in theory, a patient could appear multiple times in the data set.

And the statistics do not include cases where people might have gone to their GP instead.

Additionally, some incidents are follow-up care rather than a immediate cause of admission.

For example, the UK has no volcanoes, so Britons treated for injuries related to volcanic eruptions could have been injured overseas and then needed care when they returned.

Some people are also diagnosed with a condition while being treated for something else, with medics identifying a patient has a disease or condition only after they comes into hospital for a different reason.

Animal attacks from creatures great and small

Dogs continued to dominate as the leading cause of animal-based admissions, with nearly 10,000 for bites or collisions alone.

But a host of other creatures also sent Britons to the NHS last year.

Being struck or bit by a 'crocodile or alligator' was listed as the reason in 10 cases last year.

Bizarrely two of these happened in the patients' own homes, with others occurring in places like zoos, wildlife parks, or in 'unknown' locations.

The youngest case was in a girl between five and nine, and the oldest in a women over 90.

Both were bitten by a crocodile while in a 'school, other institution and public administration area', which could technically be a zoo. Although, neither injury appears to have been serious.

Three cases were, however, with two admissions requiring a stay in hospital and one classified as needing 'emergency care'.

There were 69 admissions for bites by venomous snakes, 13 of which were in under-18s. Of the total cases, 13 were classified as emergencies.

The UK only has one native venomous serpent, the adder, although people can purchase potentially deadly exotic species as pets.

Venomous spiders were behind 21 admissions, while scorpion stings were behind three. One was even for a patient bitten or sprayed by a envenomed millipede or centipede.

Three admissions, involving at least two people, were sent to hospital after 'contact with a marine animal' in their homes.

Shockingly, two were classed as emergency admissions.

Natural disasters, volcanic eruptions, toxic mushrooms, and war

Four admissions, involving Britons their 30s and 40s, needed treatment due to a volcanic eruption.

All the cases will have occurred overseas, given the UK has no active volcanoes in its borders. However, this can't be confirmed through the data published.

Just five admissions were for Britons struck by lightning in the most recent NHS data, down from the 19 in the first year of the pandemic.

Ingesting toxic mushrooms was behind 52 instances of care being dished out, 23 of which were emergency cases.

Toxic mushrooms were behind 52 admissions to hospital in England last year, pictured here is a the deadly Deathcap variety

One of the most bizarre cases in the NHS data involved two men treated for 'war operations involving biological weapons'.

No details on the weapon involved were provided but one man was in his early 20s and the other in their late 70s.

One needed to be monitored in hospital following their exposure to the weapon.

Disgusting diseases in 2021-22, from the Black Death to maggots in eyeballs

Covid may have continued to dominate the headlines for most of 2021-22 but there were other pathogens and infections that sent patients to the hospital.

There was a total of 41 admissions for The Plague, famously known as the Black Death for killing millions of Europeans during the Middle Ages.

It got its name from the black-coloured sores which appeared on the bodies of the infected.

Caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, the disease was spread by fleas on the backs of rats. In modern times, it is far less dangerous thanks to antibiotics, but can still kill if not treated fast enough.

Most of the 41 cases in England were for pneumonic plague, an airborne version of the disease.

However, one case, in a 10-year-old boy, was the bubonic form of the disease, which produces the famous boils.

Illustration of Yersinia pestis bacteria which is responsible for the disease known as The Plague or Black Death which killed millions as it swept across Europe in the Middle Ages. 28 Britons caught either the bubonic or pneumonic version of the disease, with 14 other cases being unspecified or unknown varieties of the disease

Five cases of anthrax were also reported in the 2020-21 NHS data, a disease normally associated with ancient history or bioterrorism.

Four of these were for anthrax sepsis where anthrax spores enter the blood stream directly, such as through a needle.

Cases of anthrax sepsis have been reported in the UK previously among heroin users.

The remaining case was an emergency admission for a 76-year-old man who caught cutaneous anthrax, where the spores from the bacteria enter an open wound causing an infection.

Most people who get this type of anthrax infection work with contaminated animals or animal products. It is almost always successfully treated if a person has access to advanced medical care.

One of the most gut-wrenching infections recorded was ocular myiasis, where flies lay maggots in one or both eyes of a patient.

In total, 72 cases were recorded, with patients having an average age of 62.

Sex disorders and unfortunate insertions in intimate areas

Britons needed NHS treatment for a huge variety of sexual disorders in 2021-22.

A total of 28 admissions were for Britons diagnosed with 'excessive sexual drive', which could mean they were diagnosed with a sex addiction.

Cases were split almost evenly in terms of gender, with the average age of patient being 58-years-old.

Five cases were recorded among patients over the age of 85. Yet, as with all the reasons needing treatment, some or all of these may have been the same patient seeking care multiple times.

Three admissions among men were for exhibitionism, a fetish where people get aroused by flashing their naked bodies to others.

One 39-year-old man was treated for voyeurism, the practice of gaining sexual pleasure from watching others having sex or peeping on them when they are naked.

Up to 28 Britons were diagnosed with 'excessive sexual drive' by the NHS last year, with cases almost split evenly between men and women (stock image)

Nearly 2,500 admissions were for Britons who had to get foreign bodies removed from their rectum, vagina or urethra.

The NHS recorded 1,121 cases of objects being pulled from rectums, a complaint twice as common among men than women.

There 1,073 objects removed from vaginas and 253 cases of someone getting an object stuck in their urethra.

Inserting objects into the urethra for sexual pleasure is called sounding, but items inserted this way carry the risk of becoming stuck requiring medical care to extract.
Last week she ordered civil servants to stop using the Oxford comma.

Yet Therese Coffey has now been caught using the, supposedly, banned grammar herself.

Eagle-eyed Twitter users, who spotted the newly-appointed Health Secretary's own goal, called it 'tremendously embarrassing'.

One GP questioned if it was 'grammatical inconsistency or high level trolling'.

Dr Coffey's gaffe was made in a ministerial foreword atop of her NHS rescue plan, in which she promised not to 'paper over' the 'immense challenges' the health service faces.

Dr Coffey's ban on the Oxford comma emerged last week. Her office emailed staff in the Department of Health and Social Care a list of instructions detailing the karaoke-loving MP's 'working preferences'

Dr Coffey's gaffe was made in a ministerial foreword atop of her NHS rescue plan, in which she promised not to 'paper over' the 'immense challenges' the health service faces

Her statement read: 'Our plan will sit alongside the NHS Long Term Plan, the forthcoming workforce plan, and our plans to reform adult social care.'

Billy Palmer, a policy commentator at the Nuffield Trust think-tank, highlighted Dr Coffey's use of the comma.

He wrote: 'It would be tremendously embarrassing if there was an Oxford comma in the Secretary of State's Ministerial foreword.

'But, of course, that wouldn't happen. Would it?'

Dr David Coleman, a GP in Doncaster, said: 'Kudos to Therese Coffey for dropping an Oxford comma in her foreword to "Our plan to patients".

'Grammatical inconsistency or high level trolling?'

Billy Palmer, a policy commentator at the Nuffield Trust think-tank, highlighted Dr Coffey's use of the comma. He wrote: 'It would be tremendously embarrassing if there was an Oxford comma in the Secretary of State's Ministerial foreword. 'But, of course, that wouldn't happen. Would it?'

Dr David Coleman, a GP in Doncaster, said: 'Kudos to Therese Coffey for dropping an Oxford comma in her foreword to "Our plan to patients". 'Grammatical inconsistency or high level trolling?'

What IS an Oxford comma? An Oxford comma is used after the penultimate item in a list, before the words 'and' or 'or'. Its name is derived from its use being traditionally required by the Oxford University Press. But in UK English, it is generally deemed unnecessary apart from where lists involve pairs, such as 'red and white, and green and blue'. Use of Oxford commas is a divisive issue in the US, with the The Chicago Manual of Style is pro-Oxford comma, while the Associated Press Stylebook is against. Advertisement

Dr Coffey's ban on the Oxford comma emerged last week. Her office emailed staff in the Department of Health and Social Care a list of instructions detailing the karaoke-loving MP's 'working preferences'.

It also included a ban on using technical jargon and urged workers to 'be positive'.

Recipients of the email called it 'extremely patronising'.

It was sent amid the looming threat of job cuts, with the Government keen to stamp out bureaucracy and save millions of taxpayer cash.

An Oxford comma is used after the penultimate item in a list, before the words 'and' or 'or'.

Its name is derived from its use being traditionally required by the Oxford University Press.

But in UK English, it is generally deemed unnecessary apart from where lists involve pairs, such as 'red and white, and green and blue'.

Use of Oxford commas is a divisive issue in the US, with the The Chicago Manual of Style is pro-Oxford comma, while the Associated Press Stylebook is against.

Jacob Rees-Mogg sent out a similar style guide as Dr Coffey when given the role of Leader of the House of Commons in Boris Johnson's Government.

Staff were urged not to use the Oxford comma in guidance sent out in 2019.

Meanwhile, banned words and phrases included: very, due to, unacceptable, equal, yourself, lot, got, speculate, meet with, ascertain and disappointment.
A luxury hand sanitizer has been recalled for potentially containing the cancer-causing chemical benzene.

A lot of the Antica Ocean Citron Hand Sanitizer - which retail for $42 per 16 ounce bottle from Antica Farmacista - was voluntarily recalled by Salon Technologies International after internal lab testing found traces of the carcinogen. The lot includes over 500 bottles that also feature Alaska Airlines branding.

The chemical has been linked to blood cancers and leukemia, along with other blood disorders. The affected products have the lot number 1166A and expire on June 18, 2023.

The product is still being sold on the Antica Farmacista website as of mid-day Thursday. The company did not report any adverse events yet linked to their product - though benzene exposure could take years to develop into severe health issues.

A lot of Antica Ocean Citron Hand Sanitizer, which retails at $42 for a 16 ounce bottle, has been recalled after lab testing found benzene contamination

The company issued the recall voluntarily on Friday, with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) putting out an alert shortly after.

The bottles are branded as a high end 'luxury' products, costing nearly six-times what is charged by popular brands like Purell.

'Our Hand Sanitizer is FDA-approved and is available in our top-selling scents,' the company writes in its product description.

'We've been working tirelessly to provide you with a luxury hand sanitizer that sanitizes effectively while leaving hands beautifully scented without sticky residue or feeling dry.'

Benzene - the cancer-causing chemical found lingering in some household products Benzene is a toxic chemical found in some manufactured products It can be dangerous if touched, inhaled, swallowed or interacted. It can appear as a liquid or gas The highly flammable chemical can be found in chemical and some manufacturing plants It is occasionally the subject of product recalls because of its toxic nature and ability to contaminate products due to its prevalence in manufacturing The chemical has been the reason for hand sanitizer, sunscreen and deodorant recalls in recent years Benzene has been tied to leukemia, blood cancers and a decrease in red blood cells that causes anemia Source: CDC Advertisement

The company did not immediately reply to a DailyMail.com request for comment.

It total, 512 bottles are affected by the recall. They all were shipped to the Seattle, Washington, area and are branded with an Alaska Airlines logo.

The FDA warns that benzene is used in many industrial products like dyes, detergents and some plastics.

It is also released into the air by cigarette smoke and the emissions from automobiles.

The agency lists hand sanitizers as a product that can sometimes face recalls over benzene exposure in particular.

'The health consequences of benzene exposure depend on the amount, route, and length of time of exposure, as well as age and preexisting medical conditions,' the agency writes in an explainer.

'... In small amounts over long periods of time, benzene can decrease the formation of blood cells.

'Long term exposure to benzene through inhalation, oral intake, and skin absorption may result in cancers such as leukemia and other blood disorders.'

Salon Technologies International, the parent company of Antica Farmacista, said that it has notified its distributors to stop using and return the recalled product.

It also requests that those who may be affected seek out medical attention if they believe they are suffering issues caused by exposure from the product.

Antica Farmacista, based in Seattle, describes itself as a luxury home fragrance brand.

Its offerings include body washes, lotions, diffusers, hand sanitizers and candles that cost as much as $200.
Experts say the screening test - a mammogram - is generally free, but the follow-up test - a biopsy - to confirm a diagnosis will have a price attached. Costs range from about $1,000 to $2,000, they said

All women aged 50 to 74 years are told to get screened for the disease once every other year

But if it is caught in the earliest stages almost every patient will survive the condition doctors say

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the United States, figures show

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After one 36-year-old woman was charged nearly $18,000 for a breast cancer check-up, concerns have been raised over how much it should really cost.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the United States  with 285,000 cases and 42,000 deaths a year  but if it is caught in the early stages almost every patient survives.

Doctors urge all women aged 50 to 74 years old to get screened for the disease once every other year, with those at a higher risk are advised to start getting the tests in their 40s.

Experts say the screening test  a mammogram  is generally free for all women who are more than 40 years old and have health insurance. But those who have symptoms or no coverage may need to fork out $200 to $400.

If no cancer is detected then no further action is needed. But women that have a warning sign spotted normally need to get their results confirmed with a biopsy, which has a cash price of between $1,000 and $2,000.

All the costs above are given as an average cash price. But these may be significantly lower for some women depending on their health insurance plans and the amount of their deductible they have paid. Some insurance plans - such as short term types - may not offer free breast cancer screenings

The above graph shows new cases of breast cancer among women as a rate per 100,000 people (light green line) and the death rate (as a dark green line). It reveals that deaths have been falling very gradually

The above chart shows the age groups where women are most likely to have a breast cancer diagnosis. This is around the age of 63 years. Medicare - for those over 65 years old - offers free breast scans

Women who go for breast cancer screenings will initially be sent for a mammogram, where low-dose X-rays are fired into the breasts to check for unusual growths or troubling to the tissue.

This is normally given as a 2D-scan, where the bottom and tops of the breasts are checked. But some hospitals also offer a 3D-scan, which will look at the sides of the breasts as well. Those under 40 years old may be offered an MRI, because their tissue may be too thick for the mammogram to penetrate.

Patients' results are usually available about a week or two later, with most scans not detecting anything untoward that requires a further check.

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world, and the second most common among women in the U.S. behind 285,000 cases and 40,000 deaths a year. What is breast cancer? Breast cancer develops from a cancerous cell which develops in the lining of a duct or lobule in one of the breasts. Most cases develop in women over the age of 50, but younger women are sometimes affected. Breast cancer can develop in men though this is rare. Staging means how big the cancer is and whether it has spread. Stage 1 is the earliest stage and stage 4 means the cancer has spread to another part of the body. What causes breast cancer? A cancerous tumour starts from one abnormal cell. The exact reason why a cell becomes cancerous is unclear. It is thought that something damages or alters certain genes in the cell. This makes the cell abnormal and multiply 'out of control'. Although breast cancer can develop for no apparent reason, there are some risk factors that can increase the chance of developing breast cancer, such as genetics. What are the symptoms? The usual first symptom is a painless lump in the breast, although most breast lumps are not cancerous and are fluid filled cysts, which are benign. The first place that breast cancer usually spreads to is the lymph nodes in the armpit. If this occurs you will develop a swelling or lump in an armpit. How is breast cancer treated? Treatment options which may be considered include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone treatment. Often a combination of two or more of these treatments are used. Surgery: Breast-conserving surgery or the removal of the affected breast depending on the size of the tumour.

Radiotherapy: A treatment which uses high energy beams of radiation focussed on cancerous tissue. This kills cancer cells, or stops cancer cells from multiplying. It is mainly used in addition to surgery.

Chemotherapy: A treatment of cancer by using anti-cancer drugs which kill cancer cells, or stop them from multiplying. How successful is treatment? The outlook is best in those who are diagnosed when the cancer is still small, and has not spread. Surgical removal of a tumour in an early stage may then give a good chance of cure. The routine mammography offered to women between the ages of 50 and 70 mean more breast cancers are being diagnosed and treated at an early stage. Advertisement

But about one in ten will be called back to have a biopsy, to double-check something on the mammogram that has raised concerns. This involves a small piece of breast tissue being removed  often via a thin hollow needle  which is then analyzed in the lab to check for cancer.

Doctors say not to be too concerned if this happens, with the National Breast Cancer Foundation  a non-profit based in Texas  saying only one in five of these leads to a breast cancer diagnosis.

Dr Ge Bai, a health accounting expert at Johns Hopkins University, told DailyMail.com that mammograms are generally free either every year or every other for insured women over 40 years old.

She said this was thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA)  also known as Obamacare  enacted in 2010 which required all health insurance companies to start offering them.

But the free offer comes with a number of caveats, Bai warned.

She said patients would be charged for the screening if they had any symptoms of breast cancer, were younger than 40 years, went more than once a year, or had the 3D-version instead of the 2D type.

Some hospitals are pushing 3D mammograms  which look at the sides of breasts as well as the tops and bottoms  but the American Cancer Society says there is no evidence that these are more likely to detect a cancer that would otherwise be missed.

She added that some insurance plans would not comply with the ACA, however, and would not offer the free screening. This can vary by state.

Medicaid  the U.S. health insurance program for poorer Americans with 88million users  offers the free scans in most states, but will not cover them for better-paid women living in areas that have not adopted the ACA expansion  such as Texas, Florida and Alabama. Medicare  which insures Americans over 65 years old  also offers the free scans.

Any further scans  such as biopsies  will not be offered for free, and will need to be paid for by the patient or their insurance.

Treatment costs also depend on the insurance status.

Bai told DailyMail.com: 'For a woman over 40, who is employed, if your employer is complying then you should pay nothing for a breast cancer scan.

'But in many cases this is not the case, and you must then pay whatever amount it is before you reach your deductible.'

A spokeswoman for the American Cancer Society told DailyMail.com: 'Generally, all ACA compliant plans provide no-cost coverage for breast cancer screenings (and other preventive services) based on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) guidelines.

'[However,] there are a number of specific caveats and a host of non-compliant plans for which varying rules apply and where state variation may be more likely.'

They said that those under a short-term plan or one from Christian Sharing Ministries  which offer cost sharing for their members  may not be able to get screened for the cancer for free.

Experts urged women worried about having to fork out for a breast cancer scan to ask hospitals for their cash prices, which can be lower than that offered to insurance. Healthcare providers are required to publish these, although some do not comply.

Asked how much a mammogram and biopsy should be, Bai pointed to a research letter that she helped write which was published last year in the journal JAMA Network Open.

For the paper the reserachers trawled through data from 900 hospitals on more than 70 procedures to establish the cash prices for each.

Results showed a mammogram for both breasts had a cash price of about $277, although this varied by between $190 and $400 depending on the hospital.

The team did not look at a biopsy for breast cancer, but Bai said the cost would likely be similar to biopsies done for other cancers such as bowel cancer. The cash price for this is about $2,000, ranging from $1,200 to $3,000.

Dani Yuengling, now 36 and a HR worker in South Carolina, was handed a bill totalling $17,979 (pictured) for an ultra-sound guided breast biopsy. After searching the hospital's own website she had expected to pay around $1,400 for the procedure

Yuengling  who wanted to get a lump on her right breast checked  said she was left unable to sleep and suffering migraines by the bill. She has refused to return to the hospital for a follow-up

Insurance plans may offer a cheaper price for patients, as they may only be needed to pay a co-pay  a fixed amount to be paid for a covered health service  and part of their deductible  the amount patients pay before their health insurance kicks in.

Latest figures suggest that 76.4 percent of American women aged 50 to 74 years old are screened for breast cancer every year.

This is below the 80 percent target set by the federal Government.

President Joe Biden has made it one of the hallmarks of his presidency to fight a war on cancer, saying he aims to halve fatalities from the disease within the next 25 years.

This will be done in part through developing and rolling out screening tests that can use a single blood swab to detect cancers early, he said.

It comes after Dani Yuengling, from Conway in South Carolina, came forward last month to say she had been charged $18,000 for a breast biopsy despite already being insured.

The 36-year-old went to see her doctor early this year after noticing a lump on her right breast, fearing the worst because her mother had died from the disease five years earlier.

The HR worker was referred to the Grand Strand Medical Center in Myrtle Beach for a biopsy, with a quick check of the hospital's expenses calculator suggesting she would be charged $1,400. Yuengling hoped her health insurance with Cigna, one of the nation's largest, would help offset the costs.

But after having the test in February  and no cancer being found  she received a bill for $17,979. After ringing the hospital she was offered a 36 percent discount  taking it to $11,500 , but is now refusing to return for a follow-up check.

Experts advised patients to always ask their healthcare providers for the cash price of a procedure, which can be lower than that offered to insurance. A spokeswoman for the Conway Medical Center, just 14 miles from the hospital where Yuengling was scanned, said they would charge $2,100 cash price for the same procedure.
WhatsApp and Instagram have been restricted in Iran after the death of 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini, reports Engadget.

Capital city Tehran was the first area to be affected by the restrictions, which then extended to the western Kurdistan province on September 19. According to NetBlocks (via a separate Engadget report), the current restrictions are the most severe since 2019, when Iran shut down all internet access in response to fuel-related protests.

Here is a tweet from NBC News Correspondent and Bureau Chief, Ali Arouzi about the protests that came after Amini's death:

Massive protests continue across Iran this evening, they seem to be getting bigger with each passing day. As the demonstrations grow the internet bandwidth shrinks. #instagram has been blocked & #WhatsApp is struggling. pic.twitter.com/r2TDPDok68  Ali Arouzi (@aliarouzi) September 21, 2022

The restriction of WhatsApp and Instagram, however, did not stop the world from peeking into the incident. That's because with other social media platforms still active, news like that of Amini's death can still spread. This resulted in the collective opinions of the masses only adding fuel to the fire, thus making the issue harder to resolve- as is the outcry for the death of Mahsa Amini and how she was allegedly mistreated by the Iranian morality police.

There are videos on Twitter showing women waving their hijabs in the air while shouting "death to the dictator" in solidarity, all while knowing that removing their hijab is a punishable crime in the country.

To add salt to the wound, several recorded instances of police brutality in Iran are also surfacing on all the social media platforms rendering their effort to subdue the uproar useless. This caused people from other countries to speak out instead.

There have been reports of at least seven deaths since the protests began after Mahsa Amini's death, as per the BBC.

Read Also: Iranian Hackers TA453 Use New Phishing Techniques To Attract More Victims

Who is Mahsa Amini, and What Happened to Her?

Mahsa Amini was a 22-year-old woman from the western city of Saqqez in Iran's Kurdistan province who visited Tehran with her family. Things started to go awry when the Gasht-e Ershad (Guidance Patrol) reportedly decided to detain her for breaking Iranian Law, which requires her to cover her hair and limbs.

Witnesses have claimed that Mahsa was beaten while being transported to the detention center. This is contradictory to the official statement from authorities, who said that she had suffered a heart problem while in custody, prompting them to seek medical attention. It was, however, in vain. The 22-year-old fell into a coma and died three days later.

Her parents claimed that she was in perfect health before being detained, which added to the controversy of the young woman's death.

Responses to the Incident

The human rights organization Amnesty International released a statement saying: "The circumstances leading to the suspicious death in custody of 22-year-old young woman Mahsa Amini, which include allegations of torture and other ill-treatment in custody, must be criminally investigated."

Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi has vowed to investigate the incident, asking Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi to look at it with urgency.

Related Article: Albania Severs Diplomatic Ties with Iran Following July Cyberattack as US Seeks Accountability
Patients will be given the option to shop around for a new GP under Therese Coffey's NHS rescue plan.

With the goal of averting an NHS meltdown this winter, the new Health Secretary has unveiled an 'ABCD' strategy to fix crises striking ambulances, backlogs, care homes, doctors and dentists.

One of her measures is releasing performance 'league tables', allowing patients to compare how long waiting lists are at their local doctors' surgery.

Dr Coffey claimed this would 'give some patients the opportunity to choose to use a different GP' if they struggle to get an appointment.

With the goal of averting an NHS meltdown this winter, the new Health Secretary has unveiled an 'ABCD' strategy to fix crises striking ambulances, backlogs, care homes, doctors and dentists

Laying out her blueprint in the House of Commons yesterday, she also revealed how she benefitted from shopping around after enduring a nine-hour A&E wait.

But her plans, which glossed over the staffing crisis, considered central to the ailing state of the health service, were immediately criticised.

Labour's shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, said: 'What is the consequence if GPs dont meet her expectation?

'Well, as we heard on the radio this morning, her message to patients is "get on your bike and find a new GP".

'Are patients supposed to be grateful for this?'

He added: 'Without a plan to tackle the staffing crisis, I say to the Secretary of State: you dont have a plan for the NHS.'

Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, one of Dr Coffey's predecessors, said: 'It's not more targets the NHS needs, it is more doctors.'

Daisy Cooper, of the Liberal Democrat, said: 'We were promised an extra 6,000 GPs by 2024, instead we've lost almost 2,000.

'People are now struggling to get appointments because there simply aren't enough GPs to go around, a new phone system cannot fix this.

'Even when patients do manage to get an appointment, one in five are being rushed through in less than five minutes.'

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting criticised Miss Coffeys Sesame Street plan, which she has called A, B, C, D  ambulances, backlogs, care and doctors and dentists

Almost half of GP appointments are done on the same day but there is massive variation around the country

There were just 27,558 full-time equivalent, fully-qualified GPs working in England last month, down 1.6 per cent on the 18,000 recorded in June 2021. It was down 5.3 per cent on the more than 29,000 working in June 2017

Map shows: The proportion of GP appointments made in-person in July across England's integrated care boards

Meanwhile, the figures also showed fewer than half of appointments across the country were with a fully-qualified GP

NHS data published today show 1.14 million Britons spent at least half a day stuck in waiting rooms or corridors between April 2021 and March 2022

Coffey vows to tackle bed-blocking crisis Dr Coffey also vowed to combat the NHS bed-blocking crisis with the launch of a 500million emergency fund. She told MPs the money will help free up space in hospitals. More than 13,000 beds in England  around one in seven  are occupied by patients who have been deemed medically fit to leave. But a shortage of carers means they face difficulty finding a place in care or home help. Care providers will be encouraged to use the fund to help plug 165,000 vacancies. Staff may be offered bonuses, pay rises or more generous overtime to prevent more leaving for better paid jobs in retail. There will also be a drive to attract more care workers from abroad, with 15million available to cover areas like visa applications and accommodation. Dr Coffey described the 500million as a downpayment while ministers work to rebalance funding across health and social care. But care charities last night dismissed the sum as 'insulting'. Advertisement

Meanwhile, the King's Fund thinktank said 'setting new expectations and targets will not suddenly increase the capacity in general practice'.

Dr Coffey revealed she was motivated to tackle poor care after suffering her own A&E ordeal in July, when she waited nearly nine hours to see a doctor and still wasnt treated.

She said: 'I was asked to go back the next day, so I went to a different hospital just three miles away and I was seen and treated appropriately.

'Thats the sort of variation that were seeing across the NHS.

Dr Coffey also vowed to combat the NHS bed-blocking crisis with the launch of a 500million emergency fund.

She told MPs the money will help free up space in hospitals.

More than 13,000 beds in England  around one in seven  are occupied by patients who have been deemed medically fit to leave.

But a shortage of carers means they face difficulty finding a place in care or home help.

Care providers will be encouraged to use the fund to help plug 165,000 vacancies.

Staff may be offered bonuses, pay rises or more generous overtime to prevent more leaving for better paid jobs in retail.

There will also be a drive to attract more care workers from abroad, with 15million available to cover areas like visa applications and accommodation.

Dr Coffey described the 500million as a downpayment while ministers work to rebalance funding across health and social care.

But care charities last night dismissed the sum as 'insulting'.

Delayed discharges cost the NHS up to 5.5million a day, while a record 6.8million languish on waiting lists.

Dr Coffey also vowed a laser-like focus on ambulance handover delays and revealed 45 per cent occur at just 15 NHS hospital trusts, which will be given intensive support to improve.

Hospitals will open the equivalent of 7,000 more beds, and use remote monitoring in peoples own homes, while the number of 999 and NHS 111 call handlers will rise.

The Government will also be exploring the creation of an ambulance auxiliary service.

Can Coffey's medicine cure real ills facing healthcare?

Analysis by Shaun Wooller Health Correspondent For The Daily Mail

The Health Secretary has quickly homed in on the health and social care issues infuriating patients and delivered a welcome plan for tackling them.

But Therese Coffeys blueprint  named Our Patient Plan  risks being written off as a wish list as critics warn there are too few doctors, nurses and carers to deliver its aims.

MPs, charities, trade bodies and health think-tanks have shot down the document, saying it fails to do enough to address chronic staff shortages.

The scale of the problem is huge: the NHS is short of more than 100,000 staff, with one in ten nursing posts vacant, and adult social care needs a further 165,000 workers. Many in the sector believe the 500million social care downpayment announced yesterday is unlikely to be enough to make a significant difference.

Here we look at the patient priorities Miss Coffey has identified  or ABCD as she calls them  and why a shortage of NHS employees may make her plan difficult to achieve.

A  Ambulances

Heart attack and stroke patients face hour-long waits for an ambulance as crews are stuck outside A&E unable to offload patients and respond to new calls. Hospitals need to discharge medically-fit patients so there are beds for new cases  but a shortage of carers means there is nowhere for these frail people to go.

Carers can often earn more working in retail and trade bodies say the plan does not provide funding to offer all workers the pay rises needed to retain or attract enough staff.

Ambulances are a priority as heart attack and stroke patients face hour-long waits as crews are stuck outside A&E unable to offload patients and response to new calls

B  Backlogs

Hospital waiting lists are at a record high of 6.8million and ministers accept this number is likely to rise before it falls.

A shortage of doctors, nurses and available hospital beds limit the rate at which patients can be admitted.

The British Medical Association says pension changes do not go far enough to stop more doctors reducing hours or retiring early. And the Royal College of Nursing is balloting its members over industrial action in a dispute over pay.

C  Care

Liz Truss wants to scrap the Health and Social Care Levy funded through the national insurance rise and has pledged to put 13billion into social care through other means  but is yet to provide details. Meanwhile care providers are grappling with soaring food and energy bills and say they are too short of money to fund pay rises for staff themselves.

Ministers must provide more funding to be able to offer staff competitive salaries that means fewer are attracted by jobs in other sectors, they say.

Liz Truss (pictured with Ms Coffey) wants to scrap the Health and Social Care Levy funded through the national insurance rise and has pledged to put 13billion into social care

D  Doctors and Dentists

There are fewer fully-qualified, full-time equivalent GPs now than in 2015 but the population is ageing and living with more complex conditions.

The Royal College of GPs says this means it is unrealistic to expect doctors to be able to see every patient who wants an appointment as quickly as they would like. Nine in ten NHS dental practices have closed their books to new adult patients, with the British Dental Association blaming a lack of government funding for dentists turning to private work.
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England's next Covid wave has officially started, leading experts declared today as two months of tumbling cases were brought to an end.

Government statisticians tasked with tracking the outbreak estimate 766,500 people were infected on any day last week  up 8.6 per cent on the previous weekly toll.

It marks the first rise in infections since mid-July, when the summer wave peaked and ministers faced calls to bring back pandemic-era restrictions.

Covid hospital admissions are also on the up, piling extra pressure on overwhelmed NHS facilities ahead of what is feared will be another disastrous winter for the crisis-stricken health service.

Public health chiefs have warned rates will spiral as the colder weather approaches and the country spends more time indoors, where the virus finds it easier to spread.

Experts believe the increase is likely due to a back to school effect, as well as Britons returning from the summer holidays.

Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline: 'We know that travel overseas is a big risk factor - we saw this time last year infections starting to rise before schools went back. That's people picking up the virus and bringing it back from holidays in this country and abroad.

'And waning immunity is probably playing a role because latest data suggests boosters only really protect against infection for about three months.'

Government statisticians tasked with tracking the outbreak estimate 766,500 people were infected on any day last week  up 8.6 per cent on the previous weekly toll. It marks the first rise in infections since mid-July, when the summer wave peaked and ministers faced calls to bring back pandemic-era restrictions

Dr Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser at the UK Health Security Agency, said rates were 'still low' but there was clearly an uptick.

She said: 'For those eligible, the time to get your autumn booster is now. Getting a booster will give your immune system time to build up your protection against being severely ill from Covid as we move into winter.

'As it gets colder and we head towards winter, we will start to see respiratory infections pick up  please try to stay at home if you are unwell and avoid contact with vulnerable people.'

Weekly estimates published by the ONS, which are closely watched by the Government, are considered the most accurate way of tracking the shape of the UK's outbreak.

Unlike the toll of reported infections, which has been wildly inaccurate since the mass testing scheme was wound down in April, it doesn't rely on Britons testing themselves and reporting the result.

Cases also rose in Wales (prevalence of 39,700, up 40.8 per cent). Yet they fell in Scotland (98,800, down 13.0 per cent) and Northern Ireland (22,900, down 32.0 per cent).

A THIRD of NHS capacity is taken up by bed-blockers at busiest trusts Up to a third of beds at England's busiest NHS trusts are occupied by patients who shouldn't be there, according to a startling MailOnline analysis that lays bare the scale of the country's 'devastating' bed-blocking jam. More than 13,000 hospital beds across the country, or one in seven, are currently filled with patients declared fit for discharge by doctors. But rates soar to as high as one in three at the worst-hit hospitals, found in Bristol and Coventry as well as parts of Lancashire and Norfolk. Experts say the numbers are being driven by a separate crisis in social care, leaving medically-fit patients left to languish on wards for up to nine months because there is no suitable nursing accommodation or care available for them in the community. Newly-appointed Health Secretary Therese Coffey has already vowed to end the scandal, which has soared to record levels and is thought to cost taxpayers roughly 2billion-a-year. This will help to prevent deadly ambulance delays by stopping paramedics queuing outside A&E waiting for a bed to become available. It will also boost efforts to tackle the Covid-induced care backlog, by freeing up space to allow more patients in. In an effort to avert an NHS meltdown this winter, Dr Coffey yesterday revealed she would give the crippled social care sector 500million of emergency funds. Advertisement

The figures, reflecting the week ending September 14, are based on swabs from thousands of people.

Sarah Crofts, deputy director of the ONS Covid Infection Survey, said: 'Todays data show a mixed picture across the UK, with increases in England and Wales while infections in Scotland and Northern Ireland have decreased.

'It is too early to see if these changing trends will continue, and we will monitor the data closely to see any impact of the return of schools over the coming weeks.'

The most up-to-date NHS England statistics show Covid pressures are also rising in hospitals, reflecting the rise in the community.

Some 781 virus-related admissions were logged on September 19, with the figure up by roughly 17 per cent on the previous week.

Yet the toll is just a fraction of levels seen during the darkest days of the pandemic, when 4,000-plus new patients were needing NHS care every day.

In addition, not all of these patients require treatment for the virus.

Only a third of infected patients occupying NHS beds are primarily ill with Covid, with the rest incidentally testing positive and receiving care for other conditions such as a broken leg or heart disease.

And the number of patients being treated directly for Covid is roughly an eighth of that of so-called bed-blockers.

But the virus appears to be spreading quickly on NHS wards. Likely hospital-acquired infections have risen by nearly 50 per cent to 1,133 in England in the last week, analysts believe.

Despite Covid pressures being expected to rise in the coming weeks, Liz Truss's Government is unlikely to bring back any curbs after her old boss Boris Johnson chose the 'living with Covid' approach.

Under the blueprint designed to free Britain from its Covid shackles in a post-lockdown world, mandatory isolation rules, free testing and work from home guidance was scrapped.

Ministers instead put their confidence in vaccines, which have drastically blunted the threat of the virus over time, morphing it into something that closer resembles flu  a seasonal virus the country lives with every year.

This month saw the official launch of the Covid autumn booster programme, which is now open to the over-65s, carers and pregnant women.

Some 26million people in the UK will be offered their booster top-up in the coming months.
A 29-year-old woman's labor was induced four weeks early after scans suggested she had breast cancer.

Lindsey Gritton, from Gainesville, Georgia, was in week 34 of her pregnancy when a burning sensation erupted over her right armpit and breast. She also found a 'marble-sized' lump in the breast.

Doctors told her it was a clogged milk duct  like in her first pregnancy  and that they'd seen it a 'thousand' times, but she still demanded a scan.

When the results came back, medics backtracked saying there was now a 'high likelihood' that she had cancer. She had labor induced a week later, and then went through more tests  which couldn't be done during pregnancy due to the radiation  which revealed it was stage four breast cancer and had spread to her liver.

The mother-of-two has now been on chemotherapy for four months, visiting hospital every three weeks for treatment. About 80 percent of the cancer is now gone.

Lindsey Gritton, from Gainseville, Georgia, is pictured above at eight (left) and 25 (right) weeks pregnant. She noticed the cancer warning signs on week 34, and had birth induced a few weeks later

She has now been receiving chemotherapy every three weeks for four months, and 80 percent of the cancer has now gone doctors say

Medics initially told her the symptoms were likely being caused by a blocked milk duct, like in her first pregnancy. But Gritton didn't believe this was the case

Only about two percent of breast cancer cases are diagnosed among women under 35 years old every year, but when it is detected it tends to be found at a later stage and much harder to treat.

Those who have close relatives diagnosed with the cancer, have had other breast health problems in the past or previously received radiation therapy are more at risk.

What are the symptoms of breast cancer? Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women. But cases are normally detected in women who are about 55 to 74 years old. It is rare for the cancer to be detected in younger age groups. Symptoms of the cancer include the following: New lump on the breast or under the arm;

Thickening or swelling of part of the breast;

Irritation or dimpling of breast skin;

Redness or flaky skin in the nipple area or the breast;

Pulling in of the nipple or pain in the nipple area;

Nipple discharge other than breast milk, including blood;

Any change in size or shape of the breast;

Pain in any area of the breast. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advertisement

Gritton revealed that when the symptoms started in April, the burning sensation would come and go until one week when it persisted.

Shortly after, she found a lump the size of a 'small marble' on her right breast. But doctors initially dismissed her concerns saying it was a clogged milk duct.

Gritton told the Insider: '[My doctor said]: "I've seen this a thousand times. I have so many people with this problem when they're pregnant".

'And I just knew what a clogged duct felt like,' she said, 'and so in the back of my head, I knew that it wasn't that.

'She [the doctor] didn't even want to do an ultrasound. I had to just keep asking for it. I was like, "I really need an ultrasound because I'm really worried about it".'

Gritton initially took antibiotics to help clear the lump, and underwent a scan revealing a 'high likelihood' of cancer.

She was then invited for a biopsy which, a week later, confirmed she had invasive ductal carcinoma  the most common form of breast cancer.

Birth was then induced a week later to carry out scans, which were not possible while she was pregnant due to the radiation.

She was given a positron emission tomography (PET) scan  where a small amount of radioactive tracers are injected into a vein that travel through the body but stop in areas where there are cancerous cells, allowing doctors to tell that the cancer has spread.

This is when doctors confirmed she had stage four breast cancer, or the most aggressive type.

Gritton said she was revealing her diagnosis to encourage others to stick up for themselves when they think doctors are wrong.

She said: 'If I wouldn't have advocated for myself, I don't even think I'd be here today.

'Because from what they told me with my blood work and everything, my liver was already failing.'

About 280,000 cases of breast cancer are diagnosed every year  mostly among women in their 50s to 70s  and the disease is behind 42,000 deaths annually.

The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)  which sets out national medical guidelines  says women should get checked for the cancer every other year between the ages of 50 and 74.

For younger women, it says they should consider getting checked if they are at higher risk of the cancer.

Factors raising the risk include a history of the disease, or previously having other breast health problems.
THRILLERS

You Can Stay

by Elle Connel (Wildfire 9.99, 368pp)

Inspired by Stephen Kings classic horror story Misery, this translates the action from a snowy North America to the wilds of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, and replaces romantic novelist Paul Sheldon with Royal Marine Connor, who has recently separated from his wife.

He has embarked on a Special Forces training exercise on the Moor, which involves him being hunted down by a team of paratroopers intent on his capture.

Cold and wet, he is hiding out in a bothy when he encounters Eilidh, who apparently lives alone in an isolated farmhouse hidden in the deep folds of the landscape.

She offers him food and the warmth of a bed, and seems to be the perfect hostess until she reveals as dark a side as the unforgettable number one fan Annie Wilkes did in Misery. Can Connor escape Eilidhs clutches?

The plot twists and turns with spectacular speed  ripping along at terrific pace.

Inspired by Stephen Kings classic horror story Misery, this translates the action from a snowy North America to the wilds of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, and replaces romantic novelist Paul Sheldon with Royal Marine Connor, who has recently separated from his wife

Suspect

by Scott Turow (Swift Press 20, 464pp)

Without question, this is Turows finest novel since his breathtaking debut Presumed Innocent in 1987.

The compelling lead character is Clarice Pinky Granum, who has appeared before, but here she dominates the story from the start.

She is working as an investigator for defence attorney Rik Dudek, who is about to defend his old friend Lucia Gomez, the female chief of police in Kindle County in the Midwestern U.S.

Gomez is accused of soliciting sex from three of her male officers in exchange for their promotion, which she categorically denies. Dudek and Pinky have the task of unravelling what they believe is a tissue of lies designed to force her out of office. Gradually a conspiracy among officers and former officers begins to surface, though not before Gomez is revealed as a woman with her own desires.

The granddaughter of the investigator in Presumed Innocent, Pinky is covered in tattoos and has a nail through her nose, but her humanity and resilience illuminate a striking story.

Double or Nothing

by Kim Sherwood (HarperCollins 20, 432pp)

This reworking of the James Bond saga starts from the premise that 007 has gone missing and now his colleagues are determined to find out what has happened to him. Enter Johanna Harwood as 003, Joseph Dryden as 004 and Sid Bashir as 009, all of whom are controlled by the ever-present M and Miss Moneypenny. So far, so Bond.

There is even a sinister villain in the shadow of Dr No, represented by tech billionaire Sir Bertram Paradise, who has a scheme to reverse climate change and save the planet.

The three double-Os have to uncover what his real aims are  and perhaps locate 007 into the bargain.

Written with verve and calling in the familiar Ian Fleming descriptions of cars and food, it captures the Bond spirit magnificently and never loses its grip.

James would approve.
A new damning report from consumer watchdog Which? has outlined the need for 'urgent improvements' to electric car charging infrastructure if ministers are to convince more motorists to go green.

Almost half (48 per cent) of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle owners it polled said they struggle to find a public charging point that is in good working order.

In fact, three out of four electric electrified car owners said they are unhappy with UK's public charging system.

Which? says the government needs to 'quickly address' a sundry of issues, namely poor reliability, difficulties making payments and poor availability in some parts of the country, else jeopardise the nation's transition to low-emission vehicles.

Plugging-in problems: Half of EV drivers polled by Which? said they struggle to find a public charging point that's in good working order. Watchdog says 'urgent improvements' needed

A survey of almost 1,500 Which? members who own a fully-electric or plug-in hybrid car found that 74 per cent are dissatisfied with the current state of the public charging infrastructure.

Two in five said they have experienced driving up to a device only to discover it's not working, while 43 per cent claim to have faced 'technical issues' that have prevented them from being able to charge as they had planned.

As well as encountering faulty chargers, three in five of the panel (61 per cent) said they've face difficulties when trying to make payments - and this is putting many off accessing the network at all.

One in six (18 per cent) who told Which? that they now exclusively charge their cars at home or their workplace do so because of a lack of convenient payment options from the public network. This is despite Government rules dictating that all newly-installed public charging points must accept contactless card payments.

Another major issue highlighted by EV owners in the study is the disproportionate availability of the 32,000 public devices across the country.

As official government records show, for every 100,000 people living in London there are 116 charging points. This compares to just 17 per 100,000 population in Northern Ireland, 27 in the North East and 29 in Yorkshire and the Humber, according to Department for Transport figures for the end of July.

While there are over 32,000 public charging devices across the UK, they are not evenly spread regionally, as this table shows

The survey found that almost half of electric and plug-in hybrid car owners claimed that their closest public charging device was more than a 20-minute walk from their home

Half of the plug-in car owners polled by Which? said there is inadequate access to devices where they live, with 45 per cent estimating that the nearest charger was more than a 20-minute walk away their home.

This is a major issue for those without off-street parking - the case for around a third of UK properties - and therefore no access to a homecharger, which leaves them little choice but to rely on the public infrastructure. A charger 20 minutes from their residence could also have implications for insurance if they are leaving their cars away from home overnight to charge.

Charging must be easy, reliable and seamless to support people making the move to an electric car Sue Davies, Which?

A fifth of the drivers polled said a lack of devices where they need them is the biggest reason for avoiding the public charging network entirely and - if possible - charging predominantly at home.

One in five also said they have never used the public networks because they don't think there are enough devices available, and they don't want to queue to access them.

The report comes a day after charging operators joined forces to send a letter to the Chancellor calling for VAT to be slashed for the public network, with taxation four times higher than what it is for domestic charging.

This, in turn with escalating wholesale electricity prices, means recharging using the public network is becoming increasingly more expensive - and in some cases makes running an EV pricier than a petrol car.

FairCharge, which has been campaigning for VAT to be cut from 20 to 5 per cent says the Government's failure to act swiftly to reduce charging costs could strangle demand for low-emission vehicles.

As well as reliability problems, three in five EV owners said they've face difficulties when trying to make payments at public devices - and this is putting many off using the network

A separate Which? survey of general car owners found that a fifth (39 per cent) said they won't be considering an EV because there aren't enough charging points.

The watchdog is calling on government to extend the planned 'reliability standard' set for the fast-charging rapid devices to cover all public charge points of different speeds.

This standard require that 'rapid' charge point networks need to be in working order for an average of 99 per cent of the time, though Which? wants this to go further and become the standard for devices of slower charging speeds.

Which? is also urging ministers to ensure its proposals for payment roaming will mean consumers no longer need to navigate multiple apps and cards to pay for charging.

Sue Davies, Which? Head of Consumer Protection Policy, said: 'Our research shows that the public EV charging infrastructure is falling short as many drivers struggle to find reliable charging points in good working order, have to navigate confusing payment systems, or are unable to rely on adequate charging points close to their homes or to get them through a long journey.

'The government must move quickly to implement its plans to improve the consumer experience of using the public charging networks by extending reliability standards across the full network and ensuring proposals for payment roaming make paying to charge much simpler.

'Charging must be easy, reliable and seamless to support people making the move to an electric car.'

Commenting on the Which? report, RAC spokesman Simon Williams said a quality charging infrastructure will be a 'key factor' in helping more people switch from conventional vehicles to electric ones.

'Its vitally important that chargers are reliable, easy to use and accessible, so we must quickly move from the era where its common to find an out-of-use charger to one where its a rarity,' he added.

Scott Steedman, director-general at the National Standards Body, BSI, said it is 'working with industry, government and consumer groups' to make sure the experience of using the public charging network is a positive one for all users, and as a result is due to launch a new standard to ensure those with disabilities can access infrastructure.

'Disabled and less mobile users of EV chargers can find it challenging to lift heavy charging cables and struggle with the height of kerbs around chargepoints, meaning many chargepoints are simply not usable for many UK drivers.

'The new standard, PAS1899, will launch imminently and is designed to correct this oversight and make sure that the 1.35million people that are expected to require access to public EV chargepoints by 2035 can charge their EVs at any chargepoint.'
Major investors have spoken out against the 9.5billion takeover of Aveva by French conglomerate Schneider Electric as opposition mounts.

Canada-based Mawer Investment Management has attacked the deal as 'opportunistic', adding that the software company has excellent long-term growth prospects.

Schneider this week offered 31 a share for the 40 per cent of Aveva it does not already own  a 41 per cent premium over the closing share price in August when the offer first emerged.

Opposition: Schneider has offered 31 a share for the 40 per cent of Aveva it does not already own

But it was well below the share price of 42 a year ago. Peter Lampert, a fund manager at Mawer, said: 'Aveva is a great business with a very promising long-term outlook.

'It's an opportunistic bid taking advantage of share price weakness in recent months.'

Another top 20 investor, which didn't want to be named, added: 'We do not believe the bid fairly reflects the future value creation potential of the business.'

Their comments echo those made by M&G as momentum against the deal grows. Rory Alexander, a fund manager at M&G Investments, said: 'Aveva's share price is trading at depressed levels due to the combination of low technology valuations, macro-economic uncertainties and a complex business model evolution from licence to subscription-based revenues. M&G intends to vote against the bid.' The takeover is the most recent example of foreign buyers, including private equity, plundering the London stock market as the pound falls.

New Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg has come under increasing pressure to intervene in the Aveva deal on national security grounds.

Fears in particular have been raised about Schneider's joint venture with Chinese conglomerate Delixi Electric. Critics say that if Aveva is taken over its proprietary technology is at risk of falling into Chinese hands.

But Rees-Mogg could come up against Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, who is increasingly looking to deregulate the City to unleash a 'Big Bang 2.0'.

This could mean waiving more merger and acquisition deals through in a bid to show that Britain is open for business and to much-needed foreign investment.

Aveva is one of the London Stock Exchange's few remaining technology firms.

It provides software to help engineers design major industrial projects as well as products that help run factories.

Schneider hopes to close the deal in the first quarter of 2023, but will need to secure support from at least 75 per cent of minority shareholders in a vote set for mid-November. Given the French group cannot vote, it would only take 10 per cent of the shareholder base to reject it for the deal to be blocked.
Credit Suisse shares sank to a record low after the troubled lender started sounding out shareholders for cash.

The Swiss bank, which has been embroiled in scandals, is seeking to bolster its balance sheet.

Troubled: The Swiss bank, which has been embroiled in scandals, is seeking to bolster its balance sheet

Shares slid to an all-time low of 4.07 Swiss francs yesterday, a fall of 13.66 per cent.

Credit Suisse is reviewing options for its investment bank, which could involve splitting it up and selling the most profitable parts. One drastic option is to ditch most of its operations in the US.

Christian Schmidiger, an analyst at ZKB, said Credit Suisse needed up to an extra 3.7billion, adding that this would mean 'a significant dilution for the existing shareholders' as investors pump money in.

The bank's reputation has been battered by bruising scandals, including corporate spying and its investment in the collapsed Greensill Capital.
Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has promised to unlock billions of pounds of pension scheme investments into innovative UK firms by reforming the 0.75 per cent charge cap.

The cap limits how much pension providers can charge people auto-enrolled into their employer's 'default' fund.

This is where most workers keep their retirement savings unless they actively choose other investments within their scheme.

The Government has previously consulted on easing the cap rules to allow higher performance fees, typically levied on illiquid and higher risk - but potentially higher return - investments such as infrastructure and sustainable projects.

Pension charges: Government wants to encourage pension schemes to invest in more innovative businesses by easing rules on what they can charge savers

Kwarteng's new growth plan confirms it will go ahead with this plan, 'giving defined contribution pension schemes the clarity and flexibility to invest in the UKs most innovative businesses and productive assets creating opportunities to deliver higher returns for savers.

'Well-designed' performance fees will be removed from the cap, the Government says.

Kwarteng will also provide up to 500million to support new funds allowing pension schemes to put savers' money into pioneering UK science and technology businesses.

The 'Long-Term Investment for Technology & Science (LIFTS)' competition will unlock billions of pounds of additional investment into UK firms over time, according to the Government.

Meanwhile, Kwarteng has announced plans to increase the 'generosity and availability' of the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), and hinted at extending Enterprise Investment Schemes (EIS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCT) in the future.

These are schemes offering substantial tax relief for investing in niche, unquoted or AIM-listed companies at the riskier end of the spectrum, and tend to be used by wealthy and sophisticated investors.

What do pension experts say?

'The mini Budget confirmed the charge cap for workplace pensions is to be relaxed to allow schemes to extend their investments into illiquid assets as part of the Governments growth agenda,' says Steven Cameron, pensions director at Aegon.

'The Government is determined to unleash the investment "super power" of workplace pensions and increase investments in longer term less liquid assets.

'Such investments can deliver higher returns but they can also have higher charges and some are subject to performance fees which cant be known in advance.

'Faced with unpredictable performance fees, schemes have feared such investments could lead to charges breaching the 0.75 per cent cap for automatic enrolment workplace pension default funds.'

Cameron says a small increase in charges in return for a bigger increase in investment returns could boost peoples pension pots, but the potential investment benefits will have to be explained to them.

Helen Morrissey, senior pension and retirement analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, says: 'The debate has raged for many years on how UK pensions can invest in more illiquid assets such as infrastructure in the same way overseas pension schemes have.

There is no reason to believe that paying fund managers higher fees leads to better performance Bob Campion, Charles Stanley

'Cost has been one major barrier to this and any moves to review the charge cap as outlined today would be a real step forward.

'While the cap was brought in to ensure people got good value from their pension scheme cost is not the only way of determining value.

'However, the key to success will be striking the balance of delivering opportunities people want to invest in at a sensible cost and the definition of well-designed performance fees will be very important.'

Callum Stewart, head of defined contribution investment at Hymans Robertson, says: 'We acknowledge that more investment in illiquid assets investment by DC schemes could make a big difference in society given their potential to contribute to projects such as renewable energy.

'If we can also use this as a way to engage members in their pension savings  because they can physically see the good their money is doing  we can also potentially encourage them to contribute more to their pension savings.

'This will add to an improvement in overall long term outcomes.

'However we remain concerned that at a time of further worry for many, comments around charge cap are merely covering up the worries of many.

'Within the industry, we are afraid that pensions savings will be the first thing to be cut for many, leading to an ever increasing number of pensioners and future pensioners heading into pensioner poverty.'

Bob Campion, senior portfolio manager at Charles Stanley Fiduciary Management, says: 'While performance fees can help align the interests of fund managers and their clients, it would be a heroic assumption to think that excluding performance fees from a cap for defined contribution members will lead to better outcomes for them.

'There is no reason to believe that paying fund managers higher fees leads to better performance. Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng should not be looking to DC members for the "new sources of capital investment" that he believes are required.'
Olympian Scott Miller (pictured) was always going to get caught trying to smuggle meth from Sydney to the Victorian border

Olympic swimmer Scott Miller called his co-offenders 'f***ing spastics' when he learnt their inept drug running escapade had been busted by police.

Miller was using the supposedly encrypted ANOM phone app when he learnt a plan to smuggle 4kg of meth from Sydney to Albury on the Victorian border had ended in arrests.

'They reckon they were in a police chase - stashed all the stuff,' Miller wrote to his accomplice Wayne Allan Johnson in a text.

'F***ing spastics the lot of them. I've got headaches now. Headaches on top of headaches.'

Miller was using the ANOM handle EyeQ - 'eye' is short for ice, or crystal methylamphetamine - while Johnson called himself Snowy Mountain.

Unknown to the pair, ANOM had been set up by law enforcement agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigations and Australian Federal Police.

Having the AFP and FBI monitor his communications was just one of the monumental mistakes Miller made before the bumbling team's arrests.

In another series of conversations after their meth plans came unstuck Miller told Johnson he had acquired 1kg of heroin he needed someone to test.

'I need someone to put it in their arm,' he told Johnson. 'I've smoked a heap off foil and I'm relaxed at best.'

Drug runner Scott Miller won a silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics in the 100m butterfly. He was married to TV personality Charlotte Dawson from 1999 to 2000. Dawson took her own life In 2014. The couple is pictured in August 1999

Miller was using the ANOM phone app when he learnt a plan to smuggle 4kg of meth from Sydney to Albury had ended in arrests. 'They reckon they were in a police chase - stashed all the stuff,' Miller wrote to an accomplice in a text. 'F***ing spastics the lot of them'

Miller has attributed his involvement in supplying meth to 'post elite competition depression' and his own long-term drug abuse.

The 100m butterfly silver medallist at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics is also known for his brief marriage to Sydney socialite and TV presenter Charlotte Dawson between 1999 and 2000. Dawson took her own life in 2014.

The now 47-year-old's descent into criminality has emerged as he awaits sentencing for his doomed attempt at smuggling meth.

The ANOM messages are contained in a police statement prepared for the case against one of his co-offenders, Luke Mathew Peake.

Miller's plan to drive 4kg of meth worth $2.2million across New South Wales ended in his apprehension along with three bumbling associates, one of whom he had met in rehab.

Miller sat slumped and shirtless in a chair as police searched his apartment at Rozelle, in Sydney's inner west, just after dawn on February 16 last year. Police found almost a kilogram of heroin in his home as well as more than $70,000 in cash

In another series of conversations after their meth plans came unstuck Miller told Wayne Allan Johnson he had acquired 1kg of heroin he needed someone to test. 'I need someone to put it in their arm,' he told Johnson. 'I've smoked a heap off foil and I'm relaxed at best'

The entire shambolic scheme had no chance of success, with police watching, listening to and tracking every movement of the drugs from start to finish.

Miller drove the meth about 280km from Sydney to Yass and handed over the consignment for transport to Albury.

But the drugs were ditched more than 200km further south after two incompetent mules were involved in a high-speed pursuit with highway patrol officers.

One of those couriers had shot up drugs just before the police chase and the other had only gone on the trip to keep his emotionally fragile friend company.

Even before Miller began his cross-state dash he was worried, desperately sending a message to his fellow conspirator Johnson: 'Tiger up my ass bro'.

The investigation into Miller began early last year after police discovered a shipment of candles which each contained half a kilogram of methylamphetamine.

Wayne Allan Johnson, 49, pleaded guilty to taking part in the supply of a prohibited drug and participating in a criminal group. Johnson is pictured outside court in August

By monitoring electronic communications police identified a group including Miller, Johnson, Justin Szabolics, and Peake, a hapless late addition to the plot.

After obtaining a surveillance device warrant police were able to install trackers, listening and optical devices inside a white Toyota Camry with Western Australian plates used by Miller.

Those devices revealed the Camry had a hidden, electronically lockable compartment concealed behind the rear passenger seat which could only be opened with a specific sequence of actions.

That process was meant to be sufficiently complex that the compartment could not be accidentally opened.

At 4.30pm on January 11 Miller drove the Camry from Wise Street, Rozelle to White Street Balmain. The hide was empty when Miller got out of the car and walked to Elkington Park.

Scott Miller drove this Toyota Camry from Sydney about 280km to Yass with 4kg of meth hidden in a secret compartment. The car and drugs were then handed to Justin Szabolics and Luke Peake who headed down the Hume Highway towards Albury

A short time later an unknown man wearing a hi-visibility shirt and face covering opened the rear passenger door and placed a blue, white and red bag into the footwell.

Inside the bag were eight candles in glass containers which contained 3,961 grams of meth, sometimes called 'eye' by suppliers.

The meth was in oil form, mixed in with the candle wax, and the intention was to convert it to crystals in a process known as sharding.

At 4.30pm Miller returned to the Camry and drove it to Thornton Street, Balmain where he appeared to use his mobile phone to take photos of the footwell.

He then opened the hide - which required the ignition to be turned on - and loaded the contents of the bag into the compartment before closing it.

The meth, worth $2.2million, was concealed in eight candles which were put in a red, white and blue striped bag that was stashed in this hidden compartment

Miller drove the Camry to nearby Terry Street and left the vehicle parked there overnight.

Just after 6pm Miller contacted Johnson using the ANOM app.

Miller: 'Bro... Yo... I need the eye separated from the wax and sharded... Bro.'

Johnson: 'I talk to them tomoz... I pushed for tonight. Someone was with him a few days ago. Said he couldn't see me Tull tomorow.

Miller: 'Ok... I have pressure to do it quick from OS people... Yo... Yo.'

About 12pm the next day Miller picked up the Camry and drove to Homebush then returned to Balmain without stopping. He messaged Johnson again at 12.04pm using ANOM.

Miller: 'On way to Yass... On m4... Tiger up my ass bro... I need you... Meet me M4... I'm turning around... I'll come your area... '

Johnson: 'I'm on scooter 20 min.'

A highway patrol unit unsuccessfully tried to pull over the Camry and gave chase as it reached high speeds. The chase was terminated shortly before midnight when it became too dangerous. Miller is pictured inset top and bottom

The day before the drug run Miller contacted Wayne Johnson using the supposedly encrypted ANOM mobile phone app which was popular with criminals at the time. Miller's handle was EyeQ and Johnson called himself Snowy Mountain

Shorty before 1pm Miller told Johnson he was parked in a dead end near his home and to come outside, bringing his encrypted Ciphr phone. Johnson joined him about 1.30pm and said he couldn't find his Ciphr.

Miller showed Johnson how to access the hide and Johnson placed something small inside the compartment. The pair then drove west on the M4 motorway.

At 2.44pm they stopped at a service station at Pheasants Nest, about 100km south-west of Sydney, to refuel and purchase snacks. Johnson took over the driving.

Down in Albury on the NSW-Victoria border on the same day, Peake had met up with Miller's friend Szabolics.

According to a statement of facts tendered in court, Szabolics told Peake he was working for Miller and he had to pick up a vehicle in Yass as part of his employment.

'[Peake] was concerned about Szabolics driving such distances without company and offered to come with him,' the statement said. 'At the time Szabolics had broken up with a girlfriend and the offender was worried about his mental state.'

The day of the drug run Miller, calling himself EyeQ, messaged Wayne Johnson, who used the handle Snowy Mountain, using ANOM devices. 'On way to Yass... On m4... Tiger up my ass bro... ' Miller wrote

Szabolics and Peake drove the 270km north-east to Yass and at 4.28pm checked into the Thunderbird Motel, where Miller and Johnson pulled up in the Camry about half an hour later.

Johnson later accessed the hidden compartment several times, loading items and removing the blue, white and red bag.

All four men later drove to a remote road where the Camry was refuelled from a jerry can and Johnson showed Szabolics how to open the hide.

The group went back to the Thunderbird Motel where Johnson returned the bag to the Camry and Peake put it in the hidden compartment.

As the four stood around the car Szabolics questioned the wisdom of using a car with Western Australian plates and Miller reassured him it wasn't a problem. They all then had a meal at the Club House Hotel.

Shortly before 9pm Szabolics and Peake got into the Camry and headed south on the Hume Highway for Albury. About 11pm they stopped at a rest area at Little Billabong for half an hour.

The investigation into Miller began early last year after police discovered a shipment of candles which each allegedly contained half a kilogram of methylamphetamine. Miller is pictured outside Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court after facing a drug charge in 2014

'During this time Szabolics injected "gear" and told Peake about his relationship with Miller, saying that others were "in his pocket" and that he "gets s**t done",' a statement of facts said.

'He said that he and Miller had attended rehab together twice, and said, "He's a good c**t 'cause he doesn't, like, you can do what you want as long as you're doing your s**t . Like, he doesn't tell me not take drugs.'

The meth was allegedly moulded into glass containers holding candles (pictured)

The pair then resumed their journey with Peake - who was disqualified from driving - at the wheel.

At 11.46pm a Holbrook highway patrol vehicle tried to stop the Camry and flashed its warning lights. Szabolics told Peake: 'Go'.

Police commenced a pursuit and Peake accelerated to 200km/h before braking harshly and turning onto Woomargama Way at Woomargama, crossing onto the wrong side of the road.

The pursuit was terminated by police who feared for their safety.

Once the chase was over Szabolics and Peake argued about where they should go next and Szabolics took over the driving.

'After swapping, Szabolics told [Peake] it would be bad if they were caught with the contents of the bag,' a statement of facts said.

'Whilst Szabolics was driving, Peake said, "We've just gotta get back to [indecipherable] and then we're going to f***ing stash the car somewhere".

'The interior light of the car went on and Peake accessed the hidden compartment. Sometime later Peake said words to the effect "stash this" and they slowed down and Peake said "Tree".'

Justin Szabolics (above) shot up 'gear' during the drive from Yass towards Albury. He told fellow mule Luke Peake about his relationship with Miller, who he had met in drug rehab

At 12.03am the Camry stopped at the intersection of Holbrook Wagga Road and Rose Valley Lane at Cookardinia where Peake put the bag behind a large tree in long grass. They then drove to Jindera Street, Jindera and abandoned the vehicle.

Later that day police found the bag containing the drugs where Peake had put it.

'The following day Szabolics approached [Peake] and asked him to come and retrieve the items,' a statement of facts said.

'[Peake] refused as he did not want to be part of the criminal activity. However he later relented but they could not find the bag.'

Peake and Szabolics - who Miller called 'Albury' in an ANOM message - were arrested for other matters on January 14 and held in custody.

Miller wrote to Johnson on January 29: 'I got 1kg Hammer. Need it tested. Help.'

Johnson: 'OK. Do you still need him sorted?'

Miller: 'I need someone to put in in their arm. I'm back dealing with oldman I won't deal direct again it's a nightmare. But we landed 1kg hammer today I need it tested.'

It was after this exchange that Miller wrote, 'I've smoked a heap off foil and Im relaxed at best.'

Detective Senior Constable David Randle wrote in a statement tendered in court that 'hammer' meant heroin.

'I believe the statement "smoked a heap off foil" is Miller indicating that he has consumed some of the drug by placing the drug onto foil, heating it and inhaling the fumes,' Detective Senior Constable said.

Miller was originally charged with knowingly directing a criminal group but after representations by lawyer Greg Goold that was downgraded to participating in the drug syndicate, to which he also pleaded guilty. He is pictured with former wife Charlotte Dawson

'I believe the phrase "need someone to put it in their arm" is Miller stating that he wants someone to inject the drug directly into a vein using a hypodermic needle to test the quality.'

A search warrant was executed on Miller's apartment at Rozelle just after 6am on February 16. The Camry was found at the unit.

At his apartment police found 796.8 grams of heroin in a cardboard box inside a walk-in wardrobe. They located $2,175 in the same wardrobe, $500 in a satchel, and $69,870 in a safe.

Johnson was arrested the same day as Miller but Peake and Szabolics were not charged over the drug run until March 16 - a month later.

Miller pleaded guilty in March to supplying a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug, supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug and dealing with the proceeds of crime.

Miller was allowed to put on a striped polo shirt before he was handcuffed and taken to Newtown police station to be charged. He underwent an electronically recorded interview but to each question answered, 'No comment'

He was originally charged with knowingly directing a criminal group but after representations by solicitor Greg Goold that was downgraded to participating in the drug syndicate, to which he also pleaded guilty.

Szabolics, 45, pleaded guilty to supplying a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug and participating in a criminal group.

Johnson, 49, pleaded guilty to taking part in the supply of a prohibited drug and participating in a criminal group.

Peake, 42, pleaded guilty to taking part in the supply of a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug, driving while disqualified and driving recklessly and at dangerous speeds during the police pursuit.

In March he received minimum terms of 15 months for each offence and became eligible for parole on May 13.

Miller, Szabolics and Johnson are due back in court on November 3.
By the time New York businessman Bob Williams realized his marriage to a much younger, buff and handsome South American man was a sham, it was too late. He was down $50,000 and well on his way to a nervous breakdown.

As his marriage unraveled in just a few short months, Williams was in for another shocker. His husband called the cops, alleged abuse, and, in doing so, fell under safeguards afforded to immigrants under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).

That law is praised for helping immigrant men and women victims of domestic abuse, but critics say it also gives marriage scammers an all-too-easy path to securing Green Cards  and hundreds or thousands cheat the system each year.

What they do, and its apparently common, is they seek out guys they can trick into a relationship to rip you off and get papers, Williams, who is in his 50s, told DailyMail.com.

And theres no place for us to go, yet the politicians can't stop bragging about the services they offer the immigrants.

Federal authorities earlier this year bust open a California-based gang that arranged hundreds of fake marriages for Green Cards for non-citizens

Celebrities and politicians supported the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, which cracks down on domestic abuse. Pictured: actress and activist Angelina Jolie with various women senators in Washington, D.C., in February

Federal prosecutors in April said they had busted open a huge immigrant marriage fraud ring that made more than $8 million over five years by arranging bogus unions and filing more than 400 fake applications to USCIS.

DailyMail.com has not used Williams' real name and will not identify the husband, due to sensitivities and legal issues around the case.

Still, his story echoes that of many American victims of marriage fraud  often involving middle-aged men and women, a younger foreigner who wants to live in the U.S., a whirlwind romance and a speedy wedding.

Williams says he met his future spouse on a dating site. It was magical beginning and unusually fast  they wed within months and started making plans to bring the grooms family stateside.

He missed the warning signs: urgent requests for cash for struggling relatives back home and hushed conversations between his husband and his friends in Spanish, which Williams does not speak. He kept on paying the bills, he says.

As soon as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had processed his husbands work permit, Williams says everything changed.

They started rowing relentlessly. It emerged that his husband was in a long-term, pre-existing relationship with another man, and he moved out.

Then, the spouse formally accused Williams of extreme cruelty and obtained a restraining order. He pursued his immigration process alone and now lives in another state. A messy divorce was concluded several years later.

Immigrants who marry Americans must typically spend several years living together, jointly submitting documents and going to interviews to show the union is real, and ultimately gaining permanent residency in the U.S.

VAWA provisions, however, allow immigrant spouses to instead show they were victims of battery or extreme cruelty, sideline their American partner and complete their Green Card process alone.

Claims of domestic abuse are scrutinized, but critics say immigration teams are swamped, little evidence is required, solo Green Card applications are rubber-stamped and the system is open to fraud.

For Williams, aside from the chaotic relationship stress that saw him shed 40lbs and mull suicide, the tarring of his name and the systems apparent indifference to victims of marriage scams has been difficult to move on from.

Its a cruel lesson in life, he said. It sucks knowing others are walking right into it.

A newly naturalized American citizen stands in celebration during a ceremony at the New York. The immigration system has many checks along the route to citizenship, but insiders warn of loopholes that cheats can exploit

More than 304,000 Green Cards were issued to spouses of U.S. citizens in 2019  one of the most recent years for which data are available

While there are many cases of VAWA empowering immigrants to flee abusive spouses, there are also many cases, like Williams, of Americans getting duped and later feeling let down by their countrys immigration system.

Many such victims share stories in Facebook groups like Marriage Fraud Victims Support Group and End Marriage Fraud for Immigration. The long-running reality show 90 Day Fiance spotlighted many deceptive foreign spouses.

The full scale of marriage fraud is not known. The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), a legal action group, cites an estimate that 30 percent of all marriages between U.S. citizens and foreigners are ruses for a Green Card.

That estimate would amount to some 90,000 scam marriages, out of the 304,334 Green Cards issued to spouses of U.S. citizens in 2019  one of the most recent years for which data are available.

That estimate covers all types of fraud, including when the American partner is in on the scam  aiding a foreign friend or even taking a payoff to convince USCIS the marriage is real. The going rate is $25,000.

The number of solo Green Card applications under VAWA has averaged around 3,000 in recent years. David North, a fellow of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank, says a substantial number of these are bogus, but that could be anywhere from 20-70 percent.

According to prosecutors, the southern California criminal immigration gang would sometimes fabricate fake domestic violence cases and apply for Green Cards under VAWA

After receiving 'Green Card' permanent residency, immigrants can apply for citizenship. An immigrant (left), receives a naturalization certificate at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office in New Jersey

USCIS says it works hard to protect immigrants who endure abuse at the hands of an American spouse, while also running anti-fraud training courses to help officials root out liars.

If USCIS should identify any fraud indicators while adjudicating a VAWA petition, then the agency will take appropriate action, a spokesman told DailyMail.com.

The 1994 VAWA law is widely praised for tackling domestic violence. It is renewed regularly, including by the Biden administration in March. The Department of Justice this month bolstered VAWA anti-abuse efforts with grants worth $224.9 million.

Still, Allison Randall, acting director of the Department of Justices Office on Violence Against Women, last month acknowledged that while VAWA had helped many victims, its policies and funding are not perfect.

Allison Randall, acting director of the Department of Justices Office on Violence Against Women, says while VAWA has helped many victims, its policies and funding are not perfect

Marriage scammers are detected and prosecuted, but larger criminal enterprises have been easier to nab than lone scammers.

In April, federal prosecutors said they had busted open a huge immigrant marriage fraud ring that made more than $8 million over five years by arranging bogus unions and filing more than 400 fake applications to USCIS.

Based in southern California, the ring was allegedly led by Marcialito Biol Benitez, known as Mars, a Filipino who managed brokers who scoured for Americans willing to be paid to be paired in sham weddings.

When the marriages unraveled, often because the U.S. citizen was backing out, gang members fabricated fake domestic violence cases against them and applied for Green Cards under VAWA, court documents show.

Los Angeles-based lawyer Daniel Perlman described many Americans  mostly men  approaching him with stories like Williams hoping to press USCIS to act against their estranged partners.

VAWA laws should be revisited to close loopholes, he said.

Many experts agree. RJ Hauman, from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a think tank, said immigration officials with backlogs rubber stamp iffy VAWA applications rather than get bogged down in yet another drawn-out appeals process.

Congress must act immediately to close this VAWA fraud loophole and provide additional funding for enhanced investigations of these alleged crimes, Hauman told DailyMail.com.

USCIS urges Americans who have fallen victim to marriage scams to file reports.

Matt OBrien, a former immigration judge and USCIS fraud detection chief who now heads investigations at IRLI, says U.S. citizens are targets of people seeking quick access to U.S. jobs and colleges and need to be aware.

Use your common sense! If you are a regular 40-50 year old American and a stunningly attractive 20-year-old foreign national falls for you during a week-long vacation, it probably wasnt love at first sight, he told DailyMail.com.
Following the mounting geopolitical tensions in China, Apple may decide to move away some productions of iPhones from the country.

With this, the Cupertino-based company could possibly move 25% of its entire iPhone production line to India by 2025, according to JP Morgan analysts.

Apple to Turn India into a Key Global Manufacturing Hub

According to TechCrunch, a report sent by JP Morgan analysts stated that Apple is planning "to move 5% of the global iPhone 14 to India by late 2022."

By 2025, the tech giant is planning to expand its manufacturing capacity in the country in order to produce 25% of the entire iPhone production line.

A few years ago, Apple began to assemble some of its devices in India and Vietnam. With this move, the company slowly cut its dependence on China.

With its plan to move 25% of iPhones manufacturing to India, it is gearing to make the country one of its key global manufacturing hubs, analysts at JP Morgan said.

Currently, Apple manufactures some of its iPhone models in India. Among these models are the iPhone 13 and soon the iPhone 14.

However, the tech company's supply chain is still heavily concentrated in China. In the previous years, though, the company has worked to move suppliers and production lines to other countries, including India and Vietnam.

In the last several years, Foxconn and other Apple suppliers have invested heavily in India with supply chain infrastructure, factories, and training.

The production of iPhone 14 models in India is expected to happen in the coming weeks, according to MacRumors.

Read Also: Apple's iPhone 14 Pro Experiences Production Delay Amid COVID-19 Lockdown in China

Apple Will Also Move its Production in Vietnam

Apple has plans to make India one of its key global manufacturing hubs. Since 2017, iPhones have been assembled in the country through Wistron and later via Foxconn, as per Reuters.

While the pandemic slowed down supply chain relocation plans for businesses, more companies, including Apple, are reaccelerating relocation plans with the easing of restrictions.

According to analysts, the presence of foreign production giants in the country, together with "ample labor resources and competitive labor costs," make India a desirable location for businesses.

In fact, Samsung put up one of its largest factories in the country as the company recognizes India as a global manufacturing hub, as per TechCrunch.

Other smartphone makers such as Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and OnePlus also put up factories in India where their handsets are assembled.

A recent report stated that even Google also plans to put up factories in the country. The said company plans to move some of Pixel smartphones' production to India.

In the past five years, Apple has "broadened its investment" in India. Two years ago, the iPhone maker opened an online Apple Store in the country, and currently, it is working to bring its first physical store.

Meanwhile, aside from India, Vietnam is another country Apple is eyeing to turn into a key global manufacturing hub.

Vietnam is said to contribute 20% of all iPad and Apple Watch productions, 5% of MacBook, and 65% of AirPods by 2025.

Related Article: Apple To Start Production Of iPhone SE In India
He now needs new attorneys to represent him in his defense

Francis had pleaded guilty in 2015 to a bribery scheme in which he supplied Navy admirals with prostitutes in exchange for classified shipping routes

Authorities now say the 57-year-old had been planning to travel to Russia, where he could not be extradited back to the US

He then apparently crossed the border into Mexico, and from there, he traveled to Cuba and Venezuela, where he was arrested Tuesday

Leonard Glenn Francis, who went by the nickname 'Fat Leonard,' cut off an ankle monitor and slipped away from house arrest in San Diego on September 4

A Malaysian defense contractor who orchestrated one of the U.S. Navy's largest bribery scandals had been trying to get to Russia when he was arrested earlier this week in Venezuela.

Authorities say that after Leonard Glenn Francis, who went by the nickname 'Fat Leonard,' cut off an ankle monitor and slipped away from house arrest in San Diego on September 4, he crossed the border into Mexico.

From there, U.S. and Venezuelan officials say, Francis, 57, traveled to Cuba and Venezuela, where he was arrested Tuesday at the Simon Bolivar International Airport outside Caracas.

He had been planning to travel to Russia, where he could not be extradited, according to Interpol Venezuela Director General Carlos Garate Rondon, who disclosed the arrest in a statement posted Wednesday on Instagram.

Rondon said Francis would be handed over to the country's judicial authorities to begin extradition proceedings, though it remains unclear when he will be sent back to the United States amid worsening relations with Venezuela.

The arrest came on the eve of his scheduled sentencing in a federal court in California for a bribery scheme that lasted more than a decade and involved dozens of U.S. Navy officers in which he secured classified shipping routes.

Leonard Glenn Francis, who went by the nickname 'Fat Leonard,' was arrested Tuesday at the Simon Bolivar International Airport outside Caracas as he apparently tried to flee to Russia

Authorities say Francis was under home arrest in San Diego when he cut off his GPS ankle bracelet and escaped on September 4. Ten U.S. agencies searched for Francis and authorities issued a $40,000 reward for his arrest.

U.S. officials also issued a red notice, which asks law enforcement worldwide to provisionally arrest someone with the possibility of extradition.

Eventually, a law enforcement official familiar with the case said, authorities were able to track down Francis using a cellphone number they were provided.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly, said Francis was located Tuesday in a Caracas neighborhood.

Venezuelan authorities then deployed a team of officers at the airport after a cab driver tipped them off that Francis was leaving a hotel and headed there.

The official said Francis intended to board a plane to the Venezuelan Caribbean Island of Margarita, which Venezuela wants to turn into a popular destination for Russian tourists because of its pristine beaches accessible by ferry or flights from the mainland.

The government said last month it plans to offer five flights a week between Margarita and Moscow starting October 1, and signs in Russian can already be seen at the island.

The official said Francis later told authorities his final destination was Russia.

Greg Rinckey, a former Army lawyer who is now in private practice, said he believes Francis was 'trying to play the angle of using some countries to get outside the jurisdiction of the U.S. Marshals Service.'

'It looks like they caught him just in time,' Rinckey said. 'If he made it to Russia, I don't believe the Russians would have turned him over to us.'

It remains unclear if Francis had contacts in Russia offering to help, and if he did, what they wanted in return.

Francis had intended to board a plane to the Venezuelan Caribbean Island of Margarita, which Venezuela wants to turn into a popular destination for Russian tourists

Francis is shown with Rear Admiral Bolivar, who was investigated as part of one of the largest bribery scandals in US military history

Francis has been known to brag about still holding compromising photos and videos of Navy officials. Senior Navy officials are pictured here at a party Francis says he threw for them

But Francis has been known to brag about still holding compromising photos and videos of Navy officials after he bribed Navy admirals with prostitutes for classified shipping routes.

The towering man with a wide girth and gregarious personality wielded incredible influence as a main point of contact for U.S. Navy ships at ports across Asia.

His family's ship servicing business, Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia Ltd. or GDMA, supplied food, water and fuel to vessels for decades.

He plied officers with Kobe beef, expensive cigars, concert tickets and wild sex parties at luxury hotels from Thailand to the Philippines.

In exchange, commanders passed him classified information and steered their ships, mostly from the Navy's 7th Fleet, to ports he controlled so he could cover up as much as $35 million in fake charges.

Among those he befriended was a Russian diplomat, Francis told podcaster Tom Wright, who created a nine-part series on the case.

In an episode posted last October, Francis said he lived only a 'stone's throw' from the Russian Embassy in Singapore, and the Russian diplomat would stop by his home uninvited to drop off vodka and other gifts.

It remains unclear whether that diplomat helped him with his escape.

Francis had also boasted in the podcast about plying admirals with booze and prostitutes, and the sweet informant deal he struck with the US government.

In a podcast, Francis spoke proudly about going after Michael Misiewicz (pictured) a commander who he supplied with prostitutes in Tokyo in exchange for secret shipping routes to Australia

'Everybody was in my pocket. I had them rolling around in my palm. I had the Navy by their balls. I turned my torpedo, my guns against them, because they betrayed me,' Francis says in one episode of a nine-part series.

He also revealed that the government had arranged for visas for his whole family, saying: 'Everybody came legally. Uncle Sam knows, everybody knows what I'm doing. My children are my children.'

And in another episode, Francis spoke proudly about going after Michael Misiewicz, a commander who he supplied with prostitutes in Tokyo in exchange for secret shipping routes to Australia.

'Misciewicz had value, you know, he was like the number two guy in the scheduling department.

'If you look at him, he's actually a really nice guy, very gentle personality, friendly, great dad to his kids, womanizer...' Francis said, adding that his number two - New Yorker Edmond Aruffo - 'embedded' him.

'They wanted to have the good life that they could not have. They wanted the fine dining, the fine gifts, hotel rooms, sedans, luxury cars, watches, handbags, fancy meals, alcohol, cigars,' he said.

Francis had infiltrated Misiewicz's family and friends while he was working on the USS Blue Ridge out of Manila in 2011.

He gave him and his family tickets to the Lion King in Tokyo, bought his wife Marcy a Gucci handbag when she became suspicious of him, and arranged for Michael to sleep with prostitutes in Tokyo on a regular basis.

The scheme came crashing down in 2013 after Marcy Misiewicz, Michael's wife, suspected he was cheating on her and confronted him. He struck her and she reported it to the NCIS, which started filtering through Michael's emails.

Among them were exchanges with Francis, where Michael had supplied secret shipping routes to Australia.

Francis, who had a spy in the NCIS, found out and tried to placate her but he was eventually arrested, along with Misiewicz, who was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Francis also suggested that some of the most senior admirals he corrupted were being protected by the Navy, a claim that is bolstered by the fact that some were disciplined in military courts, whereas others were pursued by the Department of Justice.

He pleaded guilty to the bribery scheme in 2015, but had been allowed to remain in home confinement to receive medical care while he cooperated with the prosecution.

With his help, prosecutors secured convictions of 33 of 34 defendants, including more than two dozen Navy officers.

Fat Leonard had purchased a decommissioned British warship, renamed it the Glenn Braveheart (pictured), and occasionally turned it into a giant party boat

With Francis' help prosecutors secured convictions of 33 of 34 defendants, including more than two dozen Navy officers. He is pictured here with his mercenary army

Francis' sentencing hearing was still held on Thursday to deal with the changing situation. When he returns, Francis will need new attorneys.

His defense attorney, Devin Burstein, told the judge he plans to file a motion severing their ties due to an 'irreparable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship.' Burstein did not mention his client's arrest in Venezuela.

And when Francis does return, prosecutors indicated he will face an even longer sentence, asking the court to note his failure to appear at his sentencing hearing as ordered.

That could add five years to his potential sentence of 25 years, if he is ultimately charged for not showing up.

U.S. District Court Judge Janis Sammartino set a December 14 status hearing for Francis with the caveat that all parties could meet sooner depending on how events unfold.

'This turn of events raises several issues, and obviously will have an impact on other cases,' she said.

Sentencing hearings are scheduled in October for four Navy officers who went to trial and were convicted in the case.

Meanwhile, it remains unclear when Francis will be extradited back to the U.S. as relations between the country and Venezuela have been worsening in recent years.

While Venezuela and the United States have an extradition agreement, the U.S. government could face an uphill challenge returning the fugitive to American soil.

The Biden administration doesn't officially recognize President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government, has no embassy in Venezuela and has imposed crushing sanctions on the country that have further embittered relations.

Law enforcement cooperation between the two countries is rare.
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Hollywood star and humanitarian Angelina Jolie has said the flood disaster in Pakistan should be a 'wake-up call' for the world regarding climate change, calling for more international aid after meeting with victims.

Pakistan has been lashed by unprecedented monsoon downpours that flooded a third of the country - an area the size of the United Kingdom - and killed nearly 1,600 people, according to the latest government figures.

More than seven million people have been displaced, many living in makeshift tents without protection from mosquitoes, and often with little access to clean drinking water or washing facilities.

Pakistan has been lashed by unprecedented monsoon downpours that flooded a third of the country - an area the size of the United Kingdom - and killed nearly 1,600 people, according to the latest government figures. Jolie, who represents the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), visited southern Sindh province, one of the worst-affected areas, where she met with displaced flood victims living in camps

Jolie, pictured speaking to flood victims, said she had 'never seen anything like this' at a meeting with military officials in Islamabad and called for the international community to provide more aid

The United Nations has warned of a 'second disaster' from diseases such as dengue, malaria, cholera and diarrhoea, as well as from malnutrition. Pictured: Jolie meets government and military officials during her visit to Pakistan

Pictured: Jolie meets with flood victims at a makeshift shelter in Ibrahim Chandio village at Johi town in Dadu district

'I've never seen anything like this,' said Jolie, who previously visited Pakistan to meet the victims of the devastating 2010 floods and a deadly 2005 earthquake, in footage released on Thursday.

'I am absolutely with you in pushing the international community to do more... I think this is a real wake-up call to the world about where we are at,' she told a meeting of civil and military officials in the capital Islamabad.

'Climate change is not only real and it's not only coming, it's very much here.'

Displaced people walk to a safer area following the deadly climate catastrophe in the Swat Valley

Pakistani men receive food, distributed by Pakistani Army troops in a flood-hit area in Rajanpur, district of Punjab

Victims of flooding from monsoon rains leave their flooded home in Sehwan, Pakistan on September 09

Displaced people from heavy monsoon flooding take refuge as they prepare food at a temporary tent housing camp organized by the Turkish Red Crescent, in Sujawal, Pakistan on September 14

Jolie, who represents the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), visited southern Sindh province, one of the worst-affected areas, where she met with displaced flood victims living in camps.

The United Nations has warned of a 'second disaster' from diseases such as dengue, malaria, cholera and diarrhoea, as well as from malnutrition.

'I have been speaking to people and thinking that if enough aid doesn't come, they won't be here in the next few weeks, they won't make it,' said Jolie.

Scientists have linked the record-breaking monsoon rains to climate change.

Victims of flooding from monsoon rains take their animals through the water in Sehwan, Pakistan on September 9

SEHWAN,HYDERABAD, PAKISTAN: Victims of flooding from monsoon rains carry grasses for their cattle

In February, the UN released its gravest report on climate change yet, saying the window of opportunity to save the planet is 'rapidly closing.'

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report claimed that rising temperatures are now affecting all living things.

The report said if global warming isn't limited to just another couple tenths of a degree, an Earth now struck regularly by deadly heat, fires, floods and drought in future decades will degrade in 127 ways with some being 'potentially irreversible'.

Victims of flooding carry their belongings on a boat in Pakistan earlier this month after heavy downpours devastated the country

SEHWAN,HYDERABAD, PAKISTAN: A man takes his animals through the flooded area around them as Pakistan deals with devastating floods

'The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health,' the report said.

Delaying cuts in heat-trapping carbon emissions and waiting on adapting to warming's impacts, it warns, 'will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.'

Today's children who may still be alive in the year 2100 are going to experience four times more climate extremes than they do now even with only a few more tenths of a degree of warming over today's heat.

But if temperatures increase nearly 2 more degrees Celsius from now (3.4 degrees Fahrenheit) they would feel five times the floods, storms, drought and heat waves, according to the collection of scientists at the IPCC.

Already at least 3.3 billion people's daily lives 'are highly vulnerable to climate change' and 15 times more likely to die from extreme weather, the report says.

This aerial photograph shows a flooded area in Sukkur, Sindh province, on September 9
Samtani family attorney, Benjamin Brafman spoke on behalf of the family saying:: 'We are pleased that the court gave very serious consideration to our position'

Judge Richard Ambro was unable to get the updated probation reports from probation officer in time

Campbell 's Sept. 22 court hearing was to postponed to Oct. 25, due to a computer glitch in Suffolk County

The Hamptons hit-and-run driver who mowed down an 18-year-old man could finally be chucked in jail in the coming weeks, the victim's lawyer has told DailyMail.com.

Daniel Campbell, 20, could get 90 days in prison for striking and killing Devesh 'Devu' Samtani in Amagansett on August 10, 2021, attorney Benjamin Brafman said.

He told how the devastated family were hopeful the sentence will be brought down on the defendant next month.

It comes less than a month after DailyMail.com revealed Campbell had a string of previous driving offences before mowing down Samtani.

They included speeding tickets days before the fatal crash, a head-on collision and even having his license stripped from him.

Samtani had been walking along Old Stone Highway with his cousin Kabir Kurani, 18, and their friends trying to get service to get an Uber back home.

But he was hit by Campbell - driving a Honda Pilot packed with nine passengers - so hard he flew 6ft into the air, with his shoes flying off his feet.

Campbell allegedly then drove off and left the economics student to die on the highway surrounded by his friends.

Daniel Campbell appeared dismal as he walked with his father (pictured right) outside of the Arthur M. Cromarty Criminal Court Complex in Riverhead. Campbell struck and killed Samtani in the fatal hit-and-run and fled the scene. Samtani had been walking along Old Stone Highway in Amagansett with his cousin, Kabir Kurani, 18 and some other teens on August 10, 2021 when the devastating incident took place

Mala and Kishore Samtani stand outside the courthouse after they learn of the court's decision. Mala holds a framed photo of her son that she always carries with her. The parents are hoping to get justice for their beloved son who was killed in the fatal hit-and-run. Samtani was supposed to start NYU in the Fall of 2021 before the tragedy occurred

The tragic accident happened on Old Stone Highway near where the road curves at Eastwood Court, according to the accident report. The driver identified as Daniel Campbell, 20, plowed into Devu and kept on driving. His 2012 Honda Pilot was packed with 9 passengers

Brafman told DailyMail.com outside Suffolk County Criminal Court on Thursday that the court was considering 90 days jail time.

'We are pleased that the court gave very serious consideration to our position,' he said.

'We are indeed hopeful that the court said he is inclined to change the promise on the sentence from community service to 90 days in jail assuming Mr. Campbell agrees to accept that sentence.'

He said if he does not accept the sentence and doesn't agree then under the law he is able to take his plea back.

Judge Richard Ambro planned to sentence Campbell to just six months community services and five years probation in lieu of jail time.

The judge's promise was contingent on Campbell steering clear of the law and showing up at the sentencing, despite admitting felony causing death.

Devu's parents, Mala and Kishore Samtani, were shocked and devastated by the judge's decision that Campbell would get no jail time.

Campbell arriving at the Suffolk County Courthouse on Thursday morning, which was the original date of his sentencing that had been postponed due to a computer glitch in Suffolk County that prevented the judge from getting the completed probation report. The new date is scheduled for October 25 .Campbell is pictured here walking with his parents and his attorney, Edward Burke, Jr. (pictured in the front)

Daniel Campbell looking glum as he left the Suffolk County Courthouse in Riverhead after Thursday's court appearance. He was accompanied by his mother and father (pictured walking alongside him) and his lawyer Edward Burke, Jr. who was partially concealed in photo

Devu's parents have been heartbroken since their youngest son Devesh 'Devu' Samtani was killed last summer. The soft-spoken Kishore said: We are not revengeful people. We just want closure'

Brafman said he believes the judge's change of heart was based on Campbell's prior driving record after they had sent him new information.

He told DailyMail.com he had sent a written submission to the judge which included Campbell's driving record.

He said: 'We explained to the judge that if he proceeds with the sentence of community service the family does not believe that that it is really justice.

'We also explained that it is probably not possible for him to have been driving at 20-25 miles per hour as he told the police who interviewed him because the impact was substantial.'

Brafman said 'witnesses say Devu flew more than six feet in the air and landed without his shoes.

'The force of the impact was just not possible for him to have been driving 20-25 miles per hour,' he said.

'The crime here is leaving the scene of the accident. The crime is he ran away and should have stopped. He should have remained on the scene,' Brafman said.

Campbell's prior driving record includes a head-on crash last year - months before he killed Samtani - and more recently a speeding violation weeks before the fatal crash.

'It doesn't appear that that was factored into the equation,' Brafman said, explaining 'we were very surprised when they learned about his Campbell's driving history'.

'This kid at age 17 already ignored the driving rules that apply to all of us that was apparent from driving transcripts from the Motor Vehicle Bureau.'

Campbell had a court hearing scheduled on Thursday but a computer wide problem in Suffolk County all week shut all the computers down postponing the hearing.

'This is very unusual he was supposed to have been sentenced today but he is not going to be sentenced because the probation officer could not finish her report because of the computer break down in Suffolk County,' Brafman said.

'As a result the judge does not have an updated probation report and the preliminary report did not include anything from the family because they were not notified because of the failure of the lawyer who got the victim impact statement.'

'I think what is important from our perspective is the court is inclined to change the offer to Mr. Campbell from five years probation and six months of community service to five years probation with 90 days of jail and 90 days of community service.'

High-profile attorney Benjamin Brafman and Kishore Samtani walk outside the courthouse before the closed door meeting with Judge Richard Ambro on Thursday. Mala and Kishore are pictured behind Brafman as he speaks to the media after the Thursday court meeting

Devu (far left) was all about family. He is pictured here with his parents, two brothers, and sister-in-law

Samtani's parents have now hired star lawyer Benjamin Brafman to try and get Campbell thrown into jail

Brafman said he does not think there will be a trial because Campbell told the police what he did. 'I think this is really about leaving the scene of an accident,' he said.

He added: 'I think this is an issue of a young person after an accident panicking. I think it is unfortunate that there is a serious tragedy he left the family to deal with for the rest of their lives.'

Mala walked quietly out of the courthouse clutching a photo of her beloved son surrounded by her loving family.

Her son Viren, 23, walked besides her along with sister Poonam Mirchandani, her father, her brother Jeff Kurani, and sister-in-law Jennifer Kurani.

When asked to describe his son after Thursday's courthouse meeting, the soft spoken Kishore said he was a 'kind person.'

'He liked to study and go to university and was a very charitable person,' he said.

Kishore, who had flown in from Hong Kong days earlier to be at the court appearance told DailyMail.com he believes some progress was made.

Mala and Kishore spoke exclusively to DailyMail.com last month. They spoke about the many charities they have created and scholarships they have put in place in their son's honor

'I think some important things have come to Judge Ambro's attention and that is why he changed his mind.'

He added: 'I think he [Campbell] will serve some time and that is it. We are not revengeful people.'

Kishore said he will travel from his home in Hong Kong to New York as often as he needs to in order to get justice for his son.

'We will come back again and again,' he said.

Devesh 'Devu' Samtani, 18, was planning to attend NYU in Fall 2021, weeks before his life was cut short, when Campbell plowed into the teen killing him on August 10, 2021

When Danielle Campbell left the courthouse with his parents at his side he looked straight ahead and did not respond to any reporters.

Campbell's attorney Edward Burke, Jr, speaking outside the courthouse, said there were no additional charges given out.

He said he would not comment on whether Campbell would be serving jail time.

'There is still a lot of information we presented to probation just two weeks ago in anticipation of this date. I know that will be reflected,' he said. 'We have more work to do.'

Burke, who called it a 'tragedy' said that Campbell is 'doing ok but said he was having a tough time for sure.'

'The weight of this is obviously immense on everyone's shoulders,' he said.

Last month during an exclusive interview with the heartbroken parents, Mala told DailyMail.com she often speaks to Devu, stares at his photos everyday, sends him text messages to his cellphone, and always keeps his phone charged that she keeps by her beside.

She said last year, August 27, 2021, was the date Devu was supposed to move into his dorm as an incoming freshman at NYU - studying math and economics.

Kishore has a tattoo of his son's smiling face that is located on is forearm for all to see

'When I sleep at night I ask him, How's college? How are you doing? Are you going to the restaurant?'

Mala shared her pain: 'I can't accept it. I know but I can't accept it. I am not going to accept it. I am not ready to accept it.'

Kishore sat next to Mala and tried to comfort her as he got emotional looking at videos of Devu when he was a child singing and dancing at different family occasions.

'He was not shy,' Kishore said with tears in his eyes watching his son singing to a roomful of people a a family party at only age seven.

'The ultimate tragedy is to lose your child,' Mala side taking a breath. 'I am still in denial.'

Campbell's next court date is October 25, during that time will tell the court his decison and his sentencing will been adjourned to November 3.
The hospital says it has stepped up security after the incident on September 18

Police have launched an investigation after a woman was raped by a stranger in an NHS hospital car park in broad daylight.

Security has been stepped up at Royal Liverpool Hospital after the woman was sexually assaulted in its NCP multi-storey car park on Sunday, September 18.

Merseyside Police says officers believe the attack happened between 10.30am and 1pm and the offender was a complete stranger.

The force says it is 'carrying out extensive enquiries' and the woman is being supported by specially trained officers after the shocking incident.

Staff who work at the hospital were sent an email yesterday urging them to remain vigilant and to wear their name tags, while also confirming the attack took place, the Liverpool Echo reports.

Merseyside Police says it was called to reports a woman had been sexually assaulted in the car park at Royal Liverpool Hospital (pictured) on Sunday, September 18

Detective Inspector at Merseyside Police, Paul McVeigh, said: 'Incidents of this nature are very rare and while I understand that members of the public may be alarmed I want people to be reassured that we are carrying out a full and thorough investigation to establish what has taken place and apprehend the person responsible.

'I would like to appeal to anyone who was in the area of Mount Vernon Street on the morning of Sunday September 18, who saw or heard anything suspicious, or thinks they may have captured something on their vehicle dash-cam to contact us as a matter or urgency.

'We are carrying out extensive enquiries in the area including obtaining CCTV footage. If anyone witnessed the incident or has any information that can help with our enquiries please get in touch.

'Violence against women and girls in any form is not acceptable and Merseyside Police has a number of initiatives in place to ensure the response to crimes of this nature are prioritised and that the appropriate policing activity is put in place to address the safety of women and girls.

'Providing support to victims of sexual assault has also never been more important. If anyone who has suffered a sexual offence can find the courage to come forward and speak to us, I want to assure them we will deal with them sensitively and make sure that reports are thoroughly investigated.'

David Melia, Chief Nurse at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: 'The Trust is assisting Merseyside Police with their inquiries into an incident that was alleged to have taken place on the grounds of the Royal Liverpool University Hospital on 18 September.

'As an extra precaution 24 hour security around the site has been increased.'

Anyone who witnessed the incident or who has information is asked to DM @MerPolCC, message 'Merseyside Police Contact Centre on Facebook' or contact @CrimestoppersUK on 0800 555 111 with reference 22000696768.
Archaeologists believe it was used as a teaching site less than 100 years ago

The artwork in the shelter is the first to tell the Dreaming story from start to end

A giant engraved penis discovered at an Indigenous rock art site is not vandalism but part of an ancient Dreaming story.

The art is estimated to range in age from 5,000 years old to just under 100.

Archaeologists from Griffith University and Iningai Traditional Owners worked together to catalogue the artwork inside a 160m-long rock shelter known as Marra Wonga located near Barcaldine, about 110km east of Longreach in Queensland's outback.

The shelter is filled with more than 15,000 rock carvings, with a large portion of the artwork focused on telling the story of the 'Seven Sisters' from start to finish.

A large engraving of a penis following boomerangs in an Indigenous rock art site near Barcaldine, Central Queensland, is part of a 5,000-year-old Dreaming teaching site (pictured, the penis, representing Wattanuri, chasing after the sisters in the Seven Sisters story)

The site is believed to have been used as a teaching space (pictured, Indigenous researcher Suzanne Thompson in front of a Rainbow Serpent depiction)

The story is one told around the world and is often related to the Pleiades star cluster.

The penis engraving is part of the Seven Sisters story, representing Wattanuri.

'In the story the sisters are pursued by a powerful ancestral being known as Wattanuri, who is often associated with the Orion constellation,' Griffith University Professor Paul Tacon told Sydney Morning Herald.

Other engravings, like six-toed feet, show the site was used to tell Dreaming stories (pictured, feet with varying numbers of toes, up to 11)

'At one stage he goes under the ground and emerges as a giant penis and throws boomerangs at the sisters, which we see illustrated quite clearly in that panel.'

Mr Talcon said Marra Wonga, meaning 'place of many stories', is an extremely unique site and could have been used as a teaching space.

'There's no other site in Australia that features art like this telling the story from one end of the shelter to another,' Prof Tacon said.

The site is the first in Australia to tell a story from its beginning to end (pictured, star designs representing the Seven Sisters)

Other artwork inside the cave, such as six-toed feet, show the cave was used to tell Dreaming stories.

Some engravings inside the cave are believed to be about 5,000 years old.

Yambangku Aboriginal Culture Heritage and Tourism Development Aboriginal Corporation managing director Suzanne Thompson initially called for the site to be documented in 2019 but the Covid pandemic prevented archaeologists from travelling to the site.

The rock shelter is located in Turraburra station, about 130km north of Barcaldine, and is managed by the Yambangku Aboriginal Cultural Heritage and Tourism Development Aboriginal Corporation.

The unique site is located in Turraburra station, about 130km north of Barcaldine in Central Queensland (pictured, the outline of two boomerangs)
A plea from the mother of murdered British backpacker Peter Falconio sparked a five day police search of an outback well for his remains more than two decades after he disappeared.

Joan Falconio, 75, has broken her long silence to beg for information about the location of her son's body on what would have been his 50th birthday.

The grieving mother is still tormented by the loss of her son 21 years ago in the middle of the night on a remote stretch of road between Alice Springs and Darwin.

Peter and girlfriend Joanne Lees were in a campervan when they were pulled over by drug-runner Bradley Murdoch who shot Mr Falconio and tried to abduct Ms Lees.

She managed to escape, hiding in the bush for hours until she flagged down a truck and raised the alarm - but no trace of her boyfriend's body has ever been found.

Daily Mail Australia can reveal police emptied an outback well in 2019 where Mr Falconio's body was feared dumped after a personal plea from his mother.

The mother of missing British backpacker Peter Falconio has broken her long silence to beg for the location of her son's body to be revealed on what would have been his 50th birthday

Peter and girlfriend Joanne Lees were in a campervan when they were pulled over by drug-runner Bradley Murdoch who shot Mr Falconio and tried to abduct Ms Lees

But the five-day search proved fruitless.

Now Ms Falconio's plea for information has been backed by a demand for Northern Territory police to put up a $1million reward to revive the hunt and end the mystery.

'We want to bring Peter home where he belongs near his family,' Peter's mother said on Friday. 'Our pain is always with us. He was murdered 21 years ago, aged just 28 years.

'His life stopped on a lonely road - the Stuart Highway on July 14, 2001. Shot dead by cowardly Murdoch, who will not reveal where or what he did with him.'

She added: 'Peter has a beautiful niece and two lovely nephews who he never got to see or know.

'I am appealing to anyone with a conscience to help me - however small - to tell me where he was put.'

Joan Falconio (pictured with Peter's father Luciano) is still tormented by the loss of her son 21 years ago on a remote stretch of road between Alice Springs and Darwin

The grieving mother's plea has been backed by a demand for Northern Territory police to put up a $1million reward for the vital information about where her son's body is located

Ms Falconio and husband Luciano, 80, spoke out after they relived the tragedy on Peter's 50th birthday on Tuesday, September 20.

Former girlfriend Joanne Lees is now 47 and living in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, in the UK, and still remains in contact with Peter's parents.

The couple were on a trip around Australia in 2001 when Murdoch drew alongside and signalled them to pull over, claiming there were flames coming out the back of their van.

When Mr Falconio went round the rear to inspect it with Murdoch, he was shot dead.

Murdoch then grabbed Ms Lees, tied her up with cable ties and bundled her into the back of his ute.

Bradley Murdoch grabbed Joanne Lees, tied her up with cable ties and bundled her into the back of his ute

Joanne Lees managed to wriggle free as he disposed of Mr Falconio's body and their van, and hid in the bush to avoid Murdoch's dog while he searched for her

She managed to wriggle free as he disposed of Mr Falconio's body and their van, and hid in the bush to avoid Murdoch's dog while he searched for her.

Murdoch eventually gave up and drove off with Mr Falconio's body before Ms Lees then flagged down a truck and was taken to a nearby roadhouse in Barrow Creek.

The police hunt for Mr Falconio and his killer then began 21 years ago and finally led to the arrest of Murdoch after DNA from Ms Lees' t-shirt matched his.

He is now serving life in Darwin Correctional Centre after being convicted of the murder - but he has refused to give up where he dumped Mr Falconio's body.

Bradley Murdoch is believed to have hidden the remains somewhere in the vast expanse of desert between Alice Springs and Broome, 1,700km away in Western Australia

Bradley Murdoch is eligible for parole in 10 years - but will not walk free without revealing the location of Peter Falconio's body under the NT's 'no body no release' laws

Murdoch is eligible for parole in 10 years but will never walk free without revealing the location under the NT's 'no body no release' laws.

He is believed to have hidden the remains somewhere in the vast expanse of desert between Alice Springs and Broome, 1,700km away in Western Australia.

Daily Mail Australia can reveal police emptied an outback well in 2019 where Mr Falconio's body was feared dumped - but failed to find any trace of him.

Detectives were led to the location at Neutral Junction cattle station about 1km from where Mr Falconio was shot after an eyewitness came forward to say he saw a ute there like Murdoch's on the night of the attack.

A TV crew led by Today Tonight reporter Frank Pangallo - now a South Australian state politician for SA BEST Party - first explored the site in 2014 but the well contained 15m of water and was inaccessible.

But police returned to the site in 2019 after a personal plea from Mr Falconio's mother and conducted a full investigation... but turned up nothing.

'Mrs Falconio contacted me and asked if I could convince NT Police to undertake a full search of the well to eliminate the clue,' Mr Pangallo told Daily Mail Australia.

'I then arranged an affidavit from the eyewitness, a truck driver who had been contracted by the cattle station and sent it to senior NT Police.

'NT Police found him to be credible and emptied the well in a five-day operation in 2019 but unfortunately found nothing.

'It was the right thing for them to do and I can only praise their efforts.'

Peter Falconio and Joanne Lees were on a trip around Australia in 2001 when Murdoch drew alongside them and signalled to pull over before his deadly attack

South Australian politician Frank Pangallo is now demanding NT Police offer a $1million reward to tempt someone to come forward with the key information needed

Mr Pangallo is now demanding NT Police offer the $1million reward to tempt someone to come forward with the key information needed.

'Murdoch hasn't got the guts to confess to his cowardly crime and he should rot behind bars if he is unwilling to tell the truth about what he did or where he left Peter that night,' he added.

'Somebody must know where Peter is or might have some information or recollection that could be useful to police, no matter how insignificant they might think it is.

'Joan, Luciano, Peter's brothers - Mark, Nicholas and Paul  and their families deserve closure after all these years of grieving and uncertainty.'
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A 15-year-old boy was stabbed to death in a 'senseless attack' moments after making fun of another boy in a song during a minor social media spat, his friends claimed last night.

Khayri Mclean was pinned down and stabbed to death outside his school gates by a balaclava-clad killer, witnesses have said amid revelations from parents that their children were asked to join gangs.

But his girlfriend Shyana James, who 'could not think of any reason he was stabbed' moments after finishing class on Wednesday, dismissed the theory he ever 'made fun of anyone'. She described how her 'heart just shattered' when she found out that teachers were desperately trying to resuscitate the boy, who she called the 'love of my life'.

Shyana raced to the scene along with the victim's distraught mother Marcia and saw Khayri lying on the pavement in a pool of blood as his attacker fled the scene.

Paramedics took him to hospital but his life could not be saved. Police launched a murder inquiry and early yesterday arrested a 16-year-old boy in the Bradley area of Huddersfield  around 1.5miles from where the attack took place. Last night they formally named Khayri and confirmed the attack was targeted.

A local mother revealed she had moved her son from the school  North Huddersfield Trust  after he was approached and threatened with a knife when he refused to join a gang.

She said she had repeatedly warned the school about gangs 'grooming' pupils on the way to lessons, adding: 'The school has got blood on their hands.

'This didn't need to happen. My son was nearly stabbed, I told school time and time again. I had a meeting with them, I told them about the gangs and if they didn't do something about it someone would end up dead.'

Khayri McLean was killed after being stabbed outside North Huddersfield Trust School in Fartown, West Yorkshire

Khayri McLean, 15, with girlfriend Shyana James, 16, in a social media picture provided by the James family to use

The scene in Fartown, a suburb of Huddersfield, West Yorks, was still cordoned yesterday as the police continued to investigate

Khayri smiles happily with his mother in a heartbreaking picture posted on social media before his dead on Wednesday

The 37-year-old mother said a boy had been expelled last year after a knife was found in his bag, prompting the start of routine searches.

Khayri and the suspect are both thought to live in areas controlled by a notorious county lines drugs gang known as the BBD after the Bradley, Brackenhall and Deighton areas of Huddersfield.

Sixteen members, who bragged about drugs, money and violence in 'drill' music videos, were jailed for a total of 80 years in 2020 for using 14-year-old children as 'slaves' to sell crack and heroin in Blackpool. Yesterday Khayri's girlfriend Shyana James, 16, sobbed as she laid flowers outside the school.

She said she had last spoken to her 'perfect' boyfriend of six months via Snapchat at 2.52pm, moments before he was stabbed.

'The last thing he said was I can't wait to see you,' a tearful Shyana said. 'He was the best person ever. We were always talking about when we grow up, our futures  he was the love of my life.'

Shyana, who met Khayri at the school but had moved to a different college, said her heart was 'shattered'.

Her mother, Sherrin James, 35, held Khayri's hand as he lay dying. Mrs James, a home carer, broke down as she said: 'His mum was here with some of the teachers.

'I got on the floor with them and was holding his hand, it was really scary. I was just trying to make him pull through, telling him to wait for Shyana, he was squeezing my hand.'

A PCSO stands at the scene of the stabbing in Fartown, in Huddersfield

West Yorkshire Police said they had arrested a 16-year-old boy yesterday morning on suspicion of murder after the deadly attack

Yorkshire Air Ambulance had blocked off the roads surrounding the incident (pictured), while parents say they are deeply concerned

A floral tribute near to the scene in Woodhouse Hill, Huddersfield, where a 15-year-old boy was stabbed to death yesterday

Khayri McLean hugged by his mother in an older picture together sat at a table outside a cafe, believed to be in Huddersfield

Police cordon and floral tributes near the scene in Woodhouse Hill, Huddersfield, where a 15-year-old boy was stabbed

Asked about what she thought of those who carry knives, Shyana said: 'I hate it and Khayri hated it as well. Gangs are getting worse around here, they are getting innocent people. It's horrible.'

Sharrin James (pictured) said she tried to help Khayri 'pull through' after he was stabbed

One pupil, Alfie Wilkinson, 12, who spoke to reporters with his mother, said children had seen two masked men near the school before Khayri was killed.

He said: 'I've seen him about and he just looked like a nice kid and I didn't know why anybody would want to do that to anyone. He thought it was a normal school day, going to school and then he came out and got stabbed. That shouldn't happen to anyone.'

Ruben Duncan-Keane, also 12, said he had been traumatised by the murder. 'I saw him on the floor,' he added.

'One of the teachers was trying to give him chest compressions  his eyes rolled back in his head, it was then that I knew he had lost his life.'

Headmaster Andrew Fell said the school had been left 'completely devastated' by Khayri's 'truly shocking' death.

'Our deepest sympathies go out to the pupil's family and friends,' Mr Fell added. 'They have lost a loved one and we have lost a wonderful student from our school community.'

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said the 16-year-old remained in custody. Detective Superintendent Marc Bowes described Khayri's death as a 'senseless loss of a young life'.

Chief Superintendent James Griffiths, district commander of Kirklees Police, said: 'We fully realise the concern Wednesday's murder has caused in communities, and I want to reassure residents everything possible is being done to investigate what took place.'

A GoFundMe page has been set up to give the teenager 'the best send-off'.
During the riot, he was seen shouting at police officers and entering the building after it was breached

A New Jersey army reservist who 'grew a Hitler mustache and was known as a Nazi sympathizer' was jailed Thursday for four years for storming the Capitol on January 6.

Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, 32, from Colts Neck, New Jersey, was sentenced for the felony of obstructing of an official proceeding, as well as a slew of misdemeanor charges.

Those charges include entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly or destructive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

He was found guilty in May by a federal jury of all five counts he faced.

During the Capitol riot, the 32-year-old was seen shouting at police officers outside the Capitol and entering the building after it was breached.

He had previously claimed that he did not know Congress met at the Capitol, which was called a 'risible lie and 'obvious attempt' to avoid facing up to his actions, according to US District Judge Trevor McFadden.

Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, 32, from Colts Neck, New Jersey, pictured, was seen shouting at police officers outside the Capitol during the riot and entering the building after it was breached. Prosecutors said Hale-Cusanelli, who also worked as a security contractor at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Monmouth County, embraced white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideology and wore an Adolf Hitler-style mustache to work

The 32-year-old, pictured entering the Capitol building, is a former member of the US Army Reserves who worked as a Navy contractor with a 'secret' security clearance and access to weapons, prosecutors said. The alleged white supremacist, had lived on the base with a roommate

Supporters of former President Donald Trump, including Hale-Cusanelli, stormed the Capitol in a failed bid to block Congress from certifying Joe Biden's 2020 election victory.

The attack was after months of false claims by Trump that he had won the 2020 election.

Prosecutors said Hale-Cusanelli, who also worked as a security contractor at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Monmouth County, embraced white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideology and wore an Adolf Hitler-style mustache to work.

On his cellphone, investigators found photos of him with the distinctive mustache and combed-over hairstyle associated with the Nazi leader.

The 32-year-old is a former member of the US Army Reserves who worked as a Navy contractor with a 'secret' security clearance and access to weapons, prosecutors said.

The alleged white supremacist had lived on the base with a roommate.

His roommate allegedly reported him to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and secretly recorded a conversation about the Capitol riot.

The 32-year-old was discharged from the U.S. Army Reserves and barred from the Navy base after his arrest in February 2021.

According to the judge, Hale-Cusanelli, knew that the Congress met at the Capitol - and had even told his roommate he was outside the building on the day of the attack.

His defense lawyer had also argued that his client did not realize Congress was counting electoral votes on Jan 6 2021, and therefore lacked a criminal intent.

On his cellphone, investigators found photos of him (pictured) with the distinctive mustache and combed-over hairstyle associated with the Nazi leader

In a defense sentencing memo, the 32-year-old's lawyer said the court would hear that he regrets his actions.

Before his sentencing yesterday, Hale-Cusanelli told the judge that he should apologize to Congress and law enforcement.

He said: 'I disgraced my uniform and I disgraced the country. I do say ugly things that are repugnant in the eyes of many.'

The 32-year-old also told the judge that he would never be in court again and that he had changed due to his time in solitary confinement.

Coworkers recalled the former US Army reservist making derogatory remarks about women, Black people and other minorities, prosecutors said. Pictured: Hale-Cusanelli

A government sentencing memo had referred to Hale-Cusanelli's 'enthusiasm for civil war and his well-documented history of violent rhetoric.'

They had argued that because of his background and previous false statements on the stand, significant prison time was warranted.

It also alleges that the 32-year-old's adoptive aunt Cynthia Hughes has used the Capitol attack and his case to further themselves and the Patriot Freedom Project, which supports defendants from Jan 6.

Hughes spoke at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania this month, according to the memo.

His adoptive aunt wrote a letter of support, saying that the 32-year-old is 'not a violent person and does not walk around the streets of NJ looking like Hitler.'

She had also said that there 'is not a racist bone in his body' even though it was previously claimed by coworkers that he held extreme views about different races and minorities and made derogatory comments about them.

Crisp said Hale-Cusanelli believed then-President Donald Trump's false claims about a stolen election. But the defense attorney said Hale-Cusanelli, pictured, went to Washington to peacefully protest, wearing a suit while many others wore tactical gear

In the sentencing memo, prosecutors stated that the 32-year-old was not sorry about his actions.

He had tried to claim photographs of himself appearing to look like Hitler were a joke.

But the judge said that 'evidence shows otherwise' and added that he had sexist, racist and antisemitic views.

According to the Justice Department, more than 870 people have been arrested for crimes related to the breach of the Capitol, including 265 charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.

The first Capitol rioter to stand trial received a seven year sentence.

On August 1, Guy Reffitt, a member of the far-right group the Three Percenters, got 7.25 years behind bars in what promises to be the first of many sentences for Capitol rioters.

Reffitt, 49, 'egged' on the crowd and warned his kids not to turn him in to FBI because 'traitors get shot.' He was convicted on five felony counts, including bringing a gun onto the Capitol grounds.
A former Riverdale actor who admitted to killing his mother in an effort to spare her from having to witness his plot to assassinate Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been sentenced to life in prison.

Ryan Grantham, 24, will not be able to appeal for parole for 14 years after pleading guilty to a second-degree murder charge for fatally shooting his 64-year-old mother, Barbara Waite, while she played piano back in March 2020.

He then proceeded to drive to Trudeau's residence with three guns, ammunition and 12 Molotov cocktails in his car, before deciding to turn himself in to authorities.

Under Canadian law, a second-degree murder charge automatically comes with a life sentence  and the only thing his lawyers could dispute was how long he would have to serve before he could be granted parole.

They argued back in June that Grantham should be eligible for parole after 12 years as he admitted his guilt and expressed sorrow for his actions, while the federal government argued he should have to serve 17 to 18 years before becoming eligible.

But on Wednesday, CBC reports, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Ker ruled that he will only have to serve 14 years as she considered the actor's downward spiral in the months leading up to the murder a mitigating factor.

She noted that Grantham seemed truly remorseful in his apology, and was seeking psychiatric help in prison, where he was receiving positive reviews about his behavior and progress.

Ker also called it a 'saving grace' that Grantham had enough attachment to reality and comprehension to decide not to commit mass murder or assassinate the prime minister.

Ryan Grantham, 24, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 14 years

He had pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder charge for killing his mother, 64-year-old Barbara Waite (pictured), while she played piano on March 31, 2020

Prosecutors revealed in June that after Grantham shot Waite in the back of the head as she payed piano on March 31, 2020, he recorded video on a GoPro in which he confessed to the killing and showed off his mother's lifeless body.

'I shot her in the back of the head,' he reportedly said on the tape. 'In the moments after, she would have known it was me.'

The actor then bought beer and weed, experimented with making Molotov cocktails and watched Netflix before covering his mother's body with a sheet and going to bed.

The next morning, Grantham told authorities, he hung a rosary on Waite's piano and arranged lit candles around her body, before loading his car with three guns, ammunition, a dozen Molotov cocktails, camping gear and directions to Trudeau's Rideau Cottage in Ottawa.

He had planned to travel more than 50 hours to kill Trudeau, before changing his mind and considering committing 'an act of mass violence,' at Simon Fraser University, which he had dropped out from.

He turned himself to Vancouver police before harming anybody else and pleaded guilty in March to second-degree murder.

Authorities say he shot and killed Waite in an effort 'to save her' from seeing his assassination plot against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, pictured on Thursday

Prosecutors had called the murder a 'breach of trust,' noting that Barbara (pictured right) loved and trusted her son

The Riverdale actor who killed his mom and attempted to assassinate Justin Trudeau Ryan Grantham is a Canadian actor from Squamish, British Columbia. He began his acting career at the age of 9, starting off with minor roles before appearing in The Secret of The Nutcracker. One of his larger roles as a child was in an episode of Supernatural, where he gains super strength and starts attacking his bullies. He then went on to have roles in the films Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Grantham also had roles as a teenager in the CW's IZombie, before getting the role of a lifetime as a character in Riverdale. He admitted to killing his mother on March 31, 2020, with prosecutors saying he wanted to save her from witnessing his attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Advertisement

Prosecutors said in the aftermath that Grantham fatally shot his mom 'to save her' from seeing his assassination plot against the Canadian prime minister unfold.

They presented two psychiatric evaluations that concluded Grantham committed the crime to spare her mother from witnessing further acts of violence he planned on committing.

The evaluations concluded that Grantham exhibited cannabis use disorder, depression, self-hatred, and suicidal and homicidal tendencies months before the killing.

Prosecutors pointed to one March journal entry in which Grantham wrote: 'I'm so sorry mom, I'm so sorry Lisa ... I hate myself.

'There's a lot of media of me out there  film and TV  hundreds of hours of me that can be viewed and dissected... No one will understand.'

'Mr. Grantham was seeking to save his mother from something he was going to do,' prosecutor Michaela Donnelly said during the sentencing hearing in June.

She described the murder as a 'heartbreaking breach of trust.'

'Barbara Waite loved her son very much, was an excellent parent and in her mind had no reason to fear him,' she said.

Donnelly added that Grantham had many opportunities to change his mind.

He apparently loaded and unloaded his gun multiple times on the day of the murder, and sat on his townhouse steps for close to 15 minutes considering what to do  before ultimately turning back and shooting his mother.

According to CBC, Grantham reportedly feared that Waite would find out he had stopped attending classes at Simon Fraser University and was abusing marijuana.

Grantham is most known for playing Jeffery Augustine in Riverdale. His character was written into the show as the hit-and-run killer of Luke Perry's character, after Perry died of a stroke

He has also had roles on the television show Supernatural (pictured)

Waite's body was found on April 1, 2020, by her daughter Lisa, who arrived at the after Waite failed to answer her calls and texts.

'How can I trust anybody when my only sibling chose to execute my mom when her back was turned,' Lisa Grantham said in court.

But Grantham expressed his sorrow in court back in June.

'I cannot explain or justify my actions. I have no excuse,' he said at the time.

'It hurts me to think about how badly I've wasted my life.

'In the face of something so horrible, saying sorry seems so pointless,' he added. 'But from every fiber of my being, I am sorry.'

Grantham is most known for playing Jeffery Augustine in Riverdale. His character was written into the show as the hit-and-run killer of Luke Perry's character, after Perry died of a stroke.

He has also had roles on the television show Supernatural, as well as in the films Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
Optus has been called out for failing to tell close to 10 million customers their personal details had potentially been stolen by hackers for a day.

The massive cyber breach allowed hackers to access personal details, such as passport and driver's licence numbers, email and home addresses, dates of birth and telephone numbers, of around 10 million Australians.

Optus Regulatory and Public Affairs Vice President Andrew Sheridan said the company learnt of the breach late on Wednesday.

He was forced to defend the telco when 2GB host Ben Fordham questioned why they had waited until Thursday at 2pm to issue a press release.

It comes as Optus CEO Kelly Rosmarin revealed the IP address linked to the hackers had moved around across several European countries.

Optus has been called out for waiting nearly 24 hours to tell close to 10 million customers their personal details had potentially been stolen by hackers

Fordham said The Australian newspaper had first broken the news about the breach at 1pm on Thursday, only for Optus to publish a release an hour later.

'You knew about it on Wednesday ... it was only after The Australian newspaper splashed the story on their website (on Thursday) that you put out a statement,' Fordham said on his radio breakfast program on Friday.

'If you're interested in protecting your customers why didn't you alert them the moment you were aware of this potential breach?'

Mr Sheridan said that there was a 'number of steps' that had to be taken in cyber incidents.

'I think if you look at incidents like this we've acted very, very quickly,' he said.

He was then cut off by Fordham who said he didn't think the telco had acted fast enough.

'I've got to call you out on that Andrew, I don't think you've acted quickly at all,' he said.

Optus Regulatory and Public Affairs Vice President Andrew Sheridan said the company learnt of the breach late on Wednesday. A press release was not issued by Optus until Thursday

'We've seen many of these cases in the past where companies have said ''we don't know if there's been a breach, there's been a potential breach, we want to alert you straight away'' - you guys didn't do that, you failed to do that.'

Mr Sheridan wouldn't confirm the number of customers who'd been affected but said the investigation was ongoing.

He added Optus had to confirm the details of the breach and secure their network before they were able to alert customers.

The millions of customers impacted are being contacted by the telco.

Optus said users' payment details and account passwords had not been compromised and it was working with the Australian Cyber Security Centre to limit the risk to both current and former customers.

Australian Federal Police, the Office of the Australian Information Regulator and other key regulators have also been notified.

Alastair MacGibbon, who is chief strategy officer at cyber-security firm CberCX and a former advisor to the prime minister, said Optus customers should watch out for criminals impersonating them online.

'They should be looking for whether criminals are mimicking them, or stealing their identity, trying to obtain credit in their name ... etc,' he told the ABC.

He said Optus could guard the interests of their customers is by paying for credit monitoring.

'That way you will be monitored by credit monitoring services if someone has been using your name and other details to obtain credit,' Mr MacGibbon said.

It remains unclear what the hackers were after at this stage with authorities and the telco still investigating.

Optus said users' payment details and account passwords had not been compromised and it was working with the Australian Cyber Security Centre to limit the risk to both current and former customers

Optus chief executive Kelly Rosmarin said the company was working with the Australian Federal Police to investigate the attack.

'We are devastated to discover that we have been subject to a cyberattack that has resulted in the disclosure of our customers' personal information to someone who shouldn't see it,' she said in a statement.

'As soon as we knew, we took action to block the attack and began an immediate investigation. While not everyone may be affected and our investigation is not yet complete, we want all of our customers to be aware of what has happened as soon as possible so that they can increase their vigilance.

'We are very sorry and understand customers will be concerned. Please be assured that we are working hard, and engaging with all the relevant authorities and organisations, to help safeguard our customers as much as possible.'

She said customers' payment details had not been compromised, but advised them to check their bank accounts for suspicious activity.

'Optus has also notified key financial institutions about this matter. While we are not aware of customers having suffered any harm, we encourage customers to have heightened awareness across their accounts, including looking out for unusual or fraudulent activity and any notifications which seem odd or suspicious.'

Mobile and home internet, along with messages and voice calls have not been affected.

Both past and present Optus customers have been impacted.
Roller coasters are definitely not for the faint of heart, especially those that twist and turn way too much, have death-defying drops, and make you feel like you are about to fly into the sky and never come back.

There are those, however, who enjoy this kind of thrill and terror, and even make sure that they drop by an amusement park whenever they travel. Well, this list you are about to read is for those people.

We are about to rundown five of the best roller coasters that every adrenaline junkie should visit Europe for. Let's get started!

Hyperion (Energylandia, Poland)

Around 252 feet (77 meters) high, Energylandia's Hyperion features an 85-degree drop, double s-curves, water effects, and speeds of over 86 miles per hour (140 kilometers per hour). The website of Energylandia even points out that it also has a 262-foot (80 meter) drop.

Should you plan on riding Hyperion, you can also expect maximum speed in the tunnel as well as when turning and diving down, and of course, multiple turns that will add to the overall thrill of the ride.

Nemesis (Alton Towers, United Kingdom)

Ever wondered how 3.5 G-force feels like? You can experience the answer to that question yourself by riding the Nemesis ride in Alton Towers, which is located in the United Kingdom.

According to Tiqets, Nemesis holds the title of being Europe's very first inverted roller coaster. "Instead of climbing upwards, Nemesis begins its course by winding around a ground-level pit before plunging down into its depths, skewering the corpse of an alien," Tiqets adds.

The Oath of Karnan (Hansa-Park, Germany)

If a super fast roller coaster with a reverse free fall is not challenging and thrilling enough for you, maybe a tower of terror of sorts will add to the effect.

One of the first things you will notice when you see the ride is its 259-feet (79-meter) tall tower. According to the website of Hansa Park, where the roller coaster is located, The Oath of Karnan also features a 219-feet (67-meter) first drop.

Related Article: Did You Know That the First Roller Coaster in the US Opened 138 Years Ago?

Red Force (Ferrari Land, Spain)

Is going from zero to 111 miles per hour (180 kilometers per hour) in just five seconds is your idea of fun? Then hop into a plane, head to Ferrari Land in Spain, and try the Red Force roller coaster.

Red Force reaches a maximum height of around 367 feet (112 meters). According to Tiqets, "Don't expect banked turns, helixes, inversions, or speed hills  Red Force comes in at just under 40 seconds and is pure speed, from start to finish."

What you can expect, however, are two twisting 90-degree turns that will make you hold on for dear life.

It should be noted that Ferrari Land is part of PortAventura, where you can also find the next roller coaster on this list.

Shambhala (PortAventura Park, Spain)

If you have ever dreamt of zooming through the Himalayas at unbelievable speeds, well, the roller coaster called Shambhala located in PortAventura Park in Spain is right up your alley.

"This roller coaster has the longest drop and is the tallest in PortAventura Park, forming part of the group of hypercoasters which are characterized by their size and height," the official website of PortAventura Park states.

The ride feature five camelbacks, a term used by the park's website to refer to the hump-shaped hills located along the track. Tiqets also notes that it has a 255-feet (28-meter) drop and a splash zone.

Taron (Phantasialand, Germany)

When Taron first opened to the public in 2016, it was the fastest multi-launch roller coaster in the world. While it may no longer hold that distinction, to say that this roller coaster is still worth riding is pretty much the understatement of the millenium.

If you do not find winding tracks to be at all intimidating, this is definitely one ride you will enjoy. What also adds to the experience is the location of the ride within Phantasialand. It is located in the Klugheim area, which is inspired by Old Norse cultures.

Read Also: Marvel Reveals Disney World Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind Roller Coaster Villain
After securing the release of five British hostages, Saudi Arabia's controversial Crown Prince is setting his sights on a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

Mohammed bin Salman spent months talking to officials from the warring countries, including Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, the Daily Mail has learned.

Last night, Saudi sources said the Crown Prince was determined to bring the conflict to an end because it was proving so 'destabilising'.

A well-placed source said: 'We have the luxury of not having to be seen to be doing something. So we can work on achieving an outcome quietly, until it comes to fruition.

Saudi sources say the Crown Prince is determined to bring the conflict to an end because it was proving so 'destabilising'

It comes after Saudi Arabia helped negotiate a prisoner swap deal which saw the release of five British captives

The Saudi Crown Prince is considering trying to negotiate a piece between Russia, led by Putin (right) and Ukraine, led by President Zelensky (left)

'The Crown Prince managed to do this [the hostage release] very quietly. It was successful because nobody appeared to be losing face.

'Putin wanted to demonstrate what could be achieved by having quiet conversations with him, rather than hectoring. He was sending a message.

'I think he wants a deal to end the war. And hopefully the process we have started can bring the whole war to an end.'

Saudi Arabia has emerged as a significant intermediary between Russia and Ukraine after attempts by Turkey to bring both sides to the negotiating table failed.

China has also been reluctant to get involved in the conflict, much to the disappointment of Putin.

The source said: 'The world is in chaos and that is not good for us. None of this is good for Saudi Arabia or good for anyone.

'The aim is to end the conflict. We are not on anyone's side, we are on the side of stability.'

By seeking to bring peace, bin Salman may also be seeking to restore his reputation.

In 2018 the Crown Prince, who was initially praised as a reformist, became a pariah on the world stage.

This was following the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents, including members of the MBS inner circle, at the country's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

At first the Crown Prince denied any knowledge of Mr Khashoggi's fate, claiming 'we have nothing to hide'.

He was later forced to deny he had personally ordered the killing of Mr Khashoggi, whose body was dismembered and his remains were never recovered.

The Crown Prince eventually blamed a 'rogue operation' by agents acting independently from his regime for the death.

In 2019 five Saudi officials were sentenced to death in the Gulf state for participating in Mr Khashoggi's murder. Three others received lengthy prison sentences.

They had arrived in Istanbul just days before Mr Khashoggi's death and were aware he was intending to visit the consulate.
The phrase has long stood for the enduring bond between the UK and US.

But Liz Trusss first meeting with Joe Biden in Washington suggested the term special relationship may be phased out as she launched her new foreign policy ethos.

The President did not utter the words, first used by Winston Churchill, during bilateral talks, but instead told her: Youre our closest ally in the world.

Last night the White House denied the term had been retired but offered to suspend its use, with an official saying: Well shut it down until we can figure out whats going on.

However, the exchange was in sharp contrast to when Miss Truss entered No 10 earlier this month.

At the time, Mr Biden said he looked forward to deepening the special relationship between the two nations.

Liz Trusss first meeting with Joe Biden in Washington suggested the term special relationship may be phased out. The two leaders held a bilateral meeting during the PM's visit to the US to attend 77th UN General Assembly

President Biden did not utter the words, first used by Winston Churchill, but instead told Ms Truss: Youre our closest ally in the world.

Though he previously used the phrase when dealing with Boris Johnson, the former prime minister has mooted axeing the term as it risks sounding needy and weak.

His official spokesman noted: He prefers not to use the phrase, but that in no way negates the importance in which we regard our relationship with the US.

Miss Truss has previously backed her predecessors thoughts on the matter. Last year the PM told a fringe event at the Tory conference that the relationship was special but not exclusive, adding that Britain should not be worried like some teenage girl at a party if were not considered to be good enough.

The term was first used by Churchill in a 1946 lecture tour of American universities. It was most widely used to describe the close relationship between Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

Relations between the countries have been strained in recent years, especially around post-Brexit trading in Northern Ireland.

Miss Truss held talks with Mr Biden at the UN General Assembly in New York in a bid to find common ground and reset the relationship.
A controversial MP who made sensational claims against a recently selected candidate and would not agree to stop has been booted from NSW Labor leader Chris Minns' shadow cabinet.

Bankstown MP Tania Mihailuk used parliamentary privilege to air her concerns about the integrity of Canterbury-Bankstown mayor Khal Asfour late on Tuesday night.

She linked the potential future upper house MP to disgraced former Labor minister and party powerbroker Eddie Obeid.

Bankstown MP Tania Mihailuk was removed from NSW shadow cabinet after she used parliamentary privilege to air her concerns about the integrity of Canterbury-Bankstown mayor Khal Asfour

NSW Opposition leader Chris Minns said Ms Mihailuk was removed from his shadow cabinet after she did not respond to his conditions about using parliamentary privilege to attack colleagues. 'She can't stay if she can't agree to these terms and it looks to me like right now, she can't agree to the terms'

Mr Minns told 2GB on Friday morning Ms Mihailuk had been ejected from the inner circle of the opposition.

He told Ms Mihailuk she cannot be in the shadow cabinet while launching political attacks by parliamentary privilege.

'I haven't heard back from her about those conditions, so I've come to the conclusion, reluctantly, that she can't stay in the shadow cabinet and abide by those conditions,' Mr Minns said.

'She can't stay if she can't agree to these terms and it looks to me like right now, she can't agree to the terms.'

Mr Asfour asked the Independent Commission Against Corruption to review Ms Mihailuk's 'outrageous and unsubstantiated claims'.

'She has used parliamentary privilege to launch a cowardly attack on me and my family and I call on her to produce evidence of any wrongdoing,' he said.

Mr Asfour was recently selected as a potential candidate for the Labor upper house ticket at the March election, one of five right-faction Labor hopefuls.

Ms Mihailuk is one of three south-west Sydney Labor MPs fighting over two seats in the lead-up to the election.

Canterbury-Bankstown mayor Khal Asfour, a potential candidate for the NSW upper house at the next NSW election, asked the Independent Commission Against Corruption to review Ms Mihailuk's 'outrageous and unsubstantiated claims' about him

Jihad Dib's seat of Lakemba is being abolished and largely absorbed into Bankstown, leading to a three-way preselection battle for Ms Mihailuk's seat and Guy Zangari's nearby Fairfield.

Ms Mihailuk was the subject of bullying claims last month, which she dismissed as 'an internal stitch-up'.

'There are people who want my seat and people who want me out of politics,' she told 2GB.

Upper house Labor veteran Walt Secord also stepped down last month after bullying claims.

Labor's candidates are expected to be finalised following a conference next month.
A 50-year-old British man has died in a paragliding accident in the Spanish Pyrenees.

Two people were performing CPR on the unnamed Brit, it's believed, when the police and rescuers reached the scene, but he died due to the severity of his injuries.

His body taken away by a police helicopter after the horrific incident on the south side of a 8,572ft mountain peak called Pico Gallinero in the Aragonese Pyrenees.

Civil Guard were alerted around 1.30pm yesterday and officers from the Greim mountain rescue team responded while a police chopper was mobilised.

A post-mortem is expected to take place within the next 48 hours at the Huescas Provincial Hospital.

Civil Guard were alerted around 1.30pm yesterday and officers from the Greim mountain rescue team responded while a police chopper was mobilised. Pictured: Rescuers at the scene

A 50-year-old British man has died in a paragliding accident in the Spanish Pyrenees

Ordesa Valley which forms part of the Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park in the Spanish Pyrenees

The causes of the accident are now under investigation on the mountain peak which is not far from the spot where British hiker Esther Dingley was found dead last year following her November 2020 disappearance.

The same mountain rescue team based in the Pyrenees town of Benasque that took part in the search for the Oxford graduate, participated in yesterday's operation.

The south side of the Gallinero Peak, which is in the municipality of Castejon de Sos, is believed to be a take-off site for paragliders wanting to enjoy spectacular views of the Pyrenees including Spain's third-highest mountain Aneto.

A local firm which organises flights says online: 'It's a unique setting for a magical experience.'

In June a 52-year-old man from Barcelona lost his life in an earlier paragliding tragedy in virtually the same spot. Reports at the time linked the tragedy to a possible human error.
It is understood the Governor had been escorted to the wrong boarding gate

Governor's office insists she did not expect other passengers to be delayed

Some 200 passengers were left waiting for Ms Dessau to arrive, passenger says

However, when it came to boarding, she was nowhere to be found

The state governor of Victoria sparked uproar after she reportedly asked to board a Qantas flight before other passengers - leading the flight to be delayed because she was running late.

Linda Dessau reportedly requested to 'pre-board' Qantas flight QF1518 from Melbourne to Canberra ahead of other passengers on Wednesday morning, while on the way to the national memorial to Queen Elizabeth II at Parliament House.

However, Ms Dessau was nowhere to be found for several minutes when she was supposed to board the plane - much to the bemusement of other airline passengers anxiously waiting at the gate.

Flight attendants were eager to begin the boarding process as the line began to swell, but Qantas bosses insisted they wait until Ms Dessau had been seated, witnesses said.

One passenger overheard a Qantas employee saying 'I called the Chairman's Lounge a long time ago but she just isn't coming'.

The crown's vice regal authority in Victoria Linda Dessau (pictured) demanded she board her Qantas flight from Melbourne to Canberra ahead of everyone else

Passengers stood in line waiting for the VIP to board the plane but she was no-where to be found (above - a stock image)

Qantas customer Imre told Radio 2GB he was queued to board the flight and had 'never seen anything like' the episode.

'Everybody's there, the plane's there, all the passengers that were previously on had disembarked.

'The air hostesses seemed keen to get everybody on the flight but as we were about to board they said "no, sorry, we need to wait for a VIP of some sort".

'I felt sorry for the air hostesses. They were sort of walking up and down, peering down the corridor to try and see if this VIP was coming.'

When Victoria's vice-regal representative finally arrived at the gate with her entourage, other passengers couldn't identify her.

'Eventually, after 20 minutes, someone turned up (who) no one seemed to recognise in the queue,' he told the show.

Ms Dessau waited for her flight in Melbourne Airport's exclusive Chairman's Lounge (pictured), while other passengers slummed it at the boarding gate

The passenger said that when all the passengers actually boarded they then had to file past Ms Dessau as she sat in her business class seat.

'As people were walking past, they were saying "who is (she)', I've never seen that person before."

'You might understand it if everyone's on the plane and they held it for a few minutes because the VIP was running late and they needed to get them on before it took off.

'But not letting anyone on the plane before they get on first? I don't know if it's a royal protocol or something...'

The flight managed to get away 14 minutes after its scheduled departure time, flight records said.

In a statement provided to The Australian's Margin Call column, the Governor's office insisted she wasn't dawdling in the Chairman's Lounge.

Ms Dessau was headed to Canberra to attend the national memorial service for Queen Elizabeth II (above - Ms Dessau talks with Victorian Premier Dan Andrews at the service)

It is understood Ms Dessau was escorted to the wrong gate by staff.

'Neither the Governor or her staff requested or expected any passengers to be delayed from boarding the flight,' a spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia.

'There was no delay in the Governor and her party leaving the lounge when requested to make their way to the gate.'

Ms Dessau is one of six state governors of Australia who work as representatives of the Crown in Australia.
Fraudsters stole nearly $46billion in unlawful unemployment claims during the pandemic, the Labor Department concluded on Thursday - while warning that the actual figure may be even higher.

Criminals used inventive measures to access the COVID benefits, with more than 205,000 Social Security numbers that belonged to dead people being used to claim the cash.

Some schemes saw the Social Security numbers of prisoners being used, despite them being ineligible for the unemployment benefits.

The latest figure is more than double the earlier estimate, issued by the Labor Department last year, when they concluded that $16 billion had been stolen.

Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat representing Oregon who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said the new report proved the urgency of improving security checks on unemployment benefits.

'I've long said we need a national set of technology and security standards for state systems to better prevent this kind of fraud, and we're going to keep working to get our reforms passed,' he said.

Audri Ford-Victory, 61, from Springfield (center, with green vest), swindled $215,246 from the system, with the money going to people who were not eligible

Donna Wasson, 37, of San Antonio, was sentenced to 18 months in prison in March this year

The Labor Department inspector general said 190,000 investigations have been opened into fraud since the pandemic began.

Separately, the Justice Department on Thursday said that 1,000 people have now been charged with COVID-related fraud.

Those charged include a 61-year-old Massachusetts woman, who filed 25 unemployment claims for people who were not even living in the state.

Audri Ford-Victory, from Springfield, swindled $215,246 from the system, with the money going to people who were not eligible.

'Ford-Victory received kickback payments in exchange for submitting the fraudulent claims,' prosecutors in Boston said.

She pleaded guilty in January this year to one count of wire fraud conspiracy, and was sentenced to six months of house arrest and three years of probation.

A New York man who stole $131,560 was sentenced to six years and 10 months behind bars in July.

A woman walks past a shuttered shop in Manhattan on June 2, 2020, in the midst of the pandemic

Hector J. Sanchez, a 30-year-old member of the Bloods gang from Rensselaer, who has 11 prior convictions including three felonies, also swindled a $12,500 loan for a non-existent car wash business.

In court papers, federal prosecutors said that on November 21, 2020, Sanchez posted a video on social media featuring his hands sorting through large amounts of money with the text stating: 'IF YOU HAVEN'T FILE FOR UNEMPLOYMENT, GET WITH ME N COME GET THIS BAG.'

Between September 2020 and November 2020, Sanchez applied for pandemic unemployment benefits under nine different identities.

A Texas woman, Donna Wasson, 37, of San Antonio, was sentenced to 18 months in prison in March this year.

She pleaded guilty in November, and was ordered to pay restitution and forfeiture in the amount of $5,437.

In January 2021, she wrote on Facebook: 'Too stressed to see right. These mobile banks can jus take ur money and tell u that now u have to wait 6months to get what u worked so hard for. FML! If I did that to jail id go.'

One man replied: 'Sounds like you are going to jail!!'

Larry Turner, the inspector general for the Labor Department, issued his report on Thursday

Earlier this week, federal prosecutors charged 47 defendants, who were accused of stealing $250 million from a government aid program that was supposed to feed children in need during the pandemic.

A Minnesota non-profit organization, Feeding Our Future, was accused of orchestrating the plot.

Its founder, Aimee Bock, denied wrongdoing.

Larry Turner, the inspector general for the Labor Department, said in a statement that the huge sums of money being poured into the economy during the pandemic, to support out-of-work Americans, overwhelmed the system and created opportunities for fraud.

'Hundreds of billions in pandemic funds attracted fraudsters seeking to exploit the UI program  resulting in historic levels of fraud and other improper payments,' he said.
Although satirical, Mr Askey says his exploits also highlight major health risks

A British travel blogger who spent 150,000 and travelled 75,000 miles to more than 90 countries to find the world's worst public toilet says he has finally found it - in Tajikistan.

Brighton-based writer and blogger Graham Askey - known to his friends as 'King of the Porcelain' - scanned the globe for the most disgusting loos.

After visiting 91 countries and blogging writing extensively about some of the worst examples he has found, the 58-year-old has now discovered the 'perfect hell hole' - a ramshackle tent with walls that double as loo roll.

The retired builder says the 5ft-tall loo in northern Tajikistan is so bad those desperate enough to use it must stoop over sun-dried poo.

But by far the 'most repellent thing of all', Askey says, is that its fabric walls are used as shared toilet paper.

He says some 'wall' sections have been torn off and discarded on the cubicle floor. There is also a danger of disturbing deadly snakes and fearless rats which have all made their homes in the nearby rocks.

According to Mr Askey, the toilet in the Ayni region of Tajikistan, on the western edge of the Pamirs and not far from the Afghanistan border, is so vile that the locals refuse to use it unless 'absolutely desperate'.

Askey, a self-confessed 'squatter spotter', visited hundreds of public toilets in six of the world's seven continents before crowning the Tajikistan outhouse the worst of them all.

Graham Askey estimates he has spent as much as 150,000 travelling the world and photographing its public toilets

According to Mr Askey, this is the world's 'worst toilet', which can be found near the Afghanistan border in Tajikistan

Mr Askey has visited 91 countries in his quest to rate the globe's public loos - and says all of the ones listed in his new book pose a serious health risk

This collapsing structure is a makeshift toilet that Mr Askey came across in Bangladesh

A hut on 10ft-high stilts in Indonesia also made the list thanks to its death-defying walkway

He has included 36 of the 'c**ppiest c**ppers' he encountered in his new book Toilets of the Wild Frontier, which hits the shelves this week.

Other public loos that made his 'c**p list' include a sink in Bangladesh and a bath containing 'litres of number ones and twos' in China - with the plug left in.

A hut on 10ft-high stilts in Indonesia also made the list thanks to its death-defying walkway, as did a wooden chair with an in-built toilet seat in Benin which, perched prominently upon a raised platform in the middle of the village, is said by Askey to be the 'least privacy conscious lavatory' he's ever encountered.

Mr Askey developed his peculiar fascination for public lavatories - and in particular their poor construction - on his first overseas holiday to Morocco.

He has since visited 91 countries, travelled approximately 75,000 miles, and spent around 150,000 visiting private and public bathrooms around the world.

He photographed only the outside of the worst loos he visited to spare people the 'vomit-inducing' contents, and would spend the 'absolute minimum amount of time' inside to stave off nausea.

The pictures he took clocked-up thousands of views on his 'Inside Other Places' blog which he penned for the fictitious Toilet & Urinal Restoration & Design Society ('TURDS').

His unique posts about far-flung parts of the world became so popular that he decided to collate the top 36 into book form.

This bath, found in China, was filled with 'litres of number ones and twos' according to the travel blogger

These toilets in Uzbekistan are at least solid structures, but still made the list of the worst 36 public loos in the world

For another toilet in Tajikistan, it is the precarious perch it lies on amongst mountains which sees it make the list

This toilet in Indonesia, located on a raft, empties straight into the water beneath

This bathroom in Benin contains little more than a wooden chair modified to house a toilet seat with a bucket underneath

Whilst meant as a work of satire, it also aims to highlight the health risk posed by sub-standard sanitation.

Mr Askey said: 'Make no mistake that every entry on my list is gross beyond words.

'Some may look OK but believe me - and I know - they're the most inhospitable places on earth, and to spend a single minute inside any of them would be unthinkable except in the direst of circumstances.

'Each and every one of them would appear to attract members of the public who have yet to master the basic art of 'aiming'.

'After my many travels, I thought I'd seen it all, what with s**tters on stilts, sinks seemingly full of wee and bath tubs apparently being used as makeshift bogs.

'But having enjoyed some of the filthiest bathroom facilities to be found anywhere on the planet, the toilet in Tajikistan has to be the worst in the world - it is the perfect hell hole.

'With no toilet paper available, the builders have conveniently built it with a fabric covering to offer wiping functionality - and it looks like the locals have made full use of it!'

Mr Askey added: 'While readers will undoubtedly find these woeful public toilets hilarious, it must be understood that they represent a significant and largely unnecessary health risk, which can be reduced substantially by supporting charities like ActionAid and World Toilet Day.'
Cutting off his ear may have put Vincent Van Gogh top in any league of tortured artists.

But those believing Van Goghs agonies made him a better painter may have to think again.

For the myth of the tortured artist has been exposed in a study linking creativity to wellbeing.

Dancers, inventors and those with passions for art and music rated their creativity higher on days they felt more positive.

Neurotics  more likely to be the tortured type  were less creative, scientists at Goldsmiths, University of London, told Creativity Research Journal. Author Professor Joydeep Bhattacharya said: The data suggests that being in a happy and energetic mood makes you more creative.

Van Gogh self-portrait is shown at The Courtauld Gallery. Van Gogh famously cut off his ear during a disagreement with another artist. He began to hallucinate and slashed his ear before walking to a nearby brothel, where he presented it to a prostitute. He could later recall nothing about the event

The finding comes from a study of 290 creative people, including professional dancers, artists and inventors, as well as design and writing students, and people who did creative hobbies like painting or music for at least 20 hours a week.

These people completed a diary for around a fortnight, rating how creative they had been each day, in and out of work, and how strongly they felt various emotions.

On days when people felt more positive, they reported being more creative.

This was particularly the case when experiencing active emotions like excitement and enthusiasm, which may boost motivation.

The study also asked people to fill out questionnaires to judge their personality traits.

It found neurotic people, who might be expected to fall into the tortured artist category, were actually less creative.

Creative people, less glamorously, tended to be conscientious types, who might be expected to focus and get things done.

Rather than being more imaginative when they felt troubled, people in the study tended to be less creative on unhappier days compared to happy ones.

This was based on their rating of negative emotions like sadness.

The study looked at the Big Five personality traits - neuroticism, agreeableness, extroversion, openness and conscientiousness.

Neurotic people, with similar qualities to tortured artists, recorded lower levels of creativity in their daily diaries - overall, and both when they were at work and when they were carrying out a hobby.

Researchers believe troubled, neurotic people who get trapped in their own head find it harder to let their mind wander and come up with creative ideas.

A better personality trait for creativity may be openness, which means being enthusiastic about new experiences and ideas.

This was strongly linked to creativity, as people less set in their ways may find it easier to think outside the box.

Creative people, less glamorously, tended to be conscientious types, who might be expected to focus and get things done, the study suggested

Conscientious people are often seen as boring or studious, but the study found they reported higher levels of creativity, especially at work.

Being determined to get the job done may play an important role in creative problem-solving for professionals like designers and architects.

The study participants, aged 18 to 70, were also asked to answer questions on their wellbeing in the daily diaries, which measured things like their sense of meaning in life, connectedness to other people and hope for the future.

Those with the greatest wellbeing also appeared to be the most creative.

It may be that being creative made people happier, rather than happy people being more creative, so more research is needed.

Neurotic people may also have perceived themselves to be less creative than they actually were.

But the study authors say the hopeful advice for people with a creative streak, and their employers, is that they will do better work on a day when they feel energetic and happy.
Politicians have joined the ARM in calling for talks on an Australian republic

ARM said rule by birthright 'has no place in a democratic, egalitarian Australia'

Peter FitzSimons has wasted no time in calling for a national republic debate

The Australian Republic Movement has relaunched its campaign following the Queen's funeral and the national memorial service for the late monarch.

In a statement on Friday, signed off by the movement's chair Peter FitzSimons, the ARM said 'just as King Charles III has not delayed for a moment in resuming his duties, we submit that Australia should not delay the discussion about its future under the monarchy any longer. It's time.'

FitzSimons said the country should no longer delay talks about moving away from the monarchy.

'Rule by birthright, a literally born-to-rule English sovereign, has no place in a democratic, egalitarian Australia,' he said on Friday.

'The notion is as foreign to Australian values as the monarchy itself. Nor should anyone be forced to pledge allegiance to a foreign king or head of state.'

Federal parliamentarians have allocated Friday for both chambers to offer condolences to the late Queen and pay tribute to King Charles III.

Peter FitzSimons wasted no time in calling for Australia to become a republic following the Queen's death, and in a new campaign said now is the time to reopen the discussion

'King Charles III has not delayed for a moment in resuming his duties, we submit that Australia should not delay the discussion about its future under the monarchy any longer. It's time,' said FitzSimons (Pictured: King Charles III during the Queen's State Funeral)

But some have used their speeches to weigh in on the republic debate.

Greens leader Adam Bandt said the death of the Queen and the accession of King Charles III should lead to talks on changing the system of government.

'Now we have a king. We did not elect this man. Nor did we as a people truly consent to be governed by him. We have, respectfully, unfinished business,' he told parliament.

Anthony Albanese (pictured with King Charles III in Buckingham Palace, London) has so far met republican discussions with reticence following the death of Queen Elizabeth II

'The head of state of this country should be chosen by the people, for the people and from the people.

'We should respect the civility with which Elizabeth Windsor oversaw the drawdown of what was once the British Empire and take the cue to grow up and move out.'

Mr Bandt said people could offer condolences about the monarch and have conversations about whether a constitutional monarchy was right for Australia.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young expressed her condolences to the royal family, but said now was the time to move forward with an Australian head of state.

'King Charles III is not our choice. The Australian people didn't get to choose and we should have,' she told the Senate.

'Our head of state should be one of us, an Australian.'
The massive breach is believed to be caused by a weakness in Optus's firewall

Millions of Optus customers left exposed to hackers by a massive security breach are demanding their bills be waived as compensation.

Australia's second-largest telco revealed that 2.8 million customers' passport and driver's licence numbers, email and home addresses, dates of birth and telephone numbers were stolen by hackers on Thursday.

Another seven million people's dates of birth, email addresses and phone numbers were also leaked.

Optus customers are demanding their bills be waived after a massive cyber attack saw 10 million people's information leaked

The massive breach is believed to be one of the biggest cyber attacks in Australian history, with criminals taking advantage of a weakness in Optus's firewall.

The apparent weakness has left customers, past and present, exposed to criminal activity, with many concerned their very private information will be leaked on the dark web.

Now some customers are demanding Optus provide free services for an entire year to make up for the stress caused.

'How many free years of service am I receiving for you allowing my personal information onto the darkweb?,' one person wrote on Twitter.

Optus customers' passport and drivers licence numbers, email and home addresses, dates of birth and telephone numbers were leaked in a massive hack on Thursday

'Give us free (sports streaming) and waive the next bill ya dumb dogs,' another said.

'So my bill this month needs to be free,' another wrote.

Optus chief executive Kelly Rosmarin said the company is working with the Australian Federal Police to investigate the attack.

'We are devastated to discover that we have been subject to a cyberattack that has resulted in the disclosure of our customers' personal information to someone who shouldn't see it,' Ms Rosmarin said in a statement.

People are demanding Optus provides free services and cuts bills after an apparent weakness in its firewall saw millions of customers' information leaked (pictured, example Optus bill)

'As soon as we knew, we took action to block the attack and began an immediate investigation. While not everyone may be affected and our investigation is not yet complete, we want all of our customers to be aware of what has happened as soon as possible so that they can increase their vigilance.

'We are very sorry and understand customers will be concerned. Please be assured that we are working hard, and engaging with all the relevant authorities and organisations, to help safeguard our customers as much as possible.'

Ms Rosmarin said no payment information was leaked but urged customers to monitor their bank accounts and flag any suspicious activity.

Scamwatch said Optus customers should monitor their devices and financial accounts, change online passwords and enable multi-factor authentication, put limits on bank accounts and request a ban on their credit report if fraud is suspected.

SCAMWATCH ADVICE TO OPTUS CUSTOMERS Scamwatch is warning Optus customers to be on the look out for scams and take steps to secure their personal information following a cyber-attack. A cyber-attack has resulted in the release of Optus customers personal information. If you are an Optus customer your name, date of birth, phone number, email addresses may have been released. For some customers identity document numbers such as drivers licence or passport numbers could be in the hands of criminals. It is important to be aware that you be may be at risk of identity theft and take urgent action to prevent harm. Optus customers should take immediate steps to secure all of their accounts, particularly their bank and financial accounts. You should also monitor for unusual activity on your accounts and watch out for contact by scammers. Steps you can take to protect your personal information include: More information about how to protect yourself is available on the OAIC website. Check the Optus website for information and contact Optus via the My Optus App or call 133 937. Scammers may use your personal information to contact you by phone, text or email. Never click on links or provide personal or financial information to someone who contacts you out of the blue. Learn how to protect yourself from scams by visiting www.scamwatch.gov.au If you are concerned that your identity has been compromised or you have been a victim of a scam contact your bank immediately and call IDCARE on 1800 595 160. IDCARE is Australias national identity and cyber support service, to get expert advice from a specialist identity and cyber security service. You can also report scams to Scamwatch www.scamwatch.gov.au and check cyber.gov.au for information about cyber security. Advertisement

Chief strategy officer at cyber-security firm CberCX Alastair MacGibbon said Optus customers need to stay on high alert.

'Personal information has been stolen,' he told the ABC.

'A lot of personal information for several million people and slightly less information for about 6 million more.

'They should be looking for whether criminals are mimicking them, or stealing their identity, or trying to obtain credit in their name.'

He said one way breached customers can protect themselves against financial fraud is by paying for their credit usage to be monitored.

'That way you will be monitored by credit monitoring services if someone has been using your name and other details to obtain credit,' Mr MacGibbon said.
China is planning to launch two spacecraft using a single Long March 5 rocket. This ambitious mission named Tianwen 4 aims to launch a pair of spacecraft that will separately investigate Jupiter and Uranus around 2030.

China's Jupiter and Uranus Mission

Previously, China has asserted to be in the planning stages of a Jupiter mission.

During earlier presentations, as per Space.com, China is reportedly discussing either focusing on Callisto or studying Jupiter's erratic satellites. Investigating Callisto might reveal about the moon and the history of the Jovian system. Meanwhile, researching the planet's erratic satellites may reveal information about the formation of the solar system.

However, new details about China's Jupiter mission were presented at the International Astronautical Congress 2022 in Paris on Sept. 21.

As previously mentioned, there would be two separate Chinese spacecraft, a bigger and smaller one, that will study Jupiter and Uranus, respectively.

The main spacecraft, a larger probe, will be used to study the Jupiter system and will eventually orbit Callisto to conduct a thorough study of the Galilean moon.

Meanwhile, a smaller spacecraft will be launched to fly by distant Uranus.

China's Space Missions

China's Jupiter and Uranus missions is just a part of the country's program to explore the solar system. The mission as a whole is called "Tianwen."

China sent the Tianwen 1 orbiter and Zhurong rover to Mars more than two years ago as part of its first independent interplanetary mission.

A sample-return mission to the small near-Earth asteroid Kamo'oalewa will be carried out by Tianwen 2 in 2025.

The dual-launch Mars sample return mission known as Tianwen 3 will bring the first samples ever brought back from the Red Planet to Earth. It could launch as early as 2028.

As previously mentioned, the Jupiter/Uranus mission would be called Tianwen 4.

Read More: China's Tianwen 1 Mars Orbiter Snaps New Photo of Phobos

China Plans to Launch Nuclear-Powered Mission to Neptune

A nuclear-powered Neptune Explorer is another mission being considered by China. This mission might include investigating the planet, its biggest moon, as well as its other satellites and rings.

Researchers from the China National Space Agency (CNSA), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the China Atomic Energy Authority, the China Academy of Space Technology, as well as several universities and institutions, would research the ice giant mission, according to a news story by Universe Today.

Neptune is said to have had a significant impact on the creation of the Solar System in addition to having an interesting interior structure.

Another mystery that has persisted for a long time is the origin of Triton, the biggest moon of Neptune, which astronomers believe to be a planetoid that was ejected from the outer Solar System and attracted to Neptune by its gravity.

Basically, research into Neptune, its satellites, and its orbital dynamics may shed light on how the Solar System arose and formed.

Related Article: China Aspires to Take Mars Samples to Earth 2 Years Ahead of NASA, ESA Mission
The Optus CEO has issued an emotional apology after the personal details of nearly 10 million customers were potentially stolen by overseas hackers.

The massive cyber breach allowed hackers to access the personal details of the telco's customers including passport and driver's licence numbers, email and home addresses, dates of birth and telephone numbers.

The company's boss Kelly Bayer Rosmarin confirmed payment details and account passwords had not been compromised but admitted she felt 'terrible' the breach had happened under her watch.

'I think it's a mix of a lot of different emotions,' she said looking downcast.

'Obviously I am angry that there are people out there that want to do this to our customers, I'm disappointed we couldn't have prevented it.

The telco's boss Kelly Rosmarin confirmed payment details and account passwords had not been compromised but admitted she felt 'terrible' the breach had happened under her watch

'I'm very sorry and apologetic. It should not have happened.'

Ms Bayer Rosmarin also revealed that the IP addresses linked to the hackers had moved around various European countries, and that it was a 'sophisticated' breach.

She added it was too soon to tell if it was a criminal organisation or another state was responsible for the attack.

The data that was potentially stolen has been dated back to 2017.

Ms Bayer Rosmarin said the reported figure of 9.8million people had had their data breached was the 'worst case scenario', and Optus expected the number to be much fewer.

'It's a small subset of data, it does not include any financial details, it does not include passwords,' she said.

It comes after Optus was called out for failing to tell close to millions of customers their personal details had potentially been stolen for almost 24 hours.

Optus Regulatory and Public Affairs Vice President Andrew Sheridan said the company learnt of the breach late on Wednesday.

He was forced to defend the telco when 2GB host Ben Fordham questioned why they had waited until Thursday at 2pm to issue a press release.

Optus has been called out for waiting nearly 24 hours to tell close to 10 million customers their personal details had potentially been stolen by hackers

Fordham said The Australian newspaper had first broken the news about the breach at 1pm on Thursday, only for Optus to publish a release an hour later.

'You knew about it on Wednesday ... it was only after The Australian newspaper splashed the story on their website (on Thursday) that you put out a statement,' Fordham said on his radio breakfast program on Friday.

'If you're interested in protecting your customers why didn't you alert them the moment you were aware of this potential breach?'

Mr Sheridan said that there was a 'number of steps' that had to be taken in cyber incidents.

'I think if you look at incidents like this we've acted very, very quickly,' he said.

He was then cut off by Fordham who said he didn't think the telco had acted fast enough.

'I've got to call you out on that Andrew, I don't think you've acted quickly at all,' he said.

Optus Regulatory and Public Affairs Vice President Andrew Sheridan said the company learnt of the breach late on Wednesday. A press release was not issued by Optus until Thursday

'We've seen many of these cases in the past where companies have said ''we don't know if there's been a breach, there's been a potential breach, we want to alert you straight away'' - you guys didn't do that, you failed to do that.'

Mr Sheridan wouldn't confirm the number of customers who'd been affected but said the investigation was ongoing.

He added Optus had to confirm the details of the breach and secure their network before they were able to alert customers.

The millions of customers impacted are being contacted by the telco.

Customers have been told not to click on any links sent in a message appearing to be from Optus.

Optus said users' payment details and account passwords had not been compromised and it was working with the Australian Cyber Security Centre to limit the risk to both current and former customers.

Australian Federal Police, the Office of the Australian Information Regulator and other key regulators have also been notified.

Optus said users' payment details and account passwords had not been compromised and it was working with the Australian Cyber Security Centre to limit the risk to both current and former customers

What Optus has said about the breach: How did this happen? Optus was the victim of a cyberattack. We immediately took action to block the attack which only targeted Optus customer data. Optus systems and services, including mobile and home internet, are not affected, and messages and voice calls have not been compromised. Optus services remain safe to use and operate as per normal. Has the attack been stopped? Yes. Upon discovering this, Optus immediately shut down the attack. We are now working with the Australian Cyber Security Centre to mitigate any risks to customers. We have also notified the Australian Federal Police, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, and key regulators. Why did we go to the media first instead of our customers? The security of our customers and their data is paramount to us. We did this as it was the quickest and most effective way to alert as many current and former customers as possible, so they could be vigilant and monitor for any suspicious activity. We are now in the process of contacting customers who have been impacted directly. What information of mine may have been exposed? The information which may have been exposed includes customers names, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, and, for a subset of customers, addresses, ID document numbers such as driver's license or passport numbers. Customers affected will be notified directly of the specific information compromised. Optus services, including mobile and home internet, are not affected. Messages, voice calls, billing and payments details, and account passwords have not been compromised. What should I do to protect myself if I suspect I am a victim of fraudulent activity? We are not currently aware of any customers having suffered harm, but we encourage you to have heightened awareness across your accounts, including: Look out for any suspicious or unexpected activity across your online accounts, including your bank accounts. Make sure to report any fraudulent activity immediately to the related provider. Look out for contact from scammers who may have your personal information. This may include suspicious emails, texts, phone calls or messages on social media. Never click on any links that look suspicious and never provide your passwords, or any personal or financial information. How do I contact Optus if I believe my account has been compromised? If you believe your account has been compromised, you can contact us via My Optus App  which remains the safest way to contact Optus or call us on 133 937 for consumer customers. Due to the impact of the cyberattack, wait times may be longer than usual. If you are a business customer, contact us on 133 343 or your account manager. How do I know if I have been impacted? We are in the process of contacting customers who have been directly impacted. Advertisement

Alastair MacGibbon, who is chief strategy officer at cyber-security firm CberCX and a former advisor to the prime minister, said Optus customers should watch out for criminals impersonating them online.

'They should be looking for whether criminals are mimicking them, or stealing their identity, trying to obtain credit in their name ... etc,' he told the ABC.

He said Optus could guard the interests of their customers is by paying for credit monitoring.

'That way you will be monitored by credit monitoring services if someone has been using your name and other details to obtain credit,' Mr MacGibbon said.

It remains unclear what the hackers were after at this stage with authorities and the telco still investigating.

Mobile and home internet, along with messages and voice calls have not been affected.

Both past and present Optus customers have been impacted.
Mel B today revealed how she 'felt suffocated' at the thought she could have spent the Covid lockdown with her ex-husband and admitted she may have taken her own life. Speaking at a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, the Spice Girl told an audience how she 'would have died' if she had still been with her former spouse during the pandemic. The 47-year-old pop star is a patron of the Women's Aid charity, which campaigns on behalf of domestic abuse survivors. Mel B finalised her divorce from TV producer Stephen Belafonte in 2017 after leaving what she has described as an abusive relationship. He has strongly denied allegations he subjected the singer to physical and emotional abuse during their 10-year marriage. Mel B this afternoon appeared at a panel event at the Tory conference, during which she described how a promise to her dying father saw her finally leave her marriage. She also admitted she had feared how speaking about her experience would 'ruin my career'. 'As a Spice Girl, I'm the embodiment of girl power,' she said. 'And for 10 years, I was completely powerless over this man and the situation I found myself in.'
Labour is considering abolishing the House of Lords if it wins the next election, a leaked report has revealed.

A constitutional review led by former prime minister Gordon Brown has recommended replacing the Upper House with a new assembly of regions and nations, it was reported last night.

Mr Brown was asked to undertake the review  which has been seen by MPs and shadow cabinet members  by Sir Keir Starmer in September 2021.

The Labour leader promised at the time it would be 'the boldest project Labour has embarked on for a generation'. Under the plans, the House of Lords' economic powers would be devolved and new independent councils of the nations would be created, The Guardian reported.

Gordon Brown has reportedly recommended replacing the Upper House with a new assembly of regions and nations

Mr Brown has also suggested giving new tax powers  potentially including stamp duty  to some devolved governments, allowing mayors to control funding on education, transport and research, and letting local people promote bills in Parliament via elected bodies.

The measures are thought to have been intensely debated within Labour, with some shadow cabinet ministers expressing concerns about the radical proposals.

They are not expected to be agreed in time for the party's conference, which begins on Sunday.

Mr Brown has also proposed a drive to improve standards in central Government, with a jury of ordinary people who could rule on complaints against MPs.

Under the proposals, a new integrity and ethics commission would be created and second jobs would be banned - a measure which Sir Keir has already announced.

A Labour spokesman said: 'This refers to one of several early drafts. The commission has yet to take a view on all these issues.'
Donald Trump has revealed he threatened to 'obliterate' one of the top members of the Taliban - and even sent him a picture of his house.

The former president told how he forced the terrorist group's co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar to back down from taking over Afghanistan and harming US soldiers while he was in the White House.

He said he told the jihadist, who is now the country's deputy prime minister, if they did anything he would 'hit you harder than any country has ever been hit'.

Trump's comments came in the second part of his wide-ranging interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News Thursday night.

The 76-year-old weighed in on the southern border crisis, claiming Venezuela was emptying jails and sending prisoners to the US which is 'poisoning our country'.

He also continued his assault on Joe Biden - slamming him for undoing his policies - before revealing he once told the Fox News host to go easier on the president.

'Didn't you at one point tell him, 'I know exactly where you are,' and give him the exact coordinates where he was?' Hannity asked. 'No,' Trump replied. 'I sent him a picture of his house'

'Under my conversations with Abdul, who's the leader of the Taliban, for 18 months, we didn't lose one soldier,' Trump said, referring to Abdul Ghani Baradar, co-founder and senior member of the Taliban

'Under my conversations with Abdul, who's the leader of the Taliban, for 18 months, we didn't lose one soldier,' Trump said Thursday night, referring to Abdul Ghani Baradar, co-founder and senior member of the Taliban.

Trump then told Hannity he threatened to 'obliterate' Abdul if he did not follow his orders.

'Didn't you at one point tell him, 'I know exactly where you are,' and give him the exact coordinates where he was?' Hannity asked.

'No,' Trump replied. 'I sent him a picture of his house.' 'He said, 'But why but why do you send me a picture of my house?' I said, 'You have to figure that one out.''

Trump further recalled: 'I said, 'If you do anything, we're going to hit you harder than any country has ever been hit.' He said, 'I understand, your Excellency.''

'I'm the one who got it down to very few soldiers. I wanted to get out,' Trump said, referring to the last 2,500 U.S. service members who remained in Afghanistan at the end of his presidency.

'We would have had a very similar schedule, but I would have taken the military out last.'

Trump had long called for an end to the Afghanistan war and planned to withdraw all U.S. troops by May 1, 2021. However, he claims he had a plan that would have ensured a less frenzied exit.

'I would have taken the best equipment in the world military equipment, $85 billion worth of military equipment we left behind.

'And by the way, 13 soldiers were killed,' he said, referring to the 13 Marines who died in an explosion trying to evacuate U.S. citizens and allies as the Taliban took over Kabul.

Biden was widely panned for the chaotic security situation that left the Kabul airport vulnerable to the devastating suicide attack that killed 170 Afghan civilians and 13 US service members in August 2021.

Critics and supporters alike have worried about the long-term ramifications - such as a broken promise not to leave Americans behind and the blow American credibility suffers with its allies.

In September 2021, Trump decried the largely defunct military equipment the U.S. left at the hands of the Taliban and said the U.S. should bomb Afghanistan, 'We should either go in with unequivocal Military force and get it, or at least bomb the hell out of it,' he said at the time.

Turning to the war in Ukraine, Trump told Hannity: 'Putin is being handled incorrectly.'

In another moment during the interview, Trump claimed that Venezuela is 'opening its prisons' to send criminals into the U.S. and said that immigrants are 'poisoning' our country under President Biden.

Venezuelan migrants prepare to walk along the U.S. Border fence after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico to turn themselves in to the U.S. Border Patrol on September 22

Asylum seeking migrants queue at a new Mobile En-Route Processing Unit (MERC), used by U.S. Border Patrol to rapidly process asylum seeking migrants on the border in downtown El Paso, Texas, U.S., September 21

Asked by Fox News' Sean Hannity how fast he could get the nation back to what it was under his administration, Trump said he could get most things back 'very quickly,' aside from the migrants who have 'poisoned' the country.

Asked if he would deport the millions of unlawful migrants who have entered the country under President Biden, Trump said, 'The bad ones, the bad ones.'

'Millions and millions of people have poisoned our country,' Trump said.

'Yesterday I heard that Venezuela is emptying their prisons out into the United States,' the former president told Hannity. 'I'm almost surprised it took them so long.'

So far this fiscal year border agents have faced an all-time record 2,150,000 migrant encounters at the southern border.

Trump was referring to a Breitbart news report about a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intelligence report warning prisoners freed by the Venezuelan regime were seen traveling with caravans to the U.S. in Mexico in July.

A source told the outlet that without diplomatic relations with Venezuela, identifying migrants with criminal records is nearly impossible.

On 2024, Trump told Hannity he could not 'legally' tell him whether or not he was going to run again. Biden, too, has cited election law as preventing him from formally announcing his candidacy. If either candidate were to formally say they were running, it would trigger new restrictions and procedural requirements.

Trump, who still refuses to concede his 2020 loss to Biden, then claimed he would rather see Biden succeed, even if it meant losing to the Democrat in 2024.

'I would rather have him succeed incredibly, even if it meant a much tougher-- and maybe even a loss. I want to see what's good for the country,' the former president said.

Donald Trump reveals he once asked Sean Hannity to go EASIER on Joe Biden because the Fox News host was 'too tough' on the president: Journalist argues he was just telling the truth

By Melissa Koenig for DailyMail.com

Former President Donald Trump had apparently requested FOX News host Sean Hannity go easier on his successor.

The astonishing revelation came as Trump was concluding an exclusive two-part sit-down interview with Hannity at his Mar-a-Lago resort, in a segment that aired on Thursday.

The controversial FOX News host thanked the former president for his time, to which Trump asked whether he thought President Joe Biden would provide him with that much time for an interview.

'Want my honest answer?' Hannity replied. 'I don't think he knows that today's Wednesday is my honest answer.'

'I hope he does, for the sake of this country, I hope he does,' Trump said.

At that point, Hannity said he was 'very gracious,' adding: 'I should tell a story about how one time you requested I go easier on him.

'You did say that to me, you thought I was being too flippant.'

Trump then recounted how he 'thought it was too tough, I thought you were very tough,' even as Hannity doubled down on his coverage of the president saying: 'I was telling the truth.'

Former President Donald Trump revealed on Thursday night he once thought FOX News host Sean Hannity was 'too tough' on President Joe Biden

Hannity told how the former president asked him to go easier on his successor

But Trump continued to almost defend the president, saying he actually wants Biden to succeed for the benefit of the United States.

'I will say this, forget politics and the Democrat and the Republican stuff, and the radical left and everything else,' Trump said. 'I want somebody that's a great leader.

'I want somebody that can stand toe to toe with President Xi of China, there is no actor like that,' he said, adding: 'Beyond Republican or Democrat, I want to see somebody that is great.'

Hannity then asked for clarification, inquiring: 'You want Joe Biden to succeed.'

'I would rather have him succeed incredibly,' even if it meant 'a much tougher' election or 'even if it means a loss,' Trump said, suggesting once again he plans to run against Biden in 2024.

'I want to see what's good for this country.'

Hannity has been highly critical of the Biden administration over the past few years. Biden is seen here at a briefing on Hurricane Fiona's impact on Puerto Rico Thursday

Hannity has been highly critical of the president in the past

In March, he derided Biden's first State of the Union address as 'an unmitigated, predictable disaster' which did little to assuage American's fears of crime in big cities and worsening inflation, and was 'seemingly written by a kid in kindergarten'.

The Fox News host even suggested that Biden, 79, showed signs of 'a steep mental decline'.

He criticized the president for failing to acknowledge the deaths of 13 U.S. troops in Afghanistan in August, and said he had no answer for the continued problems of COVID-19.

Biden's speech, Hannity said, was 'filled with smoke and mirrors' and 'detached from reality'.

'You might've noticed something interesting,' said Hannity. 'Biden did not mention any accomplishments.

'None whatsoever. Because there are none,' he said, before listing off what he viewed as failures of the Biden administration  including high gas prices, skyrocketing inflation, worsening crime and 'open borders.'

'If the world was looking for any American leadership they didn't get it from Joe Biden,' Hannity said at the time, claiming: 'The speech defined America last, not America first.'

And last year, Hannity slammed Biden for using unvaccinated Americans as a 'scapegoat' while implementing a nationwide COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

'It's your body, his choice,' he said last September. 'With an unconstitutional, illegal, unethical federal vaccine mandate, on that, by the way, he said he would never support.'

Hannity added that Biden's approach is a 'cold, calculated political ploy' to divide Americans, saying: 'Joe Biden's heartfelt unity pledge lasted all of seven months.'

He slammed Biden for using unvaccinated Americans as a 'political scapegoat' while implementing a sweeping nationwide COVID-19 vaccine mandate last year

But Trump has also blasted Biden's leadership in office, even telling Hannity in the sit-down interview on Thursday that the Taliban is not afraid of the current president.

'Under my conversations with Abdul, who's the leader of the Taliban, for 18 months, we didn't lose one soldier,' Trump said Thursday night, referring to Abdul Ghani Baradar, co-founder and senior member of the Taliban.

Trump then told Hannity he threatened to 'obliterate' Abdul if he did not follow his orders.

'Didn't you at one point tell him, 'I know exactly where you are,' and give him the exact coordinates where he was?' Hannity asked.

'No,' Trump replied. 'I sent him a picture of his house.'

'He said, "But why but why do you send me a picture of my house?" I said, "You have to figure that one out.'''

Trump further recalled: 'I said, 'If you do anything, we're going to hit you harder than any country has ever been hit.' He said, 'I understand, your Excellency.''

'I'm the one who got it down to very few soldiers. I wanted to get out,' Trump said, referring to the last 2,500 U.S. service members who remained in Afghanistan at the end of his presidency.

'We would have had a very similar schedule, but I would have taken the military out last.'

Trump, though, also slammed the president in his exclusive interview with Hannity

He suggested that the Taliban does not fear Biden the way it did him because he threatened to 'obliterate' Abdul Ghani Baradar if he did not follow his orders

Trump had long called for an end to the Afghanistan war and planned to withdraw all U.S. troops by May 1, 2021. However, he claims he had a plan that would have ensured a less frenzied exit.

'I would have taken the best equipment in the world military equipment, $85 billion worth of military equipment we left behind. And by the way, 13 soldiers were killed,' he said, referring to the 13 Marines who died in an explosion trying to evacuate U.S. citizens and allies as the Taliban took over Kabul.

Biden was widely panned for the chaotic security situation that left the Kabul airport vulnerable to the devastating suicide attack that killed 170 Afghan civilians and 13 US service members in August 2021.

Critics and supporters alike have worried about the long-term ramifications - such as a broken promise not to leave Americans behind and the blow American credibility suffers with its allies.

In September 2021, Trump decried the largely defunct military equipment the U.S. left at the hands of the Taliban and said the U.S. should bomb Afghanistan, 'We should either go in with unequivocal Military force and get it, or at least bomb the hell out of it,' he said at the time.

Turning to the war in Ukraine, Trump told Hannity: 'Putin is being handled incorrectly.'

And in another wild moment during the interview Trump claimed that Venezuela is 'opening its prisons' to send criminals into the U.S. and said that immigrants are 'poisoning' our country under President Biden.
CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky has clashed with Joe Biden's assertion the pandemic is over - saying just that 'we're in a different place'.

Speaking with ABC News, Walensky refused to agree with Biden's declaration that the pandemic is in the rear view mirror but she did acknowledge how hospitalization and case rates were falling thanks to the wide availability of vaccines.

Biden made his remarks during his appearance on CBS 60 Minutes on Sunday.

'The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with COVID. We're still doing a lot of work on it, but the pandemic is over. If you notice, no one's wearing masks.

'Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape and so I think it's changing. And I think this is a perfect example of it,' Biden said while walking around the Detroit Auto Show last week - an event which drew thousands of visitors.

The Director of the CDC Dr. Rochelle Walensky refused to agree with the president's claim that the pandemic is over saying instead 'we're in a different place'

Biden made the assertion that the pandemic was finally over during an interview with CBS 60 Minutes on Sunday

The toll of the COVID-19 pandemic has diminished significantly since early in Biden's term when more than 3,000 Americans per day were dying, as enhanced care, medications and vaccinations have become more widely available, but nearly 400 people a day continue to die from COVID-19 in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Director Walensky was careful to choose her words during the interview: 'I think if we look at the big picture, things are very different. We're in a different place. Schools are open and businesses are open. We have a lot of population immunity out there right now.'

However, she noted that with hundreds of Americans still dying from the virus, the fatality rate was still too high.

The CDC continued to monitor the emergence of any new variants of concern.

Biden declared the pandemic to be over while walking around the Detroit Auto Show last week - an event which drew thousands of visitors

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, pictured, was filmed getting her COVID booster shot

'We will be ready to step up to the plate,' she said.

'We've seen time and time again is [that] our vaccines are working pretty well against severe disease, hospitalization and death, even when variants emerge, which is why it's so very important to go ahead and get your updated vaccine now,' Walensky encouraged.

Scientists point to emerging research that suggests the latest omicron variant is gaining ground in the U.S. - BA.4.6 appears to be even better at evading the immune system than the dominant BA.5.

Omicron has been around since late last year, with a series of super transmissible versions quickly displacing one another.

Experts say COVID will keep causing serious illness in some people.

The COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub made some pandemic projections spanning August 2022 to May 2023, assuming the new tweaked boosters adding protection for the newest omicron relatives would be available and a booster campaign would take place in fall and winter. In the most pessimistic scenario - a new variant and late boosters - they projected 1.3 million hospitalizations and 181,000 deaths during that period.

In the most optimistic scenario - no new variant and early boosters - they projected a little more than half the number of hospitalizations and 111,000 deaths.

U.S. health officials say 4.4 million Americans have rolled up their sleeves for the updated COVID-19 booster shot.

Booster shots of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine are displayed during a vaccine clinic in Vermont earlier this week. Public health experts bemoaned President Joe Biden's recent remark that 'the pandemic is over'

Health experts said it is too early to predict whether demand would match up with the 171 million doses of the new boosters the U.S. ordered for the fall.

Walsnsky has also suggested that people get their flu shot with fears of a severe influenza season.

She believes up to 100,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations and 9,000 deaths could be prevented if Americans get the updated COVID booster at the same rate they typically get an annual flu shot this fall.

'We know over the last several years is some people did not elect to get their flu shot. We've had decreased rates of flu over the last several years and probably due to many of the mitigation strategies that we have in place for COVID. When that happens, we have decreased levels of population immunity, which raises the concern that the next year, you might have a higher, larger flu challenge. We can't predict what a flu season will look like, but we have concerns.'
A cranky ute driver who repeatedly tapped his brakes got more than he bargained for when the following car went up the back of him.

Footage of the aggressive incident emerged on the Dash Cam Owners Australia Facebook page on Thursday.

The accident occurred on the Tom Uglys bridge in Sydney's Sutherland Shire close to sunset one evening earlier this year.

A ute driver (pictured, driving along Princes Highway in Sydney's Sutherland Shire region in May) is seen suddenly moving into the right lane without using their indicator

In the video, a vehicle with a dashcam mounted at the front is seen driving in the right-hand lane.

A ute in the middle lane suddenly cuts the vehicle off, leading the driver to flash his lights.

The ute then suddenly brake-checks twice in a matter of seconds, with the trailing vehicle narrowly avoiding contact.

However, as both vehicles head onto the bridge, the ute can be seen speeding up before coming to a complete stop in the middle of the road.

The driver behind then speeds up and collides into the back of the ute - before the driver is heard shouting 'f***'.

The trailing vehicle with the dashcam immediately flashes its lights, causing the ute driver in front to brake-check multiple times (pictured)

As both drivers enter Tom Uglys bridge, the ute is seen quickly speeding off then slamming on the brakes in the middle of the road. The vehicle behind speeds up and slam into the back of the ute (pictured)

The two vehicles then continue along the bridge until the ute stops, with the driver switching on his hazard lights.

An argument than ensues.

After pulling over, the two men are seen getting out to assess the damage before getting into an argument (pictured)

This video sparked controversy online, with many pointing the blame towards the driver of the ute.

One commentator said: 'Tradie boy in the ute needs to use his indicators when changing lanes. He also needs to realise the road isn't his personal race track.

Poll Who was at fault for the collision? Driver of ute Dashcam owner Both drivers Who was at fault for the collision? Driver of ute 99 votes

Dashcam owner 14 votes

Both drivers 32 votes Now share your opinion





'Dashcam driver pays the penalty for also being a racer boy... Both get to enjoy paying their insurance premium.'

Another commented: 'Dashcam driver wasn't speeding at all, didn't break a single road rule. Ute in front will be deemed at fault 100 per cent.'

'Negligent driving, changing lanes no indicator, driving dangerously, guy in fronts fault,' a third said.

Someone else added: 'If the driver of the dash cam footage didnt flash the ute driver, then I dont think he would have brake-checked him and the accident would have been avoided.

'High beams are only for when there is no other cars around and should be turned off 200 metres of an approaching vehicle. So both are in the wrong but more so the ute driver,' they added.
Whoopi Goldberg was forced on Thursday to walk back a marriage 'joke' she made on-air about Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.

In an awkward apology on The View Thursday, Goldberg suggested she might have to quit the show she has co-hosted since 2007 after receiving apparent backlash from ABC bigwigs for 'joking' that Graham was getting married.

Her comment came during a conversation with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, in which Jean-Pierre slammed the South Carolina senator for calling for a nationwide ban on abortions after 15 weeks.

'We have Lindsey Graham, Senator Graham and other and other leaders of the Republican Party who are saying, and theyre being very clear about this, folks, we got to listen to them that they want a national ban on abortions,' the White House press secretary told The View cohosts.

She added: 'Senator Graham had said maybe about a month ago, early August, that he believes when it comes to marriage, when it comes to abortion, its for states to decide.

'So, Senator Graham, what changed?' Jean-Pierre asked, to which Goldberg deadpanned: 'Well, maybe hes getting married.'

Her woke cohost Joy Behar then said she doubts that is the case, as the audience laughed and cheered.

Goldberg, 66, then continued: 'Do it quick, because I know people are fooling around with our marriage rights, whoever, wherever you stand, you know.'

Whoopi Goldberg, 66, was forced to issue an awkward on-air apology for a 'joke' she made about Sen Lindsey Graham getting married

Liberals have suggested for years that Graham, a lifelong bachelor, might be secretly gay. The senator is pictured here discussing the introduction of the Protecting Pain-Capable Unborn Children from Late-Term Abortions Act last week

The comment comes after liberals have suggested for years that the lifelong bachelor might be secretly gay, with comedians such as Bill Maher, Jon Steward and Patti Lupone making crude remarks or implicit references to his sexual orientation over the years.

Such conversations are also prevalent on Twitter and other social media sites.

But when the show came back from a commercial break, Goldberg seemed flustered, her face wrinkled as she told the audience she needs 'to make clear that I was doing what I do as a comic.

'Sometimes I make jokes, and it was a joke,' she said. 'Nothing more than that.'

She then seemed to suggest that producers spoke with her during the break, saying: 'I just got a whole conversation about people misunderstanding the joke.

'I mean OK,' Goldberg continued, as her cohosts laughed. 'I should probably never do this show again if this is what it's coming to.

'It was a joke, guys, you know,' she concluded.

Goldberg doubled down on the fact that it was a joke following a commercial break

Her comments came after White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre asked what had changed to make the South Carolina senator change his tune about abortion bans

This is just the most recent apology cohosts on the show have had to make over the past few years.

In fact, earlier this year, Goldberg was suspended for two weeks after she claimed the Holocaust 'isn't about race.'

'This is white people doing it to white people so y'all go fight amongst yourselves but...' she said back in February.

Later, she carried on: 'Let's be truthful about it. The Holocaust isn't about race. It's not about race. It's not about race. It's not about race. It's about man's inhumanity to man. That's what it's about.'

Just hours later though, following swift backlash, Goldberg tweeted out an apology.

'On today's show, I said the Holocaust 'is not about race, but about man's inhumanity to man'. I should have said it is about both,' she said.

'As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, "The Holocaust was about the Nazi's systematic annihilation of the Jewish people - who they deemed to be an inferior race."

'I stand corrected.

'The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver. I'm sorry for the hurt I have caused.'

Goldberg previously had to apologize for saying the Holocaust wasn't about race

More recently, Sunny Hostin came under fire for attacking former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, branding her a 'chameleon' as she insinuated the former ambassador does not use her given name, Nimrata, in an effort to appeal to Republican voters.

She was soon branded a 'racist' on Twitter, with many noting that Nikki is Haley's middle name  and Hostin does not use her given first name, either.

By the afternoon, Haley, herself, decided to speak up on the matter.

'Thanks for your concern @Sunny,' the former South Carolina governor tweeted, claiming: 'It's racist of you to judge my name.

'Nikki is an Indian name and is on my birth certificate  and I'm proud of that,' she wrote. 'What's sad is the left's hypocrisy towards conservative minorities.'

'By the way, last I checked Sunny isn't your birth name,' Haley added in her tweet to Hostin, whose birth name is Asuncion Cummings Hostin.
Police reportedly confirmed they had no record of any domestic calls involving Collier or her husband

The Georgia mom was found naked and burned in some places, and investigators found a red tote bag and a burned tarp nearby

She was found clinging to a tree by sheriff's deputies a day after vanishing from the modest home she shared with husband Steven

A Georgia woman killed under mysterious circumstances and found naked and burned posted a series of selfies to Facebook showing off a severe eye injury in December 2020, long before she went missing and was found in a wooded ravine.

Debbie Collier posted the pictures to Facebook on an account she seemingly shared with her husband, Steve, and said she 'face planted on the concrete sidewalk.'

The real estate office manager, 59, was found by sheriff's deputies dead and naked with burn marks while clinging to a tree a day after vanishing from the modest home she shared with husband Steven, 67, in Athens, Georgia, 60 miles away.

Athens-Clarke County Police Department reportedly confirmed they had no record of any domestic calls involving Collier or her husband, or any made to their address at all.

The grisly pictures show scrapes and bruising around her right eye and on her forehead and was posted with the caption 'Look what I did to myself.' She also says she did not have any makeup on her right eye in the pictures.

Grisly pictures show scrapes and bruising around Debbie Collier's right eye in December 2020, that she says she received after faceplanting on concrete

Collier's cause of death has not been revealed, nor is it publicly known if she died in the ravine or was taken there after being killed

Eerily, just hours before her death, she had sent her daughter Amanda Bearden $2,385 via payment app Venmo along with a chilling last message.

It read: 'They are not going to let me go, love you there is a key to the house in the blue flower pot by the door.'

A few feet from that lay a larger uprooted tree. Parts of the roots were scorched. Forensic gloves lay nearby along with pieces of paper and what appears to be a strip of a book cover.

And that is where the trail of tape fragments ended.

The site was only roughly 25 feet from the roadway and vehicles could be heard clearly passing by after we followed the path of the killer or killers.

Collier's cause of death has not been revealed. Nor is it publicly known if she died in the ravine or was taken there after being killed.

Debbie showed no hint of any personal problems or worries while at work, stunned staff at her real estate office told DailyMail.com.

Yellow crime scene tape is scattered every three to five feet around the area in Tallulah Falls leading to the spot where Debbie Collier's body was discovered

Forensic gloves lay nearby along with pieces of paper and what appears to be a strip of a book cover

A 15-minute hike through piles of dead leaves and timber led to a site downhill where DailyMail.com reporter spotted part of a tree that had been sawn off

'We are all in a state of complete shock at what has happened,' said one employee at Carriage House Realty in Athens, where she was the front office manager.

'Debbie had been here for seven or eight years. We are still taking this in,' added the staff member, who did not want to be named. 'She never mentioned any personal issues in her life.'

In another twist, DailyMail.com can reveal that police had spotted the Pacifica  rented from Enterprise by the mom because her own vehicle was being repaired  unlocked and unoccupied beside the old logging road at 5pm the previous day.

But unoccupied cars were routinely spotted at that location, according to the report.

That was an hour before Collier's husband reported her missing in a call to Athens-Clarke County Police, according to the case report obtained by DailyMail.com.

The following day, the car was located in connection with the missing person inquiry at 12:28pm.

After various officers had arrived on the scene, the sheriff's office incident report reads: 'Deputy Forrester deployed his nationally certified tracking (human odor) K9 Zane.

It's unclear what occurred early on September 10, but the concerned family reported her as a missing person following a cryptic message to her daughter in the late afternoon

'They are not going to let me go, love you there is a key to the house in the blue flower pot by the door,' read the Venmo message sent to her daughter, Amanda Bearden, pictured right

According to the missing persons report filed a day before Collier was found, the mom had sent her daughter Amanda Bearden $2,385 via money-sending app Venmo along with a chilling last message

In the incident report obtained by DailyMail.com, officers described finding 'a nude female laying on her back, grasping a small tree with her right hand' in a densely wooded area

'He casted around the driver side door of the vehicle and pushed into the wood line on what appear to be a logging road.

'They pushed in casting for odor approximately 50 yards Northeast, could not establish any track, then casted South-Southeast. Zane was able to establish a track working South to Southeast away from Tallulah Gorge and away from GA 15.'

The officers and the K9 continued tracking in that direction for about a quarter of a mile where they soon spotted 'a red tote bag' near an uprooted tree and 'what appeared to be the remains of a fire.'

Further down the embankment they also spotted a 'blue object that appeared to be a tarp.'

As they got closer, Deputy Forrester noticed about 10 to 15 feet down a hill, a tan object, 'that as he approached he could tell was a human body,' the report states.

The officers described seeing 'a nude female laying on her back, grasping a small tree with her right hand' and immediately observed her 'to be obviously deceased, and identifying her as Collier.'

The remains were 'apparently burned with what appeared to be charring to her abdomen,' the report states.

The report also reveals daughter Amanda arrived at the scene and joined officers beside the Pacifica 'in a hysterical state.'

'Bearden began screaming that the vehicle belonged to her mother,' it states. Athens cops had notified her of the location after the Sirius XM ping.

Sergeant Neal and Officer Dakota Foster spoke to the distraught daughter 'in reference to Collier's mental health state, and briefly about her medical history'.

Collier was found 60 miles from the modest home she shared with husband Steven, 67, in Athens, Georgia

Collier's husband Steven reported her missing at 6pm on September 10 saying he had not seen her since 9pm the previous night

The gruesome discovery of Collier's naked and charred body was discovered close to Tallulah Gorge waterfalls

Bearden said 'her mother did not have any history of any mental health issues, and denied suicidal tendencies. She also stated that her mother had a bad back, and couldn't have walked far'.

Steven Collier told police in the missing persons report that he had not seen Debbie since 9pm on September 9 and that they slept in separate bedrooms 'due to his snoring'.

He said the Pacifica was still in the driveway of their home when he left for work the following morning.

Collier sent the money via Venmo to her daughter at 3:17pm, according to the report. And of the chilling accompanying message, it stated: 'Amanda said the message scared her and got her worried for her mom, so she tried calling her but she did not pick up.

'Amanda also informed that her mother did not take anything with her but her drivers license and debit card.'

Police have declared Collier's death a homicide but have not revealed any further details, including the names of possible suspects.

Cops hunting the killer or killers say there is no evidence to suggest Collier was kidnapped despite the cryptic text received by her daughter Amanda. They also say there is no evidence that Collier committed suicide.

Habersham County Sheriff's Office add that officers have 'executed several search warrants at locations tied to the victim and have conducted preliminary interviews of those closest to the victim'.

A statement said Debbie Collier's body was taken to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab for an autopsy. But no report of the results have been released, it adds.

The GBI told DailyMail.com is not involved in the investigation.
Eight of the staff and students on board remain in hospital after the smash

The schoolbus slid down an embankment after it was hit by a truck in Victoria

Loreto College, Ballarat have warned of an 'unapproved' fundraiser in their name

A school left rocked by a horror bus crash has warned members of the community against donating to 'unapproved' fundraising pages that claim to raise money for victims and their families.

Some 27 schoolgirls, a bus driver and four adult teaching staff were all taken to hospital on Wednesday when a truck collided with their bus in Melbourne's north-west.

Their school, Loreto College, Ballarat, took to social media on Friday to warn residents that a GoFundMe page had used their school logo without permission.

'Loreto College has been made aware that a Go Fund Me page has been set up using the College logo. Loreto College has NOT APPROVED any Go Fund Me accounts and cautions against these sites,' a school statement said.

The campaign is no longer available on the website. A GoFundMe spokeswoman confirmed it had been removed.

'Our Trust & Safety team is currently working with the organiser and are continuing to follow-up with support,' the spokeswoman said.

Loreto College took to social media to warn donors that a fundraising page created with their name and logo was not approved by the school (pictured)

A devastating collision between a school bus with 27 students on board and a truck has seen two seriously injured and rushed to hospital (pictured, the smashed bus at the bottom of a highway embankment with students' luggage littered about it)

'It's not uncommon for a resident or a member of the community to start a fundraiser on behalf of another individual or families. All donations raised by (the fundraiser) are being safely held while our Trust & Safety Team works to ensure the funds are transferred directly to the families.'

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, parents put their daughters on a bus bound for Melbourne airport for a school excursion to NASA 'space camp'.

Less than an hour later, parents learned their children had been knocked off the highway by a B-double truck and rescue teams were pulling them out from the wreckage.

Victoria Police Detective Inspector Roger Schranz said emergency services were in the process of clearing a separate truck crash from the highway when the truck and bus collided.

The truck and school bus collided about 3.15am on Wednesday, causing the bus to roll 50m down a hill and serious injuries to the truck driver and one teenage student (pictured, the front of the truck following the crash)

Eight of the the 31 students and teachers are still in hospital following the crash.

The school has thanked the Ballarat community for the amount of support they received in the wake of the accident on Thursday.

'Whilst our thoughts and prayers remain with all involved in the traumatic events that have taken place, we wish to thank the many members of the Loreto community, and the Ballarat community and beyond, who have reached out to offer their support,' the school wrote.

'The College and our students, staff and dfamilies have been overwhelmed and heartened by your kind words and actions of support.'
Two women prepping for a girls day in were shocked to find a massive red-bellied black snake curled up behind a floor lamp in a living room.

Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers owner Stu McKenzie was called to a home in Maleny, about 90km north of Brisbane in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, on Wednesday after a guest at the home discovered the snake.

Video shows Mr McKenzie pulling the snake out from behind the lamp before releasing it into the bush.

Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers owner Stu McKenzie was called to remove a large red-bellied black snake from a home in Maleny, Queensland (pictured, Mr McKenzie with the snake)

'It's one of the biggest red bellies I've caught in a long time, if not ever,' he said.

Mr McKenzie said the snake was between eight and 10 years old and noted large red-bellied black snakes aren't often seen inside homes.

He added the snake was fairly placid throughout the rescue.

The snake had curled itself up in the living room, behind a floor lamp, when it was discovered (pictured, Mr McKenzie pulling the snake from behind the lamp)

'What a beautiful snake this was! Notice how the snake was so calm and didn't feel threatened at all,' he said.

'The red belly was looking for a way out and ended up curling up in the corner of the room for an easy catch.'

Mr McKenzie urged anyone with a snake inside their home to contact a professional rather than try to catch it themselves, especially as drier weather sees more snakes head for the indoors.
Change is coming to Fitbit in 2023.

According to Engadget, with the 2023 update of Fitbit, it will require users to have a Google account in order to access the wearable. This means that in order to use the device, users would have to link it to their Google account.

Google Accounts will be Required in Order to use Fitbit

From 2023 onwards, the integration of Fitbit with Google is going to get deeper as Google Accounts will be required in order to use Fitbit.

According to 9to5Google, currently "Fitbit still continues to provide its products and services separately from Google."

However, in 2023, Fitbit will enable the use of the device with a Google account. This is revealed by Fitbit in its help page.

The integration of Fitbit with Google doesn't really come as a surprise after the tech giant acquired Fitbit for $2.1 billion in 2021.

Security for sensitive data such as health and fitness are seen as one of the benefits of the integration. Currently, Fitbit keeps its own login system with two-factor authentication done over SMS.

A Google log in option was already added, while the Facebook log in was removed by Fitbit last year.

In the upcoming 2023 update, users will be required to sign in using Google account for certain uses of Fitbit.

Newly released Fitbit devices and features could require users to sign in using Google account. This could happen with Fitbit's premium Wear OS 3 watch.

In addition, by early 2025 Fitbit will completely end support for the brand's accounts. When this happens, Google account will be necessary to use its fitness devices and smartwatches.

According to Fitbit, they will be transparent with their moves. They will also provide notification to the users of the exact date when the users need to move their Fitbit to their Google account.

As soon as the support arrives next year, the brand will include the option to move your current Fitbit device to a Google account.

Read Also: Here is What You Have to Know About Fitbit's Sleep Profiles Feature

Users Will be Required to Move Fitbit to Their Google Account by 2025

If you are currently using your Fitbit account right now, you can either move Fitbit to your Google account or to continue to use your existing Fitbit devices and services. This should work until Fitbit account is no longer supported.

According to 9to5Google, users can keep using their non-Google Fitbit account until early 2025. But afterwards, they would be needing to migrate to their Google account in order to use new device or health features.

Once the change rolled out, users will be given an option to "move Fitbit to your Google account."

According to Fitbit, Google made binding commitments with global regulators that users' health and wellness data will not be used for ads. Moreover, the said information will be separate from what the company send to advertisers.

According to Engadget, since the time it announced the acquisition of Fitbit, Google said that it will not be using Fitbit data for ad targeting.

Google made the commitment formally to the European Commission in 2020 to prevent any antitrust probe.

Related Article: Fitbit App Hints That Pixel Watch Will Have Short Battery Life
The mother of former defence minister Christopher Pyne has died at the age of 92.

Margaret Elsie Pyne died peacefully at Adelaide's Lourdes Valley aged care home at Myrtle Bank on September 12, just six weeks short of her 93rd birthday.

The mother of five and grandmother of 12 had been a widow since 1988, following the death of her husband Remington, an Adelaide eye doctor, at age 59.

Mr Pyne, the youngest of five from a Jesuit family, said his mother, who was also a Liberal Party member, had her 'faculties right through to the end'.

'If you're going to pass away, that's not a bad way to go,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'She was an engaging, erudite and fun-loving person and we very much enjoyed her being around and we'll miss her a great deal.'

'She devoted her life to her family, really.'

A death notice in The Advertiser newspaper said: 'Loved mother and mother-in-law of Remington, Nicholas and Annemarie, Alexander and Veronique, Samantha and Simon and Christopher and Carolyn.

'Loved grand mother of Remington, Henrietta and Alexa, Beatrice, George and Edwina, Sebastian and Sabine, Eleanor, Barnaby, Felix and Aurelia.

The mother of former defence minister Christopher Pyne has died at the age of 92. Margaret Elsie Pyne died in an Adelaide aged care home on September 12, just six weeks short of her 93rd birthday (she is pictured in 2019 with her son)

Mr Pyne retired from politics at the May 2019 election and that month used Mother's Day to note Margaret was almost 90

'A wonderful life, well lived.'

'The Matriarch. My mother Margaret. Still firing at almost 90. Happy Mother's Day,' he said.

Reflecting on her life on Friday, Mr Pyne said: 'She did sort of rule the roost keeping everybody in line and that's why she was the matriarch.'

Margaret Pyne married in 1956 and had lived in Italy and the United Kingdom where her husband Remington had worked as an ophthalmologist eye doctor.

After returning to Australia, she joined the Liberal Party during the late 1960s and was associated with the ideologically moderate side that later produced South Australian premiers Steele Hall, David Tonkin - a fellow ophthalmologist and family friend, Dean Brown and Steven Marshall, along with future federal cabinet ministers Amanda Vanstone and Robert Hill.

As a boy, Mr Pyne's mother took him out on the hustings to support Dr Tonkin, who had studied with his father, in his Adelaide seat of Bragg in the city's east.

'She was an active member of the Liberal Party, that's true,' Mr Pyne said.

'My earliest memory was handing out how-to-vote cards in Bragg for David Tonkin.'

Mr Pyne was first elected to Parliament in March 1993, at the young age 25, in the eastern Adelaide seat of Sturt after challenging long-serving sitting MP Ian Wilson, a former federal minister, for Liberal Party preselection.

But he didn't become a cabinet minister until 2013 having reportedly told future prime minister John Howard in 1995 that he was 'yesterday's man' when he was seeking support to replace Alexander Downer as Liberal leader.

A death notice in The Advertiser newspaper noted the widow died peacefully at the Lourdes Valley facility at Myrtle Bank. She died just three days after the Queen and had been a widow since 1988, following the death of her husband Remington, an Adelaide doctor, at age 59

Mr Pyne was the leader of the Liberal Party's moderate faction in South Australia and is in favour of Australia becoming a republic.

'She was definitely a supporter of mine,' Mr Pyne said of his mother.

He spent 14 years on the backbench before becoming a junior minister with the ageing portfolio in March 2007.

By that time, the Howard government had been in power for 11 years and lost the November election to Labor's Kevin Rudd.

Mr Pyne had to wait until September 2013 to become a cabinet minister, with the election of Tony Abbott's Coalition government, by which time he had been an MP for 20 years.

He was education minister from 2013 to 2015 before shifting to industry and science in September 2015 when Malcolm Turnbull became PM.

The South Australian became defence minister in August 2018 when Scott Morrison took over.

The South Australian became defence minister in August 2018 when Scott Morrison took over

After spending more than half his life as an MP, Mr Pyne retired from politics in 2019 and established Pyne and Partners as a registered political lobbyist.

His mother's death occurred just nine months after he lost his Saint Ignatius College school friend Christian Kerr, a journalist at The Australian who had helped him win Liberal Party preselection three decades ago.

'We were very good friends,' Mr Pyne said.

'Losing one's mother at the age of 93 is not unexpected; Christian Kerr was a good friend - 56 actually - that was very unexpected and obviously a real tragedy.'

Margaret Pyne's funeral is being held on Wednesday next week at the Saint Ignatius Catholic Church in Norwood.
A single IT programmer's mistake could have opened the door to a massive cyber attack on Optus that led to the personal details of up to 10 million customers being stolen.

The breach - the biggest in Australia's history - is believed to have let hackers access some customers' passport and driver's licence numbers, email and home addresses, dates of birth and telephone numbers.

The telco has said its investigators don't know who is responsible for the attack or the reason behind it - with the hack appearing to have come from several European nations at once.

But an Optus insider told the ABC that while the matter is still under investigation 'this breach, like most, appears to come down to human error'.

'(Optus) wanted to make integrating systems easier, to satisfy two-factor authentication regulations from the industry watchdog, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA),' the insider said.

In the process, the Optus customer identity database may have been opened up to other networks. This could have allowed hackers outside the company access to the Optus database.

Optus hit out at the ABC report as 'inaccurate'.

A massive cyber attack on Optus that potentially saw the personal details of up to 10 million customers be stolen could be due to the mistake of an IT programmer

The company's CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin confirmed payment details and account passwords had not been compromised but admitted she felt 'terrible' the breach had happened under her watch.

Ms Bayer Rosmarin also revealed that the IP addresses linked to the hackers had moved around various European countries. That sparked fears a powerful nation - such as Russia or China - or a sophisticated organised group could be to blame.

Nigel Phair, the director for the Institute for Cyber Security, said determining the culprit of a cyber attack was difficult to investigate.

'It may or may not (have come from Russia or another nation) but one thing I do know is cyber criminals are very good at hiding their tracks,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'It most likely is a group of people but it could be one person or more, they could be together in a room or all over the world.'

The Australian Federal Police is investigating.

Mr Phair added that he believed Optus knew much more than they were letting on, and could be providing more information to customers.

He added those who subscribe to the telco should be 'very worried'.

'It's probably going to be the worst data breach Australia has ever had,' he said.

The director for the Institute for Cyber Security at UNSW, Nigel Phair, said identifying those behind cyber breaches was one of the hardest things to investigate

'The amount of data criminals are able to get access to, it's as bad as it gets.'

While Optus has told customers their passwords were not stolen, Mr Phair pointed out that if hackers had other personal information such as email addresses and dates of birth, they would be able to change the passwords themselves.

The cyber security expert said he believed the attack was likely from a criminal group, who will try to monetise the information any way they can - including selling it on the dark web.

'Cyber attacks are common but their success is not so common,' he said.

'The problem is people affected can't do much. There's no one thing that you can do to make yourself more secure.

'All you can do is be hyper vigilant to anything unusual like text messages or phone calls coming through - really look for the unexpected.'

Optus says it does not know if a state-based actor - such as Russia (Vladimir Putin is pictured above) or China - or a criminal group of hackers were responsible for the attack

WHAT OPTUS HAS SAID ABOUT THE DATA BREACH How did this happen? Optus was the victim of a cyberattack. We immediately took action to block the attack which only targeted Optus customer data. Optus' systems and services, including mobile and home internet, are not affected, and messages and voice calls have not been compromised. Optus services remain safe to use and operate as per normal. Has the attack been stopped? Yes. Upon discovering this, Optus immediately shut down the attack. We are now working with the Australian Cyber Security Centre to mitigate any risks to customers. We have also notified the Australian Federal Police, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, and key regulators. Why did we go to the media first instead of our customers? The security of our customers and their data is paramount to us. We did this as it was the quickest and most effective way to alert as many current and former customers as possible, so they could be vigilant and monitor for any suspicious activity. We are now in the process of contacting customers who have been impacted directly. What information of mine may have been exposed? The information which may have been exposed includes customers' names, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, and, for a subset of customers, addresses, ID document numbers such as driver's license or passport numbers. Customers affected will be notified directly of the specific information compromised. Optus services, including mobile and home internet, are not affected. Messages, voice calls, billing and payments details, and account passwords have not been compromised. What should I do to protect myself if I suspect I am a victim of fraudulent activity? We are not currently aware of any customers having suffered harm, but we encourage you to have heightened awareness across your accounts, including: Look out for any suspicious or unexpected activity across your online accounts, including your bank accounts. Make sure to report any fraudulent activity immediately to the related provider. Look out for contact from scammers who may have your personal information. This may include suspicious emails, texts, phone calls or messages on social media. Never click on any links that look suspicious and never provide your passwords, or any personal or financial information. How do I contact Optus if I believe my account has been compromised? If you believe your account has been compromised, you can contact us via My Optus App  which remains the safest way to contact Optus or call us on 133 937 for consumer customers. Due to the impact of the cyberattack, wait times may be longer than usual. If you are a business customer, contact us on 133 343 or your account manager. How do I know if I have been impacted? We are in the process of contacting customers who have been directly impacted. Advertisement

Meanwhile, Ms Bayer Rosmarin said it was too soon to tell if the breach on Optus was a criminal or state-based attack.

'Obviously I am angry that there are people out there that want to do this to our customers, I'm disappointed we couldn't have prevented it,' she said.

'I'm very sorry and apologetic. It should not have happened.'

The data that was potentially stolen has been dated back to 2017.

Ms Bayer Rosmarin said the reported figure that 9.8million people had had their data breached was the 'worst case scenario', and Optus expected the number to be much fewer.

'It's a small subset of data, it does not include any financial details, it does not include passwords,' she said.

The AFP on Friday said they would work with Optus to 'obtain the crucial information and evidence needed to conduct this complex, criminal investigation.

'The AFP's specialist Cyber Command, will work closely with a number of agencies, including the Australian Signals Directorate.'
Anonymous man said it was a daily occurrence but in 40 years he had lived there he had never experienced anything like what was happening at the present time

This is the shocking moment three migrants 'bull-rushed' a Texas farmer's house and broke into his elderly grandparents' home as they tried to dodge Border Patrol.

The man, who has asked to stay anonymous, revealed several minutes of surveillance footage that saw three out of eight illegal migrants attempt to break into various properties within view before finally getting into one.

The video sees three immigrants running towards the street but then they suddenly turn back and attempt to gain access into nearby homes.

A farmer living alongside the U.S.-Mexico border has shared video of migrants attempting to break into his Texas home

At least three migrants could be seen attempting to see if doors were unlocked before eventually they were able to access the home of his elderly grandparents

The migrants hid in a kitchen pantry until Border Agents were on scene to take them into custody

'They tried to break into my house, that's locked. They tried to razzle-dazzle my porch and my laundry room door and that's locked,' the man says as he narrates the footage.

'Then they come running out and try my grandparents house and of course it's wide open and they hide behind the island in the pantry.'

Border patrol officers are quickly on the scene and then run in after them.

The farmer explained that such an occurrence was an almost daily happening on land the family had owned for 100 years, but on this occasion the migrants ended up barricading themselves inside the home.

It wasn't long before Border Patrol agents were on scene and managed to track them down

The anonymous man explained how the border fence with Mexico was just a few feet away

Anonymous man said it was a daily occurrence but in 40 years he had lived there he had never experienced anything like what was happening at the present time

'The video I posted was one video of hundreds that I have, or that happen daily. And it is a daily occurrence,' he told Fox News.

'These guys just bull-rushed our houses. I mean trying to open doors, trying to get in. Not everyone is that and I'm in agreement with that, but these guys were trying to get away and get into our houses. That was pretty bad.

'When they have zero respect and barge in your home on a Sunday at four o'clock in the afternoon when you're sitting down, rest and relaxing, recliner up and your door flings wide open and three people that you don't know just come running through the kitchen, it's unfathomable,' he went on to explain.

The homeowner, who is himself Hispanic but whose family has lived in the U.S. for several generations stressed how he did not see the issue as either Democrat or Republican but 'humanitarian'.

The man's elderly, 95-year-old grandfather, seen right, found the migrants in his kitchen pantry

Border Patrol were already chasing the migrants when they attempted to break in to locals homes in an act of desperation

'Biden (and) the Democrats are saying, 'America is open, come on over. Everybody cross, do what you want to do.' And then you have Abbott on the Republican side saying, 'Hey, come on over, we're going to give you a free bus ride up to New York and Chicago. Wherever you want to go.' That entices even more,' he said.

The anonymous man said that in the 40 years he and his 95-year-old grandfather had worked on the ranch, neither had experienced anything like what was happening at the present time.

'I feel that we're at an all-time peak right now. We're at the highest we've seen this. We've seen thousands of people cross through here, with no problem and all due respect (saying), 'Hey, we're just trying to get through no problem.' Go ahead. We understand that.'

Executive Associate Director for Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Corey Price made the stunning admission during a Sept. 9 deposition as part of a lawsuit by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody

This latest video comes as a A top Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official admitted under oath that his agency removed seven times more migrants under President Obama in 2012 than it does under President Biden.

Executive Associate Director for Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Corey Price made the stunning admission during a September 9 deposition as part of a lawsuit by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies.

'Director, ICE currently is removing less aliens from the United States than it has in the last decade, right?' Florida Chief Deputy Attorney General John Guard asked.

'I do not have the last ten years' data available. But it is less than at least the last four years that I have here,' Price replied.

Migrants from Central and South America wait near the residence of US Vice President Kamala Harris after being dropped off on September 15, 2022 in Washington, DC

From 2008 to 2016, ICE removed up to 400,000 aliens per year and never less than 230,000. In 2021 the agency removed only 55,598 aliens

'In 2012, a decade ago, under President Obama, ICE removed almost eight times or, excuse me, almost seven times the number of aliens than the Biden administration did in either 2021 or 2022, right?' asked the attorney.

'That appears correct,' said Price.

From 2008 to 2016, ICE removed up to 400,000 aliens per year and never less than 230,000. In 2021 the agency removed only 55,598 aliens.

Price also testified that ICE was detaining far fewer migrants under Biden in 2021 than it did under Trump in 2019.

'In 2021, ICE detained approximately 40 percent of the aliens than it did in 2019, right? And it's 50,000 to 19,254,' said Guard.

'That appears correct,' Price responded.

That's despite the fact there were nearly double the migrant encounters at the southern border in fiscal year 2021 that there were in 2019 - 1,734,686 to 977,509.

The latest Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data shows so far 2,150,638 encounters for 2022, with one more month to go in the fiscal year.

Venezuelan migrants walk along the U.S. Border fence after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico to turn themselves in to the U.S. Border Patrol on September 22, 2022 in El Paso, Texas

Meanwhile, a new CRC Research poll for the 85 Fund, a conservative group, found that a majority of Americans believe 'sanctuary cities' should have to help house unlawful migrants just as border towns do.

The poll, obtained by National Review, asked: 'In order to manage the influx of illegal immigrants crossing the border, the state of Texas has sent buses of immigrants to other states and sanctuary cities including Chicago, New York City, and Washington DC. Do you agree or disagree that sanctuary cities should have to share the burden of dealing with these illegals and not just the border states?'

Even a slight majority of Democrats - 51 percent - agreed, as did 78 percent of Republicans and 63 percent of Independents.

Recently Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made waves by sending two chartered planes of 50 migrants to Martha's Vineyard, a billionaire's enclave off Massachusetts.

Democrats decried the move, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom suggesting the Department of Justice investigate states potentially 'kidnapping' migrants to fly them to other states.

REVEALED: The shocking numbers that show the unprecedented impact of illegal immigration into America that should make EVERY politician wake up to the crisis  as exposed by TODD BENSMAN's expert analysis

Todd Bensman is Senior National Security Fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies and author of 'Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History.' He previously served for nine years as senior intelligence analyst for the Texas Department of Public Safety's Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division.

All it took was the arrival of 50 migrants on Martha's Vineyard to wake Democrats and the mainstream media up to the reality of America's historic and transformational immigration crisis.

Who knew?

All they needed was 19 months, dating back to the start of the Biden administration, to be wrenched out of their partisan fog to recognize the scope of this humanitarian disaster.

It's sickening, but here we are.

On Monday, The New York Times grudgingly ran a story that used the 'H' word to describe the 'historic pace of undocumented immigrants entering the country.'

It is a pace that would have struck generations of Democrats as totally unacceptable, until recently.

This week, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at long last released statistics from August showing the stark numbers: More than 2.15 million encounters with immigrants on the southern border, between October 2021 and August 2022.

The full reporting period, which runs through September, will probably end with 2.35 million encounters.

The Biden presidency could easily end with seven million or more new migrants in America  a population larger than the size of Los Angeles and Chicago combined.

By definition, an encounter happens each time a Border Patrol agent physically lays hands on an individual attempting to enter the country illegally, so one migrant may be countered multiple times.

These numbers are literally off the charts.

2.15 million encounters is the highest number since the Eisenhower administration started keeping records in 1960.

It's also up significantly from 1.7 million encounters during Biden's first term  and even that was a record at the time.

For comparison, between 2010 and 2016, Border Patrol handled less than 500,000 encounters and never topped 400,000 in 2011, 2012 and 2015.

All together Border Patrol's 17,000 agents have had to process immigrants approximately 4 million times since Biden became president.

And while millions were arrrested on the border, millions more got into America  and they will continue to do so.

The Biden administration itself has legally paroled some 1.4 million family members and unaccompanied minors into America bound only by the promise that they'll report to immigration authorities someday.

Add to that at least another 900,000 'gotaways,' which is a slang term once only used by Border Patrol agents to describe individuals who they suspect were able to evade capture.

The problem of 'gotaways' has become so pronounced that it is now part of the official lexicon.

Adding these two groups together, a total of more than at least 2.3 million illegal immigrants have entered America since Biden took office.

2.15 million encounters is the highest number since the Eisenhower administration started keeping records in 1960.

On Monday, The New York Times grudgingly ran a story that used the 'H' word to describe the 'historic pace of undocumented immigrants entering the country.' (Above) Migrants on the border in downtown El Paso, Texas, U.S., September 21, 2022

In this trend holds, and there's no indication that it won't, a second half of the Biden term could boost that number to some five million or higher.

If the administration follows through with its pledge to lift the Trump-era pandemic-related 'Title 42,' which sped the expulsion of migrants in the interest of public health, then as many as 540,000 migrants a month could pour in, according to intelligence community estimates.

In that case, the Biden presidency could easily end with seven million or more new migrants in America  a population larger than the size of Los Angeles and Chicago combined.

To put this unprecedented migration in even sharper perspective  consider that over nearly six decades, 12 million legal immigrants were admitted to the US through Ellis Island in New York City's Hudson Harbor.

At its peak, those numbers reached 1,004,756 in 1907, an average of 84,000 legal immigrants a month.

Under Biden, the average is 139,000 illegal immigrants per month.

Obviously, America has grown since the migrant waves through Ellis Island stopped, but the current period clearly rivals that transformational era in American history.

Ordinary Americans are already paying a steep price for this.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the immigration policy think tank Center for Immigration Studies, estimates the lifetime fiscal cost of the illegal aliens Biden has let in so far at more than $100 billion.

That's in addition to $140 billion a year taxpayers already bear for benefits and services to the longer-term illegal alien population.

But those aren't the only costs.

To put this unprecedented migration in even sharper perspective  consider that over nearly six decades, 12 million legal immigrants were admitted to the US through Ellis Island in New York City's Hudson Harbor. (Above) Migrants climb through a fence in the desert at the base of the Baboquivari Mountains after they were apprehended Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022, near Sasabe, Ariz. by U.S. Border Patrol agents

Probably the very area of civic life where most Americans will first and most viscerally experience the impact of the Biden border crisis will be in the schools.

A 1982 Supreme Court ruling required enrollment of minors in public school regardless of immigration status no matter the costs or hardships.

In Austin Independent School District, teachers held protests in April 2022 drawing attention to a 400-student influx of immigrant teenagers from Central American nations at its International High School and Eastside Early College High School campus. Teachers complained they were left to give instruction in hallways and conference rooms.

In and around New York City, a significant surge of 5,000 immigrant children flooded into four counties in a single 11-month span through August 2021, posing a $139 million additional burden on New York taxpayers to educate them.

This is the story all across the country. Health and Human Services reported that 107,742 unaccompanied children were released to sponsors inside the U.S from October 2021 to July 2022.

Los Angeles county took in 4,579 children, Florida's Miami-Dade county accepted 2,306 and Texas' Harris county absorbed 7,170.

It's impossible to determine from available public records exactly how many immigrant children have been enrolled in the nation's public schools.

But accounting for the surge of migrants under both the Biden and Trump administrations, probably close to two million have been added to the nation's 49.5 million students in public schools, a four percentage increase over four years, by my estimation.

Long before frustrated Republican governors tried to force northern Democrats to 'please, just pay attention to what is happening to all of us,' no one said a word about the roaring conveyor belt that had already bused and flown many hundreds of thousands of border-crossers to cities all over America.

That machine runs full-throttle even now, pouring a biblical Noah's Flood of foreign nationals into schools, homeless shelters, jobs and welfare lines across America.

Would liberal America just listen for a minute to what Republican governors are trying to say, they would know that millions more are on the way thus making an already-dire crisis that much more dire.

Perhaps, if they opened their ears and their eyes, they'd join with Republicans in a normal civil discourse about whether this permanent new condition is what everybody really wants.

And if it's sustainable.
CNN's Jake Tapper has been accused of 'kowtowing to the new bosses' and deliberately steering his program to the right, in a bid to win over CEO Chris Licht.

Tapper, the network's lead Washington anchor, was rewarded on Thursday by being named as the replacement for Chris Cuomo at the coveted 9pm primetime slot.

Tapper's new job begins on October 10, and will run for a month - but insiders believe he will likely become the permanent host.

Viewers and insiders noted that the 53-year-old had become decidedly more right wing, which they said was designed to appeal to Licht - who has said he wants to make the network less left-leaning and opinionated.

'Tapper is trying to survive,' said a media source, speaking to The New York Post. 'He's kowtowing to his bosses.'

Another added: 'He's very ambitious,' describing him as 'very hard-working' with a 'healthy ego.'

Jake Tapper, CNN's lead Washington anchor, will take over the 9pm slot from Chris Cuomo, who was forced from the network in December

Since taking the helm, Chris Licht (pictured), who headed Stephen Colbert's Late Show for six years, has demonstrated a desire to move away from opinionated reporting that became especially prevalent during Donald Trump 's election campaign and subsequent presidency

Viewers agreed.

'Now we know why Jake was sucking up to the new bosses. Quid pro quo,' tweeted one.

'Getting promoted for kissing up to the new right wing/Trumper overlords eh Jake?' said another.

One woman complained about the lack of 'real emotion' from anchors.

'Ever since the new owner came in the actual 'hard hitting' news hasn't been there,' she said.

'The real emotion they use to have is going away and it's trying to play the middle ground to get fox viewers. That's not how you get an audience. That's how you turn them away.'

Another said they had lost faith in Tapper after he tweeted a promotion of Jared Kushner's new book - a move seen by many as a pitch to Licht and his team.

'No thanks. I dropped CNN & Jake Tapper after his retweet promoting Jared Kushner's book.'

Tapper is described by insiders as ambitious and hard-working

Ratings for the hour have suffered since Cuomo's ousting in December, with the network failing to fill the slot long associated with the host.

Cuomo, pushed out for advising his brother Andrew during his sexual harassment scandal, is set to begin a new job anchoring for NewsNation in October.

His time slot has since been manned by a series of rotating hosts, but has failed to garner the numbers it did under 52-year-old Cuomo.

The shuffle comes days after CNN announced a 'reimagined' morning show featuring progressive anchor Don Lemon.

'The world has come to rely on Jake's no-nonsense approach to covering the news, especially during high-stakes election cycles,' said Licht in a statement announcing the shakeup.

'This move will showcase his tough reporting, smart analysis and consequential interviews as our audiences navigate the myriad of issues at stake in the midterms.'

Licht, who replaced also ousted boss Jeff Zucker last February, added that in addition to the 9pm change, anchor Alisyn Camerota and legal analyst Laura Coates will share the 10pm through midnight time slot - a post that will be left abandoned by Lemon.

'By adding the insights, experience and strong voices of Alisyn and Laura, we will advance and expand on that coverage, creating something complimentary and compelling in primetime,' Licht said.

The shuffle comes days after CNN announced a 'reimagined' morning show featuring famously progressive anchor Don Lemon - despite the new CEO's repeated pledges to move the network away from left-leaning commentary

While temporary, Tapper's new job - held by fired Chris Cuomo (pictured) until he was nixed for helping brother Andrew through a sex scandal - could become permanent if Tapper draws viewers

Since taking the helm, Licht, has demonstrated a desire to move away from opinionated reporting that became especially prevalent during Donald Trump's election campaign and subsequent presidency.

Insiders have since said that the longtime televisions exec - he headed Stephen Colbert's Late Show for six years until it was announced he was replacing Zucker - wants to return to the station's roots as a hard-hitting news source.

So far, Licht's tenure has seen a marked decrease in partisan panels featuring outspoken anchors such as former Trump aide Alyssa Farah.

However, the recent shakeup with Lemon - who has made no secret of his disgust for Trump - seems to contradict this effort.

CNN announced the change last week, revealing that Lemon will officially sign off from his 10pm-midnight block on October 7.

At that point, the network will launch its new morning program, which will be headed by Lemon, as well as co-anchors Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins.
A New York man went on a spree of sexual crimes after receiving a sweetheart plea deal in a rape case involving his teenage relative as Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg refused to throw him behind bars.

Justin Washington, 25, was given a light 30-day sentence and five years of probation after he pleaded guilty in August to a charge of coercion in his Manhattan rape case, though the charge carries a maximum penalty of 16 months to four years.

A teenage relative of Washington told police he raped her as the two watched television together.

A week before Washington was set to be sentenced for that, he engaged in a horrifying spree of sexual assaults with his last days of freedom that affected four women and one man.

Justin Washington, 25, is seen here after sneaking into a woman's apartment building where he attempted to rape her, among a series of horrifying sexual assaults

The rampage began at 8.20am when Washington snuck into an 18-year-old man's apartment window, put his hands in the man's underwear and gripped his buttocks

He was originally hit in February with charges of first-degree rape, first-degree sexual abuse and forcible touching and thrown in jail with a $25,000 cash bond, but those charges were later downgraded to third-degree rape.

Prosecutors did not believe they had enough evidence, and Washington was freed from jail on a $12,000 bond according to the New York Post.

The rampage began at 8.20am when Washington snuck into an 18-year-old man's apartment window, put his hands in the man's underwear and gripped his buttocks while asking 'Can I get a dollar, bro?'

When the victim offered a dollar, Washington refused the bill before saying 'Never mind, you're not understanding' before fleeing through the window.

Under an hour later, Washington reportedly made his way up the fire escape of an apartment building and began knocking on the window of a 26-year-old woman's apartment, who was home with her nine-month-old child at the time.

When the woman drew her curtains back, she was met with the horrifying scene of Washington masturbating on the fire escape.

30 minutes later he entered another woman's apartment in the same building and attempted to rape her, court records show.

He pushed the 49-year-old woman onto her bed, pulled up her nightgown and masturbated, once again asking 'Can I get a dollar?'

He pried the woman's legs apart and smelled them, but she bravely bit his hand and scratched him before knocking him on the head with a hammer, causing him to flee.

One NYC cop reportedly fumed 'The DA should be coming up with programs for victims, not criminals.' Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg is pictured here

Washington then went to another apartment building and managed to force his hand through a woman's bathroom window, grabbed her underwear and once again began masturbating.

The final victim of his reign of terror was a homeless woman sleeping in the lobby of an apartment building.

Washington was allegedly caught on surveillance cameras pulling down the woman's pants, touching her buttocks and masturbating, prosecutors say.

He was nabbed for the crimes two days later when NYPD's Bronx warrant squad picked him up at a homeless shelter and charged him for the spree including attempted rape, burglary, forcible touching and sexually motivated felony.

Despite the nature of his original crime against his relative, a spokesperson for Bragg's office defended the decision to offer Washington a plea deal.

'Our experienced sex crimes prosecutors conducted a thorough investigation and were in regular contact with the survivor's family throughout this case,' said spokesperson Emily Tuttle.

'Based on the evidence, we determined that this was an appropriate plea to spare the young survivor from having to testify, while holding Washington accountable for his conduct,' Tuttle continued.

But after Washington's terrifying crime spree, Tuttle said 'the investigation into this week's extremely disturbing allegations in the Bronx continues, we will determine whether to ask for a lengthier jail sentence.'

Cops were outraged about the incidents, with one Manhattan cop reportedly saying 'How does a man who rapes an innocent teenage girl walk the streets to sexually attack [five] more innocent [people], including a homeless woman?'

'These were very traumatizing crimes and he shouldn't have been allowed to walk the streets. What about the teenager?' another cop reportedly fumed, and added 'The DA should be coming up with programs for victims, not criminals.'
A police officer has snatched two women and a four-year-old boy from surging floodwaters in a bold, single-handed rescue operation.

Senior Constable Richard Hansen saved the trio from a submerged 4WD on a causeway in Bingleburra, 80km north of Newcastle on Thursday.

Footage of the daring recovery was captured on body-worn camera he had attached to the bullbar of his vehicle - as wild wet weather wreaked havoc on the region.

The brave officer waded into the rising waters with a safety line and took the child from a window, leading him to safety (pictured)

Senior Constable Hansen said he thought, 'holy moly, what's happened here', as he came upon the car occupants.

The trio's vehicle became waterlogged five metres from dry land, before the 'fantastic, country cop' took on the rising waters to get them out.

The 20-year veteran waded into the flooded causeway with a safety line and took the child from a window, leading him to safety.

He then returned to a 51-year-old woman clinging to the outside the car, whose foot had become trapped under a rock.

When he freed her she told the constable there was a 44-year-old woman in the car who had a pre-existing injury.

The trio's vehicle (pictured) became waterlogged on a causeway in the Hunter region in NSW during wild weather before the 'fantastic, country cop' took on the rising waters to save them

Detective Superintendent Wayne Humphrey told the media the situation could have had a very different outcome had Senior Constable Hansen not intervened (pictured, the officer guiding the boy to safety on Thursday)

He then used a winch attached to his police car to secure the immersed vehicle, before helping the other woman out.

The three were treated for shock at the scene but were not injured from the event.

The brave senior constable said it was important for him to remain calm as he went through the three-step rescue.

He took part in two deployments to Lismore this year, while it was being hit by devastating floods.

Detective Superintendent Wayne Humphrey told the media his message could have been a completely different one if the officer had not intervened.

The senior constable had been attending the emergency while the region was being rocked by heavy rainfall and storms, with floodwater warnings issued.

'He's humble, he's a fantastic, country cop and he saved those three peoples' lives,' Detective Sup Humphrey said.

The rescue came as a massive storm stretching across Australia's east coast threatened havoc on already flood-ravaged towns.

Several flood warnings were issued across New South Wales with south-east Queensland also in the firing line.

The rain has since eased but rivers in the area continue to rise.

The 20-year police force veteran (pictured, during the rescue) said it was important for him to remain calm as he paced through the three-step rescue

Residents of Lismore, who have been devastated by two flooding events this year, were being told to brace for more wet weather, with a minor to moderate flood warning issued for the town's Wilsons River.

NSW Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke warned on Thursday it was the start of a 'very long season' for flood conditions.

'We're facing challenges on multiple fronts with prolonged flooding through the west and north-west of NSW, renewed river rises in the Central West and southern parts of NSW,' she said.

'Now communities in the Northern Rivers, mid North Coast and North Coast who have been made flood weary over the past several months are facing an uncertain couple of days with weather conditions worsening.'
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A frightening video shows huge waves washing over Bermuda as Hurricane Fiona begins to batter the island on its way to Canada - just days after devastating Puerto Rico.

The video, taken by a Saildrone, shows the camera struggling to stay afloat as waves rocked back and forth, with a force strong enough to make any one seasick.

It comes as Fiona, a Category 4 storm, pounded Bermuda with winds up to 135 mph and 50 feet tidal swells after already killing five people two in Puerto Rico, two in the Dominican Republic and one in the French island of Guadeloupe before making its way to Bermuda, where residents are preparing for the worst.

They were seen Thursday boarding up windows and stocking up on groceries and flashlights as authorities opened up shelters and closed schools.

Terrifying video shows huge waves washing over Bermuda as Hurricane Fiona begins to batter the island on its way to Canada

A photo provided by the US Air Fore shows the power of the winds over the Caribbean island on Thursday as Fiona approached

As of Thursday afternoon, Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 130 miles per hour and was about 410 miles southwest of Bermuda according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

A hurricane warning remained in effect for all of Bermuda, home to more than 60,000 people, and the eye of the storm is expected to pass just west of Bermuda on Thursday night

As of Thursday afternoon, Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 130 miles per hour and was about 410 miles southwest of Bermuda and moving north-northeast at 13 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

A hurricane warning remained in effect for all of Bermuda, home to more than 60,000 people, and the eye of the storm is expected to pass just west of Bermuda on Thursday night, the center said.

Officials have now issued a travel warning, and warned U.S. residents that wish to leave the island to do so immediately before Fiona's grand arrival, according to the Bermuda Travel Advisory.

Premier David Burt even sent a tweet urging residents to 'take care of yourself and your family. Let's all remember to check on as well as look out for your seniors, family and neighbors.'

Hurricane Fiona, a Category 4 storm, is heading moving north-northeast into Canada at 13 mph

The projected path of Hurricane Fiona: The storm is estimated to hit Bermuda by Friday morning and Nova Scotia by Saturday

Bermuda's incoming storm is expected to bring heavy rain and flash flooding, along with 'pounding surf,' according to The Weather Channel.

As the storm approaches Bermuda, some residents have fled the island while others are sticking out the horrendous storm.

'Get yourself some batteries and water and couple cans of stuff,' one resident told Fox Weather. 'If the generator's running, now you should be okay.'

'We're lucky in that we have water for our home use is under our house in a tank,' another resident said. 'So as long as you have a bucket and a rope and you can dip your tank to use it for your household needs, you're all set to go.'

Others said that many residents have prepared their gas stoves or barbecues.

'We're always ready,' she said.

A man in Hamilton, Bermuda was seen boarding up a business as the threat of Hurricane Fiona lingers. The storm is currently a Category 4 threat and is swiftly moving towards Bermuda with winds up to 135mph

Scott Barnes, a fisherman, was preparing his boats by placing one off a cove with multiple anchors and sheltering two others. Pictured: a man preparing for Hurricane Fiona

A woman was seen in Hamilton, Bermuda walking into a boarded up clothing store amid the threat of Fiona

The Canadian Hurricane Centre, meanwhile, issued a hurricane watch over extensive coastal expanses of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. The U.S. National Hurricane Center also said Fiona should reach the area as a 'large and powerful post-tropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds.'

'It's going to be a storm that everyone remembers when it is all said and done,' said Bob Robichaud, warning preparedness meteorologist for the Canadian Hurricane Centre.

The storm is expected to reach northeastern Canada by Saturday and has been dubbed, 'One of Canada's Strongest Storms,' according to The Weather Channel. Rainfall is expected on Friday in Canada as the storm goes north.

Price Edward Island, central and western Nova Scotia and parts of western Newfoundland have received hurricane watch advisories. Those areas have also been advised to 'expect prolonged power outages, numerous downed trees, structural damage, washed out roads and significant coastal erosion.

The storm's effects are also anticipated to reach eastern Maine and New Brunswick, Quebec and Labrador.

Locals watched on Thursday as increasing winds pushed waves towards the south shore of Bermuda ahead of the hurricane

Hurricanes in Canada are somewhat rare, in part because once the storms reach colder waters, they lose their main source of energy. and become extratropical. But those cyclones still can have hurricane-strength winds, though with a cold instead of a warm core and no visible eye.

Their shape can be different, too. They lose their symmetric form and can more resemble a comma.

Robichaud said at a news conference that modelling projected 'all-time' low pressure across the region, which would bring storm surges and rainfall of between four to eight inches.

Amanda McDougall, mayor of Cape Breton Regional Municipality, said officials were preparing a shelter for people to enter before the storm arrived.

'We have been through these types of events before, but my fear is, not to this extent,' she said. 'The impacts are going to be large, real and immediate.'

Dave Pickles, chief operating officer of Nova Scotia Power, said it expected widespread power outages.

The hurricane has already destroyed the Dominican Republic, where Yesenia Martinez, and Dilicia Figaro are pictured picking up items scattered by the storm

In the Dominican Republic, more than a million people are without running water while just under 350,000 homes and businesses were without power

Hurricane Fiona tore across Puerto Rico while tearing bridges and lifting ocean water onto land

An estimated five people have died as a result of the storm passing through Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the Turks and Caicos Islands

Before reaching Bermuda, Fiona caused severe flooding and devastation in Puerto Rico, leading U.S. President Joe Biden to say Thursday that the full force of the federal government is ready to help the U.S. territory recover.

Speaking at a briefing with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials in New York, Biden said, 'We're all in this together.'

The president noted that hundreds of FEMA and other federal officials are already on the ground in Puerto Rico, where Fiona caused an island-wide blackout.

As of Thursday, more than one million homes and businesses were still without power, and more than 450,000 people remained without water service.

Fortunately, the pace to restore power to homes is faster than efforts performed after Hurricane Maria hit in 2017 when all 1.5 million homes were without power for a week.

The now-bankrupt Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority took 11 months to restore power to all customers. LUMA Energy, which now presides over the island's power, said 'full restoration could take several days.'

In the Dominican Republic, meanwhile, more than a million people are without running water while just under 350,000 homes and businesses were without power as of Wednesday.

Maj. Gen. Juan Mendez Garcia, director of the DR's emergency operations center, told CNN that more than 600 homes had been destroyed while some communities are without access to aid.

Fiona has already caused severe flooding and devastation in Puerto Rico earlier in the week. A man is seen here walking through a flooded street on Sunday

As of Thursday, more than one million homes and businesses were still without power, and more than 450,000 people remained without water service

An apparently angry woman is seen wading through a flooded street in Nagua, Dominican Republic

Neighbors in the Dominican Republic worked to recover their belongings after widespread flooding from the hurricane

A man in Wheelchair looks at a flooded road after the passage of hurricane Fiona in Salinas, Puerto Rico, on September 19

President Joe Biden announced Wednesday the approval of a major disaster declaration for the territory which will allow Puerto Ricans access to grants for temporary housing and home repairs in addition to low-interest loans to cover property losses.

'This ensures that our people will have access to additional help from FEMA to recover from the damage caused by this event,' Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi tweeted.

Complementing the president's efforts, New York City Mayor Eric Adams has deployed staff from city agencies to help Puerto Rican officials survey the damage.

'The team will include representatives from New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM), New York City Department of Buildings, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and the New York City Department of Design and Construction,' according to a news release from the mayor's office.

A satellite image shows how badly homes were flooded on Salinas Beach in Puerto Rico following the storm

Residents are seen here working to recover belongings from flooding caused by Hurricane Fiona in the Los Sotos neighborhood of Higuey, Dominican Republic on Tuesday

Children are pictured sitting on inflatable toys in the middle of the flooded streets as their families looked for the rest of their belongings

A man collects donated water bottles for drinking after Hurricane Fiona damaged water supplies in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico

Meanwhile, hundreds of people in Puerto Rico remained isolated by blocked roads five days after the hurricane ripped into the island. Frustration was mounting for people like Nancy Galarza, who tried to signal for help from work crews she spotted in the distance.

'Everyone goes over there,' she said pointing toward crews at the bottom of the mountain who were helping others also cut off by the storm. 'No one comes here to see us. I am worried for all the elderly people in this community.'

At least five landslides covered the narrow road to her community in the steep mountains around the northern town of Caguas. The only way to reach the settlement was to climb over thick mounds of mud, rock and debris left by Fiona, whose floodwaters shook the foundations of nearby homes with earthquake-like force.

At least eight of the 11 communities in Caguas were completely isolated, said Luis Gonzalez, municipal inspector of recovery and reconstruction.

It was one of at least six municipalities where crews had yet to reach some areas. People there often depend on help from neighbors, as they did following Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm in 2017 that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Danciel Rivera arrived in rural Caguas with a church group and tried to bring a little cheer by dressing as a clown.

'Thats very important in these moments,' he said, noting that people had never fully recovered from Hurricane Maria. 'A lot of PTSD has reared its head these days.'

His huge clown shoes squelched through the mud as he greeted people, whose faces lit up as they smiled at him.

It is estimated that Fiona dropped up to 30 inches of rain in some parts of Puerto Rico as more than 1,000 people are in shelters.

Members of the Puerto Rico National Guard rescue a woman stranded in her house in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona in Salinas, Puerto Rico

Residents affected by Hurricane Fiona are pictured resting in a storm shelter after the hurricane killed two on Puerto Rico

Members of the Puerto Rico National Guard distribute water in an affected community in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona in Ponce, Puerto Rico

Two deaths were recorded in the US territory as a result of the blackout, including one 70-year-old man who burned to death after filling his generator with gasoline as it was running and a 78-year-old man who inhaled toxic gases emitted from his own generator.

'The damages that we are seeing are catastrophic,' Pierluisi said. 'What we don't want is loss of life.'

President Joe Biden issued a message Monday to Puerto Rico: 'We stand with you and we will get through this together.'

Brown water rushed through streets, into homes, and even consumed an airport runway in southern Puerto Rico.

Roads were turned into raging torrents as Fiona also ripped up asphalt from roads and washed away a bridge in the central mountain town of Utuado that police say was installed by the National Guard after Hurricane Maria.

The storm also ripped off the roofs of several homes, including that of Nelson Cirino in the northern coastal town of Loiza.

'I was sleeping and saw when the corrugated metal flew off,' he said as he observed how the rain drenched his belonging.

Ada Vivian Roman, a 21-year-old photography student, said the storm knocked down trees and fences in her hometown of Toa Alta.

'I'm actually very anxious because it's a really slow-moving hurricane,' she said.

She said she is also worried about whether the public transportation she relies on to get to her job at a public relations agency will be operating by the time she has to go back to the office.

But in the Turks and Caicos, officials have reported minimal damage and no deaths, despite the eye of the storm passing near Grand Turk, the British territory's capital island.

'God has been good to us and has kept us safe during this period when we could have had a far worse outcome,' Deputy Gov. Anya Williams said.

As government officials have started visiting islands to make repairs, many areas across the territory are still without power as of Wednesday including Grand Turk, South Caicos, Salt Cay, North Caicos, and Middle Caicos.

A second storm passing behind Hurricane Fiona has now been upgraded to Tropical Storm Gaston as of Tuesday. A Puerto Rico National Guard truck is seen driving through a flooded street on September 19 looking for people to rescue

Meteorologists expect a tropical wave, which began to form Wednesday, 'is the most significant threat for the US mainland we've had this hurricane season.' A member of the Puerto Rico National Guard is seen wading through the flooded streets

Meanwhile, a second storm passing behind Hurricane Fiona has now been upgraded to Tropical Storm Gaston as of Tuesday, according to AccuWeather.com.

Gaston is not expected to be a threat to the Caribbean or to North America.

Meteorologists expect a tropical wave, which began to form Wednesday, 'is the most significant threat for the US mainland we've had this hurricane season.'

The tropical rainstorm has been designated Invest 98L by the National Hurricane Center and is located near the northcentral coast of South America.

'If the main brunt of the tropical rainstorm is able to avoid drifting over South America, it can evolve into a full-fledged tropical storm anytime through Friday while over the eastern Caribbean,' meteorologist Paul Pastelok said.

Should the storm continue to develop, the rainstorm would grow into a Category 3 hurricane that will pass toward the center of the Gulf of Mexico, AccuWeather predicts.

'At this early stage, U.S. interests from Miami to New Orleans should closely watch the evolution of this system,' Pastelok said.
The widow of champion snowboarder Alex 'Chumpy' Pullin has recalled the moment she 'knew' he had died in a spearfishing accident in a new memoir.

Ellidy Pullin said she was coming home from walking the couple's dog, Rummi, in the park on July 8, 2020 when she felt a sharp, stabbing pain in her chest.

Her husband was spearfishing at Palm Beach on the Gold Coast at the time when Ellidy said she experienced the sudden chest pain.

'The sharpness stopped me in my tracks, knocking the wind out of me and almost forcing me to my knees,' she wrote in her forthcoming memoir, Heartstrong.

'I clenched my heart and Rummi looked up at me as if to say, 'What the hell, Mum! Are you okay?'

'After 30 seconds, I was. I brushed the pain off as anxiety  maybe I needed more sleep, or some vitamins or a massage  and kept walking.

'Looking back, I think that was the moment Chumpy left this earth  the moment my heart shattered.'

Ellidy Pullin (left), the wife of Olympic champion snowboarder Alex 'Chumpy' Pullin (right), has recalled in a new memoir walking home from a park with her dog, Rummi, when she felt a sharp, stabbing pain in her chest - the moment she believes her husband died in a spearfishing accident

'Looking back, I think that was the moment Chumpy left this earth  the moment my heart shattered,' Ellidy said of the sudden chest pains she experienced as her boyfriend was spearfishing off Palm Beach on the Gold Coast

Ellidy Pullin said she will 'never forget' the look on a police officer's face at the beach on the day he died when she confirmed to him the type of tattoo Chumpy Pullin had on his torso

Pullin, 32, drowned that day. It's believed he was spearfishing by himself at an artificial reef at the beach when he was spotted on the ocean floor by a snorkeler.

He was a two-time boardercross world champion and had represented Australia at three Winter Olympics.

The excerpt was published in the Courier-Mail's Q Weekend magazine.

In January this year Ellidy recalled the moment she found out about the accident to the Australian Women's Weekly after a neighbour told her about 'an incident down at the beach'.

'Initially, I felt a bit of a shiver but I thought, 'It's not Chumpy, it can't be Chumpy',' Ellidy remembered.

'Then I went, 'No, I need to go down there.' I just didn't have a good feeling about it.'

She recalled arriving at the beach and telling a policeman that her partner was out diving.

She then confirmed to police Pullin had a large axe inked on his ribs when they asked if her partner had a distinctive tattoo.

Ellidy said she will 'never forget' the look on the police officer's face in response.

'The feeling was my heart shattering before my brain even knew. He obviously held his breath for a second too long and blacked out  He lost consciousness peacefully.'

In October 2021, 15 months after Alex's passing, Ellidy gave birth to their first child, Minnie Alex, conceived with sperm posthumously taken from the former Olympian

In her memoir Heartstrong, Ellidy recalls meeting Pullin at a 21st birthday party on Sydney's northern beaches where the future Olympic star arrived wearing a denim jumpsuit that made him look 'like a full-on mechanic, but hot'

In October last year - 15 months after Alex's passing - Ellidy gave birth to their first child, Minnie Alex, conceived with sperm posthumously taken from the former Olympian.

Ellidy said she had to 'hustle' to collect sperm from Pullin's body following his death.

'I didn't want Chump to just die and be gone. I felt this was bringing a part of him back,' she told AWW.

'We'd wanted a baby, and I couldn't think of anything I wanted more right then than a person I could love and cherish.

'Now that she's here, I just know that was so meant to be. I see and feel so much of Chump in her. I know I've done the right thing so wholeheartedly.'

'Having Minnie is a constant reminder of her beautiful dad in the best and most bittersweet way,' Ellidy told News Corp Australia.

'Life is so fragile, I do have my days but mostly I'm so motivated to live a full life and be the best parent I can be if not with Chump, then for him.'

In August she shared footage of herself and her then 10-month-old daughter dancing next to the stage as her close friend and Minnie's god father, Australian musician DJ Paul Fisher, performed at a huge party in Spain.

In the memoir she recalls meeting Pullin at a 21st birthday party on Sydney's northern beaches where the future Olympic star arrived wearing a denim jumpsuit that made him look 'like a full-on mechanic, but hot'.

'He didnt struggle or fight for air or choke with panic; he simply closed his eyes and didnt open them again,' Ellidy said, of the way she likes to think Chumpy Pullin left this life

The spark between the pair was instant. In 2017, they moved to the Gold Coast and bought a house at Palm Beach.

On the day he died, Ellidy reveals, Chumpy had planned to go surfing but instead decided to pursue his new obsession, spearfishing.

She said she would warn him to watch out for sharks but that the snowboarding champion told her the real danger was shallow water blackouts, when a diver blacks out at the end of a breath-hold dive.

Ellidy writes she did not fear for her partner because he was a professional athlete who she knew could hold his breath for a long time.

They shared a final hug as he backed out of the garage to head to the beach that morning.

Ellidy writes that she would warn Chumpy to watch out for sharks while he was doing his new obsession of spearfishing but that the snowboarding champion told her the real danger was shallow water blackouts, when a diver blacks out at the end of a breath-hold dive

'Having Minnie is a constant reminder of her beautiful dad in the best and most bittersweet way,' Ellidy said of their daughter

In August she shared footage of herself and her then 10-month-old daughter dancing next to the stage as her close friend and Minnie's god father, Australian musician DJ Paul Fisher, performed at a huge party in Spain

After she saw the policeman's response at the beach, she said she remembers thinking 'This is bulls***' because the couple had a busy day planned and his disappearance was inconvenient.

But when what had happened dawned on her, she fell to the floor of the surf club, crying and shaking. Her mother and brother went to see the champion's body after it was pulled from the sea.

'Mum told me later  much later  that theyd both said goodbye to Chumpy in the back of the ambulance,' Ellidy said.

'Mum hugged him and kissed him and told him how much we all loved him.'

While Pullin's death certificate lists his cause of death as drowning, his wife writes that she prefers to think of him simply going to sleep under the water.

'He didnt struggle or fight for air or choke with panic; he simply closed his eyes and didnt open them again.'

'I'm still finding it quite surreal that Chump has been gone now for two years,' she told The Daily Telegraph in July.

'I truly don't know if I'll ever quite comprehend how he was here one minute and gone the next.'
Protesters smeared fake blood on the Portuguese coat of arms, not the British

Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe gave a speech before the coat of arms was attacked

Demonstrators gathered on the national day of mourning for Queen Elizabeth

Fired-up Indigenous protesters smeared the wrong royal crest with fake blood during anti-monarchy protests in Melbourne led by Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe.

Thousands of protesters rallied against British colonisation in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra during Thursday's national day of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II.

The most dramatic scenes were in Melbourne - where demonstrators set fire to the Australian flag and smeared a royal emblem with red dye in a bid to bring attention to how Aboriginal people have suffered from British colonisation.

However, protesters demonstrating outside the building that houses the British consulate on Melbourne's Collins St unknowingly smeared the wrong royal emblem with fake blood - vandalising the coat of arms for the Portuguese monarchy.

Anti-monarchy protesters in Melbourne covered the Portuguese coat of arms in fake blood, not the British coat of arms (pictured, the Portuguese coat of arms covered in blood)

Protesters covered the Portuguese coat of arms (above) in fake blood during an anti-monarchy protest in Melbourne

It is understood protesters believed they were covering the British coat of arms in fake blood but actually vandalised the Portuguese coat of arms (pictured, protesters covering the Portuguese coat of arms in red dye)

The Portuguese monarchy which was disbanded in 1910 in favour of a republic.

Representatives for the building's managers were able to explain the presence of the coat of arms out the front.

Avowed monarchist and Victorian Liberal MP Tim Smith tweeted: 'I hate to break it to the protesters ... but 90 Collins St is not owned by the Commonwealth & the protesters bizarrely smeared fake blood on the royal arms of the now defunct monarchy of Portugal.'

Senator Thorpe was a leading voice in the protest, addressing the crowd with hands dripping with fake blood.

'The Crown has blood on their hands. Our people are still dying in this country every single day,' Ms Thorpe said.

'The Crown's boot is on our neck and we're sick of it.'

Federal Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe was a leading voice in the Melbourne protest and gave a speech before the Portuguese coat of arms was vandalised

Demonstrators gathered in Melbourne (above) to bring attention to how Indigenous people have suffered from colonisation, for which they see the royal family as a figurehead

Demonstrators in Brisbane set fire to the Australian flag (above) as part of anti-monarchy protests

Hundreds of protesters also gathered in Brisbane's CBD after marching from the Queen Victoria Statue.

One speaker at the protest said: 'Our message to England and the Monarchy is to f**king burn.'

'We don't need the numbers, we just need the passion,' another protester said.

Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe appeared dripping with fake blood at the anti-monarchy protest in Melbourne on Thursday

Protest signs called for reforms including the introduction of an Indigenous treaty, Australia to become a republic and for justice in response to reports of First Nations deaths in custody (pictured, a protester carrying the Aboriginal flag in Melbourne)

A banner at the protest read 'No Kings, No Cops, No Capitalists', carried by the economic-reformist group the Socialist Alternative.

Other protesters at the rally wore shirts calling for Australia Day to be abolished.

Demonstrators in Sydney gathered in front of the city's Town Hall and used speakers to address crowds from the building's sandstone steps.

Demonstrators gathered in Melbourne on Thursday (above) to protest the monarchy on Australia's national day of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II

Activist groups Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance (WAR) and Fighting In Solidarity Towards Treaties helped organised the nation-wide protests following the Queen's death.

'This is a stance against the continued crimes committed against marginalised First Nations, black, brown and Asian communities. We do not support benefactors or Stolenwealth (sic) and demand justice, truth and accountability for all. Justice for all,' WAR wrote on Facebook.

'This is a demonstration against racist colonial imperialism.'

Signs and banners at the protests called for reforms including the introduction of an Indigenous treaty, Australia to become a republic and for justice in response to reports of First Nations deaths in custody.
Antony Blinken has revealed the death of his 'inspirational' father Donald, 96, and said the former US diplomat and banker 'gave me a wonderful life.'

The secretary of state, who has been attending the annual UN General Assembly in New York, announced that his father had passed away in a series of tweets.

Donald Blinken died peacefully at his home in East Hampton, Long Island, a State Department official said.

Antony, 60, wrote on Twitter: 'My family lost a parent and grandparent, a source of love and inspiration - my father Donald Blinken.

'A member of the U.S. Army Air Corps, a U.S. ambassador, president of the Mark Rothko Foundation, (chairman of the board) of the State University of New York, dad served his city, state and country.

'Dad inspired me to public service. He lived with decency, dignity and modesty. He loved his wife Vera and his family. He built a wonderful life and gave me a wonderful life. I love you dad.'

Secretary of State Blinken, who has been attending the annual UN General Assembly in New York, announced that his father had passed away in a series of tweets. Pictured (L-R): Antony Blinken, Vera Blinken, Joe Biden and Donald Blinken at a Gala Awards in 2017

Due to his father's state of health, Antony, pictured at the UN General Assembly yesterday, canceled several events that he was due to attend at the event last night

Donald Blinken died peacefully at his home in East Hampton, Long Island, a State Department official said. Pictured: Antony pays tribute to his father

Due to his father's state of health, Antony canceled several events that he was due to attend at the UN General Assembly Thursday night.

Today's schedule will be adjusted to account for family commitments, the State Department official said.

Donald was born in New York and served in the Army Air Corps in World War Two.

In 1948, he graduated from Harvard with a degree in Economics, and in 1966, he co-founded the investment banking firm EM Warburg, Pincus & Co.

Today's schedule will be adjusted to account for family commitments, the State Department official said. Pictured: Antony at the UN General Assembly

From 1976 to 1989, Donald was president of the Mark Rothko Foundation.

Donald had been the chairman of the State University of New York system from 1978 to 1990.

He was the US Ambassador to Hungary from 1994 to 1997, during the Clinton administration.

Donald was given the US Department of Defense Award for Distinguished Public Service.

And he was the first US ambassador to gain the highest civilian honor in Hungary.
Actors Kim Sun-a, left, and Ahn Jae-wook pose during an online press conference for JTBC's new series "The Empire," Thursday. Courtesy of JTBC



By Lee Gyu-lee



Actress Kim Sun-a is returning to the small screen as a privileged, high-class prosecutor in JTBC's new legal crime series, "The Empire," set to air on Saturday. Her last appearance in a TV drama was in the 2019 SBS drama series, "Secret Boutique."



"The series' script is written by actual lawyers. So when I first got the script, I found it was very realistic and had the details only people in the legal world would know. I learned that (the script) came after years of development and effort," Kim said during an online press conference for the series, Thursday.



Led by director Yoo Hyun-ki, who helmed the 2018 rom-com "Matrimonial Chaos" and the 2011 medical series "Brain," the new series follows the scandal and dark secrets of a wealthy, privileged family with a deep law background.



Kim plays the daughter of the family, Han Hye-ryool, who leads a special investigation team at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office. Her whole family works in the legal field  a law professor mother, a lawyer father, who runs the biggest law firm in Korea, and a law professor husband Na Geun-woo (Ahn Jae-wook) who is a potential presidential candidate.



Despite Kim's background, she has always felt the pressure to meet up to her family's high standards and wanted to break free.



Kim, who has never played a prosecutor in her previous works, said that she found herself being more drawn to the series as the script unfolded.



"The biggest reason (I took the role) is the script  The overall sentiment (of the series) was very unique. Reading from the first episode to the second and then to the third, I would have more questions (on the story)," she said. "It was very intense but I would get so curious about what happens next. I fell for the thrill that the series gave. It has amazing, cliffhanger endings."



Kim said that she had a hard time memorizing the legal terms for the series.



"The legal jargon is difficult. So I just kept practicing by reading, memorizing and repeating. I read the script so many times. I feel like I've studied harder than I did in school," she said.



Aside from Kim and Ahn, the series also stars a number of veteran actors Shin Goo, Lee Mi-sook, and Song Young-chang, as Hye-ryool's family.



She said that working with them has encouraged her to put more effort into portraying her character.



"I came to work with these senior actors whom I used to watch on TV growing up. And seeing them working so hard (in making the scenes), I just had to work harder and would think that to myself every day," she said.



"The Empire" airs Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 p.m. on JTBC.


A new lead has raised hopes of a breakthrough in the hunt for the body of murdered British backpacker Peter Falconio just hours after his mother begged for help.

Mr Falconio, 28, was shot dead by drug-runner Bradley Murdoch in 2001 who then tried to abduct his girlfriend Joanne Lees before she escaped and raised the alarm.

But the backpacker's body has never been found - and his mother pleaded on Friday for 'anyone with a conscience' to help locate his remains.

Now a possible new witness has come forward to reveal he spotted a ute like the killer's parked 'in an odd place' by a culvert and a bridge 24 hours after the murder.

A new lead has raised hopes of a breakthrough in the hunt for the body of murdered British backpacker Peter Falconio (seen here with girfriend Joanne Lees) just hours after his mother begged for help.

Peter Falconio was shot dead on a remote stretch of the Sturt Highway, 300km north of Alice Springs, and girlfriend Joanne Lees hid in the bush until killer Bradley Murdoch fled the scene

The new sighting has raised hopes it could lead to the discovery of the backpacker's remains and end the 21-year-old mystery.

The startling new evidence was revealed after South Australian politician Frank Pangallo demanded a $1million reward for information leading police to the body.

'I received an email this morning from somebody who was in the area the day after the murder,' the SA-BEST member of South Australia's legislative council revealed.

'He said he had spotted a vehicle that was similar to the one that Murdoch was using and it was parked on the side of a road near a culvert and a bridge.

A possible new witness has come forward to reveal he spotted a ute like the killer's parked 'in an odd place' by a culvert and a bridge 24 hours after the killing (pictured, police roadblocks in the wake of the 2001 murder)

'He remembered going past it and saying it was unusual that the the driver was parked in that position. He did alert police at the time but heard nothing more.

'I'll certainly pass that on to police to see if they'll go there in person to check it out.'

The stunning development came just hours after Daily Mail Australia revealed police had mounted a five-day search of an outback well in 2019 in the hunt for the remains.

They pumped 15m of water out of the remote waterhole, just 1km from the murder scene near Barrow Creek, 300km north of Alice Springs, but sadly found nothing.

Now Mr Falconio's parents Joan, 75, and Luciano, 80, have appealed for fresh information to keep the hunt alive for their son's remains.

Parents Joan, 75, and Luciano Falconio, 80, have appealed for fresh information to keep the hunt alive for their son's remains

'We want to bring Peter home where he belongs near his family,' his mother said. 'Our pain is always with us. He was murdered 21 years ago, aged just 28 years.

'His life stopped on a lonely road - the Stuart Highway on July 14, 2001. Shot dead by cowardly Murdoch, who will not reveal where or what he did with him.'

She added: 'Peter has a beautiful niece and two lovely nephews who he never got to see or know.

'I am appealing to anyone with a conscience to help me - however small - to tell me where he was put.'

The startling new evidence was revealed after South Australian politician Frank Pangallo (pictured right) demanded a $1million reward for information leading police to the body

Mr Pangallo revealed he had been in contact with the family for the last three years since covering the intriguing case years earlier as a reporter on Today Tonight.

He has now demanded Northern Territory Police offer a $1million reward to tease out new leads to follow up.

And he believes it could be enough to persuade Murdoch's shady criminal mates to break their code of silence and tell police where the body was dumped.

'It is a last roll of the dice,' Mr Pangallo said on Friday. 'His mother didn't want the matter to stay cold and wanted it to be brought into the public domain again.

'What's haunting them and has haunted them for the past 21 years is not knowing where his body is - and it will continue to haunt them until they get answers.

'It's crucial new information does come forward to put an end to the suffering that the Falconio family have suffered for so many years.'

The renewed appeal comes in the week when Peter Falconio (pictured with Joanne Lees in their campervan) would have turned 50 last Tuesday

The renewed appeal comes in the week when Mr Falconio would have turned 50 last Tuesday, but police are no closer to knowing where his body was dumped.

Murdoch was convicted of the murder and is now serving life in Darwin Correctional Centre - but he has refused to give up where he dumped Mr Falconio's body.

He could be eligible for parole in 10 years but will never walk free without revealing the location under the NT's 'no body no release' laws.

Police believe he hid the remains somewhere in the sprawling desert between Alice Springs and Broome, 1,700km away in Western Australia.

Bradley Murdoch is believed to have hidden the remains somewhere in the vast expanse of the Tanami Desert between Alice Springs and Broome, 1,700km away in Western Australia

'The Tanami desert is a vast expanse,' said Mr Pangallo.

'It's believed that Murdoch, after filling up in Alice Springs that night, he would have fled to Broome and gone through the Tanami Desert.

'There's any any number of locations where he could have dumped the body. But he would have been panicking at that point, knowing police were searching for him.

'And who knows - he may have disposed of the body earlier, which is why we want the well to be searched near Barrow Creek.'

Peter and girlfriend Joanne Lees were in a campervan when they were pulled over by drug-runner Bradley Murdoch who shot Mr Falconio and tried to abduct Ms Lees

He added: 'Murdoch could well spend the rest of his life in prison.

'He knows what happened. And he knows where he put the body and one wishes that he had some sort of conscience and came forward.

'It's what Mrs Falconio said in her email to me - she had hoped that Murdoch had some conscience and would would reveal what he had done with Peter's body.

'Murdoch hasn't got the guts to confess to his cowardly crime and he should rot behind bars if he's unwilling to tell the truth about what he did or where he left Peter.

'Somebody must know where Peter is or might have some information or recollection that could be useful to police, no matter how insignificant they might think it is.

'Joan, Luciano, Peter's brothers - Mark, Nicholas and Paul  and their families deserve closure after all these years of grieving and uncertainty.

'She just hopes that no one forgets about Peter Falconio.'
Climate change is exacerbating the process with sea levels climbing at 'fastest rate for nearly three millennia'

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Some of England's most prominent castles which have stood for hundreds of years are at risk of being damaged by climate change, English Heritage has warned.

The charity described the rate of land lost over the last few years as 'alarming', warning that sea levels are now rising at their fastest rate for nearly three millennia.

The charity has now launched a multimillion-pound fundraising appeal to fund works to halt the damage to the sites it manages.

Rob Woodside, director of estates at English Heritage, said: 'Erosion along England's coastline is nothing new but the rate of land loss that we have seen over the past few years is alarming, and some scenarios indicate that sea levels could increase by up to a metre by the end of the century.'

He continued: 'To give this some context, last century sea levels rose by 14cm along the southern coast of England.

'Climate change is accelerating the issues faced by our coastal heritage and creating huge challenges for organisations like English Heritage seeking to protect it.'

Mr Woodside added: 'Rising sea levels and more regular storms pose a real risk to the future of many of our sites.'

These are the six sites that English Heritage says are most at risk...

Piel castle was built by monks who had built up a power base in the region and needed a safe place to protect their treasures

According to English Heritage, sea levels are now rising at their fastest rate for nearly three millenia and is increasing the pace of coastal erosion to 'alarming' levels. As a result, Tintagel Castle (pictured) and other sites are at risk of being lost

Tintagel Castle

Tintagel Castle has been inhabited since the late Roman period, but it was not until the 12th century that chronicler Geoffrey of Monmoth claimed it was where King Arthur was conceived.

His mythological account of the history of the kings of Britain - Historia Regum Britanniae - thus cemented the site's place in the national imagination.

Pictured: Tintagel Bridge connects the mainland with the island where the Arthurian Legend of Camelot was imagined

English Heritage has launched a fundraising appeal to fund works to halt the damage and preserve them for future generations. Pictured: Rob Woodside (right), director of estates, surveying the finished revetment sea defences at Tintagel

Passages in Monmouth's book depict how Arthur was conceived at the castle by Uther Pendragon, King of Britain.

The king allegedly used magic potion to turn into the Duke Gorlois of Cornwall in order to seduce his wife, Queen Ygerna.

It is thought this racy legend inspired Richard, Earl of Cornwall, to start building a castle there in the 1230s.

English Heritage said the site has always battled with erosion, with parts of the castle already falling into the sea by the 14th century.

But it said recently parts of the cliff directly in front of the visitors centre had been lost, affecting the viewing area and the coastal path.

It is hoping to raise 40,000 to repair this and the damage caused by last winter's storms.

Built half on the mainland and half on a jagged headland projecting into the Cornish sea, Tintagel Castle is an impressive site with history stretching back centuries and is known for its associations with King Arthur.

Sections of the site are at risk from coastal erosion and parts of the cliff situated in front of Tintagels visitor centre have already been lost, affecting the viewing area and coastal path.

Hurst Castle

Located on the Hurst Spit, Hurst Castle is an artillery fort originally built by Tudor King Henry VIII between 1541 and 1544 to form part of the king's Device Forts coastal protection against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire.

The early castle had a central keep, three bastions and by 1547 was equipped with 26 guns and, during the English Civil War, Charles I was detained here before his execution.

By 1660, Charles II was on the throne and as the castle had fallen into disrepair, he considered demolishing it, but instead it was turned into a military base.

Hurst Castle was built by King Henry VIII between 1541 and 1544 to form part of the king's Device Forts coastal protection

 Slide me  Hurst Castle in Hampshire, an artillery fortress built by Henry VIII, saw a huge section of the 18th century east wing collapse in February 2021 after the sea undercut its foundations. Pictured before (right) and after (left) the collapse of the east wing

Into the 17th and 18th centuries, Hurst Castle was used as a rendezvous for smugglers on the coast.

Repairs were undertaken ahead of the Napoleonic Wars in 1803 and the castle was modernised to enable it to hold more advanced 24-pounder and 32-pounder guns.

Hurst Castle formed part of the coastal defence network around the Solent during the First World War and Second World War.

In 1956, the fort was decommissioned and is today run by English Heritage and Hurst Marine.

In February 2021, the castle's east wing collapsed into the sea after its foundations were eroded. As part of efforts to defend the castle, 5,000 tonnes of granite boulders have been put in place to form a barrier.

English Heritage said work to stabilise the damaged section has been completed, but warned the sea walls around the original Tudor fort are also in urgent need of repair at an estimated cost of 160,000.

Piel Castle

Piel castle was constructed by Cistercian monks who had built up a power base in the region and needed a safe place to protect their treasures from Scottish raiders.

In 1487, the castle then became the base for the enemies of the newly crowned Henry VII, who had just seized power.

Seeking an alternative ruler, they put forward the 10-year-old Lambert Simnel, whom they claimed was the young Earl of Warwick  the rightful heir to Edward IV.

Historic: The 14th century castle (pictured) was once used as a base by a 10-year-old Yorkist pretender to the English throne

After he was crowned king in Dublin, the rebels brought him back to Piel Island accompanied by thousands of Irish soldiers and Flemish mercenaries.

However, when English support failed to arrive, the group were thrashed at the Battle of Stoke Field.

Henry then pardoned Simnel because he was so young and he was sent to work in the royal kitchens.

The castle, which stands on a rapidly eroding island around half a mile from the coast of Morecambe Bay, then fell into ruin but the island itself became an important trading post, as well as a hub for smuggling.

In recent years, English Heritage said the sea banks and modern gabion sea defences, loose stones shaped into blocks by wire cages, had been undermined by coastal erosion, costing at least 25,000 to repair.

Bayard's Cove Fort

This castle was built in the early 16th century by the townspeople of Dartmouth to protect the town quay and guard the narrow entrance to the Dart estuary as the last line of defence against attack from the sea.

Originally, the fort had eleven gunports for heavy artillery and was intended to engage enemy vessels that broke past the external defences of the Dartmouth and Kingswear castles.

When Dartmouth eventually came under attack  during the English Civil War  the enemy came not, as expected, from the sea, but from the land.

Bayard Fort Cove, vulnerable to flooding, was built in the 16th century by the people of Dartmouth to protect the town quay

Dartmouth declared for Parliament but was captured in 1643 by a Royalist force under Prince Maurice, Charles Is nephew, after a months siege.

The Royalists built new gun forts on the hilltops overlooking Dartmouth and Kingswear, but in 1646 they surrendered to the Parliamentarian New Model Army after a brisk assault under cover of darkness.

During the 18th century, Dartmouth went through a period of decline and, although briefly adapted as a machine gun post in 1940, was never tested in a naval assault and has been in the care of English Heritage since 1984.

It is situated on a terrace cut from the rocky river bank, making it vulnerable to flooding, English Heritage said.

Garrison Walls

On the island of St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly, the Garrison Walls are also at risk.

The walls, which were built in the 1550s to strengthen the island's defences after the attempted invasion by the Spanish Armada, have 'pinch points' which take the full force of the tide and make them vulnerable to erosion.

Although a second threat from the Spanish never materialised, during the English Civil War the Royalists initially held the Isles of Scilly, and in March 1646 the future Charles II stayed on the island for a few weeks before slipping away to the safety of Jersey.

On the island of St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly, the Garrison Walls (pictured), which date back to Tudor times, are also at risk

The Royalists surrendered to Parliament the following September, but after a revolt two years later the Garrison again became a Royalist stronghold, and a base for up to 800 men.

Through the 17th and 18th centuries, the Garrison Walls remained a defence against possible French or Spanish invasions and became a military base for troops during the First and Second World Wars.

During the Second World War, in particular, the Garrison was an important signal station with pillboxes constructed within the 18th century batteries and large numbers of servicemen stationed there.

English Heritage says the fort is vulnerable to severe erosion, rising sea levels and encroaching tides which are putting the impressive walls at risk. The charity says it needs 15,000 to install essential sea defences.

Calshot Castle

Just down the coast, Calshot Castle - another of Henry VIII's fortifications - is battling erosion, but its low lying site also puts it at risk from flooding as sea levels rise.

The castle was constructed between 1539 and 1540 to form part of the King's Device programme to protect against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire.

It served to defend Southampton Water as it met the Solent and was initially heavily armed with a garrison of 16 men and as many as 36 artillery guns.

The castle continued in use for many years, surviving the English Civil War intact and being extensively modernised in 1770s.

Calshot Castle - another of Henry VIII's fortifications - is battling erosion, but its low lying site also puts it at risk from flooding

During the First World War, Calshot Castle was primarily used as a base for seaplanes, deployed on anti-submarine patrols in the English Channel. After its guns were removed for use in France, it was re-armed at the outbreak of the Second World War to defend against a possible German invasion.

The castle was finally closed in 1961 and was opened to the public by English Heritage in the 1980s.

Mr Woodside said: 'Hundreds of heritage sites in the UK and around the world are increasingly at risk.

'If these coastal properties are to survive the coming decades, we will need to strengthen their walls and build sea defences to protect them.

'It is for this reason that we are launching a public appeal to raise funds for this vital conservation work.'

To help support English Heritage's fundraising campaign, click here.
Peter FitzSimons' republican group has puzzled Australians with a peculiar, lizard-centric social media post - as it launches a new push for the country to sever ties with the monarchy.

The Australian Republican Movement, chaired by the Sydney-based commentator and author, called on Australians to 'think about the nation's future' in a tweet featuring a picture of the iconic outback lizard, the Thorny Devil, on Friday.

The organisation posted: 'We now have a King of Australia. Charles is not one of us and we did not choose to be our Head of State. We hear you and agree the concept of an Australian King is both unsettling and foreign. Now is the time for us to think about our nation's future.

But it was the odd photo selection of the Australian lizard sitting on a sand dune accompanying the post that piqued the attention of readers.

The Australian Republican Movement, chaired by the Sydney-based commentator and author, called on Australians to 'think about the nation's future' in a tweet featuring a picture of the iconic outback lizard, the Thorny Devil, on Friday

Peter FitzSimons' (pictured with wife Lisa Wilkinson) Australian Republican Movement has ramped up their campaigning following the death of the Queen

Given some of the nutty conspiracy theories that abound the use of the lizard imagery is not smart at all. It seems to be leaning into that. #auspol #AusRepublic https://t.co/mg1GyU8NcS  Michael Byrnes (@MichaelByrnes) September 23, 2022

One Twitter user was so exasperated by the post he quipped: '(I am) increasingly convinced they're a monarchist front.'

A cyber-security entrepreneur couldn't wrap his head around the choice of mascot.

'Struggling to figure out the visual metaphor here...long live the lizard king? Don't tread on me? Aussie wildlife is bada** and sometimes its just fun to point that out.'

One journalist read deeper into the iconography.

'An inspired decision to make the majestic Thorny Devil the official mascot of the republic movement,' wrote Josh Butler.

Others made cracks about 'lizard people'. In science-fiction and radical conspiracy theories, the idea that 'lizard people' secretly possess major world leaders is a widely used trope.

One jokester retweeted the post, saying: 'Are they seriously suggesting we just go with a different kind of reptilian as our head of state?', retweeting the post.

One Twitter user was so baffled by the tweet he suggested the ARM were actually a monarchist front

what does this picture MEAN https://t.co/8iVhJH7ez5  cammyboo KC (@cameronwilson) September 23, 2022

Sandy Biar, the CEO of the Australian Republican Movement, told Daily Mail Australia any connection drawn between the image and reptilian conspiracy theories was 'absurd'.

'The image obviously had nothing to do with those conspiracy theories.'

She said the movement was ramping up operations after respecting the mourning period for the late Queen and her service to the country.

'However, we now have a new King that we didn't choose, who has resumed his duties as King.

'Charles III is now carrying on with business as usual and it's now time that as a nation, we had a serious discussion about our future and why we should be independent from the British Monarchy,' Ms Biar said.

'Our Head of State should be an Australian, chosen by Australians and accountable to us.'

The Queen was much-loved during her reign but many pro-republican Australians have hoped that the country's attachment to the monarchy would break after her passing.

But instead of growing support for the monarchy, recent polls conducted by Yougov and Roy Morgan in the wake of the Queen's passing show the majority of Australians want the country to remain under a royal Head of State.
Police allege he also made attempts to meet up with at least one child for sex

He posed as a 14-year-old boy online to try to gain child exploitation material

The man was returning home from overseas when he was arrested by police

The 30-year-old man was arrested at Brisbane Airport for grooming teen girls

A 30-year-old man has been arrested as he returned from overseas for allegedly grooming children online while posing as a 14-year-old boy.

He was arrested on Thursday at Brisbane Airport after being stopped by Australian Border Force officers.

Police allege the man posed as a teenage boy to entice young girls to send him sexually explicit material and also made attempts to meet at least one child for sexual intercourse.

A 30-year-old man has been arrested as he returned from overseas at Brisbane Airport for grooming children online posing as a 14-year-old boy

Police allege the man posed as a teenage boy to entice female children to provide child exploitation material and made attempts to meet at least one child for sexual intercourse

He was charged with possessing child exploitation material and grooming a child under 16 to engage in a sexual act.

He was also charged with using the internet to procure a child under 16, intentionally meeting a child and two counts of exposing a child under 16 to indecent matter.

He was taken into custody to appear at the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday.

Detective Inspector Glen Donaldson of Argos said despite everything taught to children about online safety they are still actively engaging in unsafe practices such as sending intimate images of themselves and speaking with strangers online.

'Research by the Commonwealth eSafety Commissioner has identified that 1 in 4 children have been approached by a stranger online. This is extremely concerning and highlights the need for parents to be aware of their child's online footprint and to speak with their child about online safety,' Det Donaldson said.

'Supervision is the key to prevention, as is ongoing communication with children about how to stay safe online and the dangers of having online 'friends' they have never met face-to-face.'

Detective Donaldson encouraged parents to continue to educate their children and have conversations about online safety and what to do if they feel unsafe.
Armed police are going door-to-door while gun-toting mercenaries are guarding polling stations as Russian stages sham referendums in occupied Ukraine.

'Voting' is now underway in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions on whether or not to become provinces of Russia - with the results fixed by Moscow.

But, just to make extra sure, Kremlin officials, military police and hired guns are keeping a careful eye over the process - with Ukrainian politicians reporting that they are kicking front doors in to force people to cast their ballots.

Serhiy Haidai, governor of occupied Luhansk, said some towns under Russian occupation have been entirely sealed off to ensure people vote - with any crosses in the 'no' column recorded in a 'notebook'.

Meanwhile state media has reported an unfeasibly high 97 per cent of people in two of those regions - Donetsk and Luhansk - are in favour of joining Russia.

Ballot boxes have also been opened across Russia itself, ostensibly to allow displaced Ukrainians to vote, but in reality offer more opportunities for vote rigging.

Russian military police, armed with rifles, accompany election officials into an apartment block in occupied Ukraine as referendum 'voting' gets underway

Election officials carrying a clear ballot box (left) are let into an apartment block in occupied Ukraine accompanied by armed Russian cops (right)

A Russian mercenary wearing the symbol of the notorious Wagner military group stands guard outside a polling station in occupied Ukraine

Russian state media has issued implausible polling which suggests 97 per cent of people in Donetsk and Luhansk are in favour of joining Russia

Melinda Simmons, the British Ambassador to Ukraine, said that the outcome of the elections had 'already been decided' and described the 'sham' referenda as a 'media exercise designed to pursue further an illegal invasion by Russia'

Western leaders have declared the referenda to be a sham, saying they have no legitimacy while urging other governments not to recognise the results.

Melinda Simmons, the British Ambassador to Ukraine, said that the outcome of the votes had 'already been decided' and described the 'sham' referenda as a 'media exercise designed to pursue further an illegal invasion by Russia'.

However, the votes do still mark a significant moment in the war because it will allow Putin to spin the narrative to his own people that any Ukrainian attack to try and reclaim those territories is an assault on Russia itself.

That expands the suite of options he can use in response.

Perhaps most worryingly, it opens the path to using nuclear weapons since Russia's doctrine allows their use if the existence of the state is threatened.

It would also allow Putin to upgrade his 'special military operation' to a full-blown war, expanding his powers to conscript men and punish those who try to quit.

A copy of the ballot papers being handed to people, asking whether or not they agree to become part of Russia

This week, he has declared a 'partial mobilisation' of Russia's population and appears intent on forcing hundreds of thousands of men into the military.

New laws have extended soldiers' contracts indefinitely, meaning they cannot simply quit if they don't want to keep fighting.

As the votes was getting underway in the occupied regions, Russian social media sites were full of dramatic scenes of tearful families bidding farewell to men departing from military mobilization centers.

In cities across the vast country, men hugged their weeping family members before departing as part of the draft.

Russian anti-war activists, in the meantime, planned more protests against the mobilization.

Denis Pushilin, separatist leader of Moscow-backed authorities in the Donetsk region, called the referendum on Friday 'a historical milestone.'

Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, addressed the occupied regions Friday in an online statement, saying: 'If you decide to become part of the Russian Federation - we will support you.'

Valentina Matviyenko, chair of Russia's upper parliament house, said that residents of the occupied regions were voting for 'life or death' at the referendums.

Volodymyr Zelensky today called on Russians to 'protest' the partial mobilisation announced by Vladimir Putin, and told Kremlin troops in Ukraine to 'fight back, run away or surrender'.

Votes are being held in four areas currently under Russian control - Donetsk and Luhansk, which together make up the Donbas, as well as Kherson and Zaporizhzhia

This week, Putin has declared a 'partial mobilisation' of Russia's population and appears intent on forcing hundreds of thousands of men into the military. Pictured: Putin chairs a Security Council meeting via videoconference in Moscow on Friday

Putin has begun staging sham referendums in occupied areas of Ukraine that will almost certainly end with the regions being annexed to Russia

Makeshift voting stations have been set up in residential areas but police and occupation officials will also go door-to-door to ensure the outcome

Locals attend a temporary polling station amidst sham referendums in Luhansk

Locals attend a referendum at a mobile polling station in Luhansk, Ukraine

In his daily address, Zelensky said: '55,000 Russian soldiers died in these six months of war. Do you want more? No? Then protest. Fight back, run away, or surrender' to our army.'

Zelensky also told the Russian people today that are 'complicit' in Putin's brutal invasion which has seen alleged torture and the murder of civilians as he then said conscripts had a choice to 'live, die or become a cripple' if they cannot stop being shoved off to the front lines.

All flights out of Russia to neighbouring areas that allow visa-free entry were nearly entirely booked today while prices also skyrocketed as the partial mobilisation, which so far applies to 300,000 military reservists, begins.

The Russian President's call for thousands more troops yesterday was also accompanied by fresh threats of nuclear war towards Ukraine and its Western allies.

The voting takes place against the backdrop of incessant fighting in Ukraine, with Russian and Ukrainian forces exchanging fire as both sides refuse to concede ground.

On Friday morning, pro-Russia officials in the Zaporizhzhia region reported a loud blast in the center of Melitopol, a city that Moscow captured early on in the war.

Official Vladimir Rogov didn't offer any details as to what caused the explosion and whether there was damage and casualties.

Moscow-backed authorities in the Donetsk region also accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the city of Donetsk, the region's capital, and the nearby city of Yasynuvata.

Ukrainian officials, in turn, reported new rounds of Russian shelling in various parts of the country.

Vladimir Putin is expected to use the sham votes to claim that Ukraine is attacking Russian soil, potentially opening the door to a nuclear escalation

Locals cast ballots in sham votes in occupied Donetsk, amid reports that Russian soldiers are taking note of those voting 'no'

Voters cast their ballots under the watchful eye of the Russian military (left)

Vitaliy Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine that borders the Kherson region, said explosions rang out in the city of Mykolaiv in the early hours of Friday.

Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said the Russians unleashed a barrage of shelling on Nikopol, a city across from the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, on Friday morning.

Russia is now almost seven months into what Putin anticipated would be a days-long war to depose the Ukrainian government and install a puppet regime.

But instead he has found himself locked into a grinding war of attrition against a determined enemy backed by Western weapons and money.

China and India - both of whom had good relations with Putin before the war  have distanced themselves from his regime, while even North Korea has said it won't supply arms to Russia because it will 'tarnish' its image.

More protests have been organised by anti-war groups, as opposition to the invasion grows.

There were also reports of a mass exodus following the announcement. On Thursday the Kremlin dismissed as 'fake' reports that Russians eligible for mobilisation were rushing for the exit.

Speaking in the House of Commons this afternoon, Armed Forces minister James Heappey described how 'rattled' Mr Putin's action was an acknowledgement of Russia's 'failure'.

Mr Heappey, who noted how 25,000 Russians have already died during the Ukraine conflict, told MPs that Moscow was now condemning hundreds of thousands more troops to a miserable winter.

'Russian conscripts are going to suffer horribly for the Kremlin's hubris,' the minister added.

Ex-prime minister Boris Johnson, speaking in the same Commons debate, branded 'weak' Mr Putin as a 'problem gambler' taking greater risks because he is 'terrified of losing'.

The former premier highlighted how the price of one-way plane tickets from Moscow to South Africa rocketed yesterday because potential Russian conscripts 'have no desire to be sacrificed on the altar of his (Mr Putin's) ego'.

Soldiers from the so-called Luhansk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine queue up to vote in the referendum on becoming part of Russia

A bust of Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Lenin watches over soldiers in the so-called Luhansk People's Republic as they vote on becoming part of Russia
Training delivered as part of the government's flagship anti-extremism programme Prevent showed school governors material suggesting conspiracies over Princess Diana's death raise legitimate questions.

A graph entitled The Conspiracy Chart groups conspiracies into different categories based on how believable or pernicious they are.

Included under the title 'We have questions' were Diana's death in a car crash, JFK's assassination, the death of Marilyn Monroe and the statement '[Jeffrey] Epstein didn't kill himself'.

The chart suggested there were legitimate questions to be asked about these deaths, with the next section listed 'Unequivocally false but mostly harmless'.

The graphic, produced by disinformation researcher Abbie Richards, was shown at a training session to help school governors work out which comments should be referred to Prevent, The Times reported.

The Home Office said the graphic was not part of its sanctioned training and was used by a 'freelancing' trainer. It is not clear in what context the graphic appeared and there is no suggestion there was a discussion about Diana during the training itself.

A graph entitled The Conspiracy Chart groups conspiracies into different categories based on how believable or pernicious they are

This group contained statements including 'Greta Thunberg is a time traveller', 'Prince Charles a vampire [sic]' and 'Elvis lives'.

The next group, entitled 'Dangerous to yourself and others', included 'Finland doesn't exist', 'anti-vaxxers' and 'anti-maskers'.

The most dangerous conspiracy theories included QAnon, 'deep state', Holocaust denial and the idea that Bill Gates is attempting to inject microchips is attempting to microchip humanity.

A Home Office spokesperson said: 'The Prevent programme continues to play a crucial role in stopping people from being drawn into extremist views and terrorism. The chief threat to the UK comes from Islamist and Extreme Right Wing terrorism, this fact is reflected extensively in official training materials.

'We cannot comment on specific graphics used during training sessions without the full and necessary context.'

The graphic was revealed on Twitter by Nick Timothy, Theresa May's former chief of staff, who said it proved Prevent's priorities were skewed towards right-wing extremism rather it's much more deadly Islamist equivalent.

Included under the title 'We have questions' were Diana's death in a car crash

A review of the programme is currently underway by former Charity Commission chair William Shawcross.

It is expected to find there has been a 'double standard when dealing with extreme Right-wing and Islamism', according to leaked draft extracts.

There were more referrals to Prevent relating to far-Right extremism than to Islamist radicalisation for the first time last year.

Six of the 11 most significant recent terror attacks were carried out by individuals who have gone through Prevent.

The scheme works by local council-appointed Prevent coordinators taking referrals from public servants like teachers and social workers, with each individual of concern categorised by their ideology.

Less serious cases are dealt with by councils, who can offer services like mentoring or parenting support, while the more serious ones go to the Channel phase, where a panel of local officials, including police, will recommend the next steps.

The MP Sir David Amess's killer Ali Harbi Ali - who was sentenced last month to a whole life order - had been referred to the programme in 2014 but a year later it was concluded he no longer posed a threat.

Mr Timothy tweeted: 'A friend attended Prevent training today and was given this. Ignoring the 'we have questions' about the death of Diana and other weirdness, where is the focus?

'2/3 of jailed terrorists and 9 in 10 on MI5 watchlists are Islamists. The Shawcross review can't come quickly enough.'
An Alabama man who was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection is still alive after officials could not find his vein before a midnight deadline to execute him.

Alan Miller, 57, who was convicted in 1999 of killing three people in a workplace rampage, is now back in his cell after prison officials made the decision at about 11:30pm.

Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said the state halted the scheduled execution of Miller late Thursday after they determined they could not get the lethal injection underway before a midnight deadline for the death warrant.

'Due to time constraints resulting from the lateness of the court proceedings, the execution was called off once it was determined the condemned inmate's veins could not be accessed in accordance with our protocol before the expiration of the death warrant,' Hamm said.

The execution team at the Holman Correctional Facility began trying to establish intravenous access, but he did not know for how long. Miller had explained previously how he was afraid of needles.

Mere hours before, Miller had tucked into a huge last meal of meatloaf, chuckwagon steak, American cheese, French fries, apple sauce, instant potatoes, macaroni, apples, and an orange drink.

The confusion was compounded by a divided US Supreme Court decision which had cleared the way for the execution to begin less than three hours earlier.

Alan Eugene Miller, who shot three co-workers who he believed were spreading rumors about him, enjoyed an unexpected reprieve after prison officials could not find his veins in order to administer lethal injection before a midnight deadline

Alan Eugene Miller is seen being led away from the Pelham City Jail in Alabama on August 5, 1999. Miller was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on September 22, 2022 after a last minute decision by the Supreme Court cleared the way

Miller's lawyers had argued that Miller had requested to be put to death using nitrogen hypoxia, that would be performed in the Alabama death chamber seen here, and that lethal injection was painful and inhumane

Supreme Court Justices in a 5-4 decision had lifted an injunction - issued by a federal judge and left in place by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals - that had blocked Miller's execution from going forward.

Prison officials were only told to proceed at 9.20pm, and family and lawyers along with members of the media were instructed to go to the facility's execution chamber.

Miller's attorneys said the state lost the paperwork requesting his execution be carried out using nitrogen hypoxia, a method legally available to him but never before used in the United States.

When Alabama approved nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method in 2018, state law gave inmates a brief window to designate it as their execution method.

Miller testified that he turned in paperwork four years ago selecting nitrogen hypoxia as his execution method, putting the documents in a slot in his cell door at the Holman Correctional Facility for a prison worker to collect.

Prison officials said they had no record of receiving the form and that Miller was just looking for ways to delay his execution.

He had explained that he preferred this method of execution because it reminded him of the nitrous oxide gas used at dentist offices, and that seemed better than lethal injection.

'I did not want to be stabbed with a needle,' Miller said.

US District Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday blocking the state from killing Miller by any means other than nitrogen hypoxia after finding it was 'substantially likely' that Miller 'submitted a timely election form even though the State says that it does not have any physical record of a form.'

Miller, a delivery truck driver, was sentenced to death after he killed co-workers Lee Holdbrooks and Scott Yancy at a business in suburban Birmingham, according to prosecutors.

Shelby County coroner's employees bring out one of two bodies from Ferguson Enterprises in Pelham, Alabama where two employees, Lee Holbrooks and Christopher Yancy were killed in August 1999 by Alan Eugene Miller

Miller shot two co-workers to death at their office then killed a third person at a company where he used to work

He then drove off to shoot former supervisor Terry Jarvis at a business where Miller had previously worked. Each man was shot multiple times and Miller was captured after a highway chase.

Trial testimony indicated Miller believed the men were spreading rumors about him, including that he was gay.

A psychiatrist hired by the defense found Miller suffered from severe mental illness but also said Miller's condition wasn't bad enough to use as a basis for an insanity defense under state law.

An Alabama jury took 20 minutes to convict, in a 10 to 2 vote, in July 2000 and decided that put Miller should be put to death. Two appeals of the verdict were denied.

'In Alabama, we are committed to law and order and upholding justice. Despite the circumstances that led to the cancellation of this execution, nothing will change the fact that a jury heard the evidence of this case and made a decision.

'It does not change the fact that Mr. Miller never disputed his crimes. And it does not change the fact that three families still grieve,' Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said in a statement.

'We all know full well that Michael Holdbrooks, Terry Lee Jarvis and Christopher Scott Yancey did not choose to die by bullets to the chest.

'Tonight, my prayers are with the victims' families and loved ones as they are forced to continue reliving the pain of their loss,' Ivey said.

Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm explained that the execution had to be called off due to time constraints - days after US District Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr had imposed an injunction on the execution of Alan Miller over the method of execution

Although Alabama has authorized nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method, the state has never executed anyone using the method and Alabama's prison system has not finalized procedures for using it to carry out a death sentence.

Nitrogen hypoxia is a proposed execution method in which death would be caused by forcing the inmate to breathe only nitrogen, thereby depriving him or her of the oxygen needed to maintain bodily functions.

It is authorized as an execution method in three states but no state has attempted to put an inmate to death by the untested method. Alabama officials told the judge they are working to finalize the protocol.

Many states have struggled to buy execution drugs in recent years after US and European pharmaceutical companies began blocking the use of their products in lethal injections. That has led some to seek alternate methods.

The aborted execution came after the July execution of Joe Nathan James took more than three hours to get underway after the state had difficulties establishing an intravenous line, leading to accusations that the execution was botched.

In another case, death row inmate Doyle Hamm received a stay of execution in February 2018 after his execution was 'botched' due to several failed attempts to insert a needle into his veins. The execution was called off as midnight approached.

Hamm reached a confidential settlement with the state of Alabama not to try to execute him again and he died of cancer-related complications in 2021.

And in October last year, John Marion Grant vomited, swore repeatedly and convulsed 'two dozen times' as an Oklahoma execution team delivered a controversial three-drug lethal injection.
Bosses think workers are less productive at home while workers feel they are more efficient, a major new survey has revealed.

The survey from Microsoft questioned more than 20,000 staff from 11 countries and found that bosses and their employees fundamentally disagree about working from home.

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella told the BBC this tension needed to be resolved as workplaces were unlikely to ever return to pre-pandemic work habits.

'We have to get past what we describe as 'productivity paranoia', because all of the data we have that shows that 80% plus of the individual people feel they're very productive - except their management thinks that they're not productive.

'That means there is a real disconnect in terms of the expectations and what they feel.'

The survey found 87 per cent of workers felt they worked as, or more, efficiently from home while 80 per cent of managers disagreed.

Bosses think workers are less productive at home while workers feel they are more efficient, a major new survey has revealed. Pictured: Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella

The survey found 87 per cent of workers felt they worked as, or more, efficiently from home

The division means employees are embracing hybrid working and are resistant to return to pre-Covid working patters.

Microsoft says that trillions productivity signals across Microsoft Office continue to climb which would seem to support workers' position.

However, the study also revealed that 85 per cent of bosses say the shift to hybrid work has made it challenging to have confidence that employees are being productive.

The tech giant said this has lead some firms to use tracking technology to measure how productive employees are being which in turn undermines trust and leads to 'productivity theatre' - where employees go out of their way to appear busy.

Both Mr Nadella and Ryan Roslansky, the boss of LinkedIn which is owned by Microsoft, told the BBC this meant employers are facing the biggest shift in working patterns in history.

Bosses are missing the visual cues of productivity because employees are not in the office and so become paranoid staff are not working as hard as they could be, Microsoft said.

Pictured: Ryan Roslansky, the boss of LinkedIn, says remote working jobs may have peaked

The company warned that this type of paranoia may make hybrid working unsustainable.

The study found 81 per cent of employees say its important that their managers help them prioritise their workload, but less than a third say their managers have never given clear guidance during one-on-ones.

Mr Roslansky told the BBC that remote working roles may have peaked as only 15 per cent of jobs advertised on LinkedIn are remote roles - compared to 20 per cent just months ago and 2 per cent pre-pandemic.

Research published earlier this year showed one in six white collar workers want to quit their jobs this year because their employer is forcing them to return to the office.

A survey of 1,000 employees by messaging app Slack indicated that 29 per cent of workers were considering changing jobs this year with those in legal jobs, IT and telecoms, sales, and media and marketing are most likely to make a move.

While the most common reason cited was a lack of pay rises and bonuses, 16 per cent of those surveyed - or one in six - said they wanted to quit because they were being forced back into the office.

An earlier study found that 20 per cent feel their boss favours those who work in the office over people who work remotely (Pictured: Workers commute to work in London Bridge 2022)

Meanwhile, 20 per cent feel their boss favours those who work in the office over people who work remotely, said the report.

Companies offering hybrid or remote working are less likely to be affected by resignations, with almost a third of respondents saying flexible working policies are encouraging them to stay in their current job.

A third of workers polled said they delayed resigning in the past year amid uncertainty over how the pandemic would affect the jobs market.

As the country emerged out of the pandemic, a host of major companies opted for 'hybrid' and 'blended' working models in a bid to coax their employees back into the office.

Meanwhile, some said they wanted to encourage more workers to come into the office - and more often - in a bid to provide a boost to the many city centre businesses which rely on commuter trade.

As the cost of living crisis continues to hit families across the country, it is thought some workers may be motivated to head back into the office in a bid to cut down on energy bills.

Bills are predicted to rise to 5,400 in January and even further to 6,600 in spring according to forecasts from energy analysts Cornwall Insight, The Telegraph reports.

The average British worker is heading into the office one and a half days per week, meaning remote working will likely lead to an energy bill of 789 in January, compared to 580 for those going into work.

Consultancy Advances Workplace Associates claims average workplace attendance is 29 per cent across UK offices.

The Office for National Statistics said in July that 37 per cent of Londoners were working away from the office, compared to 14 per cent before the pandemic.

Every day energy uses can add significantly to monthly bills. Boiling a kettle three times a day will cost 8 per month or 100 a year, under the October energy price cap, Citizen's Advice Bureau has found.

Similarly, running a desktop computer eight hours a day will cost 35.68 per month.
South Korea's president has denied insulting the United States after he was caught on hot mic calling U.S. lawmakers 'f***ers' who could humiliate President Joe Biden.

Yoon Suk-yeol claimed to have been mistranslated, prompting further domestic incredulity on Friday.

He was overheard on a hot mic and seen on camera seemingly insulting US lawmakers for failing to pass the additional $6 billion (5.3 billion) in aid to the United Nations Global Fund.

Yoon was recorded shortly after briefly meeting with US President Joe Biden at the Global Fund in New York.

Yoon Suk-yeol claimed to have been mistranslated, prompting further domestic incredulity on Friday

In footage published on official YouTube channel for South Korean television MBC, Thursday, Yoon can be seen walking along the stage after chatting with Biden before turning to his aides and speaking.

'How could Biden not lose damn face if these f****rs do not pass it in Congress?' he appeared to be saying about Biden's drive to increase the US contribution to Global Fund, which would require congressional approval.

The Washington Post worded it slightly differently: 'It would be so humiliating for Biden if these idiots don't pass it in Congress.'

The footage quickly went viral in South Korea, with a YouTube video racking up five million views in less than a day and the Korean expletive Yoon purportedly used trending on Twitter.

Opposition lawmakers accused Yoon of insulting Biden and disgracing South Korea as media initially reported Yoon was saying Biden would be embarrassed if the U.S. Congress did not pass a bill relating to funding of a global initiative.

Yoon's crude comments has also prompted criticism from some members of his own party, with its floor leader calling it 'greatly regrettable.'

But the president's office spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye said Yoon had 'no reason to talk about the US or utter the word 'Biden''.

Speaking at a press briefing in New York on Thursday, Kim claimed that Yoon did not actually say 'Biden' but a similar-sounding Korean word, and that he was referring to South Korean, not US, lawmakers.

Yoon and Biden had planned informal talks in New York, but ended up having just a 48-second chat at the Global Fund. Yoon's office said that was a 'Plan B' due to changes in Biden's schedule, and said they also met in London when Yoon raised the EV subsidies issue.

The brief meeting came amid a growing trade tension between the two allies over the Biden administration's new rules on subsidies for electric vehicles.

This is just the latest in what critics say is series of diplomatic miss-steps by Yoon, who arrived in after attending the funeral for Queen Elizabeth II in London.

Yoon's opponents accused him of disrespect as he missed the chance to view the queen's coffin lying in state - which he blamed on heavy traffic.

Earlier, controversy erupted after Japanese media reported Kishida had considered cancelling a meeting with Yoon.

An official at Yoon's office said there was a 'disparity in opinions' over the timing of the announcement of the talks and Tokyo seemed 'cautious' as both sides explore ways to improve strained ties

One ruling-party parliamentarian suggested the television station that first reported the hot-mic comments should be prosecuted.

Yoon's crude comments has also prompted criticism from some members of his own party, with its floor leader calling it 'greatly regrettable'

'How could Biden not lose damn face if these f***ers do not pass it in Congress?' he told Foreign Minster Park Jin, according a translation from Agence France-Press

Yoon's opponents accused him of disrespect as he missed the chance to view the queen's coffin lying in state - which he blamed on heavy traffic

'MBC should gravely be held accountable for its report that has damaged the irreplaceable US-Korea alliance,' wrote MP Yoon Sang-hyun on his Facebook account.

But online, many expressed doubt about the government's response.

'It is utterly shameful and embarrassing for our kids that our presidential office has come up with such an excuse,' one commentator wrote on YouTube.

'I've listened to it 10 times now. It's 'Biden' for sure,' another added.

The opposition said Yoon's official denial was akin to telling South Koreans they were 'hearing impaired', Democratic Party MP Chun Jae-soo said in a radio interview on Friday.

In August he raised eyebrows when he failed to meet U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi while she was in South Korea because he was having a 'staycation.' Some claimed he was deliberately shunning the speaker due to fear of retaliation from Beijing.

Handing an additional $6 billion over to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria would require the approval of Congress.

The United States is South Korea's key security ally, with Washington stationing about 27,000 troops in the country to help counter nuclear-armed North Korea.

Yoon, a former prosecutor, is struggling with low domestic approval ratings, with the latest survey Friday after the hot-mic incident showing it stood at 28 percent.
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Residents are living in fear on one of 'Britain's roughest estates' where yobs as young as 10 have been running riot and even ripping live pigeons apart.

Blakenall, in Walsall, West Midlands, has been compared to 'war-torn Ukraine' after the area began falling into a state of disrepair during the past two years.

Locals are constantly being plagued by violence and anti-social behaviour and say they are too scared to leave their homes - even in the daytime.

Feral youths as young as 10 have been subjecting terrified residents and shopkeepers to racial and physical attacks on a daily basis.

Only 19 per cent of houses in Blakenall are owner-occupied and the population density is is higher than surrounding areas

West Midlands Police say they are stepping up patrols and using dispersal orders to try and control the issues

Gary Brookes, Walsall Housing Group's director of housing said: 'We are really concerned about ongoing issues in this area regarding criminal activity and antisocial behaviour'

A sign welcoming people to the area has lost several of its letters - an omen of what visitors should expect crossing the boundary into Blakenhall

Anti-social behaviour and criminal damage are rife in the area with reports of businesses, buses and taxis being attacked

Businesses have also been pelted with eggs, flour and bricks causing damage to property while buses, taxis and cars also routinely get attacked

Tormented residents and business owners are now demanding action following a string of incidents including arson attacks, fly-tipping, thefts, assaults and vandalism.

The area is one of the most socially deprived areas in the West Midlands with a higher population density than the rest of Walsall, with 39 people per hectare compared to 27.3 across the wider region.

Less than 19 per cent of locals own their own their own homes compared with almost 31 per cent across the West Midlands.

The area was first mentioned in the 1300s but the first community started assembling in 1763, with continued growth for the next 80 years as a metal industry developed. This saw the development of houses, schools and a church.

More houses were built to accommodate those working in local industry through the 19th century - which eventually led to severe overcrowding and slum conditions. The oldest pub in the area is believed to be the King's Head, which was opened in 1851.

The oldest pub in the area is believed to be the King's Head, which was opened in 1851.

In the interwar period, the slums were cleared and new houses were built for ex-servicemen and their families. The council houses first appeared in 1920, two years after the end of the war, and by 1927, almost 500 homes had been completed.

However, in recent years, the area has declined significantly with increasing criminality and anti-social behaviour.

This image shows children from Blakenall Church of England School dancing the maypole in he 1940s

This image of the King's Head in Blakenall is from the 1920s, before parts of the area were cleared for new housing

Residents in Blakenall held a Coronation party or King George VI in 1937 at a time when the area was expanding with a mass house building programme to accommodate the families of service men from World War One and those cleared from slums

Blakenall in numbers: According to statistics released by Walsall Council: 8.5 per cent of households are 'overcrowded' compared with Walsall average of 6.5 per cent

3.1 per cent of households do not have central heating

Higher proportion of socially and privately rented properties

Below average of owner occupation

The majority of people in the ward are among the top 10 per cent most deprived n Walsall Advertisement

A local councillor also told how a live pigeon was even torn to pieces in front of horrified staff and customers outside a shop in the area.

Businesses have also been pelted with eggs, flour and bricks causing damage to property while buses, taxis and cars also routinely get attacked.

Other incidents include a fire started at a house which left a mother and her children too scared to return and a delivery driver who was hospitalised by a thrown bottle.

Several streets around the area are also being used as a dumping ground for fly-tipped waste while balaclava-clad youths have been seen wielding knives.

Residents now fear it is only a matter of time before somebody is killed while other homeowners are being driven out of the area.

One local resident, who did not wish to be named, said: 'It had got to the point where we are scared to leave our homes even in the daytime.

'The place has just rapidly declined into almost a state of lawlessness since the pandemic.

'Before then we did have issues but not to the scale we are seeing now. It's like a war-zone out there at times.

'The kids are running riot and they find it funny when police arrive. People are saying it's the roughest estate in Britain and I'm not sure I could argue with that.





Litter is strewn over the green area in front of a parade of shops which include a Coral bookmakers

A local councillor also told how a live pigeon was even torn to pieces in front of horrified staff and customers outside a shop in the area

Other incidents include a fire started at a house which left a mother and her children too scared to return and a delivery driver who was hospitalised by a thrown bottle

'But these kids will wear that like a badge of honour. It's only a matter of time before somebody gets killed around here. There are fights on a daily basis.

'Shopkeepers are being racially abused and attacked. Rubbish gets dumped in the street, fires are started, bus shelters are smashed.

Residents now fear it is only a matter of time before somebody is killed while other homeowners are being driven out of the area

Several streets around the area are also being used as a dumping ground for fly-tipped waste while balaclava-clad youths have been seen wielding knives

Residents now fear it is only a matter of time before somebody is killed while other homeowners are being driven out of the area

One local resident, who did not wish to be named, said: 'It had got to the point where we are scared to leave our homes even in the daytime'

A mother-of-seven, who did not want to be named, added: 'It's the younger kids causing the most problems'

'You see kids walking down the street with knives and smoking drugs - it's just there is just no rules or order here.

'The list is just endless - you name a crime and I've probably seen it happening here. It has gone off the rails.'

A mother-of-seven, who did not want to be named, added: 'It's the younger kids causing the most problems.

West Midlands Police say they are stepping up patrols and using dispersal orders to try and control the issues

One shopkeeper, who also did not want to be named for fear of reprisals, added: 'We've had our van window smashed just a couple of days ago'

The shopkeeper said: 'I have lost staff members who just can't face being abused on a daily basis and now people are staying away so my trade has suffered too'

Independent Blakenall ward councillor Pete Smith said: 'I've seen first hand how these problems have escalate and people are saying enough is enough'

'They get a buzz from it when the police arrive - but the police end up running away because they get pelted with bricks.

'So we don't feel protected here. My daughter lives opposite where all the rubbish was and she had rats in her kitchen.

'It's just diabolical - but that's Blakenhall for you. It's become a no-go zone for police and that is what is most worrying. You just don't go out after 3pm.'

One shopkeeper, who also did not want to be named for fear of reprisals, added: 'We've had our van window smashed just a couple of days ago.

'I have lost staff members who just can't face being abused on a daily basis and now people are staying away so my trade has suffered too.

'They come in and steal eggs and then use those eggs to pelt the shop. We get racially abused too, we've just had enough.'

Independent Blakenall ward councillor Pete Smith said: 'I've seen first hand how these problems have escalate and people are saying enough is enough.

'The residents, shoppers and shop staff cannot tolerate this situation any longer. These kids have simply been running riot.

'Empty houses are being trashed and set on fire, rubbish is being dumped and its like something from war-torn Ukraine.

The look of squalor in the area has been made look worse by piles of rubbish indiscriminately dumped on the side of the street

Local politicians say they have been made aware that children as young as eight or nine have been spotted hanging around with older gangs

'People are scared to walk the streets, shoppers are telling me they aren't going into Blakenall anymore so shops are losing trade.

'I'm told kids as young as eight or nine have been involved up to teenagers aged 14-17.

'There was also this poor pigeon that had its head ripped off outside a shop before they pulled its wings off and just ripped it to pieces.

'On top of that, there's shopkeepers being attacked and racially abused, houses being smashed up, schools being pelted with bottes. It just has to stop.

'A woman and her children had to flee their home after their house was set on fire, she's moved out of the area as she's too frightened to return.

'We need a determined, collaborative and joined up approach with the police, council and housing associations.

'It seems there is now a plan of action which hopefully will address the problems we have in parts of Blakenall.'

West Midlands Police say they are stepping up patrols and using dispersal orders to try and control the issues.

Inspector Phil Upton, from the Walsall Neighbourhood Team, said: 'We are aware of growing concern around instances of appalling behaviour by a small minority of young people in the Blakenall area.

Inspector Phil Upton, from the Walsall Neighbourhood Team, said: 'We are aware of growing concern around instances of appalling behaviour by a small minority of young people in the Blakenall area'

Inspector Phil Upton, from the Walsall Neighbourhood Team, said: 'We are aware of growing concern around instances of appalling behaviour by a small minority of young people in the Blakenall area.

Police said they are carrying out extra patrols in the area to crack down on crime and antisocial behaviour in he area

He said: 'Our empty properties on Dawson Street have been targeted by criminals which has prevented us from accessing them and led to them needing substantial repair work. We will be securing the site in the next few weeks and are looking at what additional steps we can take to prevent any further damage while we work on these properties'

'We understand how upsetting and worrying this can be and we have been carrying out extra patrols in the area to discourage further incidents and help with our on-going enquiries.

'Officers have also been liaising closely with our partners in the area, including Walsall Council, local housing providers and youth services as we work to confirm the identity of those involved.

'We have also been using dispersal orders in the area to remove and deter those identified as responsible.

'Our work to tackle this issue is continuing and evolving, with further increased patrols planned along with targeted action to curb this totally unacceptable behaviour.'

A Walsall Council spokesperson said: 'The council is actively working in partnership with West Midlands Police colleagues, partners and the local community to tackle these issues.'

Gary Brookes, Walsall Housing Group's director of housing said: 'We are really concerned about ongoing issues in this area regarding criminal activity and antisocial behaviour.

'Our empty properties on Dawson Street have been targeted by criminals which has prevented us from accessing them and led to them needing substantial repair work.

'We will be securing the site in the next few weeks and are looking at what additional steps we can take to prevent any further damage while we work on these properties.

'The situation in Dawson Street is one we are taking very seriously. We are working with a number of partners including the police, council and the residents themselves to resolve these issues.'
Betty Muffler's "Healing Country" (2018) / Courtesy of Fondation Opale, Switzerland



Themed 'Soft and Weak Like Water,' Biennale invites some 80 multigenerational creators



By Park Han-sol





An official poster for the 14th edition of Gwangju Biennale, themed "Soft and Weak Like Water" / Courtesy of Gwangju Biennale Foundation

The 59th edition of the Venice Biennale's International Art Exhibition, helmed by Cecilia Alemani, made global headlines earlier this year for filling approximately 90 percent of its roster with women and gender non-conforming artists  for the first time in the event's 127-year history.



Lee Sook-kyung, the artistic director for the 2023 Gwangju Biennale, witnessed the long overdue women-dominated art event herself and came to a conclusion: There's still plenty of room for her to contribute to the scene.



"The Venice exhibition, while notable for its inclusive roster, was still focused largely on female creators from Europe and North America. There is still a great deal of other lesser-known artists whose oeuvre deserves our recognition just as much," she said at a recent press conference as she announced the preliminary list of participating artists for the upcoming edition of Asia's oldest biennial of contemporary art.



Slated for April 7, 2023, the 14th edition of Gwangju Biennale will be held for 94 days until July 9, making it the longest run in the event's history since its founding in 1995.



Its theme, "Soft and Weak Like Water," is inspired by the chapter of a classical Chinese Daoist text, which describes water's capacity to embrace contradictions and paradoxes. Accordingly, the Biennale aims to present an alternative mode of thinking in regards to planet Earth "as a (shared) site of resistance, coexistence, solidarity and care, by thinking through the transformative and restorative potential of water as a metaphor."



This commitment to steering away from previously hegemonic Western-centric discourse and instead examining postcolonial narratives through a transnational framework has been reflected in the list of participating creators.



Among an estimated 80 multigenerational artists and teams with wide-ranging cultural backgrounds and personal histories, over 40 will showcase new works and commissioned projects  a high proportion, especially in the context of Biennales. Half of the invited creators are women.



Their practices fall under four subtopics, as the pieces strive to either suggest a model of collective resistance inspired by the Gwangju Spirit, a foundational mindset of Korea's southwestern city which witnessed the tragic 1980 Gwangju Uprising; reinterpret traditions to challenge modernist ideas; explore how postcolonial narratives have developed in relation to diasporic existence, or investigate the role of "planetary vision" in the field of environmental justice.





Christine Sun Kim's "Every Life Signs" (2022) / Courtesy of the artist, Francois Ghebaly, Los Angeles and New York, and White Space, Beijing
Soldier F is facing two counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder

He has blasted a plan to resume the discontinued prosecution of British veteran

A furious Northern Ireland veteran has lashed out over plans to resume the prosecution of a British soldier accused of murder and attempted murder on Bloody Sunday 50 years ago.

The former paratrooper, known as Soldier F, will once again face being hauled in front of a court over his alleged actions during the 1972 tragedy in Londonderry at the height of the Troubles.

But the news has been met with fury by Lieutenant Colonel Chris Parker, who said IRA terrorists were being allowed to 'enjoy their retirement' while British veterans continue to be hounded.

Lt Col Parker, who completed five tours of Northern Ireland serving in the country for a total of six years, told MailOnline: 'With all the terrorists let out after convictions on licence most Northern Ireland veterans wonder why there seems no let up to the harassment of Northern Ireland veterans in this way.

'The UK cannot have the former terrorists in the IRA enjoying retirement... [while] our veterans, who served the nation to keep the peace, are left wondering when they will get to retire in peace too.'

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Chris Parker, pictured on operations in Afghanistan in 2008, completed five tours of Northern Ireland and was outraged by the prosecution of Soldier F

As part of the Good Friday Agreement to bring peace to Northern Ireland, it was agreed that convicted terrorists would be released from prison in return for the IRA ceasing its campaign of violence.

Last year the Government announced it was giving a fresh amnesty to IRA fighters to exempt them legal action.

The move was meant to give British troops and spies - as well as Republican terrorists - clemency in a bid to shut down the witch-hunt against veterans.

But the proposals were met with fury from families of victims slain by the IRA during their decades-long campaign of terror, who branded the deal 'obscene'.

And in a new chapter in the Troubles saga, Northern Ireland 's Public Prosecution Service (PPS) announced the dropped prosecution of Soldier F will be resumed.

It came after the Belfast High Court overruled the PPS's previous decision to drop charges against the ex-soldier, for the murders of James Wray and William McKinney.

The McKinney family then successfully challenged the original decision by prosecutors by way of judicial review.

The PPS said it had since reviewed its position on the matter and decided to resume the prosecution against the former paratrooper - who has not been named.

Soldier F was accused of murdering James Wray (left) and William McKinney (right) on January 30, 1972

Bloody Sunday saw British troops open fire on civil rights demonstrators in the Bogside area of Derry, killing 13 people. Pictured: A confrontation between soldiers and protesters earlier in the day

And earlier this month, the court rejected the PPS's bid to have its appeal referred to the UK Supreme Court .

The PPS has now reviewed its position and has decided to resume the prosecution.

Soldier F is facing two counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder.

The investigations into the ex-British troops has previously sparked outrage, with former veterans minister Johnny Mercer blasting the government over its inaction to protect retired soldiers from persecution.

'The reality is that for these people, their experiences after having served this nation, 50 years later, they are constantly being dragged over to Northern Ireland, and asked to relive their experiences, it is people are drinking themselves to death,' the retired Army officer said.

'And all they did was serve at the behest of this government at the behest of the House of Commons, to uphold the rule of law on the peace and when the peace in Northern Ireland.

'And yet now we're happy to cut them off to people who want to rewrite history.'

Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Michael Agnew said: 'The judgment delivered by the Divisional Court in March 2022 has been carefully examined and a fresh review of this case carried out.

'It has been concluded that, in order to give effect to the Divisional Court judgment, the original decision to prosecute Soldier F should stand.

'Therefore, the committal proceedings that were put on hold should now proceed.

'The PPS has written to representatives of the families and victims directly involved in the prosecution of Soldier F to confirm this decision.

'We have offered to meet with the families to answer any questions they may have and to outline the next steps to be taken to progress the case. Soldier F's legal representatives have also been informed.

'I am very conscious of the upset caused to the Bloody Sunday families by the PPS decision to withdraw proceedings against Soldier F last year. It is our role to keep under review the evidence presented in every case.

'This case has presented difficult and complex legal issues for prosecutors, as was acknowledged by the Divisional Court. The PPS is committed to progressing court proceedings against Soldier F without any further delay.'

Lawyers for the McKinney family said they had been informed that proceedings would resume next week.

The family of William McKinney: John (second left) and Mickey (second right), walk in with solicitors, brothers, Fearghal and Ciaran Shiels, as they arrive at the City Hotel in Londonderry, for a meeting with the Public Prosecution Service last year

Mickey McKinney, brother of William McKinney, said: 'We are delighted that the prosecution of Soldier F will resume next week.

'We hope that the PPS secure an early date for the resumption of the committal proceedings and that Soldier F is returned for trial to the Crown Court without further delay.

'We hope to meet with the PPS to discuss the future progress of the case in the coming weeks.'

Bloody Sunday was one of the darkest days in Northern Ireland's history, when British soldiers shot dead 13 civil rights protestors in the Bogside area of Londonderry.

Another man shot by paratroopers on January 30 1972 died four months later. While many consider him the 14th victim of Bloody Sunday, his death was formally attributed to an inoperable brain tumour.
The University of Cambridge will name new streets and public spaces after black graduates after an inquiry said it significantly benefited from the slave trade.

After the report was released the institution said it would name new streets, public spaces - and possibly buildings - in two developments after prominent black alumni and notable slavery abolitionists.

The investigation, carried out by the Legacies of Enslavement Advisory Group, found that the university and its colleges benefited from companies that participated in the trade, as well as from individual benefactors such as Tobias Rustat, and from fees derived from the families of plantations.

The Legacies of Enslavement Advisory Group was appointed in 2019 by Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen Toope.

Following its investigation, the group has made a series of recommendations, which the university has committed to implementing.

The University of Cambridge will name new streets and public spaces after black graduates after an inquiry said it significantly benefited from the slave trade. Pictured: Jesus College Cambridge

The university's Vice-Chancellor Stephen Toope said he 'welcomed the findings' of the inquiry, which 'represents an important step in improving our understanding of the University of Cambridge's historical connections to enslavement'.

He said he wanted to 'memorialise black scholars' with a series of moves including naming streets and public spaces in the next phases of the university's North-West Cambridge development and the new West Cambridge Innovation District after black graduates and abolitionists.

A spokesperson for the University of Cambridge told MailOnline that naming buildings in this way was 'under consideration', but decisions have not been made.

Mr Toope said the University received a 'generous philanthropic donation' to comision a black British artist to create a public work of art in honour of black scholars and graduates from Cambridge.

Professor Toope said the report has helped the university better appreciate the nature of its links with the slave trade.

'A university as long-established as Cambridge would inevitably have benefitted from what was, until the 19th century, a widely accepted system of exploitation,' he said.

'This report helps us better appreciate the nature of those links. It also offers a glimpse into some of the ways in which, as a provider of education, the University played a role in promoting some of the ideas that underpinned the practice of enslavement.

Tobias Rustat accumulated his wealth during his career as a courtier - but also invested in several trading companies, including the Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading into Africa - commonly known as the Royal African Company (RAC)

Jesus College had campaigned to remove a memorial plaque to Tobias Rustat, a college benefactor and investor in the slave trade, from its chapel

Jesus College had campaigned to remove a memorial plaque to Tobias Rustat, a college benefactor and investor in the slave trade, from its chapel.

Mr Toope said that Cambridge University will 'install an explanatory plaque that identifies and contextualises statues of individuals, including Tobias Rustat, which housed in the Old Schools' internal courtyard'.

Rustat accumulated his wealth during his career as a courtier - but also invested in several trading companies, including the Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading into Africa - commonly known as the Royal African Company (RAC).

The Company had complete control of Britain's slave trade, as well as its gold and Ivory business, with Africa and the forts on the coast of west Africa.

A contemporary of Rustat was Edward Colston, who became Deputy Governor of the Royal African Company.

He added that the institution that: 'Recognising the link between education, research and representation... the University is committing further financial support to the Black Cantabs Research Society, to enable the collection, curation, digitisation and publication of records on the history of Black graduates at Cambridge.'

The university will also set up a dedicated slavery research centre, enhance existing academic links with universities in the Caribbean and West Africa and increase the number of postgraduate scholarships and bursaries for black British students and students from Africa and the Caribbean.
She said she is 'a despicable person and people have got what they voted for'

An enraged Pauline Hanson has accused Lidia Thorpe of 'not being loyal to Australia' after the Greens Senator attended an anti-monarchy protest.

Hanson launched a scathing attack on Thorpe saying she was 'despicable' for covering herself in red paint and taking to the streets to lead a protest on the National Day of Mourning for Queen Elizabeth II.

As thousands of activists called for the end of the monarchy in cities across the country, Thorpe told the crowds in Melbourne: 'The Crown has blood on their hands, our people are still dying in this country every single day, the Crown's boot is on our neck and we are sick of it.'

The group led by Thorpe then smeared red dye, resembling blood, over an emblem on the British Consulate in Melbourne.

Pauline Hanson took aim at Lidia Thorpe saying she was 'despicable' for covering herself in red paint and taking to the streets to lead a protest on the National Day of Mourning

Thorpe (pictured) told the crowds in Melbourne: 'The Crown has blood on their hands, our people are still dying in this country every single day, the Crown's boot is on our neck and we are sick of it'

Hanson described Thorpe as 'despicable' before slamming the anti-monarchy protesters for being 'ignorant'.

She told Sky News host Chris Kenny: 'I don't believe she's loyal to the Parliament, to the people she's supposed to represent, that's all Australians in this nation, I think she's a despicable person and people have got what they voted for.'

'If they think it represents the monarchy they're fools. It represents the Australian people, it represents our nation, it represents the people who have fought and lost their lives and sacrifices made for the country that we have today,' she said.

'These people are so ignorant they have no idea what they're protesting about and they think it's about the monarchy, it's not about the monarchy it's about us as a nation and they're being so divisive.

'I think they're ignorant, misled and they need to go back to studying this in school, what is our history, how Australia came about, that we are a federation, that we actually govern ourselves, we elect our own politicians, we're not controlled by the monarchy.'

Protest leaders set an Australian flag on fire in an intense display during Brisbane's 'Abolish the Monarchy' protests

While the One Nation leader did not attended the memorial service she said she would be passing her opinion on the Queen in the Senate next week.

Meanwhile, in Brisbane, hundreds of protesters gathered, with one shouting: 'Our message to England and the Monarchy is to f**king burn.'

In Sydney, scores of people came together near a statue of Queen Victoria in the city centre before marching through the streets.
Putin's 'Iron Doll' propagandist says Liz Truss is risking nuclear annihilation by trying to defeat Russia.

Olga Skabeyeva, a Kremlin-linked TV presenter, warned Britain and the West face Armageddon, saying their threats against Moscow will ensure worldwide destruction.

Her comments come in response to Truss's speech at the UN in which the new prime minister slammed Putin's 'catastrophic failure' in his botched war, which saw him resort to imposing partial mobilisation this week.

Skabeyeva said: 'What do they want? They want a victory over Russia. Victory over Russia is impossible without nuclear explosion.

'It is simply excluded because we will not allow our country to be destroyed.

'If you try to destroy us, you will be destroyed along with us.our next step [is striking] the decision-making centres.in Kyiv, London, Washington.

Russia's 'Iron Doll' propagandist has threatened Armageddon if Vladimir Putin is defeated in Ukraine as she took a swipe at Liz Truss

Liz Truss slammed Putin's 'catastrophic failure' in a speech at the UN, hours after he made nuclear threats

'What do you do to avoid nuclear war, or is it already a given? It seems so. Unless they stop, this will become a reality.

'What is the goal of the collective West? To achieve the victory of Ukraine and the defeat of the Russian Federation.'

Putin ramped up the nuclear threat this week in a TV address, warning he was 'not bluffing' and was prepared to use all weapons at his disposal.

The comments sparked fear worldwide, with US and UK security chiefs saying the threats were being taken 'very seriously'.

Skabeyeva said: 'If you drive us into a corner, everyone will be destroyed. Is that what they're trying to achieve? Putin said so clearly.

'We are not threatening, we don't want war. We are the first in line to stop it - and we don't want a nuclear winter, and we don't want a nuclear war.

'But if you claim that we will be destroyed, we will have to destroy you. There are no other options, as they say.

Putin ramped up the nuclear threat this week in a TV address, warning he was 'not bluffing' and was prepared to use all weapons at his disposal

A BM-21 'Grad' multiple rocket launcher fires at Russian position in eastern Ukraine

A destroyed Russian tank is seen near a destroyed building in the village of Kamyanka, recently liberated by Ukrainian Armed Forces

'Why don't they understand this? Why can't they follow this logical reasoning?

'Here, the end of Russia, you reached it, what is it like? Only a nuclear strike

'Well, hopefully there are adequate people there, but honestly speaking I have very strong doubts about that lately.'

Truss said in her speech on Wednesday: '[Putin] is doubling down by sending even more reservists to a terrible fate.

'He is desperately trying to claim the mantle of democracy for a regime without human rights or freedoms.

'And he is making yet more bogus claims and sabre-rattling threats.'

Along with her husband Yevgeny Popov, Skabeyeva has throughout the war spread baseless conspiracy theories, overstated Moscow's war successes, parroted Kremlin lies about 'Nazis' in Ukraine, and issued dire warnings of World War Three and threats against the West.

As a result, she has been branded a 'monster' by commentators, with other analysts suggesting her sabre-rattling rhetoric has marked a shift in the Kremlin's tone.

Along with her husband Yevgeny Popov (pictured), Skabeyeva has throughout the war spread baseless conspiracy theories

Ukrainian soldiers fire in the recently retaken Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region

She was previously involved in efforts to discredit the British investigation into the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal by Novichok nerve agent in the English city of Salisbury.

She has called Putin's invasion an effort to 'to protect people in Donbas from a Nazi regime' and said that the decision to send Moscow's forces into the country was 'without exaggeration, a crucial junction in history.'

Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stormed out of a UN Security meeting after a delusional speech in which he accused 'totalitarian' Ukraine of 'neo-Nazism' and 'Russophobia'.

It came after France, the current head of the Security Council, called a special session in New York to highlight the need for accountability for the atrocities seen in Ukraine.

Although Lavrov was not caught on camera leaving the room, his early departure was referenced by UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

'He has left the chamber, I'm not surprised, I don't think Mr Lavrov wants to hear the collective condemnation of this council,' Mr Cleverly said.

Lavrov told the Council that there has been a narrative that Russian aggression initiated the war as he lashed out at Western accusations.

'There's an attempt today to impose on us a completely different narrative about Russian aggression as the origin of this tragedy,' Lavrov said.

He accused Ukraine of 'Russophobia,' including through its imposition of Ukrainian language rules.

'The United States and their allies with the connivance of international human rights organisations have been covering the crimes of the Kyiv regime,' Lavrov added.

The Foreign Minister also accused Ukraine of becoming a 'Nazi-like state' in a rambling speech.

'We have no doubt that Ukraine has become a completely totalitarian Nazi-like state where the norms of international humanitraian law trampled on,' Lavrov said.

He added: 'We have no illusions that today the armed forces of Russia and the militias of Lugansk and Donetsk are being opposed not only by the neo-Nazi formations of the Kiev regime but the military machine of the collective West.'

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (pictured) stormed out of a UN Security meeting after a delusional speech in which he accused 'totalitarian' Ukraine of 'Russophobia'

Lavrov pictured speaking at the Security Council meeting in New York, accused the West of 'covering up the crimes of the Kyiv regime'

Before the meeting started, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had wryly told reporters that he planned to keep a 'safe social distance' from Lavrov.

And before Vladimir Putin's attack dog Lavrov had entered the room, council staffers prepared to put a placard marking Ukraine's seat next to Russia's, but Kuleba objected, leading to his seat being moved.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on every UN General Assembly member to 'send a clear message' to Russia that it must stop its nuclear threats.

Putin said earlier this week that his nuclear-ready army will 'certainly use all means available to us' to defend the country.

Blinken demanded that Putin be held to account as he faced Russia during a session in which the United Nations catalogued abuses in Ukraine.

'The very international order we've gathered here to uphold is being shredded before our eyes,' Blinken told the Security Council.

'We cannot - we will not - let President Putin get away with it.'

Blinken accused Putin of adding 'fuel to the fire' with recent steps including calling up reservists and planning referendums in Russian-held Ukrainian territory just as Kyiv made strong gains on the ground.

The top US diplomat said it was critical to show that 'no nation can redraw the borders of another by force.'

'If we fail to defend this principle when the Kremlin is so flagrantly violating it, we send the message to aggressors everywhere that they can ignore it, too.'

World leaders and senior diplomats from across the globe descended on New York for the annual meeting this week, with Mr Cleverly attending as part of a UK delegation headed by Truss - his first overseas trip since taking the role.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly (pictured) referenced Lavrov's departure, suggesting he did not want to hear the 'collective condemnation of this council'

The Foreign Secretary, who was speaking right after Lavrov's delusional speech, accused Russia of more lies.

'Today I have listened to further instalments of Russia's catalogues of distortions, dishonesty and disinformation,' he added.

Mr Cleverly also added that the 'devastating consequences of Russia's invasion become more clear' every day.

'We see the mounting evidence of Russian atrocities against civilians, including indiscriminate shelling and targeted attacks on over 200 medical facilities and 40 educational institutions and horrific acts of sexual violence,' he said.

Mr Cleverly argued that Putin is planning to 'fabricate' a referenda on becoming parts of Russia due to be held in Russian-controlled regions in eastern and southern Ukraine.

He said: 'We have information which means that we know that Russia is about to hold sham referenda on sovereign Ukrainian territory with no basis in law under the threat of violence after mass displacements of people in areas that voted overwhelmingly for Ukrainian independence.

The special meeting was called by head of the Security Council France in a bid to to highlight accountability in Ukraine

'We know what Vladimir Putin is doing. He is planning to fabricate the outcome of those referenda, he is planning to use that to annex sovereign Ukrainian territory, and he is planning to use it as a further pretext to escalate his aggression.

'We call on all countries to reject this charade and to refuse to recognise any results.'

Russia is outnumbered on the Security Council, but any meaningful action on Ukraine by the 15-member body has been hampered because it is a veto-wielding permanent member.

But Blinken earlier told the meeting that 'one man chose this war, one man can end it'.

The Security Council meeting came on the heels of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's demands for world leaders to punish Russia in a video speech delivered Wednesday, just hours after Moscow made an extraordinary announcement that it would mobilise some reservists for the war effort.

Buoyed by a counteroffensive that has retaken swaths of territory that the Russians seized, Zelensky vowed that his forces would not stop until they had reclaimed all of Ukraine.

'We can return the Ukrainian flag to our entire territory. We can do it with the force of arms,' the president said in a speech delivered in English. 'But we need time.'
School have buildings at the cathedral who said there is no public right of way

But use was limited to just 41,000-a-year King's School pupils, outraging locals

Canterbury Cathedral bosses have been accused by locals of 'privileging' private school pupils after they restricted access to the grounds in a 'safeguarding' move.

For decades residents of Canterbury, Kent have accessed the precincts of the 11th century cathedral through an 1,800 year old Roman archway, Queningate, cut into the city wall as a shortcut into town.

But the gate's use has been restricted almost entirely to pupils at the 41,000-a-year King's School - Britain's oldest school - which has several buildings on cathedral grounds.

Sean Sayers, 79, who lives a four-minute walk away said the decision has created 'a huge amount of anger in the town' as he argued there is an effective public right of way through the gate - something which the cathedral disputes.

'I've lived here for 50 years and ever since then I've used the Queningate entrance to access the city,' Mr Sayers said.

'Other people I know whose parents and grandparents grew up here said it's been used by residents for time immemorial. That, it seems to me, creates a public right of way.'

Residents who live near Canterbury Cathedral were outraged after they were blocked from accessing 1,800 year old archway Queningate as a shortcut into town

Canterbury Cathedral (pictured) has insisted that the precincts are private property and can therefore be managed accordingly

He added: 'We like walking through the precincts because it's safe and traffic-free. It's not a matter of it being a shortcut, it's just a lovely route and such a beautiful place to be able to walk past.

'It has a long tradition of use and has been an amenity for the whole community.

'But more recently the cathedral bosses started becoming much more restrictive. Without any explanation or warning they have closed all the entrances to the precincts but one.

'We've had no notice - people just turned up at those gates and found out we couldn't go through them anymore.'

According to Sean - a retired philosophy professor at the University of Kent - when he first moved to the city, the cathedral grounds were free to access.

In later years Canterbury Cathedral, which is famed for being the focus of the 1170 pilgrimage of Thomas Becket, began charging non-residents for entrance.

But locals were issued with passes - giving them unrestricted access to the precincts.

Queningate, which is thought to have been constructed around 270AD, is the last remaining entrance of the five original gates into the Roman city.

It is currently undergoing restoration work but once this is completed its use will be restricted almost exclusively to pupils and staff from The King's School.

The independent boarding school, which charges 13,655 per term for its 13 to 18-year-old pupils, has a number of classrooms within the cathedral's precincts.

Queningate (pictured), which is thought to have been constructed around 270AD, is the last remaining entrance of the five original gates into the Roman city

Sean Sayers believes local residents have right to use the Queningate

Both the school and cathedral bosses have raised concerns that unmanaged access to the site could pose a risk to the children.

But grandfather-of-three Sean described the justification for shutting the gate to locals as 'outrageous', as The King's School has property across the city - requiring its pupils to leave the premises to move between classrooms.

He said: 'I think what causes particular outrage here is that The King's School, which is an exclusive private school, seems to be given privileges denied to the local residents.

'It has buildings throughout the town. In fact, there's a whole street of them in one area but they can't close the street to the public so why should they be able to close the precincts?

'They have to walk from one building to another - there's no difference.

'Why should the public be prevented from using the precincts on that basis?

'It's perfectly legitimate for them to say the public cannot go into the school buildings on the site, but we've never been able to do that anyway.

'They're treating the precinct like their own private premises.'

The gate's use has been restricted almost entirely to pupils at the private King's School (pictured) - Britain's oldest school - which has several buildings on cathedral grounds

Sean said he has already consulted a lawyer about the possibility of establishing a public right of way through the gate.

The married dad-of-two added: 'It probably is private property but that doesn't mean that we don't have the right to cross it - like the right of way across people's fields and private grounds.

'Whether there's a legal loophole there we will have to find out, but it's always been a public amenity.

'I don't understand why they can't have a system of passes like they do have at the moment.

'I have not spoken to a single person who isn't against it, so this not the last they will hear of us.'

But Canterbury Cathedral has insisted that the precincts are private property and can therefore be managed accordingly.

They stressed that the changes have been made in the interest of the safety of the pupils at The King's School and that the school will oversee an electronic pass system allowing its students access.

In June, MailOnline revealed that King's School had accepted a 'major donation' from a close ally of Vladimir Putin who was sanctioned by the UK over the war.

A MailOnline investigation found the school had accepted money from a company founded by and run by Dmitry Mazepin, 64.

It is unclear exactly how much cash Russian fertiliser producer Uralchem JSC gave to the school, but it was listed as a 'major benefactor' between 2011 and 2018.

Uralchem manufactures a number of chemicals including ammonium nitrate and has its headquarters in Moscow.

Belarus-born Mr Mazepin is accused of being in the 'closest circle of Vladimir Putin' by the EU who imposed sanctions on him earlier this year after the invasion of Ukraine. The UK soon followed suit with their own restrictions.

A spokesperson said the cathedral cannot share data about the city's residents with the school, nor can the school share its students' data with them due to GDPR restrictions, so a shared pass system is not a possibility.

The King's School (pictured) said: 'The safeguarding and protection of our children is our highest priority'

He added: 'The Cathedral Precincts are a beautiful space which we want as many locals as possible to enjoy.

'This is why free access is available to Precinct Pass-holders, local university students, and refugees living in the city, and why piloted free evening access for the general public has recently been reintroduced.

'There is always free access to services of worship, and everyone is welcome to attend.

'In order to safely manage access to this important religious and heritage site, we ask that everyone enters and exits via Christ Church Gate in the Buttermarket.

'This is the historic main entrance to The Precincts and Cathedral used for hundreds of years by worshippers, pilgrims and visitors alike and, since The Queen's death, the many hundreds who have come to lay flowers and sign Books of Condolence.

'Although there are auxiliary entrances to The Precincts, these are not suitable for public use. Postern Gate is for vehicle access to the Cathedral and is not suitable for pedestrians.

'The other two entrances - Mint Yard and Queningate - provide access to King's School and, in the interests of safeguarding and security, are for use by the school's pupils and staff only.

'This is not unusual or unreasonable - no school in the UK allows unmanaged public access to their site.

'We have received complaints from a local resident who believes he is entitled to use Queningate and The Precincts as a shortcut from his house to the town centre. We have been in conversation with him to explain that this is not true.

'There is not, and never has been, a public right of way or right of access to the Cathedral Precincts - or a right to use specific Gates - and, as a place of burial, it is legally impossible to create or infer one.

'We want to reassure all our Precinct Pass-holders that they are free to enjoy the Cathedral's public spaces during opening hours as frequently as they want. They just need to enter and exit via the main Christ Church Gate.

'For anyone with a mobility issue attending a service of worship, access via Mint Yard Gate or Postern Gate is permitted where it is not practical for them to enter the Precincts via Christ Church Gate.'

A spokesperson for The King's School added: 'The safeguarding and protection of our children is our highest priority.

'We work very closely with the Dean & Chapter who are ultimately responsible for all aspects of access (and security) into the Cathedral Precincts.'
An 'entirely predatory' GP has been struck off for telling a vulnerable patient he would invest in her business, before wining and dining her then having sex with her at a hotel, a misconduct tribunal heard.

Dr Jaskaran Lidder initially persuaded the women they should go up to a hotel room together after saying he 'wanted to see her prototypes'.

The hearing found his offer of potential investment gave him 'leverage' over the already financially struggling woman, in his 'pursuit' of sex with her.

Dr Lidder, who knew his patient was 'vulnerable, emotionally unstable and in financial difficulty', then set up monthly payments to 'cultivate her dependency on him'.

He arranged to meet her at the same hotel for sex on two separate occasions.

General view of Galen Health Practice in London, where Dr Jaskaran Lidder was a GP

The tribunal found Dr Lidder's conduct to be in pursuit of a sexually motivated 'improper' emotional relationship with the patient, and that he had 'brought the profession into disrepute'.

He was struck off from the Medical Register in order to maintain public confidence.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service heard that Dr Lidder had qualified as a doctor in 2002.

The events with the woman, known only as Ms A, took place between May 2013 and December 2014. Up until October 2014 he was also her GP at Galen Health practice, London.

The tribunal found, by looking through WhatsApp messages exchanged between the pair, Dr Lidder had shown interest in investing in her business she had launched in 2009.

It was heard that in May 2014, Dr Lidder arranged to meet Ms A at a hotel - who described the situation as 'cloak and dagger'.

When she arrived at the hotel before dinner there had been no booking under either of their names and Dr Lidder had left the room key at the concierge desk in an envelope.

After dinner, when dropping her back to the hotel, he suggested he come up to her as room as he was 'interested in seeing her prototypes'.

The tribunal heard that once there Dr Lidder 'grabbed her' and they started kissing before having sex.

Afterwards, Ms A said she was left 'feeling like a prostitute' as he immediately got dressed and told her he had to leave as he was on call, despite having drunk alcohol that night.

Following their night in the hotel, the tribunal heard Dr Lidder started making monthly payments to Ms A to try to clear her credit card debt - on terms he set.

The tribunal heard she was told to 'be careful with every penny you earn and spend from now on' and not use drugs or follow 'silly' people.

In December 2014, Dr Lidder arranged to meet Ms A again at the same hotel, again with no formal booking.

The tribunal heard that Ms A agreed as she 'wanted to know' if he was still going to invest in her business.

When they met, Ms A told Dr Lidder how she was struggling to lose weight she had put on, and he 'told' her to undress.

He then made a number of derogatory remarks, before she 'ended up' performing oral sex on him, the panel heard.

Later that month Dr Lidder told Ms A that his circumstances had 'changed' and he would no longer be investing in her business.

The tribunal heard that throughout this period Dr Lidder had been aware of Ms A's financial and mental state, as she told him about her Borderline Personality Disorder. When she told him this, she said he replied it was 'pretty obvious'.

Dr Lidder's behaviour was described by GMC counsel as 'entirely predatory' over a 'significant' period of time.

Tribunal chair Damian Cooper said: 'The tribunal noted that WhatsApp exchanges, during a lengthy period prior to the May 2014 meeting, cover matters well outside an appropriate doctor-patient relationship.

'The course of conduct culminated in sexual intercourse at a hotel room, booked in an apparently covert way, in May 2014. Further sexual activity took place at a hotel in December 2014.

'In the Tribunal's view, this gave Dr Lidder greater leverage in his pursuit of an emotional and sexual relationship.

'Dr Lidder did not set out or maintain professional boundaries. Rather than refrain from the flirtatious nature of the texts, he actively engaged in them, and it was he who made arrangements for them to meet in a hotel room in May 2014.

'Dr Lidder had breached the fundamental trust Ms A ought to have been able to place in him and the analogous fundamental trust patients should be able to have in the medical profession.

'He continued to cultivate her dependency on him by implying he would invest in her business and clear her personal debt.

'It was in no doubt that his conduct fell so far short of the standards of conduct reasonably to be expected of a doctor as to be serious.

'Through his actions he had caused harm to Ms A, had undermined public confidence in the profession and brought the profession into disrepute.'

The tribunal ruled that Dr Lidder should be erased from the medical register.

Mr Cooper added: '[Dr Lidder's erasure] is the only appropriate and proportionate sanction to protect patients, promote and maintain public confidence in the medical profession, and to uphold proper professional standards and conduct for members of the profession.'
A student has told of her horror after learning had her drink spiked by a friend who later admitted she thought it would be a 'laugh'.

Gillian Reilly, 29, went out with friends to her student's union bar at Queen Margaret's University in Edinburgh for her end of year night out.

The final-year student, who was studying drama at the time, was excited to spend the evening with friends but during the night started to feel 'like my insides were getting pulled out'.

She managed to get herself home, where she felt dizzy and had sharp pains in her stomach. Her symptoms of feeling unwell continued for 'weeks and weeks'.

Later she was told by a friend that another person who she considered a close pal 'thought it would be a laugh to put something in her drink'.

Gillian Reilly said she felt 'really betrayed' after learning that a supposed-friend had spiked her drink 'for a laugh'

Gillian said: 'We always had an end of year celebration at university, and I went with all of my friends I had known for a while.

'I was in my final year so it was going to be goodbye for a lot of us. I was drinking anything that was handed to me, and was having a really good time, but soon I started to feel weird.

'When I got back to my flat I felt really weird, it wasn't how being drunk usually feels.

'I started to feel really dizzy at first - but then I got these sharp pains in my stomach, and I started to feel violently sick.

'The day after was when I knew something was really wrong - it felt like my insides were getting pulled out, I was sick for weeks and weeks.

'I felt so unwell I honestly thought I was going to die. It's scary to think that it's not just strangers you need to look out for. Sometimes, it's people you know.'

Gillian Reilly pictured in 2016 when she was a student at Queen Margaret's University in Edinburgh

The ordeal happened in 2016 but she has only recently been able to address it and speak out.

She said: 'I felt really betrayed, you feel like you can trust people and it just made me doubt who I can trust.

'At the time I didn't tell anyone because I had been attacked physically before and nobody believed me.

'They even said that I'd hurt myself rather than believing it was my attacker - so I've been really wary of coming forward since.'

Ms Reilly has now begun studying Adult Nursing at Stirling University, says her past experiences still haunt her.

'It's made me wary of going out and going to clubs. I was really cautious in freshers week and I'm very careful about who I go out with.

'Even now though, there needs to be so much more security to help people on nights out.

'There's drunk, vulnerable people walking around campus, where's security making sure they get home okay?'

Spiking's at university reached dangerous levels last year, where reports of needles being used to spike people came to light.

Ms Reilly continued: 'Starting university is supposed to be exciting - you don't want to have to think about these things happening.

'You're meeting lots of new people and you want to think these people could be friends, but it's not necessarily the case.

'You may meet people who do this to harm you, or in my case, people who think it's funny to spike people.'
More than 1,000 people crossed the English Channel in small boats the day after the total for the year exceeded 30,000, according to Government figures.

The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that 21 boats were intercepted on Thursday carrying 1,150 people.

This is the third highest daily figure in 2022 and brings the total to have made the crossing so far this year to 31,665.

The number of arrivals this week has led officials to erect special tents at Dover, Kent, to keep migrants covered as they appear to be overflowing from existing facilities while being processed.

Scores of people were brought ashore throughout the day on Thursday with volunteer crews on RNLI lifeboats from Dover, Dungeness and Eastbourne all involved in rescuing people from dinghies mid-channel.

Some were brought to safety at Dungeness near Lydd yesterday with men, women and young children were helped down the ladder from the lifeboat. Two bewildered youngsters aged four or five wrapped in winter coats and lifejackets could be seen.

The numbers who have arrived so far this year have already far exceeded last year's total of 28,526.

The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that 21 boats were intercepted on Thursday carrying 1,150 people

Men, women and children were brought down on ladders from the lifeboat onto the pebble shoreline

In 2020 just 8,410 made the crossing of the 21-mile Dover Straits.

It means the number of asylum seekers brought ashore in September so far now stands at 6,625.

Windy conditions had prevented migrants from risking the treacherous journey crossing the two busiest shipping lanes in the World since September 15 when 617 asylum seekers were intercepted.

More than 400 commercial vessels including tankers and container ships use the channel shipping lanes each day.

But calmer conditions in the last few days has enabled crossings to resume.

On Wednesday more than 60 people were brought ashore by the Dungeness Lifeboat onto the beach near Lydd in Kent where they were met by immigration officials and taken on board buses to a processing centre.

Men, women and children were brought down on ladders from lifeboats onto the pebble shoreline while others were brought into the harbour at Dover.

A further 45 had to be rescued by French authorities after getting into difficulties off the Calais coast overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday.

Dover MP Natalie Elphicke said: 'With these shocking record numbers of illegal crossings, getting the small boats crisis under control should be a key priority.

Calmer conditions in the last few days has enabled crossings to the high levels seen throughout the year

'With the approach of Winter, the seas will get rougher and the weather colder- inevitably the risk of further loss of life will increase. That's why urgent action is needed to stop these dangerous crossings.'

Border Force vessels are now using a newly constructed docking station in an area of the port which was a former jetfoil terminal away from public areas. A large fence has also been put up to screen the area off from the public.

It is more than five months since then-home secretary Priti Patel announced plans to send migrants to Rwanda to try to deter people from crossing the Channel.

Since then, 26,397 people have arrived in the UK after making the journey.

On April 14, Ms Patel signed what she described as a 'world-first' agreement with Rwanda, under which the East African country would receive migrants deemed by the UK to have arrived 'illegally' and therefore inadmissible under new immigration rules.

However, the first deportation flight, due to take off on June 14, was grounded amid legal challenges.

Several asylum seekers, the Public and Commercial Services Union and charities Care4Calais, Detention Action and Asylum Aid, are embroiled in court cases with the Home Office as they challenge the legality of the policy.
A nine-year-old boy was seriously mauled by a brown mother-bear during a moose-hunting trip in Alaska and was only rescued by a wounded relative, Alaska State Troopers said.

The pair were hunting in Palmer Hay Flats Game Refuge, 23 miles north east of Anchorage on Tuesday afternoon, September 20, when they came across a brown bear with its cub.

The adult bear immediately attacked and mauled the young boy, who was saved by his 41-year-old relative blasting the creature to death.

Troopers and medics were called to the area at 6:37pm, where they found the boy seriously injured.

The man only had minor injuries, and both were taken to a Mat-Su area hospital.

A nine-year-old boy was seriously mauled by a brown mother-bear (pictured: file photo of a brown bear at the mouth of the Sargent River in Lake Clark National Park in Alaska) during a moose-hunting trip in Alaska and was only rescued by a wounded relative

The man and boy were family members but troopers spokesman Austin McDaniel did not give their names of relationship.

The boy's condition was fair by the following day after receiving medical care, McDaniel added.

Officials searched for the bear cub by ground and helicopter on Wednesday, thought to be an adolescent, but could not find it, according to Todd Rinaldi, a regional management coordinator for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The cub, thought to be unharmed in the incident, will be euthanized if it is found, he said.

The pair were hunting in Palmer Hay Flats Game Refuge, 23 miles north east of Anchorage on Tuesday afternoon, September 20, when they came across a brown bear with its cub

Bear cubs weeks or months old cannot yet fend for themselves yet do not do well in captivity, he added.

Wildlife officials returned to the area on Wednesday to investigate the incident and interview the people wounded in the attack.

Alaskan officials had been searching for a brown bear that has been raiding chicken coops near Butte and Palmer in recent weeks.

There have been no reports of raids since Friday, raising the possibility that this bear was the culprit.

But a necropsy of the beast carried out on Wednesday led officials to believe that they had the wrong bear.
Collective forest farm mode enables Beijing to improve forest management and maintenance, promote employment of farmers

People's Daily Online) 16:06, September 23, 2022

Photo shows a collective forest farm in Tongzhou District, Beijing. (Photo/He Yong)

Beijing has seen significant improvements in the management and maintenance of its forests since taking the lead in the country to shift the responsibility for its ecological forests from companies to collectives in 2018.

Since 2012, the city has launched two rounds of afforestation projects, adding more than two million mu (about 133,333 hectares) of forests and brought about notable growth in the carrying capacity of the city's ecological environment.

In 2018, Beijing decided to try the mode of collective forest farming mainly in plains and shallow mountainous areas. So far, the city has established 96 new collective forest farms in 94 townships of 11 districts, including Tongzhou District and Chaoyang District.

Providing 16,038 local jobs, the forest farms are responsible for the management and maintenance of 2.1 million mu of collective ecological forests in 1,770 villages.

Led by the local government and funded by local collective enterprises or rural collective economic organizations, the new collective forest farms represent a new type of collectively-owned forestry businesses that maintain, protect, manage, and promote the sustainable use of collective ecological forests, according to Yang Yanfeng, head of the main forestry station of Tongzhou District. The new mode works on the basis of separate ownership, contractual, and management rights for forests, Yang noted.

The collective forest farm mode can guarantee a management and maintenance team featuring stable, long-term, and convenient services. They adopt a strict performance management system and are able to ensure earnest implementation of various measures, such as adjusting the density of trees, filling gaps in forests with new seedlings, fertilizing the soil, enriching species, and preventing pests and diseases, thus significantly improving the management and protection of forests, said Chen Junqi, head of the department of forestry reform and development of Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau.

Forests of the new collective forest farms have shown a more than 8.9 percent higher yearly increment in the growth of trees and a 12.6 percent higher species richness than those maintained and managed by other entities, according to an investigation.

Management and maintenance services provided by companies have been short-term, for-profit, and lacked continuity, conflicting with the need for ecological forest management and maintenance services that are long-term, benefit the public, and involve local farmers, pointed out Wang Jinzeng, head of the ecological restoration department of the Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau.

The problem has been effectively solved by the new collective forest farm mode, Wang said, adding that while taking care of collective ecological forests, collective forest farms can use forest resources to carry out educational activities for science popularization.

By improving forest management and maintenance, the new mode has brought tangible benefits to farmers in relevant districts.

Tongzhou District, an administrative district in Beijing with a relatively large volume of plain ecological forest resources, has actively recruited local farmers for its nine local collective forest farms that operate nearly 250,000 mu of forests.

Liu Qiang, a 35-year-old resident of the district who returned to his hometown in Huoxian Township last year, has become the leader of the No. 3 team of the new collective forest farm of Huoxian Township. The team is responsible for more than 8,200 mu of forests, the largest area of forests among those taken care of by the three teams of the new collective forest farm.

There are over 500 forest rangers like Liu working in 26,000 mu of forests for the collective forest farm of Huoxian Township.

The latest statistics suggest that there were 5,661 people employed by collective forest farms in Tongzhou District in August of this year, among whom 5,092 were local people, according to Gao Qiong, deputy head of the forestry and parks bureau of the district.

In addition to social-insurance premium payments, collective forest farms in the district have paid 447 million yuan ($63.42 million) in salaries to employees during the past two years, said Gao.

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Liang Jun)
Props used for the TV series "Squid Game" are seen on display at the "Hallyu! The Korean Wave" exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum in London, Sept. 21. AP-Yonhap





Korea posted a trade surplus of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in the first half of this year thanks to a rise in copyright payments amid popularity of Korean music and other cultural content, central bank data showed Friday.







The country's surplus from cross-border IPR trade came to $370 million in the January-June period, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).







This marked a sharp rise from a surplus of $40 million tallied six months earlier. It also turned around from a deficit of $70 million in the same period a year earlier.







The first-half increase came as the country logged a surplus of $870 million in the copyright area.







In particular, it posted a surplus of $490 million from software development and other research development efforts. Its surplus from exports of cultural and artistic content that resulted in payments for the use of their copyrights totaled $380 million.







The increased surplus in the copyright area appears to have been bolstered by popularity of Korean music, dramas, movies and other cultural content that have been sweeping across the world.







By country, Korea brought in an IPR trade surplus of $1.12 billion from Vietnam, followed by China with a surplus of $1.09 billion, the data showed.







The country, however, posted a shortfall of $620 million from Britain, $560 million from the United States and $220 million from Japan, respectively, according to the data. (Yonhap)


The daughter of the late Desmond Tutu has been banned from leading her godfather's funeral by the Church of England because she is married to a woman.

Mpho Tutu van Furth, who is a practicing Anglican priest in the Diocese of Washington DC, had been asked to officiate the funeral on Thursday in Shropshire.

The decision 'seemed really churlish and hurtful', Ms Tutu van Furth told the BBC.

In a statement the Diocese of Hereford said: 'Advice was given in line with the House of Bishops current guidance on same-sex marriage.'

Mpho Tutu van Furth (left) had her licence rescinded in South Africa in 2015 when she revealed her sexuality and married Marceline van Furth (right), a Dutch academic

Ms Tutu van Furth (left), the daughter of the late Desmond Tutu (right) has reportedly been prohibited from leading her godfather's funeral by the Church of England because she is married to a woman

The Diocese of Hereford said the ban was a 'difficult decision'.

The Church of England does not allow same-sex marriage in its clergy, but The Episcopal Church in the US - of which Ms Tutu van Furth is a part - does.

Upon hearing the news, the decision was made to move the funeral service from St michael and All Angels in Wentnor to a marquee in the vicarage next door.

This was in order for Ms Tutu van Furth could officiate band preach at the funeral as planned.

She said it felt like a bureaucratic response and maybe 'a lack of compassion' but that 'there was the joy of having a celebration of a person who could throw open the door to people who are sometimes excluded.'

Her godfather Martin Kenyon, then 91, went viral in December 2020 when he was asked how it felt to be one of the first people to receive the Covid-19 vaccine.

Her godfather Martin Kenyon, then 91, went viral in December 2020 when he was asked how it felt to be one of the firts people to receive the Covid-19 vaccine

He said: 'There's no point in dying when I've lived this long, is there?'

Ms Tutu van Furth had her licence rescinded in South Africa in 2015 when she revealed her sexuality and married Marceline van Furth, a Dutch academic.

Her father Desmond Tutu had campaigned in favour in gay rights and was in support of gay marriage.

In 2013 he said he would 'refuse to go to a homophobic heaven' and that he would not worship a God who was homophobic.

He added: 'I am as passionate about this campaign as I ever was about apartheid. For me, it is at the same level.'
Hilary Mantel was 'excitedly' working on her latest novel just days before she died suddenly of a massive stroke at the age of 70.

The bestselling author of the Wolf Hall books passed away today at Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital 'suddenly yet peacefully'.

Her husband of 50 years, Gerald, and her oldest friend were with her when she died and her surviving brother also visited her.

Mantel's publisher, Harper Collins, announced the author's death online in a statement this morning.

Nicholas Pearson, Dame Hilary's editor for years, mourned the loss of the hugely popular author and said she had been working on a new book just before she passed away.

He said: 'The news of Hilary's death is devastating to her friends and everyone who worked with her.

'Only last month I sat with her on a sunny afternoon in Devon, while she talked excitedly about the new novel she had embarked on.

'That we won't have the pleasure of any more of her words is unbearable.

'What we do have is a body of work that will be read for generations. We must be grateful for that. I will miss her and my thoughts are with her husband Gerald.'

Wolf Hall author Hilary Mantel has died suddenly aged 70, her publisher has announced

Hilary Mantel leaves behind her husband, Gerald, pictured here with the author at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in 2014

Mantel's publisher 4th Estate Books, owned by Harpin Collins, announced the sad news on Twitter

The Mirror and The Light, the third book in Mantel's Cromwell series, was an instant number one bestseller on its release in 2020

The author sold millions of copies of her novels around the world over her decades-long career

JK Rowling was one of many to pay tribute to the bestselling author today. She told her 14 million Twitter followers: 'We've lost a genius.'

Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy, which spanned the life of Thomas Cromwell in gripping detail, made her an international star and won her two Booker Prizes.

The first in the series, Wolf Hall, was published in 2009 and sold 1 million copies in the UK alone and won her a first Man Booker prize.

A BBC series of the book starring Mark Rylance and Damien Lewis was a smash hit in the UK.

Its sequel, Bring Up The Bodies, also won the Booker Prize and the Costa Book of The Year Award in 2012.

This made the hugely popular author, who split her time between Budleigh Salterton and Sunningdale in Berkshire, the first British writer to have won the Man Booker prize twice and the only writer to have done so with two consecutive novels.

The Mirror and The Light, the final instalment in the trilogy, was an instant number one best seller when it was published in 2020.

Historian Lucy Worsley paid tribute to the author by recalling a meeting with her just before she wrote her smash-hit books.

She said on Twitter: 'In 2009, a lady came to a conference we had at Hampton Court about the life of Henry VIII.

'She sat quietly at the back making notes. She was reputed to be a novelist. I did not know then that a goddess was walking among us.'

Mantel was made a Dame by the Queen in 2014 for her services to literature.

She lived in a house overlooking the sea at Budleigh Salterton, east Devon, for many years.

In 2012 she spoke about the town saying: 'I have never forgotten my first sight of Budleigh Salterton from the cliff tops, lying below on a sunny daylike a perfect little Mediterranean town.

'And I thought I want to live there.'

Born in Derbyshire in 1952, Mantel studied law at London School of Economics and Sheffield University.

She worked briefly as a social worker in a geriatric hospital, which informed her later novels Every Day is Mother's Day and Vacant Possession.

Mantel married husband Gerald in 1972. The pair separated briefly for two years before reuniting.

The author said in an interview in 2020 the endometriosis she suffered throughout her life was the reason for the split. Mantel battled the illness from the age of 19. She told Radio 5: 'You have to find a way of living with it and living around it.

'I have been ill most of my life, certainly since I was 19.'

In 1977, Hilary and geologist Gerald moved to Botswana, before relocating to Saudi Arabia in 1982.

In 1985, Mantel published her first book - Every Day is Mother's Day - before becoming the Spectator's film critic in 1987.

By then she was regularly winning literary prizes, and her fourth novel, Fludd, won the Cheltenham Festival Prize, the Southern Arts Literature Prize and the Winifred Holtby Prize.

Her fifth novel, A Place Of Greater Safety, won the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award. Beyond Black, published in 2005, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize.

Her novel, Wolf Hall, was turned into a hugely successful TV series starring Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell

Damien Lewis (right) and Claire Foy (left) starred as Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn in the series

The Cromwell trilogy was also adapted into a series of stag plays, starring Ben Miles

Wolf Hall, published in 2009, sold a million copies in the UK alone and millions more around the world

Mantel was an authority on the royal family and how political events from the distant past are reflected in modern events

In 2009 she published Wolf Hall, the first book in her acclaimed trilogy about the rapid rise to power of Cromwell during the time of Henry VIII.

The work won the 2009 Booker Prize, as did its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, and prompted rave reviews.

The third and final book in the trilogy, The Mirror And The Light, was published in 2020.

The first two series were adapted into a BBC Two show starring Sir Mark Rylance as Cromwell and Damian Lewis as Henry VIII.

It was a critical hit and pulled in an average audience of more than four million viewers, with Sir Mark winning a TV Bafta for his performance.

The trilogy has also been adapted for the stage, starring Ben Miles as Cromwell.

She wrote reviews and articles for many publications and was an authority on the royal family and how political events from the distant past are reflected in modern events.

Mantel's endometriosis that took many years to diagnose and she required a surgical menopause in her late 20s, leaving her unable to have children, and she continued to need treatment all her life.

The female body would remain a central theme in her books, and she later became a patron and a supporter of the Endometriosis SHE Trust.

Mantel was outspoken on a number of subjects, including Brexit, saying in 2021 that she hoped to gain Irish citizenship, leave the country and become 'a European again'.

In an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica she described the UK as 'an artificial and precarious construct'.

Tributes have poured in for the beloved author throughout the day following her sudden death

She also criticised the Catholic Church in 2012, saying it was no longer 'an institution for respectable people'.

In an interview with the Telegraph, she added: 'When I was a child I wondered why priests and nuns were not nicer people. I thought that they were amongst the worst people I knew.'

This prompted some to suggest there was an anti-Catholic thread running through the Wolf Hall trilogy.

Mantel was also forthright in her wish for the UK to become a republic, describing 'the howl phenomenon of monarchy' as 'irrational'.

Author Bernardine Evaristo joined in paying tribute to the late author. She said she was 'so sad' to hear of her passing and felt people have been 'so lucky to have such a massive talent in our midst.

'I met her a few times and she was always so warm, down-to-earth and welcoming. RIP Hilary Mantel.'

Ben Miles, who played Thomas Cromwell in the three-part stage adaptation of the Wold Hall Series, paid tribute to Dame Hilary.

He said: 'She was an extraordinary woman. A good friend and a close colleague. I feel so honoured to have known her and to have contributed in a small way to the work of one of the greatest writers of our time.

'I shall dearly miss her kindness, her humour and her gentle tenacity. The indisputable genius of her words remains as some small consolation to this tragic loss.'

Publisher Harper Collins added: 'Hilary Mantel was one of the greatest English novelists of this century and her beloved works are considered modern classics. She will be greatly missed.'

Bill Hamilton, Dame Hilary's agent at literary agency A.M. Heath, said it had been the 'greatest privilege' to work with her throughout her career.

He said: 'Her wit, stylistic daring, creative ambition and phenomenal historical insight mark her out as one of the greatest novelists of our time.

'She will be remembered for her enormous generosity to other budding writers, her capacity to electrify a live audience, and the huge array of her journalism and criticism, producing some of the finest commentary on issues and books.

'Emails from Hilary were sprinkled with bon mots and jokes as she observed the world with relish and pounced on the lazy or absurd and nailed cruelty and prejudice.

'There was always a slight aura of otherworldliness about her, as she saw and felt things us ordinary mortals missed, but when she perceived the need for confrontation she would fearlessly go into battle.

'And all of that against the backdrop of chronic health problems, which she dealt with so stoically. We will miss her immeasurably, but as a shining light for writers and readers she leaves an extraordinary legacy. Our thoughts go out to her beloved husband Gerald, family and friends.'

A spokesperson for Harper Collins said: 'We are heartbroken at the death of our beloved author, Dame Hilary Mantel, and our thoughts are with her friends and family, especially her husband, Gerald.

'This is a devastating loss and we can only be grateful she left us with such a magnificent body of work.'

Author and screenwriter Emma Kennedy paid tribute to Mantel's 'eternal gifts'.

She tweeted: 'What a phenomenal writer she was. Eternal gifts that will be read for the rest of time. Go well Hilary. RIP.'

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said 'It is impossible to overstate the significance of the literary legacy Hilary Mantel leaves behind'.

She added: 'Her brilliant Wolf Hall trilogy was the crowning achievement in an outstanding body of work. Rest in peace.'

New Yorker staff writer Parul Sehgal said the loss of Mantel 'feels like a theft of a kind.'

She added: 'All those books we still needed from her. That lavish imagination, that beady understanding of power.

'From the final book in the trilogy: This is what life does for you in the end; it arranges a fight you can't win.'

Journalist Christiane Amanpour praised Dame Hilary's contribution to both literature and charity, saying on Twitter: 'As well as a truly brilliant novelist, she did so much to raise awareness of endometriosis and sexism in healthcare.'

Author Damian Barr added: 'I cannot believe the news about Hilary Mantel. With every book she redefined what words can do.

'Shes the only person I ever interviewed that speaks in whole, flawless paragraphs. I cant believe we wont have another book from her. Thinking of her family and friends. Such a loss.'

Hilary Mantel wrote first book in her head while bored working in department store - 34 years later Wolf Hall made her a superstar

By Harry Howard, History Correspondent for MailOnline

Hilary Mantel wrote her first book in her head, while bored working in the fashion section of a Manchester Department store.

The year was 1975 and when she was able to put pen to paper, the 1979 result was a novel that was not ultimately published until 1992 - after the writer had released four other books.

When A Place of Greater Safety did hit the shelves, it sold well, but nothing like the way the way Wolf Hall - the 2009 book that made her a superstar - did.

The novel, which was the first part in a historical fiction trilogy charting the rise of Thomas Cromwell in the court of King Henry VIII, immersed a generation of readers in the Tudor period and propelled Mantel to global fame.

It won her the coveted Booker prize, a feat which Mantel repeated with sequel Bring Up The Bodies in 2012. By the time the concluding book The Mirror and the Light came, Mantel was a wealthy woman.

The author, who has died suddenly aged 70, ultimately sold five million copies of her books, but started out as a social worker at a hospital for the elderly, whilst also working part-time as a retail assistant.

Hilary Mantel wrote her first book in her head, while bored working in the fashion section of a Manchester Department store. Above: The star poses with her Booker Prize-winning book Wolf Hall in 2009; the author as a little girl

Mantel, who was made a Dame in 2015, was born in the village of Glossop, Derbyshire in 1952 and educated at a convent school in Cheshire. She was one of three children.

The author revealed in an interview in 2015 how her family was 'odd', with her mother having a lover who moved into the family home - and her father remained there for four years before finally moving out.

When her father did leave, Mantel was aged just 11 and never saw him again.

She told Skavlan, a programme which broadcasts in Norway and Sweden: 'We had an odd family. When I was seven my mother moved her lover into the house and my father stayed. It was very strange because it was a small house but they managed to live on separate circuits.

'They stayed in this situation for four years. We lived in a small village with everyone gossiping about them and as soon as I put my foot outdoors everyone was asking me what was happening like 'Who sleeps where?'

'I did not know why they were asking this question so I learnt to shut down and not to give anything away. I did not lie on their behalf I just stayed silent really.

'My real father became more and more like a ghost in our lives until he faded away entirely. At the time I had no idea he had gone.

Mantel, who was made a Dame in 2015, was born in the village of Glossop, Derbyshire in 1952 and educated at a convent school in Cheshire. She was one of three children. Above: The author in 1992

The author revealed in an interview in 2015 how her family was 'odd', with her mother having a lover who moved into the family home (left) - and her father remained there for four years before finally moving out. Right: Mantel lived in Budleigh Salterton, Devon

'My mother for her own reasons had turned me against him and I believed he did not want any contact but now you see I don't know whether that was true.'

Mantel went on to explore the complex relationship with her mother Margaret, father Henry Thompson and stepfather Jack Mantel in her memoir, Giving Up The Ghost, which was published in 2003.

The author, who divided her time with her husband Gerald between homes in Sunningdale, Berkshire, and Budleigh Salterton, Devon, studied at the London School of Economics and Sheffield University before getting her role as a social worker at a geriatric hospital in Hadfield.

How Mantel penned fantasy about assassinating Margaret Thatcher The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher was published in 2014 Hilary Mantel's short novel The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, which was published in 2014, was condemned by some critics. It depicted an affluent woman allowing an IRA killer into her flat, so he could shoot the prime minister from a window when she left hospital after eye surgery. The characters described the transformative PM as 'cruel' and 'wicked', and 'rejoice' in her death. The author revealed that she wrote the book after imagining shooting the then Prime Minister when she spotted her standing unguarded near her Windsor flat in 1983. In an interview with The Guardian, she told how she felt 'boiling detestation' for the politician. She said Baroness Thatcher was an anti-feminist and 'psychological transvestite', who did 'long-standing damage' to the country Advertisement

Although those experiences were brief, they later helped inspire her novels Every Day Is Mother's Day and Vacant Possession.

The former, which was released in 1985, was her first work to be published. Vacant Possession was published the following year.

In 1977 she went to live in Botswana with her husband, who was then working as a geologist, and in 1982 they moved to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

The couple returned to the UK in 1986 and the following year Mantel became the film critic of the Spectator magazine. Even in her later career continued to review for a wide range of publications.

By this point she had begun to regularly win literary prizes and her fourth novel, Fludd, claimed the Cheltenham Festival Prize, the Southern Arts Literature Prize and the Winifred Holtby Prize.

A Place Of Greater Safety then won the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award.

Beyond Black, published in 2005, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize.

After the publishing success of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, both were adapted into a BBC Two show starring Sir Mark Rylance as Cromwell and Damian Lewis as Henry VIII.

It was a critical hit and pulled in an average audience of more than four million viewers, with Sir Mark winning a TV Bafta for his performance.

The trilogy has also been adapted for the stage, starring Ben Miles as Cromwell.

Speaking of her health troubles in aSkavlan interview, Mantel said: 'I have been ill a lot in my life. When I was 19 I realised there was something physically wrong and the doctors were very unhelpful.

'And basically they told me it was all in my mind and that I did not have a disease but there was.

'When I was 27 I was discovered to have a gynaecological condition which affects young women which is quite common.

'But by the time the disease had been given a name a great deal of damage had been done to my body. It is something I have had to live with lifelong and it is only in the last few years that I have recovered my life.

'It did influence the course of my life. I probably would not have been a writer if it had not been for this. When I was 22 I thought I must have a career and I started writing seriously but being in chronic pain does not make you saintly.

'It makes you shut down and you only have a little bit of energy so you have to ration it and you work twice as hard as other people to prove you are good to other people.

Hilary Mantel was the first woman and only fourth person to receive the coveted Booker Prize twice. Above: The star in 2017

The second part in the Wolf Hall trilogy, Bring Up The Bodies, also won the Booker Prize. Right: The Mirror & the Light was the concluding part of the trilogy

'Your life becomes just ambition and you don't have any fun but I have had more fun in the last year than I have had in my life.'

The female body would remain a central theme in her books, and she later became a patron and a supporter of the Endometriosis SHE Trust.
Silvio Berlusconi has sparked fury by claiming Vladimir Putin was 'pushed' into invading Ukraine and only wants to put 'decent people' in charge of Kyiv.

The Italian leader and former PM, whose Forza Italia party belongs to a right-wing coalition expected to win the general election on Sunday, is a long-time friend of Putin and his comments are likely to alarm Western allies.

'Putin was pushed by the Russian people, by his party, by his ministers to come up with this special operation,' Berlusconi told Italian public television RAI late on Thursday, using the official Russian wording for the war.

Silvio Berlusconi has sparked fury by claiming Vladimir Putin was 'pushed' into invading Ukraine

The Italian leader and former PM is a long-time friend of Putin and his comments are likely to alarm Western allies (pictured in 2015)

Russia's plan was originally to conquer Kyiv 'in a week', and replace the democratically elected Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky with 'a government of decent people' and get out 'in another week,' he said.

'I haven't even understood why Russian troops spread around Ukraine while in my mind they should have only stuck around Kyiv', said the 85-year-old Berlusconi, who once described Putin as being like a younger brother.

Putin's stated war aims have varied during the seven-month war. Ukraine initially chased his troops from the Kyiv area, and more recently from parts of the northeast near the Russia border.

Putin now says the main aim is to secure territory in Ukraine's Donbas region partly controlled by pro-Russia separatists.

Facing widespread condemnation from opponents for his words, Berlusconi released a statement on Friday saying his views had been 'oversimplified'.

'The aggression against Ukraine is unjustifiable and unacceptable, (Forza Italia's) position is clear. We will always be with the EU and NATO,' he said.

Berlusconi's Forza Italia party belongs to a right-wing coalition expected to win the general election on Sunday

A man walks on a destroyed bridge in Kochetok, Kharkiv region, amid Russia's barbaric invasion

A woman collects wood for heating from a destroyed school where Russian forces were based in the recently retaken area of Izium

Under outgoing Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Italy has been a staunch supporter of Western sanctions on Russia following the invasion.

Giorgia Meloni of the far-right Brothers of Italy, tipped as the next premier, has pledged to stick to that position, but Berlusconi and her other ally Matteo Salvini of the League have been more ambivalent.

Berlusconi has shrugged off ill health and scandal to remain a major player in the rightist alliance, even if his Forza Italia is the junior partner now among its three main parties.

'These are scandalous and very serious words,' the leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, Enrico Letta, said about Berlusconi's remarks.

A Ukrainian military member stands next to a destroyed freight wagon struck in Russian shelling

'If on Sunday night the result is favourable to the right, the happiest person would be Putin,' Letta said on RAI radio.

Centrist leader Carlo Calenda, another election contender, told Radio24: 'Yesterday Berlusconi spoke like a Putin general. It is totally outrageous.'

Berlusconi said on Thursday that Moscow's decision to invade came in response to an appeal by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

He said their leaders had gone to the Kremlin and directly told Putin, 'please defend us, because if you do not defend us, we don't know where we could end up.'

Voting began on Friday in four Ukrainian regions mostly held by Russian forces including the separatists, the start of a plan by Putin to annex a big chunk of Ukraine.
Suggests morale and discipline issues among Russia's military are unlikely to improve with influx of recruits

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Russian conscripts have been filmed drinking and fighting amongst themselves on their way to the frontlines today, in scenes that could soon repeat themselves on the battlefields of Ukraine.

Dozens of videos began surfacing showing men swilling from cups of drink before boarding buses heading west, or else stumbling and fighting at recruitment offices and on board planes.

Footage is hard to conclusively verify, but it tallies with reports of low morale and drunkenness among Russian recruits and speaks to wider problems faced by Putin's military - poor command, discipline and organisation - that have plagued its war effort so far. It appears those issues are unlikely to get better as the war wears on.

Meanwhile reports from within Russia itself suggested men were rushing to marry single mothers or register as elderly carers in a desperate bid to dodge the draft by having dependents. However, their hopes will likely prove in vain as the only exceptions from Putin's sweeping laws are age, illness, certain professions, or imprisonment.

Moscow said on Friday that some bankers, IT workers and journalists will be exempt from being drafted into the army - but companies in Russia are questioning how the exemptions will work in practice.

It comes after border crossing points clogged with cars and plane tickets to visa-free nations sold out within hours. Some Russians reported buying tickets to destinations they didn't know existed in order to get away. Others used scooters to skip car queues and cross into the likes of Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Georgia

Video has emerged purporting to show Russian conscripts drinking and brawling as they are loaded on to buses and transported towards the frontlines in Ukraine

Multiple videos appear to show young Russian men drinking heavily as they are shipped off to war, suggesting that morale problems in the military are unlikely to improve as they arrive on the frontlines

A man with a Z war symbol on his chest toasts with his fellow conscripts as they load on to a bus somewhere in Russia, before shipping out to fight against Ukraine

Aleksandr, a manager from Moscow who spoke to the New York Times, said he began packing his bags before Putin's Wednesday-morning speech had even finished. When he arrived at the airport, tickets to Turkey and Kazakhstan had already sold out - so he flew to Namangan, in Uzbekistan.

He said that he had never heard of the city before, and neither had the young man he was sat next to on the plane who was also fleeing the country. The aircraft was full of similar people, he added. In Moscow, he left behind a wife with three children. 'My hopes that things might remain more or less OK collapsed today,' she said.

Dmitri, another Russia fleeing the draft, spoke out after landing in Armenia. 'I don't want to go to the war,' he said. 'I don't want to die in this senseless war. This is a fratricidal war.' Like almost all new Russian arrivals, he refused to give his surname for fear of reprisals.

The exodus came after Putin on Wednesday ordered what he called the 'partial mobilisation' of Russian military reserves - which he said would affect only those with combat experience or military service - in the hopes of raising 300,000 troops to shore up his failing war in Ukraine.

However, the actual legal notice published by the Ministry of Defence places no limits on who can be drafted. The paragraph stating the number to be called up was also censored out, with sources suggesting it actually allows 1million to be press-ganged into the armed forces.

Russia did say on Friday that it was was exempting some bankers, IT workers and journalists from being drafted into the army in a bid to 'ensure the work of specific high-tech industries, as well as Russia's financial system'.

Moscow classifies major employers and core companies in set industries as 'systemically-important' if they meet certain thresholds in terms of headcount, revenue or annual tax payments.

The classification allows firms to get special benefits from the Kremlin such as government-backed loans, bailouts and state investment, most recently during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Among the media outlets previously classified as such are a host of state-run TV channels, radio stations, news agencies, and newspapers, as well as some of Russia's few privately-held media outlets.

The defence ministry said heads of companies should draw up lists of their employees who meet the criteria and can be excluded from the draft.

Many Russian companies appear to have been caught off guard by Putin's mobilisation order, which followed weeks of speculation about how Russia would respond to a conflict now entering its seventh month in which Kyiv and the West say Russia has suffered tens of thousands of casualties.

'We're looking into it for now. We're trying to understand how this will work,' a source at one large non-state company told Reuters on Friday shortly after the defence ministry issued its statement.

Russia's central bank welcomed the move to exclude some financial professionals from being called up and said some of its staff met the relevant criteria.

'Employees who are engaged in critical areas will remain in their positions so the financial system can continue to work smoothly, people can receive their salaries, pensions and social benefits on time, card payments and transfers work and new loans can be issued,' the central bank said in a statement.

But some are not so lucky. Reports from villages and towns in Russia's remote Siberia region suggest students are being marched out of universities en masse to join the military, and men - sometimes in middle age - are being woken in the middle of the night to be handed draft papers.

The draft appears to be falling hardest in the country's remotest and poorest regions - those least likely to resist Putin's order, or whose dissent will not reach the Kremlin, hundreds of miles away to the West.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen warlord and staunch Putin ally, has been filmed telling his people they will not be drafted because they have already contributed to the war. Similarly, Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko - who faced down a huge protest movement just two years ago - has also said there will be no conscription there.

'The mobilisation is in Russia... There will be no mobilisation (here),' state media quoted Lukashenko as saying.

However, there are reports that Russian men flying to Belarus in an attempt to escape the mobilisation are being turned away from the border.

The Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are also turning away Russians - though that is merely an extension of an earlier policy banning tourists. All three nations heavily oppose the war.

Finland, also an opponent of the war, has said it will look into banning Russians from entering having until-now resisted turning away tourists.

Russian men are still attempting to leave the country to escape the draft, with some resorting to scooters to beat the hours-long queues of cars that having built up at the crossing-point with Georgia

A young Russian man flying alone arrives at the airport in Armenia, having left his home country after Putin ordered anyone with military service or combat experience into the army

Armenia is one of a number of countries where Russians are allowed to travel without a visa, and has seen an uptick in arrivals in recent days as people flee the draft

The exodus came after Putin on Wednesday ordered what he called the 'partial mobilisation' of Russian military reserves - which he said would affect only those with combat experience or military service - in the hopes of raising 300,000 troops to shore up his failing war in Ukraine. Pictured: Putin chairs a Security Council meeting in Moscow on Friday

It comes as Putin looks to escalate his war in Ukraine, which has now been dragging on for seven months and has left Moscow with little to show for its efforts.

Voting is now underway in sham referendums which are almost certain to end with four regions of Ukraine being annexed to Russia itself.

Though the move changes nothing on the ground, it will allow Putin to spin the lie to his own people that any Ukrainian attacks on those areas are attacks on Russia itself.

That gives him an expanded suite of options for responding - including declaring all-out war and mobilising more men, or even deploying Russia's nuclear weapons.

Serhiy Gaidai, Ukraine's Luhansk region governor, said that in the town of Starobilsk, Russian authorities banned the population from leaving the city until Tuesday and armed groups had been sent to search homes and coerce people to get out to take part in the referendum.

'Today, the best thing for the people of Kherson would be not to open their doors,' said Yuriy Sobolevsky, the displaced Ukrainian first deputy chairman of the Kherson regional council, said on messaging app Telegram.

The referendums have been condemned by Ukraine and the West as illegitimate and a choreographed precursor to illegal annexation. There will be no independent observers, and much of the pre-war population has fled.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which monitors elections, said the outcomes would have no legal bearing as they do not conform with Ukraine law or international standards and the areas are not secure.

Gaidai said that in the Russian-held town of Bilovodsk, a company director told employees voting was compulsory and anyone refusing to take part would be fired and their names given to security services.

'The mood of the Russians is panicky because they were not ready to carry out so quickly this so-called referendum, there is no support, there's not enough people,' Kherson's Sobolevsky said on messaging app Telegram.

Gaidai decried the plebiscites as 'elections without elections'. He said people were being forced to fill out 'pieces of paper' without privacy in kitchens and residential yards, with towns sealed off so people could not leave to avoid voting.

Russia maintains that the referendums offer an opportunity for people in the region to express their view.

'From the very start of the operation..., we said that the peoples of the respective territories should decide their fate, and the whole current situation confirms that they want to be masters of their fate,' Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this week.

Ukraine says it will never accept Russian control of any of its territory and will fight until the last Russian soldier is ejected.

Residents of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, from which Russian forces were repelled by strong resistance in March, were dismissive of the referendums.

Russians queue at the border with Finland as they flee the country to escape the war with Ukraine, after Putin began mobilisation into the armed forces

A Finnish border guard officer stands near cars queued to enter Finland from Russia in Vaalimaa, Finland

Cars queue to enter Finland from Russia at Finland's most southern crossing point Vaalimaa, around three hour drive from the city of Saint Petersburg

'(They) will give Moscow no upper hand. It's all nonsense, bluff, and political manipulation to frighten us and the Western countries with their nuclear stuff,' 65-year-old Oleksandr Yaroshenko told Reuters.

Voting for residents who have fled occupied territories was also being held at some 20 polling stations in Moscow, including the embassy of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, a Russian lawmaker said.

Russian-installed authorities in Kherson said all permanent residents of Russian-controlled regions who are currently in Russia would be able to vote in the town where they are staying, on presentation of relevant documentation.

Ukraine says Russia intends to frame the referendum results as a sign of popular support, and then use them as a pretext for annexation, similar to its takeover of Ukraine's Crimea in 2014, which the international community has not recognised.

Hinting at the Kremlin's strategic calculation in staging the referendums, ex-president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy head of its national security council, warned Moscow would henceforth deem any attack on the four territories as one on Russia itself.

'Encroachment onto Russian territory is a crime which allows you to use all the forces of selfadefence,' Medvedev said in a Telegram post on Thursday, adding that any weapons in Moscow's arsenal, including strategic nuclear weapons, could be used.

The plebiscites have been denounced as an illegal farce by world leaders including U.S. President Joe Biden, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as NATO, the European Union and the OSCE.

Russia already considers Luhansk and Donetsk, which together make up the Donbas region Moscow-backed proxies partially occupied in 2014, to be independent states.

'Voting has started in the referendum on Zaporizhzhia region becoming a part of Russia as a constituent entity of the Russian Federation! We are coming home!' said Vladimir Rogov, an official in the Russian-backed administration of that southern region of Ukraine.

Despite the plan to mobilise reservists, Putin maintains Russia is only carrying out a 'special military operation' to demilitarise Ukraine, rid it of dangerous nationalists and defend Russia from NATO.

Kyiv and the West call Russia's actions an unprovoked, imperialist bid to reconquer a country that shook off Russian domination with the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union.
The taxpayer will spend an eyewatering 60billion underwriting energy bills in just six months this winter, Kwasi Kwarteng revealed today.

Ministers are intervening to rein in bills for business and domestic users amid soaring prices fuelled by the war in Ukraine.

Domestic bills are set to be capped at an average of 2,500 for the next two years while businesses will be helped with wholesale costs for at least six months from October that could halve their outgoings.

Ministers had until now refused to get into the cost of this market intervention, but the Chancellor confirmed this morning the nine-figure cost of the package

'The PM has acted with great speed to announce one of the most significant interventions the British state has ever made,' Kwarteng told the Commons.

'People need to know that help is coming, and indeed it is coming.'

It came as he unveiled the largest wave of tax cuts for 50 years, with cuts to income tax, co-operation tax and stamp duty that will mainly help the better-off.

He added: 'The Energy Bill Relief Scheme will reduce wholesale gas and electricity prices for all UK businesses, charities and the public sector like schools and hospitals. This will provide a price guarantee equivalent to the one provided for households, for all businesses across the country.'

He added that 'energy prices are currently extremely volatile, erratically rising and falling every hour'.

Mr Kwarteng said: 'This creates real risks to energy firms who are otherwise viable businesses. Those firms help supply the essential energy needed by households and businesses. So, to support them, we are announcing the Energy Markets Financing Scheme.

'Delivered with the Bank of England, this scheme will provide a 100 per cent guarantee for commercial banks to offer emergency liquidity to energy firms.'

Earlier this week Liz Truss was warned that businesses will need long term help with energy bills if prices stay stubbornly high as she unveiled a massive intervention in the market to cap prices.

The Prime Minister announced that wholesale costs would be held at half their predicted seasonal peak at a cost predicted to hit tens of billions of pounds amid fears of economic turmoil.

The new Energy Bill Relief Scheme will provide a discount on wholesale costs for all non-domestic customers from October until next March.

Speaking in New York she promised further help after that, mentioning shops and pubs, while Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg suggested schools, and hospitals and care homes, could also be classed as vulnerable to receive ongoing help.

A three-month review will assess what extra help is needed in the spring when gas and electricity prices may have dropped or stayed high.

It followed an announcement a fortnight ago that household bills would be stopped from rising above 2,500 for the next two years.

The household scheme will see families charged a maximum of 2.93 per therm against an expected market price for the next year of 4.32.

It is estimated that the two schemes will mean the State is paying for more than 1 in every 3 of gas consumed.
BT has declared a war on its staff who are still working from home and has said if they don't come into the office three times a week they will face disciplinary action.

Thousands of workers have been told the company will be enacting a 'smart working' approach in a move that is 'fundamental to the success of the business'.

Chief executive Philip Jansen revealed the plans to The Register in which he says the days of the working week will now comprise of 'three together, two wherever'.

In an email, Mr Jansen said: 'We believe in being together. That means most of our office-based colleagues coming together for at least three days a week in the workplace, or with customers.

Thousands of workers have been told the company will be enacting a 'smart working' approach in a move that is 'fundamental to the success of the business'

Chief executive Philip Jansen revealed the plans in which he says the days of the working week will now comprise of 'three together, two wherever'

Workers should return to the office to avoid spats escalating out of control, says property company boss Christian Ulbrich Workers should return to the office to avoid spats escalating out of control and souring staff relations, the boss of a top property firm has said. Christian Ulbrich, chief executive of JLL, warned that conflicts were more easily resolved when staff were physically together - and that communicating virtually required far more empathy. Speaking at the World Economic Forums annual conference in Davos, Mr Ulbrich told Bloomberg: You get a better outcome if you are in a room together. It is much easier to upset people on video calls, he added. Another thing I have experienced, conflicts between people are much easier resolved when people are together in an office, he said. Whereas when you are on a video call its easier to miss that somebody is not happy with the way you are wording things, or behaving and in your facial expressions. There is a much higher need when people work remotely to be really focused on empathy with others. Mr Ulbrich also accused workers of having a bit of an attitude if they do not want to come back to the office. Advertisement

'Working remotely, we've lost that deep connection we only get from being together  with each other or with our customers  more often: the spontaneous conversations, the creative work, and the building of deep human relationships that inspire amazing things for our customers.

'I know this won't suit everybody's individual preference, but the whole of the executive team believes it is fundamental to the success of our business.'

The move comes after it was revealed in a survey of 50,000 UK office workers last month that only 13 per cent went into work on a Friday, with the average respondent spending just 1.5 days a week in the office.

At the end of August it was announced that office availability in central London is at its highest level in more than 15 years.

There are close to 31 million square feet of space currently lying empty  the equivalent of about 60 Gherkins, the iconic 41-floor skyscraper in the City of London.

Two studies in China and the U.S. found that 23 per cent of on-site workers were promoted within 12 months, compared with just 10 per cent of remote workers.

Data published by the Office for National Statistics found around a third of people are continuing to spend part of their week working at home.

Huge numbers of civil servants are reluctant to go back to their desks, prompting fears for productivity and the survival of businesses in city centres that rely on them.

While some staff find it easier to work from home some or all of the time, many managers are concerned that long-term flexible working could reduce productivity, hamper teamwork and affect workers social lives.

And the Government fears that increased home working could affect the economy, as workers make fewer trips out to shop and buy lunch and shun office space.

Companies are now having to decide what to do with regards to letting staff work remotely, with City law firm Stephenson Harwood telling workers they can continue to work from home if they take a 20 per cent pay cut.
A Los Angeles news anchor has been fired after going off-script and calling out his own television station live on air over the departure of his beloved co-anchor.

Mark Mester, 36, of KTLA, was first suspended and then given his marching orders Thursday after binning a pre-prepared script and launching an impassioned apology to viewers over the exit of 'best friend' Lynette Romero, 55.

'I want to start off right now by offering up an apology to you,' Mester said live on air Saturday.

'What the viewers experienced was rude, it was cruel, it was inappropriate and we are so sorry.'

The station had announced the departure of Romero, a long-serving and popular host of the weekend morning show, without giving her an opportunity to say goodbye to viewers, much to their outrage.

News anchor Mark Mester went rogue this weekend when he launched into an apology to viewers that also slammed his own TV station

Mark Mester, (right) of KTLA, was first suspended and then given his marching orders Thursday after binning a pre-prepared script and launching an impassioned apology to 'best friend' Lynette Romero, (left) who had left the station a few days earlier

Mester, who was employed at the station from 2014, was furious over how management had handled the departure of Romero

KTLA employees told the Los Angeles Times that station manager Janene Drafs had announced to the newsroom that Mester was terminated during a short speech on Thursday afternoon.

'[Mester] is no longer at KTLA5,' she said to staffers who were present.

Mester, who joined the station in 2014, had taken the opportunity during his Saturday morning show to apologize to viewers on behalf of KTLA for the manner of Romero's departure in a way that implicitly criticized the station.

'We're going to offer you dignity and grace, which is what this station should've done from the beginning,' Mester said.

'I also want to say sorry to Lynette Romero because Lynette, I love you so much, you literally are my best friend,' he said, his voice cracking. 'You did not deserve what happened to you.'

'You did not deserve this, it was a mistake, and we hope you can find it in your heart to forgive us.'

Staffers said that producers had written an approved script for Mester to read as a homage to Romero, accompanied by photos and clips of her broadcasts.

But Mester, who had been seen pacing back and forth angrily before the show, rejected it in favor of his own ad-libbed monologue, in which he said there was a plane was in the sky with a message of love and gratitude to Romero.

Mester and Romero had presented KTLA's weekend morning show together for many years

Romero, (pictured) who had become a popular institution over a 24 year career with the station, had left after bosses had refused her request to swap her weekend show for a weekend shift in order to spend more time with her family

He had hired the plane to fly over the station with a banner saying 'We love you Lynette', which he had pitched to producers for footage to include in the segment, but it had been rejected.

Many viewers applauded Mester for his emotional rogue monologue, and news that he had been immediately suspended was greeted with even more outrage over how KTLA had handled the situation.

According to witnesses in the newsroom, after the controversial segment, Mester ignored management's requests to step into their office for an emergency meeting.

Several staffers said that at one point a furious Mester told one of the news director to 'shut up' and then refused to leave the building after being asked to.

The news anchor was also alleged to have shouted obscenities at management that rang out across the newsroom.

The same sources said that there has long been concern within the newsroom about Mester's temper and there have been complaints to management about his 'disrespectful' behavior towards women.

'You would not believe the temper tantrums and the weird things that set him off,' one longtime newsroom employee was reported as saying. 'You're constantly afraid you're going to say the wrong thing.'

Mester had hired the plane to fly over the station with a banner saying 'We love you Lynette', which he had pitched to producers as footage to include in the segment, but it had been rejected

Romero, who had become a popular institution over a 24 year career with the station, had left after bosses had refused her request to swap her weekend show for a weekend shift in order to spend more time with her family.

It is reported that she has been hired by KNBC-TV, LA's NBC affiliate, to host one of its weekday morning shows, sources said.

'After nearly 24 years, Lynette Romero, our friend Lynette, has decided to move on from anchoring our weekend morning news,' entertainment reporter Sam Rubin read out in a statement written by news director Peter Saiers during a segment on September 14.

'KTLA management had hoped she would stay here her entire career, and KTLA worked hard to make that happen,' Rubin added.

'But Lynette has decided to move to another opportunity elsewhere. Lynette, we wish you luck, we miss you and we thank you for everything you've done for KTLA. ... On behalf of everyone here, we wish you and your family nothing but the best.'

Saiers also said that Romero had declined the opportunity to record a farewell address to viewers upon her abrupt departure.
A shopper says she was left with PTSD after slipping in an oily puddle at Sainsbury's and wants the supermarket to pay her 500,000 compensation.

Legal secretary Georgina Hennessy, 47, slipped on a 'spilt coconut oil product' at a London branch in July 2019, breaking her ankle and leaving her bleeding on the floor.

She had to have a metal plate and screws inserted into her ankle, and claims she went on to develop debilitating post-traumatic stress disorder afterwards.

Ms Hennessy is now suing J Sainsbury Plc for up to 500,000 at the High Court, claiming store staff negligently failed to spot and clear up the mess.

In papers filed at the court, her solicitors Irwin Mitchell say Ms Hennessy suffered her injury in a fall at a store in Walthamstow Avenue, Chingford, in 2019.

'The claimant used the self-service checkouts and proceeded to walk towards the exit of the store,' say her lawyers.

Legal secretary Georgina Hennessy, 47, slipped in some spilt coconut oil product on the floor

'Upon turning a corner by the self-service checkouts, the claimant slipped on a split coconut oil product, sustaining a serious injury to her right ankle and a laceration to her right hand.'

Ms Hennessy, of Enfield, north London, had surgery on her ankle and was in hospital for a week, but since says she has been crippled by PTSD.

'As a result of the accident, the claimant has experienced significant psychological symptoms,' her lawyers say, despite her having cognitive behavioural therapy for her PTSD, as well as 'eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing' - a type of therapy which helps patients overcome traumatic experiences by focusing on the traumatic incident itself.

The fall happened in Sainsbury's Walthamstow Avenue, Chingford and broke her ankle

Her lawyers blame the supermarket giant for the accident, accusing it of negligence in common law and breaches of the Occupiers Liability Act 1957.

Store staff had 'failed to take such care as was reasonable in all of the circumstances to see that the claimant did not suffer injury,' it is claimed.

They had also 'caused and/or permitted the floor to be or to become or remain wet/slippery with a split oil product,' her lawyers say.

There was also a failure to 'ensure any or any adequate system of inspection.'

Ms Hennessy's claim was filed at the court last month, but has only now been made public.

No defence to the claim by Sainsbury's has yet been made available by the court and the case has not yet gone before a judge.
Newly retired liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer said he was 'very, very, very sorry' to be on the losing side of the Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade.

'And you say did I like this Dobbs decision? Of course I didn't. Of course I didn't,' he said in an interview with CNN's Chris Wallace for an interview to air Sunday night. 'Was I happy about it? Not for an instant. Did I do everything I could to persuade people? Of course, of course. But there we are and now we go on. We try to work together.'

He warned his Supreme Court colleagues that overly rigid decisions 'will come around and bite you in the back.'

'Because you will find something you see just doesn't work at all. And the Supreme Court, somewhat to the difference of others, has that kind of problem in spades,' Breyer said.

Dobbs overturned nearly 50 years of precedent, with the conservative justices writing that the implicit 'right to privacy' in the Constitution didn't exist, throwing decisions about abortion laws back to the states.

Newly retired liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer said he was 'very, very, very sorry' to be on the losing side of the Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade

Justice Stephen Breyer (right) who retired earlier this year, sat down with CNN's Chris Wallace for an interview to be broadcast Sunday

Prior to the decision being handed down in June, a draft of it was released to the press - an unprecedented leak from a source within the high court.

Wallace asked, 'Was there an earthquake inside the court?' when the draft of the Dobbs decision was published in Politico.

'An earthquake?' Breyer asked. 'It was very damaging because that kind of thing just doesn't happen. It just doesn't happen. And there we are.'

Breyer retired earlier this year and was replaced by the first black female justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson.

A liberal, he made his decision to step down while the Democrats had control of both the White House and Senate.

'There have been delays, you know, when the party is split between control of the Senate and control of the presidency,' Breyer said. 'And sometimes, long times pass and I would prefer that my own retirement, my own membership on the court, not get involved in what I call those purely political issues.'

He also refused to criticize Ginni Thomas, the wife of conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, who's been called to testify before the House January 6 select committee over her role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

'I don't go through that in that I strongly believe that women who are wives, including wives of Supreme Court justices, have to make the decisions about how to lead their lives, careers, what kind of career, etc., for themselves,' Breyer said.

'I'm not going to criticize Ginni Thomas, whom I like. I'm not going to criticize Clarence, whom I like. And there we are,' the liberal justice added.

Breyer said that while 'sometimes' there are two separate camps on the bench, the acrimony is 'less than you think.'

'Less than you think ... but I can't say never,' Breyer said. 'Maybe a little less jolly, but not I mean - I have not heard people in that conference room scream at each other in anger.'




South Korea's unification ministry urged local activist groups to refrain from sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border amid lingering concerns that such a campaign could lead to the escalation of tensions on the peninsula.







The ministry also made clear Seoul will take a "strong and stern" measure in case Pyongyang carries out its threat of retaliatory action against those who seek to spread those leaflets, usually using large-scale balloons.







"The government is concerned that the leafleting is continuing despite our repeated calls on the organizations to refrain from (sending leaflets), and we urge them again to refrain from sending the leaflets and other materials," the ministry's deputy spokesperson, Lee Hyo-jung, said during a regular press briefing.







Last month, Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, reiterated the claim that the leaflets sent by activist groups in the South were the source of the COVID-19 outbreak in the North and warned of "deadly retaliatory" countermeasures against Seoul.







Some defector groups in South Korea have flown huge balloons carrying leaflets, coronavirus-related pills and other items near border regions.







The government has banned the leafleting to protect the lives and safety of residents living in the border areas, saying such leaflets could provoke the North to take bellicose action. The ban came months after the North blew up an inter-Korean liaison office in the border town of Kaesong in 2020 in anger over Seoul's failure to stop such leafleting. (Yonhap)


It was a sight to behold.

Spreading like wildfire across the internet this week were amateur videos and pictures of a trans female shop teacher wearing enormous fake silicone breasts that droop well below the waistline with large visible nipples and no bra.

As if this couldnt get any more ridiculous, the blonde-wig-wearing teacher was filmed demonstrating how to operate a cut-off saw while wearing tight black shorts and a striped top that really accentuated the bizarrely oversized prosthetics.

It was a minor miracle the teacher successfully operated such a dangerous tool considering the obvious impediments.

You really have to see it to believe it.

But the teacher resembles a cartoon or, as Tucker Carlson reported, intentionally modeling herself after Japanese anime porn. Put simply, this is an adult living out a sexual fetish of some sort.

The blonde-wig-wearing teacher was filmed demonstrating how to operate a cut-off saw while wearing tight black shorts and a striped top that really accentuated the bizarrely oversized prosthetics.

When I first saw the images, I thought: Surely this was a crass prank or a mean-spirited attempt to mock the transgender community. There is no way a public school would permit an adult to dress in that way to teach children. Right?

Wrong.

In fact, Ontarios Canadas Halton District School Board school board chair, Margo Shuttleworth, defended the teacher, saying she began identifying as female last year.

In a recent letter to parents, the school implied it was illegal to say the big fake boobs and skimpy clothing were at all inappropriate, saying the teacher has a right to identify as transgender. Gender identity and gender expression are protected grounds under the Ontario Human Rights Code, the letter read.

The Halton District School board also said they are creating a safety plan to ensure the teachers gender rights will be upheld.

Has the world gone completely and utterly insane?

Just like the classic folktale, The Emperors New Clothes, everyone that gazes upon this Ontario teacher knows that something is deeply wrong with her presentation, but they dont say anything about it.

And in a sign of the times, this fairytale is rated triple-X.

This is not about gender rights or tolerance or transgenderism. Of course, adults are free to express their gender identity and sexuality in a way of their choosing.

This is about political correctness and the overwhelming fear of offending going so far beyond anything resembling reason that absolutely anything and everything is now accepted, no matter how bizarre it is, or in this case, harmful to childrens education.

How could it not be distracting to say the least?

And thats what truly disturbs me.

School teachers and administrators are supposed to shelter and nurture our children. This Canadian school has flipped that expectation on its head.

They're valuing an adults right to express themselves over the students rights.

The silicone breasts are not breasts that resemble that of any woman's actual proportions - and trust me, I know what I am talking about.

Just think for a moment. Imagine being a child in this classroom. In pursuit of a sexual fetish, your teacher dresses in a manner designed to shock.

The silicone breasts are not breasts that resemble that of any woman's actual proportions - and trust me, I know what I am talking about.

Yet you, a child who has endured COVID lockdowns and mask wearing and repeated nasal swabs for two years, must put your head down and learn.

In what world does that make sense?

Sure, teachers have a right to be respected, but so do students. In a civilized society, its understood that one persons rights end when they begin to impede on another persons rights.

Can we really say that this teachers intentionally distracting attire is not detrimental to the students education? Of course not.

Society must weigh the right of this teacher to dress like an Asian porn character against a childs right to learn in a safe and sane environment. And this school has sided with the teacher.

Are American schools that far behind? Its not that far-fetched.

Sadly, valuing adults and over children happens in America all the time.

In America, weve all heard of rubber rooms, where problematic public-school teachers are sent after theyve been accused of wrongdoing.

Because of the powerful of teachers unions, these educators cant be fired without long and costly review processes, during which they continue to collect salaries and benefits and accrue time toward pensions  draining scarce resources from the public school system.

Maybe the most offensive recent example of the push to value adults over children came during the COVID pandemic. Teachers and their union representatives protested and even lobbied the federal government to keep schools closed for fear that children could be vectors of disease.

The Halton District School board also said they are creating a safety plan to ensure the teachers gender rights will be upheld.

As a result, a generation of American children suffered historic learning losses, potentially hobbling them for the rest of their lives.

This Canadian outrage is obvious. And whats more, were not even permitted to object?

Gender is the most dangerous issue of our time and the most likely to get you cancelled if you step out of line.

Don't believe me, ask J.K. Rowling.

TikTok is even now taking down videos from women, who are calling out this insanity.

But when it comes to our kids, we cant be silent any longer. Schools are supposed to take care of our children and keep them safe.

Apparently not at Oakville Trafalgar High School, which places higher value on a teachers right to be obscene.

I would say it is time for the adults to be in charge, but that appears to be the problem.
Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng today quietly lifted the effective ban on new onshore wind farms as he set up a potential clash with Tory backbenchers.

In his 'emergency Budget', which Mr Kwarteng dubbed a 'Growth Plan', the Chancellor vowed to 'unlock the potential of onshore wind'.

He revealed planning rules for onshore wind turbines would be brought 'in line' with other infrastructure to allow it to be 'deployed more easily in England'.

The move was not announced directly by Mr Kwarteng in the House of Commons, but was instead hidden within the 40-page 'Growth Plan' document that accompanied his statement to MPs.

The Chancellor's decision to make the construction of onshore wind farms easier is part of ministers' efforts to boost UK-based energy production and reduce the country's reliance on foreign imports.

But it is likely to anger large numbers of Tory MPs and voters, some of whom hold concerns about the noise generated by wind turbines and consider them a blight on the landscape.

Kwasi Kwarteng revealed planning rules for onshore wind turbines would be brought 'in line' with other infrastructure to allow it to be 'deployed more easily in England'

The Government today noted how 'no new substantive onshore wind farm has received planning consent since 2015'

David Cameron, while he was prime minister, claimed the public had become 'fed up' with onshore wind farms and scrapped their Government subsidies.

At the time, Jacob Rees-Mogg - who is now Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy - was among a group of Tory MPs to have urged Mr Cameron to slash the subsisidies.

Mr Cameron also tightened planning rules for onshore wind developments, with a requirement for more local consultation.

This was viewed as a de facto ban on new turbines, with the Government today noting how 'no new substantive onshore wind farm has received planning consent since 2015'.

Earlier this year, prior to his ousting as PM, Boris Johnson was revealed to be planning to reverse the reforms brought in by Mr Cameron.

Mr Johnson later backtracked and promised not to introduce 'wholesale changes' to current planning rules amid a backlash from Tory MPs, at a time when he was trying to shore up his support among backbenchers.

But Mr Kwarteng today signalled he would push forward with reforms as he vowed the Government would 'unlock the potential of onshore wind by bringing consenting in line with other infrastructure'.

Jess Ralston, senior analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, welcomed today's announcement.

She said: 'Around eight in 10 people support onshore wind, so the ban has been a major anomaly in British energy policy given its both cheap and popular with the public.

'So a decision to lift the ban suggests the new Government has listened to the experts and understands building more British renewables reduces our reliance on costly gas and so brings down bills.'

During the Tory leadership contest to replace Mr Johnson as PM, victor Liz Truss's defeated rival Rishi Sunak had pledged to keep the ban on building any new onshore wind farms.
The NYPD is searching for the assailant of an unidentified 85-year-old man, who was attacked from behind before he was choked and robbed in upper Manhattan.

Surveillance video shows the suspect walking behind the victim around 10 pm, before grabbing and appearing to choke him to the ground on August 1.

The victim was walking down Lexington Avenue just across an intersection at E. 120th Street in East Harlem when the unprovoked attack occurred.

After the victim fell, the assailant took the victim's wallet before running off.

The victim is then seen struggling to get up before he reported the incident to police.

He suffered some scrapes and bruises but refused medical attention, according to CBS News.

During its ongoing investigation, the NYPD is requesting the public's help in identifying the suspect.

Anyone with information about the attack or the suspect is asked to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-477-TIPS.

Pictured: The suspect (right in red) is seen coming behind the victim, an unidentified 85-year-old man

Pictured: The suspect then grabs the victim around the throat with both of his arms before throwing him to the ground

Pictured: The victim is seen struggling as the suspect takes the victim's wallet

Pictured: After grabbing the man's wallet, the suspect is then seen running away from the scene

Pictured: The victim, who suffered some scrapes and bruises, is then seen struggling to get up. He refused medical attention

The New York City crime rate has risen 34.2 percent in the last year, according to NYPD statistics

The attack came amid a spike in crime across New York City over the summer.

Crime is up 34.2 percent this past year, according to NYPD statistics, and felony assaults are up 17.4 percent from the same time one year prior.

A month before the 85-year-old man was attacked, a different man is seen on camera sucker-punching another unsuspecting man at the Kings Plaza Mall in Brooklyn, leaving the victim unconscious.

Authorities said the unprovoked attack caused the victim 'serious physical injury,' and he was brought to Brookdale Hospital in stable condition.

That August 1 attack came about one week before similar surveillance footage captured the moment repeat criminal Bui Van Phu, 55, donned a glove and punched Jesus Cortes, 52, in the back of the head with great force.

Cortes immediately fell to the ground, appearing to be unconscious after banging his head on the concrete. He suffered a skull fracture, a broken cheekbone and bleeding to the brain, with EMS rushing him to the hospital on August 12.

An initial investigation found that Cortes 'exited the restaurant, stopped and observed several individuals talking, at which time an individual exited the restaurant, put on a pair of gloves and positioned himself behind the victim.

'Without prior conversation or altercation, the individual punched the victim in the face before returning back into the restaurant and later to parts unknown,' an NYPD spokesman said.

Phu was initially released without bail on misdemeanor charges, but later charged with second-degree assault after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul personally intervened in the case.

Bui Van Phu (pictured) was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after punching a diner, fracturing his skull and causing a brain bleed

Bui was called an 'imminent threat to the community' at a parole hearing after New York Governor Kathy Hochul ordered him back in jail

In June, a man was caught on CCTV throwing a woman onto the subway tracks in the Bronx.

A week prior, a man had his wrist slashed and arteries severed in another section of the Bronx subway following an argument over loud music.

Days before that attack, another assailant pulled a knife on another man on an Atlantic Avenue subway platform before stabbing him multiple times in the head and torso.

In April, subway shooter Frank James was charged with federal terrorism after shooting 10 and injuring 23 in a rampage inside a Brooklyn train during the morning commute.

A month later, a Goldman Sachs worker, Daniel Enriquez, was killed after being randomly shot in the head on his way to brunch.

Daniel Enriquez (pictured) was shot and killed in a random attack on the subway in New York. He had originally planned to take an Uber, but decided to take the subway instead due to the ride-sharing platform's surge pricing

Frank James (pictured) was charged with a federal terrorism offense for opening fire on a packed subway train in Brooklyn in April, shooting 10 and injuring 23

Mayor Eric Adams (pictured) has been heavily criticized, especially by families of victims, for failing to crack down on crime in New York

New York Mayor Eric Adams, who is an ex-cop and ran on a promise to stop crime in the city, has been slammed along with the NYPD for their failure to do so.

Transit crimes have risen by 45.8 percent in the last year, in addition to a 32.4 percent rise in burglary, a 44.6 percent rise in grand larceny, a 38.1 percent rise in robbery and a 19.7 percent rise in misdemeanor assault.

Back in June, Adams fumed at prosecutors and judges for cutting loose suspected shooters, allowing them to unleash more gunfire in New York  saying the 'bad guys no longer take them seriously.'

During a news conference with NYPD officials in Brooklyn, Adams praised cops for being 'laser-focused on the shooters' and making arrests but demanded that 'the other team must do their part.'

'The courts have to prosecute. Judges have to make sure they stay in,' he said.

'Everyone has to do their part. If not, they go out and come back.'
The powerful waves have already capsized multiple boats along Hamilton Harbor, and residents are taking shelter in their homes after spending hours boarding up their properties on Thursday

Bermuda is being pounded with winds of up to 125 mph and 30 feet tidal swells as Hurricane Fiona continues to devastate the Caribbean islands on its way north

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Hurricane Fiona continues to pummel Bermuda with 125 mph winds and 30-foot tidal swells as the Category 3 storm capsizes yachts along the island's harbors and leaves 70 percent of the island without power.

The tidal swells have caused chaos in Hamilton Harbor, where ABC News' Rob Marciano reports that boats are either being tossed onto land or sinking.

'A number of these boats are not just coming onboard, they're actually sinking,' Marciano said. 'It is just crazy here.'

A similar situation was taking place in the nearby Pitts Bay, where yachts were pictured being capsized by the roaring waves.

Due to the raging waters, Norwegian Cruise Line canceled its Bermuda-bound cruise, rerouting the trip departing New York to head up north to New Brunswick, Canada instead.

Marciano added that the luxury homes on Hamilton Harbor are being battered by the hurricane and should have no trouble withstanding the high winds and rainfall, as they're concrete and made to endure these storms and even have stormwater collection ducts to convert rain into drinking water.

Fiona hit the island on Thursday as a Category 4 storm, but despite being downgraded, the hurricane continues to threaten the Caribbean islands as it heads to Canada as well.

The storm has so far killed five people - two in Puerto Rico, two in the Dominican Republic, and one in the French island of Guadeloupe - before making its way to Bermuda, where residents were seen boarding up windows and taking shelter before the hurricane's arrival.

Bermuda is being pounded with winds of up to 125 mph and 30 feet tidal swells as Hurricane Fiona continues to devastate the Caribbean islands on its way north towards Canada. Pictured: Ships sinking under the roaring waves in Pitts Bay

The powerful storm is also causing damage along Hamilton Harbor, where multiple boats are stationed

ABC News ' Rob Marciano said the ships on Hamilton Harbor are either being capsized or thrown on land

The storm is battering the island nation, and so far, it's left about 70 percent of Bermuda without power

The storm struck the island as a Category 4 storm on Thursday evening, but it has been downgraded to Category 3

Residents on the island have taken shelter and boarded up their homes to protect themselves from the storm, which is already responsible for five deaths in the Caribbean

As the strong winds began to subside by Friday afternoon, clean up crews were seen removing fallen trees from the road

Pictured: Fences torn apart by the hurricane winds in Hamilton's Reid Street on September 23

Debris from the storm was littered all across the island nation's road. A motorcyclists is pictured driving through the foliage

With the brunt of the storm passing, residents are seen making their way through the streets. Pictured: a lone man walking along Harbour Road with a teapot in hand on Friday afternoon

The storm's path will cause it to skip the US mainland as it's expected to hit Canada by Saturday

On Thursday afternoon, Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 130 miles per hour and was about 410 miles southwest of Bermuda and moving north-northeast at 13 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

A frightening video shows huge waves washing over Bermuda as Hurricane Fiona begins to batter the island on its way to Canada - just days after devastating Puerto Rico.

The video, taken by a Saildrone, shows the camera struggling to stay afloat as waves rocked back and forth, with a force strong enough to make anyone seasick.

A hurricane warning remained in effect for all of Bermuda, home to more than 60,000 people, and the eye of the storm is expected to pass just west of Bermuda on Thursday night, the center said.

A hurricane warning remained in effect for all of Bermuda, home to more than 60,000 people

Terrifying video shows huge waves washing over Bermuda as Hurricane Fiona begins to batter the island on its way to Canada

As of Thursday afternoon, Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 130 miles per hour and was about 410 miles southwest of Bermuda according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

A photo provided by the US Air Fore shows the power of the winds over the Caribbean island on Thursday as Fiona approached

Officials have now issued a travel warning and warned U.S. residents that wish to leave the island to do so immediately before Fiona's grand arrival, according to the Bermuda Travel Advisory.

Premier David Burt even sent a tweet urging residents to 'take care of yourself and your family. Let's all remember to check on as well as look out for your seniors, family and neighbors.'

Bermuda's storm is expected to bring heavy rain and flash flooding, along with 'pounding surf,' according to The Weather Channel.

Hurricane Fiona, a Category 3 storm, is heading moving north-northeast into Canada

As the storm was approaching Bermuda, some residents fled the island while others are sticking out the horrendous storm.

'Get yourself some batteries and water and couple cans of stuff,' one resident told Fox Weather. 'If the generator's running, now you should be okay.'

'We're lucky in that we have water for our home use is under our house in a tank,' another resident said. 'So as long as you have a bucket and a rope and you can dip your tank to use it for your household needs, you're all set to go.'

Others said that many residents have prepared their gas stoves or barbecues.

'We're always ready,' she said.

A man in Hamilton, Bermuda was seen boarding up a business as the threat of Hurricane Fiona lingers. The storm is currently a Category 3 threat and is swiftly moving through the Bermuda with winds up to 125mph

Scott Barnes, a fisherman, was preparing his boats by placing one off a cove with multiple anchors and sheltering two others. Pictured: a man preparing for Hurricane Fiona

A woman was seen in Hamilton, Bermuda walking into a boarded up clothing store amid the threat of Fiona

The Canadian Hurricane Centre, meanwhile, issued a hurricane watch over extensive coastal expanses of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland. The U.S. National Hurricane Center also said Fiona should reach the area as a 'large and powerful post-tropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds.'

'It's going to be a storm that everyone remembers when it is all said and done,' said Bob Robichaud, warning preparedness meteorologist for the Canadian Hurricane Centre.

The storm is expected to reach northeastern Canada by Saturday and has been dubbed, 'One of Canada's Strongest Storms,' according to The Weather Channel. Rainfall is expected on Friday in Canada as the storm goes north.

Prince Edward Island, central and western Nova Scotia, and parts of western Newfoundland have received hurricane watch advisories. Those areas have also been advised to 'expect prolonged power outages, numerous downed trees, structural damage, washed out roads, and significant coastal erosion.

The storm's effects are also anticipated to reach eastern Maine and New Brunswick, Quebec, and Labrador.

Locals watched on Thursday as increasing winds pushed waves towards the south shore of Bermuda ahead of the hurricane

Hurricanes in Canada are somewhat rare, in part because once the storms reach colder waters, they lose their main source of energy. and become extratropical. But those cyclones still can have hurricane-strength winds, though with a cold instead of a warm core and no visible eye.

Their shape can be different, too. They lose their symmetric form and can more resemble a comma.

Robichaud said at a news conference that modeling projected 'all-time' low pressure across the region, which would bring storm surges and rainfall of between four to eight inches.

Amanda McDougall, mayor of Cape Breton Regional Municipality, said officials were preparing a shelter for people to enter before the storm arrived.

'We have been through these types of events before, but my fear is, not to this extent,' she said. 'The impacts are going to be large, real and immediate.'

Dave Pickles, chief operating officer of Nova Scotia Power, said it expected widespread power outages.

The hurricane has already destroyed the Dominican Republic, where Yesenia Martinez, and Dilicia Figaro are pictured picking up items scattered by the storm

In the Dominican Republic, more than a million people are without running water while just under 350,000 homes and businesses were without power

Hurricane Fiona tore across Puerto Rico while tearing bridges and lifting ocean water onto land

An estimated five people have died as a result of the storm passing through Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the Turks and Caicos Islands

Before reaching Bermuda, Fiona caused severe flooding and devastation in Puerto Rico, leading U.S. President Joe Biden to say Thursday that the full force of the federal government is ready to help the U.S. territory recover.

Speaking at a briefing with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials in New York, Biden said, 'We're all in this together.'

The president noted that hundreds of FEMA and other federal officials are already on the ground in Puerto Rico, where Fiona caused an island-wide blackout.

As of Thursday, more than one million homes and businesses were still without power, and more than 450,000 people remained without water service.

Fortunately, the pace to restore power to homes is faster than efforts performed after Hurricane Maria hit in 2017 when all 1.5 million homes were without power for a week.

The now-bankrupt Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority took 11 months to restore power to all customers. LUMA Energy, which now presides over the island's power, said 'full restoration could take several days.'

In the Dominican Republic, meanwhile, more than a million people are without running water while just under 350,000 homes and businesses were without power as of Wednesday.

Maj. Gen. Juan Mendez Garcia, director of the DR's emergency operations center, told CNN that more than 600 homes had been destroyed while some communities are without access to aid.

Fiona has already caused severe flooding and devastation in Puerto Rico earlier in the week. A man is seen here walking through a flooded street on Sunday

As of Thursday, more than one million homes and businesses were still without power, and more than 450,000 people remained without water service

An apparently angry woman is seen wading through a flooded street in Nagua, Dominican Republic

Neighbors in the Dominican Republic worked to recover their belongings after widespread flooding from the hurricane

A man in Wheelchair looks at a flooded road after the passage of hurricane Fiona in Salinas, Puerto Rico, on September 19

President Biden announced Wednesday the approval of a major disaster declaration for the territory which will allow Puerto Ricans access to grants for temporary housing and home repairs in addition to low-interest loans to cover property losses.

'This ensures that our people will have access to additional help from FEMA to recover from the damage caused by this event,' Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi tweeted.

Complementing the president's efforts, New York City Mayor Eric Adams has deployed staff from city agencies to help Puerto Rican officials survey the damage.

'The team will include representatives from New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM), New York City Department of Buildings, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and the New York City Department of Design and Construction,' according to a news release from the mayor's office.

A satellite image shows how badly homes were flooded on Salinas Beach in Puerto Rico following the storm

Residents are seen here working to recover belongings from flooding caused by Hurricane Fiona in the Los Sotos neighborhood of Higuey, Dominican Republic on Tuesday

Children are pictured sitting on inflatable toys in the middle of the flooded streets as their families looked for the rest of their belongings

A man collects donated water bottles for drinking after Hurricane Fiona damaged water supplies in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico

Meanwhile, hundreds of people in Puerto Rico remained isolated by blocked roads five days after the hurricane ripped into the island. Frustration was mounting for people like Nancy Galarza, who tried to signal for help from work crews she spotted in the distance.

'Everyone goes over there,' she said pointing toward crews at the bottom of the mountain who were helping others also cut off by the storm. 'No one comes here to see us. I am worried for all the elderly people in this community.'

At least five landslides covered the narrow road to her community in the steep mountains around the northern town of Caguas. The only way to reach the settlement was to climb over thick mounds of mud, rock, and debris left by Fiona, whose floodwaters shook the foundations of nearby homes with earthquake-like force.

At least eight of the 11 communities in Caguas were completely isolated, said Luis Gonzalez, municipal inspector of recovery and reconstruction.

It was one of at least six municipalities where crews had yet to reach some areas. People there often depend on help from neighbors, as they did following Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm in 2017 that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Danciel Rivera arrived in rural Caguas with a church group and tried to bring a little cheer by dressing as a clown.

'Thats very important in these moments,' he said, noting that people had never fully recovered from Hurricane Maria. 'A lot of PTSD has reared its head these days.'

His huge clown shoes squelched through the mud as he greeted people, whose faces lit up as they smiled at him.

It is estimated that Fiona dropped up to 30 inches of rain in some parts of Puerto Rico as more than 1,000 people are in shelters.

Members of the Puerto Rico National Guard rescue a woman stranded in her house in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona in Salinas, Puerto Rico

Residents affected by Hurricane Fiona are pictured resting in a storm shelter after the hurricane killed two on Puerto Rico

Members of the Puerto Rico National Guard distribute water in an affected community in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona in Ponce, Puerto Rico

Two deaths were recorded in the US territory as a result of the blackout, including one 70-year-old man who burned to death after filling his generator with gasoline as it was running and a 78-year-old man who inhaled toxic gases emitted from his own generator.

'The damages that we are seeing are catastrophic,' Pierluisi said. 'What we don't want is loss of life.'

President Biden issued a message Monday to Puerto Rico: 'We stand with you and we will get through this together.'

Brown water rushed through streets, into homes, and even consumed an airport runway in southern Puerto Rico.

Roads were turned into raging torrents as Fiona also ripped up asphalt from roads and washed away a bridge in the central mountain town of Utuado that police say was installed by the National Guard after Hurricane Maria.

The storm also ripped off the roofs of several homes, including that of Nelson Cirino in the northern coastal town of Loiza.

'I was sleeping and saw when the corrugated metal flew off,' he said as he observed how the rain drenched his belonging.

Ada Vivian Roman, a 21-year-old photography student, said the storm knocked down trees and fences in her hometown of Toa Alta.

'I'm actually very anxious because it's a really slow-moving hurricane,' she said.

She said she is also worried about whether the public transportation she relies on to get to her job at a public relations agency will be operating by the time she has to go back to the office.

But in the Turks and Caicos, officials have reported minimal damage and no deaths, despite the eye of the storm passing near Grand Turk, the British territory's capital island.

'God has been good to us and has kept us safe during this period when we could have had a far worse outcome,' Deputy Gov. Anya Williams said.

As government officials have started visiting islands to make repairs, many areas across the territory are still without power as of Wednesday, including Grand Turk, South Caicos, Salt Cay, North Caicos, and Middle Caicos.

A second storm passing behind Hurricane Fiona has now been upgraded to Tropical Storm Gaston as of Tuesday. A Puerto Rico National Guard truck is seen driving through a flooded street on September 19 looking for people to rescue

Meteorologists expect a tropical wave, which began to form Wednesday, 'is the most significant threat for the US mainland we've had this hurricane season.' A member of the Puerto Rico National Guard is seen wading through the flooded streets

Meanwhile, a second storm passing behind Hurricane Fiona has now been upgraded to Tropical Storm Gaston as of Tuesday, according to AccuWeather.com.

Gaston is not expected to be a threat to the Caribbean or to North America.

Meteorologists expect a tropical wave, which began to form Wednesday, 'is the most significant threat for the US mainland we've had this hurricane season.'

The tropical rainstorm has been designated Invest 98L by the National Hurricane Center and is located near the northcentral coast of South America.

'If the main brunt of the tropical rainstorm is able to avoid drifting over South America, it can evolve into a full-fledged tropical storm anytime through Friday while over the eastern Caribbean,' meteorologist Paul Pastelok said.

Should the storm continue to develop, the rainstorm would grow into a Category 3 hurricane that will pass toward the center of the Gulf of Mexico, AccuWeather predicts.

'At this early stage, U.S. interests from Miami to New Orleans should closely watch the evolution of this system,' Pastelok said.
The distraught husband of murdered Georgia mom Debbie Collier has broken his silence exclusively to DailyMail.com, saying: She was a beautiful woman and I loved her.

Steve Collier, 67, visibly fought back tears as he spoke on the driveway of his single family home in a secluded wooded neighborhood of Athens  60 miles from where his wifes naked and burnt body was discovered in a ravine.

It has been a long two weeks and Im very tired, he said, before pausing and adding: My wife was a wonderful person.

And a close friend of the couple, who did not want to be identified, confided to DailyMail.com: Steve loved Debbie with all his heart. I know that for a fact.

I cannot imagine what hes going through right now, with the terrible loss of his wife and having to be part of the murder investigation and all that entails.

I have known them both for many years and they were a devoted couple.

She was a beautiful woman and I loved her,' distraught Steve Collier said about his wife 11 days after her charred, naked body was found in a ravine 60 miles from their Georgia home

A close family friend told DailyMail.com: 'Steve loved Debbie with all his heart. I know that for a fact. I cannot imagine what hes going through right now'

Collier, 67, picked up his wife's black pick-up from a repair shop. She was driving a rental at the time of her murder

In a direct move of support, he added: I know suspicion can fall on the family of murder victims, but I would bet my life Steve had nothing whatsoever to do with Debbies disappearance.

Steve Collier appeared frail and had difficulty walking, when DailyMail.com saw him. The murderer would have had a strenuous job dragging or carrying Debbie Collier's body a quarter of a mile over rough terrain.

Collier spoke to us after a friend picked him up from his house and took him to collect a black Ford Ranger pick-up truck from a repair shop, which he then drove home.

Police say his 59-year-old wifes vehicle was being repaired when she vanished, which is why she was renting the 2022 Chrysler Pacifica found beside a track that eventually led to her body near scenic Tallulah Falls.

Habersham County Sheriffs Office has now said there is no evidence to suggest the real estate office manager was kidnapped, despite a chilling message to daughter Amanda Bearden suggesting she might be captive.

Officers have executed several search warrants at locations tied to the victim and also held preliminary interviews with people close to her, it added.

Sheriffs office investigators will look to identify persons of interest for further follow-up and interview after combing reports and subpoenaed records.

DailyMail.com understands this includes analyzing cell phones of family members, which is normal practice in a murder probe.

The department, which is conducting a homicide investigation, also confirmed there was no indication of suicide.

Debbie Collier, 59, was found in a steep-sided ravine on September 11 in a densely wooded area in Tallulah Falls, Georgia, the day after she disappeared

Debbies baffling disappearance on September 10 came on the day she sent 36-year-old Amanda $2,385 via the Venmo financial app along with an eerie message that created speculation of a kidnap. She was discovered dead a day later.

The message read: They are not going to let me go, love you there is a key to the house in the blue flower pot by the door.

DailyMail.com has put several questions to Habersham County Sheriffs Office, including if Debbies cell phone was recovered  and if so, where? Also, if there were any indications of a struggle that would indicate she fought for her life. The department has not responded.

So far, the cause of death has not been made public following an autopsy at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab.

Amanda, who lives with her boyfriend Andrew Giegerich in a different part of Athens, was spotted by DailyMail.com leaving her house on Thursday. She had refused to answer the door when we called, but emerged with her partner late in the afternoon and both left in a car.

The couple have had a tumultuous relationship, and police have been called several times according to the New York Post. Papers in the case note: 'Giegerich and Bearden have a family violence relationship.'

Bearden broke down as she told local TV station CBS 46 earlier this week: Someone took my whole world from me I just want them to rot in hell. It is not going to take my pain away. But I want justice for my mom.

The mystery of Debbie Collier's murder was compounded when old pictures of her with a badly bruised eye were found online. She had posted them on Facebook in December 2020, saying she had 'faceplanted on the concrete sidewalk.'

The grisly pictures show scrapes and bruising around her right eye and on her forehead and was posted with the caption 'Look what I did to myself.' She also says she did not have any makeup on her right eye in the pictures.

DailyMail.com exclusively revealed the gruesome spot where Debbies body was found in a densely-wooded ravine after obtaining the harrowing Habersham County Sheriffs Office incident report.

This detailed the rough route to the horrific scene by Deputy Blake Forrester and his human odor-detecting K9, called Zane.

We started at a pull-off to an old logging road near Victory Home Lane, Clarksville, where Colliers rented Pacifica was found through the Sirius XM service in the vehicle being pinged to locate it via GPS.

A poignant teddy bear shrine guarded the spot where officers discovered the Pacifica  and no sign of the missing mom.

We headed into the dense woodland along the former logging road. Within roughly 6ft the roadway disappeared and became a rough track. And after 25ft we saw the first signs of the search that would ultimately lead us to the horror site. A discarded pair of blue plastic forensic gloves.

Then, to our right, strips and small fragments of sheriffs office yellow crime scene tape were scattered every three to five feet, heading South in a line and parallel to busy GA 15.

Under a dense canopy of trees and with fallen limbs littering the undergrowth, we followed the trail of plastic scraps.

Debbie was found naked and charred, clutching this small sawn-offtree in woods in Tallulah Falls, Georgia

Debbie's daughter Amanda Bearden was on site 'in a hysterical state,' when her mother's body was discovered, according to a police report obtained by DailyMail.com

Amanda Bearden's boyfriend Andrew Giegerich was seen leaving the home they share in Athens, Georgia

Collier was found 60 miles from the modest home she shared with husband Steven, 67, in Athens, Georgia

After roughly 15 minutes of hiking through piles of dead leaves and timber, we began to descend downhill sharply until we came across three sets of blue forensic gloves that had been ditched.

Then we were confronted by a macabre spectacle  that tied in with our knowledge of Colliers death.

Part of a tree had been sawn off, leaving a jagged portion jutting up and the toppled portion lying close by. The mom was found clinging to a tree  and within feet was a compact burnt area of leaves and timber.

A few feet from that lay a larger uprooted tree. Parts of the roots were scorched. Forensic gloves lay nearby along with pieces of paper and what appears to be a strip of a book cover.

We were only roughly 25ft from the roadway. Vehicles could be heard clearly passing by.

And we had followed the path of the killer or killers.

It is not publicly known if the mom of two died in the ravine or was taken there after being killed.

Tallulah Falls is the home of the local beauty spot Tallulah Gorge and its scenic waterfalls

In another twist, DailyMail.com revealed the Pacifica  rented by Debbie because her own vehicle was being repaired  had been seen unlocked and unoccupied by a police officer beside the old logging road at 5pm the previous day.

That was an hour before Colliers husband spoke to officers for a missing persons report with Athens-Clarke County Police, obtained by DailyMail.com and timed at 18.01

The following day, the car was located in connection with the missing person inquiry at 12.28.

After various officers had arrived on the scene, the sheriffs office incident report reads: Deputy Forrester deployed his nationally certified tracking (human odor) K9 Zane.

He casted around the driver side door of the vehicle and pushed into the wood line on what appear to be a logging road.

They pushed in casting for odor approximately 50 yards Northeast, could not establish any track, then casted South-Southeast. Zane was able to establish a track working South to Southeast away from Tallulah Gorge and away from GA 15.

'My wife was a wonderful person,' Steve Collier told DailyMail.com as a neighbor said he would 'bet his life' Collier was not involved in his wife's murder

Debbie Collier posted grisly pictures showing scrapes and bruising around her right eye in December 2020. She said she received the injuries when she 'faceplanted' on concrete

Collier's cause of death has not been revealed, nor is it publicly known if she died in the ravine or was taken there after being killed

Zane tracked in that direction for approximately  of a mile. At around that distance mark Deputy Forrester noticed a red bag through the brush. As they kept approaching the bag he noticed a blue object that appeared to be a tarp.

As they continued to approach he noticed further down a hill, maybe 10-15ft, a tan object, that as he approached he could tell was a human body.

At that point Deputy Forrester held what had he had, visually clearing the area for any threats and called for Sgt. (Ethan) Neal to come to his position. Sgt. Neal approached him and saw what Deputy Forrester saw and approached the body to confirm it was female.

Some following sentences are then redacted.

Elsewhere in the report, it also states: Sgt. Neal observed a red tote bag laid on its side near an uprooted tree.

At the root ball of the tree, Sgt. Neal observed what appeared to be the remains of a fire, he looked further down the embankment.

Sgt. Neal observed what appeared to be a partially burnt blue in color tarp.

As he looked further down the embankment from the tarp, he observed a nude female laying on her back, grasping a small tree with her right hand

Sgt. Neal observed Colliers remains to be apparently burned with what appeared to be charring to her abdomen.

'They are not going to let me go, love you there is a key to the house in the blue flower pot by the door,' read the Venmo message sent by Debbie Collier to her daughter, Amanda Bearden (right)

According to the missing persons report filed a day before Collier was found, the mom had sent her daughter Amanda Bearden $2,385 via money-sending app Venmo along with a chilling last message

A poignant teddy bear shrine now sits on the spot where officers discovered Collier's rented black 2022 Chrysler Pacifica with no sign of the missing mom

Forensic gloves lay nearby along with pieces of paper and what appears to be a strip of a book cover

Yellow crime scene tape is scattered every three to five feet around the area in Tallulah Falls leading to the spot where Debbie Collier's body was discovered

The report also reveals Amanda arrived at the scene and joined officers beside the Pacifica in a hysterical state.

Bearden began screaming that the vehicle belonged to her mother, it states. Athens cops had notified her of the location after the Sirius XM ping.

Sergeant Neal and Officer Dakota Foster spoke to the distraught daughter in reference to Colliers mental health state, and briefly about her medical history.

Bearden said her mother did not have a history of any mental health issues, and denied suicidal tendencies. She also stated that her mother had a bad back, and couldnt have walked far.

Steven Collier told police in the missing persons report that he had not seen Debbie since 9pm, September 9 and they slept in separate bedrooms due to his snoring.

He said the Pacifica was still in the driveway of their home when he left for work the following morning.

Collier sent the money via Venmo to her daughter at 3.17pm, said the report. And of the chilling accompanying message, the report stated: Amanda said the message scared her and got her worried for her mom, so she tried calling her but she did not pick up.

Amanda also informed that her mother did not take anything with her but her drivers license and debit card.

Debbie showed no hint of any personal problems or worries while at work, stunned staff at her real estate office told DailyMail.com.

We are all in a state of complete shock at what has happened, said one employee at Carriage House Realty in Athens, where she was the front office manager.

Debbie had been here for seven or eight years. We are still taking this in, added the staff member, who did not want to be named. She never mentioned any personal issues in her life.
The mother died two hours after the shooting in a local hospital

A three-year-old child accidentally shot their mother dead in front of their horrified grandmother in South Carolina.

In the shocking incident which happened just before 8am on Wednesday, the three-year-old took the unsecured gun and killed their mother, Cora Lyn Bush at their home in Spartanburg.

Her death was witnessed by her mother, the child's grandmother. Neither the grandmother or child has been named by authorities.

The sheriff's office added in a Facebook post that the mother, who was 33, died two hours later in a local hospital.

They said: 'Please keep the family of Ms. Bush in your thoughts and prayers during this time of loss and grief.'

After her daughter was taken to hospital, the child's grandmother told them how the incident unfolded.

She said that the three-year-old had gained access to an unsecured firearm and was responsible for the death of her daughter.

In the shocking incident which happened just before 8am, the three-year-old took the unsecured gun and killed their mother, Cora Lyn Bush at their home in Spartanburg, pictured

An investigation is ongoing into the death. However, The Spartanburg Sherriff's Office said that her account 'corroborated with both the evidence at the scene and the injury to the victim.'

They added: 'Although our investigation remains active, all indications are this incident was a result of the young child gaining access to an unsecured firearm, which resulted in the mother being accidentally shot and later passing away at the hospital.'

No further information has been released by authorities.

An autopsy into the 33-year-old's death was scheduled to take place on Thursday.

This is another tragic incident involving a gun and comes after a 12-year-old boy accidentally shot his mother dead on August 6.

He had originally told investigators that she was killed by an intruder in the family's Forestdale, Alabama home.

Ayobiyi Cook, a nurse, who friends called 'Yo-Yo', was found dead in the suburban home on the 2400 block of Freemont Avenue after midnight on August 6.

The youth, who was not identified by investigators with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, had originally told police that an intruder had entered their house, shot his mother and then ran away.

Ayobiyi Cook and her husband, Jarvis Cook; the father will look after the boy after the youth accidentally shot his mother

Ayobiyi Cook and her husband Jarvis Cook, a Birmingham police officer, was working at the time of her death

The Cook family home on Freemont Avenue where Ayobiyi Cook was accidentally shot by her 12-year-old son

'The child originally fabricated a story that detectives determined was not possible,' Deputy Chief David Agee said.

'After investigation, Sheriffs Detectives were able to determine that the victims 12-year-old son unintentionally discharged a firearm striking his mother causing her death.'

After more probing, the boy finally changed his story.

An accidental shooting took place on Wednesday outside this Granbury, Texas, Walmart, where police say a two-year-old shot and wounded a one-year-sibling and their mother, 23, after finding a loaded gun in family vehicle's center console

And in March, a little boy accidentally killed his mother when he found a gun while he was sitting inside a car with his mother Daejah Bennett, 22, and father Romell Watson, 23.

The incident happened in Chicago after the boy was playing with the gun and pointed it and fired a shot in his mother's neck.

She was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

It comes as the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety released an analysis that revealed there have been 194 unintentional shootings by children in the US so far this year.

This resulted in 82 deaths and 123 injuries and the group said: 'Every year, hundreds of children in the U.S. gain access to firearms and unintentionally shoot themselves or someone else.'
A man shot three members of his family and then killed himself by barricading himself inside his home and setting it on fire in suburban Illinois on Friday.

The tragedy unfolded in Oak Forest, a suburb of Chicago, early on Friday morning.

Neighbors say the man was captured by his Ring camera shooting three members of his family dead outside the house, and then going inside.

He proceeded to set the house on fire after barricading himself in. Police are yet to formally name those involved.

A Marine Corps flag flies from the front porch of the home, a modest three-bedroom property worth some $250,000.

Neighbors say the man who shot his family had been acting 'strangely' in the weeks beforehand.

Neighbors say the man was captured by his Ring camera shooting three members of his family dead outside the house, and then going inside

Police at the scene of the burnt out house on Friday after the tragedy

Blood stains outside the home in Oak Forest, Illinois, where a man shot his family and then killed himself on Friday

Shocked neighbors said the man had been acting strangely in the weeks before the incident

Police and fire departments rushed to the home on Anne Maiden Lane in Oak Forest, a small town some 24 miles southwest of Chicago in Cook County. It's unclear how many people may be inside the home

The burnt out home on Ann Marie Lane in Oak Forest, Illinois, on Friday morning

SWAT teams outside the home in suburban Chicago where a man barricaded himself inside a home and set fire to it

'It's a very tragic situation today; we don't know who's been hurt, if anyone was able to get out of the house,' neighbor Cheryl Wilson told ABC.

Property records reveal that the home belongs to Carlos and Lupe Gomez. Carlos, 44, was arrested in 2016 on domestic battery charges.

The alarm was raised shortly after 7am on Friday when police responded to calls of a domestic disturbance at the home.

They spent hours battling the flames at the house before confirming that there were four deaths at the scene.

Neighbors told ABC that one of the members of the family managed to escape, but that three were shot and killed in the street.

It's unclear what prompted the man's violent rampage, or whether his firearm was legally owned.

The three-bedroom property has a Marine Corps flag flying on the porch
A picture of a 1963 civil rights bus boycott will replace a stained glass tribute to slave trader Edward Colston in a Bristol church.

St Mary Redcliff Church agreed to remove four stained-glass panels dedicated the Colston two years ago following the toppling of his statue.

The window was temporarily replaced with plain panels and the church invited the public to submit new designs in a competition.

The old panels made up the bottom section of the North Transept window - known as The Good Samaritan - which illustrated the Christian story where Colston had taken his motto.

The new panel celebrates the Bristol Bus Boycott, which artist Ealish Swift explains 'paved the way for the Race Relations Act of 1965, with Jesus as a fellow protester and radical.'

A picture of Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963 (above) will replace a stained glass tribute to slave trader Edward Colston in a Bristol Church

The original four Victorian windows at St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, which were replaced with plain glass in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protest in 2020

The Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963 arose from the Bristol Omnibus Company's refusal to employ back or Asian bus crews in the city.

The campaign was led by youth worker Paul Stephenson and the West Indian Development Council which lasted for four months until the service backed down and overturned the ban.

The grade I-listed church was built over three decades during the Medieval Age and was described by Queen Elizabeth I in 1574 as 'the fairest, goodliest and most famous parish church in England.'

Members of the public were invited and encouraged to submit designs to replace the old stained glass tribute to Edward Colston

Bristol based artist and junior doctor Ealish Swift won the competition but was unable to unveil the design as she was performing surgery.

A spokesperson from the church said they launched the competition as 'part of an ongoing process of reflection and action to ensure that today's church building echoes St Mary Redcliffe's stated values and is welcoming to all.

The entry theme, 'And who is my neighbour?', explored the meaning of what it means to be a good Samaritan.

Bristol based artist and junior doctor Ealish Swift won the competition but was unable to unveil the design as she was performing surgery.

One of the final designs which could have replaced the Colston tribute

Another design which was submitted. The grade I-listed church was built over three decades during the Medieval Age and was described by Queen Elizabeth I in 1574 as 'the fairest, goodliest and most famous parish church in England'

Ms Swift said: 'I am deeply honoured that my design has been chosen for this wonderful space that means so much to me.

'I can't wait to work with the amazing Steve Clare to bring my ideas to life.

'I'm thrilled that my design seemed to resonate so much with the local community and I hope everyone will come to visit to see the final piece and experience everything this wonderful church, and community, has to offer!'

Black Lives Matter protestors in June 2020 ripped down a statue and threw it into the Bristol harbour

The winning design is on display in a small temporary exhibition at St Mary Redcliffe until 9th October 2022 and next year will be recreated in stained glass.

Parish Priest, Dan Tyndall, said, 'The winning design is powerful and imaginative, managing to resonate with contemporary issues and yet will also stand the test of time.

'Ealish's concept was very popular with visitors to the church and will sit well within the current Victorian window'.

The temporary exhibition in church will be on display from 22nd September until 9th October.
A 2019 complaint was lodged by eight Australian nationals and six children

The United Nations has ruled Australia failed to protect Torres Strait Islanders against the impacts of climate change and thus violated their right to enjoy their culture.

The decision, by the UN's human rights committee, follows a 2019 complaint by eight Australian nationals and six of their children from four small, low-lying islands.

The inhabitants of Boigu, Poruma, Warraber and Masig claimed their rights had been violated as the Morrison government failed to adapt to upgrade seawalls on the islands and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

'The committee has created a pathway for individuals to assert claims where national systems have failed to take appropriate measures to protect those most vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change on the enjoyment of their human rights,' committee member Helene Tigroudja said on Friday evening.

The United Nations has ruled Australia failed to protect Torres Strait Islanders against the impacts of climate change and thus violated their right to enjoy their culture

The decision, by the UN's human rights committee, follows a 2019 complaint by eight Australian nationals and six of their children from four small, low-lying islands

The Islanders claimed changes in weather patterns have had direct harmful consequences on their livelihood, culture and traditional way of life.

Flooding caused by tidal surges has destroyed graves and left human remains scattered across the islands, while heavy rain and storms have degraded the land reduced food available from fishing and farming.

On Masig Island, the rising sea has caused saltwater to seep into the soil and coconut trees to become diseased.

The committee said despite Australia's construction of new seawalls on the four islands expected to be completed by 2023, additional measures were required.

The UN has asked Australia to compensate the Islanders for harm suffered, consult to assess their needs and take measures to continue to secure the communities' safe existence.

The committee's decision demonstrated an international concern that policy should be led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's solutions, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service said.

The inhabitants of Boigu, Poruma, Warraber and Masig claimed their rights had been violated as the Morrison government failed to adapt to upgrade seawalls on the islands and reduce greenhouse gas emissions

While government knows what communities need, it must commit to true partnership, accountability and delivering outcomes, executive officer Jamie McConnachie said.

'We have a right to culture.

'What needs to be in reverence is the principle that culture is a strengthening agent and that should underpin the delivery of services, policy and legislation that affects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People.

'There should be nothing about us or our country, without us'.

The Climate Council welcomed the ruling, with director of research Dr Simon Bradshaw saying the loss and damage experienced by Torres Islanders 'epitomises the injustice at the the heart of the climate crisis'.

Climate change undermines not only physical security but is a profound threat to culture and the deep connections of communities to their land and sea, he said.

'The Australian government must do everything it can to limit future harms by ensuring Australia's emissions plummet this decade, leaving fossil fuels in the ground and providing far greater support to communities in the Torres Strait with adapting to the impacts of climate change.'
The United States Air Force Academy recently circulated promotional information among its cadets for the Brooke Owens Fellowship, which specifically bans 'cisgender men' from applying.

The email sent on September 14, encourages cadets to apply to the program, which states: 'If you are a cisgender woman, a transgender woman, non-binary, agender, bigender, two-spirit, demigender, genderfluid, genderqueer, or another form of gender minority, this program is for you.

'If you are a cisgender man, this program isnt for you...but we encourage you to check out our spinoff programs, the Patti Grace Smith Fellowship and the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program.'

A concerned Air Force cadet shared the email because, he told Fox News, 'It's a little worrying that we have more briefs about D&I than briefs about foreign adversaries, emerging technologies or current events across the world.'

The fellowship, which has existed since 2017, commemorates the late Owens - a pilot and space policy expert - who died at the age of 35 of breast cancer in 2016.

The program provides young people, who are not cisgender men, with paid internships and executive mentorship at top aviation and space exploration companies.

The email also arrived as it has become clear that the US Army is facing major recruitment issues.

Members of the Brooke Owens fellowship program, which places women and other gender minorities at top tier space exploration companies in order to kickstart their careers in the field

The Brooke Owens fellowship logo, established in 2017 in memory of Brooke Owens, a pilot and space policy expert who died in 2016 of breast cancer

In fact, this month, the Army revealed it was just 52% of the way to its recruitment goals for the fiscal year, which ends on September 30.

Deputy director of public affairs for U.S. Army Recruiting Command, Brian McGovern, recently said, 'The Army is facing its most challenging recruiting environment since the all-volunteer forces inception in 1973.'

He said the Army expects to face a shortage of 12,000 to 15,000 recruits this year.

The US Air Force Academy, which is comprised of roughly 71% men and 29% women, came under fire recently for a diversity and inclusion presentation in which it instructed cadets to shy away from the usage of gendered language in everyday speech.

Cadets were encouraged to swap out the words 'mom' and 'dad' for 'parent' or 'guardian.' 'Boyfriend' and 'girlfriend' were encouraged to be exchanged for 'partner,' and so on.

At the time, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) - a Green Beret and veteran of the Afghan War - said that the school's focus on 'woke' concepts of language justice is 'absolutely destructive to morale, to unity, to everything that I know from a military, that by the way, integrated way before the rest of the country in 1948.'

As opposed to focusing on small-scale wording faux pas, he said 'the Air Force should be worried about the macro aggressions against America that are happening all over the world.'

Air Force Academy cadets salute during the national anthem at Falcon Stadium for their graduation ceremony on May 25, 2022

Brooke Owens Fellows pose - candidates are selected for their talent, their experience to date, their commitment to service, and their creativity'

The academy, which is comprised of 71% male cadets, recently promoted the Owens Fellowship, which specifically bans cisgender men from applying

A spokesperson for the academy denied that the emphasis on diversity and inclusion is detracting from cadets' 'warfighting effectiveness.'

'It is the diversity of Airmen and Guardians coming from all corners of our nation who perform the Department of the Air Forces hundreds of critical mission sets that make us the best, most innovative Air and Space Forces the world has ever known,' said the spokesperson.

The statement was followed up by a denial that the academy specifically prohibits the use of 'mom and dad' or other gender-specific terms.

'The Air Force Academy does not prohibit the use of 'mom and dad' or other gender-specific terms. The recent briefing on diversity and inclusion is being taken out of context and misrepresented; the slide in question was not intended to stand alone,' said Superintendent Lt. Gen. Rich Clark.

He added, 'First and foremost, the briefing centered on respect for others and the warfighting imperative of leveraging diverse perspectives to solve our nation's most difficult national security problems. Our strategic competitors are doing the opposite. Our American diversity is a strategic advantage and opens the door to creative solutions, providing a competitive edge in air, space, and cyberspace.'

A screenshot of the 'diversity and inclusion' training for cadets at the US Air Force Academy

In 2021, the US Air Force Academy made headlines for announcing a Diversity and Inclusion Reading Room, specially designated with curated books and described in a release as a 'treasure trove of big ideas and a safe space for open discussion.'

'We need to foster an understanding about the challenges of diversity, racism and injustice, promote a wide-range of perspectives and be respectful of people we agree and disagree with,' said Mark Jensen, president of the Academy's faculty senate and a philosophy professor.

'Our intention is to create an informal space for cadets and permanent party to broaden and deepen their exploration of the issues involved in diversity, inclusion and justice,' said assistant English professor Daniel Couch.

Rep. Waltz said in an interview with Fox News' Tucker Carlson that once Republicans regain the House Majority, 'we are going to cut it out of the U.S. military.'
A COVID-19 testing station in Seoul is quiet with only a few people waiting in line, Sept. 23. Yonhap



Korea's new COVID-19 cases fell to the lowest Friday tally in 11 weeks in the latest sign of a downward trend ahead of the planned lifting of all outdoor mask mandates next week.



The country reported 29,108 new COVID-19 infections, including 303 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 24,565,021, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.



The new daily figure is the lowest of all Friday tallies since cases dropped to 19,295 on July 8.



The daily caseload decreased from 33,009 the previous day and 51,855 a week ago.



New deaths from COVID-19 increased by nine to 68, putting the death toll at 28,077. The fatality rate was 0.11 percent.



The number of critically ill patients came to 399, down 29 from a day earlier.



The sixth and latest wave of the omicron variant took on the peninsular country in early July and peaked slightly over 180,000 cases in mid-August.



Health authorities believe the virus' sixth resurgence seems to have peaked out for a steady decline, with a faster decrease in the number of new cases and deaths compared to the fifth wave.









Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said that the lifting of the mask wearing requirement for large outdoor gatherings, such as sporting events and concerts, will take effect next Monday, citing the country is "clearly overcoming" a resurgence in COVID-19 cases.





Prime Minister Han Duck-soo presides over a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters about measures to deal with the coronavirus pandemic at the government complex in Seoul, Sept. 23. Yonhap
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The Metropolitan Police have confirmed they interviewed two men in connection to the cash for honours investigation into King Charles' aides and his charitable foundation.

The force said a man in his 50s and a man in his 40s had both been interviewed under caution in connection with the ongoing investigation.

Earlier this year, the Metropolitan Police and Charity Commission launched inquiries into allegations surrounding links between His Majesty's Prince's Foundation and Saudi billionaire Mahfouz Marei Mubarak Bin Mahfouz.

One of King Charles's aides who worked with the Prince's Foundation at the same time was accused of promising to help donor Dr Bin Mahfouz get not only British citizenship but a knighthood too.

The Metropolitan Police have confirmed they interviewed two men in connection to the cash for honours investigation into aides of King Charles (pictured) and his charitable foundation

Earlier this year, the Metropolitan Police and Charity Commission launched inquiries into allegations surrounding links between His Majesty's Prince's Foundation and Saudi billionaire Mahfouz Marei Mubarak Bin Mahfouz

A spokesman told MailOnline: 'On Tuesday, 6 September, police interviewed a man aged in his 50s and a man aged in his 40s under caution in relation to offences under the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925.

'The investigation remains ongoing and we will not be providing a running commentary on its progress.'

The force confirmed there have been no arrests in connection with the investigation.

King Charles has said at the time he had 'no knowledge' of any cash-for-honours offers.

The aide was accused of helping to 'fix' a CBE for Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz, 52, who was honoured by the prince in a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace after pledging large sums to help restore royal residences in Scotland.

Scotland Yard's special enquiry team began examining the allegations after they appeared in The Sunday Times last September and former Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker insisted they investigate.

In February, it launched a full investigation into potential offences committed under the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925  raising the prospect of Charles being interviewed by the police.

King Charles's son Prince Harry reportedly severed ties with Mahfouz over concern about the tycoon's motives(pictured together)

His spokespeople previously said he would 'of course' be willing to assist any enquiry from the authorities.

Last year Dame Sue Bruce, chair of the Prince's Foundation, described the recent crises surrounding the now King's charitable organisation as a 'difficult chapter', but said 'lessons will be learned' to ensure the charity acts with the 'utmost integrity and probity'.

The private Mahfouz investiture compared to the normal ceremony Held in November 2016, the Mahfouz investiture was set up by representatives of Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz and Prince Charles

Up to thirty investitures are held in the Ballroom at Buckingham Palace each year, but this was held in the Blue Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace, usually reserved for heads of state

Often hundreds are in attendance, but present were Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall, Mahfouz, his older brothers, his teenage son, an advisor and a photographer

It is reported that Charles and Camilla broke tradition by shaking hands with Mahfouz at the start of the ceremony

Honour ceremonies can usually include a line of 60 people waiting to receive their certificates from the Queen or a representative of the Royal Family

It is claimed that following the awarding of the honour and presentation of a certificate, Mahfouz was allowed the run of the place

Pictures from the event were not made public, and the awarding of the owner was not ever published in the court circular as is standard practice Advertisement

Mr Baker had previously written to the Metropolitan Police asking them to launch a criminal investigation into the cash for honours claims. He said he found it 'difficult to understand' how Charles could have been completely ignorant of the affair.

Broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby, a friend of the King's, mounted a defence of the royal after the claims emerged. He said it was 'extraordinarily unlikely' that Charles knew about the scandal.

He also compared it to 'smears' that Sir Keir Starmer personally failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile.

Mr Dimbleby, whose friendship with Charles goes back decades, insisted the Prince of Wales would have had no idea one of his charities may have been helping a Saudi billionaire get a knighthood and British citizenship.

Speaking to Radio 4's Today Programme, he said: 'I think it's extraordinarily unlikely that he knew. I think if he had know he would have immediately taken action on it.

'He believes in the honours system. Many thousands of people have been given investitures by him on behalf of a system that he understands and knows well.

'If there had been some scam, some breaking of the law, you honestly think that he would have been party to that? It beggars belief'.

The journalist then went on to draw parallels with the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson's false claim that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer personally failed to prosecute paedophile Jimmy Savile when he was Director of Public Prosecutions.

He said: 'People were rightly outraged when he was smeared for allegedly not investigating Jimmy Saville, now he was dpp [Director of Public Prosecutions]. He was the chief executive of a large organisation.

'The Prince of Wales is not in that position. He's someone outside of that organisation who deeply believes and cares in its work - but is not party to its day-to-day operation'.

He added: 'It seems bizarre that we should be giving it such attention. The idea that this is an example of an annus horribilus because its linked to his brother's case, seems frankly bizarre'.

King Charles's son Prince Harry reportedly severed ties with Mahfouz over concern about the tycoon's motives.

Harry's team allegedly became concerned it was entering 'cash for access' territory when Mahfouz demanded a private meeting with the prince in Saudi Arabia - potentially 'within days' - as a precondition for the donation

Emails passed to The Times revealed Mahfouz had offered Harry's HIV charity Sentebale a huge 1million donation in 2014.

Harry's team became concerned it was entering 'cash for access' territory when Mahfouz demanded a private meeting with the prince in Saudi Arabia - potentially 'within days' - as a precondition for the donation.

On May 31, 2014, Mark Dyer, 54, a Sentebale trustee, responded with concern to Mahfouz's aide, writing: 'Are we really saying that if PH [Prince Harry] commits to a trip to Saudi, Sentebale will receive the donation?

'If that is the case I need to now brief the board as the accounts have all been revised and signed off on the back of receiving 1m donation.

'I am seeing PH today at Windsor; I will brief him on the situation and see if he now wants to commit to a trip, but this certainly was not our understanding ... it is starting to bring into question 'cash-for-access'.'

Charles and Mahfouz are said to have discussed the then prince's restoration of Dumfries House, an 18th-century Ayrshire mansion on one of his estates

Mahfouz's representative responded by insisting the proposed Saudi visit had been suggested and encouraged by Prince Charles at an event in Clarence House weeks earlier.

Harry was prepared to deal with Mahfouz at the time and, according to the Times, is alleged to have joked: 'Has father beaten me to it and got the money?'

On June 1, 2014, Mr Dyer told Mahfouz's fixer he had spoken to the prince and had a 'long chat' with his private secretary.

He wrote via email: 'There is a concern and we have to be very careful going forward.

'At no stage have we committed to a visit, we discussed maybe in the future meeting privately for a weekend on a boat.

'The POW [Prince of Wales] obviously mentioned it in passing conversation; that does not mean PH comes next week. He is keen for his son to see that part of the world, but not next week.

'What has now happened is a promise of a 1m donation but it now comes with a commitment to a visit ... that was not my understanding.

'I then discussed with PH and quite rightly he has a major concern that we are loosing [sic] touch with what all this is about ... it's not about M [Mahfouz] meeting PH and introducing him to his friends and [Mahfouz's adviser] having as many photos as possible of PH on his desk ... its [sic] about the children of Lesotho and Sentebale making a difference to their lives.'

Mr Dyer, who is a godfather to Harry's son, Archie, continued: 'There is a possibility of a visit to Saudi and if this happens PH will visit M, but to be held over a barrel, I think is wrong.

'It would be a real shame if this falls through and I think we need to start again and remember the first meeting with PH. What is now on the table is very different.'

While Mahfouz donated at least 50,000 to Sentebale, the million-pound offer fell through, and Harry never made the visit to the Middle East.
The campaign arm of the Republican Party has dropped almost $1million in advertising for a GOP candidate after it was revealed he lied about his military service.

Trump-backed JR Majewski has campaigned as a military veteran who claims to have endured 'tough' conditions serving in Afghanistan, including a lack of running water that forced him to go more than 40 days without a shower.

But military documents obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request indicate Majewski never deployed to Afghanistan.

They show his 'combat service' involved completing a six-month stint helping to load planes as a 'passenger operations specialist' at an air base in Qatar, a comfortable US ally that was a safe distance from the fighting.

Before that, the records state that Majewski was based at Kadena Air Base in Japan for much of his active-duty service.

The National Republican Congressional Committee dropped $960,000 in advertising in Toledo, Ohio, that would have targeted his opponent, Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, following the revelation, sources told Politico.

He was set to appear on TV in the lead up to the November midterms and had received backing from top Republicans, even though some are wary because of his MAGA ties.

J.R. Majewski, Republican candidate for U.S. Representative for Ohio's 9th Congressional District, has claimed that he served in Afghanistan as a combat veteran, but military records show this to be false

Majewski photographed receiving an endorsement from Donald Trump on September 17 during his congressional campaigning

The AP reported on these remarks in its article: Here's video of J.R. Majewski claiming he served a tour of duty in Afghanistan and then saying, "I don't like talking about my military experience." pic.twitter.com/glmlqFmfMW  Eric Hananoki (@ehananoki) September 21, 2022

Yet just last year Majewski tweeted about 'going back to Afghanistan' amid the chaotic scramble to pull US forces out of the country.

In interviews Majewski has been far less forthcoming when asked about the specifics of his service, having claimed to have served in Afghanistan in 2002 and 2003.

In a 2021 interview on the One American Podcast, Majeski confirmed that he served one tour in Afghanistan, describing it as 'tough'.

'I don't like talking about my military experience,' he said. 'I really don't like to divulge a lot of things about the military because for me it was a tough time in life. You know, the military wasn't easy.'

Throughout his campaign Majewski has offered his Air Force service as a valuable credential. The tagline 'veteran for Congress' appears on campaign merchandise.

He ran a Facebook ad promoting himself as 'combat veteran.' And in a campaign video released this year, Majewski marauds through a vacant factory with a rifle while pledging to restore an America that is 'independent and strong like the country I fought for.'

More recently, the House Republican campaign committee released a biography that describes Majewski as a veteran whose 'squadron was one of the first on the ground in Afghanistan after 9/11.'

A campaign ad posted online Tuesday by Majewski supporters flashed the words 'Afghanistan War Veteran' across the screen alongside a picture of a younger Majewski in his dress uniform.

Military records show that Majewski's 'combat service' involved completing a six-month stint helping to load planes as a 'passenger operations specialist' at an air base in Qatar (pictured: Al Udeid Air Base 30 miles outside Doha, capital of Qatar), a comfortable US ally that was a safe distance from the fighting

Soldiers disembark from a plane upon returning home from deployment in Afghanistan, at Fort Drum, New York, US, September 6, 2021. Majewski has claimed that he served in Afghanistan in 2002 and 2003

Experts argue that even Majewski's description of himself as a 'combat veteran' is misleading.

The term can evoke images of soldiers storming a beachhead or finding refuge during a firefight. But under the laws and regulations of the US government, facing live fire has little to do with someone earning the title.

During the Persian Gulf War, then-President George HW Bush designated, for the first time, countries used as combat support areas as combat zones despite the low-risk of American service members ever facing hostilities.

That helped veterans receive a favorable tax status. Qatar, which is now home to the largest US air base in the Middle East, was among the countries that received the designation under Bush's executive order - a status that remains in effect today.

Majewski's campaign said that he calls himself a combat veteran because the area he deployed to - Qatar - is considered a combat zone.

Regardless, it rankles some when those seeking office offer their status as a combat veteran as a credential to voters without explaining that it does not mean that they came under hostile fire.

Majewski also lacks many of the medals that are typically awarded to those who served in Afghanistan.

Though he once said that he went more than 40 days without a shower during his time in the landlocked country, he does not have an Afghanistan campaign medal, which was issued to those who served '30 consecutive days or 60 nonconsecutive days' in the country.

He also did not receive a Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, which was issued to service members before the creation of the Afghanistan campaign medal if they deployed overseas in 'direct service to the War on Terror.'

Matthew Borie, an Air Force veteran who worked in intelligence and reviewed Majewski's records at APs request, said it's 'odd' that Majewski lacks many of the 'medals you would expect to see for someone who deployed to Afghanistan.'

There's also the matter of Majewski's final rank and reenlistment code when he left active duty after four years of service.

Most leave the service after four years having received several promotions that are generally awarded for time served. Majewski exited at a rank that was one notch above where he started. His enlistment code also indicated that he could not sign up with the Air Force again.

Majewski's campaign said he received what's called a nonjudicial punishment in 2001 after getting into a 'brawl' in his dormitory, which resulted in a demotion. Nonjudicial punishments are designed to hold service members accountable for bad behavior that does not rise to the level of a court-martial.

Majewski's campaign declined to make him available for an interview and, in a lengthy statement issued to the AP, did not directly address questions about his claim of deploying to Afghanistan.

A spokeswoman declined to provide additional comment when the AP followed up with additional questions.

In a statement, the Republican candidate for a northwestern Ohio congressional seat defended his military record.

'I am proud to have served my country. My accomplishments and record are under attack, meanwhile, career politician Marcy Kaptur has a forty-year record of failure for my Toledo community, which is why Im running for Congress.'

'As somebody who was in Qatar, I do not consider myself a combat veteran,' Don Christensen, a retired colonel and former chief prosecutor for the Air Force, said of Majewski.

Majewski had a massive Trump mural painted on his lawn to campaign in the 2020 general election

The mural was done at Majewski's Ohio home before he ran for congress

'I think that would be offensive to those who were actually engaged in combat and Iraq and Afghanistan.'

'Veterans have done so much for this country and when you claim to have done what your brothers and sisters in arms actually did to build up your reputation, it is a disservice.'

Majewski's account of his time in the military is just one aspect of his biography that is suspect. His post-military career has been defined by exaggerations, conspiracy theories, talk of violent action against the US government and occasional financial duress.

Still, thanks to an unflinching allegiance to former President Donald Trump - Majewski once painted a massive Trump mural on his lawn - he also stands a chance of defeating longtime Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur in a district recently redrawn to favor Republicans.

Majewski is among a cluster of GOP candidates, most running for office for the first time, whose unvarnished life stories and hard-right politics could diminish the chances of a Republican 'red wave' on Election Day in November.

He is also a vivid representation of a new breed of politicians who reject facts as they try to emulate Trump.

With no previous political experience, Majewski is perhaps an unlikely person to be the Republican nominee taking on Kaptur, who has represented the Toledo area since 1983.

But two state legislators who were also on the ballot in the August GOP primary split the establishment vote.

That cleared a path for Majewski, who previously worked in the nuclear power industry and dabbled in politics as a pro-Trump hip-hop performer and promoter of the QAnon conspiracy theory. He was also at the US Capitol during the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

J.R. Majewski, Republican candidate for U.S. Representative for Ohio's 9th Congressional District, speaks at a campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio., Sept. 17, 2022

Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, speaks during an event at the Shipyards on Feb. 17, 2022, in Lorain, Ohio. Kaptur is seeking to retain her seat in Ohio's 9th congressional district, campaigning against Majewski

Majewski has not been charged in connection with the attack. But he has falsely stated that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump and said that the insurrection 'felt like a setup' by police who were targeting Trump supporters.

In his statement, Majewski said, 'I deeply regret being at the Capitol that day' and 'did not break the law,' while calling for those who did to be 'punished to the fullest extent of the law.'

Majewski's resume exaggeration isn't limited to his military service, reverberating throughout his professional life, as well as a nascent political career that took shape in an online world of conspiracy theories.

Since gaining traction in his campaign for Congress, Majewski has denied that he is a follower of the QAnon conspiracy theory while playing down his participation in the Capitol riot.

The baseless and apocalyptic QAnon belief is based on cryptic online postings by the anonymous 'Q,' who is purportedly a government insider. It posits that Trump is fighting entrenched enemies in the government and also involves satanism and child sex trafficking.

'Let me be clear, I denounce QAnon. I do not support Q, and I do not subscribe to their conspiracy theories,' Majewski said in his statement to the AP.

The mischaracterizations extend to his professional career, in which he has repeatedly described himself as an 'executive in the nuclear power industry,' including in a campaign ad last spring.

But a review of his now-deleted resume on the website LinkedIn and a survey of his former employers do not support the claim.

He most recently worked for Holtec International, a Florida-based energy conglomerate that specializes in handling spent nuclear fuel. But he is not listed among the executives and members of the corporate leadership teams in current or archived versions of the company's website.

A spokesman confirmed Majewski was a former Holtec employee, but declined to offer details on his position or role, which Majewski's LinkedIn page described as 'senior director, client relations.'

Majewski's campaign declined to address his claim of being an executive, but said he participated in weekly conference calls with executives.

Majewski also described himself on LinkedIn as 'project manager - senior consultant' for First Energy, an Ohio based power company, a position that he stated he held since shortly after leaving the military. The company, Majewski explained in a biography posted to his website, quickly recognized him for his 'intellect and leadership capabilities'

Yet records from his 2009 bankruptcy raise questions about his seniority. They show he was an 'outage manager' who earned about $51,000 a year. In the bankruptcy, Majewski and his wife gave up their home, two cars and a Jet Ski to settle the case, court records show.

Still, in a nationalized political environment, some Republicans suggest none of this will matter to voters.

'At the end of the day, this will be a question of whether they want Nancy Pelosi leading the House or Kevin McCarthy,' said Tom Davis, a former congressman who led the House Republican campaign arm during George W. Bush's presidency. 'These elections have become less about the person. I wouldn't say candidates dont matter, but they dont matter like they used to.'
Puzzled parents have been left baffled by mystery meal that has been served up to children at a secondary school in Stockton-on-Tees.

Thornaby Academy has come under fire for dishing up 'expensive' and 'abysmal' school dinners - with one furious parent saying: 'Prisoners get better fed.'

Have your children ever been served a 'sorry' lunch at school? Or have you ever had a shocking meal at a hospital or on a plane? If so, email your story and pictures to: tom.cotterill@mailonline.co.uk Advertisement

It comes after pictures of a lunch service were leaked, which showed a limp-looking slice of pizza being sold for 1.65.

But one of the shots has led to confusion, with the quality of the food appearing so bad it has left parents unable to work out what the meal is.

The unidentifiable snack - possibly a pudding - led one person to ask why children were being dished up 'sausage with whipped cream and grapes?'

While another woman said: 'This is absolutely shocking! Prisoners get fed better than this at the taxpayers expense, then parents have to pay for school dinners and get fed this... How is this fair?'

Photos of the school's lacklustre lunch have since gone viral, with parents quick to vent their fury on social media.

Among the leaked snaps included an image that showed a slice of pizza - which appeared to have a bite taken out of it - with just one piece of pepperoni resting on a single slice of rectangular cheese.

And in another image, a depressing-looking pot of mac and cheese was snapped by a pupil, with bland pasta topped with a few pieces of cheese.

Some of the food being served up to pupils at Thornaby, by caters Mellors, was hard to identify - including this plate of lunch

The sorry-looking pizza was being sold to children at Thornaby Academy in Stockton-on-Tees for 1.65 - sparking outrage from parents on social media

Parents have since said their children have been left hungry in lessons by the poor standard of the food.

One mum, who has not been named, said: 'My son is six and gets school meals. He picks the cold meal option and all he gets is two slices of bread, some filling, and a cookie as a meal.

'He isnt a big eater at all, but even he says that its not filling.'

The backlash comes as campaigners fight for higher quality school meals amid soaring rates of childhood obesity.

Some parents spoke of how the quality of school dinners has decreased since they were at school.

A father wrote: 'I remember being in primary school about 35 years ago, and the school dinners were basic but great.

'Mince with mash and veg, corned beef pie with veg - all basic but far better than this muck, and all made fresh, too.'

Another man said: 'Dinners were the best back in the day - we had three options; salad, main meal, and snack.

'We got the option of milk on a morning with a warm doughnut as well.'

While one man quipped: 'I dont think this is quite what Jamie Oliver had in mind.'

Currently, campaigners up and down the country are fighting for higher quality school meals for all children.

The 'Give a Sausage' campaign, backed by well-known culinary stars from Tom Kerridge to Prue Leith, is aiming for all kids to have access to good school dinners.

A spokesperson for the academy said it takes standards of school catering 'seriously' and that it will be investigating the lunchtime fiasco

They aim to do this by training school kitchen teams and reducing the amount of processed food on offer.

This comes as 60 per cent of secondary schools are failing to meet the school food standard outlined by the government in May, with one in three children leaving school overweight or obese.

A spokesperson for Thornaby Academy said: 'The academy is disappointed to learn of a possible issue regarding its new catering supplier Mellors, as this matter had not been raised directly with the school.

'The academy has a clear policy on the use of mobile phones by students during the day which are not allowed.

'Thornaby Academy takes standards of school catering and compliance with food school standards seriously and will be investigating the matter in conjunction with the caterers. Mellors however, have already apologised unreservedly.'
A grieving father whose daughter was one of the five teenagers killed in a horrific ute crash has offered to meet with the parents of the driver of the car.

Lily Van de Putte, 15, died when a Nissan Navara ute smashed into two large trees on East Parade in Buxton in Sydney's southwest, just before 8pm on September 6.

She was killed alongside her Picton High School peers Antonio Desisto, Tyrese Bechard, Summer Williams and Gabriella McLennan - all aged 14 to 16.

The driver and sole survivor, Tyrell Edwards, 18, has been charged with five counts of dangerous driving and remains in jail on suicide watch.

Now, Lily's father John Van de Putte has reached out to the parents of Edwards and offered to 'give them a hug' - just one week after burying his daughter.

John Van de Putte (left) has courageously reached out to the parents of the driver and survivor of a crash that killed his daughter Lilly (right)

Lily Van De Putte, 15, (pictured) was one of five teens killed after the car they were in smashed into a tree and split in two

'I just want to give them a hug,' Mr Van de Putte told the Daily Telegraph.

'No hard feelings, no anger ... I need to do it for closure.'

Mr Van de Putte said the he had heard Edwards' parents were 'nice people' and believed they were suffering as well.

'At the end of the day, they are suffering too, their son is in jail [on remand]', Mr Van de Putte said.

Police allege P-plater Edwards was using his phone to film a Snapchat video of himself swerving at 90km/hour, before he allegedly hit two large trees which split the ute in two - throwing his passengers from the car.

Despite initial reports alleging most of the young passengers were not wearing seatbelts, Mr van de Putte alleged that all passengers were wearing seatbelts, aside from one.

Mr Van de Putte hopes to use his grief and work with the government to change road rules as part of 'Lily's legacy'.

'I'd like to see speed immobilisers put in cars, for people on their blacks too ... and repeat offenders, not just P-platers,' Mr Van de Putte said.

'The technology is there, so it can be done.'

Mr Van de Putte said he wants to meet with the parents of Tyrell Edward (pictured), who was the driver and sole survivor of the crash, to give them a hug. The 18-year-old, has been charged with five counts of dangerous driving occasioning death

On September 16, Mr Van de Putte described his daughter was beautiful with a 'beautiful heart' to hundreds of mourners attending her funeral - but also shared funny anecdotes about how she was 'no saint'.

When asked about his last conversation with Lily, the doting dad remembered it fondly.

He was about to be taken to hospital before kidney surgery - a relatively standard procedure for people who have multiple sclerosis, like Mr Van de Putte.

Lily was worried, but he tried to assure her that everything would be OK, giving her one last kiss and hug and saying: 'You have nothing to worry about. It's only a simple operation, I love you and I'll see you tomorrow.'

The father, who is wheelchair-bound, recalled: 'Then she ran out into the driveway to give me a hug, and I left.'

Overnight on Tuesday, while he was unconscious, Lily - who was an aspiring electrician - sent him a text message that read: 'Dad, can I go out?'

He read that message on Wednesday morning, and said he knew she was gone because he had multiple missed calls and his son came into his hospital room in tears.

Lily's wheelchair-bound father is overcome by emotion as he places the flower inside the hearse as he says a final good bye to his daughter

A family friend set up a GoFund Me campaign for Lily's family following the tragic accident.

According to court documents, four of the teens were thrown from the back of the vehicle.

They were found a 'short distance away, trapped by confinement'.

Edwards was allegedly unable to free himself from the wreck, while another victim was trapped in a passenger seat.

Edwards will face NSW Supreme Court on September 26.
A bevy of diners sparked a stampede when they confused a group of CrossFit runners with rioters who were being chased by authorities in the northeastern Brazilian state of Recife.

The customers were spread out across the sidewalk tables and suddenly stood up from their tables and started running, a surveillance camera at Cervejaria Alphaiate bar showed.

In the video, a woman was seen jogging and looking back as two other members of the CrossFit gym follow her steps, including a man with a dog on a leash.

A female customer appeared to sense that she was in harm's way and immediately grabbed her purse and started running as a man who was seated with her started to follow her.

Frightened customers flee after they spotted a group from a local CrossFit gym running and mistakenly confused them with rioters Saturday night in Recife, Brazil

The management at Cervejaria Alphaiate said the confused customers eventually returned to the bar

Customers at the Cervejaria Alphaiate in Recife, Brazil, can be seen enjoying themselves Saturday night along the bar's sidewalk tables moments before they sparked a stampede when they confused runners from a CrossFit gym with rioters

Within seconds, dozens of diners abandoned their tables and rushed down the sidewalk. One shocked customer stumbled out of his chair and fell on the street pavement as more CrossFitters ran past the restaurant.

Dr. Amyr Kelner told Brazilian news outlet G1 that he was at a table with six people when his friend grabbed her bag and fled.

'It was really fast. People were coming slowly, then, when they got close to our table, they started running ,' Dr. Kelner said. 'She got up and at that moment someone shouted that it was a (police sweep). That's when I got up, shouted that it was a sweep too and ran away.'

The doctor recalled someone near him thought he had a gun when they saw him putting his cell phone and wallet in his pocket.

A runner jogs with his jog before diners confused him and other runners with a group of rioters in the Brazilian city of Boa Viagem

A woman and one of her table guests took of running because they spotted CrossFit runners and confused them with a group of rioters

One of the bar customers, Dr. Amyr Kelner, told Brazilian news outlet G1 that he and six friends took off running because they thought the runners were actually rioters being chased by the police

Dr. Kelner said customers from nearby establishments also took off running after they noticed the rush of people coming their way.

He and his group of friends ran inside another bar to seek refuge and then noticed that nothing was happening.

'Everyone started laughing and went back to the tables as if nothing had happened,' Dr. Kelner said.

Management at the Cervejaria Alphaiate told G1 on Thursday that the incident was simply 'a misunderstanding.'

'It was clarified that nothing occurred, in a few minutes all those present returned to their tables and continued with the service,' the restaurant said.

It did make light of the moment Friday by posting a video on its Instagram of waiters running to empty tables.
Victims of sexual violence range from four to 82 years old, investigators claim

Children as young as four have been raped and tortured by Putin's thugs in Ukraine, UN experts have claimed.

The team from the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine have investigated alleged war crimes in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy, finding evidence of sexual abuse, executions, bombing of civilian areas and torture.

They cited testimonies by former detainees of beatings, electric shocks and forced nudity in Russian detention facilities.

An unspecified number of Russian soldiers were found to have committed crimes of sexual or gender-based violence - with victims ranging in age from four to 82 years old, Erik Mose, the commission's chairman, told the Human Rights Council.

He said the team was 'struck by the large number of executions in the areas that we visited', and the frequent 'visible signs of executions on bodies, such as hands tied behind backs, gunshot wounds to the head, and slit throats'.

He said: 'Based on the evidence gathered by the commission, it has concluded that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine.'

Investigators carry a body bag past multiple corpses on the forest floor, near Izyum, eastern Ukraine, today

A worker carries a cross during a burial ceremony for unidentified persons killed in the Bucha district

Erik Mose, the commission's chairman (pictured today) cited testimonies by former detainees of beatings, electric shocks and forced nudity

It comes as Ukrainian officials said today that 436 bodies have been exhumed from a mass burial site in Izium, 30 of them with visible signs of torture.

The governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Synyehubov, and the region's police chief, Volodymyr Tymoshko, said three more grave sites have been located in areas retaken by Ukrainian forces in a counteroffensive this month

During their 10-day June trip to Ukraine, the UN team visited Bucha, a city outside Kyiv where Ukrainian authorities found mass graves and bodies strewn in the streets after Russian forces pulled out in late March.

'We were struck by the large number of executions in the areas that we visited. The commission is currently investigating such deaths in 16 towns and settlements,' Mose said.

He didn't specify who or which side in the war allegedly committed the killings.

The findings echo reports by news outlets and others of the destruction, death and despair in Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion on February 24.

Commission member Pablo de Greiff told reporters the team had 'found two instances of ill-treatment of Russian Federation soldiers by Ukrainian soldiers.

'We have found obviously significantly larger numbers of incidences that amount to war crimes on the part of the Russian Federation.'

A dog walks near destroyed homes in Virnopillia village, Kharkiv region

The commission's work could ultimately contribute to the work of International Criminal Court prosecutors who could bring charges over war crimes in Ukraine, although it remains uncertain whether Russia or other alleged perpetrators will ever face justice.

Anton Korynevych, ambassador-at-large for Ukraine's Foreign Ministry, joined envoys from a number of Western countries who spoke out against Moscow's war in the wake of the commission's presentation. Russia's delegation boycotted the council meeting.

Korynevych, speaking by video, called for the creation of a special tribunal that would have jurisdiction 'over the crime of aggression against Ukraine' and investigate senior Russian political and military leaders who were allegedly responsible.

He said said accountability was crucial for rights violations and atrocities linked to Russia's 'aggression.' But Korynevych also highlighted how the war's impact has rippled through the world and 'put numerous countries on the verge of hunger, exacerbated extreme poverty, created the threat of nuclear catastrophe unseen before' and harmed the livelihoods of millions of people.

Vladimir Putin's forces have been accused of carrying out war crimes against civilians in Ukraine (pictured today)

Commission investigators visited 27 towns and settlements, as well as graves and detention and torture centers; interviewed more than 150 victims and witnesses; and met with advocacy groups and government officials, Mose said.

The commission plans to gradually expand its investigation, with areas of interest including allegations of filtration camps for people being detained or deported, the forced transfer of people, and allegations of expedited adoption of children.

'The evidence of Russia's atrocities becomes more horrifying by the day, most recently with the uncovering of mass graves in Izium, where the bodies show signs of torture,' Michele Taylor, the U.S. ambassador to the rights council, said, referring to a Kharkiv regional city that Ukrainian forces recaptured in recent weeks.

Taylor urged the commissioners to continue to 'examine the growing evidence of Russia's filtration operations, forced deportations and disappearances.'

She referred to 'numerous sources' that indicated Russian authorities have interrogated, detained and/or forcibly deported between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, and reports that children were being deported from Ukraine and placed in Russian orphanages for adoption.

A handful of Russia's allies took to the defence of Moscow.

Ina Vasileuskaya, the deputy permanent representative of Belarus to the U.N. in Geneva, said Russia's invasion aim was to protect Russian speakers in Ukraine.

'Biased discussions in the Human Rights Council only accusing Russia are a dead end,' she said.

Vasileuskaya said her country was not a party to the conflict, although Belarus was one of the places Russian forces gathered before invading Ukraine.
An Oregon woman was held in jail for nine days after she was horrifically raped by an older man who was later convicted for various sex crimes.

The unidentified woman, 20, was one of Christian Alexander Sanchez's, 30, many victims who were held against their will in 2020 by the use of a lighter, hammer, and screwdriver, according to prosecutors at the Jackson County District Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors forced the woman to stay in Jackson County Jail for nine days between September 6 to 15 to ensure she would testify during a trial that was held from September 13 to 16.

Thanks in part to her testimony, Sanchez was found guilty on September 16 for various crimes, including rape, sodomy, coercion, assault, weapon use and kidnapping between February and September 2020.

'It was a horrific situation,' Deputy District Attorney Nick Geil told the Mail Tribune.

The 30-year-old will be sentenced on October 6 and is being held without bail.

Christian Alexander Sanchez, 30, was convicted on September 16 to raping multiple women in 2020. Pictured: Sanchez when he was first arrested in 2012 for sexually assaulting minors

One of Sanchez's victims was forced to stay in Jackson County Jail for nine days to ensure she would testify during his trial between September 13 to 16

Under Oregon law, prosecutors are allowed to hold a 'material' witness that can be used to help bring viable evidence in certain cases

The woman was ordered to be held in jail until the end of Sanchez's trial by Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Lorenzo Mejia.

The victim appeared along with Sanchez at the Jackson County Circuit Courts (above)

Oregon law allows for district attorneys to hold a 'material witness,' which includes the use of a person that contains viable evidence against the defendant.

While the 20-year-old's attorney insisted on the use of an ankle monitor instead, Mejia wanted to ensure the victim would be present to testify, especially since she has a track record of disappearing due to her battle with addiction, Deputy District Attorney Zori Crook told the Mail Tribune.

Deputy District Attorney Nick Geil said Sanchez's case was horrific after the perpetrator held women against their will by the use of screw driver and hammer

Sanchez was previously arrested in 2012 and pleaded guilty to sex crimes involving minors in 2013. He was sentenced to six years in prison.

The now 30-year-old faced 27 charges after he sent nude photos to adolescents, met more than 13 of them online, and raped about three, according to the Mail Tribune.

'It was a very involved, complicated case,' Lt. Mike Budreau said at the time.

Sanchez was arrested in 2012 during a traffic stop but had been under investigation for months.

The suspect's father, Rick, previously said police were also investigating his son's previous behavior from when he was in high school. Rick said that his son's actions were not 'malicious.'

'It was high school and high school parties that they're at and high school things that they did,' Rick said, according to Mail Tribune. 'They're basically attacking a high school student.'

Police disagreed and later found evidence of sexts between the 30-year-old and minors between the ages of 13 and 16.
At least 77 migrants desperate to flee crisis-hit Lebanon have died after their boat sank off the coast of Syria, as officials fear that the death toll may be far higher.

Rescuers began finding the migrants' bodies floating in the waters off the coast of western city of Tartus on Thursday.

Since then, they have found 77 bodies and they fear they could find more in the Mediterranean Sea as survivors have said that there were up to 150 people on board the boat when it set off from Lebanon.

It marks the deadliest such voyage yet of Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians travelling from Lebanon, where mounting economic desperation has led many to board often rickety and overcrowded boats in the hope of reaching Europe.

In Lebanon, tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs and the Lebanese pound has dropped more than 90% of its value, eradicating the purchasing power of thousands of families that now live in extreme poverty.

Among those believed to have drowned after the boat sunk was Mustafa Misto, his wife and three young children, who had been living in Lebanon.

Misto's family were accepting condolences at their apartment in the impoverished Bab Al-Ramel neighbourhood of the northern city of Tripoli. 'We have no one but God,' an elderly relative cried as mourners paid their respects.

Wissam Tellawi, one of the survivors being treated at al-Basel, lost two daughters. His wife and two sons are still missing.

Rescuers began finding finding the migrants' bodies floating in the waters off the coast of western city of Tartus on Thursday

A woman is seen being helped by rescue workers after a boat carrying up to 150 migrants sank off the coast of Syria

At least 77 people died when a migrant boat they were aboard sank off the Syrian coast. Pictured: Rescuers pull out the body of victim off the coast of Syria's southern port City of Tartus, after a boat transporting migrants from Lebanon sank off the Syrian coast

The boat was sailing from Lebanon earlier this week, the Lebanese transport minister said, as search operations continued on Friday

The bodies of his daughters, Mae and Maya, were brought to Lebanon early Friday and buried in their northern hometown of Qarqaf.

'He told me by telephone, 'I am fine' but the children are lost,' said Tellawi's father, who identified himself as Abu Mahmoud. The father told the local Al-Jadeed TV that his son gave smugglers the family's apartment in return for taking him and his family to Europe.

Syrian authorities said victims' relatives have started crossing from Lebanon into Syria to help identify their loved ones and retrieve their bodies.

The vessel left Lebanon on Tuesday and news of what happened first started to emerge on Thursday afternoon. The boat was carrying Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinians.

Syrian state-run TV quoted Health Minister Mohammed Hassan Ghabbash as saying 20 people were rescued and were being treated at al-Basel hospital in Syria's coastal city of Tartus.

He added that medical authorities have been on alert since Thursday afternoon to help in the search operations.

An official at al-Basel, speaking on condition of anonymity under regulations, said that eight of those rescued were in intensive care. The official also confirmed the 77 deaths.

Lebanese Transport Minister Ali Hamie said the survivors included 12 Syrians, five Lebanese and three Palestinians. Eight bodies have been brought back to Lebanon, according to Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, and more were expected back later Friday.

The incident is the deadliest since a surging number of Lebanese, Syrians, and Palestinians have tried to flee crisis-hit Lebanon by sea to Europe

Lebanese transport minister Ali Hamiye said 20 survivors were being treated in Syrian hospitals, the bulk of them Syrians, around 1 million of whom live in Lebanon as refugees

Palestinians living at a refugee camp in the north said several dozen people on board came from the camp.

Hamiye said the boat was 'very small' and made of wood, describing such sailings as an almost daily occurrence organised by people who did not care for safety.

Samer Qubrusli, the Syrian director general of ports, said rescue efforts were continuing on Friday.

A Syrian port official told state news agency, SANA, that 31 bodies were washed to the shore and the rest were picked up by Syrian boats that began a search operation Thursday evening.

In the aftermath of the disaster, the Lebanese army said troops stormed Friday the homes of several suspected smugglers, detaining four in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon's second-largest and most impoverished. Three others were detained in the nearby village of Deir Ammar.

The military said the suspects were involved in smuggling of migrants by sea while others were planning to buy boats for the same reason.

Lebanon,- with a population of 6 million, including 1 million Syrian refugees, has been in the grips of a severe economic meltdown since late 2019 that has pulled over three-quarters of the population into poverty.

For years, it was a country that received refugees from Mideast wars and conflicts but the economic crisis, rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement, has changed that dramatically.

Ambulances wait on the Lebanese side of the Arida Border Crossing with Syria on September 23, 2022, for the arrival of the bodies of the shipwrecked Lebanese

Lebanon, which since 2019 has been mired in a financial crisis branded by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern times, has become a launchpad for illegal migration, with its own citizens joining Syrian and Palestinian refugees clamouring to leave the country

Prices have been skyrocketing as a result of hyperinflation, forcing many to sell their belongings to pay for smugglers to take them to Europe as the migration intensified in recent months.

This financial collapse has meant many have embarked on these dangerous voyages.

Cyprus scrambled search and rescue crews late on Monday and Tuesday when in the space of hours two vessels carrying migrants from Lebanon put out distress signals; there were 300 in one vessel, 177 in the other.

They were all rescued, the island's Joint Rescue Coordination Center said.

The Lebanese army said on Wednesday it had rescued 55 people on board one malfunctioning boat in the country's territorial waters and towed it back to shore.

The number of people who have left or tried to leave Lebanon by sea nearly doubled in 2021 from 2020, the United Nations refugee agency told Reuters earlier this month.

It rose again by more than 70% in 2022 compared with the same period last year.

In April, a migrant boat that set off from near the northern city of Tripoli sank during an interception by the Lebanese navy off the coast.

About 80 Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian migrants were on board, of whom some 40 were rescued, seven were confirmed dead and around 30 officially remain missing.

On Wednesday, Lebanese officials said naval forces rescued a boat carrying 55 migrants after it faced technical problems about seven miles off the coast of the northern region of Akkar.

It said the people rescued included two pregnant women and two children.
'If you are lucky enough to be called Holly or Phil' you won't be queueing at Five

Came as Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield skipped queue to see the Queen

Five Bar in Huddersfield is offering queue jumps to Hollys and Phils this weekend

A city nightclub is offering anyone called Holly or Phil the chance to queue jump, following the This Morning 'queue-jumping' controversy.

Five Bar in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire announced on Facebook that anyone called Holly or Phil will be offered a free 'queue jump' ticket this weekend.

The post reads: 'Yep. That's right, if you are lucky enough to be called Holly or Phil there will be no public queueing for you.'

As university students return to the town this month, this could be a boon for any Hollys and Phils looking for a night out after a hard day of studying without the need to stand in a long queue.

It comes after ITV presenters Holly Willoughby, 41, and Phillip Schofield, 60, faced a backlash for skipping the 13-hour queue when paying their respects to the late Queen lying-in-state in Westminster Hall.

'Yep. That's right, if you are lucky enough to be called Holly or Phil there will be no public queueing for you,' Five Bar in Huddersfield advertised on Facebook

This Morning presenters Holly Willoughby (left front), 41, and Phillip Schofield (right back), 60, have faced backlash for skipping the 13-hour queue when paying their respects to the late Queen lying-in-state in Westminster Hall

After members of the public queued for hours to pay their respects, photographs emerged which appeared to show the pair being granted special access.

But the pair denied this and said they followed the correct process for the media to attend so they could film their piece to camera for This Morning.

Angry viewers have called them for to be sacked with a petition which already has over 65,000 signatures.

It emerged last night that Holly and Phil were heckled by mourners as they skipped the 13-hour line.

The TV presenters have been blasted on social media this week after video showed them appearing to jump the queue at Westminster Hall on Friday, September 16.

Holly and Phil have defended themselves, saying they were there to report on the event 'for millions not able to visit in person'.

It has also now been revealed that people waiting to pay their respects to Her Majesty heckled the pair as they entered the hall via the VIP entrance, with one witness saying there was 'real hatred' for them.

As university students return to the town this month, this could be a boon for any Hollys and Phils looking for a night out without standing in a long queue

Snap happy: Holly and Phil outside the Houses of Parliament. The pair say none of the broadcasters and journalists at the Queen's lying-in-state took anyone's place in the queue

The TV presenters have been blasted on social media this week after video showed them appearing to jump the queue at Westminster Hall on Friday, September 16 (pictured on Thursday's show)

Joe Tomkins, a builder from Nottingham, said he was outraged to reach the end of end of the queue only to find the broadcaster waltz past mourners.

The 41-year-old, who had been standing in line for 14 hours in frigid temperatures overnight, told The Sun: 'They walked straight past us all and a few people started shouting.

'People were saying, "Oi, Phil, Holly, get to the back of the queue!". Phil looked around and smiled as if to say, "We can do what we want".

Other businesses have also joined in with the backlash, with Domino's Pizza mocking the pair.

They tweeted: 'Apologies to anyone waiting on their pizza, we've just received an order from Holly and Phil.'
The family of a man who died after jumping into the River Thames having been Tasered by police said they have 'finally' been shown police body-cam footage of the incident - a 'cruel' three months after his death.

Oladeji Adeyemi Omishore died on June 6 - two days after jumping from Chelsea Bridge into the river after police were called to reports of a man 'armed with a screwdriver and shouting'.

It was later confirmed by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) that 41-year-old Oladeji was in fact holding a firelighter when approached by the police, which relatives said he used to light cigarettes.

The family have said they were given access to officers' body-worn footage on Wednesday - but argued there was 'no justification' for their wait.

They said they believed Oladeji was 'vulnerable and subject to an excessive use of force' and still believe the use of the Taser was 'reckless'.

Oladeji Adeyemi Omishore, 41, was armed with a plastic firelighter when he was Tasered by police, jumped in the River Thames, and later died

In the full statement shared by the charity Inquest, the family said: 'Yesterday, our family was finally given access to view the body-worn video footage of the officers that encountered our brother Deji on Chelsea Bridge.

'This comes more than 3 months after his death.

'There is no justification for the wait that families systematically endure to have access to this footage. It's cruel and deprives families of clarity and closure. We've heard reports of cases where access has taken over 18 months! Why?!

'From the bystander footage, we can see that Deji was vulnerable and subject to an excessive use of force.

'We still consider that the use of Taser was reckless, coercive, and opportunities to de-escalate the situation were gravely missed.'

Police were called to the scene in Chelsea Bridge Road, west London, at 9.03am on June 4 after receiving reports that a man was armed with a screwdriver and shouting

The man was in a confrontation with police officers from the Met on Chelsea Bridge on June 4

The statement, shared on a tweet thread, added: 'The Met Police still has a lot of answering to do.

'Despite their actions resulting in death, the officers are still on active duty, with no investigation into their conduct. Neither has been interviewed under caution.

'We are urgently calling for this to change. #justicefordeji.'

Two Metropolitan Police officers confronted and Tasered Oladeji on Chelsea Bridge.

A Met spokesperson said: 'This was a tragic incident and our sympathies are with Mr Omishore's family as they continue to come to terms with the loss of their loved one.

'This matter is subject to an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

'We are co-operating fully with the IOPC's investigation and their findings will be released in due course.

'The officers involved in this incident remain on full duties.

'Decisions about the status of any officer involved in an incident under investigation are kept under review.'

The IOPC said they can not comment on private meetings with the family or their representatives but issued the following statement regarding their investigation.

Oladeji Adeyemi Omishore died on June 6 - two days after jumping from Chelsea Bridge into the River Thames

An IOPC spokesperson said: 'Our thoughts and sympathies remain with the family and friends of Oladeji Omishore. Our investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death is progressing well and our investigators are continuing to gather and analyse key evidence.

'At this stage we have no indication that any of the officers involved may have breached police professional standards or committed a criminal offence, although we keep conduct matters constantly under review.

'We will work to complete the investigation as quickly as possible and we are committed to carrying out a thorough and robust examination of all the evidence. We continue to liaise with Mr Omishore's family to update them on our progress.'
Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Republic of Korea Foreign Minister Park Jin, and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, Sept. 22, in New York. Reuters-Yonhap



U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday stressed the importance of trilateral cooperation between South Korea, Japan and the U.S., urging the countries to work together on regional and global issues.



Blinken made the remarks at the top of a three-way meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa in New York.



"The United States, Japan, Korea  we have the most vital bilateral relationships, but we also have this trilateral partnership," Blinken said at the top of the meeting, held on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.



"And I think what we have seen over the years, including in recent months, is that when we are working together, we are even more effective. And we're more effective not only in dealing with any regional security issues that are before us, but with a whole series of global issues that are front and center here at the United Nations this week," he added, according to the state department.



The top U.S. diplomat reiterated the trilateral relationship "matters" to the U.S.



"It makes a difference. And I think we can see that in the work that we're doing together," he said.



After the meeting, the South Korean foreign minister said the three also underscored the importance of trilateral cooperation in dealing with North Korea's nuclear ambition.



"We discussed the need to be prepared to closely work together and sternly react with regard to North Korea's threat to use nuclear weapons," Park told reporters.



North Korea said earlier this month that its parliament legislated a new law that allows Pyongyang to launch an "automatic nuclear strike" when the country is attacked.



The top diplomats of South Korea, Japan and the U.S. expressed concerns over North Korea's destabilizing messaging related to the use of nuclear weapons, according to a joint statement released later.



"The secretary and foreign ministers urged the DPRK to abide by its obligations under relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions and called for full implementation of these by the international community," it said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.



"They reaffirmed that a DPRK nuclear test would be met with a strong and resolute response from the international community," it added.



The three ministers also called on North Korea to engage in dialogue.



"They stressed the importance of serious and sustained dialogue and urged the DPRK to return to negotiations," said the joint statement.



"To this end, Secretary Blinken and Minister Hayashi expressed support for the goal of the ROK's "Audacious Initiative," it said, referring to South Korea by its official name, the Republic of Korea.



The Audacious Initiative refers to a recent proposal by Seoul to launch economic aid programs for the impoverished North as long as Pyongyang shows its commitment to denuclearize.



North Korea has initially rejected the offer as it also remains unresponsive to other U.S. and South Korean overtures for dialogue. (Yonhap)


A Missouri mother was finally able to reclaim the remains of her murdered son after she drained the pond his body was dumped in seven years ago.

Connie Goodwin, 57, along with her family, from Poplar Bluff, Missouri, took it upon herself to drain the unnamed pond after local authorities failed to finish the job they started in 2017.

They were in search of Edward Goodwin, 32, who was murdered by childhood friends after a drug deal went wrong in 2015.

In November 2017, the Butler County Sheriff's Department drained part of the pond and found partial remains of Connie's son, enough to convict Eldrid Smith and Rickey Hurt of his murder.

But with the case closed, sheriffs did not finish draining the pond and allow the Goodwins to lay to rest the remains of their family member.

A struggle ensued over the next five years as the Goodwins were given varying reasons as to why the job could not be completed.

'There was always a reason. Either because of other crimes going on or the weather,' Connie said.

'We kept pushing and pushing for them to drain that water. It's not the family's responsibility to do that.'

Coroner Jim Akers (left) and son Gage, 22, (right) carefully bring Edward Goodwin's remains - along with the cinder blocks that were used to weight his body down - out from the swamp and place them into a kayak while Connie Goodwin (back) watches on

Connie Goodwin, 57, stares out over the partially-drained pond where the body of her murdered son, Edward Goodwin, 32, was dumped in 2015

Connie Goodwin (left) was not able to rest until the remains of her son, Edward Goodwin,(right) were recovered from the pond they were dumped in after he was murdered by childhood friends over a drug deal gone wrong

Connie told the Riverfront Times that her family drained the pond themselves with rented machinery after five years of delays by local law enforcement.

It was a significant undertaking, with the pond estimated to be about 90 feet by 140 feet with a depth of about four feet.

The most recent attempt to drain the pond by the sheriff's department had been last fall, but they failed to bring the water level down enough to find the remains.

This followed two other attempts which had brought the water level down significantly from its peak two years ago, but not enough to find Edward.

So Connie, along with her husband and her grandson, Gage, 22, who is Edward's son, rented a sump pump over the weekend and finished the job themselves.

They got to work pumping the water at 8.30am and around two hours later had reduced the pond enough to be able to see what looked like bones sticking out of the sludge.

Connie then called Butler County Coroner Jim Akers, who came down to the scene and confirmed that the remains were those of Edward Goodwin.

'[Local police] drained it down to where it was just within a few feet of being completely drained, but you have all the sediment, all the mud,' Akers said of the initial attempt to find Edward's remains in 2017.

Once the level of the pond was finally drained to the point where the family could see bones, they carefully placed them on a kayak

The kayak bearing Edward's remains was pulled to shore by a rope attached to the kayak

The pelvis and femurs they recovered were enough to prosecute Smith and Hurt, who were convicted and are now in prison for the murder.

Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs said in 2015 that 'there was a grudge over past drug transactions between Ed Goodwin and the group who eventually assaulted him.'

Edward had known the pair since grade school and had gone on to work together after graduation.

Connie described the son whose remains she needed to recover from the nameless pond as, 'a hard worker who made some bad choices but was a good person.'

They had found skeletal remains, but the thick mud was still two and a half feet deep and 'when you're standing in it, it's like you can't move,' Connie said.

Edward's remains were in the center of what used to be the pond, where the mud was likely to be even thicker and deeper, Akers cautioned the family.

They found Edward's remains attached by wire to cinder blocks that had been used by his killers to sink his corpse to the bottom of the pond.

With a lot of care, Gage and Akers raised the cinder blocks and skeletal remains into a kayak, which Connie then pulled ashore with a rope.

'It was a sad day. It was a joyful day, too, because we could bring our son home,' Connie said.
Donald Trump Jr. has joined the chorus of critics of a transgender teacher in Ontario, Canada who went viral after she was pictured wearing extremely large breast prosthetics in class.

The image shared by Trump, 44, reads 'wheels on the shopping car be like' and features three identical images of his sister, Ivanka, 40, and one of the teacher, Kayla Lemieux.

Three images of Ivanka encircle the viral image of Lemieux in a square below the text. Trump appears to be comparing Ivanka and Lemieux to a stereotypical shopping cart, which reliably has three functional wheels and one which squeaks.

'Sorry @ivankatrump but what kind of big brother would I really be if I showed restraint and didn't post this ???' the caption reads.

Trump appears to be comparing Ivanka and Lemieux to a stereotypical shopping cart, which reliably has three functional wheels and one which squeaks

Donald Trump Jr., 44, posted the meme to his Instagram after the transgender teacher, Kayla Lemieux, went viral over the weekend for wearing very large prosthetic breasts in school

Pictured: Ivanka Trump, 40, with her husband, Jared Kushner, 41. Trump is pictured in the meme her brother posted to Instagram

Kayla Lemieux, a teacher at Ontario-based Oakville Trafalgar High School, was photographed by students after she appeared one morning to teach her shop class

Lemieux, a manufacturing technology teacher at Oakville Trafalgar High School in Ontario, Canada, was recently photographed instructing her shop class with her prosthetics on, which stretch her clothing.

Amidst public backlash and reports that students are skipping Lemieux's class, the Halton District School board defended Lemieux and said it would no longer answer questions because it was a 'personnel matter.'

The district added that interfering or criticizing the teacher would go against the Ontario Human Rights Code.

'The HDSB recognizes the rights of students, staff, parents/guardians and community members to equitable treatment without discrimination based upon gender identity and gender expression. Gender identity and gender expression are protected grounds under the Ontario Human Rights Code,' the board said in a statement.

One senior at the school told the Toronto Sun that some students support Lemieux while others are not comfortable.

'I'm OK with it,' said Owen LaPlante. 'I know some of my friends are a little uncomfortable with it, but I think she should be able to express herself however she wants to.'

Teachers at the school and members of the school board it is associated with have come in support of Lemieux

Some students say they are 'OK with it' and others 'don't care about that,' while others say they are uncomfortable with Lemieux's prosthetics

Pictured: Donald Trump and his sons Eric (middle) and Donald Jr. (right). Donald Trump Jr. has joined the side of some Oakville Trafalgar parents who oppose Kayla Lemieux's prosthetic breasts

A 10th grader at the school said most students 'don't care about that.'

'I don't really hear anyone talking about it,' said Yuxuan Xie.

In opposition, one mother who identified herself as 'Lei' to the Toronto Sun said while she supports Lemieux, she did not approve of her prosthetics.

'I think he's going a little too far,' Lei said. 'I think identifying himself is OK, but I think that just wearing that in the classroom  I still have concerns over that.'

Only one former student, who asked to remain anonymous, showed to protest at the school after Lemieux's photo was posted to social media.

'I think it's fundamentally wrong that this individual is able to work at an institution as such, with huge breasts on,' the protestor, who wielded the Canadian flag, said. 'It's gross.'

Pictured: Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner at a public event. The local school board has said that school staff are 'going through creating a safety plan' to protect Lemieux when the school opens Monday

HDSB Chair Margo Shuttleworth told the Sun that staff are looking at 'going through creating a safety plan' to ensure the Oakville Trafalgar High School teacher's security as they prepare for potential protests when the school opens for classes on September 26.

'This teacher is an extremely effective teacher,' said Shuttleworth. 'All the kids really love being in the class.'

Like what is suggested in Trump Jr.'s meme, Shuttleworth added that she has received voicemails from parents who say they do not approve of Lemieux continuing to teach at the school.

Parents and other concerned citizens are currently planning to confront the district at it next board meeting and demand something be done about Lemieux's attire.
A Florida art teacher was suspended from his high school after he offered to fight a US-born student who wouldn't stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Robert Reiber, 61, was filmed telling the Hispanic teenager at Manatee High School to go back to where he came from - in a clip which has amassed over one million views online.

The unidentified student sat awkwardly in his chair while the teacher berated him for not being upstanding during the pledge and asking if he was from 'Mexico or Guatemala.'

Reiber was removed from the school and was barred from having any contact with students amid the ongoing investigation into his conduct.

He was recorded saying: 'You are going to sit there on your butt?' while other sniggering students held in their laughter as the teacher raised his voice at the disobeying teen.

Robert Reiber, 61, was filmed telling the student at Manatee High School to go back to where he came from in the clip - which has amassed over one million views online

Reiber was recorded threatening: 'If you want to do something, get up and do it'

As the teenager started to fidget in the silence, the teacher yaps: 'Don't shake your leg.'

The art teacher then was recorded saying: 'If you want to do something, get up and do it. I will defend my country until the very end.'

But the student murmurs 'I won't hurt you.'

Reiber, who was named as the teacher involved by students familiar to the incident, according to the Herald-Tribune, then gawked: 'Then go back to your...where are you from? Mexico or Guatemala?'

'I was born here,' the student said.

The fuming teacher rebuked: 'You were born here, and you won't stand up for the flag?' before the video cuts off.

According to Manatee County School District, the Pledge of Allegiance is recited at the beginning of each school day and all students have to stand at attention.

When the pledge is recited, students need to stand with their right hand over their heart.

The art teacher raised his hands in anger as he berated the teenager for not being upstanding during the pledge

Other sniggering students held in their laughter as the teacher raised his voice at the disobeying teen

The only exception is if a student has written permission from a parent or guardian to be excused from reciting the pledge.

Responding to the video, the school district said in a statement: 'The teacher shown in the video confronting a student in a Manatee district classroom was removed from the school the day the incident occurred.

'The teacher no longer has contact with any students.

'In addition, the school districts Office of Professional Standards is thoroughly investigating the incident in accordance with district and state due process policies and procedures.

'The School District of Manatee County strongly condemns any language or behavior that degrades, humiliates or insults any individuals  most especially the young people, families, and community we have the privilege of serving.'
The daughter of murdered Georgia mother Debbie Collier has a history of lying to police and violent lovers tiffs with her live-in, MMA fighter boyfriend who says the pair have been 'interrogated' over her mother's killing.

Amanda Bearden, 36, told police that her mother mysteriously sent her a $2,000 Venmo payment with the cryptic note 'they're not going to let me go' in one of her final acts.

Collier, 59, was found dead, naked and her body burned, tied to a tree on September 11 in Athens, Georgia.

No one has been arrested for her brutal killing and there is no indication that either Bearden or her boyfriend, Andrew Giegerich, are being considered suspects.

The pair are living together again in Athens, Georgia, despite their previous domestic disputes and restraining orders.

DailyMail.com spotted them leaving their home this week as the investigation into Debbie's brutal killing gathers pace.

Police have now ruled out kidnapping and suicide as possible causes of the woman's death, and are now focused on arresting her killer.

Amanda Bearden, 36, leaves her home in Athens, Georgia, on Friday September 23. Police are yet to rule anyone out in the murder of her mother, Debbie Collier

Amanda's live-in boyfriend, former MMA fighter Andrew Giegerich. He has complained about them being 'interrogated' by police

In May last year, police intervened in the couple's relationship after Amanda phoned 911, claiming Andrew had 'broken in' to the house to beat her.

She showed them photos of bruises on her arms and shoulders to prove it.

Debbie Collier, 59, was found naked and tied to a tree in a ditch on September 11, two days after she was last seen by anyone

She was however arrested for a falsely reporting a burglary, after police determined he was living in the home and had full access to it, according to The New York Post.

Andrew was arrested on battery charges and the pair were ordered to stay apart.

Giegerich has complained that the pair were recently 'interrogated' by police over Debbie's death.

'The [police have] interrogated all of us. The people who are closest to [Collier] are kind of looked at as suspects right now,' he told the Post.

Debbie lived with her husband Steve at their home in Athens.

On Friday, he fought tears as he told DailyMail.com that Debbie was the 'love of his life.

The couple had been married four nine years and both had children from previous marriages.

'It has been a long two weeks and Im very tired. My wife was a wonderful person.

A close friend of the couple, who did not want to be identified, confided to DailyMail.com: Steve loved Debbie with all his heart. I know that for a fact.

I cannot imagine what hes going through right now, with the terrible loss of his wife and having to be part of the murder investigation and all that entails.

I have known them both for many years and they were a devoted couple.'

In a direct move of support, he added: I know suspicion can fall on the family of murder victims, but I would bet my life Steve had nothing whatsoever to do with Debbies disappearance.

On September 10, Steve reported Debbie as missing, claiming that he hadn't seen her since 9pm the previous night at their home.

Neighbors heard fighting and screaming coming from the house the night before she vanished.

Debbie with her daughter in an old Facebook photo. Amanda claims that her mother sent her $2,385 on Venmo with a note suggesting she had been kidnapped on the day of her death. Police have ruled out kidnapping

Bearden's boyfriend Andrew Giegerich was arrested in May 2021 for battery (mugshot, left). He is shown in 2017 (right) during his MMA fighter days

In December 2020, Debbie posted these horrific photos of a black eye on Facebook. She told friends she'd fallen on the sidewalk

Debbie's husband Steve reported her missing on September 10. He told police he last saw her at 9pm the previous night, but that they slept in separate rooms because of his snoring

Amanda is pictured leaving her home on Friday. In a previous interview, she said 'someone' killed her mother

She was a beautiful woman and I loved her,' distraught Steve Collier said about his wife 11 days after her charred, naked body was found in a ravine 60 miles from their Georgia home

Police then tracked the car Debbie had been driving - a rented SUV hired because her own vehicle was undergoing repairs - to a wooded ravine 60 miles from her home. Her naked body was found there, charred and tied to a tree.

The exact cause of her death remains unconfirmed.

When questioned, Bearden told police that she last saw her mother the night before she vanished, and that everything was normal. She received the Venmo message the day her mother was reported missing.

In an interview with CBS after her mother's body was found, Amanda appeared shaken and struggling to speak.

'My mom was my everything. Somebody took my whole world from me. She was a beautiful, kind, giving woman. She didn't deserve this,' she said, her head and hands shaking.

Police have not yet ruled out anyone as suspects.

Debbie had turned her car in for servicing and was driving a rented SUV when she died.

That car was equipped with a GPS tracking system that led police to her body after her husband reported her missing on September 10.

It was found 60 miles from the couple's modest home, where they lived quietly.

Police survey the crime scene where Debbie Collier's body was found in a ditch on September 11
Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz is unlikely to face charges for allegedly trafficking a 17-year-old girl because of advice from career prosecutors and credibility issues with a witness, a report Friday said.

Sources told the Washington Post that Department of Justice superiors have been advised against moving the case forward.

The allegations claim from an investigation that began in 2020 over claims Gaetz, now 40, was involved with a 17-year-old girl years earlier and paid for sex.

Investigators zoned in on a trip to the Bahamas in 2018 where Gaetz was with several women, and were looking to determine whether he violated trafficking laws.

Married Gatez insists it never happened and the only time he had sex with a 17-year-old girl was when he was 17.

He has dismissed the investigation as a 'witch hunt' and his lawyers have said they have seen 'no credible basis' for charges.

More evidence could emerge in the case but it is rare for such advice from within the Department of Justice to be rejected, the Post added in the report.

The congressman's office told DailyMail.com: 'Those who told lies about Congressman Matt Gaetz are going to prison, and Congressman Matt Gaetz is going back to Congress to continue fighting for America.'

Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz is unlikely to face charges for allegedly trafficking a 17-year-old girl because of advice from career prosecutors and credibility issues with a witness, a report Friday said

The existence of the investigation first became public last March, when The New York Times reported that investigators were examining whether Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old in 2019 and paid for her to travel with him.

The inquiry had been underway for several months before it became public.

Gaetz first came to investigators' attention because of his his friendship with a former Florida tax collector, Joel Greenberg, described as his 'wingman', who last year pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud and sexual offenses.

Greenberg told investigators that Gaetz and at least two other men had sexual contact with a 17-year-old girl.

He has told them that they both gave women cash and gifts in exchange for sex.

Greenberg pleaded guilty to identity theft, stalking, wire fraud, conspiracy to bribe a public official and sex trafficking of a minor.

Prosecutors always must weigh potential credibility issues when relying on witnesses who received plea deals.

The report comes days after another report that Gaetz sought a pardon from former President Donald Trump related to the investigation

A former White House aide has told the January 6 committee investigating the Capitol riots that Gaetz, left, was trying to be pardoned by then-President Trump

Former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg (r) pleaded guilty last year pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud and sexual offenses, and could receive a lighter sentence for cooperation in other cases. He is seen here with Gaetz and pardoned longtime Trump advisor Roger Stone

Gaetz repeatedly denied the trafficking charge. He married Ginger Luckey last year

Gaetz with his then girlfriend Ginger Luckey in Doral, Florida. They married in August last year

In Greenberg's guilty pleas last year, prosecutors indicated they might recommend shorter sentencing below the minimum in exchange for 'substantial assistance' in other cases.

A Gaetz spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Congressman Matt Gaetz told a former White House aide that he had asked then-President Donald Trump for a pardon after being investigated for sex trafficking, it is claimed.

The Florida Representative is currently being investigated in a federal sex trafficking probe involving a 17-year-old girl.

The teenager claims Gaetz paid her to travel across the state line to have sex with him, and the congressman was investigated after a close friend was convicted of similar charges.

He has denied the sex-trafficking allegations against him, and no charges have been filed against him.

Johnny McEntee, who served as director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office in the Trump administration, told investigators into the January 6 attack on the US Capitol that Gaetz was looking to be pardoned by Trump.

According to the Washington Post, Gaetz told McEntee that they are launching an investigation into him or that theres an investigation into him.'

He did not specify who was investigating Gaetz but added that the congressman told him that he did not do anything wrong but they are trying to make his life hell, and you know if the president could give him a pardon, that would be great.

The married Gaetz asked for a pre-emptive pardon from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, with McEntee confirming it was in relation to Gaetz allegedly violating sex trafficking laws, the hearing was told.

Gaetz is a Donald Trump loyalist who flew with the president Aboard Air Force One and has been one of his most prominent public defenders, tweeting Dec. 21, 2020 days before lawmakers were to meet on January 6 that he would 'OBJECT to electors from states that didn't run clean elections.'

According to another report in the Post last week, Gaetz told a former White House aide that he had asked Trump for a pardon after being investigated for the alleged sex trafficking.

Johnny McEntee, who served as director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office in the Trump administration, told investigators into the January 6 attack on the US Capitol that Gaetz was looking to be pardoned by Trump.

According to the Washington Post, Gaetz told McEntee that they are launching an investigation into him or that theres an investigation into him.'

He did not specify who was investigating Gaetz but added that the congressman told him that he did not do anything wrong but they are trying to make his life hell, and you know if the president could give him a pardon, that would be great.

Gaetz asked for a pre-emptive pardon from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, with McEntee confirming it was in relation to Gaetz allegedly violating sex trafficking laws, the hearing was told.

Last month's revelation is the first indication that Gaetz was specifically seeking a pardon for the probe against him, after months of calling for broad pardons in the final months of the Trump administration.

McEntee added that Gaetz met him one evening to discuss the issue of a pardon, but that he could not remember if that took place before or after the Capitol riots.

In an unrelated case last month, Florida man Stephen Alford was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud amid a bizarre plot involving an attempt to shake down the father of Rep. Matt Gaetz and a pledge to try to secure a presidential pardon.

That case had also brought Gaetz into the news, where he went public with his own account of the bizarre shakedown scheme during an appearance on Fox host Tucker Carlson's show. Gaetz' account ultimately held up.

Alford, 62, pleaded guilty fraud in the convoluted scheme last year. According to the indictment, he approached Don Gaetz, the wealthy father of the Trump loyalist lawmaker, after having learned of a Justice Department investigation of alleged sex trafficking.

Gaetz has denied wrongdoing and no charges have been filed against him.

The sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release.

Alford sought $25 million from Don Gaetz to fund an effort to free Robert Levinson, who disappeared in Iran years ago, and said he would help seek a pardon from President Joe Biden for Rep. Gaetz.

More to follow
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A replica of Waterbird, the UK's first successful seaplane, has made its inaugural public flight.

Its take off at Windermere marks 28 years since any seaplane has flown at the Cumbria lake and 111 years since the original Waterbird flew for the first time.

The event in the Lake District marks the climax of a 13-year-project to create an exact copy of the 35ft-long aircraft.

Apart from having a modern engine, it faithfully recreates the detail of the original and has been constructed from wood, bamboo and wires.

In June, display and test pilot Pete Kynsey took the replica on its full maiden flight, at first attempt, in secret trials on Windermere.

On Friday it was repeated for public viewing in two demonstration flights.

Special permission was granted by the Lake District National Park Authority, including an exemption from the normal speed limits on the lake.

The Waterbird's original historic flight was on November 25, 1911, before it was destroyed in a storm the following year. The historic plane was ruined when the bad weatherdestroyed the hangar it was being stored in.

Writer Beatrix Potter opposed the noisy test flights of seaplanes near her home and was involved in a campaign to have them banned.

The campaign was overruled by the Government, including the then First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, who regarded the test flights as vital to developing the nation's air forces.

A replica of Waterbird, the UK's first successful seaplane, has made its inaugural public flight. Its take off at Windermere marks 28 years since any seaplane has flown at the Cumbria lake and 111 years since the original Waterbird flew for the first time

The event in the Lake District marks the climax of a 13-year-project to create an exact copy of the 35ft-long aircraft

Waterbird was commissioned by Edward Wakefield from A. V. Roe & Co ('Avro'), of Ancoats, Manchester, as a landplane and converted to a seaplane at Windermere, where the pilot was Herbert Stanley Adams. Her original historic flight was on November 25, 1911. Above: Creator Edward Wakefield, standing next to Waterbird with his pilot Herbert Stanley Adams in the cockpit

Speaking ahead of the flights, Ian Gee, director of organisers Wings Over Windermere, said: 'It's a thrilling opportunity to step back in history to the very earliest days of aviation when pioneers pushed the boundaries of what was possible through innovation and imagination.

'Waterbird has a lasting legacy that transformed seaplane designs.'

Waterbird was the first seaplane to successfully fly in the UK.

She was commissioned by Edward Wakefield from A. V. Roe & Co ('Avro'), of Ancoats, Manchester, as a landplane and converted to a seaplane at Windermere, where the pilot was Herbert Stanley Adams.

The idea of making a replica was first mooted by Richard Raynsford, the great-great nephew of Captain Wakefield, in a letter to The Westmorland Gazette newspaper.

The cudgels were taken up by retired solicitor Mr Gee, who lives in South Lakeland.

Mr Gee, himself a pilot, is director of The Lakes Flying Company, which was set up after blueprints from the original designs were found in the Wakefield family archives and work was started on making the replica plane.

Apart from having a modern engine, it faithfully recreates the detail of the original and has been constructed from wood, bamboo and wires

Display and test pilot Pete Kynsey is seen at the controls of the Waterbird on Lake Windermere in the Lake District

The fabric, which was more durable than the type used in 1911, was shrunk with heat and made taut by the use of a specialist varnish called dope

The plane's control surface  the device known as the elevator which gives it lift  was built from bamboo and mounted in front of where Mr Cooper would later sit

Special permission was granted by the Lake District National Park Authority, including an exemption from the normal speed limits on the lake

The event marks the climax of a 13-year project to create an exact copy of the Waterbird and apart from a modern engine, it faithfully recreates the detail of the original from 1911 seaplane

Thanks to financial support from the then First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, the plane successfully flew from the waters of Lake Windermere, in Cumbria's Lake District, but was then destroyed in a storm in 1912

Former RAF serviceman Gerry Cooper started building the replica at Wickenby Airfield in Lincolnshire and managed a short flight where he successfully took off.

That flight was filmed for an episode of TV programme Warbird Workshop, which aired on Yesterday in April.

The plane had needed approval from the Civil Aviation Authority before taking off from water.

Mr Cooper, 80, and others have had to complete the painstaking work so the seaplane can take off from the water.

The ultimate aim of Wings Over Windermere is to display Waterbird in a heritage centre on the lake shore, where it is hoped that regular flights might be arranged.

The project, which was repeatedly delayed by financial trouble, was also backed by Richard Raynsford, the great-great nephew of Wakefield. The first parts of the new Waterbird were machined by craftsman Mike Sales in 2010.

Churchill, who served his first stint as political head of the Royal Navy from 1911 until 1915, gave crucial financial support amid skepticism from naval chiefs. Pictured: Wakefield in the seat of his plane

By June 2011, it had started to take shape and the team, which included Mr Cooper's wife Jenny, then stretched fabric over its wooden frame.

The fabric, which was more durable than the type used in 1911, was shrunk with heat and made taut by the use of a specialist varnish called dope.

The new plane's wings, which were mounted on sturdy support struts, were supported by 200metres of wire cables.

Its new float was designed by craftsman James Pearce, who worked from old photographs and, incredibly, the ruined plane's original float  which was found gathering dust in the RAF Museum in Shropshire.

The plane's new engine, which was made in Australia, boasted 110 horsepower  60 more than the original.

Its shiny new propeller was designed by computer.

The plane's control surface  the device known as the elevator which gives it lift  was built from bamboo and mounted in front of where Mr Cooper would later sit.
SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels has assured fans of the long-running late-night television comedy and variety program that despite the show approaching its 50th birthday, and him his 78th, he has no plans to call it quits.

In an interview with the New York Times, Michaels, who has overseen many decades of the live sketch show, discussed the turns it has taken over the last several years.

He said the pandemic and the Trump presidency were a time when viewers were 'truly frightened' and that the show reflected that spirit.

Michaels said he is 'proud' of the work the show did during the Trump-era, which included the infamous post-2016 election 'sketch' of Kate McKinnon dressed as Hilary Clinton somberly serenading the audience with a rendition of Hallelujah.

Former SNL cast member Rob Schneider said the mournful performance was the final nail in the coffin of the show.

'It's over. It's over. It's not gonna come back,' Schneider said about the cold open that addressed Clinton's shocking 2016 loss.

The all-powerful NBC exec did admit, however, that things are easier for the show when national politics are less fraught and there is no once-in-a-century pandemic making the rounds.

SNL's creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels (center) at the 2022 Emmys with SNL's Bowen Yang (left) and former SNL star Kate McKinnon (right)

Alec Baldwin pictured as Donald Trump. SNL has received praise and criticism for the hyper anti-Trump stance it assumed during the last presidency. Michaels said it was reflective of a time when people were 'truly frightened'

'Its much easier when everything is normal in politics and its just the two parties hate each other. We went through really scary times, the last four years. Hopefully were coming out of it and its just the old scary things like a depression or war,' he said.

Michaels is also losing four of the show's key players this year, in addition to four less well-known performers, marking one of the show's biggest exoduses in years.

Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, and Kyle Mooney all made their departures known at the end of season 47. But also leaving this season are Melissa Villasenor, Alex Moffat, Aristotle Athari, and Chris Redd, who announced his departure Monday just two weeks before the 48th season premiere.

Kate McKinnon, one of the show's breakout stars of the last decade, announced plans to leave the show before the end of last season

Pete Davidson, another star of the show who has become a pop-culture icon, said he would leave the show following several years of waning appearances

In response to the large-scale loss of cast members, Michaels said, 'This is a year of reinvention. And change is exhilarating.'

He also noted that one reason so many cast members walked away this year is because COVID-19 had stalled their exit plans.

'The pandemic had put us in this position where no one could really leave because there were no jobs. And at the same time, if I dont add new people every year, then the show isnt the show. There have to be new people,' he told the Times.

When a large handful of exits happen at the same time on the show, Michaels says he looks at it as an opportunity to reshape its dynamism, adding that he wants it to be a show that people opt to watch live on Saturday nights.

'What I want it to be is, theres a reason to watch it live because you dont know what were going to do. Something big happened in the news, and you want to see how were going to deal with it and you know the people youre hoping to see deal with it,' he said.

For his part, however, Michaels says he has no plans to depart the show, with which his name has become synonymous over the years.

Though there are still a few more years before SNL hits 50, Michaels explicitly told the Times 'I have no plans to retire. Im not a big person for celebrating. Even the 40th [anniversary show], in the end, the only way I got through it was because I knew I was doing a show, and at a certain point, the credits would roll and wed be off the air.

'The 50th will be a big event. Well bring everyone back from all 50 years and hosts and all of that. It will be a very emotional and very strong thing.'

Aidy Bryant (left) and Kyle Mooney (right) also left the cast at the end of season 47
A little girl is recovering after an SUV narrowly missed her while she was scootering across a California crosswalk with her parent and sibling just feet behind.

The incident happened on September 14 in San Mateo, California, just south of San Francisco, when a father and his two children were crossing a street in a designated pedestrian crosswalk, ABC 7 reported.

Video captured on dashcam of the incident shows the little girl mere inches from a large SUV that goes barreling through an intersection and then drives off.

The driver of the vehicle with the dashcam, Jison Hong, had stopped for the blinking lights that indicate pedestrians are attempting to cross.

The little girl was riding her scooter when she got ahead of her father, who appeared to be checking for cars coming down the street.

The father, who was pulling a cart, can be seen looking around Hong's vehicle when the little girl scoots in front of him and is very nearly hit.

A second child was also riding along on a scooter behind the father, but thankfully was not injured.

Hong spoke with KGO in California's Bay Area about what it was like to watch the scary experience unfold in real time.

Video captured by Jison Hong's dashcam shows the scary moments when an SUV blasts through a San Mateo intersection, nearly hitting a small child crossing the street

'If it had been, you know, a few seconds later she could've gotten seriously injured,' Hong described. 'Still, my heart kinda pounds every time I kinda think back to that moment.'

Luckily, the girl was not seriously hurt in the incident.

Her dad spoke with KGO, telling the news outlet that she's doing well but that the family is still shaken up.

Law enforcement officials told ABC 7 reporters that the car did eventually return to the scene and that the driver spoke with officers about the incident.

The driver's name, and any potential charges filed against them, have yet to be released.

Jison Hong, whose dashcam video captured the San Mateo incident says the little girl could have been seriously injured if she had scootered seconds earlier

The problem is not new to residents in the area who say that they've been working for years to make their streets and crosswalks safer for pedestrians.

'We've been writing emails, we've been speaking at city council meetings,' said resident and nearby HOA president Max Partl. 'I think now, this video finally triggered some actual real action.'

Police told the local news outlet that they've responded by adding additional traffic patrol vehicles in the area.

News of the terrifying incident came less than one week after another Bay Area city was affected by a similar incident that ended in tragedy.

On September 17 in nearby San Jose, eight-year-old Jacob Villanueva was struck and killed while walking to school.

Jacob Villenueva who was recently killed while walking to school in San Jose, California

Jacob was walking with his babysitter when a car turned a corner and struck the pair.

Both individuals were rushed to the hospital and the eight-year-old later died.

'He was very friendly and the other little kids loved him,' said one person who remembered the child during a memorial.

Jacob's death prompted further investigation with officers from the San Jose Police Department.

The law enforcement agency invited out a Bay Area reporter to watch as they used offices as decoys at one particularly problematic crosswalk where drivers repeatedly ignore the blinking lights commanding them to stop.

'In the first five minutes that we've been out here, officers have issued at least 10 citations,' San Jose Police Department Officer Steven Aponte told ABC 7's Dustin Dorsey.
The owner of a sanctuary where three orphaned chimpanzees were kidnapped by a gang demanding a six-figure ransom fears it was an inside job.

Roxane Chantereau, a Belgian citizen who runs the JACK shelter in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with her French husband Franck, says she is 'quite sure' the criminals have a connection to their staff.

The chimpanzees were seized at 3am on September 9 although it is not clear how the gang managed to pull off the heist.

The overnight armed guards said they did not see or hear anything during the abduction and there is no evidence of forced entry.

The first they knew of the heist was when they were sent 'proof of life' videos by the captors the following morning.

The gang then threatened to kill the owners and kidnap their children.

Mrs Chantereau told MailOnline: 'This situation is very hard to bear.

'I still hope the babies are alive. They have been through so much trauma before we rescued them. We were so happy we could finally offer them a better life.

A gang has kidnapped three young chimpanzees from a Congolese sanctuary and are demanding a six-figure ransom for their safe return

'But human greed has again changed the course of their life and brought them in deep trauma again.

'I hope these little ones will come back to us.'

Footage shared by the kidnappers shows two of the orphaned animals, Hussein and Cesar, clambering over upturned furniture while Monga, a five-year-old female, has her arms tied above her head in the bare-brick room.

Cesar had only been at the sanctuary for a few weeks after he was rescued from a market and taken on a three-day trip on the back of a motorcycle and two flights to the shelter.

Mrs Chantereau said she is now taking the animals into her house to sleep with them through fear they will be targeted by a trafficking gang again.

Her husband said of the footage: 'You can see how terrified they are.'

He is working with law enforcement agencies to try to locate the chimps and ensure their safe return.

But the couple have not heard from the traffickers since their initial video, raising fears they will not be reunited with the animals again.

Footage shared by the kidnappers shows two of the orphaned animals, Hussein and Cesar, clambering over upturned furniture

The chimps are already orphans due to animal trafficking, a trade worth an estimated 20billion a year.

Mr Chantereau said: 'They had all been given a second chance, but now this fresh horror.'

The black market is driven by collectors of body parts and live animals in Asia and the United Arab Emirates.

Adams Cassinga, director of ConservCongo which investigates and prosecute wildlife crimes, told Mongabay: 'This is very rare, this is the first time, not just in Africa but the world, that I am hearing of this. We have heard [of] people using wildlife as a shield or as a political or social agenda.

'This is the first time I have heard of people literally kidnapping animals so that they can ask for money.

'These criminals have taken the entire wildlife crime to a new level. And it demands that law enforcement agents step up their games as well. There is panic and fear.'

A baby chimp costs around 10,000 but taking one in the wild normally involves killing its entire family.

The chimp population in Africa has plummeted from a million at the start of the 20th century to around 300,000 today.

Mr Chantereau, from France, set up his facility in 2006 which is one of three in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is home to around 40 chimpanzees and 64 monkeys from 14 species.

It helps rehabilitate the animals rescued from traffickers, providing food, shelter and medication while raising awareness of their plight.

The kidnapping has sparked concern for a new type of crime targeting sanctuaries.

He told Mongabay: 'We have faced a lot of challenges for 18 years now. But we have never experienced anything like this: the kidnapping of apes. They also threatened to kidnap my own kids and wife.'

Florence Teneau, from the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, which helps to fund the Jack sanctuary, said: 'These shelters receive a lot of aid and funds from international associations, like ours, and the traffickers take advantage of this, because the animals become all the more precious.'
Victims' Commissioner Dame Vera Baird has resigned - saying ministers have been 'failing victims' in a scathing letter to the Government.

Dame Vera, 72, warned recently appointed Justice Secretary Brandon Lewis that the 'criminal justice system is in chaos' and not helping victims of rape or burglary where conviction rates are low.

She pointed the finger squarely at Mr Lewis' predecessor, Dominic Raab, who left after Liz Truss became PM earlier this month, saying he 'downgraded' victims' interests in the Government's priorities and also accused the former Justice Secretary of 'side-lining' her office.

Women's charities said it was 'sad' that the QC who has held the Government's 'feet to the fire on the shamefully low rates of rape prosecutions' was to go.

The former Labour minister and secretary general also complained that despite assurance from the Ministry of Justice that she was considered to be an 'appointable', she was twice invited to reapply for a second term.

Victims' Commissioner Dame Vera Baird (pictured) quits as she unleashes withering attack on ministers - saying they have been 'failing victims' in a scathing letter

The ex-solicitor general also warned recently appointed Justice Secretary Brandon Lewis (pictured) that the 'criminal justice system is in chaos as she resigned

The full lettter from Dame Vera Baird which she addressed to Brandon Lewis

'Asking me to re-apply, given that two opportunities to re-appoint me have already passed, and my office is no longer given much access to ministers, seems more a ploy to keep me in place as a nominal post-holder in the short-term than a genuine invitation,' she added.

The Victims' commissioner who attacked the police over its 'male brotherhood culture' and used to be a Labour minister Dame Vera, a former Labour MP, solicitor general and police and crime commissioner for Northumbria, was originally appointed to the post championing victims' rights in 2019. She has previously attacked the police and the court system over failing women. In September 2021, she said that police 'should tell men to stay indoors' when a killer is on run in local area and said there was a 'real vacuum of action in the fight against violence against women' following the murder of Sabina Nessa, 28. She added: 'Three-quarters of women over 16 have been harassed in a public place and don't feel safe. They need to know that the police understand that and will use all the powers they have got to keep the streets safe.' Another fiery speech later that year in December also cited Britain's most hated policeman Wayne Couzens, who used his position to abduct, rape and kill Sarah Everard in a case that sparked protests on the streets and shattered trust in the Met. A year ago, she also described rape as 'domestic terrorism' against women and said the CPS should not be judged on conviction rates as it means they only want to take 'rock solid cases'. Dame Vera said: 'They made a decision to take fewer of what they called weaker cases in order to increase their conviction rate. 'Historically the CPS have been judged on their conviction rates. They should not be judged in that way.' The Victims' Commissioner also claimed police forces are 'overwhelmingly male' and that the public won't have any faith in them until they root out criminals in their own ranks, citing a new survey showing just one in three women still trust the police after Couzens' appalling crimes. Advertisement

'Coupled with this, the Victims' Bill remains inadequate and the 'British Bill of Rights' so severely threatens victims' human rights that it undermines what little progress the Victims' Bill is set to bring.

'This downgrading of victims' interests in the Government's priorities, along with the side-lining of the Victims' Commissioner's office and the curious recruitment process make clear to me that there is nothing to be gained for victims by my staying in post beyond the current extension.

'As such, my term will end on 30 September.'

Dame Vera, also a former police and crime commissioner for Northumbria, was originally appointed to the post championing victims' rights in 2019.

However, in her letter, she said that unlike her predecessor she was not offered an automatic second term, although she was 'strongly encouraged' to apply when it was opened up to competition earlier this year.

At the same time she complained of a lack of access to ministers, and that she had not met once with Mr Raab since he invited her to reapply in February - echoing the complaints of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA).

The have claimed he did not meet the CBA since April over strike action.

Barristers in England and Wales voted in favour of all-out strike next month in a row with the Government over jobs and pay.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's 'World at One' programme, Dame Vera said earlier this month: 'It's going to be very, very, very bad for victims. Indeed, victims are paying now.

'There is a 59,000 case backlog in the Crown Court, and the average time, for instance, a rape case or a seriously traumatised stabbing victim, [is] years. If the barrister's case is not resolved now, it all just stops. That queue gets longer and longer.'

One alleged child rape victim faces a potential five-year wait for her case to reach conclusion amid growing pressure on the courts and the threat of further strike action by barristers.

Downing Street said it was a 'disappointing decision' by the Criminal Bar Association that would 'force victims to wait longer for justice'.

Dame Vera also added in her letter today: 'An important part of my role is access to ministers on behalf of the people I represent and serve.

'Prior to this year, we have made progress for victims largely through the responsive attitude of previous Secretaries of State.

'The lack of engagement from the top at a time of great upheaval for victims reflected poorly on the Ministry of Justice's priorities and the government's approach.'

The Victims' Commissioner in London, Claire Waxman, also paid tribute saying: 'I am hugely disappointed that, for the first time in years, we will not have a National Victims' Commissioner in post.

'It's a critical role to ensure that the interests of victims are championed to help influence much-needed change in this country.

'It's also a critical moment for victims, with a justice system in crisis as our courts struggle to deliver justice, and the Victims' Bill finally going through Parliament.

'Having worked closely with Vera for the past few years, I am very grateful for all the work she has done.

'She has been a tireless advocate. Anyone coming into the role at this stage must have a deep understanding of the challenges in the justice system, a desire to centre voices of victims, & fresh ideas for radically strengthening the Government's Victims' Bill.'

Women's domestic violence charity, Refuge, said it was also 'sad to learn that Dame Vera Baird is stepping down as Victims Commissioner.

Dame Vera Baird, victim's commissioner for England and Wales, who has not stepped down

Justice Secretary Dominic Raab did not meet with the CBA since members began taking industrial action

'Dame Vera has played a pivotal role in helping push for better protections for survivors of Domestic Abuse and violence against women and girls and has undoubtedly helped to change the narrative and influence policy and practice,' the charity said.

'She has held the governments feet to the fire on the shamefully low rates of rape prosecutions and pushing them to deliver on the rape review. Dame Vera has also spoken out about court backlogs and about misogyny in the police.

'As a staunch advocate for victim's rights, Dame Vera will be much missed in this role, and we hope the government will bring the Victims Bill back to Parliament as soon as possible, strengthen it so it better protects victims, and takes on board Dame Vera's robust recommendations for change.'

Mr Raab in a statement to the BBC said: 'The Victims' Commissioner role is important and we re-ran the process because in all honesty we wanted a stronger field of candidates and were confident of getting one.'

Labour's shadow victims' minister, Anna McMorrin, said Dame Vera's 'tireless work' will not be forgotten and said if they win the General Election then then their Government would put 'victims back at the heart of our broken justice system'.
From left, Bill Gates, Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida, French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, President Joe Biden, Connie Mudenda (RED) ambassador, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Global Fund Executive Director Peter Sands pose for a photo during the Global Fund's Seventh Replenishment Conference, Wednesday, in New York. AP-Yonhap









By Kang Hyun-kyung







There was much back and forth between South Korea and Japan up until the moment their leaders actually met in New York on Wednesday (local time) for a meeting.







Days before President Yoon Suk-yeol's second official overseas trip to three nations  namely Great Britain, the United States and Canada_ since he was inaugurated on May 10, the presidential office told reporters in a confident tone that Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida would meet on the sidelines of their speeches at the U.N. Kim Tae-hyo, deputy director of the National Security Office, emphasized that the two leaders happily agreed to meet during their visits in New York.







Soon, Japanese media outlets released information about the Yoon-Kishida meeting that was not consistent with what South Korean reporters were told. "Nothing has been confirmed yet," Japanese media reported, citing Japan's powerful chief cabinet secretary.







The prospects for a much-anticipated summit had been foggy up until Yoon and Kishida eventually met Wednesday, because the two sides released contradictory information.







It was early Thursday morning (KST) when the Korean media learned that the meeting was indeed being held, as the presidential office confirmed it in a text message sent to the reporters.







"The South Korea-Japan summit has started just now. Journalists are good to report about the event immediately," it read.







The two sides are still in a tug of war even after the event. Now, they are poles apart regarding what to call the Yoon-Kishida meeting. South Korea describes it as a "summit," whereas Japan downplays it as "informal talks," rather than formal summit talks.







Hosaka Yuji, a professor in the liberal arts department at Sejong University in Seoul, said that President Yoon's foreign policy advisors crossed the line and broke international norms concerning diplomacy.







"When the officials of two countries sit down to prepare for a summit, they discuss a lot of things. Not only do they discuss and agree on when and where the summit will be held, but they also try to narrow their differences on how and when they are to release the information about the summit to the media," he told The Korea Times. "Once these things are sorted out, then, the two sides announce the summit simultaneously."







He claimed South Korea didn't play by these rules when it announced President Yoon's summit with the Japanese prime minister. "I understand that the South Korean government made public information that had not been agreed upon, hence, the problem," he said, adding that this is what he read in Japanese media outlets. "This is unusual and (indeed) unprecedented as South Korea has never done that before."







Hosaka said Kishida had summit talks with some 30 world leaders during his U.N. visit this time, noting that he would have found it difficult to squeeze in another summit with South Korea into his already busy summit schedule. Kishida's busy schedule at the U.N. seems to be one reason why the Japanese leader had informal talks with Yoon.







President Yoon Suk-yeol shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida before they sit down for a summit in New York, Wednesday (local time). Yonhap





Shin Kak-soo, former South Korean ambassador to Japan, said Japan seems to have been displeased with what the South Korean government did.







"Although they agreed to have a summit, there would have been some minor details that were not agreed upon. These could be about the venue or the format of the summit. But the presidential office went ahead and made public the summit plan. So, the Japanese side would have felt displeased when South Korea publicly announced the event, which was still in progress at that time, while there were issues that were yet to be resolved. They also seemed to be annoyed by the expression that the two sides happily agreed upon the summit," he said.







Shin shared the same view as Hosaka that the presidential office had acted inappropriately when handling the press briefing on the Yoon-Kishida summit. "In the case that there are still issue areas that remained unresolved, neither side is supposed to make a summit public," he said.







The political backgrounds of the two leaders also seem to have played a part in creating tension between the two countries.







Yoon had a long career as a prosecutor before he declared his bid to run in Korea's presidential election last year. He spent less than a year in politics before he was elected in the March 9 election. Since he joined the prosecution as an entry-level prosecutor at the age of 31, he had lived his entire life as a prosecutor before being elected president. His decades-long involvement in the law enforcement field likely trained him to be tough, decisive and persistent. But his scant experience in politics is seen as his decisive weakness, as he has had few chances to develop his political acumen.







On the contrary, Kishida is portrayed as a "dovish moderate" in the Japanese media. He is calm, honest and risk-averse, and these traits helped him earn the nickname, "Mr. Status quo."







"Kishida is seen as a weak and indecisive leader who answers most questions and proposals by saying, 'Kentosuru (I will consider it).' It has become his nickname," said Jeff Kingston, a professor of history and Asian Studies at Temple University Japan.







Kishida has years of experience in the Cabinet, becoming the longest-serving foreign minister of Japan. His years of training as a top diplomat would have sharpened his diplomatic awareness and made him feel uncomfortable about undiplomatic behavior.







So when Yoon, a politician who is criticized by feminists and others for his macho tendencies and often crude, off-the-cuff style, works with a dovish man like Kishida, whose personal traits are almost the opposite, a clash seems to be inevitable.







"Japanese Prime Minister Kishida is depicted as a passive politician in Japanese media outlets. Compared to him, President Yoon is a man who pushes (people) around to make things work," said Shin.







Nonetheless, he said such personal differences seemed not to have much to do with the pre-and post-meeting tug of war between the two sides. Shin said Kishida is losing ground at home as public opinion about his leadership has worsened since he decided to hold a state funeral for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan's ties with the Unification Church has also played a part in his falling approval ratings, Shin said.







On the other hand, Hosaka is skeptical about the impact of personality differences on summit diplomacy. He said that there is an international system in place and it is this system that enables leaders to improve relations with other countries.






The United States Postal Service has been monitoring protesters around the country for anti-gun and ant-Biden activity, according to newly unearthed intelligence assessments.

Postal inspectors tracked the activities of gun rights activists in Virginia and far-right groups making their way to Washington, D.C. to protest President Biden's election, according to documents obtained by the Cato Institute.

Cato obtained heavily redacted records through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that laid out postal inspectors' spying from September 2020 to April 2021, including their covert social media surveillance through a program called Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP).

Analysts working for iCOP kept a particular eye on the 'Million MAGA March' in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 20, and compiled information on the march in the same 'situational awareness bulletin' as a firebomb threat against a USPS distribution center.

The Postal Service (USPS) assessed that the Million MAGA March was likely to cause heavy traffic delays.

Another heavily redacted intelligence summary in the bulletin was entitled 'Right Wing Extremist Website Organizing Violent Action on Inauguration Day,' and warned of the 'Million Militia March' in D.C. on Jan. 20, 2021.

Another head-scratching summary on threats to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was entirely redacted.

'Of particular note in the released documents is still-redacted information on threats to the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,' said Patrick Eddington, the senior fellow at the Cato Institute who obtained the documents, told DailyMail.com. 'If that information has not been provided to the January 6 Select Committee, the Committee should demand it be turned over.'

An inspector general report in March of this year found the Postal Service did not have the legal authority to conduct such sweeping intelligence collection. 'So why is this program still funded?' Eddington questioned.

The United States Postal Service has been monitoring protesters around the country for anti-gun and ant-Biden activity, according to newly unearthed intelligence assessments

According to the bulletin the U.S. Postal Inspection Service also tracked 'peaceful armed protests,' including when Virginians demonstrated at a Second Amendment rally for 'Lobby Day' in Richmond on Sept. 17, 2021

The inspector general's investigation was prompted by a Yahoo News report revealing the secret program used facial recognition software and other advanced technology to compile and disseminate reports on Americans' online speech and movements.

The report outraged lawmakers who questioned on what authority the postal service was able to target and collect information on citizens not accused of a crime.

According to the bulletin the U.S. Postal Inspection Service also tracked 'peaceful armed protests,' including when Virginians demonstrated at a Second Amendment rally for 'Lobby Day' in Richmond on Sept. 17, 2021.

'The gathering lasted approximately two hours, with members identifying themselves as affiliates of the Proud Boys, Boogaloo Bois and Last Sons of Liberty,' the postal inspectors' bulletin said. 'Counter-protesters from the Black Lives Matter movement also attended. With heavy law enforcement presence the demonstrations stayed peaceful in nature.'

Another intelligence summary from September 2020 detailed threats from Louisville, Ky. as the city was operating under a state of emergency anticipating an announcement from the state attorney general on the investigation into Breonna Taylor's death.

Other bulletins show postal inspectors were surveying social media sites like Parler and Wimkin. The Postal Service assessed in January 2021 that the deplatforming of Parler likely disrupted planned protests for Inauguration Day.

Asked about its surveillance practices, the USPS said its inspectors are law enforcement agents who are in charge of protecting Postal Service workers, infrastructure and customers.

'The U.S. Postal Inspection Service occasionally reviews publicly available information in order to assess potential safety or security threats to Postal Service employees, facilities, operations and infrastructure,' the agency said in a statement to the Washington Times.
The district has defended Lemieux and said it would no longer answer questions about the issue as it is a 'personnel matter'

This could mean that Lemieux may have to ditch the fabric-stretching prosthetic breasts, which sell online for as much as $1,000

DailyMail.com can reveal that school board members voted to consider implementing a dress code on Wednesday

The trans high school teacher in Canada who is flaunting oversize prosthetic breasts will have to tone down her revealing wardrobe if school board members get their way.

Kayla Lemieux, a tech teacher at Oakville Trafalgar High School in an upscale residential neighborhood roughly 25 miles west of Toronto, has garnered global attention after photos and video appeared on social media showing her eye-popping fake breasts.

Under pressure from fuming parents, the Halton District School Board (HDSB) issued a statement to explain that its hands are tied due to the province's Human Rights Code.

And students seem to be behind the move. Several joined a small protest outside the school Friday, with one declaring: 'This is a school, not a circus. We just want to learn.'

A motion was put forward at a school board meeting Wednesday to consider altering the dress code  which could mean that Lemieux may have to ditch the fabric-stretching prosthetic breasts, which sell online for as much as $1,000.

Transgender teacher Kayla Lemieux went viral when she was pictured wearing huge prosthetic breasts in the middle of shop class

DailyMail.com can reveal that school board members voted to consider implementing a dress code on Wednesday

At a meeting of the HDSB on Wednesday, trustee Tracey Ehl Harrison put forward a motion that 'the director be requested to return to the board, by November 2022, a report addressing the various considerations regarding dress code'

'The HDSB recognizes the rights of students, staff, parents/guardians and community members to equitable treatment without discrimination based upon gender identity and gender expression,' the board said in a statement. 'Gender identity and gender expression are protected grounds under the Ontario Human Rights Code.'

Minutes before the final bell on Friday, a small group of protesters showed up at the end of the schools driveway, shouting for school officials to protect our children.

Across the street, several people held signs that spelled out Inclusivity is no excuse for depravity. One person held up a sign that said: Teachers personal propaganda has no place in the classroom.

Most of the students who spilled out of the schools numerous exits left to start their weekends but a group of mostly senior grade students joined the protest.

Police officers, facing a crowd that swelled to nearly 100, escorted vehicles out of the school parking lot.

Thank you for speaking up for us, one male student shouted before being handed a megaphone. This is a school not a circus! We just want to learn!

Another student told the protesters he doesnt go to school to be distracted.

Its so crazy that nobody is doing anything.

Students who joined the fracas said they are bound by a dress code that prohibits visible nipples or genitalia so they are left wondering why the same rules dont apply to Lemieux.

One of the protest organizers blasted the human rights code for protecting a man who dresses up as a woman who has size Z fetish fake boobs.

What are we doing to our children to allow this? he asked the crowd.

Protesters from a faith-based group called Action 4 Canada called for the principal and school board trustees to resign for failing to protect students.

It appeared that Lemieux was taken out of the school to the driveway of an adjacent YMCA childcare facility, where she was driven away from the scene.

Protesters have vowed to keep fighting and are planning more demonstrations.

At a meeting of the HDSB on Wednesday, trustee Tracey Ehl Harrison put forward a motion that 'the director be requested to return to the board, by November 2022, a report addressing the various considerations regarding dress code.'

Lemieux was pictured and recorded by students wearing the large prosthetics in class. The pictures have gone viral, with many criticizing the teacher's attire

The prosthetics were so large they stretched her clothing and stuck out prominently (right)

The motion was approved unanimously.

Without naming Lemieux, Harrison spoke about messages she has received about the teacher's appearance.

'Some of them have been quite nasty from groups from far beyond the borders of Canada, described as hate groups,' she said. 'So it has been an interesting time to say the least.'

If a dress code is enforced, Lemieux may have to get rid of the breasts.

HDSB director of education Curtis Ennis reiterated at the meeting that the board is obligated to protect Lemieux.

'As you are aware, a school in the Halton District School Board has received significant attention online in the news over the past several days,' he read from a prepared statement.

'Guided by our commitment in the multi-year strategic plan and our commitment to the human rights equity action accountability plan, The Way Forward, the Halton District School Board has aimed to handle this attention in a way that stays true to our values, respects the privacy and dignity of our students and staff, and with the safety and wellbeing of students and staff as our highest priority.'

'As staff we are guided by numerous legislation and also fundamentally by the privacy and confidentiality of each of our 10,000 employees. While I understand the desire for information by the public, we will not and cannot publicly discuss any matter that identifies our staff directly or indirectly. I trust the public will understand the parameters that guide us.'

Lemieux is being protected at the school by both a private security firm and officers from the Halton Regional Police Service.

On Friday, a police SUV made the rounds of the school parking lot while another sat at the entrance to the property.

Students said the heavy police presence is more interesting than Lemieux's heavy prosthetics.

'It's kind of nuts that we're almost under lockdown just because of haters,' complained Mark, a Grade 11 student, who said school officials 'haven't really talked about what's going on except to tell us to report suspicious people on the grounds.'

One of his classmates, who did not give his name, said Lemieux was teaching for nearly two weeks without any fuss. 'People were talking about it but it wasn't really a big deal.'

Lemieux, like the school board who employs her, is keeping mum about the controversy. She did not respond to an interview request.

A lone protestor waving a Canadian flag (above) showed up to the school on Monday

Police were stationed at the Oakville Trafalgar High School on Thursday

Though the school's online faculty directory  which it removed from public view last week  listed the teacher as 'Kayla Lemieux,' she remains identified as Kerry Luc Lemieux in the records of the Ontario College of Teachers, which certifies all teachers in the province.

Lemieux earned a teaching diploma from Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology in 2002 and a diploma in education from Queen's University in 2006. As all teachers are required to do, she successfully completed a Sexual Abuse Prevention Program.

Prior to working at Oakville Trafalgar High School, Lemieux was a tech teacher at Ancaster High School, about 31 miles west. According to public disclosure records, she earned a whopping $100,206.46 CAD (US $73,627) in 2020.

Parents and students at the high school appeared split on the issue.

Owen LaPlante, a 12th grader at the school, told the Toronto Sun that while some people support Lemieux, others are not comfortable with the situation.

'I'm okay with it,' he said. 'I know some of my friends are a little uncomfortable with it, but I think she should be able to express herself however she wants to.'

Yuxuan Xie, a student in grade 10, told the Sun that most of the kids in school seem to have brushed the incident off.

'I don't really hear anyone talking about it,' he said. 'I think, maybe, we don't care about that.'

A woman identifying herself as Lei, a mother of a senior at the school, told the Sun that while she was ok with Lemieux coming out as a trans woman, she said wearing such large prosthetics was too much.

'I think he's going a little too far,' Lei said. 'I think identifying himself is ok, but I think that just wearing that in the classroom... I still have concerns over that.'
Advertisement

Shocking images have shown the horrifying effect being held captive for almost four months by Putins men has had on Ukrainian soldiers.

Mykhailo Dianov was one of the 205 prisoners of war traded to freedom on Wednesday night. Devastating images posted on social media of the Ukrainian soldier reveal the true impact being held under Russian siege had on the war hero.

A photo shared of Dianov during the siege of Azovstal steel works in Mariupol showed him smiling and flashing a peace sign, despite his arm being bandaged up after it was shattered as his unit endured a Russian siege.

The latest photo of the now-freed Ukrainian shows him still smiling, but extremely thin and pale, with scars and bruises on his arm and face.

His right arm is unhealed and according to a Ukrainian new site is missing 4cm of bone due to the inhumane conditions he was kept under.

A photo Mykhailo Dianov before he was held captive as a war prisoner by Putin's men (left) and after his release on Wednesday (right). Dianov spent almost four months as a prisoner of war, where his already shattered arm lost 4cm worth of bone due to the poor conditions

A photo of smiling Dianov during the siege of Azovstal steel works, despite his arm being bandaged up after it was shattered as his unit endured a Russian siege (left)

During his release on Wednesday he was seen smiling again, and flashing a peace sign to the cameras as he walked free

Dianov, as well as his other soldiers released in the shock prisoner swap, survival was against the odds, with many doubting they would be seen alive again.

After he was freed from imprisonment, Dianov visited a city hospital in Chernihiv, where he was reunited with his friends and family.

People online, who saw the wounds that Mr Dianov received after being held captive, have been shocked by the photos.

One Ukrainian journalist said: 'Mykhailo Dianov, a musician and a Ukrainian soldier recently released in a prisoner exchange.

'First photo  Mykhailo during the siege of Azovstal. Second photo  Mykhailo after Russian captivity. I have no words. Terrifying.'

Another added: 'When I opened this picture, I myself physically hurt. What these unbreakable people have survived. They need our help now.'

Dianov flashing a peace sign as he visited a city hospital in Chernihiv, Ukraine

At the hospital he was reunited with friends and relatives after being held captive by Russian soldiers for almost four months

The men, who were part of the Azoz military unit captured after the battle in Mariupol, lasted almost four months in Russian prison camps likened to concentration camps.

Hardline Kremlin supporters have been calling for the execution of the members of Azoz, calling them Nazis and war criminals.

In a shock move, however, the soldiers were confirmed safe and were seen for the first time since their heroic last defence of Mariupol back in May.

Dianov as well as his commander Denis Prokopenko, his deputy Svyatoslav Palamar, and Marine commander Serhiy Volynsky were confirmed safe.

Also pictured was Kateryna 'Birdie' Polishchuk, a medic whose singing inside the Azovstal steel works inspired a nation

Andriy Yermak, a top adviser to President Zelensky, said more than one of the fighters was heavily pregnant. Olena Zelenska, the First Lady, declared it was 'the day all of Ukraine was waiting for'.

In total, Russia agreed to release 215 Ukrainian prisoners, including the five Azov commanders and 10 foreign prisoners.

Sviatoslav Palamar, one of the officers of the Azov battalion who was last seen inside the Azovstal steel plant, smiles after being released from Russian captivity late last night

Ukraine said 205 of its citizens - including 100 from the Azov battalion - were among those traded for just 56 Russians, including Putin ally Viktor Medvedchuk

A member of the Ukrainian armed forces embraces one of the newly-freed prisoners last night, after Russia announced a surprise swap for members of its own armed forces

Among them were Shaun Pinner, 48, and Aiden Aslin, 28, two British nationals who were captured and handed a death sentence after joining the fight against Russia in Ukraine.

In return, Russia received just 56 of their soldiers who were being held captive.

Among the Russians released is Viktor Medvedchuk, Putin's right-hand man in Ukraine, with President Zelensky saying he was exchanged for 200 Ukrainians.

Zelensky said the price was one worth paying, and that Medvedchuk had already provided spies with a lot of information.

According to Zelensky, many of those freed belonged to Ukraine's Azov regiment, whom he called heroes.

In mid-May, more than 2,000 defenders, many in the Azov unit, marched out of the Azovstal steel plants wreckage into Russian captivity, ending the siege of the port city of Mariupol.

Five of the released Azov commanders are now living in Turkey, according to a post on Zelensky's website

Mr Pinner and Mr Aslin released a video following their release to confirm that they were out of the danger zone.

The pair, as well as the other three Brits, were reunited with their families.

Mr Pinners sister Cassandra told the MailOnline: We are just relieved that he is home safe and sound, there are no words to express how thankful we are.

'He is in good spirits, he is still his funny self, even at this difficult time. Health-wise, he is surprisingly very well too.'

Tired and smiling, ex-British Army soldier Mr Pinner (second from right) was finally reunited with his family back in the UK on Thursday following months of detention in Ukraine

Aiden Aslin arrives back at his home in Balderton, Newark, on Thursday after being released by Russian-back separatists following months in detention

Aiden Aslin (left) and Shaun Pinner (right) and Moroccan Saaudun Brahim (centre) pictured during a sentencing hearing in the so-called Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic

Meanwhile, Mr Aslin spoke of his 'traumatic experience' as he was reunited with family back at home in Balderton, Nottinghamshire, on Thursday.

He arrived from Heathrow Airport in a silver Mitsubishi ASX with a Ukraine sticker on the back bumper at around 2.20pm. After getting out of the vehicle with family members he then went inside to be reunited with his 'overjoyed mother Ang Wood.

Speaking on his doorstep, Aiden said: 'Me and my family want privacy after the traumatic experience. Please respect this and when I'm ready to talk to the media I will.'

Two US military veterans  Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27  were also both freed thanks to the prisoner exchange.

UK Prime Minister Liz Truss said: 'Hugely welcome news that five British nationals held by Russian-backed proxies in eastern Ukraine are being safely returned, ending months of uncertainty and suffering for them and their families.'

Earlier this week, Putin also threatened the West with nuclear weapons over Ukraine, after he announced plans to annex occupied parts of its territory to the Russian mainland.
Donald Trump Jr. and other members of the GOP are outraged as the media remains 'totally silent' over the death of a Republican teenager who was ran over by a 'liberal extremist.'

Cayler Ellingson, 18, was mowed down by Shannon Brandt, 41, in North Dakota after attending a street dance party on Sunday. Brandt previously told State Radio that he got into an altercation with the teenager about politics and believed Ellingson was part of a 'Republican extremist group.'

'An 18-year-old conservative is murdered by 41-year-old leftest and the media is totally silent,' Trump Jr. wrote on Twitter.

'No connection to Joe Biden and his insane speech of just 2 weeks ago its as though it never happened & doesnt matter. Of course Trump would not get that benefit b/c our media is broken!'

Don Jr. referenced Biden's 'Soul of the Nation' speech in Philadelphia on September 1, where the president slammed Donald Trump and characterized 'MAGA Republicans' as a threat to democracy.

Conservatives have criticized the media's double standards and silence in covering the Republican teenager's death after Biden inflamed 'some of his supporters with violence.'

Brandt was charged with vehicular homicide after driving under the influence and fleeing the scene. He posted $50,000 bond on Tuesday and was released.

Cayler Ellingson was struck by a car after allegedly getting into a political argument on Sunday in North Dakota

Shannon Brandt, 41, from North Dakota allegedly admitted to fatally striking Ellingson and said he was threatened with harm by the 18-year-old

Donald Trump Jr. was quick to respond to Ellingson's death on Wednesday and slammed media outlets for remaining silent

Don Jr. blamed Joe Biden's 'Soul of the Nation' speech where Republicans were dubbed, a 'threat to democracy'

Biden declared Donald Trump is a 'threat to the country' in a speech that contained his harshest rhetoric to date about his predecessor in the Oval Office and the MAGA movement

Don. Jr also dubbed Brandt's swift release as 'Joe Biden's America!'

Texas Congressman Lance Gooden is one of the many GOP critics blaming Biden for Ellingson's death.

'First, Joe Biden called MAGA Republicans a threat. Now, 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson was killed for being a Republican. Biden must condemn leftest violence,' Gooden wrote.

New York Rep. Claudia Tenney added, 'Cayler Ellingson was murdered by a Left wing extremist and his killer is already out on bail. He was killed because of his political beliefs. Every Republican in the country needs to speak out about this! This is true political extremism!'

Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk also echoed the Republican stereotype of being 'extremist.'

'A conservative teenager was just brutally murdered by a Democrat in North Dakota for being a Republican,' Kirk wrote. 'Which movement is the party of "political violence and domestic extremism," again?'

He later added: 'Imagine if a white 41-year-old MAGA Hat-Wearing Republican Activist chased down and ran over an 18-year-old with his car because he claimed the teen was part of a "Democrat Extremist Group."

'The Media would cover it non-stop. So why do they ignore the murder of Cayler Ellingson.'

'An 18-year-old murdered for being a Republican. Did his killer think he was a "semi-facist" or a Neo-Nazi?" Arizona Gov. candidate Kari Lake wrote while blaming Biden and Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs for 'demonizing the right.'

'Should we be surprised that a sick man took their words seriously and acted upon them?'

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz called the democratic party 'toxic.'

'Leftist murders a teenager because he was a Republican. Then, he's promptly released on bail. Twisted. Dem's hateful rhetoric continues to bear toxic fruit,' Cruz wrote.

Meanwhile, Richard Grenell, former director of the US National Intelligence insisted the Department of Justice intervene.

'The Department of Justice must do something about Left-Wing Extremism,' Grenell wrote.

Texas Congressman Lance Gooden is one of the many GOP critics blaming Biden for Ellingson's death

New York Rep. Claudia Tenney called Ellingson's death 'true political extremism'

Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk also echoed the Republican stereotype of being 'extremist'

Richard Grenell, former director of the US National Intelligence insisted the Department of Justice intervene

The White House told Fox in a statement that 'the President has made clear, this is a nation that rejects violence as a political tool and we do not encourage violence.'

'It has no place in our political discourse and we condemn it,' a spokesperson added and pointed to a part of Biden's Philadelphia speech where he said: 'There is no place for political violence in America. Period. None. Ever.'

Brandt told police that he left the scene after hitting Ellingson and briefly returned to call 911 before leaving once again, according to an arrest affidavit.

The suspect said he felt threatened by Ellingson after the teenager called other to harm him after the duo's altercation.

He told state first responders that 'he struck the pedestrian (Ellingson) because the pedestrian was threatening him.'

Ellingston was rushed to the hospital in Carrington with serious injuries and later pronounced dead.

Brandt was charged with criminal vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a crash involving a death; he was also charged with driving under the influence

Ellingson was pronounced dead after being taken to a local hospital

Brandy was arrested at his Glenfield home on Sunday. He admitted to have consumed alcohol before running Ellingson down.

Capt. Bryan Niewind of the North Dakota Highway Patrol, which helped investigate the death, said the political argument claim by Brandt has not been substantiated because the investigation is still ongoing and more witnesses need to be interviewed.

The specific details of the alleged argument were not released.

Ellingson's parents later told police they knew Brandt, but they did not believe their son did, the affidavit said.

The 18-year-old's mother described how she was on her way to pick up her son from McHenry when he called her about 2:40am and asked if she knew Brandt.

Ellingson called again a short time later and said 'that 'he' or 'they' were chasing him.'

She could no longer reach him after that, the document said.
Colombia's president has declared that 'the war on drugs has failed' - using his first address to the United Nations General Assembly to suggest sweeping changes to the nation's drug laws that could end in the legalization of cocaine.

Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla fighter and the first left-wing president of the Latin American nation, was inaugurated as president last month. He campaigned on a pledge to unite the deeply divided country, promising to fight against inequality and climate change, and achieve peace with leftist rebels and crime gangs.

Colombia is the world's largest producer of cocaine, accounting for 64 percent of all of the drug in 2019, according to the latest UN report. It is the source of more than 90 percent of the drug seized in the United States, and is home to the largest Drug Enforcement Administration office overseas.

The war on drugs, launched by Richard Nixon in 1971 and massively ramped up under Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, has cost the United States over a trillion dollars, and yet has failed to reduce drug use: U.S. overdose deaths rose by 15 percent last year.

Petro, 62, campaigned on a new international strategy to fight drug trafficking, saying the U.S.-led war on drugs has failed.

Colombia President Gustavo Petro, 62, opened his first address at the United Nations General Assembly by stating 'the war on drugs has failed'

Pictured: Gustavo Petro at his swearing-in ceremony on August 7

'It is time for a new international convention that accepts that the war on drugs has failed; that it has left a million dead Latin Americans during 40 years; and that it leaves 70,000 North Americans dead by overdose each year,' he said in his inauguration speech.

'The war on drugs strengthened mafias and weakened states.'

Jonathan Finer, the White House deputy national security adviser, who met with Petro in Bogota before his inauguration, said at the time: 'The United States and the Biden administration is not a supporter of decriminalization.'

Yet on Tuesday, Petro took his message to the greatest global stage, telling the annual gathering of heads of state and world leaders in New York that an urgent rethink was needed.

The veteran congressman said that humanity's 'addiction to irrational power, profit and money' has been more damaging than drug addiction.

'What is more poisonous for humanity: cocaine, coal or oil?' he asked the assembly.

'The opinion of power has ordered that cocaine is poison and must be persecuted, while it only causes minimal deaths from overdoses. But instead, coal and oil must be protected, even when it can extinguish all humanity.'

Petro's predecessor, conservative Ivan Duque, warned that Petro could legalize all drugs - and possibly threaten the United States.

'What worries me is that there is now the possibility of getting into the permission, or the legalization of, cocaine and consumption,' Duque said on Friday.

'I think that it will be very bad for Colombia, and that will be very bad for the countries in the hemisphere, and I think that could generate also a majority security threat to the United States.'

Pictured: Ivan Duque. The former president said that cocaine legalization could lead to security risks in the United States

Pictured: Colombia's Navy retrieves a ton and a half of cocaine packages. According to a report, more than 260,000 Colombians have died as a result of the war on drugs

Colombia's justice minister, Nestor Osuna, has insisted that cocaine will remain illegal, and that the authorities will continue trying to halt exports of the drug.

He also said the authorities are going to target the mafias who export the final refined product, as well as the people who help them launder the proceeds.

Felipe Tascon, Petro's drugs czar, said they plans to put an end to aerial spraying and the manual eradication of coca, which critics say unfairly targets poor rural farmers.

He said that regulating the sale of cocaine would wrest the market from armed groups and cartels.

'Drug traffickers know that their business depends on it being prohibited,' Tascon said.

'If you regulate it like a public market the high profits disappear and the drug trafficking disappears.

'The government's program doesn't talk about the problem of drugs,' he added.

'It talks about the problems generated by the prohibition of drugs.'

If Colombia were to legalize the drug unilaterally, it would violate international agreements, and cause a breach with the US and other countries, according to Pedro Arenas, a former congressman from a coca-producing region who founded the NGO Viso Mutop to promote sustainable development.

This pariah status would likely harm the nation's ability to trade and access the global financial system.

Yet still the speculation remained that Colombia would follow the example set in the Americas by Canada - where cocaine is decriminalized in British Columbia - and Argentina, where it is legal for personal use.

At present, Colombians can legally possess less than one gram, and in Mexico half a gram is legal.

Total cocaine production hit a new record of 1,982 tonnes in 2020, according to the UNODC, more than twice as much as in 2014.

Petro's critics worry that the loosening of drug controls in his country will have a devastating impact on the United States, and on transit countries such as Mexico - which has seen more than 360,000 homicides since 2006, when the government declared war on the cartels.

It will be felt beyond the Americas too: all but three of Latin America's 21 mainland nations are now 'main countries of source or transit' for cocaine, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime - the tiny nations of Guyana, Belize and El Salvador are the only exceptions.

'It would incrementally kill the cooperation,' a former DEA official told The Washington Post. 'It would be devastating, not just regionally, but globally. Everyone would be fighting from the outside in.'

Lifting restrictions on Colombian cocaine consumption is likely, critics fear, to lead to a flash-flood of the drug in the U.S. - a gram of the drug sells for $120 in the United States, according to Recovered.org, yet only fetches $4 in Colombia.

And the United States is already battling a surge in cocaine use.

Almost 15,000 Americans died from cocaine overdoses in 2018, according to the latest Drugs Enforcement Agency (DEA) statistics.

Deaths from drug poisoning involving cocaine have increased about 251 percent from 2010 to 2018 - with the worst-afflicted states being New York (1,276 deaths), Florida (1,221), Ohio (1,105), Pennsylvania (1,045), New Jersey (867), and Illinois (771).

Texas border officials hauled in almost $12 million worth of cocaine disguised as baby wipes earlier this month - the state's biggest drugs bust in 20 years.

The drugs were seized at the Colombia-Solidarity Bridge near the town of Laredo, one hundred miles from San Antonio, after US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers gave a 2016 Stoughton trailer a secondary inspection.

They uncovered 1,935 packages containing nearly a ton of cocaine within the shipment, after bringing out the sniffer dogs and inspecting the trailer.

The month prior, more than half a million dollars worth of cocaine was seized from a freight truck attempting to enter the US at the same town, with the drug disguised as juice.

Texas border officials uncovered 1,935 packages containing 1,532.65 pounds of alleged cocaine. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) special agents are investigating the haul, which has an estimated street value of $11,818,400

Petro suggested that conflict over energy resources has led to more deaths than drug trafficking. 'What is more poisonous for humanity: cocaine, coal or oil?' he asked

Pictured: Coca paste, an extract of the coca leaf. Colombia is the world's largest producer of cocaine and produces more than the next two nations, Peru and Bolivia, combined

During his campaign for the presidency, Petro stated that he wants Colombia to export foods and incentivize agricultural production in favor of cocaine and weapons.

Colombian Senator Gustavo Bolivar supported Petro's statements, adding that he believed recent regulation of marijuana could extend to cocaine.

Drug trafficking efforts in Colombia have grown despite the nation continuing to spend money on fighting it, he said.

'We will never achieve peace in Colombia until we regulate drug trafficking,' said Bolivar.

'Not even the United States, with all their might and money, could win the war on drugs.

'Right now, Colombia produces more drugs than when Pablo Escobar was alive. There are more consumers. There are more farmers.'

A report from the Truth Commission, which investigated 50 years of Colombian civil conflict, found that drug trafficking prolonged conflict despite $8 billion in military aid being sent from the US to Colombia.

An estimated 260,000 Colombians have died as a result of the war on drugs.

Duque said 40 percent of Colombia's exports come from oil and gas, and the country could not risk alienating the international community by legalizing cocaine.

As Petro hopes to transition from the war on drugs to a focus on climate change efforts, Duque said the new president must consider the nation's future.

'There's a transition going on and Colombia can turn itself in the next decade into an exporter of green hydrogen, but so far, we need to keep the balance of doing a good job when it comes to oil and gas in terms of exports on production,' Duque said.

'At the same time, we need to keep on expanding on non-conventional renewable energies.'

Despite $8 billion in military aid being sent to Colombia to combat the war on drugs, a report suggests that the growth in drug trafficking has only led to more conflict

Pictured: The fumigation process of coca plants. 'We will never achieve peace in Colombia until we regulate drug trafficking,' one Colombian senator said

During his address on Tuesday, Petro said global efforts to save the environment have been 'hypocritical,' as world leaders ignore the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

'The climate disaster that will kill hundreds of millions of people is not being caused by the planet, it is being caused by capital,' he said.

'By the logic of consuming more and more, producing more and more, and for some earning more and more.'

After hearing Petro's proposals, Bolivia's president, Luis Arce said he would like to continue discussions between the two nations about how regulations could feasibly be eased.

'He shared the ideas with us that he spoke about today,' Arce said.

'We would like to hear a very specific proposal about this.'

The U.S. is yet to comment on Petro's plan, but despite his opposing Washington's war on drugs, and his policies toward Venezuela and Cuba, Petro so far appears to have cordial relations with the government of President Joe Biden, and has met with several of its senior officials.

Republicans in congress may be more reluctant to approve funding if coca production rises under Petro.

Jim Crotty, a former deputy chief of staff at the DEA, argued that a legal cocaine trade 'is not going to get rid of the illegal trade.'

'As we've seen before in Colombia and elsewhere, there's always someone to fill that vacuum,' Crotty said.
A 46-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of two counts of murder

Their family released a statement telling of their 'devastation, despair and pain'

The incident took place in Great Waldingfield, Sudbury, Suffolk, on September 8

Her 44-year-old mother was killed by 'pressure on the neck', officers have said

Jillu Nash and her autistic daughter Louise were found dead in their bungalow

The family of a mother and her autistic daughter who were found dead in their village home have told of their 'utter devastation and despair' after the pair were fatally stabbed by a man known to them.

Jillu Nash, 44, died from 'pressure on the neck' while her 12-year-old daughter Louise was killed by a 'stab wound to the abdomen', according to post-mortems.

A 46-year-old man - who was known to them - was arrested on two counts of murder after the pair were found dead by officers on September 8 at their bungalow on the Heath Estate cul-de-sac in Great Waldingfield near Sudbury, Suffolk.

Ms Nash's family said in a statement today: 'We, the family of Jillu and Louise Nash, have been struck by utter devastation, despair and pain by the tragic way the beautiful little lives of a young mother and a child have ended and from whom we are now separated forever.

'Our only solace is that Jillu and Louise are together in heaven eternally. This catastrophe will never leave us and the pain will stay in our hearts forever.

The family went on to say they were touched by Suffolk Constabulary's 'honest' and 'sincere' efforts.

The statement continued: 'We are also very grateful to Jillu's neighbours, the people of Sudbury, work colleagues, school teachers, peers, friends and well-wishers.

'We are astounded and comforted to learn of the way our daughter and granddaughter touched the hearts of so many in the Sudbury community.'

Ms Nash, who worked at the Homebase store in Sudbury, Suffolk, was described by friends and neighbours as a 'lovely' mother who was 'devoted' to her autistic daughter who was a pupil at Hillside Special School in the same area.

Jillu Nash (pictured) and her 12-year-old daughter, Louise, were killed at her bungalow in Great Waldingfield, near Sudbury, Suffolk on September 8. Her family have told of their 'utter devastation, despair and pain'

Louise Nash (pictured), 12, was stabbed fatally in the abdomen. Tributes flooded in following the pair's death, saying her mother was 'devoted' to her

One friend posted on social media: 'Such wonderful people. Will always remember the great times of working with Jillu!'

Another added: 'Absolutely heartbreaking. Jillu was one of the kindest people I ever worked with. She'd do anything to make the people around her happy. So incredibly sad.'

The mother and daughter were found when police had been called to the home just after 9.55am on September 8 following concerns over the safety of the individuals inside.

A gas leak at the bungalow led to neighbouring homes being evacuated, but it was later made safe and residents were allowed to return.

Ms Nash had lived in the bungalow with her former factory worker husband and daughter for around three years.

A 46-year old man was found inside the property and was taken to hospital with serious injuries.

Police said they were treating the two deaths as 'a contained incident, with no wider threat to the community.'

Officers also said that the understood that 'all three individuals were known to each other'.

The deaths have shaken the community in Great Waldingfield, with flowers being laid in the street in memory of the mother and daughter.

Forensic police officers at the home of the mother and daughter who tragically died on September 8

Flowers have been left outside the home where the mother and daughter were found killed. One person who lived in the village said Ms Nash 'was devoted to her daughter'

One floral tribute said: 'Rest in peace Jillu and Louise. We will miss your beautiful smile and jolly self. 2 lovely ladies taken too soon.'

Another said: 'RIP Beautiful. Hope you're both at peace. Will miss our chats and your smile. Sleep easy.'

Meanwhile a neighbour said: 'She was a lovely lady. She was very happy and always smiling. She was an all-rounder who would help anyone. She always asked how you were.

'I never thought in a million years that something like this would happen down here. It is such a quiet area.'

Another local resident said: 'She was devoted to her daughter. We would see her drive past with her in the car and she would always wave.'

A friend added on social media: 'Devastating news! Such a special lady and her beautiful daughter* I can't get my head around it all! Heartbreaking. Forever in my heart x my beautiful friend RIP.'

A woman whose son previously went to the school, recalled her as 'a highly educated woman' who had travelled widely and studied in America before marrying.

The friend said: 'Her parents still live in India, and she used to take her daughter over to visit them.

'She was a very funny, warm and caring woman who loved her daughter to the moon and back.

'It's just very, very sad that this happened to them both. They didn't deserve this.'
A fish and chips supper could soon cost more than 20, with chippies warning that their prices are set to increase by more than 50 per cent in the next few months.

It comes as takeaway owners have criticised the lack of support provided to small businesses in today's mini-budget and pleaded with the government to help their struggling industry.

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng put forward a series of tax-slashing new measures when he took to the floor of the House of Commons this morning.

And among the eye-catching announcements was a decision to fix corporation tax at 19 per cent, while restricting the basic rate of income tax to the same low figure.

But Steven Dhillon, whose family owns the award-winning Fisherman's Bay chippie in Whitley Bay, said these measures would do nothing to help his business, which is struggling with the rising costs of fish, oil and energy.

'We are having to increase our prices,' Mr Dhillon said. 'But also take a lot on our own shoulders. We can't pass it all on because we attract a lot of return customers and we have already noticed that fish and chips is becoming a less frequent meal. It is becoming a once in a blue moon treat.'

He said that a standard fish and chips supper which a year ago cost about 8 has now increased to 10.20. And by January he fears they might have to increase the price to as much as 16.

Steven Dhillon, whose family owns the award-winning Fisherman's Bay chippie in Whitley Bay (pictured), said the price of a standard fish and chips might have to increase from 10.20 to as much as 16 by January because of rising costs

And with many places in the capital already charging 15 for a standard fish and chips, a 50 per cent increase could see Londoners having to pay more than 20 in a matter of months.

Andrew Crook, president of the National Federation of Fish Friers, slammed the government today for helping 'bankers, not bakers and financiers, not fish friers'.

Reflecting on today's announcements - which included a commitment to remove caps on city bonuses - he said the budget had 'missed the mark completely'.

Mr Cook said: 'This was the opportunity to take the pressure off small business, because it's not just a job for us, it's a way of life.

'But they've missed the mark completely with this budget.

Fish and chip shop owners have criticised Kwasi Kwarteng's mini-budget today for not doing enough to support the struggling industry (stock image)

'The whole of hospitality was looking for a reduction in VAT and reforms to make sure the system changes going forward, and we've not had.

'And unfortunately, they've looked after bankers rather than bakers and financiers rather than fish friers.'

Mr Cook, who also owns Skippers chip shop, in Euxton, Lancashire said he remained hopeful that the government would offer more help later in the autumn.

Andrew Crook, president of the National Federation of Fish Friers, (pictured) criticised today's announcements, saying they had failed to take the pressure off small businesses

But he was concerned that many chip shop owners would go to the wall over the winter period, after the price of cod rocketed by 75 per cent on top of bills increases.

He said: 'It's easy for bigger businesses to keep acquiring businesses and expanding, but we can't. We're just about keeping our head above water.

'I was looking forward to planning a promotion to help lift the industry out of where it is now, but we're now expecting a bleak period after Christmas.'

Richard Coleman Ord, 29, who is the fifth generation in is family to run his family fish and chip shop said the budget was 'nowhere near' what was needed for the industry.

He said: 'For small enterprises it's disastrous. I think there was a huge focus on large businesses and the growth of the economy through them.

'But on a whole for smaller businesses, it's left us quite isolated. We've been let down quite badly.'

He added: 'It's alright to reduce tax rates but you have to make money to pay taxes, and there are a lot of us that won't be in business for much longer.

'It's really, really extremely serious out there, and we need help for the small family business. At the moment, we're not receiving any.'

Mr Coleman Ord said he was lucky that his chip shop, Colmans, in South Shields, had its energy price plan in place for the next 18 months.

But he said rises in the prices of ingredients had still made trading extremely choppy during the cost of living crises.

He said: 'The potatoes, the fish, the oil, all the commodity prices have gone up beyond our wildest dreams - even though we've been in business for 60 years.

'The only way we could offset that, including energy, would be the reduction in VAT and business rates, like they did for the pandemic.

'It should be the same for this crisis because to be honest with you, it's worse than the pandemic. It's far more serious for businesses than the pandemic ever was.'

Mr Coleman Ord also said measures announced by the government to uncap bankers' bonuses had left a 'bad taste' in the mouths of many small businesses.

He said: 'It puts a bad taste in people's mouths.

'I understand the thoughts of it - bringing growth into certain sectors - but again it's targeting large businesses and higher earners.

'For the majority of people looking for relief and help - if anything - it feels a little bit thrown in your face, and we feel let down.'

The Chancellor's announcement that he would be lifting the cap on bankers' bonuses was one of the most politically controversial aspects of his mini-Budget.

Current rules mean that bonuses cannot be more than twice salaries - which critics say is driving the best talent away from the City.

Scrapping the cap was floated when Boris Johnson was Prime Minister, before being dropped amid fears about the optics during a cost-of-living crisis.

But Mr Kwarteng said that all it had done was drive up salaries and hinder London's ability to compete against Paris, Frankfurt and New York.

The Chancellor also announced this morning that he is abolishing the 45p tax rate for around 660,000 people earning over 150,000 - saving them an average of 10,000 a year each.

The additional rate will be removed from April and means that all annual income above 50,270 will now be taxed at 40 per cent, the current higher rate of tax.

Mr Kwarteng's changes to income tax rates next year will see those earning 20,000 a year save 74.30, while those earning 50,000 will save 174.32, and those on 200,000 will save 2,877.

Apart from cutting income tax, the Chancellor also confirmed today that he is scrapping the hike in National Insurance contributions in a further boost to employees.

The 1.25 percentage point rise was introduced in April by former Chancellor Rishi Sunak. But it will now be reversed from 6th November.

At a glance: What did the Chancellor announce? Abolished the 45p tax rate, paid by those earning more than 150,000, from April next year Cost per year: 2billion 1p cut to basic rate of income tax brought forward by a year to April 2023 Cost per year: 5billion No stamp duty to be paid on property purchases up to 250,000 and up to 425,000 for first-time buyers Cost per year: 1.5billion Reintroduction of VAT-free shopping for overseas tourists Cost per year: 2billion Alcohol duty frozen from next year, estimated to be worth 7p on a pint of beer and 38p on a bottle of wine Hike in National Insurance contributions to be cancelled from 6th November Cost per year: 15billion Cancellation of next year's planned rise in Corporation Tax so the levy will remain at 19 per cent Cost per year: 18billion Businesses based in 38 new 'investment zones' will have taxes slashed and will benefit from scrapping of planning rules Cost per year: Not specified Scrapping of the bankers' bonus cap in a bid to boost the City Cost per year: Nil Total cost per year with other measures: 45billion Advertisement

Mr Kwarteng is also cancelling the planned Health and Social Care Levy - a separate tax planned to come into force in April to replace this years National Insurance rise.

The Treasury estimates this will benefit 28 million people across the UK, worth an average saving of around 135.

The levy was expected to raise around 13billion a year, although the Chancellor today promised to maintain funding for the NHS and social care at the same level as planned.

Mr Kwarteng told the House of Commons his tax changes were part of a 'new approach for a new era' as he and Ms Truss bid to 'release the enormous potential of this country'.

He claimed the cuts would mean Britain has 'one of the most competitive and pro-growth income tax systems in the world'.

The 'emergency Budget' also saw the Chancellor confirm an 'Energy Price Guarantee' to limit the cost of electricity and gas for households.

It means typical household energy bills will be frozen at 2,500 for the next two years.

Stamp duty is being ditched for values up to 250,000, with first time buyers exempt up to 425,000 - taking 200,000 people out of the system altogether.

Beer, wine and cider duty rises are being cancelled - and in an effort to bolster tourism overseas visitors will be able to shop VAT-free.

Dozens of low-tax and low-regulation 'Investment Zones' will be created across the country, with new startups enjoying breaks such as exemption from business rates.

Mr Kwarteng stressed there was a long-term challenge in Britain that needed to be tackled.

'Growth is not as high as it should be,' he said. 'We are determined to break that cycle. We need a new approach for a new era.'

But he faced questions this evening as economists voiced alarm at the massive borrowing that will be required to cover the hole in the government's books, with predictions the annual deficit could now reach 190billion, and stay high for years to come.

And consumer money expert Martin Lewis described the Government's financial plan as 'staggering' after the so-called mini-budget from Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng was announced.

'That really was quite a staggering statement from a Conservative Party government,' he tweeted.

'Huge new borrowing at the same time as cutting taxes. It's all aimed at growing the economy. I really hope it works. I really worry what happens if it doesn't.'
An alleged fraudster dubbed 'the Con Queen of Hollywood' may find sharing a cell in an American prison 'a source of stress', a court has heard.

Indonesian man Hargobind Tahilramani, 42, is wanted in the US for a $1.5 million scam and is fighting his extradition from the UK.

Tahilramani allegedly swindled Hollywood professionals out of large sums of cash by posing as showbiz executives offering them movie deals, including pretending to be producers working for The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan.

Hargobind Tahilramani, 42, allegedly ran a scam which saw him impersonate top film executives

Others imitated by the so-called 'catfish' included Star Wars producer Kathleen Kennedy, former Sony movie chief Amy Pascal, and ex-Paramount boss Sherry Lansing, it is said.

In another instance, Tahilramani allegedly spoke in a high-pitched voice to impersonate Rupert Murdoch's ex-wife Wendi Deng while luring creatives into his scheme.

He is facing two counts of wire fraud, five counts of aggravated identity theft and is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries the maximum of 20 years jail.

He was arrested at a 60-a-night Aparthotel in Manchester on 26 November 2020 after a year-long probe by the FBI.

Tahilramani, who is openly gay and said he came to the UK so he could live in a 'free society', is currently in HMP Wandsworth and is resisting extradition to the US.

Neil Greenberg, a psychiatrist who examined Tahilramani, gave evidence at Westminster Magistrates Court today.

Ben Cooper, representing Mr Tahilramani, questioned Mr Greenberg.

'If he were given a cellmate, is it capable of being more damaging to this defendant's mental health?'

'It could go either way', replied Mr Greenberg.

Tahilramani is accused of impersonating Rupert Murdoch's former wife Wendi Deng

'Sometimes his cell mates have been okay, sometimes they have been very unpleasant. This could be an added source of stress.'

'Do you envision any difficulties he may encounter in sharing a confined space?'

'Given he has a moderate personality disorder he is likely to irritate or cause difficulties for whoever he is with - on balance it is likely it would be complicated,' the psychiatrist replied.

'There are many risks that could arise. The person he shared with may find it difficult to get on with him.

'He may feel the need to act out to make his point. This is hard to predict without knowing the nature of the person he would be placed with.'

Mr Cooper then questioned Mr Greenberg about the relationship Tahilramani might have with prison staff.

'Is that capable of ameliorating the psychological impact?'

'If he had supportive staff sensitive to mental health that would be protective. Change that around to someone not interested in mental health, that would make it not supportive and would be an additional stress for him.'

Mr Cooper then asked Mr Greenberg about how Tahilramani might cope with solitary confinement.

Tahilramani is resisting extradition to the US because he wants to be tried in the UK. A psychiatrist said he may find sharing a cell in an American prison 'a source of stress'

'What would be his ability to cope with that regime?'

'That would be difficult for him'

But Greenberg emphasized that if he had activities to keep him occupied it might be easier for him.

'He likes textiles. If he had enough distracting materials that would reduce the risk. But it would be difficult, there's no two ways about it.'

Tahilramani was charged by a grand jury in the Southern District of California with eight counts on 6 October 2020.

On count one he is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries the maximum of 20 years jail.

He faces two counts of wire fraud, carrying the same maximum.

The five counts of aggravated identity theft he is facing, each carry a maximum of two years imprisonment.

Earlier in the trial, Psychiatrist Dr Stuart Grassian, an expert on the psychiatric effects of solitary confinement, said Tahilramani will not be able to cope in an American prison.

Giving evidence over a live link Dr Grassian said: 'Will he be able to cope in the same way he has been able to cope in Wandsworth? My answer is no.'

The extradition hearing continues.
The cannibal who was accused of killing and eating a college student named Kevin Bacon pleaded guilty Thursday in Michigan to murder and mutilation, despite claims of insanity from his own counsel.

Mark David Latunski, 52, pleaded guilty in front of a Michigan judge of the December 2019 slaying of the 25-year-old student, according to Michigan based news outlet MLive.

Bacon's body was discovered in a secret room in the basement of Latunski's home on December 28, four days after friends and family had last seen him alive.

The two had met on Grindr, which is described on its website as 'the world's largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people.'

Kevin Bacon (left) was brutally killed by Mark David Latunski (right) in December 2019

Mark David Latunski in his head shot photo

The 25-year-old was found hung by his ankles from rafters in the home with stab wounds and his throat cut.

In court, video taken by MLive shows Latunski admitting to the events that led to the 25-year-old's death, including the gruesome and inhumane acts that followed the murder.

'Did you use a knife to stab Mr. Bacon' the prosecutor asks Latunski in the video. 'Did you know that stabbing Mr. Bacon with a knife would most certainly create a very high risk of death or great bodily harm to Mr. Bacon?'

'Yes I did,' the self-proclaimed cannibal responds.

Latunski shared in court that he stabbed Bacon in the back at his home, catching his date by surprise.

'After Mr. Bacon was dead, did you remove part of his body, specifically his testicles,' she follows up. 'Did you move those testicles to the kitchen?'

'Yes I did,' Latunski responds.

The guilty plea comes just weeks ahead of when Latunski's trial was scheduled to commence in October. The open murder charge contains both first and second degree murder, and the exacted conviction will be decided on October 18.

First-degree murder means a life sentence with no chance of parole, while second-degree murder could mean life in prison with parole.

The guilty plea came as a shock to some, including his own legal counsel, who had hoped to use an insanity defense during the trial.

'While this is not an outcome that (defense attorney) Mr. Krause and I think is in Mr. Latunski's best interest, we do have to follow Mr. Latunski's wishes,' Chartier said in court. 'We have discussed this matter and consistently he's been very clear, more than once, multiple times, on his choice and on his reasoning.'

'It's still a sad day,' said Shiawassee County Prosecutor Scott Koerner told ABC 12. 'But, it's a long time coming and I am hoping it brings closure and justice for the family.'

In October 2020, the cannibal was deemed mentally fit to stand trial after undergoing months of psychiatric care at a hospital in Michigan, according to ABC 12.

Mark David Latunski poses in a photo posted to his Facebook page prior to his arrest

Several months prior to that decision, another judge in Shiawassee County had ruled that the 52-year-old had not been competent to stand trial, ordering him to seek treatment.

Shortly after Latunski was arrested, police shared that it hadn't been their first encounter with the Michigan man.

In October 2019, a man visiting Michigan from New York called law enforcement as he was running away from Latunski's home after allegedly waking up in the basement.

911 calls retrieved by The Flint Journal-MLive showed two different men on two separate occasions reaching out to police, asking for help getting away.

The Michigan home where Latunski brutally killed Kevin Bacon in 2019

'I want you to know like I've never ever had anything like this happen. I don't know if he drugged me. All is know is I ended up locked up in the f***ing basement, okay? Chained in the basement,' the said the man in the October 2019 incident.

A police report indicated that on November 25, 2019, Latunski was stopped by officers as he attempted to chase another man down the street, wearing nothing but a kilt.

At the time, the man he was chasing told the officer that he had fled from Latunski's house, fearing that the 52-year-old was going to hold him against his will, chained up in his basement.

'I'm trying to get away from some creepy guy,' the caller told the dispatcher. 'He had me tied in his basement.'

Kevin Bacon's parents are still awaiting justice in the gruesome murder of their son

Latunski's guilty plea moves the family and friends of Kevin closer to justice and closure.

Kevin's parents, Pam and Karl Bacon, spoke about the need for justice back in October 2020 when the 52-year-old was deemed fit to stand trial.

Karl, who filed the missing person report for Kevin when he didn't show up to Christmas breakfast, said that he wants Latunski to rot in prison.

Were hoping he gets prison for the rest of his life, he said. Thats what were going for.
His father Peter said David would not expect to receive an honour, despite calls for them to be made MBEs

She said she was 'beyond proud' of her son and cried when she saw David carrying out the huge responsibility

But his mother Carolyn said she only found out about his role when she saw pictures of the rehearsal online

David Sanderson was one of the eight soldiers from the Grenadier Guards chosen to carry the Queen's coffin

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The mother of one of the Queen's pallbearers said she was 'beyond proud' of her son and had 'no idea' that he would be carrying Her Majesty's coffin until she saw pictures of the rehearsal online.

David Sanderson, from Morpeth, Northumberland, was one of the eight soldiers from the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards to be selected to carry the Queen's 500lb lead-lined coffin.

But such was David's dedication to his solemn duty that he did not breathe a word that he had been chosen as a pallbearer to his parents or younger brother.

Instead, they only found out about his involvement when photographs of the funeral rehearsals were published by MailOnline.

His mother Carolyn spoke of her pride when she discovered her 19-year-old son had been selected for such an 'enormous responsibility'.

She said: 'I'm beyond proud. It has just been amazing. I still can't believe it happened.

'We didn't actually know anything because it was all private to the army. We were looking at some photographs of the rehearsal and my husband said it looked like our David.

Guardsman David Sanderson, 19, (pictured) was one of the eight soldiers from the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards to be selected to carry the Queen's 500lb lead-lined coffin

His mother Carolyn (left) spoke of her pride when she discovered her 19-year-old son had been selected for such an 'enormous responsibility'

'I looked and said "of course it is!" It's just wonderful. I think I've discovered a new emotion.

'Seeing him on the television going to Westminster Abbey was just amazing. I just lost it  thats our David. They were all brilliant, I think it was perfect.

David attended King Edward Vl secondary school in Morpeth before leaving at 16 to join the Army Foundation College in Harrogate.

By the time he was 17 he was stationed at the regimental headquarters of the Grenadier Guards at Wellington barracks, first joining the second battalion.

He then moved to the first battalion, the Queen's Division, like his late grandfather John.

His father, Peter, 56, said: 'The Grenadiers was in his blood, it's all he has ever wanted to do. His grandfather served with the Queen's Company, joining in 1958, so David was very aware of the history of the regiment.

'But he wasn't following in anyone's footsteps, he's his own man with his own ambitions and he wanted to be part of the history and prestige of the Queen's Company.

'When he got in he can't have imagined he'd end up performing that particular duty, but he has an it's an achievement he can be proud of for the rest of his life.

Carolyn said she cried when she saw her 19-year-old son (right) carrying the Queen's 500lb lead-lined coffin on television

Grenadier guardsman and pallbearer David Sanderson's grandfather posing with the Queen in 1958

'I imagine when he gets back to Morpeth there'll be a few people offering to buy him a drink and he deserves it, he did us all proud.

'It was an incredible honour to be chosen for that role, the enormity of it is hard to comprehend, but David has taken it in his stride and performed his duty to perfection. It's nice to hear people saying that they ought to receive an honour but I know that David will simply say "It was my duty" and he won't ask any more than that.

'He'll be back on leave before his next deployment and I can't wait to see him just to tell how immensely proud he has made us.'

David was positioned at the front of the right hand side of the casket and, along with the seven other young soldiers, raised and put it down no less than 10 times on her journey from Westminster Hall to St George's Chapel in Windsor.

He was joined by fellow 19-year-old Fletcher Cox from Jersey, who finished 'top of his class' as a cadet aged just 15 when he was handed the highest accolade any young soldier can achieve on the Channel Islands - the Lieutenant-Governor's medal - and gave a speech where he said his 'sole ambition' was to parade for the Queen.

The eight pallbearers raised and put down the Queen's coffin no less than 10 times on her journey from Westminster Hall to St George's Chapel in Windsor

The band of brothers were expertly guided throughout by Company Sergeant Major Dean Jones, an instructor at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where Prince Harry trained to be an officer. Famously the Queen reviewed Harry when he was commissioned as an officer in the British Army in 2006 - with both unable to hide their grins.

The Queen's funeral was the first state funeral since that of Sir Winston Churchill in January 1965. The pallbearers from the Grenadier Guards were all awarded the British Empire Medal for their service that day.

Now calls are growing for the eight soldiers to also be recognised for their role in the historic funeral on Monday.

Former head of the Army Lord Dannatt said the MBE would be a fitting reward for the pallbearers who 'embodied the professionalism of the Armed Forces'.

His calls were supported by MPs Dan Jarvis and Tobias Ellwood and SAS: Who Dares Wins star Ant Middleton.

Mr Ellwood, head of the Commons defence committee, said: 'Their performance did the Queen and the nation proud.' Mr Middleton, a former Special Forces operative, said they 'deserved nothing less than an MBE'.
Pernille Berg, science director at Bloxhub Denmark, speaks during the first session of the Nordic Talks Korea initiative at the Shilla Seoul hotel in central Seoul, Thursday. The 10th edition of Nordic Talks Korea, an event co-hosted by the Nordic embassies in Korea including Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, highlighted the importance of innovation for the circular economy and green transition. Courtesy of the Embassy of Denmark in Korea
Rudy Giuliani was a no-show at his Manhattan court hearing where a judge ordered him to pay $235,000 in late divorce payments to his ex-wife or be thrown in jail.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael Katz passed down his judgment on Friday in the case between Giuliani, 78, and his ex-wife, Judith, 67, who claimed he'd fallen behind on $262,000 owed to her under the terms of their heated 2019 divorce, the New York Post reports.

'If the amount is not paid by that date, I'm going to be forced  unfortunately, because it's not something I want to do  I'm going to be forced to remand the defendant into custody,' Katz said.

The judge noted that because Giuliani wasn't in court or disputed Judith's claims, he ultimately granted the ex-wife's request for the former New York City mayor to fork over a default payment of $225,000, plus another $10,000 for legal fees.

'He clearly has failed to meet his obligations,' Katz said. 'Unfortunately, I'm constrained to find him in contempt.'

A Manhattan Supreme Court judge ordered Rudy Giuliani (right) to pay $235,000 to ex-wife Judith (left) for late divorce payments

The judge condemned Giuliani's failure to appear in court on Friday, finding him in contempt and warning the former NYC mayor that he would be put in jail if he fails to pay his ex-wife

It's the latest in legal trouble's facing the former Trump attorney, who is also being sued for $1.3 billion by Dominion Voting Systems for $1.3 billion over his founded claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged. Pictured: Giuliani (left) together with Donald Trump in 2016

Dror Bikel, Judith's lawyer, told the Post that it was 'outrageous' for Giuliani not to show up to court and that he was grateful Katz ordered the defendant to be put in jail if he doesn't pay up.

'For him to snub his nose at the court and not bother showing up and appearing in court  God forbid somebody would do that to him when he was US attorney,' Bikel said.

Representatives for Giuliani did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.

Giuliani had previously said that his wife's estimate about him owing her $260,000 was a 'gross exaggeration,' saying he actually owed her $50,000 instead.

'I do owe her money but I don't owe her $260,000.'

Judith had filed the lawsuit at the Manhattan Supreme Court last month, claiming Giuliani had been 'inconsistent and sporadic' with the payments he was required to give her per their divorce agreement.

The couple split in 2018 after 15 years of marriage, which was followed by a fiery court battle over their $30 million fortune.

As per their divorce agreement, Giuliani agreed to pay his ex-wife $5,000 a month to provide her with a housekeeper or assistant, as well as $200,000 for an unsold $3.3 million property they owned.

Judith claimed that when Giuliani attempted to pay $10,000 of the $45,000 owed last year in back pay for the help, the check bounced.

Judith and Giuliani were married for 15 years before their heated divorce, with saw a court battle play out over their $30 million fortune

Along with the lawsuits, Giuliani also had his licensee suspended in New York and Washington, D.C., as he faces election-related ethics charges

Despite his recent legal troubles, Judith is 'confident' that Rudy can afford to pay her the request through multiple properties he owns in New York City and Palm Beach, Florida.

Along with his ex-wife's lawsuit, Giuliani is also being sued by Dominion Voting Systems for $1.3 billion over his claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.

Giuliani had spearheaded legal efforts by former President Donald Trump to overturn the electoral results in multiple swing states, including Georgia, that were won by Joe Biden.

The former Trump lawyer also had his license suspended in New York and Washington, D.C., as he faces election-related ethics charges.

His passionate promotion of the claim that the election was stolen culminated in Giuliani speaking at a press conference with hair dye dripping down the side of his face.

'From America's hero to now a man whose hair dye is running down his face, what happened?' Judith was asked by Inside Edition last week.

'It breaks my heart,' she answered. 'It's sad.'

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor on New York City, married Judith Nathan, a nurse, in 2003

Judith said that it has been painful seeing her ex-husband fall from grace after previously being held 'America's Mayor' over his leadership of New York City through the September 11 terrorist attack.

'I can certainly tell you - the person you see now is not the man I married,' she said.

Judith said that a turning point was her then-husband's failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, losing out to John McCain.

She said Donald Trump, a contemporary of Rudy Giuliani's who had known the Brooklyn-born mayor for decades, agreed to help him get over the electoral defeat.

'We stayed at Mar-A-Lago. We were given a place to go where Rudy could have sanctuary and recover,' she said.

She said he was delighted to be asked by Trump to serve, in 2018, as his lawyer.

'There becomes this thing I watched happen to him  that power just becomes extremely addictive,' she said.

'One of the other things Rudy also loves is the limelight.'
A man suspected of swindling at least seven women on Tinder was arrested after leading the police on a high-speed daylight pursuit through the streets of the southeastern Brazilian state of Sao Paulo.

Renan Gomes, 35, reportedly met the victims- between the ages of 34 and 40 - on the dating app and dated them for a while before he scammed them and vanished.

Authorities were finally able to locate Gomes on a street in the Sao Paulo municipality of Sao Bernardo do Campo on Thursday.

Video showed several marked police cars chasing Gomes before they rammed into his vehicle and caused him to crash.

Brazilian police chase after Renan Gomes before they arrested the 35-year-old who is accused of scamming women on Tinder and other dating apps

The lead prosecutor in the case said that there could be more women who may have been scammed by Renan Gomes

Gomes, who had been wanted since December 2021, set up multiple accounts on dating apps like Tinder, Inner, Happn and Loovo, under the false name of Augusto Keller, according to Brazilian news outlet G1.

'He presents himself as an affectionate, considerate man, with stories of the absence of a close family or a heavy workload, a pretext that prevented the victim from being included in his social circle,' lead prosecutor Erika Pucci said. 'However, he maintained personal encounters, including attending the victims' residence and meeting their family members, gaining their trust as well.'

Gomes allegedly targeted upper-middle class women and told them that he worked as an engineer. He would also say that he was the son of German parents who lost their lives in a car accident in the Aracatuba, Sao Paulo.

Renan Gomes set up accounts on dating apps like Tinder, Inner, Happn and Loovo, under the false name of Augusto Keller. His Tinder profile, which was still active at the time of his arrest, read: 'I've been single for a year. I joined the app looking for a serious relationship, if you're looking for sex or fun, please skip my profile'

Authorities rammed their vehicles into Renan Gomes' car before he crashed and was taken into custody Thursday in Sao Paulo

Authorities said Renan Gomes targeted middle to upper class women between the ages of 34 and 40. He dated them for several months and as soon as he gained their trust he would tell them about his financial problems and before borrowing money and disappearing

News portal Tribuna Online reported that Gomes told his victims that he was single and had no children and that he lived in the Sao Paulo City upscale neighborhood of Jardins.

'I've been single for a year,' Gomes' Tinder profile read. 'I joined the app looking for a serious relationship, if you're looking for sex or fun, please skip my profile.'

Gomes seriously dated the women and got to know their family members and close friends. Once he had their full trust, he would sell them the sob story that he had financial problems with banks or that he owed back taxes to the Special Department of Federal Revenue of Brazil.

According to Tribuna Online, one of the victims was a teacher who dated Gomes for four months in 2021 and became suspicious when he disappeared with about $28,000.

The woman told investigators she knew something was off when Gomes would constantly change his cellphone.

Gomes never deleted his dating apps and was still active on all of them at the time of his arrest.

Pucci said there could be more victims beyond the seven who had already come forward.

'The ruse he uses for his coups is precisely the manipulation of feelings,' Pucci said.
The youngest member of a gang of youths who fatally stabbed a teenager after being driven to the scene by one of their mothers has been locked up for more than six years.

The boy was just 14-years-old when he was recruited to join in on the revenge attack on 17-year-old Levi Ernest Morrison on April 10 last year.

Levi, who had autism and nerve damage, was chased by the gang before being caught and knifed.

The group of youths had been armed with three machetes and a knife when they chased Levi and his friend in Sydenham, south London before fatally stabbing him.

Mother Nichola Leighton and her son Tyreese Ulysses were jailed last year after being found guilty of killing the teenager.

The Old Bailey heard Leighton became furious after the victim and his friends kept knocking on her door looking for her son, in the wake of a taunting video by her son and Alex Sprules.

Levi (right) had autism and nerve damage which gave him drop foot, meaning he needed to walk with a crutch

She saw red and told police that if the boys returned she was going to batter them, jurors were told.

When Ulysses found out the teenagers had been bothering his mother, he rallied his friends, including the then 14-year-old, all armed with knives, The Old Bailey heard.

The youths jumped out of Leightons Suzuki jeep and chased Levi and one of his friends, jurors heard.

Levi was caught and fatally stabbed by Sprules while Ulysses and the 14-year-old chased the friend before running back when they heard a dreadful scream.

After the attack, which took just 30 seconds, the youths sprinted back to the waiting car and Leighton sped away.

Levi Ernest-Morrison (pictured) was killed on April 10 in Sydenham, southeast London

Following a trial last year, mother-of-three Leighton, 37, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years for murder.

Ulysses, 20, from Catford, was jailed for 13 years for manslaughter with a further five years on extended licence.

Sprules, 18, from Lewisham, was locked up for at least 20 years for murder and a 16-year-old boy, from Bromley, who had swung a machete at Levi causing him to trip over, was detained for life with a minimum of 16 years for murder.

The jury convicted the youngest defendant of having a knife but failed to reach a verdict on murder.

Ahead of his retrial at the Old Bailey, the boy, now aged 16, from Lewisham, south London, pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter.

An artist impression of Nicola Leighton, 36, and her son Tyreese Ulysses, 19, appearing at the Old Bailey last year

On Friday, he was sentenced to six years and three months in custody with a further five years on extended licence.

Judge Peter Rook told him: These offences including your offence of manslaughter are truly grave offences.

They are a further example of knife crime which has become the scourge of some of our cities.

From videos downloaded from mobile handsets and YouTube it is clear that this grave offence was committed in the context of gang rivalry.

However petty the rivalry was between the groups of teenagers, it was characterised by the use of lethal weapons.

The judge noted the devastating effect on Levis family, who described him as loyal and kind.

He also acknowledged the defendant, who aspired to be an actor and musician, had been identified as a victim of modern slavery and had suffered neglect in his childhood.
A grand jury indicted three officers and two paramedics for manslaughter and reckless homicide in 2021

A probe found that there was no evidence justifying the police's decision to stop him, as he was not violating any laws

After three years without a cause, the death of Elijah McClain during a wrongful arrest in 2019, has now been attributed to the neck hold and ketamine injection he was given by police and medical responders.

An amended autopsy has revealed that McClain, a 23-year-old Colorado man, died because he was forcibly restrained and injected with the powerful sedative.

An initial autopsy listed the cause of death as 'undetermined.'

The autopsy was later updated in July 2021, but was not made available to the public by the coroner because it reportedly included confidential grand jury information.

Dr. Stephen Cina, who updated the autopsy, said a ketamine dosage given to McClain to subdue him 'was too much for this individual and it resulted in an overdose.'

Police stopped McClain as he walked down the street of a Denver suburb because locals reported him as suspicious for wearing a ski mask.

A state grand jury indicted three officers and two paramedics with manslaughter and reckless homicide in 2021, though the autopsy report was not then publicly available, according to the Associated Press.

The five accused in his death each face one count of manslaughter and one count of criminally negligent homicide. None of the five entered pleas during a court appearance last month, and a new arraignment was scheduled for Nov. 4.

Elijah McClain left, and right in hospital after he was fatally-injured while being arrested in Aurora, Colorado, in August 2019. He died six days later of his injuries

Police put McClain in a chokehold, and medical responders later sedated him with ketamine

McClain was walking home from a convenience store with a bottle of iced tea when he was stopped by police officers responding to a call about a suspicious male wearing a mask

One year after his death, his mother, Shaneen McClain, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Aurora

The autopsy report followed an opinion given via the grand jury indictment by an unnamed pathologist who suggested McClain died of a sedative overdose.

Cina added that because of the force use against McClain, he could not rule out possible metabolic changes that would have resulted in McClain's death.

Despite this, the updated autopsy concluded that it is likely the ketamine is what led to his death.

'I believe that Mr. McClain would most likely be alive but for the administration of ketamine,' Cina said.

He added that body camera footage indicates McClain becoming 'extremely sedated' after being given the drug.

A probe by Denver city officials found that there was no evidence justifying the police's decision to stop McClain, who was not accused of violating any laws.

The officers who stopped McClain on the street and put him in a chokehold are (left to right) Jason Rosenblatt, Nathan Woodyard and Randy Roedema. All three have now been charged

McClain's death gained widespread attention during protests against racial injustice and police brutality following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis

The McClain's $15 million settlement against a city surpasses that of a $12 million wrongful death lawsuit for Breonna Taylor, right, who was killed by police during a botched drug raid

The city of Aurora awarded McClain's family $15 million in a 2021 settlement his parents brought against Denver police.

At the time, the settlement was the largest ever for a civil rights case in Colorado, according to AP.

'The money is just the world's way of saying, 'We're sorry,' but it's not going to help me heal the hole in my heart,' said Sheneen McClain, Elijah's mother.

Elijah's father, LaWayne Mosley, said he '(hoped) Elijah's legacy is that police will think twice before killing another innocent person.'

Colorado's health department announced December 1, 2021, that ketamine should not be used by emergency workers to subdue people performing 'erratic behavior.'

McClain's death was the catalyst to this new ruling, according to another AP report.
Breakfast time in Dunkirk, and a human trafficker in a black top brazenly marches a large crowd of migrants along a street busy with French shoppers buying their baguettes.

Displaying all the confidence of an official tourist guide, he leads his throng to a local bus stop. There the 70 or so Iraqis and Iranians  some with little children on their shoulders  join him on board for the hour-long road-trip to the beach where a black rubber boat waits to take them illegally to England.

This was the scene on Wednesday morning at the French port, even though plenty of gendarmes were on patrol to stop this latest addition to the flow of illegal migrants crossing the Channel from France.

What we witnessed shows that the migrant crisis on the north French coast is now out of control. Numbers reaching Britain have topped 31,000 this year, and historic Dunkirk  the scene of an iconic evacuation of more than 300,000 British and French troops during the war  is in the grip of traffickers who conduct their multi-million-pound people trade with impunity and no fear of the authorities.

Breakfast time in Dunkirk, and a human trafficker in a black top brazenly marches a large crowd of migrants along a street busy with French shoppers buying their baguettes

Migrants are led from the large migrant camp outside Dunkirk to the nearby bus-stop to travel to the beach at Fort Des Dunes

Once the 70 or so Iraqis and Iranians  some with little children on their shoulders  reach the beach, a black rubber boat waits to take them illegally to England

A general drone view of migrants attempting to inflate their dinghies, which were burst by French Beach Patrol Police

A general drone view of the Forte Des Dunes, with a migrant spotter overlooking a waiting police buggy

We watched the trafficker and his paying customers over four hours that day, first spotting the group walking fast along a road leading from the migrants' tented camp a few miles outside Dunkirk.

We saw them reach the bus stop at a shopping mall on the town's fringes. They waited there for a few minutes before boarding the C2 bus at 9.40am and travelling the four miles to Fort des Dunes in the nearby seaside town of Leffrinckoucke.

The bus was so full of migrants, with all seats and standing room taken, that the French people hoping to board in Dunkirk and at stops en route had to wait for the next bus to come along.

When I talked to the bus driver, a young Frenchman with a hipster beard, to ask whether he thought his passengers were really migrants, he told me clearly: 'Clandestins allant en Angleterre' ('Illegals going to England'). Rolling his eyes wearily, he warned me not to get on, but to wait for the next bus on the same route 15 minutes later, with fewer passengers.

We saw them reach the bus stop at a shopping mall on the town's fringes. They waited there for a few minutes before boarding the C2 bus at 9.40am and travelling the four miles to Fort des Dunes in the nearby seaside town of Leffrinckoucke (pictured)

The bus was so full of migrants, with all seats and standing room taken, that the French people hoping to board in Dunkirk and at stops en route had to wait for the next bus to come along

A general drone view of the Forte Des Dunes, with a migrant spotter overlooking a waiting police buggy

A general drone view of migrants trying to inflate their dinghies which were burst by French Beach Patrol Police

What we witnessed shows that the migrant crisis on the north French coast is now out of control

An hour later, after tracking his C2 bus out of Dunkirk, we observed the trafficker's group get off at a stop in a narrow street in Fort des Dunes called Rue de 2 Juin 1940, named to commemorate France's own military deaths in Leffrinckoucke during the Dunkirk evacuation.

The migrants emerged from the vehicle, still being led by the trafficker who guided them over the road carefully via a zebra crossing. They headed for a tiny footbridge spanning an inter-city railway line, which drops down into a housing estate in Leffrinckoucke. With the trafficker still in front, the migrants briskly passed terrace houses with Gallic names such as one celebrating the novelist Emile Zola.

A quarter of an hour later, they had reached the wooden gate of a nature park full of trees, a favourite of local dog walkers and hikers, called Dune Dewulf.

Myriad tracks lead through the park to the town's mile-long beach from where, on a clear day, you can see the white cliffs of Dover.

It was as the group went through the gate that we last saw the trafficker in his black top.

An hour later, after tracking his C2 bus out of Dunkirk, we observed the trafficker's group get off at a stop in a narrow street in Fort des Dunes called Rue de 2 Juin 1940

The migrants headed for a tiny footbridge spanning an inter-city railway line, which drops down into a housing estate in Leffrinckoucke

A general drone view of the Forte Des Dunes, with a migrant spotter overlooking a waiting police buggy

Last year, the Mayor of Leffrinckoucke, Olivier Ryckebusch, said his town was overwhelmed by the number of migrants waiting to cross to the UK

A general drone view of migrants attempting to inflate their dinghies, which were burst by French Beach Patrol Police

This group is believed to have reached England's South Coast on one of 15 boats which brought 667 migrants into the UK from the beaches of northern France on Wednesday

A general drone view of the Forte Des Dunes, with a migrant spotter overlooking a waiting police buggy

The migrants, however, left the park three hours later, running onto the sands to the blow-up dinghy which they knew would be there because people-smuggling gangs had pinned the location on their mobile phones.

They inflated the boat and by 1.40pm at least 50 of the migrants could be spotted on board in red life jackets as they headed towards England amid French sailing boats and windsurfers. Maritime tracking stations, monitored that day by the Mail, show that no French naval rescue vessels stopped them on their way.

This group is believed to have reached England's South Coast on one of 15 boats which brought 667 migrants into the UK from the beaches of northern France on Wednesday.

If the journey we tracked was a one-off, it would be worrying enough. But later that day the Mail saw another group of 40 migrant customers, also led by their smuggler guide, travelling by bus from Dunkirk to Fort des Dunes.

This group got off the bus at the final stop, a terminus next to the beach, before walking past tourists eating ice creams into woods with high dunes overlooking the sea before they, too, disappeared.

A quarter of an hour later, they had reached the wooden gate of a nature park full of trees, a favourite of local dog walkers and hikers, called Dune Dewulf (pictured)

Myriad tracks lead through the park to the town's mile-long beach from where, on a clear day, you can see the white cliffs of Dover

A general drone view of migrants attempting to inflate their dinghies, which were burst by French Beach Patrol Police

A general drone view of migrants attempting to inflate their dinghies, which were burst by French Beach Patrol Police

The area is a traffickers' paradise. It is dotted with brick fortifications, built in the 19th century to protect France from invasion, but still bearing the battle scars of the 1940 evacuation. These fortifications are now used to hide migrants. High above the beach, they are also perfect look-out posts where traffickers can spot police who scout the seashore in four-wheel-drive vehicles in a bid to stop the launchings.

Last year, the Mayor of Leffrinckoucke, Olivier Ryckebusch, said his town was overwhelmed by the number of migrants waiting to cross to the UK. 'We feel helpless,' he said, before asking President Macron for emergency funds to clear up the mess the illegal travellers left behind in the woods and beach.

'You can see on the ground the debris of transport equipment: packaging of boats, life jackets, and their old gasoline cans (for making fires). Families wait to embark from here on the beach area to England. Afterwards, we have to collect the rubbish and get rid of it in our town, somehow.'

But Leffrinckoucke is not alone. At seven in the morning on Thursday we learned that the traffickers' had changed tactics, as they often do.

They had moved their launch operations overnight to Grand Fort Philippe, a beach on the other side of Dunkirk.

Last year, the Mayor of Leffrinckoucke, Olivier Ryckebusch, said his town was overwhelmed by the number of migrants waiting to cross to the UK

If each of the migrants on the 9.40am bus from Dunkirk was paying the going rate of at least 2,000 to the trafficker tour guide for their journey to Britain, he will be a very rich man today

We were there early and saw line after line of migrants running from the sand dunes and nearby trees on to the beach where they desperately tried to inflate boats.

This time, the French police had got there first. They moved in fast to puncture the inflatable boats, rendering them unseaworthy. The rubber carcasses were left lying in the sand as their intended occupants tried pathetically to carry what was left  the outboard motors and metal strut supports in the bases of the boats  back into the dunes.

It was a triumph of a kind for the forces of law and order. But the traffickers, who have been embedded on this coast for 20 years now, are not easily beaten  they have organised 'a military operation on land and sea in meticulous detail', we were told by one senior gendarme in Dunkirk. 'They are running the show.'

It is a cat-and-mouse game, to be sure. And, at the moment, only the mouse is winning. For if each of the migrants on the 9.40am bus from Dunkirk was paying the going rate of at least 2,000 to the trafficker tour guide for their journey to Britain, he will be a very rich man today.
It also claims Meghan strongly criticized plan drawn up by young female employee in front of colleagues

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The Duke of Sussex was fixated about becoming a has-been once his nephew Prince George turned 18, a new book claims.

It alleges Harry, before he met Meghan, had a long-held fear that he would be an also-ran.

This apparently compounded the frustration he felt when aides talked him down from things he wanted to do separately from William and Kate, the book says.

'Extracts of Courtiers: the Hidden Power Behind the Crown' by Valentine Low were published by The Times last night.

The book also makes claims about Meghans treatment of staff. On one occasion the Duchess of Sussex is said to have strongly criticized a plan drawn up by a young female employee in front of colleagues.

William later tried to comfort the unnamed staff member by saying she was doing a good job and the woman burst into tears.

The Duke of Sussex (pictured with his wife Meghan Markle in October 2019) was fixated about becoming a has-been once his nephew Prince George turned 18, a new book claims

It alleges Harry, before he met Meghan (the couple, pictured in Rabat, Morocco in 2019 before they stepped down from royal duties and moved to the US), had a long-held fear that he would be an also-ran

The book also makes claims about Meghans treatment of staff. On one occasion, the Duchess of Sussex is said to have strongly criticized a plan drawn up by a young female employee in front of colleagues. Pictured: Meghan cries as Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Queen Camilla and King Charles attend the state funeral and burial of Queen Elizabeth II

Poll shows rise in support for monarchy Support for the monarchy has increased following the Queens funeral, a poll shows. Some 47 per cent believe Britain will be worse if it is abolished, the survey of 1,000 adults found  up from 42 per cent who said the same in June. Only 22 per cent said scrapping the monarchy would improve the UK, down slightly from 23 per cent. The poll also revealed that 56 per cent still expect the monarchy to last for at least another 50 years, up from 45 per cent in March this year. The proportion who said Charles III will make a good King has risen from 49 per cent to 61 per cent, closer to the level of support for Prince William, whom 72 per cent expect to do a good job in the role when the time comes. Kelly Beaver, chief executive of Ipsos, which carried out the survey, said: King Charles starts his reign with the majority of Britons optimistic that he will make a good King and an increased belief in the longevity of the monarchy. Advertisement

After Meghan and Harry married, Samantha Cohen, the Queens former assistant private secretary, joined their team as their interim private secretary.

The book quotes a source saying that she, too, was bullied and nothing she did was ever good enough for the couple.

Extracts claim a source once said: Sam [Cohen] always made clear that it was like working for a couple of teenagers. They were impossible and pushed her to the limit. She was miserable.

The duchesss lawyers denied in 2021 that Miss Cohen had been bullied, saying that the couple were always grateful for her support and dedication.

They have also long described such allegations as massively inaccurate and that the duchess has absolutely denied bullying anyone.

While an inquiry launched by Buckingham Palace concluded it would review how it handled bullying complaints, it did not say that the duchess had actually bullied anyone.

The book also tells how Meghan clashed with her personal assistant, Melissa Touabti, over free gifts including clothes, jewelry and candles that some companies sent to the duchess.

Ms. Touabti, who quit just six months after joining the palace, followed the rule that members of the Royal Family cannot accept gifts from commercial organisations, but the book claims her approach did not go down well with Meghan.

The book is due to be published on October 6 by Headline Books.

In June, Buckingham Palace effectively buried a report into allegations of bullying by the Duchess of Sussex.

After Meghan and Harry married, Samantha Cohen (pictured, at the back, with Meghan and Her Majesty at the front), the Queens former assistant private secretary, joined their team as their interim private secretary

Last year a palace spokesman made clear that the specifics of the allegations  which were brought to the attention of senior household staff at the time by Harry and Meghans concerned press secretary, Jason Knauf (above)  would not be investigated

Did Harry turn down dinner over duchesss exclusion? By David Wilkes Prince Harry refused to have dinner with his father and brother after Meghan was banned from joining the family at Balmoral on the day the Queen died, it was claimed today. The Duke of Sussex, 38, was reportedly left furious after King Charles phoned to tell him it was not appropriate for Meghan, 41, to accompany him to the Scottish estate on September 8. William took an RAF flight to Scotland with their uncles Andrew and Edward. But Harry is said to have missed it because he was so busy trying to get Meghan to Balmoral and rowing with his family. Told to make his own travel arrangements, he landed at Aberdeen airport without the Duchess of Sussex minutes after the Queens death was announced to the world. There was never any suggestion Kate would join William but the Sussexes were said to have announced that morning Meghan and Harry were on their way  but by the afternoon the plan had changed. Today, The Sun reported that Harry was invited to dine at Birkhall, his fathers home on the Balmoral estate, with the King, William and Camilla, Queen Consort the night of the Queens death. But he was said to have instead remained at Balmoral Castle with the Earl and Countess of Wessex and the Duke of York. A source told the newspaper: Charles has an open invitation for Harry to dine with him whenever he is in the country. But Harry was so furious that he refused to eat with his father and brother. And he got out of Balmoral at the earliest opportunity to catch the first commercial flight back to London. Advertisement

Royal aides admitted for the first time the findings would never be made public.

A source told the Daily Mail at the time: People suspected it would be buried, and now it seems that it has.

The Daily Mail understands that even those who took part in the inquiry havent been told what the outcome is.

Palace officials would confirm only that their investigation had concluded and recommendations on our policy and procedures had been taken forward.

Royal aides announced in March last year that they were launching an inquiry into claims that Meghans belittling behaviour while a working member of the Royal Family drove two female personal assistants out of the household and undermined the confidence of a third.

Staff were said to have been left in tears and feeling traumatised  with some likening their condition to having post-traumatic stress.

The Royal Household employed a third-party law firm, paid for by the family privately, to probe the claims in a move that some predicted could increase tensions between Harry and Meghan and the institution.

The allegations have always been strongly denied by the duchess, whose lawyers described them at the time as a calculated smear campaign.

Last year a palace spokesman made clear that the specifics of the allegations  which were brought to the attention of senior household staff at the time by Harry and Meghans concerned press secretary, Jason Knauf  would not be investigated.

But they said they would investigate how the historic allegations of bullying were handled by officials and whether any changes to their HR policies and procedures should be instigated as a result.

A spokesman confirmed that if those findings were to be made public, they would be included in this years Sovereign Grant report  the official annual review into the royal households public finances.

But announcing the report yesterday, the Master of the Privy Purse, Sir Michael Stevens, said of the investigation: There is nothing on this in the report.

As we said last year, this work was undertaken privately and had no Sovereign Grant money spent on it.

The review has been completed and recommendations on our (HR) policy and procedures have been taken forward. But we will not be commenting further.

Furious Prince Harry 'SNUBBED dinner with King Charles and William at Balmoral after bust-up when monarch banned Meghan from joining grieving royal family at Scottish estate the day The Queen died - causing the duke to miss his flight'

By MATTHEW LODGE FOR MAILONLINE

The Duke of Sussex snubbed dinner with King Charles III and his brother the Prince of Wales at Balmoral after a row with his father when the new monarch banned Meghan Markle from joining the grieving Royal Family on the day the Queen died, sources have claimed.

Prince Harry reportedly wanted his wife to join him as royals raced to the Scottish estate to say their final goodbyes to their beloved mother and grandmother on September 8.

However, Britain's new King phoned his youngest son and told him it was 'not appropriate' for the former Suits actress to be there, according to reports.

It is claimed that in the ensuing row, during which Harry fought to persuade his father to allow Meghan to come with him, he missed a flight carrying William and their uncles Andrew and Edward to Scotland - and with it the chance to bid farewell.

The prince - who plunged the monarchy into crisis after he and the duchess sensationally quit royal duties and left the UK for California two years ago, before making a series of stunning allegations against The Firm - was so angry that his wife had been banned, and that he had missed his first flight, that he refused to have dinner that evening with Charles, William and Queen Consort Camilla.

Instead, he ate with the Duke of York and the Earl and Countess of Wessex before leaving early the next morning, The Sun reports.

It is claimed that in the ensuing row Prince Harry missed his flight to Aberdeen, meaning he took a later one that only landed after Her Majesty's death had been announced to the world. Pictured: The Duke of Sussex looks sombre while travelling from Aberdeen to Balmoral on the day of the Queen's death

Instead of having dinner with his father, brother and stepmother, Harry decided to eat with his uncles at Balmoral Castle on the night of the Queen's death. Pictured: Balmoral Castle in Scotland

Prince Harry allegedly snubbed his father and brother when having dinner at Balmoral after the new King banned his wife from attending. Pictured: King Charles III and the Duke of Sussex walk alongside Princess Anne as they arrive at the committal service for the Queen at Windsor on September 19

After the row the Prince of Wales and Duke of Sussex put on a united front by walking out to meet members of the public. Pictured: The Princess of Wales, the Prince of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex walk outside Windsor Castle on September 10

Harry was so furious after the row that he ate dinner with Prince Andrew, Prince Edward afterwards, instead of his brother and father. Pictured: The Prince of Wales, Duke of York, and Earl and Countess of Wessex, arrive at Balmoral after the Queen's death

The Sun quotes a source as saying: 'Harry was so busy trying to get Meghan to Balmoral and rowing with his family that he missed the flight.

'Charles has an open invitation for Harry to dine with him whenever he is in the country.

'But Harry was so furious that he refused to eat with his father and brother.

'It was a massive snub. And he got out of Balmoral at the earliest opportunity to catch the first commercial flight back to London.'

The next morning he was the first member of the Royal Family to leave, boarding an early British Airways flight from Aberdeen where he was pictured comforting an airport worker after she passed along her condolences for his grandmother's death.

Harry headed back to Meghan at 8.28am, where he was sat alone in the rear of a Range Rover as he was driven out of the Royal Family's Scottish home, where he had arrived at 7.52pm the night before.

The death of Queen Elizabeth: A timeline of how today's sad news was announced 12.35pm: A statement is released by Buckingham Palace, announcing that the Queen is under medical supervision at Balmoral after doctors became 'concerned for her health'. A Palace spokesperson said: 'Following further evaluation this morning, the Queen's doctors are concerned for Her Majesty's health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision. The Queen remains comfortable and at Balmoral.' 12.47pm: A statement is released by Clarence House, confirming that Prince Charles and his wife Camilla would travel to Balmoral. It said: 'The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have travelled to Balmoral'. 12.48pm: A minute later, Kensington Palace announces that Price William will be travelling to Balmoral. The statement read: 'The Duke of Cambridge is also travelling to Balmoral.' 1.37pm: It is reported that Prince Andrew has travelled to Balmoral Castle in Scotland following news that doctors were concerned for The Queen's health. 1.38pm: Sources confirm to the Press Association (PA) that The Princess Royal is at Balmoral, and the Duke of York and the Earl and Countess of Wessex are on their way to the Queen's Scottish home. 1.55pm: A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex confirms that the couple will be 'travelling to Scotland'. While the initial statement mentioned 'Scotland', it did not make directly make mention of Balmoral. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were due to attend the WellChild Awards ceremony in London on Thursday evening, but changed their plans to travel to see the Queen. 4.14pm: A news alert by the Press Association (PA) said that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were believed to be travelling to Balmoral 'separately' from other royals. 4.39pm: Less than 30 minutes later, PA issue another news alert, quoting an unnamed source, saying that that the Duchess of Sussex would not travel to Balmoral with the Duke of Sussex. The source said that Prince Harry would be making the trip by himself. A source said the Duchess could potentially join Harry in Scotland at a later date, following what PA described as a 'change of plan'. 4.44pm: Minutes later, Omid Scobie, a journalist considered to be 'friendly' towards the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and who often quotes unnamed sources close to the couple, writes a post on social media network, Twitter about the situation. He wrote: A source has shared an update stating that only Prince Harry has made the trip up to Balmoral. Like the Duchess of Cambridge (who is in Windsor with their three children), the Duchess of Sussex is staying back in England (but still not attending tonight's WellChild Awards).' The post mentions Kate, who earlier in the day it was revealed would not travel to Balmoral. 6.30pm: The Royal Family announces via social media site Twitter that Queen has died 'peacefully' at Balmoral at the age of 96. 8pm: Prince Harry arrives at Balmoral following the public announcement Advertisement

He was swept into Aberdeen airport at 9.20am, led by five police outriders, and boarded a flight to London leaving at 10am.

Harry wore a black suit and carried a shoulder bag as he walked towards the steps of the plane. An airport worker offered her sympathies as the Prince was about to walk up the steps of a British Airways aircraft.

The woman, who was dressed in a high- visibility yellow jacket, addressed Prince Harry. The royal smiled and patted her gently in the shoulder before boarding the aircraft for Londons Heathrow Airport.

Less than 12 hours earlier grief had been written on the Duke's face after landed in Scotland following the announcement of Queen Elizabeth II's death.

He had his head bowed and partially covered his face as he was driven out of Aberdeen airport, arriving at Balmoral after dark.

The Queen's death had forced an unexpected reunion between Harry and the rest of the Royal Family.

The Sussexes, whose comments since Megxit has caused a rift with the royals, especially William, were not expected to see any royals during their tour of the UK and Europe - despite staying yards from the Cambridges during their pseudo-royal tour of Europe - until Her Majesty's passing.

Since then the pair have taken part in more than a week of national mourning with other members of the Royal Family.

Harry was prominent in a number of processions and services, walking behind his grandmother's coffin as it was transported from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, and again as it was subsequently moved to Westminster Abbey for her funeral.

Meanwhile, Meghan joined her husband for the Queen's funeral and committal service on Monday, September 19, as well as for the coffin procession to Westminster Hall on September 14.

The pair also appeared to put on a united front with the Prince and Princess of Wales, heading out together to greet mourners and well-wishers at Windsor Castle.

It was claimed earlier this week that Meghan requested a 'one-to-one' meeting with King Charles in a bid to heal rifts before she left for California with Harry after the Queen's funeral.

Neil Sean, an entertainment correspondent who has appeared on NBC News, MSNBC and Access Hollywood, said that he had heard from a 'very good source' that the American actress had sent a letter requesting a private conversation with the King.

Mr Sean claims that Meghan wanted to 'clear the air' amid reports the couple would fly back to the US as soon as they can to see their children, Archie, three, and Lilibet, one.

'She'd now like before they return back to California to have a one-to-one audience with King Charles III,' Sean said in a video posted to YouTube, that has recorded nearly 300k views.

'That's rightMeghan one-to-one with King Charles. You heard correct.

'It's a very brave move from Meghan herself,' Sean said.

Detailing the content of the letter, he said: 'It would be an opportunity to clear the air, pull the rights from wrongs and explain some of the rationale behind what they've been doing over the last two years.

'Now, you know, you have to admire Meghan's self-belief, whatever you think.'

However, in a twist, royal sources claimed it was 'very unlikely' that the Duchess of Sussex had written such a letter.

Charles is known to want to heal his relationship with his son and his wife, even saying how much he loved them in his first address as King, making it very unlikely he would ignore such a request if it happened, one source said.

Buckingham Palace and the Sussexes have not commented on the claims, however royal sources told MailOnline that Meghan would be 'very unlikely' to trouble the King as he mourns his mother after yesterdays funeral and as he grapples with his first days as King.

Another insider said it would be 'odd' for the Duchess to write formally to the King directly for a meeting, given Harry would have a direct path to his father.

Meghan Markle, the Dutchess of Sussex, requested a 'one-to-one' meeting with Charles in a formal letter sent to the new King, according to a Royals insider

The Royals insider claims the 41-year-old penned a formal note to King Charles hoping to meet privately following his mother's funeral

Prince William directs Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to their seats at St George's Chapel for the committal service

Prince William and Prince Harry join the procession following the state hearse carrying the coffin at Windsor

While William and Harry have put aside their disagreements for royal events in recent days, fears over the content of Harry's upcoming memoir continue to cast a cloud over their relationship - especially following the bombshell interview he and Meghan gave to Oprah Winfrey in March 2021 when they accused an unnamed royal of racism.

Rumours of a rift between the brothers first emerged in 2019 when they divided their households following various disagreements about Harry's role, but their feud deepened amid the fallout from the Megxit saga in 2020.

But the death of the Queen has seen the rivals shelve their differences, with William and Kate joined by Harry and Meghan for the first occasions in more than two years since Commonwealth Day in March 2020.

A royal source told the Telegraph's Camilla Tominey that Prince William and Kate, felt 'the focus should solely be on this period of deep mourning and nothing else. The focus should only be on his late grandmother'.

Prince Andrew and Prince Harry were both again banned from saluting during the procession to Westminster Abbey on Monday  while other royals including King Charles III, Prince William and Princess Anne all performed the gesture.

Members of the Royal Family saluted when the Queen's coffin was taken into the Abbey. But Andrew and Harry simply stood still because they were not allowed to wear military uniform, as neither are now working royals.

It comes after Harry and Andrew were also prohibited from saluting at the funeral procession to Westminster Hall. Andrew did also not salute at the vigil in Edinburgh for the same reason.

The decision to ban Harry and Andrew from wearing military uniforms in most events following the Queen's death at Balmoral is a reminder of how both now have limited involvement in the Royal Family.

Prince Harry spent ten years in the Army, but he was stripped of his honorary military titles in 2020 after he and his wife announced they were stepping down as senior working royals and moving abroad.

His uncle the Duke of York, who was forced to stand down from public life in 2019 over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, is the only other royal banned from wearing military uniform at the ceremonial events and funeral.

Meghan was 'unresponsive' to Queen Consort Camilla's attempts to give her advice and support when she first joined the Royal Family, book claims

By Jessica Taylor for MailOnline

The Duchess of Sussex was 'unresponsive' to Queen Consort Camilla's advice to her when she first joined The Firm, a royal book has claimed.

A new biography of the Queen Consort, written by Angela Levin, claims the then-Duchess of Cornwall organised lunches with Meghan and did her best to welcome her into the family - but her advice fell flat with an 'unresponsive' Meghan.

An extract of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall: A Royal Survivor, which was published in the Telegraph, Levin claims Camilla was keen to help Meghan at the beginning of her relationship with Harry after herself struggling to be accepted by the Royal Family, and 'warmly' welcomed her when she first arrived in London.

A biography of the Queen Consort Camilla, written by Angela Levin, claims the then-Duchess of Cornwall was keen to welcome Meghan into the family (Meghan and Queen Consort Camilla at the Queen's funeral at Westminster Abbey on Monday)

Levin added King Charles, who was then Prince of Wales, enjoyed Meghan's company and often spoke to her about theatre and the arts.

In an attempt to help the Duchess of Sussex 'find her feet', the Queen Consort advised her on how to handle the pressure of being in the public eye and the scrutiny she would face as a senior member of the Royal Family.

Levin quoted an unnamed source who told her at the time: 'She doesnt want to see anyone struggling and she is fond of Meghan.'

Despite Camilla's efforts, Levin claimed the Duchess 'seemed bored' and 'preferred to go her own way' in carving out a role for herself within The Firm.

The author also acknowledged the Duchess of Sussex's reputation within the family for being an incredibly hard worker, noting the cookbook she made contributions to which had been put together by survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.

Paying tribute to Meghan's work with the Grenfell community, Levin noted how the Queen Consort invited the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, plus Camilla's friend Lucia Santa Cruz, to lunch at Highgrove, and made sure the menu had been cultivated specifically from recipes in the Grenfell Tower cookbook - which Lucia described as 'a really nice gesture'.

The account detailed by Levin comes as another royal book claims the Queen Consort 'spluttered over her tea' when Prince Harry suggested bringing in a third-party mediator to heal the rift between himself and Meghan and the rest of the family.

Levin claimed Meghan was 'unresponsive' to Camilla's efforts to advise her on the increased scrutiny she would receive as a senior member of the Royal Family (pictured: King Charles, Queen Consort, Harry and Meghan at Charles's 70th birthday)

In The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth's Legacy and the Future of the Crown, by Katie Nicholl, which has been serialised in Vanity Fair, Nicholl wrote how relations between the Duke and Duchess and the rest of the family were most strained after Harry and Meghan did not come to the UK in March 2021 to attend the Duke of Edinburgh's memorial service.

At the time, reports claimed Harry had concerns over his family's security arrangements while in the UK.

Nicholl wrote that King Charles, who was then Prince of Wales, invited Harry and Meghan to tea just weeks after the Duke of Edinburgh's memorial service, as the couple stopped off in the UK before heading to The Hague to attend an Invictus Games event.

However, an unnamed family friend told Nicholl the meeting was 'awkward' and only lasted for around 15 minutes after the Duke and Duchess were late to meet then-Prince Charles and then-Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla.

They claimed: '[Harry] actually suggested that they use a mediator to try and sort things out, which had Charles somewhat bemused and Camilla spluttering into her tea.'

They added the Queen Consort told the Duke his suggestion was 'ridiculous' and that they would resolve their differences within the family.
Vladimir Putin will spark a global nuclear arms race if he drops the bomb on Ukraine, one of Volodymyr Zelensky's top aides has warned.

Mikhailo Podolyak, a key advisor to Ukraine's president, said nuclear-armed states needed to stop Russia acting on threats to nuke the second-largest European country.

Mr Podolyak told The Telegraph: 'Vladimir Putin has gone to war against a non-nuclear state. He can't win a conventional war so he threatens to use nuclear weapons.

'If he gets away with it, every non-nuclear state will say: "I'm going to get the bomb".'

Vladimir Putin (pictured) will spark a global nuclear arms race if he drops the bomb on Ukraine, one of Volodymyr Zelensky's top aides has warned

Russia test-launches one of its new Sarmat nuclear missiles, which it claims can carry up to 15 warheads, strike any country on earth, and cannot be stopped by current defences

He continued: 'Nuclear weapons will be the only guarantee for national defence. Or, on the contrary: it will be shown you can use the bomb aggressively.

'At that point it is not our problem. It is a global problem. It is a problem for the world's nuclear powers. It is the end of nuclear deterrence.'

Mr Podolyak also vowed that Ukraine would continue its counter-offensive against Russia.

A staunch ally of Putin yesterday insisted Russia will use its largest and most-powerful nukes to defend the territory it occupies in Ukraine.

Dmitry Medvedev, who served as a stand-in for Putin from 2008 to 2012, vowed the territories will become part of Russia when referendums are held this week - after which 'any Russian weapons' will be used to defend them.

That includes 'strategic nuclear weapons' such as Putin's giant new Sarmat missile, Medvedev said, and 'weapons based on new principles' - likely a reference to hypersonic technology that the Kremlin claims is invulnerable to air defences.

'The Western establishment [and] all citizens of the NATO countries need to understand that Russia has chosen its own path. There is no way back,' he added.

It comes after it was reported that armed police are going door-to-door while gun-toting mercenaries are guarding polling stations as Russia stages sham referendums in occupied Ukraine.

Dmitry Medvedev, head of the Russian security council, said Russia's hypersonic weapons could strike the West as he issued new threat today

'Voting' is now underway in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions on whether or not to become provinces of Russia - with the results fixed by Moscow.

But, just to make extra sure, Kremlin officials, military police and hired guns are keeping a careful eye over the process - with Ukrainian politicians reporting that they are kicking front doors in to force people to cast their ballots.

Serhiy Haidai, governor of occupied Luhansk, said some towns under Russian occupation have been entirely sealed off to ensure people vote - with any crosses in the 'no' column recorded in a 'notebook'.

Meanwhile state media has reported an unfeasibly high 97 per cent of people in two of those regions - Donetsk and Luhansk - are in favour of joining Russia.

Ballot boxes have also been opened across Russia itself, ostensibly to allow displaced Ukrainians to vote, but in reality offer more opportunities for vote rigging.

Western leaders have declared the referenda to be a sham, saying they have no legitimacy while urging other governments not to recognise the results.

A Russian mercenary wearing the symbol of the notorious Wagner military group stands guard outside a polling station in occupied Ukraine

Russian state media has issued implausible polling which suggests 97 per cent of people in Donetsk and Luhansk are in favour of joining Russia

Votes are being held in four areas currently under Russian control - Donetsk and Luhansk, which together make up the Donbas, as well as Kherson and Zaporizhzhia

Melinda Simmons, the British Ambassador to Ukraine, said that the outcome of the votes had 'already been decided' and described the 'sham' referenda as a 'media exercise designed to pursue further an illegal invasion by Russia'.

However, the votes do still mark a significant moment in the war because it will allow Putin to spin the narrative to his own people that any Ukrainian attack to try and reclaim those territories is an assault on Russia itself.

That expands the suite of options he can use in response.

Perhaps most worryingly, it opens the path to using nuclear weapons since Russia's doctrine allows their use if the existence of the state is threatened.

It would also allow Putin to upgrade his 'special military operation' to a full-blown war, expanding his powers to conscript men and punish those who try to quit.

This week, he has declared a 'partial mobilisation' of Russia's population and appears intent on forcing hundreds of thousands of men into the military.

New laws have extended soldiers' contracts indefinitely, meaning they cannot simply quit if they don't want to keep fighting.

Putin's terrifying nuclear arsenal: 'Unstoppable' hypersonic missiles, submarine drones and artillery capable of lobbing atomic shells that are at the despot's disposal as he threatens the West

By Chris Pleasance for MailOnline

Vladimir Putin has issued a fresh nuclear threat to both Ukraine and the West today, vowing to use 'all means available' to defend 'the territorial integrity of our motherland, our independence and security'.

It is not the first time the despotic leader has made the threat. When launching his 'special military operation' in February, he warned of 'consequences you have never faced in history' to anyone who 'interfered' with the war.

But this time, the threat comes as he scrambles to annex occupied regions of Ukraine to the Russian mainland - making them, in the Kremlin's eyes at least, Russian soil. That would allow nukes to be used, according to the country's Soviet-era doctrine.

So, in the event that Vladimir Putin does decide to go nuclear, what are his options? And how could they be used to strike his enemies? Here, MailOnline runs down some of the weapons in his arsenal...

Warheads

Russia claims a stockpile of 5,977 warheads which - if true - would be the largest nuclear stockpile in the world.

Of these, an estimated 1,588 are deployed - meaning they are placed on top of ballistic missiles or stored at heavy bomber bases ready to be loaded on to aircraft.

Another 977 strategic warheads - the most-powerful kind designed to flatten entire cities - and 1,912 non-strategic warheads are kept in reserve.

That leaves roughly 1,500 which have been retired from services and are waiting to be dismantled, but could theoretically be brought back into use in the event of a war.

For comparison, the US claims a stockpile of 5,428 warheads. The UK and France have around 250 each.

Russian road-launched nuclear missiles are paraded through the streets of Moscow during this year's Victory Day parade, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two

Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles

Known as ICBMs, these are Russia's most-powerful and longest-range missiles and make up the core of what is known as its 'strategic deterrence force'.

Capable of carrying dozens of Russia's most-powerful warheads each and of ranging virtually anywhere on the planet, these weapons are not designed to be used in conflict.

Instead, the sheer terror they inspire is supposed to see off any threat to Russia or its leadership without a shot having to be fired - hence 'deterrent'.

Sarmat

This is Russia's largest and most-advanced nuclear missile, designed to replace the ageing Soviet R-36.

Putin oversaw a final test-launch of the missile shortly before the Ukraine war began, though it is not thought any of the missiles have yet been deployed.

With a range of 11,000 miles, according to the Kremlin, the missiles will be able to hit every country on earth from Russia's bases in remote Siberia.

It is thought Sarmat can house 10 warheads in its nose, each of which can be independently guided to a different target and explode with a yield of 750kiltons. The bomb that destroyed Hiroshima was just 15kilotons.

Sarmat is also thought to be capable of carrying Avangard, a 'hypersonic glide vehicle' stored in the nose of the missile that delivers the nuclear warhead to its target.

Unlike traditional reentry vehicles, the Avangard is thought to be able to fly at low altitude and make multiple fast manoeuvres on its way to a target - making it much harder to shoot down.

Yars

The most-modern ICBM that Russia has in its current arsenal, the RS-24 Yars is capable of carrying up to four nuclear warheads with a range of up to 7,500miles.

Unlike the Sarmat, it uses a soild fuel - meaning it is easier to transport and faster to launch. It can be launched from silos dug into the ground, but can also be mounted on a transporter truck.

Yars is the most-modern ICBM currently in use by Russia's strategic nuclear forces, and is capable of carrying four warheads each of which explodes with the force of half a million tons of TNT

In the event of nuclear war, that means the Yars missiles can be dispersed across a large area - making the much harder to track down and destroy before they can be fired.

Once outside the atmosphere, Yars released its warheads which crash back down to earth at 20 times the speed of sound and explode with a force of 500kilotons - or 500,000 tons of TNT.

Short-to-medium range missiles

Sometimes referred to as 'tactical nukes', these are weapons that have much shorter ranges and much less powerful warheads than their 'strategic' cousins.

These missiles are not meant to immolate cities or bring entire nations to their knees, but are intended to be used in much the same way as conventional bombs - to take out military targets or kill large numbers of soldiers, only using fewer missiles or bombs than would otherwise be required.

For this reason, analysts and experts fear that commanders would be more-likely to use these kinds of nukes - even though the damage they would cause is still extreme, along with the associated fallout.

It is these 'tactical' weapons that most people believe Putin would use against the likes of Ukraine.

Iskander

The mainstay of Russia's rocket forces, Putin is already thought to have used hundreds of these to bomb Ukraine - only using conventional explosives instead of nuclear.

Iskanders can be armed with thermonuclear warheads, however, which would explode with a yield of up to 50kilotons of TNT, according to Russian state media.

Iskander missiles have been used by Russian in its war against Ukraine (pictured) carrying conventional explosives, but can also be armed with nuclear warheads

They are largely launched from road-mobile launchers, meaning they can be easily moved around the battlefield and fired at relatively short notice.

Unlike the ICBMs, the Iskander has a range of just 300 miles - allowing Putin to strike most of Ukraine and eastern Europe from bases in Russia and Kaliningrad, but not much further.

Kalibr

Also a mainstay of Russia's missile arsenal, this is another weapon that has been frequently used to strike targets in Ukraine and has often been filed flying overhead.

Unlike a ballistic missile - which follows an arced trajectory through the air - cruise missiles operate like planes, using their engines and small wings to fly straight through the air before crashing down on a target.

The advantage of this is that they fly lower than ballistic missiles, making them harder to spot.

Kalibrs can also be launched in numerous ways - from ships, submarines, jets or road vehicles - making them extremely versatile. It is thought they can also be tipped with a thermonuclear warhead.

Kinzhal

One of Russia's new 'hypersonic' missiles, the Kinzhal uses classic ballistic missile technology but - unlike most other ballistics - is launched from a plane.

Russia is thought to have specially modified a version of its MiG-31 jet to carry the missiles, which are known to be in use in the skies over Ukraine.

Kinzhal is an air-launched 'hypersonic' ballistic missile that has also been used against Ukraine with a conventional payload, but can be tipped with a nuke if Putin orders it

The missile can fly up to 12 times the speed of sound, which Putin has claimed makes it 'unstoppable' by current missile defence technology.

While Russia is currently using Kinzhal missiles to hit Ukraine with conventional warheads, they can also be tipped with a nuclear warhead with a 500kiloton yield.

Ballistic missile submarines

Ballistic submarines, or SSBNs to the military, are different from nuclear subs: The first are capable of carrying nuclear weapons mounted on ballistic missiles. The second are powered by nuclear reactors. Some can do both.

They are designed for ultimate secrecy. While ground-launched nukes can be spotted by satellites or enemy radar and be destroyed before they can be used, ballistic submarines are much harder to track and their locations kept a closely guarded secret.

The idea is that, in the event of nuclear war, a submarine could pop up anywhere, at any time, and launch its missiles before it can be stopped - making it in important part of the 'nuclear deterrent'.

Poseidon

Not technically a submarine, this is actually an underwater drone and is a one-of-a-kind weapon which only Russia is known to possess.

These craft are nuclear powered, meaning they are near-silent when submerged and can stay underwater for a potentially unlimited amount of time, since they have no crew who need to surface for supplies.

Poseidon is a one-of-a-kind nuclear-powered submarine drone that is tipped with a warhead that Russia says can explode with two megatons of force, generating an atomic tidal-wave to irradiate the shoreline of a country

And, unlike other ballistic submarines, Poseidon doesn't launch nuclear weapons - it is the nuclear weapon, carrying a thermonuclear warhead in its nose

That means Poseidon could loiter underwater for years at a time before being guided to its target, where Russia claims it would explode with a yield of 2 megatons - 130 times the size of the explosion that levelled Hiroshima.

Putin's propagandists say this would create a nuclear tsunami that would inundate the coast of whichever nation it targeted, leaving it an irradiated wasteland for decades afterwards.

Borei-class

Russia's latest ballistic submarine, these are also nuclear-powered and armed with 16 Bulava missile capable of carrying up to 10 warheads with a yield of 150kilotons each.

Moscow intends to replace its entire ballistic submarine fleet with these craft, which are designed as a counter to the American Ohio-class.

The Borei-class is Russia's attempt to answer the American Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine, and is capable of carrying up to 16 Bulava missiles tipped with 10 nuclear warheads each

Smaller and with fewer crew than their predecessors, Borei submarines are designed to stay out at sea for longer and to be harder to detect by enemy subs and radar.

A modified design that is capable of carrying nuclear-armed cruise missiles - like the Ohio-class - is under consideration by the Russian military.

Nuclear bombers

The traditional mainstay of the nuclear arsenal, long-range bombers were used by America to drop the first ever nuclear bomb on Japan and was how the US and Soviets originally planned to fight a nuclear war.

With the advent of missiles and submarines nuclear bombers are not the threat they once were, but most countries still have a few available - and Russia is no exception.

Tu-160

The largest and heaviest combat aircraft currently in service anywhere in the world, the Soviet-era Tupolev Tu-160 is a supersonic long-range bomber that can carry both conventional and nuclear bombs.

Sixteen are currently in service with the Russian air force but dozens more are planned.

The heaviest and largest combat aircraft in use anywhere in the world, the Tu-160 can carry both conventional bombs and nuclear tipped cruise and ballistic missiles

Each bomber can carry up to six Kh-55 nuclear cruise missiles, or twelve Kh-15 ballistic missiles. The first has a yield up to 450kilotons, while the second has a yield up to 300kilotons - though may be retired from service.

The bomber has a range of up to 7,600 miles but can extend this by refueling in mid-air, though the capability is rarely used.

Tu-95

Known as the 'Bear', this huge four-engine long-range bomber was the mainstay of Soviet nuclear forces for decades - having first been introduced in 1956.

With a range of 5,000 miles - far enough to hit key targets in the US - this can be extended up to 19,000 miles with mid-air refueling, a feat Russia pulled off on a 2010 test flight.

Initially designed to drop free-falling nuclear bombs of the kind dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it has since been adapted to a wide range of ordinance including cruise missiles - which can also be nuclear-tipped.

The original mainstay of Russia's nuclear forces, the 'Bear' was designed to drop free-falling nukes of the kind that destroyed Hiroshima, but has since been modified to carry cruise missiles

Artillery

An unconventional threat, but one that is available to Putin, is nuclear artillery.

One of a number of unconventional nuclear weapons that were developed during and after the Cold War, the gun works but firing shells tipped with very small nuclear warheads.

Other unconventional nuclear weapons include a backpack nuke developed by the US - the Mk-54 SADM - and the Davy Crockett nuclear rocket launcher - also developed by America.

2S7 Pion

A huge Howitzer, the Pion is one of the largest and most-powerful conventional artillery systems ever fielded.

Capable of lobbing shells up to 23 miles - much further than the 13 miles managed by America's M777 gun - the Pion has a firing alarm that sounds before it goes off because it can concuss its crew if they are caught unaware.

The 2S7 Pion is one of the largest conventional artillery pieces ever developed and is known to be in use in Ukraine. It can fire nuclear-tipped shells with a relatively small yield of one kiloton

A lesser-known feature of the Pion is that it is capable of firing nuclear-tipped shells that explode with a 1kiloton blast, or roughly a tenth of the size of the Hiroshima bomb.

While the blast is relatively small compared to other kinds of nuclear weapons, it would still be devastating for troops on the battlefield and irradiate a small area - making it difficult to pass through.
Trump loyalist congressional candidate JR Majewski attacked the media over a report stating that he never deployed to Afghanistan and said information that could clear him is 'classified.'

The orders and the military records that I've been able to obtain from my personal files show that all of my deployments are listed as classified,' Majewski said at a press conference in his home state of Ohio with supporters arrayed behind him.

'This was a strategic and strategically placed [report] to crush me and defame me,' he fumed.

'Anyone insinuating that I did not serve in Afghanistan is lying,' he said.

Majewski, who is running against longtime Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, made the defense hours after the House GOP's campaign arm dropped nearly $1 million in advertising planned for his race after it was revealed he lied about his military service.

Ohio candidate for Congress JR Majewski said records he obtained 'show that all of my deployments are listed as classified' following an AP report based on a records search that did not substantiate his claims of deploying to Afghanistan

Trump-backed JR Majewski has campaigned as a military veteran who claims to have endured 'tough' conditions serving in Afghanistan, including a lack of running water that forced him to go more than 40 days without a shower.

But military documents obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request provide no indication that Majewski ever deployed to Afghanistan.

Instead, they show his 'combat service' involved completing a six-month stint helping to load planes as a 'passenger operations specialist' at an air base in Qatar, a comfortable US ally that was a safe distance from the fighting.

Before that, the records state that Majewski was based at Kadena Air Base in Japan for much of his active-duty service.

The National Republican Congressional Committee dropped $960,000 in advertising in Toledo, Ohio, that would have targeted Kaptur following the revelation, sources told Politico.

The National Republican Congressional Committee dropped $960,000 in advertising for his race against Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur

Majewski also tweeted out documents showing he deployed to Korea, but without evidence he went to Afghanistan.

"The AP stated that I had only been deployed to Qatar. My records show my deployment location as classified. In addition, they forgot my deployment to Camp Hialeah in Korea (which is now closed).' he wrote.

The documents appear to a 'top secret' security clearance. Another line says: 'Type of Orders: Routine.'

He was set to appear on TV in the lead up to the November midterms and had received backing from top Republicans, even though some are wary because of his MAGA ties.

Majewski tweeted out records and said he also deployed to Korea, but did not produce documents showing he was in Afghanistan

J.R. Majewski, Republican candidate for U.S. Representative for Ohio's 9th Congressional District, has claimed that he served in Afghanistan as a combat veteran, but military records show this to be false

Majewski photographed receiving an endorsement from Donald Trump on September 17 during his congressional campaigning

The AP reported on these remarks in its article: Here's video of J.R. Majewski claiming he served a tour of duty in Afghanistan and then saying, "I don't like talking about my military experience." pic.twitter.com/glmlqFmfMW  Eric Hananoki (@ehananoki) September 21, 2022

Yet just last year Majewski tweeted about 'going back to Afghanistan' amid the chaotic scramble to pull US forces out of the country.

In interviews Majewski has been far less forthcoming when asked about the specifics of his service, having claimed to have served in Afghanistan in 2002 and 2003.

The House GOP campaign arm pulled back spending from Majewski's race after the AP report

In a 2021 interview on the One American Podcast, Majeski confirmed that he served one tour in Afghanistan, describing it as 'tough'.

'I don't like talking about my military experience,' he said. 'I really don't like to divulge a lot of things about the military because for me it was a tough time in life. You know, the military wasn't easy.'

Throughout his campaign Majewski has offered his Air Force service as a valuable credential. The tagline 'veteran for Congress' appears on campaign merchandise.

He ran a Facebook ad promoting himself as 'combat veteran.' And in a campaign video released this year, Majewski marauds through a vacant factory with a rifle while pledging to restore an America that is 'independent and strong like the country I fought for.'

More recently, the House Republican campaign committee released a biography that describes Majewski as a veteran whose 'squadron was one of the first on the ground in Afghanistan after 9/11.'

A campaign ad posted online Tuesday by Majewski supporters flashed the words 'Afghanistan War Veteran' across the screen alongside a picture of a younger Majewski in his dress uniform.

Military records show that Majewski's 'combat service' involved completing a six-month stint helping to load planes as a 'passenger operations specialist' at an air base in Qatar (pictured: Al Udeid Air Base 30 miles outside Doha, capital of Qatar), a comfortable US ally that was a safe distance from the fighting

Soldiers disembark from a plane upon returning home from deployment in Afghanistan, at Fort Drum, New York, US, September 6, 2021. Majewski has claimed that he served in Afghanistan in 2002 and 2003

Experts argue that even Majewski's description of himself as a 'combat veteran' is misleading.

The term can evoke images of soldiers storming a beachhead or finding refuge during a firefight. But under the laws and regulations of the US government, facing live fire has little to do with someone earning the title.

During the Persian Gulf War, then-President George HW Bush designated, for the first time, countries used as combat support areas as combat zones despite the low-risk of American service members ever facing hostilities.

That helped veterans receive a favorable tax status. Qatar, which is now home to the largest US air base in the Middle East, was among the countries that received the designation under Bush's executive order - a status that remains in effect today.

Majewski's campaign said that he calls himself a combat veteran because the area he deployed to - Qatar - is considered a combat zone.

Regardless, it rankles some when those seeking office offer their status as a combat veteran as a credential to voters without explaining that it does not mean that they came under hostile fire.

Majewski also lacks many of the medals that are typically awarded to those who served in Afghanistan.

Though he once said that he went more than 40 days without a shower during his time in the landlocked country, he does not have an Afghanistan campaign medal, which was issued to those who served '30 consecutive days or 60 nonconsecutive days' in the country.

He also did not receive a Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, which was issued to service members before the creation of the Afghanistan campaign medal if they deployed overseas in 'direct service to the War on Terror.'

Matthew Borie, an Air Force veteran who worked in intelligence and reviewed Majewski's records at APs request, said it's 'odd' that Majewski lacks many of the 'medals you would expect to see for someone who deployed to Afghanistan.'

There's also the matter of Majewski's final rank and reenlistment code when he left active duty after four years of service.

Most leave the service after four years having received several promotions that are generally awarded for time served. Majewski exited at a rank that was one notch above where he started. His enlistment code also indicated that he could not sign up with the Air Force again.

Majewski's campaign said he received what's called a nonjudicial punishment in 2001 after getting into a 'brawl' in his dormitory, which resulted in a demotion. Nonjudicial punishments are designed to hold service members accountable for bad behavior that does not rise to the level of a court-martial.

Majewski's campaign declined to make him available for an interview and, in a lengthy statement issued to the AP, did not directly address questions about his claim of deploying to Afghanistan.

A spokeswoman declined to provide additional comment when the AP followed up with additional questions.

In a statement, the Republican candidate for a northwestern Ohio congressional seat defended his military record.

'I am proud to have served my country. My accomplishments and record are under attack, meanwhile, career politician Marcy Kaptur has a forty-year record of failure for my Toledo community, which is why Im running for Congress.'

'As somebody who was in Qatar, I do not consider myself a combat veteran,' Don Christensen, a retired colonel and former chief prosecutor for the Air Force, said of Majewski.

Majewski had a massive Trump mural painted on his lawn to campaign in the 2020 general election

The mural was done at Majewski's Ohio home before he ran for congress

'I think that would be offensive to those who were actually engaged in combat and Iraq and Afghanistan.'

'Veterans have done so much for this country and when you claim to have done what your brothers and sisters in arms actually did to build up your reputation, it is a disservice.'

Majewski's account of his time in the military is just one aspect of his biography that is suspect. His post-military career has been defined by exaggerations, conspiracy theories, talk of violent action against the US government and occasional financial duress.

Still, thanks to an unflinching allegiance to former President Donald Trump - Majewski once painted a massive Trump mural on his lawn - he also stands a chance of defeating longtime Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur in a district recently redrawn to favor Republicans.

Majewski is among a cluster of GOP candidates, most running for office for the first time, whose unvarnished life stories and hard-right politics could diminish the chances of a Republican 'red wave' on Election Day in November.

He is also a vivid representation of a new breed of politicians who reject facts as they try to emulate Trump.

With no previous political experience, Majewski is perhaps an unlikely person to be the Republican nominee taking on Kaptur, who has represented the Toledo area since 1983.

But two state legislators who were also on the ballot in the August GOP primary split the establishment vote.

That cleared a path for Majewski, who previously worked in the nuclear power industry and dabbled in politics as a pro-Trump hip-hop performer and promoter of the QAnon conspiracy theory. He was also at the US Capitol during the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

J.R. Majewski, Republican candidate for U.S. Representative for Ohio's 9th Congressional District, speaks at a campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio., Sept. 17, 2022

Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, speaks during an event at the Shipyards on Feb. 17, 2022, in Lorain, Ohio. Kaptur is seeking to retain her seat in Ohio's 9th congressional district, campaigning against Majewski

Majewski has not been charged in connection with the attack. But he has falsely stated that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump and said that the insurrection 'felt like a setup' by police who were targeting Trump supporters.

In his statement, Majewski said, 'I deeply regret being at the Capitol that day' and 'did not break the law,' while calling for those who did to be 'punished to the fullest extent of the law.'

Majewski's resume exaggeration isn't limited to his military service, reverberating throughout his professional life, as well as a nascent political career that took shape in an online world of conspiracy theories.

Since gaining traction in his campaign for Congress, Majewski has denied that he is a follower of the QAnon conspiracy theory while playing down his participation in the Capitol riot.

The baseless and apocalyptic QAnon belief is based on cryptic online postings by the anonymous 'Q,' who is purportedly a government insider. It posits that Trump is fighting entrenched enemies in the government and also involves satanism and child sex trafficking.

'Let me be clear, I denounce QAnon. I do not support Q, and I do not subscribe to their conspiracy theories,' Majewski said in his statement to the AP.

The mischaracterizations extend to his professional career, in which he has repeatedly described himself as an 'executive in the nuclear power industry,' including in a campaign ad last spring.

But a review of his now-deleted resume on the website LinkedIn and a survey of his former employers do not support the claim.

He most recently worked for Holtec International, a Florida-based energy conglomerate that specializes in handling spent nuclear fuel. But he is not listed among the executives and members of the corporate leadership teams in current or archived versions of the company's website.

A spokesman confirmed Majewski was a former Holtec employee, but declined to offer details on his position or role, which Majewski's LinkedIn page described as 'senior director, client relations.'

Majewski's campaign declined to address his claim of being an executive, but said he participated in weekly conference calls with executives.

Majewski also described himself on LinkedIn as 'project manager - senior consultant' for First Energy, an Ohio based power company, a position that he stated he held since shortly after leaving the military. The company, Majewski explained in a biography posted to his website, quickly recognized him for his 'intellect and leadership capabilities'

Yet records from his 2009 bankruptcy raise questions about his seniority. They show he was an 'outage manager' who earned about $51,000 a year. In the bankruptcy, Majewski and his wife gave up their home, two cars and a Jet Ski to settle the case, court records show.

Still, in a nationalized political environment, some Republicans suggest none of this will matter to voters.

'At the end of the day, this will be a question of whether they want Nancy Pelosi leading the House or Kevin McCarthy,' said Tom Davis, a former congressman who led the House Republican campaign arm during George W. Bush's presidency. 'These elections have become less about the person. I wouldn't say candidates dont matter, but they dont matter like they used to.'
The late Queen received one on every day of her reign except for Christmas Day

The boxes contain papers from government ministers in the UK and the realms

King Charles photographed last week with his red box at Buckingham Palace

King Charles has been pictured with his red box for the first time.

The image, taken last week, shows the King carrying out official government duties in the Eighteenth Century Room at Buckingham Palace.

Red boxes contain papers from government ministers in the UK and the realms, as well as Commonwealth representatives.

Documents are sent from the private secretary's office to the King, wherever he is around the world, in a locked, red despatch box.

These include papers which require a signature, briefing documents and information about forthcoming meetings.

In the picture, Charles is sitting at a gilded desk and reaches across to important papers, one tied with ribbon, in an open red box beside him.

In the background, there is a framed black and white photo of his parents, which they gave to George VI for Christmas in 1951.

King Charles has been photographed carrying out official government duties for the first time

The Queen (pictured in 2015) received red boxes every day of her reign, including weekends, but not on Christmas Day

The Royal Family Twitter page today shared pictures of the late Queen with her red box at various points during her reign

Previously, luxury British leather goods company Barrow Hepburn & Gale confirmed that boxes for Charles were in production.

On September 11, a spokesman for the firm said the King would initially receive more than six boxes, which would carry the new royal cypher.

It is possible that ten to 12 boxes will be made and delivered in phases over the coming months.

Every box, the price of which is never released, has its own coded lock and is designed to last for many years.

The company says on its website that its boxes 'follow their holder around the world, ensuring they can execute the responsibilities of their office'.

It adds: 'Wherever in the world the sovereign or minister is, the red box is close by.

In 2015, the royal family Facebook account said the Queen (pictured in 1972) was still using boxes made for her coronation in 1953, which had been 'periodically refurbished' to keep them in good condition

British leather goods company Barrow Hepburn & Gale said the role of the boxes 'has not changed for over a century'. Pictured: Princess Elizabeth talking to her father, King George VI whilst he goes through the Royal boxes in a study at Windsor Castle

'Our despatch boxes are not only an elegant design, but are functional and secure.'

In September 2015, the royal family Facebook account said the Queen received red boxes every day of her reign, including weekends, but not on Christmas Day.

The post said the Queen was still using boxes made for her coronation in 1953, which had been 'periodically refurbished' to keep them in good condition.

Barrow Hepburn & Gale said the role of the boxes 'has not changed for over a century'.

Queen Elizabeth sits at her desk at Buckingham Palace with the Palace switchboard behind her and sorts through her red box, which would include papers which require a signature, briefing documents and information about forthcoming meetings

Documents are sent from the private secretary's office to the monarch, wherever they are around the world. Here the box has followed the Queen to Windsor Castle

It added: 'There are two possible reasons why the despatch box became the iconic red colour.

'The widely-accepted reason relates to Prince Albert, consort to Queen Victoria, who is said to have preferred the colour as it was used prominently in the arms of his family, the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

'However, there is a school of thought with origins dating back to the late 16th century, when Queen Elizabeth I's representative, Francis Throckmorton, presented the Spanish ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, with a specially constructed red briefcase filled with black puddings.

'It was seen as an official communication from the Queen, and so the colour red became the official colour of the state.'
A desperate search is underway for a child missing after floodwaters engulfed two cars.

The vehicles were trapped in rising water at McGrane Way Tullamore, north-west of Parkes, in the central west of NSW shortly before 8pm on Friday night.

Emergency services found four people found clinging to trees as the water surged around their vehicles.

The NSW SES retrieved the stranded travellers in boats.

After they were rescued, the four people were transported to Dubbo Hospital but a five-year-old child remains missing.

'The two vehicles remain submerged in floodwaters and police will remain onsite and wait until they can access the vehicles,' NSW police said in a statement.

The vehicles were trapped in rising water at McGrane Way Tullamore, north-west of Parkes, in the central west of NSW shortly before 8pm on Friday night

Traffic negotiates a wet road in northern NSW after heavy rain caused flash flooding in the north and central west of the state, and in south-east Queensland

Floodwaters west of Condong near the town of Murwillumbah, NSW after a low-pressure storm system caused flooding across the state's inland

On Thursday a four-year-old boy and two women were rescued by a police officer using just a rope and a winch after their vehicle became submerged in floodwaters in the NSW Hunter region.

Authorities were told three people had become trapped in a vehicle at a flooded causeway on Lyons Road at Bingleburra, west of the country town of Dungog, about 9.30am on Thursday.

The flash flooding resulted from a long storm front that brought heavy rain to many parts of Australia's east coast, including parts northern and western NSW and more than 300mm on the northern end of the Gold Coast.

Flood warnings remain current in inland NSW and south-east Queensland after the weather system moved offshore but waters continue to rise.

It's the fourth time this year that many areas have experienced inundation after heavy falls associated with the La Nina event.

In the town of Gunnedah, home to 9,000 people, the Namoi River passed major flood levels, reaching the 7.9 metre mark late on Friday night and expected to peak at 8.3m on Saturday morning.

At Wee Waa, just 120km northwest, floodwaters peaked at the Namoi on Thursday and are falling slowly, with the BOM predicting they will remain above major flood levels until next week.

Wee Waa, a cotton town, is protected by an 8km levee, however, Narrabri Shire mayor Ron Campbell told AAP the rainfall has destroyed local roads.

The scene of a rescue on Thursday near Dungog, NSW, where two women and a four-year-old were retrieved after their vehicle became submerged during a flash flood

'If we get substantial rain across the summer, we could have a record flood for sure - probably something not seen since the 1970s,' Mr Campbell said.

The wet weather had caused huge anxiety for the Tumbulgum community on the Tweed River, as locals saw the river burst its banks on to their paddocks on Friday.

Many locals remained hyper vigilant after major flooding hit the region earlier this year, Husk Distillers co-owner Harriet Messenger told AAP.

'Everybody in the region is always very on edge - particularly so close to another major event,' she said.




Prime Minister Han Duck-soo plans to hold a meeting with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris next week in Japan on the sidelines of a state funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Seoul's foreign ministry said Friday.







Han and Harris will visit Japan to attend the funeral and their meeting will take place next Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement.







During the meeting, Han and Harris plan to discuss the alliance between Seoul and Washington as well as pending issues on the Korean Peninsula, in the region and the world, it said.







Harris plans to visit South Korea next Thursday after attending the funeral. (Yonhap)


Police chiefs have been told to spend less time on diversity and concentrate on fighting crime by new Home Secretary Suella Braverman.

In a letter to chief constables, she reprimanded forces for failing to tackle offences such as burglary, car theft, graffiti and drugs.

Her intervention amounted to a call for a back to basics approach to policing. It comes after incidents which have seen police criticised for taking up woke causes.

Earlier this year, Superintendent James Sutherland wore a rainbow helmet in support of an anti-homophobia campaign in Cambridge.

New Home Secretary Suella Braverman has written a letter to Police chiefs telling them to spend less time on 'diversity' and concentrate on tackling crime

Police have also been accused of taking inappropriate political stances, such as taking the knee in support of Black Lives Matter protests.

Mrs Braverman wrote: Unfortunately, there is a perception that the police have had to spend too much time on symbolic gestures [rather] than actually fighting criminals. This must change. Initiatives on diversity and inclusion should not take precedence over common sense policing.

She said the letter was intended to set out my key priorities for the police and our crime-cutting agenda.

Superintendent James Sutherland with his rainbow helmet. which he wore in support of an anti-homophobia campaign in Cambridge

She stressed: The public have a right to expect that the police get the basics right  driving down anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood crime which can so easily rip through our communities. To put it simply, the public want to know that an officer will visit them after a crime such as burglary.

They want to feel safe in their cities, towns and villages. This is not just about doing your day job well, it is also about victims needing to feel supported and not ignored.

Mrs Braverman added: We also need to see a renewed focus on tackling neighbourhood crime and anti-social behaviour. Drugs, vehicle theft, vandalism and graffiti are not being treated seriously enough.

She referred to scandals which have damaged policings reputation, such as the murder of marketing executive Sarah Everard, 33, by a London officer and racist and homophobic incidents.

Suella Braverman speaking with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley (right) and London Mayor Sadiq Khan (left) last week

The Home Secretary also set out how she wants to increase the number of suspects who are charged with crimes.

Latest official figures show crime soared 14 per cent last year to 12.9million offences in England and Wales, but the number of offenders brought to justice slumped to a record low of just one in 16.

However, Mrs Braverman expressed deep gratitude for the polices work at public events after the Queens death and praised brilliant efforts against county lines drug gangs.
You'd think Spanish police had enough on their plates tackling crime  but it appears they have put that aside to take Tesco to task over a heretical paella sandwich.

The Guardia Civil force has accused the British supermarket giant of creating a health hazard by using its nations traditional rice dish as a sandwich filling.

To mark International Paella Day this week, officers tweeted a picture with the caption: The paella sandwich for some is heresy, for others a violent attack on good taste and it could even threaten health. We are waiting for your formal complaints.

The Guardia Civil force accused the British supermarket giant Tesco of creating a health hazard by using its nations traditional rice dish as a sandwich filling

One outraged Spaniard replied: This is an insult and a lack of respect for a Spanish dish, for a community in Spain, for all Valencians.

Another added: These things only happen in England.

In fact, the paella sandwich was created ten years ago as part of a newspaper stunt but it seems the Spanish have never forgotten the perceived attack.

Paella is a rice dish from the Valencia region of Spain, usually served with meats, seafood and vegetables.

And its not the first time the Spanish have rushed to defend their cuisine from anglicisation.

Paella is a rice dish from the Valencia region of Spain, usually served with meats, seafood and vegetables

In 2016, Jamie Oliver was given a roasting after the television chef included chorizo in a recipe for paella.

Responses from angry Spaniards at the time included: Remove the chorizo. We dont negotiate with terrorists, and Why dont you make some chicken nuggets out of your own fingers?
A castle in Cornwall famous for being the place of King Arthur's conception is at risk of tumbling into the sea.

According to English Heritage, sea levels are now rising at their fastest rate for nearly three millenia and are increasing the pace of coastal erosion to 'alarming' levels.

This is likely the result of climate change and means Tintagel Castle and other coastal sites are at risk of being lost forever.

English Heritage has now launched a multimillion-pound fundraising appeal to fund works to halt the damage and preserve them for future generations.

Director of estates Rob Woodside said: 'Erosion along England's coastline is nothing new but the rate of land loss that we have seen over the past few years is alarming, and some scenarios indicate that sea levels could increase by up to a metre by the end of the century.'

According to English Heritage, sea levels are now rising at their fastest rate for nearly three millenia and is increasing the pace of coastal erosion to 'alarming' levels. As a result, Tintagel Castle (pictured) and other sites the charity manages are at risk of being lost forever

English Heritage said the site has always battled with erosion, with parts of the castle already falling into the sea by the 14th century

Tintagel Castle has been inhabited since the late Roman period, but it was not until the 12th century that chronicler Geoffrey of Monmoth claimed it was where King Arthur (pictured in artist's impression) was conceived

THE LEGEND OF KING ARTHUR AT TINTAGEL Chronicler Geoffrey of Monmoth claimed that King Arthur was conceived at Tintagel Castle. He wrote the the ancient king of Britain, Uther Pendragon, was driven mad with lust for Ygerna, the wife of one of his barons, Gorlois of Cornwall. Gorlois prudently removed his wife to an impregnable stronghold on the coast, the castle of Tintagel, but then rather less prudently withdrew to another fortress nearby. The pursuing Uther and his men inspected Ygernas refuge and realise that no ordinary attack can succeed, as the castle was surrounded by the sea and there was only one small entry point that soldiers could guard. At this point in the story, the prophet Merlin proposed a supernatural remedy: by means of a magic potion, he transformed Uther into the exact likeness of Ygernas absent husband. The ruse was entirely successful - the guards of Tintagel allowed him into the castle, and Ygerna took him into her bed. Source: English Heritage Advertisement

He continued: 'To give this some context, last century sea levels rose by 14cm along the southern coast of England.

'Climate change is accelerating the issues faced by our coastal heritage and creating huge challenges for organisations like English Heritage seeking to protect it.

'Rising sea levels and more regular storms pose a real risk to the future of many of our sites.'

Tintagel Castle has been inhabited since the late Roman period, but it was not until the 12th century that chronicler Geoffrey of Monmoth claimed it was where King Arthur was conceived.

His mythological account of the history of the kings of Britain - Historia Regum Britanniae - thus cemented the site's place in the national imagination.

Passages in Monmouth's book depict how Arthur was conceived at the castle by Uther Pendragon, King of Britain.

The king allegedly used magic potion to turn into the Duke Gorlois of Cornwall in order to seduce his wife, Queen Ygerna.

It is thought this racy legend inspired Richard, Earl of Cornwall, to start building a castle there in the 1230s.

English Heritage said the site has always battled with erosion, with parts of the castle already falling into the sea by the 14th century.

But it said recently parts of the cliff directly in front of the visitors centre had been lost, affecting the viewing area and the coastal path.

It is hoping to raise 40,000 to repair this and the damage caused by last winter's storms.

Other castles considered to be among the most vulnerable to coastal erosion include Bayard's Cove Fort near Dartmouth in Devon, which was built in Tudor times to defend the entrance to the Dart Estuary.

English Heritage has now launched a multimillion-pound fundraising appeal to fund works to halt the damage and preserve them for future generations. Pictured: Rob Woodside (right), director of estates, surveying the finished revetment sea defences

Tintagel Castle is situated on a terrace cut from the rocky river bank, making it vulnerable to flooding, English Heritage said.

On the island of St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly, the Garrison Walls are also at risk.

The walls, which were built to strengthen the island's defences after the attempted invasion by the Spanish Armada, have 'pinch points' which take the full force of the tide and make them vulnerable to erosion.

Hurst Castle in Hampshire, an artillery fortress built by Henry VIII, saw a huge section of the 18th century east wing collapse in February 2021 after the sea undercut its foundations.

English Heritage said work to stabilise the damaged section has been completed, but warned the sea walls around the original Tudor fort are also in urgent need of repair at an estimated cost of 160,000.

 Slide me  Hurst Castle in Hampshire, an artillery fortress built by Henry VIII, saw a huge section of the 18th century east wing collapse in February 2021 after the sea undercut its foundations. Pictured before (right) and after (left) the collapse of the east wing

Just down the coast, Calshot Castle - another of Henry VIII's fortifications - is battling erosion, but its low lying site also puts it at risk from flooding as sea levels rise.

In Cumbria, 14th-century Piel Castle stands on a rapidly eroding low-lying island around half a mile from the coast of Morecambe Bay.

Built to guard Barrow-in-Furness against pirates and Scots raiders, swathes of the surrounding island have already been lost, while some of the castle fell into the sea in the 19th century.

In recent years, English Heritage said the sea banks and modern gabion sea defences, loose stones shaped into blocks by wire cages, had been undermined by coastal erosion, costing at least 25,000 to repair.

Mr Woodside said: 'Hundreds of heritage sites in the UK and around the world are increasingly at risk.

'If these coastal properties are to survive the coming decades, we will need to strengthen their walls and build sea defences to protect them.

'It is for this reason that we are launching a public appeal to raise funds for this vital conservation work.'

In Cumbria, 14th-century Piel Castle (pictured) stands on a rapidly eroding low-lying island around half a mile from the coast of Morecambe Bay. Built to guard Barrow-in-Furness against pirates and Scots raiders, swathes of the surrounding island have already been lost, while some of the castle fell into the sea in the 19th century
Advertisement

If you go down in the woods today, you might be in for a big surprise.

This is because the British woodlands are home to a host of weird and wonderful wildlife, including a 'blood'-oozing fungus and ducks that can leap from 30-foot trees.

The Woodland Trust has released a list of some of the wackiest creatures this country hosts, like a beetle that lives in a cocoon made from its own dung.

It has been published after a recent report showed that only 7 per cent of the woods they call home are in good ecological condition.

The charity is calling for greater protection of their habitats, so we do not have to say goodbye to phallic-shaped fungi, or bats that cloak themselves like Dracula.

Alastair Hotchkiss, conservation adviser at the Woodland Trust, said: 'Now more than ever before, with the climate change and biodiversity crises, do we need to protect and restore the UK's natural environments.'

The beefsteak fungus (picture) has the appearance of a raw cut of meat, and even oozes a blood-like substance when cut

The Goldeneye duck (pictured) nests in natural cavities or old woodpecker nests up in trees, mainly around the Cairngorms in Scotland

THE WOODLAND TRUST'S LIST OF BRITAIN'S WEIRDEST WILDLIFE Phallus impudicus - Stinkhorn

- Stinkhorn Bucephala clangula - Goldeneye

- Goldeneye Usnea articulata - String-of-sausages lichen

- String-of-sausages lichen Fistulina hepatica - The beefsteak fungus

- The beefsteak fungus Zygodon forsteri - Knothole yoke-moss

- Knothole yoke-moss Cryptocephalus coryli - Hazel pot beetle

- Hazel pot beetle Anaptychia ciliaris - Eagle's claw lichen

- Eagle's claw lichen Ctenophora flaveolata - Wasp-banded comb horn

- Wasp-banded comb horn Rhinolophus hipposideros - Lesser horseshoe bat

- Lesser horseshoe bat Pseudomarsupidium decipiens - Deceptive featherwort Advertisement

He added: 'These ten species are just the tip of the iceberg  or the mushroom poking up from the soil's vast mycelial web  of secrets that our woodland habitats hold.

'Every species can tell us a story, everything has a role to play, and we have so much still to learn. We must do our best to make sure we don't lose them.'

Phallus impudicus - Stinkhorn

The pungent Stinkhorn fungus is usually smelt before it is seen, but its shape could make you clutch your pearls as well as your nose.

The genus name Phallus is a reference to its penis-like appearance and impudicus is Latin for 'shameless'.

In fact, it was so embarrassing for some Victorians - including Charles Darwin's granddaughter Etty Darwin - that they famously attacked them before they could spread their spores.

The fungus can grow up to 10 inches tall (25 cm), smells of rotting flesh and has a 'skirt' above its stem.

This sticky cap attaches its spores to the legs of insects who land on it.

It was used in medieval times as a cure for gout and a love potion, while more recent scientific evidence points to potential medicinal use for venous thrombosis.

Bucephala clangula - Goldeneye

The Goldeneye duck nests in natural cavities or old woodpecker nests up in trees, mainly around the Cairngorms in Scotland.

Its nesting strategy means day-old chicks have to hurl themselves from as high as 30 feet up the tree while their mother calls encouragement.

This is reminiscent of the opening scene of the 1995 James Bond film 'GoldenEye', where the iconic spy bungee dives off the dam at the Soviet Arkhangelsk.

The birds first nested in Scotland in 1970, and since then have been attracted to specially designed boxes put up on trees close to water as they are scarce breeders.

In winter, diving ducks from Northern Europe migrate to roam across the UK.

The pungent Stinkhorn fungus (pictured) is usually smelt before it is seen, but its phallic shape could make you clutch your pearls as well as your nose

The Goldeneye duck's strategy means day-old chicks have to hurl themselves from as high as 30 feet up the tree while their mother calls encouragement

This is reminiscent of the opening scene of the 1995 James Bond film 'GoldenEye', where the iconic spy bungee dives off the dam at the Soviet Arkhangelsk

Usnea articulata - String-of-sausages lichen

This unique lichen resembles a miniature string of sausages, as its larger stems grow into into inflated segments reminiscent of the barbecue favourite.

It can grow up to 100 cm (40 in) in length, and a 2015 study found that it also has anticancer properties against human lung and breast cancer cells.

It is extremely sensitive to air quality and is mainly restricted to places well away from the worst of industrial pollution .

These include cleaner areas in Dartmoor in Devon and south-west Wales, where 'fairy butcher shops' are draped over the branches of trees.

Fistulina hepatica - The beefsteak fungus

This woodland fungus has the appearance of a raw cut of meat, and even oozes a blood-like substance when cut.

It has been used as a meat substitute in the past, and produces a sour and slightly acidic taste.

The species is usually found in broadleaved woodland, on the trunks of oak trees and sometimes on stumps.

It is known an 'ecosystem engineer', hollowing out ancient trees and leaving the rot inside to provide food to bugs and fungi, and holes for nesting birds.

String of sausage lichen (pictured) resembles a miniature string of sausages, as its larger stems grow into into inflated segments reminiscent of the barbecue favourite

Zygodon forsteri - Knothole yoke-moss

The globally rare Knothole yoke-moss only survives at three sites in Britain due to reliance on the micro-habitats only provided by ancient and veteran trees.

These include the water-filled rot holes of ancient beech pollards in the New Forest, Epping and Burnham Beeches near London.

The Woodland Trust says the moss is a good example of how protecting ancient and veteran trees supports a host of other wildlife.

Cryptocephalus coryli - Hazel pot beetle

The Hazel pot beetle is one of the UK's rarest insects as it is reliant on wooded 'ecotones'.

These are areas where dense forests transition to more open vegetation with scrub, heath and scattered trees.

Sherwood Forest, the legendary home of Robin Hood, is one of the only known remaining sites for the once widespread beetle.

It creates a protective pot or cocoon to lay eggs and keep larvae in that it has created using its own faeces.

The globally rare Knothole yoke-moss (pictured) only survives at three sites in Britain due to reliance on the micro-habitats only provided by ancient and veteran trees

The Hazel pot beetle (pictured) is one of the UK's rarest insects as it is reliant on wooded 'ecotones'. These are areas where dense forests transition to more open vegetation with scrub, heath and scattered trees

Anaptychia ciliaris  Eagle's claw lichen

This lichen looks like the talons of an eagle clinging to a tree trunk, as it has long curved eyelash-like structures on the margins of its lobes.

It was once common in the UK before it was hit by the loss of elms to Dutch elm disease that resulted in an up to 80 per cent decline since the 1980s.

The lichen is also sensitive to air pollution, from acidic sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides to excessive enrichment from ammonia.

It now faces the loss of trees to ash dieback, and is restricted to just a few spots mainly in south-west England and the Welsh borders.

Ctenophora flaveolata - Wasp-banded comb horn

The wasp-banded comb horn is a harmless species of cranefly, but mimics something more like a wasp that could bring a nasty sting.

It is found in old wooded landscapes where its larvae live in the decaying wood in big, old trees.

It is scarce in England and even rarer in Wales, where it is a priority for conservation action.

The Eagle's claw lichen (pictured) looks like the talons of an eagle clinging to a tree trunk, as it has long curved eyelash-like structures on the margins of its lobes

The wasp-banded comb horn is a harmless species of cranefly, but mimics something more like a wasp that could bring a nasty sting

Rhinolophus hipposideros - Lesser horseshoe bat

This unique bat has a horseshoe-shaped nose that is thought to focus the echolocation pulses that it emits to find its prey.

At rest, it hangs upside down and cloaks its plum-size body in its wings, reminiscent of the famous vampire Dracula.

It enjoys the cover and abundance of its prey  small moths, midges and mosquitoes  provided by the woods.

But, unlike many bats which roost inside trees, these mainly roost in caves, mines and stately homes in well-wooded landscapes.

They are now rare in the UK, partially due to insecticides and starvation as a result of their low body mass with small fat reserves.

Pseudomarsupidium decipiens  Deceptive featherwort

This shiny liverwort grows in loose cushions on the side of rocks in very humid or boulder-strewn woodlands in western Britain and Ireland.

The British localities of the species  which is also found in the tropics  are its most northerly sites.

It lives in the rare temperate rainforests which are under a multitude of threats, from air pollution to invasive rhododendron.

The lesser horseshoe bat (left) has a horseshoe-shaped nose that is thought to focus the echolocation pulses that it emits to find its prey. At rest, it hangs upside down and cloaks its plum-size body in its wings, reminiscent of the famous vampire Dracula (right - stock image)

The Deceptive featherwort (pictured) grows in loose cushions on the side of rocks in very humid or boulder-strewn woodlands in western Britain and Ireland

The Woodland Trust has set a goal to map every ancient tree by 2030, and triple the area of native woodland deemed to be in good condition.

This will help reduce the risks of pests and disease towards British flora and fauna, as well as preserving their habitats.

Mr Hotchkiss added: 'Many species are on the brink of UK extinction, like the knothole yoke moss and hazel pot beetle.

'They cling on in a few remaining woods, facing habitat destruction, climate change, pollution and could disappear within years without conservation efforts.

'But we also can't take widespread species for granted, as they can vanish alarmingly quickly, like the eagle's claw lichen.

'All is not lost though. We can reverse a decline in nature.

'We addressed sulphur dioxide pollution and this is helping some species to recover like the string of sausages lichen which is now moving back to places it hasn't been seen for hundreds of years. So there is some hope.'
It's controversial due to use of chemicals, groundwater contamination, noise, air pollution and earth tremors

Fracking involves drilling into the earth before inserting a high-pressure water mixture to release natural gas

Prime Minister Liz Truss has confirmed this week that she is lifting Boris Johnson's ban on fracking

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Liz Truss has set herself up for a new fight with environmental groups and green Tories, as she confirmed she is lifting Boris Johnson's ban on fracking.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process of drilling down into the earth before inserting a high-pressure water mixture to release natural gas.

However, it's proved controversial due to its use of chemicals, groundwater contamination, noise, air pollution and even earth tremors.

Yesterday, Jacob Rees-Mogg confirmed that firms extracting gas using the controversial technique will be permitted to cause bigger earthquakes in a bid to kickstart production.

The Business Secretary made clear the limit of 0.5 on the Richter scale will be eased, potentially to 2.5, admitting that otherwise no mining would take place.

Here, MailOnline answers all your key questions about fracking - including what it is, how much energy it could yield and if it will make your energy bills cheaper.

Fracking is the process of drilling down into the earth before inserting a high-pressure water mixture to release natural gas. Water, sand and chemicals are injected at high pressure into underground boreholes to open up cracks in the rock, which allows trapped gas to flow out to the surface

What are the potential reserves of shale gas in the UK? Four areas in the UK have been identified as potentially viable for the commercial extraction of shale gas: the Bowland-Hodder area in Northwest England, the Midland Valley in Scotland, the Weald Basin in Southern England, and the Wessex area in Southern England. According to the British Geological Survey, initial estimates in 2013 suggested that the Bowland-Hodder area may have held between 23.3 and 64.6 trillion cubic metres (tcm). But a more recent analysis in 2019 suggested the figure is closer to 4.0 tcm. A 2014 study estimated that the Midland Valley hosts 1.43.8 tcm. Source: LSE Advertisement

WHAT IS FRACKING?

Fracking is a process used to extract natural gas  one of the UK's main energy sources  from underground shale rock.

The process involves the injection of more than a million gallons of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure into wells.

The pressurised mix causes the shale to crack, and these fissures are held open by the sand so that gas from the rock can flow up the well.

When natural gas flows out of the well, it's kept in storage tanks and then piped to the market to be used as an energy source.

Fracking as a technique has been widely used in the US, a country with wide open spaces, but some fear it is unsuited to a smaller country like the UK.

This is due to geological differences between the two countries, according to Professor Stuart Haszeldine, a geologist at the University of Edinburgh.

'The British Isles are geologically complicated, through many hundreds of millions of geological history,' Professor Haszeldine told MailOnline.

'That means there are many faults and fractures already present  which can be reactivated by injection of fracking waters at extremely high pressures.

'The much simpler geological history of the US and Canada means that very few faults and fractures are present and that large deposits of layered shale gas source rocks remain undamaged.'

WHERE IS SHALE GAS FOUND IN THE UK?

Four areas in the UK have been identified as potentially viable for the commercial extraction of shale gas:

The Bowland-Hodder area in Northwest England The Midland Valley in Scotland The Weald Basin in Southern England The Wessex area in Southern England

WHAT ARE THE POTENTIAL RESERVES OF SHALE GAS IN THE UK?

According to the British Geological Survey, initial estimates in 2013 suggested that the Bowland-Hodder area may have held between 23.3 and 64.6 trillion cubic metres of shale gas.

But a more recent analysis in 2019 suggested the figure is closer to 4.0 trillion cubic metres.

Meanwhile, a 2014 study estimated that the Midland Valley hosts 1.43.8 trillion cubic metres.

A review published in March 2020 by Warwick Business School calculated that UK fracking might produce between 90 and 330 billion cubic metres of natural gas between 2020 and 2050.

At the higher end of this estimate, the review suggests that this would only contribute between 17 per cent and 22 per cent of cumulative gas consumption.

Four areas in the UK have been identified as potentially viable for the commercial extraction of shale gas: the Bowland-Hodder area in Northwest England, the Midland Valley in Scotland, the Weald Basin in Southern England, and the Wessex area in Southern England

WHY IS FRACKING CONTROVERSIAL?

Fracking involves drilling, gas extraction and flaring  the burning off of natural gas byproducts, which releases organic compounds, nitrogen oxide, and other chemicals and particulates into the air.

Additionally, each fracking well requires the constant transportation of equipment, water, and chemicals, as well as the removal of waste water from the fracking process, further contributing to air pollution levels.

Fracking wells remain in operation for several years, prolonging exposure to people who work at the well sites and those who live nearby.

A study from earlier this year found fracking-related chemicals including dangerous volatile organic compounds are making their way into groundwater that feeds municipal water systems in the US.

Another study from last year found people who live in areas with a high concentration of fracking wells are at higher risk for heart attacks.

New Prime Minister Liz Truss is scrapping the ban on fracking as she unveils her long-awaited plan to guard Britons against crippling costs while boosting the country's energy security. Pictured, a worker at the Cuadrilla fracking site in Preston New Road, Little Plumpton, Lancashire

FRACKING HAS INCREASED GLOBAL METHANE EMISSIONS: 2019 REPORT Fracking has 'dramatically increased' global methane emissions in the past decade, a 2019 study warned. Much of the rapid rise in levels of methane, a significant greenhouse gas has been attributed to cows, tropical wetlands and rice fields but fracking also played a role. Researchers from Cornell University looked at the 'chemical fingerprint' of methane in the atmosphere and found a third of methane emissions in the past decade came from shale gas. Study author Professor Robert Howarth said the recent increase in methane 'is massive'. 'It's globally significant. It's contributed to some of the increase in global warming we've seen and shale gas is a major player.' Read more Advertisement

But perhaps the biggest criticism of fracking is that it causes earth tremors by causing faults in the rock to slip.

According to British Geological Survey (BGS), fracking is accompanied by 'microseismicity'  very small earthquakes that are too small to be felt.

In October 2018, Cuadrilla, an oil and gas exploration company, restarted fracking operations at its site in Preston New Road, Little Plumpton, Lancashire after a seven-year suspension.

Following the resumption, 18 earthquakes were detected in the space of nine days, although these had a magnitude of only up to 1.5 on the local magnitude scale (ML), according to BGS.

'Earthquakes with a magnitude less than 2 are not usually felt and if they are felt then only by a few people very close to the epicentre,' BGS said.

However, the 2.9 seismic event occurred in August the following year, leading to a moratorium (a ban) in England by the government.

With the ban now lifted, Rees-Mogg has made clear the limit of 0.5 on the Richter scale will be eased, potentially to 2.5, admitting that otherwise no mining would take place.

According to environmental groups, fracking causes air, water and sound pollution, as well as muddy eyesores in the natural land.

Fracking has angered protest groups for its effects on the environment, resulting in physical demonstrations at fracking sites.

'Fracking is disruptive and deeply unpopular with communities everywhere it has been proposed,' said Danny Gross, energy campaigner at Friends of the Earth.

HOW CLEAN IS SHALE GAS?

According to Professor Geoffrey Maitland, Professor of Energy Engineering at Imperial College London, natural gas is the 'cleanest of fossil fuels.'

'Natural gas is the cleanest of fossil fuels, resulting in around 50 per cent less CO2 emissions compared with coal or oil, and shale gas could provide 20 per cent or more of UK natural gas demand for 2025-50,' he explained.

'Although shale gas will not provide an immediate solution to the energy security of the country, it could be used in the medium term (from 2025 if drilling and fracturing is allowed to re-start now) to replace diminishing North Sea gas production and some gas imports.

'It could also act as a bridge to 2050 as the country works towards accelerating sustainable low-carbon energy technologies and solutions.'

However, some warn that huge volumes of the greenhouse gas methane could leak from UK fracking sites, rapidly accelerating climate change.

A 2019 report by Cornell University found that fracking has 'dramatically increased' global methane emissions in the past decade

Methane is 80 times more damaging than CO2, and leaks are a major problem in the US fracking industry, where it has taken 20 years for operators to start to reduce emissions.

Around a third of the total increased emissions from all sources globally over the past decade is down to shale gas production, according to the study.

WHY DID BORIS JOHNSON BAN FRACKING?

In November 2019, Boris Johnson's government announced the moratorium on fracking, on the basis of a scientific report published by the Oil and Gas Authority.

The report concluded that it is not possible with current technology to accurately predict the probability or magnitude of earthquakes linked to fracking.

It also followed a seismic event caused by fracking that registered 2.9 on the local magnitude scale (ML) on August 26, 2019.

Pictured, the Cuadrilla hydraulic fracturing site at Preston New Road shale gas exploration site in Lancashire

The event, which stemmed from Cuadrilla's Preston New Road fracking site, caused damage to property reported by 197 households.

BGS told MailOnline that a 2.9 ML is large enough to be felt strongly at distances up to a few kilometres from the epicentre but wouldn't usually cause any damage.

Fracking has caused larger earthquakes including earthquakes greater than magnitude 4 in Canada and greater than magnitude 5 in China, BGS said.

WHY HAS LIZ TRUSS LIFTED THE FRACKING BAN?

The new PM has lifted the moratorium as a way of increasing domestic energy production in the face of soaring bills.

Truss said she hopes to get gas flowing from onshore shale wells in as little as six months where there is 'local support'.

According to a recent government survey, just 17 per cent of Brits support fracking, compared with 45 per cent who oppose it.

However, Rees-Mogg said that compensation may be paid to local people directly affected.

'We should not be ashamed of paying people who are going to be the ones who don't get the immediate benefit of the gas but have the disruption,' he said.

The PM believes that tapping England's hidden resources of gas through fracking will reduce the need for expensive imports during an energy crisis, which could cut customer energy bills.

Prime Minister Liz Truss said: 'We will end the moratorium on extracting our huge reserves of shale, which could get gas flowing as soon as six months, where there is support for it'. The PM is pictured leaving Downing Street on September 8

Cuadrilla welcomed the decision as it would make use of the UK's domestic energy supply.

'I am very pleased that the new Government has acted quickly to lift the moratorium,' said Cuadrilla CEO Francis Egan.

'This is an entirely sensible decision and recognises that maximising the UK's domestic energy supply is vital if we are going to overcome the ongoing energy crisis and reduce the risk of it recurring in the future.'

WILL FRACKING REDUCE ENERGY BILLS?

Professor Chris Hilson, an expert in environmental law at the University of Reading, said 'it is very unlikely' that fracking will reduce energy bills.

'Any gas that results from successful fracking operations will be sold into the world market  and we are never going to be a large enough producer of gas to shift the dial on world prices,' he told MailOnline.

'It might possibly lower bills for local communities around sites if district heating schemes with cheap gas could be worked out, but the logistics of that seem unlikely to benefit more than a small number of households.'

According to Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng, soaring energy bills are not due to a scarcity of gas, but rather high prices.

'The situation we are facing is a price issue, not a security of supply issue,' the former Business Secretary tweeted earlier in the year.

Fracking has angered protest groups for its effects on the environment, resulting in physical demonstrations at fracking sites. Pictured, protesters at the fracking site in Preston New Road, Little Plumpton, near Blackpool, on September 8, 2022

'Additional UK production won't materially affect the wholesale market price. This includes fracking.'

This contrasts with a statement from Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley, who previously said the UK's gas storage levels are 'historically low'.

When he was business secretary, Kwarteng was sceptical about the speed and extent of the impact on gas prices.

In March, he wrote in The Mail on Sunday: 'Even if we lifted the fracking moratorium tomorrow, it would take up to a decade to extract sufficient volumes  and it would come at a high cost for communities and our precious countryside.'

According to Professor Haszeldine at the University of Edinburgh, fracking will take 'several years' to significantly increase oil and gas production, but will not reduce overall energy prices.

The new PM has lifted the ban on fracking as a way of increasing domestic energy production in the face of soaring bills (file photo)

'All oil and gas is usually sold on international markets at international prices,' he told MailOnline. 'That will not decrease UK prices and bills for consumers.

'If government is prepared to create a nationalised purchase system, which makes UK producers sell to the UK at less than the international price, then energy bills can decrease.

'But the reason UK bills have increased much more than many others in Europe is because political choices mean the UK sets all energy prices at the highest international price.'

Ian Paton, building partner at property consultancy Cluttons, which specialises in energy and sustainability, also pointed out that natural gas that's released from fracking is a fossil fuel, not a renewable energy source.

Using renewable energy sources instead of fossil fuels is key to the UK reaching net zero  where carbon emissions are balanced by schemes to offset an equivalent amount of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Fracking wells operate around the clock and the process of drilling, gas extraction, and flaring - the burning off of natural gas byproducts - release organic compounds, nitrogen oxide, and other chemicals and particulates into the air. Pictured, fracking protesters at Preston New Road in Lancashire in 2017

'Removing the ban on fracking is a knee jerk reaction and is not the right solution,' Paton said.

'Aside from it being largely untested, fracking is still relying on fossil fuels and is not a long term solution even if it was a reliable and proven method of extracting more affordable energy.'

Danny Gross at Friends of the Earth Furthermore said any impact fracking has on energy security or fuel bills will be 'negligible'.

'UK energy bills are soaring because we are very dependent on expensive gas to heat our homes.

'The government can reduce our reliance on gas by introducing a council-led, nationwide street-by-street home insulation programme and by investing in our huge potential for renewables.'

'The government should also do much more to remove the barriers to onshore wind and solar. They are quick to build, popular with the public and produce electricity many times cheaper than gas.'

Charmaine Coutinho, member of the IET's Energy Panel, added: 'In tackling the energy crisis, it is not just about energy supply, but also a reduction in demand is needed.

'The simplest and quickest way to address this, is a focus on energy efficiency, as not only would this reduce our need for energy, and hence energy bills for everyone, but improved standards of home insulation are also an important enabler of transitioning from fossil fuels to heat pumps for domestic heating.

'Building insulation and retrofitting would give immediate energy reduction  and savings  for the public. We need to be building the capability for improving building efficiency alongside heat pumps etc.

'Throughout this plan, it's imperative that net zero targets should be maintained  they are part of the solution and not the problem.'
Leather can take 40 years to biodegrade, and rubber soles take up to 80 years. Meanwhile every piece of plastic you have ever worn still exists on the planet.

That means the 600 million shoes that are thrown out every year in the UK could still be around in thousands of years - but your next pair may not take so long.

This is because scientists from the University of California San Diego have created a plimsoll that starts to biodegrade after just four weeks underwater.

Its materials are designed to be broken down to their original chemicals by sea creatures, which they can then consume as nutrients.

The researchers say that the replacement for plastic could tackle the pollution currently plaguing the world's oceans.

Professor Stephen Mayfield said: 'Improper disposal of plastic in the ocean breaks down into microplastics and has become an enormous environmental problem.

'We've shown that it's absolutely possible to make high performance plastic products that also can degrade in the ocean.'

Scientists from the University of California San Diego have created a plimsoll that starts to biodegrade after just four weeks underwater

Its materials are designed to be broken down to their original chemicals by sea creatures, which they can then consume as nutrients

WHAT IS THE BIODEGRADEABLE POLYURETHANE MADE FROM? About half of the polyurethane foam is made from oils extracted from algae. The other half is made from an isocyanate, that comes from petroleum. The isocyanate is still biodegradable and edible to microorganisms. 'Some organisms can live on just our foam and some salts, so our foam is actually food for microorganisms,' Professor Mayfield said. A cube of polyurethane foam created using algae oil Advertisement

Professor Mayfield added: 'Plastics should not be going into the ocean in the first place, but if they do, this material becomes food for microorganisms and not plastic trash and microplastics that harm aquatic life.'

In 2010, researchers estimated 8 billion kilograms of plastic end up in the ocean each year, and a steep rise is predicted by 2025.

Footwear is a large contributor to this waste in both water and landfill, and plastic-based flip-flops are also the world's most popular shoes.

When plastic waste enters the ocean it disrupts marine ecosystems and migrates together to form giant mounds of trash, like the 1.6 million square-kilometre Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The material does not ever completely degrade in the sea, and instead breaks up into tiny microplastics that remain there for centuries.

Over the past eight years, Professor Mayfield's team have been developing polyurethane foams made from algae oil, which in 2020 they proved would rapidly degrade in compost and soil.

The foam also meets commercial requirements for the foot-bed of flip-flops as well as the cushioning midsole section of shoes.

For their new study, published yesterday in Science of The Total Environment, they wanted to test if submerging the material in seawater would yield the same results.

They exposed foam samples to a natural nearshore ecosystem at the Ellen Browning Scripps Memorial Pier and Experimental Aquarium over a period of up to 30 weeks.

Changes in the molecular bonding of the samples were tracked using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and visualised with scanning electron microscopy.

Footwear is a large contributor to plastic waste in both water and landfill, and plastic-based flip-flops are also the world's most popular shoes (stock image)

The team exposed polyurethane foam samples to a natural nearshore ecosystem at the Ellen Browning Scripps Memorial Pier and Experimental Aquarium over a period of up to 30 weeks. Changes in the molecular bonding of the samples were tracked using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and visualised with scanning electron microscopy

The researchers studied polyurethane foams submerged at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Pier

It was found that the polyurethane started to biodegrade after only four weeks, which was helped along by an assortment of marine organisms.

Professor Mayfield said: 'I was surprised to see just how many organisms colonise on these foams in the ocean. It becomes something like a microbial reef.'

The bacteria and fungi broke up the long polyurethane molecules into their original starting chemicals, which they could then themselves consume as nutrients.

The team then identified these microorganisms, and located them in six sites across San Diego.

This suggests that the type of creatures capable of degrading the material are prevalent throughout the natural marine environment.

'No single discipline can address these universal environmental problems but we've developed an integrated solution that works on landand now we know also biodegrades in the ocean,' said Professor Mayfield.

Left two panels: Photographs of foam samples attached to the Scripps Pier on Week 0 and Week 4. Right six panels: Scanning electron microscopy images of the polyurethane foam (top) and control ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) foam (bottom). A, F: Foams before being exposed to seawater; D, G: After 4 weeks underwater; E, H: After 12 weeks underwater

Scanning electron microscopy images of the polyurethane foam (top) and control ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) foam (bottom). A, D: Foams before being exposed to seawater; D, G: After 15 weeks underwater; E, H: After 30 weeks underwater
Arctic wolves are not endangered, but the firm wants to use its innovation to save other species on the verge of extinction

The pup was created in a process that took a skin sample from another female Arctic wolf and combined it with an embryo that grew inside a beagle

A Beijing-based genetics company has accomplished a world's first after it successfully cloned an Artic wolf named Maya

An Arctic wolf has been cloned for the first time by a Beijing-based gene firm that took a donor cell from a wild female Arctic wolf and combined it with an embryo that was grown inside a beagle, which shares genetic ancestry with ancient wolves to ensure the process was successful.

The pup, named Maya, was born in June but Singogen Biotechnology waited to announce her birth until she was 100 days old with the hopes the clone would be in good health, and it is.

Arctic wolves are not endangered like other breeds, but Singogen hopes to use this process to save other species that are at risk of extinction.

Although this is a scientific breakthrough, the cloning of animals is met with controversy as activists say the animals involved suffer in surgeries necessary to obtain donor cells and transfer embryos.

Maya was born in June, but the company waited 100 days to show her to the world to ensure she was healthy

Another argument against the process that some see producing animals by cloning is whether this technique is violating some moral prohibition, such as people are 'playing God' by producing embryos without using fertilization.

The other side of the argument believes that cloning animals is a way to save species on the brink of extinction.

Regardless, Maya is deemed a milestone for the application of cloning technology.

She was created through the same technique behind Dolly the sheep, the first mammal, cloned in Scotland in 1996, which is called somatic cell nuclear transfer.

Dolly, however, was euthanized at six years old when she was found to have a lung tumor.

As of right now, Maya is said to be in good health and is exhibiting behavior of a traditional Arctic wolf pup.

The pup was born in a process that took a donor cell from a wild female Arctic wolf and combined it with an embryo that was grown inside a beagle, which shares genetic ancestry with ancient wolves to ensure the process was successful

Sinogene Biotechnology general manager Mi Jidong told the Global Times: 'We started the research cooperation with Harbin Polarland on cloning the Arctic wolf in 2020.

'After two years of painstaking efforts, the Arctic wolf was cloned successfully. It is the first case of its kind in the world.'

The firm embarked on this quest by constructing 137 new embryos from enucleated (process of removing the nucleus from a cell) oocytes, which is a cell in an ovary, and somatic cells followed by the transfer of 85 embryos to the uteri of seven beagles - and one birth Maya.

The genetics company behind the project wants to research how to preserve animals more at risk than Maya's counterparts.

However, there is still a long road ahead of them. 'It is relatively easier to clone canines and cats,' said Jidong.

'We'll continue to work in this field. In the next step, we may clone rare wild animals other than canines or cats  and it will be more difficult.'

But some in the scientific community have raised concern, specifically about the health of cloned animals and how cloning will affect bio-diversity.

Maya, for her part, is destined to spend the rest of her life in captivity because of her lack of socialization.

She was created through the same technique behind Dolly the sheep (pictured), the first mammal, cloned in Scotland in 1996, which is called somatic cell nuclear transfer. Dolly, however, was euthanized at six years old when she was found to have a lung tumor

The genetics company behind the project wants to research how to preserve animals more at risk than Maya's counterparts

Cloning animals has been the Holy Grail for scientists since before Dolly, but now it is becoming a way to revive species that have since disappeared from the Earth.

In March, scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz announced they had sequenced entire genome of the dodo bird for the first time.

The flightless three-foot-tall dodo was wiped out in the 17th century, just 100 years after it was discovered on the island of Mauritius.

And in the same month it was announced that researchers at the University of Melbourne are working to bring the Tasmanian tiger back to life by re-creating the extinct species in the hope it can be re-introduced to the wild.

The lab will develop technologies that could achieve de-extinction of the thylacine, commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger.

Scientists have already sequenced the thylacine genome, which has provided a blueprint on 'how to essentially build a thylacine', Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research Lab lead Andrew Pask said.

That embryo would then be transferred to a host surrogate uterus, such as a dunnart or a Tasmanian devil.
Humans have left more than 15,000 pounds of trash on Mars in the last 50 years and not a single person has ever stepped foot on the red planet.

Cagri Kilic, a postdoctoral research fellow in robotics at West Virginia University, analyzed the mass of all rovers and orbiters sent to Mars and subtracted the weight of what is currently in operation, resulting in 15,694 pounds of debris.

The trash includes discarded hardware, inactive spacecraft and those that crashed on the surface - specifically the Soviet Unions Mars orbiter 2 that made a crash landing in 1971.

Not only are humans already polluting another planet, but scientists fear the debris could contaminate samples being collected by NASAs Perseverance rover that is currently searching for ancient life on Mars.

A scientist calculates there is 15,694 pounds of trash on Mars. Most of it stems from discarded hardware like this thermal blanket that protected NASA's Perseverance survive its descent through the hellish atmosphere

Much of the garbage is inevitable, as many of the parts have to be discarded in order to protect craft as it soars through the Red Planets hellish atmosphere - including NASA's Perseverance that endured the seven minutes of hell when it landed in February 2021.

The rover, which is collecting samples on Mars that will be brought back to Earth, has captured images of trash while on its mission.

In June, NASA's team on Earth spotted a light in the distance in an image sent back by Perseverance, which they then directed the rover to take a look.

A few weeks later, Perseverance entered the Hogwallow Flats region and acquired a high-resolution, 360-degree Mastcam-Z panorama.

The Ingenuity helicopter snapped an image of the landing equipment used during its arrival with Perseverance. Pictures is a parachute and the cone-shaped backshell that protected the rover in space

More recently in June, Perseverance came upon a piece of shredded Dacron netting that helped it land safely on Mars

And due to Martian wind, the tight netting began to untangle and was seen three weeks later as a ball of knotted, stringlike material

The image showed the bright light was the reflection from a thermal blanket.

This that was used to protect the car-sized vehicle from extreme temperatures it experienced during landing.

The blanket is tucked in the corner of several rocks and appears to reflect light.

The rovers companion, the Ingenuity helicopter, also caught an image of the landing equipment used during its arrival with Perseverance in 2021.

A parachute and the cone-shaped backshell that protected the rover in space, as well as during its fiery descent toward the Martian surface, was seen in incredible detail.

More recently in June, Perseverance came upon a piece of shredded Dacron netting that helped it land safely on Mars.

And due to Martian wind, the tight netting began to untangle and was seen three weeks later as a ball of knotted, stringlike material.

NASA's Opportunity is now dead on Mars, but it sent a picture of its heat shield in 2004, along with debris that littered the ground for several miles.

There are a total of nine inactive spacecraft sitting on Mars, including the Mars 3 lander, Mars 6 lander, Viking 1 lander, Viking 2 lander, the Sojourner rover, the European Space Agencys Schiaparelli lander (pictured), the Phoenix lander, the Spirit rover and the Opportunity rover

Then there are the dead robots on Mars, specifically NASAs Opportunity that was active from 2004 to mid-2018.

This rover weighs about 347 pounds, the same weight as a hippopotamus, and is now stuck in the Martin dirt.

However, it has left a trail of garbage as it traversed the Red Planet.

It sent NASA a picture of its heat shield in 2004, along with debris that littered the ground for several miles.

There are a total of nine inactive spacecraft sitting on Mars, including the Mars 3 lander, Mars 6 lander, Viking 1 lander, Viking 2 lander, the Sojourner rover, the European Space Agencys Schiaparelli lander, the Phoenix lander, the Spirit rover and the Opportunity rover.

According to Kilic, most of the robots are still intact and space agencies view them as historic monuments rather than discarded trash.

When you add up the mass of all spacecraft that have ever been sent to Mars, you get about 22,000 pounds (9979 kilograms), Kilic wrote in The Conversation.

Subtract the weight of the currently operational craft on the surface  6,306 pounds (2,860 kilograms)  and you are left with 15,694 pounds (7,119 kilograms) of human debris on Mars.
NASA has just a 20 percent chance of launching its Artemis I moon rocket on Tuesday due to an approaching storm that could turn into a hurricane when it makes landfall on Wednesday.

The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft are set to blast off on Tuesday, with the 70-minute launch window opening at 11:37am ET.

The National Hurricane Center predicts the possible hurricane will travel over western Cuba early Tuesday, with a tropical storm hitting Florida mid-day.

Managers said Friday that the rocket is ready to blast off Tuesday on its first test flight without astronauts, after overcoming more hydrogen leaks during a fueling test earlier this week.

NASA said it will keep monitoring the forecast and decide no later than Saturday whether to not only delay the launch, but haul the rocket off the pad and back to the hangar.

Officials said it's unclear when the next launch attempt would be - whether October or even November - if the rocket must seek shelter indoors.

A tropical storm could ground NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft that are set to launch on Tuesday

It takes three days of preparations to get the rocket back into Kennedy Space Center's mammoth Vehicle Assembly Building, four miles away.

'I don't think were cutting it close,' said NASA's Tom Whitmeyer, deputy associate administrator for exploration systems. 'Were just taking it a step at a time.'

Fuel leaks and other technical problems scrapped the first two tries of launching the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, which will be uncrewed when it finally takes off.

NASA conducted tests on the rocket Wednesday, which sprouted more fuel leaks, but engineers managed to get the problems down to acceptable levels.

Engineers halted the flow and warmed the lines in hopes of plugging the leak, and proceeded with the test.

But the leak persisted before dropping to acceptable levels. Hours later, another leak cropped up elsewhere, before tapering down.

Pictured is a map showing the storm move into Florida. And if it does turn into a hurricane. the eye will make landfall on Wednesday

This would be the third attempt to launch the rocket. On September 3, the mission was scrubbed due to a leak. NASA said it conducted testing and the rocket is ready for launch

However, the team said all the objectives were met.

Hydrogen leaks spoiled the first two launch attempts, as well as earlier countdown tests.

So much hydrogen escaped during the countdown earlier this month that it exceeded NASA's limit by more than double.

Wednesday's leak almost got that big again.

After hours of fits and starts, NASA finally managed to load nearly one million gallons of fuel into the rocket.

Following the September 3 launch delay, NASA replaced two seals in the leaky line.

One seal had a tiny indentation; it measured a mere one-hundredth of an inch.

'Now that doesn't sound like a lot, but again we're dealing with hydrogen,' the smallest element on the periodic table, said mission manager Mike Sarafin.

NASA also altered the fueling process, easing slowly into the loading of the super-cold liquid hydrogen and oxygen.

After Wednesday's big leak appeared, the launch team moved even more slowly to subject the plumbing to even less stress.

The Artemis I mission will test the technology before astronauts board the craft. Pictured is the path both the uncrewed and crewed missions will travel

In a separate matter, NASA still needs the US Space Force to extend the certification of on-board batteries that are part of the flight safety system before another launch attempt.

Once launched, the crew capsule atop the rocket will be the first to orbit the moon in 50 years.

The $4.1 billion mission should last more than five weeks, ending with a splashdown in the Pacific.

Astronauts would climb aboard for the second test flight, dashing around the moon in 2024.

The third mission, targeted for 2025, would see a pair of astronauts actually landing on the moon.

NASA's Space Launch System rocket is more powerful than the Saturn V rocket that sent Apollo astronauts to the moon during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The engines and boosters are carryovers from the now retired space shuttles.

Just like now, NASA struggled with elusive hydrogen leaks during the shuttle era, especially during the early 1990s.
A sea monster was pulled from the depths off the coast of Australia by fisherman who was surprised when he dragged in a shark with beady eyes and a human-like smile.

The shark appeared to have rough, charcoal-colored skin and a small mouth with tiny sharp teeth lining the top and bottom.

The image of the dead creature was shared on Facebook, sparking several theories as to what kind of shark it is - some suggest it was a cookiecutter or goblin shark.

Dean Grubbs, associate director of research at the Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory told Newsweek, that it looks like a gulper shark.

The creepy creature is said to be a gulper shark that is critically endangered around Australia due to overfishing

The shark was caught by fisherman Trapnman Bermagui on September 12.

He reeled the nightmarish fish to his boat from more than 2,000 feet below the surface off the coast of New South Wales, Live Science reports.

Trapnman Bermagui shared a picture of the lifeless creature on Facebook, which has collected more than 1,000 likes and sparked several theories about what kind of shark it was.

Several users posted that it was a cookiecutter shark, due to the small mouth and tiny, sharp teeth.

While many Facebook users thought the creature was a cookiecutter shark, an expert determined it is a gulper shark (pictured)

Others were amazed by the look of the sea monster, some saying it gave them the major creeps.

And a few people suggested it was a prehistoric creature.

But Fisher told Newsweek it is totally not a cookiecutter, but is a rough skin shark that is also known as gulper shark.

This species is found in the Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and parts of the Pacific.

According to the Shark Research Institute, this shark has smooth skin, but the one recently caught had skin that looked like sandpaper.

This could be due to the shark being dead.

This species is also identifiable by its short first dorsal fin and the second positioned higher than other sharks.

Males can grow up to 2.6 feet long, while females can measure up to three feet long.

And the gulper shark is critically endangered regionally around Australia.

The sharks are a hot commodity by fisheries that use their oil and meat.




An imposing U.S. aircraft carrier is set to arrive in South Korea on Friday for its first combined drills with the South Korean Navy near the peninsula in five years, as the allies are striving to reinforce deterrence against evolving North Korean military threats.







The nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan is slated to dock at ROK Fleet Command in Busan, 390 kilometers south of Seoul, amid worries about the possibility of the North staging a nuclear test or other provocations. ROK stands for South Korea's official name, Republic of Korea.







The arrival of the carrier, a centerpiece of America's naval might, came after Presidents Yoon Suk-yeol and Joe Biden reaffirmed their commitment to deploy U.S. strategic assets in a "timely and coordinated manner as necessary" during their summit in Seoul in May.







"The deployment of the carrier here is designed to demonstrate the robustness of the South Korea-U.S. alliance, and deter North Korea's nuclear and missile threats," a Seoul official told Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity.







Its carrier strike group consists of three vessels  the Nimitz-class carrier; USS Chancellorsville, a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser; and USS Barry, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer.







The three warships plan to join the combined drills off South Korea's east coast later this month. The nuclear-powered USS Annapolis submarine is also expected to take part.







Commissioned in July 2003, the 97,000-ton, 333-meter-long Ronald Reagan is America's only forward-deployed aircraft carrier. Since 2015, the supercarrier has been based in the Japanese city of Yokosuka, which is home to the U.S. 7th Fleet.







Ronald Reagan can carry over 5,000 sailors as well as formidable on-board assets, including F/A-18E Super Hornets, and E-2D Hawkeye early warning and control aircraft.







The strike group sails with 33 partners and allies for bilateral or multilateral maritime exercises and operations, according to the U.S. Navy. In 2021, the carrier was deployed to support the withdrawal of U.S. troops and others from Afghanistan. (Yonhap)


Municipal Rolex clocks and names such as Breitling, Vacheron Constantin and Baume & Mercier emblazon the top of buildings on the Quai des Bergues. From the moment you arrive in Geneva, you can be in no doubt you are in the world capital of time.

References to watchmaking are everywhere, from the obvious to the hidden: from the imposing building of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie occupying an island in the city centre, to the chiming clock with automata concealed within the Passage Malbuisson.

Even the iconic Jet dEau which rockets from the lake to the height of 140 metres, owes its existence to this ancient art, when water supplied the ateliers of Geneva.

Teresa Levonian Cole makes a timely visit to Geneva - the world capital of time (stock image)

When the craft and watchmaker workshops closed, the hydraulic factory that had supplied them with water from the Rhone had to install a safety valve to release the excess  thus, in 1886, the Jet was born.

A walking tour along a physical time line begins at the Flower Clock. Composed of 6,500 seasonal plants, and with the longest second hand in the world (2.5 metres), this classic photo-stop is under 24-hour surveillance due to its precious mechanism  a gift to the city in 1955 by illustrious horloger, Patek Philippe.

Thieving scoundrels, after all, are not unknown even in this most law-abiding city.

Story has it that in 1590, one Charles Cusin, having been advanced the funds to repair the clock in the Place du Molard, absconded with the cash, never to be seen again.

To prevent further skullduggery, and ensure quality, the Watchmakers Guild of Geneva was founded in 1601  the first of its kind in the world.

What, I wondered, would Jean Calvin have made of the bejeweled time pieces luxuriating along the Rue du Rhone, Genevas most fashionable shopping street? Because, if the meteoric rise of watchmaking in Geneva could be attributed to any individual, it would be to that austere Protestant reformer.

It was he who invited the first Huguenots (Protestants fleeing Catholic France) to Geneva in 1550. Many were goldsmiths, jewellers and enamellers who had to find new use for their skills, as Calvins doctrine forbad frivolous luxury. Watches, however, being practical, were exempt from the ban.

The iconic Jet dEau, which rockets from Lake Geneva to the height of 140 metres

A Patek Philippe clock in Geneva

So the craftsmen of Geneva turned their hand to watchmaking  a fiddly craft performed on the top floors of buildings, to maximise the availability of light. You can still see the windows of these former cabinotiers, along the Rue des Etuves.

By the end of the 18th century, Calvins utilitarian ideals were stretched to breaking point. Watches were being concealed in the shape of everything bijou, from mangoes to mandolins. Fans, lorgnettes and even ornamental pistols became frames for watches.

One pair of pistols (The Sentimental Duel, circa 1805)  decorated with gold, enamel, pearls and gemstones  incorporates a watch in its rounded grip, and fires a perfumed enamel flower from the barrel when the trigger is pressed.

This is among the 2,500 mind-boggling exhibits in the Patek Philippe museum, whose collection spans astrological clocks of the 13th century to the present.

A floor is dedicated to Patek Philippes own creations, since 1839, and includes timepieces gifted to royalty by Patek. Ferdinand I of Bulgaria, Sissi Empress of Austria, Umberto I of Italy, Alexander I of Serbia, Tsars Alexander II and Nicholas II were among recipients of this largesse  most of whom, coincidentally, met a sticky, untimely end.

Not so Queen Victoria, who lived to a ripe old age.

At the Great Exhibition in 1851, she purchased a Patek Philippe key-winding pendant watch featuring rose-cut diamonds in cornflower blue enamel on gold. Philippe, having recently invented the stem-winding watch, was so dismayed that the monarch should be saddled with an old-fashioned key mechanism, that he presented her with a keyless-winding model, with diamonds set in (appropriately) royal blue enamel  cutting-edge technology at the time. Both can be admired side by side.

Teresa goes on a walking tour of Geneva that begins at the amazing Flower Clock (above, pictured in June 2019), which has the longest second hand in the world

A watchmaking course, at Initium, left me in no doubt as to the complexity of even an uncomplicated timepiece. I studied the history and theory of horology, before dismantling and reassembling a mechanical movement under the beady eye of a master.

The barely-visible screws, even on a standard-size watch, had me marvelling at the maker of an 11 mm ring watch for Marie Antoinette  which speaks volumes for the science of optics in the 18th century.

After such focused concentration, the open lake and mountain views of my hotel, La Reserve, were balm for the soul. And how more appropriately to unwind than in the time machine that is their rejuvenating spa.

I emerged ten years younger and ready to retoxify, with timely cocktails in the bar.
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Marking its 200th anniversary this year, the calmly winding Union Canal provides a smooth route for narrowboats to navigate  but there have been choppy waters in its history.

The canal opened in 1822 and was used to haul coal to Edinburgh along a 31-mile course that starts in Falkirk. For 20 years, it enjoyed a boom time, then disaster struck: the coming of the railway.

The opening of the Edinburgh and Glasgow line in 1842 cast doubt on the need for the Union Canal and, eventually, after staggering along with limited services for years, commercial operations ceased in 1933.

Serene: Tom Chesshyre explored Scotland's historic Union Canal by boat, sailing from Falkirk to Edinburgh. Pictured is a section of the waterway near the village of Ratho (file photo)

Locks were filled in and the canal was silted up. Then a miracle happened: 32 million from the National Lottery-funded Millennium Commission plus further fundraising resulted in the clearing of the waters and the creation of an extraordinary mechanical link, known as the Falkirk Wheel, to replace a series of steep locks.

The Union Canal was back in business. But instead of coal, the cargo these days is tourists. You learn all this and more at the waterside Canal Museum at Linlithgow, on the route to Edinburgh.

An eight-minute walk away is Linlithgow Palace, created by James I in 1424 as a pleasure palace  rather than a castle with fortifications  to impress his nobles and assert his authority. It is halfway between Edinburgh and Stirling and sits beside a picturesque loch.

The Union Canal was transformed with the creation of an extraordinary mechanical link, known as the Falkirk Wheel (pictured), to replace a series of steep locks, Tom reveals

Tom stopped at Linlithgow to explore Linlithgow Palace, where Mary, Queen of Scots was born in 1542. 'Theres a statue of her (above) at the front,' he says

His scheme worked, with future kings also enjoying its effect: James IV welcomed the Spanish ambassador there, while James V built a grand gateway in order to make the entrance to the royal court even more impressive.

This was where the kings and queens of Scotland in the 15th and 16th centuries came to play.

Mary, Queen of Scots was born at the palace in 1542, and theres a statue of her at the front.

Sadly, in the 17th century the palace was more or less abandoned and it is now a shell of its former self.

To reach its fenced-off remains you walk down a hill from the canal and through the heart of Linlithgow  a square known as The Cross.

This meeting place has seen markets, public proclamations and executions over the years. On one side was once the Golden Cross Tavern, where the poet Robert Burns attended a meeting of the local Masonic Lodge in 1787.

All that remains of this today is a carved stone pediment fixed to a modern building. But there are plenty of other inns  the Four Marys serves decent ales and hearty haggis-and-potato pies. Its named after four ladies-in-waiting to Mary, Queen of Scots and the building dates back to the 1500s.

Linlithgow Palace, pictured, was created by James I in 1424 as a pleasure palace  rather than a castle with fortifications  to impress his nobles and assert his authority, Tom explains

TRAVEL FACTS Week-long trips from Falkirk cost from 1,099, sleeping up to four (black-prince.com). For more information, go to scottishcanals.co.uk, visitscotland.com and linlithgowmuseum.org. Advertisement

Pubs tend to be a big feature of journeys along the Union Canal, as narrowboat holidaymakers will confirm. We certainly found this to be true when we took to the water on our boat the Madeleine, a feisty 62 ft vessel from the well-run Black Prince rental firm.

There is no shortage of fine hostelries here. The boisterous and welcoming MBK Canalside inn on Redding Road tells on one of its walls the story of a tragedy in 1923 at the nearby Redding Colliery, where 40 men died when the mine flooded from old workings.

Meanwhile, the Tally Ho at Winchburgh serves excellent fish and chips, and The Bridge Inn at Ratho has great canalside views.

Part of the joy of the Union Canal is the almost complete absence of locks, other than a couple near Falkirk. So its a great choice for narrowboat novices (as we were).

There is also a pleasurable learning curve in steering with the tiller, mooring, clearing the weed hatch each morning and checking that the metal vice above the hatch was tightly secured.

Without that, you could sink the boat, said the cheerful (and wry) Scottish Canals employee before we set off. That would not be an ideal situation.

But what really makes the Union Canal is the arrival into Edinburgh.

Would the canal founders from 1822 believe their eyes if they saw the waterway winding beneath bridges carrying dual carriageways, sliding between housing estates and finishing up beside the gleaming modern apartments by Leamington Lift Bridge, with Edinburgh Castle obscured up above on its hill? Hardly.
He admires the view of Montagne Sainte-Victoire, the majestic peak that features in many of his paintings

Martin Symington goes on a Cezanne-themed walking trail in Aix-en-Provence and visits the painter's studio

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Ca alors, is that really Paul Cezanne? The post-impressionist painter is standing next to the Fontaine de la Rotonde with his hat and walking stick, easel strapped to his back.

Somehow the life-size bronze statue of Aix-en-Provences favourite son looks puzzled about the attention he is attracting.

Next month, Cezanne is coming to Londons Tate Modern in a once-in-a-generation, career-spanning retrospective of his life and work. I have made the reverse journey. In Cezannes sun-drenched, easy-going birthplace in southern France and the surrounding areas which inspired him, I will try to figure out what all the fuss is about.

Charming: Martin Symington explores Aix-en-Provence, pictured, in southern France, the 'sun-drenched, easy-going' birthplace of the artist Paul Cezanne

Left is a bronze statue of the post-impressionist painter in Aix-en-Provence, a place that 'lives and breathes' Cezanne, according to Martin. Pictured right is Cezannes work Still Life With Fruit Dish. Londons Tate Modern is hosting a retrospective of the artist's work next month

Cezanne lived and breathed Aix. To get an idea of its beauty and history, think Bath or Oxford. When youre born there, nothing else is good enough, is how the artist put it.

A Cezanne-themed walking trail marked with brass studs weaves through the city, taking me to sites such as the house on Rue de lOpera where the artist was born in 1839; the school where he and the writer Emile Zola became lifelong buddies; and Les Deux Garcons brasserie, where the pair would shoot the breeze.

The trail meanders into the medieval Mazarin quarter, which I love, with its shady squares and fountains bubbling in cool courtyards.

Narrow streets spill suddenly on to Cours Mirabeau, the aristocratic avenue edged with terrace cafes perfect for sipping a glass of chilled Provencal rose.

The walk ends at Atelier de Cezanne, his airy studio on Lauves Hill, which has been left pretty much as it was; canvasses and oils, baskets of ripe red apples, whiffs of linseed and a paint-splattered ladder. I sense the artists aura. Perhaps he has just popped out to smoke a pipe?

The next morning I make my way to the Terrain des Peintres viewpoint, now a public park, just outside Aix, where Cezanne would sit facing Montagne Sainte-Victoire.

Above is Atelier de Cezanne, the artist's airy studio, which 'has been left pretty much as it was; canvasses and oils, baskets of ripe red apples, whiffs of linseed and a paint-splattered ladder'

This is the majestic mountain which he painted compulsively  more than 80 oils and watercolours. The subject may be the same but the paintings involve a panoply of angles, lights and shades, grey-blues, ochres and pools of green.

Several are in the Tate exhibition, which has been curated to chronicle his drift towards more abstract works.

Driving along the Arc River, I see for myself how Sainte-Victoire exerts its presence over Aix and its environs. I follow the twisting road (nowadays known as Route Cezanne, inevitably) he would have travelled a thousand times with his horse and cart in search of another mood of the mountain to capture.

Pictured is Montagne Sainte-Victoire, the majestic mountain that Cezanne painted compulsively  more than 80 oils and watercolours

Martin visits the Terrain des Peintres viewpoint (pictured), now a public park, just outside Aix, where Cezanne would sit to take in views of Montagne Sainte-Victoire

TRAVEL FACTS Kirker Holidays (kirkerholidays.com) offers three nights B&B at Hotel Le Pigonnet from 669 pp, including flights and transfers. Guided tours by secretsdici.fr. The EY Exhibition: Cezanne will run at the Tate Modern in London from October 5 to March 12, 2023 (tickets 22, tate.org.uk). Advertisement

Time to unearth the mysteries of Carrieres de Bibemus, a jumble of sandstone quarries 5 km east of Aix and another Cezanne obsession.

Access is restricted to guided groups, so with local expert Arthur Carlier I plunge into this orangey rockscape tangled with dark undergrowth and scented with pine resin. We pause at viewing platforms displaying reproductions of works in the places where Cezanne painted them.

Between 1895 and 1899, Cezanne more or less lived among these cut rocks, experimenting with new techniques, says Arthur. Later, Picasso would become captivated by the mould-breaking methods he developed here. Picasso referred to him as the father of us all.

Back in Aix, I view the citys gorgeous golden structures in a new light, having learnt that these were built, over the centuries, from stone quarried at Bibemus.

What I do not find in his home town is much of Cezannes original work. True, a handful hang in the Musee Granet deep in the Mazarin quarter, but nobody is pretending that these are masterpieces.

This is because Cezanne died barely acknowledged. Aix high society had taken against him; the museums curator swore that no work by the local madman would hang there on his watch. Which is perhaps why the man who lived and breathed Aix has been sculpted to look puzzled, as he stands by Fontaine de la Rotonde.

Now that he has taken his place among the all-time greats, however, it is Aix-en-Provence that lives and breathes Cezanne.
CROSSFIRE, TUESDAY, BBC1

Rating:

After a turbulent fortnight following the Queens death, TV audiences may well have been searching for potentially comforting combinations of consolation and distraction. So where to turn?

The BBCs three-part drama Crossfire, starring Keeley Hawes, was initially scheduled to run on consecutive nights from last Monday but was inevitably shunted around before finally starting last Tuesday.

And if it was escapism you were after then Crossfire delivered  not least because its shooters-on-the-loose plot was set inside a hotel in the Canaries, where former copper-turned-security consultant Jo (a compelling Hawes) was holidaying with her husband, their two young children and her older daughter from a previous marriage. So far, so Happy (modern, blended, mixed-race) Families.

Somewhat less plausibly, however, Jo and co were also on holiday with their closest friends. Personally, I find organising my own holidays hard enough without attempting to co-ordinate other peoples schedules, so the fact that a bunch of busy middle-aged people with careers and kids could pull it off in just a few weeks (via flashbacks, we discovered that the idea of an Easter holiday was conceived at New Years Eve) felt like dramatic sleight-of-hand by writer Louise Doughty.

The BBCs three-part drama Crossfire, starring Keeley Hawes, was initially scheduled to run on consecutive nights from last Monday but was inevitably shunted around before finally starting last Tuesday

The author of the novel Apple Tree Yard (a huge hit when adapted for the BBC in 2017), Doughtys storytelling comfort-zone is exploring what happens when outwardly strong and capable women find themselves in situations during which events spiral out of their control.

In Apple Tree Emily Watsons Yvonne had a fling with Ben Chaplins Mark that got very dark, very fast, while in Crossfire its the unfolding of Jos relationship with one of her husbands oldest friends (on the same holiday, with his family...) set against the backdrop of a couple of angry gunmen running around firing at holidaymakers.

As Jo was forced to refresh her policing skills, it fell to her to try to save her family, her relationship, the lives of her friends and the other hotel guests and staff. It was a big ask  and her journey was predictably edge-of-the-seat with inevitable twists; the excellent Hawes (who also co-produced) was the glue that successfully bound together some slightly frayed plot strands.

Kathryn Flett (pictured): The random-shooter-with-no-clear-motive also appeared in the otherwise entirely brilliant Sherwood  I hope it isnt simply a trend deployed in order not to offend

Lots of viewers will want to catch up with it on iPlayer, so I dont want to give too much away. However, if there was anything about Crossfire that felt slightly jarring it was the BBCs diversity-in-action checklist  ensuring Jos tight friendship group (great performances from Royal Shakespeare Company stalwart Josette Simon OBE, Line Of Duty star Anneika Rose and Shalisha James-Davis as Jos daughter) felt slightly forced, while the shooters own motives were so vague they felt less like a proper plot than a neat plot device.

The random-shooter-with-no-clear-motive also appeared in the otherwise entirely brilliant Sherwood  I hope it isnt simply a trend deployed in order not to offend.

However, while enjoying much of Crossfires welcome escapism it was the seriess final shot that pulled me up short. The close-up of a uniformed police officer adjusting their hat with its shiny EIIR badge was  suddenly, unexpectedly  certainly far more emotionally emblematic than the shows creators could ever have predicted.

Soothed by a sponge block of flats

While waiting to watch the procession from the Palace to Westminster Hall ahead of the Queens lying-in-state, I got chatting to PC Skinner of the Met  on duty across the barrier  who admitted that after several long shifts all I was good for when I got home last night was Bake Off .

Whether viewers were on duty or off, Syabiras sumptuous Red Velvet cake and Januszs showstopping sponge interpretation of his mums block of flats in the first episode were so uplifting that Im sure well all be both entertained and soothed during this sixth season (Tuesday, Ch4, with judges Paul and Prue, above).

Its broad fan-base is still far from soggy  the new Prince and Princess of Wales are known to be fans, after all.

MICHAEL PALIN: INTO IRAQ TUESDAY, CHANNEL 5

Rating:

Even though it was the birthplace of civilisation, there may well be many countries closer to the top of your holiday bucket list than Iraq. Thus its great to see the indomitable Michael Palin make the trip, if only so we dont have to.

Having long been fascinated by the country, he had to get his doctors OK to travel there  for insurance purposes, presumably  and was clearly delighted to be told he could go to see a country that has had a terrible present but an extraordinary past. The still sprightly Sir Michael (below)  he turns 80 next year  set off by train, following the river Tigris south for 1,000 miles from its source in Turkey.

While in the still-devastated city of Mosul, five years after fighting ended there, he chatted with kids playing among the ruins, before moving on to purchase a smart bespoke jacket in the shiny, high-rise city of Erbil, the booming capital of Iraqi Kurdistan 50 miles east. Then, somewhat nervously joining the torchlit (Glastonbury-meets-Apocalypse Now) New Year procession in Akre, Palin admitted the first days in Iraq really have been a baptism of fire.

Sir Michael is still a dry, witty, amiable tour guide, just not as steady on his feet these days, so its fairly unlikely well see him striding up too many more mountainsides while dodging tracer fire. His fans, then, will certainly want to make the most of his visit to a country about which many of us have more preconceptions than we do facts.
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Kris Jenner shocked The Kardashians viewers during Thursday's season two premiere as she admitted she forgot about one of the properties she owns.

The 66-year-old businesswoman - who has a reported net worth of $170 million - was seen giving fans a look inside her Beverly Hills condo before she admitted that she only uses the place for wrapping Christmas gifts and storing Champagne.

She was joined by her daughter Khloe Kardashian, 38, on the trip, who mocked her mother for being so rich that she couldn't remember her property portfolio.

Wealthy: Kris Jenner shocked The Kardashians viewers during Thursday's season two premiere as she admitted she forgot about one of the properties she owns

Speaking to Khloe, Kris admitted: 'This is a cute little place if I must say so myself,' going on to confess that she uses the pad as her Christmas 'gift wrapping station' and 'Santa's workshop.'

Khloe then remarked: 'I can't wait to be wealthy enough I forget I have properties somewhere', adding in a mock British accent, 'Oh, I have a condo in Beverly Hills! I forgot about that!'

Kris later explained in a confessional that she had bought the property to have a base close to her mother Mary Jo 'MJ' Campbell, and cousin Cici Bussey, who live in the area.

'I kind of forgot it was there,' Kris laughed. 'That sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?'

Pour it up: The 66-year-old businesswoman - who has a reported net worth of $170 million - was seen giving fans a look inside her Beverly Hills condo before she admitted that she only uses the place for wrapping gifts and storing Champagne

Unbelievable: Kris was joined by her daughter Khloe Kardashian, 38, on the trip, who mocked her mother for being so rich that she couldn't remember her property portfolio

Spacious: Kris gave viewers a glimpse inside her luxury condo as she was seen clearing out the fridge

Kris and Khloe were then seen peeking inside the fridge, which was largely empty with the exception of several bottles of champagne.

'In case of emergency, Kris quipped, while Khloe looked on in wonder.

With the average sale price for condos in Beverly Hills currently $1.5 million, viewers were left in shock at Kris' statement as they rushed to Twitter to comment.

They tweeted: 'I forgot I had a condothat sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?' Yes, Kris. That does sound ridiculous.'; 'Kris Jenner forgetting she had a condo in Bev Hills is amazing I can't even hate on #Kardashians it's so ridiculous that it's good

'kris forgot she had a whole condo in beverly hills? wow money does make you happy because this level of wealth? #Kardashians'; 'WTH, Kris Jenner, said on the Kardashians last night that she had a BEVERLY HILLS condo that she forgot about. Wow, and called it their Christmas wrapped station. Must be nice. #Kardashians

''i forgot i have a condo in beverly hills'I LOVE KRIS, so iconic'; 'Kris forgetting she owned a condo in Beverly Hills and then having her fridge stocked with champagne?!!'; 'Not Kris Jenner forgetting she owned a condo bc she's so rich'; 'kris jenner forgetting she has a condo? i wanna be that kind of rich';

'I'm watching the new season of #TheKardashians & Kris has a whole extra condo in Beverly Hills & she have the nerve to say ' oh yeah I forgot I even had this ' girl wtf ppl be having money & be abusing it'; 'Not Kris forgetting she had a condo in Beverly Hills. I aspire to be that rich!!'; 'Kris Jenner forgetting she has a condo in Beverly Hills is just.. wow.

Take a peek: Last year, Kris moved into a $20million Hidden Hill mansion next door to her daughter Khloe's home and unveiled her new property in a housewarming / 66th birthday party

Screening room: Kris unveils her screening room in her elegant new home

Last year, Kris moved into a $20million Hidden Hill mansion next door to her daughter Khloe's home and unveiled her new property in a housewarming / 66th birthday party.

The star also owns four additional houses: three condos in Calabasas and a 9million mansion in La Quinta, California.

Kris threw open to the doors to her new mansion in season one of The Kardashians for her party, with daughters Kim Kardashian, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian were all present, along with some of her closest friends like Ellen DeGeneres and Faye Resnick.

After guests were seen arriving at her house for the party, Kris said in confession that she gave herself her best birthday present - her new house.

'I can't wait to see everyone tonight and have a wonderful time,' Kris added in confession.

Drinks ready: Kris had so many glasses for drinks for her guests

Bar: Kris shows them the screening room, piano room and bar, with Kourtney adding that she, 'loves that every room is infused with her personality

Kourtney saidin confession, My moms house is beautiful. I know its everything shes dreamed of, as she told her and Travis, 'Its a real Tiffany lamp, that I got myself for my birthday.'

Kris showed them the screening room, piano room and bar, with Kourtney adding that she, 'loves that every room is infused with her personality.

She also showed them the gym, while giving her close friend Faye Resnick a glimpse at an entire room for the designer dinnerware sets that she collects.

Entire room: She also shows them the gym, while giving her close friend Faye Resnick a glimpse at an entire room for the designer dinnerware sets that she collects

Close up: Kris had a variety of fine china in the room, including floral emblazoned ones

Fitness: Kris' at home gym featured mirrors everywhere and a large TV with a number of machines

Khloe went on to point out some of the amazing features of the house, like, 'the table, the ruffles, the little martini table,' adding in confession, Living in Kris Jenner world is just absolute fabulousness.

Like being surrounded by absolute opulence and a dirty martini in a crystal glass covered in diamonds and fabulous s**t everywhere, Khloe added in confession.

She went on to remark it was like, 'sensory overload' to be in the home, which also includes color-coded fridges for various foods.

Living room: A glimpse at one of the living rooms in Kris Jenner's new home

Bar: A closer look at the bar in Kris Jenner's new Calabasas home

Dream: 'Perfect. Oh my God, Kris,' Faye says, as Kris says, 'I know, it's my dream'

Kendall was in Miami during the birthday bash, but she came back back home to visit her mother later, with her dog in tow.

I feel bad cause I missed my moms birthday and I didnt get to see her brand new house, which I was really excited about because one of my secret passions in life is interior design and architecture, Kendall said in confession.

She killed it, she really did, Kendall added, with Kris telling her shes been working so much and she still doesnt know where everything is.

Khloe and Kris built their homes next to each other in the Kardashian/Jenner favorite neighborhood of Hidden Hills.

Her home cost $17 million while Kris' cost $20 million, for a combined total of $37 million, sits on land that used to have one single family home that Britney Spears once rented in 2011 and 2012 for $25,000 a month, per Page Six.

Cheers to her new home: Kris gathers everyone to start with appetizers, adding in confession, My favorite thing in the world is to be with my family. As time goes by, I realize I really want to spend more time with my kids whenever I can'

Immaculate: Kris was giving a tour to her guests, including her mom Mary Jo Campbell, 87

Absolutely stunning: Kris' kitchen had light colored wood with black countertops; the open concept home had a large living area with a wall mounted TV

They had purchased the lots on the same day from Metro Development Homes just before Christmas to build their custom home of their dreams.

As reported by The Dirt last year, the brokers originally proposed one single family home on the 3.4 acre property, but Kris and Khloe counter-proposed two homes on the then-single lot.

Originally the land was owned by construction magnate Ron Tutor - the father of Million Dollar Listing star Tracy Tutor - and included a home of 20,000 square feet.

The home was once leased to Britney Spears. It sold in 2012 for $7 million to a local developer who razed the house. After that, the land was left vacant for years before being passed to Metro Development.

Color-coded: Khloe adds its like, 'sensory overload' to be in the home, which also includes color-coded fridges for various foods.

Kitchen island: A glimpse at Kris' elegant kitchen with a dining island

Details: The light fixtures were stunning as well

Despite the exorbitant amount, the real estate purchases aren't the most expensive Hidden Hills prices on record as a property sold for $22.3 million in June 2019.

The Dirt noted that the Kardashian-Jenner purchases still rank high among the priciest ever sold in the entire valley.

Kris home was reported to be 16,500 square feet with eight bedrooms and 9.5 baths, including an eight car garage, covered patios, gym, office, pool and spa, movie theater and guest home, Variety reported.

Wow! Kris' home had incredible doors, as seen in the most recent episode the Kardashians

Home: Kris' foyer had a plethora of fresh flowers with recess lighting

All the goods: Khloe couldn't take how immaculate everything was at Kris' home

Khloe's home was reported to be 10,000 square feet, with an oversized pool and like Kris, a modern farmhouse architectural style, per Variety.

Kris and Khloe's homes are just a stones throw away from Kim Kardashian's, who lives in a $60 million mansion. She purchased ex husband Kanye West's portion of the home for $23 million earlier this year, which included all the furnishings, finishings and art inside.

Kylie Jenner bought her Holmby Hills home for $36.5 million in summer 2020, while Kourtney Kardashian lives in Calabasas in a home she bought in 2014 for $8.5 million.

Art: One wall featured teal plates hung up in an interesting pattern
He starred with the Queen, now Paddington gets set for film 3

Paddington Bear played a small role at the heart of the nation's farewell to the Queen this week, with stuffed toys (and marmalade sandwiches) being left at the Royal Parks; and the BBC screening Paddington 2 on Monday.

And the loveable little bear  who got his first outing in 1958  will return. The next instalment, Paddington In Peru, will start filming in London  and Peru  in 2023.

Making a comeback: Paddington Bear  who got his first outing in 1958  will return. The next instalment, Paddington In Peru, will start filming in London  and Peru  in 2023

I hear that the usual suspects are all on board: Ben Whishaw as the bear, Hugh Bonneville and Sally Hawkins as Mr and Mrs Brown, Julie Walters as Mrs Bird and Jim Broadbent as Mr Gruber. However they haven't been sent scripts yet.

Details are shrouded in secrecy, though it has been written by Paul King, who directed the first two films.

This time it will be new director Dougal Wilson tugging at our heartstrings (his previous work includes some of the John Lewis Christmas ads).

Iconic: He starred with the Queen and played a small role at the heart of the nation's farewell to the Queen, with stuffed toys (and marmalade sandwiches) being left at the Royal Parks

Paddington In Peru, will start filming in London  and Peru  in 2023, after the bear took on a role saying his farewell to the Queen at the Jubilee celebrations in June

Michael Bond, author of the Paddington books, did send his bear back to Darkest Peru  in 1964, when he took a trip to celebrate his Great Aunt Lucy's 100th birthday (an event that featured in Paddington 2).

On his way home, by boat, Paddington dreams he's being chased by a giant biscuit and has to seek refuge with the ship's doctor.

Whatever the film's story, the South American setting will offer the chance to see Paddington  a fish out of water in London  as a fish out of water back home in Peru, too.

And there's talk of an extended family of bear cousins for us all to get to know.

A spokesman for StudioCanal said it was too early to share any official news of Paddington 3.
Ticket To Paradise (12A, 104 mins)

Rating: **

Verdict: Starry but feeble

Don't Worry Darling (15, 122 mins)

Rating: **

Verdict: More Styles than substance

There are more stars in this week's two major releases than I fancy will be bestowed on them by critics. Ticket To Paradise is a particular disappointment; an A-list cast  George Clooney and Julia Roberts  in a B-minus film.

It's a romcom that relies far too heavily on the undoubted charisma and chemistry of its leads to sprinkle stardust on a hackneyed premise whereby two people who loathe each other end up in love.

We have seen it a thousand times before in better pictures; indeed, it's the most whiskery of comedic devices, stretching right back to the likes of The Philadelphia Story (1940).

If the writing and plotting are sharp enough, as they have been through the decades in films such as The Goodbye Girl (1977), Groundhog Day (1993) and The Proposal (2009), it will always be a winning formula. But Ticket To Paradise, directed and co-written by Ol Parker (whose credits include 2018's Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again), doesn't tick those boxes.

The set-up has a pair of bitterly divorced parents, David (Clooney) and Georgia (Roberts), finding rare common ground in an effort to stop their beloved only daughter, Lily (Kaitlyn Dever), from marrying a Balinese seaweed farmer she has met on holiday. They are aghast at the thought of her making the same mistake they did.

Practically by definition, of course, romcoms don't need to be taken too seriously. That this film reunites two of the great twinkly stars of modern cinema might be enough for some, while others may well rejoice in the cosmic misfortune of David and Georgia being 'unexpectedly' seated next to each other at Lily's graduation, then on the long flight to Bali, where, guess what, they are again horrified to be given adjacent hotel rooms.

Ticket To Paradise is a particular disappointment; an A-list cast  George Clooney and Julia Roberts (pictured together) in a B-minus film

For my money this is predictable fare, lazily plotted and scripted, and it gets even more predictable, as the visiting Americans are left wide-eyed by the quaint local customs

For my money this is predictable fare, lazily plotted and scripted, and it gets even more predictable, as the visiting Americans are left wide-eyed by the quaint local customs . . . although not by the far more astonishing fact that Lily's intended, dishy Gede (Maxime Bouttier), speaks English (after his lifetime of Balinese seaweed farming) more like a native of Indiana than Indonesia.

Classic film on TV The Dam Busters (1955) Apparently, there's a remake in the works and I can understand why, but nothing will ever eclipse the original, with Richard Todd, a bona fide war hero himself, playing the great Wing Commander Guy Gibson. Saturday, C5, 6.40pm Advertisement

Still, if anyone can give all this nonsense a much-needed lift it is Clooney and Roberts, who first teamed up on Ocean's Eleven (2001). This is their first romcom together, however, and they are somehow able to make its iffy dialogue sing, although not even Roberts can bring much dignity to fortune-cookie homilies about parenting, among them the solemn observation that 'a parent will do anything for their kid, except let them be exactly who they are'.

It's hardly a spoiler to let on that as David and Georgia realise how wrong it is of them to try to sabotage their daughter's wedding, so they gradually rediscover the attractions that brought them together in the first place (a process mildly and not very amusingly complicated by her younger boyfriend, a French pilot). In a way, a similar equation applies to the film: little by little, its deficiencies seem less significant than its amiability.

That said, the release date, originally set for a week ago today, was pushed back until after the Queen's funeral. I wish I could recommend it as the perfect cinematic tonic to cheer up a despondent nation. Alas, I really can't.

Like Ticket To Paradise, Don't Worry Darling, which I reviewed in more detail from the Venice Film Festival earlier this month, has faint echoes of much better films, such as The Stepford Wives (1975) and The Truman Show (1998).

It's a psychological thriller starring pop superstar Harry Styles (left), formerly of One Direction, in his first leading-man role. He and Florence Pugh (right) play a married couple, Jack and Alice Chambers, who live in the suburban utopia of Victory, California, a town of identikit 1950s homes and cars

It's a psychological thriller starring pop superstar Harry Styles, formerly of One Direction, in his first leading-man role. He and Florence Pugh play a married couple, Jack and Alice Chambers, who live in the suburban utopia of Victory, California, a town of identikit 1950s homes and cars. The husbands all work for a mysterious enterprise called the Victory Project, run by a creepy guru called Frank (Chris Pine).

Everyone in town is in thrall to Frank, though Jack and Alice are equally in thrall to their loins. They can't keep their hands off each other, with Jack especially interested in a certain sex act. Let's just say that he has only one direction on his mind.

But this is a film more about the wives. The story gradually comes into focus: it's about the subjugation of women, yet another expression of the feminist crusades exemplified by MeToo and Time's Up.

The story gradually comes into focus: it's about the subjugation of women, yet another expression of the feminist crusades exemplified by MeToo and Time's Up

There's nothing wrong with that, even if a sudden narrative lurch into the modern day sends any pretence at subtlety crashing to the ground.

No, the bigger problem is that Don't Worry Darling  directed by Olivia Wilde, who also plays Alice's best friend and is said to have fallen for her leading man on set  just isn't very good.

It's a shame, because Pugh gives a fine, feisty performance as a housewife fighting social and psychological manipulation, and the film is great to look at throughout, with a cracking period soundtrack.

But it's at least three parts style (and two parts Styles) to one part substance.

How Poitier traded the tomato farm for the Oscars

Some years ago, I asked Michael Parkinson the unoriginal old question: who would he love to have interviewed on his chat show, but never did.

Frank Sinatra came the reply, but his wife Mary was there and groaned. 'You always say that!' she said. 'I wish you'd pick Sidney Poitier. That would have been much more interesting.'

Happily, Poitier (who died in January, aged 94) did give interviews, and plenty of clips pop up in Sidney (12A, 111 mins, ****), a respectful but richly enjoyable documentary produced by Oprah Winfrey (who also contributes as a talking head, along with Denzel Washington, Barbra Streisand, Halle Berry and Poitier's many daughters). Talking of his poverty-stricken childhood in the Bahamas, where his folks were tomato farmers, Poitier recalls that he didn't even see a car until he was in his teens.

He couldn't read, either. But nor did he know what racial discrimination was until his parents, worried that he was hanging out with the wrong crowd, sent him to Miami, Florida.

Talking of his poverty-stricken childhood in the Bahamas, where his folks were tomato farmers, Poitier (pictured in In The Heat of The Night) recalls that he didn't even see a car until he was in his teens

The film chronicles his early steps as an actor (in the American Negro Theatre in New York, understudying Harry Belafonte) and then his steady transformation into an Oscar-winning movie star, as well as a figurehead in the civil rights movement.

'Vote and the choice is yours, don't vote and the choice is theirs,' he counselled, in a 1960s commercial aimed at African-Americans. It's fascinating stuff.

Juniper (15, 94 mins, ***), a debut feature for writer-director Matthew Saville, is about the relationship between a cantankerous, gin-quaffing elderly woman (Charlotte Rampling) and the teenage Kiwi grandson she doesn't know until she arrives in New Zealand to recover from a badly broken leg.

It's pretty formulaic but newcomer George Ferrier does a decent job as the boy, grieving the death of his mother and resenting the arrival of this belligerent old stranger until, predictably, they begin to bond. Rampling, as always, is terrific.

Sidney is in select cinemas and on Apple TV+. Juniper is in cinemas now.
Handbagged (Kiln Theatre, London)

Rating: ***

Verdict: Queen of all she surveys

Coming in the middle of our national mourning, the press night of the revival of this satirical comedy  about the 11 years of audiences at Buckingham Palace between the Queen and Margaret Thatcher  began with a painfully awkward apology.

Heart obviously in mouth, lest she be hanged, drawn and quartered for appearing to snigger at our late monarch, the Kiln's artistic director Indhu Rubasingham nervously assured us that she and her colleagues had given 'deep consideration' to whether or not to go ahead with Moira Buffini's play.

She explained that the show had been planned a year before its opening, to coincide with the Platinum Jubilee. They couldn't have known what was coming.

Coming in the middle of our national mourning, the press night of the revival of this satirical comedy began with an apology

The play focuses on the 11 years of audiences at Buckingham Palace between the Queen and Margaret Thatcher

Both Maggie and the Queen are played simultaneously by older and younger versions of themselves, who freely interrupt each other's thoughts

And in a rare outbreak of royalism in the formerly Irish Republican stronghold of Kilburn High Road, we were asked to share a minute's silence.

Ironically, something similar happened at the play's premiere in 2013  just a few months after Mrs Thatcher had died. The satirical focus then fell on the former PM; and many thought the play was in poor taste  nor was Lady Thatcher offered the consolation of a minute's silence.

Happily, this time, it turns out to be nothing less than an unexpected and moving joy to see our Queen live again, in a play that shares her alleged impatience with a Prime Minister she's said to have referred to as 'that bloody woman'.

The phrase may be wishful thinking on Buffini's part. We won't know the Queen's exact thoughts about Mrs T until her private journals are opened, in another lifetime.

Even so, Buffini claims the Queen as a Fortnum & Mason socialist: one who speaks respectfully of the striking miners, while Maggie anathematises them as the 'enemies within'.

Buffini makes much of Mrs Thatcher's faith in free-market individualism and opposes it with the Queen's Christian faith in 'inter-dependence not nationalism' and 'Commonwealth not Empire'  quoting Elizabeth from a Christmas speech.

Rubasingham's production also sees to it that the anti- Thatcher satirical medicine is heavily sugar-coated by Dead Ringer impersonations.

But, pitch-perfect as the actors are, the play's format of successive audiences does grow predictable  even with extra characters including Ronald Reagan, Rupert Murdoch, Enoch Powell and Arthur Scargill.

Both Maggie and the Queen are played simultaneously by older and younger versions of themselves, who freely interrupt each other's thoughts. All four are craftily dressed in subtle shades of red, white and blue, and the only thing they have in common is a patent leather handbag on one arm.

Naomi Frederick has shrill fun sending up a younger Maggie, who lauds democracy and rails against socialism (a word she practically retches). Kate Fahy's older Iron Lady gets to growl about 'wets' and extol Victorian values. Both versions of the former Baroness are contentedly deranged.

Mercifully, both versions of the late Queen exude the good sense and human warmth we all miss.

Abigail Cruttenden is a particular delight as the girlish younger 'Liz', who loves a gossip and is perplexed by Mrs T's venom.

Marion Bailey as the older and wiser 'Q' is saddened her hopes for national reconciliation may be slipping away. Bring a tissue.

A modern but moving Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester)

Verdict: Magical menagerie

Rating: ****

An elderly couple walked out within ten minutes of the start of this radical make-over of Tennessee Williams' saddest and most autobiographical play about his disabled sister and anxious mother.

But if you can give the benefit of a doubt to Atri Banerjee's production starring Geraldine Somerville, it will reward your faith handsomely. It did mine.

Rosana Vize's set is the first thing to balk at. There is none of the usual murky period clutter. Instead, we have a glossy white institutional floor with the feel of a psychiatric day room.

A huge beam swoops overhead with 'PARADISE' spelt in neon capitals  an idea nicked from an art work by Martin Creed, in which a similar swinging beam bearing the word 'MOTHERS' threatens to poleaxe the viewer.

Nor is the mother (Somerville) the usual domestic psycho. Dressed in greyish pink blouse and skirt, she has a ghostly look and haunts the stage as a single woman, desperate to save her children from the lifetime of regret that has afflicted her.

If you can give the benefit of a doubt to Atri Banerjee's production starring Geraldine Somerville, it will reward your faith handsomely

Rhiannon Clements as her daughter, Laura, is similarly wounded rather than disturbed; and has retreated into a private silo of fragile hope, symbolised by her titular trinkets.

Joshua James, as her brother Tom, is weighed down with guilt and the need to escape his family  but he also shows great love and tenderness. All of which raises the stakes for Eloka Ivo as the gentleman caller who might rescue Laura.

It is, of course, inconceivable that a black man could have been such a suitor in the segregated Southern States of 1944, but Ivo's blokeish, boyish and sweetly gallant performance rescues the play from that historical strait-jacket.

Giles Thomas's music is no less haunting  sometimes a long single tone, at others a whisper of cello. But there is also the jolting anachronism of Whitney Houston's One Moment In Time in a climactic fantasy of escape.

It sharply updates the play but, to my mind at least, saves it from gathering dust as a comfortable antique.

Some may consider it vandalism. I could have been one, but I wasn't. I left greatly moved.

Who Killed My Father (Young Vic, London)

Verdict: Colossal performance

Rating: ****

uch is the power of Hans Kesting's extraordinary performance that I count it is as one of the most spellbinding turns I've ever witnessed on stage

In the end, Who Killed My Father dwindles into a clumsy call to revolution  but Kesting's performance is simply colossal

In Who Killed My Father, which comes to an end at the Young Vic tomorrow night after a brief run, it's as if Rodin's huge stone sculpture of The Thinker had swayed to its feet and begun muttering in a Dutch accent. Such is the power of Hans Kesting's extraordinary performance that I count it is as one of the most spellbinding turns I've ever witnessed on stage.

Adapted and directed by avant garde director Ivo van Hove, the play  about a man visiting his dying, working-class father in an industrial backwater of Northern France  is based on a semi-autobiographical book by Edouard Louis.

Kesting plays both the gay son and the self-destructive father, and bleak as the story is, his raw stage presence blew me away. He is a shaven-headed caveman, in a huge blue cable knit jumper, baggy jeans and a pair of cheap trainers, collapsing under his adamantine superstructure.

In the end, Who Killed My Father dwindles into a clumsy call to revolution  but Kesting's performance is simply colossal.

Sayers's ode to girl power is no mere Wimsey

Love All (Jermyn Street Theatre, London)

Verdict: Girls on top

Rating: ****

Best known as a Queen of Crime and for her creation of Lord Peter Wimsey, Dorothy L. Sayers was also a talented playwright.

Love All, unseen (until now) since it premiered in 1940, is not a lost masterpiece, but it is an overlooked little sparkler, nailing the unfair and unequal career prospects of men and women and wittily celebrating girl power, decades ahead of its time.

When middle-aged romantic novelist Godfrey Daybrook persuaded Lydia, an actress and his mistress, to run off to Venice, she was expecting him to divorce his wife and put a ring on her finger.

Love All, unseen (until now) since it premiered in 1940, is not a lost masterpiece, but it is an overlooked little sparkler

Period-perfect performances give Tom Littler's swansong production terrific slice and bite

Some 18 months later, Emily Barber's deliciously spoilt, pert, over-privileged Lydia is still single  and sweltering prettily in a flat on a stinking Venetian canal, lamenting the loss of her reputation, her work, and her looks. Actually, she is bored rigid playing the muse to Alan Cox's vain, patronising, complacent Godfrey, the only role a woman could and should aspire to, in his opinion. Just as he thinks his wife's job is to bring up the son he abandoned.

Some of the lines have the epigrammatic snap, crackle and pop of Noel Coward or Oscar Wilde. 'You never know what's going on inside a secretary. They have meaningless faces, like eggs,' says Lydia. 'Every great man has had a woman behind him  and every great woman has had a man in front of her, tripping her up,' says Godfrey's wife Edith (Leah Whitaker).

Both are neatly illustrated by the plot, in which the much underestimated women in Godfrey's life  his wife who has become a playwright, his super-sharp secretary and his lover  first puncture his pomposity and then run rings round him, ultimately rendering him irrelevant.

Period-perfect performances give Tom Littler's swansong production terrific slice and bite. He's off to run the Orange Tree in Richmond, leaving London's tiniest West End theatre  and large shoes to fill.

GEORGINA BROWN
Nine News presenter Peter Overton returned to Sydney on Thursday, after anchoring the network's extensive coverage of Queen Elizabeth II's funeral.

The veteran journalist, 56, looked happy to be back on home soil as he strolled through the international arrivals terminal.

Stepping off his long-haul flight from London, Peter donned a black shirt and cap, as well as a flashy gold wristwatch.

Nine News presenter Peter Overton returned to Sydney on Thursday, after anchoring the network's extensive coverage of Queen Elizabeth II's funeral

His suitcase, covered with old 60 Minutes and Nine Network travel stickers, looked a little worse for wear as he pushed it on a luggage trolley.

Peter and departing A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw jointly anchored the network's coverage of Her Majesty's funeral at Westminster Abbey on Monday.

But they were mocked around the world after failing to identify Britain's new Prime Minister Liz Truss as they provided commentary at the service.

The veteran journalist, 56, looked happy to be back on home soil as he strolled through the international arrivals terminal

His suitcase, covered with old 60 Minutes and Nine Network travel stickers, looked a little worse for wear as he pushed it on a luggage trolley

American comedian Stephen Colbert referenced the gaffe on the Late Show this week.

Colbert said it was clear 'Australian TV did not get the memo' on who the new prime minister was, before asking: 'How's your new job Liz?'

'She's the leader of Great Britain and no one recognises her,' he chuckled.

Peter anchored Nine's coverage of the Queen's funeral with Tracy Grimshaw on Monday. They were mocked around the world after they were unable to identify Britain's new PM Liz Truss

The British leader climbed out of her car to attend Queen Elizabeth's funeral, but Peter and Tracy were left scratching their heads as to who she was.

'So, this is a significant motorcade, we are being told now,' Peter said.

'Come with us as we try and identify who is getting out of the car. This is under police escort of course. I would suggest this might be royalty, Tracy.

'Hard to identify. Maybe minor royals, members of the I can't identify them at this point'

American comedian Stephen Colbert referenced the gaffe on the Late Show this week

Viewers at home took to social media to call them out on the blunder.

'Good job Peter Overton. Didn't know the new PM,' one person tweeted.

Another wrote: 'Happened to be passing by the living room in my house where my family are watching the Queen's funeral.

'Tracy Grimshaw: "And we're not sure who this is who has arrived. Unfortunately we can't identify everyone. They look like local dignitaries." It was Liz Truss. I howled!'

British Prime Minister Liz Truss (left) was not known to Nine newsreaders Peter and Tracy

Peter later tweeted: 'We were relying on a video feed for live stream of arrivals. At times the video would freeze so we'd turn around to try to catch a glimpse. I do know what British PM, Liz Truss looks like. The back of her hat, not so much!'

Moments after the gaffe, Peter Overton issued a correction.

'I'm told that was Liz Truss the new Prime Minister in the distance, she could see hopping out of the car. Thank you very much for that information,' he told viewers.

He then conceded to Nine co-stars Karl Stefanovic, Ally Langdon and UK royal expert Dickie Arbiter that their British guest might be better at spotting local famous faces.

'Karl and Ally, and Dickie, Dickie particularly, you'll be spotting these faces and recognising them better than us, I think,' he said.

Peter later tweeted: 'We were relying on a video feed for live stream of arrivals. At times the video would freeze so we'd turn around to try to catch a glimpse. I do know what British PM, Liz Truss looks like. The back of her hat, not so much!'

Ms Truss was the last world leader to be pictured with the Queen in her final official duty, just 48 hours before she died.

Ms Truss (pictured before the funeral on Monday) was the last world leader to be pictured with the Queen in her final official duty, just 48 hours before she died
Addison Rae danced her way to TikTok stardom after signing on to the social media platform in July 2019.

More then three years on since her debut, the budding actress took to her Instagram page and asked her 39.8 million fans and followers to 'DANCE MORE.'

As an enticing teaser, the Louisiana native posted a series of snaps of herself seemingly breaking out some dance moves of her own decked out in a sexy all-black ensemble.

Bust a move: Addison Rae, 21, stripped down into all-black undergarments for a series of sexy photos showcasing her dance moves

For the series of six photos, Rae (born Addison Rae Easterling), 21, showed off her womanly curves in black undergarments, consisting of a bra and underwear.

In an added touch of sexy style, she also wore sheer black stockings and a pair of black stiletto boots that went above her knees.

She also wore a black leather cap over her long dark brown tresses that were pulled up into a bun, with the exception of some strands of hair she left dangling around the frame of her face.

For contrast, the influencer shared three color photos and three black-and-white images.

Enticing: For contrast, the social media influencer turned actress busted out various dance moves while alternating between color and black-and-white photos

Working it: At the end of another dance move, the He's All That star crouched down on an outdoor staircase while flashing a seductive stare

In the cover picture, the He's All That star covered up a bit by wearing a black blazer over while doing a cross-over leg dance move with her hands held up around her head.

Going black-and-white for the next image, Rae leaned back with her arms stretched wide and her jacket hanging off her shoulders, in a move to draw attention to her bare midriff and cleavage.

Switching between the two styles of color prints, dropped down into a crouch move while on a spiral staircase, and then broke out into a classic dance move with the coat still hanging off her shoulders.

Let's dance: The Louisiana native put her midriff and cleavage on display when she broke out into a classic dance move with her coat hanging off her shoulders

Get into the groove: With tall pillars in the backdrop, Rae leaned back again the railing while still on the staircase in the last color image out of the series of snaps

Stripped down: Rae stripped her jacket off for one last pose in front of a series of large pillars

With tall pillars in the backdrop, Rae leaned back again the railing while still on the staircase in the last color image, but then stripped her jacket off for one last pose in front of a series of pillars.

The previous day, Rae took to her Instagram Stories and posted a mirror selfie of herself dressed in a white dress, another shot of her a cleavage-baring black top, and a closeup photo where she seductively stares into the camera.

Along with her 39.8 million followers of Instagram, the social media sensation also has 88.7 million more on TikTok and 4.9 million more on Twitter.

Those numbers helped her earn the title of highest-earning TikTok personality by Forbes in August 2020, and then made the Forbes '30 Under 30' list for social media influencers in 2021.

Just over a year ago, she took a huge leap towards movie stardom by starring in the lead role of He's All That, the gender-swapped, updated remake of the hit 1999 teen rom-com, Shes All That.

The previous day, Rae took to her Instagram Stories and posted a mirror selfie of herself dressed in a white dress

Socializing: Along with her 39.8 million followers of Instagram, the social media sensation also has 88.7 million more on TikTok and 4.9 million more on Twitter
USS Ronald Reagan is escorted as it arrives in Busan, Friday. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier arrived in the port city ahead of the two countries' joint military exercise, which aims to show their strength against growing North Korean threats. AP-Yonhap



Supercarrier, nuclear-powered submarine set on joint drills next week



By Jung Min-ho



A nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier arrived in the port city of Busan on Friday for its first combined drills with the South Korean Navy around the peninsula in five years, in an apparent show of alliance and strength against North Korea's evolving nuclear threat.



USS Ronald Reagan, a Nimitz-class supercarrier that demonstrates the U.S.' naval might, and its strike group, including USS Chancellorsville, a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser, and USS Barry, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, docked at the South Korean Fleet Command.



The arrival comes after President Yoon Suk-yeol and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden agreed on the need to bolster the bilateral defense posture against North Korea during their meeting in New York City on Wednesday (local time). Pyongyang's threat reached a new level earlier this month when it passed a law enshrining the right to "automatically" use preemptive nuclear weapons to protect its regime.



The Reagan, which was carrying dozens of fighter jets and other formidable onboard weapons when it arrived, plans to hold major drills in the East Sea next week. The last time such exercises were held here was in 2017 when the Reagan and two other aircraft carriers conducted drills in response to North Korea's nuclear and missile tests. USS Annapolis, a 6,000-ton nuclear-powered submarine, is also expected to take part in the upcoming drills, South Korean Navy officials said.





Rear Adm. Michael Donnelly, commander of the carrier strike group, center, speaks during a news conference on the deck of USS Ronald Reagan in Busan, Friday. AP-Yonhap



Rear Adm. Michael Donnelly, commander of the Carrier Strike Group 5, said their arrival is a clear demonstration of U.S. commitment to the relationship with "a history of shared blood and common values" and the goal of the planned exercise is to enhance the joint operations capability between South Korea and the U.S. in case of an emergency.



"Our interactions with the ROK (Republic of Korea) Navy are tactically first purposeful in developing interoperability to ensure credible combat power and (it's an) opportunity for us to demonstrate that we stand together," he said.



The South Korean Navy said in a statement that their joint exercise "will strengthen defense posture and show the two allies' strong will for peace and security on the Korean Peninsula."



On Thursday, U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim met Kim Gunn, his South Korean counterpart, and Unification Minister Kwon Young-se in Seoul where they shared their common concern over North Korea's escalating nuclear threat.



The meetings were held when North Korea is believed to have completed preparations for its seventh nuclear weapons test and doubts are growing in South Korea over the U.S. "nuclear umbrella"  its guarantee to defend non-nuclear allies such as South Korea from adversaries armed with nuclear weapons.





A U.S. Navy crew member walks past F/A-18E/F Super Hornet jets on the deck of the USS Ronald Reagan at a port in Busan, Friday. EPA-Yonhap
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Ellen DeGeneres has hit back at her former protege Greyson Chance after he accused the TV host of being 'manipulative', 'self-centered', and 'blatantly opportunistic' - alleging that she 'completely abandoned' him after signing him at the tender age of 12.

Oklahoma-born Chance, 25, made the bombshell claims about his former mentor in an interview with Rolling Stone on Thursday, recalling how Ellen, 64, vowed to 'protect' him and 'be there for him' after flying him out to Los Angeles to appear on her show when he was a tween. However, he says that when his career flagged just two years later, DeGeneres 'abandoned' him and stopped returning his calls.

His allegations come just months after DeGeneres' long-running talk show ended amid scandal and controversy over claims she created a 'toxic' workplace.

However, sources close to the famous TV host has now fired back at Chance's allegations, insisting that DeGeneres went above and beyond in order to support him and his career - and accusing the singer of making opportunistic claims in order to promote his new album.

The sources noted that Chance was discovered by the show via YouTube in 2010, and appeared on The Ellen Show more than a dozen times, including after the timeframe in which he was dropped by his record label Interscope.

Addressing the singer's accusations about DeGeneres' cold treatment of him, the insiders told DailyMail.com that this was not the experience the Ellen team had with Chance, insisting that she had nothing to do with the downturn in his career, noting that sometimes, things just don't take off.

The insiders added that Chance did not make any complaints during that time and continued to appear on the show to launch his new projects.

Chance is currently launching an album, and has taken this time to go after Ellen with opportunistic claims, the sources alleged.

Bombshell: Ellen DeGeneres, 64, has been slammed by her former protege, Greyson Chance (right in 2020) as 'manipulative,' 'self-centered' and 'blatantly opportunistic'

Chance made his first appearance on The Ellen Show in May 2010, when he was just 12 years old (seen), after the TV host spotted a viral video of him singing Lady Gaga's hit Paparazzi

Chance (seen on The Ellen Show in 2019) said that DeGeneres vowed she was 'going to protect' him and be there for him, saying, 'Were going to do this together'

In his interview, Chance said he was overwhelmed when DeGeneres sought to feature him on her program in May 2010, after seeing a viral video of him singing Lady Gaga's hit Paparazzi.

'We just couldnt believe what was happening,' Chance said. 'We were so unsure of what we were getting into, and the person that helped cure all of that skepticism and chaotic energy was Ellen.'

According to Chance, DeGeneres told his mother, Lisa (seen on The Ellen Show in 2010), that she would 'never have to work again a day in her life' because she was going to make her son a star

Chance said that DeGeneres vowed she was 'going to protect' him and be there for him, saying, 'Were going to do this together.' He added that Ellen 'presented herself as a guardian and mentor', and told his mother, Lisa, that she would 'never have to work again a day in her life'.

During his appearance on The Ellen Show in May 2010, Chance performed Paparazzi for the host and her audience, before the TV host gifted him with $10,000 and a new grand piano.

DeGeneres then created a record label called eleveneleven in conjunction with Interscope Geffen A&M Records, inking Chance and setting him up with managers who had previously worked with the likes of Lady Gaga and Madonna, as well as bookers and a publicist.

Quickly, Chance's career took off; he released a mini EP in October of that year and set off on a tour across the US, Canada, London, and Paris - during which time he says DeGeneres became increasingly 'invested' in his career, offering him consistent support via the phone and in-person.

However, as her 'investment' in his career grew, Chance claims the TV host 'became domineering and way too controlling', describing her as a 'hidden eye' that loomed over his career.

'My whole week, my whole month, my whole year could change [with] one text message from her,' he said. 'That was horrible.'

He claimed that DeGeneres would make demands about his career - stating that she once made him re-record a pre-taped performance for a TV appearance because she wasn't happy with what he and his team had done.

And - according to Chance - he wasn't the only one who bore the brunt of DeGeneres' 'controlling' behavior, with the singer highlighting one incident in 2011, when the TV host slammed his mother for failing to make him watch Justin Bieber's documentary Never Say Never.

Chance performed Lady Gaga's Paparazzi on The Ellen Show during his first appearance in 2010, when the TV host gifted him with $10,000 and a new grand piano

The singer made multiple appearances on The Ellen Show over the years - however behind the scenes, he says that DeGeneres was becoming increasingly 'controlling' over him

Chance (seen in 2021) said DeGeneres - who left the air two years after a toxic workplace scandal - exhibited nasty behavior toward him and others: 'She was just degrading to people'

DeGeneres had secured Chance an advance copy of the movie, which saw cameras going behind the scenes during a then-teenage Justin's global tour, and instructed him to watch it immediately - despite the fact that he was on tour at the time - so that he could model his own career on the chart-topper's.

Chance said that when he didn't watch the documentary right away because he was 'exhausted' from his performances, DeGeneres phoned his mother Lisa to 'berate' her, asking, 'What type of mother are you?'

He added that DeGeneres then told him, 'Disappointed isnt even remotely what Im feeling right now,' in regards to the documentary issue. It was then that he says he realized he was nothing more than a 'pawn' in the talk show host's 'game'.

His mother Lisa also said that the TV host would 'go through' her son's clothes and try and 'control' what he wore - including banning him from sporting leather because she was a committed vegan during the early years of his career.

Chance recalled how DeGeneres would 'yell at stylists' and 'berate people in front of him', stating that his former mentor - who left the air earlier this year, two years after she was hit with a furious toxic workplace scandal - 'was just degrading to people.'

When Chance's career began to lag in 2012, amid falling ticket sales and a failed album release, he says DeGeneres 'completely abandoned' him and 'removed' herself from his life - alleging that she wouldn't even return his phone calls.

He was then dropped by Interscope and several members of his team turned their backs on him, including his managers, agent, and publicist.

Chance continued to make sporadic appearances on The Ellen Show - which he described as 'a place of active trauma' - however he claims that DeGeneres behaved cold toward him when the cameras weren't rolling.

Chance said DeGeneres - who left the air about two years after a toxic workplace scandal - exhibited nasty behavior toward him and staffers, noting, 'She was just degrading to people'

Chance said DeGeneres 'completely removed' herself and 'abandoned' him when his career sagged in 2012, and would not return his calls. He was pictured in June in LA

'Whenever I would come on the show, it was such a fake smile,' Chance said. 'She wouldnt even ask, "How are you doing? How are you holding up?" It was just like, "Heres what were going to talk about. Well see you on there."'

Seven years after Chance says DeGeneres 'abandoned' him, he made an appearance on her show in 2019, when he opened up to the TV host about how a fan inspired his decision to come out publicly as gay in 2017.

'She said, "How have you been?"' Chance said. 'And that just killed me inside because I was like, "What do you mean how have I f***ing been? Where have you been?"'

In the on-screen exchange, Chance said a moment that felt 'cheap' was when DeGeneres said she was proud of him after he publicly came out as gay in 2017.

He noted, 'She had nothing to do with that' and said he 'hadnt spoken to her in years' at the time he went public about his sexual orientation.

'Thats so messed up, that youre now showing the world as if were so tight, were so good,' he said. 'And behind the scenes, you are this insanely manipulative person.'

Chance said he declined multiple invites to return to the series, including one that would have happened during the show's last two weeks.

'The first part of my career, I owe a lot of thanks to her and to that team,' he said. 'But the reason why Im here today talking about an album, I owe f***ing nothing to her because I was the one that had to pull myself up. She was nowhere to be found.'

The singer is not the only one to have made allegations about DeGeneres' behavior, however.

Chance opened up about an appearance he made on the show in 2019, as DeGeneres 'hugged' him prior to filming

A DeGeneres source denied the allegations made by Chance, saying that she went out of her way to try to help launch his career

His public accusations about the talk show host come just over two years after she was hit with a bitter toxic workplace scandal that saw multiple former employees making claims about her negative behavior.

The controversy began in March 2020, when a comedian named Kevin T. Porter sent out a tweet asking people to share 'the most insane stories [they had] heard' about DeGeneres, while claiming that she was 'notoriously one of the meanest people alive' - despite always preaching about the importance of kindness.

Porter's tweet was flooded with responses, many of which included explosive claims and allegations about DeGeneres' behavior, with one user writing that the TV host's former head writer, Karen Kilgariff, was 'fired' because she 'wouldn't cross the picket line' during a writer's strike.

Alleged hostility and mistreatment of writers proved to be a reigning theme in the thread, with one user claiming that her 'friend' who had written for Ellen 'for two years' was never acknowledged by her.

TV writer Benjamin Siemon also alleged that DeGeneres had an irrationally 'sensitive nose' and often picked 'someone different to really hate' each day on set.

'Everyone must chew gum from a bowl outside her office before talking to her and if she thinks you smell that day you have to go home and shower,' he wrote.

'A new staff member was told 'every day she picks someone different to really hate. It's not your fault, just suck it up for the day and she'll be mean to someone else the next day. They didn't believe it but it ended up being entirely true.'

Then, in July 2020, Buzzfeed published a damning report about DeGeneres and her hit show, which featured quotes from several former employees who claimed that they had been mistreated on set by the TV host or her producers.

'That "be kind" bull***t only happens when the cameras are on. Its all for show,' one person said. 'I know they give money to people and help them out, but its for show.'

In August 2020, three top producers on the show - Ed Glavin, Kevin Leman, and Jonathan Norman - were fired as a result of the controversy. An 'emotional' and 'apologetic' DeGeneres announced the decision in a call with more than 200 workers, sources told Variety.

They said the host - who has herself been accused of of fostering a 'toxic environment' - admitted on the call she was 'not perfect' and that the show's leaders had not been sensitive to 'human beings' as they instead focused on running the show as a 'well-oiled machine.'

DeGeneres further addressed the scandal during one of the final episodes of her talk show earlier this year, describing the controversy as 'very, very difficult'.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter the comedian said she had originally planned to stop the show three years ago, just before the allegations of a toxic environment had come to light, but was talked into staying.

'They talked me into staying a little longer and I did and it's fine,' Ellen informed the publication when asked if she had any 'regrets' about her decision to end the series when she did.

Referencing the scandal, the veteran star said: 'There was a lot that happened during that time that was unfortunate but it is what it is  you go through stuff in life and you just keep learning and growing. That's how I have to look at it.'
Edwina Bartholomew has hit back at sexist trolls who accused her of 'abandoning' her young children so she could travel to England to cover the Queen's funeral.

The Sunrise newsreader joined co-anchors Natalie Barr and David Koch in London to assist with Channel Seven's round-the-clock reporting on the historic event.

But some cruel social media users said accepting the overseas assignment so soon after returning to work from maternity leave wasn't fair on her son and daughter.

Edwina Bartholomew has hit back at sexist trolls who accused her of 'abandoning' her young children so she could travel to England to cover the Queen's funeral. (Pictured: Edwina with daughter Molly, two, and six-month-old son Thomas)

Edwina defended her decision in a column for The Daily Telegraph on Thursday, saying her children were in 'very good hands' with her husband Neil Varcoe.

She wrote bluntly: 'You should know that although my kids arent with me, they are in very good hands, just not mine.'

Shutting down the idea that mothers need to be full-time caregivers, Edwina sarcastically added that Neil 'lives in our house too and also cares for our kids'.

The Sunrise newsreader joined co-anchors Natalie Barr and David Koch in London to assist with Channel Seven's round-the-clock reporting on the historic event

But it wasn't all trolling, because the mother of two was pleased to receive an outpouring of support from fellow working mothers.

'Working mums are clearly in the same boat as me with chaotic households,' she wrote.

Edwina shares her two children, daughter Molly, two, and six-month-old son Thomas, with husband Neil, a journalist and media executive.

She has been candid and upfront about motherhood with fans, recently admitting it can be a bit 'overwhelming' at times.

Some cruel social media users said accepting the overseas assignment so soon after returning to work from maternity leave wasn't fair on her son and daughter. (Pictured: Edwina with her husband Neil Varcoe and daughter Molly)

The Channel Seven reporter announced her pregnancy live on Sunrise last year.

'In developing news, news that will be developing for the next six months, we will be having another baby,' she said.

In her final message on Sunrise before starting her maternity leave, Edwina confirmed she was due on February 21.

She recently returned to Channel Seven's Sunrise after taking five months' maternity leave
Today show host Allison Langdon looked exhausted on Thursday as she jetted into Sydney Airport after a 24-hour flight from London.

Her homecoming followed an exhausting two weeks that saw her travel across the globe and work gruelling 14-hour days to cover the Queen's death for Channel Nine.

She worked so hard that at one stage she fell asleep on camera, although the moment fortunately happened during a break from live reporting.

Today show host Allison Langdon looked exhausted on Thursday as she jetted into Sydney Airport after a 24-hour flight from London

The mother of two, 43, appeared very tired indeed as she leaned against her trolley, which was stacked with her suitcases.

Allison dressed casually for the flight in slacks and a black sweater with the sleeves rolled up as she carted her luggage through the busy airport.

She wrapped a leopard-print scarf around her neck and had a matching scrunchie slipped over her wrist, and completed her look with a pair of heavy-duty boots.

Her homecoming followed an exhausting two weeks that saw her travel across the globe and work gruelling 14-hour days to cover the Queen's death for Channel Nine

Allison tucked her blonde locks behind her ears and let her natural beauty shine by going completely makeup free.

Her tired appearance was in stark contrast to her Today co-anchor Karl Stefanovic, who had returned to Sydney a day earlier with a big smile on his face and pushing along a single suitcase while carrying a Louis Vuitton bag.

Allison anchored the Today show solo on Wednesday as her 48-year-old co-host was in transit following the Queen's funeral.

She began her live broadcast from Buckingham Palace at 8:30pm Tuesday (GMT) without Karl by her side, and acknowledged his absence about an hour later.

Allison dressed casually for the flight in slacks and a black sweater with the sleeves rolled up as she carted her luggage through the busy airport

Referencing the unusually quiet scenes at the palace in London, Allison explained Karl was on a flight home to Australia.

Karl had arrived in London on September 13 to cover the death of the Queen. Allison was on the ground a day earlier, hosting Today alongside Charles Croucher.

Nine seems to have staggered its presenters' flights back to Australia so its flagship news programs, such as the Today show, weren't without both main hosts.

She wrapped a leopard-print scarf around her neck and had a matching scrunchie slipped over her wrist, and completed her look with a pair of heavy-duty boots

It comes after Allison nodded off on set during a break from reporting on the Queen's funeral on Monday, after broadcasting for 14 hours from Buckingham Palace.

Exhausted, she rolled up a jacket to use as a pillow as she took a nap on the lap of Today's senior producer Will Hutchinson, who snapped a photo for Instagram.

Allison reposted the photo to her own Instagram Stories on Tuesday, alongside the caption: 'Hour 14. Everything is fine.'
Jennifer Garner showcased her sense of business fashion as she stopped by The Fast Company Innovation Festival in the heart of New York City on Thursday.

The Adam Project actress, 50, opted for an all-black ensemble, comprising of sleek black trousers and heels of the same color.

The mother of three was asked to be a guest speaker at the event which offers a networking space for creative innovators and individuals.

Special guest: Jennifer Garner, 50, was spotted attending The Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York City on Thursday

The 13 Going On 30 star opted for a professional look for the day, donning a pair of high-waisted black trousers.

The beauty tucked in a black, turtleneck sweater into the waist of her pants and chose to roll her sleeves up as she posed for a brief photo session at the festival.

Jennifer slipped into a pair of black, pointed heels to complete her overall ensemble.

She appeared to be in high spirits as she took time to attend the networking event with other successful entrepreneurs and celebrities in the big apple.

Stunning: The talented actress showed off her business fashion as she attended the festival in the big apple

Big event: The mother of three is the co-founder and the chief brand officer of Once Upon A Farm

The beauty was later pictured sitting for a panel discussion. To accessorize her look, she wore a pair of gold necklaces and gold-hooped earrings to add a pop of color to the monochromatic ensemble.

Her diamond eternity band that she wore on her right sparkled as she sat under a set of bright light. The ring possibly could be from her current beau, John C. Miller. The two dated from 2018 to 2020, and reunited in 2021.

Her brunette hair naturally fell down past her shoulders with her side bangs lightly brushing her forehead.

Jennifer attended Thursday's event to represent her baby food brand called, Once Upon A Farm, and is both a co-founder and the chief brand officer for the company. The CEO and co-founder of the brand, John Foraker, was also in attendance.

Other celebrities that attended day three of the festival in New York City included Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Happy: Jennifer was all smiles as she posed for a few pictures outside of the venue in the heart of the city

Main talking points: During a panel discussion, Jennifer was seen talking about her baby food company called Once Upon A Farm, which she is both a co-founder and the chief brand officer

According to the event's official website, the festival is a place meant to, 'convene thousands of makers and innovators from across the globe,' and 'exceptional leaders and doers shaping the future.'

Jennifer's baby food company was co-founded in 2017, and focuses on creating food with only 'fresh' ingredients, including the avoidance of added sugars and artificial flavoring.

When talking to Forbes, the Alias actress explained, 'We want absolutely the best for our kids. We really believe every mom makes an inherent promise the minute she has a new baby to do right by them.'

She added that, 'Ive never been involved with a company at this level where Im in to win it on a day-to-day basis and inserting myself in places I dont even belong, just because I get to, and because John is kind enough to let me in.'

The brand's website revealed that a portion of the fruits and vegetables included in the baby food is freshly grown on Jennifer's family farm located in Oklahoma.

Freshly grown: According to the brand's official website, some of the ingredients are grown on Jennifer's family farm located in Oklahoma

Family first: The actress has three children whom she shares with her ex-husband, Ben Affleck, including Violet, 16, Seraphina, 13, and Samuel, 10

Once Upon A Farm has a partnership with Save The Children, which is an organization created to help better the lives of children around the world.

The talented actress has three children of her own, Violet, 16, Seraphina, 13, and Samuel, 10, whom she shares with her ex-husband, Ben Affleck.

When talking about advice that she would give to her kids, Jennifer told Harper's Bazaar, 'Look in the mirror less, obsess less, and look at the rest of the world to see what you could be using your time for instead.'

'We all look at our faces more than people used to, and it doesnt do you any good. You obsess over changes or how to fix something on your face,' the Golden Globe winner added.

Jennifer has been a busy mom, from focusing on family, to working on set of her latest Apple TV project called, The Last Thing He Told Me. Other cast members include Game Of Thrones alum, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Australian actress, Angourie Rice.
Sam Frost looked glowing on Thursday as she attended the Wog Boys Forever premiere in Melbourne with her fiance Jordie Hansen.

The pregnant actress, 33, turned heads in a low-cut floral dress and pink heels.

Her long blonde hair was stylishly coiffed, and the former Home and Away star completed her ensemble with pearl earrings.

Sam Frost looked glowing on Thursday at the Wog Boys Forever premiere in Melbourne

Sam's husband-to-be Jordie looked dapper by her side in a white shirt, checkered tan pants and brown dress shoes.

The lovebirds posed for photos at the screening of the latest Wog Boys movie, featuring Sam's former Home and Away co-star Sarah Roberts.

Sam shared photos from the premiere on Instagram.

The pregnant actress, 33, turned heads in a low-cut floral dress and pink heels. Her fiance Jordie Hansen (left) looked dapper by her side in a white shirt and checkered tan pants

'Celebrating our beautiful friend Sarah Roberts. Such a fun and hilarious film. It will have you giggling the whole time. Loved seeing my girl shining bright on the big screen!' she wrote in the caption.

Sam, a former Bachelorette, became engaged to her Survivor star boyfriend in May after just five months of dating.

She had earlier sparked engagement rumours when a photo of her with a ring on her wedding finger at a hens' party circulated on social media.

Sam laughed it up with her former Home and Away co-star Sarah Roberts (centre), actress Kylie Gulliver (second from left) and director Frank Lotito (right)

The former soap star also explained why they chose not to get a diamond.

Her opal ring is set in a gold band and appears to be flanked by two other precious stones.

'It is an opal from Coober Pedy. I'm not a diamond person. I love gemstones and crystals and I've always liked unique rings,' Sam said.

The premiere was held at the Palais Theatre in the beachside Melbourne suburb of St Kilda
Heiress Nicola Peltz married Brooklyn Beckham in a star-studded affair over the summer, but the joining of the two wealthy families has been far from perfect since they tied the knot.

Newlywed Peltz sensationally claimed that her mother-in-law Victoria Beckham blanked her for days after offering to design her wedding dress - before blowing the bride's plans out of the water and saying her studio couldn't make actually make the gown.

And now insiders have said that the 27-year-old model is pushing a 'false narrative', leaving Victoria 'bemused' as to why she keeps 'stoking the rumours of a feud' rather than shutting them down.

Tension: Insiders claim that the Nicola Peltz is pushing a 'false narrative', about mother-in-law Victoria Beckham 'bemused' as to why she keeps 'stoking the rumours of a feud'

Rifts: Newlywed Peltz sensationally claimed that her mother-in-law Victoria Beckham blanked her for days after offering to design her wedding dress

A source told The Sun: 'Frankly, the most interesting thing about Nicola is that she married into the Beckham clan.

'David and Victoria have both reached out to her to try and make peace, and find a way to get along.

'David and Victoria would love to spend more time with their son and his wife, and be given the opportunity to welcome her into the fold, especially given that Brooklyn practically lives with his parents-in-law.'

Nicola instead sported a stunning couture Valentino dress on her special day with Brooklyn Beckham, 23, in April, however she claims the initial plan was for her to wear Victoria's specially-made dress.

The model-actress said she was thrilled at the prospect of wearing a dress designed by Victoria, however she didn't hear from the former Spice Girl, 48, for days before she rung to say she wouldn't make the gown for her big day.

The devastating news left Nicola stumped - since her stylist Leslie Fremar and mother Claudia were also set to join the design dream team. The plan was shot down in a call between Victoria and Nicola's mom.

Millionaire heiress Nicola ended up sporting a stunning couture Valentino number at her wedding. She tied the knot with her sweetheart Brooklyn Beckham, son of Victoria and David Beckham, at her family's estate in Palm Beach, Florida, in April

In a bombshell interview with Grazia USA, the 27-year-old revealed: 'We connected to start designing the dress, and then a few days went by and I didn't hear anything. Victoria called my mom and said her atelier couldn't make it.'

Doting husband Brooklyn made his position clear amid the family feud, telling the publication that Nicola is his 'number one priority' and that they 'have each other's back 100 per cent'.

Nicola, the daughter of New York billionaire Nelson Peltz, attempted to set the record straight as she explained: 'I was planning on wearing Victoria's wedding dress and I was truly so excited to be able to wear a design that my future mother-in-law created.

In a bombshell interview with Grazia USA , the 27-year-old revealed: 'We connected to start designing the dress, and then a few days went by and I didn't hear anything. Victoria called my mom and said her atelier couldn't make it'

'I thought that was so beautiful and such a beautiful story.'

Following the revelations from Victoria that she couldn't make her daughter-in-law's dress, Nicola recalled: 'So, I spoke to my mom and Leslie, and I was like, 'Well, unfortunately, this can't happen, so what's the next step?'

'I've been a fan of Valentino and their couture for so long. I was really lucky to be able to travel to [the atelier] to try on the dress. That's really what happened.'

The wedding dress drama was bolstered by the fact that Victoria not only wore her own dress design on the day - but four of her dearest friends and her own mother attended the nuptials wearing her designs.

Eva Longoria, Nadia Ferreria, Zanna Roberts Rassi, and Romeo's then-girlfriend Mia Regan all wore gorgeous VB gowns to Brooklyn and Nicola's big day.

Before rumors of the feud emerged, Nicola told her followers on social media that Victoria was her 'role model' in a heartfelt post for her birthday in 2021. Things have since soured, according to insiders and eagle-eyed fans

Newlywed Nicola Peltz, 27, has sensationally claimed that she was blanked by her mother-in-law Victoria Beckham after the designer offered to make her a wedding dress - adding that the former Spice Girl then backtracked on her offer and said that her atelier actually couldn't complete the gown

Describing Victoria and David as 'great in-laws', Nicola admitted that it 'hurt her feelings' when it was reported that she had 'never planned' to wear a dress by her mother-in-law.

The 27-year-old said: 'It does hurt my feelings. I try not to let it, but it's just not the truth. It's just a bit of a bummer when you're like, 'Oh, people think that,' but it's just not true.'

Brooklyn - who was always known to have had a close relationship with his parents and siblings in the past - made his position on the rift perfectly clear when he stated that his wife is his 'first priority', before adding that they always 'talk things through' and 'move on together' when it comes to rumors and speculation about their personal lives.

'To be honest, my wife is obviously my first priority and I never want to see her upset ever,' he said. 'We have each other's back 100 per cent and we just move on together.'

Lovebirds Nicola and Brooklyn tied the knot at a no-expense-spared ceremony earlier this year, which was held at the heiress' lavish family estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
The Real Housewives of New York City star Luann de Lesseps flaunted her taut 5ft10in bikini body while taking a dip in an infinity pool at a mansion in Beverly Hills on Thursday.

The Connecticut-born 57-year-old - who boasts 1.6M social media followers - remarked of the sunny 88F-degree weather: 'Feels like summer to me! Happy #fall #LA!'

Luann (born LuAnn Nadeau) was wearing a Melissa Odabash 'Malta Gold' $70 bikini top and matching $70 bikini bottom for her Instagram slideshow.

Living her best life! The Real Housewives of New York City star Luann de Lesseps flaunted her taut 5ft10in bikini body while taking a dip in an infinity pool at a mansion in Beverly Hills on Thursday

'This infinity pool is everything, isn't it?' De Lesseps gushed.

'Overlooking all of Los Angeles. Treading water is the best. Wooo!'

The lavish property - boasting sweeping views of downtown Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean - neighbors Rock Hudson's former $55.5M estate.

The Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip star has been in Los Angeles for at least a week, joking: 'I could get used to this.'

The Connecticut-born 57-year-old - who boasts 1.6M social media followers - remarked of the sunny 88F-degree weather: 'Feels like summer to me! Happy #fall #LA!'

Werrrk! Luann (born LuAnn Nadeau) was wearing a Melissa Odabash 'Malta Gold' $70 bikini top and matching $70 bikini bottom for her Instagram slideshow

De Lesseps gushed: 'This infinity pool is everything, isn't it? Overlooking all of Los Angeles. Treading water is the best. Wooo!'

'You want the gold?' The lavish property - boasting sweeping views of downtown Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean - neighbors Rock Hudson's former $55.5M estate

The Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip star has been in Los Angeles for at least a week, joking: 'I could get used to this'

Mother-of-two: It's hard to believe Luann is mother to two artist children - daughter Victoria, 27; and son Noel, turning 26 next Tuesday - from her 16-year marriage to Count Alexandre DeLesseps, which ended in 2009

Luann's post received glowing comments from The Real Housewives of Miami star Marysol Patton and The Real Housewives of Orange County alum Gretchen Rossi.

It's hard to believe de Lesseps is mother to two artist children - daughter Victoria, 27; and son Noel, turning 26 next Tuesday - from her 16-year marriage to Count Alexandre DeLesseps, which ended in 2009.

On Wednesday, the Bravo-lebrity said in an Instagram Reel that she was 'so excited' for her 'first time at Universal Studios.'

Theme park fun: On Wednesday, de Lesseps said in an Instagram Reel that she was 'so excited' for her 'first time at Universal Studios'

Harry Potter fans: The Bravo-lebrity posed near Hogwarts Castle with her fitness trainer Jorge Cruise (L), hairstylist Lucas Magnum (2-L), and a blonde gal pal (R)

Fitness guru: The Mexican 51-year-old also trains Luann's RHONY castmates Sonja Morgan and Dorinda Medley (pictured in 2019), as well as Today weather anchor Al Roker

'Laverne & Shirley good times!' Speaking of which, Sonja and de Lesseps were hard at work in Benton, IL in July for 'several weeks' filming their Simple Life-style reality TV spin-off (pictured July 26)

Luann posed near Hogwarts Castle with her fitness trainer Jorge Cruise, hairstylist Lucas Magnum, and a blonde gal pal.

The Mexican 51-year-old also trains de Lesseps' RHONY castmates Dorinda Medley and Sonja Morgan, as well as Today weather anchor Al Roker.

Speaking of which, Sonja and the twice-rehabbed socialite were hard at work in Benton, IL in July for 'several weeks' filming their Simple Life-style reality TV spin-off - according to Page Six.

Tickets range $170-$1,950: The twice-rehabbed socialite is next scheduled to appear at BravoCon happening October 14-16 at the Javits Center in New York City

Kicking off six-date tour! And tickets go on sale this Friday for Luann's 'A Very Countess Christmas' cabaret act happening December 3 at Park West in Chicago

The Real Housewives executive producer Andy Cohen warned Variety in March that he was planning on 'rebooting and recasting' the 14th season of the NYC franchise 'from scratch.'

Luann is next scheduled to appear at BravoCon happening October 14-16 at the Javits Center and Manhattan Center in New York City.

And tickets go on sale this Friday for de Lesseps 'A Very Countess Christmas' cabaret act happening December 3 at Park West in Chicago - the first of six dates of the tour.

Stream every episode ever of The Real Housewives of New York City only on Hayu in Australia.
Amelia Hamlin has had several memorable pinch me moments while working the runway over the last couple of days during Milan Fashion Week.

But she would make her biggest splash while strutting her stuff in unique light blue denim jeans that were designed without much of a back portion that put nearly her entire backside on display.

'my butt had her first cameo ... only for u @giulianocalza @gcdswear @shaunbeyen @charlielemindu THANK YOU,' Hamlin captioned the video she posted on Instagram.

Cheeky: Amelia Hamlin, 20, made a splash while walking in the Giuliano Calza fashion show for GCDS by wearing denim pants without a backside during Milan Fashion Week

One of a kind: The unique denim pants were a tale of two sides

While walking for Italian fashion designer Giuliano Calza, Hamlin made her entrance with her hands in each pocket behind several of the other models used to showcase the new GCDS collection.

From the front, the light blue jeans looked sleek and sharp as she made her way along the runway in the ensemble that also included a white tank top and matching heels.

Within seconds, heads began to turn and cameras began to shoot when Hamlin passed by the live audience to reveal the pants had a tale of two sides.

Literally, the back half of the jeans were missing, with the exception of some fabric just above her derriere and five small strands of bling used to attach each leg, beginning just under her butt cheeks, all the way down to her ankles.

Revealing: Hamlin described the style of the pants as 'very much business in the front party in the back' when the clip was shared on her Instagram Story

Making a splash: With her hands in both pockets, the catwalk queen turned heads as she made her way past the live audience with her backside and derriere nearly on full displays

If Calza was looking have an 'it' moment that left people talking: then mission accomplished.

As the catwalk queen made her way down the runway, so did the eyes of each person taking in the show with their camera in hand.

Afterwards, Hamlin would have a few different clips of the walk posted on her Instagram Stories here she described the pants as 'very much business in the front party in the back @gcdswear.'

She would go on to share a healthy dose of gratitude for being included in the show by writing: '@giulianocalza thank you so much I love you.'

Baby got back: The back half of the jeans were missing, with the exception of some fabric just above her derriere and five small strands of bling used to attach each leg, beginning just under her butt cheeks, all the way down to her ankles

Calza co-founded GCDS, which stands for 'God Can't Destroy Streetwear', with his brother Giordano back in 2015. He has since served as the head designer and creative director of the luxury streetwear fashion label.

Hamlin also shared a photo of herself decked out in a denim ensemble that consisted of low hanging distressed denim jeans and a matching tube top.

Overjoyed to be living out her dreams of being a catwalk queen when she was younger, she again shared a heaping of gratitude for being included in the show in Milan, Italy.

'What is happening what is my life I'm just so grateful rn [right now] I can't talk,' she gushed.

Healthy doses of gratitude: Hamlin gushed over being added to the Giuliano Calza fashion show for GCDS and the Glenn Martens for Diesel

Dreams do come true: The fashion model confessed to be lining out her 'dream show' while walking for Martens and Diesel

Working it: For the Martens show, Hamlin wore the distresses denim jeans and matching tube top combo with matching heels

Hamlin also posted a series of snaps and a video of herself in that distressed denim jeans- tube top combo on Instagram, only this time she thanked Belgian fashion designer Glenn Martens and Diesel.

'what. just. happened. there is absolutely no way that this is my life and that this just happened . ARE YOU KIDDING ME!??? THANK YOU FOREVER. THIS HAS BEEN MY DREAM SHOW. I CANT BREATHE. I LOVE YOU. THANK YOU,' Hamlin said with obvious emotion to her words.

She continued, 'thank you for believing in me, thank you for including me in your vision i am forever grateful @glennmartens @twodadstwokids @diesel i still need to gather my words for this one.. Glenn, i am your BIGGEST FAN. You inspire me more than you could even imagine. THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU. SOMEONE PINCH ME.'
Alessandra Ambrosio cut a chic figure as she joined fellow Victoria's Secret Angel Chanel Iman at a Pomellato event during Milan Fashion week on Thursday.

The Brazilian supermodel, 42, showcased her incredible curves in a sculpted black cocktail dress at the swanky event.

Alessandra's frock also featured a cleavage enhancing silk bustier which she teamed with a pair of towering black heels.

Gorgeous: Alessandra Ambrosio, 42 (left) cut a chic figure as she joined fellow Victoria's Secret Angel Chanel Iman, 31 (right) at a Pomellato event during Milan Fashion week on Thursday

The stunner accentuated her features with a radiant palette of make-up while her brunette tresses cascades to her shoulders.

The mother-of-two accessorised with a show-stopping amount of jewels including a gorgeous chain link necklace with matching earrings and bracelet.

The event entitled Pomellato: from Milan & all around the world, showcased the luxurious brand's latest designs.

Posing up a storm: The Brazilian supermodel showcased her incredible curves in a sculpted black cocktail dress at the swanky event

Stunning: Alessandra's frock also featured a cleavage enhancing silk bustier which she teamed with a pair of towering black heels

Meanwhile fellow model Chanel, 31, donned a skimpy alabaster co-ord that boasted a mini skirt and plunging blazer.

Slipping her feet into clear perspex heels she similarly decorated herself with an array of jewels.

Opting for a natural make-up look the statuesque star wore her raven tresses to one side.

Model good looks: The stunner accentuated her features with a radiant palette of make-up while her brunette tresses cascades to her shoulders

Heels: Slipping her feet into clear perspex heels she similarly decorated herself with an array of jewels

Victoria's Secret Angels: (L-R) Lindsay Ellingson, Chanel Iman, Adriana Lima and Alessandra Ambrosio (pictured together in 2011)

The popular brand Pomellato has been worn by the likes of Diane Kruger and Jane Fonda.

Milan Fashion Week was first established in 1958, is part of the global Big Four, the others being Paris Fashion Week, London Fashion Week and New York Fashion Week.

The show welcomes 30,000 visitors and hosts over 40 shows each season.

Natural: Opting for a natural make-up look the statuesque star wore her raven tresses to one side

Strike a pose: Chanel posed up a storm at the swanky event

This year will see the likes of Gucci, Prada and Versace unveil their latest collections.

It comes after Alessandra turned heads as she arrived at the Moschino show on Thursday.

The model looked sensational as she posed up a storm in a vibrant printed co-ord by the luxury fashion brand.

She showcased her svelte figure in a microscopic mini-skirt which she teamed with a matching bralette for the event.

Stunning: It comes after Alessandra turned heads as she arrived at the Moschino show on Thursday

Svelte: Alessandra showcased her svelte figure in a microscopic mini-skirt which she teamed with a matching bralette for the event

Pals: She was joined by fellow supermodel Heidi Klum, 49, (left) who went bra-less in a plunging bejewelled jumpsuit

Alessandra completed the look with a motorcycle jacket which she wore open, flashing a glimpse of her toned abs.

The stunner flaunted her long legs as she slipped her feet into a pair of towering red platform heels.

She also carried the print into her accessorises as she tied her curly tresses back with a matching scarf.

She accessorised the eye-popping look with a quirky necklace as well as an emerald green Moschino handbag - which also resembled a biker jacket.

Alessandra playfully posed for the cameras and even kicked up her leg before taking her seat in the front row.

She was joined by fellow supermodel Heidi Klum, 49, who went bra-less in a plunging bejewelled jumpsuit.
A rep for Armie Hammer's estranged wife Elizabeth Chambers has spoken out after one of the actor's accusers was critical of Chambers' remarks about being in a 'really great place' with the embattled actor.

Chambers, 40, spoke with E! News Wednesday about her relationship with the actor, who she filed for divorce from in July of 2020. Chambers said that Hammer has been 'focused on his healing' and she has been supportive of him.

Effie, a woman who accused Hammer of rape, which he denied, took to Instagram Stories with screen grabs of messages she said Chambers sent her, allegedly supporting her going public with her allegations against Hammer.

The latest: A rep for Armie Hammer's estranged wife Elizabeth Chambers, 40, has spoken out after one of the actor's accusers was critical of Chambers' remarks about being in a 'really great place' with the embattled actor, 36. Pictured in LA in 2020

A rep for Chambers explained to People the rationale the TV personality - who is mother to daughter Harper, seven, and son Ford, five with the actor - had in sending Effie messages.

'Given the extent and nature of allegations that were made, Elizabeth sought to determine the veracity of those allegations,' the rep said. 'She was very sensitive to all parties involved. The safety and well-being of their children remains her priority.'

In one of the messages Chambers purportedly sent Effie, she encouraged her to remain 'focused' in 'getting the stories on record' and 'not just the internet.'

In another alleged exchange, after Chambers questioned Effie whether she had hired an attorney, Effie responded that she was 'feeling a tad bit suicidal' and didn't have time to chat. Chambers responded to her, 'I really need custody of my precious children,' pressing her to file a declaration of her experience with Hammer with the court.

Chambers and Hammer were snapped at the Parisian premiere of his film Call Me By Your Name in 2018

Chambers and Hammer were seen at the Oscars in 2018

Chambers purportedly said, 'I don't want to pressure you, but your insight is much more in depth than the others we have,' adding that she would keep things under wraps.

Effie said in her recent Instagram Stories post, 'Just some things to keep in mind before anyone else keeps wishing rapists "healing."'

Effie initially took to the social media site to make the allegations against Hammer over a 2017 incident, and eventually appeared alongside famed lawyer Gloria Allred to state her allegations in a news conference in which she said Hammer 'mentally, emotionally and sexually' abuse her.

In the interview with E!, Chambers opened up about her co-parenting arrangement with Hammer, known for films such as Call Me By Your Name, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Lone Ranger.

'We're committed fully and wholly to our children and to being together as much as possible in a nonromantic way for our kids,' she said. 'Kids need their mom; kids need their dad. So there's nothing we won't do.'

Effie shared excerpts of text messages she allegedly exchanged with Chambers over Hammer's actions

She said of Hammer: 'There's the oxygen mask theory: You can't really take care of someone until you are taken care of. There's a reason on the plane they say, 'Secure your own mask before helping others.

'He has been very busy securing his own mask. My mask has been secured, [the kids'] masks are on, so right now it's really been a lot about focusing on them, protecting them.'

Chambers said she was willing to 'support that process' in an effort to help Hammer be 'the best father' and 'the best person he can be.'

Chambers added that, 'Time does heal, but time alone doesn't heal,' as 'You need to work through it.'

She continued: 'People are flawed. People make horrible mistakes. People change, by the way. For me the whole time it has been about, "These are my boundaries. If you can meet them, then we can take the next step." That's with everyone in my life, but also with myself.'

Chambers told the outlet that she feels herself to be a feminist and remains 'in solidarity with anyone who has been a victim of any sort and hope they find healing.'

She noted, 'I'm not being here, like, "My life is amazing," because it's been hell for a long time.'




The defense chiefs of South Korea and Romania held talks in Seoul Friday to discuss ways to deepen defense cooperation, Seoul's defense ministry said.







Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup met with his Romanian counterpart Vasile Dincu as the latter arrived in the country to attend DX Korea 2022, an ongoing biennial international defense exhibition in Goyang, just northwest of Seoul, according to Seoul's defense ministry.







The two sides signed a revised letter of intent on promoting defense cooperation and agreed to jointly respond to new transnational security threats, such as in cyber space, it said.







They also agreed to make efforts to swiftly sign an agreement on defense cooperation, it added.







At the meeting, Dincu also welcomed South Korea's efforts to strengthen cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and proposed increasing multilateral cooperation through Romania and NATO, according to the ministry. (Yonhap)


Nicky Hilton looked ready for fall as she stopped for an impromptu photoshoot while attending an event at Fashion Week in Milan on Thursday.

The 38-year-old fashion designer wore a brown teddy bear coat and black jeans during her afternoon stroll along the bustling streets.

Holding a brown handbag and hiding her eyes behind dark glasses, the model sported black flats and let her blonde locks fall naturally over her shoulders as she threw a wave to on-lookers.

Fashionista: Nicky Hilton looked ready for fall as she stopped for an impromptu photoshoot while attending Fashion Week in Milan on Thursday

The fashionista showed off her trim waistline just ten weeks after welcoming her third child, a boy, with her husband, James Rothschild.

In another image, the hotel heiress switched up the look in a short skirt and a pair of cream stilettos as she stood in front of Prada and Louis Vuitton stores in a shopping mall.

The leggy beauty finished off the look with a brown handbag, an array of silver bracelets, and designer shades.

Casually classy: The 38-year-old fashion designer wore a brown businesswoman ensemble with a teddy bear coat and black leggings during her afternoon stroll along the bustling streets

Afterwards, the fashionista switched into a more comfortable white bath robe and shared the snap to her Instagram Stories.

On Tuesday, Nicky was at The Museum of Ice Cream in NYC, raising awareness for a non-profit called God's Love We Deliver, which provides food for people affected by severe illnesses.

She was joined by her darling daughter, Teddy, and several other stars at the event, including Train wreck actress Amy Schumer.

Nicky spent much of last week attending New York Fashion Week events, including the Michael Kors show at Highline Stages.

Slightly taller: In another image posted to her social media, the hotel heiress stood in a shopping mall in front of Prada and Louis Vuitton stores and switched up the look with a skirt and a pair of cream stilettos

Comfortable: Afterwards, the fashionista switched into a more comfortable white bath robe and shared the snap to her Instagram Stories

Late Friday morning, Hilton took to her Instagram page and posted a photo of herself taken by one of her daughters in her New York City home.

'My daughter told me I looked like a pink creamsicle and asked if she could take a picture. I happily obliged,' the proud mama gushed in the caption.

Last week, the busy mother of three shared the first photos of her children since her baby boys June birth.

Hiltons social media slideshow also included a picture of her holding the infants hand and a silly snap of the little one, whose name she has yet to reveal, in a 'thats Hot' onesie from aunt Paris Hilton.
Australian fitness mogul Kayla Itsines has installed a filtration system throughout her entire house because she refuses to drink the tap water in Adelaide.

The 31-year-old only drinks and washes herself with filtered water because she is concerned the chemicals in the city's water supply will negatively affect her health.

She claims to have noticed a change in the quality of her hair and skin when she showers in different cities, which prompted her to invest in various water filters for her home, reports Outspoken the Podcast.

Australian fitness mogul Kayla Itsines (pictured) has installed a filtration system throughout her entire house because she refuses to drink the tap water in Adelaide

Kayla even used a special chemical to test the water from her main pump and compared it to filtered water, revealing the amount of chlorine present in her unfiltered tap water.

According to Outspoken hosts Amy, Sophie and Kate Taeuber, South Australian water 'picks up contaminants' and 'has to be disinfected with chlorine' because the state is located at the end of the Murray River.

While the water is regarded as 'fine for health', the level of chlorine can make it 'taste and smell bad' and may also damage hair and skin, added the Taeubers.

The 31-year-old only drinks and washes herself with filtered water because she is concerned the chemicals in the city's water supply will negatively affect her health

Kayla is expecting a child with her fiance Jae Woodroffe.

The multimillionaire entrepreneur recently said she was relieved she was having a good pregnancy the second time around, after suffering morning sickness while pregnant with her daughter Arna, whom she shares with ex-partner Tobi Pearce.

'I honestly cannot say enough how grateful I am to be having a good pregnancy this time around,' she wrote on Instagram.

Kayla is expecting a child with fiance Jae Woodroffe. (Here: their pregnancy announcement)

She continued: 'I'm not gonna lie, last time, after 26 weeks of eating plain toast and feeling like I was going to throw up every day

'I might have said, "I will never do this again, I hate being pregnant!" *cue tears*.

'I am honestly having an amazing pregnancy so far and I'll continue to keep you updated!'

The multimillionaire entrepreneur said she was relieved she was having a good pregnancy the second time around, after suffering morning sickness while pregnant with her daughter Arna

Kayla announced her exciting baby news in July.

She shared a video of the moment she told her family and friends she was pregnant.

She posted the emotional footage on Instagram, showing her loved ones crying and cheering as they heard the news for the first time.

'I honestly cannot say enough how grateful I am to be having a good pregnancy this time around,' she wrote on Instagram

Little is known about Jae, who is one of the 700-odd people Kayla follows on Instagram, but his social media suggests he enjoys travelling and motorcycles.

The pair went public with their relationship more than a year after Kayla confirmed her split from ex-fiance Tobi in August 2020.

The former couple, who dated for eight years and are parents to daughter Arna, co-founded Bikini Body Guides - later renamed Sweat - after meeting in late 2012.

The business partners sold their health and fitness empire to U.S. software giant iFIT for $400million last year. Tobi has since departed the company.
James Van Der Beek and his wife Kimberly are the proud parents of six children.

But on Thursday, September 22 the former Dawson's Creek star took to Instagram to share the cheeky post about when baby number five was conceived five years ago to the day.

Per the actor, the conception took place after a night of partying at an iHeart radio event that featured the beats of famed DJ Diplo, and included such celebrity guests as Miley Cyrus, Ryan Seacrest and Rob Lowe.

Flashback: James Van Der Beek, now 45, took to Instagram to tell the story of how he and his wife Kimberly conceived their daughter Gwendolyn '5 years ago today' after a night of partying and dancing to the beats of Diplo in Las Vegas; the actor and DJ are seen together

To help lay out the story-telling, Van Der Beek edited series of throwback snaps and clips shot during the couple's night out.

In a video he titled '#Flashback: 5 years ago today', Van Der Beek begins with an image of himself and Diplo posing arm-in-arm, just before he and his wife headed out for their night on the town in Sin City.

Kimberly, now 45, could be seen snuggling up on a chair.

At that point they were the proud parents of four children: daughters Olivia, Annabel and Emilia, and son Joshua, who were all five years old and younger at the time.

Tall tale: To help lay out the story-telling, Van Der Beek edited series of throwback snaps and clips shot during the couple's night out

Story-telling: The video seemed to be edited in chronological order, which included a picture of Las Vegas moments after landing at the airport

Monumental getaway: Kimberly, now 45, flashed a glowing smile in the moments after arriving in Las Vegas in September 2017

Making the rounds: The video had images of the actor doing interviews ahead of the iHeartRadio event later in the evening

From there, the editing seemed to be done in chronological order, beginning with a picture taken from inside their plane just before it landed in Las Vegas, and a video of them flashing big beaming smiles while making their way to their hotel.

There were also shots of the actor doing interviews ahead of the iHeartRadio event, which flew him in to be apart of the many celebrity guests.

In one of the lighter pre-party moments, Van Der Beek struck a pose in between Seacrest and Lowe.

High-profile: The Dawson's Creek alum chatted with some of celebrity guests earlier in the day

Star-studded: Van Der Beek met up with Ryan Seacrest and Rob Lowe before changing his outfit for his night of dancing with his wife

Party time: The couple documented their night of partying with a selfie video

Celebratory: The IHeartRadio event had the feel of a New Year's Eve party with the falling confetti

They documented the festivities with some selfie photos and a video of them walking through the venue as confetti came streaming down, much like it was a New Year's Eve celebration.

There was even a few behind-the-scene looks, including some photos of James getting his party-time started with Miley Cyrus and Diplo.

He also got to hang out with the DJ and music producer while he was mixing his version of electronic dance music behind the turntables and mixing boards.

BTS: There was even a few behind-the-scene looks, including some photos of James getting his party-time started with Miley Cyrus and Diplo

Playful: Even Cyrus declared it to be party time' ahead of the event

Two pals: James and Diplo looked to be heaving a grand time together

EDM: The actor and his wife even got to watch as Diplo was mixing his set

Vibin' out; Feeling the vibe Diplo was dropping, James and Kimberly hit the dance floor to do some movin' and groovin' of their own

The crowd could be seen in the backdrop going wild on the dance floor as the music rocked the house.

Feeling the vibe Diplo was dropping, James and Kimberly hit the dance floor to do some movin' and groovin' of their own.

Eventually, the video wound down to show the actor looking tired in a clip shot the next day at 5:46 am.

For the next clip, the couple kept it simple and right to the point by writing: 'Nine months later.'

Making the rounds: The couple would chat with others at the event

In the midnight hour: The partying and dancing went past the midnight hour

Time to make it private: The Pose star eventually said good night to Diplo and then the couple went back to their hotel room for some more private partying

The very next image showed the results of their night in Sin City.

The happy couple are pictured with their son Joshua adoring their newest addition to the family, Gwendolyn, who was born on a Friday morning, June 15, at their home with a doctor and midwife on-hand, according to People.

James followed that up adding in a shot of their baby girl as a newborn and then an image of her in more recent times, showing off what her dad calls her 'big personality'.

'You're a born comedienne with what looks to be a genius brain at your disposal and an iron will. And when you smile it's like a glitter bomb of joy in the hearts of everyone around you,' he described Gwendolyn on her fourth birthday this past summer.

Long night: Eventually, the video wound down to show the actor looking tired in a clip shot the next day at 5:46 a.m

For the next clip, the couple kept it simple and right to the point by writing: 'Nine months later'

New arrival: The couple shared a photo of themselves with son Joshua

Precious: There's also an image of Gwendolyn as a newborn

For the very last image, James wrote, '#MadeinVegas' over a picture of Gwendolyn with her younger brother Jeremiah, who's baby number six after making his arrival to Planet Earth last October.

'Insane how much our life has changed in 5 years but d**n, that was a fun night. And we have THE BEST souvenir to remember it by,' the proud papa wrote, in a reference Gwendolyn being that souvenir.

'@diplo suggested I name her after the hotel but @iheartradio had put us up at Planet Hollywood so, no,' the actor explained.

She's got personality: Gwendolyn's 'big personality' was in display in one of the more recent photos of her in the video

Confessional: Van Der Beek confessed that a lot has changed in the 5 years since their night of partying in las Vegas that ended with baby Gwendolyn being conceived
Ryan Reynolds was seen in a new commercial Thursday for his Aviation Gin Distillery, which is now offering tours to the public.

In the ad, Reynolds, 45, is seen adjacent to a tour of the Portland, Oregon-based facility to show them the process of distilling.

'Other distillery tours keep their visitors behind glass, but at Aviation, we know that people truly learn by doing,' Reynolds said in the clip, which depicted tourists doing manual labor in exchange for their tour.

The latest: Ryan Reynolds, 45, was seen in a new commercial Thursday for his Aviation Gin Distillery, which is now offering tours to the public out of its Portland, Oregon headquarters

Reynolds in the clip was seen offering the visitors safety equipment while dispatching them to work on various jobs at the facility.

'Our guests might even be more knowledgeable than our employees - in fact, we're counting on it,' Reynolds said.

At the end of the clip, Reynolds said, 'No labor actually required.'

The tour of the facility also has an exhibit of the actor's office, which is an alternate escape room in which guests solve riddles to exit.

In the ad, Reynolds is seen adjacent to a tour of the Portland, Oregon-based facility to show them the process of distilling

'Other distillery tours keep their visitors behind glass, but at Aviation, we know that people truly learn by doing,' Reynolds said in the clip, which depicted tourists doing manual labor in exchange for their tour

Reynolds in the clip was seen offering the visitors safety equipment while dispatching them to work on various jobs at the facility

Reynolds opened up about the facility tour in a news release, saying, 'About three years ago, we set out to create a one-of-a-kind distillery and tasting experience to give people the opportunity to get a look at how we make the world's greatest spirit - Aviation American Gin, that is.'

He added: 'We're thrilled to announce that the Aviation American Gin Distillery is officially open for business in Portland, Oregon and everyone (21 years and older) is welcome. If a grown-up theme park and a bartender fell in love and produced offspring, it would be this gin factory.'

The modern facility - which is led by distillery director Hollie Stephenson - is a 33,000 sq. ft. building that includes a tasting room, a cocktail bar and gift shop.

Reynolds was seen assigning tasks to tourgoers in the comedic commercial

Reynolds said of the venue, 'If a grown-up theme park and a bartender fell in love and produced offspring, it would be this gin factory'

People 21+ with a valid ID can visit the facility bar and order cocktails and tasting flights (up to 2.5 oz per day) without going through the tour

The Aviation American Gin Distillery is located at at 2075 Northwest Wilson Street in Portland, and open from noon to 7 p.m. Thursday through Sunday.

The tours, which cost $28 per person, are limited to 12 people per group and feature a guided tasting.

People 21+ with a valid ID can visit the facility bar and order cocktails and tasting flights (up to 2.5 oz per day) without going through the tour.

Among the six draft cocktails in seasonal rotation at the facility include Aviation G&T, Fizzy Bees Knees, the Flora Dora Grapefruit Collins, Ryan's Nitro Negroni and Saturn. Guests can also enjoy a taste of Aviation American Gin straight for $5.

The Aviation American Gin Distillery is located at at 2075 Northwest Wilson Street in Portland, and open from noon to 7 p.m. Thursday through Sunday.
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After securing support from the elves of Numenor to fight for the humans of the Southlands, Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) leads them into battle in Episode 5 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

While Galadriel was about to be sent back to her homeland, a powerful omen - the white petals from a sacred tree falling - caused Queen Regent Miriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) to support the elf's cause.

Thursday night's new episode - entitled Partings - also shows the diminutive Harfoots continuing their pilgrimage, while Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin) shows Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova) his mysterious blade while Elrond (Robert Aramayon) and Durin (Owain Arthur) pay a visit to King Gil-Galad (Benjamin Walker).

Training: After securing support from the elves of Numenor to fight for the humans of the Southlands, Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) trains them for battle in Episode 5 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Theo: Thursday night's new episode - entitled Partings - also shows the diminutive Harfoots continuing their pilgrimage, while Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin) shows Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova) his mysterious blade while Elrond (Robert Aramayon) and Durin (Owain Arthur) pay a visit to King Gil-Galad (Benjamin Walker)

The episode begins in a field with Nori (Markella Kavenagh) and the monstrous Stranger (Daniel Weyman), as she tries to teach him her language.

He keeps saying, 'My great thumb' but she corrects him to say, 'Migration,' the arduous pilgrimage the Harfoot find themselves on.

'You see we winter in the Old Forest, and in mid-summer we make for Norfield Glen to snail while the snailing's good,' Nori explains.

Nori: The episode begins in a field with Nori (Markella Kavenagh) and the monstrous Stranger (Daniel Weyman), as she tries to teach him her language

Snail: 'You see we winter in the Old Forest, and in mid-summer we make for Norfield Glen to snail while the snailing's good,' Nori explains

She adds that, 'at the first blush of the oak leaves we head to the Grove,' which is an orchard with all sorts of food.

'The only trouble is there are hundreds of perils between here and there,' Nori explains while eating a snack.

He asks what 'perils' are and she says 'danger,' and anything that will 'kill ya,' as the Stranger asks what kill means.

Peril: 'The only trouble is there are hundreds of perils between here and there,' Nori explains while eating a snack

Danger: He asks what 'perils' are and she says 'danger,' and anything that will 'kill ya,' as the Stranger asks what kill means

'It means to make something... dead,' she says solemnly, as a realization dawns upon the large stranger.

'I'm peril,' he says, though Nori insists he's not and the fire he caused with the fireflies was, 'just an accident.'

'You're not a peril. You're good,' Nori explains. 'You're good because you're here to help,' when her mother Marigold (Sara Zwangobani) calls for her and they leave.

Good: 'You're not a peril. You're good,' Nori explains. 'You're good because you're here to help,' when her mother Marigold (Sara Zwangobani) calls for her and they leave

'I'm... I'm good,' the Stranger stammers as we see the Brandyfoot clan getting ready to move, along with Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richards).

Nori says it might help them move faster if Poppy sang them her mother's 'walking song,' as Largo (Dylan Smith) insists it will do them some good, as she smiles and begins the song.

We see the Harfoots moving their carts along the picturesque countryside, as we follow their progress with a map as Poppy continues to sing.

Ready: 'I'm... I'm good,' the Stranger stammers as we see the Brandyfoot clan getting ready to move, along with Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richards)

Poppy sings: We see the Harfoots moving their carts along the picturesque countryside, as we follow their progress with a map as Poppy continues to sing

We see The Stranger help them get their carts out of a swampy marsh as Poppy keeps singing, while we see them walk past a waterfall.

They cross a river in The Braids and are seen happily gathering while taking shelter from a storm.

Nori sees The Stranger standing by himself on a rock, looking up at the moon by himself.

Swampy: We see The Stranger help them get their carts out of a swampy marsh as Poppy keeps singing, while we see them walk past a waterfall

Stranger: We see The Stranger help them get their carts out of a swampy marsh as Poppy keeps singing, while we see them walk past a waterfall

The show cuts back to the scene where The Stranger came from the sky... with the area now all ash... as we see the mysterious character in all white from the trailers - played by Bridie Sisson - walk to the edge of a cliff... while a nefarious whispering in a foreign language is heard.

The two women flanking this mystery character (Edith Poor and Kali Kopae) are seemingly pleased with what they see below... which is revealed to be the burnt remains of where The Stranger fell from the sky.

The mystery character feels the burnt soil of where The Stranger fell to the Earth... as the show cuts back to the Southlands, where Adar (Joseph Mawle) is seen looking at a tree that is obscuring the rising sun - which burns the Orcs.

Mysterious: The show cuts back to the scene where The Stranger came from the sky... with the area now all ash... as we see the mysterious character in all white from the trailers - played by Bridie Sisson - walk to the edge of a cliff... while a nefarious whispering in a foreign language is heard

Mystery: The two women flanking this mystery character (Edith Poor and Kali Kopae) are seemingly pleased with what they see below... which is revealed to be the burnt remains of where The Stranger fell from the sky

Soil: The mystery character feels the burnt soil of where The Stranger fell to the Earth...

Tree: Adar (Joseph Mawle) is seen looking at a tree that is obscuring the rising sun - which burns the Orcs

An Orc named Grugzuk (Edward Clendon) approaches and tells him the tunnel is finished.

Adar asks Grugzuk to show him his arm, asking how it feels and he replies, 'Like fire, my Lord-father.'

'I wish you could feel it like I do,' Adar says, adding, 'For soon it will be gone. And with it, the part of me that knew it's warmth as well.'

Tunnel: An Orc named Grugzuk (Edward Clendon) approaches and tells him the tunnel is finished

Fire: Adar asks Grugzuk to show him his arm, asking how it feels and he replies, 'Like fire, my Lord-father'

Adar covers Grugzuk's arm and tells him to summon the legions, for, 'it is time,' as Grugzuk runs off to do his bidding.

The episode cuts back to the watchtower in the Southlands where we last saw Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) and Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova), who address a huge crowd below them.

She tells them that their enemy is going to attack, and they are supposed to abandon the watchtower and pledge fealty to Adar, which causes a commotion.

Tower: The episode cuts back to the watchtower in the Southlands where we last saw Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) and Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova), who address a huge crowd below them

'I know I'm not the king you have awaited, but if you choose to stand with me and fight, this tower will no longer be a reminder of our frailty, but a symbol of our strength,' Bronwyn tells them.

She asks who among them will stand and fight, as several hands are raised, though Waldreg (Geoff Morrell) is seemingly opposed.

'Stand and fight? Stand and fight? You will die. I say it'd be better to take our chances by bowing to our supposed enemy,' Waldreg says, who revealed in the last episode that he is still loyal to Sauron and awaits his return.

Strength: 'I know I'm not the king you have awaited, but if you choose to stand with me and fight, this tower will no longer be a reminder of our frailty, but a symbol of our strength,' Bronwyn tells them

Chances: 'Stand and fight? Stand and fight? You will die. I say it'd be better to take our chances by bowing to our supposed enemy,' Waldreg says, who revealed in the last episode that he is still loyal to Sauron and awaits his return

Arondir rebukes what Waldreg says, adding he has looked his enemy in the eye, adding, 'He is not your deliverance.'

'And you think you are, elf?' Waldreg says, before turning back to the crowd, adding, 'I'll say this for our ancestors, they lived.'

The crowd starts to turn to Waldreg, who tells them to follow him, as the horde leaves the watchtower.

Elf: 'And you think you are, elf?' Waldreg says, before turning back to the crowd, adding, 'I'll say this for our ancestors, they lived'

Leave: The crowd starts to turn to Waldreg, who tells them to follow him, as the horde leaves the watchtower

Waldreg turns to Theo, saying it's their time and their chance, but Theo won't follow him, while Bronwyn is dismayed, with seemingly half of the villagers having deserted her.

The episode cuts back to Numenor, where men are loading up ships and preparing for a journey.

Isildur (Maxim Baldry) tries to speak with his father Elendil (Lloyd Owen), asking why he wasn't chosen for the expedition.

Chance: Waldreg turns to Theo, saying it's their time and their chance, but Theo won't follow him, while Bronwyn is dismayed, with seemingly half of the villagers having deserted her

Not chosen: Isildur (Maxim Baldry) tries to speak with his father Elendil (Lloyd Owen), asking why he wasn't chosen for the expedition

Elendil says he thought he was going West, though Isildur says, 'Not until I've done something worthy of Numenor.'

Elendil asks what that something may be, but Isildur says he is having trouble finding it, which is why he needs his help.

Elendil says he wish he could help but they already have too many volunteers, adding, 'half the city wants a spot on those boats.'

Not worthy: Elendil says he thought he was going West, though Isildur says, 'Not until I've done something worthy of Numenor'

Volunteers: Elendil says he wish he could help but they already have too many volunteers, adding, 'half the city wants a spot on those boats'

Isildur asks his father to sneak him to the front of the line, but Elendil quickly asks what his qualifications are, asking if he belongs to the SeaGuard... after Isildur got him and his friends kicked out.

He asks if he belongs to any of the guilds and Isildur thinks he's being 'ridiculous,' though Elendil says, 'While you were feigning fidelity to the traditions of this isle, these men were living them, finding ways to contribute, to serve, something of which you care very little.'

This seems to insult Isildur, who says, 'I do care. I am ready to serve,' though Elendil says, 'Nothing would make me prouder, but you had your chance, and you made your choice.'

Line: Isildur asks his father to sneak him to the front of the line, but Elendil quickly asks what his qualifications are, asking if he belongs to the SeaGuard... after Isildur got him and his friends kicked out

Contribute: He asks if he belongs to any of the guilds and Isildur thinks he's being 'ridiculous,' though Elendil says, 'While you were feigning fidelity to the traditions of this isle, these men were living them, finding ways to contribute, to serve, something of which you care very little'

Choice: This seems to insult Isildur, who says, 'I do care. I am ready to serve,' though Elendil says, 'Nothing would make me prouder, but you had your chance, and you made your choice'

Pharazon (Trystan Gravelle) is walking through the town square where he's met by complaints from many a Numenor man and woman about fighting for Galadriel and Halbrand (Charlie Vickers).

One of those seeking an audience with Pharazon is Earien (Ema Horvath), when she's intercepted by Kemen (Lean Wadham).

'Forgive me for not sending word to you sooner. Been trying a week,' he says, as she asks why he hasn't tried to stop the Queen Regent.

Earien and Kemen: One of those seeking an audience with Pharazon is Earien (Ema Horvath), when she's intercepted by Kemen (Lean Wadham)

Trying: 'Forgive me for not sending word to you sooner. Been trying a week,' he says, as she asks why he hasn't tried to stop the Queen Regent

He says his father Pharazon is loyal to Miriel and there are many who feel the same way as her, but not enough to sway him yet.

She says it must be him to give his father a 'push,' adding, 'He will listen to you,' though Kemen says, 'When I speak, his ears close up.'

Earien takes Kemen's hands and says, 'Then speak louder,' before walking away.

Speak louder: Earien takes Kemen's hands and says, 'Then speak louder,' before walking away

The episode cuts to Halbrand, who is working at the blacksmith, forging a new sword himself, passing it off to Smithy (Phil Vaughan), who inspects his work, when a number of guards come for Halbrand.

He's taken to see the Queen Regent and Pharazon, with Miriel asking where the enemy would go to next.

'Further south, I should think. Towards the watchtower of Ostirith,' Halbrand says, as Pharazon says he will, 'inform the Sea Guard.'

Smithy: The episode cuts to Halbrand, who is working at the blacksmith, forging a new sword himself, passing it off to Smithy (Phil Vaughan), who inspects his work, when a number of guards come for Halbrand

Next: He's taken to see the Queen Regent and Pharazon, with Miriel asking where the enemy would go to next

South: 'Further south, I should think. Towards the watchtower of Ostirith,' Halbrand says, as Pharazon says he will, 'inform the Sea Guard'

Miriel gives Halbrand her thanks, adding, 'I'm certain your fellowship will prove just as invaluable once we make landfall,' which surprises Halbrand.

Miriel says that Galadriel, 'informed us of your aspiration to unite your people,' which angers Halbrand further.

Miriel asks if Galadriel was, 'speaking in haste,' and Halbrand is about to say something when Galadriel says Halbrand is, 'merely feeling the weight of his task.'

Aspirations: Miriel says that Galadriel, 'informed us of your aspiration to unite your people,' which angers Halbrand further

Fellowship: Miriel gives Halbrand her thanks, adding, 'I'm certain your fellowship will prove just as invaluable once we make landfall,' which surprises Halbrand

'I have no doubt, come time, he will do his part,' as Miriel adds, 'Given I have staked my name upon it, I should hope so.'

Edda interrupts and tells Miriel that her father has requested her presence in the tower, as Miriel leaves Galadriel and Halbrand.

She says she wondered how the queen, 'knew to waylay me at her father's bedside,' adding Halbrand sold her out, 'for a guild crest.'

No doubt: 'I have no doubt, come time, he will do his part,' as Miriel adds, 'Given I have staked my name upon it, I should hope so'

'You used me. After I all but begged you to let me be,' Halbrand says, as Galadriel says she convinced Numenor to send five ships and 500 men to aid his people and place a crown upon his head.

'Many might assume you used me,' Galadriel quips, as an angry Halbrand rips the crest he was wearing around his neck and slams it on the table.

'Find another head to crown,' Halbrand says before walking away.

Used: 'Many might assume you used me,' Galadriel quips, as an angry Halbrand rips the crest he was wearing around his neck and slams it on the table

Head: 'Find another head to crown,' Halbrand says before walking away

The episode cuts back to the Harfoots, who are making their way through some spooky woods, as Dilly Brandyfoot (Beau Cassidy) says she doesn't like it here.

Largo tries to reassure her that it's just the trees, as they keep moving towards Rockford Pass.

Nori comes across some father large footprints in the mud, as Poppy realizes that it's wolves.

Harfoots: The episode cuts back to the Harfoots, who are making their way through some spooky woods, as Dilly Brandyfoot (Beau Cassidy) says she doesn't like it here

At the front of the caravan, Malva (Thussitha Jayassundera) complains to Sadoc (Lenny Henry) about 'the big fella,' saying he should have taken their wheels and left them, which causes Sadoc to gasp.

'What's it gonna take? Make a widow of somebody? Or an orphan?' Malva asks, as Vilma (Maxine Cunliffe) interrupts and says, 'People are getting hungry.'

Malva is gathering food when she notices strange orange leaves when Nori and Poppy tell her they found wolf prints in the mud... when they hear a shrieking.

Sadoc: At the front of the caravan, Malva (Thussitha Jayassundera) complains to Sadoc (Lenny Henry) about 'the big fella,' saying he should have taken their wheels and left them, which causes Sadoc to gasp

Widow: 'What's it gonna take? Make a widow of somebody? Or an orphan?' Malva asks, as Vilma (Maxine Cunliffe) interrupts and says, 'People are getting hungry'

They all start running away from the sound... as we see a massive pack of wolves bearing down on them.

The Harfoots take to the trees as Nori tries to break a stick off... and just when the wolf gets to her, The Stranger grabs the wolf and tosses it like it was nothing.

The three wolves circle him... but he punches the ground, causing a blast that knocks them all back and sends them scattering.

Wolves: They all start running away from the sound... as we see a massive pack of wolves bearing down on them

Toss: The Harfoots take to the trees as Nori tries to break a stick off... and just when the wolf gets to her, The Stranger grabs the wolf and tosses it like it was nothing

Blast: The three wolves circle him... but he punches the ground, causing a blast that knocks them all back and sends them scattering

The Harfoots all see his arm is starting to turn purple.

The episode cuts back to Numenor, where Elendil is training Ontamo (Anthony Crum) and Valandil (Alex Tarrant) in the art of swordfighting when Galadriel joins him.

She jokes that their strokes, 'fall like the Stone-giants of the North Moors,' adding they are, 'untested against this foe.'

Training: The episode cuts back to Numenor, where Elendil is training Ontamo (Anthony Crum) and Valandil (Alex Tarrant) in the art of swordfighting when Galadriel joins him

Slow: She jokes that their strokes, 'fall like the Stone-giants of the North Moors,' adding they are, 'untested against this foe'

He adds that perhaps she would like to offer some instructions, and she takes them up on his offer.

She tells a group there are many ways to kill an Orc but they should keep it short and simple - 'Stab, twist, gut.'

She tells them all to come at her and see who will, 'score flesh,' as Halbrand stops by to watch, as Elendil says anyone who 'scores flesh,' he will promote to lieutenant.

Simple: She tells a group there are many ways to kill an Orc but they should keep it short and simple - 'Stab, twist, gut'

Score: She tells them all to come at her and see who will, 'score flesh,' as Halbrand stops by to watch, as Elendil says anyone who 'scores flesh,' he will promote to lieutenant

Valandil steps up and tries his best, but has no success against Galadriel, who tells them that, 'Swordsmanship is about balance, not strength. Fight with your feet, not arms,' as Ontamo joins his friend and they both start attacking Galadriel... to no avail.

Isildur is walking by when he hears someone saying, 'The elf is fighting a soldier in the square, as Isildur goes and follows them.

Galadriel has two swords now, taking on seemingly all the trainees, giving them small lessons along the way.

Attack: Valandil steps up and tries his best, but has no success against Galadriel, who tells them that, 'Swordsmanship is about balance, not strength. Fight with your feet, not arms,' as Ontamo joins his friend and they both start attacking Galadriel... to no avail

Valandil tries one last lunging attack, but Galadriel blocks it with her sword, as she tells them, 'Never trust brute force to best an Orc.'

Valandil tries another lunging attack and she spins out of the way, knocking the sword from his hand as she adds, 'It's often best to out-maneuver them.'

Galadriel looks at her arm and notices the sleeve of her dress was frayed by Valandil's blade, as she turns to him.

Out maneuver: Valandil tries another lunging attack and she spins out of the way, knocking the sword from his hand as she adds, 'It's often best to out-maneuver them'

Blade: Galadriel looks at her arm and notices the sleeve of her dress was frayed by Valandil's blade, as she turns to him

'Well done, Lieutenant,' she says, as the rest of the men cheer on Valandil, as Halbrand kicks up his sword and performs some fancy maneuvers before handing it back to him.

'Never knew a smith's aide who could do that,' Galadriel says to Halbrand, who just leaves with a smile.

The episode cuts to Kemen, who is trying to convince his father Pharazon to back out of this deal with Galadriel.

Well done: 'Well done, Lieutenant,' she says, as the rest of the men cheer on Valandil, as Halbrand kicks up his sword and performs some fancy maneuvers before handing it back to him

Back out: The episode cuts to Kemen, who is trying to convince his father Pharazon to back out of this deal with Galadriel

Kemen wants his father to, 'assert your influence,' though Pharazon says, 'Sometimes the folly of youth is enough to make an old man weep.'

Kemen asks if it's folly to stop a war, and Pharazon says it is, 'folly to kick against the current.'

'The trick of mastering the current is to know which way it will turn next,' Pharazon says, which angers Kemen.

Influence: Kemen wants his father to, 'assert your influence,' though Pharazon says, 'Sometimes the folly of youth is enough to make an old man weep'

Current: Kemen asks if it's folly to stop a war, and Pharazon says it is, 'folly to kick against the current'

'You all but single-handedly prevented our last king from dragging us back to the old ways. Don't tell me you couldn't sway Miriel's mind now,' Kemen says.

Pharazon asks how he doesn't know Miriel's mind and his are not one on this matter, as Kemen says, 'Because my father would sooner die than take orders from an Elf.'

This gets the attention of a few women gathered around, as Pharazon gives them a look and they leave as he turns back to his son.

Dragging: 'You all but single-handedly prevented our last king from dragging us back to the old ways. Don't tell me you couldn't sway Miriel's mind now,' Kemen says

Back: This gets the attention of a few women gathered around, as Pharazon gives them a look and they leave as he turns back to his son

'Orders from an Elf?' Pharazon says with a laugh. 'When all this has ended, Elves swill take orders from us. Now, my cousin can go to war for Galadriel if she wishes. I go to war for Numenor.'

Kemen asks how this possibly could be for Numenor, as Pharazon says they will give the men of the Southlands the king they've long awaited, 'a king who would be forever in our debt. Now, contemplate if you can, how that might benefit us.'

'Ores, forests, trade, tribute. I wouldn't dare stop that, not for all the salt in the sea. And neither should you,' Pharazon says, as he rolls up his maps and leaves his son with a smile on his face.

Orders: 'Orders from an Elf?' Pharazon says with a laugh. 'When all this has ended, Elves swill take orders from us. Now, my cousin can go to war for Galadriel if she wishes. I go to war for Numenor'

Possibly: Kemen asks how this possibly could be for Numenor, as Pharazon says they will give the men of the Southlands the king they've long awaited, 'a king who would be forever in our debt. Now, contemplate if you can, how that might benefit us'

No trade: 'Ores, forests, trade, tribute. I wouldn't dare stop that, not for all the salt in the sea. And neither should you,' Pharazon says, as he rolls up his maps and leaves his son with a smile on his face

Up in the tower, Ta-Palantir (Ken Blackburn) insists the kingdom is in danger,' though Miriel insists the danger has passed.

'We are doing now what you always believed we must. We are restoring our connection with the Elves. I'm going to Middle-earth,' she tells him.

'Miriel? Don't go to Middle-earth. All that awaits you there is... darkness,' the King says.

Danger: Up in the tower, Ta-Palantir (Ken Blackburn) insists the kingdom is in danger,' though Miriel insists the danger has passed

Doing: 'We are doing now what you always believed we must. We are restoring our connection with the Elves. I'm going to Middle-earth,' she tells him

Don't go: 'Miriel? Don't go to Middle-earth. All that awaits you there is... darkness,' the King says

The episode cuts back to the Harfoots, as Nori visits The Stranger boasting that the Harfoots have never embraced an outsider like him before.

She brings him some beeswax, saying he should, slather some on that paw, should help with the tenderness,' as she sees he has his purple arm in some water.

She notices that the water starts freezing, as The Stranger says something in another language as the ice starts spreading up his arm.

Purple: She brings him some beeswax, saying he should, slather some on that paw, should help with the tenderness,' as she sees he has his purple arm in some water

Freezing: She notices that the water starts freezing, as The Stranger says something in another language as the ice starts spreading up his arm

Nori tries to touch his arm and the ice spreads to her hand as well, asking him to stop, as she sees a glimpse of him in the fire before she is suddenly propelled behind him by his mystical force.

The Stranger kneels to touch Nori and she runs away as The Stranger examines his hand, now seemingly back to normal.

The episode cuts back to Lindon, where Elrond, Durin and Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) have a feast with High King Gil-Galad.

Flying: The Stranger kneels to touch Nori and she runs away as The Stranger examines his hand, now seemingly back to normal

Feast: The episode cuts back to Lindon, where Elrond, Durin and Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) have a feast with High King Gil-Galad

'To an enduring union between our two great peoples, Khazad and Noldor. To the union,' Elrond toasts, as the others join him.

Gil-Galad commends Durin, saying that Khazad-dum has been called, 'the quietest of Dwarven kingdoms,' but recently his fires have been burning, 'brighter than the eyes of Aule himself.'

Gil-Galad asks, 'To what do you credit, this new invigoration?' though Durin says he could say the same of Lindon, 'Shipping off its warriors, expandin' its cities.'

Enduring: 'To an enduring union between our two great peoples, Khazad and Noldor. To the union,' Elrond toasts, as the others join him

Fires: Gil-Galad commends Durin, saying that Khazad-dum has been called, 'the quietest of Dwarven kingdoms,' but recently his fires have been burning, 'brighter than the eyes of Aule himself'

Durin jokes that it's a bit 'quick for elves' adding that, 'typically it takes you people weeks just to decide to take a sh-' when he's interrupted by Elrond.

'The hand of time crawls so slowly for our kind. We often overlook the years of effort we perceive as taking but a moment. In so doing, I would not wish to offend our guest,' Elrond tells Gil-Galad.

The High King says Durin is, 'far too stout of heart to be offended by an honest inquiry,' as Durin has an honest inquiry for the King: 'From where did you procure the table?'

Quick: Durin jokes that it's a bit 'quick for elves' adding that, 'typically it takes you people weeks just to decide to take a sh-' when he's interrupted by Elrond

Table: The High King says Durin is, 'far too stout of heart to be offended by an honest inquiry,' as Durin has an honest inquiry for the King: 'From where did you procure the table?'

Gil-Galad asks why he asked, as Durin explains, 'This stone grows only at certain depths. So rarely do our resonators locate a deposit. We consider each to be a precious gift. We reserve its use for the most sacred purposes - monuments, tombs, to our honored dead.'

Gil-Galad says, 'Please forgive our sacrilege, Lord Durinn. We shall have to send it home with you, so it can be treated with proper respect.'

'It's good to know there's still some honor left among the Elves,' Durin says, while raising his glass to Gil-Galad, as they toast to 'the union.'

Forgive: Gil-Galad says, 'Please forgive our sacrilege, Lord Durinn. We shall have to send it home with you, so it can be treated with proper respect'

Honor: 'It's good to know there's still some honor left among the Elves,' Durin says, while raising his glass to Gil-Galad, as they toast to 'the union'

After the feast, Gil-Galad tells Elrond his loyalty to the dwarf is 'admirable,' as Elrond says, 'Loyalty to a friend ought to be expected. Regardless of his race.'

Gil-Galad asks if it justifies, 'lying to your King,' though Elrond wonders if it is him that has been lying to him.

Elrond says he went to Khazad-dum with a proposal of friendship but he accuses the king of seeking, 'something far more tangible.'

Devotion: After the feast, Gil-Galad tells Elrond his loyalty to the dwarf is 'admirable,' as Elrond says, 'Loyalty to a friend ought to be expected. Regardless of his race'

Lying: Gil-Galad asks if it justifies, 'lying to your King,' though Elrond wonders if it is him that has been lying to him

Gil-Galad asks Elrond if he is familiar with, 'The Song of the Roots of Hithaeglir?' asking him to recount it.

'It speaks of a battle, high among the peaks of the Misty Mountains. Not over honor or duty, but over a tree, within which some claim was hidden the last of the lost Silmarils,' Elrond says, as Gil-Galad takes a drink as Elrond continues.

'On one side fought an Elven warrior, with a heart as pure as Manwe, who poured all of his light into the tree to protect it,' Elrond says.

Familiar: Gil-Galad asks Elrond if he is familiar with, 'The Song of the Roots of Hithaeglir?' asking him to recount it

Recount: 'It speaks of a battle, high among the peaks of the Misty Mountains. Not over honor or duty, but over a tree, within which some claim was hidden the last of the lost Silmarils,' Elrond says, as Gil-Galad takes a drink as Elrond continues

'On the other, a Balrog of Morgorth, who channeled all of his hatred into the tree to destroy it. Amidst their duel unending, lightning ensnared the tree,' as a graphic shows the lightning burrowing through the trees roots.

'Forging of their conflict, a power...' Elrond says, as Gil-Galad continues, 'A power as pure and light as good. As strong and unyielding as evil. They say it seeped down the roots into the mountain depths, where for centuries now, it has waited,' Gil-Galad says.

Elrond looks at Gil-Galad with contempt, stating, 'Durin was right,' as Gil-Galad sayss, 'Then you admit the Dwarves did find it. The ore containing the light of the lost Silmaril.'

Ore: Elrond looks at Gil-Galad with contempt, stating, 'Durin was right,' as Gil-Galad sayss, 'Then you admit the Dwarves did find it. The ore containing the light of the lost Silmaril'

'I admit only this. I promised Durin never to reveal his people's secrets,' though Gil-Galad counters, 'What if keeping the secrets of his people meant ensuring the doom of your own?'

Gil-Galad walks away, leaving Elrond confused ass he walks after him, as they both head outside under a great gold tree.

Gil-Galad says they first noticed it just before Galadriel returned and they hoped by sending her away and ending 'the last vestiges of war might arrest the decay,' as Elrond notices the blackened decaying tree.

Doom: 'I admit only this. I promised Durin never to reveal his people's secrets,' though Gil-Galad counters, 'What if keeping the secrets of his people meant ensuring the doom of your own?'

Gold: Gil-Galad walks away, leaving Elrond confused ass he walks after him, as they both head outside under a great gold tree

'But despite our every effort, our decline has only quickened. The blight upon this tree is but an outer manifestation of an inner reality,' Gil-Galad says, as we see the black darkness spreading throughout the tree.

'That the light of the Eldar, our light, is fading,' Gil-Galad says, as Elrond asks who else knows about this.

'Precious few,' Gil-Galad says, before asking if the Dwarves found the ore or not.

Spread: 'But despite our every effort, our decline has only quickened. The blight upon this tree is but an outer manifestation of an inner reality,' Gil-Galad says, as we see the black darkness spreading throughout the tree

Fading: 'That the light of the Eldar, our light, is fading,' Gil-Galad says, as Elrond asks who else knows about this

Fading: 'That the light of the Eldar, our light, is fading,' Gil-Galad says, as Elrond asks who else knows about this

'I swore an oath to Durin. To some, that may now hold little weight, but in my esteem, it is by such things our very souls are bound. I do not intend to let mine slip away on the basis of mere hope,' Elrond says.

Gil-Galad says hope is never mere, even when it is meager, adding 'hope is the first awaken, last to shut,' adding if the Elves abandon Middle-earth now, 'the armies of darkness will march over the ends of the Earth.'

'It will not be the end of our people but all peoples. If the hope of not preventing that is not reason enough to make you reconsider your oath, then I suggest you find another,' Gil-Galad tells him before walking away.

Swore: 'I swore an oath to Durin. To some, that may now hold little weight, but in my esteem, it is by such things our very souls are bound. I do not intend to let mine slip away on the basis of mere hope,' Elrond says.

End: 'It will not be the end of our people but all peoples. If the hope of not preventing that is not reason enough to make you reconsider your oath, then I suggest you find another,' Gil-Galad tells him before walking away

Elrond pulls out the piece of the mysterious ore that Durin gave him and looks to the skies.

Back in Numenor, the townsfolk are drinking and cheering as Ontamo chats with his maiden Mairen (Ella Hope-Higginsson) when Valandil finds him, asking him to sing along.

They notice Isildur, as they go off to chat and Valandil immediately says the answer is no, before Isildur even asked.

Chat: Back in Numenor, the townsfolk are drinking and cheering as Ontamo chats with his maiden Mairen (Ella Hope-Higginsson) when Valandil finds him, asking him to sing along

No: They notice Isildur, as they go off to chat and Valandil immediately says the answer is no, before Isildur even asked

Valandil surmises that now that he's been promoted, he could get him on the expedition... when Isildur asks, 'Can you?'

Isildur insists he's sorry he started the fight and asks to bring him, but Valandil says, 'No' and walks away.

Isildur follows and asks what it will take to make this right, offering a 'free hit,' which gets their attention.

Can you: Valandil surmises that now that he's been promoted, he could get him on the expedition... when Isildur asks, 'Can you?'

Valandil says, 'Three,' and Isildur says, 'Two,' as Valandil wastes no time punching him in the face and the gut in quick succession.

'That felt like three,' Isildur jokes, asking if he'll still bring him on the ship, as Valandil gets close to him.

'Isildur, you're my oldest friend. And if you want to know the truth, you're probably still my best, but I can't, in good conscience, stake my name recommending you for a duty that you might well decide to abandon.'

Duty: 'Isildur, you're my oldest friend. And if you want to know the truth, you're probably still my best, but I can't, in good conscience, stake my name recommending you for a duty that you might well decide to abandon'

Isildur insists it will be, 'different this time,' as Valandil smiles and says, 'One day, I hope it will be. One day, I hope you find something that you'd be willing to sacrifice anything for.'

Ontamo turns to Isildur and says he promises to take care of Berek for him, adding, 'Sorry, Isil. The sea is always right.'

The episode cuts to a cloaked figure sneaking onto one of the ships... but it's not Isildur, it's Kemen.

Berek: Ontamo turns to Isildur and says he promises to take care of Berek for him, adding, 'Sorry, Isil. The sea is always right'

Kemen: The episode cuts to a cloaked figure sneaking onto one of the ships... but it's not Isildur, it's Kemen

He goes down below and causes gas to leak onto the ship, and he's just about to toss his lantern onto it when he hears a coughing.

He goes to check and finds Isildur stowing away, while the casks keep pouring, as Isildur asks if he was going to burn the boat.

Kemen says if he gets out of there this moment he won't tell anyone he saw him, as Isildur asks for the lantern.

Lantern: Kemen says if he gets out of there this moment he won't tell anyone he saw him, as Isildur asks for the lantern

They struggle for it and it drops, setting the ship ablaze, as Isildur makes it topside while Kemen trips and falls.... as Isildur looks back.

The ship explodes with a firey blaze as everyone from Numenor comes rushing out, including Elendil, who tells someone to gather every hand... when he sees Isildur dragging Kemen to the port.

Elendil asks what happens and he lies and says Kemen was in a fishing boat and one of the casks must have, 'went off.'

Ablaze: They struggle for it and it drops, setting the ship ablaze, as Isildur makes it topside while Kemen trips and falls.... as Isildur looks back

Went off: Elendil asks what happens and he lies and says Kemen was in a fishing boat and one of the casks must have, 'went off'

Kemen says he could have left him there but Isildur saved him, as Elendil nods and rushes off.

Elendil tells Pharazon they suspect a passing ship did the damage and they're lucky they didn't lose all the ships.

Galadriel says it was an, 'attempt to kindle your doubts,' though Pharazon says he is, 'forced to disagree with the Elf.'

Left: Kemen says he could have left him there but Isildur saved him, as Elendil nods and rushes off

'Perhaps we did act in haste. A kingdom should be led, not dragged. I recommend we delay the voyage, until we've had time enough to win more hearts to your cause,' Pharazon says.

Galadriel insists that the enemy grows stronger every day and they still have three ships and her father's blessing.

Miriel asks, 'What of Lord Halbrand?' as Galadriel says, 'He awaits our departure.'

Haste: 'Perhaps we did act in haste. A kingdom should be led, not dragged. I recommend we delay the voyage, until we've had time enough to win more hearts to your cause,' Pharazon says

Enemy: Galadriel insists that the enemy grows stronger every day and they still have three ships and her father's blessing

Miriel says, 'This council will reconvene at first light to make a final decision. See to it Lord Halbrand attends.'

The episode cuts back to Lindon, where Elrond is meeting with Celebrimbor, who hands the mystery ore back to Elrond.

Elrond asks what he's been able to ascertain, as Celebrimbor asks for forgiveness, 'I didn't tell you sooner.'

First light: Miriel says, 'This council will reconvene at first light to make a final decision. See to it Lord Halbrand attends'

Ore: The episode cuts back to Lindon, where Elrond is meeting with Celebrimbor, who hands the mystery ore back to Elrond

'You knew,' Elrond says, as Celebrimbor says he wanted to have him in their confidence from the beginning but the High King forbade it.

Elrond asks if the mystery ore named mithril is in fact their, 'only salvation' and Celebrimbor says he has, 'tested it under every duress. Nothing diminishes its light.'

'We believe if we can secure vast quantities of it quickly, enough to saturate every last Elf in the light of the Valar once more, then yes, yes, it very well could be,' Celebrimbor says.

Forbade: 'You knew,' Elrond says, as Celebrimbor says he wanted to have him in their confidence from the beginning but the High King forbade it

Celebrimbor says he is sorry, as Elrond asks, 'That the High-King deceived me? Or that now our people are doomed unless I break an oath and betray a friend.'

Celebrimbor says he was there the night his father set sail, 'A mortal man who believed he could convince the very Gods to come to war in our aid.'

He added he heard his smother imploring why it must be him, but he said, 'Because he was the only one who could do it.'

Sorry: Celebrimbor says he is sorry, as Elrond asks, 'That the High-King deceived me? Or that now our people are doomed unless I break an oath and betray a friend'

The episode cuts back to Numenor as Galadriel tells Halbrand she was wrong to use him and that the Queen will have an audience and his voice may decide whether the mission stands or falls.

'Help me,' she asks, as Halbrand says, 'I think I helped you quite enough,' as she tells him to stop fighting her and let's fight them together.

Halbrand looks into the fire and says he doesn't know what he did before he ended up on that raft.

Wrong: The episode cuts back to Numenor as Galadriel tells Halbrand she was wrong to use him and that the Queen will have an audience and his voice may decide whether the mission stands or falls

They flash back to his homeland with many bowing before Adar as Halbrand doesn't know how he or anyone else survived.

'And when these people discover it they will cast me out. So will you,' Halbrand says, as Galadriel tells him,' Sometimes to find the light, we must first touch the darkness.'

Halbrand looks at her and says, 'What do you know of darkness? Whose dagger was it, Galadriel/ Who is it you lost?'

Cast: 'And when these people discover it they will cast me out. So will you,' Halbrand says, as Galadriel tells him,' Sometimes to find the light, we must first touch the darkness'

'My brother. He was killed in a place of darkness and despair by servants of Sauron. Is that enough for you?' she says.

He asks why she keeps fighting and, 'You're asking me to go to the once place that I swore never to return. The least you can do is tell me why.'

'Because I cannot stop,' Galadriel says before turning away from Halbrand. 'The company I lead mutinied against me. My closest friend conspired with the king to exile me. And each of them acted as they did because I believe they could no longer distinguish me from the evil I was fighting.'

Cannot stop: 'Because I cannot stop,' Galadriel says before turning away from Halbrand. 'The company I lead mutinied against me. My closest friend conspired with the king to exile me. And each of them acted as they did because I believe they could no longer distinguish me from the evil I was fighting'

'I'm sorry,' Halbrand says,' For your brother. For all of it. I'm sorry,' though Galadriel says her sorrow cannot ease her pain.

'There is no peace to be found for you here, nor me. No lasting peace in any path, but that which lies across the sea,' Galadriel says.

'I have fought for centuries seeking to earn mine. This is how you earn yours,' she says before leaving Halbrand, giving him back the crest he ripped off.

No peace: 'There is no peace to be found for you here, nor me. No lasting peace in any path, but that which lies across the sea,' Galadriel says

Back in the Southlands, the traitor Waldreg kneels before Adar, saying he has waited for his kind to return, 'to lift us up from the muck and the filth, to take our rightful place at your side. I pledge my undying service to you. I pledge my loyalty to Sauron.'

Adar turns to a kneeling Waldreg and walks close to him, as Adar asks, 'You are Sauron, are you not?'

Adar grabs Waldreg by the throat and slams him to the ground, as Waldreg says, 'I'll serve you then, whoever you are.'

Pledge: Back in the Southlands, the traitor Waldreg kneels before Adar, saying he has waited for his kind to return, 'to lift us up from the muck and the filth, to take our rightful place at your side. I pledge my undying service to you. I pledge my loyalty to Sauron'

Serve: Adar turns to a kneeling Waldreg and walks close to him, as Adar asks, 'You are Sauron, are you not?

Adar grabs Rowan (Ian Blackburn) and tosses Waldreg a blade, telling him, 'Only blood can bind.'

Rowan whispers Waldreg's name as he looks at the blade, getting closer to a whimpering Rowan... but before we learn his fate, the episode cuts to Arondir teaching Theo how to shoot a bow and arrow.

Theo asks why he's teaching him, as Arondir says it took him 200 years, 'to develop the bravery that's keeping my standing here tonight.'

Rowan: Adar grabs Rowan (Ian Blackburn) and tosses Waldreg a blade, telling him, 'Only blood can bind'

Adar: Rowan whispers Waldreg's name as he looks at the blade, getting closer to a whimpering Rowan

Bravery: Theo asks why he's teaching him, as Arondir says it took him 200 years, 'to develop the bravery that's keeping my standing here tonight'

'You found it at only 14. You'll need it in the fight to come,' though Theo says, 'All my life your kind has watched us, counting every whisper. We're about to be buried in this tower, so why be buried with us?'

Arondir smiles and says, 'Because in counting all the whispers and the knives I've come to know the voices and the hands of those behind them.'

Theo bemoans, 'Half of us just left,' but Arondir says, 'But half stayed, including you,' before handing him another arrow and adding, 'So lift your aim.'

Buried: 'You found it at only 14. You'll need it in the fight to come,' though Theo says, 'All my life your kind has watched us, counting every whisper. We're about to be buried in this tower, so why be buried with us?'

Theo is about to pull the bow back when he turns to Arondir and says, 'There's something you don't know,' and shows him the hilt.

'I've seen this before,' Arondir says, before pulling vines off a wall, revealing a sword stuck in a stone.

Arondir tells Bronwyn that it's a key, 'conjured by some forgotten craft of the enemy, to enslave your ancestors.'

Hilt: Theo is about to pull the bow back when he turns to Arondir and says, 'There's something you don't know,' and shows him the hilt

Enslave: Arondir tells Bronwyn that it's a key, 'conjured by some forgotten craft of the enemy, to enslave your ancestors'

Bronwyn asks what it's a key for, but Arondir doesn't know, though the commander, 'spoke of becoming a God' and giving the Orcs a home in this land.

'Our enemy knows your son has what he needs to enact it,' Arondir tells Bronwyn, who asks 'How long?'

'Days, maybe hours. We can survive this, Bronwyn. There is a way. There must be,' Arondir tells her, who says, 'There is one.'

Key: Bronwyn asks what it's a key for, but Arondir doesn't know, though the commander, 'spoke of becoming a God' and giving the Orcs a home in this land

Enemy: 'Our enemy knows your son has what he needs to enact it,' Arondir tells Bronwyn, who asks 'How long?'

Arondir chases after her saying, 'Bow to the enemy and you take away everything. From your son and his sons after him. Your people have worked an entire age to earn back their virtue. Would you undo it all in just one moment of despair?'

He says there must be another way and Bronwyn says, 'Name it, I beg you,' though he can't.

'See? You were right to watch us, because we are destined for the darkness. It's how we survive. Perhaps it's who we are, who we will always be,' Bronwyn says.

Bow: Arondir chases after her saying, 'Bow to the enemy and you take away everything. From your son and his sons after him. Your people have worked an entire age to earn back their virtue. Would you undo it all in just one moment of despair?'

Arondir says there is more at stake than just their lives, adding that when Morgoth was at war, 'whole continents sank. Who is to say what horrors this might unleash, should our enemy obtain it?'

She asks what power they have to stop it and says it's over but Arondir insists, 'Not yet.

Not yet: She asks what power they have to stop it and says it's over but Arondir insists, 'Not yet'

'When they march upon us, this tower will fall,' Bronwyn says, as they both look up to the Watchtower.

Adar and his army marches at night, carrying torches, all marching towards the tower.

The episode cuts back to Lindon, where a number of Elves struggle to move the heavy table Gil-Galad promised to send back with Durin.

Table: The episode cuts back to Lindon, where a number of Elves struggle to move the heavy table Gil-Galad promised to send back with Durin

Elrond realizes something... 'You made it up, didn't you?'

'Disa's been wanting a new table for years, so...' Durin says, as he shares a chuckle with Elrond.

Elrond admits that he did not come to Khazad-dum for friendship, but ambition, and he did not know it, but he came for mithril.

Made it up: Elrond realizes something... 'You made it up, didn't you?'

Mithril: Elrond admits that he did not come to Khazad-dum for friendship, but ambition, and he did not know it, but he came for mithril

Durin asks why and Elrond says that without it, his kind must either, 'abandon these shores by spring or perish.'

A surprised Durin ask how they will perish and Elrond says their, 'immortal souls will dwindle into nothing.'

Durin sighs and takes a seat and says, 'So the fate of the entire Elvish race is in my hands?'

Abandon: Durin asks why and Elrond says that without it, his kind must either, 'abandon these shores by spring or perish'

How: A surprised Durin ask how they will perish and Elrond says their, 'immortal souls will dwindle into nothing'

'It would appear so,' Elrond says, as Durin asks him to repeat it, with a glimmer in his eye.

'Fetch your feathery shirts, let's start walking,' Durin says, adding, 'Don't thank me yet. Thank me after we find a way to convince my father.'

Elrond says he wants Durin to tell Disa the table is from her, but Durin says, 'Don't push your luck, Elf' as they share a laugh, as we see Gil-Galad has been watching them.

Appear: 'It would appear so,' Elrond says, as Durin asks him to repeat it, with a glimmer in his eye

Watching: Elrond says he wants Durin to tell Disa the table is from her, but Durin says, 'Don't push your luck, Elf' as they share a laugh, as we see Gil-Galad has been watching them

The episode cuts back to Numenor, as Halbrand is gazing at the seal as she is told the Queen Regent summons him... as he leaves the seal behind... before snatching it quickly.

Halbrand must have been convincing, because the episode cuts to the Queen, Halbrand, Galadriel and others leaving on their arduous journey to the Southlands.

Earien is seen making her way through the crowd, as it's revealed Isildur has been chosen for the journey as part of the SeaGuard.

Halbrand: The episode cuts back to Numenor, as Halbrand is gazing at the seal as she is told the Queen Regent summons him... as he leaves the seal behind... before snatching it quickly

Three large ships and many smaller vessels are seen setting sail from the Numenor port, as Isildur is told to report to the horsemaster by his father... telling him he's a 'stable sweep,' which causes his friends Valandil and Ontamo to laugh as they embrace.

Elendil tells the soldiers to stand at attention as Galadriel walks onto the ship with her armor, meeting Halbrand as they shake hands and share a smile.

Friends: Three large ships and many smaller vessels are seen setting sail from the Numenor port, as Isildur is told to report to the horsemaster by his father... telling him he's a 'stable sweep,' which causes his friends Valandil and Ontamo to laugh as they embrace

Galadriel: Elendil tells the soldiers to stand at attention as Galadriel walks onto the ship with her armor, meeting Halbrand as they shake hands and share a smile.

Shake: Galadriel and Halbrand shake hands

'Clear the lines, square the sail, we head nor-east, for Middle-earth,' Elendil says, as the ship roars with applause, as the episode comes to an end.

The new episodes will roll out simultaneously across the globe, with the first two episodes dropping on Thursday at 6 PM PT/9 PM ET/2 AM UK.

The final six episodes will roll out weekly at 9 PM PT/12 AM ET/5 AM UK, with the finale of the eight-episode season arriving Thursday, October 13 exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.

Ship: 'Clear the lines, square the sail, we head nor-east, for Middle-earth,' Elendil says, as the ship roars with applause, as the episode comes to an end

Episodes: The new episodes will roll out simultaneously across the globe, with the first two episodes dropping on Thursday at 6 PM PT/9 PM ET/2 AM UK

History: The show made history long before the first two episodes debuted on Thursday evening, since it's considered the most expensive series ever

Estate: Amazon also struck a deal with the Tolkien Estate and the Tolkien Trust where they are believed to have given the green light for upwards of five seasons of the show

Commitment: With an estimated production commitment of between $100 million and $150 million per season, Amazon is expected to shell out $1 billion for the production costs and the rights, when all is said and done

Expand: They wanted to expand this into roughly 50 hours of television, which would include the forging of the Rings of Power, the rise of the dark lord Sauron, the fall of the island kingdom Numenor and the final alliance between men and elves

Speculation: 'We are enjoying all the speculation online and can tell you Bridie Sisson is an incredible actor,' Weber began
A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw looked relieved to be home as she landed in Sydney Airport on Friday.

She had suffered a gaffe earlier this week during Channel Nine's coverage of the Queen's funeral when she failed to recognise British Prime Minister Liz Truss.

The 62-year-old donned a $600 Camilla shirt over a plain black T-shirt and slacks as she made a beeline for the airport car park.

Tracy Grimshaw (left) looked relieved to be home as she landed in Sydney Airport on Friday. She had some help from airport staff (right) who pushed her luggage through the terminal

Tracy, who also wore black and white Converse sneakers and a cross-body bag, had some help from airport staff who pushed her luggage through the terminal.

She ditched her usual TV glamour for the long-haul flight by going makeup free.

The Nine veteran required two trolleys for all her baggage, after spending more than a week in England covering the death and funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

Her Louis Vuitton business bag, worth over $3,500, sat atop one of the trolleys.

The 62-year-old A Current Affair host donned a $600 Camilla shirt over a plain black T-shirt and slacks as she made a beeline for the airport car park

It comes after Tracy and fellow senior Nine journalist Peter Overton were unable to identify Britain's new leader as they provided commentary on the Queen's funeral on Monday night.

As UK Prime Minister Liz Truss climbed out of her car at Westminster Abbey, the two veteran broadcasters were left scratching their heads as to who she was.

'So, this is a significant motorcade, we are being told now,' Peter, 56, said.

She ditched her usual TV glamour for the long-haul flight by going makeup free

He continued: 'Come with us as we try and identify who is getting out of the car. This is under police escort of course. I would suggest this might be royalty, Tracy.

'Hard to identify. Maybe minor royals, members of the I can't identify them at this point'

Viewers at home took to social media to call them out on the blunder, prompting Peter to issue a correction moments later.

Tracy had suffered a gaffe earlier this week during Channel Nine's coverage of the Queen's funeral when she failed to recognise British Prime Minister Liz Truss

'I'm told that was Liz Truss, the new prime minister, in the distance, we could see hopping out of the car. Thank you very much for that information,' he told viewers.

He then conceded to Nine co-stars Karl Stefanovic, Ally Langdon and UK royal expert Dickie Arbiter that their British guest might be better at spotting local famous faces.

Ms Truss was the last world leader to be pictured with the Queen in her final official duty, just 48 hours before she died.

As UK Prime Minister Liz Truss climbed out of her car at Westminster Abbey, the two veteran broadcasters were left scratching their heads as to who she was. (Left: Peter Overton)
Lucy Boynton kept it casual in an all-black outfit on Thursday while grabbing food and and a green drink in West Hollywood, California.

The 28-year-old actress wore a plain black T-shirt along with matching The Flower Shop sweatpants adorned with white roses.

She completed her outfit with black loafers loaded with a penny and purple socks.

Casual style: Lucy Boynton kept it casual in an all-black outfit on Thursday while grabbing food and drink in West Hollywood, California

Lucy had her blonde hair pulled back and kept in place with a leopard-print headband.

She let her natural beauty shine with just a hint of makeup.

The British-American actress carried a cup of green juice and a food container along with a bright red purse.

Lucy was spotted on Wednesday shooting scenes for her new romantic comedy The Greatest Hits in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles.

All-black outfit: The 28-year-old actress wore a plain black T-shirt along with matching The Flower Shop sweatpants adorned with white roses

Busy star: Lucy, shown earlier this month in Toronto, was spotted on Wednesday shooting scenes for her new romantic comedy The Greatest Hits in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles

The Greatest Hits started production this month and was written by Ned Benson, who is also directing the romantic comedy.

Lucy is starring in the movie but little is known about her role, as the details of the Searchlight Pictures film have been kept under wraps.

The Umbrella Academy's Justin H. Min has also joined the cast and will star alongside Lucy, The Wrap reported.

Stylish star: The British-American actress, shown earlier this month in France, has three feature films in the works

The movie is described as a soulful romantic comedy exploring the connection between music and memory, according to Deadline.

Lucy has been in a relationship with her Bohemian Rhapsody co-star Rami Malek, 41, since 2018.

She also has a starring role as Marie Antoinette in the biopic Chevalier that had its world premiere earlier this month at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Married At First Sight star Domenica Calarco had a health scare on Friday when she was rushed to hospital after filming an interview for A Current Affair.

The 29-year-old began her day with a smile as she shared a photo to Instagram of herself inside the ACA newsroom in northern Sydney.

But things went downhill within a few hours as she had to call an ambulance to help her after coming down with an extreme case of gastro.

Married At First Sight star Domenica Calarco had a health scare on Friday when she was rushed to hospital after filming an interview for A Current Affair

She documented her hospitalisation on Instagram Stories.

'Filmed something very cool [at Channel Nine]. But then... first time I had to call an ambulance for myself,' she captioned photos of herself in a hospital bed.

'It was scary and I was in agony. Turns out gastro can really f**k you up. I've never had pain like that before. I was so dehydrated, it scared tf [the f**k] out of me.'

Domenica later posted a photo of herself back at home in her own bed, alongside the caption: 'Rest, hydrate, repeat.'

The 29-year-old began her day with a smile as she shared a photo to Instagram of herself inside the ACA newsroom in northern Sydney. But things went downhill within a few hours as she had to call an ambulance to help her after coming down with an extreme case of gastro

It comes as several of Domenica's former Married At First Sight co-stars refuse to appear on her proposed spin-off web series, leading to rumours it could be cancelled as a result.

Multiple cast members have declined to be interviewed by her for the show, which was set to launch next month on 9Now and Nine.com.au and run until the premiere of season 10 of MAFS in early 2023.

The format for the series would have seen her FaceTime her fellow MAFS alumni to 'check in' on them and see how they're coping after the show.

She documented her hospitalisation on Instagram Stories

'It was scary and I was in agony. Turns out gastro can really f**k you up. I've never had pain like that before. I was so dehydrated, it scared tf [the f**k] out of me,' she wrote

But many former MAFS participants have flat-out refused to take part, citing Domenica's alleged mistreatment of them both during filming and on social media.

Some also feel she received an unfairly glowing edit at the expense of her season nine castmates and don't want to reward her with more opportunities at Nine.

The network sent an email to cast members inviting them to appear on the online series, but one former star said 'no one' wanted to be involved.

Domenica later shared a photo of herself back at home in her own bed, alongside the caption: 'Rest, hydrate, repeat'

'I'm good friends with eight of the cast, and no one I'm friends with is doing the "chat",' the source said.

'Honestly, as if in reality we would update her on our lives, it's so ridiculous. Plus, the show was highly edited so I don't think anyone would be stupid enough to believe it's going to be the "light-hearted" chat that stated in the email.'

Domenica's on-screen rival Olivia Frazer also spoke out against the proposed interview series during an Instagram Live, saying it was 'kind of bulls**t'.
Claire Danes has ben hard at work shooting the upcoming drama miniseries Fleishman Is In Trouble with Jesse Eisenberg and Lizzy Caplan.

But on Thursday the actress took advantage of some downtime and headed out on a casual stroll with her husband Hugh Dancy.

They made their way around the bustling street of Manhattan chatting and laughing, and eventually made their way to a restaurant.

Family matters: Claire Danes, 43, spent some quality time with her husband Hugh Dancy, 47, in New York City on Thursday

Danes, 43, opted for casual and comfort in the fashion department dressed in colorful drawstring pants that she matched with a white long-sleeve shirt and brown sandals.

In keeping with her chill vibe, the Homeland star pulled her short blonde tresses back off her face with a white scarf.

With a two-tone gray bag over her shoulder, the longtime leading lady appeared to be a serious conversation with her husband at one point.

Out and about: During her family walk, Danes opted for casual and comfort in the fashion department dressed in colorful drawstring pants that she matched with a white long-sleeve shirt and brown sandals

Two years after wrapping her hit series Homeland, Danes made her return to television with two new series in 2022.

The actress started shooting the drama Fleishman Is In Trouble back in February. The nine-episode limited series created by author Taffy Brodesser-Akner, follows Toby Fleishman (Jesse Eisenberg), a doctor and recent divorcee who wades into the mysterious world of online dating.

While he finds himself having much more success than he imagined, his life is turned upside down when his Claire's character, Rachel, disappears and leaves him with the kids.

Toby finds himself juggling his parental responsibilities with a new promotion at the hospital where he works and all of the eligible women Manhattan has to offer, while also finding out what happened to Rachel and their failed marriage.

Longtime hit drama: Danes wrapped eight seasons of Homeland in 2020

So far there's no word on when Fleishman Is In Trouble will make its premiere on FX on Hulu.

Earlier in the year, Danes also made her return to TV in the gothic romance period drama miniseries The Essex Serpent.

She plays London widow Cora Seaborne, a woman who moves to Essex to investigate reports of a mythical serpent. Eventually, Vora forms a surprising bond of science and skepticism with the local pastor (Tom Hiddleston), but when tragedy strikes, locals accuse her of attracting the creature.

Return to TV: Danes started shooting the drama series Fleishman Is In Trouble back in February; stars Jesse Eisenberg is pictured with c0-stars Lizzy Caplan and Adam Brody

The show, which premiered on Apple TV+ on May 13, also stars Frank Dillane, Clemence Poesy, Hayley Squires, Jamael Westman, Lily-Rose Aslandogdu and Gerard Kearns, among others.

Most recently, Dancy starred in the historical drama film in Downton Abbey: A New Era that premiered back in May.

The British actor, 47, is also known to fans for his roles in the film adaption of David Copperfield (2000), as well as Black Hawk Down (2001), Shooting Dogs (2005) and the NBC series Hannibal (2013-2015).
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The Crown's Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed stars were seen on set together for the first time as they filmed in Mallorca on Thursday.

Elizabeth Debicki and Khalid Abdalla transformed into the star-crossed lovers as they joined Rufus Kampa, 16, who plays a young Prince William and Will Powell, who takes on the role of Prince Harry in the Netflix series.

The scenes indicated they were portraying a holiday taken by the group in July 1997 - just a month before Diana and Dodi's tragic passing - when the princes famously joined the couple for a trip in the South of France aboard a superyacht owned by Dodi's father Mohamed Al-Fayed.

Fantastic four: The Crown's Elizabeth Debicki and Khalid Abdalla were seen on set together for the first time as Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed as they filmed alongside Prince William and Harry stars Rufus Kampa and Will Powell in Mallorca on Thursday

For the scenes, Elizabeth, 32, donned a pair of stylish striped trousers that she paired with a navy tank top and white boat shoes, while Khalid, 40, opted for a black and white shirt and cream slacks.

While he is not believed to feature in The Crown the half brother Dodi, Omar Fayed, previously spoke about his memories of holidaying with the Diana, her sons and Dodi.

Although he was just nine years old at the time of the trip, he recalled that spending time with Diana and her sons was 'delightful' and the period surrounding their relationship had 'lovely family vibes'.

In an interview with Tatler last year, Omar said: 'I met Princess Diana a few times and Princes William and Harry. They came to my dad's house, too, and were super delightful.

'There were so many stories that came out of that period, but for the people who were in it, it was lovely family vibes.'

Two's company: Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed are pictured din Saint Tropez, France in August 1997

Stylish: For the scenes, Elizabeth, 32, donned a pair of stylish striped trousers that she paired with a navy tank top and white boat shoes, while Khalid, 40, opted for a black and white shirt and cream slacks

In May 2020, Omar's father's yacht which had hosted the royals and Dodi was sold for 171,000, with some observers telling The Sunday Express that the bid was surprisingly low, sparking fears that the memory of Diana was 'fading'.

Royal author Margaret Holder, who penned Diana: The Caring Princess, a look at the Princess of Wales' life published in 1999, said she felt it was: 'a shame that this historic boat didn't attract a higher bid as a remarkable souvenir of the last days of Diana's life.'

The boat was used by Dodi as the venue for lavish parties in the South of France, mainly in St Tropez.

Back in the day: The princes famously joined the couple for a trip in the South of France aboard a superyacht owned by Dodi's father Mohamed Al-Fayed in July 1997

Meanwhile, The Crown recently resumed production on its sixth and final series after filming was paused for a single day following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

It was revealed that filming for The Crown been suspended for one day as a 'mark of respect to the late monarch', who passed away aged 96 on September 8 at Balmoral Castle.

Filming also did not take place on the day of the Queen's funeral.

Back at it: Elizabeth slipped into a red shift dress earlier in the day as she filmed more scenes for the hit show

Hard at work: Elizabeth and Rufus smiled and chatted away as they portrayed the roles of Princess Diana and her eldest son William

Lady in red: The Australian actress, 32, (L) bore a remarkable resemblance to the late royal

Netflix had reportedly devised a plan, also named Operation London Bridge like the official funeral plan for the Queen, to outline what the production company for The Crown would do in the event of her passing.

One of the show's creators Stephen Daldry said when the show first premiered in 2016 the cast would likely stop production, saying: 'It would be a simple tribute and a mark of respect. She's a global figure and it's what we should do.'

Peter Morgan, writer of the drama, was quoted after news of the Queen's death was confirmed as saying: 'The Crown is a love letter to her and I've nothing to add for now, just silence and respect. I expect we will stop filming out of respect too.'

Locations in Palma and Andratx are said to have been considered for the sixth series, which will cover the romance of Charles and Camilla and William's university studies.

Part of season five of the popular series was shot on the Balearic island last year, with Sant Elm beach on the west coast and the Port of Soller among the locations where filming took place.

The last two series of The Crown will cover the Royal Family in the 1990s to 2003. The crew will be picking up the story where it left off in the fourth season.

The breakdown of Charles and Dianas relationship will be a central part of the new series.

Iconic role: Khalid will take on the role of Princess Diana's tragic boyfriend Dodi Fayed in series 5 of The Crown

Younger days: Rufus was cast to play the Prince (right in 1997) at a different stage in his life, depicting his teenage years showing how he and the royal family coped with the death of Princess Diana

Child star: Will Powell takes on the role of Prince Harry in the Netflix series as his first major acting role

The fourth series of The Crown, which streamed in November last year, told the story of the early romance between Charles and Diana.

It was announced last year that Elizabeth would take over from Emma Corrin and play Diana for the fifth and sixth series, which will cover Diana's death in 1997.

The actress said of her casting last year: 'Princess Diana's spirit, her words and her actions live in the hearts of so many.

'It is my privilege and honour to be joining this masterful series, which has had me absolutely hooked from episode one.'
U.S. aircraft carrier arrives in S.Korea for combined drills

Xinhua) 16:44, September 23, 2022

SEOUL, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea Friday for combined drills with the South Korean navy, according to Yonhap news agency.

The USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike group, consisting of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, a USS Chancellorsville guided-missile cruiser and a USS Barry Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, docked at a naval base in Busan, about 390 km southeast of the capital Seoul, at around 9:00 a.m. local time.

The strike group planned to stage combined maritime drills with the South Korean navy off South Korea's east coast later this month.

The joint exercise is expected to be joined by the nuclear-powered USS Annapolis submarine, according to Yonhap.

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Liang Jun)




Prosecutors on Friday raided the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), a state media regulation agency, over suspicion of score manipulation in the process of its license renewal for some general programming cable TV channels two years ago.







The Seoul Northern District Prosecutors Office sent prosecutors and investigators to the KCC building in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul, to secure documents related to the reapproval of cable TV channels in 2020.







The raid came after the Board of Audit and Inspection raised suspicion early this month that some of the KCC license review panel members gave deliberately low scores to TV Chosun and Channel A.







The KCC renewed the licenses for the two TV channels in April 2020 but attached the condition they maintain fairness and objectivity standards in broadcasting.







For instance, TV Chosun's total score satisfied the renewal condition. In the fairness category, however, it was given a score lower than the base score.







The KCC has said that its license review panel members have independently conducted evaluations without any outside intervention. (Yonhap)


Fans have spotted a hilarious detail in Phoebe Burgess' new Instagram post, after the star took up vaping.

The mother of two, 33, was seen clutching a $30 cherry pomegranate-flavoured vape as she stepped out for coffee in Bellevue Hill, Sydney, on Tuesday.

And now the ex-wife of NRL great Sam Burgess shared a snap of her on a getaway to Melbourne, ironically writing in the caption 'and breathe'.

Fans have spotted a hilarious detail in Phoebe Burgess' (pictured) new Instagram post, after the star took up vaping

Phoebe shared a snap enjoying a cheese board and an Aperol Spritz inside a Virgin Airlines lounge as she travelled interstate with her Dad as she travels to Victoria to catch the Geelong Cats and Sydney Swans in the AFL grand final.

It comes after the star was seen holding an IGET Bar vape, which contains 3,500 puffs per device, under her iPhone.

IGET Bar vapes are made in China and are illegal in Australia when they contain nicotine. Each device has the capacity for 7ml e-liquid of 50mg nicotine.

Now the ex-wife of NRL great Sam Burgess shared a snap of her on a getaway to Melbourne, ironically writing in the caption 'and breathe'

While some consider vapes to be a less harmful alternative to cigarettes, they aren't without their risks.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard launched an anti-vaping campaign back in March, after researched showed an alarming number of teens were picking up the habit.

The campaign warned young people of the risks and challenged the idea that vaping is okay just because it's healthier than smoking cigarettes.

The government and NSW Health are 'very concerned about the impact of those vapes on young people's lives, particularly on their lungs', Mr Hazzard said.

The mother of two (pictured) was seen clutching a $30 cherry pomegranate-flavoured vape as she stepped out for coffee in Bellevue Hill, Sydney, on Tuesday

Vaping damages adult lungs and is of greater concern for developing lungs in teenagers and children, he added.

The minister told a parliamentary hearing the thought of kids picking up the habit was 'atrocious'.

The Get The Facts - Vaping Toolkit targets students aged 14 to 17 and provides resources for teachers, parents and carers to start conversations about the dangers of vaping.

'We know that amongst many young people, e-cigarettes or vapes have been considered safe and certainly safer than cigarettes,' NSW Acting Chief Health Officer Marianne Gale said.

Phoebe shared a snap enjoying a cheese board and an Aperol Spritz inside a Virgin Airlines lounge as she travelled interstate with her Dad as she travels to Victoria to catch the Geelong Cats and Sydney Swans in the AFL grand final

Some consider vapes harmless due to the combination of having a sweet or fruity flavour, being in attractive packaging and their 'vapour' being perceived as water.

'It's very important that young people and families understand e-cigarettes are not safe,' Dr Gale said.

'Evidence [and] experts tell us now is that these products are not safe and there are a range of health harms that are associated with vaping.'

Vaping in young people can cause acute effects including heart palpitations, chest pain and irritation to the throat and lungs.

Phoebe (pictured with ex-husband Sam Burgess in 2017) was seen this week holding an IGET Bar vape, which contains 3,500 puffs per device. IGET Bar vapes are made in China and are illegal in Australia when they contain nicotine

Vapes can also contain nicotine and be highly addictive.

Nicotine has severe negative impacts on the developing brain, as well as affecting memory, mood and mental health.

A variety of dangerous additives were also found in vapes including nail polish, insect spray and detergents, Dr Gale said.

A person who vapes is three times more likely to become a smoker.

Phoebe Burgess is seen here during a recent appearance on The Morning Show

Vaping has exploded in popularity in recent years - particularly among young Australians - as it doesn't carry the same stigma and price tag as cigarettes.

Chinese-made vapes can be bought for as little as $20 at most convenience stores and tobacconists compared to a packet of cigarettes for $50.

Experts say vaping can be particularly damaging for young people because it damages DNA, promotes tumours and can cause a number of respiratory issues.
Woody Allen was seen as he strolled through the streets of Paris alongside his wife Soon-Yi Previn on Thursday.

The director, 86, was seen in the French capital as filming began for his latest thriller, Wasp 22, after he confirmed he had 'no intention of retiring' upon its completion.

Woody put on a smart display in a navy jumper with a pale blue shirt layered underneath.

New project: Woody Allen, 86, was seen as he strolled through the streets of Paris alongside his wife Soon-Yi Previn, 51, on Thursday

He added a pair of khaki corduroy trousers and tan suede trainers, completing his look with a dark brown bucket hat.

Soon-Yi who is the adopted daughter of Mia Farrow, Woody's onetime girlfriend, opted for a pink knitted jumper with burnt orange trousers.

Mia and Woody had been together since 1979, but that all changed 13 years later when Woody, then 55, and Soon-Yi, then 21, were caught having an affair.

At work: The director was seen in the French capital as filming began for his latest thriller, Wasp 22, after he confirmed he had 'no intention of retiring' upon its completion

Woody and Soon-Yi share two adopted daughters Bechet, 23, and Manzie, 22.

The New York native is in the city as he begins work on his 50th film, which he compared to his late-career work Match Point.

It comes as a representative for the director released a statement on Monday clarifying that Woody would not be retiring.

In an interview with Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia he was quoted as saying, 'My idea, in principle, is not to make more movies and focus on writing.'

The statement read: 'Woody Allen never said he was retiring, nor did he say he was writing another novel.

Still working: It comes as a representative for the director released a statement on Monday clarifying that Woody would not be retiring

'He said he was thinking about not making films as making films that go straight or very quickly to streaming platforms is not so enjoyable for him, as he is a great lover of the cinema experience.'

It concluded: 'Currently, he has no intention of retiring and is very excited to be in Paris shooting his new movie, which will be the 50th.'

The writer and director claimed the plot would be exciting, dramatic and also very sinister and described is as something similar to the thriller Match Point, which won the Goya award for Best European Film in 2006.

In a live-streamed conversation on Instagram from June with actor Alec Baldwin  who has appeared in several of his films  the embattled writer and director alluded to his career pivot, saying 'the thrill is gone' due to a decline in the theatre-going experience.

'A lot of the thrill is gone, the director admitted. 'Now you do a movie, and you get a couple of weeks in a movie house, and then it goes to streaming or pay-per-view. It's not the same. It's not as enjoyable to me.'
Brad Pitt has launched a skincare range using grapes from his vineyards in Provence, with wine and skin experts drafted in to determine the most anti-ageing.

But Le Domaine's new website has suffered an awkward blunder as the website boasted that the products contain 'no conservatives'.

The amusing gaffe has since been corrected to read the correct statement that the products contain 'no preservatives'.

New venture: Brad Pitt has launched a skincare range using grapes from his vineyards in Provence, with wine and skin experts drafted in to determine the most anti-ageing

Presumably, the error came from a poor translation, as 'preservatif' means condom in French.

Before being amended, the statement read: 'We carefully chose our ingredients and have established a very strict blacklist excluding ingredients that are subject to controversy regarding the environment or the natural balance of the body.

'NO Conservatives such as parabens, phenoxyethanol, MIT, triclosan, chlorphenesin, BHA & BHT.'

The brand has debuted three 'inclusive' - and very pricey - skincare products that are made with olive oil from Chateau Miraval, the French vineyard and castle he purchased with his ex-wife Angelina Jolie in 2012.

Oh dear! But Le Domaine's new website has suffered an awkward blunder as the website boasted that the products contain 'no conservatives'

The Cleansing Emulsion costs $80, while the serum is priced at a staggering $385 and the cream costs $320. A fluid cream, which is launching next year, will also be available to buy for $310.

The products include 'potent properties' from the seeds of grapes grown at a vineyard owned by Brad's partners at Miraval, and all of which are aimed at providing users with their very own Benjamin Button-esque results.

'Le Domaine wants to help slow the process of skin aging and give everyone, regardless of gender or skin type, the opportunity to age well,' the website says of its four products.

Still, Brad insists that he 'doesn't want to be running from aging', telling Vogue that it is 'a concept we can't escape', and claiming that the idea of 'anti-aging' is a 'ridiculous... fairytale'.

Oops! Presumably, the error came from a poor translation, as 'preservatif' means condom in French

Corrected: The amusing gaffe has since been corrected to read the correct statement that the products contain 'no preservatives'

'But what is real is treating your skin in a healthy manner. And it's something I've learnt to do for my business, but it kinda makes you feel better,' he went on.

Speaking about his skincare range, Brad added: 'The goal is to imitate the organic cycles of nature, its primeval beauty. There is no waste in nature.

'Anything left over or discarded becomes food for something else. This exemplary circular system is the inspiration for Le Domaine.'

He did confess that he has not always had the best skincare habits, but noted that when it came to launching Le Domaine, he sought inspiration from someone who helped to encourage healthier beauty habits early on in his career: ex-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow.

Lavish: The brand has debuted three skincare products made with olive oil from Chateau Miraval, the French vineyard and castle he purchased with his ex-wife Angelina Jolie in 2012

'I love what Gwyneth's done [with Goop],' Brad - who dated Gwyneth for three years, from 1994 to 1997 - gushed. 'She is still a really dear friend, and she has built this empire.

'She has always had that in her as a curator, and it's been a lovely creative outlet for her.

'In fact, come to think about it, she was probably the first one who got me to even wash my face twice a day maybe.'

In an interesting twist, Brad's skincare line also has several - rather more complex - ties to his other ex Angelina Jolie, as the products are made olive oil from Chateau Miraval, which he purchased with his ex-wife.

Inspired: Brad confessed that he hopes to mirror the success of another former partner, Gwyneth Paltrow (left), gushing that he 'loves what she has done [with Goop]'

The launch of Le Domaine comes weeks after DailyMail.com exclusively revealed that a company previously owned by the actress, 47, was suing Brad for $250million over claims that he 'stole' the former couple's Miraval wine business.

A suit filed by Nouvel LLC earlier this month claims that Brad tried to 'secretly move assets' from their co-owned business to his friends and other companies, spent 'millions on vanity projects' including $1million on a swimming pool and more on a recording studio, and gave away half the company's trademarks to a friend for free.

The lawsuit seeks damages of at least $250million.

Angelina's former company - through which she held her shares in Miraval before selling it off to beverage giant Stoli last year - claims Brad's alleged scheme meant she would 'never see a dime' of Chateau Miraval's 'tens of millions of dollars in profits.'

Speaking about the skincare range, Brad (pictured left in 1991 and right in August) insisted that he isn't trying to 'run away from aging', noting that it is 'impossible to escape'

The suit further alleges that Brad 'embarked on a multi-faceted, years-long campaign to seize control of Chateau Miraval' in 'retaliation' for the lengthy legal battle that the former couple became embroiled in after their split.

'Appointing himself the rightful owner of Chateau Miraval, his twin objectives were to usurp the value of Angelina's company, Nouvel, and to obtain sole ownership of Chateau Miraval,' the legal documents state.

The cross-complaint is a legal clap-back after Brad sued Angelina claiming she illegally sold her stake in Chateau Miraval.

While creating the skincare line - which Brad says has been in the works for 'so long I don't remember now how it originally started' - the actor once again partnered with the Perrin family, the same vintners who collaborated with the star and Angelina on their popular Chateau Miraval Cotes de Provence Rose.

The former couple bought the chateau together in 2012 and used it as their 2014 wedding venue.

The southern French castle has 35 rooms and 1,300 acres of grounds and vineyards. The couple bought it for $25million in 2012 by purchasing the Luxembourg company, Quimicum, in which it is held.

Initially, Brad's firm Mondo Bongo had 60 per cent of the shares and Angelina's Nouvel had 40 per cent.

But Nouvel's lawsuit says that 'the couple always intended that Brad and Angelina would be equal owners', and in 2013 Brad 'voluntarily' transferred 10 per cent of his shares to her.

Conflict: DailyMail.com revealed a company previously owned by the actress, 47, was suing Brad for $250million over claims that he 'stole' the former couple's Miraval wine business

Brad has launched a lawsuit in Luxembourg claiming that 10 per cent transfer was invalid. That case is pending.

Although the actor did not address the lawsuit while chatting about the launch of his new brand, he did open up about his favorite memories of Chateau Miraval, explaining that he spent a 'good five or six weeks' at the French castle last Spring that were 'special' to him.

'I can't quite describe it, other than the freshness in the air, the light, the I don't know, it's just a real feeling of peace and harmony and the nights are so soothing,' he explained.

Brad also noted that his plan to launch a skincare line - which also features recycled wine cask wood on its lids - was born out of his commitment to sustainability, explaining on the Le Domaine website that he wanted to create a zero waste product, which 'imitated the organic cycles of nature'.
Matty 'J' Johnson says that he will be disappointed if The Bachelor, which has been suffering rock bottom ratings in recent years, is cancelled.

The former Bachelor, who found love with Laura Byrne on season five of the show in 2017, told Pedestrian he's still a huge fan of the series.

'I think it's a shame they got rid of The Bachelorette, I still think there's a really big appetite for that show and I also think there was appetite for Bachelor In Paradise,' the 35-year-old said.

Matty 'J' Johnson (pictured on The Bachelor) says that he will be disappointed if The Bachelor, which has been suffering rock bottom ratings in recent years, is cancelled

'I'll always have such a soft spot for Bach and I'll be absolutely gutted if it doesn't come back' he added.

'When the ratings were kind of dropping off, [I was bummed because] I feel such a connection to the show and I'll always root for it so I'm hoping it does well.'

It comes after news that the upcoming season of The Bachelor featuring three leads won't air until 2023.

It comes after news that the upcoming season of The Bachelor featuring three leads won't air until 2023. Pictured: Felix Von Hofe, Thomas Malucelli and Jed McIntosh

Daily Mail Australia can reveal that Channel 10 has made the difficult decision to postpone the much anticipated season 10 until next year.

'Ten have made the call to delay the show until early 2023 so they can focus on promoting The Real Love Boat,' revealed a well-placed source.

'I don't see them airing reality dating shows back-to-back and there's only 10 ratings weeks left... they would rather hold it and give it the publicity it needs.'

'Ten have made the call to delay the show until early 2023 so they can focus on promoting The Real Love Boat,' revealed a well-placed source

Both suitors and contestants will be now able to access their social media accounts after they were taken off them by the network ahead of the show going to air.

Leads Thomas Malucelli, Jed McIntosh and Felix Von Hofe have also been given permission to return to social media posting with new guidelines.

The source went on to tell Daily Mail Australia several of the contestants vying for Felix, Thomas and Jed's hearts aren't happy with the show being held over until the New Year.
Kim Kardashian has channeled Marilyn Monroe again months after wearing the icon's dress at the Met Gala.

The 41-year-old reality star wore a leggy white Dolce & Gabbana mini dress and had her dyed-blonde locks perfectly blow dried as she stepped out during Milan fashion Week on Friday.

Kim showed off her ample assets in the stunning number which was made of a luxurious fluffy material and had thick straps and an in-built corset design.

Stunning: Kim Kardashian has channeled Marilyn Monroe again on Friday during MFW as she stepped out n a white dress months after wearing the icon's dress at the Met Gala

The beauty boosted her height with matching white peep-toe heels and had a long matching coat slung over her shoulders.

Kim accessorised her look with silver cross necklaces and opted for a typically glamorous makeup look complete with a light pink lip.

It comes just a day after she channeled Marilyn again for a Dolce & Gabbana advert as Ana de Armas is set to play her in a soon-to-be-released biopic.

Beauty: The 41-year-old reality star wore a leggy white Dolce & Gabbana mini dress and had her dyed-blonde locks perfectly blow dried

Styliah: The beauty boosted her height with matching white peep-toe heels and had a long matching coat slung over her shoulders

Kim put on an eye-popping display in a cleavage-baring black dress from the Italian luxury house as she sat in the back of a limo while several cameras flashed into the vehicle.

She sported a short blonde wig featuring voluminous curls which looked exactly like classic beauty Marilyn's iconic locks.

Kim gave sultry looks into the camera before popping up to grab a slice of pizza from a box sitting next to her.

Resemblance: Kim showed off her ample assets in the stunning number which was made of a luxurious fluffy material and had thick straps and an in-built corset design (Marilyn in 1953 right)

Gorgeous: The SKIMS owner sported a very glam makeup look with a swipe of nude lipstick

She passionately chewed on a slice before throwing it down and then put on even more racy poses and even belted out a laugh.

It ended with the hashtag #CiaoKim and promoted the upcoming Dolce & Gabbana women's spring-summer 2023 fashion show during Milan Fashion Week on Saturday at 2:30pm CEST.

The campaign comes at an interesting time as Ana de Armas stars as Marilyn Monroe in biopic Blonde which will expand to more theaters on September 23, before premiering on Netflix on September 28.

Back in June, Kim was at the center of controversy as a Marilyn Monroe devotee accused her of damaging the iconic nude gown the actress wore to sing 'Happy Birthday' to then-President John F. Kennedy in 1962 when she modeled it at the Met Gala the previous month.

The Marilyn Monroe Collection shared photos of the dress allegedly on display at Ripley's Believe It or Not! on Instagram back on June 13, claiming it now has 'missing crystals' and some were 'left hanging by a thread.'

The viral images in question were taken by ChadMichael Morrisette at the museum's Hollywood location on June 12, according to the account run by historian and collector Scott Fortner.

Outfit: Kim accessorised her look with silver cross necklaces and opted for a typically glamorous makeup look complete with a light pink lip

All white: Marilyn famously wore this billowing white dress for iconic photographs in 1954 in New York

'So much for keeping "the integrity of the dress and the preservation." @ripleysbelieveitornot, was it worth it?' read one caption mocking a statement Ripley's had released about the reality star borrowing the dress.

Kim was loaned the gown by officials at the museum, where the 60-year-old dress has been stored in a temperature-controlled environment since it was bought for a record-breaking $5 million in 2016.

'Great care was taken to preserve this piece of pop culture history,' Ripley's said in May.

'With input from garment conservationists, appraisers, and archivists, the garments condition was top priority. Believe It or Not! no alterations were to be made to the dress and Kim even changed into a replica after the red carpet!'

Photoshoot: It comes just a day after she channeled Marilyn again for a Dolce & Gabbana advert as Ana de Armas is set to play her in a soon-to-be-released biopic

Blonde ambition: The campaign comes at an interesting time as Ana de Armas stars as Marilyn in biopic Blonde which lands on Netflix on September 28

Hundreds of fans took to the comments to point out the alleged damage in the 'before and after' photos shared by the Marilyn Monroe Collection, though there was no way to confirm the validity of the images.

'Missing so many crystals and those tears,' one person wrote. 'What a disaster!!'

'Not only the stretching around the zipper, but if you look at the upper-ish left side, there are several crystals missing!' another added.

'Damage has been done, and it cant be fixed,' someone else griped.

'The fabric is torn. Imagine what could have happened to it if Kim had worn the dress even longer. Im so sad to see this.'

DailyMail.com reached out to representatives for Kardashian and Ripley's Believe It or Not! for comment.

Kardashian was the first person to don the gown since it was worn by Monroe in 1962.

She admitted she lost 16 pounds in three weeks to fit into the dress, but she was still unable to zip it.
Ed Balls awkwardly asked Kate Garraway about her sex life during a debate on Good Morning Britain on Friday.

His comments came as the two hosts debated whether women should ban men from sex if they eat meat in response to Peta's call for a 'sex strike' to 'save the planet'.

During the debate, broadcaster Ed, 55, raised eyebrows as he asked his journalist co-host, 55, if she would enforce such a rule in her own life.

Oh dear: Ed Balls awkwardly asked Kate Garraway about her sex life during a debate on Good Morning Britain on Friday

Kate, who married her Covid-stricken husband Derek Draper in 2005, introduced the debate by asking: 'Should men choose between sex or sausages?'

Prompting Ed to awkwardly ask: 'What's your experience? In that dilemma, how would you place yourself?'

Kate appeared surprise at the question and raised her eyebrows, before brushing it off and humorously joking that her partners would have 'preferred to have the steak'.

She quipped: 'I mean, when I look back at my dusty romantic history, I feel like if I'd said to somebody, 'No, unless you stop eating meat', they'd prefer to have the steak.

Awkward: His comments came as the two hosts debated whether women should ban men from sex if they eat meat in response to Peta's call for a 'sex strike' to 'save the planet'

Personal: During the debate, broadcaster Ed, 55, raised eyebrows as he asked his journalist co-host, 55, if she would enforce such a rule in her own life

'I don't think it would be much leverage for the planet.'

Her co-stars were left in fits of giggles over her amusing comments in response to Ed's question.

The debate arose after Peta Germany's campaigns team leader Daniel Cox called for women to start a 'sex strike' to save the planet.

In the plea, the animal rights group claimed that men contribute significantly more to the climate crisis than women, primarily through their meat consumption.

It cited research published in the scientific journal PLOS One last year, which found that men emit 41 per cent more greenhouse gases than the female population with their eating habits.

Amusing: Kate appeared surprise at the question and raised her eyebrows, before brushing it off and humorously joking that her partners would have 'preferred to have the steak'

It suggests that women should 'go on sex strike to save the world', and even proposes preventing carnivorous men from having children.

'Who doesn't know them, the suburban fathers handling beer bottles and barbecue tongs, who sizzle 70-cent sausages on their 700 grill,' said Daniel Cox, campaigns team leader for Peta Germany.

'The zucchini provided by the visitor is viewed with suspicion and tolerated only reluctantly.

'The fact that Germany's "grill masters" believe they have to prove their masculinity to themselves and their peers by consuming meat is not only to the detriment of the animals.

'Now there's scientific evidence that toxic masculinity also harms the climate.'

The organisation referred to comments by French Green Party politician Sandrine Rousseau, who ignited controversy last month by branding the outdoor grill a 'symbol of masculinity'.

'If you want to resolve the climate crisis, you have to reduce meat consumption, and thats not going to happen so long as masculinity is constructed around meat,' the self-declared 'eco-feminist' said.

As well as the ban on sex and reproduction, Cox also suggests a hefty meat tax of 41 per cent for men.

'After all, every child not born saves 58.6 tons of CO2-equivalent per year,' he said.

'For all fathers who still grill meat and still want children with a future worth living on a livable planet, we recommend changing their lifestyle.'
Michelle Keegan nailed autumnal chic as she modelled an array of stylish ensembles from her new collection with Very in a show-stopping photoshoot.

The Coronation Street actress, 35, looked effortlessly glamorous as she struck an array of poses to show off her new range, which launched online on Friday.

The 43-piece collection includes a variety of autumnal textures, animal prints and calming neutrals across dresses, jumpers and coats ideal for the cooler weather.

Stunning: Michelle Keegan nailed autumnal chic as she modelled an array of stylish ensembles from her new collection with Very in a show-stopping photoshoot

Elegant: The Coronation Street actress, 35, looked effortlessly glamorous as she struck an array of poses to show off her new range, which launched online on Friday

One sizzling picture saw Michelle flaunted her lithe figure in a fitted black vest top and straight leg grey jeans.

She gave herself a few extra inches with a pair of strappy black stilettos and slung a leather-look puffer jacket around her shoulders.

The wife of Mark Wright swept her chocolate tresses up into a high ponytail while she let two strands fall loosely to frame her face.

She bolstered her natural good looks with a natural make-up palette as she posed up a storm for the glamorous snaps.

Chic: One sizzling picture saw Michelle flaunted her lithe figure in a fitted black vest top and straight leg grey jeans

Looking good: She bolstered her natural good looks with a natural make-up palette as she posed up a storm for the glamorous snaps

In another snap, Michelle posed in a black and grey cardigan style dress, which hugged her enviable curves.

She also opted for a more dressy ensemble in a black and white print collared mini dress, which she teamed with chunky beige heeled boots.

The Our Girl star also teamed black jeans and a cream vest top with a fluffy white jacket as she nailed another autumnal outfit.

Bombshell: The wife of Mark Wright swept her chocolate tresses up into a high ponytail while she let two strands fall loosely to frame her face

Stylish: The 43-piece collection includes a variety of autumnal textures, animal prints and calming neutrals across dresses, jumpers and coats ideal for the cooler weather

Sizzling: She also opted for a more dressy ensemble in a black and white print collared mini dress, which she teamed with chunky beige heeled boots

She showed off her modelling credentials in a 45 white turtleneck jumper with tasseled sleeves, which she styled with black skinny jeans and heeled black boots.

Michelle also modelled a grey collared button-up dress from her collection, as well as a cosy cream jacket.

Prices for the new collection range from around 30 to 85, with all products available to buy on Very's website.

Her launch comes after Michelle has returned to filming comedy-drama Brassic this week after spending four months working in Australia.

Striking a pose: The Our Girl star also teamed black jeans and a cream vest top with a fluffy white jacket as she nailed another autumnal outfit

Dressy: Michelle put on a classy display in one eye-catching ensemble, while she slicked her dark locks back into a high bun

Brassic centres around the lives of best friends Vinnie (Joseph Gilgun) and Dylan (Damien Molony) and Dylan's girlfriend, Erin, played by Michelle.

Season four of the hit show premiered earlier this month.

In October last year, Michelle admitted she had banned her family from watching one episode of the show due to a raunchy sex scene, she told Radio Times.

'That first episode, I didn't let my family watch until 15 minutes in, and we all know why!' she said with a laugh.

All smiles: Michelle flaunted her natural beauty as she laughed while striking a pose during the sizzling photoshoot

Incredible: Michelle also modelled a grey collared button-up dress from her collection, which she styled with knee-high cream boots

Speaking to The Guardian, the former soap star revealed how she still hadn't adjusted to becoming a household name.

'Even now, 15 years on, you never get used to being famous,' she said. 'One minute I walked out of the Coronation Street gates and no one knew who I was.

'Then, as soon as my first scenes were on screen, I remember walking out the gates and getting stopped and asked for an autograph. I had no idea how to sign an autograph.'

Eye-catching: Michelle proved she has an incredible sense of style with her autumnal collection

Dazzling: She showed off her modelling credentials in a 45 white turtleneck jumper with tasseled sleeves, which she styled with black skinny jeans and heeled black boots

The award-winning performer, who will next be seen in a BBC 1950s drama Ten Pound Poms in Australia, has gone on to star in prime-time dramas such as Our Girl and Brassic.

The businesswoman has also been kept busy working with online retailer Very and recently released a new collection with the brand.

Michelle and her husband Mark are also gearing up to move into their 3.5million Essex mansion which they have been renovating for two years.
Denise Scott saw the lighter said of the Optus data hack while appearing on Friday night's episode of The Project.

The television personality, 67, complained that she found it difficult to update her passwords, before revealing her racy log in details on live TV.

'I cannot cope with changing passwords now' she told her co-stars.

Denise Scott (pictured) saw the lighter said of the Optus data hack while appearing on Friday night's episode of The Project. The television personality, 67, complained that she found it difficult to update her passwords, before revealing her racy log in details on live TV

'I have been big boob Scotty, that is my password since time began and I have to think of something new!'

'We are live!' her co-stars warned her, before Scott joked, 'I have saved the hackers any work.'

Scott recanted the confession moments later, saying instead that it was her 'licence plate' not her password that she had disclosed.

'I have been big boob Scotty, that is my password since time began and I have to think of something new!' she said. 'We are live!' her co-stars warned her, before Scott joked, 'I have saved the hackers any work'

It comes after a cyber-security expert warned Optus customers that they need to watch out for criminals impersonating them online after hackers potentially stole personal details from the entire telco's client database.

Thursday's massive cyber breach allowed hackers to access personal details, such as passport and drivers licence numbers, email and home addresses, dates of birth and telephone numbers, of around 10 million Australians.

Optus chief executive Kelly Rosmarin said the company was working with the Australian Federal Police to investigate the attack.

It comes after a cyber-security expert warned Optus customers that they need to watch out for criminals impersonating them online after hackers potentially stole personal details from the entire telco's client database

'We are devastated to discover that we have been subject to a cyberattack that has resulted in the disclosure of our customers' personal information to someone who shouldn't see it,' she said in a statement.

'As soon as we knew, we took action to block the attack and began an immediate investigation. While not everyone may be affected and our investigation is not yet complete, we want all of our customers to be aware of what has happened as soon as possible so that they can increase their vigilance.

'We are very sorry and understand customers will be concerned. Please be assured that we are working hard, and engaging with all the relevant authorities and organisations, to help safeguard our customers as much as possible.'

The telco's boss Kelly Rosmarin confirmed payment details and account passwords had not been compromised but admitted she felt 'terrible' the breach had happened under her watch

She said customers' payment details had not been compromised, but advised them to check their bank accounts for suspicious activity.

'Optus has also notified key financial institutions about this matter. While we are not aware of customers having suffered any harm, we encourage customers to have heightened awareness across their accounts, including looking out for unusual or fraudulent activity and any notifications which seem odd or suspicious.'

Mobile and home internet, along with messages and voice calls have not been affected.

Both past and present Optus customers have been impacted.
Sami Lukis has confessed that she has gone for months without sex.

The radio personality wrote in her column for Nine Honey that she relates to actress Drew Barrymore who admitted she has not done the deed for years.

'I'm no stranger to extended periods of abstinence' the 52-year-old wrote on Friday.

Sami Lukis (pictured) has confessed that she has gone for months without sex. The radio personality wrote in her column for Nine Honey that she relates to actress Drew Barrymore who admitted she has not done the deed for years

'My sex rut has lasted for more than six months on several occasions, and I'm not embarrassed to admit it.'

Sami said that she could use hook up apps to get sex any time but simply didn't want to.

She explained: 'I've seen the look of pity in some of my friends' eyes when I've told them I haven't had sex in a while.

Barrymore (pictured) revealed she could go 'years' without having sex after learning Andrew Garfield abstained for six months for his role in the film Silence

'I know they assume I'm trapped in some lonely, pathetic existence where no one wants me. But what they don't get is that I've made the choice to go without sex.'

Barrymore revealed she could go 'years' without having sex after learning Andrew Garfield abstained for six months for his role in the film Silence.

On Tuesday's episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, Drew and her co-host Ross Mathews discussed Andrew's decision to not have sex in preparation for his role as a priest in the Martin Scorsese flick.

Drew said she could easily abstain from sex for 'years' before adding: 'What's wrong with me that six months doesn't seem like a very long time?'

Seemingly unimpressed with Andrew's method acting practices, Drew, 47, said: 'I was like, 'Yeah, so?' '

Drew said she could easily abstain from sex for 'years' before adding: 'What's wrong with me that six months doesn't seem like a very long time?'

Sami meanwhile recently said she was not impressed with the flirtation efforts of Australian men.

'My sex rut has lasted for more than six months on several occasions, and I'm not embarrassed to admit it' Sami said

She told Nine Honey her experience overseas, particularly in Italy, was a stark contrast to home where men would kiss her hand, refrain from 'corny chat up lines' and 'gross innuendo' and were 'masters of flirt'.

Sami said she wasn't suggesting all Australian men are 'romantically impaired' however, and feels sorry for those 'unfairly tarnished' by all the 'clowns'.

That said, she never dated an Italian on her travels but simply was a willing participant in their 'world champion flirting'.

'I thoroughly enjoyed my two-week international charm offensive. It was all incredibly flattering. Intoxicating, even.'
She welcomed her second child - a son called Freddie - with her husband Gerry Howell last summer.

And Game Of Throne's star Gemma Whelan was every inch the doting mum as she stepped out with her bundle of joy in London's Soho on Friday afternoon.

The actress, 41, who played Yara Greyjoy in the fantasy series, beamed as she cuddled her little one who look adorable in a pink and purple onesie.

Parent: Game Of Throne's star Gemma Whelan was every inch the doting mum as she stepped out for a stroll with her son, 14 months, in Soho on Friday

Gemma cut a casual figure in navy and gold spotted leggings and which she teamed with a short-sleeved white shirt.

She completed her look with comfortable trainers and had her blonde tresses styled into plaits and opted for a natural makeup look to show off her pretty features.

The beauty held her baby who giggled away and looked cosy in the colourful outfit during the outing.

Stepping out: Gemma cut a casual figure in navy and gold spotted leggings and which she teamed with a short-sleeved white shirt

Gemma welcomed her son last summer and before that her daughter Frances in October 2017.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain in 2019 on Gemma, 37 recalled how she had to breastfeed the baby on set between takes, as she shot the final episodes for Game of Thrones season 8.

She said: 'She came on set with me for the whole thing. I was breastfeeding her in between takes when I was taking breaks.

'I was tied in [to her costume]. It's hard to get in to [her costume]!'

Family: Gemma welcomed her son last summer and before that her daughter in October 2017 with husband Gerry

She also recalled watching season 1 of the fantasy epic before auditioning for the role of Yara, who appeared on the show since 2012's season 2.

Last year Gemma revealed actors were 'left to get on with it' while filming 'frenzied' sex scenes on Game Of Thrones.

She explained: 'They used to just say, ''When we shout action, go for it!'', and it could be a sort of frenzied mess.

'A director might say, ''Bit of boob biting, then slap her bum and go!''.'

Happy couple: Gemma and comedian and actor Gerry have been married since 2017 and live in London together

However the star insisted actors would always 'check in with each other' before filming sexual scenes.

She told The Guardian: 'There was a scene in a brothel with a woman and she was so exposed that we talked together about where the camera would be and what she was happy with. I'd always talk it through with the other actor.'

MailOnline reached out to HBO for comment at the time.

Gemma's bisexual character Yara often engaged in raunchy scenes, most famously with her on-screen brother Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy).




A quarter of drug offenders used online platforms, including social media and mobile messengers, to trade illegal narcotics over the past five years, police data showed Friday.







According to the National Police Agency data submitted to Rep. Kang Sun-woo of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea, a total of 49,850 people were apprehended on drug offenses from 2018 to August this year.







Of them, 10,772 people, or 21.6 percent, traded drugs via social media sites, mobile chat apps and other online platforms, and 2,443 people, or 5 percent, used the dark web and encrypted virtual assets. The remainder bought and sold drugs offline.







The statistics also showed a sharp increase in teen offenders, with their number increasing 57.7 percent year-on-year to 164 in 2019, 47 percent to 241 in 2020 and 28.2 percent to 309 in 2021.







Between January and August this year, 227 teenagers were apprehended on drug charges.







The data also found about three-quarters of drug criminals during the period were first-time offenders.







The percentage of first-time offenders increased from 72.3 percent in 2018 to 74.3 percent in 2019, 78.5 percent in 2020, 79 percent in 2021 and 80.5 percent between January and June this year.







Police attributed the increase in the number of teen and first-time criminals to the easy access to drugs offered by the online marketplaces.







"In addition to punitive measures, we should swiftly come up with fundamental changes to the policy on illegal drugs and national-level countermeasures including preventative education," Rep. Kang said. (Yonhap)


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He's come under fire over allegations he 'skipped the queue' to see the Queen lying in state.

Yet Phillip Schofield has proved that he can stand in line, with the star once sharing a selfie as he was forced to queue for two hours at Heathrow Terminal 5.

Understandably frustrated by the lack of communication between airline British Airways and the passengers, the presenter shared an Instagram post branding their service 's**t'.

Alongside his selfie in the queue he penned: 'In the queue hours and not one member of staff to talk to. Love you usually, today you are s***.'

The lines were a result of an IT glitch in 2016 that also hit Gatwick and caused huge queues as thousands of families flew off on holiday.

Oh dear: Phillip Schofield has proved that he can stand in line, with the star once sharing a selfie as he was forced to queue for two hours at Heathrow Terminal 5

The post has reemerged after the This Morning star, 60, and his co-host Holly Willoughby, 41, have had more than 66,000 people call on them to be sacked from their presenting gig.

An online petition was started up by angry fans who accused the duo of 'abusing their positions to see the Queen lie in state'.

Amid the backlash the pair have been receiving support from the hosts of Friday's show, Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary, with MailOnline understanding that they have been 'in regular touch' with the pair all this week.

On Thursday evening, Holly did, however, returned to social media for the first time since the scandal, but only to congratulate her friend and This Morning fashion presenter Lisa Snowdon for winning Celebrity MasterChef.

Holly has been relying on support from her friends to get her through the past few days. And despite the fact that calls for Holly and Phil to be sacked could land Alison and Dermot the role as full-time hosts, sources say they have remained loyal.

Phil and Holly are reportedly paid as much as 600,000 for presenting the daytime show from Mondays to Thursdays, with Alison and Dermot filling in for Friday's show.

Media access: He's come under fire over allegations he and This Morning co-host Holly Willoughby 'skipped the queue' to see the Queen lying in state

Although neither ITV, Holly or Phil have said they will be changing the presenter line-up, that hasn't stopped speculation brewing on who would take on the top spot if the duo were to leave This Morning.

According to William Hill, Vernon Kay and Rochelle Humes are the 2/1 favourites to replace the pair as lead presenter. Dermot is 4/1, the same price as Josie Gibson, with Alison, Craig Doyle, Ruth Langsford and Mollie King available at 5/1.

However, the speculation hasn't caused any tension between the stars, with a source telling MailOnline: 'Alison, Dermot, Phil and Holly are incredibly close and tight-knit.

'When things started to blow up over the weekend they were in touch straight away to offer their support. Alison, in particular, has spoken many times with Holly over the phone and been a real rock.

'Dermot and Alison, along with the rest of the senior members of the ITV team, all knew they were going to be visiting Westminster and there is a sense of shock and bewilderment at how things have blown up.'

'She's been a rock': Holly Willoughby has ben leaning on Alison Hammond for support over Queuegate while she rides out a wave of public anger

Fantastic four: Amid the backlash Holly and Phil have been receiving support from the hosts of Friday's show, Alison and Dermot O'Leary, with MailOnline understanding that they have been 'in regular touch' with the pair all this week

This Morning insiders believe they are now 'through the worst of the crisis' but ITV bosses are still taking steps to make sure Phil and Holly get any support they need.

'ITV has a duty of care to look after all of its presenters and some of the abuse that Phil and Holly have received on social media is absolutely horrendous,' the source added.

'People have gone way too far in some of the things they are saying and senior management have kept in regular touch with Phil and Holly to check they are OK. That will carry on until next week when they return to the programme.

'Those working on the show hope, by then, things will have blown over and that they will be able to start to put this nightmare to bed. But only time will tell.'

Congratulations: On Thursday evening Holly returned to social media to congratulate her friend and This Morning fashion presenter Lisa Snowdon for winning Celebrity MasterChef (pictured right in 2019)

The news comes after it emerged that Holly and Phillip were keen to issue a public apology over 'queue-gate', but were talked out of it after taking legal advice.

A statement was issued by ITV on Saturday and later broadcast on Tuesday's This Morning, which was voiced over by Holly but both stopped short of using the word 'sorry' - a move which has left many viewers furious.

A source told MailOnline: 'Every word of the statement was poured over. In the end, it's spectacularly backfired.

'Initially Holly and Phillip were prepared to say sorry if they'd upset anyone as they both just desperately want to draw a line under the affair. But they were advised strongly not to go down that road of saying sorry.'

Caught on camera: Holly and Phil were pictured entering the hall through a door which was clearly marked as not for public access - thought to be the entrance for media representatives

Inside the hall: Holly and Phil have faced growing backlash over claims they 'skipped the queue' at Westminster Hall - they deny the claims and say they were given official permission to access the hall

Such has been the backlash to the pair that TV insiders are raising 'serious concerns' about the presenters' wellbeing after they appeared tearful and muted on This Morning this week.

Phillip looks downcast on evening out with daughter amid royal queue storm By Katie Hind, Consultant Editor Showbusiness for The Daily Mail Under fire: phillip Schofield cut a downcast figure on Wednesday for an evening out with his daughter Under-fire Phillip Schofield cut a downcast figure on Wednesday for an evening out with his daughter amid the fallout from the royal queue storm. The presenter looked tired and dejected in his first off-screen public appearance since he and This Morning co-star Holly Willoughby were accused of bypassing the 13-hour line waiting to see the Queen lying in state. Dressed smartly in a grey jumper, jeans and a black jumper, Schofield appeared to be deep in conversation with his daughter Molly and her boyfriend Will Grieveson as they visited a restaurant near his west London home. They dined at the restaurant until 11pm on Wednesday, with waiters seemingly staying behind to serve them. The staff were seen cleaning tables and packing things away while Schofield, 60, and his daughter carried on eating and drinking, said a witness. Five minutes after they left, staff were also seen heading home. Maybe they didnt wanted to rush Phil. The topic of the dinner conversation could well have been queue-gate as Molly is a talent manager at showbusiness agency YMU, who have represented Schofield for more than two decades. She also manages stars such as Davina McCall and Rochelle Humes. Advertisement

In the first episode of the show since the row unfolded, Holly and Phil, 60, strongly denied viewers' claims they were 'too posh to queue' and said they had been in Westminster Hall on Friday 'strictly for the purpose of reporting on the event.'

The voiceover also hammered home the point, 'Please know that we would never jump a queue.'

However some social media users were not convinced and there have been calls for the pair to issue an apology.

ITV has since doubled down in the row over footage which seemed to show them filing past the Queen's coffin - but Holly is said to have been hit particularly hard by online backlash and feels they have been 'left out to dry', sources previously said.

Channel bosses are standing by the presenters and have raised 'real and serious' concerns about their welfare following the 'relentless' online trolling, The Mirror reports.

The popular TV hosts have faced growing fury after images of them appearing to 'skip the line' emerged on Friday while tens of thousands of mourners patiently waited for more than 12 hours to pay their respects to Her Majesty.

Viewers tweeted accusations the hosts were 'too posh to queue' and a change.org petition to axe the presenters has surpassed 50,000 signatures as viewers appear to reject the stars' bid to draw a line under the scandal.

But Holly sparked worry amongst fans on Tuesday after they noticed she looked like she was 'on the verge of tears' and had 'never been so quiet.'

A TV source said on Wednesday night: 'The abuse has been nothing short of disgusting, not least as they have done nothing wrong and were fully entitled to media accreditation so they could inform their viewers.

'There is huge, real and serious concerns over their wellbeing and ITV are fully supporting them behind the scenes in the face of such relentless trolling. The channel backs them 110 per cent.'

ITV has already publicly backed the pair twice, including in a statement on social media.

Footage inside Westminster Abbey appeared to show Holly and Phil, 60, walking along an area separate from the media box - but ITV has since insisted the stars did not join mourners in filing past the coffin.

Following the images circulating online, comparisons were quickly made to other celebrities who queued for hours with the general public - including England football legend David Beckham and even Holly and Phil's ITV colleague Susanna Reid, from Good Morning Britain.

An ITV spokeswoman has insisted the presenters did not file past the Queen's coffin.

The spokeswoman told MailOnline: 'This Morning had press accreditation and like other media, Phillip and Holly were escorted to work from the press gallery by government staff. They did not file past The Queen's coffin.

'They were there alongside a host of other broadcasters and national press outlets for an item that was broadcast on Tuesday's (20th) show. Any allegations of improper behaviour are categorically untrue.'

Fans also expressed concern for Holly on Wednesday's episode of This Morning claiming she looked like she had been 'up all night crying'.

MailOnline revealed that the presenters also shared an emotional SOS phone call about the 'devastating' fierce public backlash.

A clearer view: A photo of Westminster Abbey - highlighting where the media box is, where the public queue is and where Holly and Phil appeared to be walking

On Tuesday's episode of This Morning - the first since 'queue-gate' began, Holly and Phil issued a lengthy denial that they had jumped the queue.

In a voiceover over a package of the pair at Westminster Hall, Holly explained: 'Like hundreds of accredited broadcasters and journalists we were given official permission to access the hall.

'It was strictly for the purpose of reporting on the event for millions of people in the UK who have not been able to visit Westminster in person.

'The rules were that we would be quickly escorted around the edges to a platform at the back.

Not enough: A statement was issued by ITV on Saturday and later broadcast on Tuesday's This Morning (pictured on the show) which was voiced over by Holly, 41, but both stopped short of using the word 'sorry'

Birdseye view: This graphic of Westminster Abbey shows the areas permitted for the public and media, and the spot where the presenters were seen

'In contrast, those paying respect walked along a carpeted area beside the coffin and were given time to pause.

'None of the broadcasters and journalists there took anyone's place in the queue and no one filed past the Queen. We of course respected those rules.

'However, we realise that it may have looked like something else, and therefore totally understand the reaction. Please know that we would never jump a queue.'

MailOnline understands that the pair personally insisted that the fiasco be addressed at the start of the show and believe ITV should not have waited so long to speak out on the matter - spending the weekend 'locked in talks' with TV producers.

A source revealed: 'Philip and Holly are dumbstruck at the level of anger they've received in the past few days. They felt ITV should have made it clearer, right away, that it was part of a broadcast.'

Emotional: Fans expressed concern for Holly on Wednesday's episode of This Morning because she looked like she had been 'up all night crying.' Viewers tweeted things like: 'Is Holly ok? She's not looking herself? #ThisMornin

An ITV source said: 'We absolutely made it clear at the time that it was part of a broadcast due to air on Tuesday. This was communicated from the outset, and we gave this information immediately. There have been no crisis discussions or talks about Holly not being part of This Morning moving forward.'

Yet following Holly and Phil's on-air explanation, some social media users were not convinced, with one saying: 'I'm afraid that so-called explanation was way off the mark. At the end of the day, Holly and Phil got to see, experience and feel that atmosphere and moment, all with the privilege of no queue. Us Brit's are all about fairness. This wasn't.'

Another said: 'Too posh to queue are we?? Who do you think you are?'

Snap happy: Holly and Phil outside the Houses of Parliament. The pair say none of the broadcasters and journalists at the Queen's lying-in-state took anyone's place in the queue

On the move: Holly and Phil were seen in a video posted on TikTok leaving Westminster Hall after they carried out filming and were accused of jumping the queue

However fans of the pair also raised concerns about Holly's mental health, with one saying: 'Is Holly ok? She's not looking herself? #ThisMorning.'

A second said: 'Holly has never been so quiet. I don't envy anyone in the public eye #ThisMorning.'

After seeing her looking puffy-eyed on the show, others tweeted: 'Holly looks like she's been crying all night #ThisMorning.'

While she and Phillip were smiling throughout the show, they appeared on edge, with Phillip wringing his hands and Holly protectively placing her arms across her body.

Holly is said to be particularly upset over the reaction and 'has never had to deal with anger and vitriol like this in her life', with the situation even forcing her off social media as the criticism continues.

But sources dismissed the idea her job might be on the line, or that she might be looking to quit the show, saying the pair felt 'reassured' by the channel's support.

Gaining traction: The change.org petition calling for the presenters to be axed is getting more and more signatures as time goes on

They said: 'Phil and Holly started to become really worried about the situation on Friday night. They spoke at length and decided they had to do something to protect themselves and the reputation of the show.

'They hoped the statement would take the heat but were totally devastated when they realised it had just made things worse.

'At one point they considered releasing their own message to set things straight but in the end they decided to wait until the show so they could speak directly to viewers.

EXCLUSIVE: Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield shared 'emotional phone call after she felt worried over reaction to 'queue-gate'' Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield shared an emotional SOS phone call about the 'devastating' fierce public backlash over 'queue-gate', MailOnline can reveal. A source told MailOnline: 'Phil and Holly started to become really worried about the situation on Friday night. They spoke at length and decided they had to do something to protect themselves and the reputation of the show. Following the call ITV issued a statement in a bid to set the record straight - but the move spectacularly backfired. 'They hoped the statement would take the heat but were totally devastated when they realised it had just made things worse. 'At one point they considered releasing their own message to set things straight but in the end they decided to wait until the show so they could speak directly to viewers.' Advertisement

'Holly has never had to deal with anger and vitriol like this in her life. It's left her so upset and unable to look at social media over most of the last few days.

'What was meant to be a lovely tribute to Her Majesty on her Instagram account has been hijacked by trolls. One thing that has come out of this though undamaged is Phil and Holly's friendship. They're closer than ever.'

Meanwhile, the change.org petition, titled 'Axe Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby from TV' was started on Friday and has continued to gain traction.

A source told MailOnline: 'Holly is so disappointed that she's become the poster girl of this forced narrative. It's turned into a circus, and she's been made to face an onslaught of criticism despite not doing anything wrong.

'Holly has been distraught and she does believe something should have been said sooner to clarify that herself and Phil were working at Westminster Abbey and filming for Tuesday's episode of This Morning.

'The problem is that the public doesn't see Holly as a journalist, they view her as a celebrity, but she was there for professional reasons, not personal.

'It's really sad and hugely unfair, this is Holly's life and her career means everything to her. She has continued to co-host This Morning with Phil every day this week despite facing constant public scrutiny because she's a professional.

'She definitely won't be quitting the show  she has done nothing wrong and there's no reason for her to feel ashamed.'

The petition argues morning TV has been 'monopolised too long' by the show and claims they should not get 'privileges' ordinary people cannot enjoy.

A source told The Mirror: 'They're devastated by the reaction and the way the false claim they skipped the queue took off on social media.

Holly has been in tears, and Phil has been very upset. But they were determined to face the criticism head-on on Tuesday's show and not shy away from it. They hope they can now draw a line under it, and that people understand the context.

'The irony of all of this is that they headed down to Westminster to work on their day off on Friday, and spent the entire weekend working on the footage, as they were so determined to deliver extra coverage for the viewers about the Queen.'

A source close to Holly told MailOnline that prior to issuing their on-air statement that they 'spent most of today speaking to producers about queue-gate, they have assured her that viewer reaction has not been as bad as the social media fallout.

'Many show insiders still fear what the future may hold but bosses seem to have calmed her down from the weekend where she was very upset about the whole thing. The row has only brought her close to Philip too.'

Expressing concern: Fans had noticed that Holly looked emotional while on the show

Not impressed: The presenters have been trolled online with viewers suggesting they're 'too posh to queue' - and even Domino's joined in the criticising

A source added to The Sun on Tuesday evening that 'Holly had to get lawyers over the weekend over the presentation of this false, very damaging narrative'.

'She has been devastated by all the negative reaction after she turned up to work at Westminster Hall with Phil on Friday, but she's not going to resign. This Morning has been her life for more than a decade and the only way she'd consider quitting at this stage is if viewers really didn't want her there,' the source said.

'She's tried to give their side of the story on the show today and they're both hoping to move on from it now. Bosses know Holly is still a hit with viewers and are counting on her working her magic on the show for a good while yet.'

The latest to wade in on the row is tourist attraction the London Dungeon, who have introduced a limited edition fast track pass called the 'Holly & Phil'.

Any visitor who asks for a Holly & Phil will be able to jump the queue for no extra cost until this Friday.

A London Dungeon spokesperson said: 'If you're too good to queue with the rest of the rabble and demand swift and immediate passage into London's horrible history, then this is right up your alley.

'Don't be making small talk with the measly patiently waiting plebs when you could be on a one-way path to the front of the queue!'

Facing the music: During Tuesday's episode the hosts told viewers they would 'never jump a queue' as they addressed the claims following the accusations they were faced with

Yet the pair have also received support from celebrity pals, with Piers Morgan intervening on Tuesday night as he called for an end to the 'public flogging'.

The 57-year-old broadcaster insisted the reaction had been 'overblown' as he called on the petition to get them sacked to be axed.

Offering his thoughts on the matter, he said on Piers Morgan Uncensored: 'All hell broke loose about this, they have been subject to, I think, a ridiculously over-the-top campaign. Of course they shouldn't be fired, it's ridiculous.

'It may have been a misjudgment. I said myself on this show, I don't think anyone should have been jumping the queue full stop, whoever you are, unless you are a world leader and there is a time issue.'

He continued: 'Full disclosure, I'm a good friend of Holly's. I feel very sorry for her - she's absolutely distraught over the reaction and genuinely there was clearly in her head a blurring of the line about work - if you're working - covering it - I think a lot of journalists went through it.'

Joining the line: Members of the public can be seen queuing to get into Westminster Abbey, and the media box can be seen at the back

It was previously revealed that around 250,000 people paid their respects in person to the Queen by seeing her coffin - with all of them having to queue for hours.

Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan gave the figure the morning after the nation's longest-reigning monarch was buried at Windsor Castle.

The Queen lay in state in Westminster Hall for four days, with the last mourners passing through around 6.30am on Monday morning, just hours ahead of Her Majesty's state funeral.

The final people were admitted to the line to see the Queen's coffin at about 10.30pm on Sunday, which gave them time to make it through before the closure at 6.30am the following morning. The line was opened at 5pm last Wednesday.

The last member of the public to be allowed in was Christina Heerey, who serves in the Royal Air Force. Members of parliamentary staff then followed her, with a tearful Black Rod Sarah Clarke the last person to walk past the coffin.

The queue to see the late Queen before she was laid to rest peaked at a 25-hour wait, and was as long as five miles, ending in Southwark Park.

Statement: On Saturday, This Morning bosses denied show hosts Holly and Phillip had 'VIP access' and filed 'past the Queen lying in state'

The majority of people waited between 14 and 16 hours to see the coffin, among them former England footballer David Beckham.

David wiped a tear from his eye as he approached the Queen's coffin following a 13-hour wait on Friday, after admitting to television cameras: 'I thought it'd be quieter coming at 2am... I was wrong!'

The football legend, 47, was among thousands to join the five-mile queue and purchased a box of doughnuts to share with his fellow mourners, managing to avoid detection for hours because of the 'mutual respect' he shared with them.

The former Manchester United striker finally reached the Queen's coffin at about 3.30pm after lining up for 13 hours, and took just a few seconds to bow his head before moving on to make way for the people behind him.

He revealed that an MP had offered to allow him to skip the queue and enter the hall with them, but he declined the offer.

MPs were given up to four extra tickets to skip the line and enter Westminster Hall to pay their respects - but this sparked backlash after their staff were not entitled to the same treatment.

MPs staff reportedly 'inundated' Commons authorities with complaints after discovering they would not be able to jump the line, despite many other parliamentary workers being entitled to do so  including peers, MPs themselves, cleaners and cooks  are able to skip the queue, those working for MPs are not.
Atiana De La Hoya popped up at Milan Fashion week.

The 23-year-old beauty - whose parents are Playboy model Shanna Moakler and boxer Oscar De La Hoya - wore a colorful, strapless dress and jean boots when at the Diesel event.

Her new stepmother is Kourtney Kardashian - who is wed to Moakler's ex Travis Barker.

Snazzy style: Atiana De La Hoya popped up at Milan Fashion week. The 23-year-old beauty - whose parents are Playboy model Shanna Moakler and boxer Oscar De La Hoya - wore a colorful, strapless dress and jean boots when at the Diesel event

Barker is not the biological father of Atiana, but he helped raise her and the two remain very close.

The budding model was raised by Shanna, 47, and Travis, 46, until they split up in 2006.

And it appears as if the rocker took over the parenting duties as he has said on The Kardashians that he has a room in his Calabasas, California house for Atiana.

And she has stayed close to her dad Oscar, 49, as well, often appearing on his Instagram page.

A new look: Her hair appeared to have a red tint to it as she held a neon yellow purse

Stepmommy: Kourtney is seen here on her show The Kardashians which debuted season two on Thursday

Atiana's siblings are Landon Barker, 18, and Alabama Barker, 16, whose birth parents are Moakler and Barker.

Atiana is taking a stab at modeling these days.

De La Hoya has already worked for PrettyLittleThing and shoe retailer DSW.

'Partnered with @dsw for their newest fall/back to school styles! Hope you guys love them as much as I do! #myDSW #ad,' shared the looker in her caption.

The next Vogue cover girl? Atiana is taking a stab at modeling these days. De La Hoya has already worked for PrettyLittleThing and shoe retailer DSW

The looker was seen on her Instagram page in a new shoot for the chain of stores. The star had on chunky black shoes with a short skirt as she posed in a photo studio.

Atiana is already a TV star. She has appeared on SummerBreak, Meet The Barkers, and Growing Up Supermodel.

Alabama also has worn PrettyLittleThing. In June she was seen in their purple dress with white shirt.

And Kourtney has also modeled for the brand. Her capsule collection of apparel and accessories for the brand came out in 2017.

So many kids: Kourtney and Travis seen with Alabama, left, as well as Atiana and Landon, and also in the image is Kourtney's son Reign

This comes after Barker had a health scare.

Barker returned this summer to the studio days after being discharged from hospital.

The Blink-182 drummer was spotted heading into his recording studio in Calabasas, California - near the home he shares with wife Kourtney and his kids - after battling pancreatitis following his hospitalization.

Now, the musician - who has collaborated with the likes of Avril Lavigne and Machine Gun Kelly on recent projects - has been seen getting back to work and could be working on some new material.

The What's My Age Again? rocker had been undergoing 'intensive treatment' after being taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles having been stricken by 'excruciating pain' following a routine procedure.

He explained on his Instagram Story: 'I went in for an endoscopy Monday feeling great. But after dinner, I developed excruciating pain and have been hospitalized ever since.

Stepmommy: Her new stepmother is Keeping Up With The Kardashians vet Kourtney; seen before her wedding in Italy

Mr and Mrs Barker: Here Kourtney and Travis are seen at Vanity Fair Oscar Party this year

'During the endoscopy, I had a very small polyp removed right in a very sensitive area, usually handled by specialists, which unfortunately damaged a critical pancreatic drainage tube.

'This resulted in severe life-threatening pancreatitis. I am so very very grateful that with intensive treatment, I am currently much better.'

Meanwhile, Kourtney described the experience as 'scary and emotional', while it put things into perspective.

Her folks: Oscar and Shanna posing on the red carpet in Las Vegas in December 1999

Baby Atiana! Here they are with their little girl in May 1999 in Las Vegas

She wrote on her own Instagram Story: 'Oh what a scary and emotional week it has been. Our health is everything and sometimes we take for granted how quickly it can change. Travis and I went in for a routine endoscopy together and he ended up with severe, life-threatening pancreatitis.'

Travis was pictured being taken to hospital in a wheelchair, and it was claimed at the time he was barely able to walk due to the pain he was in.

A source said: ' Kourtney was worried yesterday. They both were. Travis was suffering from extreme stomach pain and could barely walk.'
Bridgerton has unveiled a first look image at Queen Charlotte ahead of the much-anticipated prequel spin-off series.

It was announced last year that a spin-off series charting the younger years of the flamboyant and gossip-hungry monarch would be in the works, with the show written and produced by Bridgerton creator Shonda Rhimes.

And Netflix has released a first look image of India Amarteifio as the fan favourite character from the period drama.

Exciting: Bridgerton has unveiled a first look image at Queen Charlotte ahead of the much-anticipated prequel spin-off series

The actress, 21, embodied the character as she dripped in jewels and wore elegant white dress with a fitted corset and a shimmering satin hooded cloak.

She completed her regal attire with a pair of satin cream gloves and fixed an extravagant crown in her dark tresses.

Charlotte gave a solemn glance at the camera as she posed in a palace, with floral arrangements and sculptures seen in the backdrop.

As well as giving a first glimpse at the character, Netflix also revealed that the official title for the prequel spin-off show will be Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.

She's back! As well as giving a first glimpse at the character, Netflix also revealed that the official title for the prequel spin-off show will be Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story

A description of the series read: 'Centered on Queen Charlotte's rise to prominence and power, this Bridgerton-verse prequel tells the story of how the young Queen's marriage to King George sparked both a great love story and a societal shift, creating the world of the Ton inherited by the characters in Bridgerton.'

The news came ahead of Saturday's Netflix fan event Tudum, where the series will be featured and more surprise announcements will be unveiled.

The prequel will also see Golda Rosheuvel return to the role of Queen Charlotte, in her later years, with Adjoa Andoh playing the fierce Lady Agatha Danbury.

Ruth Gemmell will also reprise her role as Lady Violet Bridgerton while Michelle Fairley will join the cast as Princess Augusta.

Return: The prequel will also see Golda Rosheuvel return to the role of Queen Charlotte, in her later years

Elsewhere, Corey Mylchreest will play Young King George and Arsema Thomas will make her television debut as Young Agatha Danbury.

Set in the mid 18th Century, the prequel examines the young life of Charlotte, the daughter of German royalty who wed British Monarch George III, played in the Netflix drama by Corey Mylchreest, in 1761, when she was 17.

The marriage lasted 57 years and produced 15 children. Miss Amarteifio, 21, who played DCI Roz Huntley's daughter Sophie in the fourth season of BBC drama Line Of Duty, has also starred in Dr Who and ITV's Unforgotten.

It will also include the origins of other characters featured in Bridgerton, namely Violet Bridgerton and Lady Danbury.

Following rumbles that the second series of Bridgerton didn't live up to the raunchy heights of the first, it looks as if the producers have taken note, with the spin-off prequel to the Netflix drama, Queen Charlotte, being spiced up to keep viewing figures high.

Fan favourites: Ruth Gemmell will also reprise her role as Lady Violet Bridgerton with Adjoa Andoh playing the fierce Lady Agatha Danbury

For one scene, a source says, a wall was reinforced. In another scene viewers will see banging headboards.

According to a source, there were fears that one energetic love-making scene featuring the young monarch, played by India Ria Amarteifio, might be so energetic that it could literally bring the house down.

'There is a young cast for the prequel and the sex scenes feature them,' said the insider. 'It is definitely going to satisfy those Bridgerton fans who are complaining that there are no sex scenes in the second series.

'In one storyline there will be a headboard banging hard against a wall. It will be more racy than anything from the first series.'
Hollyoaks' Malique Thompson-Dwyer has welcomed a baby daughter, he revealed on Instagram on Friday.

The actor, 24, who first became a father as a teenager, shared the happy news alongside some adorable snaps of the baby.

Malique and his mystery girlfriend, announced that they had chosen to name their bundle of joy, Milan Thompson-Dwyer.

Happy news: Hollyoaks' Malique Thompson-Dwyer, 24, has welcomed a baby daughter with his mystery girlfriend, he revealed on Instagram on Friday

Alongside the sweet snaps, he penned: '22-09-22 Milan Thompson-Dwyer was born,' and a red heart emoji.

Malique revealed that his girlfriend was pregnant last month, as he posed for a photo with a brunette, who could be seen covering her face.

The captioned the post: 'Ain't no one ever loved me like you love me thats why Ive got you for life. Your gonna be the best mum.'

He welcomed his first child - who he refers to only as his 'princess' on social media - in 2017. It is not known who the girl's mother is.

Cute: The actor, who first became a father as a teenager, shared the happy news alongside some adorable snaps of the baby

Welcome! Malique and his girlfriend, announced that they had chosen to name their bundle of joy, Milan Thompson-Dwyer

Malique reprised his role of Prince McQueen in December 2021 after he first left the show in 2019, which comes after backlash he received in June when he attended an illegal rave during lockdown.

Malique's character Prince departed the village in order to travel the world in 2019, after he was left distraught following wife Lily's death to sepsis.

After leaving the soap, Malique embarked on a career in reality television and starred in shows like Celebs Go Dating, Celebs On The Farm and Celebs Ex in the City.

It comes after the actor faced backlash for attending an illegal rave in Daisy Nook Park, Failsworth in June last year.

Proud dad: He welcomed his first child - who he refers to only as his 'princess' on social media - in 2017. It is not known who the girl's mother is

The soap star had filmed himself at the Quarantine Rave which was attended by 2000 people and saw a 20-year-old man die of a suspected drug overdose.

He then posted a now-deleted video from his bedroom in which he said: 'Yo, I've just come on here to give a quick message.

'First of all, I apologise to anyone I may have offended, but let me just get one thing straight.

'I've got family members that have actually passed away from this coronavirus. So yo, I am in this as well. So don't go on at me like I am not in this as well.

Drama: Malique reprised his role of Prince McQueen in December 2021 after he first left the show in 2019, which after backlash from when he attended an illegal rave during lockdown

'But it's funny how everyone is never saying anyone positive about me. It's always bad boy Malique this.

'They never want to say anything positive and it's funny because at least I am not out there p***ing on war memorials. Racist c***s.'

The day before, Malique had shared clips on his Stories as he walked through the forest at the rave.

He could be heard saying: 'There's a rave going on innit, can you hear the music?'

A spokesperson for the actor declined to comment to MailOnline at the time.
French actress Marion Cotillard has been seen getting stuck into character while filming for her latest movie in Croatia.

The 46-year-old was pictured wearing a polka-dot dress, brown summer hat and sunglasses while holding a cigarette as she stood looking over a balcony while on set in the village of Dubrovnik, Croatia.

She is playing the role of Solange D'Ayen in historical biopic Lee, which chronicles the life of Vogue model turned World War II correspondent Lee Miller.

On set: French actress Marion Cotillard has been seen getting stuck into character while filming for her latest movie in Croatia

Marion is starring alongside actors Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Josh O'Connor.

The film, called Lee, will follow the life and experiences of the photojournalist as she travels to the frontline of World War II and tries to expose the horrific truths of the Nazis.

The actress looked relaxed in her role, bearing a concerned expression on her face as she kept character during filming.

Her hair was worn in big curls and donned a dark red lip which perfectly matched her demure French look.

In character: The 46-year-old was pictured wearing a polka-dot dress, brown summer hat and sunglasses while holding a cigarette as she stood looking over a balcony

Relaxed: Marion is playing the role of Solange D'Ayen in historical biopic Lee, which chronicles the life of Vogue model turned World War II correspondent Lee Miller

Hidden past: Lee (pictured with Frederick Laws in 1950) buried the record of her remarkable life in boxes in the attic of her Sussex home

After returning to the UK post-war, Lee buried the record of her wartime work in boxes in the attic of her Sussex home and her photographs were not discovered until they were found after her death by her son.

Throughout her journey, she then comes to realise the truths of her own past - after she was a victim of rape when she was just seven years old.

In 1914, Lee had been sent to stay with family friends near New York while her mother, Florence, was ill in hospital. While there, she was raped and infected with gonorrhoea - apparently by a male friend or relative of the family she was staying with.

Later in her life, the New York fashion photographer went from appearing in American Vogue to witnessing first hand the horrors of Nazi Germany - becoming one of the most important photographers to record the 20th century.

Filming: Marion's hair was worn in big curls and donned a dark red lip which perfectly matched her demure French look

Teamwork: The film, called Lee, will follow the life and experiences of the photojournalist as she travels to the frontline of World War II and tries to expose the horrific truths of the Nazis

One of only two women combat photographers during World War II, she was also one of the few female correspondents who ventured into the liberated concentration camps.

Before the Second World War, she worked as a 20s cover girl and worked with surrealist artists in Europe before she embarked on a photojournalism career.

She felt that photography was 'ideally suited to women as a profession, for it seems to me that women are quicker and more adaptable than men. And I think they have an intuition that helps them understand personalities more quickly than men'.

In 1937, Picasso painted six portraits of Lee, including one in which she had a third eye.

After a stint living in Cairo, she returned to Paris, where she met the British surrealist painter and curator Roland Penrose, who would go on to teach the use of camouflage on the Second World War.
Gigi Hadid took the Versace runway by storm on Friday as she strutted her stuff at the Versace show during Milan Fashion Week - while her rumoured love rival Camila Morrone sat in the front row.

The model, 27, looked sensational in a slinky black hooded dress as she walked the runway while fellow model Camila, 25, - who looked glam in a black corset - watched on.

Their no doubt awkward encounter comes amid romance rumours between Gigi and Camila's ex Leonardo DiCaprio, with the Academy Award winner reportedly 'taken' with the stunner.

Awkward! Gigi Hadid took the Versace runway by storm on Friday as she strutted her stuff during Milan Fashion Week - while her rumoured love rival Camila Morrone watched on

Gigi looked sensational as she joined sister Bella and other models Irina Shayk and Emily Ratajkowski on the catwalk, donning a chic black hooded creation with a plunging neckline.

The dress finished just above her ankle and the fashionista walked on a pair of towering black platform heels to match the shade of her dress.

Gigi's gown featured cut out detail to one side and the neckline swept slightly to one side.

Awkward! Leonardo's ex Camila was beamed as she took her place in the front row for the fashion show, following her split from the actor weeks earlier

All over: Leonardo is said to have set his eyes on Gigi following his split from Camila after four years together (Leonardo and Camila pictured together in 2018)

The dress gathered slightly on one side and Gigi wore lashings of make-up, including some dramatic black winged eyeliner.

Meanwhile, Camila cut a very sexy figure as she slipped into a busty semi-sheer black corset top and low-slung black trousers.

The star looked effortlessly glam as she joined other fashion lovers in the audience as the Italian fashion house offered up their latest collection.

Gigi's turn on the runway comes amid claims that Academy Award winner Leo has become very smitten with the supermodel after his split from Camila.

Walk this way: Gigi wore a chic black hooded creation with a plunging neckline

The actor has been spending time with Gigi in New York City and is thrilled that they are getting to know each other as she is 'his type,' a source told People.

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail recently shared exclusive images of the pair leaning into each other at a Manhattan party held at Casa Cipriani.

'They like each other and are having a good time,' a film source told the site, adding 'he is taken with Gigi'.

Working it: Her dress gathered slightly at the side as she walked and the neckline swept to one side, with the star wearing her blonde hair back underneath the hood (Gigi pictured right)

In the detail: Gigi accessorised with a pair of gold earrings which were visible under the hood of her dress

'She is the type of woman he is usually attracted to,' added the source about Gigi - who has been friends with Leo for years.

Leo has previously dated the likes of Gisele Bundchen, Bar Refaeli and Toni Garrn. His last girlfriend, Camila, was a brunette actress.

'They sort of run in the same high profile circles and would see each other at events, clubs, restaurants and gatherings,' the source added.

It comes after claims they are reportedly 'getting to know each other' less than a month after the end of his four-year relationship with Camila.

Hot stuff: Meanwhile, Camila cut a very sexy figure as she slipped into a busty semi-sheer black corset top and low-slung black trousers

Following a number of reports that Leo had 'his sights set' on rebounding with the supermodel, an insider revealed to People that he 'is definitely pursuing Gigi'.

'They've been seen hanging out with groups of people. It's only been a few weeks since the split. Since then, he's been hanging out with friends and family,' the source added in early September.

Gigi is also dealing with a recent break-up as she broke up with One Direction boybander Zayn Malik in October.

They were dating on/off since 2015 and welcoming a child, named Khai, age two, together in September 2020.

Earlier this month, InTouch, reported that 'Leo and Gigi have hooked up a few times this summer'.

'They have known each other for several years. Theyre super attracted to each other. She is exactly his type: gorgeous, sexy but low-key with a one-of-the-guys attitude.'

Another one of their sources said it is 'casual and not a constant thing,' but a different source for the publication said that they are just hanging out as friends.

The two seem to have run in similar social circles over the years as back in December 2019, Us Weekly reported that Leo and Gigi partied together at an Art Basel Miami afterparty alongside Kendall Jenner and Gigi's sister Bella Hadid.

Moving fast: It comes amid claims that Academy Award winner Leo has become very smitten with the supermodel

Meanwhile, Leo's ex Camila is moving on with her life, with a source telling People: 'Camila is doing fine. She has a big group of friends that really care about her. She is moving on with her life. She is not in contact with Leo.'

Leo and Camila's breakup occurred shortly after her birthday in July, which led to the actor being mocked online for seemingly only dating women under age 25.

She has since moved into a new apartment in Malibu and Leonardo is reportedly already on the prowl for a new flame.

It's been claimed that Leonardo has been 'partying every night' since splitting with his girlfriend, hanging out with his 'old crew and some girls', according to Page Six.

The Revenant star was first introduced to Camila back in 2008, when she was only 12.
Lily James looked stunning in a chic black minidress as she sat on the front row of Versace's runway for Milan Fashion Week on Friday.

The 33-year-old actress donned the luxury fashion brand's new collection as she watched supermodels make their way down the catwalk.

Wearing a black number which had a slash through the centre, Lily bared her chest and showed off her toned legs.

All black: Lily James looked stunning in a chic black minidress as she sat on the front row of Versace's runway for Milan Fashion Week on Friday

She wore sheer black tights and completed the look with a pair of platform strappy high heels, adding some height to her slim frame.

She wore her auburn locks in a low slicked-back bun, showing her picture-perfect face off.

Lily had orange toned eyeshadow and finished off the makeup with a warm nude lip.

Fashion week ready: The 33-year-old actress donned the luxury fashion brand's new collection as she watched supermodels make their way down the catwalk

Wardrobe change: Later on for the Versace after party Lily switched out the sexy black number for a gorgeous pink corset midi dress, which had a satin waist detail and a halterneck top

She had no earrings but instead wore a chunky gold chain with various pendants on it, also adding a similar chain bracelet to her wrist.

Later on for the Versace after party Lily switched out the sexy black number for a gorgeous pink corset midi dress, which had a satin waist detail and a halterneck top.

She paired them with a matte version of the same platform heels she wore earlier for the fashion show and switched her slicked back bun for a sleek high ponytail.

Strutting their stuff on the catwalk for Versace was hotel heiress Paris Hilton and supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid, Irina Shayk and Emily Ratajkowski at the fashion show on Friday.

Bella Hadid wore a deep purple gown with lace detailing, also wearing a matching veil.

Grungy: Irina Shayk wore a plunging black number with silver chain necklaces and large hoop earrings, while Emily Ratajkowski wore a leather biker jacket

Stunning: Paris Hilton was glimmering in an astonishing cowl-neck pink sparkling mini dress, as she made her way down the runway

Gigi wore a hooded black cut-out maxi dress with matching black nails, platform strappy heels and her makeup with a grungy black winged eye.

Irina Shayk wore a plunging black number with silver chain necklaces and large hoop earrings, while Emily Ratajkowski wore a leather biker jacket, with both wearing their chocolate brown locks straight.

Paris Hilton was glimmering in an astonishing cowl-neck pink sparkling mini dress, as she made her way down the runway.

She wore her straightened blonde tresses down on one side and strutted her stuff down the runway, showing off her toned pins.

Glowing: Paris had a glamorous makeup look with her cheekbones carved to perfection with a dramatic contour and smoky eye look, complete with a nude lip and winged eyeliner

Picture perfect: Paris wore pink pointed court heels and a stand-out Barbie pink veil to complete the look

Her enviable physique looked astonishing in the tiny pink number, which was paired with a matching pair of star earrings, pendant necklace and multiple rings.

Paris had a glamorous makeup look with her cheekbones carved to perfection with a dramatic contour and smoky eye look, complete with a nude lip and winged eyeliner.

She added some height to her already model-like frame with a pair of pink and black pointed court heels.

Model behaviour: Strutting their stuff on the catwalk for Versace was Bella Hadid (pictured), Irina Shayk and Emily Ratajkowski

Pretty in purple: Bella wore a deep purple gown with lace detailing, also wearing a matching veil

The model-actress had all eyes on her as she stole the show at Versace's Milan fashion show on Friday.

Lily James recently made a rare red carpet appearance with her rocker boyfriend Michael Schuman at The Walt Disney post-Emmys bash in Los Angeles on Monday night.

The actress, 33, and the Queens of the Stone Age bassist, 36, looked loved-up as they posed together at the star-studded party.

Lily looked sensational in a plunging black minidress that showed off her figure to perfection.
Jennifer Garner talked up her nature-based company Once Upon a Farm.

As Co-founder and Chief Brand Officer, she spoke at Fast Company's 8th annual Innovation Festival in New York City on Thursday about what prompted her to join Once Upon a Farm early.

The ex of Ben Affleck also said the company has become massive: 'The business has grown a lot. As a matter of fact, when we were here last time we were less than $1 million a year and now by the end of this year we're in the $100 million dollars.'

Once Upon a Farm announced in March the closing of $52 million in Series D funding.

Mogul: Jennifer Garner talked up her nature-based company Once Upon a Farm. As Co-founder and Chief Brand Officer, she spoke at Fast Company's 8th annual Innovation Festival in New York City on Thursday about what prompted her to join Once Upon a Farm early

Now in over 11,000 retail stores in North America, and with a robust direct-to-consumer and ecommerce platform, Once Upon a Farm is expected to double again in 2022 based on broad consumer and market acceptance of their growing product portfolio that spans from first bites baby food to school snacking for kids, per PR Newswire in March.

She was also candid about the need for American baby food to measure up to Europe's.

During the panel, Tiny Tastebuds: Delighting and Sustaining the Next Generation which also featured Once Upon a Farm's other Co-founder and CEO, John Foraker, Jennifer explained why she got involved with Once Upon a Farm.

'Once Upon a Farm was such a total no-brainer as a working mom. I remember coming home from work, I was shooting The Kingdom, I'd had my first baby,' she said.

'I remember having fake blood all over and just standing at the blender crying. I was so tired making food for my baby. And this would have been a no-brainer, game-changer, day-saver,' she added.

Money mama: The ex of Ben Affleck also said the company has become massive: 'The business has grown a lot. As a matter of fact, when we were here last time we were less than $1 million a year and now by the end of this year we're in the $100 million dollars'

Freshly grown: According to the brand's official website, some of the ingredients are grown on Jennifer's family farm located in Oklahoma

Jennifer on the success of Once Upon a Farm: 'The business has grown a lot. As a matter of fact, when we were here last time we were less than a million dollars a year and now by the end of this year we're in the 100 million dollars.'

Jennifer on why American baby food should rise up to European quality: 'Why should European babies get all the good stuff? Our kids deserve veggies; they deserve to have food that isn't stacked with sugar, they deserve to have food that isn't contaminated with plastics and heavy metals.'

Garner showcased her sense of business fashion as she stopped by The Fast Company Innovation Festival.

The Adam Project actress, 50, opted for an all-black ensemble, comprising of sleek black trousers and heels of the same color.

Biz lady: Once Upon a Farm announced in March the closing of $52 million in Series D funding

The mother of three was asked to be a guest speaker at the event which offers a networking space for creative innovators and individuals.

The 13 Going On 30 star opted for a professional look for the day, donning a pair of high-waisted black trousers.

The beauty tucked in a black, turtleneck sweater into the waist of her pants and chose to roll her sleeves up as she posed for a brief photo session at the festival.

Jennifer slipped into a pair of black, pointed heels to complete her overall ensemble.

She appeared to be in high spirits as she took time to attend the networking event with other successful entrepreneurs and celebrities in the big apple.

Stunning: The talented actress showed off her business fashion as she attended the festival in the big apple

The beauty was later pictured sitting for a panel discussion. To accessorize her look, she wore a pair of gold necklaces and gold-hooped earrings to add a pop of color to the monochromatic ensemble.

Her diamond eternity band that she wore on her right sparkled as she sat under a set of bright light. The ring possibly could be from her current beau, John C. Miller. The two dated from 2018 to 2020, and reunited in 2021.

Her brunette hair naturally fell down past her shoulders with her side bangs lightly brushing her forehead.

Jennifer attended Thursday's event to represent her baby food brand called, Once Upon A Farm, and is both a co-founder and the chief brand officer for the company. The CEO and co-founder of the brand, John Foraker, was also in attendance.

Other celebrities that attended day three of the festival in New York City included Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Happy: Jennifer was all smiles as she posed for a few pictures outside of the venue in the heart of the city

According to the event's official website, the festival is a place meant to, 'convene thousands of makers and innovators from across the globe,' and 'exceptional leaders and doers shaping the future.'

Jennifer's baby food company was co-founded in 2017, and focuses on creating food with only 'fresh' ingredients, including the avoidance of added sugars and artificial flavoring.

When talking to Forbes, the Alias actress explained, 'We want absolutely the best for our kids. We really believe every mom makes an inherent promise the minute she has a new baby to do right by them.'

She added that, 'Ive never been involved with a company at this level where Im in to win it on a day-to-day basis and inserting myself in places I dont even belong, just because I get to, and because John is kind enough to let me in.'

The brand's website revealed that a portion of the fruits and vegetables included in the baby food is freshly grown on Jennifer's family farm located in Oklahoma.

Family first: The actress has three children whom she shares with her ex-husband, Ben Affleck, including Violet, 16, Seraphina, 13, and Samuel, 10

Once Upon A Farm has a partnership with Save The Children, which is an organization created to help better the lives of children around the world.

The talented actress has three children of her own, Violet, 16, Seraphina, 13, and Samuel, 10, whom she shares with her ex-husband, Ben Affleck.

When talking about advice that she would give to her kids, Jennifer told Harper's Bazaar, 'Look in the mirror less, obsess less, and look at the rest of the world to see what you could be using your time for instead.'

'We all look at our faces more than people used to, and it doesnt do you any good. You obsess over changes or how to fix something on your face,' the Golden Globe winner added.

Jennifer has been a busy mom, from focusing on family, to working on set of her latest Apple TV project called, The Last Thing He Told Me. Other cast members include Game Of Thrones alum, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Australian actress, Angourie Rice.
Vanessa Hudgens looked nothing short of sensational on Friday, as she made her way into the Versace afterparty at Milan Fashion Week.

After sitting front row at the star-studded show, the actress, 33, made a quick outfit change before enjoying the rest of the night.

Vanessa flashed her washboard abs as she made her way inside wearing a sparkling silver crop top and a miniskirt with a bright pink coat.

Hot to trot: Vanessa Hudgens flaunted her washboard abs in a shimmering crop top and a bright pink coat as she headed to the Versace afterparty in Milan on Friday

The High School Musical star showed off her sensational figure in her crop top while her miniskirt featured the Versace print and flaunted her trim pins.

Her coat appeared to be made from a luxurious satin material and was oversized in style.

The pint-sized Hollywood star added height to her petite frame with black platform heels, which featured three buckles on the ankles.

Looking good: The High School Musical star showed off her sensational figure in her crop top while her miniskirt featured the Versace print and flaunted her trim pins

Dolled up: Vanessa pulled her dark locks back and off her face into a high ponytail and wore glamorous makeup including a winged eye, layers of bronzer and a deep nude lip

Vanessa pulled her dark locks back and off her face into a high ponytail and wore glamorous makeup including a winged eye, layers of bronzer and a deep nude lip.

She joined the likes of Lily James at the afterparty.

At the fashion show, which was held as part of Milan Fashion Week, Vanessa looked chic in a black and white plaid outfit.

Outfit change! At the fashion show, which was held as part of Milan Fashion Week, Vanessa looked chic in a black and white plaid outfit

She wore her silver crop top with a black and white miniskirt and oversized jacket and looked thrilled to be at the event.

Also attending the fashion show were the likes of Camila Morrone and Alessandra Ambrosio.

Meanwhile the likes of Bella and Gigi Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski stormed the catwalk for Versace.
She was among a star-studded lineup gracing the front row.

And Ashley Graham proudly put her famous curves on display in a figure-hugging black midi dress as she arrived for the Versace Show on the third day of Milan Fashion Week on Friday.

The model, 34, showed off her famous figure in the form-fitting dress with a leather trim as she arrived for the coveted fashion event.

Style star: Ashley Graham proudly put her famous curves on display in a figure-hugging black midi dress as she arrived for the Versace Show at Milan Fashion Week on Friday

Ashley showcased her impressive curves in a sophisticated black maxi dress with dynamic leather piping across the front.

The dress boasted long sleeves and an ankle-length skirt as she made her way into the fashion event.

Finishing her look with a contrastic white Versace clutch bag, Ashley added a pop of colour with a statement red lip.

Wow! The model showed off her famous figure in the form-fitting dress with a leather trim as she arrived for the coveted fashion event

Gorgeous: Ashley showcased her impressive curves in a sophisticated black maxi dress with dynamic leather piping across the front

Ashley has three young children: Isaac, two, and twins Malachi and Roman, age eight months, with husband of 12 years, Justin Ervin.

The body positive star also opened up about her body, when a host on the Today Show said she admires how open Ashley is about how her figure has changed during her from pregnancy.

'I have always championed for all kinds of diversity in fashion and media and I am not going to stop with my body and how it feels now just because I had three kids back to back in two years,' she replied.

Fashion force: Also taking to the runway were model sisters Bella (left) and Gigi Hadid (right), with the famous siblings vamping it up in dramatic looks

She also noted that she felt 'very hot.'

Another host asked how she stays motivated, with Ashley responding: 'I have always been big on affirmations and words have power,' she said, noting she speaks things into existence.

Ashley said she used to push herself to feel pretty and powerful, but now she does affirmations to keep going with three kids.




An appellate court on Friday handed out a 40-year prison sentence to a 36-year-old man for stalking and brutally murdering his ex-girlfriend last year after the couple broke up, a sentence heavier than a lower court's 35-year term.







Kim Byung-chan was convicted of stabbing the ex-girlfriend in her 30s multiple times at her studio apartment in central Seoul in November of last year. He had stalked her since their breakup in the second half of 2020.







At the time of her death, she was under police protection after filing four complaints against Kim. A restraining order was in place on him.







The case has drawn public fury upon revelations the victim called for police help twice via a police-issued smartwatch on the day of her death, but officers arrived at the scene late due to the device's malfunctioning.







The Seoul High Court on Friday confirmed the lower court's conviction of Kim on revenge murder and other charges, while increasing the prison term by five years on the grounds that Kim is not seriously remorseful.







"It's doubtful whether Kim is repenting earnestly given that he is continuing to repeat the claim that he wasn't seeking revenge," the court said, rejecting his defense that the killing was accidental.







"It appears Kim killed the victim for revenge out of anger over her filing for a restraining order and others," the court noted.







Prosecutors had demanded a life sentence for Kim both in the district and appellate court trials.







The appeals court also upheld the lower court's order for Kim to wear a tracking device for 15 years. (Yonhap)


When imperious Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner sent his staff on an assignment, he always made one thing clear  the magazine that saw itself as the bible of rock music demanded the definitive story on its biggest stars.

Even so, it seemed clear to him that his favourite photographer, Annie Leibovitz, might have gone beyond the call of duty one evening as she padded up a white sand beach in Barbados behind Mick Jagger.

They were all on holiday together on the Caribbean island over Thanksgiving in 1979 and, sitting around over cigarettes and cognacs after dinner with their host, music tycoon Ahmet Ertegun, Bianca Jagger suddenly asked where her husband had got to. Nobody knew  or indeed where the flamboyant, 6ft tall Leibovitz had gone either, as she too had mysteriously vanished. Then the Rolling Stone suddenly appeared  with sand all over the knees of his trousers  closely followed by the photographer who Wenner had assigned to cover the band.

Tom Leonard: 'When imperious Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner sent his staff on an assignment, he always made one thing clear  the magazine that saw itself as the bible of rock music demanded the definitive story on its biggest stars'

It was fairly obvious what must have happened between the free-spirited pair, said Wenner. 'Bianca walked out without a word and there was a general sigh of relief,' he recalls in his new autobiography. 'Then she returned with a large pot of water and poured it over Mick's head. It was hilarious. Justice!'

The wayward Leibovitz, he adds in Like A Rolling Stone, was not only Jagger's lover but 'was also in love with [Wenner's wife] Jane, though I didn't know that at the time, nor would it even have occurred to me'.

But then nothing was too outrageous for the dissolute Wenner and his equally drug-addled cronies  led by Leibovitz and the deranged writer Hunter S. Thompson  as they charted a wild and ragged course through rock music's most decadent years.

When members of the Rolling Stones weren't seducing his staff, they'd drop off generous gifts of cocaine  as Wenner says Keith Richards once did  at a magazine office whose photographic darkroom was converted into an in-house drug dealership and whose boss had an astronomical habit.

When Wenner and Jagger  who some believe were more than just good friends  launched a British version of Rolling Stone, they threw a record industry party at which the punch bowl was spiked with LSD and several guests were hospitalised. Victims included Marc Bolan of T. Rex, who became so paranoid that he locked himself in the lavatory until he was talked out by a gynaecologist who was at the party.

Meanwhile, staff were so stoned they managed to print Bob 'Dillon' on the magazine's cover.

So while Rolling Stone could make or break careers  Eric Clapton once fainted in a restaurant after reading a bad review from the magazine  it was often something of a triumph that it ever came out at all.

Wenner recalls an afternoon with Jimi Hendrix during which they 'smoked a lot of dope, turned on the tape and took a lot of pictures'. He later managed to salvage at least something of their doggerel to produce an article, adding: 'This happened too frequently.'

Fashion designer Halston with Bianca and Mick Jagger for Bianca's birthday party in 1977

In editing the magazine, Wenner became the uber-pal of the stars of the 1960s and 1970s  taking their drugs, holidaying on their yachts and crashing out at their wild parties.

After setting up Rolling Stone in San Francisco in 1967, he befriended all of them  at least the ones that mattered  including not only Jagger, but John Lennon, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Bono and Bruce Springsteen.

Critics say he was far too friendly, and that his craving for fame turned him into a shameless sycophant whose pandering to his famous friends extended to letting them edit their own interviews.

Another charge  similarly hard to dismiss  was that he sold out the magazine's Left-wing 'counterculture' stance as he became a multi-millionaire with a string of homes and a private jet.

Now Wenner has revealed all  or rather not quite all  in a self-congratulatory autobiography that has made waves in the U.S. as much for what isn't in it as for what is.

For Wenner, now 76, actually decided to write Like A Rolling Stone as a rejoinder to a 2017 biography which, even though he'd commissioned it himself, was less than flattering. Sticky Fingers, by Vanity Fair writer Joe Hagan, was impeccably researched but  much to Wenner's fury  painted him as a rock 'n' roll tyrant who not only kowtowed to the biggest stars but destroyed the careers of less famous artists he wasn't interested in courting.

Wenner accused Hagan of producing a 'tawdry' tome that overly focused on his sexual behaviour (he left his wife and three children for a man) and heavy drug abuse.

His own book, however, is not short on juicy revelations. He reveals, for example, that a photographer was only able to get romantic snaps of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt together at an African resort  while Pitt was still married to Jennifer Aniston  because Jolie tipped him off. Wenner's an outrageous name-dropper, but at least he has impressive names to drop  among them Michael Douglas, Jackie Kennedy and Madonna.

Tom Leonard: 'The wayward Leibovitz (pictured), he adds in Like A Rolling Stone, was not only Jagger's lover but 'was also in love with [Wenner's wife] Jane, though I didn't know that at the time, nor would it even have occurred to me''

After attending an expensive California boarding school, he dropped out of university and co-founded Rolling Stone with money from his wealthy parents, and those of his collaborator and future wife Jane Schindelheim.

It proved an inspired business decision. The mainstream U.S. media were not interested in noisy, smelly rock 'n' roll at the time, and music acts had nowhere else to go to get noticed other than this magazine and its hippy staff.

Wenner and wife Jane threw outrageous dinner parties for their famous pals at their San Francisco home. Leibovitz came to one dressed as a nun, while another guest wheeled in a large tank of the party drug nitrous oxide on a trolley. Pete Townshend of The Who once pitched up to see Wenner at 2am and later accused him of spiking his orange juice with LSD.

Alternatively, the stars could just drop into the magazine's louche offices in San Francisco and take drugs with the ever-obliging and  at 5ft 6in  diminutive Wenner.

He presided over quite a circus  the continually drugged-up Hunter S. Thompson liked to pull out a giant hypodermic needle during editorial meetings and dramatically inject himself in the stomach as he groaned in ecstasy.

Wenner later discovered the syringe had a retractable needle and the whole performance  like a lot about Thompson  was a charade.

The bisexual Leibovitz was also deranged by heavy drug use, as well as being a hopeless spendthrift, he claims. Wenner says he was once called to a hospital in New York where he found her lying unattended on a stretcher and fast going white. He believes she 'almost died'. She left Rolling Stone in 1983, says Wenner, cleaned herself up and found fame taking portraits for Vogue and Vanity Fair.

Mick Jagger and photographer Annie Leibovitz pose at Niagara Falls during the Rolling Stones Tour of the Americas in 1975

Leibovitz certainly cut her photographic teeth at Rolling Stone and became famous for bending reluctant subjects to her will. She persuaded teen dream star David Cassidy to strip naked, for instance, telling him it would help him shake off his wholesome image.

Sex was a popular Rolling Stone vice. 'Everybody slept on their desks and had sex on their desks,' recalled a former Wenner publicist.

The walls of the ladies' were covered in graffiti discussing how male colleagues performed in bed. Wenner boasted to biographer Hagan that he slept with everyone who worked for him, male or female  although this revelation isn't in his memoir. Wenner does, however, admit to developing a serious cocaine habit. He gave the drug to favoured staff as a bonus.

The drug had a 'stranglehold on the music business', he says. It was everywhere  he recalls a dinner party in Aspen, Colorado, with veterans such as Jimmy Buffett and the Eagles' Glenn Frey and Don Henley, at which a silver tray of neat lines of cocaine was passed around every half hour.

Jann Wenner said: Leibovitz left Rolling Stone in 1983, says Wenner, cleaned herself up and found fame taking portraits for Vogue and Vanity Fair

In early 1970, the chaotic Rolling Stone office was graced with a visit from John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Wenner having two years earlier earned their gratitude with a front cover picture of them naked and holding hands.

Banned from sale in Boston, the cover caused a huge stink but really put Rolling Stone on the map. In return, Wenner readily tolerated John and Yoko's eccentric behaviour, such as their insistence on referring to themselves in the third person as Liz and Dick  as in Liz Taylor and Richard Burton  whenever he was with them. Ono was 'petite, no small talk, all business', Lennon could be disconcertingly aggressive  which Wenner put down to his Liverpudlian upbringing. And aggressive even with fans.

Wenner was shocked when he took the couple for lunch during their San Francisco visit and a fan asked the ex-Beatle for his autograph. 'Can't you f***ing see that I'm eating?' Lennon yelled.

Afterwards the trio went with Wenner's wife Jane to a cinema to watch Let It Be, the film about the making of The Beatles' last album before they broke up, which astonishingly Lennon hadn't seen. 'John said nothing,' says Wenner. 'When we walked out, the four of us stood on the sidewalk, arms around each other in a huddle. John cried, and then all of us joined in.'

He finally got a proper interview with Lennon a few months later in which he let rip on the 'dark side' of The Beatles. He dismissed The Beatles' reputation as relatively well behaved, telling Wenner: 'We had that image, but the tours were something else, whores, junk [drugs], orgies.'

He turned on fellow band members, who he accused of mistreating Yoko. He said he wouldn't bother playing George Harrison's solo album at home, called Paul McCartney's solo album 'rubbish', described Bob Dylan as 'bulls***', and dismissed the Stones' seminal album Their Satanic Majesties Request as a blatant rip-off of The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Lennon was furious when Wenner republished the interview as a book called Lennon Remembers without his permission. Wenner says he felt sick at 'betraying' a star who'd done so much for the magazine  but he still went ahead. They never saw each other again and ten years later Lennon was shot dead in New York.

Wenner also had a tempestuous relationship with Jagger. The journalist admits he was sexually attracted to the Stone, although he stresses nothing ever came of it.

When imperious Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner (pictured) sent his staff on an assignment, he always made one thing clear  the magazine that saw itself as the bible of rock music demanded the definitive story on its biggest stars

Jagger, he adds, 'could be unfriendly and cold, and do it with ease. It was gratuitous, possibly a test or perhaps a way of establishing another person's status as a supplicant.'

In the macho world of rock in the 1960s and 1970s, Wenner didn't dare come out of the closet, although he may not have been successful at hiding his sexuality.

Actor Richard Gere and his girlfriend were guests one summer at the Wenners' estate in the Hamptons on Long Island.

'On weekends, Richard liked to mosey around in his underwear and would sit in the pool, where they would become nearly transparent,' recalls Wenner.

'He asked me one day if I was homosexual, because it was perfectly OK with him. His brother was. I said no, as casually as possible.'

Wenner insists he occasionally chased women and had 'a crush' on Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher, whom he'd meet for lunch. Then his wife intervened and, he says, 'one night I came home to find a Princess Leia doll with pins in it on my pillow'.

Some rock acts, however, loathed Rolling Stone, and Wenner especially. They included Led Zeppelin, whose guitarist, Jimmy Page, blamed him for monstering their first album and stealing his girlfriend.

Roger Taylor, drummer of Queen, once sent a letter  written on an airline sick bag  in which he blasted the magazine as pretentious and dishonest.

The memoir skates over celebrity feuds that Wenner's authorised biographer covered. They include one with Elton John, who didn't appear on Rolling Stone's cover for 35 years after admitting in the magazine for the first time that he was gay. John Reid, Elton's manager and ex-lover, blamed the ban on Wenner's 'ambivalence' about his own homosexuality.

McCartney was not much of a pal either, reportedly regarding Wenner as Lennon's spy, although the ex-Beatle probably owes his first marriage to Wenner.

The future Linda McCartney was one of Rolling Stone's first photographers and was keen to meet Paul. After Wenner sent her to London to photograph The Beatles, Linda sent him a postcard saying she'd had a date with him and 'all is well'.

But Wenner's high-handed behaviour could also antagonise even his friends in the rock world. When he sent effete writer Truman Capote to cover a Rolling Stones tour and he brought along his equally snooty friend Lee Radziwill (socialite sister of Jackie Kennedy), Keith Richards smeared Capote's hotel room door with tomato ketchup. Capote got the message and bailed out.

In 1995, Wenner shocked the showbiz world when he left his wife and children for his gay lover, fashion designer Matt Nye. They later had three children via surrogate mothers. The Buddhist-themed blessing ceremony for the first child was classic Wenner: packed with celebrities. Bette Midler hosted the select gathering, John's son Sean Lennon was a godfather, Springsteen was a guest and Bowie held the baby for the blessing.

Wenner lists them all in his book with relish. The man who often seemed like a glorified groupie must have been in seventh heaven.
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Two Liberian men visiting the southern port city of Busan to attend an international event were put under emergency arrest by local police Friday on suspicion of sexually assaulting two South Korean middle school girls.







The Busan Dongbu Police Station said it is investigating the two men, both known as civil servants of the west African country, over their alleged sexual offenses.







They are suspected of sexually assaulting the two teenage girls at a hotel in the city's Dong Ward around 10:55 p.m. Thursday. They allegedly took the two girls they met by chance near Busan Station to the hotel.







They reportedly came to Busan to participate in the 2022 Korea Maritime Week, an event jointly organized by South Korea's Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).







One of the two men is said to be a 30-something Liberian government official dispatched to the IMO headquarters in Britain. He reportedly holds a diplomatic passport and claims diplomatic immunity but police said his case cannot be covered by the Vienna Convention that stipulates diplomatic immunity. (Yonhap)






Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol met with June Huh, the Korean American mathematician who won this year's prestigious Fields Medal, in New York on Thursday, and discussed ways to foster talented people in science and technology, his office said.







Yoon, who was in New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly, congratulated the 39-year-old professor of Princeton University once again on winning the Fields Medal, which is often dubbed the Nobel Prize in mathematics.







He was awarded the medal in July for his research connecting combinatorics and algebraic geometry. Huh is the first scholar of Korean descent to win the honor.







"President Yoon said he was deeply moved as a Korean and that his winning the award made many people proud because he is a young mathematician who studied in Korea," the presidential office said in a press release.







Yoon also said he deeply sympathized with Huh's message during his commencement speech at Seoul National University before he exchanged views with the professor on ways to nurture talented people in Korea's science and technology sector, including in math.







The president promised he will not spare any government assistance to produce large numbers of talented people in math, science and technology like Huh, and asked that Huh play an important role in advancing the field of math and training younger students in Korea.







The meeting with Huh was one of the last events on the president's schedule in New York before he departed for Toronto to continue on his three-nation swing through Britain, the United States and Canada. (Yonhap)


THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Finally, the police claimed to have nabbed the person who had hurled a crude bomb at the CPM headquarters AKG Centre in Thiruvananthapuram in June.

The crime branch arrested Jithin who is president of a local unit of Youth Congress. The incident took place on the night of June 30. Explosives were hurled at a gate near AKG Centre's main gate. Since the SIT formed by local police could not find the culprit, the case was handed over to the crime branch in July.

The police had drawn flak and huge criticism for its failure to nab the culprit. The cops carried out an extensive probe checking hundreds of CCTV camera footage, questioning over 250 suspects and checking over 5000 phone call records.

Meanwhile, Kerala PCC president K Sudhakaran refuted the claims of the police. "Its a fake case. Jithin was made to eat a chocolate-like product which was suspected to be laced with some drug" he alleged.

Sudhkaran said the arrest was aimed at diverting the attention from the Bharat Jodo Uatra of Rahul Gandhi which was receiving huge support across Kerala.
TIRUPATI: The sleuths of Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force (RSASTF) have nabbed 13 smugglers and seized 23 logs, worth Rs 50 lakh in the international market, at three different locations in Tirupati district on Thursday.

Acting on the direction of Task Force DIG S. Senthil Kumar and under the direct supervision of SP M. Sundara Rao, three teams have started combing parts of Seshachalam forests on Wednesday.

The first team was combing the forest at Nancharamma Cheruvu under Chamala East beat in the early hours of Thursday when they spotted a group of smugglers carrying red sanders logs out of the forest. When the team advanced to catch the smugglers, they fled from the spot leaving behind the logs. The team, however, nabbed a smuggler  Arun Kumar (38) of Tamil Nadu, and recovered nine logs here.

The second team seized 14 logs at Kangimadugu under Balapalli range while those carrying the logs gave a slip to the taskforce sleuths and fled deep into the forest. The third team, which was combing the Melchur forest area, under Vallam section in Srikalahasti mandal, arrested 12 smugglers when they were venturing into the forests to cut down the red sanders trees.

The arrested smugglers were identified as T. Sudarshan, Y. Prasad, A. Chenchaiah, K. Maraiah, T. Hari Krishna, P. Nagaraju, D. Gopi, T. Srinu, M. Siva, E. Venkatesh, K. Murugaiah and B. Srinivasulu, all hailing from various neighbouring mandals of Srikalahasti division.
HYDERABAD: A doctor riding pillion on an Ola bike suffered head injuries after the two-wheeler was hit by a car in Malakpet on Tuesday night. While the rider (captain) received only minor injuries, Dr Shravani was hospitalised and is battling for her life. It is not known whether she was wearing a helmet. The incident, however, raises concern over the safety of pillion riders using the ride-sharing bike services.

A main worry with bike-sharing is about the non-wearing of helmets.

Many commuters, particularly techies, are making use of the bike taxi service because it provides a quick, easy and economical way to avail seamless, last-mile connectivity. Most ride-sharing aggregators pledge on their websites to provide branded or ISI certified helmets to pillion-riders, many have not been doing this.

Deccan Chronicle spoke to pillion-riders who use bike taxi services such as Ola, Rapido and Uber to find out how things were.

According to the rules of the bike taxi aggregators, it is the rider's (captains) responsibility to provide the passenger with a helmet. The captains rarely keep an extra helmet for the pillion rider.

I often take Ola bike rides from my residence to the workplace. There were times I was not given a helmet. Sometimes, even the Ola captain did not himself wear a helmet. Recently, when I booked an Ola bike taxi from my residence to the Secunderabad railway station, the Ola driver did not wear a helmet. I have not been offered a helmet at least five out of ten times, said Jyothi Sudha, who works for a pharma firm.

Everyone riding a bike is required to wear protective headgear under Section 129 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

The bike taxi companies were asked by the traffic police to make sure the rule is followed. However, enforcement is lax. The traffic police are taking it easy or are advised to be so. Around 120 of the 237 road fatalities in the city in 2020 were due to head injuries  caused by riders falling off motorcycles or scooters  according to the city traffic police.

"I do not prefer cabs that plod through the traffic jams and opt for bikes that reach me to the destination fast. I usually utilise the Ola, Rapido or Uber services to move around. They are more convenient, reasonably priced, and faster to reach my location. I've been offered a helmet only a few times, claimed Ali Enuke Fortunatus Akudinanwa, a Nigerian student at OU majoring in computer sciences.

He said an occasion he was offered a helmet was when the captain wanted to avoid the traffic police filing a challan. He however turned down the bike riders offer because he felt uncomfortable using it and was worried about infection. Worse, the helmets used by different persons have an unbearable smell, he said.

Helmet or hell?

Pillion Riders

Wear a helmet, no matter whether or not you use bike taxi services

Put on a properly fitted and firmly fastened helmet

Ensure that the helmets have labels showing they meet ISI standards

Ask for a helmet, decline the ride if it is not provided

If youre not comfortable wearing a shared helmet, bring your own helmet

Traffic police
KANNUR: A group of Popular Front of India (PFI) activists were beaten up by local people when they tried to forcefully down the shutters of shops here as part of the hartal called by their outfit in the state on Friday.

Angry local people reacted strongly when the protesters asked them to close the shops, beat them up and handed one of them to the police at the Central Bazar in Payyannur in this politically-volatile northern district.

In the visuals aired by local television channels, it could be seen that one of the hartal supporters was beaten up by a group of local people, who chased him when he tried to run away and handed him over to the police later.

A policeman could be seen taking him in an autorickshaw in the visuals.

According to local people, the incident happened when a group of PFI workers rushed to the bazaar area knowing that some of the shops were open.

Besides the shoppers and local people, those belonging to other political parties also said to have joined in the bid to check the PFI workers' attempt to close the shops.

At least four people were reportedly under the custody of Payyannur police in connection with the incident.

Sporadic incidents of violence were reported in various parts of southern state during the hartal called by the radical Islamic outfit.

The hartal was called by the PFI to protest against the raids in the offices and residences of its leaders and their subsequent arrests on Thursday by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and other agencies for allegedly supporting terror activities in the country.
BENGALURU: Congress social media head B.R. Naidu and two others were arrested by the High Ground police in the wee hours of Thursday over their alleged involvement in the pasting of PayCM posters, as part of the partys campaign on Wednesday.

First Information Reports were filed on the posters at various police stations in Bengaluru city under sections of the Karnataka Open Places Prevention and Disfigurement) Act, 1981. B.R. Naidu was arrested by the High Ground police.

In its counter attack against the Congress' poster campaign, the BJP came out with posters having QR Code with the pictures of former CM Siddaramaiah and KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar, stating that The duo needs to be ousted from the state.

The arrest of the Congress activists triggered a war of words between BJP and Congress MLAs in both the Houses of the Assembly. Attacking the BJP, the Congress took to poster campaign against the ruling BJP government on Wednesday by pasting posters of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in public places including Race Course Road where the Chief Ministers residence is located.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president D.K. Shivakumar made a visit to High Ground police station on Thursday morning over the arrest of Naidu and other party activists.

Meanwhile in the Vidhana Soudha, the former Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Thursday said to step up ante their campaign against ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the party workers would not keep quiet over the arrests made by the police.

Siddaramaiah asked Did Naidu commit a murder for his arrest? He said that Paycm poster campaign was part of the partys campaign against the BJP. In the Assembly, Minister for Law Madhuswamy stated that he was hurt by the use of picture in QR Code poster.

In the Assembly, Minister for Law Madhuswamy stated he was hurt over the Paycm posters against the Chief Minister while BJP MLA Rajeev On what basis did Chief Ministers picture was inserted in the QR code poster?

In the Council, Congress legislators-B.K. Hariprasad and Prakash Rathod displayed Paycm posters and they were countered by BJP legislators.
Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari lays stone for eight National Highway projects worth Rs.3,000 crore at the Arts college grounds in Rajamahendravaram on Thursday. AP R&B minister D.Raja, Rajahmundry MP M.Bharat, Kakinada MP V.Geetha, Amalapuram MP C.Anuradha and AP BJP Chief S.Veerraju are also seen.  DC Image

Vijayawada: Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari on Thursday wished Andhra Pradesh to become one of the richest states by availing its natural resources like water, power, transport and communication.

He also sought its contribution to help India realise the $5 trillion economy and be the number one economic power from the present fifth position in the world.

He was addressing a public meeting after laying the foundation stone for eight road projects at a cost of Rs 3,000 crore at the Government Arts College grounds in Rajamahendravaram.

The minister stated that by availing such natural resources, AP would help attract investment and generate employment so as to eradicate poverty.

Gadkari promised AP to complete its road projects worth five lakh crore in AP by the end of 2024. We have already taken up road projects worth Rs 2 lakh crore while more projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore were under construction in the state, he said.

The minister also promised to sanction several road projects stretching a length of 1,124km at an estimated cost of Rs 3,050 crore in three months and listed out several projects that either got sanction or are to be given sanction. He said he would positively consider proposals for road projects stretching a length of 2,003km at a cost of Rs 50,000 crore for AP.

The minister expressed concern as to how the air, water and sound pollution were affecting the health of the people and owned the responsibility for the air pollution, he being the transport minister.

Underlining the importance of diversion of agriculture into energy, he called upon the farmers who produce foodgrains to produce energy. India was having surplus production of sugar, corn, rice and food grains but faced a shortage of edible oil that was being imported from Malaysia, he said, and asked the farmers to increase the production of palm oil and edible oils through cultivation in their farms.

He laid stress on a change of fuel in the transport sector and advocated use of bio-ethanol. It could be produced from molasses, broken rice and from other materials so that flexible fuel vehicles can be produced, which run on 100 per cent petrol or on 100 per cent bio-ethanol to help save a lot. The cost of petrol is Rs 120 per litre while bio-ethanol is just Rs 60 per litre.

He said several companies were coming up with such a flexible fuel system for two-wheelers to bring down air pollution and the cost of transport.

The Union minister called upon the AP government and public representatives to encourage green energy including bio-ethanol, bio-methanol, bio-CNG, bio-LNG and green hydrogen. From waste water or toilet water, green hydrogen can be generated. In Nagpur constituency, waste water is sold to the Maharashtra government to generate power and they are getting Rs 300 crore as royalty per annum.

The minister said that from waste water, green hydrogen could be generated as 70 per cent cost was involved in such power where solar power could be used, as it cost only Rs 2.40 per unit.

He said by using electrolyser which costs just Rs 1.20 crore, oxygen could be separated from water and hydrogen would be generated. By using a compressor which runs-on bio ethanol, green hydrogen could be developed.

Describing Rajamahendravaram and East Godavari districts as beautiful with a lot of nurseries and fishing ponds, Gadkari said when he was the minister for shipping, we developed trawlers which could go up unto 100 nautical miles in the sea. He advised the AP government to give such trawlers to its fishermen who could go into the sea up to 100 nautical miles from the present 10-20 nautical miles, so that their fish production can increase seven- fold.

The minister said he held Rajamahendravaram in high respect. We are going to get 80 lakh trees of three metre height this year by paying Rs 75 per tree to the nursery farmers.

He advocated the setting up of a tree bank with permission from the Union ministry of environment and forests so that anyone who intended to cut a tree should plant 10 trees instead, and those who intend to transplant a tree need to plant five new trees, so that it would help protect ecology and environment.

The minister advocated a public transport system with electricity where modes of transport like cable car, ropeway, sky bus etc could be encouraged. To run a bus on diesel, it would cost Rs 115 per km, while on electricity, it would cost just Rs 39 per km for non-AC bus and Rs 41 per km for AC bus, he said.

Gadkari urged the AP government to introduce the public transport system on electricity in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Rajamahendravaram as it would reduce air pollution. He said that the ports were the growth engine for AP and urged the state government to use the long sea front to develop its economy. He recalled that while he functioned as ports minister, when he sanctioned permission for two ports, there was a dispute and call not to sanction the other one.

The minister said he would request the CM that, if the AP government could provide land, we would develop a Logistics Park in the state, and he promised to also sanction the six-lane coastal road project connecting Visakhapatnam Port and Bhogapuram as was requested by the CM.
Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, right, shakes hands with U.S. President Joe Biden after attending the seventh replenishment conference of the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in New York, Sept. 21. Yonhap



The office of President Yoon Suk-yeol denied Thursday that Yoon used foul language in reference to U.S. Congress and President Joe Biden, clarifying that he was talking about a situation he could face if Korea's opposition-controlled National Assembly does not cooperate.



On Wednesday, video circulated of Yoon talking with U.S. President Joe Biden at a fundraiser for fighting infectious diseases in New York. As he leaves the venue amid noise, he appears to tell aides in vulgar language that it would be embarrassing for Biden if the National Assembly did not approve of something unspecified.



The clip led to speculation that Yoon was referring to Biden's pledge to contribute another $6 billion to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. His mention of the National Assembly was interpreted as a reference to U.S. Congress.



But Kim Eun-hye, senior presidential secretary for press affairs, said Yoo made no mention of Biden.



The actual word was the Korean word for "throw out" and Yoon was talking about how he would be embarrassed if the National Assembly, which is controlled by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, rejected the $100 million he pledged to contribute to the Global Fund over three years, she said.






CHENNAI: Demanding the complete deletion of at least three chapters from the Union governments revised draft Indian Ports Bill 2022, Chief Minister M K Stalin opposed the attempt to make the Maritime State Development Council (MSDC) a regulatory body for minor ports as it would amount to encroaching upon the powers of the states.

In a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, Stalin sought his kind intervention to ensure the continued growth of non-major ports by increasing the ease of doing business with minimum government and maximum governance.

He said the MSDC was now an advisory body and converting it into a regulatory body with permanent staff would surely encroach upon the powers of States and might end up choking the future development of minor ports.

Stating that the long-term impact of the Bills intent was to centralize and regulate the sector which was currently being administered by State Governments, he said: I am afraid that the revised draft Bill still largely continues to ignore international and domestic experience that ports are best managed by local and regional governments.

The growth trajectory of Indias port sector clearly showed that the non-major ports managed by State governments had grown faster than the major ports under the Union government because the maritime States facilitated the growth of non-major ports through private investments and business-friendly policies, he said.

Many states, especially Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh pioneered such facilitatory development of minor ports and had contributed to an increasing share of maritime cargo handling through state-specific initiatives, which would be stifled by the draft Bill, he said.

Imposing a centralised regulatory regime on non-major ports and the proposed composition of the MSDC with five Secretaries and one Joint Secretary to the Government of India, along with the Administrators of the coastal UTs, as members were two things that Stalin found objectionable.

Excluding the Secretaries in charge of ports in the maritime States/UTs was inappropriate and the MSDC, like the GST Council, must continue only as an advisory body comprising Ministers of the Union and States/UTs concerned as members with officers only as special invitees, he said.

Among the centralizing provisions in the draft Bill that the Chief Minister pointed out was Chapter V prescribing the constitution, functions and powers of the State Maritime Boards. There are already State legislations governing them. As per the proposed bill, if any amendments are required to these Acts, they can be made by the State Legislatures based only on the recommendations of the Centre or the MSDC. This would make the legislative process dysfunctional, he said.

Similarly, the appellate powers against orders of State Maritime Boards was now with the respective State Governments while the draft Bill would hand it over will go to the Appellate Tribunal, constituted by the Central Government for the major ports, which would affect the powers of the States to deal with disputes on their own, he said.

So, Stalin requested the deletion of Chapters II and III of the draft Bill relating to the MSDC to let the MSDC remain an apex advisory body and Chapter V relating to the State Maritime Boards.
HYDERABAD: The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) is taking no chances in ensuring its victory in the upcoming Munugode Assembly bypoll. In the campaign, the party would showcase the recently inaugurated Banjara Bhavan and Adivasi Bhavan in Banjara Hills to lure voters from the Scheduled Tribes (ST) categories.

The party devised plans to transport 1,000 Adivasis and Banjaras from Munugode constituency by buses every day for them to have a feel of the two installations erected by the TRS government at a cost of over Rs 60 crore with all modern amenities for their benefit. There, they can hold functions, meetings and other ceremonies free of cost.

The tours will start from every village and mandal in full scale after the Bathukamma festival on September 25.

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao inaugurated Banjara Bhavan and Adivasi Bhavan on September 17 and later addressed a public meeting of Banjaras and Adivasis at the NTR Stadium. Rao said the posh Banjara Hills in Hyderabad has Banjara in its name but there was not even a square yard for Banjaras there in the 60-years of the Seemandhra rulers.

He said he constructed Banjara Bhavan in Banjara Hills spread over 61,544 sqft and the Adivasi Bhavan in 82,009 sqft and this was possible because of the formation of the Telangana state and due to self-rule.

The party will also host a lunch to those who are ferried to these installations by buses.

The TRS is also trying to garner the support of the toddy-tapper community in Munugode by supplying toddy palm seeds free of cost, which were specially procured from Bihar. Party leaders hope all these initiatives will show excellent results in the Munugode bypoll.

TRS former Lok Sabha member from Bhongir constituency Narsaiah Goud is actively taking part in the distribution of toddy palm seeds in Munugode. The party is devising more such programmes to reach out to voters from every caste.

Energy minister Jagadish Reddy told Deccan Chronicle, The idea is to create awareness among the tribal population on the availability of two modern buildings with all the amenities in posh Banjara Hills that they can make use of for various purposes.

Infobox:

Caste equations in Munugode:

Total voters: 2.10 lakh

BCs: 45%

SCs: 16.5%

STs: 10%

Muslims; 3.5%

Others: 25%
On coming to know about their plight, Sanjay (in picture), who is an MP from Karimnagar, has written to the foreign ministry as well as the Indian Embassy to get them back to India. The six youth had gone to Cambodia on tourist visas.  DC File Image

Warangal: BJP state chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar has written to ministry of foreign affairs to rescue six youth who have got stranded in Cambodia after being lured there by a cybercrime gang from China.

The six youth, hailing from Karimnagar district, had gone to Cambodia in search of jobs by paying 2 lakh each to a Karimnagar-based consultancy. The youth  Nadeem, Siabaaz Khan, Saleem, Hajibaba, Sultan and Sharukh Khan  had been offered jobs as computer operators. However, they ended up doing menial jobs and were forced to get involved in anti-social activities too.

On coming to know about their plight, Sanjay, who is an MP from Karimnagar, has written to the foreign ministry as well as the Indian Embassy to get them back to India. The six youth had gone to Cambodia on tourist visas.

Seeking rescue of their children, parents of the youth have also lodged a complaint with police commissioner V. Satyanarayana on September 19.

Police have registered a case and are investigating. It is learnt that in all, Karimnagar-based consultancies have sent 16 youth to Cambodia in the past few months. Police are trying to find details of the remaining youth.
Addressing a public meeting in Kuppam  the first after he took charge as Chief Minister -- Jagan launched a scathing attack on the opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu, labelling him a non-local (Photo: Twitter)

TIRUPATI: Accusing Telugu Desam president and former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu of neglecting his own constituency, Kuppam, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said on Friday that the local MLA was local to Hyderabad and a non-local to Kuppam.

Addressing a public meeting in Kuppam  the first after he took charge as Chief Minister -- Jagan launched a scathing attack on the opposition leader, labelling him a non-local and ridiculing him as a Pedda Manishi  and himself as Mee Bidda.

Naidu never lived in Kuppam to know the problems in this segment, let alone solve them. In the 45 years of his political career, Chandrababu had been the MLA of Kuppam for 33 years. He used the BC vote bank but did nothing for them. The YSRC government, on the other hand, launched several welfare schemes for BCs and others, the CM said.

Making some interesting remarks on what he called Naidu's brand of Samajika Nyayam (social justice), Jagan said the TD chief had squeezed the backward classes, a sizeable vote bank in Kuppam constituency, for his political benefits. But, he did not do anything to provide them social justice. This constituency was never meant to be represented by someone from an OC community like Chandrababu, the CM said.

Ever since TD came into existence, BCs have been deprived of the opportunity to represent Kuppam. Instead, Chandrababu sat over it for the past 33 years although he doesn't even have voting right and no permanent house in Kuppam," Jagan said.

The Chief Minister claimed that his government has provided water, municipality status and a revenue division to Kuppam.

He said, From the Rs 6.5 crore Reddypalli-Ramakuppam power substation to a Railway under-bridge and an integrated municipal office complex, to sanctioning of Rs 20 crore to the Dravidian University, this government did a lot for Kuppam. But, Chandrababu, known for his backstabbing politics, didnt bring in any development project for the region though he was chief minister for 14 years.

Accusing Naidu of deliberately failing to address the drought-related issues faced by Kuppam region, the Chief Minister said Naidu knew well that the Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi branch canal alone could bail out the farmers and the people as a whole here from the drought situation. But he didnt take up the project as he thought it would be a barrier to his dominance.

The Chief Minister promised to complete the Handri-Neeva project works in the next six months. He also announced the sanction of two reservoirs with a capacity of .77tmc and .33tmc to be built at a cost of Rs 250 crore in Gudupalle and Santhipuram mandals. He also promised release of Rs 100 crore for the development of Kuppam, Ramakuppam, Santhipuram and Gudupalle mandals in Kuppam constituency.

Ridiculing the TDs slogan Job Kavalante Babu Ravali, the chief minister said more than 5,000 youngsters from Kuppam are going to Chennai and Bengaluru in search of jobs every day. Your local MLA (Naidu) did nothing to address such issues in his home constituency in the last three decades, Jagan concluded.
The nationwide crackdown on Popular Front of India  a radical organisation known for its pro-Islamist slogans  by Central agencies needs to be followed up with a systematic and fair investigation that quickly reaches its logical end.

The National Investigation Agency and the Enforcement Directorate have raided over 93 locations in 15 states and arrested 109 people, including the chairman of the PFI. Agencies claimed that they have seized digital devices, documents, weapons and cash in the raids which are part of its largest ever investigation till date.

Reports suggest that the investigation is based on first information reports filed against the PFI for two serious offences  organising terror camps and encouraging youth to join terrorism. The PFI has been under scanner ever since NIA had investigated over a dozen cases in which 46 people were convicted.

The PFI is an amalgamated body of fringe groups in various states that came together at various points in time. In Kerala, from where the largest number of people was taken into custody, the PFI is the successor of the National Development Front, an organisation accused of extremist, communal and criminal activities. It has a similar past in other states.

The PFI and its political arm, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), have a past that gives credence to the charges investigating agencies have levelled. These organisations were held responsible for the chopping of Prof. T.J. Josephs hand. Joseph had been accused of making a derogatory reference to Prophet Mohammed in a question paper he had prepared for a class test in 2010. Though he was later acquitted of all charges by the court, the PFI activists, egged on by radical elements in and around the organisation, settled their score as per their belief. The same organisation is now being accused of radicalising youth who have set out to camps run by the Islamic State and the Taliban, respectively, in Syria and Afghanistan.

The response of the PFI to the raids shows that the organisation has very little faith in the democratic system and its institutions. The Kerala high court was on Friday forced to take a suo motu case against its office-bearers after the strike the PFI called in the state turned violent and widespread destruction of property was reported from all over the state. The PFI-SDPI duo in the state has demonstrated its strike power when they took on the workers of the RSS in the last one year  an RSS leader each was killed within hours of the murders of the SDPI leaders in Palakkad and Alappuzha districts.

The PFI draws its strength from the minority community by placing it as victim of the Hindutva forces. It is an irony that the assault on the Constitution by the government in power, including attempts to weaken the secular fabric of the nation, has given false legitimacy to an organisation which never professed secularism as its credo. Competitive communalism feeds elements on both sides of the divide and, in the process, weakens democratic structures. It is imperative that the investigating agencies do a professional job giving neither a chance to play victim.
PITTSBURGH: Mexico has proposed to the United Nations to set up a committee that would include India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pope Francis and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to mediate permanent peace between Russia and Ukraine.

The proposal was put forward by Marcelo Luis Ebrard Casaubn, the foreign minister of Mexico, while participating in a UN Security Council debate on Ukraine in New York.

This came days after Modi, who met Putin on the sidelines of the 22nd meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan's Samarkand, told the Russian leader that today's era is not of war. The Indian prime minister's remarks have been welcomed by the western world including the United States, France and the United Kingdom.

Based on its pacifist vocation, Mexico believes that the international community must now channel its best efforts to achieve peace, Casaubn said.

In this regard, I would like to share with you the proposal of the President of Mexico, Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador, to strengthen the mediation efforts of UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres, through the formation of a Committee for Dialogue and Peace in Ukraine with the participation of other heads of state and government, including, if possible, His Excellency Narendra Modi and His Holiness Pope Francis.

He said the objective of the committee would be to generate new mechanisms for dialogue and create complementary spaces for mediation to build confidence, reduce tensions and open the way for lasting peace.

Casaubon said the Mexican delegation will continue with the necessary consultations to contribute towards generating broad support for the mediation efforts led by the UN secretary-general as well as for the committee, whose formation we hope will proceed with the support of the UN member states that so decide.

As the Secretary-General has said, it is time to act and commit to peace. To settle for war is always to go to the precipice, he said.

The Mexican foreign minister argued that peace can only be achieved through dialogue, diplomacy and by building effective political channels.

Indifference is unacceptable, just as it is unacceptable to simply lament the fact that, so far, in the case in question, the Security Council has not been able to fulfil its essential responsibility, he said.

The reasons why this Council can become dysfunctional are well known. It is up to us to correct them. The time is right to consider, in all seriousness, the structural reforms required to do so, Casaubon added.
The police on Thursday arrested five people, including two men working in the state Congress social media wing, for putting up the PayCM posters in various parts of the city.

The head of the opposition partys social media wing was also questioned over what Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has described as an attempt to tarnish my image.

High Grounds police made the arrests under the Karnataka Open Places (Prevention of Disfigurement Act, 1981), the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984, and IPC Section 290 (public nuisance) based on a complaint filed by B V Veena, assistant revenue officer (Vasanthanagar subdivision), BBMP.

The PayCM posters, which appeared on compound walls in the CBD and parts of North Bengaluru in the early hours of Wednesday, contained a QR code and Bommais

photograph.

When scanned, the QR code took the user to www.40percentsarkara.com, a website launched by Congress to expose corruption in the government. The posters drew widespread attention and embarrassed Bommai, who promised police action against those behind them.

Police have filed a total of six cases regarding the posters: two at High Grounds and one each in Seshadripuram, Sadashivanagar, JC Nagar and Sanjaynagar.

The arrests have so far been made only in the High Grounds cases.

According to sources, the arrested suspects are Kalakaiah Swamy alias Sanjay, 23, and Vishwamurthy K,

33.

Both are residents of Laggere and work in the social media wing at the Congress office.

The other arrested suspects are Madan Kumar, Siddaiah and Vinod Kumar V, all students, who pasted the posters under the supervision of Swamy and Vishwamurthy, the sources added.

A team led by High Grounds police inspector C B Shivaswamy picked up Swamy and Vishwamurthy around noon on Thursday.

The students were apprehended near the Laggere bridge three hours later. All of them will be presented before a magistrate, a senior police officer said.

Police also questioned B R Naidu, chairperson of the state Congress social media wing, besides party workers Pavan and Gagan. Police have asked them to appear for questioning when required.

R Srinivas Gowda, deputy commissioner of police (central) who personally supervised the questioning of the suspects, said: We have arrested five people and questioned three others. Notices have been served on them to appear before the investigating officer and cooperate in the investigation.
Taking forward his outreach to the Muslim community, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday visited a mosque and a madrassa here and held discussions with the chief of the All India Imam Organisation who termed him rashtra pita.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh sarsangchalak went to a mosque in central Delhis Kasturba Gandhi Marg and followed it up with a visit to the Madarsa Tajweedul Quran in Azadpur in north Delhi.

This is the first time he has visited a madrassa, an RSS official accompanying him said.

Also read | 'Why can't I have friendly relation with RSS': Asks Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan

During his visit to the madrassa, Bhagwat interacted with children and heard them reciting the Quran. Children raised the slogans of 'Vande Mataram' and 'Jai Hind', a Sangh functionary accompanying him said.

He said the RSS chief also spoke to the children about the need to know more about the nation and stressed that while the modes of worship could be different, all religions must be respected.

All India Imam Organisation chief Umer Ahmed Ilyasi used the rashtra pita descriptive for Bhagwat while talking to children at the madrassa. However, Bhagwat intervened to say there is only one father of the nation and said everyone is Bharat ki santan (child of the nation), according to the RSS official.

The All India Imam Organisation is the representative voice of the community of Indian imams and claims to be the largest imam organisation in the world.

Ilyasi and Bhagwat held talks for about an hour at the mosque, which also houses the office of the All India Imam Organisation and the clerics residence.

He is a rashtra pita. We discussed several issues for for strengthening the country," Ilyasi told PTI, adding that Bhagwat had visited the mosque as well as madrassa on his invitation.

"With this visit of Bhagwat, a message should go that we all want to work towards strengthening India. For all of us, the nation comes first. Our DNA is the same, it is just that our religion and methods of worshipping god are different," Ilyasi said, echoing the RSS chief's words.

Bhagwat was accompanied by senior Sangh functionaries, including joint general secretary Krishna Gopal and Muslim Rashtriya Manch patron Indresh Kumar.

In a statement after the visits, RSS Prachar Pramukh Sunil Ambekar said, "Sarsanghachalak meets people from all walks of life. It is a part of the continuous general 'Samvad' process."

The significant visits by the head of the BJPs ideological mentor came on a day multiple probe agencies conducted raids across the country and arrested more than 100 activists of the Popular Front of India for allegedly supporting terror activities in the country.

Responding to Bhagwat's meeting with Muslim intellectuals and clerics, AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi told reporters,"Everybody knows the ideology of the Sangh and these Muslim elites are meeting Bhagwat. They have nothing to do with ground reality."

The RSS chief has been holding discussions with Muslim intellectuals for strengthening communal harmony over the last few weeks.

He recently met Delhi's former lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung, former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi, former Aligarh Muslim University vice chancellor Zameer Uddin Shah, former MP Shahid Siddiqui as well as businessman Saeed Shervani.

During the meeting, Bhagwat reportedly raised the issue of the usage of the word "kafir" for Hindus, which he said does not send out a good message. The group of Muslim intellectuals, on their part, objected to some right-wing activists calling Muslims "jihadi" and "Pakistanis".

They also reportedly told Bhagwat that the real intent behind the word 'kafir' was something different but it is now being used as an abuse in some quarters.

The RSS chief, it is learnt, acknowledged the views of the intellectuals and underscored that the "DNA of all Hindus and Muslims are same".

The All India Imam Organisation is the representative voice of the community of Indian imams and claims to be the largest imam organisation in the world.
In a rather strange defence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has given him a clean chit on using central investigative agencies against his political opponents. Her argument is that since the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) reports to the Home Minister, the prime minister is blameless for its misuse.

The argument is disingenuous for someone who knows that there is no dyarchy at the Centre. It ties in with another uncharacteristic statement by her that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is not all bad and that there are some good people in it. Whatever compulsions are driving Banerjee to appease the prime minister and the RSS, they will diminish her chances of being the centre of Opposition unity for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Banerjee clearly has not been her combative self ever since her meeting with then state Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma at Raj Bhavan in Darjeeling on July 13 this year. The meeting was followed by her decision that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) would abstain from voting in the Vice-Presidential election in which Dhankhar was the Bharatiya Janata Party's candidate. Six days later, when the CBI filed its first charge-sheet in the Eastern Coalfields coal pilferage scam against 41 accused, the names of her nephew Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira Narula Banerjee were missing from it. The Enforcement Directorate case against Banerjee's nephew, however, is still ongoing.

Also read | Soft on Modi: Mamata Banerjees changed approach with eye on national politics

Banerjee seeking a one-to-one meeting with Prime Minister Modi, which took place on August 5 in Delhi, is also raising speculations. It was supposedly about urging the Centre to release nearly Rs 18,000 crore that the state claimed as its dues under MNREGA, PM Awas Yojana and PM Gram Sadak Yojana. However, this could have been easily accomplished by the state Chief Secretary meeting the relevant department secretaries in Delhi.

It is also significant that immediately after her meeting with the prime minister, Banerjee decided to attend a meeting of the Niti Ayog. This was a big step for her as she had boycotted all its meetings chaired by the prime minister up to now. In fact, ever since the Niti Ayog was created as the successor to the Planning Commission, Banerjee was extremely critical of it.

Banerjee's conciliatory overtures to the prime minister and the RSS have created misgivings amongst West Bengal's BJP leaders. Former West Bengal state president of the BJP and former Governor of Tripura and Meghalaya, Tathagata Roy, speculated on Twitter about a possible secret understanding. He tagged PM Modi, saying, "Kolkata is agog with (the) apprehension of a 'setting', (a colloquialism for a secret understanding), between Modiji and Mamata, whereby the thieves of Trinamool and/or the murderers of BJP workers would go scot-free. Please convince us that the wud be no such 'setting'." Another Bengal BJP leader Dilip Ghosh tweeted, "Mamata Banerjee uses her meetings with Modiji to convey the message that a 'setting' has been reached with the BJP Central leaders", and warned them against such cross-messaging.

There has been speculation that a Gujarat corporate house, which has received several contracts in West Bengal, convinced Banerjee to mellow her attacks on the prime minister. But an explanation for actions that would undermine her own political future as the potential leader of a united Opposition has to go deeper. It would have to be something that threatens her political existence itself. The timing of her meeting with Dhankhar and Himanta Biswa Sarma may provide a clue. It took place against the backdrop of the BJP engineering a successful split in the Shiv Sena to bring down the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government.

Also Read | Mamata playing 'hide-and-seek' by giving clean chit to PM Modi on misuse of agencies: Congress

There are rumours that the TMC is virtually split between the loyalists of the aunt and the nephew. Perhaps Banerjee is apprehensive of the BJP doing an Eknath Shinde on her by splitting the TMC, removing her as Chief Minister and replacing her with her nephew, supported by the BJP. Abhishek Banerjee may have little choice between the option of going to jail and becoming the chief minister. If he is unwilling to betray his aunt, a split could still be engineered. The BJP leaders in the state have repeatedly been claiming that the Mamata Banerjee government will not last beyond December this year.

A tamed and mellowed Mamata Banerjee could continue to be in power in West Bengal, but pressure from the Centre will not allow her to be part of a united Opposition. The BJP will have made her predicament like that of Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh  forced to go it alone and fearful of the consequences of joining the Opposition's unity efforts.

All that the BJP needs to do to thwart the Opposition's unity efforts is to take three leaders out of the equation  Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal and K Chandrasekhar Rao. Each one has prime ministerial ambitions and will not go with the other two. All of them are being softened up through the ED and CBI raids. If the BJP is successful, then in at least half a dozen states  West Bengal, Telangana, Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh - there will be no one-to-one contests between the BJP and the Opposition. These three leaders, however, would give up the ambition of becoming the centre of Opposition unity, only and only if their very survival in their home state came under direct political threat.

(Bharat Bhushan is a journalist based in Delhi)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.
Matters pertaining to promises of freebies and the use of religious names and symbols by political parties are currently before the Supreme Court, but they are not the only issues that need urgent intervention by the apex court. Rather, it should address the root cause of all electoral malpractice being indulged in by most political parties. The court should expand the scope of the PILs before it and examine the need and scope of regulations governing all aspects of political parties. It should not be left to Parliament to enact any law in this regard since no political party likes to be regulated in any way. The court must seize this opportunity and lay down the rules for the political parties.

It is surprising that the Constitution-makers, who knew that it is the political parties who will run the affairs of our democracy, did not consider it necessary to make them public bodies under the Constitution. This is evident from the concluding remarks of Babasaheb Ambedkar to the Constituent Assembly: The Constitution can provide only the organs of State such as the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. The factors on which the working of those organs of the State depends are the people and the political parties they will set up as their instruments to carry out their wishes and their politics.

Nor has any ruling dispensation since the establishment of our republic thought of bringing our political parties under some kind of regulation, even when it was evident to everyone that they were indulging in all kinds of malpractice that were harmful to the country. They have introduced numerous regulations for petty, small and large establishments as well as for trusts, cooperatives and associations/federations, which are not organs of the State. Why has the State not thought of regulating the registered political parties, which, although not organs of the State, nonetheless actually run the affairs of the State? The only reason is that lawmakers do not want to be answerable to anyone as they consider themselves to be above the law. There is no other reason for it.

Let us see what kind of political parties have emerged under such a free-for-all, unregulated environment.

The main objective of all political parties is to gain political power to run the affairs of the State, but they are expected to do so in a democratic and secular manner as laid down in our Constitution. Unfortunately, the very names of some political parties betray their religious identity and yet they claim to be secular.

Consider the many benefits these political parties have cornered for themselves, as pointed out by the Central Information Commission in its judgement of June 2013, declaring them to be public institutions and therefore to be under the purview of the Right to Information Act. The parties challenged it in the Supreme Court, and the matter rests there. It is also surprising that political parties once registered by the Election Commission, cannot be de-registered.

It is public knowledge that most political parties are one man/one family shows; they are non-secular and undemocratic in their internal functioning, and they indulge in corrupt practice during elections. Money power and criminals are extensively deployed to win elections, which is evident in the current Lok Sabha, which has 475 crorepatis and 233 MPs with criminal charges against them -- of which 159 of them face serious charges like rape, murder, kidnapping and other crimes against women, etc. The situation in the state legislatures is no better. They even change their political affiliations and alliances after the elections without caring for the mandate given by the voters. It is a matter of great concern that the number of senior politicians facing corruption charges has been increasing by the day. And when they are caught, they cry political vendetta. It will not be incorrect to say that politicians and political parties are the fountainheads of corruption and other problems facing the country.

If the apex court looks into all the aspects concerning political parties, there will be a serious debate and a number of important recommendations will emerge for the courts consideration. It can then decide on the reforms needed through its judgement.

While I am aware of my own limitations in coming up with acceptable recommendations in this regard, as a citizen I would like to share my views.

First, political parties must be incorporated into the Constitution, as is the case in most European democracies.

Second, the Constitution should provide for the institution of a Registrar General of Political Parties, like it does for the Election Commission of India, to regulate all aspects of political parties. The Registrar General should be appointed by the President of India on the recommendation of the same body which recommends the appointment of the judges of the higher judiciary. The Registrar General should have constitutional status similar to that of the judges of the Supreme Court to ensure her independence from the Executive and other influences. The Registrar General should have similar powers to recruit staff and fix their salaries as the Supreme Court does.

The Election Commission should only have the responsibility to conduct elections in a free and fair manner. It should also have the right to lay down legally enforceable dos and donts for the political parties. All other aspects governing the political parties should be regulated by the Registrar General. A Supreme Court judgement on these matters will be reflecting the views of the people of India and will force parliament to amend the Constitution to give effect to it.

Lastly, not only should the apex court take up the matter of reforming and regulating political parties suo moto, it should also decide the matter on a priority basis. Otherwise, we will see further deterioration in the functioning of our political parties, which would not only hold us back from developing into a prosperous nation but may even lead us to a serious economic, political and law-and-order situation.

(The writer is a former IAS officer)




Cho Sung-hwan, the chief executive officer of Korean auto parts maker Hyundai Mobis, has been elected president of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the industry ministry said Thursday.







Cho was elected at the ISO's General Assembly meeting in Abu Dhabi. He will begin his official two-year term from January 2024 for the independent, non-governmental international organization with a membership of 167 national standards bodies.







The president-elect will play an active role in ISO affairs for one year along with current President Ulrika Francke.







Korea earned its ISO membership in 1963. (Yonhap)


Released: September 23, 2022

During the September 21 public meeting, Delaware County Council unanimously voted to adopt a resolution to establish The Delaware County Commission for Immigrant Affairs.

County Council recognizes the critical need to proactively address the needs of immigrant communities in Delaware County, through the intentional engagement of County residents and community partners.

"We are thankful for Council's leadership and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, which is evident by the unanimous passage of this resolution, said Delaware Countys Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer Lauren Footman. The Immigrant Affairs Commission will be a vital piece of our equity journey, as we continue to ensure our practices, programs, and initiative are reflective of our County's diversity. This Commission will help us celebrate and amplify the diversity of and within our Immigrant Community."

The Delaware County Commission for Immigrant Affairs will provide review and recommendations to Council and pertinent County Departments which address the needs of immigrant communities in Delaware County.

The Commission will:

Strengthen the voices of local immigrant communities

Advise County Council and pertinent County Departments on policies and programs to improve the lives of immigrants within Delaware County

Share resources and raise awareness about the history, geography, and culture of the various immigrant communities represented within Delaware County

The members of the Commission will be comprised of the Countys Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer and ten residents of Delaware County appointed by County Council. The Commission members will elect a Chair to set agendas, preside over meetings and perform other leadership functions, as well as a Vice-Chair and a secretary, and will hold public meetings at least quarterly at a publicly advertised time and place to be determined by the Commission.

Residents interested in applying to serve on the Commission can learn more and apply here: https://www.delcopa.gov/clerk/boardscommissions/pdf/ImmigrantAffairs.pdf
One of the men charged in connection with the rioting on the night journalist Lyra McKee was shot dead should be held up as 'a poster boy' for renouncing the use of violence Derry Magistrate's Court heard today.

Joseph Barr (34) of Cecilia's Walk in Derry is charged with rioting and petrol bomb offences on April 18 2019.

He was applying today for his bail to be varied to allow him to enter the cityside of Derry and to return and live at his home address.

A prosecution barrister said there were objections to bail on the grounds that the High Court Judge who had granted bail had seen fit to impose these conditions.

She said there had not been any change of circumstances.

The court heard that one of the reasons why Barr was excluded from the Creggan area was because this area was 'the power base of dissident republicanism' in the city.

She said that if Barr returned to his home address he would be within 1 kilometre of five of his co-accused.

Defence counsel Andrew Moriarity said that Barr had renounced violence and had been put off the republican wing in Maghaberry within 45 minutes of him making his statement.

He said that the significance of such a move by a republican should not be underestimated.

He cited a statement from the dissident republican group Saoradh which the barrister said had been aimed at Barr and another man who had renounced violence.

District Judge Barney McElholm said he was all too aware of the attitude republicans had towards those who renounced violence.

He said republicans 'don't like people who renounce violence and work within the law'.

The judge said he had personal experience of this as following what he termed the 'brutal and callous murders on the streets of this city' on Bloody Sunday many people his age had two choices.

He said that the choices were 'catch a bus to Derry and join up as many were doing or find another way'.

Judge McElholm said he was opposed to all forms of violence.

But the judge said what was 'inescapable' was that the High Court had imposed these conditions and that Barr faced very serious charges.

He refused the variation and said Barr could go to the High Court if he wished.

The case was adjourned until next month.
Complaints about the failure of police to investigate allegations of sexual abuse at the Kincora boys home in Belfast were legitimate and justified, Police Ombudsman Marie Anderson has said.

Mrs Anderson had received seven complaints on behalf of former residents about the failure of police to investigate complaints of sexual abuse that had been made to them.

In a report, the Ombudsman has identified that former police officers failed in their duty to the victims of Kincora because they did not act on the information provided to them during the period 1973-1976.

She also identified systemic failings which prevented police from being aware of complaints of sexual abuse at Kincora, which had been made to the Belfast Welfare Authority and the former Eastern Health and Social Services Board (EHSSB).

The home opened on Belfasts Upper Newtownards Road, close to Stormonts Parliament Buildings, in May 1958, and closed in October 1980 after a sex abuse scandal.

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry found that 39 boys were abused at Kincora and in 1981 three men were jailed for abusing 11 boys.

However, it found no evidence that security agencies were complicit in the abuse.

Mrs Anderson said: The boys who were sent to Kincora were vulnerable children.

They were placed in the care of the state where they ought to have been safe and protected.

The evidence identified by my investigation and previous reviews and inquiries demonstrates that this was not the case.

When boys complained about the abuse they experienced there is evidence that their accounts were ignored or not taken seriously or were not adequately investigated by the Belfast Welfare Authority or the EHSSB.

Complaints were not referred to the police.

I have identified systemic failings and a convoluted complaints system which resulted in police not being aware of all instances of sexual abuse at Kincora Boys Home.

However, I have also identified occasions when police officers did not act appropriately on the information that had been provided to them and intelligence they had received.

Nothing can undo the trauma caused by the sexual abuse experienced by these boys but I hope that this independent investigation into the conduct of former police officers can bring some measure of resolution to the victims and their families.

Mrs Anderson said based on the available evidence and other information, she is of the view that a number of the complaints made to her office by or on behalf of former residents of Kincora Boys Home are legitimate and justified.

Commissioner for Survivors of Institutional Childhood Abuse, Fiona Ryan, said: Anyone reading the findings from the Police Ombudsman cannot help but be struck with awful depressing familiarity in the wake of the reports into child abuse from across the UK, where systemic failings facilitated abuse to go on, even after initial disclosures and reports had been made.

Survivors are owed an assurance that historic child abuse, institutional and other, is taken seriously and engaged with appropriately by all relevant authorities.

It has taken seven years since complaints were first made to the Police Ombudsman to deliver these findings but nearly five decades since the complaints of sexual abuse in Kincora were first made.

Survivors have the right to justice and accountability.

Accountability includes transparency on how our justice system has dealt with historic child abuse perpetrated within institutions; this includes investigation, recording and analysis and prosecution.

Responding, Chief Superintendent Anthony McNally, head of the Police Service of Northern Irelands Public Protection Branch, said the police apologise to the victims for the failings identified by the Ombudsman in her report.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland fully accepts the findings of the Police Ombudsman and notes there are no recommendations for us, he said.

Police process of investigation into child sexual abuse in the 1970s and 1980s was radically different to that of today.

The systems and procedures we have in place today are very much based on a multi-agency approach, allowing all safeguarding agencies to effectively share vital information and promptly work to put protective measures in place for victims and potential victims.

Sexual offences carried out against anyone in the past can still be, and will be, robustly investigated and where appropriate a prosecution pursued.
Health Minister Robin Swann has said he will extend his departments powers under the Coronavirus Act for a further six months.

However, in a written statement to the Assembly Mr Swann said he has no plans and certainly no desire to introduce any further Covid restrictions in Northern Ireland.

However, DUP Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots said his partys ministers would be writing to Mr Swann to oppose the extension.

Emergency powers, including over domestic restrictions and international travel regulations, were granted in the Coronavirus Act 2020 to allow the Department of Health to deal with public health risks caused by the pandemic.

They are set to lapse on March 24 and there is currently no Executive at Stormont to agree an extension.

Mr Swann told MLAs: In the continuing absence of a functioning NI Executive, it has again fallen to me as Health Minister to decide whether to extend these powers for a further period.

He said he had received legal advice which said that extending the Coronavirus Act (CVA) order is not considered significant or controversial.

Mr Swann added: However, actually making restrictions regulations under the CVA powers could be deemed significant or controversial, depending on their content and all relevant circumstances, simply extending the powers to make regulations for six months is not.

I have no plans and certainly no desire to introduce any further restrictions.

I am extremely hopeful that the question will not arise, given the trajectory of the pandemic, the success of our vaccination campaign and the effective Covid-19 treatments now available through the health service.

Furthermore, there is at the very least considerable uncertainty as to whether I would have the power to unilaterally introduce fresh restrictions, in the absence of an Executive.

It is one thing to retain the powers to make regulations, it would be another matter entirely to decide to use such powers.

Mr Swann said that allowing the powers to lapse would put Northern Ireland out of alignment with the rest of the UK in the event that health protections measures are needed to be brought in at pace in response to a new Covid-19 variant of concern.

He said he had opted for a six-month extension after due deliberation.

Mr Swann said he had asked his officials to draft the necessary order to ensure the legislation can take legal effect upon the Assemblys approval.

But Mr Poots told the BBCs The Nolan Show that he believed some of the powers used in the past were excessive.

He said: Most of us, certainly in our party, dont believe that this extension is necessary and therefore the regulations are necessary and that Robin Swann would be better concentrating on other things.

The problem is some of the powers that were used in the past, we believe, were excessive and it gives somebody the ability to use excessive powers.
I was recently privileged to be asked to deliver a keynote on the semiconductor IP business to a distinguished group of engineers at the IEEE SoC Conference in Belfast. While Im a lifelong marketing man rather than an engineer, hopefully, my 25 years working in the IP industry has enabled me to view it from all angles and offer up some insight. Lets dive in

The state of the market

In recent years, the semiconductor market has been characterised by several factors. These include increased demand, cyclical supply, constant technological change, price erosion, evolving standards and varying product life cycles. Periods of diminished product demand have led to downturns, resulting in erosion of average selling prices (ASPs) and other factors that impact customers and the markets in which they operate.

On the upside, an increased requirement for high-performance IP solutions has bolstered the technology market and, to meet this need, it has increasingly adopted the third-party IP model.



Key industry trends underlying these changes include the growth of data centres, the proliferation of artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) devices, the growth of AI at the edge, development in and widespread use of 5G and other wireless technologies, and the adoption of ray tracing as a new and disruptive GPU technology.

Click here to read more ...




Speculations have been rife that Priyanka Chopra has bagged a role in upcoming Hollywood film Baywatch
Remember Chak De girls? Well, it's been almost a decade since the movie was released but like they say, some friendships last forever.
New Delhi, Sep 22 (IANS) Toughening its stand against video communication and calling apps, the Centre has proposed to bring Meta-owned WhatsApp, Zoom, and Google Duo under the ambit of telecom licence, as written in the draft of the Indian Telecommunication Bill 2022.

The government has, however, proposed to give exemption to press messages that are intended to be published in India of correspondents accredited to the Central or state governments from being intercepted.

"For provision of Telecommunication Services and Telecommunication Networks, an entity shall have to obtain a license," according to the draft.

The last date for public comment on the draft is October 20.

In another significant clause, the draft bill, released late Wednesday, proposes to waive off fees and penalty of telecom and internet service providers.

The exemption for press messages, though, won't be given in case of any public emergency or in the interest of public safety, sovereignty, integrity or security of India, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, or to prevent incitement to an offence, the draft read.

The draft bill was put up on social media by IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

It also proposes refund of fees if an internet or telecom service provider offers to surrender the license.

The draft bill says that the Centre may "waive off in part or full any fee, including entry fees, license fees, registration fees or any other fees or charges, interest, additional charges or penalty" for any licence holder or registered entity under the telecom rules.

(Except for the headline, the rest of this IANS article is un-edited)

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in
Sony has been betting big on OLED panel technology for years now with many of its premium and higher-end TVs making use of this technology. Over the years, these OLED panel TVs have helped Sony establish its dominance in the TVs market, and now, to take the good work forward Sony has launched the XR OLED A80K in India with a forward-looking design and premium features such as support for 120 Hz refresh rate, low latency modes, ALLM, VRR, HDMI 2.1 and 3D surround sound. We've had the 65-inch model of the XR OLED A80K with us for a while now, giving us enough insight to explain what this TV brings to the table.

SONY XR A80K REVIEW: SPECIFICATIONS

Model name: Sony XR-65A80K

Panel Size: 65-inch

Panel Resolution: 3840 x 2160p (4K)

Panel Refresh Rate: 120hz

HDR 10 support: Yes

HDR 10+ support: No

Dolby Vision Support: Yes

HDMI 2.1 Ports: 2

HDMI 2.0 Ports: 2

USB Ports: 2

Bluetooth: Yes, 5.0

Wi-Fi: Yes, dual-band

Ethernet: Yes

Speakers: Actuator x 3, Subwoofer x 2

Built-in storage: 16GB

Processor: Cognitive Processor XR

MRP: Starts at Rs 2,49,900, Review model Rs 3,49,900

Best price: Around Rs 1,80,000 and Rs 2,50,000

Sony XR A80K: Picture quality and performance

With Sony's XR A80K, the company combines a WRGB panel with self-emitting pixels to help the TV achieve pronounced blacks and an almost infinite contrast ratio. This is a similar combination to the one we saw on A80K's predecessor -- the A80J launched last year. However, since it's an upgrade, this new panel on the A80K also brings with it support for features such as Contrast Pro, XR Triluminos Pro, and Cognitive Processor XR. All these features work in tandem with the self-emitting pixels of the OLED to deliver deep blacks and rich details.

Additionally, because of the use of OLED technology, which ensures there are no dimming zones on the panel, the Sony XR A80K also doesn't suffer from blooming issues. During our time with the TV, we noticed no blooming problems that plague other TVs, including the previously tested Sony X75K which uses LEDs to generate visuals on the panel.

Sony's new OLED 4K TV also offers support for Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and HLG. When consuming content from streaming portals, the content automatically switches to the best available preset, which in the case of Netflix is a special Adaptive Calibrated Mode that automatically adjusts the picture brightness based on ambient room lighting. For such pieces of content, the panel gets plenty bright without losing out on details and highlights. This also makes the TV not only great for consuming 4K HDR content but arguably one of the best TVs we've tested for HDR content.





Of all the available presets, we got the best results for viewing when setting the TV to the Cinema preset. But, during our tests, this preset did give us slightly high delta errors in colour accuracy, with the Custome for Pro preset giving the best results. Set to this colour profile, the TV gave us an acceptable average deltaE of 4.21 with the max deltaE climbing to 8.8. These are good numbers. But sadly not as good as what we saw on the Sony A80J last year.

Testing the panel using Calman Ultimate paired with VideoForge Pro and Spectracal C6 Colorometer, we also found the panel throwing up good brightness numbers for an OLED TV. For SDR content, this peaked at 273 nits, while for HDR content in the Vivid Mode, this went up to around 780 nits. This makes the TV bright enough for consuming content even in a well-lit room. However, dark scenes suffer a bit if the TV is kept in a place where there is direct sunlight. But even this is an issue that can be worked around by tweaking things a bit within the settings menu.

We also got good results when we checked the gamut coverage of the TV. For both the sRGB and DCI-P3, the entirety of the colour spaces were covered by the panel in our testing. As expected, the BT 2020 colour space proved to be more challenging, but here again, the results were quite good.





The A80K hides inside the frame Sony's Cognitive Processor XR, which is the company's top-tier chip for the year. While this chip does help the TV improve visual experiences because of its ability to analyse content and recreate it the same way humans see and hear in the real world, its biggest use is felt when you play non-4K content on the TV.

This is where the XR 4K Upscaling engine powered by the Cognitive Processor XR comes into play and drastically improves the visual experience of consuming low-resolution or even SDR content on the TV. In terms of upscaling, the Sony XR A80K gave us very good results. In fact, the upscaling results were so good that I'm tempted to say it's possibly the best I've seen to date on a TV. However, that is not to say you'll not notice any pixelation in the frame if you're going to be streaming 480p content on this 4K TV.

Sony XR A80K: Gaming

However, chances are that if you're buying an expensive 4K OLED TV, it won't just be for content consumption. You'll also maybe want to game a little on it. And we're happy to say, for this, the Sony XR A80K has you covered.

So in terms of picture quality, the TV does not disappoint. The moment you hook up a console or a gaming laptop, and fire something like Dirt 5 or Assassin's Creed Valhalla, the Sony XR A80K takes your breath away with its visuals. HDR-ready games look extremely beautiful with rich colours, deep blacks, and impressive contrast. Unlike last year's A80J, Sony's latest OLED also gets two ports that come with VRR support and 4K at 120Hz. There's also ARC, eARC and ALLM on these ports making them good for gaming. In terms of features, the TV also gets Auto HDR Tone Mapping for PS5.

With the latter, the HDR settings on the TV are optimised instantly when your PS5 console is set up with the TV. When in action, the PS5 automatically recognises the XR A80k and optimises HDR setting to suit the TV. This helps visual output in high-contrast scenes, where details and colours in the brightest and darkest parts of the screen are handled accurately by the TV.

Sony XR A80K: Audio performance

For a premium end TV, the Sony A80K series comes with a bunch of audio features that promise to enhance the experience of watching movies or playing games on the TV. One of these is Sony's Acoustic Surface Audio+ feature. As the company explains, for this the company has positioned five actuators  three behind the screen and two at the sides  to create a fuller sound experience. These actuators have been paired with two subwoofers for a more complete sound experience. Sony has paired this hardware with features such as Acoustic Audio Calibration which automatically calibrates the sound output to improve the viewing experience. Additionally, there is support for Dolby Atmos sound and 3D surround sound upscaling.

While pairing your TV with a separate premium-range soundbar is always an option, the above-mentioned hardware and software on the XR A80K come together to ensure that if you don't own a soundbar, the audio experience on the TV is still not below par. This is especially true for watching movies and shows, where dialogues are clear and loud and the speakers don't sound like they are giving up the moment you crank up the volume.

Sony XR A80K: Design, remote and connectivity

Sony's XR A80K is a very visually striking unit, that looks worth every penny that Sony's asking for it. One of the most striking features of the TV is just how thin it is. The thin panel is held together by a plastic enclosure that also houses the TV's motherboard and other hardware, including the connectivity ports. Talking about these, the TV comes with four HDMI ports, an AV port, a 3.5mm headphones port and two USB ports.

The Sony XR A80K comes with two metal stands which are adjustable for height to help the TV leave space for a soundbar if you have one. These stands are also quite sturdy and keep the TV in place without any wobble. However, in my opinion, these feet are positioned too far apart if you plan on keeping the TV on a smaller table than the size of the TV.

As for the remote, the Sony XR A80K comes with a new remote which does not bring with it a Numpad. The remote looks premium and quite modern to match the aesthetics of your room. It also comes with a mic built-in for voice control with Google Assistant. Apart from the basic playback controls, it also brings OTT hotkeys for some of the most popular platforms. Since it is a premium-segment TV, the remote offers Bluetooth as well as IR connectivity options. Overall, we were quite happy with the remote as it is well built, ergonomic and would be good for all that you may want to do with the TV.

Sony XR A80K: Should you buy it?

So we're now on to the big question: Should you buy the Sony XR A80K?

Well, if you're in the market for a premium segment OLED, then the XR A80K should really be a TV you consider. This TV will provide you with a visual treat that very few TV sets on the market can right now. It offers decent brightness for an OLED and also offers good colour accuracy out-of-the-box when set to the Cinema preset. The panel's contrast ratios are almost infinite offering you beautiful visuals where the pitch dark meets some light.

But great handling of dark scenes or spectacular HDR performance isn't its only strength. It also offers really good upscaling of 1080p or even 720p content to 4K, along with good viewing angles and fast refresh rates, VRR as well as low input lag if you're a gamer.

Overall, all these features combined come together to make the XR A80K one of the best OLED options around. The only problem here may be the money Sony is asking for the TV. Currently, the TV can be purchased for the best price of around Lakh 80 from select physical stores for the 55-inch model, with the 65-inch model likely to set you back around Rs 2,50,000. While this is aggressive for a premium-segment OLED TV, it may still not be aggressive enough for some buyers. For such buyers, you have LG's A1 and even Xiaomi's OLED Vision TVs as options.

But if money is not a concern, and premium features and performance is what your heart desires, then there should be very little stopping you from buying the Sony XR A80K.
Main opposition Democratic Party of Korea Chairman Lee Jae-myung presides over a senior party meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul, Sept. 22. Yonhap



Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung on Friday slammed President Yoon Suk-yeol's alleged use of foul language, saying it is a disgrace that made people deeply mortified and hurt their dignity.



Yoon was caught on video making a remark privately to aides in New York on Wednesday that appeared to include vulgar words. Though the recording was not clear, many thought Yoon was talking about U.S. Congress and U.S. President Joe Biden



But Yoon's office later rejected the claim, explaining he was referring to how he would be embarrassed if Korea's opposition-controlled National Assembly rejected the $100 million he pledged to contribute to the Global Fund.



Despite the explanation, criticism ran high over Yoon's apparent use of vulgar language.



"It's a disgrace for the people, who must have felt deeply mortified and had their dignity hurt," said Lee, chair of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), during the party's Supreme Council meeting. "I'm at a loss for words. What else can I say?"






Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol makes an address at a dinner meeting with Koreans residing in Canada at a Toronto hotel, Sept. 22. Yonhap



President Yoon Suk-yeol's approval rating fell below 30 percent, a poll showed Friday, amid public criticism over his handling of diplomatic affairs in his ongoing three-nation trip.



In the poll of 1,000 adults conducted by Gallup Korea from Tuesday to Thursday, 28 percent positively assessed Yoon's job performance, down 5 percentage points from the previous week.



Yoon's disapproval rating jumped by 2 percentage points to 61 percent.



Yoon's approval rating slid below 30 percent just a week after it went back up above the threshold following a six-week streak in the 20 percent range in Gallup polls.



According to the pollster, many respondents cited the government's scrapping of a plan to build a new state guest house late last week and Yoon's handling of summit diplomacy, such as the cancellation of book-signing before the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, as reasons for disapproval.






The Minister for Justice has said warnings over a rise in anti-social behaviour in west Dublin have not been ignored by the Government, as she announced a number of measures to tackle ongoing issues.

Helen McEntee unveiled plans to crack down on anti-social problems in Cherry Orchard, where a Garda car was rammed by joyriders on Monday evening.

Ms McEntee visited the area on Friday to hear about the communitys concerns and meet with a number of local representatives.

Among a number of measures will be an increase of high-visibility policing in the area, including the city centre.

Determined response from the community in Cherry Orchard. A minority will never be allowed terrorise decent communities  those who deserve to be punished will be. But providing services and supports for young people and communities is vital to preventing anti social behaviour pic.twitter.com/moIMYBXnWs  Helen McEntee TD (@HMcEntee) September 23, 2022

The incident, which saw a Garda vehicle being rammed by a car, has been widely condemned.

Footage of the incident, which also shows dozens of onlookers cheering after the Garda car is rammed, was shared online.

Ms McEntee and Minister of State with Responsibility for Law Reform James Browne met with community representatives and organisations, public representatives, as well as Garda members.

Reiterating her condemnation of the incident, Ms McEntee said: It was obviously unacceptable that this community should have to put up with this type of behaviour, or that members of An Garda Siochana should be treated in this way.

But the reason that Im here today is to work with the community to try and respond and ensure that there is a criminal justice response, that we have the gardai and the resources to support that the community need to respond to these types of issues.

But beyond that we support the community in making sure that the right type of resources, the right type of supports, and the right type of comprehensive community response is in place.

There are fantastic people working in this community, living in this community, who just want to get on with their lives and support those who need their help.

What Ive given today is a commitment that as Minister for Justice, we will respond and that we will help them with that co-ordinated response.

She also rejected a suggestion that the Government has ignored warnings from local councillors in the area who have been flagging anti-social behaviour issues for some time.

Weve been speaking to local gardai, who for some months now have been working with the local community, responding to these types of incidents, and trying to put in place the most effective policing response, while at the same time working with the community groups to try and get to the crux and behind what is actually happening, Ms McEntee added.

What we saw on Monday evening I think was probably an escalation of a lot of what is happening.

What I intend to do now is make sure that the most comprehensive response is put in place, not just in terms of criminal justice responses but the wider response that the community need.

She said that any change in the area following the additional resources will take some time.

The Fine Gael minister said Cherry Orchard was a wonderful community and needed support to lift it.

On Thursday, gardai raided six homes in the Ballyfermot area in connection with Mondays incident.

While the properties were searched, no arrests were made.
Councillors at the Louth County Council September meeting voiced their annoyance at the response from Irish Water(IW), to their request for representatives from IW to come to a council meeting and address concerns about water quality in the county.

Cllr Kevin Meenan raised the matter, saying he was not impressed with the reply from Irish Water. In its reply IW said that it does not have the resources available to attend council meetings in each county, and that councillors could communicate with it via its local representative support desk, or its councillor clinics. IW added that it wished to assure customers in Dundalk that the performance of the treatment plant is continuously monitored and the drinking water is safe to drink. It further added that the Manganese in the water are not at a level that would pose a health threat and are continuing to decrease.

Cllr Meenan told the meeting that he had attended IW's Councillor Clinics but they were not great. Cllr Maeve Yore said that she agreed with Cllr Meenan on the matter and that lack of engagement with us and the standard of responses is dismal.

Cllr Joanna Byrne said that the request for IW to meet councillors actually goes back to 2019 when there was a motion passed asking Irish Water to meet them. She added that if IW are unwilling to come to them then perhaps Louth County Council should facilitate somewhere of IW's choice, to meet with Louth councillors.

Cllr Edel Corrigan also spoke on the matter, suggesting that the issue be raised with other bodies, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as it is an issue with drinking water". "It's just not good enough, she added and that people are afraid to drink it or wash themselves in it.

Head of Finance and Water Services, Ms Bernie Woods, said that unfortunately she has no control over Irish Water, they have the right to reply as they see fit and that she can't force them to come into the Chamber. In response to Cllr Corrigan's suggestion that they contact bodies including the EPA, Ms Woods said that they are entitled to go to all those bodies, adding that if there is a health issue with the water, there will be a Boil Water Notice issued.

Louth Chief Executive Joan Martin also commented on the matter, advising councillors to make use of the councillor clinics.

With IW soon taking over water services in total in the near future, Ms Martin added that it would not be long before water services would no longer be a topic in Louth County Council's Management Report, and this forum would no longer be of use to them.
The issue of antisocial behaviour and drug and alcohol misuse at the Hallidays Mill complex on Quay Street was raised by a concerned resident at the public meeting of Dundalk JPC on Wednesday night.

The resident said not enough was being done to tackle the problems of drug and alcohol misuse in the complex. She further claimed that people with disabilities were being taken advantage of by drug users.

In response Paddy Donnelly, Director of Housing Services at Louth County Council assured the resident that the council were taking steps to deal with the issues raised and had just that day held meetings with the management of Hallidays Mill, Cooperative Housing Ireland, and discussed a number of actions coming down the line that may take time to work through the legal processes but would have a positive outcomes.

He further stated that there had been a number of evictions from the development and more were pending to deal with challenging individuals.

In the main were finding that the tenants that are in there are abiding by their tenancy agreements and are cooperating with Cooperative housing Ireland.

There are some issues to be resolved and I can assure you although it may not seem like theres anything being done but we certainly will see a number of upcoming actions taking place in the coming weeks, he said.

Supt Charlie Armstrong said that community gardai were doing work with residents in the complex and have been meeting with management in the last few weeks and that there have been some positive results from these liaisons and that there have been additional patrols in the Halliday's Mill area.

Local Sinn Fein councillor Kevin Meenan stated that he had been inundated with complaints from residents who cant sleep due to anti-social behaviour and who had been dragged out of bed the previous night because of a suspected arson attack on a ground floor apartment.

It stems a lot from allocation at the start, we have not thought that through and have reaped the consequences of that.

"We have to look at where we are putting people in and amongst families and how we allocate them.

He went on to say that he had the utmost faith in the housing section of the council and the guards but sometimes we get things wrong, and have to learn from this.
Louth Sinn Fein TD Ruairi O Murchu has called for VAT on newspapers to be cut to zero in the upcoming Budget, to give "a vital lifeline to local papers across Ireland".

The Dundalk deputy said Sinn Fein has included a zero VAT rate for newspapers in their alternative budget which is being published today (Friday).

He said local newspapers are the "backbone of communities in County Louth".

Deputy O Murchu said: "We saw this starkly during the pandemic, as newspapers not only shared vital public health notices, but also ensured people could stay connected with their wider community while we were all kept apart by lockdowns.

"Our newspapers are vital for democracy and championing local issues. They also employ people locally in the economy.

"Unfortunately, they are coming under huge financial pressures as the media landscape changes and many are worried about stopping their presses and closing their doors for good.

"Next week, the government will announce their Budget. One of the measures that should be included is cutting VAT on newspapers to zero.

"This would be a much-needed lifeline for local newspapers. It would ensure that they can keep their doors open and keep serving our communities.

"Local newspapers provide an important and valuable service to our communities.

"We must ensure that these resources are not lost due to the government failing to grasp the pressures our local newspapers under. Its time for zero VAT on newspapers."
President Yoon Suk-yeol, third from right, looks at a robotic hand demonstration ahead of a meeting with a group of artificial intelligence experts at the University of Toronto, Thursday. Yonhap





By Kwon Mee-yoo







President Yoon Suk-yeol arrived in Canada, Thursday (local time), to strengthen technological ties with the North American country.







This visit is the last leg of his three-nation trip to the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. Yoon began his schedule in Canada by meeting with a group of experts on artificial intelligence (AI) in Toronto.







At the University of Toronto, Yoon met with Geoffrey Hinton, a professor emeritus of computer science and a pioneer of deep learning, Garth Gibson, president of the Vector Institute, and Meric Gertler, president of the University of Toronto, along with Ontario Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Victor Fedeli.







Yoon described Toronto as an AI powerhouse that researchers and big tech companies flock to.







"Korea and Canada will be able to take another leap forward in the field of AI if we cooperate. I am here to listen to the secret to Canada's success in AI and seek advice on Korea's path to becoming an AI powerhouse," Yoon said.






China celebrates farmers' harvest festival

Xinhua) 16:57, September 23, 2022

CHENGDU, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of millions of Chinese farmers celebrated the fifth harvest festival on Friday, as the country expects a bumper harvest despite COVID-19 and extreme weather.

After overcoming the impact of last year's rare autumn floods in the north, late sowing of winter wheat, the sporadic resurgences of COVID-19 cases, and severe heat and drought in some southern regions, China has seen output increases in summer grain and early rice and is expecting another bumper harvest this year.

At an agri-expo park in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, one of the venues of this year's harvest festival celebration, residents from Xinjin District attended several farming-themed activities on Friday morning, such as product exhibitions, ceremonies to award "best-performing farmers," and fitness competitions.

"Thanks to technological advances, I have reaped bumper tangerine harvests and witnessed an increase of annual income these years," said Tan Jing, a participant who owns a tangerine planting area of over 2,000 mu (about 133.33 hectares) in Jinlong Village of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province.

Initiated in 2018, the Chinese farmers' harvest festival coincides with the autumnal equinox each year, which is one of the 24 solar terms of the Chinese lunar calendar and usually falls between Sept. 22 and 24 during the country's agricultural harvest season.

China's total grain output consists of three parts -- early rice, summer grain, and autumn production. Autumn grain production makes up about 75 percent of the annual grain output. The country aims to achieve a grain output of more than 650 billion kg this year.

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Liang Jun)




SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won has met with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema in New York and discussed ways for cooperation in shoring up the raw materials supply chain, the business group said Friday.







In the meeting, Chey highlighted that Zambia's copper mines offer interesting opportunities to companies, like SK, that engage in manufacturing of copper foils, a critical component used in lithium-ion battery cells, SK said.







Copper foil is as thin as one-fifteenth of human hair and used as the anode current collector of the lithium-ion battery cells for electric vehicles.







SK, South Korea's second-largest conglomerate, has SK Nexilis, the world's biggest copper foil producer, under its wing.







The meeting took place on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, where world leaders, including Hichilema, had gathered to attend.







Chey explained to Hichilema that SK can also play a role in helping Zambia's energy transition to renewables, such as solar and wind power.







Hichilema, in turn, expressed hope to continue the discussions going forward on business cooperation between his country and SK.







Chey also used the meeting to ask for Zambia's support for Seoul's bid to host the World Expo in the southern port city of Busan in 2030, SK said. (Yonhap)


By Rebecca Black, PA

The heightened nuclear risks from Russias aggression against Ukraine are unprecedented, the Taoiseach has warned the United Nations.

Micheal Martin referred to potential threats to nuclear safety and security resulting from military activity near civilian nuclear facilities in Ukraine as the Russian invasion rages on.

Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, the Taoiseach said the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty must remain an essential element of international peace and security, adding the urgency of its full implementation cannot be overstated.

He described Russias invasion of Ukraine as carrying dark echoes of our continents past.

We face an expansionist power brutally invading and occupying a peaceful neighbour, Mr Martin said.

We faced this many times in Europe in the 20th century. We did not think we would face it again in the 21st century.

But this is not just a European issue. Not just a concern for the West.

All states, and particularly small countries such as my own, should fear a world where might equals right, where the strong can bully the weak; where sovereignty and territorial integrity can be blatantly violated; and where the UN Charter  the charter that all of us in this Assembly have faithfully put our trust in  can be flouted with impunity.

Mr Martin referred to his visit to Ukraine in July, hearing first-hand accounts from civilians, and the uncovering of mass civilian graves in Bucha and Izium.

We have seen the targeting of nuclear facilities and of civilian infrastructure, he said.

And now we see President Putin plan sham referenda in eastern Ukraine, aimed at forcibly changing Ukraines borders, in clear violation of the UN Charter.

We have to name what we are seeing. These actions, taken collectively, show Russia behaving as a rogue state.

He also referred to the impact of the invasion reaching as far as the Horn of Africa in terms of food insecurity.

Some of the countries which have been worst-affected by the current food insecurity crisis are those most reliant on imports of wheat from Russia and Ukraine, he said.

Combined with the impact of climate change, and of conflict, severe drought and other extreme weather events, we face a crisis that needs urgent action.

Mr Martin described a time of crisis, referring to the threat of widespread global hunger, food insecurity, devastating impacts of climate change and blatant disregard for international law and the UN Charter.

He went on to say that the gathering has the tools and systems to address these issues, and called for political will to implement treaties and charters that are agreed.

When much of the progress that we were making towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals has stalled or gone into reverse, as we grapple with the continued effects of the Covid pandemic, he said.

We cannot continue to shelve or postpone or ignore our existential global challenges.




Uruguay land values up due to increasing demand for soybean and beef

Uruguayan land brokers said increased demand for soybean and beef in the country are boosting rural land prices for the second year in the row, Bloomberg reported.

Pablo Albano, who oversees the real estate division of land-and-cattle broker Zambrano & Cia, said this year, many producers are starting to incorporate the increase in soy and meat into land values.

He anticipates a 10% to 20% increase in land prices. Albano said he hasn't been this busy since he took over the division in 2010 and closed more than 10 transactions this year.

Daniel Dutra, the director of rival broker Escritorio Dutra, said the number of transactions has doubled this year, and property values have increased by 5% to 10%, driven primarily by Uruguayan buyers.

Both predict that, barring significant swings in commodity prices, land values will stabilise in 2019.

Soybean futures have increased 9.1% in Chicago this year as food demand has increased globally and supply has been hampered by the drought and Russia's conflict in Ukraine, one of the world's primary producers of bread. This is increasing demand for agricultural products coming from other international suppliers like Uruguay.

Uruguay consistently ranks among the top 10 countries exporting beef to the world and is a significant producer of soybeans in Latin America. With shipments totaling nearly $1.9 billion through August, the nation's beef exports are on track to break their previous record this year. Additionally, wood pulp is one of the forestry products that Uruguay exports.

The value of agricultural lands has increased as a result of rising prices for such commodities, which have increased farmland returns. Last year, land sales in Uruguay increased by 51% to almost 232,000 hectares (573,000 acres), valued at $811 million. According to information gathered by Uruguay's agriculture ministry, the average price per hectare increased 6% to a four-year high of nearly $3,500.

Despite the fact that more properties are changing hands, the brokers claim that the market is still a long way from entering a speculative bubble.

The majority of land buyers are Uruguayans, with smaller numbers of Europeans, Americans, and South Americans following. Albano reported receiving inquiries from Argentines looking to invest US$30 million in grazing and farming land. Dutra is also getting inquiries from people who live elsewhere.

- Bloomberg




Australia-funded project helps establish portable yards in Indonesia as part of FMD vaccination efforts

Five sets of portable yards to aid local government authorities in vaccinating cattle for foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) across the Indonesian Archipelago have now been completed, thanks to a project funded by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA).

The yards will assist the Indonesian government to control the spread of FMD in its smallholder farms by providing the facilities necessary for authorities to conduct a mobile vaccination programme on properties where appropriate infrastructure is not available.

Built locally using quality materials, the features of each set of portable yards include:

- A knock down structure for quick movement between locations;

- A platform with tyres to aid movement with a small vehicle;

- Capacity to hold 2030 head of livestock;

- A head bale system for securing livestock while vaccinating;



- Loading and unloading ramp to assist cattle movement.

The five sets of yards were completed earlier this month and are now being distributed across provinces in Indonesia, including Riau, Lampung, South Sulawesi, East Kalimantan and West Java.

The MLA-funded facilities are part of MLA's suite of in-country support services that have been activated to assist the Indonesian government in stopping the spread of FMD as well as lumpy skin disease (LSD).

Other in-country support being provided by MLA to stop the spread of these diseases includes:

- Provision of a major biosecurity support project, co-funded with the Australian government, to minimise the negative impact of FMD/LSD and to reduce disease spread;

- Assistance to review Indonesia's national traceability system to help track and control livestock movements;

- Interventions to minimise disruption to the live cattle trade;

- Building Indonesia's long-term biosecurity capacity to manage exotic diseases;

- Building the Indonesian government's confidence in its feedlot sector to manage disease, ensure trade continues and preserve the country's food security;



- Funding a FMD vaccine support project for Indonesian feedlots;

- Other activities to assist Indonesian industry to manage and minimise disease spread.



- Beef Central
Figure 1Police officers detain a man in Moscow, Sept. 21, following calls to protest against partial mobilisation announced by President Vladimir Putin. AFP-Yonhap



Moscow began its mandatory troop call-up Thursday to try to bolster a stumbling war effort in Ukraine, with authorities saying thousands had volunteered even as Russian men fled the country to avoid being forced to fight.



Amateur footage posted on social media since President Vladimir Putin ordered the mobilization of reservists on Wednesday purported to show hundreds of Russian citizens across the country responding to military summons.



The call-up came as Moscow-held regions of Ukraine are to vote in coming days on whether to become part of Russia in referendums that have been called an unlawful land grab by Kyiv and its allies.



Moscow took these steps after Ukrainian forces seized back most of the northeastern Kharkiv region, which has been seen as a possible turning point in the seven-month war that had fallen into stalemate.



The Russian military said Thursday that at least 10,000 people had volunteered to fight in 24 hours since the order, but men also rushed to leave Russia before they were made to join.



Flights out of Russia to neighboring countries, mainly former Soviet republics that allow Russians visa-free entry, are nearly entirely booked and prices have skyrocketed, pointing to an exodus of Russians wanting to avoid going to war.



"I don't want to go to the war," a man named Dmitri, who had flown to Armenia with just one small bag, told AFP. "I don't want to die in this senseless war. This is a fratricidal war."



Military-aged men made up the majority of those arriving off the latest flight from Moscow at Yerevan airport and many were reluctant to speak.



The Armenian capital has become a major destination for Russians fleeing since war began on February 24, drawing fierce international opposition that has aimed to isolate Russia.



Looking lost and exhausted in Yerevan airport's arrivals hall, 44-year-old Sergei said he had fled Russia to escape being called up.



"The situation in Russia would make anyone want to leave," he told AFP.



Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Russians to resist Putin's partial mobilization during his daily address on Thursday evening.









"Protest. Fight back. Run away. Or surrender" to the Ukrainian army, he said. "You are already complicit in all these crimes, murders and torture of Ukrainians. Because you were silent. Because you are silent."



More than 1,300 people were arrested during anti-mobilization demonstrations across Russia on Wednesday, a monitoring group reported.





Police officers detain a woman in Moscow, Sept. 21, following calls to protest against partial mobilisation announced by President Vladimir Putin. AFP-Yonhap



Annexation 'vote'



US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday demanded Putin be held to account as he faced Russia in a Security Council session in which the United Nations catalogued abuses in Ukraine.



"We cannot  we will not  let President Putin get away with it," Blinken said.



Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov  whom Blinken has refused to meet individually since the February invasion  lashed out at Western accusations.



"There's an attempt today to impose on us a completely different narrative about Russian aggression as the origin of this tragedy," Lavrov told the Security Council.



The confrontation on the diplomatic stage escalated as Kremlin-installed officials in Ukrainian regions controlled by Moscow's forces vowed on Thursday to press ahead with annexation polls this week.



Four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine  Donetsk and Lugansk in the east and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south  announced that they would hold the votes over five days, beginning on Friday.



Western leaders convening in New York this week unanimously condemned the ballots.



Speaking at the United Nations, US President Joe Biden accused Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of "shamelessly" violating the UN Charter with a war aimed at "extinguishing Ukraine's right to exist as a state".





A police officers and protesters are seen during an unauthorised rally against a partial mobilisation announced by Russia's President Vladimir Putin, Sept. 21. Tass-Yonhap
Boeing has agreed to pay $200 million to settle charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The agency found that Boeing made "materially misleading public statements" related to crashes involving its 737 Max aircraft. The company's former CEO Dennis Muilenburg will also pay $1 million to settle charges. The SEC alleged that Boeing and Muilenburg violated the antifraud provisions of federal securities laws. They neither admitted to nor denied the agency's findings.

The SEC alleged that, after the first crash in October 2018, which caused the death of 189 people, Boeing and Muilenburg were aware that the anti-stall Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) posed an ongoing safety concern. However, the company told the public that the 737 Max was as safe as any airplane that has ever flown the skies.

After a second crash in March 2019, in which 157 people died, the company and Muilenburg claimed "there were no slips or gaps in the certification process with respect to MCAS, despite being aware of contrary information," the SEC said in a statement. Following the crashes, all 737 Max planes were grounded for over 18 months .

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"There are no words to describe the tragic loss of life brought about by these two airplane crashes," SEC Chair Gary Gensler said. "In times of crisis and tragedy, it is especially important that public companies and executives provide full, fair and truthful disclosures to the markets. The Boeing Company and its former CEO, Dennis Muilenburg, failed in this most basic obligation. They misled investors by providing assurances about the safety of the 737 Max, despite knowing about serious safety concerns."

The settlement "fully resolves the SECs previously disclosed inquiry into matters relating to the 737 Max accidents," Boeing told CNN . Todays settlement is part of the companys broader effort to responsibly resolve outstanding legal matters related to the 737 Max accidents in a manner that serves the best interests of our shareholders, employees, and other stakeholders."
Starting next year, you'll only be able to activate newly released Fitbit models using a Google account. It doesn't come as a surprise for Google's services to become more intertwined with Fitbit's fitness devices after the tech giant acquired the latter for $2.1 billion in 2021. But now, we have a timeline for when Fitbit accounts will no longer be essential. As spotted by 9to5Google, Fitbit has revealed in its help page that it will launch support for Google accounts in 2023. Signing up for Fitbit and activating new devices will require the use of a Google account after that.

In addition, the brand will completely end support for Fitbit accounts sometime in early 2025, after which a Google account will be required to use its fitness devices and smartwatches. Fitbit promises that it will be transparent and will notify you of the exact date through notifications in its app, by email and in help articles. To ensure a smooth transition, it will enable the option to move your current Fitbit device to a Google account as soon as support arrives next year. You'll also have the opportunity to make changes to your Fitbit data when making the move. If you do link a device to a Google account, you'll be able to manage your Fitbit data both from the brand's app and from your Google settings.

Fitbit says its parent company made binding commitments not to use your health and wellness data for ads and will keep that information separate from what it does send to advertisers. The tech giant had insisted from the time it announced the acquisition that it will not be using Fitbit data for ad targeting. In 2020, it formally made the commitment to the European Commission to ward off an antitrust probe.
Cars queue to cross the border from Russia to Finland at the Nuijamaa border check point in Lappeenranta, Finland, Sept. 22. Reuters-Yonhap



Some draft-age Russians rushed to the borders on Thursday to escape their country's biggest conscription drive since World War Two, while explosions shook southeastern Ukraine on the eve of referendums planned there by pro-Moscow separatists.



President Vladimir Putin's new mobilization campaign escalates the seven-month-old war that has killed thousands, displaced millions, pulverized cities, damaged the global economy and revived Cold War confrontation.



Though surveys have suggested widespread domestic backing for Russia's intervention in Ukraine, mass conscription may be a risky move domestically after past Kremlin promises it would not happen and a string of battlefield failures in Ukraine.



"Every normal person is (concerned)," said one man, identifying himself only as Sergey, disembarking in Belgrade after a flight from Moscow. "It is OK to be afraid of the war."



Anti-war protests in 38 Russian cities saw more than 1,300 people arrested on Wednesday, a monitoring group said. Some of the detainees had been ordered to report to enlistment offices on Thursday, the first full day of conscription, independent news outlets said. More rallies are planned for the weekend.



Russia said reports of a mass exodus were exaggerated.



Russian news agencies meanwhile reported on Thursday that 10,000 people had volunteered to fight even before their call-up papers had arrived, citing the Russian General Staff.



Putin's defense minister has said the mobilization is intended to enlist about 300,000 men.



Prices for air tickets from Moscow soared above $5,000 for one-way flights to the nearest foreign locations, with most sold out for coming days. Traffic also surged at border crossings with Finland and Georgia.



One Russian man arriving at Istanbul Airport said he left partly over the Kremlin's decision. "It can lead to lots of problems for lots of Russians," said Alex, grabbing his suitcase at a baggage carousel.



A truck driver who crossed the Russian-Kazakh border near the Kazakh city of Oral said he saw unusually heavy traffic from the Russian side. A tourism industry source said there was desperation as people sought to find air tickets out of Russia.



National airline Aeroflot said it would refund people unable to fly as planned because they had received a call-up.











Passengers get off a bus as they wait to enter Finland from Russia at the Nuijamaa border checkpoint in Lappeenranta, Finland, on Sept. 22. Reuters-Yonhap
Mercedes-Benz has revealed when you might be able to get behind the wheel of its electric G-Class . The automaker's CEO Ola Kallenius told members of the media that the vehicle will arrive by the end of 2024, according to Autoblog .

The company announced a zero-emission electric version of the SUV back in 2019 and we got a close-up look at an EQG concept last year. Last fall, Kallenius put a prototype of the EV through its paces at Mercedes testing grounds in Graz, Austria  that's where the company typically evaluates the internal combustion version of the G-Class. He seemingly had a positive experience. From now on, going off-road is electric, Kallenius told reporters.

Making an electric version of the G-Class work was essential for the SUV to stick around for the long haul. Mercedes plans to have an all-electric vehicle lineup by 2030 .
An international team of scientists have unveiled details of the history of the asteroid Ryugu, a truly ancient object in the Solar system, after the Hayabusa2 mission brought samples from this asteroid back to Earth. The ESRF was one of the institutes involved in sample characterization, on ID15A. The results are published this week in Science.

The asteroid Ryugu, located at 200 million kilometres from the Earth, is one of the most primitive objects of the solar system. The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 explored it from 2018 until it came back to Earth two years later with minuscule multiple samples from the asteroid.

Two years later, and thanks to the international collaboration of institutes led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the first results on the analysis of the samples shed light on the history of Ryugu, from its formation to its collisional destruction.

Researchers used cosmochemical and physical methods at universities and institutes, including the ESRF and four other synchrotron radiation facilities in Japan, United States, and Europe.

The results combined with computer simulation have allowed scientists to picture the origins of Ryugu: the Ryugu parent body accumulated about 2 million years after the formation of the solar system, and then heated up to about 50C over the next 3 million years, resulting in chemical reactions between water and rock. The size of the impactor that destroyed the Ryugu parent body, which is about 100 km in diameter, is at most 10 km in diameter, and that the present-day Ryugu is composed of material from a region far from the impact point.

What the data explain

In particular, the seventeen Ryugu samples analysed contain particles (such as Ca- and Al-rich inclusions) that were formed in high-temperature environments (>1000C). These high-temperature particles are thought to have formed near the Sun and then migrated to the outer solar system, where Ryugu was formed. This indicates that large-scale mixing of materials occurred between the inner and outer solar system at the time of its birth.

Based on the detection of the magnetic field left in the Ryugu samples, it is highly likely that the original asteroid from which the current Ryugu descended (Ryugus parent body) was born in the darkness of nebular gas, far from the Sun, where sunlight cannot reach.

The scientists also discovered liquid water trapped in a crystal in a sample. This water was carbonated water containing salts and organic matter, which was once present in the Ryugu parent body. Crystals shaped as coral reefs grew from the liquid water that existed inside Ryugu's parent body. Rocks that were deeper underground contained more water than those in the surface.

The hardness, heat transfer, and magnetic properties of the samples were measured. The results showed that the Ryugu sample was soft enough to be cut with a knife. The sample also contained many small magnets, behaving like a natural hard disk, recording the magnetic field of the past.

With all this information, the scientists carried out a computer simulation of the process from the birth of the Ryugu parent body to its destruction by a catastrophic impact. This is the first time that measurements of the hardness and thermal diffusivity of actual asteroid samples have been incorporated into a simulation of the formation and evolution of asteroids.

The role of the ESRF

Scientists from the Ghent University and Goethe University Frankfurt, together with Marco di Michiel at the ESRF, carried out X-ray fluorescence experiments at ESRF ID15A. We combined very high incident energies of 90 keV with a 300 nm resolution scanning capability and a new high-count rate high-efficiency fluorescence detector, explains Laszlo Vincze, researcher at Ghent University.

Looking deep inside the mm-sized Ryugu asteroid rock fragments non-destructively by performing high resolution 2D/3D elemental mapping of heavy and rare earth elements (REE) has been made possible by the unique combination of beam properties enabled by ESRF EBS and new detection system, Vincze says. Access to such high energy submicron excitation yielded up-to-now unattainable information on the high atomic number and REE trace element patterns within these unique samples, he adds.

The study of the returned Ryugu rocks at the ESRF takes place in the framework of a long-term project at ID15A that aims to obtain quantitative chemical information to unravel the secrets of this ancient solar system material.

Vincze and his colleagues are no strangers to the ESRF: These investigations follow a series of studies by our team at the ESRF spanning over more than a decade now, investigating cometary and interstellar material returned by NASAs Stardust mission. This experience has prepared us to analyse samples of future return material, such as that of the OSIRIS-REx mission from asteroid Bennu, expected next year, he concludes.

Reference:

Nakamura, T. et al., Science, 22 September 2022. DOI: 10.1126/science.abn8671
The limitless friendship between China and Russia notwithstanding, President Xi Jinping of China appears to be at least somewhat miffed at President Vladimir Putin of Russia. For a hint of why that might be, consider the energy sector.

In theory, over the long run, Russias isolation from its major oil and gas customers in the West could be a boon for Chinaparticularly with regards to natural gas, since the two nations have already agreed to expand the existing pipeline network between them. But there is a problem: For now, China is a coal- and oil-powered economy, and the transition to moving toward gas will be long and expensive. In the meantime, Mr. Putins war in Ukraine has helped push coal and petroleum prices through the roof. All this comes as Chinas economy is already struggling with a punishing property downturn and deeply discouraged consumers.

China has long been the worlds coal-burning heavyweight, thanks to its own enormousalthough not always high-qualitycoal reserves. Unlike the U.S. and Europe, where natural gas has in recent years accounted for around 30% and 25% of the energy mix, respectively, gas was only 8.4% of Chinas primary energy consumption in 2020. Coal was 57%.

Domestic price controls give Chinese power plants and petroleum users some relief, but even heavily discounted Russian oil is close to 40% more expensive than what China was paying for oil in late 2019. The situation for coal is even worse. Chinas average import cost per metric ton was $140 in August, according to data from CEIC, up from around $70 in late 2019. Some of those imports can be substituted with domestic coal but, because Chinese coal is often lower quality, power plants generally need to blend domestic coal with higher-quality Indonesian or Australian imports, making a certain amount of pain unavoidable.

Access to Russian oil at a significant discount to global crude prices does give Chinese refiners a big advantage to the extent they are able to export fuel products like diesel into world marketsand such exports did rise sharply in August, after lagging for much of the past year.

But other oil-dependent industries like petrochemicals arent seeing much benefit, at least for now. The combination of a depressed Chinese economy and sky-high global oil prices is bad news for Chinese petrochemical firms. CEIC data shows that the Northeast Asian market price of ethylene, the basic petrochemical behind many plastics, has been below the Chinese price of naphthathe oil-derived feedstock for ethylene productionthis summer.

Someday, more pipelines delivering large quantities of deeply discounted Russian gas might give energy-intensive Chinese industry an enduring cost advantage of the sort U.S. and Middle Eastern-based petrochemical firms using natural-gas liquids have long enjoyed. Legions of gas-fired power plants might provide a convenient, reliable and cheap alternative to coal.

For now, though, China is stuck with expensive coal and oil at a time when the economy desperately needs help. No wonder Mr. Xi is grinding his teeth.

Nathaniel Taplin

: wsj.com
At a meeting of the United Nations Security Council focused on the conflict in Ukraine, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Gutteres warned Russia that plans to annex Ukrainian territory under the guise of referendums would violate the U.N. charter.
Once Upon a Time, the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) defined HBO2 Therapy in a way that confused anyone knowledgeable about the laws of physics and biochemistry: (OLD) The UHMS defines hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) as an intervention in which an individual breathes near 100% oxygen intermittently while inside a hyperbaric chamber that is pressurized to greater than sea level pressure (1 atmosphere absolute, or ATA). For clinical purposes, the pressure must equal or exceed 1.4 ATA while breathing near 100% oxygen. By redefining Hyperbaric Medicine to comply with current scientific research, decades of evidence-based and clinical medicine, and the laws of physics, the UHMS has done a service to service members suffering from brain wounds. As Dr Paul Harch put it in his latest research: This scientific understanding of hyperbaric oxygen therapy has eluded the hyperbaric medicine field for 359 years, particularly in the last 60 years, and has been confused and thwarted by the arbitrary definition of HBOT at a minimum pressure of 1.4 ATA of 100% oxygen. The rethinking and updating of the medical properties of HBOT catapaults the last decade of research into the limelight due to the renewed emphasis by the DoD and Department of Veterans Affairs number one clinical priority: suicide prevention. Both the DoD and the VA have declared that suicide prevention is their #1 clinical priority. Massive increases to budgets have occurred for research into new methods to identify, communicate about, respond to, account for, and deal with suicidal ideation. Yet not even one of the new awards for Suicide Prevention in Mission Daybreak, a $20 million grand challenge to reduce Veteran suicides, is focused on treatment of brain wounds or drug overprescription, two of the major identifiers of suicidally-prone service members. Not a word about treating and healing brain wounds, one of whose symptoms is suicidal ideation, nor that HBOT virtually eliminates suicide ideation. One obvious reason for the neglect of the use of HBOT by the VA to help heal brain wounds is the negative pronouncements by the DoD/VA/Army stemming from their $126+ Million research. Conclusions in their findings, as opposed to the actual data from over 300 patients, is that HBOT does not work. Well, no. The UHMS redefinition of Hyperbaric Oxygen kicks the struts out from beneath the governments dependence on their sham and the statistical sleight-of-hand about the ineffectiveness of HBOT. Many others have already written extensively about the bogus sham [here and here.] But the action by the UHMS calls for a full public and legislative and oversight vetting of the truth about the proven safety and efficacy of HBOT for TBI and other brain insults. One egregious example of the stacked-deck outcomes of Government-sponsored research relying on the OLD definition of HBOT can be found on the VA website; COL Scott Miller, Principle Investigator on an RCT, and commentator on the benefits of HBOT for TBI is just one of the apologists for the discredited science. COL Miller and Dr David Cifu lament that the nail may not be in the coffin yet, but theyre working on further disproof of the safety and efficacy of HBOT. In the same article, COL Miller deflects from the data: interestingly enough, both the intervention and sham group showed mild improvement. . . . People did get better and we cant ignore those results. HBOT is a healing environment Two decades of erroneous findings can now be properly reported. The VA/HSR&D Evidence Synthesis Program in the VA issued an Evidence Brief on HBOT that must be rewritten in light of the updated information. The Congressional Research Service similarly has to inform members that research heretofore deemed inconclusive or in opposition to the use of HBOT for TBI is, in fact, conclusively positive. Data from government-sponsored studies demonstrate safety and efficacy. (RE)education about the truth of the safety and efficacy of HBOT-for-TBI cannot begin soon enough. Taxxpayer dollars are being expended to understand the placebo effects of HBOT to explain the disconcerting fact that people did get better. Consultants to the VA invented the phrase the ritual of HBOT as a research topic to get to the bottom of the mystery of how so much improvement was recorded, even though HBOT does not work. All is not lost. A humourous exchange between this author and one of the inventors of the ritual of HBOT placebo went this way.  Doctor, you can save lots of time and money investigating rituals by taking brain injured veterans to St Peters Cathedral in Rome on Christmas eve for high Mass. Candles, incense, Gregorian chants, pomp and circumstance, vestments, heavenly singing, and the mystery of the Gospels. The Catholic Church has the ritual part down. But if you want the brain wounded to heal, you better take a hyperbaric chamber with you. TreatNOW.org
Members of the Job Site Ready cohort listen to instructions on how to build trusses on June 16, 2021 at the University of Montana West Campus.
More than 20 mature students have been awarded bursaries worth a total of 20,000 to study at Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) this year.

The 24 successful students were selected from an 'unprecedented' 84 applications for the Change Your Path Bursary scheme, the college said.

The scheme aims to ease the transition for those returning to study as mature students aged 25 or over.

More than half of the successful applications this year were from students studying Wildlife and Conservation Management.

Other applications, which are worth 1,000 for full-time students or 500 for part-time students, were from those studying Animal Care, Horticulture, and Rural Business Management.

Most of the applicants are studying HNC or HND courses, SRUC said, and the bursary awards were evenly distributed among the college's numerous campuses.

Hannah D'Mellow, student recruitment manager said: We had an unprecedented 84 applications for the Change Your Path Bursary this year.

I'm really looking forward to seeing some of the stories over the next few months, and in the campaign for the bursary next year.

Mature students looking to change their career or re-train can apply for SRUCs Change Your Path Bursary.

Applicants must be aged 25 or over by 31 August, and be enrolled on an HNC, HND, undergraduate degree or distance learning PgDip/MSc course in September.

They must also be studying full time or part time, which is defined as studying at least 50% of the full time programme in this academic year.
Attracting workers is critical if Scottish farming is to thrive in the future, NFU Scotland has said as the sector continues to face serious labour issues.

The union has today urged the Scottish government to work with the agricultural sector on measures that enables the farming community to attract more workers.

These could include supporting training and skills development, the adoption of new technologies and positively promoting agri-food career opportunities.

The impact of the ongoing labour crisis, affecting both permanent and seasonal staff, is being widely felt among the Scottish farming industry.

A recent survey of NFU Scotlands soft fruit and vegetable growers estimated that there is a 20 percent shortfall in seasonal workers.

Jamie Hepburn MSP, Minister for Higher Education and Further Education, met with representatives of NFU Scotland on Friday (23 September) to hear of the labour concerns.

Specific requests from the union included the development of more formal Continual Professional Development (CPD) programmes, and greater recognition at school level of opportunities for employment in the agri-food sector.

It also called for further development of apprenticeship schemes and recognition that training within the agricultural workforce could present specific issues around remoteness, transport and connectivity.

Speaking after the meeting, chair of NFU Scotlands Skills Committee, Jamie Smart, said a skilled workforce was central to maintaining the capacity for farms to produce food in the years ahead.

"That must be a priority for governments and the supply chain," he said, warning that the farming sector was facing serious labour issues on several fronts.

He added: "There is a shortage of seasonal workers, permanent experienced staff and new workers coming into the sector.

As farming is made up of many family-run businesses which do not have a human resources capability, this makes the process of recruiting even more daunting when it happens.

It comes after the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) committee recently warned that the industry faced permanent damage if the government failed to address the lack of workers, caused mainly by Covid and Brexit.

MPs on the committee said that despite the sector flagging significant concern, the shortage of labour in 2021 took a toll on food security, the welfare of animals and the mental health of those who work in the industry.
Tim Lock, an award-winning West Sussex dairy farmer, has been appointed Red Tractor's new Dairy Sector Chair.

Mr Lock joins the assurance body with extensive experience in the dairy industry, having previously held a role with the NFU National Dairy Board.

He ran a mixed family farming business in West Sussex until a recent change in land ownership led to changes in business ownership.

Currently, Mr Lock is the chair of the M&S National Milk Pool, a role he will continue to fulfil until early 2023 when his term of office comes to an end.

Red Tractor CEO Jim Moseley welcomed the new appointment, as he 'brings a wealth of experience and understanding of the whole dairy sector'.

He added: "His strong leadership will be a fantastic asset in our efforts to protect the integrity of Britains dairy food chain and farming standards."

Responding, Mr Lock said he was 'delighted' to be appointed the role at such an important time for the British dairy industry.

"It is an exciting opportunity to use my knowledge and experience having run a complex and diverse farming business right the way through the supply chain to the retailers shelf.

"I am looking forward to working alongside food and farming businesses helping them to prosper and flourish through the undoubted challenges that lay ahead of the industry.

Angela Rhodes, the current Red Tractor Dairy Sector Chair, completes her second term in November 2022.
Farming groups are looking forward to highlighting the benefits of milk to children's health as the World School Milk Day initiative nears.

The annual event is held all over the world on the last Wednesday of September to celebrate the benefits and success of school milk programmes.

The first World School Milk Day was celebrated in September 2000 and has since become an annual event promoted by the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization.

This year's event will take place on Wednesday 28 September, and industry groups are gearing up for it.

The Farmers' Union of Wales (FUW) said it would be visiting primary schools across Wales to highlight the benefits of milk.

The union explained that the dairy industry had made 'huge improvements' in its effort to tackle climate change and provide sustainable, nutritious food.

"We are excited to celebrate that on World School Milk Day by visiting primary schools across Wales," said FUW milk committee chairman, Dei Davies.

There is no doubt in anyones mind that sustainability in all its facets, environmental, social and economic, are and should be top priorities for global policy makers, industries and citizens."

He noted that the dairy industry was 'a billion strong community', one that was 'essential' in producing healthy, nutritious food.

"Beyond that, our dairy farmers across the world take care of around 360 million cows and 20 percent of the worlds agricultural land.

Much of that land, Mr Davies added, could not be used to grow food for human consumption.

But our dairy cows can graze that land and transform grass into highly nutritious products like milk," he said.

"In addition, our milk and dairy products rank amongst the top five traded agricultural commodities by value and volume, providing benefits for national and local economies.

We are part of the sustainable solution and its tremendously important that our policy makers know that the dairy sector is here to help keep our planet and the population healthy and thriving."
Warrenton, VA (20186)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun early, then becoming cloudy later in the day. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 58F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional rain showers. Low 46F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
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Next Story : Experts Explain How Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Affects Fertility

Image: Instagram When youre a Royal, succumbing to emotions and relinquishing dress codes to mourn is not an option. Katherine Middleton, Princess of Wales, and Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussexs immaculate black outfits and their looks at Queen Elizabeth IIs funeral at the Westminster Abbey are proof.Image: Instagram Kate Middleton chose a double-breasted coat dress from Alexander Mcqueen designed by Sarah Burton, who incidentally also designed her lace wedding dress. She paired the dress with a hat designed by milliner Philip Treacy that featured a delicate net veil that fell perfectly over her face. Interestingly Treacy also collaborated with Lee McQueen on several of the designers collections.Image: Instagram Kate also wore a Japanese pearl choker featuring four strands clasped together by a diamond pendant from Queen Elizabeths personal collection that she first wore in 2017. The choker in question was also seen on Princess Diana on her visit to the Netherlands in 1982. The Bahrain pearl drop earrings seen on Kate also belonged to the Queen and were a gift to a young Elizabeth on her wedding with the Duke of Edinburgh in 1947.Kate was also seen in a white version of the same dress at Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee celebrations.Image: Instagram Image: Instagram The Duchesss black cape dress and matching gloves is from designer Stella McCartney who designed Meghans halter-neck dress that she wore to her wedding reception. Her hat is designed by milliner Stephen Jones and features a wide brim. The pearl earrings spotted on Meghan were a gift from the Queen from 2018 for her first joint engagement with Prince Harry.Image: Instagram Meghan Markle has also sported a similar cape dress from McCartney at the Queens 92nd birthday.While the series, The Crown, has shone light on the British Royal Familys protocol of not only wearing black for mourning but also carrying a spare black ensemble on their travels in case another member passes away in their absence and they have to return, not a lot of people are aware of the importance of wearing pearls to funerals. The custom was first introduced by Queen Victoria while mourning the death of her husband, Prince Albert. The pearls not only symbolise purity but also resemble the shape of tears.Also Read: Kate Middletons Head-to-Toe Red Outfit Is Winter Wardrobe Goals
Dhanush occupies an interesting space in pop culture. Somewhere between winning accolades for films like Aadukalam (2011), the internet phenomenon Why This Kolaveri Di, and Asuran (2019), he rose to fame. And that was only the beginning of his career spanning decades. Over the years, Dhanush has taken to directing, producing and music-making. After winning over the South and Bollywood, the superstar has now set his gaze westwards. Dhanush recently made his Hollywood debut with the Russo Brothers The Gray Man starring Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas and more. The big-budget action thriller sees him play Avik San, a Tamilian agent and a man of few words. A character that seems to be tailor-made for the actor. However, actions speak louder than words, and Dhanush certainly isnt one to keep it low key.

In The Gray Man, he goes up against Ryan Goslings Court Gentry with an unparalleled swagger. Thats just what you get when you pair one of our biggest stars with some of the most prolific action filmmakers Hollywood has to offer. In an exclusive interview with Filmfare, Dhanush opened up about his scene-stealing Hollywood debut, Indian representation in international cinema, and more.

Your character, Avik San, is described as a lethal force in the posters. What was your approach to playing him?

To be honest, I gave in to what the characters required, and this character specifically needed more physical preparation because of the intense action scenes.

The Gray Man sees you do the superhero landing, so if you were to be cast in a superhero film, which character would you pick?

I would rather have a superhero character developed for me, an Indian superhero.

While the Russo Brothers are known for action films, including Marvels Avengers, were curious to know if you had any notes or ideas for them.

Haha, not really. Our interaction was more or less limited to the film in hand.

In the film, you have an extended fight sequence with Ryan Gosling and Ana de Armas. What was your experience of shooting those scenes?

The stunt choreographers, James and Mark, were really awesome and made the whole process really smooth in how I learnt and what I learnt. All the actors had trained really hard, and there were a lot of rehearsals, but when we went on the floor, it all just exploded.

What was your experience of working with Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, and Ana de Armas?

It was a great experience to work with such international actors. They were kind and professional, and I had a great time.

What made you pick The Gray Man? Can you give us an insight into why you pick certain films and your process of choosing roles?

Its the Russos. What more reason do you need? They are the biggest action filmmakers, and I saw this as an opportunity to explore and learn more. Choosing roles for me varies from industry to industry. When I choose a Tamil film, its different; when I choose a Hindi film, its different, but having said that in general, the scope for me to deliver as a performer and connectivity is what I look for when I choose a film.

You have done a fair share of action films. Which films from your career would you say prepared you for your Hollywood debut?

I think all the films are put together. The knowledge I have gathered in the last two decades in the film industry has immensely helped me to showcase what I can contribute to this character.

How different was the on-set experience in Hollywood from filming for projects in the South and in Bollywood?

As an actor, I did not feel any difference, but the technicians would know more about the working differences in all industries.

Were finally seeing good Indian representation internationally in the past few years. Can you talk about how important it is for you to be a part of that?

Im just glad talent from our country is being recognised all over the world. Its about time.

And finally, how would you say you have evolved as an actor from your very first film to your big Hollywood release?

Your question pretty much describes evolution. I feel blessed and grateful to have had the opportunity tobwork with such amazing directors from our country who built and shaped my career.
JUNOON iAAAAAAAAA

After 5 years of anticipation, the possibility is now reality,



Meet the leader of the Dark Forces... our Mysterious Queen of Darkness Junoon!

Watch out for Junoon in our Trailer tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/tuj6WEYG7Z  Mouni Roy Nambiar (@Roymouni) June 14, 2022

As the reviews for Brahmastra started pouring in on September 9, one thing became certain - Mouni Roy was the undisputed star of the movie. In a screening held for select journalists before the trailer of the film dropped in June, Ayan Mukerji had told the gathering that Mouni just "got it". She understood his vision and brought the massiness that was required for her role as Junoon in the film. It would be an understatement to say that Brahmastra Part One: Shiva was the most anticipated movie in recent times. The film was already burdened with immense expectations before it was released - after all, many said that this would be the movie that would revive Bollywood.It is no secret that the Hindi film industry has been facing backlash and trolling for years now and Brahmastra was expected to shut people up. The jury is still out on whether it did that but Mouni walked away with plaudits. The actress shot to fame with the first season of Naagin which aired from November 2015 to June 2016. In seven months, Mouni Roy had become a household name and the show had shot to the top of the TRP charts. With Brahmastra Part One: Shiva, Mouni proved that she's still got it. And to think that her role was supposed to be a special appearance! In an exclusive chat with Filmfare, the actress speaks about stepping into the shoes of Bollywood's current favourite antagonist, Junoon...I was honestly shocked. I was really, really shocked and surprised. Well, both Ayan (Mukerji) and Karan (Johar) Sir had told me that I had done a good job in the film and that it would surprise the audience. But I didn't apprehend this reaction, it was rather overwhelming. We had worked on this film for such a long time, and I was waiting for Brahmastra to release for almost five years. I just feel very, very grateful, and I feel that the hard work has paid off.He's just simplifying it way too much to be very honest. I had to unlearn a lot, I had to let go of a lot of projection, how we're used to acting. This was something completely new for me. I had never played an antagonist or a negative character in my life. There were negative shades in Naagin, but that's a different genre or a TV Serial and you had to project a lot in it. And here was a character where she had this quiet faith and she knew what she wanted and would go after it. But at no point was she blasting herself, or at no point could you see her shouting and screaming in a way that would be caricaturish.Junoon was just very confident and all her confidence came from within her. I think one thing that helped me a lot and which Ayan told me is how I feel in real life about Lord Shiva or the connection that I feel with Shivji - Junoon had the same kind of connection with Brahma Dev, and that's where she was drawing all her power from.So that one line really, really helped me I think. And on set, Ayan would keep reminding me of that and he would ask me to listen to Shiv chants. Yes, I played the part on-screen but Ayan had a huge role in getting me there. And he's a very precise person, he knows exactly what he wants and he'd come and explain it to you. I'm a director's actor, so whatever he would tell me, I kind of understood. That's probably what he meant by "she just got it" because whatever he was trying to explain, he would explain it in a way I would understand.I think all the work that I have done in my life led me to do this part. Work begets work. You work on one project, you gain some kind of experience, then you unlearn and you're onto the next project . . . getting into a different skin. If I'm talking to you right now, I'm a very present kind of person, you have my 100% attention right now, so I do the same thing with my work. If I'm playing Junoon or if I'm on the set, I would just try to understand where I am and how can I do better.You can never really foresee what the audience will think or how they will receive a character - you can only play a part to the best of your abilities. Whatever is given to me, I try to give my 100% and there is honestly nothing more or less to it. So I knew this would be a very challenging part from the word go. It was supposed to be a special appearance the first time I went and met Ayan.Yes, it was supposed to be a ten-minute meeting that went on for three and a half hours. We just started talking and there were so many things that we had in common that we could share for cinema and travel. He just opened up about the world of Brahmastra and it was just so fascinating. I told him I don't even care if it is a one-minute role, I will do it. And the next thing I know, six months later, the character has become a full-fledged antagonist role. And then I knew I had to. There is Bachchan sir, Ranbir, Alia, Nagarjuna Sir, and Shah Rukh Sir, it was such an out-of-body experience constantly for me. Because to be able to work with these legendary actors in one film can be very overwhelming.So after a day or two of working with them, I just felt like "oh my god, am I even going to be able to say my lines?" But thankfully an actor's biggest joy or high is in front of the camera. So once they say "action!", you kind of forget everything and do your best.My father was always a firm believer in reading, reading and more reading. He just made me read no matter what story it was. I read them all. Whether it's the Bhagawad Gita or Shiv Puran . . . that's what I've studied the most and that's what I'm still studying. Whether it's about Shani Dev or Laxmi Ji or Saraswati Devi or Durga Ma, there were just so many stories that I've grown up knowing that India is a country of storytellers. From North to South, from East to West, we have so many stories and I feel like there's so much culture in our diversity. That is something that I've grown up with and when this opportunity came about, I was like "I understand this". The same way how you're saying that I kind of respected it, I really truly feel like I understand it and I value it a lot.I believe in the magic of tradition, of culture, of spirituality. I really, truly believe that we live in a magical country and we probably always had these Astras. We are the land of zero and whether it's ganit, whether it's science, whether it's the devnagri lipi . . . you name it and we have produced it all. So ya, it's almost like when you have loved something and when you feel that it's so deeply embedded in you, the culture - it kind of reflected in my performance a little bit.He's a very proud husband! In fact, my friends are my biggest critics, every single time they see me do something they don't like, "they come and tell me why would you embarrass us like that". None of them is from the industry, I have very few actor friends. So we all went to the theatre to watch the film and they got these t-shirts made with my face painted on them. And I was so embarrassed, I didn't know where to hide! And I would go to everybody and say "please don't expect too much, please don't expect too much". And at the end of the movie, Suraj and everyone else was just staring at me. And I'm thinking maybe it's the garb, maybe I was so outlandish . . . but they were all so proud. And I think my husband is my biggest cheerleader and I really lucked out that I have him in my life. He's just the best.But we have! I have known my friends, at least my best friends, for twenty years and above. Twenty-five years, twenty-six years. I've been in Mumbai for 16 years and all my friendships in Mumbai have been for that long. I'm a person that really values family and friends so yes, I have really invested a lot of time in them and a lot of love in them, and so have they. Which is why I know I can count on them and they can count on me. I've lucked out.I really don't know. I really, truly don't know. I wish I had an answer . . . I hope it is bright. The future of Junoon . . . but I really don't know.
critic's rating: 2.5/5

Yatharth Sinha (R Madhavan) and Sanchi Sinha (Khushalii Kumar) are a couple who were happy once but are now continuously fighting. At a time when Yatharth is away, a terrorist whos one the run, Haq Gul (Aparkshakti Khurana), barges into their posh Mumbai home and takes Sanchi hostage. Hot on his pursuit is the dedicated cop, ACP Harishchandra Malik (Darshan Kumaar) whod do his utmost to get the criminal back. But all is not what it seems. Sanchi apparently suffers from severe mental trauma and has a multiple personality disorder. The terrorist might have a gun but that doesnt make him immune to her charms. And the husband too seems to have secrets of his own. Now, the situation has become a waiting game, a four-way Mexican stand-off between the hostage, the terrorist, the cop and the husband.

Dhokha: Round D Corner is full of twists which get revealed at regular intervals. The film is told through a multiple-narrative format. Each main character tells the story with embellishments attached. Soon, there are different versions of truth floating around and you dont know which narrative to believe in. You come to know that every character is following their own agenda. Even the climax doesnt completely make the picture crystal clear but keeps a few strands hanging. Its a film where nothing is completely black or white. We come across shades of grey. No one is totally a sinner and no one is totally innocent either. Its an interesting premise to be sure. Director Kookie Gulati has utilised noir elements. Noir films told us that human beings are quite capable of duplicity and their true nature reveals itself when they get a chance to harm one another. Thats been brought out in the present film as well. While the writing and direction is otherwise competent, the second half does drag out a bit. The end credits scenes featuring Aparshakti werent truly needed.

The film is the stepping stone of Khushalii Kumar into the world of acting. She could have had a soft launch by acting in a romantic comedy but chose to essay a difficult role in a psychological thriller. It says a lot about her confidence that she did so. She convincingly plays a woman with delusional personality disorder. Her role requires her to change from a bored housewife to a seductress, and back to being her normal self and she does it without any apparent glitches. Shes made a good start to her career and lets see where her journey takes her next.

Darshan Kumar is as reliable as they come and his tough cop act is upto the mark. Madhavan has been rediscovering himself doing grey-shaded roles and hes in his element here once more as the husband with lots of skeletons in his closet. He glides through the role with characteristic panache. Aparshakti plays a naive and gullible terrorist who loses mental equilibrum thanks to the experiences he undergoes. Hes known for his comedic roles but has shown here that he could excel in dramatic roles as well.

Dhokha: Round D Corner is a thriller with plenty of twists for sure. Watch it if you have a yen for psychological thrillers.

Trailer : Dhokha: Round D Corner
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 22, 2022) - Maritime Resources Corp. (TSXV: MAE) ("Maritime" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the closing of a non-brokered private placement (the "Offering") of 74,000,000 common shares (the "Common Shares") at a price of $0.05 per Common Share for aggregate gross proceeds of $3,700,000.

The net proceeds of the Offering shall be used for: (i) final permitting costs to be paid by the Company on or prior to December 31, 2022 with respect to the Hammerdown Project; (ii) remaining costs associated with the Company's feasibility study referenced in its public record; (iii) completing up to 5,000m of drilling on or prior to December 31, 2022 at the Hammerdown Project and/or the Orion Deposit; and (iv) general corporate and working capital purposes. Completion of the Offering is subject to final acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange").

"We are pleased to have the continued support of our largest institutional shareholders, Dundee Goodman Merchant Partners and Tembo Capital. We also welcome Gold Resource Corporation as a strategic investor in Maritime. Following the positive feasibility study results for the Hammerdown Gold Project, we are advancing the remaining permitting requirements and initiating a drill program with the aim of extending the mine life."

Pursuant to Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"), the Offering constitutes a "related party transaction" as insiders of the Company subscribed for 15,700,000 of the Common Shares sold in the Offering. The Company is relying on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority approval requirements of MI 61-101. The Company did not file a material change report more than 21 days before the expected closing of the Offering as the details of the related parties' participation in the Offering were not settled.

All securities issued pursuant to the Offering are subject to a hold period of four months plus a day from the date of issuance and the resale rules of applicable securities legislation.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States of America. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 (the "1933 Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons (as defined in the 1933 Act) unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws, or an exemption from such registration is available.

About Maritime Resources Corp.:

Maritime holds a 100% interest- directly and subject to option agreements entitling it to earn 100% ownership- in the Green Bay Property. This includes the former Hammerdown gold mine and the Orion gold project plus the Whisker Valley exploration project, all located in the Baie Verte Mining District near the town of King's Point, Newfoundland and Labrador. The Hammerdown Gold Project is characterized by near-vertical, narrow mesothermal quartz veins containing gold associated with pyrite. Hammerdown was last operated by Richmont Mines between 2000 and 2004. The Company also owns the gold circuit at the Nugget Pond metallurgical facility in Newfoundland and Labrador, the Lac Pelletier gold project in Rouyn Noranda, Quebec and several other exploration properties and royalty interests in key mining camps across Canada.

On Behalf of the Board

MARITIME RESOURCES CORP.

Toronto Office

1900-110 Yonge St., Toronto, ON M5C 1T4

For further information, please contact:

Garett Macdonald,

President and CEO

info@maritimegold.com

www.maritimeresourcescorp.com

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain of the statements made and information contained herein is "forward-looking information" within the meaning of National Instrument 51-102, Continuous Disclosure Obligations of the Canadian Securities Administrators. These statements and information are based on facts currently available to the Company and there is no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Forward-looking statements and information may be identified by such terms as "anticipates", "believes", "targets", "estimates", "plans", "expects", "may", "will", "could" or "would". This includes the use of proceeds of the Offering and receipt of all regulatory approvals for the Offering including from the Exchange. While the Company considers its assumptions to be reasonable as of the date hereof, forward-looking statements and information are not guarantees of future performance and readers should not place undue importance on such statements as actual events and results may differ materially from those described herein. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. All forward-looking information contained in this press release is given as of the date hereof, and is based on the opinions and estimates of management and information available to management as of the date hereof. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities laws.

Neither Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/138116
Redde Northgate Plc - Transaction in Own Shares

NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO OR FROM ANY JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OR REGULATIONS OF SUCH JURISDICTION

23 September 2022

REDDE NORTHGATE PLC

("Redde Northgate" or the "Group" or the "Company")

Transaction in Own Shares

Redde Northgate plc (LSE:REDD) announces that on 22 September 2022 it purchased the following number of its own shares to be held in treasury:

Class of shares : Ordinary shares of 50p ("shares") Number of shares purchased : 125,000 Weighted average purchase price paid : 314.854 pence per share Highest purchase price paid : 316.5 pence per share Lowest purchase price paid : 312 pence per share

Following the above transaction, the Company's issued share capital consists of 246,091,423 ordinary shares of 50p each, of which 10,642,813 ordinary shares are held in treasury, and 1,000,000 preference shares of 50p each which do not carry any rights to vote. Therefore the total number of voting rights in the Company is 235,448,610 which may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

In accordance with Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (the Market Abuse Regulation) as incorporated into UK domestic law by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, the schedule below contains detailed information about the purchases made by Numis Securities Limited on behalf of the Company as part of the Company's buyback programme.

Schedule of Purchases - Individual Transactions (all of 22 September 2022)

Number of shares

purchased Transaction price

(GB pence per share) Time of transaction Transaction reference number Venue 389 312.50 08:24:10 00061111106TRLO0 LSE 1618 312.00 08:27:10 00061111177TRLO0 LSE 389 312.50 08:30:52 00061111308TRLO0 LSE 691 312.00 08:41:29 00061111623TRLO0 LSE 875 312.00 08:41:29 00061111624TRLO0 LSE 1 312.00 08:41:30 00061111625TRLO0 LSE 503 316.00 08:56:40 00061112356TRLO0 LSE 1091 316.00 08:56:40 00061112357TRLO0 LSE 410 316.00 09:03:30 00061112728TRLO0 LSE 1427 316.00 09:03:30 00061112729TRLO0 LSE 273 314.50 09:03:34 00061112732TRLO0 LSE 1858 315.50 09:09:43 00061113013TRLO0 LSE 358 315.00 09:10:11 00061113037TRLO0 LSE 1375 315.00 09:10:11 00061113038TRLO0 LSE 1735 315.00 09:43:44 00061114230TRLO0 LSE 1896 314.00 09:51:54 00061114572TRLO0 LSE 700 313.50 10:18:10 00061115511TRLO0 LSE 1160 313.50 10:18:10 00061115512TRLO0 LSE 1282 313.50 11:01:08 00061116989TRLO0 LSE 252 313.50 11:01:08 00061116990TRLO0 LSE 762 313.50 11:01:08 00061116991TRLO0 LSE 601 313.50 11:13:09 00061117357TRLO0 LSE 759 313.50 11:13:09 00061117358TRLO0 LSE 74 313.50 11:13:09 00061117359TRLO0 LSE 82 313.50 12:01:33 00061118947TRLO0 LSE 1288 314.00 12:09:32 00061119246TRLO0 LSE 1273 314.00 12:10:12 00061119295TRLO0 LSE 621 313.50 12:24:12 00061119646TRLO0 LSE 527 314.00 12:31:00 00061119876TRLO0 LSE 1288 314.00 12:35:00 00061119932TRLO0 LSE 991 315.00 13:32:45 00061121688TRLO0 LSE 42 315.00 13:32:45 00061121689TRLO0 LSE 966 316.00 13:42:26 00061121921TRLO0 LSE 966 316.00 13:42:48 00061121929TRLO0 LSE 1582 316.00 14:02:54 00061122567TRLO0 LSE 292 316.00 14:02:54 00061122568TRLO0 LSE 234 316.00 14:03:03 00061122581TRLO0 LSE 85 316.00 14:03:03 00061122582TRLO0 LSE 906 316.00 14:03:03 00061122583TRLO0 LSE 770 316.00 14:03:03 00061122584TRLO0 LSE 1844 316.00 14:12:42 00061122890TRLO0 LSE 1253 316.00 14:22:27 00061123210TRLO0 LSE 380 316.00 14:22:27 00061123211TRLO0 LSE 1481 316.00 14:37:26 00061123976TRLO0 LSE 443 316.00 14:37:26 00061123977TRLO0 LSE 1583 316.00 14:43:12 00061124504TRLO0 LSE 1119 315.50 14:50:00 00061125034TRLO0 LSE 499 315.50 14:50:00 00061125035TRLO0 LSE 1588 315.50 14:55:54 00061125491TRLO0 LSE 1288 315.00 15:08:35 00061126464TRLO0 LSE 1068 314.50 15:20:19 00061127698TRLO0 LSE 1073 315.50 15:32:53 00061128601TRLO0 LSE 787 315.50 15:32:53 00061128602TRLO0 LSE 506 316.50 16:03:34 00061130567TRLO0 LSE 189 316.50 16:03:34 00061130568TRLO0 LSE 1830 316.50 16:03:34 00061130569TRLO0 LSE 37 316.50 16:03:34 00061130570TRLO0 LSE 553 316.50 16:03:34 00061130571TRLO0 LSE 380 316.50 16:03:34 00061130572TRLO0 LSE 114 316.50 16:03:34 00061130573TRLO0 LSE 79 316.50 16:03:43 00061130577TRLO0 LSE 36 316.50 16:03:43 00061130578TRLO0 LSE 43 316.50 16:03:53 00061130584TRLO0 LSE 27 316.50 16:03:53 00061130585TRLO0 LSE 18 316.50 16:04:03 00061130595TRLO0 LSE 607 316.50 16:04:03 00061130596TRLO0 LSE 1788 316.00 16:04:15 00061130602TRLO0 LSE 1995 315.50 16:17:55 00061131956TRLO0 LSE 70000 314.72 16:36:13 00061133825TRLO0 LSE

Notes

This announcement is made in accordance with the requirements of Listing Rule 12.4.6.

For further information contact:

Buchanan

David Rydell/Jamie Hooper/Hannah Ratcliff +44 (0) 207 466 5000

Notes to Editors:

Redde Northgate is the leading integrated mobility solutions platform providing services across the vehicle lifecycle. The Company offers integrated mobility solutions to businesses, fleet operators, insurers, OEMs and other customers across seven key areas: vehicle rental, vehicle data, accident management, vehicle repairs, fleet management, service and maintenance, vehicle ancillary services and vehicle sales.

The Company's core purpose is to keep its customers mobile, whether through meeting their regular mobility needs or by servicing and supporting them when unforeseen events occur. With its considerable scale and reach, Redde Northgate's mission is to offer a market-leading customer proposition and drive enhanced returns for shareholders by creating value through sustainable compounding growth. The Group aims to achieve this through the delivery of its strategic framework of Focus, Drive and Broaden.

Redde Northgate services its customers through a network and diversified fleet of over 120,000 owned and leased vehicles, supporting over 600,000 managed vehicles, with more than 170 workshop, body shop and rental locations across the UK, Ireland and Spain and a specialist team of over 6,000 automotive services professionals.

Further information please visit the Company's website:

www.reddenorthgate.com
FXCM Group, LLC ('FXCM Group' or 'FXCM'), a leading international provider of online foreign exchange trading, CFD trading, cryptocurrencies and related services has won three awards at the 2022 Global Forex Awards

FXCM was awarded Most Transparent Forex Broker globally, Best Forex Trading Experience in Europe and Best Forex Trading PlatforminMENA

The Global Forex Awards recognise and champion the best performing providers of liquidity, CRM, execution, platforms and performance, as well as other crucial elements of the forex trading ecosystem.

In line with its "Client First, Trader Driven" approach, FXCM recently reduced its spreads1 by as much as 54% on major currency pairs and indices. The firm also continues to deliver quality execution with 84%2 of all orders receiving positive slippage or zero slippage.

It has also expanded its services throughout 2022, growing its CFD offering with the doubling of its French, German and UK share offerings and launching Australian single share CFD trading with zero data fees and commissions* to enhance the service provided to clients.

Brendan Callan, CEO of FXCM, said: "Taking home three awards which recognise transparency, trading experience and our platform across the globe is hugely rewarding and testament to our team's hard work over the past year. Volatility has well and truly returned to the FX market this year presenting many new opportunities to retail investors. We are committed to being "Client First, Trader Driven" and will continue to make our pricing more competitive than ever and deliver top quality execution for our clients."

This award win follows up on the numerous awards won by FXCM in the past year, including Broker of the Year at the Ultimate Fintech Awards 2022, BestRetail Forex Broker in Europe at the Global Forex Awards 2022, Best Zero Commission Broker at ADVFN Awards 2022 and Best Forex Trading Platform award at the 2021 Shares Awards.

1The above changes currently apply to TS2 accounts. FXCM intends to apply similar changes to MT4 accounts in the future. MT4 is a 3rd party platform and therefore there are additional technical challenges when it comes to making pricing changes.

2As per the June 2022 Slippage Statistics Report. The data comes from various order types that executed through FXCM Group from 1 January, 2022 to 30 June, 2022. Data excludes certain types of non-direct clients, e.g. clients of certain intermediaries.

*Zero Commission: FXCM can be compensated in several ways, which includes but are not limited to adding a mark-up to the spreads it receives from its liquidity providers, adding a mark-up to rollover, etc. Commission-based pricing is applicable to Active Trader account types.

*Third Party Links: Links to third-party sites are provided for your convenience and for informational purposes only. FXCM bears no liability for the accuracy, content, or any other matter related to the external site or for that of subsequent links, and accepts no liability whatsoever for any loss or damage arising from the use of this or any other content. Such sites are not within our control and may not follow the same privacy, security, or accessibility standards as ours. Please read the linked websites' terms and conditions.

ENDS

About FXCM:

FXCM is a leading provider of online foreign exchange (FX) trading, CFD trading, and related services. Founded in 1999, the company's mission is to provide global traders with access to the world's largest and most liquid market by offering innovative trading tools, hiring excellent trading educators, meeting strict financial standards, and striving for the best online trading experience in the market. Clients have the advantage of mobile trading, one-click order execution and trading from real-time charts. In addition, FXCM offers educational courses on FX trading and provides trading tools, proprietary data and premium resources. FXCM Pro provides retail brokers, small hedge funds and emerging market banks access to wholesale execution and liquidity, while providing high and medium frequency funds access to prime brokerage services via FXCM Prime. FXCM is a Leucadia Company.

Forex Capital Markets Limited: FCA registration number 217689 (www.fxcm.com/uk)

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage.

66% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

FXCM EU LTD: CySEC license number 392/20 (www.fxcm.com/eu

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage.

73% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

FXCM Australia Pty. Limited: AFSL 309763. By trading, you could sustain a total loss of your deposited funds. The products may not be suitable for all investors. Please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved. If you decide to trade products offered by FXCM AU, you must read and understand the Financial Services Guide, Product Disclosure Statement, Target Market Determination and Terms of Business on www.fxcm.com/au.

FXCM South Africa (PTY) Ltd: FSP No 46534 (www.fxcm.com/za). Our service includes products that are traded on margin and carry a risk of losses in excess of your deposited funds. The products may not be suitable for all investors. Please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved.

FXCM Markets Limited: Losses can exceed deposited funds. (www.fxcm.com/markets

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005011/en/

Contacts:

Media contact:

Chatsworth Communications

+44 (0) 20 7440 9780

fxcm@chatsworthcommunications.com
LUTON (dpa-AFX) - British low-cost airline easyJet plc (ESYJY.PK, EZJ.L) said on Friday that it expects a rise in earnings from easyJet holidays business for 2022, in view of a rise in customer demand. For the fiscal 2022, the easyJet holidays business estimates to cross 35 million pounds profit before tax serving 1.1 million customers. For the fiscal 2023, it also aims to achieve a 30 percent growth in passenger numbers. Johan Lundgren, CEO of easyJet, said: 'easyJet holidays was created to meet the demand from our customers for package holidays to destinations they know and love in our network. It has become the fastest growing holiday company in the UK and our unique business model is delivering with easyJet holidays well on track to achieve our 100m+ profit target in the medium term.' Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
MoneyTV with Donald Baillargeon television program, Copyright MMXXII, all rights reserved. MoneyTV does not provide an analysis of companies' financial positions and is not soliciting to purchase or sell securities of the companies, nor are we offering a recommendation of featured companies or their stocks. Information discussed herein has been provided by the companies and should be verified independently with the companies and a securities analyst. MoneyTV provides companies a 3 to 4 month corporate profile with multiple appearances for a cash fee of $6,950.00 to $11,995.00, does not accept company stock as payment for services, does not hold any positions, options or warrants in featured companies. The information herein is not an endorsement by Donald Baillargeon, the producer, publisher or parent company of MoneyTV.

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.


The GoGBA Day was launched yesterday (22 September) at the HKTDC SME Centre. The event began with welcome remarks from HKTDC Executive Director Margaret Fong (fourth from left, front row), followed by speeches delivered by honourable speakers.



GoGBA WeChat mini programme (QR Code)

HONG KONG, Sept 23, 2022 - (ACN Newswire) - The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Development Office co-organised the inaugural GoGBA Day yesterday (22 September). This business support event aims to engage members of the international business community in Hong Kong that are currently underserved in terms of up-to-date business information on the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). The physical part of the hybrid on-site/online event was held at the HKTDC SME Centre at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.The half-day event featured a series of seminars offering practical business tips and updates on the latest developments in the GBA to prepare international enterprises to "go GBA" via Hong Kong. The event received an overwhelming response with more than 160 participants attending the seminars at the venue while 260 participants joined the online webinar. At the same time, 65 business advisory sessions and one-on-one consultation meetings were arranged for 47 companies at the venue to facilitate business partnerships and opportunities.The joint seminars welcomed officials from various authorities in the GBA, along with industry leaders and market experts from banking and other sectors, to share their insights and business know-how with international medium-sized enterprises and start-ups, helping them get equipped to set up business and succeed in the GBA via the Hong Kong platform. A wide range of topics was discussed, including the business landscape in the GBA and key incentives and subsidies for start-ups and businesses in the areas of tax, banking and investment.Welcoming participants to the event, HKTDC Executive Director Margaret Fong said: "The GBA plan attracts attention not only because the GBA has China's highest GDP at US$1.96 trillion, but it offers basically everything a business needs to grow, from the international financial hub of Hong Kong and the world-class manufacturing centres across Guangdong, to the advanced innovation and tech clusters across the region - not to mention a huge market of 86 million people and a stepping stone to the vast Mainland China market."Ms Fong continued: "We launched our GoGBA support programme last year to help businesses navigate the GBA through Hong Kong by offering information, advisory support and networking and marketing platforms. The GoGBA Day is a highlight of our programme, bringing together the Hong Kong family of organisations under one roof to introduce their GBA support programmes and services, enabling us to hold a GBA event specifically for the international business community for the first time. We hope to give them not only an overview of the latest GBA developments, but also offer practical information to help them make decisions and take action."Officials explain GBA business landscape, supporting initiatives and keys to successTommy Yuen, Commissioner for the Development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, said: "The GBA is more than a key national development strategy under China's reform and opening up. It is also marked a further step towards enriching One Country, Two Systems and promoting coordinated economic development that can turn the region into a world-class area for living, working and travelling. New measures are continually being implemented, including steps to encourage the development of private equity and venture capital funds in Qianhai and improving land boundary crossing facilities to enhance talent mobility between Hong Kong and GBA cities. In the coming decade, the GBA is set to become the world's most vibrant and rapidly growing economic region."Jimmy Chiang, Associate Director-General of Investment Promotion (Business Development) of Invest Hong Kong, said: "President Xi Jinping has emphasised the importance of leveraging and strengthening Hong Kong's unique advantages as an international financial, shipping and trading centre, as well as its convenient links to international markets. The 14th Five-Year Plan also highlighted the country's support for Hong Kong in traditional industries as well as four emerging areas, including aviation, innovation and technology, intellectual property trading and international cultural exchange. These specific sectors will see more development opportunities in Hong Kong, and the GBA's growth will create many attractive opportunities for international companies."Kenneth Wong, General Manager, MICE & Cruise, Europe, Hong Kong Tourism Board, said: "The Hong Kong Tourism Board has developed a tourism recovery framework to aid in the recovery, reopening and rebranding of Hong Kong's tourism industry. We devised a number of publicity and promotion campaigns to maintain Hong Kong's visibility during the pandemic and to facilitate tourism as well as MICE recovery. This includes bringing back large-scale international events and establishing a dedicated team to provide MICE organisers with one-stop support. Hong Kong can connect international visitors to the GBA's tremendous business opportunities, generate attendance for organisers, facilitate professional visits and excursions to other GBA cities."Raymond Yip, Chief Liaison Officer of the Guangzhou Nansha Service Centre in Hong Kong, said: "The Central Government hopes that Nansha, with its strategic location at the heart of 10 GBA cities, will become a cooperation and collaboration hub for the GBA. Nansha has a broad and diverse industry base with advanced manufacturing, as well as a state-level science and technology forum. With no fewer than 20 policy measures for Hong Kong and Macao, including allowing people from Hong Kong, including foreigners, to pay Hong Kong taxes, Nansha is set to open up a larger hinterland for Hong Kong."Witman Hung, Principal Liaison Officer for the Hong Kong, Shenzhen Qianhai Authority, said: "Qianhai has always been a pilot zone to help China open up and deepen its reforms. Promoting and facilitating collaboration between Hong Kong and Shenzhen is high on our priority list. For example, we have incubated 335 Hong Kong start-ups and assisted the city's professionals such as lawyers, engineers and architects in entering the mainland market. Recently, the Qianhai Authority and the Hong Kong government announced 18 new measures aimed at encouraging venture capital and private equity to enter China via Qianhai and Hong Kong. Hong Kong-based companies will be able to use Qianhai as a shopfront to provide professional services to the rest of the GBA and Mainland China."Vivian Cheung, Executive Director, Airport Operations, Hong Kong International Airport, said: "We have been expanding the capacity and functionality of Hong Kong International Airport in preparation for the resumption of international travel and business. The SKYCITY development is at the heart of this, featuring a new 3.8 million sq ft complex, with recreational facilities and three new office towers. New hotels will also be built and we are revamping services to provide better travel and transit experiences for passengers. Furthermore, we are transforming AsiaWorld-Expo into a 20,000-seat arena, adding new passenger and cargo handling facilities and constructing new infrastructure to make it easier for Hong Kong to connect with the GBA."Background to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay AreaThe Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) promotes Hong Kong's integration into Mainland China's national development by accelerating the socio-economic integration of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. Hong Kong has been designated as an international financial, shipping, trade and aviation hub, a global offshore renminbi business hub and an international centre for asset management and risk management. As a value-added financial, trading, logistics and professional services centre, supporting technology and innovation, Hong Kong is also a centre for international legal and dispute resolution in Asia-Pacific.HKTDC's array of services support enterprises entering the GBAOver the years, the HKTDC has worked hard to facilitate cooperation between Guangdong and Hong Kong. To support companies in doing business in the GBA, the HKTDC shares useful official information on regulations, procedures and networks through its GoGBA website ( https://www.go-gba.com/en/ ) and WeChat mini-programme, the latter also offering tools such as public health updates, maps, transportation guides and a day counter for individual income tax purposes. As of mid-September 2022, more than 506,700 views of the HKTDC's GoGBA digital platforms had been recorded.On the ground, the HKTDC has established the HKTDC GBA Service Centre in Shenzhen to provide local and international enterprises from Hong Kong with consultation services, industry-related updates and business matching. The Service Centre has so far organised more than 70 activities, with about 3,000 Hong Kong enterprises using its services. Working together with mainland partners, the HKTDC has also set up GoGBA Business Support Centres in Qianhai (Shenzhen), Nansha (Guangzhou), Hengqin (Zhuhai), Dongguan and Zhongshan, with Foshan being added later this year, to provide Hong Kong enterprises with policy and market consultation services.In addition, the HKTDC's Transformation Sandbox (T-box) programme will extend its services from Hong Kong to Shenzhen and other cities in the GBA. Together with its Digital Academy and E-Tailing Academy, the HKTDC will provide advisory workshops related to e-commerce and digital business as well as marketing solutions and other digital platforms.The GBA presents enormous opportunities for businesses from Hong Kong and around the world and the HKTDC will continue to devote efforts to support local and international enterprises in the city, helping them seize business opportunities in the GBA and other mainland markets through its network of 13 offices in the mainland. It also plans to organise the Hong Kong-Guangdong Co-operation Week this year, including the annual SmartHK and Chic HK flagship events in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, along with a series of roadshows related to financial management, legal services, infrastructure development and real estate, as well as participating in key trade fairs in the mainland.GoGBA WeChat mini programme (QR Code)HKTDC SME CentreTel: +852 1830 668Fax: +852 3693 4938E-mail: smecentre@hktdc.orgAddress: Ground Level, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, 1 Expo Drive, Wan Chai, Hong KongHKTDC GBA CentreTel: 0755-82280112Fax: 0755-82280114E-mail: shenzhen.office@hktdc.orgAddress: Unit 2405-06, Jindi Centre, Shennan Road 2007, Futian District, ShenzhenGoGBA Day Website: https://go-gba.com/en/gogbaday.html"Greater Bay Area, Great Future" promotional video (provided by the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Development Office): https://www.bayarea.gov.hk/en/stories/videos.htmlMore about the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area https://hkmb.hktdc.com/en/guangdong-hongkong-macao-greater-bay-areaPhoto download: https://bit.ly/3UyJSpUAbout HKTDCThe Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) is a statutory body established in 1966 to promote, assist and develop Hong Kong's trade. With 50 offices globally, including 13 in Mainland China, the HKTDC promotes Hong Kong as a two-way global investment and business hub. The HKTDC organises international exhibitions, conferences and business missions to create business opportunities for companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in the mainland and international markets. The HKTDC also provides up-to-date market insights and product information via research reports and digital news channels. For more information, please visit: www.hktdc.com/aboutus. Follow us on Twitter @hktdc and LinkedInMedia enquiriesPlease contact the HKTDC's Communications & Public Affairs Department:Kate Chan, Tel: +852 2584 4239, Email: kate.hy.chan@hktdc.orgSource: HKTDCCopyright 2022 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
NFTGo.io, an NFT data and trading aggregation platform, has launched the NFTGo Developers API with Real-time NFT Analytics, a new tool that provides real-time, stable, and user-friendly NFT data access with rich data granularity for their communities, developers, project partners, and research institutions.

Singapore, Singapore--(Newsfile Corp. - September 23, 2022) - NFTGo.io, an NFT data and trading aggregation platform, has launched the NFTGo Developers API with Real-time NFT Analytics, a new tool that provides real-time, stable, and user-friendly NFT data access with rich data granularity for their communities, developers, project partners, and research institutions.

The beta version of the Developers API was launched this August and has already onboarded thousands of customers. NFTGo.io now offers both monthly and yearly subscription-based Developers API services including free, fixed-priced, and customized plans.





Figure 1



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8621/138098_7dc2b5aed43f4b0b_001full.jpg

Since the platform launch on Aug 2021, NFTGo.io has been striving to make its data aggregator a place to analyze the NFT market and facilitate ecosystem growth by making Web3 data accessible to everyone.

Their Developers platform and NFT API is one of the most anticipated features introduced by NFTGo.io in Q3 2022, along with the real-time data, wash trading filter, and watchlist to empower the NFT community with quality data and informed decisions. NFTGo.io has also recently announced the launch of the NFT Trading Aggregator at its 1st anniversary, providing a seamless NFT journey from discovering to buying NFTs, aided by real-time analytics.

As the number of Web3 users and applications has grown exponentially, delivering a comprehensive view of NFT performance and key metrics has become increasingly important. NFTGo.io's API serves as a tool to help the community retrieve, manage, and process real-time on-chain data with the following capabilities.

Real-time NFT Data

Up to date information about the current market is crucial to help investors make accurate and well-informed investment decisions. Users can call an API which tracks real-time market data across various NFT marketplaces without latency.

High-performance & Stable

Empowered by a high-performing data acquisition engine, NFTGo.io ensures that their API delivers on-chain data with stability. NFTGo aims to help businesses to establish themselves and scale with reliable API tools & services, by providing trustworthy NFT Data services.

Powerful Address Tracker

Empowered by their data aggregator's powerful address tracker, NFTGo's API tracks every single address and portfolio for all NFT related information. Users can value and track any wallet, with detailed asset views across a wide range of metrics, including portfolio valuation, holdings, transaction history, related addresses etc. It helps you follow hot money like whales, blue chip holders & super blue chip holders, and how they manage their portfolios in a smart and sensible way.

Advanced NFT Metrics

The Developers API supports a wide range of advanced metrics to make NFT markets more transparent and better understood. Metrics include market performance, collection ranking, profit leaderboard, collections listed on NFTGo, rarity score, NFT holding information, etc. Users can build their products accordingly for a customized user experience.

"Any project, research institute or developer can now easily access real-time NFT data with stability, and customized user experience to scale their Web3 product by using Developers API hosted by NFTGo.io. The tool has undergone many tests and iterations through our beta period, we are very grateful to be supported by a great community who constantly provides feedback to help us deliver the best user-centric product," said Lowes Yang, founder of NFTGo.io.

NFTGo.io Developers API is now available to the community, visit https://developer.nftgo.io/ for more information.

About NFTGo.io

NFTGo.io is an NFT data aggregator that enables users to analyze the NFT market by housing a wide range of analytic tools and features , including NFT market trend and analytics, NFT search engine, ranking, rarity, whale tracking, NFT drops, and many more tools to help users discover, purchase, and evaluate NFT assets.

NFTGo.io prides itself in making Web3 data accessible to the masses. Empowered by a high performing cross-chain data acquisition engine, NFTGo.io delivers real-time accurate on-chain data and professional market insights to make a seamless experience for everyone who joins the NFT ecosystem.

Company Details

Name: Dan Tran

Company Name: NFTGo

Email: dan@nftgo.io

Website: https://nftgo.io/

Address: 3 Fraser Street, #05-25, DUO Tower

City: Singapore

Country: Singapore

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/138098
SINGAPORE, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Vantage, the international multi-asset broker, has received three awards at the Global Forex Awards 2022 - Retail, organised by Holiston Media.





Vantage was recognised in three categories including the "Best Forex Mobile Trading Platform/App - Global", "Best Forex Trade Execution - Global", and "Most Trusted Forex Broker - Asia".

The Global Forex Awards 2022 - Retail is in its fifth edition, and honours businesses that use cutting-edge technology, offer low-cost trading, comprehensive market research tools, advanced educational programs, and world-class customer service for retail traders.

Marc Despallieres, Chief Strategy & Trading Officer at Vantage, says "We are honoured to receive these awards at The Global Forex Awards 2022 - Retail. Vantage went through a massive shift since our rebranding exercise last year, and these awards are an affirmation of the direction we have taken as a business."

"This is a celebration of the sheer hard work and determination of our team at Vantage, who have made Vantage what it is today. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our clients who have supported us through the years, and who remain our biggest motivation to keep doing better."

Lian Jie, Vantage's Assistant App Marketing Director, says, "This is the fourth award garnered by our Vantage App team, and is a testament to the hours of development they have undertaken to make our app more powerful and intuitive than ever before."

Since its rebrand, Vantage has received a number of industry recognised awards, including "Best in CFD trading 2022" at the European - Global & Finance Awards 2022, "Best Broker Australia", "Best Customer Support Australia", and "Best Mobile Trading App" at the Ultimate Fintech Awards 2022.

About Vantage

Vantage is a global, multi-asset broker offering clients access to a nimble and powerful service for trading CFDs on Forex, Commodities, Indices, and Shares.

With more than 10 years of market experience. Vantage now has over 1,000 employees/personnel across more than 30 global offices.

Vantage is more than a broker. It provides a trusted trading ecosystem, an award-winning mobile trading app, and a faster and simpler trading platform that enables clients to take advantage of trading opportunities. Download the Vantage App on App Store or Google Play.

Be empowered to better capitalise on winning market opportunities when you

trade smarter @vantage

www.vantagemarkets.com





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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/vantage-wins-three-awards-at-the-global-forex-awards-2022-301631952.html
HEIDELBERG, GERMANY / ACCESSWIRE / September 23, 2022 / After seven years of development work, Precisis GmbH, headquartered in Heidelberg, has received the CE certification for its minimally invasive brain pacemaker EASEE. The thin EASEE electrodes are placed under the scalp and send bioelectric pulses to the location in the brain where the epileptic seizures originate from. The safety and effectiveness of the implant have been proven in two European multi-center studies. The regulatory process was conducted according to the current MDR requirements (Medical Device Regulation). From now on, patients who suffer from drug-refractory focal epilepsies have now a new technological therapy option.

Prof. Christian Elger, MD, Medical director and managing partner of the Beta Neurologie Bonn - Center of Excellence for Epilepsy, describes the problem: "The treatment of patients with epilepsy always begins with medication. However, for decades there has unfortunately been a consistently large group of around 30% of all patients for whom pharmacological treatment is not sufficiently effective. These drug-refractory patients wait an average of 22 years before they are offered further technical or surgical treatment options. With this new, risk-minimized EASEE method, the treatment spectrum is expanded in the early phases of the disease."

EASEE is an acronym for E picranial A pplication of S timulation E lectrodes for E pilepsy. It is a system for individualized brain stimulation, which is placed anatomically precisely over the epileptic origin in the brain but is surgically placed only under the scalp. This means that the cranial bone is not opened, and the brain itself remains untouched. EASEE is based on a dual principle of action. Prof. Michael Nitsche, MD, Scientific Director, Dept. Psychology and Neurosciences Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund, describes the effect as follows: "EASEE has a disruptive, acute effect with high-frequency pulses every two seconds against emerging seizures. On the other hand, direct current-like phases that are applied once a day for 20 minutes offer preventive effects that regulate over-excitable brain areas in the long term."

The thin plane electrodes are not visible from the outside and ensure unrestricted freedom of movement for the patient. The therapeutic pulses can be individually adapted to each patient, and optimizations can be made regularly throughout the duration of the treatment; the patients do not feel the stimulations. "We are thrilled that our technological innovation is now ready for the market. Thus, patients with drug-refractory epilepsies have another good chance of relieving the burden of their seizures" says Angela Liedler, MD, Managing Director of Precisis.

The CE mark certifies that EASEE meets the specified safety and performance requirements. Medical products can only be placed on the European market with a CE mark. Accordingly, EASEE will be available for adult epilepsy patients with immediate effect. The certification is based on the new Medical Device Regulation (MDR). In contrast to the previously applicable Medical Device Directive (MDD), this means additional reports and extensive technical documentation on the producer's part.

Image copyright @Precisis. Reprint free of charge.

"Despite increased requirements for producers of medical devices, Precisis has managed to bring EASEE to the market in record time," says Michael Tittelbach, CTO. "This is mainly due to the agility of our team." Only seven years have passed from the idea to approval for EASEE, making EASEE more than comparable to other products in the same risk class.

The successful approval is based on the data from two clinical studies. "The primary goal of the studies was to demonstrate the system's safety. However, it was particularly interesting for the patients and us, to see the reduction in seizures and to see continued improvement in seizure control." notes Prof. Schulze- Bonhage, MD, Head of Department of the Epilepsy Center at the Neuro center of the University Hospital Freiburg, Head of the Clinical Studies on EASEE. The data evaluation after six months showed a reduced frequency of seizures of at least 50 percent in 17 of 33 participants. After six months of stimulation, four patients were completely free of seizures. The low-risk implantation procedure and the outstandingly positive spectrum of side effects suggest that EASEE will be a future therapeutic option for drug-refractory focal epilepsies."

About Precisis GmbH

Precisis GmbH, headquartered in Heidelberg, specializes in developing innovative neurostimulation devices. Our team of 20 heads consists of experienced and entrepreneurial personalities with a common goal: to bring the next generation of intelligent brain pacemakers onto the market to enable patients with functional brain diseases to have a better quality of life. We always work as a team, full steam ahead, because what counts for us are countable successes! The CE certification that has just been obtained is an important milestone; the next one will be the approval in the USA. We all feel like we're doing something meaningful.

Further information at: www.precisis.de

Sources:

Fisher R, Salanova V, Witt T, et al. (2010). Electrical stimulation of the anterior nucleus of thalamus for treatment of refractory epilepsy. Epilepsia.51(5):899-908 Kwan P & Brodie MJ (2000). Early identification of refractory epilepsy. The New England Journal of Medicine. 342:314-319. Norman G (2016). Drugs, Devices, and the FDA: Part 2: An Overview of Approval Processes: FDA Approval of Medical devices. JACC: Basic to translational science. 1 (4): 277-287. Schulze-Bonhage A, Winter Y, Hirsch M, et al. (2022). Antiepileptische Wirkung fokaler Cortex-Stimulation (FCS) mit dem EASEE-System bei pharmakoresistenter fokaler Epilepsie. DGfE Tagung Leipzig. Hirsch M & Schulze-Bonhage A (2022). Motorische Symptome im Anfall konnen durch eine vom Patienten applizierte iktale transkranielle fokale Cortex-Stimulation (FCS) verhindert werden. Eine Kasuistik. DGfE Tagung Leipzig. Winter Y, Groppa S, Schulze-Bonhage A (2022) Effekt der transkraniellen Gleichstromstimulation (tDCS) auf kognitive Leistung von Patienten mit therapierefraktaren strukturellen Epilepsien. DGfE Tagung Leipzig.

Press contact:

Dr. Isabella Mayer

i.mayer@precisis.de

SOURCE: PRECISIS GmbH

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/717165/PRECISIS-GmbH-EASEE--Worlds-First-Minimally-Invasive-Brain-Pacemaker-for-the-Treatment-of-Epilepsy-Receives-CE-Certification-and-is-Available-Immediately
The Intelliconnect Acquisition adds Custom RF Microwave Interconnect Solutions for High Reliability Harsh Environment Applications.

Trexon, a portfolio company of Audax Private Equity, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Intelliconnect, a supplier of RF connectors, adapters, and cable assemblies.

Founded in 2003 and based in Chelmsford, UK., Intelliconnect has grown rapidly since its inception, becoming a market leader in design-led RF (radio frequency) components.

Regarding the addition of Intelliconnect to the Trexon team, Mark Twaalfhoven, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Trexon stated,

"The addition of Intelliconnect brings a customer-centric organization with a level of expertise and experience that aligns with the Trexon strategic vision of delivering application specific solutions. Their innovation enables the development of critical technologies that support key megatrend drivers such as AI and the application for quantum computing. We look forward to a long and prosperous relationship with Intelliconnect."

Of the transaction, Dr. Nildeep Patel, President of Trexon Engineered Products Division stated,

"Adding Intelliconnect to the Engineered Products portfolio builds on our current expertise in RF products designed for highly engineered systems for a range of applications. Their unique capability of combining high precision RF products performing at cryogenic temperatures adds yet another dimension to our already proven RF technology range."

Speaking on the transaction, Intelliconnect's founder, Roy Phillips said:

"After nearly 20 years of success and growth, we recognised that to reach the next level of excellence, Intelliconnect needed to be part of a bigger, financially strong group which has the same aspirations, goals, and vision that we do. We are confident that Trexon is the perfect partner. Their strong track record in acquiring good businesses and making them better whilst investing and supporting their existing teams is one of the key reasons that we chose them as our acquirer."

And, speaking of the transaction, Gareth Phillips, Intelliconnect's Managing Director, added:

Trexon is highly aligned with Intelliconnect's philosophy and desire to grow our world class RF and Cryogenic product offering. We have worked hard to build a solid platform of best-in-class services and products and we are thrilled to be partnering with the wider Trexon family to take us to the next level and beyond. I am very much looking forward to working with Trexon to maximize our potential and that of our fantastic employees."

About Trexon:

Founded in 1979, Trexon (formerly TPC Wire Cable Company) is a leading designer and provider of high-performance wire, cable, connectors, assemblies, and accessories used in harsh, high cost-of-failure environments. Trexon's products are designed to exceed customer performance specifications and withstand abuse from impact, abrasion, flexing, chemicals, extreme temperatures, miniaturization, and other demanding design requirements. Trexon's products are specially constructed for a wide range of design challenges across high-reliability applications in diversified industrial end markets, defense, aerospace, medical and other industries. For more information, visit trexonglobal.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005044/en/

Contacts:

Ross Martinez

rmartinez@trexonglobal.com
Sonfu Digital Solutions LLC (804-324-3095), a Colonial Heights, VA-based digital marketing agency, announces updated database reactivation services for clients in the health and wellness sector.

Colonial Heights, Virginia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 23, 2022) - The latest launch from Sonfu Digital Solutions LLC provides a full suite of lead regeneration tools to help businesses maximize the potential of their dormant contacts. The company specializes in helping small business owners widen their market reach through targeted locally-focused campaigns and long-term marketing strategies.

More details can be found at https://www.sonfudigital.com/database-reactivation





Healthcare Customer Database Reactivation Launch By Sonfu Digital Solutions LLC

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8814/138155_ef1dcffdf4641ad5_001full.jpg

The announcement outlines how Sonfu Digital's database reactivation solutions represent a cost-effective way to increase one's margins without needing to invest more in expensive ad campaigns. Harnessing the power of email, SMS, voice drops, social media, and direct mail, the expert team offers proven strategies to win back lost customers.

As email remains a potent tool for marketers, with Forbes reporting that it delivers, on average, $42 back for every dollar spent, Sonfu Digital's latest launch ensures that its clients capitalize on existing email contacts, many of whom they will have done business with in the past. This allows companies to build on historical marketing to reclaim customers who are already converted to their products and services.

The Sonfu system automatically fills client schedules with new appointments from these existing leads. This latest method works particularly well for small healthcare businesses that need to prioritize improving patient outcomes rather than be distracted chasing new customers.

The updated process begins with identifying inactive customers before deciding on a schedule for reactivation emails to be sent out. The team can also advise on the right kind of content to include to maximize the chances of bringing customers back into the fold. Sample testing and incentives can also leverage greater returns for these campaigns.

In addition to these new services, Sonfu Digital also offers local SEO consulting, content marketing solutions, pay-per-click campaigns, and social media services. The agency is headed by veteran digital marketer and web development expert Sonnie Donaby.

A spokesperson for the company says, "Traditional marketing approaches are sometimes too pricey for smaller businesses. By implementing the ideal database reactivation campaign, you can get your previous clients back. One study found that getting a new client is five times more expensive than maintaining an existing one."

For more information, go to https://www.sonfudigital.com/home

Contact Info:

Name: Sonnie Donaby

Email: sonnie@sonfudigital.com

Organization: Sonfu Digital Solutions LLC

Address: 84 Southgate Square #1022, Colonial Heights, VA 23834, United States

Phone: +1-804-324-3095

Website: https://www.sonfudigital.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/138155
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - Japan, the United States and South Korea have warned that if North Korea conducts any nuclear test, it would be met with a strong and resolute response from the international community. In a meeting on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, the foreign ministers of the three allied nations expressed serious concern about the reclusive Communist country's adoption of a new law on nuclear policy, declaring it to be a nuclear weapons state. The legislation also authorizes the launch of pre-emptive nuclear strikes. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa and South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin underscored the importance of working together to address North Korea's destabilizing behavior and advance its shared goal of achieving the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. They condemned the North's numerous ballistic missile launches this year, each of which violated multiple UN Security Council resolutions and posed a serious threat to the region. Secretary Blinken reaffirmed the U.S. steadfast commitments to the defense of South Korea and Japan. The Foreign Ministers urged Pyongyang to return to the negotiations table. They also reaffirmed the importance of achieving an immediate resolution of the abductions issue. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
VANCOUVER, BC and KIBBUTZ YIFAT, ISRAEL / ACCESSWIRE / September 23, 2022 / Beyond Oil Ltd. (CSE:BOIL) ("Beyond Oil" or the "Company"), a food-tech innovation company extending the life of frying oil, reducing costs and waste, is pleased to announce that it has received a non-objection letter from the Israel Ministry of Health ("Israel Ministry of Health") dated September 22, 2022, in respect of the proposed use of Beyond Oil's product as a filter aid for the filtration of frying oils in the growing Israeli food market.

The Company previously announced that it received a non-objection letter from the US Food and Drug Administration and a non-objection letter from Health Canada for the use of the product in the US and Canada, respectively.

"The Israeli market is innovative, an early adopter, and is ready for our solution," said Dr. Tamir Gedo, CEO of Beyond Oil. "We are pleased to have reached another crucial step in the development of Beyond Oil's business. The Israel Ministry of Health certification leads the way to a new and significant market valued at more than US$6.6 billion1. We have already signed several sales agreements with leading Israeli food service chain franchisees, and we look forward to rolling out our product to additional Israeli chains and restaurants that are looking for new ways to significantly reduce their operational costs and join us in our journey toward a healthier future."

In 2016, Israel's food service sector was valued at approximately US$6.6 billion, with almost 13,000 consumer food service businesses in 20201. In recent years, the industry has experienced an increase in the price of raw materials, electricity, water, taxes, and manpower, forcing many food service chains and restaurants to seek out effective ways to reduce costs and stay profitable. Although employment and salaries have risen, price levels for menu items across Israel remain among the highest in the OECD, and together with the country's high cost of living, is leading consumers toward a cost-conscious food-service marketplace. As a result, today, there is a shift in consumer preferences towards eating out, with this trend reflected in the rate of household expenses for food services which stands at 5.3% and is ranked 26th among the OECD countries2.

Product Highlights

Frying Oils Recovery: Extensive testing indicates that Beyond Oil's product extends the usable life of frying oil, improves product quality, and reduces frying oil costs. As a preferential adsorbent, the product reduces soluble impurities formed during the frying process that cause damaging free fatty acids ("FFA") and polar compound formation, undesirable odors, off-flavors, and off-colors. The product is simple to integrate into existing daily filtration processes.

One-of-a-Kind: To the Company's knowledge, Beyond Oil has developed a unique solution that can eliminate FFA almost completely without damaging oil quality. This solution compares to magnesium-based filter powders that have existed for years that can only marginally reduce FFA levels.

Patent Protected: The Company has a portfolio of registered and patent pending solutions that extend the shelf-life of produced and used premium oils.

Bottom-Line Savings: Beyond Oil's unique value proposition is that it could dramatically lower costs for quick service restaurants by significantly extending the useful life of the oil while retaining the original taste profile.

Distribution Ready: The Company received a non-objection letter from the US Food & Drug Administration ("FDA") in March 2022, on the basis that all the Beyond Oil product ingredients meet food-grade specifications of the FDA. In May 2022, Beyond Oil received a non-objection letter from Health Canada and a National Sanitation Foundation certification.

How Our Product Works

The Beyond Oil solution integrates with existing processes as a processing aid or as a filter aid. The process includes passive microfiltration designed to remove all components through a combination of active filtration by the powder and passive filtration by a microfiltration paper. This process ensures no residue is left in the oil while maximizing the efficiency of removing other degradation particles.

Connect With Us

To receive news and updates about Beyond Oil, visit: www.beyondoil.co

Sources:

1https://www.verdictfoodservice.com/insight/israel-future-foodservice-2021/

2https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001401562

About Beyond Oil Ltd.

Beyond Oil is a developer and manufacturer of an innovative proprietary and patented formulation which reduces the free fatty acids from cooking oil to as low as 0.1% while preserving the oil's quality and nutritional values. Beyond Oil's unique technology and methodology integrate into customers' existing oil filtration systems by extending the life of frying oil, reducing costs and waste. For more information visit: www.beyondoil.co.

Contacts

Dr. Tamir Gedo

CEO and Director

1-647-691-9801

info@beyondoil.co

Caroline Sawamoto

Investor Relations

1-647-691-9801

ir@beyondoil.co

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT AND INFORMATION

This press release contains forward-looking statements and information that are based on the beliefs of our management and reflect Beyond Oil's current expectations and views of future events. When used in this press release, the words "estimate", "project", "belief", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "plan", "predict", "may" or "should" and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. The forward-looking statements and information in this press release include information relating to the use of its product in the food service industry, the effects of such product on the industry as a whole and anticipated benefits of using the Beyond Oil product. All statements in respect of the potential market for the Company's product are also forward-looking statements.

Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which Beyond Oil will operate in the future, including: general business and economic conditions; the demand for our products; consumer preferences, that test results are reliable and will be replicated in commercial environments the availability of financing on reasonable terms as needed; our ability to attract and retain skilled staff; that there will be no regulation or law that will prevent us from operating our business, that we will be able to deliver adequate quantity and quality of product and in accordance with the terms of any definitive sales or distribution agreements. Although Beyond Oil believes that the assumptions underlying these statements are reasonable, they may prove to be incorrect.

By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following risks: business, economic and capital market conditions; our ability to obtain additional financing as needed on terms and conditions acceptable to the Company; our ability to remain competitive as other better financed competitors develop and release competitive products; legal and regulatory uncertainties including new laws or regulations which could adversely affect the Company's business and results of operations; market conditions and the demand and pricing for our products; our relationships with our customers, distributors, suppliers and business partners; our ability to successfully define, design and release new products in a timely manner that meet our customers' needs; our ability to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel; our ability to maintain technological leadership; the impact of technology changes on our products and industry; our failure to develop new and innovative products; our ability to successfully maintain and enforce our intellectual property rights and defend third-party claims of infringement of their intellectual property rights; our ability to manage working capital; our dependence on key personnel; the risk that consumer interest in and sentiment towards Beyond Oil's products adversely changes; the impact of COVID-19 or other viruses and diseases on Beyond Oil's ability to operate; equipment failures; unanticipated increases in operating costs and fluctuations in commodity prices; security threats; the failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations; risks related to Beyond Oil's corporate strategy including that previous and future acquisitions do not meet expectations; anticipated commercialization of the Company's products may not materialize as contemplated in this news release or at all, the risk that sufficient quantities of product are not delivered under any distribution or sales agreement. In addition, Beyond Oil's products have yet to be produced on a large scale.

Forward-looking statements and information have been prepared by our management to provide information about management's current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes, such as making investment decisions. While our management believes that the forward-looking statements have been prepared on a reasonable basis, reflecting management's best estimates and judgments, Beyond Oil is an early-stage company with a short operating history and it may not actually achieve its plans, projections, or expectations. Readers should read this document with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. Given these risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking information included in this new release is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. The Company cautions that the foregoing lists of assumptions, risks and uncertainties is not exhaustive. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is made as of the date hereof and the Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE: Beyond Oil Ltd

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/717139/Beyond-Oil-Receives-a-Non-Objection-Letter-from-the-Israel-Ministry-of-Health-for-the-Use-of-Beyond-Oils-Product-in-Israel
Regulatory News:

THERADIAG (ISIN: FR0004197747, Ticker: ALTER) (Paris:ALTER), a company specializing in in vitro diagnostics and Theranostics, announces that Biosynex (ISIN: FR0011005933 Mnemonic: ALBIO) has filed with the French financial markets authority (the "Autorite des marches financiers", the "AMF") a voluntary takeover bid offer for the shares of the Company that it does not own, at a price of 2.30 euros per share (the "Offer"). Biosynex holds 25.07% of the share capital and 25.16% of the voting rights of the Company.

The Offer is made at a price of EUR 2.30 per Theradiag share, representing a premium of 58.62% and 43.79% respectively over the closing share price on September 22, 2022 and over the volume weighted average share price for the 60 days prior to the filing of the Offer.

The Company acknowledges that Biosynex does not intend to request the implementation of a squeeze-out procedure at the end of this Offer.

The Board of Directors of Theradiag, which met on 22 September 2022, unanimously took a favourable stance on the proposed Offer, without prejudice to the reasoned opinion of the Board of Directors on the Offer, which will be issued after receipt of the opinion of the independent expert, as well as the opinion of the employee representative bodies. It should be noted that the two Biosynex representatives on the Board of Directors of Theradiag did not participate in the vote on this resolution.

An independent expert appointed by the Board of Directors of Theradiag will draw up a fairness opinion on the financial terms of the Offer in accordance with the provisions of the AMF's general regulations.

The Social and Economic Committee of Theradiag will meet today in order to be informed about the content of the proposed Offer and its consequences on employment.

The listing of Theradiag shares has been suspended on Friday 23 September until further notice.

Fieldfisher is acting as legal counsel to Theradiag in this transaction.

About Theradiag

Theradiag is the market leader in biotherapy monitoring. Capitalizing on its expertise in the diagnostics market, the Company has been developing, manufacturing and marketing innovative in vitro diagnostic (IVD) tests for over 30 years.

Theradiag pioneered "theranostics" testing (combining therapy with diagnosis), which measures the efficacy of biotherapy in the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases. Going beyond mere diagnosis, Theranostics aims to help clinicians set up "customized treatment" for each patient. This method favors the individualization of treatment, evaluation of its efficacy and the prevention of drug resistance. In response to this challenge, Theradiag develops and markets the CE-marked TRACKER range, a comprehensive solution of inestimable medical value.

The Company is based in Marne-la-Vallee, near Paris, has operations in over 70 countries and employs over 60 people. In 2021, the Company posted revenue of 11.1 million. The Theradiag share is listed on Euronext Growth Paris (ISIN: FR0004197747) and is eligible for the French PEA-PME personal equity plan. For more information about Theradiag, please visit our website: https://www.theradiag.com/

Important information

This press release is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to purchase, or a solicitation of an offer to sell, any Theradiag financial instruments. The tender offer documentation which, if filed, will include the terms and conditions of the tender offer, will be subject to review by the Autorite des marches financiers. Investors and shareholders are strongly advised to review the tender offer documentation when it becomes available, if the offer is filed, as well as any amendments or supplements to such documents to the extent that they contain important information about Theradiag, Biosynex and the proposed transaction.

This press release may not be published, broadcast or distributed, directly or indirectly, in any jurisdiction in which the distribution of such information is restricted by law. The tender offer will not be open to the public in jurisdictions where it is restricted by law. The publication, dissemination or distribution of this press release in certain countries may be restricted by law or regulation. Accordingly, persons in jurisdictions where this press release is published, broadcast or distributed should inform themselves about and observe any such restrictions. Theradiag assumes no responsibility for any violation of these restrictions by any person.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005260/en/

Contacts:

Theradiag

Bertrand de Castelnau

CEO/Managing Director

Tel.: +33 (0)1 64 62 10 12

contact@theradiag.com

NewCap

Financial Communications Investor Relations

Pierre Laurent Quentin Masse

Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 94

theradiag@newcap.eu

NewCap

Media Relations

Arthur Rouille

Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 98

nmerigeau@newcap.fr
Binance , the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, is pleased to announce the creation of its new Global Advisory Board (GAB), comprised of distinguished experts in public policy, government, finance, economics, and corporate governance.

The Global Advisory Board, chaired by former US Senator and Ambassador to China, Max Baucus, recently convened in Paris, France. The boards purpose is to advise Binance on some of the most complex regulatory, political, and social issues the entire crypto industry faces as it grows and evolves at a fast pace.

For the past five years, Binance has been at the forefront of pioneering the exciting new world of crypto, blockchain, and Web3, said Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao. In that time, weve tackled complex issues no one even knew existed. Weve maintained our focus throughout on delivering compliance solutions that protect the interests of crypto users, while keeping a brisk pace of socially-beneficial innovation. The GAB represents the next big step forward in our journey to share the benefits of modern finance and the blockchain with the entire world.

The blockchain and crypto industry can act as a true catalyst for growth and economic opportunities. For the cities that are willing to partner with companies like Binance in order to create progressive regulations and an effective Web3 environment, I expect it to enable a number of investments into the space. I look forward to working with a number of experts as part of Binances Global Advisory Board in order to collaborate, said South Africas Leslie Maasdorp.

Prior to joining Binances Global Advisory Board, Leslie has served as the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the New Development Bank, Former MD & President for Southern Africa at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Former Vice Chairman of Barclays Capital and Former International Adviser to Goldman Sachs.

Binance is harnessing the GABs unrivaled collective experience and expertise to benefit the sustainable development of the industry as a whole, by weighing in on the toughest and most sensitive regulatory and compliance issues facing crypto, blockchain, and Web3.

We always put our users first, and thats served as a very effective North Star for us over the past five years of unprecedented, exciting growth, Zhao said. With the GAB, were supercharging our ability to manage regulatory complexity by tapping into the highest level of expertise available anywhere in the world. This collaboration between Binance and the leading experts of the GAB is a testament to our focus on compliance, transparency and ensuring a collaborative relationship with the worlds regulators as they develop sensible regulations worldwide.

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Leading auditing and analytics company Audicon of Germany joins Caseware to bring the next generation of innovation and technology to customers worldwide

TORONTO, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Caseware , the global SaaS leader for accounting, analytics and audit, announced today that it has acquired Audicon GmbH (along with Audicon Technologies GmbH and Audicon S.R.L, collectively "Audicon"), a leading provider of software solutions and services related to audit, risk and compliance. With more than 25 years of service and more than 140 employees, Audicon has offices in Dusseldorf and Stuttgart, Germany, and Cluj, Romania.





"Our acquisition of Audicon continues our journey to establish Caseware as the industry's performance leader in accounting software and global partner of choice," says Caseware CEO David Osborne. "We're continuously looking to strengthen our solutions offered to our customers and with the addition of Audicon, Caseware can provide expanded opportunities within the German-speaking market as well as gain an increased presence within Europe and other international markets. The combination of Audicon's deep methodical and technical expertise with Caseware's legacy of trust and track record of innovation is a win-win for all stakeholders."

More than 90 of the top-selling German companies rely on Audicon's solutions. In the field of municipal audits, Audicon has been supporting auditors and treasurers in the audit of duplicate annual financial statements for more than 12 years. Additionally, the users of Audicon software solutions include more than 45,000 customs and tax auditors.

"We're excited to formally join the Caseware family after being a trusted partner for more than two decades," says Audicon Managing Director Jorg Fuhrmann. "Our shared values of innovation, customer excellence, trust and collaboration make this an ideal partnership. Together, we will lead this transformative next chapter of accounting and auditing software."

Audicon Managing Director Michael Schleupen adds: "For more than 30 years, Caseware has shown that having the right platform, tools and support backed by strong partners and innovation is the framework for success. We are looking forward to collaborating more closely as part of Caseware on new cloud-based solutions including analytics and other applications."

"Our customers trust in our competent advice, efficient solutions and innovative software," says Audicon Managing Director Axel Zimmerman. "Caseware is the perfect partner to take our business to the next era of opportunity that allows us to innovate further and develop the best possible products and optimal services our clients need."

Audicon is Caseware's fourth acquisition in Europe of a former distribution partner, with prior acquisitions including Auditware (UK), FSR - Danske Revisorer (Denmark), and Caseware Netherlands B.V. (The Netherlands).

About Caseware

Caseware is the leading global provider of desktop and cloud-enabled solutions for audit, assurance, financial reporting and data analytics for Accounting firms, Corporations, and Government regulators. With efficiency, quality and value in mind, CaseWare equips over 500,000 users, in 130 countries and in 16 languages with innovative solutions.

About Audicon

Audicon is a leading provider of software solutions and services related to audit, risk and compliance. They have been a Caseware distributor for more than 25 years. Audicon maintains locations in Dusseldorf, Stuttgart (Germany) and Cluj (Romania) and has a well-developed, worldwide sales and cooperation partner network.

Media information: Tina Zappulla, Director of Brand Marketing, tina.zappulla@caseware.com

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SYDNEY, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- FP Markets has been awarded the "Best Global Value Broker 2022" for an unprecedented 4th consecutive year. FP Markets claimed two further awards for "Best Forex Partners Programme" in Asia 2022 and "Best Forex Broker" in Europe 2022.





The Global Forex Awards 2022 celebrated its 5th ceremony on Thursday 22 September 2022, at the glamorous Marina in Limassol, Cyprus. The ceremony brought together a wide range of global businesses that offer cutting-edge technology, comprehensive market research tools, superior educational programs, and world-class customer service.

FP Markets' Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa, Craig Allison said: "We are honoured to be awarded "Best Global Value Broker" for the 4th consecutive year, an unprecedented feat which emphasises our consistent and unwavering commitment to providing our clients with the best trading experience. We are further delighted to receive the awards for "Best Forex Partners Programme" in Asia and "Best Forex Broker" in Europe for 2022 for the first time which clearly demonstrates that, as we expand globally, we are being recognised globally for consistently offering our clients competitive pricing, fast execution, market-leading technology, and a first-rate customer experience. We greatly appreciate the continued international recognition as at FP Markets we pride ourselves on these attributes and these prestigious awards are testament to the hard work from our global team to always provide our clients with the ultimate trading experience."

FP Markets offers over 10,000 trading instruments offering traders access to CFDs across Forex, Indices, Commodities, Stocks, and Cryptocurrencies, making it one of the largest offerings in the industry with eight platforms, including MT4, MT5 & Iress. Over the past 17 years, FP Markets has learned that the combination of consistently tight spreads and fast executions, coupled with cutting-edge platforms, a wide product range, and first-rate customer support are the key ingredients that give serious traders the confidence to trade. Since the year of its establishment in 2005, Australia's Best Forex Broker 2020 continues to expand its product offering, giving traders the ability to trade under some of the best trading conditions in the industry.

Notes to Editors

About FP Markets:

FP Markets is an Australian Regulated global Forex Broker with more than 17 years of industry experience.

FP Markets offers highly competitive interbank Forex spreads available from 0.0 pips and leverage up to 500:1 on its pro account.

Download FP Markets' Mobile App and trade on the go across several powerful online platforms like MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5, WebTrader, and Iress.

The company's outstanding 24/7 multilingual service has been recognized by Investment Trends as home to some of the most content clients in the industry, having been awarded 'The Highest Overall Client Satisfaction Award,' five years running from Investment Trends.

FP Markets has been awarded as the 'Global Forex Value Broker' for four consecutive years (2019, 2020, 2021,2022) at the Global Forex Awards.

FP Markets has been awarded the "Best Forex Trading Experience in the EU" at the Global Forex Awards 2021.

FP Markets has been awarded "Best Trade Execution" at the Ultimate Fintech Awards 2022

For full details of our wide-ranging offering, visit https://www.fpmarkets.com/

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ReActiv8 Neurostimulation therapy recommended to be used in the National Health Service; Special arrangements designation to increase access to ReActiv8 for patients

Mainstay Medical Holdings plc announced today that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), a public body of the Department of Health that carries out evidence-based health technology assessments by independent committees, has issued a recommendation that ReActiv8 Restorative Neurostimulation can be used in the National Health Service in the U.K., with special arrangements for clinical governance, consent, and audit or research. ReActiv8 is currently the only technology offering restorative neurostimulation to the NHS for refractory mechanical chronic low back pain (CLBP).

"U.K. physicians have some of the most extensive experience with ReActiv8 globally. We are thankful to NICE for recognizing this experience, as well as the substantial body of global evidence we have developed in support of the efficacy and safety of this ground-breaking therapy, said Jason Hannon, CEO of Mainstay Medical. "This new guidance will enable patients to have greater access to the therapy when previous treatment options have not proven successful. We look forward to supporting physicians across the U.K. going forward and to continued improvement in patient outcomes."

"Historically, mechanical CLBP pain therapies were aimed at only managing the symptoms, which is the pain associated with this pathology," said Dr. Ganesan Baranidharan, Consultant in Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. "ReActiv8 is the only therapy available I am aware of where patients with many years of CLBP actually reverse and effectively rehabilitate their condition durably over a long period of time. ReActiv8 targets the cause of mechanical CLBP, not just the symptoms. The new NICE guidance is a major victory for patients and clinicians, which further confirms the positive patient outcomes we have seen to date. This new guidance will allow more patients to gain access to ReActiv8 within the U.K. and further afield."

The NICE publication can be found here: Evidence Neurostimulation of lumbar muscles for refractory non-specific chronic low back pain Guidance NICE

About ReActiv8

ReActiv8 is an implantable medical device designed to treat adults with intractable chronic low back pain (CLBP) associated with multifidus muscle dysfunction. Multifidus muscle dysfunction may be evidenced by imaging or physiological testing in adults who have failed therapy including pain medications and physical therapy, and who are not candidates for spine surgery. ReActiv8 has received regulatory approval in several geographic areas, and is commercially available in the European Economic Area, Australia, the UK, and the US.

About Mainstay Medical

Mainstay Medical is a medical device company focused on commercializing its innovative implantable Restorative Neurostimulation system, ReActiv8, for people with disabling mechanical CLBP. Mainstay Medical is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland and has subsidiaries operating in Ireland, the United States, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands.

Further information can be found at www.mainstaymedical.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

All statements in this announcement other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements regarding the company's intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, among other things, the company's commercial efforts and performance, including the use of the ReActiv8 therapy by physicians and patients in the U.K. and elsewhere, and the company's financial position, financing strategies, product design and development, regulatory applications and approvals, and reimbursement arrangements.

Forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty and are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from those described in, or suggested by, the forward-looking statements. A number of factors could cause results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements herein, including, without limitation, the risks and uncertainties included in the company's Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2021, which should be read in conjunction with the company's public disclosures (available on the company's website (www.mainstaymedical.com). The forward-looking statements herein speak only as of the date of this announcement.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005133/en/

Contacts:

PR and IR Enquiries:

LifeSci Advisors, LLC

Brian Ritchie

Tel: 1 (212) 915-2578

Email: britchie@lifesciadvisors.com

FTI Consulting (for Ireland)

Jonathan Neilan or Patrick Berkery

Tel.: +353 1 765 0886

Email: mainstay@fticonsulting.com

Mainstay Medical

Corporate Communications

Email: Media@mainstaymedical.com
RoboSense, a world-leading provider of Smart LiDAR Sensor Systems announced XPENG G9 equipped with two RoboSense second-generation Smart Solid-state LiDARs (RS-LiDAR-M1). On September 21, XPENG Motors held the "G9 Flagship SUV Immersive Experience" online launch event and officially launched XPENG G9. XPENG G9 is positioned as "the world's Fastest-Charging electric SUV". It achieved a breakthrough and went going from development of "independent functions" to "global intelligence".

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005230/en/

XPENG G9 equipped with two RoboSense second-generation smart solid-state LiDARs, to realize full-scenario intelligent driver assistance. (Graphic: Business Wire)

G9 further demonstrates XPENG's innovation in the field of intelligence. From the early functions of autonomous parking, voice control to driver assistance, G9 uses XPENG's second-generation ADAS, XNGP, equipped with two RoboSense second-generation smart solid-state LiDARs, to realize full-scenario intelligent driver assistance.

The sensing system of the X Version of G9 uses 31 sensors. In particular, two RoboSense second-generation smart solid-state LiDARs are deployed under the headlights on both sides of the vehicle, covering 180 horizontal view, effectively reducing the size of vertical blind spots and thus tackling various complex driving scenarios in urban areas more effectively. This greatly improves the intelligent driving experience of G9, enabling it to run gracefully in the bustling traffic in urban scenarios.

With two smart solid-state LiDARs to boost performance, XNGP ADAS integrates new-generation visual perception and sensor fusion technologies, more powerful computing algorithms and decision-making and planning capabilities, which will achieve full coverage of daily driving scenarios including highways, urban expressways/main trunk roads/sub trunk roads, parks roads and parking lots and connect points such as high-speed toll stations, parking lot gates, etc. to become an advanced intelligent driver-assistance system that meets the daily commuting needs.

In accordance with strict passenger vehicle automotive-grade standards, RoboSense second-generation smart solid-state LiDAR has passed a series of reliability tests and fully meets the safety, reliability, service life and other requirements of XPENG G9 in high-speed and urban complex road scenarios.

With its leading technological strengths in the field of LiDAR, RoboSense has obtained design wins for more than 50 models from companies including XPENG, Great Wall Motor, BYD, FAW Hongqi, GAC AION, ZEEKR, WM Motor, Lotus Cars, Lucid Motors, Inceptio Technology and Zhito Technology. RoboSense will always pursue technological innovation and keep promoting the large-scale production of smart vehicles.

About RoboSense

RoboSense (Suteng Innovation Technology Co., Ltd.) is a world-leading provider of Smart LiDAR Sensor Systems. With a complete portfolio of LiDAR sensors, AI perception and IC chipsets, RoboSense transforms conventional 3D LiDAR sensors with comprehensive data analysis and interpretation systems.

About XPeng Inc.

XPeng is a leading Chinese Smart EV company that designs, develops, manufactures, and markets Smart EVs that appeal to the large and growing base of technology-savvy middle-class consumers. Its mission is to drive Smart EV transformation with technology and data, shaping the mobility experience of the future.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005230/en/

Contacts:

Grace Ye

media@robosense.ai
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 23, 2022 / Naturally Splendid Enterprises Ltd. ("Naturally Splendid", "NSE" or "the Company") (FRANKFURT:50N)(TSX-V:NSP)(OTC PINK:NSPDD) is pleased to provide the following summary of the Distribution Network assembled for sales and distribution of the Company's PlanteinTM line of plant-based foods.

Naturally Splendid CEO Mr. J. Craig Goodwin states, "We have made several announcements recently regarding the build-out of our distribution network. I am pleased to report that we have assembled a superb network of Distributors servicing Canada from coast to coast. We have secured two (2) of the largest foodservice distributors in North America, which are complemented by Regional and Specialty Distributors. Our Regional and Specialty Distributors have been selected for their established clientele and ability to service niche markets, while the larger distributors will service the mainstream market through their national infrastructure".

Goodwin adds, "This combination of National, Regional and Specialty Distributors will be effectual reaching consumers with the greatest of efficiency to distribute PlanteinTM plant-based food products throughout Canada targeting restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities as well as the hospitality industry."

Master Distributor / Distribution Coordinator

Naturally Splendid has engaged Canex Foods as Distribution Coordinator. Canex is a full-service food importer that has been in operation since 1987.

Canex works closely with our roster of distributors who have the option to draw inventory directly from Naturally Splendid or coordinate shipments through Canex Distribution Centres / Freezer Storage Facilities that are strategically located in Canada's two largest markets, Vancouver and Toronto.

This arrangement optimizes shipping logistics across the country.

National Distributors

PlanteinTM entrees are now available across Canada through two of North America's largest foodservice organizations, as reported in earlier news releases.

This network of Distributors has a cumulative total of over twenty-five distribution centres across Canada and hundreds of sales representatives servicing Canada coast to coast.

In addition to the two (2) National Distributors, Naturally Splendid has augmented the distribution coverage by engaging with Specialty and Regional Distributors.

Specialty and Regional Distributors

The Company has engaged with Specialty and Regional Distributors to target certain market segments.

Greenbridge Foodservice is a national foodservice sales and marketing organization that has organized a strategic group of seven (7) Distribution Members across Canada. This collaborative group of distributors has a collective fifteen (15) distribution centres across Canada providing coast to coast coverage.

Greenbridge Foodservice will market the complete PlanteinTM line including; Burgers; Nuggets; Crumbed Tenders; Sweet Chili Tenders; Schnitzel; Garlic Kiev; and Phishy Fillet throughout their extensive network.

Vegan Supply is a Vancouver based company with both retail and foodservice distribution, began business in 2015 as the world's largest e-commerce marketplace, exclusively providing its retail customers and foodservice clients with high-quality vegan products. Vegan Supply is listing five (5) PlanteinTM plant-based entrees: Nuggets, Schnitzel, Crumbed Tenders, Sweet Chili Tenders, and Crispy Burgers.

Naturally Splendid CFO Mr. George Ragogna states, "There has been extensive work behind the scenes assembling this network of distributors. This distribution network is key as interest in our products continues to grow and customers want to know where they can order. It is critical to have a robust distribution network in place, and that is what we have assembled. We look forward to working with all our Distribution Partners to grow our business."

About Naturally Splendid Enterprises Ltd.

Naturally Splendid is a plant-based food manufacturing and technology company that produces and distributes nutritious and delicious plant-based commodity products.

Founded in 2010, the Company operates a certified food manufacturing facility located just outside Vancouver, BC in Canada, focusing on producing an extensive range of plant-based entrees.

Naturally Splendid has an exclusive 10-year manufacturing and distribution agreement for Canada with a division of Australia's largest plant-based food manufacturer, Flexitarian Foods Pty. Ltd.

In addition to producing the Company's own branded products, Naturally Splendid provides contract manufacturing services and private labelling for a variety of nutritional plant-based food products destined for multiple distribution channels.

The Company has established healthy, functional foods under brands such as Natera Sport, Natera Hemp Foods, CHII, Elevate Me and Woods Wild Bar. The Company launched Plantein Plant-Based Foods, a line of delicious plant-based meat alternatives for the rapidly growing plant-based market segment.

Naturally Splendid has reached an agreement with Biologic to terminate the agreement with Plasm Pharmaceutical and is negotiating a compensation package for work done to date pursuing a potential treatment for Covid with the target drug Cavaltinib.

NSE has also developed proprietary technologies for the extraction of healthy omega 3 and 6 oils, as well as a protein concentrate from hemp.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Mr. J. Craig Goodwin

President, Director

Contact Information

Naturally Splendid Enterprises Ltd.

(NSP - TSX Venture; NSPDD - OTC PINK; 50N Frankfurt)

#108-19100 Airport Way

Pitt Meadows, BC, V3Y 0E2

Office: (604) 570-0902

E-mail: info@naturallysplendid.com

Website: www.naturallysplendid.com

Forward-Looking Statements

Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. Naturally Splendid cautions that all forward looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond Naturally Splendid's control including, Naturally Splendid's ability to compete with large food and beverage companies; sales of any potential products developed will be profitable; sales of shelled hemp seed will continue at existing rates or increase; customers will complete on sales contracts; and the risk that any of the potential applications may not receive all required regulatory or legal approval. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, Naturally Splendid undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

SOURCE: Naturally Splendid Enterprises Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/717176/Naturally-Splendid-Summarizes-PlanteinTM-Distribution-Network
GUANGZHOU, China, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PHNIX will attend 2022 INTERCLIMA and CHILLVENTA. Both of the HVAC trade shows are well-known in the heat pump industry. In these few months, PHNIX teams were busy preparing for these two upcoming events and would bring to the shows the most innovative products.

About the Shows

INTERCLIMA has been France's long-standing trade show with international reach, which is the place to be for heating equipment of all sizes for all types of buildings and markets, both new-build and renovation projects. It will be held in Paris, France from October 3rd to 6th this year.

CHILLVENTA is a leading trade fair worldwide for its comprehensive overview of refrigeration, AC, ventilation and heat pump technology. It will be held in Nuremberg, Germany from October 11th to 13th this year.





PHNIX focuses on heat pump R&D, manufacturing and providing comprehensive energy-saving solutions. In the shows, PHNIX will demonstrate its most cutting-edge heat pump technologies and products for three different applications. Particularly, there will be a wonderful debut of PHNIX whole new R290 heat pumps for domestic and commercial applications with different capacities, which cannot be missed. Furthermore, PHNIX product experts will show up physically on the shows to communicate the latest heat pump technologies and insights with visitors.

About Showcases:

House heating/cooling+DHW Heat Pump

-R290 Air to Water Heat Pump-GreenTherm series

-R32 Air to Water Heat Pump-HeroPremium series with transparent cabinet design

-Multi-functional Water Tank

-Water Fan Coil

-A Newest R32 Heat Pump

All-in-one Heat Pump Water Heater

-R290 airExpert 300L

-R290 airExpert 100L

-airSplit

Commercial Heat Pump Water Heating Solution

-R290 HeatMaster Series

-PolariesPro Series

"Requirements of eco-friendly heat pump technologies in the global market were increased after the proposal of the carbon neutral concept. That's one of the reasons why we continuously research and develop in HVAC area. We have created multiple types of heat pumps for domestic and commercial applications, which will debut on the market on our upcoming shows." Says Peter Wang, PHNIX Deputy General Manager in charge of PHNIX overseas business.

About PHNIX

As the leading heat pump manufacturer in China, PHNIX specialize in the R&D and production of heat pumps and energy-saving solutions. Almost 50% of PHNIX products are exported to Europe, North America, and other overseas markets. To learn more about PHNIX, please visit www.phnix-e.com.

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/phnix-will-attend-2022-interclima-and-chillventa-expo-with-its-newest-heat-pump-innovations-301632095.html
Lviv, Ukraine--(Newsfile Corp. - September 23, 2022) - IT Arena, one of Eastern Europe's key tech events kicks off in Lviv, Ukraine on September 30. The two-day event will bring together Ukraine's and international tech experts, top management of tech companies, government officials, mainstream media, and the tech industry's top influencers for an offline event.

Despite the ongoing war in the country, Ukraine's tech industry continues to grow and prosper in 2022. During the first half of 2022, Ukraine's tech sector brought an unprecedented $3,7 billion of export revenue, showing strong support for the economy in times of war. The tech community will gather at the IT Arena to demonstrate the strength and resilience of Ukraine.

Cross-border discussions

This year, the event theme is focused on "Ukraine 3.0: Brave. Resilient. Digital". The key industry experts' talks, maximized live networking opportunities, and international tech spirit is traditionally the IT Arena's trademarks, but this year's conference will be concentrated on business, economic, and technology industry efforts in fighting the war. The conference will be hosted at historical sites of Lviv to give the attendees the most enthralling experience.

IT Arena keynote speakers are Haluk Bayraktar, CEO of Turkey's premiere autonomous technology company Baykar, Ivan Tolchynskyi, Founder & CEO of industrial drone manufacturer Atlas Dynamics, Cameron Chell, President & CEO of cutting-edge drone solutions company Draganfly, and Serhiy Prytula, Ukrainian public and political figure and Founder of Prytula Charity Fund.

The event will feature panel discussions on the future of tech in UAVs, insights of modern cyber tactics, government and tech business consolidated efforts, and more.

The IT Arena speaker's lineup will include themes related to startups, tech industry development, and supporting Ukraine in times of war.

Cyberspace defense challenges

In 2022, IT Arena will go deep into cybersecurity issues, as the warfare in Ukraine started on different levels - on the ground and likewise in cyberspace. Cybersecurity expert Kim Zetter and External Communications Analyst at Very Good Security Kenneth Geers, will analyze Ukraine's progress in cyber security and defense and discuss the importance of safeguarding information as cyberattacks become ever more prevalent.

"Anything as big as war or an invasion requires a lot of preparation, and in cyber war, one should hack in peacetime to get ready to put destructive malware in place and to collect strategic intelligence. In defense, in cyber or computer network operations of the past six months is the advancement and part of the defense and the ability not only of Ukraine to defend its computer networks but to work with the allies. So in terms of the February 24 invasion, a lot of work has been done beforehand, and there is so much to learn from what is happening now," says Kenneth Geers, External Communications Analyst at Very Good Security.

Government and tech business efforts

In addition, IT Arena 2022 will unite the government and tech business representatives who will talk about the key aspects of Ukraine's defense, cooperation of authorities, and entrepreneurs aimed at ensuring a strong economic rear while supporting the army and restoring the state after Ukraine's victory. The speakers Alex Bornyakov, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation, Oleg Haiduk, Deputy Minister of Defense, and Yulia Svyrydenko, Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister of Ukraine, will analyze the major factors of the successful cooperation between the government and technology industry.

Startup Competition

In recent years, IT Arena has been a hotbed for aspiring Ukrainian startups. Despite changes to the 2022 format, the popular Startup Competition is going ahead. The challenging conditions throughout the country resulted in a smaller number of applications. In total, the competition received 70 startups applications. 10 out of 70 applicants will have a chance to pitch from the IT Arena stage and compete for a $85,000 prize fund.

In 2022, the Startup Competition team is offering an extra benefit for early-stage startups. Within the Mentorship Madness program, the team brought together 50 mentors, including investors and experts representing several industries to mentor the startup teams online or offline.

Name: Julia Kozlenko

Email Address: julia.kozlenko@itcluster.lviv.ua

Website: itarena.ua

City: Lviv

Country: Ukraine

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/138061
QUEBEC, QC / ACCESSWIRE / September 23, 2022 / NuRAN Wireless Inc. ("NuRAN" or the "Company") (CSE:NUR)(OTC:NRRWF)(FSE:1RN), a leading supplier of mobile and broadband wireless infrastructure solutions, is pleased to announce the European Investment Bank (EIB) has now publicly announced its proposed financing of NuRAN.

Further to our prior announcement of a mandate letter from EIB for $15M USD in January, which has since been increased to $18M USD, the Company has been advised by EIB that it is approaching the final stage for approval. The financing has now been published on the EIB website as the bank is a public entity. NuRAN's project falls under the COVID-19 DIGITAL AFRICA LOAN ENVELOPE which has the objective ofaccelerating the deployment of digital infrastructure and solutions in sub-Saharan Africa.

The $36M USD project is a combination of $18M USD from EIB, 8M EUR from another DFI which has already been approved and the remainder from NuRAN of which more than $6M USD has already been invested and is sufficient to initiate the first drawdown.

Subject to completion of the financing, all loan proceeds are expected to be advanced to NuRAN Wireless (Africa) Holding, the entity formed for the purpose of the project which is 100% owned by NuRAN Wireless Inc.

A link to the published announcement can be viewed at:

https://www.eib.org/en/projects/pipelines/all/20210739

"We are now approaching final approval for the release of $26M USD to further accelerate the deployment of rural sites in Cameroon and DRC. To date NuRAN has essentially financed the sites built through its own equity. The plan has always been to primarily use debt at the African subsidiary level to deploy new sites. The DFI's mission is to invest in infrastructure projects that have major social and environmental impact for which we tick all the boxes. This financing will provide NuRAN with capital to reach up to 1100 live sites covering over 5M population." stated Francis Letourneau, CEO of NuRAN.

About EIB:

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the lending arm of the European Union. They are the biggest multilateral financial institution in the world and one of the largest providers of climate finance. The EIB's activities focus on the following priority areas: climate and environment, development, innovation and skills, small and medium-sized businesses, infrastructure and cohesion. The EIB works closely with other EU institutions to foster European integration, promote the development of the European Union and support EU policies in over 140 countries around the world..

About NuRAN Wireless:

NuRAN Wireless is a leading rural telecommunications company that meets the growing demand for wireless network coverage in remote and rural regions around the globe. With its affordable and innovative scalable solutions of 2G, 3G, and 4G technologies, NuRAN Wireless offers a new possibility for more than one billion people to communicate effectively over long distances efficiently and affordably. "Bridging the Digital Divide, One Connection at a Time."

Additional Information:

For further information about NuRAN Wireless: www.nuranwireless.com

Francis Letourneau,

Director and CEO

Francis.letourneau@nuranwireless.com

Tel: (418) 264-1337

Frank Candido

Investor relations

Frank.candido@nuranwireless.com

Tel: (514) 969-5530

For further information about MTN Cote d'Ivoire:

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as, "expects", "is expected", "anticipates", "intends", "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements include those relating to the Company's Loan Facility agreements and term sheet with the lenders including EIB, the ability to raise additional funds to meet the US$36,000,000 commitment amount for the projects in DRC and Cameroon, the Company's proposed build out of network sites and ability to obtain project financing in relation to same. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results projected, expressed or implied by these forward looking statements. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements, such as the uncertainties regarding include risks such as the uncertainties regarding the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, and measures to prevent its spread, risks relating to NuRAN's business and the economy generally; NuRAN's ability to refinance its long term debt that is currently in default; NuRAN's ability to adequately restructure its operations with respect to its new model of NAAS service contracts; the capacity of the Company to deliver in a technical capacity and to import inventory to Africa at a reasonable cost; NuRAN's ability to obtain project financing for the proposed site build out under its NAAS agreements with Orange, MTN and other telecommunication providers, the loss of one or more significant suppliers or a reduction in significant volume from such suppliers; NuRAN's ability to meet or exceed customers' demand and expectations; significant current competition and the introduction of new competitors or other disruptive entrants in the Company's industry; NuRAN's ability to retain key employees and protect its intellectual property; compliance with local laws and regulations and ability to obtain all required permits for our operations, access to the credit and capital markets, changes in applicable telecommunications laws or regulations or changes in license and regulatory fees, downturns in customers' business cycles; and insurance prices and insurance coverage availability, the Company's ability to effectively maintain or update information and technology systems; our ability to implement and maintain measures to protect against cyberattacks and comply with applicable privacy and data security requirements; the Company's ability to successfully implement its business strategies or realize expected cost savings and revenue enhancements; business development activities, including acquisitions and integration of acquired businesses; the Company's expansion into markets outside of Canada and the operational, competitive and regulatory risks facing the Company's non-Canadian based operations. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward looking information. Other factors which could materially affect such forward-looking information are described in the risk factors in the Company's most recent annual management's discussion and analysis that is available on the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

SOURCE: NuRAN Wireless Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/717213/European-Investment-Bank-EIB-Public-Announcement-on-NuRAN-Financing
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Japan decided to ease restrictions imposed on foreign tourists' entry into the country more than two years ago due to the spread of Covid. On the same day, Japan will remove the current daily cap of 50,000 foreign visitors allowed to visit the country, aimed to revive its ailing economy. Speaking on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said individual tourists will be able to visit the country without a visa, and will no longer need to go through a travel agency, from October 11. 'Japan will relax border control measures to be on par with the US,' Kishida told reporters. In order to boost the influx of foreign tourists, Japan had allowed visitors from 68 countries and regions, including the United States, to stay in the country for not more than 90 days without a visa. An average of more than 2 million tourists visited Japan per month during pre-pandemic years, but the numbers fell sharply after the lockdowns were lifted, the Japan National Tourism Organization's data shows. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
AM Best has revised the outlooks to negative from stable and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) of "a-" (Excellent) of Polskie Towarzystwo Reasekuracji S.A. (Polish Re) (Poland).

These Credit Ratings (ratings) reflect Polish Re's balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM). The ratings also reflect the lift Polish Re receives due to the support provided by its ultimate parent, Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (Fairfax), in particular the explicit parental guarantee in place for Polish Re. In addition, Fairfax provides technical support in areas such as reserving, retrocession protection and investment management services.

The negative outlooks reflect pressure on Polish Re's balance sheet strength assessment, following a trend of deteriorating risk-adjusted capitalisation, as measured by Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), due to significant premium growth between 2019 and 2021 combined with a reduction in shareholders' equity in 2021. As a result, the company's BCAR assessment deteriorated to the strong level at year-end 2021 from very strong in 2020 and 2019, and strongest in 2018. Risk-adjusted capitalisation remains subject to volatility from growth levels and financial performance. AM Best will monitor the company's risk-adjusted capitalisation, and negative rating actions could follow if BCAR is not maintained at a level supportive of the current balance sheet strength assessment.

Polish Re's reserves exhibit an elevated level of volatility, stemming largely from motor third-party liability (MTPL) business in Poland, which negatively impacts the company's balance sheet assessment. The company benefits from a conservative and liquid investment portfolio.

Polish Re's tightened underwriting discipline in recent years has reversed the historically unstable operating performance trend, as evidenced by a five-year average combined ratio of 97.5% (2017-2021). The main source of historical volatility has been the MTPL portfolio, which was put into runoff in 2014. The company reported a net profit of PLN 16.2 million (USD 4.0 million) in 2021 (2020: USD 4.9 million), reflecting a 98.3% combined ratio, supplemented by investment income.

Polish Re benefits from its diversified portfolio offering and long-standing presence across Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, as well as its position as the sole domestic reinsurer in Poland. Polish Re is well-diversified geographically, with operations spanning approximately 40 markets. Additionally, the company has significantly expanded its agriculture line of business in recent years. Despite its international presence, Polish Re's business profile remains constrained by its lack of scale in any given market.

AM Best considers Polish Re's ERM to be developed and appropriate for the company's risk profile and operational scope.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best's website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best's Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best's Credit Ratings, Best's Performance Assessments, Best's Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best's Ratings Assessments

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specialising in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com

Copyright 2022 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005396/en/

Contacts:

Morgane Hillebrandt

Financial Analyst

+31 20 308 5422

morgane.hillebrandt@ambest.com

Victoria Ohorodnyk

Associate Director

+31 20 308 5432

victoria.ohorodnyk@ambest.com

Christopher Sharkey

Manager, Public Relations

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5159

christopher.sharkey@ambest.com

Al Slavin

Communications Specialist

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5098

al.slavin@ambest.com
Cameroon is partnering with the Africa Finance Corporation to create infrastructure that will help transform the economy into a manufacturing hub from mostly raw mineral exports now, driving job creation, skills transfer and higher export revenue.

Joining as AFCs 36th member state, Cameroon will be working with the Corporation on key infrastructure to deepen integration, enable import substitution, and develop manufacturing and industrial capacity to account for 40% of GDP, as part of the governments Vision 2035 program. AFC, Africas leading infrastructure solutions provider, has to date allocated over US$300 million to Cameroon to capture value from the nations natural resources, which include maize, cassava, cotton, cocoa, oil and gas, as well as energy transition metals such as cobalt and nickel.

Cameroon Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute said: We are committed to working with the AFC to quickly and sustainably build critical supporting infrastructure that will help with Cameroons development.

With a mission of solving the continents most pressing challenges, AFC has invested over US$10 billion in the past 15 years, utilising its unique access to global capital markets to drive development, integrate regional economies and transform lives. Through its ecosystem investment approach, AFC has developed and financed projects such as the first carbon neutral industrial zone in Africa, the Nkok Special Economic Zone, which has made Gabon the largest exporter of veneer wood globally, generating US$1 billion in annual export revenue and creating over 30,000 jobs. Through a US$150 million investment, the approach is being replicated by the Arise platform in Benin and Togo to generate a projected US$750 million and US$2 billion in additional GDP, respectively.

AFC has partnered with 17 additional countries in the past four years, with Angola and Tunisia joining this year. Benefits for member nations include increased investment allocation, preferred access to AFCs structuring and lending solutions, reduced project debt costs, and the Corporations advisory and project development services.

The largest economy in the Central African Economic and Monetary Union (CEMAC), Cameroons membership extends AFCs footprint to cover more than half of central Africa, grouping Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon.

President and CEO of AFC, Samalia Zubairu, said: We are delighted to welcome Cameroon as a member of AFC. Our rapidly expanded membership is a sign of confidence in our past collaborations and demonstrates interest in partnerships and initiatives that will further drive economic development and play a critical role in enabling key infrastructure.

Projects currently being explored by AFC and Cameroon include road modernisation and maintenance to boost trade in the region, and financing agricultural processing facilities to support the export of cotton seeds and soybeans.

In 2018, AFC made an investment in the Nachtigal Hydro Power Company, a 420MW power station that will boost Cameroons installed capacity by 30 percent and slash the cost of power generation. Four years earlier, the Corporation supported the modernisation and expansion of Cameroons national refinery, Societe Nationale de Raffinage (Sonara).

Cameroons government is looking to public-private partnerships to help build infrastructure that can create more opportunities for beneficiation and deliver real impact to its diverse population.

Having already invested $300 million in our country, AFC has a proven track record of delivering core infrastructure, Prime Minister Ngute said. We look forward to building upon our existing relationship.

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Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Finsbury Growth & Income Trust Plc - Transaction in Own Shares

For immediate release

23 September 2022

FINSBURY GROWTH & INCOME TRUST PLC

(the "Company")

MARKET PURCHASE OF COMPANY'S OWN SHARES

The Company announces that it has today purchased 150,000 of its own shares ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 811.88 pence per Ordinary Share. Such shares will be held in treasury by the Company.

The transaction was made pursuant to the authority granted at the Annual General Meeting of the Company held on 9 February 2022.

Following this transaction, the total number of Ordinary Shares held by the Company in treasury is 8,478,311; the total number of Ordinary Shares that the Company has in issue, less the total number of Ordinary Shares held by the Company in treasury following such purchase, and therefore, the total number of voting rights in the Company is 216,512,992.

The figure of 216,512,992 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for calculations of interests in the Company's voting rights in accordance with the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

For and on behalf of

Frostrow Capital LLP

Company Secretary

For further information, please contact:

Victoria Hale

Frostrow Capital LLP

Tel: 020 3 170 8732
Full data analysis of AAVance Phase 2/3 Gene Therapy Clinical Trial with LYS-SAF302 in MPS IIIA expected early Q4 2022

Completion of Phase 1 adaptive clinical trial evaluating safety of LYS-GM101 in 5 patients with GM1 gangliosidosis

Cash position of 7.7m at the end of June 2022, providing financial visibility to the end of January 2023

Regulatory News:

Lysogene (FR0013233475 LYS) (Paris:LYS), a phase 3 gene therapy platform Company targeting central nervous system (CNS) diseases, today reports its first half 2022 financial results, approved by the Board of Directors on 23 September 2022. The financial statements were subject to a limited review by the Company's statutory auditors. The full interim financial report is available on the Company's website in the Investors' section.

Karen Aiach, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lysogene, said: "We are finally reaching the most exciting time in Lysogene's journey as results of our lead gene therapy candidate, LYS-SAF302, are expected in the next few weeks. The data set is currently being analyzed by independent data providers and we look forward to having a comprehensive view of the efficacy of our drug candidate to hopefully confirm the preliminary positive efficacy signal observed so far. With these results, we will be able to discuss the next steps with the regulatory authorities." Karen Aiach added: "We also continue to work on strategic options to extend the Company's cash runway to fund the development of our extensive pipeline of preclinical programs targeting high prevalence diseases".

Selected financial information on 30 June 2022 (IFRS financial statements)

Comprehensive Income Statement in thousands of euros 30/06/2022 30/06/2021 Operating income Revenue 8,439 2,922 Other operating revenue 1,603 1,305 Total operating income 10,042 4,227 Operating expenses Research and Development expenses (6,512) (6,859) General and Administrative expenses (2,625) (2,566) Total operating expenses (9,137) (9,425) Operating income 905 (5,198) Net financial income (expense) (202) (333) Net income (loss) 703 (5,531) Weighted average number of shares outstanding 17,385,028 16,794,212 Earnings per share () 0.04 (0.33)

Number of shares outstanding as of 30 June 2022: 17,811,140

Cash position at January 01 12,336 18,780 Change in net cash (4,616) (3,710) Cash position at June 30 7,720 15,070

In the first half 2022, total operating income reached 10.0 million versus 4.2 million in 2021 with:

Revenue of 8.4 million versus 2.9 million in 2021. Until December 31, 2021, the payments made by Sarepta under the license-collaboration agreement were recorded in proportion to the direct internal and external costs associated with the development of LYS-SAF302 in accordance with IFRS 15.

As a result of the termination of the agreement notified on January 11, 2022, the Company fully recognized in the first half of 2022 all outstanding payments from Sarepta for an amount of 8.4 million.

Other operating revenue of 1.6 million and consisted mainly of the Research Tax Credit.

Operating expenses amounted to 9.1 million in the first half 2022 compared to 9.4 million in 2021 with:

Research and Development expenses of 6.5 million, down 0.3 million versus 2021 mainly due to: a decrease in personnel expenses related to the variation in headcount over the period and to a lesser impact of free share plans, external expenses almost stable over the period with an increase in expenses related to the production campaign of LYS-GM101 clinical batches, offset by a decrease in expenses related to litigation as the Company recorded in 2021 a $2.8 million impact of the settlement of a commercial dispute with an industrial partner.

General and Administrative expenses of 2.6 million, slightly up versus 2021 with: an increase in external costs, notably associated with legal fees related to the structuring of financings, partly offset by a decrease in personnel expenses due to the variation in headcount over the period and a lesser impact of free share plans.



Net financial result was negative by 0.2 million consisting of fees and accrued interest on the loans granted to the Company at the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022.

The net profit for the period was 0.7 million versus a net loss of 5.5 million in 2021.

At 30 June 2022, the Company's cash position amounted to 7.7 million. Based on projected cash runway, it would allow the Company to finance its operations until the end of January 2023.

To extend its cash runway, the Company has already initiated discussions to explore all possible strategic options. It is currently evaluating the following options: (i) a capital increase (private placement, public offering, equity lines or other equity instruments); (ii) a financing by debt (bond issuing, repayable advance or venture loan); (iii) a license grant on one or several of its products to benefit from the upfront and milestones payments related to such collaboration.

Nevertheless, among all possible options, the Company today prioritizes a non-dilutive one under the form of a license collaboration on one or several of its products. Given the low market capitalization currently, potential equity fundings would be deemed highly dilutive. Financing by debt is the least likely solution at this stage given that the Company has already subscribed to several debt instruments in the past 18 months for an amount of 11.9m from the European Investment Bank, The Public Investment Bank and the Bred (cf note 10 of the financial statements).

In addition, the Company will maintain its cost control initiatives initiated at the beginning of the year. To cover the expenses already incurred and overhead costs until 30 September 2023, the Company estimates that it will need an additional 8 million funding (which could be reduced by 3.2 million from the reimbursement of the 2022 Research Tax Credit). This amount assumes that no new R&D expenses will be incurred from February 2023.

Clinical update

LYS-SAF302 program

In the first half of 2022, the Company published initial efficacy data from the AAVance Phase 2/3 clinical trial evaluating LYS-SAF302 in patients with MPS IIIA.

The positive effect of LYS-SAF302 on the MPS IIIA disease biomarker heparan sulfate in the cerebrospinal fluid was confirmed with statistically significant decreases of about 20% in average levels of total HS-derived oligosaccharides in the CSF relative to baseline levels. Moreover, the drug candidate appeared to have a positive effect on the development of the youngest patients. In the 6 patients treated at less than 31 months, stable or continuously increasing cognitive, language and motor functions was observed, including subjects with SGSH mutations associated with the severe disease phenotype.

Full study results are expected early Q4 2022, along with results from the PROVide patient reported outcome videos study. Based on this comprehensive clinical data package, the company plans to initiate discussions with regulatory authorities in the US and in Europe to determine next steps.

LYS-GM101 program

In the first half of 2022, the Company completed recruitment of its Phase 1 adaptive clinical trial with its investigation gene therapy LYS-GM101 in GM1 gangliosidosis which is designed to evaluate the safety of the drug candidate.

All five patients treated in this initial phase will be monitored and, depending on the results, the next phase of the study should be launched early next year with the recruitment of 12 additional patients.

About Lysogene

Lysogene is a gene therapy Company focused on the treatment of orphan diseases of the central nervous system (CNS). The Company has built a unique capability to enable delivery of gene therapies to the CNS to treat lysosomal diseases and other disorders of the CNS. A phase 2/3 clinical trial in MPS IIIA is ongoing. An adaptive clinical trial in GM1 gangliosidosis is also ongoing. Lysogene is also developing an innovative AAV gene therapy approach for the treatment of Fragile X syndrome, a genetic disease related to autism. The Company also entered into an exclusive worldwide license agreement with Yeda, the commercial arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science, for a novel gene therapy candidate for Parkinson disease with GBA1 mutations. www.lysogene.com.

Forward Looking Statement

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements, especially on the Company's progress of its clinical trials and cash runway. Although the Company believes its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, all statements other than statements of historical fact included in this press release about future events are subject to (i) change without notice, (ii) factors beyond the Company's control, (iii) clinical trial results, (iv) increased manufacturing costs, (v) potential claims on its products. These statements may include, without limitation, any statements preceded by, followed by or including words such as "target," "believe," "expect," "aim," "intend," "may," "anticipate," "estimate," "plan," "objective", "project," "will," "can have," "likely," "should," "would," "could" and other words and terms of similar meaning or the negative thereof. Forward-looking statements are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties beyond the Company's control that could cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the expected results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. A further list and description of these risks, uncertainties and other risks can be found in the Company's regulatory filings with the French Autorite des Marches Financiers, including in the 2021 universal registration document, registered with the French Markets Authorities on April 19, 2022, and future filings and reports by the Company. Furthermore, these forward-looking statements are only as of the date of this press release. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. If the Company updates one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that it will or will not make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements.

This press release has been prepared in both French and English. In the event of any differences between the two texts, the French language version shall supersede.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005458/en/

Contacts:

Stephane Durant des Aulnois

Chief Financial Officer

stephane.durant-des-aulnois@lysogene.com

+ 33 1 41 43 03 99
Regulatory News:

The Combined Shareholders' Meeting of TotalEnergies EP Gabon (Paris:EC) was held, today in Libreville, under the chairmanship of Mr. Henri-Max NDONG NZUE.

The Shareholders adopted all the resolutions approved by the Board of Directors, including distribution approval of a net dividend at $55.56 per share for a total payment of $250 million.

A detailed breakdown of the vote tallies will be posted on the Company's website www.ep.totalenergies.ga in the coming days.

The $55.56 per share dividend will be paid in euro from September 30, 2022, in an equivalent amount of 56.96 per share, based on the European Central Bank's rate of $0.97 per euro on September 23, 2022.

About TotalEnergies EP Gabon

TotalEnergies EP Gabon is 58.28% owned by TotalEnergies S. E, 25% by the Gabonese Republic and 16.72% by the public.

About TotalEnergies

TotalEnergies is a global multi-energy company that produces and markets energies: oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables and electricity. Our 100,000 employees are committed to energy that is ever more affordable, cleaner, more reliable and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130 countries, TotalEnergies puts sustainable development in all its dimensions at the heart of its projects and operations to contribute to the well-being of people.

@TotalEnergies TotalEnergies TotalEnergies TotalEnergies

Cautionary Note

The terms "TotalEnergies", "TotalEnergies Company" and "Company" appearing in this document are used to refer to TotalEnergies SE and the consolidated entities that TotalEnergies SE controls directly or indirectly. Similarly, the terms "we", "us", "our" may also be used to refer to these entities or their employees. The entities in which TotalEnergies SE holds a stake directly or indirectly are separate and autonomous legal persons. TotalEnergies SE cannot be held liable for acts or omissions emanating from these companies.

This document may contain forward-looking statements. They may prove to be inaccurate in the future and are dependent on risk factors. Neither TotalEnergies SE nor any of its subsidiaries undertakes or assumes any commitment or responsibility to investors or any other stakeholder to update or revise, in particular as a result of new information or future events, any or all of the statements, forward-looking information, trends or objectives contained in this document. Information regarding risk factors that could have a material adverse effect on TotalEnergies' financial results or operations is also available in the most up-to-date versions of the Universal Registration Document filed by TotalEnergies SE with the Autorite des marches financiers and Form 20-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC").

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005460/en/

Contacts:

TotalEnergies EP Gabon

actionnariat-epgabon@totalenergies.com

Media Relations: +33 (0)1 47 44 46 99 l presse@totalenergies.com l @TotalEnergiesPR

Investor Relations: +33 (0)1 47 44 46 46 l ir@totalenergies.com
NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES.

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 23, 2022 / Sebastiani Ventures Corp. ("Sebastiani" or the "Company") (TSX-V:SBS.H), further to its press release issued August 17, 2022, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a definitive business combination agreement (the "Merger Agreement") dated effective September 22, 2022, pursuant to which it will acquire (the "Acquisition"), through its newly formed subsidiary, all the issued and outstanding share capital of EvokAI Creative Labs Inc. ("EvokAI").

The Acquisition will constitute a reverse takeover under the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange"). Upon closing, it is anticipated that Sebastiani will graduate to Tier 2 of the Exchange as a technology issuer and will change its name to EvokAI Creative Labs Inc.

EvokAI is a MedTech AI-powered company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands on July 7, 2021, and headquartered in Allschwil, Switzerland. EvokAI is dedicated to the development of transformational and innovative technologies for the modern healthcare sector. It deploys machine learning models to search medical data and uncover insights to help improve health outcomes, patient experiences, drug development, preclinical and clinical decisions and provide more accurate diagnoses. EvokAI tailors its AI algorithms across the whole healthcare system, from hospitals, private clinics, research institutions, pharmaceutical companies, contract research organizations, to medical professionals, patients, healthy individuals aiming at preventing any kind of disease and beyond, protecting the aging genome.

EvokAI has shown significant advances during the last months, bridging the gap between neuroscience and artificial intelligence, tackling one of the most severe neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer's, which is becoming more common as the general population gets older and lives longer, and recently broadening its scope by revolutionizing Parkinson's Disease analysis and treatment. Entering the MedTech field, this unique novel wireless medical device accurately analyzes the magnitude of movement disorders and the effectiveness of treatments for Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders, a smart device to improve patients' quality of life and support doctors in their work.

For the six months ended June 30, 2022 (unaudited), EvokAI had $nil revenue, and incurred a loss of $189,695 ($nil revenue and loss of $3,586,712 for the period from July 7, 2021 to December 31, 2021 - unaudited). As at June 30, 2022 (unaudited), EvokAI has assets of $53,962 and liabilities of $189,319 (December 31, 2021 (unaudited): assets of $55,338 and $nil liabilities).

For more information about EvokAI, visit the company's website at https://evokailabs.com.

Terms of the Acquisition

EvokAI currently has 14,068,636 common shares and 661,290 class B preferred shares (collectively, the "EvokAI Shares") outstanding. Union Group Ventures Limited, a private company indirectly controlled by Juan Sartori, owns 11,495,283 (78.3%) EvokAI Shares. The Acquisition will be completed pursuant to which, inter alia,(i) Sebastiani will complete a consolidation of its common shares on a 2.6628503 old for 1 new basis (the "Consolidation") such that it will have 8,414,286 common shares issued immediately prior to closing of the Acquisition, and (ii) holders of EvokAI Shares will be issued an aggregate of 70,000,000 post Consolidation common shares of Sebastiani at a deemed price of $1 per share (the "Consideration Shares"), on the basis of 1 EvokAI Share for 4.752230256 Consideration Shares, as consideration in exchange for their EvokAI Shares. Certain of the Consideration Shares will be subject to escrow and resale restrictions pursuant to the policies of the Exchange.

Upon closing of the Acquisition, current securityholders of Sebastiani will own 8,414,286 post Consolidation common shares, and 1,251,791 share purchase warrants will be exercisable at $0.266 per post Consolidated common share until June 1, 2023.

Financing

As a condition to completing the Acquisition, the parties intend to complete a non-brokered private placement financing (the "Financing") of subscription receipts of EvokAI, (the "Subscription Receipts"), to raise a minimum of $5,000,000, through the issuance of a minimum of 5,000,000 Subscription Receipts at a price of $1.00 per Subscription Receipt.

The proceeds of the Financing will be held in escrow, pending the Company receiving all applicable regulatory approvals, and completing all matters and conditions relating to the Acquisition, including the Consolidation. Immediately prior to the completion of the Acquisition, on satisfaction of the escrow conditions, each Subscription Receipt will ultimately be exchanged, for no further consideration and with no further action on the part of the holder thereof, for one common share of the issuer resulting from the Acquisition, (the "Resulting Issuer"). In the event that the Acquisition is not completed, each Subscription Receipt will be cancelled, and the subscription funds will be returned to the subscribers. The Company may pay a commission in connection with the Financing. Once released from escrow, the Resulting Issuer will use the proceeds of the Financing for research and development, marketing and sales, and for general working capital purposes.

All securities issued by the Resulting Issuer in connection with the Financing will be free trading upon completion of the Acquisition.

Board of Directors and Management Changes

On completion of the Acquisition, the Company's Board of Directors and management team will be reconstituted to include four directors and management comprised of individuals from EvokAI and Sebastiani, including the individuals listed below. Further details of the full management team will be provided in subsequent press releases.

Alejandro Antalich - Director and Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Antalich is the former Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Company ICC Labs Inc. (TSXV), the first publicly traded company in the world to sell cannabis to a federal government. Mr. Antalich led ICC Labs to its successful sale to Aurora Cannabis Inc. (TSX) in November 2018, a $300 million transaction. Mr. Antalich is an entrepreneur and investor with a commercial instinct and vision towards business growth, with expertise in the medtech and foodtech sectors, as well in the pharmaceutical industry, operations, manufacturing and product development. Mr. Antalich is also the CEO and a director of Biomind Labs Inc., a Canadian publicly traded life sciences company specializing in fast acting psychedelics and tailored drug delivery systems targeting specific therapeutic indications.

Scott Ackerman - Director

Mr. Ackerman is the President and CEO of Emprise Capital Corp. ("Emprise") a company providing management, restructuring, accounting and financial services to public companies. Mr. Ackerman has been active in the public markets for 30 years, having held senior executive roles in various capacities from Investor Relations to Executive Management, including Chair of the Audit Committee. In addition, to this role with Emprise, Mr. Ackerman serves as director and/or officer of a number of publicly traded and private "start-up" venture companies. Mr. Ackerman graduated from the British Columbia Institute of Technology with a diploma in Marketing in 1987.

A copy of the Merger Agreement will be filed and accessible under Sebastiani's profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com), and in connection with the Acquisition and pursuant to the requirements of the Exchange, Sebastiani will also file on SEDAR a filing statement which will contain details regarding the Acquisition, Sebastiani, EvokAI, and the Resulting Issuer.

The Acquisition is not a non-arm's length transaction under the policies of the Exchange and therefore is not expected to require approval of Sebastiani's shareholders. Sebastiani intends to apply for a waiver from sponsorship requirements, however, there is no assurance that Sebastiani will obtain this waiver.

Completion of the Acquisition is subject to a number of conditions, including completion of the Financing, receipt of all necessary shareholder and regulatory approvals, execution of related transaction documents, and Exchange approval. Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the disclosure documents to be prepared in connection with the Acquisition, any information released or received with respect to the Acquisition may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading of Sebastiani's common shares will remain halted until completion of the Acquisition.

For further information, contact Scott Ackerman at 1-778-331-8505 or sackerman@emprisecapital.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of:

SEBASTIANI VENTURES CORP.

Scott Ackerman

Director

Sebastiani Ventures Corp.

Email: sackerman@emprisecapital.com

Completion of the Acquisition is subject to a number of conditions, including, but not limited to, Exchange acceptance and if applicable, disinterested shareholder approval. Where applicable, the Acquisition cannot close until the required shareholder approval is obtained. There can be no assurance that the Acquisition will be completed as proposed or at all.

Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the disclosure document to be prepared in connection with the Acquisition, any information released or received with respect to the Acquisition may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of Sebastiani should be considered highly speculative.

The TSX Venture Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the Acquisition and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Statements included in this announcement, including statements concerning our and EvokAI's plans, intentions, and expectations, which are not historical in nature are intended to be, and are hereby identified as, "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements include, among other matters, the terms and timing of the Acquisition, the Financing, the growth plans of EvokAI and statements concerning the Company following the Acquisition, including the composition of the Company's board of directors and management team. Forward-looking statements may be, but are not always, identified by words including "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "expects" and similar expressions. The Company cautions readers that forward-looking statements, including without limitation those relating to the Company's and EvokAI's future operations and business prospects, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties (including risks that the Acquisition does not proceed, or proceed on the expected terms, geopolitical risk, regulatory, Covid-19 and exchange rate risk) that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that any forward-looking statement will prove to be accurate or that management's assumptions underlying such statements, including assumptions concerning the Acquisition or future developments, circumstances or results will materialize. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date of this new release and the Company does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking information included herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

SOURCE: Sebastiani Ventures Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/717279/Sebastiani-Ventures-Enters-Definitive-Agreement-to-Acquire-Artificial-Intelligence-Company-Evokai-Creative-Labs-Inc
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 23, 2022) - Rome Resources Ltd. (TSXV: RMR.H) ("RMR" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the voting results from its 2016 - 2022 annual shareholders' meetings, which were held on September 16, 2022. All resolutions presented to shareholders were overwhelmingly approved. At each of the shareholders' meetings the number of directors was set at three, Dr. Georg Schnura, Michelle Robinson and David Jenkins were elected to the Company's board of directors, and Davidson & Company LLP, Chartered Professional Accountants, was re-appointed as auditor of the Company.

At the 2022 annual and special meeting of shareholders, disinterested shareholders also approved the Company's rolling 10% stock option plan and the issuance by the Company of up to 48,000,000 common shares in the capital of the Company to Dr. Andreas Reitmeier, Mr. Klaus Eckhof and Mr. Mark Gasson pursuant to two property option agreements each dated effective August 15, 2022 whereby the Company has been granted options to acquire majority interests in two properties, namely exploration permit PR 13274 and exploration permit PR 15130, which are located in the Walikale District of the North Kivu Province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and the potential creation of a control block as a result thereof. Particulars of the two property option agreements are disclosed in the Company's August 22, 2022 news release.

Dr. Schnura continues as the Company's CEO and President, and Sheryl Jones continues as the Company's CFO.

For further information, please contact:

Dr. Georg Schnura

President, CEO and Director

Telephone: (604) 687-6140

Email: romeresourcesltd@gmail.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/138289
Shareholders to Vote at a Special Meeting to be held on November 9, 2022

BROOKFIELD, NEWS, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Brookfield (NYSE: BAM, TSX: BAM.A) ("Brookfield") today announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously approved the transaction for the public listing and distribution of a 25% interest in its asset management business, through Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. (the "Manager"). Pursuant to this approval, Brookfield has entered into an arrangement agreement (the "Arrangement Agreement") in connection with the implementation of the transaction.



The transaction will result in the division of Brookfield into two publicly traded companies - the Corporation (Brookfield Asset Management Inc. will be renamed "Brookfield Corporation") and the Manager - with the holders of Brookfield's class A limited voting shares ("Class A Shares"), class B limited voting shares and Series 8 and 9 class A preference shares (collectively, "Shareholders") becoming shareholders of the Manager on completion (the "Arrangement"). The transaction will enable Shareholders to access a leading pure-play global alternative asset management business, through the Manager. Brookfield Corporation will continue focusing on deploying capital across its operating businesses, growing its cash flows and compounding that capital over the long term.

A special meeting of Shareholders has been called for November 9, 2022 (the "Meeting") and Shareholders of record as of the close of business on October 3, 2022 will be entitled to vote at the Meeting. The Board of Directors of Brookfield unanimously recommends that Shareholders vote in favor of the resolution approving the Arrangement, as well as the related matters to be approved at the Meeting.

A copy of the Arrangement Agreement will be available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov.

Key Highlights

Following completion of the Arrangement and related transactions:

Brookfield Corporation and the Manager will respectively own 75% and 25% of our asset management business;

the Class A Shares of the Corporation are expected to trade on the New York Stock Exchange (the "NYSE") and the Toronto Stock Exchange (the "TSX") under the new ticker symbol "BN";

the Manager's class A limited voting shares ("Manager Class A Shares") are expected to trade on the NYSE and TSX under the ticker symbol "BAM";

the Arrangement will generally occur on a tax-deferred basis for Brookfield Corporation and shareholders resident in Canada and U.S.;

each holder of Class A Shares will receive 1 Manager Class A Share for every 4 Class A Shares held;

each holder of Series 8 and 9 class A preference shares will receive a fraction of a Manager Class A Share and a new Brookfield Corporation class A preference share for every Series 8 or 9 preference share held; and

Brookfield Corporation, the Manager and certain of their affiliates will enter into agreements designed to enable them to preserve mutual benefits and competitive advantages.



Approvals

The Arrangement is subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including Shareholder approval at the Meeting, approval of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, NYSE and TSX listing approvals, and other customary regulatory approvals. Brookfield intends to apply to obtain an interim order from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on September 28, 2022, and thereafter hold the Meeting on November 9, 2022, to approve the Arrangement and related matters. The Management Information Circular in connection with the Meeting will be finalized and mailed shortly and will also be available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov.

About Brookfield

Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (NYSE: BAM, TSX: BAM.A) is a leading global alternative asset manager with over $750 billion of assets under management across real estate, infrastructure, renewable power and transition, private equity and credit. Brookfield owns and operates long-life assets and businesses, many of which form the backbone of the global economy. Utilizing its global reach, access to large-scale capital and operational expertise, Brookfield offers a range of alternative investment products to investors around the world-including public and private pension plans, endowments and foundations, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, insurance companies and private wealth investors.

For more information, please visit our website at www.brookfield.com or contact:

Kerrie McHugh Communications & Media

Tel: (212) 618-3469

Email: kerrie.mchugh@brookfield.com Linda Northwood Investor Relations

Tel: (416) 359-8647

Email: linda.northwood@brookfield.com

Forward Looking Statements

Information in this press release that is not a historical fact is "forward-looking information". This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian provincial securities laws and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian provincial securities laws and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and "safe harbor" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and in any applicable Canadian securities regulations. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as "expect", "anticipate", "believe", "foresee", "could", "estimate", "goal", "intend", "plan", "seek", "strive", "will", "may" and "should" and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements reflect current estimates, beliefs and assumptions, which are based on Brookfield's perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors management believes are appropriate in the circumstances. Brookfield's estimates, beliefs and assumptions are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive and other uncertainties and contingencies regarding future events and as such, are subject to change. Brookfield can give no assurance that such estimates, beliefs and assumptions will prove to be correct.

This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning Brookfield's beliefs on certain benefits of the Arrangement and the anticipated tax treatment of the proposed transaction for Brookfield and its shareholders resident in Canada and the United States.

Factors that could cause actual results, performance, achievements or events to differ from current expectations include, among others, risks and uncertainties related to: obtaining approvals, rulings, court orders and consents, or satisfying other requirements, necessary or desirable to permit or facilitate completion of the Arrangement (including regulatory and shareholder approvals); future factors that may arise making it inadvisable to proceed with, or advisable to delay, all or part of the Arrangement; the potential for significant tax liability for a violation of the tax-deferred spinoff rules; the potential benefits of the Arrangement; and business cycles, including general economic conditions.

Certain risks and uncertainties specific to the proposed Arrangement, Brookfield, and the Manager, will be further described in the management information circular to be mailed to Shareholders in advance of the Meeting. Other factors, risks and uncertainties not presently known to Brookfield or that Brookfield currently believes are not material could also cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by statements containing forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on statements containing forward-looking information that are included in this press release, which are made as of the date of this press release, and not to use such information for anything other than their intended purpose. Brookfield disclaims any obligation or intention to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / September 23, 2022 / In its Press Release of August 3, 2022, GreenBank Capital Inc. (CSE:GBC)(OTCMKTS:GRNBF)(FRA:2TL) ("GreenBank" or "the Company") announced that, following a request from the shareholders of Staminier Limited ("Staminier"), it had agreed to acquire an additional 29.5% of the issued ordinary share capital of Staminier Limited, in what constitutes a significant step towards full GreenBank ownership of Staminier.

Summary

The Company is pleased to announce that it has now completed the acquisition of 29.1% out of the expected 29.5%, in consideration of the issuance to the vendors (who are the shareholders of Staminier) of 31,848,428 common shares of GreenBank (in lieu of the Special Shares that had originally been announced as being the intended consideration).

The 31,848,428 GreenBank common shares are subject to the statutory hold period of four months and one day.

Note that these common shares are being issued in lieu of the Special Shares which were referred to in the release of 3 rd August 2022 as being the intended consideration.

August 2022 as being the intended consideration. Following the acquisition of this additional 29.1% of Staminier's share capital, GreenBank now holds 48.1% of the ordinary share capital of Staminier Limited.

Further Information

4,810,522 of the 31,848,428 GreenBank common shares issued as consideration are to be issued shortly by the Transfer Agent, directly to the vendors with the balance of 27,087,906 Greenbank common shares at or around the same time being placed and held in escrow until the conditions for release from escrow have been met. It is hoped that GreenBank will very shortly be in a position to complete the acquisition of the remaining 0.4% of the 29.5% announced on August 3rd, at which point a further 18,758 common shares will be issued directly to the vendors in question and a further 105,426 placed into the same escrow. The conditions for release of the Greenbank shares from escrow have been drafted with the aim of ensuring that, until such time as the Company has published a prospectus, the vendors do not collectively hold more than 45% of the voting rights of GreenBank.

In addition, GreenBank has agreed to extend the current Put Option of which the Staminier shareholders have the benefit until 31 March 2023, subject to the option not being exercisable without the consent of GreenBank (such consent not to be unreasonably withheld or delayed) or at any time when such exercise will result in GreenBank or any persons Acting in Concert (as defined in The City Code on Takeovers and Mergers published by the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers (as amended from time to time)) together acquiring an interest in the shares of Staminier giving control of Staminier (within the meaning of section 1124 of the UK Corporation Tax Act 2010), at a time whilst the Future Fund is a lender under the Convertible Loan Agreement dated 31 March 2021.

Terry Pullen CEO said "We are pleased to have significantly increased our stake in Staminier and feel that the close working relationship between the two companies is already providing substantial enhanced financial value. We are very excited indeed about our prospects as we shift gear in terms of corporate action, profitability and market awareness."

For further information, please contact:

Terry Pullen, CEO GreenBank Capital

Email: Terry@GreenBankCapitalInc.com

Tel: +44 (0)7831 402 388

About GreenBank

GreenBank is a publicly traded company that has a flexible low-cost overhead structure designed to maximize profitability. Our management are based in Toronto and London and are used to working across borders remotely. GreenBank invests in multi-sector undervalued public and private growth companies focused on building consistent capital appreciation for its shareholders. Our model of remote working, utilising dynamic office space and flexible contracts -rather than large, fixed costs - establishes GreenBank as a global business for the future.

GreenBank is listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE:GBC), the Frankfurt Boerse (FRA:2TL) and on the OTC Markets in the USA (OTC PINK:GRNBF).

SOURCE: GreenBank Capital Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/717272/GreenBank-Completes-Acquisition-of-Additional-Staminier-Shares
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 23, 2022) - Kuya Silver Corporation (CSE: KUYA) (OTCQB: KUYAF) (FSE: 6MR1) (the "Company" or "Kuya Silver") has entered into an agreement with Independent Trading Group ("ITG") to provide market making services to the Company, subject to approval by the Canadian Securities Exchange. ITG will be paid $6,500 per month for an initial 3-month term, after which the engagement will be monthly, unless either party provides 30 days written notice of termination.

About Kuya Silver Corporation

Kuya Silver is a Canadian-based mineral exploration and development company with a focus on acquiring, exploring, and advancing precious metals assets in Peru and Canada.

For more information, please contact:

David Stein, President and Chief Executive Officer

Telephone: (604) 398-4493

info@kuyasilver.com

www.kuyasilver.com

Reader Advisory

This news release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking information," including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs, and current expectations of the Company, its directors, or its officers with respect to the future business activities of the Company. The words "may," "would," "could," "will," "intend," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "future," "growth," "must," "next," "potential," "progress," "prospect," and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company or its management, are intended to identify such forward-looking information. Investors are cautioned that statements including forward-looking information are not guarantees of future business activities and involve risks and uncertainties, and that the Company's future business activities may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking information as a result of various factors, including but not limited to fluctuations in market prices, successes of the operations of the Company, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market and business conditions. There can be no assurances that such forward-looking information will prove accurate, and therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of the risks and uncertainties. The Company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking information except as required under the applicable securities laws.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada 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/138293
Les membres du gouvernement ont pris note que le paud av signer un Exchange Note de Rs 174 millions de roupies avec le Gouvernement du Japon afin dextendre les subsides pour les hopitaux du pays aini que pour le Trust Fund for Specialised Medical Care-Cardiac Centre, que plusieurs regulations seont promulge concernant la douane, de celle de la (Historic Motor Vehicles) Regulations 2022 pour creer un musee historique de la voiture, de lorganisation de trois divali shows dans le pays du 14 au 16 octobre 2022 entre autres.

1. Cabinet has agreed to the accession of the Republic of Mauritius to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The Treaty which is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization, makes it possible to seek patent protection for an invention simultaneously in a large number of countries by filing an international application. Such an application may be filed by anyone who is a national or resident of a PCT Contracting State.

There are currently 156 countries which are party to the PCT. The accession to the PCT would, inter alia, offer more visibility to the country on the international Intellectual Property arena and increase the attractiveness of the Mauritian jurisdiction for the filing of patent applications, especially in the emerging sectors such as Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Research on Sea Sponge.

2. Cabinet has agreed to the Government of Mauritius signing an Exchange of Notes with the Government of Japan for a Grant Aid of JPY550 million (approx. Rs174 million). The Government of Japan has agreed to extend the grant for the procurement of the medical equipment for the five regional hospitals of Mauritius and the Trust Fund for Specialised Medical Care-Cardiac Centre at Pamplemousses under its Economic and Social Development Programme.

3. Cabinet has taken note that the following regulations would be promulgated:

(a) the Customs (Amendment) Regulations 2022;

(b) the Customs Tariff (Amendment of Schedule) (No. 5) Regulations 2022;

(c) the Excise (Amendment No. 2) Regulations 2022;

(d) the Excise (Amendment of Schedule) (No. 4) Regulations 2022; and

(e) the Excise (Amendment) Regulations 2022.

These Regulations provide for the implementation of measures mentioned in the Annex to Budget Speech 2022  23 relating to customs laws as well as other policy and technical measures.

4. Cabinet has agreed to the promulgation of the Road Traffic (Historic Motor Vehicles) Regulations 2022, in the context of the setting up of a Historic Motor Vehicle Museum in Mauritius for showcasing a car collection of at least 150 originals, vintage and classic cars of 40 years or more. These cars are unique and would be exhibited under their unique registration marks.

5. Cabinet has taken note that the Ombudsperson for Financial Services (Sworn Statement) (Revocation) Regulations 2022 would be promulgated. The Ombudsperson for Financial Services (Sworn Statement) Regulations 2019 have now become obsolete.

6. Cabinet has agreed to the submission of the National Report on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) to the United Nations Environment Programme as one of the deliverables of the Global Monitoring Plan under the Stockholm Convention on POPs, which has been ratified by the Republic of Mauritius.

The Stockholm Convention is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from chemicals that remain intact in the environment for long periods, also known as POPs. Parties to the Convention are required to comply with provisions of the Convention, take measures to eliminate or reduce the release of POPs in the environment and provide background data on POPs in ambient air and human milk under the Global Monitoring Plan.

7. Cabinet has taken note that the Department of Civil Aviation would host the fourth African-Indian Ocean Free Route Airspace Project Management Team (AFI FRA PMT) Meeting in collaboration with the International Civil Aviation Organisation, from 25 to 28 October 2022 in Mauritius.

The objective of the meeting is to provide the AFI FRA PMT with a forum to develop a road map for the regional Free Route Airspace project as well as to gain insight of the challenges and lessons learnt by Mauritius during the implementation of the project within the Flight Information Region. Some 60 participants from among the 48 Member States are expected to attend the meeting, along with some 10 participants from the key aviation stakeholders in Mauritius.

8. Cabinet has agreed to the Ministry of Arts and Cultural Heritage organising three Divali Shows at national level from 14 to 16 October 2022, in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism and the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority, and with the participation of local and international artists. These three live performances would equally form part of the 12 Fetes Nationales being organised throughout the island in the context of the 55th Anniversary of the Independence of Mauritius which would be celebrated next year.

9. Cabinet has taken note of the activities being organised by the Mauritius Post Ltd, in collaboration with the Ministry of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation, to mark the 250th Anniversary of the postal services in Mauritius. The event would coincide with World Post Day to be celebrated on 09 October 2022 under the theme Post for Planet.

An official function would be organised on 08 October 2022 at Caudan Arts Centre, Port Louis and the event would include: (a) the opening of a Philatelic Exhibition to be organised in collaboration with the Association Philatelique de lOcean Indien and an exhibition on the historical journey of the Mauritius Post Ltd;

(b) the launching of two stamps and two First Day Covers on the 250th Anniversary of Postal Services in Mauritius and 175th anniversary of Blue and Red Penny stamps; (c) the unveiling of a Commemorative Plate as well as a stele, depicting the 250th Anniversary of the postal services in Mauritius; (d) the recognition of six employees having the longest years of service in the postal sector, including one from Rodrigues; and (e) the launching of a new logo for the Mauritius Post Ltd. In addition, the Mauritius Post Ltd has also planned other side activities. These activities would also be extended to Rodrigues in the coming month.

10. Cabinet has taken note of the status of road capital projects being implemented by the Road Development Authority as at 31 August 2022. For the current financial year, seven projects have been completed, 10 are under construction, contracts have been awarded for two projects, five projects are at procurement stage and six others are at preparation stage.

11. Cabinet has taken note of the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic prevailing across the world. Some 618.7 million cases have been reported globally, of which 598.6 million persons have been successfully treated. With regard to Mauritius, as at 21 September 2022, there were 57 active cases of COVID-19, out of which 10 were admitted at the New ENT Hospital.

12. Cabinet has taken note of the outcome of the participation of the Minister of Financial Services and Good Governance in the 22nd Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG) Council of Ministers Meeting and the 5th Sub-Saharan Africa Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Public/Private Sector Dialogue held recently in Zambia as well as his official mission to South Africa.

A delegation from Mauritius attended the 44th ESAAMLG Task Force of Senior Officials Meeting, whereby the Enhanced Follow-up Report of Mauritius which included a request for technical compliance re-rating of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendation 15 on New Technologies was considered. It was the only outstanding recommendation where Mauritius had a rating of Partially Compliant. On the basis of the progress made by Mauritius in addressing the deficiencies relating thereto, the ESAAMLG Task Force approved the upgrading of that Recommendation to Largely Compliant. With this technical compliance upgrade, Mauritius is, now, Compliant or Largely Compliant to all of the 40 FATF Recommendations.

The Council of Ministers approved the appointment of Mrs Fikile Zitha from South Africa, as the new Executive Secretary of ESAAMLG. The 5th Sub-Saharan Africa AML/CFT Public/Private Sector Dialogue was launched immediately after the Council of Ministers Meeting with the theme Virtual Assets and the Implementation of the AML/CFT Programmes in the ESAAMLG Region.

During the mission of the Minister to Johannesburg, South Africa, he participated in various meetings with potential investors and prospective operators for the Mauritius International Financial Centre in order to explore the interest of the investor community in South Africa to invest and operate in the Mauritian jurisdiction.

13. Cabinet has taken note of the outcome of the participation of the Attorney General, Minister of Agro-Industry and Food Security in the African Green Revolution Forum and the First-In-Person Regional Dialogue with African Food Systems National Convenors organised by the African Union Development Agency, the United Nations Food Systems Coordination Hub, the Food Workstream of the United Nations Global Crisis Response Group on Food Energy and Finance and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa held recently in Rwanda.

The theme of the Forum was Grow, Nourish, Reward  Bold Actions for Resilient Food Systems. The Forum was organised following the Food Systems Summit, a United Nations initiative, preceding the National Dialogue on Food System. The African Green Revolution Forum was a platform to encourage African Food Systems Convenors to engage in the implementation of strategies related to the recent food, energy and finance crisis on the African continent. In the margins of the African Green Revolution Forum, a National Convenors Meeting was held and the Attorney General, Minister of Agro-Industry and Food Security made a presentation on the National Pathway.

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AM Best has assigned a Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A (Excellent) and a Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) of "a" (Excellent) to La Capitale General Insurance Inc. (La Capitale General Insurance). In addition, AM Best has assigned an FSR of A (Excellent) and a Long-Term ICR of "a" (Excellent) to La Capitale Civil Service Insurer Inc. (La Capitale Civil Service Insurer). The outlook assigned to these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable. In addition, AM Best has affirmed the FSR of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICRs of "a" (Excellent) of SSQ Life Insurance Company, Inc. (SSQ Life), L'Unique General Insurance Inc. (L'Unique) and Unica Insurance Inc. (Unica). The outlook of these ratings is stable.

The ratings of La Capitale Civil Service Insurer reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM). La Capitale Civil Service Insurer operates as a generalist within the individual insurance, group insurance, savings, personal lines and commercial product lines.

The ratings of La Capitale General Insurance reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate ERM. La Capitale General Insurance operates as a generalist within the personal lines and commercial product lines.

Business is written through the direct distribution channels in Quebec.

The ratings of SSQ Life reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate ERM. AM Best expects SSQ Life's consistently favorable operating performance should continue to drive capital growth following anticipated brand integration into Beneva Inc., which will begin in 2023.

The ratings of L'Unique reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate ERM. L'Unique was founded in 1978 and writes auto, home, recreational vehicle, and commercial insurance through a network of brokers, exclusively in Quebec.

The ratings of Unica reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate ERM. Unica, originally founded in 1955, provides niche commercial and VIP personal insurance solutions to protect high net worth client's homes, vehicles and businesses, also while providing umbrella liability. Unica writes exclusively within Ontario and distributes products through a network of select insurance brokers.

The ratings of La Capitale Civil Service Insurer, La Capitale General Insurance, Unica and L'Unique consider the benefit that each entity receives operating as part of the larger Beneva organization in support of the common business strategy. The ratings also reflect the commitment by Beneva management to integrate each company further into the overall organization with SSQ Life, resulting in a broader organization serving a diverse clientele.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best's website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office

responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best's Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best's Credit Ratings, Best's Performance Assessments, Best's Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best's Ratings Assessments

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com

Copyright 2022 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005521/en/

Contacts:

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+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5487

kevin.varvaro@ambest.com

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Senior Financial Analyst

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5304

gordon.mclean@ambest.com

Al Slavin

Communications Specialist

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5098

al.slavin@ambest.com
Pattern Health, a Durham, NC-based digital health company, raised $3.3M in Series A funding.

The round was led by the Dr. William H. Joyce Family Office, with contributions from existing investors Cofounders Capital, The Launch Place, and Triangle Tweener Fund. Allen A. Spizzo of the Joyce Family Office has joined the board of directors.

The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its business reach.

Led by CEO and Co-Founder Ed Barber, Pattern Health is a digital health company offering a platform that provides the interoperability, scalability, security, and compliance needed to create and distribute digital health programs. The company partners with researchers, clinical innovators, and their institutions to develop and implement digital health programs, surveys, and clinical tools. Programs are available for licensing by any healthcare institution, bringing innovators and healthcare providers together in a collaborative community that expands the impact of innovation.

The company currently powers research across a wide range of conditional areas at 12 of the top 20 academic medical centers in the US as measured by NIH funding.

FinSMEs

23/09/2022
Runa Capital, an international VC firm, has relocated its HQ to Luxembourg.

The company continues investing in both US and European markets, with the relocation emphasing its increased attention and presence in Europe. In addition, London-based Konstantin Vinogradov and San Francisco-based Michael Fanfant will take the roles of General Partners and will be responsible for overseeing the funds investment strategy and exploring new opportunities.

Vinogradov originally joined Runa Capital back in 2012 as a Junior Analyst and has risen through the ranks investing in enterprise software, open-source and machine learning applications in Europe. He developed and now curates the ROSS Index every quarter  the index highlights the fastest-growing startups in the open-source ecosystem.

Fanfant has been mostly focused on fintech and the US market, previously o-founded fintech startup Octane Lending, which reached a valuation of over $900 million in 2021.

Founded in 2010 by serial entrepreneurs behind global tech companies Acronis and Parallels, Runa Capital made 100+ early-stage investments in Europe and North America, including Mambu, Brainly, Zopa, Pasqal, MariaDB, Lendio and Smava. The fund also invested in such companies as Nginx (acquired by F5 for $700M), Ecwid (acquired by Lightspeed for $500M), Acumatica (acquired by EQT), and Drchrono (acquired by EverCommerce). Runa Capital operates globally with partners spread across Luxembourg, London, Berlin, San Francisco, and Palo Alto.

Runa Capital was one of the first LPs and supporters in the 1confirmation fund, which was launched by Runas former Principal Nick Tomaino and secured such LPs as Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen and Mark Cuban. Besides many investments, 1confirmation led a $2M seed round of OpenSea, now valued at $13.3 billion.

The firm is also led by Dmitry Chikhachev, General Partner & Co-founder.

FinSMEs

23/09/2022
International Week of the Deaf commemorated on Flagler's campus

This week, students from Flaglers Deaf Awareness Club worked with faculty and staff to celebrate International Week of the Deaf with education, activities and fellowship.

This week, were just finding ways to celebrate and make people aware of Deaf culture and the Deaf community, especially here in St. Augustine, President of the DAC, Skylee Rodgers said.

International Week of the Deaf is celebrated annually during the last week of September. The week was originally commemorated in 1958, seven years after the first World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf was held in Rome, Italy. September is now commonly recognized as Deaf Awareness Month, an expansion of this week-long celebration.

St. Augustine holds distinct historical ties with the Deaf community. In 1885, The Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind was established as the first fully accredited, tuition-free state public school for eligible Pre-K and K-12 students who are Deaf, hard of hearing, blind, visually impaired or deafblind. After Flagler College was established in 1968, its proximity to FSDB was a factor in offering a Deaf Education major as one of its first programs.

The Deaf community on campus and in St. Augustine has continued to thrive and members of DAC are dedicated to an effort of making Flagler College as accessible and welcoming as possible to the Deaf community.

Deaf Awareness Club is not just for Deaf Ed. and ASL people, its for anyone who wants to learn more about the Deaf community and learn more about their culture, Vice President of the DAC, Meredith Brunt said.

Monday

Legacy historic tour for the Deaf community

The week kicked off with a Legacy historic tour catered to St. Augustine residents of the Deaf community. DAC worked with the Colleges Legacy tours to host a free historic tour of the Hotel Ponce de Leon alongside an ASL interpreter.

Silent Dinner

After the tour, community members were invited to a silent dinner at Sarbez!. A handful of students from DAC joined the guests and were able to learn what these community members do in their jobs and how they are involved in the Deaf community.

Tuesday

Deaf accessibility Zoom workshop

In collaboration with the Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Dr. Jennifer Catalano, director of the Deaf education program, and June Ann LeFors, director of ASL studies hosted a workshop on Deaf accessibility via Zoom.

They kicked off the session, which was open to the Flagler community, by playing a trick that mimicked the experience a Deaf student might have while using virtual learning tools. Catalano, LeFors and the interpreters muted their mics and purposefully started conversing and signing so that the hearing people on Zoom could experience the confusion and frustration of being excluded from communication in a critical setting.

Their presentation was created to help participants understand what accessibility should entail for Deaf students, the laws which support it and ways to improve accessibility on campus and in the classroom.

Download the Presentation: Accessibility for Deaf Students (PPT 14MB)

Wednesday

Deaf accessibility lunch workshop

Catalano and LeFors hosted a second, in-person presentation of their workshop Wednesday. When discussing the difference between equality, equity and justice as it relates to accessibility, Catalano used the example of automatic sliding doors. She said this form of physical accessibility did not just provide tools for people with disabilities to get through doors as someone without disabilities would, it offered a solution to eliminate this obstacle:

Anybody can get through those doors and nobody has to ask for accommodations, Catalano said.

This solution-oriented way of thinking about accessibility is something she said we should strive for, obtaining justice over equity.

Silent Game Night

Wednesday night, the DAC hosted a silent game night held in the ASL lab where participants played Guesstures, which is similar to charades.

It was really laid back and relaxed. And if you didnt know any signing or spelling, it was fine. I learned signs I didnt even know, Brunt, VP of the DAC said.

- About the ASL Lab -

The ASL Lab, located in Kenan Hall room 322, is a resource for any student interested in improving their ASL skills. In the lab, students can meet with the ASL student tutors who consist of two native signers and Deaf Education majors.

Its just a space for ASL students, or any students, to come and practice ASL, Rodgers, president of the DAC said. You dont need to come in there specifically for tutoring. We invite anybody to come hang out and just express yourself using sign. Its an open place for people to come learn and express themselves.

Along with ASL tutors, the lab has other resources for students to develop their skills while having fun.

We have fun things for them to do too, Brunt said. We have a bookshelf of games that they can play and practice their signing. We can pull up videos on the computers to practice their receptive skills and then we can have them sign to us so they can practice their expressive skills.

Thursday

Deaf Awareness Club Day on the Lawn

Members of the DAC were set up with multiple tables on the West Lawn Thursday to engage with students throughout the day. Within the first hour of the event, Brunt said they had signed up three new members to the DAC.

One of the main goals of this event was get more students engaged with the DAC and conscious of their effort to increase signing on campus.

We want it to grow and be seen on campus more, Brunt said.

We want this to be a signing campus, Rodgers added. We want to see hands flying everywhere we go.

They had informational tables as well as a table where members would teach you a sign and paint it symbolically on your hand or arm.

Friday

Movie Night: A Quiet Place Part II + Discussion

Tonight, you can join the DAC and representatives from the Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for a screening of A Quiet Place Part II followed by a discussion about how the movie affected the Deaf community and how it involves them. The screening and discussion, located in the Student Center's Gamache-Koger Theater, will run from 7 to 9 p.m.

The cast is more hearing than Deaf, but they brought in people to teach them ASL, Brunt said. They had a lot of research within the movie to make sure it was accurate.

Tagged As
Short videos give a boost to popular science

18:01, September 23, 2022 By Li Xueqin ( People's Daily

An exhibition showcasing the Chinese civilization via digital technologies is held at the Capital Museum in Beijing, September 2020. (Photo by He Luqi/People's Daily Online)

Ning Yuan is an influencer that owns 9.67 million followers on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. His videos, mostly about popular science, such as why volcanoes are rekindled, the physiological structure of crawfish and why mosquitoes bite, teach audiences in a fun and easy-to-understand way.

Ning likes employing handmade models in his videos to present scientific laws and often uses close-ups to help audiences better understand.

"Popular science videos are meaningless if they are made opaque. The good ones are those that are both understandable for children and attractive for adults," said Ning.

He told People's Daily that the biggest challenge in making popular science videos is not about science, but about how to make the videos popular. In other words, video bloggers must try their best to explain highbrow scientific knowledge to audiences in the simplest language.

Today, digital technologies are making popular science extremely accessible online, and the internet, which enables people to learn anytime and anywhere, has become an important way for young generations to enrich their minds.

A livestream activity about earthquake response and disaster relief is held in a civil defense museum in Huai'an, east China's Jiangsu province, May 2022. (Photo by Zhao Qirui/People's Daily Online)

According to the 50th China Statistical Report on Internet Development recently released by the China Internet Network Information Center, the number of short video users in China reached 962 million as of June this year, accounting for 91.5 percent of the country's total internet users.

"As user demands evolve, videos play an increasing role. In the past, we wanted funny short videos, but today we want them to be useful and even enlightening," said Zhang Zhi'an, professor at the School of Journalism, Fudan University.

Many short video platforms have made concrete efforts to enrich their content in popular science, and scholars and experts from a wide range of fields, from energy to manned space, are sharing the latest progress of frontier technologies on these platforms.

For instance, Douyin, in collaboration with the China Association for Science and Technology, recently launched the second season of a popular science short video program joined by Chinese academicians. Relevant videos have been played 130 million times in total.

A man wears a virtual reality headset to watch a rain forest at the 2021 World UHD Video Industrial Conference. (Photo by Xu Jianmei/People's Daily Online)

Chinese geologist Liu Jiaqi noted that short videos are an excellent medium of science popularization as they are interesting and easy to watch.

"A lecture given in a short video can obtain 5 to 6 million views, which is impossible for a traditional one given in a classroom," Liu said.

Short video platform Kuaishou also launched a knowledge-themed livestreaming activity covering a wide range of areas, including economy and psychology. An employee of Kuaishou introduced that cooking lessons were the most sought after in prime time of summer, while musical instrument teaching gained more views between 21:00 and 23:00.

Short videos and livestreaming are making a new trend of science popularization, said Bai Xiaoqing, an associate professor at the Television School, Communication University of China. They can present scientific knowledge in simple language, as well as in pictures and animation which makes the content more artistic and attractive, she said, adding that such videos can be reached by a wider range of audiences.

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Du Mingming)
With barely two months to go before the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt, Africa and other developing parts of the world that bear the severest brunt of climate change are warning against turning it into a mere talking shop of promises.

African Development Bank Group President Dr. Akinwumi Adesina and speakers at the 2nd ministerial meeting on climate and development held on the sidelines of the ongoing UN General Assembly on Tuesday in New York questioned the commitment of developed countries to deliver on the promises they made at COP26 in Glasgow and the 2015 Paris Agreement.

They called for urgent action to raise funding for the worlds most vulnerable nations.

The top-level meeting wants climate and nature objectives mainstreamed across financial and economic policy as well as a significant action point to be presented at COP27 in November.

We are late. We must act. Im fed up with saying the same thing too many times in the same meetings. Business as usual is the collective enemy. Its time for action, said US climate envoy John Kerry adding, We are working on something serious to be put on the table at Sharm El Sheikh.

Senator Kerry spoke about his recent trips to Nigeria and Senegal, which are among 48 sub-Saharan countries that contribute less than 0.55% of carbon gas emissions yet suffer disproportionately from the impacts of climate change.

He said the world must change the way it does business ahead of COP 27 and called for the involvement of the private sector to raise the financing that is required to tackle climate change. Climate and development go together. The key point is: where is the money? All promises were left in Paris.

Dr. Adesina painted the reality of climate change in some of the African countries he recently visited, describing the situation as a heart-wrenching thing.

In Cabo Verde, they have not had rain for nearly three years. In Mauritania, vast areas are deserted because of lack of rain, said the African Development Bank head

Adesina told the meeting: Africa is suffering, choking, and is in serious financial distress for what it didnt cause. There must be a greater sense of urgency not in talking, but in doing and delivering resources that the continent needs very desperately.

He charged the world to deliver at COP 27 -the Africa COP, we must deliver the goods there. If there are good to be delivered, its really about adaptation. We do desperately need to have the financing for adaptation.

Adesina spoke about the bank-led Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program, which is mobilizing $25 billion of financing to support the continent at scale.

Speakers advocated for a coordinated strategy that involves funders, partners, and the private sector working together to finance climate change, especially for adaptation. Additionally, they urged countries to honour the promises they made at the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.

Adaptation never gets the attention it deserves. We need to make sure we are funding the things that have the highest impact, said co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates.

He highlighted how the challenge of climate change has been underscored by a series of bad weather events this year, emphasizing the urgency of action, including investing in technologies and scientists in developing countries.

It is fantastic that there is the goal of doubling adaptation money by 2025 to $40 billion. I will say a few things about how we think about measuring those 40 billion dollars. The first is that it should probably be focused on low-income countries. The needs there are quite traumatic. There is a question of how we define that money given these weather events and their effects on agriculture

He added: I dont think the world community is saying that we should spend less on vaccines in order to fund climate adaptation, but rather that we want this money to be incremental in the aid budget.

Rwandas Minister of Environment, Dr. Jeanne dArc Mujawamariya, and co-chair of the meeting echoed the voices of young people at the meeting.

She said: As you can see, young people are worried about their future. Let us use todays ministerial meeting to learn from one another and share practical and tangible actions that will make young people proud of us. We are here together, working hand in hand to address the climate crisis to ensure a bright future for our young people.

A youth climate activist from Papua New Guinea Vinzealhar Ainjo Nen emphasized the reality of the situation in her country.

Papua New Guinea is one of many island nations experiencing the wrought of the climate and nature crisis-long droughts, submerging islands- you name it. My people and I are existing in these conditions every day, she told the meeting.

Referring to what she described as a lengthy and complicated legal process to access climate funds at the national and international, she observed: I must stress that mother nature does not operate within legal frameworks, and we dont have time to waste.

Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Simon Stiell echoed the need for what he termed a series of actions to mobilize finance.

We need to get the whole architecture working. Climate disasters are increasingly coming in a variety of forms. We are formally in a decade of decisive action, he reminded the meeting.

Rwanda and the UK COP 26 Presidency co-chaired the Second Climate and Development Ministerial Meeting to review progress since COP 26 UN Climate Change Conference and advance transformational global climate action.

The meeting brought together 30+ countries and representatives of the UN, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and IMF to assess areas for progress on priorities of climate-vulnerable countries and deliver climate action.

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On 2 August, in disregard of Chinas strong opposition and serious representations, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi visited Chinas Taiwan region. This is a serious violation of the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-U.S. joint communiques. It has a severe impact on the political foundation of China-U.S. relations, and seriously infringes upon Chinas sovereignty and territorial integrity. It gravely undermines peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and sends a seriously wrong signal to the separatist forces for Taiwan independence. China firmly opposes and sternly condemns this, and has made serious demarche and strong protest to the United States.

There is but one China in the world, Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinas territory, and the Government of the Peoples Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. This has been clearly recognized by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. Since the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949, 181 countries have established diplomatic relations with China on the basis of the one-China principle. The one-China principle is a universal consensus of the international community and a basic norm in international relations.

In 1979, the United States made a clear commitment in the China-U.S. Joint Communique on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations  The United States of America recognizes the Government of the Peoples Republic of China as the sole legal Government of China. Within this context, the people of the United States will maintain cultural, commercial, and other unofficial relations with the people of Taiwan. Congress, as a part of the U.S. Government, is inherently obliged to strictly observe the one-China policy of the U.S. Government and refrain from having any official exchanges with Chinas Taiwan region. China is all along opposed to the visit to Taiwan by U.S. congressional members, and the U.S. executive branch has the responsibility to stop such visit. Since Speaker Pelosi is the incumbent leader of the U.S. Congress, her visit to and activities in Taiwan, in whatever form and for whatever reason, is a major political provocation to upgrade U.S. official exchanges with Taiwan. China absolutely does not accept this, and the Chinese people absolutely reject this.

The Taiwan question is the most important and most sensitive issue at the very heart of China-U.S. relations. The Taiwan Strait is facing a new round of tensions and severe challenges, and the fundamental cause is the repeated moves by the Taiwan authorities and the United States to change the status quo. The Taiwan authorities have kept seeking U.S. support for their independence agenda. They refuse to recognize the 1992 Consensus, go all out to push forward de-sinicization, and promote incremental independence. The United States, for its part, has been attempting to use Taiwan to contain China. It constantly distorts, obscures and hollows out the one-China principle, steps up its official exchanges with Taiwan, and emboldens Taiwan independence separatist activities. These moves, like playing with fire, are extremely dangerous. Those who play with fire will perish by it.

The position of the Chinese Government and people on the Taiwan question has been consistent. It is the firm commitment of the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people to resolutely safeguard state sovereignty and territorial integrity. It is the common aspiration and sacred responsibility of all Chinese sons and daughters to realize the complete reunification of the motherland. The will of the people is not to be defied, and the trend of the times cannot be reversed. No country, no forces and no individual should ever misestimate the firm resolve, strong will and great capability of the Chinese Government and people to defend state sovereignty and territorial integrity and to achieve national reunification and rejuvenation. China will definitely take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity in response to the U.S. Speakers visit. All the consequences arising therefrom must be borne by the U.S. side and the Taiwan independence separatist forces.

China and the United States are two major countries. The right way for them to deal with each other lies only in mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, no-confrontation and win-win cooperation. The Taiwan question is purely an internal affair of China, and no other country is entitled to act as a judge on the Taiwan question. China strongly urges the United States to stop playing the Taiwan card and using Taiwan to contain China. It should stop meddling on Taiwan and interfering in Chinas internal affairs. It should stop supporting and conniving at Taiwan independence separatist forces in any form. It should stop its acts of saying one thing but doing the opposite on the Taiwan question. It should stop distorting, obscuring and hollowing out the one-China principle. It must take credible actions to observe strictly the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-U.S. joint communiques, deliver on the five noes commitment made by the U.S. leadership (i.e. not seek a new Cold War; not seek to change Chinas system; the revitalization of its alliances is not against China; not support Taiwan independence; not look for conflict with China), and not go further down the wrong and dangerous path.
China News Service: According to reports, the seventh China-Eurasia Expo was held in Urumqi, Xinjiang this week. Can you share with us the highlights of this expo?

Wang Wenbin: From September 19 to 22, the seventh China-Eurasia Expo was held under the theme of Extensive Consultation, Joint Contribution, Shared Benefits, Cooperation for a Shared Future in Urumqi, Xinjiang. This years expo has exceeded all previous years in terms of the level of participants, the number of participating countries and the number of fruitful outcomes.

President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the Expo, pointing out that the Eurasian continent is full of vitality and potential for development and is a key region for international Belt and Road cooperation. In recent years, Chinas Xinjiang has given full play to its geographical advantages to actively develop the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt and promote the interconnectivity, mutually beneficial cooperation and common development between China and Eurasian countries. The efforts have achieved positive results. Leaders addressed the opening ceremony through video messages. They include President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary representing guest countries of honor, Prime Minster Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, dignitaries of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Mongolia, Secretary-General of ASEAN Lim Jock Hoi and Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Zhang Ming.

The expo attracted 3,597 companies from 32 countries and regions which participated online, including 2,652 companies which participated as online exhibitors. Up to 21 Global Fortune 500 companies and multinational corporations from China and other countries attended the expo, and 110 industry leaders participated as offline exhibitors. So far, 448 deals worth over 1.17 trillion yuan have been signed, higher than what was achieved in previous expos.

Through its five points of entry, Xinjiang is linked to eight countries. The Silk Road connects Xinjiang with the rest of Eurasia. As a core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt, Xinjiang is sharing its development vitality with other areas with open arms. China is ready to work with other countries to harness the China-Eurasia Expo, uphold the Silk Road spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit, stay committed to high-standard, people-centered and sustainable cooperation, expand cooperation areas with Eurasia, upgrade the level of Eurasia cooperation and promote common development and prosperity.

AFP: A Cambodian official told AFP that more than 20 Chinese nationals are missing after a boat carrying 41 capsized off the coast near Sihanoukville yesterday. Is China able to confirm this and provide more details?

Wang Wenbin: China and Cambodia are in close communication over this. We have asked the Cambodian side to make all-out search and rescue efforts. We are doing everything we can to find out more about the details of the incident and verify them as quickly as we can.

CCTV: According to reports, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivered a speech at the headquarters of Asia Society in New York on September 22. Can you share some information?

Wang Wenbin: On September 22 local time, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivered a speech at the headquarters of Asia Society in New York. State Councilor Wang Yi pointed out that, the past few years have seen China-US relations at a low ebb since the establishment of diplomatic ties. This is bringing tremendous uncertainty to the future of our peoples and to countries across the world. It boils down to how the United States perceives China, the world and itself. Be it full confrontation or strategic competition, both have deviated from the right course of China-US relations. Regarding the right way for China and the US to get on with each other, President Xi Jinping has given a clear answer. That is mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation. These three principles are an important conclusion informed by the evolution of China-US relations over the past 50-odd years. They are also the right way for major countries to live with each other in this era.

State Councilor Wang Yi said, that China and the US need to respect each other is an important lesson drawn from past exchanges between our two countries, and also a basic prerequisite for the bilateral ties to return to the right track. China respects the development path chosen by the American people. We welcome an open and confident United States that enjoys growth and progress. The US should also respect the Chinese peoples choice of development path, i.e., socialism with Chinese characteristics. China will unswervingly follow its chosen path and direction, and will forge ahead steadily along this path toward greater success. China will continue to draw upon the valuable experience of other countries and achievements of all civilizations, embrace the world with open arms and open its door even wider.

Partner or rival? Cooperation or confrontation? These are questions of fundamental importance in China-US relations, and no catastrophic mistakes could be made, State Councilor Wang Yi noted. China chooses peace and commits to peaceful development. Our most basic expectation for China-US relations is for the two countries to live with each other in peace. Expansion, coercion and hegemony are never in the veins of the Chinese people. Todays China is built on the heritage of ancient China. The CPC, Chinas governing party, has incorporated peaceful development into its constitution, and China is the only major country that has codified peaceful development in the Constitution. Some in the US try to take China down by repeating the containment tactic used on the former Soviet Union, and hope to encircle China through geopolitical maneuvering like the Indo-Pacific strategy. Such attempts will only prove futile.

State Councilor Wang Yi said, win-win cooperation is not only possible, but also a must. This is the true narrative of China-US relations in the past half a century, and it should remain the goal we both pursue. As the worlds largest developing and developed countries, China and the United States have a lot to offer each other. We enjoy broad room for cooperation in a wide range of areas covering economy and trade, energy, science and technology, education, and people-to-people and cultural exchanges. We shoulder important responsibilities in addressing global issues like COVID-19, economic recovery, climate change, terrorism, proliferation and regional hotspots. An unfailing truth in China-US interactions is that we both stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation. Cooperation is our best choice. Undeniably, China and the US have competition in areas like economy and trade, and China does not fear such competition. However, we do not agree that China-US relations should be simply defined by competition, because this is not the entirety or the mainstream of this relationship. At the same time, competition should have boundaries and, more importantly, be fair play. We need healthy competition that brings out the best in each other, not vicious competition that aims at each others demise.

State Councilor Wang Yi stressed that the one-China principle is the cornerstone of the political foundation for China-US relations; the three China-US joint communiques are the most crucial guardrails for our relations. As things stand, the Taiwan question is growing into the biggest risk in China-US relations. Should it be mishandled, it is most likely to devastate our bilateral ties. Just as the US will not allow Hawaii to be split away, China has the right to uphold the unification of the country as Taiwan is part of China. Since the Government of the Peoples Republic of China is recognized as the sole legal government representing the whole of China, Taiwan should not be allowed to join any international organization with sovereign implications. If one recognizes the one-China principle, one should not engage in any official interactions with Taiwan. The logic here cannot be simpler. The Taiwan question arose as a result of weakness and chaos in the nation, and it will be resolved as national rejuvenation becomes a reality. Reunification is the trend of history and the aspiration of the people. The US should choose to stand on the right side of history.

It is our hope that China and the US will draw on past experience to find inspiration for the present, and gain strength for going forward. Together, let us explore a way to a China-US relationship for the new era and create a better future for both of our countries!

Bloomberg: You talked just now on your comments about the need for greater cooperation between the US and China, yet at the same time there are eight areas which were recently cut or stopped by the Chinese side. So Im just trying to understand whether we can expect a resumption in talks between the two countries on those areas if we are to pave the way to greater cooperation between the US and China?

Wang Wenbin: We have made our response clear to the question you asked multiple times. It is the US that violated Chinas sovereignty first, and China was compelled to take legitimate countermeasures. Our countermeasures are fully legitimate, justified and lawful. If the US wants to seek cooperation with China, it needs to respect Chinas sovereignty and territorial integrity, and take concrete measures to match its commitment to the one-China principle.

Beijing Daily: On September 22, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said when hosting the first Ministerial Meeting of the Partners in the Blue Pacific on the margins of the UNGA that the US is deeply committed to the Pacific. In a briefing to reporters after the meeting, Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs in the US National Security Council Kurt Campbell said that Chinas ambitions in the Pacific are a concern for some Pacific Island leaders. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: We welcome the USs expressed desire to give Pacific Island Countries (PICs) more development support. We hope the US can match its words with actions.

What the PICs need is mutually beneficial cooperation based on equality, not self-serving expediency driven by geopolitical calculations. The PICs have the right to independently conduct exchanges with other countries. Their right should be respected and not restricted or denied.

China upholds the principles of equal treatment, mutual respect, win-win cooperation and openness and inclusiveness in developing relations with the PICs. This has been welcomed and supported by the PICs. China stands ready to work with all parties in the spirit of openness, transparency, opening-up and inclusiveness to jointly promote the development and prosperity of the PICs.

O Globo: Can you give us some details of what was discussed at the meeting of the BRICS foreign ministers in New York last night and how China sees the role of the group in the resolution of the Ukraine conflict?

Wang Wenbin: As representatives of emerging markets and developing countries, BRICS countries are committed to defending multilateralism and opposed to hegemony and bullying and champion stronger solidarity and coordination for world peace and development.

As to the details about the BRICS foreign ministers meeting on the margins of UNGA in New York, we will release information in due course. Please check back for updates.

Bloomberg: UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres recently expressed concern over plans to hold referendums in parts of Ukraine that are under Russian control. He said that any annexation of a states territory by another state resulting from the threat or use of force is a violation of the UN Charter and international law. Does the Chinese foreign ministry have any comment on this?

Wang Wenbin: Weve made clear our position on the Ukraine issue on multiple occasions. We believe that all countries deserve respect for their sovereignty and territorial integrity, that the purposes and principles of the UN Charter should be observed, that the legitimate security concerns of any country should be taken seriously, and that support should be given to all efforts that are conducive to peacefully resolving the crisis. We call on the parties concerned to properly address differences through dialogue and consultation. China stands ready to work with members of the international community to continue to play a constructive part in deescalation efforts.

Kyodo News: Yesterday, a Japanese official said that Wan Gang, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), will attend the state funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. What will this trip mean for China-Japan relations?

Wang Wenbin: At the invitation of the Japanese side, Wan Gang, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), will attend the funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as the representative of the Chinese government.

You mentioned China-Japan relations. Let me say that China and Japan are each others neighbors and both important countries in the region. To maintain and develop friendly and cooperative relations between China and Japan serves the fundamental interests of the two countries and two peoples. As a responsible major country, China has made contributions to regional and world peace, stability and prosperity, which is witnessed by all. We hope that Japan will abide by the principles set out in the four China-Japan political documents, work with China in the same direction and jointly build a China-Japan relationship that meets the needs of the new era.

Bloomberg: US President Joe Biden reaffirmed the USs iron-clad commitment to the defense of the Philippines in the meeting with President Ferdinand Marcos. The two leaders also underscored their support for the freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea and said they sought peaceful resolution of disputes. Does the Chinese foreign ministry have any comment on US President Joe Bidens words on the defense of the Philippines?

Wang Wenbin: There has been no problem with freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. China always respects and supports the freedom of navigation and overflight enjoyed by all countries in the South China Sea in accordance with international law. China will continue to properly handle maritime disputes with countries directly concerned, including the Philippines, through dialogue and consultation, and work with ASEAN countries to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea. We hope that countries outside the region will earnestly respect the efforts of countries in the region to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea.

CCTV: German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in a statement released on September 22 that in their meeting, the G7 Foreign Ministers and the High Representative of the European Union said that they opposed unilateral changes to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and that there is no change in the basic positions of G7 members on Taiwan, including stated one China policies. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: Both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same China. Taiwan is part of Chinas territory. Chinas state sovereignty and territorial integrity has never been split. This is the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and one China is at the heart of this status quo. The one who is trying to change the status quo is not China, but rather the DPP authorities and the external meddling forces who have been emboldening Taiwan independence separatist elements. The one-China principle is what underpins peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. The clearer and stronger the commitment of the international community is to the one-China principle, the more likely peace across the Taiwan Strait will be ensured. We hope Germany and other G7 members will not only unequivocally commit to the one-China principle, but also follow the principle with concrete actions.
On September 20, 2022 local time, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Wang Yi said that this year, marking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Argentina, is of great importance for building on the past to make greater strides. Under the strategic guidance of President Xi Jinping and President Alberto Fernandez, China-Argentina relations have seen continuous in-depth development. The two sides have held colorful activities of the Year of China-Argentina Friendship and Cooperation, accelerated Belt and Road cooperation, and continued to achieve new outcomes in practical cooperation in various fields. The Chinese side stands ready to work with the Argentine side to follow through on the important consensus reached by the heads of state of the two countries, and take the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations as an opportunity to deepen strategic cooperation, and elevate the China-Argentina comprehensive strategic partnership to a new level.

Wang Yi said that China and Argentina, both as important emerging markets, have common visions, common goals, and common interests, and shoulder common responsibilities. The Chinese side appreciates the Argentine side for adhering to the one-China principle, and supports the Argentine side in safeguarding its state sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Chinese side welcomes the Argentine side to join the big BRICS family, and stands ready to strengthen communication and coordination between both sides on international and regional affairs.

Cafiero said that over the past 50 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, Argentina and China have always respected each other and stood together in solidarity. The Argentine side thanks the Chinese side for giving it strong support, is firmly committed to the one-China policy, and welcomes investment from China. Argentina stands ready to promote Belt and Road cooperation, and expand cooperation between both sides in economy and trade, mineral wealth, shale gas, natural gas, and other fields, to usher in the next 50 years of more productive achievements in bilateral relations. Argentina and China both adhere to multilateralism, and never point fingers at other countries. The Argentine side attaches great importance to the leadership and openness demonstrated by China, and expects to join the BRICS mechanism as early as possible, to strengthen South-South cooperation.

Wang Yi said that the China-Argentina strategic cooperation meets the trend of development, and the Chinese side supports Argentina in playing a bigger role in international and regional affairs, appreciates Argentina for actively fulfilling its duty as the rotating presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), and stands ready to implement the outcomes of the China-CELAC Forum, to bring more benefits of the China-CELAC cooperation to the two peoples.
On September 20, 2022 local time, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Wang Yi said, at such a time when the international situation is complex and volatile with increasing uncertainties, China is ready to work with Mali to understand, support and trust each other, carry forward the traditional friendship between China and Mali, and enhance mutually beneficial cooperation. China attaches importance to Mali's legitimate concerns on national sovereignty, security and development, supports the Malian people in independently choosing a development path that suits their national conditions, and supports Mali in fighting terrorism and safeguarding national unity. China will continue to provide support and assistance for Mali's stable development.

Wang Yi expressed, China is ready to take the implementation of the follow-up actions of the eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation as an opportunity to strengthen cooperation with Mali in public health, infrastructure construction and agricultural development, accelerate the implementation of COVID-19 vaccines and anti-pandemic materials assistance, and advance assistance projects such as hydropower stations, solar energy demonstration villages and agricultural technology cooperation in an orderly manner. Hope that Mali will continue to take effective measures to ensure the safety of Chinese institutions and personnel and create a more stable and secure environment for bilateral cooperation.

Diop said that China is Malis good friend and good partner. Mali sincerely thanks China for showing solidarity and friendship, supporting Mali in safeguarding sovereignty, independence, political stability and national unity, and providing valuable assistance for Mali's economic and social development. Mali is also a reliable partner of China, firmly pursuing the one-China policy and supporting China in safeguarding its core interests. Mali is willing to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with China and will take all necessary measures to protect the safety of Chinese friends in Mali.

Wang Yi stressed that China is ready to work with Mali to jointly uphold the principle of non-interference in internal affairs and uphold international fairness and justice. China is committed to providing public goods to the world and promoting peace, development and cooperation, rather than war, interference and subversion. The more China develops, the more support it will provide for developing countries. The stronger China is, the more secure world peace and security will be. China is ready to strengthen solidarity and cooperation with other developing countries to safeguard common interests.
On September 21, 2022 local time, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Somali Foreign Minister Abshir Omar Huruse on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Wang Yi said that the traditional friendship between China and Somalia is an important part of China-Africa friendship. Somalia is the first East African country to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, and the two countries have always respected each other and supported each other on issues related to each other's core interests. China has always advocated that all countries, big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, are equal, and will continue to be a trustworthy friend of Somalia, providing support and assistance to Somalia within its capacity, so as to achieve common development and prosperity.

Huruse said that Somalia and China has long enjoyed the friendship and no word can be enough to describe the friendship between the two countries. Huruse thanks China for always standing with Somalia at critical moments, especially for firmly supporting Somalia in safeguarding its sovereignty. Somalia unswervingly supports the one-China principle and opposes the interference by external forces in China's internal affairs. Somalia is proud to have China, a major country with significant international influence, as a friend. Developing relations with China is neither make-shift nor interest-driven. Although Somalia is a small country, it has never wavered in upholding its position in the international arena.

Wang Yi said that China firmly supports the governance of the new Somali government and believes that Somalia's peaceful development will continue to move forward. China appreciates Somalia's firm adherence to the one-China principle, supports Somalia in safeguarding its sovereignty, dignity and territorial integrity, and will continue to stand with Somalia in the international arena and support its legitimate demands. China is willing to strengthen solidarity with all developing countries, oppose unilateral bullying and jointly uphold non-interference in internal affairs, which is a basic norm of international relations.
Sehr geehrter Fragesteller,



Ihre Anfrage mochte ich Ihnen auf Grundlage der angegebenen Informationen verbindlich wie folgt beantworten:





want to know:



question: 1) Is this possible? Will my bank have problems because of this (relatively large) international transfer?



answer: 1) this is possible. Your bank will be required by German law (Geldwaschegesetz, German Anti Money Laundering Act) to document and investigate the circumstances of such a large money transfer. You will possibly have to fill out a questionnaire and/ or respond on questions the bank asks about the whereabouts of the transfer. Advice: talk to your bank advisor in advance regarding the particular requirements regarding such a large transfer.



2) How highly will I be taxed for this?



Applicable law regarding a taxation of the donation from your parents:



There is no double taxation agreement between Columbia and Germany regarding donations: Therefore, a double taxation is possible, both under German tax law or the tax law of Columbia.



As to a possible taxation in Columbia: please contact an attorney or a CPA in Columbia. To my knowledge, Columbia applies, as Germany, the world income principle to its citizens, as you are and your parents, but may exempt non residents as you may be, depending on your and your parent's tax status in Columbia. Also, there may be tax exemptions for donations from parents to their children, as there are in Germany.



If we assume that German tax law applies to the donation and for you, as a German permanent resident in the sense of  1 Einkommensteuergesetz: Money, that parents transfer to their children, will be, according to German tax law, tax exempt up to an amount of 400.000 EUR per person. So both parents can transfer a total of 800.000 EUR to a child without tax consequences in Germany. You must file a form though. Applicable German law (Schenkungssteuerfreibetrag):  16 German Erbschaftsteuer- und Schenkungsteuergesetz (ErbStG).



For the details of taxation under Columbian tax law, please seek additional advice from a Columbian CPA or tax Attorney.



Question: Does this count as an inheritance? Is there a cap in the amount of money I can receive tax free? Answer: Yes. Under German tax law, donations and inheritances are treated in a similar way. But only donations within the past 10 years before the death may count on the inheritance.



The "cap" regarding donations from parents to their child, are the exemption for such donations between parent and child (close relatives) of 400.000 EUR (x 2 parents) as mentioned, and it may be used again every 10 years.



To my knowledge, banks have to investigate the whereabouts of money transfers from EUR 1.000, and there is another important cap of 10.000 EUR to trigger more intensive investigations.



3) Do I have to prove of the source of the money to my bank/tax authorities? or anyone about this?



Answer: yes, you must provide to your bank (or in case of a - possible - investigation to other German authorities such as the Bundesamt fur Finanzdienstleistungen or the police/ prosecutor) sufficient evidence regarding the whereabouts of larger sums of money transferred to you in order to prove, that the money has not been "laundered" and comes from a legitimate private source (such as family money from the sale of private housing or land in Columbia) and not from any criminal actions such as drug trafficking or even terroristic activity.



I hope that I have answered your questions in a clear way. Please don't hesitate to use the free function for further questions regarding the same issue.



Sincerely yours




Climate activists calling for a Green New Deal made their voices heard by the Corvallis City Council again this week.

Members of Sunrise Corvallis, part of a youth-led climate revolution under the National Sunrise Movement, rallied outside City Council chambers before its public meeting Monday, Sept. 19.

The council was conducting a closed-door session to discuss employee performance during the demonstration. Shouts from the rally on the street could be clearly heard in the chambers upstairs. Demonstrators then attended the open meeting, with some addressing the council.

Climate change exists and we need to fight it, Nathan Villanueva said, adding that the fight has been exhausting and calling for support and leadership from city officials.

A fifth-year student at Oregon State University, Villanueva said its not responsible to continue pursuing a scientific education when people are suffering, pulling focus from studying challenging subjects such as biochemistry, biophysics and oncology.

I want to see action taken, Villanueva said. I want the community to be heard.

Highlighting the responsibility of the City Council to care for and nurture the community, Natalie Walter said the council's  and everyone's  actions regarding climate policy and the homeless population should be guided by respect, compassion and care for one another.

The decisions you make impact peoples everyday lives in very real and direct ways, Walter said.

Worried about making a difference against climate change since a young age, Adrian Cerny recalled an anecdote about starfish washing up on shore and beachgoers tossing them into the ocean to help. There comes a point when tossing them back is pointless because theyre dying from systemic issues.

There are many citizens in Corvallis who would love for things to be better  they would love to throw the starfish back. But by the time it gets to us, theres not much power that we have, Cerny said.

As a metaphorical beachgoer here, I would love if it didnt always just come down to us throwing things back, Cerny said.

The activist group previously took up signs and a bullhorn before an Aug. 1 council meeting, during which Councilor Charlyn Ellis presented the Green New Deal for Climate and Housing Justice, stemming from Sunrise Corvallis and approved by the citys Climate Action Advisory Board. Councilors tabled discussion on the resolution.

The Sunrise Corvallis resolution draws a direct connection between climate change and housing insecurity in the city. Its rooted in mutual aid, the practice of supporting one another, being accountable and responsive to others, and listening to what people say they need.

Staff recommended the council hold off consideration of the resolution until the next council meeting to allow for time to weigh its potential impact, citing a heavy workload outside of this unplanned agenda item. At the Monday meeting, the council voted unanimously to table discussion until Oct. 3.
Albany police have arrested an Albany man suspected of sexual assault, according to an agency news release.

Officers arrested Jeffrey Richards, 68, on charges of first-degree sodomy, first-degree unlawful sexual penetration and coercion.

At around 5:53 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, officers received reports of a sexual assault in the 4200 block of Ramona Place Southeast. According to the news release, witnesses told police a woman was crying and bleeding in the front yard of a home.

Medics transported the victim to an area hospital where she was treated and released. Detectives learned the victim and Richards had met earlier that day at Ma's Dairy Farm Tavern and then went to Richard's home.

When officers arrived at the residence, Richards refused to leave his home or comply with police, the news release said. Around 11 hours later, APD executed a search warrant for Richards and his home. Police forcibly entered the residence and Richards surrendered and was taken into custody without further incident. He is being held at the Linn County Jail.

The investigation is ongoing, and police believe there have been other similar incidents involving Richards. Anyone with information is asked to contact APD Detective Gabe Flores at 541-917-7680.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A.I.S. Resources Limited (TSXV: AIS, OTCQB: AISSF) (the Company or AIS) is pleased to announce the appointment of Martyn Element as CEO and President of the Company.



Martyn Element has served as Chairman of AIS since 2014. Martyn has been instrumental in raising over a half billion dollars in financing for public and private companies. Martyn brings a skill set of identifying needs and developing strategic plans and has a proven track record of successfully advising and marketing business ventures. He has cultivated an extensive global network of investment and financial contacts and developed strong working relationships with specialized funds and parties in the mining space.

Martyn Element stated, I am pleased to accept the role of CEO and look forward to providing a full corporate update of the recent activities and results at the Companys lithium and gold properties shortly.

In conjunction with this appoint Phillip Thomas has resigned as COO, CEO and President of AIS. He will remain as a director of the Company and will provide geological consulting services to the Company on certain projects. The Company thanks Phillip for his significant contributions and wishes him the best in his future endeavours.

AIS is currently acting as project manager for the Spey Resources (TSXV:SPEY) and Recharge Resources (CSE:RR) Pocitos drilling program in Argentina.

About AIS Resources Limited

AIS Resources Limited is a publicly traded investment issuer listed on the TSX Venture Exchange focused on lithium, gold, precious and base metals exploration. AIS value add strategy is to acquire prospective exploration projects and enhance their value by better defining the mineral resource with a view to attracting joint venture partners and enhancing the value of our portfolio. The Company is managed by a team of experienced geologists and investment bankers, with a track-record of successful capital markets achievements.

AIS owns 100% of the 28 sq km Fosterville-Toolleen Gold Project located 9.9 km from Kirkland Lakes Fosterville gold mine, a 60% interest in the 57 sq km Bright Gold project (with the right to acquire 100%), a 40% interest in the 58 sq km New South Wales Yalgogrin Gold Project, and 100% interest in the 167 sq km Kingston Gold Project in Victoria Australia near Stawell and Navarre. AIS has further options to acquire three lithium concessions in the Pocitos and Cauchari Salars in Argentina and also has 20% joint venture interest with Spey Resources Corp. in the Incahuasi lithium brine project and 15% royalty at the Pocitos Salars JV in Argentina.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors,

A.I.S. Resources Limited



Martyn Element

President, CEO, Chairman

Corporate Contact

For further information, please contact:

Martyn Element. CEO, Chairman

T: +1-604-220-6266

E:melement@aisresources.com

Website:www.aisresources.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

ADVISORY: This press release contains forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and the Company undertakes no obligations to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Clear Sky Lithium Corp. (CSE: POWR) (FRA: K4A / WKN: A3DM2W) (OTC: CSKYF) (Clear Sky or the Company), a mineral exploration and development company focused on American lithium deposits to support domestic demand, is pleased to announce that it has initiated work on the Halo Project property.



Clear Sky has begun a Phase 1 workplan for the Halo Project to be undertaken by Tigren Inc. of Reno Nevada and is mobilizing for commencement of work in October. Tigren Inc. is controlled by Marco Montecinos, a director of the Company. The goal of the program is to develop an understanding of the Big Smoky Valley basinal alluvial cover within the Halo project land package via full surface grab sampling (where applicable) as well as surficial mapping of the claim area. The resulting data will be utilized to refine geological and metallurgical assessments to support phase 2 drill targeting.

Patrick Morris, Clear Sky Lithiums CEO notes, Being directly in between two projects that are continually producing such positive results gives support that Clear Sky is in the right place with the Halo Project. We are excited to get our team on site to advance the project through foundational fieldwork and metallurgy. For now, it simply feels great to see our neighbours enjoying positive results, and we look forward to joining with them as we collectively move ahead to unlock asset value throughout the area.

The Halo Project (see figure 1), is comprised of ninety-eight mineral claims, located in Esmeralda and Nye Counties, and is considered prospective for claystone-hosted lithium mineralization. Positive news regarding exploration and development on adjacent properties to the north and southwest of the Halo Project have recently fueled enthusiasm for regional lithium exploration activities in the area.





Figure 1  Clear Sky Lithium Halo Project Map displaying assay values from adjacent properties (American Lithiums TLC project to the northeast and American Battery Technology Companys Tonopah Flats project to the southwest).

To the north of the Halo Project, on July 14th 2022, American Lithium Corp. (Market Cap: US$546M) announced results from their resource expansion and infill drilling program. This release included 5 holes that returned their best result to date of 2,900 ppm Li averaging 1,550 ppm Li over 50.3 meters. Please refer to American Lithiums website for full disclosure of exploration results.

To the southwest, on June 21st 2022, American Battery Technology Company (Market Cap: US$461M) announced highlights from a phase 1 drilling program of 16 holes which returned up to 1,700 ppm Li.

Clear Sky Lithium advises the public that as part of its disclosure obligations as a public issuer, all material and regulatory filings can be found on www.sedar.com. We also invite the public to visit our website at www.clearskylithium.com and to sign up to our news alerts to be advised of future news releases and related company information. Please also ensure you watch our video which is available on the website.

On Behalf of The Board of Directors,

Sincerely,

~Patrick Morris~

Patrick Morris

Chief Executive Officer

Clear Sky Lithium Corp.

www.clearskylithium.com

About Clear Sky Lithium Corp. (CSE: POWR) (FRA: K4A / WKN: A3DM2W) (OTC: CSKYF)

Clear Sky Lithium is an exploration and development company dedicated to the advancement of North American lithium deposits to support domestic demand. The Company holds interests on the Halo and Eli properties in Nevada. The Company is also focusing on the development of claystone extraction and processing technologies aimed at delivering scalable efficiencies across the value chain in a sustainable manner. Find out more visit www.clearskylithium.com and watch our video.

Forward Looking Information Disclaimer

This news release contains statements and information that, to the extent that they are not historical fact, may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking information may include financial and other projections, as well as statements regarding future plans, objectives, or economic performance, or the assumption underlying any of the foregoing. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as may, would, could, will, likely, except, anticipate, believe, intend, plan, forecast, project, estimate, outlook, or the negative thereof or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. Examples of such statements include but are not limited to statements with respect to commencing work on the Halo Project.

Forward-looking information is based on the assumptions, estimates, analysis, and opinions of management made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, but which may prove to be incorrect. The material factors and assumptions used to develop the forward-looking information contained in this news release include, but are not limited to, key personnel and qualified employees continuing their involvement with the Company; the Companys ability to secure additional financing on reasonable terms; the competitive conditions of the sector in which the Company operates; and laws and any amendments thereto applicable to the Company.

Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information, including, without limitation, risks relating to the future business plans of the Company; risks that the Company will not be able to retain its key personnel; risks that the Company will not be able to secure financing on reasonable terms or at all, as well as all of the other risks as described in the Companys final long form prospectus dated May 31, 2022, under the heading Risks Factors. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking information. Further, any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Companys management to predict all such factors and to assess in advance the impact of each such factor on the Companys business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking information to reflect information or events after the date on which it is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law, including securities laws.

The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the CSE nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Clear Sky Lithium Corp.

Investor Relations

Email: info@clearskylithium.com

Telephone: +1 (778) 383-7240

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1ac467bd-70f2-41d8-8505-05816c2cdb23
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Sept. 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The non-vascular stents market size accounted for US$ 1.21 Billion in 2022 and is anticipated to garner a revenue of US$ 1.9 Billion by 2032, advancing at a CAGR of 4.5% during the forecast period (2022-2032). The global non-vascular stents market is expected to move forward in response to the growing demand for minimally-invasive procedures. Rising technological and material advancements are assisting in the development of specially designed stents for use in a variety of indications thereby fueling the overall non-vascular stents market growth.

Request Sample PDF@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-653

Non-vascular stents use small, precise incisions, resulting in scars that are smaller and less visible than those left by traditional surgical techniques, putting the patient's safety in jeopardy.

The above-mentioned feature is anticipated to provide impetus to the non-vascular stents market adoption trends in coming years.

Such a surgery is associated with a faster recovery period, resulting in a shorter hospital stay for the patient, encouraging many to opt for the same.

Furthermore, patients are less likely to contract hospital-acquired illnesses like bloodstream infections and urinary tract infections if they stay in the hospital for a shorter period of time, in turn, propelling the demand for non-vascular stents.

The most visible and prominent factor spiking the sales of non-vascular stents is a surge in cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which is caused by smoking, lung cancer, tracheobronchial malacia, and chemical exposure.

Talk to Analyst @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ask-question/rep-gb-653

Numerous innovations are taking place in the non-vascular stents market as new medical devices are developed to track gastrointestinal tract, urinary tract, and airway tract.

Non-vascular stents market trends are fostered by rising healthcare spending in developing countries, government and private insurance companies' helpful medical reimbursement policies, and the proliferation of hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers.

The non-vascular stents market is segmented by product type and by region, where by product type, the market is divided into gastrointestinal stents, pulmonary stents, urological stents, and others.

And by region, the non-vascular stents market is categorized into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America.

Key Takeaways:

Based on product type, the urological stents segment is likely to dominate the non-vascular stents market with a CAGR of 4.3% through 2032.

The US non-vascular stents market is expected to capture a sizeable non-vascular stents market share accounting for around US$659.1 million by 2032.

By 2032, the UK non-vascular stents market is expected to be valued at US$ 80.6 million, growing at a CAGR of 3.3%.

With a CAGR of 3.6% during the forecast period, China non-vascular stents market size is predicted to be apprised at US$ 128.1 million by 2032.

The Japan non-vascular stents market, with a CAGR of 3.9%, is projected to garner a worth of US$ 109.8 million by 2032.



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Competitive Landscape:

Some of the leading non-vascular stents companies include Medtronic plc, Glaukos Corporation, Boston Scientific Corporation, ELLA - CS, s.r.o., CONMED Corporation.

One of the recent developments in the non-vascular stents market is when Medtronic acquired Medicrea, a fully dedicated spinal implant company focused on bringing reliable and cutting-edge technology to the global market.

Key Segments

By Product:

Gastrointestinal Stents Biliary Duodenal Colonic Pancreatic Oesophageal Stents

Pulmonary Stents Silicone Airway Metallic Airway

Urological Stents

Others



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Table of Content

1. Executive Summary

1.1. Global Market Outlook

1.2. Summary of Statistics

1.3. Key Market Characteristics & Attributes

1.4. Analysis and Recommendations

2. Market Overview

2.1. Market Coverage / Taxonomy

2.2. Market Definition / Scope / Limitations

3. Market Risks and Trends Assessment

3.1. Risk Assessment

3.1.1. COVID-19 Crisis and Impact on Non-vascular Stents Demand

3.1.2. COVID-19 Impact Benchmark with Previous Crisis

3.1.3. Impact on Market Value (US$ Mn)

3.2. Key Trends Impacting the Market

3.3. Formulation and Product Development Trends

Get Detailed TOC @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-653

Have a Look at Related Research Reports of Healthcare:

Aortic Stents Grafts Market Size: The global Aortic Stents Grafts Market is forecast to total US$ 2.15 Bn in 2022. With increasing preference for minimally invasive procedures, the overall market is projected to grow at 4.5% CAGR, reaching a valuation of around 2.8 Bn by 2028.

Coronary Stents Market Growth: The market is expected to grow at a moderately high CAGR of 7% during the forecast period.

Aortic Stents Grafts Market Technology: The global Aortic Stents Grafts Market is forecast to total US$ 2.15 Bn in 2022. With increasing preference for minimally invasive procedures, the overall market is projected to grow at 4.5% CAGR, reaching a valuation of around 2.8 Bn by 2028.

Peripheral Vascular Stents Market Analysis: According to the latest industry analysis by FMI, the global Peripheral Vascular Stents Market reached a valuation of around US$ 3.5 Bn in 2021, and is expected to attain a net worth of US$ 5.3 Bn by 2028, expanding at a CAGR of 6% over the assessment period of 2022 to 2028.

Phototherapy Lamps Market Forecast: The global phototherapy lamps market size reached US$ 3.0 Bn in 2021 and is expected to enjoy a valuation of US$ 3.2 Bn by the end of 2022.

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TORONTO, ONTARIO, Sept. 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Coinsquare, Canadas leading crypto asset trading platform, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement dated September 22, 2022 (the Purchase Agreement) with CoinSmart Financial Inc. (CoinSmart) to acquire all the issued and outstanding shares of its wholly-owned operating subsidiary Simply Digital Technologies Inc. (Simply Digital), which owns and operates the CoinSmart trading platform.

With this acquisition and integration, Coinsquare becomes one of Canadas largest crypto asset trading platforms with a diversified and compliant offering across various business lines including both retail and institutional trading, crypto payment processing, and digital asset custody. Following the completion of the transaction, CoinSmart will hold approximately ~12% ownership stake in Coinsquare on a pro-forma basis, and the company will enjoy material revenue and cost synergies via cross selling opportunities and cost rationalization.

Coinsquare is in the final stages of approval to become Canadas first crypto asset trading platform regulated as an Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) dealer and marketplace member.

This acquisition represents a monumental and exciting milestone for both companies and brings together two industry leading management teams. Said Coinsquare, CEO Martin Piszel. The cryptocurrency market is going through immense change with regulators defining a roadmap for platforms to operate in Canada. This has led to an ever-increasing cost structure and additional complexity in operating a viable crypto exchange. We feel that scale and operational efficiency matter, and we are well positioned to play a leading role in defining the space in Canada.

Key Transaction Benefits include:

One of Canadas Largest Crypto Asset Trading Platforms: combined company will have transacted over $10 billion in crypto transactions since January 2018 with a combined user base in excess of 1 million.

combined company will have transacted over $10 billion in crypto transactions since January 2018 with a combined user base in excess of 1 million. Complementary Platforms Leading to Synergies: Significant revenue and cost synergies via cross selling opportunities and cost rationalization.

Significant revenue and cost synergies via cross selling opportunities and cost rationalization. Speed-to-market: leverage combined technologies to optimize tech stack and bring new features, functionality, and products to market faster.

leverage combined technologies to optimize tech stack and bring new features, functionality, and products to market faster. New Business Lines to the Coinsquare Portfolio: such as SmartPay, an easy way to accept crypto payments by converting crypto to fiat with same day payouts.

such as SmartPay, an easy way to accept crypto payments by converting crypto to fiat with same day payouts. Enhanced Education Portal: with CoinSmarts Get Smart Hub, the community will have a robust destination for Crypto knowledge and learning tools  making learning easy and accessible for everyone.

Today is an exciting day for all of us at CoinSmart, said CoinSmart CEO Justin Hartzman. We are thrilled to be working alongside the Coinsquare team to build one of the largest regulated crypto asset trading platforms in Canada and I could not be more proud of what we have accomplished so far. With a diversified product suite, exceptional crypto talent, and one of the largest user bases in Canada, the combined company will be well-positioned to pursue its aggressive expansion plans. While the crypto market is in the building phase of its life cycle, this transaction will provide the torque needed to be in a favourable position entering the next bull run.

###

Contact Details:

Wachsman PR

Email: coinsquare@wachsman.com



Coinsquare

Email: press@coinsquare.com



ABOUT COINSQUARE:

Founded in 2014, Coinsquare, a private company incorporated under the laws of Canada provides customers with a proprietary platform engineered to deliver a robust, secure, and intelligent interface for trading Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and other digital assets. Coinsquare has grown to become Canadas oldest operating digital asset firm, trading on behalf of over half a million Canadians. Coinsquare has raised over $100M in capital and has successfully executed trades in excess of $8 billion to date. For more information, please visit www.coinsquare.com.

ABOUT COINSMART:

CoinSmart is a leading Canadian-headquartered crypto asset trading platform dedicated to providing customers with an intuitive way for buying and selling digital assets, like Bitcoin and Ethereum. CoinSmart is one of the few crypto asset trading platforms in Canada to be registered as a marketplace with the Ontario Securities Commission. CoinSmart is also one of the first Canadian headquartered trading platforms to have an international presence, accepting customers across 40+ countries at a time when the digital asset industry continues to rapidly expand.

CoinSmart further builds on its mission to make cryptocurrency accessible by providing educational resources tailored to every level of cryptocurrency knowledge and unparalleled 24/7 omni-channel customer support. Offering instant verification, industry leading cold wallet storage, advanced charting with order book functionality and over-the-counter premium services, CoinSmart ensures every client's needs are met with the highest level of quality and care.

For more information, please visit www.coinsmart.com
BOSTON, Sept. 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a press release issued earlier today by Bicycle Health under the same headline, please note the total funding to-date figure in the first paragraph has changed from "$88 million" to "$83 million." Complete corrected text follows:

Bicycle Health , the leading provider of virtual opioid addiction treatment, today announced an investment from Cobalt Ventures to further accelerate the expansion of its telehealth opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment. The capital is a part of Bicycle Healths Series B venture capital financing, bringing the companys total funding to-date to $83 million.



In the U.S., nearly 10 million people are struggling with opioid use disorder, but only 10% are diagnosed or in treatment, said Ankit Gupta, Bicycle Health founder and CEO. From a lack of geographical access to high financial and social costs, in-person treatment is not designed for the majority of Americans. Over the past three years, Bicycle Health has proven that there is another way to treat addiction through our evidence-backed telehealth treatment model. This additional funding from Cobalt Ventures will enable us to expand our treatment to even more patients across the country, and ultimately help more people live addiction-free lives.

Founded in 2017, Bicycle Health is the leading provider of virtual opioid addiction treatment, reducing OUD symptoms in over 18,000 patients and saving the healthcare system over $1.1 billion. As a virtual OUD provider, the company currently offers the largest national coverage and is available across 28 states. Bicycle Health is also the first and only virtual provider in the OUD space to publish a peer-reviewed study proving the efficacy of its telehealth model.

Bicycle Health has demonstrated a unique ability to identify, engage and retain the silent sufferers of opioid abuse, stated David Eichler, President and Managing Partner of Cobalt Ventures. By addressing the critical need for improved access to care - and delivering superior outcomes for the estimated 90 percent of patients who need but are not receiving opioid use disorder treatment - Bicycle Health is playing an important role in impacting the massive economic and societal costs driven by Americas opioid epidemic. Cobalt Ventures is proud to be a part of the companys next chapter and help support and amplify its mission of improving access to care for one of the top public health crises of our time.

Bicycle Health has seen substantial momentum over the past year  including an expansion into a slew of new states and the 134% growth of the Bicycle Health team since 2021. With millions of people across America who stand to benefit from Bicycle Health, the company is currently projected to save the healthcare system nearly $25.9 billion by 2026.

To learn more about Bicycle Healths evidence-based telehealth treatment model, visit https://www.bicyclehealth.com/how-it-works .

About Bicycle Health

Bicycle Health offers confidential evidence-based virtual care for opioid use disorder , from the comfort of your home. We provide access to a highly trained team of medical experts, a customized treatment plan, same-day prescription refills for medication management, and access to peer support groups and therapy. Our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable, convenient, and confidential opioid use order treatment for those in need, with a vision to help anyone with a chronic disease live a happy, healthy, and fulfilling life.

About Cobalt Ventures, LLC

Cobalt Ventures, LLC is the strategic venture capital arm of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, the largest not-for-profit health insurer in Missouri and the only not-for-profit commercial health insurer in Kansas City. Cobalt invests in high growth companies that align with Blue KCs mission and can scale nationally across the payer industry. Cobalt actively partners with entrepreneurs in bringing innovative solutions to healthcare that increase overall quality, improve outcomes, and lower costs for customers and members. More information about Cobalt Ventures can be found at http://www.cobalt-ventures.com .
PUNE, Sept. 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Global Cloud Kitchen Market Size accounted for USD 63.0 Billion in 2021 and is estimated to achieve a market size of USD 373.4 Billion by 2030 growing at a CAGR of 22% from 2022 to 2030.



Cloud Kitchen Market Report Key Highlights

Global Cloud Kitchen market value was USD 63 Billion in 2021 and expected to grow at CAGR of 22% from 2022 to 2030

According to our cloud kitchen industry analysis, India was home to 3500+ cloud kitchens in 2021

Asia-Pacific cloud kitchen market share will gather around 60% market share in coming years

North America cloud kitchen market growth recorded substantial CAGR during the forecast timeframe from 2022 to 2030

Among nature, franchised sub-segment collected over 59% of the overall market share in 2021





Request For Free Sample Report @ https://www.acumenresearchandconsulting.com/request-sample/2523

Report Coverage:

Market Cloud Kitchen Market Cloud Kitchen Market Size 2021 USD 63.0 Billion Cloud Kitchen Market Forecast 2030 USD 373.4 Billion Cloud Kitchen Market CAGR During 2022 - 2030 22.0% Cloud Kitchen Market Analysis Period 2018 - 2030 Cloud Kitchen Market Base Year 2021 Cloud Kitchen Market Forecast Data 2022 - 2030 Segments Covered By Type, By Product Type, By Nature, And By Geography Cloud Kitchen Market Regional Scope North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa Key Companies Profiled Cloud Kitchen, Dahmakan, DoorDash Kitchens, Ghost Kitchen Orlando, Keatz, Kitchen United, Kitopi, Rebel Foods, Starbucks (Star Kitchen), and Zuul Kitchen Report Coverage

Market Trends, Drivers, Restraints, Competitive Analysis, Player Profiling, Regulation Analysis

Cloud Kitchen Market Dynamics

The global cloud kitchen market is projected to experience potential growth over the forecast period from 2022 to 2030. The increasing demand for online delivery of food & beverages in recent years is primarily driving the market growth. The Covid-19 pandemic has also accelerated the demand for online food delivery because lockdowns and the risk of spreading viruses have hampered visits to offline restaurants. Additionally, the cost efficiency associated with cloud kitchens is further bolstering the market growth.

Some of the Key Observations Regarding Cloud Kitchen Industry Include

Rebel Foods intends to expand its third-party collaborations with restaurant chains. The strategic move is intended to fuel cloud kitchen for its own gourmet brands such as Faasos, Behrouz Biryani, Mandarin Oak, and Oven Story, which operate in over 320 locations. Under the Rebel Launcher Program, Rebel Foods also outsources its kitchen to other brands. Mad Over Donuts, Natural's Ice Cream, Wendy's, and Anand Sweets are among the 15 restaurant chains with which the company collaborates.

Kitopi, a Dubai-based cloud kitchen platform company, is looking for $150 million to $200 million in funding to expand its presence in Southeast Asia. Kitopi has suspended operations in the UK and the US due to the Covid-19 pandemic and is looking forward to expanding its cloud kitchen in the Middle East and Asia. Furthermore, the company, which is headquartered in Dubai, operates approximately 60 kitchens.

Kitch, a cloud kitchen operator, has announced a partnership with the Lebanese restaurant chain Barbar to expand its operations across the GCC in 2021. As part of the franchise contract, the first Barbar restaurant will open in Dubai, followed by seven more in the UAE and twenty in Saudi Arabia. In addition, Kitch plans to open two Barbar restaurants in Qatar by the end of 2022.

Kouzina, a Bangalore-based company, will celebrate 7 years in business in March 2021. It grew from a single brand single kitchen in 2013 to more than 40 multibrand cloud kitchens in 7 cities across India. In the last seven years, the company has grown steadily. Kouzina provides a digitally powered platform for food delivery from a network of hyperlocal cloud kitchens.

Check the detailed table of contents of the report @

https://www.acumenresearchandconsulting.com/table-of-content/cloud-kitchen-market

Cloud Kitchen Market Segmentation

The global cloud kitchen market is classified by type, product type, nature, and geography. The market is divided into three types: independent cloud kitchens, commissary/shared kitchens, and kitchen pods. Market segments by product type include burger/sandwich, pizza/pasta, chicken, seafood, Mexican/Asian food, and others. The cloud kitchen market is studied across standalone and franchised cloud kitchens by nature.

The franchised segment leads the market with the highest revenue share (%) and is expected to maintain its dominance with potential growth over the forecast period. The growing trend of franchised outlets around the world, particularly in developing economies, is increasing the regional market value.

Cloud Kitchen Market Regional Outlook

North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa comprise the global Cloud Kitchen industry (MEA). Asia Pacific is experiencing potential growth in the cloud kitchen market, with a double-digit CAGR (%), and the region is also expected to lead the market from 2022 to 2030. The region's major economies, including Japan, China, and India, contribute significantly to the regional market value. The region's market growth is being aided by the region's constantly developing economies and residents' rising purchasing power. The increasing working population in developing economies is driving an exponential increase in demand for online food delivery, propelling the regional market value.

Buy this premium research report 

https://www.acumenresearchandconsulting.com/buy-now/0/2523

Cloud Kitchen Market Players

Some of the leading cloud kitchen companies operating in the industry include Cloud Kitchen, Dahmakan, Ghost Kitchen Orlando, DoorDash Kitchens, Kitopi, Rebel Foods, Keatz, Kitchen United, Starbucks (Star Kitchen), and Zuul Kitchen. The major players are expanding their presence in developing economies through new collaborations and partnerships in the respective regions.

Questions Answered By This Report

What was the market size of Cloud Kitchen Market in 2021?

What will be the CAGR of Cloud Kitchen Market during the forecast period from 2022 to 2030?

Who are the major players in Global Cloud Kitchen Market?

Which region held the largest share in Cloud Kitchen Market in 2021?

What are the key market drivers of Cloud Kitchen Market?

Who is the largest end user Cloud Kitchen Market?

What will be the Cloud Kitchen Market value in 2030?





Browse More Research Topic on Food Related:

The Malaysia Online Food Delivery Market is expected to reach over 319.1 Million USD by 2026.

The Global Food Waste Management Market Size accounted for USD 39,547 Million in 2021 and is estimated to achieve a market size of USD 64,025 Million by 2030 growing at a CAGR of 5.7% from 2022 to 2030.

The Global A2 Milk Market size Accounted for USD 9,056 Million in 2021 and is predicted to be worth USD 38,192 Million by 2030, with a CAGR of 17.5% during the Forthcoming Period from 2022 to 2030.

About Acumen Research and Consulting:

Acumen Research and Consulting is a global provider of market intelligence and consulting services to information technology, investment, telecommunication, manufacturing, and consumer technology markets. ARC helps investment communities, IT professionals, and business executives to make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and develop firm growth strategies to sustain market competition. With the team size of 100+ Analysts and collective industry experience of more than 200 years, Acumen Research and Consulting assures to deliver a combination of industry knowledge along with global and country level expertise.

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Pune, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 2022-2030 REPORT ON GLOBAL POLYIMIDE (PI) MARKET BY PLAYER, REGION, TYPE, APPLICATION AND SALES CHANNEL:



Global Polyimide (PI) Market 2016-2030 report discovers comprehensive insights on key manufacturers with share information, market size and projection, key dynamics, growth factors, and new company profiles. The report provides detailed information about the market overview, prevalent trends, demand, and recent developments impacting the market growth in the coming years. Polyimide (PI) Market opportunities analysis, strategic growth analysis, product launches, marketplace expanding, and technological innovations are also highlighted. The report uncovers Polyimide (PI) market size, potential growth, trends and expansion strategies followed by top prominent players.

Get a Sample PDF of the report @ https://www.industryresearch.biz/enquiry/request-sample/20744468

This report provides detailed historical analysis of global market for Polyimide (PI) from 2016-2021, and provides extensive market forecasts from 2022-2030 by region/country and subsectors. It covers the sales/revenue/value, gross margin, historical growth and future perspectives in the Polyimide (PI) market.



Moreover, the impact of COVID-19 is also concerned. Since outbreak in December 2019, the COVID-19 virus has spread to all around the world and caused huge losses of lives and economy, and the global manufacturing, tourism and financial markets have been hit hard, while the online market/industry increase. Fortunately, with the development of vaccine and other effort by global governments and organizations, the negative impact of COVID-19 is expected to subside and the global economy is expected to recover.



This research covers COVID-19 impacts on the upstream, midstream and downstream industries. Moreover, this research provides an in-depth market evaluation by highlighting information on various aspects covering market dynamics like drivers, barriers, opportunities, threats, and industry news & trends. In the end, this report also provides in-depth analysis and professional advices on how to face the post COIVD-19 period.



The research methodology used to estimate and forecast this market begins by capturing the revenues of the key players and their shares in the market. Various secondary sources such as press releases, annual reports, non-profit organizations, industry associations, governmental agencies and customs data, have been used to identify and collect information useful for this extensive commercial study of the market. Calculations based on this led to the overall market size. After arriving at the overall market size, the total market has been split into several segments and subsegments, which have then been verified through primary research by conducting extensive interviews with industry experts such as CEOs, VPs, directors, and executives. The data triangulation and market breakdown procedures have been employed to complete the overall market engineering process and arrive at the exact statistics for all segments and subsegments.

Get A Sample Copy Of The Polyimide (PI) Market Report 2016-2030

Polyimide (PI) Market Top Manufacturers Analysis : The report covers extensive analysis of the key market players along with their business overview, expansion plans, and strategies. Top Key Players covered in the report are:

SABIC

DuPont

Kaneka Corporation

Evonik Fibres

Ube Industries

Solvay

SKCKOLONPI

Saint-Gobain

Taimide Technology

Mitsui Chemicals

Qinyang Tianyi Chemical

Asahi Kasei

HD MicroSystems

Shengyuan

HiPolyking

Mitsubishi Gas Chemical

The report focuses on the Polyimide (PI) market size, segment size (mainly covering product type, application, and geography), competitor landscape, recent status, and development trends. Furthermore, the report provides detailed cost analysis, supply chain. Technological innovation and advancement will further optimize the performance of the product, making it more widely used in downstream applications. Moreover, Consumer behavior analysis and market dynamics (drivers, restraints, opportunities) provides crucial information for knowing the Polyimide (PI) market.

Based On Product Types, the Polyimide (PI) market from 2016 to 2030 is primarily split into:

Film

Resin

Plastic

Others

Based On Applications, the Polyimide (PI) market from 2016 to 2030 covers:

Aerospace Industry

Electrical Industry

Machine Industry

Others Industry

Enquire before purchasing this report - https://www.industryresearch.biz/enquiry/pre-order-enquiry/20744468

Geographically, the report includes research on production, consumption, revenue, market share and growth rate, and forecast (2016 -2030) of the following regions:

North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)

Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Russia and Spain etc.)

Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia and Southeast Asia etc.)

South America (Brazil, Argentina and Colombia etc.)

Middle East & Africa (South Africa, UAE and Saudi Arabia etc.)

Major Highlights of Polyimide (PI) Market Report:

Define and discuss the growth of the global Polyimide (PI) market

Analyze the various segments and dynamics of the Polyimide (PI) market

To identify and make suitable business plans according to industry and economic shifts.

The key objective of presenting an in-depth research study on the global Polyimide (PI) market is to conduct an extensive analysis and Polyimide (PI) performance.

The report highlights the latest trends, market drivers, and investment avenues for the new entrants and the market players looking for market expansion.

It is helpful to combine relevant facts and offers a wealth of information and analysis on the global Polyimide (PI) market.

This report assesses the performance and profit potential of the global Polyimide (PI) market. Different variables are used to analyze attractiveness and strengths.

TO KNOW HOW COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND RUSSIA UKRAINE WAR WILL IMPACT THIS MARKET - REQUEST SAMPLE

What ideas and concepts are covered in the report?

The assessments accounted by all the zones and the market share registered by each region are mentioned in the report.

The study sums up the product consumption growth rate in the applicable regions along with their consumption market share.

Data regarding the Polyimide (PI) Industry market consumption rate of all the provinces, based on applicable regions and product types is inculcated in the report.

Region-based analysis of the Polyimide (PI) Industry market:

The Polyimide (PI) Industry market, with regards to the provincial scope, is segmented into USA, Europe, Japan, China, India, South East Asia and more. The report also includes information regarding the products use throughout the topographies.

Some of the key questions answered in this report:

Which are the five top players of the Polyimide (PI) market?

How will the Polyimide (PI) market change in the upcoming years?

Which product and application will take a share of the Polyimide (PI) market?

What are the drivers and restraints of the Polyimide (PI) market?

Which regional market will show the highest growth?

What will be the CAGR and size of the Polyimide (PI) market throughout the forecast period?

What is the current market size, what will the market size be in 2030 and what will the growth rate be?

What are the challenges to grow in the market?

What are the market opportunities and challenges faced by the key vendors?

Who are the major competitors and what is their strategy?

What are the barriers to entry for new players in the market?

Purchase this report (Price 2500 USD for a single-user license) - https://www.industryresearch.biz/purchase/20744468

With tables and figures helping analyze worldwide Global Polyimide (PI) market trends, this research provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.

Detailed TOC of Polyimide (PI) Market Forecast Report 2016-2030:

Chapter 1 Polyimide (PI) Market Overview

1.1 Polyimide (PI) Definition

1.2 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size Status and Outlook (2016-2030)

1.3 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size Comparison by Region (2016-2030)

1.4 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size Comparison by Type (2016-2030)

1.5 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size Comparison by Application (2016-2030)

1.6 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size Comparison by Sales Channel (2016-2030)

1.7 Polyimide (PI) Market Dynamics (COVID-19 Impacts)

1.7.1 Market Drivers/Opportunities

1.7.2 Market Challenges/Risks

1.7.3 Market News (Mergers/Acquisitions/Expansion)

1.7.4 COVID-19 Impacts

1.7.5 Post-Strategies of COVID-19



Chapter 2 Polyimide (PI) Market Segment Analysis by Player

2.1 Global Polyimide (PI) Sales and Market Share by Player (2019-2021)

2.2 Global Polyimide (PI) Revenue and Market Share by Player (2019-2021)

2.3 Global Polyimide (PI) Average Price by Player (2019-2021)

2.4 Players Competition Situation & Trends

2.5 Conclusion of Segment by Player



Chapter 3 Polyimide (PI) Market Segment Analysis by Type

3.1 Global Polyimide (PI) Market by Type

3.1.1 Film

3.1.2 Resin

3.1.3 Plastic

3.1.4 Others

3.2 Global Polyimide (PI) Sales and Market Share by Type (2016-2021)

3.3 Global Polyimide (PI) Revenue and Market Share by Type (2016-2021)

3.4 Global Polyimide (PI) Average Price by Type (2016-2021)

3.5 Leading Players of Polyimide (PI) by Type in 2021

3.6 Conclusion of Segment by Type



Chapter 4 Polyimide (PI) Market Segment Analysis by Application

4.1 Global Polyimide (PI) Market by Application

4.1.1 Aerospace Industry

4.1.2 Electrical Industry

4.1.3 Machine Industry

4.1.4 Others Industry

4.2 Global Polyimide (PI) Revenue and Market Share by Application (2016-2021)

4.3 Leading Consumers of Polyimide (PI) by Application in 2021

4.4 Conclusion of Segment by Application



Chapter 5 Polyimide (PI) Market Segment Analysis by Sales Channel

5.1 Global Polyimide (PI) Market by Sales Channel

5.1.1 Direct Channel

5.1.2 Distribution Channel

5.2 Global Polyimide (PI) Revenue and Market Share by Sales Channel (2016-2021)

5.3 Leading Distributors/Dealers of Polyimide (PI) by Sales Channel in 2021

5.4 Conclusion of Segment by Sales Channel



Chapter 6 Polyimide (PI) Market Segment Analysis by Region

6.1 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size and CAGR by Region (2016-2030)

6.2 Global Polyimide (PI) Sales and Market Share by Region (2016-2021)

6.3 Global Polyimide (PI) Revenue and Market Share by Region (2016-2021)

6.4 North America

6.4.1 North America Market by Country

6.4.2 North America Polyimide (PI) Market Share by Type

6.4.3 North America Polyimide (PI) Market Share by Application

6.4.4 United States

6.4.5 Canada

6.4.6 Mexico

6.5 Europe

6.5.1 Europe Market by Country

6.5.2 Europe Polyimide (PI) Market Share by Type

6.5.3 Europe Polyimide (PI) Market Share by Application

6.5.4 Germany

6.5.5 UK

6.5.6 France

6.5.7 Italy

6.5.8 Russia

6.5.9 Spain

6.6 Asia-Pacific

6.6.1 Asia-Pacific Market by Country

6.6.2 Asia-Pacific Polyimide (PI) Market Share by Type

6.6.3 Asia-Pacific Polyimide (PI) Market Share by Application

6.6.4 China

6.6.5 Japan

6.6.6 Korea

6.6.7 India

6.6.8 Southeast Asia

6.6.9 Australia

6.7 South America

6.7.1 South America Market by Country

6.7.2 South America Polyimide (PI) Market Share by Type

6.7.3 South America Polyimide (PI) Market Share by Application

6.7.4 Brazil

6.7.5 Argentina

6.7.6 Colombia

6.8 Middle East & Africa

6.8.1 Middle East & Africa Market by Country

6.8.2 Middle East & Africa Polyimide (PI) Market Share by Type

6.8.3 Middle East & Africa Polyimide (PI) Market Share by Application

6.8.4 UAE

6.8.5 Saudi Arabia

6.8.6 South Africa

6.9 Conclusion of Segment by Region



Chapter 7 Profile of Leading Polyimide (PI) Players

7.1 SABIC

7.1.1 Company Snapshot

7.1.2 Product/Service Offered

7.1.3 Business Performance (Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share)

7.2 DuPont

7.3 Kaneka Corporation

7.4 Evonik Fibres

7.5 Ube Industries

7.6 Solvay

7.7 SKCKOLONPI

7.8 Saint-Gobain

7.9 Taimide Technology

7.10 Mitsui Chemicals

7.11 Qinyang Tianyi Chemical

7.12 Asahi Kasei

7.13 HD MicroSystems

7.14 Shengyuan

7.15 HiPolyking

7.16 Mitsubishi Gas Chemical



Chapter 8 Upstream and Downstream Analysis of Polyimide (PI)

8.1 Industrial Chain of Polyimide (PI)

8.2 Upstream of Polyimide (PI)

8.3 Downstream of Polyimide (PI)



Chapter 9 Development Trend of Polyimide (PI) (2022-2030)

9.1 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size (Sales and Revenue) Forecast (2022-2030)

9.2 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size and CAGR Forecast by Region (2022-2030)

9.3 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size and CAGR Forecast by Type (2022-2030)

9.4 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size and CAGR Forecast by Application (2022-2030)

9.5 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size and CAGR Forecast by Sales Channel (2022-2030)



Chapter 10 Appendix

10.1 Research Methodology

10.2 Data Sources

10.3 Disclaimer

10.4 Analysts Certification

Detailed TOC of Global Polyimide (PI) Market @ https://www.industryresearch.biz/TOC/20744468

About Us:

Market is changing rapidly with the ongoing expansion of the industry. Advancement in technology has provided todays businesses with multifaceted advantages resulting in daily economic shifts. Thus, it is very important for a company to comprehend the patterns of the market movements in order to strategize better. An efficient strategy offers the companies a head start in planning and an edge over the competitors. Industry Research is a credible source for gaining the market reports that will provide you with the lead your business needs.
Dublin, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Product Design and Development Services Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis by Services, Application, and End-user" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The product design and development services market is expected to grow from US$ 9,519.97 million in 2022 to US$ 17,663.12 million by 2028.



Technological advancements and high demand for quality products in healthcare due to rising health concerns among the geriatric population fuel the overall market growth of product design and development services market.



Technological development has been recognized as a crucial component of business competitiveness. For example, several technological advancements involve artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare products. AI-based medical devices can automate tasks, synthesize data from multiple sources, pinpoint trends, process and analyze information from wearable sensors, identify disease or the onset of medical conditions, identify risk for infection associated with complications, and research.

Moreover, the potential of technologies is limitless in the healthcare sector. The influx of technology will allow professionals to diagnose, collect data, and treat medical conditions more accurately and less invasively, improving the health and healthcare of people globally, which ultimately fuel the growth of product design and development services market.



Imaging and diagnostic machines are bulky stationary devices requiring patients to visit a particular room in a hospital or physician's office. However, a new generation of compact devices comes directly to a patient. For example, imaging and diagnostic equipment have significantly improved in the past decade. With costs dropping dramatically and making devices more accessible to smaller medical practices and clinics owing to the technological influx in diagnostic devices.

The technological advent has resulted in innovative features such as computed tomography (CT) machines evolving from a 16-slice scanner to a 256-slice scanner capable of measuring changes in blood flow and detecting the smallest blockages forming in blood vessels. Therefore, improvement in every aspect of technology results in increasing efficiency, functionality, and reliability. Such aforementioned factors are responsible for stimulating the overall growth of the product design and development services market during the forecast period.



According to the National Council on Ageing report, ~49 million Americans are aged 65 and over, and the population of this age is estimated to reach 98 million by 2060. Good health ensures security, independence, and productivity for the older population. However, millions in the aging population struggle daily with health challenges such as falls, chronic diseases, physical inactivity, oral health concerns, and behavioral health issues, thus hampering the quality of life.

Furthermore, ~80% of the geriatric population possess at least one chronic condition, and 70% of Medicare beneficiaries have two or more. Demand for quality products with innovative design is rising to overcome such conditions. Moreover, medical device companies are improving clinical outcomes among patient groups through connected products. For example, Ximedica developed products focusing on data strategies for equipment, customers, and patients with elegant and personalized experiences for clinical users and patients by creating secure, scalable, and compliant digital solutions.

Additionally, in November 2021, a Radiological Society of North America show in Chicago was arranged where medical device manufacturers showcased numerous product innovations. For example, GE Healthcare featured a new image-guided X-ray system with robot-like functionalities.



Market Opportunities of Global Product Design and Development Services Market

According to the ISO report, medical devices assist in saving the lives of patients and improving their health. In the global market, 500,000 technology-based devices exist. Additionally, ISO has many international standards and guidance documents to help the healthcare sector ensure product safety and effectiveness by meeting many national, regional, and international regulatory requirements and adhering to product design specifications.

For example, ISO 20417 simplifies meeting product information regulations by offering standard generic requirements that are consistent/permanent across all devices across geographies. Moreover, ISO/TR 20416 post-marketing surveillance for manufacturers offers guidance to effectively monitor the device's safety, performance, and everyday use. Such aforementioned factors would create lucrative opportunities for the growth of the product design and development services market during the forecast period.



Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Indian National Institute of Metrology Standardization and Industrial Quality, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US Food and Drug Administration, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science are among the primary and secondary sources that were referred to while preparing the report on the global product design and development services market.



Key Topics Covered:



1. Introduction

2. Key Takeaways

3. Research Methodology

4. Product Design and Development Services Market - Market Landscape

4.1 Overview

4.2 PEST Analysis

4.2.1 North America PEST Analysis

4.2.2 Europe PEST Analysis

4.2.3 Asia Pacific PEST Analysis

4.2.4 Middle East And Africa PEST Analysis

4.2.5 South And Central America PEST Analysis

4.3 Experts Opinion

5. Product Design and Development Services Market - Key Market Dynamics

5.1 Market Drivers

5.1.1 Advancements in Technologies

5.1.2 High Demand for Quality Products in Healthcare due to Rising Health Concerns Among Geriatric Population

5.2 Market Restraints

5.2.1 Data Breach and Information Security Concerns

5.3 Market Opportunities

5.3.1 New Standards and Regulations Supportive Towards Innovative Product Design and Development

5.4 Future Trends

5.4.1 Utility of Portable Medical Devices

5.5 Impact Analysis

6. Product Design and Development Services Market - Global Analysis

6.1 Global Product Design and Development Services Market Revenue Forecast and Analysis

6.2 Global Product Design and Development Services Market, By Geography - Forecast and Analysis

6.3 Market Positioning of Key Players

6.4 Global Product Design and Development Services Market - Market Potential Analysis, By Region

6.5 Comparative Company Analysis

6.6 Growth Strategy Analysis

6.7 Performance of Key Players

6.7.1.1 Celestica, Inc.

6.7.1.2 Jabil, Inc.

6.8 Market Share Analysis of Product Design and Development Services Market

7. Global Product Design and Development Market Revenue and Forecast to 2028 - by Services

7.1 Overview

7.2 Global Product Design and Development Market Share, By Services 2022 & 2028 (%)

7.3 Research, Strategy and Concept Generation

7.3.1 Overview

7.3.2 Research, Strategy and Concept Generation: Product Design and Development Market Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

7.4 Concept and Requirements Development

7.4.1 Overview

7.4.2 Concept and Requirements Development: Product Design and Development Market Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

7.5 Detailed Design and Process Development

7.5.1 Overview

7.5.2 Detailed Design and Process Development: Product Design and Development Market Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

7.6 Design Verification

7.6.1 Overview

7.6.2 Design Verification: Product Design and Development Market Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

7.7 Process Validation, Manufacturing Transfer and Design Validation

7.7.1 Overview

7.7.2 Process Validation, Manufacturing Transfer and Design Validation: Product Design and Development Market Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

7.8 Other Services

7.8.1 Overview

7.8.2 Other Services: Product Design and Development Market Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

8. Global Product Design and Development Market Revenue and Forecast to 2028 - by Application

8.1 Overview

8.2 Global Product Design and Development Market Share, By Application 2022 & 2028 (%)

8.3 Diagnostic Equipment

8.3.1 Overview

8.3.2 Diagnostic Equipment: Product Design and Development Market Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

8.4 Therapeutic Equipment

8.4.1 Overview

8.4.2 Therapeutic Equipment: Product Design and Development Market Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

8.5 Surgical Instruments

8.5.1 Overview

8.5.2 Surgical Instruments: Product Design and Development Market Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

8.6 Clinical Laboratory Equipment

8.6.1 Overview

8.6.2 Clinical Laboratory Equipment Product Design and Development Market Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

8.7 Biological Store

8.7.1 Overview

8.7.2 Biological Store: Product Design and Development Market Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

8.8 Consumables

8.8.1 Overview

8.8.2 Consumables: Product Design and Development Market Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

8.9 Others

8.9.1 Overview

8.9.2 Others: Product Design and Development Market Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

9. Global Product Design and Development Market Revenue and Forecast to 2028 - by End User

9.1 Overview

9.2 Global Product Design and Development Market Share, By Services 2022 & 2028 (%)

9.3 Medical Device Companies

9.3.1 Overview

9.3.2 Medical Device Companies: Product Design and Development Market Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

9.4 Pharmaceutical Companies

9.4.1 Overview

9.4.2 Pharmaceutical Companies: Product Design and Development Market Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

9.5 Biotechnology Companies

9.5.1 Overview

9.5.2 Biotechnology Companies: Product Design and Development Market Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

9.6 Contract Research Companies

9.6.1 Overview

9.6.2 Contract Research Companies: Product Design and Development Market Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

10. Product Design and Development Services Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2028 - Geographical Analysis

11. Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Global Product Design and Development Services Market

11.1 North America: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic

11.2 Europe: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic

11.3 Asia-Pacific: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic

11.4 Middle East and Africa: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic

11.5 South and Central America: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic

12. Product Design and Development Services Market - Industry Landscape

12.1 Overview

12.2 Growth Strategies Done by the Companies in the Market (%)

12.3 Organic Developments

12.3.1 Overview

12.4 Inorganic Developments

12.4.1 Overview

13. Company Profiles

13.1 Ximedica

13.1.1 Key Facts

13.1.2 Business Description

13.1.3 Products and Services

13.1.4 Financial Overview

13.1.5 SWOT Analysis

13.1.6 Key Developments

13.2 DeviceLab Inc.

13.2.1 Key Facts

13.2.2 Business Description

13.2.3 Products and Services

13.2.4 Financial Overview

13.2.5 SWOT Analysis

13.2.6 Key Developments

13.3 Jabil Inc.

13.3.1 Key Facts

13.3.2 Business Description

13.3.3 Products and Services

13.3.4 Financial Overview

13.3.5 SWOT Analysis

13.3.6 Key Developments

13.4 FLEX LTD.

13.4.1 Key Facts

13.4.2 Business Description

13.4.3 Products and Services

13.4.4 Financial Overview

13.4.5 SWOT Analysis

13.4.6 Key Developments

13.5 Plexus Corp.

13.5.1 Key Facts

13.5.2 Business Description

13.5.3 Products and Services

13.5.4 Financial Overview

13.5.5 SWOT Analysis

13.5.6 Key Developments

13.6 Celestica Inc.

13.6.1 Key Facts

13.6.2 Business Description

13.6.3 Products and Services

13.6.4 Financial Overview

13.6.5 SWOT Analysis

13.6.6 Key Developments

13.7 StarFish Product Engineering Inc.

13.7.1 Key Facts

13.7.2 Business Description

13.7.3 Products and Services

13.7.4 Financial Overview

13.7.5 SWOT Analysis

13.7.6 Key Developments

13.8 NORDSON CORPORATION

13.8.1 Key Facts

13.8.2 Business Description

13.8.3 Products and Services

13.8.4 Financial Overview

13.8.5 SWOT Analysis

13.8.6 Key Developments

13.9 Planet Innovation

13.9.1 Key Facts

13.9.2 Business Description

13.9.3 Products and Services

13.9.4 Financial Overview

13.9.5 SWOT Analysis

13.9.6 Key Developments

13.10 Sterling Medical Devices

13.10.1 Key Facts

13.10.2 Business Description

13.10.3 Products and Services

13.10.4 Financial Overview

13.10.5 SWOT Analysis

13.10.6 Key Developments

14. Appendix

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/8vf2u0

Attachment
Luton, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Exactitude Consultancy, the market research and consulting wing of Ameliorate Digital Consultancy Private Limited has completed and published the final copy of the detailed research report on the Railway Cybersecurity Market.

Railway Cybersecurity Market is expected to witness market growth at a rate of 10% in the forecast period of 2022 to 2029.

The growing importance of cloud-based systems and advanced tools that help maximize the interval between specific maintenance events, and the increasing vulnerability of rail traffic management, such as traffic control, to cyberattacks. Increasing digitization, improving connected infrastructure, and increasing government regulations to ensure passenger safety continue to impact the railway cybersecurity market. In addition, increasing frequency of cyber-attacks on railways and growing demand for cybersecurity services, increasing investment, digitalization, and urbanization are having a positive impact on the railway cybersecurity market. Moreover, technological advancements are opening up revenue opportunities for the railway cybersecurity market players during the forecast period 2022-2029.

The increasing digitization of rail means that large amounts of data flow over digital and physical networks. As more devices and systems connect to the Internet, more vulnerabilities emerge that can disrupt physical resources. These digital advancements are also attracting new cyber threats, increasing the demand for railway cybersecurity solutions.

Get the PDF Sample Copy: https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/7057/railway-cybersecurity-market/#request-a-sample

Recent Developments

In May 2021, Wabtec was awarded a supply contract worth USD 15 million by Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transport Systems (RRTS).

In May 2021, Siemens announced the acquisition of RailTerm, a Canada-based rail service provider. This acquisition will help the company expand its product portfolio with on-ground track and signaling, electrification, and communication systems.

In March 2021, Wabtec announced the acquisition of Nordco, a North American supplier of new, rebuilt, and used maintenance of way equipment having products such as mobile railcars movers and ultrasonic rail flaw detection technologies.





Report Attribute/Metric Details Market Size 7.44 billion CAGR 10% Base Year 2021 Forecast Period 2022-2029 Historical Data 2017-2020 Forecast Units Value (USD Billion) Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered Component, Type, Security, Application Geographies Covered North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World (RoW) Key Vendors Thales Group (France),Siemens AG (Germany), Alstom (France),Wabtec Corporation (US), Hitachi, Ltd. (Japan), Nokia Networks (Finland), IBM (US), Cisco Systems, Inc. (US), Raytheon Technologies Corporation (US), Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (China), Toshiba Corporation (Japan) Key Market Opportunities Railways across many countries have developed digital strategies to cope with the growing number of passengers and the Internet of Things (IoT) in the management and control systems. Key Market Drivers  Advancement in technologies across industries continues to drive the need for more robust cyber security solutions.



 Increased need for smart mobility solutions and services fuelling the growth of the railway cybersecurity market.



Railway Cybersecurity Market Players

The railway cybersecurity market key players Thales Group, Siemens AG, Nokia Networks, Alstom, Wabtec, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., International Business Machine Corporation (IBM), Raytheon Technologies Corporation, Cisco Systems, Inc., Hitachi Ltd., Bombardier, United Technologies, Toshiba Corporation, TUV Rheinland, Capgemini, Cervello, Cylus Ltd.

Get Access for Premium Report:

https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/7057/railway-cybersecurity-market/

Key Market Segments: Railway Cybersecurity Market

Global Railway Cybersecurity Market By Type

Infrastructure

On-Board

Global Railway Cybersecurity Market By Solution

Solutions

Risk And Compliance Management

Encryption

Firewall,

Antivirus/Antimalware

Intrusion Detection System/Intrusion Prevention System

Others

Global Railway Cybersecurity Market by Rail Type

Conventional Passenger Trains

Urban Transit

High-Speed Rail

Global Railway Cybersecurity Market by Security Type

Application Security

Network Security

Data Protection

Endpoint Security

System Administration

Global Railway Cybersecurity Market by Application

Passenger Trains

Freight Trains

Aerospace

REGIONAL INSIGHTS

The Asia-Pacific market will reach $3.57 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $6.7 billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 8.36% during the forecast period. APAC will lead the market with over 35% revenue share in 2020. Rapid urbanization and population growth are key factors driving the expansion of rail networks in the Asia-Pacific region and thus the construction of light rail and long-distance transport infrastructure. Hitachi, Huawei, Toshiba and Tech Mahindra Ltd. are key participants in the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, increasing penetration of advanced technology, rising GDP of each country, sustained growth and developing economy are the major drivers of the region.

China, Japan, India, and the rest of Asia Pacific are potential markets covered by Asia Pacific. During the forecast period, China is estimated to dominate the market in terms of market share and growth rate across all countries, followed by India, Japan, and the rest of Asia-Pacific. This infrastructure expansion will propel this market forward in the region. Railroad management systems that can be hacked through data breaches are critical to cyber security. China and Japan have the most advanced rail infrastructure in the region.

Passenger train segment accounts for a major share of the market during the forecast period

The passenger train segment is expected to lead the railway cybersecurity market during the forecast period. Passenger rail network security is more complex than freight transport due to its open infrastructure, multiple access points, and large user base. Cities such as London and New York have recently been vulnerable to cyberattacks on passenger trains, highlighting the importance of railroad cybersecurity. Governments around the world are promoting cybersecurity solutions for passenger and freight rail.

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Wireless in Flight Market

The global wireless in flight market is projected to reach USD 6.60 Billion by 2029 from USD 4.29 Billion in 2020, at a CAGR of 4.9% from 2022 to 2029.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- E-scooter riders can now locate Superpedestrian's bright yellow shared scooters in the Google Maps mobile app, making it easier for riders to plan trips, including their first and last mile to public transit. Integrating Superdestrian's real-time locations into Google maps is a crucial step for making e-scooters a reliable and easy-to-use form of everyday transport. With the app, riders can plan their multimodal journey alongside real-time transit and rideshare information.

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About Superpedestrian: Superpedestrian was spun out of MIT in 2013 with the mission to develop the world's smartest and safest light electric vehicle fleets. In 2020, Superpedestrian debuted the LINK Scooter, heralded as "The Volvo of e-Scooters" for its patented Vehicle Intelligence platform that actively prevents costly mechanical and electrical hazards that beset other e-scooter operators. Named one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Transportation Companies of 2022, Superpedestrian has become a world leader in transportation robotics and human-scale mobility, holding over 40 patents in autonomous failure protection for vehicles, automated maintenance software, fleet optimization, and vehicle context awareness.

Hi-resolution photos are available in Superpedestrian's press kit

###

Contact Information:

Jamie Perkins

Director of Communications

jamie.perkins@superpedestrian.com

970-222-7587



Related Images











Image 1: Superpedestrian





Superpedestrian scooters are now in Google Maps









This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

Attachment
PUNE, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- "Agritech Market" research report focus on overall information that can help to take decisions on current market situation. The agritech market are engaged in the business of offering agritech related technologies, system, and software. With the increase in effective connection between farmers owing to digitalization, the use of state-of-the-art technologies such as IoT and cloud would encourage farmers to adopt advanced agricultural ecosystem.

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Description and analysis of Agritech market potential by type, Deep Dive, disruption, application capacity, end use industry

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Detailed profiles of the Top major players in the industry, including. ARSR Tech,AeroFarms,Apollo Agriculture,Crofarm Agriproducts Pvt Ltd,Conservis,Indigo Ag, Inc.,LettUs Grow Ltd.,Pivot Bio,AgBiome, Inc.,Ceres Imaging,AgWorld,Hortau,Harvest Automation,Farmers Business Network

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Agritech Market Segmentation: -

researchers latest report provides a deep insight into the global Agritech market covering all its essential aspects. This ranges from a macro overview of the market to micro details of the market size, competitive landscape, development trend, niche market, key market drivers and challenges, SWOT analysis, Porters five forces analysis, value chain analysis, etc.

The global Agritech market size is projected to reach US$ million by 2028, from US$ million in 2021, at a CAGR of % during 2022-2028.

Fully considering the economic change by this health crisis, Biotechnology and Biochemicals accounting for % of the Agritech global market in 2021, is projected to value US$ million by 2028, growing at a revised % CAGR from 2022 to 2028. While Irrigation segment is altered to an % CAGR throughout this forecast period.

China Agritech market size is valued at US$ million in 2021, while the North America and Europe Agritech are US$ million and US$ million, severally. The proportion of the North America is % in 2021, while China and Europe are % and respectively, and it is predicted that China proportion will reach % in 2028, trailing a CAGR of % through the analysis period 2022-2028. Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia are noteworthy markets in Asia, with CAGR %, %, and % respectively for the next 6-year period. As for the Europe Agritech landscape, Germany is projected to reach US$ million by 2028 trailing a CAGR of % over the forecast period 2022-2028.

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Overall, the report proves to be an effective tool that players can use to gain a competitive edge over their competitors and ensure lasting success in the global Agritech market. All of the findings, data, and information provided in the report are validated and revalidated with the help of trustworthy sources. The analysts who have authored the report took a unique and industry-best research and analysis approach for an in-depth study of the global Agritech market.

Global Agritech Scope and Market Size

Agritech market is segmented by players, region (country), by Type and by Application. Players, stakeholders, and other participants in the global Agritech market will be able to gain the upper hand as they use the report as a powerful resource. The segmental analysis focuses on revenue and forecast by Type and by Application for the period 2017-2028.

Agritech Market segments help decision-makers direct the product, sales, and marketing strategies, and can power your product development cycles by informing how you make product offerings for different segments.

Furthermore, it sheds light on the comprehensive competitive landscape of the global market. The report further offers a dashboard overview of leading companies encompassing their successful marketing strategies, market contribution, recent developments in both historic and present contexts.

Segment by Type

Biotechnology and Biochemicals

Big Data and Analytics

Sensors and Connected Devices

Mobility

Others

Segment by Application

Irrigation

Production and Maintenance

Supply Chain

Marketplace

Others

Market segment by Region/Country including: -

North America (United States, Canada, and Mexico)

Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Russia and Spain, etc.)

Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, Southeast Asia, etc.)

South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, etc.)

Middle East & Africa (South Africa, UAE, Saudi Arabia, etc.)

Key Players in the Agritech Market: -

ARSR Tech

AeroFarms

Apollo Agriculture

Crofarm Agriproducts Pvt Ltd

Conservis

Indigo Ag, Inc.

LettUs Grow Ltd.

Pivot Bio

AgBiome, Inc.

Ceres Imaging

AgWorld

Hortau

Harvest Automation

Farmers Business Network

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Types, applications, regions, and key players covered in the study

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Historical, current, and projected market size, in terms of value

In-depth analysis of the Artificial Intelligence AI Chips Market

Sales, price, revenue, market share, and growth rate are covered in the report sales channels, distributors, traders, dealers, etc. are covered in the report

Detailed TOC of Global Agritech Market Research Report 2022

1 Report Overview

1.1 Study Scope

1.2 Market Analysis by Type

1.2.1 Global Agritech Market Size Growth Rate by Type: 2017 VS 2021 VS 2028

1.2.2 Biotechnology and Biochemicals

1.2.3 Big Data and Analytics

1.2.4 Sensors and Connected Devices

1.2.5 Mobility

1.2.6 Others

1.3 Market by Application

1.3.1 Global Agritech Market Share by Application: 2017 VS 2021 VS 2028

1.3.2 Irrigation

1.3.3 Production and Maintenance

1.3.4 Supply Chain

1.3.5 Marketplace

1.3.6 Others

1.4 Study Objectives

1.5 Years Considered

2 Global Growth Trends

2.1 Global Agritech Market Perspective (2017-2028)

2.2 Agritech Growth Trends by Region

2.2.1 Agritech Market Size by Region: 2017 VS 2021 VS 2028

2.2.2 Agritech Historic Market Size by Region (2017-2022)

2.2.3 Agritech Forecasted Market Size by Region (2023-2028)

2.3 Agritech Market Dynamics

2.3.1 Agritech Industry Trends

2.3.2 Agritech Market Drivers

2.3.3 Agritech Market Challenges

2.3.4 Agritech Market Restraints

3 Competition Landscape by Key Players

3.1 Global Top Agritech Players by Revenue

3.1.1 Global Top Agritech Players by Revenue (2017-2022)

3.1.2 Global Agritech Revenue Market Share by Players (2017-2022)

3.2 Global Agritech Market Share by Company Type (Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3)

3.3 Players Covered: Ranking by Agritech Revenue

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Dublin, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Pediatric Interventional Cardiology Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The global pediatric interventional cardiology market reached a value of US$ 2.28 billion in 2021. Looking forward, the market is projected to reach a value of US$ 3.46 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 6.80% during 2022-2027. Keeping in mind the uncertainties of COVID-19, the analyst is continuously tracking and evaluating the direct as well as the indirect influence of the pandemic. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor.



Pediatric interventional cardiology is a subset of cardiology that involves the use of specific catheter-based techniques to treat heart disorders in infants, children, and adolescents up to 18 years of age. They include balloon angioplasty, coil occlusion, stent implantation, and aortic valve stenosis.

As compared to conventional cardiological treatments, pediatric interventional cardiology is more minimally invasive, thus reducing post-surgery complications. Consequently, they are extensively employed for performing angioplasty, valvuloplasty, coronary thrombectomy, and congenital heart defect correction procedures across clinical testing laboratories, hospitals, cardiac centers, and research institutes.



Pediatric Interventional Cardiology Market Trends

The increasing instances of various congenital cardiac diseases in children, such as atrial septal defect (ASD), atrioventricular canal defect, patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), and ventricular septal defect (VSD) represent one of the key factors driving the pediatric interventional cardiology market growth. The introduction of novel and more efficient pediatric interventional cardiology devices, including catheters, bio-absorbable stents, guidewires, balloons, stents, vascular closure devices, atherectomy devices is acting as another major growth-inducing factor.

In line with this, the shifting inclination of patients toward non-invasive medical treatment procedures, along with the rising awareness regarding the associated benefits, such as lower risk of infection, shorter postoperative recovery times, and avoidance of large scars is also driving the market growth.

Other factors, including rising healthcare expenditure and the numerous initiatives being undertaken by governments of various nations to speed-up regulatory procedures, are creating a positive outlook for the market. The market is also driven by extensive research and development (R&D) activities, increasing consumer healthcare expenditure and investments by governments and non-government organizations (NGOs) for strengthening the existing healthcare infrastructure, and significant technological advancements in the field of cardiology.

Competitive Landscape

The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined along with the profiles of the key players being Biotronik SE & Co. KG, Boston Scientific Corporation, Cardinal Health Inc., Edwards Lifesciences Corporation, General Electric Company, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Lepu Medical Technology (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Medtronic plc, NuMED Inc., Siemens Healthineers AG, Terumo Corporation and W. L. Gore & Associates Inc.



Key Questions Answered in This Report

How has the global pediatric interventional cardiology market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global pediatric interventional cardiology market?

What are the key regional markets?

What is the breakup of the market based on the device type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the procedure?

What is the breakup of the market based on the End-use?

What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry?

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the industry?

What is the structure of the global pediatric interventional cardiology market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the industry?

Key Topics Covered:



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Pediatric Interventional Cardiology Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Device Type

6.1 Closure Devices

6.1.1 Market Trends

6.1.2 Market Forecast

6.2 Transcatheter Heart Valves

6.2.1 Market Trends

6.2.2 Market Forecast

6.3 Atherectomy Devices

6.3.1 Market Trends

6.3.2 Market Forecast

6.4 Catheters

6.4.1 Market Trends

6.4.2 Market Forecast

6.5 Balloons

6.5.1 Market Trends

6.5.2 Market Forecast

6.6 Stents

6.6.1 Market Trends

6.6.2 Market Forecast

6.7 Others

6.7.1 Market Trends

6.7.2 Market Forecast



7 Market Breakup by Procedure

7.1 Catheter-Based Valve Implantation

7.1.1 Market Trends

7.1.2 Market Forecast

7.2 Congenital Heart Defect Correction

7.2.1 Market Trends

7.2.2 Market Forecast

7.3 Angioplasty

7.3.1 Market Trends

7.3.2 Market Forecast

7.4 Coronary Thrombectomy

7.4.1 Market Trends

7.4.2 Market Forecast

7.5 Others

7.5.1 Market Trends

7.5.2 Market Forecast



8 Market Breakup by End Use

8.1 Clinical Testing Laboratories

8.1.1 Market Trends

8.1.2 Market Forecast

8.2 Hospitals

8.2.1 Market Trends

8.2.2 Market Forecast

8.3 Cardiac Centers

8.3.1 Market Trends

8.3.2 Market Forecast

8.4 Pediatric Clinics

8.4.1 Market Trends

8.4.2 Market Forecast

8.5 Research Institutions

8.5.1 Market Trends

8.5.2 Market Forecast



9 Market Breakup by Region



10 SWOT Analysis



11 Value Chain Analysis



12 Porters Five Forces Analysis



13 Price Analysis



14 Competitive Landscape

14.1 Market Structure

14.2 Key Players

14.3 Profiles of Key Players

14.3.1 Biotronik SE & Co. KG

14.3.1.1 Company Overview

14.3.1.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.1.3 SWOT Analysis

14.3.2 Boston Scientific Corporation

14.3.2.1 Company Overview

14.3.2.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.2.3 Financials

14.3.2.4 SWOT Analysis

14.3.3 Cardinal Health Inc.

14.3.3.1 Company Overview

14.3.3.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.3.3 Financials

14.3.3.4 SWOT Analysis

14.3.4 Edwards Lifesciences Corporation

14.3.4.1 Company Overview

14.3.4.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.4.3 Financials

14.3.4.4 SWOT Analysis

14.3.5 General Electric Company

14.3.5.1 Company Overview

14.3.5.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.5.3 Financials

14.3.5.4 SWOT Analysis

14.3.6 Koninklijke Philips N.V.

14.3.6.1 Company Overview

14.3.6.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.6.3 Financials

14.3.6.4 SWOT Analysis

14.3.7 Lepu Medical Technology (Beijing) Co. Ltd.

14.3.7.1 Company Overview

14.3.7.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.7.3 Financials

14.3.8 Medtronic plc

14.3.8.1 Company Overview

14.3.8.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.8.3 Financials

14.3.8.4 SWOT Analysis

14.3.9 NuMED Inc.

14.3.9.1 Company Overview

14.3.9.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.10 Siemens Healthineers AG

14.3.10.1 Company Overview

14.3.10.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.10.3 Financials

14.3.10.4 SWOT Analysis

14.3.11 Terumo Corporation

14.3.11.1 Company Overview

14.3.11.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.11.3 Financials

14.3.11.4 SWOT Analysis

14.3.12 W. L. Gore & Associates Inc.

14.3.12.1 Company Overview

14.3.12.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.12.3 SWOT Analysis

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/uvmpzx

Attachment
Dublin, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Smart Government Global Market Report 2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The global smart government market is expected to grow from $24.07 billion in 2021 to $28.71 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.26%. The smart government market is expected to grow to $58.08 billion in 2026 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.27%.



North America was the largest region in the smart government market in 2021. Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the forecast period. The regions covered in the smart government market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa.



The increased investment in smart government technologies will propel the growth of the smart government market. Government institutes across the globe are increasing spending on network management, cybersecurity, and other smart government, to deliver dependable, effective, and security services to their people.

For instance, in January 2021, the US government announced $10.2 billion of investments in Federal information technology modernization to fend off potential cyberattacks and IT issues. It is a crucial step in realigning US cyber defenses to increase faith in the US government's capacity to provide reliable and secure services. Therefore, the increased investment in smart government technologies is expected to boost demand for smart government platforms and solutions during the forecast period.



Technological advancement is a new trend gaining popularity in the smart government market. Technological advancements such as the Internet of Things (IoT) are increasingly incorporated into new systems and cloud solutions to make government activities more efficient. The widespread use of IoT technology has strengthened the government-citizen interaction, providing a strong case for public benefit generation. IoT is used in smart city operations to build and provide interconnected solutions for a community's well-being.

In February 2022, Rogers Business, a Canadian-based technology, and media firm developed a suite of internet of things (IoT) smart cities and smart building solutions to fulfill the rising infrastructure demands of governments and organizations. The Rogers Business Smart Cities and Smart Buildings business will collaborate with various vendors to develop solutions from water leak detection sensors to AI-powered traffic signal capabilities.



In June 2021, Granicus, a US-based software company that develops technologies to help government agencies, acquired two gov-tech companies, Bang the Table and OpenCities, for an undisclosed amount. Through this acquisition, Granicus will change the way citizens and governments interact. Granicus' commitment to the governments of Australia and New Zealand will be reinforced by the acquisition of two enterprises, which will give public sector solutions to more than 350 governments while also growing its presence in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Bang the Table is an Australia-based company that offers an online citizen engagement platform for local government. OpenCities is an Australia-based premier digital customer journey platform for the public sector, which assists local governments in transforming their websites, digital forms, and service delivery experiences.

Scope

Markets Covered:

1) By Type: Open Data Platform; Analytics; Government Resource Planning System; Security; Remote Monitoring; Network Management

2) By Deployment: On Premise; Cloud

3) By Component: Solution; Services



Key Topics Covered:



1. Executive Summary



2. Smart Government Market Characteristics



3. Smart Government Market Trends And Strategies



4. Impact Of COVID-19 On Smart Government



5. Smart Government Market Size And Growth



6. Smart Government Market Segmentation

7. Smart Government Market Regional And Country Analysis



8. Asia-Pacific Smart Government Market



9. China Smart Government Market



10. India Smart Government Market



11. Japan Smart Government Market



12. Australia Smart Government Market



13. Indonesia Smart Government Market



14. South Korea Smart Government Market



15. Western Europe Smart Government Market



16. UK Smart Government Market



17. Germany Smart Government Market



18. France Smart Government Market



19. Eastern Europe Smart Government Market



20. Russia Smart Government Market



21. North America Smart Government Market



22. USA Smart Government Market



23. South America Smart Government Market



24. Brazil Smart Government Market



25. Middle East Smart Government Market



26. Africa Smart Government Market

27. Smart Government Market Competitive Landscape And Company Profiles



28. Key Mergers And Acquisitions In The Smart Government Market



29. Smart Government Market Future Outlook and Potential Analysis



30. Appendix



Companies Mentioned

ABB Ltd.

Amazon Web Services Inc.

Avaya Inc.

Capgemini

Cisco Systems Inc.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ey6v1z
AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, award-winning podcast and management consultancy Manager Tools LLC announced that Kate Braun and Sarah Sentes have been promoted to Managing Partners. They will take over the company from longtime hosts and co-founders Mark Horstman and Michael Auzenne.

Horstman and Auzenne founded Manager Tools in 2004 as an answer to the need for practical management training that produced effective managers and productive employees - regardless of industry or location. Since its start, the company has grown to a family of three podcasts, four separate training curriculums, and multiple proprietary products such as MTDISC - a simple, yet effective tool for breaking down communication styles in the workplace.

"It's an honor to not only be a women-hosted business podcast, but now also a women-led company," said Braun and Sentes, when asked about the significance of their promotion. "We hope to set a good example and provide continued guidance for women, and all our listeners, throughout their careers."

Longtime listeners or trainees of Manager Tools will recognize Braun's and Sentes' voices and faces. Both women have held positions as Presenting Associates since 2015, and as the main podcast hosts since 2021.

Manager Tools is consistently one of the Top Ten business podcasts on iTunes, and averages over 1.4 million listeners per month. Manager Tools was voted the People's Choice Top Business Podcast in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2012. It was also voted the People's Choice Top Overall Podcast in 2008. The Manager Tools team has consulted with clients such as Apple, General Motors, Daimler, the Department of Justice, Genentech, General Electric, Morgan Stanley, the Federal Reserve Bank, Ultimate Software and Workday.

"There was absolutely no question of who the next generation of leadership at Manager Tools would be," said Horstman earlier this week. "Kate and Sarah have been instrumental in the company's success since they started, and they will see that the podcast and trainings continue to make a difference in people's lives. They have earned and deserve this promotion time and again."

Braun earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Tulane University. She was previously a Missile Defense Engineer at Orbital Sciences before joining the Manager Tools team as a Presenting Associate. Sentes earned a degree in Psychology from the University of Alberta. She began her career at the University in IT Management, before becoming a Presenting Associate for Manager Tools.



###

Manager Tools LLC writes, produces, and distributes the Manager Tools podcast. They also write, produce & distribute the Career Tools and Executive Tools podcasts. The Manager Tools team frequently hosts public and private trainings on a variety of workplace topics. To listen to Manager Tools or see the upcoming conference schedule, please visit www.manager-tools.com.

Contact Information:

Emily Gray

PR Manager

emilyannbixby@gmail.com

208-860-8214



Related Images











Image 1: Manager Tools Managing Partners





Kate Braun and Sarah Sentes have been promoted to Managing Partners of popular business podcast, Manager Tools.









This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

Attachment
PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Current Foods (https://currentfoods.com/), an alt-protein pioneer known for taking food science below sea level, will unveil its first retail product and latest plant-based innovationsliced smoked salmonduring Expo East from September 28 - October 1, 2022, at Hall A, Booth #1242. The award-winning food science company, hailing the new school of fish, will be sampling their shockingly real salmon throughout the show.



This sliced ready-to-eat smoked salmon is a reimagined classic, made entirely from plants and crafted with only healthy all-natural, earthly ingredients like peas, algae, potato, and bamboo. Thanks to Current Foods ongoing commitment to its stringent R&D process, the brand has been able to go fin-to-fin with the taste and texture of ocean-caught salmon.

The first retail partners, including Showfields, Fairway Market and Gourmet Garage in NYC, as well as a major retail group in California, will all be launching Current Foods Sliced Smoked Salmon within the next two months.

Consumers enjoy our Current Tuna so much that we wanted to give them additional seafood options to choose from, said Jacek Prus, CEO and co-founder of Current Foods, who founded the company in 2019. Salmon was the next obvious choice as one of the most popular fish types in the world. We have worked hard to achieve the same taste and mouthfeel of the traditional fish, as we don't want consumers to make any compromise in enjoyment. At the same time, our smoked salmon is a far more sustainable way to consume seafood without dropping a single anchor into any of our heavily compromised oceans. One bite, and we are confident that retailers will have salmon-loving customers for life!

Current Foods is made for everyone from the veteran vegan to the fluid flexitarian and the committed carnivore. Consumers will be provided with healthy nutrients like omega-3 DHAs, iron, vitamin B12, fiber, and protein, without any of the mercury, antibiotics, or microplastics found in traditional seafood. Just like traditional seafood, it pairs well with sushi, poke, salads, and of course, bagels. Current Foods claims to make fish for real fish lovers, which is good for the palate and the planet.

In the U.S, the plant-based seafood pioneer has already caught the attention of world-renowned vegan chefs and restaurant partners, including Matthew Kenney Cuisine, which has recently expanded their partnership, taking Current Foods on more menus at their newly expanded locations.

Current Foods has also crossed international waters with its recent launch of tuna and salmon products in Spain, setting the standard for the waves the brand wants to make with growing worldwide demand for plant-based seafood.



IMAGES:

Current Foods

ABOUT CURRENT FOODS

Current Foods is the new school of fish. Theyre taking food science below sea level to make seafood entirely from plants. Earthly ingredients meet imaginative food science to create products that are uncompromising in taste, texture, appearance, and nutritional density. After a successful soft launch with food service partners like Matthew Kenney Cuisine in 2021, Current Foods is now rolling out nationwide in retail. Featured as one of TIME magazines 2021's Best Inventions and Fast Company as a World Changing Idea of 2022, you can now order Current Foods products online or learn more about the company on www.currentfoods.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Debbie Koke/Orca Communications

debbie.koke@orcapr.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cc8340f1-b43a-478e-ae6d-daa2096c850f
Dallas, Texas, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Market experts and latest studies have anticipated that the global engineered stone market $ 34.2 Billion and grow at an annualized rate of 5.1% by 2030

The global COVID-19 crisis has greatly increased industry demand for Engineered Stone. Building material undergo decay due to chemical, physical and biological combination. This has increased the need of innovative multifunctional building materials and engineered stone is the perfect alternative as it changes fabrication of synthetic materials. This is driving the global engineered stone market.

Owing to benefits such as high resistance, robust, resistant to growth of bacteria, and contribute to maintaining a hygienic environment, the engineered stone is experiencing rapid adoption. Also, engineered stone increases the aesthetic appeal, can be cleaned easily, resistant to stains, last for lifetime, and increase the aesthetic appeal of the place. Also the engineered stone is perfect for various applications such as flooring, backsplashes, walls, fireplaces, and other spaces. This is increasing the demand for engineered stone furthering the development of global engineered stone market.

Request a pdf brochure @ https://www.adroitmarketresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/3454

Global Engineered Stone Market Scope:

Metrics Details Study Period 2019-2030 Market Size in 2030 USD 34.2 Billion Segment Covered by Product, Application, By Region, by Product Covered Tiles, Blocks & Slabs Application Covered Countertops and Flooring Regions Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa and South America Key Players Profiled fragmented. Zhongxun, OVERLAND, UVIISTONE, Sinostone, Bitto(Dongguan), Polystone, Meyate, Gelandi, Qianyun, Blue Sea Quartz, Baoliya, and others

The increasing global competition, modernisation, innovation in logistics, rising concern of reducing environmental impact, and growing need for competitors to respond to current and emerging market trends to sustain its competitiveness and growth is driving the global engineered stone market.

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However, engineered stone discolor with time or when exposed to chemical products which make it vulnerable in the market for existence due to other potential alternatives available in the market. Also, the engineered stone make it risky for elderly people to walk. These are few factors that act as a restraint to the global engineered stone market.

Furthermore, growing construction industry, rapid expansion in the building industry, attractiveness and durability increasing the use of engineered stone the boosting demand for manufactured stone driving the global engineered stone market.

Regionally, the APAC is the largest shareholder of global engineered stone market due to rising engineering activities, growth in consumption of marble in various sectors such as residential commercial, and growing use of engineered stone in industries such as pharma, rubber, cleaning, cosmetics, animal nutrition, plastics and polymers, and coatings in the region. Also, key players in the region are pivoting their focus on mergers and acquisitions to gain significant market dominance. As for future, growth of APAC companies play an active role in the global engineered stone market. Experts anticipate that, 2022 should be a bright year for mergers and acquisitions and collaborations for the market players in the region.

Also, Europe is the highest contributor to the growth of engineered stone demand in the region and overall market revenue. The growing urgency of developing evidence-based products for sustainable development of natural stone mining industry is the key factors rising the share of Europe in engineered stone market.

The global engineered stone market is classified into Quantum Quartz, Smartstone, Essastone, Silestone, and Caesarstone which are the most popular categories of engineered stone available in the market. Among these, the Quantum Quartz stone segment witnessed highest demand in the world for use such as food service counters, floors and walls, kitchen walls, furniture, stairs, wall cladding, flooring, vanity tops, and other applications in residential and commercial sectors such as restaurants, hotels, museums, and other places. This type of stone has been greatly used for increasing the aesthetic look of the space, can be easily cleaned, and is highly resistant to stains.

Important Points from Table of Contents:



1. Introduction

2. Research Methodology

3. Market Outlook

4. Engineered Stone Market by Product type overview,2022-2029(USD Billion)

 Remodelling

 New Construction

5. Engineered Stone Market by End User overview, 2022-2029 (USD Billion)

 Kitchen Countertops

 Facades

 Flooring

 Others

6. Engineered Stone Market by region 2022-2029 (USD Billion)

o North America

US

Canada

o Europe

UK

Germany

France

Rest of Europe

o Asia Pacific

China

Japan

India

Rest of Asia Pacific

o South America

Brazil

Mexico

Rest of South America

o Middle East & Africa

7. Competitive Landscape

10. Company Profiles.

11. Appendix

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About Us:

Adroit Market Research is a global business analytics and consulting company incorporated in 2018. Our target audience is a wide range of corporations, manufacturing companies, product/technology development institutions and industry associations that require understanding of a markets size, key trends, participants and future outlook of an industry. We intend to become our clients knowledge partner and provide them with valuable market insights to help create opportunities that increase their revenues. We follow a code Explore, Learn and Transform. At our core, we are curious people who love to identify and understand industry patterns, create an insightful study around our findings and churn out money-making roadmaps.
New York, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Sulfur Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06320359/?utm_source=GNW

95 billion in 2021 to $10.38 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.3%. The sulfur mining market is expected to grow to $11.46 billion in 2026 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.5%.



The sulfur mining market consists of sales of sulfur and sulfur compounds by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships) that are used to mine sulfur and sulfur compounds that are used in manufacturing black gunpowder, matches, and fireworks.



The main types of sulfur mining are fertilizers, chemical processing, sulfur-metal manufacturing, petroleum refining, and other types- of sulfur.Fertilizers are chemical substances supplied to the crops to increase their productivity.



These are used by the farmers daily to increase the crop yield.The various applications involved are fertilizers, chemicals, rubber, pharma, and other applications.



The mining type includes underground mining, and surface mining.



Asia-Pacific was the largest region in the sulfur mining market in 2021. The regions covered in sulfur mining market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East, and Africa.



The growth in the sulfur mining market is due to increasing demand for mining and emerging markets. For instance, in 2020, according to USGS data, the U.S. Geological Survey states that U.S. mines produced approximately 86.3 billion in minerals 2019.



Satellite images are being utilized by the sulfur mining industry to monitor sulfur mining operations.Satellite imagery has proven to be an important tool in support of sulfur mining projects.



They can be used for infrastructure planning, environmental impact studies, grassroots exploration, and ground access, which is the major trend in the sulfur mining market.



The countries covered in the sulfur mining market are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, the UK, and the USA

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06320359/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



__________________________
New York, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Potash Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06320356/?utm_source=GNW

53 billion in 2021 to $25.5 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.9%. The potash mining market is expected to grow to $27.28 billion in 2026 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.7%.



The potash mining market consists of sales of potash by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships) that are used to mine potash through conventional and solution mining methods.



The main types of potash mining are potash-agriculture and potash-industrial.Potash (potassium chloride, KCl) is used primarily as an agricultural fertilizer because it is an excellent source of soluble potassium, one of the three primary plant macronutrients along with nitrogen and phosphorus.



The various applications involved are grains and cereals, pulses and oilseeds, commercial crops, fruits and vegetables, and other applications The main types of anthracite mining are standard-grade anthracite, high-grade anthracite, and ultra-high-grade anthracite.Standard grade is used as a domestic fuel and in the production of industrial power.



The mining type includes underground mining, and surface mining.



South America was the largest market in the potash mining market in 2021. The regions covered in this report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East, and Africa.



The growth in the potash mining market is due to the increasing demand for mining in North America. For instance, in 2020, according to USGS data, the U.S. Geological Survey stated that U.S. mines produced approximately 86.3billion in minerals 2019.



Potash solution mining techniques are being utilized for potash mining to improve extraction efficiency and increase profitability.Potash solution mining involves boring injection and recovery wells into the ground.



A heated brine solution is injected into the deposit to dissolve the potash salts. The dissolved salts are then extracted to the surface and potash is separated and conditioned, which is the major trend in the potash mining market.



The countries covered in the potash mining market are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, the UK, and the USA.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06320356/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



__________________________
VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Novarc Technologies Inc. announced today the company has been named one of Canadas Top Growing Companies for the third consecutive year as part of the 2022 Globe & Mails Report on Business ranking. The ranking is based on the evaluation of three-year verified revenue growth of 430 Canadian companies from 2019 - 2021; Novarc earned its spot of #132 based on the companys escalating three-year growth of 351 per cent.

Novarcs ranking on the esteemed list of Canadas Top Growing Companies for the third year in a row is a very exciting accomplishment for our team. We have continued to see increasing global demand for our welding cobot - the Spool Welding Robot (SWR) - as industries around the world recognize our invention as a game-changing welding automation technology, says Soroush Karimzadeh, CEO of Novarc Technologies.

Canada's Top Growing Companies recognizes the tremendous ambition and innovation of entrepreneurs in Canada," says Dawn Calleja, Editor of Report on Business magazine. The next generation of Canadian businesses can draw inspiration from this ranking.

Today, Novarcs SWR is being used by some of the top companies in industries required to construct the worlds infrastructure. Automation of manufacturing processes within these industries is urgently needed. Novarcs solution is also helping the welding industry solve an ominous labour problem: the severe global shortage of highly skilled welders in fabrication shops servicing these global industries. According to the American Welding Society, this looming labour crisis will escalate to a shortage of about 314,000 welders by 2024.

Novarcs SWR, the worlds first welding cobot, has provided an automation solution to the welding industry. The SWR works alongside a human operator, to increase productivity, weld quality and consistency, with the ability to recover clients capital investment within six to 18 months.

Novarcs cobots are also enhanced by vision and artificial intelligence which provides further ergonomic and safety benefits to human operators, and quality/productivity factors to fabrication facilities.

In an uncertain world, the success stories of the companies marked in this years Report on Business magazines list of Top Growing Companies are a beacon of optimism, says Phillip Crawley, Publisher and CEO of The Globe and Mail. The Globe and Mail congratulates them on their achievements.

Canadas Top Growing Companies is an editorial ranking that was launched in 2019. It aims to celebrate the boldest entrepreneurial achievement by identifying and bringing the accomplishments of innovative businesses in Canada to the forefront.

The full list of 2022 winners is published in the October issue of Report on Business magazine.

Attachments
President & CEO Michael Barrett retiring from co-operative January 31, 2023

Board appoints Suzanna Dalrymple as incoming President & CEO

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Board of Directors of Gay Lea Foods Co-operative Limited (Gay Lea Foods) announced today that President & CEO Michael Barrett has informed them of his intention to retire from the co-operative on January 31, 2023. Following an extensive global search, the Board has appointed Suzanna Dalrymple as President & Chief Executive Officer effective February 1, 2023.

Michael Barrett has been with Gay Lea Foods for 22 years, serving as President & CEO since 2014. During his time as CEO, the Canadian co-operative has grown rapidly through several strategic acquisitions, including expansion into Western Canada, constructed the only nutraceutical-grade dairy ingredients facility in Canada, and made record investments to modernize and expand existing processing capacity and capabilities in Ontario, all while remaining humble to its rural Canadian roots and co-operative values.

Gay Lea Foods has achieved remarkable growth over the last eight years thanks to the vision, leadership and team that Michael has built within and surrounding our co-operative, says Board Chair Rob Goodwill. During his time as CEO, we have transformed our co-operative into a national business while setting it on a strong path toward our next phase of sustainable growth and our shared purpose of Enriching communities co-operatively. I am excited by the opportunities ahead as we look forward to further realizing our potential as a sustainable, growing foods co-operative with Suzanna Dalrymple as our incoming CEO.

Most recently, Suzanna Dalrymple led the Canada Pet Nutrition unit for Mars as General Manager where she was known for consistently delivering strong business results while improving capabilities, competencies, and team talent. Prior to senior roles with Mars Pet Nutrition Canada, Suzanna spent almost two decades at Procter & Gamble Canada, working progressively through senior roles in brand management and sales. Throughout her career, Suzanna has had a passion for people, often sponsoring the Women's Network, and driving inclusive succession planning. Suzanna will begin her transition into Gay Lea Foods on October 31.

About Gay Lea Foods

Gay Lea Foods is a leading Canadian co-operative renowned for our community-focused values and high quality, innovative, and award-winning dairy and food products. With members on more than 1,400 dairy farms across Ontario and Manitoba, our farmers, shareholders and employees have proudly collaborated for more than 60 years to Enrich communities co-operatively, ensuring the value our business creates flows to the members of our co-operative, our employees and the communities we touch.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e255bb36-3b75-4307-acfa-e08363cc58bf

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/bd29d41d-f4dd-4f76-8904-ece13b70c2e4
WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via CryptoCurrencyWire  The Government Blockchain Association (GBA) today announced that Carole House, a former member of the White House National Security Council, and one of the architects of the Presidents Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets will deliver a keynote address at Blockchain and Infrastructure: Building Blockchain for Government, taking place September 29-30, 2022, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.



(REGISTER HERE)

The two-day conference will offer interactive, educational sessions and case studies addressing:

The Maturation of Blockchain Solutions

Funding Blockchain Projects

Factors behind Blockchain Platform Selection

Information and Data Integrity

Energy and Utility Grids

Resilient Election Systems.

With speakers from the highest levels of government and commerce, this years event provides unfettered insights from the people shaping the future of digital commerce and blockchain, said GBA Executive Director, Gerard Dache. Weve developed an agenda that offers attendees a rare opportunity to hear from and engage with the most influential advocates operating at the highest levels of both the public and private sectors.

Government representatives from Canada, El Salvador, Jordan, Liechtenstein, Philippines, Switzerland, the Republic of Slovenia, Florida, Maryland, New York City, Utah County, Washington, DC, and many others, will share their experiences.

Civil servants participating in the event from organizations including:

National Science Foundation (NSF)

National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA)

US Air Force

US Congress

US Election Assistance Commission

US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO)

US Department of Commerce



Other keynote speakers include:

Mr. Dino Cataldo DellAccio, a CIO at the United Nations . He led a team that helped develop the first blockchain solution for the UN. He also leads the UN Digital Transformation Working Group , comprised of the CIOs of all the United Nations Programs including the World Food Program and the World Health Organization.





. He led a team that helped develop the first blockchain solution for the UN. He also leads the , comprised of the CIOs of all the United Nations Programs including the World Food Program and the World Health Organization. Brian Cavanaugh, a former member of the White House National Security Council for both Presidents Trump and Biden. He also served as the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security , as Executive Director for Strategic Planning, and Integration.





for both Presidents Trump and Biden. He also served as the , as Executive Director for Strategic Planning, and Integration. Mr. Brock Pierce, former presidential candidate, investor, philanthropist. He was named by Forbes magazine as a member of the top 20 wealthiest people in crypto.



Additional Speakers:

Mr. Rak-Joon, Choi, VP Commercialization, Sustainable Ecosystems, American Tire Distributors

Victoria Adams, Public Sector Blockchain Leader, Simba Chain

Bert Gillem, Cyber Security, NASA

Torben Anderson, CEO, Rewired One

Michael, Leahy, Chief Information Officer, Maryland State Government

Jeannice Fairrer Samani, CEO, Fairrer Samani Group

Barry Johnson, Director, Translational Programs National Science Foundation

Vilma Mattila, Co-Founder, 5ire Chain

Ingrid Vasiliu-Feltes, President, US Office, World Business Angel Investment Forum

Amelia Gardner, County Commissioners, Utah County

Heather Flannery, Founder & CEO, Equideum Health (formerly ConsenSys Health)

Pradeep, Goel CEO, Solve.Care

Frank Ricotta, CEO, BurstIQ

Joshua, Daniels, Clerk/Auditor, Utah County

Nabeel Malik, CEO, Cryptolitics

Donald Palmer, Commissioner, US Election Assistance Commission

Nimit Sawhney, CEO, Voatz

John Hansen, Business Development Executive, Powerledger

Soheil Saraji, Associate Professor, University of Wyoming

Otto Frommelt, Director, National Road Office Principality of Liechtenstein

Silvio Pupo-Casco, Smart Florida Vice Chairman

Kevin McGrail, Cloud Fellow, Dito Web

Eugene Morozov, Founder, Everscale Academy

Paul Dowding, Co-Founder, L4S Corporation

David Iseminger, CEO, Upheaval

Armand Gaetan, NGUETI CEO, UBTS International Corp.

Michael Proper, Councilman, Digital World

Deborah Simpier, Co-Founder, Althea

Mike Kanovitz, CEO, Jurat Blockchains

Kevin Lowell, Cryptocurrency Coordinator, US Department of Justice

Alexander Szul, Co-Founder, Rome Blockchain Labs

George Farmer, CEO, Parler

About the Conference

The conference will be held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on September 29-30. The conference includes a gala reception at the home of a Washington, DC blockchain billionaire. For more information about the event go to https://gbaglobal.org/blockchain-infrastructure.

About the Government Blockchain Association (GBA)

The GBA is a membership organization to facilitate the connection, communication, and collaboration of the public and private sector to solve problems for citizens. GBA has members that work in Over 500 Government Offices around the world at the local, state, national, and international levels. The GBA also has over 50 Working Groups. For more information go to www.GBAglobal.org or contact Kathy.Dache@GBAglobal.org.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Mostafa Razzak

JMRConnect (for Government Blockchain Association)

1-202-904-2048/ 1-917-912-0623

m.razzak@jmrconnect.net

Wire Service Contact:

CryptoCurrencyWire

New York, NY

www.CryptoCurrencyWire.com

(212) 418-1217

Editor@CryptoCurrencyWire.com
New York, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Low Power Geolocation Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06316981/?utm_source=GNW

A., Senet Inc., Carius TECH, Ubiscale SAS, Sagemcom and Zozio.



The global low power geolocation market is expected to grow from $25.77 billion in 2021 to $32.34 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.5%. The low power geolocation market is expected to grow to $79.98 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 25.4%.



The low power geolocation market consists of sales of low power geolocation by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships) that are used for identifying, locating, and communicating locations of a networking device based on geographical coordinates and measures. Low power geolocation systems are tracking solutions that use low-power wireless technologies such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Zigbee for location tracking and for maintaining real-time location information.



The main types of low-power geolocation are hardware, software, and platform and services.Low power geolocation hardware is used in low power geolocation such as trackers, transceivers, radios, displays, batteries, and others.



The different low-power geolocation technologies include global positioning system (GPS), Wi-Fi, bluetooth, ultra-wideband, low-power wide area network (LPWAN), and other technologies. The low power geolocation areas include outdoor and indoor for different industries such as logistics and transportation, healthcare, power utilities, agriculture, and consumer electronics.



North America was the largest region in the low power geolocation market in 2021.Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the forecast period.



The regions covered in the low power geolocation market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, and Africa.



The low power geolocation market research report is one of a series of new reports that provides low power geolocation market statistics, including low power geolocation industry global market size, regional shares, competitors with a low power geolocation market share, detailed low power geolocation market segments, market trends and opportunities, and any further data you may need to thrive in the low power geolocation industry. This low power geolocation market research report delivers a complete perspective of everything you need, with an in-depth analysis of the current and future scenario of the industry.



Increased deployment of 5G network solutions across key nations is driving the growth of the low power geolocation market.The penetration of 5G networks allows more devices to be connected over the internet with high speed which offers better positioning accuracy, thus boosting the low power geolocation market.



According to UK-based consulting company, Omdia, the world added 124 million 5G connections between Q1 and Q2 of 2021, increasing 41% from 305 million to 429 million. Hence, the increasing deployment of 5G network solutions is expected to boost the market in the forecast period.



Technological advancement are shaping the low power geolocation market.Many companies are developing new innovative solutions and products to provide an enhanced experience to its client and users.



For instance, in 2019 Semtech Corporation, a US-based leading supplier of high-performance analog and mixed-signal semiconductors and advanced algorithms, announced two new LoRa EdgeTM enabling solutions.Lora BasicsTM Modem-E, a software modem for the LoRa Edge platform that runs inside the LoRa Edge transceiver, and the LoRa Edge Tracker Reference Design, a device-to-cloud commercial-grade reference solution for asset tracking applications.



The product would enable a diverse range of indoor and outdoor asset management applications, with a focus on the industrial, building, home, agriculture, transportation, and logistics markets.



In December 2021, Nestwave IP, a France-based provider of low-power geolocation for the IoT collaborated with Sequans to deliver accurate and efficient GNSS positioning for low-power IoT tracking. Sequans Communications S.A. is a global provider of 5G/4G cellular IoT connectivity solutions This partnership aims to address the challenge of integrating accurate geolocation into a compact, often battery-powered, low-cost IoT nodes and allows Sequans customers to learn from higher performing, lower cost tracking solutions. Sequans Communications is a fabless company that markets integrated circuits for 4G mobile technology, based in Paris.



The countries covered in the low power geolocation market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06316981/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



__________________________
Nairobi, Kenya, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Center on Adaptation CEO, Professor Patrick Verkooijen, was conferred with an honorary doctorate degree by the University of Nairobi at the institutions 2022 Commencement Ceremony in Nairobi, Kenya.

Professor Verkooijen was awarded a Doctor of Science, Honoris Causa, of the University of Nairobi in recognition of his long career and achievements in championing climate action globally and shaping bold action at scale in Africa.

The Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Stephen Kiama, presented the award, describing Professor Verkooijen as a champion of causesthat make the world a better place.

Today, the University of Nairobi is proud to confer the degree of Doctor of Science, Honoris Causa, to Professor Patrick Verkooijen in recognition of his distinguished academic and leadership career in climate change and adaptation Professor Kiama said. His impeccable personal character and high morals embody much of what we value and aspire to at our university as captured in our philosophy; and through this friendship, we will accelerate knowledge on climate adaptation for a more resilient Africa.

Ban Ki-moon, 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations and Chair of the Global Center on Adaptation, congratulated Professor Verkooijen on his award. With this honorary doctorate, I believe the University of Nairobi is recognizing a very special contribution to fighting the climate crisis he said. Professor Verkooijen has been a global leader in the fight against the climate breakdown for over a decade. His work at the helm of the GCA shows his tireless dedication to the cause of building sustainable, resilient future for all of us.

Previous recipients of honorary degrees from the University of Nairobi include Dr. Kofi Annan, 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations and Nobel Laureate Wangari Muta Maathai.

Verkooijen used the occasion to underline the climate emergency in Africa. He stated: Africa is climate crisis ground zero. If Africa loses out to the climate crisis, the world will lose out. Adapting Africa to the climate crisis is not just about survival. It is about Africas growth agenda. It is about jobs, development, and prosperity.

The sooner we stand together as a global community, the quicker we will all see ourselves through the great storm of the climate crisis. This University  and its students  are pioneering adaptation solutions right here in Kenya and can be an inspiration for all the world.

Recognizing his track record for transformative change, the University of Nairobi also appointed Professor Verkooijen as the Distinguished Chair of The Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies. The Institute represents excellence in experiential learning, transformational community outreach, and research for sustainable environment and culture of peace.

Professor Verkooijen is globally recognised as a climate leader who has combined academic excellence with bold policy leadership globally. He is Chair of the Ban Ki-moon Climate Adaptation Programme at the University of Groningen and Professor of Practice of Sustainable Development Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He earned a PhD from Wageningen University and an MPA from Harvard University.

Attachments
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- State Employees Credit Union (SECU) was pleased to be the presenting sponsor for a Voices: Voces Speaker Series hosted by BFB Foundation and Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC). The event was held to promote education and career fields in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) for girls and women in the Charlotte Metro area. SECUs financial support enabled BFB Foundation to award 14 local scholarships to deserving STEM students for Fall 2022.

The event, held at CPCCs new Theater in the Parr Center, sold out well in advance, receiving an overwhelming response from STEM educators, student families, and the public to hear keynote speaker Shayla Rivera, a former rocket scientist with NASA and lifelong champion of science and education. Rivera shared her personal journey and the educational opportunities and exciting career possibilities in STEM-related fields.

Leigh Brady, SECUs chief operating officer, provided opening remarks before introducing Rivera to the crowd. We are so pleased to sponsor this important event, knowing it will serve a great purpose in helping fund scholarships to support BFB Foundations mission of strengthening communities through education-focused initiatives for girls. The Credit Union has a strong community presence throughout North Carolina, along with a diverse workforce composed primarily of women. As such, we have a strong commitment to programs like this.

Before closing, Brady added, To all the students in the audience today, please seize every opportunity to listen, to learn, and to be inspired throughout your journey. All that you gain will be building blocks to strengthen your foundation for an incredibly bright future.

It is a special honor that SECU is the presenting sponsor for BFB Foundations Voices: Voces Speaker Series. Since 1937, SECU has served the state and educational employees of North Carolina with financial services and products and has continuously provided financial education in North Carolina schools and communities, said Christine Burns-Fazzi, founder and board chair of BFB Foundation. They truly believe that we make our communities and lives better through education.

About SECU and SECU Foundation

A not-for-profit financial cooperative owned by its members, SECU has been providing employees of the state of North Carolina and their families with consumer financial services for 85 years. SECU is the second largest credit union in the United States with $53 billion in assets and serves over 2.6 million members through 273 branch offices, over 1,100 ATMs, 24/7 Member Services via phone, www.ncsecu.org and a Mobile App. The SECU Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization funded by the contributions of SECU members, promotes local community development in North Carolina primarily through high impact projects in the areas of housing, education, healthcare, and human services. Since 2004, SECU Foundation has made a collective financial commitment of over $235 million for initiatives to benefit North Carolinians statewide.

Contact: Sandra Jones, SVP  Communications

Office: 919-508-8773 | sandra.jones@ncsecu.org

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b27f1fe5-9bef-4161-8f5d-dc54430e4554
Dallas, Texas, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Parker University completed its new South Building in 2021. As an ample student space, the Jack Donovan Lounge is located on the first floor and features seating, tables, television screens, and a beautiful piano! When naming the space, Parker University wanted to recognize one of its former Board of Trustees, 91-year-old Dr. John G. Jack Donovan. He helped make many chiropractic careers a success because of his positive example, professional accomplishments, and work with Parker University.

In 2020, Dr. Donovan retired from his chiropractic practice after nearly 70 years. His passion for chiropractic started early in life when his father had chiropractic treatment after an injury. Because of his real-life healing and belief in chiropractic, Dr. Donovans father attended chiropractic school. After that, he maintained a practice for 50 years, starting the legacy of 23 chiropractors in the family.

Dr. Donovan graduated in 1950 from Palmer Chiropractic College after completing his undergraduate studies at the University of South Dakota. He was called to active duty during the Korean War in 1951, then started his private practice in 1953 in Carroll, Iowa. Dr. Donovan collaborated with Dr. James Parker, the founder of Parker College of Chiropractic (now Parker University). The men had kept in touch since Dr. Donovan attended one of Dr. Parkers seminars in 1954. Eventually, Dr. Donovan was invited to be one of the 12 founding partners of Parker College of Chiropractic.

With the completion of the Jack Donovan Lounge, Parker University can formally thank Dr. Donovan for his commitment to the chiropractic industry and congratulate him on many years of professional success!

If you havent checked out the Donovan Lounge yet, you can at Parker Seminars 2022 Dallas and Homecoming events! From September 30-October 2, attendees will learn from and network with well-known industry leaders. Invictus, a cant-miss event, offers a unique experience of inspiration, learning, and networking for the chiropractic profession. To register or learn more about Invictus seminar speakers and the schedule of events, visit dallas.parkerseminars.com.

About Parker University

Parker University, the fourth-fastest growing college in Texas and the fastest-growing college in Dallas, was founded in 1982 by Dr. James William Parker (formerly Parker College of Chiropractic). Today, Parker University has more than 1,800 students and more than 35 academic programs, including its famed chiropractic program, as well as masters degrees in neuroscience, clinical neuroscience, strength and human performance, and functional nutrition. Currently, Parker Universitys chiropractic cohort is the second largest of any campus in the world. Parker University has been recognized as a Great College to Work For, one of the 25 Fastest-Growing Colleges in the U.S., and as a recipient of the 2021 FutureEdge 50 Awards.

Attachment
New York, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Flexible Electronics Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06316974/?utm_source=GNW

, AU Optronics Corp., Enfucell Softbattery, Palo Alto research center incorporated, Oledworks LLC, Royole Corporation, Flexenable ltd, Flex ltd, and Flexpoint Sensor Systems Inc.



The global flexible electronics market is expected to grow from $24.07 billion in 2021 to $26.92 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.8%. The flexible electronics market is expected to grow to $45.88 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 14.3%.



The flexible electronics market consists of sales of flexible electronics by entities (organizations, sole traders, partnerships) that refer to the flex circuits, also known as a technology for assembling electronic circuits by mounting electronic devices on flexible plastic substrates, such as polyimide, polyether ether ketone (PEEK) or transparent conductive polyester film, flex circuits can be screen printed silver circuits on polyester.



The main types of flexible electronics are flexible display, flexible battery, flexible sensors, flexible memory, and flexible photovoltaics. Flexible display screens are flexible displays that are made of Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) displays The different circuit structures include single-sided, double-sided and others and are applicable in displays, thin-film photovoltaics, printed sensors, batteries, Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) lighting, other applications and are used in consumer electronics, energy, and power, healthcare, automotive, military and defense, aerospace, other verticals.



Asia Pacific was the largest region in the flexible electronics market in 2021.Europe is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the forecast period.



The regions covered in the flexible electronics market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, and Africa.



The flexible electronics market research report is one of a series of new reports that provides flexible electronics market statistics, including flexible electronics industry global market size, regional shares, competitors with a flexible electronics market share, detailed flexible electronics market segments, market trends and opportunities, and any further data you may need to thrive in the flexible electronics industry. This flexible electronics market research report delivers a complete perspective of everything you need, with an in-depth analysis of the current and future scenario of the industry.



Rising demand for consumer electronic devices is driving the growth of the flexible electronics market.Consumer electronics (CE) refers to any electronic equipment intended for end-users or consumers to purchase and use regularly for non-commercial or professional purposes.



Consumer electronics use flexible electronics in most electronic devices, as a result, rising demand for consumer electronics increases the demand for the flexible electronics market. For instance, in 2021, according to the Retailers Association of India (RAI), an Indian retail trade association consumer electronics and appliance sales climbed by 23.5 percent in the third quarter of 2021 than it was in the same period in 2020. Therefore, the rising demand for consumer electronics drives the flexible electronics market.



Technology innovation are shaping the mobile gaming market.Innovations in technology and the increasing trend of mobile gaming technology are also encouraging market demand.



For instance, in 2022, NextFlex, Americas Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE) Manufacturing Institute, released Project Call 7.0 (PC 7.0), the most recent request for proposals, which seeks to fund projects that promote the development and deployment of FHE while solving significant issues in advanced manufacturing and supporting DOD priorities. PC 7.0 builds on the success and maturity of previous Project Calls by continuing to use broadly defined topics to enable a diverse proposer base, with a particular focus on areas where FHE can impact high-priority U.S. manufacturing opportunities and emerging areas of importance within the FHE community. Further innovations are For instance, in 2021, Royole Corporation, a pioneer and the world leader in flexible electronics announced Royole RoKit, the global first open platform flexible electronics development kit. RoKit is a developer-friendly, all-in-one flexible electronics development kit that integrates Royoles flexible display and sensor technologies with programmable hardware for product designers and application developers to discover and utilize the power of flexible technologies.



In June 2019, E Ink Holdings is a Taiwan-based company providing electronic paper and TFT LCD manufacturers, collaborated with Plastic Logic HK.The collaboration is expected to offer OTFT technology and also offers a lightweight and robust backplane solution for wearable devices.



Plastic Logic HK, a German-based company is a designer and manufacturer of flexible, glass-free electrophoretic displays (EPDs).



The countries covered in the flexible electronics market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06316974/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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New York, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Hyaluronic Acid-based Dermal Fillers Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06316476/?utm_source=GNW

Ltd., Sculpt Luxury Dermal Fillers Ltd, Bioxis Pharmaceutical, Sinclair Pharma, Laboratories Vivacy, Medicis Aesthetics Holdings, Inc., and Inamed Corp.



The global hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers market is expected to grow from $3.58 billion in 2021 to $3.91 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.5%. The hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers market is expected to grow to $5.66 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 9.7%.



The hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers market consists of sales of the hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships), which refers to a form of dermal filler that is only used for a short period.Hyaluronic acid attracts water to the skin, making it more moisturized.



It is used to treat shallow and fine wrinkles with Belotero and Restyling Silk which prevents skin from aging.



The main types of hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers are single-phase products, and duplex products.Single-phase products are widely employed for a variety of skin-related applications to address abnormalities in the soft face tissues since the uncross-linked HA increases elastin and collagen production, making the skin appear more youthful and healthier.



They are used in specialty and dermatology clinics, hospitals and clinics for various applications such as wrinkle removal, lip augmentation, rhinoplasty, and other applications.



North America was the largest region in the hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers market in 2021.Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the forecast period.



The regions covered in hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa.



The hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers market research report is one of a series of new reports that provides hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers market statistics, including hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers industry global market size, regional shares, competitors with a hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers market share, detailed hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers market segments, market trends and opportunities, and any further data you may need to thrive in the hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers industry. This hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers market research report delivers a complete perspective of everything you need, with an in-depth analysis of the current and future scenario of the industry.



Increasing demand for non-invasive dermatology techniques is driving the growth of hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers.Deep palpation, x-rays, and blood pressure checks are examples of non-invasive tests that require breaking the skin or entering the body.



Most of the treatments are non-invasive and are done by using acid-based dermal fillers as they have minimal risks involved and give long-lasting results.For instance, in February 2022, The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), a society for American plastic surgeons, said that every year more than 17 million adults opt for cosmetic surgeries that consist of minimally invasive options such as body contouring, lasers, and injections.



This demand is expected to drive the hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers market.



Technological advancements are shaping the hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers market.Major companies operating in the hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers sector are focused on developing new technological solutions to strengthen their position in the hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers.



For instance, in 2021, a new treatment called laser resurfacing treatments was introduced in the market which is more efficient and less invasive, addressing multiple skin concerns.It uses lasers to solve all the skin problems at once making them more appealing.



Moreover, the treatment can also be used to cope with the COVID-19 stress.



In October 2020 Allergan Aesthetics, an U.S-based manufacturer of drugs and medical devices in the areas of medical aesthetics, eye care, central nervous system acquired Luminera Dermal Filler for an undisclosed amount. Through this acquisition, Allergan Aesthetics will acquire Lumineras entire dermal filler portfolio as well as its RandD pipeline, complementing Allergan Aesthetics leading dermal filler portfolio with its JUVEDERM filler collection. Luminera is a manufacturer and an R and D company for injectable medical devices in the aesthetic medicine field.



The countries covered in the hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06316476/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Aviv Clinics highlights a new study published in Scientific Reports showing an effective treatment to heal damaged brain tissue and relieve symptoms in children experiencing persistent post-concussion syndrome (PPCS).



The study, conducted by the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at Shamir Medical Center, is the first trial looking at the effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) for children suffering from PPCS and is one of the few sham-controlled studies in PPCS that effectively studies a solution for the condition. The study suggests that HBOT improves cognitive, behavioral function and quality of life in pediatric patients suffering from PPCS at the chronic stage, even years after their traumatic injury.

According to the Brain Injury Association of America, about half a million children suffering from a concussion or traumatic brain injury are discharged from emergency departments in the U.S. each year. While the majority recover in days to weeks following injury, up to 25% endure symptoms for more than three months after their injury and are considered as PPCS. Children suffering from PPCS experience many symptoms, including fatigue, anxiety, irritability, headaches, dizziness, and difficulty concentrating or processing words. The diagnosis and treatment of these injuries are greatly misunderstood and understudied, and current guidelines for the treatment of concussion only span the first two weeks of symptoms. Leaving the condition untreated puts the child at a significant disadvantage and directly impacts their development into adulthood.

The diagnosis and treatment of post-concussion syndrome in children is a critical issue that physicians and researchers have struggled with, to the detriment of the children, said Dr. Shai Efrati, medical director of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research and Shamir Medical Center and Chair of Aviv Scientifics Medical Advisory Board. For the first time, we have demonstrated an effective treatment for pediatric PPCS, whether the injury occurred six months to 10 years ago. This discovery offers hope to the thousands of families watching their children suffer from unrelenting symptoms.

The randomized, sham-control, double-blind trial evaluated the effect of HBOT on children (ages 8-15) suffering from PPCS from mild-moderate TBI events six months to 10 years prior. Participants were injured from various incidents, most resulting from a fall or motor vehicle accident. Twenty-five children were randomized to receive 60 daily sessions of HBOT or sham treatments. Recruitment was the main challenge of this trial  and studying pediatric concussions in general. Parents of injured children were reluctant for their child to receive a sham treatment (50% chance on randomization), thus leading to many families declining to participate. Due to the importance of the topic and the need for answers for children with PPCS, researchers decided to proceed with the small study group.

Participants were divided into two groups: 15 received HBOT sessions and ten received sham sessions. Participants in the sham group received a protocol unique to this study in which they breathed normal air at 1.1 atmospheres absolute (ATA) for the first five minutes, gradually decreasing to 1 atmosphere. While the participants were not receiving any active treatment, the pressure at the beginning of the sham sessions created the need to equalize pressure, or pop their ears (which also occurs during HBOT treatment), achieving a true placebo effect in the participants.

The HBOT treatment protocol consisted of 60 daily HBOT sessions, five sessions per week over a three-month period, in which participants entered a multiplace HBOT chamber and breathed 100% oxygen by mask at 1.5 ATA for 60 minutes.

We have accomplished many incredible firsts in this study, including a unique sham protocol which is the first of its kind in hyperbaric medicine. The protocol enables true masking and blinding of patients without any active treatment, said Dr. Amir Hadanny, Chief Researcher and Head of Global Clinical Operations at Aviv Clinics. We performed an additional analysis to provide evidence that children were not able to tell whether they received hyperbaric oxygen or plain air. This true placebo effect paved the way for an effective study to better understand and offer a solution for PPCS in pediatrics.

Upon completion of the study, researchers found that participants in the treatment group experienced a significant increase in cognitive function, including the general cognitive score, memory, and executive function, following the HBOT treatment. Specific PPCS symptoms that saw improvement include emotional score, behavioral symptoms like hyperactivity, global executive composite score, and planning and organizing score. Perhaps most significantly, there was a positive change in brain structure in their MRIs as a result of the HBOT, with microstructural changes occurring in the cortical regions associated with PPCS symptoms and cognitive dysfunction, leading to the significant changes measured in memory, verbal fluency, and executive function. Participants in the control group did not improve from baseline scores.

The same treatment protocol conducted during this study has been replicated by Aviv Clinics in Central Florida and Dubai. It is administered under the same strict protocols, with additional comprehensive cognitive and physical training support for the various conditions and symptoms addressed by Aviv including concussion and TBI, long COVID, stroke and more.

The complete study is available here. For more on Aviv Clinics, visit aviv-clinics.com .



Aviv Clinics

Aviv Clinics is the leader in treating age-related cognitive and functional decline and novel applications of new protocols of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) to maximize human performance. Based on an exclusive partnership with the worlds largest hyperbaric medicine and research facility, the Sagol Center at Shamir Medical Center in Israel, Aviv, is introducing a global network of clinics delivering the effective, evidence-based Aviv Medical Program. The two- to three-month regimen designed to improve cognitive and physical decline is based on over a decade of research. More than 10,000 patients have been treated worldwide under the scientific leadership of Shai Efrati, M.D., Chair of Aviv Scientifics Medical Advisory Board and Director of the Sagol Center.

Media Contact:

Erin Robertson-Davila

erobertson@uproarpr.com

904-716-4439


JOLIET, Ill., Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GP Transco, a trucking and logistics company based out of Joliet IL was recently honored with the ALAN Humanitarian Logistics Award by the American Logistics Aid Network, along side Fleet Advantage, SEKO Logistics, and Vector Global Logistics, who also received the award. "Today we're honored to recognize a few of the people and businesses that have been a beacon of hope during disasters like the recent flooding in Kentucky, COVID-19 and the conflict in Ukraine," said ALAN Executive Director Kathy Fulton. "Their combined efforts have raised millions of dollars for disaster survivors  and inspired comparable donations of warehousing space, transportation services and building supplies."

Trucking and Logistics Professionals (TLPU) was created at the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in attempts to raise awareness and funds for Ukraine among trucking companies and other organizations in the logistics industry. Operated by GP Transco, as of today, TLPU was able to raise over $2.5 million for the cause, and aims to continue raising funds and awareness. "I have been blown away by the generosity and the willingness to help," said Sergey Bort, GP Transco's VP of Marketing & Strategic Business Development and founder of TLPU. "I'd like to say thank you to each of the companies who contributed to this important cause and I hope to see more businesses joining forces with us in the near future." Funds raised by TLPU go directly to the Red Cross, Unicef, and Save The Children.

About the Company:

GP Transco provides safe and reliable dry van freight transportation and logistics services to a diverse group of clients across the United States. As a Chicago Tribune Top Workplace and an EPA SmartWay Carrier Partner with over 500 trucks and over 700 trailers, the company utilizes advanced technologies and modern workflows in order to provide clients with industry-leading freight transportation solutions.

To learn more about GP Transco, visit www.gptransco.com.

To learn more about Trucking & Logistics Professionals for Ukraine (TLPU), visit www.tlpu.net.

Contact Information:

James Paul

Marketing Manager

jimmy@gptransco.com

708-298-5424



Related Images











Image 1: GP Transco ALAN Humanitarian Logistics Award





GP Transco is awarded the ALAN Humanitarian Logistics Award by ALAN, the American Logistics Aid Network for Trucking & Logistics Professionals for Ukraine (TLPU)









This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

Attachment
English French

Mutual Fund and Exchange-Traded Fund Assets and Sales

TORONTO, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) today announced investment fund net sales and net assets for August 2022.

Mutual fund assets totalled $1.827 trillion at the end of August 2022. Assets decreased by $37.6 billion or 2.0% compared to July 2022. Mutual funds recorded net redemptions of $3.1 billion in August 2022.

ETF assets totalled $298.7 billion at the end of August 2022. Assets decreased by $5.0 billion or 1.6% compared to July 2022. ETFs recorded net sales of $1.5 billion in August 2022.

Mutual Fund Net Sales/Net Redemptions ($ Millions) *

Asset Class Aug. 2022 Jul. 2022 Aug. 2021 YTD 2022 YTD 2021 Long-term Funds Balanced (2,429 ) (3,278 ) 4,390 (9,298 ) 49,071 Equity (338 ) (1,377 ) 2,532 1,800 30,374 Bond (379 ) (308 ) 1,680 (6,834 ) 13,136 Specialty 89 (80 ) 337 1,214 4,323 Total Long-term Funds (3,056 ) (5,043 ) 8,939 (13,118 ) 96,904 Total Money Market Funds (52 ) 500 63 2,814 (6,483 ) Total (3,108 ) (4,543 ) 9,002 (10,305 ) 90,420

Mutual Fund Net Assets ($ Billions) *

Asset Class Aug. 2022 Jul. 2022 Aug. 2021 Dec. 2021 Long-term Funds Balanced 896.5 917.0 998.9 1,024.9 Equity 648.2 661.4 725.2 747.7 Bond 230.6 234.5 261.5 261.5 Specialty 22.0 22.0 20.0 22.2 Total Long-term Funds 1,797.3 1,835.0 2,005.7 2,056.3 Total Money Market Funds 29.7 29.7 27.3 26.4 Total 1,827.1 1,864.7 2,033.0 2,082.7

* Please see below for important information regarding this data.

ETF Net Sales/Net Redemptions ($ Millions) *

Asset Class Aug. 2022 Jul. 2022 Aug. 2021 YTD 2022 YTD 2021 Long-term Funds Balanced 17 202 273 1,384 2,893 Equity 1,190 (730 ) 3,379 10,003 23,914 Bond (347 ) 719 1,137 3,147 8,804 Specialty 21 375 300 1,160 6,373 Total Long-term Funds 881 566 5,088 15,695 41,983 Total Money Market Funds 594 938 (62 ) 3,324 (1,278 ) Total 1,475 1,505 5,026 19,019 40,705

ETF Net Assets ($ Billions) *

Asset Class Aug. 2022 Jul. 2022 Aug. 2021 Dec. 2021 Long-term Funds Balanced 11.8 12.1 11.0 12.1 Equity 191.2 194.1 209.0 225.2 Bond 75.8 77.7 87.0 89.6 Specialty 10.3 10.7 11.8 13.6 Total Long-term Funds 289.1 294.7 318.8 340.5 Total Money Market Funds 9.6 9.1 6.0 6.6 Total 298.7 303.7 324.8 347.1

* Please see below for important information regarding this data.

IFIC direct survey data (which accounts for approximately 85% of total mutual fund industry assets and approximately 83% of total ETF industry assets) is complemented by estimated data to provide comprehensive industry totals.

IFIC makes every effort to verify the accuracy, currency and completeness of the information; however, IFIC does not guarantee, warrant, represent or undertake that the information provided is correct, accurate or current.

* Important Information Regarding Investment Fund Data:

Mutual fund data is adjusted to remove double counting arising from mutual funds that invest in other mutual funds. Starting with January 2022 data, ETF data is adjusted to remove double counting arising from Canadian-listed ETFs that invest in units of other Canadian-listed ETFs. Any references to IFIC ETF assets and sales figures prior to 2022 data should indicate that the data has not been adjusted for ETF of ETF double counting. The Balanced Funds category includes funds that invest directly in a mix of stocks and bonds or obtain exposure through investing in other funds. Mutual fund data reflects the investment activity of Canadian retail investors. ETF data reflects the investment activity of Canadian retail and institutional investors.



About IFIC

The Investment Funds Institute of Canada is the voice of Canadas investment funds industry. IFIC brings together approximately 150 organizations, including fund managers, dealers, professional and back-office service providers, to strengthen the integrity of the investment funds industry, foster public confidence in investment funds, and enable investors to achieve good outcomes. By connecting savers to Canadas economy, our industry contributes significantly to Canadian economic growth and job creation. To learn more about IFIC, please visit www.ific.ca.

For more information please contact:



Pira Kumarasamy

Senior Manager, Communications and Public Affairs

pkumarasamy@ific.ca

416-309-2317
Tokyo, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global manufacturing execution systems market was accounted at USD 14.7 billion in 2021. The fundamental variables, for instance, the increasing use of robotization in process organizations joined with low costs are assisting the improvement of the manufacturing execution systems market.



Moreover, the manufacturing execution systems market size experienced predictable improvement as a result of the ubiquity from the water and wastewater treatment, food, power organizations. Similarly, the need to follow persistent data, further develop data detectable quality, and control off-site improvement movement basically influences the advancement of the MES market size.

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Additionally, the entry of the IoT advancement across gathering organizations to publicize computerization is filling possible entryways for the general manufacturing execution systems market. Furthermore, IoT enables correspondence and joint effort between present day contraptions to supply organizations with better versatility and optimal execution.

Regional Snapshot

North America's strong financial position engages it to put energetically in state-of-the-art game plans and advancements that have given an advantage keeping watch. In like manner, the region is seeing a couple of associations by market players, which is helping them with joining their responses and commitments to construct their market presence.

Increase in the number of SMEs and the rising digitization in the gathering abilities by tremendous affiliations, as IBM and General Electric, are supporting the advancement of the IoT market in the regional collecting segment.

Report Highlights

Hybrid deployment should have most essential CAGR of the gathering execution structures market during the figure time period."

The utilization of creamer association of collecting execution systems has extended in the oil and gas region on account of the creating meaning of following persistent information about the exercises in oil and gas fields.

The interest for gathering execution systems is astoundingly high in Asia Pacific in light of countries like China, Japan, South Korea and India. It is the fastest creating business area for gathering execution structures.

The services section is assessed to witness the most elevated CAGR during the gauge time frame. The variables that can be credited to further developing effectiveness as well as the creation interaction by diminishing wastage and creation time.

The health and life sciences industry holds the biggest piece of the pie during the gauge time frame. Life sciences organizations give arrangements that assistance in normalizing fabricating processes across various destinations situated in various areas worldwide.





Recent Developments

In May 2021, Siemens shipped off another Opcenter Execution Discrete 4.1, which gives solid MES capacities, complete compromise of authoritative and quality necessities, synchronized creation processes for ideal store network the leaders, and upheld diminishes in upkeep and action costs.

In November 2021, Rockwell Automation shipped off new remote access game plan which contains good security capacities incorporating multi-layered confirmation alongside encoded shows. The remote access game plan can arrange OEMs to fulfill current and future remote assistance essentials.

In April 2021, SAP completed DMC in cooperation with the TU Vienna Pilot Factory in its creation and consecutive development frameworks, which have proactively been digitalized by SAP association using SAP S4 and SAP ME.

In November 2020, Rockwell revived a lot of new handiness for Factory Talk Innovation Suite, enabled by PTC, to effortlessness, scale, and lift digitalization for current affiliations.

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Scope of the Report

Report Attributes Details Market Size in 2021 USD 14.7 Billion Revenue Forecast by 2030 USD 53.9 Billion Asia Pacific Market Share 45% In 2021 Europe Market Share 21% in 2021 CAGR 15.53% from 2022 to 2030 Base Year 2021 Forecast Year 2022 to 2030 Key Players ABB LTD, Tebis Technische Informations Syteme AG, Dassault Systems, Rockwell Automation Inc., Werum IT Solutions Gmbh, Emerson Electric CO., Honeywell International Inc., Siemens AG, Andea Solutions, Oracle Group, Siemens AG, General Electric Company, Samsung Group of Companies and Others.

Market Dynamics

Drivers

The prerequisite for a related creation network in gathering organizations is a crucial driver for the MES market. Compelling information stream across the handling plant is a critical component for engaging capable creation works out. IoT structures can be involved by producers for region following, actually taking a look at stock, and reporting of made things going through the stock organization process. Related delivering game plans moreover aid the basic movement of information all through the entire reserve with securing, which simplifies it for associations to answer the changing financial circumstances.

Restraints

Requirement of huge capital speculations and upgradation and upkeep costs

The venture cost of MES incorporates meeting, procurement, change, execution, and running expenses, which consequently increment the uses of an organization. As the sending of MES shifts industry-wise, the capital speculations for MES are additionally high as they incorporate a few administrations attached with this framework. The costs connected with MES basically incorporate organization and running expenses, which consequently increment the uses of an organization. The intricacy of the product and extra costs, for example, custom mix can make MES very costly. Consequently, these organizations should complete a top to bottom investigation of their profit from ventures prior to executing MES. Additionally, it isn't possible for a few little organizations to overhaul or supplant their current MES inferable from the significant expenses of cutting-edge MES. In this manner, the expense is a key element that could hinder the development of the MES market.

Opportunities

Growing degree of collecting execution systems in raising energy efficiency and practical creation

Manufacturing execution systems are being done by various gigantic associations and SMEs as they help with further developing collecting processes. The limit of these systems to increase creation, decline cost, work on quality, and engage thing following and data collection persistently helps increase creation adequacy. This variable should engage the gathering of these structures to augment benefits. The execution of gathering execution structures in like manner prompts diminishes in energy use and waste during the collecting framework.

Challenge: Complexities in sending of MES in various endeavors

The sending of MES is amazing considering the way that each such system is different according to the solitary business necessities. Moreover, the cycle related with gathering and creation practices furthermore fluctuate starting with one industry then onto the next. Different stages like Implementation, arranging, and moving to the creation floor are related with the collecting framework. Execution at these different stages gets obfuscated on account of the complexity of the hardware underpinning of creation or shop floor. Hence, it is extreme for the collecting execution structure to acclimate to different situation at different stages and perform capably, as it needs various adjustments during foundations. The execution pattern of a gathering execution structure requires approximately four years.

The central year bases on making gathering and business processes sensible for the structure. The second-year unequivocally revolves around the hypothesis for courses of action like DCS, PLM, or ERP that would assist with controlling and noticing the raw parts in the creation district. In the third year, the association is ready for execution to stay aware of electronic records as opposed to paper bundle. The last year revolves around the fuse of gathering execution systems with courses of action like ERP. The complexity of the cycles drew in with the execution of gathering execution structures with every game plan of a creation floor and the drawn-out course of execution are the critical hardships for the MES market.

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Market Segmentation

By Offering

Software

Services

By Deployment Type

On-Premise

On-Demand

Hybrid





By Process Industry

Food & Beverages

Oil & Gas

Chemicals

Pulp & Paper

Pharmaceuticals & Life Sciences

Energy & Power

Water & Wastewater Management

Others

By Discrete Industry

Automotive

Aerospace

Medical devices

Consumer packaged goods

Others





By Geography

North America

Europe

Asia-Pacific

Latin America

Middle East & Africa (MEA)





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Precedence Research is a worldwide market research and consulting organization. We give unmatched nature of offering to our customers present all around the globe across industry verticals. Precedence Research has expertise in giving deep-dive market insight along with market intelligence to our customers spread crosswise over various undertakings. We are obliged to serve our different client base present over the enterprises of medicinal services, healthcare, innovation, next-gen technologies, semi-conductors, chemicals, automotive, and aerospace & defense, among different ventures present globally.

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LOS ANGELES, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Irwin Naturals Inc. (CSE: IWIN) (OTC: IWINF) (FRA: 97X) (Irwin or the Company) announced today its intention to commence a normal course issuer bid (NCIB), under which the Company may purchase up to 75,466 of the Companys Subordinate Voting Shares (SVS or Shares) over a 12-month period, representing approximately 5% of its issued and outstanding SVS as of September 26, 2022.



The Company is pursuing an NCIB because it believes that, from time to time, the market price of its Shares may not fully reflect the underlying value of the Companys business and future prospects. Irwin believes that, at such times, the repurchase of its Shares for cancellation represents an appropriate use of the Companys financial resources and will enhance shareholder value. CEO, Klee Irwin, commented, We are emerging to be the dominant player in the disruptive psychedelic mental health care sector. Our roll-up of ketamine clinics is picking up momentum. Management and the board believe that, as the market recovers and as the company continues to demonstrate profit growth that shareholder value will be very positively impacted. As a result, we are taking advantage of the depressed stock market to buy back some of our stock.

NCIB

Canaccord Genuity Corp. has been appointed by the Company to coordinate and facilitate its NCIB purchases. Purchases are expected to commence on September 26, 2022 and will conclude on September 26, 2023, or an earlier date in the event purchases under the NCIB have been completed or if the Company feels it is appropriate. All Shares purchased by the Company under the NCIB will be purchased on the open market through the facilities of the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) and/or alternative trading systems at the market price of the Shares at the time of acquisition. Shares will be purchased at the discretion of senior management of the Company. The average daily trading volume of the Shares on the CSE for the last six months is 1644. Shares acquired by the Company under the NCIB will be cancelled. During the last twelve months, the Company has not purchased any Shares under a normal course issuer bid through the facilities of the CSE.

About Irwin Naturals

Irwin Naturals has been a household name and best-in-class herbal supplement formulator since 1994. It is now leveraging its brand to enter into both the cannabis and psychedelic industries. On a mission to heal the world with plant medicine, Irwin has operated profitably for over 27 years. Irwins growing portfolio of products is available in more than 100,000 retail doors across North America, where nearly 100 million people know the Irwin Naturals brand. In 2018, the Company first leveraged its brand to expand into the cannabis industry by launching hemp-based CBD products into the mass market. The Company is now leveraging its famous halo of brand trust with an objective to become one of the first household name brands to offer THC-based products and psychedelic mental health treatment. Irwin Naturals became a publicly traded company on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) in August 2021. The Companys shares began to be traded on the OTCQB Venture Market in November 2021. More information on the Companys stock can be found via Bloomberg as well as the Wall Street Journal.

For investor-related information about the Company, please visit ir.irwinnaturals.com/

To contact the Companys Investor Relations department, please call toll-free at (800) 883-4851 or send an email to Investors@IrwinNaturals.com.

Klee Irwin

Klee Irwin

Chief Executive Officer

T: 310-306-3636

investors@irwinnaturals.com

IR Information

Press Contact

Irwin Naturals Investor Relations

Cassandra Bassanetti-Drumm

T: 310-306-3636

investors@irwinnaturals.com

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements that reflect the current views and/or expectations of management of the Company with respect to performance, business and future events. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "may", "will", "would", "could", "should", "believes", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "expects", "plans", "intends", "anticipates", "targeted", "continues", "forecasts", "designed", "goal", objective, or the negative of those words or other similar or comparable words. Forward-looking statements are based on the then-current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about the business and the industry and markets in which the Company operates. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements related to information concerning the Companys intention to purchase Shares under the NCIB, the Companys belief that the Shares may from time to time be under valued and the purchase of Shares under the NCIB will provide a benefit to shareholders, the ability of the Company to perform the terms of the transaction referenced herein; the receipt of all necessary approvals, including any required regulatory approvals; and expectations for other economic, market, business and competitive factors. These statements are based on numerous assumptions that are believed by management to be reasonable in the circumstances. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from that which are expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions which are difficult to predict. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information, which are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The Company does not undertake any obligation to release publicly any revisions for updating any voluntary forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable securities law.

Neither the CSE nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Irwin Naturals Inc.

 Under several corporate structures, Klee Irwin has operated the Irwin brand profitably since 1994, as measured by EBITDA adjusted for extraordinary costs.

 Consumer brand recognition information is based on a formal Company survey with a sample size of 500

randomly selected adults.
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hagens Berman urges FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) investors who suffered significant losses to submit your losses now.



Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/FDX

Contact An Attorney Now: FDX@hbsslaw.com

844-916-0895

FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) Investigation:

As recently as late June 2022, FedEx gave investors FY 2023 guidance and said, with respect to its largest operating segment (FedEx Express), both FedEx Express air network efficiency and year-over-year volume comparisons across all of its transportation segments would strengthen through the fiscal year.

FedExs representations came under question on Sept. 15, 2022, when it announced disastrous preliminary results for Q1 2023. The company also said its business conditions would weaken in Q2 2023 and then it withdrew its 2-month-old FY 2023 guidance. This news sent the price of FedEx shares crashing 21% lower on Sept. 16, 2022, wiping out over $11 billion of shareholder value. In response, one analyst wrote, Much of the shortfall was attributed to global volume weakness in the final weeks of the quarter, but we have a hard time believing that's the full picture

Were focused on investors losses and finding the true cause of FedExs reversal from its June 2022 guidance, said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation.

If you invested in FedEx and have significant losses, or have knowledge that may assist the firms investigation, click here to discuss your legal rights with Hagens Berman.

Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding FedEx should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email FDX@hbsslaw.com.

About Hagens Berman

Hagens Berman is a global plaintiffs rights complex litigation law firm focusing on corporate accountability through class-action law. The firm is home to a robust securities litigation practice and represents investors as well as whistleblowers, workers, consumers and others in cases achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. More about the firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com. Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.
PARENTS at St Andrews Madziwa Primary School in Makoni last week forced the closure of the school for a day as they demanded that the school headmistress be transferred for allegedly refusing to accept all forms of payment for school fees.

On Thursday last week, parents thronged the school and asked their children to return home.

The parents said their children would only return to school after the head, only identified as Mrs Magura, is transferred from the school.

Mrs Magura was away on official duty on the day in question.

Besides the school fees impasse, parents said there are other long standing issues.

The School Development Committee chairlady, Mrs Edna Mukumba said parents resorted to the demonstration after their pleas fell on deaf ears.

Parents are sick and tired of the school headmistress behaviour. She is rejecting payment of school fees in local currency, yet it is legal tender in Zimbabwe. She is demanding that parents pay US$27 with no option of paying in local currency, yet the majority cannot afford it.

Last year there was an increase in the number of learners who were moved to special needs classes and we believe this is due to non-attendance of classes by the teachers as well as poor supervision by the head, said Mrs Mukumba.

Makoni District Schools Inspector, Mr George Chidhakwa said an investigation team will be dispatched to the school to establish the root of the challenges.

We are sending education inspectors to the school on a fact finding mission. We have gathered that the community has some complaints against the school head. I can only divulge more when the probe team completes its work. Learning is going on well at the school as the skirmishes only happened for a day, he said. Manica Post
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People dine in a restaurant during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, Sept. 11, 2022.(Photo by Su Yang/Xinhua)

BEIJING, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- China's consumer market has logged rapid development in the last decade, with its structure becoming more balanced and new business forms gaining steam, an official report showed on Thursday.

Retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of the country's consumption strength, hit a record high of 44 trillion yuan (about 6.3 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2021, 2.1 times the figure in 2012, according to the report released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

China has kept its economic growth within a reasonable range, which is leading to the steady growth of personal incomes, the report said, noting that the country's consumer market has great potential and resilience.

Despite the disruptions brought by COVID-19, China's total retail sales of consumer goods rose 12.5 percent year on year in 2021, and the average annual growth during the 2020-2021 period hit 3.9 percent, the data showed.

China's urban consumption logged stable growth over the past decade thanks to rapid urbanization progress. In the 2013-2021 period, retail sales of consumer goods in urban areas climbed 8.1 percent on average each year.

During the same period, retail sales of consumer goods in rural towns and villages respectively expanded an average of 10.4 percent and 9.8 percent each year, as rural residents saw their income growth surpass that of urban residents, narrowing the urban-rural income gap.

Over the last decade, online shopping has become a bright spot in China's consumer market, and it is a typical example of the country's emerging forms of consumption.

From 2015 to 2021, the average annual growth of online retail sales of physical goods topped 20 percent, and online retail sales of physical goods accounted for 24.5 percent of China's total retail sales of consumer goods in 2021.
NEWSDAY senior journalist Rex Mphisa was yesterday robbed in Messina, South Africa where he had gone to investigate robbery cases in the border town.

Mphisa was in the company of a friend when three people approached them and produced a knife, threatening to kill them.

He said the incident took place as he was heading towards some shops in the town.

"Three people approached me and my friend wielding knives. They searched my friends bag and took R8 000, two cellphones and shoes, Mphisa said.

The robbers then took his tablet, mobile phone and R120.

They gave us back R100 rands and our passports and ordered us to go back home to Zimbabwe, he said, adding that the robbers spoke Shona.

"The robbers drove off in a BMW vehicle. We have since made a police report in South Africa and investigations are underway, he said. Newsday
POLICE yesterday accused politicians from across the divide of stoking violence, thus making it extremely difficult for the law enforcement agents to professionally discharge their duties.

National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi made the remarks during a meeting on peace and elections organised by the Zimbabwe Council of Churches in collaboration with the National Transitional Justice Working Group (NTJWG) in Harare yesterday.

Nyathi said: Some politicians lie, for example, a politician wanted to hold a rally in a building in Bulawayo. His gathering was cleared by the police, but the property owner did not want it. The politician later addressed the gathering and claimed he had been denied by the police.

Nyathi said police would now seek confirmation from property owners before clearing gatherings.

He was responding to concerns by participants over partisan policing in favour of the ruling Zanu PF party.

NTJWG programmes co-ordinator Wilbert Mandinde said the public no longer felt safe to report violations to the police for fear of being labelled perpetrators.

Police have often been accused of blocking gatherings and rallies organised by opposition political parties and pro-democracy groups.

Ahead of the March 26 by-elections, a number of rallies organised by the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) were banned by the police under unclear circumstances.

But Nyathi said politicians were to blame for the confusion as they tended to book same venues booked by their rivals.

We want the church to assist. Politicians say different things, preach peace during the day and during the night sending people to fight rivals and use hate language. Our politicians lie, Nyathi said.

Politicians, please unite people so that you make the work of the police easier. You use hate speech, when you are made to account for your work, you play the victim.

Is it that when you address people you always must be confrontational? We want mature politics, talk about peace and what you want to do to the people, not incite violence.

He said it was difficult to talk of peaceful elections in 2023 when people were inciting violence over social media.

Even in Parliament, he said, MPs use hate language against each other and that triggers violence.

ZCC secretary-general Kenneth Mtata said it was possible to achieve a non-violent 2023 election if stakeholders worked together.

Ian Makone, the CCC head of elections, challenged the police to be non-partisan. He said his party would next month release its proposed electoral reforms document.

CCC will issue its document on election reforms. Among the seven key points that we mention in that document are the security of the voter and the security of the vote, all of which are undermined by violence on our land, Makone said.

MDC Alliance secretary for defence, Solomon Sox Chikowere, said his party was advocating for an inclusive dialogue to end violence.

Representatives from Zanu PF, Zec and the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission did not turn up for the meeting although they had been invited.

The Zimbabwe Media Commission, Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission and the Zimbabwe Gender Commission attended the meeting. Newsday
Siu Tung "ABC" Lau, 84 passed away Friday, September 9, 2022 at Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County in Rock Springs, Wyoming. He was a resident of Rock Springs since 1975 and former resident of China.

He was born July 3, 1938 in Taishan, China; the son of Way Jui Lau and Tray Fong Liu.

Mr. Lau attended schools in China.

He married Shuet Fan Kan in 1978 in Hong Kong.

He was the Owner/Operator and Cook of the Hong Kong House for eight years. He retired in 2008 having worked for the Sands Cafe for eight years.

Mr. Lau enjoyed spending time with family and traveling.

Survivors include his wife Shuet Fan Lau of Rock Springs, Wyoming; one son, Henry Lau and wife Siobhan of Rock Springs, Wyoming; two grandchildren, Liam Lau and Ellie Lau and five nephews.

He is preceded in death by his parents, one brother Way Ock Lew.

Cremation will take place; a Celebration of Life will be conducted at 2:00 P.M. Monday, September 26, 2022 at the Vase Funeral Chapel, 154 Elk Street, Rock Springs, Wyoming.

Condolences may be left at http://www.vasefuneralhomes.com.
The miners moved forward together slowly, finding their way through smoke so thick they could barely see their own hands in front of their faces. The team members felt the heat and heard the roar of a fire in front of them as they pulled 400-pound fire hoses forward to extinguish the blaze. Wearing full apparatus gear, each miner ran 100 feet with 50-pound jugs in each hand before hitting an eight-by-eight log four feet with a 10-pound sledgehammer and cutting a six-by-six log in half with a bow-saw.

These are just some of the situations the Genesis Alkali Blue Mine Rescue team found themselves in last week when they competed in the 2022 International Mines Rescue Competition in West Virginia. The team of local miners went up against 22 other teams representing eight different countries, competing in five different events.

Despite it being their first time at the international competition, the Genesis Blue team came away with a first place win in the mine rescue skills challenge event.

Internationals

The International Mine Rescues Competition is a biennial event in which mine rescue teams from around the world gather to test underground emergency response. The competition has been hosted by countries including Poland, China, Australia, Ukraine, Canada and Russia.

This year the competition was hosted by the United States and facilitated by the Mine Safety and Health Administrarion (MSHA), taking place at the National Mine Health and Safety Academy in Beaver, West Virginia.

The competitors included five teams from the United States, five from Canada, three from Zambia, three from India, three from Australia, two from Columbia, one from Poland and one from Finland.

The teams competed in six different events: mine rescue simulation, firefighting, first aid, theory exam, the mine rescue skills challenge, and high angle rope rescue (the only event the Genesis team didn't compete in).

The mine rescue team from Genesis spent a little over a week in West Virginia for the competition. They left Friday, Sept. 9, spent Saturday and Sunday training, had an opening ceremony Monday, competed over the next three days, and celebrated at the awards ceremony Friday night. The team returned home in the early hours of Sunday morning - then got back to work as normal on Monday.

"It was an amazing experience," Cole Randall, the team trainer, said.

The Genesis Blue team was invited to compete in the International competition after taking first place overall in the National Mine Rescue Competition in August. With about three weeks to get ready, the team had to prepare for an entirely new competition experience.

New challenges

"The international contest isn't like normal contests, at least for us," Randall said.

He explained not only does the International contest use slightly different rules and operate under a different setup than local competitions and the national competition, but the events teams compete in have differences as well.

Some events, including the mine rescue skills challenge, were completely new for the team.

The biggest difference in the International competition, however, was the level of realism.

"Compared to the National contest, the International is a lot more realistic, and, I believe, more of training than a contest," Randall explained. "We came back with a lot more knowledge."

During the first aid competition, instead of having volunteer actors with a little bit of makeup and pretend injuries, the team had high-tech moulage simulation mannequins provided by the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine.

"They did everything," Randall said of the mannequins. "They blinked, they talked, they groaned, they moaned, they could even urinate, they had blood. They're as close as you can get to real life."

For the mine rescue simulation competition, which is similar to what the team does for "field" competitions locally and at nationals, instead of having a mock field set up with rope mazes and signs, they have an entire building set up to simulate a mine.

"It's just like underground," Randall said.

The building was pitch-black and filled with real smoke, to the point the judges had to use thermal cameras to observe the competition, according to Randall. The building also had real mine equipment the teams had to examine.

For the firefighting event, a real fire was set inside a burn tunnel.

"We weren't putting out a little trash can with a fire extinguisher, we were using fire hoses to put out a large fire," Randall explained.

The skills challenge, which was totally new for the Genesis team, included a relay event. The team came straight from solving a field problem without a break and one by one had to go through a series of physical challenges, such as running with weights, sawing through logs, unrolling fire hoses, and more. Each team member had to complete the whole challenge, including the older guys on the team like 61-year-old Team Captain Robert Pope, according to Randall.

"They'd push through, group together as a team and cheer each other on through each," Randall said.

Facing more realistic scenarios both provided hands-on training and allowed the Genesis team to put their skills to the test.

"We've talked about what we would do, but we've never had to actually show, and we got to show what we would do," Randall said.

Representing well

While many of the aspects of the International Competition were new for the team, they stepped up to the plate and performed well.

"They looked like they'd done it before," Randall said. "Knowing that it was their first time, it was amazing to watch."

In addition to taking on the challenges of the competition itself, the Genesis Blue team was also going up against professional mine rescue teams. Many of the teams who compete in the International competition train for mine rescue full-time as their only job.

"It's intimidating," Randall said. "To be able to compete against guys that that's their job, and outperform them, is a pretty amazing accomplishment."

For Genesis, every team member has a different full-time job within the mine, and mine rescue training and studying often happens on their own personal time. Randall said the team is especially thankful for all the family members, including wives and children, who sacrifice and support the team members as they better themselves. The hard work from the members and the support of their loved ones paid off during the competition.

"To go into there and win first place in one of the events, it's pretty amazing," Randall said. "I think it shows heart. You can practice all you want, but you have to have heart, determination, and dedication to do that."

While the team members were nervous for their first time competing in the international competition and they didn't want to go out and embarrass themselves or take last place, they also focused on staying positive and viewing the competition as a learning experience, according to Randall. And, despite their nerves, they still came home with a first place win.

"It was pretty cool, like a goosebump feeling, to watch [the team members'] faces when they heard our name called, and to feel the support from people back home," Randall said. "It felt good to get that recognition and know that we earned it."

With the win, Genesis Blue continues to demonstrate the ability of local mines and mine rescue teams.

"We wanted to be able to represent Wyoming, and Genesis, and the Green River/Rock Springs area, and I believe we did that with our results," Randall said. "I know that we gave it our all."

Ready to serve

While being a part of competitions is exciting, Randall knows his team is training for emergency situations, and he's more confident than ever in their ability to respond if anything happens.

"This [competition] puts you as close as you can get to being in that situation and letting you know if this is for you or if it's not," Randall said, explaining some people think they can do mine rescue until they're faced with real circumstances. He believes this competition helped prove how capable Genesis Blue would be in an emergency. "Our team did well. Everybody reacted calmly and communicated smoothly. No fears."

Photo courtesy of Cole Randall The Genesis Blue team took first place in the Mine Rescue Skills Challenge during the International Competition.

As the team made their way through smoke and darkness, Randall saw their ability to work together through scary circumstances to do what needs to be done.

"You have to trust your team and communicate that you're together and you're going to get through it," Randall said. "They bonded well as a team and really relied on each other. That was a huge thing."

Randall also hopes the mine rescue team will never be needed, but knows they'll be ready to respond if they are.

"We all joined to be there in a time of emergency," he said. "When a disaster happens underground, we don't get to call firefighters in, we don't get to call paramedics in - none of them can go underground. So, they're relying on us. So we try and train ourselves to be those people in case something like that happens, to be prepared. I hope that we never have to use that skill, but I'm fairly confident. If there was a disaster, Genesis Alkali is the team I would call."
Breeun Palmer-Bieber, a teacher at Washington Elementary, celebrates the school receiving the Blue Ribbon designation. "This is the most exciting news I've ever had in all my 17 years of teaching," she told the students during a school assembly.

When the students at Washington Elementary gathered in the gym for a school assembly Monday morning, they didn't know exactly what was going on, but they knew something important was happening by the big smiles on the faces of their teachers.

"As your principal I couldn't be more excited," Anne Marie Covey told the students. "I'm going to try not to get emotional, but oh my goodness, the work that has gone into this - your teachers, your parents, and all of you have worked so hard to make this happen. And I couldn't be more proud of the work that you do every day."

At the assembly, Covey announced to all the students, school staff, and visitors from Sweetwater County School District No. 2 that Washington Elementary was named a 2022 National Blue Ribbon School.

The US Department of Education National Blue Ribbon Schools Award is given to "exemplary, high-performing schools" across the nation. This year, 297 schools were named part of the 39th Cohort of National Blue Ribbon Schools. Washington was one of only two schools in Wyoming to receive the designation this year, and only the second school in Green River to ever be named a Blue Ribbon School.

"It's a remarkable achievement, and it's a rare achievement," SCSD No. 2 Superintendent Craig Barringer said. "It doesn't happen very often. So the fact that it's happened twice in Green River says a lot about the quality of education."

While appreciating the significance of this award, Barringer said he isn't surprised Washington has received the recognition, or that Covey, who is an "outstanding leader," has been honored with this award not long after being named Wyoming's Distinguished Principal of the Year.

"When you walk in the building, there's positive energy as soon as you come in," Barringer said of Washington.

"I am just so excited and so proud and just honored and humbled by this," Covey said about the Blue Ribbon designation. "I couldn't be more excited for my staff. They're the ones who are in the trenches working and doing this hard work each and every day. . . What they're doing is making a difference and to be recognized at that national level is just phenomenal. And I know it's still sinking in with all of them."

Covey said the staff will have more opportunities to celebrate the achievement together, along with families and community members.

"They're a critical part of this too, our families and our community," Covey said. "We couldn't do it without them either. It really is a big group effort here."

The group effort that led to receiving the designation includes not only the hard work that goes into every day, but also the process school staff members went through to become a Blue Ribbon School. It started when Washington was nominated for the award by the Wyoming Department of Education. Then the leadership team at the school had to go through a "length application process," according to Covey, which they put together in the spring. Covey was notified Washington was selected last week, and the official announcement of the Blue Ribbon Schools was released by U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona last Friday.

"I applaud all the honorees for the 2022 National Blue Ribbon Schools Award for creating vibrant, welcoming, and affirming school communities where students can learn, grow, reach their potential, and achieve their dreams," Secretary Cardona said in a press release. "As our country continues to recover from the pandemic, we know that our future will only be as strong as the education we provide to all of our children. Blue Ribbon Schools have gone above and beyond to keep students healthy and safe while meeting their academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs. These schools show what is possible to make an enduring, positive difference in students' lives."

"A National Blue Ribbon School flag gracing a school's entryway or on a flagpole is a widely recognized symbol of exemplary teaching and learning," the press release said.

"It's a very prestigious award and we're very honored and proud to have that symbol and be a part of the National Blue Ribbon Schools," Covey said. "I'm just very humbled and honored to be recognized and very proud to represent Washington Elementary, Green River, and the state of Wyoming."

Star photo by Hannah Romero Washington Elementary students celebrate as confetti falls from the air during the school assembly when it was announced Washington was chosen as a Blue Ribbon School.

When it comes to representing on a national level, Covey said the recognition shows the quality of local education.

"It says there's great things happening in our Green River schools," she said. "Sweetwater Two is an amazing district to work for. They care about our kids, care about their staff and our families, and I'm just fortunate and very blessed to be here working."

While recovering from the difficulties of the pandemic has presented challenges for all schools, Washington included, Covey said the staff focuses on taking care of wellness and social-emotional needs, making sure everyone feels safe and cared for with their needs met so they can learn and grow - both students and staff. And having strong relationships holds everything else together.

"Those are the powerful pieces that allow us to then do the amazing academic work in our classrooms and grow kids and push kids to achieve their highest potential," Covey said.
Back in May at its I/O developer conference, Google teased a whole bunch of different devices coming in the future - most of those, like the Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, and Pixel Watch, will be made official at an event on October 6. But there was also the Pixel Tablet, which is only coming next year. That didn't stop the search giant from revealing the render you can see below.

Today some spec details of the Pixel Tablet have been outed, as it has apparently entered the engineering validation test (EVT) phase and some units have been shipped to India for that purpose. Somewhere along the way, someone took note of the important details and leaked them for our collective pleasure.

Thus, the Pixel Tablet is said to sport a 10.95" touchscreen and have Wi-Fi 6 support and will be offered in two storage versions: 128GB and 256GB. There will also be a Google-made stylus for the tablet, which may or may not ship alongside it.

According to previous rumors, the Pixel Tablet is going to be the first device to ship with a 64-bit only version of Android 13, and it will have dual cameras on the back. On the other hand, it will be missing on GPS support, a proximity sensor, and a barometer.

The Pixel Tablet is rumored to be powered by Google's first-gen Tensor SoC, the one found in the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, despite launching after the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro which will sport the second-generation chip.

Source
Samsung is bringing its latest rugged Android devices to the US. The Galaxy Xcover6 Pro and the Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro are now available for sale with 5G connectivity and MIL-STD-810H compliance for operation under extreme conditions.

Samsung Galaxy Xcover 6 Pro

The Samsung Galaxy Xcover 6 Pro was announced back in late June. It brings a 6.6-inch IPS LCD panel with FHD+ resolution with support for 120Hz refresh rate. The display, protected by Gorilla Glass Victus+, is also designed to be operated with wet hands or gloves. The hardware is rated for IP68 water and dust resistance.

The Xcover 6 Pro is powered by a Snapdragon 778G chipset paried with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of expandable storage via microSD. Theres a removable 4,050mAh battery and support for 15W charging, or charge via pogo pins on a supported cradle.

The phone features a programmable push-to-talk button, headphone jack, loudspeaker with boost mode, and support for Samsung DeX. In the camera department: a 50MP main camera with f/1.8 aperture and 8MP ultrawide shooter. Around front, there is a 13MP selfie camera and the Xcover 6 Pro will run Android 12 out of the box.

Samsung Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro

The Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro was announced earlier this month with a 10.1-inch TFT LCD screen protected by Gorilla Glass 5. This rugged tablet comes with an S Pen, and it includes a protective case. As the Xcover6 Pro, this device is also MIL-STD-810H compliant to withstand altitude, humidity, immersion, salt spray, dust, vibrations, and drops of up to 1m high.

Also powered by the Snapdragon 788G, the Tab Active4 Pro makes use of either 4GB RAM and 64GB storage or 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. The tablet has the push-to-talk button, volume boost, and can be used with wet hands or gloves on as well.

Both devices can also be used as POS systems with support for NFC payments on Samsungs Knox Platform for POS. Knox Capture lets either device be used for scanning barcodes and inventory tracking.



Samsung Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro official images

The Samsung Galaxy Xcover 6 Pro will be available starting on October 20 though US carriers and later offered through Samsung.com, Samsung Business, Amazon Business, and IT channel partners. Pricing information hasnt yet been confirmed by Samsung.

On the other hand, the Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro is now available from Samsung Business, Amazon Business, and Samsungs IT channel partners for a starting price of $649.

Source
For kids in Guams shelters and foster homes, birthdays often arent something they look forward to. But a new nonprofit is helping to change that, with the help of volunteers who create custom cakes that rival the creations youd find at any commercial bake shop.

Bake Their Day pairs local volunteer bakers with birthday cake requests from the children, some of whom have never had their birthdays celebrated before.

Dianarose Cruz, an administrative assistant at Alee Shelter, said her foster son received a Roblox birthday cake from Bake Their Day in July.

He was so excited. He said, Is this mine? Do I get to keep the toys on top? Cruz said, adding the volunteer baker went all out with lively decorations and attention to detail.

Leilani Naholowaa, program manager at Alee Shelter, said that since January, they have received an average of two cakes a month.

How do I describe not just the reaction from the child whos receiving the cake, but all the children who are there? Theyre so amazed and grateful.

Ive seen parents, moms, cry just out of gratitude because its something that they could not have done themselves. You know, the kindness from a complete stranger, making it possible for their child to have a celebration, Naholowaa said.

Major impression

While Bake Their Day cakes stand out as homemade confections in comparison to generic store-bought cakes, their commitment to a childs requested theme also makes a major impression.

The cool thing about it is theres so much attention to detail in the cakes. Bake Their Day  you give them a theme and they go way above and beyond; theyre very creative. You can tell that they put in a lot of love and attention, Naholowaa said.

It has also gotten our other children excited in our childrens shelter. The first cake that we got in January, all the other children were so excited and planning what theme, what flavor  they were looking forward to their birthdays.

That speaks volumes because many of these children have never had a birthday party. That day was not special for them, it was just another day. It was about survival. But now they look forward to their birthdays, she said.

How it started

Deane Jessee-Jones, acting chair of Bake Their Day, said the seeds of inspiration were first planted when she saw her cousin in Texas baking for Cakes 4 Kids, a national organization that provides cakes for children who are at risk.

It was something that Id actually thought about doing, because I enjoy baking and I was always baking cakes for my kids birthdays and stuff like that. But I was a bit overwhelmed to try and do it on my own, Jessee-Jones said.

One day, during her regular morning walk with close friend Kimberly Fegurgur, the two started talking about their future plans since they had become empty nesters.

Cakes for Kids wasnt able to start a chapter on Guam, so Jessee-Jones reached out to Naholowaa about what might be possible.

They didnt have anything in place for kids in the shelters. They would try to pick up a cupcake or do something, but because of tight funding, they couldnt celebrate the kids birthdays in any meaningful way. At that point, we decided to just do it, she said.

Jessee-Jones and Fegurgur, vice president of Bake Their Day, first got started by providing cakes to Alee Childrens Shelter in January.

Expansion

As they got confident and started to grow their capacity, they also added other the Department of Youth Affairs, Child Protective Services and foster families to their list.

We started with just the two of us. Then we were at five  I brought in people we knew, we were confident in their abilities to bake cakes. Now we are at 18, Fegurgur said.

With board members and a bakers dozen of helpers, Jessee-Jones and Fegurgur assembled an all-star team of volunteer bakers who put in the work to make the cakes shine.

Theyre not store-bought so theyre very unique  we take a very personal approach. If it was our child, how would we do the cake? So they can feel that they are homemade cakes, Fegurgur said.

Memorable

While the childrens names and photos are not shared with the bakers to protect the identity of the minors, Bake Their Day still aims to make the cakes as personalized and memorable as possible.

Theres a sense that we try to incorporate some part of the child into the cake, Jessee-Jones said.

Once Bake Their Day receives cake requests from shelters, they ask about the childs preferred flavors and even their hobbies and interests.

Jessee-Jones estimated that Bake Their Day is averaging creating about 10 cakes a month and that they will probably have made 75 to 100 cakes by the end of the year.

Its pretty amazing to come out of two girls going on a walk, going, What are we going to do with ourselves! Theres no way we could do it without our volunteers, she said.

A family affair

Jenelle Taimanglo started as a volunteer baker with Bake Their Day in July.

My first one was for a 14-year-old, she was just turning 14 in Alee Shelter. My daughter just turned 14 years old so that one obviously resonated with me. And my second cake I did a few weeks ago for a little girl in Alee Shelter that just turned 5, Taimanglo said.

Her daughters joined her in creating the cakes, taking on the roles of art directors, Taimanglo said.

Birthdays are such a huge thing for our culture and our community, so I think everybody should ... have a cake, she said.

She noted that bakers dont always get feedback on the cakes and it depends on the agency and if the social worker is able to share any information.

She was happy to be able to get feedback on her first cake for the 14-year-old girl, which was TikTok themed.

It was her first cake ever. She was the oldest child. I think she had nine other siblings. I imagine she probably has to take care of a lot of them. So it was nice to know that there was somebody else thinking of her, Taimanglo said.

Bake Their Day also helped foster parent Nellie Marie Duenas celebrate her foster sons birthday. He was turning 9 and requested a Naruto-themed cake.

I did not show him any pictures or anything until the day of his birthday when I picked up the cake. He was really excited. He loved it, Duenas said.

Blessed mission

For Jessee-Jones and Fegurgur, Bake Their Day is a blessed mission that is made possible by an outpouring of support from dedicated volunteers and others in the community who have stepped up to give back.

I reached out to some local bakeries and I was very lucky because Parisco has partnered with us and they have agreed to provide 12 cakes a year, so roughly one cake a month in emergency situations  if we cant find anybody to bake it, if we need something quickly, Jessee-Jones said.

Honoring loved ones

Bake Their Day is also fueled by Jessee-Jones and Fegurgurs efforts to pay tribute and honor their loved ones. Bake Their Days logo features butterflies in memory of Fegurgurs twin sisters.

They passed away last fall. One of them lived with me and she was in my care. The other one was in the states. They passed away only five weeks apart from each other. They were just angels. When they passed away, it just happened that the first cake was on their birthday, Fegurgur said.

The two women noticed pairs of butterflies flying around them when they were first talking about Bake Their Day, and appearing outside while they worked on their cakes.

They took it as a sign that their lost loved ones were still present with them.

Ultimately, Bake Their Day wants any child in a tough situation to know how special they are.

The only child that Jessee-Jones was actually able to meet and talk to was a youth in DYA.

It was nice to be able to tell him, Im doing this because I care about you. And I want you to do your time or whatever you need to do and then get yourself on the right back. Youre only 13, youve got time, you can do this. We believe in you. We wouldnt spend this time and love and effort if we didnt believe in you, she said.

It was kind of like a motherly thing, like what I would have said to my nieces and nephews. It was nothing profound or earth-shattering, but I could tell that it meant something to him. He kind of teared up. We cant always say that in words. Were hoping that by saying it in cakes were able to do that.
Avis Rent A Car was voted Guams Leading Car Rental Company 2022 at the World Travel Awards Asia and Oceania Gala Ceremony Sept. 7, 2022, in Vietnam.
The CHamoru Land Trust Commission could be looking at millions of additional dollars to survey and install infrastructure on land that would otherwise be unusable if a bill advanced by lawmakers during Fridays session becomes law.

Much of the property held by the Land Trust, which applicants can lease for agricultural or residential use, lacks roads, water or power. Speaker Therese Terlaje has proposed to fix that by raising the fees paid by telecommunications companies that run fiber optic cables through undersea land held by the Land Trust.

Sweetheart deals

Last year, the Land Trust was given the green light to lease submerged land to GTA for $100,000 a year per cable plus a one-time landing fee of $100,000. But the speaker Friday said many of the 11 submarine cables that run through Guam and connect the U.S. to the Asia-Pacific region still enjoy sweetheart deals.

GTA currently holds a lease on submerged land in Piti through 2039, while India-based Tata Communications will be renegotiating a $5,000 lease that expires Sept. 30, Terlaje said. Other companies enjoy similar $5,000 a year leases, she said.

We compared a lease that the city of Grover Beach in California had for one of its cables  that actually also lands on Guam  where it had also authorized at least $100,000 in annual revenue per cable for 25 years.

Terlajes Bill 277 would standardize the lease agreements on submerged land held by the Land Trust through the end of 2031, in line with what was authorized for GTA last year. On top of a $100,000 landing fee, each telecom company looking to run fiber through Guam would have to pay a $100,000 per-cable annual fee for up to 25 years. That annual fee would gradually increase until it reaches $119,509 per cable per year in 2031.

We are in a global world now. And we are standing up in that global world and we are saying no, no more, Terlaje said in her closing statements on the bill.

The Land Trust would be authorized to adopt new fees in 2032 of not less than $121,899 per cable system. Besides that, the bill would set standards for insurance, construction, and regulatory measures for the cables.

Its unclear how much revenue Bill 277 would bring in, due to an error in the fiscal note for the bill. But if the 11 cables currently landed were leased under the proposed conditions of the bill, the Land Trust would net $27.5 million over a 25-year lease on fees alone.

Broad support

The measure was met with broad support from lawmakers, Im looking forward to voting in favor of 277, said Republican minority leader Sen. Chris Duenas. It was moved to the third reading file without objection Friday evening.

Lawmakers will reconvene on Monday to vote on the measure, instead of waiting for the close of the September session. Terlaje said that with one telecom company set to close its lease with the Land Trust by the end of September, she wanted to have the bill on the governors desk as soon as possible to ensure she has an opportunity to sign it and get additional funding for the Land Trust.
Two more men have been arrested in a string of robberies involving gas stations, convenience stores and game rooms, according to police and court documents.

One of the men, Javick Chutaro, 22, has a lengthy criminal record and has been on deportable alien status since April 2022, according to Guam Police Department Chief Stephen Ignacio.

When he was arrested, police learned Chutaro had removed the immigration ankle tracking bracelet he was supposed to be wearing, Ignacio said.

On Monday, Bob Jessy Topasna Quinata, 26, was charged with second-degree robbery in connection with the Aug. 22 robbery of the Yigo Shell station, and robberies at the 76 station and Mobil station in Hagat.

Quinata told police he committed the Hagat robberies, but denied involvement in the Yigo robbery, according to court documents. Ignacio said the interview led to the identity of another suspect, and a wanted flyer was posted for Brandon George Flores, 24.

Other robberies were reported at the Winster II Gameroom, 88 Leisure Gameroom and New Home Plus Mart. On Wednesday, police were notified of a robbery at Charice Market, along Biradan Langet, Dededo, and Sons Convenience Store on Route 9 in Yigo. Both cases involved a man who brandished a gun and fled in a dark sedan with an unidentified driver.

Vehicle located

Detectives identified the suspects, and a vehicle driven by Flores was located and stopped at Hemlani Apartments in Harmon. The vehicle had fraudulent plates, and police found $1,400 in cash and 1.81 grams of methamphetamine during a search.

Flores was charged Friday with two counts of second-degree robbery as a second-degree felony, according to a magistrates complaint filed in Superior Court.

Chutaro, a passenger in the car, got out of the vehicle and a black airsoft pistol fell to the ground, court documents stated. He was charged with six counts of second-degree robbery as a second-degree felony.

Chutaros previous arrests include robbery, home invasion, retail theft, public drunkenness, terrorizing, criminal trespass, resisting arrest and assault on a police officer, according to police.

Flores has been arrested in the past in connection with possession of a controlled substance, motor vehicle theft and burglary to a motor vehicle.

Passenger Seifor Kachura, 33, had an open arrest warrant and was wearing an immigration tracking bracelet, and was supposed to be on house arrest, police said.

Staying safe

During the news conference Friday, Ignacio gave tips for businesses to be safe and prevent robberies.

One of the services we offer is to come to a business to do an assessment to determine things you can do to make your business safer, said Ignacio.

Police can recommend where to best position a security camera to identify people.

He said keeping shop windows clear of posters and stickers is helpful to see what is happening inside and outside and to see who is coming in.

If a customer is approaching the store and can see a robbery, they can move safely away and call the police to the scene, said Ignacio.
The Coast Guard Cutter Oliver Henry returned to Guam earlier this week after a 43-day historic patrol across Oceania, according to a news release from the Coast Guard.

The crew patrolled and visited ports in the Federated States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea and Australia.

We also patrolled the exclusive economic zones of those countries and Solomon Islands during our time, Lt. Freddy Hofschneider, commanding officer of Oliver Henry, stated in the release. Our trip was significant in that we validated the capability of the fast response cutters homeported here in Apra Harbor, Guam, showing what we can do to promote regional stability in terms of fisheries and continue to build a better relationship with our regional partners.

The crew conducted training, fisheries observations, community and key leader engagements, and a multilateral sail. They covered more than 16,000 nautical miles from Guam to Cairns, Queensland, Australia, and returned with several stops in Papua New Guinea and one in the Federated States of Micronesia.

The fact that we can take these 154-foot ships with a crew of 25 and a lieutenant commanding officer and push them so far over the horizon, even as far as Australia  which is what Oliver Henry just did  is an incredible capability for the region, said Capt. Nick Simmons, commander U.S. Coast Guard Forces Micronesia/Sector Guam. Im proud of the work the Oliver Henry did, the resiliency of the crew deployed for 43 days, and they pulled off a variety of firsts  like first-time port calls in a couple of places like Papua New Guinea and Australia. Even more than that, I am proud of the resilience of the families. Not just the families of Oliver Henry but all the families here to support them and our local community here in Guam.

While participating in fish-monitoring fishing activities in August, the Oliver Henry sought to make a scheduled stop at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, to refuel and re-provision, the Associated Press reported last month. When there was no response from the Solomon Islands government for diplomatic clearance for the vessel to stop there, it diverted to Papua New Guinea.

In Papua New Guinea, the crew spent time on Manus Island and Port Moresby.

In Cairns, they conducted engagements with Australian Defence and Home Affairs partners, the mayor of Cairns, and Cairns Regional Council representatives.

During their stop in Pohnpei, Oliver Henrys crew hosted the U.S. Embassy team and an FSM National Oceanic Resource Management Authority  Fisheries Compliance Division representative to cover patrol highlights and future opportunities.

The U.S. Coast Guard conducts routine deployments in Oceania as part of Operation Blue Pacific, working alongside allies, building maritime domain awareness and sharing best practices with partner nation navies and coast guards, the Coast Guard stated in the release.
Guams increased criminality is mostly tied to the methamphetamine or ice epidemic that has already taken a heavy toll on lives and property, according to police officers who provided crime prevention tips and a brief active shooter awareness seminar to members of the business community on Friday.

More than 2,600 crimes have been reported since January, and more have likely been unreported, Guam Police Departments Capt. Kim Santos said.

There are a lot of cases that go unreported. Some people just say, Oh what will the police do anyway? You need to report it. We need to know whats going on so we have a better grip on crime and so forth, Santos, the chief of GPDs Auxiliary Service Division, told members of the Guam Chamber of Commerce.

Since January, GPD has had reports of:

842 burglaries

76 robberies

930 thefts of property

54 home invasions

152 criminal sexual conduct cases

45 child abuse cases

525 drug cases

Even surveillance cameras at times no longer deter people who are using ice from burglarizing a home or robbing a business, she said. They wont even conceal their faces, she said, because they are still high.

Many of the images captured on surveillance are not helpful to law enforcement, and Santos recommends investing in cameras that can clearly capture facial images as well as sounds.

Sgt. Jerry Santos, operations lead for GPDs Community Crimes Task Force, provided businesses representing restaurants, beverage suppliers, financial institutions and security firms with crime prevention tips.

Having an audible alarm as opposed to a silent alarm rattles perpetrators and keeps them from lingering on the property.

Besides securing their property, businesses should also work closely with law enforcement on crime reporting or getting help in identifying security vulnerabilities, the GPD officials said.

The Community Crimes Task Force, created earlier this year by Chief Stephen Ignacio, has worked closely with Neighborhood Watch groups to get a firmer grasp of whats going on in the community.

Capt. Kim Santos noted that WhatsApp group chats have become a common means of communication to keep members safe, but she recommends that people limit their chats to informing members about ongoing crimes or giving descriptions of people acting suspicious in their neighborhood.

There are also Neighborhood Watch chat groups that have many members or whose members hide their real identity or use a photo of a dog or cat on their profile.

Simple steps like having security screen doors or having a flashlight when stepping outside at night will go a long way in deterring crimes, they said. A phone flashlight doesnt help a lot, since it takes a while to even use it in times of emergency.

Scourge of the Earth

All communities are negatively affected by methamphetamine, which Capt. Kim Santos said is the scourge of the Earth. Just a few years ago, she said, it was unheard of that Federated States of Micronesia nationals would be involved in ice use and possession, but the situation has changed.

Former Guam Chief of Police Paul Suba, who was at the seminar representing G4S Security Systems, said during his time as chief, the police warned the community that what was seen as an ice epidemic in Hawaii at the time was coming to Guam.

Guam hasnt even hit the pinnacle of whats going or what has happened in other places, he said.

Capt. Kim Santos said the increase in panhandling and homelessness have also been tied to drug problems, along with other issues.

Active shooter

Sgt. Jerry Santos also gave members of the business community a brief awareness seminar on what to do if theres an active shooter in their workplace.

Run, hide and fight are the three things that one can doto avoid being a statistic, he said.

While fear will understandably cripple one from making a move, he said people should dig deep and have the courage to act to prevent themselves or others from being killed.

And if you have to hide in the office when theres no chance to get out of the building, make sure to keep your phone on silent mode.

Jude Diaz of International Dining Concepts, which operates several restaurants on Guam, thanked the Guam Chamber of Commerce for hosting the crime safety seminar, and hopes that there will be more programs to help businesses and their employees.
Sign up now and get $350 and two college credits through a special election administration course and internship with the Guam Election Commission.

The program is a GEC partnership with Guam Community College and University of Guam, aimed at recruiting additional precinct officials for the general election, according to Maria Pangelinan, Election Commission executive director. Those who enroll will spend 15 hours learning in the classroom and then spend Election Day working a polling station in the village in which they are registered to vote.

Course hours are 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Sept. 30, Oct. 1, Oct. 7 and Nov. 18.

Registered voters and enrolled students at GCC and UOG can sign up, along with precinct officials already appointed by a political party. College students who enroll must be registered to vote.

Educators in the Guam Department of Education will get an extra incentive to sign up.

This course has been approved for professional development for teachers, Pangelinan said.

The course is housed under UOGs School of Business and Public Administration. The Election Commission will foot the bill for those who enroll.

Seating is limited. Additionally, Pangelinan said enrollees must complete work on Election Day to get paid.

If you walk out, you wont get the $350, and those who dont complete their work may not be guaranteed their credits for the course, she said.

Several precinct officials walked off during the primary election.

The promise of college credit is an additional incentive, Pangelinan said. An increase in pay for precinct officials  which would require action from the Legislature  isnt likely before this years election.
Have an idea? Want to praise or comment on something? Submit your letter to the editor.




Haiti - FLASH : The women's prison attacked, dozens of inmates escape





Thursday afternoon a strong tension reigned in the prison for women of Cabaret, located in the locality of Titanyen in the North of Port-au-Prince when a group of heavily armed men coming from Canaan, attacked the Prison for women into which they entered, favoring the escape of several dozen detainees (estimate of testimonies).



At the time of the attack there were 280 women in detention in this prison with a capacity of 300 detainees



Police officers from the Titanyen sub-police station went to the scene. Taking advantage of the downsizing, Canaan gang members took the opportunity to attack the police station and set it on fire. A police officer is said to have died during this attack.



Inspector General Pierre Rene Francois of the Directorate of Penitentiary Administration (DAP) confirmed the tense situation in the prison and the loss of contact with the detention center specifying "the attempts of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) to regain control of the prison have come up against opposition from armed bandits [...] I am told that some police officers have been hit by bullets [...] We do not yet have precise information on what happened past. We must first regain control of the prison center."



So far the authorities concerned have not yet confirmed the number of detainees on the run or communicated the human toll or on the course of this attack followed by escape...



Note that this is the first time in Haiti that women have escaped from prison.



To be continued...



SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Insecurity : The UN calls for an immediate end to the looting of humanitarian supplies





The United Nations in Haiti has called for an immediate stop to attacks on humanitarian infrastructure and the looting of humanitarian supplies...



A number of warehouses used by UN agencies have been attacked by protesters in cities including Gonaives and Les Cayes.



Ulrika Richardson, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator, the organizations most senior humanitarian official in Haiti, has called for these attacks and the looting of supplies to stop. "What we are seeing is the result of peoples frustration and despair over very dire living conditions. Looting warehouses is not the answer; it only serves to makes an effective response and assistance to families in need more difficult. Todays situation calls for additional efforts by the humanitarian community. For that to happen we need safe access for humanitarian workers and supplies."



The UNs World Food Programme (WFP), has lost over 2,000 metric tonnes of food in Gonaives and Les Cayes, which had been prepositioned as part of its emergency response for protecting the most vulnerable ahead of the hurricane season.



Other UN agencies have also reported thefts, looting and disruptions to their work across Haiti, due to civil unrest.



In Gonaives, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) lost 2,000 non-food item kits, enough to support 10,000 people, in an attack on their warehouse. Facilities belonging to the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) were also attacked and looted.





In Port-au-Prince, the UN-coordinated IDP taskforce  bringing together a range of local partners to help reach the most vulnerable  has now said it is unable to deliver support to most of the 22,000 internally-displaced people across the city, again as a result of the unrest.



And nationwide, the UNs Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) is currently unable to ensure the availability of essential medicines, vaccines and medical inputs where it is needed most.



"The safety and well-being of all Haitians, especially the most vulnerable children, women and men, is our priority right now. A strong, well-equipped humanitarian assistance operation and safe access for humanitarian workers is therefore of utmost importance," said Ulrika Richardson, adding that "the UN, along with its humanitarian partners, will continue to uphold the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence in the delivery of humanitarian assistance."



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





Digicel, 3 new fiber optic cables vandalized

Thursday September 22, said Thursday Maarten Boute from Digicel said "We have 3 fiber optic cables that go to Grand'Anse to bring the internet signal (one underground). The underground cable was vandalized in two places. The cables on poles were cut for the construction of barricades. Repairs are in progress. Furthermore, we have great difficulty traveling to the provinces to supply our antennas with diesel. Impossibility to leave Port-au-Prince for the great North and the great South moreover, the fiber optic cuts on the RN2 continue to affect the Grand'Anse. In Port-au-Prince things are progressing..."



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37643-haiti-digicel-demonstrations-responsible-for-optical-fiber-cuts.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37625-haiti-flash-7-optical-fibers-cut-in-5-days-update-on-the-situation.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-37444-icihaiti-internet-the-gang-war-prevents-digicel-from-repairing-an-optical-fiber.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/article-37601-haiti-avis-3-cables-de-fibre-optique-ont-ete-coupes.html



The leader of the "Guepe noire" Gang killed

On September 21 around 11:00 p.m. "Met kafou", Leader of the "Guepe noire" gang group, was mortally wounded in exchanges of fire with the Police. This bandit had been actively sought by the police for the past 24 hours for his involvement in scenes of looting at the Myriam Sisters and at the Departmental Emergency Operations Center (COUD).



Looting : UNDP condemns

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) condemns in the strongest terms the attacks against its premises in Jeremie while continuing to support the national authorities in the pursuit of programs that can contribute to improving the living conditions of the most vulnerable. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37714-haiti-insecurity-the-un-calls-for-an-immediate-end-to-the-looting-of-humanitarian-supplies.html



Haiti signs treaty against nuclear weapons

This Thursday, September 22, in New York, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean Victor Geneus signed, on behalf of the Republic of Haiti, the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, aimed at Denuclearization.



Desecration : public action in motion

Me Jacques Lafontant Commissioner of the Government of Port-au-Prince declared that he would put public action in motion against all those involved in the desecration of the statue of Jean Jacques Dessalines at the Champ de Mars on September 20, the day of birthday of the founding father of the Fatherland https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37694-haiti-social-the-statue-of-dessalines-vandalized-at-the-champ-de-mars.html . According to Me Lafontant, arrangements have already been made to track down profaners, some of whom have already been clearly identified.



Reopening of Dominican missions in Haiti under conditions

Roberto Alvarez the Dominican Minister of Foreign Affairs announced that the Embassy in Port-au-Prince and the consulates of the Dominican Republic in Haiti closed since September 15 will only reopen their doors once the safety of diplomatic staff is guaranteed.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Were not getting rid of this. The coronavirus is here to stay. We cant eradicate it with vaccines or restrictions, he said.

FINNISH SOCIETY should move toward the normal in regards to the coronavirus pandemic, Asko Jarvinen, the chief physician at the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS), stated on YLE TV1 on Wednesday.

While mortality from the coronavirus disease has fallen since peaking in the spring, occurring primarily among elderly people who were in poor health already before the infection, the incidence of the virus has remained at a high level, according to wastewater analyses carried out by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).

Officials in South-west Finland have estimated that the number of infections is up to six times as high as official statistics.

Jarvinen reminded that despite the high incidence of infections the epidemiological situation is better this summer than in the two previous ones because the risk of serious disease is very low for vaccinated people. Infections, he added, are increasingly detected in hospitals as incidental infections  that is, in patients who were admitted to hospital for other reasons.

In HUS, for example, there are roughly a dozen real coronavirus patients, according to him. The hospital system is being burdened more by the acute shortage of nurses.

He stated to the public broadcasting company that he is not supportive of offering fourth vaccine injections to the wider population, instead of only the elderly and risk groups. Vaccines in Finland, he argued, provide better protection than in many other countries given that they have been administered at a longer interval.

Our third vaccine doses give protection that is comparable more with fourth doses elsewhere, he told.

The situation has improved also due to the development of treatments to Covid-19, such as the newly adopted Paxlovid, an orally administered Covid-19 medicine by Pfizer. The antiviral medicine, however, is not suitable for everyone suffering from the disease and its use has been challenging due to its combined effect with other medicines, the public broadcaster reported earlier in July.

Jarvinen underscored that it is important to make any decisions on vaccines and restrictions based on expert information. It shouldnt be the result of an acclamation in the media.

THL on Wednesday said it is planning on expanding its recommendation for fourth vaccine doses to cover all 65-year-olds and older as of 15 August, all 60-year-olds and older as of 1 September and to all 1259-year-olds at high risk of severe forms of the disease as of 1 September.

Hanna Nohynek, a chief physician at THL, pointed out that the epidemic is very likely to intensify in the autumn as the vaccine protection of older people and risk groups is beginning to slowly wane.

A severe coronavirus disease is rare in younger people, and three doses continue to provide them excellent protection against the serious disease. There are presently no grounds for vaccinating all healthy under 60-year-olds for the fourth time, she said.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT
[The phenomenon] has increased substantially, he said. Were getting applications that represent an effort to get out and where the return condition is not met.

VISA APPLICATIONS for Finland reflect a growing desire among conscription-age men to leave Russia, Jussi Tanner , the director of consular services at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, stated to Helsingin Sanomat on Wednesday.

Rules of the Schengen Area state that a visa application can be denied if the applicant does not have the right or wherewithal to return to the country of origin.

Tanner reminded in an interview with the newspaper that authorities are required to comply with the law also in the current circumstance, even if it is possible to think that the flight of conscription-age men is a positive for Ukraine.

It isnt a question of willingness, also in this case, he said. If the documents have some inconsistencies or the return condition isnt met, the visa wont be granted.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday announcing a partial mobilisation of the population should intensify the phenomenon, viewed Tanner. Although Russian Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu said the mobilisation would only apply to around 300,000 men, the decision may kindle concerns that the mobilisation could be expanded at some point now that the first step has been taken.

Direct flights from Moscow to Istanbul in Turkey and Yerevan in Armenia were sold out on Wednesday, according to media reports.

Jussi Halla-aho (PS), the chairperson of the Parliaments Foreign Affairs Committee, estimated yesterday that the mobilisation create new uncertainty also in regards to the foreign and security policy of Finland.

Putin has painted himself in quite the tight corner and hell probably look for a way out by trying different things and examining how western countries react to them, he predicted in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat.

He interpreted the partial mobilisation partly as a sign of helplessness and a means to increase the domestic leeway of the Kremlin. With Russia recording significant casualties and struggling to recruit professional and volunteer soldiers to fight in Ukraine, the decision itself was not a surprise, he added.

Putin definitely has a need to turn his own audiences attention away from the losses suffered at the front lines, said Halla-aho. Its naturally understandable that people dont exactly have a desire to go to war where theyre led poorly and where the likelihood of getting killed is pretty high.

Antti Hakkanen (NCP), the chairperson of the Parliaments Defence Committee, estimated that the mobilisation will have no direct ramifications for the foreign and security policy of Finland. It is nevertheless necessary to monitor the effects and events of the war closely, he said.

I think I saw comments that Russia considers the entire west as its enemy. This naturally highlights the current unpredictability of Russia, he told the newspaper.

Hakkanen viewed that Russia resorted to mobilisation for reasons related strictly to the situation in Eastern Ukraine. I dont see that this is tied to any wider efforts by Russia, but this is related to the situation in Eastern Ukraine, he said.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT
Finland doesnt want to be a transit country for [people with] visas granted by other Schengen countries. We want to bring these traffic flows under control, he was quoted saying at a media availability in New York City, the US, by Helsingin Sanomat.

MINISTER for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto (Greens) on Wednesday revealed that Finland is looking into national measures to curb the flow of tourists from Russia.

The fear is that we end up being the only border country through which its possible to travel from Russia to Europe with a Schengen visa granted by another country.

Finland has already limited the availability of tourist visas it grants to Russians. The number of visa appointments has been capped at an average of 100 a day and the appointments have been available only in the largest cities in Russia since early September. The additional national measures could be based on new legislation or an interpretation of existing provisions.

Opposition parties have long demanded that the government take action to limit the flow of tourists from Russia. The Finns Partys Riikka Purra has argued that the eastern border should be closed completely. The National Coalitions Petteri Orpo has estimated that the granting of tourist visas should be halted altogether.

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland on Monday shut down their borders for Russian nationals holding a short-term Schengen visa.

Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Reinsalu told Helsingin Sanomat last week that the decision will without a doubt increase crossings across the border between Russia and Finland. With the Baltic and Polish borders closed, its a question of natural logic. People will look for other means to cross the border, he said.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT
Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto (Greens) gauged that the informal meeting of foreign ministers succeeded in creating a broader understanding of the magnitude of the issue for member states bordering Russia.

FOREIGN MINISTERS from Finland, Poland and the Baltics on Wednesday reiterated to their colleagues that their countries have become a significant gateway to Europe for Russian tourists.

As the discussion went on, ministers woke up to the fact that were talking about quite large volumes, he was quoted saying in a news conference by Helsingin Sanomat.

It was important because not many here realised that in normal years we had had 10 million border-crossings. Weve had years when we issued a million Schengen visas. Finlands border with Russia is not only long, at over 1,300 kilometres, but its a border that has been crossed actively in both directions in normal years.

This was probably a wake-up call to many that dont share a border with Russia.

The foreign ministers agreed yesterday to suspend the visa facilitation agreement between the EU and Russia. Russians have been able to obtain a tourist visa to the 27-country bloc in 10 days instead of 15 days and for 35 euros instead of 80 euros under the agreement. The agreement had also relaxed the documentation requirements associated with applying for a visa.

The ministers also voiced their support for curtailing the issuance of multi-entry visas to Russians.

The legislative revisions needed to suspend the visa facilitation agreement should be finalised in the coming weeks, according to Haavisto.

This will significantly reduce the number of new visas issued by the EU member states. Its going to be more difficult, its going to take longer, summarised Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs.

Provisions in the agreement that facilitate the entry of diplomats and business executives, for example, had already been scrapped in the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Borrell pointed out that there has been a marked increase in border crossings into the EU from Russia since mid-July. This, he added, has become a security risk for member states that share a border with Russia.

In addition to that, we have seen many Russians travelling for leisure and shopping as if no war was raging in Ukraine.

Haavisto said Finland does not consider Russian tourists a security but rather an ethical question. This is not the time for holidays and luxury tourism, he stated.

While he declined to comment on whether it could become necessary to restrict the issuance of tourist visas further in the autumn, he underlined that member states should collectively make sure one does not undermine the measures taken by others.

If an EU country denies border-crossings completely, we wouldnt want to be the intermediary [for Russian tourists], he said.

Borrell on Wednesday also reminded that member states have broad rights to regulate the issuance of visas and implement border controls as long as they do so without violating the Schengen Agreement. The Finnish government has already decided to limit the issuance of tourist visas to Russians, reducing the both the days and locations in which applications are received as of today, 1 September.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT
A PUBLIC consultation event about a proposed climate emergency centre will be among the events taking place during Henleys second annual Great Big Green Week, which begins tomorrow (Saturday).

Greener Henley, an environmental group, is inviting residents to attend the free event at the town hall on Tuesday from 7pm to 9pm.

The Henley Sustainability Hub, which is backed by the Mayor Michelle Thomas, is intended to help raise awareness of the climate and nature emergency and help local residents, businesses and schools to take action.

Organisers say Tuesdays event is aimed at people of all ages who would like to help build a strong and resilient community in the face of the climate emergency.

Members of Greener Henley will gently guide the conversation, so no prior knowledge of climate emergency centres is required.

Kate Oldridge, a member of the group, said: The process of consulting the public is crucial to ensure that the centre we create reflects the wants and needs of the towns residents, businesses and schools.

We would encourage families, friends and especially young people to come along.

To register for the event, visit https://henleysustain

abilityhub.eventbrite.co.uk

Meanwhile, independent traders, community groups and environmental campaigners will be taking part in a series of events during Great Big Green Week, which runs until Sunday, October 2. It is part of a national initiative, which is organised by the Climate Movement charity and aims to raise awareness of climate change and its impact on the natural world.

Lynne Lambourne, of Warriors on Waste, and Steph Taylor, of The Taylor Table, will stage the Sustainable Supper, a pop-up dining experience at Oaken Grove vineyard in Fawley tonight (Friday).

The three-course meal will consist of locally sourced seasonal food.

Ten per cent of the gross profit will be donated to Greenshoots nursery in

Peppard.

Forty-seven shops will each have a green window display, including a page from The ABC of Easy Climate Solutions.

Twelve restaurants, pubs and cafes have signed up for Green Dish of the Week where they highlight their vegetarian and plant-based meals.

These are the Catherine Wheel, Crockers, Cheesy Grape, Sage & Squash, Pizza Express, the Bull on Bell Street, Gails Bakery, Drifters with Pig & Eel, Harris + Hoole, Buddys, Costa Coffee and Pavilion.

Tomorrow, there will be a fair with 27 stalls, activities and displays, all with a green theme, in Market Place.

They will include a display of rubbish fished out of the River Thames on the day following a river clean-up led by the Warriors on Waste.

Gillotts Schools eco club will demonstrate how to recycle paper into useful objects and Henley Youth Festival will be talking about its exciting green theme for next springs festival.

Young Climate Warriors will show how they are making a difference and Henley Rotary Club will be promoting its End Plastic Soup campaign, sharing a stall with Tools for Self-Reliance.

Henley Quakers will be explaining what climate justice really means and Professor Richard Fortey will be there with his fungi roadshow.

The town council will be exhibiting some of the things it is doing to improve the environment. Other stallholders will include local food growers and producers Bosley Patch, Honeys of Henley, Three Oaks Orchard and GAPS Fermented Foods as well as Wild & Rust and the Willow Basket.

The Greener Henley Business group will host a seminar called Green Tactics for Henley Businesses on the evening of Thursday, September 29. Free tickets are available at www.event

brite.com/e/green-tactics-for-henley-businesses-

tickets-394516438287

Walkers are Welcome are planning a litter-pick walk and there will be litter picking taking place in Harpsden all week.

There will be a display of childrens work at Henley library in Ravenscroft Road, which is the answer to Greener Henleys environmental science challenge How important are insects?.There will also be a presentation of the awards to the schools involved.

On Tuesday, there will be an hours cycle ride around the town, starting at town hall at noon. For details, email greenerhenley

@gmail.com

On Wednesday, the Henley Wildlife Group will be cleaning up Holy Trinity churchyard from 9.30am.
Some major new energy vehicle makers vowed to ramp up innovation and production in Anhui province during the 2022 World Manufacturing Convention (WMC), which kicked off in the provincial capital of Hefei on Tuesday. "We understand that as a company that has been in China for 40 years, we have to immerse ourselves in the technological ecosystem here," said Stefan Mecha, head of Volkswagen China, who delivered a speech at the opening ceremony in the morning. "In China, it's impressive to see how the pace of innovation in the industry has taken stride, and I believe that electric technology will drive our future in the automotive industry in the coming years. "Volkswagen is one of the biggest manufacturers in China, employing more than 90,000 people, and more importantly, enjoys the trust of over 40 million customers in the country." Regarding the company's development strategy, he said "it's something in China for China and also from China for the world". Volkswagen started a joint venture, Volkswagen Anhui, with Hefei-based automobile brand JAC in 2017, and will build it into a hub for NEV innovation, Mecha said. He added that Volkswagen Anhuithe German automaker's first joint venture to focus on NEV productionhas full-scale factories for electric vehicles and battery systems, and an R&D center. The incorporation of electric power and intelligent systems into cars has caused the automobile industry to experience the most tremendous changes ever in terms of supply and value chains, said Wang Chuanfu, chairman of China's largest NEV maker, BYD Automobile, which began extending its manufacturing infrastructure into Anhui with a battery plant in 2020. A native of Anhui, Wang said he was pleased to see that the province has a complete supply chain for electric vehicles, which BYD's presence in the province will reinforce. With support from the local government, BYD started to build the first phase of a brand-new NEV plant, with an investment of 15 billion yuan ($2.13 billion), in Hefei's Changfeng county last July. It saw the first vehicle roll off the assembly line in June. BYD started construction of the plant's second phase in May with another 15 billion yuan in investment. After completion in early 2023, the whole plant will see an annual production value of 60 billion yuan. Contracts were signed at the WMC for 568 other manufacturing-related projects in the province, with a combined investment of 368 billion yuan. Many of them were related to the NEV industry, which is a major strategic target for the provincial government. Anhui plans to contribute an increasing share of national NEV output through a combination of building research clusters, attracting foreign investment and localizing supply chains, according to a planning document released last year.
SEPTEMBER 23: Nearly three months after his agreement was first reported, Brooks has officially signed his Exhibit 10 contract with the Knicks, the team confirmed today in a press release.

Having made a couple cuts earlier today, New York now has 19 players officially under contract.

JUNE 24: Garrison Brooks, an undrafted rookie, is signing an Exhibit 10 contract with the Knicks, reports Andrew Slater of Pro Insight (via Twitter).

Brooks, who turns 23 next week, used his extra season of college eligibility to transfer to Mississippi State last season after four years with North Carolina. In 34 games (30.3 MPG) in his final season, he averaged 10.4 PPG and 6.6 RPG on .458/.342/.692 shooting.

Brooks best college season statistically came back in 2019/20 for the Tar Heels, when he averaged 16.8 PPG, 8.5 RPG and 2.0 APG in 32 games (34.9 MPG). He earned a spot on the All-ACC Second Team and was named the leagues Most Improved Player for his efforts.

On an Exhibit 10 contract, the Knicks could convert Brooks to a two-way contract or give him a bonus of up to $50K if he becomes an affiliate player for the Westchester Knicks, their G League team.
Jonathan Mills is CEO of Choice Hotels EMEA where he oversees the companys continued investments across the EMEA region for franchisees and guests. Based in Amsterdam, Jonathan leads the growing Pan-EMEA leadership team and is responsible for setting the strategic and operational direction for the company in EMEA with the goal of driving growth and performance. Jonathan leads all business and franchising operations for the region, including development, franchise operations, corporate sales, marketing, franchise relations and finance. Additionally, he oversees and supports over 430 franchised properties in more than 20 countries. Prior to joining Choice Hotels, he served as an Operating Executive with Wyndham Destinations, including Managing Director of Resorts Condominiums International, Asia Pacific and Dial An Exchange, Global. Other industry experience includes roles at InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) as head of operations for Holiday Inn Express and IHG Shared Services Asia Australasia. Previously he has held sales and marketing leadership roles at Hilton and Forte & Le Meridien Hotels & Resorts.
PCMA announced Convening EMEA is back by popular demand and will be held in one of the world's leading meeting destinations, Vienna, Austria from 28 through to 30 September 2022. Convening EMEA 2022 is an omnichannel event for EMEA business event leaders and creatives.

Initially launched as the "European Influencer Summit" in 2017, an invite-only event, PCMA has since rebranded the event to Convening EMEA and welcomes all EMEA business event professionals. Launched last year in Lausanne, Switzerland, PCMA watched over 350 business event professionals from 29 countries reunite, rebuild, and restart the industry. This deconstructed omnichannel event was the foundation for a multi-generational ecosystem whereby leaders with a legacy of success and rising stars pursuing what's next, came together in solidarity to build a bright pathway forward for the industry. Convening EMEA, the nexus of business events, focused on 'simply connecting' event professionals from not only Europe, but the Middle East and Africa.

During the 2021 event PCMA in partnership with AC Forum launched initial findings from their joint research project Digital Events Outlook. They have subsequently embarked on a two year strategic partnership with AC Forum, intended to strengthen both organizations through collaboration, advocacy and advancing professional development of their respective communities, which will include content collaboration at Convening EMEA 2022.

This event is organized by PCMA
Hoteliers are naturally optimistic people, and often they don't want to admit that the economy or the overall demand environment might be souring on them until they absolutely have to.

And while that happened to a degree earlier during The Lodging Conference, as hoteliers admitted business travel hasn't returned the pace they once hoped for, the whispers grew to a roar on the conference's final day during the Lodging Industry Investment Council meeting.

During that gathering of dozens of high-ranking hotel industry executives, the majority of the group acknowledged the broader economy is now in the midst of a recession. But many are still holding out hope that what is now a technical recession won't grow into the type of deep recession that will keep consumers and corporations from spending on travel.

"Is it a recession? Technically, yes, but I don't think it feels like it to the vast majority of people in the U.S.," said First Hospitality President and CEO David Duncan. "Maybe I've been spending time in different places, but it certainly doesn't feel like it."

Read the full article at HotelNewsNow (part of CoStar)
Brussels - Radisson Hotel Group announces the launch of its first ultra-fast Electric Charging Hub as a continuation of its commitment to support e-mobility and expand its network of 510+ electric car-charging stations across the EMEA region, in partnership with Allego, the leading pan-European provider of electric vehicle charging solutions.

Radisson Hotel Groups strategic partnership with Allego, first announced in July 2022, has positioned Radisson Hotel Group as the hospitality choice for EV drivers and travelers with a green mobility mindset. Since the start of the partnership, Radisson Hotel Group has exponentially grown its Green Mobility network of ultra-fast and regular (AC) charging solutions for electric vehicles to over 220 Radisson Hotel Group locations and over 510 chargers across Europe. In India, the Group has partnered with Sunfuel to install EV chargers in its national portfolio of over 100 hotels.

The first ultra-fast Electric Charging Hub was unveiled today in Frankfurt, Germany as part of the Groups new, revamped automotive value proposition to meet the evolving needs of automotive clients for their events and those of their eco-minded consumers. At the ultra-fast charging point, it takes approximately 20 minutes to charge a car, during which time, customers attend a business meeting at the hotel, or just have a snack at the hotel.

Research shows that nearly two-thirds of consumers are now sustainability-minded drivers. As a result, automakers must focus on what customers demand and integrate sustainable practices in the design and manufacturing of their vehicles, but also put sustainability at the heart of their branding and events marketing strategy. From ground-breaking auto exhibitions to thrilling car launches, from luxurious celebrations to exciting experiences, Radisson Hotel Group properties are powerful partners in sustainable automotive mobility, delivering successful events for some of the worlds largest automotive brands.

As a global leader in green mobility and sustainability, Radisson Hotel Group is driving the travel and hospitality industry forward with expanded green travel options as part of its commitment to decarbonize the business and achieve net zero by 2050. Radisson Hotel Group has a long-standing history as a sustainability pioneer and was the first hotel group to launch a global 100% Carbon Neutral meetings program, that automatically offsets the carbon footprint of every single event and meeting held at any of its hotels by supporting projects that help reverse climate change and support sustainable development in partnership with First Climate. Over the past 10 years, the Radisson Hotel Group achieved a 30% reduction in carbon emissions and has offset 30,300 tons of carbon since 2019.

Inge Huijbrechts, Global Senior Vice President Sustainability, Security and Corporate Communications at Radisson Hotel Group said: With consumer demand for Electric Vehicles (EV) expected to grow fourfold by 2025, electric vehicles will become the dominant powertrain in the next decade. At Radisson Hotel Group, we support this shift by providing green mobility solutions at our hotels. Today, we already have more than 510 electric car charging posts at 141 hotels in EMEA, and we set an ambitious target of bringing EV charging solutions to all eligible European properties by 2025. In India, we aim to equip all 100+ Radisson Hotel Group properties with EV charging stations. Almost 25% of our hotels offer exclusively green taxi solutions with hybrid or electric vehicles for guests traveling to events and meetings. We can help drive the e-mobility movement forward by providing automotive brands with everything they need for sustainable events, starting with the right EV charging solution for each location.

Ulf Schulte, Managing Director DACH at Allego comments: We are very pleased to offer ultra-fast charging at Radisson Blu Hotel, Frankfurt. Charging infrastructure is a true asset and boosts attractiveness of each single hotel. Overall, Radisson Hotel Group is leading the way in offering charging solutions to all guests and visitors, and we are proud to be their partner. In addition to the existing overnight AC charging points, the 150 kW Hyper Charger or HPC is also accessible 24/7 and using 100% green energy. All chargers will of course be integrated into the pan European Allego charging network offering access to all EV drivers without compromise. Whether you are there for a business meeting, a short break, or an overnight stay, your car will be fully charged when you hit the road again.

Radisson Hotel Group is a pioneer in sustainability and played a leading role in the establishment of a new globally recognized set of sustainability indicators, the Hotel Sustainability Basics, in partnership with the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). The Hotel Sustainability Basics is a commitment to deliver a defined set of criteria for the reduction of energy and water usage, waste reduction, and carbon emissions at all hotels globally.

About Radisson Hotel Group

Radisson Hotel Group is one of the world's largest hotel groups with nine distinctive hotel brands, and more than 1,600 hotels in operation and under development in 120 countries. The Group's overarching brand promise is Every Moment Matters with a signature Yes I Can! service ethos.

The Radisson Hotel Group portfolio includes Radisson Collection, Radisson Blu, Radisson, Radisson RED, Radisson Individuals, Park Plaza, Park Inn by Radisson, Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, and prizeotel brought together under one commercial umbrella brand Radisson Hotels.

Radisson Rewards is our international rewards program that delivers unique and personalized ways to create memorable moments that matter to our guests. Radisson Rewards offers an exceptional experience for our guests, meeting planners, and travel agents at over 550 hotels in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.

Radisson Meetings provides tailored solutions for any event or meeting, including hybrid solutions placing guests and their needs at the heart of its offer. Radisson Meetings is built around three strong service commitments: Personal, Professional and Memorable, while delivering on the brilliant basics and being uniquely 100% Carbon Neutral.

The health and safety of guests and team members remain a top priority for Radisson Hotel Group. All properties across the Group's portfolio are subject to stringent health and safety requirements, as outlined in the Radisson Hotels Safety Protocol.

More than 100,000 team members work at Radisson Hotel Group and at the hotels licensed to operate in its systems. For more information, visit our corporate website. Or connect with Radisson Hotels on:

LinkedIn | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Wholesalers play an important part in hotel distribution, especially if you have large inventories to fill. But theyre also a major sore spot for the industry, with problems like rate leakage (when wholesalers pass on rates to OTAs to who undercut the brand.com site) often creating distribution nightmares.

To see what hoteliers should be doing to tackle rogue wholesale distribution, we caught up with Derek Brewster, Director of Revenue Management at Lotte New York Palace. Derek has played an instrumental role in the iconic Lotte New York Palaces financial success and market share growth since 2015. Hes also a proud member of the Triptease Hotel Heroes panel.

The conversation with Derek below is taken from the Triptease Hoteliers Guide to Wholesalers. Download the full report here for more tips and advice on tackling wholesale distribution.

Catch Derek at the Direct Booking Summit in New Orleans on 25-26 October 2022, an event bringing together hundreds of hoteliers to strategize, network and drive the Direct Booking Movement forward. Visit the Direct Booking Summit page to book your tickets!

Whats your strategy for tackling rogue wholesalers? Source: Triptease

Why do hoteliers choose to work with wholesalers and what are the benefits?

The short answer is to book rooms far in advance. I work at the largest luxury hotel in New York, with over 900 rooms, split between two experiences. We dont do a lot of wholesale business in our five star hotel, which has a smaller inventory comprising suites. But the other hotel has over 700 rooms and it takes a lot to fill it - this is where wholesale comes into our strategy.

What I like about wholesale is what wholesale is supposed to be in theory: I sell my rooms to a wholesale partner at a discounted rate because theyre going to produce volume. That takes the pressure off us to fill those rooms in a short booking window. New York is pretty predictable. You know whats going to happen - where youre going to be high and low, where youre going to be fine without base and when youre going to need help. So thats where we lean on our wholesale partners. We really value our wholesale partnerships and we have great partners. But the rate that we give them is not B2C (business to customer) - the customer should never know what that rate is.

What value do wholesale customers bring to a hotel?

Wholesale is important from an operations standpoint - it helps you reach guests that you want, especially the international ones that book longer stays. Theyre staying six, seven, eight or nine nights which is invaluable - youve saved money servicing that room. Its less expensive business, and they typically spend a lot at the outlets and everything else in the hotel. Your team needs to know that these customers have value.

Has your relationship with wholesalers changed since the pandemic?

Weve dialed back a lot in our wholesale business since the pandemic. Weve consciously uncoupled from a lot of partners - typically the ones that dont produce any incremental volume. We also looked at whether we need to have a static rate with all of our partners. We have a handful of partners that we still give static rates to, but everyone else is on a dynamic model - so the rates flow off our BAR (best available rate). That means we can very easily adjust it in our system, and promotions are easier that way. Were doing more with less people, which is necessary given we have less bandwidth.

Our overall mix that we attribute to wholesale now is a lot less. If the demand is there from a higher rated segment youre not going to give it to the wholesale partner at the discounted rate. But to fill in the valleys - thats where we continue to rely on wholesale.

What types of wholesale partners are you currently working with?

The wholesalers that are more attractive to us right now are the airline partners. Because they keep everything packaged - they do what theyre supposed to do and they dont give those rates directly to the customer and they dont end up on metasearch. Weve trimmed back on bed banks because we dont need the volume right now.

Whats your strategy for dealing with wholesalers and OTAs that are causing rate leakage issues?

Its really hard to catch them because theres not usually a direct correlation between the wholesaler that I have an agreement with and the OTA selling my rates at a massive discount. The challenge is that I dont always have the energy to go down the rabbit hole of doing test bookings.

Once in a while Ill do a sweep of metasearch and see what random.com OTAs are out there. We have a lawyer on staff so we work together to create a really strong cease and desist email that I send out to the random.coms.

Once you find a contact at the OTA, then they typically take the rate down. But that doesnt mean it will be gone forever because the next day theyll change their name and come back again. Its an exhausting process, so the way we approach it is that we have very strict language in our contracts with wholesalers. If we catch you once youre in trouble, twice youll be blacked out for a few weeks, and if we catch you a third time we wont work with you anymore.

What can hoteliers do to address the wholesaler problem?

We have a house reservations team and we will sometimes accidentally catch a wholesaler because a guest will call up, name the OTA they booked through and well look that up and its one of our wholesalers. So thats sometimes how we catch them.

Going after the OTAs alone wont address the root cause. But at least if you can find a contact there you can stop it, rather than having to backtrack and find out which wholesaler was ultimately distributing the rates. The ultimate problem is 100% on the wholesaler - and thats why we have a very low tolerance for onward distribution. If you do it and we catch you, youre done.

How do you spot the signs of rate leakage?

In the Triptease Parity product you need to look for patterns in the data. Thats whats great about the tool - you can see this is where guests on your site have actually searched specific dates. Thats the only way you can work it out. If on a selection of dates youre getting all these hits and people are shopping you and theres lots of disparities - find out who is responsible and shut them off!

How do you decide which wholesalers are right to partner with in the first place?

Talk to larger hotels in your market. You can start asking there - who are your favorite partners, who do you work with, who brings the most volume, who is on the naughty list? Its pretty consistent who the bad players are.

Then get in contact with the good players and interview them to see if they would be a good fit. What markets do they service - is it an area of the world that you arent currently reaching? Because you dont just want to replace current business - you want to expand your reach. As an independent hotel, we dont have the reach that big brands do, and certainly not the reach of Expedia or Booking.com, so if the partner youre talking to can expand your reach then theyre probably a good partner. Lastly, check what their technology stack is like and if they can work with dynamic rates.

Whats the most effective way to hold wholesalers to account?

It all comes down to forming good relationships with your wholesale partners. If you have a good relationship then you can make a quick call or send an email saying this has to stop. Whats interesting is that some hotels are ok with onward distribution from these bigger bed banks. They give them a rate and theyre ok with it being passed on. So that means that lots of these wholesalers who have relationships with random.com OTAs will naturally pass your rates on. You have to specifically ask to be put on the do not distribute list. If youve done that and theyre still passing rates on, then hold them to account. Make sure its in your contract that they should not onward distribute your rates.

If there was one thing a hotel could do today to sort out their rate leakage problem what would that be?

Review who you work with, and really be ok with trimming down that list of partners. If theyre not holding up their end of the deal, get rid of them and tell the remaining partners we dont work with this partner anymore, can you replace their volume.

It shouldnt be any different to how your sales team approaches their account management - you should have good relationships with them. You dont need twenty wholesale partners - if you have five good ones you dont need the rest. Nobody has time for negativity so just get rid of them.

Want to learn more about tackling wholesale distribution? Download the full Hoteliers Guide to Wholesalers.

Catch Derek at the Triptease Direct Booking Summit in New Orleans on 25-26 October 2022. Visit the Direct Booking Summit page to book your tickets now.

About Triptease

Triptease is a SaaS startup building industry-leading software for the hotel industry. The company was co-founded in 2015 by Charlie Osmond, Alasdair Snow and Alexandra Zubko and has offices in London, New York, Barcelona and Singapore. Triptease's most recent funding was led by British Growth Fund alongside Notion Capital and Episode 1.

The Triptease Platform is built to help hotels take back control of their distribution and increase their direct revenue. The platform identifies a hotel's most valuable guests then works across the entire customer journey - from acquisition to conversion - to make sure they book directly at the hotel.
In economic science, the tragedy of the commons occurs when individual users, who have open access to a resource without shared social structures or formal rules that govern access and use, act independently according to their own self-interest and, contrary to the common good of all users, cause depletion of the resource through their uncoordinated action. The concept originated in an essay written in 1833 by the British economist William Forster Lloyd, who used a hypothetical example of the effects of unregulated grazing on common land in Great Britain and Ireland. But how does this apply to Chinese cultural table habits and ways of tackling food waste?

Tackling food waste in China

According to the 2021 UNEP Food Waste Index Report, food waste per capita in Chinese households ranges from 21 kg to 150 kg per year. Despite substantial variations between regions, food waste at the national level in China is astounding simply due to its massive population and accelerating urbanization that increases food consumption in public dining spaces. A 2017 study found that food waste per capita per meal at restaurants in four Chinese cities was 93 g, equivalent to 11 kg per capita per year. This number is very close to that of many developed countries, despite the fact that GDP per capita of China is much lower.

As early as 2013, a food-saving campaign called Clean Your Plate was initiated by the government to crack down extravagant feasts that had long been a norm among officials. The campaign was reinstated in 2020 by the central government to tackle food waste in public dining spaces. To submit to government policies, some restaurants directly intervened in consumers decision making by compelling people to order less or use smaller dishes or even dictate the order. Despite good intentions, this implies that consumers are incompetent in deciding how much they can eat and ignorant of food waste, while suppliers know better than consumers do. Regulation at the table, despite being done with goodwill, not only violates consumer sovereignty and freedom, but may have prescribed a wrong solution to food waste.

The culture of food sharing in China

Many policies aimed at eradicating food waste on the table have failed to address one key aspect of Chinese dining customs: food or dish sharing. In Chinese culture and philosophy, food is at the pinnacle of human needs, and sharing food is at the center of Chinese dining culture. Instead of partitioning food into each diners plate, dishes are placed on the table and are shared by everyone. Almost all Chinese table etiquette serves the purpose of food sharing. For instance, it is not uncommon to see round tables in Chinese restaurants that can seat a dozen of diners, plus a rotating turntable where a second layer of dishes can be placed. A round table is not only more convenient for the sharing of food, but, geometrically, it can place the largest number of dishes compared with a rectangular or square table with the same circumference. So, sharing food at a round table is actually economical.

Food sharing on the table is rooted deeply in collectivism and the hierarchical structure of the Chinese society. In various political or social contexts, people are required to have concerted and coordinated actions and follow strict rules. These social norms are eventually manifested at the table that focuses on sharing dishes. Yet food sharing is not peculiar to Chinese but widespread in many Asian countries which have more or less been influenced by Chinese culture and philosophy for centuries. Food sharing is also common in some Western dining contexts, in particular at buffet and cocktail parties, but they are different from sharing food at the table as Chinese do. Hence, the economic ramifications of table food sharing, especially in public dining spaces or formal dining contexts, are not the same.

Property rights at the Chinese table

When a dish is placed on the table to be shared, it does not belong to anyone, so the property rights of the dish are not and cannot be defined. Namely, nobody has the full right to take it as their own, dispose it or trade it with others, but to share. This is in contrast to Western dining etiquette where each diner, despite sharing the table, orders his or her own dish and takes the full responsibility of their own plate. There is no real sharing of dishes.

Economic theory would predict that there will be the tragedy of the commons arising on the table. As each diner aims to maximize his or her own utility by taking more, the communal dish is devoured very soon with nothing left for the slower eaters. So, not only will there be no waste of food, but there should always be a shortage of food.

This may sound absurd, but not to kids. Even if kids were taught by their parents that it is a virtue to leave something to their siblings, grappling with each other for food, candies, toys and so on will inevitably lead to a tragedy of the commons. This is why allocation of food, candies or toys by parents plays a pivotal role in preventing the tragedy from happening at home. The idea of allocating property rights by parents worked quite well in my childhood.

Understanding the tragedy of the commons

When sharing food on the table especially in formal dining, we tend to take a smaller part than what we really need, to ensure others have a fair portion of the food. This gesture signals that were not only civilized, albeit irrational in an economic sense, but fully understand that the dish is communal. We have no right to take whatever we want. As everyone takes a portion smaller than what he or she desires, total consumption ends up being smaller than the quantity of the food that is supposed to be completed by all diners. This leads to another tragedy of the commons, which is not the shortage of food but a waste of food.

In Chinese dining etiquette, even if everyone has partaken of a communal dish, we intend to leave the last bit in the dish to signal to the host that our needs have been fully satiated. Once the last bit of food is gone, this signal is lost, which puts a tremendous social pressure on the host. So, each dish on the table ends up with some leftovers and this functions as a signal.

On the other hand, even if one believes that leftovers are not good, what a diner can do is finish off their own plate, because this is where he or she can execute the property rights of the food. In fact, having leftovers in ones own plate is considered bad table manners for both adults and kids. However, If leftovers are in the communal dish, nobody is obliged to take responsibility for them, because they do not belong to anyone in the first place.

For this reason, food is more likely to be wasted in public dining spaces such as casual restaurants than at household dinner tables and in formal dining. In the latter cases, the property rights of food are well defined and so are the responsibility of the diner. The tragedy of food waste is exacerbated when dining with superiors or people you are not so acquainted with, since the social distance can further blur the boundary of property rights. The bigger the social distance between diners, the more hesitant people are to partake of the communal dish, leading to greater leftovers. Therefore, it is not surprising that food is usually wasted at wedding and birthday banquets or lavish parties where the social distance is notable.

To share or not to share?

Im not arguing against food sharing but am proposing it should be done in a more efficient way. In fact, not only is sharing food one of the key ingredients of Chinese dining etiquette, but it is also a virtue in enhancing social bonding at the table. In the recent decade, the sharing economy spearheaded by Airbnb and Uber has made sharing penetrate almost every aspect of peoples private lives. If you can even share your living space with strangers, what else can't be shared?

So, sharing is at all the issue. But we need to ensure that the last bit of food also be shared to avoid 'the tragedy of the commons' at the table. Since the reason that the tragedy of the commons happens is the undefined property rights of food, we could delegate the execution of the property rights to the waiter or waitress, who would portion the food into small pieces and allocate them to each diner. Then, the communal dish is privatized, and leftovers, if any, on ones own plate become unfavorable. It has been a common practice especially at formal-dining restaurants that the waiter or waitress take the liberty of privatizing the food, because this reduces a wide range of disposal costs of food waste for restaurants.

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Pittsfield Eying Chicken Keeping Ordinance

The proposed ordinance would place chicken keeping under the Health Department, rather than the ZBA, and reduce the license fee.

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  The Ordinances and Rules Subcommittee is looking at a process to make the keeping of chickens more affordable.

The councilors heard a petition on Monday from Councilor at Large Karen Kalinowsky requesting to amend the city ordinance for keeping chickens. City Solicitor Stephen Pagnotta and Director of Community Development Justine Dodds were asked to weigh in.

Resident Melissa Corbett contacted Kalinowsky and proposed a permitting process for the raising of six chickens that goes through the Board of Health instead of the Zoning Board of Appeals and has an initial fee of $25.

The current application fee, legal announcement fee, and deed amendment fee total more than $500, which the councilor described as exorbitant and not cost-friendly to low-income families.

Corbett seconded that the licensing fee is cost prohibitive for families keeping the chickens for the use of eggs to save money.

"The current process discriminates, in my opinion, against low-income families who want to own chickens and it can easily be simplified, as Councilor Kalinowsky mentioned, by switching it to the Board of Health," she said.

"I looked at 25 cities in Massachusetts with similar demographics and none had a price as high as Pittsfield and very few had anything that went through the Zoning Board of Appeals. All of it was through the Board of Health in other cities and in general in tough economies in the past, it was considered patriotic and helpful to keep chickens, even in a city and urban environment, and I believe that's still true, especially as the economy is changing now, and that backyard chickens should be supported by the city."

Her daughter also spoke during the meeting to make a case for backyard chickens, adding that they provide eggs and kids can learn a lot from having them.

"The fee is so expensive, a homeschool family like ours could not afford them," she said.

"We want to be good citizens and have the right permit but the permit cost is unjust to low-income families like mine."

Dodds explained that the city's zoning ordinance dictates that it has to go through the ZBA and it would require a petition to be put in the hands of another department.

Director of Public Health Andy Cambi said that currently, the department would not have the capability to oversee this. He added that it is possible to recreate it to go through the Board of Health but personally questioned why it would be changed if it is already existing.

Councilors were supportive of the idea but deliberated on the best way to move forward.

The committee will take up the petition again at its October meeting with an update from Pagnotta and Dodds and will receive feedback from the health department at its November meeting.
MCLA, BCC to Host Sixth Natural History Conference Oct. 1

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  The Sixth Annual Berkshire Natural History Conference, featuring presentations by local and regional naturalists and acclaimed authors, will take place on Saturday, Oct. 1 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 pm at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, located at 375 Church Street in North Adams, Massachusetts.

Highlighting topics that range from rare birds to tiny organisms that live within the layers of a leaf, the event includes several renowned speakers and exhibitors. It is open to the public, and students of all ages and disciplines are especially encouraged to attend. General admission tickets are $25; student tickets are $15 and include forum credit. To purchase tickets, visit www.berkshirecc.edu/bnhc or call (413) 236-2127.

"This event brings natural history home to the Berkshires," said Berkshire Community College Professor of Environmental Science Tom Tyning, a lead organizer of the event. "We are excited to gather programs and like-minded people together to help understand and appreciate the deep natural heritage that surrounds us."

Schedule of Events

9 a.m.: Welcome and announcements with MCLA President James F. Birge and MCLA Professor of Environmental Studies Elena Traister

9:20 a.m.: Heather Bruegl, "The Land is Living." To Indigenous peoples, the land is more than just land. It is a living and breathing entity, and it is part of us. Learn what the land means to Indigenous peoples, as well as how they are fighting to keep it protected and have it returned.

9:50 a.m.: Brian Hawthorne, "Massachusetts BioMap 3: Land Protection, Habitat Restoration, Climate Resilience." To protect our rich natural heritage of animals, plants and habitats in the face of land development, pollution, climate change and other threats, it is essential that we continue to strategically protect, restore and manage these invaluable treasures. The new web-based BioMap progra.m. envisions a future that allows the full complement of Massachusetts plants, animals and habitats to survive and flourish alongside people who have a.m.ple access to nature and outdoor recreation, all while ensuring a climate-resilient landscape. Learn how BioMaps features, including an interactive map and habitat restoration resource center, can help ensure a robust, healthy future for us all.

10:10 a.m.: Jonathan Pierce, "The Rare Birds of Berkshire County." This talk is a summary of some of the rarest of the rare birds that have been found in the Berkshires within the past few years. Jonathan will highlight some of the stories of these rare birds, how to look for rare birds on your own, and the best way to document a sighting.

10:30 a.m.: Break. Visit exhibits, take a natural history quiz and bid on silent auction items.

10:55 a.m.: Noah Siegel, "An Introduction to the Mushrooms of Western Mass." Edible, or non-edible? These are only two items of interest in the fungi that blanket the hills and valleys of Berkshire County.

11:10 a.m.: Matt Kelly, "A History of Natural History Writing: The S. Waldo Bailey Journals 1902  1963." Matt tells the story about the fascinating life of one of New Englands great natural history observers as he delves into sa.m.ples of S. Waldo Baileys observations and nature writing. Bailey was not only an extraordinarily keen observer of nature, but he also meticulously recorded his prodigious observations with wonderful prose. His best years were here in Berkshire County.

11:25 a.m.: Tom Tyning, "Baileys Unknown Salamander." As understanding of climate change increases, attention has been focused on both terrestrial and aquatic ecological communities. Not surprisingly, a fair amount of research has concerned itself with economically important species. At the last Berkshire Natural History Conference, Williams College Assistant Biology Professor Ron Bassar pointed out potential threats to our native brook trout. Within a few weeks of that meeting, Tom came across a passage from S. Waldo Bailey describing a salamander he had never seen before in Windsor, and he wondered if it was still there. Find out what he learned.

12:00 pm: Lunch buffet in the Campus Center Gymnasium

1:30 pm: Reminders and announcements

1:35 pm: Vivian Orlowski, "Operation Pollination: Creating Community Partnerships for Pollinator Protection" (via Zoom). This is an opportunity to support pollinators in the region. By acting together to cooperatively conserve our ecological heritage, we can protect pollinator health and habitat, which is so critical for regional food and ecosystems.

2:00 pm: Ben Nickley, "The Berkshire Bird Observatory: Origins, Current Projects and Tales from the Field." Ben will discuss the Berkshire Bird Observatorys origins, aims, current research projects and future endeavors. He will also show many beautiful pictures of birds in hands and relate stories from the pilot spring, summer and fall seasons at Jug End State Reservation in Egremont, Massachusetts.

2:20 pm: Zach Adams, "Nocturnal Flight Calls." Nocturnal flight calls are an intricate part of bird migration that is as much a phenomenon as a kettle of broad-winged hawks or a swarm of nighthawks, but it occurs when most of us are sleeping. The reality of migration for songbirds is that they are mostly migrating at night where their brain activity drops, and they are just flying and making subtle calls. These calls are often just "zips" or "pips," but with a little patience you can hear some incredible sounds that are distinct and identifiable. Zach will share tips and tricks to making the most of nocturnal flight calls as well as introduce a few prominent calls that are great ways to get started experiencing birds at night and understanding what birds are flying over the Berkshires.

2:45 pm: Kyle Bradford, "Ants in Pine Barrens of Western Massachusetts." Pine barrens and other dry, disturbance-dependent natural communities provide habitat for many rare and threatened wildlife, including ants. However, the ant fauna of inland Massachusetts barrens is not well documented. In 2020, Kyle and co-authors Michael Akresh and Chris Buelow sa.m.pled 18 barrens sites, including three in Berkshire County, to document ant diversity and better understand the effects of management, vegetation structure, and other biotic factors on ant diversity and abundance. This talk will discuss what they learned about the ant fauna in Berkshire County and their findings and management implications for inland Massachusetts barrens.

3:05 pm: Rene Wendell, "Early Detection of Exotic Invasives  Whats Next?" Rene will take a look at a few of the recent invasive species to Berkshire County. With first-hand experience with all of these species, Rene will discuss their identification, habitat preferences and why its important to be on the lookout for them.

3:30 pm: Silent auction winners announced

Sponsors of the Berkshire Natural History Conference include Berkshire Community College, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Green Berkshires, Inc., Orion magazine, Berkshire Environmental Action Tea.m., Hoosic River Watershed Association, Willia.m.s College Center for Environmental Studies, Massachusetts Audubon Berkshire Sanctuaries and Hoffmann Bird Club.
New Executive Director and CEO Nathaniel Silver and his predecessor, Jennifer Trainer Thompson, and architects and designers Yugon Kim and Tomomi Itakura discuss plans for the village's welcome center. The ticketing area in the visitor center. The museum store. PreviousNext

Hancock Shaker Village Announces Plans to Reimagine Visitor Center

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  Hancock Shaker Village is embarking on a journey to reimagine its visitor center.

New Executive Director and CEO Nathaniel Silver and his predecessor, Jennifer Trainer Thompson, announced Thursday that TSKP x IKD Architects  based in Boston and San Francisco  has been hired for the task.



Silver said the firm will work with the museum on a master plan and make the center "transformative for the visitor experience."



"It will allow us to give visitors the kind of introduction and backgrounds that they need and that they deserve," he explained. "And will allow us to enhance our unparalleled collection that we have here and protect it for the future."



The cultural institution is in the very early stages of planning but intends to include a vault, library, reading room, digital media room, and climate-controlled collection storage in the final design.



The visitor center is the main entry point to the 62-year-old museum and was built over 20 years ago. It includes the welcome center where tickets are purchased, exhibition rooms, and also the museum store, the cafe and more. TSKP x IKD will also create a master plan for these areas adjacent to the visitor center.



"I'm so thrilled with these developments. Twenty-two years ago, when this was built, it was always the dream to have collection storage on the second floor of the visitor center so, in many ways, this is the realization of the dream and something that the village has been working on quietly for a few years," Trainer Thompson said.



"But in February, the building committee, which is being chaired by Harlow Murray, really cranked up and went through an entire process, request for proposals, interviewed dozens of architectural firms, and was so pleased to find [TSKP x IKD] and to select them."



A cost estimate has not yet been released but construction is expected to begin in fall 2023 and run for about a year. The process will likely require fundraising.



The design firm, comprised of Yugon Kim and Tomomi Itakura, has worked with more than 35 museums and is currently working on an overhaul of the Berkshire Museum's main floor.



"When Tomomi and I first started the firm 11 years ago, this is the kind of project that we envisioned the office being built for," Kim said.



The duo said that they are unique in their work because Itakura looks at the objects and Kim looks at the building, creating a parallel track where they simultaneously look from the object out and from the building in.



'In many kind of museum projects, it's not always that way, it's usually the building and then the objects are fit within that," Kim added.



"So there will be a continuous dialogue between what is the right size and scale of display areas, what is the kind of display experience that the village would like to showcase to highlight the collection. And so there will be a real kind of synergy and melding between interior and exterior to figure out what is the right amount or number."


SVHC Foundation Hires Senior Gifts Officer

BENNINGTON, Vt.  The Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) Foundation has announced the appointment of Stephanie Bosley, MPA, as senior gifts officer.

Until recently, Bosley was the director of Community Partnerships at the Berkshire Community Action Council (BCAC) in Pittsfield, MA. In her new role, Bosley will support the SVHC Foundation in its mission to raise funds for SVHC.

"Stephanie is a highly experienced professional with a proven track record of delivering results for the regions most important causes," said SVHCs Vice President for Corporate Development Leslie Keefe. "We are delighted she has joined our team, and her enthusiasm and expertise will have a very positive impact on our fundraising efforts to help us fulfill our mission of providing exceptional care to our community."

Bosley received a bachelors degree in political science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a masters degree in public affairs from University of Massachusetts, Boston. In addition to her work at BCAC, she has also worked in member services for 1Berkshire in Pittsfield, MA; as a community manager for the American Cancer Society in Holyoke, MA; and as a community development specialist for the Town of Adams, MA.

She has volunteered on the board of directors for the Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires and Hoosic River Revival and in leadership roles with Relay for Life of Northern Berkshire, the North Adams Steeple Cats, Berkshire Business Professional Women, and the Berkshire County Commission on the Status of Women. Bosley was a Berkshire Community College "Forty Under 40" honoree in 2019.

"As a person who has used services at SVHC, I was grateful to have access to award-winning care in our community, especially with the birth of my son," Bosley said. "Thats why I am so pleased to commit my professional efforts to the SVHC Foundation and the work they do to support access to quality care region wide."

Bosley lives in North Adams, MA, with her husband, son, and dog.

The SVHC Foundation has recently launched the public phase of the Vision 2020: A Decade of Transformation Capital Campaign, which has raised nearly $24 million of its $25 million goal over the past 4 years. The project includes the renovation and expansion of the institutions Emergency Department and the construction of an all-new regional Cancer Center.

The new Kendall Emergency Department and Hoyt-Hunter Regional Cancer Center will impact care for residents of southern Vermont, northern Berkshire County, and eastern New York. Those interested should visit svhealthcare.org/vision2020 for additional details.
Successful Reunion for Mount Greylock's First Graduates

Members of the Mount Greylock class of 1962.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  More than two dozen alumni from Mount Greylock Regional School attended the class of 1962's 60th reunion this month.

"We toured the 'new' high school, amazing place," organizer Caroline Martel said. "Much bigger than we had. And an outside classroom, I loved that idea. The science labs were awesome."

Former Mount Greylock Principal Mary MacDonald, who helped drive the effort to do a major renovation and addition project at the middle-high school and now teaches English there, conducted a tour for the reunion attendees.

Martel said 26 people attended the reunion, the first since the renovated school opened for the 2018-19 academic year.
An angry mob attacked Abubakar Tahir, a reporter for Manjaha Newspaper, on 23 September as he was covering the devastating floods in Ganuwar, Kuka village in Hadejia local government of Jigawa State in northwest Nigeria.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns this unwarranted assault on a journalist who was simply doing his job.

A police statement said the mob almost drowned journalist Abubakar Tahir. It took the intervention of some good Samaritans in the area that he was saved from being lynched by the angry youth in the village. His mobile phone was destroyed in the process

The journalist was escorted to the District heads house where he was provided with new clothes and later taken to Hadejia General Hospital for treatment.

The IFJ General Secretary, Anthony Bellanger, said: "Abubakar Tahir was only doing his job as a journalist to inform and educate the public about the devastating flood. There is an urgent need for citizens to understand that journalists are not their enemies but are simply executing their duties in the public interest. We wish Abubakar a swift recovery and call on the Nigerian government to ensure the security and safety of journalists.
Over 1,300 people, including 18 journalists, were detained across Russia on 21 September as rallies against a military mobilization declared by President Vladimir Putin for the war in Ukraine took place in 42 cities across the country. The International and European Federation of Journalists (IFJ/EFJ) demand the release of these citizens who were demonstrating peacefully as well as the journalists who were covering the demonstrations.

According to the independent OVD-Info police monitor, at least 1,328 people, including 18 journalists identified by the independent Journalists and Media Workers Union (JMWU), an IFJ/EFJn affiliate, have been detained nationwide so far. A majority of those detained were women.



Most of the detained journalists wore Press waistcoats and carried professional press cards. Some of them were quickly released, others were given tickets, which put them at risk of fines and short prison terms. According to OVD-Info, an independent monitoring, one journalist, Denis Lipa, was beaten in Moscow by police when he showed his press card.



Journalist Artem Krieger, who was broadcasting live for SOTA-Vision, was arrested, charged with obstructing traffic and issued with a summons to the military registration office.



"This is not the first time we have witnessed the police treating journalists covering protests as protesters themselves," said JMWU office secretary Andrei Jvirblis. "Sometimes this can be explained by the ignorance of police officers, but this time the desire to suppress any information about the protests against the authorities' policy is obvious. A society deprived of information channels resembles an organism whose pain reflexes are atrophied. Such a situation is fatally dangerous."



"These targeted arrests of journalists by the police are a massive censorship operation," said EFJ President Maja Sever. "The Russian authorities are clearly doing everything to hide the wave of protests in Russia. We salute the work of Russian journalists who are taking personal risks to inform the public about the wave of opposition to the war in Ukraine."

" This wave of arrests of reporters is utterly shocking and another blatant attempt to silence the truth. Access to reliable information is the right of every citizen and the Russian government must stop immediately its acts of intimidation against the press corps," said IFJ President Dominique Pradalie.

On 21 September, the Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor warned that media could be fined or blocked for spreading false information on the mobilization activities in Russia.
A number of journalists and civil society groups have urged the Maltese government to launch a public consultation on the media law reform. The International and European Federation of Journalists (IFJ/EFJ) join their affiliate the Institute of Maltese Journalists (IGM) in urging the government to be transparent in the drafting process and openly consult the public before submitting any bill to parliament.

Journalists walk from the Parliament in Valletta, Malta, on October 19, 2017 in a silent commemoration to mark their sorrow at the murder of blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia and to promise that the savage attack will not intimidate the profession. Matthew Mirabelli / AFP

A committee of experts, of which IGM is a member, was appointed by the maltese government and concluded the first part of its remit on 1 June. Its role consisted in providing feedback to a number of laws passed by the government dealing with greater protection of journalists and strengthening journalism. The IGM claims it has pushed for more robust anti-SLAPP legislation and the entrenchment of the media as fourth estate in the Constitution, among others. The recommendations of the group of experts have never been made public despite the insistence of the IGM.

In a letter addressed to civil society groups and journalists on 19 September, the IGM regrets the government has not made public the Committee of experts' recommendations. " The IGM position has always been that the the government should publish the report without delay. The government has failed to do so," said IGM which, as a Committee of expert member, is bound by confidentiality. IGM council also wrote to the Justice Minister reiterating its request for immediate publication.

The second part of the Committee of experts' remit will focus on various aspects related to the Daphne Caruana Galizia public inquiry. The IGM demands that the expert committee hold "active consultation sessions with the industry stakeholders prior to issuing a set of proposals".

A letter signed by a number of journalists, IGM representatives, broadcasters, academic and civil society groups was sent to the Prime Minister on 22 September asking for an open consutlation. "We do no understand how press freedom can be safeguarded by laws that are drafted in secret", they said.

These demands come in the context of the publication in july this year ofan independent inquiry into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia on 16 October 2017. The inquiry found that the Maltese state bears responsibility for creating a culture of impunity as it failed to take action in protecting the journalist.

" No proposal on media legislative reform should be submitted to the parliament without a transparent public consultation. This is all the more crucial in a country where a state holds some form of responsibility for the killing of a journalist, " said IFJ and EFJ.
Exide Industries, a manufacturer of automotive and industrial batteries, plans to invest Rs6,000 crore in a production facility for 12 GWh lithium-ion cells in Karnataka over the next 810 years. According to a BusinessLine(BL) article, the first phase, which has a capacity of 6 gigawatt-hours, is anticipated to be finished in 27 to 30 months.





The building is anticipated to cover 80 acres. A partnership agreement between Exide and SVOLT Energy Technology Co Ltd (SVOLT), a company that manufactures and develops lithium-ion batteries and battery systems for electric vehicles and energy storage, has been signed. According to the BL report, SVOLT is giving Exide an unrevocable right and license to utilize, capitalize on, and market the knowledge and technology required for Li-ion cell production in India that belongs to them. The nation dominates the market for lead-acid batteries. To become a significant player in the Li-ion battery business, it has been making preparations. Nexcharge, a division of Exide, produces lithium-ion battery packs and modules. One of India's biggest such facilities is this one. "Our business is debt-free, and we have enough reserves. In order to finance the project, we would thus consider internal accruals as well as some bridging loan options from banks if needed. Exide's MD and CEO is Subir Chakraborty.
According to persons familiar with the matter, tobacco-to-food consumer giant ITC Limited is competing with Nestle India to acquire a stake in Yoga Bar, an 8-year-old health snack firm located in Bengaluru, as the company seeks growth opportunities.Dabur India and VC firm A91 Capital were among others that looked at the possibility but passed. Sproutlife, the parent company of Yoga Bar, has been looking for strategic and financial investors to finance Rs150 crore.Suhasini and Anindita Sampath's startup received its first round of investment from Fireside Ventures in 2015. According to VCCEdge, VCCircle's data and analytics platform, the venture capital company, co-founded by former Helion Venture co-founder Kanwaljit Singh, invested $3.3 million in the startup from 2015 to 2018.Elevation joined Fireside in Yoga Bar's last equity round, a series C round, which took place in August 2020. The Sampath sisters own 49% of the corporation and are the company's main shareholders.The new investor will most likely become a significant minority shareholder.Yoga Bar offers protein bars and muesli, as well as peanut butter, whey protein, and gluten-free oats.At around 2.46 PM, ITC was trading at Rs346.05 up by 0.28% from its previous closing of Rs345.10 on the BSE.For feedback and suggestions, write to us at editorial@iifl.com
Reliance New Energy Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd. , said today that it has signed definitive agreements to invest in Caelux Corporation, a business based in Pasadena, California, that is developing perovskite-based solar technology.RNEL will spend USD 12 million in Caelux to acquire a 20% interest.This investment will help Caelux speed product and technology development, including the establishment of a pilot line in the United States to expedite the commercialization of its technology.In addition, RNEL and Caelux have signed a strategic cooperation agreement for technical collaboration and commercialization of Caelux's technology.Caelux is a market leader in perovskite-based solar technology research and development. Its unique technology enables high-efficiency solar modules to provide 20% more energy throughout a solar project's 25-year lifetime at a much lower installed cost.In Jamnagar, Gujarat, Reliance is constructing a global-scale integrated photovoltaic Giga plant. Reliance will be able to develop more powerful and lower-cost solar modules by using Caelux's products as a result of this investment and partnership.The transaction will not require regulatory clearance and is scheduled to close by the end of September 2022, subject to the fulfillment of any precedent conditions.At around 9.30 AM, Reliance Industries was trading at Rs2,474.35 per piece, down by 0.46% from its previous closing of Rs2,485.90 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs2,485.50 and touched intraday high and low of Rs2,495.05 and Rs2,473.50 respectively.For feedback and suggestions, write to us at editorial@iifl.com.
WardWizard Innovations and Mobility Ltd , one of the leading manufacturers of electric two-wheeler brand Joy E-bike has signed up deal with one of the oldest and leading Automobiles Distributor of Nepal, The Mahabir Automobiles.

Committed to strengthen green mobility across the world with its advanced e-vehicles, the company has begun its operations here in partnership with Nepals leading distributor and dealer for major automobiles brands, Mahabir Automobile.

The proposed dealership is spread over in an area of more than 2000 sq. ft. the state-of-the-art dealership and workshop provides unrivalled sales, aftersales services and spares operations to the customers. The workshop is further equipped with latest technology and new age components to address customer needs and provide best customer experience.

The dealership will be strategically situated at TEKU, Kathmandu. Mahabir Automobiles is also looking forward to starting its Joy E Bike Distribution Tie up with a Dealership Showroom in Biratnagar, Nepal.

Speaking on the global expansion, Yatin Gupte, Chairman & Managing Director, WardWizard Innovations & Mobility Ltd., said, Taking WardWizard to a new country is an exciting and proud moment for us. This will also help our country adding to meet their export goals.



The Southeast Asian market holds strategic importance in Wardwizards global expansion plans and we were receiving multiple queries from Nepal as the country is working to strengthen green mobility just like India.

Considering it as an opportunity to promote Made in India products globally, we have established our first-ever touchpoint in the region with the leading local partner. As the demand for electric two-wheelers is growing, we will continue to develop and expand in the future as well.



At around 10:25 AM, WardWizard Innovations was trading at Rs54.80 per share lower by 2.75% on the BSE.



For feedback and suggestions, write to us at editorial@iifl.com
Newly-appointed Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Pranay Kumar Verma will take over from Vikram Doraiswami. The latter has been appointed as the countrys envoy to the UK. As per protocol, Verma, a 1994-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, will formally assume office after he submits his credentials to Bangladesh President M Abdul Hamid.

Prior to this posting, Verma was Indias ambassador to Vietnam. With Prime Minister Narendra Modis focus on Bangladesh in his Neighbourhood First policy, Verma, a seasoned diplomat, will play a critical role in taking forward the bilateral diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Earlier, Verma, a mechanical engineer, has served as joint secretary of the East Asia Division at the Ministry of External Affairs. Apart from this, he was also posted as joint secretary for external relations at the Department of Atomic Energy.

Also read: During G20 presidency, India to invite Bangladesh as guest country
MAM | Media And Advertising Guest Column: Think globally, advertise locally: The key to reaching local customers Although an American brand, Colgate is the only brand in India purchased by more than half of all households. Another interesting fact about the brand is that even though Colgate products target the mass population, the middle class is where most of its sales come from. Read More...
On Tuesday, the Gujarati film "Chhello Show," a coming-of-age drama about a young boy's love affair with cinema in a village in Saurashtra, was announced as India's official entry for the 95th Academy Awards. The news was confirmed by the Film Federation of India (FFI).

However, the decision didn't go down too well with many people. Cinema fans were rooting for films like RRR and The Kashmir Files.

Twitter

People even expressed disappointment with Chhello Show being selected as India's official entry into the Oscars.



Twitter

And now, the film body, the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE), has raised strong objections to the decision.

The union asserted that Chhello Show is not even an Indian film and demanded that the Film Federation of India (FFI) reconsider its decision. Gujarati's coming-of-age drama film Chhello Show, released in English as Last Film Show, was directed by Pan Nalin.

Twitter

As per FWICE, India's entry for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards is ineligible as it is a foreign film.

FWICE President BN Tiwari spoke to ETimes and shared,

Twitter

"The film is not an Indian film, and the selection process is incorrect. There were so many Indian films like RRR and The Kashmir Files, but the jury chose a foreign film that Siddharth Roy Kapur has bought."



BN Tiwari also questioned the Film Federation of India (FFI) jury, saying,

web screen grab

"We want re-election of the films, and the present jury is dissolved. Half of them have been there for years, most don't watch the film, and voting is done. If 'Last Film Show' is sent, it will reflect badly on India, known to be an industry that makes the maximum number of films."



He shared that the FWICE will write to Information and Broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur to express their thoughts on the decision.

'Chhello Show' will represent the country in the best international feature film category at the Oscars, produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur's banner Roy Kapur Films, Jugaad Motion Pictures, Monsoon Films, Chhello Show LLP, and Marc Duale.

LAST FILM SHOW (Chhello Show)

The story is inspired by Nalin's memories of falling in love with movies as a child in rural Gujarat.



Set in a remote rural village of Saurashtra, the film follows the story of a nine-year-old boy who begins a lifelong love affair with cinema when he bribes his way into a rundown movie palace and spends a summer watching movies from the projection booth.

The last Indian film to the final five was the Aamir Khan-led "Lagaan" in 2001.

Lagaan

"Mother India" (1958) and "Salaam Bombay" (1989) are the other two Indian movies to have made it to the top five.



Salaam Bombay

The 95th Academy Awards are scheduled to occur in Los Angeles on March 12, 2023.



(To get the latest updates from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment)


Netflix is already struggling to increase its subscriber base and a recent report by Reviews is hinting that 25 percent of Netflix subscribers are planning on leaving the service entirely.

NJ

Netflix hasnt been having a great year, despite some really successful releases including Stranger Things Season 4. It has lost around 1.2 million subscribers in the first two quarters of this year.



As per the report, which surveyed 1,000 Americans to gauge their streaming habits in 2022, the average American is subscribed to four platforms. Netflix is still the most popular with around four out of five individuals subscribed to it, and 70 percent also use it the most, followed, by HBO Max which is at 9.91 percent, Disney+ at 6.18 percent, Peacock at 4.25 percent, Hulu at 3.86 percent, AppleTV+ at 2.70 percent and Paramount+ at 2.70 percent.

Despite this lead, Netflix subscribers are planning to cancel their subscriptions. Of those willing to cancel their packs, two-thirds are blaming the rise in pricing to be one of the major reasons behind this.

variety.com

The report highlights that Netflix has the highest average plan cost among the existing streaming services in the US. Moreover, one in three respondents complains that Netflix doesn't have shows they want to watch, whereas 30 percent have said that they prefer using another streaming service over this.



Itll be interesting to see how Netflix tries to maintain its stance in the US market, especially with a new more affordable ad-based tier coming to the platform soon.

Do you think Netflix will be able to recover from its fall? Tell us in the comments below.



For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com


Floridas joint legislative budget commission approved the $1.5 million consultation to investigate Demotech alternatives earlier this month.

The consultation, according to deputy CFO Julie Jones, could see the creation of a public ratings agency, with findings set to be presented to the executive governors office and the legislature in 2023.

The department expects several competitive bids during the process and hopes to keep costs below $1.5 million, Jones told the commission.

At least four other ratings agencies are understood to already be acceptable to the GSEs. Florida insurers are not required to be A-rated. However, federal mortgage providers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will not accept customers who do not have home insurance from an A rated provider.

Read more: Florida legislators race to find Demotech alternative

Mark Friedlander, Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) communications director, went so far as to query whether the consultation constituted a waste of public funds.

We feel the approval of the $1.5 million budget to hire a consultant was a poor decision by a bipartisan group of legislators [measure received unanimous approval of the committee] and a misuse of the taxpayers money, Friedlander told Insurance Business

The legislatures turn on Demotech marks a US-wide first, according to Friedlander.

We had never seen officials in any state publicly attack the integrity of a third-party insurance rating agency before what happened in Florida in July, the Triple-I comms boss said.

Most Florida residential insurers would be unable to qualify for financial ratings from global ratings agencies due to their current capital position, else they would be rated much lower than the A they may be assigned by Demotech, according to Friedlander, who said this assertion was based on conversations Triple-I has had with ratings agencies.

Consumers have the right to know their home insurer is financially stable and can pay its claims when they suffer a loss, which is why obtaining a credible rating from an independent third party is so essential, Friedlander further set out.

It is not appropriate for state leaders to interfere in this process, he said.

Triple-I and other market sources have argued that Floridas insurance problem has been driven by fraudulent roofing repair schemes and incentives for claims litigation  Florida accounts for 79% of litigated home insurance claims US wide, despite accounting for only 8% of claims, according to Florida Governors Office data frequently cited by stakeholders.

Failure of the states legislature to effectively address the root causes of the Florida insurance crisis  rampant roof replacement claim schemes and runaway litigation filed against insurers  is what is causing further instability in the market, Friedlander commented.

We dont feel the budget action taken last week will benefit insurers or policyholders.

Speaking exclusively to Insurance Business, Demotech president Joe Petrelli pointed out that alternative ratings agencies already currently exist.

Weve already had competition for a very long time and when we got involved in 1996 we were actually the new guy, Petrelli said.

If somebody wants to spend up to a million and a half dollars to find additional competitors, then thats certainly their prerogative, the ratings agency boss added.

Petrelli insisted that the ratings agencys strategy has remained consistent, with its chief ratings officer and ratings manager having both been on board since at least 1996 and 2005 respectively.

Weve been absolutely consistent, and weve had the same people being consistent for 26 years, Petrelli said.

Im at a loss to understand the other side of the equation here.

Sometimes I get a strike and sometimes I get a split and sometimes I get a gutter ball, but I swear I did the same thing every time, Petrelli said, using a bowling analogy. I dont blame the scorekeeper when that happens, I blame myself.

Blaming the scorekeeper, I guess its part of what happens to every ratings agency  but I dont think the scorekeeper and the market conditions are one and the same.

Demotech is in the process of drafting a preliminary report, Petrelli said, that he believes will further show why Florida represents such a chunk of homeowners litigation.

We will share that publicly, Petrelli pledged.

As for next steps, Petrelli said: Were looking forward to spending another 26 years assisting Floridians and insurance companies in Florida.

Theres only so much we can do as a scorekeeper, but were gonna continue to keep score.

Demotechs July warning that upwards of 17 businesses could be set to lose or have their ratings downgraded appeared to spark fears among FLOIR and others, triggering responses from Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier and Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis.

OIR is compelled to take the extraordinary step of scrutinizing these unprecedented actions to protect the Floridians we serve, especially two months into hurricane season, Altmaier wrote to Demotech in July.

This is an example of inconsistent, monopolistic power of a select rating agency and is trying to exert coercive influence over Floridians and policymakers in an effort to thwart public policy according to its own opinions.

The ratings agency was also slammed for using conjecture as part of its process in Patronis letter that same month to the GSEs.

Kyle Ulrich, CEO of the Florida Association of Insurance Agents, labeled Demotech as monopolistic and accused the organizations president of grandstanding in a July blog.

In response to the feared downgrades, FLOIR sought to establish what has been referred to as a temporary reinsurance plan, expected to be run through insurer of last resort Citizens, now the largest property insurance provider in the state.

The forewarned rash of downgrades failed to materialize. As of September 9, when the committee approved the consultation budget, just one company had been downgraded and two had lost their rating, according to a briefing document prepared for the legislature.

Among the casualties, though, was United Property & Casualty Insurance, estimated to have 185,000 residential policyholders in Florida. UPC said it would look to an orderly run off, though Triple-I analysis suggested the insurer could be on the verge of failure.

Read more: UPC lays off staff, insurer on "verge" of failure  Triple-I

Read more: Federal mortgage providers "surprised" by Florida reinsurance plan  Triple-I

Ohio based Demotech, gained a foothold in the Floridian market back in 1996, in the aftermath of 1992s Hurricane Andrew, amid a slew of carrier failures and exits.

The market is again struggling financially, despite not having felt a major storm hit since 2018s Hurricane Michael.

Read more: Florida and Louisiana in crisis  a tale of two states

At time of writing, five Floridian property insurers have failed, and warnings have come  not just from Demotech  that more could follow.

ALIRT expects additional market exits and potential insolvencies in the Florida market given current financial profiles of a number of these smaller Florida domestic insurers, was the message shared with Insurance Business by ALIRT in July.

In fact, our April update on the Florida homeowners market noted that almost 70% of these dedicated Florida insurer[s] had ALIRT Scores that fell into its red zone indicating potential remedial actions needed.

S&P data, supplied by Citizens, has showed that of the top 10 Florida domestic homeowners insurers, just two booked a net underwriting profit in 2021, with none seeing profits in 2019 or 2020.



Source: Citizens and S&P

When approached by Insurance Business on the Demotech issue, FLOIR pointed to previous Bills that have passed through the legislature, tackling areas like assignment of benefits (AOBs) and claims transparency.

Florida has enacted historic and unprecedented reforms designed to promote market stability, but the impact of these reforms will take time, said a FLOIR spokesperson.

OIR is committed to working alongside Governor DeSantis, the Florida Cabinet and the Florida Legislature to promote a stable and competitive insurance market for consumers.
Pie Insurance, an insurtech founded in 2017, started as an MGA. The Washington, D.C.-based company snatched up a P/C insurer in 2021 as part of a plan to transition into a full-fledged carrier.

Allianz X, the digital investment arm of Allianz Group, co-led the Series D investment round for Pie along with Centerbridge Partners. White Mountains Insurance Group joined as a new investor. Previous investors Gallatin Point Capital, Greycroft, Acrew Capital and others also participated.

Including the new round, Pie has raised more than $615 million in venture capital to date. Pies funding level is all the more noteworthy because it comes as investors have soured on technology stocks, unsure of their potential for return.

Eric Hoffman, managing director at Centerbridge Partners, said Pie has proven its capability and fiscal responsibility.

Pies demonstrated ability to grow across multiple distribution channels at impressive loss ratios truly distinguishes them within the insurtech space, Hoffman said in prepared remarks.

Pie CEO John Swigart added that the money will help the company build a lasting and sustainable business.

AgentSync

AgentSync has launched a new platform designed to help improve onboarding and compliance functions that carriers, MGAs and agencies deliver to their agents.

The new product, dubbed AgentSync ID, is a secure and dynamic online insurance profile that lets agents simplify the management of their professional identities. It provides a secure central location for credentials including state licenses, carrier appointments and onboarding requirements, E&O insurance, continuing education credits, payment information, single sign-on apps and more in a single account. AgentSync announced the news at InsureTech Connect in Las Vegas.

AgentSync, based in Colorado, is an insurtech software company focused on building modern insurance infrastructure that connects carriers, agencies, MGAs and distributors. The company launched in 2018.

Cowbell

Cowbell launched a new cyber product and a new specialty insurance company.

The California-based insurtech and growing full-stack insurance company has formally debuted Adaptive Cyber Insurance, a product that bundles risk management tools and insurance services with coverage so policyholders can continuously address changes in the threat landscape.

Adaptive Cyber Insurance will be available to businesses with up to $1 billion of revenue with Cowbell Prime 1000, which will be available in Q1 2023.

Cowbell Specialty is designed to augment Cowbells current business model. It is joining a panel of 15 carriers and reinsurers that currently support Cowbell Prime cyber insurance programs. Cowbell Specialty, paired with Cowbell Re (the companys reinsurance captive), allows for added flexibility and control in serving a fast-growing market.

Zywave

The insurtech Zywave forged a new partnership with Salesforce with a goal of creating more efficient, strategic agency workflows informed by data and content to bring a seamless client experience.

Zywave is centered around cloud-based sales management, client delivery, content and analytics software products and services. Salesforce is a global customer relationship management company with a large insurance industry clientele.

Their partnership will combine Salesforces CRM platform with highly customized and data-driven workflows from Zywave. The goal is that mutual customers will benefit from their collaboration across a number of cloud-based products.

Both companies have been working together for a while, on further integration into the Salesforce Industries platform and Financial Services Cloud including prospecting data connectivity and content management products and services. Their new partnership will expand those integrations to include real-time connectivity for insurance quoting and policy management for ongoing service and renewals.

Bamboo

Bamboo Ide8 Insurance Services closed a $16 million financing round to expand its product offerings and geographic reach.

Eos Venture Partners led the round.

Bamboo is an MGA insurtech launched in 2018 to serve the California property market with homeowners, dwelling, fire and other related products.

Overall, Bamboo has raised $75 million to support its organic growth in California, the buildout of a retail agency and the launch of a Bermuda domiciled captive insurance agency.

Bamboos strategy involves delivering an easy and innovative insurance experience for customers that use technology to reduce inefficiencies. The company relies on proprietary underwriting models and third-party technology.
A federal appeals court has denied the National Rifle Associations First Amendment claims against a former New York insurance regulator who urged insurance companies to consider the risks of doing business with the NRA and other gun groups.

The NRA claimed that former New York Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo infringed its free speech rights when she spoke out against gun violence and issued a press release and guidance letters urging banks and insurance companies in New York to consider the reputational risks of doing business with gun groups including the NRA.

The gun advocacy organization argued that Vullos statements and letters constituted threats of adverse action if insurers or banks failed to support her efforts to stifle the NRAs speech and to retaliate against the NRA.

But a panel of the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has now ruled that Vullo was within her rights as a regulator and entitled to qualified immunity for speaking out as she did. The federal court said that NRAs First Amendment claims rested on whether Vullos statements were implied threats to employ coercive state power to stifle protected speech. Circuit Judge Denny Chin, writing for the three-judge panel, found that was not the case and that Vullos words speak for themselves, and they cannot reasonably be construed as being unconstitutionally threatening or coercive.

The NRAs lawyer, William A. Brewer, signaled that the NRA may appeal the Second Circuit ruling to the Supreme Court.

The Second Circuits decision regarding the NRAs claims against Ms. Vullo misstates the facts, and offends the First Amendment, Brewer said in a statement. He said the NRA is exploring its options, including certiorari to the Supreme Court.

Brewer added that the Vullo opinion endorses a radical idea: that financial regulators can selectively punish businesses to advance public policy, including social issues such as gun control. This is a derogation of the First Amendment that should not prevail.

Background on Case

The case stems from events in 2018 after Vullos department investigated the NRA-sponsored Carry Guard insurance programs offered by broker Lockton and insurer Chubb and similar programs underwritten by Lloyds of London. The DFS investigation concluded that the NRA-endorsed programs violated New York insurance law by providing insurance coverage for intentional criminal acts. DFS also found that the NRA promoted Carry Guard without an insurance producer license. As a result of the DFS investigation, Lloyds of London, Chubb and Lockton signed consent decrees agreeing to discontinue the sale of the NRA insurance plans in New York. Each consent decree expressly allowed the entities to continue to do business with the NRA, however.

Vullos comments came two months after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 high school students and staff were killed. In the wake of the shooting, the NRA and other gun promotion groups faced intense backlash.

The NRA originally filed three complaints. A district court dismissed most of the claims including a selective enforcement claim against Vullo. But the district court declined to dismiss two First Amendment claims against Vullo. The first claim alleged that Vullo established an unconstitutional implicit censorship regime in an effort to chill the NRAs protected speech and the second claim alleged that Vullo unconstitutionally retaliated against the NRA for its protected speech.

The district court first held that the NRA sufficiently pleaded First Amendment violations. It then concluded that Vullo was not entitled to qualified immunity at the motion-to-dismiss stage, even though it was inclined to agree with Vullo that there is no case clearly establishing that otherwise protected public statements transform into an unlawful threat merely because there is an ongoing, and unrelated, regulatory investigation.

Vullo spoke out against gun violence through guidance letters to the industry and a press statement issued by the New York governor. Vullo called upon banks and insurance companies doing business in New York to consider the risks, including reputational risks, that might arise from doing business with the NRA or similar gun promotion organizations, and she urged the banks and insurance companies to join other companies that had discontinued their associations with the NRA.

Vullo was quoted in the press release as stating that business can lead the way and bring about the kind of positive social change needed to minimize the chance that we will witness more of these senseless tragedies, and urging all insurance companies and banks doing business in New York to join the companies that have already discontinued their arrangements with the NRA, and to take prompt actions to manage these risks and promote public health and safety.

Vullo asserted her right to qualified immunity, which the district court declined. But the appeals court differed, finding that immunity must consider whether an officials actions violated clearly established law and this must be viewed in a cases specific context. That is, the contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right. While the exact official action need not have been previously held unlawful, its unlawfulness must be apparent in light of pre-existing case law, the appeals court stated in concluding that Vullo was entitled to immunity.

[E]ven assuming the NRA sufficiently pleaded that Vullo engaged in unconstitutionally threatening or coercive conduct, we conclude that Vullo is nonetheless entitled to qualified immunity because the law was not clearly established and any First Amendment violation would not have been apparent to a reasonable official at the time, the appeals court concluded.

The court noted that it is not aware of any case where a government official has been held to have violated the First Amendment by making statements that use only suggestive language and rely on the power of persuasion.

The Second Circuit said that government officials like Vullo have a duty and a right to address issues of public concern. The court concluded:

The Complaints factual allegations show that, far from acting irresponsibly, Vullo was doing her job in good faith. She oversaw an investigation into serious violations of New York insurance law and obtained substantial relief for the residents of New York. She used her office to address policy issues of concern to the public. Even assuming her actions were unlawful, and we do not believe they were, the unlawfulness was not apparent by any means. Accordingly, even assuming the NRA plausibly alleged a First Amendment violation, Vullo would be protected by qualified immunity in any event.

Topics Claims New York Gun Liability
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said his office has secured a court order for more than $1.7 million in restitution against a car service coverage firm he said denied claims for services and refused to refund payments.

The AG has charged Omega Vehicle Services, which did business as Delta Auto Protect, along with its manager Charles Seruya, with violating consumer protection laws.

Shapiro said consumers nationwide purchased vehicle service contracts from Delta Auto with the understanding that the contract would cover needed repairs but when consumers or repair shops attempted to get coverage or reimbursement, Delta Auto would deny claims and fail to honor their contracts. Some rcustomers said they attempted to contact Omega and Delta more than a hundred times with no success.

Consumers were falsely led to believe that, in signing a contract, their vehicle repairs would be covered, said Shapiro. Instead, Delta Auto Protect blocked consumers at every turn, denying claims, withholding services, and doing everything they could to deny refunding consumers.

Consumers paid anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000 in premiums to begin coverage for potential vehicle repairs. After Delta Auto accepted payment from consumers, many found that the business became non-responsive, even though its website alleged 24/7 customer service, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Since these consumers were unable to obtain the services outlined in their contract, the consumers would have to pay for repairs out of their own pockets.

This court order prevents Delta Auto and Seruya from selling these types of contracts to Pennsylvania consumers. The order sets aside $1,734,314.53 for customer restitution, $17,698.15 in business restitution, and civil penalties of $1,000 for each instance of a past or present violation of the consumer protection law  totaling $826,000.

Customers who believe they may have been a victim have until November 11 to submit a complaint form.

Topics Auto Pennsylvania
Banks face the risk of being sued if they dont stick to their climate goals or try greenwashing their image, a top European Central Bank (ECB) supervisor said on Thursday.

Major Wall Street banks have threatened to leave United Nations climate envoy Mark Carneys financial alliance because they fear its strict requirements could expose them to lawsuits, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

ECB supervisor Anneli Tuominen did not make any reference to Carneys Glasgow Financial Alliance to Net Zero, but said banks faced risks if they dont keep climate pledges.

If banks do not meet the targets they have announced or follow the climate strategy they have communicated, they expose themselves to litigation and reputational risks, Tuominen told a conference in Frankfurt.

She added that obligations under the international Paris Agreement on climate may be enforced by legal means if banks fail to respect them voluntarily.

Climate-related lawsuits are on the rise, according to the Network for Greening the Financial System. In one landmark case last year, oil major Royal Dutch Shell was ordered by a court to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030.

Tuominen also warned against greenwashing  or making exaggerated and misleading claims that suggest a bank is a steward of the environment without real action.

Banks can be accused of greenwashing if the information they disclose is misleading, she said. The threat of legal cases following greenwashing must be taken seriously, and banks should take care to ensure that the information on their sustainable products is correct.

The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), set up in 2021 by former Bank of England governor Carney, is a coalition of assets managers, banks and insurance firms representing $130 trillion in assets directed toward tackling climate change.

(Reporting by Francesco Canepa; editing by Mark Potter)

Topics Lawsuits
This edition of International People Moves details appointments at Gallagher, Aon and Sompo International.

A summary of these new hires follows here.

Gallagher Hires Wright from Nexus for Aerospace Practice

Gallagher has appointed Tim Wright as a consultant in its global aerospace practice. In his new role, Wright is responsible for supporting international space clients with risk management and specialist insurance advice, as well as supporting business development in the sector.

Wright is a highly experienced practitioner having worked in space insurance for over 30 years representing clients whilst a broker and underwriting space risks of all the major operators, satellite manufacturers and launch vehicle providers.

Most recently, Wright was chief underwriting officer for space with Nexus Underwriting which acquired Altitude Risk Partners in 2018, a business which was co-founded by Wright in 2014. He started his career as a broker with Willis in the late 1980s before joining Johnson and Higgins, prior to the firm being purchased by Marsh in 1997. After a period with Aon, Tim became a space underwriter in 2001 at Global Aerospace Underwriting Managers, a position he held until co-founding Altitude Risk Partners.

The space industry is undergoing rapid growth and change with the advent of new industry players complementing existing major operators with a multitude of new satellite constellations, new and developing launch vehicles and software defined satellites, all of which need innovative and forward-thinking insurance solutions to protect their business operating in space, commented Wright.

***

Aon Names Global Head of ESG Transaction Advisory Services

Aon plc, a leading global professional services firm, announced that its M&A and Transaction Solutions practice has further expanded with the appointment of Luise OGorman as global head of ESG Transaction Advisory Services.

In this new role, OGorman will lead the creation and development of a holistic environmental, social and governance (ESG) proposition tailored to M&A and other transactions designed to meet the growing demand for pre-acquisition ESG solutions and post-closing support, including advisory and transactional services for financial sponsor-owned portfolio companies.

Prior to joining Aon, OGorman was a management consultant with a career focus in climate risk, the energy transition, renewable energy and sustainability more broadly. Working with PwC, Baringa Partners and as an independent consultant, she advised central governments and private-sector companies in the UK and EU, particularly in the energy and financial services industries.

Most recently, OGorman advised a multinational financial services company on how to adhere to recent regulations by embedding climate risk considerations into its business and operating model. She completed an MBA at the University of Cambridge having studied International Business as an undergraduate at the University of Applied Science in Dresden, Germany.

Our own recent analysis has shows that ESG considerations have become an important area of focus for companies and their stakeholders  impacting deal structures, valuations and post-deal roadmaps, said Edwin Charnaud, chairman, M&A and Transaction Solutions at Aon. As part of the due diligence processes, buyers will increasingly scrutinize how targets address the volatility of climate risk and contribute to environmental goals, determine if they act socially responsible and identify material, financial, compliance and reputational risks. On the sell-side, dealmakers may want to highlight opportunities to leverage targets positive ESG credentials.

I am thrilled to join Aon to help secure investments, enhance returns and shape better deal decisions for our clients, said OGorman. I am excited to join such a diverse global team of proven professionals dedicated to staying ahead of trends and driving innovation in the M&A space in a way that not only participates in the market, but helps drive it.

***

Sompo Intl Taps Generalis Chiurlo as European Head of A&H

Global re/insurer Sompo International announced the appointment of Stefano Chiurlo as head of Accident & Health Europe. He will be based in Milan, Italy.

Chiurlo comes to Sompo International with more than 15 years of insurance experience, most recently as group head of Health & Accident for the Generali Group. He previously held a number of senior technical and leadership roles in the A&H segment with Generali Group as well as AXA XL, XL Catlin, AXA Italy, ACE and AIG. He holds a masters degree in Political Science from the Universita Statale di Milano, Italy.

Chiurlos appointment is the latest move in the building out of Sompo Internationals A&H capability beyond a traditional London wholesale offering into the UK, Europe and around the world, according to Patrick Corbett, executive vice president, global head of Accident & Health at Sompo International Insurance.

Sompo International refers to Sompo International Holdings Ltd., a Bermuda-based holding company, together with its consolidated subsidiaries. Through its operating subsidiaries, Sompo International is a leading global provider of commercial and consumer property/casualty re/insurance.

Topics Europe A.J. Gallagher Aon Generali Life Assurance (Thailand) Plc. Aerospace
The collapse of a tailings dam in South Africa earlier this month has put the spotlight on the need for binding global regulations of facilities used to store mining waste, investors and industry leaders said.

A dam holding liquid mine waste from a tailings reprocessing operation near the historic Jagersfontein diamond mine in Free State province burst on Sept. 11, releasing a flood of mine slurry that swept away houses and cars, killed one person and injured scores.

Two people remain unaccounted for after the dam collapsed, according to the Free State provincial government.

The disaster has raised questions about who should be responsible for tailings dams oversight in South Africa and across the world.

The Jagersfontein dam burst follows the Brumadinho tailings dam collapse in Brazil nearly four years ago, which killed hundreds when a Vale SA-owned dam collapsed.

In the aftermath of that tragedy, the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management was launched in 2020, aiming to set binding standards for all tailings dams to follow.

But the standards, which are backed by the United Nations and several prominent pension funds, have yet to be adopted by many of the worlds mining companies and host countries.

The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), a mining industry group, that includes Rio Tinto Ltd., BHP and other major international mining companies, said the global standard could reduce the impact of fragmented or inadequate regulation.

South Africa is not unique in the sense of having a patchwork of different regulations and laws that govern tailings management, ICMM Chief Executive Rohitesh Dhawan told Reuters in an interview following the Jagersfontein disaster.

South Africas government, mining industry and experts are still in the process of updating the countrys tailings code to align with the global standard, the Minerals Council of South Africa said. Industry experts say this would provide clearer rules for managing tailings, including facilities such as Jagersfontein.

The experts say, for example, that the global standards require a clearer responsibility and accountability structure than the current mine residue code in South Africa.

The South African government did not respond to a request for comment.

Jagersfontein Developments said it operates its processing facility with the guidance of relevant experts and with the aim of conforming to best international practice at all times.

Dhawan said all 26 ICMM member companies should be complying with the global standard by an August 2023 target date. He said ICMM members are committed to meeting the deadline, despite a shortage of qualified auditors needed to provide independent third-party validation of companies adherence to the standard.

Many of the worlds mining companies, though, are not ICMM members.

Investors should exert more pressure as they have a duty to ensure mining does not negatively impact communities, said Reverend Andrew Harper, chief responsibility officer at the Methodist Churchs Epworth Investment Management, which manages 1.1 billion pounds ($1.24 billion) of assets and holds shares in Anglo American Plc and Rio Tinto.

We ask these companies to go and find this material. We demand it, and then we ask citizens to go and work in some of the toughest conditions and just leave them with a legacy of risk and anxiety, Harper told Reuters.

How are we not moved that people are paying the price of their homes and their lives to feed our appetite?

($1 = 0.8882 pounds)

(Reporting by Nelson Banya, additional reporting by Helen Reid; editing by Ernest Scheyder and Jane Merriman)

Photograph: Mining equipment and an escalator at a South African diamond mine. Photo credit: Bigstock

Topics Legislation
A judge has given tentative approval to a $54 million settlement involving 3M Co., a shoe manufacturer and property owners in western Michigan who said their land and wells were contaminated by toxic forever chemicals.

The deal involves approximately 1,700 properties north of Grand Rapids.

The compounds are in a category known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. They were long used in scores of industrial applications, dont break down easily and can migrate from soil to groundwater.

The settlement is fair, reasonable, adequate and meets the standards for preliminary approval, U.S. District Judge Hala Jarbou said last week, setting a final fairness hearing for March 29.

The class-action lawsuit was filed in 2017 against 3M and Wolverine Worldwide, a footwear company based in Rockford, Michigan.

PFAS were used to make Scotchgard, a 3M waterproofing product used by Wolverine, which has a number of brands, including Hush Puppies, Merrell, Keds, Saucony and Chaco.

There is no dispute that decades ago Wolverine regularly dumped chemical-laced sludge in northern Kent County. PFAS are known as forever chemicals because they last a long time in the environment.

Wolverine said it and 3M are pleased to have settled this lawsuit, and believe this settlement represents another important step towards resolving this matter and doing the right thing for our community.

In 2019, Michigan authorities announced a $69.5 million deal with Wolverine that included an extension of public water to affected areas. Wolverine said Minnesota-based 3M was covering much of the settlement.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Michigan Property
The Chicago City Council approved a settlement on Wednesday that will pay $15 million to the family of a woman who was killed when a police cruiser ran a red light and slammed into her SUV after officers allegedly ignored repeated orders to end their high-speed pursuit of a carjacking suspect.

Without discussion, the council approved the settlement with the family of Guadalupe Francisco-Martinez, a mother of six who was 37 years old when she died. The move was widely expected after its finance committee agreed with the citys law department that the wrongful death lawsuit should be settled rather than allow it to go to trial and risk having to pay an even greater amount.

There will be enormous sympathy for the family of (Francisco-Martinez), who endured such a tragic, tragic event, the law departments counsel, Mimi Ruether, said before committee unanimously authorized the settlement on Monday, the Chicago Tribune reported.

If the case had gone to trial, a jury would have been presented evidence outlined in the lawsuit, including a number of radio dispatches in which the pursuing officers were ordered to end their chase before the crash. Further, the lawsuit contended that the officer who struck Francisco-Martinezs vehicle was driving well over the speed limit and disregarded a red traffic light at the intersection where the collision occurred.

The crash, which prompted revisions of the police departments vehicular pursuit policy, occurred on the citys northwest side on the night of June 3, 2020. Francisco-Martinez was coming home from her first day on a new job when, with the green light, she drove into an intersection where the officer slammed into her vehicle with a marked police cruiser.

The driver of the vehicle that police were chasing remains in the Cook County Jail, where he is being held on $1 million bail on charges of first-degree murder, vehicular hijacking and other counts.

The department came under criticism for that chase as well as others that ended with crashes. Last year, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that a pursuit litigation analysis prepared for Mayor Lori Lightfoot concluded that 180 out of 270 police chases in 2019 ended in crashes, including crashes in which a total of eight people died.

The city is defending itself in another lawsuit filed by the family of an 84-year-old retired teacher, Verona Gunn, who in was killed in 2019 when a police cruiser crashed into a police van in an intersection and careened into a car in which she was a passenger.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Law Enforcement
New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles!

A federal appeals court has cleared one paint manufacturer and ordered a retrial for two others in a case in which a jury in 2019 awarded $6 million to three men whose brain damage was blamed on their years of exposure to lead paint.

The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals cleared paint manufacturer Sherwin-Williams while ordering a new trial for two others, Armstrong and DuPont.

The federal court found that the district court judge in the 2019 jury trial improperly expanded the scope of the states risk contribution theory of liability with regard to lead paint to let the jury find liability where it should not have.

Under the risk contribution theory, a plaintiff does not have to prove that a specific defendants conduct caused his injury. Instead, liability can be apportioned among the pool of defendants that could have caused the injury.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court in a decision in 2005 (Thomas ex rel. Gramling v. Mallett) applied the risk contribution theory of liability only to makers of a paint ingredient known as white lead carbonate; it did not extend it to paint makers that did not themselves manufacture that ingredient but used another companys carbonate in their products.

The three manufacturing defendants argued that the risk-contribution theory applies to them only if they manufactured white lead carbonate, which they did not. The court agreed:

[T]he Wisconsin Supreme Court has made clear that such companies are liable under the risk contribution theory only in their capacity as manufacturers of white lead carbonate pigment. As a practical matter, this means that a paint manufacturer cannot be liable under the risk contribution theory for selling a finished product that contains another companys white lead carbonate. Only the manufacturer of the white lead carbonate can be liable.

The lower courts error requires a new trial because it significantly expanded the scope of the defendants potential liability and the evidence at trial. It also deprived the defendants of the opportunity to build an appropriate defense, the 7th circuit opinion (Glenn Burton, Jr. v. E.I. DuPont de Nemours) states.

Judge Amy St. Eve, in the 62-page opinion for the court, noted that for years, the defendant paint manufacturers had litigated under the assumption that they were liable only in their capacity as pigment manufacturers. Less than six weeks before trial, however, the defendants learned for the first time that they were also subject to liability as manufacturers of paint products containing white lead carbonate.

The courts last-minute, legally incorrect ruling left them scrambling to adapt their defenses to the plaintiffs newly enlarged theory of liability, St. Eve wrote.

The lower district trial court based its more expansive reading of Thomas on the Wisconsin Supreme Courts use of the word marketed. The district court maintained that a company that sells lead-based paint is marketing lead pigment, even if it is not producing it. Thus, the court reasoned, a paint manufacturer could be liable for selling paint containing another companys white lead carbonate. In disagreeing with this approach, the federal court called it a strained interpretation of marketing.

The appeals court also found that the lower court erred in allowing testimony on lead paints effect on IQ from a witness without questioning the reliability of the unprecedented methodology set forth by the witness.

The federal government banned lead-based paint for residential use in 1978 and Wisconsin followed suit in 1980. Even after these bans, however, lead-based paint remained on the walls of many homes throughout the country.

The plaintiffs in these consolidated Wisconsin cases are three young men who grew up in Milwaukee homes that had lead-based paint on the walls. They were diagnosed with lead poisoning as young children in the 1990s or early 2000s. Years later, they sued several manufacturers of white lead carbonate, seeking compensation for brain damage and other injuries resulting from their ingestion of lead paint particles.

After years of pretrial litigation, the plaintiffs went to trial against five manufacturers of white lead carbonate. The jury found three of the manufacturers liable and awarded the plaintiffs $2 million each. The three defendants found liable were E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., SherwinWilliams Co., and Armstrong Containers. The three appealed, challenging a long list of the district courts rulings.

The appeals court concluded that Sherwin-Williams is entitled to judgment as a matter of law; Armstrong is entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the strict liability claims and a new trial on the negligence claims, and DuPont is entitled to a new trial on both claims.
Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as PFAS, have served as a key component in numerous industrial and consumer products for decades. These forever chemicals, which have been associated with environmental contamination and adverse health outcomes, have garnered steadily-growing attention from regulatory authorities, the plaintiffs bar, and, by extension, the insurance industry.

The current case to watch regarding PFAS is the multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, Judge Gergel presiding. The MDL is comprised of well over 2,000 cases brought by both individual plaintiffs and state and local governments arising out of the manufacturing and/or use of aqueous film forming foam, also known as AFFF. The use of AFFF, which was historically employed in firefighting operations, including those undertaken by the United States military, allegedly causes the release of two types of PFAS into the environment  PFOS and PFOA.

On September 16, 2022, Judge Gergel denied a motion for partial summary judgment filed by defendant 3M Company and other AFFF defendant manufacturers on the government contractor immunity defense. Although not an insurance coverage decision, the ruling is significant in the context of PFAS litigation and could have insurance coverage implications.

This content was originally published on White and Williams website . It is republished here with permission.

Government Contractor Immunity Defense

The government contractor immunity defense was developed to protect the federal governments interest in obtaining products it needs at reasonable prices, despite potential defects in those products. Under the defense, a government contractor can assert immunity with respect to an allegedly defective product if the following three criteriaor prongsare met: (i) the government approved reasonably precise specifications for the product; (ii) the product conformed to those specifications; and (iii) the contractor warned the government about the dangers of the product that were known to the contractor but not to the government. A doctrine known as the continuous use doctrine allows a contractor to satisfy the defenseincluding the first prongwhere the government continued to use the product after acquiring full knowledge of the products risks.

In 1969, the Navy promulgated a military specification (MilSpec) for AFFF. 3M initially supplied MilSpec-compliant AFFF that contained PFOS. In 2000, 3M discontinued manufacturing PFOS, and other contractors that used a different AFFF-manufacturing process known as telomerization stepped in to fill the void left by 3Ms exit from the market. Although telomer-based AFFF does not contain PFOS, it can degrade into PFOA in the environment. The moving telomer-based AFFF manufacturers included Tyco Fire Products LP, Chemguard Inc., Kidde-Fenwal, Inc., National Foam, Inc., and Buckeye Fire Equipment Company.

Decision Denying Partial Summary Judgment

In its order denying partial summary judgment on the government contractor immunity defense, the MDL court ruled that: (i) the MilSpec did not constitute a reasonably precise specification under the first prong of the defense; and (ii) there are fact issues as to whether the AFFF manufacturers timely warned the government about the dangers of their AFFF products that were known to them but not to the government and whether the continued use doctrine applies.

The court held that the MilSpec was not a reasonably precise specification because it was only a performance spec, which allowed each manufacturer to come up with [its] own magic witchs brew concocted from at least hundreds of different types of [PFAS], rather than a design spec that would have required the use of particular chemicals.

With respect to the third prong and the continued use doctrine, the court held that all of the AFFF manufacturers had significantly greater knowledge than the government about the properties and risks associated with their products and knowingly withheld highly material information from the government. The court described a laundry list of evidence that 3M, in particular, not only failed to timely disclose critical information to the government, but also actively sought to discredit adverse information that was disclosed.

Similarly, the court identified evidence that the telomer-based AFFF manufacturers, primarily through the Fire Fighting Foam Coalition (FFFC), misled the government into believing that their AFFF products would not degrade into PFOA, even though they learned that their products could or would in fact do so. In addition, the court determined that the governments fevered regulatory activity immediately following 3Ms allegedly belated disclosures, and the governments subsequent decision to restrict the use of telomer-based AFFF to only mission critical activities, cast the applicability of the continued use doctrine into further doubt.

Potential Impact on Insurance Coverage

The courts order and opinion, although not made in the context of insurance coverage, could have major coverage consequences. General liability policies generally require any injury or damage for which an insured seeks liability coverage to arise out of an occurrence, which policies generally define as an accident. To the extent an insured knowingly or intentionally causes injury or damage or should have known that it would cause injury or damage, liability for such injury or damage may fall outside the scope of coverage. Courts usually place the burden on the insured to prove that injury or damage arose from an accidental occurrence.

Additionally, most general liability policies contain an expected or intended exclusion that excludes coverage in connection with liability for injury or damage that an insured expects or intends. Accordingly, if an insured expects or intends injury or damage, coverage may not be available. Courts typically place the burden on the insurer to establish that an expected or intended exclusion applies.

The MDL courts decision cites to evidence proffered by the plaintiffs that 3M and the telomer-based AFFF manufacturers intentionally concealed information about known dangers of their products. Depending on how a court construes a policys definition of an occurrence and/or expected/intended exclusion, the decision and the evidence to which it refers (if substantiated) could provide support for a coverage defense based on either or both of those policy provisions.

However, the law of the applicable jurisdiction may provide additional parameters. For example, whether there was an occurrence or whether injury or damage was expected or intended may depend on whether only the act that caused the injury or damage was anticipated or intended, or whether the injury or damage itself was anticipated or intended. Similarly, proof of the insureds actual subjective awareness or intent, as opposed to what the insured should have known objectively, may or may not be required.

In addition, the order and opinion could have implications with respect to which policies, if any, are triggered by allegations of PFOS and PFOA-related harm. Many general liability policies do not provide coverage in connection with injury or damage about which the insured knew prior to the policy period. Therefore, policies issued after an insured found out that PFOS or PFOA was causing harm may not provide coverage in connection with such harm. Similarly, insurers may argue that they should not be responsible for damages that an insured failed to mitigate by failing to disclose risks as soon as it became aware of those risks (even if the insured discovered the risks after the policy period). Again, the courts decision discusses in considerable detail what the AFFF manufacturers may have known about the dangers of PFOS and PFOA, and when they may have known it.

Of course, the court denied partial summary judgment only with respect to 3M and five other AFFF manufacturers. The evidence it cites may apply to other insureds to varying degrees, or not at all. Parties should evaluate whether and the extent to which the evidence in the MDL pertains to them and should consider other evidence that may bear on the types of coverage issues discussed above.

If you have any questions or need more information, contact Sara C. Tilitz (tilitzs@whiteandwilliams.com; 215.864.7150), or Lynndon K. Groff (groffl@whiteandwilliams.com; 215.864.7033).

Topics Lawsuits
A proposed state question on whether to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Oklahoma wont appear on the November ballot, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, dealing a blow to Democrats who hoped the question would energize liberal voters.

The high court rejected a request by supporters of State Question 820 to require the State Election Board to print the question on the general election ballot.

There is no way to mandate the inclusion of SQ820 on the November 2022 general election ballot, Justice Douglas Combs wrote in the majority opinion. SQ820 will be voted upon by the people of Oklahoma, albeit either at the next general election following November 8, 2022, or at a special election set by the Governor or the Legislature.

Oklahomans for Sensible Marijuana Laws gathered enough signatures to qualify the question for a statewide vote, but because it took longer than usual to count the signatures and for the courts to consider several legal challenges to the proposal, there wasnt enough time to print the ballots ahead of the November election. Officials with the Oklahoma Election Board said earlier this year the statutory deadline to call a state question election for November was Aug. 29.

It is disappointing that a few people with their own political interests were able to use the process to prevent voters from voting on this in November, campaign director Michelle Tilley said in a statement. However, we cannot lose sight of how far we have come. This is a big deal. Now the petition phase is finished, and Oklahomans will be voting to legalize recreational marijuana here, and we can soon realize all the benefits it will bring to our state.

If approved by voters, the question would legalize the use of marijuana for any adult over the age of 21. Marijuana sales would be subjected to a 15% excise tax on top of the standard sales tax, and the revenue it generates would be used to help fund local municipalities, the court system, public schools, substance abuse treatment and the states general revenue fund.

The proposal also outlines a judicial process for people to seek expungement or dismissal of prior marijuana-related convictions.

Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt said he opposes the proposal and that the countrys patchwork of state laws on marijuana has become problematic.

Do I wish that the feds would pass legalized marijuana? Yes. I think that would solve a lot of issues from all these different states, Stitt said during a recent interview with The Associated Press. But in our state, just trying to protect our state right now, I dont think it would be good for Oklahoma.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Cannabis Oklahoma
Workers compensation carriers in North Carolina continue to be bound by a 44-year-old presumption that a death during work duties is work-related, even when a doctor testifies that a heart condition was the cause of death.

The Pickrell presumption is difficult to rebut in North Carolina, said Winston-Salem attorney Barbara Ruark, who represented Carolina Mutual Insurance Co. in the appeal.

Ruark was referring to a 1988 North Carolina Supreme Court decision, Pickrell vs. Motor Convoy Inc., in which the court laid down the rule that if a death occurs within the course of employment, the workers death is compensable in most circumstances.

This week, in Frye vs. Hamrock and Carolina Mutual, the North Carolina Court of Appeals relied on Pickrell and found that the employer/carrier must pay the maximum allowed by the states workers comp statute: 500 weeks of death benefits to the family of deceased dump-truck driver Toney Frye, along with $10,000 in funeral expenses and payment of some medical bills incurred at the scene. North Carolina law allows two-thirds of the workers average weekly wages to go to dependents, up to a maximum of $1,184.

We had hoped for a different outcome, but well stand by the appeals courts decision, Ruark said Thursday.

The insurers expert, Dr. Brent Hall, performed an autopsy after the accident and concluded that the cause of death was heart disease, not usually a compensable condition for a truck driver. But the states Industrial Commission and the appeals court said evidence suggests that losing control of the asphalt-filled truck on a steep mountain curve precipitated Fryes heart attack.

In his deposition, Dr. Hall testified that a stressful event such as losing control of a speeding truck could predispose one to a heart attack,' reads the courts Sept. 20 opinion, written by Judge Valerie Zachary.

And the Pickrell presumption can apply, whether the medical cause is known or unknown, the court noted.

The tragedy happened in 2017. Frye, 55, was driving the dump truck down Highway 226 in western North Carolina, a road notorious for accidents, the court said. News reports in recent years show multiple crashes on the stretch of road. Fryes truck crossed into the other lane and collided with an oncoming vehicle, killing a passenger in the car.

A special agent with the state Bureau of Investigation happened to see Frye barreling down the mountain and testified that he appeared to be alert, with a cigarette in his hand. Heavy smoke was coming from the rear brakes, suggesting that, at that moment, Frye had not yet suffered the heart attack and was trying to slow the truck. A state trooper also testified that the tire tracks at the scene showed that Frye was trying to control the truck and had been applying the brakes.

And an emergency worker and a medical examiner said that the truck landed on its side and the top of the cab had pinned the driver against the steering wheel, leaving him with significant trauma to his head and back. The death certificate indicated the immediate cause of the death was trauma from the collision.

Despite that, the insurer argued that its requested autopsy from Dr. Hall rebutted the presumption. The carrier also noted that case law has some nuances to it. First, the Pickrell decision states that the presumption applies when the worker is found dead by co-workers. Its not exactly clear the moment Frye died. Emergency crews worked for more than 20 minutes to free him from the wreckage, and co-workers were not the ones who found him, Carolina Mutual explained in court filings.

The appeals court said the insurer was construing Pickrell too narrowly on that point.

The court also explained that, yes, a 2006 state Supreme Court ruling held that a claimant was not entitled to the Pickrell presumption because the worker had died from a brain hemorrhage, a non-compensable condition. But a heart attack is different, especially if the cardiac arrest is the result of an accident or extraordinary exertion or extreme conditions, such as Toney Frye may have experienced inside the runaway truck, the court said.

Neither the record in this case nor the binding findings of fact support defendants argument that the only credible evidence in this case establishes that [decedent] was already deceased at the time of the actual collision or that the heart attack precipitated [decedent]s loss of control of the vehicle,' the Frye opinion noted. Therefore, defendants have failed to meet their burden of showing that [decedents heart attack] occurred prior to and caused [his] injury by accident.

Ruark said that at this time Carolina Mutual has no plans to appeal.

Topics Auto Personal Auto North Carolina
News

Erbium oxide Er2O3 powder properties

The biggest immediate challenge for the EU will be replenishing its depleted gas inventories. While the EU could still increase LNG imports from countries such as the US, such purchases would be more expensive.

Refilling natural gas storage space to historical average levels this year could cost 70 billion euros, a sevenfold increase, compared to 10 billion euros in previous years. "

A complete replacement for Russian gas is not only very expensive, but it also may not be possible.

In the next 12 months, there is little way to meet the demand for a "normal" year in the absence of Gazprom, which also includes Erbium Oxide.





Erbium oxide Er2O3 powder overview

Erbium oxide Er2O3 powder is a pink powder with the chemical formula Er2O3. It is easy to absorb moisture and carbon dioxide, and it becomes hexagonal crystal when heated to 1300, which does not melt. Synthesis of oxides from lanthanum metal lanthanum.



How is erbium oxide Er2O3 powder produced?



Erbium oxide is obtained by reacting erbium nitrate or erbium sulfate solution with alkali, separating and burning.

Erbium oxide Er2O3 powder properties



Erbium oxide is a pink powder with the chemical formula Er2O3. Easy to absorb moisture and carbon dioxide. When heated to 1300  C, it transforms into a hexagonal crystal and does not melt.

Erbium oxide Er2O3 powder application



Erbium oxide is mainly used as an additive for yttrium iron garnet and a control material for nuclear reactors. Also used in the manufacture of special luminescent glass and infrared absorbing glass. It is also used as a glass colorant. The only stable compound is Er2O3. Oxidation is a bulk-centered powdery substance with cubic and monoclinic structures. Er2O3 also has a larger magnetic moment at 9.5MB. The preparation methods of other properties and oxidation properties are the same as those of lanthanides. Oxidation can make pink glass.

Technical Parameter of Erbium Oxide Er2O3 Powder :

Product Name MF Purity Particle Size Melting Point Density Color Erbium Oxide Er2O3 99.9% -100 mesh 2387 8.64 g/cm3 Pink

Erbium oxide Er2O3 price



The price of erbium oxide Er2O3 will fluctuate randomly due to factors such as Erbium Oxide.

Inquery us
Only one in three people in Ireland would know what to do if they saw someone having an epileptic seizure despite more than half of adults knowing a person with epilepsy, new research shows.

The survey also shows 78% of people believe there is a social stigma attached to epilepsy. Some 91% agreed there is a lack of understanding of epilepsy among the public.

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterised by a tendency to have recurring seizures. It has been estimated over 45,000 people in Ireland have epilepsy, a ratio of one in a hundred people.

This includes between 10,000 and 15,000 people living with uncontrolled seizures.

However, 81% of the public underestimated the prevalence of epilepsy in Ireland, believing it to be a rare condition, the survey found.

It found that 56% of adults who responded know someone with this condition, and 57% have witnessed an attack.

Despite this, just 35% answered yes when asked: Do you think you would know what to do if someone was having an epileptic seizure in your presence?

A further 42% said no and 23% saying they do not know whether they know or not.

The research, published on Friday, was conducted by Amarach Research on behalf of Epilepsy Ireland.

Peter Murphy, the CEO of Epilepsy Ireland said the findings show further education around this illness is needed.

Weve seen a real shift in how people with epilepsy are included and supported in education and employment, he said.

80% of respondents in the Amarach survey agreed that, in most cases, having epilepsy does not affect a persons ability to work.

This is particularly heartening because negative attitudes towards epilepsy in the workplace has been a hugely challenging issue for many people living with the condition in the past.

He said the findings show the overwhelming majority of people recognise the need for further awareness and education around epilepsy.

Some 87% of those who answered said they think it is important to know what to do if they witness someone having a seizure.

Advice on how to act includes knowing that an ambulance is not always needed.

An ambulance could be called if this is a persons first known seizure or it lasts more than five minutes or more seizures follow without recovery among other emergency situations, Epilepsy Ireland advises.

Witnesses are advised not to restrain someone having a seizure unless they are in danger, and to stay with the person until they recover fully.

Epilepsy Ireland's annual conference takes place in person in Dublin and online tomorrow, Saturday September 24, and will launch a strategic plan for supporting people with this condition over the next five years.

Our new strategy is ambitious and resourcing it  especially in the current economic climate  will be a major challenge, but it is a plan that we are fully committed to achieving on behalf of all people we represent, Mr Murphy said.

 To learn more about epilepsy, visit the Epilepsy Ireland website where you can also find out how you can attend the charity's annual conference online on Saturday, September 24.
A mother has been charged with the murder of her children, Mikey and Thelma Dennany, in a car blaze in Co. Westmeath.

Thelma, aged five, and her two-year-old brother Mikey were fatally injured when their vehicle went on fire at around 4 pm on September 9.

Their mother, Lynn Egar, 48, appeared before Judge Bernadette Owens at a late special sitting of Mullingar District Court on Thursday evening.

She did not address the proceedings and, following a five-minute hearing, was remanded in custody to appear again at Athlone District Court via video link on September 28.

A passerby came across their car engulfed in flames at Lackan, a townland on a rural road linking the villages Multyfarnham and Coole.

The mother-of-four and toddler Mikey were pulled out, and later emergency services found the remains of Thelma inside the car.

Mikey was rushed by ambulance to the Midlands Regional Hospital Mullingar, but he was pronounced dead there.

Their mother, Lynn Egar, also suffered injuries but was airlifted to a Dublin hospital, where she remained for over a week and a half.

Detectives based at Mullingar Garda station commenced an investigation and arrested her on Wednesday.

The children's mother was detained under section four of the Criminal Justice Act, which allows gardai to hold an individual for questioning for 24 hours, after which they must be released or charged.

A criminal investigation has been launched into a car fire which left two children dead and their mother seriously injured in Co Westmeath.

Ms Egar lived at the family's home in Winetown, Rathowen, Co. Westmeath.

Detective Sergeant David Donnelly told Judge Owens that he charged her with two counts of murder at 7.22 pm. "In reply to charge after caution she made no reply," he said, adding that she was handed a true copy of the charge sheets.

She is accused of the murders of Thelma and Michael Dennany at Lackan, Multyfarnham, on September 9, contrary to common law.

The district court does not have the jurisdiction to consider bail in murder cases, which only the High Court can consider.

Gardai applied for a remand in custody to appear at Athlone District Court via video link next Wednesday.

Ms Egar, dressed in a purple hooded zipped top, black trousers and navy shoes, leaned forward and bowed her head at the start of the hearing but then turned and faced the judge. However, she remained silent throughout the proceedings.

Thelma, 5, and Mikey Dennany, 2, who died in a car fire in Multyfarnham, Co Westmeath on September 9.

Defence solicitor Damien Coffey told Judge Owens there was consent to his client appearing by video link at the next hearing. Legal aid was granted after the judge noted the solicitor had shown the investigation team a statement of Ms Egar's means.

Judge Owens asked Mr Coffey if anything else was required on the remand warrant, but the solicitor replied, "nothing further arises," and he was granted permission to speak with his client after she was led out of the courtroom. She was remanded to the Dochas Centre, the women's unit of Mountjoy Prison in Dublin.

The bodies of the two children were returned to the family after gardai completed the formal identification process. Hundreds of mourners turned out for the children's funeral service on September 15 at St Mel's Cathedral before they were laid to rest at Cullyfad Cemetery in Longford.
Vladimir Putin is ready to use a nuclear weapon in his ongoing attempt to conquer Ukraine. Or so says Vladimir Putin. The reason is that his conquest has been justly defeated so far and he sees no other way forward. The prospect of such an escalation is appalling. A line would be crossed. Nuclear-armed powers round the world would regard it as a licence. It might not be the end of the world, but it might just be the beginning of the end.

For all the cheerleading of western politicians over Putins humiliation, it is crucial to emphasise how disciplined has been the wests support for Kyiv. Yes, Nato took a gamble in advancing its borders eastwards after 1991, George Kennans most fateful error of the post-cold war era. It taunted Russias paranoia and risked the emergence of a belligerent patriot, which is what happened in the case of Putin. But at no point has the west taken up arms against Russia, even when Russia successively attacked and repatriated areas of neighbouring Georgia, Chechnya and even Ukraine.

Moscows spring invasion of Ukraine was on a wholly different scale from the 2014 intrusion into Donbas. It was so blatant and brutal that outside military support for Kyiv was as much humanitarian as strategic. But from the start, Nato did nothing to substantiate Moscows lie that the west had taken up arms against Russian territory. There were to be no long-range missiles, no bombers or western troops fighting on the ground. Only with economic sanctions did the west lend plausibility to Putins claim that it was attacking Russia itself.

Putin has done his nation much harm. He has revealed his army as a Potemkin farce, his generals as incompetent sycophants. Many of his people, proud Russians long supportive of his bombast, are now openly hostile to his mobilisation. Polls show that a quarter to a half of Russians oppose the war. Only the spectacular discomfort caused to the west by Moscows retaliatory gas sanctions has afforded the Kremlin some respite. Otherwise Putin is bereft of options. Like many a commander forced into retreat, he is tormented by the choice of escalation or abject defeat.

During the cold war, Europes civilians were taught how to respond to a potential thermonuclear exchange. The horror of mutual assured destruction was so ingrained it fed through into great-power diplomacy and created an infrastructure of back channels and accident aversion. The merest hint of danger, as during the Cuban crisis in 1962 and a radar malfunction in 1983, brought a swift return to sanity.

There is no reason  or should be no reason  to see the present crisis as a return to the cold war and nuclear confrontation. Great powers are not in existential contention. Even Putin is threatening only tactical nuclear weapons. Given the weakness of his forces on the ground, it is hard to see what gain such weapons would bring him in what is a conventional infantry war over territory. They would be a gesture, and one that would surely lose him support both at home and abroad among his putative admirers in China and India. As for a nuclear response from the west, it would serve no tactical purpose and merely open the gates to escalation.

We are told that if Putin was to fall, even harder-line figures within his circle would replace him. Russia is like all regimes under sanctions. Besieged elites drive opponents and moderates underground or into exile. They become entrenched and ever less vulnerable to diplomacy and economic pressure. Yet all wars must end. Russias in Ukraine has been going on for eight years and has increasingly taken on the colours of a proxy conflict of west against east. Therein lies the danger of Putins escalation.

Western aid has enabled Ukraine to drive Russias troops back towards the 2014 frontiers. Ukraine and the west have been united in defying a brutal and authoritarian regime, and have been largely successful. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, now risks that unity by stating that he wants ever more western aid to drive Russia out of all of Ukraine, including Crimea.

While his cause remains just, there must come a point when a war to conquer all of Ukraine becomes one of where to draw a line of armistice, as with Russias infringements of its neighbours sovereignty in Chechnya, Georgia, Crimea and Donbas. At some point, perhaps after one more forceful Ukrainian drive eastwards, there must come a different effort, to encourage the parties to agree a peace. Recent deals on wheat exports and prisoner exchanges show there are channels in place.

That will mean a new challenge. The world of compromises, plebiscites, borders and guarantees may be less dramatic than that of guns, bombs, tanks and drums. But it has to be the world of the future. It has to presage the rebuilding of Ukraine. There is no conceivable interest in reviving the horrors of nuclear conflict between east and west just because one Russian ruler took leave of his senses.

- The Guardian
Burma 77-year-old Villager Killed in Myanmar Junta Raids in Sagaing

Villagers fleeing the junta raids in Khin-U on Wednesday. / CJ

A 77-year-old villager was killed by Myanmar junta forces in Khin-U Township, Sagaing Region, on Monday during village raids, according to residents and resistance groups.

Over 10,000 residents from around 20 villages fled their homes in the west and east of the township this week.

Junta raids started on Monday when 12 soldiers were reportedly killed in a resistance ambush on the Ye-U-Khin-U highway, according to resistance groups.

After the ambush, regime forces raided nearby Thargaya village and killed the 77-year-old resident, according to Khin-U True News, the media wing of the resistance.

A Khin-U Peoples Defense Force (PDF) spokesman told The Irrawaddy on Friday that the body was found in a village well.

At least 10 houses were burned down, he said.

On Tuesday evening, three junta vehicles were ambushed with landmines on the Khin-U-Shwebo highway, reportedly killing more than 12 soldiers.

On Wednesday, thousands of villagers in the east of the township fled their homes when around 100 troops from Thabeikkyin Township in Mandalay Region crossed the Ayeyarwady River with motorboats.

Six regime soldiers were killed in an ambush near the riverbank, the resistance groups said.

The Irrawaddy could not independently verify the reports.

On Thursday, many of the troops headed north along the Ayeyarwady River, the PDF spokesman said. Other troops raided villages along the Khin-U-Ye-U highway before returning to Khin-U town on Thursday evening.

Most villagers have not returned to their homes, fearing further junta raids.

The junta faces regular attacks from resistance groups and ethnic armed organizations across the country.
Burma Myanmar Junta Shelling Kills Child in Kachin State

Mg Zwe Naing Win, 17, with his father after being killed by junta shelling in Shwegu Township, Kachin State, on Thursday. / Kachin Waves

A child has been killed and other residents seriously wounded when Myanmars regime shelled two villages in Shwegu Township, Kachin State, on Thursday evening.

After a resistance attack, soldiers stationed on an island village in the Ayeyarwady River shelled two villages on the riverbank, according to the Shwegu Peoples Defense Force (SPDF).

Mg Zwe Naing Win, 12, from Moesit village was killed and many other residents were injured. A female villager lost both her legs and a mans arm was seriously injured.

Regime troops then raided and occupied the village and stopped male residents from leaving, the SPDF said.

An SPDF spokesman called on armed groups not to attack regime forces near civilian areas to prevent villages being targeted by the junta.

Junta forces regard civilians as enemies and they respond indiscriminately, he told The Irrawaddy on Friday.

Last Friday, 11 children and other seven villagers were killed when MI-35 helicopters and then ground troops attacked a school of around 200 pupils in Let Yet Kone village, Depayin Township, Sagaing Region.

The corpses and around 17 others, including injured children and teachers, were taken away by junta forces.

Also last Friday, junta shelling killed two sisters, aged six and 10, along with two other civilians, while they sheltered at a monastery in Moebye in southern Shan State.

Since the 2021 coup, at least 382 children have been killed or injured and more than 1,400 have been detained and an estimated 142 have been tortured, according to a June report by Thomas Andrews, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar.

The international community, including the UN and other ASEAN members, are being criticized in Myanmar for failing to act against the juntas killing of civilians.

On Wednesday, the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar, an independent group of prominent former UN human rights staff, said the UN and ASEAN must act to end systemic junta violence against children or they could be seen as complicit in the regimes crimes.

How many innocent children need to be killed for the UN and ASEAN to take definite action? asked council member Yanghee Lee, a former UN special rapporteur on Myanmar.

Since the February 2021 coup, an estimated 2,311 people had been killed by the junta and 15,598, including government leaders, have been detained, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights group documenting junta crimes.
Burma Myanmar Junta Tries to Confront Anti-Regime Beauty Queen Stranded in Thailand

Han Lay raises international awareness of the regime's brutality against Myanmar people on stage at the Miss Grand International 2020 pageant in March 2021. / Miss Grand International

Representatives of the Myanmar military regime attempted on Thursday night to gain physical access to an anti-regime Myanmar beauty queen who is stuck at Bangkoks Suvarnabhumi Airport after being denied entry by Thai immigration.

Miss Grand International Myanmar 2020 Han Lay, who has been stranded at the airport since Wednesday upon her arrival from Vietnam, wrote on her Facebook: Myanmar Police are now at the Suvanabumi Airport and they are trying to reach me out to talk with me.

She told The Irrawaddy on Friday morning that some Myanmar officials claiming to be police had asked Thai authorities to let them meet her.

Thai authorities asked me if Im OK to meet them. I said no. I have informed the UNHCR, too, she said, referring to the UNs refugee agency.

She was meeting with UNHCR officials on Friday.

On March 27 last year, less than two months after the February 2021 coup, Han Lay appealed through the media in Thailand, where she had been competing in a beauty pageant, for international help to rescue Myanmar from the regime.

Since then she has been living there and speaking out against the regime. On Sept. 18 she left for Vietnam to renew her visa and was detained at the airport on her return to Thailand.

In her interview with The Irrawaddy on Thursday, she said Thai immigration told her that her passport was on an Interpol list and was registered as missing.

Thai immigration police denied detaining her, saying they merely restricted her to the transit area so she can leave for another country, because she doesnt have the proper documentation to enter the kingdom.
Burma Myanmar Military Defector Reveals How Junta Killed Sagaing School Kids

Myanmars junta has deployed Russian-made helicopters in attacks on resistance strongholds.

A helicopter pilot who defected from the Myanmar military has told how junta pilots attacked a village school in Sagaing Region last week, killing 11 children. They [the pilots] dropped bombs despite seeing kids running on the ground, said the defector.

Some 11 children, including some as young as seven, were killed and more than a dozen were wounded when two Russian-made military regime Mi-35 helicopters opened fire on a school in Let Yet Kone Village in Sagaings Depayin Township on the afternoon of September 16. Junta soldiers then attacked on the ground. Around five adult villagers were also killed in the assault.

In an exclusive interview with The Irrawaddy, Captain Zay Thu Aung, a Myanmar Air Force pilot who defected from the military soon after the February 2021 coup, talked about how he thought the attack on Let Yet Kone Village unfolded.

He said that, given the situation on the ground, the helicopters wouldnt have flown higher than 300 to 400 meters. And as the village school was surrounded by fields, and not hills or forest, the helicopter pilots would have clearly seen the children in the school compound.

There is no reason that they [the pilots] wouldnt see the children below them, said Zay Thu Aung.

A volunteer teacher at the school also told The Irrawaddy that children were playing in the schoolyard when the helicopters arrived. The teachers shouted to the children to come into the classroom to stay safe. But as the children were running inside, the teacher heard a loud explosion. The blast was from a rocket fired by one of the regime helicopters.

Photographic evidence of the attack

Zay Thu Aung explained that photos of the aftermath of the attack give clues about how the school was targeted.

He said the helicopters would calmly aim at the school building, as there was no fire directed at them, and open fire with rockets and machine guns.

In the photos, we can see roofs ripped off, concrete pillars destroyed and we can also see pieces of human bodies. All these prove that the school was hit by rockets, said the defector.

Teachers and villagers said the helicopters fired at least three rockets, as well as firing machine guns for nearly an hour. At the time of the attack, about 200 young students were attending classes.

I feel ashamed to say that I flew Mi-35. People who were once friends of mine are committing such disgusting crimes, Zay Thu Aung wrote on his Facebook immediately after the incident.

While denouncing the attack as a war crime during his interview with The Irrawaddy, Zay Thu Aung said the major culprit responsible for the carnage was the regional commander who ordered the attack and the pilots themselves.

No one has identified the pilots responsible for the attack. But the military currently has 13 Mi-35 helicopters and there are only 26 pilots who can fly them, said the defector.

Why was Sagaing targeted?

Mi-35 helicopters are mainly used to support infantry columns involved in heavy fighting. Now, though, the regime is using them along with MI-17 helicopters to launch surprise attacks in Sagaing Region, one of the strongholds of the resistance movement.

Right after the Mi-35 helicopters make their surprise attacks, Mi-17 choppers are then used to drop junta soldiers into the target area. The regime troops then kill and detain villagers and torch houses.

That is exactly what happened in Let Yet Kone Village.

They [the Myanmar military] dont launch such raids in Kayah and Chin states and areas controlled by ethnic armed organizations. The military fears that, even after the Mi-35 attacks, the 75-odd soldiers that are usually dropped by the Mi-17 helicopters wont be able to survive on the ground in those areas, said Zay Thu Aung.

But in Sagaing the regime believes that 75 soldiers is enough to combat Peoples Defense Forces (PDF) so the troops can easily exit the target area, added the defector.

How to prevent such attacks in the future

Captain Zay Thu Aung suggested that resistance groups in Sagaing come together as a collective force to control the territory strategically.

What we need to understand is that for the military, they have only one combined force regardless of the fact that the military is divided into the army, navy and air force. They all operate as one, he said.

While PDFs need weapons that can shoot down helicopters, what is more important is that they need to form a collective force under a strong chain of command and operate strategically, added Zay Thu Aung.

National Unity Government leadership is also important for this, he noted.

A big new threatSU-30SME fighter jets

Zay Thu Aung also warned of the threat of two newly-arrived SU-30SME jets, which arrived in Myanmar five months ago but have yet to be used in action. Russia delivered the multi-role jets to the regime in March.

Russia used Su-30SME in Syria in 2015. Zay Thu Aung said that the SU-30SME can carry up to eight tons of bombs, and so have far more destructive power than other planes used by the Myanmar military.

He said that the junta could use the SU-30SME to target PDF bases.

For the junta, they will use all ways to crush the PDFs. International sanctions havent worked on them [the military] since 1988 and now they have Russia to provide them with weapons, he said.

Words for those who are still serving in the Myanmar military

You will have seen the news that innocent children were killed. All the people of Myanmar now know that military pilots will even kill innocent children. Be aware that you cant even call yourself a human being if you continue to follow the barbaric regime and harm innocent civilians. See the truth, get out quickly and avoid committing crimes that will haunt you all your life, said Zay Thu Aung.
Burma NLD Lawmaker Killed at Myanmar Military Interrogation Center

NLD lawmaker U Myo Myo Kyaw

U Myo Myo Kyaw, a member of the Kachin State parliament from the National League for Democracy (NLD), has been killed at a military interrogation center at the headquarters of the Northern Command in Myitkyina, Kachin State, according to his political colleagues and local residents.

The lawmaker won a seat for the NLD in the state legislature representing Mohnyin Townships Constituency No. 2 in the 2020 general election. He was arrested with Ko Sai Maung, an anti-coup protest leader from Hpa-kant Township, at a checkpoint at the entrance of Myitkyina town on Aug. 24.

The checkpoint, known as the Mile 21 checkpoint, is notorious for stringent checks on travelers by regime soldiers and police. Many political activists have been abducted at the checkpoint, according to local residents.

The pair were arrested after military troops found treasury bonds issued by the shadow National Unity Government (NUG) on their phones, along with photos related to Peoples Defense Force resistance groups. Relatives and colleagues said U Myo Myo Kyaw died at the interrogation center after being tortured.

His family was unable to get any information about him for over a month, and only recently learned that he died in the interrogation center, according to his political colleagues.

U Win Naing, a member of the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) who won a seat in the Lower House of the Union Parliament in the 2020 election representing Mogaung Township, announced U Myo Myo Kyaws death in a post on Facebook on Friday.

His post reads, Ko Myo Myo Kyaw has been killed in the interrogation center as he has been badly tortured by the military council, according to reliable sources. His family were not given the body and dont know the date of death or where his body was cremated.

A Hpa-kant resident who participated in a protest against the junta military and who is close to Ko Sai Maung told The Irrawaddy they were aware of the death of U Myo Myo Kyaw and had also heard that Ko Sai Maung has been moved from the Northern Command in Myitkyina to another location.

In the last week, we heard they had both died in the interrogation center, but it wasnt confirmed. Now we have heard about the death of the MP, but we heard from some authorities that Ko Sai Maung is not in the interrogation camp. I think they have moved him into the prison, he said.

As of Thursday, 12,462 people had been detained and 2,311 killed in the 20 months since the Feb. 1, 2021 military coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
Analysis Midday Palace Coup: Myanmar Militarys Proxy Party Leadership Power Struggle

U Than Htay, Min Aung Hlaing, U Khin Yi and U Thein Sein.

The recent reshuffle of the leadership of the Myanmar militarys proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) reveals that the party is once again in the grip of a power struggle.

On September 14, USDP chair U Than Htay was replaced as acting chair by current vice chair U Khin Yi after a meeting of senior leadership that lasted three days. However, the ousting of U Than Htay has to be confirmed at the partys conference, which is slated for early October.

In August 2015, a similar unexpected reshuffle occurred, when security forces entered the USDP headquarters in the capital Naypyitaw in what was dubbed the midnight coup. A day later, it was announced that Shwe Mann, the then speaker of the lower house of Myanmars parliament, had been removed as the USDP chair amid a growing rift with then President U Thein Sein.

Seven years later and the USDP is again in a similar situation, as the former generals who hold senior positions in the party jostle for power and influence ahead of the USDP conference, according to party sources.

The USDP is now divided into two camps  those loyal to U Than Htay and those urging his replacement. The group who want former Brigadier General U Than Htay out is believed to be backed by junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, according to members of the USDPs Central Executive Committee (CEC).

U Than Htay has faced growing opposition in recent months. Senior USDP figures including U Maung Myint and U Hla Swe have openly criticized his leadership, while others including U Thaung Aye and U Myint Hlaing are finding fault with him within the framework of party rules and regulations.

Junta chief working behind the scenes

Last month, then USDP vice chair U Khin Yi was removed as the juntas Minister of Immigration and Population, with Min Aung Hlaing reportedly wanting him to concentrate on preparing the USDP for next years proposed election, which the coup leader sees as a way out of Myanmars political crisis.

When U Than Htay underwent surgery for back problems in August, his opponents in the USDP saw that as an opportunity for him to step down of his own volition. But after U Than Htay refused to step down, a three-day meeting of the USDPs CEC from September 12-14 resulted in U Khin Yi replacing him as acting chair of the party.

That has led some observers to call the apparent purge of U Than Htay a midday coup in contrast to the midnight coup that ousted U Shwe Mann in 2015.

It is a midday palace coup this time, one U Than Htay opponent on the CEC said.

However, U Than Htay appears reluctant to relinquish the reins of power. He has continued to go to his office and his ousting was only revealed on September 20, when U Thaung Aye and U Myint Hlaing broke the news via a video call with USDP members.

Those who support U Than Htay say that he is only temporarily handing over his duties as party chair because of his health problems. But his issues with his back have not stopped U Than Htay from going to the USDP headquarters or from meeting with his supporters, an indication that he is going to fight to maintain his status in the USDP.

The power struggle is likely to continue until the party conference in early October, when a new leadership will be elected. But U Than Htay is unlikely to beat U Khin Yi, given that he appears to have lost the support of Min Aung Hlaing, said political observers.

The fact that U Khin Yi was appointed chairman before the party conference is a message telling us who we should vote for at the conference, said one CEC member.

Over 80 USDP members will vie to join the CEC at the October conference, with half of them becoming the senior leadership of the party for the next five years.

In recent times, USDP chairs including U Thein Sein, U Shwe Mann, U Htay Oo and U Than Htay were not elected at the party conferences, but hand-picked by former military dictator U Than Shwe, resulting in the party splitting into factions.

Ex-president U Thein Sein to use his influence

Now the USDP is again facing a future where different groups are vying for power. Some senior USDP figures want former president and USDP chair U Thein Sein to use his influence and intervene.

We are asking Uncle U Thein Sein to help choose the new chairman, a senior party member told The Irrawaddy.

But the choice appears to have been made earlier this summer, following Min Aung Hlaings meetings with U Than Shwe and U Thein Sein.

Although U Thein Sein apparently wants to stay away from politics like his mentor U Than Shwe and has avoided publicly commenting on the USDPs power struggles, he was behind both the midnight coup that ousted U Shwe Mann and the replacement of U Than Htay earlier this month.
The Key Biscayne residential market was on fire during the period from Sept. 12 to 16, with eight transactions totaling $14.829 million.

Nationwide, home sales and home prices dropped in August as the mortgage rate increased. Then in mid-September, applications for mortgages picked up.

Over in Brickell, a Colorado developer has drawn up plans for Empire Brickell, a 26-story, 250-unit apartment tower that is proposed to rise on SW Third Avenue and SW Ninth Street. And Citadel Securities new headquarters are expected to go up on Wall Street South, aka the financial district, bringing high-paying jobs in finance and tech.

The billionaire founder, Ken Griffin, has big plans for Brickell and Miami.

Continue reading to see what sold in KB and Brickell.

Key Biscayne

$1,970,000

3 bed/3.5 bath/1,830 square feet

701 Crandon Blvd., Apt. 402, Key Biscayne, FL 33149

Fully-furnished and remodeled three-bedroom unit featuring Sub-Zero and Wolf kitchen appliances. It was listed for $2,075,000.

$939,000

2 bed/2 bath/1,042 square feet

881 Ocean Dr., Apt. TH16, Key Biscayne, FL 33149

Two-story townhouse in Casa Del Mar was listed for $975,000. It has a large patio with direct access to the pool and beach areas.

$1,650,000

4 bed/3 bath/2,442 square feet

143 E Enid Dr., Unit 22, Key Biscayne, FL 33149

Large four-bedroom townhouse featuring two-car garage, vaulted ceilings, a remodeled kitchen and roof terrace. This property was sold for asking price.

$830,000

2 bed/2 bath/1,435 square feet

170 Ocean Lane Dr., Apt. 903, Key Biscayne, FL 33149

Fully renovated, two-bedroom, two-bath penthouse was listed for $1.1 million.

$2,000,000

2 bed/2 bath/1,875 square feet

881 Ocean Dr., Apt. 16D, Key Biscayne, FL 33149

Remodeled two-bedroom unit at Casa del Mar boasting unobstructed ocean and Biscayne Bay views.

The property includes top-of-the-line appliances, marble bathrooms, impact glass windows and a private foyer. It was listed for $2.085 million.

$3,800,000

6 bed/6 bath/3,990 square feet

7 Turtle Walk, Key Biscayne, FL 33149

This residence has six bedrooms, six bathrooms, a two-car garage and 3,990 square feet of living space. It was listed for $3,700,000 and last sold for $2.6 million in August 2016.

$2,640,000

3 bed/3 bath/3,120 square feet

881 Ocean Dr., Apt. 5A, Key Biscayne, FL 33149

Spacious three-bedroom unit featuring a wraparound balcony with direct ocean views. This completely remodeled corner unit comes with new impact windows, two walk-in closets in the primary bedroom, a laundry room and two storage spaces.

$1,000,000

2 bed/2.5 bath/1,340 square feet

222 Sea View Dr., Unit 103, Key Biscayne, FL 33149

Both seller and buyer were represented by Corinne Dodd with Cervera Real Estate Inc. in this transaction. This Seaview townhouse sold for the asking price.

Brickell

$1,550,000

3 bed/2 bath/1,870 square feet

495 Brickell Ave., Apt. 2801, Miami, FL 33131

Furnished and remodeled three-bedroom condo at Icon Brickell Tower 2 features water views from the 28th floor. The Icon has top amenities, including a movie theater, pool, gym, game room, valet parking and a restaurant. This property was sold for asking price.

$395,000

1 bed/1.5 bath/750 square feet

1650 Brickell Ave., Apt. 105, Miami, FL 33129

Two-story, remodeled loft located on Brickell Avenue featuring 18-foot ceilings, white ceramic flooring and a balcony on each level.

$350,000

Studio/1 bath/362 square feet

1300 Brickell Bay Dr., Apt. 2612, Miami, FL 33131

Studio located in the heart of Brickell with the washer and dryer inside the unit. Theres a tenant in place through May 2023.

$365,000

1 bed/1 bath/630 square feet

170 SE 14th St., Apt. 2007, Miami, FL 33131

This one-bedroom sold for $5,000 above the asking price.

$1,040,000

2 bed/2.5 bath/1,265 square feet

68 SE Sixth St., Apt. 1112, Miami, FL 33131

Nicely furnished two-bedroom unit in Reach Brickell City Centre featuring an open floor plan with spacious balcony. It was listed for $1,080,000.

$490,000

1 bed/1 bath/688 square feet

950 Brickell Bay Dr., Apt. 2102, Miami, FL 33131

One-bedroom unit featuring Biscayne Bay and Miami views, within a few minutes walk to Brickell City and Centre and Mary Brickell Village.

$550,000

3 bed/2 bath/1,760 square feet

2333 Brickell Ave., Apt. 312, Miami, FL 33129

Miami New Realty represented both the seller and buyer in this deal at Brickell Bay Club. This corner unit was listed for $699,000.

$700,000

1 bed/1 bath/984 square feet

495 Brickell Ave., Apt. 1507, Miami, FL 33131

This was a double ender for Fortune International Realty Brickell Inc. Listed for $715,000, this one-bedroom at Icon Brickell has state-of-the-art amenities.

$467,500

1 bed/1 bath/895 square feet

2475 Brickell Ave., Apt. 2409, Miami, FL 33129

One-bedroom with nice views of Biscayne Bay and the Miami skyline features marble flooring, granite countertops and new appliances. It was listed for $475,000

$980,000

2 bed/2.5 bath/1,200 square feet

88 SW Seventh St., Apt. 3005, Miami, FL 33130

2016, listed for $1,100,000

Two-bedroom unit with a large terrace featuring bay and city views. The unit comes with high ceilings, marble flooring, Bosch appliances, built-in 48-bottle wine cooler and designer faucets.

$530,000

2 bed/2 bath/910 square feet

1100 S Miami Ave., Apt. 3607, Miami, FL 33130

Two-bedroom unit at Millecento was listed for $600,000.

$598,675

2 bed/2 bath/1,110 square feet

31 SE Fifth St., Apt. 2502, Miami, FL 33131

Maria Carrillo with Keyes - Brickell Office represented both the seller and buyer. The corner unit in Brickell on the River comes with Miami River and city views, two balconies. It was listed for $600,000

$1,225,000

3 bed/3 bath/2,898 square feet

2333 Brickell Ave., Units 1101 & 1103, Miami, FL 33129

Double ender, Silvio De Cardenas III with Brickell Bay Club Realty, Inc. Listed for $1,350,000, this developer combined corner units; features enclosed wraparound balconies, lots of living space and marble flooring.

$450,000

1 bed/1 bath/754 square feet

500 Brickell Ave., Apt. 3903, Miami, FL 33131

One-bedroom unit at 500 Brickell East Tower features views of Miami River, Biscayne Bay and the citys skyline, new porcelain flooring and incredible amenities. This property was listed for $475,000.

To read last week's real estate report, click here.
GUEST OPINION: WordPress is widespread and for good purposes. It's very user-friendly, cost-free, adaptable, and, most of all, highly expandable. With plugins, you can extend WordPress to include almost any functionality you can think of.

1. What is WordPress Plugin?

If youre the perfect newbie, WordPress plugins are just like the apps on your phone. Your phone already performs admirably, but you can use applications to give it new features. The same is true for the WordPress content management system (CMS). Although the WordPress platform is already highly sophisticated, plugins allow for greater functionality. For example, plugins let you add more features like e-commerce, SEO, spam prevention, enhanced forms, social media, greater security, live chat, visual page design, and more. There are a vast number of WordPress plugins available, both free and paid. There are already more than 59,000 free plugins in the official WordPress plugin repository alone!

This implies that there may be a plugin for almost every function you want to add to your WordPress website. However, you may occasionally require something available from the abovementioned plugin. In that instance, you could either start from scratch when creating a WordPress plugin or alter an existing plugin. WordPress began as a primary application to enable you to establish a blog. It has evolved into a robust content management system and application framework, owing primarily to plugins.

2. What can WordPress Plugins do?

WordPress plugins are small tools that interact with and run-on top of WordPress software. This means that, in addition to blogs, you can use WordPress to create nearly any type of website.

Create a website for an online store using the WooCommerce plugin for WordPress.

Utilizing the top WordPress directory plugins, create a company directory.

Create your own podcast website with WordPress, among many other things.

There is a saying among WordPress users that goes, "There's a plugin for that. "It is possible to do anything you want on your WordPress website. There is undoubtedly a plugin available if the feature is not offered by default in WordPress.

Plugins can be small and only provide one function, such as putting an image on the sidebar, or they can also be quite large and act as their platforms, such as WordPress eCommerce plugins and WordPress membership plugins. Many feature-rich plugins have their add-on plugins to extend them, just like you would extend WordPress.

3. Why do you want to create a Plugin?

WordPress is one of the most popular development platforms. This implies that you'll have no trouble finding resources to assist you in creating CMS plugins. Additionally, WordPress plugins have very high-income potential. Although there is plenty of competition, your plugin may quickly become popular and be used on hundreds of websites if you have an improved approach to a well-known issue. In actuality, most downloadable plugins were initially created to aid in problem-solving. The beauty of WordPress is that you can share solutions you create for your website on the plugin market. However, many developers prefer to make their plugins available to other users to help them work around similar difficulties that may be bothering them. Lastly, WordPress is a fantastic learning tool for coding. It has been operating for 19 years and offers a ton of documentation and tools to get you started. Additionally, if your plugin is frequently used, it has a sizable user base, which can aid your development visibility.

4. How to create a Plugin?

Let's examine the six steps for creating a WordPress plugin.

Do some research and plan:

The WordPress Plugin Directory includes thousands of tools. Therefore, the first thing you need to do is conduct some research to determine whether your idea has already been thought of. But even then, you might still carry out your strategy. Investigate similar plugins and consider how you can improve on them. As an alternative, add to what is offered with features and your unique post type. Check the status of any installed plugins as well.

For instance, there might be a chance to either incorporate it or offer an alternative if a plugin hasn't received an update in a while or is incompatible with the most recent version of WordPress. To determine whether there is a sizable market for the plugin you have in mind, you can also look at the number of active installations. It's also a good idea to test the plugin on your site to evaluate what it does well and what may be improved. It would help if you thought about how, you would promote your plugin. Some developers make a specific website for each of their services. You must consider both the pricing and subscription alternatives if you intend to monetize your plugin.

Finally, it would be best if you familiarized yourself with WordPress's coding requirements. This is crucial if you want to share your plugin with other people. Developers should abide by these coding standards while making WordPress themes and plugins, as they serve as a collection of best practices and guidelines.

Set up a testing environment:

The next step is to create a testing environment. As a newbie, you will probably pick up a lot of knowledge along the way. Therefore, you should refrain from trying out new things on a live site. A local environment or staging site will allow you to test your plugin as you work on it privately.

Create the Plugin file:

Once you've set up your staging environment, you can start working on your plugin. The first step is to make a folder for it in the directory of your website. To access the files and folders on your website, use a Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) client like FileZilla.

If you're using FileZilla for the first time, you'll need to enter your credentials, which include your login and password. Your hosting account will have this information. Create a new folder for your plugin in wp-content/plugins after connecting to the directory of your website:

The next step is writing a PHP file and putting it in this folder. Open your chosen text editor and type the following information into it to accomplish this:

<?php

/**

* Plugin Name: test-plugin

* Plugin URI: https://www.your-site.com/

* Description: Test.

* Version: 0.1

* Author: your-name

* Author URI: https://www.your-site.com/

**/

You'll have to modify the information above to reflect your specifics. You can save your file whenever you're prepared. Do not forget to use the PHP file extension (e.g., my-first-plugin.php). You must then upload this file to the plugin folder you already made. Once you've completed this, go to the Plugins page in the WordPress dashboard of your test site. Your new plugin should be visible at this point.

If you activate this plugin, it will only accomplish something later. But from this point forward, WordPress will accept it as a helpful add-on.

Add code to your plugin:

Each plugin is unique. But they all have similar elements. For instance, all plugins communicate with WordPress using hooks. A hook is a method through which a plugin connects to the pre-existing code of WordPress core's programming. In another way, a plugin inserts itself at the hook to add or modify the site's functionality. Hooks play a crucial role in WordPress development. Numerous hooks can be used as plugin triggers, and you can make your own if necessary. When developing your plugin, you must consider two sorts of hooks:

Actions: The majority of hooks extend or change WordPress functionality.

Filters: These are used to alter an action's functionality.

You must become familiar with hooks and how they operate to code your plugin.

Test your plugin:

As you work on your plugin, you must save your work frequently and test your changes on your staging site. Additionally, it would help if you were looking for any security flaws so you could fix them before releasing your plugin. Test your plugin on a live site when you're satisfied with it. Once more, test your plugin for flaws and vulnerabilities properly. Before testing your plugin on your live site, it's a good idea to make a backup of it. In this manner, you can fix your material if something goes wrong.

If you're satisfied with the functionality of your plugin, you might make it available to other developers so they can use and test it. You may receive insightful comments as a result. Additionally, you may request that they test your plugin's stability by attempting to break it. You should export your plugin to a zip file for easy distribution and installation to accomplish this. Find the folder for your plugin in the site's directory, then use the right-click menu to send it to a compressed (zipped) folder:

The files in your folder will be assembled into a zip package that you can quickly distribute when you select a destination. It might be necessary to download the plugin folder from your SFTP client before compressing it if you are testing on a live website.

Click Add New on the Plugins page of your dashboard to install your plugin on a WordPress site. After that, select a.zip file to upload to your site by clicking on Upload Plugin:

Choose Install Now after selecting the compressed file. The plugin will then be unpacked and installed on your website by WordPress:

After that is finished, select Activate Plugin. Your plugin is now live, and that's all!

Distribute your Plugin:

You can begin distributing your plugin once you've written and tested it. Examining the most effective techniques will help.

5. Publish Your Work on the WordPress Plugin Directory:

Submitting your plugin to the WordPress Plugin Directory allows you to share your work with the community and receive visibility. Utilize the enormous WordPress user base to draw in new customers. Before submitting your plugin for approval, you must confirm that it adheres to best practices and the Detailed Plugin Guidelines. Your plugin may not be inspected and approved right away. After your plugin is approved, you must add your files to the SVN repository. After that, users of WordPress will be able to install your plugin on their websites.

6. Upload the Plugin to Your Website:

Construct a website for your plugin and post it to the WordPress directory. This website can be used to provide further information about your plugin. Additionally, you could add guides, instructions, and marketing data. Developers frequently advertise their premium plugin on websites while offering a free or lite version in the WordPress directory. Users can download and test the product this way before upgrading. You have the option to pay to unlock some advanced features. You can also provide a multi-tiered membership plan. For example, you might create many premium versions of the plugin to give users more options.

7. Quick Summary:

WordPress allows you to create your plugin and share it with other users because it is an open-source platform. While some coding expertise will be beneficial, you may quickly write a simple plugin to improve the functionality of your site. You can start selling the premium versions of any plugins you make once you've more experience.

Here's a summary of how to develop your WordPress plugin:

Research the concept.

Create a testing environment.

Make the primary plugin folder and file.

Update the plugin file with the code.

Test out your plugin.

Make your plugin available on WordPress.org.

If you decide to use WordPress for your website, check out WPBlazer, a WordPress management tool.

About the author:

Saelvizhi. V grew up in Coimbatore city with a lot of time on her hands and a vivid imagination. A passion for writing began to take hold at 12 when her first poem was published in a popular magazine. She began with poems and progressed to essays, articles, blogs, and other forms of writing. Then, she became a full-time writer. Saelvizhi enjoys spending time with her friends and family and loves to explore different cuisines. She has made it her goal to one day hike to the pinnacle of Everest and become a mountaineer.
Merry will report to Data#3 Chief Customer Officer (CCO), John Tan, and will be responsible for creating the strategy and operational direction for the companys Software Solutions division.

Data#3 says Merrys focus will be to ensure business growth and customer success.

Im immensely proud to be appointed to this position, said Merry. Since I joined Data#3 almost 15 years ago, weve successfully navigated the changing landscape with our vendors to solve customer challenges. I am honoured to lead our significant Software Solutions business through this next era as we continue to evolve our approach to meet our customers changing requirements.

Data#3 says that with extensive experience in the IT industry combined with the business-based education of an International MBA and many certifications, including Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), Merry is a proven leader having managed direct and indirect sales channels across Australia, the Pacific Islands and Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Im delighted to welcome Brendan to the Data#3 leadership team, said Tan.

Brendan brings significant knowledge of our Software Solutions business, along with a background in business to the role. Working with Brendan and the General Manager for Infrastructure Solutions, we aim to deliver a customer-centric sales strategy which focuses on customer outcomes, improved customer experience, ultimately driving profitability for the business. I look forward to working with Brendan in this capacity.
This Week in Review

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.
On Sept 21, 2022, the 2022 World Manufacturing Convention Sino-German Forum on Development of New Energy Vehicle Industry was held in Hefei, Anhui provinces. Experts, scholars and enterprise representatives from the industry gathered at the forum to make suggestions for the development of the NEV industry. China's automobile industry has achieved high quality development, and emerging fields represented by NEV and intelligent connected vehicles are developing rapidly in recent years. Auto industry is an important support force for the development of Anhuis manufacturing industry, Zhou Xian, vice governor of Anhui Province, said in his speech. In order to accelerate the building of a world-class industrial cluster for NEV and intelligent connected vehicle, Anhui has listed NEVs and intelligent connected auto industry in the top ten emerging industries, and is now further implementing carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals,setting up theme funds, strengthening the research and development innovation, constructing industrial park, industrial base and industrial Internet. The province is willing to exchange and deepen cooperation with enterprises, business associations, experts and scholars in the field of NEVs, including those from Germany, to jointly innovate and develop a better future of the NEV industry. The 2022 Sino-German Fourm on Development of NEV Industry was hosted by the Peoples Government of Anhui Province, with the theme of Integrate and Stimulate New Momentum, Open up and Drive New Development. The forum aims to build amulti-field exchange platform in the field of NEV, and promote cooperation among enterprises in the industry chain of NEVs.
China sent a small army of delegates from Xinjiang to the UN in Geneva Thursday, where they spent two hours hammering home the "truth" about the rights situation in the region.

Beijing has made no secret of its displeasure with a United Nations report published last month, which warned of possible crimes against humanity in the far-western Xinjiang region.

"The assessment is based on a presumption of guilt, includes mostly disinformation and lies," Xu Guixiang, head of the Xinjiang government's information office, told reporters.

"Against the fallacies of the assessment, we want to make clear the truth and facts."

He was sitting at a podium flanked by four colleagues, with around two dozen other Chinese delegates crammed into a small briefing room, alongside a few international journalists.

The event had been announced as a press conference, but the five speakers, including the head of Xinjiang's public security department, spent nearly two hours listing the mistakes they had found in the 49-page report before finally taking three questions.

They also provided a thick booklet entitled "Fight against Terrorism and Extremism in Xinjiang: Truth and Facts".

- 'Patchwork of falsehoods' -

The report highlights "credible" allegations of widespread torture, arbitrary detention, and violations of religious and reproductive rights.

It brought UN endorsement to long-running allegations by campaigners and others, who accuse Beijing of a litany of abuses in Xinjiang, including detaining more than one million Uyghurs and other Muslims, and forcibly sterilising women.

Beijing has vehemently rejected such charges, insisting it is running vocational training centres in the region to counter extremism.

During Thursday's conference, the speakers went through the report, rejecting paragraph after paragraph as "nothing but a patchwork of falsehoods".

"There is no ethnic discrimination in Xinjiang," Xu insisted.

Muhterem Sherip, vice president of Xinjiang Islamic Association, maintained that the policies "protect the people of all ethnic groups from the scourge of extremism".

Zulhayat Ismayil, vice president of Kashgar University in Xinjiang, meanwhile rejected concerns about "coercive and discriminatory enforcement of family planning and birth control policies".

She insisted Uyghur birth rates "conform to the general trends", and the fall in births could be explained by more prosperity and rising women's employment.

- 'Ready for the fight' -

Asked about the delegation's plans while in Geneva, Xu said they would brief the ongoing UN Human Rights Council session "on the actual situation in Xinjiang".

The delegation will also meet with acting UN rights chief Nada Al-Nashif, the UN rights office confirmed.

Earlier this month, China's ambassador in Geneva Chen Xu warned Beijing's cooperation with the UN rights office was "in danger" after the report.

Since the rights council opened its 51st session last week, China has strived to show it has broad backing for its criticism, presenting a joint statement by nearly two dozen countries and with multiple pro-Beijing groups taking the floor in its defence.

Western countries and their allies are meanwhile under pressure from rights groups to present a resolution to the council condemning the alleged violations or even ordering an investigation.

But fears abound that a failed resolution would signal a shifting power balance and weaken the council.

Asked about how China would respond to a resolution, Xu said one would have to question the true motives, which he suggested would be an attempt by "anti-China forces (to) smear and slander Xinjiang".

But in any case, he said, China would "resolutely adopt appropriate countermeasures".

"We are not afraid. We are ready for the fight."
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday demanded President Vladimir Putin be held to account as he faced Russia in a Security Council session in which the United Nations cataloged abuses in Ukraine.

Pressure has swelled against Moscow as world leaders attend the UN General Assembly, but in the highly anticipated first encounter between the top Russian and US diplomats since the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin and its critics for the most part spoke past one another.

"The very international order we've gathered here to uphold is being shredded before our eyes," Blinken told the Security Council in a special session.

"We cannot -- we will not -- let President Putin get away with it," he said.

Blinken accused Putin of adding "fuel to the fire" with recent steps including calling up reservists and planning referendums in Russian-held Ukrainian territory just as Kyiv made gains on the ground.

The American said it was critical to show that "no nation can redraw the borders of another by force."

"If we fail to defend this principle when the Kremlin is so flagrantly violating it, we send the message to aggressors everywhere that they can ignore it, too."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov -- whom Blinken has refused to meet individually since the February invasion -- lashed out at Western accusations.

"There's an attempt today to impose on us a completely different narrative about Russian aggression as the origin of this tragedy," Lavrov said.

He accused Ukraine of "Russophobia," including through its imposition of Ukrainian language rules.

"The United States and their allies with the connivance of international human rights organizations have been covering the crimes of the Kyiv regime," said Lavrov.

One speaker after another took the floor to assail Russia and demand Putin stop the war, and a stern-faced Lavrov abruptly exited after his address.

"I don't think there was anybody in that room across the Security Council, from (Chinese Foreign Minister) Wang Yi to Tony Blinken, who gave Vladimir Putin or Lavrov a shred of comfort," a US official said on condition of anonymity.

Current council head France called the session to highlight the quest for accountability in Ukraine.

"There is no peace without justice," French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told reporters.

- 'Echoes of Nuremberg' -

Opening the meeting, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the UN rights body has seen "a catalog of cruelty -- summary executions, sexual violence, torture and other inhumane and degrading treatment" against civilians and prisoners of war.

"All these allegations must be thoroughly investigated, to ensure accountability," he said, without pointing the finger at Russia.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba reiterated President Volodymyr Zelensky's demand for a special tribunal and "punishment" for Russia over its invasion and abuses.

Kuleba said some responsibility for the atrocities rests with officials like Lavrov.

"Russian diplomats are directly complicit, because their lies incite these crimes -- and cover them up," Kuleba said.

Highlighting evidence from Ukraine was Karim Khan, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, which months ago announced an investigation into possible war crimes.

"In my view the echoes of Nuremburg should be heard today," he told the Security Council, referring to the historic Nazi war crimes trials in Germany.

Khan has traveled to Ukraine and visited Bucha, where the discovery of dozens of bodies in streets and mass graves horrified the world.

Moscow at the time dismissed the atrocities as fake, and on Thursday Lavrov said Ukraine's efforts to blame Russia is a "propaganda operation."

Khan pushed back, telling Security Council members including Lavrov: "When I went to Bucha, and went behind St. Andrew's church, the bodies I saw were not fake."

Russia before the war forged closer ties with China. But Washington has welcomed what it sees as a cautious tone by Beijing, which has not sent significant military supplies to Moscow.

"The priority is for the parties to resume dialogue without preconditions," Minister Wang Yi told the session.
"I feel like I threw a bottle into the sea; it will get somewhere... or not, says Mireille. She was one of the first to send an email, on January 28, 2022, reporting herself as a victim to the Independent National Instance for Recognition and Reparation (INIRR), launched at the initiative of the French Bishops' Conference (CEF). Its creation was one of the recommendations of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (or "Sauve Commission" after its president), which revealed on October 5, 2021, that more than 216,000 young people had been sexually abused by a priest or clergyman in France since 1950.

The INIRR is for victims of priests and laity within the Catholic Church, while the Commission for Recognition and Reparation (CRR) deals with abuse in congregations and institutes. At 72 years of age, and after welcoming the initiative of the Sauve Commission, Mireille took the plunge and sought financial reparation for sexual abuse she suffered in the Church between the ages of 17 and 21. After 50 years of silence and a life of emotional turmoil, she has "opened the Pandora's box" of her past.

Mireille immediately received an email from INIRR confirming that she would be assigned a contact person. Three months passed, during which the INIRR sent several apologies for the slowness of the process. Then Mireille got a phone interview  lasting an hour and a half - with a designated person. She had already told her personal story to the Sauve Commission. "During the telephone interview, I was asked to go into much more intimate details; it was a new light on a whole part of my past. At that moment, I realized the causes of the pain in my life," she says. After this exchange, which Mireille did not find very empathetic, she still found herself waiting. "I quickly asked this person to let me re-read the notes. Even the best therapist can, in such a short time, misunderstand things, and I needed to be reassured. But when I didn't get an answer, my anxiety rose. How will what I've told be translated into my file, what are they doing with my story?"

Finally, at the end of August, the INIRR finally sent her file to be re-read. She was assured that the group of 12 experts would rule on her request. Since then, she has been waiting to know when her file will be submitted to the experts.

"A real bottleneck

There are many testimonies like Mireilles among the victims who have contacted the INIRR. Marie Derain de Vaucresson, a lawyer specializing in children's rights, is the president of the Instance and has acknowledged the criticism. In a letter sent to the victims by email on September 1, she explained: "We understand completely your impatience to be contacted by a designated person. You will understand that the constitution of the entire INIRR team is a little slower than expected, which explains why your contact person has not yet been designated." Of the 784 victims of paedophilia who have applied to the body, 48 had reached the end of the procedure by September 6. As of July 10 the Selam Fund, a fund for solidarity against sexual abuse of minors, which awards financial compensation decided by the INIRR, had compensated six victims.

With the INIRR frequently criticized for lack of professionalism, its volunteer president admits that she was overwhelmed. "After the first press conference on February 24, we went from less than 100 cases for processing to 500 in a few days, she told Justice Info. And to more than 300 the day after the June 1 conference. This is a real bottleneck. The reason for our delay is that we have difficulty in recruiting competent contact people; in this uncharted alternative justice procedure, we do not have people who are immediately competent in terms of listening and minimum knowledge in psychological trauma."

Marie Derain de Vaucresson says she wants to double her staff by the end of the year, hiring a secretary general and a coordinator as well as contact people. The INIRR has a budget of a little more than 500,000 euros, financed by the Union of Diocesan Associations of France.

"An inexcusable delay

"This delay is inexcusable, says Olivier Savignac of the victims' collective Parler et Revivre. What we, the victims, expect is a real process of support. By constantly postponing the deadlines, the Instance has created hopes, expectations, and above all additional injustices. For me, that is just not tenable.

"Our association has become the after-sales service of the INIRR," continues this spokesman who finds himself having to daily reassure victims waiting for reparations. Under pressure from the associations, Marie Derain de Vaucresson has therefore recently committed herself to ensuring that a first telephone contact is quickly established with each person who contacts INIRR.

Olivier Savignac thinks the delays are due to unpreparedness upstream. "Not enough time was taken to train people, both contact people and commissioners, who are up to the challenge. Victims could have waited a little longer, as long as things were set up properly, he says. The INIRR president responds that they have been caught up in time management issues. "Indeed we could have taken eight months or a year just structuring the Instance, she says, but imagine how the victims would have felt if, a few weeks from the anniversary the Sauve report, the INIRR had not yet received and supported victimized people."

Opacity in calculating compensation

The same is true for the victims of religious congregations who have claimed compensation before the CRR. As of September 19, out of 400 cases submitted, only about 30 had been finalized. While Vivien (pseudonym) considers himself rather lucky with the way his case was handled - which involved a very detailed questionnaire and not an interview -, there are certain points that he questions. The main one concerns the way in which the compensation rates were established. "A few days before September 7 when my file went through the commission, Pierre Hazan (one of the 12 commissioners) called me and told me: for your case, we are going to ask for compensation of 40,000 euros, does that suit you?

Considering that he was not in a position to evaluate the harm he had suffered, Vivien accepted. He mentions another victim in the process of receiving 28,500 euros. "Why such a precise sum and not 27,000 or 29,000 euros? he asks. What was the method of calculation used? We need some clarity on how things are decided in both commissions."

This criticism was reiterated by Francois Devaux, founder of the victims' association La parole liberee, who points out that victims were informed of the financial scales through the press. "I understand what the victims are saying, responds CRR president Antoine Garapon, but many of them have been informed of our procedures, because we work directly with victims' associations. We are transparent, we ask victims to evaluate their prejudice according to very precise criteria in the questionnaire." While the Commission does not speak of scales but of "personalized and rationalized reparation", a common maximum for the INIRR is 60,000 euros and the average paid to the few victims who have already been compensated is 32,200 euros. For a rape, this is higher than what the French courts currently award, says Garapon, whose task as stated in the questionnaire sent to the victims is "to repair irreparable harm.

Towards restorative justice

"What we are putting in place is unprecedented. Its a matter of individualizing responses and proposing an original course of reparation," explains Marie Derain de Vaucresson, who speaks of "restorative justice". "Requests for financial reparation are not the only requests. For 48 decisions rendered, 30 have a financial dimension," she continues.

Antoine Garapon, who knows transitional justice issues well, draws the first conclusions from his year at the head of the CRR: "I believe that the CRR is there to render justice. This does not necessarily mean money, but always words and explanations. There is a path for victims that begins with amnesia, then anger, and ending with painful memory, but that allows us to move forward." Indeed, the magistrate makes it a point to ensure that each victim has contact with the congregation in question and, when possible, a meeting. "There are people who say they don't want to hear any more about it, but in general, when they agree to meet with the congregation, things are already better," continues the CRR president.

For example in addition to financial reparation, Vivien was able to have an exchange, outside Paris and in the presence of a commissioner, with the Jesuit congregation within which was the perpetrator of the sexual abuse he suffered. "I also asked that near the school where I was - now destroyed - a plaque be posted mentioning the abuse of young boys and that, in my other school, the former director's office be transformed into a 'memorial' room," Vivien explains.

The challenge for these commissions is to take into account the collective dimension of restorative justice. "Reparation of victims of the Church must not remain between two people, the victim and the perpetrator, affirms the INIRR president. The whole of society is concerned, and it is also a sign of the Churchs maturity to provide strong support."

But before addressing the whole society, those most concerned  the victims  need to be supported. One year after the shock publication of the Sauve Report, victims' groups will gather in Paris on October 8, in the presence of Jean-Marc Sauve. Olivier Savignac, who initiated the event, says the objective is "to finally make known in the public arena the possibility for thousands of people to bear witness and ask for reparation. Hopefully under better conditions.
One person was killed in a fresh air strike on Ethiopia's rebel-held Tigray on Friday, the region's biggest hospital said, capping a month of renewed clashes between pro-government forces and Tigrayan fighters.

The return to combat on August 24 shattered a March truce and dashed hopes of peacefully resolving the nearly two-year war between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

Authorities in Tigray announced this month they were ready to participate in talks mediated by the African Union (AU), removing a key obstacle to negotiations with Abiy's government.

But fighting has only escalated in the weeks since, with air strikes pounding the northern region and Ethiopia's ally Eritrea crossing the border to join the battle against its old foe, the TPLF.

"There was a drone attack this morning around 5:30 am. A 60 year old man was killed," Kibrom Gebreselassie, a senior official at Ayder Referral Hospital in Tigray's capital Mekele, told AFP in a message.

"One dead body arrived to Ayder Hospital after a drone attack in Mekelle City around Desta Hotel," the hospital said on Twitter.

Since the latest clashes broke out, 17 people have died in air strikes in Tigray, including Friday's fatality, according to hospital officials.

AFP was not able to independently verify the claims. Access to northern Ethiopia is severely restricted and Tigray has been under a communications blackout for more than a year.

Untold numbers of civilians have been killed since the war erupted in Africa's second most populous country, and grave rights violations by all sides against civilians have been documented.

On Monday, UN investigators accused Abiy's government of possible ongoing crimes against humanity in Tigray, including using starvation as a weapon of warfare by blocking aid to the region of six million people.

Addis Ababa rejected the report by the Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia, with its permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, Zenebe Kebede, telling AFP that its conclusions were "self contradictory and biased".

The commission said it had found evidence of widespread violations by all sides.

The TPLF ruled Ethiopia for decades before Abiy come to power in 2018, and Addis Ababa considers it a terrorist group.

Abiy, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, sent troops into Tigray in November 2020 to topple the TPLF in response to what he said were attacks on federal army camps.

But the TPLF recaptured most of Tigray in a surprise comeback in June 2021.

It then expanded into the neighbouring regions of Afar and Amhara before the fighting reached a stalemate.
A protest to demand justice for 43 Mexican students who disappeared in 2014 turned violent on Thursday, injuring 11 police officers, authorities said.

A confrontation broke out outside the Attorney Generals office in Mexico City after protesters gathered demanding the arrest of people linked to the case.

Some protesters physically attacked officers and threw explosive devices at them, Mexico Citys Public Security Secretariat said in a statement.

As a result, 11 police officers were injured by firecrackers and bruises from beatings on various parts of the body, it said.

Officers were taken to hospital for evaluation and were found to be out of danger, the statement said.

Demonstrators scrawled graffiti in front of the attorney generals office and carried banners calling for the safe return of students.

So far, the remains of only three victims have been identified.

On Wednesday, relatives of the students protested outside the Israeli embassy demanding the extradition of Tomas Zeron, a former top investigator wanted in connection with the case.

Zeron is one of the architects of the so-called historical truth, the official version of the case presented in 2015, which was rejected by victims families and independent experts.

The 43 student teachers had seized buses in the southern state of Guerrero to go to a demonstration in Mexico City before disappearing.

Investigators say they were arrested by corrupt police and handed over to a drug cartel who mistook them for members of a rival gang, but what exactly happened to them is disputed.

Last month, a truth commission charged by the current government with investigating the atrocity branded the case as a state crime involving agents from various institutions.

The next day, former Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam, who led the controversial historical truth investigation, was arrested on charges of enforced disappearance, torture and obstruction of justice.
NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE)  WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces the filing of a class action lawsuit on behalf of purchasers of Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE: PLTR) securities between November 9, 2021 and May 6, 2022, both dates inclusive ( the class period). If you want to appear as lead plaintiff, you must call the court by November 14, 2022 at the latest.

SO WHAT: If you purchased Palantir Securities during the Class Period, you may be entitled to compensation without payment of expenses or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join Palantirs class action lawsuit, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=8711 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll free at 866-767-3653 or by email [email protected] or [email protected]senlegal.com for information about the Class Action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you want to appear as lead plaintiff, you must call the court by November 14, 2022 at the latest. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other group members in conducting the litigation.

WHY ROSES LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified advisors with a track record in leadership positions. Frequently, companies that issue notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or meaningful recognition from peers. Be wise in choosing a lawyer. The Rosen law firm represents investors worldwide and focuses its practice on securities class actions and shareholder derivatives litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest-ever settlement of a securities class action lawsuit against a Chinese company. Rosen Law Firm was ranked #1 in 2017 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for the number of securities class action settlements. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 every year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone, the company secured over $438 million for investors. 2020 founding partner
WHY: NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE)  Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, is reminding buyers of Humanigen, Inc. securities. HGEN between May 28, 2021 and July 12, 2022, both dates inclusive (the Instruction Period) of the important October 25, 2022 deadline for the plaintiff.



SO WHAT: If you purchased Humanigen Securities during the Class Period, you may be entitled to compensation without payment of expenses or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join Humanigens class action lawsuit, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=8376 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll free at 866-767-3653 or by email [email protected] or [email protected] for information about the Class Action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you want to appear as lead plaintiff, you must call the court no later than October 25, 2022. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other group members in conducting the litigation.

WHY ROSES LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified advisors with a track record in leadership positions. Frequently, companies that issue notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or meaningful recognition from peers. Many of these law firms do not actually conduct securities class actions, but are merely intermediaries who refer clients or work with law firms that actually conduct the cases. Be wise in choosing a lawyer. The Rosen law firm represents investors worldwide and focuses its practice on securities class actions and shareholder derivatives litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest-ever settlement of a securities class action lawsuit against a Chinese company. Rosen Law Firm was ranked #1 in 2017 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for the number of securities class action settlements. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 every year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone, the company secured over $438
A Chinese former top security official faces life imprisonment after a court on Friday sentenced him to a suspended death sentence for bribery and other crimes, sparking a spate of corruption sentences in recent days.

Sun Lijuns death sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment after two years, according to a statement by the Intermediate Peoples Court in Changchun city.

Chinese authorities have announced a spate of high-profile rulings this week as an anti-graft campaign is in full swing ahead of a political meeting next month at which President Xi Jinping is expected to receive an unprecedented third term.

More than a million officials have been fined under the campaign, which critics say is also a way for Xi to oust political enemies.

The court said Sun, who was previously deputy minister for public security, abused his power in a number of influential positions between 2001 and 2020.

The 53-year-old pleaded guilty in July to taking more than 646 million yuan ($91 million) in bribes.

His other offenses included manipulation of the securities market and illegal possession of firearms, the court statement said.

[He will be]stripped of political rights for life and all personal property should be confiscated, it said.

Sun Lijun took a particularly large amount of bribes to secure job promotions and accommodation for many people, the statement continued.

Sun was previously head of Hong Kongs security department when the semi-autonomous city was rocked by pro-democracy protests.

 Anti-Corruption 

Since Xi came to power a decade ago, he has campaigned against corruption in the ruling Communist Party, vowing to crack down on both high-profile tiger officials and lower-level flies.

And with the party congress looming, held twice a decade in mid-October, Xi has upped the pace, with several big names falling under the wheels of the campaign this week alone.

Chinas opaque courts are subordinate to the Communist Party and have a nearly 100 percent conviction rate.

Former Justice Minister Fu Zhenghua was sentenced to life imprisonment on Thursday for accepting bribes worth more than 117 million yuan.

Before entering semi-retirement in May 2020, Fu is said to have orchestrated the corruption investigation into former security chief Zhou Yongkang, who was jailed in 2015 in what is arguably the campaigns best-known case to date.

Three former police chiefs were also handed heavy sentences on corruption charges on Wednesday, after they were accused of being part of Suns political clique.

These included Gong Daoan, former Shanghai police chief; Deng Huilin, former Chongqing Police Chief; and Liu Xinyun, former police chief of coal-rich Shanxi Province.

Gong, a former deputy mayor and director of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, was sentenced to life imprisonment for accepting 73.43 million yuan in bribes, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Deng, the former director of the Chongqing Public Security Bureau, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for taking 42.67 million yuan in bribes, according to the same newspaper.
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A sign greets people on the Siksika First Nation, east of Calgary near Gliechen, Alta., on June 29, 2021. After 20 years, Siksika Nation has re-instated their self-administered police service after the nation and provincial government successfully brokered a deal with the federal minister of public safety. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Kennesaw State nursing professors grant funds study of Alzheimers care in Filipino communities

KENNESAW, Ga. | Sep 23, 2022

A personal mission inspires Mary Dioise Ramos every day, and now shell have a chance to bring positive change to people suffering from Alzheimers disease and related dementia. Mary Ramos

The assistant professor of nursing in Kennesaw State Universitys Wellstar College of Health and Human Services was awarded a $149,974 grant from the Alzheimers Association as well as a separate grant from the Asian Resource Center for Minority Aging Research. Both grants will shed light on caregiving for Alzheimers patients in Filipino and Filipino-American communities.

This is something personal for me because my grandmother has Alzheimers, Ramos said. Despite the abundance and importance of Filipino-American caregivers in the healthcare workforce, there is scarce research about them. As an immigrant who grew up in the Philippines, I embark on a journey as a nurse scientist to advocate for promoting health equity among Filipino-American communities. So, this is especially meaningful for me.

The research will involve conducting surveys in Filipino and Filipino-American communities regarding quality of life of both persons with dementia and their care partners, and conduct focus groups discussing opportunities and challenges regarding managing health and healthcare. From there, Ramos said she hopes to develop and test effective strategies for caregivers, as well as provide support for them, so they can determine solutions while caring for relatives.

A nurse for almost 20 years, Ramos specializes in caring for the older adults. Through the work on this grant, she hopes to bridge the gap between nursing and people caring for older adult family members by giving them the tools to identify dementia-related illnesses and provide optimal care at home.

Part of our role as nurses is to educate and empower family members to make decisions regarding care, she said. We consider family to be our care partners, so we want to prepare them for this role the best we can and ease both the financial and emotional burdens of caregiving.

Ramos has taught at KSU since 2018 and has worked with the First-Year Scholars program through the Office of Research on this project. Last year, she had three students present their research on caregiving at the Symposium of Student Scholars, projects that helped produce the initial study on caregiving for older adults in underserved communities.

Students get exposure to important aspects of health equity through this study, something theyll deal with in their careers as nurses, Ramos said. The great thing about Kennesaw State is students are encouraged to pursue research with relevance.

 Dave Shelles

Photos by Matt Yung

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A leader in innovative teaching and learning, Kennesaw State University offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees to its nearly 43,000 students. With 11 colleges on two metro Atlanta campuses, Kennesaw State is a member of the University System of Georgia. The universitys vibrant campus culture, diverse population, strong global ties and entrepreneurial spirit draw students from throughout the country and the world. Kennesaw State is a Carnegie-designated doctoral research institution (R2), placing it among an elite group of only 6 percent of U.S. colleges and universities with an R1 or R2 status. For more information, visit kennesaw.edu.
BURLINGTON  A 15-year veteran of the Burlington Police Department has been promoted to the departments second-in-command position.

The Burlington Police and Fire Commission has promoted Jeremy Krusemark to lieutenant, putting him in line just behind the police chief.

Chief Brian Zmudzinski had been lieutenant for seven years before being promoted in May following the retirement of Chief Mark Anderson.

Krusemark, a U.S. Navy veteran, joined the police department in 2007 as a patrolman. He also served as a marine water patrol officer on Browns Lake and Bohners Lake through the Town of Burlington.

He was promoted to patrol sergeant in 2015, serving as one of five sergeants in the department.

He has a masters degree from the private Bellevue University in Nebraska.

The other sergeants are Robert Jones, Matthew Barrows, Scott Wasilevich and Nicolas Aron.

According to the Police and Fire Commission, Jones, Barrows and Wasilevich also were applicants for the lieutenant position.

The commission voted Sept. 12 to promote Krusemark, and he officially took his new position effective Sept. 19.

The department has about 14 other officers and investigators.
Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth wont face prosecution after the Milwaukee County District Attorneys office determined there was no sufficient evidence for criminal wrongdoing when the sheriff unilaterally pursued and authorized more than $21,000 in stipends for support staff at the county detention facility earlier this year.

According to details of the investigation released Thursday, Beth, the out-going sheriff, who is not seeking re-election, had authorized the bonuses in the form of stipends for 18 admissions and release staff along with a similar stipend for a support operations manager.

Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Matthew Westphal, on behalf of District Attorney John Chisholm, in his correspondence with Kenosha County Corporation Counsel Joe Cardamone said there was insufficient evidence to establish that any crime was committed by Beth.

A review by an independent counsel retained by the county also found he had not violated state statutes pertaining to misconduct in office.

However, Joseph Russell of von Briesen & Roper, the independent counsel retained by the county, said that Beth misused or misappropriated the funds because he had not worked within proper county channels, specifically in not seeking approval from the county executive, director finance and the human services director.

Wage increases overlooked

Last year, the County Board approved the 2022 budget with an increase in the starting wage for corrections officers. At the time, however, the wages for admissions and release staff members and the operations manager had been overlooked, according to Beth who was reached late Thursday. Beth said while attracting and retaining corrections officers has been a challenge, support staff in the detention center has also been underpaid for years. Beth said he brought the oversight to the County Board in December and advised the body that issue would need to be rectified in 2022.

Beth said he and his administrative command staff came up with the idea of giving the admissions and release specialists a stipend that would be equal to about two hours of overtime each week at one and a half times regular pay. He said the stipend procedure enabled the payment of bonuses to the workers and that the use of such a stipend was one that had been practiced for at least the last four decades since he started his career as a deputy in the department.

According to the Milwaukee District Attorneys Office investigation findings, the stipends were to be used as supplemental pay to help retain the support staff until potential pay increases could be addressed in the 2023 county budget. Beth had believed that he could authorize the stipends using remaining money in his budget due to under-staffing in the department. After approving the additional funds Beth allowed his command staff to determine how stipends would be processed and a unique code was entered into the countys time-management system to reflect the payments. As a result, the county paid out $21,736.95 in stipends to the staff for work that was not completed, according to the investigation. The operations manager also presented his case for receiving higher pay for eight hours a month at time and a half. And as a result the county paid out 32 hours for time that was never worked, according to the investigation.

Anonymous tip

On April 11, an anonymous letter was submitted to the county Human Resources Director Clara Tappa with the allegations and the payments ceased. As a result of the letter, Corporation Counsel Joe Cardamone engaged with outside counsel that recommended conducting an independent investigation into the matter.

According to the independent investigation by Chisolms office, while Beths authorization of the stipends did not follow required procedures, the intent which was exercised was done to retain qualified employees and not for his personal enrichment. The investigation concluded tha,t while they were issued in an incorrect manner, the sheriff was attempting to exercise his statutory and constitutional duty to maintain and operate the jail.

The investigation further concluded that while Beths actions lacked knowledge that they were beyond his authority and intent to exceed that authority the evidence presented did not support issuing criminal charges.

Reached late Thursday, Beth said he was thrilled with (the district attorneys) decision.

There was no intent here to do anything that we shouldnt have done, Beth said. The entire goal was to keep the staff that we have to have and at this time its so difficult to keep staff and ultimately what we did is we saved 10s of thousands of dollars by doing this because every single correctional officer or ARS that leaves, it takes three months to train them. They have to go through the entire testing process with job traits and then we have to back fill with possible overtime while were training them for three months.

According to the investigation by von Briesen, Beth believed that he could unilaterally authorize the stipends because of the extra money in the Sheriffs Department budget and because the department was understaffed. The sheriff also believed it was not a good time to revisit the support staff compensation issue with the County Board because we were in the process of elections for our County Executive and the County Board Supervisors and because he would figure it out with the new County Board, according to the document.

Sanctions unlikely

The independent counsels investigation concluded Beth did not violate state laws for misconduct while in office and that he did not intend to violate standards of conduct in the countys municipal code. However, he was found to have misused or misappropriated funds as he did not consult with the appropriate county department heads to justify the use of the stipends.

According to the investigation, the county budget allows for the authorization of expenditures up to $100,000 for wage adjustments for the purposes of employee retention and special assignments, among others. Because he would be leaving office, according to the investigation, he likely would not face sanctions.

Kenosha County Executive Samantha Kerkman, who was elected in April, said the matter had been brought to her attention earlier in her term by an anonymous complaint and that the county had engaged with outside counsel for a full, independent investigation.

Those findings were referred to the Milwaukee County District Attorneys Office, which has now elected not to pursue criminal charges, she said. Going forward, controls are now in place so this cannot happen in the future.
Hong Kong: Quarantine rules for arrivals relaxed

(To watch the full press conference with sign language interpretation, click here.)

Starting September 26, the Government will do away with compulsory hotel quarantine for people arriving in Hong Kong from overseas places or Taiwan, but they must undergo medical surveillance at home or at a hotel for three days.

Chief Executive John Lee made the announcement at a press conference this afternoon where he unveiled the new "0+3" quarantine arrangement and other facilitation measures for arrivals.

Currently, inbound travellers from overseas places or Taiwan are required to undergo quarantine at a designated quarantine hotel for three days, followed by a four-day medical surveillance period at home or in a non-quarantine hotel.

From 6am on September 26, such arrivals will be allowed to go home or go to the hotel of their choice for a three-day medical surveillance period right after they have completed a nucleic acid test at the airport. They do not need to wait for the test result at the airport and can leave there by any transport means.

Upon obtaining a negative test result, the travellers will be given an amber code on their LeaveHomeSafe mobile app to restrict their entry to scheduled premises. While they can go out during the medical surveillance period, they cannot enter premises which proactively check the vaccine pass, such as restaurants and bars.

Moreover, they have to take rapid antigen tests (RATs) daily and nucleic acid tests once every two days in the first seven days upon arrival in Hong Kong.

After completing the medical surveillance period, the travellers will be subject to self-monitoring in the subsequent four days.

In addition to the "0+3" quarantine arrangement, Mr Lee announced that boarding requirements for inbound travellers will be simplified, under which they must present proof of a negative RAT result conducted within 24 hours before departure, instead of that of a nucleic acid test conducted within 48 hours.

Unvaccinated Hong Kong residents are also allowed to board a flight for Hong Kong. However, they will not be eligible to get a provisional vaccine pass.

For non-Hong Kong residents aged 12 or above, only those who are fully vaccinated or hold a COVID-19 vaccination medical exemption certificate are allowed to come to Hong Kong.

Furthermore, the quotas under the Come2hk and Return2hk schemes will be cancelled and the schemes will be applicable to people arriving in Hong Kong from all places in the Mainland and Macau.

The above measures will also take effect from 6am on September 26.

The Chief Executive emphasised that the Government aims to provide inbound travellers with more convenience while maintaining control of the overall epidemic situation.

By introducing this new measure of "0+3" quarantine arrangement for arrivals from overseas and Taiwan, obviously this is a kind of relaxation from the "3+4" model.

So we want to ensure that we will monitor the situation closely so that all the risks are well controlled and things can progress in an orderly manner.

He also explained that the Government had taken into account a series of factors in considering the anti-epidemic measures.

All the measures that we consider and roll out take into consideration the prevailing local COVID-19 situation.

We have to ensure that, first of all, our hospital services can cope. We have to protect the very young and the very old who are high-risk groups. We have to ensure that we reduce the number of serious cases and death cases and we want to do it scientifically.

And then, of course, we want to balance the need for controlling the epidemic with society's needs, economic needs, and also the need to raise Hong Kong's competitiveness.

This story has been published on: 2022-09-23. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
On Sep 20, the Matchmaking Meeting For Hundred Overseas Chinese Enterprises was held in Hefei, themed Starting a Business in ChinaCreating a Better Future. Zhang Ximing, member of the Standing Committee of Anhui Provincial Party Committee, said that Anhui Provincial Government has paid increasing attention to take advantages of overseas Chinese talents. The government has set up various exchange and cooperation platforms to promote overseas high-tech industries to settle in Anhui and attract overseas Chinese investment and start businesses in Anhui. Hopefully, through this convention, more overseas Chinese would have a better and comprehensive understanding of Anhui, sharing the development opportunity of Anhui and promote the development of Anhui together, he said. Li Shiyun, secretary of the Party Leadership Group of Anhui Provincial Overseas Chinese Federation, said that the Matchmaking Meeting For Hundred Overseas Chinese Enterpriseshas been held for four consecutive years, a large number of high-tech projects and talent teams have been settled in Anhui, with a total of 136 overseas Chinese funded projects signed and a total of 45.1 billion yuan (almost 6.35 billion U.S. Dollars) invested. In this year, 32 projects were signed on the conference, involving integrated circuits, energy conservation and environmental protection, biomedicine, general aviation, new energy, new materials, new displays, intelligent terminals and other fields, with a total investment of 9.428 billion yuan. High-level talents of overseas Chinese from more than 40 countries and regions such as the United States, Germany, Spain, Russia, Australia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Macau, etc., representatives of Overseas Chinese Federation in the Yangtze River Delta region, overseas Chinese representatives in Hefei and other overseas Chinese entrepreneurs participated in the activities.
An evening of jewellery and metalwork with the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland will take place in Thomastown as part of Culture Night. This fun evening has been inspired by Thomastowns Sessions House (Court House) which will soon be the location of the Design & Crafts Council Irelands Jewellery and Goldsmithing Centre of Excellence.



The Design & Crafts Council Irelands renowned Jewellery and Goldsmithing Skills & Design Course is a unique programme designed to equip graduates with the practical skills and technical knowledge needed to develop careers in the jewellery industry in Ireland and internationally.



This intensive three-year BA Hons degree programme will be delivered at the Design & Crafts Council Irelands Jewellery and Goldsmithing Centre of Excellence from 2023.



This class will allow participants to create a bird using wire and sheet construction. You can be a spectator or join in and try your hand at making your own bird!



Participants will be assisted and supported while using metal, wire, and jewellery tools.

There will also be an opportunity to meet tutors from the Design & Crafts Council of Irelands renowned Jewellery and Goldsmithing Course along with past graduates.



The event is free, and numbers are limited.

Age Suitability: 16+

Phone: 0567761804

Locations: Thomastown

Event Start Time 4.30 pm

Event End Time 8 pm

Booking required
New supports of up to 2,400 were announced todayby Minister Eamon Ryan, for the installation of solar PV (photovoltaic) panels.

Grants will be aimed specifically at businesses, public organisations and community groups through the SEAI (Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland).

Solar PV (photovoltaic) panels convert energy from the sun into electricity, thereby reducing the amount of electricity a building draws from the national grid and lowering electricity bills.

Cllr Maria Dollard welcomed the announcement especially in light of the ongoing energy crisis.

We all know that energy prices are at an all-time high, due to the fossil fuel crisis resulting from Putins war on Ukraine. Organisations in Kilkenny are looking at ways to reduce their costs and their reliance on expensive energy sources.

"These new grants for solar PV will help businesses and community groups to take control of energy costs now, and ensure that they are future-proofed with renewable electricity supply from their own roofs. At the current high electricity prices, a business might could save 2,000-3,000 per annum from a solar PV system supported under this scheme. This means that the installation can pay for itself quickly.

This announcement signals the latest phase in the Governments Micro-generation Support Scheme. The first phase of the Micro-generation Support Scheme was launched in December 2021, offering grants for solar PV panels on domestic houses. In 2022 the maximum grant available is 2,400 and it will remain at this level for 2023.

In February of this year the Government announced an export tariff  the Clean Export Guarantee (CEG)  as part of the scheme. This provided the mechanism by which householders can be paid (by energy suppliers) for excess electricity exported back into the national grid.

Cllr Dollard added I am also delighted that the removal of the need for planning permission on PV installations for schools and Community groups is soon to be addressed making it cheaper and easier to install PV systems. I called for this last year by way of a motion widely support by my colleagues in Kilkenny County Council and it is great to see these measures being implemented.

Speaking about the latest supports, Minister Ryan said;

This new support scheme is part of a wider roll-out of initiatives to make the installation of solar PV easier and more cost effective for homeowners, businesses and public bodies. Its Irelands rooftop revolution. With upcoming changes to planning exemptions, simpler grid application routes, export payment announcements, and capital supports from SEAI, its an ideal time for anybody to consider going solar to save money and to help reduce our emissions.

The scheme will provide grant funding up to a maximum of 2,400 towards the installation of solar PV technology up to a maximum of 6kWp (approximately 16 solar panels over 25m2). The scheme provides an opportunity for all areas of the non-domestic sector to not only reduce their electricity bills, but to visibly demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and Irelands broader climate action goals.

To apply visit www.seai.ie and follow the outlined steps.
A one-month suspended prison sentence was handed down to a defendant at Kilkenny District Court who admitted having drugs in his possessions for personal use on three separate occasions last year.

Declan Whearty, Good Shepherd Centre, Kilkenny pleaded guilty to the offences.

The court heard that on November 19, 2021 a wrap was found on his bed at the Good Shepherd Centre which was handed to gardai and tested positive for heroin.

The court also heard that on December 6, 2021 observed the defendant acting suspiciously at The Good Shepherd Centre. A quantity of white powder was handed over which turned out to be 30 worth of speed.

The defendant was searched at The Good Shepherd Centre on June 17 and a small bag of heroin was recovered. All the offences were contrary to section 3 of The Misuse of Drugs Act.

The court heard that the defendant has one previous conviction.

Solicitor Chris Hogan remarked to the court that his clients offending was at the lower end of the scale and that he had co-operated fully with gardai.

Mr Hogan said that the case has a tragic background.

My client went to third level education and gave up college. He was drinking to excess and he left the family home and went to the Good Shepherd Centre.

When he was there he met people who were heavily involved in drugs and he was addicted to heroin, he said.

Mr Whearty no longer resides at The Good Shepherd Centre and now lives with his partner in a tent and is engaging with the relevant services.

Judge Geraldine Carthy convicted the defendant of the offences under section 3 of The Misuse of Drugs Act and imposed a one-month prison sentence which she suspended on condition that the defendant engage with the Probation Services.
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More than 1,300 people were detained across Russia on September 22 for participating in nationwide anti-war protests, with some directly conscripted into the military. Riot police are seen here detaining a demonstrator in Moscow, Russia on September 21.




President Yoon Suk-yeol arrived in Canada on Thursday for a summit with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on building stable supply chains in core minerals for EV batteries.







Yoon, who is on a three-nation trip to Britain, the United States and Canada, arrived in Toronto where he is scheduled to visit the University of Toronto for a meeting with AI experts.







Toronto is Canada's biggest economic hub and a global leader in digital technology and the AI industry, according to Yoon's office.







In the evening, the president will meet with Korean residents in the city. Toronto is home to around 120,000 Koreans.







From Toronto, Yoon will head to Ottawa on Friday for a summit with Trudeau. The two met on the sidelines of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Madrid in June and will continue their discussions on ways to deepen the bilateral strategic partnership ahead of the 60th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations next year.







The summit agenda includes ways to cooperate for the establishment of stable supply chains in core minerals, and ways Canada can support South Korean businesses in the country, according to Yoon's office.







Canada is a key producer of core minerals needed in the production of EV batteries, and South Korean businesses plan major battery-related investments in the country, it said.







Following the summit, Yoon will depart for Seoul and return home Saturday. (Yonhap)






Prime Minister Han Duck-soo met with the ambassadors from 13 countries in the Asia-Pacific region Friday and asked for their support for South Korea's bid to bring the 2030 World Expo to the southeastern port city of Busan, Han's office said.







"South Korean people and the political and business circles are working hard in unison to host the 2030 World Expo," Han said during a luncheon meeting with ambassadors, asking them to promote Seoul's expo campaign at home.







The attendees included the ambassadors from New Zealand, Malaysia, Mongolia and 10 other countries.







Han also emphasized the importance of cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region on various issues, including the economy, diplomacy, climate change and technology innovation.







"Based on universal values, the South Korean government will play a role to become one of the leading nations across the globe and contribute to the international community's peace and prosperity," Han said. (Yonhap)


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TWICE Chaeyoung is leaving through Incheon International Airport on the 22nd to attend Milan Fashion Week.
Among fourth-gen group members, these two female idols stand out for their superior visuals, not to mention their impeccable records at a young age. Due to this, they received THIS same nickname.

Jang Wonyoung OG 'God Baby' Among K-pop Idols

On September 22, the Korean media outlet iNews24 featured IVE Jang Wonyoung, highlighting the reason she was referred to as "God Baby."

In context, "God Baby" ( in Korean) is a compound word for "God" and "Baby" refers to a person with excellent skills or outstanding appearance at a young age.

This was initially used by young athletes at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and later on, became internet Korean slang. This is often used by women in online communities to refer to young people who are cute, attractive, or great.

It meant that that person is not just a baby, but an amazing baby in various aspects.

Among numerous fourth-gen female idols, the icon representing "God Baby" is by far IVE Jang Wonyoung. If you search this term on Google, her name and face will appear the most.

The reason Jang Wonyoung earned this moniker was thanks to her visuals, talents and achievement.

The 2004-born idol was only 15 years when she established her name after winning the center spot from Mnet's survival audition, "Produce 48" in 2018, leading her to debut as IZ*ONE. Although she was the youngest when she debuted, she possessed the best quality among idols.

Since then, she rose as a role model among MZ Generation and also established her status in the beauty and fashion industry.

After re-debuting as IVE, she also created a sensation, releasing hit tracks that dominated various music charts consistently since their debut in 2021 to date.

NewJeans Minji Dubbed as 'God Baby' For Visuals, Achievements

Although Jang Wonyoung has been protecting this nickname for so long, another 04-liner idol appeared and shared it with her.

If you will search "God Baby" on Korean sites, a rookie idol is also gaining attention, who is none other than NewJeans Minji.

Minji is also 18 years old and the same age as Wonyoung, but is a junior of the latter because she also debuted less than a month ago. Despite this, she is already being constantly mentioned as a top visual idol along with Jang and NMIXX Sullyoon.

Because they were BTS' sister group under HYBE, they attracted huge expectations, and the quintet didn't disappoint, in terms of visuals, vocals, dance and music. All five of them are pretty, but among them, Minji is favored the most for her dreamy face.

Aside from her visuals, NewJeans is dominating local charts as well and holds a high chance to win as a "Monster Rookie" or "Rookie of the Year."

For more K-Pop news and updates, keep your tabs open here at KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns this article.

Written by Eunice Dawson.
New York, US (PANA) - President William Ruto has called for urgent reform of the global decision-making system that will give Africa and the developing world a stronger voice
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The prime minister of the National Unity Government, Abdelhamid Al-Dbaiba, reaffirmed here Thursday his government's commitment to the option of elections to move Libya to the stage of stability
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here
The new Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Aruni Wijewardane assumed duties at the Foreign Ministry on 23 May, 2022. She was appointed as the Secretary with effect from 20 May, 2022.

After a simple ceremony following the assumption of duties, Foreign Secretary Wijewardane addressed the staff officers of the Ministry.

A Member of the Sri Lanka Foreign Service, Foreign Secretary Wijewardane counts 34 years in the Foreign Service and has held many positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Colombo, at Sri Lanka Missions overseas and in international organizations. Her service overseas includes the Sri Lanka Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva, Sri Lanka High Commission in Malaysia and the Sri Lanka Embassy in the Philippines. She also served as the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Austria and the Permanent Representative to UN Organizations in Vienna.

On secondment from the Foreign Ministry, Aruni Wijewardane also served as the Director of the Secretariat of the policy making organs of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.

Foreign Secretary Wijewardane has an MPhil degree from the University of Cambridge, UK, where she was a British Chevening Scholar, a Masters degree from the University of Colombo and a Bachelors degree from the University of Western Australia.

She is married with two children.





Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Colombo





23 May, 2022





Read more: www.mfa.gov.lk
Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], September 23 (ANI): Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has welcomed the decision of the Speaker to cancel the ad-hoc recruitments made from 2016 to 2021 on the recommendation of the High-Level Committee in the matter of recruitments made in the Legislative Assembly.

The Chief Minister congratulated the Speaker of the Assembly, Ritu Khanduri Bhushan for taking a quick inquiry and taking the decision. The CM said, "the House and the Government are united in the campaign against corruption".

Also Read | Union Minister @mansukhmandviya Interacts with Beneficiaries from Across the Country on   Latest Tweet by Prasar Bharati News Services.

It is noteworthy that in the assembly recruitment matter, the Chief Minister clarified the stand of the government and urged the Speaker to investigate the recruitment. After this, the Speaker of the Assembly, as per the intention of the government, constituted a high-level committee on this and directed a time-bound investigation. In the inquiry report, the committee has recommended that 150 ad hoc recruitments should be cancelled in 2016, 6 in 2020 and 72 in 2021.

Dhami government is continuously working towards making Uttarakhand a corruption-free state. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said, "the government is working with determination towards good governance. Corruption of any kind will not be tolerated".

Also Read | Airports Authority of India to Deploy Private Security Personnel at 60 Airports for Non-Core Duties.

"The government has transferred the Subordinate Service Selection Commission and other recruitments to the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission to conduct them transparently. Now the examination process is moving with renewed transparency. Uttarakhand Public Service Commission has also released the calendar of dates for the first phase of examinations", added Dhami.

In the campaign against corruption, Chief Minister Dhami took tough decisions as soon as he received complaints of irregularities in the Group C recruitment examination in different departments conducted by the Subordinate Services Selection Commission.

So far, 41 accused involved in the paper leak case in the Subordinate Services Selection Commission recruitment examination have been arrested, while 18 accused have been charge-sheeted, and the judicial remand of 21 accused has been approved for the Gangster Act. On the other hand, one accused has been arrested in the 03 Secretariat Guard Recruitment in Forest Inspector case.

The Chief Minister said, "no injustice will be allowed to the youth of the state. He urged the youth to start preparing for the examinations with full enthusiasm and diligence. Presently the recruitment process for 7000 exams is in progress. Apart from this, they are also working on an action plan for recruitment to more than 12 thousand posts". (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Purnia, September 23: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is on a two-day visit to Bihar on Friday to prepare the party to become a formidable force ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to counter the Mahagathbandhan government in the state.

To give further impetus to the party, the Bihar unit of the BJP has come up with a new slogan urging people to support the party for the development of the state. The party has introduced the slogan "Aao chale Bhajpa ke sath, Kare Bihar ka Vikash" (let's support BJP for the development of Bihar). Chhattisgarh Bags 4 Awards for Swachh Bharat Mission; CM Bhupesh Baghel Congratulates State Team.

Shah's first trip to the state comes after chief minister Nitish Kumar parted ways with the BJP and joined hands with RJD, Congress and others to form a grand alliance government. Amit Shah will address 'Jan Bhavna Mahasabha' in the Seemanchal area for the first time in Bihar. Seemanchal area includes Katihar, Araria and Kishanganj districts.

The visit of Shah to Bihar reflects BJP's strategy to win maximum seats in 2024 Lok Sabha and 2025 Bihar Assembly elections . Amit Shah will address a gathering 'Jan Bhavna Mahasabha' at around 12 noon on Friday at Rangbhoomi Ground in Purnia. The BJP is in high gear ahead of Shah's visit to Seemanchal (bordering) districts of Bihar Purnia and Kishanganj districts.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal (United) already started questioning BJP for planning a 'Jan Bhavna Mahasabha in the Seemanchal region.

Whether it is RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav or Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, all are alleging that the BJP has chosen the Seemanchal area so that Amit Shah can do religious polarization.

Addressing media persona in Patna, Tejashwi Yadav said, "If Amit Shah is coming, then I want to ask.... whether the centre will give special status to Bihar or not? What is the motive for his visit? He will speak against Muslims and incite Hindus. When he comes he will say there is Jungle Raj."

Meanwhile, responding to Yadav, BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal said that JD(U) leader (Rajya Sabha) and former Finance Commission chairman NK Singh has said that special status is not possible in today's situation.

While exuding confidence that BJP will form government in the state in 2025, Jaiswal said, "For decades no BJP leader has become the Chief Minister of Bihar, but in 2025, the party will form the government in the state and there will be Chief Minister of BJP in Bihar."

Shah will later hold a meeting with MPs, MLAs and former ministers of Bihar BJP around 4 pm at Mata Gujri University in Kishanganj city.

The Minister will be chairing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State Core Committee meeting around 5 pm at Mata Gujri University. Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath To Send Details of Women-Only Session to All States.

On Day 2 of his visit to the state, the Minister will offer prayers at Budhi Kali Mata Temple around 9.30 am at Subhashpally Chowk in Kishanganj.

The Home Minister will visit Border outpost Fatehpur and inaugurate BOP buildings of Fatehpur, Pekatola, Beria, Amgachi and Raniganj around 10.30 am at Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) Campus.

The Minister will later review the meeting on border security with Director Generals and senior officers of Border Security Force (BSF), SSB and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) at 12 noon at BSF Campus, Kishanganj.

The Home Minister will attend the 'Sundar Subhumi' program organized on the occasion of the ongoing 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' celebrations at 3.30 pm at Mata Gujri University.

Shah will blow the poll bugle in the state for the party gunning for big wins at the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Union Minister and party's firebrand MP from Begusarai, Giriraj Singh has been made in charge of the rally to be attended by Shah in the Seemanchal (bordering) districts of Bihar's Purnia and Kishanganj districts.

To prepare for Shah's rally, several State BJP leaders have been camping in the bordering Purnia and Kishanganj districts for several days and meeting with local people and leaders to make the rallies successful.

The Seemanchal area of north Bihar consists of four districts -- Purnia, Kishanganj, Katihar and Araria -- where the Muslim population is in sizeable number to influence the success of a political party's candidate in both Assembly and General elections. The four districts share their border with West Bengal and Bangladesh, from where a large number of immigrants have infiltrated and settled to change the demography there, BJP leaders claimed.

The four districts represent 24 Assembly seats and four Parliamentary seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, BJP won just one seat of Araria, while JD(U) had victories in two seats of Purnia and Katihar and the Kishanganj seat went to the Congress party. In 2019, both BJP and JD(U) fought elections together as allies.

However, political experts said that the political trend of the Seemanchal area "influences the electoral course of other adjoining districts like Supaul, Bhagalpur, Madhubani and Darbhanga as well". There are 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar out of which 17 are presently held by the BJP while JD(U) has 16 seats. Further, Lok Janshakti Party has six seats and Congress has one seat.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Purnia [Bihar], September 23 (ANI): Union Home Minister Amit Shah will address a mega rally named 'Jan Bhavna Mahasabha' in Bihar's Purnia at 'Rangbhoomi ground' this afternoon, the first after former ally JD(U) stepped out of the alliance with the NDA on August 9.

Shah will embark on a two-day visit to the state starting today to set the tone for the 2024 General elections, in which Bihar where the BJP is likely to have a direct battle with the Mahagathbandhan, holds 40 Lok Sabha seats.

Also Read | Tesla Recalls Around 1.1 Million Vehicles To Prevent Drivers From Pinching by Windows.

Speaking to ANI, MoS Home, Nityanand Rai said, "There is great enthusiasm among the people about this 'Jan Bhavna Mahasabha'. Besides the workers of the BJP, the common people themselves have made preparations for the success of this huge rally".

Hitting out at the ruling Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar, Rai said that people are outraged due to the "collapse of law and order" in the state since the takeover of the new government.

Also Read | Uttar Pradesh Shocker: Photographer Booked for Sexually Harassing 18-Year-Old Girl in Lucknow.

Former Deputy Chief Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Modi said that the BJP cadre is happy with the exit of Nitish Kumar from the alliance adding that the party will now be able to win more seats in the state.

"Today's rally of Amit Shah will boost the morale of BJP leaders and cadres. Now party does not need support from JD(U). Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah's face is good enough to win a majority of Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 general election," he said.

He alleged that Nitish Kumar "hatched a conspiracy" to bring the "Jungle Raj part-2" in Bihar with the support of RJD.

"But the same time Chief Minister and Tejashwi Yadav forget that time has changed now and the people of Bihar understand very well that crime, corruption and nepotism are no more acceptable in an era of BJP-led NDA government at the Centre," he said.

Another BJP leader said, on condition of anonymity, that Amit Shah will set the tone for the party for the upcoming general elections with today's rally as BJP plans to win over 35 seats out of 40 in the state.

To prepare for Shah's rally, several state BJP leaders including Union Ministers, MPs, and MLAs are camping in the bordering districts including Purnia, Kishanganj, Katihar, and Araria districts for several days and meeting with local people and leaders to make the today rallies successful.

The Seemanchal area of north Bihar consists of four districts -- Purnia, Kishanganj, Katihar and Araria -- where the Muslim population is in sizeable number to influence the success of a political party's candidate in both Assembly and General elections. The four districts share their border with West Bengal and Bangladesh.

The four districts represent 24 Assembly seats and four Parliamentary seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, BJP won just one seat of Araria, while JD(U) had victories in two seats of Purnia and Katihar and the Kishanganj seat went to the Congress party. In 2019, both BJP and JD(U) fought elections together as allies.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will also address a meeting of Bihar BJP MPs, MLAs and former ministers tomorrow 23 September at 4 pm at Mata Gujri University, Kishanganj.

Shah will also address the Bihar BJP Core Committee meeting tomorrow evening at Mata Gujri University, Kishanganj. (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, September 23: Bihar governor Phagu Chauhan, who took ill and was admitted to a hospital here, was airlifted to Delhi on Friday for specialised treatment, Raj Bhavan sources said.

Chauhan had become semi conscious on Thursday night and was rushed to the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) here. He was taken in a special air ambulance to the national capital, the sources said. Governors of Goa and Gujarat Launch Natural Farming Project.

The Governor was suffering from fever for the last three days. When his condition deteriorated on Thursday, he was immediately taken to the IGIMS. However, when his condition did not improve on Friday, a decision was taken to take him to Delhi,, they said. Seventyfour-year-old Chauhan was appointed the 29th governor of Bihar in July 2019.

(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], September 23 (ANI): The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police has arrested an MBBS doctor from AIIMS and his sister for cheating on the basis of forged documents and causing wrongful loss to another doctor to the tune of Rs 16 crores approximately.

The accused have been identified as Dr Cherian and his sister Meenakshi Singh, a resident of Bengaluru, Karnataka. The accused person Dr Cherian completed his MBBS from AIIMS, Delhi and Meenakshi Singh completed her B.E. (Computer Science) and MBA from IIM.

Also Read | Chhattisgarh Bags 4 Awards for Swachh Bharat Mission; CM Bhupesh Baghel Congratulates State Team.

Both were arrested from a resort located in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, while they were trying to escape the investigation and were at large.

According to the Police, both the accused siblings, who came together along with friend and partner Dr Gandharv Goyal to start an app-based business structured on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the field of healthcare. However, when investment flourished in the company, both the accused persons ousted Dr Gandharv Goyal on the basis of forged and fabricated documents.

Also Read | Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath To Send Details of Women-Only Session to All States.

"It is a case of cheating, criminal breach of trust by the director and forgery with the other director and partner Dr Gandharv Goyal on the basis of forged documents to re-purchase the shares of Dr Gandharv Goyal for a meagre amount of Rs. 900 only. The approximately same percentage of shares were issued to fresh investors for a total consideration amount of Rs 16 crores approx. Therefore, causing wrongful loss to the partner and director Dr Gandharv Goyal to the tune of Rs 16 crores approx," it said.

A case was registered on the complaint of Dr Gandharv Goyal, a resident of Noida and an investigation was initiated.

During the investigation, it came to light that the complainant was among the directors and shareholders of "Synapsica Technologies Pvt. Ltd." having its office at Jasola, Delhi. Both the accused became Directors and shareholders in the said company.

In the month of December 2019, the Company became successful and got selected in Y-Combinator (the world's best accelerator program) and also went on to raise an investment of Rs 5 Crores approximately from various investors.

Further, a Company was also incorporated in the USA in the name of "Synapsica Healthcare Inc." for expanding the business in the USA and a subsidiary company of Synapsica Healthcare Inc was incorporated in India in the name of Synapsica Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. for expanding the business in India.

The Police said that the accused persons Dr Cherian and Meenakshi hatched a criminal conspiracy and on the basis of forged signatures of Dr Gandharv Goyal, created with the help of DocuSign append acquired his shares.

"During the course of the investigation, it was revealed that the accused persons Dr Cherian and Meenakshi after hatching criminal conspiracy between them floated a company at the US to attract more investors in their company Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. and later on re-purchased the share of Dr Gandharv Goyal in the company M/s Synapsica Healthcare Inc., on the basis of forged signature created by DocuSign app of Gandharv Goyal. Later on, they issued the same percentage of shares against the total consideration amount of Rs 16 crores approx. to fresh investors from India as well as the USA," the police said.

During the investigation all the share agreements and term sheets were seized from the accused persons mentioned above, ROC data obtained and analysed, bank statements taken and analysed and minutes book obtained and analysed.

A case has been registered under Sections 409, 420, 468, 471 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at PS EOW, New Delhi. (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, September 23 (ANI) National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday filed a supplementary charge sheet against an alleged weapon supplier in the killing of a Hindu priest in Punjab's Jalandhar by members of a radical group in January last year.

The charge sheet was filed against Gagandeep Singh alias Gaggu, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Meerut, under charges of 120B and 307 of Indian Penal Code and Section 25 (7), 25(8) of Arms Act and 17, 18, 20 of Unlaw Activities (Prevention) Act pertaining to the conspiracy to attack Hindu priest Kamaldeep Sharma at village Bharsinghpur in Jalandhar district.

Also Read | Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray Says 'Faith in Judiciary Vindicated', After Bombay High Court Allows Dussehra Rally at Shivaji Park.

The targeted attack was executed by the members of terror gang with the weapons supplied by accused Gagandeep Singh which the accused had supplied on the directions of accused Arshdeep Singh alias Arsh, the NIA claimed.

The NIA had earlier filed charge-sheet against four accused persons on July 4 naming Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a self-styled chief of KTF, his aide Arshdeep Singh and others.

Also Read | Elephant Attack: Woman Trampled to Death by Elephant in Chhattisgarh's Surguja, Husband Manages To Escape.

Investigations have revealed that the entire conspiracy was hatched by Nijjar and his aide Arshdeep Singh, both based in Canada, to disturb peace and disrupt the communal harmony, the agency claimed in a statement.

The target attack was executed by the members of terror gang with the weapons supplied by accused Gagandeep Singh which the accused had supplied on the directions of accused Arshdeep Singh, the agency added.

In July, the NIA also declared a reward of Rs 10 lakh for information on Nijjar.The agency alleged that Nijjar was also "promoting the secessionist and violent agenda of the Sikhs for Justice" in India. (ANI)

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Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) [India], September 23 (ANI): Commanding Officer of 45 squadrons of Indian Air Force also called Flying daggers, Group captain Syamantak Roy on Thursday said Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas is very capable aircraft and is equipped with world-class missiles.

"The Sular Air Force base lies in the center of the southern peninsula, which ensures that we have reached not only overland towards the north and towards the east, but also over the seas to the east, west and to the south. That makes us a very capable aircraft in terms of projecting our combat force all over the country," Roy told ANI here.

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The group captain further added that kind of weapon that the aircraft carries is phenomenal and that makes the combat capability of the aircraft tremendous and pretty lethal in its role.

Roy explained the LCA is configured for carrying short-term thermal missiles as well as long-range beyond visual range missiles and both of them are world-class.

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"We also carry 1000 pound conventional bombs along with laser-guided Bombs precision targeting and overall air to air as well as air to ground weapons makes us a multirole aircraft," he added.

Roy explains that currently, the component in terms of cost and in terms of indigenisation is about 60 per cent and in terms of the number of competent aircraft is close to 75 per cent and the percentage is increasing on a day-to-day basis in terms of Indigenisation.

Wing commander Ashish Moghe, PRO Indian Air Force said that Sulur is the base which houses two squadrons of Light Combat Aircraft and it also houses the Sarang helicopter display team.

Moghe backed the combat capability of LCA Tejas and said Indian Air Force based on threat perceptions is fully prepared to undertake any task which is given to it.

Group captain M Surendran who is a pilot of LCA Tejas said the aircraft is presently with the Indian Air Force are fully operational and able to deploy itself operationally for taking on any task that is given by the Indian Air Force. (ANI)

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Purnea, September 23: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday launched a blistering attack on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar stating that the JD(U) chief "betrayed" the anti-Congress politics from which he emerged and "sat on the laps" of Lalu Yadav for his Prime Ministerial ambitions.

While addressing the 'Jana Bhavna Mahasabha' in Bihar's Purnea, the first ever since the split of BJP and JD(U) alliance in the state, Shah said, "Nitish Kumar betrayed the anti-Congress politics, from which he was born, and sat in the laps of RJD and Congress for his Prime Ministerial ambitions. Can Nitish Kumar become the Prime Minister by switching alliances? Can this government run in Bihar?" Thane: AIMIM Office Attacked by Unidentified Persons in Mumbra, CCTV Video Goes Viral on Social Media.

Shah slammed the law and order situation in the state and said that there is an "atmosphere of fear" in the state since the Mahagathbandhan government returned to power.

"Today when I'm here in border districts, the duo of Lalu Yadav (RJD chief) and (CM) Nitish Kumar have a stomachache. Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar say that I am coming to create conflict. Lalu ji, there is no need of mine to create conflict, you are sufficient to do this. You have done this all your life. I have come here to say that when Lalu has joined the government, and Nitish Kumar is sitting on his lap, there is an atmosphere of fear here. I have come to tell you there is no need to be scared. There is the Narendra Modi government here," he said. BS Yediyurappa Gets Big Relief As Supreme Court Stays Probe Against Him in Corruption Case.

Shah said that the crowd that turned up at the rally is a signal of "warning for the Lalu-Nitish government".

"There would be a beginning of sounding the bugle from Bihar against the introduction of selfishness and power that Nitish Kumar has given by deceiving the BJP and sitting in the lap of Lalu," he added.

Recalling the instances of the past when Nitish Kumar switched sides, Shah stated, "Can Nitish babu become the PM by changing political alliances? He has betrayed many since he entered politics. Lalu ji, beware that Nitish babu might sit in Congress's lap tomorrow leaving you behind". Earlier today, Amit Shah arrives in Purnea, Bihar for a 2-day visit to the state.

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Jaipur, Sep 23 (PTI) The Rajasthan government has made a provision of Rs 200 crore in the 2022-23 budget to provide free sanitary napkins to women and girls, state minister Mamta Bhupesh said on Friday.

Bhupesh, the women and child development minister, said the 'I Am Shakti Udan' scheme is being implemented in a phased manner in the entire state.

Also Read | Indias Forex Reserves Down By USD 5.2 Billion to USD 545.65 Billion As of September 16: RBI.

Rajasthan is the first state in the country where such as scheme is being implemented on a large scale, she told the assembly.

There has been no change in the size of free sanitary napkins being given to women and girls in rural areas, she said.

Also Read | Airports Authority of India to Deploy Private Security Personnel at 60 Airports for Non-Core Duties.

Bhupesh said that a budgetary provision of Rs 200 crore has been made in the financial year 2022-23 for the scheme.

Supply orders have been issued to provide free sanitary napkins to over 1.15 crore beneficiaries at 60,361 anganwadi centers in 33 districts, and 26.48 lakh beneficiaries in 34,104 government schools in the state, the minister said.

In the last one year, Rajasthan Medical Services Corporation Limited (RMSCL) has provided free sanitary napkins to 26,220 schools in 31 districts, and 31,255 anganwadi centers in 23 districts. A total of Rs 104.78 crore has been spent by RMSCL for the purpose, she said.

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Jaipur, Sep 23 (PTI) Rajasthan government has allocated Rs 1,000 crore to the Tourism Development Fund in the current financial year, tourism minister Murari Lal Meena told the state assembly on Friday.

Out of this fund, Rs 600 crore have been allocated to enhance the tourism infrastructure, and the rest for branding and media planning for the state's development as a top tourist destination.

Also Read | Airports Authority of India to Deploy Private Security Personnel at 60 Airports for Non-Core Duties.

Meena, in response to a supplementary question during the Question Hour, said that a provision of Rs 100 crore was made in 2020-21 for the development of tourism in the state, which was increased to 500 crore in 2021-22, and to Rs 1,000 in the current financial year.

He said that due to the COVID pandemic, the industry that was affected most adversely was tourism, due to which the sanctioned amount could not be spent.

Also Read | Bihar Governor Phagu Chauhan Airlifted to Delhi for Specialised Treatment.

But since thing are now looking up, the amount will be used to promote tourism in the state, Meena said.

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New Delhi [India], September 23 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the proceedings against former Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa in a corruption complaint and issued notice to the complainant on his plea.

"Stay further proceedings as far as the petitioner is concerned," the court said.

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A bench of justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli issued notice to complainant Abraham TJ and others.

Former Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa challenged the Karnataka High Court order which restored a bribery complaint filed against him and 8 others, including his son under the Prevention of Corruption Act

Also Read | Thane: AIMIM Office Attacked by Unidentified Persons in Mumbra, CCTV Video Goes Viral on Social Media.

Yediyurappa was represented by Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Siddharth Dave and his petition was filed by advocate-on-record Kush Chaturvedi.

Karnataka High Court on September 7 restored the bribery complaint against former chief minister B S Yediyurappa, his son B Y Vijayendra and 7 others. Karnataka HC order had come on the complainant T J Abraham's plea challenging a lower court order.

"The High Court also erred in holding that the statutory protection granted to public servants under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 would not be an embargo on the power of the Ld. Magistrate/ Special Court to order investigation under Section 156(3)," the plea said.

"That the High Court failed to appreciate that Section 17A of the PC Act is cast in mandatory terms and the usage of words "enquiry, inquiry or investigation" in the aforesaid Section is indicative of vast nature of the extent of the protection sought to be granted to a Public Servant by the Parliament during any stage of a criminal trial or investigation," it read further.

Whilst passing the impugned judgment, the High Court erroneously directed the rejection of the sanction (sought by the Respondent No. 1/ Complainant) by the Governor ought to have been "ignored", the plea said.

The plea further stated that the High Court ought not to have passed the direction in the face of an Order passed by a high Constitutional Authority such as the Governor, more so without valid reasoning.

According to the complaint, Yediyurappa had used his influence in obtaining contracts in Government Departments, to release funds from the Government Departments, and expedite and speed up the file clearances in various Government Departments where the Company Ramalingam Construction has dealings with. (ANI)

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New Delhi, September 23: A sketch artist was arrested for allegedly uploading nude pictures of his ex-girlfriend on social media, police said on Thursday. The accused was identified as Mohd Tanzeem Ahmad (22), a resident of Doranda in Jharkhand's Ranchi.

The victim lodged a complaint at Cyber North Police Station and in her complaint, she said that she was influenced by his sketch art and an impressive count of followers on social media and entered into a relationship with the accused whom she had met on Instagram in February this year.

Gradually, she started chatting with him and after some time at his insistence, shared her private pictures with him on Instagram. "A few days ago, the victim who is a student of a prestigious college at Delhi University met the accused for the first time and during their meeting, the victim casually checked the mobile phone of the accused and found her nude pictures saved in his phone's Google drive," the police said. Pune Shocker: Zomato Delivery Man Molests Girl in Yewalewadi; Arrested.

She also checked out obscene pictures and videos of other girls on his mobile phone, after which she broke up with the accused. The break-up infuriated Ahmed and he uploaded the private photos of the woman on social media, a senior police officer said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Sagar Singh Kalsi said, "During the course of the investigation, all possible information including details of social media accounts of the accused, were gathered from the complainant. On the basis of technical investigation, the accused was identified." Uttar Pradesh Shocker: Photographer Booked for Sexually Harassing 18-Year-Old Girl in Lucknow.

They located him in the Jama Masjid area and made him join the investigation of the case. After a detailed interrogation, the accused was arrested on Tuesday, police said. During the investigation, the SIM card and mobile phone, used in the offence were recovered, the police said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) [India], September 23 (ANI): BJP workers gathered in front of Coimbatore central prison on Friday to meet the district president Uthama Ramasamy.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers who questioned Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader A. Raja for his 'controversial' comment on Manusmrithi was arrested by the Tamil Nadu police on the charge of 'causing social unrest' on Wednesday.

Also Read | UK Government Announces Income Tax Rates Will Fall Next Year as Part of Moves to Bolster   Latest Tweet by PTI News.

Uthama Ramasamy along with 11 other party workers was arrested for the Road Roko protest on the "Manu Sastra" issue.

Despite PFI raids, the Hindu Munnani functionary Sasikumar death Anniversary was observed yesterday and BJP national president JP Nadda was in Tamil Nadu.

Also Read | Delhi Youth, Undergoing Air Force Training in Bengaluru, Found Hanging in Room; Probe Underway.

Targetting this only the series of bomb hurdling took place in various places in Coimbatore, alleged BJP.

A bottle filled with the inflammable substance was hurled at the BJP office in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore on Thursday night triggering tension in the area.

Following this, BJP workers protested in the area demanding action against the culprits. According to BJP, this is a kind of "terror attack".

Speaking about it G.K. Nagaraj said, "The bomb hurdled at the BJP office was not petrol bomb, it was a kerosene-filled bottle bomb."

Police reached the spot to take control of the situation and conducted a preliminary investigation.

Speaking to reporters, Nandkumar, a BJP worker said, "Petrol bomb was thrown at our office, this is how terror attacks come. Today raids (against PFI) took place at several places. It is the anniversary of Hindu Munnani leader and BJP National president too is in the state."

The incident came hours after National Investigation Agency, Enforcement Directorate and the state police forces jointly carried out coordinated searches at the houses and offices of the top Popular Front of India (PFI) leaders and members across India on Thursday, including Tamil Nadu.

Searches were conducted at 93 locations in 15 states of India on Thursday. The states where the raids were conducted included Andhra Pradesh (4), Telangana (1), Delhi (19), Kerala (11), Karnataka (8), Tamil Nadu (3), Uttar Pradesh (1), Rajasthan (2), Hyderabad (5), Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, West Bengal, Bihar and Manipur. (ANI)

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New Delhi, Sep 23 (PTI) Rice production may fall by 13 per cent to 96.7 million tonnes in kharif season this year due to fall in paddy acreage amid deficient rains in some parts of the country, according to Origo Commodities' initial estimates.

Earlier this week, the agriculture ministry released the first advance estimates for kharif season of 2022-23 crop year (July-June). As per the government data, rice production is likely to decline by 6 per cent to 104.99 million tonnes in the kharif season this year as against 111.76 million tonnes in kharif season of last year.

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Established in 2011, Gurugram-based Origo Commodities is a agri fin-tech company focused on commodity supply chain, post harvest management, trade and finance. This is the first time the company has released the estimates for kharif crops. It will come up with a final estimate in November 2022.

In a statement, Origo Commodities said that rice production in kharif season for 2022-23 "is seen lower by 13 per cent y-o-y at 96.7 million tonnes against 111.17 million tonnes in 2021-22".

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"Paddy acreage has declined by around 9 per cent compared to last year while yield is projected 5 per cent lower from the last year. The crop yield had adversely impacted due to deficient rain in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar," the company said.

As per the latest estimate of Origo Commodities, total kharif production for the crop year 2022-23 is estimated at 640.42 million tonnes, which is 2 per cent lower than the same period last year.

Total kharif production is estimated lower due to likely fall in the production of paddy, groundnut, castor, jute, and sugarcane, the statement said.

Origo projects that cotton production may increase 8.5 per cent to 34.2 million bales (of 170 kg each) against 31.5 million bales in 2021-22, while soyabean output may rise 4.5 per cent at 12.48 million tonnes against 11.95 million tonnes in 2021-22.

Soybean acreage is almost flat compared to last year, while yield is estimated to gain by 4.7 per cent from the last year given the favourable rainfall distribution in the key soybean-producing states this year.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New York [US], September 23 (ANI): Foreign Ministers from Brazil, Russia, India and China extended their full support to South Africa for its BRICS Chairship in 2023 and also for holding the fifteenth summit.

BRICS foreign ministers held their annual meeting on the margins of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where the ministers said that they are looking forward to the Standalone Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs and International Relations in South Africa in 2023.

Also Read | India Takes Dig at China at UNSC, Says 'Politics Should Not Prevent Sanctioning of Terrorists'.

According to the statement released by BRICS, ministers were briefed on the preparations for South Africa's Chairship of BRICS in 2023.

The Ministers called for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in its three dimensions - economic, social and environmental - in a balanced and integrated manner by mobilising the means required to implement the 2030 Agenda.

Also Read | EAM S Jaishankar at UNSC: End Conflict in Ukraine, Return to Negotiating Table.

According to the statement, "The ministers welcomed the Transforming Education Summit convened by the UN Secretary-General from 16-19 September 2022. They reaffirmed that the BRICS countries are committed to implementing the UN Education 2030 Agenda, promoting education accessibility and equity, accelerating the development of quality education and training, encouraging exchanges among the youths, strengthening the cultivation of knowledge on sustainable development, and providing BRICS contributions for global governance."

The member countries also welcomed the first "BRICS Anti-Corruption Ministerial Meeting," which was held virtually on July 13. The ministers encouraged the BRICS Working Group on Anti-Corruption to strengthen cooperation including experience and information sharing on anti-corruption issues among the BRICS countries on the basis of full consultation and consensus and to explore further areas of cooperation against corruption.

The Ministers reiterated their commitment to further strengthening the cooperation within the BRICS Anti-Drug Working Group in accordance with the existing international drug control regime.

20. The Ministers, while emphasizing the formidable potential of the ICTs for growth and development, recognized the new possibilities they bring for criminal activities and threats, and expressed concern over the rising level and complexity of criminal misuse of ICTs.

"They welcomed the ongoing work in the UN Open-Ended Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Committee of Experts to elaborate a comprehensive international convention on countering the use of ICTs for criminal purposes and reaffirmed their commitment to cooperating in the implementation of the mandate adopted by the UN General Assembly resolution 75/282," the statement reads.

"The Ministers reiterated the need for all countries to cooperate in promoting and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms under the principles of equality and mutual respect. They agreed to continue to treat all human rights including the right to development in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing and with the same emphasis. They agreed to strengthen cooperation on issues of common interests both within BRICS and in multilateral fora including the United Nations General Assembly and Human Rights Council, taking into account the necessity to promote, protect and fulfil human rights in a non-selective, non-politicised and constructive manner and without double standards," the statement added. (ANI)

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New York [US], September 23 (ANI): Foriegn Ministers from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa on Thursday acknowledged the annual UNGA resolution on "combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fueling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination and related intolerance".

BRICS foreign ministers held their annual meeting on the margins of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where members exchanged their support for the continued cooperation of BRICS members in areas of mutual interest, including through regular exchanges amongst their Permanent Missions to the UN.

Also Read | India Takes Dig at China at UNSC, Says 'Politics Should Not Prevent Sanctioning of Terrorists'.

Taking to Twitter, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said, "A traditional BRICS gathering on the sidelines of #UNGA 77. Exchange of perspectives on the global situation, international economy and regional issues. Made the case for Reformed Multilateralism. Wished Naledi Pandor and South Africa all success for their Chairship."

In the meeting, the ministers also exchanged views on major global and regional issues on the United Nations (UN) agenda in the political, security, economic, financial and sustainable development spheres, as well as on intra-BRICS activities, according to the statement by the BRICS.

Also Read | EAM S Jaishankar at UNSC: End Conflict in Ukraine, Return to Negotiating Table.

The ministers discussed the possibilities for mutual support of their initiatives at the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

According to the statement, "The Ministers acknowledged the annual UNGA resolution on "Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fueling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance".

In the meeting, the ministers also reiterated their commitment to multilateralism through upholding international law, including the purposes and principles enshrined in the UN Charter as its indispensable cornerstone, and to the central role of the UN in an international system in which sovereign states cooperate to maintain peace and security, advance sustainable development, ensure the promotion and protection of democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.

"The Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening and reforming the multilateral system, especially of the UN and its principal organs, in order to make the institutions and instruments of global governance more inclusive, representative, participatory, reinvigorated and democratic and to facilitate greater and more meaningful participation of developing and least developed countries, especially in Africa, in global decision-making processes and structures and make it better attuned to contemporary realities," the statement reads.

The ministers also emphasized the importance to ensure inclusive and effective work of the global governance system and the role in this regard of the G20 as a premier multilateral forum in the field of economic cooperation that comprises major developed and developing countries on an equal and mutually beneficial footing.

The ministers appreciated the role of India and Brazil as members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 respectively. "The presence of four BRICS countries in the UNSC provides an opportunity to further enhance the weight of our dialogue on the issue of international peace and security and for continued cooperation in areas of mutual interest." the statement added.

Recalling the 2005 World Summit Outcome document, the ministers reaffirmed the need for a comprehensive reform of the United Nations, including its Security Council, with a view to making it more representative, effective and efficient, and to increase the representation of the developing countries so that it can adequately respond to global challenges.

China and Russia reiterated the importance they attach to the status and role of Brazil, India and South Africa in international affairs and supported their aspiration to play a greater role in the UN.

The ministers stressed their commitment to the important role of international organizations and to improve their efficacy and working methods, as well as to improve the system of global governance, and agreed to promote a more agile, effective, representative and accountable system that can deliver better in the field, address global challenges and better serve the interests of all Member States.

The ministers reiterated that the objectives, principles and provisions of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Paris Agreement, in particular the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities in the light of different national circumstances, must be honoured.

They also reaffirmed their commitment to multilateralism and to the multilateral trading system with the WTO (World Trade Organization) at its core.

"The Ministers expressed strong condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations whenever, wherever and by whomsoever committed. They recognized the threat emanating from terrorism, extremism and radicalisation. They are committed to combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including the cross-border movement of terrorists, terrorism financing networks and safe havens. They reiterated that terrorism should not be associated with any religion, nationality, civilisation or ethnic group," the statement reads. (ANI)

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New York [US], September 23 (ANI): Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was criticized by the US and its allies for having left the United Nations Security Council meeting immediately as he finished his speech in which he accused Ukrainian forces of making "illegal" attacks on the "peaceful citizens of Donbas."

A US official came down heavily on Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for only being at the United Nations Security Council meeting on Ukraine for a short time and skipping the Russian criticism from Western diplomats, CNN reported.

Also Read | India Takes Dig at China at UNSC, Says 'Politics Should Not Prevent Sanctioning of Terrorists'.

Blinken criticized Russia for its war in Ukraine on Thursday and noted that countries including those maintaining "close ties" with Moscow have publicly condemned the conflict.

While Blinken was speaking, Lavrov skipped the session. Looking at such a scene, a US official criticised Lavrov and said, "Lavrov apparently couldn't bear to hear the clear and repeated messages of condemnation of Russia's war against Ukraine. He walked into the chamber just before his speaking slot and left shortly after."

Also Read | EAM S Jaishankar at UNSC: End Conflict in Ukraine, Return to Negotiating Table.

The official said it was a sign of Russian weakness and a testament to the fact that Russians recognize that they are being isolated on the world stage.

It is pertinent to mention that the Russian Foreign Minister walked into the UN Security Council meeting at approximately 11:30 am ET and took his seat at the table, nearly 1.5 hours late.

The council was discussing the maintenance of peace and security in Ukraine.

Earlier, at UNSC, Lavrov called Ukraine a "totalitarian Nazi-like state", alleged that country's armed forces are using civilians as human shields.

He also accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the "Kyiv regime" of "racist" and "anti-Russian" motivated aggression.

"Ukraine has become a totalitarian Nazi-like state where the norms of humanitarian law are trampled on. There is no surprise that their armed forces in the national battalions are using peaceful civilians as human shields: Russian FM Sergey Lavrov at UNSC on Ukraine," Lavrov said in the UNSC briefing on Ukraine.

This comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded punishment for Russia for the war in Ukraine, which has left thousands of people killed, displaced millions and reduced towns to rubble.

In a pre-recorded speech at UN General Assembly that focussed on war, Zelenskyy said, "A crime has been committed against Ukraine and we demand just punishment. The crime was committed against our state borders. The crime was committed against the lives of our people."

"Ukraine demands punishment for trying to steal our territory," Zelenskyy added.

"Punishment for the murders of thousands of people. Punishment for tortures and humiliations of women and men," he added.

Zelensky called for Russia, one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, to lose its veto power.

"So long as the aggressor is party to decision making in the international organization you must be insulated from them, at least until aggression stops."

The Ukrainian leader also called for the creation of a special tribunal to punish Russia. "This will become a signal to all would-be aggressors, that they must value peace or be brought to responsibility by the world."

Zelenskyy's address to world leaders came after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered partial military mobilization in Moscow. Russia plans to conscript around 300,000 troops in an apparent escalation of its Ukraine invasion that began in February this year. (ANI)

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New Delhi [India], September 23 (ANI): The Quad is committed to open and secure cyberspace and has the collective will to fight ransomware threats to the cyber-infrastructure that enables Indo-Pacific economic development and security, a joint statement read.

"We are committed to an open, secure, stable, accessible, and peaceful cyberspace and support regional initiatives to enhance the capacity of countries to implement the UN Framework for Responsible State Behavior in Cyberspace, the statement read and added, "The Ministers signal our collective will to fight ransomware threats to the cyber infrastructure that enables Indo-Pacific economic development and security."

Also Read | UN Urges International Creditors To Consider Suspending Debt Repayment for Pakistan.

Quad Foreign Ministers of Australia, India, Japan and the US, met in New York on Thursday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). They reaffirmed the Quad's commitment to supporting Indo-Pacific countries' advancement of a free and open Indo-Pacific, "which is inclusive and rules-based."

"We commit to further cooperate on capacity-building programmes and initiatives that are aimed at enhancing regional cybersecurity and improve resilience against ransomware attacks in the Indo-Pacific."

Also Read | Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif Meets US President Joe Biden at Reception for World Leaders in New York.

Recalling the last Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting on February 11, 2022, they committed to addressing the global threat of ransomware, which has been an obstacle to Indo-Pacific economic development and security. "The transnational nature of ransomware can adversely affect our national security, finance sector and business enterprise, critical infrastructure, and the protection of personal data," the statement added.

They said that they stand for focused initiatives for enhancing the cyber capabilities of Indo-Pacific countries that would ensure the security and resilience of regional cyber infrastructure.

Quad Foreign Affairs Ministers also appreciated the progress made by the 36 countries supporting the US-led Counter Ransomware Initiative (CRI) and the regular, practical-oriented consultations against cybercrime in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Ministers call on states to take reasonable steps to address ransomware operations emanating from within their territory. "We exercise responsibility to assist each other in the face of malicious cyber activity, including from ransomware, against critical infrastructure," Quad ministers' joint readout noted.

The Ministers highlighted that practical cooperation in countering ransomware among Indo-Pacific partners would result in denying safe haven to ransomware actors in the region. They stressed that the focus is on results-oriented efforts to assist partners across the Indo-Pacific to strengthen their resilience, trust, and confidence in cyberspace, and effective incident-response capabilities.

They further underscored the importance of the multistakeholder approach to building the counter-ransomware capacity building including promoting the role of existing mechanisms such as the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE).

Ministers recognized the multistakeholder approach to internet governance will uphold our shared values in the design and use of technologies and cyberspace across our region.

"We welcome the negotiations of a possible new UN cybercrime convention as a long-term means to address cybercrime more broadly which will have utility in countering ransomware. We underscore the need for a new treaty to be drafted in a technologically neutral and flexible manner, which does not describe specific technologies or criminal methodologies," it added. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Posted by Joey on at 08:24 AM CST

This Weequay maquette is part of our Star Wars Archive Collection, a continuation and expansion of our work creating authentic replicas with impeccable lineage.



With hands-on access to the original film artifact and high resolution 3D scanning, our team crafted a faithful recreation of the Ken Ralston-sculpted concept maquette for this stoic and mysterious alien character from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, known as Queequeg during production.



Each approximately 7" tall (including the wood display base) bust is cast in heavy polyurethane resin. 100% made in the U.S.A.. Every replica in this edition is meticulously hand painted, with hand-applied hair, making each a unique tribute to the artistry involved behind the scenes of our favorite films!



Each statue in these limited editions includes a hand-numbered metal plaque and is hand packed in a gloss black box with die-cut foam insert and COA. The plaques for the signature edition were hand-signed by the original sculptor, Ken Ralston.



Choose from:



Ken Ralston (sculptor) Signature edition of 100 pieces  $499



Numbered, limited edition of 250 pieces  $449



Part of the Archive Collection, mastered from a high-resolution 3D scan of the original artifact

Both editions feature:



1:1 scale to the original maquette



Part of our Archive Collection, mastered from a high-resolution 3D scan of the original artifact



Hand painted and hand-applied hair, making each a unique work of art.



Includes display base and elegant hand-numbered metal plaque

Continental US shipping is $24.99. Additional shipping fees may be due after checkout when shipping to AK, HI, Military bases outside of the continental US, Puerto Rico or Guam. Please feel free to contact us before ordering for a shipping estimate.



At this time, Star Wars products may only be shipped to addresses within the US and US Territories.

Greetings,! The next piece in Regal Robot's Archive Collection has been revealed as the Weequay concept maquette from ROTJ!From Regal Robot: Head over to the Regal Robot website for more pictures and to learn more. Pre-orders go live at Noon EST September 27th.This macquette can be seen in ourinterview with Tom Spina here:What do you think about the Archive Collection of concept replicas from Regal Robot? Is this something you plan on adding to your collection? Let us know in the forums! Check out Rebelscum.com merch!Be sure to follow us on all of our social media platforms:
United Nations, Sep 24 (AP) Two of the world's most persistent conflicts punctuated debate at the United Nations on Friday, as the annual gathering of world leaders deviated from the dominating issue of the war in Ukraine.

Addressing hostilities thousands of miles apart and sharing little more than their decades of longevity, the Palestinian and Pakistani leaders nonetheless delivered similar messages, accusing a neighbour of brutality and urging world leaders to do more.

Also Read | Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif Rakes Up Kashmir Issue at UNGA, Says We Look for Peace With All Our Neighbours, Including India' (Watch Video).

"Our confidence in achieving a peace based on justice and international law is waning," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said. "Do you want to kill what remains of hope in our souls?"

With Israel's military occupation of the West Bank in its 55th year and no substantial peace talks in 13 years, it was a stark if perhaps unsurprisingly pessimistic assessment. Israel's prime minister backed a two-state solution to the conflict at his own speech a day earlier  but there is almost no prospect for one in the near term.

Also Read | UN Urges International Creditors To Consider Suspending Debt Repayment for Pakistan.

Speaking to the UN General Assembly after the Palestinian leader, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif of Pakistan similarly addressed a generations-old fight, accusing India of a "relentless campaign of repression" in Jammu and Kashmir. Those mountainous lands have been claimed by both sides since British rule of the subcontinent ended 75 years ago and India and Pakistan were born.

Sharif urged world leaders and the UN to "play their rightful role" in resolving the fight and said India "must take credible steps" too.

India's external affairs minister, S Jaishankar, might provide a rebuttal to Sharif when he gets his turn at the rostrum on Saturday. India has called the region an integral part of its nation.

After days of world leaders returning again and again to Ukraine, Sharif and Abbas provided a reminder of the other problems facing the international community.

Throughout the first three days and 104 leaders' speeches, many criticized how Russia had managed to block U.N. action on Ukraine because of the veto it wields as a permanent member of the Security Council. Abbas shifted the attention to the power of Israel and its allies, which he said meant no matter how many hundreds of resolutions pass, none would be implemented.

"Do you know who is protecting Israel from being held accountable? The United Nations," he said in a speech more than three times the 15-minute limit leaders are asked to respect.

Israel, in turn, has complained that it has been treated unfairly by the world body and has been held to a different standard from other member states, as when it comes to complaints about human rights violations.

Even as other issues bubbled up, many leaders continued to call for action against Russian President Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine.

"He won't stop at Ukraine if we don't stop him now," Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Friday.

Major battlefield developments in Ukraine cast a shadow over the week  nuclear threats by Putin, the activation of some military reservists and votes in Russian-held territories derided by many world leaders and seen as a prelude to annexation.

Russia and Ukraine faced off Thursday at a Security Council meeting  an extraordinary if brief encounter during which the top diplomats from nations at war were in the same room exchanging barbs and accusations, albeit not directly to each other.

Meanwhile, on Friday, a team of experts commissioned by the UN's top human rights body, said its initial investigation turned up evidence of war crimes committed in Ukraine since Russia's invasion.

Besides Ukraine, familiar refrains have resounded in UN speeches, with repeated mentions of climate change, economic crises and inequality. The gathering is a rare moment for many leaders to grab the spotlight on a global stage dominated by the biggest, richest and most militarily mighty countries and issue calls for action.

"The obligation of each leader before history is not to overlook failings and shortcomings in favor of wishful thinking or flattery," President Nicos Anastasiades of Cyprus said Friday in his final General Assembly speech as leader of the Mediterranean island nation. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Mumbai, September 23: Tata Consultancy Services has asked its employees to work in office through an email. An internal email shared with employees says that it is mandatory for all to work from office at least three days a week. The respective managers of each department will prepare a roster and the employees must work in office for at least three days in a week.

The mail further reads Adherence to rostering is mandatory and will be tracked. "Needless to mention, any non-compliance will be taken seriously, and administrative measures may be applied. Senior employees of TCS have been working from office for a while now and customers are also visiting the TCS offices, the mail says. Kalash Gupta, IIT Delhi Student, Cracks Season 10 of TCS CodeVita, Becomes Worlds Top Coder

As of now, TCS hasn't specified a date when the new rules will go into effect but employees have been advised to contact their managers to know about the arrangements made for their project as per the new working plan. A TCS spokesperson speaking to TOI said that the company, in line with its 25x25 model, is moving in a phased manner to get its employees back to office. TCS-Led Consortium Bags Rs 550 Crore Order for Deploying 4G Gears in BSNL Network.

TCS had announced a new 25/25 model in 2021, to be implemented by 2025 whereby only a quarter of the companys half a million employees would be required to work from office at any given point and would spend only a quarter of their time in office.

However for now remote working cannot be the sole work arrangement and the company wants all employees to return to the office before it transitions to the new model in phases. TCS had previously asked employees to return to their home locations. Last month it asked senior employees to start working from office.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 23, 2022 01:28 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
The Karnataka police arrested three drug peddlers, including a small screen actor in Kerala, and seized 191 grams of MDMA and 2.80 kilograms of ganja valued at Rs 12.50 lakh from them on Friday. The accused are identified as Siyaz, Mohammad Shahid and Mangal Thodi Jathin. All the accused are from Kerala and accused Shiyaz worked as an actor in Malayalam television. Koffee With Karan 7: Gauri Khan Breaks Silence on Aryan Khans Arrest, Says Nothing Can Be Worse Than What We Have Been Through.

According to police, the accused sold drugs to students of reputed colleges and elite public here. They ran an inter-state gang and the police have slapped the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) 1985 on them. Gathering inputs, the police have nabbed two accused persons from a place close to NIFT College in Bengaluru and seized Rs 6 lakh worth 101 grams of MDMA and 2.80 kilograms of ganja. Park Jin Hong Arrested After Stealing 8.3 Million USD from His Brother Park Soo Hong  Latest Tweet by Allkpop.

After grilling the two accused, the police have got information on the third accused selling drugs near the service road at Agara Lake. DCP South East C.K. Baba has appreciated the efforts of the policemen for breaking an inter-state drug cartel. Further investigation is on.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 23, 2022 03:55 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Raipur, September 23: The Chhattisgarh government on Friday announced that it will launch a special campaign for protection and safety of girls and women and provide them essential services.

Taking to Twitter, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said a campaign called 'Hamar Beti - Hamar Maan' (our daughters, our honour) will be launched, under which women police personnel will visit schools and colleges in all districts and educate girls about their legal rights. Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel Transfer Instalments to Beneficiaries of 'Godhan Nyay Yojana'.

Daughters are our honour and they are the foundation of the state's bright future. A society in which daughters are safe and empowered, that society moves ahead on the path of development," Baghel tweeted.

Women police personnel will visit schools and colleges in every district and interact with students to educate them about their legal rights, good touch-bad touch, cyber crimes, molestation and sexual exploitation etc., he said.

They will also interact with students and guide them on ways to handle critical situations, he said, adding that students will be taught how to use mobile applications for their safety.

Apart from this, the chief minister said a special patrolling team of women police personnel will be deployed in girls' schools and colleges and at places frequented by girls and women.

A helpline number will be released on which complaints about misbehaviour, molestation and other crimes against women can be lodged and action will be taken on them on priority, the chief minister said.

Investigations into crimes against women will be done on priority basis by women investigators, and it will be the responsibility of the inspector general of police (IGPs) of ranges to ensure that probe into such offences are completed and chargesheets are submitted in court within the stipulated time, he added.
The Odisha cabinet has approved a proposal to bring limestone under the purview of Long-Term Linkage (LTL) policy, in a bid to streamline its supply to the industries of the state.
The Railway Protection Force and Government Railway Police personnel rescued a passenger stuck between the platform and a moving train here, the police said on Friday.
Puerto Rico has been hit hard by Hurricane Fiona, but there is some good news for the U.S. Island territory because President Joe Biden has vowed that the United States will assist the storm-hit island. He also pledged that the federal government will be paying for all of Puerto Rico's recovery efforts for the next month.

According to Politico, the move expands the federal government's role in the island and unlocks additional federal assistance for Puerto Rico as its residents suffer the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona. More federal funding is also made available for Puerto Rico after Biden's declaration. This will be used for debris removal, emergency protective measures, and other services.

"We're all in this together," stated Biden in a briefing with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials in New York. He added that hundreds of FEMA and other federal officials are already on the ground on the island.

Puerto Rico Still Suffering From Power Outages

Unfortunately, the island still has some huge challenges along the way, including the massive power outage Puerto Rico is facing after Hurricane Fiona hit. Over 60% of residents are still without power there, and about a third of the island's residents are without water. A local official admitted that they could not say when service will resume.

However, President Biden told the people of Puerto Rico that "We're with you. We're not going to walk away." Many have pointed out the contrasting responses between the Biden administration and the Trump administration when it came to Puerto Rico, as Trump largely bungled his response to Puerto Rico when Maria hit, and Puerto Ricans are still reeling from that disaster to this day, as the Associated Press pointed out.

LUMA Energy, the private company that is operating Puerto Rico's grid, said it has restored power to around 420,000 people, or around 28 percent of the island's 1.5 million customers.

READ NEXT: Hurricane Fiona Update: 1000 People Rescued in Puerto Rico Amid Major Flooding, Storm Crashes into Dominican Republic

Puerto Ricans Still Struggling for Water

One of the biggest challenges for Puerto Ricans after a huge storm like this is finding safe potable water. Over half a million people on the island have remained without any water services for over three days now since Hurricane Fiona hit.

According to a report by the Associated Press, many island residents spent hours in lines on Wednesday, trying to fill jugs from water trucks. Others also scooped water from mountain runoff.

So far, the Puerto Rico government has sent in 11 water trucks called "oases" all across the island. However, the situation has left many people angry, as they are once again left without any basic services following a catastrophic storm, much like what happened during Hurricane Maria.

Tensions were running high for those waiting in line to get water from these trucks. Things often heat up even more when these trucks line up and run out of water to give the citizens, who spent hours trying to get water. Some cars can be seen driving away, frustrated about the hours-lomg wait for water access.

READ NEXT: Hurricane Fiona: Puerto Rico in Total Blackout, Videos Show Scary Damage

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Biden vows urgent help for storm-ravaged Puerto Rico - Associated Press
Johnny Depp and Joelle Rich are dating, according to Fox News Digital. Rich is a married lawyer representing Depp in his defamation claim in the U.K. against a newspaper that called him a "wife-beater."

Depp filed two separate lawsuits after his marriage to Heard ended in 2017. He initially sued The Sun in June 2018 after the newspaper published an article on his role in the "Fantastic Beasts" film that dubbed him a "wife-beater." The paper used the allegations of abuse made by Heard before her divorce from Depp in 2016.

After delays due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the trial finally started in July 2020. Four months later, the U.K.'s High Court of Justice ruled The Sun's article was not libelous since the "Aquaman" star's claims about her ex-alleged husband's abuse were "substantially true."

Depp filed an appeal in March 2021, which the court refused. Rich stated at the time that she "seriously questioned" the judgment of the British judge and that her client was looking forward to presenting the absolute, indisputable proof of the truth in the Amber Heard trial, where she will make full disclosure.

READ NEXT: Johnny Depp and Amber Heard Marriage: Here's the Real Reason Why the Hollywood Actor Married His Ex-Wife

Johnny Depp Lawyer, Joelle Rich, Occasionally Meet Up With Him

According to a source, Rich has split up with her husband and is getting a divorce from him. She wasn't on Depp's legal team when he sued his ex-wife Amber Heard in Virginia for defamation, but she was present for part of the six-week trial, which concluded in June.

Rich, a mother of two, was also seen chatting with the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star while on a cigarette break outside the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse.

U.S. Weekly source said Rich had no professional obligation with Depp then, and she was there personally, "discreetly" meeting up in hotels in the early stages of their relationship.

Rich remained at the Ritz-Carlton in McLean, Virginia, where Depp had gone into hiding throughout the trial. On various occasions, they've dined at The Palm, a steakhouse next door to the hotel.

"Their chemistry is off the charts," the source said. "It's serious between them. They are the real deal."

Johnny Depp Was Even Rumored to Be Dating Camile Vasquez

Earlier, Depp and his attorney, Camille Vasquez, were rumored to be dating. Vasquez was one of Depp's primary defense attorneys throughout his six-week Amber Heard trial, NDTV reported.

Vasquez, on the other hand, rejected the rumors. She stated that her clients are really important to her.

Vasquez explained that it's just part of being a woman performing her job. She also expressed regret that some news sites claim that her dealings with Depp, whom she has represented for four and a half years, were inappropriate or unprofessional.

She also mentioned that she is in a relationship and that she and her partner are very happy together. She said that dating a client is unethical for a lawyer. "It's unfortunate and disappointing, but it comes with the job. "I can't say I was too shocked, "she added.

READ ALSO: LeBron James Shows Ultimate Love to Savannah Amid Cheating Allegations

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Bert Hoover


After cutting off his ankle monitor and escaping house arrest last September 4, the infamous Malaysian defense contractor involved in the largest bribery scandal in U.S. Navy history, Leonard Glenn Francis, better known as "Fat Leonard," was captured by Interpol agents in Caracas, Venezuela. He was trying to flee to Russia.

According to the Associated Press, Fat Leonard was under house arrest in San Diego after being found guilty of trying to bribe naval officials. However, he cut off his ankle monitor earlier this month and escaped to Mexico before zipping through to other countries. He landed in Cuba before traveling to Venezuela.

Interpol Venezuela Director General Carlos Garate Rondon stated he was captured at the Simon Bolivar International Airport trying to catch a plane to Russia. Fat Leonard will be handed over to Venezuelan authorities to begin extradition proceedings, according to NPR.

Fat Leonard Would Have Gotten Away If He Escaped to Russia

Former U.S. Army lawyer Greg Rinckey spoke to the Associated Press about Fat Leonard's daring escape. He said that the fugitive used countries outside of the jurisdiction of the U.S. Marshals Service, with the exception of Mexico.

Rinckey also pointed out that he was caught just in time too, because if he actually made it to Russia, the Russians would not have turned him over to the United States, given the current tensions between the two countries.

Despite the ongoing tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela, the two still have a standing extradition agreement. However, things might get difficult in extraditing the runaway fugitive as the United States does not officially recognize President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government, nor does it have any embassy in Venezuela. In addition, the United States has imposed crushing sanctions on the country.

However, there have been talks between the two most recently, with the Biden administration seeking to normalize ties between the United States and Venezuela in recent months. However, there is still no word whether or not Fat Leonard will be extradited to the United States.

READ MORE: Venezuela: UN Experts Find Human Rights Abuses Still Prevalent Under Nicolas Maduro

Who Is Fat Leonard and What Did He Do?

Leonard "Fat Leonard" Glenn Francis is a Malaysia-based defense contractor who tried working with the United States Navy. He tried getting defense contracts with the Navy through unscrupulous means, most notably bribing Navy officials.

The Guardian reported that Fat Leonard offered prostitution services, luxury hotels, cigars, gourmet meals, and more than $500,000 in bribes to Navy officials, as well as others involved in securing Navy contracts. This is all so his Singapore-based ship servicing company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia Ltd or GDMA, can land that sought-after U.S. defense contract.

Prosecutors pointed out that his company overcharged the United States Navy by at least $35m for servicing ships. Much of that cash went to ports he controlled in the Pacific.

The officers involved with him called themselves the Lion's King Harem, Brotherhood, and Wolfpack. They tried to recruit others in the scheme as well. Four naval officers have been found guilty along with Fat Leonard himself. 29 other people, including naval officers, have also pleaded guilty to their involvement in the scandal.

Before his daring escape, Fat Leonard was supposed to attend a hearing on his sentencing. He pleaded guilty in 2015 but was allowed to stay under house arrest for his medical care. He mostly cooperated with the prosecution before his escape.

READ NEXT: Slain Venezuelan Opposition Activist's Family Wins $73 Million in U.S. Lawsuit

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: "Fat Leonard," Architect Of Navy Bribery Scandal, Captured In Venezuela - CBS Miami
UN Commission on crimes against humanity has presented a report about Venezuela, detailing the crimes it committed ranging from clandestine torture houses ordered by top leaders of Nicolas Maduro's regime.

Miami Herald reported that the United Nations' report recounted mock executions, rapes, and other practices during Maduro's administration.

It also includes Cubans teaching the best tormenting practice to apply to prisoners.

The report also noted that some of the crimes often came from the very top positions of the government's administration.

The UN report noted that Maduro and other people from his close circle, including other high-level authorities, participated in the choosing of the targets.

Venezuelan government intelligence agencies such as the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service and the General Directorate of Military Counter Intelligence continue to systematically use torture against its population.

The report continued to state that the torture practice continues despite "political dissidence has been largely repressed."

The document also noted that SEBIN and DGCIM were "particularly cruel" with the crimes and violations committed against defenseless people, adding that the agencies were designed to suppress dissent and consolidate power.

READ NEXT: Nicolas Maduro Net Worth: How Wealthy Is the 46th President of Venezuela?

UN Report on Nicolas Maduro's Regime

The recently released UN report is the third to be released by the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela since 2019, according to The Washington Post report.

A Venezuelan political analyst, Enderson Sequera, said that the UN report has been the "most blunt report" when it comes to displaying those responsible for the crimes.

Manuel Ricardo Christopher Figuera, the SEBIN's former director, told investigators that "substantive orders mainly came from President Maduro."

The country's former vice president, Diosdado Cabello, was cited to have also provided a list of targets to detain, which were mainly civilians, well-known critics, and oppositions.

After providing the list of targets, the government would then bug their phones, plant evidence, and arrest them without warrants or kidnap them.

Detainees then told investigators that they were subjected to torture ranging from death threats against their families to forced feedings of feces and vomit once they were inside the prison.

Sometimes those detained would be held naked inside a cold room, under bright lights, and isolation. The report stated that those are forms of psychological abuse, which distort the senses.

UN Report on Venezuela Torture Practices

The UN Fact-Finding Mission based its findings in both reports on 245 confidential interviews, both in-person and remotely.

The interview also included the victims, their family members, and former employees of the security and intelligence services.

Chair of the UN FFMV, Marta Valinas, said that Venezuela is "still facing a profound human rights crisis," with the report highlighting two aspects of the situation.

The FFMV has recorded 122 cases of victims who were detained by DGCUM, with 77 of whom were subjected to torture, sexual violence, and/or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.

UN noted that the torture practices were done in Boleita headquarters in Caracas and other covert detention centers across Venezuela.

The UN report added that the government agencies used sexual and gender-based violence to torture and humiliate its detainees.

READ MORE: Venezuela Opposition Lawmaker Sentenced to Eight Years in Prison for 2018 Drone Attack Against President Nicolas Maduro

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: ICC investigates crimes against humanity in Venezuela - from Al Jazeera English


A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
Nicaragua has been cracking down on the Catholic Church, the opposition, and local independent media. Now, however, they have taken aim at media giant CNN as they took CNN en Espanol off the air on Wednesday.

CNN en Espanol is CNN's Spanish-speaking network that mostly operates in the Americas, including Nicaragua. However, on Wednesday evening, the Nicaraguan government under dictator Daniel Ortega abruptly removed it from the air, just after 10:00 p.m.

CNN stated that the Nicaraguan government did not explain why they took the cable news channel off the air. Local cable operators in the country also did not comment.

According to Reuters, "CNN en Espanol was the only remaining outlet critical of President Daniel Ortega available to Nicaraguans." This is in reference to the recent crackdowns on independent media outlets that have reported on the atrocities committed by Ortega and the Nicaraguan government.

CNN Still Available to Nicaraguans via the Internet

In the recent months leading up to it being taken off the air, CNN en Espanol reported on the various forms of repression done by the Ortega-led Sandinista government. This includes reporting on the closure of several Catholic-run radio stations, as well as the arrest of prominent Ortega critic, Matagalpa Bishop Rolando Alvarez.

Fortunately, however, the internet is still available in Nicaragua. While the main channel was taken off the air, its official website is still reporting Spanish-language news.

CNN itself released a statement saying "CNN stands by our network's reporting and our commitment to truth and transparency." It also added that they at CNN en Espanol believe in the vital role that freedom of the press plays in a healthy democracy.

READ MORE: Nicaragua Newspaper Staff Flee Country as Daniel Ortega Cracks Down on Independent Media

Nicaragua and the Free Press Under Daniel Ortega

Arturo McFields, Nicaragua's former ambassador to the Organization of American States, condemned his government's action in taking the channel off the air. He stated that this is a "sign of fear, clumsiness, and arrogance." The former Nicaraguan ambassador also added that his government only wants to have a society of sheep that would only listen to and obey the official narrative.

This is a rare public criticism from McFields, who had previously called the Ortega regime a dictatorship. He also pointed out that because of the media repression, Nicaragua has become the only Central American country with no print newspapers and human rights organizations as they have been closed, expelled, or shuttered.

Reporters Without Borders has stated that Free Press is being repressed throughout Nicaragua, with a "strong wave of repression" being launched against various groups, including opposition politicians, civil organizations, and media."

However, there are still news outlets that operate in the country, such as Radio Corporacion and Accion 10. However, they tend to avoid reporting about government atrocities for fear of reprisals. This is not the case for La Prensa, which the National Police raided in 2021. As Latin Post previously reported, many of the newspaper's workers, from reporters to editors and photographers, have fled the country in exile. They continue reporting on their home country while in exile.

READ MORE: Daniel Ortega Net Worth: The Life, Wealth, and Crime of Nicaragua's Dictator

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Gobierno de Nicaragua saca del aire la senal de CNN en Espanol - CNN en Espanol
Prince Andrew allegedly tried to prevent his older brother, King Charles III, from being the next monarchy before Queen Elizabeth II died.

MARCA reported that it was revealed in Angela Levin's biography of Camilla, which was entitled "Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall: From Outcast to Future Queen Consort."

According to the book, Andrew lobbied with the Queen to stop Charles from becoming the King of England and allegedly conspired with Princess Diana and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson to prevent Charles from being a king.

The biography claimed that Andrew strongly opposed the union of Charles and Camilla, who are currently the King and Queen consort. Levin attributed the information to a "top insider," who claimed Andrew and Diana allegedly planned to "push Prince Charles aside."

The insider alleged that Diana was in the ploy when she was alive, plotting with "Andrew to try to push Prince Charles aside so Prince Andrew could become regent to William."

At the time, the prince was still a teenager. The book noted that Charles' behavior was "very, very negative and extremely unpleasant to the Queen." It added that it was one of the rare occasions that Prince Andrew did not get his way.

READ NEXT: King Charles III Is Eyeing the Removal of Prince Harry, Prince Andrew as Official Royal Stand-Ins

New Book Reveals Prince Andrew and King Charles III Relationship

Irish Mirror reported that Prince Andrew and King Charles III were said to have different personalities, values, and approaches to life.

The same royal source said that Andrew was one of the several whom the late monarch asked for advice on the issue of Charles marrying Camilla. The book claimed that the Duke of York had tried to persuade the late Queen not to allow his brother to marry Camilla.

It added that Andrew's manner was "quite poisonous, mean, unhelpful, and very nasty about Camilla." Andrew claimed that Camilla was "insufficiently aristocratic and that she was not to be trusted."

The Duke of York is no longer a working royal and was also forced to wear civilian clothes as he followed his late mother's procession to Westminster Hall last Wednesday. He was also stripped of all his honorary military titles and was ordered to give up his HRH title.

King Charles III and Line of Succession

Royal commentator and author Robert Jobson noted that King Charles III needs to figure out "the line of succession" to ensure that the crown will be safeguarded should a "tragedy strike."

The newly ascended king is urged to choose a person who could become the Prince of Princess Regent in support of young Prince George if anything happens to both him and Prince William, according to Daily Express.

Jobson believes that Prince Harry could not fulfill the task of supporting Prince George, being that he was also not a working royal.

The royal expert claimed that George being handed the crown at a very young age due to a tragedy had worried the late Queen. Jobson then noted that the heir would be a nine-year-old boy if something happened to Charles and William.

"If something dreadful should happen to both him and William, then the heir would be a nine-year-old boy. There would need to be a Prince or Princess Regent until George was old enough to rule," he said.

READ MORE: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle Opt Not to Hold Daughter Lilibet's Christening in the U.K. As It's Likely Be in California: Royal Sources

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Prince Andrew 'Plotted' to Stop Charles Becoming King - From Sky News Australia


Mar-a-Lago special master Judge Raymond Dearie is ordering former President Donald Trump's team to present to the court any pieces of evidence they had that support their claims that the Federal Bureau of Investigation planted additional items on the seized classified documents in his Florida mansion last August 8.

In the past few weeks, Donald Trump, among many others supporting him, has continued to accuse the law enforcement agency of allegedly planting evidence against him during the Mar-a-Lago search. Trump has reiterated his claims in a Fox News interview last Wednesday.

But aside from asking Trump to provide evidence, it would seem like Judge Dearie would be needing more help than he had possibly anticipated. He is now tapping retired federal Judge James Orenstein for his vast experience in complex case management, with the Mar-a-Lago independent review being the case.

With a deadline of November 30, Dearie is ordered by Judge Aileen Cannon to make an independent review of the 11,000 White House documents seized at Trump's Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida.

Donald Trump Claims FBI Planted Evidence on Mar-a-Lago, Special Master Orders Him To Provide Proof

In an exclusive interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, former President Donald Trump claims that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has planted evidence against him during the Mar-a-Lago search last August 8. Asked if he had proof of that, Trump says he does not have any.

Trump, along with his other allies, have accused the FBI numerous times that the unannounced raid was a political witch hunt.

Now, the same Special Master that Trump's team has consistently requested orders them to produce evidence to support their claims, CNN reported.

In a new filing, Dearie orders the former president's team to submit a sworn declaration expressing their stance that the Justice Department and details of the "specific items set forth in the Detailed Property Inventory that Plaintiff asserts were not seized from the Premises on August 8, 2022."

READ ALSO: Donald Trump Could Be Indicted Over Mar-a-Lago Document Retention, His Lawyers Admit in New Court Filing

Special Master Raymond Dearie Enlists Retired Federal Judge As Additional Help for Mar-a-Lago Document Review

In a proposed case plan obtained by Politico, Brooklyn-based New York Judge Raymond Dearie is seeking the help of retired Federal judge James Ornstein and his staff to help him review the 11,000 classified documents seized by the FBI on Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.

Per Dearie, James Ornstein has experience with complex case management, privilege review, warrant procedures, and other matters that may arise in the course of the Special Master's duties.

Indicated in the filing, Dearie ordered that Ornstein, a now-retired judge, be paid $500 for his services. As for him, he would not be seeking any additional compensation for his work as an independent reviewer for the case as he is currently on the government payroll.

Both Dearie and Ornstein have to conclude their third-party review on or before November 30, where they will submit the findings to Judge Aileen Cannon.

READ ALSO: Justice Department Regains Access to Donald Trump's Mar-A-Lago Documents After Appeals Court Lifts Hold

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Ivan Korrs

WATCH:Special Master Demands Trump Prove Claims FBI Planted Evidence At Mar-A-Lago - From Forbes Breaking News
The board of directors for the Inter-American Development Bank has recommended removing the bank's Trump-appointed president, Mauricio Claver-Carone.

The board of the top development bank focused on Latin America voted to remove him Thursday, following an independent ethics investigation on his misconduct.

According to Bloomberg, the voting was behind closed doors. However, the votes from all 14 of the bank's executive directors were unanimous, and the bank's governors only have until Tuesday to decide whether to fire the Trump-picked official.

All of the bank's Board of Governors who will be making that decision represent all 48 of the bank's member nations, most of which are in Latin America.

According to Reuters, Claver-Carone's termination requires a majority of the total voting power of the governing board. The three largest shareholders, which are the United States, Argentina, and Brazil, hold nearly 53% of the voting power.

Mauricio Claver-Carone's Ethics Violations as President of the Inter-American Development Bank

An independent investigation launched by the bank's executives found that Mauricio Claver-Carone violated several ethics rules. The Associated Press reported that he favored a top aide with whom he had a romantic relationship.

The embattled bank president also created a "climate of fear of retaliation" among staff members. The U.S. Treasury Department noted that borrowing countries had forfeited the confidence of the bank's staff and shareholders because of Claver-Carone.

A Treasury Department spokesperson told the Associated Press that a change of leadership is necessary. The Biden administration has been reportedly pushing for his removal because he refused to fully cooperate with an independent probe.

Claver-Carone allegedly remained defiant despite the bank's top executives unanimously voting against him. He noted that replacing him would only embolden China, which joined the bank during the Obama administration.

He added that it was shameful for the U.S. government to comment to the press before notifying him and not defending him against "clearly fabricated information."

READ NEXT: New York AG Letitia James Officially Files Lawsuit Against Donald Trump and His Adult Children For Fraud

Strong Evidence For Mauricio Claver-Carone's Ethics Violations

The independent investigators, which comprised lawyers from the legal firm, Davis Polk, found evidence to support allegations that the bank president had a relationship with his chief of staff since 2019, when the two held senior positions on the National Security Council.

The two allegedly drew up a "contract" on the back of a place mat while they dined in a steakhouse in Medellin, Colombia. It reportedly happened during the summer of 2019 while attending the Organization of American States' annual meeting.

AP reported that the contract, which investigators uncovered, allegedly outlined a plan for the two to divorce their spouses and get married. It also had a breach clause stating that failing to fulfill the terms would bring "sadness and heartbreak" that could only be mitigated by some "candlewax and a naughty box" from a Miami hotel.

Other evidence reportedly included the bank president sending a romantic poem to his chief-of-staff and having a 1 a.m. hotel room rendezvous with her. Claver-Carone also awarded her a 40% pay raises in violation of the bank's conflict-of-interest policies.

Claver-Carone has since disputed the accuracy of the report, denouncing how the review was conducted and offering no hint that he was considering resignation. The investigators noted that the bank's president had also denied ever having a relationship with his longtime right hand.

READ MORE: Brazil: 9 Dead, 31 Injured After Concrete Slab Collapsed on Row of Seats at Campaign Event

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Trump Nominee Elected to Head Latin American Development Bank - From Al Jazeera English
Mexican drug cartels such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco cartel have been designated terrorist organizations by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

According to Mexico News Daily, Abbott designated the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco cartel, and "any similarly situated Mexican drug cartels who may be identified in subsequent proclamations" as "foreign terrorist organizations."

In his executive order, the governor also ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to establish a Mexican Cartel Division "within the Texas Fusion Center" that will gather and analyze intelligence to enable further apprehension, prosecution, and disruption" of these terrorist organizations.

Abbott noted that Mexican drug cartels are behind the trafficking of hundreds of millions of lethal doses of fentanyl into Texas and the U.S. The Republican governor added that 1,600 Texans were fatally poisoned by drugs containing fentanyl in 2021, which was an increase of "more than 680% since 2018."

Abbott further noted that Mexican drug cartels also smuggle humans across the Texas-Mexico border and create "deadly violence" in the state. He said the designation targeting Mexican drug cartels would enhance apprehension, prosecution, and disruption while increasing awareness of their deadly activities.

READ NEXT: Sinaloa Cartel Boss El Chapo's Nephew Gunned Down in Mexico's Chihuahua State

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Fighting Mexican Drug Cartels

Greg Abbott had also sent a letter to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris urging them to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations at the federal level, Townhall reported.

He told Biden that Mexican drug cartels terrorize the U.S. and its citizens every day, "leaving thousands of dead bodies in their wake." The governor specifically cited the Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco cartel in his letter to the president.

Abbott noted that designating the Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act would help them fight back against them and disrupt their "deadly attacks on America."

Among his directives, Abbott ordered the DPS to "identify, arrest, and impede the gangs in Texas that support the drug and human smuggling operations of these foreign terrorist organizations."

The DPS was also directed to "target, seize, and dismantle the infrastructure, assets, vehicles, and buildings used by foreign terrorist organizations to smuggle drugs and people" into Texas.

At a roundtable discussion with DPS Director Steve McCraw and other officials this week, Abbott said cartels are terrorists, and "it's time we treated them that way."

A recent U.S. Congressional Research Service report noted that the Jalisco cartel operates in Mexico City and 27 other states. On the other hand, the Sinaloa Cartel is believed to have a presence in about half of Mexico's 32 federal entities.

Turf War Between Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco Cartel

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel or Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) is currently the Sinaloa Cartel's main rival. The Jalisco cartel is being led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known by his alias "El Mencho," according to InsightCrime.

Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera's four sons, known as "Los Chapitos," were reportedly left in command of the Sinaloa Cartel after El Chapo was arrested and extradited to the U.S.

The Jalisco cartel came out from the Sinaloa Cartel in 2010 after the death of former Sinaloa Cartel capo Ignacio Coronel, known as "Nacho," who was killed by Mexican security forces. Nacho's death resulted in the split into two factions - "La Resistencia" and "Torcidos" - of the Sinaloa Cartel.

The "Torcidos" became what is now the Jalisco cartel, which has since expanded rapidly in Mexico. The Jalisco cartel involves itself in many criminal activities, including international drug trafficking.

Mexican drug cartels usually publicly display dead bodies to taunt their rivals or authorities. It is also sometimes used to scare local residents.

READ MORE: Arellano Felix Cartel Leader Benjamin Arellano Felix Pleads California Judge for Early Release From Prison

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Designates Mexican Drug Cartels as Terrorist Organizations -From KVUE
Farmers, truckers and others who own lorries or tractors are being invited to get involved in a fundraiser in Portlaoise to help make sure a little Laois girl who has a very rare condition gets the vital help she needs.

Madison(Maddie) Gee was born to parents Gordon and Gemma Gee, from Durrow in June 2020.

Upon arriving home from hospital, Maddie started having seizures, and after several tests in both Portlaoise and Temple Street hospitals, it was discovered that Maddie was born with a very rare genetic neurological disorder, known as GNA01.

There is less than 300 children in the world diagnosed with this condition. Maddie is only one of three children in Ireland with this condition.

There are four parts to Maddies condition: epilepsy, movement disorder, low muscle tone and developmental delay. This leaves Maddie unable to sit up on her own or perform basic motor functions.

She is on a wide range of medications and is now peg fed.

Maddie has now turned two, and with her continued growth and lack of mobility it has made life just that more difficult.

Aside from her parents, Maddie receives excellent care in her creche, and from her Jack and Jill nurse.

That is why Gordon and Gemma would love some of these funds from this fundraiser to go to the Jack and Jill Foundation.

Maddie loves being around people and adores going to creche, where she can be around other kids. She likes the films Moana and Encanto and she loves to be entertained. She has an infectious laugh and smile.

Maddies parents want her to live the best life she can, but needs everyones support to help achieve this.

As Maddie continues to grow, she will need more and more specialist equipment just to help her sit and to have some sort of mobility.

This is one of the main and fundamental aims that this fundraiser hopes to help Gordon and Gemma with, so that they can continue to care and love for Maddie, without the worry of these continuing costs hampering that in any way.

Arthur and Michelle Harvey are hosting a facebook event and GoFundMe page for the fundraiser. It says they would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who donates to this cause.

The Tractor and Truck run takes place on Sunday, October 2 starting from Portlaoise Rugby Club R32 YY89. Registration from 11am. Run starts at 1pm sharp. Entry Fee 20. Kids Tractor run at 12.30pm. Entry Fee 2

Funds raised will be split 75% for Maddie & 25% for Jack & Jill. Donations can be made on gofundme by searching Motor for Maddie.
One of the biggest events in Laois today for Culture Night is the official launch of a monumental piece of sculpture in Portlaoise that will stand for generations to come.

Protectour is a large permanent artwork beside O'Moore Park on the Abbeyleix Road, and marks the gateway to Portlaoise town, created by Wicklow artist James Hayes.

The towering archway references the square shape of the historic Old Fort in Portlaoise, whilst celebrating sport and participation next to the county GAA grounds, and creating a landmark for the future as the town grows.

The artwork was commissioned by Open Competition under the Government Per Cent for Art scheme by Laois County Council.

The launch of the Protectour sculpture is on Culture Night 23 September at 4.30pm.

The launch will be led by Laois Arts Officer Muireann Ni Chonaill, with speakers including John Mulholland CE, Cathaoirleach Thomasina Connell, Sculptor James Hayes.

Piper Joseph Byrne will play The High Kings of Laois, with all invited to Kelly Lou Cafe next door for light refreshment afterwards.

Accompanying the "portal" are seven smaller forms curving around it, representing the seven septs of Laois; O'Devoy (O'Deevy), O'Doran, O'Dowling, McEvoy, O'Kelly, O'Lalor and O'Moore. These are the original Gaelic clans that were then "transplanted" out of Laois to Munster and Connaught.

The sculpture also contains a time capsule. James Hayes, with assistance from the Laois Arts Office engaged with a number of local interest groups and schools during the Covid pandemic to create and gather material for a time capsule that is now hidden away inside the artwork.

James Hayes is an established sculptor from Canada now living in Ireland with many public, corporate & private sculptures to his name.
A request has been made to Laois County County to take out a hedgerow and replace it with a fence, for driver safety.

The hedgerow is near a Laois cemetery says Portlaoise Municipal District councillor Cllr John Joe Fennelly.

He had previously got a pole moved to improve driver vision.

The location is St Patrick's Cemetery, on the Abbeyleix road to Ballyroan. He said it will make it safer for residents to exit onto the road.

"Moving that pole made no difference. Landowners are willing to talk to Laois County Council about taking out the hedgerow and putting in a fence, on the Ballyroan side of the exit," Cllr Fennelly said.

He tabled a motion to the Portlaoise Municipal District's September meeting with his request.

It was seconded by Cllr Barry Walsh.

"It is great the hedge is coming out. It will make a great difference," he said.

In reply to the motion, Laois County Council's area engineer Wes Wilkinson undertook to include the job in an application for Government funding for 2023, under safety improvement works.
Leitrim had been granted over 42,000 for biodiversity projects.

Malcolm Noonan T.D., Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform, has announced over 1.4 million in funding for Local Authorities to carry out biodiversity projects through the Local Biodiversity Action Fund (LBAF).

We know that communities are at the heart of biodiversity action and thats why Im so thrilled to see this fund continue to grow and increase its impact all across the country, said Minister Noonan. This year, weve funded 128 projects across all 31 Local Authorities  this will have real, tangible impact for nature and it couldnt come at a more crucial time. Whats more, the successful projects are all contributing to the implementation of the National Biodiversity Action Plan (NBAP) and helping to advance our shared vision for nature. The new NBAP is currently out for public consultation, so its a great opportunity for people to have their say and help shape the future for biodiversity in Ireland.

in Leitrim the Community Biodiversity/ Pollinator Project which will work with six community groups has been awarded 25,500. The overall aim of this initiative is to equip local community voluntary groups with the knowledge and skills necessary to plan for biodiversity in their local area and to ensure it has minimum negative impact and maximum benefit for the local environment.

19,125 has been granted for Biodiversity Awareness & Education and will see a farming biodiversity project run in partnership with the Leitrim Sustainable Agricultural Group, which will support farmers across the County to protect, enhance and restore biodiversity and habitats.

Finally 3,371 has been given to focus on the Quagga Mussel invasive species in the Shannon throughout Leitrim. The quagga mussel will outcompete the zebra mussel, establish higher biomass even on soft sediments to a depth far beyond 34m, effect the filtering rates of our lake and river water and threatens the provision of water as it will affect abstraction



The public consultation for Irelands 4th National Biodiversity Action Plan launched on September 1st and submissions are invited through www.gov.ie/biodiversityplan The public consultation will close on November 9th and the 4th NBAP will be published in early 2023.
The heightened nuclear risks from Russias aggression against Ukraine are unprecedented, the Irish premier has warned the United Nations.

Micheal Martin referred to potential threats to nuclear safety and security resulting from military activity near civilian nuclear facilities in Ukraine as the Russian invasion rages on.

Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, the Taoiseach said the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty must remain an essential element of international peace and security, adding the urgency of its full implementation cannot be overstated.

He described Russias invasion of Ukraine as carrying dark echoes of our continents past.

We face an expansionist power brutally invading and occupying a peaceful neighbour, Mr Martin said.

We faced this many times in Europe in the 20th century. We did not think we would face it again in the 21st century.

But this is not just a European issue. Not just a concern for the West.

All states, and particularly small countries such as my own, should fear a world where might equals right, where the strong can bully the weak; where sovereignty and territorial integrity can be blatantly violated; and where the UN Charter  the charter that all of us in this Assembly have faithfully put our trust in  can be flouted with impunity.

Mr Martin referred to his visit to Ukraine in July, hearing first-hand accounts from civilians, and the uncovering of mass civilian graves in Bucha and Izium.

We have seen the targeting of nuclear facilities and of civilian infrastructure, he said.

And now we see President Putin plan sham referenda in eastern Ukraine, aimed at forcibly changing Ukraines borders, in clear violation of the UN Charter.

We have to name what we are seeing. These actions, taken collectively, show Russia behaving as a rogue state.

Mr Martin also referred to the impact of the invasion reaching as far as the Horn of Africa in terms of food insecurity.

Some of the countries which have been worst-affected by the current food insecurity crisis are those most reliant on imports of wheat from Russia and Ukraine, he said.

Combined with the impact of climate change, and of conflict, severe drought and other extreme weather events, we face a crisis that needs urgent action.

Mr Martin described a time of crisis, referring to the threat of widespread global hunger, food insecurity, devastating impacts of climate change and blatant disregard for international law and the UN Charter.

He went on to say that the gathering has the tools and systems to address these issues, and called for political will to implement treaties and charters that are agreed.

When much of the progress that we were making towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals has stalled or gone into reverse, as we grapple with the continued effects of the Covid pandemic, he said.

We cannot continue to shelve or postpone or ignore our existential global challenges.
Co Leitrims The Shed Distillery in Drumshanbo is hosting special half-price tours on Sunday, October 2 to celebrate the harvest season, and Irish whiskeys links to the farming and food industry.

People can enjoy 50% off all Curious Journey Visitor Experience Tours at the distillery on this date.

Irish whiskey is the worlds fastest-growing whiskey  its success is a product of the Irish countryside and climate, and The Shed Distillery is proud to be part of this growing industry.

As worldwide sales continue to grow, the Irish whiskey industry is buying more grain from Irelands farmers and investing more in local communities. Taking place in the middle of harvest season, this promotion is taking place to acknowledge the close ties between Irelands whiskey producers, farmers, and food producers. It is also an opportunity to invite the local community to visit The Shed Distillery.

Further details, including booking and ticket price information, for the special one-day promotion can be found at https://accessvam. accessacloud.com/ SHEDDistilleryBookings.

The event is part of a series of nationwide activities this autumn celebrating Irish whiskey, farming and food, which is being promoted by the Irish Whiskey Associations IrishWhiskey360 platform under the banner #IrishWhiskeyHarvest.
At least 77 migrants have drowned after a boat they boarded in Lebanon sank off Syria's coast, Syria's health minister said on Friday, September 23, amid fears the death toll could be far higher. The accident is the deadliest such shipwreck from Lebanon in recent years.

Lebanon's transport minister Ali Hamieh said more than 100 people, mostly Lebanese and Syrians, were on board the small boat that sank Thursday in the Mediterranean Sea off the Syrian city of Tartus.

"53 people have died and 19 others were rescued following the sinking of the boat," Mr. Hamie said previously, meaning dozens more remained unaccounted for. Of those rescued, 12 were Syrians, five were Lebanese and three were Palestinians, he said.

"I am discussing with Syria's transport minister a mechanism to retrieve the corpses from Syria," Mr. Hamieh told French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP), adding that search and rescue efforts continued.

Syrian state-run TV quoted Health Minister Mohammed Hassan Ghabbash as saying 20 people were rescued and were being treated at al-Basel hospital in Syria's coastal city of Tartus. He added that medical authorities have been on alert since Thursday afternoon to help in the search operations.

An official at al-Basel, speaking on condition of anonymity under regulations, told The Associated Press that eight of those rescued were in intensive care. The official also confirmed the 77 deaths. There were conflicting reports on how many people were on board the vessel when it sank, with some saying at least 120. Details about the ship, such as its size and capacity, were also not clear.

Syria's state news agency, SANA, quoted a port official as saying that 31 bodies were washed ashore while the rest were picked up by Syrian boats in a search operation that started Thursday evening.

The death toll is the highest from a migrant boat journey from Lebanon in recent years.

Tartus is the southernmost of Syria's main ports, and lies some 50 kilometers north of the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli, where the passengers had initially boarded.

Read more Over 1,000 migrants arrive in Italy within hours

In the aftermath of the disaster, the Lebanese army said troops stormed the homes of several suspected smugglers on Friday, detaining four in Tripoli, Lebanon's second-largest and most impoverished urban center. Three other suspected smugglers were detained in the nearby village of Deir Ammar.

The military said the suspects were involved in smuggling of migrants by sea while others were planning to buy boats for the same reason.

Increase in dangerous crossings

Lebanon, which since 2019 has been mired in a financial crisis branded by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern times, has become a launchpad for illegal migration. Last year Lebanon saw a spike in the number of migrants using its shores to attempt the perilous crossing in overcrowded boats to reach Europe.

In April, the sinking of an overcrowded migrant boat pursued by the Lebanese navy off the northern coast of Tripoli killed dozens of people, sparking anger in the country. The circumstances of that incident were not entirely clear, with some onboard claiming the navy rammed their vessel, while officials insisted the smugglers attempted reckless escape maneuvers. Many of the bodies were never recovered.

On September 13, Turkey's coastguard announced the death of six migrants, including two babies, and rescued 73 people trying to reach Europe, off the coast of the southwestern province of Mugla. They had reportedly boarded from Tripoli in Lebanon in an attempt to reach Italy.

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Most of the boats setting off from Lebanon head for European Union member Cyprus, an island 175 kilometers away to the west.

Read more Subscribers only In Serbia, the Balkan migration route opens up again

Le Monde with AP and AFP
Ireland's biggest annual cultural celebration takes place tonight (September 23) with thousands of events planned nationwide for one night only.

An all-island series of events which takes place on the third Friday of September every year, Culture Night (or Oiche Chultuir) celebrates culture, creativity and the arts and seeks to actively promote the belief that culture is alive and nurtured in the lives of people across Ireland.

Over 1,700 events including concerts, plays, exhibitions, late markets, and musical sessions are planned in all counties, as well as the opening of cultural institutions to the public to enjoy for free.

The Culture Night website describes the night as follows:

"Culture Night / Oiche Chultuir is a national moment, celebrating all that makes up the richness and diversity of Culture in Ireland today, connecting people to cultural activities locally and nationally and aims to open up pathways to ongoing engagement.

An annual, all-island public event which takes place each year on the third Friday of September, Culture Night / Oiche Chultuir celebrates culture, creativity and the arts and seeks to actively promote the belief that this rich and varied culture is alive, treasured and nurtured in peoples lives, today and every day.

Special and unique events and workshops are specifically programmed at participating locations and, thanks to the continued support of the Arts Council and local Authorities across the island of Ireland, all activities are made available to the public free of charge."

Best wishes to the artists and all who are working at #CultureNight tonight!



Over 1,700 free events are taking place around the country



Plan your night now if you haven't already! https://t.co/ojyBAopAAy pic.twitter.com/Gi5zENGuR6  Catherine Martin TD (@cathmartingreen) September 23, 2022

Some of the best events happening nationwide include a host of readings and musical arrangements at the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) from 5pm to late (booking required), outdoor film screenings at Tralee Town Square in Co Kerry from 8pm to 11pm, an electronic act featuring the best electronic DJs in Ireland at King Johns Castle in Co Limerick, and the Fado Faces exhibition of older people in Dunamaise Arts Centre in Co Laois from 4pm to 10pm.

An exhibition and film premiere will take place at JJ Hough's Singing Pub in Co Offaly from 9pm to 12.30am, with a comedy show by Colm O'Regan at Hearns hotel in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, taking place from 9pm until 11pm, among other events available to view here.

As well as the many events taking place nationwide, a project which is part of the Arts Council 70th anniversary programme will also take place tonight.

The Read Mor gifting project will provide passengers on intercity and Bus Eireann Exressway routes a book of their choice from 21 titles by Irish-based authors, including Colm Toibin and Marian Keyes.

A Book Conductor will be present on services from 2pm at the following stations: Heuston Station, Connolly Station, Kent Station Cork and Ceannt Station Galway, as well as Busaras Dublin, Sligo and Waterford.

Passengers are encouraged to share the joy of reading when they have finished their book and re-gift it to another. There will be a wide variety of titles to suit all interests and abilities from novels, short stories, poetry, memoirs, childrens and young adult books, in both English and Irish.

A number of audio books from a variety of the titles will also be available.
LIMERICK volunteers were recognised for helping to break a record for the most litter cleaned up for the Big Beach Clean 2022.

The clean up took place over two days from September 16 and almost 100 Limerick volunteers accumulated approximately 554 kilograms of litter cleaned from our beaches.

Big Beach Clean is an annual call to action by Clean Coasts to remove litter around Irish coasts.

Clean Coasts works with communities to help protect and care for Irelands waterways, coastline, seas, ocean and marine life.

This year a record number of over 500 clean-ups were organised by volunteers who removed over 63 tonnes of litter nationwide.

Groups throughout Limerick registered for the event including Adare Tidy Towns Association, Limerick City Tidy Towns and Feenagh Tidy Towns as well as households and individuals.

These groups pledged to tackle litter in several locations, including Adare Village, Feenagh Village, Kilmallock, Riverwalk and Rhebogue to name a few.

Adare Tidy Towns did their Clean Coasts Big Beach Clean 2022 in Adare Village on Saturday, September 17 starting early in the morning to ensure that they could get as much done as possible.

Limerick City Tidy Towns took part on Sunday, September 18 to do a clean-up of Limerick city.

Cullen Allen, Founder of food company Cully and Sully who supported the event commented: We were delighted with yet another amazing Big Beach Clean weekend. The Clean Coasts staff and volunteers were fantastic across the weekend.

Each year this initiative is also an opportunity for Big Beach Clean volunteers in Limerick to get involved in a worldwide citizen science project, which entails collecting the amount and types of litter on Irish beaches.

This data is shared with Ocean Conservancy to help heighten awareness about the issue of marine litter serving as an indicator of the magnitude of the problem and help shape future policies and campaigns.
A MULTI-MILLION euro development has commenced at one of Limerick's most exclusive addresses, Limerick Live can reveal.

Building contractor Conack has started material refurbishment of the existing residential building on the Ardhu site off the North Circular Road / Ennis Road in the city for Tribeca Holdings, a luxury-property investment company.

Formerly the Limerick Ryan Hotel and then the Clarion Suites, the prime site has lain idle since 2010.

London-based Tribeca Holdings, headed up by Limerick man Aidan Brooks, purchased the 4.8 acre site in 2018. It is understood the purchase price from Nama was 6.2m.

It is believed he followed up and bought the public house on the property in recent months for an undisclosed sum. That brings the site to five acres in size in total.

Tribeca Holdings is highly respected within the property world for building high-quality projects.

A statement issued on behalf of Conack, states that the refurbishment works will be undertaken in accordance with the current planning permission and are expected to be complete within 12 months.

This entails converting the existing aparthotel building to residential use to provide 61 apartments. Conack expects 150 people to be employed on the project.

A masterplan is currently being developed by architects Henry J Lyons. The scheme will be primarily residential-led and once finalised will be submitted to Limerick City and County Council.

Mr Brooks keeps a low profile but his company has made a name for itself in New York, Paris, London and other locations with a number of multi-million euro deals. Tribeca Holdings is one of the few property investment companies to successfully come through the crash in 2008/2009.

In welcoming the news, Minister for State Niall Collins said this major investment is a vote of confidence in Limerick.

I grew up with Aidan and his brother Joe in Patrickswell. Aidan has built Tribeca Holdings into a major property player on a global scale. For him to choose Limerick as a place for this major investment demonstrates his belief that Limerick will continue to thrive and flourish.

The location would be as familiar to people from the county as the city. Many have fond memories of celebrating special occasions in the hotel or frequenting it after matches in the Gaelic Grounds. It is great to see work starting and I look forward to seeing the residential accommodation completed and occupied in time, said Minister Collins.

Tom OConnor, joint managing director of Conack, said: It is fantastic for Conack to have been chosen to breathe new life into one of Limericks landmark locations.
A PRIVATELY maintained bus shelter in a village popular with tourists has suffered significant criminal damage in an act of vandalism.

Around 1,850 worth of damage was caused to one of two bus shelters in Bunratty village and the incident has been characterised as mindless vandalism by a local community group.

This is an insult to the volunteers who put in their time and effort to keep the village looking well, said Bunratty Local Development Association, after notifying that the shelter will remain closed.

The group referenced the legendary work of senior volunteers such as Mike Rohan and Delores Brown, the latter known for cleaning and maintaining the shelters before use each morning.

They added that the two shelters, positioned in the middle of the village, were built through the generosity of the local Kirby family and receive no contribution from either Bus Eireann or Dublin Bus, who both operate services passing through each day.

A spokesperson for the group noted that the village, looking perhaps at its best after emerging from the worst of Covid-enforced closures, is on a main thoroughfare in Clare and is on the route to many big events including the KPMG Irish Ladies Open which is taking place this week at Dromoland Castle

Passengers also pass through as they avail of the new Shannon to Paris air route and other services at the airport.

The group responsible for maintaining and enhancing Bunratty, also expressed their dismay at the damage caused while in the process of waiting for results of this years Tidy Towns competition.

This is a depraved act, they stated, while also asking anyone with information in relation to the incident to contact Shannon garda station.
By SA Commercial Prop News

Since Mall of Africa's development was first conceived, Nedbank CIB Property Finance has acted as primary finance partner to the owners, JSE-listed Attacq Limited and Atterbury Property Holdings.



The opening of the Mall of Africa in Waterfall Estate, Midrand in Johannesburg, has many lessons for other South African property players looking to develop projects of such size.

Spanning nearly 130,000 square meters with 300 stores, the centre makes it the largest single-phase shopping mall development in South Africas history.

But the physical size of this mega-mall is not the only thing that makes it a landmark SA development. According to DAnvo Jones, Divisional Executive: Property Finance at Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking, the financial structures that made it possible are equally impressive.



Since the development was first conceived, NCIB Property Finance has acted as primary finance partner to the Mall of Africa developer, Attacq Waterfall Investment Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Attacq Limited.



Jones points out that the success of the financial structures on which the Mall of Africa has been established is a direct consequence of the strong relationship that already existed between Attacq and NCIB Property Finance.



Financing a development of this size takes far more than getting access to finance, Jones explains, it requires a strong partnership between a developer and a market leading financier that is built on a shared vision, mutual trust and respect, and an ability to work together to think out of the box in order to engineer innovative and rigorous financial solutions.



According to Jones, the fact that NCIB Property Finance and Attacq have enjoyed exactly such a relationship since long before work began on Mall of Africa, has been key to getting the development to the point at which it now finds itself - opening its doors to consumers hungry for an exciting new retail experience.



Jones is confident that, despite the continued economic challenges facing South Africa and its people, a strong market for a mall the size of Mall of Africa still exists.

While there may be those who question the viability of opening another massive regional shopping mall against a backdrop of an economic downturn, in our experience, a retail development that offers good accessibility, a diversity of local and international tenants, and a variety of attractive consumer experiences has every potential to thrive irrespective of short to medium term economic climate challenges.



Mall of Africa certainly ticks all of these boxes, Jones continues, and its success prospects are further enhanced by its location in the heart of a thriving and fast growing mixed-use precinct that includes strong growth in office occupation, increasingly popular residential areas, and even an appealing hospitality offering.



Jones is certainly qualified to make this call, given that NCIB Property Finance has been a key role-player in much of the development in Waterfall that has preceded the Mall of Africa, including the provision of finance to such well-known brands as Cell C, Stryker and MB Technology Distribution Centre.



In response to the question of whether the 131 000m Mall of Africa is likely to make a sustained contribution to the growth and development of South Africas economy as a whole, Jones is adamant that the development already is.



The construction of Mall of Africa has had up to 8 500 contractors across a diversity of industries on site at various times, he explains, and in addition to the short-term, indirect, employment opportunities that this has created, the mall is expected to provide work for about 4 500 permanent employees after opening.



In addition to the quantifiable economic contribution this job creation makes to Gauteng, and South Africa as a whole, he is confident that the mere presence of the mall is almost certain to drive steady and sustainable economic growth and development in and around the Waterfall area for decades to come.



Waterfall is already a city that has developed at a speed and scale previously unseen in South Africa, Jones enthuses, and the presence of Mall of Africa will definitely accelerate this growth going forward.

He also points to another benefit of the completion of Mall of Africa being the message it sends to international investors and property developers.

By realising this exceptional vision, Attacq Waterfall has shown the world that South Africa has the ability, expertise, resources and possibly most importantly, the will to deliver mega-developments, he concludes,  and our hope at NCIB Property Finance is that the international communitys response to this message is, at the very least, to pay closer consideration to the many valuable opportunities that South Africa presents them.

The project's value is R5-billion. Attacq Limited owns 80% of the property asset and Atterbury Property holdings, owns the remaining 20%.
STAFF at two Eurospar supermarkets in County Limerick have joined colleagues across Ireland to thank superstars in their local communities.

Nagles Eurospar in Bruff and Downes Eurospar at Rathkeale are asking their customers to nominate a local charity, group or organisation and explain how they go the extra mile for their communities.

The group, charity or organisation which is ultimately nominated will receive 1,000.

Eurospars managing director Malachy Hanberry said: I am delighted to launch such a worthwhile initiative for the communities our Eurospar Supermarkets serve. We are inviting our customers to nominate a group or organisation that regularly goes that extra mile for their community and enter them for their chance to win. It is a meaningful way for us to recognise what all these people do for their communities and to celebrate just how important they are to their local areas.

The campaign is running in-store until Wednesday, October 19.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by EUROSPAR Ireland (@eurospar_ireland)

Customers in Rathkeale and Bruff will be asked to pick up an application form and nominate their preferred local charity, group or organisation.

Three national winners will then be chosen and will win 1,000 each for their nominated group or organisation.

On a national basis, Eurospar has in the recent past linked up with the St Vincent de Paul Empty Plate appeal.

Launched over Christmas last, its aim was to ensure no child went hungry over the festive season.

All in-store donations  including those made in Bruff and Rathkeale  were kept in their local communities.
ONE NIGHT a year, an air of excitement falls upon Limerick city and county as all things culture are celebrated free of charge.

Culture Night, which returns this Friday, has been a staple evening in Limerick since it was first brought to the county in 2008.

A large roster of events has been announced from all areas of the community for the night which celebrates the cultural, artistic and creative communities of the Treaty County.

The city, Newcastle West, Bruff and Mungret all lead the way with events that are sure to make the night spectacular - click here for full list of events.

Limerick Arts Officer Dr Pippa Little commented: We are thrilled to be welcoming audiences back to a bumper Culture Night, with family friendly events, late night offerings and many of our community and voluntary groups participating for the first time since 2019.

A live concert in King Johns Castle to celebrate the best of local and national hip hop and electronic music will be one of the highlights of the event for the city.

Chilean circus artists Cirkoactivo bring their portable aerial rig to the Potato Market at Merchants Quay in the city for an exciting performance recreating the story of two children who fall in love.

This will be followed by Fidget Feet's Irish explosion of music, dance, and aerial with an electric ensemble of five aerial dancers and two live musicians.

The Belltable will host the Limerick Jazz Fest in their foyer until late in the evening.

There will also be a host of events at the Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum, Mary Immaculate College and Limerick School of Art and Design.

For those who are hungry for some food culture, the Pigtown Festival opens on Culture Night at the Milk Market from 4pm with the Pigtown Parade taking place from 6:30pm at Bedford Row in the city.

The city wont be having all the fun however, as plenty of events are lined up in towns and villages throughout the county.

The Red Door Gallery in Newcastle West will be hosting an exhibition of the Post Box Project where young people from the community have been working over the summer to bring a permanent street art exhibition to Newcastle West.

The work will be displayed at the gallery with the view to transferring it to the streets of Newcastle West, local businesses are invited to select a post box for permanent display in front of their premises.

This event will be hosted by the gallery between 12pm and 2pm and will be followed by music workshops for young people to celebrate the culture that surrounds music and dance in Ireland.

GROWRemote will host music workshops for kids in Bruff, while Mungret College will open their doors for a tour and talk on the history of the site.

The University of Limerick will also join in on the action to host a panel discussion by the Irish Algerian Friendship group.

Dr Little continued: Never has it been more important for an event like Culture Night to take place as it presents the opportunity for our creative community to work in partnership to nurture the cultural life of our region and support our audiences within their communities.
LIMERICK City and County Council has revealed it has received a number of enquiries regarding a landmark development site.

The Parkway Valley/Horizon Mall site in the Dublin Road has lain idle for almost two decades, having seen a variety of proposals ruled out.

The latest one, a 60m scheme for apartments, a hotel and limited other commercial was refused by An Bord Pleanala after an appeal against the council's grant by Environmental Trust Ireland.

Previous owners of the site have had plans to build Limerick's first Marks and Spencer on the land, with a Celtic Tiger-era blueprint including an ice-rink and cinema.

At this month's metropolitan meeting, City East councillor Elena Secas asked if the local authority's executive had any further engagement on the mammoth site.

The Labour member also asked if they were aware of any plans to develop the site, and also press its owners to replace the fencing on the Dublin Road side which she said is in a "deplorable" state.

In a written reply, planning director Nuala Gallagher said "preliminary enquiries" had been made on the site, but pre-planning consultation has not yet been requested.

"The council notes the comments as made regarding the fence and will seek to raise this issue as part of any future engagement," she added.
ARE these the bones of Staker Wallace? was the headline in the Limerick Leader in 2006 after human remains were found in Kilfinane.

Sixteen years on we have an answer. This all goes back to 2006 when human bones were discovered in Kilfinane when the council were carrying out urban renewal works.

Locals believed that the remains of Wallace were among the bones found. It was thought three men were buried in the grave.

Patrick Staker Wallace (or Wallis) was executed by the British in the lead up to the 1798 rebellion. Wallace was commander of a local division of United Irishmen and was arrested following an alleged plot to murder the local landlord, Capt Oliver.

The 65-year-old was offered his freedom by Capt Oliver in return for the names of other United Irishmen and the location of their weapons. He refused.

Wallace was jailed in Kilfinane and underwent public flogging before he was publicly hanged and beheaded. His head was put on a spike above the Market House for a number of weeks before he was buried in the town.

The actions of the Irish patriot, believed to be from Bulgaden, were never forgotten. He is remembered in song - A Lament to Staker Wallace; name of a GAA Club and a statue in Kilfinane.

However, it appears he was forgotten about for 14 years as the Leader revealed in 2020 through correspondence from the council that, This project was put on a back burner due to ongoing pressure of work.

Kilfinane man James OBrien, who raised his concerns in 2020 over the delay with Minister for State Niall Collins, said: Those bones lay forgotten for over 200 years. It's a fright to God if they are forgotten again.

Mr OBrien can vividly recall the day the bones were discovered in 2006.

Mr Collins said, Sitting on skeletal remains for over 14 years, which are an integral part of the history, heritage and culture of Kilfinane is simply not acceptable. He called on the council to immediately begin the testing process.

Funding for the work was sought in 2021 under the 2022 council budget with an osteoarchaeologist procured in October 2021. Human osteoarchaeology is the scientific study of human skeletons excavated from archaeological sites

Funding was confirmed in January 2022 and the bones were delivered to the osteoarchaeologist that month.

Sarah McCutcheon, archaeologist with Limerick City and County Council, said the osteoarchaeologist has now completed her review of the bones.

A summary of the information gleaned is that the minimum number of individuals contained in the collection is five although there might be up to seven. There is no clear evidence of any skeletal material from a 65-year-old individual (Wallace age when he was killed).

The age range for the material is between 25 and 45-years-old. There is no evidence of trauma on any of the bones in the group.

It looks like Staker Wallaces bones may not be part of the collection, said Ms McCutcheon.

The whereabouts of the Limerick patriot remains remain a mystery.
**Reader discretion is advised**

LIMERICK rugby star, Olympian and reality television show winner Greg O'Shea has bravely opened up on his battle against depression.

Greg, who is originally from Corbally, shot to fame when he won the 2019 edition of the popular British programme Love Island.

He has since represented Ireland in the Olympic games in Rugby 7s.

But in an interview with RTE presenter Doireann Garrihy on her Laugh of Your Life podcast, he confessed to considering taking his own life, after his career stalled following his Love Island victory.

"It got really really bad. It got overwhelming at one stage. I remember when I was back in Dublin and I was driving around. I was behind the wheel of a car, and I was like, OK this is going to go one of two ways now Greg. And I don't want to get too dark now on the podcast, but it was basically a decision of: alright, this is all over, or bring yourself to the doctor right now," he said.

*Trigger Warning - this video contains discussion about suicidal feelings* My next guest on The Laughs Of Your Life podcast is @GOSofficialpage I am so grateful to Greg for his honesty in our chat. I truly believe what he has to say about his own mental health struggles will pic.twitter.com/nRT2dozXuF  Doireann Garrihy (@DoireannGarrihy) September 22, 2022

Fortunately, Greg drove himself to the doctor, and he was put on prescription drugs to ease the pain.

"I had to go on pretty heavy medication. It didn't work, and they had to double the medication. It got really bad for a few months. All this time, no-one knew. Like, no-one knew. My best friend I lived with didn't know. I told my mom because for some reason you always just have to talk to your mom. But no-one else knew," he said.

In a bid to improve his mood, Greg listed three things which were important to him, and acted on them.

He surrounded himself with his family and friends, developed a fitness mobile telephone application, and stepped up his efforts to find jobs in the media.

"I went hell for leather," he said, "One or two people started cracking the door open for me and I burst through it. I was literally sending emails to everyone and I was like gimme a chance, gimme a shot. I need to do this, you need to give me a chance."

Eventually, he said, the work began to come through.

The full episode of Doireann Garrihy's Laugh of Your Life with Greg O'Shea will be published on Monday here.

If you or someone you know has been affected by the issues raised in this article please contact:

Samaritans helpline 116 123

Aware helpline 1800 80 48 48

Pieta House on 1800 247 247
The State has sold its remaining shares in Bank of Ireland, the finance minister has said.

The sell-off makes it the first bank to return to full private ownership following the States multi-billion euro rescue plan for the banking sector during the 2008 global financial crash.

The Government put 64 billion euros into Irish banks during the property crash.

The Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said the completion of the Bank of Ireland plan reduces the States shareholding to zero.

He described it as an important milestone in delivering on the Governments policy of returning the banking sector to private ownership.

Proceeds generated from the trading plan, which was managed by Citigroup Global Capital Markets, amounted to approximately 841 million euro.

The Government has now recovered almost 6.7 billion euro in cash from its 4.7 billion euro rescue plan for Bank of Ireland.

Shares were sold through phase three of the trading plan at an average price of 6.17 euro per share, up from an average of 5.64 euro in phase two and 4.96 euro in phase one.

When I announced the launch of the share trading plan in June 2021, I commented that banking is an activity that involves taking credit risk and therefore should be provided by the private sector, Mr Donohoe said.

It follows that taxpayer funds which were used to rescue the Irish banks, should be recovered and used for more productive purposes.

The gradual disposal of the States investment in Bank of Ireland into a rising market has been successful in delivering on this objective for our citizens.

We have also made great progress in relation to our investments in PTSB and AIB, which collectively are still worth over 4.9 billion euro notwithstanding various disposals this year.

Our stake in PTSB is expected to reduce from 75% to approximately 62.4% later this year when the bank issues new shares in part exchange for the Ulster business it has agreed to purchase from NatWest Group Plc.

Meanwhile at AIB, which is by far the States largest remaining investment, our stake has reduced from 71.2% to 63.5%.
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CISA-Funded Diversity Program Aims to Strengthen the Talent Pipeline and Increase the Number of Students Pursuing Cybersecurity Careers

CYBER.ORG  a workforce development organization funded by Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agencys (CISA) Cybersecurity Education and Training Assistance Program (CETAP) grant  today announced the expansion of Project REACH, a feeder program created to recruit a diverse body of K-12 students to pursue undergraduate cybersecurity degrees and bolster the U.S. cybersecurity workforce. Lincoln University of Missouri is proud to be part of that program expansion.

Following the successful launch of the pilot program at Grambling State University, Project REACH has expanded to 10 additional Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) that intend to join the national program, including:

Bowie State University in Bowie, Maryland

Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina

Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee

Langston University in Langston, Oklahoma

Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri

Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland

Morris College in Sumter, South Carolina

Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina

Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Virginia State University in Petersburg, Virginia

Project REACH aims to diversify the cybersecurity workforce by ensuring all students have equal access to cybersecurity education. By leveraging CYBER.ORGs curriculum, students will be exposed to the foundational and technical skills needed to confidently pursue careers in the cybersecurity industry. The onboarding of ten new HBCUs highlights Project REACHs rapid growth as CYBER.ORG broadens its effort to improve cybersecurity literacy nationwide and provide high school students with better access to cybersecurity education, cybersecurity skills development resources, and opportunities to pursue mentorships and careers in the field. Additional HBCUs are also considering joining Project REACH in the coming months. With CISAs support, introducing this type of training to K-12 students proactively addresses the lack of diversity in the cybersecurity workforce, exacerbated by unequal access to K-12 cybersecurity education.

This collaboration between universities and high schools will be critical to solving the cybersecurity workforce shortage and introducing students to cybersecurity careers at a young age, said Laurie Salvail, Director of CYBER.ORG. The pilot program at Grambling State University proved to be incredibly successful in partnering with local high schools, and were thrilled to be replicating this model to more HBCUs nationwide thanks to CISA.

A recent EdWeek study revealed students in small and high-poverty school districts are significantly less likely to be exposed to cybersecurity education, resulting in lower-income and minority students having significantly fewer pathways to entry into this critical field of study. By integrating CYBER.ORG curricula within local high school course offerings and increasing interest in enrollment at the local HBCUs, the expanded feeder program will introduce more students to the possibility of cybersecurity careers.

With less than half of all K-12 classrooms across the U.S. offering cybersecurity education, the time is now to provide students with the tools needed to prepare for the jobs of tomorrow. By providing K-12 teachers with cybersecurity curriculum and supplemental professional development materials, CYBER.ORG is doing its part to advance cybersecurity education and empower students to grow into the next generation of cyber professionals.

This collaboration with CYBER.ORG is essential to providing our students in underserved and military-connected communities with the opportunity to receive cybersecurity education and to explore a cybersecurity career pathway, says Dr. Kevin Peters, Director of the Center for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Education (CEMSE) at Morgan State University. By partnering local high schools with HBCUs that have strong cybersecurity education offerings, we aim to provide our students with increased opportunities to pursue cybersecurity degrees.

As CYBER.ORG expands Project REACH, we are excited to join the initiative and help students learn how to create lasting careers in cybersecurity, said Karina Liles, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science Chair and Associate Professor at Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Our faculty is proud to head up this program at Claflin University, which will be integral to bridging the diversity gap we continue to see in the industry.

With over 700,000 open cybersecurity roles nationwide and an uptick in cyberattacks, it is critical to expand K-12 cybersecurity education and focus on recruiting those from diverse backgrounds to pursue cybersecurity careers. Project REACH, through resources provided by CYBER.ORG, is uniquely positioned to bridge the existing cybersecurity skills gap and help ensure that all students have access to cybersecurity education regardless of background.

To learn more about Project REACH, visit https://cyber.org/initiatives/project-reach.

About CYBER.ORG

CYBER.ORG, formerly the National Integrated Cyber Education Research Center (NICERC), is a cybersecurity workforce development organization that targets K-12 students with cyber career awareness, curricular resources, and teacher professional development. The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) supports CYBER.ORG through a grant from CISA to develop and distribute cybersecurity education content to educators across the country at no cost. Currently, more than 25,000 teachers across all 50 states and three U.S. territories are enrolled in the CYBER.ORG content platform. For more information, please visit http://www.CYBER.ORG.

###
Union Home Minister Amit Shah will embark on a two-day visit to Bihar on Friday to prepare the party to become a formidable force ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and to counter the recently-formed Mahagathbandhan government in the state, according to news agency ANI.

Bihar unit of the BJP has also come up with a new slogan "Aao chale Bhajpa ke sath, Kare Bihar ka Vikash" urging people to support the saffron party for the development of the state.

The Home Minister's first visit to Bihar comes after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar broke the alliance with BJP and joined hands with RJD, and Congress to form a grand alliance government.

Bihar: Amit Shah's two-day schedule

Day 1: Amit Shah will address 'Jan Bhavna Mahasabha' in the Seemanchal which includes Katihar, Araria, and Kishanganj districts. Following this, he will address a gathering 'Jan Bhavna Mahasabha' at around 12 noon on Friday at Rangbhoomi Ground in Purnia.

Later, the minister will hold a meeting with MPs, MLAs, and former ministers of Bihar BJP around 4 pm at Mata Gujri University in Kishanganj city. He will also chair the BJP State Core Committee meeting around 5 pm at Mata Gujri University.

Day 2: The Home Minister on Saturday will offer prayers at Budhi Kali Mata Temple around 9.30 am at Subhashpally Chowk in Kishanganj. After this, he will visit Border outpost Fatehpur and inaugurate the BOP buildings of Fatehpur, Pekatola, Beria, Amgachi, and Raniganj around 10.30 am at Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) Campus.

Later, Shah will review the meeting on border security with Director Generals and senior officers of Border Security Force (BSF), SSB, and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) at 12 noon at BSF Campus, Kishanganj, as per ANI reports.

The Home Minister will attend the 'Sundar Subhumi' program organized on the occasion of the ongoing 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' celebrations at 3.30 pm at Mata Gujri University.

He will further blow the poll bugle in the state for the party gunning for big wins in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Union Minister and party's firebrand MP from Begusarai, Giriraj Singh has been made in charge of the rally to be attended by Shah in the Seemanchal (bordering) districts of Bihar's Purnia and Kishanganj districts. Several Bihar BJP leaders have been camping in the bordering Purnia and Kishanganj districts for several days and meeting with local people and leaders to make the rallies successful.

(With ANI inputs)
Proactive planning, Public Private Partnership (PPP) model in health care, health infrastructure to GDP ratio- these were some of the points, the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya touched on Friday while asserting that the "new India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi" is an empowered nation and is well prepared to face any crisis in the healthcare sector.

"A healthy India will be a wealthy India," Mandaviya said speaking at the Public Affairs Forum of India's (PAFI) 9th Annual Forum 2022.

He also talked about the need for the adoption of a more holistic health approach across the spectrum and de-politicisation of the discussions on health policy and infrastructure.

He also praised the proactive planning of the prime minister and added that health infrastructure is being cultivated across the country via the PPP model with a microcosm of public hospitals mushrooming along with private medical colleges.

To improve the tertiary sector of health services, 22 AIIMS are planned across the country, the minister informed.

The minister also asserted that the government had planned and was prepared for the Covid-19 pandemic as it had started studying the virus much before it came to India.

He also talked about the declining health infrastructure to GDP ratio. "Every country has its own model specific to its people. In India, healthcare expenditure is lower as compared to other nations. Still, the Government is very much concerned about the health of its people and has assigned a budget of 100 crore for each district to implement the Ayushman Bharat Scheme in the next five years," he said.

On the PPP models in health care, Mandaviya mentioned a holistic approach to planning and building healthcare models for the country.

He even mentioned two models India is following in health care- one is the launch of the Nishchay Mitra scheme for the eradication of TB from India by 2025 and asking people to adopt nine lakh TB patients and secondly the PPP model of Ayushman Bharat Scheme which has been extended to 24,000 plus private hospitals which enabled business to private hospitals and ensured healthcare for all.


File photo Union Home Minister Amit Shah is visiting Jammu and Kashmir for two days on October 1 and 2 during his visit he is likely to announce reservations for Pahari speaking community, BJP sources said on Friday. Union Home Minister Amit Shah is visiting Jammu and Kashmir for two days on October 1 and 2 during his visit he is likely to announce reservations for Pahari speaking community, BJP sources said on Friday.



As per the party sources, Shah will address a public rally in Rajouri on October 1 in the Jammu division and in Kupwara district of Kashmir division on October 2, spending one day each in the two divisions of the union territory.



"He will announce reservations for the Pahari speaking community whose large population lives in Poonch, Rajouri districts of the Jammu division and Baramulla district of the Valley.



"Shah will kickstart the BJP election campaign in J&K during his forthcoming visit," BJP sources said.



The delimitation commission has already made reservations for the ST and SC in the 90-member J&K assembly reserving nine seats for the ST and six for the SC candidates.



In addition to this, the delimitation commission has recommended two nominated seats for the Kashmiri Pandit community with voting rights in the legislative Assembly on the pattern of the Puducherry Assembly.



It has also been recommended that one of the two nominated Kashmir Pandit members should be a woman.



The delimitation commission has also recommended nominated members from West Pakistan refugees, who have already been given voting rights in the legislative Assembly, after abrogation of Article 370.



Before the abrogation, the West Pakistan refugees could vote for the country's Lok Sabha, but not for the J&K Assembly.



It is expected that even after Shah kickstarts the BJP Assembly election campaign in J&K, these cannot be held this year because of several reasons.



The election commission has fixed November 25 for the publication of final voter lists. This leaves only 36 days before the end of the year.



Filing of nomination papers, their scrutiny and the period for poll campaign, etc., these clearly indicate that given the harsh winter in J&K that starts by the middle of December, the latest J&K elections can be held in April-May 2023.



During his visit, the Union home minister will also co-chair top level security meetings with the Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha.



These meetings are likely to focus on tackling militancy in the Kashmir division where despite official claims of 'residual militancy', intelligence agencies believe radicalisation of local youth still continues.



"Radicalised local youth are the feeding grounds of militancy in Kashmir," said a senior intelligence officer.








Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the National Conference of Environment Ministers in Ekta Nagar, Gujarat today at 10:30 am via video conferencing. He would also address the gathering on the occasion.

The two-day conference slated to be held from 23 to 24 September 2022 will focus on increasing the forest cover with special emphasis on the restoration of degraded land and wildlife conservation

A release by the Prime Minister's Office on the occasion read, "Taking forward the spirit of cooperative federalism, Conference is being convened to create further synergy amongst the Central and State Governments in formulating better policies on issues such as Elimination of Plastic Pollution through a multi-pronged approach, State Action Plans to effectively combat Climate Change with focus on LiFE- Lifestyle for Environment."

The statement by PMO further informed, the conference will have have six thematic sessions with topics focusing on LiFE, Combating Climate Change (Updating State Action Plans on Climate Change for Mitigation of Emissions and Adaptation to Climate Impacts) ; PARIVESH (Single Window System for Integrated Green Clearances) ; Forestry Management ; Prevention and Control of Pollution; Wildlife Management ; Plastics and Waste Management

According to reports, PM Modi's Modi's participation in such national conferences with an audience made up primarily of state policymakers follows a pattern and reflects an effort on his part to give state leaders a national perspective while fostering the spirit of cooperative federalism.

During March 2020 and April 2022 the Prime Minister chaired 20 such meetings and reports claim the coordination came in handy during the implementation of the vaccination programme.

The Prime Minister inaugurated the 'Centre-State Science Conclave' via video conferencing on September 10 while he also addressed the National Labour conference on August 25 addressing a gathering of Labour Ministers of all state and Union Territories.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
One year ago today Bradley County K9 Deputy Joker was shot in the line of duty.

Joker has since recovered was even able to make an impact for all other K9's.

Joker's Law was signed by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee earlier this year. It increased the penalty for anyone who shoots a K9.

Students responsible for spearheading petition for Joker's Law receive recognition Joker's law makes it a class D felony to assault a police, fire, search and rescue dog, service animal, or a police horse.

Joker and his handler, Deputy Eduardo Choate are still hard at work in Bradley County.
Clint Uselton has been named as the city's new Chief of Police.


File photo A Delhi court on Friday allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED)'s plea to transfer proceedings in the money laundering case against arrested Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain to a new judge. A Delhi court on Friday allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED)'s plea to transfer proceedings in the money laundering case against arrested Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain to a new judge.



Principal District and Sessions Judge Vinay Kumar Gupta, pronounced the order reserved on Thursday.



The proceedings of Jain's case were heard in a special court where Special Judge Geetanjali Goel was dealing with the matter.



Special Judge Vikas Dhull will now deal with the money laundering case against the Aam Aadmi Party leader.



The development is following the Supreme Court direction, wherein the ED sought the transfer of the case.



The main contention of the ED was its apprehension of bias against the earlier Special Judge in deciding the matter. The ED was arguing that the court was not considering Jain's influence in various documents which were to be submitted before it including his medical conditions.



On September 19, Principal District and Sessions Judge Vinay Kumar Gupta stayed the proceedings of the bail hearing before special judge Geetanjali Goel and issued notice to Jain and other co-accused in the case. The judge sought replies from the respondents in the case - on an application by the ED seeking transfer of the case to another judge -- by September 30.



Jain, whose bail has been denied in various hearings since his arrest in the PMLA case on May 30, is presently lodged in Tihar jail. As per the earlier submissions of the ED, Jain was in de-facto control of shell companies used for alleged money laundering, and the co-accused persons Ankush Jain and Vaibhav Jain were just dummies. The ED had raised certain contentions in connection with the bail arguments being heard by the special judge.






After eleven days of mourning the British people laid their monarch, Queen Elizabeth, to rest in a solemn ceremony at Westminster Abbey.

Britain's new King Charles, his sons William and Harry and other senior royals followed Queen Elizabeth's coffin through the silent streets of London with the appropriate pageantry associated with the longest serving queen in British history, if not in fact human history.

Hundreds of thousands of people crammed into central London to witness a ceremony attended by world leaders, church leaders and royalty from across the globe. Across the globe an estimated four billion people joined them by tuning in to the broadcast of the historic funeral.

Among them was Pat Hourican, who sat through the four hour ceremony in his Longford home. For Pat there was a particular poignancy about the day. Pat is an artist who has twice sent work to Buckingham palace.

So taken with he image of Britain's Queen Elizabeth meeting Pat OConnell of K O'Connell Fish Merchants at The English Market in Cork City on her State Visit to Ireland in 2011 Pat created a watercolour image of the encounter and sent it on to the Palace.

Some months later the artist received a correspondence from the Royal Household thanking him for his artwork.

When the Queen celebrated her 90 birthday on April 21 Pat wrote to her again, as his own birthday falls on the same day: Again the Royal Household replied to his letter containing his art.

Pat said he felt compelled to paint the picture of the 2011 visit: She was just laughing out loud. The photograph just struck me, it was so natural. I painted the two of them in watercolour and sent it on to the palace. I was surprised when they sent the reply, he told the Leader.

Pat was impressed by the late queen: I would have liked to have met her. I though she was not only a wonderful person, but a great world leader. She was a great example to other leaders that come and go, while she stayed the course.
Longford County Council will prepare a list of artworks in its possession for members and present it at the October meeting of the local authority.

The list will be compiled after a motion was proposed by Cllr Peggy Nolan (FG).

Cllr Nolan raised the issue at the September meeting of the authority as members discussed a Placemaking Strategic Policy Committee Meeting held in July which approved a proposal to pursue funding for the Longford County Squirrel Trail Project.

Cllr Nolan referenced the work of Bernard Canavan, the Wicklow born artist reared in Edgeworthstown, who emigrated to the UK in 1959. Mr Canavan is a prominent artists who has work in the care of Longford county Council.

Cllr Nolan said although she knew the local authority had ownership of Mr Canavan's work, she had no idea where it is or how to advise anyone who wishes to see the art. The Fine Gael representative said there are other works by notable artist in the ownership of the local authority.

Cllr Nolan's proposal was that a list of the arts acquired by the council should be drawn up and presented to the members at the next meeting of the authority. Cllr Nola also suggested that an exhibition of the works be arranged and any funds raised in such an exhibition could used for worthy causes.

The proposal was seconded by Cllr Mick Cahill (FF).
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Previous customer facing or telesales experience (retail or call-centre) would be desirable but is not essential for this role. Above all else, we are seeking ambitious people with strong communication skills who can build relationships with existing and potential customers. To be a success youll need to be energetic, self-motivated and able to think on your feet. Professional, personable and able to inspire others, youll also need to demonstrate the confidence to hit the ground running.

We offer a competitive salary and massive career progression for the right fit.

To apply please email your CV with a covering letter to ocooper@iconicnewspapers.ie
Four EV Charging Stations To Be Installed in Port Jeff Station Shopping Center Lot

Business & Finance

By Ls Cohen Published: September 23 2022

Shopping center is home to Staples, Shoprite and TJ Maxx among other retailers.

A plan is in the works to add electrical vehicle charging stations to Station Plaza at 5145 Nesconset Highway in Port Jefferson Station. The shopping center is home to Staples, Shoprite and TJ Maxx among other retailers.

The company that is proposing to install the EV charging stations is Electrify America, a company that says it runs a network of EV charging stations across the United States, which charges vehicles in as little as 30 minutes.

An Electrify America spokespoerson at the Brookhaven Town Board meeting on September 12th said that newer vehicles can get an 80% charge in as little as 20 minutes.

The four EV charging stations would be placed on the southeastern portion of the parking lot near Canal Road, closest to TJ Maxx and near an egress point from the parking lot, according to plans submitted to Brookhaven Town.

The project would add an additional parking space to the lot.

The proposal, which includes plans to install four charging stations with associated equipment, was unanimously approved at the September 12th Brookhaven Town Planning Board meeting.
Local News

By Chris Boyle Published: September 23 2022

Tips for Consumers To Maximize Energy Efficiency, Affordability, and Comfort.

Governor Kathy Hochul has announced new State actions to prepare New Yorkers for rising global energy costs and supply issues expected this winter. At Governor Hochul's direction, Public Service Commission Chair Rory M. Christian sent letters to Chief Executive Officers of New York State's largest utility companies, urging measures to mitigate the anticipated extreme commodity price increases over the winter and enhanced customer communications. The Governor also directed State agencies to convene fuel providers across the state to ensure adequate heating fuels are available this winter. New Yorkers can also take advantage of cost-efficient programs in anticipation of the winter to adopt energy efficiency and electrification solutions for homes and businesses.

"Just like the heat waves experienced earlier this summer, New Yorkers should be fully prepared this winter for rising global energy costs as temperatures drop and it takes more energy to heat their homes," Governor Hochul said. "My administration is working closely with partners across the state to make sure New Yorkers have access to assistance and programs that help manage these rising costs while keeping their homes warm during the colder months."

The global commodity costs of natural gas, heating oil, and propane have continued to rise, resulting in utility and heating cost increases, along with additional increases oil and gas prices. In his letter to utility companies, PSC Chair Christian is requiring that utilities enhance the reliability of the natural gas distribution systems during the upcoming winter heating season, which comes in response to the Governor's March directive for State agencies to find solutions to the expected increase in energy prices and potential supply issues related to home heating oil. Specifically, the state's utilities  including Con Edison, Central Hudson, Orange and Rockland, National Grid, NYSEG, RG&E, National Fuel Gas, and PSEG-LI  must undertake the following actions, among others, to mitigate the impact of potential oil supply disruptions:

Enhanced Communications: Utilities will immediately send letters to dual-fueled commercial customers, including interruptible customers, to advise them to fill their alternate fuel tanks now. Fuel Storage Inspections: Utilities will inspect the alternate fuel tanks of all dual-fuel customers where human needs are served (e.g. New York City Housing Authority housing, homeless shelters, schools, hospitals, etc.) by November 1 to ensure they have adequate supply on hand (full tanks or the equivalent of five days of supply) before the winter heating season begins. Alternative Supply Review: Utilities will review utility emergency plans to address alternate fuel supply disruptions during peak gas demand. If dual fuel customers cannot be served with natural gas and are unable to replenish alternate fuel supplies, the utility should be prepared to work with local and state government agencies to protect public health and safety when temperatures drop below 20 degrees. The plan should include the roles and responsibilities for setting up warming centers, providing hot meals, establishing lists of master plumbers in case pipes freeze in unheated buildings, and identify the company and other resources that might be needed. Enhanced Coordination: In the event of an oil supply disruption, electric generators may have more difficulty procuring No. 2 Oil than home heating customers. Utilities are required to continue to have strong coordination with the New York Independent System Operator and major power generators to encourage the dual-fuel operators to fill tanks in advance of the winter heating season.

PSC Chair Christian requested a response with recommendations for how each utility will execute on all of the actions by September 30, 2022.

New York State Public Services Commission Chair Rory M. Christian said, "Global commodity prices are likely to stay inflated and rise during the winter heating season. It is therefore essential that utilities continue to have ongoing, robust communication with customers to help them access available assistance programs and be able to manage their energy costs. In preparation for this winter, utilities must also work with their "interruptible" customers, who by system design help to meet reliability needs during any periods of extreme cold weather by using alternate fuels."

In addition, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation issued an Enforcement Discretion letter to support efforts to address fuel supply and cost issues related to the new bioheating fuel law. The Enforcement Discretion letter alleviates the lack of compliant fuel, especially in northern regions of New York State, by providing a limited, one-year reprieve from the new bio-blending requirement. Enacted in late 2021, the new law establishes minimum levels of biodiesel in all heating oil for use in buildings to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases.

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos said, "I applaud Governor Hochul for prioritizing actions to help vulnerable New York residents, businesses, and governments be prepared for the upcoming colder months, and DEC will continue to work with our partner agencies as we advance actions to ensure New York's energy security."

Governor Hochul is also directing State agencies, including the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Department of Public Service, and Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, to meet with fuel providers to coordinate preparedness efforts ahead of the winter. State agencies will work closely with providers to ensure fuel supply inventories are brought up to appropriate level by the end of October in order to meet demand and minimize consumer concerns.

New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) President and CEO Doreen M. Harris said, "NYSERDA provides residents and businesses with a slate of options that can help save energy, reduce electric and heating bills, increase comfort during frigid temperatures. We encourage New Yorkers to take advantage of these programs now which can provide relief to some the state's most underserved families during the times of the year when energy usage is at its highest."

New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services Commissioner Jackie Bray said, "Governor Hochul's number on priority is keeping New Yorkers Safe. This winter, that means ensuring our critical infrastructure partners and individual households are prepared for a winter that may see rising energy costs and supply challenges. The State is coordinating across our agencies and partners to do everything we can to make sure New Yorkers are prepared for this winter including taking these steps to manage a less stable energy supply outlook."

New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance Commissioner Daniel W. Tietz said, "New York winters are never easy, and the prospect of rising energy costs only makes the upcoming winter more daunting for those unsure about how they will afford to heat their home. The Home Energy Assistance Program is a lifeline to assist older adults, working families, and those struggling financially to cover higher home heating costs this winter."

As energy prices rise during the winter months, New Yorkers can take the following steps to protect against higher energy costs:

Apply for HEAP. Apply for HEAP. Beginning November 1, applications will be accepted for the Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) which can provide up to $976 to eligible homeowners and renters depending on income, household size and how they heat their home. To qualify for heating assistance from HEAP, a family of four must have a maximum gross monthly income of $5,485, or an annual gross income of $65,829.

Take immediate action to be more energy efficient . NYSERDA offers energy saving tips for . NYSERDA offers energy saving tips for residents and homeowners, as well as businesses that can lower energy usage. NYSERDA also offers a range of home energy efficiency programs that can help save energy and reduce costs over time. Income-eligible customers may qualify for reduced cost or free energy upgrades to their homes through EmPower New York and Assisted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR programs. Homeowners should also check with their local gas and electric utility companies to access discounted products and services that can help them lower their energy costs all year long.

Receive a customized list of energy-related assistance in the State . New York Energy Advisor can help income-eligible New Yorkers managers locate programs that help them spend less on energy and create healthier and more comfortable spaces. With the . New York Energy Advisor can help income-eligible New Yorkers managers locate programs that help them spend less on energy and create healthier and more comfortable spaces. With the New York Energy Advisor, consumers answer simple questions and get connected with energy-saving offers in New York State. Sponsored by NYSERDA and utilities, qualified New Yorkers can get help paying utility bills, receive special offers on heating assistance, and more.

Sign up for Community Solar . Community Solar allows New Yorkers, including renters, co-op and condo owners, and businesses to save money every month on their electric bills. Consumers can subscribe to a Community Solar project where available and start receiving credits on their electric bill for the clean energy produced by a solar farm. Find more information on how to sign up for a Community Solar project . Community Solar allows New Yorkers, including renters, co-op and condo owners, and businesses to save money every month on their electric bills. Consumers can subscribe to a Community Solar project where available and start receiving credits on their electric bill for the clean energy produced by a solar farm. Find more information on how to sign up for a Community Solar project here

Get a free energy audit . Homeowners across New York are eligible for a free home energy assessment through NYSERDA's . Homeowners across New York are eligible for a free home energy assessment through NYSERDA's Residential Energy Audit Program . Home energy assessments are available both in-person and using remote technologies. Trained and qualified contractors who provide energy assessment services can help homeowners decide which energy improvements are worth investing in, install the improvements, and assist in connecting homeowners with NYSERDA's low-interest financing programs.

Reduce your business or building's energy costs . Community Energy Advisors across New York State can help residents, businesses, and multifamily building owners reduce their energy use and costs.

Join a Clean Heating and Cooling Campaign . Participating in a campaign eases the process of replacing a community member's current heating or cooling system with clean heating or cooling technology by connecting members with pre-qualified contractors and outlining potential incentives, tax breaks, financing, and payment options. Experienced contractors can give a home or business owner a holistic assessment to determine if their home or business space will also benefit from weatherproofing upgrades that can further increase comfort and reduce energy bills. Visit . Participating in a campaign eases the process of replacing a community member's current heating or cooling system with clean heating or cooling technology by connecting members with pre-qualified contractors and outlining potential incentives, tax breaks, financing, and payment options. Experienced contractors can give a home or business owner a holistic assessment to determine if their home or business space will also benefit from weatherproofing upgrades that can further increase comfort and reduce energy bills. Visit NYSERDA to see if your community is participating in a Clean Heating and Cooling Campaign.

Know your rights and protections . The New York State Home Energy Fair Practices Act has comprehensive protections for residential customers regarding their utility services. These rights include the option to pay bills in installments, a cap on late fees, sufficient notice prior to shut-off of services, and protections for those on a fixed income or with medical conditions. Learn about these from the Department of Public Service at . The New York State Home Energy Fair Practices Act has comprehensive protections for residential customers regarding their utility services. These rights include the option to pay bills in installments, a cap on late fees, sufficient notice prior to shut-off of services, and protections for those on a fixed income or with medical conditions. Learn about these from the Department of Public Service at AskPSC.

Consider bill payment options . When getting in touch with your utility provider, inquire about billing options that allow for deferred payments or "budget billing" options that balance out bills that are higher in one season and lower in another. This can structure your payments and make it easier to navigate costs.

Better understand the energy management of your building. Put Energy to Work provides a deeper understanding of tools and programs for businesses that help in energy management for commercial and industrial buildings and includes resources that can increase profitability, create a competitive advantage, and achieve greater resiliency.

Visit NYSERDA for more information about the programs, funding and technical assistance available to assist homeowners, renters, and businesses manage their energy needs.


File photo External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and his G4 counterparts met to discuss and strategise the reform of the UN Security Council (UNSC) which has been getting wide support from leaders at the high-level meeting of the General Assembly. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and his G4 counterparts met to discuss and strategise the reform of the UN Security Council (UNSC) which has been getting wide support from leaders at the high-level meeting of the General Assembly.



Besides Jaishankar, the other participants at Thursday's meeting were Foreign Ministers Carlos Franca of Brazil, Annalena Baerbock of Germany, and Yoshimasa Hayashi of Japan.



Known as the G4, the four countries lobby for reform of the Council and mutually support each other for permanent seats to be added through the reforms.



They received a boost when US President Joe Biden told the Assembly on Wednesday that Washington "is committed to this vital work", reforming the Council and "increasing the number of both permanent and non-permanent representatives on the Council".



"This includes permanent seats for those nations we have long supported," -- India, Japan and Germany, Biden added.



Several leaders from around the world have clamoured for reform and expansion of the Council.



For example, Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Costa said at the Assembly around the time the G4 was meeting that the Council should be reformed so that the African continent, and at least Brazil and India, have permanent seats.



Jamaica Prime Minister Andre Holnes said that the "critical organ" should "be more representative of the world of today".



Uganda's Vice President Jessica Alupo said the need for reform is "now more urgent" and pointed out that "Africa with more than one billion citizens, and with over 70 per cent of issues on the agenda of the Council, continues to suffer the historical injustice of having no representation in the Permanent category of the Security Council".






(Alliance News) - Burberry Group PLC on Friday said Chief Operating & Financial Officer Julie Brown plans to step down at the close of its current financial year on April 1, 2023.

Brown has been with the London-based luxury fashion retailer since 2016.

Burberry said that she will be leaving the company "to take up an opportunity outside of the luxury industry".

It added that the process to find Brown's successor is now underway.

Gerry Murphy, Chair, commented: "On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Julie for her very significant contribution to Burberry's transformation, including her central role in delivering our sustainability ambitions. Julie has built a strong financial base for the next chapter of Burberry's growth under Jonathan Akeroyd's leadership."

Burberry appointed Gianni Versace SpA's Jonathan Akeroyd as its new chief executive back in October last year.

Shares in Burberry were down 3.6% to 1,655.50 pence each in London on Friday morning.

By Sophie Rose; sophierose@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - Egdon Resources PLC shares jumped on Friday on the back of the UK government lifting of the the moratorium on shale gas extraction and its commitment to reviewing shale gas policy.

Shares in the Reading-based oil & gas exploration company were up 9.0% to 7.90 pence each in London on Friday morning.

Egdon's response follows a statement on Thursday from UK Business & Energy Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, which said that the government is determined to "realise any potential sources of domestic gas".

The move is part of the government's attempts to tackle the energy price crisis.

The decision comes despite the Conservative party having pledged in 2019 to keep the moratorium in place. Fracking has faced heavy criticism from opponents who have long warned that it can cause earthquakes, water contamination, noise and traffic pollution.

Rees-Mogg also suggested that limits on acceptable levels of seismic activity are too restrictive.

Egdon Managing Director Mark Abbott said: "We look forward to working positively with government to develop the right regulatory environment to realise the potential of indigenous shale gas, which in contrast to a growing reliance on imports, could have a positive impact on the UK's energy security whilst delivering environmental, fiscal and community benefits and thousands of well paid, skilled jobs."

By Sophie Rose; sophierose@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Ondine Biomedical Inc - Vancouver, Canada-based life sciences company focused on photodisinfection-based therapies - Says the Ottawa Hospital in the Canadian capital has chosen Ondine's photodisinfection technology for a three-month pilot evaluation of a non-antibiotic protocol to prevent infections in spine surgery patients. Says nasal decolonisation is recommended by World Health Organization to reduce surgical site infections in spine surgeries. Ondine says the technology has already been deployed in a few Canadian hospitals, where it has reduced post-operative infection rates for spine surgeries by 78%.

Photodisinfection is a low-cost therapy that improves patient outcomes reducing readmission rates and costs by eliminating the pathogens they are carrying.

Chief Executive Officer Carolyn Cross says: "Following Covid-19, it is more important than ever to reduce patient readmission rates given the large surgery backlogs at all Canadian hospitals. Nasal decolonisation has long been recommended by the World Health Organization for complex surgeries. Steriwave nasal photodisinfection enables fast, broad-spectrum efficacy, resulting in significant improvements to patient outcomes, cost savings, and bed capacity."

Current stock price: 33.70 pence

12-month change: down 42%

By Xindi Wei; xindiwei@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Friday and not separately reported by Alliance News:

----------

Caretech Holdings PLC - Hertfordshire, England-based residential social care and education services - Says the High Court of Justice in England and Wales has sanctioned the takeover from Amalfi Bidco Ltd, a consortium which includes CareTech founders Farouq and Haroon Sheikh and THCP Advisory Ltd. Confirms that September 26 will be the last day of dealings in, and for the registration of transfers of, and disablement of its shares.

----------

Tirupati Graphite PLC - graphite and graphene mining and processing in Madagascar - Says its Vatomina preconcentrate plant in Madagascar has achieved a name plate ore feed capacity of 600 tons per day. Expects to have a net ore throughput capacity of 2,400 tons per day and a name plate capacity of 36,000 tpa flake graphite production per annum across the Sahamamy and Vatomina projects. Development of the balance of 54,000 tons planned capacity across existing Madagascan projects will follow targeting the end of 2024 for completion.

"This progress will help us to achieve our long-term goal of producing circa 8% of the global flake graphite market or 400,000 tpa by 2030," Executive Chair Shishir Podda says.

----------

Nuformix PLC - London-based pharmaceutical firm targeting fibrosis and oncology - Says NXP002, a potential treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, appeared well tolerated in very high doses in a pre-clinical update. Says it currently continues to be "challenging" to achieve consistent and reproducible results, which will likely increase in the study of combination therapies. Stops its current study and will initiate studies in 3D human IPF lung tissue using a disease and species relevant model, as a consequence.

----------

Manolete Partners PLC - London-based insolvency litigation financing - Says it was granted permission by the Court of Appeal to appeal a decision in the High Court. Warns that the process is likely to take some months and the outcome cannot be guaranteed.

----------

Anglo Pacific Group PLC - London-based natural resources royalty company - Says it has a 2.0% net smelter royalty interest over the West Musgrave project. Says first production for the project is targeted for the second half 2025.

----------

Funding Circle Holdings PLC - London-based commercial lender - Enters a lending partnership with Bayview Asset Management to provide GBP700 million of funding to small businesses over an 18-month period. This takes the total new forward flow funding commitments leveraging its platform to GBP2.4 billion.

----------

Neometals Ltd - London-based battery materials from upstream extraction and downstream processing - Swings to a pretax loss of USD16.2 million in the year which ends June 30 from a profit of USD21.0 million the year before, as other income falls to USD912,857 from USD35.8 million. Cites Covid-19 headwinds disrupting its international engagements and European business development focus.

----------

Rockhopper Exploration PLC - Salisbury, England-based oil & gas exploration and production company - Says the transaction which allowed Harbour Energy PLC to exit and Navitas Petroleum LPto enter the North Falkland Basin with a 65% stake in, and operatorship of, all of its North Falkland Basin licences has been completed.

----------

By Abby Amoakuh; abbyamoakuh@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
IZZY Newman, the Mallorca-based singer and radio presenter, has just flown back from Windsor and the Queens funeral. She has had time to reflect on events of the past few weeks and also absorb and get a sense of the chapter Britain and the Commonwealth will be moving into with King Charles III on the throne.

Izzy grew up and went to school in Windsor and her mother, Barbara France, still lives just ten minutes walk away from the Long Walk up to the castle.

Having lived and grown up in Windsor, we were surrounded by royalty, the horse shows, state visits, regularly seeing the royals come and go, not to mention bumping into the likes of Princess Anne in Boots every now and then. Im a staunch royalist and having attended so many major events in the past, such as weddings and jubilees, I certainly wasnt going to miss this momentous moment in history. And with my husband away working, I was on my own in Mallorca.

"I didnt want my mum to be on her own at a time like this in Windsor, so I decided to fly over and our son came from Cardiff to join us as well. However, my mother needed little looking after. At the bright age of 81 she is a voluntary Royal Borough Ambassador and that involves being on hand at all royal events to act as a go-between for the royal circle with regard to looking after the general public in any shape of form. And being a linguist, my mother is very helpful when it comes to aiding tourists. So she was up at 6.30am and didnt get home until gone 7pm; she had her work cut out, that was for sure.

I also wanted to be there for my late father, who would have been 101 this year; I wore his veteran band. I kept a close group of school friends going back some 50 years up to speed with events, sending pictures and messages to those who couldnt make it as well as to my friends back in Mallorca. So I kind of felt I was representing old friends and the expats back in Mallorca, Izzy said.

My first impression was that it was very sombre, but I soon realised that it was also an occasion of reflection and a moment for the hundreds of thousands of people who turned out to simply show their gratitude and to thank the Queen for her 70 years of service. There was a different atmosphere to the one I grew up in in Windsor.

"I think King Charles is very keen on connecting with the people. He and all of the working royals were so quick to meet the crowds and the general public, and I think that is going to be very much part of this new chapter.

I think Charles and William are going to be more open, wear their hearts on their sleeves if you like, and I am very excited about the future of the royal family. And having spoken to so many people from all over the world while waiting on the Long Walk and wandering around Windsor, I think the rest of the world is as well. Obviously, not everyone in the crowds who waited for hours on end were royalists, but they all held a great respect for the Queen, everything she stood for and how wonderfully she went about her business. That has rubbed off on me over the years and I think many other people across the globe.

That is why the atmosphere was very peaceful, people were excited, but like I said, also very reflective and thankful.

What also stood out for me was the large number of women on ceremonial duty in the armed forces and also in the police. It brought home to me what a role model the Queen was for women. She showed us all that you can be a mother while holding down a job and enjoying life to the full, so there was a lot to thank her for.

So, with time, I will be able to hold on to a little bit of history and share that with my grandchildren. I will be able to proudly tell them I was there, not only for the Queens funeral but also for the start of a new era in the history of the United Kingdom. I think thats very important for everyone and that everyone realises and appreciates what has happened over the past few weeks. Even my son, having grown up in Mallorca but been educated in the UK and who is not a royalist, was not going to miss the occasion.

There were some moments of mixed emotions. Do you get the phone out and start filming everything, is that a lack of respect? But it was inevitable. Everyone wanted to document the moment and what a moment it was. It was all so well organised and carried out. I presume the Queen would have been working on the plans for years and that the orders came from the very top; it was wonderful.

"The simplicity of the flowers on the coffin, the armed forces, the vast amount of police sadly needed today, but everyone felt so comfortable and safe. In fact, on the walk home, it took me an hour because I thanked every volunteer I passed in appreciation of what a sterling job they had all done. And it was of course heart-warming to have seen mum in action on such an important day in the history of our nation, which touched the world.

For many, the Queen felt like part of the family and it obviously must have been very hard for King Charles.

Yes, he has had years of preparation and is extremely well experienced when it comes to state events, but at the end of the day it was his mothers funeral.

But from what I saw and heard, more and more people are growing to love him by the day and I think that, knowing there are William and Kate in line, the respect and admiration for the royal family will continue to be as strong as ever.

Things are obviously going to be different. Charles will put his own stamp on things, but I think there will be a stronger connection with younger people, even those who are not royalists, because the royal family are so important to the UK and the Commonwealth. Millions of tourists head to London and other parts of the UK every year to see the royal palaces or attend royal events; they generate a lot of money. But on top of that, the pageantry and ceremony which was on show should have Britain bursting with pride. I dont think any other country in the world could have organised a funeral, and all the events leading up to it, like it.

Personally, I think after the death of Prince Philip, the Queen grew a little frustrated. Unable to carry out certain events and continue with the job she loved so much without Philip by her side would have been deeply painful. I am sure she was determined to see and be part of the Jubilee to help the country celebrate emerging from the pandemic and the dreadful two years we all went through, and I wouldnt be surprised that after the Jubilee she said right, thats me done.

There is only so much the body can take before the mind takes over, and I was so pleased that she passed away quickly and peacefully surrounded by her close family at Balmoral. It was the end of an incredible reign and I think the fact that she chose Balmoral, far away from the massive public eye, was further demonstration of how selfless she was.

And now we embark on the transition which will probably not really kick into peoples minds until we get the new bank notes and stamps, for example. But Im extremely excited about the future. I think Charles will make a very good king and weve got the next generation to look forward to. So, despite the great sadness of what has happened, there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful.
thl advises that the New Zealand Commerce Commission (NZCC) has today provided clearance for thl to merge with Apollo Tourism & Leisure Ltd (ATL). The clearance is subject to an undertaking given by thl and ATL to divest certain ATL assets in New Zealand, in accordance with the terms of the agreement entered into with Jucy on 22 September.

The NZCC has confirmed that the sale of the New Zealand assets to Jucy is an acceptable remedy that addresses its competition concerns, after having reviewed the transaction documents. The divestment remains under review by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

Grant Webster, thl CEO, said the NZCCs decision is an important step towards the successful completion of the merger with Apollo. We are focused on satisfying the remaining conditions to the merger in a timely manner with the intent to complete the transaction before the end of 2022.

The merger remains subject to the satisfaction of conditions including refinancing, clearance from ACCC, approval from the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board and requisite approval from ATL shareholders and the Supreme Court of Queensland. The ACCC is expected to announce a decision on Thursday 29 September 2022.

ENDS

NZX Release - NZCC grants clearance for Apollo merger

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Are Prince Andrew and King Charles III at odds? (Peter Nicholls/Pool via AP)

Are Prince Andrew and King Charles III at odds? (Peter Nicholls/Pool via AP)

According to a recent book, Prince Andrew allegedly "lobbied" Queen Elizabeth II to prevent Charles from becoming king of England.

Angela Levin's explosive biography "Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall: From Outcast to Future Queen Consort," Andrew allegedly conspired to prevent Charles from becoming king before the queen passed away with the help of Princess Diana and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.

Prince Andrew appears to touch a girls bum outside Balmoral Castle after Queen's death

The biography of Camilla claims that Andrew vehemently opposed the union of Charles and Camilla, who are currently the king and queen consort.

William would have been in line for the throne instead of Andrew, who is currently chief corgi protector, but only if the queen had died before William turned 18, according to the book.

Levin, who has written numerous biographies of members of the royal family, attributes the information to a "top insider" who claimed Andrew and Diana allegedly planned to "push Prince Charles aside."

"When Diana was alive, through her friendship with Andrew's wife Sarah, [Duchess of York,] she plotted with Andrew to try to push Prince Charles aside so Prince Andrew could become regent to Prince William, who was then a teenager," the insider claimed.

"His behavior was very, very negative and extremely unpleasant to Queen [Elizabeth], who disagreed. I was told it was one of the rare occasions he didn't get his way," the book reads.

Royal family near the Abbey ahead of funeral

"Nonetheless, he was apparently very angry that he couldn't rule the country in some way. He remained so hostile to Camilla's emergence and acceptance that it's doubtful it has ever been forgiven."

Levin said in the book that Andrew treated Camilla in a "very unpleasant" and "poisonous" manner because he allegedly believed she was unreliable.

Andrew, the disgraced prince and the relationship with his brother

According to rumors, Charles and Andrew have had a rocky relationship over the years, notably after the Duke of York had his military titles removed due to allegations of sexual abuse and connections to Jeffery Epstein.

He was not allowed to wear his military uniform even to his mother's funeral.

The humiliated prince has made an effort to remain anonymous since losing his royal responsibilities, with the exception of his moving tribute to his late mother.

"Dear Mummy, Mother, Your Majesty, three in one. Your Majesty, it has been an honor and privilege to serve you," Andrew said in his statement. "Mother - of the nation, your devotion and personal service to our nation is unique and singular; your people show their love and respect in so many different ways and I know you are looking on honoring their respect."

"Mummy, your love for a son, your compassion, your care, your confidence I will treasure forever," he added. "I have found your knowledge and wisdom infinite, with no boundary or containment."
Investors are invited to join Auckland Airports 2022 Annual Shareholders Meeting, to be held at 10.00am on 20 October 2022 at Eden Park, 42 Reimers Avenue, Kingsland, Auckland.

Notice of Meeting and Proxy Form

Please see attached Auckland International Airport Limiteds Notice of Meeting and Proxy Form.

The Notice of Meeting and Proxy Form will be emailed to shareholders who have provided the companys share registrar with an email address and mailed in hard copy where the share registrar does not have an email address. An electronic copy of the documents are also available on the companys website, https://corporate.aucklandairport.co.nz/investors/annual-meeting.

Webcast link

The annual meeting will also be broadcast live on the internet via webcast link. To access the webcast link, go to www.virtualmeeting.co.nz/aia22 and follow the instructions. You will need your shareholder number found on your Proxy Form, for verification purposes.

The webcast will be archived and available on the Auckland Airport website following the event.

For more information about virtual attendance, including how to vote and ask questions, please refer to the Virtual Annual Meeting Online Portal Guide attached to this announcement or found at https://bcast.linkinvestorservices.co.nz/generic/docs/OnlinePortalGuide.pdf

ENDS

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Unforeseen issues stall legislative processes





Prime Minister and Minister of General Affairs, Silveria Jacobs was slated to clarify the last questions before it would go to a vote during Parliament today, Monday, September 19. This was the continuation of meeting number 23 for the Parliamentary year 2022/2023, was proposed to amend ordinance regulating the 12.5% cut on civil servants.





However, the meeting was abruptly and unceremoniously adjourned by the Chairlady of Parliament due to a carried proposal aimed at adding an agenda point to the meeting.





While it was not the outcome Prime Minister had expected, there remains another opportunity to return to Parliament once the meeting is reconvened to approve the laws. The previous meeting was scheduled to resume last week but was postponed due to technical challenges. Its unfortunate that we were not able to finalize this process after several attempts to do so.





It remains the goal of the Government of Sint Maarten to see this law passed. stated Prime Minister Jacobs. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister is traveling to New York later today for the United Nations General Assembly which was scheduled prior to the delays, as such she looks forward to the reconvening of the meeting upon her return.
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On Wednesday, September 14th, 2022, the Honorable Minister of Justice Anna E. Richardson was paid a courtesy visit by the Consul General and Head of Mission of the Consulate General of the Republic of Haiti in Curacao, Ms. Natalie Fourcand. During the courtesy visit, Minister Richardson was informed of the services provided by the Consulate General of the Republic of Haiti based in Curacao.





Representatives of the Consulate General travel to Sint Maarten every two to three months and provide various governmental services to Haitian nationals. These services include the processing of applications for new or renewed ID cards and passports, birth certificate or power of attorney requests, and letters to government departments when necessary. Minister Richardson was able to view a sample of Haitis new and improved identification card which also serves as an electoral card, and was also provided a document containing all the relevant information that is needed from the identification card holder.





Minister Richardson stated, As Minister of Justice, I am very appreciative of the working relationship that has been forged with the Consulate General of the Republic of Haiti. There have been many instances where the Ministry required the cooperation of the Consulate and they ensured that what was agreed upon is what was executed in a professional manner. As such, I look forward to their continued cooperation.





Consul General Fourcand stated, I was honored to have had the opportunity to meet Sint Maartens Minister of Justice Ms. Anna E. Richardson, and be able to inform the Minister about different services provided by the Consulate General of the Republic of Haiti in Curacao to the Haitian community. Throughout the year, Minister Richardson has been very supportive of the Haitian community and we are very thankful for her support. We look forward to her continued support.
Page Content

Hurricane Fiona threatens more countries





Prime Minister and Minister of General Affairs, Silveria Jacobs wishes to extend her thoughts and prayers to those who have been negatively affected by Tropical Storm Fiona turned hurricane, as well as those directly in the path of Hurricane Fiona.





St. Maarten/St. Martin has been spared the full force this time around. Our people have learned from our experiences not too long ago and we were able to have plans set in place to secure our people. However, we must not take for granted that there has been great devastation in the region including loss of life as a result of flash flooding. We pray for all those negatively affected by the heavy flooding. Said Prime Minister Jacobs.





The Prime Minister went on to say, We must keep our sister islands in mind, particularly the USVI as well as Puerto Rico, who recently shared in our devastation a few years ago while still dealing with the recent world pandemic. They are suffering from power outages as well as reliving very fresh trauma. We pray for Gods mercies while their leaders work to get their grids back up and running.





As vulnerable island nations directly impacted by climate change, we know how difficult it can be to survive between disasters. I join with the people of St. Maarten in praying that there is no more loss of life and a swift recovery for our Caribbean neighbors. I also encourage those who can, to lend support where possible and make donations to known local and international agencies which offer assistance in times of disaster.
A team of doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has successfully performed an en bloc kidney transplant surgery on a five-year-old boy, who became the youngest organ recipient in India.



Youngest Organ Recipient in India

What is En Bloc Kidney Transplant?

"The boy was suffering from chronic kidney failure for around one-and-a-half years and was continuously on hemodialysis. On every alternate day, the boy had to come for dialysis, which was not only costly but also not feasible for him at his age," Manjunath Maruti Pol, additional professor in the department of surgery, AIIMS, told IANS.Talking to IANS, Manjunath said the boy became theThe child was suffering from chronic glomerulonephritis which caused kidney failure. The transplant was performed on August 25, 2022 he said.En bloc kidney transplant occurs when the two moieties (kidneys), from the same small pediatric donor, along with the aorta and inferior vena cava (IVC) for graft revascularization are transplanted into a single recipient, he explained.
Page Content

Tropical storm and flood warnings discontinued





Prime Minister and Minister of General Affairs, Silveria Jacobs hereby updates the public on the weather, handling of Tropical Storm Fiona and related business and school openings. Warnings, as they relate to Tropical Storm Fiona, have been lifted as of Saturday evening as it moved away from Sint Maarten.





As of the 6:00am forecast, the flood advisory was still in effect, as rain and scattered thunderstorms were still expected throughout the day. However, the flood advisory was discontinued at 6:00pm today, September 18.





All businesses were given the green light to be open as of Sunday September 18 at 6:00 am at their own discretion. Some church activities chose to go online today to avoid unnecessary moving. The road remained relatively quiet during Sunday.





After a positive assessment, Princess Juliana International Airport resumed normal operations at 7:00am today. There were flight delays and cancellations, so those with travel plans are urged to contact their airlines for updates.





The Port is open, however, due to rough sea conditions with large swells, it was still unsafe for berthing. Another assessment was done at 2:30pm this afternoon. Updates will be provided by the Port authorities.





ESF 5, KPSM updated that, generally before, during and after the Storm Warnings most things went smoothly; cooperation with VKS and military was very good to maintain public order. The public compliance to the regulations in place was very high with very few measures needing to be taken. Police and Military also assisted to clear roads where needed. Military assistance ended officially at 3:00pm today. Road users are asked to continue to be cautious on the wet roads.





There was also solid cooperation with the Ministry of VROMI to prepare the trenches for the influx of water in the drainage systems, but also for clearing the roads thereafter.





The Minister of VROMI updated that cleaning of all roads where debris, rocks and mud littered the roads took place up to last evening. The Point Blanche areas, where rocks and mud fell into the





streets was cleaned as much as possible and will receive another assessment to plan further cleanup. The clean-up of the rest of Sint Maarten will continue.





ESF 7, which oversees the shelters team under Community Development, Family and Humanitarian Affairs (CDHFA), consisted of CDFHA staff; K1 Britannia; Red Cross; Police; VKS; WIEMS; and Leaders for Change volunteers. The team worked nonstop from the preparation of the shelter to open at 4:00pm on Friday, September 16, to ensuring proper management and successful closure at 5:00pm Saturday, Sept 17, and ensuring that those seeking shelter were safely accommodated thereafter. There was a great partnership and collaboration between government and NGO/CSOs.





ESF 10 wishes to thank all stakeholders, Harbor; Airport; hotels; critical infrastructure, such as major food suppliers; Sol; gas stations; and major hardware stores for their excellent communication and swift cooperation.





This afternoon Sunday Sept 18, together with staff of DCOMM, we toured the island from East to West, said Prime Minister Jacobs. The tour was organized to ascertain the impact of the storm, which caused minimal damage for the clean-up to repair.





The Prime Minister went on to state, Tropical Storm Fiona was upgraded to a Hurricane and is causing massive flooding in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, which highlights the dangers we have escaped as a country. We pray for those on Fionas path and give thanks that the impact on St. Maarten was minimal. We give gratitude for minimal damage, as clean-up continues. As seas remain rough with swells, caution is advised. This is not the time to let our guards down, as the weather has not fully cleared up. For those who operate small craft, we ask that you exercise extreme caution and sea bathers limit their activities until the waters have completely settled. I commend the people for adhering to the warnings, it was through your cooperation that we were able execute safety measures without dire incidents.





The Prime Minister wishes to extend a special word of thanks to her colleagues in the Council of Ministers, EOC, back office, supporting ESF coordinators and their teams, especially Meteorological Office, Mr. Isaac and his team, the Minister of VROMI and his team, Minister of Justice, DCOMM, KPSM, VKS, Marines, CDFHA and all volunteers who executed these safety measures.
NEW YORK  Two U.S. military veterans who disappeared three months ago while fighting Russia with Ukrainian forces arrived Friday at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport after their release by Russian-backed separatists as part of a prisoner exchange.

Were looking forward to spending time with family and well be in touch with the media soon, Alex Drueke said after arriving at the airport with Andy Huynh at around noon. "Happy to be home.

Drueke, 40, and Huynh, 27, went missing in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine near the Russian border on June 9. They had traveled to Ukraine on their own and bonded over their shared home state.

Their families announced their release Wednesday in a joint statement from Dianna Shaw, an aunt of Drueke.

Saudi Arabia brokered the exchange that granted their release. The Saudi embassy released a statement Wednesday saying it helped secure the release of 10 prisoners from Morocco, the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Croatia. Shaw confirmed that Drueke and Huynh were part of the group.

Drueke and Huynh flew to New York from Saudi Arabia. Shaw said in an email that Druke's mother and Huynh's fiance would fly to New York to meet the men later Friday and that all four would then travel to Alabama on Saturday.
Florida's veteran-to-teacher pathway has garnered 392 applicants since the beginning of summer, but the state has yet to disclose how many veterans have been accepted into the temporary teaching program amid local reports that some of the largest school districts haven't added any vets to classrooms.

The program was launched in July and has been touted as a solution to the state's critical teacher shortage by Florida political leaders, most notably Navy reservist Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed the program into law in June.

While state legislators have lauded the program, the Military Veterans Certification Pathway has received criticism from educators who say the teacher shortage is driven by low salaries -- Florida is ranked 48th in the country for school teacher pay, according to the National Education Association. And political rhetoric aimed at educators and students accused of embracing "woke" policies have left some teachers frustrated at the move to bring veterans into classrooms.

Read Next: Bigger Housing Allowances, Price Cuts at Commissaries Coming Under New Plan Unveiled by Pentagon

"Think it's a good idea to send an unprepared teacher into a hostage situation or a burning apartment building?" Florida teacher Chris Fulton wrote for the Tampa Bay Times last month. "Well, the converse holds true as well."

The Florida Department of Education estimates that the state has more than 9,000 teacher vacancies, with critical shortfalls affecting subjects like English, Science, Reading, English for "Speakers of Other Languages," Math and Exceptional Student Education. Veterans would not be allowed to teach subjects that require a master's degree; spouses and military family members are not eligible for the program.

The program would grant a temporary five-year teaching certificate to veterans who completed a minimum four years of service and earned 60 college credits with a minimum grade point average of 2.5. Once in the program, they must earn a bachelor's degree within five years to receive a full certificate.

"To be eligible for this temporary certificate, applicants must also demonstrate mastery of subject area knowledge either by passing the subject area exam(s) of their choice or submitting appropriate coursework," Cassie Palelis, Florida Department of Education's press secretary, told Military.com over email.

Florida's Department of Education did not have estimates available for the number of veterans accepted into the temporary certificate program by publication. The applicant numbers were originally obtained by News4JAX, and Military.com requested the updated number as well as how many have been accepted.

News4JAX also reported that, as of the end of September, there haven't been any veteran hires in Florida's two largest school districts.

The idea to match veterans to classrooms did not originate in Florida. The federal Troops to Teachers program, which was briefly canceled by the Pentagon last year, has been around since 1993. With roughly 100,000 alumni, the initiative offers thousands in stipends for veterans and requires at least a complete bachelor's degree to participate.

Florida lawmakers have jumped to defend both the program and DeSantis from criticism, with state legislators like Rep. John Snyder telling Fox News that the disapproval is an "obsession" with discrediting the governor.

DeSantis said in August that veterans' experiences, presumably gained from their service, would be helpful in the classroom, lauding the law as "innovative."

Veterans who successfully obtain the temporary certificate will be assigned to a teacher mentor for two years. When asked, the state's Department of Education did not say whether veterans are meant to fill specific subject shortages.

-- Drew F. Lawrence can be reached at drew.lawrence@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @df_lawrence.

Related: Florida Governor Activates National Guard to Work at Short-Staffed Prisons
ISTANBUL  Military-aged men fled Russia in droves Friday, filling planes and causing traffic jams at border crossings to avoid being rounded up to fight in Ukraine following the Kremlin's partial military mobilization.

Queues stretching for 10 kilometers (6 miles) formed on a road leading to the southern border with Georgia, according to Yandex Maps, a Russian online map service.

The lines of cars were so long at the border with Kazakhstan that some people abandoned their vehicles and proceeded on foot  just as some Ukrainians did after Russia invaded their country on Feb. 24.

Meanwhile, dozens of flights out of Russia  with tickets sold at sky-high prices  carried men to international destinations such as Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Serbia, where Russians don't need visas.

Among those who reached Turkey was a 41-year-old who landed in Istanbul with a suitcase and a backpack and plans to start a new life in Israel.

Im against this war, and Im not going to be a part of it. Im not going to be a murderer. Im not going to kill people, said the man, who identified himself only as Yevgeny to avoid potential retribution against his family left behind in Russia.

He referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal.

Yevgeny decided to flee after Putin announced a partial military call-up on Wednesday. The total number of reservists involved could be as high as 300,000.

Some Russian men also fled to neighboring Belarus, Russia's close ally. But that carried risk.

The Nasha Niva newspaper, one of the oldest independent newspapers in Belarus, reported that Belarusian security services were ordered to track down Russians fleeing from the draft, find them in hotels and rented apartments and report them to Russian authorities.

German government officials voiced a desire to help Russian men deserting military service, and they called for a European solution.

Those who bravely stand up to Putins regime and thereby put themselves in great danger can apply for asylum in Germany on the grounds of political persecution, the spokesman for German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said.

The spokesman, Maximilian Kall, said deserters and those refusing to be drafted would receive refugee status in Germany if they are at risk of serious repression, though every case is examined individually.

But they would first have to make it to Germany, which has no land border with Russia, and like other European Union countries has become far more difficult for Russians to travel to.

The EU banned direct flights between its 27 member states and Russia after the attack on Ukraine, and recently agreed to limit issuing Schengen visas, which allow free movement across much of Europe.

Four out of five EU countries that border Russia  Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland  also recently decided to turn away Russian tourists.

Some European officials view fleeing Russians as potential security risks. They hope that by not opening their borders, it will increase pressure against Putin at home.

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said Thursday that many of those fleeing were fine with killing Ukrainians. They did not protest then. It is not right to consider them as conscientious objectors.

The one EU country that is still accepting Russians with Schengen visas is Finland, which has a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border with Russia.

Finland border guards said Friday that the number of people entering from Russia has climbed sharply, with media reporting a 107% increase compared with last week.

At Vaalimaa, one of the busiest crossings on the border, the line of waiting cars stretched for half a kilometer (a third of a mile), the Finnish Border Guard said.

Finnish broadcaster MTV carried interviews with Russian men who had just crossed into Finland at the Virolahti border crossing, including with a man named Yuri from Moscow who said that no sane person wants to go to war.

A Russian man from St. Petersburg, Andrei Balakirov, said he had been mentally prepared to leave Russia for half a year but put it off until the mobilization.

I think its a really bad thing, he said.

Valery, a man from Samara who was heading to Spain, agreed, calling the mobilization "a great tragedy.

Its hard to describe whats happening. I feel sorry for those who are forced to fight against their will. Ive heard stories that people have been given these orders right in the streets  scary.

___

Associated Press writers Frank Jordans in Berlin; Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Poland; Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark; and Zeynep Bilginsoy in Istanbul contributed.
The Air Force is working to relaunch a program that would allow service members to swap base assignments with one another, five years after a similar initiative was shut down.

Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne Bass, the service's senior enlisted leader, teased the policy change at the Air and Space Force Association's Air, Space & Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, this week.

"These changes are the result of Airmen from our Enlisted Assignment Working Group taking a holistic look at this process, identifying areas that needed updates and working with Air Force Personnel Center to make it happen," Bass said in a press release. "I couldn't be more proud of the work done to get these changes into the hands of our Airmen."

Read Next: Air Force Still Unsure of Cause Behind Osprey Mechanical Issue That Grounded Aircraft

The assignment swap program would allow volunteers "to replace members selected for assignment, or the trading of assignments after selection," according to a Wednesday Air Force press release.

It would apply only to ranks of E-8 and below with the same Air Force Specialty Code, skill level, grade or projected grade, and special experience identifier.

The Air Force Personnel Center told Military.com in a statement that additional details are not yet available and are still being worked out.

"We are in the early stages of establishing the assignment swap program CMSAF Bass announced at the ASFA Conference," Toni Whaley, a spokeswoman for AFPC public affairs, said in an emailed statement. "We are working with our partners to build out the process and identify business rules to make the program more inclusive with minimum restrictions."

The service had a similar version of an assignment swap program in the past.

An Air Force press release from 2007 first informed service members they would need to look for fellow qualified airmen in the continental United States that they could switch with. The switch would, ultimately, have to be approved by commanders.

But a decade later, in 2017, the program was shut down, according to a 2017 Facebook post from the Air Force Personnel Center. Officials said the program was being underutilized and favored airmen with larger paychecks.

"It was found that less than five percent of Airmen were taking advantage of this program, and it was ultimately deemed unfair," the 2017 post from the Air Force Personnel Center announcing the change read. "With the burden of expenses for moving locations falling on the Airman, some Airmen of higher rank could afford the move, while some younger Airmen could not."

Bass didn't provide any details at the conference on how the program would differ from previous versions or when it would be rolled out.

"There is no set start date we can share at this time, but we will release information as it becomes available," Whaley said.

The possibility of assignment swaps coming back wasn't the only good news for enlisted airmen at the Air and Space Force Association's conference. On Monday during his opening speech, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall announced that the service would be reversing course on a set of pay cuts that had been set to take effect next month for airmen working some of the toughest jobs.

Hundreds of airmen, many in some of the most physically demanding and difficult jobs, were scheduled to see cuts ranging from $900 to $5,400 a year to their Special Duty Assignment Pay, a monthly incentive bonus known as SDAP, in fiscal 2023 -- which starts Oct. 1.

-- Thomas Novelly can be reached at thomas.novelly@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomNovelly.

Related: Air Force Pay Cuts Canceled
Some 6,000 new soldiers recruited this year have chosen their first duty station, as part of a relatively new Army effort to give young troops more flexibility as the service scrambles to make enlisting as enticing as possible amid historic recruiting struggles.

The most popular duty station by far is Alaska, home of the newly revamped 11th Airborne Division, which 825 new soldiers have selected. Fort Polk, Louisiana, had 83 soldiers volunteer for duty there, the fewest among the seven original duty station options the Army set in February.

Since February, the service has slowly expanded the number of first duty stations recruits can choose from. Now, the Army offers 32 options, effectively all of its major bases. The most recent additions in August include bases in Virginia, Maryland and Georgia.

Read Next: Hundreds Apply for Florida's Veteran-to-Teacher Pipeline Amid State's Critical Shortage

In July, the Army added some of its premier combat installations including Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Campbell, Kentucky; and Vicenza, Italy -- effectively guaranteeing a new recruit can be a paratrooper, or serve in the prestigious 101st Airborne, an air assault division, which can be a powerful recruiting incentive.

The Army aimed to recruit 60,000 new active-duty soldiers into its ranks this year, a goal that the service will fall 15,000 short of, according to Army Secretary Christine Wormuth. In addition to letting soldiers choose where they're stationed, the service has beefed up recruiting bonuses and kicked off a program in which recruits who otherwise were out of compliance with weight standards can lose weight and qualify for service. It also allows other applicants who failed the entrance exam to get tutoring.

The sheer number of volunteers might not paint a full picture of where troops want to go. Whether a soldier is assigned to a specific base of their choosing ultimately depends on vacancies for their job specialty. For example, in July, Korea only had 11 different job options.

Requests for Original Six Locations New Recruits Could Choose From:

Alaska: 825

Fort Carson, Colorado: 679

Fort Hood, Texas: 657

Fort Drum, New York: 293

Fort Riley, Kansas: 202

Fort Polk, Louisiana: 83

Full List of Requests:

Alaska: 825

Fort Carson, Colorado: 679

Fort Campbell, Kentucky: 659

Fort Hood, Texas: 657

Europe: 546

Fort Bliss, Texas: 475

Fort Lewis, Washington: 475

Hawaii: 415

Fort Stewart, Georgia: 392

Fort Drum, New York: 293

South Korea: 232

Fort Riley, Kansas: 202

Fort Polk, Louisiana: 83

Fort Benning, Georgia: 76

Fort Irwin, California: 42

Fort Sill, Oklahoma: 42

Fort Meade, Maryland: 30

Fort Eustis, Virginia: 15

Fort Gordon, Georgia: 15

Fort Story, Virginia: 10

Fort Belvoir, Virginia: 8

Fort Bragg, North Carolina: 8

Lackland Air Force Base, Texas: 5

Fort Rucker, Alabama: 5

Fort Detrick, Maryland: 3

Fort Huachuca, Arizona: 2

Fort Knox, Kentucky: 1

Fort Lee, Virginia: 1

Fort Sam Houston, Texas: 1

-- Steve Beynon can be reached at Steve.Beynon@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon.

Related: Given the Choice, Many New Soldiers Are Picking 'Tough' Alaska as Their 1st Duty Station
GENEVA  A team of experts commissioned by the U.N.s top human rights body to look into rights violations in Ukraine said Friday its initial investigation turned up evidence of war crimes in the country following Russias invasion nearly seven months ago.

The experts from the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, mandated by Human Rights Council earlier this year, have so far focused on four regions  Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy.

Presenting their most extensive findings so far, they cited testimonies by former detainees of beatings, electric shocks and forced nudity in Russian detention facilities, and expressed grave concerns about executions the team was working to document in the four regions.

Based on the evidence gathered by the commission, it has concluded that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine, Erik Mose, the commission's chairman, told the Human Rights Council.

Commission member Pablo de Greiff told reporters the team had found two instances of ill-treatment of Russian Federation soldiers by Ukrainian soldiers. ... We have found obviously significantly larger numbers of incidences that amount to war crimes on the part of the Russian Federation.

During a 10-day June trip to Ukraine, the team visited Bucha, a city outside Kyiv where Ukrainian authorities found mass graves and bodies strewn in the streets after Russian forces pulled out in late March.

We were struck by the large number of executions in the areas that we visited. The commission is currently investigating such deaths in 16 towns and settlements, Mose said. He didnt specify who or which side in the war allegedly committed the killings.

The findings echo reports by news outlets and others of the destruction, death and despair in Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion on Feb. 24.

The commission's work could ultimately contribute to the work of International Criminal Court prosecutors who could bring charges over war crimes in Ukraine, although it remains uncertain whether Russia or other alleged perpetrators will ever face justice.

Anton Korynevych, ambassador-at-large for Ukraines Foreign Ministry, joined envoys from a number of Western countries who spoke out against Moscows war in the wake of the commissions presentation. Russias delegation boycotted the council meeting.

Korynevych, speaking by video, called for the creation of a special tribunal that would have jurisdiction over the crime of aggression against Ukraine and investigate senior Russian political and military leaders who were allegedly responsible.

He said said accountability was crucial for rights violations and atrocities linked to Russias aggression. But Korynevych also highlighted how the war's impact has rippled through the world and put numerous countries on the verge of hunger, exacerbated extreme poverty, created the threat of nuclear catastrophe unseen before and harmed the livelihoods of millions of people.

Commission investigators visited 27 towns and settlements, as well as graves and detention and torture centers; interviewed more than 150 victims and witnesses; and met with advocacy groups and government officials, Mose said.

He said an unspecified number of Russian soldiers were found to have committed crimes of sexual or gender-based violence  with victims ranging in age from 4 to 82 years old.

The commission plans to gradually expand its investigation, with areas of interest including allegations of filtration camps for people being detained or deported, the forced transfer of people, and allegations of expedited adoption of children.

The evidence of Russias atrocities becomes more horrifying by the day, most recently with the uncovering of mass graves in Izium, where the bodies show signs of torture, Michele Taylor, the U.S. ambassador to the rights council, said, referring to a Kharkiv regional city that Ukrainian forces recaptured in recent weeks.

Taylor urged the commissioners to continue to examine the growing evidence of Russias filtration operations, forced deportations and disappearances.

She referred to numerous sources that indicated Russian authorities have interrogated, detained and/or forcibly deported between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, and reports that children were being deported from Ukraine and placed in Russian orphanages for adoption.

A handful of Russias allies took to the defense of Moscow.

Ina Vasileuskaya, the deputy permanent representative of Belarus to the U.N. in Geneva, said Russias invasion aim was to protect Russian speakers in Ukraine.

Biased discussions in the Human Rights Council only accusing Russia are a dead end, she said.

Vasileuskaya said her country was not a party to the conflict, although Belarus was one of the places Russian forces gathered before invading Ukraine.
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Port St. Maarten Group (PSG) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Alexander Gumbs and Acting Minister of Tourism & Economic Affairs Hon. Omar Ottley, recently met with a number of cruise executives in order to generate more business for the destination.





Carnival Corporation & plc as a long-term partner of PSG are working on positioning cruise ships from the nine brands which will create new opportunities for the destination for the upcoming cruise seasons.





Acting Minister of Tourism & Economic Affairs Hon. Omar Ottley stated, Fruitful discussions were had with the Carnival Corporation & plc and Princess Cruises executives.





The discussions with the executives were based around opportunities for additional calls for Princess Cruises which is looking to have a stronger presence in the Caribbean, and it is our goal to make sure St. Maarten remains at the forefront of the cruise industry.





Exciting times are ahead as we fine tune the details whereas a cruise port, we will pick-up more port calls from the Carnival group. The nine Carnival brands, eight of them currently visit the destination on an annual basis.





Our deliberations also allowed us to connect with the President of Holland America Line Jan Swartz and President of Princess Cruises John Padgett, PSG CEO Gumbs said on Tuesday.





Princess Cruises had an exclusive event for the unveiling of their most advanced ship to date the Sun Princess. During this event Gumbs and Minister Ottley had the opportunity to connect with Carnival Corporation & plc recently appointed CEO Josh Weinstein.





Sun Princess is a next-generation ship and is the first ship in the fleet to be powered by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). This cleaner burning fuel will significantly reduce air emissions and marine gasoil to minimize the cruise companies environmental footprint.





Gumbs said that the discussion with Padgett had a strong note to the Environmental goals outlined by the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) 2030 carbon vision.





Gumbs added that PSG has been strengthening its compliance department which has been transitioning to include Environment, Social & Governance (ESG) principles aligned with the recently completed high level vision plan.





Sun Princess is the third ship to be honored with the Sun Princess name, adding to the legacy of the first ship sailing from 1974 to 1988 and the second ship sailing from 1995 to 2020. At that time, she had the largest number of balcony cabins and the cruise companies first 24-hour cafe.





Sun Princess embarks on its inaugural cruise in 2024. The vessel will weigh in at 175,500 tons with an overall length of 1,133 feet. The next-generation ship will have 2,150 guest cabins and have a guest capacity of 4,300.





Weinstein during our discussions showed full confidence in the cruise industry where it concerns its full return and benefits for the industry and destinations, PSG CEO Gumbs pointed out.





Carnival Corporation & plc is the worlds largest leisure travel company with 92 ships sailing under nine cruise brands including Princess Cruises, famously known as the line of the Love Boat, and Cunard which built the worlds biggest ocean liner at the time, Queen Mary 2.





Carnival Corporation & plcs 120,000 employees worldwide serve more than 13 million guests a year.





Carnival Cruise Line is the companys biggest brand with 22 ships, operating 1,500 voyages annually, calling on ports from Cozumel to Ketchikan. The fleets largest ship, Panorama, can accommodate 4,008 guests.





The companys portfolio of global cruise line brands includes Holland America Line, Seabourn, P&O Cruises (Australia), Costa Cruises, AIDA Cruises, and P&O Cruises (UK). Carnival Corporation also operates Holland America Princess Alaska Tours, the leading tour company in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon.





PHOTO CUTLINE: L to R: PSG CEO Alexander Gumbs, Carnival Corporation & plc CEO Josh Weinstein, Acting Minister of TEATT Hon. Omar Ottley, and President of the Holland America Group Jan Swartz.
22.09.2022 LISTEN

The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, has stated that Ghanas current economic challenges are the result of external shocks.

Speaking at the Africa Adaptation Summit in the Netherlands earlier this month, Georgieva said "To the people of Ghana, like everybody on this planet, you have been hurt by exogenous (external) shocks.

"First the pandemic, then Russias war in Ukraine. We need to realise that it is not because of bad policies in the country but because of this combination of shocks, and therefore we have to support Ghana."

Discussing Ghanas ongoing talks with the IMF, Georgieva highlighted that the Fund had "started very constructive discussions" noting that she would support Ghana "because your (Ghanas) strength contributes to the strength of your neighbours; it contributes to a stronger world."

In the face of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, as stressed by Georgieva, Ghana proactively entered talks with the IMF for a $3 billion loan.

The loan will be used to stabilise the economy in the face of global economic turbulence and support the cedi.

In the past month, the IMF has provided loans to both Pakistan and Sri Lanka, showing the global nature of current economic challenges.

President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Bawumia have stressed that an IMF loan will help Ghanas economy in the short-term, building a foundation for long-term resilience and prosperity.
French President Emmanuel Macron took to the Atlantic off the western city of Saint-Nazaire on Thursday to inaugurate the first of a planned series of offshore windfarms. The project is intended to make France less dependent on non-renewable energy and, in the shorter term, answer national needs in the wake of Russian power cuts.

The French leader promised to cut by half the administrative delays slowing renewable energy projects.

The President wants to have at least 50 offshore windfarms producing electricity by 2050. It took a decade to plan, approve and build the installation which the president inaugurated on Thursday.

"It still takes too long in France," Macron said. "We have to do it a lot quicker."

Each offshore project has to be submitted to local communities and other interest groups, as part of a complex judicial process which can take up to 12 years. Emmanuel Macron wants the entire procedure shortened to six years, the average in other European countries.

By 2050, French national electricity consumption will have risen 40 percent on today's level.

The summer drought and recent series of heatwaves have brought the question of renewable energy into sharp focus for public and politicians alike.

Power price hikes as a result of Russian retaliation for EU sanctions have underlined the need for an increased level of energy sovereignty.

The creaking and leaking nuclear sector

Many of France's ageing nuclear reactors are already past their sell-by date and need to be replaced.

The national electricity company's project to develop safer, more efficient nuclear generation has been beset by costly delays and technical setbacks.

On his visit to Saint-Nazaire, where the offshore turbines are constructed, the president also said that the nuclear sector would have to speed up the commissioning of new generation capacity.

The President in February fixed a deadline of 2035 for the inauguration of six new-generation nuclear reactors. On Thursday he warned that calendar would have to be accelerated.

Many ecologists point to the dangers inherent in the use of nuclear power, and the environmental difficulties posed by the inevitable radioactive waste which must be securely stored for several thousand years.

The problem with onshore windfarms and solar-panel arrays is the people who live near them. There are proposals to site solar panels along the fringes of the nation's motorways, to limit public nuisance.

The government is to adopt detailed proposals at a cabinet meeting on Monday.
Ghana government delegation to Finland-Ghana Business Forum 2022 met NPP-Finland branch executives to deliberate on many important issues that seeks to promote the development of the NPP party and Ghana in general. At the round table discussion organized after having promoted Ghanas investment potentials to Finnish investors, deputy ministers, CEOs, Board members and NPP-Finland branch executives had a fruitful discussion on promoting and projecting the great achievements of the government led by His excellency Nana Addo Dankwah Akkuffo-Addo. Among those in attendance of the meeting in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, were Hon. Kwaku Ampratwum-Sarpong, leader of the delegation and Dep. Minister for foreign affairs and regional integration, Hon. Ama Pomaa Boateng, Dep. Minister for communication, Hon. Mr. Herbert Krapa, Dep. Minister for trade and industry, Dr. Afua Asabea Asare, CEO of Ghana Export Promotion Authority, Mr. Lawrence Agyinsam, CEO of Ghana EXIM Bank, Hon. Kwadwo Baah Agyeman, CEO of Ghana Digital Centers Limited and former MP Asante Akim North Constituency, Alloysius Adjetey, Board member, GIFEC, and Mr. Yaw Amoateng, Dep. CEO of Ghana Investment Promotion Centre.

In opening the discussion, Mr. Apratwum lauded the NPP-Finland branch for the selfless commitment to serve the NPP government and the country. Mr. Apratwum also outlined many programmes the NPP government led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has rolled out to tackle economic challenges facing the country as result of the global economic crisis. On his part, Mr. Lawrence Agyinsam, CEO of EXIM Bank entreated the executives of the NPP-Finland branch led by Mr. James McKeown to strive to transfer some of the knowledge gained through education, especially digital technology and data management in Finland to Ghana. This, he said, will help the government to accelerate digital technology development, which remains one of the top priorities among government policies.

Mr. Herbert Krapa, deputy minister for trade and industry also entreated NPP-Finland branch members to avoid apathy towards the NPP going into 2024 general election and help provide resources for the impending campaigns as a result. According to Mr, Herbert Krapa, the NPP external branches have big role to play in the governance architecture of the ruling NPP government of Ghana.

Speaking on behalf of the NPP-Finland, Chairman James McKeown praised ministers of state and other government appointees for helping Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addos government in combating the Covid-19 pandemic that brought the world on its knees. The effort has indeed put Ghana in pole position among its peers in health delivery. The branch chairman pledged to ensure that funds and logistics are mobilized for the party going into the 2024 general election. The NPP-Finland will also adopt some constituencies as has been the norm to ensure massive victory for whoever emerges as our flagbearer and parliamentary candidates. Mr. James McKeown admonished government appointees to guide against actions that put the government and the NPP into disrepute and public disaffection of same.

The Communication Directorate,

NPP-Finland
Foundation for Security Development in Africa (FOSDA) has expressed concern over the recent killings in Wa in the Upper West Region.

In the past nine months, several private security guards have been targeted by criminals. While some have been kidnapped, others have been killed in the process as well.

Amid fear in the Upper West Region, FOSDA has issued a press release insisting that more must be done to beef up security.

We are alarmed that criminals have taken advantage of the peaceful environment in the municipality and perpetrated this atrocity on the blind side of the police and other security agencies.

It is important that the issue is dealt with swiftly to restore the confidence of the people in the police and enhance the feeling of safety in the area. We commend the Inspector General of Police (IGP) for swiftly deploying 350 Police officers to the area to investigate and solve the mystery, parts of the release signed by FOSDA Executive Director Theodora W. Anti have said.

The Foundation for Security Development in Africa additionally wants the security agencies to employ a long-term measure that will stop additional killings in the Upper West Region.

We recommend that in the long-term security should be enhanced in the Upper West Region as well as other low crime and violent areas to minimise the probability of such heinous crimes occurring in the future. This is particularly crucial as Ghana strives to prevent extremists and terrorist attacks in any part of the country, the FOSDA release concludes.

Below is a copy of the release:
West African leaders agreed at an emergency summit Thursday to impose gradual sanctions on Guinea's junta over its inflexibility on setting a date to return to civilian rule.

"We have decided to take sanctions against Guinea," Omar Alieu Touray, president of the commission of the ECOWAS bloc, told AFP.

The leaders from the Economic Community of West African States -- minus those of Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso, suspended due to coups -- met in New York where they were attending the UN General Assembly.

A summary of the meeting said that the leaders agreed on "gradual sanctions" on a list of people linked to the Guinean junta who will be identified "very soon" by the bloc's leadership.

Poor but mineral-rich Guinea has been ruled by the military since a coup in September 2021 that ousted president Alpha Conde, in power since 2010.

Guinea's junta-appointed prime minister, Bernard Gomou, earlier slammed ECOWAS chief Umaro Sissoco Embalo, describing him as a "puppet wearing the mantle of a statesman."

In a statement, Gomou said Embalo, who is also president of Guinea-Bissau, was an "overexcited" man who "forced his way in" to the ECOWAS presidency.

The prime minister also pointed to the two countries' geographical closeness and blood ties, but warned "no political upstart, let alone a badly briefed opportunist, will lead us to destroy this precious heritage."

'Unacceptable' timetable

During a visit to Guinea, Embalo had said he had secured an agreement with the junta to give way to elected civilians after two years.

Three years in power before a return to civilian rule is "unacceptable for ECOWAS," Embalo said on Wednesday in an interview with France's RFI and France 24 broadcasters.

Mali's interim leader Colonel Assimi Goita (R) and Guinea's Mamady Doumbouya (L) are seen in Bamako during Mali's independence day military parade. By OUSMANE MAKAVELI (AFP)

Embalo warned in the interview that if the junta maintained that timetable, there would be sanctions -- "heavy sanctions, even."

Colonel Amara Camara, a senior junta figure, earlier on Thursday accused Embalo of "lies."

"Crude lies and intimidation are backward steps that dishonor (Embalo) and at the same time tarnish ECOWAS' image," Camara said in a video received by AFP.

The West Africa bloc has been struggling with a string of military coups in the region in the past two years.

Camara accused Embalo, who took over the rotating presidency of the conference of West African heads of state a few weeks ago, of being "distinguished by his personal positions in defiance of his fellow presidents."

He accused Embalo of "putting on a show" and of disregarding the ECOWAS presidency, of forcing his West African counterparts to hold a summit outside West Africa and of wanting to force through sanctions against Guinea.

"We are not in... a reality TV relationship," Camara said, accusing Embalo of "bawdy" diplomacy.

"By forcing his peers to hold this summit outside his geographical space, his leadership will have allowed an opportunity for others not to take us seriously."

Mali underwent coups in August 2020 and May 2021, followed by Guinea in September 2021 and Burkina Faso in January.

ECOWAS has lifted tough sanctions that had been imposed on Mali's military regime, accepting a March 2024 return to civilian rule.

But Mali and Guinea remain suspended from ECOWAS bodies.
Dr Yaw Osei-Adutwum, Minister for Education in Ghana has lamented the lapses in the Ghanaian educational system which he thinks make it difficult to produce students fit for the 4th industrial revolution.

Ghanaian students, according to the scholar, don't like asking questions to get clarification about what their teachers teach them.

According to the Minister, in all his educational tours in some Ghanaian schools since becoming the Education Minister, he hasn't seen a student asking him questions about what he said which is very appalling.

Delivering a speech on Tuesday, September 20, at the United Nations Educational Summit noted that due to the nature of the Ghanaian society, children are being taught not to challenge the elderly when speaking  a situation that had a significant impact on such attitudes.

I go to schools upon schools and I speak with the students and when I finish speaking with them, I say who has a question for me? No hands go up. A hand is yet to go up in all my encounters in Ghanaian classrooms.

"We have tamed the children, we just want them to write down what we tell them, at the day of the exams we say you are the best student the country has ever known, he lamented

The Minister emphasized, that kind of education system cannot transform Ghana, that kind of education system is not going to get us critical thinking individual especially as we are in the 21st Century, Education 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution.

According to him, a curriculum that empowers the African child to ask questions and to challenge the status quo. Respectfully within the African context, but not a curriculum that tells the African to be quiet and not say anything when the adult is speaking.
In the midst of economic lamentations, Gabby Asare Otchere Darko of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) thinks his party's government is one of the best managers of the current global economic 'whammy.'

Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, praising the Akufo-Addo-led government, particularly the "tremendous" efforts by the Finance Ministry, urges the Ghanaians to shower commendations on them.

In his assertion in a tweet on Thursday, September 22, spotted by Modernghana News, he noted that even in the economic challenges, the current government and his Finance Ministry have been able to pay the salaries of workers.

Fixing some roads and introducing the YouStart social intervention program to help youths with some grants to start their businesses, according to Gabby, is also worth praising.

The Akufo-Addo govt and, in particular, MoF, deserve the nations commendation for their handling of the economy in these most challenging times. Despite the slump in revenues, bills are being paid, including salaries, roads being fixed, & money found for programmes like You Start, his tweet reads.
Mr. John Dramani Mahama, former President

23.09.2022 LISTEN

Former President John Dramani Mahama has praised his accomplishments in infrastructure development in the country.

According to the 2020 NDC Presidential candidate, the current government's infrastructure achievements can never match his.

Mr. Mahama stated in an interview with Woezor TV that his achievements in areas such as school buildings and other social infrastructure are well known among Ghanaians.

He mentioned the construction of the new Terminal Three and the University of Ghana Medical Centre as just two examples the NPP government can't match in its six years in office.

Ghanaians know what my track record is and I am talking about economic infrastructure and if it comes to social infrastructure, my opponent comes nowhere near me in terms of my track record.

I built schools, I built hospitals, I repaired the roads, electricity, water, and we expanded the Tema Port investment by over one billion dollars. We built the new Terminal three, University of Ghana Medical Centre, water supply to many communities, and extended electricity to so many communities across the country, he said.
The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Stephen Yakubu has urged Municipal and District Assemblies to help development partners identify and channel resources to address the real needs of residents.

He said development partners in the northern regions have over the years not been able to identify and bridge the actual development gaps in the regions.

If they were solving the needs of the people since 1957 with their interventions, why are we still where we are? the Minister asked.

The Minister, who was speaking at a three-day orientation and sensitization workshop for the Gulf of Guinea Northern Region on Social Cohesion (SOCO) Project in Bolgatanga, therefore, emphasized the need for the Municipal and District Assemblies to strictly monitor and supervise projects to yield the desired results.

Mr Yakubu said the Upper East Region has abundant water resources for all-year farming to ensure food security for the region and the country as a whole.

I appealed to development partners to gear their support towards agriculture by providing the necessary logistics to enable them to leverage on the abundant water resources to create wealth for the people, he added.

He noted that the issue of desertification as a result of climate change resulting in food insecurity and the threat of violent extremism from the Sahel Regions in Africa was real and called for patriotism and a sense of hard work to reverse the negative trend of climate change.

The Minister for Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development, Mr Daniel Botwe, said the workshop was intended to build the capacity for countries that were hard hit by fragilities due to food insecurity, climate change, conflict and violence.

He said SOCO was a multi-country project to be undertaken in Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Togo and Benin with a credit facility of US$450 million.

Out of the amount, Mr Botwe said, Ghana had US$150 million from the World Bank.
Accra,22nd September 2022: Deloitte today announced the launch of its global initiative 'WorldClass' in Ghana, which aims to refurbish and restock eight libraries in rural and deprived basic schools. The initiative is aimed at positively impacting over 35,000 children by 2030.

Globally, Deloitte's WorldClass initiative seeks to prepare 100 million people to be better prepared for the future of work, in line with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) four (4) which ensures inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. By collaborating with stakeholders across sectors, Deloitte aims to make a meaningful impact on issues that are critical to societal success. In Ghana, Deloitte has identified Spring-UP Global Network, a youth-led not-for-profit, working to bridge the literacy gap between children in rural and urban Ghana, as a partner to realize its WorldClass purpose.

This partnership will see Deloitte and Spring-UP Global Network renovate and refurbish eight (8) school libraries, making secure and conducive school libraries accessible to over 30,000 children in Ghana. As an add-on incentive and intervention, the partnership will also launch Reading and Writing clubs in the beneficiary primary and Junior High Schools in Ghana. In addition, the staff of Deloitte Ghana will collectively invest over 1000 hours to participate in reading and mentorship sessions for students in the first year of the program.

Commenting on the launch of WorldClass in Ghana, Daniel Kwadwo Owusu, Country Managing Partner of Deloitte Ghana said, "Our goal with WorldClass in Africa is to empower 20 million people by 2030, by providing them access to the education and skills required to find meaningful work in the new economy. A 2022 report by the World Bank has revealed that 7 in 10 of all children in low-and-middle-income countries cannot read and understand a simple text by age 10. As a result, children without strong foundational literacy skills are less likely to gain the technical skills needed to succeed in society. For this reason, Deloitte Ghana as part of our 75th Anniversary celebrations has decided to work with Spring Up Global Network to refurbish and restock eight libraries in deprived schools across the country. With the advent of the industry 4.0 wave, the world is poised for a seismic shift, and to survive in it, we must cooperate to ensure that no one is left behind. We see this initiative as a tremendous opportunity to make a meaningful impact and create pathways for our future leaders to fulfill their aspirations."

Speaking at the occasion, Founder & CEO, Spring-UP Global Network, Akorfa Ama Akoto said, "According to the 2020 MICS-EAGLE Ghana Education Fact Sheet by UNICEF, 52 percent of children who do not have foundational reading skills come from the country's poor regions. With inadequate resources and poor facilities in rural schools contributing to poor academic performance, there is an urgent need to improve literacy rates in rural communities in Ghana. From providing schools with modern libraries to nurturing the reading and writing skills of children, at Spring-UP Global Network, we have a dream to make education and mentorship accessible to all children so as not to increase the already existing literacy gap between the rich and poor. This is why we are super excited to receive support from Deloitte's WorldClass to provide libraries for over 30,000 children

The Library Project- iRead iLead Campaign

The iRead iLead Campaign is a 10-year strategic educational programme launched in January 2020 by Spring-UP Global Network which includes the iRead iLead Library Project and the iRead iLead Literacy Programme. The iRead iLead Library Project focuses on renovating and building new libraries in rural and deprived schools in Ghana, while the iRead iLead Literacy Programme is focused on establishing Reading and Writing Clubs in schools to build the literacy capacity of children in rural communities.

Starting in October 2022, eight (8) libraries will be refurbished and restocked for eight (8) cluster of schools impacting a minimum of 16,000 lives in the first year across the Greater Accra, Eastern, Central, Ashanti, Volta and Oti regions.

About Deloitte WorldClass

WorldClass is Deloitte's organisation-wide global initiative, which seeks to prepare 100 million futures for a world of opportunity by 2030. This bold ambition exemplifies how we live our Purpose, making an impact that matters, by addressing global challenges in society. By aligning around a common goal and mission, Deloitte is inspiring increased commitment and investment in education, skills development, and access to opportunity.

We aim to deliver this by:

Focusing our core skills, experience, and global reach to prepare and empower more people to take advantage of the rapidly changing world economy.

Using our capabilities to enable educators and businesses to deliver the skills individuals need to meet future job demands; and

Creating simple solutions, facilitating collaborations with corporates and government institutions, aligning with local schools and not-for-profit organisations, and amplifying the existing efforts of various organisations.

Deloitte's WorldClass program in Ghana will focus on refurbishing and restocking eight libraries in rural and deprived basic schools to nurture tomorrow's future leaders through reading. By engaging in long-term partnership with Spring Up Global Network which is working to bridge the literacy gap between children in rural and urban Ghana, we aim to impact 30,000 children by 2030.

About Deloitte

Deloitte is a leading global provider of audit and assurance, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax, and related services. With 175 + years of hard work and commitment to making a real difference, our organization has grown in scale and diversityapproximately 400,000 people in 150 countries and territories, providing these servicesyet our shared culture remains the same. In Ghana, 2022 marks the 75th anniversary of making an impact that matters. The Ghanaian firm of Deloitte has a long history in the country, dating back to when it was originally formed by Mr. James Donald Barnes CA Scotland on 1 January 1947, under the name and style of J. D. Barnes & Co. Chartered Accountants.

Launch Of The Deloitte Worldclass.jpeg

Group Picture Of Deloitte & Spring Up Team.jpeg
Petitions are launched on the Internet to support Haiti's new constitution. The English and French versions are available. Certain people have already begun to sign it. They think the country needs a new constitution in which everyone will have a chance in the new Haiti.

The new constitution is a constitution proposed by former Haitian President Jovenel Moise and other leaders. In the new constitution, candidates under the age of 35 will have the chance to participate in the general election to be elected in one of the branches of government of their choice. The Constitution contains many other changes that will help the country.

The petitions launched on the internet for the new constitution were created by Haitian politician Werley Nortreus and other leaders who support the same cause. The creator of these petitions is one of the leaders fighting for change in this country. This is a chance for a new Haiti, where everyone is included in the prosperity of the country after many years of suffering.

According to the English and French versions, here is what the creator says about why he created the petitions:

The only way to have a new Haiti is to establish a new constitution that gives candidates who are 25 years old and older the right to run for a position among the three branches of the government according to their choice. A new constitution that includes everyone is the only way for Haitians to change the miserable situation in which Haiti finds itself because of its previous constitution.

In case anyone wants to sign the petitions to support Haiti's new constitution. Please take a look at these links.

https://chng.it/b5CLsbmtsZ

https://www.mesopinions.com/petition/politique/nouvelle-constitution-haiti/187107
Curves and Brushes, a Ghanaian cosmetic manufacturer, as part of its responsibility towards society, has donated in cash and items to support the Pediatric Oncology Unit of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana.

The donation was made to support the health of children battling cancer.

Some of the items donated include IV fluids, pulse oximeter, syringes, plaster, thermometer, glucometer, digital BP monitor and TV set among others.

Management and treatment of cancer is expensive, especially for the poor.

Speaking to Scribe News, Mrs. Roselyn Twum Osei, Founder and Creative Director of Curves and Brushes, intimated that, "No child deserves to die. Our goal is to do the little we can to support parents and children in their fight against cancer."

Beyond this donation, Curves and Brushes is looking at building a long term relationship with Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and supporting children terminally ill with cancer. The brand hopes to support this cause yearly by donating a portion of profits from the sale of products from its flagship Skin SOS Collection.

The indigenous skincare brand is obsessed with delivering quality, innovative and luxurious clean skincare products inspired by tradition, nature and science. One of its pillars is to support social causes that are important to society.

Source: Scribe News
The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) has decided to impose sanctions on individuals in the military government of Guinea in response to last years coup in Conakry.

The leaders from the bloc met in New York where they were attending the UN General Assembly.

They agreed on gradual sanctions on a list of people linked to the Guinean junta who will be identified very soon, the AFP news agency reports.

Guinean leaders say they need three years to return the country to democracy and they are unhappy with Ecowas demands for a faster transition.

In a statement, the Guinean interim prime minister, Bernard Gomou, had earlier described the Ecowas chief and president of neighbouring Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, as a puppet and an overexcited man who had forced his way in to lead the regional organisation.

Guinea was suspended from Ecowas following the coup in September last year.

-Citinewsroom
The Member of Parliament (MP) for South Dayi, Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor has lambasted the Independent Examination Committee (IEC) of the General Legal Council following the leakage of the entrance exam paper of the Ghana School of Law.

According to the MP, heads should roll for the shocking leakage of the exam paper.

In many jurisdictions of some report, this is grounds for massive resignations but not here. Consistently recently, exams set by IEC leaks & yet they don't want to be accountable, Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor has shared in a post on his Twitter page.

The Ghana School of Law entrance examination is scheduled to be written today, September 23.

Ahead of the examination at 10am, the paper has shockingly found its way into the public.

While checks have revealed the information about the leaked paper has reached the General Legal Council, no decision has been taken by the body yet.

However, sources say there are ongoing discussions and it is likely todays examination will be cancelled due to the massive leak.
23.09.2022 LISTEN

Deputy Majority Leader, Hon. Alexander Afenyo-Markin was the special guest at the 7th Legal Luminaries' Platform at the University of Cape Coast (UCC).

Addressing Law Students, he prepared their minds for what he said will be a tough journey in the law profession.

Regardless, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Effutu Constituency charged the Law Students to aim to the highest level.

He admonished the students not to settle for practice in the lower courts but to strive to get to the Supreme Court.

Dont be a lawyer whose practice will end at the circuit court. Tell yourself that your practice will end at the Supreme Court and you will challenge the law and let the nine judges be putting questions across. Stand your feet, get disappointed and come back home to prepare and go back again, Hon. Alexander Afenyo-Markin told the Law Students.

The Deputy Majority leader further advised the law students to uphold a never-give-up attitude when they start the practice. He urged the trainee lawyers to continue learning while staying humble throughout their practice as lawyers.

The practice of law is not as straightforward as you think it may be. The law your read is not the law in practice and it is important for you to remember that since the days of the decomposed snail in that ginger beer the law has taken various forms and shapes. Brace yourselves and get ready. And dont just read the law but take pride in your practice.

You will meet judges who will disappoint you. You will meet judges who will intimidate you but in all of these take this as a learning curve. You will meet colleague lawyers who will intimidate you, but dont give up, Afenyo-Markin advised.

The 7th Legal Luminaries' Platform at the University of Cape Coast was organised this year on the theme; "Judicial Independence in Ghana; the Balance Sheet."

Watch video here:
23.09.2022 LISTEN

The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has backed calls by teachers in Bawku in the Upper East Region to close schools over safety concerns.

Since the renewed clashes in the area, teaching and learning in Bawku Municipality have adversely been affected.

Pupils and students have reportedly abandoned the classroom, teachers fled for their lives and academic performance of school children has dwindled.

The District Secretary for GNAT in the Bawku Municipality and its environs, Gordon Abuga told TV3s Alfred Ocansey on the Ghana Tonight show on Thursday September 22, that heads of the various basic schools have written to authorities asking for closure of the schools.

GNAT supports their call, he stressed.

Heads of basic schools say they are not comfortable with the current situation, thus wrote a petition to the Municipal Education office asking for closure of schools, if there wouldnt be any form of protection for them.

As their union and mouthpiece, we are solidly behind them. We are also joining them to ask stakeholders and all well-meaning persons within the Municipality to help bring peace to the situation.

We think that the only way we can help ourselves is to ask for a closure of the schools because we are unable to assure of our security.

-3news.com
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akufo Dampare, has pledged to deploy 30 police officers to the Sissala West District to strengthen the capacity of personnel to meet the security challenges in the area.

He is also providing a patrol van and 15 motorbikes, as a matter of urgency, to improve police visibility there.

The district shares borders with Burkina Faso, currently noted for activities of extremist groups, and a quick response to the logistical needs of the officers would make them comfortable to perform their duties.

The IGP made the pledge when he called on the Gwollu Kuoro at his Palace as part of his working visit to the Sissala West District to acquaint himself with the security situation there.

That was after Madam Ayisha Batong Hor, the District Chief Executive (DCE), briefed him on some security challenges facing the district.

These include a patrol vehicle, inadequate number of police personnel, and other logistics impeding the work of the officers.

The DCE thanked the IGP and his team for the visit and appealed to him to honour the pledge without delay to enhance the security situation in the district, which was deprived in terms of logistics.

Kuoro Buktie Limann, the Paramount Chief of the Gwollu Traditional Council, appealed to Dr Akuffo-Dampare to consider the construction of police barracks to accommodate the personnel at Gwollu, the district capital.

The allocation of a police recruitment quota for qualified Sissala youth into the Ghana Police Service will be welcomed, he said.

This comes from the background that Sissala people seem to be left out in the police recruitments for the past years.

Kuoro Limann reiterated the vehicular constraints of the police in discharging their duties and called for immediate remedy.

GNA
One part of the world seems to give too much dangerous rights to women, while another seems to curtail her rights or respite. Can Africa or Asia teach them, or at least learn to avoid their extremes? The Christian leaning western world have largely abandoned Christianity and revamping matriarchal culture that is closer to misandry (men hating) leaning. A big chunk of The Arab world grossly misinterpret Islam of Koran and Conscience, they instead lean on questionable hadiths and so called scholars than the recommended Conscience uplifting in ch.91 of the Koran. The hypocritical mainstream western media and governments are often making it worse, through lies and not echoing truth. A decent Conscience demands public dress code in public places, but we need conscientious dress code with broad consideration, not imposing one religious dress code. Still, Mandatory head covering of Iran is better than Mandatory uncovering of France and Quebec+?

Whereas many Iranians do not even see themselves as Arabs, because they had/have their own languages and cultures different from Arab and Arabic. Islam and proximity to Arabs have them in a situation of decision. They and all Muslims must learn to interpret the Koran Conscientiously and use Conscience where the Koran does not have a stand or recommendation. These deadly protests in Iran over laws about the veil shows how mistaken some scholars are. Their dress code laws are not in concurrence with the Koran, nor with Conscience, nor with sunnah (practice of the prophet); so they are likely based on scholarly interpretation or very questionable hadiths (sayings).

It is very important to understand not every 'forbidden' thing in the Koran is punishable by humans. This is precisely why a wide range of 'personal sins' are condemned in the Koran, but no kind of punishment is mentioned in such regards. For example, eating Pork, drinking alcohol, and many things are condemned with no recommended punishment and prophet Muhammad (pbuh) never punished anyone over them, to the best of my knowledge. The prophet lived peacefully with Jews who drank alcohol, with Atheists who ate pork or not dressed like 'Islamic dress code',.. etc. Both tolerance and patience will demand accommodating others in reasonable ways. So when Omar (pbuh) reportedly asked Muhammad (pbuh) to ask his wives to dress properly in public, he was speaking conscientiously and God being the inspiring One revealed some Verses that sought 'honor' or more for our men and women, not just the wives of the prophet.

Thus came the Koranic Verses with dress code as recommendation and without penalties for those who break them, at least on earth or by humans. Indeed, public places demand public responsibility, so leaders can reasonably demand a reasonable dress code and measurably punish where need be. Obscene laws may vary, but exist in most places, including the west. To accommodate for Iranians+ Christians and others, I will not recommend mandatory head dress (veil) , but will support specific gender neutral laws that forbid certain exposures, especially for the sake of the children and teenagers.

We must understand dress code is for consideration purpose, consideration for the average reasonable men and women, not the weakest or strongest ones. You cannot tell me after making love to your wife or xyz at home, seeing the hair of another woman in public will make you or the angels horny. Certain exposures will certainly send the average men staring and the inconsiderate women may not just enjoy the attention, they may indifferently ignore the harm they will do to teenagers and children, or weak men to under appreciate their spouse towards divorce and the effects on children. So any honest secular mind who understands how a human mind works will agree we need public dress code beyond television. The worst of women seem to control the west, and the type of semi men who support their endless inconsistent claims as rights are often against the children, but they rejoice over the emotional or mental pain of men. The weak men who are greedy over women or try to over protect women should try assuring men are sexually served, and many men will then have reasonable self control.

Let humans easily access sex than average animals, but teach them truthfully about it. So scraping a culture of dowry by explaining Islam allows zero to xyz dowry to see if the conscientious Muslims will choose zero than atheists and Christians, or the greedy women will tempt many to see who offers the biggest dowry? Legalising marijuana worldwide will tame many women + from greed and the wisdom it comes with will remind them truth like God is sexually doing favor to both. Again, even those who claim marijuana is an intoxicant must be reminded, the Koran or decent Conscience does not give you the right to punish the alcohol that is explicitly mentioned in the Koran, so the claims of possible misinterpreters cannot warrant punishing what may be Implicitly condemned.

Although Iran is not the only country with questionable Islamic laws, their size and how the u.s wrongly targets them put them in very difficult situations. There is no question u.s is likely encouraging bad elements there, some of whom want asylum in the west or just mistaken. The u.s is already placing more sanctions over the death of a detainee, before a full fledged investigation? Coincidently, the media is reporting how the u.s department of Justice under counted almost 1000 police custody deaths in 2021. Think about what they reported and add about 1000 under reported deaths. So percentage wise, the u.s may very much be among the worst countries on death through police and/or police custody, and may want months of investigation before forwarding excuses. I will never defend Iran blindly, but such sanctions are simply not helpful. They are obsession with punishment and before any meaningful investigation.

There are signs based punishment for sins between creatures, which can be done conscientiously based on eras and available options. A culture of cameras and reasonable punishment on sins between creatures is what I recommend for every state. Let God judge personal sins, have patience on such, but advise the people honestly on such.

The western world hypocritically will ban or have cautionary adult only on certain exposures on movies you can avoid, but will allow them on the streets you and your children cannot avoid? We seriously need research and public dress code. Common sense and the Koran admits men are sexually weaker, except varyingly. We know advertisement have effects on minds and we regulate some advertisement. We are not trying to dictate your music videos, movies, etc, but we must regulate the streets and some other public places. If we scientifically study the brains/minds of teenagers, we will conclude ten weird sexy exposures will affect the mind of average teenagers... Thinking about sex too much is one problem, unable to have it is another problem, unable to focus on studies or work is another thing, etc. So I strongly back a conscientious dress code for school, work, and streets.

The home is yours to decide. The fun world is a different business world where business owners can decide dress code , including optional partial or total Nude. I am not oppose to one side of the beach being clothes optional as in Vancouver; you can go to the parts that may demand street like dress code, or the one In between, or the part where people are mostly naked. A culture of body cameras will partially regulate some public places. Let privacy be at private places. The worst of women and their men will ask you to look at the strongest men, but you should consider average men, teenagers, and even children, not just the raw desires of questionable women. Good women believe in decent dress code than many men. Ch. 55 says: 'We spread the earth for creatures with spirit...' So it includes different religions and even animals, but ch.103 demands exhorting each other to Truth on sins between creatures, and patience on personal sins....

The western world wrongly punish men over mere accusations by women? We fire countless poor people over claims or deny some contracts like Johnny Depp? We give arrest record over a female's claim without asking who hits first, or evidence of hitting. What is so hard in asking can one of you go to a hotel to avoid possible fight? We enjoy humiliating men and God's curse be upon anyone who supports these oppressive western cultures and laws. I feel sorry for the women in Iran+, but if they support the ways of the western world, then may be they deserve worse... Feel free to search for my article titled: Heard VS Depp: Guilty woman in a Guiltier Society -- to learn more about western gender wrongs, including statistics manipulation against men.

Africa is not perfect, but most of even Arab Africa is not very abusive to women or men as some places. I know little about Asia, but they seem to be better than the west on gender balance. The mainstream western media will not be able to save the guilty women+, nature than social media will have the good women side with the good men and God will curse the liars and cruel ones, beyond physical cruelty. May God bless Showlove Trinity: Let's learn, let's work, let's have fun.

By Jarga Kebba Gigo

An Activist and Transformer.

Optional note: I once outlined what I called Showlove Trinity dress code for both genders. It specified at least 3 inches loose, no more than 3 inches from the knees showing, 3 inches around the neck, etc. The truth is many of the politicians claiming women can dress any how they like are often dressed properly and so are their wives. Political talk, hatred for men and Islam, fear of offending some women, etc is hampering what we all need. Many businesses, from Big stores to nightclubs have dress codes for different reasons. We can involve science and it may recommend better than my recommendations. All of humankind cannot win with lies, let alone a region or gender. Lies like abortion is about a woman's body cannot stand when cameras show limb by limb dismembering of a baby. The percentage of abortions through rape, needed miscarriage, etc are very minimal and should be catered for with culture of cameras and no sane judge or jury will punish a woman or doctor where decent Conscience will defend a resort act. I am not oppose to even early abortion, but once a heart beats, society have a responsibility to protect the most vulnerable from questionable raw desires.

We wrongly encourage teenage+ girls to be sexually abusive, mentally and emotionally. Countries like the u.s will call a 17 year girl porn star a victim and over punish men over such? We must reduce the age of consent in the u.s and worldwide to be around 13, maximum 15. Age of consent does not mean age to have sex, but age of responsibility, partial or full. We must also punish teenagers who break certain laws. For example, if teenagers are not allowed in the pornography industry, we must mildly punish teenagers who voluntarily do such videos, just like the Teenage boy who sells crack or steal cannot be called total victim. They are partial culprits. Teenagers are neither children nor adults, they must learn responsibility or society will be in big problems.

African media houses have essential role to teach and influence a battalion through social media. The gender problems of the west are scary, so the Arab world are over avoiding such, but some Africans are trying to import a failed system? Our task is to help rectify our children, be they Arabs, the west, or Asia. Africa failed on many things, but our sexual world is largely better and that does not mean we are problem free. Many of their problems started in Africa, but we have lower percentage on some...

I love freedom, but the number of women killed, raped or allegedly raped, living in fear, etc around the world, especially the west, is very sad. May we never be culprits, nor victims.

Beside human cruelty, the west is seeing unprecedented divine punishment beyond weather. It is vital for the Godly westerners to understand the crimes of westerners as a group has often being indifference than cruelty. For example, not even fifteen percent of u.s or whites ever owned slaves, but a much higher percentage were guilty through indifference and buying ridiculous excuses. Similarly, a very small percentage of westerners truly support banning of head covering, veil, not face covering. Since the law does not affect much westerners, they indifferently watch and buy the ridiculous excuses like 'they are indoctrinated to wear it by abusive men', or 'allowing religious symbols in public places is dangerous'. Secularism was never suppose to mean anti religion or free of religion, it was suppose to mean accommodating to religions as Conscience permit. Since someone wearing a veil in the summer does not affect anyone, except the arrogant dictators and false mind readers, may God give you hard winters until everyone of you wear coverings...

The best of you who speak out, may God forgive them, especially in the next world. Even if you bought the lie that they are just indoctrinated adults, re-teaching through words is much more gentle than using the force of the law to psychologically torture adults. You said someone used words to convince them to cover up, you used words and failed, so you use money and other measures to force them on what they may not be comfortable with? The other claim that personal religious symbols in public places is dangerous does not make sense.

The state buildings can be free of permanent religious symbols, but a person wearing hijab (veil), a cross, a Sikh head dress, a religious tattoo, etc can all be accommodated in a truly Secular state that understands ch.55 'we created the earth for creatures with spirit...' The guilty Muslims who claim the earth is just for Muslims or marijuana users should be punished deserve karma in one form or another. Your financial wealth and human knowledge is very small compare to what the Lord has, and covid 19 is one example that batters the richest countries and so called most educated and equipped doctors. Oppression is bad, regardless of Gender, race, religion, etc.

If you refuse to 'Exhort each other to Truth and patience ', you become loss, as per ch.103. You let them psychologically torture a woman for wearing a hijab, denying her working opportunities may be worse than the fine Iran or xyz may wrongly impose. If she complies to your imposed demands for money, you are psychologically torturing her, but some of you enjoy torturing men, Muslims, and blacks.

Since I happen to be associated with the three, some of you see me as the most dangerous person? The financial and sexual sanctions u.s+ personally meted on me are not forgiven and every citizen who agree with unjust government laws owes the victims, beyond mizghalazaratin (atom's weight). May I Triumph lot more and free as many as possible.
23.09.2022 LISTEN

One of my WhatsApp contacts has forwarded to me a lengthy condemnatory write-up against President Nana Akufo-Addo by one Mensah Thompson, the ignominious Executive Director of the Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA). In this said publication, Mensah Thompson is mocking His Excellency the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, for looking on a written note to reproduce a statement of condolence for Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, when he called at the British Embassy in Ghana to sign the condolence book opened for Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Mensah Thompson challenged the mental faculty of the president, requesting him to resign since his failure or inability to write from his head a brief statement of condolence is an indication of his incapacitation. He went further to cite some constitutional clauses or articles elaborating on how a president of the republic of Ghana can be removed or replaced when proven to be incapacitated.

Does the incapability or inability to write a brief wish of condolence from ones head make the person incapacitated? I pray the public to answer this question for me, being honest with themselves.

Could the public please tell me which of the two scenarios below dents the credibility of a person, making the person a disgrace to the womb that conceived him/her and an object of laughter?

1. A person who lies to the Ghanaian public about the presidents brother or cousin taking the presidential jet during the Christmas of 2021 (Covid-19 time), flying it out of the country to London full of his family members and friends to do Christmas shopping. The military came out to inform the Ghanaian public that the allegation by the person is false and that the presidential jet had for a long period not taken to air, thus, not been airborne, or flown out of the country hence the person making that false assertion must be arrested, investigated and arraigned.

2. A person who looks on a written sheet to copy what is written on the sheet into an opened condolence book in tribute to Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

The person in point number one above is Mensah Thompson, the Executive Director of ASEPA. As soon as the military ordered for his arrest to provide evidence for his false allegation, he came out begging that what he told to the public was never true but that he was only joking and on intent to cause public disaffection for the president. He started to beg the president and the military for forgiveness, crying and going on his knees.

How dare such a rogue, an NDC fanatic and activist, to call for the presidents resignation or removal from office because he looked on a written paper to copy into the condolence book his expression of sadness on the passing of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, as mentioned above?

This Mensah Thompson, had later to run to the church of Reverend Sam Korankye Ankrah of the Royal House Chapel, in the company of his other equally nonentity, Kwabena Bobbie Ansah, a journalist without substance but possessing a sharp lying poisonous tongue, to seek the face of God for forgiveness and protection.

The matter was made worse when Pastor Sam Korankye Ankrah, a fake man of God, and surely a devil incarnate, prayed the silliest insinuation-casting prayer I have ever heard since my adult life from anywhere of the world, for these two NDC criminals.

I was in Ghana in March 2022, watched on television that Sundays ministration by the pastor when instead of praying for forgiveness of sins from God for his two NDC criminal visitors, he rather stupidly collaboratively invoked curses on President Nana Akufo-Addo.

What had President Nana Akufo-Addo done wrong in the lies told by both the uncivilized NDC-infatuated rogues, Mensah Thompson and Kwabena Bobbie Ansah?

I invite the Ghanaian public to judge between both President Nana Akufo-Addo and Mensah Thompson, which one of them is unfit to be in the service of the country, considering their behaviours as stated above?

Rockson Adofo

Friday, 23 September 2022
The instability in the Bawku Municipalities is a threat to the entire stability of the Upper East Region. The Regional House of Chiefs has in their passionate wisdom offered wise counsel and a position sincerely providing an answer to a historic challenge.

Now, is the turn of the Parliamentary Caucus of the Region, irrespective of party coloration, to make a Legislatively connected submission on the Bawku matter. The media, should also be seasoned with the "Bawku Story" to avoid possible flames by playing a role to calmer the place.

The negative effect of the mayhem and violation of rights in the Bawku area, has now driven many people to swell the population of other cities and made the Upper East Region very unpopular.

Pressures of the conflict do not also auger well for a nation to have been very stable in her democratic practice over the decades.

Time is ripped for all MPs of the Upper East Region to gather and raise their voices in the Bawku unrest, as a topical national security risk, and a threat to the entire sovereign peace of Ghana. Especially when foreign investors are being encouraged to explore the region.

The sadistic number of killings should not further be allowed in any part of our Ghanaian Republic. Reflectively, the Nkonya/Alavanyo Conflict with killings have been stopped. The Dagbon feud/misunderstanding between parties has been settled. Infact, how did those Conflicts cease/end?.

Even the Boko Haram in North Eastern Nigeria has been severely pushed back and dealt with. Not to talk about the Russian/Ukraine war with efforts underway to end it.

How come that the Bawku Conflict has travelled over 4 decades and intensified almost a year now, without glimpses of peace. Someone printed that, whether Bawku is a Country and l wished the question was directed to the state, because Kusaug forms part of the Nation-State of Ghana. Intriguingly, one out of worry, may righly also ask- do we have a State/government in a Country called GHANA and the answer is YES!

Why? because, there's an ungovernable situation with spots of perennial disruption of economic and social activities in a once buoyant/vibrantly sprouting economic development zone. Whether, we agree or not the situation is a disgrace and paints a bad image for the people dwelling in the Savanna and Ghana at large.

Should the story continue to be that- 'as for those people in that part of the country they like fighting. '

A perception which in the actual sense is not the will or the true mindset of many people, hence the need for the swift application of Law when such skirmishes happen.

Government and all its machinery of state have the ability, energy and power to stamp down the brutal situation in Bawku.

The four decade situation should be the concern of all decision making entities in the country, towards harmony/peaceful living.

- Benjamin Anyagre-

Immediate Past, Executive Director- Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute (KNII)
To seek to politicise the issue of murders in society especially, in recent times, is to display wanton ignorance about history.

Unfortunately, a young politician, Ezanetor Rawlings, still learning the ropes of politics, seeks to do just this as failure stares her in the face.

Those who tried this template earlier soon dropped this because, lies are not sustainable and will soon be exposed.

As Nkrabeah Effah Dartey, a retired Infantry Officer of the Ghana Army, pointed out unambiguously in a reaction to her dirty enterprise, she must shut up in especially, such matters, and do as her brother Kimati is doing.

We would rather the dark days of her late father's days are not revisited. Doing so would rekindle the pain not only in many victims but their children and other offspring.

So many things happened to the freedoms in this country under her father's watch. Some of the murders and disappearances which prevailed during her father's junta are yet to be unraveled, their details covered by a cloak of lies.

From Britain to the US, bizarre murders have preoccupied the attention of law enforcement officers, Ghana not being an exception.

We are aware about the bloodshed guns have visited and continue to do in the US and would sneer at any attempt at creating unproductively, an impression that state failure is the reason why murders are taking place.

The police have been busy and are on the trail of these murders as they should do. Unfortunately, the public, not so security conscious, is not doing much to assist with information as much as they should do.

Let us remove the political lens when looking at the subject of murders and remember, they are perpetrated by bad persons who abound in every society. Suffice it to recall some bloody occurrences in the country which in those days, were not politicised.

On Tuesday, October 15, 1957, a man run amok in Ayigya near Kumasi shooting seven persons and scaring residents of the town and beyond.

On Wednesday April 29, 1958 government imposed a curfew in Jamestown following disturbances in the Accra segment. Restrictions were imposed on Lutterodt Street, Horse Road, Hansen Road, Curzon Avenue, a portion east of the Korle Lagoon and along the Old Winneba Road.

On December 10, 1958, the Police offered a hundred pounds for information leading to the discovery of a certain Miss Elizabeth Bower, 25-year-old Reuters reporter, who had gone missing from the Avenida Hotel in Accra.

Ghana was rocked by waves of armed robberies in November 1967 and armoured cars were deployed in Accra to operate as a strike force. It was a move intended to halt the activities of rings of violent robberies being recorded in Accra. More than four night watchmen were reportedly murdered by gangs of robbers.

When we politicise such matters, we end up watering the efforts of the law enforcement personnel to deal with these adequately.

Source: Daily Guide
Zimbabwean domestic migrant worker Precious clocked in late for work, launched into her duties for a white South African family as if nothing happened, yet hours earlier she had been arrested for being in the country without papers.

South Africa -- the continent's most industrialised country -- is buckling under a wave of illegal migration triggered by economic woes in its neighbours. Many come from Malawi, Lesotho, but the majority are from Zimbabwe.

Lately police have scaled up crime-busting stop-and-search operations, including weeding out undocumented migrants.

One such early morning blitz was launched this week in Springs, a district at the eastern end of the largest city of Johannesburg.

Several dozen police officers mounted a check point on a narrow road, stopped cars and buses, meticulously searching boots and ordering occupants out, demanding identification documents.

Grabbed by the waist or arm, one-by-one they were led to the side of the road to a queue stretching out in front of immigration officers.

South African police have scaled up crime-busting stop-and-search operations, including weeding out undocumented migrants. By MARCO LONGARI (AFP)

"These are weekly operations," provincial police chief Elias Mawela, told AFP. "When it's confirmed they are illegal in the country they'll be taken in and later on they'll be taken to court... and back to their countries of origin".

But in some raids, police officers solicit bribes to release the migrants.

The day Precious was arrested at a minibus taxi rank in downtown Johannesburg, she was one of 30 people bundled into a police van.

She was asked to pay 1,000 rands on the spot -- equivalent to her weekly wages -- or risk being taken to the police station for eventual deportation.

Precious immediately texted her employer warning she would be late and frantically called friends and associates to raise the bribe money.

'Scared'

"I was scared," said the single mother of two.

"It's not good being a foreigner these days," said Precious, 36, folding a pair a velvet pants she was ironing.

Official data lists some 3.8 million migrants in South Africa, a figure considered a gross understatement. By MARCO LONGARI (AFP)

Official data lists an estimated 3.8 million migrants in South Africa, a figure considered a gross understatement.

Foreigners, especially those from the rest of Africa, are targets of xenophobic resentment and accused of taking jobs in a country where at least one in every three people is unemployed.

Zimbabwe has a long history of immigration into South Africa, dating back to the 19th century when the gold rush saw mining companies hiring labour across the borders.

In 2009 Pretoria granted four-year work visas to around 250,000 Zimbabweans fleeing economic and political turmoil at home. The permits have since then been repeatedly renewed, but authorities have vowed they will not be extended beyond June 2023.

But many more Zimbabweans have continued to pour into South Africa illegally through porous borders in search of greener pastures.

The huge influx of foreigners has irked many South Africans who accuse them of taking their jobs and placing undue pressure on public facilities.

Many Zimbabweans continue to pour into South Africa illegally through porous borders in search of greener pastures. By MARCO LONGARI (AFP)

Recently an anti-immigration group of activists picketed outside a public hospital west of Pretoria -- blocking patients they suspected were foreigners, accusing them of putting the public health sector under strain.

Their action followed a viral video of provincial health minister berating a Zimbabwean patient, accusing her of seeking free treatment at a government hospital at the expense of South Africans.

Domestic worker Precious recalls giving birth to her now 11-year-old son at a public hospital in Zimbabwe.

"There is nothing there, not even water to wash the baby when he's born. No painkillers," she said.

Asked about some of his bribe-taking officers in a country dogged with high crime levels and endemic corruption, police commissioner Mawela urged anyone who is asked for a bribe "to bring it to our attention so we can investigate it".

"We can't just take it lightly these accusations".
Geneva  With the arrival in Toronto of a flight from the United Arab Emirates yesterday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has safely assisted the resettlement of 20,000 Afghan refugees to Canada since August 2021.

Three hundred and thirty-seven people, including 121 children, arrived Thursday afternoon EST, accompanied by three IOM escorts.

The safe and dignified resettlement of refugees globally has been a central part of IOMs work for more than 70 years, said IOM Director General Antonio Vitorino.

We continue to work closely with the Government of Canada and others to ensure tens of thousands of vulnerable Afghans are provided the opportunity to restart their lives in a secure and supportive environment.

IOMs longstanding partnerships with the Government of Canada have seen the resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the recent past, and the Organization will continue to collaborate with its partners globally to support Canadas commitment to accept at least 40,000 Afghan refugees.

In addition to coordinating resettlement flights, IOM assists refugees with the application process, and provides pre-departure health assessments and pre-departure orientation sessions to prepare them for their new lives in Canada. IOM also facilitates their travel to their new home communities around the country.

Along with the broader humanitarian community, IOM is committed to helping vulnerable displaced people from Afghanistan, particularly ethnic minorities and other marginalized groups, such as disabled persons, women and girls, and LGBTIQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex and Queer).
Rev Dr Engineer Agyenim Boateng

23.09.2022 LISTEN

An Energy Expert, Rev Dr Engineer Agyenim Boateng has stated that bad electrical wiring causes electrical leakages, which leads to an increase in energy consumption and an unexpected hike in the electricity bill.

He added that over 70 percent of residents in the Ashanti Region are paying astronomical light bills due to the use of inferior materials for wiring.

He explained that when the wiring are full of joints, using sub-standard materials for wiring, coupled with poor work by unqualified electricians, under-size cable and overaged wiring, the insulation property worn out, which created heat in the system and caused the meter to read fast, leading to high payment of electricity bills.

Engineer Agyenim Boateng who is also a leading member of the Certified Electrical Wiring Professional Association of Ghana (CEWPAG) said this during a discussion on the Kumasi-based OTEC 102.9 FM's morning show Nyansapo on Thursday September 22, 2022.

High electricity bills

Poor electrical wiring is expensive to maintain and also causes fire outbreaks, leading to lives and property. Our checks on most of those complaining about this supposed high electricity bills either used unapproved materials or uncertified electricians for their wiring system.

"Per my checks and experience over the years as a professional electrician, I can tell you that most households are paying unrealistic bills due to poor wiring and the use of inferior materials," the Energy Commission Inspector told host of the programme Captain Koda.

Some residents in the Ashanti Region have been up in arms against the government and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) over outrageous electricity bills served them by the company.

The new billing system implemented by the electricity distribution company according to them has led to the collapse of several businesses with a large section of Ghanaians complaining that they will be forced to stop using electricity in their homes if nothing is done about the situation.

Electrical Wiring Regulations, 2011

According to him, the Electrical Wiring Regulations, 2011, L.I.2008 provides a guideline on who qualifies to undertake electrical wiring in the country.

Rev Dr Engineer Agyenim Boateng stated that regulation seven states that a person shall not undertake electrical wiring on premises unless that person is certified by a licensed electrical distribution utility company or a recognised firm appointed by the Energy Commission."

He advised the public to always engage the services of a professional electrician certified by ECG since most of the frequent fire outbreaks in the markets and houses were caused by poor electrical wiring.

He said electrical wiring whether for residential, commercial or industrial properties must be carefully installed and maintained to provide safety to persons and property.

He however said while some of the citizens had genuine concerns, most of them are at fault.
"It is clear that we must find an African solution to our problems, and that this can only be found in African unity. Divided we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world", thus according to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

President Akufo-Addo's address to the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly underscores Nkrumah's assertion when he states among others that " we recognise today, more than ever before, the importance of the strength in unity of Africa, and we are working to shed that image of a helpless hapless continent".

The imperatives of Nkrumah's quote above predicated on the principle of unity, inclusiveness and the understanding that, in our collectivity lies that all-important strength to overcome the problems of Africa squarely applies to how Ghana's development challenges should be confronted thus, Ghanaian solution to Ghanaian problems.

Ghanaian solution to Ghanaian problems is key in the sense that we ourselves create them, live them, feel them and are better placed to proffer best possible solutions concrete enough to surmount them, this solution to our problems must be all encompassing but not only limited to Ghanaians in government.

If we know and acknowledge the above, since Nkrumah's era, as the best possible way to addressing our development problems, why then have we failed to come together to do so?

The diagnosis points to many factors including governments that invite opposition members to become a part of the solution only to claim all the glory or credit after some success is chalked.

Also, our governments in power have mostly ignored suggestions and recommendations of opposition members and opposing groups in general and only decide to solicit the views of same only when their polices hit a rock, out of intransigence, many times.

Mostly, the views of opponents are seen by our governments as tool of obstruction and would not listen.

Another factor which is probably the most preponderant of all is the unhealthy competition from the camp of the opposition parties. Members of the opposition feel if they should get involved in the solution, when and how would they also win power to form their government in order to implement their polices?

In effect, members of the opposition hold back their all-important proposals which proffer solution, see almost practically everything wrong with every government policy by engaging in wanton destructive criticism with the intention to obstruct and distort the vision and focus of the government in power since independence.

Knowing the importance of unity as a key ingredient to solving our development challenges, would our governments and opposition parties continue to swim in the pool of petty divisive politicking that only serve to cause more development problems or unite to fling away that "image of a helpless, hapless" country we find ourselves today.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has called on the mining investor community to take advantage of Ghanas adherence to principles of democratic accountability, rule of law, respect for the sanctity of contracts, stable regulatory environment and favourable fiscal regime, to invest in the mining industry in Ghana.

He reassured the investor community that Ghana was not only the best place to do business in Africa but also one of the continent's fastest-growing economies.

The President said this during an investor Roundtable organised by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, in partnership with AngloGold Ashanti and JP Morgan on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, in New York.

In addition to the traditional minerals, he asserted that Ghana has numerous untapped deposits of green minerals like lithium.

He said despite the government's efforts to develop the full value chain for the country's mineral resources and add value, there were still tremendous investment opportunities, particularly in the mining sector.

The President, who was the keynote speaker at the event, used the occasion to articulate his vision to construct a progressive and prosperous Ghana, and the fundamental role of the private sector in Ghanas economic recovery programme, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.

The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor, indicated that the Government of Ghana was putting in measures to make Ghana a mining hub of Africa.

The Roundtable, which included major international mining companies as well as bond and equity investors, gave the Government of Ghana a chance to directly interact with the investor community about investment opportunities in Ghana's mining sector.
The Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for academic collaboration with the University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD), Somanya.

The MoU is a mutually beneficial relationship between the Ministry and the University on academic and scientific research cooperation in teaching, workshops, seminars, data management and research relevant to the Fisheries and Aquaculture industry.

Speaking at the signing ceremony on Thursday in Accra, the Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Mrs Mavis Hawa Koomson, said the fisheries industry make a substantial contribution to national growth, particularly to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the creation of jobs and income, as well as the security of food and nutrition.

She said cooperation between the Ministry, resource users and academic institutions like the University of Environment and Sustainable Development was necessary for the sustainable management of fisheries and the development of aquaculture.

The Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Eric Nyarko-Samson, said the collaboration was a crucial step toward producing graduates who are well-equipped with experience in the field that the University hopes to produce.
The Central African Republic's top court on Friday annulled presidential decrees setting up a committee to rewrite the constitution, which had sparked fears Faustin Archange Touadera was seeking a third term in office.

In a legal setback for the president, the Constitutional Court declared that the decrees "are unconstitutional and invalid" and noted the basic law could only be revised after a Senate has been set up.

The 65-year-old president was first elected in 2016, then re-elected in a highly controversial poll in 2020, but the current constitution does not allow him to run again.

The court also said that any referendum on revising the constitution had to be initiated by the president but that he could not go against the oath he'd taken at his investiture to refrain from modifying the number and length of his mandates.

Opposition and civil society groups on August 27 staged a protest in the capital Bangui against changing the constitution.

Early Friday, a heavy police presence and members of the UN peacekeeping force in the war-torn country were posted along the road leading to the court, according to an AFP journalist.

CAR authorities had in recent months organised demonstrations in favour of a revamped constitution, with more than 1,000 people turning out for such a gathering on August 6.

Less than a week later, Touadara said that "more and more voices are being raised to demand a modification of the constitution".

His United Hearts Movement (MCU) in March had attempted to scrap the two-presidential term limit during a "republican dialogue" boycotted by the bulk of the opposition.

But the party rowed back on the idea in the face of public protest and criticism from the international community.

The 53-member committee was made up of representatives from the National Assembly, political parties, opposition and civil society, according to the annulled decree.

'Resounding victory

On Friday, the main petitioner in the case Crepin Mboli-Goumba called the court ruling "a resounding victory for all democrats, wherever they are".

Opposition and civil society groups in August staged a protest in Bangui against changing the constitution. By Barbara DEBOUT (AFP)

A special adviser to the president said they accepted the court's decision. "We are not worried," Fidele Gouandjika told AFP.

"A constitutional coup is always possible," he said.

After the decision was made public, calls to demonstrate went out via social media, drawing about a hundred protesters outside the constitutional court building.

Demonstrators whistled and called for the resignation of the court's judges, before singing the national anthem and quickly dispersing.

The move marks "a major blow for President Touadera who is going to have to rethink his strategy for a third term," central Africa specialist Thierry Vircoulon, of the French Institute of International Relations, told AFP.

Touadera won a second term in 2020 with a 53.16-percent vote share in a controversial poll amid widespread insecurity in the CAR, which has been battling a decade-long civil war.

Less than one in three voters were able to cast a ballot, in a country of some five million which the UN says is the world's second least developed nation.
The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) wants the Ghana Police Service to take a second look at its centralised system of disseminating information to the public and the media.

In a press release, the GJA says the centralised system of disseminating information is counter-productive.

It is essential to state that information is the oxygen for democratic dispensation and the media, being the Fourth Estate of the Realm thrive on information. Starving the media of information in a decentralised system using centralisation tactics is impeding the work of the media as far as information dissemination is concerned.

Though the Police Administration may have germane reasons for the directive to have a centralised system, the GJA believes that the system is counter-productive and only creates room for speculation and misinformation and disinformation, parts of a release signed by president Albert Kwabena Dwumfour reads.

The Ghana Journalists Association wants the Ghana Police Service to decentralise its system of information dissemination to ensure information gets to the public and media on time.

The request for a decentralised system of information dissemination according to the GJA has become necessary after several complaints from members.

While it works to address the concerns of members and ensure a reversal of this system of communication by the Police Administration, the GJA has entreated all Journalists and media practitioners to remain calm.

Find more in the police release below:

GJA CALLS ON POLICE ADMINISTRATION TO RECONSIDER ITS DECISION ON THE CENTRALISATION OF INFORMATION DISSEMINATION POLICY IN THE INTEREST OF THE PUBLIC.

ACCRA, September 22, 2022 (GJA) The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has observed with dismay a developing trend where the police administration, as part of its communication strategy has centralised the sharing of information to the public and the media. Even information from towns, communities, districts and the regions are held up in Accra and released from Accra.

This model of communication is not new and the GJA acknowledges the vision of the Police Administration to ensure that communication by the police is done properly based on adequate briefs. We commend the Inspector General of Police, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare for his sterling leadership so far.

The GJA acknowledges the magnitude of the challenges of the Police Administration and we encourage holistic support for the IGP and his men.

This notwithstanding, it is essential to state that information is the oxygen for democratic dispensation and the media, being the Fourth Estate of the Realm thrive on information. Starving the media of information in a decentralised system using centralisation tactics is impeding the work of the media as far as information dissemination is concerned. Though the Police Administration may have germane reasons for the directive to have a centralised system, the GJA believes that the system is counter-productive and only creates room for speculation and misinformation and disinformation.

It is important to emphasize that the GJA's quest to get this system reversed follows incessant calls from the rank and file of the media fraternity asking for actions and intervention by the National Executive. It is also instructive to note that before this press statement, some of our regional branches were left with no option than to issue statements calling on the IGP to reconsider his decision to centralise information sharing and allow Regional Commanders and their Public Relations officers to give information on issues in their jurisdiction to the media as it used to be the norm.

Journalists in the region are concerned about accurate and informed reportage and it is important that they are assisted with timely and credible information to deliver on their mandate.

In view of the above reasons, the GJA is calling on the Police Administration to rescind its decision on the centralization of information in the interest of the Public.

Meanwhile, the GJA entreats all Journalists and media practitioners, in general, to remain calm while the National Executive makes efforts to address your concerns and ensure a reversal of this system of communication by the Police Administration.

Signed.

Albert Kwabena Dwumfour

President
Johnson Kuamoah Asiedu

23.09.2022 LISTEN

Dear Mr. President,

On 05 September 2022, a non-partisan Coalition /movement made up of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and individuals interested in democratic, accountable transparent, responsible Governance occupied the premises of the Audit Service of Ghana (Auditor General) and pressurized for an immediate surcharge of persons and Institutions implicated in the 2019, 2020 and 2021 Audit Report from the Auditor General. During the Demo some persons mentioned cash irregularities amounting to GHC17.5 Billion and gave the impression that the whole sum was attributed to corruption and went further to say that if the State had saved the said amount, it would have helped improve the economy of Ghana, thus the request for IMF support for economic stability would not have been an option for Ghana.

This motivated me to go to the website of the Audit Service for a study of the report and it revealed very good works by the Auditor General including a risk assessment into the operations of some Licensed operators in the Small Scale Mining Sector (an area interest of to the Nation especially you as Head of State) with the view to finding out the State of Affairs, especially the performances of the Regulators of the Small Scale Mining Sector and the performances of some sample Licensed Small Scale Mining Companies by both inspection of relevant documents and physical visit by the Auditor General to the field to see state of conservation of the land after closure of mining operation . He also made a very good recommendation that the Ghana Water Company should rather take power direct from VRA/GREDCO and not from ECG, as measure to reduce cost to the Company therefore water cost of water to the Consumer, hence this open letter to you for a rich public discourse on some aspects of the 2021 Audit Report and the performances of State Officials as part of the fixing the Country Agenda.

Sir, pardon me as usual, for my brand of driving my point home with an initial elucidating on related national issues (history), before dealing with the topic that is on the par excellent work of Mr Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, the Auditor General, who I hereby designate as a newly discovered compatriot in the fight against irresponsible mining by Small Scale Miners and the need for we, the citizenry to change our of attitude of the evil Pull Him Down (PHD) syndrome and for a positive and godly sense of Patriotism, Honesty and Discipline (PHD).

Since the chief matter in the Audit report that motivated me to make this submission is on Small Scale Mining (SSM), which is an area of interest to this Nation, it is necessary to give you a short history on Small Scale Mining which is what has made us not to succeed in quest to reduce the associated irresponsible mining to the barest minimum. So SSM started Worldwide since the days of Abraham and in Ghana history have it that it was done in Gold Coast before 1481, the arrival of Diogo De Azambujah and his fellow Portuguese Sailors as such before the birth of Ghana and not massive destruction of land detected until 2013, when it became a huge albatross around the necks of National Executives. This is so, because Small Scale Mining (SSM) is characterized as Mining activity by inexperienced poor folks in affected communities for livelihood and do so with disregard to the care of the environment, disposed to disaster, associated with unsafe practices, smuggling or unauthorized transaction of gold belonging to the State, informal (therefore it has illegal undertone), nomadic. Thus found as irresponsible manual mining operations by over millions of the operators, who regard the SSM as God given right for them (the operators of SSM) to escape from their miseries, occasioned by poverty (hence an informal poverty alleviation activity).

So, Small Scale Mining is basically an operation for survival and should never been seen as an area for wealth creation, hence as stated it is characterized as an irresponsible mining activity which has become the order of the day. Hence, all sorts of measures (military through use of minimum force, economic through alternative livelihood projects, political through legislation and formalization, psychologically etc) must be employed to reduce Small Scale Mining to the barest minimum level. To do so one need to understand history/characteristics of the enemy or the problem which is Small Scale Mining so that one applies the First Principle of War also regarded as the principle of business success that is SELECTION AND MAINTENANCE OF AIM with all sort of measures to combat it.

So, as stated, Ghana is not making progress in the fight against irresponsible mining or Small Scale Mining due to the poor understanding of what is Small Scale Mining, its characteristics (see some above), this led to the passage of an ambiguous Small Scale Mining Laws in 2006 as section 81 to 99 of Act 703. Hence, the daily cacophony of mixture of confused jargons of illegal mining, licensed Small Scale Mining, unlicensed Small Scale Mining, Galamsey, Galamsey is illegal Mining has made the whole situation to be difficult to determine or identify the real enemy as in the public discourse since 2014.

Thanks to the Auditor General, Mr Johnson Asiedu for his good research work as in the 2021 audit report. He has done a very good work to determine our real enemy that is destroying the environment as Small Scale Miners characterized by irresponsible mining supported by incompetent State Officials since 1999 as in his Audit Report. So, the failure to identify the real enemy as was done by the PNDC or the late Papa J and so that we tailor all resources (military, legal, fund, alternative livelihood projects etc) has been the reason for our failure to fight the real enemy, which has given room for foreigners including innocent Chinese including Aisha Hung (since 2008) who were conned or lured into the Small Scale Mining Sector by Ghanaian tycoons alleged with Small Scale Mining licenses.

Shockingly, the irresponsible mining was and is done with the tacit support of the State Officials including accomplices at the Presidency, Minerals Commission and Land Commission since 2008. A proof of the support for illegal mining involving Chinese by the Presidency etc was the story of Shanxi Mining Company in the Talensi District and others. These have been disclosed in a research work 2014 by Professor Crawford of University of Leeds and Professor Mba and others in 2015 and an article published in CNN by Yang Meng, a Chinese journalist in 2014.

Mr President as the saying goes the buck stops with the President, so you need to understand that Small Scale Mining is synonymous with Galamsey, and the real enemy of the State is SMALL SCALE MINING because Small Scale Mining which connotes irresponsible mining is an enemy to the environment (destruction of environment, polluting and diverting of rivers, through irresponsible mining) and also an enemy to the Nations, financial sector (loss of revenue through smuggling. It must be noted that the hoarding or keeping of gold obtained without permit or receipt from Precious Minerals Marketing Company or Bank of Ghana to account for the gold is illegal, evidence will show we have allowed some elements to store gold belong to the State without accounting for it as demanded by the Constitution).

It is very shocking that as at date we have not regarded Small Scale Mining as the real enemy, the massive destruction of the environment, the destruction/pollution of our rivers making them not suitable for farming, home consumption and for possible exploitation the potential of some of the rivers for mini-hydropower projects, the story of over US$5Billion smuggled to Emirates in 2016 and the fact that over millions ounces of gold was produced from Small Scale Mining in Ghana within the period Small Scale Mining was banned speaks volume of the real enemy (problem) of the Nation.

Mr President, section (6) of Article 257 of the 1992 Constitution indicated that the Minerals in the areas of Ghana belongs to the State and the minerals are vested in the President on behalf of and in trust for the people for Ghana. This implies that the President must ensure gold is mined in responsible manner by persons and companies with authorized operations permits from the State.

The President must also ensure that gold realized or picked or obtained under a license and operating permit from Minerals Commission and EPA respectively must not be kept by anyone or a Company for more than one week or one month or so without accounting for it to the State through selling the gold to an authorized buyer duly registered by the State or keeps the gold without official receipt from Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) or Bank of Ghana. So any act to the contrary is illegal. It is also illegal even if obtained through mining with licenses and kept at home without accounting to the State through GRA, PMMC and Bank of Ghana. This should be so because the gold belongs to the State as implied in section (6) of Article 257 of the 1992 Constitution. Thus it implies gold produced must be accounted to the State therefore hoarding gold without a prompt accounting and sale to the State by an operative of Small Scale Mining is also illegal act.

Sir, Mining is capital intensive, so, it was very wrong when Ghana regarded Small Scale Mining as a business or commercial activity for wealth creation and allowed we Ghanaians, noted for our brand for fronting for foreigners and use formed fraudulent Companies with the Ghanaian as Managing Director or CEO to obtain mining rights and end up selling the Mining Rights to Chinese, and thus the foreigner is made as the indirect owner of the fraudulent Ghanaian Company. So, the sensible thing for the State to do is to restrict Small Scale Mining to Community Mining or Cooperative Mining with rules and strong leaders to support National Officials to ensure compliance and ensure navigate all the current licensed Small Scale Mining Companies or Miners looking for wealth to a proposed Medium Scale Mining Sector to operate with similar conditions like Large Scale Mining Companies with local content policy and a minimum investment of US500,000.00 to be share of any foreigner as a collaborator, the Posting of reclamation bond after presentation of a Mine Closure which must include the plan Rehabilitation of the disturbed area.

So it was and is very sad that the Government instead of working very hard to contain Small Scale Mining with the concept of Cooperative Mining or Community Mining for a gradual transition of the operatives who are doing so for livelihoods and not necessary for wealth to Alternative Livelihood Projects as was done by the PNDC or being pursued by Ivory Coast with the support of USAID, the State rather encouraged the operation of Small Scale Mining. This with an ambiguous Small Scale Mining Law as section 81 to section 99 as embedded in the Minerals and Mining Law2006 (Act703) made it easy for business tycoons with lucrative business to invade the area and operate in the Small Scale Mining Sector regarded as poverty alleviation and not for wealth creation. So that the State officials since 2006 must be held responsible for their negligence to act in a sound manner.

Sir, you as President of Ghana, who took a Presidential Oath during your inauguration by which you solemnly affirmed to preserve, uphold, protect and defend the Constitution of Ghana, therefore including the environment and the resources must rise up to the occasion to do exactly what you took the oath to do. Furthermore, as President, you also pledged by the Oath that at all times you will dedicate yourself to the service and wellbeing of the people (connotes both citizens of Ghana wherever they are in the World and non-citizens including Aisha Huang, the notorious or alleged queen of Small Scale Miners thus implying other Nationals be Chinese or Nigerians nationals who are living within the territorial integrity of the Republic of Ghana, hence you must ensure the river or water given by God for domestic and other usage especially farming is very safe, no mining open pits left over as death traps.

So, to ensure the you the President act successfully Article 58 of the 1992 Constitution stipulated that the President of Ghana shall be the Head of State, Head of Government, Head of National Executive and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ghana (this connotes all armed elements or Agencies belonging to the State of Ghana thus including the Police, CEPs etc.).This clearly implies that, the President of Ghana has been given the resources for his role as the Defender, Champion, or Supporter of the 1992 Constitution at all times.

In order to operationalize the relevant requirements of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana especially to ensure or instil sense of patriotism or loyalty to the State, the Constitution has therefore occasioned that the President of Ghana working with Parliament or in consultation or the Advice of some Constitutional bodies shall be the appointing Authority for Administrative and Political National Executives including the Chief Justice, Auditor-General, EC Chairperson, Chairpersons for CHRAJ, NCCE, IGP, CDS, Service Commanders or Chiefs, Ministers of State, Ambassadors among others to support him to carry his or her presidential or executive duties. The President of Ghana also draw support from the Academia (especially on researches) as well as from NGOs/CSOs and the International Communities within Ghana and Foreign Countries and Agencies.

Mr Presidents, it is due to the availabilities of the above resources and other resources provided by a Presidential System of Government, gave the saying that the buck stops with the President. Consequently, one can say that the President of Ghana can do everything except changing a woman into a man or like what you said on the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, you as the President of Ghana can revive a dead economy but not a dead person.

So, it is therefore mind boggling and unacceptable that all the Heads of State of Ghana of the Fourth Republic as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ghana have woefully failed to manage very well the economy especially funds and the Land and Natural Resources of this great nation. Hence, it is very perplexing that the President of Ghana failed to deal with the menace associated in the Small Scale Mining Sector. Hence need to check the History of SSM for a better approach to reduce the menace to the barest minimum level.

Mr President, a study of the history and a proper diagnoses of the menace in the Small Scale Mining Sector will tell that with the exception of the regime of the late Ex-President JJ Rawlings, the other regimes in the Fourth Republic especially the regime of ex-President JA Kofour failed this great nation considerably. As the saying goes the buck stop with the President, so let me say that the past Presidents of Ghana and you as the current Presidents inability to reduce the associated risks of SSM to the barest minimum like what the late Ex-President JJ Rawlings did was because of the lack of understanding the characteristics of Small Scale Mining or what is Small Scale Mining by the past and current Presidents of Ghana coupled with massive corruption or greediness by the Ghanaians including State Officials and our normal incompetency cannot be ruled out.

.Mr President, history will tell you that, the PNDC and NDC regime of the late Papa J regularized or legalized and initiated formalization process for Galamsey by the passage of the Small Scale Mining Law Section 77 of the Minerals and Mining Law 1986 (PNDC153) and later the Small Scale Gold Mining Law 1989 (PNDCL218) which was a Galamsey Law. So,, the small scale gold mining laws 1989 (218) passed by the PNDC as Galamsey Law never made provision or requirement for the restoration of the disturbed land/environment to almost the original state by backfilling, re-vegetation because the massive destruction of the environment was seen not possible by the miners or envisaged as a problem by PNDC because of the modus of manual operations by the Galamsey operators.

To arrest massive destruction of the environment, the PNDC prevented Small Scale Miners from using sophisticated equipment and no use of substantial amount and the operation was contingent or permissible if and only if it is in the interest of the Community, so the protection of the any Mining Site by folks was put on the direct hands of the affected Communities and their Leaders. Hence Power was handed over to the affected Communities to protect their environment, and the activity of SSM was monitored by District Mining Committees. The arrangement was such a way that, there was no way someone from Kumasi or Accra may able to operate in the Small Scale Mining Sector as his or her business without living within and known at the affected areas, aside working as a manual worker because SSM was then mainly Galamsey of dig and wash or done manually with pick axes and spade same mode by the Community folks as was done in pre-Ghana era (Gold Coast era).

It was in 1999, that the NDC regime of then President JJ Rawlings realized the destructive effect of small Scale Mining due to the introduction of mechanized mining equipment from Lebanon by ex-service personnel and travelers from China. So the NDC regime of Papa J came out with Environmental Assessment Regulations, 1999 (LI 1652) and regulations 23 and 24 of LI 1652 made it a mandatory that Small Scale Gold Miners must post reclamation bonds by the payment of the cost of restoring of the land into an escrow Account before both EPA and Minerals Commissions issue the operators with Operating permit for Small Scale Mining.

Enter, the era of President Kofour, Officials in his regime made a capital blunder when without proper risk analysis amalgamated all the Mining Laws into the Minerals Mining Law 2006 (Act703), and came out with ambiguous Small Scale Mining Law embedded as Section 81 to Section 99 of in the Minerals Mining Law 2006 (Act703).

It was done without proper thinking or thinking outside the box because it was silent so no clarity or isssues of limitations aside restricted to Ghanaians, thus deviated from the originated Small Scale Mining enacted by the PNDC which had clear limitations like it must only be allowed if and only if it was in the interest of the affected Community, no use of sophisticated equipment and no use of substantial amount therefore one may deduce that it was not for wealth creation but poverty alleviation project. Hence the limitations by the PNDC were enough measures to ensure no massive destruction of the environment. So, when the Officials in the era of President Kofour wanted to make Ghanaians to gain commanding heights in the Mining Sector, over 300 Ghanaians was sent to China to study mining and come and do business in Ghana in the Mining Sector, they failed to think of the possibility of fellow Ghanaian showing his true colours of fronting for foreigners since mining is capital intensive. ,

It was sad that the then State Officials in era of President Kofour failed to act on the intelligence relayed to Ghana from then BNI officials who went to China with the affected 300 Ghanaians, which indicated that most of the prospective Ghanaian miners made alliances with Chinese including Aisha Huang and others with capital (excavators, Trommels, funds etc) and invited them to come with the resources to Ghana to help them in mining. So the Chinese are victims of Ghanaian accomplices, the story of Shaanxi Mining Company in the Upper East and others speak volume.

Considering that Mining is a capital intensive project, the affected Officials in the era of President Kofour woefully failed the State of Ghana by not acting or think outside the box very fast with the hot intelligence from the BNI Officials so that they put measures to check likely Chinese involvement in the Mining Sector through the affected Ghanaians fronting for the foreigners, which a fronting syndrome which is in our DNA or our usual brand, so that they act by including (a). Banning of sophisticated equipment like excavators and substantial money in the Small Scale Mining Sector, (b). Control and monitor the movement of excavators from China, (c) Create a new class as Medium Scale Mining with conditions like that for Large Scale Mining but only with minimum threshold say not less than GHC500,00.00 for the Ghanaians and not less than US$700,000.00 as minimum contribution by foreigners with the Company registered by the Ghanaian as majority shareholder and no way a Ghanaian partner will be overthrown as the majority owner.

Thus the requirements should below that for Large Scale Mining Companies for any collaboration for foreigners, for partnership with a Ghanaian to operate for mining for wealth creation in the proposed Medium Scale Mining Sector. This must also have very good local policy, posting of reclamation bond for restoration of mined out areas. (c). Restrict Small Scale Mining to the affected Communities only to operate as Cooperative or Community mining, with the operators to be provided with training in business and so that with time the State get the operators to stop Small Scale Mining and navigate them to Alternative Livelihood Projects as done by USAID in Ivory Coast, that is when they happen to get a seed capital to be used to start a new trade.

Shockingly, with time the State Officials sheepishly made the Chinese including Aisha Huang and others to be participant in the Small Scale Mining Sector as Support Services Providers for the prospective Ghanaian miners. Hence the invasion of the Small Scale Mining Sector with thousands of excavators, Cry my Beloved Country, what a tacit official endorsement of the usual fronting in business by Ghanaians for foreigners especially the Chinese.

Mr President this was the beginning of the irreparable destruction of the rivers of Ghana with some with the potential for mini-hydroelectricity projects, arable lands for food crop and cash crop like cocoa, So competition for fronting for the Chinese became the order of the day, hence more excavators and recruitment of more Chinese into the Small Scale Mining Sector. Our Authorities further sheepishly legalized the Support Services or operations of the Chinese (Aisha Huang and others) with Legislative Instrument as Minerals and Mining (Support Services) Regulations, 2012 (LI 2174) and now gave a tacit support for Aisha Huang and her fellow Chinese to move free to the affected mining areas for the completion of the destruction of the lands of Ghana to satisfy greedy inclinations.

Enter the 2021 Audit Report  The Auditor General physically study the history of SSM, including laws and regulations after which he interviewed and inspected mining sites of SSM to gather data on reclamation regulatory activities of Mineral Commission (MC) and EPA in the SSM sector from January 2016 to December 2020. His audit revealed that the EPA and Minerals Commission, have been negligent and incompetent between 1999 and 2022 to ensure the posting of reclamation bonds as decreed by Regulation 23 of the Environmental Assessment Regulations, 1999, which requires EPA to ensure that prospective small-scale miners post reclamation bonds in the form of cash into an escrow account after the approval of reclamation plan before Final Operating permits were/are issued. No Escrow account was opened, or the Auditor General did find a pesewas paid to the State between 1999 and 2021 at the time of his risk assessment or risk survey.

,

The massive degraded land or environment is therefore the causal effect of irresponsible mining by the Small Scale Miners occasioned by a very ambiguous or bad small scale mining sector created by the Minerals and Mining Law 2006 (Act 703) at section 81 to 99, which due to it silent nature was exploited by the Small Scale Miners to use sophisticated equipment especially Excavators with one miner found to own over 100 excavators on his small Scale Mining site. Hmm, He alone had 100 excavators which was/is more than the total number of 40 Excavators owned or used by all the large Scale Mining Companies under the Ghana Chamber of Mines. Cry the Beloved Country.

So, Thanks to the Almighty God and to you, President Nana Addo for giving this Country, the best Auditor General in our time or since the inception of the fourth Republic, in the person of Mr Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu. Mr Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu has done a very good job for Ghana with his risk assessment on the Small Scale Mining with good recommendations, besides the usual Audit reports. His report covered some financial statements from 2009 (outstanding issues of the Divesture Implementation Committee now absorbed by SIGA and other issues) up to 2021.

Mr President, Mr Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, is hereby nominated as the best Auditor General of our time because as stated he prepared and submitted a very comprehensive 2021 Audit report to include outstanding issues as well as risk assessment of Small Scale Mining. For the first time, an Audit report was made to cover 258 Districts Assemblies out of the current number of 260 Districts Assemblies. So, he made a disclaimer on the affected two District Assemblies for not submitting their Financial States to his Office. Instead of less than 100 of other Agencies normally covered in previous audit reports, the 2021 Audit Report covered more than 200 Institutions made up of Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDA), Educations intuitions, all the Boards, Companies and Corporations, the Judiciary, defunct Divesture Implementation Committee now SIGA, CHARJ, Electoral Commission etc. This excellent auditing work made him to discover the accreditations infractions some of the Universities for so many years. He also recovered over GHC100 Millions for the State through disallowance process.

It was therefore unfortunate and very disturbing that some CSOs upon the publication of the 2021 Audit Report attempted to pressurize the Auditor General to execute his powers of disallowing and Surcharge as required in subsection (b) of section (7) of Article 187 of the 1992 Constitution. The Citizenry must appreciate that an Audit report by an auditor is simply a risk report which deals with three essential issues among others these are (a). The substance that is the resources (cash/Assets) involved in the risk assessment or the audit, (b) whether the Management involved say the (Handlers have adhered to or otherwise to any laid down procedure (regulations/rules covering the treatment (action or handling) of the resources and (c) outcome of the matter under audit. Also the law requires that the very sum so specified by the Auditor-General to be due from any person shall be paid by that person to the department or institution as the case may be, within 60 days after it has been so specified and any person aggrieved by a disallowance or surcharge made by the Auditor-General may appeal to the High Court not later than the expiration of the period of 60 days as prescribed by law. Hence it is not easy to recover disallowed sums within a short time before proclaiming the Audit Report or submitting to Parliament.

So, Mr President, the media and some of the citizenry especially some respected seasoned lawyers and Professors/Intelligentsias need to be informed and are hereby informed that no Auditor General in the Fourth Republic, has been so diligent, competent, patriotic, constitutional or lawful like Mr Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, so his performance is the best so far. It is therefore very unfortunate that instead of taking time to read or learn about the very good work of Mr Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, as the Auditor General, some Citizens attempted to taint his reputation by comparing him with Auditor Generals whose performances are below that of Mr Asiedus.

Occupied Ghana must be thanked for their action that made the Supreme Court to give an interpretation of subsection (b) of section (7) of Article 187 of the 1992 Constitution that is on the need to disallow of any item of expenditure and surcharge as stipulated. But, it must be noted that the Affected Departments/the Governing Boards of the affected Agencies also have crucial role to ensure to Surcharge persons etc or recover relevant cash irregularities from affected persons or Agencies when the audit report is published.

It should also be made clear to all that the Constitution is very clear with the process of auditing by the Auditor General especially why, how, and when the final Audit Report must be submitted to Parliament, that is within six months after the end of the immediately preceding financial year, thus the submission to Parliament must done before the total execution of disallowances by surcharge, done per a sequential arrangement and not necessary before submission to Parliament or concurrently. Hence, the time given is very short for the external auditors used by the Auditor General audit the accounts to recover all disallowed expenditures during the process of auditing and also the requirement that an affected person has up to 60 days to pay or go to Court to challenge create some initial problem due to likelihood of several adjournments by Courts. Hence time consuming.

Thus the various auditors used by the Auditor General are not required or expected to fully act on their findings and recommendations before submitting to the Auditor General who will check and submit same to Parliament and proclaim the  of the Audit Report to the Public and take time to act on issues raised after studying the Audit report. So the Citizenry must not rush to pressurize the Auditor General on issues of an audit report for Parliaments attention without taking time to read it and understand the way the report was made (the difficulties faced by the Auditor General, how he solved some of them and statement on his future intention on the Audit report.

So, a study of the 2021 Audit Report will tell that due to the number of institutions under coverage and the limited time available, some competent private audit firms were used as External Auditors with their responsibilities include (a).Performing audits on systems, operations and accounts through inspecting financial statements to Report systematic errors or misstatements or fraud indicators, (b) Submit findings and recommendation in the Audit Report to the Auditor General for a final Audit Report to the Risk Owner. So, the Auditor General, (Mr Asiedu) did state in the Report that he will take time to review the Audit Report and act as appropriate with a Surcharge Review Committee to retrieve unaccountable expenditure or stolen monies and or assets or cancel the findings/recommendations deem fit. So, the action of the Civil Society Organizations was tantamount to premature ejaculation.

It appeared, they were fooled by some Agenda setting media and others hijacked by some persons with hidden agenda, who wanted to satisfy their paymasters, otherwise I am afraid but I have to say that their actions without first reading the report and consider the demands of the Constitutions could be described as close to that of educated illiterates. Hence, the citizenry need to be schooled to be patriotic and consider Ghana First, so we the Citizenry need to be honest, professional, disciplined, and patriotic by taking time to read into issues from/in the main source before making an informed opinion and disclosing our frustrations on sensitive matters. Some of them went further to threat the Auditor General he could face jail sentences for failing to comply with directive of the Supreme Court, which is not true.

Section (7) (a) of the 1992 Constitution is very clear that the Auditor General in the performance of his functions under this Constitution shall (must) not be subject to the direction or control of any person or Authority, hence the Supreme Court has no locus to order him aside the interpretation to him . So the Supreme of Ghana only interpreted Section (7) (b) of a 1992 Constitution by explaining or reminding the Auditor General on matters on surcharging of the disallowances but when and how it should be done is determined by both Parliament and or the Auditor General . So, it must be made clear that the Supreme Court of Ghana in their interpretation of the relevant provisions of the 1992 Constitution never arrogated to itself the power to direct the Auditor General. If the Supreme Court of Ghana really did so then it was unconstitutional/superfluous.

Mr President it is very disheartened when you hear from educated persons saying something about the cash irregularities as if all irregularities as covered in the Audit Report were/are sins. The public must be educated that Irregularities will continue to be part of the life of Companies like say VRA/GREDCO/ ECG due to Customers like the Government not able to pay on time for power sold on credit per the postpaid metering system, hence prepaid meter can help arrest this problem of an accumulated debt. It also sad when you hear some learned and experience lawyers or members of the CSOs demonstrating their ignorance by not understanding the reasons that may make Country opt for IMF support.

The matter Ghana is simple Ghana opted for IMF bailout because of no sufficient foreign reserves or foreign currencies or dollars to pay foreign loans due for payment and meet imports and which outmarch the export. Otherwise Ghana unlike some of her neighbours countries opted for the free currency market known as Fiat money so the government can print cash that is not backed by a physical commodity, such as gold or silver to fix or stabilize the Cedis or Standardize it like what has been done with the CFA hence nothing prevents the Government through Parliamentary approval to get the Bank of Ghana to print more Ghana Cedis Ghana. It should be noted that the fiat money system was introduced in the 1980s as part of the Economy Reforms era, the era which saw the stoppage of the Standard system through fixing our currency with gold as was done by the regime of the late General Acheampong.

The CSOs also attributed the total irregularities of GHC17.5 Billion to act of corruption/theft and ran amok with it as if to please their paymasters an act which could damage the image of Ghana. So, the State or patriotic citizens, need to counter this display of ignorance otherwise deceit, dishonest unpatriotic attitude by persons who should know better.

So Mr President, the state of affairs surrounding the total irregularity of the GHC17.2 Billion in the 2021 Audit Report covers a period between 2009 and 2021 thus it includes debts of the Divesture Implementation Committee (which became SIGA in your Administration). The debt included that of the defunct State Gold Mining Corporation which may have interest in the Prestea Underground Mine, debts or otherwise other cost. Also debts of defunct State Food Distribution Corporation/Defunct State Farms Corporation, Defunct Ghana Airways, defunct Ghana International Airways, ex-Bonsa Tyres Factory, SCC, ex-Abosso Glass Factory, ex-State Fishing Corporation, defunct State Farms Corporation all under Divesture Implementation Committee which still have assets like Silos and Warehouses. These debt is more than GHC5Million.

Also the public need to be informed that GH6,043,083,274.01 (that is GHC6.04Billion) out of the reported irregularities of GHC17.5 Billion were credit power sales to customer of VRA and NEDCo. Over GHC6Billion was also detected as cash over ran by almost all the MMDAs, MDAs etc including CHRAJ which has over spend with about GHC400Million Ghana Cedis against Compensation and Goods and Services. It was therefore sad that the Chairman for CHRAJ was also found speaking on the colossal amount of GHC17.5 Billion as due to corrupt actions, failing to note that his Agency like EOCO incurred huge cost overrun as well.

There was also a debt of over GHC2Billion of some of our Embassies plus that of ECG/VRA with some amount quoted in US Dollars and Euros but converted into Ghana Cedis at the rate at the time of the Audit, thus ballooning the value in Ghana Cedis. There was a debt of over GHC700,000.00 being balance due to State Housing Company for houses at Bortyman Accra bought in 2016 by some people including a highly placed political party office holder. There was an amount which was also part of the irregularities which was reportedly incurred by a Coordinator Director of a District Assembly who was made by the Assembly to lodge at hotel due no official accommodation or rental place for him, so he exceeded the financial policy of not permissible for a continuous stay in hotel for over 90days thus recognized as irregularity. This speaks volume of the seemingly unpatriotic and dishonest attitudes of some of the Citizens.

I do not think the aim of some the respected lawyers and intelligentsia is to spoil the image of your Administration thus affecting the image of the Country to satisfy any paymaster but their refusal to do so gives different meaning, so it is recommended that they must ensure to be honest, disciplined and patriotic and think of Ghana First at all times

MAJOR MOHAMMED BOGOBIRI (RTD)
The Chiefs and the people of Akwakrom near Mankessim have discovered three holes suspected to be graves dug by Nana Clark Onyaa, the prime suspect in the murder of a 25-year-old aspiring trainee nurse in Mankessim.

The two of the sites covered and with broken bottles all around, were found in two obscure corners in the suspect's deserted family house accessed by him alone.

Another huge dugout pit was discovered on a plantain farm at the back of the family house and some residents claimed he visited fortnightly to perform rituals at the night and most times, came with a pickaxe and shovels in his vehicle.

This According to Mr Kojo Assan, leader of the Youth Volunteer Group of Akwakrom, rouse their suspicions and they mounted surveillance on the Chief who on realising that he was being watched closely, tried to disband the group without success.

He said, not knowing, the Tufohen directed his nefarious activities to Mankessim.

Aboradze Ebusuapanyin Kofi Adu together with some elders in the community who led the Ghana News Agency to the sites on Thursday said the sites were discovered when the news broke out about the missing lady, and they accordingly informed the police.

We dont know what he buried in the pits but based on his recent activities, your guess is as good as mine. We suspect he may have done the same here so we want serious excavation to be done here to ascertain the use of the pits.

The visibly shaken Ebusuapanyin said they never suspected the Tufohen could kill a fly, He is an eloquent person liked by many. He is the leader of the Asafo groups and occasionally visits the palace to partake in activities, he said.

Ebusuapanyin Adu indicated that the community would not shield anyone found to have connived with the suspects regardless of their social standing or family lineage.

According to him, the deceased was most of the time spotted chatting with the pastor, but the Tufohen claimed he was a relative who had come to spend some days.

Many people saw the deceased here in the company of the pastor and she appeared weak and pale, but the pastor claimed he was cleansing her spiritually, little did we know they had diabolic intent, he added.

The Ebusuapanyin Edu, however, denied claims that the Tufohen was the Regent of Akwakrom.  Tufohen has brought shame to our community.

Now, people think we are all criminals here because of someones misdeed. We are law-abiding citizens who do not condone crime, he added.

He said the community had intensified patrols to ward off all criminal activities, something he claimed prevented the suspects from burying the deceased in the community.

He pledged the commitment of the Chiefs and people to ensure justice was served to restore the image of the community.

Earlier, the GNA visited the Tufohens house in Mankessim and observed that the scene had been cordoned-off with some food vendors in front of the house going about their normal businesses without qualms.

They equally expressed shock about the suspect's conduct, claiming the Tufohen was an arbiter who had brought peace to many families and homes.

He is a counsellor who has arbitrated many protracted family issues, but little did we expect him to have committed such a heinous crime, Madam Elizabeth Awudzi, a food vendor stated.

GNA
Climate activists protested in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa on Friday ahead of a climate summit in the city next month.

Kinshasa is due to host the pre-COP27 talks in October, before the main summit begins in Egypt in November.

But the pre-COP27 meeting comes after the DRC put 27 oil and gas blocks up for auction in July, ignoring warnings from environmentalists that drilling in peatlands and forests could release huge volumes of carbon dioxide.

On Friday, about 200 protesters marched in Kinshasa toting banners bearing slogans such as "No to new fossil fuels".

Kinshasa is due to host pre-COP27 talks in October, a month before before the main summit opens in Egypt. By Arsene Mpiana (AFP)

Rose Mathe, a 22-year-old climate activist, said developing the oil and gas blocks contradicted the government's push to brand the DRC as a "solution country" for climate change.

"The world is transitioning towards 100-percent renewable energy," she said, adding that drilling for oil is environmentally destructive.

Roughly the size of western Europe, the DRC enjoys vast mineral riches, including huge reserves of cobalt and lithium that are critical for battery production.

Peatlands in the Congo Basin also store around 30 billion tonnes of carbon, according to a 2016 Nature study. The figure is roughly equivalent to three years' of global emissions.

The DR Congo government has ignored warnings that drilling in the nation's vast peatlands and forests could release huge volumes of carbon dioxide. By Arsene Mpiana (AFP)

Patient Muamba, a campaigner for Greenpeace Africa who attended the protest, told AFP petrol has no future.

"We're asking the government cancel these offers," he said, referring to the oil and gas auction.

The DRC's government has argued that drilling will be conducted using methods that minimise harm to the environment. It has also stressed that exploiting oil and gas will help diversify the mining-reliant economy.

About three-quarters of the DRC's population of 90 million people lives on under $1.9 a day, according to World Bank figures.
23.09.2022 LISTEN

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates, Mr. Nasser Bourita, proceeded, on September 22, 2022, in New York, with his Guatemalan counterpart, Mr. Mario Adolfo Bucaro Flores, have signed a joint communique in which Guatemala decided to open a consulate in Dakhla, while reaffirming its support for the autonomy plan under Moroccan sovereignty as the only solution to the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara.

"Guatemala reiterated its clear position on the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara, considering that autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the solution to this dispute and announces the decision to open a consulate in the city of Dakhla to take advantage of its economic potential and its openness to the rest of the African continent," said a joint communique issued after a meeting between Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates, Mr. Nasser Bourita, and his Guatemalan counterpart, Mr. Mario Bucaro Flores.

"For us, the concepts of sovereignty, peace and territorial integrity are very important. We support Morocco's position on this issue and we will continue to support Morocco forever," said Guatemala's FM, in a statement to the press, at the end of this meeting held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Mr. Bucaro Flores noted: "highly appreciated the reforms undertaken in Morocco under the leadership of HM King Mohammed VI, as well as His role and contribution to the resolution of the problems of Africa and the Arab world by peaceful means.

He also highlighted the importance of strengthening bilateral cooperation relations.

Bourita welcomed, for his part, "the efforts of the Guatemalan government led by His Excellency the President of the Republic, Alejandro Giammattei, in terms of reforms, as well as its role at the regional and international levels for peace.

The two ministers discussed, on this occasion, the various aspects of bilateral cooperation and exchanged views on regional and international issues, welcoming "the convergence of views on all issues addressed.

Morocco and Guatemala have decided to "give impetus to bilateral cooperation in the fields of tourism, training and energy, with particular emphasis on agriculture and fertilizers, at a time when the world is facing an acute food crisis."
23.09.2022 LISTEN

The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has debunked media reports that one Asare Boateng who was arrested in military uniform and alleged to have stolen GH23,000 was one of its personnel.

GAF has therefore urged the public to disregard any media reports that claimed he was a soldier.

He is not a soldier, neither is he a bandsman at the Signal Regiment or a civilian staff of the Ghana Armed Forces, a statement signed by the Director of Public Relations, Naval Captain Micheal Addo Larbi, said on Friday.

The Military Police, on Friday 16th September, 2022, arrested Boateng who posed as a soldier to extort money from civilians in Elmina in the Central Region.

The suspect has been handed over to Kwasimintim Police in Takoradi for further legal action, the statement said.

GAF assured the public that it would collaborate with stakeholders to weed out such criminals including uniformed officers who may be caught in fraudulent activities.

GNA
23.09.2022 LISTEN

Zimbabwean authorities should hold accountable the security agent who attacked journalist Ruvimbo Muchenje at a rally for opposition political party Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), and the CCC should ensure journalists are not unduly denied access to its public events or harassed for doing their job, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

Around 2 p.m. on September 11, in Chinhoyi, a city about 72 miles (116 kilometers) northwest of the capital of Harare, a CCC security agent denied Muchenje, a reporter for privately owned website NewsHawks, access to the Gadzema stadium to cover a rally held by party leader Nelson Chamisa, according to news reports, statements by the Zimbabwe chapter of the regional press freedom group, Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), the International Federation of Journalists, and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

Muchenje told CPJ that a security agent outside the stadium refused to allow her in despite her producing her press pass, which was supposed to grant access to the event. When Muchenje tried to move past and enter the stadium, the agent grabbed and pulled her hair, and threw her to the ground, she said. A second agent joined after Muchenje fell to the ground.

When a driver for another journalist sought to intervene, the agent who attacked her defended his actions, saying that Muchenje had been disrespectful, the journalist said, adding that CCC supporters watched but did not intervene during the attack.

The attack lasted several minutes before the agents allowed Muchenje to stand, but one held her by her belt, she said. She was released when Stanley Gama, a former editor of the Daily News who recognized Muchenje, intervened and persuaded the agents to let her go, Gama tweeted and told CPJ via messaging app.

Zimbabwes authorities should transparently investigate and hold accountable the security personnel responsible for attacking journalist Ruvimbo Muchenje, said Muthoki Mumo, CPJs sub-Saharan Africa representative, in Nairobi. Journalists should not be unduly denied access to events of public interest and are too often harassed, attacked, or arrested simply for doing their job.

Separately on the same day, Voice of America reporter Nunurai Jena was similarly denied entry to the stadium to cover the rally and harassed by coalition security personnel, according to media reports.

Coalition spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere told CPJ over the phone that the incidents involving the journalists at the stadium were unfortunate and the party had apologized. Muchenje said she had received an apology via messaging app, but CPJ could not confirm whether Jena had received an apology. CPJ tried to reach Jena via messaging apps and phone calls but received no response.

Mahere also promised to ensure the safety of all journalists who cover the coalitions rallies, Mahere and a Bulawayo24 report said.

Zimbabwes information minister, Monica Mutsvangwa, condemned the incidents in a statement, saying attacks on female journalists border on gender-based violence, according to news reports and a copy of the statement posted on Twitter.

For years, there have been incidents of repeated harassment, arrest, and detention of journalists in Zimbabwe, including in March, when a member of Chamisas security detail attacked journalist Courage Dutiro for photographing a party member at a rally.
In todays Money Morning, the SEC has drawn a new line in the sand for Ethereum regulation. Authorities are outlining their new plan of attack to destabilise cryptocurrencies. Yet, CBDCs wont suffice as a proper alternative to decentralised projects. But all these issues could pave the way for the innovation that is needed most

Dear Reader,

The SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission) is finally showing its true intentions

In the wake of Ethereum [ETH]s new update  The Merge  it seems the financial regulator is not happy. The authorities are now trying to not only regulate Ethereum but also claim control over it.

Here are just some of the comments from a federal lawsuit launched by the SEC on Monday:

At that point, their ETH contributions were validated by a network of nodes on the Ethereum blockchain, which are clustered more densely in the United States than in any other country. As a result, those transactions took place in the United States.

What the SEC is trying to argue here is that because most of the ETH trading in the case in question occurred in the US, it was, therefore, under their jurisdiction. In other words, because the ETH was bought and sold on US soil, the SEC thinks they should have the right to police it.

This is a dangerous precedent to set.

It proves that not only is the regulator actively watching Ethereum, but it is still hell-bent on trying to classify it as a security. Because with this designation, the SEC could finally get their grubby hands on arguably the most important crypto platform.

If that happens, then the decentralised dream will almost certainly be in jeopardy.

Tools of control

Whats worrying is that this power grab from authorities isnt just an American problem either.

At home in Australia, we also have our own issues to contend with. For example, Liberal senator Andrew Bragg has openly called for crypto regulation here as well.

Rather than arguing over whether specific coins or tokens are securities, though, Bragg is simply using China as his tool for fearmongering. In his own words:

The Chinese government is piloting what they call the digital yuan, which is a digital form of currency, and theyre currently trialling that outside of China as well, with the UAE [United Arab Emirates], Hong Kong and Thailand. That currency, if it became widespread in the Pacific, or even within Australia, would give the Chinese state enormous power, economic and strategic power that it doesnt have today.

To his credit, Bragg is absolutely right about the digital yuan. It is a threat that we cant afford to ignore.

But that doesnt mean you should hamper the alternatives, like legitimate decentralised projects. Nor does it mean we should fight fire with fire via our own RBA-backed Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

After all, replacing one centralised digital currency with another is not what we need. That is just handing power from one authority to another.

If you want to appreciate just how bad this kind of outcome could be, you need only check out our latest video. You can learn everything there is to know about the threat of CBDCs right here.

Forced innovation

Now, where all this will leave the crypto markets is a mystery.

Until we know exactly how far the regulators plan to go with their meddling, it is impossible to tell what may happen to Bitcoin [BTC], Ethereum, and any number of crypto projects.

However, I do know that you cant put the blockchain genie back in the bottle.

Like it or not, cryptocurrency is not going to go away. Even if they regulate and stifle this generation of projects, there will be another wave of innovation  one that could refocus on the importance of decentralisation that is being highlighted right now

As CoinDesk columnist David Morris notes on this looming regulation:

It could return cryptocurrency to its roots. The fat days of loose oversight removed incentives to build truly robust systems that could operate beyond government reach in favor of fragile systems with superficial features that could be shilled to retail traders and investors. Features like censorship resistance and true decentralization are about to get a lot more important, and in the long run, that could be the best outcome of all.

This fact is why crypto investors know they have the upper hand. Because no matter how obstructive the authorities may be, they cant truly ever get rid of the blockchain.

All you need to do is look at China for proof of that, like this headline from the SCMP last week:



Source: South China Morning Post [Click to open in a new window]

Bans, regulation, and fearmongering will never work if someone somewhere still cares about decentralised money. Because as the old saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention.

And right now, we need decentralised innovation more than ever.

Regards,

Ryan Clarkson-Ledward,

Editor, Money Morning

Ryan is also co-editor of Exponential Stock Investor, a stock tipping newsletter that hunts down promising small-cap stocks. For information on how to subscribe and see what Ryans telling subscribers right now, click here.
September 23, 2022 Historic Context Of The Referenda In Ukraine Voting for membership in the Russian Federation has started in four oblast of Ukraine: Russian proxy officials in four regions  Donetsk and Luhansk in the east, and Kherson and Zaporizka in the south  earlier this week announced plans to hold referendums over four days beginning on Friday. Russia controls nearly all of two of the four regions, Luhansk and Kherson, but only a fraction of the other two, Zaporizka and Donetsk. Ukrainian officials have dismissed the voting as grotesque theater  staging polls in cities laid to waste by Russian forces and abandoned by most residents. President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Ukraines allies for their steadfast support and said the farce of sham referenda would do nothing to change his nations fight to drive Russia from Ukraine. The Ukrainian regime has resorted to pure terrorism to prevent the votes from happening: Ukrainian partisans, sometimes working with special operations forces, have blown up warehouses holding ballots and buildings where Russian proxy officials preparing for the vote held meetings. Ukrainian officials have acknowledged that they are engaged in a campaign to assassinate key Russian administration officials; more than a dozen have been blown up, shot and poisoned, according to Ukrainian and Russian officials. Such behavior by the Zelenski regime against its still Ukrainian compatriots will only encourage the people in the four oblast to vote for an alignment with Russia. The propaganda in the 'west' will declare that the vote is irregular and that the results, likely to be pro-Russian, will be fake. But a view on historic election outcomes since Ukrainian independence in 1991 show clear geographic preferences in east and south Ukraine for pro-Russian policies:

bigger The graphic above is from research published by the Eurasian Research Institute of the International Hoca Ahmet Yesevi Turkish-Kazakh University. Its author writes: As we can see, the have always been a clear-cut geographical split in the way the regions of Ukraine vote for particular candidates. The East and West division or also referred as Southeast and Northwest division was always present throughout the electoral history of the independent Ukraine. It is conventionally believed that the eastern part of Ukraine is more influenced by Russia politically, economically and culturally. Therefore, the presidential candidates proposing more pro-Russian agenda usually gain much more political support in eastern regions than in other parts of Ukraine. On the other hand, the western part of the country has traditionally been more pro-European with strong reference to traditional core Ukrainian ethnic traditions and values. Consequently, presidential candidates with pro-European political agenda and traditional Ukrainian appeal usually had strong support in western regions of the country. It is interesting to note that preferences of the electorate were not related to the geographical origin or background of the presidential candidates and any candidate could easily become popular in the east as well as in the west. Moreover, the same candidate could be both pro-eastern and pro-western in different periods of time as did Leonid Kuchma in 1994 and 1999, who is the only Ukrainian president to serve two consecutive terms from 1994 to 2005. The division is consistent with ethnic and linguistic differences between those parts of Ukraine.

bigger In 2014, after the violent fascist coup in Kiev, one of the first laws implemented by the new government removed the Russian language from official use. Instead of overcoming the differences between its people it only sealed the predominant split in Ukraine. The election promise of the current Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelenski to make peace with the Russia aligned rebellious Donbas region by adhering to the Minsk 2 agreements was rewarded with a large share of southeastern votes for his presidency. However, after having been threatened with death by fascists, Zelenski has made a 180 degree turn and has since posed as Ukrainian nationalist. In consequence he has lost all support in southeastern Ukraine. The southeastern parts of today's Ukraine have for centuries been part of the central Russian empire. They were only attached to the Soviet Republic of Ukraine under Lenin's rule in 1922 and, in the case of Crimea, in 1954 under Nikita Khrushchev who himself had grown up in the Donbas region.

bigger A likely high turnout and majority vote for membership in the Russian Federation will only correct the historic misalignment created by those illogical transfers. Posted by b on September 23, 2022 at 10:18 UTC | Permalink Comments next page  next page 
He owns the Seppeltsfield and Pennys Hill wineries and they have netted him a fair amount of money - enough to put the seventh Disneyland in the world in South Australia (or at least entertain the idea).

He talked to The Advertiser and said he wants Adelaide to be more than just a layover for tourists and believes its got the scenery to do so.

I think, in tourism, were all a little bit sick and tired of Adelaide being the place you fly over when you go from Sydney to Perth, he said.

It is time we made a statement, a few statements, in our state."

McLaren Vale would be my spot - wide, open, flat, next to the beach, next to the ranges - makes a lot of sense.
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP)  Gunmen attacked two communities in Nigerias north-central region, killing 14 people and injuring many others, authorities said Thursday.

The attackers stormed the communities in Logo council area of Benue state Wednesday night, opening unprovoked fire on residents, said Paul Hemba, the states top security official.

Police in Benue confirmed the attack. The assailants shot 12 people to death in one community then moved on to another where they killed two more villagers, Hemba said. He said 15 people were seriously injured.

He identified the attackers as Fulani herdsmen, a group of mostly young pastoralists from the Fulani tribe caught up in Nigerias conflict between host communities and herdsmen over limited access to water and land.

In Nigerias middle belt and central regions, deadly clashes between local communities and herdsmen continue in a cycle of violence that has defied government measures, although security forces have recently announced some arrests and seizure of arms.

A similar attack in another part of Benue targeted a convoy of soldiers of the Nigerian army, but they were able to repel the assailants, Hemba said.

Many of the attacks in rural areas are similar. Motorcycle-riding gunmen often arrive in the hundreds in areas where Nigerias security forces are outnumbered and outgunned.

Authorities have in the past admitted that the inadequate number of security personnel in many of the affected areas is one of the major reasons the attacks have continued.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who came into office in 2015 on a wave of goodwill after promising to end the nations protracted security crisis, leaves office in 2023. Those security challenges are back on the front burner as political campaigns for next years election begin.

By CHINEDU ASADU

Associated Press
WARSAW, Poland (AP)  President Andrzej Duda of Poland on Friday awarded the countrys top civilian honor to a communist-era pro-democracy fighter who recently was accused in the media of manipulating evidence while investigating a presidential plane crash in Russia that killed 96 prominent Poles.

Duda said he awarded The Order of the White Eagle to Antoni Macierewicz, 74, for his contribution to Polands sovereignty and democratic changes, and for his service to the country.

In the 1970s Macierewicz co-founded a dissident organization, the Workers Defense Committee, or KOR, that laid foundations for the nationwide Solidarity movement that in 1989 toppled communist rule in Poland. Macierewicz was repeatedly incarcerated for his activities.

The small ceremony where Duda awarded him the distinction took place 46 years since KORs founding. Two other co-founders, Miroslaw Chojecki and Piotr Naimski, also received the honor.

Macierewicz went on to serve as defense minister during 2015-2018 and is a close associate of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of Polands governing Law and Justice party.

He was appointed head of a special government commission investigating the 2010 crash that killed Kaczynskis twin, then-President Lech Kaczynski, and 95 other Poles.

Macierewicz has insisted the presidential plane crash was an assassination planned in Moscow. A recent report by Polish news channel TVN24 alleged that Macierewicz and his commission manipulated and hid evidence that did not support the assassination theory.

Earlier, a professional commission for aviation incidents said the crash in adverse conditions resulted from errors by the crew and the control tower at Russias Smolensk airport.

Many government critics said Friday that the young Macierewicz merited the award for his courage in opposing the communist regime but that his later activity made him an inappropriate recipient now.

The leader of the opposition Polish Peoples Party, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said it was an incredible scandal that the The Order of the White Eagle went to a man whose main achievement is sowing hatred and lies.
2 Americans released by Russian separatists arrive in NYC View Photo

NEW YORK (AP)  Two U.S. military veterans who disappeared three months ago while fighting Russia with Ukrainian forces arrived Friday at New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport after their release by Russian-backed separatists as part of a prisoner exchange.

Were looking forward to spending time with family and well be in touch with the media soon, Alex Drueke said after arriving at the airport with Andy Huynh at around noon. Happy to be home.

Drueke, 40, and Huynh, 27, went missing in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine near the Russian border on June 9. They had traveled to Ukraine on their own and bonded over their shared home state.

Their families announced their release Wednesday in a joint statement from Dianna Shaw, an aunt of Drueke.

Saudi Arabia brokered the exchange that granted their release. The Saudi embassy released a statement Wednesday saying it helped secure the release of 10 prisoners from Morocco, the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Croatia. Shaw confirmed that Drueke and Huynh were part of the group.

Drueke and Huynh flew to New York from Saudi Arabia. Shaw said in an email that Drukes mother and Huynhs fiance would fly to New York to meet the men later Friday and that all four would then travel to Alabama on Saturday.
Crucial vote could move Italy to right; many might boycott

Crucial vote could move Italy to right; many might boycott View Photo

ROME (AP)  Italians will vote on Sunday in what is being billed as a crucial election as Europe reels from the repercussions of Russias war in Ukraine. For the first time in Italy since the end of World War II, the election could propel a far-right leader into the premiership.

Soaring energy costs and quickly climbing prices for staples like bread  the consequences of Russias invasion of breadbasket Ukraine  have pummeled many Italian families and businesses.

Against that bleak backdrop, Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy party  with neo-fascist roots and an agenda of God, homeland and Christian identity  appear to be the front-runners in Italys parliamentary election.

They could be a test case for whether hard-right sentiment is gaining more traction in the 27-nation European Union. Recently, a right-wing party in Sweden surged in popularity by capitalizing on peoples fears about crime.

No single party in Italy stands much chance of winning enough seats to govern alone, but right-wing and right-leaning centrists forged a campaign pact that could secure Meloni a parliamentary majority and propel her into power. Her main alliance partner is right-wing League party leader Matteo Salvini, who blames crime on migrants and has long been a staunch ideological booster of right-wing governments in Hungary and Poland.

Elections in the middle of a war, in the midst of an energy crisis and the dawn of what is likely to be an economic crisis  almost by definition are crucial elections, said Nathalie Tocci, director of Rome-based think tank the International Affairs Institute.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered Moscows invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, is gambling that Europe will break under the weight of economic and energy problems brought on by the war, Tocci told The Associated Press.

Salvini, who draws his voter base from business owners in Italys north, has donned pro-Putin T-shirts in the past. Salvini has also questioned the wisdom of maintaining Western economic sanctions against Russia, saying they could hurt Italys economic interests too much.

The publication of polls was halted 15 days before Sundays vote, but before then they indicated Melonis party would be the biggest vote-getter, just ahead of the center-left Democratic Party headed by former Premier Enrico Letta.

The campaign alliance linking Meloni to Salvini and former Premier Silvio Berlusconi confers a clear advantage over Letta under Italys complex system of divvying up seats in Parliament.

Letta had hoped in vain for a campaign alliance with the left-leaning populist 5-Star Movement, the largest party in the outgoing legislature.

While it is a fraught moment for Europe, Sundays election could see modern Italys lowest-ever turnout. The last election, in 2018, saw record-low turnout of 73%. Pollster Lorenzo Pregliasco says this time the percentage could drop to as low as 66%.

Pregliasco, who heads the YouTrend polling company, says Italys last three different governing coalitions since the last election have left Italians disaffected, disappointed. They dont see their vote as something that matters.

The outgoing government is headed by former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi. In early 2021, Italys president tapped Draghi to form a unity government after the collapse of the second ruling coalition of 5-Star leader Giuseppe Conte.

In what Pregliasco called an apparent paradox, polls indicate that most Italians like Draghi and think his government did a good job. Yet Meloni, the sole major party leader to refuse to join Draghis coalition, is polling the strongest.

As Tocci put it, Melonis party is so popular simply because its the new kid on the block.

Draghi has said he doesnt want another term.

To Melonis annoyance, criticism still dogs her that she hasnt made an unambiguous break with her partys roots in a neo-fascist movement founded by nostalgists for dictator Benito Mussolini after his regimes disastrous role in World War II. During the campaign, she declared that she is no danger to democracy.

Some political analysts say worries about the fascist question arent their main concern.

I am afraid of incompetence, not the fascist threat, said Roberto DAlimonte, a political science professor at LUISS, a private university in Rome. She has not governed anything.

Meloni served as youth minister in Berlusconis last government, which ended a decade ago.

Instead, her main right-wing coalition partner is worth worrying about, DAlimonte told The AP.

Salvini will be the troublemaker, not Meloni, he said. It is not Meloni calling for the end of sanctions against Russia. It is Salvini. It is not Meloni calling for more debt or more deficit. It is Salvini.

But recent incidents have fed worries about Brothers of Italy.

A Brothers of Italy candidate in Sicily was suspended by his party after he posted phrases on social media showing appreciation for Hitler. Separately, a brother of one of Melonis co-founders was spotted giving what appeared to be the fascist salute at a funeral for a relative. The brother denied that was what he was doing.

For years, the right wing has crusaded against unbridled immigration, after hundreds of thousands of migrants reached Italys shores aboard smugglers boats or vessels that rescued them in the Mediterranean Sea. Both Meloni and Salvini have thundered against what they see as an invasion of foreigners not sharing what they call Italys Christian character.

Letta, who wants to facilitate citizenship for children of legal immigrants, has, too, played the fear card. In his partys campaign, ads on buses, half the image depicts a serious-looking Letta with his one-word motto, Choose, with the other half featuring an ominous-looking image of Putin. Salvini and Berlusconi have both expressed admiration for the Russian leader. Meloni backs supplying arms so Ukraine can defend itself.

With energy bills as much as 10 times higher than a year ago, how to save workers jobs ranks high among Italian voters worries.

But perhaps with the exception of Salvini, who wants to revisit Italys closed nuclear power plants, candidates havent distinguished themselves in proposing solutions to the energy crisis. Nearly all are pushing for a EU cap on gas prices.

The perils of climate change havent loomed large in the Italian campaign. Italys tiny Greens party, a campaign partner of Letta, is forecast to capture barely a few seats in Parliament.

___

Colleen Barry reported from Milan. Sabrina Sergi contributed to this report from Rome.

By FRANCES DEMILIO and COLLEEN BARRY

Associated Press
Summerville High Senior Audrey Patey new member of the 2022-23 California Youth Council View Photo

Sonora, CA  A Tuolumne County student has been selected to be a member of the California Youth Council (CYC), and the last time that happened was in 2008.

The group is made up of high schoolers with different opinions and experiences from all areas of California. Summerville High School senior Audrey Patey, pictured in the image box, had this reaction to being chosen to join the 2022-23 council.

Involvement in the California Youth Council is important to me to help the community in a larger and more impactful way, Patey comments. I believe in the importance of making the community a better place as well as helping promote healthy decisions amongst young adults.

Patey was nominated by the Amador Tuolumne Community Action Agency (ATCAA), which oversees Tuolumne Countys Friday Night Live (FNL) programs. The mission is to build partnerships for positive and healthy youth development which engage youth as active leaders and resources in their communities, according to state officials.

Audrey is an outstanding leader and will make significant contributions to the California Youth Council, praised ATCAAs Director of Prevention and Youth Programs and the countys YES Partnership, Bob White.

One commitment CYC makes is to raise awareness and provide a link with statewide initiatives related to alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, traffic safety, and violence issues. Pointing to different issues many rural counties experience like lack of diversity, good education, and aid for youth struggling with mental health problems, Patey added, I am also very interested in raising awareness of the consequences of doing drugs, vapes, and alcohol at a young age, which is definitely an issue among the young adults of today. This interest has led me to help with projects in Friday Night Live (FNL) [as part of the Summerville Bears Campus Action Group] that deal with a few of these issues.

Patey will also serve as a student leader in FNLs Summerville High chapter. At the end of the month, she will meet the other student members of the council at a CYC kick-off meeting.
US allows tech firms to boost internet access in Iran

US allows tech firms to boost internet access in Iran View Photo

WASHINGTON (AP)  American tech firms will be allowed to expand their business in Iran, where most internet access has been cut off in response to anti-government protests, the Treasury Department said Friday.

Iran has been cracking down on demonstrators protesting the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of its morality police. Iranian state TV suggests that as many as 26 protesters and police have been killed since violence erupted over the weekend.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the move will help counter the governments surveillance efforts.

It is clear that the Iranian government is afraid of its own people, Blinken said in an emailed statement. Mahsa Amini is senselessly, tragically dead, and now the government is violently suppressing peaceful protesters rightly angry about her loss.

The morality police detained Amini last week, saying she didnt properly cover her hair with the Islamic headscarf, known as the hijab. Amini collapsed at a police station and died three days later.

U.S. sanctions were imposed Thursday on the morality police and leaders of other law enforcement agencies.

The Treasury Department said an updated general license issued Friday authorizes tech firms to offer more social media and collaboration platforms, video conferencing and cloud-based services.

The updated license also removes the condition that communications be personal, which Treasury said was burdening companies with the need to verify the purpose of the communications.

As courageous Iranians take to the streets to protest the death of Mahsa Amini, the United States is redoubling its support for the free flow of information to the Iranian people, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement.

With these changes, we are helping the Iranian people be better equipped to counter the governments efforts to surveil and censor them.

The United Nations has called for an investigation into Aminis death.

Amir Rashidi, an exiled Iranian who is director of internet security and digital rights at Miaan Group, said lifting restrictions will help Iranians bypass censorship.

Also its going to provide Iranians with safety and security, he said. When you can have your data outside the country Iranian security services cannot unlawfully access your data because your data is protected by international law outside Iran.

In 2014, Treasurys sanctions arm issued a license authorizing exports of software and services to Iran that would allow the free exchange of communication over the internet, with the intent to foster the free flow of information to Iranian citizens.

Even so, U.S. firms have been reluctant to do business in Iran, due to fears of violating existing sanctions and other laws that impose penalties.

On Monday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that his satellite internet firm Starlink would seek permission to operate in Iran. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said it was up to Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control to decide on Starlinks next steps.

The White House said the move, along with a recent increase in sanctions, does not affect the administrations plans to reenter the Iran nuclear deal.

We have concerns, we do, with Iran, said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, but pursuing the Iran deal is the best way for us to address the nuclear problem.

___

Associated Press writer Frank Bajak contributed to this report from Boston.

By FATIMA HUSSEIN

Associated Press
Unification Church pledges reforms after Abes assassination View Photo

TOKYO (AP)  The Unification Church, whose close ties with Japans governing party have emerged after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, acknowledged Thursday that it had accepted excessive donations from the suspects mother, and that it would need to consider it seriously if that led to the killing.

Abe was shot to death during an outdoor campaign speech in July. The suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, told police he killed Abe because of his apparent link to a religious group he hated. A letter and social media postings attributed to him said his mothers large donations to the church bankrupted his family and ruined his life.

Hideyuki Teshigawara, a senior official at the church, which is now called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, said at a news conference that he was deeply saddened to hear Yamagami had told police that his anger toward the church led to the attack.

Teshigawara said he is leading reforms in the church to ensure its recruitment and donations are not forced or harmful to followers or their families.

The church has acknowledged that Yamagamis mother donated more than 100 million yen ($700,000), including life insurance and real estate, to the group. It said it later returned about half at the request of the suspects uncle.

A church lawyer, Nobuya Fukumoto, said he considers the donations by Yamagamis mother excessive, and that we have to take it seriously if that tormented (the suspect) and led to the outcome.

The police investigation of Abes killing led to revelations of widespread ties between the governing Liberal Democratic Party, including Abe, and the South Korea-based church over their shared interests in conservative causes.

An LDP survey found nearly half of its lawmakers had ties to the church. Current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has pledged to cut all such ties, but many Japanese want a further explanation of how the church may have influenced party policies.

Kishida has come under fire over his handling of the church controversy as well as for pushing plans for a state funeral for Abe, and support ratings for his government have nosedived. Abe is one of Japans most divisive leaders, and plans for the state funeral next Tuesday have become increasingly unpopular as more details have emerged about the partys and Abes links to the church.

On Wednesday, a man set himself on fire near the prime ministers office in an apparent protest against the state funeral. The man suffered serious burns but was conscious when taken to a hospital. Police said it was an attempted suicide and refused to provide further details. Media reports said he had a note expressing his opposition to the state funeral.

The attempted suicide amid heightened security was an embarrassment for police, who have already been accused of providing insufficient protection for Abe.

State funerals for prime ministers are rare in Japan. Kishida has said Abe deserves the honor as Japans longest-serving post-World War II leader and for his diplomatic and economic achievements.

Critics say the plan for a state funeral was decided undemocratically, has no legal basis, and is an inappropriate and costly use of taxpayers money. Political analysts say Kishida decided to hold a state funeral to please Abes party faction and buttress his own power.

An executive of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, Katsuya Okada, told a group of reporters Thursday that there are many problems with holding a state funeral and that party executives will boycott the event.

The most unfortunate thing is that the state funeral is carried out despite the majority of the people being opposed to it, which I think is also unfortunate for former Prime Minister Abe, Okada said. Prime Minister Kishida should have made a decision more carefully.

By MARI YAMAGUCHI

Associated Press
Budd embraces Trump, abortion opposition in NC Senate race View Photo

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  In competitive races across the U.S., Republican candidates are distancing themselves from their partys most controversial policies and people  namely, abortion and former President Donald Trump  as Election Day approaches.

Not Ted Budd.

The North Carolina GOP Senate nominee is leaning into support for abortion restrictions and amity with the former Republican president as Democrats fight for an elusive victory in the Southern swing state.

Democratic optimism remains tempered given the states recent red tilt, but Democratic officials believe Budd, a low-profile congressman who emerged as the GOPs Senate nominee largely because of Trumps backing, gives them a real chance at flipping a seat  and holding the balance of power in Washington  this fall.

Disregarding his critics, Budd appeared alongside Trump at a rally in Wilmington Friday night, where the former president praised the candidate as a conservative, America First all-star in Congress and urged his supporters to turn out to vote. Budd, in turn, thanked Trump for returning to the state.

The Budd campaign was eager to welcome Trump when the former presidents team called, according to adviser Jonathan Felts.

Trump won North Carolina twice, and an in-person rally is helpful, Felts said, suggesting Trump would help drive turnout, especially with unaffiliated and/or undecided voters concerned about the economy.

Others arent so sure.

The more Trump emerges, the more Trump is in the news, the better for Democrats, said David Holian, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Indeed, Trump remains overwhelmingly popular with Republican voters but is less appealing to the moderates and independents who often decide swing-state elections. Trumps national favorable ratings have been roughly even with, or worse than, President Joe Bidens in recent weeks.

Still, some North Carolina Democrats are far from confident in a state where they have suffered painful losses in recent years.

Democratic skepticism comes despite the apparent strength of their Senate nominee, former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, who has a decided fundraising advantage, a record of outperforming other Democrats in statewide elections and a moderate message. She would be the states first Black senator if elected.

Yet Beasley is also running against negative perceptions of her party.

Trumps rise has fueled a growing sense among some voters in North Carolina, along with those in many other states, that the national Democratic Party has lost touch with the daily struggles of the working class and similar voting blocs. The Democratic-controlled Congress focus on climate change, for example, hasnt helped inspire voters like Talmage Layton, a 74-year-old farmer from Durham.

Layton said he doesnt know whether a North Carolina Democrat can make a difference on Capitol Hill in lowering gas prices or pushing back against climate change policies that other Democrats have embraced.

Thats not anything against Cheri Beasley, Layton said after a recent meeting with Beasley. Im a registered Democrat, and I would have no problem voting for a Democrat. But theyve got to think about the little guy here.

Not long ago, it looked as if the Democratic Party was poised to take over North Carolina politics.

In 2008, Obama carried the state, becoming the first Democrat to do so since 1976, and Democrat Kay Hagan upset GOP Sen. Elizabeth Dole. Political experts predicted the Democratic Party would step to dominance as a result of increasing urbanization and out-of-state liberals moving in for tech jobs in the Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte regions.

But Republicans took over the state legislature for the first time in over 140 years following the 2010 election and retained it thanks to support from exurban and rural voters and favorably drawn districts. A decade later, Trump became a two-time North Carolina winner, though he won the 2020 election by just 1 percentage point.

While Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper managed to win reelection in 2020, Beasley was one of the partys casualties. She lost a bid to remain chief justice to a Republican rival by just 401 votes.

Her near-miss turned her into a rising candidate in the race to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Richard Burr.

In one sign of strength, Beasley has consistently raised more money than Budd. And she appears to be generating momentum by seizing on abortion to energize women and independents, relying on the same playbook Democrats have used elsewhere.

Budd, meanwhile, has been outspoken in his opposition to abortion. He co-sponsored a House version of a national 15-week abortion ban introduced by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham that even Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell distanced himself from.

My opponent has been in Congress for six years, and every opportunity hes had to vote for North Carolina, hes voted against us, Beasley charged after meeting with farmers at a produce market in Durham before Grahams bill introduction.

Meanwhile, Republicans in competitive elections in states like Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada and Arizona have distanced themselves from their rigid anti-abortion stances in recent weeks. Others have stripped their websites of references to Trump or his favorite talking points.

In Virginia, a Republican House candidate removed a Trump reference from her Twitter bio. In New Hampshire, Republican Senate nominee Don Bolduc abruptly reversed himself last week when asked about Trumps false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. After spending much of the last year echoing Trumps lies, Bolduc told Fox News he had done more research and concluded, The election was not stolen.

Meanwhile, Budds campaign refused this week to say whether he would accept the 2022 election results, having already voted to block certification of the 2020 election.

Such positions will almost certainly appeal to Trumps base, but political operatives say Budd needs sizable support from moderate, independent voters to be successful. Unaffiliated voters this year surpassed Democrats to become the largest bloc of registered voters in the state.

Regardless of what your faith background is, youre dealing with skyrocketing energy prices. Youre dealing with high grocery costs. Youre dealing with high crime. Youre dealing with economic uncertainty, Budd said after speaking to pastors recently in Greenville. And so I want to make life better for all North Carolinians and people in our country by the things that I support.

As Budd has struggled to keep pace with Beasleys fundraising, outside groups have come to his aid.

The McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have spent $17.3 million combined on advertising opposing Beasley, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The Senate Majority PAC, which supports Democratic candidates, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have spent close to $4 million in North Carolina while investing far more in high-profile contests in states like Pennsylvania and Arizona.

Were committed to making sure voters continue seeing and hearing the truth about Ted Budd, Senate Majority PAC spokesperson Veronica Yoo said.

An arm of the pro-abortion-rights EMILYs List announced this month spending $2.7 million to criticize Budd on abortion as well.

During a recent stop at Perkins Orchard in Durham, Beasley chatted with farmers who gathered around picnic tables and near fresh pumpkins for sale. Some said afterward they were glad to see her interest in their plight.

Jason Lindsay, 34, a first-generation Black farmer from Rocky Mount, said hes been frustrated with the divisive political environment but is encouraged by Beasley.

Her temperament here today gave me the first sign of hope that Ive had in a long time, he said.

___

Peoples contributed from New York.

By GARY D. ROBERTSON and STEVE PEOPLES

Associated Press
McCarthy unveils House GOPs midterm agenda in Pennsylvania View Photo

MONONGAHELA, Pa. (AP)  House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy on Friday confronted President Joe Biden and the Democratic majority in Congress with a conservative midterm election agenda filled with Trump-like promises, working not only to win over voters but to hold together the uneasy coalition of his own party that has struggled to govern.

McCarthy, who is poised to seize the speakers gavel if Republicans take control of the House in the fall, never once mentioned the former president. Instead, the GOP leader traveled to battleground Pennsylvania hoping to replicate the strategy that former Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia used to spark voter enthusiasm and gain a majority in 1994.

What the Commitment is, its a plan for a new direction, McCarthy said at a manufacturing facility in a historic building along the Monongahela River.

The House GOPs Commitment to America gives a nod to the earlier era but updates it in the age of Donald Trump, with economic, border security and social policies to rouse the former presidents deep well of supporters in sometimes-overlooked regions like this rusty landscape and rolling farmland outside Pittsburgh.

Slim enough to fit on a pocket card, which McCarthy pulled from his suitcoat, the agenda uses broad strokes  A Future Thats Built on Freedom  supplemented by more detailed proposals on energy, security and an end to liberal social policies, particularly in schooling.

President Joe Biden hit back quickly in a speech to the National Education Association.

He dismissed McCarthys agenda as a thin series of policy goals with little or no detail. But he provided his own details in urging support for Democrats in the midterm elections.

If Republicans win control of the Congress abortion will be banned, Biden said. He also criticized other GOP lawmakers for proposals to require reauthorization votes for Social Security and Medicare and opposition to gun control laws and efforts to lower prescription drug costs.

In 46 days, Americans are going to face a choice, he said. We have a real alternative here.

In Pennsylvania, McCarthy said that if Republicans win the House, the first bill next year will be to repeal funding approved by Democrats to bolster the Internal Revenue Service with more employees.

On Friday, he stood with a wide cross-section of lawmakers  from far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to less extreme GOP members of Congress  offering a portrait of unity despite the wide range of views that make up the House minority  and the Republican Party nationally.

The GOP in the Trump-era has shifted from its focus on small government, low taxes and individual freedoms to a more populist, nationalist and, at times, far-right party, essentially still led by the former president, who remains popular despite the deepening state and federal investigations against him.

Propelled by Trumps Make America Great Again voters, the Republicans need to pick up just a few seats to win back control of the narrowly split House and replace Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But even so, McCarthys ability to lead the House is far from guaranteed.

While Republicans and Trump did pass tax cuts into law, the GOPs last big campaign promise, repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, collapsed in failure. Republican speakers, including Gingrich, John Boehner and Paul Ryan, have been forced from office or have chosen early retirement, often ground down by party infighting.

House Republicans are really good at running people out of town, said Matt Schlapp, chair of the Conservative Political Action Coalition.

McCarthy, first elected to office in 2006, is among the remaining survivors of those House Republican battles, a leader who, somewhat like, Trump has shown more ability to communicate than to legislate.

A key architect of the Republican tea party takeover in 2010, the California Republican personally recruited the newcomers to Congress  many who had never served in public office and are now long gone. McCarthy was an early Trump endorser and has remained close to the former president, relying on Trumps high-profile endorsements to propel GOP candidates for Congress. He abandoned an earlier bid to become speaker when support from House colleagues drifted.

He spent more than a year pulling together the House GOPs often warring factions  from the far-right MAGA to whats left of the more centrist ranks  to produce a mostly agreed-upon agenda.

In traveling to swing state Pennsylvania, where Biden holds emotional ties from his early childhood, McCarthy sought to counter the Democratic presidents fiery Labor Day weekend speech, in which he warned of rising GOP extremism after the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

McCarthy he and fellow lawmakers chose Washington County not Washington, D.C. Because its about you, its not about us.

Along with as many as five House seats Republicans believe they can pick up in Pennsylvania in November, the state has one of the most watched Senate races, between Democrat John Fetterman and Trump-backed Dr. Mehmet Oz. At the top of the ticket is the governors matchup between the GOPs Doug Mastriano, who was seen outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, and Democrat Josh Shapiro.

If you are a hard-line populist and you really want anger, Kevins a little frustrating because hes not going to be angry enough for you, Gingrich said. On the other hand, if what you want is to have your values implemented and passed in the legislation, he is a really good leader and organizer.

Gingrich has been working with McCarthy and his team to craft the style and substance of the proposal.

Conservative Republicans complain privately that McCarthy isnt leaning hard enough into their priorities, as he tries to appeal to a broader swath of voters and hold the party together.

Many are eager to launch investigations into the Biden administration and the presidents family, with some calling for impeachment. Legislatively, some House Republicans want to fulfill the partys commitment to banning abortion, supporting Sen. Lindsey Grahams bill prohibiting the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Former McCarthy rival Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio who joined the event Friday, vowed to launch investigations including into the COVID-19 crisis if Republicans win the House.

Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, has advocated for withholding federal funds as leverage for policy priorities, a tactic that engineered past government shutdowns.

Putting out like, you know, principles about, Well, well secure the border. I mean, OK, but what are we gonna do about it? Roy said.

Its notable that McCarthy alone has proposed a plan if Republicans win control of the House chamber. In the Senate, Republican leader Mitch McConnell has declined to put forward an agenda, preferring to simply run against Biden and Democrats in the midterm election.

Kevins done a very good job of being in position to become the speaker. And then the question is, what do you do with that? Schlapp said. This helps as a roadmap.

___

Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim, Kevin Freking and Farnoush Amiri in Washington and Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.

___

Follow the APs coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections.

By LISA MASCARO

AP Congressional Correspondent
By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Patient readers, this will be a bit light. As you know, Im a big LeCarre fan, ndd I discovered the BBCs Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (the television series, in six parts) was on YouTube, legitimately. So I binge-watched it, instead of gathering Water Cooler material. Fifty lashes with a wet noodle for me. Lambert. P.S. Alec Guinness, although not podgy enough, is superb as Smiley. The entire cast is a glorious ensemble

Bird Song of the Day

Northern Gray-headed Sparrow, Tarengire National Park, Tanzania. In campground, 2 seen in a tree over the tent. Dawn song.

* * *

Politics

But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? James Madison, Federalist 51

Heres food for thought, had Ahab time to think; but Ahab never thinks; he only feels, feels, feels Herman Melville, Moby Dick

You cant really dust for vomit. Nigel Tufnel, This is Spinal Tap

Biden Administration

Support from women boosts Biden to another year-high approval rating: poll [The Hill].  Its amazing to see the Demcorats make hay out of not delivering on Roe.

2022

* * * Trump to unleash millions in the midterms in possible prelude to 2024 [Politico]. Donald Trumps top lieutenants are launching a new super PAC that is expected to spend heavily to bolster his endorsed candidates in the midterm election  and, some people close to the former president say, could become a campaign apparatus if he runs in 2024. Sanctioned by the former president, the new group, dubbed MAGA, Inc., will become the primary vehicle for Trumps operation to engage in political activity in 2022. The outfit is designed to funnel large sums into key races and could conceivably be used to boost Trump in the event he seeks the White House again.  My first thought: A little late. My second: At the margin, it might make a difference in tight races if Trump makes good picks. Well see.

Democrats en Deshabille

I have moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Party (the Democrat Party is a rotting corpse that cant bury itself) to a separate, back-dated post, to which I will periodically add material, summarizing the addition here in a live Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It turns out that defining the Democrat Party is, in fact, a hard problem. I do think the paragraph that follows is on point all the way back to 2016, if not before: The Democrat Party is the political expression of the class power of PMC, their base (lucidly explained by Thomas Frank in Listen, Liberal!). It follows that the Democrat Party is as unreformable as the PMC is unreformable ; if the Democrat Party did not exist, the PMC would have to invent it. If the Democrat Party fails to govern, thats because the PMC lacks the capability to govern . (PMC modulo class expatriates, of course.) Second, all the working parts of the Party reinforce each other. Leave aside characterizing the relationships between elements of the Party (ka-ching, but not entirely) those elements comprise a network  a Flex Net? An iron octagon?  of funders, vendors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with assets in the press and the intelligence community. Note, of course, that the class power of the PMC both expresses and is limited by other classes; oligarchs and American gentry (see industrial model of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working class spring to mind. Suck up, kick down. * * * U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz unlikely to face charges in sex-trafficking probe, report says [Orlando Sentinel]. Citing concerns about the credibility of key witnesses against him  including Seminole Countys former tax collector, Joel Greenberg  career Justice Department prosecutors have recommended against charging U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz with sex trafficking, according to a report.  Ah, those career prosecutors.

Republican Funhouse

Realignment and Legitimacy

Ugh: This is inexcusable. A truly wild moment yesterday from the House Financial Services Committee, where they laugh about the revolving door from Congress to the banks. pic.twitter.com/LnHDlj6ZJu  unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) September 22, 2022 After Yves exposed Andrew Bowden for similar behavior, the SEC heaved him over the side. I guess its different if youre a congress critter. FBI misled judge who signed warrant for Beverly Hills seizure of $86 million in cash [Los Angeles Times].  The FBI? Surely not.

#COVID19

Italian study shows ventilation can cut school COVID cases by 82% [Reuters]. An experiment overseen by the Hume foundation think-tank compared coronavirus contagion in 10,441 classrooms in Italys central Marche region. COVID infections were steeply lower in the 316 classrooms that had mechanical ventilation systems, with the reduction in cases more marked according to the strength of the systems. With applications guaranteeing a complete replacement of the air in a classroom 2.4 times in an hour, infections were reduced by 40%. They were lowered by 66.8% with four air replacements per hour and by 82.5% with six air replacements, the study showed.  We ran this story when it appeared, back in March. Recent commentary:

If paralyzed by fear of being wrong, US federal govt insists they will not act on ventilation targets (ACH) w/o more data tied to human infection rates, it is a fait accompli. Essentially guaranteed not to find any for a long time if ever (except for the Italian study). (9/9) https://t.co/CGLhKBTdob  Devabhaktuni "Sri" Srikrishna (@sri_srikrishna) September 23, 2022

Needless to say, the United States is unlikely to replicate the Italian study. If you think that solving airborne tranmission is an engineering problem, thats not an issue. If you think that ventilation requires an RCT, it is.

* * *

A thread on the history of pandemic planning. Some factoids:

* Those coming up with the plan reviewed the 1918 pandemic and found, contrary to conventional wisdom, that those cities who "locked down" early, did best From this they determined that an early response was one of (if not the) most important factors in pandemic control  Gregory Travis (@greg_travis) September 22, 2022

The Center for Disease has been broken for a long time.

The Next Pandemic Could Be Worse than Covid. Were Unprepared [Politico]. As with every Public Health Emergency of International Concern so far except for the Zika virus, the global Covid response has centered around our best defense: vaccines.  Best and only, apparently.

* * *

 Maskstravaganaza: Stanford researchers find wildfire smoke is unraveling decades of air quality gains, exposing millions of Americans to extreme pollution levels (press release) [Stanford University]. Using statistical modeling and artificial intelligence techniques, the researchers estimated concentrations of PM2.5 specifically from wildfire smoke in sharp enough detail to reveal variations within individual counties and individual smoke events from coast to coast from 2006 to 2020. We found that people are being exposed to more days with wildfire smoke and more extreme days with high levels of fine particulate matter from smoke, said lead study author Marissa Childs.  Your N95 or better should protect you against PM2.5. Thats why compliance in some parts of Asia was so good, because people were already accustomed to wearing them. Of course, in this country, presumably it is not OK to wear a mask when your motivation is Covid, but it is OK to wear a mask when your motivation is wildfires. Or is it? Its so confusing!

Case Count

Case count for the United States:

Cases are undercounted, one source saying by a factor of six, Gottlieb thinking we only pick up one in seven or eight.) Hence, I take the nominal case count and multiply it by six to approximate the real level of cases, and draw the DNC-blue Biden Line at that point. The previous count was ~59,200. Today, its ~52,800 and 52,800 * 6 = a Biden line at 316,800. (Remember these data points are weekly averages, so daily fluctuations are smoothed out.) The black Fauci Line is a counter to triumphalism, since it compares current levels to past crises. If you look at the Fauci line, you will see that despite the bleating and yammering about Covid being over, we have only just recently reached the (nominal) case level of August, 2021, and we are very far from that of March, 2021. And the real level is much worse.

Lambert here: The fall in case count looks impressive enough. What the Fauci Line shows, however, is that we have at last achieved the level of the initial peak, when New York was storing the bodies in refrigerator trucks. So the endzone celebrations are, to my mind, premature. Not that anyone will throw a flag. Of course, the real story is in the charts for California and the South. See below.

Regional case count for four weeks:

The South:

The South (minus Texas and Florida):

The West:

California on a high plateau all of its own, with yet another backward revision.

Wastewater

Wastewater data (CDC), September 19:

Lambert here: I added all the dots back in. The number of grey dots really concerns me. How can all the sites for international air travel center New York be grey (no recent data). And Californias pretty gappy, too.

For grins, September 18:

NOTE To get the CDC data pages to load, I have to turn off my VPN. Thanks for the security breach, CDC.

Positivity

From the Walgreens test positivity tracker, September 21:

-2.1%. Good news!

Transmission

NOTE: I shall most certainly not be using the CDCs new Community Level metric. Because CDC has combined a leading indicator (cases) with a lagging one (hospitalization) their new metric is a poor warning sign of a surge, and a poor way to assess personal risk. In addition, Covid is a disease you dont want to get. Even if you are not hospitalized, you can suffer from Long Covid, vascular issues, and neurological issues. For these reasons, case counts  known to be underestimated, due to home test kits  deserve to stand alone as a number to be tracked, no matter how much the political operatives in CDC leadership would like to obfuscate it. That the green map (which Topol calls a capitulation and a deception) is still up and being taken seriously verges on the criminal. Use the community transmission immediately below.

Here is CDCs interactive map by county set to community transmission. (This is the map CDC wants only hospitals to look at, not you.)

Rapid Riser data, by county (CDC), September 23:

I suppose that if case counts are indeed level, its likely there would be few rapid risers. Those two red areas in Northern Maine and upstate New York are both on the way to Quebec, Canada.

Previous Rapid Riser data:

Hospitalization data, by state (CDC), September 23:

Not a sea of green.

NOTE: Rapid Riser and Hospitalization data are updated Wednesdays and Fridays.

Variants

Lambert here: Its beyond frustrating how slow the variant data is. I looked for more charts: California doesnt to a BA.4/BA.5 breakdown. New York does but it, too, is on a molasses-like two-week cycle. Does nobody in the public health establishment get a promotion for tracking variants? Are there no grants? Is there a single lab that does this work, and everybody gets the results from them? Additional sources from readers welcome [grinds teeth, bangs head on desk].

NOT UPDATED Variant data, national (Walgreens), September 10:

Still no sign of BA.2.75 at Walgreens, despite its appearance in CDC data below.

Variant data, national (CDC), September 10 (Nowcast off):

Two highlights: BA.4.6 has assumed a slightly greater proportion (more in the NowCast model, which I refuse to use). What about BA.2.75?

The above chart shows variants nationally. I have gone through the CDC regions and made a table. As you can see, BA.2.75 is prominent in Region 2 (New York and New Jersey), followed by Region 5 (Midwest), and Region 1 (Northeast). Hmm.

Table 1: CDC Regional BA.2.75 Data, Sorted by % Total (September 23)

CDC Region % Total States in Region Region 2: 1.3% (0.8%) New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands Region 8: 1.3% (0.0%) Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming Region 9: 1.2% (0.0%) Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Region 6: 0.6% (0.0%) Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas Region 3: 0.5% (0.4%) Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia Region 4: 0.4% (0.4%) Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee Region 5: 0.4% (0.7%) Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin Region 7: 0.3% (0.3%) lowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska Region 10: 0.3% (0.0%) Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington Region 1: 0.1% (0.7%) Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont

LEGEND: Previous CDC variant release shown in parentheses, (thus).

Not encouraging. Of course, the absolute numbers are small, but weve seen that movie before. I especially dont like the jump in Region 2, because the New York area is spready, based on past history. Region 1, on the other hand, dropped.

Deaths

Death rate (Our World in Data):

Lambert here: Not sure why World in Data changed the color to red.

Total: 1,080,836  1,080,356 = 480 (480 * 365 = 175,200, which is todays LivingWith* number (quite a bit higher than the minimizers would like, though they can talk themselves into anything. Fluctuates quite a bit, but even the low numbers are bad). I have added an anti-triumphalist black Fauci Line.

Its nice that for deaths I have a simple, daily chart that just keeps chugging along, unlike everything else CDC and the White House are screwing up or letting go dark, good job.

Stats Watch

There are not official statistics of interest today.

* * *

Finance: Huh?

While it seems like a random technical thing in the financial markets, the failed Citrix financing may be the biggest domestic story of the month. It means there's no more money for private equity buy-outs. My man Jay ftw! https://t.co/TPehoICrWE  Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) September 23, 2022

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Todays Fear & Greed Index: 21 Extreme Fear (previous close: 26 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 35 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Sep 23 at 1:42 PM EDT.

Our Famously Free Press

Democratic firms prevail in suit against Project Veritas [Politico]. A federal court jury on Thursday awarded $120,000 in damages to Democratic consulting firms targeted by Project Veritas, a conservative group specializing in hidden-camera video stings, in connection with recordings made in 2016 by an operative who obtained an internship using a false name and story. The jury of four men and five women concluded that the actions of the former operative, Allison Maass, breached a fiduciary duty to the consulting firms and amounted to fraudulent misrepresentation, according to the verdict form. Recordings made by Maass and other operatives depicting what the group said were efforts to incite violence at rallies for then-President Donald Trump drew significant media attention in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign. A key figure behind the Democratic consultancies, Robert Creamer, said the firms lost organizing contracts after the release of the videos. He adamantly denied encouraging violence during so-called bracketing efforts around Trump events. Project Veritas founder, James OKeefe, refers to Maass and others who conduct the stings as journalists. Vowing an appeal, he said the jury verdict endangered hidden-camera work by a wide range of journalists. 

The Gallery

Like listening to YouTubes on Ukraine today?

Groves of Academe

A university administrator actually approved these abominations:

Only just now learning about the ongoing rebranding of universities and their publishing houses. Wilful destruction of history. Presumably all on the advice of useless PR types. pic.twitter.com/rTSpcmfj02  Lord Canceller  (@OnTheWoolsack) September 23, 2022

Class Warfare

We still havent seen a contract for the railroad workers, so now its not theres no deal, its that theres really no deal. Here is on snippet that somehow escaped:

Everything in this paragraph relates negative impacts to quality of life. The TA additions are worse than the PEB. I dont need questions answered. I need for all of us to VOTE NO! pic.twitter.com/WiQ6nyGOxL  Ross Grooters (@RossGrooters) September 22, 2022

The timeline is looking pretty sketchy, too:

Thats my hope as well. And if you look at the timeline it looks like it was done to just push it out last mid terms. @smartunionworks and the #BLET screwed us just to push it out for elections. We need a new #Union or all new leadership pic.twitter.com/CSc2EKgqtN  IDKWHOIAM (@IDKWHO_YOUARE) September 23, 2022

Disgruntled individuals? Perhaps. The obvious answer would be for the union leadership to come clean with a full copy of the TA, and with actual contract language ASAP.

U.S.-China Tensions Fuel Outflow of Chinese Scientists From U.S. Universities [Wall Street Journal]. An increasing number of scientists and engineers of Chinese descent are giving up tenured positions at top-tier American universities to leave for China or elsewhere, in a sign of the U.S.s fading appeal for a group that has been a driver of innovation. The trend, driven in part by what many of the scholars describe as an increasingly hostile political and racial environment, has caused the Biden administration to work with scholars of Chinese descent to address concerns. More than 1,400 U.S.-trained Chinese scientists dropped their U.S. academic or corporate affiliation for a Chinese one in 2021, a 22% jump from the previous year, according to data gathered by researchers from Princeton University, Harvard University and the Massachuseolo found that China-born scientists account for nearly 30% of artificial-intelligence researchers working for U.S. institutions. Oh? And: Chinese and other foreign-born scientists have been a source of national strength, Eric Schmidt, former executive chairman of Google parent company Alphabet Inc. and chairman of the U.S. governments National Security Commission on AI, said in an interview. We should never aim to cut ourselves off from a country that is home to 1.4 billion, with immense talent.'  Especially as people of Schmidts class are nuking the university system here. But why build when you can buy?tts Institute of Technology. And: A 2020 analysis by Chicago-based think tank MacroP

News of the Wired

Be critical or be corrupted [CJ Cenizal]. On The Wire: What began as the homicide divisions initial reaction to a problem becomes a chain reaction. More metrics blossom and breed bad behavior. The department measures crime in terms of felonies, so they show a reduction in crime by reclassifying felonies as misdemeanors, thus letting violent criminals off the hook. Meanwhile they use their arrest rate to measure effectiveness, so they demonstrate an effective police force by arresting people for minor infractions like loitering. The metrics incentivize counterproductive behavior and, over time, develop into a self-perpetuating culture. This is corruption. What can we do about this entropic tendency of organizations towards corruption? We can carefully design our metrics and think critically about the behaviors we expect them to incentivize. This ones obvious. We can extend self-awareness and critical thinking to all decisions made within an organization. We just have to consider every decisions second-order effects.  Hmm.

The Streisand Effect?

NEW: TikTok just told me that the day before the FDA's post about NyQuil chicken, there were *5* searches for it on the app. As of yesterday, searches grew more than 1400xhttps://t.co/YUn9FALJSq  kelsey weekman (@kelsaywhat) September 22, 2022

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Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. From AB:

AB writes: My sunflowers made the local news: Towering Sunflowers In Alameda: Photo Of The Day. Congratulations!

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If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!
Yves here. Lambert was early to identify what he called authoritarian followership among Team Dem. Its now going to its logical conclusion as the Democrats and even many supposedly lefties are fine with the trashing of civil rights and liberty if that expedites bringing down Hair Furore.

By Thomas Neuburger. Originally published at Gods Spies

In Trump-related cases, the DOJ has pushed the tactical envelope in all the same ways it has with other types of unpopular defendants over the years, only its done so with a disturbing  presumption that the public wants them to color outside the lines more than ever, and deal even more cruelly with targets. The DOJ has political winds at its back[that] it lacked even in the early War on Terror days.

Matt Taibbi, writing about the increasing power of the prosecutorial state

The FBI has always been a tool of repression of left-wing movements.

Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing

The CIA is not your friend.

Edward Snowden, here

Two things can be true at the same time:

 Donald Trump can be an indefensible excuse for a president and represent a danger to the Republic (the formal institution of our government).

 At the same time, the National Security State can be exercising a power grab the likes of which will end both our democracy and our republican version of it.

Of course, both things can also be false, or just one true. If I were a novelist, Id make both things true. But thats just a novelists view. Lets see what we find when we take a real-world view.

The Once and Future Danger

I take it as a given that Trump is a dangerous president. You can give your reasons, if you have them, as easily as I can give mine. Our lists might even match.

The point is not to argue our lists. The point is to wonder what made liberals  people who used to hate spook state agents like the FBI and CIA  suddenly love them, support their penetration of media via unaffiliated spokespeople, and blind themselves to the conversion of J. Edgar Hoovers criminal, blackmail enterprise into modern angels of democratic deliverance in the present American mind?

A recent democratic angel of such deliverance is George W. Bush, he of torture and war crimes fame. Another is from the Cheney family, Trump-hating Liz Cheney, enemy of all that progressives hold dear save her animosity toward the Previous Occupant.

Are either of them friends of freedom? Not if you look at them  or retain the semblance of a memory  but theyre certainly praised as such, these days that is. Some Democrats might even finance her run for the presidency, should she choose to make one.

The lovable Mr. Bush, welcomed back to the fold

Whos the once and future danger? Is it only Trump?

Hoovers FBI, of course, has been credibly linked to the murder of Malcolm Xand less credibly linked to the murder of Martin Luther King. And the misdeeds of the National Security State writ large are numerous and indefensible. From the murder of Americans by the CIA drone operation(2010), to spying on the Supreme Court by the FBI (2012), to outright and unpunished lying under oath to Congress by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (2017)  its surprising to me that fervent defenders of democracy, folks to the left of the Right, your friends and mine, have become their fast friends as well, some even their defenders.

So surprisingly strong is the defense of the FBI by its former attackers that even the venerable folks at Democracy Now are taking a look. Describing a recent broadcast, they wrote (all bolded emphasis mine):

There Are Good Reasons to Defund the FBI. They Have Nothing to Do with Trump Defund the FBI is the growing call by Republicans after the FBI searched former President Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago estate. We get response from Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing, who lays out reasons to defund the FBI that have nothing to do with Trump. Vitale reviews the history of the FBI, which he says has always been a tool of repression of left-wing movements, and calls the FBI investigation into Trump a shortsighted attempt to shut down some of the most extreme parts of the right wing. He uplifts efforts to reduce the power and scope of the FBI in ways that limit their ability to demonize and criminalize those on the left.

Has Trump made us blind, or has the prosecutorial state reformed itself?

Is that question even being asked?

The DOJs Trojan Horse

All this leads me to recommend a full read of a series that appeared recently at Matt Taibbis Substack site. In a piece called What Happened to Americas Civil Libertarians? Taibbi details how disturbing it is for readers to even see these doubts expressed:

Over the weekend I published a feature on Justice Department use of bullying tactics and unfair practices, called The Justice Department Was Dangerous Before Trump. Its Out of Control Now. Despite the fact that the bulk of the article focused on targets broadly sympathetic to the left, like the late radical lawyer Lynne Stewart and a civil rights firm in Baltimore raided for the crime of representing another lawyer, a flood of emails and social media posts ensued, most on the predictable theme that this piece [] packed with facts and testimonials by people other than myself [] was right-wing grift: What happened to you, man?

But the piece he refers to is solid and solidly researched. I strongly recommend reading it all.

In it he examines the use of taint teams by the FBI, a practice whereby they go into a targets office, often a lawyer defending someone under investigation, and scoop up everything they can find, with the intention of assigning one of their own (but not part of the investigation) to look at everything and sort it out later. Theyve been doing this long before Trump took center stage.

Judges were especially upset with prosecutors who were taking advantage of technological changes to seize masses of electronic data  usually computers or cell phones containing private information outside the scope of the warrant request  and, in defiance of courts, keeping that information. In a case involving seizure of emails from a defense contractor suspected of a kickback scheme, a D.C. Magistrate named John Facciola expressed concern that the government would keep data indefinitely despite the fact that it is illegal to refuse to return seized documents not described in a warrant. Facciola, whod dealt with this issue more than once, blew his top  [but he was] overturned by a judge, Richard Roberts, who said the governments take-everything, construct-probable-cause-later method was okay so long as there was sufficient chance of finding some needles in the computer haystack. This was the kind of judicial advice the feds liked: seize now, worry later.

Of one such raid of the law office of Joshua Treem, the lawyer of the lawyer of a suspect, Taibbi writes:

The U.S. Attorneys office in Maryland had long been pursuing a lawyer named Ken Ravenell, one of the top criminal attorneys in Baltimore, believing he was essentially part of the criminal operation of a Jamaican marijuana kingpin named Richard Byrd. That the feds raided Ravenells office in 2014 was one thing. The real shocker came in 2019, when the U.S. Attorney and the I.R.S. raided the law office of Ravenells lawyer, Joshua Treem. If the Lynne Stewart case was about intimidating the lawyer of a suspect, this case was about intimidating the lawyer of the lawyer of a suspect. The DOJ didnt just take Treems files. It took huge amounts of data and files from the firm where Treem was and is a partner, Brown, Goldstein, and Levy. This group of lawyers had been repeatedly recognized as a top firm by U.S. News and World Report and Best Lawyers in America, with several attorneys winning annual Baltimore Lawyer of the Year awards, including Treem himself. Despite their standing, the Justice Department treated Treems firm like terror suspects, delivering a surprise search replete with armed, kevlar-clad agents, on the basis of a warrant issued in an ex parte hearing with a district judge, meaning the firm had no chance to contest the raid. The Brown, Goldstein, and Levy lawyers were in a state of shock. For a civil rights law office, mid-morning on a business day, in the middle of Baltimore, they felt the need to get fully armed, says Treem, laughing in amazement as he recalls the scene. They never even sent a subpoena, says fellow partner Kobie Flowers. That was part of our argument later in the Fourth Circuit. Were all officers of the court. We all have ethical duties to follow. We cant destroy evidence. Had you just sent a subpoena for this stuff, we would have given it over to you.

Why do all this?

One consequence of becoming a criminal suspect was that Treem, whod received a target letter six months before, had a conflict of interest that prevented him from defending Ravenell, which of course might have been part of the point. I had to withdraw from representing my client, says Treem. Once I got the target letter, I had to advise my current clients and any people who were calling me to ask for representation. Asked if such tactics could be interpreted as a message, that any attorney who wants to stay in business should think twice about representing someone the government is serious about pursuing, Flowers said the intimidation factor goes further than that. On the one hand, its a strategy move. They get to kick Josh off the case, he said. But the next step, or a corollary to that thought, is: for many criminal defense attorneys, it causes them to question whether they want to be in this profession?

The FBI and DOJ also get a peek  and chance to copy and use without revealing their sources to the defense  all of the communication and files of all of the other lawyers at the firm. Whats the benefit of that? Taibbi answers:

The government took 37,000 emails from Treems inbox alone, of which only 62 were from Ravenell or contained his name. Treems firm had over twenty lawyers, files about whom were taken into the custody of a separate office of the Maryland U.S. Attorneys office. As a judge in the case later wrote, referencing Treem and Ravenell as Lawyer A and Client A: An extensive portion of the seized emails were from other [Law Firm] attorneys concerning . . . other attorneys clients that have no connection with th[e] investigation[s] of Lawyer A and Client A. Notably, some of those Law Firm clients are being investigated by, or are being prosecuted by, the United States Attorneys Office [for the District of Maryland] for unrelated crimes. In other words, the U.S. Attorneys office in Maryland decided to cruise through the defense files of clients that same office was already investigating and/or prosecuting.

Is the Justice Department out of control when it comes to its prosecutorial powers and abilities? Has the National Security State, of which the FBI and the DOJ are part, slipped its leash thanks to 9/11 and our new-found love of making life miserable for terrorists?

The permanently detained and never-to-be-tried at Guantanamo Bay

Has the FBI, in the words of one of its liberal defenders, reformed and modernized? Or is it, in Taibbis words, a Trojan Horse, inside which the Justice Department has assembled an army for a grand assault on civil liberties?

Left and Right vs. Right and Wrong

These questions are currently handled through a left vs. right framework. Id argue they should be handled through a right vs. wrong framework. Is the criticism true or not? is a different question than Does it help Trump or not?

If the nation becomes an authoritarian hellhole, it may not be the Right thats in charge. The national security state, with bipartisan support, is already a candidate.

Of course, a lonely writer and a few thousand loyal readers arent going to decide this matter for the nation. The nation will decide for itself which spinning wheels it wants to be dazzled by.

I wait with bated breath for the day it decides. I will release that breath when I see what flows from the result.

And I hope to God that the result is not presaged by the lines of the famous poem First they came, whose middle verse might soon be revised to say: Then they came for Trump, but I hated the bastard, so f-ck him.
After a million deaths in Latin America, Washingtons staunchest ally in the region, Colombia, just called time on the US irrational war against drugs.

While the worlds attention was riveted on Vladimir Putins speech this week, with good reason given its potential ramifications, a Latin American leader launched a scathing critique of the US-led war on drugs from the podium of the UN General Assembly in New York. That leader was Gustavo Petro, the recently elected left-wing president of Colombia, which until now was the United States staunchest ally/client state in Latin America and one of the most important theaters of the global war on drugs.

A Country of Bloody Beauty

I come from one of the three most beautiful countries on Earth. With this line and without mentioning the other two, Petro began a speech that was not just powerful and profound; it was even occasionally poetic:

There is an explosion of life. Thousands of multicolored species in the seas, in the skies, on the land. I come from the land of yellow butterflies and magic. There, in the mountains and valleys of all shades of green, not only do the abundant waters descend but also torrents of blood. I come from a country of bloody beauty.

Colombia has been at war with itself, on and off, for almost 60 years. Its internecine conflict is one of the longest and most complex wars of modern times, generating one of the largest internal displacements the world has seen, with an estimated nine out of fifty million people affected. Despite the peace deal signed in late 2016 between the Santos government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARCEP), a low-intensity asymmetric war continues to simmer between the government, far-right paramilitary groups, crime syndicates, and far-left guerrilla groups.

Much of that violence continues to be fuelled by the drugs trade and the US-led war against it. And that war has failed spectacularly, Petro said. It is not an isolated view. Colombias Truth Commission ended its four-year investigation into Colombias multi-decade civil war with the conclusion that the drug war had been a resounding failure. It also concluded that all sides of the conflict had been involved in the drugs trade.

Colombias new left-wing leader is determined to shake things up. His government has pledged to end forced eradication of coca as well as offer growers viable crop alternatives. It will also introduce legislation to decriminalize and regulate domestic cocaine sales in a bid to undercut illicit markets and the profit motive driving them. Also under consideration is a radical rethink of Colombias extradition arrangements with the US, so that drug traffickers who comply with government surrender conditions and abandon the narcotics trade are not extradited. It is a plan that has been on the table for decades but has never been used.

Poisoning the Amazon With Glyphosate

The global fight against climate change has also been a resounding failure, Petro said in his speech. He apportioning most of the blame for this on corporate greed in the northern hemisphere and the fixation on economic growth:

The climate disaster that will kill hundreds of millions of people is not being caused by the planet, it is being caused by capital. By the logic of consuming more and more, producing more and more, and for some people earning more and more.

Petro also blasted the indiscriminate use of glyphosate and other noxious chemicals used by previous governments to eradicate cocaine farms, leaving in its wake a vast trail of environmental destruction. Yet Colombias output of the illicit white stimulant has continued to grow despite the $13 billion Washington has splashed on eradication, policing and military programs in the country.

To destroy the coca plant they throw poisons, such as glyphosate, that drips into our water. They arrest the growers and imprison them. In the battle to destroy or possess the coca leaf, a million Latin Americans are murdered and two million Afro-Americans are imprisoned in North America. Destroy the plant that kills, they shout from the north, but this plant is just one among the millions that perish when they unleash fire on the jungle.

On average, 1.5% of Colombias lands has been deforested each year over the past decade, partly due to the lack of controls on extensive cattle ranching and African oil palm companies.

A Message for NATO

Petro also had a message for NATO:

What is the point of war if what we need is to save the human species? What is the point of NATO and empires if what we are facing is the end of intelligence?

Petro called on Latin American leaders to build a space for peace and take advantage of the opportunity to close the gap on powers such as the United States, Europe, Russia, South Korea and all of Southeast Asia. He also stressed that the region can ill afford to be divided between those who, like Colombia, have traditionally supported NATO and those who, like Venezuela, have support Russia.

The fact this statement was made in downturn New York, the financial heart of the declining US empire, at a time of escalating hostilities between Russia and NATO, speaks volumes about Petros political courage. One of the reasons why he is Colombias first left-wing president is that many of the other serious candidates that came before him  from Jaime Pardo Leal to Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa, to Carlos Pizarro Leongomez  were assassinated on the campaign trail. Petro himself has already faced a number of threats on his life.

US Beachhead in Latin America

The reason why Petros speech is significant is that Colombia has been of vital strategic value to the US for the last four decades. It is one of nine partners across the globe NATO has developed bilateral relations with in recent years (the others being Afghanistan, Australia, Iraq, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand and Pakistan). It is also the United States beachhead in Latin America, as explains an article published by the North American Congress on Latin America in late May, just two months before Petros electoral victory:

This came amid the Colombian governments fight against guerrilla groups that controlled vast areas of the country, the rise of Chavismo in Venezuela, and the radicalization of various currents of the Left in Latin America. [Alvaro] Uribes government welcomed U.S. military bases, advisers, troops, and tutelage into its strategic position to safeguard what Washington has long considered its backyard: Latin America, and specifically the juncture between South and Central America and between the Caribbean and the Pacific. This strategic site is now in serious jeopardy for Washingtonnot because of guerrilla victory as was the case in decades past, but because of the results of a peaceful, democratic, electoral process.

Changing Times?

One problem with Petros plan is that targeting demand in Colombia is likely to have a muted impact on Colombias supply chain given that almost all the money made in the cocaine trade is generated in the US and other rich economies. A kilo of cocaine can go for as little as $1,000 in Colombia but can have a street value of close to $200,000 in the US. As the Italian novelist and investigative journalist Roberto Saviano told the Spanish documentary series Salvados back in 2014, Cocaine is a merchandise that is sold everywhere in the world, all the time:

I [said in my book Zero Zero Zero that Cocaine] governs the world because the data are astonishing: More than 400 billion dollars of revenue per year If I invested 1,000 dollars in an Apple share, in one year I would make back around $1,200, $1,500. If I invested the same amount in cocaine, I could make back $182,000. Thats the power of cocaine I detest all types of drugs, but Im in favour of blanket legalization. I understand that its a moral problem. But I also know that the only way to take the drugs out of the hands of the mafia is legalisation. Theres no other way the world is drowning in criminal capital.

The only way that will happen is if governments of rich countries in the west, particularly the US, begin deescalating their war on drugs. Petro is tentatively optimistic that Washington may finally be ready for a radically different approach to dealing with the narcotics trade, as he told Ian Bremmer in an interview for GZERO World:

The American government is like a slow animal. Great transformations dont happen overnight, they happen very slowly. I have observed a much more open mindset in Biden government officials around this topic. Ive talked to almost everyone. They are aware that the war on drugs has failed. That it leaves millions of prisoners, the majority Black, in private prisons. In the United States. And that if we prolong this policy for 40 more years 2.8 million people will die of fentanyl overdoses.

Perhaps as a sign of the slowly changing times, the NY Times recently ran an op-ed declaring that the global war on drugs had been a staggering failure. Authored by Christy Thornton, an assistant professor of sociology and Latin American studies at Johns Hopkins, the article concludes with this sobering paragraph:

Ultimately, more than four decades of the U.S.-led war on drugs abroad has not only failed to reduce the supply of illicit substances, it has actually made them more dangerous. A recent U.N. report found that global drug use is up 26 percent from a decade ago. Another survey by the Drug Enforcement Administration confirmed that despite decades of these source control measures, drug prices remain steady, purity and potency remain high, drugs remain widely available, and overdoses are skyrocketing.

Even if the Biden Administration is ready to radically change its ways (a gargantuan IF, given how the war on drugs provides Washington with perfect cover for going after insubordinate governments in Latin America like Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua as well as oodles of money for the MIC), Petro will still face huge obstacles at home. He does not have a full majority in either of Colombias two legislative chambers, and as such will depend on the support of one of the opposition parties in Congress. He will also face stiff opposition from large sections of Colombias predominantly conservative population as well as from those who stand to lose out financially from his legislative overhaul.
(Natural News) A federal court recently ruled that the Texas law prohibiting social media companies from censoring or banning users for their political speech can now take effect.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth District declared on September 16 that House Bill 20 (H.B. 20) was constitutional because it neither compels nor obstructs the sites own speech in any way. Under the said bill, social media platforms with over 50 million monthly users in the U.S. must publicly report details about content removal and account suspensions biannually. The platforms are also required to establish an easily accessible complaint system, where users could flag violations of the law.

This most recent ruling came after NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association filed a lawsuit challenging the legislation signed by Governor Greg Abbott on Sept. 9, 2021.

Today we reject the idea that corporations have a freewheeling First Amendment right to censor what people say, U.S. Circuit Court Judge Andrew Oldham stated in the opinion.

The courts decision vacated a lower courts preliminary injunction that is stalling enforcement of the law. Texas may now implement its anti-censorship legislation. The circuit court further stated that social media companies had claimed a rather odd inversion of the First Amendment in contending that they, as private corporations, had a First Amendment right to limit Americans free speech online.

The opinion further stated: That Amendment, of course, protects every persons right to the freedom of speech. But the platforms argue that buried somewhere in the persons enumerated right to free speech lies a corporations unenumerated right to muzzle speech.

The ruling included that in the platforms view, email providers, mobile phone companies and banks could cancel the accounts of anyone who sends an email, makes a phone call or spends money in support of a disfavored political party, candidate or business.

The court pointed out that social media platforms are not newspapers and that their censorship is not speech. So they are not entitled to pre-enforcement facial relief. The court said the district court that passed the law last year had abused its discretion and declared the injunction vacated, opting to remand the case to a lower court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Conservatives are celebrating this win against Big Tech even though the said decision is unlikely to finally resolve the issue of censorship. Still, the reinstatement of H.B. 20 is still counted as a victory. (Related: Free speech VICTORY: Federal appeals court rules Texas can enforce anti-censorship law aimed at social media platforms.)

Bidens tyrannical regime engages 12 federal agencies in social media censorship push, documents reveal

The fight to take down censorship on social media platforms may still be long and hard as President Joe Biden as well as 50 of his administration officials have been conniving with a dozen agencies in efforts to pressure Big Tech companies to crack down on alleged misinformation. These were revealed by documents released on Aug. 31.

Senior officials in the U.S. government, including White House lawyer Dana Remus, deputy assistant to the president Rob Flaherty and onetime White House senior Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) adviser Andy Slavitt, had been found to be in touch with one or more major social media companies to mandate them to tighten rules on false and misleading information on COVID-19. The said government people urged the companies to take action against users who violate the rules, as per the documents.

After Biden said on July 2021 that Facebook was killing people by not combating misinformation effectively, an executive at Meta told Surgeon General Vivek Murthy that the administration and their teams met to better understand the scope of what the White House expects from us on misinformation going forward.

The same executive from FBs mother company later told Murthy: I wanted to make sure you saw the steps we took just this past week to adjust policies on what we are removing with respect to misinformation, as well as steps taken to further address the disinfo dozen.'

The documents were part of a preliminary production in a lawsuit levied against the government by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana.

Visit Censorship.news for more news related to banned information and barred accounts on social media.

Watch the below video about Senate GOP whipping on Big Tech censorship.

This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Disinformation Dozen responds after documents show widespread Biden administration censorship effort.

YouTube star Jake Paul slams social media censorship of influencer Andrew Tate.

GOP lawmakers sound alarm on media cartel bill that will allow big tech, big media to collude on more censorship.

FINALLY: A bill to make federal govt censorship ILLEGAL.

Sources include:

LifeSiteNews.com

Capitol.Texas.gov

TexasTribune.org

Twitter.com

TheEpochTimes.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) A German bakery saw its gas bill rise to 330,000 ($323,900) after a new energy company terminated its contract with the business that guaranteed fixed pricing until the end of 2023.

Eckehard Vatter, the owner of the Vatter bakery chain, lamented that he was given only 14 days to pay the bill. Until a year ago, the business only paid 5,856 ($5747.66) every month for their large baking furnaces and heating.

Now, the bakerys energy bill shot up to a staggering 75,000 ($73,612.50)  which amounted to 330,000 ($323,900) for four and a half months of energy use. The new energy supplier did not even give a reason for its 1,200 percent increase in energy prices.

Making things worse for Vatter, the bakery is considered a craft business under commercial law, which means he cant receive any government support even though he paid 19.9 million ($19.53 million) in taxes in recent years. In contrast, industrial bakeries that produce cheap bread are eligible to receive aid from Berlin.

Established in 1955, the Vatter bakery chain has 35 stores and 430 employees in the state of Lower Saxony. While the business has weathered every crisis since its establishment, things have never been as bad as they are now.

Vatter is not alone in his predicament. Peter Hemmerle, owner of the Heinz Hemmerle bakery in Muelheim, said he expects his companys annual electricity bill to quadruple to 1.2 million ($1.18 million). The bakery uses electricity to run its kneading machines and cooling rooms.

Daniel Schneider, head of Germanys bakery association, said: In the baking trade, many companies are up to their necks in water, they no longer know how to bear the costs.

As a result, hundreds of bakery owners took to the streets on Sept. 14. They protested in downtown Hanover, Lower Saxonys capital, to draw attention to their worsening situation.

Berlin promises to address skyrocketing energy prices

People across the continent had been posting viral photos of absurdly high energy bills in the past few weeks. This prompted Berlin to announce a 65 billion ($63.80 billion) relief package to cushion citizens and businesses from the skyrocketing energy costs. This proposal, agreed upon by Germanys tripartite ruling coalition, brought total energy subsidies since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war to almost 100 billion ($98.15 billion).

Among the measures are one-off payments to millions of vulnerable pensioners and plan to make use of energy firms windfall profits. This means that there will be a creeping nationalization of the energy sector.

A few days after the relief package was announced, Economic Minister Robert Habeck promised to help small and medium businesses in a speech in Berlin, saying that they will open a wide rescue umbrella that will allow small and medium enterprises to take shelter under. Habeck  who also serves as Germanys vice chancellor and climate minister  blamed poor leadership, the state of the countrys infrastructure and its overdependence on Russian energy.

According to Habeck, liquefied natural gas (LNG) could be the key to solving Germanys energy crisis. But with problems in infrastructure and lack of fuel on the open market, significant problems are still to be expected. (Related: Natural gas shortage worsening in Europe and will trigger food crisis in coming months: Report.)

Former U.S. President Donald Trump warned about this four years ago.

Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy if it does not immediately change course, he said in a speech at the 2018 United Nations General Assembly. Reliance on a single foreign supplier can leave a nation vulnerable to extortion and intimidation.

Visit PowerGrid.news for more updates about the ongoing energy crisis in Europe.

Watch the video below for more information about Europes out-of-control energy crisis.

This video is from the Puretrauma357 channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Russias Gazprom has cut natural gas flows to Germany by 60%  Western Europe is about to get the green energy nightmare it always wanted.

INSANELY VULNERABLE: If Russia cuts off supply of enriched uranium to US power companies, Americas nuclear energy reactors will close within a year.

Gas storage in Germany hits record lows as Russia halts fertilizer shipments and European continent reels from high heating costs.

Sources include:

ZeroHedge.com

AA.com.TR

DailyFetched.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) The Bombay High Court has issued a notice to tech giant and Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine promoter Bill Gates, along with others, after a petition was filed by the father of a woman who allegedly died after getting vaccinated.

The petitioner is Dilip Lunawat. He claims that his daughter Snehal, a doctor in Nashik, Maharashtra and a senior lecturer at the SMBT Dental College and Hospital, experienced severe side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine that she never recovered from. She died on March 1, 2021.

Lunawat noted that his daughter died around a month after first getting vaccinated with the Bill Gates-funded AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, distributed in India under the brand name Covidshield with the help of the Serum Institute of India (SII), a private biotechnology company. (Related: Beloved doctor in India succumbs to coronavirus despite being fully vaccinated.)

The state government of Maharashtra, Dr. V.G. Somani, the Drugs Controller General of India, the Union Health Ministry  the health ministry of Indias federal government  and Dr. Randeep Guleria, director of the All India Institute of Medical Science, New Delhi (AIIMS Delhi) were also cited as respondents to Lunawats petition.

Lunawat is asking the High Court of Bombay to force the respondents to compensate him for 1,000 crore rupees ($123.87 million) for the death of his daughter.

Petition blames Gates, Indian health officials for spreading lies about the vaccines

According to Lunawat, health workers all over India like his daughter took the COVID-19 vaccines after being lulled into a false sense of security due to false narratives and misrepresentation created by the petition respondents. Lunawat also blamed the implementation of mass vaccination programs by state authorities without any proper verification, which led many doctors like his daughter to their deaths.

Lunawat cited an interview Somani gave in Jan. 2021 wherein he claimed that the COVID-19 vaccines are 110 percent safe as an instance of health officials spreading false information about the vaccines.

Similar interviews were given by respondent Dr. Randeep Guleria, director of AIIMS, Delhi and others, stated Dilips petition. They asked everyone to take vaccines by stating that the vaccines are completely safe.

The petition pointed out that the Union Governments Adverse Event Following Immunization committee admitted on Oct. 2, 2021 that Sneha Lunawats death was due to the side effects of the Covidshield vaccine.

In addition to monetary compensation, Dilip is asking the court to take action against social media companies that are involved in the conspiracy of suppressing correct data about deaths caused due to vaccine side effects.

Lunawat is also asking the court for a declaration that the authorities listed as respondents have callous criminal attitudes, as they have continued with their narrative that they have treatment for side effects of anti-COVID vaccines.

Justices Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Madhav J. Jamdar have asked the respondents to provide the court with responses during the next hearing, scheduled for Nov. 17.

Learn more about COVID-19 vaccine deaths all over the world at VaccineDeaths.com.

Watch this episode of World Alternative Media as host Josh Sigurdson discusses Bill Gates upcoming case at the Bombay High Court.

This video is from the World Alternative Media channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Keep the Republic with Dr. Daniel Bobinski: WEF ally Bill Gates wants to depopulate the world  Brighteon.TV.

INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CRISIS: Over 400 doctors and scientists in India declare COVID vaccine programs must end.

Father accuses Bill Gates of killing daughter with Covidshield covid vaccine from Serum Institute of India.

New Jersey doctor dies of Covid on trip to India  After getting both Pfizer shots in USA

WHO insider exposes GAVI, Bill Gates for perpetrating coronavirus plandemic.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

IndianExpress.com

DNAIndia.com
(Natural News) The Plum Island Animal Disease Center  located a mile off Long Island, New York  is the center of controversy in regards to the development and release of Lyme disease, among other known infectious diseases that could escape from the lab and transmit between animals and humans.

This biolab has been used by the US government for several decades to develop defensive strategies to protect against foreign animal diseases that could be accidentally or intentionally introduced into US livestock.

This is the governments official story; however, documents uncovered from the lab in 1993 by investigative reporter John McDonald, detailed Plum Islands true mission and tell a very different story. According to the documents, the lab existed to develop biological warfare weaponry that would be used to poison cattle and other livestock in the former Soviet Union. In other words, the biolab was working on OFFENSIVE bioweapons that could be used to take down livestock in other countries.

Plum Island lab has Nazi origins, involved in the development of offensive bioweapons

The Plum Island biolab was also founded with nefarious intentions. The biolab was founded after the Second World War to develop offensive bioweapons. The US government, under Operation Paperclip, brought in Nazi bioweapon expert Erich Traub. Traub is widely regarded as the godfather of the lab. Traub had previously worked in the Baltic on an island called Riems. His mission was to develop offensive bioweapons that would poison cattle in the Soviet Union, crippling the enemys food supply and spreading infectious diseases that could transmit between animals and humans.

Plum Island was operated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) up until 2003. It is currently managed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). After DHS took over, different parts of this animal disease research have been shifted to other laboratories around the country.

Today, scientists at Plum Island are tasked with identifying the pathogens that cause foreign animal diseases. They research these diseases so they can develop diagnostics, treatments and profitable vaccines. The list of animal diseases studied there includes but is not limited to: African swine fever, Brucellosis, classical swine fever, foot and mouth disease, Nipah virus, Rift Valley fever, Rinderpest, Sheep and goat pox, vesicular stomatitis, and West Nile virus. Many of these pathogens infect both animals and humans.

Karl Grossman, a journalist from State University of New York, investigated Plum Island over several decades. He reports that the laboratory is shrouded in secrecy and lacks transparency. Back in 1971, the USDA allowed select reporters into the lab to investigate. Grossman became the first journalist to get the US government to concede they engaged in defensive biological warfare. He reported that the US government was infiltrated by Nazi biowarfare agent Erich Traub, who helped convert Fort Terry on Long Island, New York to a biolab that specialized in animal disease warfare.

The weaponization of ticks, African swine fever and Lyme disease

In 1977, there were reports of African Swine Fever outbreaks in Cuba. Investigative reporter, Karl Grossman connected the outbreaks back to Plum Island, the Central Intelligence Agency, and a CIA operation in Panama. The biolab was the only place African Swine Fever ever existed in the Western Hemisphere, and was weaponized as part of an attack on the pig population in Cuba.

What it would indicate, if correct, was that this strictly defensive use of biological warfare done on Plum Island might not all be true, there may have been offensive biological warfare activities going on, Grossman reported at the time.

Plum Island is also associated with the release of Lyme disease, which is now a global epidemic. Lyme disease is named after Old Lyme, Connecticut, along the New England Coast, across from Long and Plum Islands. Lyme disease is transmitted through tick bites and can lead to chronic health issues such as fatigue, facial paralysis, impaired memory, heart problems and nervous system disorders. Up to 437,000 new cases are now reported in the US every year, according to the CDC.

The microbe that causes Lyme disease was first discovered by Willy Burgdorfer, who later went on to develop bioweapons for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). According to a Congressional investigation of Dr. Burgdorfers lab files, there is enough evidence to suggest that the DOD engineered ticks to spread this microbe. It is now commonly spread through deer ticks. The ticks were loaded up with the microbe so they could be deployed as weapons to cause disease, disability and death to foreign enemies.

Deploying ticks as biological weapons is nothing new. In fact, Grossman says that ticks have long been regarded as disease vectors in biological warfare. Much of this is documented in books authored by John Loftus, an attorney who was skilled at pursuing Nazis. He worked for the Office of the Special Investigations of the U.S. Department of Justice. Nazi germ warfare included poisoning ticks with biological agents and dropping them from planes, so they could spread disease on unsuspecting enemy populations.

As such, in 2019, the U.S. Congress passed an amendment that requires the Inspector General of the DOD to investigate the possible involvement of DOD biowarfare labs in the weaponization of Lyme disease in ticks and other insects. At the center of the controversy is the Plum Island Animal Research Center  a place that should be painstakingly investigated using military-style audits and interrogations of all scientists involved with the lab, past and present.

Watch this video to learn more about the history of Lyme:

Sources include:

News.cn

GAO.gov [PDF]

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) The BP-Husky Toledo refinery in Oregon, Ohio, has been safely shut down after a fire reportedly broke out for no apparent reason.

A BP spokesperson told Reuters that the company suspects leaking fumes from a crude unit may have caused the ignition in another unit at the facility.

This same person added that workers at the facility had just finished a maintenance turnaround a few weeks prior after having been offline for some time. (Related: Remember back in the summer when several Texas oil refineries shut down under similarly suspicious circumstances?)

According to reports, the BP-Husky Toledo refinery processes up to 160,000 barrels of crude oil per day, providing the Midwest with gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, propane, asphalt and various other products.

It is not yet known if the incident, which is still under investigation, will affect gas prices throughout the Midwest.

Is Americas energy infrastructure under attack?

Around 6:30pm local time on the day of the fire, an explosion reportedly struck the BP-Husky Toledo facility  watch below:

Per BP: The refinery can process up to?160,000 barrels of crude oil?each day, providing the Midwest with gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, propane, asphalt, and other products. https://t.co/dmX2Gg3Ens  Josh Croup 13abc (@JoshCroup) September 20, 2022

Another video of the fire was captured from a vehicle:

Video from a viewer shows an Oregon BP refinery in flames Monday night. Per BP: The refinery can process up to?160,000 barrels of crude oil?each day, providing the Midwest with gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, propane, asphalt, and other products. V Video credit: Ryan Rohm pic.twitter.com/jf98uAa93N  News 5 Cleveland (@WEWS) September 21, 2022

At least two people were seriously burned by the flames.

He said it was like some sort of explosion, said Chris Howard, whose father works at the plant and was there the night of the incident. Howard says he received a phone call around 7pm from a friend who also works at the facility as a security guard.

He told me there was just a big rumble at the refinery, lots of fire everywhere, Howard added. He said its the worst hes seen. Lots of people injured.

When operating at full capacity, the BP-Husky Toledo refinery can produce upwards of 3.8 million gallons of gasoline, 1.3 million gallons of diesel fuel, and 600,000 gallons of jet fuel per day.

First they came for the food processing plants , wrote a commenter at Zero Hedge, the reference being the late German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemollers famous poem about the Holocaust.

Another sabotage coincidence,' wrote another.

Food processing plants, Tesla battery factories, and now oil refineries, added someone else. I have to say that Im pretty old and I dont remember this much stuff blowing up on the U.S. mainland ever. There is an ill wind blowing.

If there are enemies foreign and / or domestic that want to hurt our country with an easy alibi, the suspicious destruction of key infrastructure assets like oil refineries would be the way to go, said another.

To be fair, people are getting dumber, which allows for more manufacturing and maintenance defects, expressed someone else about what is happening.

And then theres the demoralization / quiet quitting phenomenon. When someone in the bowels of Google or Netflix quits, your page has to be refreshed. When someone at a refinery quits, stuff burns.

Others echoed these sentiments, also bringing up the railroad strike and the issues surrounding that potential disaster for the economy and supply chain.

The railroads are in shambles and they cant hire enough people, someone wrote about this. It was the vaccine mandates and older people who walked off with their pensions.

To read more stories like this one, visit FuelSupply.news.

Sources for this article include:

ZeroHedge.com

NaturalNews.com

USHMM.org
(Natural News) Attorney General Paxton has signed on as a supporter of the Womens Bill of Rights, a document developed by the Independent Womens Voice urging codification of the common sense and reality-based definition of a woman. The Bill of Rights challenges woke activists efforts to ignore basic biology and undermine fundamental truths to promote their worldview.

(Article republished from TexasAttorneyGeneral.gov)

The radical left has long had trouble with telling the truth, said Attorney General Paxton. Theyve tried to redefine the word recession, revise American history, paint concerned parents as domestic terrorists, and now they want to fundamentally change what it means to be a woman. Its wrong, and its why Im fighting to stop their dangerous agenda that threatens women and anyone who stands up for whats right.

The document highlights key biological differences between men and women. It also points out that when state and federal laws dont recognize those differences, it limits womens opportunities and threatens [their] privacy and our safety.

To read the full document, click here.

Read more at: TexasAttorneyGeneral.gov
(Natural News) Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic warned that the world is the closest it has been to a global war since 1945.

Vucic made his case to prevent a global war during the first day of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session in New York. (Related: Russia appears ready to strike the US with nuclear weapons.)

You see a crisis in every part of the world, said Vucic, noting that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres himself made gloomy predictions during his keynote speech at the UNGA.

I think realistic prediction ought to be even darker, said Vucic. Our position is even worse since the UN has been weakened and the great powers have taken over and practically destroyed the UN order over the past several decades.

Vucic further warned that small countries like Serbia cant expect any good news going forward if this slow descent into global war isnt stopped.

For all of us small [countries] who only want to be secure and provide safety to our citizens, there is no good or easy news, he said. I expect everything going forward to involve more complicated relations between the West and Russia, but also between the West and China.

Serbia being used as battleground in proxy war between East and West

This is not the first time Vucic has warned of the consequences of an all-out war between the East and the West. In late August, Vucic said these same forces are engaged in a proxy war for control over Serbia. He made these comments while Belgrade was committed to a path to joining the European Union (EU) while maintaining good and healthy relations with Russia and China.

The remarks also came after a protest was held in the capital of Belgrade against the holding of a gay pride rally in the city. The anti-march protesters waved Russian flags and carried posters of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

I cannot say that it [the protest] was a proxy attack because there were many ordinary people there, he said. But whether there is a proxy conflict in Serbia  there is one, no doubt about that  East and West.

Serbia maintains that it wants to join the EU, its single-biggest trading partner and investor, a position it has held since 2012.

But the country is almost entirely dependent on Russia for gas and for the arming of the countrys military. China is also entering Serbia as a key investor in mining and infrastructure projects.

Serbia condemned Russias special military operation in Ukraine earlier this year, but it continues to refuse to join the Western-led sanctions against Moscow despite strong pressure from the EU to do so. Vucic maintains that the country is neutral in the conflict.

We are trying to survive  with as few wounds and scars as possible, said Vucic.

Eastern and Western great powers are also using Serbia as a staging ground for the fight over Kosovo, a de facto independent nation that Serbia claims as its autonomous province.

The EU insists that a prerequisite for Serbian accession into the bloc would be recognizing the independence of Kosovo. Meanwhile, Russia and China have asserted Serbias right to Kosovo.

Learn more about the possibility of a global war at WWIII.news.

Watch this short clip of President Vucic talking about how were going to hell if the West refuses Russias attempts to make amends.

This video is from the High Hopes channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Biden commits to sending American troops if China invades Taiwan.

Prather Point: Biden is turning Ukraine into an ENDLESS WAR for the benefit of war profiteers  Brighteon.TV.

Taiwan asserts its right to defend itself and to COUNTER-ATTACK if China invades.

Russian political scientist warns nuclear war is coming if the West keeps escalating conflict in Ukraine.

Russian TV airs discussion about possibility of launching nuclear missiles against Berlin, Paris and London.

Sources include:

RT.com

AlJazeera.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Investigative reporter Michael Volpe joined Jim White on Critical Disclosure to discuss the corruption and wrongful convictions happening in the country.

White began the Sept. 12 episode of his Brighteon.TV program by introducing Volpe, who has been an investigative journalist for more than 10 years. The program guest has dedicated himself to exposing the wrongdoing of powerful people as a freelance investigative journalist. His investigations ranged from whistleblower retaliation to police corruption and judicial abuse.

According to Volpe, he got into investigative reporting while doing blogs about mortgages. A whistleblower named Kevin Kuritzky reached out to him and revealed corruption at the Emory University School of Medicine, which had been taking advantage of Grady Hospital  a facility that catered to mostly poor people.

One of Volpes articles from 2012 revealed how Emory retaliated against Dr. James Murtagh, who exposed grant fraud at the medical school. According to the piece, a biased peer review recommended Murtaghs termination as a medical professor  which did push through. Murtagh later befriended Kuritzky, who had been kicked out from Emory 41 days short of his graduation due to attendance issues.

Volpe revealed that several other whistleblowers aside from Kuritzky reached out to him, which paved the way for his transition into the kind of job he is currently doing now.

I did all this by accident. I thought that this was outside the box and everywhere I went, theyd be impressed because I was bringing them something they hadnt seen before. And it was a completely different story. And as it turned out, the media is very inside the box. They didnt want that at all, Volpe said.

He also revealed that writing about mortgage scams led him to write about the court systems and the legal arena. Volpe also mentioned how he exposed corrupt custody evaluators at Child Protective Services.

Volpe: False convictions widespread in America

Volpe told White that false convictions are a common occurrence in the country, adding that such cases do not see much coverage unless a person has been exonerated or a celebrity helps out a wrongfully convicted person.

The investigative journalist cited the cases of two wrongfully convicted individuals  John Giuca and Rodney Reed  who continue to be kept in custody despite receiving a lot of coverage. According to the Critical Disclosure host, Giuca and Reed remain behind bars for two reasons. Aside from covering their tracks, the people who put them in jail do not want to open themselves up to a multimillion-dollar lawsuit.

Volpe agreed, adding that paying a huge amount in damages for putting an innocent person in jail is indeed a huge liability. He also noted that there are cases where a person was targeted and completely framed for a crime they did not commit, solely on the basis of what he called laughable evidence. People should not be convicted in this manner, particularly by a jury that is not doing a good job in giving a right verdict. (Related: New York government threw man in prison for 23 years for murder he never committed.)

White pointed out that todays jury has become lazy. He added that the American jurors dont have time to hang around and get down to the facts when they get called for jury duty, because they just want to go home.

In response to Whites query about how widespread the false convictions are, the investigative reporter said such cases are a lot more widespread than people think  estimating it at about 10 percent.

He also revealed that there are people who do a lot of deals just to get a person in jail. Volpe cited the case of Robert Reynolds, who was convicted on the basis of testimony from three different people. The three witnesses took the stand as part of a deal.

Its very easy to get people to whats called a flip and, all of a sudden, you have a lot of witnesses against you. They are compromised witnesses, Volpe explained.

Wealthy people are not going to be targeted because they can hire the best lawyers and a bunch of other people to get the off the hook, he said. Meanwhile, poor people who cant afford a good lawyer are easy to target.

Follow Corruption.news for more news about the corruption in the judicial system.

Watch the Sept. 12 episode of Critical Disclosure below. Critical Disclosure airs every Monday at 7-8 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

More related stories:

Testimony of eyewitnesses found to be easily altered by peer pressure  conformity outweighs memory.

Think the FBI deserves the benefit of the doubt? This laundry list of corruption should make you think again.

Police crime labs ROUTINELY produce fake science, fake positives to convict innocent people.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

CrimeMagazine.com
(Natural News) The Ukrainian President published a photograph on his social media channels showing one of his security escorts bearing a patch referencing the personal bodyguard unit of Adolf Hitler.

(Article by Alexander Rubinstein republished from TheGrayZone.com)

On September 13, Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelensky made a surprise trip to the city of Izyum in the Kharkov Region for a photo op following his militarys recapture of the town from Russian forces. During the visit, a soldier who appeared to be guarding Zelensky was photographed wearing a Nazi-inspired patch on his uniform.

When the image drew criticism on social media, the Ukrainian presidents official Telegram and Facebook accounts quietly deleted it.

In Izyum on September 14, Zelensky participated in a flag raising ceremony to the tune of the Ukrainian National Anthem and took selfies with local civilians and soldiers. While most of the men on the scene wore official military fatigues, it was not difficult to see which ones were for lack of a better term, working, and which ones were simply present to participate in the event.

One photograph posted on Zelenskys Telegram and Facebook accounts (archived here and here) captured the president as he posed for selfies with Ukrainian troops. As Zelensky flashed a smile for the camera of a cheerful service member, he was flanked by a heavily equipped soldier standing guard and facing the opposite direction. Just over Zelenskys right shoulder, a small but significant patch could be seen on the back of the soldiers flak vest.

Social media users quickly identified the symbol. It was derived from the Totenkopf, (German for Deaths Head), an insignia widely used in Nazi Germany. Badges incorporating the skull and bones motif were popularized by Germanys Deaths Head Units, whose original task was to serve as guards at concentration camps. In October 1939, some 6,500 members were deployed as frontline fighters in the attempted conquest of Europe and the Soviet Union, carrying out war crimes and ethnic cleansing on their way.

Zelenskys bodyguard appeared to sport a slightly altered version of the SS-Totenkopfs patch; it was missing the crossbones and the skull was wearing a helmet.

However, this reporter was able to find three online vendors based in Ukraine that sell the patch, which is branded the Operator Skull and manufactured by a company called R3ICH, an explicit reference to Nazi Germany.

A side-by-side comparison of the R3ICH patch and an enhanced version of the patch worn by Zelenskys bodyguard

While a clear and sizable shot of the insignia decorating Zelenskys apparent bodyguard has yet to emerge, enhanced renderings of the image demonstrate he was clearly sporting the same design manufactured by R3ICH. Both badges feature a skull wearing a helmet, the headgear is virtually identical, the nose and eye holes share the same amount of space between them, the silhouettes are indistinguishable, and the tally marks drawn on the helmet appear in the same location.

A closer look at the R3ICHs Operator Skull patch reveals an even more disturbing detail: a skeleton key displayed on the top right of the helmet is a clear reference to SS Division Leibstandarte, or Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler  Hitlers personal bodyguard unit. The unit later evolved into a Panzer, or armored tank division and, like the Totenkopf, participated in several invasions throughout Europe and the Soviet Union.

The skeleton key emblem of the SS Division Leibstandarte

While the SS Division Leibstandarte made its way through Kharkov  where this week Zelenskys bodyguard was photographed with the Operator Skull patch  during the Second World War, one of its units earned the nickname Blowtorch Battalion for its habit of burning down Russian-speaking villages.

A soldier of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler lights his cigarette on the burning thatched roof of a building in Kharkov. Photo via German Federal Archives

After this reporter took to social media to report that Zelenskys bodyguard appeared to be wearing the Operator Skull patch, no less than eight Twitter users asserted the image was photoshopped. Shockingly, Twitter even deemed MintPress News tweet about the photograph to be sensitive content, an apparent attempt at damage control on Zelenskys behalf that reduced the images visibility on the platform.

The sighting of the Nazi patch recalled a 2018 incident in which then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko posed with soldiers bearing placard featuring the Nazi Totenkopf symbol. Newsweek spuriously claimed, The image included a skull and bones that appear to have been Photoshopped onto the photograph of the Ukrainian troops. However, as The Grayzone reported, the soldier standing directly beside Poroshenko was wearing the Nazi-inspired patch on his chest. The paratroopers later apologized for displaying the Nazi symbol, further discrediting Newsweeks spin.

I suppose @BBCNews also edited the patch onto the soldiers uniform as well? pic.twitter.com/Cn5Uniyxi5  Alex Rubinstein (@RealAlexRubi) September 15, 2022

As before, the image of the Nazi patch was real. Whats more, the R3ICH companys Operator Skull patch seems quite popular in Ukraine. Of the three Ukraine-based online shops that this reporter discovered were selling the Nazi emblem, none had any left in stock.

Read more at: TheGrayZone.com
(Natural News) Massive overleveraging by Europes energy sector threatens to leave our neighbors across the pond in the dark this winter.

Unless $1.5 trillion is pulled out of thin air to avoid margin calls, European energy companies are in serious trouble, according to Norwegian energy group Equinor.

Several European countries are desperately trying to keep the energy companies afloat with billions of dollars in bailouts, which Reuters is calling support. This money is being used to cover collateral payments on trades.

These billions might sound like a lot  and to you and I, it is a lot. But it is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to plugging the multi-trillion-dollar hole that is sinking the financial Titanic.

Utilities often sell power in advance to secure a certain price, but must maintain a minimum margin deposit in case of default before they supply the power, Reuters explains.

This has raced higher with soaring energy prices triggered mainly by Russia slashing gas supplies to Europe, leaving firms struggling to find cash. (Related: More than half of Englands manufacturing economy is on the brink of closure due to soaring energy costs.)

Will 2022 make 2008 look like a walk in the park?

Helge Haugane, Equinors senior vice president for gas and power, told Reuters that in Europe, excluding Great Britain, these margin calls are teetering around 1.5 trillion euros, which is squeezing market liquidity and hitting small- and medium-sized firms especially hard.

It is a function of the price, it keeps going up and up, Haugane said, stressing what he sees as an urgent need for government intervention.

The market can function a lot better than what it is doing right now further out in the curve because people dont have enough liquidity to play.

Compared to a year ago before Russias invasion of Ukraine, gas prices in Europe are now five times higher. They jumped even higher this week after Moscow announced that the Nord Stream 1 (NS1) natural gas pipeline will remain offline indefinitely.

The only way to fix the problem in the short term, in Hauganes view, is to massively reduce demand for energy. But apart from wide-scale genocide, how can this be accomplished?

There are also price caps that the government could implement, but these will not ultimately solve the gargantuan overleveraging problem. The big boys once again gambled away the economy, and taxpayers, assuming they survive the upcoming dark winter, will once again be expected to bail them out.

The same thing occurred back in 2008, by the way. The too big to fail mantra was used to bail out the market manipulators who gambled away peoples pensions. What is brewing in 2022, however, appears significantly larger than 2008.

In fact, some would argue that the financial crisis of 2008 was never actually solved, but that the bailouts simply kicked the can down the road. That can is once again in sight, and we are now approaching it like a runaway train via the energy markets.

In case the Russian volumes halt completely, the demand reduction needs to be even larger than what we so far have experienced, and no price cap or anything like that can solve the underlying problem, Haugane says.

European officials are considering imposing a price cap on imported gas, as well as on gas used to produce electricity. They are also looking at temporarily removing gas power plants from the current European Union (EU) system of setting electricity prices.

Back in July, the EU asked its 27 member states to voluntarily reduce gas demand by at least 15 percent before winter. If that does not happen, then EU officials will consider making such reductions mandatory.

As the global economy goes dark this winter, we will keep you up to date with the latest at Power.news.

Sources for this article include:

Reuters.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Its a safe bet to believe that anytime Democrats propose something, the real purpose behind it is to gain more control over Americans because, at its heart, the Democratic Party is really Marxist and counterrevolutionary.

Thats why the Biden regimes push for a digital dollar should be opposed by all Americans, regardless of their political beliefs.

When Barack Obama and majority Democrats were pushing for universal health care that was completely controlled by the government, tens of millions of Americans opposed the idea because they did not want an inefficient, bloated and authoritarian federal system in control of their healthcare decisions. That seems odd now, given their complaints about the U.S. Supreme Courts decision earlier this summer to overturn Roe v. Wade  not to outlaw abortion, but to return the issue to the states where it should have stayed.

The push for Obamacare by the authoritarian left was simple: They knew that every American, at various points in our lives, will need health care. Gaining control of the entire industry would mean that the government would control it completely, giving bureaucrats life-and-death power over all of us. No one should want that.

In any event, enough Americans opposed Obamacare so all we ended up with was an expensive new welfare program for our citizens: Subsidized insurance for a smaller group of Americans that is still controlled by federal bureaucrats. But Obamacare was simply the first bite of the apple: Democrats continue to plot ways to destroy private healthcare by pushing various regulatory schemes to impose more rules over providers and insurers alike.

Now, the regime wants control over our money, which is another vital tool in the authoritarian playbook.

A white paper published on the White House website calls for the creation of a digital dollar that, of course, will be controlled by government, much like the government currently has the sole role and responsibility to develop and print our currency (real dollars). But the difference here is that if all money was digital, the government could (and would) monitor our bank accounts; monitor all of our transactions; impose barriers to purchases of certain unfavored items; and even block access to our money or limit how much of it we could spend  all for the greater good, of course.

A United States central bank digital currency (CBDC) would be a digital form of the U.S. dollar. While the U.S. has not yet decided whether it will pursue a CBDC, the U.S. has been closely examining the implications of, and options for, issuing a CBDC, the White House policy paper notes before touting the digital dollars benefits.

If the U.S. pursued a CBDC, there could be many possible benefits, such as facilitating efficient and low-cost transactions, fostering greater access to the financial system, boosting economic growth, and supporting the continued centrality of the U.S. within the international financial system. However, a U.S. CBDC could also introduce a variety of risks, as it might affect everything ranging from the stability of the financial system to the protection of sensitive data, the paper added.

At last years Summit for Democracy, President Biden spoke about the importance of using technology to advance democracies to lift people up, not to hold them down. If the U.S. launches its own CBDC, it should advance this democratic vision, the authors wrote.

Again, Democrats always mean the opposite of what they say. They speak of democracy while working daily to undermine it with gun control, packing the Supreme Court, ending the filibuster, and finding ways to alter our electoral processes so that their candidates will always come out on top.

A digital dollar is just part of the never-ending scheme to rob Americans of our independence and liberty. Giving Uncle Sam more control over our lives is just dumb.

Sources include:

WhiteHouse.gov

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Is California on the verge of becoming a sanctuary state for child transgender trafficking? The states legislature is definitely trying to make it happen.

Senate Bill 107, introduced by Scott Wiener, a prominent Democratic state senator, was recently passed and now awaits a signature from Gov. Gavin Newsom. If signed, SB 107 would allow the Golden State to take custody of out-of-state minors who want to become trans, but who are prohibited from doing so in their home state.

Even if parents object, minors would still be allowed to travel to California and receive gender affirming care in the form of surgical castration, a hysterectomy, and whatever Big Pharma gender-bending pharmaceuticals are needed to become their true selves.

The bill received overwhelming Democratic support, passing both the House and Senate in California on August 31. (Related: California legislators have also tried to force Christian pastors to promote LGBT perversion from the pulpit.)

Newsom reportedly has until September 30 to either sign or veto the bill. He has not yet taken any action, but is expected to sign the measure into law before the deadline.

Scott Wiener wants to turn California into a pedophilia and perversion paradise

Wiener, a well-known Democrat pervert, is also responsible for introducing other legislation that would allow children 12 years of age or older to get vaccinated without parental consent. He also supports mandating Drag Queen Story Hour events in grade school, as well as relaxing the punishments for child sex offenders.

Wiener claims that his latest child-targeting legislation is necessary because underage kids in more conservative states face increasing barriers to getting their developing breasts surgically removed in the case of females, or having their outward genitalia turned inwards in the case of males.

Efforts to protect children against this type of irreversible genital mutilation represent brutal attacks on transgender children, according to Wiener, who seems to be shamelessly obsessed with child sexuality and bizarre pedophilic perversion.

SB 107 comes with no restrictions or qualifications once signed. If Newsom picks up and uses that pen, underage children from anywhere will have the ability to come to California to become trans, even without their parents permission.

Californias courts would have the ability to assume full custody of such children, becoming their new parent. And these childrens parents would not have any say in the matter.

All the court would need to prove is that the minor has been mistreated or abused which is defined as being unable to obtain gender-affirming health care,' reports The Gateway Pundit (TGP).

As of now, it is unclear if the child has to enter California before the law takes effect, or if the state can interfere and assist the child in traveling and accommodations.

The bill would seem to suggest that physical presence in California is not necessary for a child to become the property of the state. As long as abuse is confirmed according to its tenets, California would be allowed to pursue custody.

Either way, this law goes far beyond any established form of government intervention in personal family matters, TGP explains.

The California Family Council issued its own scathing statement against the bill, warning that radical activists will surely weaponize it to prey on vulnerable out-of-state children.

Its not hard to see how activists could quickly weaponize SB 107, the group warns about its implications.

Since the bill instructs state agencies to ignore the circumstances of how a child came to the state for gender transitioning, SB 107 invites children to run away from their families or even be trafficked across state lines.

More related news can be found at Transhumanism.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheGatewayPundit.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Forty-seven Minnesotans face serious criminal charges for allegedly defrauding the federal governments child nutrition program of at least $250 million in less than two years.

According to U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger, the 47 defendants engaged in a brazen scheme of staggering proportions, adding that the $250 million figure is just the floor since the investigation is still ongoing.

Aimee Bock, the founder and executive director of Feeding Our Future, is said to be at the center of the charges. Her non-profit organizations offices were raided back in January, and since that time much has been uncovered about the intricate web of conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, bribery and other crimes that were committed there.

It took a Somali whistleblower to bring all eyes on the operation, which we now know took full advantage of moneys that were intended to feed children. (Related: There never would have been a plandemic in the first place had the general public been informed about the power of vitamin D to support optimal health.)

In March 2020, early in the pandemic, a small group of people in Minnesota had an idea and saw an opportunity, Luger explained at a press conference.

These individuals believed they could steal tens of millions of dollars from a federal child nutrition program by claiming to serve food to needy children when they were not. Their goal was to make as much money for themselves as they could while falsely claiming to feed children during the pandemic.

USDA waived requirement standards for Federal Child Nutrition Program, making it easier for Feeding Our Future to commit fraud

The scheme, Luger says, was met with initial success. Others joined on as well, craving that sweet cash that the government had earmarked for hungry children in need. Soon, the racket had ballooned into the largest pandemic fraud in the United States.

We now know that three of the 47 defendants have been charged via criminal information, a term used when defendants are expected to waive their right to a grand jury and plead guilty.

To be clear, the alleged fraud that took place at Feeding Our Future did not directly involve any plandemic relief programs. Even so, the Department of Justice (DOJ) describes what happened as fraud because the defendants exploited the U.S. Department of Agricultures (USDA) loose requirements for what constitutes a meal site.

Feeding Our Future participated in the Summer Food Service Program and the Child and Adult Care Food Programs, both belonging to the U.S. Department of Agricultures child nutrition programs, reports Alpha News.

In Minnesota, the state Department of Education (MDE) functions as the conduit for overseeing and administering federal reimbursements from those programs  The food itself is distributed by meal sites, each of which must be sponsored by an authorized sponsoring organization, in this case Feeding Our Future.

Had the USDA not loosened its already weak requirements for participation in the Federal Child Nutrition Program, Feeding Our Future would not have had as easy a time taking advantage of it.

Among other things, the USDA allowed for-profit restaurants to participate in the program, as well as allowed for off-site food distribution to children outside of educational programs, Luger says.

Before getting sued, Feeding Our Future  which should have been called Fleecing Our Future  was operating some 250 sites throughout Minnesota. These sites all operated fraudulently with hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten federal funding.

The defendants used the proceeds of their fraudulent scheme to purchase luxury vehicles, residential and commercial real estate in Minnesota as well as property in Ohio and Kentucky, real estate in Kenya and Turkey, and to fund international travel, a press release indicates.

It quickly became the ultimate get-rich-quick scheme, Luger added.

The latest news about scamdemic fraud can be found at Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

Justice.gov

AlphaNews.org

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The Biden administration is having difficulty finding White supremacists to support claims that the most significant terror-related threat the U.S. is facing comes from a group of violent extremists motivated by White supremacy and other far-right ideological causes.

Official draft documents from the Department of Homeland Security produced in 2020 first floated that idea. President Joe Biden came in and sold it to the general public, saying domestic terrorism from White supremacists is the most lethal terrorist threat in the country.

This was backed by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, who told the Senate Appropriations Committee last year that the greatest domestic threat facing the U.S. is racial or ethnically motivated violent extremist. Specifically, those who advocate for the superiority of the white race, Garland said.

Just recently, Biden warned of the growing threat of White supremacy once more. In America, evil will not win and will not prevail, he told a small crowd during the United We Stand summit at the White House. White supremacists will not have the last word.

But White supremacists are in short supply. So Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents are now being ordered to manufacture White supremacy incidents to meet their internal metrics and lend credence to Bidens claims. In other words, Biden has been creating a divisive narrative that does not coincide with reality, to the point of concocting false narratives that cast the American people in a negative light.

One agent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the demand for White supremacy coming from the FBIs top officials vastly outstrips the supply of White supremacists. We have more people assigned to investigate White supremacists than we can actually find, the agent said.

The agent also explained that while the FBI should only investigate actual threats of violence or extremism, they are now being forced to investigate ideological threats as well.

We are sort of the lapdogs as the actual agents doing these sorts of investigations, trying to find a crime to fit otherwise First Amendment-protected activities, the agent said. (Related: FBI insiders say White supremacy threat overblown as Biden opens summit about racists, extremists.)

FBI as Bidens personal Gestapo

Last month, FBI whistleblowers leaked an internal memo that listed signs of militia violent extremists, including patriotic symbols like the Gadsden Flag, the Betsy Ross flag, the Liberty Tree and general Revolutionary War imagery. The memo only proves that Biden is using the FBI as his personal Gestapo.

The FBI denies that it is targeting people based on politics, but these revelations are the latest in a long-standing pattern of the politicization and weaponization of the Department of Justice under Biden and Garland.

Last year, the administration came under fire for using the resources of the Justice Department in targeting angry parents at school board meetings and treating them like domestic terrorists.

Garland authorized the FBI to investigate parents who protested school board meetings, alleging a disturbing trend of teachers being threatened or harassed. However, it was found that the allegations were not true.

Moreover, the National School Boards Association (NSBA), which prompted Garland to write the memo that likened parents to domestic terrorists, eventually apologized for the snafu. Garland, however, did not rescind the document.

A whistleblower also revealed an internal email that indicating that the FBI used counterterrorism tools to monitor parents despite Garland denying before Congress that the bureau was doing so. This summer, the whistleblowers revealed that the FBI pressured and incentivized agents to classify the cases as domestic violent extremism.

Visit IdentityPolitics.news to know more about Bidens push the White supremacist narrative.

Watch the video below to learn more about Bidens new definition of White Supremacy.

This video is from the Zach News Show channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Christian Walker: Dems used to be for the KKK and White supremacy, now its BLM and Black supremacy.

Bidens White supremacy summit nothing but a ruse for the regime to obtain more power: FBI whistleblowers.

CALLS FOR VIOLENCE: Dem Senate candidate Tim Ryan declares its time to confront and kill MAGA movement.

Sources include:

AmericasFrontlineNews.com

ConventionOfStates.com

PJMedia.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) The roughly 280,000 teachers, staff and volunteers who are part of the Head Start Program will no longer have to get vaccinated for the Fauci Flu (covid) or wear a face mask at school, a federal judge has ruled.

Last December, teacher Sandy Brick filed a lawsuit in federal court in Louisiana to stop the mandates. She was represented by the national law firm Liberty Justice Center and the Louisiana-based Pelican Institute for Public Policy.

The judge in the case, U.S. District Court Judge Terry A. Doughty, decided that the federal government cannot require Head Start Program teachers, staff and volunteers to permanently alter their DNA while blocking their breathing holes  but what about school children?

The ruling only seems to apply to adults in a school setting and not kids, which is disappointing, but the nature of this particular case addresses only Head Start Program participants. (Related: Last year, a Pennsylvania court threw out a mask mandate that had been oppressing school children.)

Although President [sic] Biden recently declared that the pandemic is over, the fight to restore Americans individual liberties is not, said Daniel Suhr, managing attorney at the Liberty Justice Center.

We will continue to fight for teachers like Sandy and the low-income students they serve until every illegal and unjustified mandate is wiped from the books. Todays decision is a significant step toward undoing the injustice perpetrated against everyday Americans throughout the COVID-19 crisis.

No more mandates!

The Head Start Program, in case you are unfamiliar with it, provides school readiness support for young children up to the age of five who come from families at or below the federal poverty level.

Head Start agencies can be either local and hold non-profit status, or function as government providers, the latter of which receive funding directly from the federal government.

With that funding came stipulations, in this case being that all adult participants must roll up their sleeves for an experimental chemical injection and wear a disease veil over their mouth and nose while on the job.

These stipulations were officially implemented on Nov. 30, 2021, when the Office of Head Start under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published an interim final rule.

That rule forced all teachers, staff and volunteers at Head Start to show proof of jabbing by Jan. 31, 2022, or else face losing their jobs. It also imposed a universal mask mandate for all adults and children over two years of age.

The public interest is served by maintaining the constitutional structure and maintaining the liberty of individuals who do not want to take the COVID-19 vaccine, Judge Doughty wrote in his decision.

This interest outweighs Agency Defendants interests. The public has a liberty interest in not being required to take a vaccine or be fired from their jobs. The public interest must be taken into account before allowing Agency Defendants to mandate vaccines. Although vaccines arguably serve the public interest, the liberty interests of individuals mandated to take the COVID-19 vaccine outweigh any interest generated by the mandatory administration of vaccines.

It remains to be seen if the federal government will challenge this ruling with an appeal to the Western District ruling in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the same court that blocked the governments jab mandate for private businesses.

Louisiana teacher Sandy Brick has been serving her students through adversity and uncertainty the last two years, said Sarah Harbison, general counsel at the Pelican Institute for Public Policy.

Today, this decision vindicates her right to teach without sacrificing her freedom.

The latest news about the covid scamdemic can be found at Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

LibertyJusticeCenter.org

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The covid plandemic might be over, but that does not mean the globalists are done persecuting us under their relentless tyranny.

The next phase of their global police state involves another round of lockdowns for climate change, according to journalist Jack Posobiec.

A Pandemic Panic Theater 2.0 event, to quote Newspunch, is on the agenda for implementation soon. We, too, warned about this back in April.

It turns out that the Fauci Flu, a completely contrived idea, was simply the dress rehearsal for a soon-to-arrive main event. Once the restrainer is removed, all hell is going to break loose at a scale never before seen in human history.

As Posobiec and many of us have been saying for months, the dress rehearsal of Covid-19 was to set us up for the all-encompassing manufactured agenda surrounding climate change, one report explains.

This has been the goal of globalists at the World Economic Forum, Council for Inclusive Capitalism, and similar groups for decades. Theyve worked tirelessly to recruit and indoctrinate the masses to not only comply but to participate in efforts to make climate change the universal factor in every decision made by governments, corporations, and citizens.

Video footage of Posobiec speaking about all this and more can be viewed below:

.@JackPosobiec on Davos launching new push for permanent climate change lockdowns: The lockdowns arent for them, the lockdowns are for YOU. pic.twitter.com/gns3y8mKh9  The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) September 20, 2022

Just like the World Trade Center, the old world order has to fall in its own footprint to make way for the new

By all appearances, the global warming / climate change narrative has always been the endgame for our current reality. It was hatched up decades ago to excuse away what the globalists have planned.

They manufactured a fake crisis about melting ice caps and sea levels rising to initiate the public into the new sustainability paradigm. And when the time is right, there will be a transition into the new world they have been gradually unveiling.

Climate change hysteria is an existential threat, writes Sean Adl-Tabatabai for Newspunch.

The globalist elites are using it as the ultimate control factor, the skeleton key that can unlock every door necessary to exact totalitarianism over the masses. And many will comply willingly, even gleefully.

This is the plan, anyway. There could be some other deceptions involved that are not yet clear in terms of what that transition into a new world actually looks like. But one thing is for sure: the old system has to burn to the ground in order to make way for the new system.

Much like the controlled demolition of the World Trade Center complex, the current global order needs to fall in its own footprint in order to precipitate the entry of what comes next.

The truth is that nobody on earth can control the climate, wrote a commenter about how the entire concept of man-made climate change is lunacy just using common sense. That is like saying mankind can control the universe.

World War III is what theyre launching, wrote another. Already, that Truss creature says they will use nuclear weapons without question  I heard her say it without any emotion.

This same commenter speculated that sparks will surely fly before the end of the month with a massive strike on Russia or alternatively on Ukraine, but by them (the globalists) and blamed on Russia.

From that point on, hell will be launched onto our world unlike anything ever before. The worst reality imaginable is about to start.

More related news coverage about where the world is headed can be found at Collapse.news.

Sources for this article include:

Newspunch.com

NaturalNews.com

BlueLetterBible.org
(Natural News) While weve reported numerous times recently on the skyrocketing crime rates in one Democrat run city after another all across America, with Joe Biden and his cabal putting syringes into public vending machines just the latest proof theyre intentionally turning cities into drug-and-crime-infested wastelands, a must-read story over at the Organic Prepper that Steve Quayle had linked to on his website on Friday warns us once again why its so important to be fully prepared going forward.

(Article by Stefan Stanford republished from AllNewsPipeline.com)

Reporting as the title of their story that Violent Crime Is A Collapse Indicator, as that story warned, as people struggle to provide food and housing for their families as so many are now, and in various locations all across America, well continue to see violent crimes increasing. And as has long been warned, less than 9 meals separate a civilized society from total anarchy.

And with homelessness increasing in one liberal-run city after another across America along with violent crime rates, and all of this happening at a time when the food supply chain has been hit by one catastrophe after another over the past 2 years, including the man-made COVID lockdowns, as were warned by Tucker Carlson in the first video at the bottom of this story, all of these different things, especially happening all at once, are indicators America is currently in collapse and crumbling.

With NY City one of the cities experiencing exploding crime rates, according to radical left mayor Eric Adams, the city is near the breaking point, though as this Daily Mail story points out, Adams of course is in typical liberal denial mode, blaming Texas for bussing in 11,000 illegal immigrants to that sanctuary city. Leading to liberals once again getting a taste of their own medicine as Susan Duclos had reported in this ANP story.

So with America now going through so many of the hardships that nations and empires in collapse go through, and warnings that as things continue to break down, things will only continue to get worse, we serve our families and loved ones by making sure were very well prepared for anything and everything the world might throw at us in the days, weeks and months ahead while paying very close attention to the rapidly spiraling-out-of-control events that are happening in America and all around the world as warned in the final video below featuring Steve Quayle and Doug Hagmann.

With America and the world in absolute need of the kind of Good Reset that Bob Moran of Bobs Cartoons points out in the excellent cartoon above, complete with no more EMF waves, healthy, functioning immune systems in lots of American children, clean water, happy farmers, clear skies and shrinking cities, Americans seeing the globalist scumbags where they belong as Bob points out would simply be the icing on the cake of such a good reset.

Yet the globalists war upon humanity continues, with all of those goals of the good reset nearly out of reach as the globalists usher in their anti-life future, looking at the human race as a burden that the planet will be unable to adequately house and feed in the coming years as they push for depopulation.

With the globalists bleak vision of the world perfectly seen in this new story over at MSN titled The Entire Food Chain Has Started Collapsing, Scientists Warn, their story didnt even bother to investigate what has been reported as the INTENTIONAL and ONGOING destruction of our food supply chain by the globalists pushing to transform our world into something much more sinister than free human beings deserve in their own great reset, with Americas food supply system slammed by one disaster after another over the past few years.

As Susan Duclos had correctly pointed out in this August 18th ANP story title: Americans One Crisis Away From Starvation  The Odds Of This Many Food Supply Chain Issues Happening At Once Are So Astronomical As to Be Impossible Unless By Design,. What are the odds?

And as Mac Slavo pointed out in this recent story over at SHTFPlan, these blatant attacks upon our food supply chain keep happening, and with farmers bizarrely being targeted by the globalists cabal, as this Zero Hedge story warned, without any food, there is no life. Is THAT what the globalists want? If so, America suggests they should start with themselves. From that story.:

The world is now facing a man-made food catastrophe. It is reaching crisis levels

Current policies in many parts of the world place a priority on climate change for realizing a green new deal. Meanwhile, such policies will contribute to children dying from severe malnutrition due to broken food systems, with shortages of food and water, stress, anxiety, fear, and dangerous chemical exposure.

More negative pressure on farmers and the food system is asking for a catastrophe. The immune system of many people, especially children, has lost its resilience and has weakened too far with high risks for intoxication, infections, non-communicable and infectious diseases, deaths and infertility.

Dutch farmers, of whom many will face a cost of living crisis after 2030, have drawn the line. They are supported by an increasing number of farmers and citizens worldwide.

Its not the farmers who are the most heavy polluters of the environment, but industries who make the products needed for a technocracy revolution to green energy, data mining, and Artificial Intelligence. As more of the WEF plans are rolled out by politicians, inequalities grow, and conflicts are rising all over the world.

The strong farmers revolt in the Netherlands is a call for an urgent transition to a people-oriented, free and healthy world with nutritious food cultivated and harvested in respect to natural processes. The cooperation of ordinary people worldwide is on the rise to prevent a mass famine catastrophe caused by the plan of scientism and technocracy to rule and control the world by unelected scientists and elites.

So with the very real and intentional destruction of our food supply chain being carried out in front of our faces as the globalists race to usher in their tyrannical great reset that looks an awful lot like some of the most brutal dictatorships in history, were wise to keep our eyes closely fixed upon whats now happening around the world. Because as Susan Duclos warned in this September 13th ANP story, America is just one event away from an irreversible food catastrophe that would surely be weaponized by Biden and the Democrats.

With Biden sure to use such an event to bring martial law to America as the globalists seek to find any avenue to usher in their end game, imagine state sanctioned and carried out violence upon the American people on top of what Zero Hedge warns of in this brand new story written by Michael Snyder titled Violence In California Reaches Epidemic Levels As Our Society Rapidly Deteriorates All Around Us.

And coming back full circle, with such violence a sign of America now in collapse and a sign that things will continue to spiral completely out of control if we stay on the same path Biden and Democrats have us on, the very real possibility of things compounding even more exists with food absolutely necessary for human survival and food under all out attack by the globalists who are pushing for chaos.

So we continue to serve our families and loved ones best by stocking up now while we still can with the globalists in the kill phase of the depopulation plan of their new world order as pointed out in this September 15th story over at The Expose while seemingly every day we learn of something new impacting the food supply chain. And with clean drinking water (or other liquids) something we absolutely MUST HAVE to survive, well begin right here with some water storage and treatment options that could make the difference between life and death in a SHTF scenario.

Read more at: AllNewsPipeline.com
(Natural News) A health worker terminated for refusing the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) shot gave a strong testimony against the vaccine mandate currently in place in Californias San Diego County.

Former nurse Tawny Buettner testified before local administrators during the Sept. 13 meeting of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. Her testimony focused on Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, who was in attendance that day.

I was ridiculed by those who were supposed to be my colleagues and my friends, said Buettner, who formerly worked at the cardiovascular intensive care unit (ICU) at Rady Childrens Hospital.

I am the face of your misinformation campaign, Nathan. I am the one who lost my career in pediatric cardiovascular ICU care. I took care of children who had COVID. I never got COVID at the hospital. I tested twice a week. I wore my PPE because I love my job, and I love this community.

Buettner also mentioned that she took care of children affected with myocarditis after being injected with the COVID-19 vaccines. The said cases were not reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, she revealed. (Related: COVID vaccines found to increase risk of myocarditis in children by over 13,000 percent.)

It was an unspoken thing that we were not allowed to talk about openly on the unit.

According to San Diego outlet KUSI News, Buettner had worked at Rady for 13 years. She was removed from the bedside in October 2021 due to noncompliance with San Diego Countys vaccine mandate for health workers. However, other hospitals in the county allowed unvaccinated nurses to remain employed with exceptions.

Eventually, Rady removed the unvaccinated nurses because they were too great a risk  even though vaccinated employees were not being tested for COVID-19.

Buettner was placed on unpaid, unprotected leave for six months, then officially terminated from her job on March 1. She explained that she didnt realize how much passion she had for being a nurse and saving childrens lives until it was taken from her.

Buettner seeks to hold Fletcher accountable

A day after the hearing, Buettner sat down with KUSI News anchor Lauren Phinney to talk about her testimony. The former nurse, a resident of Fletchers district, told the Good Morning San Diego host that she reached out to the supervisors office many times  but received no replies.

I sat through the Board of Supervisors meeting and was listening to the comments, she said during the Sept. 14 interview. I had a completely separate speech that I wanted to give. The topic was specifically on money allocation for testing and the continuance of the [county] emergency order.

Buettner specifically pointed her finger at Fletcher for pushing the policies that led to the loss of her career, eventually deciding to tell him face-to-face during the public hearing. According to the former nurse, her testimony sought to hold Fletcher accountable for his poor leadership. The county supervisor degraded those who opposed COVID-19 vaccine mandates by accusing them of spreading misinformation.

When I got up there, I was explaining who I was. And I realized: Im not a nurse anymore, I dont take care of these children anymore. Thats the speech that I ended up giving.

I was never disciplined, Ive never had any complaints. I was always someone who was considered a leader on my unit, and then I was removed from the bedside because of politics.

The former nurse also told Phinney that Rady later accepted religious exemptions for the COVID-19 booster dose, and allowed nurses with approved religious exemptions to continue working bedside.

Because of the rhetoric that has gone on, those within hospital leadership are able to make claims that we have found  are unsubstantiated in many respects.

We know the vaccine does not prevent infection  [and] it doesnt prevent transmission. And so, we need to be able to have a conversation about that and allow people to continue to work within their jobs.

Buettner found a silver lining in spite of her termination, telling the KUSI News anchor that since losing her job, she has been trying to be an advocate for all the other healthcare professionals and hospital employees who were fired for noncompliance with COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Watch nurse practitioner Tamika Morrow reveal the dangers of the COVID-19 vaccine below.

This video is from the Take Heed Lest Ye Fall channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

MEDICAL EXODUS: Nurse quits over tyrannical covid vaccine mandates.

Maine healthcare facilities losing workers as state imposes vaccine mandate.

Over 100 Houston Methodist Hospital employees sue over covid vaccine mandate.

Young nurse suffers from hemorrhage and brain swelling after second dose of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine.

Sources include:

LifeSiteNews.com

KUSI.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) PayPal has decided to deplatform the account of UsForThem, a British parents group that advocated for keeping schools in the United Kingdom open during the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

In an interview with the Telegraph, UsForThem said it has been unable to access thousands of pounds in donations from its account after PayPal said it discontinued service to one of the groups directors for allegedly violating the companys user agreement. But according to UsForThem co-founder Molly Kingsley, PayPal has not provided the group with a clear explanation for the closure of the account.

We were completely taken aback to learn that PayPal was discontinuing our services due to the nature of [our] activities. No prior warning or meaningful explanation was given, and despite them saying we could withdraw our remaining balance, we cannot, she said.

UsForThem has only ever been fully transparent about the organizations aims, and our mission statement is on a prominent page of our website for all to read, said Kingsley. That makes clear that our core focus is campaigning for children to be prioritized in public decision making. (Related: Scientists denounce flawed study pushing for the return of school mask mandates.)

Kingsley added that if something about UsForThems goals bothers or offends PayPal, then the least the corporation could do is be transparent about it. As a volunteer-led organization, the impact of PayPals deplatforming is considerable since UsForThem relies on recurring donations to maintain itself.

PayPal silencing lawful political groups

A spokesperson for PayPal said the companys actions were not discriminatory and that it does not take decisions regarding shutting down accounts lightly. He claimed that the company has more than 400 million customers with different beliefs and ideological leanings.

The spokesperson then pointed to the companys acceptable use policy and hinted that UsForThem likely violated the companys rules on spreading misinformation about the COVID vaccine, as well as the policy on hate speech.

But Iain Mansfield, director of research at Policy Exchange, believes PayPals actions constitute suppression of speech.

This is a company taking deliberate action to silence and suppress lawful political groups with whom they disagree, said Mansfield. He urged the British government to amend the Online Safety Bill to protect individuals and organizations access to basic digital infrastructure, rather than giving companies more power to act as censors.

Danny Kruger, a lawmaker with the British Conservative Party, raised the deplatforming of UsForThem during a speech in parliament.

As we move toward a cashless economy, these companies form part of the central infrastructure of ordinary life, said Kruger. Will the government take steps to ensure that they cannot discriminate against individuals or organizations on the basis of perfectly legal legitimate views?

Kruger isnt the only politician supporting taking away the ability of tech giants to suppress speech through deplatforming. Joanna Cherry, a parliamentarian with the Scottish National Party and a Kings Counsel, also made a speech in parliament. Cherry criticized the deplatforming of the Free Speech Union and its founder Toby Young over transgender critical beliefs.

In so far as PayPal provides goods and services in the U.K., it should be subject to our anti-discrimination laws, said Cherry. If as alleged, this action was prompted by complaints about the Free Speech Unions support for gender critical views, then it is discriminatory.

Learn more about the suspicious activities of tech companies like PayPal at Technocrats.news.

UsForThem is not the only victim of PayPals deplatforming. Watch this episode of Zolna Report as Gabe Zolna talks about how the company shut down the accounts linked to Brighteon Stores.

This video is from the ZolnaReport channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

School pandemic shutdowns to blame for historic drop in mathematics and reading proficiency scores among American children.

Scientists denounce flawed study pushing for the return of school mask mandates.

PayPal suddenly cancels independent media from platform, confiscating funds for six months.

PayPal bans accounts of independent journalists and media outlets critical of mainstream narratives regarding Ukraine.

PayPal now terminating user accounts, stealing money from users that support free speech.

Sources include:

Expose-News.com

Telegraph.co.uk

TheEpochTimes.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) A longtime plumber at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) was fired for objecting to a meme posted to Yammer, the facilitys internal social media platform, promoting the transgender mutilation of children.

Tom F., as media reports are calling him, says the first thing he saw after logging in to Yammer on June 16 was the offensive post, which suggested that parents refusal to indulge childrens trans fantasies are guilty of provoking them to suicide. (Related: The American Medical Association [AMA] also claims that denying children transgender mutilation procedures is dangerous.)

Were not trying to turn straight kids into queer kids, the meme read. Were trying to make sure you dont turn queer kids into dead kids.

The suggestion, once again, is that refusing to allow children to cut off body parts and take gender-bending pharmaceuticals is somehow responsible for those same children later committing suicide because they were unable to become their true selves.

When Tom F. saw the meme, he immediately responded to it with the following:

Im not sure why this popped up on my feed, but this is disingenuous and disgusting. For UPMC to allow filth like this to be posted on the company message board is disturbing. Why do you need to talk [with] kids about sex anyway? Its creepy and pedophilic.

Tom F. should have been commended for posting this brave and manly response. In the words of the left, he spoke his truth and he did it boldly  and he quickly paid a price for it.

Will Tom F. sue UPMC for violating his rights and promoting pedophilia?

After other trans-supporting employees at UPMC saw Tom F.s response to the post, he was contacted by the facilitys human resources department. One day later, he was suspended. And a week after that, he was terminated.

According to the termination letter that Tom F. received, his statements against the transgender mutilation of children violate UPMCs harassment-free workplace and social networking policy  even though Tom F. having to see the post in the first place is a form of harassment against his own senses and beliefs.

Tom F. did state, it is important to note, that the post goes against everything I am for. So, he spoke up about it because it violated his own conscience.

The man had worked at UPMC for six years prior to his firing. He did not have direct contact with any patients, but rather worked behind the scenes to keep the facility properly maintained.

Funny that harassment-free workplace stuff only goes one way, wrote a commenter at the Libs of TikTok news page.

Having the unsolicited trans affirming propaganda pop up on ones computer should be considered workplace harassment.'

Another wrote that he hopes Tom F. will sue UPMC for every penny he can possibly squeeze out of the corrupt, child-butchering operation.

Transvestite propaganda is sexual harassment, as are LGBT rainbow flags, wrote another.

Another emphasized that UPMC needs to be sued not just for discriminating against Tom F. but also for promoting pedophilia.

There is no such thing as queer kids,' this person added. It is an alibi gay predators use to hide signs of abuse and blame the victim.

The fact that the gay rights movement is now openly sexualizing children and trying to normalize it is why they must be stopped, said another.

Gross, added yet another.

So its okay for them to harass him with their false claims and woke ideology, but its not okay for him to respond in defense of his views with truth? He ought to sue. ADF Legal would likely do it for free.

The latest news about the trend of transgenderism in the United States can be found at Transhumanism.news.

Sources for this article include:

LibsofTikTok.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Pro-Russian factions in rebellious eastern Ukraine are preparing to hold referendums to join Russia, which western analysts say are illegal and will no doubt complicate  and widen  the war there.

Russia Today, which is a state-owned media outlet, reported that the Civic Chamber of the Lugansk Peoples Republic announced a referendum to be held later this week, as Ukrainian forces aided by Western weapons make huge gains in a long-awaited counteroffensive.

The residents of Donbass made their choice back in 2014 at the self-determination referendum of the Lugansk Peoples Republic, and all these years we have been waiting and believing that the second one will definitely follow, which will fulfill our dream of returning home  to the Russian Federation, Lina Vokalova, deputy head of the chamber, said.

Holding a vote now is vital as the events of recent days have shown that the Kiev nationalists have crossed all the red lines, she stressed.

The Nazis mercilessly shell and stage terrorist acts against the civilian population of the Lugansk Peoples Republic, seeking to scare us, and make us give up our dream and our ultimate goal  to join the Russian Federation, Vokalova noted further.

If the regions agree to become part of Russia, which they are certain to do, then literally overnight Ukrainian forces will be occupying Russian soil, giving President Vladimir Putin all the justification he needs to ramp up the war there dramatically.

Russian proxy governments in occupied territories in Ukraine announced they will hold referendums to seek formal annexation by Russia, notes an assessment of the situation by private intelligence firm Forward Observer.

The international community has largely denounced the referendums as an illegal land grab violating Ukraines constitution and international law, with the EU promising to hold those involved accountable and implement additional restrictive measures. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinsky promised continued efforts to liberate the territories, calling the announced referendum an unacceptable sham that proves Putins fear of defeat,' the report continued, stating that voting will commence later this week.

An analyst comment that accompanied the report laid out the dangers of holding the referendums:

Ukrainian focus are likely to use claims of a successful referendum to increase counterattacks and possibly launch a new assault on the sovereignty of the Russian Federation. Russia will also use this to characterize ongoing material support to Ukraine as an act of war in an attempt to stalemate NATO with the threat of a global conflict.

Meanwhile, Putin announced a partial mobilization of up to 300,000 more troops, while also warning that he is prepared to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, a threat he said the West should not take as a bluff.

In a prerecorded message, the Russian president charged that the West wants to destroy our country, adding that NATO countries had tried to turn Ukraines people into cannon fodder, according to CNBC, which added:

Putin said mobilization events would begin Wednesday without providing further details, aside from saying he had ordered an increase in funding to boost Russias weapons production, having committed (and lost) a large amount of weaponry during the conflict, which began in late February.

A partial mobilization is a hazy concept, but it could mean that Russian businesses and citizens have to contribute more to the war effort. Russia has not yet declared war on Ukraine, despite having invaded in February, and it calls its invasion a special military operation.

Putin confirmed that military reservists would be called up into active service, but insisted a wider conscription of Russian men of fighting age was not taking place.

I reiterate, we are talking about partial mobilization, that is, only citizens who are currently in the reserve will be subject to conscription, and above all, those who served in the armed forces have a certain military specialty and relevant experience, Putin said according to an Associated Press translation.

Conscripts will obligatorily go through additional military training based on the experience of the special military operation before departing to the units, he noted further.

The world is about to explode, and Western globalists couldnt care less.

Sources include:

RT.com

CNBC.com
(Natural News) In a seven-minute nationally televised address, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West that a nuclear war is definitely coming, adding that he isnt bluffing over using everything at his disposal to protect Russia.

This was taken as an apparent reference to Russias nuclear arsenal. Putin also previously told the West not to push Russia against the wall and rebuked NATO countries for supplying weapons to Ukraine.

The purpose of the West is to weaken, divide and ultimately destroy our country. They are already directly saying that in 1991 they were able to split the Soviet Union, and now the time has come for Russia itself, that it should disintegrate into many mortally hostile regions, Putin said.

The Ukrainian people themselves were turned into cannon fodder and pushed to war with our country  unleashing this war back in 2014 using the armed forces against the civilian population, organizing genocide, blockade, terror against people who refused to recognize the power that arose in Ukraine as a result of a coup.

Putin said that Russias Armed forces are operating on the line of contact, which exceeds over a thousand kilometers.

They are confronting not only neo-Nazi formations, but in fact the entire military machine of the collective West, he said.

In this situation, I consider it necessary to make the following decision  it is fully adequate to the threats we face. To protect our Motherland, its sovereignty and territorial integrity, to ensure the security of our people and people in the liberated territories, I consider it necessary to support the proposal [of the] Ministry of Defense and the General Staff on the conduct of partial mobilization in the Russian Federation.

Putin ended his speech with a threat: To those who allow themselves to make such statements about Russia, I would like to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction, and for some components more modern than those of the NATO countries. And if the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. Its not a bluff. (Related: Heightened fears of nuclear war increase demand for potassium iodide worldwide.)

Experts offer differing opinions on Putins nuclear threat

Andrey Baklitskiy, a senior researcher in the Weapons of Mass Destruction and other Strategic Weapons Program at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, said the concept of Putins territorial integrity was tricky as Russia was planning to absorb four Ukrainian regions where heavy fighting is taking place.

Coming from the person who has the sole decision-making power regarding Russian nuclear weapons, this will have to be taken seriously, he said.

Russian politics expert Mark Galeotti also said that Putins nuclear threats were unprecedented, but he questioned whether or not the president was willing to go through with his threats, which would de facto mean nuclear war.

Instead, he argued that the apocalyptic threats were intended to force the West and Ukraine into accepting Russias territorial gains in the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview that he too does not believe Putin would use nuclear weapons, but did not rule out the possibility of a Russian nuclear strike.

Visit WWIII.news to get more updates about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Watch the video below to know more about Putins nuclear war threat.

This video is from the IRick Langley channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Washington is driving the world to nuclear war.

NATO pushing for Kaliningrad CATASTROPHE by provoking Russia into global nuclear war.

In preparation for nuclear war, Romania issues potassium iodide pills to citizens.

Sources include:

NewsPunch.com

TheGuardian.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Matt Walsh has been busy lately investigating the transgender clinic at Vanderbilt Health in Nashville, which is under fire for providing so-called gender affirming care to children.

Vanderbilt is accused of offering castration, pharmaceutical drugging and other treatments as part of a massive money-making scheme that Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and several members of the states Republican Party have helped bring to the countrys attention.

In a statement, Lee said that Vanderbilts pediatric transgender clinic is generating serious moral, ethical and legal concerns. And the only way to address those concerns is with a full-scale investigation.

Walsh has indicated that he is up to the task, revealing in a series of tweets what he has discovered so far.

My team and I have been investigating the transgender clinic at Vanderbilt here in Nashville, Walsh says. Vanderbilt drugs, chemically castrates, and performs double mastectomies on minors. But it gets worse.

Vanderbilt Health has been targeting childrens genitals since at least 2010

First launched in 2018, Vanderbilts transgender clinic held a speaking event at which Dr. Shayne Taylor explained the tactics that were used to make it happen in a red state like Tennessee.

Describing the transgender mutilation of children as a big money maker, especially due to the number of follow ups that patients require, Taylor basically admitted that the whole thing is a criminal racket exploiting children as collateral damage.

Watch Taylor reveal all this and more below:

Vanderbilt opened its trans clinic in 2018. During a lecture the same year, Dr. Shayne Taylor explained how she convinced Nashville to get into the gender transition game. She emphasized that its a big money maker, especially because the surgeries require a lot of follow ups pic.twitter.com/zedM7HBCBe  Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) September 20, 2022

Recognizing that not all of the hospitals staff would be on board with the new transgender clinic, Vanderbilt Healths Dr. Ellen Clayton explained at the same gathering that these conscientious objections might be problematic for the clinics implementation.

She proposed punishing doctors and other medical professionals at Vanderbilt who object to child transition surgeries due to their religious beliefs face consequences  watch below:

Vanderbilt was apparently concerned that not all of its staff would be on board. Dr. Ellen Clayton warned that conscientious objections are problematic. Anyone who decides not to be involved in transition surgeries due to religious beliefs will face consequences pic.twitter.com/CgNicrG4Mg  Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) September 20, 2022

Vanderbilt Health also unveiled a program called Trans Buddies to further make life difficult for conscientious objectors who oppose slicing off young boys genitals to turn them into a fake vagina, as one example of what goes on there.

The buddies are trans activists from the community who attend appointments with trans patients, monitoring the doctors to guard against unsafe behavior such as misgendering, Walsh reveals.

Child patients at Vanderbilt have full access to the Trans Buddies program, as well as a host of other services that aim to make chemical castration and genital surgery as opposition-free as possible.

This is the same Vanderbilt Health, by the way, that refused to perform an organ transplant on a dying six-month-old baby because the child had not been vaccinated for the Fauci Flu (covid).

It turns out that Vanderbilt Health has had its eyes on childrens genitals since at least 2010 when it put out a video  watch below  revealing that the hospital has prescribed irreversible hormone-altering pharmaceuticals to children as young as 13.

But they must have forgot to delete a video from Vanderbilt Psychiatrys Youtube channel back in 2020 which admits explicitly that they will give and have given irreversible hormone drugs to children as young as 13. pic.twitter.com/Qn48zWoJ1N  Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) September 20, 2022

Be sure to check out the rest of what Walsh discovered in his investigation.

The latest news about Vanderbilt Health and its transgender clinic can be found at Transhumanism.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheReaderApp.com

Tennessean.com

NaturalNews.com
Tampa residents are told to braise themselves and be prepared for the incoming severe weather. Authorities said to prepare for a storm surge. inland floods, high winds, and possible tornadoes.

To track the progression of a tropical wave in the Southeast Caribbean Sea, the City of Tampa is still collaborating with regional, state, and local partners.

The National Hurricane Center has predicted that this system will have a high chance of developing into a tropical storm over the next few days, but at this point, it is unclear whether this will have any effects on the area.

Be Informed. Be Alert.

Residents are being urged by Mayor Jane Castor as well as Tampa Fire Rescue Chief Barbara Tripp to get ready for severe weather by being informed and vigilant right away.

The Disaster Supply Kit for the household should be ready, and where possible, sustainable options should be included. Your hurricane supplies should prioritize having access to clean water.

Tripp said that per person, there should be a gallon of water per day is the recommended amount to have on hand and to have a three-day supply available. This equates to three gallons of water for drinking and cleaning purposes for each individual.

Castor said to keep in mind that residents of Tampa Bay are accustomed to storms and other severe weather. Since it only takes one storm, now is the time to get ready. To avoid any discomfort or inconvenience during the storm, Castor also urged the populace to gather the supplies they require.

Residents are also reminded that their evacuation zone might have recently changed and to double-check that they are in their actual, current evacuation zone.

As a precaution against potential severe weather, Mayor Castor advises keeping an eye on elderly or vulnerable neighbors and family members.

Severe Weather in Tampa

Storm surge, or the force of the water being pushed toward the shore by the winds, can be destructive in a hurricane. The normal tides and this advancing surge work together to cover normally dry land in several feet of water. The storm surge rises as the storm gets stronger.

More than half of the deaths linked to tropical cyclones in the US over the past 30 years have been brought on by inland flooding.

Mobile homes and poorly built buildings can both be destroyed by hurricane-force winds. Hurricanes turn debris, including signs, roofing materials, and small items left outside, into flying missiles.

Tornadoes that are produced by hurricanes increase the storm's potential for destruction. The area of the hurricane's right front quadrant where tornadoes are most likely to form.

Read also: Northeast US to Receive Coolest Wave of Air Since May as the Fall Season Begins

Constantly Preparing

The City of Tampa is constantly working to make sure we are equipped to respond both during severe weather and after it has passed.

Weather stations have recently been set up all over the city by Tampa Fire Rescue. The general public is urged to stay informed and read local government publications.

Teams from Emergency Response Centers are now also equipped with drones to facilitate quick damage assessments and ensure a quicker response following a storm.

Additionally, the City of Tampa has joined the AT&T First Net program, which offers exclusive public safety personnel a dedicated bandwidth for improved communications in the event of a storm, Tampa.Gov reports.

Related article: Hurricane Fiona Will Make a Direct Impact in Eastern Canada
A 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Mexico in the early hours of Thursday, September 22, killing at least two people and toppling buildings in the capital Mexico City. The shockwave from the earthquake was felt in five states across the country.

The epicenter of the earthquake transpired after 1:00 a.m. local time in Michoacan State, near the Pacific Coast, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

Thursday's quake occurred just three days after a powerful 7.6 magnitude tremor rattled Mexico's Pacific Coast on Monday, September 19, while the country was commemorating two deadly earthquake anniversaries. The natural disaster earlier this week was recorded on the same day of the major earthquakes on September 19 in 2017 and 1985, which hundreds and thousands of people dead.

Multiple sources attribute Monday's incident as a "cursed anniversary" due to three lethal quakes occurring on the same date in a span of five years and 32 years. Some reports consider the latest earthquake was an aftershock. However, authorities consider it as a new earthquake given the intensity of its magnitude and interval with the quake on Monday, where at least one person was killed.

Regardless, the Pacific Coast or western coast of Mexico falls along the so-called "Pacific Ring of Fire." It is a horse shoe-shaped region across the Pacific Ocean where seismic activity due to active tectonic plate movements are present. As a result, the occurrence of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common within the Ring of Fire, which also encompasses the West Coast of the United States.

New Mexico Earthquake

The specific epicenter location of the 6.8 magnitude tremor was 53 miles from the coastal town of Lazaro Cardenas in Michoacan State. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador stated the aftershock was felt not only in Michoacan but also in the neighboring states of Colima, Jalisco, Guerrero, and Mexico City, as cited by AccuWeather.

The first fatality in the capital was a woman living in the city's Doctores neighborhood, where she fell down the stairs and hit her head, according to local law enforcement.

Purportedly caused by the seismic event, the second fatality was a man from the city's Educacion neighborhood where he died from heart attack, Mexico City Governor Claudia Sheinbaum confirms.

Also Read: Spooky Coincidence: Did Earthquakes Hit Mexico on the Same Day Three Times?

Earthquake Damage

The strong earthquake not only resulted in casualties but it also damaged infrastructure and triggered landslides.

In particular, the quake damaged buildings and caused a landslide on a highway linking the states of Guerrero and Michoacan along the coast, ABC News reports.

Potential Aftershock

In a video report by The Weather Channel on Thursday, the 6.8 magnitude earthquake occurred in the same area where the major quake earlier this week occurred. This makes the former a reportedly aftershock candidate.

Unlike weather and climatic periods, earthquakes are harder to predict since they have no specific timeline of rest or peak seasons. Yet, previous main identifiable earthquakes are frequently followed by aftershocks, characterized by the USGS as a follow-up tremor with a lesser magnitude at times.

Related Article: Powerful 7.6 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Mexico During Deadly Quake Anniversary: At Least One Dead
SIMUNYE  Boxer Supermarket has suffered another setback as its branch in Simunye Plaza was in flames in the wee hours of yesterday and millions of liquor and grocery items were lost in the fire.

Last month, Boxers sister supermarket at Tshaneni was broken into by 12 gunmen.According to Boxer Supermarket Regional Manager Nicholus Lukhele, he received a call at around 3am, informing him about the fire at the supermarket.He said he was still waiting for his superiors in South Africa to quantify the damages. I cannot talk much for now as I am still waiting for my superiors to assess and quantify the loss, he briefly said.

The burnt items included refrigerators, alcoholic beverages, groceries and the roofing and wall. Siteki National Fire and Emergency Services personnel attended to the scene and managed to extinguish the fire at the supermarket.Officers from the Siteki Police Station and Simunye, led by Justice Mabuza, who heads the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), were found at the scene. According to an eyewitness who was first to be at the scene, the fire started at the liquor shop and extended to the supermarket.

Investigations

The eyewitness said they suspected a fault from the transformer to have started the inferno, though investigations are still ongoing to ascertain the cause. The transformer is within the supermarkets premises. Worth mentioning is that the structure housing the transformer had its doors wide open when this reporter visited the scene. We suspect that the transformer might have been the cause of the fire, because it is housed near the liquor shop that was extensively burnt. A large flame was seen just before dawn and we rushed to the scene. Some people called the police and the firemen. The firemen took about an hour while the police promptly arrived and warned us not to come near the scene, said the witness. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed the matter.

She said police were still conducting investigations into the circumstances that led to the burning of the supermarket. Meanwhile, last month, the supermarkets safe and Swaziland Building Society (SBS) automated teller machine (ATM) were bombed by 12 gunmen at Tshaneni. The 12 men were armed with an AK 47 rifle and pistols. They further proceeded to Puma Filling Station convenience store but failed to dismantle the safe.

They further went on to ZP Cellular shop within the shopping centre and stole cellphones and other electronic gadgets, including an undisclosed amount of money that was for FNB Cash Plus and MTN Mobile Money, as well as cash retrieved in the cash register.

Retrieved at the Boxer Supermarket for forensic purposes were; a huge hammer used to break the door and the safe, a CCTV footage recording device and other debris collected by the police inside the supermarket. SIMUNYE  Boxer Supermarket has suffered another setback as its branch in Simunye Plaza was in flames in the wee hours of yesterday and millions of liquor and grocery items were lost in the fire. Last month, Boxers sister supermarket at Tshaneni was broken into by 12 gunmen. According to Boxer Supermarket Regional Manager Nicholus Lukhele, he received a call at around 3am, informing him about the fire at the supermarket.

He said he was still waiting for his superiors in South Africa to quantify the damages. I cannot talk much for now as I am still waiting for my superiors to assess and quantify the loss, he briefly said. The burnt items included refrigerators, alcoholic beverages, groceries and the roofing and wall. Siteki National Fire and Emergency Services personnel attended to the scene and managed to extinguish the fire at the supermarket.

Officers from the Siteki Police Station and Simunye, led by Justice Mabuza, who heads the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), were found at the scene. According to an eyewitness who was first to be at the scene, the fire started at the liquor shop and extended to the supermarket.

Investigations

The eyewitness said they suspected a fault from the transformer to have started the inferno, though investigations are still ongoing to ascertain the cause. The transformer is within the supermarkets premises. Worth mentioning is that the structure housing the transformer had its doors wide open when this reporter visited the scene. We suspect that the transformer might have been the cause of the fire, because it is housed near the liquor shop that was extensively burnt. A large flame was seen just before dawn and we rushed to the scene. Some people called the police and the firemen. The firemen took about an hour while the police promptly arrived and warned us not to come near the scene, said the witness.

Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed the matter. She said police were still conducting investigations into the circumstances that led to the burning of the supermarket. Meanwhile, last month, the supermarkets safe and Swaziland Building Society (SBS) automated teller machine (ATM) were bombed by 12 gunmen at Tshaneni. The 12 men were armed with an AK 47 rifle and pistols. They further proceeded to Puma Filling Station convenience store but failed to dismantle the safe.

They further went on to ZP Cellular shop within the shopping centre and stole cellphones and other electronic gadgets, including an undisclosed amount of money that was for FNB Cash Plus and MTN Mobile Money, as well as cash retrieved in the cash register. Retrieved at the Boxer Supermarket for forensic purposes were; a huge hammer used to break the door and the safe, a CCTV footage recording device and other debris collected by the police inside the supermarket.
Nearly 230 pilot whales were stranded on Tasmania's coast Wednesday, prompting marine conservationists to rescue the whales immediately.

In a report, Sydney Morning Herald said that the mass stranding of pilot whales happened on Ocean Beach near Macquarie Harbour, south of Strahan.

The news report added that half of the pod could be alive.

Immediately, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania said that rescuers were on the coast equipped with gears to rescue the stranded pilot whales on the beach.

In an interview with BBC, AccuWeather reported that Wildlife scientist Vanessa Pirotta said that the stranding of pilot whales is unusual and concerning, which happened with the same species and location before.

Based on the reports, 500 whales were also stranded in September 2020 in the same location.

Stranded Whales a Mystery

Moreover, the wildlife scientists explained climate change could impact the stranded whales or follow a disoriented pilot whale leader. However, she stressed that the main reasons for stranding are still a mystery.

According to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania, the invaluable help of aquaculture companies and a telehandler helped lift the affected pilot whales.

The same report added that they would focus on removing about 200 deceased whales after the rescue.

Marine wildlife experts will investigate the reason behind the stranded whales. However, the environment of Tasmania said that the cause of stranding is still unknown.

This week, a stranding of over 14 male sperm eventually died on King Island, located to the north of Tasmania.

Also Read: New Research Shows How Marine Predators Find Food Hotspots in Ocean Eddies

According to The Guardian, Prof Karen Stockin, an expert on whale and dolphin strandings at Massey University in New Zealand, explained that the reason for stranding could have multiple causes. She added it could be with the cyclical changes in the ocean temperatures.

Pilot Whales

According to the OCEANA Protecting World Oceans, pilot whales are marine mammals. The name is from the term pilot meaning the pod follows the leader:

Short-filled pilot whales are Globicephala macrohynchus. It has a white saddle patch that can be seen behind in dorsal fin. They prefer to live in warmer oceans.

Long-finned pilot whales are G. Melas. They tend to live in temperate and sub-arctic oceans.

Some pilot whales are black with markings under their bellies.

Male pilot whales are larger than females. The male can grow to 22 feet in length and weigh up to three tonnes. At six years of age, female pilot whales can reach sexual maturity with the longest birth interval.

They strongly connect with the matriarchal pod, also treated as a grandmother.

Pilot whales are efficient hunters in the ocean, capable of holding their breath for 15 minutes and reaching 1,000 meters with a speed of up to 90 kilometers/ hr.

Pilot whales are also considered the second largest species of dolphins. They are known to be social and communal pods.

Moreover, they use their teeth in hunting, also called toothed whales. Despite short-finned and long-finned may look the same, they have different sizes of fins and shapes.

Pilot whales have a lifespan of 45 to 60 years of living.

Related Article: The World's Largest Container Line Reroutes Ships to Avoid Harming Endangered Blue Whales

For more similar, don't forget to follow Nature World News.
A major hurricane threat has raised concern for its potential to hit the United States next week from Monday, September 26. A storm system is hovering off the northern coast of South America, which has been projected to navigate the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. The same system could directly hit the US, breaking what appeared to be a relatively quiet hurricane season for the country this year.

The system is called "Invest 98L" by the National Hurricane Center (NHC). The weather phenomenon is currently located in the southeastern Caribbean Sea and remains disorganized due to its close proximity to the sub-continent; coupled by strong winds in its surrounding atmosphere, according to AccuWeather. If Invest 98L strengthens, it could take the next name "Hermine" on the list for the 2022 Atlantic season.

The US hurricane agency monitors other active storms like Hurricane Fiona, Tropical Storm Gaston, and Tropical Storm Newton. In recent days, Fiona has left a trail of destruction in the Caribbean region, heading towards Bermuda and killing several people in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Guadeloupe. The hurricane also left thousands of people without power and damaged infrastructure.

Major Hurricane Next Week

AccuWeather meteorologists have started cautioning the potential danger brought by the tropical rainstorm earlier this week. In particular, weather forecasting company's team warned of the following weather hazards from Sunday to Wednesday, September 25 to September 28:

flooding rainfall

destructive winds

power outages

coastal inundation

dangerous seas

Meanwhile, Fox Weather meteorologist said there is a high likelihood that the 98L or the tropical disturbance near South America will develop into a stronger system in the coming days. Members of the Fox Forecast Center team named the system as "Disturbance 1."

Also Read: Eastern Pacific Hurricane: Tropical Storm Kay Expected to Hit Mexico, Southwest US This Week

2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season

Prior to the ongoing Atlantic hurricane season, which spans from June 1 to November 30, US weather authorities warned of an above-normal hurricane period this year. In the past, scientists have attributed climate change and global warming to be the culprit of never-before-seen storms and other extreme weather events. In recent months, recurring heat waves have gripped the US with high temperatures.

In May 2022, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that the ongoing La Nina weather pattern at that time and above-average Atlantic temperatures will set the stage for a busy 2022 Atlantic hurricane season.

The NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC), a part of the National Weather Service (NWS), predicted a 65% chance of an above-normal season, 25% chance of a near-normal season, and 10% chance of a below-normal season.

The prediction pertains to the likelihood of formation of hurricane or named storms. By estimate, 14 to 21 named storms could transpire; wherein six out of 10 could become hurricanes, and three to six can become major hurricanes.

In September 2021, Hurricane Ida made landfall in the state of Louisiana before pummeling eight other states, where media reporting said 91 people were killed due to its destructive power even than Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Damaging, lethal winds are the greatest hazard brought by Ida, which also led to widespread property damage and travel disruption.

Related Article: Atlantic Hurricane Season to Peak this Month
The ship Hvalur 9 is seen transporting a 20-metre long fin whale off its hull to the processing plant in Hvalfjordur, near Reykjavik on June 24, 2022, the first to be caught in nearly 4 years. - Iceland's only remaining whaler brought in its first fin whale of the season on June 24, 2022 in what may be one of the last whaling campaigns in the country's history. (Photo : Photo by HALLDOR KOLBEINS/AFP via Getty Images)

Approximately 230 whales have gotten trapped on a Tasmanian sea shore, precisely two years after a roughly comparable occurrence in the year of 2020.

Hundreds of Whales Trapped





In the recent report from news media such as the Newsweek, the Tasmanian administration's Division of Environmental Resources and Sustainability has already claimed on Wednesday that fisheries management specialists were on their way to the West Bank portion of the peninsula, where the approximate 230 whales had been trapped on a sandy flat in Macquarie Harbour, to rescue the creatures.

Good portion of the creatures, presumed to be pilot whales, looked to be alive when they were discovered, according to the statement of the rescue personnel. Specialists intend to utilize appropriate safety equipment to just recover as much of the vulnerable whales as possible.

Based on what the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday morning on their social media page on Facebook, they remind the people that assistance is just not required at this juncture and if ever it is judged that the population at large requires assistance, an appeal will be issued thru all the numerous mediums, Yahoo reported.

The authorities will also be directed by a whale-stranding emergency preparedness document that has been thoroughly reviewed around the year of 2020, when a roughly comparable and far more potentially serious event happened within the relatively similar location.

During the 2020 incident about 470 pilot whales were trapped in the port on September 21 and 22, 2020, with approximately 380 of them suffering from the effects, as per Trendy News.

The episode has still been remembered as the most devastating catastrophic whale perforating on Australian soil. On circumstance, intelligence officers as well as community members collaborated together to continue pushing the whales further into the sea by sliding enormous netting beneath the whales.

While on the other hand, Dr. Kris Carlyon, a fisheries management intervention wildlife researcher with the Tasmanian administration, explained to The Guardian during the moment that there' is absolutely nothing to demonstrate that this [stranding] is prompted by human activity.

Moreover, this is a naturally occurring phenomenon, and researchers know natural process have taken place previously, and folks know that from the evolutionary history. Since in terms of preventing this from happening, there's not much humans can do.

Also read: Mysterious Stories of Living Fossils That Defy Reason and Science

Whales at Tasmanian Beach





Stranding occurs when an either alive or dead aquatic animal becomes stranded on shore and is unable to revert back to the sea without intervention.

When a coastal animal is forced to leave the environment, it ends up losing its capacity to control its bodily functions as well as encounters unusual weight and strain on its body tissues, which can result in damage or mortality. Researchers are nevertheless unsure why whale strandings arise, yet such episodes have occurred for long periods of time.

As shown in the recent update from The New York Times, environmental variables such as aging, sickness, extreme temperatures, and piloting blunders are believed to have a role. As stated by the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida, if a particular whale becomes distressed, its alarm sounds may cause others to shore themselves as well.

Social conduct, on the other hand, plays a role. Several other experts think that man-made deep ocean disturbances, such as armed services ultrasonic electrical impulses, might very well induce whales to run to sand dunes to avoid the audio signal, or perhaps hurt them inside.

Related article: Orca Attacks Off the Galician Coast Suddenly Stopped for the First Time in Months




Fast-moving solar winds might cause an intense solar storm to hit Earth today, September 23, according to NOAA. Should we worry?

Relentless Solar Storms

The relentless solar storm assaults this year have turned the Earth into a standing target. And after a little respite, the solar storm onslaught is again underway. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts that today, September 23, fast-moving solar winds will impact the Earth, resulting in a solar storm. This occurred just a few days after radio outages in Africa and the Middle East were brought on by a solar flare explosion on the Sun.

Also Read: What If The Carrington Event Happened Today? Experts Discussed the Reprecussions if Extremely Powerful Solar Storm Hits Modern Society

Solar Storm Report

This occurrence was reported by SpaceWeather.com, which stated on its website, "NOAA forecasts believe that a mild G1-class geomagnetic storm is probable on September 23 when a high-speed stream of solar wind is expected to contact Earth's magnetic field.

It is impossible to know how this solar storm will affect us now. Additionally, because it is equinox day, the Earth's magnetosphere will be weaker, making it easier for solar radiation and particles to reach the atmosphere. Further, this may intensify the storm and result in radio blackouts and GPS malfunctions, which might prolong travel times.

As the Sun approaches its solar maximum, the primary danger to Earth is being hit by a G5-class solar storm. Satellites in Earth's lower orbit can be burned and destroyed by such a solar storm. Wireless communications like shortwave radio, GPS, mobile networks, and internet access can be severely interfered with and destroyed. In the worst instance, damage to electrical grids might result from such a solar storm.

Astonishing technology is being used to capture this data in real time. Using its DSCOVR satellite, which went into service in 2016, NOAA keeps track of solar storms and the Sun's activities. The Space Weather Prediction Center's computers are then used to process the retrieved data, and the final analysis is created. The various measurements are made for the solar particles' temperature, speed, density, degree of orientation, and frequency.

Active Solar Cycle

As the Sun approaches the pinnacle of its 11-year cycle known as the solar maximum, NASA has warned that horrifying solar flares will likely be released more frequently shortly.

Solar flares threaten Earth because the radiation they produce may obstruct radio communications. These storms affect all technological and communication systems, including the electricity grid and the internet, and can destroy satellites.

NASA issued a warning in its most recent blog post: "Solar events will continue to grow as we approach the solar maximum in 2025, and our lives and technology on Earth, as well as satellites and people in space, will be impacted.

The space agency reports that Solar Cycle 25, which began in December 2019, is the current phase the Sun is in. This suggests that the Sun's activity will continue to rise until it reaches its highest levels throughout the solar cycle.

Related Article: Can Powerful Solar Storms Have the Power to Destroy the Entire Planet?

For more cosmic news, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
MANZINI  All the towns that the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) was to demonstrate in today have denied them permission to do so.

TUCOSWA had planned to demonstrate in Manzini, Mbabane, Nhlangano, Piggs Peak and Siteki. From these five towns, Nhlangano had granted the union permission to demonstrate; however, it later withdrew it following that it was advised to do so by the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS).

The union sought to demonstrate in these towns with the hope of sensitising the citizenry about their demands, which revolve around the increment of grants awarded to the elderly, which had to be at par with the cost of living.

Reviewed

The demands also include that the free primary education (FPE) and orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) grants be revived. TUCOSWA is also calling for the introduction of a minimum wage, which would allow all workers to afford living. The union had sought permission to demonstrate at the Nhlangano Park and the Nhlangano Town Council had in a letter dated September 21, 2022, conceded to the request. The letter titled RE: Notice of a gathering in terms of Section 6 of the Public Order Act, 2017 for a Section 40 IRA, protest action, from the towns Chief Executive Officer Babsy Mavuso, had communicated that during discussions between the parties, the general consensus was that the prevailing social and security landscape was not conducive for the planned activity.

Mavuso had initially said there was need to increase the level of preparedness and security from both ends. He said in light of the concerns raised, especially by the law enforcement agencies, it was recommended that TUCOSWA convene at the Nhlangano Park with its affiliates, reduce the number of hours for the activity to accommodate other people who might want to do their errands in town. You will be allocated King George Street to get to the regional administrators office. Please bear in mind that you remain accountable for any wayward behaviour by your affiliates. I hope you will find this in order and look forward to your co-operation, Mavuso said. However, yesterday, he sent to the Secretary General (SG) of TUCOSWA Mduduzi Gina another letter with the same title, which was revoking the previous agreement.In light of the above, Nhlangano Town Council does not accede to your application dated September 16, 2022 and thus revoke the letter issued to you dated September 21, 2022. We state that, the prohibition of the event is proportionate to the harm to national security, public order, public health or the rights and freedoms of others that is sought to be avoided as discussed in our meeting with yourselves, Mavuso said.

Letter

In this letter, which its wording is similar to all the other four towns, referred to the subsequent engagement held on September 21, 2022, between the municipal council, the national commissioners representatives and TUCOSWA, regarding the proposed march and/or gathering as per the application. He said the National Commissioner (NATCOM) of Police, William Dlamini, had the mandate to prohibit the gathering or march if he had reasons to believe that the march will endanger the maintenance of public order and public safety. Mavuso said during the aforesaid meeting, the national commissioners representatives, raised security concerns that the country was experiencing issues of national security. He said the general consensus was that the prevailing social and security landscape was not conducive for the planned activity and that there was need to increase the level of preparedness and security.

He said the national commissioner was of the view that he could not guarantee the safety of the citizens and property if the march or gathering of any nature would be allowed to proceed.Another letter, dated September 22, 2022, reads: In reference to your letter directed to TUCOSWA dated September 21, 2022 after a preparatory meeting, we kindly advise you that the meeting CANNOT TAKE PLACE on Friday 23rd September, 2022 at Nhlangano Park as directed. This is due to sensitive intelligence and information on State security that has been forwarded to us, just after the meeting. We kindly apologise for any inconvenience caused. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati said she was not aware of such correspondence.

Denying

The Municipal Council of Manzini, on the other hand, despite denying TUCOSWA permission to march, said: As a measure to counter the prohibition herein, it is advised that TUCOSWA uses other acceptable means of engaging the other parties for its grievances. This could include sending a delegation of four TUCOSWA Executive Committee members to deliver employee grievances to the relevant stakeholders. On the other hand, the SG of TUCOSWA, Gina, confirmed that all municipalities had denied them permission to gather and demonstrate in their towns.

He said what was surprising to them was that they had followed all the regulations listed in the laws of the country.
MBABANE  The well-known lawyer who allegedly sexually abused and impregnated his children has been slapped with three charges of rape and two under the SODV Act.

The attorney, who is 54-year-old, purportedly committed the offences over a period 14 years, from 2006 to 2020. Under the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence (SODV) Act, the learned friend is alleged to have maintained sexual relationships with two minors from his area, aged 14 and 16. It has been reliably gathered that the rape charges were accompanied by aggravating factors, as he allegedly impregnated the minors and children were born as a result of same.

He was arrested by members of the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) yesterday while at his parental homestead and is yet to appear in court. The Crown yesterday obtained an order to extract his blood samples for further investigations. He is currently detained at the Siteki Police Station and is expected to make his first court appearance at Siteki Magistrates Court today.

Confirmed

Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed the arrest of the lawyer. The name of the lawyer will not be disclosed pending his court appearance. The attorney is alleged to have impregnated the children and forced them to take abortion tablets.

One of the allegedly abused children told the police that she tried to commit suicide several times and another has been removed from the lawyers homestead to a safe house. He allegedly took some of the children to the Republic of South Africa (RSA) for abortion procedures once they fell pregnant.

It was also gathered that one of the children fell pregnant about four times. One of his daughters, his niece and a helper, allegedly gave birth to the attorneys children after failed abortion attempts at his instance. The minors were allegedly sexually abused by the lawyer for years, beginning from when some of them were as young as 12 years old. One of the allegedly abused children now works for one security services and another is a studying in SA. An investigation by this publication had established that members of the community where the attorney resides, who were aware of the alleged sexual abuse experienced by the children in the hands of their father, were enraged that nothing was seemingly being done to the lawyer.

The community members were said to be contemplating taking the law into their own hands due to the snails pace at which the matter was being addressed. One of the children, *Lungile, informed the police that everyone at home was blaming me for having sexual intercourse with my father, as if it was my fault. She told the police that she stayed with her father, stepsister, her brother and a helper in 2006, when she was doing Form I and was 12 years old. She said her stepmother was staying in another town where she was employed and she would visit them on weekends. In the same year, according to Lungile, the lawyer began touching her inappropriately and sexually abused her and her aunt, who was a year older than her. She alleged that the lawyer would come at night to the room she shared with her aunt and call either of them to his room, where he abused them sexually.

She alleged that she visited her mother in the neighbouring country during school holidays and when she returned, the lawyer said she was more beautiful and continued to have sexual intercourse with her.

Lungile said she was very scared to speak because in my mind I did not believe what was happening to me, that my own father would hurt me like that. Sometimes when she was asleep, she said, she would wake up and find her father undressing her and he would press her to the bed and have sexual intercourse with her. That was the longest night of my life and the most painful experience, she informed the police. Lungile said she fell pregnant and her stepmother asked her about it. She stated that she immediately told her everything and that her father was behind the pregnancy.

She alleged that the lawyer had advised her to tell anyone who enquired about her pregnancy that she had sex with a boy during a party.

Lungile also alleged that her father did not allow her to visit her maternal homestead when she was pregnant and made arrangements for her to have an abortion in a South African hospital, where he registered her under a false name. She said she fell pregnant several times afterwards.

Pregnant

According to Lungile, her aunt also fell pregnant by the lawyer and when her family found out about it, they called the police. She said the police arrived at her school and asked about her aunts situation and she told them all that she knew, however, they never asked about my situation. Her aunt was 13 years old. Lungile stated that her stepmother assaulted her when she found out that the lawyer was still having sex with them, and said they thought they were bomgcaki bakhe (sharing a man with her). She said her father called his attorneys and complained that she had been questioned without parental consent.

She said there was a time when she and her 13-year-old aunt were both pregnant and the lawyer allegedly took them to a hospital in Schoemasdal, South Africa, to have an abortion. The doctor at the hospital is said to have advised that it would be dangerous to perform the procedure since she was 20 weeks into the pregnancy and her father persuaded the doctor. She alleged that after the abortion, the sexual abuse by her father continued, despite family meetings being held about the matter and her aunt left the lawyers residence. She alleged that her father also had a child with their helper and her stepmother terminated her services when she found out that the lawyer was allegedly having sex with her as well. Lungile said during that period, her father was arrested and later released. The minor said she fell pregnant again when she was 15 years old and in Form III. She alleged that her father arranged that she be taken to Nelspruit to have another abortion. She said she returned and the sexual abuse continued and she fell pregnant yet again. She said her father told her that she was now aware of the procedure and gave her abortion tablets.

*Not real names
MBABANE  The Supreme Court yesterday said Bhutana Dlamini was eligible to participate in the Senate elections.

In a judgment that was issued yesterday, the court stated that as at September 2, 2021, Dlamini was compliant with Section 96 of the Constitution and, therefore, eligible to participate in the Senate elections. Section 96 states that a person qualifies to be appointed, elected or nominated a senator or member of the House if he is a citizen of Eswatini, has attained the age of 18 years, is a registered voter and has paid all taxes or made arrangements satisfactory to the commissioner of taxes. Judge Sabelo Matsebula said the argument advanced by Xaba that by September 2, 2021, which was the day of the elections, Dlamini was already disqualified and, therefore, not eligible to participate in the elections, had no merit.

Merit

The judge said it had no merit because Dlaminis vetting and the verification of the commissioner of taxes Tax Compliance Certificate was not sanctioned by law as stated and, therefore, this exercise, which resulted in the erroneous decision, was unlawful and could not stand in law. According to Judge Matsebula, Xaba after receiving the letter addressed to the national commissioner of police with the schedule that showed that Dlamini owed E668.20 in taxes, did not call him to explain or inform him of the owed taxes. The judge said Xaba did not inform or explain to Dlamini that unless there was a plausible explanation concerning the tax debt, he would disqualify him. The disqualification could have taken effect at that time had the returning officer given the respondent (Dlamini) a hearing. No reason for the decision disqualifying the respondent from participating in the Senate elections has been given. The returning officer is jot truthful when he says he was waiting to be asked before he could give the reasons.

Elections

Evidence in the papers is that he was asked for the reasons on the very date of the elections in Parliament and later by the respondents (Dlamini) attorney and he still refused to give them. It was not until he was compelled to do so by the court a quo (High Court), said Judge Matsebula.

The Supreme Court went on to state that Dlamini was correct to believe that he qualified as he had not been called to a hearing, had not been informed of the unilateral disqualification and no reasons were given.

This behaviour by Xaba, according to the court, was irrational and also unlawful as the other party had not been heard. The court said no person should be judged without a fair hearing, at which each party was given the opportunity to respond to the evidence against them. Judge Matsebula heard the appeal together with Judge Robert Cloete and Acting Judge Mabandla Manzini. The judges decision was unanimous. Advocate Lucas Maziya appeared for the appellant (Xaba) on the instruction of Principal Crown Counsel Ndabenhle Dlamini. Derrick Jele represented Dlamini.

In the High Court, Dlamini wanted the court to declare that he qualified to stand for the Senate elections to replace the late Jimmy Hlophe who had replaced Mike Temple, who also died. He also wanted the decision to disqualify him to be reviewed and set aside. In the Supreme Court, he told the Supreme Court that there was nothing in the Constitution and Senate Elections Act that allowed Xaba to vet him. In his heads of argument in the appeal by the clerk to Parliament, after the High Court ruled in his favour, the Senate hopeful stated that the powers exercised by the former should be sourced from the law. He argued that Xaba did not have such powers. One of the grounds of appeal by Xaba was that Judge Maseko had erred in law in holding that Dlamini was entitled to a pre-disqualification hearing under Section 33 of the Constitution.

Taxation

Meanwhile, Xaba submitted that the contentious issue was part C of Section 96 of the Constitution, which concerns taxation. Section 96(c) provides that a person qualifies to be appointed, elected or nominated as a Senator or a member of the House if that person (c) has paid all taxes or made arrangements satisfactory to the commissioner of taxes. There is no doubt that, therefore, the respondent had to be vetted for purposes of ascertaining his qualification his qualification of election into Senate. He was found wanting in respect of the tax compliance requirement. In a bid to prove his eligibility in terms of Section 96 (c) of the Constitution, respondent furnished first appellant with the document. Respondent is superficially declared tax complaint for Senate elections. The clearance certificate is dated August 19, 2021. It is expressly declared valid for the seven listed transactions. They exclude elections. It was issued by one Nobuhle, read Xabas heads of argument.
Reporter

Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk).
Given that the five-time entertainer of the year has his own line of beer  Two Lane American Golden Lager  the tour usually has enough on hand to get by. But if for some reason we need an alternative," management notes, "it must be Corona brand.
MATSAPHA  Incarcerated Members of Parliament (MPs) Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube were yesterday reportedly assaulted in an ordeal that is said to have lasted for about 45 minutes.

According to impeccable sources, the legislators, with seven other inmates, were allegedly assaulted by officers from His Majestys Correctional Services (HMCS) yesterday at the crack of dawn, just before 6am. It was alleged that about 20 officers from the Rapid Response Unit, which is a para-military unit of HMCS, went to the cell occupied by the Hosea Constituency MP Mabuza and Ngwempisi Constituency MP Dube.

It was alleged that during the attack, the Correctional officers had their faces covered in balaclavas. Upon entry, it was alleged that the officers started assaulting the two legislators with open hand, fists, kicks and they also used spray guns.

Expletives

As this was happening, the sources alleged that the Correctional officers were using expletives and also claiming that it was an eye for an eye.

Seeing this, it was said that the seven inmates occupying the same cell with the MPs, tried to intervene and questioned the violence. However, the intervention of the inmates supposedly drew the ire of the HMCS personnel as they supposedly started assaulting them as well. During the skirmish, it was alleged the law enforcers continued to use all sorts of missiles and assaulted all inmates in the cell.

Injury

The sources claimed that MP Dube was also pressed with a bed and against the wall such that he sustained an injury to his eye. On the other hand, it was purported that MP Mabuza was assaulted all over the body, in such a way that he bled profusely through his nose. Following the allegations of the assault of the legislators and the other inmates, their legal representative, Ben J. Simelane, went to the Matsapha Correctional Facility where the incident was said to have happened. He arrived at the Correctional Facility at about 11am to engage with his clients. Simelane confirmed the series of events as narrated to him by his clients when he went to see them. He said: Dube was also pressed with a bed and against the wall - he sustained an injury to his eye. Mabuza was assaulted all over the body and even bled from the nose.

Inmates

The senior attorney said the other inmates also (allegedly) sustained injuries and were treated at the HMCS clinic. Simelane shared the names of the other inmates allegedly assaulted by the warders as well. The purported assault of the MPs and other inmates also drew the ire of social media as Senior Journalist and Editor of The Nation Magazine, Bheki Makhubu, in a comment regarding the violence in Correctional facilities, said: The invasion of cells at night is done as a matter of course in our prisons. Why nobody has ever taken the prison authorities to court for this, completely escapes me.

When I was told about it on arrival at Sidwashini, I sent a very clear message to the prison authorities that I would make a lot of noise for them if they ever did it to me. Imagine being stripped naked, slapped around in the dead of the night by a man young enough to be your son? (sic) Makhubu said the assault of inmates horrified him by just merely thinking about it. Luckily for him, he said: They got the message because throughout my time there, not a single cell was ever raided. However, two weeks after Id left, they did just that, going back to what they knew best. He recalled that on the afternoon he was released, one young inmate told a senior officer that; Wahamba Makhubu, sinyile ngini, senitasishaya ngekutsandza kwenu, which loosely meant that now that Makhubu has left, you will assault us anytime you want. Makhubu said the Correctional officer, the message was addressed to, did not respond. He said that young man would later tell him after his own release that they did just that (assault them).
Monon Bioventures LLC has received a one-year, $398,314 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research, or SBIR grant from the National Cancer Institute to demonstrate the feasibility of manufacturing a glioblastoma therapeutic created at the Purdue University College of Pharmacy.

"Glioblastoma is one of the most aggressive cancers of the central nervous system. It grows, multiplies and spreads quickly, is almost always lethal, and there is no effective cure. New, effective therapies are desperately needed," said Sandro Matosevic, the assistant professor in the Department of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy, who has developed a potential treatment that has been optioned to Monon Bioventures.

Matosevic's work demonstrates that human immune "natural killer" (NK) cells can be "armed" to specifically attack glioblastomas.

Therapeutics for certain cancers have used related approaches with other immune cells, called T cells, which are obtained from the patient. Natural killer cells can be accepted from multiple donors, however, not just the patient, which makes them much safer and which dramatically expands our ability to manufacture them in large doses to treat many patients. They are also very efficient at killing glioblastoma cells." Sandro Matosevic, Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy

Joe Trebley, president and CEO of Monon Bioventures, which is housed in the Indiana Center for Biomedical Innovation, said the federal funds for Matosevic's work have the potential to bring hope to patients suffering from glioblastoma.

"His discovery provides a critical preclinical proof of concept of the disease," Trebley said. "Our plans are to translate that discovery into the clinic by first working on the manufacturability of the novel therapeutic."

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Monon Bioventures will work on the treatment with Matosevic's laboratory at Purdue and Genezen, a viral vector and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organization, or CDMO.

"Arming the NK cells requires genetic modification of the cells through use of an appropriate viral vector as a tool," Trebley said. "Genezen is a scientific leader in the production of lentiviral vectors and their use in cell transduction, which is delivering genes to cells. We are lucky to have them here with us in Indiana."

Dave Wilhite, Genezen's chief business officer, credited Monon Bioventures for its strong track record in translating innovative discoveries into clinical assets.

"Using natural killer cells as a therapy is on the cutting edge of innovation and has shown immense promise," Wilhite said. "That is Monon Bioventures' sweet spot, and we are excited to partner with them on this project."

After the grant-sponsored work is complete, Monon Bioventures will discuss with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the company's plan to move the treatment to clinical studies. After receiving the FDA's feedback, the company will look to finance the project further.

Trebley credited the NCI and its SBIR program for critical support of innovation and discovery in the early development phase of cancer research.

"The grants are highly competitive, yet critical to funding novel potential therapeutics that translate out of academic labs," he said.

Matosevic disclosed his glioblastoma treatment to the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization, which has applied for a patent to protect the intellectual property. The Office has granted Monon Bioventures the option to negotiate a license to this intellectual property.
Researchers at Queen's University Belfast have uncovered a key process that contributes to vision loss and blindness in people with diabetes. The findings could lead to new treatments that can be used before any irreversible vision loss has occurred.

Diabetic retinopathy is a common complication of diabetes and occurs when high blood sugar levels damage the cells at the back of the eye, known as the retina. There are no current treatments that prevent the advancement of diabetic retinopathy from its early to late stages, beyond the careful management of diabetes itself. As a result, a significant proportion of people with diabetes still progress to the vision-threatening complications of the disease.

As the number of people with diabetes continues to increase globally, there is an urgent need for new treatment strategies, particularly those that target the early stages of the disease to prevent vision loss.

The retina demands a high oxygen and nutrient supply to function properly. This is met by an elaborate network of blood vessels that maintain a constant flow of blood even during daily fluctuations in blood and eye pressure. The ability of the blood vessels to maintain blood flow at a steady level is called blood flow autoregulation. The disruption of this process is one of the earliest effects of diabetes in the retina.

The breakthrough made by researchers at Queen's University Belfast pinpoints the cause of these early changes to the retina. The study, published in the US journal JCI Insight, has discovered that the loss of blood flow autoregulation during diabetes is caused by the disruption of a protein called TRPV2. Furthermore, they show that disruption of blood flow autoregulation even in the absence of diabetes causes damage closely resembling that seen in diabetic retinopathy.

The research team are hopeful that these findings will be used to inform the development of new treatments that preserve vision in people with diabetes.

We are excited about the new insights that this study provides, which explain how the retina is damaged during the early stages of diabetes. By identifying TRPV2 as a key protein involved in diabetes-related vision loss, we have a new target and opportunity to develop treatments that halt the advancement of diabetic retinopathy." Professor Tim Curtis, Corresponding Author, Deputy Director at the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine at Queen's University Belfast

The study was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Department for the Economy Postgraduate Studentship scheme.
A recently discovered virus in a Russian bat that is similar to SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19, is likely capable of infecting humans and, if it were to spillover, is resistant to current vaccines.

A team lead by researchers in Washington State University's Paul G. Allen School for Global Health found spike proteins from the bat virus, named Khosta-2, can infect human cells and is resistant to both the monoclonal antibodies and serum from individuals vaccinated for SARS-CoV-2. Both Khosta-2 and SARS- CoV-2 belong to the same sub-category of coronaviruses known as sarbecoviruses.

"Our research further demonstrates that sarbecoviruses circulating in wildlife outside of Asia  even in places like western Russia where the Khosta-2 virus was found  also pose a threat to global health and ongoing vaccine campaigns against SARS-CoV-2," said Michael Letko, WSU virologist and corresponding author of the study published in the journal PLoS Pathogens.

Letko said the discovery of Khosta-2 highlights the need to develop universal vaccines to protect against sarbecoviruses in general, rather than just against known variants of SARS-CoV-2.

Right now, there are groups trying to come up with a vaccine that doesn't just protect against the next variant of SARS-2 but actually protects us against the sarbecoviruses in general. Unfortunately, many of our current vaccines are designed to specific viruses we know infect human cells or those that seem to pose the biggest risk to infect us. But that is a list that's everchanging. We need to broaden the design of these vaccines to protect against all sarbecoviruses." Michael Letko, WSU Virologist

While hundreds of sarbecoviruses have been discovered in recent years, predominantly in bats in Asia, the majority are not capable of infecting human cells. The Khosta-1 and Khosta-2 viruses were discovered in Russian bats in late 2020, and it initially appeared they were not a threat to humans.

"Genetically, these weird Russian viruses looked like some of the others that had been discovered elsewhere around the world, but because they did not look like SARS-CoV-2, no one thought they were really anything to get too excited about," Letko said. "But when we looked at them more, we were really surprised to find they could infect human cells. That changes a little bit of our understanding of these viruses, where they come from and what regions are concerning."

Letko teamed with a pair of WSU faculty members, first author viral ecologist Stephanie Seifert and viral immunologist Bonnie Gunn, to study the two newly discovered viruses. They determined Khosta-1 posed low risk to humans, but Khosta-2 demonstrated some troubling traits.

The team found that like SARS-CoV-2, Khosta-2 can use its spike protein to infect cells by attaching to a receptor protein, called angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), found throughout human cells. They next set out to determine if current vaccines protect against the new virus.

Using serum derived from human populations vaccinated for COVID-19, the team saw that Khosta-2 was not neutralized by current vaccines. They also tested serum from people who were infected with the omicron variant, but the antibodies, too, were ineffective.

Fortunately, Letko said the new virus is lacking some of the genes believed to be involved in pathogenesis in humans. There is a risk, however, of Khosta-2 recombining with a second virus like SARS-CoV-2.

"When you see SARS-2 has this ability to spill back from humans and into wildlife, and then there are other viruses like Khosta-2 waiting in those animals with these properties we really don't want them to have, it sets up this scenario where you keep rolling the dice until they combine to make a potentially riskier virus," Letko said.

In addition to Letko, Seifert and Gunn, co-authors on this study include Shuangyi Bai and Stephen Fawcett of WSU as well as Elizabeth Norton, Kevin Zwezdaryk and James Robinson of Tulane University.
Cooperation among many disciplines is required to improve the health situation and equity of all people worldwide. At its two-day Annual Assembly 2022, which will begin today in Halle (Saale)/Germany, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina addresses "Global Health: From Health Services to Climate Change and to Social Justice" and thus focuses on a broad spectrum of global health issues. In the morning, WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, German Federal Minister of Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger, and Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt Dr. Reiner Haseloff will all give welcome addresses. The Annual Assembly lectures are all being livestreamed.

Global Health is an interdisciplinary field of work that aims to improve the health of everyone worldwide and to promote health equity. Health impact must be taken into account in all areas of policymaking, an approach known as 'Health in all policies'", Prof. Dr. Lothar H. Wieler, Expert in Veterinary Medicine and Microbiology

The President of the Robert Koch Institute has been a member of the Leopoldina since 2010. As Acting Senator of the Section Global Health, he is part of the Annual Assembly's Organising Committee, alongside the Leopoldina members Prof. Dr. Susanne Hartmann, biologist and infection immunologist, and molecular biologist and virologist Prof. Dr. Thomas C. Mettenleiter. In his Inaugural Address today at 12.15 p.m., Wieler will discuss the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic for global health.

Social scientist Prof. Dr. Johanna Hanefeld will speak about "International Health Protection and Health Equity" in today's evening lecture at 8.15 p.m. The Head of the Centre for International Health Protection at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin/Germany will discuss issues such as the significance of globally connected and more robust public health systems.

In the morning, the Leopoldina honors the materials scientist and biomedical engineer Prof. Dr. Francesca Santoro with the "Leopoldina Early Career Award". The award, funded by the Commerzbank Foundation, is valued at 30,000 euros. In her lecture, the award winner will discuss her work in the field of bioelectronics, where she is developing new materials capable of interacting with the skin and the brain.

Yesterday, Thursday 22 September, the Leopoldina Senate elected the geologist Prof. Dr. Onno Oncken as member of the Academy's Presidium. He succeeds engineering expert Prof. Dr. Sigmar Wittig, who as Secretary of Class I  Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Engineering, has been a member of the Academy's Presidium since 2012. The Senate also elected Vice President Prof. Regina Riphahn Ph.D. for another term. The economist, a member of the Leopoldina since 2007, is Professor of Statistics and Empirical Economic Research at Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg.

This year also sees more than 35 highly talented pupils from throughout Germany attend the Annual Assembly. They will listen to the lectures at the event and have the chance to speak to the researchers. The pupils' programme is funded by the "Friends of the Leopoldina" association.

The Annual Assembly is being livestreamed on the Leopoldina's YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/NationaleAkademiederWissenschaftenLeopoldina. The livestream is available until 6.30 p.m. today, and again for the evening lecture at 8.15 p.m. and on Saturday from 8.30 a.m. Lectures are held in English and German and simultaneously interpreted. You can find the full programme of the Annual Assembly and further information on the Leopoldina website: https://www.leopoldina.org/en/events/event/event/2936/.
Suzan Kennedy has smoked marijuana, and says her Wisconsin roots mean she can handle booze, so she was not concerned earlier this year when a bartender in St. Paul, Minnesota, described a cocktail with the cannabinoid delta-8 THC as "a little bit potent."

Hours after enjoying the tasty drink and the silliness that reminded Kennedy of a high from weed, she said, she started to feel "really shaky and faint" before collapsing in her friend's arms. Kennedy regained consciousness and recovered, but her distaste for delta-8 remains, even though the substance is legal at the federal level, unlike marijuana.

"I'm not one to really tell people what to do," said Kennedy, 35, who lives in Milwaukee and works in software sales. But if a friend tried to order a delta-8 drink, "I would tell them, 'Absolutely not. You're not putting that in your body.'"

The FDA and some marijuana industry experts share Kennedy's concerns. At least a dozen states have banned the hemp-derived drug, including Colorado, Montana, New York, and Oregon, which have legalized marijuana. But delta-8 manufacturers call the concerns unfounded and say they're driven by marijuana businesses trying to protect their market share.

So what is the difference? The flower of the marijuana plant, oil derived from it, and edibles made from those contain delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, the substance that produces the drug's high, and can be legally sold only at dispensaries in states that have legalized marijuana. Similar products that contain delta-8 THC are sold online and at bars and retailers across much of the U.S., including some places where pot remains illegal. That's because a 2018 federal law legalized hemp, a variety of the cannabis plant. Hemp isn't allowed to contain more than 0.3% of the psychotropic delta-9 THC found in marijuana.

The concerns about delta-8 are largely focused on how it's made. Delta-8 is typically produced by dissolving CBD  a compound found in cannabis plants  in solvents, such as toluene that is often found in paint thinner. Some people in the marijuana industry say that process leaves potentially harmful residue. A study published in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology last year found lead, mercury, and silicon in delta-8 electronic cigarettes.

The FDA has issued warnings about the "serious health risks" of delta-8, citing concerns about the conversion process, and has received more than 100 reports of people hallucinating, vomiting, and losing consciousness, among other issues, after consuming it. From January 2021 through this February, national poison control centers received more than 2,300 delta-8 cases, 70% of which required the users to be evaluated at health care facilities, according to the FDA.

Delta-8 is "just the obvious solution to people who want to have access to cannabis but live in a state where its illegal," said Dr. Peter Grinspoon, a primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and a longtime medical cannabis provider. "You can either get in a lot of trouble buying cannabis, or you can get delta-8."

Grinspoon described delta-8 as about half as potent as marijuana. But because of the lack of research into delta-8's possible benefits and the absence of regulation, he would not recommend his patients use it. If it were regulated like Massachusetts' medical and recreational marijuana programs, he said, harmful contaminants could be flagged or removed.

Christopher Hudalla, chief scientific officer at ProVerde Laboratories, a Massachusetts marijuana and hemp testing company, said he has examined thousands of delta-8 products and all contained contaminants that could be harmful to consumers' health.

Delta-8 has "incredible potential as a therapeutic" because it has many of the same benefits as marijuana, minus some of the intoxication, said Hudalla. "But delta-8, like unicorns, doesnt exist. What does exist in the market is synthetic mixtures of unknown garbage."

Justin Journay, owner of the delta-8 brand 3Chi, is skeptical of the concerns about the products. He started the company in 2018 after hemp oil provided relief for his shoulder pain. He soon started wondering what other cannabinoids in hemp could do. "'There's got to be some gold in those hills,'" Journay recalled thinking. He said his Indiana-based company now has more than 300 employees and sponsors a NASCAR team.

When asked about the FDA's reports of bad reactions, Journay said: "There are risks with THC. There absolutely are. There are risks with cheeseburgers."

He attributes the side effects to taking too much. "We say, 'Start low.' You can always take more," Journay said.

Journay said that he understands concerns about contaminants in delta-8 products and that his company was conducting tests to identify the tiny portion of substances that remain unknown, which he asserts are cannabinoids from the plant.

An analysis of 3Chi delta-8 oil conducted by Hudalla's firm last year and posted on 3Chi's website found multiple unidentified compounds that "do not occur naturally" and thus "would not be recommended for human consumption." Delta-8 oil is still sold on 3Chi's site.

Journay said the analysis found that only 0.4% of the oil contained unknown compounds. "How can they then definitively say that compound isn't natural when they dont even know what it is?" he said in an email.

"The vast majority of negative information out there and the push to make delta-8 illegal is coming from the marijuana industries," Journay said. "Its cutting into their profit margins, which is funny that the marijuana guys would all of a sudden be for prohibition."

Delta-8 products do appear to be significantly cheaper than weed. For example, Curaleaf, one of the world's largest cannabis companies, offers packages of gummies that contain 100 milligrams of delta-9 THC for $25, plus sales tax, at a Massachusetts dispensary. At 3Chi, gummies with 400 milligrams of delta-8 cost $29.99 online, with no tax.

Journay's criticism of the marijuana industry holds some truth, said Chris Lindsey, government relations director for the Marijuana Policy Project, which advocates for legalization of marijuana for adults. "We see this happen in every single adult-use legalization state," said Lindsey. "Their established medical cannabis industry will sometimes be your loudest opponents, and thats a business thing. Thats not a marijuana thing."

Still, the bans might not be working fully. In New York, which banned delta-8 in 2021, Lindsey said, it's available at any bodega.

In July, Minnesota implemented a law that limits the amount of THC, including delta-8, allowed in hemp products outside of its medical marijuana program. News reports said the law would wipe out delta-8. But the state cannot "control what's being sold over the internet outside of Minnesota and shipped in," said Maren Schroeder, policy director for Sensible Change Minnesota, which aims to legalize recreational cannabis for adults.

Max Barber, a writer and editor in Minneapolis, remains interested in delta-8 despite his state's restrictions. Even though he could likely obtain a medical marijuana prescription because he has an anxiety disorder and chronic sleep problems, he hasn't pursued it because pot made his anxiety worse. He used CBD oil but found the effects inconsistent. In March 2021, he tried a 10-milligram delta-8 gummy.

"It got me pretty high, which I don't enjoy," he said.

Then he found what he considers the right dosage for him: one-third of a gummy, which he takes in the evening. He said he now gets between six and eight hours of sleep each night, has less anxiety, and is better able to focus. "I have become kind of an evangelist for delta-8 for everyone I know who has sleep problems," said Barber, who bought enough gummies to last for months after the new law went into effect.

To address concerns about delta-8, the federal government should regulate it and make accessing cannabis easier for consumers, said Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

He pointed to a recent study in the International Journal of Drug Policy showing that the number of Google searches for delta-8 in the U.S. soared in 2021 and that interest was especially high in states that restricted cannabis use. "In an environment where whole-plant cannabis is legally available, there would be little to no demand for these alternative products," said Armentano.

Lindsey, of the Marijuana Policy Project, isn't so sure that would matter. When he first learned of delta-8's growing popularity in 2021, he thought it would go the way of drugs like K2 or Spice that he said fall between the regulatory rules long enough to get on shelves before eventually getting shut down.

"That didn't materialize," said Lindsey. "The more that we understand about that plant, the more of these different cannabinoids are going to come out." And that, he said, will in turn spur interest from consumers and businesses.
In mid-September, Howard Sanders bumped down pothole-ridden streets in a white Cadillac weighed down with water bottles on his way to a home in Ward 3, a neglected neighborhood that he called "a war zone."

Sanders, director of marketing and outreach for Central Mississippi Health Services, was then greeted at the door by Johnnie Jones. Since Jones' hip surgery about a month ago, the 74-year-old had used a walker to get around and hadn't been able to get to any of the city's water distribution sites.

Jackson's routine water woes became so dire in late August that President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency: Flooding and water treatment facility problems had shut down the majority-Black city's water supply. Although water pressure returned and a boil-water advisory was lifted in mid-September, the problems aren't over.

Bottled water is still a way of life. The city's roughly 150,000 residents must stay alert  making sure they don't rinse their toothbrushes with tap water, keeping their mouths closed while they shower, rethinking cooking plans, or budgeting for gas so they can drive around looking for water. Many residents purchase bottled water on top of paying water bills, meaning less money for everything else. For Jackson's poorest and oldest residents, who can't leave their homes or lift water cases, avoiding dubious water becomes just that much harder.

"We are shellshocked, we're traumatized," Sanders said.

Jackson's water woes are a manifestation of a deeper health crisis in Mississippi, whose residents have pervasive chronic diseases. It is the state with the lowest life expectancy and the highest rate of infant mortality.

"The water is a window into that neglect that many people have experienced for much of their lives," said Richard Mizelle Jr., a historian of medicine at the University of Houston. "Using bottled water for the rest of your life is not sustainable."

But in Jackson an alternative doesn't exist, said Dr. Robert Smith. He founded Central Mississippi Health Services in 1963 as an outgrowth of his work on civil rights, and the organization now operates four free clinics in the Jackson area. He often sees patients with multiple health conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, or heart problems. And unsafe water could lead to death for people who do their dialysis at home, immunocompromised individuals, or babies who drink formula, said Smith.

Residents filed a lawsuit this month against the city and private engineering firms responsible for the city's water system, claiming they had experienced a host of health problems  dehydration, malnutrition, lead poisoning, E. coli exposure, hair loss, skin rashes, and digestive issues  as a result of contaminated water. The lawsuit alleges that Jackson's water has elevated lead levels, a finding confirmed by the Mississippi State Department of Health.

While Jackson's current water situation is extreme, many communities of color, low-income communities, and those with a large share of non-native English speakers also have unsafe water, said Erik Olson, senior strategic director for health and food at the Natural Resources Defense Council. These communities are more frequently subjected to Safe Drinking Water Act violations, according to a study by the nonprofit advocacy group. And it takes longer for those communities to come back into compliance with the law, Olson said.

The federal infrastructure bill passed last year includes $50 billion to improve the country's drinking water and wastewater systems. Although Mississippi is set to receive $429 million of that funding over five years, Jackson must wait  and fight  for its share.

And communities often spend years with lingering illness and trauma. Five years after the start of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, about 20% of the city's adult residents had clinical depression, and nearly a quarter had post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a recent paper published in JAMA.

Jones, like many locals, hasn't trusted Jackson's water in decades. That distrust  and the constant vigilance, extra expenses, and hassle  add a layer of psychological strain.

"It is very stressful," Jones said.

For the city's poorest communities, the water crisis sits on top of existing stressors, including crime and unstable housing, said Dr. Obie McNair, chief operating officer of Central Mississippi Health Services. "It's additive."

Over time, that effort and adjustment take a toll, said Mauda Monger, chief operating officer at My Brother's Keeper, a community health equity nonprofit in Jackson. Chronic stress and the inability to access care can exacerbate chronic illnesses and lead to preterm births, all of which are prevalent in Jackson. "Bad health outcomes don't happen in a short period of time," she said.

For Jackson's health clinics, the water crisis has reshaped their role. To prevent health complications that can come from drinking or bathing in dirty water, they have been supplying the city's most needy with clean water.

"We want to be a part of the solution," McNair said.

Community health centers in the state have a long history of filling gaps in services for Mississippi's poorest residents, said Terrence Shirley, CEO of the Community Health Center Association of Mississippi. "Back in the day, there were times when community health centers would actually go out and dig wells for their patients."

Central Mississippi Health Services had been holding water giveaways for residents about two times a month since February 2021, when a winter storm left Jackson without water for weeks.

But in August, things got so bad again that Sanders implored listeners of a local radio show to call the center if they couldn't get water. Many Jackson residents can't make it to the city's distribution sites because of work schedules, lack of transportation, or a physical impairment.

"Now, all of a sudden, I am the water man," Sanders said.

Thelma Kinney Cornelius, 72, first heard about Sanders' water deliveries from his radio appearances. She hasn't been able to drive since her treatment for intestinal cancer in 2021. She rarely cooks these days. But she made an exception a few Sundays ago, going through a case of bottled water to make a pot of rice and peas.

"It's a lot of adjustment trying to get into that routine," said Cornelius. "It's hard."

The day that Jackson's boil-water advisory was lifted, Sanders was diagnosed with a hernia, probably from lifting heavy water cases, he said. Still, the following day, Sanders drove around the Virden Addition neighborhood with other volunteers, knocking on people's doors and asking whether they needed water.

He said he has no plans to stop water deliveries as Jackson residents continue to deal with the long-term fallout from the summer's crisis. Residents are still worried about lead or other harmful contaminants lurking in the water.

"It's like a little Third World country over here," Sanders said. "In all honesty, we will probably be on this for the next year."
New Delhi, Sep 22 (UNI) The National Investigation Agency (NIA), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the State Police forces on Thursday conducted raids at multiple places across the country against suspected terror funding links and arrested 45 Popular Front of India (PFI) members, NIA said.

According to the NIA, raids were jointly conducted by the ED, NIA and the State Police forces across the country.

NIA carried out raids in 93 locations of 15 States of the country including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar, the NIA said in a statement.

These searches were conducted at the houses and offices of the top PFI leaders and members in connection with 5 cases registered by the NIA following continued inputs and evidence that the PFI leaders and cadres were allegedly involved in funding of terrorism and terrorist activities, organising training camps for providing armed training and radicalising people to join banned organisations, it stated.

A case was initially filed as FIR no 141/2022 on July 4, at Nizamabad Police Station in Telangana against over 25 PFI cadres, after Telangana Police found that the accused were allegedly organizing camps for imparting training to commit violent and terrorist acts.

A large number of criminal cases have been registered by different states over the last few years against the PFI and its leaders and members for their alleged involvement in many violent acts.

During the searches conducted on Thursday morning, incriminating documents, cash, sharp-edged weapons and a large number of digital devices were seized. As on date, the NIA has been investigating a total of 19 PFI related cases (including the 5 mentioned).

UNI CM GK
The day after his 8-month-old baby died, Kingsley Raspe opened the mail and found he had been sent to collections for her care.

That notice involved a paltry sum, $26.50  absurd really, given he'd previously been told he owed $2.5 million for treatment of his newborn's congenital heart defect and other disorders.

Raspe and his wife, Maddie, had endured watching doctors crack open the chest of their pigtailed daughter, Sterling, whom they called "sweet Sterly gurl." The health team performed so many other procedures. But it couldn't keep her  or her parents dreams for her  alive.

The bills lived on for them, as they do for many other families of premature and very sick infants who don't survive.

"What a lasting tribute to the entire experience," Kingsley said angrily. "The process was just so heartless."

More than 300,000 U.S. families have infants who require advanced medical attention in newborn intensive care units every year. Some babies stay for months, quickly generating astronomical fees for highly specialized surgeries and round-the-clock care. The services are delivered, and in U.S. health care, billing follows. But for the smaller fraction of families whose children die, the burden can be too much to bear.

A patchwork of convoluted Medicaid-qualification rules seek to defray these kinds of bills for very sick children. But policies differ in each state, and many parents  especially those, like the Raspes, who have commercial insurance  don't know to apply or think they won't qualify.

Also, because many crises that befall premature or very sick babies are in-the-moment emergencies, there may not be time for the preapprovals that insurers often require for expensive interventions. That leaves parents in crisis  or in mourning  tasked with fighting with insurers to have treatment covered.

Three families detailed for KHN how medical bills compounded their suffering during a time when they were just trying to process their loss.

Bennett Markow

As the hospital in Reno, Nevada, was converting a parking garage into a covid-19 unit in November 2020, Bennett Markow came into the world four months early. He weighed less than a pound. His care team loved to sing "Bennie and the Jets" to him as a nod to the jet ventilator keeping his tiny lungs working.

On Jan. 20, 2021, when Bennett was 2 months old, his parents were told he needed to go to UC Davis Children's Hospital in Sacramento, California, for specialized care that could keep him from going blind. The transfer team would be there in an hour. And the Nevada care team said that because it was an emergency, the family needn't worry about their insurance or the method of transportation.

Bennett's eye problem ended up being less severe than the doctors had feared. And Crissa Markow and her husband, A.J., were billed for the plane ride from REACH Air Medical Services, which turned out to be out of network. Jason Sorrick, vice president of government relations for REACH's parent company, Global Medical Response, said the ride happened during a "lapse" in Bennett's Medicaid coverage.

The Markows said there was no lapse. They hadn't applied yet because they thought they wouldn't qualify  the family is middle-class, and Bennett was on Crissa's insurance. They did not know they should until a social worker at UC Davis gave them more information  after the flight.

Crissa Markow said her heart dropped to her toes when she realized she was being billed over $71,000, more than she makes in a year as a social worker. (The No Surprises Act, which aims to eliminate surprise billing, could have prevented some of the family's headaches  but Bennett was born before it went into effect this year.)

Although Crissa was used to working toward solutions, the billing quagmires she found herself in while juggling Bennett's care, her job, her other son, and the travel logistics to stay with Bennett about 2 hours away from her home were overwhelming. Crissa estimates she spent six to eight hours a week dealing with medical bills to keep them from being sent to collections  which still happened.

Bennett died last July after doctors said his lungs could not fight anymore. The Markows spent their bereavement leave battling with insurers and other billing agencies.

Finally, Crissa called REACH, the air transport company, and said: "Look, my son died. I just want to be able to grieve, I want to focus on that. Dealing with this bill is traumatic. It's a reminder every day I shouldn't have to be fighting this."

By October, the Markows had settled the bill with REACH on the condition that they not disclose the terms. Sorrick said that the company reaches agreements based on the financial and personal situations of each patient and their family and that the company's patient advocates had talked to Crissa Markow 17 times.

"If every settlement amount was disclosed publicly, then those rates become the expectation of all patients and insurance providers," Sorrick said. "Ultimately, that would lead to all patients wanting to pay below cost, making our services unsustainable."

Crissa Markow's employer-provided insurance paid $6.5 million for Bennett's care, not including what was covered by Medicaid. The Markows paid roughly $6,500 out-of-pocket to hospitals and doctors on top of their REACH settlement. But it was not those amounts  which the couple would have happily paid to save their son  but the endless harassment and the hours spent on the phone that haunt them.

"I just wanted to be with Bennett; that's all I wanted to do," Crissa Markow said. "And I just spent hours on these phone calls."

The Cruelest Bills: Losing a Baby in America Play

Jack Shickel

Jack Shickel was born with stunning silver hair and hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Even though he was surrounded by wires and tubes, the nurses at UVA Children's Hospital would whisper to Jessica and her husband, Isaac, that they had a truly "cute" baby.

But his congenital disorder meant the left side of his heart never fully developed. Each year in the U.S., over a thousand babies are born with the syndrome.

After two surgeries, Jack's heart could not pump enough blood on its own. He made it 35 days.

Weeks after his death, when the Shickels were trying to muddle through life without him in Harrisonburg, Virginia, they called the hospital billing department about two confusing bills. They were then told the full cost of his care was $3.4 million.

"I laughed and then cried," Jessica said. "He was worth every penny to us, but that's basically $100,000 a day."

Bills from out-of-network labs and other prior approval notifications continued to overwhelm their mailbox. Eventually, they figured out how to get Medicaid. The Shickels ended up paying only $470.26.

Jessica got the final bills in March, seven months after Jack's death.

She noted that all of this was happening as the University of Virginia Health System said it was rolling back its aggressive billing practices after a KHN investigation found the prestigious university hospital was putting liens on people's homes to recoup medical debt.

UVA Health spokesperson Eric Swensen expressed condolences to the Shickel family and added that the health system works to help patients navigate the complex process of evaluating financial assistance, including Medicaid coverage.

After KHN reached out for comment, the Shickels got a call from UVA saying that the hospital was refunding their payment.

The hospital care team had given the family a pamphlet about what to do when grieving, but a more useful one, Jessica said, would have been titled "How Do You Deal With Medical Bills After Your Child Has Died?"

Sterling Raspe

Kingsley Raspe likes to say Sterling was "one special little lady"  not only did she have the same congenital heart defect as Jack Shickel, but she was also diagnosed with Kabuki syndrome, a rare disorder that can severely affect development. Sterling also had hearing loss, spinal cord issues, and a compromised immune system.

An explanation of benefits from the Raspes' commercial insurance indicated the couple would need to pay $2.5 million for Sterling's care  an amount so large the numbers didn't all fit in the column. Even Kingsley's suspicion that the $2.5 million charge was likely erroneous  in large part or in whole  didn't erase the sheer panic he felt when he saw the number.

A computer programmer making $90,000 a year, Kingsley had decent insurance. He frantically Googled "medical bankruptcy."

Sterling had been denied Medicaid, which is available to children with complex medical problems in some states. Kingsley had filed an application for the government insurance, which had to be submitted by mail from the family home in Gary, Indiana. In doing so, he broke the strict protocols on covid exposure set early in the pandemic at the Ronald McDonald charity house near the Illinois hospital where Sterling was being treated and jeopardized his ability to stay there.

In rejecting the application, Indiana cited an income threshold and other technical reasons.

Everyone kept telling Kingsley and Maddie to get divorced so Sterling would qualify for Medicaid. But that wasn't an option for Kingsley, a British citizen who is in the U.S. on a green card after meeting Maddie on Tinder.

Ultimately, Kingsley's insurer revised the faulty notice that he owed $2.5 million. The family was told the mistake had occurred because Sterling's initial hospital stay and surgeries had not been preapproved, although Kingsley said the heart defect was discovered halfway through the pregnancy, making surgery inevitable.

Throughout Sterling's life, Kingsley did his programming job at his daughter's bedside, in her hospital room. As a web developer, he created visualizations that break down Sterling's expensive care  it helped him make sense of it all. But he cries when he remembers those days.

He hates that Sterling's life can be reduced to a 2-inch stack of printed-out medical bills and the phone calls he still must endure from errant billers.

Despite receiving a plethora of other bills in the tens of thousands, he and his wife eventually paid their $4,000 deductible, along with a smattering of smaller charges and fees for equipment rentals that weren't covered. In April, Maddie gave birth to a son, Wren, and Kingsley said he knows Sterling served as her brother's guardian angel.

"My daughter passed away. I'm not unscathed, but I'm not in financial ruin. The same can't be said for every family," he said. "How lucky am I? I went through the worst thing imaginable, and I consider myself lucky  what kind of weird, messed-up logic is that?"

Navigating the NICU

Contact your insurance company to talk through your NICU stay costs, including what is covered and what is not. If your baby's not already on your plan, make sure to add them.

Speak to a social worker immediately about applying for Medicaid or the Supplemental Security Income program, known as SSI. If your child qualifies, it can dramatically reduce your personal cost for a child with extensive medical bills.

The March of Dimes offers a "My NICU Baby" app designed to help you wade through the overwhelming experience. The nonprofit says the app can help you learn about caring for your baby in the NICU and at home, as well as monitor your baby's progress, manage your own health, and keep track of your to-do list and questions.

If particular insurers or bills are confusing, reach out to your state insurance office. All states offer consumer support, and some states have dedicated advocates who can help you.

Kingsley Raspe also compiled advice for other families navigating neonatal intensive care unit stays for their babies.

Bill of the Month is a crowdsourced investigation by KHN and NPR that dissects and explains medical bills. Do you have an interesting medical bill you want to share with us? Tell us about it!
Thought Leaders Dr. Ron Daniels Founder and Chief Executive UK Sepsis Trust As part of Sepsis Awareness Month, celebrated annually in September, News Medical speaks to Dr. Ron Daniels, founder and chief executive of the UK Sepsis Trust, about the significance of sepsis awareness, support for patients, and improving outcomes for sepsis survivors. As part of Sepsis Awareness Month, celebrated annually in September, News Medical speaks to Dr. Ron Daniels, founder and chief executive of the UK Sepsis Trust, about the significance of sepsis awareness, support for patients, and improving outcomes for sepsis survivors.

Please can you introduce yourself and tell us more about the UK Sepsis Trust and its core mission statement?

My name is Dr. Ron Daniels, and I am an intensive care consultant in Birmingham in the West Midlands, and I am also the founder and chief executive of the UK Sepsis Trust. The charity is on a mission to reduce the needless loss of lives from sepsis, as well as improve outcomes for survivors. We do this through three work streams. First and perhaps the most important is by providing support to people affected by sepsis. We have support groups for people bereaved by the condition, support groups for survivors, as well as their families, and we also provide financial and legal advice to people.

The second workstream is in the clinical space. We provide solutions such as the Sepsis Six Treatment Tool to health professionals, which is now in use across the UK and in many other countries around the world. We also provide education in support of those tools.

The third stream is raising public awareness because it is no good ensuring health professionals are well trained if people wait at home deteriorating before presenting to healthcare professionals. We encourage members of the public to get to healthcare and access it at the right time.

Image Credit: The Creative Guy/Shutterstock

Sepsis affects close to 50 million people worldwide annually. What exactly is sepsis, how is it diagnosed, and why is it so important to identify at an early stage?

Sepsis is the way the body responds to an infection. It is always triggered by an infection, and in sepsis, the immune system goes into overdrive. If we do not stop it, that starts to cause organ damage. The infections that give rise to sepsis are common. They are things like pneumonia, urinary tract infections, abdominal problems, or sometimes something as simple as a cut, a bite, or a sting.

In terms of how we recognize it, sepsis can be very difficult to recognize. It can develop in many people insidiously, with patients slowly deteriorating over a period of sometimes 72 to 96 hours. It can develop in people of any age, and it can arise as a consequence of any infection. So, there is no single set of criteria to look for to help us to identify sepsis. What we need is a high index of clinical suspicion.

We build a picture over the first hour or two that the patient is with us. That picture will include data from blood tests, other laboratory data, as well as vital signs monitoring and the clinical history of the patient. When we build this picture, in the UK, we look for red flags or a very high NEWS2 score, and internationally, the academic criteria are a change in something called the SOFA score, or S-O-F-A score.

In terms of why it is time-sensitive and why it is time critical, is because sepsis is a medical emergency. In the most severe cases, just a few hours can make the difference between life and death. We know that getting treatment for the patient sooner is better than getting treatment later. In the most severe cases, we have to start that treatment within the first hour; in the less severe cases, we can allow up to around three hours to deliver treatment to the patient.

Image Credit: ART-ur/Shutterstock

Sepsis can be difficult to spot because of the array of symptoms it can cause. Do you have any advice regarding how individuals can more easily recognize the symptoms of sepsis?

The key to sepsis is to be aware that infections can, in some cases, give rise to sepsis, and to know where to look for the symptoms. The first piece of advice is to trust your instinct. If you or a loved one are deteriorating with an infection, and particularly if you have never seen this person that unwell before, then if you are in the UK, you need to go to 111 or make an appointment to see the GP and just ask, could it be sepsis?

If you believe someone is critically ill, if you are extremely concerned about them, then they need to go to the NHS website or another source like yours and look for the symptoms of sepsis, which should direct them straight to A&E. Now, for adults, those symptoms spell the word sepsis:

S for slurred speech or confusion

for slurred speech or confusion E for extreme pain in the muscles or joints

for extreme pain in the muscles or joints P for passing no urine in a day

for passing no urine in a day S for severe breathlessness

for severe breathlessness I for it feels like I'm going to die

for it feels like I'm going to die S for skin that is mottled or discolored, or very pale

Any one of those six in the context of infection means go straight to A&E.

Many people remain unaware of the potential life-changing after-effects that sepsis can cause. Can you tell us more about the cognitive, psychological, or physical sequelae of sepsis?

We know that around 40% of people who survive sepsis still have life-changing after effects at one year, and they can range from the relatively mild, such as disordered thoughts and sleep disturbance, through to the disabling, which might be extremely disabling fatigue or PTSD, for example.

There was a study in Scandinavia that showed that among working-age adults, 43% were still not back at work one year after their illness. So, what we have to do is to provide support and lobby for resource allocation to rehabilitation for this very large and very needful population.

Can you tell us more about the relationship between sepsis and SARS-CoV-2?

So, because we have agreed that sepsis is the way the body responds to infection, causing organ damage, we can look at what has happened to those people who are most severely ill with SARS-CoV-2 infection. With COVID-19, it is very clear that in severe cases, particularly those who have needed intensive care, this is sepsis.

It is an overwhelming immune reaction to the virus that is sepsis. So, SARS-CoV-2 can directly cause sepsis. A small percentage of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 have gone on to develop a secondary bacterial infection, and of course, that can then precipitate sepsis. We expect that as people recover from severe illness with COVID-19, they will be not hugely, but slightly at greater risk of further infections and sepsis than the general population who have not been very sick with COVID-19.

Image Credit: PHOTOCREO Michal Bednarek/Shutterstock

One in five deaths worldwide is associated with sepsis. Why, therefore, is sepsis prevention so critical, and how do you believe we can move towards a shared goal of reducing sepsis incidence worldwide?

You mentioned sepsis prevention. Now we cannot prevent every case of sepsis, but it is important that people have equitable access to appropriate vaccinations. It is also important that we examine individual countries needs regarding access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene, as well as access to resilient healthcare systems.

Step one is preventing as many cases as we can. Step two is around heightening awareness among the general public in all countries. This should not just be in high-income countries. Most of those deaths, rather nearly half of those deaths in poorer countries, are children. So, it is vital that governments educate their populations as set out in the World Sepsis Declaration and the WHO Resolution on Sepsis.

The third thing is building resilience within those healthcare systems. It's ensuring that supply chains mean that health professionals can access the right antimicrobials at the right time and do so in a responsible way. It is also around training health professionals to spot sepsis quickly and deliver the very best care to patients.

Both World Sepsis Month and World Sepsis Day are celebrated annually in September. Why do you believe it is so important to raise awareness of sepsis and how do events like these help to achieve this goal?

This is the 10th year of World Sepsis Day, which is something of a milestone. Now we have seen events for World Sepsis Day in 60 countries around the world. In some cases, these are joint events between hospitals and members of the public, which of course is a great way to engage local communities. In other countries, these are national events with the engagement of policymakers, business leaders, healthcare provider organizations, health professionals, and the general public. Through events like this, and really raising the noise, including on traditional and social media, we can really get those policymakers engaged in this journey and start to work towards the delivery of the WHO Resolution on Sepsis. I think one example of what has happened is that in May of this year, at the G7 Summit, the health ministers placed a commitment to strengthen the WHO Resolution in their communique.

What is next for the UK Sepsis Trust? Do you have any exciting projects coming up?

We are all aware that we are entering a challenging landscape for any small business or nonprofit organization. We have to innovate. We have to modernize in order to deliver the care to our patients that we desperately need.

The UK Sepsis Trust is also in its 10th year, and we have launched our Power of 10 Campaign. It is ambitious. We want to educate 10,000 newly qualified health professionals this year. We want to support 10,000 more people affected by sepsis, and we want to make 10 million more people in our countries aware of sepsis. We are on a journey to that, but there is one specific example. What we are doing is we are building a platform where people who have survived sepsis can access robust resources and help to guide their rehabilitation. By taking our support services into that digital space, we are very confident that we can upscale the provision of those services to huge numbers of patients very quickly.

Where can readers find more information?

Sepsis Trust website: https://sepsistrust.org/

Twitter and Instagram: @SepsisUK

World Sepsis Day website: https://www.worldsepsisday.org/wsd2022

World Sepsis Day Twitter: @WorldSepsisDay

About Dr. Ron Daniels

Ron Daniels is an NHS Consultant in Intensive Care, based at University Hospitals Birmingham, U.K. He is also Chief Executive of the UK Sepsis Trust and Vice-President of the Global Sepsis Alliance. In 2016 he was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to patients.

Rons expertise lies in translational medicine and leadership. He leads the team driving dissemination of the Sepsis 6 treatment pathway and is part of the team responsible for much of the policy and media engagement around sepsis in the U.K. and elsewhere, including as a core member of the team securing the adoption of the 2017 Resolution on Sepsis by the WHO.

At home, Ron has worked with the NHS over the last seven years to ensure that, in England, more than 80% of patients presenting with suspected sepsis now receive appropriate antimicrobials rapidly. He is ever mindful of the perceived conflict, and the synergies and need for collaboration, with the antimicrobial stewardship agenda.
One of the biggest pending oil projects on the North Slope is held up. The congressional delegation wants to change that.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Staff Reporter

Despite best efforts to address the traffic woes that erupted following the reopening of schools in Bahrain, tailbacks are a common scene and commuters are reportedly having difficulties in moving from one point to the other across the nation.

School day timings and bus departures were rescheduled last week by the authorities as part of easing the traffic jams, which had become notorious.

The move aimed at ensuring the interests of students, parents and commuters by implementing mechanisms to facilitate an easy flow of traffic across Bahrains road networks.

As per the Education Ministrys decision, the school day now begins at 7:05 am at all public educational institutions and ends at 12:35 pm at primary schools (including those of the primary level of the Religious and Jaffari institutes), 1:30 pm at intermediate schools, 1:45 and 2:15 pm at secondary schools and the Religious and Jaffari institutes (for both the intermediate and secondary levels).

Regarding technical schools, the school day timings remain unchanged, from 7:05 am to 1:45 for morning period students, and from 2:00 pm to 7:30 pm for the evening period students.

Earlier, the Ministry of Interior confirmed that efforts are being intensified to ensure the smooth flow of traffic across the country.

The Community Service Police in all four governorates and the General Traffic Department has increased their presence in the vicinity of schools and kindergartens to ensure safe passage for students and teachers.

Speaking to The Daily Tribune, commuters said they continue to have difficulty across Bahrain due to heavy traffic near schools and highways.

We acknowledge the efforts being taken by the government to ensure the smooth traffic flow. However, things don't seem to be working well. The traffic peaked during the mornings as drivers and parents rushed to drop children on the premises of schools, a Bahrain resident said.

Traffic jams near schools expand to highways and other road networks, leading to huge tailbacks that one can hardly imagine. Escaping traffic jams isn't an easy task, he added.

Traffic jams are mainly felt on Shaikh Isa Bin Salman Highway, Al Estiqlal Highway, Shaikh Salman Highway and Budaiya Highway, according to commuters.

Another Bahrain resident told The Daily Tribune that the traffic ordeal has worsened his life beyond words.

I live in Deraz and my office is in Riffa. Every day it takes me nearly 40 minutes to cross the Janabiya circle. Earlier, it was just a ten minutes drive. I know many who are planning to change their residences owing to this traffic chaos. But that is not an easy task. However, despite these difficulties, I am hopeful that the authorities will be gradually able to solve the issue. We appreciate their efforts in this regard.

Previously, the Ministry of Education hosted a workshop to prepare for the start of the new school year and to provide information on various aspects of traffic regulations near schools.

This course is part of our careful planning to ensure the safety of kids when they return to school.

We were keen to acquaint the security guards with a variety of potential scenarios and how to handle them during the training to prepare them to act quickly when anything seemed out of the norm, Professor Muhammad Al Abbasi, Head of the School Safety and Security Department at the Ministry of Education, had said.
TITA holds unique place for Techies, IT professionals : Ranjan 02 Oct 2022 | 4:28 PM Hyderabad, Oct 2 (UNI) Principal Secretary of Industries and Commerce & Information Technology departments Jayesh Ranjan praised Telangana Information Technology Association (TITA) by saying that it holds a unique place for techies and IT professionals. see more..

CAIT expects Diwali sale to grow upto Rs 125 lakh Cr this year 02 Oct 2022 | 4:17 PM New Delhi, Oct 2 (UNI) With festive season around the corner, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has estimated that sales during this Diwali will touch a turnover of Rs 125 lakh crore. see more..

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Honda Cars India registers 29 pc growth in domestic sales in September22 01 Oct 2022 | 8:45 PM Hyderabad, Oct 1 (UNI) Honda Cars India Ltd. (HCIL), leading manufacturer of premium cars in India, registered monthly domestic sales of 8,714 units in September22 registering a growth of 29 per cent over the same period last year. see more..
Advancing common dreams, going beyond shared ambitions mark of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia bonds

TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com It is given to very few neighbouring countries to have special relations and close ties like Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. While other neighbours are guided by rivalry and competition, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, one heartbeat away from each other, are driven by a powerful sense of togetherness in the past, present and future, determined to foresee the future, confront challenges and build on opportunities together. A major characteristic of the deep-rooted relations between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia is the close bonds, the deep compassion, the remarkable friendliness and the open communication between the leaders and peoples of the two neighbouring kingdoms. The bonds are getting increasingly closer and more robust at all levels based on the countries' similar stances on multiple issues, their widespread ties of kinship, their shared heritage and their common destiny. The origins of relations between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia as states go to the first Saudi state (1745-1818) and then gained in strength during the second Saudi state (1840-1891), on to the first meeting of the founding King Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud with Shaikh Isa bin Ali Al Khalifa in Bahrain. Bahraini-Saudi relations ever since have been steadily growing with an advanced level of coordination in their positions on regional and international issues.

The bonds have gained a new significance in the thanks to HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The two countries have regularly presented common views on various issues of shared interest and integrated their endeavours over Gulf, Arab and international action. Within the framework of the fraternal and historical ties that bring together the two kingdoms and their peoples, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia set up the Coordination Council. The Council seeks to contribute actively to strengthening the fraternal and distinguished relations between the two countries in all areas. The Council is thus the umbrella under which the relationship between the two countries is being developed to improve the level of cooperation in all fields according to regular and sustainable institutional work in the political, economic, security, military, investment, development and cultural areas. The ultimate objective is to achieve common interests in line with the aspirations of the two leaders and the two peoples. The King Fahad Causeway, the 25-kilometre terrestrial link between the two countries completed in November 1986, has been a crucial factor in promoting cooperation, supporting joint projects, activating ways to develop trade exchange, removing the obstacles facing economic activities and facilitating the transfer of capital between the two countries. The two countries are now eyeing a brighter future with a new terrestrial link  The King Hamad Causeway that will complement King Fahad Causeway and support the much-anticipated Gulf railways network project.

Bahrain is Saudi Arabias second commercial partner within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and 12th worldwide. The volume of trade exchange between the two countries reached $7.2 billion. Saudi Arabia has been, and for a long time, the first trade partner of Bahrain with trade activities going back several decades. Saudi Arabia is an economic strategic depth for Bahrain, as it is a large economic market for the Bahraini private sector to promote its goods and products. Bahrain represents an extension of the Saudi market in promoting Saudi goods and products, and in this context, the Bahraini and Saudis Businessmen Council plays a major role in increasing the size of economic and joint ventures. Thanks to its outstanding economic policies based on openness and diversification of sources of income and legislation that protects investors and investments, Bahrain has been able to attract many Saudi investments. As the world faces a multitude of global challenges such as climate change, health crisis and food crisis, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have responded by strengthening their shared commitment to accurate and effective domestic and foreign policies. The two countries have stressed they stood together and with each other on consolidating and enhancing security and peace in the region and the world. They have been supportive of each other in all the measures they take to eliminate terrorism, extremism and fanaticism in the region and across the globe.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Staff Reporter

Immediate measures along with awareness drives will be in place to end begging across the streets of Bahrain, according to a top official.

The move comes amid rising concerns about the rising number of beggars in many areas and neighbourhoods.

Brigadier Muhammad bin Dina, Director General of the General Administration for Information and Security Culture, said awareness drive will be carried out across the Kingdom as we are witnessing an increase in the reporting of cases of begging.

The rising number of beggars is fast becoming an inconvenience to the citizens and residents across the streets of the Kingdom. A large number of beggars, mainly women carrying children, are seen begging for alms, most often annoying the public.

Sources said they even enter shops, asking for money from shopkeepers as well as customers across Manama and Gudaibiya. They added that the number of beggars would be increasingly found across the streets during the beginning of the month as it is the time when people receive their salaries.

Begging cases can be reduced with the cooperation of all members of society. It is the responsibility of all members to address such matters. As part of the clampdown, police have been arresting many beggars, mainly expatriates, for begging in the streets as part of the efforts to curb the act of begging.

We call upon citizens not to support begging and report such cases to the police for legal action to be taken. Community efforts are also needed to combat this negative phenomenon, the police directorate said.

A surge in beggars was witnessed across the Kingdom during this years Holy Month, becoming an inconvenience to the citizens and residents, most often annoying them. Earlier, commenting on the matter, Dr Anna Mostafa, a leading psychologist in the Kingdom, had said: There could be psychological factors for begging; perhaps the individuals mental and cognitive capacity may play a role.

Perhaps, they are unaware of the resources available to them by charities and shelters set in place to support them. Dr Anna also stressed the significance of rehabilitation. Public awareness campaigns and increased efforts at disseminating information of available services to police, mosques, public transport and other areas where people gather could be beneficial.

Begging is legally prohibited in the Kingdom and offenders face imprisonment and fines. Dar Al Karama has been taking care of beggars and the homeless. It is a governmental social institution affiliated with the Ministry of Labour and Social Development, Department of Social Welfare. It is concerned with the provision of care and different services for first-time beggars and homeless people.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

A teacher, apparently falsely accused by a parent through a viral video of attacking two students, turned out to be innocent in an investigation headed by the Education Ministry.

The investigation also proved that a student was the real culprit. Following an investigation, the student was charged with offending, insulting and attempting to provoke the teacher.

The teacher now stands cleared of all charges levelled against him.

Based on the evidence, the ministry said it awarded the student ten-day isolation and educational and disciplinary tasks within the school.

The ministry also referred the woman to the General Department for Combating Cyber Crime to take necessary legal actions for publishing false accusations against the teacher.

The ministry also called on the parents and social media users to exercise extreme caution while dealing with such incidents and report such incidents to the school administration before surmising that something may be true.

The ministry also urged all to refrain from publishing and sharing videos related to the incident citing the irreversible harm it will cause to school employees who work with honesty and dedication to the educational process.

The news also evoked several responses, with some social media users asking the ministry to tighten control over private schools. Another user, thanking the Ministry of Education for bringing out the truth, points out that several had falsely accused the teacher and sympathised with the video publishers without verifying its authenticity.

Education Ministry opened the investigation after a video published by a parent accusing a teacher of attacking her son and another student, who suffered bruises, went viral. Pursuantly, the Ministry of Education, represented by the Operations Department of the third educational district, contacted the parent.

As per the Instagram account of the Education Ministry, the incident reportedly occurred at Isa Town Primary Preparatory School. The ministry said it summoned the teacher and sent a team to the school to investigate the circumstances leading to the incident.

Investigators recorded the statements of the students involved in the video and took testimonies from other students and teachers who knew about the incident. Based on the evidence collected, the ministry confirmed it didn't find any evidence against the teacher for beating up the students.

The investigators, however, said that, on the contrary, it was the student who offended the teacher, insulted and tried to provoke him. Investigators also accused the student of being a habitual offender, citing records of his hostile behaviour towards other students in the school.

The student, the ministry said, behaved rudely with administrative staff and was never on time for classes. The student, the ministry said, also failed to attend distance learning classes in the last academic year and is currently repeating the school year.

The ministry also said that the investigation showed that the allegation raised by the second student in the video was also false. The bruises on his body, shown in the video, the student confessed, were old and not caused by the claimed attack.

Ministry said the same was confirmed by the student's parent when approached by the ministry's investigators. The parent, the ministry said, revealed that the photograph showing bruises was taken and posted online without their consent.
At this school, the president wont protect you from what you dont want to hear
VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 13, 2022 /CNW/ - Awale Resources Limited ("Awale" or the "Company") (TSXV: ARIC) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a binding letter agreement dated September 12, 2022 (the "Agreement") with Colossal Gold Resources Limited ("Colossal") and the shareholders of Colossal (collectively, the "Sellers") to acquire 100% of the issued share capital of Colossal (the "Colossal Shares" and the acquisition of the Colossal Shares the "Acquisition"). In consideration for the Colossal Shares, Awale will issue to the Sellers an aggregate of 21,663,138 common shares of the Company (the "Consideration Shares") which will represent 41% of the outstanding Awale common shares post-closing of the Acquisition but prior to giving effect to any Awale common shares issued under the Financing discussed below (the "Financing Shares"). The Consideration Shares are being issued at an agreed deemed price per share of CAD$0.197, a premium of approximately 40% to the Awale closing share price on September 9, 2022.

Colossal is a private holding company with an exciting gold exploration portfolio focused on the highly prospective, but underexplored, greenstone belt of Suriname, South America (the "Project"). Colossal holds, through its wholly-owned Surinamese subsidiary, Consolidated Gold Resources N.V. ("Consolidated Gold"), a 100% interest in certain existing mineral exploration and exploitation licences in Suriname (collectively, the "Licences").

Colossal, Consolidated Gold and each of the Sellers, other than Glen Parsons, the Chief Executive Officer and a director of Awale, are arm's length to Awale (see "Related Party Transaction Process" below).

Acquisition Highlights

The Acquisition will provide Awale with an immediate presence in the little-explored section of the northern greenstone belt of Suriname, well known for its gold mineralization endowment.

The Licences are located along trend and close to IAMGOLD's Rosebel mine and project area.

The largest License held by Colossal is also contiguous to the NW Extension Project operated by the Barrick/Reunion Gold Alliance.

Furthermore, Newmont operates the world-class Merian mine in the same regional greenstone terrane.

The Licences consist of:

1 exploitation licence covering an area of 38km 2 and expiring 2035 (the Goliath Project);

and expiring 2035 (the Goliath Project);

3 contiguous exploration licenses covering an area of 184km 2 along trend from the IAMGOLD Rosebel and Saramacca deposits; and

along trend from the IAMGOLD Rosebel and Saramacca deposits; and

1 exploration licence covering an area of 360km 2 contiguous to the NW Extension Project licence area being explored by the Reunion Gold / Barrick Alliance .

contiguous to the NW Extension Project licence area being explored by the Reunion Gold / .

An overview of the Licences can be found in the attached figures by following the link: https://www.awaleresources.com/_resources/maps/2022-09-13-Suriname-Acquistion-Figures.pdf

Colossal's existing exploration team will continue advancing the Licenses and Awale intends to build upon Colossal's existing team to achieve accelerated exploration results.

Colossal's existing exploration team is headed by Chris Hughes , current Chief Operating Officer of Colossal, who will drive the Project's exploration activities on the ground in Suriname.

Awale's Strategic Rationale

Awale's strategy is building a value adding multi-jurisdictional exploration portfolio in stable and mining-friendly countries by using the Company's proven delivery capabilities and strong systematic exploration track record.

The Awale team continues to be led by Glen Parsons who has operated successfully in the past as the CEO of Mariana Resources Ltd which had a multi-jurisdictional exploration portfolio including the Hod Maden project in Turkey and which was acquired by Sandstorm Gold Limited.

who has operated successfully in the past as the CEO of Mariana Resources Ltd which had a multi-jurisdictional exploration portfolio including the Hod Maden project in and which was acquired by Sandstorm Gold Limited. The Awale team has experience operating in Suriname through its leadership of Mariana Resources Ltd.

The Odienne Project earn-in Joint Venture with Newmont (see Company News Release dated May 31, 2022 ) provides the solid foundation to enable this value adding multi-jurisdictional strategy to be achieved.

) provides the solid foundation to enable this value adding multi-jurisdictional strategy to be achieved. In accordance with Awale's strategy, the objective is to create value for all stakeholders by responsibly exploring and advancing district scale projects to feasibility; as the Company's focus is on stable jurisdictions with compelling geology that ultimately attract major producers, Suriname fits this strategy.

The strategic rationale for the Acquisition is gaining an immediate foothold on an established exploration portfolio in the northern greenstone belt of Suriname, well known for its gold mineralization endowment, located along trend and close to IAMGOLD's Rosebel mine and project area.

Overview of the Acquisition

Awale will acquire an indirect 100% interest in Colossal's subsidiary, Consolidated Gold, by virtue of its acquisition of 100% of the Colossal Shares.

In consideration for the Colossal Shares, Awale will issue to the Sellers an aggregate of 21,663,138 Consideration Shares at an agreed deemed price per Consideration Share of CAD$0.197 which is the same price as Newmont paid for its interest in Awale (see News Release date May 31, 2022 ).

which is the same price as Newmont paid for its interest in Awale (see News Release date ). The Consideration Shares will represent 41% of the outstanding Awale common shares post-Closing of the Acquisition but prior to the issuance of any Financing Shares.

The Sellers currently own approximately 26% of the outstanding Awale common shares. After issuance to the Sellers of the Consideration Shares, post-Closing of the Acquisition the Sellers will hold approximately 56.62% of the outstanding Awale common shares prior to the issuance of any Financing Shares.

Closing of the Acquisition is subject to receipt of TSX Venture Exchange (" TSXV ") acceptance; receipt of the approval of the shareholders of the Company is required by the policies of the TSXV; Awale being satisfied in its sole discretion with the results of its in-country due diligence review (the " Due Diligence Review ") (to be completed on or before October 15, 2022 , unless mutually extended by Awale and Colossal); Awale having completed a financing to raise a minimum of gross proceeds of CAD$2,000,000 (the " Financing "); the assumption by Awale of the Assumed Obligations (as defined herein); and other closing conditions as are standard for a transaction of the nature of the Acquisition, (collectively, the " Closing Conditions ");

") acceptance; receipt of the approval of the shareholders of the Company is required by the policies of the TSXV; Awale being satisfied in its sole discretion with the results of its in-country due diligence review (the " ") (to be completed on or before , unless mutually extended by Awale and Colossal); Awale having completed a financing to raise a minimum of gross proceeds of (the " "); the assumption by Awale of the Assumed Obligations (as defined herein); and other closing conditions as are standard for a transaction of the nature of the Acquisition, (collectively, the " "); The Consideration Shares issued in the Acquisition will be subject to a statutory hold period under applicable Canadian securities laws which will expire four months and one day after the closing of the Acquisition (the " Closing ") and a voluntary trading restriction preventing the Sellers from reselling any of the Consideration Shares for a period of eighteen months from Closing; and

") and a voluntary trading restriction preventing the Sellers from reselling any of the Consideration Shares for a period of eighteen months from Closing; and The Agreement may be terminated by a party if any of the Closing Conditions for the benefit of the terminating party is not satisfied or waived by October 15, 2022 , unless such date is extended by mutual written consent of Awale and Colossal or by Awale if it determines, acting reasonably, that the results of its Due Diligence Review are not satisfactory to it in all material respects.

Colossal originally acquired the Licenses from a third party (the "Vendor") and agreed to make certain future payments to the Vendor. Upon Closing of the Acquisition, Awale has agreed to assume from Colossal the following payment obligations to the Vendor:

Payment of US$250,000 on Closing of the Acquisition or as otherwise agreed;

on Closing of the Acquisition or as otherwise agreed; Payments totaling a maximum of US$1.75M following issuance of a technical report prepared in accordance National Instrument 43-101  Standards for Disclosure of Mineral Projects establishing a mineral resource on the Project on the following basis:

1. US$0.50 per ounce of gold for reported accumulated ounces of up to 999,999 ounces of gold (the "Initial Ounces )

2. US$1.00 per ounce of gold for reported accumulated ounces of one million ounces or greater of gold plus an additional payment of US$0.50 per Initial Ounce.

Related Party Transaction Process

Glen Parsons, a director and the Chief Executive Officer of Awale, is a "related party" of the Company (as defined by Multilateral Instrument 61-101  Protection of Minority Securityholders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101")). Glen Parsons is also a shareholder of Colossal and, therefore, one of the Sellers under the Acquisition and will be a party to the Agreement. Mr. Parsons' direct and indirect ownership is approximately 12% of Awale's current issued and outstanding shares and 23.4% of the current issued and outstanding Colossal Shares. He will be issued 5,472,978 Consideration Shares under the Acquisition. Accordingly, the issuance of the Consideration Shares to Mr. Parsons will constitute a "related party transaction" within the meaning of TSXV Policy 5.9 which adopts MI -61-101. The Company is relying on the exemptions from both the formal valuation requirement and the minority shareholder approval requirement in MI 61-101 for related party transactions under sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a), respectively, of MI 61-101, in connection with the issuance of the Consideration Shares to Mr. Parsons on the basis that neither the fair market value of the Colossal Shares held by Mr. Parsons, nor the fair market value of the Consideration Shares to be issued to Mr. Parsons, exceeds 25% of the Company's market capitalization calculated in accordance with MI 61-101. The Company did not file a material change report more than 21 days before the expected Closing date of the Acquisition as it has negotiated the Acquisition on an expedited basis.

A special committee was established by the board of directors of the Company, which is comprised of the independent non-executive directors of the Company, and is chaired by Derk Hartman, (the "Special Committee") to evaluate and, if appropriate, approve the Acquisition. Mr. Parsons has not participated in the evaluation and approval process for the Acquisition for either Awale or Colossal.

The Special Committee assessed the merits of the Acquisition and unanimously approved the Acquisition on the following basis:

The Licenses are strategically located on known producing gold trends in the greenstone belt of Suriname;

The greenstone belt of Suriname is an underexplored region with large potential for further major gold discoveries;

Suriname is a stable jurisdiction with existing major operating multi-million ounce mines  IAMGOLD and Newmont;

The Licenses are easily accessible for logistics, exploration and development (just three hours from capital Paramaribo ); and

); and Awale acquires access to an experienced gold exploration team with a proven track record of operating in Suriname.

The Closing of the Acquisition is expected to occur on the fifth business day in the City of Vancouver, British Columbia following the satisfaction or waiver of the Closing Conditions.

Derk Hartman, Independent Director and Chairman of the Special Committee commented:

"Awale's acquisition of Colossal Gold Resources' gold exploration portfolio in Suriname is a transformational and exciting transaction that represents an excellent strategic fit for Awale. The Guiana Shield and West African Shield share the same greenstone belt geology, as it was one continent before the Atlantic Ocean was formed 195 million years ago. Whereas many multi-million ounce gold deposits have been delineated in the West African Shield, the Guiana Shield, and particularly Suriname, remains very underexplored relative to West Africa. With the acquisition of Colossal Gold Resources, Awale is gaining an immediate and highly prospective foothold in the northern greenstone belt of Suriname, well known for its gold mineralization endowment. As Awale succeeds, we look forward to accelerating the exploration programmes in both Suriname and Cote d'Ivoire with the combined exploration teams from Awale and Colossal Gold Resources."

Thomas McNeill, Independent Director to Colossal Gold Resources Limited commented:

"The Directors and Shareholders of Colossal are excited in becoming part of the greater Awale Group. The underexplored Suriname, within the greater Guiana Shield, offers huge potential for Colossal's objective of a successful exploration business that offers scale in jurisdictions where major producers operate. Therefore, Awale's strategy complements and achieves our objective of building a diversified portfolio of highly prospective assets which mitigates project and jurisdictional risk and furthermore enhances the chance of success."

About Awale Resources

Awale is a gold exploration company focused on the discovery of large high-grade gold and copper-gold deposits. The Company currently undertakes exploration activities in the underexplored parts of Cote d'Ivoire. Awale's success to date at the Odienne Project in the Northwest of Cote d'Ivoire has culminated in an earn-in Joint Venture with Newmont (the "Newmont JV") covering the Odienne Project where two primary targets for world-class discoveries have been made: i) the gold-rich Empire corridor and ii) the recently defined Sceptre Iron Oxide Copper Gold ("IOCG") target, while the remaining 200km2 of granted tenure and 400km2 under application remains underexplored and has significant IOCG potential. The Newmont JV forms the foundation for the Company to continue looking at new opportunities in new jurisdictions which offers significant potential for district scale discoveries.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

AWALE RESOURCES LIMITED

"Derk Hartman"- Independent Director and Chairman of the Special Committee

Derk Hartman, Director

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws (collectively "forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, plans, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. All statements that are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this press release include but are not limited to statements regarding the Closing of the Transaction, the Company's presence in Suriname and ability to achieve results, creation of value for Company shareholders, achievements under the Newmont JV, planned drilling, commencement of operations, . Although the Company believes any forward-looking statements in this press release are reasonable, it can give no assurance that the expectations and assumptions in such statements will prove to be correct.

The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including the potential inability to obtain required regulatory approvals and satisfy other applicable Closing conditions; possible adverse impacts due the global outbreak of COVID-19; the Company's inability to generate sufficient cash flow or raise sufficient additional financing requirements; volatility in metals prices; the ability of the Company to retain its key management employees and skilled and experienced personnel; conflicts of interest; litigation or other administrative proceedings brought against the Company; actual or alleged breaches of governance processes or instances of fraud, bribery or corruption; exploration, development and mining risks and the inherently dangerous nature of the mining industry, and the risk of inadequate insurance or inability to obtain insurance to cover these risks and other risks and uncertainties; property and mineral title risks including defective title to mineral claims or property; changes in national and local government legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments in Canada and Suriname; equipment shortages and the ability of the Company to acquire necessary access rights and infrastructure for its mineral properties; environmental regulations and the ability to obtain and maintain necessary permits, including environmental authorizations and water use licences; extreme competition in the mineral exploration industry; delays in obtaining, or a failure to obtain, permits necessary for current or future operations or failures to comply with the terms of such permits; risks of doing business in Suriname, including but not limited to, labour, economic and political instability and potential changes to and failures to comply with legislation; the Company's common shares may be delisted from the Exchange if it cannot maintain compliance with the applicable listing requirements; and other risk factors described other filings with Canadian securities regulators, which may be viewed at www.sedar.com. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether because of new information, future events or results or otherwise.

Cautionary Statement

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE

SOURCE Awale Resources

For further information: you are invited to visit the Awale Resources Limited website at www.awaleresources.com, or contact Karen Davies, Head of Investor Relations at Tel: 604.314.6270
HAMILTON, ON, Sept. 23, 2022 /CNW/ - Protecting fresh water is critically important to Canada's environmental, social, and economic well-being. One of the largest surface freshwater systems in the world, the Great Lakes help drive the local economy and provide drinking water for millions of Canadians.

Today, Terry Duguid, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, announced an investment of more than $3.9 million over three years in thirty-nine new projects in Ontario through the Great Lakes Protection Initiative, part of the Government of Canada's Freshwater Action Plan.

The announcement includes $98,000 over two years to the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority to conduct an assessment and provide options to manage contaminated sediment at Lyons Creek East in the Niagara River Area of Concern. The Mohawk Council of Akwesasne will receive $154,000 over two years to participate in the assessment and remediation of the St. Lawrence River Area of Concern, including decision-making on fish consumption restrictions, beach access, and challenges impacting fish and wildlife populations.

The Maitland Valley Conservation Authority will receive $175,000 over three years to engage non-governmental organizations, municipalities, and the public to develop and implement community-scale solutions to improve water quality in tributaries and nearshore water, enhance natural coastal protection, and restore degraded habitat.

These thirty-nine projects support Canada's commitments under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and the Canada-Ontario Agreement on Great Lakes Water Quality and Ecosystem Health.

Quotes

"As we celebrate fifty years of collaboration under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, it is important that we continue to advance Great Lakes priorities, including Canada's commitment to clean up Canadian Areas of Concern. By working together with regional partners and Indigenous Peoples, we are finding practical solutions to protect our important natural resources. Our investment in local projects is engaging and empowering communities to take action and contribute toward our collective efforts to restore and protect the water quality and ecosystem health of our beloved Great Lakes."

 The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change

"Clean water connects our communities, ecosystems, and economy. We see firsthand here in Hamilton how the health of the Great Lakes impacts our region. By investing in local environmental projects, our government is continuing to make progress to address ecological challenges. Finding solutions to these issues is essential in tackling the climate emergency for our communities."

 Lisa Hepfner, Member of Parliament for Hamilton Mountain

Quick facts

The Great Lakes account for almost 20 percent of the world's surface fresh water.

The Great Lakes Protection Initiative supports action by others to:

Restore the water quality and ecosystem health of Areas of Concern;



Prevent toxic and nuisance algae;



Reduce releases of harmful chemicals;



Engage Indigenous Peoples in addressing Great Lakes issues; and



Increase public engagement through citizen science.

Since 1989, Environment and Climate Change Canada has funded more than 1,275 restoration projects to address Areas of Concern, completed in collaboration with community partners.

Associated links

Environment and Climate Change Canada's Twitter page

Environment and Climate Change Canada's Facebook page

SOURCE Environment and Climate Change Canada

For further information: Kaitlin Power, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, 819-230-1557, [email protected]; Media Relations: Environment and Climate Change Canada, 819-938-3338 or 1-844-836-7799 (toll-free), [email protected]
GATINEAU, QC, Sept. 23, 2022 /CNW/ - Cutting methane emissions is one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to combat climate change. Today, the Government of Canada is taking a major next step in tackling these emissions with the release of Faster and Further: Canada's Methane Strategy.

The Strategy, announced today by the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, provides a pathway to further reduce methane emissions from across the economy while supporting Canadian technology and creating good-paying jobs. It builds on Canada's existing progress and commitments, including the 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan.

From being the first country to establish national oil and gas methane reduction regulations to investing in our world-class science and clean tech sector, and helping other countries reduce their methane emissions, the Strategy announced today will position Canada to continue leading in reducing methane emissions domestically and driving ambitious reductions internationally.

With the measures outlined in the Strategy, Canada will reduce domestic methane emissions by more than 35 percent by 2030, compared to 2020 levels. This will exceed the Global Methane Pledge target of 30 percent that Canada signed on to last year.

The Methane Strategy outlines how Canada will:

implement measures across sectors of the economy, including oil and gas, to reduce the largest sources of methane emissions;

strengthen the clean technology sector and provide tools to industry to achieve cost-effective methane emission reductions while creating good-paying jobs;

advance scientific knowledge and technical capacity to improve methane detection, measurement, and reporting;

meet international climate targets under the Paris Agreement and Global Methane Pledge; and

solidify its global leadership and provide funding, tools, and best practices for other countries to achieve emissions reductions.

Lowering methane emissions can also have positive impacts on air quality and public health. In particular, methane contributes to the formation of ground-level ozone that causes serious health problems such as reduced lung function and asthma attacks, and is responsible for half a million premature deaths globally.

The Government of Canada will continue to work closely with and support ongoing complementary action by provinces, territories, municipalities, Indigenous groups, industry sectors, and others to reduce methane emissions across the country. As Canada and countries around the world take action to reduce methane emissions, Canadian companies can remain competitive players in the $3.6 trillion clean technology market and drive jobs in key sectors.

Quotes

"Reducing methane emissions is one of the success stories of Canada's climate action to date, and will continue to pay dividends because it is both cost-effective and critical to fighting climate change. Canadian industries, as well as our scientists and researchers, have the expertise and experience to go faster and further in reducing this potent greenhouse gas. We have already made significant progress to reduce methane emissions in Canada, and I look forward to doing even more both at home and abroad."

 The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change

"Canadians share a collective ambition that is driving us to meet our climate goals and make a more sustainable future for all. By focusing on innovation-backed economic development, investing in clean technologies and creating well-paying, green jobs, we can reduce our methane emissions across the country while growing the economy and cementing our competitive edge."

 The Honourable Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

"Canadian scientists and industry are unlocking innovation every day as we move towards net zero. The Government of Canada is pleased to support these methane reductions. They represent low-cost actions that allow us to simultaneously make progress on lowering emissions while advancing innovative technologies that can be exported to the world."

 The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Natural Resources

"Our farmers have already come a long way in reducing methane emissions through better herd management, including improvements in nutrition and genetics. Our government will continue to make investments to support the adoption of best practices and the acquisition of clean technologies, while helping to accelerate research and innovation."

 The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food

Quick facts

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and climate pollutant that is responsible for 30 percent of observed global warming to date, with global levels of atmospheric methane continuing to rise.

In November 2021 , Canada joined over one hundred countries in supporting the Global Methane Pledge (GMP). This pledge commits members to a collective goal of reducing human-caused methane emissions by 30 percent from 2020 levels by 2030. More recently, Canada joined as an inaugural member supporting the GMP Energy Pathway.

, joined over one hundred countries in supporting the Global Methane Pledge (GMP). This pledge commits members to a collective goal of reducing human-caused methane emissions by 30 percent from 2020 levels by 2030. More recently, joined as an inaugural member supporting the GMP Energy Pathway. Canada was the first country to commit to achieving at least a 75 percent reduction in methane emissions from its oil and gas sector from 2012 levels by 2030, a reduction target recommended by the International Energy Agency.

was the first country to commit to achieving at least a 75 percent reduction in methane emissions from its oil and gas sector from 2012 levels by 2030, a reduction target recommended by the International Energy Agency. In December 2021 , a federal review of Canada's oil and gas methane regulations to reduce methane emissions by 4045 percent by 2025 (from 2012 levels) concluded that Canada is on track to meet its target.

Associated links

Environment and Climate Change Canada's Twitter page

Environment and Climate Change Canada's Facebook page

SOURCE Environment and Climate Change Canada

For further information: Contacts: Kaitlin Power, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, 819-230-1557, [email protected]; Media Relations: Environment and Climate Change Canada, 819-938-3338 or 1-844-836-7799 (toll-free), [email protected]
International fashion star Jay Manuel presents 12 top Canadian Designers and their Vision of a Future Without Cancer to kick-off Breast Cancer Awareness Month

TORONTO, Sept. 23, 2022 /CNW/ - Canada's fashion stars dazzled at the 19th Annual Cashmere Collection Celestial Awakening: A Celebration of Strength, Hope, and Compassion on Thursday, September 22, at The Symes in Toronto.

Twelve brilliantly talented designers from across Canada revealed their unique and breathtaking visions of a future without Breast Cancer at a one-of-a-kind show of original couture  all entirely crafted in sheets of soft and luxurious NEW and improved Cashmere UltraLuxe Bathroom Tissue. Proudly made in Canada, Cashmere is Canada's best selling Bathroom Tissue brand.

Photo Credit: George Pimentel (CNW Group/Kruger Products L.P.)

A VIP audience of Canadian fashion industry stargazers and tastemakers sparkled at the annual, invite-only, runway event presented by Cashmere Collection Curator, Jay Manuel, who hails from Scarborough, Ontario and now calls New York City home. Famed for his roles on America's Next Top Model, Canada's Next Top Model and E! Network, Jay has been following the collection for years.

"Canada has an amazing wealth of fashion talent, and seeing these creative visionaries bring their show-stopping designs to life as a collection on the runway is truly an epic spectacle," says a proud Jay Manuel, who is curating the collection for the first time.

"Our 2022 theme, Celestial Awakening, is a Celebration of Strength, Hope, and Compassion and asked our designers to look to the heavens for inspiration. I am totally blown away by the creativity, skill, and craftsmanship that went into each and every design," he says.

The Stars of the 2022 Cashmere Collection Celestial Awakening Include:

Kelsey Erin  Upper Tantallon, Nova Scotia

 Cheliel  Montreal, Quebec

Tristan Rehel  Montreal, Quebec

Kaela Kay  Brampton, Ontario

 Demascare  Toronto, Ontario

Kyle Gervacy  Toronto, Ontario

L'Uomo Strano  Toronto, Ontario

Mimiela  Toronto, Ontario

Doch  Ajax, Ontario

Madaleine Nelson  Gores Landing, Ontario

 Afflatus Hijab  Edmonton, Alberta

Sam Stringer  Osoyoos, British Columbia

Please click here for designer bios, garment descriptions, sketches, and quotes.

Annual Kick-Off to October Breast Cancer Awareness Month

More than 240 top Canadian Designers have taken part in the Cashmere Collection, now celebrating its 19th year. Produced by Kruger Products, maker of Cashmere Bathroom Tissue, Canada's best-selling brand, it serves as the annual kick-off to October Breast Cancer Month.

"It's a joy to celebrate a new normal in Canada after two plus years of lockdown," says Susan Irving, CMO Kruger Products. "The 2022 Cashmere Collection pays tribute to our ever-evolving lifestyle and the perseverance Canadians show as we adapt to our environment with empathy and compassion. Our Celestial Awakening honours fashion with compassion and all-Canadian creativity."

"It's specifically designed to raise much-needed public support and funds for breast cancer awareness, prevention, and treatment programs through our long-standing partnerships with the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) and the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation (QBCF). Over the years, we have raised millions of dollars in support of the breast cancer cause," she says.

Essential Cashmere Collection 2022 Partners

Artistic Director and Canadian fashion show producer, Erika Larva, has led the collection since its beginnings in 2004. She is joined this year by Stylist Lisa Williams, who is making her Cashmere Collection debut.

Internationally recognised fashion photographer Justin Wu captured the collection in a heavenly photo portfolio available at CashmereCollection2022.ca. An award-winning Toronto-based photographer and director, Justin is best known for shooting world-renowned fashion and beauty campaigns, directing top Canadian talent on Run the Burbs and Kim's Convenience, and taking Europe by storm working with the likes of Vogue, ELLE and GQ.

Illustrator Monica Smiley brought the 12 designs to life with inspiring sketches found here.

Long-time collection partners MAC Cosmetics and FLOW Haircare created ethereal, on-theme looks for editorial photography and the runway.

Elegant accessories are by SALT Fine Jewelry, and L'intervalle provided exquisite footwear.

Calling All Canadians

The 19th Annual Cashmere Collection is calling on all Canadians to join in and support the breast cancer cause by taking part in this year's Cashmere Vote Couture for the Cure at CashmereVoteCouture.com  where Canadians are invited to vote for their favourite design and Cashmere will donate $1 (to a maximum of $15,000), to the CCS and QBCF in the winning designer's name. Voters will also be entered for a chance to win a $1,500 cash prize.

Throughout October, twenty-five cents from the sale of every limited-edition pink package of Cashmere Ultraluxe Bathroom Tissue goes directly towards breast cancer efforts, up to a maximum of $65,000.

About the Cashmere Collection

Founded in 2004, the international award-winning Cashmere Collection is an ardent supporter of Canada's fashion design community and the Breast Cancer cause. Many of the greatest names in Canadian fashion have contributed to the collection including Marie Saint Pierre, Greta Constantine, Denis Gagnon, David Dixon, Rudsak, NARCES, Sonny Fong, Stephan Caras, Christopher Paunil, Lucian Matis, Matthew Gallagher, and far too many more to name drop.

About Cashmere and Kruger Products

Cashmere Bathroom Tissue, Canada's best-selling brand, reflects Kruger Products' commitment to providing the finest quality, Canadian-made tissue products to consumers. Kruger Products is one of Canada's leading tissue manufacturers and serves the Canadian consumer market with well-known brands including Cashmere, Purex, SpongeTowels and Scotties; White Cloud in the U.S., as well as away-from-home products for industrial and commercial use across Canada and the U.S.

A longstanding and committed contributor to the breast cancer cause, Kruger Products has supported the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF), now part of the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) since the collection's debut in 2004 and is currently one of the top five national partners supporting the breast cancer cause at CCS.

Kruger Products with more than 2,700 employees, operates nine FSC COC-certified (FSC C-104904) production facilities in North America with headquarters in Toronto and Montreal.

About Breast Cancer and the Canadian Cancer Society

The Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) is the only national charity that supports Canadians with all cancers in communities across the country. No other organization does what we do; we are the voice for Canadians who care about cancer. We fund ground-breaking research, provide a support system for all those affected by cancer and shape health policies to prevent cancer and support those living with the disease.

CCS is the largest national charitable funder of breast cancer research in Canada. Research investments combined with early detection, and better treatment therapies have resulted in a 44% decrease in the breast cancer death rate since the late 1980s. More work needs to be done as breast cancer is still the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women in Canada. Funds raised through this partnership will be invested in CCS's leading breast cancer research and support programs.

For more information, please visit here.

About the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation

The Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation is the only philanthropic organization to ensure that the benefits of its investments in breast cancer research stay here in Quebec. In over 28 years, it has raised more than $61 million and invested it in Quebec in cutting-edge research and in defending the interests of breast cancer patients and their loved ones. Through research and innovation, support and education, it ensures that people with the disease and their families remain the real focus of its mission. Families, researchers, volunteers and donors all share the same hope: a future without breast cancer. Follow the QBCF on social media via Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.

Susan Irving, Chief Marketing Officer, Kruger Products; Jay Manuel, Curator; Erika Larva, Artistic Director; and the 12 designers of the Cashmere Collection are available for interviews.

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact:

Taffin Sekulin or Lauren Everest at Strategic Objectives

Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

SOURCE Kruger Products L.P.
NEW GLASGOW, NS, Sept. 23, 2022 /CNW/ - Doctors from all over the world who choose to come to Canada and work in our communities play a vital role in keeping us healthy and ensuring local access to family physicians at a time when our aging population needs it the most. As provinces and territories seek to attract and retain more foreign-trained doctors to help address shortages, the Government of Canada is making it easier for these doctors to call Canada home permanently.

After a meeting with family physicians and Healthy Pictou County at the Aberdeen Hospital, the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship announced changes to make it easier for foreign-born physicians to remain in Canada, so they can continue to practice in Canada and bolster our health care system.

Some physicians have faced barriers in accessing permanent residence through, Canada's flagship programs for skilled workers managed under the Express Entry system, as the "fee-for-service" model used in Canada for health care professionals is outside of the traditional employer-employee relationship. As a result, some physicians are currently considered self-employed, leaving them unable to meet the eligibility criteria of the economic pathways for permanent residency.

To address this challenge, Minister Fraser announced that IRCC is exempting physicians, who work in a fee-for-service model with public health authorities, from current requirements. This change recognizes the unique employment model used in Canada's health care system, and will provide physicians with access to Canada's economic permanent residence programs. This will mean that a greater number of those physicians already here and filling crucial vacancies in our health care sector can remain here permanently.

To help address labour shortages, IRCC is improving its immigration system to allow foreign nationals who are already in Canada to stay here and work. Immigration is key to helping employers fill hundreds of thousands of vacant positions across the country. When our immigration system works well, our economy benefits. We'll continue to work alongside provincial and territorial partners and stakeholders to help solve key labour shortages in the health care sector.

Quotes

"In my home province in particular, foreign-born physicians have been helping to keep families healthy and to take care of our aging population. Their skills are critical resources in our community, and it does not take long before they become our neighbours, friends, and fellow community leaders. Physicians resettling here in Nova Scotia or in other parts across the country is a win-win situation. The measures announced today signal to these physicians that we want them to stay, by making it easier for them to choose Canada as their permanent home."

 The Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

"Today's news sends a clear signal that we want physicians to choose and remain in Nova Scotia. We applaud the federal government for removing barriers within their control, in partnership with community efforts, like Healthy Pictou County and other similar grassroots groups, to attract and retain physicians both locally and globally. We recognize that there are no easy answers, and we thank Minister Fraser for his personal efforts on behalf of the federal government."

 Murray Hill, Chair of Citizens for a Healthy Pictou County

Quick facts:

IRCC continues to prioritize temporary resident work permit applications for essential workers in health care.

In 2022, IRCC has accepted over 8,600 temporary and permanent resident applications from foreign nationals intending to work in the health sector.

In 2021, IRCC approved work permit and work permit extension applications for over 2,500 specialized physicians, 620 nurses, and 550 nurses' aides and orderlies.

Since 2015, over 22,400 people, including nearly just over 3,600 physicians and 8,600 nurses, became permanent residents through Express Entry and the Provincial Nominee Program.

Economic programs under Express Entry for physicians include, the Federal Skilled Worker Program and the Canadian experience class.

As of June 2022 , approximately 4,300 permanent residents were admitted under the health care streams of the time-limited Temporary Residence to Permanent Residence Pathway.

, approximately 4,300 permanent residents were admitted under the health care streams of the time-limited Temporary Residence to Permanent Residence Pathway. The Government of Canada is seeking to build on the success of Express Entry to better respond to a range of evolving economic needs and priorities, including through legislative changes introduced in Bill C-19. The provisions came into force upon Royal Assent on June 23 and will be fully implemented following changes to our internal IT systems.

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SOURCE Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

For further information: Contacts for media only, Aidan Strickland, Press Secretary, Minister's Office, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, [email protected]; Media Relations, Communications Branch, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, 613-952-1650, [email protected]
GATINEAU, QC, Sept. 23, 2022 /CNW/ - Progress has been made in recent decades towards 2SLGBTQI+ inclusion in Canada; however, discrimination, homophobia, biphobia and transphobia persist and they have very real direct and indirect impacts on 2SLGBTQI+ communities. That is why the Government of Canada is working to build a safer, more equitable and more inclusive Canada.

Today, during Gender Equality Week, the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth, Marci Ien, highlighted more than $9 million in investments helping more than 270 youth, in particular gender diverse youth. The funding is being provided through the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS) program.

Through YESS, the Government of Canada helps young people, particularly those facing barriers to employment, get the information and gain the skills, work experience and abilities they need to make a successful transition into the labour market. These investments include two projects taking place in Alberta and Ontario.

The Open Door project, based in Alberta received $1.3 million in funding for their project The Open Door Youth Employment and Skills Development Program. This project is helping 80 2SLGBTQI+ youth in securing sustainable, meaningful employment by developing their skills, and connecting them with supports that will impact their capacity to secure and maintain their employment from youth to adulthood.

Les Femmes Michif Otipemisiwak (LFMO)  Women of the Metis Nation, based in Ontario, received $8 million in funding for their Reach for the Sky initiative. This initiative offers opportunities to 198 youth to develop a distinctions-based, gender sensitive, youth-centric curriculum on leadership, job readiness and employment training.

These opportunities reflect the Government's ongoing actions to support all Canadians, as highlighted in Budget 2022, which is about growing the economy, creating good jobs, and building a Canada where nobody gets left behind.

Quotes

"As part of Gender Equality Week, we should also remember that gender-diverse communities have significantly contributed to the social fabric of Canada, and have been at the forefront of advancing gender equality. Today's announcement reaffirms our commitment to guarantee that 2SLGBTQI+ organizations, and the people that work for them, can continue to deliver programming, provide educational services, and support gender diverse youth to reach their full potential."

- Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth, Marci Ien

Quick facts

Gender Equality Week 2022 takes place from September 18 to 24 . The theme this year is Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities. It inspires us to continue working together to break down the barriers preventing us from becoming who we aspire to be because of our gender.





. The theme this year is Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities. It inspires us to continue working together to break down the barriers preventing us from becoming who we aspire to be because of our gender. In 2020, the Government of Canada invested $492 million over three years, through Employment and Social Development Canada's YESS program, for 269 projects, where agreements were signed starting in April 2020 , across Canada to help young people facing barriers to employment. To support youth affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, in spring 2020 the Government of Canada increased funding of up to $187.7 million to the YESS horizontal partners, departments, agencies and Crown Corporations to create 9,500 more work opportunities for young Canadians, particularly those facing barriers to employment.





invested over three years, through Employment and Social Development Canada's YESS program, for 269 projects, where agreements were signed starting in , across to help young people facing barriers to employment. To support youth affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, in spring 2020 the Government of increased funding of up to to the YESS horizontal partners, departments, agencies and Crown Corporations to create 9,500 more work opportunities for young Canadians, particularly those facing barriers to employment. In 2022, the Prime Minister launched Canada's first Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan. Based on the largest public consultation with 2SLGBTQI+ communities in Canadian history, the Action Plan is a guide that will inspire and inform Canada's actions towards equality for years to come.

first Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan. Based on the largest public consultation with 2SLGBTQI+ communities in Canadian history, the Action Plan is a guide that will inspire and inform actions towards equality for years to come.

25% to 40% of homeless youth in Canada are 2SLGBTQI+ and 64% of 2SLGBTQI+ students who participated in one study reported feeling unsafe at school.

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SOURCE Employment and Social Development Canada

For further information: For media enquiries, please contact: Johise Namwira, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth, 873-353-0985, [email protected]; Media Relations Office, Employment and Social Development Canada, 819-994-5559, [email protected]
Residents of rural communities to benefit from increased connectivity to high-speed Internet

OTTAWA, ON, Sept. 23, 2022 /CNW/ - Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

No matter where they live, all Canadians need reliable and affordable high-speed Internet to access essential services, supports and opportunities. Through the Universal Broadband Fund (UBF), the governments of Canada and Alberta are taking action to get people living in rural and remote communities connected to high-speed Internet.

Today, the Honourable Gudie Hutchings, Minister of Rural Economic Development, together with the Honourable Nate Glubish, Minister of Service Alberta, and George Chahal, Member of Parliament for Calgary Skyview, announced up to $70.6 million in combined federal and provincial funding to bring high-speed Internet access to over 10,400 households, including more than 2,700 Indigenous households, in rural communities across Alberta.

This funding is part of an existing agreement between Alberta and Canada. On March 9, 2022, both governments announced a historic partnership to invest up to $780 million to provide all Albertans in rural, remote and Indigenous communities with access to high-speed Internet. The governments of Canada and Alberta will continue to announce projects selected under this agreement over the coming months.

Today's announcement builds on the Government of Canada's progress toward making sure that

98% of Canadians have access to high-speed Internet by 2026. The Government of Canada will continue to make investments in infrastructure to build strong communities and a more competitive and resilient Canada for everyone. The Government of Canada is committed to addressing the diverse needs of Indigenous Peoples during the planning, design and implementation of federally funded high-speed Internet and mobile service programs.

Quotes

"We all know that Internet is no longer a luxury in this day and ageit's a necessity. We need to close the connectivity gap and ensure that every nook and cranny of Alberta has access to reliable high-speed Internet. Today's announcement about connecting over 10,400 households, including more than 2,700 Indigenous households, is great news for Albertans. Having fast, reliable Internet helps rural communities access essential services like health care and education, participate in the digital economy or simply connect with loved ones. Our government will continue to work side by side with our partners to achieve our connectivity targets and ensure every Canadian, no matter where they live, has access to high-speed Internet by 2030."

 The Honourable Gudie Hutchings, Minister of Rural Economic Development

"Improving access to high-speed Internet is one of the most powerful things we can do to support rural, remote and Indigenous communities across Alberta. A reliable Internet connection unlocks access to the essential services we rely on every day, supporting everything from online learning to better home health care. Today's announcement is just the first of many to come, and it represents another step forward towards our goal of ensuring universal connectivity for all families and businesses in Alberta."

 The Honourable Nate Glubish, Minister of Service Alberta

"Today's announcement brings hope to thousands of Albertans who live in some of our province's most underserved rural communities. We all know that many of the educational and economic opportunities of the future are found online, and this funding for better broadband will help our rural communities seize these opportunities, which will go a long way in helping them attract newcomers to sustain and grow, and allow our farmers to compete on the world stage."

 The Honourable Nate Horner, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Economic Development

"Today's announcement of up to $70.6 million to improve high-speed Internet connectivity will mean faster and more reliable Internet service for rural Alberta. This pandemic has shown us just how essential reliable Internet access has become. Connecting all Albertansincluding Indigenous communitiesto high-speed Internet is a top priority, and these projects help us achieve our goal and our commitment to ensuring rural communities are not left behind."

 George Chahal, Member of Parliament for Calgary Skyview

Quick facts

The Universal Broadband Fund (UBF) is a $2.75 billion investment by the Government of Canada designed to help connect 98% of Canadians to high-speed Internet by 2026 and achieve the national target of 100% connectivity by 2030. Only the hardest-to-reach households may take until 2030 to connect.

investment by the Government of designed to help connect 98% of Canadians to high-speed Internet by 2026 and achieve the national target of 100% connectivity by 2030. Only the hardest-to-reach households may take until 2030 to connect. Canada's Connectivity Strategy aims to provide all Canadians with access to Internet speeds of at least 50 megabits per second (Mbps) download / 10 Mbps upload.

Connectivity Strategy aims to provide all Canadians with access to Internet speeds of at least 50 megabits per second (Mbps) download / 10 Mbps upload. The Alberta Broadband Strategy aims to provide every household in Alberta with access to high-speed Internet by the end of the 2026-2027 fiscal year.

with access to high-speed Internet by the end of the 2026-2027 fiscal year. On March 9, 2022 , a Canada - Alberta broadband partnership was announced. Under this agreement, approximately 200,000 households across Alberta will be connected to broadband thanks to an investment of up to $780 million , co-funded equally by both levels of government.

, a - broadband partnership was announced. Under this agreement, approximately 200,000 households across will be connected to broadband thanks to an investment of up to , co-funded equally by both levels of government. Since 2015, the Government of Canada has invested more than $457 million in connectivity projects in Alberta .

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Twitter: @ISED_CA, Facebook: Canadian Innovation , Instagram: @cdninnovation and LinkedIn

SOURCE Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

For further information: Government of Canada, Danielle Moriarty, Director of Parliamentary Affairs and A/Director of Communications, Office of the Minister of Rural Economic Development, 873-355-8242, [email protected]; Media Relations, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, [email protected]; Government of Alberta, Brett Farrell, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Service Alberta, 587-590-2684, [email protected]
OTTAWA, ON, Sept. 23, 2022 /CNW/ - The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, will travel to the Philippines to advance international agricultural trade, promote Canadian agri-food products and grow market access during her meetings with Filipino government officials and stakeholders from various agriculture and agri-food industries and organizations.

Itinerary

(All dates are Philippine Standard Time.)

Sunday, September 25, 2022

Tim Horton's Visit

Minister Bibeau will meet with senior representatives of Tim Horton's Philippines at Manila location of the franchise to discuss the Canadian firm's experiences and future plans in the country.

Foremost Milling Corporation Site Visit

Minister Bibeau will tour the Philippine Foremost Milling Corporation with company representatives to discuss its experiences in importing and using Canadian wheat.

Monday, September 26, 2022

Throughout the day, Minister Bibeau will discuss Canadian agricultural opportunities with important stakeholders and decision makers, including:

Members of the Philippine Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) for Agriculture;

The Philippine Undersecretary of Agriculture;

Representatives of the Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. and the Meat Importers and Traders Association;

Canada -based development non-governmental organizations, to discuss how they help small- and medium-sized agricultural enterprises in the Philippines grow their businesses; and,

-based development non-governmental organizations, to discuss how they help small- and medium-sized agricultural enterprises in grow their businesses; and, Filipino agricultural importers, from sectors such as retail, flour milling, feed milling and producing, as well as agro-industrial/food processing.

In these meetings, Minister Bibeau will demonstrate Canada's interest in advancing agricultural trade, promote Canadian agri-food products and grow market access.

Media interviews will be scheduled throughout the mission. Media representatives are invited to reach out to Marianne Dandurand, Press Secretary (contact information below) to make arrangements.

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Web: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

SOURCE Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

For further information: (media only), please contact: Marianne Dandurand, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, [email protected], 343-541-9229; Media Relations: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, 1-866-345-7972, [email protected]
QUEBEC CITY, Sept. 23, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - OpSens Inc. ("OpSens" or the "Company") (TSX: OPS) (OTCQX: OPSSF), a medical device cardiology-focused company delivering innovative solutions based on its proprietary optical technology, today announced that Dr. Philippe Genereux, Director of the Structural Heart Program at Morristown Medical Center in New Jersey, and his team, performed the first use of SavvyWire in a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure in the United States.

"I am extremely pleased with the performance of the SavvyWire," said Dr. Genereux. "We successfully treated 10 consecutive patients with a variety of anatomies and levels of complexity including bicuspid valve, severe vessel tortuosity, horizontal aorta, failed prior surgical valve (valve-in-valve) using both balloon-expandable and self-expandable valves, and balloon valvuloplasty. There is no doubt the SavvyWire allowed us to optimize our efficiency and workflow, while enhancing accuracy and patient safety. I am excited to collaborate with OpSens to bring this disruptive technology to patients."

"We are honored that Dr. Genereux, and the Morristown Medical Center team perform the first series of SavvyWire procedures in United States. Dr. Genereux's prior work has been instrumental to the advancement and expansion of the TAVR field, and we are thrilled to be partnering with him and his team to streamline procedures and improve patient outcomes," said Louis Laflamme, President and CEO of OpSens. "OpSens will conduct a controlled release to a limited number of hospitals in the U.S. through the end of 2022, then initiate full launch in early 2023."

SavvyWire is more than a wire, as the world's first and only sensor-guided TAVR solution. It uniquely provides a 3-in-1 solution for stable aortic valve delivery and positioning, continuous accurate hemodynamic measurement during the procedure, and reliable left ventricular pacing without the need for adjunct devices or venous access.

About OpSens Inc. (www.OpSens.com or www.OpSensmedical.com)

OpSens focuses mainly on cardiology. The Company offers an advanced optical-based pressure guidewire that aims at improving the clinical outcome of patients with coronary artery disease. Its flagship product, the OptoWire, is a second-generation fiber optic pressure guidewire designed to provide the lowest drift in the industry and excellent lesions access. The OptoWire has been used in the diagnosis and treatment of over 150,000 patients in more than 30 countries. It is approved for sale in the United States, European Union, Japan, and Canada.

OpSens has recently received FDA clearance and Health Canada approval to commercialize the SavvyWire for transcatheter aortic valve replacement procedures (TAVR). This unique guidewire is a 3-in-1 solution for stable aortic valve delivery and positioning, continuous accurate hemodynamic measurement during the procedure, and reliable left ventricular pacing without the need for adjunct devices or venous access.

OpSens' SavvyWire is on trend with a minimalist approach to TAVR and advances the procedure, allowing patients to leave the hospital earlier, sometimes the same day.

The TAVR procedure is growing rapidly globally, driven by the aging population and recent studies that demonstrate its benefits for a broader array of patients. The global TAVR market is currently estimated at over 200,000 procedures and is expected to reach 400,000 in 2027.

OpSens is also involved in industrial activities in developing, manufacturing, and installing innovative fiber optic sensing solutions for critical applications.

Forward-looking statements contained in this press release involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance, and achievements of OpSens to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the said forward-looking statements.

Neither TSX nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE OpSens Inc.

For further information: Louis Laflamme, CPA, CA, Chief Executive Officer, 418.781.0333; Robin Villeneuve, CPA, CA Chief Financial Officer, 418.781.0333
VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 23, 2022 /CNW/ - Regency Silver Corp. ("Regency Silver" or the "Company") (TSXV: RSMX) (OTCQB: RSMXF) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an option agreement dated September 22, 2022 (the "Option Agreement") to option a 100% undivided interest in the El Tablon Claims located in the State of Durango, Mexico.

The property covers a total of 7,200 hectares and contains numerous artisanal workings and tunnels, which explored many of the veins and veinlets that exist within the concession area.

The El Tablon Claims are located within the Sierra Madre Occidental prolific gold-silver belt only 16 miles from the historical Tayoltita (San Dimas district), which has historically produced more than 11 million ounces of gold and 582 million ounces of silver and which continues to be active with significant mineral resources. 1

The El Tablon Claims are in a similar geological environment, characterized by the presence of productive rocks of the Lower Volcanic Complex, to which subvolcanic felsic rock bodies with stockworks and gold dissemination are found. In addition, the canyons around El Tablon expose many other mineralized zones, and works can be found in the neighboring mines of the Ventanas, Mala Noche, and San Cayetano projects.

A Mexican Council on Natural Resources (CRM) (the precursor to the Mexican Geological Service) report from 2012 indicates the presence of 7 veins and breccias in a short space of land, which reported silver grades up to 1,402 g/t, lead up to 2.097%, copper up to 1.381%, and gold up to 1.00 g/t. One of the samples exceeded 10,000 g/t of silver. The El Tablon Claims have potential both for high grade silver veins and bulk mineable high volume-low grade polymetallic mineralization. 2

In order to exercise the option, Regency Silver must pay US$50,000 on receipt of Exchange acceptance, issue a total of 1,000,000 common shares and pay back taxes and mining filings on or before March 31, 2024. Regency Silver must also pay a US$1,000,000 bonus upon a NI 43-101 resource being published, which estimates the El Tablon Claims contain a minimum of 70 million silver equivalent ounces or 1 million gold ounces in the measured or indicated categories. The shares are subject to a four month hold period and the agreement is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

_________________________________________________________________ 1 Source: https://www.firstmajestic.com/projects/producing-mines/san-dimas/ 2 Source: Servicio Geologico Mexicano, Chairez B.J. Velazquez H.J., 2012 Estudio de Asesoria Geologica del Lote Minero La Fortuna, San Dimas, Durango.

ABOUT REGENCY SILVER CORP.

Regency Silver is a silver and gold exploration company focused on the Americas. Regency Silver is led by a team of experienced professionals with expertise in both exploration and production. Regency Silver's flagship project is the Dios Padre silver project in Sonora, Mexico.

The technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed by Company director Michael Tucker, P.Geo, who is recognized as a Qualified Person under the guidelines of National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Tucker is a director of the Company and for that reason is not considered independent. Mr. Tucker has read and approved the technical contents of this news release.

For further details about the Company please visit www.Regency-Silver.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (together, "forward-looking statements"). There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events may vary from those anticipated in such statements. Important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's plans or expectations include the risk that TSX Venture Exchange acceptance of the option agreement will not be obtained, regulatory changes, fundraising, and risk associated with mineral exploration, including the risk that actual results of exploration will be different from those expected by management. The forward-looking statements in this news release were developed based on the expectations of management, including that Exchange acceptance for the proposed transaction will be obtained, conditions will be satisfied, required fundraising will be completed and the other risks described above will not materialize. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation.

SOURCE Regency Silver Corp

For further information: Regency Silver Corp., Bruce Bragagnolo, Executive Chairman, (604) 417-9517, Email: [email protected]; Gijsbert Groenewegen, Chief Executive OfficerPhone: 1-646-247-1000, Email: [email protected]
Q2 revenue increased by 33.0% to $229.2 million

Q2 Adjusted ROA1 increased by 193% to $37.8 million

Q2 Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations1 increased by 144% to $39.6 million

MONTREAL, Sept. 22, 2022 /CNW/ - The Company is very encouraged with its results of operating activities for the second quarter of fiscal 2023. Results from operating activities for the second quarter of fiscal 2023 are the strongest in the last ten comparative quarters. The Company successfully emerged from the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act ("CCAA") proceedings in January 2022 with a clear vision and direction. Effective restructuring of the banners, new branding initiatives and a customer-centric product offering all contributed to the success reflected in our year to date fiscal 2023 results. The Company successfully mitigated difficult economic headwinds and supply chain delays by closely managing logistics and inventory levels. In addition, the Company benefited from increased consumer spending and favorable year-over-year exchange rates. Short-term, preferential rent arrangements put in place while under CCAA protection also contributed to the quarter performance.

Unless otherwise indicated, all comparisons of results for the 13 weeks ended July 30, 2022 ("second quarter of 2023") are against results for the 13 weeks ended July 31, 2021 ("second quarter of 2022") and all comparisons of results for the 26 weeks ended July 30, 2022 ("year to date fiscal 2023") are against results for the 26 weeks ended July 31, 2021 ("year to date fiscal 2022").

13 weeks ended July 30, 2022

Sales for the second quarter of 2023 increased by $56.9 million, or 33.0%, to $229.2 million. More of the Company's stores were open as there were no government imposed lockdowns during the second quarter of 2023 as compared to a partial lockdown of the Company's stores network during the second quarter of 2022. Increased customer traffic in stores, higher average transaction value and less markdowns and promotional discounting contributed to the increase in sales, despite an overall net reduction of 7 stores. The Company's e-commerce sales continue to be strong representing approximately 25%1 of the total sales for the second quarter of 2023.

Gross profit for the second quarter of 2023 increased $43.0 million to $138.7 million as compared with $95.7 million for the second quarter of 2022. Gross profit as a percentage of sales for the second quarter of 2023 increased to 60.5% from 55.5% for the second quarter of 2022. The increase both in gross profit and as a percentage of sales is primarily attributable to lower markdowns and promotional activity in the second quarter of 2023, partially offset by higher supply chain costs, including merchandise freight costs as ongoing global shipping industry disruptions required utilizing air and premium-rate ocean freight shipments to meet customer demand.

Net earnings from continuing operations for the second quarter of 2023 was $37.3 million ($0.76 basic and diluted earnings per share) as compared with $23.9 million net earnings ($0.49 basic and diluted earnings per share) for the second quarter of 2022.

Adjusted results from operating activities ("Adjusted ROA") for the second quarter of 2023 was $37.8 million as compared with $12.9 million for the second quarter of 2022, an increase of $24.9 million.

Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations for the second quarter of 2023 was $39.6 million as compared to $16.2 million for the second quarter of 2022, an increase of $23.4 million.

26 weeks ended July 30, 2022

Sales for the year to date fiscal 2023 increased by $89.6 million, or 30.5%, to $383.1 million. More of the Company's stores were open as there were no government imposed lockdowns during the year to date fiscal 2023 as compared to a partial lockdown of the Company's stores network during the year to date fiscal 2022. Increased customer traffic in stores, higher average transaction value and less markdowns and promotional discounting contributed to the increase in sales, despite an overall net reduction of 7 stores. The Company's e-commerce sales continue to be strong representing approximately 27%1 of the total sales for the year to date fiscal 2023.

Gross profit for the year to date fiscal 2023 increased $67.1 million to $222.7 million as compared with $155.6 million for the year to date fiscal 2022. Gross profit as a percentage of sales for the year to date fiscal 2023 increased to 58.1% from 53.0% for the year to date fiscal 2022. The increase both in gross profit and as a percentage of sales is primarily attributable to lower markdowns and promotional activity in the year to date fiscal 2023 combined with a favourable foreign exchange impact on U.S. dollar denominated purchases included in cost of goods sold, partially offset by higher supply chain costs, including merchandise freight costs as ongoing global shipping industry disruptions required utilizing air and premium-rate ocean freight shipments to meet customer demand.

Net earnings from continuing operations for the year to date fiscal 2023 was $35.6 million ($0.73 basic and diluted earnings per share) as compared with $23.9 million ($0.49 basic and diluted earnings per share) for the year to date fiscal 2022, an increase of $11.7 million.

Adjusted ROA for the year to date fiscal 2023 was $36.8 million as compared with a loss of $3.5 million for the year to date fiscal 2022, an increase of $40.3 million.

Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations for the year to date fiscal 2023 was $42.7 million as compared to $4.0 million for the year to date fiscal 2022, an increase of $38.7 million.

About Reitmans (Canada) Limited

The Company is a leading women's specialty apparel retailer with retail outlets throughout Canada. As at July 30, 2022, the Company operated 404 stores consisting of 236 Reitmans, 91 Penningtons and 77 RW&CO.

1 Non-GAAP Financial Measures & Supplementary Financial measures

This press announcement makes reference to certain non-GAAP measures. These measures are not recognized measures under IFRS and do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS. They are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Rather, these measures are provided as additional information to complement IFRS measures by providing further understanding of the Company's results of operations from management's perspective. Accordingly, these measures should not be considered in isolation nor as a substitute for the Company's analysis of its financial information reported under IFRS.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press announcement discusses adjusted earnings from continuing operations before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations") and adjusted results from operating activities ("Adjusted ROA") and both are considered non-GAAP financial measures. This press announcement also indicates Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations as a percentage of sales and is considered a non-GAAP financial ratio. The intent of presenting Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations and Adjusted ROA is to provide additional useful information to investors and analysts. Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations is defined as net earnings (loss) before income tax expense/recovery, interest income, interest expense, depreciation, amortization, impairment of non-financial assets, adjusted for the impact of certain items, including a deduction of interest expense and depreciation relating to leases accounted for under IFRS 16, Leases, Federal subsidies and restructuring costs and recoveries. Management believes that Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations is an important indicator of the Company's ability to generate liquidity through operating cash flow to fund working capital needs and fund capital expenditures and uses the metric for this purpose. Management believes that Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations as a percentage of sales indicates how much liquidity is generated for each dollar of sales. The exclusion of interest income and expenses, other than interest expense related to lease liabilities as explained hereafter, eliminates the impact on earnings derived from non-operational activities. The exclusion of depreciation, amortization and impairment charges, other than depreciation related to right-of -use assets as explained hereafter, eliminates the non-cash impact, and the exclusion of restructuring items and Federal subsidies presents the results of the on-going business. Under IFRS 16, Leases, the characteristics of some leases result in lease payments being recognized in net earnings in the period in which the performance or use occurs while other leases are recorded as right-of-use assets with a corresponding lease liability recognized, which results in depreciation of those assets and interest expense from those liabilities. Management is presenting its Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations to reflect the payments of its store and equipment lease obligations on a consistent basis. As such, the initial add-back of depreciation of right-of-use assets and interest on lease obligations are removed from the calculation of Adjusted EDITDA from continuing operations, as this better reflects the operational cash flow impact of its leases.

Adjusted ROA is defined as results from operating activities excluding Federal subsidies and restructuring costs and recoveries. Management believes that Adjusted ROA provides a more relevant indicator in assessing current operational performance. The exclusion of restructuring items and Federal subsidies presents the on-going operational performance of the business.

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The tables below provide a reconciliation of net earnings from continuing operations to Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations and results from operating activities to Adjusted ROA:



For the second quarter of Year to date fiscal

2023 2022 2023 2022 Net earnings from continuing operations $ 37.3 $ 23.9 $ 35.6 $ 23.9 Depreciation, amortization and net impairment losses on property and equipment, and intangible assets

3.1

4.3

8.2

8.9 Depreciation on right -of-use assets

7.3

7.5

13.1

15.2 Interest income

(0.2)

(0.1)

(0.2)

(0.1) Interest expense on lease liabilities

1.3

1.0

2.3

2.2 Interest expense on revolving credit facility

0.1

-

0.4

- Income tax expense (recovery)

(0.5)

0.2

(0.5)

0.2 Rent impact from IFRS 16, Leases1

(8.6)

(8.5)

(15.4)

(17.4) Federal subsidies

-

(6.2)

(1.2)

(16.5) Restructuring costs (recoveries), net

(0.2)

(5.9)

0.4

(12.4) Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations 2 $ 39.6 $ 16.2 $ 42.7 $ 4.0 Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations as % of Sales

17.3 %

9.4 %

11.1 %

1.4 %



1 Rent Impact from IFRS 16, Leases is comprised as follows;







For the second quarter of Year to date fiscal

2023 2022 2023 2022 Depreciation on right-of use assets $ 7.3 $ 7.5 $ 13.1 $ 15.2 Interest expense on lease liabilities

1.3

1.0

2.3

2.2 Rent impact from IFRS 16, Leases $ 8.6 $ 8.5 $ 15.4 $ 17.4



2 As a result of the current definition of Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations, the comparative figure has been restated to include the rent impact from IFRS 16, Leases of $8.5 million for the second quarter of 2022 and $17.4 million for the year to date of fiscal 2022 and to exclude Federal subsidies recognized of $6.2 million for the second quarter of 2022 and $16.5 million recognized for the year to date of fiscal 2022. Management believes that the current definition of Adjusted EBITDA better reflects the operational cash flow of the Company.





For the second quarter of Year to date fiscal

2023 2022 2023 2022 Results from operating activities $ 38.0 $ 25.0 $ 37.6 $ 25.4 Federal subsidies

-

(6.2)

(1.2)

(16.5) Restructuring costs (recoveries), net

(0.2)

(5.9)

0.4

(12.4) Adjusted ROA $ 37.8 $ 12.9 $ 36.8 $ (3.5)

Supplementary Financial Measures

This press announcement discloses the Company's e-commerce net sales as a percentage of the Company's net sales and is defined as the net sales recognized from its e-commerce in relation to the Company's net sales. This supplementary financial measure does not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and may not be comparable to similar measures used by other companies. Management uses this measure to analyze trends in the customers' cross-channel behaviour for operating and capital expenditure funding allocation decisions.

Forward-Looking Statements

All of the statements contained herein, other than statements of fact that are independently verifiable at the date hereof, are forward-looking statements. Such statements, based as they are on the current expectations of management, inherently involve numerous risks and uncertainties, known and unknown, many of which are beyond the Company's control, including statements regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the Company's business, financial position and operations, and are based on several assumptions which give rise to the possibility that actual results could differ materially from the Company's expectations expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements and that the objectives, plans, strategic priorities and business outlook may not be achieved. Consequently, the Company cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize, or if any of them do, what benefits the Company will derive from them. Forward-looking statements are provided in this press announcement for the purpose of giving information about management's current expectations and plans as of the date of this press announcement, and allowing investors and others to get a better understanding of the Company's operating environment. However, readers are cautioned that it may not be appropriate to use such forward-looking statements for any other purpose. Forward-looking statements are based upon the Company's current estimates, beliefs and assumptions, which are based on management's perception of historical trends, current conditions and currently expected future developments, as well as other factors it believes, are appropriate in the circumstances.

This press announcement contains forward-looking statements about the Company's objectives, plans, goals, expectations, aspirations, strategies, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, performance, prospects, opportunities and legal and regulatory matters. Specific forward-looking statements in this press announcement include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the Company's belief in its strategies and its brands and their capacity to generate long-term profitable growth, future liquidity, planned capital expenditures, amount of pension plan contributions, status and impact of systems implementation, the ability of the Company to successfully implement its strategic initiatives and cost reduction and productivity improvement initiatives as well as the impact of such initiatives. These specific forward-looking statements are contained throughout the Company's Management Discussion & Analysis ("MD&A") including those listed in the "Operating Risk Management" and "Financial Risk Management" sections of the MD&A. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as "expect", "anticipate", "believe", "foresee", "could", "estimate", "goal", "intend", "plan", "seek", "strive", "will", "may" and "should" and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company and its management.

Numerous risks and uncertainties could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those expressed, implied or projected in the forward-looking statements. Please refer to the "Forward-Looking Statements" section of the Company's MD&A for the second quarter of 2023.

This is not an exhaustive list of the factors that may affect the Company's forward-looking statements. Other risks and uncertainties not presently known to the Company or that the Company presently believes are not material could also cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed in its forward-looking statements. Additional risks and uncertainties are discussed in the Company's materials filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities from time to time. The reader should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements included herein. These statements speak only as of the date made and the Company is under no obligation and disavows any intention to update or revise such statements as a result of any event, circumstances or otherwise, except to the extent required under applicable securities law.

The Company's complete financial statements including notes and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the second quarter of 2023 are available online at www.sedar.com .

Montreal, September 22, 2022

Stephen F. Reitman

President and Chief Executive Officer

Telephone: (514) 384-1140

Corporate Website: www.reitmanscanadalimited.com

REITMANS (CANADA) LIMITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED INTERIM STATEMENTS OF EARNINGS (Unaudited) (in thousands of Canadian dollars except per share amounts)

For the 13 weeks ended For the 26 weeks ended

July 30, 2022 July 31, 2021 July 30, 2022 July 31, 2021

















Sales $ 229,222 $ 172,298 $ 383,081 $ 293,548 Cost of goods sold

90,549

76,546

160,445

137,935 Gross profit

138,673

95,752

222,636

155,613 Selling and distribution expenses

88,207

68,103

161,464

125,256 Administrative expenses

12,702

8,483

23,184

17,357 Restructuring

(213)

(5,857)

407

(12,419) Results from operating activities

37,977

25,023

37,581

25,419

















Finance income

147

90

227

853 Finance costs

1,357

1,030

2,718

2,167 Earnings before income taxes

36,767

24,083

35,090

24,105

















Income tax (recovery) expense

(552)

162

(512)

186 Net earnings from continuing operations

37,319

23,921

35,602

23,919 Earnings from discontinued operations, net of tax

-

10,193

-

10,193

















Net earnings $ 37,319 $ 34,114 $ 35,602 $ 34,112

















Earnings per share:















Basic $ 0.76 $ 0.70 $ 0.73 $ 0.70 Diluted

0.76

0.70

0.73

0.70

















Earnings per share from continuing operations:















Basic $ 0.76 $ 0.49 $ 0.73 $ 0.49 Diluted

0.76

0.49

0.73

0.49

REITMANS (CANADA) LIMITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED INTERIM STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME (LOSS) (Unaudited) (in thousands of Canadian dollars)

For the 13 weeks ended For the 26 weeks ended











July 30, 2022

July 31, 2021

July 30, 2022

July 31, 2021







Net earnings $ 37,319 $ 34,114 $ 35,602 $ 34,112







Other comprehensive (loss) income























Items that are or may be reclassified subsequently to net earnings:























Foreign currency translation differences

(11)

(75)

(18)

123











(11)

(75)

(18)

123







Items that will not be reclassified to net earnings:























Net actuarial loss on defined benefit plan (net of tax of $838 for the 13 and 26 weeks ended July 30, 2022)

(1,040)

-

(129)

-

































Total other comprehensive (loss) income

(1,051)

(75)

(147)

123

































Total comprehensive income $ 36,268 $ 34,039 $ 35,455 $ 34,235









REITMANS (CANADA) LIMITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED INTERIM BALANCE SHEETS (Unaudited) (in thousands of Canadian dollars)





July 30, 2022 July 31, 2021(1) January 29, 2022

ASSETS









CURRENT ASSETS









Cash

$ 38,173 $ 87,587 $ 25,502

Restricted cash

2,765 - -

Trade and other receivables

4,947 5,318 7,606

Inventories

153,750 109,800 118,972

Prepaid expenses and other assets

31,215 37,616 42,590

Total Current Assets

230,850 240,321 194,670













NON-CURRENT ASSETS









Restricted cash

- 2,755 2,757

Property and equipment

61,735 62,578 65,970

Intangible assets

3,469 7,894 5,613

Right-of-use assets

71,533 41,559 44,978

Pension asset

664 - 100

Deferred income taxes

186 151 186

Total Non-Current Assets

137,587 114,937 119,604













TOTAL ASSETS

$ 368,437 $ 355,258 $ 314,274













LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY









CURRENT LIABILITIES









Revolving credit facility

$ - $ - $ 29,634

Trade and other payables

57,098 37,612 34,478

Deferred revenue

11,961 11,289 13,490

Income taxes payable

816 475 537

Current portion of lease liabilities

27,299 25,511 20,888

Liabilities subject to compromise

- 193,440 -

Total Current Liabilities

97,174 268,327 99,027













NON-CURRENT LIABILITIES









Lease liabilities

51,790 27,552 31,419

Pension liability

- 3,459 -

Total Non-Current Liabilities

51,790 31,011 31,419













SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY









Share capital

27,406 27,406 27,406

Contributed surplus

10,485 10,295 10,295

Retained earnings

182,453 18,950 146,980

Accumulated other comprehensive loss

(871) (731) (853)

Total Shareholders' Equity

219,473 55,920 183,828













TOTAL LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY

$ 368,437 $ 355,258 $ 314,274

















(1) As at July 31, 2021, restricted cash of $2,755 has been classified as non-current assets to correctly reflect the presentation of this caption.

REITMANS (CANADA) LIMITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED INTERIM STATEMENTS OF CHANGES IN SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY (Unaudited) (in thousands of Canadian dollars)



Share Capital Contributed

Surplus Retained

Earnings

(Deficit) Accumulated Other

Comprehensive

Loss Total

Shareholders'

Equity

















Balance as at January 30, 2022

$ 27,406 $ 10,295 $ 146,980 $ (853) $ 183,828

















Net earnings

- - 35,602 - 35,602

Total other comprehensive loss

- - (129) (18) (147)

Total comprehensive income (loss) for the period

- - 35,473 (18) 35,455

















Share-based compensation costs

- 190 - - 190

Total contributions by owners of the Company

- 190 - - 190

















Balance as at July 30, 2022

$ 27,406 $ 10,485 $ 182,453 $ (871) $ 219,473

















































Balance as at January 31, 2021

$ 27,406 $ 10,295 $ (15,162) $ (854) $ 21,685

















Net earnings

- - 34,112 - 34,112

Total other comprehensive income

- - - 123 123

Total comprehensive income for the period

- - 34,112 123 34,235

















Balance as at July 31, 2021

$ 27,406 $ 10,295 $ 18,950 $ (731) $ 55,920



REITMANS (CANADA) LIMITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED INTERIM STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (Unaudited) (in thousands of Canadian dollars)





For the 13 weeks ended For the 26 weeks ended



July 30, 2022 July 31, 2021 July 30, 2022 July 31, 2021

CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES











Net earnings

$ 37,319 $ 34,114 $ 35,602 $ 34,112

Adjustments for:











Depreciation, amortization and net impairment losses on property and equipment, and intangible assets

3,130 4,327 8,210 8,893

Depreciation on right-of-use assets

7,282 7,516 13,093 15,248

Share-based compensation costs

190 - 190 -

Foreign exchange loss (gain)

1,262 (569) (585) 1,455

Gain on lease re-measurements due to restructuring

- (1,553) - (5,002)

Interest on lease liabilities

1,258 1,030 2,273 2,167

Interest on revolving credit

99 - 445 -

Interest income

(121) (86) (155) (136)

Income tax (recovery) expense

(552) 162 (512) 186





49,867 44,941 58,561 56,923

Changes in:











Trade and other receivables

- 4,226 2,666 5,353

Inventories

(16,245) (7,882) (34,778) (13,678)

Prepaid expenses and other assets

5,463 (3,828) 11,375 (5,516)

Pension asset

(449) 181 144 367

Trade and other payables

3,843 3,974 24,074 6,020

Liabilities subject to compromise

- (8,730) - (10,354)

Deferred revenue

(189) (26) (1,529) (1,173)

Cash from operating activities

42,290 32,856 60,513 37,942

Interest paid

(165) - (481) -

Interest received

97 70 148 133

Income taxes paid

- (4) (46) (1,168)

Net cash flows from operating activities

42,222 32,922 60,134 36,907















CASH FLOWS USED IN INVESTING ACTIVITIES











Additions to property and equipment and intangible assets, net

(774) (1,914) (3,250) (2,850)

Cash flows used in investing activities

(774) (1,914) (3,250) (2,850)















CASH FLOWS USED IN FINANCING ACTIVITIES











Restricted cash

(6) (1) (8) (2)

Net repayment of revolving credit facility

(34,439) - (29,634) -

Payment of lease liabilities

(7,714) (10,776) (15,078) (20,265)

Cash flows used in financing activities

(42,159) (10,777) (44,720) (20,267)















FOREIGN EXCHANGE (LOSS) GAIN ON CASH HELD IN FOREIGN CURRENCY

(1,326) 265 507 (1,365)















NET (DECREASE) INCREASE IN CASH

(2,037) 20,496 12,671 12,425















CASH, BEGINNING OF THE PERIOD

40,210 67,091 25,502 75,162















CASH, END OF THE PERIOD

$ 38,173 $ 87,587 $ 38,173 $ 87,587



























SOURCE Reitmans (Canada) Limited

For further information: Stephen F. Reitman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Telephone: (514) 384-1140, Corporate Website: www.reitmanscanadalimited.com
OTTAWA, ON, Sept. 23, 2022 /CNW/ - The Minister of Transport, the Honourable Omar Alghabra, the Minister of Health, the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, the Minister of Public Safety, the Honourable Marco Mendicino, and the Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance, the Honourable Randy Boissonnault, issued this update today on the continued action and progress being made by the Government of Canada and industry partners to reduce traveller wait times and delays across Canadian airports.

Increasing staffing for security screening and collaborating with industry partners

Since April, CATSA hired 1,918 screening officers across Canada.

Efforts to increase screening officer staff levels at all airports continue.

The Minister of Transport and Transport Canada continue to meet regularly with airports and airlines alongside the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and NAV CANADA to find solutions and address congestion.

Streamlining traveller processing at Toronto Pearson International Airport

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) opened a dedicated International Student Processing area in Terminal 1, which has further streamlined international student study permit issuance, minimize impacts on the general traveller flow, and reduce border wait times.

Mobile Passport Control (MPC) mobile app expands to include Canadian preclearance locations

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced last month that the Mobile Passport Control (MPC) mobile app was expanded to include Montreal-Trudeau International Airport and Toronto Pearson International Airport Preclearance locations.

The MPC mobile app, available to U.S citizens and Canadians visiting the U.S that possess a business or tourism visa, allows travellers to submit and store their passport and travel information on their mobile device so it will be readily available for future international travel  resulting in less congestion and more efficient processing.

CBSA advance declaration

Travellers arriving at Toronto -Pearson, Vancouver , or Montreal-Trudeau international airports can now save additional time by using the optional Advance CBSA Declaration feature in ArriveCAN to submit their customs and immigration declaration in advance of their arrival at customs.

-Pearson, , or Montreal-Trudeau international airports can now save additional time by using the optional Advance CBSA Declaration feature in ArriveCAN to submit their customs and immigration declaration in advance of their arrival at customs. In the coming months, this optional feature will become available to travellers arriving at the Calgary , Edmonton , Winnipeg , Billy Bishop Toronto City, Ottawa , Quebec City and Halifax international airports.

Continued action to advance the rights of travellers

In Canada, airlines must follow the requirements of the Air Passenger Protection Regulations, which outline, among other obligations, compensation requirements for passengers for flight disruptions due to incidents within an airline's control.

On September 8, 2022, new regulations came into effect to ensure passengers are offered the option of a refund for flights that are cancelled, or where there is a lengthy delay, due to reasons outside of an air carrier's control (such as major weather events, or a pandemic) where it is not possible for the airline to complete the passenger's itinerary within a reasonable time frame.

These new rules are enforced by the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), which is Canada's independent, quasi-judicial tribunal and regulator of the national transportation system, with the powers of a superior court. Additional resources of $11 million were provided through Budget 2022 to assist the CTA in fulfilling their mandate as passenger travel volumes continue to rise.

Latest data

Associated Link

Flight completions

For the week of September 12-18, 2022 , 98.5 percent of flights planned for Canada's top four airports were completed (i.e., not cancelled), an improvement from 95 percent for the first week of July.

, 98.5 percent of flights planned for Canada's top four airports were completed (i.e., not cancelled), an improvement from 95 percent for the first week of July. This percentage is very close to the week of September 16-22, 2019 , when 99 percent of flights for the top four airports were completed.

On-time performance

From September 12-18, 2022 , over 91 percent of flights from the top four airports left on time, or within one hour of their scheduled departure.

, over 91 percent of flights from the top four airports left on time, or within one hour of their scheduled departure. This is a significant improvement from under 75 percent for the first week of July and is approaching the pre-pandemic levels in September 2019 where 96 percent of flights were on time, or within an hour of scheduled departure.

Holding of aircraft at Toronto Pearson International Airport

The number of arriving international flights being held on the tarmac at Toronto-Pearson International Airport has decreased dramatically since May.

For the week of September 12-18, 2022 , 1.2 percent, or 26 international flight arrivals, were held on the tarmac, as compared to the peak of 373 during the first week of May.

Passenger security screening wait times

From September 12-18, 2022 , 90 percent of passengers at the four largest airports were screened within 15 minutes by CATSA, an improvement from 79 percent during the first week of July 2022 .

, 90 percent of passengers at the four largest airports were screened within 15 minutes by CATSA, an improvement from 79 percent during the first week of . Toronto-Pearson International Airport: 92 percent (98 percent in 2019)



Vancouver International Airport: 88 percent (86 percent in 2019)

International Airport: 88 percent (86 percent in 2019)

Montreal-Trudeau International Airport: 91 percent (97 percent in 2019)



Calgary International Airport: 86 percent (88 percent in 2019)

Transport Canada is online at www.tc.gc.ca. Subscribe to e-news or stay connected through Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram to keep up to date on the latest from Transport Canada.

This news release may be made available in alternative formats for persons living with visual disabilities.

SOURCE Transport Canada

For further information: Valerie Glazer, Director of Communications, Office of the Honourable Omar Alghabra, Minister of Transport, Ottawa, [email protected]; Media Relations, Transport Canada, Ottawa, [email protected], 613-993-0055
Punjabi Singer Alfaaz Out Of Danger; Rapper...

Alfaaz was admitted to a hospital after he was hit by a f...

3 October, 2022

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The presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on Thursday, met with some Christian c...

The presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on Thursday, met with some Christian clerics under the aegis of the Pentecostal Bishops Forum of Northern Nigeria, saying his intention was to bring prosperity to the country.

Tinubu disclosed at the meeting with the clerics that his choice of a former governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima was not a threat to the Christian community.

He said that his decision was based on competence and not religious considerations, adding that only competence can resolve the political and socio-economic challenges bedevilling the nation.

The former Lagos State Governor said he had always been a friend of the Christian community and should be considered based on his track records, plans and agenda for developing Nigeria.

How will Nigeria develop? How do we banish hunger? How do we improve the insecurity, eliminate killing one another, and shedding the blood of innocent citizens? That is what we must take to the office and not our religion.

My intention is clear, not religiosity. My intention is to develop this country, to bring prosperity to our country, and I have better qualifications, track records, exposure, and vision than any of my mates.

When the shortlisted names came, I looked at the characters on the list, their background and everything and here is somebody (Kassim Shetimma) who is so brilliant, so committed, who, during the crisis in Borno, protected Christians, he said.

However, the bishops said the meeting was not an affirmation that they would endorse the APCs candidate, adding that they were not committed to supporting anybody.
The Bola Tinubu Campaign Organisation has described Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as divi...

The Bola Tinubu Campaign Organisation has described Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as divider-in-chief.

The PDP has been in turmoil since Atiku was elected as the standard bearer of the major opposition party.

The rift deepened after Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers state, was overlooked by Atiku in the selection of his running mate.

The crisis worsened on Tuesday as Wikes allies jettisoned campaign responsibilities, and insisted that Iyorchia Ayu, the partys national chairman, must be removed.





Several meetings to resolve the acrimony in the party have been to no avail.

In a statement on Friday, Bayo Onanuga, the Tinubu campaigns director of media and communication, said the fratricidal war within the PDP has undermined any momentum Atiku hoped to build.

The statement added that Atiku is facing the karma of his inordinate ambition for not heeding the zoning arrangement of his party.

Let us pity Atiku, another shot at presidency is slipping away. Once again, another bid for the presidency of our country by former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar is slipping away. This is unravelling before our very eyes even before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) blows the whistle for the electioneering campaign. His party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is in disarray. The signs are just too ominous for the Waziri what with the report by the Economic Intelligence Unit predicting another trashing for him in the forthcoming polls, the statement reads.

After violating his partys code for power rotation between the north and south and grabbing the PDP ticket without a modicum of sensibilities about our national ethos, Alhaji Atiku is now faced with the karma of his inordinate ambition.

The PDP has imploded in a battle of attrition, the result of which is predictable. The ongoing fratricidal war where a faction of the party being led by the Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike is engaging Atiku in a fight to finish has undermined any momentum the PDP candidate had hoped to build. With the further loss of confidence in PDP by its own members who can not find any redeeming feature in the fast-disappearing party, it is crystal clear that Atikus latest bid for the Nigerias top job has hit the rocks.

A pillar of Atikus campaign is the claim of being a unifier and nationalist. That bogus claim has now been discredited, even within his party as the disaffected members cry for justice and inclusivity.

Instead of the perennially running and perennially failing candidate to offer them some sop, he has rebuffed them, pleading that he could not grant their request for justice.

Surely a man who cannot resolve a genuine dispute among his party members, who cannot forge an entente among them, cannot be expected to unify our country.

Instead of being a unifier, Atiku is now a divider-in-chief. His campaign on this score is heading for a stillbirth, just as some of his programmes have been found to be nothing new, as they are already being implemented by the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The former Vice President created the crisis for himself, by pushing the fallacy that only a northern candidate can win the presidency for his party, despite the open record that southerners, when they network with their northern compatriots, can also win the election.

Former leaders, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan demonstrated this in 1999, 2003 and 2011. As a campaign, we can only pity former Vice President Atiku for the self-inflicted injury he invited unto himself. Chinua Achebe, the very accomplished novelist in one of his classics, Arrow of God, wrote that a man who brought ant-infested faggots into the homestead should not grumble when lizards begin to pay him a visit.

The Tinubu campaign organisation advised Atiku to kiss his ill-fated presidential bid goodbye.
President Muhammadu Buhari would on Tuesday, October 11, confer the National Award of Commander of the order of the Federal Republic of Nige...





President Muhammadu Buhari would on Tuesday, October 11, confer the National Award of Commander of the order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse III





The conferment notice which was signed by the Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, George Akume, said the Olu of Warri would join other prominent awardees found by the Federal Government worthy of the National Honours.





The 2022 National Honour Award letter sighted and signed by the Minister reads, I have the honour to formally inform you that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, has approved the conferment t of National honour on you in the rank of CRF, (Commander of the order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria).





The investiture ceremony is scheduled to take place at the International conference centre, ICC, Abuja on Tuesday, October 11 2022 at 9am.





All awardees are required to forward one-page citation and current passport photograph.





The award for the first-class monarch would be coming barely a month when Dotcom Communication the Publisher, Pleasure Magazine equally honored Ogiame Atuwatse III with Humanitarian Royal Father of the year award for his humanitarian contribution since his emergence last year as the Olu of Warri at a well-attended event at Transcorp Hilton hotels Abuja.





Also sometime in June, Olu of Warri was presented with the key to the City of Brampton by Mayor Patrick Brown in Canada during Ogiames 6 days visit to drive foreign direct investment to Warri Kingdom.
The Director General of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Campaign Management Committee, Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal,...

The Director General of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Campaign Management Committee, Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal, disclosed that governors on the platform of the party are working to come up with a solution to the crisis rocking the party.

Speaking after playing host to the partys Board of Trustees (BoT) on Thursday, Tambuwal, who also doubles as Chairman PDP Governors Forum, expressed hopes that they will come up with a solution to the problem facing the party.

Tambuwal stated, I would like to thank the BoT Chairman, members and his team for this very important initiative. We all know that the BoT is the conscience of the party and whenever there are issues of this nature, the Board of Trustees steps in, it is part of their functions in the party, constitutionally speaking.

We have engaged them and I believe that what they are likely to come up with will be a solution to the problem we have.

Be rest assured that as governors of the party, we are also talking to ourselves on the way forward and very soon the Governors Forum will meet and we will come up with what we feel should be the solution and the way forward for the party.

We are all interested in working together for an objective and that objective is for the party and Nigerians of good Will, because we believe we have had enough of the government of APC.

We are working to send out APC and their government come May 2023, it is a collective responsibility. Of course, we must apply balms since we all believe that what we have is not good enough, we must work together to solve our internal problems, forge ahead and prosecute the electoral battle and by the grace of God we will have victory.

Earlier in his remarks, the Chairman of PDP BoT, Senator Adolphus Wabara also hinted that Nigerians will see a more united PDP before the campaign starts.

He explained that they (BoT) are going to meet the National Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, the party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar and also his running mate, Ifeanyi Okowa on the way forward.

He said, Our aim is to get into the Aso Villa, for PDP to get into the Aso Villa in 2023, we need everybody to come on board.

We are still moving around, in six days time, the campaign will be inaugurated. We hope and pray that before then Nigerians will see a more united PDP. We are doing this not for us, not for the Chairman of the Governors Forum or anybody, we are doing this for Nigerians.

Nigerians are looking up to the PDP to deliver them from what we are experiencing with the ruling party as we speak.

We are going to meet the National Chairman of the party, we will also meet our candidate Atiku Abubakar, we are also meeting the Vice Presidential candidate Ifeanyi Okowa, who will call upon us any moment.

We have also met with some of the governors. We started from my state, Okezie Ikpeazu, we moved to Enugu to meet Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, from there we met Seyi Makinde of Oyo, we met with Jerry Gana, and we are digging around to find solutions.

We are looking for solutions for all of us to come together and win the election in flying colours, he said.
The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has expressed his condolence to his Peoples Democratic P...

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has expressed his condolence to his Peoples Democratic Party counterpart and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, over the death of his close aide, Abdullahi Nyako.

Nyako, who was the Waziri of Kojoli, Yelli District of Jada Local Government Area of Adamawa State, died on Thursday morning in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Tinubu, in a statement by his media office in Abuja on Thursday, said he was deeply saddened by the demise of Nyako.

He prayed that the almighty Allah grants repose to the soul of the late Nyako.

He also beseeched God to comfort the PDP candidate, the family, friends, and associates of the late Nyako.
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Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, is expected to speak on some wrongdoings and expose some bad characters in the Peoples Democratic Pa...

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, is expected to speak on some wrongdoings and expose some bad characters in the Peoples Democratic Party today (Friday), ahead of the 2023 elections.

Wike had hinted on this while addressing a meeting of the state PDP stakeholders he convened in Government House, Port Harcourt on Thursday.

Governor Wikes camp and that of the PDP presidential candidate have been throwing banters and salvos in both directions in the last couple of months.

While Wikes men after a meeting in the early hours of Wednesday issued a resolution to pull out of PDP presidential campaign council, Atiku, had in his response said nobody can force the PDP national chairman, Senator Iyorcha Ayu to resign.

To this end, Fridays media chat which will be transmitted live on major Television Stations is billed for 10am in the crude oil and gas rich citys seat of power (government house) may reveal a can of worms.

Aside the turney issues in the PDP, surrounding the PDP crisis, Wike may also speak on next years elections in the state.

Governor Wike had in several forums said he will spill the beans concerning the goings on in the countrys main opposition party at the appropriate time.

Speaking at the party stakeholders meeting, Wike vowed to remain in the PDP to fight for its unity, inclusiveness and equity.

The rift between Wike and the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, came to the fore after the presidential primary in Abuja following the scenario that played out.

It was made worse by Atikus remarks while unveiling the Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, as his running mate.
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A sign welcomes people to Port Fourchon, La., Thursday, April 15, 2021. This roadway leads into the port from Louisiana 1, which runs north to Golden Meadow, mostly well above ground on a new toll bridge. The remaining segment of the highway between Port Fourchon and Grand Isle is only a few inches above adjacent water bodies, and could see an increased number of days when flooding high tides fueled by global warming will threaten to cover it, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (Photo by Sophia Germer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
Gov. John Bel Edwards, left, gets one of the latest COVID-19 booster shots, this one from Pfizer-BioNTech, administered by LSU Health registered nurse Julie Robicheaux, right, just after getting his yearly flu shot at Our Lady of the Lake North Clinic on Airline Highway following a press conference on the importance of the shots, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022. Others getting shots included La. Dept. of Health Secretary Dr. Courtney N. Phillips, La. State Health Officer Dr. Joseph Kanter and state Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge. The governor said stressed the importance of getting the flu shot, and said that if persons have had their first two COVID-19 shots, they are still not fully vaccinated until they've had one the latest boosters, which are bivalent, protecting against both the original strains of COVID-19 as well as the latest variations. The bivalent vaccines are expected to be widely available after later this week, Kanter said.
As New Orleans suffers from far too many violent crimes, far too much fear and far too few police officers on the streets, residents have been
U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, D-Highland, testified to the International Trade Commission on Thursday in support of protections for the steel industry and steelworkers.

Mrvan appeared before the quasi-judicial agency in Washington, D.C., Thursday during its hearing on duties on oil country tubular goods from Argentina, Mexico, Russia and South Korea. He made the case for imposing tariffs on hot-rolled steel flat products from countries found to have been dumping steel in the United States.

"I continue to be grateful for your dedicated work to enforce our trade laws, which are critical to the economic success for American steelworkers and our manufacturing industry," he said. "For todays case, as you are well aware, OCTG products are necessary to promote the strength of our nations energy infrastructure and national security, as they are primarily used in the energy sector to extract and transport oil and gas throughout the United States."

U.S. Steel and other steelmakers asked the federal government for duties to protect the $3.1 billion market. They are seeking tariffs on about $493 million worth of imports they say threaten 4,681 manufacturing jobs across the country.

"I am grateful for your serious attention to this case, and all of the pressing matters before the commission," Mrvan said. "We must continue to work to ensure that all American workers and the domestic pipe and tube industry are able to compete on a level playing field."

Mrvan has testified eight times so far on behalf of the U.S. steel industry. He sent a letter in the preliminary hearings on this case back in October.

"Northwest Indiana is home to an incredible steel and manufacturing base, and the dedicated workforce and members of the United Steelworkers provide the material and hot-rolled steel that is used to make OCTG products," Mrvan said. "As the Co-Chairman of the Congressional Steel Caucus, I am committed to continuing to do everything possible to ensure that bad actors and countries that cheat know that American trade laws will be fully enforced."
MERRILLVILLE  Its called customer service. Some service employees do it better than others.

These workers were nominated for the ROSE and RISE awards presented by the South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority on Thursday at the Dean and Barbara White Community Center.

ROSE, or Recognition of Service Excellence, awards honor individuals who serve customers on a daily basis and who continually go above and beyond their job requirements.

RISE, or Recognition of Industry Success and Excellence, awards go to managerial employees and past ROSE honorees who have risen above expectations.

The SSCVA received more than 160 nominations, leading to 38 finalists and 15 eventual winners. That included nine ROSE Award winners and six RISE honorees.

Hector Tello, of Hammond, who does a little of everything in the kitchen at Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana in Gary, was a ROSE finalist. I like to bring excellent service to customers, and they come back, he said. "Thats what my job is all about, providing good service so people come back.

Tanisha Empederado, of Hammond, works as valet supervisor at the same casino. A ROSE finalist, she noted, Good customer service keeps people coming back, and we want people to come back.

Gregg Luttrell, of Lowell, has worked for 20 years as an auto glass installer for Glass America of Merrillville. Ken Kristin, his area manager, said, Gregg adapts to changes in the market, and hes willing to learn and adapt.

Luttrell commented that his job keeps me busy all the time. Its interesting because Im always learning more all the time.

In addition to the awards dinner, finalists received spa treatment at Beauty & the Beach in Crown Point, then were transported via limo bus to the White Center.

Winners received a cutting board shaped like Indiana, engraved with their name. Each winner also received a swag bag with $1,100 in gifts and gift cards.

ROSE finalist Brian Daniels, who works the front desk at Hampton Inn & Suites in Valparaiso, said the key to his job is meeting all the guests in a friendly environment.

The Hobart resident, who is studying kinesiology at Rockford University, said two assets to doing a good job include patience and always being friendly.

Honorees were introduced through videos. David Uran, president and CEO of the SSCVA, noted during the awards ceremony that one common thread among honorees was their exemplary behavior away from the workplace.

Nancy Lear, a ROSE finalist, is guest services coordinator at the Museum at Lassens Resort in her home community of Cedar Lake. I like meeting the public and helping them, said Learn, whose duties range from securing boat tickets for patrons to leading museum tours.

Zack Lara, a manager at Luke Oil Car Wash in Valparaiso, was a RISE finalist. I know what I need to do to make my team excellent, the Chesterton resident said. That means earning their respect every day. Im not afraid to jump in every day to do the job.

Another RISE finalist, Debbie Teeuws, wears many hats at Four Corners Winery in Valparaiso. I do pretty much whatever is needed, and I manage people, the Portage woman said. Many times, I do it all.

Many times, SSCVA officials noted, hospitality service employees have the most contact with customers and can influence someones stay in Northwest Indiana.

As a customer care manager for NIPSCO, Martina Marko, a RISE finalist from Valparaiso, remembers the simple lessons she learned from her parents: Treat customers the way you want to be treated, and dont forget to do the right thing,

Karla Dunn, a marketing operations manager for Horseshoe Casino, has worked at the Hammond site for 26 years.

I love the challenge of taking care of my guests, Dunn, a RISE finalist from Crown Point, said. My job is making sure [patrons] are happy when they walk away from my desk.

She keeps customers happy by trying to accommodate their needs. If not, I get very creative to suffice them, at least.
The corn maze is nothing compared to the traffic maze.

Its that time of year when County Line Orchard creates weekend headaches for local residents and motorists who dare to navigate past the popular tourist attraction in Hobart.

Its also when I start hearing from readers with complaints about road congestion there, its noticeable police presence and rumors of street closures.

I saw they closed the road, open only to County Line Orchard customers, one of my social media readers commented. Is this even legal? If you go that way anyway, what happens? Are police there giving tickets because Im driving on a public road?

No, says Hobart Police Chief Garrett Ciszewski.

Its not only open to County Line Orchard customers, it is open to anybody, he said.

Motorists who choose to use County Line Road to get past the orchard are directed to use one side or the other of the road through the parking lots, strictly for pedestrian safety, he noted.

It probably takes an extra 30 seconds to a minute, Ciszewski told me. All of this is really no different than any other large venue that has an influx of people at once and a large amount of pedestrian traffic.

He is aware of social media allegations claiming the road is closed to public traffic, with further claims that the orchard receives special treatment from his department.

We receive a few complaints every year around this time of year, but we used to get a lot more complaints from local homeowners before we implemented this plan a couple of years ago, Ciszewski said.

Essentially, that section of County Line Road is converted into one-way traffic, heading southbound.

Before we did that, not only was it a hazard for pedestrians crossing that road, but traffic was backed up to Rt. 6 and to State Road 51. And some local residents just north of the orchard could not leave their homes, the chief said.

The way were running it now, it keeps traffic constantly moving and mostly out of the nearby subdivisions. Its been the best option, considering the cards weve been dealt," he said.

As for the additional police presence at that site on autumn weekends, County Line Orchard hires nearly a dozen off-duty officers, mostly from the city of Hobart but also from other police departments, he said.

Its not for security purposes. Its for traffic control, to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible, traffic-wise, Ciszewski said, noting that one officer was struck by a vehicle a few years ago.

If we left it the way it was, traffic would be backed up every which way and it would be even more miserable on the weekends, he said. Were just trying to do whats in the best interest for public safety.

Ive visited the orchard many times during its peak season. I rarely go there in my car. I have no patience for the traffic hassles. Instead, I ride my bicycle after parking my car at a nearby bike trail lot or pedaling there from Portage or other adjacent communities.

Not only am I able to pedal past all the waiting motorists. It keeps me from buying too many doughnuts or other treats I simply dont need. Although Ive biked down State Street in Chicago several times balancing a large pizza from Lou Malnatis, I havent tried balancing a dozen doughnuts, a gallon of cider and a pumpkin from County Line Orchard.

I simply enjoy strolling through the orchard and its many attractions, gobbling down a sweet treat and watching young families enjoying themselves or whining about something. Ah, good times, good memories.

The orchards website, which bills its location as about an hour from the Loop, states: Please don't park along County Line Road and be respectful to our neighboring houses.

Ive talked to nearby homeowners. None of them are thrilled about navigating around out-of-town motorists, many with Illinois plates, on these busy weekends. But theyve learned to adjust their routes and their routines as the orchard rakes in piles of money from pumpkin-crazed customers.

Thank God its only for a couple of months each year, one resident told me.

Lots of people are upset, a passing motorist told me after getting stuck in traffic last weekend.

I'd get upset too. And then I'd never get stuck there again.

For these autumnal weekends, if youre attempting to use County Line Road near that U-pick orchard, I suggest you stop complaining and simply pick an alternate route. How bout them apples?
CJPA Grand Reveal Dinner Nicky Jackson speaks at the Center for Justice and Post-Exoneration Assistance dinner Thursday.

MUNSTER  On January 27, 2016, Gary resident Willie Timmy Donald was released from prison after he spent 24 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit.

Twenty-four years without freedom. Now, he had a second chance for the opportunity at life that had been stolen from him.

Freedom, however, came with a cost.

When wrongly convicted individuals are exonerated, they have no resources available to them, according to Nicky Ali Jackson, executive director of the Center for Justice and Post-Exoneration Assistance at Purdue University Northwest. Donald had none.

Jackson created a team of people to offer services to those individuals with the goal of reintegration into society, promotion of education and legislation to avoid these injustices and healing from the wounds caused by a system ostensibly created to protect them.

Were all different individuals with the same goal: we want people to be held accountable, Jackson said. Were not here to blame anybody. Were here to educate and inform.

Purdue University Northwests Center for Justice and Post-Exoneration Assistance held its first event Thursday night at the Center for Visual and Performing Arts in Munster. During the dinner, the CJPA revealed its advisory board, discussed its mission and the necessity of its work for exonerees everywhere, and heard testimony from exoneree Roosevelt Glen Sr. and Yusef Salaam, a poet, teacher, activist and one of the five men who was exonerated in the Central Park jogger case.

Eddie Gill, president of the CJPA board, introduced Jackson to the audience. When he was introduced to her, he said, he was inspired by her work and wanted to be involved.

CJPA Grand Reveal Dinner Center for Justice and Post-Exoneration Assistance board president Eddie Gill, left, chats with exoneree Timmy Donald.

"It's tragic to me that we even have exonerees," Gill said. "That it's even a thing is amazing to me."

The CJPA works with multiple goals in mind and one central mission: to seek justice for those wrongly convicted. The center highlights five key points in their journey for equity: legislative reform, review of letters from incarcerated people seeking help for wrongful conviction, assistance for exonerees, rebuilding relationships and educational programming.

Since 1989, 3,248 individuals have been exonerated, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. More than 27,200 years of life has been lost, Jackson said. In Indiana, 42 individuals have been exonerated since 1989.

"An estimated 167,000 innocent inmates are sitting in prison in this country," Jackson said.

Three exonerees from Lake County  Donald, Glen and Darryl Pinkins  were at the event. A moment of silence was held for Ray Anthony Smith, a Hammond man who was wrongfully convicted after he spent 17 years in prison, who died in 2006. His two daughters attended the dinner on his behalf.

The event honored multiple supporters of the center's mission with awards, including Thomas Vanes, Donald's lawyer and recipient of the Uncuff the Innocent award; Jason Flom, host of the "Wrongful Convictions" podcast and recipient of the Freedom Fighter Award, Alicia Dennis and KC Baker of People magazine and recipients of the Justice Through Journalism award; Lisa Lillien, CJPA board member, author of the "Hungry Girl" cookbook series and recipient of the "Voice for Truth and Justice" Award; Gov. Eric Holcomb, recipient of the Champion for Justice award; and Steve Simon, owner of the Indiana Pacers and recipient of the Heart of a Humanitarian award.

Simon, who gave a large donation to support the CJPA's efforts, said the Pacers are committed to using their voice and resources to advocate for multiple causes, including criminal justice reform.

CJPA Grand Reveal Dinner Central Park 5 Exoneree Yusef Salaam speaks at the Center for Justice and Post-Exoneration Assistance dinner Thursday.

"A structurally broken system needs reinvention," Simon said. "In any way you get into the system, especially if you're wrongfully convicted, you need all kinds of support. Nicky is bringing focus to a system that doesn't historically have a lot of compassion and empathy."

The CJPA blossomed out of a friendship between Jackson and Donald, project manager for the CJPA, just a mere three weeks after he was released from prison.

Jackson read an article about Donalds release, and wanted to know more about his story. She called his attorney, Vanes, and the county prosecutor. They both said Donald spent 24 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

Donald was innocent, they told her.

I just sat in my car and cried, Jackson said. I felt so angry and so moved to help.

Jackson asked Vanes if Donald would be willing to talk with her about his case, and Vanes said he would.

Together, they created the Willie T. Donald Exoneration Advisory Coalition in 2020 to raise awareness and support those who have been wrongfully convicted in Indiana. The coalition stands adjacent to the CJPA board.

I figured itd do my heart good to help others in situations like mine, Donald said.

Donald's story was picked up by People magazine in 2021 and featured on People Magazine Investigates in 2022. It helped the case gain more national recognition and brought awareness to their mission. They began to receive letters from incarcerated people all over the country, curious if Jackson and Donald could help review their case.

Of the cases they have received since opening, only 1% are absolutely feasible, Jackson said.

When the CJPA receives a letter from an incarcerated person, the first person to review it is Donald. He has reviewed letters daily since the center opened in March.

There is no better person to figure out a case than an exoneree, Jackson said. They have a very different lens. He can look at a case and break it down factually, not emotionally.

Students who take Jacksons wrongful conviction course get to be part of the process as well, reviewing case files and doing research.

Students are active participants at the center, Jackson said. They look at the case, do research, and do a presentation on whether they believe the case merits further review.

CJPA Grand Reveal Dinner Exoneree Roosevelt Glenn Sr. addresses the CJPA dinner Thursday.

Along with the letter, incarcerated people will often send copies of documents related to their case. If a case warrants further review, the CJPA will request more information and get an attorney involved.

Jackson said she wants to eliminate one misconception about the center: they are not working to exonerate criminals. Every individual they work to exonerate, she said, is innocent.

People have a very hard time believing they didnt have some part of the crime, Jackson said. These people are victims. They are survivors.

While exonerees dont receive resources, they dont receive apologies either.

Nothing happens to the police, prosecutors, nothing, Jackson said. The people who did this have walked away unscathed.

The state of Indiana has passed legislation to avoid wrongful convictions and compensate wrongfully convicted individuals. Holcomb signed a bill in 2019 to provide $50,000 in compensation for wrongfully convicted individuals and signed a bill in 2022 to establish requirements for the disposition of evidence related to an offense including post conviction DNA testing.

The individuals who were accused of these crimes continue to pay the price years later in the form of trauma, fractured relationships and mental health issues. There has not been one place to help these people heal, Jackson said, until now.

There is barrier after barrier for these folks, Jackson said. Freedom is never free.
CROWN POINT  A Chicago woman was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for planning a robbery in 2017 in Hammond that resulted in the shooting death of a 19-year-old man.

Paradise Haynes, 24, was the first of three defendants to plead guilty in connection with the Oct. 31, 2017, homicide of Khalil Carter at an apartment in the 500 block of Pointe Drive.

Haynes, co-defendant Lucky R. Tyler and Carter's cousin were wounded in the shooting, Lake Criminal Court records state.

Haynes became the first of three defendants to enter into a plea deal in October 2020, when she admitted to one count of robbery resulting in bodily injury, a level 2 felony.

Haynes, who was represented by attorney Russell Brown, already has served nearly half her sentence since her arrest in January 2018.

Her plea agreement called for a sentence of 10 to 30 years in prison and required her to testify against Tyler, 22, of Chicago, and Justin M. Mitchell, 27, of Chicago.

Tyler pleaded guilty in 2021 to robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, a level 2 felony, and a firearm enhancement. Judge Salvador Vasquez sentenced him to 25 years in prison.

Mitchell pleaded guilty in March to robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, a level 2 felony. His sentencing is set for Oct. 21.

According to court documents, Haynes saw a picture on Facebook of Carter's cousin holding $4,000 and texted Tyler about robbing him.

The three led Carter's cousin to believe they were coming to smoke marijuana with him.

During the visit, Mitchell asked to use a bathroom, retrieved an assault-style rifle from inside the apartment and forced Carter and his cousin to turn over the $4,000, records state.

A shootout occurred when Mitchell pointed the assault-style rifle at Carter and Carter's cousin while Haynes searched a bedroom for money.
LANSING  Autumn Fest, a free two-day event sponsored by the Lansing Association for Community Events, returns to Fox Pointe in downtown Lansing this weekend.

Gates open at 4 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday, with the grounds closing at 10:30 p.m. each night.

Musical acts scheduled to appear on the Main Stage include Nate Venturelli at 5 p.m. Friday, Together Band at 8 p.m. Friday, Darren Enloe and Friends at 2 p.m. Saturday, Eli and the Elements at 3 p.m. Saturday, American English at 5 p.m. Saturday and Latin Satin Soul at 8 p.m. Saturday.

The Copper Muggers will sponsor a pancake breakfast from 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday at American Legion Post 697 at 18255 Grant St. A tribute to the military and first responders will follow on the Main Stage at 11:30 a.m.

Food vendors will open at 11 a.m. Saturday, with the bar opening at 11:30 a.m. Food vendors will include Ace Catering, Boz Hotg Dogs, I-94 Ribs, Izzy's, Skyline Snowie, Thompson Concessions, Von Vittles, Withers Concessions and Zap Pizza/That's a Cake.

On Saturday, a KidZone will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with games, activities, exhibits and a dance party among other attractions.

For more information, go to www.lansinglace.com/autumn-fest-2021.
GARY  Mayor Jerome Prince kicked off the first meeting of his "Listen and Talk" tour Wednesday night at Marquette Pavilion in Gary.

The tour, which includes forums over six weeks in each of Gary's six districts, includes updates from Prince on city initiatives and plans while fielding questions directly from residents. Residents shared concerns over public safety, cleanliness and infrastructure.

After a short introduction from Prince, Gary Health Commissioner Roland Walker shared updates with the group on COVID-19 progress in the area, citing a reduction in numbers and reinforcing the importance of protecting oneself against the virus. He shared an update on monkeypox cases, citing eight confirmed cases of monkeypox.

Four of those cases have been resolved, Walker said, and three are currently active.

In a series of questions from residents, two shared issues with city infrastructure and services. One resident, who said she lives on the 3800 block of Taft Street, said she has no access to city services such as snow removal, tree removal and a functioning storm drain. Another resident said pipes are sticking up out of the ground in an area near his home on 50th Avenue and Maryland Street.

Residents said they're often stuck doing their own maintenance typically done by the city.

Another resident asked if Prince would be willing to have local citizens who have tools, equipment and skills do city cleanup services. Prince cited the city's "All In Gary" campaign as an example of citizens working to clean up the city. He agreed with the resident that all citizens should be held accountable for city cleanup.

The resident also suggested these individuals contract with the city to help with cleanup.

"Cleanup is every day," Prince said. "We're even requiring our employees to be more accountable."

Public safety was another issue brought up at the forum. One resident said police should receive more resources to do their jobs effectively.

Prince responded and cited the Mobile Mental Health Unit and implementation of Operation Safe Zone as resources used to help with policing.

"All are productive tools to make our police officer's job a little better," Prince said.

Joy Holliday, executive director at the mayor's office of violence prevention, said the program allows citizens to help officers be proactive instead of reactive.

"It cannot just be the responsibility of law enforcement," Holliday said. "It must also be the responsibility of the community."
HAMMOND  A landlord has found himself on the wrong side of another judicial ruling in his nine-year struggle with city officials.

U.S. District Court Judge Theresa Springmann decided Wednesday, for the second time in 13 months, she wont take up Jose Andrades claims that he is a victim of discrimination.

Hammond Corporation Counsel Kevin Smith said Wednesday that city officials are pleased with this latest ruling.

Patrick McEuen, an attorney for Andrade, said Friday they are considering an appeal of the ruling.

The dispute began in May 2013 when a Hammond city inspector notified Andrade that his two-story, five-unit apartment building in the 6600 block of Jefferson Avenue near Hammonds Edison Park was structurally unsafe.

The inspector found the building lacked fire-resistant walls to impede smoke and flames from spreading so quickly it might entrap tenants.

Andrade and city officials have since fought over the citys authority to impose fire walls.

The city said the 95-year-old property didnt have the necessary safety features required in a city apartment building because it was a single-family home that was illegally converted to a multi-unit apartment building.

Andrade insisted the building was never a single-family home.

The Hammond Board of Public Works and Safety sided with the inspector in 2017  following lengthy litigation in state court. A state judge upheld the city inspector and safety boards findings of a fire hazard in 2018. So did the Indiana Court of Appeals later that same year. The Indiana Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Andrade tried another route in 2019, filing suit against the city in federal court.

Andrades lawyer argued newly discovered evidence indicated the city violated Andrades right to a fair hearing to pursue an illegal policy of denying subsidized apartments in more desirable neighborhoods of Hammond.

Springmann threw Andrades suit out of court in 2020, ruling Andrade couldnt use the federal courts to bypass his defeat in Indiana state courts.

However, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals judges in Chicago disagreed last year and returned the case to Springmann for further consideration.

On Wednesday, Springmann declared in a 17-page opinion that she was right before, and that Andrade truly exhausted his legal remedies four years ago when a state court judge found his rental property was a fire hazard that city officials can penalize unless improvements are made to fire safety.

In a statement Friday, McEuen argued the judges are missing "the fundamental issue: Hammond can only enforce 21st century building safety standards against a 20th Century multi-unit dwelling by lying about the original construction."

McEuen said they believe the city has taken action against Andrade because he accepts rent-subsidized tenants.

"Not even the Hammond inspectors claim that 21st Century 'fire stop' can be imposed on 90-year-old buildings unless the property is substantially remodeled. Jose Andrades building has never been a single family dwelling," McEuen said.
Theyve become such close collaborators that when Mantel decided to adapt The Mirror and the Light herself, rather than handing it off to a playwright, she chose Miles to co-write it with her.

Mantel has never written for the theater before, and she is taking an unorthodox approach, using her source material to develop something almost entirely new. If youre an adapter, you feel so bound to the original text, but I dont have to put in a single word from the book if I dont want to, she said. Most of what Ive written now is completely fresh. Its not obliged to the book.

Mantels work on the play has also kept Cromwell and his contemporaries vivid in her imagination. Even when shes not at her desk writing, she can still hear them chattering away.

Once those voices begin, its like having the radio on in the background for 15 years. It never actually fades. It runs continuously with whatever else youre doing, and that means youre never off duty to the book, you never stop working on it. You fall asleep with it, you wake up with it, she said. Theres a point where youre living with these people and only with them. Theyre more real and solid to you than actual people in your life.

  

I am used to seeing things that arent there.

Mantel in many ways is perfectly suited to the task of excavating and reanimating the past. Ever since she was a child, shes been prone to visions of ghosts and spirits. I am used to seeing things that arent there, she writes in her memoir, Giving Up the Ghost.

Growing up in an Irish Catholic family in Hadfield, a village in Derbyshire, Mantel was obsessed with myths, folklore and the supernatural. Before she was old enough to read, she insisted that relatives read to her tales from King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. I had a head stuffed full of chivalric epigrams, and the self-confidence that comes from a thorough knowledge of horsemanship and swordplay, she writes.

At 18, she went to the London School of Economics to study law, with the hope of becoming a barrister, but she couldnt afford to continue with professional training. By then, shed met McEwen. They married when they were 20 and moved to Manchester, where he found a teaching position and she worked various jobs and started writing.
Greeks are like that, the composer Iannis Xenakis said in 1967. They are a people continually in search of themselves, always ready to launch out into all kind of rapid, violent actions, and end up by not finding themselves.

He was in his prime when he made that comment, known internationally for his music and collaborations with, for example, Le Corbusier. Yet the search never stopped, and Xenakis managed to stay elusive until his death in 2001, along the way building a legacy that is being observed this year, the centennial of his birth.

The premiere of Metastaseis, in 1955 in Germany, put Xenakis in the company of the eras respected composers. Admirers and opponents alike were struck by the works sheer violence of the masses of sound, which were constructed not by notes, but by ever-changing glissandos going up and down, and landing briefly into visceral clusters of pitches.

It was something new and exciting. The composers of the Darmstadt School, then the powerhouse of avant-garde music, had been focused on serialism, and the belief that every aspect of composition should be under control, measured and organized in a highly abstract manner. But Xenakis, in an article titled The Crisis of Serial Music, took issue with the likes of Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen, essentially accusing them of leading music into an impasse.
The population of the citys main homeless shelter system is climbing faster than at any time in recent memory. Since mid-May, it has jumped by more than 25 percent, to nearly 58,000. In the past, it took years for such large increases to take place.

Just in the last week, the shelter population has grown by more than 2,200.

The speed at which migrants are arriving is only part of the problem. The city is also contending with decisions to close some buildings used to house homeless people and with hurdles to opening and operating shelters that have bedeviled mayors for decades.

New York is the nations only city that is legally required to provide a right to shelter for anyone in the city who needs a bed. Mr. Adams said last week he wants to reassess the ways in which the city satisfies that right, but he said turning away the migrants is not an option.

The city must be creative in finding ways to house the migrants, he said this week.

As recently as 2019, the citys homeless shelters held 4,000 more people than they do now, without having to resort to tents or  as Mr. Adams said he was considering earlier this week  cruise ships. But it is impossible to simply turn the clock back to 2019.
Mr. Gonzalezs motion landed on the desk of Judge Bobby Galvan, who presided over Mr. Ramirezs original trial and set his execution date. At a hearing in June, Judge Galvan denied Mr. Gonzalezs request to withdraw the execution warrant, saying he did not believe he had that authority as a judge. Thursdays decision from the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Judge Galvans ruling.

Mr. Gonzalez did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday evening.

Mr. Ramirez was convicted in 2008 of repeatedly stabbing a convenience store worker named Pablo Castro in the course of a robbery. Mr. Ramirez and two friends were driving around Corpus Christi looking for someone to rob for drug money when they encountered Mr. Castro, a father of nine. Prosecutors say the robbery netted them $1.25.

Mr. Ramirezs guilt is not in question. He admitted to the murder at his trial.

Asked to submit any mitigating circumstances at his sentencing, he offered a Bible verse, Psalm 51:3: For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.

Four of Mr. Castros children filed a brief this year asking the court to retain the October execution date and end an ordeal that has denied peace and closure to them for almost two decades.

In an interview in April, Fernando Castro, one of Mr. Castros sons, called the district attorneys withdrawal outrageous, adding that frequent postponements and reversals had been painful for his family. This isnt something I want to keep thinking about, he said.
A California man who was captured on video punching an American Airlines flight attendant during a flight from Mexico to Los Angeles was arrested this week, the Justice Department said, the latest instance of unruly behavior in the skies as coronavirus restrictions loosen and travel picks up.

The man, Alexander Tung Cuu Le, 33, of Westminster, Calif., was charged on Thursday with one count of interference with flight crew members, a day after he ran up to a flight attendant and punched him in the back of the head, the Justice Department said in a news release. Mr. Le could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Jelani Lindsey, a lawyer at the Office of the Federal Public Defender who is representing Mr. Le, did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment on Thursday.

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants, a union that represents about 24,000 flight attendants at American Airlines, said in a statement that this violent behavior puts the safety of all passengers and crew in jeopardy and must stop.
WATERBURY, Conn.  Alex Joness initial day of testimony in a trial for damages after years of lying about the Sandy Hook shootings ended in chaos.

Confronted on Thursday with the harm he had done by repeatedly lying on his Infowars radio and online show that Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie died in the massacre, was an actor, Mr. Jones erupted in a rant that drew a contempt threat by Judge Barbara Bellis of State Superior Court.

Is this a struggle session? Are we in China? Ive already said Im sorry, and Im done saying Im sorry, Mr. Jones responded, as his lawyer shouted objections.

Mr. Jones was set off by Chris Mattei, a lawyer for the families of the Sandy Hook victims, who pointed to Mr. Parker in the courtroom as he questioned Mr. Jones on the stand. Robbie Parkers sitting right here, Mr. Mattei said. Hes real, isnt he? And for years you put a target on his back, didnt you? Just like you did every single parent and loved one sitting here.
The videos suggested that Mr. Creamer and another man, Scott Foval, were developing a plan to provoke violence by supporters of Donald J. Trump at his rallies. Mr. Creamers lawsuit said the video was heavily edited and contained commentary by OKeefe that drew false conclusions. According to documents filed with the court in the case, the man playing Mr. Roth had proposed an illegal voter registration scheme, and Creamer rejected it outright as illegal.

How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause. Learn more about our process.

The lawsuit contended that Mr. Creamer had lost more than $500,000 worth of contracts because of the deceptions behind the Project Veritas operation.

Joseph E. Sandler, a lawyer for Democracy Partners, said during opening arguments last week that Mr. OKeefe was a strong supporter of Mr. Trump and had tried to tip the scales in favor of him during the 2016 election. The operation, Mr. Sandler said, was all carried out for the principal purpose of embarrassing Hillary Clinton and electing Donald Trump.

He described the elaborate operation as a painstaking web of lies conjured up by Project Veritas.

According to a Project Veritas email and trial exhibit, Mr. OKeefe offered cash bonuses to his employees to obtain incriminating statements, and $2,500 bonuses if Mr. Trump mentioned their videos in the presidential debates later that October. The email is marked highly confidential.

At the trial, Mr. Sandler said Project Veritas was trying to uncover what they themselves concocted.

Paul A. Calli, a lawyer for Project Veritas, argued that the videos were newsworthy and pointed out that media outlets had published stories about the undercover operation. He said the lawsuit was just sour grapes.

In his closing statement, Mr. Calli said Project Veritas had engaged in deceit, deception and dishonesty. The group used those tactics, he said, so Project Veritas can speak truth to power.
Dr. Daskalakis, an infectious disease expert who previously ran the division of H.I.V. prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was brought onto the monkeypox response team by Mr. Biden last month.

On Thursday, Dr. Daskalakis did not give a timeline for ending the outbreak in the United States, saying only that he was looking into his midterm crystal ball. But he said he expected that, over time, cases would drop to a trickle and infections would emerge only sporadically, enabling health officials to isolate and vaccinate the close contacts of those infected  and end the outbreak in the process.

That strategy, known as ring vaccination, was used in the global campaign to stamp out smallpox, which was declared eradicated in 1980.

But there is a major difference between monkeypox and smallpox: Smallpox occurs only in humans, while monkeypox also occurs in animals. The existence of an animal reservoir means there will always be the risk of spread to humans, said Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota.

Eradication is a very sacred word in public health; to eradicate means it is gone permanently, and the only virus we have done that with so far is smallpox, Dr. Osterholm said.
WASHINGTON  Former President Donald J. Trump claimed on Wednesday that when he was in the White House, his powers were so broad he could declassify virtually any document by simply thinking about it.

That argument  which came as he defended his decision to retain government documents in his Florida home in an interview with the Fox host Sean Hannity  underscored a widening gap between the former president and his lawyers. By contrast, they have so far been unwilling to repeat Mr. Trumps declassification claim in court, as they counter a federal investigation into his handling of government documents.

Over the past week, a federal appeals court in Atlanta  along with Mr. Trumps choice for a special master to review the documents seized last month  undermined a bulwark of his effort to justify his actions: Both suggested that there was no evidence to support the assertion that Mr. Trump had declassified everything  in writing, verbally or wordlessly  despite what the former president may have said on TV.

On Thursday, the special master, Judge Raymond J. Dearie, also appeared to take aim at another one of Mr. Trumps excuses  that federal agents had planted some of the records when they searched his Mar-a-Lago estate. In an order issued after the appellate court had ruled, Judge Dearie instructed Mr. Trumps lawyers to let him know if there were any discrepancies between the documents that were kept at Mar-a-Lago and those that the F.B.I. said it had hauled away.
I dont think that a fine like that  even if they had to pay $250 million  would bring the company down, said Phillip A. Braun, a finance professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, citing the demand from Ms. James. It would be painful for the family, but they probably could do it by liquidating some of their properties.

When Mr. Trump left the White House, money seemed unlikely to be a concern. Despite the shadow of Jan. 6, he appeared poised to cash in on his appeal in conservative media circles, including through his social media venture  the merger of the parent company of Truth Social, his Twitter-like social media platform, with a special purpose acquisition company called Digital World Acquisition Corp.

But the deal has been stymied by dual investigations by the S.E.C. and federal prosecutors. The original Sept. 8 deadline for completing the deal has passed, and Digital World could face the prospect of liquidation in the coming weeks.

The promoters of Digital World are hoping that the companys shareholders  most of whom are retail investors  will agree to give them until next September to complete the deal. But even with another year, the prospects of the S.E.C.s approval of the deal between Digital World and Trump Media & Technology Group look grim.

Regulators and federal prosecutors in Manhattan are looking into potentially improper communications between representatives of Digital World and Trump Media before the special purpose acquisition companys public offering. They are also examining unusual trading in Digital Worlds stock before the merger announcement last October.

Digital World not only raised nearly $300 million in cash in its initial public offering last September. It also got dozens of hedge funds to commit to providing an additional $1 billion in financing after the two companies announced the merger in October. Mr. Trump, who stands to receive more than 70 million shares if the merger is completed, got on the phone with some of the big investors willing to commit at least $50 million.
By nightfall, Russias conscription machine had swung into action.

The call-up is being managed by local military commissariats that, according to Russias defense minister, have some 25 million draft-eligible adults on their rolls. But some 10,000 Russians arrived at military enlistment offices even before being summoned, prompted by Mr. Putins announcement, the militarys general staff claimed, according to Interfax, a Russian news agency.

Reports of large numbers of men receiving draft notices arrived from across the country, but regions in Siberia and in the largely Muslim Caucasus Mountains appeared to be among the hardest hit.

On social media, activists in regions like Kabardino-Balkaria in the Caucasus and Yakutia in northeastern Siberia kept a running tally of the summonses that had arrived in various villages. A woman who has already lost one son in the war told a New York Times reporter that three buses carrying newly mobilized soldiers had left her town in Dagestan, in the Caucasus, one of Russias poorest regions.

A regional activist in Yakutsk, the capital of the Yakutia region, described draftees being taken by airplane out of remote Arctic villages. They have planted panic and fear everywhere, she said in a phone interview, asking that her name be withheld for fear of retribution.

In the Buryatia region, teachers have been tasked with distributing draft notices, according to Vladimir Budaev, an activist with the Free Buryatia Foundation, an antiwar group based abroad. An acquaintance there received his summons at 11 p.m. on Wednesday from a teacher knocking on the door, he said.

Despite Russias challenges on the frontline, where Ukrainian troops have often outnumbered Russian soldiers, Mr. Putin long resisted declaring a draft because he feared a domestic backlash, analysts say. His authoritarian rule and redoubled crackdown on dissent this year notwithstanding, the Kremlin keeps close tabs on public opinion and has sought to avoid protests.
This was therefore less an exhibition than what my colleague Siddhartha Mitter, reviewing the show in June, adeptly called a whole vibe. Vibing was its aim, and its downfall too. Documenta 15, by design, militated against its own viewing  the viewer is obsolete, you can read in the catalog  because the real work of the show was not the stuff on the walls but the hanging out around it. In other words, the actual content and form of these Palestinian agitational movies from the 1970s and 1980s mattered less than the new collective group that brought them here, and the other artists who came together to vibe with them. Collectivity was treated as an end in itself: We were here, as ruangrupa exhorted us, to Make friends, not art!

Well, that sounds fun. But what if your friends art sucks? This controversial Documenta was  to speak of what visitors actually saw in Kassel  the safest and most boring of this century, as evidenced by the almost nonexistent discussion around any of the art on view. Beyond the archival propaganda, it was bloated with show-and-tell displays of workshops you were not invited to, jejune videos that would barely merit a pass in an art school degree presentation, and countless posters and banners worthy of a teenagers bedroom wall (This Is My Voice, Listen), or an N.G.O. training seminar (Our goal is to respect and honor everyones humanity in the space like using peoples chosen pronoun). Yet for a growing faction in the domain of culture, to complain about the pathetically low standard of the art on view is irrelevant at best, oppressive at worst. Artists matter, not art. Sharing is caring. Pass the beer.

Its all been a dreadful embarrassment, but why should anyone outside Germany be concerned? Because Documenta was always a pacesetter  and this years edition certainly put its finger on a larger shift, seen too in our museums, our art schools and our magazines, away from aesthetic ambition and intellectual seriousness and toward the easier comforts of togetherness, advocacy and fun. If your friends art sucks, thats actually no big deal  because being together matters more than doing something well. And if the German press say your friends art sucks, thats OK, too  reassuring, actually, as evidence that this rotten colonizers world has no place for us.

If the museum of 100 days, as Documenta is known, returns in 2027, it will likely be with a return-to-order edition, more conservative or market-friendly than this one. I doubt Documenta will command the respect and the pre-eminence it did before this year, though, and itll never recover its aim of imagining the whole world in one show. The dream of a global art world has died, and I fear a lot of people, reactionary and radical alike, prefer it that way. The incomprehension and anger this show has elicited are the proof they always wanted that we have no common future.

But the postcolonial world, to quote a man more serious than most participants at Documenta 15, is not a vulgar state of endless contestations and anomie, chaos and unsustainability. The postcolonial world is a world of proximities, and the job of an exhibition is to make those encounters productive, meaningful, edifying, beautiful. In art, at least at its best, the tensions that govern all ethical relationships between citizen and subject converge.

The man who wrote those words was the Nigerian curator Okwui Enwezor. He wrote them in the catalog for Documenta, which he organized in 2002  whose rigor and worldliness inspired my career and thousands of others, and whose legacy lies tattered just two decades later. Enwezor, who died in 2019, faced German intolerance head-on throughout his career, and he never gave up on the ideal of global citizenship for the easy pleasure of shared vibes. He certainly did not give up on thinking for the comforts of karaoke.
If Oscar Grant III could celebrate his birthday, his mother, the Rev. Wanda Johnson, said, hed welcome the entire neighborhood from his Hayward, Calif., block and serve platters of gumbo, his Nanas tacos and barbecue chicken. But Johnson now honors his birthday without him, as do other mothers whose children were killed by the police.

On their birthdays, their chair is empty, Johnson said in an interview, where it didnt have to be.

Grant was killed in 2009, shot in the back while lying down by a transit officer on New Years Day in Oakland, Calif. He was 22.

His mother throws birthday bashes, and has participated in a voice-mail-message art project with a similar aim: to celebrate the lives of people killed by the police or while in police custody. An extension of that project is opening on Friday in a building near the border of Bushwick and East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The original edition of the work, 1-800 Happy Birthday, started online in 2020, to allow people to listen to and share celebratory messages for Latino and Black people killed by the police. It was a move, Mohammad Gorjestani, a filmmaker behind the project, said, to flip the reference point emotionally from death to life.
Newton Harrison, who with his wife, Helen Mayer Harrison, was a founder of the eco-art movement, creating work that married science, cartography, biology, urban planning, agriculture and other disciplines, died on Sept. 4 at his home in Santa Cruz, Calif. He was 89.

His son Joshua said the cause was pancreatic cancer.

Long before climate change was in the public consciousness, the Harrisons were focused on its consequences. They were working as educators at the University of California San Diego  he was making sculpture and teaching art; she was painting and working as an administrator  when they became galvanized by the environmental movement. She had read Rachel Carsons Silent Spring, he was thinking about cellular structures, and it was the heyday of conceptual art, with artists beginning to imagine work unconstrained by gallery walls.

If were going to survive as a species, Ms. Harrison later said of their early pivot to environmentally focused art, were going to have to learn how to grow our own food, and take care of ourselves at one point or another. So we started looking at what that means.
Ryan Grantham, a young Canadian actor who appeared in the television show Riverdale, has been sentenced to life in prison after admitting to killing his mother as part of a broad scheme in which he said he had planned to also kill Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and carry out a mass shooting in British Columbia.

Grantham, 23, was declared eligible for parole after 14 years during sentencing proceedings at the Supreme Court of British Columbia on Wednesday, according to prosectors and a lawyer for Grantham.

Grantham had pleaded guilty earlier this year to second-degree murder, which carries an automatic sentence of life in prison. The main issue at the sentencing was when he would be eligible for parole. Prosecutors had called for a 17- to 18-year waiting period before Grantham could apply for parole, Granthams lawyer had asked for a period of 12 years, and a judge on Wednesday chose a number in between.

The court also imposed a lifetime firearm ban on Grantham, prosecutors said.

Grantham has more than 30 acting credits, starting when he was a child. He appeared in the 2010 movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid, in which he played Rodney James, and in several other films, including The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Most recently he played the character Jeffery in a 2019 episode of Riverdale, a dark reimagining of the Archie Comics franchise on CW.
But it was a long and arduous road to reach those heights, beginning with a tough childhood. I was unsuited to being a child, Ms. Mantel wrote in a 2003 memoir, Giving Up the Ghost. She endured numerous health problems, leading one doctor to call her Little Miss Neverwell. The doctor was the first of many to fail to properly treat her.

Her illnesses later proved so debilitating that she could not hold down regular jobs, steering her to writing. But even then it was a writers life of fits and starts. Mainstream success did not come to her until she was well into her 50s.

Her Cromwell books were the turning point. Enraptured critics said she had presented the historical novel as high literature, portraying her subjects not as cardboard characters from centuries past but as real people of contradictions and psychological complexity, relatable in any age. And readers were carried along by her storytelling power.

The critic Parul Sehgal wrote in a 2020 review of The Mirror and the Light in The New York Times that Ms. Mantels writing envelops the reader in the sweep of a story rich with conquest, conspiracy and mazy human psychology. Ms. Mantel was not just a writer of historical fiction, Ms. Sehgal said, but an expert in showing what power reveals and conceals in human character.

Ms. Mantel was born Hilary Mary Thompson on July 6, 1952, to Henry and Margaret Thompson in Glossop, a village in Derbyshire, and grew up in an Irish Catholic family. Her mother was a school secretary. After her mother left her husband and moved the family in with Jack Mantel, an engineer, Ms. Mantel took her stepfathers surname.
For many readers, the portal into Hilary Mantels work was Wolf Hall (2009), the first volume of an astonishing trilogy about the 16th-century fixer and enforcer Thomas Cromwell, who rose to power and then fell from grace in the court of King Henry VIII.

At first, the prose is disorienting. Youre plunged headlong into a far-off past that feels almost viscerally real, but your perspective is confused. (Mantels device in this book of using he in place of Cromwell through most of the present-tense narration, as a way to thrust the reader directly into the story, adds to this initial uncertainty.) Here is the teenage Cromwell, fleeing home after being savagely beaten by his brutal father; here he is as an adult, networking, plotting and maneuvering his way through political and palace intrigues.

Maybe you didnt think you liked historical novels. But as you keep reading, you find that youre hooked. The beauty of Mantels prose, her sly, unexpected use of language, the emotional resonance braided into the narrative  all these propel you along. Its not just that the story  you know its bare bones, but its never been told like this before  is irresistible, its also that Mantel has an almost preternatural ability to make her hero both specific and universal. Dead for more than 400 years, reduced to caricature as a thug and a brute in the famous Holbein portrait that hangs in the Frick Museum, Cromwell here feels shimmeringly alive, full of pathos.

But there was so much more to Mantel than the Cromwell trilogy. There were nine other novels, demonstrating her ability to write in a range of styles about various subjects and in various time periods. There was a knockout memoir, Giving Up the Ghost. Her essay for The London Review of Books about the former Kate Middleton, then the Duchess of Cambridge, was a stiletto-bladed corrective to the banal platitudes that usually surround the well-worn subject of the women who marry into the royal family.
Irwin Glusker, a designer of magazines and books whose long career included establishing the lavish look of American Heritage, a bimonthly about U.S. history that found mass-market success during magazine publishings mid-20th-century heyday, died on Aug. 30 at his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He was 98.

The death was confirmed by his daughter, Anne Glusker.

Starting in 1954, American Heritage, with Mr. Glusker defining its visual identity as art director, used a lively news-magazine-for-history-buffs tone to become a fixture in dens across the country, a print precursor to the kind of documentary series the filmmaker Ken Burns now regularly produces for public television.

What began as one magazine grew into a company that published books on subjects like the Civil War and President John F. Kennedys assassination; a second magazine, Horizon, devoted to art and culture, which was also packaged and pitched to appeal to popular tastes; and a dictionary that was unusual for its heavy use of illustrations.

Guiding the design of it all was Mr. Glusker, a confident man with a commanding voice and a sharp sense of humor who was described by those who worked with him as generous, enthusiastic and encouraging.
Together, SMART Transportation Division and the other union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, represent about half of the more than 100,000 freight rail workers covered by the negotiations.

The document circulated by the union said the time off for routine medical visits, in addition to being limited to three instances per year, could be taken only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays and must be scheduled at least 30 days in advance. A single instance may last more than one day, however, if the worker needs time to prepare for or recover from the appointment. In addition, workers wont face a penalty for time spent in the hospital.

The tentative agreement could also lead to changes in the protocol for assigning trips, a move the rail carriers had been seeking. Currently, when conductors and engineers return home from a trip, they fall to the bottom of a list of available crews before working their way up again. If someone ahead of them calls in sick, a worker from a group of substitutes, known as an extra board, can step in so that the other conductors and engineers on the regular list can maintain roughly the same time off between trips. (Workers say cuts to the extra board in recent years have made their schedules more variable.)

Under the pending terms of the contract, the rail carrier could end up relying far less on substitute workers from the extra board. Instead, through a system called a self-supporting pool, engineers and conductors would move up the list more quickly when someone ahead of them is out sick.

The agreement appears to give the unions some say on implementing self-supporting pools, but a spokesman for SMART Transportation Division did not respond to a request for comment on the issue.
Another example of the global divide came at a Climate Week event where my colleague Hiroko Tabuchi heard from Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry of Egypt.

He criticized wealthy countries for not making good on their commitments to support developing countries with $100 billion annually for climate projects even when its clear, he said, that trillions will be needed.

Andry Nirina Rajoelina, president of Madagascar, said that, even with his island country facing cyclones and floods, it has never seen a dime of the Green Climate Fund, the program established under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that is supposed to distribute money from wealthy nations to climate projects.

Shoukry also called for wealthy countries to pay loss and damage reparations to developing nations suffering the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Developing countries have contributed little to climate change, Shoukry noted, but are among the most vulnerable to its effects. So world, show me the beef! he said.

The comments were especially significant because Egypt will host COP27, the next global climate summit in November, and Shoukry will lead the talks.

Leaders from developing countries had suggestions about where rich countries should start. Speaking in New York on Friday morning, Prime Minister Mia Motley of Barbados listed more than a dozen measures that the multilateral financial institutions controlled by wealthy nations could take.

She called on the World Bank and other global institutions to increase their appetite for risk and expand lending by at least by $1 trillion. And she called on the International Monetary Fund to channel at least $100 billion from a global line of credit it controls to countries that need it.
To me, though, the Cold War artifact it recalled was Kremlinology  the practice of scrying every available scrap of information to discern the hidden motivations and power struggles of distant, unknowable figures. The events that drew such close attention to Dont Worry Darling were not huge ones, in the scheme of things: They included a supposed feud between the director, Olivia Wilde, and the lead actress, Florence Pugh, possibly involving a pay gap between leads; the actor Shia LaBeoufs being replaced, under disputed circumstances, with Styles; LaBeoufs leaking messages from Wilde about Pugh; Wildes being served with custody papers from her ex-fiance, Jason Sudeikis, while onstage at CinemaCon; and, above all, Wildes becoming romantically involved with Styles, 10 years her junior. Where the theoretical animosity between Styles and Pine was supposed to fit in was unclear. But by then people were happy to believe anything  even the baseless-rumor equivalent of jumping the shark  as long as it kept building the story of a woman who fostered a work environment so fraught that one star would spit on another, in public and on camera, for no apparent reason.

In this much gossiped-about feminist gothic, Florence Pugh plays a seemingly happy housewife whose world starts to crack apart. Review :  If Pughs performance never gets beneath the shiny, satirical surface, its because theres no place for it or her to go, If Pughs performance never gets beneath the shiny, satirical surface, its because theres no place for it or her to go, our critic writes of the film

Publicity Crisis : It was one of the hottest projects in Hollywood. But a series of missteps on the promotional trail, hinting at supposed feuds and behind-the-scenes drama, It was one of the hottest projects in Hollywood. But a series of missteps on the promotional trail, hinting at supposed feuds and behind-the-scenes drama, have raised questions about the films viability and about Olivia Wilde, its director.

Bad Reputation: Amid all the rumors and negative press, a vocal portion of the public seems to have grown oddly invested in witnessing Wildes comeuppance. Will that Amid all the rumors and negative press, a vocal portion of the public seems to have grown oddly invested in witnessing Wildes comeuppance. Will that affect the movies ratings

Dont Worry Darling is just the most recent example of a film maudit, or cursed film. That was the term coined for Jean Cocteaus Festival du Film Maudit in 1949, describing works that had been wrongfully neglected, or deemed too outrageous to merit serious attention  movies rendered marginal by disrepute, as J. Hoberman would later write in The Village Voice. Films made by women are not the only ones stuck in this defensive position, but they seem disproportionately prone to it, often with criticism centering on the director herself. (Elaine Mays experience on Ishtar was such that Hoberman classed her as a cineaste maudit; she wouldnt direct again for decades.) Hints of a productions chaos or excess are less likely to be taken as signs of unruly genius, and more often framed as messiness or lack of authority. The more that talk swirled around Dont Worry Darling, the more its quality  and then, specifically, Wildes competence  were called into question.

Out comes the Tomatometer, and the partys over.

Cinema has a centurys worth of lore about films troubled by budget overages, clashing personalities and on-set affairs: Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinskis wanting to kill each other while making Fitzcarraldo, mental breakdowns on the set of Apocalypse Now, Peter Bogdanovichs leaving his actual genius of a wife after an affair with a young Cybill Shepherd on The Last Picture Show. These productions were plagued by bad press and rumors, but they never faced the wrath of stan Twitter. These days, fans spread rumors and memes, which are picked up by media outlets, which disguise their prurience with speculation about box-office prospects or reviews. Then out comes the Tomatometer, and the partys over.

But of course the idea that this consensus opinion emerges from some pure, objective place is disingenuous. Press always colors reviews  and now some vocal portion of the public seems oddly invested in Wildes comeuppance, a fact we may see reflected in ratings. (Given statements Wilde has made about some of the films real-world inspirations, its not hard to imagine the online response including the kind of organized backlash that has greeted other disfavored films.) And while critics responses wont be actively malicious, they wont be magically free of their own biases, either. More or less the definition of the history of cinema, Richard Brody wrote in The New Yorker in 2012, is: the stuff that most of the best-known critics didnt like, or damned with faint praise  it isnt that they didnt care for it, but that they didnt care about it. Male film critics outnumber female ones 2 to 1, and tend to award slightly higher average quantitative ratings to films with male protagonists, according to studies conducted by Martha Lauzen of San Diego State Universitys Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film.
A Distant Place

Stream it on Tubi.

In a remote village in South Korea, the farmhand Jin-woo (Kang Gil-woo) and his 6-year-old ward, Seol, live a quiet, secluded life on a sheep ranch with its owner, the grizzled Mr. Kim, his senile mother and gentle daughter. As A Distant Place begins, the relationships between these five characters are tender but mysterious: Seol calls Jin-woo mommy, Mr. Kim grandpa and Mr. Kims mother Nana. Park Kun-youngs feature reveals the story behind this odd, makeshift family gradually and subtly, as two new arrivals  Jin-woos male lover and sister  upset the balance of the household.

A Distant Place combines the familial melodrama of a Hirokazu Kore-eda film with the restrained pathos of the work of Lee Chang-dong, but theres a piercing originality to Parks style. Long and wide takes luxuriate in the fog-cloaked rural scenery, with shifts in angle and distance relaying narrative revelations with an understated touch. Though the film unfolds as a queer drama with recognizable themes of outing and ostracization, it dwells more in quiet moments of resilient intimacy  Jin-woo observing as his lover teaches poetry to a class; Seol and Nana bathing in a tub  than in dramatic highs and lows.

Wild

Stream it on Ovid.
Other projectionists came to the job as struggling artists who needed a steady gig. Gregory Wolfe and his brother, James, arrived in New York City in the 1980s to study acting, with a particular interest in Shakespeare. They were working as stagehands at Lincoln Center when they fell into projecting for its film society.

Nowadays Jamess mustache contains more salt than pepper. Gregory doesnt bother owning a cellphone because his family knows if hes not in their Hells Kitchen apartment, hes on West 65th Street, in one of the centers theaters. Im a fixed star in the universe, he said.

The brothers spend long hours working in narrow confines, noisy with the clatter of machinery and fluttering film, managing what Gregory calls a violent process. A 35-millimeter projector is motion and stillness in one: gripping the film by its sprocket holes, it advances a frame and exposes it for an instant to the beam of a 3,000-watt xenon bulb, then shutters the bulb to return the theater to darkness before teeing up the next frame.

Most surviving films are on celluloid, which is tolerant of this strain but easily scratched or punctured, and so must be fed precisely through the projectors gates. If the print is held for more than an instant before the concentrated light, it melts, so the projected image can be seen and focused only when the process is in motion. Film is like a living, breathing organism, Gregory said.

And although it may take thousands of people to make a movie, the artwork is not fully realized until a person puts the image onto a screen. So, the Wolfe brothers would argue, the projectionist is part of the same creative process. Youre the final piece of the puzzle, James said.

The fundamentals of the technology  passing light through a miniature image  have not changed substantially since the advent of cinema, which is why theaters can still show a century-old print but a person would have trouble finding a way to watch a VHS tape of The Lion King.
Last year, a few days after it was clear that Eric Adams would become the next mayor of New York, he addressed a crowd in Brooklyn, announcing with a signature assurance, that when you looked at him you were seeing the future of the Democratic Party. The buzz in Washington, D.C., suggested that this was not delusional. Eric Adams was a Black former cop, keen on rectifying inequities in the criminal justice system, liked by the elites he courted and charismatic. After eight years of a mayor who seemed to regard fun the way the vintner looks upon the spotted lantern fly, the impishness of someone who slid down a pole in a firehouse  as Mayor Adams did during his first week in office  was almost thrilling.

But there are signs that disillusion has set in, perhaps owing to his gaffes, the dubious staffing choices, reversals, the perception that his enthusiasm for a good time exceeds his interest in governance, that he lacks a grand vision for the citys future. Results from a poll conducted the last week of May, while hardly conclusive, must surely be alarming for the mayors staff: More than half of all respondents maintained that the city was headed in the wrong direction.

Just this week, the mayor enraged advocates for the homeless with his suggestion that the city could house a new influx of migrants, many of them displaced by the state of Texas, onto cruise ships, as if they were contestants in a perverse turn of The Price is Right. A few days later we learned that his administration was likely to retreat from expanding the citys preschool program to include all 3-year-olds.

Repeatedly calling himself the get stuff done mayor, the nightlife mayor, the mayor with swagger, Mr. Adams has, most of all, demonstrated the limits of masculine bluster as a liberal political style. By contrast, we might take measure of what is happening in Boston, where Mayor Michelle Wu is operating in a distinctly different register and quietly achieving things without all the wasted energy of self-reference and branding.
In political writing about the federal judiciary, there is a convention to treat the partisan affiliation of a judge or justice as a mere curiosity, to pretend that it does not matter that much whether a jurist was nominated by Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton or George W. Bush or Barack Obama so long as he or she can faithfully uphold the law.

The issue with this convention, as weve seen in the legal drama over the classified materials found in President Donald Trumps home at Mar-a-Lago, is that it isnt equipped to deal with the problem of hyperpartisan, ideological judges who are less committed to the rule of law than to their presidential patron. In particular, this way of thinking about federal courts isnt equipped to deal with the problem of Trump judges.

In the case of the documents, the judge in question is Aileen Cannon of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, nominated by Trump in the spring of 2020 and confirmed by the Senate (with 12 Democratic votes) after his defeat in the November election. Cannon was a federal prosecutor for seven years and had no experience as a judge before being placed on the federal bench for a lifetime appointment at age 39. What she did have to recommend her was longstanding membership in the conservative Federalist Society. That seems to have been more than enough.

In the Mar-a-Lago case, Cannon has behaved less as an impartial judge and more as an ally of Trump. On the matter of whether the court would appoint an independent third party to review the documents in question, Cannon ruled in favor of the former president, despite the fact that it made no sense to do so, according to legal commentators from across the political spectrum. Not only is there no legal (or even factual) dispute about the classified nature of the documents; theres also no basis for the former presidents sweeping claim of executive privilege, which would keep government documents out of the hands of, well, the government.
[MUSIC PLAYING]

ezra klein

Im Ezra Klein. This is The Ezra Klein Show. [MUSIC PLAYING] Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday, Feb. 24. And everything we know about that invasion at its launch implies that Vladimir Putin expected a lightning victory. Thats what the battle plans seemed to be built for. And to be fair, thats what many of the worlds intelligence agencies and military analysts thought that he would get  he did not get it. And then the conventional wisdom changed. Russia had misjudged, its military was weaker than we thought, but still, its size and power and money and might would overwhelm Ukraine, probably within a couple of months. And then that didnt happen either. And at the beginning, Russia did conquer territory  quite a bit of it, particularly in the East. But then their advance slowed by a lot. And then in early September, Ukraine showed it could take territory back. It launched a counteroffensive in the Northeast that regained 3,400 square miles. And to put that in perspective, that is more land than Russia had gained in the past five months. The war today is not the war of February. The armies are different, both because of how many soldiers have been lost and also how much has been learned. The psychology of the two sides is different. The economies of the two sides are different. The weapons that Ukraine is receiving from the West are different. President Zelensky and President Putins positions, both internally with their people, and then externally, in terms of what they want, are different. And so I wanted to have a conversation about both where the conflict stands now, but also about how the balance of power, how manpower and money and equipment and geopolitics have changed, how the structure of the conflict is now different. Andrea Kendall-Taylor is director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. She is a former intelligence officer, who from 2015 to 2018 led strategic analysis on Russia at the National Intelligence Council. When we spoke, she was very recently, as youll hear, back from Ukraine. And I should put one note here. We recorded this podcast on Monday, Sept. 19. We talked, as youll hear, about Putins clear reluctance to expand his army through conscription, but the fact that he might need to do it anyway. On Wednesday, Putin announced that he would call up roughly 300,000 reservists. Its not full conscription, but it does underscore Kendall-Taylors analysis here. Russia is struggling in this war, and thats forcing Putin to make more and more desperate and politically dangerous  for him  decisions. As always, my email, ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. Andrea Kendall-Taylor, welcome to the show.

andrea kendall-taylor

Its good to be here, Ezra.

ezra klein

How would you describe the state of the Russia-Ukraine war in early August? And how would you describe it now?

andrea kendall-taylor

I think looking at this war in early August, we were all prepared for a very long, grinding war, one that would continue for months and months, if it had any kind of resolution at all. And I think although were still expecting that the war will be long, weve had some developments in the last several weeks, notably, the counteroffensive that the Ukrainians have waged in the north of Ukraine, that have really shifted the momentum in Ukraines favor. Theyve really been able to seize the initiative in this war. And so I would say even though theres a lot of challenges that the Ukrainians have ahead of them, I think that their ability to successfully recapture territory has shifted the tone of the war. And I would say it seems ever more clear to me that the trajectory of the war is now working in Ukraines favor, that they will eventually win this war. I was just lucky enough to travel to Ukraine, and to be there, and to be on the ground. And really for me, that trip, in combination with the victories that weve seen by the Ukrainian military on the battlefield, has strengthened my assessment that Ukraine will win this war in the end. And of course, theres still questions about how long it will take to get there, and what will happen in the intervening period. But I did walk away more convinced that the trajectory of this war now favors Ukraine. And I think thats really different from what we would have said in August.

ezra klein

Tell me a bit about why, because something I always want to be alert to is  its always hard for me sitting here to know when what Im looking at is a temporary change in narrative and story line, or a genuine change in the direction of a war. You use terms here like the tone of the war and the momentum. Those feel very shifty to me. What changed here, substantively, that you are actually predicting a shorter timetable now for the conflict?

andrea kendall-taylor

Well, I think theres multiple things. I want to get at the shiftiness, though, because I do think even though that can be elusive  when I left Kyiv, I think one of the biggest takeaways that I had was this confidence in Ukraines ability to win the war. And of course, that is being played out also on the battlefield. And we can get back to the counteroffensive. But what I took away was much more on a societal level. And to me, that feels permanent and lasting. And Ill give you a couple of anecdotes. The first for me was this awe of the resilience of Ukrainian society. So as part of this trip, we were able to travel out to Bucha and Irpin, which were two of the towns that were really torn apart by horrific Russian atrocities earlier in the war against Ukrainian civilians. But youre there, and you can see that theyre putting the pieces back in place. People are returning. The life continues there. And of course, theres bombed out buildings and rusting Russian tanks on the side of the road, but people are returning. And the same was true in Kyiv. Theres traffic, shops are open, and people are out at restaurants. And I think I understood that at an intellectual level  I know if you look at the polling, its something like 97 percent of Ukrainians believe they will win the war. And a very large proportion favor no concessions to the Russians at all. But being there, you can see that Ukraine as a society is prepared to weather this. And there was a cognitive dissonance about that, but it was this normalcy, I think, that gave me a sense that eventually Ukraine will be able to come out on top. And I think the second anecdote, which was really telling for me, that stuck with me, because it speaks to Ukraines resolve  and that is that many in the West here in the United States and Europe are really worried about Putins willingness to use a nuclear weapon, and I think rightfully so. But multiple people that I spoke with there in Ukraine were totally undeterred. To the person, they said that Putins use of a nuclear weapon will not change the outcome of the war, nor how Ukraine fights the war, that it will only increase the cost that theyre going to have to incur to get there. And so for all of these reasons, I left feeling like over time the Ukrainians will come out on top. Theres lots of other military reasons that we can delve into, too, when you talk about morale of the services, when you talk about the sustained support. Ukraine has the backing of the international community. Weapons continue to flow in. I think theres lots of different reasons that to me point to a Ukrainian victory, although I am fully cognizant that it still may take a very long time until we get there.

ezra klein

What does Ukrainian victory mean? Does that mean Russia is fully ejected from Ukraine? Does it mean they only hold a very small rump of land in the East? What would count as a victory as opposed to an unhappy settlement?

andrea kendall-taylor

I think theres still a lot of open questions about that. As of right now  and you can see both sides war aims have shifted as this war is continued. So Russia came in saying that they were going to basically de-Nazify Ukraine, that they were going to take over the entire country, to erase Ukraine as an idea. They were looking for the full thing. And given the blow that they were dealt in Kyiv, they had to kind of redeploy forces to the East. And you watched Putin, at least for the time being, downsize his war aims. I think that the momentum has shifted to Ukraines side. I think that their aims and their objectives are also shifting. So initially, we in the West, I think along with the Ukrainians, were thinking that a victory would be that Russia doesnt occupy any Ukrainian territory that they didnt hold prior to the invasion. Zelensky now talks in much bolder, grander terms. He is talking about very seriously restoring all of Ukraines territorial integrity, including Crimea, and including taking back the territory that Russia has illegally held in the east of the country. So those war aims are shifting. And based on where we are now, I think President Zelenskys definition of victory is that he will restore Ukraines borders to where they were prior to 2014. I think that is the vision of victory that he has in mind. But as we were talking about, things do change on the battlefield. And I do think that shifts, then, the goals that each side holds, as weve just discussed. And so it is possible that that could be walked back over time, and it could be that Zelensky and that the Ukrainian people are willing to settle for a victory that entails Russia not holding any additional territory prior to February 24. So I think its mercurial. Its very closely tied to how theyre doing on the battlefield. But given where we are at this moment, those are the terms that President Zelensky is speaking in.

ezra klein

Im going to come back to the way that the definitions of victory are changing, but I do want to talk a bit about the counteroffensive. What was it, and why did it matter so much?

andrea kendall-taylor

I think its major. The Kharkiv offensive is the most consequential military action of the war since Russia lost Kyiv. As Zelensky has said, they liberated over 2,000 square miles of territory, and that includes some gains that theyve had in the south near Kherson where theyre waging a concurrent counteroffensive. But I think this is important, because its the first time that weve had such clear evidence of Ukraines ability to go on the offensive and to retake territory. So what happened? There has been talk for weeks and maybe even months that Ukraine would wage a counteroffensive in the late summer or heading into fall. And President Zelensky himself has really been pushing for this, because hes been very worried about his ability to sustain Western support for the war, given that were going into a very long, cold winter. So Zelensky was foreshadowing this because he wanted this counteroffensive to boost morale, both in Ukraine, but also among his Western backers, and to show people that Ukraine can retake this territory. And I think his theory of the case was that if he could show that, then he assumed that Western support would be more robust. And I think so far, hes right. But back to the battlefield  so basically, Ukraine is broadcasting that theyre going to do this counteroffensive in the south. And so Russia in turn begins to redeploy their forces, moving them from the north and the eastern Donbas region down into the south to reinforce Russias positions there. And as they did this, as they moved their forces south, it creates these new vulnerabilities that then the Ukrainians were able to exploit. So this was extremely opportunistic. And it was a real surprise to the Russians. They achieved surprise, which is key. They broke through, and they routed these Russian forces. A lot of them fled. And Ukraine took back its land. I think that the reason why this counteroffensive was also important, other than demonstrating that Ukraine can do it, is it does have some strategic value. The territory that they took breaks up Russian supply lines that will make it harder for Russia to resupply other parts of the battlefield. And in particular, there is the town of Izium, where Zelensky just was last week. And by taking that town, I think it now makes it impossible for Putin to be able to achieve his stated goal of capturing the entire Donbas region. So thats big. And as weve said earlier, this counteroffensive now has shifted the initiative to Ukraine. And so I think it says a lot about the future and where were headed. And the shift in perspective really is energizing military and economic support for Ukraine. And thats key.

ezra klein

Part of the counteroffensive, as I understand it, is that you dont just have to feint that youre going south. You also have to effectively move reinforcements up north so that you have the strength to run that play. Now, youd think that Russia has satellites. They have at least some wartime intelligence, but it doesnt seem that they had enough good battlefield intelligence to see what Ukraine was doing. So on the one hand, that might be a very sophisticated operation by Ukraine. But on the other, it seems  and it has seemed, actually, throughout the war, that Russias information isnt very good. Why not?

andrea kendall-taylor

Well, thats one of the things that we heard over and over on our trip to Ukraine. And we had the ability to talk with several senior officials in Ukraines Ministry of Defense. And one of the things that they did talk about is, just as you said, Ezra, that the intelligence, the reconnaissance on the Russian side has been extremely poor. I dont know why that is. I mean, there are so many things that have been surprising about this war. I think we have overestimated Russias capacity to do certain things that seem like basic tasks, so I dont know why it is. The other thing that weve heard on our trip is not only have they done a poor job with the intelligence and reconnaissance, but there has been an inability on the Russian side to exploit opportunities as theyve arisen. And so I think a lot of this has to do with the command and control, and the culture of the two militaries. In Ukraine, on the one hand, they have passed a lot of responsibility down. They have trust in different levels of their military. And they empower people who are lower on the chain  they empower them to make decisions on the spot, which allows the Ukrainian side to be much more nimble and agile, and take advantage of opportunities as they arise. The opposite is true for the Russians. Its extremely rigid. They dont have good command and control. They dont delegate responsibility down. They dont trust their subordinates. And so the Ukrainians talk about how there has been so many opportunities that they as a military have identified, where Russia could have leaned in and exploited opportunities that they just didnt have the ability or the agility to do. And again, were talking about  why do I believe that over time Ukraine will have the ability to win this war? Its stories like that, these anecdotes about the differences in the military culture and the morale of its soldiers, and their ability to do these different things where, again, it all points in Ukraines direction, and their ability to see this through.

ezra klein

I know that you worked for many years in the U.S. intelligence service, so I say this with caution  but before this, my estimation of our intelligence capabilities had gotten quite low. We had a lot of failures in Iraq. We had a lot of failures in Afghanistan. We seemed to consistently get very big things about the world wrong, and wrong in consequential ways. But my sense is that with Russia, weve actually been pretty right  that its clear now that the U.S. understood that Russia was going to do this invasion before really anybody else. The Europeans were skeptical. Ukraine was very skeptical, and thats been well reported and talked through. And from my understanding, a lot of what has given Ukraine a reconnaissance and battlefield intelligence superiority is that weve been able to share quite effective intelligence with them. Why do we have such a strong bead on this one when weve had so much more trouble in other theaters?

andrea kendall-taylor

Thats a good question. I do just want to underscore that the U.S. intelligence community was way out in front of Putins invasion. That is a major success of the U.S. intelligence community. They understood that Putin was going to in fact go through with this war, and they were very proactive and forward leaning with declassifying and releasing intelligence to support their case, and share it with the world, but also very importantly, European governments. And its just a huge success. Its one of the reasons  I think it kept Russia, in the early days, when we were all wondering if they were going to do it  I think it got the Russians, put them on the back foot. But really, the key success was that it enabled the United States and Europe to be prepared. So before Putin went in, a lot of the sanctions work, the sanctions packages had already been drawn up. And its one of the factors why weve seen such a cohesive Western response to what Russia did, is because we were prepared. We werent surprised. And so it is a huge success of the U.S. intelligence community. So its not just all of the weapons that we see flowing into Ukraine  and thats really, critically important. But the intelligence support has also been critical, I think, in allowing the Ukrainians, again, to seize opportunities as they arise, to be agile. And thats not to take anything away from the Ukrainians, because its them who are on the front lines, and their bravery is admirable. But the United States has played a really important role not just with the provision of weapons, but also with the provision of intelligence. The one thing I want to note, Ezra, though, is where we did get it wrong. And I think what we got wrong was Ukrainians resilience to the Russian invasion. If you remember, in the early days of the war, the U.S. intelligence community, I think, assessed that Kyiv would fall just in a matter of days. The United States was out there offering President Zelensky help in getting out of the country, so we could keep him safe and he could lead from abroad. And that had consequences. And I think it continues to have consequences, because if we didnt believe that the Ukrainians could defeat the Russians, and if you dont believe that the Ukrainians can win, I think it really shapes your willingness of what youre willing to do to support them. Youre not going to provide sophisticated weapons systems to a side that you believe is going to be the loser in a war because it wouldnt be an efficient allocation of resources, and also because those weapons could end up in enemy hands.

ezra klein

Im glad you went there, because that was exactly where I was about to take us. I want to talk more about what we got wrong with Russia, because it wasnt just the intelligence community. Almost everybody I reported with in the early months of the war believed it was a matter of time until Russia won. Maybe it was going to go a little bit slower than they initially thought, but Russia had such an overwhelming superiority in force numbers, in economic might. The sanctions, at that point, were understood to be punishment for Russia. They were going to endure pain for what they were going to take in Ukraine. There was a sense that if Putin needed to  and to some degree, this is still true, but he keeps not doing it  he can move to conscription and expand the size of the Russian force dramatically. We got something wrong not just about the resilience of the Ukrainian people, but about the strength Russia could bring to bear on an invasion that was directly on their border. What did we get wrong about Russian might?

andrea kendall-taylor

I think we first and foremost got this wrong because we didnt know that Putin would concoct such a terrible plan. And for me, thats largely a product of the type of political system that Putin built. This is a highly personalized, authoritarian regime. And Ive studied a lot of autocracies. My lens on Russia is very much through an authoritarian, kind of comparative politics lens. And the Putin regime ahead of this invasion was by far one of the most centralized autocracies that I have seen. And in that kind of system, good information does not float to the top, right? Theyre based on loyalty, and its not in anyones career interest to tell the boss bad news. So Putin, for one, was operating with terribly flawed assumptions. And so I think thats number one for me of why we got it wrong. These personalist dictators make mistakes. So first of all, Putin and Russia misunderstood Ukraine entirely. They hold these very derogatory views of Ukrainians. And I think the Russians have entirely missed whats been happening in Ukraine since 2014  that Ukraine has built up a stronger national identity, that they have had this commitment to moving to the West. You know, Putin believed that they could get to Kyiv, decapitate the regime, and that the whole country would fall like a house of cards. So they fundamentally misunderstood Ukraine. We talked about them  along with the United States, the Russians also obviously underestimated and misunderstood Ukraines willingness to fight. So again, for me, I think we got it wrong because we failed to consider the weaknesses that begin to accumulate in these longtime, personalist autocracies. These countries, theyre inclined to make mistakes, these personalist dictators. And over time, these guys, they run their countries into the ground. And so the plan was bad, and the plan was bad because it was the product of Putins personal system. And I think we just didnt factor that in. We were wrong about all sorts of things on the Russian military front too. And just quickly, Ill say corruption was a really big issue. I think we failed to see the rot in the Russian military. We didnt see just how pervasive it was. So yeah, we overestimated Russian capabilities, but I also think a lot of it was just misunderstanding how terribly wrong and disastrous the decisions that these personalist, authoritarian regimes can make. [MUSIC PLAYING]

ezra klein

Back in June, you wrote that over the previous three months, Russias equipment had just been mauled. It had lost 25 percent of its active tank force. It had lost more than 30 aircraft, more than 10,000 troops. It has only gotten worse for Russia since then. So how has the balance of equipment, materiel, personnel changed since Russia invaded in late February?

andrea kendall-taylor

So I dont know exactly where we are in terms of how much equipment Russia has lost, but its been a lot, as you just said. And there is actually a joke in Ukraine that the Russians have been the single largest donor of tanks and armored personnel carriers than any other country. And sometimes, its even a little more derogatory than that. Theyll say that the Russians have donated more tanks than the Germans.

ezra klein

I want to tag that. Were going to come back to the Germany question.

andrea kendall-taylor

OK. Theyve lost a lot, but I think it would be misguided to believe that Russia is running out of stuff. And I think thats something that the Ukrainians understand. I was actually surprised to hear from a senior military leader in the Ukrainian military, their belief that Russia will and does have the capacity to continue to regenerate forces. I think they are very realistic about the reality that Russia can continue this war for a really long time. Now, it is true that equipment is being run down. Things like their precision guided munitions are definitely on shorter supply. But it then means that they pull out less precise weapons that can cause more civilian harm. So I think yes, Russia has lost a lot. But they have the capacity to sustain this for a very long time. The Ukrainians, on their side, still dont have enough military equipment. And that was something that we talked at length on in this trip. We had the ability to visit the transit hub in Poland, where a vast majority of NATOs military aid comes through and flows into Ukraine. And we learned that that center is only operating at about 60 percent capacity. So they have the capacity to get a lot more weapons in. So for Ukrainians, they have the advantage in manpower. They have the whole country of military age men who would be willing to fight in the military. But what they lack is equipment. They dont have enough equipment to train their soldiers. Theyre now having problems sustaining the military equipment that they have, so spare parts and maintenance. And all of that is a shortcoming. So they have these reciprocal problems. Russia doesnt have enough manpower, and that is a big question thats looming, about whether or not Putin will call for a mass mobilization or not. Russia doesnt have enough manpower. They have a lot of equipment. And then the opposite is true for Ukraine. Ukraine has a lot of manpower, but they still need more equipment in order to kind of do the job that they need to do to defeat Russia.

ezra klein

Lets talk about the manpower question. So Ive seen estimates that Russia has had 80,000 killed or wounded since the start of the war. Most people seem to think that is larger than the casualties on Ukraines side, though the numbers are a little fuzzier there. Why is Russia suffering such heavy manpower losses, and what does that mean for them? Are the people they could call up, particularly through conscription  are they as well trained, or are they capable? What is their morale  because replacing one soldier with another is not always a one to one trade. So where does Russia stand? And why are they losing so many people?

andrea kendall-taylor

I think the other interesting thing to add to that is that a lot of Russias best soldiers were killed early on in the war. Again, theyve been depleted. The people that Putin is sending now tend to come disproportionately from poorer regions in Russia. It comes from these private military organizations, like the Wagner Group. And it comes from a lot of forces from Luhansk and Donetsk, the LNR and the DNR in Eastern Ukraine, where a lot of people are being forcibly mobilized. You see terrible pictures on social media of men on the streets in those regions of being beaten and forced into war. Theres all of these stories about these efforts by Russia to take people out of prisons. Theyre coming from mental institutes. So theyre coming up with all of these informal, ad hoc, piecemeal ways to try to sustain the manpower that they need. But as youre saying, these people arent motivated to fight compared to Ukrainians who are defending their homeland. And so morale is a huge issue. In talking to some of the Ukrainian officials that we saw  we know in the counteroffensive in the north that many of the Russian fighters there just readily abandoned their positions. They flee  they ran away very quickly. And we heard that the morale of Russian soldiers in the south around Kherson, where the counteroffensive is still continuing, that the morale of the Russian fighters there is even lower  and they would say because at least the Russians who were fighting in the north had the Russian border behind them. They had some place where they could retreat or flee to. The fighters in the south have nothing but the sea. And so their morale, their propensity to abandon their positions and to surrender, is much higher. So again, these are the factors  when youre looking at these things in terms of quality of troops and the morale, and their motivation to fight, this is another key area where I think it favors Ukraine. This is an existential question for Ukrainians. They are defending their homeland. They have no other choice but to fight. And these people who are being sent in on the Russian side, they dont have that same motivation. And I think they increasingly see the disasters that are happening in war. By the way, theres a bunch of people inside Russia now who are talking about the disasters that have been unfolding in Ukraine. Military bloggers are talking about just how disastrous the performance have been. So when you compare these two things, again, the Ukrainians have  theyre just much better positioned, I think, over the long term than in Russia.

ezra klein

Theres been this fear for a long time that Putin would turn to conscription, which in theory could radically increase the size of Russias forces. At the same time, without in any way suggesting he wont do it, its clear he doesnt want to do it. He didnt do it at the beginning. Hes not done it yet. Im not saying that his regime cant survive doing it. I dont want to make any claims larger than simply this. It doesnt seem like a favored option for him. It seems like something hes only going to break glass on if he really needs it. And to everything youre saying, that implies to me that the people who could be conscripted would not obviously be well trained, but also would not want to be there, which is a pretty profound weakness on the battlefield. So how do you at this point assess the question of conscription on the Russian side?

andrea kendall-taylor

Its a really hard question, and one weve been thinking about for a really long time. I mean, I think youve laid it out perfectly, that Putin really faces a very difficult choice. If he forgoes conscription, if he insists to continue fighting this war that he will only call a special military operation, he is going to face significant problems regenerating the forces that he would need to accomplish his objectives in Ukraine. That much is clear. And just a word about that  Putin really has gone to great lengths to protect Russians from this war. He wants to shelter them. He wants Russians to believe that life is normal, because I think he understands deeply that this is a very politically unpopular war for large swathes of Russians. So he really is caught between a rock and a hard place, because as I said, if he doesnt do it, he will have problems regenerating the manpower that he needs in order to accomplish his political objectives. And if he loses this war, it can also destabilize his regime. So hes kind of flanked by these two sources of opposition  those Russians who dont want to be in Ukraine, who oppose this war, but because of the repression are having to keep quiet. But on his other flank are very hawkish, nationalist Russians who are very vocally, including on state run media, calling on Putin to call this a war, to mobilize the public, to fight on a wartime footing so that they can accomplish these maximalist objectives that Putin set out in the beginning. So hes really caught between a rock and a hard place, between those two things. And so watching and seeing what decision he ultimately makes, I think, is something that were all paying very close attention to.

ezra klein

Early on, we heard a lot about how punishing Western sanctions would be for ordinary Russians, for the broad Russian economy, for Russian oligarchs. There was an outside, though always unlikely hope that it could even destabilize Putins regime or convince him to withdraw. I get the sense now that people believe  certainly, his regime is weathering the sanctions more or less fine, but that the bigger effect is that a lot of the more targeted sanctions  not the big, macroeconomic ones, but the ones restricting the supply of things like microchips  are over time making it hard for Russia to resupply its more technologically sophisticated munitions, and that the longer the war drags on, the more effect that could have on Russias capability on the battlefield. Is that about right?

andrea kendall-taylor

Yeah, I think thats the goal of a lot of these sanctions. I think we had hoped that there would have been a broader kind of economic effect that would have made it more difficult for Russians, so that there would be more pressure on Putin. But there was also a secondary objective, which was to kind of constrict and constrain  and really, as Secretary Austin kind of controversially said earlier in the war, to weaken Russia. And I do think that is an objective. These sanctions, and especially the export controls, are designed to diminish Russian capabilities so that Russia cannot sustain aggression beyond its borders. And those things, as you said, Ezra, will have effect over the longer term. It will take time. The full brunt of those measures have not yet been felt. The thing that I worry about, though, is that Russia will pursue all sorts of efforts to bypass those export controls. Theyll use espionage and illicit trade networks. They may eventually try to develop things jointly with Russia or India or some of these other fence sitting countries. So Russia is going to work very hard to try to bypass those sanctions and to dilute Western support. And so as we look forward, things the United States will need to do is to invest very heavily in the enforcement of those measures. Thats kind of the next step of what people will try to do, is to try to tighten up sanctions and export control regime. And it underscores, though  and this broader idea for me is that a lot of people look at how Russia has fared in this war, and its been a military disaster. And we can see that its been kind of a strategic blunder for Putin. Youve got Finland and Sweden joining NATO, and great Western resolve, and theres a lot of people saying, oh, if Russia cant even defeat the Ukrainians, then what do we really need to worry about? But I think thats misguided. And one of the things that I continue to write about is this idea that Russia is down, but not out. And even if Ukraine and its backers are wildly successful in defeating Russia, it does not mean that the Russia problem will be resolved. They will continue to go after Ukraine. They will continue, even with a more vengeful  and nastiness. Theyll be less of a stakeholder in the international community, with the rules of the game. Theyre going to be acting out, I think, in an even more egregious  and emboldened in the way that they use the tools that they have. So yes, the Russian military has been degraded significantly. But theres all sorts of non-conventional tools. Its things like cyber, like biological weapons, like nuclear weapons. They have a full arsenal of things that will continue to create challenges for the West. And so again, its just  I keep trying to advance this idea that Russia may be down, but its not out. And Ukraine and the international community is going to have to keep dealing with Russia over the longer term.

ezra klein

Lets talk about the state of the Russian economy, then. I have seen wildly varying, wildly, wildly varying analyzes of where they are and where theyre headed, everything from one team of researchers saying economic oblivion looms, others saying theyre really managing to skirt around the kinds of recession or collapse that people thought was likely a couple of months ago. What is your sense of where they are now and where theyre going in the nearest term?

andrea kendall-taylor

So the Russian economy has definitely taken a hit. I think the estimate that I put the most confidence in is the I.M.F.s estimate, which estimates that the Russian economy  that Russian G.D.P. will shrink by 6 percent in 2022. And as weve talked about, though, that will likely continue as export controls and other sanctions are continued to be felt in the coming years. And you can see the economic effects inside Russia on a lot of their industry. Car manufacturers, for example, dont have parts. Lada is no longer being produced with airbags. I mean, theyre having to do all sorts of shortcuts. The airline industry inside Russia in particular has been hit especially hard. So there are economic ramifications, and there are kind of real economic effects of the sanctions that have been put in place. But I think it is wrong to assume that the Russian economy will implode. I mean, lets not forget that Russia is still selling oil and gas. And even though the European Union, European countries are investing heavily in diversifying away from Russian oil and gas, that will take some time. And other countries, like India, China, they continue to buy Russian oil and gas, such that Russias government revenues havent been especially hit. I am seeing that they are declining over time, but it hasnt been disastrous. And so I dont think that in the near term were going to see an implosion of the Russian economy  but rather, its kind of like a slow asphyxiation. And the thing that I worry about which relates to this Russia down, but not out is as Russia is kind of written out of the economic international system, as they are no longer a stakeholder in that economic system, it allows them to flout the rules in different ways. I think it will only kind of embolden more aggressive behavior. And so thats the thing again  yes, it will be economically weaker. The other thing we should remember, Ezra, is that Russia has never been an economic powerhouse, and yet theyve still been able to challenge U.S. interests seriously in the past. I mean, people love to say that Russias economy is the size of Italy, or whatever small European country. But I think these raw economic indicators have never been a good measure of Russias ability to wreak havoc and to complicate and to challenge the United States. And so yes, it is important to focus on its economic fundamentals. And we do hope that sanctions will constrict and constrain, and make it more difficult for them to build and grow their defense, industrial base, and their military. But I think we have to understand that this threat doesnt subside even as the Russian economy declines.

ezra klein

One thing you see is that Putin has a theory of maybe what the shock could be in the West. Hes thought that Russian energy exports are significant enough, particularly to Europe, that if he really ratchets the pain up on Europe, maybe support for Ukraine will crumble. So far, its been a consistent miscalculation, I think, that the West has been willing to take more upheaval economically than he anticipated. But Russia did just cut exports to Europe pretty substantially, saying the big Nord Stream pipeline  number one  is having technical issues, and so they cant put the gas through it, which nobody really seems to believe. What do you think of that move, both in its potential to affect European support for Ukraine, but also for what it means for Russia going forward? I mean, it does seem like a way in which they are long term detaching themselves from exactly the kinds of economic supports that have kept them afloat in recent decades.

andrea kendall-taylor

Yes. And you are right again. Weve talked about all the ways that Putin has miscalculated. He has most certainly miscalculated on the Wests cohesion and resolve to stand up to him. What we understand now is that Putin is banking on this winter. He is trying to make this winter as painful and as cold and as expensive as possible for Europeans, in the hope that they will pressure their governments to stop providing military and economic support to Ukraine. Thats the play. And that was what President Zelensky was acutely aware of when he wanted to wage this counteroffensive, to try to demonstrate that Ukraine can win. He understood Putins playbook. He was genuinely worried that it could be effective, and he wanted to pre-empt that. And I think hes done that very successfully. The thing I will say, in Europe  I mean, we shouldnt kid ourselves. It will be a long, hard winter for most Europeans. And weve already seen some protests in the Czech Republic, and in some places in Germany, where because of very high inflation with energy prices and all of these things, that people are dissatisfied with their governments. And some are questioning whether or not their government should continue to provide support to Ukraine. So its already happening, and it hasnt even gotten terribly cold yet. So we shouldnt be fooled that this isnt a really important time for this war, and for sustained European support. That said, if you look at polling in places like Germany, where Putin has just cut the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, you hear from most Germans, for example, that they are willing to pay a cost in order to support Ukrainians. You have a lot of governments in Eastern Europe who are telling their publics that we might have to pay a little bit out of our pocketbooks, but the Ukrainians are paying dearly with their lives and the destruction of their country. So I am optimistic. I think this is another time where Putin will have grossly miscalculated. I am optimistic that even though we might have some turbulence ahead in Europe, and maybe in the United States, that the support for Ukraine will persist. To your next question, though, about is this in Russias long term interests, or are they kind of cutting themselves out of the system? Thats exactly right, and it raises all sorts of questions about what Russias future will be. Because they are cutting oil and gas, they have obviously now demonstrated that they are not a reliable supplier of oil and gas. If there were any questions in Europe, which there were, it is painfully obvious now. And so they are moving away from Russian oil and gas. And that will be consequential for Russia, not just in terms of lost revenues over time, but it also takes away Russias leverage that it once had over Europe. And that too will leave Russia in a weaker position over time.

ezra klein

I just think the future now of the Russian economy looks unbelievably dire. They have proven themselves an inconsistent and dangerous supplier of energy to their main customers. So those customers are not going to come back at the level they were. Theyve accelerated the decarbonization efforts of the West. Theyre seeing a huge brain drain of talented Russians who want no part of this, and are trying to get out and get their money out. They are under punishing and at this point indefinite sanctions that are reducing the technological and productive capacity of the economy, so innovation and specialization and all the other things you need to grow and be competitive are weakened. When you think about what this has cost them, not just now, but in 10 years and 15 years, it seems fundamentally catastrophic to me. But at the same time, it has also been catastrophic for not just Ukraines people, but the Ukrainian economy. And I want to read a quote here from the economic historian Adam Tooze, whos been tracking the financial flows of the war very closely. And he writes, quote, to put it simply, Ukraine cannot afford the war it is fighting. The aid it is receiving, the substantial, is an order of magnitude smaller than Russias fossil fuel earnings, and is entirely inadequate to cover the running costs of the war. As a result, Kyiv is resorting to financing the war by printing money. It can only be a matter of months before Kyiv faces crippling choices between continuing to fight the war and upholding any semblance of normal economic life on the home front. How do you assess both Ukraines economy, but also its economic resilience to continue fighting this war?

andrea kendall-taylor

I think this has been a very overlooked aspect of this war. The Western media really has not focused so much on the economic picture as it has the conditions on the battlefield, and the need to provide Ukraine with more military aid. And this idea about a weakened Ukrainian economy is not lost on Vladimir Putin. I mean, I think this is, in fact, part of the plan, that if you can undermine Ukraines economy, it leaves Ukraine vulnerable for a very long time to future Russian aggression and to Russian influence. And so it is, I think in many ways  and people have framed this conflict between Russia and Ukraine as a competition between democracy versus autocracy. I subscribe to that. And this period of, a, in the immediate kind of economic support to Ukraine, but in the longer term, reconstruction, is really critical. And were all going to have to think so much harder about this, because in the end, the goal is that we walk away  that the Ukrainians are given an economically successful, strong democracy. Thats kind of the stakes with this. And I think we shouldnt underestimate just how impactful an economically strong, democratically successful Ukraine can be. In a lot of political science literature, theres this great finding that regime type  so autocracy versus democracy  that regime type tends to converge in certain regions. And so if the United States and the Western backers working with the Ukrainians can get Ukraine into an economically viable, democratically successful place, it is likely to have ripple effects that emanate throughout the region. And so Im thinking of Moldova, which has made its democratic transition, but is still, I think, a vulnerable democracy  but especially other countries in the region, like Armenia, like Azerbaijan, like Belarus. And with a successful anchor in Ukraine, it could help bring democracy to this region, which is so sorely needed in a time where weve talked for the last 15 years about democracy being in peril. Freedom House has talked  for 15 years straight, weve seen a decline in democracy scores. And the way that these things tend to work is in cascades, right? Huntington talked about the waves to and from democracy. And we know that democracy has been in peril for a very long time. But if we can help Ukraine finish the job and ensure it is resilient to future attacks from Russia, and a successful democracy, I think it has the possibility that it could kind of trigger a wave again towards democracy, or at least leave that region a better place.

ezra klein

I think thats actually a pretty rich point. So before we keep going to the Ukrainian economy, I want to talk about it for a minute  this idea that this isnt simply a humanitarian impulse on the part of the West, but actually something is owed to Ukraine here, that theyre playing at incredible, incredible human cost a really important geostrategic role. The historian Timothy Snyder has a new essay out in Foreign Affairs, which I really recommend people read. He makes this analogy to World War II, which Im always careful about doing, about how differently things might have gone if Czechoslovakia hadnt fallen so easily, if the leaders had held, if the Allies had held, if the Nazis had gotten bogged down there instead of having a lightning victory that convinced the world of their power and strength. And I dont want to overdraw that, but I think if you  in addition to the question of showing a model, both in terms of values and, ultimately, in terms of rebuilding of democracy, but also as being a warning to other autocratic states thinking about expansion. If you imagine China here, the difference between Ukraine falling in days and the quagmire that Russia now finds itself involved in, it cant make China feel a lot more excited about invading Taiwan. And to the extent it pushes a conflict there off, its of tremendous global value to the rest of the world. So theres something here about what Ukraine has borne for everyone else that I do think should change the calculus a little bit, from something where we look at this almost as charity, to  this has been a very cheap form of national defense and international limit reinforcement.

andrea kendall-taylor

Yeah, I agree. I love Tim Snyders work. I havent read that essay, and I will. But I think it is such an important point. And the way that Ive talked about it, which maybe sounds similar to the way Tim Snyder did, is  I mean, I think that Ukraine has given Europe, the United States and liberal democracies a great gift. And I think to understand just what a gift its been, you have to imagine the counterfactual, which is kind of what you were talking about, Ezra. Imagine that Ukraine fell quickly in the earliest days of the war, as many people thought. If that had happened, I think we would be living in a very different world. We would have a Putin who was emboldened. Like, he would be even more convinced now that might makes right, and that borders can be changed through the use of military force. I think he would be entirely convinced, if he hadnt been convinced already, that the West will not stand up to him. Like, he had already learned that lesson. There was Georgia in 2008, Ukraine, 2014, his attack on the U.S. election in 2016. But now 

ezra klein

His intervention in Syria.

andrea kendall-taylor

And the intervention in Syria. I think he understood that, but here, with the stakes so high, he would have deeply understood that. And so he would have been ever more confident to step up his efforts to undermine liberal democracy. We know this is a Putin goal. We know that he fears democracy. We know that he sees democracy as something the United States does just to spread its own influence. We know that he views liberal democracy as a threat to his own regime. If Ukraine had fallen, we would be facing an ever more aggressive Russia. I think if Ukraine had fallen, it also would have been a disaster, or at least a tremendous strain, on the trans-Atlantic alliance. We already see some divisions now, but it would have been far worse. And so Putin, again, would have succeeded in another objective, which is breaking the cohesion in Europe, and between the United States and Europe. And just as you said, Ezra, it would have been a very clear signal to other autocrats, especially Xi, that again, this point that might make right, and that you can change borders by force. So for all of these reasons, it really is a tremendous gift that Ukrainians have given. And its up to us to help make something of it. And weve talked about the ripple effects it could have in the region. But I think that point is really important. Some countries  the Poles, for example  understand this acutely. Its why theyve been so forward leaning in sending military aid to Ukraine. They understand that their own security is at stake. And so I hope that the rest of Europe and liberal democracies everywhere can understand how important it is.

ezra klein

So I want to put some numbers to this. In August, inflation in Ukraine reached 23 percent year on year. By the end of the year, the central bank has warned it could reach 30 percent. Prior to the war, severe poverty, which were defining here as making below $5.50 per person, per day  thats obviously very, very little money  that was pretty rare in Ukraine. At this point, the share of Ukrainians falling below that poverty line is expected to increase tenfold, to at least 21 percent in 2022. So 21 percent of people in Ukraine will be making less than $5.50 a day. A third of Ukrainians have been displaced, either internally or outside of Ukraines borders, by the war. I mean, this is just a tremendous amount of human suffering, even beyond the direct cost of the war, even beyond being killed by a shell or being wounded on the front lines. And then you read stats like these: so Foreign Policy magazine in early August wrote that total aid provision to Ukraine here is about $11 billion, still an order of magnitude less in payments to Russia for its hydrocarbons over the same period. A lot of the promised European aid isnt materializing. They promised about 9 billion euros. Theyve only delivered about 1 billion. Why? Why particularly has European aid been so poor, even as they are spending so much money on Russian hydrocarbons?

andrea kendall-taylor

Oh, Ezra, I wish I knew. I dont have a good answer. I dont know why  again, that point about the difference between the kind of aid that has been provided to Ukraine versus whats been paid in oil revenue, it just blows my mind every time I hear it. Just two quick points  because again, its something that President Zelensky understands very well  I mean, hes obviously fixated and focused on getting the job done on the battlefield. But hes also working very hard to get commitments from Western backers, including the I.M.F. and World Bank and other multinational institutions. But one of the things we talked at length about, and he even brought this up in the meeting that we were able to have with him, is underscoring the importance of air defense. And so of course, our discussion was more focused on the military picture, but he brought this back to the economic and human toll that Russias war is having on Ukraine. And he highlighted how important it is for the United States and European backers to provide missile and air defense, because he said he needs to protect Ukraines most important asset, and that is the Ukrainian people. So you cant disentangle kind of the battlefield with the toll that it is having on Ukrainian society, but for him, I also think top of mind is the economic picture. He needs those displaced Ukrainians, the women and children who have left, to return to Ukrainian cities so that they can engage productively in the economy. So thats really key. If theres one area that I hope that the United States and its European backers can continue to increase, it is on the air and missile defense, because that will be key to not only preventing future destruction, but giving Ukrainians some peace of mind that its OK to return and to be productively engaged inside Ukraine. The other point is, I think the right frame  again goes back to our conversation  is this is an investment in our future. And its that idea that by investing in Ukraines economy to get them back on their feet, and to see that they are democratically successful, its not just  its not a feel good thing. It is an investment in our own future. And I hope that is a frame through which, or a lens through which, people are seeing this challenge through.

ezra klein

But that makes the European response here weirder, because as much as it is an investment in our future, this is a land war in Europe. Its really an investment much more directly in their future. And theyre being much worse on the aid. I mean, the excuse from the Europeans is that it has been held up in wrangling over the exact form, and loans, and grants. Zelensky has been searing on this. I want to read a quote from him: Every day and in various ways, I remind some leaders of the European Union that Ukrainian pensioners, our displaced persons, our teachers, and other people who depend on budget payments cannot be held hostage to their indecision or bureaucracy. Such an artificial delay of macro financial assistance to our state is either a crime or a mistake, and it is difficult to say, which is worse in such conditions of a full-scale war. And something hes pointing out there  its not like Europe is not promising this money. It is not like they have said this is not worth doing. Their excuse is that they are haggling over its form. There was a lot of hope early on that we were seeing a new Europe emerging. Germany was making this big investment in defense. There was a move towards decarbonization. And in many ways, it seems like the old Europe is re-emerging. Which of those narratives, if either, do you think is true?

andrea kendall-taylor

I think a new Europe is emerging, but its different than what you said. I think its a Europe in which the center of gravity of Europe is moving east. You hear that a lot, when you talk to especially East Europeans, who have been on the forefront, banging pots and pans in trying to cajole the Western Europeans to step up and do more. Weve talked about the cohesion and the strength of the trans-Atlantic response. And I think thats true. That is part of the story, for sure. And especially early in the war, I think Europe was even out in front of the United States in some cases with some of the sanctions packages. And at the beginning of the war, it was amazing to watch that the Western democracies could move as quickly and as boldly as they did. But that has given way  and as you said, there have been promises that havent been followed through. So now what I think we are seeing is a new Europe, where  and especially if the European Union is going to bring Ukraine into the E.U., we are seeing the shift in the center of gravity away from France and Germany, which have historically been the engine of European politics. Those two countries have been incredibly discredited within Europe by this war. People in Eastern Europe have been disappointed by Macrons sustained desire to maintain dialogue with Putin, when its been clear for a very long time that we have nothing to talk to him about at this moment in time. And the Germans, even though theyve moved towards more robust support for Ukraine, I mean, weve seen a very tremendous shift inside Germany. But most Eastern Europeans just say theyre disappointed and find that its not enough. And so those two countries, I think, in many ways have been discredited in the eyes of East Europeans. Theyve lost a lot of trust in their leadership within the E.U. And you do see this new collection of the Poles, the Finns, the Czechs  a lot of these Eastern Europeans who have been at the forefront in support for Ukraine pulling the rest of Europe along. And I think that is likely to have a lasting impact on the Europe that emerges from this crisis. [MUSIC PLAYING]

ezra klein

I want to go back to something that we touched on a bit at the beginning, which is how as the war has changed, the negotiating positions, the possible end games that could be accepted by the two sides have changed. And I think for much of the war, we saw Putin as the primary actor here. But I think Zelensky is now very much  or if not the primary actor here. So you are saying that his war aims have expanded, up to and including taking Crimea back from Russia. How has that changed? I mean, do you think that where Zelensky is, given where his politics are, given how many of his people have been killed by the Russians, do you think there is a settlement the Russians could ultimately accept, that he could accept  or this really does have to be either a battlefield victory, loss, or stalemate now to find equilibrium?

andrea kendall-taylor

Its the million dollar question. Yes, I think his position has changed. I think back earlier in the war, there was a moment in time where the Russians and Ukrainians had the contours of some notional deal. And there was at least some sort of agreement there that they were at least discussing, that I think involved some sort of territorial concessions and exchange of Ukrainian neutrality. At that time, it was the Russians who felt emboldened in the war, who thought that they were on the march, who thought that time was on their side, and had no interest in moving forward with those types of negotiations or discussions. You had Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, not so long ago before the counteroffensive, talking about how the kind of geography of the battle had changed, and that therefore Russia was actually looking not just to take all of Donbas, but was interested in territory outside that region. So again, the war aims are often tied to whats going on in the battlefield. And as you mentioned now, things have very much swung to the Ukrainian side. And Zelensky has moved in his position. As I understand it, his line now is that hes not willing to seriously negotiate with the Russians until they are off of all Ukrainian soil. And thats his going in position. And I think it reflects his confidence in Ukraines ability to militarily defeat Russia over the longer term. Again, we can debate that. Its probably optimistic to say that the Ukrainians have the ability to repel Russians from all of their soil. But in this moment in time, thats where we are. So its hard to say exactly where we will come out. Its still very difficult for me to imagine that the Ukrainians would agree to give Russia any territory beyond what they held prior to February 24. But again, at this moment in time, the Ukrainians are looking past that. And Zelensky is talking very confidently about bringing Crimea back into Ukraine, because Crimea is Ukraine. And he is intent at this point in time on restoring Ukraines territorial integrity.

ezra klein

If I go back to the theories of how the war could worsen from early on, though, as much as I understand  and his case, Im sure, would have the same position as Zelensky, although not his bravery or courage or capabilities. It does seem like you can imagine a danger there. I think a strong early view was that the one thing Putin cannot accept is humiliation. He cannot accept something that in Russia would be seen as a true loss, and that he will do anything  and youve talked about this broader range of armaments he actually has and could put into play  to forestall that. And it also sounds like what youre saying is that there is very little Zelensky at this point could accept  and I think morally, this makes total sense  than Russias complete humiliation and a total loss. And when you try to match those two together, it is hard to imagine an endgame to this war, while it is easier  maybe, Ill say  to imagine ways this war could turn yet more catastrophic. So Im curious how you see those ideas matching up.

andrea kendall-taylor

I think youve put your finger on why its so hard to forecast how this war will evolve into the future, because I can imagine different scenarios  one in which Putin really could change his definition of victory and bring the war to a rapid end. I mean, I do think that is possible. Putin has such control over his domestic media. So few Russians are actually paying attention to whats happening in Ukraine. I was shocked at some recent Levada polling. And I dont remember what it is off of the top of my head, but a declining number of Russians are even paying attention at all to the war that is raging on their border. So in my mind, if perhaps we get to a point where Putin really does see that this is going badly, that hes never going to accomplish his objectives, maybe he strings it out for a very long time to ensure that Russians arent paying attention, and then tries to somehow extract himself from the situation while calling it a victory. Thats plausible to me. Its also plausible  what you said, Ezra  is that there are a series of ways that Russia could escalate this war, including through the use of a nuclear weapon. And its the Crimea question that probably makes me the most nervous about those possibilities, because Crimea is so kind of personally important to Putin. Its how he has staked his legacy, that hes brought Crimea back. And Russians approved of that. So when he illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Putins public approval went through the roof, up into the high 80 percents. And thats something that made Russians feel good about themselves, and that Russia was a power to be feared, and that they could stand up to the West. So I think Crimea plays a different role in the psyche of Russians. And so losing Crimea, for Putin, could be catastrophic for him. And I think he would likely see that if he lost Crimea, he would have lost his legitimacy as a leader. I think he would potentially see it as calling into question the persistence, the viability of his own regime. And so you do get into scary territory where you worry about his use of a nuclear weapon. I come back to the point that I made earlier, which is that Ukrainians are undeterred by that. And again, you heard to the person that if Russia uses a nuclear weapon, it will not change the outcome of the war. It will not change how Ukrainians fight the war. It will only increase the costs. And so thats where we are. But there are these scenarios, and it is extremely difficult to assign probabilities to which way it could go. And again, thats what you get with these personalist dictators. I mean, these decisions are being made by Putin. And an incredibly small group, if anyone, is even weighing in at this point, on that level. And they make volatile decisions. These decisions are up to their own personal whims. And so getting into the head of Vladimir Putin and trying to understand, will he mobilize? Will he use a nuclear weapon? Its really, really hard to game that out. And thats why so many people have been reticent to make predictions about how the war will go, because its really hard.

ezra klein

One thing I find difficult to assess is the extent of Putins control of the narrative. So he controls Russias media. Hes jailed journalists. He has shut down independent media. At the same time, you hear a lot about narrative challenge that is emerging on his right from these battlefield bloggers and ultra nationalists who are the true believers. And in part, because theyre the true believers, theyre the most angry, and in certain ways I think the hardest to censor. Igor Girkin, whos this ultra nationalist who led Russias offensive in Donbas in 2014, he predicted to his almost half million subscribers on Telegram a complete defeat for Russian troops, where he said, weve already lost, the rest is just a matter of time. You hear now a lot about this revolt from Putins right, from these people who are angry because they believed in Putins more maximalist vision of an expanded Russia, or Russia restored to something like a former glory. And all the reporting, I hear, is that they have become bolder. And so I wonder if Putin really has the ability to shut down the pressure on his right.

andrea kendall-taylor

Yeah, thats again such an important question. And the way that Ive thought about it is the way we talked about earlier. You know, hes flanked by these two potential pockets of opposition. Theres all the Russians who have been cowed, I think in many ways, by the repression because the costs have been so significant for saying anything. So its hard to understand the discontent that is on that end of the spectrum. But as you said, and this is kind of a mystery to me, why the Kremlin hasnt tried to shut down the opposition thats coming from the right. And as youre saying, you know, Igor Girkin  I read that quote, but its also permeated into Russian state media, where you see some of these talk shows where analysts are critical of the war, and saying that Putin hasnt gone far enough. And so to me, its a mystery why the Kremlin has allowed that to flourish or to continue the way that it has. Thats part of why I believe that Putins hold on power is less than it was before the war started. He faces challenges coming from multiple different directions. And I do think that he will have a hard time managing those groups. That said, the big question is, what would be their capacity to unseat Putin? Do they have ties with the security services, to people who have access to weapons? So I think thats where we are, is Putin facing these two pockets of opposition. And its really hard to gauge where it will go from here. But my sense is that Putins hold on power is far less secure today than it was before he launched this invasion. And when Ive looked at how these longtime autocrats leave power  so Ive done a bunch of research with a colleague of mine, Erica Frantz at Michigan State. We looked at, well, how do longtime autocrats, these personalist dictators like Putin  in power, 20 years and more  how do they leave office? And the most likely trajectory, and this is what I would have told you before the invasion, is that they die in office, right? That they stay so long, theyre so secure, the regime is in such equilibrium that theyre able to hold on until the very end, until they die in office. And that was actually the case in 40 percent of the post-Cold War cases that we looked at. And if you actually looked at older dictators, these guys who are 65 years and older, personalists in power 20 years or more, half of them, 50 percent die in office. So thats what I would have told you before this war. But my sense now is his hold on power is less than it was.

ezra klein

I think we often understand wars as narratives or as stories. We read military histories, and theyre about something that begins at one point and concludes at another. I think a lot of the narrative of this war, the way it gets reported in the media, lends itself to story line  right, who will win? Who will lose? What will the end be? But something that can happen for  I mean, this is a pretty young conflict  something that can happen for years, for decades, is simply stalemate, that there is a defensible amount of territory Russia has gained, that there is an offensive that Ukraine has been able to make, and its able to hold most of its country. But that nothing really ends  the sanctions on Russia simply continue. The fights on both sides, and skirmishes, go to a lower level, but they continue. The threat of total war is always present. How do you rate the possibility of no real end here in the foreseeable future, but a very, very unhappy stalemate?

andrea kendall-taylor

Ezra, I think thats the most likely outcome. You know, of course, weve talked about Ukraines ability over the very long term to win this war. It could happen sooner rather than later. But I do think that most likely, we are still looking at a long, grinding war. And of course, the counteroffensive was a huge success, but we have to be realistic and acknowledge that Ukraine still has a very long way to go in terms of taking back territory. Russia still holds large swaths of Ukrainian territory. You take the counteroffensive that Ukraine is waging in the South as an example, Russia has more advanced, more capable fighters who are fighting in the south. The positions that they hold there, theyre more dug in. They have more defensible positions than they had in the north, where they were overrun. So I think it is also plausible that looking at Ukrainian momentum, that Russia could retreat to more defensible positions and hold that line for a very long time. Again, getting back to the winter, maybe if they can retreat to a more defensible position, hold those lines, and make it through the winter, then if theyre able to regenerate some of their forces, then maybe Putin would be willing to try to reclaim more territory again sometime next year. So again, yes, Ukraine has seized the initiative, that momentum at this time seems to be on their side. But we do have to be realistic, to say that they have a long way to go. And so again, your scenario of a long, grinding kind of borderland war to me is still the most likely scenario.

ezra klein

I think that is a sobering but realistic place to end. As always, our final question, what are three books that you would recommend to the audience?

andrea kendall-taylor

In large part, Ill say  I have three kids at the moment, Ezra, and I dont do a ton of reading. But the book that I have just started, and its a long slog, so Im not so far through it is Steve Kotkins first in his series on Stalin. And I have just started that, and its remarkable. I love reading that book because its one where I feel like I can hear the author almost like narrating  I hear Steve Kotkin in his writing, which is amazing. So that is a remarkable one  again, gives a lot of context, a lot of fodder for understanding where we are today. And then, Ezra, thats kind of all Ive read in a really long time. And I hope people appreciate my honesty of being in this phase of my life. I am so inundated with this war for the last kind of nine months or so, focused so much on reading kind of the day to day and keeping abreast of whats happening that I have honestly let my longer reading slide.

ezra klein

Well, let me ask you one alternative question here, which is are there things that you read to keep up on the war that a casual consumer, but an interested consumer of the news may not? Are there sources that youve come to really trust that you would commend the rest of us to bookmark?

andrea kendall-taylor

I have learned who to follow on Twitter. And I think that having that has been a remarkable resource. I obviously listen a lot to Mike Kofman, to Rob Lee. I listen a lot to Mick Ryan. I think the I.S.W. has done a remarkable job putting out regular installments and updates of the war. So I have found that kind of following trusted sources to help curate whats going on has been remarkably helpful, so thats kind of how I keep up.

ezra klein

And well put those Twitter accounts in the show description. Andrea Kendall-Taylor, thank you very much.

andrea kendall-taylor

Thank you for having me. [MUSIC PLAYING]

ezra klein
RAMALLAH, West Bank  Just after 3 a.m. on Aug. 18, Israeli soldiers blasted open the locked doors of Al-Haq, the oldest and largest human rights organization in the occupied Palestinian territories, for which I serve as general director. The soldiers ransacked the administrative and finance departments, the meeting room and my office. When they were done, the soldiers sealed the offices with a reinforced iron door welded into place. On the door, they posted a military order declaring that Al-Haq is an illegal group.

A few hours later, as I took in what was happening, my phone started beeping with messages that soldiers had also invaded and sealed off the offices of six other leading Palestinian organizations, including Defense for Children International-Palestine, the Union of Palestinian Womens Committees, the Bisan Center for Research and Development and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association. This was an escalation in Israels campaign against us  last October, it labeled six of our organizations terrorist entities and tried to choke off the international funding we receive.

Israels attempts to suppress Al-Haq are based on false claims that I am a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which Israel and the United States consider a terrorist organization. When I was a university student, I was briefly involved in student activities with the Popular Front and in 1985, I was convicted by an Israeli military court of assisting the group. I was imprisoned for nine months.

In the years that followed, while I was working as a field researcher for Al-Haq, I spent a total of about eight years in Israeli prisons without charges or a trial, and endured abuse. And throughout much of the 1990s and for six years after I became the head of Al-Haq in 2006, Israel repeatedly banned me from traveling abroad. This treatment was condemned by Amnesty International, which declared me a prisoner of conscience in 1990, as well as by Human Rights Watch and others.
My aunt cried inconsolably when Mr. Putin announced his invasion in February to liberate the Donbas from Ukraines so-called neo-Nazi regime. She never asked him to be liberated, she told me tearfully then in phone calls; she just wanted to live peacefully in her country. But when the invasion started and I urged her to leave, she was resolute: Theyd stayed this long, she said, what was the point of leaving now? Already in their 70s, my aunt and uncle couldnt see themselves restarting their lives somewhere new.

For me, an immigrant to the United States who was born in Ukraine and grew up between Moscow and California, their attachment to their land even as bombs fell around them was hard to understand. And yet, I have to admit that their life in the seven months since Mr. Putins invasion hasnt been that different from the previous eight years of war. There were quiet days when they could sleep through the distant shelling and loud nights when they woke up cursing or their cat defecated in fear. In the summer, they also had many hot days when there was no running water. Whatever was thrown their way, they made do. Every time I called to ask how they were, my aunt inevitably quipped, Weve survived another day!

At one point my brother, who until recently lived in Moscow, invited them to stay with him. But my aunt and uncle refused. For them, their haphazard existence in a shelled city that Ukraine was fighting to retake seemed like a better alternative to living peacefully under the thumb of the invader.

Whenever my aunt and I have talked about whether there would be a referendum, she has laughed nervously and joked about whether, depending on the outcome, Russia would want to keep them. The Donbas is not like Crimea, a pretty and popular resort destination on the Black Sea, she said. (Crimea was annexed in 2014 with the support of many Russians.) Mr. Putins sights would be set on a much bigger goal than annexing an industrial region in eastern Ukraine famous for coal mining.

But now, after seven months of a war that has not gone as Mr. Putin planned, making the part of Ukraine where my family has lived since the 1950s part of Russia is finally on the table.
Mr. Trump and his allies have set about removing and replacing these public servants, through elections and appointments, with more like-minded officials. In some cases, the effort has failed. (In Georgias Republican primary this year, Mr. Trump backed a losing candidate in a vendetta against Mr. Raffensperger.) But in other states, Republicans have embraced election deniers as candidates, including for secretary of state.

In Nevada, the Republican secretary of state nominee, Jim Marchant, maintains that the 2020 presidential race was rigged and that he would not have certified Mr. Bidens win in Nevada. He blames voting fraud for his own failed House run that year and has said that Nevada voters havent truly elected their leaders in years because the system is so rigged.

Mr. Marchant is a part of the America First Secretary of State Coalition, whose candidates are campaigning for measures that would make it more difficult for Americans to vote, such as by limiting voting to a single day and aggressively purging voter rolls. They have the financial backing of pro-Trump election deniers including Mike Lindell, the founder of MyPillow, and Patrick Byrne, the former chief executive of Overstock.com.

The Republicans pick in Michigan, Kristina Karamo, is also an America First candidate. She gained political notice with her unsubstantiated claims to have witnessed election fraud as a poll watcher in Detroit in 2020. She has also promoted the baseless conspiracy theories that Dominion voting machines flipped votes in Mr. Bidens favor and that Jan. 6 was a false flag operation conducted by antifa posing as Trump supporters.

The most outrageous G.O.P. choice may be Arizonas Mark Finchem. Mr. Finchem has in the past identified as a member of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia group, and he spoke at a QAnon convention last year. He was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, although he denies being within about 500 yards of the building. As a member of the Arizona House of Representatives, he introduced a resolution this year to decertify the 2020 election in multiple counties, and was a sponsor of a bill to empower the Republican-led Legislature to overturn election results.

Mr. Finchem wants to ban early voting and put limits on mail-in voting. In April, he filed a federal lawsuit, backed by Mr. Lindell, to block the use of electronic vote-counting machines in Arizona in the midterms. (It was dismissed.)

Installing election deniers as top election officials is just one element of this plan. Much less visible, but just as important, is the so-called precinct strategy, in which Trump allies are recruiting supporters to flood the system by signing up to work in low-level election positions such as poll workers. A prominent promoter of the precinct strategy was Steve Bannon, the former Trump adviser. Last year, Mr. Bannon rallied the listeners of his War Room podcast to sign up as precinct committee members. Were going to take this back village by village  precinct by precinct, he proclaimed in May 2021.
This terrible situation has induced not humility in Putin but audacity. In his speech to the Russian people this week, he portrayed the operation in Ukraine as a defensive measure against Western forces that want to divide and destroy Russia. He signaled that he considers Crimea part of Russia and will regard eastern Ukraine as part of Russia too. Hell view attacks in those regions as attacks on Russia itself, especially if they are made by Ukrainian forces using American weapons. The crucial passage in his speech was this: In the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country and to defend Russia and our people, we will certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us. This is not a bluff.

American officials are now preparing for all the ways Putin could escalate the war, if he pretends Russia itself is being invaded. He could lob missiles onto American installations in Poland and elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe. He could escalate in space by destroying satellites. He could launch a missile strike against a NATO ally. And of course he could use a tactical nuclear weapon  perhaps on a Ukrainian town, on a Ukrainian military unit or just in an open field to show he means business.

The intent would be to intimidate the West into ceasing all support for Ukraine.

American officials dont seem to know whether Putin will or wont use nukes, but they are taking the possibility quite seriously. In their communications with the Russians, they are trying to convey that any use of nuclear weapons would put the world in a very different place. They are not talking about what their contingency plans are in such a circumstance, but they imply they are grave.

Overall, American strategy is to help the Ukrainians defeat the Russian invasion, but slowly. The idea is to hit a series of singles, not go for a crushing home run. American officials dont want to self-deter  that is, be intimidated by Putins threats. On the other hand, they dont want to trigger him into doing something rash. They dont want Gotterdammerung, a situation in which a desperate Putin decides to pull the whole world down around him. They are trying to control the pace of the war so that Russia is pushed back from Ukraine gradually.

Controlling the pace of a war sounds really hard, but the weather will help. By late October and November, Ukraine turns muddy and it is difficult to launch offensive operations. Over time, and maybe next year, the Ukrainians can gradually take advantage of their advantages: They are fighting to defend their homeland, they have a flexible, decentralized command structure, their air defenses have mostly prevented the Russians from doing combined air and land operations, and they have much better intelligence, thanks to Western assistance.
Two weeks ago, Roxane Chantereau, the co-founder of the JACK Primate Rehabilitation Center in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, awoke before sunrise to the buzz of incoming WhatsApp messages. Someone had sent her a disturbing video showing two baby chimpanzees scuttering across a squalid dirt floor strewn with toppled furniture. The video panned across the room to show a third chimpanzee standing on a dresser with her arms chained over her head.

In three voice messages, the senders threatened to kill the chimpanzees unless Ms. Chantereau paid them a six-figure sum. They also threatened to kill her and kidnap her two children.

Ms. Chantereau recognized the young chimpanzees in the video as Monga, Cesar and Hussein. The animals had just been abducted from JACK, a wildlife sanctuary Ms. Chantereau, a Belgian citizen, runs with her French husband, Franck. The center provides a haven for 40 chimpanzees and 64 monkeys of 14 species, all rescued from Congos illegal wildlife trade.

Illegal wildlife trafficking is all too common in Congo. But the chimp-napping is the first time that a primate is known to have been stolen from a sanctuary anywhere in Africa and held for ransom. While an endangered pangolin was held for ransom earlier this year in another region of the country, it was captured from a forest rather than abducted from a high-security facility. The two incidents worry the countrys experts in wildlife crime, who fear that kidnapping of animals for ransom may become a tactic used by more criminals in Congo.
Growing up, barbershops were a place of stress for Everett Leroy Long Jr. Theyre super hyper masculine areas, he said, that didnt always make him feel at ease as a queer man.

But a barbershop is where his love story with Fred Otis Smith Jr. began in October 2015.

Mr. Long, then a part-time instructor at the University of Georgia, and Mr. Smith, who was working as an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley, were each getting a haircut at Browns Barber Shop in Athens, Ga., when Mr. Longs barber suggested that the two meet because they had similar careers.

We kept it very professional, said Mr. Smith, who graduated from Harvard and holds a law degree from Stanford University. A graduate of Wake Forest University, Mr. Long received a masters degree in journalism and mass communications and a Ph.D. in health behavior and promotion from the University of Georgia.

They later connected on LinkedIn but didnt see one another again until January 2017, at a mutual friends birthday party in Atlanta, where each had moved by then.
For a floral designer, Australias geographic isolation is a complicated legacy. The countrys native plants, like its fauna, are unique in their often outlandish beauty but, traditionally, arrangements here have tended toward the staid and vasebound, reflecting European cultures that shaped the continents contemporary identity. Floristry has been largely influenced by old-school British style, with roses, carnations and tulips flown in from Holland.

Only recently have Australian designers come to embrace modernity and sculptural creativity in their arrangements, rediscovering native flora and making connections between installation art and floristry. At Sydneys Mayflower restaurant, the pastel pink ceiling is adorned with the work of Amy Thai, 29, the owner of a three-year-old studio called Don de LAmour. Here, more than 3,000 electric blue handcrafted paper butterflies nestle and swoop among clouds of tawny dried hydrangeas. Like many Australian floral artists, Thai gained inspiration from going abroad, moving to Paris for 18 months and training there.
When the police pounded the door before dawn at a home in northwest Germany, a bleary-eyed young man in his boxer shorts answered. The officers asked for his father, who was at work.

They told him that his 51-year-old father was accused of violating laws against online hate speech, insults and misinformation. He had shared an image on Facebook with an inflammatory statement about immigration falsely attributed to a German politician. Just because someone rapes, robs or is a serious criminal is not a reason for deportation, the fake remark said.

The police then scoured the home for about 30 minutes, seizing a laptop and tablet as evidence, prosecutors said.

At that exact moment in March, a similar scene was playing out at about 100 other homes across Germany, part of a coordinated nationwide crackdown that continues to this day. After sharing images circulating on Facebook that carried a fake statement, the perpetrators had devices confiscated and some were fined.
Parading down the middle of West 63rd Street last Saturday afternoon, we were following a giant puppet  a whole crowd of us, trekking along behind Little Amal.

The 12-foot-tall Syrian refugee child, a creation of the renowned Handspring Puppet Company, was en route to Lincoln Center to greet more of her public, who would throng the wide plaza there to catch a glimpse of her with their own eyes, and capture proof of the encounter on their phones.

Fueled by a savvy social media campaign  and surely also by recent headlines about migrants and asylum seekers being bused and flown north by Republican governors  Little Amal is the hottest celebrity in New York right now, drawing masses of admirers to her dozens of scheduled appearances.

Since last year she has traveled across Europe, a sympathetic, high-profile emblem of the global migrant crisis. Her current 19-day tour of these five boroughs lasts only until Oct. 2, and as always with in-demand visitors, the time limit adds to her cachet.
Following a botched lethal injection in 2018, Alabama passed a law that gave death row prisoners a brief window in which they could choose to be killed by a method never before tried: nitrogen hypoxia, in which a person is fatally deprived of oxygen.

To Alan Eugene Miller, who was convicted of murdering three men in 1999, the untried method of suffocation sounded better than lethal injection because, after a bad experience getting blood drawn, he had come to fear needles. He said that he signed and returned a form in which he chose the new method, but that prison officials had apparently lost the form.

The state suggested he had never made the request and, saying it was not ready to carry out an execution by hypoxia in any case, sought to move forward with a lethal injection. A federal judge this week sided with Mr. Miller, ruling it was quite likely that Mr. Miller had made the request.

The judge temporarily blocked the execution, but late on Thursday night, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled him and said, in a 5-4 order without explanation, that the execution could go ahead. Prison officials began trying to insert an intravenous line into Mr. Millers veins, but he was spared when they were unable to do so before midnight, when his death warrant expired.
Mr. Blinkens career took off in 1966, when he co-founded the investment group E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Company. He remained associated with the company until being appointed ambassador in 1994. That year, The Times described Warburg, Pincus as the nations largest venture capital firm, reporting that it had $4 billion under management from blue-chip corporations, state pension funds and college endowments.

Mr. Blinken had further impact as a hobbyist with an interest in the arts.

It began with a dispute over the custodianship of hundreds of paintings by Mark Rothko after his suicide in 1970  the biggest, most publicized and most protracted legal wrangle in art-world history, The Times wrote in 1986. The contretemps inspired Legal Eagles, a movie starring Robert Redford that was released the same year.

In the mid-1970s, the executors of Rothkos estate were dismissed, and Mr. Blinken  who had begun collecting Rothkos paintings in the 1950s  became president of the Mark Rothko Foundation. He oversaw the donation of about 1,000 Rothko artworks to museums and dissolved the foundation he ran, sacrificing a potential source of personal power and avoiding any atmosphere of scandal that sometimes surrounds foundations with control over the work of canonical modern artists.

Kate Rothko, the artists daughter, pronounced the donations a very happy ending.

Donald Mayer Blinken was born on Nov. 11, 1925, in Yonkers, N.Y. His father, Maurice, was a lawyer who was credited with helping to persuade the U.S. government to support the establishment of Israel as a state. His mother, Ethel (Horowitz) Blinken, was a homemaker.

Mr. Blinken left Harvard College and joined the Army Air Corps in 1944, but the war ended before he could be sent into combat. In 1948, he graduated from Harvard with a bachelors degree in economics. He then worked in retail, including at the British company Marks & Spencer, which his father represented as a lawyer.

He married Judith Frehm, who was also from Yonkers, in 1958. Antony was born in 1962. In 1971, Donald and his wife divorced, and Antony and his mother moved to Paris. Mr. Blinken met Vera Ermer on a blind date, and they married in 1975.

Mr. Blinken saw his son during school holidays and summers, and he was able to give the future secretary of state a highly cultivated upbringing.
WASHINGTON  An apartment management company partly owned by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Donald J. Trump, has agreed to pay a $3.25 million penalty and make restitution to thousands of tenants who were overcharged fees and subject to leaks, rodents and mold infestations, the Maryland attorney general said on Friday.

Westminster Management, the property management arm of Kushner Companies, and 25 affiliated businesses that owned nearly 9,000 units across the Baltimore area have agreed to settle a 2019 lawsuit over their rental practices. The companies violated consumer protection laws by charging tenants illegal fees and failed to adequately maintain the properties, the lawsuit said.

This is a case in which landlords deceived and cheated their tenants, and then subjected them to miserable living conditions, the Maryland attorney general, Brian Frosh, a Democrat, said in a news conference announcing the settlement. The tenants were not wealthy people. Many struggled to pay the rent, keep food on the table, take care of their kids, keep everybody healthy. And Westminster used its vastly superior economic power to take advantage of them.

Under the settlement, former and current tenants at 17 properties can file claims to recover a host of fees that Mr. Frosh said the company had improperly charged them. They could also file claims with an outside arbiter, known as a special master, who can return rental payments to tenants if they faced serious maintenance issues.
WASHINGTON  A national security board on Friday cleared a Libyan man who has been held at Guantanamo Bay without charge for 20 years to be transferred to another country if one can be found to take him, continuing the Biden administrations effort to reduce the detainee population at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.

The decision in the case of Ismail Ali Faraj Ali Bakush, 54, means that diplomats are now seeking to reach security agreements for the transfer of 22 of the 36 men currently held as law of war prisoners at Guantanamo.

Mr. Bakush is the last so-called low value prisoner being held as an indefinite detainee in the war on terror that began in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. In an apparent nod to the instability of Libya, the Periodic Review Board  an interagency group with representatives from the Pentagon, the intelligence agencies and various cabinet agencies  recommended that he be transferred to a third country with strong rehabilitation capabilities, integration support and a willingness to monitor his activities and restrict his travel.

Mr. Bakush was arrested in Lahore, Pakistan, in May 2002 and sent to Guantanamo Bay three months later. A U.S. intelligence report from January described him as an explosives expert who probably provided operational support to key Al Qaeda figures. At Guantanamo, he was held as a member of the Qaeda-affiliated Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which the State Department designated as a terrorist organization from 2004 to 2015.
Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump are engaged in a behind-the-scenes legal struggle to limit the scope of a federal grand jury investigation into the role he played in seeking to overturn the 2020 election, according to people familiar with the matter.

The closed-door battle, unfolding in Federal District Court in Washington, has centered on how far Mr. Trump can go in asserting attorney-client and executive privilege as a means of keeping witnesses close to him from answering potentially damaging questions in their appearances before the grand jury, the people said.

The issue is important because it will determine how much evidence prosecutors can get from an inner circle of some of Mr. Trumps most trusted former lawyers and advisers. The outcome will help to shape the contours of the information that the Justice Department will be able to gather, as it looks into Mr. Trumps involvement in the chaotic events after the election that culminated in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

That process continues even as the Justice Department also pursues a separate criminal investigation into Mr. Trumps handling of government documents that he took with him when he left office, including hundreds marked as classified.
It was the noon hour, and children were playing outside the school, squeezing in their last few minutes of fun before lessons began. Suddenly, there came the roar of helicopters overhead.

Bhone Tayza, 7, looked up. His cousin shouted at him to run, and both of them dashed to hide in a hole in the trunk of a tamarind tree. Then Bhone Tayza remembered he had left his school bag in his classroom and ran back to get it. Soldiers started firing rockets.

When his mother heard the school had been attacked, she said she rushed to the scene, her account of her sons final moments largely corroborated by a teacher there. She begged soldiers to let her in. Mommy, she heard a familiar voice cry. A soldier allowed her into the building, where she saw her only son in a pool of blood.

I just want to die, she said he told her, in a faint voice. I cant stand the pain.

He died soon afterward, as did 10 of his fellow students.
Italys former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, said that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was pushed to invade Ukraine, remarks that drew fierce criticism days before an election.

Mr. Berlusconi, 85, is running in a coalition on the right that is favored in Sundays vote and his allies have praised the policies of controversial European leaders like Viktor Orban of Hungary. Since the invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Berlusconi had not seemed particularly supportive of his longtime friend, Mr. Putin.

But in an appearance on an evening talk show on Thursday, Mr. Berlusconi said, Putin was pushed by the Russian people, by his party, by his ministers to come up with this special operation  using the Russian leaders preferred euphemism for the war.

Mr. Berlusconi said that Russian forces were supposed to enter Ukraine and reach the capital, Kyiv, in a week in order to overturn the government and put decent people in power before returning to Russia.
Ms. Meloni is against the quotas. She argues that as a woman, she climbed the political ladder on her own and is now poised to run the country. She says that she is proof that women dont need government interference to enforce diversity.

Her supporters agreed.

They never gave her anything, she took it. She won on her own, said Lucia Loddo, 54, who was waving a banner supporting Ms. Meloni at a rally in Cagliari. She said that for women, Ms. Melonis ascent is the most beautiful thing. All of the men have been disasters. She is prepared.

About 25 percent of Italian woman voting on Sunday are expected to cast their ballots for Ms. Meloni, though pollsters failed to ask women whether her gender was a factor in their vote, which is itself telling of the attention given to women voters here. Ms. Meloni is polling at least 25 percent nationally, the highest of any candidate.

Ms. Meloni has won voters over with her down-to-earth and straight-talking manner (she often speaks in Roman dialect). But the secret to her popularity has less to do with her personality or policy proposals than that she was essentially the lone leader of a major party to stay in the opposition during the national unity government of Mario Draghi.

That allowed her to campaign in a country that is perennially looking for someone new as a fresh face, even though she has been in Parliament for nearly two decades and was a minister in a past government.
President Vladimir V. Putins surprise draft to reinforce his invasion of Ukraine ran into growing resistance across Russia on Friday as villagers, activists and even some elected officials asked why the conscription drive appeared to be hitting minority groups and rural areas harder than the big cities.

Some of the greatest anguish played out hundreds or thousands of miles away from the front line, in the Caucasus Mountains and the northeastern region of Yakutia, a sparsely populated expanse that straddles the Arctic Circle. Community leaders described remote villages where much of the working-age male population received conscription notices in recent days, leaving families that subsist off the land without men around to work ahead of the long winter.

We have reindeer herders, hunters, fishermen  we have so few of them anyway, Vyacheslav Shadrin, the chairman of the council of elders for a small Indigenous group known as the Yukaghirs, said in a phone interview. But they are the ones being drafted most of all.

Mr. Putin announced the call-up on Wednesday, describing it as a partial mobilization necessary to counter Ukraine and its Western backers, who he said were seeking Russias destruction. It was a move he had long delayed making, even as supporters of the war clamored for a draft in order to allow Russia to intensify its assault.
Image Residents of Luhansk, Ukraine, voted in a referendum organized by Russian authorities on Friday. Polling stations were installed across Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory for referendums on annexation by Russia. Credit... EPA, via Shutterstock

Russian soldiers, wearing balaclavas and wielding guns, flanked election workers. Ukrainians were forced to vote while Russian officials or their proxies stood guard. Some residents even hid in their homes, terrified that voting against Russias annexation would lead to their being abducted, or worse.

As Russia began orchestrating staged voting in referendums across Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine on Friday, Ukrainians in those areas expressed a mix of anger, defiance and fear that their homeland was being usurped by force in what they called a sham vote.

The aim of the hastily called referendums  supported by pro-Russian residents and their proxies  was apparent: to give President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia a legally bogus pretext to gobble up their country. And they brought back memories of staged votes in 2014 in Crimea that were swiftly followed by Russias annexation of the peninsula.

Ukrainian Regions Where Referendums Are Taking Place Kremlin-backed officials in four partly occupied regions of southern and eastern Ukraine are staging referendums on joining Russia. The voting is widely seen as a sham by Western officials. A similar process was held in Crimea in 2014. BELARUS POLAND RUSSIA Kyiv UKRAINE Occupied by Russia Luhansk Donetsk MOLDOVA Zaporizka ROMANIA Kherson CRIMEA BLACK SEA Seized by Russia in 2014 200 miles RUSSIA Kyiv Occupied by Russia UKRAINE Luhansk Donetsk MOLDOVA Zaporizka Kherson ROMANIA CRIMEA Seized by Russia in 2014 BLACK SEA 200 miles

Tina, 27, a freelance journalist who was visiting her fiances parents in Beryslav, in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine, said that she drove through the streets on Friday morning and saw Russian officials standing in a neighbors yard, waiting for him to fill the ballot before passing it on to someone in a nearby vehicle.

Russian officials were going door to door, she said, to deliver ballots, peering into the windows of homes that did not answer their call.

We are against these occupiers, Tina said, but we do not have a right to say no  we cannot refuse.

Tina, who said she has participated in protests against the Russian occupation, said that her fiances relatives had locked their gates and doors and turned off their lights, as Ukrainian authorities had advised. But she was worried that their address would be noted and there would be negative repercussions if they refused to answer the door.

After living side by side with them for more than six months now, we have learned that any refusal could result in a direct ticket to the basement, she said, using a phrase Ukrainians under occupation in Kherson, a port city in the countrys south, have started using to describe abductions by occupying forces.

Olha, a Ukrainian who spoke on Thursday night to friends in Enerhodar, a Russian-controlled city in southeastern Ukraine near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, said men aged 18 to 35 were being prevented from leaving the city. Echoing the concerns of many Ukrainians, she said she was nervous that Russian annexation would force young men to join the Russian military and fight against fellow Ukrainians. That has already happened in parts of Luhansk and Donetsk occupied by Russia since 2014.

They want to conscript them to the Russian armed forces, Olha said. And Ukrainians will have to fight against Ukrainians, she said, stopping as she broke into tears. Like others interviewed for this article, she did not want to use her full name out of concern for her safety.

Andriy, 44, who has friends and relatives in Kherson, said he had spoken to them in recent days and they had told him that it wasnt possible to leave the city because of the referendum.

You know, those who are smart, they sit at home and dont go anywhere, he said by phone from Kyiv.

Image Residents of Luhansk, Ukraine, waited to vote at a polling station set up for this weeks referendum on whether to be annexed by Russia. Credit... Associated Press

In Russian-occupied Melitopol, in southeastern Ukraine, Natalia, 73, a pensioner, said that the referendums had shocked her.

The scariest thing is that after the referendum, if Ukraine tries to liberate my city, it will be considered as an attack on Russia, she said.

She said the Russians had set up information booths about the referendum across Melitopol, and had hung banners with pro-Russian slogans. The city, she said, was covered with Russian flags, and patriotic Russian music played.

On Friday, she said, she looked out the window of her apartment and saw two pro-Russian referendum workers entering the building. She remained inside, far from the window, to avoid being seen. But she managed to spot two soldiers, each wearing a balaclava and clutching a gun, escorting three referendum workers. She said that a polling station had been set up in the gym of a school.

I will not go to vote, Natalia said. Only if they point a gun at me, and even then I will vote for Ukraine.

Diana Poladova contributed reporting.
The report added more chilling allegations to the list of crimes widely reported by Ukrainian and international investigators probing the executions of civilians in Bucha and the mass burial site found near the town of Izium after it was recaptured by Ukrainian troops this month.

Based on the evidence gathered by the Commission, it has concluded that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine, Mr. Mose said in his statement.

While numerous other reports have flagged the possibility or likelihood of war crimes, the commission had reached its conclusion based on evidence on the ground, Mr. Mose told reporters. He said the commission had not at this point concluded that violations amounted to crimes against humanity.

The commission found that some Russian troops had committed sexual and gender-based violence, with the victims ranging in age from four years old to 82.

There are examples of cases where relatives were forced to witness the crimes, Mr. Mose told the council, noting that the commission was documenting the actions of individual soldiers and had not found any general pattern of sexual violence as a war strategy.
KYIV, Ukraine  The body pulled from a pit in Izium was in a bad state of decomposition, the skin peeling from the bone and drained of color. But one thing stood out: the blue and yellow bracelet around the dead mans wrist.

The colors of the Ukrainian national flag had barely faded.

The corpse, one of hundreds exhumed after Ukraine reclaimed Izium from the Russians this month, was another reminder of the savage toll of the war. But the bracelet conveyed something different: the fortitude and individuality amid a grim tableau of mass death. And it seemed to send an almost defiant message: Ukraine lives on, even if some of its people do not.

The image quickly captured the imagination of the nation.

It was shared widely on Facebook and the telegram messaging app. Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraines foreign minister, had a similar bracelet on his wrist when he spoke at the United Nations Security Council on Thursday as evidence of Russian atrocities.
BEIRUT, Lebanon  A small boat carrying more than 100 migrants headed to Europe from Lebanon capsized off the coast of Syria, leaving at least 75 dead, Lebanese and Syrian authorities said on Friday.

The authorities said that about 120 migrants were on the boat when it capsized on Thursday and that at least 20 of them were rescued near the port of Tartus on Syrias Mediterranean coast.

The migrants have no papers, and it looks like the boat they took was a small one, Lebanons transportation minister, Ali Hamieh, told The New York Times in a phone interview. The passengers on board were mostly Syrians, Lebanese and Palestinians who had paid smugglers for the fatal trip, he added.

It was not immediately clear what caused the boat to capsize. Images sent from residents showed a small wooden boat and articles of clothing washed up on the shore of Tartus.
Why We Take Animal Voyages

What Ive learned from a lifetime of voyaging with animals. By Sam Anderson. Photographs by Matthew Pillsbury. I have a ridiculous dog named Walnut. He is as domesticated as a beast can be: a purebred longhaired miniature dachshund with fur so thick it feels rich and creamy, like pudding. His tail is a huge spreading golden fan, a clutch of sunbeams. He looks less like a dog than like a tropical fish. People see him and gasp. Sometimes I tell Walnut right out loud that he is my precious little teddy bear pudding cup sweet boy snuggle-stinker. Read More

In my daily life, Walnut is omnipresent. He shadows me all over the house. When I sit, he gallops up into my lap. When I go to bed, he stretches out his long warm body against my body or he tucks himself under my chin like a soft violin. Walnut is so relentlessly present that sometimes, paradoxically, he disappears. If I am stressed or tired, I can go a whole day without noticing him. I will pet him idly; I will yell at him absent-mindedly for barking at the mailman; I will nuzzle him with my foot. But I will not really see him. He will ask for my attention, but I will have no attention to give. Humans are notorious for this: for our ability to become blind to our surroundings  even a fluffy little jewel of a mammal like Walnut.

John Berger, the brilliant British artist-critic, could have been writing about all this when he lamented, 45 years ago, modern humanitys impoverished relationship to animals. In the last two centuries, he wrote, animals have gradually disappeared. Today we live without them.

The snow leopards Malaya and Buck at the Brookfield Zoo outside Chicago.

On its face, this claim is ridiculous. Animals are everywhere in modern life. More of us own pets than at any other time in human history. We can drive to zoos, cat cafes, national parks, wildlife sanctuaries. We can lie in bed and share viral TikToks of buffaloes grunting, puppies howling, parrots taunting hungry cats. We can watch live feeds on our tiny phones of eagles incubating eggs or drone footage of polar bears hunting seals on 50-foot IMAX screens.

But Berger would argue that these things are all just symptoms of our lost intimacy with animals. None of them represent meaningful old-fashioned contact. Since the primordial beginnings of our species, he writes, animals have been integral to human life: Animals constituted the first circle of what surrounded man. Perhaps that already suggests too great a distance. They were with man at the center of his world. Animals were not only predators and prey  they were myths, symbols, companions, peers, teachers, guides. The patterns of their movement defined the edges of the human world. Their shapes defined the stars. They made human life possible. A few ostrich eggs could sustain hunter-gatherers for days  first as food, then as water carriers that enabled them to cross vast, parched distances.

Listen to the Introduction To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android

We all know what happened next: capitalism, industrialization, urbanization, the internal combustion engine, suburban sprawl, fast food, chicken nuggets, factory farms. Animals  our sharp, loud, restless, dangerous, inconvenient planetary roommates  were pushed to the margins.

For Berger, this was a profound loss, not only for the subjugated animals but also for the humans who did the subjugating. The animal has secrets which, unlike the secrets of caves, mountains, seas, are specifically addressed to man, he writes. With their parallel lives, animals offer man a companionship which is different from any offered by human exchange. Different because it is a companionship offered to the loneliness of man as a species. Our lost closeness with animals ushered in a sharp existential pain  a state of beastly alienation.

Modern humans can try to rationalize that loss in infinite ways. (Is it such a bad thing that most of us no longer have to worry about wolf packs stealing our leftover caribou meat?) We can concoct all kinds of synthetic replacements: ant farms, sea monkeys, pet rocks, chia pets, Tamagotchis. (Growing up, I fell in love with a battery-powered robot owl named Hootbot.) We can sit at home with our pets in our laps, clicking on animal videos, laughing and crying and forwarding them to our friends. But none of these will fill the creaturely hole at the center of human life. Theyre not even close to the same shape. We will continue to feel that loss, to yearn for those parallel lives, for the ancient strangeness of animal familiarity.

If necessary, we will search the world for it. And so, sometimes, we head out on an animal voyage. We take ourselves off to a place that is still wild, or where wildness has been carefully curated or simulated or reintroduced. We can visit squirrel monkeys, for instance, at an abandoned penal colony in French Guiana. We can watch strange hairy horses galloping around near Icelandic volcanoes. We can climb up into the lush tree canopies of Ghana to stare at the rosy bee-eaters. Wherever we go, our goal will be roughly the same: to put our own animal bodies near the bodies of the creatures we have pushed away. To effect an existential reunion.

If that sounds mystical  well, it is. Its hard to put into words exactly what we are looking for when we go out to meet a distant animal. The need, probably, goes deeper than language. On some level, I think we are looking to orient ourselves, to locate ourselves on an accurate map of the universe. Not using the coordinates weve been handed by human culture: the self-flattering, narcissistic, anthropocentric fantasies of a world made for us, in our image. Something in us yearns for accuracy, even if it comes at the price of a demotion. It is liberating to be decentered. And animals, always, are happy to perform this service.

Yuki, whose name means snow in Japanese, at the Philadelphia Zoo.

An animal voyage is special because it requires us to make many journeys all at once. To really connect with another creature, you have to cross multiple kinds of distance: physical, spiritual, temporal. You have to leave our daily sense of clock time and reach into something like evolutionary time. You have to stare across vast chasms of consciousness. Look into the eye of a bison, a marlin, a parrot, an iguana. What is the gulf between your mind and theirs? That space cant be measured in miles or light years or any other unit we can name. It will probably never be definitively crossed. What kind of bridge would ever even begin to work? And so an animal voyage is, on some level, always destined to fail. This, too, is part of its appeal.

My favorite record of an animal voyage is a book thats fluent in failure. Peter Matthiessens nonfiction masterpiece, The Snow Leopard, chronicles a truly extreme animal quest. In 1973, Matthiessen spent two months trekking into the Himalayas with his biologist friend George Schaller. They were hoping to glimpse one of the worlds most impressive and elusive animals, a powerful cat so rare that Schaller knew of only one Westerner aside from himself who had seen one in the past quarter-century. According to Matthiessen, the snow leopard is a near-mythic beast that has the power to watch its watchers while remaining nearly invisible. One can stare straight at it from yards away, he writes, and fail to see it.

Matthiessens journey is brutal, dangerous and disorienting  emotionally and physically exhausting. He hikes along perilous ledges; his guides suffer bouts of snow blindness. Matthiessen weathers freezing temperatures in a tent so small he cant even sit up. All along, he has much more on his mind than wildlife. Early in the book, we learn that Matthiessens wife has recently died of cancer and that he has left his young son at home to make this pilgrimage. He later told an interviewer that he drafted the book by hand, on the trek itself, day by day, as a Zen practice of close observation. (Matthiessen and his wife were both serious students of Buddhism.) This gives the writing a strange, elevated, living quality that few books ever approach.

Matthiessen was a devoted environmentalist, prone to raging at human excesses, and his voyage begins in a fallen world  a region already devastated by overpopulation and pollution, where animals that used to be common (elephants, tigers, rhinos, cheetahs) have all been driven away. We have outsmarted ourselves like greedy monkeys, and now we are full of dread, he writes. He climbs higher and higher, away from civilization, toward an ancient Tibetan sacred site known as Crystal Mountain. Along the way, he sits and meditates; he stops at Buddhist shrines; he is overwhelmed by feelings. As the altitude rises, Matthiessens style burns itself down to stark poetry: There is no wisp of cloud  clear, clear, clear, clear. He begins to merge with the landscape (I grow into these mountains like a moss) and to detach from linear time: Simultaneously, I am myself, the child I was, the old man I will be. He has visions, hallucinatory epiphanies. Sometimes when I meditate, he writes, the big rocks dance.

On his voyage, Matthiessen encounters all kinds of animals: yaks, goats, lizards, frogs, roosters, horses. He sees a lone red panda and many clusters of blue sheep and even a pack of wolves. In a tiny village, he is attacked by a dog. He beats it off with a stick.

To return home from an animal voyage is to become, yourself, a new animal living in your old habitat.

But where is the snow leopard? Nowhere and everywhere. Up near Crystal Mountain, as time stretches toward eternity, Matthiessen sees tantalizing traces of the great creature: scat, scratch marks. The blue sheep huddle nervously, suggesting the presence of an apex predator. Matthiessen speaks with a lama who claims to see snow leopards frequently. He finds snow leopard paw prints fresh as petals on the trail. He strains his attention so hard that it inflects everything around him: It is wonderful how the presence of this creature draws the whole landscape to a point, from the glint of light on the old horns of a sheep to the ring of a pebble on the frozen ground. Toward the end of his trip, Matthiessen finds that a leopard has made its scrape right in my boot print, as if in sign that I am not to leave.

In the wild, the elusive snow leopard has the power to watch its watchers while remaining nearly invisible.

And yet he has to leave. Down below, his life waits for him. The great perfect shock of The Snow Leopard  and look away if you have to, because here comes a spoiler  is that Matthiessen never actually sees a snow leopard. The animal in the books title, the whole reason for the journey, refuses to put itself on display. This failure becomes a powerful lesson in loss, a chance to meditate on the tangled nature of visibility and invisibility. If the snow leopard should manifest itself, then I am ready to see the snow leopard, Matthiessen writes. If not, then somehow (and I dont understand this instinct, even now) I am not ready to perceive it, in the same way that I am not ready to resolve my koan; and in the not-seeing, I am content. I think I must be disappointed, having come so far, and yet I do not feel that way. I am disappointed, and also, I am not disappointed. That the snow leopard is, that it is here, that its frosty eyes watch us from the mountain  that is enough.

Even Schaller, the hardened scientist, summons a bit of poetry. You know something? he says to Matthiessen. Weve seen so much, maybe its better if there are some things that we dont see.

Today, nearly 50 years later, if you are so inclined, you can go see a snow leopard at the zoo. According to the Snow Leopard Conservancy, approximately 600 of them live at accredited zoos worldwide. Biologically, it is the same animal that Matthiessen was seeking. And yet its hard to imagine a more different kind of encounter. Or one that Matthiessen, with his cynical tendencies, might have been less interested in. (I long to see the snow leopard, he wrote, yet to glimpse it by camera flash, at night, crouched on a bait, is not to see it.) John Berger, too, was dismissive of zoos. They were, for him, the apex of our alienation. (You are looking at something that has been rendered absolutely marginal; and all the concentration you can muster will never be enough to centralize it.) Zoo animals, Berger wrote, represented the living monument to their own disappearance. And its true that there is something uncanny about seeing a snow leopard sprawled behind glass, in an artificial habitat, in full view of families pushing strollers. But in a world where mass extinction is advancing exponentially, where the snow leopards natural habitat is being thawed and polluted  in a world like that, where else are these animals supposed to survive? And how else are we supposed to see them? Or should we simply surrender ourselves, forever, to the fate of nonseeing?

I have loved animals since I was a child. My first word was bird. I ate dog food out of solidarity with my first pet. I wanted to grow up to be a veterinarian or a zoologist. (Writing derailed me.) As an adult, I have been lucky to be able to take animal voyages all over the world. I have swum with manatees in Florida and sat on an Icelandic cliffside among thousands of puffins. I have watched the famous tree-climbing goats of Morocco  have seen them perched, absurdly, 20 feet above the ground, in the branches, like huge hairy white fruit. I once got to spend a whole week with the last two northern white rhinos on earth.

The best trips, like Peter Matthiessens search for the snow leopard, find a way to make themselves permanent. A northern white rhinoceros will not come home with you. But your awe at the rhinoceros, your amazement and respect and appreciation  that is portable. You can apply it to your goldfish, to your children, to the chipmunk that lives under the stairs, to the citizens around you. To return home from an animal voyage is to become, yourself, a new animal living in your old habitat. It is to find yourself voyaging in your own home, waking up to the other creatures that were there all along, inching them from the margins back toward the center of your life, where they belong. It is to remind yourself that being with an animal  any kind of animal, anywhere at all  is its own kind of voyage.

When I come home from a trip, Walnut gets very excited. He prances and hops and barks and sniffs me at the door. And the consciousnesses of all the wild creatures Ive seen  the puffins, rhinos, manatees, ferrets, the weird hairy wet horses  come to life for me inside of my domestic dog. He is, suddenly, one of these unfamiliar animals. I can pet him with my full attention, with a full union of our two attentions. He is new to me and I am new to him. We are new again together.

Even when he is horrible. The most annoying thing Walnut does, even worse than barking at the mailman, is the ritual of his evening drink. Every night, when I am settled in bed, when I am on the brink of sleep, Walnut will suddenly get very thirsty. If I go to bed at 10:30, Walnut will get thirsty at 11. If I go to bed at midnight, hell wake me up at 1. Ive found that the only way I cannot be mad about this is to treat this ritual as its own special kind of voyage  to try to experience it as if for the first time. If I am open to it, my upstairs hallway contains an astonishing amount of life.

Maya getting a treat at the Philadelphia Zoo.

The evening drink goes something like this: First, Walnut will stand on the edge of the bed, in a muscular, stout little stance, and he will wave his big ridiculous fan tail in my face, creating enough of a breeze that I cant ignore it. I will roll over and try to go back to sleep, but he wont let me: Hell stamp his hairy front paws and wag harder, then add expressive noises from his snout  half-whine, half-breath, hardly audible except to me. And so I give up. I sit up and pivot and plant my feet on the floor  I am hardly even awake yet  and I make a little basket of my arms, like a running back preparing to take a handoff, and Walnut pops his body right into that pocket, entrusting the long length of his vulnerable spine (a hazard of the dachshund breed) to the stretch of my right arm, and then he hangs his furry front legs over my left. From this point on we function as a unit, a fusion of man and dog. As I lift my weight from the bed Walnut does a little hop, just to help me with gravity, and we set off down the narrow hall. We are Odysseus on the wine-dark sea. (Walnut is Odysseus; I am the ship.)

All of evolution, all of the births and deaths since caveman times, since wolf times, that produced my ancestors and his  all the firelight and sneak attacks and tenderly offered scraps of meat, the cages and houses, the secret stretchy coils of German DNA  it has all come, finally, to this: a fully grown exhausted human man, a tiny panting goofy harmless dog, walking down the hall together. Even in the dark, Walnut will tilt his snout up at me, throw me a deep happy look from his big black eyes  I can feel this happening even when I cant see it  and he will snuffle the air until I say nice words to him (OK you fuzzy stinker, lets go get your evening drink), and then, always, I will lower my face and he will lick my nose, and his breath is so bad, his fetid snout-wind, it smells like a scoop of the primordial soup. It is not good in any way. And yet I love it.

Walnut and I move down the hall together, step by bipedal step, one two three four, tired man and thirsty friend, and together we pass the wildlife of the hallway  a moth, a spider on the ceiling, both of which my children will yell at me later to move outside, and of course each of these creatures could be its own voyage, its own portal to millions of years of history, but we cant stop to study them now; we are passing my sons room. We can hear him murmuring words to his friends in a voice that sounds disturbingly like my own voice, deep sound waves rumbling over deep mammalian cords  and now we are passing my daughters room, my sweet nearly grown-up girl, who was so tiny when we brought Walnut home, as a golden puppy, but now she is moving off to college. In her room she has a hamster she calls Acorn, another consciousness, another portal to millions of years, to ancient ancestors in China, nighttime scampering over deserts.

But we move on. Behind us, in the hallway, comes a sudden galumphing. It is yet another animal: our other dog, Pistachio, he is getting up to see whats happening; he was sleeping, too, but now he is following us. Pistachio is the opposite of Walnut, a huge mutt we adopted from a shelter, a gangly scraggly garbage muppet, his body welded together out of old mops and sandpaper, with legs like stilts and an enormous block head and a tail so long that when he whips it in joy, constantly, he beats himself in the face. Pistachio unfolds himself from his sleepy curl, stands, trots, huffs and stares after us with big human eyes. Walnut ignores him, because with every step he is sniffing the dark air ahead of us, like a car probing a night road with headlights, and he knows we are approaching his water dish now, he knows I am about to bend my body in half to set his four paws simultaneously down on the floor, he knows that he will slap the cool water with his tongue for 15 seconds before I pick him up again and we journey back down the hall. And I find myself wondering, although of course it doesnt matter, if Walnut was even thirsty, or if we are just playing out a mutual script. Or maybe, and who could blame him, he just felt like taking a trip.
Dennis Muilenberg

Where was the PR pushback?... Boeing has agreed to pay $200M to settle charges that it and former CEO Dennis Muilenburg made materially misleading public statements about its 737 Max following crashes in 2018 and 2019.

A press release is at the heart of the matter.

According to the SEC, Boeings PR team huddled with engineers and lawyers on November 15, 2018 to draft a press release following the crash in Indonesia.

The initial draft called the 737 Max either a safe airplane" or that it continued to be safe to fly. Certain versions of the release noted that Boeing engineers were working with the FAA to expedite and certify a new flight control software for the plane.

At that time, Boeing faced a wave of negative media coverage over allegations that it withheld information from pilots, airlines, regulators and the public about the flight control system. Its stock was tanking.

On Nov. 20, Muilenburg complained in an email that we are spending too much time playing defense. We need to start playing some offense.

Muilenburg on Nov. 21 reviewed the press release and recommended removing the reference to the flight control system.

The final press release made no mention of the flight control system and stated that Boeings customers and passengers have assurances that the 737 Max is as safe as any airline that ever flown the skies.

The CEO approved the release on Nov. 27 and emailed: looks great.factual and sticks to the report while making our key reports. Good to go.

The SEC order says Boeing and Muilenburg knew there was an ongoing safety issue with the flight control system but assured the public that the plane was safe.

Chairman Gary Gensler said that its especially important that public companies and their executives provide full, fair and truthful disclosures to the markets in times of trouble.

The Boeing Company and its former CEO, Dennis Muilenburg, failed in this basic obligation, he said.

Muilenburg agreed to pay $1M for his role in the cover-up but what about the PR staffers, engineers and lawyers who decided to drop the reference to the flight control system?

Shouldnt they be held accountable?

The union label is looking up Anybody watching television during the late 70s and early 80s couldnt dodge the Look for the Union Label ad from the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.

Though the spot, especially its catchy jingle, earned kudos from creatives in adland, it failed to halt the demise of the largely domestic textile industry that was wiped out by an onslaught of cheap imports.

While those ladies were urging shoppers to buy American goods, support for unions hovered around the 50 percent mark.

Guess what? More than seven-in-ten (71 percent) of Americans approve of labor today, according to a Gallup poll released Aug. 30. Thats the highest level recorded since 1965.

The pandemic is among the reasons that support for unions is on the rise as the worker shortage emboldened employees to push for better wages and benefits.

Though organizing drives at Amazon and Starbucks got a lot of media attention, they resulted in a tiny number of employees actually getting union cards.

The bigger impact of those high-profile organizing drives: the National Labor Relations Board reported a 57 percent surge in the number of under the radar union elections during 2021.

Members of the garment union would have been proud of organized labors PR comeback.

They also would be wary as the upcoming recession could wipe out any leverage that workers have over their employers.

What a difference a new administration makes The US and Uruguay on Sept. 22 became the 46th and 47th members of the International Partnership for Information and Democracy.

The US joined, according to a signing statement released by the State Dept., because of the IPIDs emphasis on respecting human rights and the rule of law, including the protection of freedom of expression.

America also recognizes the importance of protecting the freedom of individuals to seek, receive, and impart information through media of their choice.

The IPID was created in 2019 during the presidency of Donald Trump, a guy who considers the media the enemy of the people.

All bets are off on Americas continued membership in the IPID following the 2024 election.
Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald will visit Roscrea this weekend to address a commemoration at the former mother and baby home at Sean Ross Abbey.

The event is organised by the 'We Are Still Here Sean Ross Abbey Roscrea' group, who have been working to uncover information lost over the years relating to the mothers and children that passed through the institution, while also seeking to ensure areas of the site where burials have taken place are preserved.

Corville House, located on the expansive St. Anne's site in Roscrea, operated as mother and baby home from 1932 to 1970 and has been repurposed recently to accommodate asylum seekers from African countries and Ukraine.

Mary Lou McDonald will address the event, which is the first commemoration held at the site since 2018 and an issue which has attracted greater public attention since the establishment of the Commission of Investigation into state run mother and baby homes.

Teresa Collins, a survivor of Sean Ross Mother and Baby Home, said Sunday's commemoration will also feature an address from Patrick McDermott, who is flying from the United States and was born in Sean Ross.

Cathaoirleach of Tipperary County Council, Roger Kennedy and Teresa Collins, representing the 'We Are Still Here Sean Ross' group will also speak at the event and Michael Donovan will lay a wreath on behalf of the surviors group.

Roscrea based Councillor Michael Smith will also lay a wreath on behalf of Tipperary County Council and Pamela Aitken Flannery from Roscrea Heritage Society will give a guided tour of Corville House and explain the building's historical significance.

The 'We Are Still Here' group are calling for further analysis of the subterranean scans performed at the site in 2017 to establish where the as yet unlocated remains of children who died at the facility are located.

The group want parts of the site to be preserved for further examination and further examination of the scans of the Angel's Plot to help locate the remains of over 1,000 children who were either born or admitted to Sean Ross and died in infancy.

Carbon dating analysis was performed on 13 samples of skeletal remains located at the site and the group are seeking a specialist company to perform further scans with financial assistance from the government for the tests.

The group feel the Angel'a Plot, which they have identified from maps dating back to the 1970s was once part of a larger field, does not contain all the remains interred on the site and that scans should be performed on a plot of land adjoining the Angel's Plot.

Sunday's event begins at 1pm and is expected to conclude at approximately 4pm.
A ROW at a restaurant in Birr resulted in two men and two women being prosecuted at Tullamore District Court.

The court heard that complaints had been made to the gardai and then withdrawn but the DPP decided that the prosecutions should proceed.

Donal Farrelly, the solicitor who appeared for three of the accused, said all the parties were now on good terms and suggested that if there were pleas of guilty to charges of affray, then the DPP might withdraw assault charges.

Tim Cox (23), Middle Road, Banagher had been charged with violent disorder and assaulting Mary Scully, causing her harm at the Jade Palace, Townsend Street, Birr.

Ronan Hynes (24), Glebe, Belmont, Birr, Brid Ryan (23), Elm Hall, Carrig, Birr and Mary Scully (22), Rhode, were each accused of violent disorder and assaulting Tim Cox, causing him harm.

Mr Farrelly described all the defendants as professional people from extremely good backgrounds and the gardai had confirmed they had not been in trouble before.

He said Garda Melissa Kelly had done an extremely good job in the investigation and despite the complaints being withdrawn by all of the parties the DPP seemed anxious to proceed.

Mr Farrelly also said that a payment had been made in relation to an injury sustained by one of the accused people.

They were all extremely worried about the matter and also wished to travel abroad in the future.

Sergeant James O'Sullivan detailed to Judge Andrew Cody that on August 28 last year at 11.50pm an altercation occurred at the Jade Palace Chinese restaurant where Mr Cox pulled Mary Scully's hair and then the other male got involved.

Mary Scully was struck twice in the face, added Sergeant O'Sullivan, and Mr Cox had an injury.

Mr Farrelly said Mr Cox had been compensated to avoid a civil matter arising.

The solicitor also said that one of his clients was a nurse and another was a childcare worker so convictions would affect them.

Judge Cody said the court was busy and if these prosecutions were adjourned to a hearing date early next year a charitable donation, followed by a strike-out, would be the outcome.

He said a charitable donation now would be the commonsense approach, after a plea by each of the accused to the charge of affray and that would lead to the charges being struck out.

The judge suggested a donation of 300 from each of the accused be made to the Little Blue Heroes charity.

He adjourned finalisation of the matters to October 19 next for those payments.

The Little Blue Heroes Foundation is a not-for-profit charity operated by volunteers made up of Garda members/staff, retired gardai, their families, friends and what the charity says are civic minded people from communities.

The charity aims to help families in need from local communities in Ireland who have children undergoing long-term medical treatment for serious illness. The charity says the name Little Blue Heroes was inspired by children's strong fascination with police uniforms, equipment and vehicles.
RuPaul's Drag Race UK is a British reality competition television series based on the American television series of the same name. The television series is produced by World of Wonder for the BBC and WOW Presents Plus. The show is the fourth installment of the Drag Race franchise, and the second fronted by RuPaul. The show documents RuPaul and a panel of judges' search for "the United Kingdom's next drag superstar", series 1 dubbed "UK's First Drag Superstar". RuPaul plays several roles on the show including host, mentor and head judge for the series, as the contestants are given different challenges to participate in each week. The show also employs a panel of judges: RuPaul, Michelle Visage, Alan Carr and Graham Norton. The series, a collaboration between the BBC and World of Wonder, premiered on 3 October 2019. In November 2019, RuPaul's Drag Race UK was renewed for a second series. To date, there have been three winners of the show: The Vivienne, Lawrence Chaney and Krystal Versace respectively.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has met with the nations Chinese counterpart, urging the nation to help end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Albaneses travel program has barely paused since his first day. He returned from London on Wednesday and leaves for Tokyo on Monday.
Kyiv and the West condemned it as a rigged election whose result was preordained by Moscow.
Former 'Riverdale' actor Ryan Grantham who admitted to killing his mother to prevent her from learning about his assassination plan..

HNGN 23 Sep 2022
A UN commission has reported evidence of executions, torture and sexual violence in four areas formerly under Russian occupation. Some of the victims included children.
DW spoke with former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who warned Moscow could consider an attack on annexed territory in Ukraine as an attack on Russia. He also asked Germany to send more heavy weaponry to Ukraine.
BBC Local News: Coventry and Warwickshire -- Tom Marsh's family say they are "deeply concerned" after last hearing from him almost..

BBC Local News 22 Sep 2022
Draft-aged Russians have apparently begun to flee the country as it enters is biggest conscription drive since the Second World War - with plane ticket prices soaring above $5,000 (4,443) and border crossings increasing.
Mauricio Claver-Carone, president of Latin America's largest development bank, was found to have violated ethics rules by investigators. US President Joe Biden's administration has been pushing for his removal.
euronews (in English) 23 Sep 2022

A group of UN experts investigating human rights violations in Ukraine said on Friday that they had turned up evidence of war..
Activists and civil society groups in Myanmar are increasingly attacking humanitarian aid organizations, especially the United Nations, online. They are the wrong target, says DW's Rodion Ebbighausen.
Politicians across the political spectrum in Germany want to offer Russian military deserters protection. But legal issues have not yet been resolved  and the most important escape routes are closed.
Traffic into Finland over its border with Russia was heavy on Friday, with the number of Russians crossing rising steadily since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a military mobilization, as Finnish authorities mulled imposing fresh entry restrictions.
Oneindia 24 Sep 2022

Hundreds of Iranians across at least 13 cities from Tehran to Mahsa Amini's hometown of Saqez have poured into the streets..
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)  Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, released his health records as he maneuvers to keep questions about Democratic rival John Fettermans recovery from a stroke front and center in the hotly contested campaign.



Dr. Rebecca Kurth in New York City wrote in a four-page letter obtained by The Associated Press that she found the 62-year-old heart surgeon-turned-TV celebrity to be in excellent health" in an annual checkup Thursday.



The letter noted that Oz has a total cholesterol that is borderline elevated but unchanged and referenced a hyperplastic lesion  cell growths that could become cancerous  removed from his colon in 2011. An electrocardiogram  a test that records electrical signals in the heart to detect heart problems  he had Thursday came out normal.



Your examination is healthy, and the blood tests are favorable, Kurth wrote. She recommended no medication.



The release of the health records comes as Oz is trying to close a gap in the polls and is increasingly making Fetterman's fitness to serve a central theme in his campaign.



Fetterman, 53, has been silent about releasing medical records or providing access for reporters to question his doctors, now more than four months after he suffered a stroke in May that has had lingering effects on his speech and hearing.



Fetterman's campaign did not immediately comment Friday.



The race in the presidential battleground to replace retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey could help determine control of the closely divided Senate, and Democrats view it as perhaps their best opportunity to pick up a seat out of just a handful of close races nationally.



While it is customary for presidential candidates to release health records, there is no such custom in races for...
The Labour Party could consider replacing the House of Lords with an assembly of regions and nations.
Iranians saw their access to Instagram, one of the few Western social media platforms still available in the country, disrupted on Wednesday following days of mass protests over the death of a woman who was detained by the morality...
The extraordinary and unprecedented ruling by Judge Aileen M. Cannon of the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida to appoint an independent arbiter (special master) to search the more than 11,000 government documents removed to Mar-a-Lago by former President Donald Trumpincluding ones that had some of the...
Voting began on Friday in Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine in a referendum that Russia is expected to use to justify the annexation of four regions, with one Ukrainian official reported as saying voting was mandatory.
A Ukrainian official in the eastern Kharkiv region said Friday that 436 bodies were exhumed from a mass burial site near the eastern city of Izyum recaptured from Russian forces.
Sky News 01 Oct 2022

The devolved governments of the UK want an urgent meeting with Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng to discuss immediate action to reverse the..
Sports Illustrated 30 Sep 2022

Brett Favre is in hot water for allegedly funneling state welfare funds to the University of Southern Mississippi, his alma mater..
Opalesque Industry Update - 100 Women in Finance (100WF), a global finance industry organization, announced that Collette D. Chilton, Chief Investment Officer at Williams College, will receive its 2022 Americas Industry Leadership Award. The Award is presented annually in recognition of exemplary professional talent, business ethics, and passion for investing that further define and advance the industry's standards of excellence. Ms. Chilton will be honored for this achievement at the 100WF Gala on November 9th at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York. Ms. Chilton has been the Chief Investment Officer at Williams College since 2006, where she is responsible for the investment of approximately $4.2 billion in assets held by the Williams College endowment. Before joining Williams College, Ms. Chilton held various positions, including President and Chief Investment Officer of Lucent Asset Management, where she was responsible for the oversight and investment of over $40 billion. She serves on the boards of The Center for Private Equity and Venture Capital at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and the Berkeley Endowment Management Company. She also serves on the investment committee for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston, as an Advisor to the Investment Committee of the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, and a member of the Girls Who Invest Advisory Board. In addition, she is an Investor in Residence in the Department of Economics at UCLA. Ms. Chilton graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a B.S. in Political Economy of Natural Resources and received an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. "We are excited to bestow Collette with this award." Amanda Pullinger, 100WF CEO, expressed. She continued, "her professional accomplishments and breadth of volunteerism across various organizations are inspiring and noteworthy. Collette exemplifies everything we are hoping to achieve with Vision 30/40, whereby women will hold 30% of senior investment roles and executive committee positions by 2040."
Victoria, B.C. (October 5, 2019) - Surework Home Care Solutions is pleased to announce the new design of its senior care website that features a simplified interface for easier navigation and uses color schemes that are relaxing on the eyes for better readability. Similarly, it makes use of a responsive website structure so it will be compatible with any device (desktop, tablet, and mobile) and browser; thus, it can be 
VISIT: https://rdias.ac.in/ WHAT STUDENTS OF top 10 colleges in delhi for bba CAN GAIN FROM INTERNSHIPS? A temporary position, to be laid out plainly, is characterized as a managed controlled program which draws in students in work exercises primarily for furnishing them with a helpful growth opportunity. Entry level positions structure a basic piece of the proper education system from top 10 colleges in delhi for bba as it, with 
Conakry, Guinea (PANA)  The long-delayed trial of 11 men accused of responsibility for the 2009 Guinean security forces massacre of more than 150 peaceful demonstrators and the rape of scores of women in a stadium in Conakry, is scheduled to open on 28 September
Photo: (Photo : Indra Irawan)

Nightmares in children are normal and are not preventable. This seems to peak during the preschool stage when the fear of the dark is common. Toddlers can have pleasant and scary dreams; thus, parents must be reminded that nightmares do not only happen to adults but also to children, especially those below the age of ten.

Even toddlers may speak about having dreams, both pleasant and scary. Children can sometimes narrate their bad dreams in detail depending on their language ability, per Raising Children. Nightmares usually occur in the second half of the night when the child sleeps lightly. Many children might find it hard to get back to sleep after experiencing a nightmare.

Nightmares cause them to wake up feeling terrified and upset. Usually, children's nightmares include realistic dangers such as sharks or spiders, imaginary fears like monsters, and unfortunate events they have witnessed or experienced.

The exact cause of the nightmare is still not known. However, it usually happens when children are exhausted or experiencing stress. Mostly, kids who have experienced traumatic events may have frequent nightmares. Some medications may also cause disturbing bad dreams in children.

Read Also: Diarrhea in Children: What Parents Need To Know About Causes and Symptoms?

Dealing with nightmares and bad dreams

Dr. Martha Pott, a senior lecturer at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development at Tufts University, says parents should only be concerned when nightmares or bad dreams occur very frequent or if the same disturbing dream happens over and over as it might indicate a certain stressful event or time for the child.

Dr. Melisa Moore, a clinical psychologist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Sleep Center, suggests parents comfort children when they wake up and sob. Also, avoid focusing too much on the nightmare itself, as it can lead to more anxiety in children. Instead, remind your child that they are safe and soothe them back to sleep. When the time feels appropriate, parents can ask children about the nightmare and help them sort through their worries.

However, experts suggest not waking toddlers during a night terror as it can leave them disoriented and interfere with their sleep. Moore recommends intervening as little as possible and avoiding more disruptions in sleep as it can eventually lead to more sleep terrors. "It's best to let a sleep terror run its course," Moore added.

Instead, stay by your kid and ensure they don't hurt themselves while having their bad dream, The Bump says.

Avoiding nightmares and bad dreams in children

Some nightmares in children happen due to stress or dealing with specific changes. Events that might feel unsettling, such as attending a new school and family tensions, might be reflected in their dreams.

As kids have a vivid imagination, they sometimes turn such into negative dreams, and the magical powers that can save them are love and protection from their parents. It is usual for parents to feel annoyed when their child suddenly cries in the middle of the night, but no one will understand kids but only parents. Thus, reassure them by telling them you can make certain monsters disappear.

Kids Health suggests putting on a nightlight to help kids feel safe in a darkened room. A bedside flashlight can also serve as a good nightmare-chaser.

Related Article: New Mom Nightmares: Meaning of Most Common Nightmares and Why It Happens
Photo: (Photo : Alex Kopeykin)

An 18-month-old toddler, Autumn Robinson, was finally cleared to go home after spending more than 500 days in the hospital. According to Good Morning America, the toddler spent her first days at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and, after her first birthday, at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).

Autumn was born prematurely at 23 weeks in March 2021 and weighed just 1.1 pounds. Since then, she has been considered a micro-preemie with various complications because of prematurity, including bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a type of chronic lung disease. Doctors at the time were unsure if Autumn would make it, giving her a 50 percent chance of survival.

Dr. Megan Lagoski, a neonatologist, told the news outlet that when a patient is about to deliver at 23 weeks, doctors already know that the baby's chance of survival is only 50 percent.

Read Also: What To Do When Your Child Has Nightmares?

Moving Autumn to another hospital was scary, says the mom

Dr. Lagoski, the director of the only bronchopulmonary dysplasia program in Illinois at Lurie Children's Hospital, ended up seeing and treating the toddler after she was transferred to the hospital.

The doctor explained that the baby already had dangerous dips in her oxygen level to the point where her heart rate would become low, making all the doctors and nurses worried that she would die. Autumn's heart was also strained from all the work required to pump blood through the lungs, pick up oxygen, bring it back, and pump it to the rest of the body, commonly called pulmonary hypertension, making the baby even sicker.

Tyler Robinson, Autumn's mom, admitted that deciding to move her child to another hospital was terrifying, but she felt it was necessary.

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia causes long-term breathing problems, particularly in premature babies, and results in poor growth and development. Approximately 10,000 to 15,000 babies in the United States develop the disorder each year, per Nationwide Children's.

Unimaginable difficulties for the toddler

Autumn was treated with different medications. She underwent surgery to insert a breathing tube and even received oxygen therapy, among other care.

Dr. Lagoski added that the young one also had some sedation and extra medications to help her stay calm while her lungs slowly healed from the period of sickness. She said that when they got good support on the breathing machine, they were able to come off of that and help Autumn start to do normal baby things and have more interactions that were beyond meaningful for the mother.

Robinson said the 524 days in the hospital was a long journey filled with unknowns and unimaginable difficulties. She visited her daughter every day and made it her priority to talk to Autumn. Robinson wanted to make her daughter feel endless love.

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia can be mild, moderate, or severe. Many infants fully recover from this disorder, but not everyone, per Cincinnati Childrens.

Related Article: A Baby Girl Receives a Special Celebration on Her 100th Day in Hospital's NICU
SSP Group has opened two bespoke Thai restaurant concepts at Suvarnabhumi International Airport (BKK) in Thailand.

Koh Hop Bar serves a selection of beers and bar food, including a signature Thai Koh Hop Bar burger. Another Koh Hop Bar is scheduled to open in September 2022, and there are plans to open an additional unit at Phuket Airport in 2023. Imm Rice & Noodle has been designed to bring local Thai cuisine to international and local travelers at Suvarnabhumi Airport. Among its selection of traditional dishes are plant-based options for vegans and vegetarians including vegetarian pad Thai and stir-fried spicy tofu and mushroom with basil. Imm is also scheduled to expand to Don Mueang International Airport.

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Jonathan Robinson, CEO of SSP Asia Pacific, said, The team at SSP Thailand has done an outstanding job utilizing their knowledge of both local culture and international travelers to develop these excellent new concepts. Koh Hop Bar and Imm Rice & Noodle are appealing to the new generation of younger travelers. Both brands have been carefully curated based on our long experience in the region and our detailed understanding of the Thai travelling consumer.

Asdang Khumkomgool, executive vice president and deputy general manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport, said, SSP Thailand has been a strategic partner for over 25 years. Our long-standing relationship has been well established and SSP operates across all six of our airports. The company has developed a variety of local brands, curated to appeal to our travelers.

Koh Hop Bar and Imm Rice & Noodle bring a wonderful blend of Western- and Asian-style cuisine to the airport food and beverage offering at Suvarnabhumi, reflecting the diverse demands of both local and international visitors. Customer satisfaction is our top priority and success indicator and Koh Hop Bar and Imm restaurant are already proving themselves to enhance customer satisfaction and the image of Suvarnabhumi airport with their colorful unit designs and locally inspired menus.
Adam John Mackintosh of San Francisco has filed a case with the District of Massachusetts (Boston) against Apple Inc. The court docket has categorized the nature of the suit as: "470 Racketeer/Corrupt Organization." Referenced on the docket is a demand for $10 billion from Apple, as presented in the image below

(Click on the image below to Enlarge)



(Click on the image below to Enlarge)

At one point, the Court Document Reads: "This motion is brought on the grounds that the Defendant's collective fraudulent litigation misconduct inside and outside of multiple courts constitutes fraud on the Court and fraud on the Circuit "

The document further states that The Defendants continuous engagement in litigation misconduct includes and not limited to:

subordination of perjury during multiple United States and Congressional investigations, hearings and inquiries;

tampering with the administration of justice through false statements under properly administered oaths;

malicious, reckless, willful and cold persecution and prosecution of multiple App Store Competitors, Politians, Law Makers, and other individuals in furtherance of the business arrangement outline in the instant motion;

fabricating, planting, manipulating, spoliating and presenting false evidence that was material to the issues being tried or concealing material evidence from Plaintiff and the Courts;

defiling multiple federal courts through bribery, mail and wire payments and through other methods;

perjury and suborning Apple employees and others to perjure themselves to obtain court rulings based thereon; and

fabricating evidence and manufacturing multiple declarations aimed at attacking the truth-finding mechanics of multiple federal courts;

The document further states that "The misconduct was allegedly coordinated by Tim Cook, Apple's Board, their Subordinates and Counterparts, and perpetrated by corrupt government actors, non-parties and non-party witnesses, not limited to Apple's legal counsel, who are officers of the court, who ultimately tampered with the administration of justice, in a manner that wrongs not only the Plaintiff, but Congressional and District Courts, the United States Department of Justice, the United States Senate, Congress and the consuming public."

Lastly, the document further states that the "Plaintiff wishes to make known to the Court that he, in concept, believes that the circumstances of this instant motion may warrant, in the Court's sound discretion, the appointment of a special master "

For more details, read Apple's full complaint filed with the court in the full SCRIBD document below, courteous of Patently Apple. Unfortunately, the Scribd document can't be enlarged for unknown reasons.

Court Filing for Mackintosh v Apple by Jack Purcher on Scribd
The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, has stated that Ghanas current economic challenges are the result of external shocks, not domestic policy.



Speaking at the Africa Adaptation Summit in the Netherlands earlier this month, Georgieva said the following:



To the people of Ghana, like everybody on this planet, you have been hurt by exogenous (external) shocks.



First the pandemic, then Russias war in Ukraine. We need to realise that it is not because of bad policies in the country but because of this combination of shocks, and therefore we have to support Ghana. Georgieva said.





Discussing Ghanas ongoing talks with the IMF, Georgieva highlighted that the Fund had started very constructive discussions, noting that she would support Ghana because your (Ghanas) strength contributes to the strength of your neighbours; it contributes to a stronger world.



In the face of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, as stressed by Georgieva, Ghana proactively entered talks with the IMF for a $3 billion loan.



The loan will be used to stabilise the economy in the face of global economic turbulence, supporting the cedi and helping to reduce the price of food and fuel.



In the past month, the IMF has provided loans to both Pakistan and Sri Lanka, showing the global nature of current economic challenges.



President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Bawumia have stressed that an IMF loan will serve to help Ghanas economy in the short-term, building a foundation for long-term resilience and prosperity.



Meanwhile, the IMF resident representative in Ghana, Dr Albert Touna Mama, said Ghana has dealt well with those external shocks and expressed confidence that it can deal with these ones too.



This country has known a lot of shocks and we have navigated those together. There is no reason it cannot navigate the current ones, Dr Mama said.











Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Police, through a targeted special-intelligence investigation, on September 19, 2022, arrested two suspects in connection with the murder of a 25-year-old nursing student at Mankesim in the Central Region.



The two, Michael Darko alias Nana 1, a self-styled Pastor and Christopher Ekow Clarke Tufuhene of Aquakrom, a suburb of Mankesim were arrested at their various hideouts following a Police investigation. The two have confessed to murdering the victim for money rituals.



The deceased, Georgina Asor Botwe, was reported missing on 10th September 2022.



During Police interrogation, suspect Michael Darko, who is the alleged boyfriend of the senior sister of the deceased victim and was last seen with her, led Police to the location where they had buried her after the murder. The body has since been exhumed and deposited at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital morgue for preservation and autopsy.



The two accused persons were today, 22nd September 2022 arraigned before the District Court II in Cape Coast and have been remanded to reappear before the court on 4th October 2022.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Cape Coast Magistrate Court has remanded into custody two persons charged with the murder of a 22-year-old prospective nurse, Georgina Asor Botchwey.



The two suspects are the Tufohene of Ekumfi Akwakrom, Nana Onyaa Clark and a self-styled pastor, Michael Darko Amponsah.



They were arraigned before the court after her body was exhumed from the house of Nana Clark by the police.



The pleas of the two accused persons, according to a report by Graphic.com.gh was not taken when they appeared before the court on Thursday, September 22, 2022.



They are to reappear on October 2, 2022.



Michael Darko Amponsah who is a fiance of the deceaseds sister is said to have confessed to the kidnap, sexual assault, murder and secret burial of the deceased with the help of Nana Clark.



The deceased is said to have travelled from Yeji to attend an admission interview at the Ankarful Nursing Training School.







Source: ghanaweb.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum has lamented the state of affairs in the current education system where students are reluctant to ask questions of their teachers.



The Minister, who doubles and Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe, believes that reluctance must be done away with if fully rounded children relevant to society are to be nurtured.



He disclosed in an address that in all the times that he has visited schools back home and decided to teach, none of his students had ever asked a question after he had taught and asked if they had any questions.



I go to schools upon schools and I speak with the students and when I finish speaking with them, I say who has a question for me? No hands goes up. A hand is yet to go up in all my encounters in Ghanaian classrooms.



We have tamed the children, we just want them to write down what we tell them, at the day of the exams we say you are the best student the country has ever known.



That kind of education system cannot transform Ghana, that kind of education system is not going to get us critical thinking individual especially as we are in the 21st Century, Education 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution, he stressed.



He asserted that it is only through critical minded students that poverty can be fought and defeated, advocating further that Ghanaian and African school should gravitate towards what he called, an assertive curriculum.



A curriculum that empowers the African child to ask questions and to challenge the status quo. Respectfully within the African context, but not a curriculum that tells the African to be quiet and not say anything when the adult is speaking, he added.



He was speaking on Tuesday, September 20, at the United Nations Educational Summit at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the event was held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.



Speaking on behalf of the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the Launch dubbed "Rewiring education for people and planet Report," I pointed out the need for a new way of working that reimagines education in a win-win partnership with the entire 2030 Agenda, he posted on his social media handles.















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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East African countries have issued alerts after the announcement of an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Uganda.



Neighbouring Tanzania said it had already placed surveillance teams at key entry points including airports and border points.



Health Permanent Secretary Abel Makubi told the BBC that the teams were screening all people coming to the country.



The Kenyan health ministry said it had urged county authorities, especially in border areas, to be vigilant and enhance surveillance.



It said response teams had been activated to screen people who might be at risk, including travellers and healthcare workers. It also urged the public to be highly cautious while visiting Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.



In Somalia, the health ministry said it was collaborating with the Ministry of Transport and Aviation and other agencies to stop the disease from spreading into the country.



It said it was coordinating with the World Health Organization (WHO) to start necessary preparations and response measures, such as screening of travellers.



On Monday, Ugandan health authorities announced that a 24-year-old man had died of Ebola following a fresh outbreak in years.



The authorities are investigating whether seven other deaths were caused by the disease.



Six other cases have been confirmed on Thursday.

Source: BBC









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A former president of the Ghana Bar Association, Sam Okudzeto, has called on Ghanaians to be circumspect in their critique and general assessment of the judiciary as a collective.



He believes that as a critical branch of Ghanas democratic experiment, tasked with dispensing justice, any efforts that undermines their authority could ultimately lead to chaos if people take the law into their own hands.



He stressed in an interview with Accra-based Joy News (September 21) that Ghanas history of the murder of three judges in 1982 is a sign post as to why people who seek to denigrate the judicial arm of government must tread cautiously.



Asked whether the three judges murdered in 1982 were corrupt, the reason some ascribed for their killing, he responded in the negative and described them as impeccable, having has a personal relationship with them.



Oh my goodness, if one is talking about impeccable, in terms of character, those three they are exceptional. In fact, those three, I know them personally so I can vouch. In fact when Acheampong arrested some of us who were in the Movement for Freedom and Justice, William Ofori-Atta and I went to court to challenge our detention.



I was then in James Fort prisons, Paa Willie was in Ussher Fort Prisons, Agyapong was the judge, before whose court the case went to and my lawyer was my own cousin Tsatsu Tsikata and his brother Fui, he added.



From the history, he stressed that it was important to caution Ghanaians that, judgement can be given against you. We have set up a whole hierarchy of court system, you can go to the High Court and win or lose. You have the right to appeal, to the higher courts.



So, lets be cautious when we are making statements, because when you are preaching hatred, the danger is that it is not necessarily you who is going to take the law into your own hands for vengeance, it can be any kind of crazy individual, he stressed.



The 1982 murder of High Court judges and retired soldier



On Thursday, June 30, 1982, on the eve of the 22nd anniversary of Ghanas Republic, the three judges; Mr Justice Fred Poku Sarkodie, Mrs Justice Cecilia Koranteng-Addo and Mr Justice Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong, all judges of the High Court and Major Acquah, a retired army officer, were brutally and savagely murdered on the night of their abduction at the Bundase Military Range in the Accra Plains.



The Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), appointed a Special Investigation Board with a former Chief Justice, Mr Justice Samuel Azu Crabbe, as chairman to investigate the murders.



The outcome of the investigation led to the prosecution and execution of Joachim Amartey Kwei, a member of the PNDC, Lance Corporals Samuel Amedeka and Michael Senya, and two ex-soldiers- Jonny Dzandu and Tony Tekpor.















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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Veteran journalists turned socio-political commentators, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. and Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jnr, have been praised by Gabby Asare Otcere-Darko.



According to the Danquah Institute, DI, founder; the two veterans along with others like Kabral Blay-Amihere had earned their stripes by using journalism to defend freedom.



Gabby shared a photo of the Baako and Pratt in a September 21, 2022 tweet with the caption: The men who ruled with the pen and did so ruthlessly in defence of freedom. We salute them! Kweku, Kwesi, Kabral and Kofi.



Kweku Baako Jnr is currently Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper whereas Kwesi Pratt Jnr is the Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper.



The two, along with Blay-Amihere, were among the most vocal journalists in the days of military rule with Pratt and Baako being jailed because of their journalism and activism.



They have become regular guests on radio and TV political talk shows, often leveraging on their experience and closeness to people in power to share perspectives on issues of national and international relevance.



Even though both men claim to be of the Nkrumahist ideology, they have abandoned the Convention Peoples Party, CPP of today.



Pratt is seen as being sympathetic to the opposition National Democratic Congress whereas Kweku Baako leans towards the ruling New Patriotic Party.



Blay-Amihere, a one-time Ghana Journalist Association, GJA, president; after retirement from journalism served as a diplomat, he is a one-time ambassador of Ghana to the Ivory Coast and subsequently to Sierra Leone.





















Source: ghanaweb.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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New Patriotic Party (NPP) stalwart, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, has said that the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government, particularly the Ministry of Finance which is headed by Ken Ofori-Atta, deserves some applause for its management of Ghanaians economy in the face of global challenges.



According to him, despite all the difficulties, the government has not collapsed while other obligations such as fixing roads in the country as well as paying the salaries of public sector workers among other obligations.



The Akufo-Addo govt and, in particular, MoF, deserve the nations commendation for their handling of the economy in these most challenging times.



Despite a slump in revenues, bills are being paid, including salaries, roads being fixed, & money found for programmes like YouStart, parts of a tweet shared by Gabby read.



The NPP stalwart, who is also a lawyer, made these remarks while reacting to an announcement by the Ministry of Finance that it will be providing GH100,000 and GH500,000 loans under the commercial programme under the Youstart initiative.



The announcement came after Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, on behalf of the government, signed an agreement with 13 Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs) to support the implementation of the commercial part of the GH10 billion YouStart entrepreneurship programme.



Through the partnership, the PFIs would provide a loan facility of about GH5 billion in the next three years, ranging from GH100,000 and GH500,000 to businesses under the programme. The funds would be used to meet the working capital requirement of businesses, support their expansion needs and purchase of equipment or machinery to enhance productivity and create more well-paid jobs, especially for the youth.













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Traditional rulers in the Volta Region have hailed the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) Chief Executive, Dr. Okoe Boyes strong leadership and said they were excited about the future of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), under his supervision.



They expressed their satisfaction during a courtesy call on Dr. Okoe Boye at the NHIA head office in Accra on September 22, 2022.

As representatives of the Volta Traditional Leaders Forum, leader of the high-powered delegation, Togbui Dey III in a statement congratulated Dr. Okoe-Boye on his appointment.



We are here to congratulate you on your well-deserved appointment and to wish you well in your assigned role. We also show our appreciation to you and your management team for the great work you are doing and to urge you to continue because serving the poor and the vulnerable is the best service anyone could do.



We must indicate that we received the news of your appointment by His Excellency the President as the Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority early this year with joy and high hopes. Our happiness with your appointment stemmed largely from our conviction of your capacity and capabilities as a public servant.



The statement stressed that, Through to your nature as an achiever, you have started leaving giant footprints on the sand of the NHIS. You have demonstrated within this short period of your stewardship as CEO, full grasp and appreciation of the major challenges facing the Scheme and your capacity to find appropriate solutions.



"We take the opportunity to commend you and your management team for the sustained efforts aimed at ensuring that the NHIS serves the needs of our people as envisioned by the framers of the policy. The NHIS is an important national policy initiative which touches the lives of millions of Ghanaians, and the success of this critical asset requires the support and collaborations of all to make it realize its objective."



The traditional leaders appreciated the creation of the Copayments Committee and the waiver on the one-month mandatory waiting period for the aged above 70 years when they renew their NHIS membership.



Your strategic policy interventions including the setting up of the Copayments Committee to address the issues of illegal charges at healthcare facilities is a major step in the right direction. The practice of illegal charges by the hospitals is a source of major concern not only to the people of the Volta Region but all Ghanaians. Your decision to stop the practice is a welcoming news.



Again, your policy to waive the waiting period for older people who are 70 years and above shows your appreciation of the negative impact of the waiting period on the health of the aged and the vulnerable."



"You have also reviewed upwards the prices of medicines and tariffs to address the incidence of healthcare facilities refusing to give medicines to NHIS members because of complaints of low prices."



The traditional leaders promised to deepen their collaboration with the NHIA to increase the Schemes active membership.



"The Volta Traditional Leaders Forum as a first step is committed to collaborate with the NHIA to undertake serious education within the various traditional areas in the region using the established traditional institutions and channels to help the NHIS increase its membership. Even more heartening is your approach to collaborate with the chieftaincy institution and leverage their position and influence to educate our subjects on the NHIS. This is very laudable, and we commend you for it."







The Forum pledged to support and work with government and development partners to help improve the wellbeing of all residents in the Volta Region.



The traditional leaders recalled Dr. Okoe Boye's days as then Member of Parliament for the Ledzokuku constituency in the Greater Accra Region.



"Our people in your constituency continue to have fond memories of your good works and give good testimonies about your humility, passion for service, generosity and incredible persona.



One of the major concerns raised at the meeting was inadequate NHIS infrastructure in the region which according to the traditional leaders required the immediate construction and opening of new NHIS offices in deprived communities.

Dr. Okoe Boye commended the traditional leaders for their foresight and expressed his administrations commitment to make Ghana's Universal Health Coverage (UHC) agenda a reality.



"We will continue to ensure that money is not a barrier to accessing quality and affordable healthcare services. Traditional leaders are key partners in ensuring that we achieve UHC. Your concerns will be addressed in due course."



According to him, the Volta Region has a strong traditional leadership always championing the development needs of their people and reassured the delegation of his administrations determination to fix the challenges affecting the NHIA operations in the region and beyond.



The NHIA Boss said the NHIA is blessed to have great talents within the organization that are very committed and hardworking. He cited Mr. Raymond Avinu, the Acting Director of Administration and Human Resources of the Authority and an indigen of the Volta Region as one of such talents in the organization.



Dr Okoe Boye who referred to Mr. Avinu as his right-wing man, further described him as a critical thinker, a game changer, and a humble public servant.



He took the opportunity and encouraged residents in Ghana who are yet to enroll to take advantage of the massive NHIS registrations campaigns ongoing across the country to register with the Scheme to secure their healthcare.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Seasoned Journalist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr., has urged Ghanaians to be very observant of their surroundings and strangers to avoid dangers associated with terrorism.



Mr. Pratt asked Ghanaians to be on alert for suspicious behaviors while discussing the threat of terrorism in the country.



His views come on the heels of President Nana Akufo-Addo's speech at the 77th UN General Assembly.



"Mr President, a case in point is the destabilising conflict in the Sahel. It might look to many, today, as a local conflict which affects only the countries in that region. We, in Ghana, know differently, we have watched in horror as the unrest has moved from the Sahel, inexorably, to the West African coastal countries. All of Ghanas neighbours have suffered terrorist attacks, and some have lost territorial space to the invading forces. Furthermore, the terrorist pressure has provided a pretext for the unhappy reappearance of military rule in three (3) of the fifteen (15) member ECOWAS Community, two (2) of whom have borne the brunt of the terrorist outrages in the Region  Mali and Burkina Faso.



"It is a development we are determined to reverse, so that the ECOWAS space remains a democratic one. All of us in the Region are being forced to spend huge amounts of money on security. This is money we should be spending on educating and giving skills to our young people; on building much needed roads, bridges, hospitals and other such infrastructure, which we are spending to fight terrorists or to keep them out from destabilising our countries. This is a global problem, deserving the attention of the world community for a global solution", President Nana Addo said while addressing the gathering.



Speaking on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo", Mr. Pratt advised that the citizens report suspicious conduct or persons to the security services saying, "we all have to be observant. These terrorists we've heard have entered Ghana and those on their way coming definitely stay in a hotel or someone's house. So, if you have a house and someone comes to settle in it and you find the person's attitude suspicious, you have to swiftly inform the security services".



"Cooperation between the civilian population and the security forces is very, very, very important. If we don't assist the security services, we will live to regret," he added.



He charged the media to spread information that unites the economy.



"Say things which will unite us. Say things that will prove to these wicked people that Ghana is unified," he said.











Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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The World Bank Country Director (Ghana), Pierre Frank Laporte has affirmed an assertion by the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, that unreasonable energy sector agreement by the Mahama government, which the present government has been paying, has had a significant negative effect on the country's economy.



At a recent lecture in Accra on the economy, Vice President Bawumia referred to what he called "the quadruple whammy", as factors which have contributed to challenges the Ghanaian economy has been facing lately.



The quadruple whammy, the Vice President explained, were the effects of the twin global crisis of COVID-19 pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the whopping financial sector clean-up payments, as well as a staggering Ghc 17 billion payment as energy sector debt bequeathed to the Akufo-Addo administration by the erstwhile Mahama regime, which negotiated questionable take-or-pay deal experts, have faulted.



Following Dr. Bawumia's quadruple whammy speech, the IMF, through its Managing Director, has affirmed the Vice President's claim by insisting that the twin global crises; the covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, have indeed impacted negatively on the downturn of the Ghanaian economy in the past two years.



The World Bank, in what is another vindication of Vice President Bawumia has added its voice, by saying that the over GH17 billion which the Akufo-Addo government has paid as cost of excess energy capacity charges, in other words, energy the country doesn't need which the Mahama Government signed for, has contributed in suffocating the economy.



In an interview with television station TV3 on the Ghanaian economy, the World Bank Country Director pointed out the whopping losses in the energy sector as well as covid-19 difficulties, as factors making Ghana's economic challenges worse.



The big issue has been on the fiscal side. Before the current crisis happened, we observed certain challenges on the budget side that really has been the area more hit by everything. Also where actions are required now to deal with them. For instance, on the revenue side, we have always been saying that this is an area where Ghana should do better. We are encouraged by the fact that this should be one of the areas for potential programmes and support from the World Bank. The problem is fiscal, not just revenue.



The problem is that there are also spillovers from other sectors, or instance, the energy sector. There are about one billion dollars going to the energy sector because of losses. The sector itself is not financially viable and to keep it going you have to subsidize.



Actions are required. Of course with COVID-19, the general business environment is been a bit more difficult.



He added action is required and Ghana is likely to receive about $600 million as a balance of payment support for the next budget.



If Ghana is able to meet all the criteria and is going to get the budget support from the World Bank, how much are we looking at?



Normally, there is a hard rule and soft rule, we can give around 30 to 40 percent of the countrys budget support and for Ghana, we are looking around $600million. Ghanas envelope for the next three years is $1.5billion, he added.



Since the assumption of office of the current Government, Ghana has enjoyed a stable electricity supply in 2017, a clear departure from the almost five-year energy crisis under the previous government from 2012 to 2017, which was attributed to the then government's inability to make financial commitments to Independent Power Producers.



But the more recent stability, experts have said, is as a result of the current government's unfailing financial commitment to these power producers.



The stability has also been suffocating and draining government coffers as a result of the unavoidable yearly payment of nearly US$1 billion for power the country doesn't need, which was signed by the previous government.

Source: Ghanaweb.com









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The police in Houston, Texas have arrested a 38-year-old Nigerian man, Bolanle Fadairo, for allegedly killing his fellow Nigerian and friend of over 30 years, Michael Essien and leaving the victim's two-year-old son, Micah, to die in a hot car in the Gulfton area of southwest Houston.



Fadairo is accused of shooting 38-year-old Essien to death after an argument outside a strip center in the 5500 block of El Camino Del Rey and Chimney Rock on Tuesday, September 20. Investigators say Fadairo admitted that he had known Essien for about 30 years, and even used the victim's home address to receive mail.



"(Fadairo) stated the argument started from (Essien) owing him money" court documents read



The police say on the day of the shooting, Fadairo met with Essien, before an argument ensued between both men which led to Fadairo shooting Essien and fleeing the crime scene with Essien's SUV with the deceased's 2-year-old son still in a the car seat.



Nearly five hours later, the victims wife called the police to report her husband and son were missing. The woman was able to provide information about her husbands vehicle which led to its discovery roughly 1 mile away from the site of the incident.



Charging documents said the car was locked, and the windows were rolled up as outdoor temperatures reached 93 degrees. The cause of the boy's death has yet to be ascertained but it is believed that he died from heat exhaustion.



ABC13 spoke with Essien's sister, Jessie. She said he was married and has two other children, a 5-year-old son and a 1-week-old baby.



"Michael never argued with anybody. Michael would take his shirt off and give to others. He gives his last dime to other people. All I need is my brother" Jessie added.









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Madam Virginia Palmer, United States (US) Ambassador to Ghana, has reassured prospective students applying for visas of appointments on time before classes begin.



She said the Embassy was bending over backwards to ensure that students got to the United States before the start of class to enable them have interviews in time if they were issued a visa.



Madam Palmer gave the assurance at the opening of the 2022 EducationUSA College Fair in Accra for universities and colleges from the United States to interact with prospective students in Ghana.

The Fair brought together about 40 representatives of universities and colleges from the United States to interact with prospective Ghanaian students.



The Ambassador urged students to apply on time and not to be deterred by the appointment times given by the Embassy.



I hope youll enjoy the opportunity to explore the educational opportunities offered in the US, the bridges that are built during studies in the US when American students come to Ghana they build lifelong bridges that benefits the bilateral relationship for years to come, she stated.



Madam Palmer encouraged people who needed to travel to the US to apply, and ask for expedited appointments as well, and utilise the interview waiver programme to renew their expired visas.



She said: So if you already had a visa, but your visa has expired, you dont need to come back to the Embassy, you can just send it to us by mail, and those renewals are very straightforward.



And in terms of the backlog overall, because I know there is a lot of interest in that. I have taken every officer with a Consular commission and put them to work on the visa line, and the Consular Section has opened up lots of appointments for more non-immigrant visas, she said



Mr John Ntim Fordjour, Deputy Minister of Education, said the interest of the US universities in Ghana was an indication of their confidence in the countrys education system.



He said the countrys education system produced people who furthered their education in the United States, and returned to support the building of the nation, adding that, historically, Ghana and the United States had a relationship bonded around many things, including education.



As we speak, we have many partnerships going on between Ghanaian higher institutions of learning, specifically Ghanaian universities, and some universities in the United States. We send lecturers, they also send lecturers, they exchange research ideas, he said.



Mr Fordjour stated that the Ministry of Education was exploring and facilitating some technical cooperation between the countrys universities and some notable universities in the United States to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.



We must collaborate our skills and faculties to be able to solve some of the complex challenges the world faces today,



The collaborations, he said, would strengthen and promote some institutions and Ministry arrangements to ensure the harnessing of best talents and brains from academia to research to ensure that certain improvements were seen. EducationUSA is a US Government sponsored network of 450 centres in 170 countries around the globe.



It is mandated to provide comprehensive, current, accurate and impartial information on US higher education and guide qualified individuals in order to be successful applicants to accredited US colleges and universities.



Ghana currently has two EducationUSA Centers at the US Embassy in Accra and at ACE Consult in Asokwa, Kumasi.

Source: GNA









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The immediate past Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Madam Elizabeth Agyemang, has expressed concern about indecent dressing among the youth, saying such practice has negative effects on individuals, the country, and the educational process.



Speaking at this years Youth and Childrens Week celebration on the topic Todays Youth and Social Media at the Saint Pauls Catholic Church at New Amakom in Kumasi, the former minister urged the youth to be decorous when it comes to their fashion sense and desist from blindly copying foreign cultures to the detriment of the countrys rich culture.



Social media refers to all applications and websites that enable people around the globe to interconnect via the internet, chat, and share content, video calls among many other functionalities it offers to its users.



For a person to be a member of any social media, he or she has to first signup and then sign in to access content and be able to share and chat with other users of that social media platform.



Some of the common and widely used social media platforms include Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Snapchat many among others.



For some 20 years now, social media has gained growth and fame worldwide.



Despite the fact that almost everyone in the community is connected to at least one social media platform, the youth are the leading and most fanatic of these social platforms to the point that they even social network, while in class or even church.



Despite the good uses, social media has proved to have negative effects on the youth. Discussions continue to be engaged as to whether to go on using the sites or stop or even moderate their usage, particularly among the youth.



It is in light of this that the Saint Pauls Catholic Church at New Amakom in Kumasi celebrated this years Youth and Childrens Week under the theme, Todays Youth and Social Media.



A forum held under the theme was attended by children and various youth wings of the church and parents.



The Executive Director of Child and Family International, Madam Clara Puni Nyamesem who was the resource person, explained how social media affect children and youth upbringing, while some parents and the youth took advantage of the open forum to contribute to the discussion.



Madam Nyamesem urged parents to frequently check and regulate activities of their wards in accessing social media platforms.



The immediate past Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Madam Elizabeth Agyemang noted with concern the growing phenomenon of indecent dressing by young ladies in the name of fashion and blamed the development on the unregulated use of social media by the youth.













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Joseph Ade Coker, the Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has revealed that the arrest of over 76 alleged illegal forex operators (black market) is not a solution to the cedi depreciation.



This statement is in line with the arrest of over seventy six (76) alleged illegal forex operators known as black market operators in Accra.



The exercise dubbed Special Operation on Foreign Exchange Parallel (Black Market Operators was carried out by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) in conjunction with the police.



The exercise in Accra took place around Rawlings Park, Tudu, Cowlane, Circle, Kimbu Market and Lava.



According to a statement issued by the BoG, the purpose of the operation was to clamp down on individuals and entities engaging in the business of buying and selling foreign exchange without a license from Bank of Ghana in violation of Ghanas foreign exchange laws and regulations.



The Head of the Foreign Exchange Bureau Examinations Office, at the Bank of Ghana, Adjoa Konadu Torto, indicated that the exercise would continue in other parts of the country in the coming days.



In an interview on Atinka TVs Morning Show Ghana Nie with host Ekourba Gyasi, Ade Coker noted that just like corruption, the operations of the black market has been a part of the forex business from time immemorial.



Ade Coker hinted that if the foreign currencies are available at the forex bureaus, the black market will become useless.



When the fundamentals are wrong, your foreign exchange will expose you. That is the truth of the matter. The forex business is run on a supply and demand basis, and these black market men give good rates. That is why people patronize them.



"It is a matter of making the currency available. If foreign currencies are always available at good rates, no one will patronize the services of these black marketers. Some bank officials even direct clients to the black market, Ade Coker added.





Source: GNA









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The Member of Parliament (MP) for Mfantsiman Constituency, Ophelia Mensah Hayford has condemned the murder of Georgina Asor Botchwey in Mankessim.



In a statement, MP Ophelia Mensah Hayford, called for calm among constituents and support for the police to unravel the truth.



She also commended the police for the swift arrests of the two suspects.



I call on all constituents especially the residents of Mankessim to remain calm and that the police are on top of the issue and they are accordingly commended for the swift response and the arrest they have effected so far, excerpts of the statement said.



22-year-old Georgina Asor Botchwey, was allegedly killed and buried inside a traditional leaders kitchen at Mankessim by Michael Darko and Nana Clark Onyaa.



The victim was allegedly kidnapped by the pastor after she had gone for an interview at the Ankaful Nursing Training College.



The two suspects, Michael Darko and Nana Clark Onyaa, who allegedly murdered the have been remanded by the Cape Coast District Court into Police Custody.



During Police interrogation, suspect Michael Darko, who is the alleged boyfriend of the senior sister of the deceased victim and was last seen with the her, led Police to the location where they had buried her after the murder.



Mother of the deceased has confirmed that Nana Onyaa and the pastor, who doubles as the boyfriend of the murdered students sister, first kidnapped the victim, raped her and demanded GHS15,000 as ransom from her family.



A statement from the police said the chief and the pastor killed the lady and buried her in the chiefs kitchen after the family failed to pay the amount.



The two will reappear before the Court on 4th October 2022.





Source: ghanaweb.com









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The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice of Ghana, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has stated that the Government of Ghana remains committed to advancing and protecting the fundamental human rights of minorities in the country.

According to him, it was vital that the government was fulfilling its obligations to ensure that minority rights are not marginalised in Ghana.



Stressing on the commitment, Hon Yeboah Dame added that the government would firmly ensure that Article 17 of the constitution guarantees equality before the law and prohibits discrimination on the grounds of gender, race, colour, ethnic origin, religion, creed or social or economic status is achieved.



The Attorney-General made these remarks at the High-Level Meeting of the 77th Session of the General Assembly to mark the commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious And Linguistic Minorities.



Mr Dame, in his address, said, despite the progress made in advancing the rights of minority groups following the adoption of the Declaration 3 decades ago, challenges persist.



We solidarize with the people belonging to minority groups and remain concerned about the disproportionate suffering they are subjected to in conflict situations, including their vulnerability to forced displacements, obstacles to education and other attendant effects resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, he added.



Mr Dame re-iterated Ghanas commitment to the implementation of the Declaration as he said it is the governments conviction that unbridled political will by the Member States at the national, regional and multilateral level was critical to advancing the rights of minority groups sustainably.



The Attorney General highlighted the following points, which he says are instrumental in dealing with the issue confronting minority groups: "First, We believe that although the Declaration was adopted three decades ago, it remains relevant in addressing contemporary challenges facing minority groups. It is, therefore, important for the Member States to make their commitment to its implementation.



As we move towards a post-COVID-19 future, it is important for Member States to deliberately put in place measures that would enhance emergency aids, boost data collection for monitoring and tracking of disparities among minority groups, intensify outreaches including minority languages and sign languages on how to prevent and address COVID-19 and other challenges, and availability of services. This would help ensure that minority groups are not disadvantaged.



The growing exclusion, marginalisation and discrimination against minorities require a more holistic and comprehensive approach in addressing the situation. We welcome the integration of employment, sustainable development and social protection into domestic policies and the advancement of equal rights and opportunities for all, ensuring that the interest of minority groups is served. Furthermore, deliberate policies that create a conducive environment for minority groups to meaningfully participate in political activities and decision-making are encouraged.



"Equally important is the urgent need to empower minority women and girls to help ameliorate the various forms of abuse they are subjected to. We believe this can be addressed by urgently considering measures embedded in economic support and stimulus packages that reflect the needs of women who face multiple forms of discrimination. In addition, the introduction of interventions such as helplines, psychosocial support and online counselling is recommended.







Source: graphiconline.com









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National Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joshua Hamidu Akamba, has bemoaned the treatment of Victoria Hamah after she was heard on a leaked tape wanting to make a million dollars while in office under former President John Dramani Mahamas administration in 2013.



It could be remembered that Victoria Hamah who then was a Deputy Communications Minister was caught on tape indicating that she is in government to enrich herself.



She said she needed to earn One Million Dollars as a young appointee; a tape that earned her a sack from public office.



Almost a decade after the said incident, Mr. Akamba believes, Madam Victoria Hamah was given a raw deal when she was kicked out of office over mere desire to make money and not actual corruption.



Speaking on Ultimate FM in Kumasi monitored by MyNewsGh.com, the NDC organizer noted that hindsight, things ought to have been handled differently.



I think she was not given a fair treatment; I know Vicky as an honest woman, everybody aspires to make some money, she didnt say I have made or there was no evidence that I have stolen, yet again we listened to the NPP and took that action



It was the NPP that pushed this action, directed our action, today I can tell you that Vicky cannot be a corrupt person, I know her



She is still an active member, I think she event contested Kintampo North or west or so



Brief facts of the story



In 2013, Victoria Hamah, Deputy Communication Minister was sacked over a secret recording. In the recording, she was heard saying that she will never leave politics until she makes one million United States dollars.



READ ALSO: Sycophants have hijacked President Akufo-Addo- Kennedy Agyepong On the tape, she says: I will not quit politics until I make one million dollars.



If you have money then you can control people, she seems to say on the tape which was widely circulated then.



Ms. Hamah was seen as too young and inexperienced to serve in government then.



She said there was a lot of pressure on her to steal public money because people thought that, as a minister, she was rich.



Ms Hamah first came to the public attention after stumbling several times while making a speech and then saying she had been given the wrong text.





Source: ghannaweb.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 Convention Peoples Party (CPP) has urged the public to use the occasion of the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day to rally behind the party to fight for the ideals of the countrys first President.

It said the two major political parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), had failed the country and the CPP was the party of choice to help turn the countrys fortunes around to benefit the ordinary Ghanaian.



Speaking at an occasion to celebrate Dr Nkrumahs 113th birthday yesterday, the General Secretary of the party, Nana Yaa Jantuah, dispelled claims that the party was not united, adding that

We are not disunited, we are united with one common front to ensure that CPP takes over the administration of this nation to change the ills meted out to Ghanaians.



Memorial Day



The Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day is a statutory public holiday observed in the country to mark the birthday of Ghana's first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, who was born on September 21, 1909 at Nkroful, near Axim in the Nzema East Municipality in the Western Region of the then Gold Coast, now Ghana.



It would have marked the 113th birthday of Dr Nkrumah if he were alive.



The General Secretary explained that it was time to reflect on the good deeds of Dr Nkrumah and collectively build and learn from the legacy he left behind.



She stated that the efforts Dr Nkrumah made to exert the dream of bringing independence to the country and to ensure a united continent should be enough reason for their founder to be remembered and celebrated annually.



Madam Jantuah called on Ghanaians, including its members that had left the party, to return for the sake of the love they had for their founder.



That, she said, would ensure that power was brought back to the party to enable it to bring redemption to the country backed by the ideals of Dr Nkrumah.



Unity



A member of the opposition NDC and former deputy Chief of Staff, Alex Segbefia, said Nkrumahs quest to ensure development in the country was unmatched.



The party, he said, must resist any attempt to re-write the history of the country and the fact that Dr Nkrumah was the founder of the country.



He added that it was the duty of all to emulate the ideals of Nkrumah and collaborate to ensure peace on the continent.



Unity does not mean leave your party but collaboration.



Having a common sense of purpose is key and we must all endeavour to live in that direction, he added.



The Communications Director of the PPP, Emmanuel Felix Kofi Mantey, in his solidarity message, emphasised the need for Ghanaians to understand the context within which Dr Nkrumah fought for independence



According to him, the former President fought for economic independence adding: it is time to forget whatever we believe in and think about a force that can stand against vindictiveness; lets go back to the basis and remember where we started from and help to improve the quality of life of the ordinary Ghanaian.



Build



The Chairman of the party, Nana Akosua Frimpomaa, charged the members to help leadership build a party that was fortified for victory in the 2024 election.



Lets resolve all internal wrangling and lets use his birthday to ignite the spirit of selflessness, she added.









Source: graphiconline.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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Johnson Asiedu Nketia has declared his intention not to seek re-election as General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The NDC will be electing new national executives on December 17, 2022 to lead the party in the next four years.



Mr Asiedu Nketia who has been General Secretary of the NDC since 2005 speaking on Accra based Radio Gold in Accra on Wednesday (September 21, 2022) declared that it is time for him to take a back seat as General Secretary.



His reason is that, other people should be given the opportunity to serve in that position.



When asked about his next move, he said when the time comes, he will announce it.



He has been linked to nursing an interest to go for the national chairman position of the NDC.



He said there is no rightful owner for a particular position in the NDC, as some people have been saying that the general secretary position is solely for Johnson Asiedu Nketia.



According to him, he can go in for the position of an organiser, a chairman or even a flag bearer because the position is not dedicated solely to one person.



He added that he will either retire or go for the chairmanship position.

Source: graphiconline.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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Deputy National Communications Diretcor of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Ernest Owusu Bempah, has responded to a comment made by the World Bank Country Director, Pierre Frank Laporte in an interview with TV 3.



The World Bank Country Director (Ghana), Pierre Frank Laporte believes that the energy sector is costing government and unless critical reforms are happening in this sectors, it will continue to be a burden, and it is part of the problems that forced Ghana into a situation where the country is now seeking support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).



According to Mr. Owusu Bempah the bad governance led by former President John Dramani Mahama has been confirmed by the World Bank Country Director.



"The energy sector is saddled with huge avoidable debt occasioned by this bad power purchase agreement by the former Energy sector ministry under John Dramani," Ernest Owusu Bempah said in an interview with Peacefmonline.com.



"The NDC created a self artificial power crises to allegedly pocket millions of cedis, and this made them sign these dubious power purchase agreements that has created so much mess for the current government to bare all these costs," he added.



According to him the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) is the only party that can salvage Ghanaians from this mess and the greedy nature of the NDC.



"The NDC signed an agreement with Eni which produces and supply gas . . . and this has accrued so much . . . the country have started paying also for annual excess gas capacity charges of between $550million and $850 million every year due to this contracts that the previous government entered into..."



He said if not for this avoidable bad debt, Ghana would have had in excess of about 7 billion dollars which wouldn't have made us run to the IMF for economic support.



" . . Somebody has run the entire economy, the energy sector into take-or-pay and we are paying a huge debt while we need this billions of dollars to turn around the economy," he lamented.







World Bank Country Director says unreasonable energy sector agreement forced Ghana into IMF



The World Bank Country Director (Ghana), Pierre Frank Laporte believes that the energy sector is costing government and unless critical reforms are happening in this sectors, it will continue to be a burden, and it is part of the problems that forced Ghana into a situation where the country is now seeking support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).



According to him, albeit the impact of the Covid-19 which he said has resulted in the difficult environment for businesses, he indicated that spillovers from the energy sector is another major cause.



"There are leakages currently, the level of exemptions of taxes are high . . . the energy sector is costing government today and unless critical reforms are happening in this sectors, it will continue to be a burden and there solutions," he noted.



Ghana is currently paying over GHS12 billion for power not used as a result of the cost of pay-or-take contracts.



The Finance Ministry has so far paid over GH12 billion as the cost of excess energy capacity charges inherited since 2017 just to keep the lights on. This huge amount was paid for electricity that the country did not use (excess capacity) but had to be paid anyway due to the nature of power contracts signed during the era of the past government.



Mr Laporte, speaking in an interview with TV 3, pointed out those losses in the energy sector are compounding the challenges.





Ghana has an installed capacity of about 5,000 megawatts and dependable capacity of about 4,700MW with all time high peak demand of 2,700MW. This means since 2017, Ghana has had to look for money to pay about 600MW of excess capacity that was never used.To address this inimical issue, government boldly and innovatively crafted the Energy Sector Reform Programme (ESRP) to effectively deal with all key issues in the energy sector.Under ESRP, the government is renegotiating with IPPs to convert purchase agreements from Take-or-Pay to Take-and Pay to put an end to the payment of excess capacity that keeps adding to Ghanas debt stock.Specifically, government paid $520m(GH2.7 billion) energy sector debt in 2018; $604m(GH3.14 billion), 2019, $1billion (GH5.2 billion) payment in 2019 and now paying over $1billion.The costs to government would increase over time due to an accumulated total of over $12.5 billion by 2023 if business as usual in the energy sector continues.Due to the expensive power purchase agreements that included Pay-or-Take between 2010 and 2016, electricity tariff was increased over an

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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Edudzi Kudzo Tameklo, a member of the legal and communications team of the opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC, has suggested that the ruling New Patriotic Party, NPP, has taken over Public Relations duties for the Electoral Commission, EC.



In his view, it is shameful that the NPP was now openly defending the Electoral Commission, a move that he contends compromises its independence.



"NPP now the official PR unit of the independent Electoral Commission. They cant even hide the interference. Shame," Edudzi posted on his Facebook timeline, September 22, 2022.



The post comes at a time the NDC is fighting the EC's decision to make the Ghana Card, the sole document for continuous registration of eligible voters.



The NDC at a press conference this week accused the EC of colluding with the NPP to rig the next elections by manipulating the continuous registration process.



The party has asked the EC to withdraw a Constitutional Instrument, CI, currently before Parliament. They have also vowed to oppose the CI when it is laid before the House.



The EC's latest response has been that, it will go ahead with all processes despite the NDC's concerns.



The ECs Director of Operations Dr. Serebour Quaicoe in an interview on Joy News explained their position.



Everybody who has been following registrations in Ghana will realise that the tensions that crop up at the registration centres are related to who a Ghanaian is and who is faking.



Basically, youll have the political parties, especially NPP and NDC at each others throats [about who a Ghanaian is]. We believe that if you have a Ghana Card, that issue will be addressed, he stressed.



The NPP is on record to have stated its full support for the EC's decision.



The NDC's concerns, grounded in the failure of the National Identification Authority, NIA, to provide Ghana Cards for all Ghanaians has been dismissed by the NPP.







Source: ghanaweb.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Mr Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, Director of Elections, National Democratic Congress (NDC), has hailed the Partys General Secretary, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, saying the history of Ghana and NDC is incomplete without him.



Mr Nketia has publicly declared his intention not to seek re-election as General Secretary of the NDC in the Partys upcoming national congress, after 17 years as chief scribe.



In an audio message, Mr Afriyie-Ankrah, who is seeking to replace Mr Nketia as General Secretary, described the latter as a great personality.



He is a great personality and definitely an institution and he has made the necessary impact that anybody could make within the political system, and indeed the history of this country and the history of the NDC would definitely not be complete without talking about his major role over the past 17 years. Mr Afriyie-Ankrah said.



Mr Afriyie-Ankrah added that He (Mr Nketia) has been an inspiration to all of us, just as some of us aspire to step in his shoes, we can continue to count on his wisdom, guidance and store-house of knowledge.



The NDC will hold its Constituency elections between October 22 and 23, 2022, while the regional elections would be held between November 12 and 13, 2022.



The National Congress will be held on December 17, 2022.



About 7,900 executives are expected to be elected in a total of 876 elections at the constituency, regional, and national elections scheduled for the next three months.



Mr Nketia, who had served as General Secretary of the NDC since 2005, in a radio interview on Wednesday, September 21, 2022, said the time had come for him to hang his boots as General Secretary and allow others to also serve the Party in that capacity.



Asked if he would be contesting other positions in the upcoming election, Mr Nketia said he would announce it when the time comes.



Mr Nketia led the NDC to power in 2008, and 2012 elections. The Party, under his stewardship as General Secretary also lost the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, sharing the spoils with the New Patriotic Party in the 2020 parliamentary elections.





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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Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, addressing the UN Security Council



Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, says Ghana will not recognize any annexation of Ukrainian territories by the Russian Federation.



Addressing a special meeting of the United Nations (UN) Security Council on the maintenance of the peace and security of Ukraine in New York City today Thursday 22 September 2022, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey noted that Ghana remains committed to its position that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is in breach of international law and unjustified.



We have expressed several times our principled position against the aggression on Ukraine which we consider to be a disregard for the rules of international law and the principles of the charter (UN Charter).



Ukraine as a sovereign state and a member of this organization (UN) has every right, we believe, and indeed a responsibility to defend its territorial integrity and political independence, Foreign Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said.



Ghana does not, and will not recognize any territory that is unilaterally and forcefully acquired as dismembered from a sovereign entity, Miss Botchwey added.



In her statement, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration reiterated Ghanas call on the Russian Federation, to immediately and unconditionally cease its operations, withdraw its troops from the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine, and respect its western neighbours sovereignty and political independence.



The need for a credible pathway for a genuine diplomatic process is urgent. The barrel of the gun does not provide such a pathway. It only leads to needless loss of lives and destruction on both sides. Indeed, the cost of the war has been high, not only for the parties, but also for the rest of the world, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said.



Proposed referenda



After stunning battlefield setbacks in the last two weeks, Russia moved to cement its grip on territory it occupies in eastern and southern Ukraine (Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk) as Kremlin proxies and associates announced plans on Tuesday 21 September 2022, for referendums on annexation to Russia, indicating a possible escalation of the seven-month-old war.



The Kremlin signaled that if Russia were to go forward with annexation, even if no other country recognized it, any further military action by Ukraine in those regions would be seen as an attack on Russia itself, justifying any military response by the nation with the worlds largest nuclear arsenal.



Partial mobilization



In what is seen by several international law experts as an escalation of Russias war in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin, announced on Tuesday 21 September 2022, a partial mobilization of Russian citizens in what would see 300,000 reservists called up, according to the Defence Minister of Russia, Sergei Shoigu.



Putin in his announcement said those with military experience would be subject to conscription, and stressed that the decree, which was already signed, was necessary to protect our homeland, its sovereignty and its territorial integrity. The announcement by Putin has been received with widespread protests in Russia as some have sought to flee the country to escape the impending conscription.

Source: asaaseradio.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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Louis Gundolf repeats Safety Discussion, David Lama & Peter Ortner masterpiece in Lienz Dolomites

23.09.2022 by by Planetmountain

Belayed by Jonathan Lechner, on 31/08/2021 Austrian climber Louis Gundolf repeated 'Safety Discussion', a difficult multipitch established in 2012 by David Lama and Peter Ortner on the South Face of Laserz in the Lienz Dolomites, Austria.





The ascent dates back to two summers ago, weve found out about it only now: on 31 August 2021 Austrias Louis Gundolf made a rare ascent of Safety Discussion, the difficult climb on the south face of Laserz in the Lienz Dolomites put up in 2012 by the David Lama and Peter Ortner.

In July 2012 Lama and Ortner, who had just returned from Patagonia and the milestone first free ascent of the Compressor Route on Cerro Torre, made their way to the limestone south face keen on freeing Jugendanstieg, but the huge overhanging flake just to the right immediately caught their attention. The pair freed Jugendanstieg without problems and the next day they returned to the mountain to start what was to become Safety Discussion. The ten pitch route was first ascended round-up, past difficulties estimated at X- / 8b max, and boasts an extremely spartan use of bolts. Read, at least one bolt at each belay, and 6 in total on the pitches where it was impossible to continue with just wires, cams and pegs.

After his first free ascent in September 2012 Lama stated "For me, the Safety Discussion route is one of my best first ascents, and is especially valuable for its minimal use of bolts. The route is long, challenging, and while the next potential suitors won't have to climb into the unknown, the first time on the route will definitely remain an adventure."

Belayed by Jonathan Lechner, Gundolf completed his redpoint on 31 August after a failed first attempt which resulted in Gundolf pulling out one of Lamas pegs during a fall. This now holds a prime position as it dangles from his car mirror, acting as a great memory and good luck charm.

What makes Gundolfs ascent all the more remarkable is the fact that the 20-year-old is first and foremost a competition climber. Although Safety Discussion isnt his first alpine outing, it is certainly his most difficult to date, both physically and mentally.



Info: www.salewa.com/blog-the-less-the-better

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How Uruguay's Francisco Benitez Dominated EPT Barcelona to Win $1.1 Million

September 23, 2022 Connor Richards Editor & Live Reporter U.S.

Looking back at this summer's 2022 PokerStars EPT Barcelona, most will remember Giuliano Bendinelli as the big winner for taking down the 5,300 buy-in Main Event for 1.5 million. But there was no one more dominant during the European Poker Tour festival in Spain than Uruguay's Francisco Benitez.

Benitez, a 16-year poker veteran who primarily plays online, started off the series on the Spanish coast by taking down two high-roller events, an already impressive feat (he was the only player to win multiple events at the festival) that he followed up by making two additional high-roller final tables.

All said and done, the 31-year-old Uruguayan cashed for $1.1 million at EPT Barcelona and picked up the four largest live cashes of his career, according to The Hendon Mob.

PokerNews spoke with Benitez during EPT Barcelona about his background as a professional poker player in South America and his breakout year on the European live circuit.

Read about PokerNews' favorite EPT Barcelona moments!

Learning Poker in Uruguay

Benetiz started playing poker when he was only 15 years old and was a professional by the time he was 18.

"I have 16 years (of experience) playing," Benitez told PokerNews. "13 years professional."

Francisco Benitez

How much poker is there in Uruguay?

"Not much," Benitez admitted, adding that there are a few tournaments but they are "not that big."

The South American country has hosted a number of poker festivals and events, including World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Punta del Este, Brazilian Poker Series (BSOP) Punta del Este and partypoker MILLIONS South America, where Benetiz finished fifth in a $25,000 Super High Roller for $60,000.

Benitez is also a constant traveler and has cashed in poker tournaments around the world, including at 2014's PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas and 2016's EPT Monte Carlo and at 2021's WSOP in Las Vegas.

"I live in Uruguay, but I travel a lot," he said. "Not a lot, a lot, but I travel four to six months a year."

But the vast majority of Benetiz' poker playing has been online, where he plays under the username Tomatee and has amassed millions in earnings.

"I love the feel of playing online, playing everything," said Benitez. "I play a lot online, every big series online. And I play EPT not (that) much, not every EPT. I don't play much live. I play two live tournaments per year, two EPTs and maybe something in Vegas. But not much."

"I love the feel of playing online, playing everything. I play a lot online, every big series online."

Crushing in Barcelona

Despite not playing the EPT much, Benetiz made the trip across the Atlantic Ocean to Barcelona and took down one of the first events of the series, 10,200 Mystery Bounty, for 114,080.

Francisco Benitez after his first victory at EPT Barcelona

In a winner's interview after that victory, Benitez told PokerNews the win gave him "more confidence for the rest of the tournaments" and that he planned to play everything  every high roller, the Main Event; everything.

Benitez, whose only request after the tournament was that he get a photo tossing his cards into the air, kept his promise and played a packed schedule at EPT Barcelona. It wasn't long before he found himself posing for another winner's photo with a second PokerStars spade trophy in hand as he took down 25,000 No-Limit Hold'em for 341,565 after a heads-up deal with his friend and fellow South American Ramiro Petrone of Argentina.

Francisco Benitez and Ramiro Petrone

After the ICM deal, a final hand was dealt to determine how who would take home the trophy and, as fate would have it, Benitez picked up his second win of the series.

Not long after, Benitez was making yet another run in 25,000 No Limit Hold'em, where he finished in fourth place for $197,272.

PokerNews spoke with Benitez a few days after that six-figure score on Aug. 15 as he played Day 1 of the 100,000 EPT Super High Roller and asked if there was a secret to his breakout live poker year.

"I don't know, no secret," he laughed. "Just focused ... I feel very good. I feel good. I don't have much to say, that's it."

While he didn't cash in the 100,000 event, Benitez made a deep run in 25,000 Single-Day High Roller later in the series and found himself heads-up against Leonard Maue for his third victory of the series. He couldn't win a flip when he got it in with ace-nine against the German's pocket deuces and had to settle for the runner-up prize of 421,480.

Battling With Erik

The small field of elite players in the EPT Barcelona high rollers included Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel, with whom Benitez had some history.

Last August, Benitez came close to winning his first bracelet in a $10,000 Super MILLION$ High Roller on GGPoker but ultimately finished runner-up for $759,419. Who finished first? None other than Seidel, who earned his ninth bracelet to tie Johnny Moss in fifth on the all-time bracelet list.

Benitez played with Seidel throughout the series and the two made a final table together in the 25,000 event that Benitez wound up winning, while Seidel fell in sixth place for 81,030.

Erik Seidel

"It feels good (to play with Erik) ... I am so curious and asked him about his age and how (much) time (he has spent) playing poker."

Benitez, a friendly player who at one point in the series PokerNews saw walking through the ESPT Main Event field and fist-bumping the players he knew, said he took the opportunity to chat with the legendary poker veteran who had denied him a bracelet.

"It feels good (to play with Erik) ... I am so curious and asked him about his age and how (much) time (he has spent) playing poker, and that's it," said Benitez. "He told me 37 years playing. Just curious, and feel(s) good to meet with him."

Seidel was in the 100,000 Super High Roller field as PokerNews chatted with Benitez. The Poker Hall of Famer went on to finish second in the event, the highest buy-in of the series, for $1.3 million.

Four Biggest Live Scores

While Benitez insisted there were no secrets to his success EPT Barcelona, the European festival was undoubtedly a breakout moment on the live felt for the Uruguayan.

All four of his cashes at EPT Barcelona were larger than his $89,903 cash from a third-place finish at the 2014 PCA, which was his biggest live score when he flew to Spain last month.

Francisco Benitez

Whatever live festival Benitez decides to play next, the Uruguayan poker pro will be sure to crush, though it will hard for him to be more dominant than he was at EPT Barcelona.

Benitez's full results at EPT Barcelona are available in the table below.

Francisco Benitez's 2022 EPT Barcelona Results

DATE EVENT PLACE PRIZE (IN EURO) PRIZE (IN USD) Aug. 18, 2022 Event #41: 25,000 No Limit Hold'em 2nd 421,480 $432,687 Aug. 12, 2022 Event #16: 25,000 No Limit Hold'em 4th 191,790 $197,272 Aug. 10, 2022 Event #11: 25,000 No Limit Hold'em 1st 341,565 $350,647 Aug. 8, 2022 Event #3: 10,200 No Limit Hold'em - Mystery Bounty (Event #3) 1st 114,080 $116,263 Total Cashes: 1,068,915 $1,096,869
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The special master that Trump wanted is now demanding proof that the FBI planted evidence at Mar-a-Lago.

NBC News reported:

In a filing Thursday, Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Dearie of New York, the court-appointed special master, ordered the government to turn over copies of all non-classified items seized in the case to Trumps lawyers by Monday.

He then ordered Trumps team to submit a declaration or affidavit of any items in the inventory that were removed from Mar-a-Lago that the Plaintiff asserts were not seized from the Premises, meaning items that were put there by someone else.

It is growing increasingly obvious that Trump and his lawyers made a big mistake when they requested the special master and listed Judge Dearie as one of their options.

Dearie isnt taking any of Trumps nonsense. He already shot down the idea that the documents were magically declassified by Trump with no paper trail to confirm any declassifications.

Trump has already lost in the 11th Circuit on trying to keep the DOJ from using classified documents in their criminal investigation, so Dearie can only continue to be a negative for the former presidents defense.

Donald Trump thought he was buying time with the special master. Instead, he might be inching closer to being charged.
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell may get rid of Trump once and for all, as he is encouraging his caucus to make a deal on reforming the Electoral Count Act.

According to Politico:

McConnell has encouraged his members to seek a deal with Democrats and is himself leaning toward backing the effort, according to senators in both parties.



Senators involved in pushing changes to the electoral certification process say McConnells kept his distance while advocating to keep the bill as narrow as possible. But hes also had a senior aide provide analysis to the group and connected them with at least one constitutional scholar to help them draft the bill, according to Maine Sen. Susan Collins, its lead Republican sponsor.

In other words, McConnell doesnt want this bill to become an issue that could hurt GOP Senate candidates in less than two months, but he is doing enough to signal that he supports slamming the door on another potential Trump coup in 2024.

Donald Trumps decision to feud endlessly with the Senate Minority Leader is going to come back to haunt him. McConnell and Trump loathe each other, and the senator from Kentucky has made it clear that he wants Trump out of the party.

The Senate bill will differ from the Houses proposed legislation, but substantively they should be in agreement on the main point of cutting off the avenues that Trump used to steal the 2020 election.

In the House, Kevin McCarthy has gone complete MAGA against the legislation, but in the Senate, Mitch McConnell sees his chance to possibly cut off Trump from getting back to the White House.
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President Biden lowered the boom on Republicans in Congress who are seeking to cut Social Security and Medicare.

Video of Biden speaking at a DNC event:

Biden said during a Friday speech:

Already 158 house Republicans signing on to the Republican budget that would cut Medicare and Social Security already, the man in charge of electing Republicans in the Senate Senator Rick Scott of Florida has proposed a plan to put Social Security on the chopping block every five years. I know this sounds but I really mean it. Go on the internet and check it out they have laid out the platform.

Every five years, according to the Senate, Congress will vote to cut reduce or eliminate Social Security or bring it back as it is. What do you think the prospects are of it coming back as it is? You have been paying into Social Security since you got your first paycheck.

Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin as my mother would say god bless his soul. He thinks waiting five years is too long and he wants to put social security back every year. If congress does not vote to keep it then it goes away. A requirement to vote to keep it now think of that not just Social Security he wants to put up, Medicare, Medicaid benefits, every federal benefit gets up and has to be voted on every year.

In 46 days America will face this if Republicans control Congress Social Security will be on the chopping block, but if you support the Democrats Social Security will be protected period. I will not let any MAGA Republicans take it away.

Back when Republicans thought that there was going to be a red wave, they started launching into all sorts of big talk about right-wing dreams and wish lists like cutting Social Security. At the time, Biden was quiet. Once Republicans went from whispering that they would cut Social Security to putting it in writing and saying it publicly, the President pounced.

Biden and the Democrats have a ready-made argument complete with proof from the mouths of Republicans that they intend to cut Social Security and Medicare, and the President cleanly and clearly delivered the stakes to voters.
Dr. Chancellor Heimmermann, left, and Dr. Elizabeth Georgian, right, pose with the USC Aiken Mock Trial team during a Constitution Day observane.
A building in Verenes Industrial Park north of Aiken recently sold for $4.1 million.

The buyers were 300 Johnny Mercer LP and 45 Grand Oaks Storage LLC.

Aiken attorney Ray Massey is the registered agent for 300 Johnny Mercer, according to information posted on South Carolina Secretary of State Mark Hammonds website.

Paracorp Incorporated of Columbia is the registered agent for 45 Grand Oaks Storage.

The sellers were Properties of Reddy Family LLC and T.R. Reddy.

The deal closed Sept. 1.

Pearce Vogler, in addition to Ani Paulson, had the exclusive listing to market the 77,336-square-foot structure on behalf of the seller and procured the buyer, according to a Sept. 14 news release from the commercial real estate brokerage firm Marcus & Millichap.

This property was under agreement prior to our involvement for a much lower price and failed to close, said Vogler, an associate in Marcus & Millichaps Charleston office, in a prepared statement. Through our exclusive listing process, we procured a dozen offers within the first week or two of marketing, mostly all cash, and ended up closing for almost a half a million (dollars) over our list price.

The building stands on 5.98-acre tract at 75 Windham Blvd. and is leased to Shinsho American Corporation.

Shinsho American is an owned subsidiary of Shinsho Corporation, a trading company that is a member of the Kobe Steel Group, according to shinsho.com.

Included in the sale of the building and its land was an adjacent 4.43-acre tract.

Windham Boulevard is off Columbia Highway North near Exit 22 on Interstate 20.

Columbia Highway North also is known as U.S. Highway 1.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Sunny, along with a few afternoon clouds. High near 75F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy during the evening followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 57F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
SWANSEA  Auditor John Brown has filed a counter lawsuit against Town Council members Doris Simmons and Mike Luongo, who filed a suit against Brown last month to unearth answers about a $3.3 million discrepancy in the town's budget.

The countersuit claims that Simmons' and Luongo's committed malicious prosecution and defamation against Brown and asserts that the council members' lawsuit, which they filed in August against Brown, Swansea Mayor Viola McDaniel and Treasurer Margaret Harvey, is frivolous.

Brown, a West Columbia accountant, was hired by Swansea, a small Lexington County town, to do audits of the town's budget over the last five years. Brown's counterclaim argues that Simmons and Luongo's lawsuit is frivolous because it states that the $3.3 million is missing, when the money is actually understated.

"You can read (the audit report) from front to back you'll never find the word missing," Brown said.

Brown said he filed the countersuit because he wants to put an end to the "long trail of harassment," that he has faced in Swansea.

"My (accounting) license is my livelihood," Brown said. "If that's taken away, then I'll have problems supporting my family. And, you know, I definitely don't want it to be taken away by something that's not true or something that's not justified. If I do something wrong, I'm willing to suffer the consequences, but I haven't done anything wrong, and I don't want to suffer for it."

But Jake Moore, the attorney representing Simmons and Luongo, questioned Brown's objections, noting that if "understated" doesn't mean that the discrepancy in the account represents "missing" funds, then Brown needs to explain what it does mean.

Indictment and audit

The recent tumult in Swansea came to the surface in July 2021, when former Mayor Jerald Sanders was indicted on charges of embezzlement and misconduct in office, according to the S.C. Attorney General's office. Sanders has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

The indictments allege that Sanders had around $10,000 worth of checks written to him personally without authorization and that he cashed those checks, while also accepting town money in a bank account under his own control.

After Sanders' indictment, the Swansea council remained divided over the town's finances, and passed its 2022 budget in May 2022, 11 months late.

As the council squabbled over the 2022 budget, members received an audit of Swansea's 2021 budget in February 2022. The audit, conducted by Brown, said balances in the underlying accounting records related to fixed assets, for all funds, are understated by at least $3,309,000.

Swansea scheduled a meeting in early April to hear Brown's review of the audit, however, not enough council members attended the meeting, so Brown was unable to give gave the report.

In the following months, council members Simmons and Luongo demanded that more information be provided regarding the multi-million dollar discrepancy.

Claims and counterclaims

On Aug. 17, Simmons, Luongo and Swansea resident Barrett Black filed a lawsuit against the Town of Swansea, McDaniel, Harvey and Brown.

Their suit demands that the court "make a determination as to what person or persons are responsible for the missing Three Million ($3,000,000.00) dollars," that Harvey handle the town finances according to generally accepted accounting practices and that Brown present the audit and answer any questions from the council and the public.

In an Aug. 22 meeting, Brown came before the council, presented the audit and answered questions that council members had submitted in writing before the meeting.

Unsatisfied, the plaintiffs sent subpoenas to Brown and Harvey on Aug. 25.

"We still don't know anything," Luongo said after the meeting.

On Sept. 15, Brown filed a countersuit against Luongo and Simmons, accusing the pair of malicious persecution and defamation.

"I mean, if you're saying something that's not true, then it can only be considered being frivolous," Brown said in a Sept. 22 interview.

"So, if I said that the $3 million is missing then, they would have something to hang their hat on, but at no time did I ever say the $3 million is missing."

Brown stated in the audit that the money was "understated." This means that the ending balance for the 2020 fiscal year was $3.3 million, but there was no fixed asset information provided for the start of the 2021 fiscal year, Brown said. This resulted in the discrepancy in town finances, he said.

The council members' attorney questioned Brown's emphasis on the difference between "understated" and "missing."

"(Brown) has stated that $3 million is 'understated'  we want to know what that means," Moore said in a Sept. 22 interview.

"And we also need to know if something is being done wrong, who's doing it? What do we need to do to make it right? And why couldn't we get the books to balance?"

Brown's countersuit does not have any merit, Moore said, because it is illegal to sue someone for filing a complaint with a state body and the defamation claims are too vague.

"It's impossible to read the paperwork and determine exactly what my clients are being sued for," Moore said of Brown's countersuit. "But we will certainly take a deposition and we'll try to find out."

Race an underlying issue

In addition to controversy surrounding the financial discrepancies, Brown, has claimed that Simmons and Luongo, who are White, have racist motives for their lawsuit again him McDaniel and Brown, all of whom are Black.

Additionally, Simmons and Luongo have come after Brown and Harvey before, Brown said.

"You know, I'm not a person that wants to play the race card, but sometimes things are so glaring that you have to call them what they are," Brown said.

After the Aug. 22 council meeting, when Brown originally claimed that the White council members were acting in a racist way, Moore dismissed the accusations.

"We paid you $25,000 for an audit," Moore said on behalf of his clients. "And you're telling me it's racist that I want be able to ask you some specific questions?"

What's next?

As both the original lawsuit and countersuit continue, Harvey and Brown are scheduled to be deposed on Sept. 30. Brown has not sent out subpoenas in his countersuit yet.

Click here for more news from Columbia, S.C.
Charleston's tourism machine Lack of scrutiny and accountability keeps public in dark about millions of taxpayers dollars spent every year

Promoting Charleston as one of the worlds top tourist attractions has cost taxpayers nearly $150 million during the last two decades, and they have no way to know exactly where the money went.

Thats because the state and local governments that gave away that cash have failed to seek an exact accounting from the Charleston Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. The nonprofit, more commonly known as Explore Charleston, uses taxpayers money to advertise the Lowcountrys virtues to attract vacationers.

Explore Charleston and similar destination marketing organizations around the state run almost entirely on the publics dime without the financial transparency normally required by the government.

The money generated from tourism is significant. Cities, towns and counties across South Carolina have collected more than $942 million in accommodations tax money since 2004. That would be enough to pay the tuition of 18,812 in-state students to the College of Charleston for four years.

By law, the accommodation tax money is directed to about two dozen designated marketing organizations around the state, and can only be used to promote tourism. The tax funneled $7.8 million to Explore Charleston this fiscal year alone.

So what exactly does that money buy? Its almost impossible to say.

A 2018 S.C. Supreme Court ruling exempted organizations, such as Explore Charleston, from having to share their financial records with the public. But to hold them accountable, the ruling placed the burden on local governments to obtain financial documents from these organizations and monitor their spending. Unlike designated marketing organizations, the local governments that provide them money are subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

The Supreme Courts ruling has effectively cloaked in secrecy the spending of millions of dollars in tax money around the state.

This has increasingly become a problem for some of the local governments Explore Charleston represents. In Isle of Palms, officials have publicly called for more transparency, and complained they arent getting their fair share. A Port Royal resident is suing the organization, demanding receipts. And outside Charleston, similar debates have erupted in places such as Berkeley County and Blythewood.

Glenda Nemes recently resigned from the Isle of Palms advisory board because she felt Explore Charleston was not addressing the needs of the beachfront barrier island that lies about 18 miles northeast of Charleston.

We have absolutely no say in whats given to Explore Charleston, she contends. We have taxation without representation.

Lynn S. Teague, vice president of the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of South Carolina, said the League also sees it as a problem. Any time public money is involved, there should be real transparency. The public should know exactly where that money went, and they should know ahead of time.

Jay Bender, a media lawyer and expert on the states Freedom of Information Act agreed: When public money can be spent without public oversight it is more than likely to be misused, he said.

Tourism marketing organizations similar to Explore Charleston have steadily spread across South Carolina and the nation in recent decades. They are credited with helping expand some local and state economies by bringing in tourist money and investment. A recent study by Oxford Economics found that designated marketing organizations that coordinate their efforts with economic development initiatives, are better positioned to compete for new investments, corporate relocations, and a talented workforce.

But some critics remain uneasy about the veiled nature of these promotional practices as the amount of accommodation tax money has grown with few details about how it's being spent.

Over the past two years, The Post and Courier has teamed with 18 community news organizations to investigate questionable conduct by government officials throughout South Carolina. The resulting Uncovered stories have repeatedly shown how lax government oversight and diminished transparency with public funds can lead to inefficiencies, overspending, and misuse of taxpayer dollars.

Concerns about Explore Charleston grew after its 2019 federal financial filings revealed that the organization had about $2 million socked away in an offshore bank account in the Cayman Islands. Readers sent in tips asking Uncovered reporters to investigate.

Explore Charleston CEO Helen Hill readily admitted in an interview with The Post and Courier that it sounds shady to have an account in the Caymans. But, she said, the purpose was entirely above-board. Her agency used the account to help complete a financial arrangement for British Airways to launch regular nonstop passenger service between Charleston and London. That service began in 2019 but was suspended the next year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It has not resumed.

Hill said the offshore account was set-up to hold British pounds sterling so that the money wouldn't lose value due to currency exchange rate fluctuations.

She said the nonprofit isnt trying to be overly secretive. She said shes willing to hand over anything shes required to.

We will provide whatever documents are required by law, Hill said.

She said the reason she tries to keep spending details as confidential as possible is to protect the secret sauce of tourism promotion that has helped make Charleston an international tourism hot spot.

But by keeping this hidden, taxpayers are left in the dark about exactly how Explore Charleston uses their money to pay for international trips, advertisements in the countrys top travel publications, hotel stays or what they eat and drink while there.

Local leaders in the Isle of Palms arent alone in their concern. Berkeley County pulled accommodation tax money from its Chamber of Commerce earlier this year over spending transparency issues. In the capital city of Columbia, some leaders are pushing to redirect a portion of tourism marketing funds to fix-up parks. And in the Midlands community of Blythewood, suspicions linger after an accountant in 2018 found the local Chamber of Commerce was misusing accommodation tax funds and providing financial documents that were confusing.

Attempts to change funding arrangements for designated marketing organizations across the country have resulted in long  and costly  legal battles in places such as San Diego and Tulsa. And in Floridas Palm Beach county, two top leaders of Discover Palm Beach County resigned after an audit revealed gross mismanagement that allowed its comptroller to embezzle $1.5 million.

No one has accused Explore Charleston of such nefarious conduct. But an Uncovered investigation into the nonprofit revealed:

The Charleston Area Convention & Visitors Bureau has never provided a forensic audit or receipts to show exactly where the tax money it receives is spent, what its spent on or who spent it.

The state board in charge of overseeing tourism organizations failed for years to ask for and review spending documents from the Charleston nonprofit until last fall.

This failure occurred even after the state oversight board was advised to do so by a state Supreme Court decision and two advisory opinions from South Carolinas attorney general.

Two members of the state oversight committee also sit on Explore Charleston's board of governors, where they review and approve many of the nonprofits actions. This places the two in the unusual position of then overseeing for the state whether Explore Charleston acted properly on decisions they already may have approved.

Only Isle of Palms, of the 10 local governments that direct accommodation tax money to Explore Charleston, was able to provide The Post and Courier with an itemized breakdown of how their accommodation tax money was spent. Nine others only received broad spending statements, often lumping together millions of dollars in expenditures.

Two municipalities, Sullivans and Seabrook islands, said they hadnt received any financial or budgetary documentation from Explore Charleston until after The Post and Courier filed Freedom of Information Act requests for the materials.

Charleston Countys contract with Explore Charleston gives the county the right to send an independent auditor to examine the nonprofits financial records. But the county never sent anyone to do so.

Selling Charm, History and Beaches

Tourism is in many ways the lifeblood of South Carolinas economy, responsible for an estimated $24 billion in annual economic impact that supports about one of every 10 jobs, according to state studies. And few places reap the benefit of that flood of visitors more than Charleston and the surrounding Lowcountry.

Stroll the streets of downtown Charleston and you can be sure to bump shoulders with tourists from all over the country. They can be found gazing at the grand houses on The Battery. Or posing for impromptu photo-ops against the pastel colors of Rainbow Row. Or riding on horse-drawn carriages with the clicking of hooves on the cobblestone streets.

Charlestons charm, historic sights and vibrant dining scene are part of the reason it's been voted the No. 1 city in the U.S. by Travel + Leisure readers for 10 years in a row. Explore Charleston has made it its mission to promote that carefully cultivated image in glossy venues such as Travel + Leisure magazine and Southern Living to draw even more visitors.

Charleston now boasts of bringing in 7 million tourists a year, up by 2 million since 2015, according to statistics from the College of Charleston Office of Tourism analysis. Thats nine tourists for every resident in the metro area.

Leading the charge of Lowcountry tourism promotion is Helen Hill and Explore Charleston.

Its almost impossible to talk about the organization without Hill. She began selling ads for its visitors guide in 1986, a year after its founding, and she made a quick ascent, rising to the top job as executive director in 1989. She still holds that title 33 years later. Last year, she collected a salary of $229,135.

Hill also serves on numerous boards across the Lowcountry, including Beacon Community Bank and Counselors of Real Estate. In addition, she is chairwoman of the Charleston County Aviation Authority, which manages the states largest airport.

Hill can often be found in a solid-colored statement suit jacket, a variation of pearls draped around her neck and gold and silver charms dangling from her wrists.

Her passion for Charleston is evident in presentations and conversations with local leaders. When she walked into a July Isle of Palms City Council meeting, everyone seemed to know her. Their eyes lit up as they greeted her with hugs and smiles before catching up on old times. Generally, Hills attentive in conversation, never breaking eye contact. She possesses an ability to speak with complete strangers like shes known them for years. In many ways, Hill is the personification of Southern hospitality.

With so much success, Hill said she finds herself frustrated by recent questioning of her organization's transparency. But the truth is, she doesnt want people to know how she makes the magic happen. In her eyes, shes not required to provide forensic audits of her organization or spending receipts. If its supposed to be public, we will make it public. Hill said of providing receipts to local governments. But we dont have to break it down.  Do I want my competition in another state to know it? Probably not.

Her sentiment was affirmed four years ago in the South Carolina Supreme Court case DomainsNewMedia vs. The Hilton Head Chamber of Commerce. The high court ruled that nonprofit convention bureaus, such as Explore Charleston, were not subject to the states Freedom of Information Act. Normally, organizations that receive public tax money must follow requirements of the open records law.

Instead, the Supreme Court placed the responsibility on the local governments that fund these designated marketing organizations to hold them accountable for their spending and emphasized that those governments are subject to the states Freedom of Information Act.

But in Explore Charlestons case, none of the local governments have asked for detailed accounting, such as spending receipts, Hill acknowledged.

Some clues have emerged from the records obtained through Explore Charlestons 990s  required IRS financial filings for nonprofits. Since 2015, for example, the nonprofit has paid the companies that have owned Travel + Leisure Magazine more than $8 million. Explore Charleston has paid Conde Nast, which owns Conde Nast Traveler magazine, $6.7 million over the same stretch of time.

It remains unclear how many ads or promotions that money supported. But both publications have named Charleston the top city and small city in the U.S. for visitors. Explore Charlestons spokesperson said the titles came from a vote by the publication's readers.

The title of best U.S. City cannot be bought, he said in an email to The Post and Courier. So, no, (Explore Charleston) has never purchased the title.

Representatives of the two publications could not immediately be reached for comment on its dealings with Explore Charleston.

Whether such efforts result in more visitors traveling to Charleston than would have come anyway is impossible to measure, according to Daniel Guttentag, who runs a tourism analysis unit at the College of Charleston. Still, Guttentag maintains that such efforts are needed and that tourism promotion should be viewed as a long-range investment. His unit provides many of the statistics Explore Charleston uses to tout its success.

Guttentag points out that when Colorado became the only state to get rid of its tourism marketing function in 1993, the state saw a loss of $1.4 billion annually in tourism revenue. It reinstated the marketing in 2000.

Charlestons tourism fortunes have gone nowhere but up in recent decades. Over the last 10 years, Explore Charleston's overall budget has more than doubled to about $24 million this year.

With this growth, some local government leaders, such as those on the Isle of Palms, want to see more of their accommodation tax funds used specifically toward advertising or promotions that highlight their communities.

Hill said this places Explore Charleston in a difficult position. The nonprofits goal is to sell the highest number of room nights at the highest price throughout the greater Charleston area, she said.

Are we going to be together or are we not? she asked. The idea is to promote the whole area, not just parts of it, to lift it all.

Explore Charleston and its money

The Charleston Area Convention & Visitors Bureau was founded in 1985 and operated under the umbrella of the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce until they split in 2002.

At its start, Explore Charleston represented the city and county of Charleston. Now, it's in charge of maximizing tourism for two counties and eight municipalities.

Explore Charleston has three main sources for its revenue: accommodation tax and state grants, which generally account for about two-thirds of its revenue, and private memberships and publications, such as a wedding and visitors guide, make-up much of the rest.

Accommodation tax is its key source of cash. Money flows from a 2 percent state tax tacked onto most Charleston area hotels and short-term lodgings bills. The state collects the tax, and returns it to the local governments where it was added to guests bills. Those governments keep most of it  part in their general funds and part in a special fund for tourism-related expenditures. The rest, about 30 percent, goes directly to Explore Charleston to be used strictly for tourism promotion and advertising.

State records and nonprofit filings make it fairly easy to track the streams of taxpayer money pouring into Explore Charleston. But divining where those millions go from there remains a much greater challenge given the opaque nature of the organizations records.

Lacking accountability

In an effort to solve that mystery, The Post and Courier turned to the local governments tasked with holding Explore Charleston accountable for its use of public tax dollars.

Explore Charleston is required by law to provide these governments with a budget for approval before the beginning of each fiscal year and a year-end accounting of how that money was spent.

In June, The Post and Courier filed Freedom of Information Act requests with each of the 10 local governments that fund Explore Charleston asking to see the last six years of the nonprofits budgets and year-end audits.

Some local governments were able to provide the documents for all the years requested while others only had a few. Two of the local governments said they had never received any financial documents until Explore Charleston hand-delivered them shortly after the newspaper filed its Freedom of Information Act requests. Most also receive a brochure detailing Explore Charlestons successes.

The financial documents provided to local leaders contained few specifics on spending, relying more on general categories such as destination marketing and media relations. The year-end audit also lists expenses by general category, such as destination advertising and promotions.

Sullivans Island comptroller Jason Blanton was among those who received a stack of financial documents from Explore Charleston after The Post and Courier began asking questions. It was the first time in his 17 years working for the island that he could recall receiving such records, he said.

Blanton scanned several of the documents, and then studied one of the year-end audits.

Thats very vague, he said of the records. This is pretty much boilerplate. What did they spend it on? Id want a whole lot more back-up.

Most of the other local officials contacted by The Post and Courier didnt seem to share his apprehension. They expressed no, or very little, concern about the lack of specificity in the records as to how their tax money was spent.

What financial documents?

For much of its existence, Explore Charleston has operated with little scrutiny from the local governments that help underwrite its operations.

Many officials said they are happy with the organization's success, noting the throngs of tourists that swarm the region each year. In 2021 alone, Explore Charleston credited its work with having a more than $10 billion economic impact on the Greater Charleston area, based on statistics from the Office of Tourism Analysis.

Some officials also said they don't have the time or resources to deeply examine the organizations spending.

Charleston City Councilman Peter Shahid Jr. serves on Explore Charlestons board of governors. He said that he receives financial reports from the nonprofit, but relies on Explore Charleston to handle the funds properly.

As a councilman who serves on multiple boards, Shahid said he doesn't have the time to review detailed expense reports from every organization to which the City of Charleston provides public money.

We do rely on them being fiscally responsible and fiscally honest with the city, he said of these organizations. But I don't know of any council member who has the opportunity to spend the time to go through a daily, monthly, weekly, annual transaction report of these agencies. I've never heard of that.

Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg and Folly Beach Mayor Tim Goodwin said their cities have great relationships with Explore Charleston. Although the budgets they receive arent detailed down to the item, they said they trust the nonprofits decision-making.

They more than meet the requirements, Tecklenburg said of Explore Charlestons financial reporting.

In Charleston County setting-up contracts requiring independent audits with those who receive its funding is standard practice, according to Clerk of Council Kristen Salisbury. Although the countys contract with Explore Charleston allows it to send an internal auditor to look at the organizations books, the county has never seen any reason to do so, she said.

A better way?

South Carolina law does not specify how detailed the budgets and audits provided by destination marketing organizations must be. Nor does it require that such organizations submit receipts, invoices or credit card transactions for review by local governments.

Other states require more scrutiny of these organizations and their spending.

Consider the North Carolina mountain city of Asheville. With a comparable tourism promotion budget of more than $27 million, the Explore Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau works as a quasi-governmental arm of the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority. Explore Asheville is subject to an intense auditing process, a spokesperson for the nonprofit said.

The nonprofit must upload receipts for every transaction to the county. The county reviews these receipts while also examining invoices and submissions of credit card transactions. In addition, Explore Asheville undergoes an external audit every year.

In the nation's casino capital, The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority also operates as an arm of local government, according to a spokesman for the organization. Its board of governors is composed of political and hospitality leaders in the area. The board reviews the organizations expenditures and they receive detailed audits annually that must be approved. These audits are uploaded online for the publics viewing.

Though the law doesnt require it, some South Carolina designated marketing organizations also go a step further in providing transparency.

The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau posts spreadsheets on its website, providing a detailed accounting on how accommodation tax money from Myrtle Beach, Horry County and its tourism development fee funds were used.

These records include details such as the name of the company, a short memo about the purchase and the amount of money spent. These reports are uploaded on a quarterly and yearly basis.

Still, some feel that true accountability comes from receipts detailing exactly how the money was spent.

Thats what Skip Hoagland, founder of DomainsNewMedia, was after when he filed a lawsuit against the Hilton Head Chamber of Commerce in 2013. He alleged that public funding to promote tourism enabled the organization to unfairly compete with local media businesses such as his for advertising dollars.

When he filed a Freedom of Information Act request for access to the Chambers financial documents, he was denied. This case went all the way to the state Supreme Court, which ultimately ruled in the favor of designated marketing organizations allowing them to keep their expenses private.

Mare Baracco also challenged these opaque practices when she filed a lawsuit against Explore Charleston last June, demanding access to their receipts. She contends that Explore Charleston opened itself to South Carolinas Freedom of Information law when it entered into an annual contract with Charleston County, allowing an external auditor to review all of the nonprofits financial records at any time. Her case is still pending.

The Port Royal resident said shes not doing this for herself, but because the public has a right to know how its tax money is spent.

Im more upset for my community that we have to go through this process," she said. "Im looking to create transparency.

Oversight delayed

Kiawah Island Treasurer Dorota Szubert wasnt troubled by the lack of spending specificity when she received Explore Charlestons proposed budget last fall. That was because an email from the tourism groups leaders indicated that the plan had already been approved by the state oversight board that reviews tourism spending.

I wouldnt question them, Szubert said.

It's unclear if local government leaders knew that two members of that oversight panel, including its chairman, also serve on the 32-member governing board of Explore Charleston - essentially, reviewing their own organizations handiwork.

Ed Riggs and Dan Blumenstock, local hospitality leaders, have both served on the state Tourism Expenditure Review Committee and Explore Charlestons governing board simultaneously since 2002 and 2013, respectively.

Both said they dont consider their serving on both boards as a problem. Thats because they dont usually vote on documents submitted from the local governments that fund Explore Charleston, they said.

But both said they gave advice to Hill on whether Explore Charlestons newly created budget plan would meet the state oversight boards reporting requirements. According to Hill, the two told her that the plan not only met, but exceeded the boards expectations.

Not everyone agreed. After presenting the plan to local accommodation tax leaders on Isle of Palms last October, some officials were unsatisfied and claimed it lacked specificity.

Ethics experts contacted by The Post and Courier were divided over whether the pairs service on the two panels poses concerns because they do not stand to financially benefit from the arrangement. Still, Greg Adams, the founding director of the Program on Judicial Ethics, Selection, Accountability, and Independence and former University of South Carolina professor, feels the two members have put themselves in a tough spot.

I think that these two members that gave advice to the CEO have created a conflict of interest for themselves, Adams said. What position are they going to take when the state-wide body is deciding whether or not the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureaus budget is sufficiently detailed to be able to be used at the end of the fiscal year? And if they have adhered to that budget?

The Post and Couriers investigation also found that until last year, the Tourism Expenditure Review Committee, the board set-up by state law to oversee the spending of accommodation tax money, had never reviewed spending by the states designated marketing organizations. Thats because the committee had interpreted state law to mean it did not have to review those organizations finances, only the accommodation tax spending by the local governments, according to review committee member Riggs.

The review committee made that interpretation even though the Accommodation Tax statute, enacted in July 1984, mandates that the committee examine all questionable tourism-related expenditures.

They stuck with this interpretation even after two Attorney General opinions  one in 2002 and the other in 2015  said that the state oversight board has the obligation to review tourism funds spent by designated marketing organizations across the state.

Attorney General opinions are not binding, but are used to guide government bodies.

The 2018 state Supreme Court case DomainsNewMedia.com vs. Hilton Head-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce emphasized that the state oversight committee is the final of three review levels to ensure the money is spent properly.

When asked why the state oversight board waited until last fall to start reviewing these records, its leadership provided conflicting responses.

Riggs said that the Supreme Court case prompted the change, but that ruling came down three years earlier. A spokesperson for the state oversight board said that the Tourism Expenditure Review Committee was not a party in the court case, so it saw no need to act at the time.

How was our money spent?

At its July meeting, The Isle of Palms Accommodation Tax Advisory Committee found itself at odds as they watched their guest speaker arrive at the podium.

Laurie Smith, Explore Charlestons chief operating officer, presented the nonprofits largest budget to date - a $24 million plan to promote area tourism.

Smiths presentation sparked a heated back and forth between committee members. Half were satisfied with the details in the presentation. Others wanted to see more specifics.

Advisory board Chairman Ray Burns and fellow member Doug Truslow had, for months, demanded a more detailed accounting about how the islands money was being spent by Explore Charleston. Their central concern: Isle of Palms provides Explore Charleston with more accommodation tax money than any other beach municipality but the pair could not see what benefit the Island was getting.

Of the $826,528 in island money set aside for Explore Charleston, less than half - $319,105 - was earmarked for promoting the island alone through social media campaigns, website development and a 30-second commercial. The rest is to be spent promoting tourism to the greater Charleston area.

We have said for quite a while that we want to see our money spent to the benefit of the Isle of Palms, Burns said during the meeting. And we want to see accountability and traceability of where our money is being spent,

Members Gloria Clarke and Barb Bergwerf disagreed. They didnt see the need for a constant back and forth with Explore Charleston, given that state law required that the money be spent on promoting tourism.

We have no choice, Bergwerf said. We have to spend it.

The panel deadlocked on whether to approve Explore Charlestons budget, which meant it went to City Council without a recommendation.

In the end, it didnt matter.

Two weeks later, Isle of Palms City Council approved the budget. The Council didnt really have a choice. The money must go to a designated marketing organization, and Explore Charleston is the only game in town.
Georgetown, SC (29440)

Today

Cloudy skies. High around 65F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds early will give way to generally clear conditions overnight. Low 47F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
HEMINGWAY  Friends and family of longtime Georgetown County Sheriff A. Lane Cribb gathered near Hemingway Sept. 22 to honor his memory.

A portion of Pleasant Hill Drive between County Line Road and North Fraser Street, about 15 miles long, is now the A. Lane Cribb Highway following a dedication ceremony.

Cribb's family, friends and colleagues including Georgetown County representatives in the state legislature, members of the Georgetown County Council and officers from law enforcement agencies across the state were on hand at the intersection of County Line Road and Pleasant Hill Drive for the dedication ceremony.

"We're going to dedicate a highway to number one, our sheriff; to number one, a resident of Pleasant Hill, a husband, a father and a friend to all," said Georgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver, who was hired by the agency as an assistant sheriff in 2001 during Cribb's third term in office.

"That's who Sheriff Cribb was, and may we never forget the sacrifices that he gave to South Carolina and to Georgetown County. He's loved and he's missed."

Georgetown County Council voted in April 2021 to dedicate the portion of Pleasant Hill Drive in Cribb's memory. The South Carolina State Senate adopted a resolution to approve the dedication a month later, and the state House of Representatives approved the resolution in March.

Cribb, a Pleasant Hill native, was elected sheriff in 1992 and died in the middle of his seventh term on Sept. 19, 2019, at the age of 73 after suffering an allergic reaction to a cortisone injection. He began his law enforcement career in 1973 with South Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control and also worked with the Florence County Sheriff's Office before returning home to Georgetown County.

Cribb was the 2016 county-level recipient of the Strom Thurmond Award for Excellence in Law Enforcement.

State Sens. Ronnie Sabb, a Greeleyville Democrat, and Stephen Goldfinch, a Murrells Inlet Republican, sponsored the resolution in the legislature. Sabb, an attorney, was unable to attend the dedication ceremony due to his role in a jury trial, but Goldfinch spoke about Cribb's prowess in public speaking and dedication to community service.

"Every single person that's sitting here he has touched the life of in some way, shape or form over the past 30 years," Goldfinch said. "And that's just an incredible tenure."

R.L. Port, whom Weaver introduced as "Mr. Pleasant Hill," recalled memories from his longtime friendship with Cribb, noting that "whatever he told you it was low key, but he meant it and he stuck to it."

"He would call me right after the midterm and he'd say, 'Now people are going to be calling you wanting to know if I'm running. So you tell them: until you see my arms like this, I'm running,'" Port said with his arms crossed over his chest to mime the pose of a man in a casket. "Even the last time when he was elected and his health was failing, he still called."
GREENVILLE  Plans are in place to add 270 acres to Paris Mountain State Park in the heart of Greenville County, a significant addition to a park close to one of the fastest growing urban areas of South Carolina.

In a series of moves involving years of effort from conservation groups, landowners and local, state and federal officials, four separate parcels of land totaling more than 120 acres will be transferred to the state parks department to add significant new trails, access points and capacity to the bustling park.

A fifth property  the largest at 146 acres  is awaiting final funding approval from Greenville County through the countys new Historic and Natural Resources Trust. That site would then also be transferred to the state to become part of the park.

The 1,700-acre park just north of Greenville has seen its visitor numbers top a half-million annually. The additions would enlarge the park by close to 15 percent. The current park is popular for day use, as well as for hiking, camping and mountain biking. It includes several small reservoirs, mountains streams and trails through steep-sloped woodlands.

We are excited about this opportunity to increase public access and increase recreation opportunities at Paris Mountain State Park, said Daniel Gambrell, Chief of Park Operations for the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism (SCPRT). This property is a keystone piece to the larger trail network and will help connect the current trail system.

The additions would eventually allow the park to expand its 17 miles of trails into the new sections, said Dan Neary, senior ranger at Paris Mountain State Park.

"This will also give us an opportunity to preserve even more of this beautiful landscape for not only the visitors but also the numerous plants and wildlife that call it home," Neary said.

Final details and approvals for funding are still in process. Once completed, the conserved land will encompass nearly the entire western face of Paris Mountain. Thats the view travelers see from Poinsett Highway or while traversing the Swamp Rabbit Trail headed toward Greenville.

"Paris Mountain is one of our most iconic and accessible natural areas in Greenville, said Mac Stone, executive director of Naturaland Trust, a major partner in the project. Visitation has quadrupled in the last three years and pressures to subdivide and develop the surrounding properties are constant. Expanding and protecting this natural gem for the public has become one of our top priorities and we are grateful for the landowners, the S.C. Conservation Bank, state parks and local funders who share our vision."

Funding for the final piece of the project known as Shiloh Ridge along Altamont Road and Shiloh Bend, which is owned by Greenville developer Robert Hughes, is close to being finalized. The S.C. Conservation Bank voted Sept. 21 to approve $750,000 for the purchase, said Raleigh West, the banks executive director.

Another piece of funding was finalized this week with a grant from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, Stone said.

That leaves one piece of funding still to come in order to close on the Shiloh Ridge site, he said.

Greenville County Council held first reading on a proposal to use $400,000 from the countys Historic and Natural Resources Trust as a matching grant for the Shiloh Ridge project. The request needs to pass two more votes by the council for approval. The councils finance committee unanimously recommended approval of the funding.

When it was established just over a year ago, the countys trust was required to bring any projects seeking more than $200,000 to County Council for approval.

Carlton Owen, chairman of the countys trust, said trust members unanimously felt the Shiloh Ridge project was worthy of a larger investment in county resources, and recommended the county fund it at a higher amount. If funded, it would be the trusts largest investment to date.

The Shiloh Ridge project offers the potential to add a new entrance and significantly expanded trails, to the park, Owen said.

While it is still too early to claim victory, council has completed the first of three readings that will conclude with a vote that could see the project become a reality, he said.

Councilman Ennis Fant told The Post and Courier he saw no opposition among council members to approving the funds, which come from the trusts $1 million annual budget funded by the county. Now into its second year of operation, the trust has contributed funding toward five total projects, with a number of others in process that havent yet closed.

Councilman Stan Tzouvelekas called the property amazing and said it would be useful for all county residents.

Councilman Joe Dill said the addition to the park would further enhance the quality of life for residents.

The more of these things that we can do around this county causes people to want to build here and people to live here, Dill said.

The parcels of land and funding sources for the Paris Mountain include:

Furman Face , 58 acres to the west of Paris Mountain Country Club. Funding for the parcel came from the state conservation bank, Hollingsworth Funds, Graham Foundation, Daniel Mickel Foundation and Naturaland Trust.

, 58 acres to the west of Paris Mountain Country Club. Funding for the parcel came from the state conservation bank, Hollingsworth Funds, Graham Foundation, Daniel Mickel Foundation and Naturaland Trust. Altamont Ridge , 9.5 acres of several lots along both sides of Altamont Road. Funding for the project came from Judy Cromwell, the conservation bank, SCPRT and Naturaland Trust.

, 9.5 acres of several lots along both sides of Altamont Road. Funding for the project came from Judy Cromwell, the conservation bank, SCPRT and Naturaland Trust. Gospel Tract , 23 acres located south of the Furman Face tract and funded by the conservation bank, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), SCPRT and Naturaland Trust. The interconnected parcels make up a large portion of the face of Paris Mountain, Stone said. These properties are key to preserving the iconic view as people come into and leave Greenville, he said.

, 23 acres located south of the Furman Face tract and funded by the conservation bank, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), SCPRT and Naturaland Trust. The interconnected parcels make up a large portion of the face of Paris Mountain, Stone said. These properties are key to preserving the iconic view as people come into and leave Greenville, he said. Brissy Ridge , 33 acres to the northeast of the state park. Funded by the conservation bank and Naturaland Trust. The section has been used for years by hikers though it was privately owned, Stone said. Naturaland Trust donated a conservation easement to Upstate Forever that will remain with the property, he said. Brissy Ridge protects a ridgeline and allows an eastern expansion to the state park.

, 33 acres to the northeast of the state park. Funded by the conservation bank and Naturaland Trust. The section has been used for years by hikers though it was privately owned, Stone said. Naturaland Trust donated a conservation easement to Upstate Forever that will remain with the property, he said. Brissy Ridge protects a ridgeline and allows an eastern expansion to the state park. Shiloh Ridge, approximately 146 acres adjacent to the state park. Funding commitments came from the conservation bank, LWCF, Open Space Institute, a match from SCPRT, and a grant from the Community Foundation.

We are hopeful the County Council will approve an award that will finalize the transaction through the newly created and highly effective Greenville County Historic and Natural Resources Trust, Stone said. This project is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to augment the size of Paris Mountain State Park for the nearly half a million people who visit each year.
GREENVILLE  Speaker after speaker walked to the podium Sept. 22 inside Greenville County Council chambers, faced a half-empty dais of council members and asked those who were there to leave decisions about books at county libraries to professional librarians.

Their concern came after the Greenville County Republican Partys executive committee unanimously approved a resolution urging council members to remove LGBTQ-themed books from the children and juvenile sections at local public libraries and place those titles in the adult section.

County Councilman Joe Dill, who serves on the county GOPs executive committee, said he has submitted the resolution to the county attorney to turn it into a binding resolution. On Sept. 22, he said it was very possible the resolution wouldnt make it before the council to discuss.

In all, 24 residents spoke against the county placing limitations on LGBTQ-themed content. No one spoke in favor of limiting access to any books.

Some said banning or limiting books discourages freedom of thought. Others said access to LGBTQ childrens books would allow all children to develop a larger view of the world. Still others spoke of a slippery slope that would lead to banning more types of books.

If you dont like these books, dont read them, said Lynn Ramirez. You have the choice to self-censure.

Allen Chaney, a Greenville resident and director of legal advocacy for the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina, said banning books is illegal and has been for a very long time.

Im watching very closely your actions, Chaney said. I very much hope you dont pass a resolution to ban books in the place that I live.

Patsy Scales, a retired school librarian, trustee of the Freedom to Read Foundation and advisor to the National Coalition Against Censorship, said each of those organizations had already heard about the issue in Greenville so it has already made the national news.

We have a law-abiding LGBTQ community that contributes to this city and they deserve all the services afforded to its citizens, Scales said.

Though members of council generally remain silent during citizen comment sessions, Chairman Willis Meadows said after the first speaker finished that the council doesnt currently have a resolution to consider.

Councilman Ennis Fant assured the crowd that there wasnt support on council to approve or even discuss the resolution.

After the meeting, Dill said his proposed resolution wasnt a ban on any books but would move some LGBTQ-themed childrens books to the librarys adult section. Dill said it wouldnt pass in the form the county Republican Party suggested but was being reworked.

My part in this thing is not to ban any books, Dill said. Now whether its in the appropriate section or not, thats something for the library to decide.

Fant said a resolution would go absolutely nowhere with the council.

Its 2022 and its unconscionable that we would even entertain any type of official homophobic policy in Greenville, S.C., Fant said. Weve got a couple people on council who think like, that, its the 1970s, but the majority on council dont and we wont touch it. Hell just be entertaining himself by bringing it up.

The councils role is to appoint the library board and approve its $23 million budget, Fant said. Any action to limit or remove books would be up to the library board but would invite a lawsuit, he said.

The GCGOP passed its resolution Sept. 12 calling on the council remove LGBTQ-themed books from the childrens areas. Jeff Davis, GCGOP chairman, said the books promoted sexual indoctrination of children and shouldnt be displayed and celebrated at library branches.

Branches within the library system are celebrating Banned Books Week, Sept. 18-24, with displays at branches of books commonly banned or limited. Among those on display in at least one branch is the childrens book I Am Jazz, about a transgender child.
A hurricane warning was issued for the island of Bermuda as Fiona continued on its northwest path through the Atlantic Ocean.

The National Weather Service issued advisories beginning 8 a.m. Sept. 22 for rip current risks and high surf along Charleston's shores as Fiona passed by out at sea. The advisories, warning of 6-foot swells, will remain in place through 8 p.m. Sept. 23.

The "large and powerful" storm was about 280 miles west-southwest of Bermuda, according to the National Hurricane Center's update at 8 p.m. Sept. 22. Fiona picked up speed as it curved right, moving north-northeast at 20 mph. Fiona remained a Category 4 hurricane with wind speeds near 130 mph.

The Meteorological Service of Bermuda issued a hurricane warning for the island, meaning hurricane conditions were expected there within 36 hours. The storm's outer bands had reached the island by the afternoon of Sept. 22.

The Canadian Hurricane Centre issued a hurricane watch by 11 a.m. Sept. 22 for parts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland's northern coast. A tropical storm watch went into effect for other portions of coastal Canada.

Fiona's eye was expected to pass just to the west of Bermuda the night of Sept. 22 before approaching Nova Scotia the next day. Forecasters predicted Fiona would slightly weaken overnight or into Sept. 23, though the storm would continue producing hurricane-force winds through Sept. 24.

Residents of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic were still feeling Fiona's effects days after the storm ripped through both territories last weekend. Nearly 1 million Puerto Ricans remained without power Sept. 22 and hundreds of thousands were without water services, according to the government's emergency portal system.

Forecasters were monitoring four other disturbances in the Atlantic. Tropical Storm Gaston was heading toward the central Azores islands, west off the coast of Portugal, bringing strong winds and dangerous surf and rip current conditions.

A disturbance just north of Venezuela was forecast to move west-northwest across the eastern Caribbean Sea through the next day or two before it was expected to strengthen into a tropical depression.

Two others are not expected to form into storm for days, if at all.
NORTH CHARLESTON  Police cited the driver of the school bus that crashed into a store earlier this week, injuring six children, for careless operation of the vehicle.

The school bus was transporting eight students the morning of Sept. 20 from the Liberty Hill neighborhood to North Charleston Creative Arts Elementary School, authorities have said.

The driver lost control of the vehicle at roughly 7:45 a.m. while attempting to turn south off Luella Ave. onto East Montague Ave., according to a crash report released Sept. 22 by police.

As the bus was turning east onto Montague, the report states, its rear driver's side tires clipped the median divider of the roadway, jolting the driver out of her seat. The bus made a U-turn over the median divider and off the roadway, striking a 15-year-old student on the sidewalk before ultimately crashing into the entrance of the Neighbor Store.

The bus driver, whose name is redacted in the report, was cited for careless operation of a vehicle  a traffic infraction.

As of Sept. 21, the driver remained employed by First Student, a company contracted by the Charleston County School District to provide bussing services, but she had been removed from service while the crash was under review.

The Ohio-based company did not respond Sept. 22 to a request for comment.

The pedestrian struck was a 15-year-old North Charleston High School student. Another high school student was hit by a tree branch and four children on the bus suffered minor injuries from the crash, according to authorities. The bus driver was also taken to the hospital.

The crash caused an estimated $20,000 in damages to the convenience store, while the bus sustained an estimated $9,000 in damages, according to the crash report.

District employees are conducting an after-action report with the S.C. Department of Educations transportation team as well as First Student, a CCSD spokesman said.
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

Mr Wang said as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China is open to dialogue and exchanges with NATO, and is willing to jointly promote the sound and steady development of bilateral relations.

He said that the two sides should enhance communication and mutual understanding on the basis of frankness and mutual respect, and prevent misunderstanding and false information.

Mr Stoltenberg said that China plays an important role in global issues with its growing economy and influence.

Noting that NATO does not regard China as a rival, he said the organisation attaches importance to maintaining and strengthening engagements with China and has a positive attitude towards developing relations with China.

Mr Stoltenberg said NATO is committed to its original geographical location when it was established, and exploring cooperation with China in arms control, climate change and other fields to address global challenges.

NATO and its member countries follow the one-China policy and remain unchanged in their position on the Taiwan question, he said.

READ ALSO:

He also said that he expected China to play an important role in ending the conflict in Europe.

Mr Wang expressed hope that NATO will handle the current international situation objectively and calmly, instead of simply drawing a dividing line based on political correctness.

China is willing to carry out necessary cooperation with NATO on global issues and contribute to peace and stability, he said.

Mr Wang also clarified Chinas consistent position on the Ukraine issue and its constructive role in promoting peace talks.

He said it is necessary to explore the establishment of a balanced, effective and sustainable European security framework to ensure long-term stability in the continent.

(Xinhua/NAN)
The governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, has emerged as the acting chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF).

Mr Tambuwal was appointed the NGF chairman at the meeting in Abuja on Thursday, a statement by the Forum said.

He will be in office till May next year when a new chairman will be elected.

He will replace Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State whose tenure as governor ends on 16 October.

Until his appointment, the Sokoto Governor was the deputy chairman of the forum. He is also the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum.

Read the statement below:

The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum and Governor of Ekiti State Dr John Kayode Fayemi, today at the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting, held at the Aso Rock Villa Abuja transferred power of the NGF to the Governor of Sokoto State, Rt Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.

Tambuwal has served meritoriously and harmoniously as Vice Chairman of the Forum under Dr Fayemi in the last four years.

Dr John Kayode Fayemi who was only a few weeks ago elected as the President of the Forum of Regional and State Governments in Saidia in the state of Casablanca in Morrocco attended the NEC virtually from New York City, where he is currently attending the United Nations General Assembly meeting.

The Sokoto State Governor will be holding fort until May next year when a proper election is conducted among the governors.

Before making the announcement, the Ekiti State Governor acknowledged the result driven output of the NEC and thanked his colleagues and other members of the council for their support, explaining that yes, we may be occasionally troublesome, coming from the Forum of Governors, and we do test your patience but you have never really expressed any frustration with all our truculent questions and the insistence that the federation must be a true federation.

The new President of the FORAF also did not forget to thank the Secretariat of the NEC and through the NEC thanked the President and Commander in Chief of the Country for taking the resolutions of the NEC seriously by implementing them.

In his response the Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo said the NGF chairman had taken the wind out of their sail, because he was meant to, on behalf of the NEC commend the Ekiti Governor and NGF Chairmans informed and patriotic services to the council in the last four years and that was enhanced by your chairmanship of the NGF, admitting that the NGF has ensured that we move to a true federation, not just in words but in deeds as well.

Professor Osinbajo prayed that Dr Fayemis services both nationally and globally to development, and to all of the good which the nation deserves and the global community deserves will continue.

Dr Fayemi formally hands over the Chairmanship of the NGF to Rt Hon Amuinu Waziri Tambuwal on the October 16th.
Gunmen have abducted about three police officers attached to Zone 2, Onikan, Lagos.

It was learnt that the incident happened Thursday afternoon when the police officers ran into the kidnappers at Wasinmi in Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State.

The police officers were reportedly on their way to investigate a matter in the neighbouring state.

The officers, in accordance to the police practice for officers who cross state boarders on official assignment, were booked at the Police Division in Wasinmi, before they left for their intended place of assignment.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the officers, led by an Inspector of Police, Oladipo Olayemi, were captured while on their way to their investigation point by their abductors, who accosted them at about 2:30 p.m.

The officers were moving in a commercial vehicle but while the driver of the vehicle luckily escaped, the officers were taken away.

The Divisional Police Officer in Ewekoro had led his men into the bush in search for the missing policemen.

When contacted, the Ogun State police spokesperson, Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the incident.

Mr Oyeyemi, a superintendent of police, said that people were kidnapped, but only one policeman was involved.

Mr Oyeyemi, who refused to mention the number of kidnapped victims, further said the police is on the trail of the kidnappers, assuring that the victims would all be rescued unhurt.

I have said to somebody today, their is no hiding place in this state, are you thinking we are going to keep quiet? We will get them and rescue the victims unhurt soon.

Men of the anti-kidnapping unit are on the trail of the kidnappers and surely we will get them.
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has said that the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Iyorchia Ayu, put pressure on other presidential aspirants to step down for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar at the partys convention.

Mr Wike stated this in a live media chat in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Friday.

He said Mr Ayu was calling aspirants on the phone to withdraw from the race for Mr Atiku, and that he even threatened to resign his office if he (Wike) wins the primary.

Governor Wike said the national chairman held several meetings with aspirants in this regard, hence the convention started late.

The governor said the thunderous ovation that greeted his speech at the national convention became a problem to Mr Ayu and other members of the party.

Mr Wike expressed annoyance at the chairman of the convention planning committee, David Mark, for offering Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State a second chance to speak at the convention.

Mr Tambuwal used his second speech to announce his withdrawal from the presidential race and urged his supporters to vote for Mr Atiku.

Buoyed by the withdrawal, Mr Atiku defeated Governor Wike and other aspirants in the race to emerge as the party presidential candidate.

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At this point I would have said this convention must stop even if heaven wants to fall, let it fall, Mr Wike said.

The national chairman went to Mr Tambuwals house and called him the hero of the convention.

Mr Wike said his only regret for not winning the primary is that he would not have the opportunity to fight bandits and oil theft.

He said in the media chat that he wanted to fight insecurity head on if he had won the primary and then eventually elected president of Nigeria.

Mr Wike said Mr Atiku visited him in his Abuja residence and told him look, governor, Ayu will go because the presidential candidate and the national chairman cannot come from the same zone.

The governor, at the media chat insisted that Mr Ayu must relinquish office for a southerner to ensure inclusivity.

He repeatedly described the leadership of the PDP as arrogance and added that no party that wants to win an election can be arrogant like this.

The party has been enmeshed in a leadership crisis after its presidential primary.

Mr Wikes group is demanding the resignation of the national chairman to achieve a regional balance since Messrs Ayu and Atiku are both from the north but Mr Ayu has insisted he was elected for a four-year term.

The Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BOT), Walid Jibrin, who is also from Nasarawa State in the north, resigned a few days ago, apparently to placate Mr Wike and his group.

The Deputy Chairman, Adolphus Wabara, a former president of the Senate, from Abia State in the South-east, is the acting BOT chairman.

However, Mr Wikes camp, not impressed with Mr Jibrins resignation, has insisted Mr Ayu must step down from his position.
The Lagos Division of the Federal High Court on Friday adjourned till September 28 to hear a motion for an injunction seeking to stop the Labour Party (LP), its candidates, and supporters from conducting the #Obidatti23 Forward Ever Rally on 1st October or any other date in Lagos.

Justice Daniel Osiagor fixed the date after taking arguments from the parties on the mode of service of court processes, among others.

In the suit, 10 plaintiffs, including nine lawyers, are asking the court to, among others, restrain the LP; its presidential candidate, Peter Obi; his running mate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed; one Julius Abure; and their loyalists from holding the rally.

The plaintiffs include Adedotun Ajulo, Salamatu Lewi, Hakeem Ijaduola, Ogunbona Akinpelu, Owolabi Oluwasegun, Mogbojuri Kayode, Wuyep Mantim Nadom, Dimimu Mabel, Kolawole Salami, and Wale Lawrence.

The 1st to 10th defendants in the suit marked FHC/L/CS/1729/2022 are Mr Obi, LP, Mr Baba-Ahmed, Mr Abure, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Commissioner of Police (Lagos State Command), Director-General (Department of State Services), Lekki Concession Company (LCC) Limited, Attorney-General of Lagos State, and The Governor of Lagos State.

When the matter first came up on 15 September, Mr Osiagor directed the plaintiffs to put all the defendants on notice and adjourned the hearing of the substantive motion till 23rd September.

READ ALSO:

At the commencement of proceedings on Friday, Romeo Ese-Michael and Kayode Mogbojuri appeared for the plaintiffs.

The first to fourth respondents were represented by a team led by Daniel Ibeagu whilst the eighth, ninth and 10th defendants were represented by Jonathan Ogunsanya.

Counsel to the first and third defendants objected to the mode of service but Justice Osiagor ordered they should be served in court.

The judge admonished parties to abridge time as the matter is of importance, noting that the motion on notice must be heard and determined before 1st October.

He further urged parties to avoid technicalities meant to frustrate such a sensitive matter and adjourned till 28 September for the hearing of the motion for an injunction.

The plaintiffs, in the suit marked FHC/L/CS/1729/2022, filed an ex parte motion through their counsel Dada Awosika.

They argued that a repeat or celebration of the infamous EndSARS protest of 2020 under the political guise of #Obidatti23 Forward Ever Rally will cause a breakdown of peace and will result in post-traumatic stress disorder for them and the public.

They asked the court for four reliefs.

An order of interim injunction restraining the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th defendants; their associates and loyalists from conducting the scheduled END SARS Rally tagged as the #Obidatti23 Forward Ever Rally on the 1st of October, 2020 or any other subsequent date, at the Lekki Toll Gate until the hearing and determination of the Motion-On-Notice dated September 12, 2022.

An order of interim injunction restraining the 1st 2nd, 3rd and 4th defendants and their loyalists from further planning and promoting the Scheduled END SARS Rally tagged as the #Obidatti23 Forward Ever Rally

An order of interim injunction restraining the 5th 6th, 7th Defendants from allowing or granting permissions to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Defendants, their agents and the organizers of #Obidatti23 Forward Ever Rally at the behest of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Defendants from carrying out the said anniversary on the 1st of October, 2022 and any other subsequent date

An order of interim injunction restraining the 8th Defendant (LCC) from granting permission to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Defendants; their agents, privies, allies and loyalists, to make use of the Lekki Toll Gate or any space under and within the control of the 8th Defendant for carrying out the said anniversary on the 1st of October, 2022 and any other subsequent date
The Complaint Response Unit (CRU) of the Nigerian police says it received 287 complaints of professional misconduct against police officers nationwide in the first quarter of the year.

The unit disclosed this at an event organised by Avocats Sans Frontieres, a French organisation, in Abuja on Thursday.

According to the report presented by Marius Ishaku, an assistant commissioner of police and head of the CRU, of the 287 complaints received against police officers between January and March this year, 181, representing about 63 per cent of the cases, were resolved.

The report added that 100 cases or about 35 per cent of the total number of complaints are still pending.

It added that six complaints, which constitute only two per cent of all the complaints were false.

It added that the police also recovered a total of N1.2 million from the officers.

Categories, distribution of complaints

According to the report, 21 of the complaints received by the CRU had to do with police officers demanding money for bail.

It also said 256 of cases were noted as instances of professional misconduct.

There were seven complaints of excessive use of force by the police, according to the report.

It also said the unit had one complaint involving distress calls, another involving incivility, and one other that had to do with police getting involved in civil matters.

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According to the document, the states where the highest number of complaints were reported against the police in the first quarter are: Lagos, 99 complaints; Federal Capital Territory, 28; Delta, 21; and Rivers, 19.

Ebonyi, Borno, Benue, Plateau, Ekiti, Kano, and Niger are the states with the fewest complaints against the police force, with only one case each.

Channels used for submission of complaints

The CRU stated that of the 287 complaints received, 108 of them were received through its WhatsApp platform, eight through Facebook, and 93 through the phone.

It added that 57 of the complaints were received via Twitter, one via email, and others through other channels.

How to file complaints

Meanwhile, Mr Ishaku said complainants do not have to visit police offices physically to lodge their complaints.

So far, we make use of technology because it is a technology driven generation that we are in. And that explains why the unit is very dynamic. We anticipate that a lot of people having negative encounters with the police may not be in the right frame of mind to walk up to any police facility to lodge a complaint.

And that explains why the leadership of the force thought of the way out by adopting the use of technology.

A chief superintendent of police, Mustapha Sani, said the police force accepts complaints and gives the public a platform to air their grievances.

He also noted the commitment of the Nigerian police towards achieving a long-term transformation.

In his brief remarks, Jude Isiguo, the executive director of Carmelite Prisoners Interest, expressed concerns about use of punishment and torture to extract information from suspects by the police.

Joy Ezeilo, a member of the governing council Human Rights Institute of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA-HRI) said the police should invest in technology instead of leveraging on the archaic method of torture.

Ms Ezeilo, a professor and founding director, Women Aid Collective (WACOL), noted that the act is not acceptable as it violates the Anti-Torture act.

What is CRU

The CRU was established in November 2015. Its core mandate is to respond to all cases of Police professional misconduct that occurs during police/citizens interaction(s).

The unit says it has received 14,976 complaints against police officers since it was established in 2015, out of which 11,567 were resolved, according to a report by The PUNCH newspaper.

Complaints are received through phone calls, WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, SMS, Email and others.
The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has explained why he and some leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) did not want Uche Secondus to continue in office as the PDP national chairman.

Mr Secondus, who hails from Rivers, was forced out of office in August 2021, a few weeks to the expiration of his tenure, after falling out with Mr Wike who had supported him to become the PDP chairman.

Mr Wike said, during a media chat in Port Harcourt on Friday, that Mr Secondus was asked to leave office in order to pave the way for the south to produce a PDP presidential candidate.

In the final meeting in Enugu, we now say, Secondus, as the chairman of the party, you are already running out your tenure, and therefore you cant go back (as the PDP chairman) because it is the position of the south that the president have to come from the south.

And the president cannot come to the south if you (Secondus) are the chairman of the party, Mr Wike said.

So it was not as if it was a personal thing, he added.

Mr Wikes claim, however, contradicts the remarks he made in August that Mr Secondus was removed because he performed below the expectation of the PDP members.

The governor in the previous remark threatened to crush anyone who associated with Mr Secondus who is a political ally of Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate for the 2023 election.

READ ALSO:

Mr Wike fell out with Atiku after he lost the PDP primary to the latter.

If anybody fights our system, we will fight the person back, TheCable quoted Governor Wike as saying in his August remarks.

Let me tell you what you dont understand in politics. The moment you claim to be working with us and tomorrow you shift to our enemy, we will take every might we have, we will even leave our enemy and finish you first.

So all of you who are going back to Abuja to hold meetings with our enemies in the state, Im going to finish you to the last. You cant come here, gain from the state, be a contractor, get money then you move to Abuja to hold meetings against us and say Ill leave you free, Ill not leave you free.

We removed a national party chairman who was not doing well. All of them were here, we all agreed, now they are going to Abuja to hold meetings with the man we removed, thinking that you will use that to fight us, we will crush them, the governor reportedly said.

Mr Secondus, in his response to Mr Wike, told the governor that power was transient, and that he cannot crush anybody.

Im still committed to PDP

Meanwhile Governor Wike said at the Friday media chat he remains a committed member of the PDP, despite the crisis rocking the party.

The PDP has been enmeshed in a leadership crisis after its presidential primary in May.

Mr Wikes group is demanding the resignation of the National Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, to achieve a regional balance since Messrs Ayu and Atiku are both from the north, but Mr Ayu has insisted he was elected for a four-year term.

The Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BOT), Walid Jibrin, who is from Nasarawa State in the north, resigned a few days ago, apparently to placate Mr Wike and his group.

The Deputy Chairman, Adolphus Wabara, a former president of the Senate, from Abia State in the South-east, is now the acting BOT chairman.

However, Mr Wikes camp, not impressed with Mr Jibrins resignation, has insisted Mr Ayu must step down from his position.

I just want to say clearly that what I believe in and what I continue to stand for is justice and equity, it doesnt matter whose interest is involved, Governor Wike said at the Friday media chat.
Troops of Operation Hadarin Daji have apprehended two terrorists collaborators in Zaria, Kaduna State, who are linked to one Alhaji Abubakar, their financier.

The Director, Defence Media Operations, Musa Danmadami, a major general, made this known at the bi-weekly news briefing on the operations of the armed forces on Thursday in Abuja.

Mr Danmadami said the suspects were apprehended on 15 September at Access Bank, PZ Branch in Zaria while trying to withdraw the sum of N14 million deposited into the account of the said suspected terrorist financier.

He said the relevant agencies were working assiduously to track the said financier and others who had been fingered for terrorism financing.

The director said the military and other security agencies remained committed to apprehending all terrorism financiers and collaborators in the country.

Mr Danmadami also said the troops conducted operational activities in villages, communities and towns in Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna States during the period and neutralised 16 terrorists.

He added that troops also arrested 10 notorious terrorists and rescued 21 kidnapped civilians at different locations in the Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

According to him, the air component on 13 September, conducted air interdiction operation at an identified terrorist hideout in Dutse Babare in Jibia Local Government Area of Katsina State.

READ ALSO:

The air strike led to the neutralisation of a terrorist leader identified as Ibrahim Dangawo and other members of his gang.

Similar, operation was carried out at Gidan Guga in Faskari Local Government Area also in Katsina State, at an identified terrorist enclave.

The airstrike led to the neutralisation of a terrorist kingpin known as Babaru who has been on the wanted list of security agents, he said.

Mr Danmadami said the troops also neutralised a large number of terrorists in an air raid at Kawari axis in Danmusa Local Government Area of Katsina State.

He said it was revealed that the terrorist group had been responsible for kidnapping and robbery incidents in the area.

In the North-central, Mr Danmadami said the Commander, Operation Safe Haven, on 10 September, held a joint peace summit to sensitise communities in Plateau State on the need for peaceful coexistence.

He said the summit was part of a non-kinetic approach to resolving lingering security challenges in the state.

He said the air component of Operation Whirl Punch on 8 September, carried out an air interdiction operation at an identified terrorist hideout at Gaude, Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, killing scores of terrorists.

It was further revealed that all the attacks around Shiroro were orchestrated from this location and consequently, the hideout was bombarded.

Feedback, revealed that several terrorists were neutralized with others fleeing with various degrees of injuries.

Also, two suspected gun runners enroute Onitsha to Abuja were arrested by personnel of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency along Okene-Lokoja road in Kogi State.

Items recovered from the suspects were 12 pump action guns and 374 cartridges.

The arrested suspects and recovered items were handed over to the Nigerian Police for further action, he said.

(NAN)
Governor Kayode Fayemi, the outgoing Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), has applauded Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on his sterling leadership quality of the National Economic Council (NEC).

Mr Osinbajos spokesperson, Laolu Akande, in a statement on Thursday in Abuja, said Mr Fayemi, who is the outgoing governor of Ekiti State, spoke at a virtual meeting presided over by the vice president on Thursday.

Mr Fayemi said that Mr Osinbajo in steering the council had done a lot to ensure that the country was a true federation.

He also expressed his appreciation to the entire council and President Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Fayemi said that having served in previous NEC and longer than most current members, he could affirm that Mr Osinbajos leadership had been outstanding.

He added that the council had never had the kind of leadership that Mr Osinbajo had provided.

The governor said he hoped that such leadership of NEC would be maintained going forward.

I want to particularly express my own gratitude to you for your leadership over the last four years that has reenergised this council in a manner that we have not seen in a long time. In fact, I should say over the last seven years, I have been privileged to be part of it in the last four years.

And I have been part of all the NECs proceedings before your time, but I can say without any shadow of a doubt that the energy, the focus, the results over the last four years are due to no other reason than your extraordinary leadership of this council, he said.

In his remarks, the vice president commended Mr Fayemi who was attending his last NEC meeting as he leaves office as governor on 16 October.

At the meeting, NEC received briefings on the need for states to adopt strategies to step up service delivery at the grassroots and also on how to mitigate floods.

(NAN)
The Ekiti State government has explained why it has failed to pay the about N57 billion salaries, gratuities, and pension arrears of workers and retirees in line with its promise when it was inaugurated in 2018.

The Kayode Fayemi-led government, which will end its tenure on 16th October, blamed the recurring economic downturn and paucity of funds in the state for the failure.

It, however, said it had performed well in many other areas such as the construction of a total of 139 kilometres of roads in the last four years, while it also undertook some palliatives on the dilapidated federal roads to make them accessible for motorists.

The Commissioner for Information, Akin Omole, spoke on Friday, at a press conference heralding the 4th anniversary and valedictory ceremonies of Mr Fayemis administration and the inauguration of the incoming governor, Biodun Oyebanji.

Mr Omole said the current government had rehabilitated 14 general and state hospitals and had also initiated operations in one primary healthcare per-ward, in line with the design of the National Healthcare Policy.

He said the parlous state of federal roads in Ekiti was due to increased traffic from adjoining states, especially the upsurge of haulage businesses and cross-border trucks which, he said, piled pressure on some of the highways.

As at 2018 when Governor Kayode Fayemi came on board, he said that he had the intention of paying all these arrears. But the budget support fund, Paris club, excess crude and other funds we were getting from the FG stopped and we were only collecting monthly allocation. That was what actually stopped us from fulfilling this promise, Mr Omole said.

We were still able to pay a part of it. We paid two out of the salary arrears. If our predecessor, who collected all these funds could not pay, then we should ask questions. It is not our intention not to pay all these arrears. But we are glad that we have a government that is coming after us. If there are areas where we have not fulfilled our promises, the next government will start from there.

He also noted that the Ekiti International Agro-Allied Cargo Airport was a dream come true, not only for the outgoing administration but also for the Ekiti people in general.

He said although it was projected to be an Agro-Based Cargo airport, it could also be used for commercial passenger operation.

The Airport boasts a CA5-9 4E category with capacity for Aircraft Boeing 747-400 and a runway length of 3.2km, he said.

Mr Omole added that within the period under review, the Fayemi government had completed projects which include the dual-lane new Ado-Iyin road; construction of Ekiti State Governors Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja; reconstruction of Agbado-Ode-Isinbode road; construction of Aramoko-Erijiyan-Ikogosi road; construction of Oye-Ayede-Iye -Otun road and; construction of Ilupeju-Ire-Igbemo-road.

He also mentioned Harding Memorial College, Oke-Isa, Ado-Ekiti; New SUBEB Headquarters, Secretariat Complex, Ado-Ekiti, EKZ Model School, Ijan-Road, Ado-Ekiti, and Model School, Isan-Ekiti.

Transportation

In the transport sector, the Commissioner revealed that the government had constructed a Bus Terminal and Pedestrian Walkway/Drain Cover along Ijigbo-Okeyinmi Roundabout in Ado-Ekiti Central Business Area, while also making life comfortable for the elderly by building Old peoples Resort, Ado-Ekiti.

He further said that the state government was making efforts to tackle the menace of insecurity in the state, saying administrative bottlenecks were hindering the purchase of the much-touted drone to monitor the forests and checkmate marauding criminals.

The Commissioner appealed to the federal government to focus attention on the deplorable Federal roads, saying the government would not rest until the needful was done in this regard.

Pensioners in the state had continued to groan over unpaid pension arrears, in what became a campaign issue during the governorship election.

Many of the workers are also being owed months of unpaid salaries, even though the state government claimed it was carrying the labour unions along in the disbursement of federal allocations.
A human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, has said the failure of the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to resume as ordered by a court on Wednesday could be legal as long as a stay of execution application has been filed together with the appeal application.

A judge, Polycarp Hamman, of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) sitting in Abuja had granted an interlocutory injunction application by the Nigerian government to restrain ASUU from continuing with the strike pending its determination of the substantive suit.

While ASUU said it is appealing the court order, many Nigerian students have asked if it would not amount to contempt of court if the union fails to suspend the strike before the appeal is heard.

But speaking on PREMIUM TIMES Twitter Space on Thursday, Mr Effiong said it would be legal to continue with the strike if the union already filed a motion for stay of execution alongside the application for an appeal.

He said: A stay of execution may be granted on terms where an appeal has been filed or when an application is made to the court. I am aware that a decision was taken to appeal and I am also aware that that appeal is to go with a motion for stay.

Also speaking on the Twitter Space, a former Welfare Officer of ASUU at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Chijioke Uwasomba, confirmed that the union has filed an appeal at the appellate court.

First thing this morning, our lawyers have appealed and they have also asked for a stay of execution, he said on Thursday.

He noted that the disputes that resulted in the strike could have been easily resolved if the government was committed to funding public education.

Mr Uwasomba also condemned the governments stance on No Work, No pay, insisting that teaching was the only aspect of the lecturers work affected by the strike.

He noted that research and community service being engaged in by the lecturers have continued unhindered for the past seven months.

Court wont resolve dispute

Both Messr Effiong and Uwasomba stated that legal option would not bring an end to the dispute between the Nigerian government and the aggrieved lecturers.

Mr Uwasomba said the option would rather complicate the conflict.

He accused the government of being irresponsible and having no regard for the Nigerian people.

On his part, Mr Effiong suggested that both parties return to the negotiation table, noting that litigation is not the best way to resolve the issue.

While he called on both parties to find a middle ground, he noted that returning to class without any significant achievement will be counterproductive.

He said: If you tell students to go back to classes and then they do not get any difference  nothing is felt in terms of impact, nothing is seen in terms of positive outlook from this strike what would have been the essence of staying at home for seven months.

He called on the federal government to implement the agreements reached with ASUU but Im also saying that ASUU must also be mindful and amenable to areas where some form of compromise can be reached because ultimately, there has to be a compromise.

ASUU should uphold students right

Meanwhile, Mr Effiong charged ASUU to also stand up for the rights of students being trampled upon in some public universities.

The human rights lawyer condemned cases where some university management proscribed the student union and its activities.

When it comes to the issues affecting the students in this country ASUU does not seem to exude the level of passion that we all see when they have matters relating to the agreement with the federal government, he said. So after the strike, I hope that ASUU will go back to their various branches and begin to interrogate how they can be more effective in responding to concerns by students, both against lecturers who are victimising students and against university management that are also clamping down on the rights of students to organise and also speak for themselves.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe
The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, on Thursday, met with some Christian clerics under the aegis of Pentecostal Bishops Forum of Northern Nigeria.

The clerics, led by John Praise, the presiding bishop of Dominion Chapel International Church, met with Mr Tinubu in Abuja.

At the meeting, Mr Tinubu informed the clerics that several names were shortlisted as his running mate but that he picked Kashim Shettima because of how he (Shettima) protected Christians while he was governor of Borno State.

Mr Tinubu told the delegation that his intention is clear, which is to develop the country. He added that he is one of the best friends of the Christian Community in Nigeria.

How will Nigeria develop? How do we banish hunger improve security and eliminate killings of one another? That is what we must take to the office, not our religion. When the shortlisted names came, I looked at their characters, their background and everything.

Yes, somebody so brilliant, so committed, who had, during the crisis in Borno, protected Christians. My intention is clear, not for religiosity. My intention is to develop this country, to bring prosperity. I have better qualifications, a better track record and better vision than any of my mates.

Why do we want to stay divided? I am standing before you that I have one of the best friends of the Christian community in this country. Let us develop intellectual inquisitiveness. To build an understanding. Which way Nigeria.

Muslim/Muslim ticket

The decision of Mr Tinubu, a Muslim from the south, to tap Mr Shettima, a Muslim from the north, as his running mate is still generating backlash from some quarters in the country.

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) had strongly opposed it. During the unveiling of Mr Shettima as the APC vice presidential candidate in Abuja, CAN disowned the clerics that attended the event, calling them fake bishops.

Equally, some northern politicians in the APC who belong to the Christian faith, have vowed to defeat the Muslim/Muslim ticket.

On Tuesday, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, asked Christians not to waste their votes on a Muslim/Muslim ticket.

Similarly on Wednesday, Babachir Lawal, a former secretary to the government of the federation, during an interview on Arise TV, said he will be mobilising supporters to defeat the Muslim/Muslim ticket.
The Court of Appeal, Makurdi Division, has validated the power of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to direct banks, without the backing of a court order, to freeze the accounts of state governments for the purpose of investigations.

The decision of the court delivered on Thursday overturned the earlier judgement of the Federal High Court in Makurdi which had barred the anti-graft agency from placing a Post-No-Debit (PND) order on the Benue State governments accounts.

In a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice M.S. Hassan on Thursday, September 22, 2022, the appellate court held that, the EFCC has powers to place any account, (state governments accounts inclusive) on PND for 72hours, for the purpose of investigations, without a court order.

The court also set aside the N50 million damages awarded against the EFCC by the lower court, the statement read in part.

A PND is usually issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and anti-graft agencies through letters to banks to block certain customers from carrying out debit transactions on their bank accounts being investigated.

The PND order lasts for 72 hours, and the requesting body is expected to obtain a court order for the restrictions on the accounts to continue.

Background

The Benue State Government had said in August 2018 that its bank accounts with funds meant to pay the salaries of workers and pensioners had been frozen at the behest of EFCC.

Accounts of the Benue State Government have been frozen by EFCC, Terver Akase, a spokesperson for Governor Samuel Ortom, said in a statement.

It is part of the political witch-hunt against Governor Samuel Ortom. The action of EFCC is already having negative impact on the running of government in Benue State. It is a move that will affect salaries, pensions and other sundry payments, Mr Akase said.

READ ALSO:

His confirmation came a day after it was reported that at least three bank accounts which the state held with GTBank, First Bank and Fidelity Bank had been blocked by the anti-graft office as part of a corruption probe.

Media reports had suggested that the Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, was being investigated for misappropriation of security funds.

The governor denied the allegations, saying the probe was part of a witch-hunt triggered by his then recent defection from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The state government had then approached the Federal High Court in Makurdi to place a PND on its accounts without a court order.

In the judgement delivered on 2 February 2019, the judge, Mobolaji Olajuwon, barred the EFCC from placing a PND on the account of Benue State government.

Dissatisfied with the judgement, the EFCC filed an appeal against it at the Court of Appeal in Makurdi, with its lawyer, Steve Odiase, arguing that it is within its powers to freeze the account of Benue State government.

The court, in its judgement, according to EFCC, held that that banks are legally bound to obey the PND orders from the EFCC.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council says with the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the latest bid by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to become Nigerias president in 2023 has hit the rocks.

Bayo Onanuga, director of media and publicity of the council said this in a statement on Friday in Abuja.

He said by the development, Atiku deserved to be pitied as his yet another bid for the countrys presidency was slipping away.

This is unraveling before our very eyes even before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) blows the whistle for electioneering campaign, his party, the PDP is in disarray.

The signs are just too ominous for the Waziri, especially with the report by the Economic Intelligence Unit predicting another trashing for him in the forthcoming polls, Mr Onanuga said.

This, he said, was after Atikus partys code for power rotation between the north and south was violated and after he grabbed the PDP presidential ticket without a modicum of sensibilities about national ethos.

According to Mr Onanuga, Mr Atiku is now faced with the karma of his inordinate ambition, adding that the PDP has imploded in a battle of attrition, the result of which is predictable.

He said the ongoing fraticidal war where a faction of the party led by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, was engaging Atiku in a fight to finish, has undermined any momentum he had hoped to build.

This, Mr Onanuga said, was with further loss of confidence in the PDP by its own members who could not find any redeeming feature in the fast disappearing party.

It is crystal clear that Atikus latest bid for Nigerias top job has hit the rocks, a pillar of Atikus campaign is the claim of being a unifier and nationalist.

That bogus claim has now been discredited, even within his party, as the disaffected members cry for justice and inclusivity.

Instead of the perennially running and perennially failing candidate to offer them some sop, he has rebuffed them, pleading that he could not grant their request for justice.

Surely a man who cannot resolve a genuine dispute among his party members, who cannot forge an entente among them, cannot be expected to unify our country, Mr Onanuga said.

He added that instead of being a unifier, Atiku has became a divider-in-chief.

He said his campaign on this score, was heading for a still birth, just as some of his programmes had been found to be nothing new.

This, he said, was especially as they were already being implemented by the President. Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration.

He said the former vice president created the crisis for himself, by pushing the fallacy that only a northern candidate could win the presidency for his party.

Mr Onanuga said that this was in spite of the open record that Nigerians of southern extraction, when they network with their northern compatriots could also win the election.

Former leaders, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr Goodluck Jonathan demonstrated this in 1999, 2003 and 2011.

As a campaign, we can only pity former Vice-President Atiku for the self-inflicted injury he invited unto himself.

Atiku brought this unto himself and we dare say he can kiss his ill-fated presidential bid goodbye, Mr Onanuga said.

(NAN)
About 28 per cent of Nigerian women with disabilities have suffered sexual abuse, new research by Africa Polling Institute (API) has found.

Published on Thursday, the report said 11 per cent of men living with disabilities have also suffered some form of sexual abuse.

API, an independent research think-tank, said 64 per cent of respondents in its survey affirmed that women with disabilities are more vulnerable to sexual abuse than women without disabilities irrespective of age and educational levels.

The research was conducted with support from the Ford Foundation to monitor progress on the domestication of the Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition), Act, 2018 in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Overall, the objective of the project, API said, is to ensure that state governments adopt evidence-informed policies that address the challenges of persons with disabilities (PWDs); advance a better understanding of the challenges of women with disability, particularly as it relates to gender-based violence; and help build the capacity of research officers of organisation of persons with disabilities (OPDs).

The executive director of API, Bella Ihua, said the study produced a disability inclusion and diagnostic tool for institutions in Nigeria to help track the progress made on inclusion across both private and public organisations in Nigeria.

The tool offers a starting point for those wishing to deepen their understanding and application of disability inclusion across the scope of their work and organisation. In addition, it aims to provide guidance, clarity, a practical framework, and tools needed for basic universal and accessibility principles embedded within an organisation.

Findings from the Action Research study revealed that the Nigerian government has not given a great deal of attention to alleviating the plights of persons with disabilities as they continue to struggle with myriads of challenges.

The Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition), Act is yet to be fully domesticated across the geopolitical zones, the report said.

This finding suggests that the welfare of persons with disabilities has not been given utmost priority by the state government across the six geopolitical zones in the country.

Respondents highlighted the lack of funds and lack of willingness on the part of state governors and state house of assembly members as barriers hindering the domestication of the Act across the geopolitical zones.

Sexual and gender-based violence among PWDs

The study shows that 7 in 10 persons with disabilities surveyed (70 per cent) said that women with disabilities suffer some form of physical violence compared to men with disabilities

Also, 47 per cent of respondents affirmed that persons with hunchbacks are more susceptible to ritual killings across all geopolitical zones. This finding cuts across age categories and educational levels, API said.

More so, more respondents in North-East (36 per cent) than in other geopolitical zones had been sexually abused in the past.

Lastly, persons with disabilities highlighted strangers (57 per cent), and immediate family members/relatives/friends (11 per cent) as leading perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence on PWDs.

National disability data in Nigeria

The API findings on national disability data in Nigeria revealed that in terms of employment, persons with disabilities mostly seek help in locating appropriate jobs (32 per cent).

Also, 23 per cent of PWDs seek help in furthering their education, training, or skills. On the other hand, about 15 per cent of PWDs seek availability of assistive technology particularly in the South-south (19 per cent), followed by North-central (16 per cent) and South-west (15 per cent).

Regarding access to assistive technology, more than 8 in 10 of PWDs who have some difficulty in seeing cannot afford to get medical glasses and at least 9 in 10 of PWDs cannot afford a hearing aid and walking or climbing equipment/assistance respectively, API said.

It added that persons with disabilities who owned their own accommodation were more among rural residents (82 per cent) than urban residents (52 per cent). On accommodation suitability, the survey shows that 44 per cent live in unsuitable accommodation.

Furthermore, regarding psychological abuse, at least 6 in 10 PWDs experience psychological problems particularly sexual and gender-based violence (89 per cent), violence (83 per cent), abuse (79 per cent), neglect (74 per cent), and discrimination (70 per cent).

Lastly, the data show that PWDs are marginally excluded from society as 52 per cent of PWDs surveyed revealed that they do not have access to public institutions, another 43 per cent indicated that they do not participate in political activities and more than 3 in 10 do not participate in sporting activities.
Three persons, including a police Inspector, who were abducted by gunmen on Thursday in Ewekoro, Ogun State, have regained freedom, the police have said.

Abimbola Oyeyemi, the police spokesperson in the state, said the victims were freed on Friday.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the three victims were police officers. They were abducted at Waasinmi, along the Abeokuta-Lagos road in the state.

The officers had gone to Ogun State from Zone 2, Onikan, Lagos, for an investigation before they were abducted.

But Mr Oyeyemi said only one police officer was among the victims.

The police spokesperson further said the victims were abducted by a group of kidnappers who were operating in military camouflage.

On receiving the information of the abduction, the Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole directed the commands anti-kidnapping unit and another tactical squad to move into the area and join forces with Ewekoro divisional headquarters in rescuing the victims, he said in a statement.

Upon the intensive pressure and aggressive trailing of the kidnappers, they (abductors) were left with no alternative other than releasing their captives.

The victims regained their freedom at about 9:45 pm of Thursday 22nd of September 2022 and have since reunited with their family.

Commenting on the incident, the Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, directed that everything possible must be done to ensure that the culprits are arrested and prosecuted.
The kingpin of a terror gang, Dogo Rabe, and 45 other terrorists were killed in an Air Force raid Thursday evening.

Mr bombing that killed Mr Rabe was part of an operation to flush out terrorists operating in communities between the Zurmi and Birnin Magaji areas in Zamfara State, and Jibia in Katsina State, according to security sources.

The news of the killing of Mr Rabe comes four days after a similar raid targeting notorious terrorist, Bello Turji, in Fakai community in Zamfara. At least 22 people were killed in the bombing but Mr Turji managed to escape.

A local journalist, Abdulbaqi Aliyu, claimed at least 40 terrorists were killed in the Birnin Magaji area of Zamfara.

Yesterdays attack by the Nigerian Airforce, airstrikes at Sabon Birini Dan Ali forest, in Birini Magaji LGA of Zamfara State killed 40 terrorists. The gangs were said to be loading stolen cattle. Sources from the area confirmed the development, he said.

In Zurmi, Abdullahi Mamman, a resident of the area, said terrorists were attacked in Lambar Gabas community where another notorious kingpin, Gwaska Dankarami resides.

Nobody can tell you the exact number of those killed because I learnt that the bandits were gathering in Dan Karamis house for a meeting or something of that nature. Some locals said Dankarami was not in the house but I cant confirm. What I know is that the place was bombed by jets, he told PREMIUM TIMES over the phone.

A local source in Jibia, who asked not to be named for security reasons, said Mr Rabe was killed in the raid.

He was said to be on his way to raid some villages in Zamfara (possibly Zurmi).

I was told that the other bandits with him were five but I know they were more than that because if you know the style of their operations, you know they cant go in such small number but I can confirm to you that he was hit in the raid.

ALSO READ: Nigerian Air Force kills many terrorists but notorious leader Bello Turji escapes

Abdul Olaitan, the Air Force spokesperson in Katsina didnt respond to calls and SMS sent to him on the offensives.

But an Air Force source in the Katsina 213 Forward Operation Base confirmed that Air Force jets attacked terrorists camps in Zurmi and Jibia.

Well, I know that our men have been on this since last Friday. We have been intensifying efforts to flush them from their hideouts. Were getting more jets and aircraft to monitor their (terrorists) movements, he said.

According to the source, a senior officer, who sought anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press, he said the offensive is being led by the Air Component Commander of the Base, MB Umar, a Group Captain.

These offensives will continue until their (terrorists) camps are all wiped out. its not easy especially because the camps are mostly in local communities where there are innocent residents but were being careful and were witnessing success.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Special Operations Command, Bauchi, Abubakar Abdulkadir, is in Katsina to access the air raids.

Mr Abdulkadir, an Air Vice Marshall, was in Katsina when Mr Turji was attacked and this newspaper gathered that the official is extending his stay to coordinate the offensive.
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has said that the Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, knows what to do if he (Tambuwal) feels betraying him during the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primary was wrong.

Mr Wike stated this in a media chat in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Friday.

The governor said what happened at the primary was painful, but that life must go on.

If you want to be a politician in Nigeria, you must have a shock absorber. If you dont have a shock absorber, youll die.

Frankly speaking, even if it affects me, it is like you lost a child. It can be painful, but your life must go on. A man decided what he wanted to, he is of age and he has taken a decision, I move on with my life, the governor said.

Messrs Wike and Tambuwal have been close friends and political allies.

The former supported the latter as a PDP presidential aspirant at the party 2018 primary in Port Harcourt which was won by the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

Both men were among those who contested the PDP presidential primary in May for the 2023 elections.

Mr Tambuwal, however, made a last-minute withdrawal and urged his supporters to vote for Atiku.

Buoyed by the withdrawal, Mr Atiku defeated Governor Wike and others to emerge again as the PDP presidential candidate.

Mr Wike in the media chat accused Mr Ayu of putting pressure on other aspirants to step down for Mr Atiku.

Hours after the convention, Mr Ayu visited the Sokoto governor at his Abujas residence to apparently thank him for stepping down for Atiku.

Mr Ayus arrival at Tambuwals residence was captured in a video clip.

Thank you, thank you. You are the hero of the convention, Mr Ayu told his host, Governor Tambuwal.

PDP crisis

The PDP has been enmeshed in a leadership crisis afterwards, with Mr Wike and others demanding Mr Ayus removal to achieve a regional balance since Messrs Ayu and Atiku are both from the north.

But Mr Ayu has insisted he would not resign because he was elected for a four-year term.

The Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BOT), Walid Jibrin, who is from Nasarawa State in the north, resigned a few days ago, apparently to placate Mr Wike and his group.

The Deputy Chairman, Adolphus Wabara, a former president of the Senate, from Abia State in the South-east, is now the acting BOT chairman.

However, Mr Wikes camp, not impressed with Mr Jibrins resignation, has insisted Mr Ayu must step down.

Mr Wike said Atiku visited him in his Abuja residence shortly after the primary and told him look, governor, Ayu will go because the presidential candidate and the national chairman cannot come from the same zone.

Governor Wike at the Friday media chat insisted that Mr Ayu must leave office for a southerner to ensure inclusivity in the PDP.
The campaign team of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has fired back at the ruling APC campaign team over comments on the crisis rocking the main opposition party.

Bayo Onanuga, a spokesperson of the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation, earlier Friday, took a swipe at Atiku for his inability to resolve the issue causing division among key leaders of the PDP.

Referring to the crisis that has trailed the party following the emergence of Atiku as the PDP presidential candidate in May, Mr Onanuga mocked the PDP presidential candidate for not being able to unify his party yet he wants to become president to unify the country.

Surely a man who cannot resolve a genuine dispute among his party members, who cannot forge an entente among them, cannot be expected to unify our country.

Instead of being a unifier, Atiku is now a divider-in-chief. His campaign on this score is heading for a stillbirth, just as some of his programmes have been found to be nothing new, as they are already being implemented by the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, the APC campaign team threw yet another jab.

But in his reaction, a spokesperson of the Atiku campaign team, Daniel Bwala, in a statement on Friday evening, said the ruling party lacks the moral right to advise the PDP on how it should tackle its internal crisis.

I read with utter shock a statement credited to Bayo Onanuga, Asiwaju campaign council surrogate, discussing the PDP affair like a meddlesome interloper. In the statement, surprisingly he was advocating for and prescribing medication for the very ailment killing APC, Mr Bwala said.

He said the ruling APC has nothing to sell its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, but to resort to blackmail because the current administration under President Muhammadu Buhari has failed in the security, political and economic sectors.

Mr Bwala also accused the APC campaign team of making efforts to compromise INEC, blackmail members of the opposition, threatening the lives of spokespersons of the opposition parties and identifying judges to corrupt ahead of the polls.

Also reacting in a separate statement, Atikus media aide, Paul Ibe, said the crisis rocking the PDP is a conversation among leaders of the party and that, in itself, is a reflection of the PDP, as a living and engaging political party.

He cautioned the APC against meddling in the affairs of the main opposition.

We wish to remind the APC that its presidential candidate has to own the failures of the party in the last seven plus years. He should also know that Nigerians will not reward their failure with nothing less than a resounding loss in the election.

Tinubu and the APC ma lule!

It is important to let Tinubu and his paid agents know that what obtains in the PDP is not the mundane stoicism that the APC is known for, Mr Ibe said.

He asked the ruling party to resolve the pending questions about its candidate, Tinubu, rather than spending precious time on what does not concern it.

Well, since the APC Presidential Campaign Organization seems to have woken up from their state of hibernation, it is good to remind them that there are pending questions about the social and educational history of their candidate that Nigerians want answers to.

We shall be kind enough to remind the APC that when, in the next few days, campaigns begin in earnest, Nigerians will require answers to some weighty character questions about their candidate and, rather than expend precious time on what is never their business, should use the remaining few days judiciously, he said.
By evoking emotions and castigating perceived political enemies through hate and dangerous speech, they generate support to remain powerful actors in the political arena. The Electoral Act 2022 has significant provisions for sanctioning such behaviour and it is important that these are utilised, so that the forthcoming campaigns can remain on the healthier terrain of issues-based politics.

This week, the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies organised a high-level forum on political communication and issue-based politics in the run up to the 2023 elections. In his speech at the event, Speaker Gbajabiamila made the point that politicians in a democracy should run on the basis of their record, but in our context in which so many of them have no records to show, they change the agenda by attacking personalities and engaging in divisive politics. The problem is that it works. By evoking emotions and castigating perceived political enemies through hate and dangerous speech, they generate support to remain powerful actors in the political arena. The Electoral Act 2022 has significant provisions for sanctioning such behaviour and it is important that these are utilised, so that the forthcoming campaigns can remain on the healthier terrain of issues-based politics.

In his keynote address to the forum, Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah drew attention to the wider context. Since 1989 and the collapse of the Berlin Wall, identity politics has become dominant and it has been promoted by populist regimes who build their political support by replacing reason with emotions. Nigerians need to be conscious of the fact that desperate politicians will continue to fan the embers of hate and division as the 2023 election campaigns heat up, and it is important that we do not collectively fall prey to the agents of division in our society. For example, the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket of one of the leading political parties has already become a fulcrum for promoting divisive politics.

Also, this week, the alumni association of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies held a forum on Nigerias national unity in the build-up to the 2023 General Elections. In his keynote address at the event, General Martin Luther Agwai called on Nigerians to be steadfast in nation building in spite of the inadequacies of the political class. He drew attention to the importance of one of the posters carried by young people during the #EndSARS demonstrations: THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE IS GREATER THAN THAT OF THE PEOPLE IN POWER. In other words, what is important today is to make real the core value of democracy, in terms of the power of the people. Every society, he explained, has fractures over which conflicts arise. What is important is to be able to address the factors that lead to these conflicts.

Today, Nigeria is marked by a strong resurgence of the fear of domination by a group that wields executive power nationally. In other words, Nigerians feel strongly that the protection provided to component units of the federation by the federal arrangement has weakened considerably and too many do not feel their collective interests are being served. This is the context that has propelled the call for restructuring of the federation in recent years.

In both fora, there were lots of interrogations about the seeming absence of Nigerias elite consensus on nation building. My position is that there has always been a clear elite consensus in our country, which developed between the rejection of the 1946 Richards Constitution and the emergence of the McPhersons Constitution five years later. Our nationalist leaders agreed that Nigeria should not have an excessively strong national executive that would evoke in components of the elite a fear of domination. It was on that basis that federalism emerged as the elite consensus for governing Nigeria. Today, Nigeria is marked by a strong resurgence of the fear of domination by a group that wields executive power nationally. In other words, Nigerians feel strongly that the protection provided to component units of the federation by the federal arrangement has weakened considerably and too many do not feel their collective interests are being served. This is the context that has propelled the call for restructuring of the federation in recent years. We have to create conditions for addressing the problem in the next dispensation.

The rational reason for keeping Nigeria together as a nation is that it is virtually impossible to pull us apart:

There is no easy way to pull this country apart. The problems arising from such an exercise will be far bigger than the problem of trying to keep it going. The value of the size, the market, and the varieties of cultures etc. are important and should not be neglected.  Professor Ade Ajayi, The Nigerian Social Scientist, Vol 5, No 1, 2002, P.56

Professor Ade Ajayi is right in the quote above on both counts. Breaking up Nigeria will be no easy task. Indeed, it is much easier to keep it together than to carve it up. Secondly, the potentials of Nigeria growing into a great and advanced country remains real. Nonetheless, Nigeria is confronting a number of critical political challenges that are raising serious questions about its identity and survival as a democratic Federal Republic. First, there is a dramatic breakdown in security provisioning that has created a climate of disillusionment in the State as a protector of citizens. Secondly, there is a significant rise and expansion of sectarian conflicts, both ethnic and religious, fuelled in part by massive disinformation and hate speech in both the traditional and social media. Thirdly, Nigerias elite consensus on federalism and the federal character principle as a guarantee against group discrimination and marginalisation is badly shaken. The risk therefore is that even if the drift towards disintegration is the worst possible outcome, the country is being pushed towards that direction. The forthcoming elections would be an important moment in this regard. Holding free, fair and credible elections would provide a strong pillar of support to nation building. We ALL have a collective responsibility to stop the drift and seek pathways to re-establish confidence in the nation building project.

..today, Nigerians find themselves in a moment of doubt about their nationhood. It is similar to the two earlier moments of doubt we have experienced, in 1962-1970 when we went through a terrible civil war and the early 1990s when prolonged military rule created another round of challenges to the National Project. We survived those two moments and my message today is to let us see the current crisis and elections as an opportunity to surge forward in fixing Nigeria.

The Nigerian state is undergoing a three-dimensional crisis. The first one affects the political economy and is generated mainly by public corruption over the past four decades, which has created a run on the treasury at the national and state levels, threatening to consume the goose that lays the golden egg. The second one is the crisis of citizenship symbolised by ethno-regionalism, the Boko Haram insurgency, farmer-herder killings, agitations for Biafra, militancy in the Niger Delta and indigene/settler conflicts. The third element relates to the frustration of the countrys democratic aspirations in a context in which the citizenry believes in true democracy but is confronted with a reckless political class that is corrupt, self-serving and manipulative.

These issues have largely broken the social pact between citizens and the state. That is why today, Nigerians find themselves in a moment of doubt about their nationhood. It is similar to the two earlier moments of doubt we have experienced, in 1962-1970 when we went through a terrible civil war and the early 1990s when prolonged military rule created another round of challenges to the National Project. We survived those two moments and my message today is to let us see the current crisis and elections as an opportunity to surge forward in fixing Nigeria.

A professor of Political Science and development consultant/expert, Jibrin Ibrahim is a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development, and Chair of the Editorial Board of PREMIUM TIMES.
In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy

All praise is for Allah, we praise Him, we seek His help, we ask for His forgiveness, and we seek refuge with Allah from the evils of our own souls and the wickedness of our actions. Whoever Allah guides, there is none that can lead him astray, and whoever Allah allows to go astray, there is none that can lead him to the right path.

I testify and bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship in truth but Allah, alone, without any partners. And I testify and bear witness that Muhammad (Peace be upon him) is His Servant and Messenger. To proceed:

My dear brothers and sisters! Know that, Islam has given equal rights to everyone. Our Lord, Allah, being our creator, is the greatest and praiseworthy.

The right of Allah is the greatest, the most important and the one that is to be respected, because it is the right of Allah, the Creator, the Immense, the Ruler; He is the One who manages everything. It is the right of the Sovereign, the True, the Apparent, the Ever-Living, the Ever-Subsisting, the Holder of the heavens and the earth, the One Who created everything and gave it its own proportions with His sacred Wisdom.

It is the right of the One Who created you from nothing when your existence was not even mentioned; it is the right of Allah, Who gave you sustenance while you were in your mothers womb under three [superposed layers of] darkness and no one could give you food nor the essential elements to your development and to keep you alive. For you, He made flow (the milk) from the breast (that breastfeed you), He has guided you to the two paths (of good and evil), He granted you parents to look after you, He gave you and prepared you. He gave you blessings, reason, understanding, and He prepared you to accept it and to take advantage of it. Allah Almighty says:

And Allah brought you forth from the wombs of your mothers knowing nothing, and gave you hearing and sight and hearts that haply you might give thanks. [Quran, 17:78]

If Allah prevented you from His blessings, even for a blink of eye, you would perish; if He deprived you of His Mercy, you would not be able to live a second.

If that is the blessing and the mercy of Allah unto you, then His right on you is the greatest of all rights, because it is the right in compensation for having created you, prepared and given you everything He has granted you. [Nevertheless,] He wants from you neither subsistence nor food. Allah the Most High says:

We ask not of you a provision: We provide for you. And the sequel is for righteousness. [Quran, 20:132]

Allah Almighty wants from you only one thing, from which you will benefit: He wants you to worship Him alone, with no partner. Allah Almighty says:

I created the jinn and humankind only that they might worship Me. I seek no livelihood from them, nor do I ask that they should feed Me. Lo! Allah! He is that gives livelihood, the Lord of unbreakable might. [Quran, 51:56-58]

Allah the Most High wants you to be His servant in every sense that the lordship includes, in the same way that Allah is a Lord in the full sense of the Lordship. He wants you to be a submitted servant, humble, obedient to His orders, deviating from His prohibitions, believing in all that He informed you, because you see on yourself His multiple and successive blessings.

Respected servants of Allah! Are you then not ashamed to exchange those blessings against ungratefulness? For example, if someone granted you his blessings, you would feel ashamed to disobey him and to openly contradict him; then what about your Lord, your creator, Who grants you all the blessings in your possession, and Who preserves you from all evil by His Mercy? Allah the Most High says:

And whatever of comfort you enjoy, it is from Allah. Then, when misfortune reaches you, unto Him you cry for help. [Quran, 17:53]

And this right Allah has imposed for Himself is simple and easy to whom Allah facilitates, because Allah has put in it no difficulty, discomfort, nor pain. Allah Almighty says:

And strive for Allah with the endeavour which is His right. He has chosen you and has not laid upon you in religion any hardship; the faith of your father Ibrahim (is yours). He has named you Muslims of old time and in this (Scripture) that the messenger may be a witness against you, and that you may be witnesses against mankind. So establish worship, pay the poor due, and hold fast to Allah. He is your Protecting Friend. A blessed Patron and a blessed Helper! [Quran, 22 :78]

This is exemplary belief, faith in the truth and a pious deed that bears fruit. It is belief based on love and veneration, and whose fruits are sincerity (the cult exclusivity) and perseverance.

Five daily and night prayers by which Allah forgives all sins, raises in ranks, purifies the hearts and works out situations, and that the servant performs to the best of his capabilities. Allah Almighty says:

So keep your duty to Allah as best you can. [Quran, 64:16]

And the Prophet (Peace be upon him) told Imran Ibn Husain (RA), when the latter was sick:

Pray standing; if you cannot, then sitting; and if you cannot, then lying on your side. [Bukhari]

Alms (Zakkat) which represents a small portion of your belongings and that you give for the needs of Muslims, poor people, beggars, travelers, to indebted persons and others among those who are entitled to this charity.

Fasting for one month in the year (in the month of Ramadan), which the sick person or the traveler can do later, and for which the one who is permanently unable nourishes (feed) a poor person per day [of fasting missed].

The pilgrimage to the Sacred House [Makkah] once in his existence for the one who has the possibility to perform it.

These are the bases of the rights of Allah, and all other rights become mandatory only in special circumstances, such as Jihad (Struggle) in the path of Allah, or for a reason justifying it, such as helping the oppressed.

Look, O brothers and sisters, this right whose practice is easy but whose reward is immense. If you respect it, you will succeed in this world and in the hereafter, you will be saved from Hell and enter Paradise. Allah Almighty says:

Whosoever is removed from the Fire and is made to enter Paradise, he indeed is triumphant. The life of this world is but comfort of illusion. [Quran, 3:185]

My dear brothers and sisters! Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) is the last Prophet sent by Allah for entire mankind. His right is the most important among the rights of creatures, and no one among the creatures has a greater right than that of the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him). Allah the Most High says in Noble Quran:

Lo! We have sent you (O Muhammad) as a witness and a bearer of good tidings and a warner, that you (mankind) may believe in Allah and His Messenger, and may honour Him, and may revere Him, and may glorify Him at early dawn and at the close of day. [Quran, 48:8-9]

That is why one must love the Prophet (Peace be upon him) more than anyone else, more than oneself, ones own child and ones father. The Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him) said:

None of you will have faith till he loves me more than his father, his own child and the whole mankind. [Bukhari]

Among the rights of the Prophet (Peace be upon him), we must honour, respect and love him in a way that belongs to him, without any exaggeration nor neglect. Honouring him during his lifetime is to honour his Sunnah and his noble person, and after his death, to honour his Sunnah and his right legislation. The one who observes the way in which the Companions (RA) respected the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him) will know how these noble beings have performed their duty towards the Messenger of Allah.

Urwah Bin Masud said to the people of Quraish when they sent him to the Prophet (Peace be upon him) to negotiate the Pact of Al-Hudaibiyyah: I have met kings such as Caesar, Chosroes and the Negus, but I did not see a king who is respected by his Companions as the Companions of Muhammad respect him (Peace be upon him). By Allah, if he never spat phlegm but one of his Companions would take it by hand and rubs his face and skin with it. When he commands them, they quickly respond to his command. When he performs ablution, they are about to kill one another in order to use the water of his ablution. When they speak before him, they lower their voices and never stare at him out of reverence.

This is how they loved him, and Allah created him with good behaviour, a smooth and easy character, and if he had been rude with a hard heart, they would have run away from him. Among the rights of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) is to believe in what he told us about the past and the future, obey his orders, move away from what he forbade and blamed, believe that his guidance and legislation are the most perfect, and that no law or system, wherever it comes from, should be preferred to it. Allah Almighty says:

But nay, by your lord, they will not believe (in truth) until they make you judge of what is in dispute between them and find within themselves no dislike of that which you decide, and submit with full submission. [Quran, 4:65]

Allah the Most High says:

Say, (O Muhammad, to mankind): If you love Allah, follow me; Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. [Quran, 3:31]

Among the rights of the Prophet (Peace be upon him), is defending his Legislation and his guidance according to ones capabilities and with adequate weapons.

If the enemy attacks him with (false) evidence with ambiguities, one must defend him with science, refuting these (false) evidence and ambiguities and showing their falsehood. And if he attacks him with weapons, he responds in the same way.

No believer can remain silent while hearing someone against the Law of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) or his noble person, while he has the means to defend them.

All praises and thanks are due to Allah alone, Lord of the worlds. May the peace, blessings and salutations of Allah be upon our noble Messenger, Muhammad, and upon his family, his Companions and his true and sincere followers.



Murtadha Muhammad Gusau is the Chief Imam of Nagazi-Uvete Jumuah and the late Alhaji Abdur-Rahman Okenes Mosques, Okene, Kogi State, Nigeria. He can be reached through: gusauimam@gmail.com or +2348038289761.

This Jumuah Khutbah (Friday sermon) was prepared for delivery today Friday, Safar 26, 1444 AH (September 23, 2022).
As Emir, he served the people so diligently and became their reservoir of succour. He was compassionate to a fault, ever there to hospital bills, and providing shelter to many. He initiated countlessly on his educational scholarship schemes and rescued many from the tragedies and calamities life thrust upon them. It was therefore, not surprising that his funeral witnessed an unprecedented sea of people.

The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from goodwill and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humble if necessity compels him to humble another; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others, rather than his own; and who appears well in any company, a man with whom honour is sacred and virtue safe.  John Walter Wayland (Virginia Omicron 1899)

The people of Zazzau Emirate woke up on Sunday 20th September 2020 to the dreadful news of the demise of one of Nigerias longest reigning monarchs, Alhaji Dr Shehu Idris. He reigned with reverence and exceptional tact, to the admiration of all his subjects.

John Walter Waylands generous choice of words in painting the picture of a true gentleman could easily be a metaphor for Emir Shehu Idris. His life of service, which spanned a record-breaking 45 years, that saw 20 governors of Kaduna State, was laced with finesse, candour, an admirable character, and genuine compassion. He was to the people of Zazzau what the Hindus would call Pukka Sahib  a true gentleman.

Shehus life was as humble as his personality. Born on 20th February 1936 to the family of Mai Anguwa (Ward Head) Mallam Idrisu Autan Sambo, son of Emir of Zazzau Sambo and grandson of Sarkin Zazzau Mallam Abdulkarimu  the founder of the Katsinawa Ruling House and a student of Shehu Usman Dan Fodio.

He was educated at Zaria Elementary School from 1947 to 1950; Zaria Middle School  present day Alhudahuda College  from 1950 to 1955; and finally earned his teaching skills at Katsina Training College, which ushered him into a teaching career traversing many villages and towns within the Emirate.

In 1960, he was appointed as the Principal Private Secretary to the 17th Emir of Zazzau, Muhammadu Aminu. He held the traditional titles of Wakilin Ofis (office) and later Danmadamin Zazzau and District Head of Birni da Kewaye before his ascension to the throne as the 18thFulani Emir on the 8th of February 1975.

His ascension was somewhat unexpected. Because Malam Shehu, as he was known then, was an underdog and by many measures not in the same social class with other major contestants like Alhaji Aminu Tijjiani  Turakin Zazzau, former Chairman of the NTA Board and former Commissioner for Social Development, North Central State; Alhaji Nuhu Bamalli  Magajin Garin Zazzau, former foreign minister and parliamentarian (father of the incumbent Emir); Alhaji Nuhu Bayero  Dan Iyan Zazzau, a university don and former Pro-Chancellor of University of Lagos, amongst others.

But in a twist of a fate by the Almighty, the underdog whom we were told reluctantly joined the contest, was nominated by the quintuple of the kingmakers led by the then Wazirin Zazzau, Mallam Nuhu Yahaya. Their recommendation was approved by Brigadier General Abba Kyari, governor of the then North-Central State.

And lo and behold, the humble and unassuming school teacher, in person of Shehu Idris, was announced as the 18th Fulani Emir of Zazzau in 1975.

The merriments of the New Year of 1975 came with a new Emir. My late father, Alhaji Ibrahim Dabos account of the stewardship of Idris from his early days on the throne to much later years is timeless. He was close to him right from his formative years, then as colleagues in the Native Authority and title holders in Zazzau Emirate under the cerebral Emir Muhammadu Aminu, and much later, as in-laws after God joined their children in matrimony.

The extent of their closeness was revealed by the late Emir himself sometime in January 2020, when a few family members paid His Highness a thank you visit after he conferred our fathers traditional title on one of my elder brothers. He recollected with nostalgia that on one of his visits to our dads office as Chief Accountant of Works Department at the Zaria Native Authority in 1955, they both performed ablution and promised to stand by each other in joy and in difficulty till death do them apart. We can fairly say, they lived up to their words.

My dad would recall Shehus stint as Emir as heralded by the usual leadership hiccups that come with exuberance. He, however, gradually stabilised, displaying admirable leadership traits year in, year out, like the proverbial good wine that gets better with age. This account has been corroborated by many elders, which affirms his inherent gift and wisdom.

As Emir, he served the people so diligently and became their reservoir of succour. He was compassionate to a fault, ever there to hospital bills, and providing shelter to many. He initiated countlessly on his educational scholarship schemes and rescued many from the tragedies and calamities life thrust upon them. It was therefore, not surprising that his funeral witnessed an unprecedented sea of people.

On a personal note, since after my fathers death in November 1989, he was not only an Emir to me, but a father figure who embraced me with open arms and warmth.

Death is cruel. Two years have gone. Our beloved Emir  an industrious person of wealth, a devout Muslim, tolerant to a fault, accommodating and cosmopolitan, loved by his subjects  has sorrowfully become a relic of history.

Even in death however, his impactful life of service and labour of love will always be remembered and prayed upon until we meet again in the great beyond.

May Allah continue to bless his soul with everlasting peace and grant him Jannatul Firdaus. Our Shehu, our Emir, our Pukkah Sahib.

Bashir Ibrahim Dabo wrote from Lagos and tweets @Bashir_Dabo
The police in Edo State said they have rescued two kidnap victims and shot dead an alleged kidnapper on the Benin-Lagos Road.

The police spokesperson in the state, Jennifer Iwegbu, disclosed this in a statement on Friday in Benin, Edo State.

Ms Iwegbu, an assistant superintendent of police, said the operation followed a distress call on 22 September from a resident of Ago-Orio community along Benin-Lagos road.

According to her, the police operatives who responded to the distress call discovered that a four-man armed gang suspected to be kidnappers had abducted two people, Samson Osegbowa, 65, and Stanley Peters, 38, who were working on their farmland.

Ms Iwegbu said the team of operatives, in collaboration with local vigilantes, immediately swung into action.

She said they moved to the scene and embarked on intensive bush combing, rescued the victims unhurt and got them reunited with their families.

One of the suspected kidnappers was shot dead during the operation, according to the police.

Ms Iwegbu said items recovered from the suspects included one wooden gun, three cutlasses, one torchlight and a pair of shoes.

She added the police have been combing the area for other fleeing gang members.

Ms Iwegbu said the Commissioner of Police in the state, Abutu Yaro, said the police in the state would be successful in fighting crime if residents provide them with useful information.

Abduction for ransom is now one of the dominant crimes across various Nigerian cities.

Politicians, entrepreneurs, and just anyone with good financial worth, including school children, are easy targets.

(NAN)
The police in Enugu State said they have rescued 12 kidnap victims in three local government areas of the state.

The police spokesperson in the state, Daniel Ndukwe, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.

Mr Ndukwe said two of the victims were rescued on Wednesday along Enugu-Opi-Nsukka Road after police foiled attempt to kidnap them.

He said the suspected kidnappers reportedly blocked and attacked the victims on a road between Ekwegbe-Agu and Neke-Uno, two communities in Igbo-Etiti and Enugu East local government areas of the state respectively.

He said the rescue operation was in response to a distress call at about 7:10 p.m.

The two victims  all males  were rescued after a shootout with the suspected kidnappers, who had snatched the victims vehicles, the police said.

The criminals were on the verge of kidnapping them. (We) also recovered their vehicles, said Mr Ndukwe, a deputy superintendent of police.

He said the police also, on 16 September, at about 5:30 p.m., rescued another four kidnap victims from a forest in Okpatu, a community in Udi Local Government Area of the state.

The police spokesperson said the victims were allegedly kidnapped on 15 September at about 4 p.m. in Umulumgbe, another community in the council area.

The rescue operation was conducted with the assistance of the communitys neighbourhood watch group, forest guards and other residents.

Mr Ndukwe said the police also rescued another six kidnap victims from the same forest in Okpatu Community. They were kidnapped on 12 September in Awhum, another community in the Udi Council Area of the state.

All the victims have since re-united with their families, he said.

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Ahmed Ammani, has ordered the deployment of more intelligence and operational resources to further fight rising cases of kidnapping in the state, Mr Ndukwe said.

This is to ensure the security and safety of innocent citizens, especially along major roads in the state, Mr Ammani said.

The police commissioner urged residents of the state to support the police by giving prompt information about crime and criminals in the state.

Abduction for ransom is now one of the dominant crimes across various Nigerian cities.

Politicians, entrepreneurs, just anyone with good financial worth, including school children are easy targets.
A Lagos State High Court in Ikeja has sentenced Olalekan Ogunyemi, a dismissed police officer, to life imprisonment for killing Kolade Johnson.

The judge, Adenike Coker, on Thursday found the convict guilty of manslaughter.

The verdict is coming three years after Mr Johnson, who was 36 at the time, was shot during a raid by a police officer at Onipetesi in Lagos, while watching the English premiership match between Tottenham and Manchester United on 31 March 2019.

The police officer wore a polo shirt with the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) inscribed on it.

The incident sparked outrage on social media and the police officer was dismissed, while Godwin Orji, a sergeant, who was also tried alongside the killer cop, was demoted.

Judgment

Delivering judgment, Mrs Coker found the former inspector guilty of killing Mr Johnson and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

The convict was initially charged with murder, but the court found him guilty of manslaughter as a result of a lack of intention on his part.

The judge also held that the convict will be eligible for parole after serving a minimum of 25 years in prison.

READ ALSO:

During the trial, the prosecution called seven witnesses, while the defence called two witnesses.

Oluwaseun Williams, a pathologist at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, who testified as the sixth witness, said the deceased suffered six gunshot injuries that led to his death.

There were four injuries on the thigh, two injuries on the hands, one on the right hemiscrotum (either half of a scrotum), one on the left hemiscrotum, Mr Williams said during cross-examination.

The injury on the left hemiscrotum was an abrasion which could be from anything and the second-hand injury was not related to injuries caused by gunshots.

Six of the injuries were related to the penetrative missiles. The injuries on the thigh were through and through. There are features that are suggestive that they were caused by firearm missiles.

We counted six injuries identified as firearm injuries, he said.
JACOBABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Muslim Medical Relief Team (AMMRT) was established in 2005 by Hazrat El Sheikh Syed Mubarik Ali Shah Gillani (May Allah be Pleased with Him) to provide humanitarian aid for those afflicted by world disasters. At that time, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region was struck by a catastrophic 7.6 magnitude earthquake that caused extensive damage and devastation. The AMMRT was dispatched then to provide healthcare and logistical support as the people attempted to recover. For the last few weeks, AMMRT's North American contingent of humanitarian workers have been aiding victims of the disastrous flooding in Pakistan that has displaced 33 million people and caused the deaths of over 1500, including 400 children. An uncharacteristic monsoon season has led to massive flooding, mostly in the Sindh and Baluchistan Provinces.

The AMMRT flood response team, directed by Project Manager Syeda Zainab Adams Gillani and Assistant Project Manager Syed Shafaat Gillani, has been on the ground for eight days. The AMMRT is working in collaboration with Muhammad Mian Soomro and Maliha Soomro-Malik, in order to help mitigate the effects of the devastation. Composed of doctors, nurses, medical practitioners, and trained volunteers, the AMMRT is providing expert emergency medical care, dry rations, free medications, antibiotics, IV fluids, cooked food daily, bottled water, and monetary aid. The team reports that the humanitarian crisis is rapidly deteriorating with homelessness, typhoid, skin diseases, massive food and water shortages, and water-borne illnesses like cholera spreading rapidly through relief camps. "At this point, a much greater response from world agencies is paramount to meet these challenges", stated AMMRT Project Manager Mrs Gillani speaking from Jacobabad, "The recovery process will take longer and the logistical challenges looming ahead are far worse than anticipated. However, our work, efforts, and everything we do are a means towards our only goal: The One Almighty Creator."

Dr. Bilqees Abdallah, a women and children's care specialist from New York, explains the team's progress so far, "We have set up an urgent care center at the Soomro's residence. Each day, the number of patients that we are serving is doubling and tripling. A substantial amount of the patients are women, children, and expecting mothers who are presenting with severe dehydration and malnutrition, causing weakness." UNICEF reports that 3.4 million children are in need of "immediate, lifesaving support".

AMMRT doctor Jemille Smith, M.D., states, "Our motto is: Mankind is the Family of God. When one part of the body suffers, we all feel the pain." Mr. Smith urgently calls on fellow humanitarians to respond as Pakistan prepares for a slow recovery that will go on long after the flood waters have receded.

To donate to the AMMRT's flood relief efforts, visit: https://www.launchgood.com/campaign/flood_relief_pakistan__ammrt?src=58968

Contact: Mr. Faruq Baqi Phone:1-559-994-7357 Email: [email protected]

+92 301 4113275 or +92 332 8491366

SOURCE Muslims of the Americas
DUBLIN, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Belgium Construction Equipment Market - Strategic Assessment & Forecast 2022-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

In 2021, the Earthmoving segment accounted for the largest share in Belgium Construction equipment, with excavators as a sub-segment holding the largest share. The growth in infrastructure investment under the national recovery resilience plan 2030, along with expanding civil engineering & housing projects in 2021, is expected to support the demand for excavators.

The government has shifted focus toward renewable & nuclear energy resources and planned to invest an additional $1.3 billion in upgrading the renewable energy industry by 2030. In 2021, Belgium's government increased the energy and climate infrastructure project investment. A surge in renewable energy projects is expected to trigger the demand for excavators & cranes in Belgium.

A rise in Government investment in warehouse & logistics infrastructure supports the country's logistics & transport industry growth in 2021. There is significant growth in demand for forklifts in Belgium during the forecast year due to the growing logistics & warehouse industry.

National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) to cover Investment for Refurbishment & Modernization of Existing Infrastructure

The pandemic adversely impacted Belgium's economy in 2020; the country's GDP contracted by 6.3%. The construction industry declined by 4.5% due to disruption in the supply of raw materials & labor. To push economic recovery, European Union granted a $6.2 billion fund under Recovery & Resilience Plan in 2021 to subside the negative impact of COVID-19.

Apart from this, The government allocated $1083.3 million from the nation's recovery & resilience plan towards renovating buildings in the country's Wallonia, Flanders, & Brussels regions. In 2021, Belgium's construction industry witnessed sharp growth of 6.6%, owing to a rise in infrastructure investments in the transport & renewable energy sectors. According to the national budget for 2021, Belgian railways would receive an additional $267.6 million fund over the following three years.

A major part of funds is allocated for expanding rail freight & upgrading transportation infrastructure. Civil engineering and non-residential markets are the key growth drivers in 2022. Furthermore, investment in public sector infrastructure, digitalization, and a circular and green economy, backed by EU financing, is projected to drive the industry's growth.

Investment in Housing Projects under Regional Housing Plan & Habitat Alliance

In 2020, the Belgium Ministry of Mobility and Public Works invested $2.5 billion in 924 minor and major projects. Investments in these projects will help in boosting the construction industry and generating employment, thereby contributing to the overall economy of the Belgium market.

In 2021, the government invested $299.7 million in affordable housing as part of the Regional Housing Plan and the Habitat Alliance to sustain the existing housing stock and build 6,400 new housing units. According to European Union data, the civil engineering segment in Belgium increased by around 3% in 2021 and is expected to grow by 3% to 4% in 2022.

Major infrastructure projects such as the Oosterweel project and other affordable housing projects in the country is expected to drive the growth of the construction industry.

Nuclear & Renewable Energy Projects Prompts Demand for Mini Excavator & Crane

With the extension of the two nuclear reactors, the federal cabinet resolved to spend an additional $1.3 billion on renewable energy sources in mid-March 2022.

The nuclear phase-out in Belgium will open the path for fast renewable energy growth. The government is likely to exceed its 2030 targets, finishing ahead of the 6.5GW wind power aim and the 6.9GW solar photovoltaics (PV) target by 4.9GW.In 2021, photovoltaic systems produced 4.7 terawatt-hours of power.

This was a 9.7% increase over 2020. Annual solar energy output is estimated to reach 9.7 terawatt-hours by 2030. In addition to it, wind farms in the North Sea are expected to generate 6.8 terawatt-hours of power. In 2022, there will be ongoing renewable energy projects for offshore windfarm and solar plants of 4.8GW and 3.8 GW capacity 2022. Increasing solar and wind energy projects across the country is expected to drive demand for mini excavators & cranes.

Increasing Building Material Prices & Labour Shortage Hamper Infrastructure Projects

The construction sector has struggled for a long time with a shortage in the labor market. 13% of construction workers leave the sector due to technological change and innovation. The prices of building materials such as steel, iron & pipeline in 2021 resulted in six out of ten projects being delayed due to the price elevation.

COVID-19 Triggers Equipment Financing Schemes

Infrastructure projects are delayed due to funding challenges faced by contractors and construction companies. Overwhelmed by the funding challenge, OEMs such as Komatsu, Caterpillar, SANY, and Hitachi construction machinery provided financial assistance to customers. In 2021, OEMs in Belgium saw a surge in equipment financing activities. OEMs are focusing on maximizing benefits from the spike in demand for construction equipment in the country caused due to rise in infrastructure projects.

OEMs in Belgium Focus on Innovations and Digitalization to Maintain Customer Loyalty

In 2022, Hitachi launches a digital application for equipment performance monitoring and technical support system. In 2021, Hitachi also launched the spare parts e-commerce platform to enhance the customer experience. Komatsu and Caterpillar are training their staff to use digital platforms for aftersales services and periodic equipment maintenance.

OEMs are using innovation & digitalization in providing services to enhance customer experience, resulting in better customer loyalty. Belgium's construction industry witnessed labor shortage issues in 2021. According to Belgium government data, ~ 13% of construction workers leave the sector every year due to technological change and innovation.

The labor shortage in the construction industry is expected to prompt the demand for automation, IoT, remote monitoring & AI-based construction equipment in the Belgium market.

Vendor Landscape

Caterpillar, Volvo construction equipment, Komatsu, & Kubota are the market leaders that account for 15% of the market share in 2021.

Hitachi Construction Machinery, Caterpillar, Komatsu, Kobelco, Hyundai Construction Equipment, JCB, Liebherr, Zoomlion, Kubota, XCMG, Sany & Volvo Construction Equipment.

Other prominent vendors are Liu Gong , Yanmar, Case Construction Equipment & Terex Corporation.

Key Vendors

Caterpillar

Komatsu

VOLVO

JCB

SANY

Hyundai

KOBELCO

Zoomlion

Hitachi

Kubota

Liebherr Group

Other Prominent Vendors

Terex Corporation

LIUGONG

Yanmar

CASE Construction Equipment

Distributors Profiles

Van Haut

Torfs Compact Machinery

FM BOUWMACHINES

HST

ACQUISITIE BELGIE

Vangaever

Key Topics Covered:

Section 1: Introduction

Market Snapshot

Executive Summary

Section 2: The Market Overview

Economic Scenario, Foreign Direct Investment

Section 3: Belgium Construction Equipment (Type & Application)

Belgium Construction Equipment Market by Type (Volume & Value)

Earth Moving Equipment

Excavator

Backhoe Loader

Motor Grader

Other Earth Moving Equipment (Other Loaders, Bulldozer, Trencher, Etc.)

Road Construction Equipment

Road Roller

Asphalt Paver

Material Handling Equipment

Forklifts & Telescopic Handlers

Cranes

Aerial Platform (Articulated Boom Lifts, Telescopic Boom Lifts, Scissors Lifts, Etc.)

Belgium Construction Equipment Market by End-user (Volume & Value)

Construction

Mining

Manufacturing

Others (Power Generation, Utilities Municipal Corporations, Oil & Gas, Cargo Handling, Power Generation Plants, and Waste Management, Etc)

Section 4: Market Dynamics

Market Drivers, Restraints, Trends, Key Economic Regions, Advantages, FDI, Import/Export Trend Analysis, Supply Chain, Covid-19 Impact

Section 5: Technology Development

Advent of New Technology

Section 6: Competitive Landscape

Competitive Landscape Overview

Major Vendors (Caterpillar, Kobelco Construction Machinery, Komatsu, Kubota, Zoomlion, Sany, Hyundai Construction Equipment, Volvo Construction Equipment, Hitachi Construction Machinery, Jcb, Liebherr)

Other Prominent Vendors

Distributors Profile

Section 7: Quantitative Summary

Section 8: Report Summary

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/vo1wni

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

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Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539438/Research_and_Markets_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Research and Markets
The national delinquency rate fell 3.6% in August to 2.79%, just 4 BPS above May 2022's record low

Improvement was broad based, with the number of borrowers a single payment past due falling by 4% and those 90 or more days delinquent down 4.5%

After dropping steadily over recent months, cure activity also improved in August, with 62K seriously delinquent loans curing to current status, up from 58K in July

seriously delinquent loans curing to current status, up from in July The month's 20.3K foreclosure starts represent a 15% jump in activity from July but remain 44% below August 2019 levels

foreclosure starts represent a 15% jump in activity from July but remain 44% below levels Likewise, starts were initiated on 3.4% of serious delinquencies; up slightly from July but still less than half the rate seen in the years leading up to the pandemic

Prepays (SMM) edged up 1.5% for the month, due to calendar-related effects, but are still down by 69% year-over-year as rising rates continue to put downward pressure on both purchase and refinance lending

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Black Knight, Inc. (NYSE: BKI) reports the following "first look" at August 2022 month-end mortgage performance statistics derived from its loan-level database representing the majority of the national mortgage market.

Total U.S. loan delinquency rate (loans 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure): 2.79%

Month-over-month change: -3.61%

Year-over-year change: -30.26%

Total U.S. foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate: 0.35%

Month-over-month change: -0.01%

Year-over-year change: 29.23%

Total U.S. foreclosure starts: 20,300

Month-over-month change: 14.69%

Year-over-year change: 185.92%

Monthly prepayment rate (SMM): 0.67%

Month-over-month change: 1.51%

Year-over-year change: -69.48%

Foreclosure sales as % of 90+: 0.53%

Month-over-month change: 1.83%

Year-over-year change: 173.93%

Number of properties that are 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure: 1,489,000

Month-over-month change: -54,000

Year-over-year change: -633,000

Number of properties that are 90 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure: 567,000

Month-over-month change: -27,000

Year-over-year change: -772,000

Number of properties in foreclosure pre-sale inventory: 185,000

Month-over-month change: 1,000

Year-over-year change: 43,000

Number of properties that are 30 or more days past due or in foreclosure: 1,674,000

Month-over-month change: -54,000

Year-over-year change: -590,000

Top 5 States by Non-Current* Percentage

Mississippi: 6.28 % Louisiana: 5.63 % Oklahoma: 4.71 % Alabama: 4.62 % West Virginia: 4.43 %

Bottom 5 States by Non-Current* Percentage

Oregon: 1.98 % California: 1.81 % Colorado: 1.77 % Idaho: 1.72 % Washington: 1.70 %

Top 5 States by 90+ Days Delinquent Percentage

Mississippi: 2.37 % Louisiana: 2.02 % Alaska: 1.72 % Alabama: 1.68 % Arkansas: 1.55 %

Top 5 States by 6-Month Change in Non-Current* Percentage

Hawaii: -27.50 % Vermont: -26.11 % New York: -22.48 % California: -21.75 % Utah: -20.52 %

Bottom 5 States by 6-Month in Non-Current* Percentage

Iowa: -4.32 % South Dakota: -6.19 % Illinois: -7.77 % Alaska: -8.34 % Oklahoma: -8.43 %

*Non-current totals combine foreclosures and delinquencies as a percent of active loans in that state.

Notes:

1) Totals are extrapolated based on Black Knight's loan-level database of mortgage assets.

2) All whole numbers are rounded to the nearest thousand, except foreclosure starts, which are rounded to the nearest hundred.

For a more detailed view of this month's "first look" data, please visit the Black Knight newsroom. The company will provide a more in-depth review of this data in its monthly Mortgage Monitor report, which includes an analysis of data supplemented by detailed charts and graphs that reflect trend and point-in-time observations. The Mortgage Monitor report will be available online at https://www.blackknightinc.com/data-reports/ by Oct. 3, 2022. For more information about gaining access to Black Knight's loan-level database, please send an email to [email protected].

About Black Knight

Black Knight, Inc. (NYSE: BKI) is an award-winning software, data and analytics company that drives innovation in the mortgage lending and servicing and real estate industries, as well as the capital and secondary markets. Businesses leverage our robust, integrated solutions across the entire homeownership life cycle to help retain existing customers, gain new customers, mitigate risk and operate more effectively.

Our clients rely on our proven, comprehensive, scalable products and our unwavering commitment to delivering superior client support to achieve their strategic goals and better serve their customers. For more information on Black Knight, please visit www.blackknightinc.com.

For more information:

SOURCE Black Knight, Inc.
SPARTANBURG S.C., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Crave Hot Dogs & BBQ is one of the fastest growing BBQ and hot dog franchises across the country. Crave offers a true family fun experience from the moment you walk in the door. Crave hosts a great selection of games to play, trivia nights, bingo nights, and even karaoke! At some locations, Crave has ax throwing so that the fun never ends. Each location boasts a rustic modern interior with ample seating as well as the fan favorite self-serve beer wall. Drive-thrus and patios are available at many locations. With 32-48 beer, wine, and cider options on tap, there is something for everyone at the beer wall. Guests can choose from a wide variety of delicious food. With more than 20 topping options, Crave offers a great selection of menu items such as sliders, sandwiches, hot dogs, and plates. Crave invites customers to load up on sides like mac and cheese, corn fritters, fries, and more as well as great dessert options. Some locations even offer breakfast with bottomless mimosas and bottomless bloody marys, Yum! There are also kid friendly meals as well as the amazing deal that kids eat free on Wednesdays! Crave has multiple options for enjoying their delicious food. Through the Crave app, customers can order ahead, pick up curbside, have their food delivered, and earn loyalty points for free perks!

Crave is pleased to announce and welcome one of its newest franchises! Carlos Goodman has signed a franchise agreement for a location in Spartanburg, South Carolina. This will be the second location of many in South Carolina for Crave.

Crave is expanding nationally and always looking for qualified franchisees for brick-and-mortar locations as well as food trucks. For more information on owning your own Crave, please email [email protected] or visit us at www.iwantcrave.com.

SOURCE Crave Franchising LLC
Prosecutors hid evidence of his innocence, but a Florida man is still denied chance for new trial

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The family of Crowell & Moring pro bono client Crosley Green was grief-stricken today as they learned that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has denied Green's request for a rehearing. However, Green, a man of strong faith, remains confident that eventually, justice will be done and he will be exonerated.

Crosley Green. Photo: CBS 48 Hours

After serving 32 years in prison while maintaining his innocence in the 1989 shooting death of Charles "Chip" Flynn Jr, Green was released on house arrest in April 2021 while his case was pending appeal of a favorable district court decision finding that Green's constitutional rights were violated because the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence that the first police responders suspected that another perpetrator committed the crime. Now, he may have to return to prison.

"Today is surely one of the hardest days of Crosley Green's life, and though his faith keeps him strong, it is a terrible day for the American system of justice," said Keith J. Harrison, a partner at Crowell, which has fought for Green's release pro bono for the past 14 years.

Green and his lawyers will host an in-person press conference on Monday, Sept. 26., in Titusville, Fla. Members of the media, please RSVP via [email protected]. Please advise special requests in advance.

Press Conference (in-person for media)

12:30 pm ET, Sept. 26

Holiday Inn  Kennedy Space Center

4715 Helen Hauser Blvd, Titusville, FL 32780

Members of the public are invited to watch on Facebook Live:

https://www.facebook.com/crosleygreen/

Petition to Supreme Court

The Crowell team will petition the U.S. Supreme Court for writ of certiorari, asking the high court to consider the potential national implications of Green's case, which goes to the heart of how prosecutors must handle evidence in criminal cases. They will also ask the Middle District of Florida to keep Green free as they petition his case to the Supreme Court.

Green served 32 years for the murder, including 19 years on Florida's death row, even though no physical evidence tied him to the crime. In a 2018 landmark ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Roy B. Dalton found that Green's constitutional rights were violated when Brevard County, Fla., prosecutors withheld key exculpatory evidence of Green's innocence at his original trial. The court declared Green's conviction "unconstitutional" and ordered the state of Florida to set him free or grant him a new trial.

On April 7, 2021, Green was released on house arrest while his case was pending appeal. Since then, he has held a full-time job and spent time with his large extended family, including grandchildren he met for the first time upon his release.

In March 2022, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Green's victory, ruling in part that evidence of the prosecutor's misconduct was not introduced properly by prior counsel. Crowell lawyers petitioned for a re-hearing en bancasking the same three-judge panel or the full 11-judge panel of the 11th Circuit to reconsider the decision. The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed an amicus brief in support of Green, arguing that there are strong indications that this case was a racial hoax.

The 11th Circuit denied Green's petition for re-hearing on September 22, 2022.

"Mr. Green was denied justice on procedural grounds, not basis of the evidence. This is a case of actual innocence that could have a ripple effect throughout the Deep South and indeed the nation. The decision in Mr. Green's case encourages state prosecutors to violate constitutional rights in order to achieve a conviction and makes it difficult if not impossible for federal courts to grant justice," Harrison said.

"The 11th Circuit decision reinstates a clearly unconstitutional conviction and departs from long-standing requirements of prosecutors' duties to disclose favorable evidence under the Brady line of cases. What happened to Mr. Green was a constitutional violation of exceptional importance. The 11th Circuit panel got it wrong, and we will be petitioning the Supreme Court to reverse," Harrison said.

A Supreme Court decision to grant certiorari to Green would allow the high court to re-affirm that prosecutors may not hide evidence directly pointing to a defendant's innocence, and therefore impact how prosecutors handle evidence of all crimes in the future.

For more information on the case, visit the firm's Crosley Green information page.

About Crowell & Moring LLP

Crowell & Moring LLP is an international law firm with offices in the United States, Europe, MENA, and Asia that represents clients in litigation and arbitration, regulatory and policy, and transactional and corporate matters. The firm is internationally recognized for its representation of Fortune 500 companies in high-stakes litigation and government-facing matters, as well as its ongoing commitment to pro bono service and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Media Contact:

Nicole Quigley

Senior Communications Advisor

+1 202.624.2849

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Crowell & Moring LLP
The authentic tepache beverage brand also expands retail presence into select Target, Kroger and The Fresh Market stores

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, De La Calle announces its expansion into Whole Foods Market stores nationwide. The canned tepache brand will now be featured in 537 Whole Foods locations, solidifying its coast-to-coast retail footprint.

De La Calle has rapidly grown its presence across the country, solidifying tepache as a must-have functional beverage. In addition to Whole Foods Market, De La Calle is also launching in over 300 Target store locations across California, in 116 Kroger stores throughout Dallas and Houston, and in 149 The Fresh Market stores nationwide.

De La Calle

"We are delighted to be launching nationwide with Whole Foods Market as it furthers our vision to introduce tepache to a broader audience across the country," said De La Calle Co-founder and CEO, Alex Matthews.

Award-winning De La Calle, founded by Rafael Martin Del Campo and Alex Matthews, launched in 2021 and quickly hit shelves in over 4,000 retail doors. The brand puts a spotlight on the centuries-old beverage, popular on the streets of Mexico, that has a unique flavor, is naturally low in sugar and is naturally fermented.

Whole Foods Market will stock De La Calle's Tradicional, Picante and Original flavors. Select Target stores in California will feature Tradicional, Picante and Desierto varieties, while select Kroger stores in Texas will carry Tradicional, Picante and Original. The Fresh Market will offer Tradicional, Picante, Original and Desierto selections.

To learn more, visit delacalle.mx and follow @delacalleco.

About De La Calle

DE LA CALLE's Tepache is a modern take on a delicious fermented beverage that hails from the traditions of pre-Columbian Mexico. We make our Tepache from fresh, organic pineapples, then add other regionally sourced ingredients like turbinado sugar and tamarind. Our fermented fizzy drink has many health benefits and is certified organic, good for the gut, less than 45 calories, low in sugar and rich in vitamins C & D. Find us online at DELACALLE.mx and on Instagram @Delacalleco #ATasteOfMexico

Contact: Kirsten Anderson, Krupa Consulting

212.226.2922

[email protected]

SOURCE De La Calle
HOUSTON, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) at Texas Children's Hospital today announced it received a $10 million donation from The Blue Bird Circle.

2020 Blue Bird Circle Know Your Clinic Day at Duncan NRI - Photo courtesy of Texas Children's Hospital. Blue Bird Circle Volunteers enjoy a day at the NRI; Courtesy of Texas Children's Hospital.

The Duncan NRI is a multidisciplinary group of 30+ physicians and scientists from Baylor College of Medicine working together to accelerate life-saving research and to develop effective therapies for the most complex, devastating neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases. Led by renowned neurogeneticist, Dr. Huda Zoghbi, the Duncan NRI's rapid rate of discovery is helping to bridge the gap between basic research and life-saving clinical care. Since its inception in 2010, the faculty at the Duncan NRI has published over 1400 papers reporting on exciting research advances, discovered or co-discovered dozens of disease-causing genes, and led to major breakthroughs in autism, epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder and other neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Founded in 1923, The Blue Bird Circle is Houston's oldest organization of women who volunteer their time and efforts to support pediatric neurology. This historic donation is being made to commemorate the Blue Bird Circle's upcoming centennial anniversary and brings the organization's gifts to Texas Children's to over $25 million which will help advance life-changing neurological research at the Duncan NRI.

"As we embark on our 100th anniversary celebration, we are honored to mark this significant year with a transformational gift to the Duncan NRI," said Abigail Tonry, President of The Blue Bird Circle. "Under the leadership of Dr. Huda Zoghbi, we know this gift will only help to further propel the Duncan NRI's important work and keep it at the forefront of neurological research in Texas."

The Blue Bird Circle has worked tirelessly for nearly 40 years to fund neurological research focused on unraveling the mysteries of Rett syndrome, a complex neurological disease primarily affecting young girls. At Texas Children's Hospital Blue Bird Clinic, Blue Bird volunteers log more than 5,000 hours a year in administrative assistance  the equivalent of three full-time employees. Since its affiliation with Texas Children's began in 1998, the philanthropic organization's substantial giving has helped open two research centers where clinical trials are transforming innovative discoveries into life-changing therapies. Through revenue generated by its volunteer-run resale shop and other fundraising activities, The Blue Bird Circle makes additional donations of more than $1 million each year to support children's health in Texas.

"In 1983, the Blue Bird Circle gave the seed grant that enabled my initial research into Rett syndrome," said Dr. Huda Zoghbi, Director of the Duncan NRI at Texas Children's Hospital, Distinguished Service Professor at Baylor College of Medicine, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. "Since then, we have been able to make great strides in our research culminating in several exciting discoveries. This gift of $10 million allows the Duncan NRI to widen the scope of our translational research and accelerate the trajectory of therapies from the lab to the patients."

For more information about the Duncan NRI or to make a donation to fund research, please visit nri.texaschildrens.org.

About the Duncan Neurological Research Institute

Founded in 2010 at Texas Children's Hospital, the Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) researches and discovers treatments for devastating brain disorders that impact more than a billion people worldwide, including 300 million children. As the largest children's hospital in America, Texas Children's Hospital is uniquely positioned to study brain development in children and understand how the brain breaks down later in life. The Duncan NRI spans nearly 350,000 square feet and covers 13 floors. It is home to 30+ scientists and principal investigators who collaborate with physicians for rapid lab-to-bedside discovery, facilitating innovation that would be impossible in traditional scientific silos. This approach has led to over 1,400 published scientific papers, identification of dozens of genetic mutations, and major breakthroughs in autism, epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder and other neurological and psychiatric disorders. Texas Children's Hospital covers of all the Duncan NRI's annual operating costs, so every dollar donated goes directly to research. For more information, visit: nri.texaschildrens.org

About the Blue Bird Circle

The Blue Bird Circle is a 501(c)(3) organization of women volunteers. The Circle was founded in 1923 by 15 young women wanting to make a difference in children's lives, and it is the oldest women's charitable organization in the Houston area. The Blue Bird Circle's mission is "to provide hope, love, and healing for children with neurological disorders and their families." Fourteen percent of children are born with a neurological disorder, which can range from mild to very severe disorders that require a lifetime of treatment, therapies, and support. The Circle is made possible by over 300 dedicated volunteers who run the resale shop. The volunteers' time, effort, and donations help support The Blue Bird Circle Clinic for Pediatric Neurology at Texas Children's Hospital. For more information, visit www.thebluebirdcircle.com/.

SOURCE Texas Children's Hospital
BALTIMORE, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The William & Lanaea C. Featherstone Foundation , an award-winning nonprofit, touts its Featherstone College Scholarship Award recipients. This year, 30 exceptional Featherstone Scholars will receive $3,000 merit-based scholarships during a special awards ceremony on Friday Sept. 23 at noon.

Travis E. Mitchell, senior vice president and chief content officer, Maryland Public Television, will give the keynote address.

Thirty exceptional students receive $3,000 Featherstone College Scholarships

Catalina Rodriguez Lima, director of the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, will be presented with the Featherstone Changemaker Award, a prestigious prize that honors an influential leader who drives social change and makes a positive impact in the community.

"Catalina is a powerhouse and exudes excellence." "She reinforces our values that higher education is a gateway to economic opportunities for all," said Juliana Lopez, executive director, William & Lanaea C. Featherstone Foundation.

"The Featherstone Scholarships continue to create economic opportunities that empower our next generation of student leaders," said David Rosario, owner, State Farm Agency. "State Farm is delighted to support Featherstone Foundation in their vital role to advance societies."

This year's awardees attend Coppin State University, Hood College, Morgan State University, St. Mary's College of Maryland, Stevenson University, Towson University, The University of Baltimore and the University of Maryland Baltimore.

"Historically Black Colleges and Universities are pillars in Baltimore City. We are pleased to support the Featherstone HBCU Scholars at Coppin State University and Morgan State University," said Adrian M. McLemore, program associate, Annie E. Casey Foundation.

"The Featherstone Scholarships are pivotal to advancing our community and providing opportunities to make higher education accessible," said Mariana Diaz, deputy consul, Consular Section of the Embassy of Mexico in Washington, DC. "We are delighted that these special scholarships support the educational aspirations of outstanding students of Mexican origin living in the United States.''

Since 2017, the Featherstone Foundation has provided more than $236,000 through 98 scholarships to students from 20 countries who now attend 12 institutions.

Featherstone sponsors include: Annie E. Casey Foundation, Consular Section of the Embassy of Mexico in Washington, D.C., Fulton Bank, Johns Hopkins Medicine, MECU Credit Union, PNC Foundation, Wells Fargo, State Farm, The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company and a host of individual donors and university matches.

Learn more about the event, here .

The William & Lanaea C. Featherstone Foundation creates sustainable solutions to bridge the opportunity divide for underserved communities.

SOURCE The William & Lanaea C. Featherstone Foundation
Award recognizes Houston-area private companies with the fastest revenue growth

HOUSTON, Sept. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- FINBOA, Inc., a leading innovator in intelligent process automation software for financial institutions, is honored to be ranked #11 on the 2022 Houston Business Journal (HBJ) Fast 100 List, announced today. The HBJ Fast 100 award list recognizes Houston-area private companies with the fastest revenue growth over a two-year period.

FINBOA secured the 11th place position based on over 300% revenue growth from 2019 through 2021. FINBOA attributes their continued success to offering a proven portfolio of SaaS automation solutions specifically designed for banks and credit unions. Created to transform back-office processing and the customer experience using RPA, FINBOA increases staff efficiency and accuracy, while reducing compliance costs, loss and risk.

FINBOA's industry recognized software digitizes and modernizes the inefficient manual processes or systems commonly used to manage regulatory compliance processing for Payment Disputes, Treasury Onboarding, Exception Management and Loan Onboarding.

FINBOA CEO and Founder, Raj Singal commented, "We are honored to be recognized for our business growth. Thank you to the HBJ and to our customers. I'm proud of what the FINBOA team has been able to accomplish. We plan to continue to grow organically, maintaining our current product and market focus. We have deep industry experience and there is a lot of market opportunity available to us. We are actively expanding the SaaS offerings available within our existing solution lines, while also looking to develop additional products to accelerate our growth."

A bout HBJ Fast 100

The Fast 100 List is ranked by companywide revenue growth between fiscal year 2019 and fiscal year 2021. To qualify, companies must be for-profit, privately held and have headquarters in the Houston area. They also must have been in operation for at least five fiscal years by Dec. 31, 2021. https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/

A bout FINBOA

FINBOA provides intelligent process automation to banks and credit unions to simplify and improve regulatory compliance and the customer experience by eliminating manual systems. Leveraging RPA, extensive industry experience and a commitment to customer service, FINBOA delivers transformative SaaS proven to enable institutional growth by reducing operational costs and risk. Founded in 2016, FINBOA is headquartered in Houston. Learn more at www.finboa.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

SOURCE FINBOA
Starting Sept. 23, the brand will recognize this milestone through social media contests and giveaways

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hercules Tire and Rubber Company (HTR), a subsidiary of American Tire Distributors (ATD), will kick off its celebration today of the company's 70th anniversary.

Hercules Tires: 70th Anniversary

Founded in 1952 as a cooperative by a group of independent tire dealers, HTR was established on the principle of providing quality products at an affordable price. The company has grown into the tire the industry's premier value leader with a comprehensive selection of passenger, UHP, UTV, light truck, medium truck, agriculture, and specialty tires under its Hercules, Ironman and Dynatrac brands.

ATD purchased the company in 2014, and since then HTR has become a cornerstone of ATD's brand portfolio by utilizing its extensive distribution network.

"Any company that has lasted 70 years has focused on quality and innovation since Day 1," said Stuart Schuette, ATD's president and chief executive officer. "We have seen Hercules continue to grow by expanding the breadth of its products, the depth of its SKUs and its coverage across the country. The company is constantly developing innovative products while bringing value to its dealers and consumers."

In the past several years, HTR has continued to grow through investments in product development, dealer support and marketing.

"There is a lot of opportunity for Hercules to continue its growth path," said Joshua Simpson, President of Hercules Tire and Rubber. "As we continue to focus on marketing to grow brand awareness in tandem with enhancing our product portfolio, we're truly set up to be successful in the industry for the long haul."

While Hercules Tire and Rubber offers a full line up of passenger, performance, light truck and commercial tires for a variety of applications, innovation continues to be on the forefront of the business model as evidenced through the launch of several new products this year, including within new market segments. The first market launch of the year was the TIS UT1 by Hercules Utility Terrain Vehicle (UTV) tire in mid-March, a collaboration with TIS OFFROAD. The company also announced its first tire for the agricultural market, the AG-TRAC RT45 R-1W, designed for four-wheel- and mechanical front-wheel-drive (MFWD) tractors.

While most recently completing its Strong Guard lineup of commercial tires with the launch of the Strong Guard H-LS for long haul steer applications. The Ironman Tires brand also recently launched two new products, a new light truck tire- the Ironman All Country HT and the Ironman I-Series Gen 2 in the TBR segment.

The subsidiary has grown and continues to provide unmatched value to the independent tire dealer through its Hercules Power and Hercules Flex programs with a network of approximately 4,000 retail locations across the U.S. and Canada. Investments in marketing continue to grow brand awareness via grassroots events, sponsorships, and television partnerships along with digital and social media.

"The Hercules team brings excellence to the forefront every day," Schuette said. "As the industry continues to change, they will be there with new products to serve the needs of Hercules dealers and the marketplace."

HTR will commemorate the milestone anniversary across its Hercules Tires social media accounts including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Fans will have an opportunity to interact and win branded merchandise, apparel and accessories by submitting a photo of their Hercules Tires with the hashtag #Hercules70.

The 70th Anniversary social media giveaway kicks off on Friday, September 23, and ends on Friday, September 30. Three winners  one each will be selected per channel  will be announced via Facebook, Instagram and Twitter on Monday, October 3.

For more information, visit HerculesTire.com.

About Hercules Tire and Rubber Company

A wholly-owned subsidiary of American Tire Distributors, Inc., Hercules Tire and Rubber Company owns three distinct brands  Hercules Tires, Ironman and Dynatrac. Founded in 1952, the company is widely recognized as the industry's premier value leader with a comprehensive selection of passenger, UHP, UTV, light truck, medium truck, agriculture, and specialty tires.

About American Tire Distributors

American Tire Distributors is one of the largest independent suppliers of tires to the replacement tire market. It operates more than 115 distribution centers serving approximately 80,000 customers across the U.S. The company offers an unsurpassed breadth and depth of inventory, frequent delivery, and value-added services to tire and automotive service customers. American Tire Distributors employs approximately 4,500 associates across its distribution center network. In 2022, the company was recognized as one of Forbes' 2022 America's Best Midsize Employers and a Most Loved Workplace by Newsweek.

SOURCE Hercules Tires
CHICAGO, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hydroponics Market is valued at USD 12.1 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 25.1 billion by 2027. The global hydroponics crop market is estimated to be valued at USD 37.7 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 53.4 billion by 2027, recording a CAGR of 7.2% from 2022 to 2027, according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. The emergence of indoor farming led to the evolution of artificial lighting technology to assist plant growth. LED technology has proved to be more energy-efficient and long-lasting in general lighting applications. This is anticipated to drive the market.

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Browse in-depth TOC on "Hydroponic System Market"

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The liquid systems segment accounted for the largest share in the global hydroponics market

Based on types, the liquid systems segment gained the largest market share in the hydroponics market. Liquid systems consist of different hydroponic systems such as deep water culture, NFT, and aeroponics. NFT systems are becoming widely popular across the globe. Some key benefits of NFT include low water and nutrient consumption, avoiding the need to use a lot of growing media, easy-to-disinfect roots and setup, easy-to-see root quality and health, and recirculating minimal groundwater contamination.

The LED grow light segment gained the largest market share in the hydroponics market

Based on equipment, the LED grow light segment accounted for the largest market share in the hydroponics market. Grow lights of different types are available in the market, including high-pressure sodium lights (HPS), metal halide bulbs (MH), and fluorescent bulbs. The types of grow lights are based on the spectrum of light emitted by the equipment, which can stimulate and increase plant growth. The emergence of grow light technology in plant breeding has created market opportunities for the majority of indoor farming systems.

The nutrients segment dominated the hydroponics market during the review period

By input, the nutrients segment gained a major share in the hydroponics market. During the application of nutrients, nutrient concentration to suffice plant needs at every growth phase and EC strength at the growth stage must be monitored. Apart from NPK, trace elements also play a vital role in plant growth. Trace minerals are nutrient catalysts hailed as the most versatile and effective plant additives. They improve the uptake and effectiveness of all plant nutrients and provide ample quantities of auxins, gibberellins, and cytokinins to promote cell division, enlargement, differentiation of cells, and development of chloroplasts, as well as a delay in aging.

The vegetables segment acquired the largest market share in the hydroponics market

The vegetables segment gained the largest share in the hydroponics market based on crop type during the review period. Producing vegetables like tomatoes, leafy greens, cucumbers, among others, in hydroponic systems protects crops from harsh conditions such as cold, wind, pests, drought, etc. Growing vegetables in such systems also allows for creating the most suitable condition for crops owing to the controlling factors available, such as moisture, light, temperature, fertilization, humidity, and irrigation.

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The European region accounted for the largest share of the global hydroponics market

Greenhouse agriculture in the European region supported the growth of hydroponics in Europe. Many European players such as General Hydroponics and Hydroponic system international entered the market with hydroponic tools and technologies, along with growth mediums and nutrients to grow crops hydroponically; this encouraged the growers to use such technologies. Europe is followed by North America in terms of market share due to availability of required infrastructure to run a hydroponic farm and adoption of modern farming techniques. Asia Pacific region is experiencing high growth in the market due to increasing demand for fresh food among urban population and government support in establishing hydroponic farms by means of subsidies.

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Browse Adjacent Reports: Agriculture Industry Market Research Reports & Consulting

Related Reports:

Indoor Farming Technology Market by Growing System (Hydroponics, Aeroponics, Aquaponics, Soil-based, Hybrid), Facility Type, Component, Crop Type (Fruits & Vegetables, Herbs & Microgreens, Flowers & Ornamentals), and Region - Global Forecast to 2026

Vertical Farming Market by Growth Mechanism (Hydroponics, Aeroponics, Aquaponics), Structure (Building-based vertical farm and Shipping container-based vertical farm), Crop Type, Offering, & Region - Global Forecast to 2026

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HANOVER, Germany, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- We hereby invite to attend the 4th International Investment Forum (IIF) on September 27, 2022 starting at 09:25 am (CEST) | 03.25 am (EST) all the day until 20:00 pm (CEST) | 02:00 pm (EST).

As a purely digital live event (via Zoom), the International Investment Forum (IIF) offers access to listed companies all over the world. The Speakers will represent companies from the greentech, biotech, IT, hydrogen, education, media, finance, battery, raw materials/rare earths and energy sectors. More than 20 sessions from Startup to DAX offer unique insights. Speakers will present and answer questions from investors live. Moderation will be provided by analysts.

The following companies will present in 30-minute slots:

Please find the schedule at https://ii-forum.com/timetable-4-iif/ and register for the IIF exclusively through our website at www.ii-forum.com. Further detailed information  last press release - can be found at http://www.ii-forum.com/press

Press Contact:

Mr. Christoph Zeuch, CCO

[email protected]

+49 511 6768 733

SOURCE International Investment Forum (IIF)
INCHEON, South Korea, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cellular technology is constantly evolving, and 5G is set to take over the world as the primary network soon. The RIS-assisted mm-wave and sub-THz communication is a promising technology for its development. Now, researchers from South Korea and USA have reviewed the channel estimation frameworks and strategies for the RIS systems. They further discuss the recent developments in training signal design and highlight open challenges in the field, providing the direction for future research.

In a new review article, researchers from South Korea and the US have reviewed the channel estimation frameworks and strategies for the RIS systems, highlighting recent trends in training signal design and examining the challenges in this field.

Fifth-generation (5G) is the latest cellular network technology in telecommunications. It will replace the 4G networks in the coming years. Millimeter-wave (mm-wave) and sub-terahertz (sub-THz) communication is a key technology for supporting the required network capabilities of 5G and beyond. However, it suffers from large propagation loss and blockage of network signal.

The emerging reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) technology is promising. It consists of low-cost passive elements which reflect the signals like a scatterer. The wireless technology can enhance communication performance in the mm-wave and sub-THz frequency bands by compensating for the inherent shortcomings. In addition, RIS reduces the number of antennas required for a transceiver.

A RIS-assisted communication system works best when the channel state information is acquired accurately. The term "channel" refers to a physical medium between a base station (BS) and a user equipment (UE), say, a mobile phone. In the presence of RISs, there are potentially two sub-channels: direct (between BS and UE) and indirect (from BS to RIS, then RIS to UE) channels. They are characterized by parameters such as angle of arrival, angle of departure, path gain, and the number of paths.

Recently, a team of researchers led by Dr. Song Noh of the Incheon National University reviewed channel estimation technology for RIS-assisted systems in mm-wave and sub-THz bands. Their work provides new insights into the technology. Their latest review was published in Volume 17, Issue 2 of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine in June 2022.

While existing studies have focused on the separate estimation of the direct and indirect channels, a joint estimation framework is introduced. "This approach is practically essential when there exist direct and indirect channels. It enables the transparent deployment of RISs to wireless users by eliminating the need for switching between direct and indirect channel estimation," explains Dr. Noh. The paper also discusses representative estimation methods: beam-based, sparse recovery, array signal processing, and data-driven techniques. Researchers indicate further room for improvement relative to the theoretical Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRB).

In addition, the review explores the recent developments in designing training signals essential to enhance channel estimation performance. There are two major approaches: algorithmic-specific design based on discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and systematic design based on CRB. Under limited training overhead, researchers point out that the latter approach outperforms the widely used DFT-based design in terms of minimizing the CRB.

Finally, the paper highlights the potential challenges in developing a practically feasible RIS technology. These include inventing a CRB-achieving estimator, ensuring effective wideband transmission, mitigating interuser interference, exploring the line-of-sight transmission, and comprehending the channel estimation algorithm. Overcoming the above obstacles will result in tremendous benefits.

Dr. Noh elaborates: "Programmable RISs can help radio signals penetrate deeper indoors and extend network coverage. They can also reduce the energy consumption of radio access networks and alleviate the impact of mobile networks on the environment. Moreover, RIS has lucrative economic benefits as well."

Reference

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/MVT.2022.3158765

Title of original paper: Channel Estimation Techniques for RIS-Assisted Communication: Millimeter-Wave and Sub-THz Systems

Journal: IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine

About Incheon National University

Website: http://www.inu.ac.kr/mbshome/mbs/inuengl/index.html

Media contact:

Hanna Kim

[email protected]

82 32 835 9325

SOURCE Incheon National University
Korean investment group with origins in the cosmetics industry has invested significant capital in several market-leading NYC real estate projects.

NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- INCOCO CAPITAL, LLC ("INCOCO") announces the expansion of its real estate investment platform in the United States with two market-leading investments.

(Left to Right) Dov Barnett (Tavros), Colin Rankowitz (Tavros), Fa Park (INCOCO), Nicholas Silvers (Tavros), Brian Lee (INCOCO), Courtesy of Tavros Holdings Long Island City site. Courtesy of Tavros Holdings The Dime, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Courtesy of Tavros Holdings

The company partnered with Tavros Holdings, LLC ("Tavros") to acquire a trophy development site located at 24-19 Jackson Ave in the Court Square submarket of Long Island City for $68.3 million. INCOCO and Tavros will combine the acquired site with the neighboring lots currently owned by Tavros and co-develop the aggregated site into a 55-story Class A mixed-used tower with more than 600 apartments and 90,000-square feet of commercial space.

The project is located one block from the Court Square subway station and is one of the most transportation and commuter friendly locations in the outer boroughs of New York City. In connection with the project's construction, the development team has partnered with the MTA to improve the subway infrastructure in Long Island City. Once the building is completed it will enjoy proximity to the nearby parks, shopping, cafes, restaurants, views and a myriad of water activities in the East River.

In addition, INCOCO led the $156.6 million acquisition of the residential and parking components of The Dime at 275 South 5th St in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The Dime is a striking, 23-story terra-cotta and glass tower developed by Tavros Holdings. The Dime is architecturally intertwined with the landmarked 1908 Dime Savings Bank and is comprised of 177 rental apartments with two floors of below grade parking

"We are thrilled to be part of these two incredible projects, as well as continuing to strengthen our relationship with Tavros Holdings," said Fa Park, founder of INCOCO. "Joining forces with Tavros was a great fit, as our firms are both dedicated to bringing the absolute best product to New York City residents."

"After a six-year assemblage process, we are delighted to begin work at our Long Island City project," said Nicholas Silvers, founding partner of Tavros Holdings. "Our valued relationship with INCOCO has been crucial in completing the acquisition of what we believe to be the single best development site in Long Island City. To share our work together is a real honor."

ABOUT INCOCO CAPITAL, LLC

INCOCO, the inventor and manufacturer of the world's first dry nail polish strips, has been employing innovative and proprietary technologies to transform the cosmetics market since the company's launch in 2005. INCOCO's Color Street brand launched in 2017, has grown into one of the most prolific direct selling companies in the United States, and was ranked 24th amongst direct selling companies globally in 2020. Now with a worldwide distribution channel and full cosmetic lineup, INCOCO aims to become a premiere and global cosmetic group.

With a successful track record of investment in both public and private markets, INCOCO CAPITAL, LLC has expanded its investment mandate to include the real estate sector. With a focus on the NY metropolitan area, INCOCO has invested in four substantial real estate development projects this year already.

ABOUT TAVROS HOLDINGS, LLC

Tavros is a privately-owned real estate investment management and development firm. They invest on a discretionary basis, with a strong focus on New York City, and a global investor base of family offices, trusts, high net worth individuals, and institutions. Core to the Tavros discipline is the quality of its partnerships with tenants, investors, and lenders. As an owner and property manager, Tavros aims to ensure a positive experience for its tenants through attention to detail and a focus on quality of life.

CONTACT: Barbara Wagner Communications

Barbara Wagner

917.751.4387

[email protected]

Juliana Ferre

[email protected]

SOURCE INCOCO CAPITAL, LLC; Tavros Holdings, LLC
The Push highlights solutions to inequitable learning conditions exacerbated by the pandemic, and how the support and services Communities In Schools provides offers pathways to student success.

ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Communities In Schools (CIS), the national organization working to ensure every student, regardless of race, zip code, or history of marginalization has what they need to succeed in school and beyond, today released The Push , an inspiring new film that follows the relationship between a high school senior and a CIS site coordinator. The film provides an inside look at one of the many success stories unfolding in thousands of CIS schools across the country as a result of the work CIS and its coordinators do to connect students to caring adults and resources that transform their lives and their communities.

The Push, an inspiring 22-minute documentary filmed just outside of Atlanta, tells the story of Ja-Mez, a senior at Stone Mountain High School who is preparing to graduate with his high school class of 2022  an accomplishment that seemed impossible just two years earlier. Ja-Mez seemed likely to follow the path of many of his peers who did not finish high school. However, after meeting CIS of Atlanta site coordinator Darrell Smith, Ja-Mez is empowered and motivated to succeed.

"As a site coordinator I am often a translator between students and adults, and I have trained myself to listen with my eyes," Smith said. "I want the audience to witness the unique and exceptional care we take in developing relationships with students we serve. I am grateful to share the work that site coordinators across the country perform daily to ensure that all students have access to the American Dream."

CIS operates in more than 2,900 schools across the country to transform how young people see and experience the world around them. Schools with CIS site coordinators delivering its model of integrated or wraparound support experience increased attendance, promotion and graduation rates, with 96% of seniors case managed by site coordinators like Smith graduating and 73% leaving high school with plans to pursue post-secondary education.

"Providing a community of support inside schools, building social-emotional skills, and removing barriers that stand in the way of our students, CIS empowers students to write their success story," said Rey Saldana, president & CEO of Communities In Schools. "The difficulties that students face have existed for decades, and were only exacerbated by the pandemic, making it all the more important that CIS meets the needs of students and transforms how schools are built to support the whole child."

As a result of the learning loss caused by the pandemic, educators across the country are overburdened while many students feel frustrated and helpless. However, CIS site coordinators have worked to fill the gaps schools face in helping to build positive and inclusive school environments while connecting students with the community resources that allow them to thrive.

"CIS continues to have an enormous impact at our school, particularly with increasing graduation rates and enabling our students to feel a sense of purpose within the community," said Sean Costa, principal of Stone Mountain High School. "As we've built back after the impacts of the pandemic, CIS has been a critical resource for guiding students on a more promising path."

The Push can be accessed on the CIS website at 9:00am (ET) on Friday.

ABOUT COMMUNITIES IN SCHOOLS

Communities In Schools (CIS) is a national organization that ensures every student, regardless of race, zip code, or socioeconomic background has what they need to realize their potential in school and beyond. Working directly inside more than 2,900 schools across the country, we connect students to caring adults and community resources that help them see, confront, and overcome the barriers that stand between them and a brighter future. Together, we build a powerful change movement made up of peers, students, and alumni committed to building an equitable path to education for future generations.

CONTACT: Anya Harrington, [email protected], 703-518-2598

SOURCE Communities In Schools
LONDON, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Orbia's Fluorinated Solutions business Koura has won the coveted award of Refrigeration Innovation of the Year at the 2022 Cooling Industry Awards.

At an awards ceremony last night (22 September) at London's Grosvenor House Ballroom, Koura Klea 473A was named the winning innovation from a shortlist of five, with judges praising the refrigerant's performance and sustainable industry applications.

Klea 473A is designed as a non-flammable refrigerant to achieve high performance with a significantly lower global warming potential (GWP) than existing refrigerants, R-23 or R-508B, in ultra-low temperature cooling applications such as high value cold chain, vaccine storage, climate test chambers, transportation, and other medical uses. This refrigerant has a unique combination of high capacity and energy efficiency coupled with low temperature glide as compared to other refrigerants developed as non-flammable alternatives for R-23 or R-508.

Today, manufacturers and users of ultra-low temperature refrigeration systems are forced to choose between acceptable cooling performance and the environmental impact of these systems. Existing non-flammable refrigerants R-23 and R-508B that are used in ultra-low temperature systems have GWP of 14,800 and 13,400 respectively. Klea 473A breaks this trade-off with energy efficiency comparable to R-23, capacity similar to R-508B, and a GWP of 1,830, which is a +85% reduction.

Optimum charge sizes per system are typically slightly reduced compared to R-23, giving a further potential reduction in GWP inventory per system. Customer trials are showing that existing system designs can easily adapt to this new refrigerant with little to no modification. New systems are also being actively designed to take advantage of the refrigerant's unique properties.

Although Klea R-473A is not the only non-flammable alternative refrigerant proposed for use in very low temperature cascade systems, it has a significantly lower temperature glide, higher vapor pressure, and higher latent heat than other R-23 alternatives, making the adaptation of existing system designs more straightforward. Extensive trialling has also shown that it's possible to operate climate chamber systems where the delivered chamber temperature is as low as -75C.

Gregg Smith, President of Orbia Fluorinated Solutions, said:

"We are delighted that Klea 473A was named Refrigeration Innovation of the Year at the 2022 Cooling Industry Awards. This award is fantastic recognition of our ongoing research and development program, and the hard work of all our teams. Koura is committed to innovation, providing customers across a variety of industries worldwide with new solutions and low GWP refrigerants to transform into a cleaner future.

"This product will offer an easy adaptation option for system designers working in the very low temperature application areas who wish to significantly reduce their usage of ultra-high GWP refrigerants and who are contemplating larger system designs where non-flammability is an essential requirement of the refrigerant."

For more information on Koura, please visit: www.kouraglobal.com

Notes for editors:

About Orbia

Orbia is a company driven by a shared purpose: to advance life around the world. Orbia operates in the Polymer Solutions (Vestolit and Alphagary), Building and Infrastructure (Wavin), Precision Agriculture (Netafim), Connectivity Solutions (Dura-Line) and Fluorinated Solutions (Koura) sectors. The five Orbia business groups have a collective focus on expanding access to health and wellness, reinventing the future of cities and homes, ensuring food and water security, connecting communities to information and accelerating a circular economy with basic and advanced materials, specialty products and innovative solutions. Orbia has commercial activities in more than 110 countries and operations in over 50, with global headquarters in Boston, Mexico City, Amsterdam and Tel Aviv. To learn more, visit: orbia.com.





About Orbia Fluorinated Solutions (Koura)

Orbia's Fluorinated Solutions business Koura is a global leader in the development, manufacture and supply of fluoroproducts that play a fundamental role in enhancing everyday lives and shortening the path to a sustainable, circular economy. Backed by over 35 years of experience, Koura's products are used in a vast range of applications including electric vehicles and energy storage, urban and rural infrastructure, indoor climate management, food and medicine refrigeration and even in treating respiratory conditions through the development of healthy and innovative low-GWP propellants for metered-dose inhalers. Koura has 1,600 employees and 13 manufacturing facilities worldwide, serving 60 countries through a global sales and distribution network.

SOURCE Koura
Dr. and Mrs. Michael C. Kubly Community-Based Suicide Prevention Research Program to Focus on Access and Interventions

MILWAUKEE, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mrs. Billie Kubly is investing $5 million to accelerate efforts to prevent suicide and increase access to behavioral health programs for patients and families at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW). The contribution establishes the Dr. and Mrs. Michael C. Kubly Community-Based Suicide Prevention Research Program and will be used to address the ongoing suicide crisis in the region and around the state.

Mrs. Kubly and her late husband Dr. Michael Kubly have a long history of advocacy and philanthropic investments to reduce the stigma around seeking mental health treatment and have supported the development of research-based interventions and therapies. Previous gifts to MCW included contributions benefitting families with young children in need of mental health services and establishing the Charles E. Kubly Chair in Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine.

"I know that Mike would be pleased that this investment will help save lives in our community," said Mrs. Kubly. "MCW is a trusted community partner when it comes to mental health issues and has the capacity to bring together stakeholders who will be committed to reducing suicides."

The $5 million gift will be divided equally between two endowed funds. One fund will support a named faculty position for a nationally regarded leader to coordinate suicide prevention efforts, including research and community programming. The other fund will provide a source of income to support the work of this faculty member and others who are staffing and developing the programs and conducting new research.

The burden of suicide in Milwaukee, and throughout the country remains high. Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States and ranks second among individuals aged 10 to 34. In Wisconsin, suicide rates increased 40 percent between 2000 and 2017, particularly among vulnerable populations such as veterans and individuals living in the state's urban counties.

"The pandemic has highlighted the prevalence of mental health issues in our community," said Jon Lehrmann, MD, holder of the Charles E. Kubly Chair in Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, who sees patients at the Zablocki VA Medical Center. "The truth is that these conditions were already growing before the spread of COVID-19 and require an urgent community response."

"Billie has been a visionary and an inspirational leader for us, and this gift will have a far-reaching impact on our community," Dr. Lehrmann added.

SOURCE Medical College of Wisconsin
LEMOYNE, Pa., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time since February, the median price for existing homes sold in Pennsylvania fell month over month, dropping 4.7% in August compared to July, according to a report prepared for the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors. The median existing home sales price was $209,794 in August, up 5% year-over-year, but down from July's record high of $219,154.

Existing home sales remained steady with 13,486 homes sold in August, up slightly from July and down about 15% from the previous year.

The number of listings was down in August, with 40,809 reported, a decrease from 43,275 the previous month and down 22.3% from the previous year.

"Sales of existing homes has remained steady in Pennsylvania throughout 2022, but sales are still down overall from last year and that's in large part due to the limited available homes for sale," said PAR President Christopher Beadling. "Pennsylvania continues to see about a three-month inventory of homes, which is down 16% from the previous year."

"Homebuyers face the challenge of rising mortgage rates and prices that are up more than 5% compared to last year, however, current mortgage rates are still very reasonable," Beadling said. "Working with a real estate professional can help buyers navigate the homebuying process and sellers ensure their homes are priced properly for today's market."

The Pennsylvania Association of Realtors is a trade/professional association that serves more than 39,000 members in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

SOURCE Pennsylvania Association of Realtors
GUANGZHOU, China, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PHNIX will attend 2022 INTERCLIMA and CHILLVENTA. Both of the HVAC trade shows are well-known in the heat pump industry. In these few months, PHNIX teams were busy preparing for these two upcoming events and would bring to the shows the most innovative products.

About the Shows

PHNIX Will Attend Interclima and Chillventa Expo with Its Newest Heat Pump Innovations

INTERCLIMA has been France's long-standing trade show with international reach, which is the place to be for heating equipment of all sizes for all types of buildings and markets, both new-build and renovation projects. It will be held in Paris, France from October 3rd to 6th this year.

CHILLVENTA is a leading trade fair worldwide for its comprehensive overview of refrigeration, AC, ventilation and heat pump technology. It will be held in Nuremberg, Germany from October 11th to 13th this year.

PHNIX focuses on heat pump R&D, manufacturing and providing comprehensive energy-saving solutions. In the shows, PHNIX will demonstrate its most cutting-edge heat pump technologies and products for three different applications. Particularly, there will be a wonderful debut of PHNIX whole new R290 heat pumps for domestic and commercial applications with different capacities, which cannot be missed. Furthermore, PHNIX product experts will show up physically on the shows to communicate the latest heat pump technologies and insights with visitors.

About Showcases:

House heating/cooling+DHW Heat Pump

-R290 Air to Water Heat Pump-GreenTherm series

-R32 Air to Water Heat Pump-HeroPremium series with transparent cabinet design

-Multi-functional Water Tank

-Water Fan Coil

-A Newest R32 Heat Pump

All-in-one Heat Pump Water Heater

-R290 airExpert 300L

-R290 airExpert 100L

-airSplit

Commercial Heat Pump Water Heating Solution

-R290 HeatMaster Series

-PolariesPro Series

"Requirements of eco-friendly heat pump technologies in the global market were increased after the proposal of the carbon neutral concept. That's one of the reasons why we continuously research and develop in HVAC area. We have created multiple types of heat pumps for domestic and commercial applications, which will debut on the market on our upcoming shows." Says Peter Wang, PHNIX Deputy General Manager in charge of PHNIX overseas business.

About PHNIX

As the leading heat pump manufacturer in China, PHNIX specialize in the R&D and production of heat pumps and energy-saving solutions. Almost 50% of PHNIX products are exported to Europe, North America, and other overseas markets. To learn more about PHNIX, please visit www.phnix-e.com.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1906336/PHNIX_Will_Attend_Interclima_Chillventa_Expo_Its_Newest_Heat_Pump.jpg

SOURCE PHNIX ECO-ENERGY SOLUTION
NEW YORK, Sept. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Qarik Group is delighted to welcome Scott Buck as the Global Head of Strategic Partnerships. Scott joins Qarik with more than 25 years of experience in executive level technology positions with extensive expertise building successful strategic partnerships for Fortune 500 global companies. Most recently, Scott served as the Executive Global Partner for Google Cloud at DXC Technology. Prior to DXC, he held senior leadership roles at Deloitte, Accenture, and IBM.

Scott Buck, Global Head of Strategic Partnerships, Qarik

Qarik CEO, Joe Schenk explains why Scott is a pivot addition to the organization; "Qarik is fundamentally a relationship-based company. We go deep, building sustainable solutions for a few partners rather than delivering quick fixes for a slew of 'customers'. Our growth plans are based on this model, and adding Scott to the team helps formalize and accelerate our efforts. Scott brings both a wealth of expertise in the mechanics of establishing and fostering mutually beneficial partnerships, as well as a healthy set of contacts that will help deliver results."

Scott is equally enthusiastic about the challenge; "It's such an exciting time to join Qarik. I believe in the power of partnership and it's great to find a company that shares my strategic vision. Taking a more considered, intelligent approach amplifies the long-term value we can add. There aren't many transformation consultancies that have the talent and insight to realize this ambition. That's why I'm so pleased to find it right here at Qarik."

Dan Barrett, Global Head of Sales at Qarik stated, "Our partner ecosystem is critical to our growth, and Scott's leadership will allow us to better serve our clients and partners better than ever"

About Qarik Group:

Qarik Group LLC is a NYC-based technology Modernization and Transformation consultancy, working across sectors and territories to power their clients' growth and sharpen their competitive advantage. Driven by a team with unmatched experience and expertise across all industries and technologies, their approach combines strategy, delivery and cultural shift. It empowers clients with a sustainable ability to change by embedding repeatable, problem-solving processes.

Qarik in a nutshell:

100+ employees

HQ: New York

Engineering hub: Belfast

Contact for all media enquiries:

Claire McIntyre , Chief Of Staff to CEO, [email protected]

SOURCE Qarik Group
An analysis conducted by Serving Alcohol Inc.

BOCA RATON, Fla., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On August 31, 2022, the extension of the grace period for the new Responsible Beverage Service Training (RBST) to be completed in California ended. The foundations of the RBST training require all staff members who sell and serve alcohol to be certified by the state. A recent California Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) press release reports show that 25% of servers have successfully registered through the Responsible Beverage Service (RBS) portal, completed the training through a state-approved provider (such as Serving Alcohol), and subsequently passed the state exam. With an estimated 75% of servers still not certified, businesses are asking what the risks of non-compliance are. It's not just you wondering as our staff is fielding questions on this subject daily. Ultimately, if your business is not in compliance, we believe this may create liability, insurance, and financial risks, so the following is our synopsis.

Backstory

The Responsible Beverage Service Training Program Act (2017) first introduced the requirements surrounding the Responsible Beverage Service Training Program (RBSTP) for on-premise locations, including multiple license types affecting 56,000 businesses. As of now, anyone who meets the definition of an alcohol server or alcohol manager must attend training through a state-approved provider. Alcohol servers are individuals who check customer identification for service or entry, take orders, pour, or deliver alcohol. In comparison, alcohol managers are anyone who manages, trains, or hires alcohol servers. By definition, any bartender, shift manager, owner, server, door host, human resource manager, and a variety of similar titles will need certification.

Through the process, alcohol sellers and alcohol managers must register through the California RBS portal, complete training offered by a state-approved provider, and pass the state-administered exam (at an additional cost of $3) within 30 days and with a passing score of 70% to achieve certification. After the August 31st deadline, businesses that do not meet the new law requirements face expanded potential liability and litigation. Under the California Business & Professions Code  25682(b)(1), any server must hold an alcohol server certification.

Other legal, insurance, and hospitality thought leaders are starting to guide this matter. Wendy D. Testa, partner and co-chair of the Complex Tort & General Casualty at the national law firm Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP, stated ' ...it is anticipated there will be an uptick in liquor liability litigation that may affect millions in the state of California due to licensees not being able to obtain and/or consistently maintain compliance...' in a Wilson Elser Insight on August 31, 2022, and republished in the September 6, 2022, issue of the National Law Review .

Criminal Liability

According to the California Alcoholic Beverage Control's frequently asked questions, unfinished or untaken training will not place staff at risk of a criminal violation. Criminal violations can result in fines, community service, or jail when the "seller (is) held responsible for a crime observed by law enforcement officer(s)." The California ABC allows a "safe period" after the deadline to inform and instruct businesses and servers about the new law rather than punishing them for being out of compliance. However, a definitive end date has not yet been announced.

Civil Liability

Under civil liability in California, a server may be held liable for damages and injuries related to an intoxicated person. Business and Professions Code Section 25602.1 states that "liability exists only when the patron was obviously intoxicated and under age 21 at the time of the sale". If the server or business was not entirely in compliance with training, it could be used as character evidence.

Administrative Liability

California ABC also can claim administrative liability against the business license. Violations can result in fines, suspensions, and revocation. The "administrative disciplinary action protects the public welfare and morals." Under administrative liability, staff lacking proper training could be interpreted as endangering the public welfare and morals by state authorities. For example, being deemed as keeping a disorderly house or an alcohol-selling establishment that acts as "injurious to the public morals, health, convenience, or safety."

Insurance

The cost of doing business may escalate very quickly should insurance companies increase premiums regarding the training. For example, an underwriter may increase liability coverage simply because a business creates undue risk when staff has not received mandatory training. Business owners can see who has successfully passed the state exam in the RBS portal; the responsibility relies solely on the business to know the status of their servers and correctly report compliance. The completion status of each employee will likely be a discovery area during underwriting or re-issuance of liability coverage. Audits and questions of regulatory staff compliance are common practices for many insurance agencies.

Monetary Costs

Finally, as the California hospitality industry slowly starts to absorb an estimated $15 million in training costs (not including time and opportunity costs), a potentially more significant hit to the wallet is expected. Suppose the California ABC or local or state government finds out a business has served an overly intoxicated person or minor. In that case, the business can expect up to $1,500 in fines per infraction plus court fees. In California, throughout 2019, over 120,000 people were arrested for DUIs, 400 minors, according to the Foundation of Advancing Alcohol Responsibility.

About Us

Serving Alcohol Inc is the nation's premier professional online alcohol seller server training provider. We are backed by over 37 years of professional experience and have trained hundreds of thousands of servers and bartenders nationwide. We are the preferred training provider for restaurant chains, bars, and entertainment venues coast to coast. Please visit our RBST page to learn more.

SOURCE Serving Alcohol
SET TO HEADLINE AUSTIN CITY LIMITS MUSIC FESTIVAL OCTOBER 9 & 16

BRAND NEW STUDIO ALBUM Return of the Dream Canteen Out October 14th on Warner Records

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Offering up a collective salute and eloquent tribute to one of the greatest of all-time, Red Hot Chili Peppers share a heartfelt new song entitled "Eddie" today. Listen to "Eddie" HERE. The track unfolds as an emotionally charged anthem anchored by powerful bass, a soulful beat, cathartic guitar, and a delicate vocal melody with a reminder to celebrate the icon's undying spirit.

Return of the Dream Canteen Album Cover Photo Credit: Clara Balzary

Regarding "Eddie," Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis said, "Sometimes we don't realize how deeply affected and connected we are to artists until the day they die. Eddie Van Halen was a one of a kind. The day after his death Flea came into rehearsal with an emotional bassline. John, Chad and I started playing along and pretty soon with all our hearts, a song in his honor effortlessly unfolded. It felt good to be sad and care so much about a person who had given so much to our lives. Although the song doesn't speak to Eddie by name, it talks about his early days on the Sunset Strip and the rock n roll tapestry that Van Halen painted on our minds. In the end, our song asks that you not remember Eddie for dying but for living his wildest dream."

"Eddie"sets the stage for the release of the band's second album of 2022 and thirteenth full-length offering, Return of the Dream Canteen, on October 14th via Warner Records. Pre-order/Pre-save Return of the Dream Canteen HERE .

Last month, the band unveiled the first single "Tippa My Tongue" and right out of the gate, Rolling Stone applauded it as "a sexually suggestive romp that evokes all the quintessential quirk's of the California funk-rock outfit's extensive catalog," and CLASH summed it up best as "a Red Hot Chili Peppers masterclass." Billboard attested, "The sinewy funk-rock track recalls Chili Peppers of yore, with frontman Anthony Kiedis playing with lyrical double entendre."

The Red Hot Chili Peppers most recently took home the prestigious Global Icon Award and delivered a showstopping performance at the MTV VMAs. The band just wrapped up their massive sold out global stadium tour and will headline Austin City Limits Music Festival on October 9 and 16 in Austin, TX. The stadium tour continues in January 2023 across New Zealand and Australia.

Return of the Dream Canteen will land just six months after the platinum-selling chart topper Unlimited Love. The latter emerged as the group's second #1 bow on the Billboard Top 200 and stands out as the biggest rock album of the year. Once again, they joined forces with longtime producer and creative confidant Rick Rubin for this sprawling LP.

It's shaping up to be the band's most prolific, poetic, and powerful season yet.

We went in search of ourselves as the band that we have somehow always been. Just for the fun of it we jammed and learned some old songs. Before long we started the mysterious process of building new songs. A beautiful bit of chemistry meddling that had befriended us hundreds of times along the way. Once we found that slip stream of sound and vision, we just kept mining. With time turned into an elastic waist band of oversized underwear, we had no reason to stop writing and rocking. It felt like a dream. When all was said and done, our moody love for each other and the magic of music had gifted us with more songs than we knew what to do with. Well we figured it out. 2 double albums released back to back. The second of which is easily as meaningful as the first or should that be reversed. 'Return of the Dream Canteen' is everything we are and ever dreamed of being. It's packed. Made with the blood of our hearts, yours truly, the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

For more information on the new album and tour please visit https://redhotchilipeppers.com .

pre-order album HERE / hi-res album cover HERE

Hi-Res press pic HERE

CONNECT WITH RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS

Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Website | Press Site

For more information, please contact:

Laura Swanson | Warner Records

[email protected]

SOURCE Warner Records
A technology company working on perovskite based solar technology

Investment to further strengthen Reliance's leadership in advanced solar cell technology

MUMBAI, India, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Reliance New Energy Limited ("RNEL"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd ("Reliance"), has today signed definitive agreements to invest in Caelux Corporation ("Caelux"), a company headquartered in Pasadena, California, in the United States of America, engaged in the development of perovskite-based solar technology. RNEL will invest USD 12 million to acquire 20% stake in Caelux.

This investment will accelerate product and technology development for Caelux, including construction of its pilot line in the United States, for expediting the commercial development of its technology. RNEL and Caelux have also entered into a strategic partnership agreement for technical collaboration and commercialization of Caelux's technology.

Reliance New Energy Limited has today signed definitive agreements to invest in Caelux Corporation Tweet this

Caelux is an industry leader in the research and development of perovskite-based solar technology. Its proprietary technology enables high efficiency solar modules that can produce 20% more energy over the 25-year lifetime of a solar project at significantly lower installed cost.

Reliance is setting up a global scale integrated photovoltaic Giga factory at Jamnagar, Gujarat. Through this investment and collaboration, Reliance will be able to produce more powerful and lower cost solar modules leveraging Caelux's products.

Speaking about this investment, Mr. Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited, said, "The investment in Caelux aligns with our strategy to create the most advanced green energy manufacturing ecosystem, backed by world class talent, and built on the pillars of technological innovation achieved through strategic partnerships. We believe Caelux's proprietary perovskite based solar technology provides us with access to next leg of innovation in crystalline solar modules. We will work along with team at Caelux to accelerate its product development and commercialization of its technology."

Mr. Scott Graybeal, CEO of Caelux Corporation, said, "Caelux is proud to have Reliance as a lead investor as we move to the next phase of our development and are grateful for Khosla Ventures' support of the company over the years. Through the partnership with Reliance, we will accelerate our efforts to build out our manufacturing capabilities to produce products that make crystalline solar modules more efficient and cost effective. We look forward to demonstrating the future of solar power at a scale as we support Reliance's global expansion plans and product roadmap."

Mr. Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures, said, "Caelux's 'perovskite on glass' architecture is the innovation the solar industry needs to significantly reduce costs and accelerate renewables penetration. As an early backer of Caelux, we have been impressed with their technical progress and are excited to continue working with them as they embark on their commercial journey with Reliance."

The transaction will not require any regulatory approval and is expected to be completed by end of September 2022, subject to satisfaction of any condition's precedent.

About Reliance Industries Limited

Reliance is India's largest private sector company, with a consolidated revenue of INR 792,756 crore ($104.6 billion), cash profit of INR 110,778 crore ($14.6 billion), and net profit of INR 67,845 crore ($9.0 billion) for the year ended March 31, 2022. Reliance's activities span hydrocarbon exploration and production, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals, renewables (solar and hydrogen), retail and digital services.

Currently ranking 104th, Reliance is the largest private sector company from India to feature in Fortune's Global 500 list of "World's Largest Companies" for 2022. The company stands 53rd in the Forbes Global 2000 rankings of "World's Largest Public Companies" for 2022 - top-most among Indian companies. It features among LinkedIn's 'The Best Companies to Work For in India' (2021). Website: www.ril.com

About Caelux Corporation

Caelux is a spin out from the California Institute of Technology ("Caltech") and was incorporated on May 14, 2014, with its registered office in the State of Delaware in the United States of America. It is engaged in development of perovskite-based solar technology that improves the relative performance of new crystalline silicon modules to make them more powerful and cost-effective. Caelux's technology does not require any rare earth minerals but rather uses abundant, low-cost precursors, low temperature production methods and readily available equipment in its localized manufacturing process. Caelux will be constructing its pilot plant and building out a community-based workforce in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area to demonstrate the feasibility of scaling perovskites. Its commercialization roadmap consists of developing production sites across the US, Asia and Latin America. Website: www.caelux.com

SOURCE Caelux Corporation
TORONTO, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Shipfusion, an ecommerce fulfillment and technology provider, placed No.127 on the Globe and Mail's 2022 Report on Business ranking of Canada's Top Growing Companies.

Canada's Top Growing Companies ranks Canadian companies on three-year revenue growth. Shipfusion earned its spot with three-year growth of 372%.

Shipfusion leads the ecommerce fulfillment industry with its robust technology solutions which integrate ecommerce brands' multiple sales channels, and widespread fulfillment centers across North America. In addition to established distribution centers in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Toronto, Shipfusion recently launched its 250,000+ square foot warehouse in Las Vegas, a growing hub for logistics companies in North America. All facilities are operated by Shipfusion and powered by its proprietary warehouse management systems.

Shipfusion has enabled brands such as Tushy, Rockwell Razors, Vessi, and more, to grow and scale their businesses by leveraging Shipfusion's direct integrations across sales channels to fulfill customer and wholesale orders quickly and reliably. Rather than having to operate their own warehouses and fulfillment operations, brands are able to deploy Shipfusion's scalable, on-demand fulfillment offering to keep up with order volume without sacrificing delivery speeds or quality.

"We are honoured to be recognized as one of Canada's fastest growing companies by The Globe and Mail. Shipfusion has always strived to build the world's best ecommerce fulfillment service and to allow brands to scale volumes on-demand by leveraging our innovative software and strategic warehouse network," says Brandon Luft, CEO of Shipfusion. "This recognition of Shipfusion's growth is really a recognition of the growth of our client's businesses and is a testament to how Shipfusion is able to support businesses during times of unprecedented volume and volatility."

"Our ability to scale with our clients' increases in volume, ensuring their ability to grow, all while implementing many health measures to keep our team members safe, is a real point of pride to all of us here, and we look forward to continuing to grow alongside our clients in the future."

Canada's Top Growing Companies is an editorial ranking that was launched in 2019. It aims to celebrate the boldest entrepreneurial achievement by identifying and bringing the accomplishments of innovative businesses in Canada to the forefront. In order to qualify for these voluntary programs, companies had to complete an in-depth application process and fulfill requirements. In total, 430 companies earned a spot on this year's ranking.

The full list of 2022 winners, along with editorial coverage, is published in the October issue of Report on Business magazine. The list is out now and online here.

"Canada's Top Growing Companies recognizes the tremendous ambition and innovation of entrepreneurs in Canada," says Dawn Calleja, Editor of Report on Business magazine. "The next generation of Canadian businesses can draw inspiration from this ranking."

"In an uncertain world, the success stories of the companies marked in this year's Report on Business magazine's list of Top Growing Companies are a beacon of optimism," says Phillip Crawley, Publisher and CEO of The Globe and Mail. "The Globe and Mail congratulates them on their achievements."

About Shipfusion

Shipfusion gives brands the best tools possible for building a successful ecommerce operation. Their fully managed and operated warehouses, expert inventory management, and powerful real-time technology lets businesses focus on fast growth without the stress. 'Shipfusion combines flexible, reliable fulfillment with powerful, real-time technology. With warehouses located across the US and Canada to support ecommerce businesses.'

About The Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail is Canada's foremost news media company, leading the national discussion and causing policy change through brave and independent journalism since 1844. With our award-winning coverage of business, politics and national affairs, The Globe and Mail newspaper reaches 5.9 million readers every week in our print or digital formats, and Report on Business magazine reaches 2.3 million readers in print and digital every issue. Our investment in innovative data science means that as the world continues to change, so does The Globe. The Globe and Mail is owned by Woodbridge, the investment arm of the Thomson family.

SOURCE Shipfusion
TORRANCE, Calif., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunrider International, a global health and wellness direct sales company, headquartered in Torrance, California, hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its Texas Manufacturing Plant (TXP) in Midlothian, Texas. The ceremony coincided with the company's Grand Convention, their first in-person global event in three years.

The TXP opened in the fall of 2022. Since then, Sunrider has been an integral part of the local business community. Midlothian Mayor Richard Reno offered congratulations and said a few words. Other city officials and Midlothian Chamber of Commerce members also attended. Melissa Shook, CEO/President of the Midlothian Chamber, presented Sunrider CEO Sunny Beutler with a plaque commemorating the occasion.

"This community has welcomed us with open arms. I am so happy to share this momentous occasion with our family, Independent Business Owners (IBOs), local business owners, and community partners. I am proud to say that TXP is now officially open," Beutler said. Drs. Tei-Fu and Oi-Lin Chen, founders, and their five children, who are all involved with the company, also attended.

The day included a wide range of events. Lunch, cake, a tour, and a product experience event were among the activities. Independent Business Owners who attended the Grand Convention were in attendance as well.

To learn more about Sunrider and its products, visit their website at www.sunrider.com .

About Sunrider International

Sunrider International, a manufacturing, direct selling, and retail sales company, was founded in 1982 by Drs. Tei-Fu and Oi-Lin Chen. All five of Drs. Chen's adult children hold senior executive positions within the multi-generational family-owned company, either directly at the corporate headquarters or on the Board of Directors. Their passion for people led them to create proven herbal products that help others achieve optimal health and wellness, and a business opportunity that offers them the freedom to live happier, more balanced lives. Guided by owner expertise, Sunrider is a growing global enterprise that currently spans nearly 50 countries.

PR Contact:

Pierce Mattie Communications

Elizabeth Rodger

[email protected]

SOURCE Sunrider International
CHICAGO, Sept. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Richard H. Driehaus Museum announces a day-long symposium to explore important themes in the architecture of Louis Sullivan and the photography by Richard Nickel that documented the destruction of many of Adler & Sullivan's most important Chicago buildings. The Art of Architecture: Perspectives on Sullivan & Nickel will bring together experts to discuss topics as diverse as the power of photography, the neuroscience behind ornamentation, and the impact and benefits of preservation on the urban built environment. The event will be held Saturday, October 22, from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. All tickets include free admission to the Museum between October 21-23. For information and tickets: https://bit.ly/3UJJQvt.

The Art of Architecture: Perspectives on Sullivan and Nickel Richard Nickel Archive, Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives, Art Institute of Chicago; Portrait of Louis Sullivan, Chicago History Musem

The symposium builds on themes in the Museum's exhibition Capturing Louis Sullivan: What Richard Nickel Saw, which includes over forty of Nickel's photographs and over twenty architectural fragments from Adler & Sullivan buildings.

Speakers include:

David Van Zanten , highlighting Sullivan's developing use of ornamentation, culminating in his design for the Wainwright Building ( St Louis , 1890-91). Van Zanten is the author of Sullivan's City: The Meaning of Ornament for Louis Sullivan (2000).

, highlighting Sullivan's developing use of ornamentation, culminating in his design for the Wainwright Building ( , 1890-91). is the author of (2000). Matt McNicholas , speaking about how ornament affects emotion and experience in the built environment. McNicholas is an architect who has created ornamental details for buildings in 16 countries. He is a member of the Society for Neuroscience.

, speaking about how ornament affects emotion and experience in the built environment. McNicholas is an architect who has created ornamental details for buildings in 16 countries. He is a member of the Society for Neuroscience. Richard Cahan , author of three books on Richard Nickel including the recent Richard Nickel: Dangerous Years: What He Saw and What He Wrote: Tim Samuelson , director of the Chicago Architectural Preservation Archive; Ward Miller , Executive Director of Preservation Chicago, and John Vinci , FAIA, an architect with experience in the restoration of historic architecture, including Sullivan's Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room. They will speak about the Richard Nickel Committee, which focused a new generation of architectural preservation in Chicago .

Also participating will be David A. Hanks, curator of the exhibition Capturing Louis Sullivan: What Richard Nickel Saw, and David Travis, former Curator of Photography at the Art Institute of Chicago. Alison Fisher, the Harold and Margot Schiff Curator of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago, moderates one session.

Address: 40 East Erie Street, Chicago, IL 60611

Phone: (312) 482-8933

Website: driehausmuseum.org

Facebook.com/RHDriehausMuseum

Twitter.com/driehausmuseum

Instagram.com/driehausmuseum

For more information, please contact:

Julie Treumann

[email protected]

(312) 874 5909

SOURCE The Richard H. Driehaus Museum
CLEVELAND, Sept. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Contact centers were forced to become more agile in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, escalating timelines for technology adoption, remote work, and omnichannel customer engagement, according to an industry report released by the Business Services investment banking team at Brown Gibbons Lang & Company (BGL).

Read the Business Services Insider  The Mid-Game Pivot: Contact Center Industry Adjusts Rapidly to Market Forces: https://bit.ly/BusServInsider

COVID-19 has forced contact centers to become more agile as demand for technology adoption and remote work increases. Tweet this Contact centers were forced to become more agile in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, escalating timelines for technology adoption, remote work, and omnichannel customer engagement, according to an industry report released by the Business Services investment banking team at Brown Gibbons Lang & Company (BGL).

The report examines developing trends as well as the current state of the contact center M&A market, where consolidation is continuing across a fragmented landscape.

Technology is transforming customer care. Cloud migration has made artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and predictive analytics more practical and achievable. Organizations are investing in AI capabilities contributing directly to improved customer experience (CX), cost savings, and operational efficiencies.

Customer needs and expectations are continually evolving, and interaction levels are increasing rapidly, with an omnichannel service approach now expected to deliver a frictionless, cohesive, and personalized customer experience. By focusing on providing ever-improving levels of customer service, the contact center is now viewed as a critical component to maintaining and increasing brand loyalty versus being a necessary cost of doing business.

Work-from-home is a permanent shift in service delivery, promoting higher employee and customer satisfaction while reducing operating costs.

As technology transforms CX solutions, it is also influencing M&A activity, with digital-first service platforms in high demand. Acquisitions remain a primary lever in value creation as buyers look to augment digital capabilities and diversify industry verticals and geographic markets. The proposed merger of Sitel Group and Majorel and acquisitions by WNS (Vuram) and Teleperformance (Senture) are examples of recently announced strategic transactions. Bain Capital (VXI Global Solutions) and ChrysCapital (ResultsCX) are among the private equity sponsors to establish growth platforms in the contact center space.

###

About Brown Gibbons Lang & Company

Brown Gibbons Lang & Company (BGL) is a leading independent investment bank and financial advisory firm focused on the global middle market. The firm advises private and public corporations and private equity groups on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, financial restructurings, business valuations and opinions, and other strategic matters. BGL has investment banking offices in Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, and New York, and real estate offices in Chicago, Cleveland, and San Antonio. The firm is also a founding member of Global M&A Partners, enabling BGL to service clients in more than 30 countries around the world. Securities transactions are conducted through Brown, Gibbons, Lang & Company Securities, Inc., an affiliate of Brown Gibbons Lang & Company LLC and a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC. For more information, please visit www.bglco.com.

SOURCE Brown Gibbons Lang & Company
DUBLIN, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Fast Casual Restaurants Market (2022-2027) by Type, Mode of Operation, Application, Geography, Competitive Analysis and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Fast Casual Restaurants Market is estimated to be USD 164.16 Bn in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 259.73 Bn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 9.61%.



Market dynamics are forces that impact the prices and behaviors of the Global Fast Casual Restaurants Market stakeholders. These forces create pricing signals which result from the changes in the supply and demand curves for a given product or service. Forces of Market Dynamics may be related to macro-economic and micro-economic factors.

There are dynamic market forces other than price, demand, and supply. Human emotions can also drive decisions, influence the market, and create price signals. As the market dynamics impact the supply and demand curves, decision-makers aim to determine the best way to use various financial tools to stem various strategies for speeding the growth and reducing the risks.

Company Profiles

The report provides a detailed analysis of the competitors in the market. It covers the financial performance analysis for the publicly listed companies in the market. The report also offers detailed information on the companies' recent development and competitive scenario. Some of the companies covered in this report are Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., Firehouse Restaurant Group, Inc., Noodles & Company, Panera Bread Company, Smashburger Master LLC, Sweetgreen, Inc., etc.



Countries Studied

America ( Argentina , Brazil , Canada , Chile , Colombia , Mexico , Peru , United States , Rest of Americas)

, , , , , , , , Rest of Americas) Europe ( Austria , Belgium , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Italy , Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Russia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , United Kingdom , Rest of Europe )

( , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Rest of ) Middle-East and Africa ( Egypt , Israel , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , South Africa , United Arab Emirates , Rest of MEA)

and ( , , , , , , Rest of MEA) Asia-Pacific ( Australia , Bangladesh , China , India , Indonesia , Japan , Malaysia , Philippines , Singapore , South Korea , Sri Lanka , Thailand , Taiwan , Rest of Asia-Pacific )

Competitive Quadrant

The report includes Competitive Quadrant, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.

Ansoff Analysis

The report presents a detailed Ansoff matrix analysis for the Global Fast Casual Restaurants Market. Ansoff Matrix, also known as Product/Market Expansion Grid, is a strategic tool used to design strategies for the growth of the company. The matrix can be used to evaluate approaches in four strategies viz. Market Development, Market Penetration, Product Development and Diversification. The matrix is also used for risk analysis to understand the risk involved with each approach.

The analyst analyses the Global Fast Casual Restaurants Market using the Ansoff Matrix to provide the best approaches a company can take to improve its market position. Based on the SWOT analysis conducted on the industry and industry players, the analyst has devised suitable strategies for market growth.



Why buy this report?

The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Fast Casual Restaurants Market. The report includes in-depth qualitative analysis, verifiable data from authentic sources, and projections about market size. The projections are calculated using proven research methodologies.

The report has been compiled through extensive primary and secondary research. The primary research is done through interviews, surveys, and observation of renowned personnel in the industry.

The report includes an in-depth market analysis using Porter's 5 forces model and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, the impact of Covid-19 on the market is also featured in the report.

The report also includes the regulatory scenario in the industry, which will help you make a well-informed decision. The report discusses major regulatory bodies and major rules and regulations imposed on this sector across various geographies.

The report also contains the competitive analysis using Positioning Quadrants, the analyst's Proprietary competitive positioning tool.

Key Topics Covered:

1 Report Description



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Market Dynamics

4.1 Drivers

4.1.1 Increasing Preference Towards Fast Casual Restaurants

4.1.2 Increased Demand for Home Delivery

4.1.3 Demand for Innovation and Customization in Food Menus and Restaurant Services

4.2 Restraints

4.2.1 High Cost Compared to Quick-Service Restaurants

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 Adoption of Technologies and Hygienic Cooking Environment

4.3.2 Growing Consumers to Demand for Food Transparency

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 Recruitment of Staff

4.4.2 Shift Towards Takeaways and Delivery



5 Market Analysis

5.1 Regulatory Scenario

5.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Ansoff Matrix Analysis



6 Global Fast Casual Restaurants Market, By Type

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Independent Ownership

6.3 Restaurant Franchises



7 Global Fast Casual Restaurants Market, By Application

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Commercial Offices

7.3 Residential



8 Americas' Fast Casual Restaurants Market

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Argentina

8.3 Brazil

8.4 Canada

8.5 Chile

8.6 Colombia

8.7 Mexico

8.8 Peru

8.9 United States

8.10 Rest of Americas



9 Europe's Fast Casual Restaurants Market

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Austria

9.3 Belgium

9.4 Denmark

9.5 Finland

9.6 France

9.7 Germany

9.8 Italy

9.9 Netherlands

9.10 Norway

9.11 Poland

9.12 Russia

9.13 Spain

9.14 Sweden

9.15 Switzerland

9.16 United Kingdom

9.17 Rest of Europe



10 Middle East and Africa's Fast Casual Restaurants Market

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Egypt

10.3 Israel

10.4 Qatar

10.5 Saudi Arabia

10.6 South Africa

10.7 United Arab Emirates

10.8 Rest of MEA



11 APAC's Fast Casual Restaurants Market

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Australia

11.3 Bangladesh

11.4 China

11.5 India

11.6 Indonesia

11.7 Japan

11.8 Malaysia

11.9 Philippines

11.10 Singapore

11.11 South Korea

11.12 Sri Lanka

11.13 Thailand

11.14 Taiwan

11.15 Rest of Asia-Pacific



12 Competitive Landscape

12.1 Competitive Quadrant

12.2 Market Share Analysis

12.3 Strategic Initiatives

12.3.1 M&A and Investments

12.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations

12.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements



13 Company Profiles

13.1 Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.

13.2 Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc.

13.3 EXKi SA

13.4 Firehouse Restaurant Group, Inc.

13.5 Five Guys Holdings, Inc.

13.6 Godfather's Pizza, Inc.

13.7 LYFE Kitchen Restaurant LLC

13.8 MOD Super Fast Pizza LLC

13.9 Noodles & Company

13.10 Panda Restaurant Group, Inc.

13.11 Panera Bread Company

13.12 Pie Five Pizza Company, Inc.

13.13 Potbelly Sandwich Works LLC

13.14 Shake Shack, Inc.

13.15 Smashburger Master LLC

13.16 Sweetgreen, Inc.

13.17 Tortilla Mexican Grill PLC



14 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/78qsd9

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SOURCE Research and Markets
In partnership with the Arkansas Dept. of Education, funding will serve 650+ diverse, future educators through paid job-embedded, teacher apprenticeship degrees, certifications, and full-time teaching roles.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Reach University, our nation's nonprofit leader in accredited teacher apprenticeship-based degrees, and TNTP (formerly The New Teacher Project), a nonprofit addressing educational inequities in U.S. schools, announced today the receipt of a projected $8.7 million U.S. Department of Education grant to accelerate the growth and impact of its teacher prep apprenticeship degree and licensure programs throughout Arkansas' highest-need communities.

Issued in part of the Department's Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) grant program, and awarded on the heels of the Administration's recent announcement to utilize registered apprenticeships to achieve teacher staffing and representation goals, the funding will serve 650+ future educators, specialized in math, science, and English language arts, throughout the next five years.

With the right training & degree, there's 1.3mm paraprofessionals who could fill 100% of current 300k teacher vacancies. Tweet this

"The state of Arkansas is investing heavily in smart teacher preparation and certification models that break down historical barriers to result in qualified, specialized and diverse educators leading classrooms across the state. Reach and TNTP have been on the forefront of this effort, and this funding will take Great Rivers ESC from our highest-need to highest-example of how districts can grow their own classroom-ready, representative teachers," said Karli Saracini, Assistant Commissioner of Educator Effectiveness at Arkansas Department of Education.

The program offers three distinct pathways into teaching, providing those who have completed high school, community college, and/or an undergraduate degree a tailored, debt-free and certified pathway into the classroom and beyond.

For those without an undergraduate degree, the program equips districts with the ability to grow their own educators by recruiting local talent to fill needed paraprofessional roles. Once the paraprofessional is hired, they will begin a job-embedded teacher apprenticeship, where their job leads to a Liberal Studies B.A. Upon degree completion, the paraprofessional will move into a full-time teaching position within the district.

"With the right training and degree, there are 1.3 million paraprofessionals who could fill 100% of the current 300,000 public school teacher vacancies. But to make adult learner degree attainment possible, we must remove the forced choice between a job and a degree. With Reach's job-embedded undergraduate programs, 'either/or' becomes 'yes/and,' creating a new way for districts to think about recruiting talent, upskilling that talent, and supporting each employee on a path to long-term career success. The state of Arkansas is not only a leader in embracing teacher apprenticeships to solve its teacher shortage, but in also starting with the communities who need it most," said Dr. Mallory Dwinal-Palisch, Chancellor, Reach University.

Reach's degree-bearing teacher apprenticeships offer a solution to long standing diversity and retention challenges seen throughout the country, and amplified in rural and low-income communities. The program ensures districts can recruit a diverse candidate pool, in which at least 50% of program completers and future teachers identify as Black, Indigenous and/or people of color. 90%+ of candidates are then hired and retained in their "home" districts for no less than five years. Demographic rates mirror Reach's other district partners across Arkansas, Louisiana, California and Alabama.

"What's most exciting is that we, alongside TNTP, are putting these funds to use today, day one," said Joe Ross, President, Reach University. "Reach is already serving nearly 200 diverse, future educators through our teacher apprenticeship degrees across every cooperative in the state. With this funding, we will not only dramatically expand the highly-qualified and specialized teacher pipeline, but we will also equip Arkansans with debt-free, job-embedded degrees, unlocking a new type of postsecondary opportunity."

The awarding of TQP's funding also reinforces the value of fully-embedded apprenticeship degrees and alternative credential pathways in solving the systemic teacher shortage. The grant will continue to fuel the integration of the final year of Reach's undergraduate program and the first year of the TNTP, Arkansas Professional Educator Pathway (ArPEP).

"By providing both debt-free pathways to the classroom for prospective teachers and giving more students access to effective, diverse educators, this program will contribute to better futures across these communities," said Dr. Tequilla Brownie, TNTP CEO and Arkansas native. "We are proud to be a partner in this work."

The joint integration is heavily focused on key mentorship with district certified teachers and Reach's award-winning faculty, many of whom are former Teachers and Principals of the Year. It also bridges ArPEP training and expands the curriculum beyond traditional senior-level and teacher certification coursework.

"With Reach, we will leverage this funding to expand the Arkansas Professional Educator Pathway (ArPEP), providing a job-embedded experience that is high-quality, faster, more affordable and seamless from a B.A. to teaching certification," said Celena Siprajim, Partner, TNTP.

TQP funding will serve future educators molding the educational experience and success of approximately 13,000 learners, across 34 schools and 10 Great Rivers ESC districts throughout the five-year grant period, while solving systemic challenges of recruiting and retaining qualified, specialized and job-ready teachers in Arkansas rural communities.

The program will soon scale to other high-need communities across the south and southeastern portions of the state, where Reach University is already working and utilizing existing state and federal workforce development funding to train future educators.

ABOUT REACH UNIVERSITY

Reach University is a regionally accredited, non-profit university that pioneers debt-free apprenticeship-based degrees. Reach is actively solving America's teacher shortage by creating fully-embedded pathways for high-potential individuals to earn degrees, credentials and jobs as teachers within their own communities. By focusing on low-income, urban and rural regions, offering online tutorials and classes, and rendering academic credit for on-the-job experience, Reach University is eliminating barriers to entry in high-need professions, and building grow-your-own pipelines of locally representative talent.

ABOUT TNTP

TNTP believes our nation's public schools can offer all children an excellent education. A national nonprofit founded by teachers, we help school systems end educational inequality. We work at every level of the public education system to attract and train talented teachers and school leaders, ensure rigorous and engaging classrooms, and create environments that prioritize great teaching and accelerate student learning. Since 1997, we've partnered with hundreds of public school districts, charter school networks, and state departments of education. We have recruited or trained more than 50,000 teachers and inspired policy change through acclaimed studies such as The Mirage(2015), The Irreplaceables (2012), and The Widget Effect (2009). Our latest report, The Opportunity Myth (2018), followed nearly 4,000 students in five diverse school systems to learn more about their experiences in school. Today, TNTP works directly with more than 300 school systems in 35 states.

Contact Information:

Reach University

Lauren Bauml

[email protected]

(512) 923 - 6136

SOURCE Reach University
NEW YORK, Sept. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Insight Partners published latest research study on " Wind Energy Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Capacity (Upto 1MW, 1-3 MW, 3-5 MW, and Above 5MW) and Installation (Onshore and Offshore)", the global wind energy market size is expected to grow from USD 85,375.22 million in 2022 to USD 1,36,544.05 million by 2028; it is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 8.1% from 2022 to 2028.

Download Sample Brochure of Wind Energy Market Size - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis with Strategic Developments at: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPRE00027594/

Wind Energy Market Report Scope & Strategic Insights:

Report Coverage Details Market Size Value in USD 85,375.22 Million in 2022 Market Size Value by USD 1,36,544.05 Million by 2028 Growth rate CAGR of 8.1% from 2022 to 2028 Forecast Period 2022-2028 Base Year 2022 No. of Pages 150 No. Tables 62 No. of Charts & Figures 72 Historical data available Yes Segments covered Capacity, and Installation Regional scope North America; Europe; Asia Pacific; Latin America; MEA Country scope US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Argentina Report coverage Revenue forecast, company ranking, competitive landscape, growth factors, and trends

Wind Energy Market: Competitive Landscape and Key Developments

BYD Company Ltd; ENERSYS; SolarEdge Technologies Inc; sonnenGroup; and SAMSUNG SDI CO., LTD are a few of the key players profiled in this wind energy market report. Several other essential wind energy market players were analyzed to get a holistic view of the market and its ecosystem. The wind energy market report provides detailed market insights, which help the key players to strategize the growth in the coming years.

Inquiry Before Purchase: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/inquiry/TIPRE00027594/

In November 2021, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy signed an agreement with Renewable Energy Systems (RES) in Canada to supply the 100-MW Hilda wind project in Alberta.

In 2021, the UK's Crown Estate approved six fixed offshore wind projects with a combined capacity of ~8GW.

The wind energy market is segmented into North America, Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe, the Middle East & Africa (MEA), and South America (SAM). APAC dominated the wind energy market in 2021, and it is expected to continue its dominance over the forecast period. The growth is primarily attributed to favorable government policies, increasing investment in wind energy projects, and the reduced cost of wind energy, which led to increased adoption of wind energy. As per the Wood Makenzie projections, APAC will add 122GW of new wind capacity by 2030, surpassing the estimated new capacity across Europe and the US for the same period of 2021-2030.

Speak to Research Expert: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/speak-to-analyst/TIPRE00027594

As per the GWEC report, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and India will also rank among the world's twenty-largest offshore wind markets, adding a combined 29GW of new capacity from 2021 to 2030. Wind power currently accounts for 10% of APAC's power capacity mix, while coal accounts for 45% and petrol contribute 12%. This energy consumption is expected to change in 2050, as the shares of wind and solar energy will both double to account for a combined 50% of the region's power capacity mix by 2050. Taiwan is one of the most promising offshore wind markets. Taiwan introduced its Round 3 auction Phase 1, where an associated 3GW capacity will come online from 2026 to 2027. A total of 15GW will be made operational from 2026 to 2035.

In terms of the wind energy market share, North America accounted for the second largest region. In 2021, a surge in pipeline projects for installing wind energy projects had been witnessed in the US owing to a rising investment in renewable enrgies. As per the US Department of Energy, the US offshore wind pipeline grew 24% in 2020, with total installation of 35,324 MW turbines now in various stages of development. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management created five new Wind Energy Areas in New York with a capacity of ~9,800MW, representing a large portion of the pipeline growth during 2020-2021. Massachusetts' Vineyard Wind I became the first approved commercial-scale offshore wind energy project in the US. There are 15 projects in the US offshore pipeline that have reached the permitting phase, and eight states have set offshore wind energy procurement goals totaling 39,298MW by 2040.

The wind energy market in Europe is expected to grow during the forecast period. The declining cost of generating wind power, growing awareness of environmental issues, and supportive government strategies through financial incentives are expected to support the market growth in the region. According to the government officials of Europe, the region installed 17.4GW of new wind power capacity in 2021, which increased by 18% compared to 2020. Europe currently has 236GW of installed wind power capacity, including 207GW onshore and 28GW offshore.

Get Discount on "Wind Energy Market" Research Study: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/discount/TIPRE00027594/

In February 2022, 81% of the new wind turbine installation in 2021 were onshore. The leading European countries, including Sweden, Germany, and Turkey, built the most onshore wind farms. The UK held the highest number of new wind turbine installations because they account for most of the new offshore installations. Europe is expected to register 236GW of wind power capacity by 2022. Germany continues to have the largest installed capacity in Europe, followed by Spain, the UK, France, and Sweden. Seven other countriesItaly, Turkey, the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Portugal, and Belgium have more than 5GW of wind tuerbine installed each. Further, as per the GWEC report, Europe is expected to install 116GW of new wind farms between 2022 and 2026; three-quarters of these new capacity additions will be onshore wind. Thus, such growth prospects in wind energy are anticipated to boost the market growth over the forecast period.

The Middle East & Africa is expected to witness moderate growth in the wind energy market during the forecast period. South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, and Kenya are a few of the prominent countries dominating the demand for wind energy. These countries are significantly contributing to the growth of producing wind energy, which is boosting the market growth. The key factors responsible for the growth of the market are supportive government policies, growing initiatives to cater to the rising power demand using clean energy sources, and reducing dependency on fossil fuels are expected to fuel the market growth over the coming years. For instance, in June 2022, A Saudi Arabian energy company signed an agreement with the Egyptian government with a project cost worth US$ 1.5 billion to develop a major wind project in Egypt. The facility will provide 1.1GW of wind power once the construction is completed; it will also provide electricity to more than 1 million homes.

Wind Energy Market: COVID-19 Overview

The COVID-19 outbreak dramatically impacted the global economy in early 2020, and the crisis has hampered business activities in manufacturing industries. Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the wind energy market was experiencing substantial growth owing to the growing awareness among consumers, planned strategies and projects as per timelines, and supportive government policies framework. Further, significant investment initiatives in wind energy farms were driving the market growth. However, the projects under construction were delayed or postponed after the onset of the pandemic, which has adversely affected the market. In a few countries, access to some sites was allowed under full lockdown, while in others, work on some projects could not continue even under a partial lockdown. Further, the crisis has restricted all business deals, collaborations, and partnerships, which significantly hampered the wind energy market. However, wind power sales increased in the second half of 2020 due to a high number of wind installations.

Buy Premium Copy of Wind Energy Market Growth Report (2022-2028) at: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/buy/TIPRE00027594/

Wind Energy Market: Capacity Overview

Based on capacity, the wind energy market is segmented into upto 1MW, 1-3 MW, 3-5 MW, and above 5MW. The 1-3 MW segment of the wind energy market is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Browse Adjoining Reports:

Offshore Wind Energy Market Forecast to 2028 - Covid-19 Impact and Global Analysis - by Component (Turbine, Substructure, Electrical Infrastructure, Others); Location (Shallow Water, Transitional Water, Deep Water) and Geography

Solar and Wind Renewable Energy Market Forecast to 2028 - Covid-19 Impact and Global Analysis - By Type (Solar and Wind); Installation (Solar and Wind); End-User (Residential, Commercial, and Industrial); and Geography

Renewable Energy Market Forecast to 2028 - Covid-19 Impact and Global Analysis - by Energy Source ( Hydro, Wind, Solar, Others ); End user ( Residential, Commercial, Industrial )

Wind Turbine Foundation Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Type (Mono-Pile, Jacket-Pile, Gravity, Tripod, Suction, Raft, Pile, Well Foundation, Rock & Anchor, and Others) and Application (Onshore and Offshore)

Wind Turbine Condition Monitoring Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Component (Hardware, Software, and Services) and Application (Rotor, Tower, Gearbox, Generator, and Others)

Small Wind Power Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Type (Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine, Vertical Axis Wind Turbine); Installation Type (On-Grid, Off-Grid); Application (Residential, Commercial, Utility) and Geography

Floating Wind Power Market to 2028 - Global Analysis and Forecasts by Water Depth (Shallow Water (less than 60 m Depth), Deep Water (higher than 60 m Depth)); Capacity (Upto 3 MW, 4 to 5 MW, Above 5 MW) and Geography

Offshore Wind Power Market to 2028 - Global Analysis and Forecasts by Installation (Fixed Structure, Floating Structure); Water Depth (Up to 30m, Above 30m); Capacity (Up to 3MW, 3MW to 5MW, Above 5MW) and Geography

Wind Energy Street Lamp Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Type (0-100W, 100-200W, 200-500W, Above 500W); Application (Highway, Branch Road, Park Path, Campus Area, Factory Area, Others) and Geography

Renewable Energy Circuit Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Type (Vacuum, Air, Gas, And Oil); Voltage (Medium, High); Installation (Indoor, Outdoor); End User (Transmission and Distribution Utilities, Power Generation, Renewables, Railways) and Geography

Renewable Energy Policy Fit Analysis Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Tariff Period (5-10 Years, 10-15 Years, 15-20 Years, 20-25 Years); Technology (Solar, Wind, Geothermal, Bio Energy) and Geography

About Us:

The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We specialize in industries such as Semiconductor and Electronics, Aerospace and Defense, Automotive and Transportation, Biotechnology, Healthcare IT, Manufacturing and Construction, Medical Device, Technology, Media and Telecommunications, Chemicals and Materials.

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SOURCE The Insight Partners
HOUSTON, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- Recent release "La Fuerza del Corazon" from Page Publishing author Yisel Rodriguez is a fascinating tale that captures the struggles and resilience of a young immigrant woman.

Yisel Rodriguez

Yisel Rodriguez, a Cuban native who now resides in Florida, an educator, a loving mother, has completed her new book "La Fuerza del Corazon": an equally amusing and inspiring journey of a young Cuban woman named Angeline who left her home country in hopes of a brighter future. Here, she narrates the joy and sorrows of an immigrant trying to make a home in an unknown world.

"La Fuerza del Corazon, the first work published by the author, is a novel in which a young Cuban named Angeline decides to emigrate to the United States in search of freedom, a better life, and within her, the hidden desire to forget a great forbidden love. The protagonist will be involved in a series of turbulent events that she will have to overcome to achieve her dreams, the politics governed by her country, the determination to leave in search of a different future and make her way in a world unknown to her, will lead her to make decisions leaving his heart shared between the two countries."

Published by Page Publishing, Yisel Rodriguez's awe-inspiring tale is a portrait of an immigrant navigating their way through a new country. It's an inspiring novel about overcoming discriminations and finding hope amidst the prejudices.

This is definitely one of the great reads out there.

Readers who wish to experience this potent work can purchase "La Fuerza del Corazon" at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes Store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708.

About Page Publishing:

Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors' books, including distribution in the world's largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create, not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Page's accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at www.pagepublishing.com.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1902029/Yisel_Rodriguez.jpg

SOURCE Page Publishing
New Guide by BCG and the CMO Sustainability Accelerator Highlights Ways to Link Sustainability to Broader Related Needs and Remove Barriers to Growth for Customers for Whom Sustainability is a Concern, but Not a Primary Driver

BOSTON, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- 96% of US consumers say they at least sometimes try to behave in ways that protect the planet, its people, and its resources1. Reaching collective climate ambitions requires massive consumer change, and chief marketing officers (CMOs) are well-positioned to drive this growth by "bringing green to the mainstream," according to an action plan for growth released today by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the CMO Sustainability Accelerator, a coalition composed of the Association of National Advertisers, Sustainable Brands, and Adweek.

The report, titled The Future is Mainstream Green: Introducing a New Growth Strategy, outlines a roadmap for how to achieve Mainstream Green  defined as driving sustainable choices by all consumers, not just those who are moved by sustainable claims. Reaching Mainstream Green is a key opportunity for marketers to help close the intent-to-action gap by motivating customers to move beyond expressing concern for sustainability to adopting sustainable behaviors and purchasing sustainable goods/services.

"Organizations cannot achieve the environmental sustainability goals that they've pledged without inspiring consumers across the board to change their habits," said Lauren Taylor, a BCG managing director and partner and global leader of the firm's customer-centric sustainability topic, who coauthored the report. "However, we need to make sustainable options meet consumers' core needs, rather than expecting the majority to make tradeoffs when they choose a sustainable option. Making green truly mainstream will require activating large-scale collective action by companies, with CMOs playing a key role."

"As vital members of the C-suite core to business growth, CMOs and marketing leaders around the world are seeking new and actionable ways to drive sustainable practicestable stakes for thriving businesses in a new era," said Jenny Rooney, Chief Experience Officer at Adweek. "Adweek, ANA, SB, and BCG have come together to create a roadmap that provides direction to help marketing chiefs champion and implement sustainable business practices throughout their organizations. Adweek will continue the sustainability conversation and learnings through upcoming content and gatherings, including an event where our community can explore these guidelines and the C-level collaboration necessary for success."

"We know sustainability can play a key role in driving growth, which is the centerpiece of the ANA's Growth Agenda," said ANA CEO Bob Liodice. "The ANA is proud to produce this new report in collaboration with BCG and our partners in the CMO Sustainability Accelerator initiative. These guidelines and recommendations will help CMOs drive behavioral change in consumers and marketers who appreciate the benefits of being green but need guidance on how to fulfill the promise of true sustainability while growing their business."

"Most brands are somewhere on the journey to becoming a sustainably regenerative brand of the future, and we are delighted to provide this practical and applicable resource for CMOs to engage with their cross-functional stakeholders and help them collaboratively tackle the challenges toward good growth with their C-suite partners," said KoAnn Vikoren Skrzyniarz, founder and Chief Executive of Sustainable Brands.

The CMO is Key to Unlocking 'Mainstream Green'

Just 20% of consumers think they can personally have an impact on climate and sustainability issues and more significantly, approximately 70% of consumers are disillusioned2  wary of corporate claims about progress toward sustainability. But they are critical stakeholders, without whom companies can only achieve a portion of their environmental sustainability goals. It is up to marketers to link corporate climate and sustainability commitments to palatable growth drivers and show their customers that they are not merely performative. In addition to representing the voice and perspective of the customer, CMOs ensure cohesion across functions to realize business value from sustainability. As experts on customer needs and barriers, they can make complex topics digestible, and unfamiliar products desirable to ultimately activate significant consumer change.

Three Steps to Making Sustainability a Driver for Growth

Marketers can achieve Mainstream Green by putting customers at the center of a three-step strategy to make sustainability a driver for growth:

Understand drivers of choice. Customer-centric sustainability starts with understanding customers' drivers of choice and how they relate to environmental sustainability. Linking sustainability to broader related needs (such as health) can unlock two to four times the number of customers for whom sustainability is a concern but not a primary driver of choice. In addition, making sustainability a "bonus benefit" significantly expands the sustainable customer base to those for whom sustainability is not a driver of choice at all.

Customer-centric sustainability starts with understanding customers' drivers of choice and how they relate to environmental sustainability. Linking sustainability to broader related needs (such as health) can unlock two to four times the number of customers for whom sustainability is a concern but not a primary driver of choice. In addition, making sustainability a "bonus benefit" significantly expands the sustainable customer base to those for whom sustainability is not a driver of choice at all. Create a sustainable offering. To drive business and sustainability impact, the real barriers to Mainstream Green (such as value, efficacy, or taste) must be addressed. Innovation is a win-win-win solution that makes sustainability an "and," not an "or." Taking a customer-centric view also elevates sustainability out of a singular functional silo, ensuring cohesion, facilitating collaboration, and producing better outcomes.

To drive business and sustainability impact, the real barriers to Mainstream Green (such as value, efficacy, or taste) must be addressed. Innovation is a win-win-win solution that makes sustainability an "and," not an "or." Taking a customer-centric view also elevates sustainability out of a singular functional silo, ensuring cohesion, facilitating collaboration, and producing better outcomes. Promote sustainable choices. Leverage the full customer engagement toolkit to overcome perceived barriers and drive demand for sustainable choices. For early sustainability adopters, techniques focus on removing friction to purchase, strengthening customer connections, and amplifying advocates authentically. For sustainability laggards, techniques focus on building awareness and understanding, disrupting existing habits, and inspiring and empowering customers to choose greener options.

Download the guide for customer-centric sustainable growth here.

Media Contact:

Eric Gregoire:

+1 617 850 3783

[email protected]

About the Association of National Advertisers

The ANA's (Association of National Advertisers) mission is to drive growth for marketing professionals, brands and businesses, the industry, and humanity. The ANA serves the marketing needs of 20,000 brands by leveraging the 12-point ANA Growth Agenda, which has been endorsed by the Global CMO Growth Council. The ANA's membership consists of U.S. and international companies, including client-side marketers, nonprofits, fundraisers, and marketing solutions providers (data science and technology companies, ad agencies, publishers, media companies, suppliers, and vendors). The ANA creates Marketing Growth Champions by serving, educating, and advocating for more than 50,000 industry members that collectively invest more than $400 billion in marketing and advertising annually.

About Sustainable Brands

Sustainable Brands is the premier global community of brand innovators who are shaping the future of commerce worldwide. Since 2006, our mission has been to inspire, engage and equip today's business and brand innovators to prosper for the near and long term by leading the way to a better future. Digitally published news articles and issues-focused conversation topics, internationally known conferences and regional events, a robust e-learning library, and peer-to-peer membership groups and brand collaboration initiatives all facilitate community engagement and industry progress throughout the year. For more information visit www.SustainableBrands.com.

About ADWEEK

Adweek is the leading source of news and insight serving the brand marketing ecosystem. First published in 1979, Adweek's award-winning coverage reaches an engaged audience of more than 6 million professionals across platforms including print, digital, events, podcasts, newsletters, social media and mobile apps. As a touchstone of the advertising and marketing community, Adweek is an unparalleled resource for leaders across multiple industries who rely on its content to help them do their jobs better.

About Boston Consulting Group

Boston Consulting Group partners with leaders in business and society to tackle their most important challenges and capture their greatest opportunities. BCG was the pioneer in business strategy when it was founded in 1963. Today, we work closely with clients to embrace a transformational approach aimed at benefiting all stakeholdersempowering organizations to grow, build sustainable competitive advantage, and drive positive societal impact.

Our diverse, global teams bring deep industry and functional expertise and a range of perspectives that question the status quo and spark change. BCG delivers solutions through leading-edge management consulting, technology and design, and corporate and digital ventures. We work in a uniquely collaborative model across the firm and throughout all levels of the client organization, fueled by the goal of helping our clients thrive and enabling them to make the world a better place.

SOURCE Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
Leaders, experts, and employers to gather in Denver to share best practices

DENVER, Sept. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, there are five generations in Colorado's workforce. Twenty-three percent of the state's total employment is people aged 55 and older, according to the Colorado State Demography Office. This trend presents a tremendous opportunity for employers to develop and implement programs that address the multigenerational workforce and workers' changing needs.

"The U.S. population is aging and our workforce is growing older. Older workers bring wisdom and value to the workplace. However, many employers have not yet aligned their recruiting and retention strategies in sync with their needs. By sharing best practices, we can help employers tap into this vital demographic," said Brian Kaskie, professor of health management and policy at the University of Iowa College of Public Health and head of Age-Inclusive Management Strategies Colorado (AIMS Colorado).

AIMS Colorado is a multi-year project dedicated to transforming the way employers shape the future of aging in Colorado, by addressing how they meet the needs and preferences of experienced employees (i.e., older workers). It is a collaboration between the University of Iowa College of Public Health and nonprofit Transamerica Institute. It is funded by a grant from Colorado-based NextFifty Initiative.

On Wednesday, September 28, 2022, AIMS Colorado is hosting a free conference at the History Colorado Center in Denver and online via livestream. It will feature Colorado leaders and nationally recognized experts as well as employers who have participated in AIMS Colorado and adopted best practices.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis is scheduled to share how the State of Colorado is fostering multigenerational workforces and supporting its age 50+ workers. Additional speakers include: Joe Barela, Executive Director, CO Department of Labor and Employment; Chip Conley, founder and CEO, Modern Elder Academy (via pre-recorded video); Richard Eisenberg, aging expert, unretired freelance writer and editor; Rick Guzzo, co-founder of Mercer's Workforce Sciences Institute; Kerry Hannon, workplace futurist, author, and Yahoo Finance senior columnist; Heather Tinsley-Fix, Senior Advisor, Financial Resilience, AARP; and more. In addition, attendees will hear discussion panels featuring Colorado-based employers and local nonprofits. For in-person attendees, there will also be networking sessions organized throughout the conference.

"Colorado is making great strides in enriching the lives of its age 50+ population. By encouraging employers to adapt age-friendly best practices, it is strengthening its economy and cultivating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce," says Catherine Collinson, CEO and president of nonprofit Transamerica Institute and collaborator on AIMS Colorado.

Register to attend in-person or livestream: www.TransamericaInstitute.org/AIMS. While this event is free, registration is required, as space is limited.

All in-person attendees will receive a copy of Kerry Hannon's new book, In Control at 50+: How to Succeed in the New World of Work, and all in-person and virtual attendees will be eligible to receive SHRM recertification credits.

For more information, please visit Transamerica Institute.

The University of Iowa College of Public Health works to promote health and prevent injury and illness through its commitment to education and training, excellence in research, innovation in policy development, and devotion to public health practice. www.public-health.uiowa.edu

Transamerica Institute is a nonprofit, private foundation dedicated to identifying, researching, and educating the public about health and wellness, employment, financial literacy, longevity, and retirement. It is the parent organization of Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies which conducts one of the largest and longest-running annual retirement surveys of its kind. Transamerica Institute is funded by contributions from Transamerica Life Insurance Company and its affiliates. www.transamericainstitute.org

NextFifty Initiative is a Colorado-based, private foundation funding efforts to improve the lives of older adults and their caregivers. The foundation works with community leaders, experts in the field of aging, and front-line professionals to support programs and projects that positively impact aging and longevity. They focus on education, sharing best practices, and supporting innovation that will transform aging for generations to come. In 2021, NextFifty Initiative awarded grants of roughly $12 million. To learn more, visit www.Next50Initiative.org.

Media Contact:

Morgan Karbowski

[email protected]

425-753-5719

SOURCE Transamerica Institute
ABU DHABI, UAE, LONDON and SINGAPORE, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- AirCarbon Exchange (ACX) is delighted to have been voted as the best carbon exchange in Environmental Finance's Voluntary Carbon Market Rankings 2022, making it the second consecutive year ACX has been awarded the title following 2021's win.

ACX is grateful for all the support it has received from those voting in the awards with particular thanks to Environmental Finance for showcasing the excellent work being carried out in the voluntary carbon market sector.

"The Environmental Finance Award is the most coveted industry honor in our space. It is therefore, humbling to receive the award for the second year running," said William Pazos, Managing Director and Co-Founder of ACX. "It's a nod to our world-class team who tirelessly works to bring price transparency through innovation to the carbon markets. But mostly, it speaks to a broader synergy between ACX and its members. In the end, we are here to serve them."

The award is the culmination of an incredibly busy year at ACX with the exchange expanding its operations across the world as it seeks to open up carbon markets so companies can achieve their net zero targets. Brazil, Africa and the Middle East have been three key areas where ACX has made significant inroads with the exchange working with its partners EQAO and BlockC to establish a voluntary carbon marketplace in Brazil as well as hosting the world's first ever auction of micromobility carbon credits.

In Africa, ACX is collaborating with the Nairobi International Financial Centre and the Nairobi Securities Exchange to develop Kenya's first carbon exchange while in the Middle East ACX has bolstered its presence and helped the Abu Dhabi Global Market achieve the landmark of being the world's first carbon neutral International Finance Centre.

As well as helping others achieve their climate goals, ACX stood out among its peers when it became the world's first carbon negative exchange in May 2021, having offset its carbon emissions 12 months into the future through the Onil Stoves Guatemala Uspantan project. This commitment was continued this year with the purchase of credits from the Katingan Peatland Restoration and Conservation Project in Indonesia.

In June, ACX went live with the Global Emission Reduction contract, or GER, a pioneering environmental product that has the potential to become the global reference price for carbon offsetters. The previous month, ACX achieved the milestone of 10 million credits transacted through its exchange, highlighting its central importance as the voluntary carbon market sector expands rapidly over the coming years.

Receiving Environmental Finance's accolade for a second year in a row only serves to harden ACX's commitment to be the key agent in the democratization of voluntary carbon markets by making them as transparent and efficient as possible with the next year seeing ACX continue to expand globally.

About AirCarbon Exchange (ACX):

AirCarbon Exchange ("ACX") is a global exchange revolutionizing the voluntary carbon market. The Exchange's client base comprises corporate entities, financial traders, carbon project developers and other industry stakeholders. ACX provides its participants with an efficient and transparent trading platform which is easy to use, frictionless and with the lowest transaction fees available on the market. Its underlying distributed ledger technology will allow the carbon market to scale efficiently to meet global ambitions of Net Zero.

ACX was recognized as the Best Carbon Exchange globally in Environmental Finance's prestigious Voluntary Carbon Market Rankings 2022 - the largest and most closely watched survey of the world's Voluntary Carbon Market. ACX was also named as the 'Best Solution in Energy Trading' by Wired UK and Publicis Sapient at their Global EnergyTech Awards, which spotlighted the companies that are 'Winning the Race to Reinvent Energy'.

For more information or to trade carbon, please reach out to [email protected] or visit www.aircarbon.co.

SOURCE AirCarbon Exchange
Study Was Evaluating the Use of Apixaban in Patients Treated with Mechanical Aortic Valves

ATLANTA, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --- Artivion, Inc. (NYSE: AORT), a leading cardiac and vascular surgery company focused on aortic disease, announced today that it has stopped the PROACT Xa clinical trial, a prospective, randomized, trial designed to determine if patients with an On-X mechanical aortic valve can be maintained safely and effectively on apixaban rather than on warfarin. The decision was based on the recommendation of the independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) of the trial due to lack of evidence supporting non-inferiority of apixaban to warfarin for valve thrombosis and thromboembolism.

The PROACT Xa trial randomized patients having an On-X aortic valve replacement to receive either warfarin or apixaban as their anticoagulant to prevent blood clots. The trial began enrolling in April 2020. The DSMB found that blood clots, resulting in stroke, occurred more frequently in patients receiving apixaban and that continuing the trial was unlikely to achieve the primary endpoint while possibly exposing patients to increased risk. Physician investigators at the trial's sites are being notified to change patients who are in the apixaban arm of the trial back to warfarin.

Dr. John Alexander, Chair of the PROACT Xa trial and Professor of Medicine/Cardiology at Duke University School of Medicine, said, "The PROACT Xa trial was designed to determine whether apixaban would yield equivalent safety to the standard anticoagulant, warfarin. Unfortunately, it appears that it does not. On behalf of all of the investigators, we appreciate the research effort into the science of managing patients with artificial heart valves."

Pat Mackin, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Artivion said, "The On-X aortic valve has a long track record of safe and efficacious outcomes and is the leading mechanical aortic valve in the United States and in other markets around the globe. Despite this setback, the On-X aortic valve provides significant clinical benefits to patients and remains the only mechanical aortic valve for which patients can be safely managed with reduced blood thinners, leading to a 60 percent reduction in bleeding."

Mr. Mackin continued, "We are disappointed to stop the PROACT Xa trial as a successful trial would have significantly benefited patients and significantly increased our addressable market opportunity beginning in 2025. Despite stopping the trial, we are reiterating our 2022 outlook of delivering double-digit top-line growth and we remain committed to delivering the financial expectations we communicated in our March investor meeting: Double digit top-line growth, expanding gross margins, and accelerated adjusted EBITDA growth through 2024. We had committed approximately $10 million in annual funding to this study through 2024 and will now redirect these funds to other development opportunities and to incremental EBITDA and cash flow in 2023 and 2024."

Webcast and Conference Call Information

The Company will hold a teleconference call and live webcast later today, September 23, 2022, at 8:30 a.m. ET. To participate in the conference call dial 201-689-8261 a few minutes prior to 8:30 a.m. ET. The teleconference replay will be available approximately one hour following the completion of the event and can be accessed by calling (toll free) 877-660-6853 or 201-612-7415. The conference number for the replay is 13733128.

The live webcast and replay can be accessed by going to the Investors section of the Artivion website at www.Artivion.com and selecting the heading Webcasts & Presentations.

About Artivion

Headquartered in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, Artivion, Inc. is a medical device company focused on developing simple, elegant solutions that address cardiac and vascular surgeons' most difficult challenges in treating patients with aortic diseases. This multinational company's four major groups of products include: aortic stents and stent grafts, prosthetic heart valves, cryopreserved cardiac and vascular allografts, and surgical sealants. Artivion markets and sells products in more than 100 countries worldwide. For additional information about Artivion, visit our website, www.artivion.com.

Forward Looking Statements

Statements made in this press release that look forward in time or that express management's beliefs, expectations, or hopes are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements reflect the views of management at the time such statements are made. These statements include our beliefs that the On-X aortic valve is the leading mechanical aortic valve in the United States and in other markets around the globe; that the On-X aortic valve provides significant clinical benefits to patients and remains the only mechanical aortic valve for which patients can be safely managed with reduced blood thinners, leading to a 60 percent reduction in bleeding; and our expectations that we will achieve our 2022 outlook of delivering double-digit top line growth; will deliver on the financial expectations we communicated in our March investor meeting: Double digit top-line growth, expanding gross margins, and accelerated adjusted EBITDA growth through 2022; and will redirect the funds we planned to invest in the PROACT Xa clinical trial into other development opportunities and to incremental EBITDA and cash flow in 2023 and 2024. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, estimates, and assumptions that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. These risks and uncertainties include the risk factors detailed in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including our Form 10-K for year ended December 31, 2021. Artivion does not undertake to update its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Contacts:

Artivion Gilmartin Group LLC D. Ashley Lee Brian Johnston / Lynn Lewis Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Phone: 631-807-1986 Phone: 770-419-3355 [email protected]













SOURCE Artivion, Inc.
SAN DIEGO, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Convivio Society, San Diego's premier non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Italian culture and heritage in San Diego County is hosting best-selling author and "The Godfather" actor, Gianni Russo , on September 30. The Hollywood-style, red carpet extravaganza kicks off Italian American Heritage Month with Russo (who played Carlo Rizzi in the iconic film), headlining the intimate evening sharing details of his extraordinary life before a crowd of more than four hundred fans.

Gianni Russo's Book, "Hollywood Godfather"

Combining storytelling and crooning, Russo will captivate the audience, recounting his struggle to overcome polio as a young man, escape from capture by renowned drug lord, Pablo Escobar, and inspiration on how to act and sing from his mentors, Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra, respectively.

The evening will begin at 5:30 pm with 100 guests having the opportunity to spend time with Russo for a personal Meet-And Greet, receive a signed copy of his book, "Hollywood Godfather," take pictures with him, and enjoy appetizers and Prosecco. The group also will be greeted by the voices of Rosario Monetti and Victoria Robertson, accompanied on keyboard by local favorite, Jim Bianchi. A VIP dinner presented by several high-end restaurants will follow. Russo will take the stage at 8:00 pm and finish the night autographing pictures and purchased copies of his book.

"We are humbled to have Mr. Russo help us to kick off October's Italian American Heritage Month and join us in our mission to educate San Diegans about the vital role Italians have played in our city's history going back to the late 1800s," said Tom Cesarini, executive director of Convivio Society and Italian Honorary Consul in San Diego. "We are grateful for Mr. Russo's commitment to serve as an ambassador in support of our numerous local causes as well as bring attention to the positive contributions of Italian Americans to the fabric of our society."

In addition to Russo's performance, Convivio's Amici House coffee bar, Caffe Caritazza , will be open to serve both its regular coffee offerings as well as signature specialty drinks. Wine by Mignanelli Winery , beer, and non-alcoholic beverages will be available for purchase. In addition, Russo's book, event t-shirts, and Corleone-brand food products will also be for sale. An online, silent auction will offer guests the option to bid on unique items, and Russo will cap off the evening by leading his own auction offering bidders a chance at an exclusive dinner-for-ten package at Russo's New York home.

For more information about Convivio's celebratory evening and to purchase tickets to the Meet-And-Greet and Russo's performance, visit www.godfather50.org .

Russo will be flying in on the day of the event. Following a sound check, Convivio will be facilitating a media conference at approximately 4:30 pm, the details of which will be released the week of September 26. He is available for pre-event media interviews with radio, television, print, and online news sites from his studio in New York. (See contact information below.)

Convivio Society, a 501(c)(3) corporation was founded in 2001. The organization provides advocates, donors, and volunteers the organizational capacity to advance Italian cultural identity, preserve Italian cultural-heritage assets, cultivate community and fellowship, and foster multicultural awareness through the arts, humanities, and other disciplines.

Media Inquiries (for interviews pre-event and day of performance)

Dan Springer

Media Relations Officer, Convivio Society

Cell: 858-790-9551

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Convivio Society
HANGZHOU, China, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- BEST Inc. (NYSE: BEST) ("BEST" or the "Company"), a leading integrated smart supply chain solutions and logistics services provider in China and Southeast Asia ("SEA"), today announced that it is notifying holders of its 1.75% Convertible Senior Notes due 2024 (CUSIP Nos. 08653CAB2 & G11056AA9) (the "Notes") that pursuant to the Indenture dated as of September 17, 2019 (the "Indenture") relating to the Notes by and between the Company and Citicorp International Limited, as trustee, each holder has the right, at the option of such holder, to require the Company to repurchase all of such holder's Notes or any portion thereof that is an integral multiple of US$1,000 principal amount for cash on September 30, 2022 (the "Repurchase Right"). The Repurchase Right expires at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on Friday, September 30, 2022.

The Repurchase Right entitles each holder of the Notes to require the Company to repurchase all of such holder's Notes or any portion thereof that is an integral multiple of US$1,000 principal amount. The repurchase price for such Notes will be equal to 100% of the principal amount of the Notes to be repurchased, plus any accrued and unpaid interest to, but excluding, September 30, 2022, which is the date specified for repurchase in the Indenture (the "Repurchase Date"), subject to the terms and conditions of the Indenture and the Notes. October 1, 2022 is an interest payment date under the terms of the Indenture and the Notes. Accordingly, on October 1, 2022, the Company will pay accrued and unpaid interest on all of the Notes through September 30, 2022 to all holders who were holders of record as of 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on Thursday, September 15, 2022, regardless of whether the Repurchase Right is exercised with respect to such Notes. As of August 31, 2022, there was US$105,160,000 in aggregate principal amount of the Notes outstanding. If all outstanding Notes are surrendered for repurchase through the exercise of the Repurchase Right, the aggregate cash purchase price will be US$105,160,000.

The opportunity for holders of the Notes to exercise the Repurchase Right commences at 9:00 a.m., New York City time, on Thursday, September 1, 2022, and will terminate at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on Wednesday, September 28, 2022. In order to exercise the Repurchase Right, a holder must follow the procedures set forth in the Company's Notice of Optional Repurchase Right to holders (the "Repurchase Right Notice"), which is available through Citicorp International Limited. Holders may withdraw any previously surrendered Notes pursuant to the terms of the Repurchase Right Notice at any time prior to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on Wednesday, September 28, 2022, or as otherwise provided by applicable law.

This press release is for information only and is not an offer to purchase, a solicitation of an offer to purchase or a solicitation of an offer to sell the Notes or any other securities of the Company. The Notes may be repurchased only in accordance with the Company's Repurchase Right Notice and related documents. None of the Company, its board of directors or its employees has made or is making any representation or recommendation to any holder as to whether to exercise or refrain from exercising the Repurchase Right.

Holders of the Notes should refer to the Indenture for a complete description of repurchase procedures.

HOLDERS OF NOTES AND OTHER INTERESTED PARTIES ARE URGED TO READ THE COMPANY'S REPURCHASE RIGHT NOTICE BECAUSE IT CONTAINS IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE REPURCHASE RIGHT.

ABOUT BEST INC.

BEST Inc. (NYSE: BEST) is a leading integrated smart supply chain solutions and logistics services provider in China and Southeast Asia. Through its proprietary technology platform and extensive networks, BEST offers a comprehensive set of logistics and value-added services, including freight delivery, supply chain management and global logistics services. BEST's mission is to empower business and enrich life by leveraging technology and business model innovation to create a smarter, more efficient supply chain. For more information, please visit: http://www.best-inc.com/en/ .

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT

This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar statements. Among other things, the business outlook and quotations from management in this announcement, as well as BEST's strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements. BEST may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about BEST's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: BEST's goals and strategies; BEST's future business development, results of operations and financial condition; BEST's ability to maintain and enhance its ecosystem; BEST's ability to compete effectively; BEST's ability to continue to innovate, meet evolving market trends, adapt to changing customer demands and maintain its culture of innovation; fluctuations in general economic and business conditions in China and other countries in which BEST operates, and assumptions underlying or related to any of the foregoing. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in BEST's filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and BEST does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.

SOURCE BEST Inc.
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Sept. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- From October 7 to October 10, BluePoint Mortgage will be attending the NAMB National Conference and Trade Show, booth 412. The event will be held at the Palace Ballroom inside Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino - Las Vegas, Nevada.

The National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB) is the voice of the mortgage industry representing the interests of mortgage professionals and homebuyers since 1973, and host of the NAMB National Conference and Trade Show. NAMB National 2022 attracts thousands of top mortgage professionals in the industry.

"Our goal is to continuously expand our loan products and support for our mortgage brokers, especially in a challenging market." Tweet this BluePoint Mortgage will be attending the NAMB National Conference and Trade Show, booth 412 (PRNewsfoto/BluePoint Mortgage)

BluePoint Mortgage will be showcasing their new mortgage products and solutions designed with mortgage brokers in mind.

Recent enhancements to its core products, such as non-QM loans include a written verification of employment (WVOE) loan, which allows cash workers to qualify for a home loan with a WVOE completed by the their employer, and a 40-year interest-only loan, which allows a borrower to reduce their initial monthly payment for the first 10 years by making interest-only payments, followed by fully amortized payments for the remaining 30 years of the loan.

Other enhancements to BluePoint's Non-QM products include a no ratio option for its investment property loans geared towards real-estate investors, and improved income requirements for self-employed borrowers requiring only one-year of personal and business tax returns instead of two years. These product enhancements provide a competitive edge for mortgage brokers who partner with BluePoint Mortgage.

"Our goal is to continuously expand our loan products and support for our mortgage brokers, especially in a challenging market" says Sam Soliman, CEO of BluePoint Mortgage.

The event will feature opportunities for attendees to learn about new mortgage tools, the current mortgage environment, and attend networking events.

Want to learn more or partner with BluePoint Mortgage? Visit bluepointmtg.com

About BluePoint Mortgage

We expedite Non-QM, FHA, VA and conventional loan programs for a growing list of mortgage brokers throughout the nation. The Scotsman Guide ranks BluePoint Mortgage within its list of Top 20 Wholesale Lenders and within the top two 100% wholesale lenders on the list. The company does not offer retail loans.

BluePoint Mortgage is based in Newport Beach, CA. NMLS ID# 320004, BRE #01403107.

SOURCE BluePoint Mortgage
AIR COMPANY will provide up to 5 million gallons per year of AIRMADE SAF to power Overture flight test program and further Boom's net zero carbon commitment

DENVER, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Boom Supersonic , the company building the world's fastest airliner, optimized for speed, safety, and sustainability, announced at Climate Week NYC that it has signed a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) offtake agreement with AIR COMPANY , which creates carbon-negative products from CO2. As part of the agreement, Boom will purchase up to 5 million gallons of AIRMADE SAF on an annual basis over the duration of the Overture flight test program, advancing the company's net zero commitments. Overture will carry passengers at twice the speed of today's fastest commercial aircraft while operating on 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

AIR COMPANY will provide up to 5 million gallons per year of AIRMADE SAF to power Overture flight test program and further Booms net zero carbon commitment

"Sustainable aviation fuel is critical to sustainable supersonic travel, and fuel made from CO2 is the most scalable pathway to abundant SAF," said Kathy Savitt, President of Boom Supersonic. "We look forward to partnering with AIR COMPANY to power Overture's flight test program with 100% SAF."

AIRMADE SAF from AIR COMPANY is expected to power Overture during its net zero carbon flight test program at the Overture Superfactory in Greensboro, North Carolina. Using a similar proprietary technology that mimics photosynthesis to create its consumer ethanol, AIR COMPANY has developed and deployed its single-step process for CO2-derived fuel production using renewable electricity.

"AIR COMPANY and Boom Supersonic are two companies making real strides towards a markedly different world of aviation," explained AIR COMPANY CEO, Gregory Constantine. "Working with Boom Supersonic to offer the first commercially available power-to-liquid SAF has been an incredible marriage of two forward-thinking companies, ready to improve the world in which we live and fly. We look forward to a long partnership and are excited to share more innovation as the relationship continues."

This agreement with AIR COMPANY is the latest in a series of milestones Boom has achieved on its path to bring sustainable supersonic flight to millions of travelers. Boom is excited to work with partners committed to net zero carbon Overture operations. Boom was also the first aircraft manufacturer to sign the Amazon Climate Pledge in 2020, committing to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement by 2040.

Boom recently released its findings after conducting extensive research analyzing key drivers required to achieve exponential growth in the SAF industry. Emerging SAF technologies can reduce up to 100% of carbon emissions compared to traditional jet fuel it replaces. While SAF production is still in its infancy, the SAF industry is well poised to achieve exponential growth seen in other renewable energy sectors. If SAF scales at the rate of solar energy, it could reach projected international jet fuel demand by 2036. This growth is necessary to address the global demand for aviation fuel with SAF in the 2030-2045 timeframe.

"As fuel stakeholders, Boom and our customers have a responsibility to help next-generation SAF scale," said Ben Murphy, Boom's VP of Sustainability. "Early buy-in from future SAF users like us sends a critical signal to researchers, producers, and investors that the demand is there."

To learn more about Boom's sustainability commitments, please visit: https://boomsupersonic.com/sustainability

About Boom Supersonic

Boom Supersonic is transforming air travel with Overture, the world's fastest airliner, optimized for speed, safety, and sustainability. Serving both civil and government markets, Overture will fly at twice the speed of today's airliners and is designed to run on 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Overture's order book, including purchases and options from American Airlines, United Airlines, and Japan Airlines stands at 130 aircraft. Boom is working with Northrop Grumman for government and defense applications of Overture. Suppliers and partners collaborating with Boom on the Overture program include Collins Aerospace, Eaton, Safran Landing Systems, the United States Air Force, American Express, Climeworks, and AWS. For more information, visit https://boomsupersonic.com

Photos and video available at https://boomsupersonic.com/press

Connect with Boom Supersonic on Twitter , LinkedIn , Facebook , Instagram, YouTube

About AIR COMPANY

AIR COMPANY is the world's leading carbon utilization company, creating consumer and industrial products from carbon dioxide (CO2). The company's patented and proprietary Carbon Conversion Reactor mimics photosynthesis, using only air (CO2), water and sun (renewable energy) to create carbon-negative alcohols and fuels from CO2. With three consumer products (AIR Vodka, AIR Hand Sanitizer, and AIR Eau de Parfum) brought to market thus far, AIR COMPANY is moving towards world-scale impact with its latest innovation  CO2-derived sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The company's AIRMADE SAF will be certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) and the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC). Amongst a number of accomplishments, AIR COMPANY has received $40MM in venture capital funding to date and won an incredible amount of highly acclaimed awards: TIME Best Inventions, Fast Company World Changing Ideas, the NASA CO2 Conversion Challenge, R&D World's R&D 100, and most recently, the Keeling Curve Prize, among others. AIR COMPANY is the future of carbon technologies. It is redefining what a regenerative future that works with nature, rather than against it, could look like.

SOURCE Boom Supersonic
Florida-based independent insurance company welcomed Ch-a Mosley as the new co-owner, who will be helping with company expansion and bringing in more business.

CLEARWATER, Fla., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Serving the Clearwater, Tampa Bay area with its wide range of insurance products, BFF Enterprises (bffenterprises.org) has made its name by fulfilling the unique needs of businesses, families, and individuals. They currently offer an array of services, including Life Insurance, Indexed Universal Life Insurance, Annuities, and Health Insurance. And now, the company is proud to welcome Ch-a Mosley as the new co-owner.

Ch-a Mosley

The daughter of the Hollywood actor Roger E. Mosley, best known for his role in Magnum PI, Ch-a Mosley is committed to bringing her sense of ambition and charming personality to enable BFF Enterprises to step into the forefront of the insurance industry.

Long time CEO of BFF Enterprises stated, "We are honored and overjoyed to be joined by Ch-a Mosley, she is appreciated by our clients, and she is very knowledgeable. I am sure she will show great interest and enthusiasm in undertaking the duties as the co-owner. BFF Enterprises welcomes her and wishes her all the best in the journey ahead - it's time to expand the company."

BFF Enterprises is looking forward to a start of a new era with Ch-a Mosley. She will play a significant role in helping the company discover new horizons. Her presence as the co-owner will definitely boost customer confidence and enhance their impeccable customer service, which industry professionals have long lauded.

Located in Clearwater, FL, BFF Enterprises currently works with Gradient Financial Group as the primary brokerage firm. As an independent firm, the company enables its customers to shop from different carriers and helps them find the best policy for their individual needs.

Media contact:

Lorand Fabian

[email protected]

727-330-8422

SOURCE BFF Enterprises, Independent Insurance Agency
DUBLIN, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "China Automotive Ultrasonic Radar and OEM Parking Roadmap Research Report, 2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

In 2021, ultrasonic radar shipments hit 100 million units, and intelligent parking became a crucial engine.



In 2025, China's ultrasonic radar installations will exceed 140 million units.



According to the publisher, in 2021 China's ultrasonic radar installations in passenger cars jumped by 11.8% on the previous year to 97.138 million units, a figure projected to be more than 100 million units in 2022 and exceed 140 million units in 2025.



By auto brand in China, the installations of joint venture brands were higher than local brands, but from growth momentum, homegrown brands gained the upper hand.



In 2021, joint venture brands in China installed 59.427 million ultrasonic radars in their passenger cars, 1.6 times more than local brands (37.711 million units). In growth rate's terms, the installations of local brands surged by 35.7% from a year earlier, compared with joint venture brands (a tiny 0.6%).

Advanced automated parking solutions will be the main application scenario of ultrasonic radars.

As L2+ automated driving develops, parking solutions including parking assist (e.g., ultrasonic radar-only, ultrasonic radar + surround view camera, ultrasonic radar + rear view camera, rear view/surround view camera, etc.), automated parking assist (APA), remote parking assist (RPA), and automated valet parking (AVP) are being mounted on new vehicles in China.



In 2021, in China the brands that equipped their new vehicle models with APA (including integrated APA) contained Haval, Geely and Lynk & Co; the RPA-enabled brands incorporated Changan Automobile, ARCFOX and WEY. In addition, Xpeng Motors, Hongqi, Weltmeister, and NIO were the first ones to deploy AVP solutions.



Our statistics show that in 2021, there were 1.787 million passenger cars equipped with the APA function in China, or 8.8% of the total; 432,000 passenger cars packed the integrated APA capability, accounting for 2.1%; 206,000 passenger cars, or 0.1% of the total, carried the RPA function.



Suppliers: Valeo and Bosch are leaders, and local players rise swiftly to prominence

Tier 1 suppliers such as Valeo and Bosch are monopolies in the Chinese ultrasonic radar market, of which Bosch already has 6 generations of ultrasonic radar products used in such scenarios as parking assist, side distance warning, side assistance, and emergency braking at low speeds.



In the parking field, Bosch has mass-produced APA, RPA and AVP solutions among others. Wherein, the RPA solution has been applied to production models such as Aion V and ARCFOX ?T; AVP has been first available to New Mercedes-Benz S-Class, a production sedan.



Among local companies in China, Audiowell, Shenzhen Longhorn Automotive Electronic Equipment, Coligen, TungThih Electronic and Zongmu Technology are at the leading edge. Thereof, Audiowell's vehicle ultrasonic radars have undergone 4 iterations, and its fourth-generation AK2 ultrasonic radar core was unveiled in 2021, the up-to-date technology that enables L2+ AVP automated driving capability following UPA and APA. Audiowell also got the investment from Desay SV in 2021 and successfully went public on June 14, 2022.



As well as Audiowell, SOFTEC, Coligen, and Forvision (ThunderSoft acquired 51.48% of its shares in 2021) have also launched AK2 series ultrasonic radars, some of which have been produced in quantities.



As intelligent parking solutions like Home-AVP and AVP come out, independent controllers can no longer meet the existing needs, and the parking domain begins to integrate into the autonomous driving domain. On this basis, the driving and parking integrated solutions come into being.



So far, quite a few companies in China including Neusoft Reach, Desay SV, Freetech and iMotion have rolled out their driving and parking integrated solutions, and have secured designated OEM orders for production vehicle models.



Desay SV IPU03 domain controller having been used in Xpeng P7, enables driving and parking integration, and supports on/off-ramp and automatic lane change in highway scenarios, automatic follow in urban traffic jams, and automated parking and valet parking in low-speed scenarios.



Key Topics Covered:



1 Automotive Ultrasonic Radars and Application Scenarios

1.1 Overview of Automotive Ultrasonic Radar

1.1.1 Introduction

1.1.2 Key Features

1.1.3 System Composition and Working Principle

1.1.4 Main Types

1.1.5 Technical Solutions

1.1.6 Industry Chain

1.1.7 Application Scenarios

1.2 Parking Scenarios Using Automotive Ultrasonic Radars

1.2.1 Development History of Parking

1.2.2 Automated Parking Assist (APA)

1.2.3 Remote Parking Assist (RPA)

1.2.4 Home Zone Parking Pilot (HPP)

1.2.5 Lane-tracking Reversing Assistance System (LRAS)

1.2.6 Automated Valet Parking (AVP)

1.2.7 Highway Side Assist



2 China Automotive Ultrasonic Radar Market and Trends

2.1 China Passenger Car Ultrasonic Radar Market

2.1.1 Overall Installations

2.1.2 Installations: By Local/Joint Venture Auto Brand

2.1.3 Installations: By Price

2.1.4 Installations: By Brand

2.1.5 Single Vehicle Installations: By Brand

2.1.6 Single Vehicle Installations: By Price & Joint Venture/Local Auto Brand

2.1.7 Ultrasonic Radar Installation Schemes

2.1.8 Ultrasonic Radar Installation Schemes: By Price

2.1.9 Installation of 4 Ultrasonic Radars

2.1.10 Installation of 8 Ultrasonic Radars

2.1.11 Installation of 12 Ultrasonic Radars

2.1.12 Major Ultrasonic Radar Suppliers

2.1.13 Main Products and Solutions of Suppliers

2.2 Development Trends of Automotive Ultrasonic Radar

2.2.1 Ultrasonic Radar Market Forecast, 2019-2025E

2.2.2 Ultrasonic Radar Application Scheme Forecast, 2019-2025E

2.2.3 Increasing Application Scenarios of Ultrasonic Radars: Passenger Cars

2.2.4 Increasing Application Scenarios of Ultrasonic Radar: Commercial Vehicles

2.2.5 Explore New Ultrasonic Radar Technologies

2.2.6 Next Generation AK2 Ultrasonic Radars

2.2.7 Automated Parking Systems Tend to Integrate into Domain Controllers

2.2.8 Driving and Parking Integration Will Become A Mainstream Solution for Intelligent Driving in the Next Several Years



3 Parking Routes & Ultrasonic Radar Installation Solutions of OEMs

3.1 Overview of Passenger Car Parking Solutions of OEMs

3.2 BMW

3.3 Mercedes-Benz

3.4 Ford

3.5 GM

3.6 Honda

3.7 Volkswagen

3.8 Great Wall Motor

3.9 Changan Automobile

3.10 Geely

3.11 FAW Hongqi

3.12 GAC Aion

3.13 BAIC

3.14 BYD

3.15 Dongfeng Motor

3.16 Xpeng Motors

3.17 NIO

3.18 Li Auto

3.19 Weltmeister

3.20 NETA Auto



4 Global Automotive Ultrasonic Radar Companies

4.1 Bosch

4.2 Valeo

4.3 Continental

4.4 Nicera

4.5 Murata

4.6 Denso

4.7 Hyundai Mobis



5 Chinese Automotive Ultrasonic Radar Companies

5.1 Audiowell

5.2 Coligen

5.3 Shenzhen Longhorn Automotive Electronic Equipment

5.4 TungThih Electronic

5.5 Hangsheng Electronics

5.6 Zongmu Technology

5.7 Whetron Electronics

5.8 SOFTEC

5.9 Hikvision

5.10 Forvision

5.11 Suzhou Udas

5.12 Shunhe Technology

5.13 Chongqing Guangda Industrial

5.14 Guangzhou Youbao Aijia Technology

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/j0hph6

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

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SOURCE Research and Markets
DUBLIN, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Commercial Greenhouse Market by Type (Glass, Plastic), Product Type (Fruits, Vegetables, Flowers & Ornamentals, Nursery Crops), Equipment (Hardware, Software & Services), & Region (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, Row) - Global Forecast to 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global commercial greenhouse market is estimated to be valued at USD 35.5 billion in 2022. It is projected to reach USD 61.6 billion by 2027, recording a CAGR of 11.6% during the forecast period.

The North America region is estimated to record the highest CAGR of 12.3% during the forecast period.

The commercial greenhouse market in North America is growing at a CAGR of 12.3% due to the rising demand in large economies, such as US, Canada, and Mexico countries. The industrial organization and technology of commercial greenhouse manufacturing industry are changing rapidly in North America. The US is the fastest-growing commercial greenhouse country in North America due to an increase in cultivation. One of the major players of greenhouse films in North America is Berry Global, Inc. (US). Greenhouses are becoming more popular in the region as they increase yield and enhance the quality of crops while lowering the need for chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. The climatic variations and prolonged drought in some parts of the US, such as California and other western states, have led to the increased use of greenhouses and mulching by farmers.

Plastic greenhouse had the largest market share of 59.9% in 2022 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 11.9% by 2027.

Plastic used in commercial greenhouses is made in a manner that makes it more durable than regular plastic. This specially made plastic can resist tearing and withstand extreme weather conditions. Greenhouse plastics are mainly made from three types of plastics: polyethylene plastic, polycarbonate plastic, and polymethyl methacrylate.

The market for plastic greenhouses is escalating due to the rise in environmental concerns across the world, and their higher yield capacity. The leading players in the market are focused on developing cost-effective and high-quality products to tap the huge unaddressed opportunities in developing regions. This can be witnessed from the increased spending on research and development and growing number of new product approvals. The market for polycarbonates is projected to grow at a high rate because the material offers better thermal efficiency, toughness, longevity, and durability.

Market Dynamics

Drivers

Growing Demand for Food and Climate Change Challenges

Need for Higher Yields Using Limited Space and Water

Government Initiatives to Promote Smart Agricultural Practices

Restraints

Deployment of Expensive Systems in Commercial Greenhouses

Limited Variety of Crops Suited to Greenhouse Farming

Opportunities

Increase in Demand for Floriculture and Ornamental Horticulture Applications

Rising Preference for Vegetables and Fruits in Developing Countries

R&D Initiatives to Improve Greenhouse Farming Methods

Growing Worldwide Environmental Concerns

Challenges

Lack of Temperature Control Systems to Maintain Optimum Crop Production Conditions in Warm Regions

Risk of Equipment Failure and Delays in Learning Curve of Growers

Key Topics Covered:

1 Introduction

2 Research Methodology

3 Executive Summary

4 Premium Insights

5 Market Overview

6 Industry Trends

7 General Energy Systems Supplying Commercial Greenhouses

8 Commercial Greenhouse Market, by Type

9 Commercial Greenhouse Market, by Equipment

10 Commercial Greenhouse Market, by Product Type

11 Commercial Greenhouse Market, by Region

12 Competitive Landscape

13 Company Profiles

14 Adjacent & Related Markets

15 Appendix

Companies Mentioned

Argus Control Systems

Agra-Tech, Inc.

Ammerlaan Construction

Berry Global

Certhon

Decloet Greenhouse Mfg. Ltd.

Everlight Electronics

Europrogress

Heliospectra Ab

Hort Americas

Harford

Logiqs B.V.

Lumigrow

Luiten Greenhouses

Ludy Greenhouse Manufacturing Corporation

Nobutec B.V.

Plastika Kritis SA

Richel Group

Rough Brothers, Inc.

Signify Holding

Stuppy Greenhouse

Sotrafa

Saveer Biotech Ltd.

Top Greenhouses

The Glasshouse Company

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/fj76bz

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

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Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539438/Research_and_Markets_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Research and Markets
NEW YORK, Sept. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Do you know the Construction Market in Spain is expected to grow by USD 14.54 billion at a CAGR of 3.5% during the forecast period of 2021-2026? Technavio's latest report on the construction market in Spain is segmented by Application and Type are curated by covering all market trends, regional outlook, competitive landscape, and comprehensive analysis of business needs & impeccable growth strategies. Free Sample Report Available for Construction Market In Spain!

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Construction Market in Spain 2022-2026

The construction market in Spain provides a detailed analysis of the market overview, market drivers, opportunities, and potential applications.

The top Key players of the Construction Market In Spain are covered as:

Abengoa SA

Acciona SA

Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA

Administrator of Railway Infrastructures

AECOM

Cosentino SA

Elecnor SA

Ferrovial SA

Fluor Corp.

Grupo eulen

Isolux Corsan

The construction market in Spain will be affected by the increase in public infrastructure spending by the government. Apart from this, other market trends include the adoption of new technologies and materials, Development of energy-efficient buildings. Buy Sample Report.

Construction Market In Spain Split By

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Commercial



Residential

Type

Rehabilitation and maintenance



New projects

The regional distribution of the construction market in Spain industries is considered for estimating the performance of the International Market. The market analysis will cover the forecast period of 2021-2026. The construction market in Spain research report shed light on the foremost region: Spain. Download Free Sample Report.

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What are the main segments that make up the global construction market in Spain ?

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Related Reports:

Safety Headgear Market by Application, Product, and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026: The safety headgear market share is expected to increase by USD 2.49 billion from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 5.37%.

Construction Market in EMEA by Type and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026: The construction market share in EMEA is expected to increase to USD 557.63 million from 2021 to 2026, at a CAGR of 4.06%.

Construction Market In Spain Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Decelerate at a CAGR of 3.5% Market growth 2022-2026 $ 14.54 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 3.75 Regional analysis Spain Performing market contribution Europe at 100% Key consumer countries Spain Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Abengoa SA, Acciona SA, Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA, Administrator of Railway Infrastructures, AECOM, Cosentino SA, Elecnor SA, Ferrovial SA, Fluor Corp., Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas SA, Grupo eulen, Isolux Corsan, Obrascon Huarte Lain SA, Roca Sanitario SA, Sacyr SA, SENER GRUPO DE INGENIERIA SA, Site and Field Global Solutions SLU, Tecnicas Reunidas SA, Tsk Electronica Y Electricidad SA, and URBASER SA Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and future consumer dynamics, and market condition analysis for the forecast period. Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Browse for Technavio "Industrials" Research Reports

Table of Content:

1 Executive Summary

1.1 Market Overview

Exhibit 01: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Overview



Exhibit 02: Executive Summary  Data Table on Market Overview



Exhibit 03: Executive Summary  Chart of Country Market Characteristics



Exhibit 04: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by Application



Exhibit 05: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by Type



Exhibit 06: Executive Summary  Chart on Vendor Market Positioning

2 Market Landscape

2.1 Market ecosystem

Exhibit 07: Parent market



Exhibit 08: Market Characteristics

3 Market Sizing

3.1 Market definition

Exhibit 09: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition

3.2 Market segment analysis

Exhibit 10: Market segments

3.3 Market size 2021

3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021-2026

Exhibit 11: Chart on Spain - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 12: Data Table on Spain - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 13: Chart on Spain : Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 14: Data Table on Spain : Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

4 Five Forces Analysis

4.1 Five forces summary

Exhibit 15: Five forces analysis - Comparison between2021 and 2026

4.2 Bargaining power of buyers

Exhibit 16: Chart on Bargaining power of buyers  Impact of key factors 2021 and 2026

4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers

Exhibit 17: Bargaining power of suppliers  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.4 Threat of new entrants

Exhibit 18: Threat of new entrants  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.5 Threat of substitutes

Exhibit 19: Threat of substitutes  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.6 Threat of rivalry

Exhibit 20: Threat of rivalry  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.7 Market condition

Exhibit 21: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2021 and 2026

5 Market Segmentation by Application

5.1 Market segments

Exhibit 22: Chart on Application - Market share 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 23: Data Table on Application - Market share 2021-2026 (%)

5.2 Comparison by Application

Exhibit 24: Chart on Comparison by Application



Exhibit 25: Data Table on Comparison by Application

5.3 Commercial - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 26: Chart on Commercial - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 27: Data Table on Commercial - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 28: Chart on Commercial - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 29: Data Table on Commercial - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.4 Residential - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 30: Chart on Residential - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Residential - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 32: Chart on Residential - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Residential - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.5 Market opportunity by Application

Exhibit 34: Market opportunity by Application ($ million)

6 Market Segmentation by Type

6.1 Market segments

Exhibit 35: Chart on Type - Market share 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 36: Data Table on Type - Market share 2021-2026 (%)

6.2 Comparison by Type

Exhibit 37: Chart on Comparison by Type



Exhibit 38: Data Table on Comparison by Type

6.3 Rehabilitation and maintenance - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 39: Chart on Rehabilitation and maintenance - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 40: Data Table on Rehabilitation and maintenance - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 41: Chart on Rehabilitation and maintenance - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 42: Data Table on Rehabilitation and maintenance - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

6.4 New projects - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 43: Chart on New projects - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 44: Data Table on New projects - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 45: Chart on New projects - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 46: Data Table on New projects - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

6.5 Market opportunity by Type

Exhibit 47: Market opportunity by Type ($ million)

7 Customer Landscape

7.1 Customer landscape overview

Exhibit 48: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria

8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

8.1 Market drivers

8.2 Market challenges

8.3 Impact of drivers and challenges

Exhibit 49: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2021 and 2026

8.4 Market trends

9 Vendor Landscape

9.1 Overview

9.2 Vendor landscape

Exhibit 50: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation

9.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 51: Overview on factors of disruption

9.4 Industry risks

Exhibit 52: Impact of key risks on business

10 Vendor Analysis

10.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 53: Vendors covered

10.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 54: Matrix on vendor position and classification

10.3 Acciona SA

Exhibit 55: Acciona SA - Overview



Exhibit 56: Acciona SA - Business segments



Exhibit 57: Acciona SA - Key news



Exhibit 58: Acciona SA - Key offerings



Exhibit 59: Acciona SA - Segment focus

10.4 Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA

Exhibit 60: Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA - Overview



Exhibit 61: Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA - Product / Service



Exhibit 62: Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA - Key offerings

10.5 Administrator of Railway Infrastructures

Exhibit 63: Administrator of Railway Infrastructures - Overview



Exhibit 64: Administrator of Railway Infrastructures - Product / Service



Exhibit 65: Administrator of Railway Infrastructures - Key offerings

10.6 Elecnor SA

Exhibit 66: Elecnor SA - Overview



Exhibit 67: Elecnor SA - Business segments



Exhibit 68: Elecnor SA - Key offerings



Exhibit 69: Elecnor SA - Segment focus

10.7 Ferrovial SA

Exhibit 70: Ferrovial SA - Overview



Exhibit 71: Ferrovial SA - Business segments



Exhibit 72: Ferrovial SA - Key offerings



Exhibit 73: Ferrovial SA - Segment focus

10.8 Fluor Corp.

Exhibit 74: Fluor Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 75: Fluor Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 76: Fluor Corp. - Key news



Exhibit 77: Fluor Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 78: Fluor Corp. - Segment focus

10.9 Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas SA

Exhibit 79: Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas SA - Overview



Exhibit 80: Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas SA - Business segments



Exhibit 81: Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas SA - Key news



Exhibit 82: Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas SA - Key offerings



Exhibit 83: Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas SA - Segment focus

10.10 Obrascon Huarte Lain SA

Exhibit 84: Obrascon Huarte Lain SA - Overview



Exhibit 85: Obrascon Huarte Lain SA - Product / Service



Exhibit 86: Obrascon Huarte Lain SA - Key offerings

10.11 Sacyr SA

Exhibit 87: Sacyr SA - Overview



Exhibit 88: Sacyr SA - Product / Service



Exhibit 89: Sacyr SA - Key offerings

10.12 Tsk Electronica Y Electricidad SA

Exhibit 90: Tsk Electronica Y Electricidad SA - Overview



Exhibit 91: Tsk Electronica Y Electricidad SA - Product / Service



Exhibit 92: Tsk Electronica Y Electricidad SA - Key offerings

11 Appendix

11.1 Scope of the report

11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 93: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 94: Exclusions checklist

11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 95: Currency conversion rates for US$

11.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 96: Research methodology



Exhibit 97: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 98: Information sources

11.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 99: List of abbreviations



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SOURCE Technavio
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Last night, Co-chairs John Mayer, Kelly Rizzo, Jeff Ross, and SRF Board Member, Susan Feniger presented and curated Cool Comedy  Hot Cuisine, raising more than $1.2M for the Scleroderma Research Foundation (SRF) in a moving tribute to Bob Saget at the Beverly Wilshire. Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, John Mayer, and Jeff Ross, the signature fundraising event featured the biggest names in comedy and music to celebrate Saget's work as a relentless champion for those affected by scleroderma.

Kelly Rizzo, Jeff Ross, John Mayer, Susan Feniger and Jimmy Kimmel attend Cool Comedy Hot Cuisine: A Tribute to Bob Saget and benefit for the Scleroderma Research Foundation at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Wednesday, September 21, 2022 in Los Angeles, CA (photo: Ben Shmikler/ABImages) Kelly Rizzo, Jeff Ross, John Mayer, Susan Feniger and Jimmy Kimmel attend Cool Comedy Hot Cuisine: A Tribute to Bob Saget and benefit for the Scleroderma Research Foundation at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Wednesday, September 21, 2022 in Los Angeles, CA (photo: Ben Shmikler/ABImages)

Some of the world's most talented performers generously donated their time to take to the stage to raise funds for the Scleroderma Research Foundation and to find a cure. Co-host Jimmy Kimmel kicked off the event, as John Mayer and Jeff Ross continued the evening's festivities. The audience went wild when Dave Chappelle took the stage for a surprise performance, which included a touching moment where he shared a final video message he received from Saget. Chappelle also welcomed Bill Burr to the stage for a few impromptu jokes, as they riffed off one another. Cool Comedy  Hot Cuisine featured performances by Howie Mandel and Kevin Nealon, with Joel McHale leading the live auction. John Stamos and Mike Binder presented a special tribute video honoring Bob's legacy, and SRF Board Member Regina Hall introduced an intimate music performance by John Mayer. Attendees enjoyed a sit-down dinner curated by celebrity chef Susan Feniger.

As a longtime supporter and board member of Scleroderma Research Foundationthe country's first and leading nonprofit investor in medical research into sclerodermaBob Saget spearheaded Cool Comedy  Hot Cuisine for 30 years. Since 1987, Cool Comedy  Hot Cuisine has been a cornerstone of the SRF's fundraising efforts, raising over $28 million to fund vital research, so that one day, no one will have to suffer from scleroderma.

"The heart and soul of every event is to raise as much money as possible for researchwhile laughing. It's just part of what Bob has always taught me and taught everybodyto get through the hard times, you have to laugh," says Kelly Rizzo.

"This is Bob's legacy," adds Jeff Ross. "It's important for me to be here to keep Bob's name alive. And most importantly: scleroderma sucks and they need to find a cure. I volunteered to host this year and we wound up having this amazing, powerful, healing event."

"It's been a huge loss and tonight is a personification of that loss. This was his pride and joy, and we are going to make sure to carry it on in his honor. We hope to bring as good of a job as he did, bringing awareness to this organization," said John Mayer.

"It's great to be able to do something positive to honor your friend. Most of the time, that's not the case. To have something that will really help save other people's lives is a real blessing," said Jimmy Kimmel.

"Bob's presence can never be replaced. This meant so much to him, so [now] we can honor his work, his legacy, and his spirit," says Regina Hall.

About Scleroderma Research Foundation (SRF)

The Scleroderma Research Foundation is focused on bringing the best minds in science together to find a cure for scleroderma. The SRF was established in 1987 by patient-turned-activist Sharon Monsky, when research on this potentially life-threatening illness was nearly nonexistent. Sharon lost her battle to the disease in 2002, but her vision lives on today, as the SRF remains committed to funding the most promising research aimed at improved therapies and finding a cure. Through the generosity of donors and support from events like Cool Comedy  Hot Cuisine, the SRF has raised more than $37 million dollars to fund and facilitate research at top universities such as Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Stanford University, and University of California, San Francisco, so thatone dayno one will suffer from scleroderma. Stay engaged with SRF at srfcure.org and via social media: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Media Contact: Julie Richter | [email protected] | 480.818.8022

SOURCE Scleroderma Research Foundation
NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Cultural Development Fund (CDF) has concluded its participation in the Priority Summit hosted in New York City. The Fund's participation in the summit served as an extension of its goal to enhance Saudi Arabia's cultural scene and empower people and organizations within the sector.

CEO of Cultural Development Fund Mohammed Bin Dayel in a Panel at New York Priority Summit

Organized by the Future Investment Initiative (FII) on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly, the Priority Summit was a part of a series of events aimed at encouraging open dialogue to uncover the top priority in the minds and hearts of individuals from all walks of life. The Summit's agenda consisted of a series of interactive conversations and debates amongst a range of stakeholders to discuss global challenges and find beneficial solutions that impact humanity.

As a primary financial enabler of Saudi Arabia's cultural sector, among other Priority Summit participants, the Cultural Development Fund took part in the Summit as an official strategic partner of the Future Investment Initiative.

During the Summit, Mohammed bin Dayel, CEO of the Cultural Development Fund, participated in a panel discussion titled The Neo-Renaissance, where he discussed CDF's role in attracting investment, empowering cultural sectors, and creating opportunities for the local cultural economy to thrive.

The Summit's guests also learned about how the CDF is supporting the private and public sectors to create a framework that empowers the cultural sector and ensures continuity. Throughout the Summit, the CDF highlighted how its plans align with Saudi Vision 2030's objectives to upscale nearly every facet of life in Saudi Arabia, including quality of life standards.

Bin Dayel also emphasized how the CDF's role integrates with those of other funds within Saudi Arabia's development ecosystem and their drive to achieve sustainable national development.

The CDF's participation in the Priority Summit is part of its strategy to attract local and international investment to assist in transforming Saudi Arabia's cultural scene, helping the country position itself as the destination for global cultural enthusiasts.

The Cultural Development Fund seeks to establish national and global partnerships, foster cooperation amongst organizations that have a presence in the Saudi cultural scene, and continue its strategic partnership with the Future Investment Initiative by participating in the sixth iteration of the Future Investment Initiative Conference, scheduled to be held in Riyadh from 25-27 October 2022.

The Cultural Development Fund is one of the key domestic enablers of culture, nurturing a cultural ecosystem that encourages investment, fosters sustainability, and instills culture as a way of life that boosts Saudi Arabia's national identity and meets Vision 2030's quality of life objectives.

The Fund aims to achieve these targets by creating a cultural ecosystem that contributes to the diversification of the economy through empowering and overseeing cultural projects, attracting businesses, and investing in strategic programs that help Saudi Arabia's cultural sector flourish and enhance its profitability.

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1906376/Cultural_Development_Fund.jpg

SOURCE Cultural Development Fund
CHICAGO, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Electrical Insulation Materials Market size is projected to grow from USD 10.6 billion in 2022 to USD 14.3 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 6.2% between 2022 and 2027, according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. Electrical insulation materials are used in electrical systems to prevent unwanted flow of current to the earth from the supporting points. These materials have different properties and thus exhibit unique abilities. Electrical insulation materials prevent or limit the flow of current on their surfaces due to low conductivity.

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The thermoplastics segment is estimated to lead the electrical insulation materials market during the forecast period.

Based on type, the thermoplastics based electrical insulation materials accounted for the largest market share in 2021 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.3% in terms of value, during the forecast period. Some of the important thermoplastics are PE, PP, and PVC. These materials are available in different forms - crystalline, amorphous, and semi-crystalline. Due to the rising energy consumption from developing economies such as India and China, the demand for thermoplastics is expanding throughout the Asia Pacific region. The rise in demand for thermoplastics for electrical insulation can also be attributed to their low cost, easy manufacturing process, and availability.

The power systems application is expected to have the fastest growth in the electrical insulation materials market during the forecast period.

Based on application, the power systems segment in the electrical insulation materials market accounted for the fastest growth in 2021 with a CAGR of 6.5%, in terms of value, during the forecast period. This is attributed to the growing demand for electrical insulation materials in power systems such as generators, relays, and power electronics due to the necessity of these materials for the optimum operating efficiency of equipment. Rapid urbanization in emerging economies, modernization of aging electricity infrastructure in developed economies, and growing population are also leading to the high demand for electrical insulation materials.

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These are useful when safety is to be provided from open electric systems or the flow of current is to be regulated. The rising use of electrical insulation materials owing to high growth in automation in construction industry and rise in sales of electric vehicles (EVs), drives the electrical insulation materials market.

Asia Pacific is expected to be the largest market for electrical insulation materials during the forecast period.

Asia Pacific leads the overall electrical insulation materials market in terms of both value and volume, followed by North America and Europe. The increasing population, urbanization, industrialization, and the availability of low-cost raw materials and labor, coupled with increasing domestic demand, makes Asia Pacific an attractive investment destination for electrical insulation materials manufacturers. These are some of the factors expected to drive the electrical insulation materials market in this region.

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The key players in this market are DuPont (US), Elantas (Germany), Krempel GMBH (Germany), Nitto Denko (Japan), Von Roll(Switzerland), ITW Formex (US), 3M (US), Haysite Reinforced Plastics (US), Vitar (China), Tesa SE (Germany), Teijin DuPont Films (Japan), and NGK Insulator (Japan).

DuPont is a leading integrated science and engineering company. DuPont's product line includes construction materials, medical devices & materials, fibers & nonwovens, water solutions, electronic solutions, adhesives, and resins. The company delivers innovative solutions through three business segments: Electronics & Industrial, Mobility & Materials, and Water & Protection. It provides electrical insulation materials through the Water & Protection business segment under the brand name Nomex. It offers its products to various industries such as automotive, building construction, energy, printing & packaging, and safety &protection.

Browse Adjacent Markets: Foam and Insulation Market Research Reports & Consulting

Related Reports:

ELECTRICAL CONDUIT MARKET - By Type (Rigid & Flexible), Material (Metallic & Non-Metallic), End-Use Industry (Building& Construction, Industrial Manufacturing, It & Telecommunication, Oil & Gas, Energy & Utility, Others) and Region

ELECTRIC INSULATOR MARKET - By Type (Ceramic, Glass, Composite), Voltage (Low, Medium, High), Category (Bushings), End-User (Utilities, Industries), Application, Region

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National Carrier awarded the Best Airline Staff Service in Australia & Pacific

SUVA, Fiji, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fiji Airways has been named winner of the award for the Best Airline Staff Service in Australia & Pacific at the prestigious World Airline Awards, held today at the historic Langham Hotel in London.

It is the second time passengers have chosen Fiji Airways for this top prize for the Best Airline Staff Service in Australia & Pacific, after the airline previously won the award in 2019.

The Best Airline Staff Service Awards assess all frontline service contact points across both the airport and on-board environment, including check-in, lounges, service assistance, boarding and arrivals, as well as the full range of on-board cabin staff service.

Managing Director and Chief Executive of Fiji Airways Mr Andre Viljoen said "it truly is an honour for our airline to be recognized for our commitment to service. I thank all the hard working staff at Fiji Airways who made this award possible. We won this same award in 2019, and I am proud of the fact that we have not been complacent despite the challenging period that Fiji Airways and indeed the entire aviation industry has faced due to the pandemic."

"Fiji Airways is focused on major plans to enhance our products and service to continue evolving and offering the best to all our guests," he added.

Edward Plaisted of Skytrax said: "Fiji Airways have embarked on the most comprehensive review and upgrade of product and service during the last 2 years, and the airline management and staff should be delighted with this recognition for having the Best Airline Staff Service in Australia & Pacific. In addition to this success for front line staff service, Fiji Airways should also be delighted with their performance in 2022 which sees the airline rise into the world's top 50 airlines this year."

THE 2022 WORLD AIRLINE AWARDS

The World Airline Awards are wholly independent and impartial, introduced in 1999 to provide a customer satisfaction study that was truly global. Travellers across the world vote in the largest airline passenger satisfaction survey to determine the award winners. The awards are referred to by media around the world as "the Oscars of the aviation industry".

All costs of the Survey and Awards event are paid by Skytrax, and airlines do not pay any entry or registration fee. There are no charges for use of the Award logos and results.

The online customer survey operated from September- 2021 to August 2022, together with invitations sent to previous year respondents in the survey database. The customer survey is provided in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Japanese and Chinese. Over 100 customer nationalities participated in the 2021/2022 survey with 14.32 million eligible entries counted in the results. Survey entries are screened to identify IP and user information, with all duplicate, suspect or ineligible entries deleted. More than 300 airlines are featured in the final Award results.

About Fiji Airways: Founded in 1951, Fiji Airways Group comprises of Fiji Airways, Fiji's National Airline and its subsidiaries: Fiji Link, its domestic and regional carrier, Pacific Call Comm Ltd, and a 38.75% stake in the Sofitel Fiji Resort & Spa on Denarau Island, Nadi. From its hubs at Nadi and Suva International Airports, Fiji Airways and Fiji Link serve 108 destinations in over 15 countries (including code-share). Destinations include Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, the UK, Hong Kong (SAR China), Singapore, India, Japan, China, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. The Fiji Airways Group brings in 64 percent of all visitors who fly to Fiji, employs over 1000 employees, and earns revenues of over FJD$1 billion (USD $460m) pre-COVID. Fiji Airways rebranded from Air Pacific in June 2013. Visit www.fijiairways.com for more information

IMAGES: download here.

SOURCE Fiji Airways
SYDNEY, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- FP Markets has been awarded the "Best Global Value Broker 2022" for an unprecedented 4th consecutive year. FP Markets claimed two further awards for "Best Forex Partners Programme" in Asia 2022 and "Best Forex Broker" in Europe 2022.

FP Markets claims a hat-trick of awards at the 2022 Global Forex Awards

The Global Forex Awards 2022 celebrated its 5th ceremony on Thursday 22 September 2022, at the glamorous Marina in Limassol, Cyprus. The ceremony brought together a wide range of global businesses that offer cutting-edge technology, comprehensive market research tools, superior educational programs, and world-class customer service.

FP Markets' Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa, Craig Allison said: "We are honoured to be awarded "Best Global Value Broker" for the 4th consecutive year, an unprecedented feat which emphasises our consistent and unwavering commitment to providing our clients with the best trading experience. We are further delighted to receive the awards for "Best Forex Partners Programme" in Asia and "Best Forex Broker" in Europe for 2022 for the first time which clearly demonstrates that, as we expand globally, we are being recognised globally for consistently offering our clients competitive pricing, fast execution, market-leading technology, and a first-rate customer experience. We greatly appreciate the continued international recognition as at FP Markets we pride ourselves on these attributes and these prestigious awards are testament to the hard work from our global team to always provide our clients with the ultimate trading experience."

FP Markets offers over 10,000 trading instruments offering traders access to CFDs across Forex, Indices, Commodities, Stocks, and Cryptocurrencies, making it one of the largest offerings in the industry with eight platforms, including MT4, MT5 & Iress. Over the past 17 years, FP Markets has learned that the combination of consistently tight spreads and fast executions, coupled with cutting-edge platforms, a wide product range, and first-rate customer support are the key ingredients that give serious traders the confidence to trade. Since the year of its establishment in 2005, Australia's Best Forex Broker 2020 continues to expand its product offering, giving traders the ability to trade under some of the best trading conditions in the industry.

Notes to Editors

About FP Markets:

FP Markets is an Australian Regulated global Forex Broker with more than 17 years of industry experience.

FP Markets offers highly competitive interbank Forex spreads available from 0.0 pips and leverage up to 500:1 on its pro account.

Download FP Markets' Mobile App and trade on the go across several powerful online platforms like MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5, WebTrader, and Iress.

The company's outstanding 24/7 multilingual service has been recognized by Investment Trends as home to some of the most content clients in the industry, having been awarded 'The Highest Overall Client Satisfaction Award,' five years running from Investment Trends.

FP Markets has been awarded as the 'Global Forex Value Broker' for four consecutive years (2019, 2020, 2021,2022) at the Global Forex Awards.

FP Markets has been awarded the "Best Forex Trading Experience in the EU" at the Global Forex Awards 2021.

FP Markets has been awarded "Best Trade Execution" at the Ultimate Fintech Awards 2022

For full details of our wide-ranging offering, visit https://www.fpmarkets.com/

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Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1574261/FP_Markets_Logo.jpg

SOURCE FP Markets
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Knowledge of how to identify strategic and tactical negotiation levels that will aid in obtaining the highest prices.

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Table of Content

Executive Summary

Market Insights

Category Pricing Insights

Cost-saving Opportunities

Best Practices

Category Ecosystem

Category Management Strategy

Category Management Enablers

Suppliers Selection

Suppliers under Coverage

US Market Insights

Category scope

Appendix

About SpendEdge:

SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions.

Contacts:

SpendEdge

Anirban Choudhury

Marketing Manager

Ph No: +1 (872) 206-9340

https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us

SOURCE SpendEdge
DUBLIN, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Tire Market By Vehicle Type, By Demand Category, By Tire Construction Type, By Region, Competition, Forecast and Opportunities, 2017-2027F" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global tire market stood at USD230.88 billion in 2021 and is estimated to reach USD353.27 billion in 2027, registering a CAGR of 7.53%. Escalating sales of automobiles, growing replacement demand for tire and advancement in tire technology are driving the growth of the global tire market in the forecast years.

Increase in automobile sales and production

Increasing production and sales of passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles across all the regions are anticipated to drive the consumption of tires in the upcoming years. The International Organization of Motor Vehicle Association (OICA) estimated that over 80 million new passenger and commercial cars were produced in 2021, representing a cumulative increase of more than 3% above the production in the preceding years. Over 17 million motor vehicles-roughly 58% of the world's total production-were produced in the APAC region, followed by North America, Europe, South America, the Middle East and Africa.

Rise in Concern for Fuel Efficiency and Safety

Many countries are implementing strict tire performance regulations, including fuel savings and wet grip-related braking distance reduction, in response to growing safety concerns. As a result, there is much potential for tire manufacturing businesses to develop tires that can comply with standards. As a result of increased technological breakthroughs, suppliers are developing extremely effective tires that improve automobiles' overall fuel efficiency. Self-inflating technology and Low Rolling Resistance (LRR) technology are used by tire manufacturers to enhance safety and increase fuel efficiency.

For increasing fuel efficiency, pneumatic tires are getting popular, pneumatic tires are majorly related to safety and fuel efficiency, and in the upcoming years, high demand is expected for these tires. Trelleborg, an engineering company, centered on polymer technology, recently introduced a new line of pneumatic tires with attributes such as grip and durability for the North American market. Thus, it is projected that increased concern about safety and fuel economy will present a significant growth potential for the companies.

Technological Advancement

The manufacturers that make tires are developing a system called "Contact Area Information Sensing" (CAIS), which consists of a sensor mounted to the internal wall of the tire and monitors the sensor's interactions with the road's surface. The technology analyzes the state of the road to determine whether it is dry, wet, slushy, fresh snow, or icy, and then transmits that information in real-time to the driver via a digital screen. The ability to exchange data with other vehicles that are similarly networked would allow CAIS technology, which is currently used by tire manufacturers, to become more advanced. This might enable the vehicle to foresee the actions of the automobile in front.

In the future, CAIS may connect air pressure data with air pressure sensors and provide information on tread wear. To improve performance and productivity on the one hand and to lessen the miner's exposure to risks, BKT has also implemented automated equipment and monitoring systems. The SPOTech (Satellite Performance Optimization Technology) monitoring system is designed to take measurements of variables such as average/maximum speed, cycle times, lateral/vertical/longitudinal forces, percent grade, and other relevant data that can be used to optimize haul road construction and resolve problems with tire operation such as uneven wear, belt contour separations, and heat buildup.

Report Scope:

In this report, Global tire market has been segmented into following categories, in addition to the industry trends which have also been detailed below:

Global Tire Market, By Vehicle Type:

Passenger Car

Two-Wheeler

Light Commercial Vehicle

Medium & Heavy Commercial Vehicle

Three-wheeler

OTR

Global Tire Market, By Demand Category:

Replacement

OEM

Global Tire Market, Tire Construction Type:

Radial

Bias

Global Tire Market, By Region

Key Topics Covered:

1. Product Overview



2. Research Methodology



3. Executive Summary



4. Global Tire Production Overview



5. Voice of Customer



6. Impact of Covid-19 on Global Tire Market



7. PESTLE Analysis



8. Porter's Five Forces



9. Global Tire Market Outlook



10. Asia-Pacific Tire Market Outlook



11. North America Tire Market Outlook



12. Europe & CIS Tire Market Outlook



13. South America Tire Market Outlook



14. Middle East Tire Market Outlook



15. Africa Tire Market Outlook



16. Market Dynamics



17. Market Trends & Developments



18. Supply Chain Analysis



19. Import & Export Analysis



20. Impact of Russia-Ukraine War on Global Tire Market



21. Competitive Landscape



22. Strategic Recommendations



23. About the Publisher & Disclaimer

Companies Mentioned

The Michelin Group

Bridgestone Corporation

Continental AG

Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company

Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd.

Hankook Tire & Technology Co., Ltd.

Pirelli & C. S.p.A.

The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd.

Zhongce Rubber Group Co., Ltd.

Cheng Shin Rubber Industry Co.

Toyo Tire Corporation

Shandong Linglong Tire Co., Ltd.

Giti Tire

Business Overview

Apollo Tyres Ltd.

Sailun Group Co. Ltd.

Madras Rubber Factory Ltd.

Kumho Tire Co. Inc.

Nokian Tires plc

Nexen Tire Corporation

JK Tyre Industries Ltd.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/39fmho

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



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SOURCE Research and Markets
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hagens Berman urges GrafTech International Ltd. (NYSE: EAF) investors who suffered significant losses to submit your losses now.

Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/EAF

Contact An Attorney Now: [email protected]

844-916-0895

GrafTech International Ltd. (NYSE: EAF) Investigation:

GrafTech is one of the world's largest suppliers of graphite electrodes used in electric-arc steelmaking, a fast-growing part of the steel industry because of its relatively low costs and more environmentally friendly setup.

The investigation focuses on GrafTech's past assurances that its graphite electrode facilities (including GrafTech, Mexico's Monterrey, Mexico facility which is reportedly responsible for about 25% of GrafTech's total production) provide unique competitive advantages and that it can continue to open up incremental capacity in Monterrey. The company has also assured investors that it minimizes its environmental footprint and that it focuses on Environmental, Social, and Governance ("ESG") initiatives.

GrafTech's assurances may have come under question on Sept. 16, 2022, when it disclosed that on Sept. 15, 2022 Mexican regulators visited the Monterrey facility to review the facility's environmental and operating permits, instructed the facility to wind down operations within 7 days, and determined that GrafTech Mexico's operating license was no longer in effect.

This news sent the price of GrafTech shares down more than 8% lower on Sept. 19, 2022, wiping out over $100 million of shareholder value.

"We're focused on investors' losses and whether GrafTech misrepresented its ability to produce more product in Monterrey and its ESG policies and procedures," said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation.

If you invested in GrafTech and have significant losses, or have knowledge that may assist the firm's investigation, click here to discuss your legal rights with Hagens Berman.

Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding GrafTech should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email [email protected].

Hagens Berman is a global plaintiffs' rights complex litigation law firm focusing on corporate accountability through class-action law. The firm is home to a robust securities litigation practice and represents investors as well as whistleblowers, workers, consumers and others in cases achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. More about the firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com. Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.

Contact:

Reed Kathrein, 844-916-0895

SOURCE Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP
BANGKOK, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, at HUAWEI CONNECT 2022, Huawei hosted the "F5G Industry Practice, Building New-Gen Connectivity" Summit, where Huawei launched the MiniFTTO solution for small and micro campus scenarios. Huawei works with partners to bring optimal experience to small and micro enterprises, commercial villas, kindergartens, community clinics and convenience stores.

Zhou Tao, Director, Huawei Enterprise Optical Product Marketing & Solution Sales Dept launched Huawei MiniFTTO solution

Zhou Tao, Director, Huawei Enterprise Optical Product Marketing & Solution Sales Dept, said, "In 2020, we released the FTTO (Fiber To The Office) solution, which is mainly used in office campuses, hospitals, hotels, and universities. In just two years, we have more than 6000 application cases worldwide. Today, we officially launch the Huawei MiniFTTO solution to provide high-quality campus networks for small and micro campuses, with the purpose of enabling more small and micro campuses to enjoy benefits of all optical technology development."

The Huawei MiniFTTO solution is customized for small and micro campuses. It is applicable to small and micro enterprises, commercial villas, kindergartens, clinics, and convenience stores. The Huawei MiniFTTO solution is based on F5G (fifth-generation fixed communications network) technology and uses fiber as the communication medium, featuring simplified deployment, easy O&M, and superior experience.

Superior experience: The Huawei MiniFTTO solution provides an innovative five-in-one main gateway, providing downlink 2.5 Gbit/s bandwidth and supporting 300 connections on the entire network. The solution provides gigabit speeds in both wired and wireless modes, making gigabit available anywhere. Wall plate and indoor settled optical APs support Wi-Fi 6 and provide 10 Mbit/s bandwidth for 32 devices, delivering gigabit wireless access with performance 14% higher than the industry average. Desktop, panel, and box-type optical terminals provide wired gigabit access.

Simplified Deployment: Huawei's innovative highly integrated five-in-one gateway integrates firewall, router, AC, single-fiber networking, and centralized power supply capabilities, reducing equipment deployment space by 85%. To address the difficulties in powering optical terminals in small and micro campus networks, Huawei innovatively introduces the power over fiber (PoF) technology, which integrates the fiber and power cable into one cable to provide remote power for optical terminals in plug-and-play mode.

Easy O&M: The Huawei MiniFTTO solution supports web-based management for one-click fault locating and Wi-Fi optimization by regular technicians without the need for professional skills.

More details about MiniFTTO Solution, please visit: https://e.huawei.com/en/solutions/enterprise-transmission-access/all-optical-campus-distribution

SOURCE Huawei
Dual surgical navigation and robotic system - without the robot - for dental implantology to be exhibited September 29-October 1

FORT LEE, N.J., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Image Navigation Ltd., a pioneer in surgical navigation systems, will launch their second generation Image Guided Implantology (IGI) system during the EAO Congress in Geneva next week, the company announced today.

Dentist using Image Navigation's IGI 2.0 dual Surgical Navigation & Robotic System for Dental Implantology. Image Navigation's IGI 2.0 on-screen tracking.

The IGI system brings the precision of navigation and the safety of robotic tools to the field of dental implantology. Its new transformative robotic Auto-stop feature stops the drill when it is outside the planned trajectory or location, thereby providing robotic surgery without the robot. The foundation of Auto-stop is Image Navigation's proprietary high accuracy, no-observable-lag tracking.

The Image Navigation proprietary patient-to-system connector enables a smooth and efficient chairside workflow without compromising its sub-mm pinpoint accuracy. This allows the surgeon to focus on the patient - rather than constantly monitoring the connector for movement or rotation. The system enables both same day scan, plan and surgery, as well as surgery at a date subsequent to the CT scan, without any diminution of accuracy.

Lawrence Obstfeld, CEO of Image Navigation, said, "Our IGI 2.0 is a Waze for dental implantology, providing the highest accuracy in implant surgery together with the safety of robotics - without a large and expensive robot in the surgical field. The surgeon navigates in real-time, according to the pre-surgical plan. The auto-stop will disable the drill if it is not following the on-screen indicators displayed on the screen. This new IGI 2.0 will usher in an exciting era of navigated and robotic dentistry."

IGI extends the use of 3D dental CT scans from diagnosis and planning to the actual surgical procedure. The pre-op CT image is utilized as a detailed on-screen map, providing the surgeon with precise real-time visualization of the direction, position and depth of the drill tip. The current installed base of 120,000 Dental CT scanners worldwide represents about $5B in capital investment.

IGI version 2.0 is anticipated to reach the European market in H1 2023.

Image Navigation Ltd. will be exhibiting the new IGI 2.0 at the European Academy of Osseointegration Congress, at Palexpo Geneva, Switzerland, September 29 - October 1, Booth H31.

About Image Navigation:

Image Navigation Ltd., with offices in the United States, and R&D based in Jerusalem, Israel, is focused on the research, development and manufacturing of advanced surgical navigation technology. Its flagship image guided implant system (IGI) expands the use of 3D cone beam-CT scan images from diagnostics and planning to real-time surgical applications to enable dentists and dental surgeons to perform precise, predictable and repeatable dental implant procedures. www.image-navigation.com

[email protected]

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1905843/Image_Navigation_1.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1905844/Image_Navigation_2.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1905846/Image_Navigation_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Image Navigation Ltd.
DUBLIN, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Indonesia Used Smartphone Market Outlook to 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The market size is expected to grow at a five-year CAGR of ~9% by 2026

The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the used smartphone industry by analyzing historical statistics and corresponding developments in the used smartphone market.

Post COVID, an increase in the number of transactions through online platforms have been witnessed. The ease of convenience of getting a used smartphone at the doorstep from a certified seller and trusted marketplace, has resulted an increase in the share of online platforms in the market size of used smartphones industry in Indonesia.

Indonesia's Used Smartphone Industry is at a nascent stage. The industry had a single digit growth from 2016-2021. During COVID, the industry growth rate declined as the offline stores were shut. Offline stores sales dominate the industry with a large percentage share as compared to online platforms.

Also, the fear of stepping out of home led to an emergence for online used smartphone in Indonesia. Internet penetration has been increasing in Indonesia from 2016 to 2021. People prefer buying used smartphones, especially iPhone, because of the high prices of these smartphones. People who prefer replacing their handsets frequently and are brand conscious prefer buying second hand phones as they are cheaper and affordable than the new smartphones.

The increase in the number of emerging online marketplaces increases the ease of convenience of getting a used smartphone at the doorstep from a certified seller and trusted marketplace. Offline retail stores have also adopted an O2O model, which means they provide their products both offline and online.

These offline players have a large presence on social media, especially on Facebook and Instagram. They post about all their products with their prices as well as other promos and discounts.

Competitive Landscape in Indonesia's Used Smartphone Industry

Indonesia's Used Smartphone Industry is highly fragmented with presence of large number of offline players. Online Used Smartphone Industry is consolidated with a few online platforms. These online platforms either adopt inventory holding model or consignment-based model.

These players compete amongst each other on the basis of business model, value added services and brand value. The offline players have a large presence on social media, especially on Facebook and Instagram. They post about all their products with their prices as well as other promos and discounts. The report provides a cross comparison of top players in the online platforms as well as top offline players.



Indonesia's Used Smartphone Market Segmentation

The contribution of the unorganized distribution channel is higher. There is no systematic and organized distribution channel that is followed.

Online marketplaces dominate this market with a large market share. Companies who have a strong presence offline, carried out their marketing through social media platforms or their own websites.

Dealership Walk-ins dominate the market. People prefer visiting the store, checking the used smartphones by themselves; personally, undergoing the quality checks for their satisfaction. They visit offline retail stores to check the used smartphones, enquire about the prices and its features.

Retail customers dominate the market, followed by Telephone operators and Businesses. Online marketplaces and/or offline stores source these used smartphones from their businesses (B2B) or retail customers (C2B). OEM's account for very small percentage of market share as they usually do not sell used smartphones; they only purchase it from retail customers as trade-ins and crash them later.

Majority of the sales happen through offline dealers or online marketplaces through a B2C business model. C2C sales of used smartphones contribute a small percentage of the market share. Customers directly selling it to new customers is rare. It mainly happens in the unorganized used smartphone marketplace or through classified platforms.

Majority of the market share is captured by Apple. The used smartphone population prefer an iPhone as these phones have a good brand recognition and provides a user-friendly experience to its customers. Buying a new iPhone could be expensive for a large proportion of the population, hence they prefer second-hand handsets of these brands.

Majority of the used smartphone population prefer to buy a second-hand phone that is only 1-2-year-old. Buying a less used smartphone. Buying a smartphone at an early life enables a second-hand user to get the maximum benefits from it. The wear and tear would be less, battery life would be good and he/she would be able to use the smartphone for maximum time until it breaks down.

Buying an upper end or premium smartphones could be expensive for a large proportion of the population, hence they prefer second-hand handsets of these brands. Majority of the used smartphone population prefer buying smartphones worth more than Rp 6Mn .

. The entire Java region contributes the highest the market share of used smartphones in Indonesia . Lying on the northwest coast of Java , the world's most populous island, Jakarta contributes second highest percentage of the market share.

region contributes the highest the market share of used smartphones in . Lying on the northwest coast of , the world's most populous island, contributes second highest percentage of the market share. Majority of the used smartphones in Indonesia have 4G and 3G network. 2G network is near to being obsolete. The new generation smartphones do not have compatibility with 2G networks.

have 4G and 3G network. 2G network is near to being obsolete. The new generation smartphones do not have compatibility with 2G networks. Majority of smartphones in Indonesia have a battery capacity of 3000-5000 mAh. Newly launched smartphones such as Samsung Galaxy M-12, Oppo A54, Samsung Galaxy M51, Redmi Note 10 etc. have a battery life of more than 5000 mAh.

have a battery capacity of 3000-5000 mAh. Newly launched smartphones such as Samsung Galaxy M-12, Oppo A54, Samsung Galaxy M51, Redmi Note 10 etc. have a battery life of more than 5000 mAh. Majority of the used smartphone population prefer buying an iOS operating system compared to Android.

Majority of the population prefer smartphone screen size to be between 4.5-5.5 inch.

Key Segments Covered in Indonesia Used Smartphone Market

By Type of Distribution Channel

Unorganized

Organized

By Type of Marketing Channel

Online Marketplace

Offline Dealers

Classifieds

By Source of Lead Generation

Online

Dealership Walk-ins

By Sourcing Medium

OEM's

Telephone Operators and Businesses

By Type of Sales

B2C

C2C

By Brand of Smartphones

Apple

Samsung

Xiaomi

Oppo

Others

By Age of Smartphones

0-12 Months

12-24 months

24-36 Months

36+ Months

By Price of Smartphones



Rp 1Mn -3Mn

-3Mn Rp 3Mn-6Mn

> Rp 6Mn

By Purchases Across Geographies

Java

Jakatra

Sumatra

Others

By Type of Network

2G

3G

4G

By Battery Capacity

<_000 />

3000-5000 mAh

>5000 mAh

By Operating System

iOS

Android

Others

By Screen Size

4.5-5.5 inch

<_5 />

>5.5 inch

Time Period Captured in the Report:

Historical Period: 2016-2021

Forecast Period: 2022F-2026F

Used Smartphone Industry Players

Online Platforms

Laku6

Jagofon.com

Shopee

Tokopedia

Bukalapak

Olx

Carousell

Offline Players

Erafone

Sentra Ponsel

DigiMap

Renan Store

Ekacelluler

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/g06pn8

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

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[email protected]

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SOURCE Research and Markets
NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Technavio has been monitoring the ingestible sensors market, operating in the health care industry. The report estimates the market to register an incremental growth of USD 782.49 million, at a CAGR of 19.01% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis of the current market scenario, the latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment.

Parent Market Analysis

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Ingestible Sensors Market 2022-2026

Technavio categorizes the global ingestible sensors market as a part of the global healthcare technology market within the global healthcare market. External factors influencing the parent market's growth potential in the coming years have been thoroughly investigated in our research analysis, to know more about the levels of growth of the ingestible sensors market throughout the forecast period. Request the Latest Free sample report.

Ingestible Sensors Market Value Chain Analysis

The end-to-end understanding of the value chain is essential in profit margin optimization and evaluation of business strategies. The data available in our value chain analysis segment can help vendors drive costs and enhance customer services during the forecast period.

The value chain of the internet and direct marketing retail market includes the following core components:

Inputs

Inbound logistics

Operations

Outbound logistics

Marketing and sales

Service

To unlock information about vendor drive costs and customer service, Buy Sample Report.

The market is concentrated, and the degree of concentration will accelerate during the forecast period. Competitors have to focus on differentiating their product offerings with unique value propositions to strengthen their foothold in the market. Market vendors also have to leverage the existing growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

AdhereTech LLC, Atmo Biosciences Ltd, CapsoVision Inc., CheckCap Ltd, etectRx, General Electric Co., HQ Inc, IntroMedic Co. Ltd., Jinshan Science and Technology Group Co. Ltd., KARL STORZ SE and Co. KG, Medidata Solutions Inc., Medtronic Plc, Olympus Corp., Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., and RF Co. Ltd. are among some of the major market participants.

The growing prevalence of chronic disorders has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. However, Stringent government regulations might hamper the market growth. Download Free Sample Report.

Ingestible Sensors Market Segmentation

Based on geographic segmentation, 40% of the market's originated from North America during the forecast period. In addition, the sensor category led the growth under the component segment. This report provides an accurate prediction of the contribution of all the segments to the growth of the superfood powders market size.

Component

Sensors



Data Recorders



Software

Geography

North America



Europe



Asia



Rest Of World (ROW)

Ingestible Sensors Market Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. The ingestible sensors market report covers the following areas:

Ingestible Sensors Market Size

Ingestible Sensors Market Trends

Ingestible Sensors Market Industry Analysis

This study identifies the growing demand for sensor-enabled pills as one of the prime reasons driving the Ingestible Sensors Market growth during the next few years.

Related Reports

Medical Device Contract Manufacturing Market by Device and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026

Hysterometers Market by End-user, Type, and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026

Ingestible Sensors Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 19.01% Market growth 2022-2026 $ 782.49 million Market structure Concentrated YoY growth (%) 18.5 Regional analysis North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of World (ROW) Performing market contribution North America at 40% Key consumer countries US, Germany, UK, France, and China Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled AdhereTech LLC, Atmo Biosciences Ltd, CapsoVision Inc., CheckCap Ltd, etectRx, General Electric Co., HQ Inc, IntroMedic Co. Ltd., Jinshan Science and Technology Group Co. Ltd., KARL STORZ SE and Co. KG, Medidata Solutions Inc., Medtronic Plc, Olympus Corp., Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., and RF Co. Ltd. Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and future consumer dynamics, and market condition analysis for the forecast period. Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Browse for Technavio "Health Care" Research Reports

Table of Contents:

1 Executive Summary

1.1 Market overview

Exhibit 01: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Overview



Exhibit 02: Executive Summary  Data Table on Market Overview



Exhibit 03: Executive Summary  Chart on Global Market Characteristics



Exhibit 04: Executive Summary  Chart on Market by Geography



Exhibit 05: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by Component



Exhibit 06: Executive Summary  Chart on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 07: Executive Summary  Data Table on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 08: Executive Summary  Chart on Vendor Market Positioning

2 Market Landscape

2.1 Market ecosystem

Exhibit 09: Parent market



Exhibit 10: Market Characteristics

3 Market Sizing

3.1 Market definition

Exhibit 11: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition

3.2 Market segment analysis

Exhibit 12: Market segments

3.3 Market size 2021

3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021-2026

Exhibit 13: Chart on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 14: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 15: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 16: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

4 Five Forces Analysis

4.1 Five forces summary

Exhibit 17: Five forces analysis - Comparison between 2021 and 2026

4.2 Bargaining power of buyers

Exhibit 18: Chart on Bargaining power of buyers  Impact of key factors 2021 and 2026

4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers

Exhibit 19: Bargaining power of suppliers  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.4 Threat of new entrants

Exhibit 20: Threat of new entrants  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.5 Threat of substitutes

Exhibit 21: Threat of substitutes  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.6 Threat of rivalry

Exhibit 22: Threat of rivalry  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.7 Market condition

Exhibit 23: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2021 and 2026

5 Market Segmentation by Component

5.1 Market segments

Exhibit 24: Chart on Component - Market share 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 25: Data Table on Component - Market share 2021-2026 (%)

5.2 Comparison by Component

Exhibit 26: Chart on Comparison by Component



Exhibit 27: Data Table on Comparison by Component

5.3 Sensors - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 28: Chart on Sensors - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 29: Data Table on Sensors - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 30: Chart on Sensors - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Sensors - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.4 Data recorders - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 32: Chart on Data recorders - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Data recorders - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 34: Chart on Data recorders - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Data recorders - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.5 Software - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 36: Chart on Software - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 37: Data Table on Software - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 38: Chart on Software - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 39: Data Table on Software - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.6 Market opportunity by Component

Exhibit 40: Market opportunity by Component ($ million)

6 Customer Landscape

6.1 Customer landscape overview

Exhibit 41: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria

7 Geographic Landscape

7.1 Geographic segmentation

Exhibit 42: Chart on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 43: Data Table on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%)

7.2 Geographic comparison

Exhibit 44: Chart on Geographic comparison



Exhibit 45: Data Table on Geographic comparison

7.3 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 46: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 47: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 48: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 49: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.4 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 50: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 51: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 52: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 53: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.5 Asia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 54: Chart on Asia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 55: Data Table on Asia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 56: Chart on Asia - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 57: Data Table on Asia - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.6 Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 58: Chart on Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 59: Data Table on Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 60: Chart on Rest of World (ROW) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 61: Data Table on Rest of World (ROW) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.7 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 62: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 63: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 64: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 65: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.8 Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 66: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 67: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 68: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 69: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.9 UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 70: Chart on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 71: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 72: Chart on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 73: Data Table on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.10 China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 74: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 75: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 76: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 77: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.11 France - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 78: Chart on France - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 79: Data Table on France - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 80: Chart on France - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 81: Data Table on France - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.12 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 82: Market opportunity by geography ($ million)

8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

8.1 Market drivers

8.2 Market challenges

8.3 Impact of drivers and challenges

Exhibit 83: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2021 and 2026

8.4 Market trends

9 Vendor Landscape

9.1 Overview

9.2 Vendor landscape

Exhibit 84: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation

9.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 85: Overview on factors of disruption

9.4 Industry risks

Exhibit 86: Impact of key risks on business

10 Vendor Analysis

10.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 87: Vendors covered

10.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 88: Matrix on vendor position and classification

10.3 Atmo Biosciences Ltd

Exhibit 89: Atmo Biosciences Ltd - Overview



Exhibit 90: Atmo Biosciences Ltd - Product / Service



Exhibit 91: Atmo Biosciences Ltd - Key news



Exhibit 92: Atmo Biosciences Ltd - Key offerings

10.4 CapsoVision Inc.

Exhibit 93: CapsoVision Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 94: CapsoVision Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 95: CapsoVision Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 96: CapsoVision Inc. - Key offerings

10.5 CheckCap Ltd

Exhibit 97: CheckCap Ltd - Overview



Exhibit 98: CheckCap Ltd - Product / Service



Exhibit 99: CheckCap Ltd - Key offerings

10.6 HQ Inc

Exhibit 100: HQ Inc - Overview



Exhibit 101: HQ Inc - Product / Service



Exhibit 102: HQ Inc - Key offerings

10.7 IntroMedic Co. Ltd.

Exhibit 103: IntroMedic Co. Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 104: IntroMedic Co. Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 105: IntroMedic Co. Ltd. - Key offerings

10.8 Jinshan Science and Technology Group Co. Ltd.

Exhibit 106: Jinshan Science and Technology Group Co. Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 107: Jinshan Science and Technology Group Co. Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 108: Jinshan Science and Technology Group Co. Ltd. - Key offerings

10.9 Medtronic Plc

Exhibit 109: Medtronic Plc - Overview



Exhibit 110: Medtronic Plc - Business segments



Exhibit 111: Medtronic Plc - Key news



Exhibit 112: Medtronic Plc - Key offerings



Exhibit 113: Medtronic Plc - Segment focus

10.10 Olympus Corp.

Exhibit 114: Olympus Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 115: Olympus Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 116: Olympus Corp. - Key news



Exhibit 117: Olympus Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 118: Olympus Corp. - Segment focus

10.11 Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

Exhibit 119: Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 120: Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 121: Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. - Key offerings

10.12 RF Co. Ltd.

Exhibit 122: RF Co. Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 123: RF Co. Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 124: RF Co. Ltd. - Key offerings

11 Appendix

11.1 Scope of the report

11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 125: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 126: Exclusions checklist

11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 127: Currency conversion rates for US$

11.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 128: Research methodology



Exhibit 129: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 130: Information sources

11.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 131: List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Iscoe Law Firm, one of Florida's leading personal injury attorney teams, understands that toxic chemical exposure generally happens without the victims even being aware of the dangerous exposure involved, which is often the result of their occupations, toxic pharmaceuticals, or their places of residence.

"These complicated cases generally stem from claimants who suffer serious, unexplained illnesses or even wrongful deaths as a result of their exposure to the hazardous materials that companies allow to reach the public at large, their customers, ecosystems, and/or their workers," said Gary T. Iscoe, Esq., Founding Partner of Iscoe Law. "If you've been harmed by toxic chemical exposure, your claim and your recovery are important, which makes consulting with an experienced toxic chemical exposure attorney in Florida paramount."

A 2020 ruling by the Florida Supreme Court addressed the extent of an individual's ability to hold a company responsible for the discharge of toxic chemicals, and the finding came down on the side of the injured.

Toxic chemical exposure comes in all too many dangerous forms, but some are more common than others:

Asbestos

Carbon Monoxide

Lead

Oil Spills

Water Pollution, Air Pollution, and Soil Contamination

Exposure to polluted or contaminated materials come in the form of:

Agricultural soil runoffs

Lead pipes

Discharges of mercury

Air pollutants

If you believe that the negligence of someone else  or of an entity  caused you or someone you love to be harmed by toxic chemical exposure, there are several important steps that you should take to help protect yourself and your toxic chemical exposure claim.

About Iscoe Law

Since 1991, Gary T. Iscoe, a Trial Lawyer, has been dedicated to holding the powerful accountable for taking advantage of the powerless. From representing clients in severe injury cases, wrongful death cases, class actions, and other lawsuits including medical malpractice, and product liability. Gary and his team understand Florida's complex personal injury laws.

Iscoe Law fights hard for the injured and holds auto insurers like State Farm, Allstate, Progressive, GEICO, Liberty Mutual accountable for the pain and suffering, medical expenses, lost wages, and other damages suffered by its clients.

Iscoe Law offers a free initial consultation at one's home, office, hotel, or hospital. For more information or schedule a free consultation, call 800-800-6500 or visit www.iscoelaw.com

SOURCE Iscoe Law
SEOUL, South Korea, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- iMediSync announced that iSyncWave, the company's medical device EEG scanner, has been granted 510k clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on August 10th.

iMediSyncs EEG scanner iSyncWave has been FDA 510k cleared

According to iMediSync, iSyncWave is a dry EEG scanner that does not require the use of electrode gel. It is not only easy to wear the device and measure EEG, but the size of the device can also be adjusted to accommodate various head shapes and align with the internationally standardized 10-20 system. Furthermore, iSyncWave analyzes the QEEG (Quantitative Electroencephalogram) in a short period of time through big data based automatic cloud analysis system.

This device was recently registered as an innovative prototype product by the Public Procurement Service in South Korea and was introduced to the mobile medical checkup service at Pusan National University Hospital. Data is continuously collected from patients with various diseases and illnesses (stroke, Parkinson's, etc.) at leading university hospitals in South Korea, such as Seoul National University Hospital and Asan Medical Center.

In September, iSyncWave will be presented at the University of Oxford EEG seminar for children with developmental disabilities.

Following the FDA 510k clearance, iMediSync plans to increase and expand overseas sales.

Seungwan Kang, the CEO of iMediSync stated, "After CES 2022 and AAIC (Alzheimer's Association International Conference), we are receiving many inquiries from the US, Europe, Australia, and other countries, particularly around research and clinical introduction from leading universities and institutions around the world. With FDA 510k clearance, we can provide product information and conduct collaborative research to sell iSyncWave. We are also preparing the CE (EU), TGA (Australia) and PMDA (Japan) registrations for countries that require registration other than from the FDA for import."

Homepage: https://www.imedisync.com/en/

SOURCE iMediSync
Iconic Craft Soda Leader to Award Dorm-Sized Refrigerators, Bottled Soda and More

SEATTLE, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Jones Soda Co. (CSE: JSDA, OTCQB: JSDA) ("Jones" or the "Company"), the original craft soda known for its unconventional flavors and user-submitted photo labels, today announced a nationwide Jones College Cooler contest giving college and university students an opportunity to win dorm-sized refrigerators, plenty of Jones Soda to share, wearables and other surprise items.

The contest will feature three weekly photo challenges asking entrants to grab a few friends to create fun images involving activities such as spelling words with their bodies, repurposing glass bottles, and expressing in pictures why they need a Jones refrigerator.

Specifics will be announced each week at https://www.jonessoda.com/pages/college-cooler. The first week's challenge and deadline will be announced on September 29.

Entries must be submitted with a valid .EDU email address. Each week, refrigerators and Jones Soda will be awarded to 10 winners for their dorm rooms, shared apartments, and fraternity or sorority houses. Winners will also receive limited-edition Turkey and Gravy and Sugar Cookie soda flavors to share with family and friends this holiday season.

"This photo contest is a variation on one of the cornerstones of the Jones Soda brand personality: constantly changing bottle labels showcasing photos submitted by Jones fans," said Eric Chastain, President of the Jones Soda Beverage Division. "Now we're taking that photo focus one step further to give college students a way to share cold Jones Soda with their friends. Get creative, have fun, and good luck!"

About Jones Soda Co.

Jones Soda Co. (CSE: JSDA, OTCQB: JSDA) is a leading craft soda manufacturer with a subsidiary dedicated to cannabis products. The company markets and distributes premium craft sodas under the Jones Soda and Lemoncocco brands, and a variety of cannabis products under the Mary Jones brand. Jones' mainstream soda line is sold across North America in glass bottles, cans and on fountain through traditional beverage outlets, restaurants, and alternative accounts. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. For more information, visit www.jonessoda.com, www.myjones.com, www.drinklemoncocco.com or https://gomaryjones.com

Media Contact:

Jim Capalbo

JSPR

[email protected]

847.946.2991

SOURCE Jones Soda
VIDALIA, Ga., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Hugh Jordan of Jordan Dental is pleased to announce the addition of Dr. Charles Jordan to their practice. Dr. Charles Jordan is the son of Dr. Hugh Jordan and will provide patients with additional opportunities to receive high-quality comprehensive dental care in their convenient Vidalia location. He provides exceptional general dentistry for patients of all ages and has a wide range of expertise in preventive, cosmetic, and restorative dentistry, along with other dental services.

Dr. Charles Jordan, Vidalia GA Dentist

"It is with great joy that I announce my son, Dr. Charles Jordan, has moved back to Vidalia to join our team at Jordan Dental," says Dr. Hugh Jordan. "He had an interest in dentistry beginning at an early age, and I have enjoyed observing him achieve his goal." "He is a valuable addition to our practice and I am delighted to have him working with us." "We will be able to offer our patients more access to oral health care while maintaining a personal level of compassionate and quality care."

Dr. Charles Jordan graduated from the Dental College of Georgia and has been practicing dentistry since 2019. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in the field of dentistry to Jordan Dental. With his expertise, he will provide patients with the most advanced dental techniques to achieve the smile that they have always desired. Dr. Charles Jordan will begin seeing patients in their Vidalia office in September.

"I am thrilled to be back in Vidalia full time and to be a part of an amazing team at Jordan Dental," says Dr. Charles Jordan. "Over the years, I have witnessed firsthand how my father has provided detail-oriented care to his patients, and I am eager to provide this level of quality service. I aim to ensure that each patient feels comfortable and relaxed, whether I am doing a procedure or a routine exam. I also look forward to seeing old friends as well as forming new relationships in this great community."

Jordan Dental provides comprehensive dental care to patients of all ages in Vidalia and in surrounding areas of southeast Georgia. The practice offers a wide range of oral health services such as preventive dentistry, cosmetic dentistry, periodontics, endodontics, and oral surgery. Jordan Dental is a family-owned practice that offers dental services to both children and adults. To learn more about Jordan Dental and the services provided, please visit their website. https://jordandental.com

Contact

Jordan Dental

Dr. Hugh Jordan

912-537-7211

https://jordandental.com/contact/

SOURCE Jordan Dental of Vidalia, GA
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading national fire litigation firm Singleton Schreiber filed a lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) alleging the utility company is responsible for the Mosquito Fire, which was ignited by its poorly maintained utility infrastructure.

The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, claims PG&E is responsible for the destruction and/or damage of the plaintiffs' personal property, cherished possessions, major out-of-pocket expenses, mental anguish, medical bills, loss of business income incurred as result of the fire and much more.

The complaint was filed on behalf of a multitude of individuals who owned property and/or lived in the impacted areas near counties of El Dorado and Placer in California. Their homes, businesses and in most cases, lives were literally and figuratively burned to the ground by the Mosquito Fire. The fire, considered the largest wildfire this year, blazed through 76,000+ acres destroying more than 78 structures and damaging another 28 structures in the local community.

"The damage done to several counties by PG&E was entirely avoidable with their knowledge and expertise as electrical service providers" said Gerald Singleton, Managing Partner of Singleton Schreiber. "PG&E continues to act negligently and has been responsible for more than 1,500 fires across the states leading to deaths, property destruction, financial burdens, and ruined lives because of their poorly maintained utility equipment. The utility company continues to put profit over safety in the countless fires they have caused or been associated with."

The financial impact has not yet been reported but will likely be significant due to the number of acres that have been charred and recklessly ruined, forever changing the communities and lives of those affected.

This case is Plaintiffs v. PG&E Corporation, County of San Francisco Superior Court, Case No. CGC-22-601908. To read the complaint, click here.

About Singleton Schreiber

With more than 120 employees and offices throughout the western United States, Gerald Singleton and his team have represented more than 13,000 victims of utility fires and has recovered over $2 billion in settlements and verdicts for its clients. The firm currently represents thousands of victims of the numerous fires in California, Oregon and New Mexico. For more information, please visit https://singletonschreiber.com/mosquito-fire-lawsuit/.

Media Contact

Joe Marchelewski  [email protected]

SOURCE Singleton Schreiber
WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA will host two media briefings Monday, Sept. 26, in preparation for the fifth crew rotation mission with SpaceX as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program.

NASA and SpaceX continue to target 12:46 p.m. EDT, Monday, Oct. 3, for launch of the agency's Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The mission will carry NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, who will serve as mission commander and pilot, respectively, along with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, who will serve as mission specialists.

These crewmates will travel to the space station for a six-month science and technology research mission. Plans also continue to return NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts following a short handover on the space station with Crew-5.

The deadline has passed for media accreditation for in-person coverage of this launch. More information about media accreditation is available by emailing: [email protected].

All media participation in the following news conferences will be remote except where specifically listed below. All times are Eastern and subject to change based on concurrent operations.

Monday, Sept. 26

3:30 p.m. (approximately)  Crew arrival media event at Kennedy on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency's website with the following participants:

Janet Petro , director, NASA Kennedy

, director, NASA Kennedy Dana Hutcherson , deputy manager, Commercial Crew Program, NASA Kennedy

, deputy manager, Commercial Crew Program, NASA Kennedy NASA astronaut Nicole Mann

NASA astronaut Josh Cassada

JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata

Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina

The event is limited to in-person media only. Follow commercial crew and Kennedy Space Center for the latest arrival updates.

4:30 p.m. (approximately)  Flight Readiness Review media teleconference at Kennedy with the following participants:

Kathryn Lueders , associate administrator, Space Operations Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters

, associate administrator, Space Operations Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters Steve Stich , manager, Commercial Crew Program, NASA Kennedy

, manager, Commercial Crew Program, NASA Kennedy Joel Montalbano , manager, International Space Station, NASA's Johnson Space Center

, manager, International Space Station, NASA's Johnson Space Center Emily Nelson , chief flight director, Flight Operations Directorate, NASA Johnson

, chief flight director, Flight Operations Directorate, NASA Johnson William Gerstenmaier , vice president, Build and Flight Reliability, SpaceX

, vice president, Build and Flight Reliability, SpaceX Junichi Sakai , manager, International Space Station Program, JAXA

, manager, International Space Station Program, JAXA Sergei Krikalev, executive director, Human Space Flight Programs, Roscosmos

Listen to audio of the teleconference streaming at:

https://www.nasa.gov/live

Media may ask questions via phone only. For the dial-in number and passcode, please contact the Kennedy newsroom no later than 3 p.m. on Sept. 26, at: [email protected].

Based on the duration of the readiness review, NASA may adjust the date of this briefing if not able to complete the telecon prior to 6 p.m. when the agency's DART mission coverage begins.

Learn more about the mission and NASA's Commercial Crew Program at:

https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

SOURCE NASA
Sally On! launches national holiday to celebrate women entrepreneurs

CINCINNATI, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- National Women-Owned Business Day, an annual celebration held on the first Thursday of October each year, is a day to recognize the achievements and progress made by women-owned businesses and to raise awareness on the importance of supporting and investing in women-owned companies. This day was created to inspire women to dream big, believe in themselves, connect with other women entrepreneurs, and encourage communities to support women-owned brands today and every day.

Sally On! National Women-Owned Business Day Launches October 6, 2022

The holiday was founded through the National Archives by Morgan Hamilton and Aris Taylor, owners and cofounders of Sally On!, a full service marketing partner for women-empowering brands based in Cincinnati, Ohio, in creative collaboration with Edelmade, a branding and strategy agency also based in Cincinnati. They know firsthand that starting and running a women-owned business comes with a unique set of challenges including lack of funding, capital, and resources. This day aims to put a spotlight on women-owned businesses for nationwide support.

"In 2020, women-led startups received only 2.3% of VC funding. We can do better," said co-founder Morgan Hamilton. "Our goal for founding Women-Owned Business Day is not only to celebrate women entrepreneurs' achievements but to also build community support by working with organizations and investors to provide resources and funding to invest in women."

"We know that when we invest in women-owned brands, it leads to better outcomes in communities and the economy," added co-founder, Aris Taylor. "Our hope is that this day will inspire women entrepreneurs to continue investing and believing in themselves, and encourage supporters of women-owned businesses to do the same. We are just getting started."

National Women-Owned Business Day honors the courage, dedication, and tenacity of women entrepreneurs who are breaking barriers and forging a path for other women.

Learn more about how to celebrate and support at womenownedbizday.com .

Sally On! is a full-service marketing partner for women-empowering brands. Services include marketing strategy and planning, digital and traditional marketing, content marketing, and more. Learn more at letssallyon.com and at womenownedbizday.com .

Media Contact:

Morgan Hamilton, Sally On!

(513) 438-1830

[email protected]

SOURCE Sally On!
FALLS CHURCH, Va., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Through At-Impact, NetImpact was awarded a contract to provide technical guidance and program performance support for United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Governance Applications Management Branch (GAMB), Governance Services Division (GSD) of the Client Experience Center (CEC). As the IT service provider of choice, the CEC supports enterprise applications for USDA's global customer base and its respective business mission areas. The CEC services almost 140,000 customers across more than 118,000 field, state, headquarters, and remote offices located across the United States and its territories and protectorates across the globe.

NetImpact will provide a full range of services across CEC's Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) tool suite that fulfill 1.2M+ requests per annum. This support includes digital transformation, implementation and maintenance, custom workflows and application development, testing automation, and analysis-based improvement to day-to-day operations. To ensure success, NetImpact is providing subject matter experts and technologists well-versed in eAuthentication/SSO, SAML, SalesForce, Tableau, SailPoint, ScanStar, Alchemer, System Center Operations Manager (SCOM), BMC, Pinyon, and ServiceNow.

NetImpact supports CEC's ITSM suite that fulfills 1.2M+ requests per annum for ~140K customers across 118K+ locations. Tweet this

"Efficient ITSM grease the cogs of operation to decrease overhead, improve IT effectiveness, and scale the mission for responsive delivery." Stephanie Wilson, NetImpact COO remarks. "Our Emotionally Intelligent, Technically Exceptional (EQTE) team is ready to optimize CEC's IT operations and services for a modern service management that stays ahead of USDA's dynamic needs." NetImpact will leverage its profound experience from successful, similar efforts throughout 12+ Federal Agencies and apply their PlatformFirst and Mission-Centered Design (MCD) solutions to accelerate this transformation.

About At-Impact

At-Impact is a joint venture (JV) between Attain, LLC and NetImpact Strategies (NetImpact) under the Small Business Administration's 8(a) Mentor/Protege program with NetImpact Strategies as lead Protege. At-Impact offers two government-wide acquisition contracts (GWACs) through NITAAC's CIO-SP3 contracts, one under the Small Business Group and another under the 8(a) Disadvantaged Small Business Group. These two GWACs cover the entire gamut of IT needs across 140+ LCATS and combine cutting-edge technology with streamlined acquisitions and fast provisioning across Strategy and Management, Enterprise Security and Infrastructure, Digital Media, Performance Management, Strategic Vendor Relationships, and Process-based Solutions.

NetImpact Strategies, Inc. partners with customer agencies to deliver empowering through our DX360 solutions across Strategic Consulting, Mission

Software Development, Data Insights, Cloud and Infrastructure, and Cyber as well as our bespoke COTS products built on ServiceNow and Microsoft. Follow NetImpact on their website or LinkedIn for more.

Public Relations Team

[email protected]

SOURCE NetImpact Strategies
The Months-Long Listening Initiative Gathered Input From People Facing Hunger To Help Inform Policies To End Hunger in America

CHICAGO, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Feeding America, the nation's largest hunger-relief network, today published the Elevating Voices to End Hunger Together: Community-Driven Solutions to Address America's Hunger Crisis report, which includes insights and anti-hunger policy recommendations from nearly 36,000 people across all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The report, released on Hunger Action Day, is a culmination of a three-month listening initiative launched earlier this summer with the goal to help ensure the Sept. 28 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health and the subsequent policy conversations are informed by people facing hunger. The initiative included listening sessions, a commissioned survey, online questionnaires and text message conversations with people who self-identified as facing challenges getting the food they need.

People who took part in the Elevating Voices initiative shared their experiences and ideas for solutions to end hunger. To encourage participation and reduce stigma, Feeding America ensured participants would remain anonymous. The activities were conducted in both English and Spanish.

One participant in Cass County, North Dakota, shared: "There is not one-size-fits-all and I literally have fallen through nearly every crack. Create flexibility in programs so that people can qualify."

Another participant in Chester County, Pennsylvania, told us: "Espero tener salud y potencial para sobrellevar y mejorar todo esto nada es facil pero imposible tampoco." ("I hope to have health and potential to prosper and better my surroundings; nothing is easy, but nothing is impossible either.")

"Feeding America believes the best ideas for ending hunger come from the communities experiencing it," said Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America. "This report puts the voices of the people we serve at the center and what they are telling us is clearto end hunger, we must all come together to co-create solutions. They are asking us to be bold, to prioritize dignity, to increase access to healthy food and to expand economic opportunities. Feeding America is listening, and we are ready to get to work alongside our neighbors facing hunger, communities and partners to end hunger."

The solutions in the report supported by people facing hunger focus on four key areas: prioritizing dignity, increasing access, expanding opportunity and improving health. An overwhelming majority of respondents to Feeding America's survey (92%) agreed that to actually reduce hunger, the government, the private sector, nonprofits, local institutions and communities must come together to create solutions. Eighty-eight percent said it was important to support people's dignity and choices in what they feed their families, and 78% want the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to make it easier to access healthy foods, not restrict food choices.

"Last year, 53 million people turned to the charitable food sector for help," Babineaux-Fontenot continued. "The scale of the problem is immense. But if we work together, it is solvable. As I've traveled the country visiting Feeding America network food banks, I have seen communities come together with the common goal of helping neighbors in need. It is that spirit of community that we hope to bring to life through this report. Hunger exists in every county, borough and parish in this country. Imagine if we harnessed the power of this great nation to end hunger. If we engaged every citizen, every elected official and every organization in a unified effort. If we did that, we could ensure everyone in the U.S., no matter their race, background or ZIP code, could have access to the food and resources they need to thrive."

As food prices have risen dramatically this year, many members of the Feeding America network of 200 food banks, 21 statewide associations and 60,000 faith-based and charitable partner food pantries and meal programs are reporting increased or sustained demand for food assistance. Meanwhile, supply chain issues are reducing food donations and causing food banks to spend more money purchasing food to help meet demand. This is not sustainable in the long term. The Elevating Voices to End Hunger Together report includes policy recommendations to help people in need today and address the root causes of food insecurity to eradicate hunger across the nation.

This first-of-its-kind report from Feeding America elevates the experiences, concerns and ideas of people across the U.S. who have faced challenges getting the food they need. The anti-hunger solutions in the reportinformed by people facing hungerbroadly focus on:

Prioritizing the dignity of people facing hunger. A few examples of policy recommendations that center on dignity include:

Congress should increase benefit levels for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and expand eligibility to help more people buy more nutritious foods.

Congress should expand options for people receiving SNAP benefits by increasing funding for the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) and other proven approaches that encourage healthy food purchases, instead of limiting choices.

Increasing access to grocery stores and food assistance. A few examples of policy recommendations that would help increase access include:

Congress should increase The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) fundingfor food purchases as well as storage and distribution coststhrough the 2023 Farm Bill.

Congress should improve and simplify access to the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program by allowing more schools to offer free meals to all students by expanding community eligibility and increasing opportunities to directly certify children for free meals.

Expanding economic opportunity by addressing the root causes of hunger. A few examples of policy recommendations that would tackle intersecting root causes, such as economic and social conditions, include:

Congress should improve the SNAP benefit-taper structure to reduce the "benefits cliff" by raising income thresholds to phase out benefits more gradually and provide people with more stability on the path toward self-sufficiency.

Congress should permanently expand the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit.

Improving health outcomes for individuals and families experiencing food insecurity. A few examples of health-focused policy recommendations include:

Congress should support and fund produce prescription initiatives through U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) programs.

Congress should support and provide funding for food pantries located in health care settings.

Elevating Voices to End Hunger Together is a Feeding America network initiative to gather input from people with lived experience through listening sessions, a survey, questionnaires and texts. The Elevating Voices report synthesizes insights from nearly 36,000 people across the country who self-identified as having faced challenges getting the food they need. These individuals and their opinions are not representative of all people facing hunger.

Visit FeedingAmerica.org/ElevatingVoices to learn more about joining Feeding America in the fight to end hunger.

Contact

Zuani Villarreal

Feeding America

312.641.6532

About Feeding America

Feeding America is the largest hunger-relief organization in the United States. Through a network of more than 200 food banks, 21 statewide food bank associations, and over 60,000 partner agencies, food pantries and meal programs, we helped provide 6.6 billion meals to tens of millions of people in need last year. Feeding America also supports programs that prevent food waste and improve food security among the people we serve; brings attention to the social and systemic barriers that contribute to food insecurity in our nation; and advocates for legislation that protects people from going hungry. Visit www.feedingamerica.org, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

SOURCE Feeding America
BUFFALO, N.Y., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The WBE certified Embassy Global, LLC, an all-virtual worldwide strategic technical growth marketing, PR, business development, and management consulting firm, today announced that its company president, Molly Bakewell Chamberlin, has been chosen, for a third consecutive year and from among a select group of U.S. small business leaders, to represent the nation's interests as a delegate to both the Leadership Council and Small Business Technology Council (SBTC) of the National Small Business Association (NSBA).

Embassy Global President, Molly Bakewell Chamberlin, has been chosen, for a third consecutive year and from among a select group of U.S. small business leaders, to represent the nation's interests as a delegate to both the Leadership Council and Small Business Technology Council (SBTC) of the National Small Business Association (NSBA).

Based in Washington, D.C., NSBA is the nation's oldest non-partisan small business advocacy organization. Each NSBA Leadership Council delegate helps to raise grassroots awareness of critical small business concerns impacting their own businesses and communities before policymakers in Washington, D.C., as well as to state and local government leaders. The NSBA Leadership Council provides valuable networking opportunities while ensuring that small business owners have a vital seat at the table, as Congress and regulators take up key small business proposals. In addition, the SBTC advocates for an improved overall economic climate for U.S. technology-based small businesses, in areas such as SBIR and STTR program funding; enhanced IP protections; cyber-security compliance; and government contracting opportunities.

Notes NSBA president and CEO, Todd McCracken, "Molly Bakewell Chamberlin has been a tremendous asset to the NSBA and our various Councils. Her hard work, dedication, and activism are commendable and I look forward to our continued work in ensuring that entrepreneurship remains a key tenet of the American dream."

Ms. Bakewell Chamberlin founded the all-virtual Embassy Global in 2008. The firm helps small-to-medium sized manufacturers all over the world to accelerate their growth within niche technical markets. To each Client engagement, Embassy Global applies its own recognized methods and strategies, all of which are derived from decades of industry and technical subject matter expertise. Over the last 14 years, the firm has helped more than 200 worldwide manufacturing brands to achieve more rapid, stable and measurable sales growth, including from their export activities.

Today, Embassy Global remains one of the first and only known 100% woman-owned and led strategic technical marketing, PR and business development firms of its kind serving the worldwide Sensors & Instrumentation, Electronic Components, Motion Control, Factory Automation, Photonics & Optoelectronics, Industrial Process Control, Machine Vision, Advanced Manufacturing, Semiconductor, and related industries. A resident of Hamburg, New York, Ms. Bakewell Chamberlin is a graduate of Canisius College. She was also recently accepted into the Harvard Business Analytics Program.

To learn more about Molly Bakewell Chamberlin, visit her LinkedIn profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mollychamberlin/ To learn more about Embassy Global, visit www.embassyglobalpr.com. For more information about NSBA, please visit www.nsba.biz .



About Embassy Global, LLC:

Founded in 2008, the Hamburg, New York, USA-based Embassy Global, LLC is a 100% woman owned, WBE certified, all-virtual worldwide strategic technical growth marketing, PR, business development, and management consulting firm. The firm helps global engineered component manufacturers and their respective sales and marketing teams to achieve more rapid, sustainable sales growth, including from export activities, within niche vertical markets. Since its founding, Embassy Global has contributed to the growth of more than 200 industry brands, in more than a dozen countries, and including some of the most respected global manufacturers and service providers in sensors & instrumentation, industrial process control, advanced manufacturing, electronic components, photonics, IIoT, semiconductor, photonics & optoelectronics, factory automation and motion control. Visit www.embassyglobalpr.com to learn more.

Contact:

Maureen K. (Molly) Bakewell Chamberlin

President & Principal Consultant

Embassy Global, LLC

Direct: +1.716.646.0927

[email protected]

SOURCE Embassy Global, LLC
Luxury Limited Edition Skincare Products from Global Beauty Brand Enters the U.S. Market

BOCA RATON, Fla., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- OneLavi.com, a boutique health, wellness, and beauty website, now offers Venezia 1920's high-quality plant-based skincare products to its customers.

"OneLavi.com understands that consumers no longer want superficial beauty products that cover up skin conditions," said Gianluca Zin, founder of Venezia 1920, based in Venice, Italy. "Today, people want healthy skincare products, not brands that use potentially harsh chemicals."

Venezia 1920 Venezia 1920

Venezia 1920, a global beauty brand, uses mostly high-grade plant-based ingredients, such as Aloe Vera, Macadamia Oil, Ceramides, Chamomile Essential Oil, Pomegranate as well as Vitamins A and E, and Hyaluronic Acid.

"Our skincare products do not contain petroleum jelly and mineral oil*, parabens, heavy metals, including Nickel**, or other potentially harmful ingredients," Zin added. "We use high-grade plant-based products and avoid synthetic substances if possible. More consumers than ever before are seeking healthier and natural-based skincare products."

Zin said OneLavi.com believes people can only be truly beautiful when they are also healthy.

"We agree. Venezia 1920 emphasizes healthy products that will help you look great," he added.

Venezia 1920 skincare products on OneLavi.com include:

Venezia 1920 products also are subjected to tests to verify the content of Nickel and heavy metals to guarantee the safety of the cosmetics.

"We are thrilled that OneLavi.com's consumers will be able to find our luxury skincare line," he added. "We are looking forward to working with other retailers in order to reach more American consumers."

To purchase, please visit OneLavi.com.

* Except in massage oil

** Nickel <0.00001%

Contact:

Robert Grant

5615440719

[email protected]

SOURCE Venezia 1920
NEW YORK, Sept. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Parallaxes Capital Management ("Parallaxes") is an alternative asset manager and, since 2017, has raised four funds dedicated to Tax Receivable Agreements ("TRAs"). As the market leader in monetizing TRAs, Parallaxes is dedicated to increasing the visibility and transparency of TRAs which remain an often overlooked and misunderstood asset class. In the vein of creating greater visibility into the TRA ecosystem, Parallaxes is pleased to highlight a notable development in the market as DreamWorks Animation, Inc. ("DreamWorks") previously terminated its TRA.

Comcast Corporation ("Comcast") disclosed that after having acquired DreamWorks, it settled the DreamWorks TRA with an aggregate cash payment of $146 million. The DreamWorks TRA was entered into with an affiliate of Paul Allen (the "TRA Entity") as DreamWorks benefited from increases to the tax basis of its assets as a result of transactions with affiliates of the TRA Entity. The DreamWorks TRA had provided for the payment of 85% of the cash tax savings realized from such tax basis increases, subject to repayment if such savings were not available to DreamWorks.

Parallaxes views TRAs, including the DreamWorks TRA, as a valuable tool to reduce certain moral hazard problems and informational asymmetry inherent in a company's public offering. TRAs help ensure that pre-IPO owners are economically aligned with new public shareholders and incentivize pre-IPO owners to pursue an IPO structure that provides the company with ongoing tax benefits. Parallaxes anticipates enhanced awareness and understanding of TRAs will drive increased market adoption.

About Parallaxes Capital

Parallaxes Capital Management ("Parallaxes") is the premier investment firm focused exclusively on monetizing Tax Receivable Agreements ("TRAs"). Parallaxes offers private equity sponsors, co-investors and management team members solutions to achieve liquidity, diversification and optionality from their TRAs. Parallaxes was founded in 2017 and is comprised of experienced investment professionals from leading private equity and growth equity firms. To learn more, please visit www.plxcap.com

Disclosures

This press release should not be regarded as representative of an official position or statement of Parallaxes or any related entity.

SOURCE Parallaxes Capital
MONTBONNOT, France, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- UnitySC, a leading provider of metrology and inspection equipment for the semiconductor industry, is delighted to announce the appointment of Paul Boudre, former CEO of Soitec, as chairman of its board of directors.

Paul Boudre was the CEO of Soitec [EPA:SOI], a world leader in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) design and manufacturing, from September 2015 to July 2022. During that seven-year period Soitec's revenue quadrupled to reach the USD 1 billion mark. He had joined the company in 2007 as executive vice president of sales, marketing, and business development, focusing on new market opportunities and building the SOI ecosystem.

He takes the helm of UnitySC's board of directors at a pivotal time in the life of the company as it has become an indisputable reference at many wafer manufacturers and IC fabs. Beside Advanced Packaging and 3DIC metrology, UnitySC offers a full range of equipment dedicated to other types of high-end process control, most notably in un-patterned defect inspection for compound semiconductors, and transparent substrates as well as inspection of specialty devices (MEMS and power, automotive, RF), and patterned wafers at BEOL/Packaging process steps. The company announced in June 2022 a EUR 48 million funding round led by Jolt Capital, the French State (through French Tech Souverainete, a program operated by Bpifrance) and Supernova Invest.

As a member of UnitySC's board since 2017 and of its parent company Fogale Nanotech, and given Soitec and UnitySC's sites near Grenoble, France, are located only a few kilometers apart, Paul Boudre already knows UnitySC in and out.

During his more than three decades in the global semiconductor industry, Paul Boudre spent nearly 10 years at KLA-Tencor, one of the world's top five semiconductor equipment manufacturers. He first managed the company's European operations and subsequently was named KLA's executive vice president for both the U.S. and Europe. In addition, he has managed industrial operations for IBM Semiconductor, STMicroelectronics, Motorola Semiconductor, and Atmel. Paul Boudre also serves on the boards of directors of the Association for European NanoElectronics Activities (AENEAS) and the semiconductors company Alphawave IP Groupe.

Paul Boudre holds a graduate degree in chemistry from Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie in Toulouse, France.

Contact: [email protected]

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1905653/UnitySC_Logo.jpg

SOURCE UnitySC
Winning companies recognized for their supportive family cultures and inclusive benefits

MENLO PARK, Calif., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Global consulting firm Protiviti has been named to Seramount's 'Best Companies for Dads' list for the third consecutive year. The 100 companies on this year's list are recognized for their supportive culture and inclusive benefits for families. Companies answered more than 400 questions related to leave policies, benefits, childcare, employee resource groups, and the availability and usage of these programs, to be considered for the list.

Protiviti offers a range of programs for its working dads, including a flexible paid gender-neutral parental leave, adoption assistance, an employee networking group for parents, and a back-up dependent care program. In addition, the company offers an extensive Employee Assistance Program to all its employees and a supportive work environment that encourages and empowers them to make the best choices for their professional and personal needs and the needs of the business.

The 2022 Best Companies for Dads provide supportive, family-friendly workplace cultures where parents can thrive. Tweet this

"Our working parents are a tremendously important part of our employee team, and our programs and policies are designed very much with their needs in mind," said Protiviti Senior Director of Total Rewards Jennifer Tomer. "During the pandemic, we were able to expand our programs to include additional childcare and education support as well as programs centered around the physical and mental well-being of our working parents and their families. Our new hybrid work environment will continue to offer a strong level of support to our working parents."

"The 2022 Best Companies for Dads provide supportive, family-friendly workplace cultures where parents can thrive," said Subha V. Barry, president of Seramount. "We are proud of the programs and policies our Best Companies have implemented. Employees continue to speak out about their needs, from bereavement leave after a family suffers a miscarriage and reimbursable emergency childcare to more time to bond with new babies, which fathers are actually taking, and these organizations are delivering." Company profiles and data for the 2022 list come from submitted applications and reflect 2021 data.

Best Companies for Dads honorees will be celebrated during Seramount's WorkBeyond Summit in October. During the awards ceremony, Protiviti Managing Directors and dads Martin Nash and Steven Stachowicz will be recognized as Protiviti's 'Working Parents of the Year.'

Protiviti was recognized by Seramount in 2022 as a Top Company for Executive Women and a Best Company for Multicultural Women, and to the 2022 PEOPLE Companies That Care list. The firm has been consistently recognized as one of the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For since 2015.

About Protiviti

Protiviti (www.protiviti.com) is a global consulting firm that delivers deep expertise, objective insights, a tailored approach and unparalleled collaboration to help leaders confidently face the future. Protiviti and its independent and locally owned Member Firms provide clients with consulting and managed solutions in finance, technology, operations, data, digital, legal, governance, risk and internal audit through its network of more than 85 offices in over 25 countries.

Named to the 2022 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list, Protiviti has served more than 80 percent of Fortune 100 and nearly 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies. The firm also works with smaller, growing companies, including those looking to go public, as well as with government agencies. Protiviti is a wholly owned subsidiary of Robert Half (NYSE: RHI). Founded in 1948, Robert Half is a member of the S&P 500 index.

All referenced marks are the property of their respective owners.

Protiviti is not licensed or registered as a public accounting firm and does not issue opinions on financial statements or offer attestation services.

Editor's note: photo available upon request.

SOURCE Protiviti
DOHA, Qatar, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Qatar Museums announced today a collaboration encompassing the exchange of exhibitions, programs, and scholarly cooperation with New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, on the occasion of the reopening of Doha's reinstalled and reimagined Museum of Islamic Art, and in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the opening of The Met's Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia. Qatar Museums has provided a generous gift to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and in recognition of Qatar's support, a gallery at The Met presenting art from the Umayyad and Abbasid Periods (7th13th centuries) has been named the Qatar Gallery.

The collaboration serves as a legacy project of Qatar Museums' 2021 Year of Culture programme, which celebrated the strong ties between Qatar and the United States. As part of the institutions' collaboration, Qatar Museums has lent works from its renowned collections to The Met for exhibitions  including Jerusalem in the Middle Ages (2016), Sultans of Deccan India, 1500-1700: Opulence and Fantasy (2015), The Great Age of the Seljuks (2016) and Monumental Journey: The Daguerreotypes of Girault de Prangey (2019)  and works from The Met's collection will go on view in Doha on October 26 in the inaugural special exhibition Baghdad: Eye's Delight at the Museum of Islamic Art.

Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums, said, "The establishment of the Qatar Gallery at The Metropolitan Museum of Art highlights the collegiality between our institutions and our desire to advance a crucial goal we hold in common, to heighten appreciation everywhere for the art of the Islamic world. We are proud to come together with The Met to honor the beauty, depth, and variety of a global tradition that spans fourteen centuries."

Max Hollein, Marina Kellen French Director of The Met, commented: "The Met is deeply grateful to Qatar Museums for this extraordinary act of generosity. This gift is the latest instance of the longstanding relationship between our institutions and marks the start of a broad collaboration encompassing the exchange of exhibitions, programs, and scholarly cooperation. This critical support is especially meaningful as we mark the 10th anniversary of the opening of The Met's renovated galleries, which continue to be a source of great interest and inspiration for our millions of yearly visitors."

Press Contact:

Alli Steinberg, Polskin Arts: [email protected] / +1 212 582 2754

SOURCE Qatar Museums
XIAMEN, China, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Qudian Inc. ("Qudian" or the "Company") (NYSE: QD), a consumer-oriented technology company in China, today announced that it has received a letter from the New York Stock Exchange (the "NYSE") dated September 22, 2022, notifying the Company that it is below the NYSE's continued listing standards due to the trading price of Qudian's American depositary shares (the "ADSs").

Pursuant to Section 802.01C of the NYSE's Listed Company Manual, a company will be considered to be below compliance standards if the average closing price of its security as reported on the consolidated tape is less than US$1.00 over a consecutive 30 trading-day period. The Company has six months ("the Cure Period") following receipt of the notice to regain compliance with the minimum share price requirement. The Company can regain compliance at any time during the Cure Period if on the last trading day of any calendar month during the Cure Period the Company has a closing share price of at least US$1.00 per ADS and an average closing share price of at least US$1.00 per ADS over the 30 trading-day period ending on the last trading day of that month. In the event that at the expiration of the six-month Cure Period, both a US$1.00 per ADS closing share price on the last trading day of the Cure Period and a US$1.00 per ADS average closing share price over the 30 trading-day period ending on the last trading day of the Cure Period are not attained, the NYSE will commence suspension and delisting procedures.

To address this issue, the Company intends to monitor the market conditions of its listed securities and is still considering its options. The Company has notified the NYSE on September 23, 2022 of its intent to cure the deficiency. During the Cure Period, the Company's ADSs will continue to be listed and traded on the NYSE, subject to its compliance with other NYSE continued listing standards and other rights of the NYSE to delist the ADSs. The NYSE notification does not affect the Company's business operations, its U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reporting requirements or contractual obligations.

About Qudian Inc.

Qudian Inc. ("Qudian") is a consumer-oriented technology company in China. The Company historically focused on providing credit solutions to consumers. The Company is exploring innovative consumer products and services to satisfy Chinese consumers' fundamental and daily needs by leveraging its technology capabilities.

For more information, please visit http://ir.qudian.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar statements. Among other things, the expectation of its collection efficiency and delinquency contains forward-looking statements. Qudian may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the SEC, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Qudian's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: Qudian's goal and strategies; Qudian's expansion plans; Qudian's future business development, financial condition and results of operations; Qudian's expectations regarding demand for, and market acceptance of, its products; Qudian's expectations regarding keeping and strengthening its relationships with customers, business partners and other parties it collaborates with; general economic and business conditions; and assumptions underlying or related to any of the foregoing. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in Qudian's filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and Qudian does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

In China:

Qudian Inc.

IR team

Tel: +86-592-596-8208

E-mail: [email protected]

The Piacente Group, Inc.

Jenny Cai

Tel: +86 (10) 6508-0677

E-mail: [email protected]

In the United States:

The Piacente Group, Inc.

Brandi Piacente

Tel: +1-212-481-2050

E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Qudian Inc.
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ramen King Keisuke has announced the launch of the flagship storefront of their fast-casual ramen restaurant chain opening throughout the United States. Led by the Ramen Champion of Tokyo, Chef Keisuke Takeda will serve his award-winning Tonkotsu Broth Ramen, which is regarded as the "Best" ramen in all of Japan.

Ramen King's Spicy Tonkotsu Ramen

The secret to his world-famous ramen? The bone broth which is boiled for over 10 hours to ensure that the flavors are fully absorbed and melded together in the dish, resulting in a luscious, silky-smooth bowl of the most satisfying ramen soup. Bone broth delivers great nutritional value and is known as one of the world's best sources of natural collagen. Ramen King Keisuke will also serve its famous lobster broth ramen, a dish that has yet to be experienced by the American market and guarantees consumers a tastebud adventure. For vegan lovers, Chef Keisuke has created a distinctive potato and mushroom broth vegan ramen exclusively for this market.

"This isn't your college roommate's typical ramen, but it is on his budget. For just $9.95, customers will be able to get the best ramen from Japan," said Dolores Tay, the brand's CEO. "Our mission is to serve authentic Japanese cuisine for value in an uber-efficient manner."

Ramen King Keisuke spent over 2 years re-engineering the traditional ramen eatery to suit the American market by incorporating the newest technology and operating efficiencies to deliver the first "labor lite" eatery. Customers are greeted with an ordering kiosk to self-enter their selections and are served a piping hot bowl of delicious ramen within 5 minutes. Meanwhile, the soon-to-launch mobile app allows customers to order from their homes or office with just a few swipes. This comprehensive digitized approach ensures scalability for ambitious expansion while maintaining optimal food quality, especially during this tight labor market. "We saw a gap in the American market to create the first nationwide ramen brand in a category with no dominant leader," said Ms. Tay. "We want to serve delicious, authentic Japanese ramen of the best value throughout all of America, introducing it to folks who have never tried it before."

"The clean design language of our restaurant magically transports our customers across the pacific into the latest contemporary styled ramen eatery in Japan," said Ms. Tay. "From our successful ramen restaurants in Singapore and Japan, we understand the importance of creating a modern aesthetic that fits with the Ramen King Keisuke brand and caters to our customer's needs and creates an immersive, authentic dining experience for our guests."

The first location is set to open on September 24th in Monterey Park, followed by Century City Westfield mall in early October. An additional 13 locations are set to open throughout the year at various locations, including Farmers Market at Fairfax, Marina Del Rey, Studio City, Torrance, Commerce, Anaheim, Brea, Westminster, Mission Viejo, Cabazon, Del Mar, Carlsbad and Mission Valley. Beginning in Southern California, Ramen King plans to expand throughout the United States in the near future.

About Ramen King Keisuke

Led by the Ramen Champion of Tokyo, Chef Keisuke Takeda will serve his award-winning Tonkotsu Broth Ramen, which is regarded as the "Best" ramen in Japan. This new fast-casual ramen restaurant brand incorporates the latest technology to deliver an uber-efficient ramen dining experience.

At Ramen King Keisuke, quality goes beyond your average, everyday ramen. With the Tokyo Ramen Champion on board, creating their product from scratch, you won't find another ramen restaurant like it. Ramen King is proud to offer Southern California authentic Japanese cuisine at great value. For more information, visit https://ramenking.co/ . Follow the brand on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

Media Contact:

Matt Kovacs

[email protected]

SOURCE Ramen King Keisuke
OAKLAND, Calif., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Earlier this month, two Samsung users, Shelby Holtzclaw and Naeem Seirafi, fired a class action lawsuit at Samsung Electronics of America, accusing the company of unnecessarily collecting consumers' personal data and failing to safeguard it. Represented by powerhouse public interest firm, Clarkson Law Firm, the Plaintiffs further allege that Samsung failed to take appropriate protective measures leading to two back-to-back data breaches. Samsung then exacerbated the problem, according to the lawsuit, by neglecting to inform consumers whose data may have been compromised. The 43-page complaint asserts that Samsung violated consumer protection laws in all 50 states.

According to the lawsuit, Samsung disabled functions and features of its electronics like TVs and printers unless consumers submitted personal identification data like their home address and date of birth. Samsung then stored, monitored, and sold that data without adequately securing it, despite having assured its customers that "security and privacy are at the core of what we do and what we think about every day." Samsung allegedly touted that it was "protecting users' security and privacy at all times" via "holistic" and "industry-leading security." However, the lawsuit claims the tech giant's deficient security measures led to two data breaches and distribution of consumers' private, personal information.

The first breach allegedly occurred in April 2022 when confidential data was accessed, stolen, and published online. Samsung reassured customers that the leak only included "some source code relating to the operation of Galaxy devices" which the Plaintiffs assert "minimized entirely the impact of this first data breach." A preventable second attack then occurred when personal identification data was allegedly stolen by an "unauthorized third party." According to the complaint, "It is believed that greater than half of Samsung's U.S. consumers had their [personal identifiable information] compromised in the breach."

The plaintiffs allege that Samsung consumers have been left vulnerable to phishing scams, identity theft, and dual-authentication scams, requiring them to spend time, energy, and money on extra security protocols like credit monitoring.

Holtzclaw and Seirafi are demanding that Samsung notify all consumers whose data was stolen, improve their security systems, and compensate victims for the financial harm they've sustained.

The case is pending in the United States Federal District Court for the Northern District of California, Case Number 3:22-cv-05176. Visit clarksonlawfirm.com for updates.

Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Clarkson Law Firm, PC
CZI Co-Founders and Co-CEOs Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan and President of Harvard University Lawrence Bacow commemorate new research institute to study natural and artificial intelligence

BOSTON, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On Thursday, leadership from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) and Harvard University celebrated the launch of the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University with a symposium on Harvard's campus. Speakers included CZI Head of Science Stephen Quake, President of Harvard University Lawrence Bacow, Provost of Harvard University Alan Garber, and Kempner Institute co-directors Bernardo Sabatini and Sham Kakade. The event also included remarks and panels from industry leaders in science, technology, and artificial intelligence, including Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, Andy Jassy, Daniel Huttenlocher, Sam Altman, Joelle Pineau, Sangeeta Bhatia, and Yann LeCun, among many others.

From left to right, CZI Co-Founders and Co-CEOs Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan and Kempner Institute Co-Directors Bernardo Sabatini and Sham Kakade. | Photograph by CZI CZI Co-Founders and Co-CEOs Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan at the launch of the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University. | Photograph by CZI CZI Co-Founders and Co-CEOs Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan at the launch of the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University. | Photograph by CZI CZI Co-Founders and Co-CEOs Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan attend a presentation by Harvard students at the launch of the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University. | Photograph by CZI CZI Co-Founders and Co-CEOs Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan pose with Harvard students after learning about the students' work on natural and artificial intelligence at the launch of the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University. | Photograph by CZI From left to right, Harvard Kempner Institute Co-Director Bernardo Sabatini, CZI Head of Science Stephen Quake, and Kempner Institute Co-Director Sham Kakade at the launch of the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University. | Photograph by CZI

The Kempner Institute will seek to better understand the basis of intelligence in natural and artificial systems. Its bold premise is that the two fields are intimately interconnected; the next generation of AI will require the same principles that our brains use for fast, flexible natural reasoning, and understanding how our brains compute and reason requires theories developed for AI. The Kempner Institute will study AI systems, including artificial neural networks, to develop both principled theories and a practical understanding of how these systems operate and learn. It will also focus on research topics such as learning and memory, perception and sensation, brain function, and metaplasticity. The Institute will recruit and train future generations of researchers from undergraduates and graduate students to post-docs and faculty  actively recruiting from underrepresented groups at every stage of the pipeline  to study intelligence from biological, cognitive, engineering, and computational perspectives.

CZI Co-Founder and Co-CEO Mark Zuckerberg said: "The Kempner Institute will be a one-of-a-kind institute for studying intelligence and hopefully one that helps us discover what intelligent systems really are, how they work, how they break and how to repair them. There's a lot of exciting implications because once you understand how something is supposed to work and how to repair it once it breaks, you can apply that to the broader mission the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has to empower scientists to help cure, prevent or manage all diseases."

CZI Co-Founder and Co-CEO Priscilla Chan said: "Just attending this school meant the world to me. But to stand on this stage and to be able to give something back is truly a dream come true  All of this progress starts with building one fundamental thing: a Kempner community that's diverse, multi-disciplinary and multi-generational, because incredible ideas can come from anyone. If you bring together people from all different disciplines to look at a problem and give them permission to articulate their perspective, you might start seeing insights or solutions in a whole different light. And those new perspectives lead to new insights and discoveries and generate new questions that can lead an entire field to blossom. So often, that momentum is what breaks the dam and tears down old orthodoxies, unleashing new floods of new ideas that allow us to progress together as a society."

CZI Head of Science Stephen Quake said: "It's an honor to partner with Harvard in building this extraordinary new resource for students and science. This is a once-in-a-generation moment for life sciences and medicine. We are living in such an extraordinary and exciting time for science. Many breakthrough discoveries are going to happen not only broadly but right here on this campus and at this institute."

CZI's 10-year vision is to advance research and develop technologies to observe, measure, and analyze any biological process within the human body  across spatial scales and in real time. CZI's goal is to accelerate scientific progress by funding scientific research to advance entire fields; working closely with scientists and engineers at partner institutions like the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub and Chan Zuckerberg Institute for Advanced Biological Imaging to do the research that can't be done in conventional environments; and building and democratizing next-generation software and hardware tools to drive biological insights and generate more accurate and biologically important sources of data.

President of Harvard University Lawrence Bacow said: "Here we are with this incredible opportunity that Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg have given us to imagine taking what we know about the brain, neuroscience and how to model intelligence and putting them together in ways that can inform both, and can truly advance our understanding of intelligence from multiple perspectives."

Kempner Institute Co-Director and Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science and of Statistics at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Sham Kakade said: "Now we begin assembling a world-leading research and educational program at Harvard that collectively tries to understand the fundamental mechanisms of intelligence and seeks to apply these new technologies for the benefit of humanity  We hope to create a vibrant environment for all of us to engage in broader research questions  We want to train the next generation of leaders because those leaders will go on to do the next set of great things."

Kempner Institute Co-Director and the Alice and Rodman W. Moorhead III Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School Bernardo Sabatini said: "We're blending research, education and computation to nurture, raise up and enable any scientist who is interested in unraveling the mysteries of the brain. This field is a nascent and interdisciplinary one, so we're going to have to teach neuroscience to computational biologists, who are going to have to teach machine learning to cognitive scientists and math to biologists. We're going to do whatever is necessary to help each individual thrive and push the field forward  Success means we develop mathematical theories that explain how our brains compute and learn, and these theories should be specific enough to be testable and useful enough to start to explain diseases like schizophrenia, dyslexia or autism."

About the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was founded in 2015 to help solve some of society's toughest challenges  from eradicating disease and improving education, to addressing the needs of our communities. Through collaboration, providing resources and building technology, our mission is to help build a more inclusive, just and healthy future for everyone. For more information, please visit chanzuckerberg.com.

SOURCE Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Cable's flagship event to return to Denver in 2023

EXTON, Pa., Sept. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, the largest cable event in the Americas, hosted by the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE), a CableLabs subsidiary, returned to Philadelphia where, in a year where industry tradeshows are struggling to return to pre-pandemic audience sizes reporting only approximately 65% on average, last week's attendance surpassed the last in-person show, when Cable-Tec Expo was hosted in New Orleans in 2019.

SCTE Cable-Tec Expo will be hosted in Philadelphia, PA, September 19-22, 2022. (PRNewsfoto/Society of Cable Telecommunication Engineers (SCTE))

Technologists, service providers and innovators from all facets of the cable telecommunications and media industries packed the Pennsylvania Convention Center from September 19-22, 2022, focused on "Creating Infinite Possibilities," and plans are underway for Cable-Tec Expo 2023. Next year, the annual global event returns to Denver, Colorado from October 16-19, 2023, and will be chaired by Charter Communications and Rogers Communications.

"This year's Expo represented everything we were hoping for as we celebrated our triumphant return to an in-person event in Philadelphia!" exclaimed Mark Dzuban, president and CEO of SCTE. "There is infinite potential for creativity and growth that can be unleashed, and we are already looking forward to bringing our global cable and technology communities together again, as we plan next year's Expo."

The Expo 2022 Co-chairs were equally enthusiastic about the turnout, collaboration and content at the event.

"It was outstanding to be back in person at Expo, learning and collaborating alongside thousands of our colleagues from across the globe. From the keynotes and panels to the show floor, Expo showcased the innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurial leadership of our industry," said David Watson, president and CEO, Comcast Cable.

"It was wonderful to see the industry's global community converge at the show and see the growth in the technical content contributed from international leaders and innovators," said Michael Fries, CEO, Liberty Global.

Expo week began with Comcast Cable announcing its plans to double its network energy efficiency by 2030, cutting the electricity per consumed terabyte of data in half. And to underscore the company's commitment to the environment, Comcast purchased and gifted renewable energy certificates to power SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2022 with 100% clean energy. Comcast followed up the announcement by reporting its successful completion of the world-first 10G amplifier test, which achieved symmetrical speeds faster than 4 Gigs. The technology paves way to deploy 10G to tens of millions of customers, over the connections already installed in their homes.

"To continue the industry's commitment to 10G, the alignment of investments, innovation, and execution is critical." shared Phil McKinney, president and CEO of CableLabs. "By combining forces and uniting the cable industry's two largest membership organizations, we contribute to the industry's success while supporting the accelerated pace of change."

The standing-room-only Opening General Session provided a glimpse of the state of the industry and the technologies moving it forward. McKinney sat down for a fireside chat with Expo Co-chairs David Watson and Michael Fries to explore a vision of the future and how connected technology and networking capabilities are being used to create meaningful, impactful, and immersive experiences. Charlie Herrin, president of Technology, Product and Experience (TPX) at Comcast Cable, presented "Meeting the Moment for Customers with the Power of Platforms," a vision of how platforms continue to evolve customer experiences across the globe. Closing out the OGS was a powerful panel of technology leaders who explored of the future of broadband, moderated by Tony Werner, senior technology advisor at Comcast Cable, and featuring Len Barlik, EVP and CTO at Cox Communications; Enrique Rodriguez, EVP and CTO of Liberty Global; and Justin Colwell, EVP of connectivity technology at Charter Communications.

Following two years of successful virtual events, SCTE presented a robust in-person program at Expo 2022 including more than 125 peer-reviewed technical papers sorted into 57 powerful sessions during the annual Fall Technical Forum presented by CableLabs, NCTA and SCTE. In addition, Expo featured 12 internationally sourced sessions, the L&D Experience, new SIMS demonstrations, and FIRST Robotics Showcase highlighting the next generation of engineers, as local high school robotics teams battled their full-sized robots on a full regulation-sized competition floor.

The exhibit hall showcased more than 250 vendors providing essential knowledge on their technologies, products and services plus interop proof-of-concepts, technical workshops, trainings, and hands-on displays. Attendees enjoyed three days of special presentations in the Innovation Theater and had the opportunity to collaborate with key industry groups including ACA Connects, ANGA COM, The Cable Center, CTAM, NCTC, and The WICT Network. Industry colleagues connected during lectures, fireside chats, breakfasts, receptions and other special events.

CableLabs announced the six winners of The 10G Challenge, a unique competition launched at last year's Cable-Tec Expo to inspire innovators to leverage the emerging 10G broadband network. The winners focused on how the 10G network enables technologies that impact the way we live, work, learn and play.

"Cable-Tec Expo was once again able to attract several thousand attendees and hundreds of exhibitors from across the globe," said Dzuban. "We're back! And our industry is excitedly preparing to do it again next year in Denver."

"This show is critical to aligning the industry and building up the ecosystem to keep the industry strong and competitive," he said.

The most influential broadband tech conference and exhibition in the Americas, SCTE Cable-Tec Expo reunited thousands of professionals, premier thought leaders, and vendors displaying innovative technology solutions. Expo 2022 presented must-know technology solutions, time- and resource-saving technical training, and combined the best elements of an on-site experience with compelling streaming content, which will be available to full conference attendees through November 28.

About SCTE, a subsidiary of CableLabs

SCTE is shaping the future of connectivity. Through technological leadership and innovation, SCTE has served as the applied science leader for the cable telecommunications industry for more than five decades. As a not-for-profit member organization, SCTE moves member companies forward through continuous training for the workforce of tomorrow and by putting leaders into the conversations that matter. SCTE is the force behind the annual SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, the largest cable telecommunications and technology tradeshow in the Americas. Learn more at www.scte.org .

SOURCE Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE)
HENDERSON, Nev., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- This project update summarizes the results of the most recent testing of Searchlight Minerals (SRCH) Clarkdale Project located in Clarkdale, AZ. Searchlight Minerals is focused on developing and implementing a cost-effective process to recover the gold and other valuable metals contained in the copper smelter slag left there from the operation of the Clarkdale copper smelter which operated from 1915 to 1954. The smelter operation resulted in a +20 million ton waste product slag pile containing gold, silver, iron, and zinc.

Searchlights designated process testing and design company, Arrakis, Inc. and others have demonstrated the presence of gold in significant quantities and the ability to recover the gold by different commercial processes with variation in recoverable gold grades. The variability reported to date has been in large part a result of the different parties performing the tests and resulting different testing and analytical methods.

Early drilling and analytical work completed by third party reputable companies in 2005 based on 18 drill holes concluded that the pile contained the following quantities of metal.

Table 1

Slag Pile Tons in Millions Au

(opt) Au (gmt) Ag

(opt) Ag (gmt) Cu (%) Zn (%) Fe (%) Combined 20.20 0.50 17.14 0.10 3.43 0.34 2.46 33.15

Analysis and testing by Arrakis and others since this estimate was completed have validated the data contained in this chart. The foremost technical issue delaying moving this project to production has been how to accurately analyze the raw slag and how to recover the gold on a consistent basis. While the raw slag remains difficult to accurately analyze via fire assay due to the refractory nature of the slag, all of the processes tested yield gold dore beads on the process products allowing back calculated recovered gold grades.

Four processes have been evaluated in detail at bench and small pilot scale with the following results.

a. Pressure oxidation via autoclave  Oxidizes the slag under elevated pressure and temperature so that it may be subsequently recovered from solution by leaching  High capital and operating cost, moderate gold recovery. Does not recover iron and zinc.

0.25  0.35 opt (8.57  12.00 gmt) gold recovered. This technology currently used by Barrick and Newmont in Nevada. b. Pressure leaching via autoclave  Directly dissolves the gold into solution for subsequent recovery. Highest capital and operating cost, but high gold recovery. Does not recover iron and zinc. 0.35  0.45 opt (12.00  15.43 gmt) gold recovered. c. High Temperature Melting followed by pressure oxidation leaching via autoclave  Highest capital and operating cost but recovers iron and zinc to pay for higher operating cost. Also has moderate to high gold recovery. 0.25  0.45 opt (8.57  15.43 gmt) gold recovered. d. High Temperature Melting followed by fine grinding and cyanide leaching  Lowest capital and operating cost. Moderate gold recovery, but also recovers iron and zinc.

0.25  0.30 opt (8.57  10.29 gmt) gold recovered.

Due to significant increases in the price of pig iron and zinc oxide, this most recent testing effort focused on option (c) and (d) with tests conducted at both the bench and pilot scale on Chain-of-Custody samples taken in December 2020 from the slag pile at Clarkdale. The samples were shipped to and received by Metcovery II in Menomonee Falls (a suburb of Milwaukee, WI). Subsequently a subset of the samples was heated to high temperature resulting in a 'glass' product containing the gold, a metal pig iron bar, and zinc oxide collected from the baghouse/air filter system.

The produced products were then shipped to Arrakis, Inc. in Englewood, CO where they were opened and processed under the observation of a PhD Metallurgical Engineering candidate at the Colorado School of Mines under the supervision of Dr. Yeonuk Choi at Queens University (formerly at Barrick gold as Director of Technology) in Toronto. Samples taken under Dr. Choi's direction were subsequently shipped COC to AuTec laboratory in Canada for independent third-party analysis.

The summary result of this testing in March 2021 was a back calculated head ore grade by analysis by Arrakis of 0.49 opt gold (16.80 gmt) and 0.12  1.64 opt gold (4.11  56.23 gmt) by AuTec. The problem with this testing was inconsistent recovery of the gold with some of the gold reporting to the glass (which is desired) and some reporting to the iron (which is not desired) although the gold in iron could be recovered by other methods. A subset of 3 of the Metcovery melts of the iron fire assayed with 7 replicates each, indicated an average grade of 0.728 opt Au (24.96 gmt) contained in the raw slag with an average grade of 2.183 opt Au (74.84 gmt) contained in the iron.

The most recent repeat testing at Metcovery in January 2022 was conducted in an attempt to move all of the gold into the glass thereby making it available for direct recovery by leaching while maintaining the recovery of pig iron. In seven separate melt tests the back calculated head grade of the raw slag ranged from 0.018 opt Au (0.62 gmt) to 0.187 opt Au (6.44 gmt) (with an average of 0.123 opt Au (4.24 gmt). As a point of reference, Barrick annual report 2nd Qtr. 2022 quotes an average grade processed in their autoclaves in Nevada at 0.065 opt Au (2.24 gmt).

Unfortunately, in these tests most of the gold still remained in the iron. The variation of gold grade in these tests is believed to be caused by a difference in operating conditions at Metcovery which Arrakis was not able to control due to constraints imposed by the geometry of the existing Metcovery equipment. However, the gold can be recovered by various methods from the iron and Arrakis has done this on a single bench test only.

In an attempt to confirm/determine the quantity of gold present in the sample used for this latest melt testing, raw slag samples were sent by Dr. Choi to three independent labs with three different chlorine-based processes. Dundee and PRO are ambient temperature chlorine leach processes and Platsol is a patented chlorine autoclave process. The results of this testing are shown in the table below.

Table 2

Chain of Custody Gold Content of Slag by Various Processes and Laboratories

Laboratory Conducting Test Slag Head Au gmt Slag Head Au opt Au Extraction % In Test Dundee Process #1 0.478 0.014 83.4 % Dundee Process #2 0.478 0.014 71.4 % PRO Process #1 11.7 0.344 63.0 % PlatsolTM Process 0.40 0.012 60.6 %

As shown in the Table 2, ambient chlorine technology effectively demonstrated a back calculated head ore grade of 0.344 opt Au (11.79 gmt) and the other two processes recovered only 0.014 opt Au (0.48 gmt). The process used by PRO involved chemistry and process conditions closest to those developed by Arrakis over the past few years.

While the results varied due to different testing and analytical techniques the fact remains that all of the testing at either bench or pilot scale by various methods and different test facilities has shown significant quantities of gold present in the slag and recoverable in varying amounts by different processes.

To finalize the optimum process design and move the project into the pilot stage at Clarkdale, Dr. Choi has agreed to come to the Arrakis test facility in Denver and work with Arrakis on a continuous test campaign to finalize the process and operating conditions. This plan was originally thwarted by the onset of Covid and travel restrictions between Canada and the US.

Once the optimum recovery method was determined and quantified, the next phase and path forward would be to engage an EPCM firm to finalize 'blueprint' design. The company chosen would undoubtedly require more testing to finalize materials of construction and exact process operating conditions.

The existing permitted Clarkdale pilot plant would be used in its entirety and become part of the circuit with newly installed process components. This will significantly reduce both capital cost and time frame required to begin production.

Martin Oring, Searchlight CEO, was quoted as saying 'The past few have been difficult due in large part to Covid limiting availability of equipment and travel restrictions for key players delaying test work. Additionally, the costs incurred in SEC filings and preserving the Clarkdale Site in a 'lights on' and permitted facility seriously impacted available funds and cash flow. In spite of this, management remains totally committed to moving the project forward to either 'proof of process' for sale of the asset or limited production status which should dramatically increase the project value. The pilot limited production phase is anticipated to produce significant gold production resulting in final 'proof of process' as well as positive cash flow. We will be seeking funding to complete this next pre-pilot production phase. We are in the process of completing a cost estimate and budget/timeline to rapidly move through this next phase. The exact financing structure has not yet been determined but all reasonable methods are being considered.

While we are somewhat disappointed in not achieving our desired recent test results, they remain within recoverable gold grades currently being cost effectively mined by others.

We are personally very happy that Dr. Choi will finally be able to come to Denver and assist with finalizing the pre-pilot test work that needs to be completed.

We will be hosting a conference call in the next few weeks to further discuss our plans and budget and answering questions posed by existing investors.'

Forward-Looking Statements

This Press Release may contain, in addition to historical information, forward-looking statements. Statements in this Press Release that are forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's periodic filings with the Commission. When used in this Press Release in discussing the recent developments on the Company's mineral projects, including, without limitation, the resolution of certain issues relating to the operation of production modules, the words such as "believe," "could," "may," "expect" and similar expressions are forward-looking statements. The risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements include, but are not restricted to technical issues with the mineral projects that may affect production modules and primary process components, challenges in moving from pilot plant scale to production scale, the risk that actual recoveries of base and precious metals or other minerals re-processed from the slag material at the Clarkdale site will not be economically feasible, uncertainty of estimates of mineralized material, operational risk, the Company's limited operating history, uncertainties about the availability of additional financing, geological or mechanical difficulties affecting the Company's planned mineral recovery programs, the risk that actual capital costs, operating costs and economic returns may differ significantly from the Company's estimates and uncertainty whether the results from the Company's feasibility studies are sufficiently positive for the Company to proceed with the construction of its processing facility, operational risk, the impact of governmental and environmental regulation, financial risk, currency risk volatility in the prices of precious metals and other statements that are not historical facts as disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's periodic filings with securities regulators in the United States. Consequently, risk factors including, but not limited to the aforementioned, may result in significant delays to the projected or anticipated production target dates.

SOURCE Searchlight Minerals Corporation
Fuel Derived From Used Cooking Oil Underlines Sinopec's Long-term Strategy for Sustainable Development

BEIJING, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sinopec Zhenhai Refinery of China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (HKG: 0386, "Sinopec") obtained a bio-jet fuel airworthiness certificate issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) on September 19. The first batch of bio-jet fuel will be shipped to the Airbus (China) Tianjin plant this month. The fuel, derived from used cooking oil, will then be used for flights across China. This will mark the first time that large-scale produced bio-jet fuel will serve the aviation industry in China.

Sinopec Receives Airworthiness Certificate for Chinas First Large-Scale Production of Bio-jet Fuel.

The airworthiness certificate means that Sinopec can sell the bio-jet fuel produced at Sinopec Zhenhai Refinery to aviation operators nationwide. The refinery, in the Zhenhai District of Ningbo, Zhejiang province, has an annual designed processing capacity of 100,000 tons and adopts Sinopec's bio-jet fuel production technology (SRJET) to produce the fuel. The plant's first batch in June produced around 600 tons of bio-jet fuel.

"With the airworthiness certificate, Sinopec Zhenhai Refinery can now sell bio-jet fuel to the entire civil aviation market, we will continue to expand the market and supply chain to build a full industry chain of bio-jet fuel," said Mo Dingge, CEO of Sinopec Zhenhai Refinery.

China has strict standards for airworthiness certification. Beforehand, experts from the Airworthiness Certification Center of CAAC conducted on-site evaluations at Sinopec Zhenhai Refinery that covered all stages of operation, including the bio-jet fuel quality management system, production process management and control, product storage and transportation and sample analysis and testing.

The refinery has already obtained Asia's first global RSB sustainable aviation fuel certification issued by Scientific Certification Systems, a key pass for China's bio-jet fuel to enter the international market.

Compared to traditional petroleum-based aviation kerosene, bio-jet fuel can reduce carbon emissions by up to 50 percent throughout the entire lifecycle.

Sinopec is committed to advancing the development of China's bio-jet fuel industry. It developed its SRJET technology in 2009 and produced bio-jet fuel in December 2011 that was successfully tested in flight at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport in April 2013. After two years of evaluation, experts confirmed Sinopec's bio-jet fuel as suitable for operation in aviation, and the company obtained China's first airworthiness certification for bio-jet fuel in 2014.

Please visit http://www.sinopec.com/ for more information.

SOURCE SINOPEC
Recognized for building, sustaining and fostering an equal and equitable workplace culture

GURUGRAM, India, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI) a leading provider of ratings, benchmarks, analytics and data to capital and commodity markets worldwide, has been named as one of India's Best Workplaces for Women 2022  Large (Top 50) by Great Place to Work Institute for the second consecutive year.

S&P Global earned this recognition in India through a rigorous assessment conducted by the Great Place to Work Institute basis gender parity in experience and representation across levels for creating a Great Place to Work FOR ALL.

"Receiving this national recognition validates our efforts and initiatives to create a truly diverse, equitable and inclusive culture. Our DEI commitment is focused on ensuring that our people are empowered to bring their whole selves to work, and we continuously strive to better reflect and serve the communities in which we live and work, and advocate for greater opportunity for all," said Nilam Patel, Head of India Operations, S&P Global.

S&P Global has introduced new targeted initiatives and people benefits to support and empower its people at all stages of their professional careers and personal growth, including:

Returnship Program "Re-Start" for women professionals who took a career break and would like to return to work in a corporate world

Exclusive Hiring Drives  for women candidates on International Women's Day, for technology hires by partnering with our in-house "Women in Technology" networking group

Speed mentoring initiative undertaken by our Women's Initiative for Networking and Success people resource group to create networking opportunities for women team members to have focused career growth guidance conversations.

Participation at Grace Hopper and IT Pro Day celebration to promote and advance representation opportunities via learning sessions for women in the field of technology

Maternity Management Program - Crafted with a design thinking approach and various focused group discussions with women team members to understand requirements and offer one-stop shop solution, this program not only guides women colleagues with benefits they can avail to during their motherhood phase but also serves as a quick reference guide for people managers to advise them on their career prospects and support which they can offer.

Earlier this year, S&P Global ranked #67 on 'Top 100 India's Best Companies to Work For - 2022" by the Great Place to Work Institute. Participating for the fourth consecutive year, S&P Global jumped 10 ranks from 77th last year. S&P Global has also won Great Place to Work certifications in 2019, 2020 and 2021, in addition to India's Best Workplaces in Health and Wellness in 2020 and India's Best Leaders in Times of Crisis in 2021.

About S&P Global

S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI) provides essential intelligence. We enable governments, businesses and individuals with the right data, expertise and connected technology so that they can make decisions with conviction. From helping our customers assess new investments to guiding them through ESG and energy transition across supply chains, we unlock new opportunities, solve challenges and accelerate progress for the world.

We are widely sought after by many of the world's leading organizations to provide credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics and workflow solutions in the global capital, commodity and automotive markets. With every one of our offerings, we help the world's leading organizations plan for tomorrow, today. For more information, visit www.spglobal.com.

CONTACT:

Media Contact

Kriti Khurana

S&P Global Market Intelligence

+91 971-101-7186

[email protected]

SOURCE S&P Global
EXTON, Pa., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Colleagues from Spherix Global Insights partnered with Cheeriodicals to assemble and deliver Big Green Boxes of Cheer to pediatric patients at Nemours Children's Hospital, Delaware.

A team of nearly 75 employees from Spherix Global Insights came together to volunteer their time to pack more than 200 Big Green Boxes of Cheer for patients at Nemours Children's. The team wanted to come together and perform work that would benefit others in their community in need. The choice to deliver a smile to hospitalized children locally was the perfect fit for their give-back project.

The Cheeriodicals gift boxes were created to bring joy to kids during their hospital stays and contained age-appropriate magazines, activity books, puzzles, toys and the Cheeriodicals frog. These amazing cheer-up boxes are sure to provide a dose of cheer to each pediatric recipient.

"Through our work, we learn of the struggles patients face every day," said Jennifer Robinson, President of Spherix Global Insights. "Our entire team at Spherix feels passionately that we give back and support those in need, and we're honored to partner with the amazing team at Cheeriodicals and Nemours Children's Hospital to do just that. We hope we can bring even an ounce of joy to these children and make a difference in their day."

"We were excited to work with the team from Spherix Global Insights over the last two days," mentioned Gary Parisher, President of Cheeriodicals. "It's always a pleasure to partner with a company like Spherix Global Insights who realizes how important it is to give-back and make a difference in their local communities. Their entire team was on-board to provide a reason to smile to every child at Nemours Children's Hospital."

After their team packed all the Cheeriodicals cheer-up boxes, Two Men and a Truck New Castle, DE arrived and loaded all the gift boxes and delivered them to Nemours free of charge, as part of their own corporate social responsibility program.

Representatives from Spherix Global Insights were on hand at Nemours today to help unload the Cheeriodicals. The Nemours Children's Child Life specialists team managed the distribution of the Cheeriodicals to the kids and even saved a few extras to store for incoming patients over the days to come.

About Spherix Global Insights

Spherix is a hyper-focused market intelligence firm that leverages our own independent data & expertise to strategically partner with clients, providing the most relevant and actionable insights. Our team is responsive, connected, and passionate about the areas in which we focus. Through our partnership with pharmaceutical clients, we aim to ultimately improve the lives of patients around the globe. Visit our website for more information.

About Cheeriodicals

Cheeriodicals is a national corporate team building company that conducts in-person and virtual philanthropic events benefiting children's hospitals, Ronald McDonald Houses, Veterans Hospitals, the American Cancer Society and other charity groups. For more information about Cheeriodicals, visit our website, or follow Cheeriodicals on Facebook , Instagram and LinkedIn .

About Nemours Children's Health

Nemours Children's Health is one of the nation's largest multistate pediatric health systems, which includes two free-standing children's hospitals and a network of more than 70 primary and specialty care practices. Nemours Children's seeks to transform the health of children by adopting a holistic health model that utilizes innovative, safe, and high-quality care, while also caring for the health of the whole child beyond medicine. Nemours Children's also powers the world's most-visited website for information on the health of children and teens, Nemours KidsHealth.org.

The Nemours Foundation, established through the legacy and philanthropy of Alfred I. DuPont, provides pediatric clinical care, research, education, advocacy, and prevention programs to the children, families and communities it serves. For more information, visit Nemours.org.

Media Contacts:

Mary Martha Parisher

General Counsel

205-677-2069

[email protected]

Matt Rigney

Director of Marketing

484-479-4284

[email protected]

Jennifer Reardon

Public Relations Program Manager

Nemours Children's Health

[email protected]

SOURCE Spherix Global Insights
Mayor Jesse Arreguin Oversees Recognition Process

BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Operations Specialists and Maintenance Specialists working for Spin electric scooters in Berkeley joined Teamsters Local 665 yesterday. The move came after the company agreed to voluntarily recognize Local 665 as the workers' collective bargaining representative via card check neutrality in a ceremony overseen by the city's mayor, Jesse Arreguin.

"The workers at Spin of San Francisco already have a great collective bargaining agreement with the Teamsters," said Tony Delorio, Local 665 Secretary-Treasurer. "This is our second victory at this company and we look forward to getting a similar contract for our newest members in Berkeley. We're going to continue to organize e-scooter workers throughout California, both at Spin and other companies."

"This neutrality agreement is an innovative model for ways that the private sector, organized labor and city government can work together in a mutually beneficial capacity," said Arreguin. "If more cities follow Berkeley's example, it will bring greater prosperity to workers, communities, and business owners throughout California."

"We're thrilled to be joining the Teamsters," said Spin worker Francisco Lemus Gonzalez. "Rank-and-file tech workers like us are on the frontlines of the modern labor movement. We're building a future with prosperous, sustainable jobs  not just here, but at every tech company in the Bay area."

Teamsters Local 665 represents over 5,000 members throughout the Bay Area in waste management, transportation, and a wide variety of other industries. For more information, go to https://www.teamsters665.org/.

Contact:

Matt McQuaid, (202) 624-6877

[email protected]

SOURCE Teamsters Local 665
Surge's technology predicts postoperative complications

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Biotech and medical AI innovator Surge announced a $2.6 million round co-led by HCVC, a global early-stage fund dedicated to high-potential technology startups, and Boutique Venture Partners, a leading fund based in the Silicon Valley. Veteran angel investors, including Nicolas Godin, the COO/CFO of Cardiologs, also participated in the round. Surge was awarded the 2022 iLab grant, along with other non-dilutive grants to complete the fundraising.

Hosted in the US by StartX, a nonprofit founders community, as well as supported in Europe by Agoranov, 50 Partners, and Wilco, Surge's flagship product uses innovative machine learning algorithms to decode a patient's immune system from a blood sample. This technology enables physicians to quickly forecast the risk of postoperative complications. With 30% of major surgeries currently resulting in complications and 40% of patients aged 65 and above suffering long-lasting cognitive impacts after orthopedic or cardiac surgery, Surge's solution enables targeted and personalized interventions to reduce patients' risk of postsurgical complications.

A patented solution

Surge's technology combines a biological analysis of the immune system with an AI algorithm, enabling it to calculate each patient's risk of surgical complications and propose customized preventive management strategies to optimize the care pathway.

A multi-year transfer & collaboration

Surge has obtained from Stanford University the exclusive license to the patented postoperative complication prediction technology developed through more than ten years of research on surgical risk prediction conducted by Brice Gaudilliere, MD, PhD, Physician-Scientist and Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. In the summer of 2022, Surge also signed a research agreement with Stanford with the goal of developing biotech innovations.

The funding round will enable Surge to further develop its team and conduct clinical studies with other hospitals, such as the one started in the spring of 2022 with the Foch Hospital in Suresnes, France. The Foch study, launched in spring 2022, will validate Surge's prediction of surgical site infections in abdominal surgery.

A strong growth market

Of the nearly 6.1 million and 5.1 million abdominal surgeries conducted each year in the United States and Europe respectively, approximately 30% result in postoperative complications such as infections, cognitive decline, or thrombo-embolic accidents. These complications usually require additional care or re-hospitalization leading to high healthcare costs and patient morbidity and mortality. The burden of complications is increasing as the population ages and the number of surgeries increases almost 5% per year (Transparency Market Research).

"We are proud to support Surge in its ambition to reduce the risk of postoperative complications. Its international, multidisciplinary team inspires respect. They have created very strong relationships spanning both the French and American academic worlds, with partners including, AP-HP, and Institut Pasteur, and Stanford building a solid network that will allow them to achieve their goals." -Alexis Houssou, founder of HCVC Partners

"At Boutique, we are thrilled to partner with Surge's team to help decode immune fingerprints to accurately identify patients at risk before surgery. What impresses us most about Surge is the ability to integrate a proprietary machine-learning algorithm with single-cell and plasma proteomic data to predict surgical complications, including infection and cognitive decline. We were familiar with Dr. Gaudilliere's work at Stanford (before even meeting him) and his approach of using the power of single-cell mass cytometry (CyTOF) to identify immune dysfunction that drives pathological stressors".  Dr. Rami El Assal, Managing General Partner & Co-founder of Boutique Venture Partners.

"Our ambition is to develop the reference solution for surgical precision medicine. We plan to expand and diversify the applications of our technology with immune profiling tools for all surgical complications. Eventually, we also want to apply our methodology to other therapeutic areas." -Julien Hedou, President and Co-founder of Surge.

About Surge:

Surge is a biotech company focused on optimizing treatment for patients undergoing surgery. Our multidisciplinary team has developed a test to identify patients at risk for complications. By anticipating surgical risks to enable personalization of the care pathway, this innovation will revolutionize the patient experience and shift the standard of surgical care. Our team shares a common vision for healthcare innovation: to develop patient-focused solutions that benefit the entire healthcare system. https://www.surge.care/

About HCVC:

HCVC is a thesis-driven fund that backs hardtech founders on a mission to digitize, automate and decarbonize the physical world. We focus primarily on seed stage investments, from Pre-Seed to Series A. HCVC also manages Hardware Club, the largest selective global community of hardtech startups. HCVC has offices in Paris and San Francisco. https://www.hcvc.co/

About Boutique Venture:

Boutique Venture Partners is a US-based venture capital fund in Palo Alto, California that focuses on emerging health and life science solutions to make a meaningful impact. We are a team of relentless scientists and clinicians who partner with exceptional founders to create innovative, distributive approaches that improve health and wellness. We build on our strong connection to the healthcare ecosystem to gain rapid access to innovations and discoveries from academic institutes and industry. We focus on early-stage companies that are developing new platforms, have deep domain expertise, are staffed by skilled entrepreneurs, have strong intellectual property and high growth potential while demonstrating societal impact. https://www.boutiquevc.com/

Media contact:

Ran Xu

[email protected]

213-309-2373

SOURCE Surge
New study identifies shifts to e-commerce and changes in how foodservice buyers learn about products and services

CHICAGO, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Technomic's newly released The Buyer's Journey in the New Digital World Multi Client Study uncovers foodservice operators' paths to purchase, as well as the roles traditional, social and digital media play both directly and indirectly into the buying journey.

"To better understand how buying patterns in the market are transforming, we launched a brand-new study surveying 500 operators, as well as conducting in-depth interviews with operators via bulletin boards and at the National Restaurant Association Show, to explore purchase drivers, the role of digital ordering platforms, traditional sales channels and how various forms of media impact product search and discovery," explains Rich Shank, senior principal and vice president of innovation at Technomic. "The pandemic has changed the buyer's journey, and it will continue to call for manufacturers and distributors to shift communication strategies as their buyers evolve."

Key findings include:

87% of limited-service restaurant (LSR) operators and 85% of c-store operators agree that e-commerce platforms have become easier to use since March 2020

90% of LSR operators have increased usage of e-commerce platforms since March 2020

55% of operators read trade publications regularly

41% of operators go to their distributor website and search for products when searching for new products or replacements

Learn more: https://www.technomic.com/buyers-journey-new-digital-world

Contact: Patrick Noone, (312) 506-3852, [email protected]

About Technomic

Technomic Inc., a Winsight company, was founded as a management consulting firm in 1966. Since then, Technomic's services have grown to encompass cloud-based B2B research tools, consumer and menu trend tracking and other leading strategic research and analytic capabilities, to prioritize and size business opportunities. Our clients include food manufacturers and distributors, restaurants, retailers and multiple other business verticals aligned with the food industry that are looking to make informed decisions to support their business growth. Visit Technomic at www.technomic.com.

About Winsight

Winsight LLC is a business-to-business information company serving the restaurant and noncommercial foodservice, convenience and petroleum retailing and grocery industries. Winsight provides research and analytics, branding solutions, face-to-face opportunities, lead generation initiatives, and content marketing services through products including subscription data products, reports, research tools, research programs, fully custom studies, conferences, custom marketing services, meetings, print and digital trade media. To learn more, visit winsightmedia.com

SOURCE Technomic
Hamilton Wingo trial Lawyers Paul Wingo, Ray T. Khirallah, Jr. recognized by Texas Super Lawyers for personal injury litigation expertise

DALLAS, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Texas Super Lawyers legal guide has again recognized Hamilton Wingo law firm partner Chris Hamilton among the Top 100 attorneys in Dallas-Fort Worth. In addition, the prestigious listing has honored firm partners Paul Wingo and Ray T. Khirallah, Jr. for their work with plaintiffs in personal injury disputes.

This is the second year that Mr. Hamilton has been listed among the Top 100 in DFW and the 13th year to earn either Super Lawyers or Super Lawyers Rising Stars honors.

Thomson Reuters researchers compile the annual Super Lawyers list based on a rigorous selection process that starts with peer nominations, followed by independent research and vetting by a blue-ribbon panel. The process is designed to recognize the top 5 percent of attorneys in the state. The full listing appears in the October issue of Texas Monthly and the Texas edition of Super Lawyers magazine.

"We have a reputation for taking cases to trial and fighting for our clients," said Mr. Hamilton. "We are proud of our work, and we are grateful that our peers recognize that work."

Mr. Hamilton's legal peers consistently name him among the best in his profession, leading to additional honors such as inclusion in the Best Lawyers in America legal guide. Most recently, he was co-lead counsel with Mr. Khirallah on a trial team that secured a record $7.37 billion negligence verdict against Charter Spectrum.

Mr. Wingo's work has resulted in hundreds of millions in recoveries for clients. He has earned Super Lawyers recognition since 2020 and companion honors in Texas Rising Stars since 2015. Other legal industry honors include Best Lawyers in America.

Mr. Khirallah is a veteran litigator who has secured numerous multimillion-dollar verdicts and settlements in personal injury-related cases. Along with the 2022 Texas Super Lawyers recognition, his peers have honored his work in the Best Lawyers in America.

The trial lawyers at Hamilton Wingo, LLP, are devoted to representing individuals in high-stakes, complex litigation on a contingent fee basis. They have obtained billions in verdicts and settlements for clients. For more information, visit hamiltonwingo.com/.

Media Contact:

Sophia Reza

800-559-4534

[email protected]

SOURCE Hamilton Wingo, LLP
DUBLIN, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The 'Thailand Medical Device Market Outlook to 2026F' report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Thailand medical device market is expected to grow at a double digit CAGR from 2021-2026F, with imports contributing majority of the market revenues.

The creation of a world-class healthcare sector is a top priority for the Thailand and the healthcare sector is expected to advance and expand significantly in the next few years which will support the growth of Medical Device Market in the country.

Aging population along with increase in number of hospitals and clinics, increase in total healthcare expenditure by the government and increase in medical tourism in the country are going to impact the demand for medical devices in the positive manner.

Thailand Medical Device Market Overview and Size:

Thailand recorded the 5.0% population growth rate over the last 7 years, with highest population concentrated in Bangkok. Majority of the healthcare facilities are concentrated in Bangkok and other central regions of the Thailand. The country has a comprehensive, government-funded health service and a rapidly developing private health sector, which is one of the major pillar of the industry.

Universal Coverage Card is the most used insurance in Thailand. Social Security (SSS) is followed by Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme (CSMBS). Private insurance contributed 7.33% to the total insurances in Thailand. Diabetes and lung cancer causes most death in Indonesia.

Competitive Landscape in the Thailand Medical Devices Market:

The competition scenario in Thailand medical devices market is highly concentrated for Orthopedic Product and Diagnostics imaging market and moderately concentrated due to the presence of large number of international companies and local distributors leading to dilution of market share.

The international companies distribute their products through authorized distributors located across the country. GE, Siemens, Philips, Canon and Fujifilm are the major companies operating in the Thailand Medical Device market.

Meditop, Mind medical and R.X. Company are few top distributors in Thailand. The major competitive parameters include product portfolio, price, and after sales and warranty and technology

Thailand Medical Device Market Segmentation:

Imports have accounted for majority of the revenue share in Thailand Medical Device Market in 2020. The imports are largely related to more sophisticated medical and surgical instruments and infrastructure.

Medical Device Market in 2020. The imports are largely related to more sophisticated medical and surgical instruments and infrastructure. Distributor Mediated Sales have accounted for majority of the revenue in Thailand Medical Device Market in 2021. Majority of the international companies hire distributors in Thailand through which it sells the medical devices to hospitals, diagnostic laboratories and other non-residential customers.

Medical Device Market in 2021. Majority of the international companies hire distributors in through which it sells the medical devices to hospitals, diagnostic laboratories and other non-residential customers. Medical Consumables have accounted for the largest share of of the revenue in Thailand Medical Devices market in 2021, followed by Diagnostic Reagents and cardiac devices.

Medical Devices market in 2021, followed by Diagnostic Reagents and cardiac devices. Syringes, Needles and Catheters, Surgical Gloves and Intravenous Admin Sets contributed more than 50.0% revenue in 2021. The COVID-19 outbreak and increasing hospital admissions across the country have significantly increased the demand for medical disposables.

CT Scans contributed the highest revenue share in 2021 followed by X Ray Based Products, Ultrasound and MRI. The CT Scan segment witnessed the fastest growth since they are one of the primary diagnostic tools for COVID-19 patients.

In Thailand the production of medical devices are exported to other parts of the world which contributes 70% of the overall production.

the production of medical devices are exported to other parts of the world which contributes 70% of the overall production. Thailand's key export markets are the United States , followed by Japan , the Netherlands , and Germany . Most of the manufacturers and exporters in Thailand are foreign-owned companies that export the items back to their home countries, e.g. Japan , the United States and France .

key export markets are , followed by , , and . Most of the manufacturers and exporters in are foreign-owned companies that export the items back to their home countries, e.g. , and . Oxygen Concentrators contributed highest revenue share in 2020. The Thailand population has high risk of exposures to occupational and environmental factors that lead to illnesses such as asthma, chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

population has high risk of exposures to occupational and environmental factors that lead to illnesses such as asthma, chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Hospital Beds with Mechanical Fittings and Dentists' Chairs contributed highest revenue share in 2021. Increasing number of hospitals and lifestyle diseases along with operations on morbidly obese patients is increasing by more than 18.6K cases a year and Increasing incidences of chronic diseases and a rise in geriatric population is driving growth.

cases a year and Increasing incidences of chronic diseases and a rise in geriatric population is driving growth. Implants and Artificial Body parts have accounted for largest revenue share in the Thailand medical devices market in 2021. Frequent road accidents (~About 20,000 people die in road accidents each year, or about 56 deaths a day) and injuries driving the auxiliary devices market.

medical devices market in 2021. Frequent road accidents (~About 20,000 people die in road accidents each year, or about 56 deaths a day) and injuries driving the auxiliary devices market. Dental Appliances contributed the highest revenue and contributed 20.0% of the overall revenue in 2021. Oral implant surgery, products for sensitive teeth and gum are some of the major areas in dental care which led to demand of these equipment's.

Hospitals along with Clinics and Diagnostic Lab Centers contribute majority of the market revenue in Thailand Medical Devices Market in 2021. Consumer and provider attitudes toward telehealth have improved since the post-COVID-19 era. Virtual healthcare and business models are evolving, moving from purely "virtual urgent care" to a range of services enabling integration of telehealth with other virtual health solutions, and hybrid virtual/in-person care models.

Regulatory Framework in Thailand Medical Device Market

Government Support Towards Medical Device Sector

Incentives Given By Thailand Board of Investment

Regulatory Process for Medical Device

Medical Device-Specific Regulatory Process

Market Opportunity and Analyst Recommendation

Market Opportunity Analysis for Medical Devices in the Thailand

Recommendation for Medical Device Manufacturers

Case Study of China and Ireland Medical Device Industry

and Ireland Medical Device Industry Market Attractiveness for Medical Device Companies

Market Entry Strategy in Thailand Medical Device Industry

Competitive Landscape in Thailand Medical Device Market

Overview of Competition in Thailand Medical Devices Market

Medical Devices Market Product Heat Map for Major Companies in Thailand Medical Devices Market

Medical Devices Market Strengths and Weakness of Major Manufacturers in Thailand Medical Devices Market

Medical Devices Market Market shares for Major Brands present in the Diagnostic Imaging, Hospital Furniture, Dialysis Equipment, Auxiliary Devices and Orthopaedic Products

present in the Diagnostic Imaging, Hospital Furniture, Dialysis Equipment, Auxiliary Devices and Orthopaedic Products Cross-Comparison of Major Distributors in Thailand Medical Devices Market

Companies Covered

Local Manufacturing Companies

Nipro ( Thailand )

) Hoya Optics

Kawasumi Laboratories

Meditop

GE Medical Systems ( Thailand )

) Eyebiz Laboratory ( Thailand )

) Emerald Nonwovens International

Infus Medical ( Thailand )

) M.E. Meditek

Distributor Companies

MindMedical

Unitech Healthcare Co. Ltd.

R.X. Company

Kha Bangkok

MedTech

Med Global

Bangkok Unitrade

MDE Thai

Pacific Healthcare MediTop

CMC Biotech

Techno Medical

Saintmed

Winnergy Medical

Xovic Co. Ltd.

Gateway Healthcare Co. Ltd.

Medical intensive care co. ltd

Thai hospital products co. ltd

iCare medical co ltd

DKSH ( Thailand ) co. ltd

) co. ltd BJC Healthcare

Prime medical co. ltd

MP Med group

MDC ( Thailand )

) Siam pharmaceutical

Key Segments Covered

Time Period Captured in the Report:

Historical Period - 2016-2021

Forecast Period -2021-2026F

By Type of Business Activity

Import

Local Production

By Mode of Selling

Distributor Mediated

Direct Sales

By Type of Device

Medical Consumables

Diagnostic Imaging Products

Respiratory Products

Dental and Orthopedic Products

Cardiac Device

Hospital Furniture

Auxiliary Devices

Ophthalmic Devices

Dialysis Machine

Others

By Type of Medical Consumable

Indoor surgical Gloves and Masks

Syringes, Needles and Catheters

Intravenous Administration Set

Sutures and catgut

Infusion Pumps

Ostomy

Bandages, Dressings and Others

By Type of Diagnostic Imaging Product

CT Scan

X-ray Based Products

Ultrasound

MRI

Electro diagnostic apparatus (Functional Examination)

ECG

Others

By Type of Cardiac Device

Angioplasty Device

Cardiac Rhythm Management

ICD

Implants

Pacemakers

Heart-Lung Machines

Others

By Type of Respiratory Products

Oxygen Concentrator

Nebulizers

Humidifier

Ventilators

Airway Pressure devices

Others

By Type of Hospital Furniture

Hospital Beds with Mechanical Fittings and Dentists' Chairs

Operating Tables

Examination Tables

Medical, surgical, dental or veterinary furniture

Others

By Type of Auxiliary Product

Hearing Aids

Artificial body parts (excluding artificial teeth and joints)

Others

By Type of Dental and Orthopedic Products

Orthopedic Appliances

Artificial teeth and dental fittings

Dental appliances

Surgical Belts

Trusses

Crutches

Others

By Type of End-Users

Hospitals

Clinics

Labs and Others

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ipvy4d

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539438/Research_and_Markets_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Research and Markets
NAPIA's New Leadership is Set & Ready for the 2022-2023 Calendar Year



GALVESTON, Texas, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- At NAPIA's annual meeting in Galveston, Texas, NAPIA's membership enjoyed industry networking and superior continuing education seminars at the beach. Another elite list of Public Adjusters was voted into NAPIA's long (71 year) history of exceptional leadership. Now Past President Anita L. Taff, CPAU proudly handed the reins to her successor Clay Morrison, CPPA, CPAU & President of Morrison & Morrison, Inc. With decades of service to policyholders nationwide in conjunction with holding positions in NAPIA & TAPIA's leadership including President of TAPIA, Clay Morrison is a tried-and-true industry leader.

Nation Association of Public Insurance Adjusters President Clay Morrison National Association of Public Insurance Adjusters 2022-2023 Officers

In traditional fashion, the membership voted up the officer ladder new Vice Presidents, Treasurer and Secretary:

- 1st Vice President Chris Aldrich, Andrew K. Knox & Company, Toms River, NJ

- 2nd Vice President Matthew Blumkin, Esq., Greenspan Company / Adjusters International, Northridge, CA

- 3rd Vice President Robert Joslin, CPPA, Hawaii Public Adjusters, Wailuku, HI

- 4th Vice President Justin Skipton, SPPA, AIC, Skipton and Associates, Inc., Scottsdale, AZ

- Treasurer Alice Young, SPPA, AIC, Brown-O' Haver, Oklahoma City, OK

And newly elected officer - Secretary Tim Woodard, Eclipse Claims Consulting, Prosper, TX





In addition to the elected officers, NAPIA is proud to welcome the newly elected Board Members

- Jade Bentz, Skyline Adjusters, New York, NY

- Brian Evans, Eastern Public, LLC, New York, NY

- Kevin J. Kaufmann, SPPA, Property Adjustment Corporation, Doylestown, PA

They will join the existing slate of directors: Raymond A. Altieri, III, Jahn Miller, SPPA, Jeff O'Connor, SPPA, Katherine M. Papa, Jodie A. Papa, Sarah Parker, Kelli Rogers, Blair Beneke Ryan, and Anita L. Taff, CPAU

This new Board brings their experience, knowledge, and ambition to support NAPIA's mission to protect and promote the Public Adjusting industry and advocate for its consumers.

NAPIA is also pleased to announce the retention of The Solution, an association management team, to support the NAPIA leadership in accomplishing their hefty goals and to run the day-to-day management of the Association.

NAPIA leadership encourages anyone dealing with an insurance claim to go to www.NAPIA.com and look for a qualified member firm to assist you with the claim process.

About NAPIA:

For more than 70 years, public adjusters throughout the United States have joined together for the purpose of education, certification, ethics, legal and legislative representation, networking, and promotion of the public adjusting profession.

Members assist one another to address issues within the first party property insurance claims community and support a platform designed to impact legislation, regulation, accreditation, and consumer awareness.

The Association offers public adjusters networking events with continuing education recognized by state insurance departments across the nation, representation by experts in legal, legislative, and regulatory matters, a "Find a Public Adjuster" referral service, marketing opportunities, access to cost-saving benefits, and more.

Members of the National Association of Public Insurance Adjusters are held to the highest standard of professional conduct and ethics.

Written By Justin R. Skipton, AIC, SPPA, 4th Vice President of NAPIA, Partner at Skipton & Associates, Inc.

If you have and questions, contact us at [email protected]

Media Contact:

Gjergj Ndoja

(703) 433-9217

[email protected]

SOURCE NAPIA
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Set in the magic of The Walt Disney World Resort, The Global Exchange Conference 2022 (GXC) is a professional, four-day conference of continuing education presentations, experiential workshops, industry expo, and networking events. Never before has a conference converged with these three disciplines under one roof: Mental Health, Addiction Treatment, and Wellness. GXC will offer attendees the opportunity to learn within their own and other aligning disciplines from world-renowned experts in these fields, and to inspire an exchange of thought-provoking perspectives and pathways that will lead to a more vibrant and productive approach of therapeutic methods to help those in need.

From The Global Exchange Conference originator and CEO of High Watch Recovery Center, Jerry Schwab, "In a time where we must all work together for the well-being of individuals and communities, The Global Exchange Conference is perfectly positioned to bring together health care professionals for a restorative conference of caring, connecting, collaboration, and change." Jerry continues, "Our agenda is extensive, and attendees will have the additional opportunity to engage with industry exhibitors from all conference disciplines at the GXC Expo."

The Global Exchange Conference is bringing together Mental Health, Addiction, & Wellness Professionals Nov. 1-4, 2022. Tweet this

Michael Cabot, Certified Recovery Residence Administrator, and the Board President of the Florida Association of Recovery Residences says, "GXC offers continuing education credits with expert speakers who explore multi-disciplinary models and approaches that will focus on implementing change towards body, mind, and spirit recovery. This is a great opportunity to learn and unite health care providers to further traditional and innovative care methods, assisting patients in their journey." Additionally, there are more than 50 educational sessions to choose from at the conference. All sessions will be available to all in-person attendees via GXC's on-line educational partner, TPN, for 30 days post event.

Among the many elite industry speakers and presenters who will teach, train, and exchange knowledge are Deepak Chopra, Dr. Gabor Mate, Margaret Trudeau, Dr. James Flowers, Marianne Williamson, Russell Brand, and Dr. Tian Dayton. Guest Speakers are Whoopi Goldberg, who is an advocate for humanitarian efforts including substance abuse and has provided a video introduction available on the GXC website, and actor Rob Lowe who embraced sobriety and reflects on his past battle with drug and alcohol addiction, along with his dedication and support of other's journey to recovery.

Registration is open and special accommodations are available at select hotels at The Walt Disney World Resort. For a full list of speakers, topics, and activities, please visit https://theglobalexchangeconference.com/ .

SUMMARY | For the first time in history, The Inaugural Global Exchange Conference will bring together a powerful gathering of Mental Health, Addiction Treatment, and Wellness Health Care Professionals at the Walt Disney World Resort, November 1-4, 2022.

www.theglobalexchangeconference.com | [email protected] | 844.572.7250

CONTACT | Jason Perillo, Global Exchange Conference Media Relations, Mobile: (203) 627-3030, [email protected] https://theglobalexchangeconference.com/

SOURCE The Global Exchange Conference
CHICAGO, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hundreds of Oakland middle school students received free access to ThinkCERCA's literacy curriculum and personalized learning platform through a donation in partnership with Bryan Tsiliacos's 30 Acts of Kindness Before 30.

The student licenses were part of an essential items supply kit delivered to five Oakland schools. ThinkCERCA was one of 18 company sponsors who donated over $12,000 worth of supplies for Tsiliacos's second act of kindness. His first focused on the Bay Area firefighter community.

Our responsibility to teach critical thinking and writing across subjects and build instructional capacity is paramount. Tweet this

"The recent news about pandemic learning loss furthered what many educational leaders and communities already knew. Our responsibility to teach critical thinking and writing across subjects and build instructional capacity is paramount. We are proud to have a tool that achieves this and gives hours back to teachers so they have more 1:1 time with students and can deliver results in reading and writing," said Eileen Murphy, ThinkCERCA's Founder and CEO.

Each of the 150 classroom supply kits included pencils, paper, tissue, markers, and other needed items that many teachers pay for personally each year.

Tsiliacos said, "Getting the support of a leading education company like ThinkCERCA helped bring this initiative to life. They graciously donated access to their innovative literacy courseware that helps students become strong critical thinkers. It was a great addition to the supply kits, and the teachers were very appreciative!"

For more details on ThinkCERCA please visit https://www.thinkcerca.com/ . To learn more about Tsiliacos's initiative, visit https://www.instagram.com/30actsby30/ .

About ThinkCERCA

ThinkCERCA's personalized literacy platform helps educators teach critical thinking skills through close reading and academic writing across subjects. With a research-based framework that teaches students how to construct a cohesive argument, studies show they can achieve an average of two years of reading growth annually.

30 Acts of Kindness Before 30 Background

Bryan Tsiliacos is a Bay Area native on a mission to complete 30 acts of kindness before turning 30 next year. Every good thing that has happened to him was thanks to the support and generosity of others, and so he made it his mission to do big acts of kindness in his community. He wants others to realize you can make a major difference  all it takes is some time, determination, and creativity.

Contact: Eileen Murphy, [email protected]

SOURCE ThinkCERCA
A roundup of the week's most newsworthy consumer and retail industry press releases from PR Newswire

NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With thousands of press releases published each week, it can be difficult to keep up with everything on PR Newswire. To help journalists covering the consumer and retail industries stay on top of the week's most newsworthy and popular releases, here's a roundup of stories from the week that shouldn't be missed.

The list below includes the headline (with a link to the full text) and an excerpt from each story. Click on the press release headlines to access accompanying multimedia assets that are available for download.

Read more of the latest consumer-related releases from PR Newswire and stay caught up on the top press releases by following @PRNcnsmr on Twitter.

Helping Journalists Stay Up to Date on Industry News

These are just a few of the recent press releases that consumers and the media should know about. To be notified of releases relevant to their coverage area, journalists can set up a custom newsfeed with PR Newswire for Journalists.

Once they're signed up, reporters, bloggers and freelancers have access to the following free features:

Customization: Create a customized newsfeed that will deliver relevant news right to your inbox. Customize the newsfeed by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more.

Create a customized newsfeed that will deliver relevant news right to your inbox. Customize the newsfeed by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more. Photos and Videos: Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include with your next story.

Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include with your next story. Subject Matter Experts: Access ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in your articles.

Access ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in your articles. Related Resources: Read and subscribe to our journalist- and blogger-focused blog, Beyond Bylines, for media news roundups, writing tips, upcoming events, and more.

About PR Newswire and PR Newswire for Journalists

For more than 65 years, PR Newswire has been the industry leader with the largest, most comprehensive distribution network of print, radio, magazine, television stations, financial portals and trade publications. PR Newswire has an unparalleled global reach of more than 200,000 publications and 10,000 websites and is available in more than 170 countries and 40 languages.

PR Newswire for Journalists (PRNJ) is an exclusive community that includes over 20,000 journalists, bloggers and influencers who are logging into their PRNJ accounts specifically looking for story ideas. PR Newswire thoroughly researches and vets this community to verify their identity as a member of the press, blogger or influencer. PRNJ users cover more than 200 beats and verticals.

For questions, contact the team at [email protected].

SOURCE PR Newswire
A roundup of the week's most newsworthy energy industry press releases from PR Newswire

NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With thousands of press releases published each week, it can be difficult to keep up with everything on PR Newswire. To help journalists covering the energy and natural resources industry stay on top of the week's most newsworthy and popular releases, here's a roundup of stories from the week that shouldn't be missed.

The list below includes the headline (with a link to the full text) and an excerpt from each story. Click on the press release headlines to access accompanying multimedia assets that are available for download.

Read more of the latest energy-related releases from PR Newswire and stay caught up on the top press releases by following @PRNenergy on Twitter.

Helping Journalists Stay Up to Date on Industry News

These are just a few of the recent press releases that consumers and the media should know about. To be notified of releases relevant to their coverage area, journalists can set up a custom newsfeed with PR Newswire for Journalists.

Once they're signed up, reporters, bloggers and freelancers have access to the following free features:

Customization: Create a customized newsfeed that will deliver relevant news right to your inbox. Customize the newsfeed by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more.

Create a customized newsfeed that will deliver relevant news right to your inbox. Customize the newsfeed by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more. Photos and Videos: Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include with your next story.

Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include with your next story. Subject Matter Experts: Access ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in your articles.

Access ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in your articles. Related Resources: Read and subscribe to our journalist- and blogger-focused blog, Beyond Bylines, for media news roundups, writing tips, upcoming events, and more.

About PR Newswire and PR Newswire for Journalists

For more than 65 years, PR Newswire has been the industry leader with the largest, most comprehensive distribution network of print, radio, magazine, television stations, financial portals and trade publications. PR Newswire has an unparalleled global reach of more than 200,000 publications and 10,000 websites and is available in more than 170 countries and 40 languages.

PR Newswire for Journalists (PRNJ) is an exclusive community that includes over 20,000 journalists, bloggers and influencers who are logging into their PRNJ accounts specifically looking for story ideas. PR Newswire thoroughly researches and vets this community to verify their identity as a member of the press, blogger or influencer. PRNJ users cover more than 200 beats and verticals.

For questions, contact the team at [email protected].

SOURCE PR Newswire
A roundup of the week's most newsworthy health industry press releases from PR Newswire

NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With thousands of press releases published each week, it can be difficult to keep up with everything on PR Newswire. To help journalists covering the healthcare industry stay on top of the week's most newsworthy and popular releases, here's a roundup of stories from the week that shouldn't be missed.

The list below includes the headline (with a link to the full text) and an excerpt from each story. Click on the press release headlines to access accompanying multimedia assets that are available for download.

Read more of the latest health-related releases from PR Newswire and stay caught up on the top press releases by following @PRNhealth on Twitter.

Helping Journalists Stay Up to Date on Industry News

These are just a few of the recent press releases that consumers and the media should know about. To be notified of releases relevant to their coverage area, journalists can set up a custom newsfeed with PR Newswire for Journalists.

Once they're signed up, reporters, bloggers and freelancers have access to the following free features:

Customization: Create a customized newsfeed that will deliver relevant news right to your inbox. Customize the newsfeed by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more.

Create a customized newsfeed that will deliver relevant news right to your inbox. Customize the newsfeed by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more. Photos and Videos: Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include with your next story.

Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include with your next story. Subject Matter Experts: Access ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in your articles.

Access ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in your articles. Related Resources: Read and subscribe to our journalist- and blogger-focused blog, Beyond Bylines, for media news roundups, writing tips, upcoming events, and more.

About PR Newswire and PR Newswire for Journalists

For more than 65 years, PR Newswire has been the industry leader with the largest, most comprehensive distribution network of print, radio, magazine, television stations, financial portals and trade publications. PR Newswire has an unparalleled global reach of more than 200,000 publications and 10,000 websites and is available in more than 170 countries and 40 languages.

PR Newswire for Journalists (PRNJ) is an exclusive community that includes over 20,000 journalists, bloggers and influencers who are logging into their PRNJ accounts specifically looking for story ideas. PR Newswire thoroughly researches and vets this community to verify their identity as a member of the press, blogger or influencer. PRNJ users cover more than 200 beats and verticals.

For questions, contact the team at [email protected].

SOURCE PR Newswire
BUFFALO, N.Y., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Titan Tool Supply Inc., a provider of industrial-grade optical instrumentation and precision micro finishing tools, today announced its appointment of the Hamburg, New York-based Embassy Global, LLC as its new worldwide strategic technical marketing, PR, and business development agency.

Founded in 2008, the 100% woman-owned and WBE-certified Embassy Global is an award-winning worldwide strategic technical marketing, PR, business development, and management consulting firm.

Since 1952, Titan Tool Supply has supplied optical instrumentation to more than 5,700 customers in over 50 countries. The company's products include rigid and flexible industrial borescopes; industrial videoscopes; tool scopes; alignment telescopes; and centering, toolmaker, stereo, and monocular zoom microscopes. Approximately 85% of the company's products are fully video adaptable. In addition, Titan Tool Supply offers its own bespoke high-precision video lens systems for enhanced end-user resolution and visualization capabilities. Industries served by Titan Tool Supply products include automotive maintenance, aerospace and commercial aviation, casting and parts manufacturing, gas and diesel engine, HVAC-R, in-laboratory R&D, manufacturing quality assurance, oil and gas pipeline, shipping container, power generation, and industrial machinery and equipment.

The 100% woman-owned and WBE-certified Embassy Global is an award-winning strategic technical growth marketing, PR, business development, and management consulting firm. The firm helps small-to-medium sized manufacturers within the sensors and instrumentation, data acquisition, electronic components, photonics and optoelectronics, IIoT, industrial automation, semiconductor, machine vision, motion control, and related industries to achieve more rapid, stable, and measurable worldwide sales growth, including from export activities. Embassy Global is known within the industries it serves for its decades of technical product, application and industry experience, as well as its capabilities to generate consistently high-quality sales opportunities. Since 2008, Embassy Global has helped expedite the growth of over 200 technical product brands across North America, Europe and Asia.

Notes Titan Tool Supply president, Frank D. Menza, "Having first learned of the great work of Embassy Global from industry word-of-mouth and referral, we are pleased to be working with them. They are highly respected in the optical instrumentation field for their knowledge, work quality, industry connections, and the results they deliver. They are also known for their tireless advocacy on behalf of small businesses. It is rare to find any firm in our market that has the same expertise as Embassy Global does, let alone one that's located right here in Western New York. Titan Tool Supply looks forward to growing our worldwide sales, with their help, and as we celebrate 70 years of successful operation in 2022."

For more information about Titan Tool Supply, visit www.titantoolsupply.com . For more information about Embassy Global, visit www.embassyglobalpr.com .

Contact:

Molly Bakewell Chamberlin, President

Embassy Global, LLC

Tel: +1-716-646-0927

[email protected]

SOURCE Titan Tool Supply, Inc.; Embassy Global, LLC
NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Turning Rock Partners ("TRP" or "Turning Rock"), a New York-based private investment firm, is celebrating its acceptance of the Private Equity Women Investor Network (PEWIN) Female Founded/Led  North America 2022 award. The PEWIN annual awards program recognizes outstanding organizations that are transforming the private equity industry by supporting increased gender diversity.

The firms are nominated by PEWIN membership and voted on by the PEWIN Steering Committee.

Turning Rock is honored to receive this recognition given our commitment to gender equity, diversity and inclusion. Tweet this

Turning Rock is a majority woman-owned business, which continues to be owned and operated by its founder and founding partners. TRP has grown to include 15 full-time employees.

"Turning Rock is incredibly honored to receive this recognition given our commitment to gender equity, diversity and inclusion across our firm," said TRP Partner and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Saba Ahmad. "Each year, we strive to raise the bar for our team, the firm's partner companies and our strategic networks. This award means so much since PEWIN has been a force for encouraging and advocating for advancement of women in the private equity industry. We are delighted to be members in supporting the organization's mission."

"PEWIN is so pleased to recognize Turning Rock Partners for leading by example in their support, promotion and amplification of the outstanding women investors who exist in the global private equity industry," said PEWIN Executive Director Kirsty McGuire. "By recognizing organizations like Turning Rock, we hope to demonstrate the outstanding returns achieved by women investors in order to hopefully increase the amount of assets under management by women in the industry."

About Turning Rock Partners

Turning Rock Partners (TRP) targets debt, equity and hybrid investments in underserved or capital constrained lower-middle market businesses in North America. TRP structures bespoke financing solutions for companies across the private market landscape. For more information, please visit Turning Rock Partners' website: www.turningrockpartners.com. For Turning Rock investor relations, please contact [email protected].

About Private Equity Women Investor Network (PEWIN)

Private Equity Women Investor Network (PEWIN) is the preeminent organization for senior women leaders in private equity. We provide opportunities to network, share ideas, make deep connections with peers and empower each other to succeed. Our mission is to provide a trusted and supportive environment for meaningful interactions among the most senior female investment professionals. Find out more.

Media Contact:

Kate Shepherd, [email protected], 317-442-1674

SOURCE Turning Rock Partners
PHOENIX, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation announced today that Judge Sarah S. Vance, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, is the 2022 recipient of the federal judiciary's highest honor  the Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award.

Judge Vance will be honored at a ceremony opened by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., in the Supreme Court courtroom, followed by a reception and dinner.

U.S. District Judge Sarah S. Vance to be Honored at U.S. Supreme Court with America's Highest Federal Judiciary Award

Justice Kavanaugh, appointed to Chair the Devitt selection committee for 2022-23 by Chief Justice Roberts, chose judges from the lower courts to assist him in selecting this year's honoree. His committee consisted of Judge Britt C. Grant, United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and Judge Christopher R. Cooper, United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Judge Vance was nominated by Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn, United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Her nomination was supported by more than 60 federal judges who presented lengthy documentation and praise for their colleague's outstanding performance, dedication, and service to the rule of law for the last 26 years.

In acknowledging her honor, Justice Kavanaugh said, "Judge Sarah Vance is an extraordinary federal judge who has devoted her career to improving the administration of justice and safeguarding the American rule of law. In her home state of Louisiana, she has served as a federal district judge for almost three decades, including as Chief Judge of the Eastern District of Louisiana from 2008 to 2015."

Justice Kavanaugh added, "Judge Vance is well known for her razor-sharp intellect, astounding work ethic, sound judgment, and superb judicial temperament. Judge Vance has also played a vital role in the administration and governance of the federal judiciary, including as a member of the Executive Committee of the Judicial Conference, as Chair of the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, and a member of the Federal Judiciary Workplace Conduct Working Group, among many other contributions."

Judge Vance said in a statement, "I am overwhelmed at the thought of joining the pantheon of judges who have received the Devitt Award. My heartfelt thanks go to Justice Kavanaugh and the Devitt Award Committee for choosing me for this singular honor. My entire judicial career has been a happy collaboration with my law clerks and staff, and the many dedicated judges and staff members who worked beside me in the Eastern District of Louisiana." She added, "The Devitt Award is the capstone of a judicial career that has already been highly rewarding. The news that I would receive it leaves me elated and immensely grateful that I have had the opportunity to serve as a federal judge."

The award was established in 1982 by Dwight D. Opperman while he was Chairman and CEO of West Publishing Company  creators of WestLaw. Mr. Opperman, the legal and judiciary community's greatest innovator and philanthropist of his day, was encouraged by Chief Justice Warren Burger to create an award that would honor the unsung heroes of the American judiciary. The Devitt Award epitomizes the highest standard of the federal bench. Dwight Opperman passed away in 2013, but the award continues in perpetuity through the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation, chaired by Julie Opperman.

"Judge Sarah Vance follows in the footsteps of the 2020-2021 Devitt Award honorees, Senior U.S. District Judge Rya Zobel, who grew up in Nazi Germany and later became the first woman to serve as a director of the Federal Judicial Center; and trailblazer and role model in the legal profession, Judge Julia Gibbons, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit," Julie Opperman said. "Judge Vance's incredible story began in Donaldsville, Louisiana, when she was born to a WWII veteran father and Italian immigrant mother. Her parents' belief in the American dream, and their daughter's determination and dedication to do the work, made her not only first in her class at Louisiana State University and Tulane Law School, but also positioned her at the very top of the American judiciary."

Justice Kavanaugh stated, "With my fellow selection members, Judges Britt Grant and Christopher Cooper, I am honored to recognize and thank one of America's most distinguished judges, the Honorable Sarah Vance."

Media Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Dwight D. Opperman Foundation
Fisher House Provides Free, Temporary Lodging to Military & Veteran Families

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System (VAAAHS) on Friday held the dedication ceremony for the VA Ann Arbor Fisher House. The Fisher House was dedicated to America's service men and women and their loved ones.

Fisher House Foundation and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System held a dedication ceremony for the first Fisher House in Michigan. Since opening in June 2020, the 16-suite, 13,000+ sq.-ft. comfort home has housed over 6,000 individual guests from more than 11 different states, saving Veteran and Military families over $1.2 million in lodging costs.

The Fisher House provides bedrooms, kitchen, dining and family rooms, laundry and outdoor patio space to Veterans and their families who are receiving extended care at VAAAHS. Since opening in June 2020, the 16-suite, 13,000+ sq.-ft. 'comfort home' has housed over 6,000 individual guests from more than 11 different states, saving Veteran and Military families over $1.2 million in lodging costs.

VAAAHS Medical Center Director Ginny Creasman was joined by U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell and Fisher House Foundation Chairman and CEO Ken Fisher at the Dedication. Medal of Honor Recipient Jim McCloughan also made remarks and presented a plaque from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

"The Fisher House has exceeded all our expectations since it's opening," said Dr. Creasman. "The convenience, healing atmosphere, and proximity to the medical center allows us to meet the needs of our Veterans and caregivers by reducing the overall stress and burden an extended stay at a hospital may bring. It is our honor to be able to provide this 'home away from home' while Veterans receive health care with us."

"Fisher House Foundation is honored to bring this first house to Michigan," said Chairman and CEO of Fisher House Foundation Ken Fisher. "This house, in Ann Arbor, has already shown how critical the need is for our military and veteran community. We are grateful to such a supportive community that helped to make this Fisher House possible."

"Many patients receiving care at the VA are far away from their homes, and we know that the support of loved ones can be the best medicine. I have been working for Ann Arbor and Detroit to have Fisher House since the day I walked into Congress. This fulfills a long-held dream and a lot of hard work by so many, and now we have one down and one to go," said U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell. "Fisher House makes a difference for countless families and patients during some of the most difficult times in their lives, and I will continue to serve as a champion in Congress for their important work."

The Ann Arbor Fisher House was the first to be opened in the state of Michigan. Planning and development of a second Fisher House near the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit is currently underway. Local fundraising efforts to support the construction and operations of both Fisher Houses are organized by Fisher House Michigan.

"Michiganders are pouring their hearts into this mission. We're overwhelmed by the generosity of donors from all 83 Michigan counties," said Fisher House Michigan President Mark Palmucci. "Each family staying in this 'brick-and-mortar support system' heals along with their Veteran. We can't wait to expand access to this invaluable resource for more Veteran families with a Fisher House in Detroit."

Fisher House Foundation proudly recognizes the generosity of the following contributors for their extraordinary support of our military and veteran families: Fisher House Michigan; Anonymous; Masco Corporation; the MacLeod Family; the Weiser Family; American Legion Department of Michigan Family; Brad Keselowski's Checkered Flag Foundation; CAPT Victor & Mrs. Carol Palmucci, USN (Ret); In memory of Scott Freestone & Ron Arenas; Specialist Matthew T. Drake, US Army, Iraq; Steven Tallman; CPT Arthur J. Holst; Patton's 3rd Army, 1943-1946; Erwin Prieskorn American Legion Post 46; First Nation Group; Kerri Childress; Mark Palmucci & Beryl Needham; Members of the Rotary Club of Ann Arbor; Members of UAW Local 900; Old National Bank; Richard & Jean Schmidt; Robert W. (Fletch) Fletcher; Spartan Capital Veterans Family Support Fund; Stutzmann-Moore Wealth Management; the Trinity Charitable Fund; University of Michigan - Michigan Medicine; Vehicles for Veterans; Vietnam Veterans of Michigan; and the many gifts of a grateful nation.

About VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System

VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System (VAAAHS) provides state-of-the-art healthcare services to Veterans at eight locations of care in southeast Michigan and northwest Ohio. VAAAHS is a major tertiary care national and regional referral center and provides care at the Community-based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC) in Toledo, Ohio, and Jackson, Adrian and Flint, Michigan. A CBOC will be opening in Howell, Michigan during Fall 2022. The Medical Center campus includes the hospital, outpatient clinics, community living center, a radiation therapy facility, Fisher House, two research buildings, five administrative outbuildings, two parking garages, and an energy center. The facility includes state-of-the-art ambulatory care clinics, operating rooms, cardiac catheterization suite, intensive care units, laboratory, and diagnostic facilities.

About Fisher House Foundation

Fisher House Foundation is best known for its network of 92 comfort homes where military and veteran families can stay at no cost while a loved one is receiving treatment. These homes are located at major military and VA medical centers nationwide, and in Europe, close to the medical center or hospital they serve. Fisher Houses have up to 21 suites, with private bedrooms and baths. Families share a common kitchen, laundry facilities, a warm dining room and an inviting living room. Fisher House Foundation ensures that there is never a lodging fee. Since inception, the program has saved military and veteran families an estimated $547 million in out-of-pocket costs for lodging and transportation. www.fisherhouse.org

About Fisher House Michigan

Fisher House Michigan is a not-for-profit organization formed to improve the quality of life of US military members, retirees, Veterans, and their families and caregivers. FHM supports the construction and operations of comfort homes built near VA Medical Centers in Michigan, called "Fisher Houses." FHM works to inform the Veteran community, their families, and the general public about Fisher Houses, and provides necessary support to Fisher House operations as needed. Fisher House Michigan presently supports operations at the Fisher House at VAAAHS in Ann Arbor and is raising capital and program funds for the future Fisher House at the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit. www.fisherhousemichigan.org

SOURCE Fisher House Foundation
SINGAPORE, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Vantage, the international multi-asset broker, has received three awards at the Global Forex Awards 2022  Retail, organised by Holiston Media.

Vantage was recognised in three categories including the "Best Forex Mobile Trading Platform/App  Global", "Best Forex Trade Execution  Global", and "Most Trusted Forex Broker  Asia".

Stephen Solares and Raymond Okafor, Business Associates for Vantage, at the Global Forex Awards Ceremony, Limassol, Cyprus, on 22 September 2022

The Global Forex Awards 2022 - Retail is in its fifth edition, and honours businesses that use cutting-edge technology, offer low-cost trading, comprehensive market research tools, advanced educational programs, and world-class customer service for retail traders.

Marc Despallieres, Chief Strategy & Trading Officer at Vantage, says "We are honoured to receive these awards at The Global Forex Awards 2022  Retail. Vantage went through a massive shift since our rebranding exercise last year, and these awards are an affirmation of the direction we have taken as a business."

"This is a celebration of the sheer hard work and determination of our team at Vantage, who have made Vantage what it is today. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our clients who have supported us through the years, and who remain our biggest motivation to keep doing better."

Lian Jie, Vantage's Assistant App Marketing Director, says, "This is the fourth award garnered by our Vantage App team, and is a testament to the hours of development they have undertaken to make our app more powerful and intuitive than ever before."

Since its rebrand, Vantage has received a number of industry recognised awards, including "Best in CFD trading 2022" at the European  Global & Finance Awards 2022, "Best Broker Australia", "Best Customer Support Australia", and "Best Mobile Trading App" at the Ultimate Fintech Awards 2022.

About Vantage

Vantage is a global, multi-asset broker offering clients access to a nimble and powerful service for trading CFDs on Forex, Commodities, Indices, and Shares.

With more than 10 years of market experience. Vantage now has over 1,000 employees/personnel across more than 30 global offices.

Vantage is more than a broker. It provides a trusted trading ecosystem, an award-winning mobile trading app, and a faster and simpler trading platform that enables clients to take advantage of trading opportunities. Download the Vantage App on App Store or Google Play.

Be empowered to better capitalise on winning market opportunities when you

trade smarter @vantage

www.vantagemarkets.com

SOURCE Vantage
STOCKHOLM, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global automotive technology company Veoneer, a leader in active safety and restraint control systems, has together with Lear Corporation (NYSE: LEA), a global automotive technology leader in Seating and E-Systems, co-developed the electronics supporting Lear's ConfigurE+ removable seat with zonal safety technology, which was honored as an Automotive News PACEpilot Innovation to Watch.

The safety solution is the first wireless and electronics-based system that identifies seat location and seat status  key to the adoption of reconfigurable seating in vehicles. The smart technology automatically activates safety features in the second and third rows of a vehicle based on the detected location and orientation of seats and occupant status.

Automotive News' PACEpilot enters its third year in 2022. PACEpilot judges reviewed the innovations of 23 finalists for the awards, which were presented at a ceremony on September 19 in Detroit.



"We are honored to be part of this award-winning seating innovation," said Robert Bisciotti, EVP Product Area RCS, Veoneer. "In the future, we expect an increased use of removable and reconfigurable seats in vehicles, and this technology will ensure occupant protection regardless of seating arrangement."

For complete details, visit www.autonews.com/pace.

For more information please contact:

Thomas Jonsson, EVP Communications & IR,

[email protected], tel +46 (0)8 527 762 27

Veoneer HoldCo, LLC. is an automotive technology company, a world leader in active safety and restraint control systems, focused on delivering innovative, best-in-class products and solutions to our customers. Our purpose is to create trust in mobility. Veoneer is a Tier-1 hardware supplier and system integrator with products being part of more than 125 scheduled vehicle launches for 2022. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Veoneer has 6,100 employees in 11 countries. The Company is building on a heritage of close to 70 years of automotive safety development.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/veoneer/r/veoneer-co-developer-of-pacepilot-awarded-seating-technology,c3635691

The following files are available for download:

SOURCE Veoneer
CHICAGO, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- World Business Chicago, the city of Chicago's economic development organization and convener of business, joined FourKites to announce Logistics Tech Chicago Week, the intersection of global tech and supply chain innovation in Chicago.

Chicago is a leading global hub for transportation, distribution, and logistics. Tweet this Chicago Venture Summit, Future of Logistics 2022, October 5-6, 2022. www.WorldBusinessChicago.com

These events represent how Chicago's historic strengths, innovative technologies and startups, plus global supply chain demand have Chicago positioned as a leading global hub for transportation, distribution and logistics.

Lior Ron, Head of Uber Freight is officially announced to be opening keynote speaker at Chicago Future of Logistics Summit on October 5. Uber Freight moved its global headquarters from San Francisco to Chicago in 2019; we look forward to hearing from this global leader of logistics and supply chain management. "We are living in a golden age of supply chain innovation." Lior Ron.

"We're excited to welcome more than 800 attendees to one of the world's premier supply chain visibility events," said Mathew Elenjickal, CEO and Founder of FourKites, a leading logistics tech company headquartered in Chicago. "We're a proud Chicago company, and we're excited to gather in person with our customers and other industry leaders to collaborate on our vision for the future of supply chain."

In the same week as the Chicago Venture Summit1871 Chicago, the world ranked technology and startup hub, will host its inaugural Supply Chain Innovation Summit with Accenture on October 5, 2022. The Supply Chain Innovation Lab is the first dedicated program of 1871's over-arching Industry Lab experience, bringing together early and growth stage companies with industry leaders and accelerates emerging tech businesses involved in supply chain. Accenture is a World Business Chicago board member.

"We've rapidly grown the Chicago Venture Summit from an annual event to a sector-focused series on industries which Chicago has a right to win," Said Mark Tebbe, Chair of the Innovation and Venture Council for World Business Chicago. "As one of our nation's premier venture events, we're inviting the world to explore and experience why Chicago is the global capital for logistics tech and supply chain innovation."

The forthcoming events follow the May, 2022 Chicago Venture Summit, Future of Food the largest venture summit to date, with more than 700 registered participants, including over 100 participating VC/investment firms, 14 Fortune 500s; showcased 115 startups (majority led by founders of color and/or female founders), representing of 20 countries.

"There is no city in the world that competes with Chicago when it comes to logistics tech, freight tech, and supply chain innovation," said Michael Fassnacht, President and CEO for World Business Chicago, and Chief Marketing Officer for City of Chicago. "As home to one of the world's largest TDL sectors, the Chicago Venture Summit is a unique experience which connects the next generation of startup entrepreneurs with industry leaders and investors."

Additional keynotes feature project44, Loadsmart, the Mobility-in-Harmony Alliance of Foxconn. The three panel themes include the future-of-corporate innovation, future-of-startups, and future-of-VC. You can learn more about the agenda via www.ChicagoVentureSummit.com .

The Chicago Venture Summit is an invite only investor and startup conference, learn more on how you can register via email: WBC EVP of Innovation & Venture Strategy Abin Kuriakose - [email protected]

World Business Chicago serves a critical role in driving inclusive and equitable recovery throughout the city's 77-neighborhoods. As the city's economic development agency, World Business Chicago leads business acquisition, workforce and talent, community impact and equity, support of our business community and promotion of Chicago as a leading global city. Follow World Business Chicago on LinkedIn for daily news and announcements on company relocation and expansion; industry and ecosystem growth, U.S. and world rankings, and why Chicago thrives as a global destination for founders, innovators, and investors.

SOURCE World Business Chicago
NOIDA, India, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new report published by UnivDatos Markets Insights, the Zero Trust Security Market was valued around USD 28 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 16% during 2021-2027. The analysis has been segmented into Security Type (Network Security, Data Security, Endpoint Security, Cloud Security, and Others); Authentication Type (Single-factor Authentication and Multi-factor Authentication); Deployment (On-premises and Cloud); Organization Size (Large Enterprises and SMEs); Industry (Information and Communication Technology, Banking and Financial Services, Retail, Healthcare, and Others); Region/Country.

Click here to view the Report Description & TOC

https://univdatos.com/report/zero-trust-security-market/

The Zero Trust Security market report has been aggregated by collecting informative data on various dynamics such as market drivers, restraints, and opportunities. This innovative report makes use of several analyses to get a closer outlook on the Zero Trust Security market. The Zero Trust Security market report offers a detailed analysis of the latest industry developments and trending factors in the market that are influencing the market growth. Furthermore, this statistical market research repository examines and estimates the Zero Trust Security market at the global and regional levels.

Request for Sample Pages

https://univdatos.com/get-a-free-sample-form-php/?product_id=24129

Market Overview

The global zero trust security market is rising on account of the continuously increasing target-based cyber-attacks, the need to reduce business and organizational risks and the digitalization of prominent industry verticals. Moreover, the advancing digital infrastructure in developing countries will also affect its market positively. "Zero Trust" is a security framework, it requires security configurations and status to be authenticated, approved, and continuously validated before all users, inside or outside the corporate network, are granted or retained access to applications and data. Moreover, the increasing losses due to cyber-attacks are one of the most prominent factors driving the adoption of zero trust security. For instance, according to Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), in 2018, the total financial loss due to cybercrime stood at around USD 2.7 Bn/year, which increased to more than USD 4 Bn/year in 2020.

Click here to view the Report Description & TOC

https://univdatos.com/report/zero-trust-security-market/

The global zero trust security market report is studied thoroughly with several aspects that would help stakeholders in making their decisions more curated.

Based on the security type, the market is divided into network security, data security, endpoint security, cloud security, and others. Among these, the endpoint security segment is expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period owing to the digital transformation of businesses, which has increased the usage of endpoint devices, such as mobiles, laptops, personal computers, and others. The endpoint acts as an entry point to the corporate network, creating an entry point that can be exploited by a malicious attacker. Hence, it is important to protect these endpoints to protect businesses from risky activities and malicious attacks.

Based on deployment, the market is classified into on-premises and cloud. Among these, the on-premises segment captured a commendable share of the global zero trust security market in 2020 owing to the high preference for this type of deployment to keep confidential data in-house rather than turning it over to a cloud provider. In addition, on-premises solutions enable hands-on ownership and control of security monitoring, providing a flexible and adaptable security program.

Have a Look at the Chapters - https://univdatos.com/report/zero-trust-security-market/

Zero Trust Security Market Geographical Segmentation Includes:

North America ( United States , Canada , and Rest of North America )

( , , and Rest of ) Europe ( Germany , United Kingdom , Spain , Italy , France , and the Rest of Europe )

( , , , , , and the Rest of ) Asia-Pacific ( China , Japan , India , South Korea , and the Rest of Asia-Pacific )

( , , , , and the Rest of ) Rest of the World

For a better understanding of the market adoption of the Zero Trust Security industry, the market is analyzed based on its worldwide presence in the countries such as North America (US, Canada, Rest of North America); Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, and the Rest of Europe); Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, India, Australia, Rest of Asia-Pacific); and the Rest of World. North America is expected to grow at a steady growth rate owing to the presence of key market players in the region and the quick adoption of new technologies. In addition, the increasing focus on cyber security in the major economies in the region is further contributing to the growth of this market. For instance, in March 2021, the President of the U.S. made cybersecurity, a critical element of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) mission, a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration at all levels of government.

The major players targeting the market include

Palo Alto Networks Inc.

Cisco Systems Inc.

International Business Machines Corporation

Fortinet Inc.

Citrix Systems Inc.

Sophos Group plc

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

VMware Inc.

Microsoft Corporation

Akamai Technologies Inc.

Competitive Landscape

The degree of competition among prominent global companies has been elaborated by analyzing several leading key players operating worldwide. The specialist team of research analysts sheds light on various traits such as global market competition, market share, most recent industry advancements, innovative product launches, partnerships, mergers, or acquisitions by leading companies in the Zero Trust Security Market. The major players have been analyzed by using research methodologies for getting insight views on global competition.

Key questions resolved through this analytical market research report include:

What are the latest trends, new patterns, and technological advancements in the Zero Trust Security market?

Which factors are influencing the Zero Trust Security market over the forecast period?

What are the global challenges, threats, and risks in the Zero Trust Security market?

Which factors are propelling and restraining the Zero Trust Security market?

What are the demanding global regions of the Zero Trust Security market?

What will be the global market size in the upcoming years?

What are the crucial market acquisition strategies and policies applied by global companies?

We understand the requirement of different businesses, regions, and countries, we offer customized reports as per your requirements of business nature and geography. Please let us know If you have any custom needs.

Browse Other Related Research Reports from UnivDatos Market Insights

Zero Trust Security Market Report Coverage

Report Attribute Details Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2027 Growth momentum Accelerate at a CAGR of over 16% Market size 2020 USD 28 billion Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, Rest of World Major contributing region North America to Dominate the Zero Trust Security Market Key countries covered United States, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, France, China, Japan, India, and South Korea Companies profiled Palo Alto Networks Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., International Business Machines Corporation, Fortinet Inc., Citrix Systems Inc., Sophos Group plc, Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., VMware Inc., Microsoft Corporation, and Akamai Technologies Inc Report Scope Market Trends, Drivers, and Restraints; Revenue Estimation and Forecast; Segmentation Analysis; Impact of COVID-19; Demand and Supply Side Analysis; Competitive Landscape; Company Profiling Segments Covered By Security Type; By Authentication Type; By Deployment; By Organization Size; By Industry: By Region/Country

About UnivDatos Market Insights (UMI)

UnivDatos Market Insights (UMI) is a passionate market research firm and a subsidiary of Universal Data Solutions. We believe in delivering insights through Market Intelligence Reports, Customized Business Research, and Primary Research. Our research studies are spread across topics across the world, we cover markets in over 100 countries using smart research techniques and agile methodologies. We offer in-depth studies, detailed analysis, and customized reports that help shape winning business strategies for our clients.

Contact

UnivDatos Market Insights

Ankita Gupta

Director Operations

Ph: +91-7838604911

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://univdatos.com/

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1225049/UnivDatos_Logo.jpg

SOURCE UnivDatos Market Insights Pvt. Ltd.
Lucknow, Sep 23 : In a major development, offenders accused of serious crimes, including sexual harassments of children and women, will no longer get anticipatory bail from the courts in Uttar Pradesh.

The Yogi Adityanath government in this regard has tabled an amendment in the existing bill in the state assembly.

As per the proposed amendment, other than crimes related to sexual assault, cases related to Gangster Act, Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, Officials Secrets Act and those having provision of capital punishment, will not allow the accused to get anticipatory bail as an interim relief from the courts.

According to the proposal, the purpose of this amendment is to amend section 438 of the CrPC with respect to the provision of anticipatory bail in order to prevent those, who commit crimes related to sexual assault against women and children, from getting anticipatory bail.

It has been done in order to prevent the accused of such crimes from tampering or destroying evidence or intimidating the victims.

In the objective of the proposal, it has been stated that in pursuance with the 'zero tolerance' policy against crime against women, girls and children, it has been decided to amend section 438 of the CrPC to collect organic evidence, to prevent evidence from getting destroyed and to prevent the accused from intimidating the victim or the eyewitnesses.

The amendment if made will also be applicable to Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 and all sections of rape.
United Nations, Sep 23 : UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Egypt (COP27) must make broad progress.

"COP27 must demonstrate that the world is making progress on all pillars of the Paris Agreement. We urgently need to address loss and damage in a meaningful and credible way," he said in a video message for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) leaders' breakfast.

Loss and damage are happening now -- at 1.1 degrees of warming. The floods in Pakistan have inundated a third of the country, he was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency. "We can only imagine the fate of small islands if we go beyond 1.5 degrees. Two degrees of warming is unthinkable and must be avoided at all costs." "We need a targeted, ambitious global response, including how to finance loss and damage, beyond our capacity to adapt," he said. "Polluters must pay. At the same time, we need to resolve access to finance. Grants and concessional financing currently fail to account for your islands' unique vulnerabilities." AOSIS has long championed the highest level of ambition on climate, often leading by example, he said. "You have also brought solutions and built consensus. Your voices, as climate leaders, problem-solvers and bridge-builders, are needed now more than ever." The United Nations will continue to push for more ambition and climate action by all, especially the Group of 20, which account for 80 per cent of global emissions.

It will continue to call for a renewables revolution, and for developed countries to provide developing countries with the finance and technology they need to transition to a net-zero and climate-resilient future, he said.

"We will continue to push developed countries to make good on their $100-billion climate finance commitment. We will push for developed countries to provide clarity this year on their Glasgow commitment to double adaptation finance. And we will push to ensure your eligibility and access to that finance," said Guterres.

"You can count on the continued support of the United Nations for your priorities, and those of all developing countries," he said.
Ankara, Sep 23 : Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Russia and Ukraine had exchanged 200 prisoners of war under the mediation of Turkey.

"As a result of diplomatic traffic I conducted with Mr. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and Mr. (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky, the exchange of 200 war prisoners between Russia and Ukraine was accomplished today (September 22)," he told journalists on the presidential plane on his way back to Turkey after attending the UN General Assembly in New York.

"This exchange that took place under Turkey's mediation is an important step for ending the war," state-run TRT broadcaster quoted the Turkish president as saying.

Erdogan noted that he will continue phone diplomacy to make further efforts for peace between Russia and Ukraine, Xinhua news agency reported.

Russia and Ukraine have carried out their largest prisoner exchange since the onset of their conflict on February 24, in which 215 Ukrainians, including 124 officers, were released by Russia, the Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said Thursday.

Two civilians were also released as part of the swap.

Besides, Saudi Arabia mediated a release of 10 foreigners by Russia under the exchange, according to the Saudi Foreign Ministry.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Badaun, Sep 23 : In a rare instance, parents of a girl have been awarded death sentence for 'honour killing' of their own daughter.

The court of district judge Pankaj Kumar Agrawal, on Thursday, awarded capital punishment to four people, including the mother and father of the girl who was murdered along with her boyfriend, in May 2017, in Wazirganj area of Uttar Pradesh's Badaun.

The parents of 19-year-old, Asha, aided by two relatives, had allegedly hacked their daughter and her boyfriend, 23-year-old Govind Kumar, to death with an axe after they eloped earlier that month.

Asha's father had reportedly called the duo back home on the pretext of fixing their marriage. Instead, when the two arrived, they were tied with a rope and axed to death.

The accused later buried the bodies in the courtyard of the house, which were recovered later.

The couple belonged to the same community but the girl's family was against their relationship.

District government counsel Anil Singh Rathore told reporters, "Asha and Govind were murdered by the former's mother Jaldhara, father Kishan Lal, along with relatives Vijay Pal and Ram Veer on May 14, 2017. The accused buried the bodies in the house but a neighbour caught them in the act and informed Govind's father Pappu Lal.

Police were informed and the bodies were recovered. All the four accused were arrested and booked under sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with deadly weapons), 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the IPC." He added, "The court called it a 'cold-blooded murder' and on the basis of the evidence and the testimony of eye-witnesses, pronounced capital punishment for all the four accused.

Additional district government counsel Atul Kumar Singh added, "This is a very rare judgment as even the girl's mother has been given such a harsh sentence for displaying extreme brutality."
Jerusalem, Sep 23 : Israel and the US concluded a joint navy drill in the Red Sea to exercise the use of artificial intelligence during naval combat, Israel's military said in a statement.

Taking place in the gulf of Eilat in southern Israel, the "Digital Shield" exercise involved soldiers and officers from the Israeli Navy and the US Fifth Fleet, a naval US force in the Middle East, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the statement.

"Manned vessels of the Israeli Navy, troops from the 915th Fleet and the 'Snapir' Unit operated alongside unmanned vessels of the US Fifth Fleet's Task Force 59," the military said on Thursday.

The purpose of the exercise was to strengthen "cooperation between the militaries and constructing a shared understanding of the maritime domain as well as using artificial intelligence as part of the operational toolbox," the military said.
New York, Sep 23 : A new UN policy paper published as the Security Council meets on Ukraine, reveals how the ongoing war and its global impacts on food, energy and finance are affecting women and girls disproportionately both inside the country and globally.

From school-aged girls who are at risk of being obliged to drop out to get married for dowry or bride-price income for desperate families, to the physical and health challenges of the 265,000 Ukrainian women who were pregnant when the war broke out, the "Global Gendered Impacts of the Ukraine Crisis on Energy Access and Food Security and Nutrition" policy paper lays out how the crisis is aggravating already existing inequalities around the world.

Developed by UN Women and the UN Global Crisis Response Group on the War in Ukraine (GCRG), the report shows the war-induced food price hikes and shortages have widened the global gender gap in food insecurity, as women have even reduced their own food intake to give it to other household members.

Spiralling energy prices have also caused families to return to using less clean fuels and technologies, exposing women and girls to household air pollution, which already kills 3.2 million people, mostly women and children, per year.

Women-headed households in Ukraine were already more food insecure prior to the war, with 37.5 per cent of them experiencing moderate or severe levels of food insecurity compared to 20.5 per cent of male-headed households.

Now, rural women in the territories occupied by the Russian military are increasingly unable to perform agricultural work due to high insecurity and lack of resources, yet they are rising to the challenge to accommodate and feed internally displaced people, multiplying their unpaid care and domestic work responsibilities.

Additionally, the report shows that there are alarming increases in gender-based violence, transactional sex for food and survival, sexual exploitation and trafficking, and early, child, and forced marriage as a result of these worsened living conditions in conflict, crisis and humanitarian contexts worldwide.

Sima Bahous, UN Women Executive Director, said: "Systemic, gendered crises require systemic, gendered solutions. That means ensuring that women and girls, including from marginalized groups, are part of all the decision-making processes. That is simply the only way to be certain that their rights and needs are fully taken into account as we respond to the clear facts before us." Among other recommendations, the policy brief calls on the international community to: Prioritise women's and girls' voice, agency, participation and leadership in conflict response, recovery and peacebuilding; Enhance gender statistics and sex-disaggregated data to build the evidence base for gender-responsive policy, planning and reconstruction measures, and to track and monitor gender-related impacts of food insecurity and energy poverty on women and girls; and Promote and protect the right to food by targeting the specific nutrition needs of women and girls, and accelerate the transformation towards more equitable, gender-responsive and sustainable food systems, equitable access to access to inputs, technologies and markets by women.

The policy paper was presented at the high-level roundtable "How do we best respond to the disproportionate impacts of rising food insecurity on women and girls" on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, hosted by the governments of Denmark and Nigeria in partnership with OCHA, UNHCR, UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Women, WFP, Save the Children together with representatives from women-led organisations.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Lucknow, Sep 23 : A photographer has been booked after an 18-year-old girl alleged that he sexually harassed her at a photo studio in Lucknow.

The victim alleged that since she had to submit her passport size photographs in school, she went to the studio near her house in the city's Daliganj area.

The accused, Mahendra Jaiswal, works in a photo studio in Daliganj.

"There was no one in the photo studio except for Jaiswal. I was sitting in the studio room when he asked me to adjust my 'dupatta', I adjusted it and sat on the chair. He then approached me to adjust it himself and started sexually harassing me. I pushed him away and tried to escape but he threatened me and said that if I inform anyone, he will kill me," the victim told police.

She narrated her ordeal to her family after which an an FIR was lodged at the Hasanganj police station.

Station House Officer Atul Kumar Srivastava said that based on the victim's complaint, the FIR under the charges of sexual harassment, using criminal force on woman and criminal intimidation has been lodged against the accused.

The police are searching for the accused who is now absconding.
Lucknow, Sep 23 : The Uttar Pradesh government, through its investment promotion agency Invest UP, has been successful in attracting beverages industrial units in Gorakhpur, Amethi, Prayagraj and Chitrakoot.

Varun Beverages Ltd, all India franchisee of PepsiCo, has been allotted land in these districts through fast-track mode for setting up their units for producing carbonated soft drinks, fruit pulp or juice-based drinks.

The company has proposed to invest Rs 3,740 crore in total in all the four plants with about 5,650 expected job opportunities.

Chief Executive Officer, Invest UP, Abhishek Prakash said: "Under the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and guidance of industrial development minister Nand Gopal Gupta 'Nandi', policy of fast-track land allotment and promotion of mega projects in the state are proving to be significant enablers in attracting investment in the state." Additional Chief Executive Officer, Prathamesh Kumar said that Varun Beverages Ltd. has been allotted 45-acre land through fast-track mode in Narkatha village of Gorakhpur.

The company proposes to invest Rs 1071. 28 crore here with around 1,500 expected employment avenues.

With allotment of 68. 6-acre land in Bargarh Industrial Area in Chitrakoot, Varun Beverages Ltd has proposed to invest around Rs 496.57 crore with estimated jobs to the tune of 1,000.

Around 24.7-acre land has been allotted in Saraswati Hi-Tech City, Naini-Prayagraj and the investor has proposed to invest Rs 1,052.57 crore with 1,500 employment opportunities, while 26.1-acre area has been allotted in in Trishundi Industrial Area-Amethi, where proposed investment is Rs 1,119.59 crores with 1,650 expected jobs.
Seoul, Sep 23 : A nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea on Friday for its first combined drills after five years, as Washington and Seoul are striving to reinforce deterrence against evolving North Korean military threats.

The USS Ronald Reagan docked at ROK Fleet Command in Busan, 390 km south of Seoul, amid worries about the possibility of the North staging a nuclear test or other provocations, reports Yonhap News Agency.

The arrival of the carrier, a centrepiece of America's naval might, came after Presidents Yoon Suk-yeol and Joe Biden reaffirmed their commitment to deploy US strategic assets in a "timely and coordinated manner as necessary" during their summit in Seoul in May.

"The deployment of the carrier here is designed to demonstrate the robustness of the South Korea-U.S. alliance, and deter North Korea's nuclear and missile threats," a Seoul official told Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity.

Its carrier strike group consists of three vessels -- the Nimitz-class carrier; USS Chancellorsville, a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser; and USS Barry, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer.

The three warships plan to join the combined drills off South Korea's east coast later this month.

The nuclear-powered USS Annapolis submarine is also expected to take part.

Commissioned in July 2003, the 97,000-tonne, 333-meter-long Ronald Reagan is America's only forward-deployed aircraft carrier.

Since 2015, the super-carrier has been based in the Japanese city of Yokosuka, which is home to the US 7th Fleet.

It can carry over 5,000 sailors as well as formidable on-board assets, including F/A-18E Super Hornets, and E-2D Hawkeye early warning and control aircraft.

The strike group sails with 33 partners and allies for bilateral or multilateral maritime exercises and operations, according to the US Navy.

In 2021, the carrier was deployed to support the withdrawal of US troops and others from Afghanistan.
Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 23 : Agitated by the arrest of 19 of its activists by the NIA and ED, the Popular Front of India (PFI) called for 'Kerala bandh' on Friday and resorted to stone pelting even as the police remained a mute spectator.

The maximum impact of the dawn-to-dusk bandh was seen in the Muslim stronghold areas of the state. At several places, the activists forced people to down the shutters of their shops.

As many as 19 PFI activists, including the top brass of their leadership, were arrested as part of an early morning joint operation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday.

Even though the Kerala Police had made elaborate arrangements and warned of strict action against those who resort to violence, the PFI activists went on a rampage and at numerous places and pelted stones.

There were reports of several buses of the state owned Kerala State Road Transport Corporation being attacked with stones in certain areas.

Apart from the damage to property, a few of the KSRTC staff members also reportedly suffered injuries in the violent incidents.

Even the private vehicles were not spared and in the state's capital at a Muslim strong hold area, the agitators waylaid and attacked a car en route to the airport to drop people at the airport to catch an international flight.

About 20 policemen were reported to be present at the place but they did not respond.

At Kollam, suspected PFI activists rammed their two-wheelers on two on-duty policemen injuring them.

Even at the famed international tourist destination at Kovalam, near here, things were no different as most of the shops remained closed.

However, at Erattupettah in Kottayam district, the police took on the PFI workers and chased them away and detained five of them.

Over the years, neither the ruling CPI-M led Left nor the Congress-led opposition have taken a stand against the PFI, for obvious "electoral" reasons.

When most of the universities in the state have postponed the day's examinations, the Public Service Commission has decided to hold the exam as scheduled.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Chennai, Sep 23 : The Tamil Nadu police have deployed a heavy contingent in all the areas where the radical Muslim outfit, Popular Front of India (PFI) is strong.

In a nationwide crackdown against the PFI on Thursday, around 106 senior office-bearers of the organisation were arrested.

The arrested included PFI national Chairman, O.M.A. Salam, Vice Chairman, E. Abdurahman, National secretary Nasseruddin Elamaram, ideologue and national leader, Prof P. Koya, and some other senior functionaries from Kerala. The top leader arrested from Tamil Nadu was A.M. Ismail, the national executive member of PFI from Coimbatore.

A.M.Ismail was arrested from Coimbatore, Yassar Arafat, the Dindigul Zonal Secretary of PFI from Dindigul, and Cuddalore district secretary, Fayas Ahmad from Cuddalore. Eight other leaders were arrested from various parts of the state.

The arrest of A.M. Ismail who is a top leader of the organisation has led to commotion with the SDPI and PFI cadres blocking the way of the NIA and CRPF officers who were involved in the operation.

The PFI leaders and cadres were arrested as the Central agencies, including the Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing, and other agencies monitoring the activities of the organisation for the past several months, and a meticulous plan was envisaged before the swoop down on Thursday.

Police said that some minor incidents of stone-throwing were reported from some parts of the state where the PFI is having strength. In Tamil Nadu, heavy police are deployed at Chennai, Dindigul, Coimbatore, Ramanathapuram, Tirunelveli, Madurai, Salem, and Erode.

Meanwhile, sources in the NIA told IANS that the possibilities of further raids cannot be ruled out as it has received more information on the activities of the organisation.

Terror funding and terror training are the main charges that were leveled against the PFI leaders. It is also learned that the PFI leaders were apprehended to prevent ablood bath in society.

A senior officer with the Tamil Nadu police told IANS that the central agencies, including NIA and ED, had communicated on the impending raids with the higher-ups of the state police in late Wednesday and in the early morning of Thursday the raids were affected.

A CRPF contingent from Ranchi was deployed and in each place of raid, four NIA and ED officers were present with a CRPF contingent of 50 officers guarding the raid.
Los Angeles, Sep 23 : Former 'Riverdale' and 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' actor Ryan Grantham has been sentenced to life behind bars without the possibility of parole for 14 years for killing his mother.

The by-the-book second-degree murder punishment was handed down by British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Ker on September 21 in Vancouver, reports 'Deadline'.

With the sentence already a forgone conclusion over the laws of the Canadian province, the only real wild card was how long the guilty pleading Grantham would have to wait before the currently 24-year-old could apply for parole.

The Leo Awards nominated Grantham turned himself to police soon after shooting his 64-year-old mother Barbara Waite in the back of the head on March 31, 2020, in the family's Squamish home, just north of Vancouver.

A second-degree murder charge in B.C. comes with no parole eligibility of between 10 and 25 years.

In that context, prosecutors had recommended in a sentencing hearing earlier this year that Grantham receive a parole ineligibility up to 18 years. The former actor's legal team had suggested 12 years as a fair consequence. Clearly Justice Ker met them in the middle in her ruling this week.

Originally charged with first-degree murder, Grantham has been in custody for the past two and a half years, law enforcement officials in Vancouver confirmed to 'Deadline'.

Participating in a mental health program since his arrest, Grantham is in the process of being readied for transfer to a more permanent facility, sources say.

With around 30 credits on his resume, Grantham noticeably played Jeffrey Augustine on the fourth season of the soapy 'Riverdale' in 2019.

While appearing briefly, the character had a pivotal role in the Archie comics-based show. It was Jeffrey Augustine who killed the late Luke Perry portrayed Fred Andrews on the series in a hit and run that changed almost everything on the show.

Starting his career back in 2007, Grantham also appeared in the 2010 movie 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid', as well as stints on Supernatural, 'iZombie' and in 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'.

It later was revealed in court that after the murder of his mother, Grantham took video of the body and confessed to the killing on-camera.

A day later, after carefully arranging the body in a semi-religious scene, Grantham hit the road. With ever changing intent, he at one point was going to try to kill Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, as he also wrote in a journal entered as evidence.

Grantham also considered committing a mass shooting at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University or on the iconic Lions Gate Bridge.

Thankfully, none of that came to pass and Grantham instead went to East Vancouver cop shop and surrendered.

"I killed my mother," he is reported to have bluntly declared to police at the front desk of the station.

Back in March of this year, the multiple credit actor expressed sorrow at what he had done. "In the face of something so horrible, saying sorry seems so pointless," Grantham told the Vancouver court and Justice Ker, reading from a sheet of paper.

"But from every fiber of my being, I am sorry."
United Nations, Sep 23 : With Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov present, Foreign Ministers of the BRICS group have at a meeting called for a peaceful settlement of the Ukraine dispute and made a commitment to the "territorial integrity" of nations, according to a statement issued in New Delhi.

the ministers of the five-nation group made up of Brazil, India, China and Russia and South Africa and known as BRICS from their initials met in New York on Thursday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly's high-level meeting.

The statement issued by India's External Affairs Ministry said: "They committed to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states, stressed their commitment to the peaceful resolution of differences and disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation, and supported all efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of situation in Ukraine." While the part of the statement about "peaceful settlement" sounds anodyne, the juxtaposition of it with commitments to territorial integrity and sovereignty puts Russia in a spot.

The meeting was closed to the media and Lavrov's reaction during the discussion could not be ascertained.

China and India have kept a degree of neutrality at the Security Council by abstaining on the resolution condemning Russia's invasion, while Brazil voted for it.

The statement's assertion follows meetings Russia's President Vladimir Putin had separately in Samarkand last week with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China's President Xi Jinping where the two leaders directly expressed their displeasure with Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

"Today's era is not an era of war. We have discussed this with you by phone several times, that democracy, diplomacy and dialogue touch the entire world," Modi told Putin before TV cameras.

Putin admitted that Xi had "questions and concern" about Russia's invasion.

At the BRICS ministers' meeting chaired by Grace Pandor, South Africa's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, the statement from India said that "they rejected double standards in countering terrorism and extremism" and "called for an expeditious finalisation and adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism".

India has been at odds with China over its blocking of sanctions at the Security Council against Pakistan-based terrorists.

Among those against whom Beijing has stopped sanctions are Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba's (LeT) Sajid Mir involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Jaish-e-Mohammed's (JeM) Abdul Rauf Azhar, and Jamaat-ud-Dawah's (JuD) Abdul Rehman Makki.

The statement said" "The Ministers exchanged views on major global and regional issues on the United Nations agenda in the political, security, economic, financial and sustainable development spheres, as well as on intra-BRICS activities." It said that they affirmed their commitment to "strengthening and reforming the multilateral system, especially of the UN and its principal organs".

BRICS countries basically came together for economic and development cooperation and the statement also reflected those concerns.

The Ministers called on developed countries to provide more financing and technology transfer to developing countries to combat climate change, it said.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at aru.l@ians.in and followed at @arulouis)

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Jaipur, Sep 23 : After Rahul Gandhi refused to become the Congress president, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has decided to file his nomination for the post, which has changed the political equations in Rajasthan and amid this Sachin Pilot is likely to meet Sonia Gandhi on Friday.

Gehlot is preparing to file his nomination on September 28 and for this the nearest leaders to him have been alerted. Sources said that Gehlot is sure to be elected as the party president and in such a situation, he will leave the post of Rajasthan CM.

As the preparations for Gehlot's nomination have started, the discussion in the Congress regarding who will be the next Chief Minister of Rajasthan has also begun.

Sources said that Sachin Pilot has started talking to the Congress MLAs of all camps. "Pilot has discussed political issues with many MLAs. He has also spoken to those MLAs who were considered to be staunch opponents of Gehlot. This entire exercise is being seen as a sign of changed political equations," the sources added.

Meanwhile, Pilot getting active and talking to the MLAs is being seen as a signal of assuming a new responsibility. It is said that Sachin has received a hint from the high command about the new responsibility. The pilot's activity is being linked to this.

Sources said that Sachin Pilot has discussed the Rajasthan situation with Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. After Rahul Gandhi, now Pilot's meeting with Sonia Gandhi is proposed to take place in Delhi. The direct connection of these meetings of the pilot is believed to be a preparation for assuming a next role.

In fact, the tone of Congress MLAs has started changing regarding Sachin Pilot. Minister Rajendra Gudha has made a public statement to respect the high command's decision to make anyone including Pilot the CM. Gudha has spoken about the support of the MLAs associated with the G-6 in the decision of the high command to make anyone the CM. SC Commission President and Baseri MLA Khiladi Lal Bairwa and Bari MLA Girraj Singh Malinga are in Delhi, both of whom have also spoken to Pilot.

Pilot's supporters have become active since Ashok Gehlot's name for Congress top post started floating. The hashtag of Sachin Pilot kept trending on Twitter. Pilot supporters are commenting a lot on social media.

MLAs supporting Sachin Pilot have appealed to well-wishers to remain calm. Pro-Pilot MLA Vedprakash Solanki tweeted - "All colleagues are requested to have patience and restraint. Truth will win and our leader Sachin Pilot will definitely get results of his hard work, we have full faith in the high command, so no fellow should post or comment anything unnecessary on social media." It is said that Pilot has instructed his supporting MLAs and leaders to stay away from any kind of political rhetoric. This is the reason that no pro-Pilot MLA has made a political statement for the last several days. The silence of the Pilot supporters is a strategy so that the opposing camp does not get any issue to blow up.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Chennai, Sep 23 : Director Vignesh Shivan, who seems to have been thoroughly impressed by the surprise birthday party his wife actress Nayanthara recently threw, has now put out an emotional post, thanking her for the way she loved him.

Taking to Instagram and posting pictures of his birthday celebrations that happened in Dubai last week, Vignesh Shivan wrote," It's my eighth birthday with you my thangamey #Nayanthara! You have made every birthday extra special than the previous one !

"Buta. This one was too emotional! Thank you for being the lover you are! You know what makes me the happiest and you gave me exactly that!

"To more years of love, happiness and peace! Thank you. Love you and the way you love me, more and more !!"

This is the second post that Vignesh Shivan is putting out about his birthday celebrations this year.

Earlier, he had said, "A birthday filled with pure love from a loving family! Awesome surprise by my wife, my thangam -- a dreamy birthday below Burj Khalifa with all my lovely people with me !

"Can't get better and more special than this! Always thanking God for all the lovely moments he gives me in this blessed life!"

-- Syndicated from IANS
New Delhi, Sep 23 : A fire broke out at a footwear manufacturing factory in the Narela area of the national capital on Friday, a fire department official said, adding that there were injuries or casualties.

The official informed that they received a call about the fire incident at 8.37 a.m. in the said factory at C 358, Narela Industrial Area, near MSC mall in northern Delhi after which as many as 10 fire tenders were immediately pressed into the service." The fire has been brought under control," Delhi Fire Service chief Atul Garg said. He further informed that so far no injury or casualty has been reported in the incident.

As per the visuals from the spot, thick clouds of smoke could be seen billowing out of the ill-fated building as the firemen tried to extinguish the blaze.

The local police also reached the spot and cordoned off the people from the site of the incident.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
New Delhi, Sep 23 : Facebook's parent company Meta and Google are reducing staff to cut costs amid the economic downturn, apparently putting some of them on traditional 30 to 60 days "lists" to find a new role within the company or leave.

Meta plans to cut costs by at least 10 per cent in the coming months and has put out more and more workers whose jobs are being eliminated on its traditional "30-day list," reports Wall Street Journal.

On the other hand, Google's parent Alphabet has reportedly deployed a similar approach, typically giving workers 60 days in which to apply for a new role if their jobs are set to be cut.

"Facebook parent is looking to reduce costs by at least 10 per cent, people familiar with the plans said, while Google has required some employees to apply for new jobs," the report mentioned.

Meta has a "long practice" where employees whose roles are eliminated are subject to termination if they can't find a new job internally within a month.

The Mark Zuckerberg-run company had 83,553 employees at the end of the second quarter this year.

"Google typically gives employees 60 days to apply for other roles in the company if their jobs have been cut," the report mentioned.

Last month, Google fired more than 50 workers at its incubator Area 120 and gave them extra 30 days to find another job at the company.

A Google spokesman was quoted as saying that nearly 95 per cent of employees found new roles within the notice period.

Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai aims to make the company 20 per cent more efficient hinting at job cuts, as the tech giant recently cancelled the projects at its in-house research and development (R&D) division called Area 120.

Addressing the gathering at the Code Conference in the US this month, Pichai said that the more the company tries to understand the macroeconomic conditions, it feels very uncertain about it.

"The macroeconomic performance is correlated to ad spend, consumer spend and so on," he told the audience.

Google has suspended hiring new employees and reportedly told some existing employees to "shape up or ship out" if expectations are not met.

In a company message viewed by Insider, Google Cloud sales leadership has threatened employees with an "overall examination of sales productivity and productivity in general" and that if next quarter results "don't look up, there will be blood on the streets".

As Big Tech companies lay off employees and freeze new hirings, Zuckerberg said in July that the company's plan is to steadily reduce headcount growth over the next year.

Admitting that the social network has entered an economic downturn that will have a broad impact on the digital advertising business, Zuckerberg said that many "teams are going to shrink so we can shift energy to other areas inside the company".
Kolkata, Sep 23 : Initial estimates by a joint review team has said that the total number of illegal teachers appointed as a result of the multi-crore West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment irregularities scam is 12,964.

The review is being done by a joint team of WBSSC, West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) and the counsels for the petitioners in the Calcutta High Court against these illegal recruitments.

The joint review is being done following an order by the Calcutta High Court's single judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay on September 21 directing the counsels of both WBSSC and the petitioners in the matter to review the recruitment and waiting lists on an emergency basis and submit a report on September 28.

Justice Gangopadhyay observed that those who secured teaching jobs in the state-run schools illegally against any consideration should be terminated from their services and replaced with eligible candidates who are in the waiting list.

"Accordingly, the process of identifying the illegal recruitments done against any consideration is almost complete. Next, the joint review team will review the waiting list and identify the replacements from that list," confirmed a WBSSC official.

On September 21, Justice Gangopadhyay also directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team investigating the scam to submit a separate report on the number of ineligible candidates who got teachers' appointments illegally. "If necessary, the CBI team might also consult the WBSSC officials while preparing their report," Justice Gangopadhyay observed.

He then said that the two separate reports, the first from the joint review team and the second from the CBI will be tallied after which those getting appointment illegally will be terminated from their services and replaced by those eligible candidates who are in the waiting list.

Political observers feel that once the process of replacing the ineligible candidates with the eligible ones from the waiting list is completed, it might bring an end to the plight of several eligible candidates protesting on the streets of Kolkata for around 550 days. But a fresh issue of concern might come forth for the state government and the ruling Trinamool Congress.

Investigation in the scam so far by the CBI as well as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have revealed that those ineligible candidates secured the teaching jobs illegally paying huge sums of money to different influential persons concerned and once their services are terminated a fresh stir may begin as those terminated would demand the returning of their money.
Panjrapole (Cow shelter homes) trustees release cows on state and national highways and even in government office premises in protest. Image Source: IANS News

Panjrapole (Cow shelter homes) trustees release cows on state and national highways and even in government office premises in protest. Image Source: IANS News

Panjrapole (Cow shelter homes) trustees release cows on state and national highways and even in government office premises in protest. Image Source: IANS News

Palanpur, Sep 23 : Traffic on the North Gujarat highways came to halt on Friday after over 200 Panjrapole (cow shelter homes) trustees released thousands of cows in protest against the state government's failure to grant Rs 500 crore financial assistance for running the shelter homes.

Banaskantha Panjrapoles trustee Kishor Dave told the media that since the last 15 days, the trustees are protesting and demanding financial assistance as promised in the state budget for the year 2022-23.

As their repeated pleas fell on deaf ears, the trustees on Thursday released thousands of cows on the state and national highways besides government premises in North Gujarat.

There are 1,500 panjrapole in the state giving shelter to around 4.5 lakh cows, alone in Banaskantha, 170 panjrapole shelter 80,000 cows. Panjrapole trust have to bear Rs 60 to 70 per cattle per day to feed them. Post Covid, donations to Panjrapole have dried up, and without funds it is becoming difficult to run shelter homes. If the government does not release funds at the earliest, the agitation will take an aggressive turn.
Mumbai, Sep 23 : The trailer of the second season of streaming series, 'Feels Like Home' was unveiled on Friday. On the occasion, Prit Kamani, who plays Lakshya in the series, shared that the upcoming season will see the central characters of the four boys transforming from boys to men as they deal with odd balls thrown at them by their lives.

Chronicling the lives of the boys, Season 2 captures their journey with more drama, bromance, laughter and a whirlwind of emotions.

Calling it a fresh take on adulthood, Prit said in a statement, "Season 2 is where the OGs are back with a bang! But this time around, the hangover is not from the parties as much as it is from the relationships. The careless boys are slowly transforming into men as they deal with emotions that come with complicated relationships and choices in life." Talking about the arc of his character, the actor said, "For Lakshay it's a moment of truth when he is in a situation where he needs to choose between his true love and best friend. This season he's a 'man in love' and the bond between the boys grows stronger and deeper. But the warmth, the jokes, the madness ain't going anywhere." For actress Inayat Sood, her character becomes more relatable to the viewers with every twist and turn in the story.

Inayat said, "Relationships evolve with more emotions and maturity in season 2. My character, who's been at the centre of a love triangle throughout the first season, learns to tackle the guilt that comes with growing up, moving on and going after what she wants. She makes peace with the changing dynamics in the second season. There'll be many exciting twists and turns, and Mahima's character becomes even more relatable in today's time." 'Feels Like Home 2', helmed by Sahir Raza and written by Sidhanta Mathur, is set to drop on OTT platform Lionsgate Play from October 7.
Chennai, Sep 23 : The makers of director Gunasekhar's upcoming mythological drama, 'Shaakuntalam', featuring actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu in the lead, on Friday announced that the much-awaited historical film would release on November 4 this year.

Samantha, who has not been very active on social media for the past few days, pleasantly surprised her fans by putting out a tweet that read, "November fourth it is. Thank you for the love. You have always been my strength.#Shaakuntalam" The news is bound to delight scores of fans of the actress who were so eagerly awaiting the release of this film that they had begun demanding updates from the team.

The pressure was so much that the producer of the film, Neelima Guna, had to issue a clarification in August this year that post-production work on the film was progressing at a brisk pace and that the "challenging CG complexities were being dealt with good precision".

She had then asked fans for their support. "At this crucial juncture, the team deserves your support and understanding, which I'm sure you will shower on us. We will put out more content and updates as and when we can. Thank you for your love," she had said in response to a demand from several fans on an update about the film.

The film, which is based on the popular play 'Shakuntala' by Kalidasa, has Samantha playing the titular role and Dev Mohan playing Dushyanta.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
New York, Sep 23 : On the sidelines of the ongoing UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, Yemen's Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak called for accelerating the UN-coordinated plan to prevent a massive oil spill in Red Sea from the derelict Safer oil tanker moored off the port of Hodeidah.

Mubarak made the appeal during a meeting on Thursday on the Safer tanker jointly organised by the US, the Netherlands, Germany and the UN, reports Xinhua news agency.

The Yemen government has made intense efforts since 2016 to avoid a potential disaster, he said, adding the government had held several meetings at the regional level, within the framework of the Arab League and with the nations bordering the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The Minister noted that the Yemeni government had approved the implementation of the first phase of the emergency operation.

A day earlier, David Gressly, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said donors have pledged all $75 million required for the first phase of the UN plan -- an emergency operation to transfer oil from the decaying Safer tanker to a safe vessel.

The UN needs a further 38 million dollars for phase two.

The Safer, currently carrying more than 1 million barrels of oil, has been moored off the port of Hodeidah since 1988 as crude oil storage and offloading platform.

It has not been inspected or maintained since 2015.

In May 2020, seawater leaked into the engine room.

A temporary fix by divers from the Safer corporation succeeded in containing the leak, but the fix was not supposed to hold for long.
Sonipat, Sep 23 : Dean Anthony Varona, Seattle University School of Law, and Vice-Chancellor Professor C. Raj Kumar, O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU), signed two key agreements creating new opportunities for law students in India and the United States to pursue a global education.

As per the MoU signed between the universities, students of JGLS will have opportunities to pursue an LLM degree at Seattle University School of Law while they finish their final year at JGLS with concentrations in American Legal Studies or in Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship.

As part of the academic credit system, the programme also offers opportunities to work with Seattle-based employers, including multi-national corporations (including Amazon, Microsoft, and Boeing), international tribunals, and government agencies. Students from India will have the opportunity to study with world-class professors and gain real work experience to become globally trained lawyers.

Reciprocally, students at Seattle University School of Law will have the opportunity to participate in an India Immersion Programme in March 2023, which includes lectures, workshops, study tours to legal and other public institutions, and cultural visits. Institutional leaders from Seattle University School of Law and JGU welcomed the partnership as an advancement towards building a legal community with global imaginations and spirit.

Emphasising the need for garnering global imagination in an increasingly integrated world, Professor Anthony E. Varona, Dean, Seattle University School of Law, observed, "As more legal work transcends national borders, lawyers with significant global knowledge and experience will be in high demand. Students of both JGU and Seattle University School of Law will benefit from these programmes, which in turn will provide meaningful ways to learn about foreign legal systems, norms, and traditions." Professor (Dr.) C. Raj Kumar, Founding Vice Chancellor of JGU and Founding Dean of JGLS, remarked that, "This partnership will help students build a strong foundation in academic fundamentals and at the same time provide the required skills and knowledge necessary to compete in a global marketplace. I am certain that partnerships like this one will help build young professionals who are ready to take up global challenges. JGU has always been driven by global ambitions, aiming to partake in India's progress to the centre-stage of global happenings. I am delighted that we have taken yet another step in that direction." Seattle University School of Law has strong connections to India and the study of its legal system.

Associate Professor of Law Sital Kalantry, whose scholarship focuses on India, founded the India Center for Law and Justice, which works with law schools in India to promote legal education and mentor emerging law scholars. It also promotes engagement with India among the students at Seattle University School of Law.

In her additional role as Associate Dean for International and Graduate Programmes, she has been working to develop legal education programmes specifically for international students. Prof. Kalantry has been associated with JGU since its inception in 2009.

Drawing on her association with JGU for more than a decade, Prof. Sital Kalantry, Faculty Director, India Centre for Law and Justice, Seattle University School of Law observed that "JGU is now the number one private university in India, and our law school is thrilled to work with such an exceptional institution. We look forward to providing an exciting learning experience to the students from India in one of the most exciting and innovative cities in the world, significantly adding to their skills and positively shaping their law careers." On this special occasion, Professor (Dr.) Sreejith S.G., Executive Dean, JGLS, reiterated the global ambitions of JGU and observed, "For a law school like JGLS, which is deeply committed to impart global legal education, international collaborations are part of its evolution and expansion. Through international collaborations, the school creates spaces of 'interculturality' for providing global experience to its students." The beneficiary of the collaborations would be Jindal Global Law School (JGLS), which has been ranked 70th globally and 1st in India by the QS World University Rankings by Subject, 2022.

Seattle University is the largest independent university in the Pacific Northwest, and its legal writing programme ranks #6 in the US News and World Report and clinical programme in the top 30.
New York, Sep 23 : New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that authorities will set up and open transitory humanitarian emergency response and relief centre in the coming weeks to handle the influx of migrants transported from Texas and other states that share a border with Mexico.

These humanitarian relief centres will provide assistance to newly arriving individuals and families and ensure they continue to be connected to the full range of services and support they need, Xinhua news agency quoted the Mayor as saying in a statement on Thursday.

Asylum seekers would stay at humanitarian relief centres for one to four days and have access to shelter, food, medical care, case work services and a range of settlement options including through connections to family and friends inside and outside of New York City, according to the city government.

"This emergency response represents what we know must be done during this humanitarian crisis, as we continue to seek assistance from our federal and state partners to continue this work," said Adams.

New York City has contracted hotels to provide shelter to migrants and other homeless people on an emergency basis after city shelters were exhausted.

"Two humanitarian relief centres will open in the coming weeks: Orchard Beach will open first serving adults, and a second location is still being finalised.

"Additional humanitarian relief centre may be opened in the coming weeks, as needed," the statement added.

Several Republican Governors have relocated migrants from their states in protest against President Joe Biden's immigration policies.

A record-high number of migrants were bused into New York City on Sunday, according to local media reports.

So far this year, federal agents have made about 1.82 million arrests at the country's southern border, according to figures released by the Customs and Border Protection.
Agartala, Sep 23 : Ruling BJP MLA and veteran tribal leader Burba Mohan Tripura on Friday resigned from the Assembly and was likely to join TIPRA (Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance), a tribal-based party.

Official sources said that the 67-year-old legislator accompanied by TIPRA party chief and former royal scion Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman submitted his resignation letter to Tripura Assembly speaker Ratan Chakraborty.

Deb Barman told IANS that Burba Mohan Tripura along with a senior BJP leader Gauri Sankar Reang, also a former Deputy Speaker of the Tripura Assembly, would join his party on Friday evening.

Burba Mohan Tripura, who was unavailable for comments, was elected to the state Assembly in the 2018 election from the tribal reserved seat Karbook in southern Tripura's Gomati district.

The BJP leaders, when contacted by IANS, refused to make any comments immediately.

Burba Mohan Tripura is the fourth BJP MLA to quit the Assembly since last year.

Earlier Ashis Das, Sudip Roy Barman and Ashis Kumar Saha also quit the party and the Assembly membership after open differences with former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, who resigned from the top post on May 14 following the instructions of the party's Central leadership.

Das joined the Trinamool Congress last year and quit the party in May this year while Roy Barman, also a former BJP Minister, and Saha joined the Congress in February this year.

Roy Barman was re-elected to the state Assembly for the sixth time in the bypoll in June on a Congress ticket.

Meanwhile, the BJP's ally Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) MLA Brishaketu Debbarma also resigned from the Assembly in June last year and joined the TIPRA reducing the party's (IPFT) strength to seven.

After Burba Mohan Tripura's resignation, BJP's strength has reduced to 35 in the 60-member Assembly.
New Delhi, Sep 23: Not just food and energy security but also the safety of nuclear facilities in Ukraine was at top of the agenda when External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in New York on Wednesday.

The meeting happened shortly after the UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported renewed shelling early on Wednesday morning at the site of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in Ukraine.

"We count on India's support in providing grain corridors & demilitarisation of the ZNPP. During a meeting with the External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, I emphasised the need to join forces to stop Russia's war against Ukraine. Thanked Indian government and people for humanitarian aid," Shmyhal tweeted after meeting Jaishankar on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

India has repeatedly stated that it accords high priority to the safeguards and monitoring activities being discharged by the IAEA as any accident at Europe's largest nuclear power plant could potentially have disastrous consequences on the entire region.

Jaishankar thanked the Ukrainian PM for sharing his perspectives and assessment of the ongoing conflict and also discussed its consequences.

"Apprised him of India's principled position that emphasises cessation of all hostilities and return to dialogue and diplomacy. Assured him that India would continue to provide humanitarian assistance," the EAM tweeted.

The IAEA said it had received information from the senior Ukrainian operating staff at the site that the latest incident damaged cables providing electricity to one of ZNPP's six units, temporarily forcing the reactor to rely on emergency diesel generators for the power it needs for essential safety functions.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, who is also at the United Nations in New York this week for high-level consultations regarding his proposal to establish a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the ZNPP, said he was gravely concerned about the latest shelling at the Ukrainian nuclear power plant.

"This once again demonstrates the urgent necessity to establish such a zone around the ZNPP. Until yesterday, there seemed to be less shelling at or near the plant, but this latest episode shows that the danger remains very real. It hasn't gone away, and we can't afford to lose any more time," said Grossi.

He reiterated that the IAEA team present at the site for the past three weeks was able to transmit information directly to Agency headquarters in Vienna and conduct their activities without any impediment, restriction, or interruption.

"I'm determined to do everything I can so that the nuclear safety and security protection zone around the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant becomes reality very soon. My high-level meetings at the United Nations this week are crucial to achieve this objective that is of paramount importance in preventing a severe nuclear accident from happening," he added.

On Wednesday, Grossi also met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New York and then attended a meeting of foreign ministers of several countries chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron on urgently establishing a Nuclear Safety and Security Protection Zone (NSSPZ) at Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant.

"S. V. Lavrov confirmed the intention of the Russian side to continue close cooperation with the IAEA in order to force the Kyiv regime to immediately stop the shelling of the said station and the territories adjacent to it, including the city of Energodar, where ZNPP employees and their families live," a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said after the Lavrov-Grossi meeting.

Foreign ministers of Germany, Canada, France, Italy, UK, Ukraine, as well as the representatives of South Korea, the United States and Switzerland and the High Representative of the European Union were present at the 'High Level Meeting on the Safety and Security of Civilian Nuclear Installations in Times of Armed Conflict' chaired by Macron.

A joint declaration adopted later expressed deep concern at the threats to the safety and security of nuclear installations in Ukraine.

"We strongly emphasise that Russia's seizure and weaponisation of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is the root cause of today's nuclear safety and security threats. We recall that the increased risk of a nuclear accident will remain dangerously high as long as Russia is present at the Zaporizhya site," the declaration mentioned.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Kochi, Sep 23 : The Kerala High Court on Friday strongly condemned and initiated suo motu proceedings against the leaders of Popular Front of India (PFI) for the illegal call of flash hartal (shutdown) in the state.

By the time the court began its sittings, there were numerous reports of the PFI activists damaging public properties and threatening people who tried to venture out.

Numerous buses owned by the already reeling Kerala State Road Transport Corporation were stoned and a few of their staff members got injured. The visuals of two bus drivers driving the buses wearing helmets went viral.

"A few years ago on a shutdown day, when I was driving the bus, a stone hit the front glass and pieces of glass dust got deposited in my eyes and I had to suffer a lot, hence today I had to take precaution and wore the helmet," said the driver, Latheef, who was driving the bus in the state capital city.

On Friday, the Division Bench of Justice A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Mohammed Nias wanted stringent action to be taken against the violators of the court order.

"The action of the aforementioned persons in calling for the hartal without following the procedure contemplated in our earlier order, prima facie, amounts to contempt of the directions of this court in the order aforementioned," the bench stated in the order while saying, "It is suo motu initiating a separate action for contempt." Incidentally, the court had previously, in an order dated January 7, 2019, taken note of the peculiar circumstances in Kerala where calls for hartal, which ordinarily would not be viewed as illegal. But over the years the call for a shutdown carried an implied suggestion that the general public if they did not cooperate with those calling the hartal, might face threats of violence.

The court then issued directions to ensure that a call for hartal or general strike did not have the effect of affecting the fundamental rights of those who do not align with the cause of those calling for the hartal and had laid down a procedure to be adhered with while calling for hartal.

The court had made it clear that flash hartals, namely those hartals/strikes called without adhering to the procedure of giving seven days clear public notice, would be deemed illegal/unconstitutional entailing adverse consequences to the persons/party calling for the hartal.

And taking cognisance of this, the court initiated suo motu proceedings against the PFI and soon the police decided to register a case against PFI general secretary Abdul Sathar.

The court then directed the police to ensure that adequate measures are put in place to prevent any damage to public and private property.

It also asked the media to ensure that whenever such illegal flash hartals are called for, the public be duly informed that this is in violation of the orders passed by the court. The case was then posted for next Thursday.

On Friday, the police after watching the PFI activists take law into their hands in most places, started to take action soon after the court spoke tough. And, more than 100 PFI activists were taken into custody.

The maximum impact of the dawn-to-dusk bandh was seen in the Muslim stronghold areas of the state. At several places, the activists forced the people to down the shutters of their shops.

On Thursday, as many as 19 PFI activists, including the top brass of their leadership, were arrested as part of an early morning joint operation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Even though the Kerala Police had made elaborate arrangements and warned of strict action against those who resorted to violence, the PFI activists went on a rampage and at numerous places and pelted stones.

Even the private vehicles were not spared and in the state's capital at a Muslim stronghold area, the agitators waylaid and attacked a car en route to the airport to drop people at the airport to catch an international flight.

About 20 policemen were reported to be present at the place, but they did not respond.

At Kollam, suspected PFI activists rammed their two-wheelers on two on-duty policemen injuring them.

Even at the famed international tourist destination at Kovalam, near here, things were no different as most of the shops remained closed.

However, at Erattupettah in Kottayam district, the police took on the PFI workers and chased them away and detained five of them.

When most of the universities in the state have postponed the day's examinations, the Public Service Commission has decided to hold the exam as scheduled.

Educational institutions across the state also remained closed.
Islamabad, Sep 23 : Floods may or may not be God-given. Pakistan claims they are the result of climate change to which its contribution is negligible. But they seem God-sent for their political class. Those in the government have taken to globe-trotting, trying to canvas relief. They visit the very Christian world that they otherwise vilify. Nobody talks of Islamophobia and by the way, self-respect.

They are successful, and how. From the UN Secretaries-General to Hollywood star and goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie have descended on Pakistan to express sympathy and urge the world to rush funds and material.

For long years, the world kept urging Pakistan to "do more" in fighting terrorism. Now it is pleading with the world community to "do more".

Relief diplomacy pays. For one, it takes the attention away from issues like terrorism, terror financing, and things with Pakistan that UN-mandated Financial Action Task Force (FATF) wants to scrutinize.

This diplomacy is done in style. Pakistani elite dress up in the most expensive foreign brands, incidentally produced by companies owned by the same Christians and Jews the Pakistani politicians ask their people to hate.

Its women are more thoughtful, though. While men flaunt their best dresses, junior Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar was careful not to display her purses and handbags from world-renowned brands. She was seen not carrying any purse at all while escorting the UN Secretary-General through flood-ravaged areas. Reviled and trolled for her expensive taste, she now wants to be taken seriously as an international diplomat.

Her immediate boss, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, however, is more serious about diplomacy. He has been meeting American and European leaders who were offended by or had offended, former Prime Minister Imran Khan during the latter's over three-year tenure.

Khan waited in vain for a phone call from US President Joe Biden till his last day in office and now continues to blame the US for an "international conspiracy" to oust him. He was voted out in the National Assembly in April earlier this year.

But the same Khan, the story in Pakistani media goes, did not pick up the phone from French President Emmanuel Macron. The latter was keen to end the diplomatic impasse created by Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), the extremist Sunni Muslim body that wanted Pakistan to expel the French ambassador and stop trading with France on the issue of Charlie Hebdo cartoons against the Prophet in a French magazine. Pakistan did neither, though, but Khan kept pushing his Islamophobia bogey.

What is Khan doing these days? He has declared that neither economic crisis (Pakistan is struggling to get the full loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for which his government had tried desperately) nor floods will prevent his campaign against the Shehbaz Sharif government.

He has, for good measure, added 'war' as an eventuality that will not dilute his campaign. War against who, by whom? One does not have to be a wizard to say that this is pointed at India.

The India factor is inevitable in anything happening in Pakistan. Khan bad-mouthed India when in power, now he has words of praise for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is now Bilawal's turn to bad-mouth India, now that he is in power.

He told a French TV channel during his Paris visit that he had "not received help (as flood relief) from India, nor do we expect it".

He forgot to mention that Modi had telephoned Sharif to express sympathy and support. But he did utilise the TV channel to raise the Kashmir dispute with India and call out the Modi government's domestic policies, things that have no relevance or bearing on Pakistan's floods, economic crisis or anything.

The Pakistani leadership cannot be unaware that India has a tradition of rushing, even to far-off countries and closer home, to Nepal, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.

It is tempting to ask why the Khan government earlier and the Sharif government now, oppose any trade with India, although the same is advocated by Pakistan's trading community and economic experts. They say trade with India would be to Pakistan's advantage, especially in the current adverse times.

Otherwise known to take diktats from the all-powerful army, the Pakistani political class has found it convenient to ignore its advice even though it is being advocated by the current Army Chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa. The army chief has been saying that it is time for Pakistan to shun geopolitics and take to geo-economics. But that does not win votes for Pakistani politicians.

The attitude is explained by the TV news grabs of Pakistanis destroying onions imported from Iran, because they are 'Shia' onions. Need one say more?
New Delhi, Sep 23 : Union Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday said that the draft telecom bill would be finalised within the next six to 10 months.

Addressing a press conference a day after the draft bill was put up for public comment, Vaishnaw said that the Centre is not in a hurry to bring it.

On the basis of consultations, the final draft will be prepared, he said, adding that it will go to the Parliamentary panel.

After that it will go to Parliament, so the entire process will take six to 10 months, the Minister added.

Comments on the bill have been sought till October 20.

The bill seeks to replace the archaic Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933 and the Telegraph Wires (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1950.

The draft bill has a provision to ensure a smooth transition, wherein the repealed laws would remain in place till the new ones become effective.
Hyderabad, Sep 23 : Telangana Congress leaders, including former minister Geetha Reddy and Mohammed Ali Shabbir, on Friday denied receiving Enforcement Directorate (ED) notices in the National Herald case.

Shabbir, a former minister, said that he has not received any notice from ED. He, however, said if he receives the notice, he would respond to the same.

Geeta Reddy said she has also not received any notice from the central agency.

Former MP from Secunderabad, Anjan Kumar Yadav also denied receiving ED notice.

Their clarification came amid some media reports that the ED has served notices to at least eight leaders of Congress leaders from Telangana summoning them for questioning.

Congress sources said the leaders made contributions through cheques and hence there was nothing wrong in it.

Former minister P. Sudarshan Reddy is also reported to have been summoned for questioning.

The Congress leaders allegedly transferred amounts to the accounts of companies involved in the National Herald case.
Bengaluru, Sep 23 : The Karnataka police have arrested three drug peddlers, including a small screen actor in Kerala, and seized 191 grams of MDMA and 2.80 kilograms of ganja valued at Rs 12.50 lakh from them on Friday.

The accused are identified as Siyaz, Mohammad Shahid and Mangal Thodi Jathin. All the accused are from Kerala and accused Shiyaz worked as an actor in Malayalam television.

According to police, the accused sold drugs to students of reputed colleges and elite public here. They ran an inter-state gang and the police have slapped the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) 1985 on them.

Gathering inputs, the police have nabbed two accused persons from a place close to NIFT College in Bengaluru and seized Rs 6 lakh worth 101 grams of MDMA and 2.80 kilograms of ganja.

After grilling the two accused, the police have got information on the third accused selling drugs near the service road at Agara Lake. DCP South East C.K. Baba has appreciated the efforts of the policemen for breaking an inter-state drug cartel.

Further investigation is on.
New Delhi, Sep 23 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday apprehended NHAI Chief General Manager (CGM) and Regional Officer, Patna, along with two employees of a private company, for allegedly accepting bribe of Rs 5 lakh.

A senior CBI official said that a case was registered against Sadre Alam, CGM, NHAI, Regional Office, Patna and others, including DGM, NHAI, Patna on the allegations of demanding bribe from the officials of Nashik based private firm for doing favour in clearing inflated bills, manipulation of Measurement Books.

The official said that searches are being conducted at eight different places belonging to the accused.

A sum of Rs 60 lakh in cash was also found from the premises of Alam.

All the accused will be produced before a competent court after the raid.
New Delhi, Sep 23: The Indian diaspora in Leicester has expressed its dismay that not enough British Indian politicians have publicly condemned the violence against the Hindus in their city. They are apprehensive that the Leicester violence is part of a bigger plan to intimidate Hindus across other UK towns.

Hindu scholar and yogacharya, Satish Kumar Sharma said: "We are witnessing the same strategy used to ethnically cleanse Hindus from Kashmir whilst making it their fault for existing, now being executed in parts of the UK. Any Hindu can be targeted simply by alleging 'Hindutva Fascist'."

This was corroborated by researcher and former Counter-extremism Coordinator for the UK government, Charlotte Littlewood, who told British media organisation, GB News: "Islamist extremist influencers are rallying mobs via social media to come out in the hundreds in a bid to 'clean out Leicester's Hindus.' A deep dive into private social media circles made clear today."

On conditions of anonymity, a London-based British Hindu activist said that groups of Muslim youth are standing in front of Hindu homes and threatening them to move out of Leicester.

The British Hindus see a pattern in attacks on Hindu people and religious symbols. They allege that Islamist groups in Britain have made a list of temples where they plan to stage protests. After nearly three weeks of violence against Hindus in Leicester and an attack on a temple in Birmingham, Thursday will see a protest in front of the Indian High Commission in London where a pro-Islamist group South Asia Solidarity has given a call to hold a protest in the evening.

The calls for "Leicester: Emergency Protest" have raised fears that it could lead to violence as was witnessed in 2019 after Pakistanis and Khalistanis injured Indians celebrating the Independence Day by throwing projectiles like frozen water bottles, tomatoes and eggs.

Meanwhile, Minister for External Affairs, S. Jaishankar, who is in New York for the UN General Assembly tweeted that he has taken up the Leicester violence with British officials. On Wednesday, he met with UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly for discussions on various issues. Jaishankar tweeted: "Shared my concern about the security and welfare of the Indian community in UK. Welcomed his assurances in that regard."

Alpesh Patel, former Financial Times columnist, told GB News that the communities in the UK need "more respect and law and order. We want fewer jihadis because I am coming from the 9/11 memorial... When I see a group of men dressed in black and wearing black masks, shouting at a little Indian woman in a saree coming out of temple..."

He pointed out that a false impression about Hindu hardliners has been spread, emphasising that hardline groups like Taliban, the Al Qaeda and the ISIS do not comprise the Hindus as he spoke about the size and diversity of the country in glowing terms.

The violence in Leicester has galvanised Hindu groups across the world to issue messages of solidarity with their brethren in Leicester. In a press release, the Australian Hindu Association expressed fears that the attacks on Hindus in "Leicester & Birmingham by Islamist extremists is the beginning of a planned campaign by vested interest groups. British law enforcement agencies must act decisively now. Otherwise this modus operandi will spread to other parts of Britain & internationally."

London saw two security-related incidents in the past week despite additional police forces in the UK's capital city.

With Heads of States visiting London for the Queen's funeral, the city was in a state of alert yet a man was arrested for stabbing two police officers. The police charged Mohammed Rahman with attempted murder for the stabbing on September 16.

In another incident at the British parliament, the police arrested Muhammad Khan, 28, for charging at the Queen's coffin while it was lying in state and trying to pull away the flag. He later told the police that he planned to meet the Queen even if that meant trespassing into her castles.

In Leicester, the police brought calm by arresting 47 people over the weekend and charging three with various crimes. Besides desecrating the Hindu temple, the assailants had attacked the Leicester police, injuring an unprecedented 25 officers and a police dog. With additional police forces from other parts of the UK, the city remains calm since Monday.

In Birmingham too, the police arrested an 18-year-old for possessing a knife outside the Durga Bhawan temple in Smethwick area.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative

-- Syndicated from IANS
Chennai, Sep 23 : The Reliance Foundation, the Observer Research Foundation and the United Nations in India are hosting two events on Friday (September 23) in New York.

The two events are - a discussion on 'Women, Tech, and the SDGs: Reshaping the Pathways to Change', the second is a high-level discussion that will focus on 'The G20 Imperative: Green Growth & Development for All' - to complement the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 77) which is underway.

According to a statement issued by the Observer Research Foundation, 'Aspirations, Access & Agency: Women transforming lives with technology' - a publication by Reliance Foundation and Observer Research Foundation - will also be launched at these events.

The compendium tells the stories of women leaders who have emerged as agents of technological change and socioeconomic inclusion and are using ICTs to help their communities build pathways to better futures.

"Through these events, we bring experiences from around the world - ranging from women in remote Indian regions who became social change catalysts to green growth ideas beyond borders. Today, the green economy is to climate conversations what mobile technology access is to inclusive digital empowerment. At Reliance Foundation, we believe when women rise, families flourish and communities grow, countries prosper; a vision driven by our Founder and Chairperson Nita Ambani. Today, with these discussions, we take another step forward towards Agenda 2030, with our philosophy of 'We Care'," Jagannatha Kumar, CEO, Reliance Foundation was quoted as saying in the statement.

"The stories of these remarkable women demonstrate how technology can reshape development pathways and cater to aspirations of many. The journeys chronicled in this publication also urge us to reassess where we are with respect to the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), and how we can overcome the deleterious impact of the pandemic. It is clear that real progress is possible only if our efforts are inclusive, green, led by communities, and catalysed by adept policies and leadership - all attributes of the emerging yet distinct India story," Samir Saran, President, Observer Research Foundation was quoted as saying in the statement.

According to Shombi Sharp, UN Resident Coordinator, India, from women at the frontier of technology, to government, business, and communities coming together for the green transition and climate resilience, there are many inspiring stories of sustainability emerging across the country.

"India's leadership in international fora, including its upcoming G20 Presidency, provides an effective platform for others to gain from these experiences," Sharp was quoted as saying it the statement.

The two events featuring high-level speakers and experts from across regions, reinforce the commitment of the three organisations to the development discourse and aim to generate continued dialogue, innovative partnerships, and new ideas in the pathway to accelerate the world's progress towards the SDGs.
Chennai, Sep 23 : Strict measures are in place to retrieve a bronze idol of Kalasamhara Murthy of Sri Kasi Viswanatha temple at Muthamalapuram in Thanjavur from Christie's in the United States, the idol wing of the Tamil Nadu police said on Friday.

The police said that they had swung into action after receiving a complaint from the temple executive officer G. Suresh about the idol being stolen from the temple 50 years ago. In a complaint filed on November 6, 2020, the executive officer said that the idol was replaced by a fake replica.

The investigating officers of the idol wing police approached the French Institute of Pondicherry and got the pictures of the idol retrieved. According to U. Muthuraja, Deputy Superintendent of Police who is heading the operation of the idol wing searched several auction centres, galleries and libraries across the world.

In the statement, the idol wing of the police said that it finally zeroed in on the photograph of an idol at the Christies auction centre that was similar to the bronze idol of Kalasamhara Murthy.

Jayant Murali, Director General of Police (DGP), Idol wing in the statement said, "An expert comparison report confirmed the fact that both the photo image of the Kala Samhara Moorthy taken by the Frech Institute Pondicherry and the image of the idol downloaded from the website of Christies.com were the same and the metal idol kept at the temple was fake." The idol wing of the police said that Christie's auction centre had put the price of the idol at USD 4,35,000.

The idol wing police said that it has taken steps to retrieve the bronze idol from the auction centre.
Jaipur, Sep 23 : After meeting Rahul Gandhi in Kerala, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday said that he will be filing the nomination for the post of Congress president, and added that Sonia Gandhi and general secretary in-charge Ajay Maken will decide on the CM face.

Gehlot said, "In the meeting, Rahul Gandhi clearly said that this time only non-Gandhi will become the president. This is the final decision, the president will not be made from the Gandhi family." While talking to the media, Gehlot said that, "I had requested Rahul Gandhi after meeting him once. State Congress committees across the country are passing resolutions to make Rahul Gandhi the President, so we said that he should accept the post of President in that form. I talked a lot, tried.

"He (Rahul Gandhi) said that once we have decided that this time no one from the Gandhi family will become the head of the party, it has been said clearly.

"He said that I know what everyone wants, I respect them. They passed resolutions for me, I have a feeling of respect for them. For some reason, this time we have decided that a non-Gandhi family person should become the president." On the question of leaving the post of CM, Gehlot said that whoever becomes the Congress president, and till date whoever has become the Congress president, that person has not been the Chief Minister. "If I get a chance, I will work as the Congress President only." On the question of the next face if the CM post falls vacant in Rajasthan, Gehlot said that Sonia Gandhi will decide about the next process. "Sonia Gandhi and general secretary in-charge Ajay Maken will decide together," he said.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot will visit the Sai Baba temple in Shirdi on Friday and will return to Jaipur by evening to start the preparations for the nomination.
Chennai, Sep 23 : Actor, director and founder chairman of Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) leader, Seeman has condemned the raids conducted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the Popular Front of India (PFI) and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) activists.

The actor-turned-politician in a statement on Friday said that the actions of the NIA and ED on PFI and SDPI were retributive in nature. He said that the action was due to the consistent criticism of these organisations on the religious polarisation that was taking place in the country ever since the Modi government assumed office in New Delhi.

The NTK leader said that the action was totally unwanted and that the BJP was taking the country under one-party rule.

Seeman has been a votary for the unified Tamil land and had constantly demanded that Sri Lankan Tamils entering India should be given political asylum in India just like the asylum given to Tibetans.

He has also taken up several human rights issues involving Tamil movements.
Bengaluru, Sep 23 : The inquiry of two suspected IS terrorists in Karnataka has revealed that they wanted to help establish a caliphate in India with Sharia law in place of the existing Central government, said Karnataka Police on Friday.

A press release of the police said, "The main accused Shariq, who is absconding and the arrested two accused -- Maaz Munir and Syed Yasin aka Yasin aka Bailu -- in Shivamogga of Karnataka believed that India had got freedom from the Britishers, but the 'real freedom' would be obtained when there is victory over the present system through war and the establishment of Caliphate and implementation of Sharia law." "The IS is working towards it and declared war on 'kafirs' through jihad. Likewise, the arrested accused were also intending to wage war against India and for this reason they had gathered explosives," police said.

The alleged terrorists used telegram app and subscribed to IS official medium 'Al-Hayat'. Accused Shariq, who is still absconding, shared PDF files with both accused persons that contained the information and videos about the making of bombs.

The police said, "Timer, relay circuits were purchased from Amazon. They had also purchased 9 volts 2 batteries, switches, wires and match boxes and prepared explosives. The accused had conducted trial blasts successfully. They had gathered and stored explosives for use in various parts of India." "Wherever the trail blasts were conducted, the accused burnt Indian flags," said the police.

Shivamogga Superintendent of Police Lakshmi Prasad stated that the police had conducted raids on 11 locations and seized 14 mobiles, one dongle, two laptops, one pen drive, remaining materials at the site of bomb explosions and half-burnt Indian flag.
New Delhi, Sep 23 : Amid hectic lobbying in the Congress on the issue of the Rajasthan leadership, the party top brass has asked Sachin Pilot to stay put in Jaipur and meet MLAs till a final decision is taken.

Pilot reportedly flew to Jaipur on Friday after being in Bharat Jodo Yatra and is waiting for the decision.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who had met Rahul Gandhi, on Friday said that he has refused to contest the party President's election and wants a non-Gandhi to head the party.

"I will be filing nomination soon and it's the need of the hour that opposition should be strong..." he said. Gehlot, who had sought to carry on as Chief Minister and run for party President, said that the party will decide on his successor as Chief Minister.

However, it is not clear yet whether Gehlot will first step down as Chief Minister and contest, or resign after the election.

Pilot, the former Deputy Chief Minister, is a strong contender for the Chief Ministership while hectic lobbying is going on in the state with C.P. Joshi and B.D. Kalla throwing their hat in the ring too.
New Delhi, Sep 23 : The Broadband India Forum (BIF) on Friday said the draft Indian Telecommunications Bill 2022 requires a critical and balanced review, as it aims to take away the statutory independence of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), seeking to make it subservient to the government.

Broadband India Forum (BIF) said in a statement that the draft bill proposes to remove "non-obstante provision and provisos to Section 11(1) of the TRAI Act".

The industry body claimed that the existing provisions pertain to regulatory safeguards and maker and checker balance, which have been instrumental in bringing the sector to where it is today.

By curtailing the powers of the TRAI, the authority will be reduced to one with extremely limited role and powers, the BIF added.

"Some of the provisions of the draft Indian Telecommunications Bill 2022 unfortunately appear to be prohibitive rather than facilitating/enabling for the larger digital ecosystem in the country," BIF President T.V. Ramachandran said.

"The provisions seem to take us back to the pre-1997 era by diluting the powers of the Regulator viz. Section 11(1) of TRAI Act. This could lead to damage of investor confidence and undermining of the independence of the Regulatory Authority, owing to deletion of provisions which enable proper checks and balances," he elaborated.

Toughening its stand against video communication and calling apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Zoom and Google Duo, the Centre has also proposed to bring OTT Communication Services (app-based) under the ambit of telecom licence.

The BIF said that the importance of these services in the socio-economic growth of the country cannot be undermined.

"They are the backbone of the digital economy and by including such services as telecommunication services and subjecting them to licensing, it could stifle the entire socio-economic ecosystem, kill innovation and stymie the GDP growth," the telecom industry body said.

In one of the key proposals, the draft Indian Telecommunication Bill 2022 seeks to waive off fees and penalty of telecom and internet service providers.

The draft bill says that the Centre may "waive off in part or full any fee, including entry fees, license fees, registration fees or any other fees or charges, interest, additional charges or penalty" for any licence holder or registered entity under the telecom rules.

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has sought public comments on the draft bill and the last date is October 20.

Other industry bodies hailed the draft telecom bill.

The Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (DIPA) welcomed the draft bill, saying it will act as the bedrock for next-generation transformations and contribute towards the 'Infrastructure 4.0' revolution which is expected to kick-off with the launch of 5G networks in the country.

"This new bill is going to revolutionise the telecom sector by addressing many issues, most important among those being Right of Way for Telecommunication Infrastructure. It intends to remove the ambiguities prevailing for a long time by establishing that telecom is the central subject," DIPA DG T.R. Dua said.

The draft bill addresses the long-standing issue of illegal property tax on telecom towers, clarifying that telecommunication infrastructure is distinct from property on which it is installed.

Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) DG, Lt Gen Dr S.P. Kochhar (retd) said that the draft bill is "another milestone step to develop a modern and future-ready legal framework in telecommunication".

"We are studying the newly-drafted bill and will share our comments with the government in due course of time," he said.
New York, Sep 23 : Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met US President Joe Biden at a reception for world leaders participating in the 77th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, media reports said.

Shehbaz Sharif, along with other world leaders, were invited to the reception by the US President, Express Tribune reported.

This is the first interaction between Biden and the Pakistani Prime Minister. Since his election, Biden had not spoken to either then Prime Minister Imran Khan or his successor, it said.

The meeting, despite being informal, is significant given the fact that the Biden administration, during Imran Khan's tenure, largely ignored Pakistan.

However, since the change of government, there has been a flurry of engagements between the two countries.

Earlier, in his address to the UN General Assembly, Biden made a fervent pitch for extending help to Pakistan where floods had caused huge devastation.

In his address, he announced over $2.9 billion in new assistance to address global food insecurity, building on the $6.9 billion in US government assistance to support global food security already committed this year.

Earlier this month, a senior adviser of the US Secretary of State visited Pakistan and the Biden administration also approved the $450 million sale of F-16 equipment to Pakistan.
Los Angeles, Sep 23 : Actress Zoe Saldana spoke about her upcoming role in the Reese Witherspoon-produced Netflix series 'From Scratch', the mom of three attributes having kids to help keep her youthful.

After noting that Saldana looks nearly the same in 'From Scratch' as she did two decades ago in her film Center Stage, the actress teases, "It's like Benjamin Button, I'll take that as a compliment," reports People.

"I think having children keeps me out of trouble a lot," she continues.

"I go to bed early. I eat better. I sleep longer sometimes. I'm back to sleeping." "I was having a lot of problems with my sleep. Whereas right before I had them, I was very much of the policy of work hard, play hard," she explains.

"And I loved my life like that. But I feel like having children happened at the right time for me because in your mid-thirties to late thirties, early forties, that's when you go to bed thinking that you're one thing, and you wake up feeling like something else." "And I started having kids during that time. So that saved me from a lot," she adds.

Saldana and husband Marco Perego are parents to twin boys Cy Aridio and Bowie Ezio, 7, plus their 5-year-old little brother Zen Anton Hilario.

The 'Avatar' actress, 44, shared back in 2020 about being a mom to all three boys.

"The third one was supposed to be [a daughter] and then my husband just doesn't give any girls," Saldana joked.

"I would have been great as a mother of daughters, but the universe, in its irony, and how I became a mom of three boys in the post-#MeToo movement [means] I'm accepting the challenge." Saldana said she was "having such a wonderful time" as a mom of sons, "because that means I get to witness and really nurture a young boy before he turns into a man, and I think that that's the task for us mothers, as well." Teaching her sons not to conform to gender stereotypes, the actress said it has "been a treat because allowing your boys to be vulnerable and sensible and not just allowing them to fight physically because, 'Oh, boys will be boys' - those kinds of terms just don't exist in our home." "'Daddy's little girl' and 'Mama's boys,' we don't have that," Saldana added at the time.

"My husband is the father and I'm the mother, but we are (both active) participants in the upbringing of (our kids) and that's really important."
Mumbai, Sep 23 : Popular rappers Badshah and Ikka, who are judging the show 'MTV Hustle 2.0', got swayed by the performance by MC Square and declared his track a radio hit.

With a typical desi accent and a catchy hook step, MC Square's 'Le Le Ram Ram' performance was loved by Badshah. Even Ikka Singh, who was the guest judge, couldn't stop praising him.

Badshah said: "There is a famous artist with a million followers and views, who called me and said that I want to work with MC Square," before declaring the performance a Radio Hit! Ikka added: "Your rap was all about Swag & Baatein and it was on point. Your mike was your mashuka (girlfriend) and your rap is still LIVE in my zehen (mind). You deserve everything." 'MTV Hustle 2.0' airs on MTV.
New Delhi, Sep 23 : The final Telecom Bill should aim to minimise regulatory burden, uncertainty, and overlaps across different laws in the innovation rich value-added services, IT industry's apex body Nasscom said on Friday.

The draft Telecommunications Bill 2022 seeks to consolidate and replace three telecom legislations -- the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933 and The Telegraph Wires (Unlawful Protection) Act, 1950, a legacy of the colonial era.

"Given that the Bill leaves a lot to be covered through the regulations, it should formalise the concept of risk-based obligations and a consultation-based, transparent and responsive, regulation making process. This could, say, guide the framing of regulations for different types of licenses," said Ashish Aggarwal, Vice President, Public Policy, Nasscom.

"This will be the key for start-ups and SMEs in the digital space," he added.

The IT sector's apex body said it has rolled out internal consultations with the industry to finalise its feedback.

The thrust of the Bill to ease telecom infrastructure expansion and strengthen its quality are the key positives.

"The intent to enable innovation through regulatory sandbox and the focus to promote an ecosystem for sharing, trading and leasing of spectrum, and the flexibility in making it available for various use cases is also welcome," said Nasscom.

The industry body said it expects the Bill to be suitably strengthened through a process of transparent and meaningful consultation with the stakeholders.

"A future ready Telecommunication Bill will be an important step towards designing a framework which supports regulatory stability, investment, and innovation in the telecom sector," it added.

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has sought public comments on the draft bill and the last date is October 20.

In one of the key proposals, the draft Telecommunication Bill 2022 seeks to waive off fees and penalty of telecom and internet service providers.
Los Angeles, Sep 23 : Hollywood star Johnny Depp is indeed dating one of the attorneys and no, it's not Camille Vasquez. In fact, it is Joelle Rich -- the attorney from Depp's UK libel case.

"They are dating but it's not serious," reports People magazine. Rich is a London lawyer who was on 59-year-old Depp's legal team during his libel case against 'The Sun', which he lost in November 2020.

He sued the newspaper for calling him a "wife-beater," but the court upheld the outlet's claims as being "substantially true" and his ex-wife Amber Heard testified to back up the claims.

According to People, in March 2021, his attempt to overturn the decision was overruled.

Depp's new romantic interest was not among his lawyers in this year's defamation case against Heard, 36, that was in Fairfax County, Virginia.

He won that case; a jury found that Heard defamed him in her 2018 Washington Post op-ed about domestic violence, though she didn't mention him by name. Depp was awarded more than $10 million in damages, and Heard, meanwhile, won one of her three defamation countersuit claims and was awarded $2 million. (They are both appealing the verdicts.) People further states that though Rich was not on Depp's legal team this time, she did make several court appearances to show support.

She was photographed with Depp outside of the courthouse on May 3, and she was pictured hugging Depp's attorney Camille Vasquez inside the courtroom on May 16.

According to her bio, Rich "helps individuals and families in the public eye protect their privacy and reputations" and has "expertise in libel, privacy and copyright disputes".

She "works to defend (clients') reputations against false and defamatory allegations in print, online and on social media".

Her firm represented Meghan Markle in a case against the publishers of the Mail on Sunday last year as well.
Chandigarh, Sep 23 : Standing paddy crop in hundreds of acres in Haryana has been damaged due to untimely rains over the past two days, revenue and agriculture officials said on Friday.

Agriculture Department officials said the losses could run into hundreds of crores, though the exact damage would be known only after assessment by revenue officials across the state.

There were also reports of damage to the paddy crop in Punjab, another prominent granary. The Opposition said the damage was widespread in Ropar, Jalandhar, Patiala, Kapurthala, and Bhatinda areas and sought compensation for the affected farmers within a stipulated time.

Highlighting the plight of farmers, Congress leader and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Friday demanded compensation for farmers as huge paddy crops across the state have been damaged owing to untimely rain. He also sought a girdawari (harvest inspection) for assessment of crop damage in the past two days.

"Every farmer has suffered a loss due to damage to the standing paddy crop. Waterlogging in the fields have affected the paddy crop. The government should get the 'Girdawari' done and give compensation to the affected farmers," he said.

The Leader of Opposition said earlier too the farmers faced the brunt of weather. "So far the farmers have not been compensated for the damage caused due to heavy rains, hailstorm and waterlogging. Neither the government nor insurance companies come forward to help the farmers in times of distress," he said.

Quoting an example of how insurance companies are cheating farmers in Hisar, he said: "When farmers, registered under the Pradhan Mantri Bima Yojana, applied for the compensation due to crop losses in kharif season, the company did not respond. Now several months, later the application was rejected. The farmers have been forced to fend for themselves. Insurance companies have so far earned a hefty profit of Rs 40,000 crore due to government protection by taking premium from farmers." Hooda said despite repeated demands, the government has not yet started the paddy procurement. "Because of this, paddy at a rate of Rs 2,060 is being purchased at Rs 1,700 to Rs 1,800 per quintal. Same is the case with millet farmers. Neither the MSP of millet is being given by the government nor farmers are being compensated through the government scheme," he said.

He said like every time, this time also the rain has exposed the claims of the government. "Today everything from the fields to the modern city of Gurugram is submerged. Farmers and the common man are feeling helpless. The government should make arrangements for drainage at the earliest." --IANS

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New Delhi, Sep 23 : In line with the decision of the Centre, a total of 1,924 Private Security Agency (PSA) personnel will be deployed at 60 airports, in place of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), at non-core duty posts.

As per the Airport Authority of India, the decision will reduce the security expenditure and these CISF personnel can be deployed at other airports which will further strengthen the security set-up. This will further help in operationalisation of new domestic and international airports.

The AAI has appointed 581 security personnel from Directorate General Resettlement-sponsored security agencies for non-core posts at 45 Airports. These Security personnel will be deployed after completion of Aviation Security (AVSEC) training programme at selected airports. As on date, 161 DGR personnel for 16 airports are attending AVSEC training programs and they will be deployed after completion of training from September 24.

At Kolkata Airport, already 74 DGR security personnel have been deployed from September 9 after attending the AVSEC training programme. Deployment process of the remaining security personnel is under process.
New Delhi, Sep 23: Making it clear that the Russian fertilizers should reach farmers at a reasonable cost and on to fields all over the world as soon as possible, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that it is essential that all countries remove "every remaining obstacle" to its export.

The UN chief, who has also warned that the world may run out of food next year if the fertilizer market is not stabilized, made the comments during a busy Thursday at the organisation's headquarters in New York where he met with several leaders to find solutions to the world's food, debt, and energy crisis due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

It also included a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the general political discussion of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

Guterres, in a Security Council meeting on Ukraine on Thursday, said that the collateral damage of the Russia-Ukraine war, which is driving millions into extreme poverty and hunger and reversing years of progress on development, is being felt in dozens of developing countries already grappling with recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and battered by the climate crisis.

According to the UN, more than 4.3 million metric tonnes of food shipments bound for 29 countries across three continents have been moved since the signing of the Black Sea Grain Initiative. This, said Guterres, includes three vessels chartered by the World Food Progamme (WFP) to transport desperately needed food supplies for the people of Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, and Yemen.

"The United Nations also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Russian Federation on the full access of Russian food and fertilizer products, including ammonia, to global markets. We are doing everything possible to facilitate this, and to ease the serious fertilizer market crunch that is already affecting farming in West Africa and elsewhere," the UN Secretary-General told the Security Council.

Russia, which has repeatedly expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the Black Sea Grain Initiative it signed on July 22, has been urging the parties involved to ensure that the package is implemented in its full nature with unhindered export of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers to the world markets.

Moscow has alleged that the cargo vessels leaving the three key Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea -- Odesa, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny -- have failed to supply grain to the starving countries of Africa or South Asia.

"As a result of the food deal, planned as an instrument of emergency support for the poorest countries, only 3% (60 thousand tonnes of two million tonnes of grain) was sent to developing countries," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin said at the Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative on Wednesday.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Chennai, Sep 23 : CPI-M and Congress MPs from Tamil Nadu on Friday mocked the claims made by BJP President J.P. Nadda that 95 per cent of the work for the AIIMS, Madurai was over.

The two MPs - Congress' Virudhunagar MP Manickam Tagore and CPI-M's Madurai MP Su Venkatesan - pointed out that the sprawling land at Thoppur in Madurai which is the site for the AIIMS does not have any signs of construction.

"Thank you for the 95% completed #Madurai AIIMS. I and Madurai MP# SuVe4Madurai searched for one hour at the Thoppur site and found nothing.. Someone had stolen the building," Tagore said in a tweet.

He said that the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP had misled its national President who was also a former Union Health Minister.

"How can a former Union Health minister make such a claim when even the tender was not floated," he asked.

Tagore also said that the people of southern Tamil Nadu has been waiting for the AIIMS in Madurai and athe BJP had cheated them by making false claims.

CPI-M MP from Madurai, Su Venkatesan, in a tweet in Tamil, said: "I have inspected the AIIMS Madurai site to see how the building has been constructed..." He said that the order for a revised estimate of Rs 1,977 crore was issued in March 2021 and added that the cabinet approval has not yet been given for the proposal.

Nadda, who is on a tour to Tamil Nadu, had said at a meeting of industrialists in Madurai that almost 95 per cent of work for the Madurai AIIMS was over, and once the work is completed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate it.
New Delhi, Sep 23 : Online food aggregator Zomato on Friday announced to crack down on Cloud kitchen operators who are misusing legal loopholes to offer hundreds of food brands from a single, small kitchen.

The company said that it is going to manually check any physical location which runs more than 10 brands out of a single location.

"While there is no exact science to the right number of brands, we believe that even the most organised outlets in the industry don't see operational benefits and customer trust in operating too many brands from a single kitchen," said Zomato.

The food delivery platform engaged with the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) and other restaurant partners to formulate the right approach to curb these practices.

"Upon deliberations with Zomato, we felt this was an acceptable interim solution wherein the Zomato team carries out a preliminary physical inspection of such locations," said Kabir Suri, President NRAI and Co-Founder of Azure Hospitality.

"We will further work with the Zomato team in ascertaining whether these kitchens comply with acceptable industry norms and suggest solutions thereon," he added.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has stated that cloud kitchen entities are free to operate multiple brands on a single FSSAI license (usually unique to a kitchen).

However, there are some exceptions to this. Some fly-by-night operators, who account for less than 0.2 per cent of registered kitchens, misuse this flexibility in law by creating innumerable brands from the same kitchen.

"These brands have little to no differentiation in the product offering; instead they confuse/cheat customers by creating a false perception of choice, while none of it actually exists," said Zomato.

"Most of the brands run by these operators also have terrible reviews and ratings on our platform. Such operators tarnish the reputation of the restaurant industry as a whole, hurting all of us in more ways than one," said the company.

The customers' average delivery rating for these operators goes down as the number of brands from a single kitchen goes up.

Similarly, the percentage of customers who raise complaints goes up as the number of brands from a kitchen increases.

Zomato said it will whitelist the restaurant partners that provide a great experience so that they don't face delays while expanding the scope of their businesses.

"We will also showcase the information of multiple brands linked to a kitchen on the restaurant's page on Zomato, in the spirit of transparency.," it added.
New Delhi, Sep 23 : The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice on a plea against fraudulent religious conversion by intimidation, threatening, deceivingly luring through gifts and monetary benefits, on grounds it offends Articles 14, 21, and 25, and claiming that if such conversions were not checked, Hindus would soon become a minority in India.

The plea, filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, before a bench of Justices M.R. Shah and Krishna Murari, claimed that women and children are the "main target" of foreign-funded missionaries and "conversion mafias", but Centre and state governments have not taken appropriate steps to control religious conversion in spirit of Article 15(3).

The plea said that "freedom of religion enshrined in Article 25 is not granted exclusively in respect of one faith, but includes all religions equally, and an individual may properly enjoy it if he practices his right in a manner commensurate with the freedom of persons practicing the other religions. What is liberty for one, in equal measure, is freedom for the other, and therefore, there can be no such thing as a fundamental right to turn another man into one's own religion".

The petitioner has made the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Law and Justice, the CBI, the NIA, and state governments as respondents in the matter.

After hearing Upadhyay's submissions, the bench issued notice to Centre on the plea and scheduled the matter for hearing in November.

The plea alleged that church planting is a process that results in a new (local) church being established and several unethical predatory conversion strategies are commonly used. It added that one method is material enticement in which humanitarian aid or economic, educational, medical or social assistance is offered on the condition that the person converts.

"Another is the denigration of the person's religion to make a new religion appear superior. A third unethical, predatory method is the promotion of 'bigotry' i.e. knowingly and intentionally promoting religious hatred & violence. Predatory proselytisation tears apart the fabric of the communities where it occurs and has led to the annihilation of cultures," added the plea.

Upadhyay alleged the situation is alarming as many individuals-organisations are carrying mass conversion of socially economically underprivileged citizens, particularly belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes by use of force, allurement and fraudulent means like black magic, superstition, healing etc.

The plea claimed that there are many methods by which the Centre may control forceful-deceitful conversion of underprivileged. It may enact a law with minimum imprisonment of 3 years that may extend up to 10 years and a hefty fine may be imposed, and also empower the NHRC to deal with the affairs of religious groups and keep a check by carrying out an in depth analysis of religious discrimination among them.

The plea also sought a direction to NIA/Central Bureau of Investigation and/or National Human Right Commission (NHRC)/National Commission of Protection of Child Rights to investigate root-cause of death of a 17-year-old, who committed suicide in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur.
Chandigarh, Sep 23 : Alleging that the Supreme Court's judgment regarding the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara (Management) (HSGMC) Act, 2014, was influenced by Rashtriya Sawayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideology, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Harjinder Singh Dhami on Friday alleged that one of the two apex court judges who delivered the judgment was associated with the RSS.

Talking to mediapersons after holding the SGPC's Executive Committee meeting, Dhami alleged: "The Supreme Court judgment given by two judges regarding separate HSGMC Act is purely politically motivated and one judge among them has a direct association with the RSS. Therefore, this judgment is motivated by political interests, in place of being the one of the Supreme Court's." The SGPC president said that he had "evidence" of one judge having an association with RSS and soon, his name would be publicised.

The Executive Committee of SGPC also rejected the Supreme Court's judgment of upholding the validity of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara (Management) (HSGMC) Act, 2014, terming it politically motivated.

The meeting was held at Kalgidhar Niwas, Chandigarh on Friday.

The resolution clearly stated that the Gurdwara Act passed by the state government cannot affect the jurisdiction of SGPC, while The Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925 is in force.

He said the SGPC's Executive Committee had decided to file a review petition on the Supreme Court's judgment on HSGMC Act and a special meeting of all the SGPC members has been called to discuss the future course of action at Amritsar on September 30, 2022.

Dhami said that the right to make any amendment in the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, was only with the Central government and that too was possible only with the approval of SGPC's General House.

He alleged that in the past Congress-led Central government had attempted to interfere in Gurdwara affairs 1959, but it had to accept the Sikh community's demand.

"After the protest by Sikhs, in April 1959, a pact was reached between the then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru and Shiromani Akali Dal president Master Tara Singh, under which, it was made mandatory to take approval of SGPC's General House for making amendment in the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925," said Dhami.

He further said that the Sikh community was saddened that BJP and RSS were also following the footsteps of Congress.
New Delhi, Sep 23 : The body of a man, appearing to be around 40 years old, was found in an underground water tank near Delhi's Connaught Place on Friday, police said.

"A male dead body had been retrieved today from the back side of Emporium market, Connaught Place from an underground water tank of the Fire Department," Deputy Commissioner of Police, New Delhi, Amrutha Guguloth said.

The body, which was "highly decomposed" and seemed to be a man around 40 years of age, has been sent to a hospital for post-mortem examination, Guguloth said, adding that efforts are on to identify the person.
Hyderabad, Sep 23 : Food and film stars are a tasty combination. Actress and film maker Lakshmi Manchu, a passionate foodie herself, turns host for Chef Mantra Season 2, where food choices inevitably shape the lifestyle and personality of the much-loved celebrities.

The show introduces audiences to a rarely explored fun dimension in their lives through their cuisine preferences.

On the show's launch, Lakshmi Manchu commented: "For the Manchu family, food has always been a passion! It's that one element that brings us all together and, like most families, is a focal point for any special occasion. Good food should bring you joy in just the experience of it. I'm so happy to be part of Chef Mantra 2 because it once again gave me a chance to meet my digital fans." Streaming every Friday at 2 p.m. from September 30 on aha Telugu, each week will feature influential Tollywood personalities Malavika Mohan, Ritu Verma, and Vidyu Raman, among others.

Chef Mantra 2, spanning eight episodes, features famous Telugu film stars in the company of their friends and family, where they take a trip down memory lane and discuss the memories associated with their comfort food.
London, Sep 23 : UK Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has unveiled the biggest package of tax cuts in 50 years, as he hailed a "new era" for the UK economy, media reports said.

Income tax and stamp duty on home purchases will be cut, while planned rises in business taxes have been scrapped, BBC reported.

Kwarteng said a major change of direction was needed to kick start economic growth.

But the Labour party said it would not solve the cost-of-living crisis and was a "plan to reward the already wealthy".

It came at a time when the Bank of England is warning that the UK may already be in recession.

The pound sank to a fresh 37-year low as the chancellor made his statement, BBC reported.

In a departure from Boris Johnson's economic policies, Kwarteng has scrapped plans to push up taxes to pay for public services, with the aim of boosting economic growth.

In a Commons statement, being dubbed a mini-budget, he said high tax rates "damage Britain's competitiveness", reducing the incentive to work and for businesses to invest.

He also unveiled a cut to the top rate of income tax from 45 per cent to 40 per cent, meaning the UK will have a single higher rate from April, BBC reported.

Facing accusations of a "class war" mini-budget that rewarded the rich more than those on lower incomes, Kwarteng said his efforts to boost growth and energise the economy included helping all households after he brought forward a planned 1p cut in the basic rate of income tax from 2024 to next year, The Guardian reported.
New Delhi, Sep 23 : A committee has been constituted for redressal of complaints regarding admission of students in colleges affiliated to the Delhi University, officials said on Friday.

The admission process for the under-graduate as well as the post-graduate courses in the Delhi University would be starting from October.

Keeping this in mind, the Admission Committee of the student organisation CYSS has been formed in which senior professors and students of the Delhi University have been included.

Chandramani Dev, president of student organisation CYSS, said that the students can send complaints regarding admission related problems through WhatsApp, and also raise them over telephone.

Several phone numbers have been published on which admission related issues and problems can be discussed.

Some of the numbers that have been listed are that of Prof Hansraj Suman -- 9717114595; Prof Sangeeta Mittal -- 9717586587; Sonu Chaudhary -- 9905052529; Dhruv Gehlot -- 8076378293; Ravi Pandey -- 93195 49110; Sandeep Yadav --7982941393 etc.

The students can also share and mention their problems on e-mail.

Besides, the students can also raise their concerns on a WhatsApp number -- 8588833485.

Hansraj Suman, president of Delhi Teachers Association has said that the students should complete their admission formalities from home.

"By staying at home, the students can fill the admission form... in case there is any problem, then they can get information on the given phone numbers or through WhatsApp," he said.

"If the students face any problem related to to any certificate or caste certificate, or if any kind of error happens during admission, they should first contact the college and if their problem is not resolved then they can contact on the given numbers," he added.

The professors who have been included in this special committee have been in the Delhi University's Central Admission Committee, Grievance Committee, SC, ST Admission Committee, SC, ST Cell Admission Committee, Admission Grievance Committee etc. for the last three decades.
New Delhi, Sep 23 : Senior advocate and Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Vikas Singh on Friday minced no words in criticising the collegium system, while emphasizing that every high court in the country should have a reasonable number of women judges. Chief Justice of India U U Lalit, who was sharing the dais with him, retorted that the collegium always picks up the best of the lot.

Singh, while speaking at the farewell of apex court judge Justice Indira Banerjee, said: "In the retirement of justice Indira Banerjee, we are missing a very fine judge. When she came, we became three lady judges. There was a time when we were four lady judges also, and now, again we will go back to three lady judges." "I beseech the Chief Justice of India to not only fill up at least two or three vacancies to the apex court, at least amongst the recent vacancies by lady lawyers, but also ensure every high court in the country has a reasonable number of lady judges." Singh also said that the Patna High Court today has zero lady judges, and "we have so many good lawyers practicing in our court, who are willing to go there and they do not have any lady lawyers good enough to be elevated".

"But, unfortunately because of this system we are following today; collegium system is not interested in getting good people and the best people, so these elevations are not happening," he added.

The Chief Justice, speaking at the farewell function organised by the SCBA, began his speech by responding to Singh's remarks on the collegium system with a smile.

"At the outset I must say that the collegium always picks up the best of the lot," he said.

Justice Banerjee said: "I am very happy to retire since I will be free after 20 and half years. When I had time, I had no money and when I earned, I had no time. Now is the time when I will have time and money since I will get my pension." She added that one of her predecessors, Justice L.N. Rao, had said that it would be better if tenure in the Supreme Court is longer as judges give their best in a year or two and, when they start performing, they have to say bye, bye!
Ludhiana, Sep 23 : Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday said the state is fully ready to adopt crop diversification but the Centre must provide an assured mechanism to give remunerative prices for these crops.

"The Centre must take this step for ensuring that farmers of the state shift from water-guzzling crops to less-water consuming crops," he said while addressing a gathering after inaugurating the Kisan Mela at Punjab Agriculture University here.

The Chief Minister said instead of paddy, the farmer of the state is ready to sow sunflower, maize, and pulses but for that they must get adequate and assured price. He said this will help checking the depleting water table in the state, on one hand, and making agriculture a profitable venture on the other.

He said this is the need of hour to avert water crisis in the state.

Mann said the farmers are really worried about the depleting water table and pollution of environment due to paddy straw burning. However, he said they are not able to come out of rut of the wheat-paddy cycle as they don't want to lose assured price mechanism associated with it.

He said Punjab is blessed with fertile land where anything can germinate but efforts must be made to save this fertile land and its water.

Recalling the immense contribution of Punjab in making country self-reliant in foodgrain production, the Chief Minister said the hard working and resilient farmers of the state had provided food security to country in testing times.

He said the Union government imports pulses worth Rs 120 billion annually whereas it is not ready to provide the minimum support price (MSP) to farmers of the state who are ready to cultivate them.

He said in coming days, an important decision will be taken to get rid of the menace of paddy straw burning. Mann said it was duty of Union government to find a solution for it as farmers produce rice for the country.

The Chief Minister also asked PAU to intensify research and bring a new revolution in agriculture through technical interventions.

He said to promote dairy the government is promoting Verka, which is renowned globally, to supplement income of farmers.

Mann also said the thrust is also being laid on proper marketing of Pathankot's litchi and kinnow of Abohar.
Hyderabad, Sep 23 : Telangana State Waqf Board is one of the richest Muslim endowment bodies in India with property worth at least Rs 5 lakh crore, but its riches are on mere paper as about 75 per cent of its land is under encroachment.

Decades of corruption, mismanagement and irregularities in the Waqf Board and the indifference of successive governments have made the body a silent spectator to the destruction and encroachment of its prime properties in Hyderabad and other parts of the state.

The Muslim endowment body has no records of many properties which are under encroachment and it is toothless to protect whatever it has or to increase its revenues through rent.

While Hyderabad and its surroundings have seen tremendous economic activities over the last three decades, the Waqf Board lost several prime properties one after the other. In some cases, even the government was found to be encroaching on Waqf lands.

There are 33,929 Waqf institutions in the state with a total landed property spread over 77,538 acres. However, over three quarters of endowed land (57,428 acres) is under encroachment.

It is often said that given the massive properties owned by the Waqf Board, it can easily take care of the destitute and meet the educational needs of the Muslim community.

However, such is the state of affairs that the Board depends on the government for funds to pay salaries to its staff and to meet other expenses.

The Board actually has control over 20,110 acres, but hardly earns annual revenue of Rs 5 crore.

Many tenants of Waqf properties either don't pay rent at all, or pay rents which were fixed decades ago.

The case of Madina Building in a prime commercial area in Hyderabad is a classic example. There are 500-odd shops in the building, which was originally constructed to help the poor in the holy city of Madina in Saudi Arabia. This was before the oil boom in the Gulf.

The Waqf Board earns only a few lakh rupees as rent from the building while it is estimated that at the current rental value, it should get more than Rs 6 crore. The accumulated dues even at the old rates are reported to be about Rs 30 crore.

With several cases pending in various courts, the Waqf Boad is not able to either evict the defaulters or enhance the rent to mop up its revenues.

Protection of Waqf properties has been a major demand of the Muslim community for decades. Muslim leaders say governments in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh and after the formation of Telangana assured to protect Waqf properties, but they never demonstrated their sincerity by taking strong measures.

The Waqf Board is helpless to rampant encroachments of large chunks of its lands by private individuals, companies or even government-run institutions.

In most of the cases, the Board has no records to prove that the encroached properties belong to the Waqf Board.

Last year, the Board informed Telangana High Court that it lost the records of 2,186 Waqf properties which were encroached.

After the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, records pertaining to many Waqf properties also went missing.

What is shocking is that a section of employees allegedly colluded with the encroachers. Instead of working to remove encroachments, they are helping the encroachers by leaking information about complaints against them.

Like the previous governments in united Andhra Pradesh, the TRS government in Telangana also ordered a probe into irregularities in Wakf Board but nothing came out of it.

In 2017, the government sealed the Waqf Board's record on the ground that it is essential to protect the records. However, many feel the move is causing more damage as the Board no longer has access to records to fight the ongoing court cases.

Some see it as a conspiracy to destroy the records by exposing them to termites. After a sudden move to seal the record room, authorities have not taken up cleaning or antifungal operations to protect the records.

In October last year, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had ordered a CID inquiry into the alleged encroachment of Wakf properties across the state, but hardly any progress has been made in this regard.

He had made the announcement in the Assembly while responding to the demand of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi. He had urged the government to order either a judicial inquiry by a retired high court judge or a CBI inquiry or at least a CID inquiry.

The government had announced that it uploaded on Dharani portal the details of all land parcels owned by Waqf Board. It said those lands were kept under the prohibited list on Dharani portal. No one can buy or sell those properties. However, a Board member said this has still not been done.

According to Akbaruddin Owaisi, about 82 per cent of Waqf lands in Hyderabad were grabbed by encroachers.

In Hyderabad, the Waqf Board had landed property of 1,785.17 acres but 1,469.28 acres are under encroachment. The city has 2,706 Waqf institutions and the total worth of property is estimated to be Rs 50,000 crore.
Noida, Sep 23 : The Noida Authority has sought help from the Central government for the Chilla elevated road project. This road will be 5.96 km long.

The Authority has started preparing a Detailed Project Report which will be sent to the Central government.

Noida Authority is expecting help from the Central government through its PM Gati Shakti Yojana with respect to funds, after which, the works for the elevated road will start. Due to frequent interruptions in the project, its cost has increased from Rs 605 crore to Rs 1,076 crore.

The foundation stone of Chilla elevated road was laid afresh on January 25, 2019.

Noida Authority had a deal with UP Public Works Department to build it. In the contract, both the sides had to bear equal cost of the construction. Both had assigned the construction work for this to Uttar Pradesh Rajya Setu Nigam Limited. The cost of construction of Chilla elevated road was fixed at a little over Rs 605 crore. About Rs 73 crore was also released. But after 2 years, funds from Uttar Pradesh Public Works Department did not come in. Due to this, works were shelved.

In order to eliminate traffic congestion from Akshardham to Mahamaya flyover, the Chilla elevated road was to be constructed from Chilla Regulator in Delhi to the Mahamaya flyover in Noida.

This is a decade-old initiation but after the BJP came to power in the state, its foundation stone was laid again and work went on for two years before coming to a screeching halt due to absence of funds.

But as Noida Authority has approached the Central government, it is expected that the project will soon see the light of the day.
Kolkata, Sep 23 : Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday directed the BJP leadership in West Bengal to concentrate on strengthening its booth-level organisations in the state.

He also cautioned that in absence of strong grassroots-level organisational presence, the party will not be able to take advantage with the multiple issues of corruption that the Mamata Banerjee-led state government and the ruling Trinamool Congress are saddled with currently.

Pradhan arrived in Kolkata on Friday morning and in the afternoon, he had a meeting with the top BJP leaders from West Bengal.

In the meeting, Pradhan advised the state unit of BJP to equally focus on creating public campaigns and movements against corruption at the grassroots level in West Bengal besides bigger issues of scam like that of the teachers' recruitment, cattle and coal smuggling.

A state committee member of the BJP said that the Union Education Minister expressed dissatisfaction over the inactive booth-level committees in the state.

"He expressed concern on why the party was unable to ensure the presence of its agents in many booths in the state during the last few elections despite the existence of booth committees. The Union minister's message was clear that without strong booth-level presence, the party will not benefit out of the issues of corruption and the probes by central agency sleuths in the matter," the state committee member said.

He assured the state BJP unit of coming to the state again after the forthcoming festive season.

Earlier, after arriving in Kolkata on Friday morning, Pradhan launched a scathing attack on the state government over the multi- crore teachers' recruitment scam.

"It is unfortunate that even a scam of such a massive scale in teachers' recruitment involving crores of rupees failed to bring the state government out of its slumber. Top leaders and ministers are in judicial custody now. In August this year, I wrote to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to take action on the matter. I am yet to get a reply," Pradhan said.

Reacting to his comments, Trinamool Congress' state general secretary and the party spokesman, Kunal Ghosh said that Pradhan was talking more like a BJP leader than the Union education minister.

"Why is he silent on the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh. Why is he silent about retrenchment of over 10,000 teachers in the neighbouring Tripura?" Ghosh questioned.
Kolkata, Sep 23 : Trinamool Congress legislator and former president of West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE), Manik Bhattacharya, on Friday approached the Supreme Court challenging an order of the Calcutta High Court upholding an earlier order passed by the same court for a CBI probe into the primary teachers' recruitment scam in the state.

Bhattacharya also challenged the Calcutta High Court's order for his removal from the chair of WBBPE president.

On September 2, a division bench of the high court had upheld a June 16 order of the same court calling for a CBI probe into the recruitment scam and removal of Bhattacharya from the chair of WBBPE president.

On Friday, Bhattacharya approached the apex court challenging the September 2 order.

It is learnt that the Supreme Court has accepted his petition and scheduled it for hearing on September 27.

Recently, the CBI had submitted a report to a special court of the agency on the progress made in its investigation into the multi- crore recruitment irregularities in the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).

In the report, the CBI sleuths pointed out how former state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee ignored several complaints against Manik Bhattacharya regarding the latter's involvement in 'rampant corruption' in the primary teacher's recruitment process.

The CBI counsel had referred to an SMS that came on Chatterjee's mobile phone, complaining about Bhattacharya indulging in malpractices.

However, the CBI pointed out, instead of acting on that complaint, Chatterjee had forwarded the message to Bhattacharya.

Chatterjee, the prime accused in the WBSSC recruitment scam, is currently in judicial custody and will be presented before the court on October 5.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is conducting a parallel probe into the matter, has already questioned Bhattacharya a couple of times.

Earlier, a lookout notice was issued against Bhattacharya for preventing him from leaving the country.
Jaipur, Sep 23 : Indian Heritage Hotels Association (IHHA) is considered a role model for other states owing to its work in conservation and restoration of forts and havelis in Rajasthan.

On similar lines, a Fort Federation has also been formed in Maharashtra to preserve the heritage and history of the western state.

The federation has its own funds and seeks the involvement of IHHA as a stakeholder in restoring and conserving the historic forts of Maharashtra.

This was stated by Chhatrapati Sambhaji Raje, a descendant of Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj, on Day 2 of IHHA's ninth annual convention where he was the guest of honour.

The convention was organised at the Alila Fort in Bishangarh on the theme 'Reincarnation of IHHA to Conserve and Protect Indian Heritage'.

Sambhaji Raje said that a big advantage Rajasthan has over Maharashtra is that most of the forts here are privately owned. Thus, it makes it is easier to get the restoration works done at such sites.

Sambhaji Raje has played a pivotal role in restoring Shivaji Maharaj's capital fort and is also working towards conservation of more such forts in Maharashtra.

Several other interesting panel discussions, interactive sessions and presentations were held throughout Friday, the concluding day of the convention.

Investment opportunities and incentives for heritage hoteliers in the states of Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh were also discussed.

On behalf of Uttarakhand government, Ravi Shankar (IAS), highlighted the key initiatives taken in the state to promote tourism. These include railway connectivity, helicopter connectivity, air ambulance etc. He also threw light on the investment opportunities in terms of development of five-star hotels, pilgrimage circuits etc.

Similarly, Suresh Jharya, Joint Director, Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board, shared the investment opportunities in Madhya Pradesh, providing detailed insights into the state's tourism policy.
Patna, Sep 23 : Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav dismissed Union Home Minister Amit Shah's rally in the state's Purnea on Friday as "nothing but a comedy circus".

"While Amit Shah was addressing the rally, I do not like to describe him. I am not going into it but I must say that it looks like a comedy circus was going on in Purnea," he said.

Tejashwi Yadav said that he had tweeted the piece of speech of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, delivered in Purnea in 2014, promising a special package, special status, and special attention for Bihar.

"What happened to it with 8 years gone by. Now, they do not talk about the special status of Bihar. I have already said that Amit Shah is coming to Bihar but will not say anything on special package or status and it became true in the rally as Amit Shah avoided this issue from the public platform," he said.

"I also said that Amit Shah will claim 'Jungle Raj' of Bihar. Amit Shah is living in Delhi and the crime graph of Delhi is higher than Bihar. This is not my data but the NCRB data reveals that Delhi has a higher crime rate than Bihar. On the point on Bihar Jungle Raj, Amit Shah is fooling the people of Bihar. The people of Bihar are alert and smart enough to differentiate what is wrong and what is right," he added.

Tejashwi Yadav also said that Amit Shah claimed when his government comes to Bihar, he will make it the number one state, but "BJP was part of the NDA government in Bihar for 15 years, why his party had not made Bihar a number one state".
Chennai, Sep 23 : Vadivelu, a 48-year-old man and his family were in for a pleasant surprise after his 72-year-old mother, Chandra, walked to his home three days after the family thought that she was 'dead' and gone.

Chandra, who often visits temples, had went to a temple at Hanumanthapuram, 22 km from her residence in Ambedkar Nagar, Chennai, on Monday.

She had decided to visit more temples located at some distance, and did not communicate with her home.

As she did not return, Vadivelu lodged a complaint with the Guduvanchery police station that his mother was missing.

Next day, on Tuesday evening, he received a call from the police station that an old woman's body was found on the railway track after being hit by a suburban train.

The police informed him that the body was kept at Chrompet Government hospital and asked him whether it was his mother's body.

Vadivelu noticed that the sari was similar to the one that was worn by his mother, and on that basis, he identified the body as that of his mother.

The relatives received the body and they buried it after final rites.

To the entire family's and relatives' surprise, Chandra walked into the home on Thursday morning.

She was also in for a shock as the roads leading to her home were pasted with her photos, and an obituary.

The body received from the hospital was later exhumed by the police and revenue officials and sent to the Chrompet general hospital.
New Delhi, Sep 23 : Delhi Police have arrested three persons for trying to kill a man and then robbing a Zomato food delivery boy in south Delhi. Those arrested have been identified as Ankit, Kshitj and Vinod.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), Chandan Chowdhary, said the incident took place on the intervening night of September 21-22 when the three accused called the victim, Karan, a resident of Sangam Vihar, to come to a spot at around 1 am.

"When Karan reached there, Ankit fired at him after which he collapsed. While escaping from the crime spot, the trio robbed a motorcycle and a mobile phone from a Zomato delivery boy," the DCP said.

The police registered two different FIRs under the relevant sections of law, including Arms Act, and took up probe.

During investigation, CCTV footage from the crime spot was examined, which helped the police identify and apprehend the accused persons.

During interrogation, the accused persons disclosed that they had shot at Karan owing to an old enmity.

The police have recovered the stolen mobile phone and motorcycle from the accused persons.
Amaravati, Sep 23 : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday launched a direct attack on Leader of Opposition N. Chandrababu Naidu's bastion Kuppam with a public meeting.

It was Jagan Mohan Reddy's first public meeting in Kuppam, the Assembly constituency in Chittoor district held by Naidu since 1989.

Aiming to win all 175 Assembly seats in the 2024 elections, Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) has already started working on its plans to wrest Kuppam from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo and former Chief Minister.

The YSRCP is upbeat after its series of victories in Kuppam in gram panchayat, ZPTC and MPTC elections and municipal polls and is now aiming to wrest the seat represented by Naidu for seven consecutive terms.

Last year, the YSRCP bagged Kuppam Municipality along with four ZPTCs and 62 out of 65 MPTCs, and 75 out of 89 gram panchayats in the constituency.

The Chief Minister told Kuppam people that if they elect Member of Legislative Council Bharath in the next elections, he would make him a minister. He noted that the Bharath has been part of the implementation of the schemes in the constituency.

At the massive public meeting, he slammed Chandrababu Naidu over failing to solve the problems of the constituency.

"Your MLA (Chandrababu Naidu) is local to Hyderabad and non-local to Kuppam. He was a Kuppam MLA for 33 years in his 45-year political career. Even though he was CM for 14 years, Chandrababu could not solve the drought in Kuppam," he said.

Listing out the development done in Kuppam, the Chief Minister said water came to Kuppam canal, municipality status to Kuppam, and a revenue division was given by his government while Chandrababu Naidu, who was Chief Minister for 14 years before could not take up any development activity, and is known for his "backstabbing" politics.

From Rs 6.5 crore Reddipalli Ramkuppam power substation to Railway under bridge, to integrated office complex to sanctioning of Rs 20 crores to Dravida University all were done by this government, he said.

Jagan Mohan Reddy announced that the YSR Pension Kanuka amount would be hiked to Rs 2,750 from Rs 2,500 effective from January 2023. He reiterated that it will reach the promised figure of Rs 3,000 soon.

At the public meeting, he provided financial assistance to eligible women to create livelihood opportunities and deposited of Rs 4,949.44 crore into the bank accounts of 26,39,703 beneficiaries across the State under YSR Cheyutha scheme.

The government has been at the forefront of empowering the women and making them self-reliant and providing financial assistance to beneficiaries belonging to SC, ST, BC, and minorities in the age group of 45 to 60 years, he said.

"Total financial assistance provided till date by our government under YSR Cheyutha is Rs 14,110.62 crore, including the present financial assistance of Rs 4,949.44 crore. In the past 3 years each individual beneficiary received total assistance of Rs 56,250 at the rate of Rs 18,750 per annum on a regular basis," he said.

He also highlighted that Rs 19,617 crore were disbursed under Amma Vodi to 44.50 lakh beneficiaries by the present government. Under YSR Asara Rs 12,758 crore were given to 78.74 lakh beneficiaries while Rs 3,615 crore were given under the YSR Zero Interest scheme. In all, the government has given Rs 3.12 lakh crore under DBT and non-DBT of which Rs 2.39 lakh crore was given only to women.
Islamabad, Sep 23 : The United Nations has urged international creditors to consider suspending debt repayment for Pakistan.

The country can prioritise disaster response over debt repayment, the Financial Times cited a UN policy memo as saying, Samaa TV reported.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) is expected to share the memorandum with the Pakistan government this week.

The UN, in its memo, has said that Pakistan should suspend international debt repayments and restructure loans with creditors after recent floods added to the country's financial crisis, Samaa TV reported.

During his visit to Pakistan earlier this month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had said that Pakistan has suffered unprecedented flood destruction and its losses stood at $30 billion and counting.

Both the Pakistan government and Guterres have blamed climate change for the 'monsoon on steroids' that triggered monster floods in the country.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV aired on Friday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also made an urgent appeal for debt relief from rich nations as catastrophic floods exacerbated by climate change displaced millions in the country.

Sharif has made an urgent appeal for relief in the repayment of debts from rich nations, reminding them that the country is bearing the brunt of environmental damage caused by them to cater to their greed, Geo News reported.

As per Sharif, there is a "yawning gap" between what Pakistan is asking for and what is available, warning that the nation is facing the imminent threat of epidemics and other dangers.

"God forbid this happens, all hell will [break loose]," he said.

In his conversation with Bloomberg TV, Sharif said that Pakistan recently signed a deal with IMF under "very tough" conditions, including taxes on petroleum and electricity.
Chennai, Sep 23 : The leadership of Tamil Nadu's ruling DMK is holding talks with candidates who have submitted their nomination papers for the 19 district Secretaries' posts in the state.

The DMK has 72 party districts in the state's 38 districts.

Nominations for the posts of district Secretaries and other district council members commenced on Thursday and will end on Sunday.

While there are possibilities of a compromise between the leaders in 10 party districts, elections are likely to take place in Tenkasi South, Tirunelveli East, Theni North, Ramanathapuram, and Sivaganga districts with a keen fight for the post.

The district Secretary's post in the DMK is very powerful and all the party legislators including ministers have to report before them on the issues pertaining to the respective districts.

This will lead to fierce fights between incumbent candidates and fresh faces. However, with the DMK youth wing leader, Udayanidhi Stalin having taken more interest in organisational affairs, a coterie has developed around him and is trying to call the shots for the district Secretary level elections in Tamil Nadu.

In many districts, incumbent district secretaries are fighting for the post but sources in the DMK told IANS that those who owe complete allegiance to the first family of the party will get the nod.

With Sunday being the last day for submitting the nominations, hectic parleys are taking place with several state leaders trying agree on unanimous candidates in each district.
New Delhi, Sep 23 : The Centre on Friday told the Supreme Court that it is working on the court's suggestion to assist Ukraine-returned medical students.

Counsel, representing the Centre, submitted before a bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia that the authorities concerned have written to the Secretaries of Ministries of External Affairs and Health, and they are working on the court's suggestion.

On September 16, the top court suggested that the Central government could develop a web portal providing details of foreign universities for the Ukraine-returned students to complete their studies, as per the government's academic mobility programme.

In connection with the development of a web portal, the counsel submitted that it has been taken up with utmost priority. Counsel, representing the students, submitted that final-year medical students can be permitted to take online education. Another counsel, representing some students, contended that around 13,000 medical students are affected and several states have written to the Centre on the issue.

The top court replied that it is not saying anything at the moment and it will pass a comprehensive order. After hearing arguments, the top court has scheduled the matter for further hearing on October 11.

In the last hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had said that he is not taking an adversarial stand and sought time to get instructions from the authorities concerned regarding the suggestions made by the top court.

He submitted that the government has taken several measures: students who could not do their clinical training have been permitted to complete it here and it has been ensured that they will get their degrees from Ukraine, and the other is 'academic mobility programme'.

The bench noted that the government has a problem in admitting 20,000 students in Indian colleges and added that students will have to go to foreign countries to avail alternate 'academic mobility programme', and the government must coordinate with them, extend all help.

The Centre has told the Supreme Court that medical students, who returned from Ukraine cannot be accommodated in the Indian universities in the absence of provision under National Medical Commission (NMC) Act, 2019, and if any such relaxation is given, then it will seriously hamper the standards of medical education in the country.

Mehta said NMC allowed academic mobility in foreign universities, whereby those students can complete their courses from other foreign universities and also informed the court that an officer has been appointed to coordinate with students to find out the foreign universities which are compatible.

The top court had said one officer cannot handle 20,000 students and the government can develop a web portal for students to access information.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
New Delhi, Sep 23 : The Special Cell of Delhi Police has arrested a member of an inter-state gang of robbers, who was evading arrest for the past two-and-a-half years in an armed robbery case, an official said on Friday.

The accused, identified as Mashroof alias Mashroor, had a long history of committing crime for more than 11 years. He was previously involved in five criminal cases, including armed robbery in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), Pramod Kushwah, said, "On September 19, a specific information was received that Mashroof will be in the Sarai Kale Khan area at about 7 pm to meet one of his associates for planning a robbery in Delhi," the DCP said.

Acting on the tip-off, a trap was laid around the IGL pump in Sarai Kale Khan from where the accused was nabbed. During his search, one semi-automatic pistol and four live cartridges were recovered from his possession.

Kushwah said that in 2011, Mashroof along with his associates had committed an armed robbery of Rs 2.5 lakh in Hasanpur, Uttar Pradseh.

He was arrested in this case in 2011 and was booked under the Gangster Act. He was released on bail after one year.

"Thereafter, he along with his associates robbed Rs 10 lakh from a collection agent at gunpoint in Delhi's Seelampur in February 2015 before robbing Rs 9.5 lakh from a man in New Usmanpur in March.

"He was arrested the same year and was released on bail after four years in 2019. However, he jumped the bail period and was absconding since then," the officer said.
Washington, Sep 23 : Foreign ministers of Quad countries -- India, Australia, Japan and the US -- have agreed to meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting every year, taking another major step towards further institutionalising the platform focused on keeping the Indo-Pacific free and open from Chinese influence.

The four countries also signed a humanitarian and disaster relief agreement for the region, which was discussed and agreed upon at the Tokyo summit of the Quad.

The Quad, which started out in 2004 as the Australia-India-Japan-US Tsunami Core Group and later turned into the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, has witnessed intense engagement in recent years after it was resurrected in 2017 by the Donald Trump administration from its 2008 collapse.

President Joe Biden took it to the summit level with a virtual meeting in 2021, which was quickly followed by one in-person meeting. Their fourth summit -- and second in-person meet -- took place in Tokyo in May this year.

Though the leaders have had two in-person summits in the two years since their first in 2021, there has been no decision for them to meet every year. But Quad foreign ministers will meet every year now, as they announced at their meeting on Friday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York.

"I think it's a great idea that we meet regularly on the sidelines of UNGA and in our respective countries as well," said External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in remarks by the four officials ahead of the signing of the humanitarian and disaster relief agreement.

Jaishankar then emphasised the importance of the Friday meeting, saying that it has come at a time the world is passing through "a very difficult period" and mentioned the "global repercussions" of the Ukraine conflict and "climate events and emergencies".

"Given the turbulent times, I think it's particularly important that we go further in the constructive agenda that we have set for ourselves, that we work together on the delivery of public goods, that our efforts and particularly what we are signing today, the HDR (humanitarian and disaster relief) partnership, which we discussed and finalised in Tokyo is I think extremely timely," he concluded.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who called and hosted the meet, said, "We're looking forward to continuing to explore the many ways that the Quad enables us to deepen our cooperation. Our leaders have set out a very significant agenda for us when they met. We are following through on a lot of that work." Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong said, "We do know our region is being reshaped, economically and strategically. And we are here because we want to work with the countries represented before you to better navigate this period of change together. So this is the heart of the Quad to create the region we all aspire for and it's a great honour and privilege to be here with my counterparts today." Japan's Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said, "Today the world is witnessing direct attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force. The free and open international order based on the rule of law is under threat." He did not name China, but the reference barely concealed who he had meant.

"So it's extremely significant for us to demonstrate together to the international community our firm commitment to the principles of the UN charter and free and open Indo-Pacific order," he added.
New Delhi, Sep 23 : In a significant milestone, India has achieved landmark achievement in further reduction of child mortality rates.

As per the Sample Registration System (SRS) Statistical Report 2020 released by Registrar General of India (RGI), the country has been witnessing a progressive reduction in IMR, U5MR and NMR since 2014 towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets by 2030.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has congratulated the nation on this achievement and thanked all health workers, caregivers and community members for relentlessly working towards reducing child mortality.

"There has been sustained decline since 2014, as revealed by SRS 2020. India is poised to meet 2030 SDG targets of child mortality under leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with focused interventions, strong Centre-State partnership and dedication of all health workers," he stated.

Under 5 Mortality Rate (U5MR) for the country has shown significant decline of 3 points (Annual Decline Rate: 8.6 per cent) from 2019 (32 per 1,000 live births in 2020 against 35 per 1,000 live births in 2019). It varies from 36 in rural areas to 21 in urban areas.

U5MR for Female is higher (33) than male (31). There has been a decline of 4 points in male U5MR and 3 points in female U5MR during the corresponding period.

The highest decline of U5MR has been observed in the state of Uttar Pradesh (5 points) and Karnataka (5 points).

The Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) has also registered 2-point decline to 28 per 1,000 live births in 2020 from 30 per 1,000 live births in 2019 (Annual Decline Rate: 6.7 per cent). The Rural-Urban difference has narrowed to 12 points (Urban 19, Rural 31).

The Neonatal Mortality Rate has also declined by 2 points from 22 per 1,000 live births in 2019 to 20 per 1,000 live births in 2020 (Annual Decline Rate: 9.1 per cent). It ranges from 12 in urban areas to 23 in rural areas.
New Delhi, Sep 23 : The Supreme Court was informed on Friday over 11,000 flats will be delivered in 2 to 3 months to Amrapali home buyers', out of which 5,428 flats will be handed over in October.

The court receiver, senior advocate R Venkataramani submitted that 5428 flats, which have been completed by NBCC, will be handed over to home buyers, along with water and electricity connections, next month in the festive season.

The bench of Chief Justice U.U. Lalit and Justice Bela M. Trivedi said that giving possession of over 11,000 flats out of 38,000 flats is an important development.

The court receiver also said that for 6430 complete flats, there are few issues with electricity and water connections, and after these are sorted out, the flats can be handed over to home buyers within two to three months.

The bench emphasised that flats should be handed over to the home buyers only after full payment is received. Counsel, representing the homebuyers, submitted that there are 1,970 defaulters, who have not cleared their dues despite notices, and their flats should be auctioned. He added that funds could be generated after selling 5,229 unsold flats and 1,164 benami flats.

The Chief Justice said he has limited time and would like to deal with three to four major issues of Amrapali, to ensure the completion of unfinished projects.

Venkataramani submitted that Rs 3,870.38 crore figure has been given by forensic auditors, the amount to be realised from the home buyers, but it has been found that amount receivable is Rs 3,014 crore and out of this Rs 1,275 crore received from 22,701 home buyers. The top court has scheduled the hearing on the matter in October.

Meanwhile, the top court also extended the bail of Amrapali Group's ex-CMD Anil Sharma on medical grounds. Sharma's counsel informed the bench that surgery needs to be conducted on his client in October. Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre, did not oppose Sharma's application for bail.

The apex court also extended the relief granted to Shiv Priya, former Amrapali director, till October 11. Priya has been out on bail for treatment of his daughter.
Bhopal, Sep 23 : Congress' Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh on Friday said he is not in the race for the post of the party president.

"I have already said... and I am reiterating that I am not interested in becoming the party's national president," the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister told reporters.

The senior Congress leader made the remarks while interacting with the mediapersons during his visit to Jabalpur.

Singh's statement has come a day after he visited the party headquarters in Delhi.

He had also participated in "Bharat Jodo Yatra" with former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and other party leaders in the southern part of the country.

On Friday, he joined a tribute gathering for "Shankaracharya" - Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, who breathed last at his Ashram in Madhya Pradesh's Narsinghpur district on September 11. Hundreds of seers from different religious places came to attend "tribute sabha".

On his was on his way to Narsinghpur, he interacted with reporters and responded to queries about Congress' party presidential elections and contestants in the race for the highest post in the party.

Meanwhile, Digvijaya Singh claimed that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's visit to a madrasa in Delhi was the result of "Bharat Jodo Yatra".

He also thanked Bhagwat for his visit to the madrasa and for meeting a Muslim religious leader.

"It's not been two weeks that Bharat Jodo Yatra has been started by the Congress, and the results started coming.... RSS chief started visiting madrasa. I think he may have got this inspiration from the Bharat Jodo Yatra. I express my gratitude to Mohan Bhagwat for his visit to the madrasa."
London, Sep 23 : World No 2 Casper Ruud ensured Team Europe made a winning start at the Laver Cup on Friday, when he edged Team World's Jack Sock 6-4, 5-7, 10-7 in the first match of the three-day event, here.

The Norwegian, who won his only clash at the tournament last year, quickly found his range on the hard courts.

The 23-year-old struck his groundstrokes with consistency during the first set as he outlasted the American in the longer exchanges. He then recovered from a dip in the late stages of the second set, holding his nerve in the Match Tie-break to triumph after one hour and 49 minutes in their first ATP Head to Head meeting.

The World No 2 has now won eight of his past nine matches after advancing to his second Grand Slam final at the US Open earlier this month.

Captain Bjorn Borg is aiming to guide Team Europe to its fifth consecutive Laver Cup title against Team World's John McEnroe side this week in the UK capital.

Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas will look to extend Team Europe's lead when he faces Argentine Diego Schwartzman in the second match of the day session.

Later, Roger Federer will play his final tour-level match when he takes to court with Spaniard Rafael Nadal in doubles. The Swiss-Spaniard tandem will face Team World's Sock and Frances Tiafoe following the conclusion of Andy Murray's match against Alex de Minaur.
Chennai, Sep 23 : The Coimbatore police have tightened security in the entire district after some miscreants hurled petrol bombs on vehicles of BJP and Hindu Munnani leaders here on Friday.

The attacks are alleged to be in retaliation to the arrest of Popular Front of India (PFI) leaders from Tamil Nadu and other parts of the country on Thursday.

The police said that four companies of Tamil Nadu Special Police (TSP) and two companies of Rapid Action Force (RAF) have been deployed after the petrol bomb attacks came to light.

Each company of TSP has 100 policemen, while each RAF company also comprises 100 cops.

An officer of Coimbatore police told IANS that raids are being conducted to arrest the culprits involved in the petrol bomb attacks.

The police have tightened security in and around all the religious places in the city, including temples, mosques and churches, to prevent any flare-up between communities.

The police are also conducting intensive checking at the Coimbatore-Palakkad border check-posts, as the possibility of some miscreants escaping to Kerala after committing crime in Coimbatore cannot be ruled out.

A senior police officer told IANS, "We have deployed nine companies of police to nab the culprits. The law will be strict on anyone who tries to violate it and police will crush all such attempts with an iron fist." On Thursday, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had arrested 11 persons from Tamil Nadu following raids at the premises of Poplar Front of India (PFI). The arrested persons included top PFI leader from Tamil Nadu, A.M. Ismail, who is the national executive committee member of the outfit.

Yassar Arafat, zonal secretary of the Dindigul unit of PFI and Fayaz Ahamad, Cuddalore district secretary of PFI, have also been arrested.
Patna, Sep 23 : JD-U Parliamentary Board President Upendra Kushwaha said that there was "no enthusiasm" among the people who attended the rally of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Bihar's Purnea on Friday.

He claimed that Amit Shah was forced to ask people again and again to clap for his speech and show enthusiasm.

"The people who came into the rally were clapping only after Amit Shah requested them. This clearly indicates that there is no attraction of people towards the BJP. The people of Bihar do not trust the saffron party anymore," he said.

The people of Bihar are smart now, and they are well aware of the lies of BJP, he added.

JD-U spokesperson Abhishek Jha said: "BJP is blaming us for breaching its trust but I want to ask BJP why its alliance partners are leaving it. They have the ideology to backstab its alliance partners. They should not forget the 2015 Vidhan Sabha election of Bihar when PM Narendra Modi had conducted 42 rallies across the state and won only 53 assembly seats. The people of Bihar will teach them lessons in the upcoming elections." RJD spokesperson Mritunjay Tiwari said: "Amit Shah did not talk about the special status of Bihar that people were expecting. They are miffed with the lies of BJP and will teach them a lesson in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The people of Bihar will whitewash the saffron party in Bihar in 2024 and no one would take its name in 2025 Assembly election."
United Nations, Sep 23 : External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Friday met the leaders of a group working for Security Council reform on Friday to reinvigorate their cause.

The 42-member group of developing countries, known as L.69 after the original resolution on Council reforms, met on the theme of "Reinvigorating Multilateralism: A call to Action for Comprehensive Security Council Reform" amid calls at the high-level General Assembly meeting to make the highest UN body more relevant to the contemporary world.

Jaishankar tweeted after the meeting: "The Global South is working together towards this goal", referring to the developing countries that dominate the Southern hemisphere.

He started the day by meeting with Ralph Gonsalves, the President of the Caribbean nation of St Vincent and Grenadines.

The Indian minister tweeted: "Appreciate his enormous wisdom on global developments. Received it in the form of his new book: 'A time of Respair'.

Gonsalves presented him with the book that speaks of the hopes of rebuilding after the Covid pandemic and natural disasters.

The highlight of Jaishankar's morning was the participation at the Quad Foreign Ministers meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Foreign Ministers Penny Wong of Australia and Yoshimasa Hayashi of Japan.

The ministers decided to meet every year on the sidelines of the General Assembly meeting and signed a pact on partnering on humanitarian and disaster relief.

On Thursday, Jaishankar met Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, who formally conveyed to the Security Council a proposal from President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, to create an international panel with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pope Francis to find a solution to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

He tweeted: "Always a pleasure to meet FM @m_ebrard of Mexico. Took positive note of the progress in our bilateral cooperation. Discussed the Ukraine conflict and the need for a cessation of hostilities. India and Mexico are strong partners in the UN Security Council".

He met Hayashi, whose country will take an Asian slot on the Security Council next year after India ends its term this year-end and discussed the work of the Counciil.

Jaishankar tweeted that he had "useful exchange of views on Ukraine and UN reform" with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

He thanked Moldova's Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu for his country's help during "Operation Ganga" to rescue Indians, mostly students, trapped in Ukraine when Russia invaded it, he tweeted.

Popescu tweeted, "Had a positive discussion with my Indian counterpart @DrSJaishankar. We share the ambition to expand cooperation between our countries; boost trade and business links; attract Indian investment and know-how to #Moldova; and encourage closer people-to-people contacts".

Jaishankar also had an impromptu meeting with Paraguay's Foreign Minister Julio Cesar Arriola.

The high-level General Assembly meeting that brings together leaders from most of the 193 members of the UN provides an opportunity for holding various meetings.

Sanjay Verma, External Affairs Ministry's Secretary West, represented India at several of them on Thursday.

At a ministerial meeting of Groups of Friends of Victims of Terrorism, he tweeted that he "called upon the international community to ensure the right to justice for the victims of cross-border terrorist attacks including 26/11 Mumbai attacks".

Verma tweeted that he "reaffirmed India's historic and unwavering commitment to peaceful resolution of the #Palestine question" at the ministerial meeting of the UNRWA, the relief and works organisation for Palestine.

At the 21st Meeting of foreign ministers of Landlocked Developing Countries, he tweeted that he shared India's assistance to those countries in the region and "called for financially responsible, transparent & viable solutions" for them.

At another development-oriented meeting with the Least Developed Countries group, he tweeted that he reaffirmed India's partnership in implementing the Doha Programme of Action adopted this year to mobilise assistance for those countries.

He added that he said unsustainable debt burdens should not be imposed on them.

Some of the meetings could be focused on granular topics.

Verma was also at a meeting of the Global Leaders Group on Antimicrobial Resistance.

He tweeted that he "Emphasised awareness and driving innovation with stewardship, in addition to regulations, in the global action against AMR".

(Arul Louis can be contacted at aru.l@ians.in and followed at @arulouis)

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
New Delhi, Sep 23 : Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul of the Supreme Court said on Friday that while every citizen must be made aware of legal provisions to deal with counterfeiting and smuggling, they should also in turn understand the importance of buying genuine goods.

"In order to create mass awareness about the ill effects of counterfeiting and smuggling, it is necessary to reach out to all sections of the society. India will have to adopt innovative and interactive measures to reach out to its consumers," he asserted.

Addressing the eighth edition of 'MASCRADE 2022', organised by FICCI-CASCADE, Kaul said that it is imperative for all the stakeholders to prepare well to meet the emerging threats and challenges associated with counterfeiting and smuggling in consonance with the changing nature of the illegal activity.

"This is critical at a time when India is making strong progress to become a manufacturing hub for the world, supporting innovation in every sector and focusing on people-centric development models," he added.

Kaul added that smuggling, counterfeiting, tax evasion and illicit trade are impacting legitimate economic activities.

They also deprive the government of revenues for investment in vital public services, dislocate millions of legitimate jobs and cause irreversible damage to the ecosystem and human lives, he added.

Earlier, Bibek Debroy, Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, said that as consumers and citizens, "we ask the government to do various things, but it is actually up to us how we tackle counterfeits and smuggled goods. The broader issue is consumer mindset".

"If the consumer regards a commodity as something where the after-sale service is unimportant, it tends to be much more price sensitive as they don't care about the quality," stated Debroy.

However, he averred that as systems become more organised, the importance of the grey market becomes less and less. He also suggested sensitising consumers using vernacular languages.

Justice Manmohan Sarin, former Lokayukta, NCT of Delhi, and think-tank member, FICCI CASCADE, said that there is enough discretion in the existing laws to carry out the judicial powers for attaining the desired objectives.

FICCI-CASCADE Anti-Counterfeiting and Anti-Smuggling Awards were given to enforcement officers, school children and journalists during the valedictory session.

Sanjeev Tripathi, former Chief of RAW and think-tank member, FICCI CASCADE, also shared his perspective during the valedictory session.

Narendra K. Sabharwal, Chairman, FICCI IP Committee and former Deputy Director General, WIPO and think-tank member, FICCI CASCADE, alluded to various studies, particularly by OECD, that have underscored the enormous impact of counterfeit and pirated products on international trade and noted the figure could be in excess of $460 billion per year.

Sabharwal noted that the counterfeiters have become increasingly sophisticated in subverting the system using artificial intelligence applications to create comparable or even better counterfeits.

"Some estimates point that one out of five products sold on e-commerce sites might be fake," he added.

He also suggested that keeping a watch on the product promotional efforts adopted by counterfeiters and cyber squatters are some measures that can prove effective in tackling online infringement.

The event saw participation from several senior functionaries from leading international organisations, such as World Customs Organization (WCO), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Interpol, United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Organization for Economic Corporation and Development (OECD), US Homeland Security, and Australian Border Force.

During the two-day event, experts from India and abroad made highly-informative presentations and spoke at multiple insightful plenaries, highlighting the significance of empowering consumers to take on the battle against illicit trade by boycotting smuggled and counterfeit goods.
Patna/New Delhi, Sep 23 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah's rally in Purnea on Friday raised the political temperature in Bihar as the ruling Janata Dal-United mounted a fierce counter-attack on his criticism of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the party.

JD-U national President Lalan Singh said that the BJP had backstabbed Nitish Kumar during the 2020 Assembly elections.

"During the 2020 Assembly elections, the workers of JD-U were helping BJP candidates in winning the seat and the workers of BJP were involved in defeating the JD-U candidates. That was the reason why we have a lesser number of seats (43) and your (BJP) seats increased in Bihar. So you have backstabbed Nitish Kumar and he did not backstab you," he said while interacting with media persons in New Delhi.

"(Prime Minister) Narendra Modi, in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha election, had promised 2 crore jobs every year, Rs 15 lakh in every bank account and many other promises. After the formation of the government, you (Shah) had said that it was a Jumla which was often made during elections. So you are the declared Jumlebaz of the country and Nitish Kumar does not need to learn a lesson of morality from you," he said.

"You illegally formed the government in MP and Maharashtra. You have tried to demolish the elected government of Delhi, you are responsible for the uncertainty in Jharkhand and you are talking about morality. You have created a new definition of morality. If any corrupt politician joins the BJP, he/she turns clean and if any politician facing corruption charges or you declare them corrupt and sitting in the opposition camp, you start investigation of the CBI and the ED.

"The Karnataka High Court had said that investigation needed against former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa. He is facing corruption charges, why are you not initiating a CBI investigation against him?. Do you have any answers?" the JD-U leader asked.

Noting that Nitish Kumar was part of the NDA since 1997 "when respected Atal ji (Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee) and respected Advani ji (Deputy Prime Minister) L.K. Advani were leading the BJP and the NDA", he said: "We had no conflict with them for a single minute and continued till 2013. In 2017, we went with you and it was our mistake. We admit our mistakes. Now, we are with Lalu ji (RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav). Lalu ji and Nitish ji are the socialist leaders who emerged from the JP movement, worked with socialist stalwarts like Ram Manohar Lohia ji and Karpoori Thakur ji. So both these leaders are having similar ideologies," he said.

Reacting to Amit Shah's "new leader" jibe, Lalan Singh said that he does not need a certificate from him.

"Before talking to anyone, he should know the history of a leader. As far as I am concerned, I was associated with the Sampoorna Kranti movement of 1974 of Jay Prakash Narayan ji as a student leader. What was his political history? He should tell the people of the country about when he started politics and what was his career? Becoming a Home Minister does not mean he is a big leader of the country," he said.

"In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, there were 50 parties that are the alliance partners of BJP. What is the status now? Is anyone there with it? Everyone left BJP now as they have backstabbed everyone. Not only that, they have also backstabbed the leaders of his own party. His party's national President said in Patna that all regional parties would be destroyed from the country and only the BJP would stay there. At present, only two leaders are running BJP and other leaders have to worship them. No one in the BJP now dares to take the name of respected Atal ji or respected Advani Ji. They knew that if they take the name of those two leaders, they would be thrown out from the party," he said.

He said that Amit Shah is "scared" after Nitish Kumar formed the government with Lalu Prasad and five other parties in Bihar.

"When Nitish ji and Lalu ji came together in 2015, PM Narendra Modi had conducted 43 rallies in Bihar and won only 53 seats. In 2024, the people of Bihar will show him a real trailer and be wiped out from the state. A movement started from Bihar and replicated in the country to make the BJP Mukt nation.

"Amit Shah said that Nitish Kumar is dreaming of the Prime Minister's post. I must reiterate that Nitish Kumar never said that he wanted to become the Prime Minister or he claimed to be the prime ministerial candidate of the opposition parties for the 2024 Lok Sabha election. He only said that he wanted to unite the opposition parties of the country to challenge BJP and throw them out from the Centre," Singh said.
Aizawl, Sep 23 : Mizoram police on Friday asked people to remain cautious against recruitment of Indians by the unauthorised agents along the areas bordering Myanmar.

A senior Mizoram police official said that the people living along the 510-km long unfenced border with Myanmar must remain alert against unofficial recruitment of Indians by the unauthorised agents.

According to an official statement issued by the Mizoram police, it was reported recently that some IT companies engaged in digital scam and unlawful crypto activities, located in the remote eastern border areas of Myanmar, are recruiting Indian workers from different places through their agents on the pretext of potential employment opportunities in the IT sector.

After initial recruitment, the Indian workers are facilitated to enter Myanmar illegally without proper documents, leading to entrapment of Indian workers, the statement said.

It said that, in view of such activities, the general public is hereby cautioned to exercise due diligence and verify the antecedents of the recruiting agents, before taking up any employment abroad.

It is advisable to have all requisite information like job description, company details, location, employment contract etc. duly verified, before accepting any overseas employment, the statement said.
New Delhi, Sep 23 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Friday that it has carried out searches at the premises of Lakhwinder Singh Stone Crushers, and people related with it in Una (Himachal Pradesh), Mohali (Punjab) and Panchkula (Haryana) in connection with illegal mining in Una district.

The ED initiated a money laundering investigation on the basis of an FIR registered in Una in 2021 by the Himachal police against illegal mining at Swan River in the district. During probe, the ED learnt that rampant illegal mining was being carried out in Una district.

The modus operandi adopted by the miscreants included excavation of sand and gravel beyond leased mining area, and overshooting prescribed depth of mining.

"The excess sand, gravel and stone were being transported without payment of requisite taxes to the state government. Further, massive environment damage was also being caused due to non-adherence of environmental norms," said an ED official.

A joint survey of these mines is being carried out to ascertain the extent of damage caused and the quantum of illegal mining.

During the searches, the ED seized various incriminating documents, digital devices, property documents and unaccounted cash to the tune of Rs 15.37 lakh.

Analysis of certain documents recovered from the searched locations revealed parallel sets of documents being maintained having details of actual mining for a short period of time.

"Preliminary analysis of the documents shows that illegal mining worth about Rs 35 crore were carried out by the persons involved," the official said.
United Nations, Sep 24 : With his country reeling from floods of "biblical" proportions, Pakistan's Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif said that it is "high time we took a pause from the preoccupations of the 20th century to return to the challenges of the 21st," but immediately turned the clock back 75 years railing against India.

At the high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly, he detailed the devastation from the floods and the momentous task of rebuilding, but then he veered off to catalogue the oft-repeated various grievances against India over Kashmir and what he said was the treatment of Muslims.

"The entire definition of national security has changed today, and unless the leaders of the world come together to act now behind minimum agreed agenda, there will be no earth to fight wars over. Nature will be fighting back, and for that humanity is no match," the Prime Minister added.

He offered "to sit down then and talk to our Indian counterparts to pave the way forward for future so that our generations do not suffer, so that we spend our resources on mitigating miseries on building structures to face these floods and outburst of clouds" -- but only after India gives in to his demands on Kashmir.

"Pakistan's urgent priority right now is to ensure rapid economic growth and lift millions out of destitution and hunger," Sharif said.

"To enable any such policy momentum, Pakistan needs a stable external environment. We look for peace with all our neighbours, including India," he added.

But he said, "Sustainable peace and stability in South Asia, however, remains contingent upon a just and lasting solution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. At the heart of this long-standing dispute lies the denial of the inalienable right of the Kashmiri people to self-determination." While Sharif added that the Kashmir dispute should be settled on the basis of Security Council resolutions, he ignored the Security Council Resolution 47 adopted on April 21, 1948, that requires Pakistan to remove its troops and nationals from there and not to assist those fighting there or allow in fighters.

He said, "I assure the world from this august platform, that we in Pakistan remain consistent in our commitment to peace in South Asia. India must take credible steps to create enabling environment for constructive engagement." He added that India and Pakistan, which are "armed to the teeth," should be able to disarm if they peacefully resolve differences, he ignored the fact of India having to defend against an aggressive China.

On a major international issue involving his country, Sharif said, "Pakistan strongly condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations." That was despite his country openly protecting terrorists, including at least one already on the list of terrorists sanctioned by the UN.

He claimed that his country was the victim of terrorism promoted by "an adversary," but went on to list terrorist groups that he said were operating from Afghanistan.

One of those he listed was al-Qaeda, whose leader Osama bin Laden had, in fact, been found living in Pakistan.

Sharif called for reforming the Security Council but opposed adding permanent members, saying it would "create new centres of privilege in violation of the principle of sovereign equality of member states," although by that token so does the present system of having five permanent members.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed at @arulouis)
Kabul, Sep 24 : Seven persons were killed and 41 others injured as a blast rocked the Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan area of the Afghan capital, Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said.

The blast took place on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.

"A car with explosives exploded in front of the Wazir Akbar Khan mosque, and unfortunately our worshippers who were coming out of the mosque after performing Friday prayers were targeted," Zadran added on his Twitter account.
Washington, Sep 24 : Symptoms of long Covid is changing the meaning of "the disabled" for Americans, a US media website reported this week.

In an article tilted "Long Covid Is Going to Change How We Talk About Disability," the website "sheknows" said the prevalence of long Covid has made some lose their taste or smell, while many other affected people have found themselves permanently disabled.

The article added that long Covid symptoms include severe fatigue, heart palpitations, a constant ringing in the ears, chronic foot pain and a hard time swallowing, among other things.

"It's a disability that only ones that suffer with it can explain," a patient was quoted as saying.

Long Covid or post-Covid syndrome, has affected nearly one in five Americans who have had Covid, said the website, citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as quoted by Xinhua news agency report.

Sara Fergenson, a social worker and rural public health advocate in West Virginia, called for "a conversation around normalising what disabled means".

If the definition of "the disabled" expands to include long Covid patients, the medical community as well as other public resources can offer more help to those who have seen their daily lives turned upside down due to the Covid-19, said the report.
Beirut, Sep 24 : Lebanese President Michel Aoun emphasised that the urgent need to elect a new President in Lebanon and form a new cabinet capable of gaining the parliament's confidence before the end of his term on October 31, 2022.

"We need a full-fledged government that has the confidence of the parliament and can exercise the powers of the President of the republic if Lebanon fails to elect a new President," Aoun was quoted as saying in a statement released by Lebanon's Presidency on Friday.

His remarks came during his meeting with French Ambassador to Lebanon Anne Grillo and President of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, Renaud Muselier.

He said that he had been working on removing political obstacles facing the formation of a new government, Xinhua news agency reported.

The President also reiterated Lebanon's commitment to implement necessary reforms to reach a deal with the International Monetary Fund.

Muselier conveyed to Aoun the greetings of French President Emmanuel Macron and his commitment to continue supporting Lebanon.

He also spoke of the role of France's southern region in helping Lebanon and contributing to the country's economic development.
CPI's Client, Varian, Grand Opening U.S. and global manufacturers are investing ln Mexico-based facilities to reduce shipping times, labor costs, and supply chain obstacles. At close to 1 M Sq.Ft. of new facilities, recent investments are evidence of a dramatic commitment.

Co-Production International,Shelter Services in Mexico, has leased nearly one million square feet of manufacturing facilities in Mexico for U.S. companies in 2021-22. CPIs eight U.S. partners represent a range of manufacturing industries, including medical devices, furniture, industrial equipment, prefabricated modular homes, boat manufacturing, motors for windows and blinds, thermoforming for agricultural products, and third-party logistics (3PL) warehousing. Currently, CPI is assisting two additional manufacturers ramp up furniture manufacturing and automotive parts facilities.

Manufacturers choose Mexico for its well-established industrial sectors, talented workforce, lower real estate and labor costs, and its proximity to the U.S. and global transportation routes. Delays and increased costs brought on by the COVID pandemic, US-China Trade War and the Ukraine-Russia war have dramatically increased interest in a North American Footprints specifically Mexico.

U.S. and global manufacturers choose a Mexican Shelter for its ability to start operations quickly, the existing permits and licenses for international trade and its in-depth knowledge of Mexican labor, site selection and industrial real estate. CPI also expedites access to the IMMEX Program and VAT Certification which allows manufacturing companies to produce and export products duty and tariff-free.

U.S. and global manufacturers are investing ln Mexico-based facilities to reduce shipping times, labor costs, and supply chain obstacles, said Veronica Contreras, CPI Director of Business Development. At close to one million square feet of new facilities, recent investments are evidence of a dramatic commitment.

Most CPIs new partners chose U.S.-Mexico border region locations in well-established manufacturing centers like Tijuana and Mexicali. One manufacturer chose Merida, in the southern region of Mexico, to take advantage of that citys growing industrial center, its proximity to the major commercial container port of Penasco, and administrative services available in CPIs Merida office.

CPI also recently opened up offices in Monterrey, in the state of Nuevo Leon, to meet the needs of manufacturers looking to take advantage of industrial clusters in Mexicos mainland region of El Bajio and the states of Chihuahua, and Coahuila.

As a shelter services provider, we are delighted to serve the needs of our new client partners, said Denisse Martinez, CPI Director of Marketing. CPI attends to every detail of manufacturing expansion projects as if it were our own company. At CPI, our team becomes your team.

---

About Co-Production International (CPI)

CPI is the premier administrative and shelter services provider for companies looking to start manufacturing in Mexico. CPI is strategically headquartered in San Diego, California and has operational support branches in Tijuana, Mexicali and Tecate, Baja California, Guadalajara, Jalisto and Merida, Yucatan. CPIs Turnkey Shelter Program provides industrial real estate site searches and a range of administrative support services including human resources, talent management, payroll processing, Mexican government and U.S. and international trade regulation compliance. CPIs shelter services allow our client partners to focus 100% on manufacturing.
"The volunteer time put in to mentor the STEM students was very rewarding. It was no surprise that the STEM middle-school girls embraced their challenge that addressed real-world problems, community engagement, and ultimately, one solution for global climate change."

Earlier this month, the Water and Power Community Credit Union was awarded an FHLBank San Francisco AHEAD Program Grant for the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) Middle School Girls in STEM Program. After putting in the hard work to apply for the program, the LACI program is now one of the highly sought-after award winners. FHLBank awarded 55 projects this year totaling $1.5 million in grants that will boost economic development activity and promote financial stability in communities throughout Arizona, California, and Nevada.

The funds will be set in place for LACIs 2023 Cohort (4) Middle School Girls in STEM Program. Launched in 2020, the program aims to light a spark for middle school girls around the relevance of math and science in school, and to build a pipeline of future female innovators in the sustainability space. LACI gives student groups from underrepresented and disadvantaged communities (especially in STEM) the opportunity to learn more about the climate crisis, sustainability challenges and ways they can make an impact, now and in the future. Many of these students have never had an opportunity to participate in a program outside of their school before.

WPCCU sponsored the 2021 Cohort (2) where 40 talented young innovators from three LAUSD partner schools graduated from the program. They included: Edwin Markham Middle School in Watts, Vox Collegiate and Hollenbeck Middle School in Los Angeles. Vox Collegiate students (assigned to WPCCU) were mentored through their hands-on prototype development to design, build a prototype of an electric/solar powered school bus to replace the diesel buses used by LAUSD, and create a Demo Day presentation. The winner Hollenbeck Middle School shared their prototypes with Mayor Garcetti and the London Mayor Sadiq Khan during his visit to LACI at the La Kretz Innovation Campus.

The volunteer time put in to mentor the STEM students was very rewarding. It was no surprise that the STEM middle-school girls embraced their challenge that addressed real-world problems, community engagement, and ultimately, one solution for global climate change. said WPCCUs Marketing Communications Manager, Delaine Valencia. Over a three-month course the students and I formed a bond, and their confidence was boosted with what they had learned.

Thanks to LACIs Community Empowerment Programs, the Middle School Girls in STEM focuses on advancing female founders with distinctive support and resources. Women are underrepresented in clean technology due to several barriers, including women role models. The perception that it is a male-dominated field, and a lack of encouragement from educational institutions to pursue cleantech careers adds to this barrier. WPCCU proudly sponsors and supports other LACI fellowship programs like workforce development initiatives like the Women in Cleantech program and Green Jobs Fellowship.

About Water and Power Community Credit Union

Water and Power Community Credit Union (WPCCU), headquartered in Los Angeles, is committed to the safety and well-being of the Los Angeles Community, its members and staff. WPCCU was formed in 1936 by a group of employees of the Department of Water and Power in downtown Los Angeles. All people who live, work or go to school in Los Angeles and San Bernardino County can open an account. Currently, assets are over $950 million. The credit union serves over 42,000 members. If needed, members can call 24/7 at Water and Power Community Credit Union (WPCCU), headquartered in Los Angeles, is committed to the safety and well-being of the Los Angeles Community, its members and staff. WPCCU was formed in 1936 by a group of employees of the Department of Water and Power in downtown Los Angeles. All people who live, work or go to school in Los Angeles and San Bernardino County can open an account. Currently, assets are over $950 million. The credit union serves over 42,000 members. If needed, members can call 24/7 800-300-9728, or visit a branch for in-person, financial assistance. Branch hours can be found at http://wpccu.org.

About LACI

The Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) is creating an inclusive green economy by unlocking innovation through scaling cleantech startups, transforming markets through catalytic partnerships like the Transportation Electrification Partnership, and enhancing communities through green workforce training and pilots. Founded as an economic development initiative by the City of Los Angeles and its Department of Water & Power (LADWP) in 2011, LACI is recognized as one of the top 10 innovative business incubators in the world by UBI. To date, LACI has supported 315 startup companies that have secured more than $695 million in funding, generated more than $308 million in revenue, and helped to create an estimated 2,480 jobs with a long-term projected economic impact of more than $555 million.
One of the best parts of being a plastic surgeon in Los Angeles is that this city is known for being the epicenter of beauty and cosmetic trends. Patients travel from across the world to have surgery here,

Board-certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Gary Motykie, has been selected as a Top Plastic Surgery Doctor by LA Weekly for 2022.

Being named a Top Plastic Surgery Doctor by LA Weekly is a huge honor, says Dr. Motykie. I moved to the Beverly Hills area during my fellowship, was asked to participate in E!'s Dr. 90210 and never left! To be named a top plastic surgeon by a publication representing everything Los Angeles is truly humbling.

Dr. Motykies state-of-the-art office, on-site surgical center, and medical spa are located at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and North Doheny Drive, between West Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Dr. Motykie provides patients with life-changing transformations, using innovative methods to promote extraordinary outcomes. Dr. Motykie is known for pioneering Stellar facial rejuvenation surgery, which can include facelifts, facial fat grafting, rhinoplasty surgery and the use of autologous stem cells.

One of the best parts of being a plastic surgeon in Los Angeles is that this city is known for being the epicenter of beauty and cosmetic trends. Patients travel from across the world to have surgery here, added Dr. Motykie. The past few years have been especially interesting because social media has allowed me to re-connect with and help educate a worldwide audience about the current trends in Plastic Surgery.

Dr. Motykie recently joined https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.90210TikTok - he regularly uploads videos about celebrity plastic surgery and discusses plastic surgery trends. Dr. Motykie was born and raised outside of Chicago. He owns a medical spa in the northwest suburb of Barrington, Illinois, appropriately called https://www.instagram.com/motykiemedspachicago/Motykie Med Spa Barrington.

About Dr. Gary Motykie:

Dr. Gary Motykie is a Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon who is highly skilled in breast surgery, body contouring, rhinoplasty and facial rejuvenation as well as numerous other cosmetic surgical procedures. Dr. Motykie has more than 50,000 subscribers on https://www.youtube.com/user/DrGaryMotykie90210/videosYouTube where he uploads videos discussing celebrity plastic surgery, plastic surgery secrets and procedures, and other cosmetic innovations. Patients and fans can view his surgical transformations on his https://www.instagram.com/drgarymotykie/Instagram, @DrGaryMotykie, which boasts more than 165,000 followers
"NODARs solution for ADAS and autonomous vehicles will advance automotive safety by providing cars and trucks with state-of-the-art, ultra-precise 360 3D sensing.

NODAR, the leading provider of multi-camera 3D vision technology, received the AutoSens Brussels Award 2022 for Most Innovative Application of Computer Vision and the 2022 Automotive News PACEpilot Innovation to Watch Award.

The AutoSens Brussels Award honors the best and brightest working at the cutting-edge of innovation in ADAS and autonomous vehicle technology. NODAR received the highest honor as a gold award recipient.

The 3rd annual PACEpilot program was presented by Automotive News. The competition was open to suppliers and startups that invented products, software/IT systems or processes and idea incubators that have the capacity to transform the automotive industry.

We are honored that our flagship product, Hammerhead, was celebrated by AutoSens and PACEpilot for excellence, says Leaf Jiang, Chief Executive Officer of NODAR. NODARs solution for ADAS and autonomous vehicles will advance automotive safety by providing cars and trucks with state-of-the-art, ultra-precise 360 3D sensing.

NODAR builds 3D stereo vision technology for advanced ADAS and autonomous vehicles. NODARs next-generation stereo vision platform, Hammerhead, uses video from off-the-shelf cameras to provide the reliable, high-fidelity 3D information required by vehicles for autonomous navigation. NODARs patented software utilizes independently mounted cameras to deliver accurate depth measurements in real time at up to 1,000 meters, enabling early detection of potentially hazardous obstructions. Hammerhead provides a vehicles perception system with better-than-lidar data at a camera technology price point, paving the way for mainstream adoption of self-driving vehicles.

NODAR Hammerhead auto-calibrates cameras across 22 dimensions in real time, an immensely complex task enabled by recent technological advances including new dedicated processors used for computer vision, high-resolution, highly photo-sensitive, low-cost CMOS imaging, and NODARs proprietary computer vision algorithms. All of these technologies combined have enabled NODAR to rethink and advance the age-old technique of stereo vision to attain orders-of-magnitude better performance as compared with todays sensing technologies.

For more information about the awards, please visit: Awards - AutoSens (auto-sens.com) and Automotive News- Pace Pilot.

About NODAR

NODAR is the leading provider of camera-based 3D vision software technology and is a crucial component in the development of ADAS and autonomous vehicles bringing safety, advanced performance, and cost-effectiveness to the automotive market. NODARs 3D vision platform delivers reliable, ultra-precise, and real-time 3D sensing at a long-range (up to 1000 meters), providing LiDAR-quality at the price point of camera technology. NODAR uniquely provides long-range, high-density, high frame-rate 3D data and can detect any object as small as 10cm at 150m range. Its high performance makes it an ideal solution for forward collision warning, path planning, automatic emergency braking, traffic jam assist, VRU detection, and parking valet. NODAR was founded in 2018 and backed by Rhapsody Venture Partners, Plug and Play Tech Center, and Cherrystone Angel Group. For more information, please visit http://www.nodarsensor.com.
In order to give back to the community Via Brasil Las Vegas calls home, each evening of the

the anniversary celebration, the restaurant will donate a portion of its profits to different

charity each night.

On each Night at Via Brasil, you can meet and greet representatives of these charities.

You can donate directly to them or get to know them better on how to support them with your time.

There is always some way to support them.

Like Via Brasil Steakhouse is proud to support Las Vegas Community.

On the first night October 21st, 2022, the selected charity is Angels of Las Vegas, which supports children

and adults battling cancer.

On the second night October 22nd, 2022, the anniversary party will support Miracle Flights, which provides free flights to those in need of life-changing medical care not found close

to home.

And on the final night October 23rd, 2022 of the celebration, Via Brasil will support St. Jude Children

Research Hospital-Nevada, which advances cures, and the means of prevention, for pediatric

catastrophic diseases through research and treatment.

These events will be supported by buying Rodizio Dinner that night. Rodizio Dinner is $59.99 per person.

About Via Brasil Steakhouse:

The Gomes family has a long history of opening outstanding restaurants and nightclubs across

the country. In 1978, Luis Gomes opened Via Brasil in the heart of Little Brazil Street in New

York City. The Gomes family and partners later opened the Plataforma Brazilian Steakhouse in

New York City in 1996, which has become the top-rated Brazilian steakhouse in the country.

Adam and Luis Gomes opened Via Brasil Steakhouse in Summerlin on October 23, 2008, and

There still is no other place in the city like it. This year the restaurant will recognize its 14th

anniversary with a three-day long celebration.

During the anniversary party and throughout the year, guests enjoy Via Brasils all-you-can-eat

rodizio dinner experience that includes 19 different succulent cuts of meat, including shrimp and

salmon  which no other Brazilian steakhouse in Las Vegas offers. Dinner also includes

unlimited trips to the salad bar full of freshly made hot and cold dishes, salads, and appetizers.

Diners also enjoy 11 different side dish options such as asparagus, broccoli, sauteed or fried

bananas, yucca or French fries, and homemade mashed potatoes. Via Brasil Las Vegas only

serves prime cuts of its meats, and all sauces, side dishes, and a la carte items are made fresh

and from scratch.

On Saturdays and Sundays, Via Brasil Steakhouse offers a brunch experience where guests

are served an endless portion of eight different juicy, slow-cooked meats as well as grilled

pineapple. It, of course, includes the salad bar with fresh fruits, salads, pancakes, and other

favorite breakfast selections. The shining star of the brunch is the omelet station with its freshly

made omelets, waffles, crepes, and eggs made-to-order right in front of you. Via Brasil also

offers freshly made and squeezed strawberry, pineapple, and orange juice.

Via Brasil Steakhouse also has a special happy hour with a full a la carte menu with more than

35 different dishes, including traditional Brazilian appetizers, salads, delicious sliders, and different

cuts of steak including the famous picanha, side dishes, and six different flavors of brand new,

freshly made loaded empanadas. Handcrafted cocktails are expertly made with fresh fruits,

fresh juices, and a smile. Happy hour drinks include mojitos made with fresh fruits (lime,

strawberry, passionfruit, or blueberry), the national cocktail of Brazil- caipirinha (a must-try at a

Brazilian restaurant), a Brazilian martini with fresh blueberries and blueberry vodka, well drinks,

beers, house wines, and more.

Happy hour food and drinks at Via Brasil, located at 1225 South Fort Apache Boulevard Suite

100, Las Vegas, are offered seven days a week inside the bar area or outside on the fully

furnished patio.

Via Brasil Steakhouse hosts events for up to 400 people - Mostly for Buyouts for Weddings and Birthdays.

The banquet room is up to 70 people

Private Room is up to 80 people

Semi-Private room is up to 150 people

-
The panel focused on the intersection of private capital and national security, highlighting each panel members unique vantage point for addressing todays critical national security challenges.

Sinisi Solutions LLC spoke to industry academia and DOD stakeholders on a critical national security panel at the 2022 Fathomwerx Summit at Port Hueneme. Vice President, Operations and Assessments, Montgomery Sinisi, was joined by Jacqui Irwin, Assemblymember of Californias 44th District, Nate Douglas, Chief, Enterprise Future Systems Architect of Space Force, and James Cross, Co-Head of Private Investing at Franklin Templeton, Managing Director of Franklin Venture Partners, Founder of Silicon Valley Defense Group. The panel focused on the intersection of private capital and national security, highlighting each panel members unique vantage point for addressing todays critical national security challenges. All panel members brought different viewpoints from all perspectives making for an insightful conversation about the technical overlap in the areas of physical security, space, and cybersecurity.

About Sinisi Solutions LLC

A leader in Critical Infrastructure and substation protection for over 20 years, Sinisi Solutions LLC works with the Voice of the Client to provide engineered, custom compliance solutions for the protection of critical equipment, utilities, industry, assets, and facilities.
Leading facilities management services provider scales with new technology infrastructure Through the excellent collaboration between OpenWorks, Ramco and AGR teams, we were able to fully realize our goals. We look forward to reaching greater heights with Ramco.

Global enterprise software provider Ramco Systems announced the successful implementation of its enterprise resource planning solution, Ramco ERP Software at OpenWorks, a leading American facilities management provider. Ramcos business partner, Advanced Global Resources (AGR), played a pivotal role in the implementation process, thereby enabling a complete digital transformation.

With modules for Facility Management, Enterprise Asset Management, Fixed Assets, Finance, Sales, and Purchases, Ramco ERP Software provides OpenWorks with a 360-degree view of its operations through its single integrated solution, thereby automating the companys customer billing and payments to franchisees, asset tracking and optimizing franchise assignment processes. Ramco ERP Software is seamlessly integrated with OpenWorks customer relationship management (CRM) software, enabling OpenWorks to streamline the handling of its customer requests, thus reducing turnaround time and enhancing customer satisfaction.

In addition, Ramcos next-gen innovations around mobility, collaborative portals and adaptive card-based user interface enables OpenWorks to swiftly record data in the field, increase efficiency through streamlining collaboration with its customers and extended supply chain partners and quickly obtain quotation data from contractors through a Zero UI-based solution.

Ed Pim, Senior Vice President of Operations and Experience, OpenWorks, said, at OpenWorks, we are always seeking to improve how we serve all our stakeholders in our journey to making the world better. We selected Ramcos ERP Software to enhance our customer service, automate our billing and payment processes and obtain complete visibility into our operations, bundled with rich user experience. Through the excellent collaboration between OpenWorks, Ramco and AGR teams, we were able to fully realize our goals. We look forward to reaching greater heights with Ramco.

Matt Muns, President, Advanced Global Resources (AGR), LLC, said, we are delighted to have been Ramcos implementation partner for OpenWorks digital transformation journey. Through our partnership with Ramco, we have been delivering cutting edge pragmatic technology innovation for leading organizations. We are confident that this collaboration with Ramco and OpenWorks will intensify our mutual winning approach in the years to come.

Prashanth Vasu, President & Head  Ramco ERP Software, Ramco Systems, said, we are privileged to partner with OpenWorks on this important effort and grateful to AGR for being a wonderful partner to us. The successful implementation and collaborative spirit of this partnership gives us great confidence in deepening our relationship with OpenWorks and equally, to expanding our presence in this space where we believe there is significant opportunity to create value for our clients.

Ramco ERP has been delivering significant innovation, cost savings, and superior business processes to global organisations. Ramcos focus on usability, context-awareness, mobility, overall flexibility and comprehensive functionality has enabled smooth technological transitions for customers.

About OpenWorks:

OpenWorks is a national leader in facilities management services including cleaning and disinfecting, landscaping, supply replenishment and HVAC service. Founded in 1983, customers trust OpenWorks to provide reliable quality and customer service through robust technology solutions and a proven network of elite service providers. This performance earns OpenWorks an industry-leading 99% customer retention rate and the confidence to offer new customers a limited money back guarantee.

About AGR:

AGR is a Digital Transformation Change Agent focused on providing Pragmatic business-focused solutions for todays most complex challenges. With a technology consulting pedigree spanning 30 years AGR has the sophistication to manage complex requirements for Fortune 1000 companies and is agile and lean enough to efficiently deliver value-added services to small and mid-market businesses. AGR prides itself on Partnering with our clients to deliver business value above and beyond the engagement scope.

About Ramco Systems:

Ramco is a next-gen enterprise software player disrupting the market with its multi-tenant cloud and mobile-based enterprise software in HR and Global Payroll, ERP and M&E MRO for Aviation. Part of the USD 1 billion Ramco Group, Ramco Systems focuses on Innovation and Culture to differentiate itself in the marketplace. On the Innovation front, Ramco has been focusing on moving towards Active ERP leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning by building features such as Talk It - which allows transactions to be carried out by simple voice commands, Bot it  which allows users to complete transactions using natural conversations; Mail It  transact with the application by just sending an email; HUB It - a one screen does it all concept built to address all activities of a user; Thumb It  mobility where the system presents users with option to choose rather than type values and Prompt It  a cognitive ability which will let the system complete the transaction and prompts the user for approval.

With 2000+ employees spread across 28 offices, globally, Ramco follows a flat and open culture where employees are encouraged to share knowledge and grow. No Hierarchies, Cabin-less Offices, Respect work and not titles, among others are what makes the team say, Thank God its Monday!

Winner of 2020 ISG Paragon Awards Asia Pacific, for Transformation and Collaboration Awards;

Conferred as Malaysias Best Employer Brand 2022;

Winner of Global Payroll Associations Innovation Award 2021;

For more information, please visit https://www.ramco.com/products/erp-software/

Follow Ramco on Twitter @RamcoSystems / @RamcoERP and stay tuned to https://www.ramco.com/blog

For further information, contact:

Neha Hasija

+91 9940320066

neha.hasija@ramco.com
We are in a transformative time for compensation management and the ability to attract and retain talent has never been more important. This is an exciting time for CompTrak as we expand into new geographies and new verticals

CompTrak, a compensation management software company, is recognized for a second consecutive year as one of Canadas Top Growing Companies by Globe and Mails Report on Business. Rankings are based on three-year growth of annual operating revenue. CompTrak ranked on the list with a three-year growth of 104%.

Driving CompTraks impressive growth is the expansion of its North American client base, targeted growth in the European market, as well as the recent launch of its newest product offerings in Performance Management and Carried Interest / Co-Invest Management. Both product modules address growing trends in HR to further personalize compensation and expand participation in long-term incentive programs.

For many leading organizations, compensation strategy is shifting to performance-driven and increased personalization, states CompTrak CEO and Co-Founder Lasse Silegren. CompTraks configurability and performance management solutions provide organizations the ability to more intimately link strategic goals, performance and compensation together, ensuring employees are being compensated fairly.

We are in a transformative time for compensation management and the ability to attract and retain talent has never been more important. This is an exciting time for CompTrak as we expand into new geographies and new verticals. We are grateful to the forward-thinking and innovative companies we get to work with on a regular basis. Without them and our dedicated staff, none of this would be possible, states CompTrak President and Co-Founder Perry Doody.

The full list of 2022 winners, and accompanying editorial coverage, is published in the October issue of Report on Business magazineout nowand online.
Great Hearts student learning at home online. "Were grateful for the recognition and support of the State Policy Network as we continue to develop flexible in-person communities for students, said Founder and President of Great Hearts Nova and Chief Innovation Officer for Great Hearts America, Kurtis Indorf.

On Wednesday, Sept 21st Great Hearts Academies, a national education organization currently serving over 25,000 students across Texas and Arizona with approved charters to expand to Louisiana and Florida, received the National Ed-Prize from the State Policy Network for their innovative Great Hearts Nova models.

Great Hearts Nova was developed in 2020 as an in-house innovation hub for new classical education models. The research & development division launched Great Hearts Online in Texas (January 2021) and Arizona (August 2021), and Great Hearts Microschools in both states in January 2022. In Fall 2023, Great Hearts Nova will launch a national Great Hearts Online offering.

The State Policy Network, an organization committed to supporting education freedom and catalyzing education entrepreneurs, recognized the work of Great Hearts Nova by awarding them the National Ed-Prize. The Ed-Prize is awarded annually to organizations that inspire and accelerate new solutions to improve education outcomes across the country. Director of Great Hearts Microschools, Andrew Shahan, received the honor at an award dinner on Wednesday, Sept 21st.

We are absolutely thrilled to present the Ed Prize award, recognizing educational entrepreneurship, to Great Hearts Nova, says SPNs Jennifer K. Thompson. Great Hearts is a leader in classical education, and their approach to delivering high-quality education to as many children as possible through bold innovation, partnering with families, and creative problem-solving impressed all of us.

The award will be used to accelerate Great Hearts Novas multi-state microschool expansion by establishing an additional microschool in Arizona and investing in building an in-person community for currently enrolled GH Online students in both Texas and Arizona. It has been an amazing experience working with Great Hearts families to co-create in-person learning environments, said Andrew Shahan, an experienced microschool operator who is now helping families bring this opportunity to their communities as the Director of Great Hearts Microschools. Families are now able to experience a Great Hearts Classical Education at home and in their communities, unbound by geographic location.

Founder and President of Great Hearts Nova and Chief Innovation Officer for Great Hearts America, Kurtis Indorf, sees this as a critical moment for education innovation. Parents are looking for new forms of education that meet the needs of their children and family. The classical education model is in high demand with families because of its focus on intellectual and moral formation: living in a community and being in good relationships with each other is a central theme of our work. Were grateful for the recognition and support of the State Policy Network as we continue to develop flexible in-person communities for students in both Great Hearts Online and Great Hearts Microschools.

# # #
Margaret B Jennings marks her publishing debut with the release of Miss Pringle in Paradise (published by Balboa Press AU). In this delightful story, an elderly woman plucked from her earthly life by two angels desperate to right their wrong, is sent on a heavenly adventure like no other.

Mildred Agnes Pringle finds herself in Heaven after a blunder by a couple of angel brothers at the Heavenly Choice Department, only to discover that her new home devoid of all things heavenly. After having accomplished so little in her life, she vows not to squander her afterlife. She decides to save herself with a grim determination and a strange company, including guardian angels Elijah and Reg; Old George, a workaholic long-time resident; and Boots, a would-be-biker who cannot accept that he is dead. The renegade gang led by Miss Pringle flees in a moving cloud trying to seek new adventures. But can they outwit and outrun St Peter and the Arch Angel Gabriel?

It is lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek tale about a subject we in the western world don't talk about much, the author describes. When asked what she wants readers to take away from the book, she adds, There is only one God, there is only one heaven.

Visit https://www.balboapress.com/en-au/bookstore/bookdetails/843233-miss-pringle-in-paradise to get a copy.

Miss Pringle in Paradise

By Margaret B Jennings

Softcover | 5.5 x 8.5in | 200 pages | ISBN 9781982295646

E-Book | 200 pages | ISBN 9781982295653

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Margaret B Jennings born was in London, England, the second of six children, and moved to Surrey in 1953. She was educated at St Dunstans Primary School, then at St Thomas the Apostle Secondary School in Chertsey. She has three adult children, Paul, Rachel and Daniel, and seven grandchildren. She moved to Papua New Guinea in 1987 after remarrying, then moved to Australia at the end of 1990, and has lived there ever since. Jennings has had a variety of jobs throughout her life, including years as a doll designer and textile arts teacher  a job she loved, but which she had to give up because of sight loss. She has always written, poems, ditties for the doll patterns  the patterns themselves and short stories. Miss Pringle in Paradise is her first novel and comes from a bedtime serial she wrote for her children when they were young. She found the original manuscript during a recent move and decided to rewrite it. Jennings was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 and has now been in remission for seven years. She is a survivor.

Balboa Press Australia is a division of Hay House, Inc., a leading provider in publishing products that specialise in self-help and the mind, body and spirit genre. Through an alliance with the worldwide self-publishing leader Author Solutions, LLC, authors benefit from the leadership of Hay House Publishing and the speed-to-market advantages of the Author Solutions self-publishing model. For more information or to start publishing today, visit balboapress.com.au or call 1-800-844-925.
Gods Miracle at Dominguez: a heartfelt celebration of Gods redemptive promise. Gods Miracle at Dominguez is the creation of published author Baxter Allen, a retired Air Force veteran who served a tour in Vietnam from September 1969 to September 1970. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland and Park College.

Allen shares, Revelation 5:9 proclaims that Jesus Christ has redeemed lost souls out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation. Within this enumerable number redeemed by Jesus Christ will be a great number of men and women who were saved by hearing and accepting the gospel of Jesus Christ while serving time behind prison walls.

Countless numbers have given heartfelt thanks to the Lord for their time in prison because they had come to a place where they had completely lost hope. And then God turned their hopelessness into eternal assurance of a changed life and a certain hope for a brighter future.

This is a true account of Gods saving grace in one prison. The harvest of lost souls within this one prison is an amazing story as well as an amazing series of miracles.

No one but God Almighty could engineer such a holy and eternal series of events. Praise be to God, it is still an ongoing miracle of Gods grace. Souls are still being saved within the prison walls at the Dominguez Jail.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Baxter Allens new book will encourage readers in their own faith no matter the challenges or victories they may be experiencing.

Allen brings a true account of how impactful true ministry can be for those in a place of significant need.

Consumers can purchase Gods Miracle at Dominguez at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Gods Miracle at Dominguez, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
No Time to Waste Gia Machlin, EcoPlum President and CEO said, As plastic pollution grows unchecked, there really is No Time to Waste and EcoPlum is very pleased to help launch this effort with such distinguished, dedicated organizations.

EcoPlum, a sustainable promotional products company, has joined 85 organizationsincluding major brands, financial institutions, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)to endorse a common vision for an effective and ambitious Global Treaty to End Plastic Pollution. As an early signatory to this process, EcoPlum adds its voice to the newly launched Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty, convened by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and WWF (World Wildlife Fund).

The new Business Coalition kicked off in New York City this week, alongside the 14th annual Climate Week NYC and United Nations (UN) General Assembly meetings of policy makers for all member states. In the coming months, the coalition will engage with UN negotiators to take urgent, coordinated action on plastic pollution with a legally binding global treaty. Central to its efforts are moving towards a circular economy where plastic pollution and waste are eliminated, products and materials become resources or are retained in the economy at their highest value, and there is a shift from extraction to regeneration of nature. The multilateral negotiations will proceed swiftly, commencing in November and concluding at the end of 2024.

Within the coalition, EcoPlum joins the ranks of 25 major brand owners and retailers, including Danone, Ikea, LOreal, PepsiCo, Unilever, and Walmart. Gia Machlin, EcoPlum President and CEO said,

As plastic pollution grows unchecked, there really is No Time to Waste and

EcoPlum is very pleased to help launch this effort with such distinguished,

dedicated organizations.

The Vision Statement issued by the coalition addresses the circular economy approach, expectations for progress on global outcomes, coalition objectives, and key elements for a global plastics treaty. At the end of the statement, there is a call to action for more organizations to join the coalitions efforts. Highlights of each part are provided below.

Shared Vision for a Circular Economy

The shared vision is defined at each step by working towards a circular economy where plastic never becomes waste or pollution, and the value of products and materials is retained in the economy. Important to this vision are the following points:



A circular economy approach tackles all steps in the value chain as the most promising, proven pathway to end plastic pollution and contribute to global efforts that combat the climate and biodiversity crisis.

Preventing plastic pollution is not just about improving waste management but rethinking what is in the marketplace and building solutions that prevent plastic waste from being created in the first place.

Capturing the need for upstream and downstream policies will help achieve desired global outcomes adaptable to local conditions.

Global Outcomes

The Coalition believes that progress must be made in three areas:



Reduction of plastic production focusing on plastics that have high-leakage rates, are short-lived, e.g. single-use, and/or are made with fossil-based virgin resources.

Circulation of plastic items that cannot be eliminated, keeping them in the economy at their highest value.

Prevention and remediation of remaining, hard-to-abate micro-plastic and macro-plastic leakage into the environment.

Objectives of the Coalition

The four main objectives of the Coalition are to:



Develop clear, consistent policy recommendations for an ambitious and effective treaty.

Convene an inclusive group of organizations with a strong shared commitment to build both a circular economy for plastic and legally binding treaty ending plastic pollution.

Coordinate advocacy efforts to deliver joint key messages and inputs from the aligned organizations to governments.

Build confidence in the business community for the treaty and enable progress towards a system change to end plastic pollution.

Key Elements for the Global Treaty

A legally binding treaty will set the right conditions to enable successful scaling of a circular economy for plastic and end plastic pollution. It will include:



Clear goals, targets, and obligations for all parties to the treaty, aligning actions of business, governments, and civil society.

Comprehensive and coordinated upstream and downstream policy measures.

Instruments to support implementation and monitoring of progress at national, regional, and global levels.

About EcoPlum

EcoPlum Business Gifts offers branded marketing solutions with its Sustainable Swag line of promotional products. EcoPlum curates best-in-class, eco-friendly gift items and customizes them for clients with their logos, taglines, or messages. We help companies make responsible choices on their branded gifts  a visible symbol of their values  with a goal of reducing plastic and harmful waste in our landfills and oceans. EcoPlum uses rigorous standards for ecological and social sustainability. Transparency is essential. Product sourcing criteria include USDA organic, fair trade, biodegradable, renewable, recycled, reusable, women/minority-owned, Made-in-the-USA, handcrafted or artisan, vegan, non-toxic, and third-party eco-labels (e.g. B Corp, FLA).

EcoPlum is a certified B Corp, WBENC (Womens Business Enterprise National Council) women-owned business enterprise, and Green America Gold Business. The company is a member of ASBC (American Sustainable Business Council), AASHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education), FLA (Fair Labor Association), PPC (Plastic Pollution Coalition), and ASI (Advertising Specialty Institute).

Sustainable Swag solutions at EcoPlum.com, https://ecoplum.com. For more information: info(at)ecoplum(dot)com, Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EcoPlum, LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/ecoplum, The EcoPlum Biz Blog, Twitter via @ecoplum, and Instagram via @ecoplum.
The International Disability Alliance expresses its deepest sympathy to the people of Pakistan, in particular persons with disabilities and their families, who have been affected by the recent floods and landslides.

The International Disability Alliance (IDA) is expressing its deepest sympathy to the people of Pakistan, in particular persons with disabilities and their families, who have been affected by the recent floods and landslides. We call on the government of Pakistan, the United Nations, the international humanitarian community, and donor agencies to ensure maximum inclusion of persons with disabilities in the humanitarian response. Organizations of persons with disabilities must be involved in response planning, implementation, and monitoring as the most competent people to ensure a rights-based approach and full inclusion of persons with disabilities.

As the tragedy in Pakistan continues to unroll, the Ministers responsible for Disaster Risk Reduction from Asia and the Pacific are gathering in Brisbane Australia for the regional DRR conference. They have a historic opportunity to adopt concrete decisions, allocate resources, and define benchmarks to urgently address gaps in the inclusion and participation of persons with disabilities in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. In this regard, IDA welcomes and amplifies the joint statement by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, and calls for continued monitoring of the situation by both bodies.

The Government of Pakistan estimates that about 33 million people across the country are affected by the rains, floods, and consequent impacts such as landslides, with losses estimated at between the US $12 to 30 billion. Thousands of people have lost lives or been injured and millions have been displaced. The Humanitarian Country Team has announced that at least 6.4 million people need urgent support.

There is no disaggregated data available on how many persons with disabilities have lost their lives, been injured, and faced the destruction of their homes or livelihoods. But based on what has been documented in many other disasters around the world, persons with disabilities are two to four times more likely to die or get injured during disasters, are often left behind when others move to safety, and lose assistive devices, their network of support and access to essential services during displacement. Applying the 15% estimation of disability prevalence, roughly five million persons with disabilities are affected, one million of whom are in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance.

Inadequate Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Response

While the Flood Response Plan issued on 30 August 2022 by the United Nations Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) includes some references to persons with disabilities among the population, to be supported, in priority for example with food security and nutrition, protection, and access to shelter, the International Disability Alliance has identified major gaps raising serious concerns about the adequacy of the inclusion of people with disabilities in humanitarian response in Pakistan, with some examples are summarized below.

The Rapid Need Assessment led by the government of Pakistan, with support from the humanitarian community, does not provide the required data on the impact of the floods on persons with disabilities, which results in inadequacies in planning the response and allocation of resources.

According to IDA's research, no disability and aging working group, or disability focal point has been established so far in Pakistan. In many humanitarian emergencies, such groups or focal points play a significant role in highlighting challenges faced by persons with disabilities and help to ensure a disability-inclusive response.

One critical gap is the silence around the plan on the situation of institutions where persons with disabilities, including children, face additional risks to safe and timely evacuation, as well as access to humanitarian assistance. It is urgent to identify institutions as the most at-risk places followed by a detailed plan on how to ensure safety and access to life-saving assistance for residents.

Highlighting that gender-based violence, as well as child protection and other protection concerns, have reportedly more than doubled since the pre-monsoon period, the government of Pakistan and the humanitarian community involved also need to take appropriate measures to ensure that persons with disabilities, in particular women and girls with disabilities, children with disabilities, people with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities and deaf and hard of hearing people, persons with deafblindness and other underrepresented groups, are not subjected to violence, abuse and harmful practices including trafficking and institutionalization.

In some key sectors such as health and education, the Flood Response Plan does not include any reference to persons with disabilities. This is notwithstanding the fact that according to the same plan, at least 22,000 schools have been damaged, mainly in Sindh province, and at least 5,500 schools are being used as shelters. Three and a half million children have had their education disrupted. In Sindh, the provincial government fears that school enrollment will be 50% less this year. Therefore, it is quite urgent to ensure that children with disabilities can access any emergency education being arranged.

Necessity of Immediate Steps Towards Disability-inclusive Climate Action

According to relevant authorities, the gravity and scope of the floods in Pakistan are a direct consequence of climate change. Pakistan is among the ten countries most affected by extreme weather events despite its very low carbon footprint, according to the Global Climate Risk Index 2021 and Climate Watch. This demonstrates the significance of taking concrete measures to ensure that climate adaptation and climate mitigation policies and plans are inclusive of marginalized groups, including persons with disabilities.

In less than two months, global leaders are coming together in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt to discuss future plans to save the planet, and the International Disability Alliance is calling on each of them to prioritize the inclusion of persons with disabilities in their decisions as they are one of the first groups experiencing the negative consequences of climate change, as well as non-inclusive climate adaptation and mitigation.
Inc. 5000 Logo This high ranking on the prestigious Inc. 5000 is emblematic of the great growth strides that LanguageBird has made during difficult times

Inc. revealed that LanguageBird is No. 16 among education-related companies and No. 892 overall on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in America. The list represents a one-of-a-kind look at the most successful companies within the economys most dynamic segmentits independent businesses. Facebook, Chobani, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000.

This high ranking on the prestigious Inc. 5000 is emblematic of the great growth strides that LanguageBird has made during difficult times, says LanguageBird Founder Dr. Karyn A. Koven. Since our inception, we were successful and advocated for our live, personalized model which gained momentum during the pandemic as remote learning became widely accepted. Now our one-to-one instruction is poised to gain even more popularity as international travel increases.

The companies on the 2022 Inc. 5000 have not only been successful, but have also demonstrated resilience amid supply chain woes, labor shortages, and the ongoing impact of Covid-19. Among the top 500, the average median three-year revenue growth rate soared to 2,144 percent. Together, those companies added more than 68,394 jobs over the past three years.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000. The top 500 companies are featured in the September issue of Inc. magazine, which was available beginning August 23.

The accomplishment of building one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S., in light of recent economic roadblocks, cannot be overstated, says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. Inc. is thrilled to honor the companies that have established themselves through innovation, hard work, and rising to the challenges of today.

The pandemic put us in a high-growth mode that we fully intend to continue, added Dr. Koven. We have a service that is truly unique and right in line with the demands of the day and we are fully accredited by WASC and Cognia to award credit for our courses.

LanguageBird creates a community of learners who master speaking new languages with confidence. Students connect one to one with an engaged instructor for self-paced language learning and cultural discovery. For learners interested in mastering world languages, LanguageBird is a premier language program delivering one to one instruction and cultural immersion with native speaking teachers, offering more language choices in flexible, self-paced lessons, live via online chat. The LanguageBird brand is all about communication. LanguageBird is committed to building a community that inspires learners to reach and achieve their goals of mastering a world language.

LanguageBird offers high school and middle school courses for credit, tutoring and test prep, conversational lessons and more types of language immersion learning. Their transcripts are recognized by schools, colleges, and universities worldwide. In addition to their accreditation, all LanguageBird courses are also NCAA Division I and II and University of California A-G approved. College-bound, NCAA, and transferring students receive credit for courses completed with LanguageBird.

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000

Methodology

Companies on the 2022 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2018 to 2021. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2018. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2021. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2018 is $100,000; the minimum for 2021 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine company rankings were calculated to four decimal places. The top 500 companies on the Inc. 5000 are featured in Inc. magazines September issue. The entire Inc. 5000 can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000.

About Inc.

The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com.

For more information on the Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala, visit http://conference.inc.com/.


Almost 10,000 medical staff have quit in last 18 months

Vietnam has about 500,000 medical staff working in the public sector, but 9,680 left the sector between January 2021 and June 2022.















Health workers take care of a COVID-19 patient at a field hospital in HCM City's Tan Binh District last year.

A trend of medical workers moving from public to private medical facilities in Vietnam has grown over the last two years as the country faced the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.



Reports from provinces, cities and non-business units under the Ministry of Health showed that out of the 9,680 health workers who quit in the last 18 months, 3,094 were doctors, 2,874 nurses, 551 medical technicians, 276 midwives, 593 pharmacists and 2,280 people of other positions.



There are 8,810 health workers under the management of Departments of Health in cities or provinces and 870 medical staff under the control of units under the Ministry of Health.



The provinces and cities with the highest rates of departure are HCM City (2,035), Hanoi (1,032), ong Nai (496), Binh Duong (368), An Giang (297), Long An (266), a Nang (248), Can Tho (238), and ong Thap (204).



According to the health ministry, high working pressures, low pay, poor working conditions, and pressure from society or family are blamed for the alarming exodus from the industry.



After the detection of law violations in bidding for the procurement of drugs, medical supplies and equipment, many medical units suffered higher pressure for failing to equip sufficient facilities to perform professional tasks. Moreover, the shortage of medical supplies affected the working conditions of health workers.



"A lack of modern equipment to deploy high-tech techniques, a lack of drugs, even a lack of consumables, common tools and equipment like protective equipment, have limited the promoting the qualifications and professional capacity of health officials and officials. As a result, health workers tend to move to private health facilities with better conditions and working environments," the Ministry of Health said.



The fourth reason is due to pressure from society, family and relatives of health workers. According to the ministry, health workers, like others, have concerns about ensuring family life, ensuring minimum living conditions with daily expenses for health and safety, electricity, water or education.



Prices of goods and services increased while the income level for public health workers remained low. As a result, with a heavy workload and modest incentive regime, public medical units lost their human resources to the private sector.



Facing the above difficulties and inadequacies of the health sector, last month, the Acting Minister of Health ao Hong Lan proposed the Government adopt policies to support tuition fees for medical students, especially in subjects that are facing a shortage.



The Government issued a Decree amending Decree No.56/2011/ND-CP dated July 4, 2011, of the Government, which increases the occupational incentive allowance for preventive and grassroots health workers to 100 per cent.



The Ministry of Health also suggested that the Government consider and issue a resolution on solutions and support policies for rural health workers, providing the highest level of occupational incentive allowance for health workers.



After recruitment, the titles of doctor, preventive medicine physician, and pharmacist are ranked at salary level 2 for all job titles.



The Ministry of Health also proposed medical officers and workers who died from COVID-19 while performing their duties be recognised as martyrs.



Among solutions to curb departures from the sector, the ministry also plans to continue investing in improving the working environment and working conditions for health staff and purchasing sufficient equipment, supplies, and drugs.



The ministry also directed the heads of non-business medical units to create a friendly, open, transparent and democratic working environment and build an office culture to create conditions for health workers to stay and feel proud of their work and workplace.
The team at Cattlemen's Coffee in Franklinton, Louisiana After discussing franchising options with other roasters, Crimson Cup almost sounded too good to be true. But it truly is as good as it sounds. - Schantell Russell, Owner, Cattlemen's Coffee House in Franklinton, Louisiana

Want to learn how to open a coffee shop in Louisiana? Get tips on starting a profitable business in The Pelican State from the coffee shop startup experts at Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea.

Through its 7 Steps to Success coffee shop startup program, Roast magazines 2016 Macro Roaster of the Year has taught over 300 entrepreneurs in 30 states how to open a coffee shop.

Now, the companys 7 Steps coffee shop startup consulting team has added to its series of state-level coffee shop startup guides with, How to Start a Coffee Shop in Louisiana.

Louisiana is a terrific place to start a coffee shop! said Crimson Cup Founder and President Greg Ubert.

In fact, Louisiana ranks 45th among the states in the number of coffee shops per capita, with fewer than one coffee shop for every 7,925 residents. That leaves a lot of Louisianans without a local coffee shop.

The program is based on Uberts book, Seven Steps to Success: A Common-sense Guide to Succeed in Specialty Coffee, which he wrote to help customers develop profitable businesses by mastering all aspects of successful coffee shop operations.

We help entrepreneurs with little or no coffee experience become owners of thriving coffee shops serving their local communities, he said. From choosing a terrific location and writing a strong coffee shop business plan to buying and laying out equipment, hiring and training staff, and more, our team is here to guide you.

To hear about the book in Uberts own words, download a free recorded introduction on Soundcloud.

In developing Cattlemens Coffee House in Franklinton, Indiana, Owners Schantell and Lane Russell sought to bring their local community together over terrific coffee.

The shop at 1809 Main Street also pays tribute to generations of cattlemen in Washington Parish.

Coffee makes people happy and brings people together, Schantell Russell said.

Also, farming and cattle ranching have played a huge role in my familys heritage through four generations: my great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, and finally, us.

Although they love coffee, the couple had no experience in running a coffee shop.

Lanes career has been in offshore and international oil drilling. Schantell has worked as a nurse in neurology and pain management.

A search for support led to Crimson Cup. A one-stop shop for independent coffee shops, the roaster supplies award-winning coffee, coffee business expertise, hands-on training, and industry-leading coffee shop supplies.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into, Schantell said. After discussing franchising options with other roasters, Crimson Cup almost sounded too good to be true. But it truly is as good as it sounds.

The one-on-one relationships throughout the entire process ensured I was never left to struggle on my own, she added. The 7 Steps team was always available for questions and support. Theyre awesome!

She found Step Two, Focus on Efficiency Of Equipment Layout, the most valuable.

My coffee house is in a unique location, so the help with making it as efficient as possible was really helpful, she said. The book is still in my office, and I refer to it all the time.

She had this advice for others who are considering opening their own coffee shops: Dont try to do this on your own. Dont think that Crimson Cup is too good to be true; they really are so helpful throughout the process.

The Russells invite everyone in Franklinton and Washington Parish to visit Cattlemans Coffee House at 1809 Main Street, inside the new Forshags Drugstore across from Riverside Medical Center.

To keep up with events and announcements, follow the shops Facebook Page.

Besides the Louisiana guide, Crimson Cup recently published guides on How to Start a Coffee Shop in Texas, Ohio, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Virginia, Missouri, Wisconsin, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Iowa.

About once a week for the next year, the roaster will post state-level coffee shop startup guides on its website. Next up: a guide on how to start a coffee shop in Nebraska.

Although the fundamentals of coffee shop operation remain the same from state to state, the economic opportunities, business formation, and licensing requirements vary widely, Ubert said.

Were excited to share information and resources to help entrepreneurs expedite their startup journey.

He invited anyone who is thinking of opening a coffee shop in any state to call Crimson Cup for guidance.

If you run into any roadblocks or just want to discuss your vision with a coffee expert, you can reach our startup team by calling 1-888-800-9224.

About Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea

Founded in 1991, Crimson Cup is at the forefront of the coffee industry. It's attentive roasting, startup support, and global partnerships are consciously designed for the greater good of communities around the world. Among other national recognitions, the company has earned the 2020 and 2017 Good Food Awards, the 2019 Golden Bean Champion for Small Franchise/Chain Roaster, and Roast magazines 2016 Macro Roaster of the Year.

Crimson Cup travels the world searching for the perfect cup  driven by meaningful relationships, honesty, and a shared vision for the future. Its Friend2Farmer initiatives foster respect and decency through mutually beneficial collaboration across local and global communities.

Through its 7 Steps to Success coffee shop startup program, the company teaches entrepreneurs how to open and run independent coffee houses in their local communities. By developing a coffee shop business plan, entrepreneurs gain insight into coffee shop startup costs.

Crimson Cup coffee is available through over 350 independent coffee houses, grocers, colleges and universities, restaurants, and food service operations across 30 states, Guam, and Bangladesh. The company also owns several Crimson Cup Coffee Shops and a new CRIMSON retail flagship store. To learn more, visit crimsoncup.com, or follow the company on Facebook and Instagram.
Keegan Hackman and Katie Pintabone-Brown We congratulate Katie and Keegan on the exciting honor of being named to Lehigh Valley Businesss Forty Under 40 list, said New Vitae President and CEO Judith O. Yanacek. Their inspiring leadership has been a tremendous benefit to New Vitae."

Lehigh Valley Business has selected Quakertown House Administrator Katie Pintabone-Brown and Recovery Center Director Keegan Hackman as recipients of its Forty Under 40 Awards. These awards recognize Lehigh Valley leaders under the age of 40 based on their professional accomplishments, community service and commitment to inspiring change. Winners are selected by an outside panel of judges that includes previous winners.

We congratulate Katie and Keegan on the exciting honor of being named to Lehigh Valley Businesss Forty Under 40 list, said New Vitae President and CEO Judith O. Yanacek. Their inspiring leadership has been a tremendous benefit to New Vitae, and we are grateful for their constant dedication to the well-being and care of our residents. They are very deserving of this recognition, and we celebrate their invaluable contributions to the New Vitae community.

Pintabone-Brown oversees New Vitaes Quakertown House, a licensed Personal Care Home that encourages increased independence by connecting residents with the community and has been with New Vitae for 17 years. As administrator, she works to ensure the facility is a welcoming place to live, work, and visit. She is a certified Personal Care Home Administrator and holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from Kutztown University.

I am honored to be included among other Lehigh Valley leaders working to make our community a better place, and to share this honor with my colleague, Keegan, said Pintabone-Brown. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve New Vitaes residents and ensure that they have a safe, and nurturing environment to focus on their well-being and recovery.

Hackman joined New Vitae Wellness and Recovery in 2018 as an outpatient therapist. In 2019 she became the Clinical Supervisor and currently serves as the Director of outpatient services at The Recovery Center. A Licensed Clinical Social Worker, she received a masters degree in social work from Delaware State University and a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Delaware.

It is a wonderful honor to be recognized by Lehigh Valley Business for my work with New Vitae, said Hackman. I am proud to support our residents in their growth and recovery through our holistic programs and services, and I am grateful to be included in this list alongside other inspiring community leaders, including my colleague, Katie.

Pintabone-Brown and Hackman were honored on September 14 during an awards celebration at DeSales University. Read the list of Lehigh Valley Business Forty Under 40 winners.

About New Vitae Wellness and Recovery: New Vitae Wellness and Recovery is dedicated to providing comprehensive behavioral health care services and supportive residential opportunities for adults. Our array of services promotes holistic wellness through varying levels of residential supports that are combined with clinical services for individuals who experience mental health, addiction, brain injury, and intellectual disability challenges. With sites in Bucks, Lehigh, and Philadelphia counties, New Vitae works with individuals and families to utilize personal strengths, develop personal independence, and provide opportunities for community connections. To learn more about our services, please visit http://www.newvitaewellness.com.
Never a winery to rest on their laurels, Giovanni Rosso proudly announces their ground-breaking certification for environmental, ethical and economic sustainability. In a recent assessment conducted by internationally renowned Equalitas, the vineyards and the winery alike were rigorously evaluated and awarded the status of Sustainable Winery. This additional label will appear on all new vintages from November 2022.

The winery will continue to be audited annually and are delighted to be contributing to the reduction in environmental impact. There are three main areas which are evaluated by Equalitas: environmental, social and economic. These pillars encompass all aspects of the winery from business management and processes, to stakeholders as well as community and cultural projects - which taken in their entirety demonstrate the reach of this prestigious winery.

This is a real achievement for everyone involved, and something very close to the heart of Owner and Winemaker Davide Rosso who said Being a long-established family winery, we understand the value and responsibility we have for future generations. We want to leave as minimal an environmental impact as we can whilst we continue to produce wine of the highest quality with a true sense of its place.

In another historic milestone Giovanni Rosso introduces 2018 Cerretta Barolo D.O.C.G for sale via Bordeauxs La Place. May 2021 saw Giovanni Rossos, 2018 Etna Rosso, became the first Etna wine to be available to purchase via the Bordeaux fine wine sales system and the producer is keen to build on this success.

Giovanni Rosso will continue to work with selected internationally renowned negociants Joanne, Barriere Freres, Louis Vialard, LD Vins, Descaves, Ballande & Meneret, Alias and Maison Ginestet to showcase their 2018 Cerretta Barolo D.O.C.G. Releasing approximately 7,000 bottles, which is almost the entire production, to La Place.

The 2018 Cerretta wine which is 100% Nebbiolo from the Serralunga dAlba region of Piedmont has already achieved critical acclaim, garnering scores of 97/100 from Gardini Notes and 95/100 from Wine Enthusiast.

The Cerretta vineyard which sits at 350-365 m.a.s.l has been owned by the family since 1920 and was partially replanted in 1984 and again in 2000. This amphitheatre shaped plot, with eastern and south-eastern exposure has calcareous-clay soil. This unique topography creates a micro-climate perfect for the Nebbiolo grapes.

The vinification process sees skin contact for 27 days in concrete tanks with daily pumping over. Aged in French oak barrels of 25 and 50 hl for 35 months, the wine presents a stunning ruby red colour, a nose of sour cherries and woodland berries with hints of floral and herbaceous notes. The ripe tannins create a balanced framework of refined structure delivering succulent fruit, tobacco and balsamic to taste.

Images for use can be found in the following link:

https://we.tl/t-W12Ca8fHQM

Equalitas Label:

https://we.tl/t-Wh7opOuWSL

Links:

https://www.equalitas.it/

Notes to Editors

The Rosso Family have been farming vineyards in Serralunga dAlba since the 1890s, becoming not just a Barolo producer, but a Serralunga wine producer.

Giovanni Rosso created his own winery in the 1990s, with son Davide taking over the wine making process in 2001 at just 27 years of age. The goal has always been to create the finest wines with the mantra that wine should be a perfect copy of its terroir referring, in this case, to the one of Serralunga dAlba, considered among the best soils in the world.

Having founded, developed, and expanded the company Giovanni Rosso, Davide and his mother Ester have achieved great success and worldwide recognition. Always excited by challenge and looking to test their values of innovation and excellence, Giovanni Rosso expanded, looking to Sicily and now produces wines of the highest quality from the Etna region.

The wines of Giovanni Rosso are today enjoyed in some of the finest restaurants and hotels around the globe and can be found on the shelves of the most exclusive wine merchants.

For further information and any other requests please contact:

Uliana Turcan

E: uliana@giovannirosso.com

T: +39 (0) 173 613340
Click here for old website
Booksellers, publishers, librarians, and agents are encouraged to look at the 55 self-published titles below. Each appears with a list of retailers that are selling the book and a description provided by its author. Some of these writers are waiting to be discovered; others have track records and followings and are doing it on their own. If you are a self-published author interested in listing titles in this section, please visit publishersweekly.com/pw-select for more information.

Fiction

As Time Goes By

W. Royce Adams. RJK Books. $21.99 paper (274p), ISBN 979-89-86488-50-9; $8.99 e-book, ISBN 979-89-86488-51-6

Amazon, BN.com, Ingram

Nearing the end with all his loved ones gone, Old decides to examine his lifes worth and meaning by writing his memoir.

Boys in Exile

Richard Duggin. BookLocker Press. $28.95 paper (422p), ISBN 979-88-85312-03-5; $10.99 e-book, ISBN 979-88-85312-04-2

Amazon, BN.com, BookLocker Press

Boys sent to a summer camp to learn lifelong skills must learn to survive running the gauntlet of bullying and hazing that fashions the man from the boy.

A Camp Without FIre

Ignacio Ramirez Bautista. Ignacio Ramirez. $3.99 e-book, ASIN B01MY0SOIL

Amazon

Marlene and Derek barely talked in high school. Seven years after graduating, they come into contact again after both losing their first loves.

Canley

Stella Grosjean. Austin Macauley Publishers. $12.95 paper (216p), ISBN 978-1-398-42011-3; $4.50 e-book, ISBN 978-1-398-42012-0

Amazon, BN.com

An accused and an accuser. Relationships are tested as loyalties are torn, friends betray each other, and emotions run high. All fired by the events in the small town of Canley.

January 6th and the Millennial Horde

Andy Lazris. Andy Lazris. $13.99 paper (309p), ISBN 979-88-380-5942-0; $9.99 e-book, ASIN B0B57THYZX

Amazon

This dystopian novel asks what might have occurred if two very passionate and driven fictional characters were inserted into the national narrative after the January 6 Capitol attacks.

Kittys People: An Irish Family Saga About the Rise of a Generous Woman

Susan Barrett Price. Mad in Pursuit. $16 paper (376p), ISBN 978-0-9841292-6-3; $5.99 e-book, ASIN B0B8LG4NFL

Amazon

A biographical novel and family saga with Irish roots, ill-fated siblings, unconventional love stories, and big hearts, set in the Midwest, 18851934.

Most Famous Short Film of All Time

Tucker Lieberman. tRaum Books. $25 paper (455p), ISBN 978-3-949666-08-7; $11.99 e-book, ISBN 978-3-949666-09-4

Amazon, Ingram, Gumroad, Traumbooks.com

Lev tells campfire stories with his longtime friend Stanley and coworker Aparna. When he receives an anonymous threatening email, he reports it to his boss, but he is not believed.

Silver Bottle

Joan Spilman. Moon Valley Publishing. $16.95 paper (399p), ISBN 979-87-18-82453-7

Amazon

Abandoned by her alcoholic mother, Lorraine learned to survive in her small rural town, until her mother reaches out to her, upsetting everything she knows and loves.

Squeeze Plays

Jeffrey Marshall. Atmosphere Press. $17.99 paper (263p), ISBN 978-1-63988-369-1; $7.99 e-book, ASIN B0B54YFT3R

Jmarshbks.com, Amazon, BN.com

A contemporary tale about money and power that finds the fortunes of three principal characters intersecting in a character-driven narrative about the corrupting influences of wealth.

The Student

John Amos. Austin Macauley Publishers. $13.95 paper (216p), ISBN 978-1-398-44272-6; $4.50 e-book, ISBN 978-1-398-44273-3

Amazon

A semiautobiographical account of the authors experiences as a student at the American University in Cairo immediately following the 1967 Six-Day War.

Poetry

Beauty and the Dark

Chyanne Myers. Austin Macauley Publishers. $22.95 (80p), ISBN 978-1-64536-239-5; $7.95 paper, ISBN 978-1-64536-238-8

Amazon

The inner workings of Myerss mind and life are put on a page for readers to enjoy. Hopefully, theyll find it both relatable and cathartic to read.

Mystery/Thriller

A Death Most Dastardly

Jaris Ash. Austin Macauley Publishers. $8.95 paper (104p), ISBN 978-1-398-45543-6; $4.50 e-book, ISBN 978-1-398-45544-3

Amazon

In the library, Guy trips over the coal scuttle, discovering a secret passageway, and Jeanie identifies knots as being crucial to the murderers identity.

Harrowing Roses

Barbara Cooper. Barbara Cooper. $34.99 (197p), ISBN 978-1-73971-721-6; $14.99 paper, ISBN 978-1-73971-728-5

Amazon, Apple iBooks, BN.com

Dana feels the atmosphere of the marsh seeping into her skin each day she spends in the cold, unwelcoming mansion of her fathers family, when her cousin suddenly goes missing.

Lasseters Truth

John Somerset. Austin Macauley Publishers. $27.95 (204p), ISBN 978-1-5289-9419-4; $13.95 paper, ISBN 978-1-5289-9418-7

Amazon

A thriller taking readers through coming-of-age, the greed of the 90s, and an adventure in the Great Australian Desert in a quest for Lasseters legendary gold reef.

The Mirror Man

J.B. Manas. Somerton Press. $12.99 paper (299p), ISBN 979-89-86259-10-9; $4.99 e-book, ASIN B0B9KDPYK5

Amazon

A reclusive writer with the power to read memories is forced by a mysterious stranger to steal government secrets that could send the West back to the Dark Ages.

Old Sins

Lynne Handy. Lynne Handy. $12 paper (295p), ISBN 979-88-390-0390-3; $4.99 e-book, ASIN B0B5HS2YCC

Amazon

Murder, kidnapping, and other crimesold and newweave together in unexpected ways in this standalone sequel with sleuth Maria Pell determined to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Soulstealer

Shane Boulware. Theorybee. $17.25 paper (290p), ISBN 978-1-73470-635-2; $4.99 e-book, ISBN 978-1-73470-633-8

Amazon, BN.com, Books-a-Million

A man gathers his allies in a fight against a soul-eating force threatening the world in the second installment of this supernatural thriller series.

Stumble and Fall

Amy Rivers. Compathy Press. $14.99 paper (292p), ISBN 978-1-73451-606-7; $5.99 e-book, ASIN B09YKQZSP6

Amazon, BN.com, Bookshop

In this sequel to Complicit, Kate and Tilly struggle with fear and self-doubt while the lives of the victims they are helping hang in the balance.

The Unraveling (Jeremiah and Susanne Series #1)

Max W. Justus. Newman Springs Publishing. $23.95 paper (360p), ISBN 978-1-63881-827-4; $9.49 e-book, ASIN B0B5FKBQQN

Amazon

A cast of characters joins together to solve a centuries-old mystery.

The Velvet Badge: A New York Noir

Bob Mantel. Jakey Press. $9.95 paper (231p), ISBN 979-88-12-31123-0; $4.95 e-book, ASIN B09Z9M7BRN

Amazon

Lesbian disco-era careerists fall afoul of a New York City revenge murder in this hard-edged neo-noir.

White Wolf

Cary Allen Stone. Fine Line Books. $7.99 paper (190p), ISBN 979-8-8432-7746-8; $4.99 e-book, ASIN B0B86P4JD1

Amazon, Apple iBooks, Google Play

SEAL Zach Kincaid and his Delta team must stop a violent takeover of the government. The survival of the United States of America is at stake.

SF/Horror/Fantasy

Ghosts of Randsburg: The Madames Secrets (Ghost Huntress Diaries)

Marie Mason. Marie Mason. $24.99 paper (136p), ISBN 979-8-8240-6654-8

Amazon

A fictional version of real-life ghost hunter Mason acquires tangible evidence in the ghost town of Randsburg, revealing secrets from the past.

In a Black Tapestry: A Tale Woven in Dread

Daryl K. Hill. KDP. $8.44 paper (195p), ISBN 979-84-244-0694-2; $7.28 e-book, ASIN B09T6XDHKM

Amazon

A horror novel set in a fantasy reimagining of the Livonian crusade, about a village with a dark past threaded in its mysterious tapestry.

The Vessel of Elseland

D.A.N.T.E. Austin Macauley Publishers. $4.50 (66p), ISBN 978-1-398-44027-2; $7.95 paper, ISBN 978-1-398-44026-5

Amazon

Dante is a tormented artist plagued by nightmares of strange creatures. The walls of madness and reality are crumbled by his demons, and he suspects they are linked with his dreams.

Romance/Erotica

Black Switch

D. Van Bui. Austin Macauley Publishers. $30.95 (270p), ISBN 978-1-63829-368-2; $16.95 paper, ISBN 978-1-64750-597-4

Amazon

Sebastian Sinclair wants to come down to earth and live a lifeonly the journey he signed up for ends up being way more than he can handle.

Looking for Love at 82

Alex Gall. Alex Gall Publishing. $9.99 paper (144p), ISBN 978-1-956161-51-9

Amazon

Gall chronicles and summarizes the trials and tribulations of the online dating experience as his characters figure out how to use a computer in order to meet dates, soulmates, and future brides.

Love in Sayre Valley

Dennis Carr and Judi Burton-Carr. Austin Macauley Publishers. $29.95 (240p), ISBN 978-1-64750-648-3; $15.95 paper, ISBN 978-1-64750-649-0

Amazon

When fate draws two musicians from opposite ends of the music spectrum together in West Virginia, can they overcome their many philosophical, cultural, and musical differences to find love?

Nonfiction

Bas-Relief Modeling

Ross Pollard. Mixam. $10 paper (76p), ISBN 979-82-18-04165-6

Alibris, eBay

A concise introduction to the tools and techniques of traditional bas-relief sculpture. It covers the fundamentals of working with clay, wax, plastilina, plaster, and bronze.

Breaking the Spell over America: How to Stop Satans Plan to Destroy America

Scott Wallis. Xulon Press. $26.49 (208p), ISBN 978-1-66284-389-1; $16.49 paper, ISBN 978-1-66284-386-0

Amazon, BN.com

America is on the verge of civil war. Political factions, media pundits, and zealotry have placed America on the precipice. Wallis provides his thoughts on hope, context, and wisdom for America.

Comedy Techniques for Variety Artists (Creativity for Entertainers #4)

Bruce Johnson. Charlies Creative Comedy. $28.99 paper (566p), ISBN 979-89-86277-20-2; $9.99 e-book, ISBN 979-89-86277-22-6

Amazon, BN.com

A complete course in creating comedy for variety artists with a discussion of techniques, historical examples, and exercises.

Family: A Family Docs Memoir of Life in Africa and the US

Ed Dodge. Wheatmark. $11.95 paper (226p), ISBN 978-1-62787-571-4; $4.99 e-book, ASIN B07B3V1GT5

Amazon

Dodge sought to share what he learned about life and health with others.

Forget Me Not: A Caregivers Guide to Early-Onset Alzheimers Disease: Tips for Caring for Your Parent While Maintaining Your Peace and Avoiding Burnout

Torri L. Fisher. iTreatMyself. $13.99 paper (168p), ISBN 979-88-372-1110-2; 99 e-book, ASIN B0B6BGMBV7

Amazon

Fisher argues that staying sane while still being able to care for loved ones is possible with the guidance of her work.

Healing Americas Narratives: The Feminine, the Masculine, & Our Collective National Shadow

Reggie Marra. From the Heart Press. $22 paper (526p), ISBN 979-89-86269-00-9; $9.99 e-book, ISBN 979-89-86269-01-6

Amazon

A multidisciplinary cautionary tale and love letter that invites Americans to re-vision current and historical narratives in order to heal individually and collectively before its too late.

Hurling Words into Darkness: A Book Doctors Dose of Brain Science for Writers (2nd ed.)

Peter Gelfan. Sargasso Press. $14.99 paper (118p), ISBN 979-89-86345-10-9; $7.99 e-book, ISBN 979-89-86345-11-6

Amazon, BN.com, Ingram, Kobo

Veteran editor, novelist, and teacher Gelfan uses cognitive science and unique insights to show writers of all kinds how to create a more effective reading experience.

The Last Stop

Patricia Street. Acorn Publishing. $12.95 paper (400p), ISBN 978-1-952112-55-3

Amazon, BN.com, Books-a-Million, Kobo

A true story about a sons drug use, treatment, and relapse, and about coping and grieving. A read for families immersed in the life-altering aspects of active addiction.

Lost

Barbara Ann Quinlan. Book Reality Experience. $8.95 paper (126p), ISBN 978-0-648-94976-3; $3.99 e-book, ASIN B0964MC6GZ

Amazon

Quinlan was born in the sheltered world of upstate New York in the 1950s. When her family moved to California, she easily slipped into the embodiment of a 1960s wild child.

The Model and Other Critical Knowledge (Life Enabling Enterprise: An Alternative Approach to Commerce, #1)

Raphael L. Vitalo and Christopher J. Bujak. Lowrey Press. $28 paper (614p), ISBN 978-0-9722810-8-9; $15 e-book, ISBN 978-0-9722810-9-6

Vitalentusa.com

The authors claim their book is the first to evaluate capitalisms effects from economic, social, and evolutionary perspectives. They also present a new economic approach, which they claim enriches human life and its ecosystem.

The Monzelli Tales: True Stories of a Film Buff Gone Wild

John Gloske. Gatekeeper Press. $22.95 paper (206p), ISBN 978-1-66291-171-2

Amazon

Join in Monzellis wild, vodka-fueled film buff life. Contains unheard stories and unseen photos of his adventures with Richard Burton, Sam Peckinpah, and many others.

A Parents Guide for Educational Success for Their Children

Joann Falciani. Authors Tranquility Press. $7.99 paper (32p), ISBN 978-1-957208-66-4

Amazon

This is a parents guide for the educational success of their children.

The Prisoners Cross

Peter B. Unger. Wipf and Stock. $19 paper (169p), ISBN 978-1-5326-9613-8; $9 e-book, ISBN 978-1-5326-9615-2

Amazon, BN.com

A survivor of a WWII Japanese POW camp mentors a seminary student traumatized by childhood experiences that have left him doubting his faith.

Purposeful Memoir as a Quest for a Thriving Future: Inspiration for Writers and Seekers

Jennifer Browdy. Green Fire Press. $29 paper (103p), ISBN 978-1-73284-149-9; $9.99 e-book, ASIN B09N9WL7T1

Amazon, BookBaby, Ingram

Browdys book, through the contemplative practice of purposeful memoir, seeks to help readers explore the past, understand the present more fully, and step with greater intention into the thriving future.

A Reason to Live

Chris Wilkins. Chris Wilkins. $14.99 (160p), ISBN 979-88-376-9402-8; $6.99 e-book, ISBN 979-86-87335-98-0

Amazon

A book about people, places, and things that matter in Wilkinss lifein short, his reasons to live.

The Reject Bench: A Memoir

James H. Morgan. James H. Morgan. $13.95 paper (468p), ISBN 979-8-4637-6682-3; $1.99 e-book, ASIN B09DTMGL4X

Amazon

A coming-of-age memoir about a boy whose family moves to a new neighborhood. It follows Jim through six years of his life, from 1961 to 1967.

A Sky of Infinite Blue: A Japanese Immigrants Search for Home and Self

Kyomi OConnor. She Writes Press. $17.95 paper (312p), ISBN 978-1-64742-227-1; $8.99 e-book, ASIN B09NNDM5VQ

Amazon, Bookshop, Diesel Bookstore

After OConnor lost her husband to brain cancer, she began writinga practice that brought light to the dark places inside and helped her reach a place of peace and healing.

Children/YA

Advent 9

T. Alan Horne. Tristellation Media. $9.99 e-book, ISBN 979-89-86496-12-2; $14.99 audio (13 hrs 52 mins), ISBN 979-89-86496-13-9

Amazon, Apple iBooks, BN.com, Google Play, Kobo

The last superhero on Earth teams up with an old-guard supervillain to stop a world-ending threat. Their relationship gets complicated when the villain discovers the heros weakness.

Beyond the Veil

Michael Thursby. Michael Thursby. $5.99 e-book, ISBN 978-1-77800-210-6

Amazon, Kobo

A boy is pulled into a world of myths and legends where he must come to terms with who he is if he has any chance of succeeding at the task he was assigned.

Bourgueil Tapestry: How People Really Lived in France from 1003 Through 1975

Douglas Bullis. Atelier Books. Free e-book, ISBN 978-1-998965-01-4

Issuu.com

How did ordinary people live in France through the ages? Walk alongside those people on a single day each century from 1003 through 1975.

The Gate to Htrae

Kerry Gough, illus. by Sheila Fein. BookBaby. $15 paper (285p), ISBN 978-1-66783-303-3; $7.99 e-book, ISBN 978-1-66783-304-0

Amazon, BN.com, BookBaby

Young Alex unlocks a majestic gate, steps through, and disappears onto Htrae, Earths mirror image. Blessed by Pure Light, he joins the Htraeans to battle Natas and his Slegna Nellaf.

Lost in Hanks Hollow (Hanks Hollow #3)

Rachelle Kampen. Rachelle Kampen. $12.99 paper (212p), ISBN 979-89-86075-22-8; $3.99 e-book, ASIN B0B46FY2FQ

Amazon

The Hart pack is left reeling after tragedy strikes right in their backyard.

Love in the Age of Dragons: A Novel

Fatima R. Henson. SparkPress. $17.95 paper (360p), ISBN 978-1-68463-163-6; $9.95 e-book, ISBN 978-1-68463-164-3

Amazon, BN.com, Indiebound

A wormhole opened and vicious dragons entered. Now, Ayanna Grace, a 17-year-old Black girl, must survive in an abandoned subway system where water and medicine are running short.

Muses and Inspirations

Gosta W. Iwasiuk. Cutting Edge Publishing. $20 (92p), ISBN 978-0-9763928-8-0

Gusiwasiuk.com, Amazon

Two Ukrainian artists want to share their inspirations. Iwasiuk and his father have works spanning nearly a century.

Nothing You Cant Do: A Book for Every Girl and Boy

Lindsay J.L. Angus. The Angus Library. $16.95 (24p), ISBN 978-0-9958608-2-7; $12.95 paper, ISBN 978-0-9958608-1-0

Lindsayjlangus.com, Amazon

A picture book for children everywhere about big dreams and endless possibilities.

Painting Joy: The Art and Life of Fernando Llort

Teddi Ahrens. IngramSparks. $17.50 paper (54p), ISBN 979-89-85285-90-1

Storytreeprints.com, Amazon, BN.com

Fernando Llort, national artist of El Salvador, mixed fantasy with pre-Columbian images. He created a community of artisans and reconnected Salvadorans to their ancient past.

Peanut Butter Monster

Melissa Kowalik. Cow Lick Publishing. $10 paper (34p), ISBN 978-0-648-90009-2; $2.99 e-book, ISBN 978-0-648-90010-8

Amazon, BN.com

The Peanut Butter Monster eats jars and jars of peanut butter every day. But what happens when the Peanut Butter Monster runs out of peanut butter?

You Cant Be My Oxygen

T.K. McCann. T.K. McCann. $16.99 (319p), ISBN 979-88-440-3969-0; $2.99 e-book, ASIN B0B8SGMMMW

Amazon

A 16-year-old girl from Detroit is shipped off to her grandmother in Wyoming after suffering violence at the hands of her cousin.
With Banned Books Weeks in full swing, federal lawmakers this week introduced a forceful bicameral resolution condemning the wave of book bans and educational gag orders sweeping the country as a "profound attacks on books and freedom of expression in the United States."

The September 22 resolution was introduced in the House by Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Democrat from Maryland who is chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committees Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and in the senate by Senator Brian Schatz, the Democrat from Hawaii. Earlier this year, the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties held two hearings (which were co-chaired by Raskin) that explored the surging efforts across the country to ban books from schools and public libraries based on ideological motivations.

The wave of book bans that has swept across our country in recent years is a direct attack on First Amendment rights and should alarm every American who believes that freedom of expression is a fundamental pillar of our democracy, Raskin said in a release announcing the resolution. The efforts to remove books from schools and public libraries simply because they introduce ideas about diversity or challenge students to think beyond their own lived experience is not only anti-democratic but also a hallmark of authoritarian regimes. During this Banned Books Week, we must call attention to these threats to freedom of expression, reaffirm our commitment to protect First Amendment rights, and, most importantly, read banned books.

The text of the seven-page Banned Books Week resolution acknowledges the alarming spike in book bans and educational gag orders over the last two years, which have been primarily aimed at books concerning race and the LGBTQ community. It calls denying access to books and literature an inherently illiberal and anti-democratic tactic used by authoritarian regimes against their people.

The resolution seeks to recognize the alarming threats to freedom of expression sweeping the country and reiterate the United States commitment to supporting writers freedom of expression. It calls for local governments and educational institutions to protect the rights of students to learn and the ability of educators and librarians to teach students by way of providing students with the opportunity to read a wide array of books reflecting a multitude of viewpoints and perspectives.

 The wave of book bans that has swept across our country in recent years is a direct attack on First Amendment rights and should alarm every American. 

The resolution comes as ALA officials last week reported 681 documented attempts to ban or restrict library resources in public libraries, schools, and universities through the first eight months of 2022on pace to shatter the 729 challenges ALA tracked in 2021and a PEN America report, which found more than 2,500 book bans were issued in some 140 school districts in 32 states during the 2021-22 school year.

Across the country, librarians and educators are on the front lines, facing unprecedented attacks simply for helping Americans to exercise their First Amendment rights, said Lessa Kananiopua Pelayo-Lozada, President of the American Library Association. We are proud to stand with Congressman Raskin in defense of Americans freedom to read.

Book bans are a blatant affront to free expression, the lifeblood of our democracy, added Nadine Farid Johnson, Managing Director of PEN America Washington and Free Expression Programs. Amid brazen trends of censorship targeting our nations classrooms, PEN America lauds Congressman Raskins resolution, which is an incisive reaffirmation of First Amendment principles.

The measure is also supported by numerous other organizations, including the American Federation of Teachers, Campaign for Our Shared Future, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, EveryLibrary, Florida Freedom to Read Project, National Coalition Against Censorship, National Council of Teachers of English, National Education Association, National Book Foundation, Banned Books Week Coalition, Red Wine and Blue Education Fund, Protect Diversity, and Stand for Children.

Banned Books Week 2022 runs through September 24.
The Frankfurt Book Fair returns Wednesday to Sunday, October 1923, with two and a half days dedicated to professional events for publishers and two days solely for the general public. More than 4,000 exhibitors from 85 countries are registered. Seventy national stands will showcase publishers and books from around the world, and the Literary Agents Centers 450 tables are sold-out.

We expect there to be much the same feeling as there was at the fair before the pandemic, says Frankfurt Book Fair director Juergen Boos, who estimates attendance will be 70% of that of 2019. While many publishers have adapted to doing business digitally, people seem to need to be in Frankfurt to meet face-to-face. The German government, which continues to support the fair with financial subsidies it began providing in 2020, has lifted restrictions demanding mask wearing and social distancing and, Boos adds, no new mandates will be imposed, provided there is no obvious crisis.

This years book fair is focusing on the topic of translation. It is the only way for words to make their way out into the world and is the basis for the rights and licensing business and for understanding between cultures, Boos notes.

Hall allocations are much as before, with U.S. and U.K. publishers in Hall 6, international publishers in Halls 2 and 4, and German publishers in Hall 3. As a result of the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions in China, Chinese publishers will not be attending the fair. Russian publishers will also be absent, in accordance with the decision made early this year to exclude the countrys national stand following Russias invasion of Ukraine. To support the Ukrainian publishing industry, more than 30 Ukrainian publishers will be attending the fair, while several dozen Ukrainian authors, illustrators, and other professionals will be featured in more than a dozen events highlighting publishing from the now war-torn country. Ukrainian author and musician Serhij Zhadan will be awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade during the fair.

Numerous top publishing executives will be on hand, including Michael Tamblyn, CEO of Kobo, and Ashleigh Gardner, senior v-p, managing director global publishing of Wattpad WEBTOON Studios; both will be interviewed in the Global 50 CEO Talk 2022, organized by Austrian publishing consultant Ruediger Wischenbart. Transforming Diversity, a new half-day childrens book conference on October 19, will feature Peter Warwick, the president and CEO of Scholastic, as a keynote speaker.

Some minor changes to the fair are being implemented. The public will be admitted starting on Friday, marking a change from when Friday was reserved exclusively for professionals; there will be no livestreaming of events, as there has been in the past two years, though events will be recorded; and once again exhibitors will have no central area like the former Business Club to congregate, but hot desks will be situated throughout the fair, which can be reserved. The Hof, a series of fireside chats at the Frankfurter Hof hotel, has already begun streaming and will continue during the fair. The Frankfurt Bookfest, the fairs consumer-facing book festival, also returns and will feature well-known authors including Jarvis Cocker, Sebastian Fitzek, Donna Leon, and Leila Slimani for readings, interviews, and books signings for the public.

African publishers sponsored by the Africa Publishing Innovation Fund will have a dedicated collective stand, and seminars focusing on book industries and promotion of reading in various African nations are planned. TikTok will host its own stage in the Agora, and the Frankfurt Audio area will feature international audiobook companies such as Beat Technology, Bookwire, and Spotify.

The guest of honor country is Spain, and the king and queen of Spain are expected to attend the fairs opening ceremony. The motto for the guest of honor program is Creativity Overflowing, and to that end the fair will offer events focusing on sustainability, bibliodiversity, digital creativity, and the cultural bridge and bond between Spain and Latin America. In all, Spain will bring a group of some 200 writers, translators, illustrators, publishers, literary agents, booksellers, and distributors. We wanted all those who are part of the book ecosystem to be present, says Elvira Marco, who is organizing the program for Spain. Featured events will include discussions with authors Kiko Amat, Fernando Aramburu, Elizabeth Duval, Sara Mesa, Rosa Montero, Christina Morales, and Antonio Munoz Molina, among others, as well as tributes for publisher Jorge Herralde, agent Carmen Balcells, and authors such as Almudena Grandes and Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

An online translation portal called Books from Spain was launched to coincide with the guest of honor program and featured 100 Spanish publishers, each promoting five titles to be translated. The result is that between 2019 and the start of this years fair, more than 400 titles will have been translated into German from Spanish.

Read more from our Frankfurt Preview:

Frankfurt Preview: Rights Center Buzz

We round up the big titles U.S. agencies will be selling at this years Frankfurt Book Fair.
Poet Rupi Kaur has been on a world tour for much of the past year, interacting with a very small portion of the millions of fans she has attracted through her social media platforms. On her tour, she showcases her poetry and discusses her personal journey through, as she says on her website, loss and love, growth, mental health, community, friendship and strength.

Just 21 when she released milk and honey, a self-published illustrated collection of poetry and art, Kaur quickly became a phenomenon. Her subsequent poetry books, the sun and her flowers and home body, also became worldwide bestsellers, and in 2021 Kaur produced and starred in her debut film, Rupi Kaur Live, which is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video. This fall, Kaur, now 29, is publishing Healing Through Words (S&S Canada), a collection of guided writing prompts intended to foster creativity, encourage celebration of the self, and help readers process trauma, loss, heartache, love, and healing.

Healing Through Words aims to help readers express themselves as you have done. What is your view of poetry or writing as a tool for self-expression, self-exploration, or even self-therapy?

Writing has always been the way Ive come to understand life experiences. Ive been able to reflect, grow, and make art out of all the joy and pain life has shown me through the written word, and I get to share that with the world. Sometimes, healing comes from honest conversations with yourself, and writing allows you the space and freedom to do so. There is an unimpeachable power in words, and I hope my new book, Healing Through Words, provides that same freedom for others, perhaps even giving it a higher purpose.

How has your work evolved, particularly as you grow older and face different challenges?

I think you can tell from the evolution of my previous three booksalthough they all carry similar themes of trauma, love, healing, loss, sexuality, community, etc. Ive also expressed different perspectives on all of them. As time goes on, I dive into themes I havent before in previous bodies of work. Ive written each book in different stages of my life. My first book, milk and honey, was written when I was a university student in my dorm room. My second book, the sun and her flowers, was written when I was a young author navigating newfound recognition for my work. My third was home body, written during a period of depression and during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns. Each time, I found myself inspired to write and emphasize different emotions or experiences from those time periods. Ive also written a lot more about community and our role and responsibility as stewards of nature in my latter books.

Do you feel a responsibility to your readers to continue to be vulnerable and revelatory?

I feel a responsibility to continue being vulnerable with myself. If I cant remain vulnerable with myself, I cant create. If I were writing for others, I dont think Id be able to do it. I share my writing because it makes me feel connected to other peoplebut only what I feel confident and good about. There are a number of poems where I am deeply raw and honest, and those will never be published because those are for me. To an extent, I still have to protect myself and my space if I hope to remain a writer who shares her work publicly for decades to come.

Has your commercial success complicated your self-image?

I write poetry, but Im a human first. Im a woman first. Im a Punjabi-Sikh woman first. I just happen to be on a very public journey, which complicates things, but thats why I always remind myself: I am allowed to step outside of the box the world sees me in. In fact, I owe it to myselfto feel alive.

How did your background as a Canadian influence your work?

I think one of the most amazing things about Canada and Toronto specifically is the diversity I grew up around. It never felt like I needed to shed my Punjabi or Sikh heritage to be Canadianin fact being Canadian meant I could hold onto it, and share it with those around me. Moving to Canada gave us the promise of a brighter future, while also allowing us to feel deeply connected to our roots from the motherland. Im proud of my background and it will always be deeply rooted in my work.

Back to main the feature.
When Denison Avenue, a novel with pen-and-ink illustrations, came into my inbox as a submission, it felt like fate. I know this sounds dramatic, but bear with meI swear its worth it. (Youll just have to wait until next May to read it!).

I had been working in publishing for over 20 years in various roles, including one memorable year selling ads for a mining newspaper, which meant I learned a lot about rocks. When I started, I had dreams of the books I could acquire and edit if given the chance. These books would give voice to people who had not been given space, and would expand how we think of our communities and intersections. But, in 1998, as I collated media kits and faxed ad specs, that dream seemed very, very distant.

Fast forward 23 years, and my publishing career had taken a beautiful shape. I had just started as an acquisitions editor at ECW Press, the Canadian independent that had published two of my own books and that delights in bringing provocative, weird, and fun titles into the marketbooks like the award-winning The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed and The Environmentalists Dilemma by Arno Kopecky. I had finally been given the freedom to look for and develop titles that play with formI love books that defy expectations of genre and surprise readersand bring previously invisible stories into the light.

I come from a Chinese family that first arrived in Canada in the late 19th century, when my great grandfather came for a gold rush, but then returned home with no gold to speak of for his efforts. His son, my grandfather, came to Canada in 1913 and stayed, despite discriminatory immigration policies and years of separation from his wife and children. His life, from his childhood in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province to his decades of running the only barbershop in Vancouvers Chinatown, has been a touchstone for me personally, but also professionally. There is so much about him, my grandmother, and the other early Chinese immigrants to North America that has remained untold.

Denison Avenue, written by Christina Wong and illustrated by Daniel Innes, is the story of an elderly Chinese Canadian woman named Wong Cho Sum, who begins to collect recyclables after the sudden death of her husband, as a way to distract her from her grief but also to find community in Torontos quickly gentrifying Chinatown-Kensington Market neighborhood. Its a place that she has lived in most of her adult life, and yet she finds herself feeling displaced as familiar businesses shut down and condo towers are built in their place. Daniels illustrations, finely detailed drawings of the buildings and streets that Cho Sum walks past every day, bring the neighborhood to life. Even as we were editing the book, some of the buildings were demolished, so the poignancy of Denison Avenue is acute and urgent.

For me, the connections are even deeper. Cho Sum speaks mainly in Toisan, the dialect of the early Chinese Canadian and American immigrants. Toisan is also the dialect of my family, what we spoke at home, the words we used when my mother was teaching us how to cook. By the 1980s, when different waves of Chinese immigrants began arriving from different provinces in China and other countries like Taiwan, Toisan took a backseat among the diaspora, and Cantonese and Mandarin became dominant. Today, Toisan is most often spoken by the elderly, the Chinese seniors who are watching their language and their communities simultaneously fade away.

Cho Sum reminds me of my grandfather, my father, and my mother, people whose livesfilled with hard work and resiliencyare rarely seen in popular culture and almost never in books. When I first began reading the manuscript for Denison Avenue, I didnt know that it was the book I had been waiting for my whole life, but by the time I had finished it, I knew it with more certainty that I had ever felt.

Its not often that our personal stories and our professional ones dovetail as neatly as my past dovetails with my experience working with Daniel and Christina. But, trust me, its magical. Denison Avenue is everything I have ever wanted to acquire: a story that has gone untold up until now and a book that defies what we know about graphica, fiction, language, and even poetry. Perhaps even more importantly, Denison Avenue is, quite simply, everything I have ever loved.

Jen Sookfong Lee is a Chinese Canadian broadcaster, novelist, and acquisitions editor at ECW Press in Toronto.

Back to the main feature.
To really know me, you should know that my word is big, says Whynde Kuehn, community builder, thought leader, and author. I love big goals, big journeys, big adventures, and big transformations.



Kuehn, who lives in Norway, by way of Wisconsin and New York, brings this same big-thinking mindset to Strategy to Reality (Morgan James), an inspiring business book that offers guidance for entrepreneurs and leaders. Kuehn recognizes the challenges inherent in both developing a business vision and bringing that vision to fruition. Strategy to Reality is the culmination of Kuehns experiences across a broad range of global business sectors. At the core of Kuehns business philosophy is a focus on what she calls business architecture. She defines it this way: A business architecture is a business blueprint that represents, at a high level, what an organization does and how it is structured to deliver value to its customers and support its operations. By establishing this blueprint, an organization can effectively visualize its structure and collective purpose and better understand its goals and aspirations.



Kuehn traces the roots of Strategy to Reality to a business architecturethemed blog series she created called StraightTalk. The blog was oriented around questions, and that connected me deeply with the business architecture community I was writing for, she says. We cocreated the journey together, through questions, and I always felt that we were in a continual conversation. When writing Strategy to Reality, she chose to mirror the blogs focus on asking questions. I believe that questions are magical. They open a space for possibility, knowledge, dialogue, and clarity.

Having a clear sense of an organizations business architecture can answer essential questions surrounding target clientele and constituents, how those working within the organization are organized, and how the organization differentiates itself from others. Perhaps most importantly, business architecture can help to align and prioritize a companys mission and goals for the present and future while anticipating and navigating inevitable change. And, particularly over the last couple of years, change has become one of the few constants that business leaders can expect.



Business has indeed reshaped significantly, and I think we can assume that continually navigating and adapting to change will be our normal for years to come, Kuehn says. Strategy to Reality gives readers the tools to understand the impacts of change and a defined blueprint to design those changes so that they can be communicated and moved into action.





Kuehn emphasizes that business architecture isnt just a theoretical construct. Rather, like a blueprint for a building, it represents a plan of construction and an opportunity for company-wide galvanization. It can be helpful to think about business architecture in terms of building blocks themselves, each one critical to the construction in its own way.



Business architecture helps us to design or redesign our organizations with intent and agility, Kuehn says. We can assemble capabilities in different ways to deliver new value, products, and services. We can also design our organizations with increased efficiency, for example, by reducing the number of systems needed to automate the same capability.



And theres no limit to what a comprehensive, cohesive, and transparent business architecture can accomplish. Notably, Kuehn sees advantages in decision-making around customer experience, product management, investments, cost, risk, compliance, outsourcing, business and IT alignment, application portfolio management, technical debt, cloud strategy and migration, sustainability, mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, and much more.



Kuehn utilizes a proven five-step approach to create a business architecture practice:

1. Build the case for the business architecture.

2. Select an initial usage scenario(s).

3. Build the business architecture foundation or blueprint.

4. Leverage the business architecture for the initial usage scenario and continue delivering value.

5. Create a road map to formalize the business architecture practice within the organization over time.

Kuehn believes that an effective blueprint can inform not only single companies but also networks of businesses working together or for common human goals. And while the model presented in the book is most applicable to organizations, Kuehn notes that much of the content is also relevant to individuals. One can think about the blueprint of ones own life, she says, and bring an intentional approach to personal improvement and change.



Ultimately, Kuehn hopes that Strategy to Reality will serve to better the lives of readers both professionally and personally, individually and collectively. I work with so many incredible people around the world, she says, and it is my greatest hope that this book finds its way to every single person who is meant to read itno more and no lessto help them with their careers, their organizations, or their dreams.
Newbery Medalist Kwame Alexanders new novel The Door of No Return, the first in a planned trilogy, takes readers on an emotional journey best engaged with little to no prior knowledge. As Alexander states, There are twists in this book. You think one thing is happening then another thing happens. As I was writing it and discovering these things, and enjoying that process, part of my hope became that readers get to take a similar journey. I dont want them to find out in a review or article! At its core is the story of Kofi Offin, an 11-year-old who lives with his family in Upper Kwanta. Through succinct and emotionally rich passages, Alexander opens a world that encompasses the joy of childhood, richness of African culture, a contentious relationship with yams, and heartbreaking sadness. We spoke with Alexander about the importance of preserving culture, broadening the scope of Black history and representation, and the influence Ghana had on this novel.

What was your inspiration for The Door of No Return?

I wanted to write a story about Black history but I wanted to tell a more accurate or more human story than weve often heard. I think that we as Americans in general, or Black Americans in particular, tend to view Black history through the lens of 1619 and that being sort of the beginning. I posit that thats the middle and lets find out who we were before we were kidnapped and forced to come to this country. Lets look at who we were as just regular folks. So I wanted to write that story. Certainly, all of it is important, but I wanted to write about the true beginning as I saw it.

What drew you to Ghana for this story?

Ive gone to Ghana 11 times since 2012. I had so many eye-opening and revelatory experiences there. One was standing on the shore of the ocean where our people were taken from. I remember looking at the water and the blue sky and thinking there has to be some connection between this and what we call the Blues. It had to have started on that Middle Passage journey. We had no idea who these people were that were taking us, where we were going, and what was going to await us when we got there. The only thing we knew for certain was the sky and the ocean. The blues just seems like it comes out of that. I first had that realization in Ghana. Inspiration also came from interacting with children in Ghana, reading books to them, and seeing the hope and ambition in their eyes even in the midst of what I viewed through my Western eyes as impoverished conditions. More importantly, getting to know the people there. My first experience in Africa was going to Ghana and meeting people I fell in love with. That became my frame of reference for Africa because it was the first place and the place I visited the most. Ive since been back to other countries but this is where I felt the most comfortable. I didnt set out to do research but after 11 times visiting a place, you end up de facto doing research, so I had a lot to draw from.

Did you base the lead character Kofi on any particular person or was he a composite of various figures?

He wasnt based on any one person. More based on many different kids I met in Ghana. Based on my life as a kid, as a boy growing up. Based on just kids, because kids dont change. From time immemorial, kids want to play, kids have chores, they have responsibilities. Kids have friends. There are people they dont like who dont like them. There are just some things that are natural and normal for being a kid. I really wanted to showcase that because I know that so often when we think of a kid in Africa, we have these stereotypical perspectives and views that are fueled by television and oftentimes very badly researched books. I wanted to paint a picture to show that this kid is just like anybody else.

Could you speak about the importance of language and how in the story it signifies a conflict between tradition and the resistance to an English teacher in the book?

Language is the part of culture that functions as the map. Its our guide. Its how we speak, listen, read, write, and learn. Language is the thing that helps you know who you are. If your map is no longer yours, you are using someone elses map and being guided to a place that is alien to you. That is what has happened to many people around this world as theyve been colonized. I talk about this in this book to show that problem on a very micro level as it relates to Kofi, his teacher, and his family, and how this language dichotomy is viewed in his household and in his mind. The message is we lost a huge part of who we were. We lost a huge part of our identity. And thats a hard place to live. How do we get that back? I think for the most part Black people in America have been trying to get back to who they are since we got here.

What is something that you want readers to take away from this work?

I never have that specific goal in mind. My goal remains the same with each book. I want young readers to finish my book. Thats important. I want to write it in a way that they get through it. Im teaching a lot. I wanted to be a teacher but thats hard work. I envy teachers. In every book I write, there are lessons. Im hopeful that young readers get some of that from the reading, so that they want to go and read another book, whether its one of mine or someone elses. Im just hoping that they love reading.

With older readers, Im really trying to change the world, man. Im really trying to impact, inspire, and empower them, in a way I think that I can do. In my own way. In many instances, that involves reminding people that we are all the same. It sounds cliched, but you should view everyone like you want everyone to view you. Thats ultimately my goal, to try to create this space where we value and understand each others worth and we acknowledge and appreciate it.

In the book, Kofi has a contentious relationship with yams. Have you made peace with yams?

I love yams! For me it was lima beans and green beans. I was sick of those as a kid [laughs.]

The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander. Little, Brown, $17.99 Sept. 27 ISBN 978-0-316-44186-5
Several children's books are aging with grace as they mark notable milestones since their first publications. From beloved tales of animal characters to bedtime stories, publishers celebrate the anniversaries of stories that have stood the test of time.

A to Z Mysteries by Ron Roy Random House

The popular mystery series following the adventures of child detectives cracking cases in alphabetical order marks its 25th anniversary this fall. The original series featured 26 books and created two spinoffs, the A to Z Mysteries Super Edition series and Calendar Mysteries.

The Book of Mean People by Toni Morrison and Slade Morrison (Little, Brown, Nov. 8, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-316-34967-3)

The mother-and-son duos second picture book collaboration turns 20. The new edition of the story, which explores how children experience anger and negative emotions, features an afterword from author Jewell Parker Rhodes.

George and Martha by James Marshall (HarperCollins, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-395-16619-2)

Marshalls picture book series marks 50 years since publication. A story of friendship between two hippos told in five vignettes, the George and Martha series contained eight books, and became a television series in 1999.

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, illus. by Clement Hurd (HarperCollins, $24.99 Aug. 30; ISBN 978-0-06-309181-8)

After sending young readers off to sweet dreams for 75 years, Goodnight Moon is being released in a deluxe slipcase edition featuring a new jacket and an afterword by Hurds son Thacher.

Hippos Go Berserk! by Sandra Boynton (Simon & Schuster, $17.99 Aug. 30; ISBN 978-1-66592-603-4)

First published in 1996, Boyntons debut picture book celebrates 45 years of helping young readers learn to count as a hippopotamus party draws in many guests. This hardcover rerelease contains redesigned illustrations from Boynton.

The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer (Little, Brown, Oct. 11, $24.99; ISBN 978-0-316-45346-2)

Alex and Conner Bailey leave their world behind to enter the fairy tale universe of their books in this 10-year anniversary illustrated edition from author and Glee actor Colfer, including new full-page artwork from series illustrator Brandon Dorman.

Memories and Life Lessons from the Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osborne, illus. by Sal Murdocca (Random House, Sept. 6, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-593-48454-8)

Mary Pope Osborne, the author of the bestselling Magic Tree House series which turns 30 this year, reminisces about the lessons beloved characters Jack and Annie taught her, sourcing quotes from the original series and art from illustrator Murdocca.

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty MacDonald (HarperCollins, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-397-31713-4

MacDonalds novel featuring the empathetic and positive teacher Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle commemorates 75 years, since its series launch in 1947, following with four more in the series. In 2016, the series got a spinoff, Missy Piggle Wiggle, Mrs. Piggle Wiggles niece; the books were written by Babysitters Club author Ann M. Martin and MacDonalds great-granddaughter, Annie Parnell.

The Paper Flower Tree: A Tale from Thailand by Jacqueline Ayer (Enchanted Lion, $16.95; ISBN 978-1-59270-224-4)

The book, following a girls connection to her homeland as she cherishes a gifted paper tree, honors its 60th year of publication with exclusive prints and/or postcards and a promotional discount to the trade to any bookstores or libraries that bring in both of Ayers picture books, including Nu Dang and His Kite.

Penguin and Pinecone by Salina Yoon (Bloomsbury, $17.99 Nov. 1; ISBN 978-1-5476-1144-7)

In this 10th-anniversary deluxe edition including a growth chart, readers discover Penguin and Pinecones blossoming friendship as they attempt to get Pinecone, who is lost, back home.

The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. NorthSouth, $19.95 ISBN 978-1-558-58009-1; Rainbow Fish and the Storyteller Oct. 11 $19.95 ISBN 978-0-7358-4500-8; The Rainbow Fish and His Friends Oct. 11, $29.95 ISBN 978-0-7358-4506-0; The Rainbow Fish Folding Storage Box, Oct 11 $29.99 ISBN 978-0-7358-4519-0; The Rainbow Fish 12-book pre-pack Oct. 11 $186.40 ISBN 978-0-7358-4522-0

Marcus Pfisters Rainbow Fish series floats on as it honors 30 million copies sold and 30 years since its publication. The glimmering sea creature gains splashy new additions to the longstanding collection. NorthSouth will publish Rainbow Fish and the Storyteller, a new standalone story, as well as The Rainbow Fish and His Friends, a collection featuring five new adventures as well as the original tale, on October 11. A special anniversary edition of Unfolded magazine features an interview with Pfister and a full-sized poster of Rainbow Fish. Booksellers can receive a Rainbow Fish folding storage box, a collapsible and durable box featuring the beloved character.

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka, illus. by Lane Smith (Viking; ISBN 978-0-670-84487-6)

The award-winning visionary collection of fractured fairy tales honor its 30th anniversary with a social media campaign of booksellers, teachers, and librarians sharing their memories about The Stinky Cheese Man, a giveaway of a class set of the book signed classroom copies, and a message from the author.

White Snow, Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt, illus. by Roger Duvoisin (HarperCollins, $17.99 ISBN 978-0-688-41161-9)

This Caldecott Medalwinning picture book showcasing the joy of snowfall celebrates 75 years of publication. White Snow, Bright Snow was the first of Tresselt and Duvoisins collaborations which resulted in a total of 18 books created together.
The Brooklyn Public Library hosted a virtual panel on Wednesday evening, September 21, in honor of Banned Books Week, called Open Eyes: Banned Books, Kids, and the War on Reading. The panel was moderated by Washington Post journalist Hannah Natanson, who covers K-12 education news, including the education culture wars beat, and featured Jeffrey Blair, owner of EyeSeeMe African American Childrens Bookstore in University City, Mo.; Josh Block, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union who specializes in LGBTQ issues; Melissa Jacobs, director of the New York City Department of Education/School Library System; and Linda Johnson, president and CEO of the Brooklyn Public Library.

Introducing the panel, Marcia Ely, Brooklyn Public Library director of programs, noted that this past spring, the library, which is the fifth largest public library system in the U.S. extended an offer to teens living anywhere in the country that they could obtain a library card at the BPL and thus receive access to digital editions of books that might be challenged or banned in their communities. This has opened up floodgates, Ely said. Weve received more than 5,000 applications for cards from every single state and the District of Columbia.

The panelists began their lively hour-long conversation by explaining the current situation concerning banned books. Its bigger than any recorded effort in the last 20-some years, which is when book challenges became something that we were counting, Johnson stated. In parts of the country theres legislation that is actually banning material from being used in classrooms and public libraries. Its becoming a formal way to circumvent First Amendment rights. Referencing BPLs efforts to provide library cards for teens who do not live in Brooklyn, she said that besides wanting to put books into the hands of teenagers, the goal of the initiative is to get everybody involved and fight this assault on the First Amendment.

Jacobs emphasized that school librarianswho are educators as well as librariansare thoughtful and have policies and procedures for selection and curation of their collections. All librarians, she said, want young readers to see themselves in books as well as to emphasize with others and to better understand the world around them. It is really challenging and frightening and frustrating, she added, that so many excellent books are being challenged and banned after so much thought and selection has gone into these titles.

Its not just a bunch of books on a shelf, she noted, while describing what goes into selecting and curating library collections, and that there is always an emphasis on providing books written from different points of view. A school library, a public library, theyre living, breathing entities, she insisted. There are programs and there are professionals who are driving those programs, selecting and curating those materials. Its not just someone looking at a catalog and circling a picture.

Book banners often judge a book by its cover, she added. They frequently take controversial passages or images of books out of context when presenting challenges and demanding their removal. Those books have to be read as a whole, she insisted. You cant just take a snippet and say its inappropriate.

Books Open Hearts and Minds

Blair noted that controversial books that contain difficult themes, like Toni Morrisons The Bluest Eye, can be essential reading. Young people today are exposed to a lot of things outside of books, he pointed out, including violence in their daily lives and/or in the world around them. Complex and difficult thingsthat is the whole point of educationwe want to prepare our children to encounter a difficult world, he said.

Johnson pointed out that teens, especially those who are exploring their identity or confronting difficulties in their lives, often feel isolated in their communities. I know this because the emails we are getting from the students requesting the library cards, she explained, speak specifically to this point. These books help them form their opinions and get over these feelings that they are experiencing in their communities. And theyre doing it through literature. Thats exactly the point of a great book: to open your eyes to other points of view, and to know yourself better and to know those people not like you better. Empathy.

The escalation in books being challenged or banned, Block noted, is part of a political and ideological movement right now. These are not random examples of parents looking in their students backpacks and seeing a book with a dirty word in it. This is part of a society-wide backlash to #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, to the increased visibility and acceptance of LGBTQ people. The same social movements that are pushing for Dont Say Gay Bills and anti-CRT laws in schools are also pushing for the censorship of books.

Jacobs noted also that there is a nationwide shortage of school librarians, which is having a huge impact concerning the defense of books that are challenged. You dont have librarians there to defend their collections, she said. And you dont have librarians tending to the curation of these materials and who are able to speak to how and why these materials are selected for schools.

She added that weeding collections of controversial books will have an impact that extends far beyond schools and into the future, warning, The smaller we make our collections, the less our kids are going to learn about the world, and how to interact with it and how to be a part of it, and how to develop their abilities and skills and be part of a democratic society. To me, thats really frightening.

Blair explained that a lot of book challenges and bans have to do with racism and homophobia. Individuals want to prescribe a particular narrative about America: about how America is formed, about who is an American. To me, its offensive: were trying to train the next generation to be critical thinkers and not individuals who are going to continually consume what they already know, what they already think. The whole point of education is to help our children be able to live in a world that is quite diverse, that has people they dont agree with, but they still have to live and work with.

 The smaller we make our collections, the less our kids are going to learn about the world, and how to interact with it and how to be a part of it. To me, that's really frightening. Melissa Jacobs 

He added that parents may have the right to determine what their child reads or does not read, but they do not have any right to determine what other peoples children may or may not read. Those who would deny other peoples children access to books, he declared, [are] trying to narrow the perspective of what America is all about, and we cannot let that happen.

Freedom Is the Right to Read

Referencing the Supreme Courts overturning of Roe v. Wade, and the fact that lower courts in some regions have conservative judges sympathetic to book bans, Block noted that the courts as they stand now do not always protect individual rights. We need a culture of people working together to protect their rights and the rights of others, he said, expressing his admiration for a group of teenagers in Texas who recently formed a banned books club to read and discuss books that had been taken off library shelves in their community.

While some government officials receptiveness to banning controversial books is pandering, to their more extremist constituents, Block noted, a lot of it is about shaping peoples reality. Theres a reason why the 1619 Project is being banned and then replaced with nonsense, made-up history.

Jacobs urged parents to read the same books as their children and discuss the contents with them. You can disagree with what is happening in a book and feel uncomfortable with something. But conversations are so important.

Nothing like telling a teenager they cant read something, right? Johnson interjected. Any enterprising teenager is going to find that material, whether its taken out of the classroom or the school library.

Parents dont own their children, especially when youre talking about children in their teens, Block pointed out. Children have their own Constitutional rights, independent of what their parents might want. Teenagers have their First Amendment rights to speak, their First Amendment rights to read. They may well want to read things their parents disagree with or dont want them to read. They are their own people. Its not all about the parents and the parents rights.

Blair recalled how in St. Louis, Mo., a group of students sued their school district for removing The Bluest Eye from library shelves, forcing the school district to reverse its decision the very next day. Blair said that this case provides an excellent example for students on the importance of civic engagement: Freedom is not free: you have to fight for it, and to guard it. If its important to you, you cant stay on the sidelines. You literally can have your rights taken from you if youre not diligent.
Based in East London and New York, Magic Cat Publishing, an imprint of Abrams, came onto the childrens publishing scene just two years ago. Established by Rachel Williams and Jenny Broom, the company has built its business around STEM-based, illustrated nonfiction for families, with a focus on nature and the environment; wellbeing and mindfulness; exploration and discovery; and people and their stories. Having won the best new independent childrens publisher at the Independent Publishing Awards in the U.K. and the prize for the biggest growth in international business in 2022, Magic Cat will publish its 30th book with Abrams in North America this fall.

Veterans of entrepreneurial publishing for more than a decade, Williams and Broom helmed several other predominately nonfiction-centered childrens imprints prior to establishing Magic Cat. In the past decade, Rachel and I had founded Big Picture Press, an imprint of Candlewick, Broom said. And then we started Wide Eyed Editions for Quarto, before additionally becoming publishers of Frances Lincoln Childrens Books, where the Little People Big Dreams series kind of became another business in and of itself.

Yet the duo had long aspired to launch their own company, an independent house with creativity at its core, to be owned and operated by women, Williams explained. What she described as a natural career break surfaced when Broom left Quarto to have a baby in 2018. And the following year, they hatched their dream by establishing Magic Cat.

Williams and Broom own the majority share of the company, but wanted to find a long-term partner in North America that understood their mission and was looking to grow its list of family-focused nonfiction. After they approached Michael Jacobs and Andrew Smith at Abrams and learned of their interest in partnering with Magic Cat, the two teams went on to set up Magic Cat as an imprint of Abrams. Rachel and I have known and loved the Abrams list for many years, and we have always revered their approach to book making and publishing, and their appreciation of the book as an art form, Broom said. We felt that we could complement, rather than compete with, Abramss already awesome childrens lists with an illustrated nonfiction program. We work closely with Andrew and Jody Mosley to curate and sell the list, and we have a New York-based editor, Mary Jones, who works with us on all aspects of creating our books.

A Smooth Launch Across Continents, Sales Channels

As a start-up, Magic Cat tripled in size during the pandemic and now employs an internationally diverse creative team of 19 individuals. The size of the list, which debuted with six books, has also expanded, with 16 new titles due in 2023 and, Williams said, plans to grow in 2024 and beyond.

Most Magic Cat titles (65% of which qualify as STEM-themed) are released in the same publishing season in both the U.K. and the U.S. Interestingly, there seems to be more correlation between the two markets than we originally anticipated, Broom said. I guess so much of publishing lives online now, which was especially true through the pandemic, and we all share the same internet! So the books that take off in one market definitely seem to get a boost in the other.

Distributed by Hachette in North America and spanning an age arc from preschool through middle grade, the Magic Cat list has received an enthusiastic reception across a spectrum of markets. Our sales make-up is a really interesting cross-section, actually, Broom noted. The indies have been absolutely key to us getting the word out about our books, plus gift and specialty accounts have also been strong supporters of the list. Were also starting to see increasing awareness and support in the school and library channels after receiving some starred reviews and finally being able to attend events like ALA this year. Additionally, Magic Cat staffers efforts to build a community around the list on social media has resulted in increasingly strong online sales.

Over the last decade, the nonfiction category has exploded with beautifully designed books that reach a wide readership, and by publishing books like Animalium: Welcome to the Museum [Big Picture Press, 2014], we helped to pioneer this trend, Broom said. But we wanted the Magic Cat list to do even more: each one of our books acts like a tool to help readers navigate a difficult world and bring a sense of calm to daily life.

Some Stars of the Show

A trio of top-selling Magic Cat titles exemplify the editors commitment to what Williams described as establishing a brand around a book from the outset and creating a complementary program of spin-offs and partner titles.

The first, Slow Down: Bring Calm to a Busy World with 50 Nature Stories, was written by Williams and illustrated by Freya Hartas. Published in 2020, this book encouraging children to take the time to appreciate the natural world is now sold in 30 languages and has more than 500,000 copies in print. A follow-up, Slow Down and Be Here Now: More Nature Stories to Make You Stop, Look and Be Amazed by the Tiniest Things by Laura Brand, will pub in March 2023. Slow Down published just as the world was grappling with Covid lockdowns and extended periods of isolation, Williams said of the books success. I wrote it as a way of appreciating natures everyday wonders. For many of us with little kids, thats all we were able to manage on most days during the height of the pandemic.

Another strong seller for Magic Cat is If You Go Down to the Woods Today by Rachel Piercey, illustrated by Hartas, the debut book of the Brown Bear Wood duology, which was released in March 2021. Its sequel, Grand Old Oak and the Birthday Ball, will follow in August 2023. If You Go Down to the Woods Today has been published in 27 languages and has more than 250,000 copies in print, and the Independent named it the U.K.s best childrens poetry book of 2021, Williams said.

And Grow: A Childrens Guide to Plants and How to Grow Them by Rizanino Reyes, illustrated by Sara Boccaccini Meadows (published last March), will be joined by a companion in 2023: Glow: A Family Guide to the Night Sky by NASA scientist Noelia Gonzales, illustrated by Meadows.

Other titles that Williams and Broom are pleased to be adding to Magic Cats list are Meowsterpieces: A Cats Guide to ArtAnd Life! by Jenn Bailey, illustrated by Nyangsongi, starring a mother cat and her kittens, released this month; and The Handbook of Forgotten Skills by Elaine Batiste and Natalie Crowley, illustrated by Chris Duriez, a guide to timeless projects aimed at inspiring a love of craftsmanship, due in September 2023.

Developing the Magic Cat list is a deeply personal mission for Williams and Broom. Our motto is Open a book, open a mind,  Broom said. We believe that curiosity starts when kids engage with their grown-ups around a printed page. Around the time we founded Magic Cat, Rachel and I had both become moms and had a really strong desire to make books that didnt just look great but would help our own children understand and navigate an increasingly complex world. We started to think of our books as visually compelling, design-led tools to help foster conversation and learning around topics that matter to children and families today. Covid has shown us that whatever challenges fall in our way, books create space for well-being and joyand create hope for the future.
On Wednesday, September 21, hundreds gathered at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine to celebrate the life and work of writer Joan Didion, who died on December 23, 2021, at the age of 87.

The memorial service, organized by Didions longtime publisher Knopf, was long delayed due to the pandemic. In April 2022, an intimate ceremony attended by close family and friends was held to inter Didions remains in the Cathedrals columbarium, but there had not yet been a formal event to commemorate her.

In the hour leading up to the service, a slideshow of photos of Didion ran on a loop: sitting solemnly in her study; happily cooking in her kitchen; posing in front of her Stingray; palling around with Elizabeth Hardwick, Sonny Mehta, Toni Morrison, and Susan Sontag. In the frontmost seats sat friends, family, and invited members of the publishing community, while the back half of the Cathedral was opened to the public. Among those in attendance were actor Bob Balaban, photographer Annie Leibovitz, writer Fran Lebowitz, author Donna Tartt, and journalist Bob Woodward.

The evenings speakers included Didions editor at Knopf Shelley Wanger; New Yorker editor David Remnick; author and musician Patti Smith; poet Kevin Young; and writers Hilton Als, Susanna Moore, Jia Tolentino, and Calvin Trillin.

Didions family and friends shared humanizing memories of the famously serious writer. Actor Griffin Dunne, son of journalist Dominick Dunne, fondly remembered his aunt Joan, calling his collaboration with her on his 2017 documentary The Center Will Not Hold one of the highlights of my life.

Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and former California governor Jerry Brown, who spoke via a pre-recorded video, both knew Didion through their older sisters, with whom Didion was friends during her adolescence. Kennedy recalled Didion spending many evenings at his home writing essays for class, drafting articles for the school paper, or transcribing dinnertime conversations in her notebook. He concluded his speech by thanking all of you in the writing profession and in the publication business for helping to honor and preserve what Joan wrote, and what she still teaches us.

New Yorker editor David Remnick and staff writers Hilton Als and Jia Tolentino reflected on Didions influence on them as writers and on the practice of writing as a whole. Remnick hailed her as the foremost enemy of cant, cliche, and falsehood, who wielded the X-Acto Knife that was her prose, asking: Is there an essayist today who is more universally admired by young readers and fledging writers?

Tolentino concurred. So profound is [Didions] legacy that the literary world has been searching explicitly and shamelessly for her replacement, she said, alluding perhaps to the fact that she herself has often been compared to Didion. But there will never ever be another Joan Didion.

Als, who curated an upcoming exhibit on Didion at the Hammer Museum, read a passage from her essay Notes of a Native Daughter and praised her sharpness as a critic, which he attributed to her rejection of what women are often trained to do: to help before criticizing, or swallow the criticism altogether.

Vanessa Redgrave, who starred in the 2007 theatrical adaptation of My Year of Magical Thinking, delivered a poignant reading from the final pages of the memoir on which the play is based. She read from her personal copy of the book, which she said had been autographed by Didion at the Los Angeles bookstore Book Soup.

Redgrave, 85, was escorted to and from the stage by actor Liam Neeson, who was married to Redgraves late daughter, Natasha Richardson, until her sudden death in 2009. (As it happens, in 2014, Redgrave performed selections from Didions 2011 memoir Blue Nights, about the death of her own daughter Quintana in 2003, on the very same stage at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.)

A rendition by Patti Smith of Bob Dylans Chimes of Freedom concluded the service. Slowly, accompanied by pipe organ, mourners exited the Cathedral. Some, whod been seated in the front half, retreated to black town cars parked Amsterdam Ave, many of them white-haired and sharply dressed, precisely what one might picture when imagining publishings old guard. But in the back half of the Cathedral, the exodus looked quite different: lingering in the aisles were countless young womenin blue jeans and cowboy boots, sporting buzzed heads and long skirts, carrying on-trend purses and bookstore toteswho had come to pay their respects.
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Purdue Universitys Agricultural Safety and Health Program released the annual Indiana Farm Fatality Summary with Historical Overview, coinciding with National Farm Safety and Health Week. The annual observance has taken place during the third week of September since 1944.

The program reported 20 work-related on-farm deaths in the state of Indiana in 2021. Data shows that tractors are the most common agent in farm-related fatalities, representing as many as 52% of documented cases in the past 10 years, with six reported cases in 2021. Other causes included grain entrapment, equipment runovers and entanglements, and asphyxiation by fumes in confined spaces.

This shows a decrease from the 25 cases identified in 2020 and marks the fewest cases reported in the past eight years. Farm fatalities for the past 50 years continue to trend lower, likely reflecting safer machinery and work practices while also corresponding with a decline in the number of farmers.

Despite this positive trend, program members urge agricultural workers to remain diligent and follow safety protocols. No Indiana agency requires official documentation of farm-related injuries or fatalities, but prior Purdue research has indicated that each year approximately 1 in 9 Indiana farms has a farmwork-related injury incident that requires medical attention.

Documented incidents involving those age 60 or older account for nearly half of all cases in the past five years, including 40% in 2021.

Historically, farmers over the age of 60, including many who work only part-time, have accounted for a disproportionate number of farm-related injuries. Recent spikes in frequencies of fatalities over the past 10 years make this population of older farmers a special concern, the report states.

Males account for most fatalities, with only one female fatality recorded in 2021. One victim was a child, but historical data shows an overall decline in the frequency of farm-related fatalities involving children and youth.

Ed Sheldon, report co-author and Purdue agricultural safety specialist, said, It is encouraging that the average number of annual farm-related fatalities continues to decline. That said, in 2021, at least 20 Indiana families and communities felt the devastating impact of losing one of their own to a farmwork-related death.

Thats a very somber reminder that we should never become complacent in our efforts to make our farms safer places to live and work.

As Hoosier farmers begin to harvest, program members remind farmers to keep safety a top priority. Agriculture safety guides, disaster preparedness resources and the Indiana Farm Fatality Summary can be found online.

Writer: Ashvini Malshe, 765-496-7480, malshea@purdue.edu

Source: Edward Sheldon, 765-720-0229, ejsheldo@purdue.edu

ABSTRACT

2021 Indiana Farm Fatality Summary with Historical Overview

Compiled by the Purdue University Agricultural Safety and Health Program

Purdue Universitys Agricultural Safety and Health Program has been monitoring farm-related fatalities in Indiana for nearly 60 years. The earliest identified summary of cases, published in 1966, examined 76 fatalities reported during 1963. Purdues fatality database, though acknowledged as not being comprehensive of all farm-related deaths, provides a unique historical perspective to explore trends that have occurred over several decades. During that time, the total number of farms and the number of people directly involved in production agriculture have declined considerably, while production technology and farming practices have transformed dramatically. During the 1940s and early 1950s the leading identifiable cause of death was livestock, primarily horses and bulls. These animal-related injuries and deaths have largely been replaced, at a much lower frequency, with tractors and machinery. The annual number of farm-related fatalities continues to show a general downward trend that parallels the decline in the number of farm operations. The reduction in the number of farm operations has likely contributed more to the reduction in farm-related fatalities than any other single factor, even as Indiana farmers have become more productive than ever.

Agricultural Communications: 765-494-8415;

Maureen Manier, Department Head, mmanier@purdue.edu

Agriculture News Page
ITV AdVentures Invest is a Media for Equity programme which sees ITV take minority stakes in early stage digital and direct-to-consumer businesses, alongside venture capital investment, in return for advertising inventory across ITVs range of channels and the ITV Hub, soon to be ITVX. The broadcaster sees the initiative as representing an innovative opportunity for early-stage businesses seeking to build scale through TV advertising, alongside a strategic media partner.Under Waesches leadership, ITV AdVentures invested in several high growth companies, including Carwow, Spoke, what3words and Feel.Amin joins ITV from BBC Studios channel business UKTV , where she was responsible for launching and running its media for equity programme over several years. From carrying out investments in companies including PitPat, ClickMechanic and Beelivery to serving as a board ember on the BBC Studios Executive Committee, Amin joins ITV with a wealth of experience across strategy, commercial and corporate development at leading consumer brands Virgin Media and Dixons Carphone. She also gained investment experience at Summit Partners, a global private equity and venture capital fund.Commenting on the move, Amin said: Im thrilled to be joining ITV to lead their media for equity fund, ITV AdVentures which has gotten off to a fantastic start under Nikos watch. With its unparalleled reach, ITVs network of channels is uniquely placed to help consumer startups become brand famous, acquire new customers and grow to new heights. I look forward to partnering with many talented entrepreneurs and helping them scale their business to the next level through the power of TV.Tom Betts, director of corporate strategy at ITV added: "We're very excited for the next stage of growth of ITV AdVentures Invest. Im convinced that in Sheena we have the best person available in the industry to help us build our portfolio. With Sheena's leadership we are looking forward to demonstrating the value ITV can bring to our existing portfolio and to future early stage companies across a range of sectors. My thanks to Niko for helping us launch the fund and complete the first round of deals, and we wish him well as he returns to Germany."
Atonement, Brooklyn and Little Women star Saoirse Ronan has signed on to star in Steve McQueen's World War II drama Blitz.

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Production on the New Regency and Apple TV+ film is set to begin later this year.

It is based on an original idea from writer-director McQueen.

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Grand Budapest Hotel alum Ronan will also soon be seen in Foe and See How They Run.
On July 26, nearly three weeks before fall classes began, residents found out the move-in date was delayed until Sept. 7, almost a month after the expected Aug. 14 move-in, and two months after the expected construction completion month of July. Residents were placed in five hotels downtown: SpringHill Suites, Hyatt Place, Hilton Garden Inn, Holiday Inn Express and SpringHill Suites West.
With cracked cement and blanketed in the thick Georgia heat, Showtime Bowl on Macon Highway stands steadfastly as it approaches its 31st year in business. Intense rivalries, budding romances and close-knit friendships have all come to fruition under the gentle strobe of 1980s-esque lighting and the glorious reverberations of pins dropping.
Chanda Santana, founder of DIVAS Who Win Freedom Center, a nonprofit that seeks to help women overcoming sex trafficking, addiction and prostitution, cut the ribbon on the Freedom Experience, an immersive walk-through educating individuals on the steps to and through sex trafficking, on Sept. 23.
Barbara Guerrero, a school librarian at Leland & Gray Union Middle and High School in Townshend, is going to be retiring, but before she does, she is working on scanning in pieces of ephemera relating to the history of the school.
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Has been working as a photojournalist since 2007, before moving into newspapers, he worked with an NGO called Project HOPE. He then went to work for the Press and Sun-Bulletin in New York, and then in New England working for the Brattleboro Reformer.
You are the owner of this article.
Rep. George Till of Jericho is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist who has served in the Vermont State Legislature since 2008. Dr. Till is also an associate professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the UVM School of Medicine. The opinions expressed by columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of Vermont News & Media.
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A much-loved shoe and one guaranteed to get you noticed. The 1980s Puma Hawaii OG trainers are available once more.

A minor terrace icon back in the day, the Hawaii (not to be confused with the Adidas Hawaii OG that was reissued around seven or eight years back) dates back to 1988.

A peak time of trainer oneupmanship, the Hawaii had one thing on its side, Puma branding aside. It had a two-tone colour scheme. As I said, a shoe to get you noticed.

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Khieu Samphan, 91, lost his appeal of his 2018 life sentence for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

This handout photo taken and released by the Extraordinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia on September 22, 2022, shows ex-Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan in the courtroom at the Extraordinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in Phnom Penh.

The U.N.-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal held its final session Thursday, rejecting an appeal by the last surviving leader of the brutal regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975-79, one of only three men convicted in the 16-year trial process.

Led by the notorious Pol Pot, the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge killed some 1.7 million Cambodians through starvation, overwork, or execution in a bid to create an agrarian utopia. They were finally removed from power by Vietnam, which invaded Cambodia in 1979.

The Khmer Rouge Tribunal, formally called the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), was set up to hold former Khmer Rouge leaders to account for the deaths.

Khieu Samphan, 91, lost his appeal of his 2018 conviction and life sentence for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for his leadership role in Khmer Rouge.

Khieu Samphan, who is serving a life sentence for a 2014 conviction for crimes against humanity, had argued he was the titular head of state without decision-making powers in the Khmer Rouge regime during its bloody revolution and reign of terror.

His appeal against his 2018 genocide conviction asserted that the lower court had made more than 1,800 errors, but the ECCC Supreme Court rejected virtually all his arguments.

I am unhappy with the Supreme Court's misunderstanding about the facts of the case that led to the conviction. The misunderstanding including his role in the Khmer Rouge, said Khieu Samphans lawyer, Kong Sam Onn.

A 'clean person'

Khieu Samphan, his lawyer said, was a clean person among other Khmer Rouge leaders and didnt have the power to make any decisions during meetings.

The court wanted to convict him before he dies. The court wanted to speed up the case to make sure the verdict is released before Khieu Samphan dies, said Kong Sam Onn.

While many welcomed the verdict, some former Khmer Rouge soldiers defended Khieu Samphan and said members of Prime Minister Hun Sens ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) who were former Khmer Rouge leaders should be brought to trial as well.

Former Khmer Rouge soldier Thong Thun in the western Cambodian province of Pailin said agreed with Khieu Samphans defense that he didnt have power during his time as a ruler.

The court shouldnt put him in jail for the rest of his life. It is embarrassing, he told RFA Khmer.

Those other killers are still walking free and only a few were convicted, he said, referring to members of the CPP who were former Khmer Rouge.

Hun Sen, who was a middle-ranking commander with the Khmer Rouge before defecting, has ruled Cambodia with an iron fist since 1985.

Another former soldier, who asked not to be named, dismissed the trial as a show to punish some former Khmer Rouge leaders while letting others get away with crimes.

The court shouldnt put (Khieu Samphan) in jail for the rest of life, he is getting old, he said.

Lasting record

Some observers have questioned the merit of a legal process that took $337 million and 16 years to but convicted only three men, two of whom are dead.

Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouge's No. 2 leader and chief ideologist, was convicted along with Khieu Samphan and was serving a life sentence when he died in 2019 at age 93.

The tribunal's third convicted Khmer Rouge figure was of Kaing Guek Eav. Also known as Duch, commandant of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, he died in 2020 at age 77 while serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity, murder and torture. The top Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, died in the jungle in 1998 at age 72.

Patrick Murphy, the U.S. ambassador in Phnom Penh, issued a statement saying the tribunal leaves an important legacy detailing some of the worst crimes against humanity in modern history and making contributions to truth, reconciliation, and justice in the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Former ECCC investigator Craig Etcheson told the Associated Press the court successfully attacked the long-standing impunity of the Khmer Rouge, and showed that though it might take a long time, the law can catch up with those who commit crimes against humanity."

"The tribunal also created an extraordinary record of those crimes, comprising documentation that will be studied by scholars for decades to come, that will educate Cambodia's youth about the history of their country, and that will deeply frustrate any attempt to deny the crimes of the Khmer Rouge," said Etcheson, who was chief of investigations for the prosecution at the ECCC from 2006 to 2012.

Translated by Samean Yun. Written by Paul Eckert.
The sentences handed to Sun Lijun and Fu Zhenghua send a strong message ahead of the party congress next month.

In this image taken from video footage run by China's CCTV, Sun Lijun, former vice minister of public security, attends a court sentencing in Changchun in northeastern China's Jilin province on Friday, Sept. 23, 2022.

Authorities have handed down suspended death sentences to two formerly high-ranking security officials ahead of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s 20th party congress next month.

The Changchun Intermediate People's Court in the northeastern province of Jilin handed down a death sentence, commutable to life imprisonment after two years, to Sun Lijun, a former vice minister of public security, for taking bribes, manipulating the stockmarket and illegal possession of firearms.

"After the expiration of the two-years reprieve, his sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment, with no possibility of commutation or parole, according to the court ruling," the CCP-backed Global Times newspaper reported.

From 2001 to April 2020, Sun used the influence accumulated through past positions to seek gains for others and illegally accepted money and property worth 646 million yuan, the paper quoted the court judgment as saying.

In the first half of 2018, Sun manipulated related individuals to engage in stock market dealings, helping certain individuals to avoid losses of 145 million yuan, and was found in possession of two illegal firearms, it said.

Sun, 55, failed to stay true to the partys ideals, displaying "extremely inflated political ambition and very poor political integrity," making groundless criticisms of the party's policies, and spreading political rumors, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.

"Sun unscrupulously cultivated personal followers and interest groups to obtain personal political gains," it said. "He also seriously undermined party unity and compromised political security."

In this image taken from video footage run by China's CCTV, former Chinese justice minister Fu Zhenghua is escorted by court police as he attends a court session for his verdict announcement in Changchun, northeastern China's Jilin province on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022. Credit: CCTV via AP 'Heavy losses'

Sun's sentencing came a day after the same court handed the same sentence to former Beijing police chief Fu Zhenghua, after finding him guilty of "accepting bribes and bending the law for personal gain."

From 2014 to 2015, when served as the director of the Beijing municipal police department, he concealed clues to his younger brother Fu Weihua's alleged serious crimes, and did not deal with them in accordance with the law, enabling his brother to evade prosecution for a long time, the court said.

"The amount of bribes Fu Zhenghua received was particularly large, the circumstances of his crime are particularly serious, and their social impact was particularly bad," the court found. "The interests of the country and the people have suffered particularly heavy losses."

"It was decided that after his death sentence is commuted to life imprisonment upon the expiration of the two-year reprieve, he will be imprisoned for life without commutation or parole," the court judgment said.

Commenting before Sun's sentence had been made public, Xia Ming, professor of political science at New York's City University said the timing of Fu's sentence was no coincidence, and is intended as a warning to Xi's rivals and detractors within the highest echelons of the CCP.

Xi will be seeking an unprecedented third term in office at the CCP 20th National Congress, which opens in Beijing on Oct. 16.

"I believe Xi Jinping still faces a certain amount of resistance within party ranks, because he is trying to break with the past 40 years of political tradition," Xia told RFA.

"He wants [this] to have a political effect at a critical juncture, which is that those who obey him prosper, and those who oppose him fall," he said.

'Atmosphere of fear'

Political commentator Wang Juntao agreed, saying Xi is preempting any political opposition, and hoping to stave off any challngers.

"Xi Jinping is doing this to create an atmosphere of fear in the party's political and legal affairs system [which controls law enforcement]," Wang told RFA.

"It is likely that more senior officials and even Politburo members will lose their jobs, so as to intimidate other party members into staying loyal to Xi."

Also implied is that high-ranking party members must show loyalty to incumbent public security minister and CCP political and legal affairs deputy chief Wang Xiaohong.

"Sentencing those who have challenged Wang Xiaohong is supposed to force the political and legal affairs system to pledge absolute obedience and support for Wang Xiaohong," Wang said.

Fu, along with recently sentenced provincial public security officials Liu Xinyun, Deng Huilin and Gong Daoan, are widely regarded as being in Sun's "faction" of the CCP.

The Changchun court also said the seriousness of Fu's crimes merited an out-an-out death penalty, but it had handed down a suspended sentence because Fu "confessed and repented," as well as actively returning stolen assets and helping with "major clues in other investigations," in a possible reference to the Sun Lijun investigation.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Beijing has not commented but its media says the drills were anti-China.

Caption: U.S. Army Soldiers train alongside Republic of Fiji Military, Australian, New Zealand and British forces during Exercise Cartwheel 2022 in Fiji, Sept. 17, 2022.

UPDATED AT 10:20 P.M. EDT ON 9-23-2022

A multinational military training exercise involving the U.S., the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Fiji concluded on Friday in the Pacific island nation. The 11-day Exercise Cartwheel 2022 drew criticism from China which has been seeking to expand influence in the South Pacific.

The exercise, named after Operation Cartwheel - a major military operation for the Allies in the Pacific during World War II  aimed at building expeditionary readiness and interoperability, according to a press release from the U.S. Embassy in Suva.

Around 270 troops from five nations took part in drills conducted in both jungle and urban environments.

The New Zealand Defense Forces land component commander, Brigadier Hugh McAslan, told NZ media that Exercise Cartwheel provided a platform for participating forces to work together, building readiness for military action and other crises.

We have an obligation to work alongside these folks We are part of the Pacific," McAslan was quoted as saying.

Chinese officials have yet to say anything about the conclusion of the exercise but Chinas state media have made disparaging remarks over what they call another of the U.S.'s important battlegrounds in its game with China.

The hawkish Global Times said by conducting joint drills in Fiji, the U.S. wanted to send a signal to China and regional countries in the South Pacific.

The drills should be seen as an effort to counter China's influence in the region, the newspaper said.

U.S. soldiers and Fijian partners during Exercise Cartwheel 2022 in Fiji, Sept. 2022. CREDIT: U.S. Army Chief of Staff

Influence battle

Song Zhongping, a Global Times regular commentator, was quoted as saying that the U.K., a country outside the region, went all the way to the South Pacific to participate in the drills.

Britain is scheming to meddle in Asia-Pacific affairs London has become one of U.S.'s most active allies, be it when targeting China or Russia, Song was quoted as saying.

The U.S. has mobilized its alliance system to suppress China, the paper said, adding that regional countries in the South Pacific are not satisfied with the U.S. for trying to turn the region into an anti-China battlefield.

China and the Solomon Islands confirmed in April that they had signed a secretive security deal and, although details of the pact have not been made public, there are concerns that Beijing may be able to deploy security forces there in the future.

In recent years, China has been developing closer ties with countries in the South Pacific, wooing them with infrastructure loans and economic assistance, as well as military exchanges.

Our assistance to island countries is sincere and results-oriented with no political strings attached, said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson last week.

Beijing has not hidden its ambition to set up military bases in the region. In 2018, media reports about Chinas plan to build a base in Vanuatu prompted a stern warning from then-Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

However, China failed to achieve a sweeping trade and security agreement - the China-Pacific Island Countries Common Development Vision  during Foreign Minister Wang Yis Pacific tour in May.

U.S. charm offensive

For its part, the U.S. in recent months has ramped up its efforts to engage with Pacific island nations, with top officials for the Indo-Pacific region actively traveling to the region and meeting with their Pacific counterparts.

Just last week Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman met with a number of senior Pacific officials in Hawaii where she discussed deepening relationships with countries in the region.

In July, at the virtual Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting, chaired by the Fijian Prime Minister, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced a series of commitments to strengthen the U.S.-Pacific nations partnership, including the establishment of new U.S. embassies in Tonga and Kiribati, alongside the reopening of the Embassy in the Solomon Islands.

The U.S. government also pledged to triple the funding for the Forum Fisheries Agency to U.S. $60 million per year for the next ten years.

The State Department is close to renewing strategic partnership agreements, called Compacts of Free Association, or COFAs, with the three Pacific island nations of Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands, according to Special Presidential Envoy Joseph Yun.

The COFAs, which were signed originally between the U.S. and the three Pacific island states during the 1980s and will soon expire, allow the U.S. to operate armed forces in the agreement areas as well as to deny foreign militaries access to those countries waters, airspace and land.

The first-ever U.S.-Pacific Island Country Summit will take place Sept. 28-29 in Washington, D.C., the White House said in a statement earlier this month.

CORRECTION: An earlier version used the wrong name to refer to the joint military exercise.
Dozens of other defendants are given jail terms of up to 11 years alongside 'prime culprit' Chen Jizhi.

A screenshot from surveillance video shows four women being brutally attacked by a group of men at a late-night barbecue restaurant in Tangshan in the early hours of June 10, 2022.

A court in the northern Chinese province of Hebei has jailed a man for 24 years in connection with the vicious beatings of several women at a barbecue restaurant in June.

"Defendant Chen Jizhi, the prime culprit involved in the harassment and brutal beating of four women at a barbecue restaurant in Tangshan ... was sentenced to 24 years in prison and fined 320,000 yuan (U.S.$45,215)," the Global Times quoted the Guangyang District People's Court in Hebei's Langfang city as saying.

The case sparked international headlines and domestic public anger after surveillance video of the incident showed four women who had been eating at a late-night barbecue restaurant being brutally attacked by a group of men in the early hours of June 10, after one of them harassed a woman, who flapped a hand at her harasser and fought back after she was slapped, prompting the others to join in to repel the man.

The remaining 27 defendants were given jail terms ranging from six months to 11 years, with 19 of them issued with fines ranging from 3,000 to 135,000 yuan, the report said.

"Chen Jizhi, the prime culprit and other five defendants will correspondingly compensate the four victims for costs incurred for medical treatment, nursing, food subsidies, transportation and other losses," the paper reported.

The court heard that Chen attacked one woman surnamed Wang after she "declined his inappropriate approach," the Global Times said.

"Later, Chen and other defendants attacked and kicked the four women using chairs and wine bottles, and one of the defendants even threatened victims not to report the incident to the police," it said.

The attackers can also be seen in the video footage dragging one of the women out of the restaurant to continue beating her outside. One was taken away on a stretcher with a visibly bloodied and swollen face.

The initial claim that the women sustained "minor injuries" was met with skepticism on social media, where many comments said the penalty was too lenient.

"I feel sad for my country, and sad for Tangshan," one comment read, to which one social media user replied: "Shouldn't the most important thing be to feel sad for the victims?"

Another commented on footage of Chen weeping as the sentence was read out: "He cries like that because he's afraid of going to jail, not out of sincere remorse. He's unworthy of our sympathy."

Much of the public outrage at the time of the attack focused on the fact that nobody watching intervened to stop the subsequent, vicious beating of the women who fended off the initial assault, which left four women injured, two of whom were hospitalized.

Rather than engage with public criticism of state-enabled male violence, the official response has focused on allegations that the attackers were members of a local organized crime gang with links to the local police department.

On the social media platform Weibo, where a report from state broadcaster CCTV garnered 1.2 million likes, user @everyday3kmbaseline commented: "How could such a big fish slip through the net? Could they have done so without someone [in the government] protecting them?"

User @Taikoo Artifacts said the jail term was a response to "unstoppable public opinion," praising the official response, while @YuYanyan wrote: "No parole, no parole, no parole," and @hair_never_grows commented: "Only 24 years in prison."

@Xiao_Yuqi, @Fang_Hongbang and @road_no_promise_59764 agreed, calling for the death penalty for Chen, while @A_child_1920 added: "Strongly recommend flogging."

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
One victim, a 12-year-old boy, died after part of a mortar struck his head.

A house which burned down after being hit by a mortar in Moe Sit village, Shwegu township, Kachin State on Sept. 22, 2022.

Three civilians were killed, including a 12-year-old child, and five others were injured when junta forces fired heavy artillery on a village in Kachin States Shwegu township, according to locals and Peoples Defense Forces (PDFs).

An older brother of 12-year-old victim Zwel Naing Win told RFA that one of the injured was shot by bullets and the rest of dead and casualties were hit by artillery shells.

My brother was killed when the battle broke out and my brother-in-law was shot in his arm. He went to Shwegu Hospital for surgery. My brother was hit on his head and back, and died on the spot, he said, adding that his brother was cremated on Friday.

The two other victims were identified as Thaung Aye, a 35-year-old woman and War Nu, a 40-year-old man.

The injured include a 51-year-old woman and her 13-year-old daughter, two 30-year-old men and a 40-year-old man, according to residents.

Zin Min Oo, the 40-year-old, was hit by a bullet while closing his shop.

The injured were all sent to Shwegu Hospital for treatment.

There are over 300 houses and about 1,500 people in Moe Sit village, which was hit by heavy artillery. Residents fled their homes as military council troops entered the village, according to a resident who declined to be named for safety reasons. He said the troops started firing their guns as they entered the village.

They were shooting to the western part of the village, said the resident. Some villagers fled to Shwegu. Some people from the top of the village ran to Pauk Kone [village] and some ran into the fields. [As they ran] a house was set ablaze and flattened by shells..

A PDF member, who declined to give his name, said the village was shelled by 60 millimeter mortar bombs fired by troops who then crossed the river to seize Moe Sit.

When the junta troops were crossing by boat from Kyun Taw village to Moe Sit, they opened fire with heavy artillery and entered from the side of Moe Sit village, he said.

We opened fire when the junta boat was in the middle, then mutual shooting erupted. Amid the fighting, the junta forces fired 60mm rounds and those landed in the western part of the village.

They hit the child and his uncle while they were tending to their cow, and the child died.

State Administration Council spokesman and Social Affairs Minister for Kachin state, Win Ye Tun told RFA he did not know of any incidents involving civilians killed by junta shelling on Thursday.

The Myo Hla PDF said in a statement Friday that the Kha La Ya (78) militia, who are under the military councils 88th Division, provided the junta with an additional 100 troops. He said four boats carried them across the river to Moe Sit.

Three junta boats were sunk and 27 soldiers were killed during the battle, according to the statement.

RFA has not been able to independently verify the details.
UPDATED AT 04:20 EST ON 9-23-22

A 24-year-old private high school teacher from Naypyidaw has been sentenced to 20 years in prison by a court in Myanmars capital.

The sentence was handed down on Ye Soe Kyaw, 24, on Thursday, according to sources close to the court who did not wish to be named for safety reasons.

He was ordered to serve two 10-year sentences for two separate cases under Section 50 (J) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, a source close to the court told RFA on condition of anonymity.

"He was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday. He is still young, said the source. He was sent straight to Yamethin prison on the day the sentence was issued.

Ye Soe Kyaw is thought to have been detained on Jan. 5, while teaching at a school in Lewe township. He was accused of aiding People's Defense Forces (PDFs).

One Lewe resident, who did not wish to be named, said such a young teacher should not have received 20-years. He said Ye Soe Kyaw was given a harsh sentence so the junta could send a message that it is still in control of the country.

Deputy Minister of Information Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun told reporters at a press conference in Naypyidaw on Sept. 20 that supporting Myanmars shadow National Unity Government is punishable with a maximum sentence of death under the anti-terrorism law.

He said the death penalty could also apply to ousted lawmakers of the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (parliament), which is working to secure the release of MPs along with Myanmars President and its State Counsellor He said the same would be true of anyone helping Peoples Defense Forces.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) said on Thursday 15,598 people had been arrested since the coup, with 12,462 still detained.

The association said back in July that 24 teachers had been killed and more than 200 arrested since Feb. 1., 2021. It said the 24 who died had joined the Civil Disobedience Movement of striking professionals and were shot during protests or tortured to death.

This story has been updated to add more details on teacher arrests and deaths in the final paragraph.
A school bag lies next to dried blood stains on the floor of a middle school in Let Yet Kone village in Tabayin township in the Sagaing region of Myanmar, Sept. 17, 2022, the day after an airstrike hit the school. The attack killed a number of adults and children, according to a school administrator and volunteers assisting displaced people.

More incidents of violence against civilians by government forces were reported in Myanmar than anywhere else in the world during the first six months of 2022, according to a U.S.-based group that compiles data on conflict in developing nations.

The Armed Conflicts Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a partner organization of the United Nations, said in a report over the weekend that it had recorded 668 incidents of violence against civilians by state authorities in Myanmar from January to June this year. It ranked Myanmar atop a list of nations that included Afghanistan, Yemen, Kazakhstan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, China, Ethiopia and Iran.

The majority of the violence involved direct attacks with small weapons on individuals who are unarmed and not participating in demonstrations against the militarys Feb. 1, 2021, coup, the group said.

ACLED documented more than 11,000 reported fatalities in Myanmar over the same period, mostly as the result of battles between the military and anti-junta armed groups. Explosions and remote violence, as well as violence against civilians, were also leading causes of fatalities, it said.

The group also counted more than 6,000 political protests in Myanmar during the first six months of the year.

With much of the country in active revolt against the takeover, the military has failed to consolidate control, resorting instead to extreme violence, ACLED said. Armed struggle against the junta has continued while anti-coup demonstrations persist.

ACLED said that violence against civilians by state forces took place in all 14 states and regions in Myanmar in the first half of 2022.

Civilians are shot at checkpoints, tortured in prisons, and killed following battles in villages, it said.

Children have also been targeted, as have family members of anti-coup activists. In several cases, the military has desecrated the bodies of those killed, cutting off body parts and setting corpses on fire.

ACLED warned that political violence and protest trends seen at the start of 2022 are likely to carry on into the second half of the year.

As the military incurs further losses and fails to gain control of significant parts of the country, it will continue to target civilians with extreme acts of violence. Resistance to the coup  both armed and unarmed  shows no signs of stopping, it said.

Undated photo of Myanmar junta troops stationed in Mindat, Chin state. Credit: Citizen Journalist Soaring casualties

Responding to ACLEDs report, Thein Tun Oo, the executive director of the Thayningha Strategy Studies Group, a group of former military officers, blamed civilian deaths on the armed resistance.

There will be deaths as long as they hide among civilians, he said, referring to members of the anti-junta Peoples Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group, which the regime has labeled a terrorist organization.

No matter how many instructions are issued by the higher authorities, soldiers return fire at the place where bullets come from. As a result, those people caught in-between get hurt. This is unavoidable.

But political observer Than Soe Naing chalked the high civilian death toll up to the juntas use of asymmetric warfare in the conflict.

The PDF forces came from the civilians. A lot of people are dying and getting injured because the military offensives make use of air strikes and naval attacks [in addition to ground forces], he said.

The only way to reduce these casualties is for the PDF to surrender or totally annihilate the junta forces.

Seeking accountability

Kyaw Zaw, spokesman for the office of shadow National Unity Government (NUG) President Duwa Lashi La, told RFA the junta is committing some of the worst war crimes on earth and will surely pay the price.

Those who gave the orders are also responsible, he said. You can't run away from your crimes.

Kyaw Zaw pointed to a Sept. 16 helicopter attack on Let Yet Kone village, in Sagaing regions Depayin township, that killed 19 people, including six children, as an example of how there is no army as brutal as Myanmars.

In the meantime, he said the NUG is working to provide the people of Myanmar with as much protection as possible.

But Kyaw Win, director of the Burma Human Rights Network, called on the NUG to do more to make the international community aware of the violence facing Myanmars civilian population.

NUG needs to work more closely with the international community. It needs to be more effective. It needs to bring additional resources into the country, he said. Right now, [the junta] is already bullying and killing as many people as it wants.

According to the Burma Human Rights Network, the military is killing more than 100 civilians a month in Myanmar, and Kyaw Win said that thousands have died in the 19 months since the coup.

Thailands Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), said authorities in Myanmar have killed at least 2,311 civilians and arrested nearly 15,600 others since the coup  mostly during peaceful anti-junta protests.

NUG President Duwa Lashi La put the death toll at more than 3,000 in a speech marking the anniversary of the armed resistance earlier this month.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Trinh Ba Tu was chained-up and hit by guards in Vietnam's most notorious prison.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) is calling on Vietnamese authorities to investigate allegations of the beating and shackling of prisoner of conscience Trinh Ba Tu.

HRW issued a media release on Thursday urging authorities to open an investigation into the alleged actions of prison guards at Prison No. 6, at Thanh Chuong township in Nghe An province.

The statement by the New York-based human rights organization was released two days after Tus father, Trinh Ba Khiem, said his son had been punished for filing a complaint against the prison.

There needs to be an urgent, transparent, and impartial investigation of Trinh Ba Tus serious accusations that prison guards shackled and beat him, said Phil Robertson, deputy director of HRW's Asia division.

That kind of treatment is outrageous and unacceptable, and the perpetrators should be held accountable for maltreating prisoners.

Robertson said dissidents imprisoned in Vietnam are regularly subjected to harassment and inhumane treatment. He said he saw little possibility of Vietnamese authorities investigating these allegations.

Foreign diplomats and UN officials should request that Vietnamese authorities allow them to visit Trinh Ba Tu and conduct interviews with him to get to the bottom of this matter, said HRW in its statement.

Tus sister-in-law, Do Thi Thu, sent a petition to Vietnam's President, the Chairman of the National Assembly, the Minister of Public Security, the Supreme People's Procuracy and the People's Procuracy of Nghe An province.

She asked them to explain to Tus family why her brother-in-law was beaten, tortured and shackled.

When I heard that Tu was beaten and was on a hunger strike, my family was very worried about him, said Thu, who is married to another prisoner of conscience, Trinh Ba Phuong.

My family does not know why he was beaten and shackled. My family doesn't know if he is still being beaten or on a hunger strike."

This is the second time Tu has been beaten by Vietnamese police in prison. When arrested in mid-June 2020, his beating by police in Hoa Binh province caused kidney damage.

According to former prisoner of conscience Nguyen Van Hai (aka blogger Dieu Cay), who was imprisoned for many years in many prisons, Prison No. 6 is the most draconian in Vietnam.

In early August, citizen journalist Do Cong Duong died while serving an eight-year prison sentence there, despite being healthy when he was arrested.
In a Facebook post, Altay Goyusov, a historian from Azerbaijan, wrote: "I am not interested in Zangezur or Yerevan." His reference to the Armenian capital and a part of Armenian territory where Azerbaijan seeks a transport corridor to reach its exclave of Naxcivan was enough for him to be targeted and tagged on Facebook as a traitor.

Goyusov is not alone. After the recent military clashes on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border, Azerbaijani opponents of the government's military campaign are being targeted on Facebook and Twitter in what opposition activists claim is an orchestrated campaign.



Beginning on September 13, the two countries, which have been locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh for years, traded artillery and mortar fire, and Azerbaijani forces targeted sites within the borders of Armenia itself. Azerbaijan announced the deaths of 79 of its servicemen, while Armenia said more than 200 of its troops have died.



The Armenian side has accused the Azerbaijani side of an invasion and asked for the immediate withdrawal of Azerbaijani armed forces from Armenian territory. The Azerbaijani side said that "Azerbaijan is not interested in destabilization" and stressed Baku's efforts to rebuild and resettle territory formally under the control of Armenia.



The hashtag #Khainitaniaq -- an Azerbaijani word meaning to "know who is a traitor" -- has been used to target those speaking out against the war.

Tural Sadiqli, an Azerbaijani journalist living in Germany, received similar treatment. He had said on social media that "the Azerbaijani Army crossed the Armenian border" and that "Zangezur is internationally recognized territory of Armenia." For that, he, too, was branded a traitor.



Another target of the social media campaign, Tofiq Yaqublu, a leading member of the opposition Musavat party, said that he is not worried about being called a traitor for voicing what he considers to be the correct opinion.



"Those who speak the truth are considered traitors. In fact, it is a dangerous trend. It's the 21st century, but the atmosphere of repression of the 1930s is coming," Yaqublu told RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service.

"Traitors are found only in dictatorial states. I think that the feet of Azerbaijani soldiers should not have touched Armenian soil. What business do we have being in Zangezur or Goycha?"



Yaqublu added that no campaign against him will distract him from speaking what he believes to be the truth. In December 2021, Yaqublu was detained after an unsanctioned opposition rally in the capital, Baku. He emerged from custody with severe bruising on his face and body, the result, the authorities said, of him punching himself.



Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has ruled the oil-producing former Soviet republic with an iron fist since shortly before his father, Heydar Aliyev, died in 2003 after a decade in power. The president regularly refers to the opposition as "enemies."



Azerbaijan has been repeatedly criticized by rights groups, international watchdogs, and Western governments for jailing dissidents on trumped-up charges and abusing power to stifle dissent. Dozens of journalists and members of the political opposition are still in prison on politically motivated charges. Others are hit with travel bans or constant harassment from the authorities.



Giorgi Gogia, an expert on human rights issues in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia at the New York-based Human Rights Watch, believes that such a campaign, regardless of who started it, is a threat to freedom of expression.



"According to international law, Azerbaijan and other countries have an obligation to observe freedom of expression. International law considers freedom of expression a fundamental human right essential for democracy," Gogia told RFE/RL.



"The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly stated that Azerbaijan has an international obligation to allow the expression of all kinds of opinions, including critical and shocking ones."



It isn't clear who is responsible for starting the #Khainitaniaq campaign, although many in Azerbaijan, especially among the opposition, blame the government.

A pro-government deputy, Fazil Mustafa, who is a member of the human rights committee in Azerbaijan's largely rubber-stamp parliament, shared a "know who the traitors are" video on his Facebook page.



Speaking to RFE/RL, he said all opinions should be treated the same -- up to a point -- and denied that the campaign is conducted by the state.

According to Mehman Aliyev, a media expert and head of the independent Turan news agency, the popular mood is different now to how it was in the aftermath of the 2020 war.

"There is someone who thinks, 'I want peace, I condemn both sides, I do not want any fighting' -- this is an opinion and it should be treated normally. But to say that 'Azerbaijan entered and occupied the territory of Armenia' is to repeat what [U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy] Pelosi said. It is an opinion aired to get a grant from foreign intelligence," Mustafa said.



During a visit to Armenia on September 18, Pelosi strongly condemned and blamed Azerbaijan for the latest attacks.



"We have a million refugees in Azerbaijan, and they have the feeling of being a citizen," Mustafa added. "This is a campaign conducted by an Azerbaijani citizen. It is a public process, so it is not right to link it with the name of the state."



Armenian-backed separatists seized the mainly Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan during a war in the early 1990s that killed some 30,000 people. Diplomatic efforts to settle the conflict brought little progress over the years, and the two sides fought another war in 2020 that lasted six weeks before a Russia-brokered cease-fire was agreed.



Under the cease-fire, parts of the breakaway region and seven adjacent districts were returned to Azerbaijani control. An estimated 2,000 Russian troops have been deployed to keep the peace. Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.



With the exception of a few activists calling for peace, many Azerbaijanis, including members of the country's opposition, were euphoric and supportive of the 2020 war, seeing it as a righting of historical wrongs.



According to Mehman Aliyev, a media expert and head of the independent Turan news agency, the popular mood is different now to how it was in the aftermath of the 2020 war because society's expectations from the government after the war have not materialized, people's livelihoods have not improved, and there are perceptions that veterans of the war have not been looked after by the state.



"If this [campaign] is happening, then it is organized by someone, and in the present case it must be organized by the government," Aliyev said.
Meta Platforms has denied accusations by Iranian activists that its WhatsApp messaging platform has been working with the government to disrupt communications outside the country amid growing civil unrest over the death of a 22-year-old after she was arrested by morality police for failing to adhere to the country's strict rules on wearing a hijab.

Tehran has restricted the popular messaging service inside Iran as the protests over the death of Mahsa Amini last week spread countrywide. State TV says as many as 26 people may have died so far in the unrest.



Late on September 22, some users reported that their access to WhatsApp accounts abroad had also been disrupted, accusing tech giant Meta of collaborating with the Iranian government.



Iranian right activist Hossein Ronaghi was one of those who raised the question of whether Meta, the owner of WhatsApp, was intentionally causing such a disruption.



The company quickly denied any tie between the disruption and its actions.



"We exist to connect the world privately. We stand with the rights of people to access private messaging. We are not blocking Iranian numbers. We are working to keep our Iranian friends connected and will do anything within our technical capacity to keep our service up and running," WhatsApp said in a post on Twitter after the accusations surfaced.



The demonstrations were sparked by an emotional outpouring over the death of Amini, who authorities say died of a heart attack while in custody for allegedly violating the strictly enforced dress code regarding the hijab. Activists say she was beaten by security forces.



They also come on top of months of unrest over rising prices and poor living conditions that many Iranians blame on the country's leadership.



Despite the strong denial by Meta, some still questioned the company's role in the disruption and demanded a technical explanation about the reason for the disruption in WhatsApp -- and other Meta platforms such as Instagram -- of Iranians abroad.



Anonymous, the international activist hacker group, accused Meta of censoring the protests in Iran on its Twitter account, just like they did to Myanmar, Syria, Palestine.



Manoto TV, a London-based Persian-language television station, accused Meta of deleting a large number of videos from its Instagram page that were related to the protests in Iran and which were shared by the station with its 10 million followers.



Many Iranian journalists and social media activists have reported previous incidents where they say Meta had also removed many of their posts related to anti-government protests and accused Instagram's content-review subcontractor of blocking content related to the rise in anger against the authorities.



Bammad Esmaili, a German-based Iranian journalist, quoted several sources from the German branch of Telus International, a Canadian contractor that provides content moderation on Instagram, as saying that the Iranian government has offered financial rewards for the deletion of accounts opposing the Iranian government.



Esmaili did not provide any evidence. Meta has not commented on the accusations.

Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in New York on September 22 and raised human rights issues, a UN spokesman said.

The UN is concerned "about reports of peaceful protests being met with excessive use of force leading to dozens of deaths and injuries," spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on September 23.



"We call on the security forces to refrain from using unnecessary or disproportionate force and appeal to all to exercise restraint to avoid further escalation," Dujarric said.



The call came amid protests in dozens of cities over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, following her arrest by the morality police in Tehran.

Based on reporting by Reuters
State-organized demonstrations have taken place in several Iranian cities to counter days of anti-establishment protests triggered by the death of a 22-year-old woman following her arrest by Tehrans morality police over failing to adhere to the country's strict rules on the wearing of the hijab, or head scarf.

The government news agency IRNA said people took to the streets on September 23 to censure insulting the Holy Koran, setting fire to mosques, as well as desecrating the Islamic dress code.



Demonstrators condemned the anti-government protesters as "Israel's soldiers", live state television coverage showed. They also shouted "Death to America" and "Death to Israel", common slogans that the country's clerical rulers use in state-sponsored events.



The rallies came amid the strongest warning yet from the authorities when the army told Iranians it would confront "the enemies" behind the unrest shown by angry Iranians who have taken to the streets of dozens of cities in recent days over the death of Mahsa Amini following her arrest by the morality police for allegedly wearing "unsuitable attire.



Police have said she died from a sudden heart attack while denying claims by activists that she was beaten.



The protests started in Aminis home province of Kurdistan and then spread to other parts of the country, including the capital, Tehran.

Protests and clashes were reported on September 23 in several cities, including Tehran.



Amini's death has led to calls for an end to the forced hijab law and the abolition of the morality police. Amateur videos posted online show some women burning their veils during protests.

Some protesters have also called for an end to the Islamic republic.



Irans military said on September 23 that it would "confront the enemies' various plots in order to ensure security and peace for the people who are being unjustly assaulted."



"We will not allow enemies to use the situation," a military statement said, according to the semiofficial ISNA news agency.



On September 22, the head of Irans judiciary Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei called for security forces to respond with force to the protests.



In recent days, protesters in Tehran and other cities have reportedly torched police vehicles as outrage over Amini's death showed no signs of abating, with reports of security forces coming under attack.



Iranian media have reported the arrest of 288 rioters.



The official death toll from the clashes remains at least 17, including five security personnel, but the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) put the figure at 36 and said it expected it to rise.



Meanwhile, reports suggest that about 40 activists, students, women's rights advocates, and intellectuals have also been arrested in recent days, including Majid Tavakoli and Mohammad Reza Jalaeipour.

The New York-based Committee To Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on September 23 that 11 journalists have been arrested amid clashes between security forces and protesters.



Photojournalist Yalda Moayeri, journalist Fatemeh Rajabi, and Niloufar Hamedi, a journalist with the Shargh daily who reported from a Tehran hospital where Amini died on September 16, are among them.



Iranian authorities must immediately release all journalists arrested because of their coverage of Mahsa Aminis death and the protests that have followed, CPJs Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, Sherif Mansour. said in a statement.



Iranian security forces must drop their repressive measures against the journalists telling this critical story and restore the Internet access that is vital to keep the public informed," Mansour added.

With reporting by RFE/RLs Radio Farda, Reuters, AFP and IRNA
The U.S. announced on September 23 that it was easing export restrictions on Iran to expand access to Internet services which have been severely curbed by the government amid protests over the death of a woman following her arrest by the morality police.

The Treasury said in a statement that it was seeking to increase support for Internet freedom in Iran through updating a general license allowing access to certain services, software, and hardware after the government on September 21 restricted the Internet severely after days of unrest sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after being detained for allegedly violating the strictly enforced dress code regarding the hijab.



"While Irans government is cutting off its peoples access to the global internet, the United States is taking action to support the free flow of information and access to fact-based information to the Iranian people," the statement said.



Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo added: As courageous Iranians take to the streets to protest the death of Mahsa Amini, the United States is redoubling its support for the free flow of information to the Iranian people...With these changes, we are helping the Iranian people be better equipped to counter the governments efforts to surveil and censor them."



Adeyemo said that Washington would continue to issue guidance on the matter in the coming weeks.

The new license includes social media platforms and video conferencing. It also expands access to cloud-based services used to deliver virtual private networks (VPNs), which provide users with anonymity online, and other anti-surveillance tools, according to a Treasury official, who briefed reporters on the license on condition of anonymity.



The license also continues to authorize antivirus, anti-malware and anti-tracking software, the Treasury said, and removes a previous condition that communications be "personal" to ease compliance for companies.



Asked how the expanded license would help Iranians if their government again shuts down Internet access, a State Department official also briefing reporters said Iran's government would still have "repressive tools for communication."



Netblocks, a London-based Internet observatory group, said on September 21 that Iran is now subject to the most severe Internet restrictions since violent protests in November 2019 over a sudden rise in the price of gasoline.



The Iranian government claims Amini died after suffering a heart attack but her supporters and family dispute that, saying she was beaten while being apprehended.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP
Demonstrators in Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Lebanon, Turkey, Canada, and the United States rallied in solidarity with protesters in Iran who have filled the streets over the death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who died in police custody on September 16.

Iran's morality police had arrested Amini on September 13 for not following laws that require women to wear hijabs, to which some global demonstrators have reacted by demanding justice and cutting their hair at rallies in Istanbul, Berlin, and beyond.

Amini collapsed at a police station and died three days later. The police deny Amini was mistreated and say she died of a heart attack. The top medical official in the southern province of Hormozgan said the most likely cause of her death was a blow to the head.
Exit polls and early results in Bulgaria suggest the center-right Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party of longtime leader Boyko Borisov has won snap parliamentary elections, the fourth such poll in 18 months.

An exit poll conducted by the Gallup International pollster showed GERB with 24.6 percent, apparently edging out the reformist We Continue the Change (PP) party of former Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, which is expected to take 18.9 percent.

Polling data from Alpha Research had GERB with 25.5 percent, followed by PP with 19.9 percent.

Early preliminary results largely mirrored the exit polling data with GERB with more than 25 percent of the vote, followed by PP with 22 percent with 12 percent of the ballots counted.

Voter turnout on October 2 was estimated at about 30 percent.

Petkov and former Finance Minister Assen Vassilev, co-chairs of the PP party, later conceded and declared they will not participate in a coalition with GERB.

"It is GERB's responsibility to form a government. We promised that we will never participate in a coalition with GERB and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and we will keep our promise," Petkov said, referring to an ethnic-Turkish-backed party, the DPS.

Vassilev added that GERB and the DPS were both a "symbol of corruption" in Bulgarian politics.

The Southeast European country of nearly 7 million people has been plagued by political gridlock since 2020, when it was rocked by nationwide protests as public anger over years of corruption boiled over.

Much of the ire was directed at longtime leader Borisov and GERB.

The latest government, led by Petkov, collapsed in June after just six months when one of its coalition partners quit. Petkov has struggled to deliver on his pledge to stamp out corruption.

He has also backed Ukraine in its fight against Russia in a country traditionally friendly toward Moscow and accuses the Kremlin of helping orchestrate the collapse of his government, which refused to pay for gas in rubles as demanded by Russia.

After casting his vote, Borisov told reporters that Bulgaria needs to clearly position itself on Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine.

"With this, aggression, with this war with a clear aggressor in the face of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin -- [I have] nothing against the Russian people -- with this farce with the referendums, Bulgaria must be very clear, categorical, and precise about its place in the European Union and NATO," he said, adding that Bulgaria's entry into the eurozone should be the first and most important task.

Petkov rejected recent polls as questionable and voiced confidence that the vote will yield positive results for his party.

"After this election, we will make a coalition with the Bulgarian people," Petkov told reporters after casting his ballot.

"Today's election is very important. The choice is between going back to the years of transition or to break with this period once and for all and heading to a new prosperous and reformed Bulgaria. I believe that all Bulgarians today will make the choice for Bulgaria to move forward," Petkov said.

As many as eight parties may break the 4 percent threshold needed to gain entrance to parliament and take seats in the 240-member legislature.

One of them, the far-right Revival party which has been polling at around 11 percent to 13 percent, has taken advantage of a wave of populism sweeping Europe -- as witnessed by recent gains by far-right parties in Italy and Sweden -- spurred by economic fears and uncertainty first stoked by the COVID-19 pandemic and now Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

The Revival party has promised to take Bulgaria out of the EU and NATO, and advance policies friendly to the Kremlin.

While many experts dismiss the anti-Western rhetoric of the Revival party as little more than campaign bluster, they do caution that the party is doing the bidding of the Kremlin.

Alpha Research polling showed Revival securing 10 percent of the vote.

Early results gave Revival more than 11 percent of ballots counted. The DPS had 9 percent as did the Bulgarian Socialist Party.

With reporting by AP
In some regions, men are driven off in buses, with wives, mothers, and sisters sobbing openly and waving goodbye. In other places, men say theyre steeling themselves for battle. On the borders with Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Mongolia, long lines of cars are reported as people try to urgently leave the country.

Russian President Vladimir Putins order for a partial mobilization, announced in a recorded televised address on September 21, aims to transform Russias faltering war in Ukraine, injecting an influx of men into the now seven-month-old conflict.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, Russian protests, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

The order is also already showing signs of transforming Russian society in a way not seen in generations, putting the country on a war footing, even as the Kremlin resists uttering the word war.



Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the mobilization could put up to 300,000 men on the battlefield, to replenish 70,000-80,000 casualties that Western officials say Russia has suffered since the February 24 invasion.



Judging by the scope of the mobilization effort, reflected anecdotally in news reports, videos, and audio recordings around the country, the 300,000 figure may turn out to be a smokescreen for a much larger target figure.



Novaya Gazeta Europe, a venerable Russian newspaper that was reconfigured outside the country after being shuttered by authorities, reported on September 22 that a classified clause listed on Putins mobilization order envisioned up to 1 million people being drafted. The paper cited an unnamed official in the presidential administration.



The Russia-oriented news site Meduza, citing an unnamed official close to one of the countrys federal ministries, said the classified plan called for 1.2 million people to be conscripted.



If Not Us, Then Who?



In the two days since Putin announced his decree, a trickle of reports documenting mobilization efforts across Russia has become a flood.



In the Pacific region of Primorye, police cars were recorded driving through one remote towns streets with a loudspeaker announcing the location of recruiting offices and the documentation men must bring when they appear.



In Bolshoi Kamen, an industrial port known for a sprawling submarine and shipbuilding complex, one reporter from the local news site Deita.ru interviewed men who lined up outside a recruiting station before 9 a.m.



Who else are they to going to send? one man was quoted as saying. Old people? Children? Women? If not us, then who?



Videos from Yakutia, the northern Siberian region formally known as Sakha, showed large crowds of men gathering at military recruiting stations, getting onto buses and an airplane. t one distant village in southeastern Yakutia, a loudspeaker broadcast a recording of the famous Soviet war song Katyusha, as men hugged relatives and said farewell.

On the other side of the country, in the North Caucasus region of Kabardino-Balkaria, a crowd confronted a recruiting officer inside an auditorium as the officer explained procedures for mobilizing men. When he said that his own son will not be going to fight due to a happy coincidence, the crowd erupted in anger.



In Simferopol, on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014, a YouTube video showed long lines of men outside one of the capital citys recruiting stations, waiting to board buses. Reportedly, a majority of the men were Crimean Tatars, an ethnic group that has opposed the Russian takeover and has been repeatedly persecuted by Russian authorities.

The video could not be immediately verified, but Tamila Tasheva, a Ukrainian government representative for the occupied peninsula, said in a post to Facebook that at least a thousand draft orders have been distributed throughout Crimean Tatar villages.



She also said that raids were occurring in schools and markets in Tatar-majority regions, with men targeted for mobilization loaded into cars and taken to the military registration and enlistment offices.



"Do all you can, use all legal and 'illegal' methods to not be mobilized," she wrote.



'I Don't Think People Even Understand What's Going On'



In the central Russian region of Chuvashia, dozens of encrypted chat rooms  using applications like WhatsApp, Viber, or Telegram -- have sprung up as people anxiously discuss what mobilization means; and how to avoid it.



The whole situation seems strange to me. Russia has a lot of people in reserve. Where do they need so many people now? What will they all do there in Ukraine? a 33-year-old mother of two who gave only her first name, Olga.



She said her husband is a corporal in the military reserves, so he qualifies under the mobilization order.



In my circles, friends and just acquaintances, theyre discussing only one topic: where to hide my husband? she told Idel.Realities, a regional news project of RFE/RLs Tatar-Bashkir Service. What else are you supposed to do? Either hide, and then be afraid not to be imprisoned, or you go and fight.

Another woman who asked to be identified as Inna said both she and her husband were obligated under mobilization orders. Her husband is a lieutenant in the reserves, she said.



Draft orders came [September 21] to colleagues at work, she said. The boys have just completed their military service. The mothers are in a panic; they say, We wont let them go. Everyone is crying.



I decided there was no point in panicking, she said. They will summon us; we will all go -- that's what my husband says. I don't see the point of running anywhere. To be honest, I dont understand people who run -- you cant escape gravity anyway.



One man who lives in the Volga River city of Kazan told RFE/RLs Tatar-Bashkir Service that he had served in Russian military intelligence several years ago and fully expected to be called up, but that the invasion of Ukraine was pointless.



On the one hand, Im calm. But still I cant imagine being sent to war, he said. However, this is reality. In the summer, when the situation began to escalate, there were thoughts of leaving the country, but my relatives and friends are here, my native land is here, so in the end I stayed.



I don't think people even understand what's going on. No one seems to be able to stop what is happening. Unless, by some miracle, aliens arrive.... To be honest, Im thinking about whom I should leave my possessions to.

In Moscow, one of several cities where scattered protests erupted after Putins address was broadcast and the order was published, local news outlets reported male detainees being issued draft orders while being held in police buses awaiting processing on misdemeanor charges.

The deepening anxiety in parts of Russian society was also reflected in reports of an exodus of Russian men, and women, apparently fleeing mobilization. The country has already seen an outflux of workers to places like Yerevan and Tbilisi, where Russian is widely understood and short-term visas are not required.

Lines of cars, along with cargo trucks, up to six kilometers long were reported on September 22 at Verkhny Lars, a major border crossing that sits astride the main highway connecting Georgia with Russias North Caucasus.



Troop Morale



Putins mobilization order comes at a critical moment for the Russian invasion, and follows months of setbacks and outright defeats for Russian forces in some parts of Ukraine. Earlier this month, Ukrainian forces pulled off a stunning counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region.



With signals mounting that the battlefield defeats might push the Kremlin toward complete mobilization, military analysts cautioned that a Russias military training and recruitment system was not up to the task to dealing with a huge influx of people.



Experts also said it would take months to train, equip, and deploy the new troops in any sizable numbers, giving Ukrainian forces additional time to launch new offensives: into the Luhansk region, for example, or in the southern Kherson region.

Some of the new personnel will also come from either suborning existing contract soldiers -- either conscripts finishing up their mandatory military service, or men who have volunteered and signed short-term contracts to serve  or outright canceling their contracts and ability to leave service.



However, that could result in serious problems with morale and discipline, according to Max Bergmann, the director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank .



The existential danger for Putin is that his decision will, if it is at all impactful, bring the war home to more Russians, he wrote in a commentary. Wars are popular until they suddenly are not.

RFE/RLs Tatar-Bashkir Service and Idel.Realities contributed to this report.
ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Central Asian migrants are accustomed to doing Moscows dirty work.



Every year, hundreds of thousands of citizens from the countries of the region travel to the Russian capital and other major cities to take jobs as street sweepers, cleaners, construction workers, and on the front lines of the service sector -- employment Russians often shun.



Now it is Russias military front in Ukraine that may be looming, with legal amendments passed by the State Duma offering a simplified fast track to Russian citizenship in return for a year of military service in the armed forces of the Russian Federation, other forces, or military formations.



The context for changes in the legislation on receiving Russian citizenship came a day later, on September 21, when President Vladimir Putin announced a partial military mobilization to bolster the Kremlins unprovoked invasion, after results on the battlefield took a turn for the worse.



The announcement and a vaguely worded presidential decree accompanying it has sparked panic, not to mention a surge in demand for flights out of Russia not seen since the first weeks of the war.



By the end of the day, more than 1,300 people had been detained at protests in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and more than 30 other cities, where many participants held up posters with the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag and chanted "No to mobilization!" and Russia without Putin.

WATCH: More than 1,300 people have been detained in Russia after rare anti-war protests were held around the country in the wake of President Vladimir Putin's announcement of a partial military mobilization.



Online, the mobilization drive is being referred to as mogilizatsia, a play on the Russian word for a grave.



And this is doubtless where Russias thinking on migrants comes in.



In a first official update on the Russian militarys personnel losses in Ukraine since March, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a TV interview that 5,937 soldiers had died in the war.



That is well out of keeping with the estimates of Western governments, who have cited figures of between 15,000 and 30,000.

The Russian passport in exchange for military service offer may be a tempting alternative to two years of running around in pursuit of a citizenship that is hard to obtain.

With the prospect of recruitment drives especially unpopular in cities like Moscow, it is not surprising that a disproportionately large part of the fighting has fallen on soldiers from what migration researcher Yan Matusevich calls the poorest and [most] remote regions of the country, many of which happen to be populated by non-Russian ethnic minorities.



The turn toward migrants should be seen as part of this trend, Matusevich told RFE/RL, offering the opportunity to boost recruitment numbers of the big cities without having to draft more well-off Russians from [Moscow and St. Petersburg], that the decree does not appear to safeguard from the mobilization.



Moscows city government, led by Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, has wasted little time in rolling out the recruitment mat.



In a post that appeared on his personal website on September 20, Sobyanin said that full-fledged infrastructure to assist the Russian Defense Ministry in organizing the entry into military service of foreign citizens will be available at the Sakharovo migration center.



Putin and Shoigu both said the target of the mobilization will be reservists with relevant combat experience, but such statements will do little to assuage concerns that men with only limited training and preparation will be sent to the front.

WATCH: Long lines of vehicles have formed at a border crossing between Russia's North Ossetia region and Georgia after Moscow announced a partial military mobilization.



The Kremlin has said repeatedly that it wont deploy conscripts to Ukraine, but there have been several confirmed cases of them being sent into combat during the campaign.



Azamat Adylgaziev, a businessman and noted diaspora leader among migrants from Kyrgyzstan in Russia, told RFE/RL that the mood of his compatriots is somewhat panicked, especially the young men, with some braving a sudden spike in air fares to get on planes leaving the country.



Many of those leaving are Kyrgyz who have already secured Russian citizenship, he added.



For those who havent, he said, the Russian passport in exchange for military service offer may be a tempting alternative to two years of running around in pursuit of a citizenship that is hard to obtain.



How many will sign up? It is impossible to say until we see the queues at Sakharovo. But there is some interest and a lot of people who do not understand the consequences, Adylgaziev said.



Threats Of Jail At Home



The overwhelming majority of the migrants from Central Asia are from three countries: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.



Other CIS countries tend either to send fewer citizens there in absolute terms or have economies that are less dependent on Russia-sourced cash transfers.

I am worried that Russian authorities will try to blackmail those currently at migrant detention centers into enlisting."

All three are known for their political loyalty toward Russia, but perhaps mindful of the international sanctions against Russia and its closest ally, Belarus, they have instructed nationals that prison sentences await anyone violating laws on participating in foreign wars.



Uzbekistans state prosecutor said on September 22 that participation in a foreign war could be punished by prison sentences of between five and 10 years.



According to official Russian data, fully half of the citizens who arrived in Russia for work in the second quarter of this year -- 1.54 million people -- were citizens of Central Asias most populous country, Uzbekistan.



Next door, Kyrgyzstans embassy in Moscow said on the same day that fighting in foreign wars could be punished with jail terms of up to 10 years, and asked citizens to report to the mission any attempts at recruitment.



Make A Run For It



In a Facebook post, former Kyrgyz Prime Minister Feliks Kulov called on his government to take action to help what he said were 500,000 Kyrgyzstan-born compatriots already in possession of a Russian passport and therefore vulnerable to potential mobilization.



The call-up of these people into military service will have a negative, if not tragic, impact on their relatives and close ones, for whom they are the sole providers, Kulov wrote.



While Kyrgyzstan does not officially recognize dual citizenship with Russia, in practice many citizens are able to maintain the passports of both countries.



Tajikistan released a statement on September 22 referring only to criminal responsibility for citizens participating in military activities abroad.



It is not clear how many nationals from Central Asian countries have already participated in the Ukraine war as mercenaries.

On September 10, Oleksandr Shtupun, the press secretary of Ukraines General Staff, accused Moscow of recruiting soldiers among retired military personnel in the Kyrgyz Republic via social media groups.

WATCH: Current Time correspondents asked residents of the Russian cities of Yekaterinburg and Kaliningrad on September 21 how they feel about the partial mobilization.



On the same day, Ukrainian war correspondent Yuriy Butusov posted a video showing captured soldiers who claimed to be from Uzbekistan.



RFE/RLs Tajik and Kyrgyz services have reported multiple deaths of nationals fighting for Russia in Ukraine. The Kremlin-linked Russian private military company Vagner is also reportedly recruiting nationals from the region.



Skepticism surrounding Moscows promises on the limits of the partial mobilization is framed by a number of factors, not least recent territorial gains by Ukrainian forces, who have recently reclaimed hundreds of villages and cities lost at the beginning of the war.



The strength of the recent counteroffensive appears to have driven the mobilization order, while also casting doubt on Russias ability to achieve what it might consider a victory in the bloody war anytime soon.



Matusevich, the researcher, says that with Moscow desperate for manpower, its recruitment of foreign-born fighters may go well beyond the voluntary scenario presented by Sobyanin.



I am worried that Russian authorities will try to blackmail those currently at migrant detention centers into enlisting. Russian authorities may also threaten naturalized Russian citizens with revocation of their citizenship for refusing to 'volunteer' to fight in Ukraine, he said.



Valentina Chupik, an Uzbekistan-born migrant rights defender who was last year barred from Russia, voiced similar concerns about the governments potentially arbitrary approach in a Facebook post, noting that migrants could face a choice between becoming cannon fodder or slaves to the war effort.



Dear migrants who have Russian relatives or who foolishly acquired Russian citizenship, run immediately! As for the rest, I also advise running, she wrote.
Russia-backed officials in four partially-occupied Ukrainian regions have launched so-called referendums on joining the Russian Federation -- which some have called sham votes because they are illegal under international law -- amid claims by some local officials that voters were being threatened and intimidated.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, Russian protests, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

Moscow-controlled administrations in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya regions are holding the snap votes starting September 23 that run counter to the UN charter in the midst of the largest conflict in Europe since the end of World War II.

Ukrainian officials said people were banned from leaving some occupied areas until the four-day vote was complete, armed groups were going to homes to force people to cast ballots, and employees were threatened if they did not participate in balloting that the Kremlin is expected to use to annex the territories and escalate the war amid increasing signs that its invasion of Ukraine is faltering.



Serhiy Hayday, Ukraine's regional governor in Luhansk, said in a post on Telegram that Russian authorities banned people from leaving for several days to ensure votes, while armed groups had been sent to search homes and coerce people to get out and take part in the referendum.



"We have reports from people that the so-called 'voting commissions' coming to residences to record votes are accompanied by people with weapons.... If the doors to the apartments are not opened, they threaten to break them down," he said, adding that anyone voting "no" was written down in a ledger by the commissioners.



The referendums have been condemned by Kyiv, Western leaders, and the United Nations as an illegitimate, choreographed precursor to illegal annexation. There are no independent observers, and much of the prewar population has fled.



In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the vote a "sham" and undemocratic.



The move comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial military mobilization on September 21 amid apparent heavy personnel losses in the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine that Moscow started in February.



The announcement triggered an exodus of able-bodied Russian men scrambling to leave the country to avoid being drafted, with traffic at frontier crossings with Finland and Georgia surging and prices for air tickets from Moscow skyrocketing.



Zelenskiy, switching from speaking in Ukrainian to Russian, spoke directly to Russian citizens in his address, telling them they are being thrown to their deaths.



You are already accomplices in all these crimes, murders, and torture of Ukrainians, Zelenskiy said, adding, because you were silent; because you are silent."



He told Russians, that "now its time for you to choose."



"For men in Russia, this is a choice to die or live, to become a cripple or to preserve health. For women in Russia, the choice is to lose their husbands, sons, grandchildren forever, or still try to protect them from death, from war, from one person, Zelenskiy said.



The hastily announced referendums were set up by the Kremlin-installed leaders of the four regions. They gave no prior warning that they planned to hold the vote on annexation between September 23- 27.

In Kherson, Serhiy Khlan, a Ukrainian deputy in the region's council, told RFE/RL on September 23 that the polling stations opened by Russian-controlled officials in the region have remained mostly empty, prompting them to start going house-to-house to collect votes "at gunpoint."



"The occupiers have opened the polling stations. But there is no one at the polling stations, as people from the Kherson region point out. They are empty. The occupiers understand that they are empty, but they envisage door-to-door canvassing in their fake referendum. That is, it is no longer a secret vote. It is a forced collection of the answer 'yes' at gunpoint," Khlan said.



The rushed decision to hold the vote comes as Ukraines military is on the offensive in those regions, liberating large swaths of territory and raising the specter of a potential Russian defeat.



Western officials and experts say Putin plans to use the sham referendums to claim Ukraine is invading territory that is part of Russia. This week, he threatened the use of all of Russia's might -- a thinly veiled reference to his nuclear weapons -- in an attempt to frighten Kyiv and its Western backers from further military action.

The Kremlin showed little desire to mask its true goal over the balloting, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters in Moscow on September 23 that he is "convinced" Russia will proceed "quite quickly" with taking over the regions if the vote is successful.



Ukraine says it will never accept Russian territorial takeovers.



The incorporation of the four areas would then allow Moscow to portray and moves to retake them as an attack on Russia itself -- potentially using that to justify even a nuclear response.



Russia's moves have come during the UN General Assembly, where U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on September 22 called on members of the body's Security Council to send a clear message that these reckless nuclear threats must stop immediately.



He called Russia's effort to annex more Ukrainian territory another dangerous escalation, as well as a repudiation of diplomacy.

Separately, the Group of Seven industrialized nations condemned annexation referendums being held in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine as a "sham" with "no legal effect or legitimacy."



"We will never recognisz these referenda which appear to be a step toward Russian annexation and we will never recognize a purported annexation if it occurs," the G7 leaders said in a statement on September 23.



The Kremlin has carried out a series of acts in the Ukrainian territories under its control that further highlight the lack of any legitimacy the votes could have.



Moscow has deported about 1.6 million Ukrainians from those regions to Russia, according to Western estimates, while also busing Russian citizens into Ukrainian territory.

WATCH: Long lines of vehicles have formed at a border crossing between Russia's North Ossetia region and Georgia after Moscow announced a partial military mobilization.



It has also captured personal and biometric data of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens at so-called "filtration camps," opening the door, experts say, to ballot manipulation.



Nikolai Bulaev, the deputy chairman of Russias Central Election Commission, said he expects hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians currently in Russia to take part in the referendum.



Russia has little history of holding free and fair elections, with ballot-stuffing, voter intimidation, outright fraud, and media manipulation common practices. It held a similar illegal vote in 2014 after annexing Ukraine's Crimea. Very few countries have accepted the results of the vote.



There is no single database containing information about the number of polling stations that will open in Russia for Ukrainian citizens, nor uniform rules for how the voting will be conducted in the country, the daily Kommersant reported.



Blinken called on every member of the United Nations to reject the sham referenda and unequivocally declare that all Ukrainian territory is and will remain part of Ukraine.



He said the United States will continue to support Ukraine regardless of the vote.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP
Faced with more military setbacks in Ukraine, Russia seeks to rope in four regions by staging referendums widely denounced as a sham, and President Vladimir Putin decrees a partial mobilization in a bid to bolster the ranks of his struggling forces. Will that move backfire at home?

Here are some of the key developments in Russia over the past week and some of the takeaways going forward.

Legacy Of War

Its only 2022, but Putin has made some big mistakes in this decade  or at least, some decisions that will darkly cloud his legacy, at the very least, and put his political future at risk.

It didnt have to be this way. After his election to a fourth presidential term in 2018, he could have left the constitution alone and made clear that, in 2024, he would head into a secure retirement -- or something like it -- at age 71.

Instead, in January 2020, Putin sent tandem partner Dmitry Medvedev packing after almost eight years as prime minister, signaling that he was not planning to coast toward a pension or a lofty position on the sidelines.

Then he engineered a host of constitutional amendments that, like foam filler surrounding a small gift in a cartoonishly big box, seemed designed to cushion a single amendment: the one that lets him run for reelection in 2024 and in 2030.

Those changes were accompanied by a heightened clampdown on dissent and by the poisoning of his strongest foe, Aleksei Navalny, in August 2020, which the now-imprisoned opposition leader blames on Putin.

Navalny survived, but his return to Russia in January 2021, following treatment in Germany, was met with another sharp escalation of the states suppression of opponents real, perceived, and fabricated.

Then came the invasion of Ukraine, a large-scale assault from three sides that dramatically escalated what had been a simmering conflict in the Donbas and sharply worsened already heavily strained relations with the West.

The unprovoked invasion, of course, has done a lot more than that. It has killed a large number of civilians  the UN believes the actual toll is considerably higher than the 5,718 deaths it had recorded by early September  and more than 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers, according to their commander in chief.

The anonymity of the raw, elusive numbers frequently gives way to unutterably painful personal stories: from the woman and her daughter and son killed by shelling in Irpin near Kyiv in March to the 11-year-old girl fatally injured in a rocket attack last week on Chuhuyiv, near Kharkiv, and many, many more.

And those are deaths caused by bombs, rockets, and shells raining down from above. On the ground, Russian forces have been accused of atrocities almost everywhere theyve been, leaving horror stories to be told by survivors after their retreat.

Describing a pattern of violent behavior by Russian soldiers, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the UN Security Council on September 22 that there is mounting proof of Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

'These Are Not Referendums'

In addition to the civilians killed and maimed, the Russian onslaught has driven far larger numbers of Ukrainians from their homes, with nearly 7.5 million refugees recorded in Europe and millions displaced within Ukraine. Many others have ended up in Russia by force of arms or circumstance, leading to accusations that Moscow is abducting Ukrainian children.

Russia is violently uprooting thousands of Ukrainians and busing in Russian citizens to manipulate the results of referendums on joining Russia that the Moscow-imposed administrators of four regions where Russian forces hold territory  and from which many of those millions of Ukrainians have fled -- abruptly announced are taking place on September 23-27.

Marie Dumoulin, a former career French diplomat who now heads the Wider Europe program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told RFE/RL on September 22 that there is basically no legitimacy whatsoever in these votes, which are being held in wartime in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya regions.

These are not referendums, so I wouldnt even comment about them in terms of democracy or the rule of law, Dumoulin said. We cannot consider that there has been any form of legitimate voting in these regions under the current conditions.

Of the four regions, Russian forces control only Luhansk in anything close to its entirety, and the decision to hold the annexation votes now  clearly made in the Kremlin was widely seen as a result of military setbacks that have left their ability to keep the lands they hold, let alone advance further, deeply in doubt.

Endorsing the so-called referendums in an address on September 21, the day after they were announced, Putin issued a warning -- not even thinly veiled -- that he could order the use of nuclear weapons to maintain hold of these territories once the process is over and they are declared by Russia to be parts of Russia.

Basically, what Russia is trying to achieve is to consolidate its control over these territories -- not by military means, but by political ones -- by organizing these pseudo-referendums and then saying these are parts of Russian territory, Dumoulin said.

[If] Russia cant control these territories by military means, it intends to make them part of its own territory [through the so-called referendums] so that the West and Ukraine fear heavy consequences if Ukraine continues its counteroffensive, she said.

Putins speech on September 21 was his first address to the nation since the morning of the invasion in February -- a time when he apparently believed that Russian forces would subjugate Ukraine within days, seizing Kyiv and setting up a pro-Moscow government.

Eight months later, that outcome seems out of the question, and Russias military setbacks  both from the start and in recent weeks, when Ukrainian forces have regained a large swath of territory in the east, mostly in the Kharkiv region  were clearly behind Putins announcement of what he called a partial mobilization.

Mobilize This

The mobilization, in which Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the military would aim to call up 300,000 men, is a risky move for Putin, who had avoided such efforts for months  despite a shortage of soldiers -- amid apparent concerns about the political consequences.

It undermined what for many Russians had been a condition of at least tacit support for a war that is threatening to gut the economy and has made their country a pariah, as pop icon Alla Pugacheva put it in a denunciation of a conflict that is causing the deaths of our boys for illusory goals: that for the most part, they themselves -- or their sons, husbands, and loved ones -- do not have to fight in it.

In his broadcast remarks and his mobilization decree, Putin repeated the word partial like a mantra.

But the fine print included few actual limits, and there may be nothing to stop Putin and the military from digging deeper into the pool of possible fighters  or from trying to, at least -- if they feel the need. With analysts saying it may be all but impossible for Russia to mobilize 300,000 people, they may feel that need fairly soon.

This mobilization phase may just be the beginning of more mobilization, Michael Kofman, a military analyst who heads the Russia Studies program at U.S.-based think tank CNA, said in an online discussion hours after Putins address. Everybody in Russia understands they could be in the next wave, and that this is only the beginning.

Even from afar, that concern was palpable in the wake of Putins announcement.

Plane tickets disappeared quickly as a draft-age men headed for the exits, scrambling for seats on flights abroad or crossing the border by car  an exodus that echoes the one that ensued after Putin launched the large-scale invasion in February, a step many clung to the hope he wouldnt make, despite his increasingly audible signals as well as warnings from Washington that the assault could begin any day.

'Into The Muck'

Far from the airports and the frontier, others dismayed by the mobilization decree protested in the centers of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, and many other cities, some chanting Putin to the trenches. Police plunged into crowds; nationwide, more than 1,300 people were arrested at protests against mobilization, according to the monitoring group OVD-Info.

The numbers of people protesting or heading for the borders may not be large enough to give Putin pause. But opposition to the mobilization drive goes beyond those who took to the streets in protest.

I dont support it at all, a man in Yekaterinburg told Current Time, the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. Id rather go to prison. I wont fight for this government.

Putin may not be listening, but these sentiments suggest that there are limits to levels of support for the invasion of Ukraine -- and they will be reached faster if the setbacks keep piling up.

Putin is stuck in a quagmire, where the clearest way out is to stop, turn around, and go back out of Ukraine the way he came in, Max Bergmann, director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote on September 21. Yet leaders stuck in an unwinnable war often just wade deeper into the muck. Putin is following that well-charted path, and his regime may not survive.

Editor's Note: The next edition of The Week In Russia will appear on October 7.
President Coons experience in higher education leadership, business and finance will help Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and other state leaders develop the workforce necessary to grow and diversify the states economy.

President Robert A. Coons has been appointed to serve a two-year term on the Governors Workforce Cabinet to help strengthen Indianas economy by addressing current and future education and employment needs for residents and employers.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb announced the appointment on September 21 from the Statehouse in Indianapolis.

Formed in 2018, the Governors Workforce Cabinet (GWC) includes 27 members comprising statewide business officials, postsecondary institution and K-12 representatives, Indiana lawmakers, and leaders from Indiana state agencies. Other Indiana college and university presidents joining Coons in the group include Pamela Whitten of Indiana University, Sue Ellspermann of Ivy Tech Community College, Chuck Johnson of Vincennes University and Ronald Rochon of University of Southern Indiana.

The GWC led the development of Indiana's Strategic Workforce Plan in 2020. This four-year plan outlined initiatives to create a talent system that affords all Hoosiers equitable opportunities for lifelong learning and increased personal economic mobility and provides employers the talent to grow and diversity their workforce.

Coons said, Im looking forward to working alongside Governor Holcomb, other education leaders, and business, government and community officials from throughout Indiana to help develop the workforce necessary to meet current industry and corporate needs and attract future employers.

Coons brings a wealth of expertise in higher education, finance, and management to the GWC. He has been Rose-Hulman president since the fall of 2018 and was interim president from April 2012 to April 2013. He also has served as the Institutes senior vice president and chief administrative officer, vice president of business and finance, and controller. Coons is an Indiana native who earned a bachelors degree in business from Indiana University and a Master of Business Administration from Indiana State University. He is a graduate of the Harvard Institute for Executive Management and a licensed certified public accountant.

Holcomb worked with Coons when Rose-Hulman hosted an Indiana Economic Development Corporation meeting on campus in the spring of 2019. Coons also presented Holcomb with an honorary degree from Rose-Hulman in 2020.

His current involvement in business and community development and support includes serving on the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership Board of Directors, as a member of the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce, the Independent Colleges of Indiana Board of Directors, and serving as vice chairman of the Union Hospital/Union Health System Board of Directors.

Coons also has previously served in a variety of community support roles. He is a graduate of Leadership Terre Haute and the Wabash Valley Leadership Institute. He received the Rose-Hulman Presidents Outstanding Service Award in 2010, the Rose-Hulman Honor Alumni Award in 2013, the Indiana University East Honor Alumni Award in 2013, and Terre Haute Rotary Vocational Service Award in 2014.

Coons and his wife, Tammy, live in Terre Haute.
Copper production to show strong and consistent growth for next decade A new study by Fitch Solutions Country Risk and Industry Research forecasts 7.3 million tonnes will be added to global copper production through 2031 as a raft of projects in Chile, China and Congo come online.

Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo announceds highlights from The Hong Kong Watch Auction Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo has announced highlights ahead of The Hong Kong Watch Auction: XV, which will take place over the course of two sessions on 28 to 29 November at the JW Marriott in Hong Kong.

Alrosa finds 22 new diamond deposits in Zimbabwe  report Alrosa has discovered 22 new diamond deposits in Zimbabwe, according to media reports citing the countrys president, Emmerson Mnangagwa. Bloomberg reports that Harare will only limit the Russian diamond company to work on only two of the diamond deposits...

TAGS presents smaller tender in September due to uncertain market conditions The Trans Atlantic Gem Sales (TAGS) event took place in Almas Tower, Dubai from 21st -28th September 2022. While international markets remain impacted by the continued global economic situation and overall uncertainty, TAGS welcomed over 120...
While the trend of developing green energy in the world has gathered momentum, there is still no breakthrough solution in offshore wind power energy in Vietnam. This resource needs to be tapped and developed for future growth and as an alternative for other fast diminishing natural resources.

Renewable energy resource

Fossil fuel resources such as coal, oil and gas will be available for only a few more decades, and humanity will then be in danger of a serious shortage of this energy resource. Therefore, many countries around the world have taken advantage of and further developed wind power energy, which is an inexhaustible and abundant available resource. According to an assessment by the International Energy Agency (IEA), global wind power resources have the potential to reach 420,000 TWh annually, which is eighteen times more than the current world demand.

In 1991, the world's first offshore wind power project was built in Vindeby in Denmark. It had eleven turbines and a capacity of 450 kW of five MW at a depth of four meters near the shore. After the life cycle of the offshore wind power project completed about 25 years, it was dismantled in 2017.

More recently, offshore wind projects have reached several GW of capacity, with turbines as large as 12 MW and at depths of nearly 200 meters and more than 100 kilometers offshore. Before 2016, the investment cost of 1 MWh of wind power was up to USD 200 per 1 MWh. Recently with the introduction of new technology, the price has dropped sharply to USD 50 to USD 100 per 1 MWh.

The offshore wind power market is growing continuously every year at the rate of about 30%. Currently, there are about 150 large marine wind farms in operation, sharply increasing in 2018 in the UK, Germany, Denmark, the US, and China. Europe has also installed 20 GW of offshore wind power and has a supportive policy to quadruple it to 80 GW by 2030. IEA forecasts that by 2040, offshore wind power globally will have a development investment of about USD 1,000 bln, with an annual growth rate of 13% of installed capacity.

Currently, Vietnam's total power plants of 40 GW are in operation with the main sources being hydroelectricity and coal-fired power which are basically now being exhausted. According to the World Bank (WB), there is potential for 475 GW of offshore wind power in the sea with a depth of less than 200 meters.

Therefore, with potential of offshore wind power many times the existing capacity, it is possible to meet current and future electricity demands. The coastal area, especially the Southern region, has an area of about 142,000 square kilometers with a depth of 60 meters, which has very good potential for wind power development. The survey data shows that the wind speed in this area at an altitude of 100 meters reaches 7 to 10 m/s.

Currently, the Bac Lieu wind farm at sea with a capacity of 100 MW has been operating and providing about 300 million kWh per year, and by 2025 will increase up to 1,000 MW or 3 billion kWh per year. In general, the wind turbine farms in Bac Lieu have operated well, bringing high economic efficiency and the opportunity to recover capital is just about ten years.

The turbine life is of 50 years, contributing to the local budget at VND 76 billion per year. The Thang Long super project off the coast of Binh Thuan has a capacity of 3.4 GW and is in the process of acquiring a feasibility study. If this project is completed before 2030, it will bring effective offshore wind power to Vietnam.

Legal framework

The draft Power Plan-VIII of the Ministry of Industry and Trade offers a capacity of 16 GW of onshore and nearshore wind power, with 7 GW of offshore wind power by 2030 and by 2045 there will be 122 GW of total wind power capacity. This offshore wind power will be 66 GW. These are quite challenging and ambitious goals because in order to achieve them it is necessary to have timely marine spatial planning and an environmental legal framework.

From now until 2030, there are only eight years remaining. Offshore wind power projects need at least seven to ten years to complete the stages of survey, wind measurement, geological research, feasibility assessment, environmental impact assessment, design, manufacture of components, construction, and final installation. Implementation of offshore wind power projects is technically complex and requires huge financial investment. Therefore, it is necessary to start immediately, from the granting of geological survey permits to a clear and long-term policy mechanism.

It is estimated that by 2050 Vietnam can use offshore wind power resources to meet nearly 30% of electricity demand in the country, and possibly even higher, depending on the market as well as technological progress. However, offshore wind power needs long-term planning and a clear and stable policy framework, which is also a necessary condition to attract investments as the cost of such projects is not cheap. For instance, offshore wind measurement alone will cost a huge financial amount of about USD 2 million. This does not include the cost for other administrative procedures and surveys which may bring the total to about USD 15 million per project.

To achieve this, it will be necessary to have effective national policies for offshore wind power projects, such as the early formulation of a national strategy for offshore wind power development. It will also require a marine spatial plan for offshore wind power development in association with the National Strategy on marine wind energy development upto 2030, with a vision until 2045.

In addition, it is necessary to develop, supplement, and complete the national institutional and policy framework on licensing, appraisal, environmental impact assessment, marine leasing, development of offshore wind power projects, and other marine energy projects.

Dr. Du Van Toan, Institute of Sea and Island Research, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment,
Weather Alert

...FROST ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM TO 9 AM EDT MONDAY... * WHAT...Temperatures in the lower to mid 30s will result in frost formation. * WHERE...The Champlain Valley of New York and Vermont. * WHEN...From 1 AM to 9 AM EDT Monday. * IMPACTS...Frost could kill sensitive outdoor vegetation if left uncovered. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Take steps now to protect tender plants from the cold. &&
Google Asks German Reviewers If They Object To Reported Reviews Being Removed

Did you know that in some countries, like Germany, if you report a review as being fake or spam, Google will email the reviewer about the objection and see if they respond? Mike Blumenthal spotted that in a Google Business Profile help thread.

You can see this business is complaining about a review being spam and/or fake and he reported the review. The response he received from Google translated into:

Thank you for your request. Since you are forwarding your letter regarding the following content to the authors have not objected we forwarded your complaint: kaushik salver Should we get any response from the writer of the testimonial cited above received, it will be removed shortly will. Many greetings.

Here is a screenshot (click to enlarge):

Mike asked "Google, in Germany, sends the reviewer a notice that you objected and if they don't object, then the reviews come down? Is that correct?"

Seems so? Germany has interesting rules...

Forum discussion at Google Business Profile help.
In the 70s and early 80s, the public sector companies such as Bharat Electronics and later private firms like Wipro, HCL and a few more filled in the gap for electronic products when the economy was controlled. Though the end consumer had limited choice, quality expectations were never lowered. Developing computing and telecom products for the local market, Indian firms learnt the nuances of product development and continued to innovate the overall product development cycle. During this time, a small workforce put together robust foundations for what was to come.These foundations proved to be of tremendous assistance when the economy opened up in the 90s. By this time, the Indian engineer had acquired skills to develop products around the latest architectures and with a high degree of quality.Since then, the Product Engineering industry has never looked back. Growing at an incredible pace and expanding the expertise areas beyond the telecom and computing domains to automotive, medical devices, industrial electronics, consumer electronics and of course, mobile devices. What's more these firms in India have learnt to leverage the best practices from across the domains they operate in. Example: the learning from a high-reliability product in automotive are deployed in security applications to ensure a fail-safe environment.Over the years, as India developed as an IT hub, the product design centers have been a crucial component of the industry. Both in terms of outsourced third party design centers and India development centers of MNCs. The Indian Development Centers of multinational firms and India based service providers have been stepping up their efforts in the recent years. We have seen the overall embedded exports growing at close to 40 percent CAGR for the past 6 years. Working across multiple domains, India's name has now become synonymous with offshore product development.The success of the product-engineering firms is clearly visible when we see the contribution they provide to global product engineering. India already has about 100,000 engineers contributing to the global electronic engineering team of about 1 million. We are already contributing 10 percent of the global electronic engineering value from our country. While engineering value is 10 percent, domestic electronic product consumption is about 2.5 percent (assuming $25 billion in a trillion dollar industry). As we continue to focus on increasing design value to about 25 percent, the question is how can we get the domestic consumption to more than 10 percent of global spends in the next decade.With India supplying innovative products to firms and geographies across the globe, the Indian subcontinent seems to have largely not been impacted by the product innovation cycle. Considering the highly optimized processes and having understood product architecture requirements, the Indian engineer is more than capable of delivering what's required for the local markets here. In recent years, the pace at which semiconductor and systems companies have established their own design centers in India has accelerated. The design services industry will continue to play a role in India's emerging semiconductor ecosystem and contributing to the growth for India's electronics industry.So what can be done by firms with successful products worldwide to extend their success to the Indian markets?I would like to describe three key aspects that firms need to address to be able to bridge the gaps between consumer needs and products being sold to them.one of the main aspects to increase consumption is increased localization of products. For designing products for India, the level of involvement of firms needs to be more. The designers have a tough ask of meeting the targeted costs while ensuring the seamless integration of applications and having the right user interface, preferably localized. I understand the Indian mobile phone market is poised to touch 450 million in the next 10 years. This is incredible and primarily due to the fact that the cell phone vendors and service providers have studied the local market well. There are phones at price points and with features that cater to almost all individual requirements. From high-end, PDAs to simple phones for the technophobe. They have even introduced products and services in regional languages.characteristic is the need for supported adoption that is required by the users here. We have seen the PC industry post excellent growth numbers this year. The first half of the year (according to MAIT Manufacturers Association for Information Technology) registered a growth of 11 percent. The annual sales are expected to be more than 7 million units. As we see this momentum in the Personal computing industry, I would like to reflect on what made this all possible. It was the small training center in small neighborhoods across the cities, whether big or small, that introduced the PC to the common man. This small yet significant impetus taken by firms and their franchises helped the SMEs and households see the benefits.For years, the PC industry has worked hard to educate and enable schools, colleges, and government offices. Even though this effort is still needed, the results are starting to show.Supported adoption goes beyond end consumers. Unlike users of mature markets, many Indian businesses need support in selecting the right products and solutions for their problems too. Many of the small office workspaces are not wired for IT. It takes time and money to install UPSs, wiring for UPS power and for network cabling. Wipro Infotech has helped many such customers save effort and costs on network and power infrastructure by using WiFi enabling the networks and using low cost laptops instead of workstations.The question we need to ask is what is the investment we can make to enable the market? It would be naive to expect a new technology to sell by itself.I see is the need for evolved business models. We are also seeing a managed services model emerging here, where the design services partner goes beyond just co-engineering the product The partner is also responsible for overlooking the manufacture of the product. Thus, his success is dependant on the products success. The value that the partner brings to the table is his knowledge of the local, market, his presence in the ecosystem and his experience in global productengineering.We need to realize approaches outlined above were not brought about instantly by industries that have been successful. Most of these practices were realized by firms with deep understanding of the end consumer with feet on the ground. Practices that worked in other markets did not always yield the same results here. They listened to their consumers moreover they observed their functions and then moved the ideas back to the drawing board. In other words, they went beyond the usual to bring in innovation to their daily business practices.We know that innovation is not always big, transformational or revolutionary. It's the incremental changes made to better a product or process or business that finally adds up to success. Innovation is a key pillar for any organisation's success. Innovation is applied creativity. In today's context, it's not unanticipated that innovation plays an extremely important role. However, we need to understand the following basic essential guidelines.we must ensure that technological and managerial innovation go hand in hand. When technology innovations outstrip management innovations, the benefits fall through the crack. It is like a car with a powerful engine but a wobbly chassis. It cannot get far. It is therefore important for companies to have the managerial depth and sound understanding of customer's product requirements.work on creating an entrepreneurial spirit within the organization (within business units and project teams) that allows natural innovators the space to grow. Organizations need to build a culture that rewards risk, encourages entrepreneurship, celebrates success and upholds the rule of law more than any other. Only this will enable the teams to come forward and innovatecollaborate and co-innovate in the evolving ecosystem. Just like the day of the isolated innovator in a forgotten laboratory is over. The ecosystem is absolutely necessary to take a brilliant idea off the ground. Remember, businesses are good at getting better but poor at getting different. It is very difficult for successful organizations to develop disruptive innovations that would threaten the basis of their success.The market for electronic products in India is huge in almost all domains that the firms here are specializing in. In this context it's important to show the world that we have the infrastructure and the capability for sustaining the complete electronic product lifecycle i.e. from design, develop, test and manufacture.It is time that the firms today take up the mantle, collaborate within this ecosystem and apply innovation to design products for the Indian subcontinent.
The Ministry of Communications recently released the new Telecommunications Bill 2022 as a step towards designing a new telecom framework in India. The Bill seeks to consolidate and replace three telecom legislations -- Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933 and The Telegraph Wires (Unlawful Protection) Act, 1950, a legacy of the colonial era.

The thrust of the Bill to ease telecom infrastructure expansion and strengthen its quality are the key positives. The intent to enable innovation through regulatory sandbox and the focus to promote an ecosystem for sharing, trading and leasing of spectrum, and the flexibility in making it available for various use case is also welcome.

Commenting on the new Telecommunication Bill, 2022, Ashish Aggarwal, Vice President, Public Policy, NASSCOM, said Given that the Bill leaves a lot to be covered through the regulations, it should formalise the concept of risk-based obligations and a consultation based, transparent and responsive, regulation making process. This could, say, guide the framing of regulations for different types of licenses. The final Bill should aim to minimise regulatory burden, uncertainty, and overlaps across different laws in the innovation rich value-added services. This will be the key for start-ups and SMEs in the digital space. We have rolled out our internal consultations with the industry to finalise our feedback.

We expect the Bill to be suitably strengthened through a process of transparent and meaningful consultation with the stakeholders. A future ready Telecommunication Bill will be an important step towards designing a framework which supports regulatory stability, investment, and innovation in the telecom sector.
Reliance New Energy Limited (RNEL) has signed agreement to invest in Caelux Corporation (Caelux"), a company headquartered in Pasadena, California, in the USA which is engaged in the development of perovskite-based solar technology.

The company will invest USD 12 million to acquire 20% stake in Caelux, according to a media release.

This investment will accelerate product and technology development for Caelux, including construction of its pilot line in the United States, for expediting the commercial development of its technology.

Both companies have also entered into a strategic partnership agreement for technical collaboration and commercialization of Caeluxs technology.

Speaking about this investment, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited said that the investment in Caelux aligns with the strategy to create the most advanced green energy manufacturing ecosystem, backed by world class talent, and built on the pillars of technological innovation achieved through strategic partnerships.

We believe Caeluxs proprietary perovskite based solar technology provides us with access to next leg of innovation in crystalline solar modules. We will work along with team at Caelux to accelerate its product development and commercialization of its technology," Ambani added.

Scott Graybeal, CEO of Caelux Corporation hailed this agreement of Reliance's stake in Caelux and said that the partnership will accelerate its efforts to build out manufacturing capabilities to produce products that make crystalline solar modules more efficient and cost effective.

Caelux is proud to have Reliance as a lead investor as we move to the next phase of our development and are grateful for Khosla Ventures support of the company over the years," Graybeal states.

He further added, "We look forward to demonstrating the future of solar power at a scale as we support Reliances global expansion plans and product roadmap."

The release stated that this investment will not require any regulatory approval and is expected to be completed by end of September 2022, subject to satisfaction of any conditions precedent.
Knowing the ways to remove personal information from Google has never been more important than it is in today's modern age.

With the popularity of search engines, you can find out relatively anything about anyone if you know what to look for. The options are endless, from finding information about real people to accessing fake or positive reviews of businesses.

With an idea of how you can get your personal information off Google Search, you can maintain more privacy than ever before. In this guide, we'll discuss the steps to take to remove personal information to keep your online presence discreet.

How Does Google Search Work?

Before we get into the steps to take to remove information from Google, it's essential to understand how the platform works.

For legal reasons, Google is often seen as a conglomerate that takes different information from millions of sites online. This information is then compiled in the search engine, meaning Google is not directly responsible for the content that appears in its search results.

Unfortunately, this can mean a massive headache for someone looking for a professional service to remove their information from Google. Instead of talking to the search engine, you need to go directly to the source containing your personal information.

In these instances, you'll need to reach out to their webmaster and request they remove your information from their site.

Once the webmaster has deleted the content and followed their removal policies, Google will be able to get rid of the information from their search ranking. That is because your personal information will no longer be available from the starting source.

The downside is that there's no guarantee when the content will be removed.

You will need to wait for Google Search to perform its regular updating process, which could take weeks or months. Alternatively, there's the option to use the "Outdated Content Removal" tool, which notifies the company of old content that needs to be removed.

Can Google Remove Any Personal Information?

With an understanding of how webmasters control the content on their sites, you might be wondering whether Google controls any personal information.

Fortunately, there are instances where Google can step in and remove content themselves, although it must fit within specific criteria. For example, Google has been known to remove content that includes:

Data that puts you at risk for financial fraud like credit card numbers or bank account details

Irrelevant pornography that pops up from a name search

Images of minors

Select identifiable information, such as medical records

Government-issued ID numbers (Social Security Number)

Non-consensual intimate, explicit, or personal images

If you want to learn more about how Google can help remove specific types of information from a search engine, there are plenty of articles to review. It's best to look at the specific article for your problem via this link to know what steps you must take next.

Other Instances When Google Removes Content

There are two other significant instances where Google can consider removing content, regardless of whether the webmaster agrees or not. If the platform notices images of child sexual abuse, said content will be removed immediately from the search engine results.

Additionally, the platform is committed to following legal guidelines for copyright violations. If a specific link to a site leads to copyrighted content that's being distributed illegally, it will be removed from Google's search engine results.

This will most often appear with a brief explanation describing the site in DMCA violation. If you notice copyrighted content illegally distributed on Google, you can report the sites to be taken down as needed.

How Can I Get My Content Removed From Google?

If you're ready to have personal information removed from Google's relevant search, the steps are simple to follow. If you're a victim of exploitative removal practices, Google is more likely to protect your personal information than any other site online.

Let's get into the steps to follow so you can begin personal information removal.

Step 1: Find the Removal Form

The first thing you'll need to do when submitting a removal article is to find the form.

On the form, you'll then need to select "Remove information you see from Google search." Next, select where the information you want to be removed is located.

For example, you can choose from "In Google's search results and on a website," or "Only in Google's search results."

You would need to answer additional questions depending on which prompt you choose. As mentioned earlier, if you want content removed from a specific site, Google recommends contacting the website owner before going through Google.

However, the process is slightly different if you want your information removed only from Google's search engine results.

Step 2: Fill Out the Request Removal

The next step to removing personal information to maintain your online brand reputation is to submit a removal request. You'll need to enter your personal details and provide information about the page that has the content you want to be removed.

This process is typically only recommended for outdated web pages and helps to ensure deleted content is removed from Google in its entirety.

Step 3: Prevention Is Key

Once you have submitted your removal requests and/or talked to a webpage administrator to remove your content, the next step is to focus on prevention.

With Google's help, you can find some surefire tips to keep your digital presence under wraps, offering a more positive, longstanding reputation online. You'll find tips such as reducing your sharing settings, sharing content privately with friends, and making sure you use sites where you have full control over your privacy settings.

What if I Can't Remove My Content?

Considering Google cannot force site owners to remove content without a legal foundation, getting your personal information removed could be challenging.

One alternative is to threaten legal action against the webmaster yourself, depending on the type of content being hosted through their platform. The other option is to flood Google's search engine results with other content about you.

This is particularly helpful for businesses dealing with negative feedback. You can easily offset the negative feedback by choosing to buy Google reviews, offering genuine customer feedback as a positive embellishment.

This will wind up pushing the harmful content to the bottom of the list, showing only the information you want to be shown.

Take the Steps to Protect Your Online Reputation Today

In today's day and age, there's no longer a difference between the real and digital world, as your impression in both spaces affects one another.

If you need reliable ways to remove personal information from Google, your best bet is to contact the webmaster in hopes they remove the content. Otherwise, your online reputation could affect your real-world reputation, causing irreparable damage to you and your business.
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Geneva: A United Nations committee found on Friday that Australia had violated the human rights of a group of islanders off its north coast by failing to adequately protect them from the impacts of climate change, such as by cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The complaint, filed over three years ago by eight Torres Strait Islanders and their children, is one of a growing body of climate cases being brought around the world on human rights grounds, and the ruling is expected to embolden others.

Donniella Warria (left) and Ikokolela Ronsen (right) walk on the Bach Beach in the late afternoon on Thursday Island. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Rising sea levels have already damaged food sources and ancestral burial sites, scattering human remains, the islanders argued, saying their homes are at risk of being submerged.

The Committee said Australia had violated two of the three human rights set out in a U.N. Treaty, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), pertaining to culture and family life, but not article 6 on the right to life.
Psychology professor at the University of Melbourne, Nick Haslam, says the shift away from phone calls is likely down to control, convenience, and multitasking  three things Gen Z value highly. Texts allow people to take charge of the timing of communication rather than having to do it at another persons bidding, Haslam says. You can craft what you say in a more deliberate way than an on-the-spot call. You can choose when to say it, and you can control the length of the exchange, whereas its always possible to get trapped on the other end of the line with a chatterbox. Texts can be sent from anywhere whenever inspiration strikes, regardless of how loud the room youre standing in is or who may be eavesdropping. It may seem generational, Haslam says, but Gen Z is just at the vanguard of a more general evolution. An earlier generation took to email to replace phone calls and in-person interactions in much the same way that texts have replaced calls and conversations in more recent years, and for many of the same reasons of control and convenience.

Perhaps the phone call will soon fade away not just for Gen Z, but also for older generations as technology shifts towards faster, on-demand messaging. Loading Another Australian TikToker, Junpei Zaki, says he doesnt perceive phone calls as inherently bad, theyve just become a tool for a specific purpose rather than for general conversation. I think I make fewer phone calls than I would have made had the internet not become what it is today, he says. The internet has made the world more accessible, but time zones still exist. So for me, its usually easier to keep an ongoing conversation via text and social media than it is to organise a call at a given time and date. The 25-year-old Byron Bay-based content creator is known for his comedic comment videos, and currently has 13.7 million followers on TikTok. Born in Japan, he says his parents often reminded him international calls cost too much, and should therefore be avoided. This stuck with him.

With FaceTime, its essentially free to call anyone in the world for as long as you want. Even with the relative freedoms afforded Gen Z through texting, social media, or FaceTime, there is still a certain set of rules to follow. If I was talking with my family or close friends, I would probably choose FaceTime since a lot of the communication you do with people this close is non-verbal, Zaki explains. On the other hand, if I were talking with someone Im not very close to or talking with someone in a business setting, Id probably rather text since its less invasive. Being able to edit and refer to previous texts and emails  or even write a draft and send it later  reduces the amount of pressure usually associated with an on-the-spot call, says Dr Vicki Andonopoulos, an associate lecturer in marketing at the University of Sydney. The thought, time and care one can put into texts or DMs reduces the risk of key details being lost in communication.

This kind of thinking could even eventually change the primary modes of communication at work. A lot of workplaces are moving towards greater flexibility and informality, and a decline in formal or scheduled communications may be part of that trend, says Haslam. As forward-thinking as this may seem, Haslam is hesitant to fully endorse the abandonment of the phone call, fearing a loss of authenticity and engagement. The greater spontaneity, relative to an exchange of texts, can help us communicate more honestly and lets us go off script and surprise one another, he says. You learn more about a person by interacting with them directly than by reading a string of the texts they tapped out while eating their lunch and watching TikToks.

Andonopoulos adds that phone calls are valuable practice for handling urgent, impromptu situations  particularly for those struggling with social anxiety. If part of the reason Gen Z avoid calls is anxiety, it becomes a self-perpetuating problem. Loading Next time youve gone for a long period without speaking on the phone, you might notice when you do eventually need to, the words dont flow as easily, or you havent been able to get the message you want across, Andonopoulos says. Just like anything, practice makes perfect, and if you havent had a chance to practise phone conversations, chances are you wont feel so great when you do have to make one. But for Cockram and Zaki, video apps like FaceTime and Snapchat encourage deeper and easier connections than a faceless phone call. And if youre only looking to quickly arrange something, where little connection is necessary, text will suffice. Gen Z live by endless sets of codes: dont try too hard, stand up for what you believe in, and make messaging/FaceTime your default. But what, above all else, is the most important rule followed?
The north-west NSW town of Gunnedah was preparing for its second major flood in a week on Friday night, with the Namoi River expected to peak in the early hours of Saturday.

Heavy rain has caused rivers to rise across the state, with 28 the subject of flood warnings on Friday. The heaviest falls were recorded on the Far North Coast overnight on Thursday.

Couchy Creek, north of Murwillumbah, recorded 291 millimetres in 24 hours before the low pressure system that caused the rain, and put devastated Lismore on alert for its third flood of the year, moved off the coast.

The Bureau of Meteorology said more coastal thunderstorms were likely between Port Macquarie and the Queensland border on Saturday. Some of the storms could be severe and might lead to localised flooding.
The book is a wild ride. We learn about Tames sprawling but close family, the effect of her parents divorce when she was a toddler, her sexual abuse by an older child when she was six, her teenage struggles with anorexia (for which shes been hospitalised twice), her youthful, short-lived marriage to Hollywood child star Spencer Breslin (his biggest role was in the 2003 film version of The Cat in the Hat), her stint studying art and discovering herself in the Californian coastal city of Santa Barbara, her unlikely friendship with John Cleese and his daughter Camilla, and her views on everything from the late Robin Williams to structural inequality in the United States.

I am a hyper-focused type of person, she says by way of explanation. I do everything in one go. Im not about spreading things out over a long period of time. I sort of become the thing Im doing.

Writers often talk about their process  the different ways in which they overcome the torture of producing a book. Grace Tames process was about as Grace Tame as it gets  after scrapping a first draft, she wrote all 330 pages of a second draft in three months, sometimes working late into the night. She was writing right up until the book was scheduled to go to print, turning out the last pages even as I was reading the near-to-final draft in preparation for our interview.

Were meeting to discuss her forthcoming memoir, The Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner. The book was the subject of a fierce bidding war among publishers before Tame had even written a word, with first offers rumoured to have started at $200,000. Pan Macmillan eventually secured the book for an undisclosed sum.

Im a hugger, she tells me, and we vacillate over how to greet each other before settling on a handshake. Tame seems nervous, which confounds expectations  this is a woman whose catchcry is Lets make some noise, who has the words Eat my fear tattooed on her right hand. The reason, perhaps, is that shes in new territory  here not as an activist, or child sex-abuse survivor, or Australian of the Year, or prime minister-botherer, or Twitter provocateur, but as a writer.

G race Tame is tiny, as though her physical self is in inverse proportion to her mighty character. When she walks through the door of Abundance on the Quay, a cafe in Hobarts harbourside suburb of Bellerive, on a grey and icy Monday morning, I miss her at first. Its only when shes closer that I see how distinctive the 27-year-old is  she is gamine and girlish, decked out in a vintage Black Sabbath T-shirt, black leather jacket, wide-legged jeans and Doc Martens platform boots with yellow stitching. The aesthetic is 90s grunge girl meets punk, and it is completely sui generis, just like Tame.

I did wonder if this memoir would have been more powerful if I wrote less about the abuse and the man who perpetrated it.

He hovers online and, a week after we meet, Tame is in the news again after she reported threatening tweets he made about her . The tweets refer to a comeuppance in four weeks time  an apparent reference to the timing of her memoirs publication. Tasmania Police says it is assessing the complaint.

The schoolteacher who abused 15-year-old Tame, Nicolaas Bester, still lives in Hobart, not so far from the cafe in which we sit. Hes a constant presence in her book, even when shes not explicitly writing about him. Hes still present in her consciousness; our conversation loops back to him often.

I mean, yes and no, she says. We have ordered tea and Tame is looking at me intently, her eye contact direct. It is a wholly regenerative process. It doesnt seem to matter how depleted I become, when I find myself in front of a receptive audience who are there to hear the message, who are open to receiving and connecting, their energy recharges you.

But theres a sinister suspense which hangs over the first half of the memoir, as you wait for the author to be violated in the way you know she will be. Was it difficult to revisit the abuse, and the grooming that led up to it?

Even obscure subjects such as Diego Rivera, the artist husband of Frida Kahlo, are fixed in the authors sights. Describing her travels in America, Tame tells us she enjoyed a visit to Riveras home turned museum in Guanajuato, Mexico. Not that Im fond of that adulterous prick, she concludes, with Tamesian flourish.

You can say a lot about Grace Tame and, from columnists Andrew Bolt and Peter van Onselen to the army of trolls she confronts on Twitter, many people have. But she will never back down from a fight, and she will never allow her critics the last word.

Tame had creative control over the vision and execution of the book, with publisher Cate Blake physically sitting with her through many hours of writing sessions, acting as a sounding board. Having that solidarity or companionship was crucial to keeping her on track, says Blake. Once I realised how strong Graces creative instincts were, I had faith this was a book readers will follow her on. The result is wordy and wild, long and discursive, with a squirrelly structure (Blake calls it idiosyncratic) that defies the conventions of memoir. But it has the one thing, maybe even the only thing, that a book really needs  a strong voice.

I did wonder if this memoir would have been more powerful if I wrote less about the abuse and the man who perpetrated it, Tame writes before she begins the section on the abuse. But then I realised that  my self-esteem has rebuilt such that I believe I will write more books.

Her publisher will be hoping her army of fans  she had about 220,000 Twitter followers before deactivating her account earlier this month, and has nearly 240,000 on Instagram  will shell out the $49.99 cover price, wanting to read more about the woman who captured so much press attention in 2021.

The book has been incredibly tightly guarded, even within the publishing house, where only a select few have seen the proofs. It will be published in hardback, and the cover is an allegorical artwork drawn by Tame herself. I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement before reading it, and the timing of its publication, September 27, means its positioned squarely at the big-bucks Christmas market, a slot usually reserved for bestselling novelists and big-time celebrity memoirs.

Her critics are legion, and they multiplied last year as Tame picked up a head of steam with her c ensure of Scott Morrisons government or, as she calls it, the Scott government, her clap-back at the former PMs habit of using womens first names in his speech.

It was an opportunity to part ways with a part of myself, Tame says of the book, and to honour important people in my life. My editor was really drumming it into me when I was writing: Dont write for the critics, dont write for the critics. 

Were sitting on pots of lemongrass tea. Tame seems more relaxed, although relaxed is not an adjective that fits her well. Her conversation is animated and constant, and shes a big gesticulator.

Businesswoman and feminist stalwart Wendy McCarthy, 81, has huge admiration for the way Tame combines the personal with the political. She can roar from the rooftops for the rest of her life as far as I am concerned, McCarthy says. But I found it really confronting that a lot of women my age and 10 years younger were very disapproving of her.

This mindset, combined with rapid-onset fame, was a tricky combination to navigate. It was also a tricky combination for many to accept. For anyone wanting to project unvarnished goodness onto their victim-heroes, Tame was an outrageous disappointment.

Play with fire with me? Im holding a jerrycan, so good luck, Tame says in reference to both Bester and her critics. I havent always had that jerrycan. Ive had to pick it up because I am five foot three [160 centimetres], and I was no match  theres no match for that man.

Tames take-no-prisoners attitude is a straight-up survival mechanism, part of the armour she needs to protect herself from the ongoing effects of her sexual abuse by Bester, who was jailed twice  once for his physical abuse of her, and again when he boasted about his child sexual abuse on Facebook. He served less than two years behind bars for both crimes.

Since shooting to fame as Australian of the Year in January last year, Tame has been offered gigs with LOreal Paris, Nike and the Young Global Leaders program, all of which she turned down. For a woman whose message is her voice, writing a book was the natural next step. She likes to tell her own stories. With every new story thats written about me by a different person, theres a shift of the kaleidoscope each time, she says. And things get further and further away from the truth.

My instinct is always to defend myself. I have to do better at times, I am still learning.

Tame admits shes made mistakes, but does not specify what they were. It was like getting drop-kicked by Buddy Franklin past the 50-metre line, she says of her rapid introduction to the public spotlight. My instinct is always to defend myself. I have to do better at times, I am still learning.

The criticism of Tame culminated when she was photographed scowling at the then-prime minister at an Australian of the Year reception on January 25. Tame was about to hand over the baton after her time in the role, but she didnt go without a final, visually brutal message about what she thought of Scott Morrison, particularly his handling of issues of sexual assault and respect for women. This is not something she counts as a mistake.

Tame with then-prime minister Scott Morrison at an Australian of The Year function earlier this year. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Like many people, I wasnt a big fan, she says of Morrison. Max [Heerey, her fiance] and I were standing there. I said, I cant smile at him, I cant. Im not smiling at him. 

The frown divided public opinion, between those who thought it was ill-mannered and disrespectful of the office of the prime minister (Jenny Morrison herself said it was disappointing) and those who admired the gumption of a young woman, for once, not smiling and pretending everything was just fine when she didnt think it was. As Tame writes in her memoir: Anyone whos seen pictures of my face knows I cant hide my feelings for very long.

After spending three hours in her company, I concur. Tame seems barely conscious of her labile expressions. But her defiant attitude doesnt mean she is impervious. When youve grown up with instability  when you get criticism from all angles, its particularly damaging to your self-esteem, she says.

Because you feel like you dont have an emotional base? I ask.

Yeah, she says, quietly.

When Grace Tame finished high school, she left home for Santa Barbara, where shed spent time as a teenager on a holiday with family friends, and which she loved. I ran away, she tells me bluntly. I ran away when I was 18.

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Even though Tame hadnt been publicly identified as Besters victim at that point (indeed, she was constrained by law from identifying herself or speaking about the abuse), the rumour mill had done the work for her. Hobart is a very insular environment and I remember the gossip, she says. I remember being in a nightclub and young people under the influence of alcohol having that Dutch courage and coming up to me and saying things to me.

What hurt more than being identified was the way in which some people seemed to frame the abuse  that she was the girl whod had an affair with her teacher. When you dont have control over when thats going to end, and youre trying to build your self-esteem, and you just want anonymity, thats very hard, she says of the gossip. I didnt have control over the narrative.

This has been a source of enduring frustration since  frustration and occasional rage. She often expresses this anger on social media  for example, tweeting her rewrites of media headlines which she feels let predators off the hook in their construction.

After fleeing Hobart for the warmth and anonymity of California, there followed six formative years in which Tame studied, partied, travelled, made friends and had relationships at a pace and with an abandon that is dizzying to read about.

I remark on how cool she seems in this period  forever listening to Lou Reed on New York balconies, getting tattoos and discovering the healing powers of beach yoga at dawn. Her wedding to Breslin was Elvis-themed, and took place on a ranch in the San Fernando Valley (they split in 2018). She makes a strangled groaning noise: Cool covers all manner of sins, doesnt it?

Tame with John Cleese, for whom she worked as an illustrator.

Tame was experimenting with drugs, including pot and cocaine (she even worked on a marijuana farm for a while), something she discusses with frankness. There have been times in my life where I have sincerely enjoyed myself while being high on drugs, she writes. As much as there is harm in glorifying [drugs] ... I also know there is serious harm  immense harm  in looking down on people who are at difficult points in their life.

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She also writes poignantly about the experience of finding her sexuality after surviving child sexual abuse. For a long time, she was unable to lie on her back and look at the ceiling, she tells me, because it took her back to the abuse. At other times, she would freeze during sex with new people, and have intense flashbacks. It is what it is, and you learn to ride it out. Ride the wave. Thats one of the lessons, I guess, of drug-taking and why I dont do it any more  it doesnt help you.

Her trauma affected her relationships and led some suitors to reject her, further hardening her protective skin. As she writes of one guy: Harrison was also one of the few men who at least had the decency to tell me directly when the weight of my trauma became too heavy for him to bear.

Its one of numerous parts of the memoir when your heart cracks for the young Grace Tame, who always seems to be working so frantically hard to play the cards shes been dealt.

Grace Tame is beautiful: there is no denying it. Today, she wears red lipstick, blusher and immaculately drawn cats-eye eyeliner, with her hair pulled up into a high plait. She has lush eyelashes, exquisite cheekbones and a pixie nose with the ghost of a piercing in the right nostril.

In her memoir, Tame writes that people assume many things about me based on the way I look ... Im not sure whether I was seen to be an easy target, a soft touch, a belt-notch, a good story or someone who would have sexual knowledge beyond their years.

I ask Tame about the relationship she has with her looks now. Her body image is always going to be a struggle, she says. Im lucky that, after 10 years, Ive met a man who is only six weeks older than me. He doesnt see my body, you know? Its different. We have a relationship that transcends that.

In June 2021, Max Heerey, a Hobart boy, quit his job in finance to support Tames speaking schedule and media appearances. He often handles media inquiries for her, and is a director of the Grace Tame Foundation. The couple met in 2020 on the social running app Strava. They began chatting via the app, before meeting for dinner at a south-east Asian restaurant in Hobart on AFL Grand Final day (this is how Tame knew Heerey must really like her).

Once I got rid of my nerves, I was falling in love, Heerey tells me. I thought she was incredible straight away. We had so much in common. She is hilarious, she is beautiful. It was just one of those things that clicked.

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Heerey knew who Tame was before they met. Hed attended the Catholic brother school to Tames St Michaels Collegiate. They were in the same year. I ask whether he was intimidated by Tames personal history. He says hes never thought about it before; this is the first interview hes given. He asks if he can send me his thoughts later, and does so the next day.

I definitely wasnt intimidated by Graces life experience. I was more concerned that I wasnt good enough for Grace, he emails. Before meeting Grace, I was your stereotypical private school/public school boy with little to no trauma education  I am still learning. Heerey tells me that when he and Tame were first dating, people made comments like She is damaged goods  and You wont last long with her, she has too much baggage.

Im not mentioning these comments to shame people, he writes. I am mentioning them to highlight societys lack of understanding and education, myself included. Statistics say that the people who made those comments have family, friends or even partners whove been abused. Perhaps for young men, the impact of our own behaviour is hard to face.

Whats she like? More than anyone else Ive interviewed, friends and family were curious to know how Grace Tame was in person, such is the celebrity-esque fascination with her. Many whove never met her have decided they dont like her. Others adore her for her adamantine defiance. Everyone seems compelled by her. Its as if she sits right at the junction of contemporary conversations about misogyny, cancel culture and female rage. Writing about the prickly aspects of Tame, and the criticisms made of her, I find it hard to know whats real and whats internalised sexism: how far will I turn the kaleidoscope in writing about her?

Tame switched from using drugs as a soothing mechanism to practising yoga, which she also teaches.

Is she difficult or direct? Is she rude or just lacking pretence? Does her obduracy damage her cause or serve it? Where is the truth of someone so complex? The problem, if it is one, of Tames inflexibility makes sense to me after I read the section of her memoir in which she recounts her abuse by Bester.

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It is a bell-clear account of grooming. Tame depicts lucidly how Bester manipulated the adults around him at the same time he was conditioning her. As she says, he was charismatic and intelligent and he really didnt bother hiding.

Predators commonly desensitise their victims by gradually introducing sexual topics into conversation before beginning physical abuse. Bester was a master at this. He was known for his irreverent sense of humour, which meant that when he made sexualised jokes and innuendos with his young female students, no one pulled him up.

Through innocent, permissive laughter, we became acquainted with a supposedly harmless man, Tame writes. He just pushed the boundaries, that was all. He meant well. He was a man of faith, after all.

Most gallingly, the memoir lays out how Bester was already on the schools radar for inappropriate conduct with the young girls of Collegiate. He was warned, for example  but allowed to stay in his role  for an incident in which he referred to a former student whod fallen pregnant as as easy as McDonalds drive-through.

He sought Tame out. She was struggling with her eating disorder and he began to offer her counsel and comfort. The comfort moved from words to hugs. He gave her a key to his office. He knew she was a budding artist, and he suggested she draw herself naked to help with my body-image issues. This sketch was later handed back to Tame by the police whod collected it from Bester, along with an envelope of her hair, as part of their evidence against him.

Suspicions roused, Tames parents had two meetings with the school to ask that he be kept away from their daughter. After this he became standoffish with Tame. He punished her with the silent treatment, which made her desperate for his approval, further priming her for the physical abuse that was to come.

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In a meeting with the principal, Bester portrayed Tame as an unstable kid who was seeking him out. It was an easy case to make. He was very good at what he did, she writes. He coolly laid the groundwork for a narrative in which I was the supposed aggressor, and the mentally ill one that he felt sorry for. This would, in effect, be his line of defence in court.

Following the meeting with the principal, Bester began his physical abuse of his 15-year-old anorexic student. He mostly had sex with her on school premises. Tame convinced herself she was in love with him  something she finds very painful to recall as an older person. She began cutting herself and drinking alcohol at school.

He attempted to visit her when she was hospitalised for her anorexia. He showed up at her part-time job  a fellow teacher saw this and reported him, again, to the school. The principal rang a solicitor for advice, Tame writes, but again, no action was taken.

Reading Tames account of the grooming and abuse, youre left in no doubt about the kind of person Bester is  a malignant predator. But sometimes, talking to Tame, its as if shes still arguing the case to herself. I have been to counselling, she says. I have wondered if, much like a passive smoker catches lung cancer, I have wondered, Oh my god, am I a psychopath? Thats how effective these  excuse my English  these f---heads are, at making you feel like a bad person.

She pauses. I wish I never took his class, she continues plaintively, and I feel as if Im overhearing her internal monologue. I wish Id never met him. I know I was a weird kid  I always was. I ask Tame what shed tell her 15-year-old self if she could meet her now: I would just say, Its not your fault. 

I have wondered, Oh my god, am I a psychopath? Thats how effective these f---heads are, at making you feel like a bad person.

I reflect on this comment later; perhaps this is why Tame doesnt do compromise. When the demons in your head tell you the abuse is your fault, you need to hold the line against them. You cannot give any quarter at all. This is the way Tame sees it, too: if you loosen the boundaries of correctness just a little  shrug away an off-colour comment from a teacher, dismiss a piece of innuendo as just a joke, allow the teacher to take the 15-year-old girl to his office and shut the door  you invite evil in.

And unlike many of us, she knows what that looks like.

Tame is settled in Hobart now, after her years in California, and after the madness of 2021. It was a lot of pressure, she says of her stint as Australian of the Year. Since becoming a public figure, shes had to ask herself big questions about what she wants in life. Shes been presented with incredible opportunities, including corporate partnerships and an invitation to join the Young Global Leaders program  New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern is a member, alongside other entrepreneurs, innovators, activists, politicians and others.

Tame addressing the National Press Club after accepting Australian of the Year in 2021. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

But I turned all of them down, she says. Im not interested in those things. Once you hand yourself over to somebody else, you inevitably compromise your values.

I ask if she ever feels as if shell reach a point where she doesnt think much about her abuser.

Yeah, hell f---in die one day, she says, het up.

Is that what it will take? I ask.

I dont know, she says, quietly now. I cant say. I do weekly therapy and I am open and honest and I cannot take away what happened.

We talk about anger for a while, its uses and its detriments, and about how to know when its time to drop it. Anger can be very propulsive. Rage saved my life in the end as a 16-year-old, she says, referring to her decision to report Bester to the school. But rage has to be offset. Rage for rages sake is corrosive and its unproductive.

Anger can be very propulsive. Rage saved my life in the end as a 16-year-old.

Here are the things that help: her 20-week-old puppy Zappa (named after musician Frank). The bushland, beaches and mountains of her patch of Hobart. Her wide network of friends and family. Max. Nowadays, in lieu of using drugs, Tame runs, cycles, walks and practises yoga to soothe herself.

Alongside her book publicity demands, her focus going forward will be on the Grace Tame Foundation, the charity she set up in 2021, and which was accorded deductible gift recipient-status on July 1 this year. The foundation, which Tame says has attracted around half a million dollars in donations, helps with the legal fees of survivors of sexual abuse, and is lobbying for consistent nationwide laws around sexual assault of minors.

Currently weve got eight jurisdictions that govern the issue of sexual assault. The discrepancies give the appearance of an inconsistent approach that really benefits perpetrators, she says.

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The foundations three directors are Tame, Heerey and Tames stepfather, Ron Plaschke, a former CSIRO scientist and Australian Institute of Company Directors graduate. According to the foundations website, none draw a salary. Tame reiterates this to me, and says they initially created a tight board structure  which she expects to broaden  because when youre fighting against child sexual abuse, especially down here in Tasmania  you cant trust many people  people have agendas. We are not a huge foundation and we dont have dollar signs in our sights, and I dont have dollar signs in my sights.

She can see a time when shell step back from public view and advocate behind the scenes. In writing my memoir, my story tells itself in a way, she says. By telling the stories, that shift towards prevention will naturally occur. That groundwork has been laid and I will always be proud of that. I can do some other things, and maybe write some other books.

As we wind up our interview, I ask Tame to sign my manuscript. Its the thing that really makes you feel like an author.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.
It is a big advancement but if you wanted to design a system that entrenched the duopoly, this would be it, Holmes a Court says. It is near impossible for an independent or a new party to break into Victorian politics. The new laws have effectively ordained Labor and the Coalition as being the two parties of government in perpetuity. So lets follow the money. The most commented upon provision in the new laws is the public funds provided to any party or independent MP who received more than 4 per cent of the vote at the last state election. Under an indexed formula, they are currently entitled to $6.33 for every lower house vote they received and $3.16 for every upper house vote. Figures published by the Victorian Electoral Commission show that, between the last state election and April this year, this provision has funnelled $13.6 million into Labors campaign coffers, $10.8 million into the Coalition parties and $3.3 million into the Greens.

The next brick in the wall is more than $20 million in public funding to cover administrative expenses provided to sitting MPs. It is calculated on the number of upper and lower house seats held by parties and independents. As the same suggests, the money cannot be used for political expenditure but, under Victorias laws, the definition of political expenditure is so narrow as to allow many activities that are inherently political and essential to a successful election campaign: the running of a political office, development of policy, paying political staff. The ALP and Coalition parties have so far received more than $7 million each in administrative funding. Next comes a special carve-out for the major parties: the exemption of nominated entities from the donation cap. Under Victorias electoral laws, any registered political party can appoint an organisation to be its nominated entity. This enables the ALP and Liberal and National parties to continue to receive unlimited political donations from trusts which control legacy assets such as property and share holdings. Climate 200 spokesman Simon Holmes a Court says the new campaign funding laws entrench Australias political duopoly. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen For Labor, its special cash cow is an entity called Labor Services and Holdings. For the Liberal Party, it is the Cormack Foundation. For the Nationals it is the James Barrie-esque-sounding Pilliwinks Pty Ltd. These are the only three nominated entities listed by the Victorian Electoral Commission. In the year of the last state election, the Cormack Foundation donated $2.5 million to the Victorian division of the Liberal Party and Labor Services and Holdings gifted $3.1 million to the Victorian branch of the ALP.

Any new party can appoint a nominated entity but heres the catch: donations to a nominated entity are captured under the cap limiting donations to $4320 in any given, four-year electoral cycle. The practical effect of this is that, unless you had these arrangements in place before the laws came in, it is near on impossible to set them up now. In essence, it is too late for everyone else, says Centre for Public Integrity research director Catherine Williams. The new laws also make a special allowance, outside the donation cap, for party membership and union affiliation fees which contribute about $1.5 million a year respectively to the Victorian Liberal Party and ALP. The last brick will be disputed by the major parties, but it is an important part of the advantage they have under the Victorian regime. Former ALP assistant state secretary Kos Samaras says electorate and communication allowances are used to boost the re-election prospects of sitting MPs. Credit:Wayne Taylor Under pre-existing laws, all members of the legislative assembly and council receive a share of the electorate office and communications budget. Like administrative expenditure funding, this money should not be spent for political purposes but, as former ALP campaign strategist and current teal pollster Kos Samaras explains, the money wherever possible is used to advance an MPs re-election prospects.

When I was a party official a very significant part of my job was to ensure that the incumbent MPs were fully utilising their communications budgets to promote the government, the work the MP was doing and as a result, the MPs brand, he says. Loading Holmes a Court describes it more bluntly: It is a publicly funded, profile-boosting budget that challengers dont benefit from. When all these bricks are mortared together, any outsider laying siege to a seat in parliament at Novembers state election must scale a wall of $100 million in incumbent advantages. In terms of the inflow of money we have a public funding formula that rewards incumbent parliamentarians and is tilted against newcomer candidates, says University of Melbourne campaign law professor Joo-Cheong Tham, an expert on money and politics. Then we have the nominated entity exemption to the cap on political donations which clearly benefits the major parties.

Holmes a Court points out that, while the public debate about campaign financing is focused on limiting donations, private donations now account for a tiny amount of the money flowing into Victorian politics. If you think of political funding as an iceberg, campaign donations are the tip. The rest of it  nearly all of it provided by taxpayers  sits below the waterline. Holmes a Courts self-interest in challenging the fairness of Victorias electoral laws is evident. When the independent MP for Kooyong, Monique Ryan, submits her first annual return to the Australian Electoral Commission later this year, it is expected to reveal that she spent close to $2 million toppling Josh Frydenberg. About 35 cents of every campaign dollar came from the 11,200 donors of Climate 200. Holmes a Court has personally donated $4000 each to independent candidates in the state seats of Hawthorn and Kew  a donation matched by his wife Katrina  but admits the teal movement is finding it difficult to build campaign structures within the Victorian laws. Independent candidate for the seat of Hawthorn Melissa Lowe. Credit:Paul Jeffers To find candidates to run in Hawthorn and Kew  traditional Liberal-held seats that overlap with the federal seat of Kooyong  the respective campaigns each booked a half-page ad, to run one beneath the other, in this newspaper. Although newspapers are notoriously cagey about advertising costs, the expense would have been close to $20,000.

To raise the money to pay for it, the campaigns went door to door, soliciting small donations. It was just going out and speaking to as many people as we can and asking them whether they would tip into it, says Brent Hodgson, the campaign director for the teal candidate for Hawthorn, Melissa Lowe. The difference in campaign spend so far can be seen on the streets of Hawthorn, where, two months before Victoria heads to the polls, the billboards and campaign posters that mushroomed well ahead of the federal election are nowhere to be seen. Loading The short-lived Victorians Party, which had planned to field candidates in all lower and upper house seats, was deregistered this month after its principal organisers couldnt see a way of raising the funds it would need to campaign. The cap is the killer, a source associated with the short-lived party says. We were willing to maybe fight that in court. Such a fight would carry significant risk. Anyone found trying to deliberately circumvent the campaign donation limits faces 10 years in jail. Holmes a Court is not alone in arguing that the Victorian regime, while an improvement on the previous arrangements, is a protection racket for the status quo. Four years ago, the Greens voted with Labor to pass the electoral law amendments through the upper house. At the time, Greens leader Samantha Ratnam expressed concern about the significant loophole of the nominated entities. She has now hardened her resolve to scrap the provision after this election.

The major parties have cooked up a system that benefits them to the detriment of minor parties and independents, she told The Age. To fix it, the nominated entity provisions which let Labor and the Liberals keep a legacy asset base to fund their elections need to go and spending caps must be introduced. Reason Party MP Fiona Patten is also pushing for a limit on electoral spending. Under a review clause inserted in the laws by crossbench MPs, an expert panel appointed by the next government will examine the question of spending caps within 12 months of the 26 November poll. Joo-Cheong says three changes are needed: enforce a cap on electoral spending, remove the loophole for nominated entities and expand the definition of political expenditure so that more money is captured under the donations cap. Reason Party MP Fiona Patten. Credit:Justin McManus The Liberal Party, having initially supported the laws, voted against them in 2018. This was largely a political calculation, made by the Matthew Guy-led opposition, to keep Labors red shirts scandal surrounding the systematic misuse of electoral staff running until election day. When questioned about how the rules were operating in practice, Liberal Party state director Sam McQuestin is phlegmatic: Labor will always set the rule to suit themselves. Whether we like them or not we will deal with the rules we have got and make the most of them.
The Anglo-American author Bill Bryson wrote in his 2001 travel memoir, Notes from a Sunburned Country, that Australia  once you left it  was a country that ceased to exist. It was never mentioned in world media, apart from the obligatory shark attack and bushfire stories, the stuff of stereotype. It was a place of no consequence beyond its own shores. Loading No longer. We are almost uniquely positioned to have a significant influence over global political dynamics, and thats something Australians need to be cognisant of, he tells me. This leads to his biggest surprise in his dealings with the world: Its the extent to which Australias changed position on climate change has mattered; I knew it mattered, but the extent of it has been extraordinary. Because of Australias standing, it was seen as important. Whether it was at the Quad, or the response from [Indonesian President] Joko Widodo, or the Pacific Islands Forum, or the NATO summit with European and North American leaders. There was enormous attention to Australias position.

We were a global handbrake on a global challenge. And now we are seen as part of the solution. It has transformed our standing. Australia being part of the solution gives solace to other countries who want to be part of it. He gives an example of the warm climate that welcomed the return of the Aussie prodigal son. Anthony Albanese has many international engagements. Credit:Joe Aramo When Joe Biden convened the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate in June to tackle code red for humanity as the president put it, the US leader spoke first, the UN secretary-general second, and the chair of Novembers COP 27 third, followed by Albanese. Australia was the first country invited to speak, other than the host. The difference thats made to our standing in the world cant be overstated, says Albanese.

He points out that Australias new climate policy and its post-Morrison reconciliation with France have opened the way to a potential new trade deal with the European Union, something that could be extremely important to Australias economy. Loading But he described Australia as almost uniquely positioned to have a significant influence over global political dynamics, and its certainly not the only country to have adopted a more active climate policy in the last year. Whats almost unique about Australias position? Were a country with 65,000 years of Indigenous heritage but in more recent times with personal connections to the UK and Europe, and located in Asia, a developed country in a region thats developing, an island continent located where we are  that gives us a unique perspective on the world and gives us an opportunity to advance our values and worldview. We get listened to. Australia certainly was listened to by China. To the point where Xi Jinpings regime decided it needed to be shut down. After Beijing imposed trade bans on over $20 billion worth of Australian produce, Chinas embassy in Canberra produced its infamous list of 14 demands. Of the 14, six are demands to shut down Australian criticism of Chinas regime.

And in refusing to bow to Beijings demands, Australia was listened to by governments everywhere. Australia set an incredibly powerful example for the world, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. I think China has lost more than Australia has in its efforts to squeeze Australia economically, he told me. Asked his top priorities for his governments international agenda, Albanese nominates two  climate change and global security challenges. National security, he says, is something much more than defence, it includes cybersecurity, health security, environmental security. At the centre of all these challenges sits Xi Jinpings China. China has joined with its junior partner, Vladimir Putins Russia, in their self-styled no limits partnership. Credit:AP China has joined with its junior partner, Vladimir Putins Russia, in their self-styled no limits partnership. Its a revanchist relationship between two countries determined to redraw international borders through sheer force, and a fascist fraternity of regimes determined to extinguish all rights of their citizens. Albanese is proud of Labors performance in standing up to both powers. Im quite proud that Labor, from opposition, stood on issues like the extraditions treaty that the Turnbull government wanted to sign with Beijing in 2017. Labor under Bill Shorten blocked the treaty, which is now defunct. Labor also supported all the Coalitions substantive measures to defend against Beijings intrusions.

I had no illusions as to the difficulty of the China relationship. I said before the election, and Ive said since, we should cooperate with China where we can and defend Australias values where we must. Ive sought not to have inflammatory language. But we have to be prepared to call out China, for example over its economic sanctions against Australia. Loading When Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong met her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in New York on Friday, she raised Beijings trade bans as the first order of business, she told reporters. She offered no hint at any Chinese yielding. Australias response? Beijing wants to join a big, new, 11-nation regional trade framework, the CPTPP or Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. Australia is one of the founding members. The deal is open to new entrants but only if all existing members approve. Albanese tells me that, so long as Beijings political trade bans are in place, Australia could not contemplate approving Chinas membership of the group: A precondition is that there needs to be respect for existing trade agreements.

He says that hes not made any attempt to initiate contact with Xi. Australia, it seems, is not about to kowtow. Loading Thanks to Australias grittiness, Albanese found himself invited to the June summit of the 30 leaders of NATO. This is not a group that Australia belongs to, but Albanese was asked to join a panel discussing NATO in an era of great power competition with Britains Liz Truss and Belgiums Prime Minister Alexander de Croo. Among the NATO leaders, people wanted to know about Australia, says Albanese. Australia needs to do much more, he says. It needs to expand national power because if youre not moving forward, youre going backward relative to others. The elements of power that need to be expanded? Albanese lists aid, diplomatic capacity, engagement in regional and multilateral groups, economic capacity including environmental policy and social policy, and adding more defence capability. Most urgent among defence capabilities? Australia needs to get its hands on hypersonic missiles, says the prime minister. At the moment, Australia has no long-range strike capability. The Morrison government started a process; Albanese wants to accelerate it. Hes critical of the gap between some of the rhetoric about defence expenditure and rhetoric about capability, and the actual capability delivered  you cant defend Australia with a press release.
NSW Labor leader Chris Minns has placed his shadow cabinet on notice with the swift sacking of frontbencher Tania Mihailuk, insisting he would not abide senior members using parliamentary privilege to launch unsubstantiated political attacks.

It followed an extraordinary late-night speech to parliament on Tuesday, in which the Bankstown MP made serious corruption claims against a party colleague six months from the state election.

NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns said he would not abide shadow cabinet members using parliamentary privilege to raise allegations of impropriety. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

Minns was unapologetic about his decision to dump Mihailuk on Friday, which he announced on radio after she did not return his calls or messages, insisting most people would regard it as fair.

I said to her, If I dont hear from you via text message ... its my understanding that you dont want to be a member of the shadow cabinet team,  he said.
The comment came a day after Putin suggested Russia would annex occupied lands in Ukraines south and east, and incorporate the regions formally into what Moscow considers its territory. He said he was not bluffing when he vowed to use all means at Russias disposal to defend the countrys territorial integrity - a veiled reference to the countrys nuclear arsenal. Biden administration officials have emphasised that this isnt the first time the Russian leadership has threatened to use nuclear weapons since the start of the war on February 24, and have said there is no indication Russia is moving its nuclear weapons in preparation for an imminent strike. Still, the recent statements from the Russian leadership are more specific than previous comments and come at a time when Russia is reeling on the battlefield from a US-backed Ukrainian counteroffensive. Whereas previous Kremlin statements appeared to be aimed at warning the United States and its allies against going too far in helping Ukraine, Putins most recent comments suggested Russia is considering using a nuclear weapon on the battlefield in Ukraine to freeze gains and force Kyiv and its backers into submission, said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, a nonproliferation advocacy group in Washington. What everyone needs to recognise is that this is one of, if not the most, severe episodes in which nuclear weapons might be used in decades, Kimball said. The consequences of even a so-called limited nuclear war would be absolutely catastrophic.

Loading For years, US nuclear experts have worried that Russia might use smaller tactical nuclear weapons, sometimes referred to as battlefield nukes, to end a conventional war favourably on its terms - a strategy sometimes described as escalate to de-escalate. On Thursday, Vadym Skibitskyi, deputy head of Ukrainian military intelligence, told the UKs ITV News that it is possible Russia will use nuclear weapons against Ukraine to stop our offensive activity and to destroy our state. This is a threat for other countries, Skibitskyi said. The blast of a tactical nuclear weapon will have an impact not only in Ukraine but the Black Sea region. The Ukrainians have tried to signal that even a Russian nuclear strike wouldnt force them into capitulation - and in fact could have the opposite effect.

Loading Threatening with nuclear weapons . . . to Ukrainians? Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, tweeted on Wednesday. Putin have not yet understood who he is dealing with. In an interview with CBS Newss 60 Minutes that aired Sunday, Biden was asked what he would tell Putin if the Russian leader is considering using nuclear weapons in the conflict against Ukraine. Dont. Dont. Dont, Biden said. You will change the face of war unlike anything since World War II. Biden declined to detail how the United States would respond, saying only that the reaction would be consequential and would depend on the extent of what they do.

The Biden administration would face a crisis if Russia were to use a small nuclear weapon in Ukraine, which isnt a US treaty ally. Any direct military US response against Russia would risk the possibility of a wider war between nuclear-armed superpowers - the avoidance of which the Biden administration has made its No. 1 priority in all of its Ukraine policymaking. Matthew Kroenig, a professor of government at Georgetown University and director of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council, has argued that the best option for the administration, if faced with a limited Russian nuclear strike in Ukraine, might be to step up backing for Ukraine and conduct a limited conventional strike on the Russian forces or bases that launched the attack. If its Russian forces in Ukraine that launched the nuclear attack, the United States could strike directly against those forces, Kroenig said. It would be calibrated to send a message that this is not a major war coming, this is a limited strike. If you are Putin, what do you do in response? I dont think you immediately say lets launch all the nukes at the United States. Anti-war groups estimate riot police detained 1300 protesters across Russia. Credit:AP But even a limited conventional strike by the US military against Russia would be viewed as reckless by many in Washington, who would argue against risking a full-scale war with a nuclear-armed Russia.

James M Acton, co-director of the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said it doesnt make sense at this point to game out US responses because there is such a wide range of possible Russian actions - from an underground nuclear test that doesnt hurt anyone to a large-scale explosion that kills tens of thousands of civilians - and there are no signs Putin is close to crossing the threshold. If he was really thinking very seriously about using nuclear weapons very imminently, he almost certainly would want us to know that, Acton said. He would much rather threaten nuclear use and have us make concessions than actually have to go down the path of nuclear use. U.S. officials have been stepping up efforts at the UN General Assembly this week to deter Russia from seriously considering what would be the first use of a nuclear weapon in a conflict since the atomic bombings of Japan by the United States in 1945. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking at a UN Security Council meeting Thursday, said Russias reckless nuclear threats must stop immediately. This week, President Putin said that Russia would not hesitate to use and I quote, all weapons systems available in response to a threat to his territorial integrity - a threat that is all the more menacing given Russians intention to annex large swaths of Ukraine in the days ahead, Blinken said. When thats complete, we can expect President Putin will claim any Ukrainian effort to liberate this land as an attack on so-called Russian territory.
New York: Foreign Minister Penny Wong will use her first major speech to the United Nations to call for a shake-up of the Security Council, arguing that nations from Africa, Latin America and Asia should have greater permanent representation on the powerful committee.

Reminding the UN that Australia wants a seat on the council in 2029, Wong will outline Australias ambition to be a significant player on the world stage, warning that smaller countries should not allow their fate to be decided by global superpowers.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong will use her address to call for reform of the UN Security Coucil. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

How do we acquit our responsibilities to constrain tensions  to apply the brakes before the momentum for conflict in our region or beyond becomes unstoppable? she says, according to a copy of the speech provided in advance.

Australia is resolved to these tasks, in all our diplomacy, in the UN and beyond. It is why we seek a seat on the UN Security Council for 2029-2030. It is why we seek reform of the Security Council, with greater permanent representation for Africa, Latin America and Asia, including India and Japan.
PHILIPSBURG(DCOMM):--- During the farewell reception hosted by Dutch State Secretary for Kingdom Relations and Digitalization, Alexandra van Huffelen, in the Netherlands on Friday, September 23, His Excellency Governor drs. Eugene B. Holiday was awarded the Royal Decoration of Commander in the Order of Orange-Nassau from His Majesty the King Willem-Alexander through the State Secretary.



Since becoming a country on 10-10-10, Governor Holiday is the first person in Sint Maarten to be awarded this royal recognition in the Order of Orange-Nassau.



After a short introductory video produced by the Sint Maarten Government reflecting on the highlights of not only Governor Holidays tenure but also his contributions prior to 10-10-10 during the Constitutional process, as Managing Director of the Princess Juliana International Airport Operating Company, his role at the Central Bank of the Netherlands Antilles, N.V. GEBE, Winair, and during hurricane Luis, the royal decoration was bestowed upon him.



The second segment of the video reflected the characteristics in the words of all the persons that supported the nomination, this included the Philipsburg Methodist Congregation Circuit; Miguel Alexander, advisor and former notary who has known Governor Holiday in different capacities for over 20 years; Dennis Richardson, former Lt. Governor of the Island Territory of Sint Maarten and advisor during the Constitutional trajectory; Dr. Nilda Arduin, the first Ombudsman of Sint Maarten; and Joane Dovale-Meit, former Island Secretary and General Director of the Government of the Island Territory and advisor during the Constitutional trajectory.



The Council of Ministers (CoM), which formally nominated the Governor for a royal decoration and advised on the rank, was very pleased with the final outcome of the nomination and decision-making process.



Words of gratitude were also expressed to all the entities involved in the process which includes the advisory body Kapittel voor de Civiele Orden and the Dutch Government; in particular Dutch State Secretary van Huffelen.



According to the Dutch royal decorations website, lintjes.nl, the awarding of Commander in the Order of Orange-Nassau  which is the third degree - is not common.



The decorated person must have performed very special or important activities, or the merits have an international and even global appeal and meaning.



During the annual Kings Day, it is customary that Governor Holiday awards citizens, who made a contribution of outstanding value to the community. There are six classes in the Order of Orange-Nassau:

1. Member of the Order of Orange-Nassau

2. Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau

3. Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau

4. Commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau

5. Grand Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau

6. Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau



The Government of Sint Maarten congratulates His Excellency Governor drs. Eugene B. Holiday for being awarded the royal decoration of Commander in the Order of Orange-Nassau, a rank most deserving for His Excellencys contributions to Sint Maarten and his service to the Kingdom and beyond.
World Cyber Security Summit in Jordan brought together global cyber security experts to tackle the battle against cyber threats

Jordan, Sept 22, 2022  (ACN Newswire)  On 15 a 16 August 2022, an in-person event featuring a richness of debates about future technology and cyber security was held in Jordan. The event\-s organiser, Trescon and its Strategic Partner JOCSA (Jordan Cyber Security Association) hosted more than 500 C-level attendees, including key stakeholders in the cyber security ecosystem, such as government officials, top experts in the field, solution providers, startups, media, among others.

Leading players in Cyber security space like Green Circle, Agualetica, BeeezCrowd, Alpha Hub, Mandiant, CloudSEK, ManageEngine, and Wizard Cyber gathered at the event to examine the prospects for Cyber Security in Jordan.

The event featured a ground-breaking alliance between specialists like:

Scott E. Augenbaum  Retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent; Author; Cybercrime Prevention Trainer, Scott Augenbaum LLC

Glen Thomas  Partner  Head of Technology and Cyber Consulting, Grant Thornton, United Arab Emirates

Dr. Haidar Fraihat  Cluster Leader  Statistics, Information Society, and Technology, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Lebanon

Jacob Mathew  Head of Information Technology, Government of Abu Dhabi Entity, United Arab Emirates

Nicole Lau a Sales Director, Verimatrix, Oslo, Norway

Ricoh Danielson a CEO, 1st Responder, an Incident Response Firm, United States

Eng. Abdullah Faisal Biary a CISO, United Cooperative Assurance, Saudi Arabia

Taha Hussain  Information Security Specialist, Dubai Electricity & Water Authority a DEWA, United Arab Emirates

Dr. Hossam Elshenraki a Associate Professor, Dubai Police HQ, United Arab Emirates

Eng. Mona Alshehri  Risk and Compliance Analyst, Saudi Air Navigation Services, Saudi Arabia

Dr Ahmed Abd El Hady Mohamed  Director of Quality in General Administration for Quality and Environmental Affairs, Holding Company for Water and Waste Water (HCWW), Egypt

H.E. Belal Hafnawi  Commissioner  Board Member,Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC-Jordan), Jordan

Nada Khater  Head of Digital Transformation Policies and Strategies, Ministry of Digital Economy & Entrepreneurship, Jordan

Eng. Lama Arabiat a Head of AI, Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, Jordan

Dr. Ashraf Ahmad  Dean  Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT), Open Source Intelligence in Arabic Challenges and Solutions, Jordan & many more elite speakers to name a few.

The show kicked off with an opening keynote by Nidal Al-Bitar, CEO, Information and Communications Technology Association of Jordan (Intaj), where he shared his insights on the topic aEmployment in the Cyber Security\- by quoting, \As companies mature on their digital transformation journeys, cybersecurity remains the biggest concern: 69 per cent of US executives believe cyber security is the biggest AI-related risk.\

Abdulrahman Al-Nimari, VP, Cyber Security from Saudi Arabia spoke at length on aZero Trusting Your Enterprise. He was quoted saying, \You believe that if this gadget is making a call to an external network, it is making a positive call because we believe in that device. However, the call is essentially a command-and-control request to the internet to obtain the ransomware\-s symmetric key. Therefore, by authorising that outbound connection, you are personally enabling the attack.\

While speaking about aBuilding a Resilient Cybersecurity Organization\-, George Eapen, Group CIO, Petrofac mentioned that, \For the right security outcome, CISO must build an ecosystem consisting of complementary solutions/partners/team.\

The event also witnessed a panel discussion on the topic aLeveraging AI in Threat Intelligence to Enable Protection from Advanced Threats\- that was moderated by Dr. Hossam Elshenraki

\It comes down to the fact that cybersecurity is a shared duty and that the more systems we secure, the safer we are all. We\-re happy to have hosted World Cyber Security Summit in Jordan, and loved the support we received from the tech fraternity in Jordan with the help of international delegates, sponsors, thought leaders, and media among others,\ says Mohammed Saleem, Founding Chairman, Trescon.

The 17th global edition of World Cyber Security Summit a Jordan is supported by Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, Jordan and officially sponsored by:

Platinum Sponsor a Green Circle | Agualetica

Fintech Sponsor a BeeezCrowd

Gold Sponsor a Alpha Hub | Mandiant

Silver Sponsor a CloudSEK

Bronze Sponsor a Wizard Cyber | IRIS Technology | Manage Engine | Verimatrix

Academic Sponsor a C-PATH | Princess Sumaya University for Technology | Daience University | Jordan University of Science & Technology | Jordan University of Science & Technology

Strategic Partner a Jordan Cyber Security Awareness Association (JOCSA)

Community Partners a Intaj (Information & Communications Technology Association a Jordan) | ISACA | SOFEX JORDAN | JODDB | ABJ | JIF | Crown Prince Foundation | Talal Abu-Gazaleh Global | Jordan Insurance Federation | Amman Chamber Of Industry | AIBrza

Robotics Partner a QUILL

Digital and Production Partner a Q Tech Networks

Transportation Partner  Careem

World Cyber Security Summit a Jordan was Officially Supported by the following Media Partners:

Official Media Partner:

A Almamlaka tv

Official Newspaper Partner:

The Jordan Times

Media Partners:

ACN Newswire

U today

Who\-s Who in Jordan\-s Banking, Insurance & Financial Services

SECURITY Middle East Magazine

Cyber Magazine

TheNewsCrypto

Micky News

Wire19

Coinpedia  Crypto & Fintech News Media

Industry Events

Techly

StartupNews.fyi

News Affinity

siliconindia

MYTECHMAG

World business outlook

Crypto Academy

BizClik Media Group

Coinstelegram

IBS Intelligence

the market periodical

Thecoinrepublic

Coin News Extra

DxTalks

My security market place

CDO Magazine

PSU Connect Media Pvt Ltd

About World Cyber Security Summit

World Cyber Security Summit is a thought-leadership-driven, business-focused initiative that provides a platform for CISOs who are looking to explore new-age threats and the technologies/strategies to mitigate them.

The Summit fuses CISOs across industry sectors from Jordan who meet, network, learn and engage with some of the world\-s renowned technology thought-leaders, subject matter experts, and technology innovators in a constructive, open-dialogue environment to find solutions for issues hindering their information/cyber security.

About Trescon

Trescon is a global business events and consulting firm that provide a wide range of business services to a diversified client base that includes corporations, governments, and individuals. Trescon is specialized in producing highly focused B2B events that connect businesses with opportunities through conferences, roadshows, expos, demand generation, investor connect, and consulting services.

For further details, please contact:

Nupur Aswani

Head a PR, Media & Corporate Communications, Trescon

+919555915156 | media@tresconglobal.com
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ilia Darchiashvili stated that The Prime Minister of Georgia during his speech at the UN General Assembly, will make one of the main emphasis on the peaceful neighborhood policy.According to him, the topic of the Prime Minister's speech will be all the issues that Georgia has on the international agenda."As you know, the Prime Minister of Georgia addresses the UN General Assembly. Very important emphasis will be placed on all challenges. As last year, the prime minister of Georgia will focus on the peaceful neighborhood policy. As you know, it is most important for us to have peace and stability in our region. The main focus of the Prime Minister's speech will be in this direction, as well as all the issues that Georgia has on the international agenda," said Ilia Darchiashvili.According to the decision of the Kutaisi City Court, Grigol Narsia, who was arrested for breaking into the Bank of Georgia, was imprisoned as a preventive measure. The session was held in remote format.The judge granted the prosecution's motion. His lawyer demanded the accused's release in exchange for 100,000 GEL bail. According to the lawyers, Grigol Narsia committed the crime with the motive of helping his young son.The prosecutor says that Grigol Narsia has not been in contact with his wife and children for 4 years, and the defense's claim is untrue.The lawyer stated at the session that Grigol Narsia was injured during the arrest. According to the prosecutor, the investigation will examine these injuries.Grigol Narsia noted at the session that he did not intend to commit a terrorist act."It never occurred to me to commit a terrorist act. It wasn't just... I committed a crime, I didn't even aim for terrorism," he said.
The Ambassador of Romania to the USA, Andrei Muraru, said on Thursday that the Romanians settled in the United States supported Romania's accession to NATO by sending letters to the American Congress, showing that this could also work in the case of the Visa Waiver program.

"We believe that the Visa Waiver is a moment when they [ the Romanians in the USA - ed.n.] could rally. We all know that the moment that made Romanian Americans gather around a goal was at the end of the 90s, at the beginning of the 2000s for NATO integration, and I'll give you just one example: they sent over 160,000 letters to the American Congress, through which they told the members of the Congress why it is important for Romania to be a part of NATO and how useful this would be. We believe that this could work with the new technologies - surely, today you don't send letters, you send e-mails or have other initiatives, but we believe we can do this," said Muraru after the meeting of President Klaus Iohannis with the Romanian community on the West Coast of the United States of America.

He specified that the representatives of the Romanian churches in the USA want to support the approach regarding Romania's accession to the visa program.

"Another network that we want to use are these Romanian entrepreneurs, (...) Romanian teachers or researchers. These people could open some doors, they could influence people to support Romania in this endeavour," said Andrei Muraru.

According to the ambassador, the Romanian community on the West Coast of the United States of America is very young compared to other communities in this country.

"This community is one that arrived in the United States rather after 1990, after the miners' rampages, in certain waves in the 2000s and which is very well integrated and cohesive. We have many Romanians who work in high technology and advanced technology companies, we have Romanians who founded very well-rated start-ups, we have Romanian billionaires - there is a Romanian company that is valued at 36 billion US dollars -, we have hundreds of engineers working at Boeing, we have many specialists working at large companies who are in the Silicon Valley area, and we also have advanced technology professors, either at Stanford or at other well-ranked universities. From that point of view, it's a very resourceful community in many ways - both financial resources, but also resources to rally," he said.

He also stated that, unfortunately, a depreciation of the community spirit is being felt within the community of Romanians.

"Our goal is to try to bring them closer by using either our honorary consuls or some community leaders and trying to develop this spirit of bringing the community together. It's not easy at all and the biggest problem we see is the loss language, because by the second or third generation they no longer speak Romanian. It is not an exception, all ethnic communities have the same problems - the Germans, the Greeks, and the French too," Muraru emphasized.

The Ambassador of Romania in the USA appreciated that there is an interest of the Romanians settled in the USA to maintain the connection with Romania.

"We are trying to make them have a Romanian community life in the United States", added the diplomat.

He showed that the community of Romanians in the United States is estimated by the general consulates of Romania at approximately one million people.

President Klaus Iohannis and his wife, Carmen Iohannis, met in San Francisco with members of the Romanian community on the West Coast of the USA. On Friday, the head of state is to meet with Romanian entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley.

President Iohannis led, on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Romanian delegation that participated in the UN General Assembly in New York.AGERPRES
14 new productions will be screened, between October 7 and 16, in the Romanian Competition of the Animest Festival, to compete for the section prize, worth 5,000 RON (rd 1,000 euros), offered by the Romanian Cultural Institute, a press release from the organizers, sent to AGERPRES on Friday, reads.

Two of the short films included in the competition section dedicated to domestic films are also competing for the Animest Trophy at this edition: Suruaika, a film by Vlad Ilicevici and Radu C. Pop, in which a man adopts a kitten without knowing what horror awaits him, and Sasha (directed by Serghei Chiviriga), about a teenager who comes to discover in a strange way the truth about his own sexual identity.

Cate Chereches, who won the 2021 edition of the Animation Incubator - the Animest program dedicated to high school students passionate about animated films, proposes, this year, in the competition her first film Tab ur et, about the rise and fall of life.

Maria Scutaru, the winner of the 2020 edition of the program, who debuts in the Romanian short film section with Three, a 2D perspective on separation, will also be surprising.

Adrian Baluta returns to the competition dedicated to domestic films with 947 - What A Coincidence!, a story from another world, in which nothing is as it seems, and Ioachim Stroe returns with The Clown's Life, a cocktail of 2D, 3D techniques, live action and special effects in which a man is forced to live his whole life as a clown.

Calin Gherghevici's proposal for this edition is Vecinul/ The Neighbour, a film in which two children drop their ball in the yard of an abandoned house.

A dancer loses touch with reality as her memory deteriorates in Nu-ma-uita /Forget-me-not, the film by director Ruxandra-Maria Socor, while Sentiment familiar /Familiar Feeling, the result of the collaboration between visual artist Tudor Prodan and music creator Alex Halka, explores the struggle with depression in a unique way.

The artist's relationship with his own creation inspired Alina Gheorghe in the making of the film Degete de sticla/ Glass Fingers, while Copilul si Uratul/The Child and The Ugly (directed by Victor Andrei-Ionescu) imagines the story from the imagination of a boy, in which the "ugly" ' is the negative character.

A group of panda criminals succeed in robbing a bank in The Great Cane Robbery (directed by George Sorinca), while a boy struggles unsuccessfully to steal a girl's sleeves in Opreste-te! Termina! Inceteaza! /Stop! Stop! Stop! (directed by Eugen Munteanu).

The Joy, Bianca Sava's film, is the story of a girl whose normal physical transformations over time attract the ridicule of those around her, the effects of bullying on her transforming, over time, into acceptance and self-love.

Outside of the competition, lovers of animated films will see on the big screen Amok, a Hungary-Romania co-production directed by Balazs Turai, awarded this year with the Annecy Crystal, but also Pune-te in locul meu /Put Yourself In My Place, the latest film signed by Laura Georgescu Baron.

The complete programme of the edition will be available soon on animest.ro.

The first tickets were put on sale at https://eventbook.ro/festival/animest.

The Animest Festival is a project of the Animest Association, co-financed by the MEDIA Programme of the European Union, the National Cinematography Centre and the Romanian Cultural Institute.

Animest.17 is a project co-financed by Bucharest City Hall through ARCUB within the Emotional Bucharest 2022 Programme.
The special screening "Fairytale," the latest production signed by film director Alexander Sokurov, will mark the debut of the 12th edition of the Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival on Monday, an annual event dedicated to new forms of exploration of the cinematic language.

According to a press release from the organizers, sent to AGERPRES on Friday, until October 2, the programme will bring to the big screens more than 70 films signed by artists from all over the world, many of whom have already confirmed their presence at the screenings hosted by the Cinema Elvire Popesco and Cinemateca Eforie cinema halls.

Along with the artists who arrived at the festival, there will be present in Bucharest, during the seven days dedicated to this event, the professionals jurors of the three competitive sections - directors, producers, selectors and film critics, who are tasked with choosing the winners of the five awards offered at this edition of BIEFF.

Ewa Szablowska, the artistic director of the New Horizons International Festival in Poland, producer Ada Solomon, whose name is associated with more than 70 multi-awarded films, together with Carmen Gray - cultural journalist, film critic and independent selector, will watch and analyze the seven productions competing for the BIEFF Award for the best feature film, worth 20,000 euros, consisting of post-production services offered by Avanpost.

In the competition section dedicated to international short films, the jury will include Doris Bauer, co-director of the international Vienna Shorts festival, Marian Freistuhler, selector of the international competition at the Short Film Festival Hamburg, film director Andreea Bortun, winner of the BIEFF Grand Prize in 2021. The three professionals from the world of film will designate the winners of the prizes awarded in this section: the BIEFF Award for the Best Short Film and the Award for the Best Director, worth 1,000 euros each, offered by the Romanian Filmmakers' Union (UCIN).

The film that will impress the jurors with the Best Visual Concept will be rewarded with a prize worth 1,000 euros.

The 12th edition of BIEFF will offer viewers the chance to see 12 local films on the big screen, representative of the landscape of experimental cinema in Romania.

The festival can be followed on bieff.ro, FB: bieff.romania, Instagram, Youtube.
On an official visit to South Korea, Romania's Defence Minister Vasile Dincu had a meeting on Friday with his Korean counterpart Lee Jong-Sup mainly on the development of defence co-operation between the two countries.

According to a press statement released by the Romanian Defence Ministry (MApN) on Friday the two ministers signed a letter of intent that provides the milestones for concluding a framework defence co-operation agreement, Agerpres informs.

Another subject addressed during the meeting was international security, with emphasis on security challenges in the Black Sea region and Asia-Pacific. The two officials also discussed the latest developments in and prospects for strengthening co-operation inside international organisations, a framework ensured by the status of Korea as a global partner of NATO.

Dincu highlighted the importance of the participation, for the first time, of partners from the Asia-Pacific region at a NATO summit and emphasised the relevance of the decision adopted in Madrid regarding the consolidation of political dialogue and practical co-operation with established NATO partners from the region, including South Korea, for the promotion of security through co-operation and support for the rules-based international order.

On a bilateral level, Dincu and Lee Jong-Sup agreed to intensify co-operation in the field of military education, cyber-defence and joint training. The possibility of in-depth co-operation for the development of new technologies, including the transfer of know-how, was also analysed, taking into account the possibility of the production of military equipment in Romania, according to MApN.

At the end of the discussions, the two officials agreed on the continuation of their dialogue in order to expand the existing legislative framework, which would ensure the prerequisites for strengthening bilateral defence co-operation.

During the official visit to South Korea, Dincu also met on Friday Korea's Minister of the Defence Acquisition Programme Eom Dong-hwan, and Chairman of the Commission for National Defence Lee Hunseung.

In his conversations with the two high-ranking South Korean dignitaries, the mutual interest in the development of co-operation in the field of defence industry between Romania and South Korea was highlighted, building on the existing potential, as well as the importance of know-how transfer and supply security, as defining defence elements in the current strategic context.

According to MApN, Dincu invited Korean defence companies to run in competitions for the future army acquisition programmes of Romania, taking into account the use of NATO standards by the South Korean defence industry and the experience in running acquisition programmes similar to other NATO member states.

During the discussions, the opportunity offered by deepening co-operation in cutting-edge technologies, including emerging and disruptive ones, was highlighted. Industrial co-operation was mentioned as a key aspect of the development of mutual trust, considering the opportunities offered by a constantly evolving market for military equipment amid unprecedented security challenges to democratic European countries.
Romania has constantly voiced, in the discussions at the EU level, the importance of an active dialogue between the European Commission and Hungary, shows a response of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) at the request of AGERPRES, regarding the fact that the Community Executive has proposed to the member states to suspend European funding for Hungary due to corruption risks, pending the implementation of some reforms.

"The proposal recently advanced by the European Commission is based on the provisions of the European Regulation on the establishment of horizontal conditionality for the protection of the Union budget, adopted at the EU level in 2020, as part of the agreement on the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027. In the context of the negotiations on this regulation, Romania backed the establishment of a mechanism to ensure, in a proportional and balanced manner, the protection of the EU budget, respectively ensuring the principle of transparency of public expenditures and the efficient use of funds," states the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

At the same time, the cited source shows, "Romania has constantly voiced, in the discussions at the EU level, the importance of an active dialogue between the European Commission and Hungary that will lead to the release of solutions in the sense of strengthening unity at the European level", Agerpres informs.

"This approach of Romania, based on the encouragement of direct and constructive dialogue, was also recently reiterated by the President of Romania," points out the MAE.

Regarding the recent meeting of the General Affairs Council, which took place in Brussels on Tuesday, it "included on the agenda the third horizontal discussion on the rule of law, based on the report published by the European Commission in July 2022".

"On this occasion, the State Secretary for European Affairs Daniela Gitman reiterated Romania's support for this exercise and emphasized the importance of the exchange of experience and good practices between the member states. Against the background of the introduction of specific country recommendations in the European Commission's report, the State Secretary Romanian highlighted that this initiative to consolidate the mechanism represents a step forward to avoid duplication with other similar mechanisms and instruments," informs the MAE.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Bogdan Aurescu handed over the Presidency of the Community of Democracies, held by Romania for three years, starting with 2019, to his Canadian counterpart, Melanie Joly, in a ceremony that took place in New York, starting from September 2019.

The event took place on the sidelines of the high-level week of the 77th UN General Assembly (UNGA 77), informs a press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) sent to AGERPRES on Friday.

Aurescu carried out a review of the main milestones of the three-year term of the Romanian Presidency of the Community of Democracies, noting that during this period there were numerous challenges to democracies, human rights and international law, among which, in particular, the COVID- 19 and the unjustified, illegal and unprovoked military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.

He voiced his appreciation for the "prompt" and "substantial" mobilization of the Community of Democracies to respond to the challenges that arose, supporting democratic values and principles, despite the difficulties.

Under Romania's Presidency and with its support, in the context of the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, a group of member states of the Governing Council adopted, on February 24, a declaration expressing their support for Ukraine's democracy, sovereignty and territorial integrity, within its internationally recognized borders, the minister recalled. According to him, the signatory states "firmly" condemned the continuous aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and expressed their unequivocal support for the Ukrainian people in their democratic aspirations.

He also highlighted Romania's priority to support young and vulnerable democracies and exemplified the efforts of our country both in support of Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova. Minister Aurescu extended the invitation to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Chisinau, Nicu Popescu, for the Republic of Moldova to join the Governing Council of the Community of Democracies.

Nicu Popescu participated in the event in New York as a special guest of Romania.

Romania held the Presidency of the Community of Democracies from September 2019 to September 2022. Romania's term at the helm of the CoD, initially assumed for the 2019 - 2021 period, was extended, on May 18, 2021, under exceptional conditions, in the context of the need to ensure the continuity and efficient management of CoD activities, including as a result of the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic affected the calendar and format of some of the organization's activities.AGERPRES
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, had, on Thursday, in New York, a meeting with his counterpart from the Maldives, Abdulla Shahid, former President of the UN General Assembly, and with Victoria Hallum, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the New Zeeland, in the context of participation in the UN General Assembly.

According to a press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the discussions with the counterpart in the Maldives were mainly aimed at the intensification of sectoral cooperation between the two states.

"The two officials agreed to intensify bilateral cooperation in the consular field, at the level of the diplomatic institutes of the two countries, as well as in terms of disaster management, tourism and agriculture. Also, the head of Romanian diplomacy and the counterpart from the Republic of Maldives agreed to cooperate closely in the field of combating climate change, starting from the similar approaches of the two countries in this field, the Maldives being a state that directly feels the effects of these phenomena," according to the quoted source.

The two ministers also discussed the rise in the level of seas and oceans, as a direct effect of climate change, a subject of major interest for small island states. Bogdan Aurescu presented the activity on this subject at the level of the International Law Commission (CDI), of which he is a member, including in his capacity as co-president of the Study Group dedicated to this topic within the CDI.

Minister Bogdan Aurescu presented Romania's assessment of the global implications of the invasion of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, especially the food and humanitarian crisis, and the efforts of our country in support of Ukraine and in order to combat the effects of the food crisis, which have allowed, until this moment, the transit of about four million tons of Ukrainian grain to destinations around the world, adds the cited source.

During the meeting with Victoria Hallum, deputy minister for multilateral and legal affairs from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand, the discussions focused on the cooperation of the two states in a multilateral plan, mainly in the field of international law, with an emphasis on holding Russia accountable for illegal actions against Ukraine, as well as on the subject of climate change, with an emphasis on the rise in sea and ocean levels, the MAE release reads.

Minister Bogdan Aurescu addressed the challenges generated by Russia's illegal, unjustified and unprovoked aggression in Ukraine, presenting the multidimensional efforts that Romania, as a neighboring state and close partner of Ukraine, undertook to reduce the negative effects of the war.

They also discussed current issues within the International Law Commission (ILC) of the UN, especially on the topic of legal solutions to the negative effects of rising sea and ocean levels, considering the quality of the Romanian head as co-president of the Study Group of CDI dedicated to the theme of sea and ocean level rise in relation to international law.AGERPRES
Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu attended on Thursday a transatlantic working dinner of the EU and NATO foreign affairs ministers, a traditional event hosted by the US and carried out in New York, on the sidelines of the 77th Session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly.

According to a Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) release sent to AGERPRES on Saturday, the discussions were also attended by High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Moreover, also attending the event were foreign affairs ministers of Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia, Agerpres informs.

"Within this framework, the main topical issues on the international agenda were debated, with an emphasis on the developments in Ukraine, which have a major and direct impact on the security and prosperity of the Euro-Atlantic area. The participants agreed that, in the international context marked by Russia's illegal, unprovoked and unjustified military aggression in Ukraine, the strengthening of resilience and the transatlantic relation remain essentials," the release shows.

The quoted source mentioned that Minister Bogdan Aurescu reconfirmed Romania's strong commitment to deepen the transatlantic relation, grounded in the realisation of the fact that only by maintaining unity and having coordinated actions a significant progress can be made in terms of increasing security, including energy, of the transatlantic space or identifying solutions to the global food crisis.

"Therefore, he underscored that one of the effects of Russia's war against Ukraine has also been the reinforcement of the transatlantic relation, which currently is more stronger than ever, contrary to Russia's aspirations which relied on speculating divisions between the two shores of the Atlantic. Moreover, taking into account Russia's actions to manipulate the international democratic states by using the strategic dependencies related, among others, to energy or food, Minister Aurescu underscored the necessity to remove any dependencies of Russia, both of Western states and that of their partners," the MAE release said.

At the same time, the Foreign Affairs Minister highlighted the importance of protecting the values which are the basis of the transatlantic community and, in general, of the international order based on rules, in the context in which Russia's war in Ukraine is not only an attack over the foundations of Euro-Atlantic security, with global implications, but, as well as over these values.

"In terms of security, Minister Aurescu highlighted the importance of quickly and fully implementing the decisions taken at the NATO Summit in Madrid and showed that a relevant moment to measure the progress in achieving these objectives will be represented by the meeting of the NATO foreign ministers, which Minister Aurescu shall host it in Bucharest, at the end of 22 November. At the same time, he emphasised that the Alliance must continue to strengthen its defense and deterrence position on the Eastern Flank, in line with the decisions made in Madrid, and highlighted the fact that also the latest developments, reconfirm that the Black Sea region remains of strategic importance for the Euro-Atlantic security, as Romania has consistently maintained," the press release mentions.
On Thursday, President Klaus Iohannis met with members of the Romanian community on the West Coast of the United States of America, in which context he stated that Romania is in a complicated situation due to the war in Ukraine, but that our country is doing well and the economy is growing.

"Romania is in an extremely complicated situation, on the one hand, for reasons related to the war waged by Russia against Ukraine, (...) on the other hand, I think it is good to know that the Romanians and the Government of Romania they don't sit around for nothing, they get involved, they work and surprisingly, for many, for me, naturally, Romania is doing well and the Romanian economy is growing. It is very, very positive news. Regarding the crises we are facing in Romania, I think that we are in a situation that we have not been in for a long time, it is crisis, over the crisis, over the crisis and yet we manage. (...) I wanted to describe these things to you, so that you understand that we have a situation which, on the one hand, it is full of difficulties, on the other hand, it is full of opportunities and only the ingenuity and inventiveness and dedication of the Romanians means that in all these crises we still have, surprisingly, an economic growth and, unsurprisingly, this innovation, ingenuity and diligence makes you too do well here," Iohannis said.

The president said that Romania received almost 2 and a half million Ukrainian refugees and contributed to the export of grain from Ukraine.

"Until now, 60% of Ukrainian cereals have been exported through Romania, and we are still making efforts to increase this supply," Iohannis said.

He also spoke about the energy crisis, stressing that it is gratifying that the Government managed to keep prices at a reasonable level.

"We can guarantee the Romanians in the country that in winter they will not have to stay in the cold or in the dark, even though the situation is complicated," President Iohannis said.

The president also spoke about the Strategic Partnership with the USA.

"If we want to see what happened in the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the USA in 25 years, we can certainly see, first of all, the security area. And at this moment when we speak, a lot of American soldiers, equipped with of the most modern equipment, are located in the bases in Romania. On the other hand, and thanks to the American support, Romania is in NATO. It is the strongest security guarantee that Romania has ever benefited from, but it is not the only area. The economic zone of the Strategic Partnership has developed a lot lately. There are many companies from the United States that operate in Romania. There are still, unfortunately, very few Romanian companies that operate in the United States, but maybe here there is still room for development," Iohannis also said.

He appreciated the fact that Romanians settled in the United States represent an extraordinarily important bridge between Romania and the USA.

The president was accompanied to the event by his wife, Carmen Iohannis. The two took photos of the participants in the event.

The Romanian Ambassador to the U.S., Andrei Muraru, said that it is more than 17 years since a President of Romania arrived in San Francisco, on the U.S. West Coast.

"I am glad that this meeting with Romanian Americans takes place at a special moment, in the year in which we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the United States. As the history of the 25 years has proven, we have, indeed, something worth celebrating: friendship, security, prosperity, and in the last year, the value of this partnership has become more evident than ever. This partnership is about people, about what we have achieved together. When I say together, I don't just mean institutions who worked on this edifice, but also to the simple Romanians, who transformed the Strategic Partnership from an idea into a reality: soldiers, entrepreneurs, teachers, students, athletes and many others, who meant to our American friends simply Romania. We have not only allied armies, but we have also allied souls and I am thinking, at the same time, of the members of the Romanian-American community, who contribute with their talent, work, energy and dedication to what the American dream means," Muraru said.

About 300 people took part in the event, being invited representatives of the Romanian community on the West Coast of the USA, as well as the general and honorary consuls of Romania in the USA.

The community of Romanians in the USA is the fifth in number after those in Italy, Spain, Great Britain, and Germany. In 2020, the number of Romanians in the USA was estimated at over 450,000.

On Friday, the president is going to meet with Romanian entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley.

President Klaus Iohannis led, on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Romanian delegation that participated in the UN General Assembly. In New York, the president also took part in the Global Food Security Summit and had a meeting with the president of the World Bank Group, David Malpass. He also participated with his wife, Carmen Iohannis, in the traditional reception offered by the President of the United States of America, Joseph R. Biden, and the First Lady of the USA, Jill Biden, in honour of the heads of delegations participating in the UN General Assembly.AGERPRES
More than 70 foreign nationals, migrants from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Syria, Sri Lanka and Turkey, were discovered by the authorities, on Friday, while trying to leave the country illegally, hidden in three trucks carrying goods that underwent checks at the Nadlac II Border Crossing Point, the western Arad Border Police informed.

37 clandestine travelers were found in a truck driven by a Romanian, which was transporting refrigerators to Italy.

"After carrying out a detailed control of the truck, the service dog signaled the presence of some people in the means of transport, and upon opening the semi-trailer, 37 Sri Lankan citizens were discovered hiding, who intended to illegally cross the state border with the aim of reaching Western European countries," the Arad Border Police said.

Also with the help of trained dogs, 20 migrants from Syria and Turkey were discovered hiding in a truck transporting refrigerators to Poland driven by a Turk.

In the third truck, driven by a Romanian who was transporting auto parts to Italy, the border police discovered, hidden among the goods, 15 migrants from Bangladesh and Ethiopia, aged between 19 and 42.AGERPRES
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca on Friday, at the Victoria Palace, welcomed the president of the Board of Directors of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Tadashi Maeda, in the context of which the financing opportunities for projects in the field of energy and railway and road infrastructure were analyzed, a Government release says.

"We welcome the interest shown by JBIC, one of Japan's leading banks, in supporting large transport infrastructure projects and green energy production. Both wind and hydrogen energy are solutions, along with small modular reactors, which we can access together with our Japanese partners. On the other hand, projects such as the Braila bridge, the Pascani-Chisinau railway or the construction of the M6 metro line can strengthen the economic development of Romania and the region. The presence of this Japanese bank in the our country confirms Romania's attractive profile as an investment destination, including for Japanese companies," said Prime Minister Ciuca, as quoted in the press release.

The source specifies that special attention was paid to the development of the potential generated in the IT sector, in this sense being mentioned the opportunities offered by the establishment of an investment fund for start-ups, to which Romanian specialists and companies from the country can have access, and whose financing can increase their presence on the European and international scene.AGERPRES
Prince Radu participated, on Thursday evening, in the Royal Afternoon event dedicated to Romanian economic ties, organized, for the second consecutive year, by the RSM Romania company, specialized in audit, tax and consulting services, informed the Royal Family of Romania, in a Facebook post.

The event was attended by representatives of the Romanian-British Chamber of Commerce, the Romania-Netherlands Chamber of Commerce and the Belgium-Luxembourg-Romania-Moldova Chamber of Commerce.

Prince Radu was invited to the meeting by Dan Schwartz, managing partner and co-founder of the Romanian company that is part of the RSM global network, with offices in 120 countries of the world, the quoted source said.

With the support of the Margareta of Romania Royal Foundation, the evening enjoyed the participation of four young musicians, scholarship holders of the Young Talents National Program.

According to the Royal House, the six external visits that the Association of Her Majesty's House organizes annually for the Custodian of the Crown and Prince Radu include, each time, an economic component, both for the intensification of investments and commercial exchanges between Romania and countries of the world, as well as for the consolidation and putting Romanian local communities on the map in EU countries.AGERPRES
The Romanian Youth Orchestra conducted by Cristian Mandeal will open the "Piano Extravaganza" International Festival - the 12th edition in Sofia, with an extraordinary gala, which will take place on September 28, at 7.30 pm, in the Philharmonic Hall, in the Bulgarian Capital City.

The soloists of the concert will be violinist Mincio Mincev and pianist Ludmil Anghelov, and the programme will include Sabin Pautza - Romanian Dances, W.A. Mozart/Philip Wilby - Concerto for violin, piano and orchestra in D major K. Arch. 56/315f and Symphony VIII in G major op. 88 by A. Dvorak.

The opening concert is organized by the Romanian Youth National Art Centre, the Romanian Cultural Institute, with the support of the Romanian Embassy in Bulgaria and the City Hall of Sofia and enjoys the patronage of the presidents of the two countries, Rumen Radev and Klaus Johannis, Agerpres informs.

"We want, together with the Bulgarian audience, to mark the 30th anniversary since the Romanian-Bulgarian relations started to work on new grounds, once with the signing of the Bilateral Treaty of friendship, cooperation and good-neighbourliness. And we also want to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the moment when both countries joined the European Union together. Let's remember this moment and enjoy and understand even better how many benefits the fact that we are now members of the European Union brought to both states and their citizens," the ambassador of Romania to Bulgaria, Brandusa Predescu, told a press conference held this week in Sofia, as quoted on Friday by the website https://www.mybg.biz.

At the same press conference, master Ludmil Anghelov thanked the Romanian ambassador for all the effort and support given to the realization of this project. "I would also like to thank the Ministry of Culture from Bulgaria, the Ministry of Culture from Romania, the Romanian Cultural Institute, the Municipality of Sofia, and the other institutions that supported and made it possible for this inaugural concert to take place on September 28, and that we can enjoy this extraordinary orchestra, with an exceptional conductor and an extraordinarily beautiful programme."

"One of the initial roles of the Romanian Youth Orchestra was that of a cultural ambassador, and our presence in Sofia in a year when Romania and Bulgaria celebrate 15 years since joining the European Union is a new proof in this respect, our concert turning into a gesture of cultural diplomacy of which we are proud," stated the conductor of the concert and the mentor of the Romanian Youth Orchestra, Cristian Mandeal.

The "Piano Extravaganza" International Festival, organized by the Piano Extravaganza Foundation, took place for the first time in October 2011, and appeared as a culmination of the efforts of pianist Ludmil Anghelov, its founder and artistic director. The main goal of the festival was to highlight the repertoire of pianists by promoting works of great value, too little known, and works created by composers who were in the shadow of the celebrities of the history of classical music.
As many as 1,227 new cases of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 were recorded in the last 24 hours in Romania, down 104 from the previous day, with over 15,000 RT-PCR and rapid antigenic tests performed, the Health Ministry informed on Friday.

Of the new cases, 241 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 - 184, and Timis - 81.

The highest 14-day notification rate is in Cluj County - 2.12, followed by Timis County - 2.11.

So far, 3,260,555 cases of people infected with the novel coronavirus were confirmed in Romania.

- Hospitalisations -

As many as 1,424 people with COVID-19, down 11 from the previous reporting, including 134 minors, are hospitalised in Romania at specialist care facilities.

Out of the total number of hospitalised patients, 123 are in intensive care.

Of the 123 patients admitted to ICU, 115 are unvaccinated against COVID-19.

- Deaths -

According to the ministry, 6 Romanians, (all men) are reported dead in the last 24 hours, one in the 50-59 age group, two in the 60-69, two in the 70-79 age range and 1 in the age group over 80 years.

All patients had comorbidities and two were vaccinated against COVID.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 66,968 people diagnosed with the SARS-CoV-2 infection have died in Romania.AGERPRES
The 4th edition of the Timisoara Architecture Biennale - Beta 2022, which takes place between September 23 and October 23, in Timisoara, in the organization of the Romanian Order of Architects (OAR), the Timis Territorial Branch and the Faculty of Architecture of Timisoara brings a series of tools that encourage the public to be an active actor in the urban space and to responsibly regain their right to the city.

Beta 2022, in addition to the main exhibition and the exhibition route, also brings the Beta 2022 Exhibition-Competition, whose seven competitive categories were: Built Space; Interior space; Public space; Bachelor theses; Initiatives / Experiments / Visions; Essay and Photography.

The premise of this edition is to approach the general theme both from various perspectives in the biennial programme and in a varied range of formats - some classical (exhibition-competition, conferences and debates, cinema evenings, etc.), and others informal or experimental such as the exhibition main event of the biennial, entitled Another Breach in the Wall and curated by Daniel Tudor Munteanu and Davide Tommaso Ferrando.

Another Breach in the Wall aims to present interventions that do not follow laws, rules and codes implicitly, but negotiate them, reinterpret them, make them visible. These interventions are not only made by architects and urban planners, but also by designers, artists, activists and all those who adopt a creative and critical approach to the city, transforming the way it is inhabited. In this framework, the purpose of the exhibition is to demonstrate how urban space can be produced by anyone who is given the right tools and agenda, according to a press release from OAR Timisoara, sent to AGERPRES.

The exhibition is distributed along a 22 km urban route through 11 districts of Timisoara, presenting over 140 works from all over the world. One of the attractions of the route is the Stefania Palace (Romas Square no. 1), an abandoned space inside a heritage building in the Fabric district, recovered by Beta 2022 as an exhibition space. After the end of the biennial and after it has been reactivated, the space will be returned to the city as a public place for cultural events.

Following the curatorial idea that biennials are primarily intended to activate the cities that host them, the exhibition will establish unexpected relationships with the citizens, who will encounter it in their everyday environment. For this reason, among others, many of the works in the exhibition, especially those in the public space, are replicas.

Among the 140 works on display are works by Ai Weiwei, Andres Jaque, Brad Downey, Brandlhuber+, Cindy Sherman, Dan Perjovschi, Jens Haaning, JR, Matilde Cassani, NL Architects, Pezo von Ellrichshausen, Pier Vittorio Aureli, Raumlabor Berlin or Theo Deutinger.

The Beta 2022 Exhibition-Competition aimed to bring together all those who contribute to the generation of quality architecture in the DKMT (Danube-Cris-Mures-Tisza) region, including architects, urban planners, landscape designers, set designers, light artists, graduates of architecture / interior architecture / urban planning / visual arts / design / engineers, IT-scientists, administrations, NGOs, sociologists, psychologists, critics, theorists, philosophers, etc. In the first five categories, 25 works were selected, and in the Photography category, 12 works.

The opening of the exhibition-competition will take place on September 29 in Libertatii Square in Timisoara.

Beta 2022 will take place both indoors and in the public space of Timisoara, bringing together a series of related events such as exhibitions, conferences, debates, art and architecture installations, guided tours and film screenings.AGERPRES
Never judge a book by its TV adaptation.

Treasure State, out Sept. 27, is the sixth in C.J. Boxs series featuring Cassie Dewell, a private investigator in Bozeman, Montana. Early on, staking out the house of a suspected insurance scammer, Cassie describes herself as middle-aged and overweight. (Shes trying but failing to kick a mini-doughnut habit.)

Hard as she is on herself, Cassie is easy to love, tracking a cad who charms wealthy women to steal their money, a case that caused the mysterious disappearance of a previous PI. All the while, a hunt for hidden treasure swirls around her.

Maybe you already know what I didnt realize: that this series was the inspiration for the ABC drama Big Sky, starring Kylie Bunbury (neither middle-aged nor overweight) as Cassie. Big Sky returns for a third season, but Im not here to review television, and besides, Ive only watched one episode of Big Sky.

Elsewhere in wrong assumptions, I had also dismissed Box  who will be in St. Louis on Sept. 28 on a publicity tour for Treasure State  as too much of a manly man writer for me. And Ill admit, when the opening chapter featured porcupine roadkill, I wasnt entirely on board.

But Treasure State (thats one of Montanas nicknames) is a nifty puzzler with an engrossing, briskly unfolding plot and potential consequences all around.

A real selling point for the audiobook is narrator Christina Delaine, who is perfect in every way, fully inhabiting Cassie while changing it up for other characters, male or female, good or evil.

Delaine has narrated earlier books in the series (this is No. 6) as well, and Ill dip back into those to find out more about this Lizard King of whom Cassie speaks. Despite a few gaps like that, Treasure State is a fine introduction to Cassie Dewell  and C.J. Box.

Recent audiobook listening marked a big change for me  from CD to downloads played from my phone. Yes, yes, I know most people have been playing books and podcasts this way forever.

Audible, the online audiobooks arm of Amazon, has been around 27 years. Services such as Chirp email daily about discounted audiobooks. Libraries offer instant downloads of thousands of titles.

Libraries have books on disc, too, but chances are your car doesnt have a CD player. Mine doesnt, thus an end to my foot-dragging about change.

Im using Apple CarPlay, and its fine. Most review copies are delivered by download, and I like being able to pick up the story after leaving car for house. And eventually Im sure Ill stop checking the side pocket for the next disc.

Here are some more books Ive enjoyed since entering the modern age.

The Rising Tide

By Ann Cleves  Read by Janine Birkett

As a huge fan of both Ann Cleeves and audiobooks, I have to say I find her books better reads than listens.

The Rising Tide shows why. The mystery of a death at a reunion of friends unfolds slowly, over many hours when you may begin to think that tide will keep rising forever.

The friends, whove been gathering yearly on Holy Island since a college retreat 50 years earlier, are together again, worse for wear. One has dementia. One never recovered from a tragedy decades ago. And one, having lost his job over charges of sexual misconduct, is threatening a memoir.

Holy Island, officially Lindisfarne, site of a medieval monastery and retaining spiritual vibes, is off the coast of Englands Northumberland. Tides regularly cut it off from the mainland, where Cleeves Vera Stanhope heads the detective squad.

Vera (played by Brenda Blethyn in the brilliant BBC series Vera) is called when one of the friends turns up dead, a presumed suicide. But Vera doesnt think thats necessarily the case, and it turns out shes right.

Investigation and interview after interview follow, with Vera aided by, and bossing around, her trusted sidekick Joe Ashworth and up-and-comer Holly Lawson.

(Joe, long gone from TV, is still Veras No. 2 in the books, following always a few steps behind, the Prince Consort to her Queen, Cleeves writes wryly.)

Janine Birkett, who has narrated many Vera novels, is everything you want in a British-accented reader  clear-spoken and understandable, even at 1.5 speed.

But if the early going was slow, patience was rewarded. The Rising Tide picked up the pace dramatically as it headed for a crashing conclusion. Eager to ID the killer and find out why early reviewers were commenting as they were, I turned to the book for the final chapters. Thats the definition of a page turner.

Lucy by the Sea

By Elizabeth Strout  Read by Kimberly Farr

Lucy Barton is back, again struggling to figure out ex-husband William, in the fourth in what author Elizabeth Strout calls her Amgash series. (I Am Lucy Barton, Anything Is Possible and Oh, William! came first.)

This time, in Lucy by the Sea, Lucy is also struggling to figure out the COVID pandemic, as William whisks her away from infectious Manhattan to isolated coastal Maine for what she believes will be a brief stay. Obviously, it isnt.

A couple of problems here. First, are you up for a return to confusing, pre-vaccine 2020? I was not. And second, Lucys dithering can make a prolonged stay in her head tiresome.

But narrator Kimberly Farr is a marvel, voicing Lucy (for the third time) with such perfection that we can almost see the character in front of us. Farr also narrated Strouts Olive Kitteridge duo and many other favorites, including Anne Tylers recent French Braid.

Horse

By Geraldine Brooks  Read by a full cast

Horse, the story of a lost painting, an equine skeleton, an enslaved horse whisperer and a racehorse named Lexington, has been lauded everywhere, and justifiably so.

But would it work as an audiobook, given its many characters inhabiting multiple entwined storylines over the course of a century and a half?

The answer is a definite yes. Horse is an enthralling listen, somehow not confusing despite the many changes of time and place.

The story, which introduces the horse that sired many of racings greats, is a horse tale, a Civil War saga and a morality play about art and humanity and race. Its an epic requiring five narrators, all of whom do this important book more than justice.

Holy Chow

By David Rosenfelt  Read by Grover Gardner

Why do I enjoy David Rosenfelts Andy Carpenter mysteries so much, I asked myself when finishing this one. Is it the authors wry humor? Is it the character of Andy, a gruff softie who cant manage to retire from practicing law? Is it the dogs? There are lots of dogs.

All that, yes, but I especially love the way narrator Grover Gardner embraces all that, except the barking. His voice is one of the most nearly perfect embodiments of a character that Ive heard.

In this latest, Holy Chow, Andy gets involved in a murder case because of a chow chow dog named Lion that was adopted from the rescue organization he runs. Soon, Andy himself is a target.

Rosenfelts plots are tight and satisfying, but this is a series to keep up with for the characters. And the dogs.

Gail Pennington is a former longtime television critic for the Post-Dispatch.
Has Alice Cooper ever met anyone whose real name is  Alice Cooper?

He has. In fact, he used to try to meet them by design.

We had a thing for a while where we said, If anybody wants to bring their grandmother or their aunt, if shes named Alice Cooper, you get free passes to the show, the famed shock rocker says by phone from a tour stop in New York. And yeah, we met two or three sweet little old ladies with white hair, whose name was Alice Cooper. We treated them really well.

Youd think that, since Alice, (nee Vincent Furnier) began plying his snake-wielding, straightjacket-wearing trade more than a half-century ago, pairing albums titled Love It to Death and Killer with outrageous stage antics (the guillotine, the gallows, the faux dead babies), the actual Coopers of the world would have ceded the name to him.

Not necessarily.

Heres a strange one, he continues. I lost my Visa card and called my bank and said, Can you look it up on the computer? They said, Which Alice Cooper are you? I said, How many do you have? She said, Five. I said, Well, Im probably the only Mr.

At 74, Cooper is still touring as hard as ever  he plays Sept. 28 at Stifel Theatre  and is paying tribute to the hard-rocking Detroit music scene of his early years with the 2021 album Detroit Stories. In addition to a dozen original songs, it contains covers of Motor City heroes the MC5 and Bob Seger, plus guest appearances by Detroiters Wayne Kramer (MC5), Mark Farner (Grand Funk Railroad), Johnny Badanjek (Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels) and members of the original Alice Cooper band.

Some people thought I did Detroit Stories because of the 50th anniversary of Love It to Death, Cooper says. It was our first big album, and it came out of Detroit. But (longtime producer) Bob Ezrin and I didnt even realize that. I was a coincidence that we decided to do this album about Detroit, in Detroit with Detroit players.

Ezrin was the architect of Coopers sound on the classic albums Love It to Death, Killer, Schools Out, Billion Dollar Babies, Welcome to My Nightmare and now Detroit Stories. Referencing the Beatles signature producer, Cooper calls Ezrin my George Martin.

If I were going to say Theres only two people on this planet that know Alice Cooper the character, its Bob Ezrin and myself, he says. We talk about Alice in the third person. Bob is the only other person that really knows the core of what Alice would and wouldnt do.

On Coopers current tour, a significant change in the bands lineup is the recent departure of longtime lead guitarist Nita Strauss, who left to join Demi Lovatos band. Kane Roberts, who played guitar and co-wrote songs with Cooper in the late 80s, has rejoined the group.

My band is always sort of a revolving door, Cooper says. If anybody thats in the band decides theyre going to go out on their own or try something else, I always go, Great, go do it. I told Nita when she left: Ill see you on down the line. The doors always open. If its the right time and youre available, youre always welcome back.

Roberts, whose physique is as muscular as his playing, brings a decidedly different energy to the band. He actually does give us a more masculine sound, Cooper says. I mean, were already pretty masculine up there. But Kane brings another gallon of testosterone onstage.

Roberts he-man intensity is tempered with a sense of humor, however. Hes the funniest human being Ive ever met, Cooper adds. Hes got Stallones body and Jerry Lewis brain.

Besides touring behind Detroit Stories, Cooper is beginning to think about the next move for the Hollywood Vampires, his supergroup side band that includes Johnny Depp and Aerosmiths Joe Perry.

Cooper promises the Vampires will do something next summer, adding with a laugh, Johnny was a little busy this year.

Indeed. Regarding Depps breathlessly scrutinized court contests with ex-wife Amber Heard, Cooper says that Depp told me a long time ago, I dont care how much money I have to spend, I will not be known as a wife beater. I never touched her. Ive never hurt any one of my girlfriends or wives, ever. And if you know Johnny, you know thats true.

One other recent project for Cooper is the 2021 release of an audiobook, Who I Really Am: Diary of a Vampire. As he recounts the story of how his heady brew of rock and horror-movie magic took him to the top of the charts, Cooper makes mention of his early musical heroes, including Little Richard and St. Louis own Chuck Berry, who died in 2017.

This being St. Louis, we asked him to expand on what he learned from listening to Berry.

When I was 10 years old, I heard a Chuck Berry record and realized later on it was the very first record Id ever heard that was driven by guitar, Cooper says.

Guitar was the featured instrument. It was really a hard-rock guitar, but it was a blues beat. It was the absolute Rock n Roll 101.

I dont care what band youre in, if its the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, or anybody thats worth their salt, they learned Chuck Berry first. Thats how you learn rock n roll, learning Chuck Berry. Also, I consider him the greatest lyricist of all time in rock, because he could tell a story in three minutes, and it would be funny, and it would be syncopated. And the lyrics  I mean, if he couldnt think of a word, hed make one up. I dont want your botheration  thats a great word, botheration. The coolerator was crammed with TV dinners and ginger ale.

I mean, come on. Thats brilliant. All of his stuff was really, really a lot hipper than anybody else out there.

What Alice Cooper  When 7:30 p.m. Sept. 28  Where Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market Street  How much $26.50-$176.50  More info 314-499-7600; ticketmaster.com
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  A new evaluation of state-operated hospitals for veterans, the mentally ill and the elderly describes inadequate oversight that threatens the ability to provide quality care, including harmful conditions at a care facility for military veterans in Truth or Consequences.

Presented Thursday to legislators, the evaluation from the Legislatures accountability and budget office describes improvements in management of finances, marketing and tracking of clinical outcomes for patients.

But the quality of patient care and oversight at the New Mexico State Veterans' Home in Truth or Consequences in particular continues to be a point of concern.

Problems there were highlighted recently by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which found substandard care and examples of patients who were harmed.

That review found the State Veterans' Home failed to properly intervene to care for a patient who had fallen eight times and died after being found unresponsive after a fall. A diabetic patient was sent home with insulin but no glucose meter, and another patient was intubated despite a do-not-resuscitate order.

The home failed to ensure compliance with infection-control protocols and training, such as the use of face masks by staff and proper procedures for antibiotics  placing residents in jeopardy.

The facility risks losing funding agreements with Medicaid and Medicare programs if deficiencies are still unresolved in December. A medical director at the facility lost privileges as a result of the June federal inspection and resigned.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said state officials are confident that the facility will be back in compliance within the time allotted through reinspection.

In a statement Thursday, the governor recounted an impromptu visit to the veterans' home earlier in the week to personally check in on progress and meet with residents and staff.

"I reassured them all that I will continue to hold accountable those in charge of our veterans care until every metric is met and every deficiency is corrected, Lujan Grisham said in the statement. I also made several commitments to them based on their feedback, including increasing transportation options, improving their access to medical specialists and more flexibility for meal options and times.

The governor indicated that employment was recently terminated for five individuals at the veterans' home, while two nurses were reported for discipline and eight other staff were reprimanded or counseled. An expert team assessed the facility, and staff are now being trained in critical areas.

New Mexico has assigned at least $60 million to the Department of Health to build a new veteran's home buildings at Truth or Consequences that are scheduled for completion next year.

In all, New Mexico currently operates seven facilities that provide court-ordered psychiatric care, detox services for drugs and alcohol, nursing care for honorable-discharged military veterans, teenage boys with mental-health or violence problems, supportive living arrangements for people disabled since youth and more.

A 2021 evaluation of the facilities found a need for better governance, planning and oversight. Out of dozen recommendations, four have been met and solutions to eight more are underway.

The release of the new report coincided with a visit by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to a new senior center in Wagon Mound.

The Department of Health has begun tracking daily occupancy at all its facilities. The results showed that only about half of licensed beds were occupied from March to July 2022.

Evaluators also found that the Turquoise Lodge detox center in Albuquerque doesn't allow walk-in admissions, requiring a multi-step admissions process over the phone. Federal guidelines say that makes it less likely that patients will seek treatment.
ST. LOUIS  The St. Louis area is keeping the number of monkeypox cases at bay thanks to targeted education efforts and vaccination events, health officials say.

In the areas largest vaccination effort yet against monkeypox, about 1,000 doses will be available to those who are eligible at the Tower Grove Pride festival held 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in Tower Grove Park.

The doses will be administered by Southhampton Healthcare and the St. Marys Hospital Infectious Disease Clinic at the festival, which could draw more than 10,000 people each day.

Health officials will also provide about 40 doses Friday night at The Big One Ball, a vogue and runway event.

We are cautiously optimistic that this virus wont spread as quickly as many of us had feared, but this is no time to be complacent, said Christopher Ave, spokesman for the St. Louis County Department of Public Health. We have to keep expanding our efforts and outreach, keep getting as many people vaccinated as we can, keep focusing on the most vulnerable and keep the numbers down.

St. Louis County has seen a total of 15 cases of monkeypox and has not reported any new cases since Sept. 14. The city of St. Louis has tallied a total of 36 confirmed and probable cases since reporting the areas first case on July 12.

The total cases for Missouri is 84, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up from 53 three weeks ago.

Cases have reached nearly 1,300 in Illinois, and many states have seen hundreds of cases. In total, nearly 22,600 cases have been reported across the U.S. since the worldwide outbreak began here in May. Cases peaked nationwide around the end of August and have been dropping since.

We are certainly nowhere near the numbers that you see in other metro areas, and I feel that vaccination and awareness in equal doses are contributing to that reduction in transmission, said Suzanne Alexander, bureau chief of the Communicable Disease Division of the St. Louis Department of Health.

Local health officials have worked closely with LGBTQ organizations to distribute information about monkeypox symptoms, where to go to get tested and how to prevent spread.

The city health department joined forces with the nonprofit Williams and Associates, which provides health services that address racial health disparities, in holding a successful two-day monkeypox vaccination event last Friday and Saturday.

About 400 people received a dose of the two-dose regimen given four weeks apart, Alexander said.

Justin Bennett, 37, of St. Louis, learned about the event through a Facebook group after appointment slots opened up. Bennett said he was easily able to get a dose.

Its nice to see people at the forefront of things instead of waiting until catastrophe is upon us, he said. It was fantastic to see St. Louis and (city health director Dr. Matifadza Hlatshwayo Davis) step up to offer this clinic.

The amount of vaccine remains limited across the country, so CDC guidelines require doses to be reserved for close contacts of positive cases and those at highest risk.

In this outbreak, monkeypox has spread mainly through prolonged skin-to-skin contact. While anyone can get monkeypox, the illness is currently mostly affecting men who have sex with men.

To help identify and ensure only those who meet the CDC guidelines get the vaccine, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services created an online survey. The results are provided to local health department officials, who schedule the individuals for a vaccine appointment.

Doses are also available at some area clinics that primarily serve patients at risk. The survey can be completed by individuals who show up at vaccine clinics and events.

The state health department is planning to move away from the survey, however, by allowing providers to simply ask patients if they are eligible for the vaccine, said spokeswoman Lisa Cox. State officials hope to have the option in place by this weekend.

This is a change that we have been asking for, and we think is good, and others have been asking for it as well, Ave said, because it just makes it that much easier to get people vaccinated, and that is the goal.

Missouri has received a total 6,053 vials of vaccine. More than 2,300 have gone to the St. Louis region, 2,200 to the Kansas City region, and the rest to the parts of the state. Each vial holds about five doses.

As of Thursday, nearly 1,100 vials had been administered across the region, Ave said. (The county health department is the regions repository for the doses.)

Alexander also praised how quickly testing capacity for monkeypox was ramped up by federal officials, which allowed local diseases investigators to quickly locate contacts of positive cases and prevent spread.

Weve worked really hard to bring on board the lessons weve learned through the COVID-19, Alexander said, including not just how to protect our community but respect our community, how to be transparent about the things we do, how to be informed by advocacy groups  having that at our disposal has just been invaluable.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  After an Indiana judge on Thursday blocked the state's abortion ban from being enforced, phones starting ringing across Indiana abortion clinics, which are preparing to resume the procedure a week after the ban had gone into effect.

People are getting the word that abortion is now legal again, and people are ready to get their health care that they deserve and that they desire, Dr. Katie McHugh, an abortion provider at Women's Med in Indianapolis, told The Associated Press.

Indiana's seven abortion clinics were to lose their state licenses under the ban  which only permits abortions within its narrow exceptions to take place in hospitals or outpatient surgical centers.

The ban was approved by the states Republican-dominated Legislature on Aug. 5 and signed by GOP Gov. Eric Holcomb. That made Indiana the first state to enact tighter abortion restrictions since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated federal abortion protections by overturning Roe v. Wade in June.

The judge wrote there is reasonable likelihood that this significant restriction of personal autonomy offends the liberty guarantees of the Indiana Constitution and that the clinics will prevail in the lawsuit. The order prevents the state from enforcing the ban pending a trial on the merits of the lawsuit.

Republican state Attorney General Todd Rokita said in a statement: We plan to appeal and continue to make the case for life in Indiana, calling the abortion ban law a reasonable way to protect the unborn.

Womens Med is expecting to see patients again starting Friday, McHugh said.

I had really hoped for this, but honestly, I didnt really expect it, she said. So the fact that this is what happened is such a pleasant surprise and such a validation of what we have been saying this whole time."

Whole Womans Health, which operates an abortion clinic in South Bend, said its staff members are making plans to resume abortion care in the near future.

Of course, this landscape of legal back-and-forth leads to disruption in patient care and uncertainty for our staff, said Amy Hagstrom Miller, president and CEO of Whole Womans Health.

Indianas ban followed the political firestorm over a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled to the state from neighboring Ohio to end her pregnancy. The case gained wide attention when an Indianapolis doctor said the child came to Indiana because of Ohios fetal heartbeat ban.

An Ohio judge has temporarily blocked that state law, indicating he will allow abortions to continue up to 20 weeks gestation until after a court hearing scheduled for Oct. 7.

With Indiana now on hold, bans on abortion at any point in pregnancy are in place in 12 Republican-led states. In Wisconsin, clinics have stopped providing abortions amid litigation over whether an 1849 ban is in effect. Georgia bans abortions once fetal cardiac activity can be detected and Florida and Utah have bans that kick in after 15 and 18 weeks gestation, respectively.

The Indiana ban replaced state laws that generally prohibited abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy and tightly restricted them after the 13th week. The ban includes exceptions allowing abortions in cases of rape and incest, before 10 weeks post-fertilization; to protect the life and physical health of the mother; and if a fetus is diagnosed with a lethal anomaly.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, which is representing the abortion clinics, filed the lawsuit Aug. 31 and argued the ban would prohibit the overwhelming majority of abortions in Indiana and, as such, will have a devastating and irreparable impact on the plaintiffs and, more importantly, their patients and clients.

Ken Falk, the ACLU of Indianas legal director, pointed to the state constitutions declaration of rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in arguing before the judge on Monday that it included a right to privacy and to make decisions on whether to have children.

The state attorney generals office said the court should uphold the ban, saying arguments against it are based on a novel, unwritten, historically unsupported right to abortion in the state constitution.

The constitutional text nowhere mentions abortion, and Indiana has prohibited or heavily regulated abortion by statute since 1835  before, during, and after the time when the 1851 Indiana Constitution was drafted, debated, and ratified, the office said in a court filing.

The question of whether the Indiana Constitution protects abortion rights is undecided.

A state appeals court decision in 2004 said privacy was a core value under the state constitution that extended to all residents, including women seeking an abortion. But the Indiana Supreme Court later set aside that ruling without addressing whether the state constitution included such a right.

Hanlon, a Republican who was first elected in 2014 as a judge in the rural southern Indiana county, wrote that Indiana's constitution is more explicit in its affirmation of individual rights and its limitation of legislative power to intrude into personal affairs than the U.S. Constitution.

There is a reasonable likelihood that decisions about family planning, including decisions about whether to carry pregnancy to term, are protected by the state constitution, Hanlon wrote.

Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinic operators involved in the lawsuit said in a statement that they were grateful that the court granted much needed relief for patients, clients, and providers but this fight is far from over.

Rodgers is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Arleigh Rodgers on Twitter at https://twitter.com/arleighrodgers
Mr. Carrot gets ready for work every morning by heading to the backyard to pee.

He waits until his driver (and devoted owner) Cat Small opens the door to her black, two-seater Mini Cooper. She snaps on his harness and leash and buckles him in the passenger side seat.

Mr. Carrot sticks his head out of the rolled-down window while they cruise from their Tower Grove South neighborhood to work at the Nestle Purina Petcare headquarters, where they work in marketing. The 6-year-old pointer, pitbull and German shepherd mix has looked forward to going to work every day since he became eligible at 16 weeks old. Hes one of about 75 pets who accompany their owners to the pet food company daily. Purina has allowed pets at work for more than 20 years.

Mr. Carrot greets the guard at the parking entrance with a friendly wag. After they walk into the main tower entrance, he stops by the security guard desk. The guard puts out four different flavored snacks. Mr. Carrot sniffs each one.

Will it be a beef day or liver? Once he makes his selection, he carries the treat over to a carpeted area for an early morning snack. He leaves the other three treats behind.

Mr. Carrot is not a glutton.

As they walk over to the elevator, coworkers smile and wave at him. One colleague stops to pet him while they wait at the elevator.

I dont know your name, but I do know Mr. Carrot, she says to Small, who smiles. They ride up to the 14th floor. Baby gates cordon off several desks in their workspace. Small puts a cup of Pro Plan (Purina, of course) in his bowl next to her desk and chops up a boiled egg to sprinkle on top.

After breakfast, Mr. Carrot might take a power nap, but hes more likely to start his rounds. He has figured out how to push the gate open with his nose and patrols the floor, checking in with the marketing staff known to harbor treats. The office is his happy place. The pandemic turned his world upside when pets were temporarily barred from coming with their owners.

For six months, Mr. Carrot languished at home. Small, an extrovert who missed the office environment, returned three months before Mr. Carrot was allowed back. He looked miserable and sad every morning when she left.

I tried to convince him that he didnt do anything wrong, she said. Its a pandemic, she told him.

The pandemic affected plenty of pets, according to trainers and animal behavior experts. As more employees adjust to new workplace routines  some returning to offices, others shifting permanently to home and some creating a hybrid  pets are also having to adjust.

Early data shows more people are returning to their offices post-Labor Day.

Office usage in 10 major metro areas crept up to nearly 50% of 2020s pre-pandemic attendance, according to Kastle Systems, a key-card property management company that tracks entries into office buildings. Train ridership is also ticking upward.

Those left behind at home may need some help coping.

A tricky transition

Dogs thrive on routines, says Dr. Ragen McGowan, a pet behavior expert who works in research and development at Purina. The disruption to household routines beginning in 2020 began changing some pets behavior soon after.

Jesse McClure, a dog behavior consultant in St. Charles, with a doctorate in neuroscience and behavior, works with dogs struggling with aggression, anxiety and other behavior issues.

He saw an increase in some problematic behaviors at the start of the pandemic. Some clients, who suddenly had all day with their pets, were over-stimulating their dogs with too much activity.

Occasionally, I have to tell clients to do less with their dogs, he says. Many are surprised to learn that some dogs need about 16 hours of nap or down time daily.

The main thing to keep in mind, he says, is that people can help modify a dogs problematic behaviors at any age. The critical thing is to find the right professional because of sheer volume of misinformation and bad advice available, he said.

Dr. Sally J. Foote, a veterinarian in Tuscola, Illinois, specializes in dog and cat behaviors. As pet owners return to work, the majority of them without their pets, the most common reaction  mostly for dogs but also some cats  is increased separation anxiety. Even pets who didnt have problems with separating before got accustomed to increased bonding time and less time spent alone, she says.

They lose some of their independence skills, she says. Owners need to help them learn how to be happy hanging out by themselves again. Its best to begin with short outings away from home, when the pet has a toy or food treat to keep them busy alone. Gradually, increase the time, building confidence for the pet. Another post-pandemic issue shes seen is an increase in aggressive behavior toward visitors in the home and more barking problems.

This is primarily a result of the isolation and safety measures people took to protect themselves, Foote explains. For more than a year, dogs became less used to visitors spending time or dropping by their homes. Theres also a group of young dogs, under the age of 2, who simply did not get enough time during their critical development to socialize with other people and dogs, she says.

For those experiencing these issues with their pandemic puppies, its important to talk to their vets and follow the recommendations, even if the vet suggests a calming medication.

If you have a pandemic dog, he may never be as easy as a dog who was able to get out and socialize before the age of four months, Foote says. Nonetheless, Get them in a puppy class now, she advises.

Jody Epstein, owner of Nutz about Mutz training and behavior services is a board certified associate certified applied animal behaviorist, in OFallon, Missouri. She says 98 percent of her current clients work from home. She helps them establish boundaries and routines for their dogs to make working from home easier. Owners cant have their dogs barking in the background during Zoom calls and can get help with classic counter conditioning techniques. The most important advice Epstein offers pet parents is to reframe their mindset when their dog does something they dont like.

Dont look at it as The dog misbehaved. The reality is that dogs do behaviors that work to keep them safe, like barking at the mailman, she says. Trying to understand the problem from the dogs perspective can help toward a solution.

She suggests clients shift their mindset to: Hes doing that because hes having a hard time. Hes not doing it to give me a hard time. This framing helps increase the owners patience and tolerance while training, which, in turn, helps the pet feel more secure.

If you know you will be going back to the office more often, start helping the dog prepare well in advance, she says. Build up to three or four hours alone rather than 8 to 9 hours right off the bat.

While some pups will enjoy a return to doggy day care or having a dog walker come home during lunch hour, others can stay entertained on their own.

We have a lot of people using remote devices, like Furbo, she said. Its a remote-controlled treat dispenser that allows the owner to see the pet while at the office.

Purina says it wants to encourage other employers to consider a pet policy, which they argue makes employees happier during the work day. Spokeswoman Lorie Westhoff says negative incidents are very rare.

Im not aware of any bites in recent history. Most associates are very dialed into the temperament of their pets, so aggressive behavior isnt an issue we see with any regularity, she says. Pet potty accidents are also rare, but do happen. Purina keeps cleaning supplies on hand and have procedures for the cleaning crew, as well.

Mr. Carrots colleagues

Twice a day, Small and Mr. Carrot take a short walk around the park-lile paths on the 55-acre campus. They might run into other furry friends along the way.

Stella, a shorthair black cat, is one of the few felines on campus. Her owner, Stephanie Harwin, is a digital brand manager and started bringing her to work in January.

The first day she was like what the heck is going on, Harwin says. But, then she settled into her routine. She alternates between napping on Harwins desk, the window sill or in her tent.

Harwin taught her how to high five and give fist bumps, which attracts some visitors curious about the cat who does tricks.

Shes very smart and curious, Harwin says.

Stella refused to perform a trick for a reporter and hid under the desk until the media left.

Mr. Carrot is far more indulgent, although he also has a sneaky side. When he patrols the rest of the marketing floor, he is apt to bring back treasures that strike his fancy. Theres a large pile of toys next to his bed that have been pilfered from neighbors. He does politely share them with canine visitors when they stop by. He also managed to procure his own bed.

It belonged to a coworkers pet, but the pair relocated to a different workspace.

Mr. Carrot might as well keep it, he said.

Hes so friendly that her coworkers enjoy seeing him everyday, Small says.

Once in a while someone might ask, Is that Mr. Carrot snoring?

Hes a loud snorer.

Hes just living his best life, Small says.
Aisha Sultan Aisha Sultan is home and family editor for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Aisha Sultan Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

In several states, including Missouri, its going to be harder for college students to vote this year. State legislatures that passed new voter identification laws banning the use of college IDs have created a significant obstacle for young people.

While I ordinarily advocate for letting young adults figure out how to take care of adult responsibilities, like voting, by themselves, this year may require a parental assist to help them complete their civic duty. At the very least, parents should start looking up the rules now and talking to their young adult children about a voting plan, especially for students who attend college out of state.

Four years ago, I was shocked to learn how difficult it is for many college students to cast a ballot. During the last midterm election season, I was teaching a writing course to first-year students at Washington University in St. Louis.

I knew that for most of them this would be their first opportunity to vote in a national election. I also knew that establishing a voting pattern early on helps cement a life-long voting habit. So, I issued a challenge to my class: Lets make a goal to reach 100 percent voting participation rate in our classroom.

I encouraged them to check online if they were registered and find out what the procedure for voting absentee was if they planned to vote in another state. I checked in with the class periodically to ask how their voting plans were going. Students shared challenges about requested absentee ballots not arriving for many weeks and not being sure about how far in advance they would need to mail them back to ensure they would be counted.

One parent had to physically drive to an election board, pick up an absentee ballot and send it via FedEx to her child to make sure it arrived in enough time to mail back to California. At the time I was surprised that a parent would go to such lengths, but now that I find myself in a similar situation, Im also willing to take extraordinary measures to protect my childs right to vote.

My daughter attends a university in Texas, but she is a resident of Missouri and registered to vote here. In order to vote absentee, she would need to fill out a form requesting an absentee ballot and note the reason why she was voting absentee. Since sending mail to university addresses can be unreliable, she would have to request to have the ballot mailed to our home address. I would then mail the ballot to her. I would likely need to include postage. She would fill out and sign the ballot, which would then need to be signed on the envelope in front of a notary before being mailed back. A notary!

There are many points at which this system could break down  especially if the mail is delayed at any of the four points where it has to be sent.

Her other option would be to register to vote in Texas. Texas, like Missouri, no longer allows identification issued by universities (which verify each students identity before it is issued) to be used to vote. So, she would need to find a way to get a new Texas-issued identification. She does not have a car and lives on campus, so she cant get a Texas drivers license. If she simply got a Texas-issued ID (not a license), it would invalidate her Missouri drivers license, which she needs to drive when she is home. Plus, she doesnt have her original birth certificate or Social Security card there with her.

I spent two full days trying to figure out the simplest way she could vote in November. I even checked how much it would cost to fly her back in town during the absentee voting window. That would be around $500  well outside my budget.

It looks like her best option will be to register to vote in Texas. I sent her the address to the county election board and told her to take an Uber. I plan to see her before November, so I can give her her passport, which she can use to vote in the state without losing her Missouri drivers license.

It should not be this difficult for an American citizen to exercise their basic, fundamental right to vote.

Given that the youth vote hit an all-time high in the 2020 election and that their support for President Joe Biden was a decisive factor in key races throughout the country, I can see why Republican-controlled legislatures would want to suppress their votes.

Like I told my students, theres a reason why elected officials make it so difficult for you to make your voices heard.

Dont let them stop you.

To find out more information about voter registration, changes in the law and celebrate the right to vote, check out Dance the Vote between 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Sept. 24 at the Missouri History Museum.
Eds: This story was supplied by The Conversation for AP customers. The Associated Press does not guarantee the content.

(THE CONVERSATION) The Uighurs, a Muslim minority ethnic group of around 12 million in northwest China, are required by the police to carry their smartphones and IDs listing their ethnicity.

As they pass through one of the thousands of newly built digital media and face surveillance checkpoints located at jurisdictional boundaries, entrances to religious spaces and transportation hubs, the image on their ID is matched to their face.

If they try to pass without these items, a digital device scanner alerts the police.

You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, here.

But even complying with the rules wont necessarily keep them out of trouble. During random spot-checks the police at times demand that an individual hands over their unlocked phone which the police then examine manually or plug into a scanner.

I did ethnographic research with Han and Uighur migrants for more than 24 months between 2011 and 2018 in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, in northwest China. During this period, I was affiliated with the Xinjiang Arts Institute. My position allowed me to interview hundreds of Han and Uighur people. I read and speak both Uighur and Chinese so I was able to communicate with people in their own language.

When I first began my research in the region, smartphone use was not that tightly controlled by the police. But by 2018 it had became common knowledge among my Uighur interviewees that if they did not carry their phone with them or failed to produce it they could be detained.

The Uighur internet

The Uighur majority areas on the border of Central Asia only became a fully integrated part of China in the 2000s. They were effectively colonized when millions of non-Muslim Han settlers moved into their community in the 1990s and 2000s to extract natural resources such as oil and natural gas.

Earlier they lived much more autonomously in desert oasis towns and villages much like the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan, a group that shares a similar history and language as the Uighurs.

In 2011, the Chinese government built 3-G networks in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Cheap smartphones soon became available in local markets of this region and Uighurs began to use the new social media app WeChat.

WeChat, which is owned by the Chinese company Tencent, was put into general use across the whole country in 2012 after Facebook and Twitter were banned in 2009.

Smartphones became a common feature of daily life for millions of Uighur villagers. At the time, the way Uighurs used them was unique. In other parts of China, the Chinese language was used in social media communication. Uighur uses Arabic script  radically different from the character based Chinese  and acted as a form of coded speech that state censors couldnt understand.

When I began my research project, I was interested in the way online culture produced forms of Islamic, Chinese and Western identity and the way it brought people of different ethnicities together.

I found that Uighurs used smartphones differently than other internet users. On traditional internet sites that required text-based communication, Uighur web users faced tighter forms of censorship since state authorities viewed them as potential terrorists. They were viewed this way since Uighurs had long protested the way their briefly independent nation had been subsumed by China and their religious practices were restricted, lashing out violently at times.

Using WeChat on smartphones gave Uighurs the ability to circulate short audio messages, videos and images. Beginning in 2012 this allowed Uighurs to develop semi-autonomous forums in Uighur spoken language.

Initially Chinese state authorities did not have the technical capabilities to monitor and control Uighur oral speech or Uighur text embedded in images as memes. They could turn the Uighur internet on and off, but they could not fully regulate what Uighurs said because they spoke in another language.

Based on hundreds of interviews and my own observations Uighurs used these forumsto discuss cultural knowledge, political events and economic opportunities outside their local communities.

Over the course of only a few years, online Islamic teachers based in the region and elsewhere in the Islamic world, in places like Turkey and Uzbekistan, became influential throughout Uighur social media. Their messages focused primarily on Islamic piety. They described what types of practices were halal, and how people should dress and pray.

According to scholars Rachel Harris and Aziz Isa the vast majority of those who began to study Islam by smartphone were simply interested in instruction on what it might mean to be a contemporary Muslim, something they felt was lacking in government-censored state-run mosques.

The Uighur internet as a space of surveillance

But Chinese state authorities interpreted it differently.

They regarded the Islamic appearance and practice of Uighurs, such as young men growing beards and praying five times per day, as signs of what state authorities described as the extremification of the Uighur population.

They began to link violent incidents, such as a suicide attack in the city of Kunming in Eastern China, to what government officials told me was the Talibanization of the Uighurs.

In response to this Chinese authorities declared what they called a Peoples War On Terror. They began to use techniques of counterinsurgency, a mode of military engagement that stresses mass intelligence gathering, to assess the Uighur population.

As part of this process, in 2016, they began to collect biometric data, such as DNA, high-fidelity voice recordings and face scans, from the entire population of the region in order to track the activities of people on WeChat and in their daily lives using their voice signature and faceprint.

They also began a process of interviewing millions of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities to determine who could be categorized as trustworthy or normal as stated on official population assessment forms. In order to determine this, state authorities mapped out the persons social network and history of Islamic practice, both in their local community and online.

Since the total Muslim population of the region, including other Muslim groups such as the Kazakhs, Hui, Kyrgyz, Tajiks and others, is around 15 million, these assessments and activity checkpoints required the deployment of more than 90,000 police officers and more than 1.1 million civil servants.

The majority of the security forces are of Han ethnicity. Han people are settlers in the Uighur region. They are not Muslim, they do not speak Uighur, and many of my Han interviewees described the Uighur culture as backward, primitive, or even dangerous.

In order to aid in this assessment process, state authorities also contracted with Chinese private technology firms to develop software programs and hardware that could comb through the images, videos and speech recordings in the WeChat histories of a targeted person in a matter of seconds.

The Uighur internet as a trap

Through this process around 1.5 million Uighurs and other Muslims were determined untrustworthy and scheduled for detention and reeducation in a massive internment camp system.

Government procurement records show that the camp facilities have no blank spots outside the vision of surveillance cameras and that the camp workers are often armed with tasers and other weapons.

In the prison-like camps the detainees were held in crowded dormitory cells where they studied Chinese, learned the political thought of Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of Chinas ruling political party and confessed their past crimes. In many cases, these crimes were related to their internet use.

Since more than 10% of the adult population has been removed to these camps, hundreds of thousands of children have been separated from one or more of their parents. Many children throughout the region are now held in boarding schools or orphanages which are run by non-Muslim state workers.

Erasing identity

Today the Uighur internet has begun to merge with the Chinese internet. Uighurs are discouraged from writing or speaking in Uighur or celebrating Uighur culture.

Instead Uighurs often post statements written in Chinese attesting to their loyalty to the Chinese state.

As my research shows, the Uighur internet has been transformed from a space that fostered a cultural flourishing for Uighurs into a space that controls many aspects of their lives.

During my last trip to the region in 2018, my Uighur interlocutors told me that the Uighur internet had become a trap, or a qapqan that they cannot escape.

The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. The Conversation is wholly responsible for the content.
Joe Holleman Joe Holleman is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Joe Holleman Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

While the U.S. Senate candidates in Missouri could not manage to orchestrate a debate before the Nov. 8 election, local fans of televised political tug-of-wars will have to settle for the Illinois gubernatorial race.

Two debates between incumbent Democrat J.B. Pritzker and Republican challenger Darren Bailey will be televised next month on KPLR (Channel 11).

The first debate will be on Oct. 6 from Illinois State University; the second will be Oct. 18 from the WGN television studios in Chicago.

Both will be aired live at 7 p.m. on KPLR, as well as on seven other stations in Illinois and Indiana.
Tony Messenger Tony Messenger is the metro columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Tony Messenger Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

Toni Chritton Johnson heard a kerfuffle in front of the Howell County Courthouse and decided to take a look.

Johnson owns the West Plains Opera House across the square. Its an event and catering venue. A former television reporter, Johnsons old instincts kicked in. She took out her phone and started recording.

There were several phones taking video that day, Sept. 7, in front of the courthouse. A group of First Amendment advocates and citizen journalists had gathered on the public sidewalk to protest an order signed by Presiding Circuit Court Judge Steven Privette. The order, issued by Privette in May, prohibited the recording of anybody entering or exiting the courthouse, even from public property, like the sidewalk or street.

Regular readers of my column will remember Privette as the judge from southern Missouri who was recently asked to explain himself by the Missouri Court of Appeals for trying to hold Howell County Circuit Court Betty Grooms in criminal contempt of court. He claims she failed to provide him a spreadsheet outlining the various court costs owed by defendants.

Privettes wife lost an election to Grooms, and the judge declined to recuse himself from the case. This week, the Court of Appeals allowed the contempt proceedings to proceed, though Grooms attorney will likely appeal whatever decision Privette reaches in the dispute.

Howell County has had a proliferation of citizen journalists live-streaming interactions with law enforcement and other officials  not much different than what happens in the St. Louis region. Those folks didnt take too kindly to being told they couldnt stand on a public sidewalk taking video outside a public building. The First Amendment advocates were told by Howell County sheriffs deputies that if they didnt stop recording, theyd be hauled before Privette on contempt charges.

You cant do that, said Randle Daily, who posts videos on YouTube under the name Show Me State News. If were on a public sidewalk, thats our First Amendment right.

Shortly after Johnson arrived, Daily and another person were handcuffed and taken into court. She was dumbfounded.

The whole thing was bizarre, Johnson says. This cant actually be happening in 2022.

But it is, and in a rural area like Howell County, residents often feel helpless when they confront a judge, sheriff or other powerful local official. To take on such battles, they often turn to outside sources for help, like attorneys or journalists from out of town.

In the courtroom, Privette told the folks hauled into court that his powers extended beyond the courthouse steps.

You could use a telescope and take (photos or videos) from a mile away and you would be in contempt of this courts order, the judge said, according to audio posted to YouTube.

Daily and his fellow travelers werent about to back down.

He thinks hes King George, Daily says of Privette. He thinks hes above the law.

After leaving the courtroom, they went to talk to the law  Sheriff Brent Campbell  and suggested he shouldnt let his deputies be used by Privette in an unconstitutional ploy. They created a community and social media stink.

George Sholtz, the station manager at Big Country 99, got involved. He started talking about the dispute on the radio and filed a Sunshine Law request for documents related to Privettes order.

I cant tolerate a local public official trying to violate the Constitution and take away our civil rights, Sholtz told me.

Campbell, apparently, agreed. On Sept. 16, the sheriff issued a statement on Facebook saying that he was taking over courthouse security. That day, Privette rescinded his order.

At the request of the Howell County Sheriff all orders regarding filming in and around the Howell County Courthouse are withdrawn, says the new order, posted to the door on the front of the courthouse.

The citizen protesters stood their ground and won.

We got change done, Daily says. We the people helped make the change. It was voices, man. It was voices.
CLAYTON  Dawan Ferguson, who will be sentenced next week to life in prison without parole in the presumed 2003 death of his disabled 9-year-old son, was given a life prison term plus 30 years Friday for sexually abusing two girls over several years.

Ferguson, 49, was convicted last month of rape, sodomy and child molestation. The jury found him guilty of sexually abusing the girls between 2000 and 2013. Prosecutors said paternity tests confirmed Ferguson impregnated a 14-year-old girl.

Next week, Ferguson is scheduled to be sentenced by a different judge after a jury on July 1 also found him guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his son, Christian, who disappeared in 2003 and has never been found. Ferguson claimed his son was kidnapped in a carjacking in St. Louis while Ferguson was driving him to the hospital for treatment of a rare medical disorder.

Ferguson read a statement in court Friday lobbing a litany of accusations against others including police, prosecutors, Christians mother and the victims.

He maintained that he was falsely accused in both cases, blaming overzealous law enforcement for their endless scrutiny in linking the sex and murder cases.

He reasserted his claim that one of the girls he was convicted of abusing got pregnant with his child by inseminating herself with a used condom.

Fergusons lawyer, Jemia Steele, described her client as defeated. She said two witnesses who would have testified Friday on his behalf decided against it because they were turned off by the media circus in Fergusons murder trial.

Circuit Judge Dean Waldemer said in court Friday that he did not factor Fergusons murder conviction into his sentence for the sex case.

I see your actions very clearly as being incredibly destructive, not only to you,  but to these two young ladies who had the courage to come in here today and testify, Waldemer said.

One of the women spoke in court by videoconference from California, where she lives, saying the ordeal has affected her ability to understand what a family really means.

She also testified at Fergusons sex trial in August and said that as a child, she trusted Ferguson and thought of him as a mentor.

Im grateful that its over, and Im ready to transition into something new in my life, she said Friday. Im still processing what it means to live life myself.

Ferguson will also be sentenced Tuesday for first-degree murder in the death of his son, Christian.

Christian had a disorder that prevented his body from processing protein. Without medication, he would have died within 24 to 72 hours. At the time of his disappearance, Christian had lost the ability to walk and talk.

After Fridays hearing, Christians mother Theda Person told the Post-Dispatch she sees Fridays sentence as a victory for all people that hes abused intentionally.

Person said she was not surprised by Fergusons comments in court, calling him a narcissist who continues to waste our time.

Now he can just spend his time (in prison), Person said. I thank God that these children, who are now adults, can receive some form of justice, and for the unknown victims  and I know that theres a plethora of them  count it as justice for them, too, Person said.
JERSEYVILLE, Ill.  Jersey County States Attorney Ben Goetten has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Illinois SAFE-T Act, which is set to take effect in January.

Short for Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today, the SAFE-T Act is a broad-ranging criminal justice reform initiative passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in January 2021. Along with ending cash bail, the law seeks to reduce the number of people incarcerated before a guilty verdict by limiting the circumstances in which a judge can order pretrial detention.

Several states attorneys are seeking changes in the law, up to a full repeal, arguing that while the intent may be to empower judges to detain more dangerous individuals, the law as approved is too limiting.

In the absence of a legislative fix, we will be asking the courts to render this act unconstitutional, Goetten said. This act does nothing more than strip vital tools from law enforcement, take discretion away from our judges, and create an environment where criminals call the shots.

Goetten said the elimination of cash bond tops the list of issues he has with the act.

I am not opposed to cashless bond on certain low-level, nonviolent offenses, he said. But there should be no exception to violent offenders and those that may pose a threat to public safety.
ST. LOUIS  Prosecutors this week dismissed a murder case against a man accused of fatally shooting another during an argument in 2020.

Ronald D. Fisher, 43, of St. Louis, had been charged with first-degree murder, assault and weapons charges following a shooting on Christmas Eve 2020 in the city's Carondelet neighborhood. Michael Hunter, 39, died and another person was wounded.

A trial was set to begin this week, but prosecutors said in court they could not proceed because a witness was not available, according to Fisher's attorney Greg Smith.

Authorities said Hunter went to buy drugs from Fisher and another man, Vada Cunningham, 50, on Dec. 24, 2020 in an apartment complex in the 7800 block of Rio Silva Place. An argument ensued, and Hunter was shot in the head, according to a probable cause statement filed by police. Another man was shot in the chest and legs.

Cunningham is facing assault and weapons charges, which are still pending.

A spokeswoman for the circuit attorney's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
MIAMI  Executive directors of the Inter-American Development Bank voted unanimously Thursday to recommend firing a former Trump official as president of the Washington-based institution, a person familiar with the vote said.

The move came after an investigation conducted at the bank boards request determined that Mauricio Claver-Carone violated ethics rules by favoring a top aide with whom he had a romantic relationship, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press.

The recommendation to remove Claver-Carone came in a closed-door meeting of the banks 14 executive directors, according to the person, who insisted on not being quoted by name. The ultimate decision to fire Claver-Carone now rests with the finance officials who sit on the Board of Governors representing all 48 of the banks member nations.

Among those pushing for Claver-Carones removal is the Biden administration, which said it was troubled by Claver-Carones refusal to fully cooperate with an independent probe.

His creation of a climate of fear of retaliation among staff and borrowing countries has forfeited the confidence of the Banks staff and shareholders and necessitates a change in leadership, a Treasury Department spokesperson said.

Claver-Carone remained defiant in the aftermath of the vote, saying in a statement that replacing him would somehow embolden China, which saw its influence in the bank expand dramatically during the Obama administration. He provided no evidence to back that claim.

Its shameful the U.S. commented to the press before notifying me and that it is not defending two Americans against what is clearly fabricated information, he said.

The AP obtained the confidential investigative report by a law firm hired by the banks board to look into an anonymous complaint of misconduct against Claver-Carone.

Investigators said it is reasonable to conclude he carried on a relationship with his chief of staff since at least 2019, when both held senior positions on the National Security Council. They said the purported relationship prompted one U.S. official at the time to warn that it posed a counterintelligence risk.

Exhibit A in the 21-page report is a contract that the two purportedly drew up on the back of a place mat in the summer of 2019 while they dined at a steakhouse in Medellin, Colombia. Both were there attending the annual meeting of the Organization of American States.

In it, they allegedly outline a timeline for divorcing their spouses and getting married. There is also a breach clause stating that any failure to fulfill the terms would bring sadness and heartbreak that could only be mitigated by candlewax and a naughty box from an oceanfront hotel in Claver-Carones native Miami.

We deserve absolute happiness. May only God part w/ this covenant, according to the contract, a photo of which was provided to investigators by the womans former husband, who told investigators he found the place mat in her purse when she returned from the trip.

The purported contract is one of several details in the report that have Claver-Carone fighting to save his job. They include allegations he had a 1 a.m. hotel room rendezvous with his chief of staff, sent her a poem on a Sunday morning titled My Soul is in a Hurry and  perhaps most troubling  awarded her 40% pay raises in violation of the banks conflict-of-interest policies.

Claver-Carone has disputed the reports accuracy, strongly denouncing the manner in which the review was conducted and offering no hint that he is considering resignation.

According to investigators, he has denied ever having  now or before  a romantic relationship with his longtime right hand.

His chief of staff denied the allegations in the anonymous complaint and told investigators she never violated the IDBs code of ethics, the report said. In a written submission to investigators, she also complained that she had been denied due process.

The AP isnt naming Claver-Carones aide because the report, which is labeled confidential, hasnt been made public.

"Neither I nor any other IDB staff member has been given an opportunity to review the final investigative report, respond to its conclusions, or correct inaccuracies, Claver-Carone said in a statement Tuesday.

The findings recall accusations of ethical lapses against another Republican atop a multilateral institution, former Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who resigned as head of the World Bank in 2007 for arranging a generous pay raise for his girlfriend.

The Inter-American Development Bank is the biggest multilateral lender to Latin America, disbursing as much as $23 billion every year in efforts to alleviate poverty in the region.

The U.S. is the largest shareholder in the Washington-based bank and some inside the White House have made no secret of their dislike for Claver-Carone, whose election as IDB chief in the final months of the Trump presidency broke with tradition that a Latin American head the bank.

Some of the more salacious claims referenced in the report could not be substantiated by New York-based Davis Polk. The law firm also found no evidence that Claver-Carone knowingly broke the banks travel policies to cover up a romantic relationship, or retaliated against any bank employees, as was alleged in an anonymous complaint sent in March to the banks board.

Still, Davis Polk harshly criticized Claver-Carone and his chief of staff for failing to cooperate fully with their investigation  considering it a violation of bank policies and principles.

For example, the report said Claver-Carone failed to hand over his bank-issued mobile phone for analysis although he did provide a forensic report conducted by a consultant. Claver-Carone also didnt share messages from his personal phone or Gmail account with his chief of staff, the report said.

Particularly in light of their failure to cooperate, it would be reasonable to conclude that the evidence of a prior relationship, and the additional circumstantial evidence of a current relationship while they were both at the Bank, constitute a violation of the applicable Bank policies, the report said.

Davis Polks report said Claver-Carone raised his aides pay by 40% within a year. It said that one of the raises and a change of title was ordered by Claver-Carone a day after an email exchange in which she complained about not getting sufficient respect from her co-workers.

You figure it out. Its your bank, she wrote, according to the report.

Davis Polk, which also conducted the investigation that led to Andrew Cuomos resignation as governor of New York, faulted Claver-Carone for making employment decisions about someone with whom it believes he had been romantically involved. However, it said that other executives received similarly-sized increases and his chief of staffs current salary of $420,000 is in line with her predecessors compensation.

Claver-Carone when confronted with photographs of the purported place mat contract during an interview this month told investigators that he had never seen the document and denied it was his handwriting or signature. He stated that the document was fraudulent and part of a scheme by his aides ex-husband to harm her.

In a letter to the banks general counsel, seen by AP, divorce lawyers for the chief of staff said her former husband had a history of cruelty and revenge that was raised in divorce proceedings. They said any evidence he supplied investigators should not be deemed credible.

However, two independent handwriting experts, one who previously worked for the FBI, concluded there was a high probability that the handwriting on the place mat  excerpts of which are displayed in the report  match Claver-Carones penmanship in bank documents. Claver-Carone refused to submit a handwriting sample as part of the probe, the report said.

AP writer Fatima Hussein contributed to this report from Washington.
While world leaders from wealthy countries acknowledge the existential threat of climate change, Tuvalu Prime Minister Kausea Natano is racing to save his tiny island nation from drowning by raising it 13 to 16 feet (4 to 5 meters) above sea level through land reclamation.

While experts issue warnings about the eventual uninhabitability of the Marshall Islands, President David Kabua must reconcile the inequity of a seawall built to protect one house that is now flooding another one next door.

That is the reality of climate change: Some people get to talk about it from afar, while others must live it every day.

Natano and Kabua tried to show that reality on Wednesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. Together they launched the Rising Nations Initiative, a global partnership aimed to preserve the sovereignty, heritage and rights of Pacific atoll island nations whose very existence has been threatened by climate change.

Natano described how rising sea levels have impacted everything from the soil that his people rely on to plant crops, to the homes, roads and power lines that get washed away. The cost of eking out a living, he said, eventually becomes too much to bear, causing families to leave and the nation itself to disappear.

This is how a Pacific atoll dies, Natano said. This is how our islands will cease to exist.

The Rising Nations Initiative seeks a political declaration by the international community to preserve the sovereignty and rights of Pacific atoll island countries; the creation of a comprehensive program to build and finance adaptation and resilience projects to help local communities sustain livelihoods; a living repository of the culture and unique heritage of each Pacific atoll island country; and support to acquire UNESCO World Heritage designation.

The initiative has already gained the support of countries like the United States, Germany, South Korea and Canada, all of which have acknowledged the unique burden that island nations like Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands must shoulder.

A U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released in February spelled out the vulnerability of small island developing states and other global hotspots like Africa and South Asia, whose populations are 15 times more likely to die from extreme weather compared to less vulnerable parts of the world.

If warming exceeds a few more tenths of a degree, it could lead to some areas  including some small islands  becoming uninhabitable, said report co-author Adelle Thomas of Climate Analytics and the University of the Bahamas.

On Thursday, Robert Abela, the prime minister of the island state of Malta, pointed to the serious threat that climate change poses to everyone, but especially to small islands developing states and coastal communities.

It threatens state sovereignty, brings loss of territory, and causes damage to states critical infrastructure as well as their existing rights under maritime zone boundaries, Abela said.

Natano noted that Tuvalu and its Pacific neighbors have done nothing to cause climate change, with their carbon emission contribution amounting to less than .03% of the world's total.

This is the first time in history that the collective action of many nations will have made several sovereign countries uninhabitable, he said.

Representatives from other nations who attended Wednesday's event did not deflect responsibility. But whether they will do enough to turn things around remains to be seen.

Several have pledged money to help island nations pay for early warning systems and bring their buildings up to code to better protect them from hurricanes and other weather events. But there was less talk of mitigating the problem of climate change and more about how to adapt to the devastation it has already wrought.

We see this train coming, and it's coming down the track, and we need to get out of the way, said Amy Pope, deputy director general of the International Organization for Migration.

Germany's climate envoy, Jennifer Morgan, who also attended Wednesday's event, spoke of her country's target to reach carbon neutrality by 2045. But while Germany remains committed to phasing out coal as a power source by 2030, it has had to reactivate coal-fired power plants to get through the coming winter amid energy shortages as a result of Russias war in Ukraine.

For the president of the Marshall Islands, wealthy nations could be doing much more. During his speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Kabua urged world leaders to take on sectors that rely on fossil fuels, including aviation and shipping. He pointed to the Marshall Islands carbon levy proposal for international shipping that he says will drive the transition to zero emission shipping, channeling resources from polluters to the most vulnerable.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has likewise encouraged going after the worlds largest polluters. During his opening remarks to the assembly on Tuesday, he pushed for richer countries to tax the profits of energy companies and redirect the funds to both countries suffering loss and damage caused by the climate crisis and those struggling with the rising cost of living.

In the meantime, as wealthy countries urge action instead of words in their own U.N. speeches, Kabua, Natano and their fellow island nation leaders will continue to grapple with their daily climate change reality  and try to continue to exist.

Pia Sarkar, a Philadelphia-based journalist for The Associated Press, is on assignment covering the U.N. General Assembly. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/PiaSarkar_TK and for more AP coverage of the U.N. General Assembly, visit https://apnews.com/hub/united-nations-general-assembly
WASHINGTON (AP)  House Democrats on Thursday pushed through a long-sought policing and public safety package after overcoming internal differences on legislation they plan to make central to their election-year pitch.

The package of four bills passed in succession  all with bipartisan support  and headed to the Senate, where their fate is uncertain.

The Democrats' success came after party leaders spent hours wrangling with progressives who threatened to block the package over their concerns about increasing money for local police departments. A few lawmakers said the plan lacked the accountability measures that Democrats had once sought after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked protests against racial injustice.

The House ended up approving the money, including for departments with fewer than 125 officers, and aid for de-escalation training and mental health services. A chief objective is reducing fatal encounters between police and people with mental illness.

Other parts of the package would provide money for enhanced community violence intervention  a priority for progressives  and technology investments to help local investigators close unsolved cases, especially those involving gun crimes.

The bottom line is that you cant cut it or defund your way to safer communities and better police departments, said Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., one of the lead negotiators. Its about investing to protect. We must always have the backs of those who risked their lives every day to protect us.

Despite the opposition from some liberals, there was support from top progressives Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Ilhan Omar D-Minn., who had negotiated with Gottheimer, a moderate.

Reps. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, who leads the Congressional Black Caucus, and Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic Caucus chairman, facilitated a number of the conversations after it was clear in recent days that progress could be made.

After a deal was announced Wednesday, Democratic leaders quickly moved to bring the bills to a vote.

We are proud of the work that we have been able to do here collectively as Democrats with different ideologies, Omar told reporters. And I think that this is the beginning, hopefully, of a process that we can continue to engage in.

To get more liberals on board, language was included that would allow the Justice Department to have discretion over which police departments are permitted to receive the grants. It would also allocate departments to use any of the $60 million authorized for the data collection on police practices and community safety.

A policing package that passed in the House in March 2021 went much further, including banning police chokeholds and altering so-called qualified immunity for law enforcement, which would make it easier to pursue claims of police misconduct.

None of those provisions were included this time.

Rep. Cori Bush, who rose to prominence as an activist leader in Ferguson, Missouri, after the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, said the current funding bill does little to address the crisis of police brutality.

Even the most bare-bones accountability measures" passed last year failed to make it into the new package, Bush said in a statement.

Despite those internal divisions, the bills did attract some Republican support. Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., a co-sponsor of Gottheimer's funding bill, spent time on the floor Thursday urging other Republicans to join him in supporting it.

This is for our law enforcement men and women. This is for those small agencies, Rutherford, a former sheriff in Jacksonville, said. We need to be able to help them out. And I can tell you the last 2 1/2 years has left law enforcement demoralized like I've never before seen it.

More than 140 Republicans ended up voting for that bill.

But other Republicans called the Democrats' package a last-ditch effort to win over voters in the November elections.

Democrats are bringing out these bills today because we're 46 days from a midterm election, Rep. Pete Stauber R-Minn., said. They want the American people to suddenly and miraculously believe that they care about the crime crisis plaguing our nation.
HILLSBORO, Ore. (AP)  A judge in Oregons Washington County has ruled against the countys 2021 ban on flavored tobacco products, meaning adults over 21 can still buy them.

Circuit Judge Andrew Erwin wrote in his opinion this week that the decision to disallow licensed retail sale of such products must come from the state, not county by county, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.

Certainly, the county has broad power to regulate how sales are made, but they cannot bar them entirely, Erwin wrote.

Commissioners last November voted to ban the products to curb nicotine use among teenagers and young adults. County officials argued that flavors such as bubble gum hook young people, who buy the products from retailers who don't check IDs.

The county just west of Portland asserted it had the authority to enact the ban under Senate Bill 587, a 2021 law that gave public health agencies power to regulate tobacco sales.

The first-in-Oregon ban went into effect in January but hasn't been enforced.

Jonathan Polonsky, the CEO of convenience store chain Plaid Pantry, gathered enough signatures to put it on the ballot in Washington County. Other retailers challenged the ban in court.

Voters overwhelmingly upheld the measure in May but Erwin issued a preliminary injunction against it in July.

Washington County officials said in a written statement Wednesday they may appeal the decision.

Tony Aiello, attorney for the retailers who brought the suit, cheered the judges opinion but is preparing for a possible appeal, he said.

Jamie Dunphy, an Oregon lobbyist for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, said the group couldn't be more disappointed.

In August, Multnomah County health officials in Portland said they were drafting a proposal to also try to ban the sale of flavored nicotine products.
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  Norway's prime minister, Jonas Gahr Stre, believes the world  with one notable holdout  is on the same page: The war has to stop.

I heard it from China. I heard it from India. I heard it from African colleagues. And I think thats an important message because Russia has tried to say No, there are different views," Stre told The Associated Press on Thursday, following the morning's U.N. Security Council meeting. And of course, countries word their opinions in different ways. But in this there has been consistency. The war has to stop.

As a NATO member whose border with Russia stretches well over 100 miles (just under 200 kilometers), Norway's geographical and geopolitical location has proved relevant in the context of the crisis. It's also an elected member of the Security Council.

Stre had a blunt assessment of the way Russian President Vladimir Putin has tried to justify Russia's actions.

The narrative of President Putin when he is giving a reason for mobilizing and for continuing the war, I believe that narrative is false. It is not true, Stre told the AP. I mean, its based on Russia being under threat, pressure, being under some kind of attack by the West. I am a prime minister in a NATO country and bordering Russia, a European country, I belong to the West or whatever you may call it, but this is simply not true.

Stre does not believe Russia poses a threat to Norway's own territorial integrity, but labeled the aggression unacceptable. He also censured Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's late arrival and early departure from the meeting.

He chose not to listen to any of the interventions. He spoke and he left after he had spoken, which is, to me, a sign of, in a way, insecurity, he said.

Since the war's outbreak, Norway has supplanted Russia as Europe's biggest supplier of natural gas. Norway has thus far resisted the European Union's demand for gas price caps, with Stre telling the AP that the limits would not resolve the fundamental issue, which is that there is a shortage of gas.

Stre is a proponent of renewable energy sources, particularly offshore wind farms, and thinks that the conflict-driven energy crisis might accelerate the shift  paradoxically, it will help.

Norway is a founding member of NATO and within the Schengen Area, but it is not a member of the European Union. While Stre's party supports accession, the prospect has long been unpalatable to the Norwegian populace.

Stre says a pretty stable majority prefers the status quo, but he has seen some movement in the opinion polls. Pointing to Sweden and Finland's recent shift in policy, he said that the war has instead highlighted the importance of NATO.

However, any decision on further sanctions of Russia would be taken in conjunction with Europe, Stre said.

The war and preceding tensions have absorbed much of Norway's two-year term on the Security Council, but Stre  a former foreign minister  said he's proud of the role his diplomats have played in trying to resolve other quagmires, including returning a U.N. presence to Afghanistan and access to humanitarian aid in Syria.

We have been able to be a kind of go-between. When the major powers have deep divergences, we can play that role. And I think we have done that in a way which we can look back at it with some satisfaction, he said. There are still a few months left and we will be active until the last day.

For more AP coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/united-nations-general-assembly
More than a million people in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic are without power or running water again Thursday as crews work to repair critical utilities disabled by Hurricane Fiona, which is now a Category 4 monster heading toward Bermuda.

The first major hurricane of this year's Atlantic season has killed at least five people across the Caribbean: one in Guadeloupe, two in Puerto Rico and two in the Dominican Republic.

"This was something incredible that we've never seen before," Ramona Santana in Higuey, Dominican Republic, told CNN en Espanol. "We're in the streets with nothing, no food, no shoes, clothes, just what's on your back. ... We don't have anything. We have God, and the hope help will come."

Now packing sustained winds of 130 mph, the center of Fiona is due to pass just west of Bermuda early Friday, with conditions starting to deteriorate Thursday, said CNN meteorologist Robert Shackelford. The island nation is under a hurricane warning; Americans are warned not to travel there, and relatives of US government personnel may leave, the State Department said.

"The National Hurricane Center is certain that Bermuda will experience tropical-storm-force winds," Shackelford said. "Once Fiona passes by Bermuda, the storm is forecast to impact Nova Scotia by Saturday afternoon."

In the Canadian province, residents should prepare for tropical storm-like or even hurricane-like conditions starting as early as Friday evening by securing outdoor items, trimming trees, charging cell phones and creating an emergency kit, said Jason Mew, director of the emergency management office. Shelters will be open for those experiencing homelessness and anyone else in need, he said.

The Canadian Hurricane Centre has issued a hurricane watch for Nova Scotia from Hubbards to Brule, Prince Edward Island, Isle-de-la-Madeleine, and the coast of Newfoundland from Parson's Pond to Port aux Basques.

Hurricane Fiona "could be Canada's version of Sandy," Canadian forecasters warned, comparing the size and intensity as well as the combination of a hurricane and a more winter-like storm such as a nor'easter.

A tropical storm watch has also been issued for several coastlines in Atlantic Canada, including from west of Brule to Cap Madeleine, Quebec, and Anticosti Island.

Residents in Atlantic Canada need to be prepared for a long period of utility outages and structural damage to buildings, according to Environment Canada, Canada's national weather service.

"Fiona will be historic for Atlantic Canada," said Brian Tang, atmospheric science professor at the University of Albany.

Meanwhile, a developing storm poised to be named Hermine could become a monstrous threat to the US Gulf Coast by next week, forecast models showed.

In Puerto Rico, where Fiona delivered flooding rains and an islandwide blackout as it made landfall Sunday, more than 450,000 people lacked or had intermittent water service, according to the government's emergency portal system.

As of Thursday, 495,000 customers, about 38%, have electricity in Puerto Rico, according to LUMA Energy, which operates the island's power grid.

About 890,000 customers, or 67% of all users, now have running water, according to Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority Executive President Doriel Pagan Crespo.

In the Dominican Republic, where Fiona moved onto land early Monday, 725,246 customers remain without running water and more than 210,000 homes and businesses were dark Wednesday, said Maj. Gen. Juan Mendez Garcia, director of the country's emergency operations center.

More than 2,260 homes were destroyed, and some communities were cut off from aid, he said.

Electricity problems dog Puerto Rico

As Fiona hit the Dominican Republic in the middle of the night, Iverice Viera rushed in waist-deep floodwater to wake up her neighbors in Higuey, she said.

She's now trying to dry out her belongings.

"The rooms are empty. I had to throw away a lot. There's no electricity or water to wash anything," Viera told CNN en Espanol.

Puerto Rico, in the meantime, was making some progress on the relief front.

President Joe Biden approved a major disaster declaration Wednesday for the US territory, FEMA said. The move allows residents to access grants for temporary housing and home repairs as well as low-interest loans to cover uninsured property losses.

"This ensures that our people will have access to additional help from FEMA to recover from the damage caused by this event," Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said in a tweet.

But crews have faced setbacks in restoring power. Equipment problems have temporarily knocked lines believed to have been repaired back offline, Josue Colon, executive director of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, said Wednesday.

Fiona hit almost exactly five years after Hurricane Maria plunged the island into an extended blackout.

Across the island, more than 800 people were housed in dozens of shelters Wednesday, according to Puerto Rico's housing secretary, William Rodriguez.

New York City's mayor has deployed staff from city agencies to Puerto Rico to help officials surveying damage.

"The team will include representatives from New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM), New York City Department of Buildings, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and the New York City Department of Design and Construction," according to a news release from the mayor's office.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced Thursday his authorization of aid and recovery efforts for Puerto Rico, including the deployment of 74 New Jersey State Troopers and a civilian medical doctor.

Fiona also menaced parts of the Turks and Caicos on Tuesday, and many areas of the British territory were still without power Wednesday, namely on Grand Turk, South Caicos, Salt Cay, North Caicos and Middle Caicos, said Anya Williams, acting governor of the islands.

Officials there were relieved no one was killed in the storm, they said as they began visiting islands and making repairs.

The-CNN-Wire

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MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Republican Tim Michels said Friday that he would sign an abortion ban with exceptions for rape and incest if it came to his desk as governor, a shift from his earlier statement that Wisconsin's 1849 ban  with an exception only for the life of the mother  was an exact mirror of his position.

Conservative radio host Dan ODonnell asked Michels whether he would sign a bill passed by the Legislature with exceptions for rape and incest.

I am pro-life, but I also understand that this is a representative democracy and if the people, in this case the Legislature, brought a bill before me, I would sign it," Michels responded.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, locked in a close race with Michels in the key swing state, supports abortion rights. Evers has backed a lawsuit by Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, that argues the states 1849 ban is superseded by another law passed in 1985 that would allow for abortions before the point of viability.

For months, Michels has campaigned on statements that he wouldnt support exceptions to the states abortion ban. At a Dane County GOP event earlier this month, Michels said he would not soften his stance on abortion, despite receiving calls asking him to support rape and incest exceptions.

I'm winning because people see a strong leader, a man of conviction, a man who doesn't waffle, a man who doesn't flip-flop. I'm gonna stick with what I know is right, he said on Sept. 6.

Michels' campaign disputed that he was changing his position, saying he had simply answered a question about how he would handle a specific piece of legislation.

Polls have repeatedly shown that a majority of people in Wisconsin support abortion rights, and Wisconsin Democrats have made their backing of abortion rights central to campaigns this midterm.

A spokeswoman for Evers' campaign said she doubts that Michels' views have changed.

"Tim Michels has told us what he believes time and again, even promising earlier this month that he would not soften his dangerous views on abortion. We know he was telling us the truth over the past two decades as he consistently opposed these exceptions, Evers spokesperson Kayla Anderson said.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)  The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday said voters can decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana, overturning a state panel's decision to block the measure from the November ballot.

Justices granted a request by Responsible Growth Arkansas, the group behind the proposal, to certify the measure for the November ballot.

The people will decide whether to approve the proposed amendment in November," Justice Robin Wynne wrote in the court's ruling.

The group behind the proposal appealed after the state Board of Election Commissioners blocked the initiative in August. Supporters submitted more than enough valid signatures from registered voters to qualify, but the proposal still needed approval from the board to appear on the ballot.

Were extremely grateful to the Supreme Court that they agreed with us and felt like it was a complete validation of everything weve done," Steve Lancaster, an attorney for Responsible Growth Arkansas, said. We're excited and moving on to November."

Because the deadline has passed to certify initiative titles, the court had allowed the measure on the general election ballot while it decided whether the votes will be counted.

Arkansas voters in 2016 approved a constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana. The proposed amendment would allow those 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of cannabis and would allow state-licensed dispensaries to sell recreational marijuana.

The Board of Election Commissioners rejected the measure after commissioners said they didnt believe the ballot title fully explained to voters the impact of the amendment. Supporters of the measure argued that the board's criticism went beyond what was required for ballot initiatives.

Justices rejected the board's arguments for denying the measure, but the court also struck down the 2019 law that empowered the board to certify ballot measures. Before that law, ballot measures had to be reviewed by the attorney general before petitions could be circulated.

Two conservative justices agreed that the panel didn't have the authority to reject the proposal, but said Arkansas' Republican secretary of state also correctly found the proposal insufficient for the state's ballot.

The proposed ballot title is nether complete enough to reveal the scope of the proposed amendment nor free of misleading omissions regarding the issues of child protection," Justice Shawn Womack wrote in a separate opinion.

A spokesman said Secretary of State John Thurston, who chairs the board of election commissioners, did not have a comment on the ruling.

Recreational marijuana is already legal in 19 states, and legalization proposals are on the ballot this fall in South Dakota, North Dakota, Missouri and Maryland. The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled a proposal in that state will not appear on the ballot in November.

Responsible Growth Arkansas has raised more than $4 million in support of the Arkansas measure, primarily from medical marijuana businesses. Safe and Secure Communities, a group formed to oppose the measure, has raised more than $2 million from an Arkansas poultry executive and an Illinois shipping executive who have backed Republican candidates.

The Family Council, another group campaigning against the measure, on Thursday called the legalization proposal a recipe for disaster."

Arkansas Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a former head of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration who has opposed the proposal, did not have an immediate comment on the ruling.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Nabila works 10 hours or more a day, doing the heavy, dirty labor of packing mud into molds and hauling wheelbarrows full of bricks. At 12 years old, she's been working in brick factories half her life now, and she's probably the oldest of all her co-workers.

Already high, the number of children put to work in Afghanistan is growing, fueled by the collapse of the economy after the Taliban took over the country and the world cut off financial aid just over a year ago.

A recent survey by Save the Children estimated that half of Afghanistan's families have put children to work to keep food on the table as livelihoods crumbled.

Story continues after photo gallery

Nowhere is it clearer than in the many brick factories on the highway north out of the capital, Kabul. Conditions in the furnaces are tough even for adults. But in almost all of them, children as young as four or five labor alongside their families from early in the morning until dark in the heat of summer.

Children do every step of the brickmaking process. They haul cannisters of water, carry the wooden brick molds full of mud to put in the sun to dry. They load and push wheelbarrows full of dried bricks to the kiln for firing, then push back wheelbarrows full of fired bricks. Everywhere they are lifting, stacking, sorting bricks. They pick through the smoldering charcoal that's been burned in the kiln for pieces that can still be used, inhaling the soot and singeing their fingers.

The kids work with a determination and a grim sense of responsibility beyond their years, born out of knowing little else but their families' need. When asked about toys or play, they smile and shrug. Only a few have been to school.

Nabila, the 12-year-old, has been working in brick factories since she was five or six. Like many other brick workers, her family works part of the year at a kiln near Kabul, the other part at one outside Jalalabad, near the Pakistani border.

A few years ago, she got to go to school a little in Jalalabad. She'd like to go back to school but can't  her family needs her work to survive, she said with a soft smile.

"We can't think about anything else but work," she said.

Mohabbat, a 9-year-old boy, stopped for a moment with a pained expression as he carried a load of charcoal. "My back hurts," he said.

Asked what he wished for, he first asked, "What is a wish?"

Once it was explained, he was quiet a moment, thinking. "I wish to go to school and eat good food," he said, then added: "I wish to work well so that we can have a house."

The landscape around the factories is bleak and barren, with the kilns' smokestacks pumping out black, sooty smoke. Families live in dilapidated mud houses next to furnaces, each with a corner where they make their bricks. For most, a day's meal is bread soaked in tea.

Rahim has three children working with him at a brick kiln, ranging in age from 5 to 12. The kids had been in school, and Rahim, who goes by one name, said he had long resisted putting them to work. But even before the Taliban came to power, as the war went on and the economy worsened, he said he had no choice.

"There's no other way," he said. "How can they study when we don't have bread to eat? Survival is more important."

Workers get the equivalent of $4 for every 1,000 bricks they make. One adult working alone can't do that amount in a day, but if the children help, they can make 1,500 bricks a day, workers said.

According to surveys by Save the Children, the percentage of families saying they had a child working outside the home grew from 18% to 22% from December to June. That would suggest more than 1 million children nationwide were working. Another 22% of the children said they were asked to work on the family business or farm.

The surveys covered more than 1,400 children and more than 1,400 caregivers in seven provinces. They also pointed to the swift collapse in Afghans' livelihoods. In June, 77% of the surveyed families reported they had lost half their income or more compared to a year ago, up from 61% in December.

On one recent day at one of the kilns, a light rain started, and at first the kids were cheerful, thinking it would be a refreshing drizzle in the heat. Then the wind kicked up. A blast of dust hit them, coating their faces. The air turned yellow with dust. Some of the children couldn't open their eyes, but they kept working. The rain opened up into a downpour.

The kids were soaked. One boy had water and mud pouring off of him, but like the others he said he couldn't take shelter without finishing his work. Streams from the driving rain carved out trenches in the dirt around them.

"We're used to it," he said. Then he told another boy, "Hurry up, let's finish it."
Perhaps the starkest example of how dramatically Donald Trumps fortunes have changed in just a matter of days is contained in the opening paragraph of New York Attorney General Leticia James financial-fraud civil lawsuit against Trump and his family. Gone is any semblance of deference that Trump typically expects as a billionaire ex-president. There is no hint of acknowledgment of his claim to special privileges. Rather, Trump gets the same treatment that prosecutors afford common criminals, commanded by James to appear in court or face default judgment on more than 200 allegations of financial fraud and a $250 million fine.

Trumps no-good, terrible, very bad day was a great day for Americans who want to put an end to his lawlessness and lies, once and for all. His bad day also included a federal appeals court ruling bluntly trashing Trumps claim that the Justice Department should be denied criminal investigatory access to about 100 classified files that were among a trove of government documents Trump unlawfully possessed at his Florida estate. Trump has presented a convoluted argument that he somehow possessed special privileges as an ex-president to keep such files. The documents are the U.S. governments sole property.

Trump also made the bizarre claim Wednesday on Fox News that he had authority to declassify those documents merely by pronouncing it verbally or even by thinking about it. Thus, he asserted, that no paper trail was needed to establish his legal authority to possess highly sensitive materials, unsecured, at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

By merely thinking they were declassified, Trump would have done his job. It would then be incumbent upon clairvoyant government officials to discern that he was abiding by the law instead of endangering national security by leaving the documents exposed to foreign espionage. Presumably, Trump would have used these magical thinking powers while he was still president, since ex-presidents have never had the power to declare verbally, in writing or using telepathy that highly classified materials are now declassified.

But this is the absurd degree to which Trump  who millions of Republicans still want back in the White House  deludes himself about his own powers. Add to that the hundreds of examples of Trumpian self-delusion contained within the New York attorney generals lawsuit alleging financial fraud, and it should be clear to all Americans by now that Trump is a dangerous, unabashed con man whose only goal is his political or financial advancement.

Trump can try to deflect with accusations of a Democratic witch hunt and by labeling James as racist because shes a Black woman pursuing justice against a white man. But the 222-page lawsuit speaks for itself. It is detailed, well-documented and damning.

Trumps courtroom comeuppance ultimately would serve Americans of all political stripes because it would affirm a concept that badly needs affirmation: That no person is above the law.
Regarding  Private Police Fuel Wealth Disparities,  (Sept. 11), and  Private Firm Employs Top Cops , (Sept. 12), one has to wonder whether those neighborhoods that employ off-duty police officers for security patrols would feel the need to do so if the city filled out the ranks of the vastly understaffed St. Louis Police Department so that the department could fulfill its role of protecting the safety and property of all.

One must also ask if the police officers would feel the need to hold second jobs if the city paid them enough to comfortably support themselves and their families. And one must question whether the officers morale would be better if they could rest after eight hours on the streets before having to once again face the dangers and disorder that confront them day after day and year after year.
ORLANDO, Fla.  Halloween Horror Nights has returned to Universal Studios, along with the usual gang of screamers, lurkers and thousands of eventgoers in black T-shirts. Yes, theres an appetite for this in mid-September. The first three nights of the event were sold out the first morning they were on sale, Universal said.

Creators have given the 31st edition of HHN a traditional theme as bunches of witches, monstrous creatures and jack-o-lantern-based baddies roaming the streets and haunted houses.

But all 10 mazes are all-new this year, with characters ranging from a lonely werewolf to a global musical superstar.

Word on the streets and queue lengths during opening night revealed a lot of interest in the houses named The Weeknd: After Hours Nightmare and Bugs: Eaten Alive.

It is a haunted house with a club environment, said Lora Sauls, one of the HHN masterminds, of The Weeknd house. We are taking some of that popular After Hours music and setting it, programming it to life.  It has an awesome bass. Theres also peril provided by Universals weapon-wielding scare actors.

In the interest of being not-so-spoilery, here are 10-word reviews of the houses, presented alphabetically and designed to tease with just a taste of the mazes atmospheres.

Bugs: Eaten Alive, an original insect-oriented house  Big bugs in face with blackout effects. Ack, still itchy.

Dead Mans Pier  Winters Wake, an original, watery house: Frightening fisherman second fiddle to widow, eye-catching visual effects, ship.

Descendants of Destruction, an original house in underground setting  Sounds like the subway to the Black Lagoon. Moist, mushroomy.

Fiesta de Chupacabras, an original house centered on a legendary creature  Keyword: blood. Conga line through village disrupted by pop-up puppets.

Halloween, based on the 1978 film Halloween  Tension so thick youd cut it with a knife, Michaels.

Hellblock Horror, an original house set in prison  Its gore gone wild with caged creatures plus claustrophobia, strobes.

The Horrors of Blumhouse, based on Freaky and Black Phone films  Twofer mazes theme is dark then darker, figuratively and literally.

Spirits of the Coven, original house in a 1920s speak-easy  Somethings brewing with flappers of best-dressed house. Also: Pigs?

Universal Monsters  Legends Collide, featuring Wolf Man, Mummy and Dracula: Bones, bandages, bites, bats around every corner plus thrilling three-way.

The Weeknd  After Hours Nightmare, based on the music videos of The Weeknd: A salute to flashing (bright) lights, sharp objects and mirrors.
The poor performance of the Russian military in Ukraine during its 2022 invasion was not a surprise to everyone. Journalists, politicians in general and the Russians were taken by surprise but military historians, the U.S. Army and the Ukrainian military were not. Thats because the American army finally realized, in the 1980s, that a fundamental problem in warfare was not paying attention to what had worked in the past and why. Those who possess this predictive capability also know that its best to keep quiet about what they know because the enemy will adapt once the shooting starts and some foes do that rather quickly. Most do not because admitting you were wrong is something most senior military commanders resist.

A fundamental element in improving ground operations is analyzing past battles for what went right and what went wrong. The U.S. Army Center for Lessons Learned has been around since the 1980s, and U.S. commanders use it to determine what works in combat and what doesn't. This is more important than ever in the 21st century, where urban combat and counter-insurgency conflicts dominate. In urban warfare and counter-insurgency, the potential for mistakes to be made is exponentially larger than in conventional, large-scale warfare.

Instead of hogging their experts, the US Army takes the data collected and analyzed at the CALL (Center for Army Lessons Learned) and supplies it to allied armies in the hope these allies will use this information. This sharing is more than just a gesture of goodwill. This does not always work, especially in countries where corruption and reluctance to change makes it difficult to make changes that will improve combat effectiveness. This cultural resistance was encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan but not in Ukraine, where the Ukrainians adapted while their enemy did not.

CALL is divided into several major sections. The first collects data from previous engagements, by interviewing and visiting with units in the field. This section is tasked with discovering issues and areas of needed improvement in doctrine, training and readiness. The Analysis Section deals with evaluating the data collected and assessing the methods needed to improve effectiveness and combat efficiency. Finally, the Information Integration Section is responsible for processing and distributing the suggestions and findings from the previous two departments.

The CALL is sometimes seen by other branches of the Army as a group of desk-bound analysts, but their suggestions and changes implemented in counter-insurgency and urban warfare tactics played a major role in maximizing the effectiveness of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Persuading the local military to change was often less successful.

Without something like CALL, doctrine and tactics rarely change. On-site CALL troops visited nearly every single major combat zone in Iraq and Afghanistan. CALL soldiers also spent significant time with Iraqi Special Forces and were an integral part of the development process for the country's military and police. Call analysts also report on who is accepting and acting on their advance and who isnt. The resistance to change was and remains a major problem in Iraq, Afghanistan and, we now know, in Russia.

Because of CALL and similar efforts by the U.S. Army Special Forces, American military advisors headed overseas are given a briefing on the culture they will be dealing with and how to deal with various types of obstacles. The army maintains a database of lessons learned that can be searched by region as well as situation. A major contributor to this database is army Special Forces troops, whose training concentrates on local customs and traditions and how to work within that. Thats why the Special Forces are organized around regional specialization. Special Forces operators learn the languages and customs of one region and usually spend their entire career working in that region. This Special Forces technique was learned from World War II experience where many of the founding members of Special Forces (in the early 1950s) had worked for OSS (Office of Special Operations), an organization created to deal with contacting, communicating with and supporting local resistance groups in German or Japanese controlled territory. The success of the OSS led to the creation of the CIA and Special Forces to deal with the Cold War. This conflict, which did not end until 1991, had begun in the late 1940s when it became obvious that Soviet Russia was going to continue taking control of other nations any way it could.

It took decades before the American military and foreign service learned how to use these new intelligence and operational capabilities. Tradition again but by the 1980s the military services cooperated in creating SOCOM (Special Operations Command) so that they all could benefit from what the OSS and Special Forces have developed. It took decades for most American military commanders to accept the findings and suggestions from CALL and SOCOM. Initially many senior American officers saw Special Forces and CALL operatives as a bunch of oddballs spouting nonsense.

Another factor in the development of more effective tactics was the realization, during World War II, that when the enemy developed a new weapon or tactic, the speed with which you could analyze it and come up with an effective countermeasure was a matter of life or death as well as victory or defeat. The speed of analysis and quickness of response was expressed more vividly in the 1960s by John Boyd, a U.S. Air Force officer. Boyd demonstrated how the speed of assessing a combat situation, developing a plan and executing it was decisive in all forms of combat. Boyd came up with the OODA (observe, orient, decide, and act) loop, which could be applied to air, naval and ground combat. This made sense to World War II veterans who had witnessed the OODA loop in action. It resonated with the Russians as well because superior speed with OODA was a German specialty which the Russians never mastered as well as the Germans did during World War II. But by the 1980s some Russian theorists saw computers as a possible solution. Again, the West had a technological edge and from the end of the Cold War and into the 21st Century it was Westerners who made all this work in combat. Russia never caught up, or caught on to how vulnerable to opponents who worked the OODA cycle faster than they did. This was demonstrated in Ukraine and Russian military and political leaders are still having a hard time accepting this OODA reality.

This became a problem for American military advisors working overseas, who frequently had solutions for problems encountered by foreign commanders they were supporting, but the real problem was local culture and resistance to change, especially the American emphasis on high-speed warfare and need to quickly adopt new tactics to prevail.

Meanwhile Islamic terrorists were on the receiving end of many of these innovations and the survivors learned to adapt. The impact of high-speed warfare was demonstrated after September 11, 2001, when American forces used computerized data mining and analysis to speed up their OODA loops during counter-terrorism operations in Iraq and elsewhere. Sunni terrorists quickly learned that if an American raid was accompanied by intelligence specialists carrying biometric tools and comm links (to huge databases of information on known terrorists and their organizations), there would quickly be additional raids. A few new names found on one raid would spawn additional raids and within 24 hours large terrorist operations could be rolled up. Microsoft contributed by developing a thumb drive that could quickly extract useful data from a laptop while rough (but effective) machine translation of many Arabic documents could quickly provide more leads, locations and who or what to look for.

The Ukrainian military did not accept much change after Ukraine became independent of the Soviet Union, and Russia, in 1991. The Ukrainians had to accept the fact that they could not afford to maintain a large peacetime military. Russias seizure of Crimea and Donbas in 2014 was a wakeup call. The Russians had used KGB tactics, developed during the decades of communist rule that often used subversion and surprise to overthrow vulnerable governments. This included most East European countries who spent four decades under communist rule and Russian influence because of these tactics. The Russians tried to use these methods in Ukraine after 2000 and ran into resistance from many Ukrainians. After 2014 more Ukrainians were willing to accept advice from the Americans, who sent special forces and military advisors versed in CALL knowledge and willing to share with Ukrainians who were prepared to adapt. Initially it was Ukrainian military leaders and eventually political leaders, like current Ukrainian president Zelensky, who was elected in 2019 to make needed changes. That included lots of reforms to the Ukrainian military.

What happened in 2014 scared Ukrainians because they had agreements with Russia that were supposed to keep Ukraine intact. The Russians violated their written promises and the Ukrainians realized they had to prepare for the worst, which the Russians were openly discussing. The worst came in February 2022 when Russia invaded. The Ukrainians had changed and adapted while the Russians had not. The result was a striking Russian defeat which many Russian leaders still dont understand. The most important lesson was that you dont invade a neighboring country expecting your attack if they are better prepared to deal with it. The Ukrainians had developed new tactics and used new weapons to defeat the invasion. Most Russian troops were not told they were conducting an invasion because their officers were assured that there would not be any effective resistance. There was effective resistance and many Russian troops abandoned their armored vehicles and fled once they realized what they were up against. That resulted in about half the Russian tanks and other armored vehicles lost being abandoned intact by their crews.

The Ukrainians quickly developed procedures to adapt their vehicles to their own use with new insignia and some new communications equipment. The Ukrainians also used their newly acquired tanks more effectively than their former owners. Ukraine, like the Russians, still used the same Cold War era tanks as the Russians, but were more aware of the vulnerabilities of these Russian designed tanks. For example, even the Russians didnt realize how vulnerable their tanks were to turret penetration by anti-tank weapons. Russia had made some changes to defeat the Western Cold War development of top attack anti-tank weapons. These weapons were not used against Russian attacks often enough, until 2022, to demonstrate that Russian tanks were extremely vulnerable because Russian tanks had been using an auto-loader since the late 1960s. This replaced the human loader but put a dozen or more tank gun rounds in the turret at all times. If one of those rounds was detonated by an anti-tank weapon penetrating the turret, all those ready rounds exploded, destroying the turret and the tank as well as killing the entire crew. As soon as Russian tank crews understood this, they were quick to abandon their tanks as soon as enemy fire began blowing tanks up. Western tank designers were aware of this problem and never adopted the autoloader because of it. There was never more than one shell exposed in the turret at a time. The other shells were kept in a separate armored container with blow out panels. If those protected shells exploded the armored container quickly blew apart from the inside, leaving the crew unharmed and the tank reparable.

The Russians officially called their invasion a special operation meant to liberate the Ukrainians from neo-Nazi and NATO influence. Most Russian troops soon realized that the Ukrainians were more enthusiastic and determined to defend their country from foreign invaders and wanted to join NATO to discourage Russian attacks. Government corruption and inept military leadership meant the Russian troops were poorly supplied with food, medical care and ammunition. New recruits were not trained or paid the cash bonuses promised. Troop morale plummeted because of this and soon Russia found it could not obtain enough troops to keep the special operation going. The Ukrainians went on the offensive in late August and rapidly drove the Russians out of much of the Ukrainian territory they had conquered in 2014 and early 2022. The Russian government did not want to admit they were losing but were unable to convince enough Russian soldiers to resist or Russians and Ukrainian collaborators living in the occupied territories to stay. The civilians fled and the Russian troops numbers dwindled All this had nothing to do with foreign observers asserting that tanks were obsolete and warfare had changed dramatically. Neither was true but the reality was less newsworthy so the situation was not reported accurately. The Ukrainians kept attacking Russian logistics (supplies for the troops) while improving their own. This was the key to victory but made for dull headlines.
Most Boko Haram and ISWAP (Islamic States West Africa Province) are still in northern Borno State, where a combined local, federal and international efforts have persuaded a growing number of Boko Haram fighters to accept amnesty and rehabilitation and employment. This effort has had some success so far because of local efforts. Operations against Boko Haram, ISWAP, hostile tribal militias and bandits are mainly carried out by the army but are also aided by members of the local Civilian JTF (Joint Task Force or CJTF). The strength of CJTF peaked at about 30,000 volunteers in 2017, and with the decline in Boko Haram activity in early 2018, about a third of the force has been disbanded, or at least no longer recognized and supported by the military. CJTF still helps with security around towns, cities and refugee camps in Borno State. Defeating Boko Haram was aided by a 2016 internal struggle triggered by Boko Haram members who believed more radical measures were required for Boko Haram to survive. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau and most Boko Haram members resisted this but the radicals managed to organize ISWAP and eventually (2021) kill Shekau when a large ISWAP raiding party attacked the remote camp where the Boko Haram leader was staying. The factional dispute was declared over because of the ISIL faction raid. It wasnt. The death of veteran Boko Haram leader Shekau did not lead to a reunification of Boko Haram under pro-ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) leadership.

Shekau was killed by dissident Boko Haram members that had joined ISIL and considered any Boko Haram member who did not do the same as traitors to Islam. Shekau had been active in Boko Haram from the beginning, in the 1990s, and had been leader since 2009. Shekau was correct about ISWAP, the local ISIL affiliate, seeking to absorb Boko Haram and seemed to realize more than ISIL leaders that many Boko Haram members preferred to fight ISWAP, or simply leave the movement. ISWAP leaders backed this forced reunification idea without realizing the impact the death of Shekau would have on most Islamic terrorists in the northeast. This became obvious when the number of Boko Haram and ISWAP members abandoning Islamic terrorism increased after the merger and death of Shekau was first announced. Many of those defectors switched to organized crime and ditched their religious pretensions. This has already been happening in the last few years but the merger caused the trend to spike. Two months after the death of Shekau over 8,000 Boko Haram/ISWAP members, including many family members who lived in Islamic terrorist camps, officially surrendered, something which merely resulted in an update of government records and agreeing to answer questions about their experience with Boko Haram. Nearly all the Boko Haram/ISWAP already named as criminals and wanted for specific crimes, are leaders and could negotiate a surrender deal that could spare them any punishment at all. That has upset a lot of northern political and business leaders, but these men know that if you have enough cash and connections, you can avoid conviction. This has been the case during the last decade as more and more notorious (they often flaunted it) politicians and business magnates were prosecuted, often with the help of foreign countries, like the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and many other Western nations, who provided evidence of financial activities locally.

Boko Haram quickly appointed a new leader; Bakura Modu (or Sahaba) who had much less experience than Shekau and he moved Boko Haram headquarters from the Sambia forces to Rijana forest in neighboring Kaduna State. These changes did not stem the defections. Boko Haram and ISWAP are both beset by money problems. Over a decade of Islamic terrorist violence in the north have ruined the local economy so there are more unemployed young men who can be enticed to join the Islamic terrorist for a joining bonus of less than $2, plus the promise of more if they learn to handle an assault rifle and succeed at looting and plundering what is left to steal in the northeast. A merger of economic, not religious, convenience was one thing most Islamic terrorists could agree on.

Most of the Boko Haram and ISWAP attacks were to obtain supplies the Islamic terrorists. The remaining attacks were against schools and teachers as well as Christians. Boko Haram is a phrase that means education is forbidden. The phrase refers to non-Islamic education, which most Nigerians, Christian and Moslem support. The Islamic terrorists also want to expel all Christians from the Moslem majority north and eventually all of Nigeria. That second goal is unrealistic because half the national population is Christian and most of them live in the south where the oil is. The Christians tend to be better educated and have higher incomes than Moslems. Most Moslem parents want their kids to get a good education because it provides better employment opportunities. Boko Haram considers this sort of thing un-Islamic and kills those who dont agree.

In the last six years, as Boko Haram activity declined, deaths from banditry and tribal feuds gradually came to account for the majority of deaths committed by outlaws.

September 16, 2022: In the northeast (Borno State) ISWAP Islamic terrorists attacked a Boko Haram camp and killed at least 23 Boko Haram gunmen. This attack was in retaliation for a Boko Haram ambush of ISWAP men the day before that left eight ISWAP gunmen dead.

September 12, 2022: In the northeast (Borno State) soldiers killed seven ISWAP Islamic terrorists who had been identified by locals as the men behind a local crime wave.

September 8, 2022: In the northeast (Borno and Yobe Statea) a two week army operation against Boko Haram and ISWAP operations in over a dozen communities in two states resulted in the deaths of 52 Islamic terrorists and the capture of fourteen others.

September 5, 2022: Nigerian businesses on rivers in the Niger River Delta complain that the security forces pay attention to offshore pirates attacking large foreign ships but ignore the increasing losses suffered because of pirates who operate on rivers. The heavy losses are driving up prices locals must pay while putting some river traders out of business. This pirate behavior is not unexpected because bandits and pirates have always adapted to what the security forces are doing. As attacking the more lucrative offshore shipping comes under more pressure from the security forces, the bandits and pirates go back to plundering the river traffic.

September 4, 2022: In the northeast (Borno State) a four-day operation against Boko Haram bases in the Sambisa Forest led to several airstrikes, followed up by ground troops to kill five Boko Haram leaders and about a hundred of their followers. The Boko Haram camps are well protected against ground assault, with outposts that warn of a ground assault so the camo can be abandoned before the troops arrive. The military adapted by using aerial surveillance with manned and unmanned aircraft. When a camp was discovered, it was promptly hit with air strikes using fixed wing aircraft and helicopter gunships. Ground troops were sent to where the airstrikes took place and often found lots of dead bodies and evidence that survivors had fled carrying whatever they could with them. Because many of these remote camps also host families of the terrorists, there are women and children among the dead. These losses encourage many other Boko Haram and ISWAP to surrender with their families and accept amnesty.

August 29, 2022: In the south (the Niger River Delta) oil thieves did unprecedented damage to oil operations as they destroyed pipelines in order to steal the crude oil, which is then refined in simple local refineries to produce kerosine for domestic use. The oil theft operations this year have reduced production to about 900,000 BPD (barrels per day). This is in sharp contrast to 2021. In November Nigeria regained its position as largest oil producer in Africa with 1.33 million BPD, up eight percent from October. Normally the largest producers in Africa are Nigeria, Angola and Libya. Angola suffers from some of the same corruption and internal violence problems as Nigeria and for October is in third place behind Libya and Nigeria. Nigeria is now in fourth place at a time when the government and the weakened post-covid19 economy needs the money the most. +
LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of a- (Excellent) of Saturn Insurance Inc. (Saturn) (Burlington, VT). Saturn is a captive of BP p.l.c. (bp), an integrated global energy company. The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.

The ratings reflect Saturns balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management. The ratings also consider rating enhancement from Saturns affiliate, Jupiter Insurance Limited, which is the principal captive of the bp group and provides substantial reinsurance support to Saturn.

Saturns balance sheet strength is underpinned by its strongest risk-adjusted capitalisation, as measured by Bests Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR). Partially offsetting rating factors include the captives concentrated investment portfolio and high dependence on reinsurance to protect its balance sheet against high-severity, low-frequency losses. The ratings also factor in the companys relatively small capital base, which, considering the large limits offered, exposes its risk-adjusted capitalisation to potential volatility. Investments are highly concentrated, with over 99% at year-end 2021 accounted for by three intra-group term deposits with two bp subsidiaries, North America Funding Company and BP International Limited, with maturities of one month to a year. Consequently, AM Best considers Saturns investments to be linked closely to bps credit profile.

Saturn has a track record of solid underwriting profitability, as demonstrated by a five-year (2017-2021) weighted average combined ratio of 56%, which was achieved despite a large workers compensation (WC) claim that negatively impacted performance in 2017. This claim led to a combined ratio, as calculated by AM Best, of 129% in 2017, highlighting the exposure of the captives performance to potential volatility, which is an offsetting factor to the assessment. Adequate operating performance and full retention of earnings have supported growth in capital and surplus of 72% since the companys incorporation in 2011.

AM Best assesses Saturns business profile as limited, reflecting its small and concentrated portfolio of high-risk business emanating from the bp group in the United States. Saturns portfolio consists primarily of property damage and business interruption terrorism cover, WC insurance, environmental protection and certificate of financial responsibility cover. Reducing insured values due to bps divestments, lower oil prices and soft market conditions have led to a decline in the captives gross written premium by approximately 81% since 2014.

AM Best remains the leading rating agency of alternative risk transfer entities, with more than 200 such vehicles rated throughout the world. For current Bests Credit Ratings and independent data on the captive and alternative risk transfer insurance market, please visit www.ambest.com/captive.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Bests website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Bests Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Bests Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Bests Credit Ratings, Bests Performance Assessments, Bests Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Bests Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specialising in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright  2022 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005419/en/

Marving Lopez

Associate Financial Analyst

+44 20 7397 4389

[email protected]

Ghislain Le Cam, CFA, FRM

Director, Analytics

+44 20 7397 0268

[email protected]

Christopher Sharkey

Manager, Public Relations

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5159

[email protected]

Al Slavin

Communications Specialist

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5098

[email protected]

Source: AM Best
AMSTERDAM--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- AM Best has revised the outlooks to negative from stable and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) of a- (Excellent) of Polskie Towarzystwo Reasekuracji S.A. (Polish Re) (Poland).

These Credit Ratings (ratings) reflect Polish Res balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM). The ratings also reflect the lift Polish Re receives due to the support provided by its ultimate parent, Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (Fairfax), in particular the explicit parental guarantee in place for Polish Re. In addition, Fairfax provides technical support in areas such as reserving, retrocession protection and investment management services.

The negative outlooks reflect pressure on Polish Res balance sheet strength assessment, following a trend of deteriorating risk-adjusted capitalisation, as measured by Bests Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), due to significant premium growth between 2019 and 2021 combined with a reduction in shareholders equity in 2021. As a result, the companys BCAR assessment deteriorated to the strong level at year-end 2021 from very strong in 2020 and 2019, and strongest in 2018. Risk-adjusted capitalisation remains subject to volatility from growth levels and financial performance. AM Best will monitor the companys risk-adjusted capitalisation, and negative rating actions could follow if BCAR is not maintained at a level supportive of the current balance sheet strength assessment.

Polish Res reserves exhibit an elevated level of volatility, stemming largely from motor third-party liability (MTPL) business in Poland, which negatively impacts the companys balance sheet assessment. The company benefits from a conservative and liquid investment portfolio.

Polish Res tightened underwriting discipline in recent years has reversed the historically unstable operating performance trend, as evidenced by a five-year average combined ratio of 97.5% (2017-2021). The main source of historical volatility has been the MTPL portfolio, which was put into runoff in 2014. The company reported a net profit of PLN 16.2 million (USD 4.0 million) in 2021 (2020: USD 4.9 million), reflecting a 98.3% combined ratio, supplemented by investment income.

Polish Re benefits from its diversified portfolio offering and long-standing presence across Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, as well as its position as the sole domestic reinsurer in Poland. Polish Re is well-diversified geographically, with operations spanning approximately 40 markets. Additionally, the company has significantly expanded its agriculture line of business in recent years. Despite its international presence, Polish Res business profile remains constrained by its lack of scale in any given market.

AM Best considers Polish Res ERM to be developed and appropriate for the companys risk profile and operational scope.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Bests website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Bests Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Bests Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Bests Credit Ratings, Bests Performance Assessments, Bests Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Bests Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specialising in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright  2022 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005396/en/

Morgane Hillebrandt

Financial Analyst

+31 20 308 5422

[email protected]

Victoria Ohorodnyk

Associate Director

+31 20 308 5432

[email protected]

Christopher Sharkey

Manager, Public Relations

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5159

[email protected]

Al Slavin

Communications Specialist

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5098

[email protected]

Source: AM Best
The highly anticipated distillery and visitor center offers guests a behind the scenes look at the gins unique distillation process and more

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Today, Aviation American Gin celebrates the grand opening of the highly-anticipated Aviation American Gin Distillery and Visitor Center in its hometown of Portland, Oregon. The state-of-the-art, nearly 33k sq. ft. facility features an intimate tasting room, exceptional draft cocktail bar and gift shop. As part of the interactive experience, visitors can get a sneak peek at co-owner Ryan Reynolds office, which doubles as an escape room, inviting guests to solve a series of puzzles and identify various Easter eggs to get out.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005337/en/

The new Aviation American Gin Distillery (Photo: Business Wire)

The new Aviation Gin experience offers guests a behind the scenes look at how Aviation Gin is distilled in its uniquely American style, crafted with a blend of botanicals, which delivers an approachable and uniquely balanced flavor profile. Like all successful partnerships, none is overpowering or masking, but each plays a part in bringing out the best in all. Aviation Gin was created to be balanced and smooth to complement any cocktail or even fly solo.

About three years ago, we set out to create a one-of-a-kind distillery and tasting experience to give people the opportunity to get a look at how we make the worlds greatest spirit - Aviation American Gin, that is. Were thrilled to announce that the Aviation American Gin Distillery is officially open for business in Portland, Oregon and everyone (21 years and older) is welcome, said Ryan Reynolds, Aviation American Gins Co-Owner. If a grown-up theme park and a bartender fell in love and produced offspring, it would be this gin factory.

Helmed by award-winning industry veteran and Distillery Director, Hollie Stephenson, the facility will offer educational tours of the distillation process and bottling line, as well as tasting flights and unique seasonal draft cocktails. Stephenson will bring her vast production and tasting room experience to the site as she oversees the distilling and bottling operations, as well as the newly constructed visitor center and tasting room.

Portland, Oregon is such a vibrant city with a rich, unrivaled spirits & cocktail scene. Were proud to be opening the Aviation American Gin Distillery in the company's hometown, said Christina Choi, Senior Vice President at Diageo. Knowing how beloved the brand is, were excited to invite consumers to explore, sip and learn about how our premium, uniquely American-style gin is distilled.

The tours will be held in intimate groups of no more than 12 visitors and will cost $28 per person, which includes a guided tasting. Guests are invited to enjoy the distillery at their leisure and those who are visiting the bar can sip on cocktails and tasting flights [limited to 2.5oz per day] without participating in the full tour. The distillery will be serving six draft cocktails that will rotate seasonally, starting with: Ryans Nitro Negroni, Fizzy Bees Knees, Grapefruit Collins, Aviation G&T, Saturn, and the Flora Dora. A straight tasting of Aviation American Gin will also be available to purchase for $5. Guests must be 21+ with valid ID to sample or purchase cocktails.

Please find hi-res imagery and assets in the folder here.

In 2020, Diageo acquired Aviation American Gin through the acquisition of the Davos Brands portfolio.

The Aviation American Gin Distillery is located at 2075 NW Wilson St. Portland, OR 97209, and is open Thursday through Sunday from 12PM - 7PM PT. Guests can book their visit at https://www.aviationgin.com/visit-us. For more information and to stay up to date on the latest news, including distillery details, please visit www.aviationgin.com or follow @aviationgin on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

Aviation American Gin [42% Alc/Vol. Imported by Diageo, New York, NY] reminds you to drink responsibly.

About Aviation American Gin

Aviation Gin is one of the world's highest rated gins (97 points, Wine Enthusiast) and helped establish a new style of American gin, crafted with a blend of botanicals, which delivers an approachable and uniquely balanced flavor profile. Created by a unique bartender / distiller partnership, Aviation American Gin operates a distillery, packaging facility and visitor experience in Portland, OR.

About Diageo

Diageo is a global leader in beverage alcohol with an outstanding collection of brands including Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, Bulleit and Buchanan's whiskies, Smirnoff, Ciroc and Ketel One vodkas, Casamigos, DeLeon and Don Julio tequilas, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Tanqueray and Guinness. Diageo is listed on both the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: DEO) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE: DGE) and our products are sold in more than 180 countries around the world. For more information about Diageo, our people, our brands, and performance, visit us at www.diageo.com. Visit Diageo's global responsible drinking resource, www.DRINKiQ.com, for information, initiatives, and ways to share best practice. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for news and information about Diageo: @Diageo_News and @Diageo.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005337/en/

PRESS INQUIRIES:

Alison Brod Marketing + Communications

[email protected]

Source: Diageo
B. Bryan Jones III elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of BancPlus Corp. and BankPlus

William A. Ray elected Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of BancPlus Corp. and BankPlus

Eugene F. Jack Webb, Jr., to transition to President & CEO of BankPlus in 2023 and is appointed to the Board of Directors of BancPlus Corp. and BankPlus

JACKSON, Miss.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- BancPlus Corporation, the parent company of BankPlus, announced today a leadership succession plan that positions the Company to continue driving significant growth for its customers, communities, team members, and shareholders.

B. Bryan Jones III has been elected to succeed Thomas G. Peaster as Chairman of the Board of Directors of BancPlus Corporation and BankPlus effective September 20, 2022. Mr. Peaster will move into the role of Senior Chairman of the Corporation and BankPlus, having served as Chairman of the Board since 1987. On behalf of the Company, I would like to thank Tommy for his leadership as Chairman over the past 35 years and for positioning BancPlus Corporation for continued success ahead, said William A. Ray, President and Chief Executive Officer of BancPlus Corp.

In addition, William A. Ray was elected Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of BancPlus Corporation and BankPlus, and Randall E. Howard will remain as Vice-Chairman and Lead Director of BancPlus Corporation and BankPlus.

As Lead Director, Mr. Howard noted that these changes are the outcome of a comprehensive, long-term succession planning process conducted by the Board of Directors of BancPlus Corp.

Mr. Jones has served as a director of the Company since 2000. At the time of his retirement in 2019, Mr. Jones was Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Private Banking Officer of BankPlus and had held various executive management positions during his 47 years with the Company. Mr. Jones commented, I have appreciated the opportunity to serve on the Board in a number of roles over the past 22 years. Collectively, the Board and executive management are among the best in the business, which gives me great confidence in the future success of BancPlus Corporation.

In addition, Eugene F. Jack Webb, Jr., Chief Banking Officer of BankPlus, was named President of BankPlus effective August 1, 2022, and elected to the Board of Directors of BancPlus Corporation and BankPlus effective September 20, 2022. Mr. Webb will also assume the role of Chief Executive Officer of BankPlus effective January 1, 2023. At that time, William A. Ray, President and Chief Executive Officer of BancPlus Corporation and Chief Executive Officer of BankPlus will continue as President and Chief Executive Officer of BancPlus Corporation. Mr. Rays role will be focused on strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, intrinsic growth, and capital management. Under Mr. Rays leadership as President & CEO of BankPlus since 1986, BankPlus has grown from $90 million in total assets to over $6.6 billion in total assets as of June 30, 2022, with over 90 locations and more than 1,200 employees.

Mr. Webb joined BankPlus in 1996 and has held various executive management positions across the organization. In his current position as President & Chief Banking Officer of BankPlus, Mr. Webb is responsible for all revenue generating activities in the organization. I am very pleased to have this opportunity to take on additional responsibilities, stated Mr. Webb. BankPlus is an exceptional company dedicated to providing the best banking services for our customers while building stronger communities and adding value for our shareholders.

I am delighted the Board has recognized Jack for his outstanding leadership over the last 26 years at BankPlus. I look forward to our continued partnership as we work together to expand and build a greater future for our team members, our customers, and our shareholders, said Mr. Ray.

###

About BancPlus Corporation

BancPlus Corporation is the holding company of BankPlus. Founded in 1909, BankPlus is one of the Southeasts premier regional banks serving consumers and businesses with the latest technology through a full suite of financial services, including retail banking, commercial banking, mortgage lending and wealth management. With over $6.6 billion in total assets, BankPlus operates more than 90 financial centers throughout Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida. For more information about BankPlus, visit www.bankplus.net.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005489/en/

Investor Relations Contact:

Kevin Bailey

601-607-4452, [email protected]

Media Contact:

Rob Armour

601-898-4869, [email protected]

Source: BancPlus Corporation
WINNIPEG, Manitoba--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Farmers Edge Inc. (Farmers Edge or the Company) (TSX: FDGE), a pure-play digital agriculture company, today announced the resignation of Wade Barnes as a member of the Board of Directors.

About Farmers Edge

Farmers Edge is leading the next agricultural revolution with the industrys broadest portfolio of proprietary technological innovations, spanning hardware, software, and services. Powered by a unique combination of connected field sensors, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and agronomic expertise, the Companys digital platform turns data into actions and intelligent insights, delivering value to all stakeholders of the agricultural ecosystem. Farmers Edge disruptive technologies accelerate digital transformation on the farm and beyond, protecting our global resources and ensuring sustainable food production for a rapidly growing population.

For more information, please visit www.farmersedge.ca and SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220922005940/en/

Farmers Edge Investor Relations:

[email protected]

(204) 992-7019

Source: Farmers Edge Inc.
This marks the fourth year in a row that the company has made the list based on revenue growth

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Flexiti Financial Inc. (Flexiti), a leading point-of-sale consumer financing solution for retailers, is pleased to announce that for the fourth year in a row the company has been listed on the Report on Business ranking of Canadas Top Growing Companies. Flexiti ranked 321st out of the 430 companies on the list.

The 2022 Canadas Top Growing Companies ranks Canadian companies on three-year revenue growth.

Flexitis award-winning platform provides customers and merchants with fast and easy-to-use point-of-sale service that can instantly approve shoppers in-store and online for 0% interest1 financing on purchases within their credit limit (and without needing to reapply).

We are extremely proud to be ranked among Canadas Top Growing Companies for the fourth year in a row, says Peter Kalen, founder and CEO of Flexiti. While this year has presented its fair share of economic challenges, we continue to grow reaching $2 billion in lifetime originations and doubling our number of full-time employees to over 400 people across the company. These achievements demonstrate the resilience of our remarkable team who are dedicated to delivering innovative payment solutions and a best-in-class experience for our retailers and cardholders, says Kalen.

A heartfelt thank you goes to our team for their tenacity and vision, adds Kalen. We are excited to continue building on this success and growing our Flexiti Network to provide the flexible solutions retailers need to grow their business in this economic environment.

Canadas Top Growing Companies is an editorial ranking that was launched in 2019. It aims to celebrate the boldest entrepreneurial achievement by identifying and bringing the accomplishments of innovative businesses in Canada to the forefront. In order to qualify for this voluntary program; companies had to complete an in-depth application process and meet revenue requirements.

The full list of 2022 winners along with editorial coverage is published in the October issue of Report on Business magazine. The list is out now and online here.

Canada's Top Growing Companies recognizes the tremendous ambition and innovation of entrepreneurs in Canada," says Dawn Calleja, Editor of Report on Business magazine. The next generation of Canadian businesses can draw inspiration from this ranking.

In an uncertain world, the success stories of the companies marked in this years Report on Business magazines list of Top Growing Companies are a beacon of optimism, says Phillip Crawley, Publisher and CEO of The Globe and Mail. The Globe and Mail congratulates them on their achievements.

1 O.A.C. Terms and conditions apply.

About The Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail is Canadas foremost news media company, leading the national discussion and causing policy change through brave and independent journalism since 1844. With our award-winning coverage of business, politics and national affairs, The Globe and Mail newspaper reaches 5.9 million readers every week in our print or digital formats, and Report on Business magazine reaches 2.3 million readers in print and digital every issue. Our investment in innovative data science means that as the world continues to change, so does The Globe. The Globe and Mail is owned by Woodbridge, the investment arm of the Thomson family.

About Flexiti

Flexiti provides flexible financing to help customers make important purchases. Available at a network of over 8,000 top-tier retail locations and e-commerce sites, including The Brick, Wayfair.ca, Sleep Country, Staples and Birks, Flexitis award-winning sales financing platform provides customers and merchants alike with seamless point-of-sale service. Flexiti users can be instantly approved in-store and online to receive 0% interest financing on purchases within their credit limit without needing to reapply. Helping Canadians secure over $2B in flexible financing, Flexiti is one of Canadas fastest growing sales financing providers. In 2022, Flexiti was named one of Canadas Top Growing Companies for the fourth consecutive year. In 2021, Flexiti ranked 10th on Deloittes Canadas Technology Fast 50, 54th on Deloittes North American Technology Fast 500, and ranked 13th on The Globe and Mails 2021 Canadas Top Growing Companies. Flexiti is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CURO Group Holdings Corp. (NYSE: CURO). For more information on Flexiti's service offering and growing Flexiti Network, visit www.flexiti.com.

(CURO-NWS)

Source: CURO Group Holdings Corp.; Flexiti

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220922005892/en/

MEDIA

[email protected]

Source: CURO Group Holdings Corp. and Flexiti
Sutherlands Foodservice grows their family business legacy through a new partnership with Pepper.

ATLANTA, Ga. & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- This week, Sutherlands Foodservice, a Frosty Acres Brands member, announced its partnership with e-commerce technology company Pepper to build out a new ordering platform. The digital platform will seamlessly integrate with Sutherlands ERP and provide all of their customers with a more efficient and reliable ordering  accessible by both phone and computer.

Sutherlands Foodservice started in 1947 as an egg company. Through multiple acquisitions, Sutherlands has transformed into one of the best independent broadline food distributors in the country, landing Kroger Co. as one of their first customers. Over the course of four generations, the Sutherland family business has continued to evolve and today serves customers in more than six major industries.

Finding a partner that is as passionate about their work as our family is about ours is rare, said Drew Wilson, Sutherlands Director of Sales. This made our choice to partner with Pepper a no-brainer. They have taken such good care of us, our customers, and truly accelerated our business!

Since doing business with Pepper, Sutherlands has seen a large reduction in entry errors, a vast influx in sales, and most importantly, more pleased customers.

The App is very user friendly. It makes ordering for our store easier, said Sutherlands Customer, Dwayne Robinson, Atlanta Bread Company

Peppers mission is to modernize the food supply chain with its full service online ordering catalog and payment system that helps food distributors reach their full potential by growing sales, saving time, and lowering expenses. Pepper generates transformational results for its partners, with clients seeing an average of 20% in sales growth, 77% reduction in order entry time post-adoption, and 92% buyer satisfaction.

Working with family businesses makes our team so excited, said John Minch, Creator of Opportunities at Pepper. We love getting the opportunity to help improve a distributor's business and feel honored to be a part of a well respected family legacy.

The Sutherlands Foodservice mobile app can be found in the App Store, Google Play Store, and at sutherlandsfoodservice.pepr.app. Customers can log in from any device to compose an order from their order guide, discover new items and the latest promotions from the catalog, or make a payment in only a few clicks.

About Sutherlands Foodservice

Sutherlands Foodservice, Inc. was founded in 1947 by Andrew Sutherland and has stayed in the Sutherlands family ever since. The broadline distributor operates out of Atlanta, Georgia and services multiple surrounding states in the southeast. Sutherlands Foodservice, Inc. is also a member of Frosty Acres Brands and Georgia Grown.

About Pepper

Pepper is a leading e-commerce platform built for food distributors that is easy and intuitive for their customers to use. Today, clients across the US and Canada use Pepper to power their e-commerce experience for thousands of restaurants, grocery stores, and convenience stores. For more information, visit www.usepepper.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005119/en/

Media Detail, Sutherlands Foodservice:

Contact Person: Callie Wallace

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.suthfoodservice.com

Media Detail, Pepper:

Contact Person: John Minch

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.usepepper.com

Phone number: 856-573-4774

Source: Pepper
Full data analysis of AAVance Phase 2/3 Gene Therapy Clinical Trial with LYS-SAF302 in MPS IIIA expected early Q4 2022

Completion of Phase 1 adaptive clinical trial evaluating safety of LYS-GM101 in 5 patients with GM1 gangliosidosis

Cash position of 7.7m at the end of June 2022, providing financial visibility to the end of January 2023

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Regulatory News:

Lysogene (FR0013233475  LYS) (Paris: LYS), a phase 3 gene therapy platform Company targeting central nervous system (CNS) diseases, today reports its first half 2022 financial results, approved by the Board of Directors on 23 September 2022. The financial statements were subject to a limited review by the Companys statutory auditors. The full interim financial report is available on the Companys website in the Investors section.

Karen Aiach, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lysogene, said: We are finally reaching the most exciting time in Lysogene's journey as results of our lead gene therapy candidate, LYS-SAF302, are expected in the next few weeks. The data set is currently being analyzed by independent data providers and we look forward to having a comprehensive view of the efficacy of our drug candidate to hopefully confirm the preliminary positive efficacy signal observed so far. With these results, we will be able to discuss the next steps with the regulatory authorities. Karen Aiach added: We also continue to work on strategic options to extend the Company's cash runway to fund the development of our extensive pipeline of preclinical programs targeting high prevalence diseases.

Selected financial information on 30 June 2022 (IFRS financial statements)

Comprehensive Income Statement in thousands of euros 30/06/2022 30/06/2021 Operating income - Revenue 8,439 2,922 - Other operating revenue 1,603 1,305 Total operating income 10,042 4,227 Operating expenses - Research and Development expenses (6,512) (6,859) - General and Administrative expenses (2,625) (2,566) Total operating expenses (9,137) (9,425) Operating income 905 (5,198) Net financial income (expense) (202) (333) Net income (loss) 703 (5,531) Weighted average number of shares outstanding 17,385,028 16,794,212 Earnings per share () 0.04 (0.33)

Number of shares outstanding as of 30 June 2022: 17,811,140

Cash position at January 01 12,336 18,780 Change in net cash (4,616) (3,710) Cash position at June 30 7,720 15,070

In the first half 2022, total operating income reached 10.0 million versus 4.2 million in 2021 with:

Revenue of 8.4 million versus 2.9 million in 2021. Until December 31, 2021, the payments made by Sarepta under the license-collaboration agreement were recorded in proportion to the direct internal and external costs associated with the development of LYS-SAF302 in accordance with IFRS 15.

As a result of the termination of the agreement notified on January 11, 2022, the Company fully recognized in the first half of 2022 all outstanding payments from Sarepta for an amount of 8.4 million.

Other operating revenue of 1.6 million and consisted mainly of the Research Tax Credit.

Operating expenses amounted to 9.1 million in the first half 2022 compared to 9.4 million in 2021 with:

Research and Development expenses of 6.5 million, down 0.3 million versus 2021 mainly due to: a decrease in personnel expenses related to the variation in headcount over the period and to a lesser impact of free share plans, external expenses almost stable over the period with an increase in expenses related to the production campaign of LYS-GM101 clinical batches, offset by a decrease in expenses related to litigation as the Company recorded in 2021 a $2.8 million impact of the settlement of a commercial dispute with an industrial partner.

General and Administrative expenses of 2.6 million, slightly up versus 2021 with: an increase in external costs, notably associated with legal fees related to the structuring of financings, partly offset by a decrease in personnel expenses due to the variation in headcount over the period and a lesser impact of free share plans.



Net financial result was negative by 0.2 million consisting of fees and accrued interest on the loans granted to the Company at the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022.

The net profit for the period was 0.7 million versus a net loss of 5.5 million in 2021.

At 30 June 2022, the Companys cash position amounted to 7.7 million. Based on projected cash runway, it would allow the Company to finance its operations until the end of January 2023.

To extend its cash runway, the Company has already initiated discussions to explore all possible strategic options. It is currently evaluating the following options: (i) a capital increase (private placement, public offering, equity lines or other equity instruments); (ii) a financing by debt (bond issuing, repayable advance or venture loan); (iii) a license grant on one or several of its products to benefit from the upfront and milestones payments related to such collaboration.

Nevertheless, among all possible options, the Company today prioritizes a non-dilutive one under the form of a license collaboration on one or several of its products. Given the low market capitalization currently, potential equity fundings would be deemed highly dilutive. Financing by debt is the least likely solution at this stage given that the Company has already subscribed to several debt instruments in the past 18 months for an amount of 11.9m from the European Investment Bank, The Public Investment Bank and the Bred (cf note 10 of the financial statements).

In addition, the Company will maintain its cost control initiatives initiated at the beginning of the year. To cover the expenses already incurred and overhead costs until 30 September 2023, the Company estimates that it will need an additional 8 million funding (which could be reduced by 3.2 million from the reimbursement of the 2022 Research Tax Credit). This amount assumes that no new R&D expenses will be incurred from February 2023.

Clinical update

LYS-SAF302 program

In the first half of 2022, the Company published initial efficacy data from the AAVance Phase 2/3 clinical trial evaluating LYS-SAF302 in patients with MPS IIIA.

The positive effect of LYS-SAF302 on the MPS IIIA disease biomarker heparan sulfate in the cerebrospinal fluid was confirmed with statistically significant decreases of about 20% in average levels of total HS-derived oligosaccharides in the CSF relative to baseline levels. Moreover, the drug candidate appeared to have a positive effect on the development of the youngest patients. In the 6 patients treated at less than 31 months, stable or continuously increasing cognitive, language and motor functions was observed, including subjects with SGSH mutations associated with the severe disease phenotype.

Full study results are expected early Q4 2022, along with results from the PROVide patient reported outcome videos study. Based on this comprehensive clinical data package, the company plans to initiate discussions with regulatory authorities in the US and in Europe to determine next steps.

LYS-GM101 program

In the first half of 2022, the Company completed recruitment of its Phase 1 adaptive clinical trial with its investigation gene therapy LYS-GM101 in GM1 gangliosidosis which is designed to evaluate the safety of the drug candidate.

All five patients treated in this initial phase will be monitored and, depending on the results, the next phase of the study should be launched early next year with the recruitment of 12 additional patients.

About Lysogene

Lysogene is a gene therapy Company focused on the treatment of orphan diseases of the central nervous system (CNS). The Company has built a unique capability to enable delivery of gene therapies to the CNS to treat lysosomal diseases and other disorders of the CNS. A phase 2/3 clinical trial in MPS IIIA is ongoing. An adaptive clinical trial in GM1 gangliosidosis is also ongoing. Lysogene is also developing an innovative AAV gene therapy approach for the treatment of Fragile X syndrome, a genetic disease related to autism. The Company also entered into an exclusive worldwide license agreement with Yeda, the commercial arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science, for a novel gene therapy candidate for Parkinson disease with GBA1 mutations. www.lysogene.com.

Forward Looking Statement

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements, especially on the Companys progress of its clinical trials and cash runway. Although the Company believes its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, all statements other than statements of historical fact included in this press release about future events are subject to (i) change without notice, (ii) factors beyond the Companys control, (iii) clinical trial results, (iv) increased manufacturing costs, (v) potential claims on its products. These statements may include, without limitation, any statements preceded by, followed by or including words such as target, believe, expect, aim, intend, may, anticipate, estimate, plan, objective, project, will, can have, likely, should, would, could and other words and terms of similar meaning or the negative thereof. Forward-looking statements are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties beyond the Companys control that could cause the Companys actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the expected results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. A further list and description of these risks, uncertainties and other risks can be found in the Companys regulatory filings with the French Autorite des Marches Financiers, including in the 2021 universal registration document, registered with the French Markets Authorities on April 19, 2022, and future filings and reports by the Company. Furthermore, these forward-looking statements are only as of the date of this press release. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. If the Company updates one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that it will or will not make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements.

This press release has been prepared in both French and English. In the event of any differences between the two texts, the French language version shall supersede.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005458/en/

Stephane Durant des Aulnois

Chief Financial Officer

[email protected]

+ 33 1 41 43 03 99

Source: Lysogene
BISMARCK, N.D.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The North Dakota Tribal College System (NDTCS) today announced a new apprenticeship program developed in partnership with Hess Corporation to improve educational and employment opportunities for Native Americans across North Dakota.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220922005823/en/

Over the next four years, Hess will invest $12 million to provide tuition assistance, stipends and other support for establishing apprenticeships in a variety of industries designed by each of the states five tribal colleges based on the local job market and needs of their tribal communities. Halliburton and Nabors Industries will each invest $1 million in the new apprenticeship program.

Following the earn and learn model of the apprenticeship program currently in place at Lake Region State College, the new statewide program will provide tribal college students with on-the-job skills training through college work study, internships and apprenticeships as they progress toward completing a two-year degree or technical certification, with the possibility of earning a bachelors or masters degree depending on the apprenticeship position and location. The new apprenticeship program is scheduled to begin in January 2023.

Speaking in the State Capitol at a ceremony commemorating the announcement, Gov. Doug Burgum recognized the significance of the new program.

Public-private partnerships can be transformative, and the program being launched today is another great example of our states private-sector partners believing and investing in the future of North Dakota, Governor Burgum said. With todays announcement, Hess, Nabors, and Halliburton are providing essential resources for our tribal colleges to invest in students in a way that can spark generational change and empower people, improve lives and inspire success.

Also speaking at the announcement, Cankdeska Cikana (Little Hoop) Community College President Dr. Cynthia Lindquist said: The partnership we are announcing today reflects the tireless efforts of everyone involved over the past 18 months to design a program that serves a traditional education mission while concurrently responding to deeper community needs. We are excited to develop new career and workforce opportunities for our young people and are very pleased to have the support from Hess, Nabors, Halliburton and the Governor.

Hess CEO John Hess said: Our company has a longstanding commitment to making a positive social impact on the communities where we operate. We are proud to support the North Dakota Tribal College System in developing a comprehensive program to provide students with education and employment opportunities that will lead to rewarding careers.

Nabors Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer Jade Strong said: Nabors is committed to strengthening the communities that our employees call home. We are honored to support the NDTCS and advanced educational opportunities that can change lives and launch careers across North Dakota.

Halliburton Chairman, President, and CEO Jeff Miller said: As a company with a long history of operations in North Dakota, we see this program as a fantastic way to develop and nurture skills necessary for the future productivity of the local economy as well as for Halliburton. We are excited to support the NDTCS and this program.

About the Initiative: The project to improve workforce, training, and education opportunities utilizes the apprenticeship pathway for Native people living in North Dakota via the North Dakota Tribal College System (NDTCS) in partnership with Lake Region State College (LRSC). The colleges under NDTCS have identified varied apprenticeship programs for consideration in areas such as HVAC, plumbing, heavy equipment, welding, building trades, auto tech, CDL, carpentry, IT, nursing, and professional positions at the colleges.

North Dakota Tribal College System (NDTCS): Chartered by federally recognized Tribal governments, North Dakotas Tribal colleges teach and preserve culture and language as a component of the academic curriculum. Tribal colleges are public, affordable, non-profit post-secondary institutions accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, the same as state post-secondary institutions. Tribal colleges proactively collaborate with the North Dakota University System to enhance students academic experience that allows for seamless transfers. More information is available at www.ndtcs.org.

Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES) is a leading global independent energy company engaged in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas. The company is recognized as an industry leader in environmental, social and governance performance and disclosure. More information on Hess Corporation is available at www.hess.com.

Halliburton: Founded in 1919, Halliburton is one of the world's largest providers of products and services to the energy industry. With approximately 45,000 employees, representing 130 nationalities in more than 70 countries, the company helps its customers maximize value throughout the lifecycle of the reservoir - from locating hydrocarbons and managing geological data, to drilling and formation evaluation, well construction and completion, and optimizing production throughout the life of the asset. Visit the company's website at www.halliburton.com.

Nabors Industries: Nabors Industries is a leading provider of advanced technology for the energy industry. With operations in more than 15 countries, Nabors has established a global network of people, technology and equipment to deploy solutions that deliver safe, efficient and responsible energy production. By leveraging its core competencies, particularly in drilling, engineering, automation, data science, and manufacturing, Nabors aims to innovate the future of energy and enable the transition to a lower carbon world. Learn more about Nabors and its energy technology leadership: www.nabors.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220922005823/en/

Media:

Office of Governor Burgum

Mike Nowatzki

701-328-2424

[email protected]

North Dakota Tribal College System

Tracey Bauer

701-989-1716

[email protected]

Hess Corporation  Houston

Rob Young

346-319-8783

[email protected]

Hess Corporation  North Dakota

Beth Feldner

701-648-9780

[email protected]

Nabors Industries

Robin Davidson

281-775-3427

[email protected]

Halliburton

Brad Leone

281-871-2601

[email protected]

Source: Hess Corporation
PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- PPG (NYSE: PPG) today announced the following details for its third-quarter 2022 earnings release and teleconference call.

Earnings release: Wednesday, Oct. 19, after U.S. stock markets close Teleconference: Thursday, Oct. 20, 8 a.m. ET PPG participants: Michael H. McGarry, chairman and chief executive officer Tim Knavish, chief operating officer Vincent J. Morales, senior vice president and chief financial officer John Bruno, vice president, investor relations Dial-in registration: Visit https://www.netroadshow.com/events/login?show=0d492aeb&confId=42260 to register for the conference call. Upon registering, you will receive your access details via email. Webcast: A live, listen-only webcast will be available via the PPG Investor Center. Telephone replay: Available beginning at approximately 11:00 a.m. ET, Thursday, Oct. 20 through 11:59 p.m. ET, Thursday, Nov. 3. Replay numbers: US Toll Free: 1 866 813 9403 US (Local): 1 929 458 6194 Canada: 1 226 828 7578 UK (Local): 0204 525 0658 All other locations: +44 204 525 0658 Access Code: 120928 Web replay: Replay of the webcast will be available shortly after the call on the PPG Investor Center and will remain through Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023.

The news release will be available on the PPG Investor Center and PPG Newsroom.

Prepared remarks and details regarding PPGs operating segment results and other financials will be available on the PPG Investor Center after the earnings release.

PPG: WE PROTECT AND BEAUTIFY THE WORLD

At PPG (NYSE: PPG), we work every day to develop and deliver the paints, coatings and specialty materials that our customers have trusted for more than 135 years. Through dedication and creativity, we solve our customers biggest challenges, collaborating closely to find the right path forward. With headquarters in Pittsburgh, we operate and innovate in more than 75 countries and reported net sales of $16.8 billion in 2021. We serve customers in construction, consumer products, industrial and transportation markets and aftermarkets. To learn more, visit www.ppg.com.

We protect and beautify the world and the PPG Logo are registered trademarks of PPG Industries Ohio, Inc.

CATEGORY Financial

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005040/en/

Media Contact:

Mark Silvey

Corporate Communications

+1-412-434-3046

[email protected]

Investor Contact:

John Bruno

Investor Relations

+1-412-434-3466

[email protected]

investor.ppg.com

Source: PPG
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Modern society would not be possible without biotechnology. From vaccines and medicines, to crops, foods, cleaners, and industrial products, biotechnology benefits every area of our lives.

In Saskatchewan, we celebrate Global Biotech Week to showcase the provinces scientific achievements and increase awareness of how science affects our lives. Ag-West Bio coordinates Global Biotech Week activities in Saskatchewan each year, with the support of a local committee. The week is packed with events, both for the public and industry.

Ag-West Bio President and CEO Karen Churchill says Saskatchewan people have good reason to celebrate biotechnology. We have world-class research happening right here in our province, with prolific work in crop development, a high-level vaccine research centre, and all kinds of fermentation R&D activity. We should be proud of our scientific community.

The Province of Saskatchewan, City of Saskatoon and City of Regina have each proclaimed September 26 to October 2, 2022 as Global Biotech Week.

Saskatchewans activities include:

Nuit Blanche: Making Art with Bacteria - September 24  A beautiful collaboration between Nuit Blanche and Sask Polytechnic. A harmless e.coli bacteria is used as a painting medium. As the bacteria multiplies, magic happens! (Oskayak School  Broadway & Main, Saskatoon).

 A beautiful collaboration between Nuit Blanche and Sask Polytechnic. A harmless e.coli bacteria is used as a painting medium. As the bacteria multiplies, magic happens! (Oskayak School  Broadway & Main, Saskatoon). Taste of Innovation - September 26  An industry luncheon at Boffins to kick-off a week of celebrating science!

 An industry luncheon at Boffins to kick-off a week of celebrating science! Indigenous Voices in Science - September 27  Hosted by Genome Prairie, a panel of scholars and researchers will share their experiences and perspectives on advancing indigenous people in research and science.

 Hosted by Genome Prairie, a panel of scholars and researchers will share their experiences and perspectives on advancing indigenous people in research and science. Cafe Scientifique: Why communities are at the heart of global conservation efforts - September 27  Join Dr. James Robson (USask) for a hybrid presentation at Innovation Place.

 Join Dr. James Robson (USask) for a hybrid presentation at Innovation Place. Canadian Light Source Tour - September 28  Tour Canadas synchrotron to learn how researchers and industry are using cutting-edge synchrotron techniques to drive biotech innovation.

 Tour Canadas synchrotron to learn how researchers and industry are using cutting-edge synchrotron techniques to drive biotech innovation. The Biotech Explosion: Amazing Innovations in Agriculture and Medicine with Dr. Kevin Folta - September 28

Learn how scientists work with nature to benefit people and the planet from Dr. Kevin Folta, a professor at the University of Florida and an award-winning science communicator.

Learn how scientists work with nature to benefit people and the planet from Dr. Kevin Folta, a professor at the University of Florida and an award-winning science communicator. Biotech & Beer @The Mix: The original micro-breweries: connecting yeast with beer flavors - September 29

The event includes a talk and beer tasting led by Dr. Chris Eskiw (USask), followed by Biotech Trivia!

The event includes a talk and beer tasting led by Dr. Chris Eskiw (USask), followed by Biotech Trivia! Climate Cool: Exploring science solutions for sustainability - October 1  Agriculture in the Classroom will be at Nutrien Wonderhub with hands-on, table-top science activities for all ages. A primer on how to design a poster to explain a science concept will prepare students to enter a poster competition!

 Agriculture in the Classroom will be at Nutrien Wonderhub with hands-on, table-top science activities for all ages. A primer on how to design a poster to explain a science concept will prepare students to enter a poster competition! Sask Food Centre Open House - October 4  Tour the Food Centre and learn how its Fermentation and Bioengineering Program can help accelerate food (and pet food) innovation.

 Tour the Food Centre and learn how its Fermentation and Bioengineering Program can help accelerate food (and pet food) innovation. Startupville Podcast  watch for the special Biotech Week Edition.

For event details, please visit www.globalbiotechweeksask.ca.

About Global Biotech Week:

Originating in Canada in 2003, Biotech Week is now recognized around the world as Global Biotech Week. Events scheduled throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, and Canada highlight the innovation and creativity of life science researchers. BIOTECanada spearheads Global Biotech Week in collaboration with partners from across Canada. To learn more about Global Biotech Week around the world, visit globalbiotechweek.ca.

About Ag-West Bio:

Ag-West Bio is Saskatchewans bioscience industry association. The company works as a catalyst for developing partnerships and industry growth in the bioeconomy through investments, aiding strategic alliances, and providing business planning support, regulatory advice, and communications. Funding for Ag-West Bio is provided by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) program.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005072/en/

Jackie Robin

Communications Director

Ag-West Bio

(306) 229-0391

[email protected]

Source: Ag-West Bio
HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Tellurian Inc. (Tellurian) (NYSE American: TELL) announced today that it has updated its Driftwood LNG financing strategy to prioritize securing equity partners. Part of this strategy includes introducing flexibility in its liquefied natural gas portfolio with the termination of two current sales and purchase agreements.

President and CEO Octavio Simoes said, The potential corporate and strategic partners we are seeking may want liquefied natural gas (LNG) volumes that they can sell globally and now we have some capacity to offer that option. We have made good progress on our construction plan and will continue funding that with our cash and operating cash flow.

Simoes added, What has not changed for Tellurian is that we are an operating natural gas producer with revenue from our gas sales. Last quarter we produced nine billion cubic feet of natural gas and had over $61 million in sales, and since then we have closed the EnSight acquisition. Currently we have 11 natural gas wells in various stages of completion and therefore expect a significant increase in production and sales next quarter. In addition, we will add to our value when our fully permitted Driftwood LNG project is completed, and we can reach the global markets with LNG sales at global prices.

About Tellurian Inc.

Tellurian intends to create value for shareholders by building a low-cost, global natural gas business, profitably delivering natural gas to customers worldwide. Tellurian is developing a portfolio of natural gas production, LNG marketing and trading, and infrastructure that includes an ~ 27.6 mtpa LNG export facility and an associated pipeline. Tellurian is based in Houston, Texas, and its common stock is listed on the NYSE American under the symbol TELL.

For more information, please visit www.tellurianinc.com. Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/TellurianLNG

CAUTIONARY INFORMATION ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of U.S. federal securities laws. The words anticipate, assume, believe, budget, estimate, expect, forecast, initial, intend, may, plan, potential, project, proposed, should, will, would, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements herein relate to, among other things, the capacity, timing, and other aspects of the Driftwood LNG project, the construction and financing of the project, and cash flows, production, sales, profitability and asset values. These statements involve a number of known and unknown risks, which may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. These risks include the matters discussed in Item 1A of Part I of the Annual Report on Form 10-K of Tellurian for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 filed by Tellurian with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) on February 23, 2022, and other Tellurian filings with the SEC, all of which are incorporated by reference herein. The forward-looking statements in this press release speak as of the date of this release. Although Tellurian may from time to time voluntarily update its prior forward-looking statements, it disclaims any commitment to do so except as required by securities laws.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005482/en/

Media:

Joi Lecznar

EVP Public and Government Affairs

Phone +1.832.962.4044

[email protected]

Investors:

Matt Phillips

Vice President, Investor Relations

Phone +1.832.320.9331

[email protected]

Source: Tellurian Inc.
PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Regulatory News:

In accordance with Article 5 of EU Regulation n 596/2014 (Market Abuse Regulation), detailed information is available on the website of Tikehau Capital (Paris: TKO): https://www.tikehaucapital.com/fr/shareholders/regulatory-information

Disclosure of shares repurchases from 16 to 22 September 2022 Name of the issuer Issuer Identity Code

(LEI) Trading Day ISIN Aggregated volume

per day (number

of shares) Weighted

average price

per day Market

(MIC Code) TIKEHAU CAPITAL 969500BY8TEU16U3SJ94 16/09/2022 FR0013230612 5,491 25.7850 XPAR TIKEHAU CAPITAL 969500BY8TEU16U3SJ94 19/09/2022 FR0013230612 1,736 25.2448 XPAR TIKEHAU CAPITAL 969500BY8TEU16U3SJ94 20/09/2022 FR0013230612 2,754 25.2052 XPAR TIKEHAU CAPITAL 969500BY8TEU16U3SJ94 21/09/2022 FR0013230612 3,669 25.1653 XPAR TIKEHAU CAPITAL 969500BY8TEU16U3SJ94 22/09/2022 FR0013230612 3,941 25.0855 XPAR TIKEHAU CAPITAL 969500BY8TEU16U3SJ94 22/09/2022 FR0013230612 170 25.0500 CEUX TOTAL 17,761 25.3520

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005465/en/

Tikehau Capital

Source: Tikehau Capital
PORT-GENTIL, Gabon--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Regulatory News:

The Combined Shareholders Meeting of TotalEnergies EP Gabon (Paris: EC) was held, today in Libreville, under the chairmanship of Mr. Henri-Max NDONG NZUE.

The Shareholders adopted all the resolutions approved by the Board of Directors, including distribution approval of a net dividend at $55.56 per share for a total payment of $250 million.

A detailed breakdown of the vote tallies will be posted on the Companys website www.ep.totalenergies.ga in the coming days.

The $55.56 per share dividend will be paid in euro from September 30, 2022, in an equivalent amount of 56.96 per share, based on the European Central Banks rate of $0.97 per euro on September 23, 2022.

About TotalEnergies EP Gabon

TotalEnergies EP Gabon is 58.28% owned by TotalEnergies S. E, 25% by the Gabonese Republic and 16.72% by the public.

About TotalEnergies

TotalEnergies is a global multi-energy company that produces and markets energies: oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables and electricity. Our 100,000 employees are committed to energy that is ever more affordable, cleaner, more reliable and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130 countries, TotalEnergies puts sustainable development in all its dimensions at the heart of its projects and operations to contribute to the well-being of people.

@TotalEnergies TotalEnergies TotalEnergies TotalEnergies

Cautionary Note

The terms "TotalEnergies", "TotalEnergies Company" and "Company" appearing in this document are used to refer to TotalEnergies SE and the consolidated entities that TotalEnergies SE controls directly or indirectly. Similarly, the terms "we", "us", "our" may also be used to refer to these entities or their employees. The entities in which TotalEnergies SE holds a stake directly or indirectly are separate and autonomous legal persons. TotalEnergies SE cannot be held liable for acts or omissions emanating from these companies.

This document may contain forward-looking statements. They may prove to be inaccurate in the future and are dependent on risk factors. Neither TotalEnergies SE nor any of its subsidiaries undertakes or assumes any commitment or responsibility to investors or any other stakeholder to update or revise, in particular as a result of new information or future events, any or all of the statements, forward-looking information, trends or objectives contained in this document. Information regarding risk factors that could have a material adverse effect on TotalEnergies' financial results or operations is also available in the most up-to-date versions of the Universal Registration Document filed by TotalEnergies SE with the Autorite des marches financiers and Form 20-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC").

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005460/en/

TotalEnergies EP Gabon

[email protected]

Media Relations: +33 (0)1 47 44 46 99 l [email protected] l @TotalEnergiesPR

Investor Relations: +33 (0)1 47 44 46 46 l [email protected]

Source: TotalEnergies EP Gabon
Research publication edition is a collaboration of Colleges and administrative units demonstrating singular focus on being preeminent university serving working adult students

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- University of Phoenix has released the 15th edition of the Phoenix Scholar academic research journal with a special issue dedicated to showcasing the singular focus of work being done as the preeminent university serving working adults. The articles in this journal span research conducted by faculty, academic administration, and the Universitys Research Centers, as well as theory-based research that drives continuous quality improvement across the Universitys administrative units.

This edition is the first of its kind for the Scholar: a compilation of work from departments across our university that showcases academic activity, faculty development, and our focus on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) here at the University of Phoenix, shares Eve Krahe-Billings, Ph.D., dean, Academic Innovation and Evaluation at the University. Our readers will be treated to the established, literature-based work of higher ed as well as innovations in best practice and new spins on tried-and-true methodologies implemented right here at the University of Phoenix.

The research pieces collected for this special issue of Phoenix Scholar represent a sample of the innovation at a university that has emerged from the days of COVID-19 stronger than it entered. An article co-authored by Krahe-Billings and Vice Provost Doris Savron describes University of Phoenix as a place that, knowing its students and the value they place on the practicality of education, has emerged from COVID-19 with over 85% of programs open for new enrollment revised, skills-tagged, and ready for use by students, whose learning is now recognized in select courses by the digital badges they can earn.

This issue also highlights studies conducted by University of Phoenix to develop inclusive communities through co-curricular activities, increase faculty engagement in the assessment of student learning, address the complexities of field study in social work and counseling programs during COVID-19, and measure efforts aimed at developing empathy in graduate students in the Master of Health Administration program.

The Phoenix Scholar journal is the academic research publication of University Phoenixs College of Doctoral Studies and serves as the scholarly platform for communicating the results and outcomes of university research endeavors, and their relationship to the broader scope of learning and scholarship.

In addition to the University of Phoenix Career Institute, a research center focused on studying American workforce dynamics through the Career Optimism Index study, College of Doctoral Studies research centers contribute to the Phoenix Scholar content, including the Center for Leadership Studies and Organizational Research (CLSOR), the Center for Educational and Instructional Technology Research (CEITR), and the Center for Workplace Diversity and Inclusion Research (CWDIR). As long-time leaders in online education, the university utilizes research to develop solutions in the core areas of leadership, workplace diversity, and instructional technology to enhance student outcomes, improve communities and to help students, faculty and alumni grow in their career aspirations.

Read the current issue of Phoenix ScholarTM here.

Learn more about the Phoenix ScholarTM publication here.

The International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) by the U.S. ISSN Center at the Library of Congress for Phoenix Scholar is online format ISSN 2771-6503 and print format ISSN 2771-6422.

About the College of Doctoral Studies

University of Phoenixs College of Doctoral Studies focuses on todays challenging business and organizational needs, from addressing critical social issues to developing solutions to accelerate community building and industry growth. The Colleges research program puts students in the center of an effective ecosystem of experts, resources and tools to help prepare them to be a leader in their organization, industry and community. Through this program, students and researchers work with organizations to conduct research that can be applied in the workplace in real time.

About University of Phoenix

University of Phoenix is continually innovating to help working adults enhance their careers in a rapidly changing world. Flexible schedules, relevant courses, interactive learning, and Career Services for Life help students more effectively pursue career and personal aspirations while balancing their busy lives. For more information, visit phoenix.edu.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005451/en/

Sharla Hooper

University of Phoenix

[email protected]

Source: University of Phoenix
- Artivion, Inc. (NYSE: AORT), a leading cardiac and vascular surgery company focused on aortic disease, announced today that it has stopped the PROACT Xa clinical trial, a prospective, randomized, trial designed to determine if patients with an On-X mechanical aortic valve can be maintained safely and effectively on apixaban rather than on warfarin. The decision was based on the recommendation of the independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) of the trial due to lack of evidence supporting non-inferiority of apixaban to warfarin for valve thrombosis and thromboembolism.

The PROACT Xa trial randomized patients having an On-X aortic valve replacement to receive either warfarin or apixaban as their anticoagulant to prevent blood clots. The trial began enrolling in April 2020. The DSMB found that blood clots, resulting in stroke, occurred more frequently in patients receiving apixaban and that continuing the trial was unlikely to achieve the primary endpoint while possibly exposing patients to increased risk. Physician investigators at the trial's sites are being notified to change patients who are in the apixaban arm of the trial back to warfarin.

Dr. John Alexander, Chair of the PROACT Xa trial and Professor of Medicine/Cardiology at Duke University School of Medicine, said, "The PROACT Xa trial was designed to determine whether apixaban would yield equivalent safety to the standard anticoagulant, warfarin. Unfortunately, it appears that it does not. On behalf of all of the investigators, we appreciate the research effort into the science of managing patients with artificial heart valves."

Pat Mackin, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Artivion said, "The On-X aortic valve has a long track record of safe and efficacious outcomes and is the leading mechanical aortic valve in the United States and in other markets around the globe. Despite this setback, the On-X aortic valve provides significant clinical benefits to patients and remains the only mechanical aortic valve for which patients can be safely managed with reduced blood thinners, leading to a 60 percent reduction in bleeding."

Mr. Mackin continued, "We are disappointed to stop the PROACT Xa trial as a successful trial would have significantly benefited patients and significantly increased our addressable market opportunity beginning in 2025. Despite stopping the trial, we are reiterating our 2022 outlook of delivering double-digit top-line growth and we remain committed to delivering the financial expectations we communicated in our March investor meeting: Double digit top-line growth, expanding gross margins, and accelerated adjusted EBITDA growth through 2024. We had committed approximately $10 million in annual funding to this study through 2024 and will now redirect these funds to other development opportunities and to incremental EBITDA and cash flow in 2023 and 2024."

Webcast and Conference Call InformationThe Company will hold a teleconference call and live webcast later today, September 23, 2022, at 8:30 a.m. ET. To participate in the conference call dial 201-689-8261 a few minutes prior to 8:30 a.m. ET. The teleconference replay will be available approximately one hour following the completion of the event and can be accessed by calling (toll free) 877-660-6853 or 201-612-7415. The conference number for the replay is 13733128.

The live webcast and replay can be accessed by going to the Investors section of the Artivion website at www.Artivion.com and selecting the heading Webcasts & Presentations.
Today, The Estee Lauder Companies (NYSE: EL) announced that Justin Boxford has been appointed Global Brand President, Estee Lauder, effective September 1, 2022. Justin succeeds Stephane de La Faverie, whose promotion to Executive Group President was part of an organizational evolution announced last week. In his new role, Justin is reporting to Stephane and will continue to serve on the companys Executive Leadership Team (ELT).

As Global Brand President, Justin will be responsible for driving Estee Lauders short- and long-term strategy, including innovation, product development, North America and international growth, consumer marketing and distribution evolution. He will partner closely with members of the global Estee Lauder leadership team to drive the brands success for the company and build upon its enduring relevance with consumers worldwide.

Justin is a dynamic leader who brings to Estee Lauder proven prestige and luxury brand-building expertise, a deep understanding of the global business landscape and extensive background in transforming the online and omnichannel experience, said Stephane. His successful track record of leading teams and growing brand aspiration make him the perfect leader to continue building on the outstanding growth and strength of our flagship brand.

Justin joins Estee Lauder after almost six years at the helm of La Mer, where he drove outstanding results, boosting net sales to become a top-performing brand for the company, as well as solidifying its leadership in global luxury skin care. Under Justins leadership, La Mer has expanded and diversified its product portfolio, building multiple hero engines of growth, and successfully launching products that have strengthened the brands luxury architecture, from the new serum-strength The Treatment Lotion to the ultra-luxury Genaissance de la Mer regimen. Justin has also led the La Mer team to significantly advance claims, credentialing, and science positioning with breakthrough commercial innovation such as the recent pre-/post-derm campaign for The Concentrate.

Justin led the strategic expansion of La Mer across omnichannel platforms to reach new consumers via highly curated, luxury experiences enabled by digital. La Mer has elevated luxury experience standards on key platforms such as Tmall, and on new platforms in emerging markets.

At the heart of his tenure at La Mer, Justin is also credited with amplifying La Mers brand purpose through continued dedication to ocean conservation, illustrated by his implementation of sustainable initiatives into the brands business model, and a focus on driving awareness with purpose-led storytelling. Justin is recognized for championing La Mers purpose across every part of the business by fostering a culture of equity and inclusion internally, and by delivering value and meaning into the hearts of loyal La Mer consumers.

Since joining the company in 2004, Justin has held several leadership roles around the world and across multiple brands, regions, and channels. Prior to joining La Mer, Justin held the position of Senior Vice President, International, Estee Lauder and TOM FORD BEAUTY, and prior to then, Justin lived in Hong Kong where he led the same brands for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. Justin was instrumental in advancing the Estee Lauder brands digital, omnichannel, and local relevance strategies internationally, helping to achieve its position as the top skin care brand in the world. He also led the successful launch of TOM FORD BEAUTY internationally, including in China and APAC. Previously, Justin was Vice President, Estee Lauder, Travel Retail.

About The Estee Lauder Companies Inc.

The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. is one of the worlds leading manufacturers, marketers, and sellers of quality skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products. The companys products are sold in approximately 150 countries and territories under brand names including: Estee Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, LAB Series, Origins, MAC, La Mer, Bobbi Brown, Aveda, Jo Malone London, Bumble and bumble, Darphin Paris, TOM FORD BEAUTY, Smashbox, AERIN Beauty, Le Labo, Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle, GLAMGLOW, KILIAN PARIS, Too Faced, Dr.Jart+, and the DECIEM family of brands, including The Ordinary and NIOD.

ELC-B

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005308/en/

Investor Relations:



Rainey Mancini



[email protected]







Media Relations:



Jill Marvin



[email protected]

Source: The Estee Lauder Companies
Splash Beverage Group, Inc. (NYSE American: SBEV) (the Company or Splash Beverage Group), a portfolio company of leading beverage brands, today announced it has commenced an underwritten public offering.

EF Hutton, division of Benchmark Investments, LLC, is acting as the sole book-running manager for the offering.

The proposed offering of the common stock described above is being offered by the Company pursuant to a "shelf" registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-259865) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and declared effective by the SEC on October 8, 2021, and the accompanying prospectus contained therein.

The Company intends to use the proceeds from the offering to support additional distribution and retail authorizations gained recently.

The offering is being made only by means of a prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus. A prospectus supplement describing the terms of the public offering will be filed with the SEC and will form a part of the effective registration statement.

Copies of the prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to this offering may be obtained, when available, on the SECs website at http://www.sec.gov or by contacting EF Hutton, division of Benchmark Investments, LLC Attention: Syndicate Department, 590 Madison Avenue, 39th Floor, New York, NY 10022, by email at [email protected], or by telephone at (212) 404-7002.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
Tellurian Inc. (Tellurian) (NYSE American: TELL) announced today that it has updated its Driftwood LNG financing strategy to prioritize securing equity partners. Part of this strategy includes introducing flexibility in its liquefied natural gas portfolio with the termination of two current sales and purchase agreements.

President and CEO Octavio Simoes said, The potential corporate and strategic partners we are seeking may want liquefied natural gas (LNG) volumes that they can sell globally and now we have some capacity to offer that option. We have made good progress on our construction plan and will continue funding that with our cash and operating cash flow.

Simoes added, What has not changed for Tellurian is that we are an operating natural gas producer with revenue from our gas sales. Last quarter we produced nine billion cubic feet of natural gas and had over $61 million in sales, and since then we have closed the EnSight acquisition. Currently we have 11 natural gas wells in various stages of completion and therefore expect a significant increase in production and sales next quarter. In addition, we will add to our value when our fully permitted Driftwood LNG project is completed, and we can reach the global markets with LNG sales at global prices.
YETI Holdings, Inc. (YETI) (NYSE: YETI), the global retailer and innovator of premium outdoor products, today announced the resignation of Chief Financial Officer, Paul Carbone, effective October 28, 2022. Mr. Carbone will be returning to Boston to pursue a business opportunity that will allow him to be closer to family.

Paul has made an indelible contribution to the organization during his tenure and was instrumental in guiding YETI through our initial public offering in 2018, said Matt Reintjes, President & CEO at YETI. On behalf of the Board of Directors and our entire team, I want to thank Paul for his successful leadership as CFO for our first four years as a public company and I wish Paul and his family all the best on their next adventure.

Mr. Carbone commented, Im incredibly proud of the work weve done since I joined YETI in 2018, transitioning from a private entity to an established public company. It has been an honor to work alongside such a dedicated and talented team. I look forward to a smooth transition over the next five weeks and know YETI is well positioned for the future.

YETI and its Board of Directors have already commenced a search for a new Chief Financial Officer and Mr. Carbone will be actively supporting the transition before his departure.
FILE PHOTO: A nurse fills up syringes with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines for residents who are over 50 years old and immunocompromised and are eligible to receive their second booster shots in Waterford, Michigan, U.S., April 8, 2022. REUTE

(Reuters) -Updated COVID-19 boosters have gone into 4.4 million arms in the United States since a new revaccination campaign began three weeks ago, government data shows, a slower pace for the shots targeting the Omicron variant of the coronavirus than the rollout of the first boosters last year.

The government said earlier this week it has shipped 25 million of the Omicron-tailored shots, mostly from Pfizer/BioNTech.

Production of the similarly retooled Moderna shots has been slower due to what the U.S. Food and Drug Administration flagged as quality control issues at a contract manufacturing site run by Catalent Inc.

The FDA on Tuesday said it had cleared some vaccine from that plant.

Last year, when the United States initially authorized COVID boosters just for older and immunocompromised people, nearly 10 million received their third shot in the first three weeks.

The latest data, released late on Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), did show increased interest in the Omicron shots over demand for the older boosters during the previous three weeks.

In those three weeks, about 930,000 people received booster shots of the old vaccines available to those aged 50 and older or at risk for severe disease, according to CDC data.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, said he expects demand for the updated shots to be low, "as has been the case with boosters from the very beginning."

"I think that stems from kind of the poor messaging in the way this booster campaign and prior booster campaigns have been managed, as political issues rather than focusing on where boosters are going to beneficial," he said.

That focus should be on high-risk populations and those aged 65 and over, Adalja added.

The updated shots target the widely circulating BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants as well as the original version of the coronavirus included in all previous COVID vaccines.

Moderna had been producing new boosters aimed at the older BA.1 Omicron subvariant when the FDA asked them to change course to address the currently dominant variants for the U.S. market.

(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru and Michael Erman in New York; editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot)
FILE PHOTO: A Delta Airlines flight casts a shadow on the ground as it makes its approach for landing at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 11, 2021. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Energy Department on Friday issued a plan detailing a government-wide strategy for ramping up production and use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF).

In September 2021, the Biden administration launched a government challenge to supply at least 3 billion gallons of SAF per year by 2030 and have enough SAF by 2050 "to meet 100% of aviation fuel demand, currently projected to be around 35 billion gallons a year." U.S. airlines have pledged to work with the government to make 3 billion gallons of SAF available to aircraft operators by 2030.

The administration wants SAF to achieve a minimum of a 50% reduction in GHG emissions compared to conventional fuel and seeks to expand supply, use, reduce its cost and enhance its sustainability.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the "plan will help American companies corner the market on a valuable emerging industry."

The Energy Department said given limited time to meet the 2030 goals "requires an immediate focus on commercially ready conversion technologies and feedstocks." It added, "Lipid-based pathways (fats, oils, and greases) are expected to be the primary fuel pathway leading up to 2030."

President Joe Biden signed legislation in August creating a two-year blender tax credit; a subsequent three-year production tax credit; and $290 million SAF grant program.

Many airlines including Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines want to replace 10% of jet fuel with SAF by 2030.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian said hitting near-term goals "will require continued work alongside our suppliers and policymakers so that SAF can become as economical and widely available as traditional jet fuel," while Southwest CEO Bob Jordan said, "SAF is critical to decarbonizing the aviation sector."

Aviation generates approximately 2% of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions and U.S. aviation consumes approximately 10% of U.S. transportation energy.

The Energy Department said that sources to power airplanes other than jet fuels, such as battery technologies and hydrogen, "are not expected to contribute to substantially reducing aviation emissions until after 2050."

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Porter)
Listing: TSX (Toronto Stock Exchange)

Symbol: CMR

TORONTO, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited (BlackRock Canada), an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK), today announced the final September 2022 cash distributions for the iShares Premium Money Market ETF. Unitholders of record on September 26, 2022 will receive cash distributions payable on September 29, 2022.

Details regarding the final per unit distribution amounts are as follows:

Fund Name Fund Ticker Cash Distribution Per Unit ($) iShares Premium Money Market ETF CMR 0.111

Further information on the iShares ETFs can be found at http://www.blackrock.com/ca.

About BlackRock

BlackRocks purpose is to help more and more people experience financial well-being. As a fiduciary to investors and a leading provider of financial technology, we help millions of people build savings that serve them throughout their lives by making investing easier and more affordable. For additional information on BlackRock, please visit www.blackrock.com/corporate | Twitter: @BlackRockCA

About iShares

iShares unlocks opportunity across markets to meet the evolving needs of investors. With more than twenty years of experience, a global line-up of 900+ exchange traded funds (ETFs) and US$2.78 trillion in assets under management as of June 30, 2022, iShares continues to drive progress for the financial industry. iShares funds are powered by the expert portfolio and risk management of BlackRock.

iShares ETFs are managed by BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited.

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investing in iShares ETFs. Please read the relevant prospectus before investing. The funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. Tax, investment and all other decisions should be made, as appropriate, only with guidance from a qualified professional.

Contact for Media: Reem Jazar Email: [email protected]

Source: BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited (iShares)
As a Quebec-based company, Bombardier is proud to be a major partner of the family-friendly airshow

Long-term career opportunities in the local aerospace industry to be showcased at the event

MONTREAL, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bombardier is proud to be a partner of the inaugural Volaria Airshow in Mirabel, Quebec, on September 24-25, 2022. The event will feature aerial performances, aircraft static displays and information on the dynamic aerospace industry in Quebec.

"Bombardier is very pleased to support the Volaria Airshow  an event where families can come and see airplanes up close and have a glimpse of the vibrant aerospace sector in Quebec. We look forward to showcasing to a larger audience the ingenuity that Bombardier is recognized for and its sustainability actions," said Eve Laurier, Vice President Communications, Marketing & Public Affairs. You never know when you will spark a passion, which may one day become a fascinating career."

The Volaria festival celebrates the rich history of the Quebec aerospace industry  a history in which Bombardier plays an essential role, as the original equipment manufacturer celebrates its 80th anniversary this year. Driven by the spirit of innovation, Bombardier is a global leader in aviation, focused on designing, manufacturing, and servicing the world's most exceptional business jets.

Bombardier is proudly supporting the event as a Gold Partner with several initiatives. The new Challenger 3500 aircraft, accompanied by a flight crew, will be on static display. As market leader in the super mid-size business jet segment, Challenger aircraft are assembled and delivered in Dorval, Quebec. Bombardier is proud that the Challenger program generates hundreds of well-paying jobs at the heart of Quebecs world-class aeronautics sector, and to contribute significantly to the local economy through Bombardier's 8,000 employees in Quebec and its many suppliers.

The Volaria festival has been acknowledged as carbon neutral with the support of sponsorships, including Bombardier. Carbon offsets will be used to compensate for the GHG emissions associated with the event, demonstrating Bombardiers commitment to sustainability and to the industrys environmental goals. To further illustrate the companys innovative and forward-looking ingenuity, Bombardier will highlight its EcoJet research program that aims to reduce the environmental footprint of business aviation. As part of the EcoJet research project, Bombardier will showcase a scale model of an integrated wing-fuselage representing an intermediate business aircraft. This prototype allows for flight testing of unconventional aircraft configurations that could significantly reduce fuel consumption in the years to come.

In addition to showcasing its products and innovations at Volaria, Bombardier is also on the lookout for talented and passionate individuals who want to design and build the worlds best business jets. More than 500 positions with varying levels of qualifications are available across Bombardier in Canada, with a large portion of them in the Montreal area. As part of their ongoing recruitment efforts, Bombardier representatives will be on site at a job fair presented by Aero Montreal to discuss employment and career opportunities with Volaria attendees.

More information on the Volaria Airshow is available online (website in French only). For additional information on career opportunities at Bombardier, visit the Careers section of our website.

About Bombardier Bombardier is a global leader in aviation, focused on designing, manufacturing, and servicing the world's most exceptional business jets. Bombardiers Challenger and Global aircraft families are renowned for their cutting-edge innovation, cabin design, performance, and reliability. Bombardier has a worldwide fleet of approximately 5,000 aircraft in service with a wide variety of multinational corporations, charter and fractional ownership providers, governments, and private individuals. Bombardier aircraft are also trusted around the world in special-mission roles.

Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Bombardier operates aerostructure, assembly and completion facilities in Canada, the United States and Mexico. The companys robust customer support network includes facilities in strategic locations in the United States and Canada, as well as in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, the UAE, Singapore, China, and an Australian facility opening in 2022.

For corporate news and information, including Bombardiers Environmental, Social and Governance report, visit bombardier.com. Learn more about Bombardiers industry-leading products and customer service network at businessaircraft.bombardier.com. Follow us on Twitter @Bombardier.

Bombardier, Challenger, Challenger 3500 and Global are registered or unregistered trademarks of Bombardier Inc. or its subsidiaries.

For InformationFabrice TremblayBombardier+1 514.463.8493[email protected]

Source: Bombardier Inc.
TORONTO, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (TSX: DGS, GDV, GDV.PR.A, LBS, LBS.PR.A, OSP.PR.A, PWI, PWI.PR.A, SBC, SBC.PR.A)  Brompton Funds announces distributions payable on October 17, 2022 to class A shareholders of record at the close of business on September 30, 2022 for each of the following funds:

Fund Name Ticker Amount Per Share Dividend Growth Split Corp. DGS $ 0.10 Global Dividend Growth Split Corp. GDV $ 0.10 Life & Banc Split Corp. LBS $ 0.10 Sustainable Power & Infrastructure Split Corp. PWI $ 0.06667 Brompton Split Banc Corp. SBC $ 0.10

Brompton Funds also announces distributions payable on October 17, 2022 to preferred shareholders of record at the close of business on September 30, 2022 for the following fund:

Fund Name Ticker Amount Per Share Global Dividend Growth Split Corp. GDV.PR.A $ 0.1250 Life & Banc Split Corp. LBS.PR.A $ 0.13625 Brompton Oil Split Corp. OSP.PR.A $ 0.1625 Sustainable Power & Infrastructure Split Corp. PWI.PR.A $ 0.1250 Brompton Split Banc Corp. SBC.PR.A $ 0.1250

The funds noted above offer distribution reinvestment plans (DRIP) for class A shareholders which provide class A shareholders with the ability to automatically reinvest distributions, commission free, and realize the benefits of compound growth. Class A shareholders can enroll in a DRIP program by contacting their investment advisor.

About Brompton FundsFounded in 2000, Brompton is an experienced investment fund manager with income focused investment solutions including exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other TSX traded investment funds. For further information, please contact your investment advisor, call Bromptons investor relations line at 416-642-6000 (toll-free at 1-866-642-6001), email [email protected] or visit our website at www.bromptongroup.com.

You will usually pay brokerage fees to your dealer if you purchase or sell shares of the investment funds on the Toronto Stock Exchange or other alternative Canadian trading system (an exchange). If the shares are purchased or sold on an exchange, investors may pay more than the current net asset value when buying shares of the investment fund and may receive less than the current net asset value when selling them.

There are ongoing fees and expenses associated with owning shares of an investment fund. An investment fund must prepare disclosure documents that contain key information about the funds. You can find more detailed information about the funds in the public filings available at www.sedar.com. Investment funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated.

Certain statements contained in this document constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information may relate to matters disclosed in this document and to other matters identified in public filings relating to the funds, to the future outlook of the funds and anticipated events or results and may include statements regarding the future financial performance of the funds. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by terms such as may, will, should, expect, plan, anticipate, believe, intend, estimate, predict, potential, continue or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. Actual results may vary from such forward-looking information. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and we assume no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances.

Source: Brompton Funds
BOSTON, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As schools head back into session this fall and with a rising demand for a skilled workforce throughout the country, the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters (NASRCC) today announced the launch of an education-focused online portal, Building Your Future, that provides those interested in pursuing a career in the trades with resources and information on earning a trade-based education in carpentry.

The portal is a one-stop shop where everyone from high school students, to college students, to working adults can learn about how to gain practical knowledge and skills with income and benefits potential through the NASRCC. One specific program, Shop Fridays, invites schools to bring students interested in the trades into official NASRCC area training centers for hands-on workshops to learn what it takes to enter into a construction career.

"As the demand for a skilled construction workforce is on the rise, students and adults throughout the northeast can now easily access information on how to begin a career with the carpenters," said Tom Fischer, Executive Director of the North Atlantic States Carpenters Training Fund. "We have a wide variety of programs and courses ranging from career programs with high schools to Associate Degree partnerships with regional community colleges, and other apprenticeship opportunities for adults. Our union is focused on helping communities meet the demand for skilled workers through this portal."

In addition to providing a wide range of educational programs to communities, the NASRCC is focused on the recruitment of women and veterans into the construction trades and provides specific educational opportunities for these communities through its Sisters in the Brotherhood program and its work with the U.S. Department of Labor and state and local officials.

The NASRCC offers five types of training:

- Pre-Apprenticeship: Opportunity for those with no carpentry skills to gain credits/entry into our apprenticeship program. Can include use of our "Career Connections" project plans and full curriculum at participating high schools.

- Apprenticeship: Four/five-year tuition free program developing comprehensive skills through both shop instruction and paid employment on active construction sites.

- Skills Enhancement: Free upgrade classes available to journey-level carpenters throughout their career.

- Specialty Training: Specific training related to a designated area of carpentry or a particular job. Can be tailored and scheduled for specific, individual employer needs.

- Professional Development: Programs to enhance personal leadership skills and enhance collaborative, efficient working relationships.

Additional educational opportunities include:

- Through partnerships with Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, Alfred State University and SUNY Sullivan, NASRCC members can advance as construction professionals and earn a college degree. Tuition is significantly reduced and scheduling is convenient for full-time work schedules.

About the North Atlantic States Regional Council

The North Atlantic States Regional Council represents more than 28,000 men and women employed by the leading residential and commercial general contractors and carpentry subcontractors in the region. Work performed by carpenters includes: wood framing; concrete; interior metal framing and drywall; ceilings; window installation; flooring; doors and hardware; finish/trim; mill work and furniture installation; pile driving; marine construction and diving. The union prides itself on offering the most comprehensive apprenticeship and life-long skills upgrade training to members at 18 locations. Curriculum is developed by the United Brotherhood of Carpenters with industry experts and often shared with vocational training programs. For more information visit nasrcc.org, and find the NASRCC on social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube.

###

Contact Information: Bert Durand Communications Director [email protected]

Related Images

Image 1

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

Attachment

Featured Image for North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters Featured Image for North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters

Source: North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Clear Sky Lithium Corp. (CSE: POWR) (FRA: K4A / WKN: A3DM2W) (OTC: CSKYF) (Clear Sky or the Company), a mineral exploration and development company focused on American lithium deposits to support domestic demand, is pleased to announce that it has initiated work on the Halo Project property.

Clear Sky has begun a Phase 1 workplan for the Halo Project to be undertaken by Tigren Inc. of Reno Nevada and is mobilizing for commencement of work in October. Tigren Inc. is controlled by Marco Montecinos, a director of the Company. The goal of the program is to develop an understanding of the Big Smoky Valley basinal alluvial cover within the Halo project land package via full surface grab sampling (where applicable) as well as surficial mapping of the claim area. The resulting data will be utilized to refine geological and metallurgical assessments to support phase 2 drill targeting.

Patrick Morris, Clear Sky Lithiums CEO notes, Being directly in between two projects that are continually producing such positive results gives support that Clear Sky is in the right place with the Halo Project. We are excited to get our team on site to advance the project through foundational fieldwork and metallurgy. For now, it simply feels great to see our neighbours enjoying positive results, and we look forward to joining with them as we collectively move ahead to unlock asset value throughout the area.

The Halo Project (see figure 1), is comprised of ninety-eight mineral claims, located in Esmeralda and Nye Counties, and is considered prospective for claystone-hosted lithium mineralization. Positive news regarding exploration and development on adjacent properties to the north and southwest of the Halo Project have recently fueled enthusiasm for regional lithium exploration activities in the area.

Figure 1  Clear Sky Lithium Halo Project Map displaying assay values from adjacent properties (American Lithiums TLC project to the northeast and American Battery Technology Companys Tonopah Flats project to the southwest).

To the north of the Halo Project, on July 14th 2022, American Lithium Corp. (Market Cap: US$546M) announced results from their resource expansion and infill drilling program. This release included 5 holes that returned their best result to date of 2,900 ppm Li averaging 1,550 ppm Li over 50.3 meters. Please refer to American Lithiums website for full disclosure of exploration results.

To the southwest, on June 21st 2022, American Battery Technology Company (Market Cap: US$461M) announced highlights from a phase 1 drilling program of 16 holes which returned up to 1,700 ppm Li.

Clear Sky Lithium advises the public that as part of its disclosure obligations as a public issuer, all material and regulatory filings can be found on www.sedar.com. We also invite the public to visit our website at www.clearskylithium.com and to sign up to our news alerts to be advised of future news releases and related company information. Please also ensure you watch our video which is available on the website.

On Behalf of The Board of Directors,Sincerely,

~Patrick Morris~

Patrick MorrisChief Executive Officer Clear Sky Lithium Corp.www.clearskylithium.com

About Clear Sky Lithium Corp. (CSE: POWR) (FRA: K4A / WKN: A3DM2W) (OTC: CSKYF)Clear Sky Lithium is an exploration and development company dedicated to the advancement of North American lithium deposits to support domestic demand. The Company holds interests on the Halo and Eli properties in Nevada. The Company is also focusing on the development of claystone extraction and processing technologies aimed at delivering scalable efficiencies across the value chain in a sustainable manner. Find out more visit www.clearskylithium.com and watch our video.

Forward Looking Information Disclaimer

This news release contains statements and information that, to the extent that they are not historical fact, may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking information may include financial and other projections, as well as statements regarding future plans, objectives, or economic performance, or the assumption underlying any of the foregoing. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as may, would, could, will, likely, except, anticipate, believe, intend, plan, forecast, project, estimate, outlook, or the negative thereof or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. Examples of such statements include but are not limited to statements with respect to commencing work on the Halo Project.

Forward-looking information is based on the assumptions, estimates, analysis, and opinions of management made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, but which may prove to be incorrect. The material factors and assumptions used to develop the forward-looking information contained in this news release include, but are not limited to, key personnel and qualified employees continuing their involvement with the Company; the Companys ability to secure additional financing on reasonable terms; the competitive conditions of the sector in which the Company operates; and laws and any amendments thereto applicable to the Company.

Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information, including, without limitation, risks relating to the future business plans of the Company; risks that the Company will not be able to retain its key personnel; risks that the Company will not be able to secure financing on reasonable terms or at all, as well as all of the other risks as described in the Companys final long form prospectus dated May 31, 2022, under the heading Risks Factors. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking information. Further, any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Companys management to predict all such factors and to assess in advance the impact of each such factor on the Companys business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking information to reflect information or events after the date on which it is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law, including securities laws.

The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the CSE nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Clear Sky Lithium Corp. Investor RelationsEmail: [email protected] Telephone: +1 (778) 383-7240

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1ac467bd-70f2-41d8-8505-05816c2cdb23

Figure 1  Clear Sky Lithium Halo Project Map displaying assay values from adjacent properties (American Lithiums TLC project to the northeast and American Battery Technology Companys Tonopah Flats project to the southwest). Figure 1  Clear Sky Lithium Halo Project Map displaying assay values from adjacent properties (American Lithiums TLC project to the northeast and American Battery Technology Companys Tonopah Flats project to the southwest).

Source: Clear Sky Lithium Corp.
TORONTO and HONG KONG, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dr. Pang Yiu-kai, Chairman of the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), welcomed the Governments announcement on September 23 (HKT) on the new 0+3 arrangements from September 26 for inbound travellers from overseas and Taiwan through Hong Kong International Airport, including the removal of mandatory hotel quarantine. The new arrangements mark Hong Kongs re-opening as a tourism gateway with significant international connections. This is expected to initially attract mainly business travellers, family visitors and returning Hong Kong residents. In addition, travellers are no longer required to take a PCR test before boarding flights to Hong Kong, and upon arrival, they can head directly to their home or chosen hotel to await the test results. The new arrangements will allow greater convenience and flexibility for travellers.

Dr. Pang continued, The application of the Come2HK scheme to all Mainland and Macau visitors and the removal of quotas for the scheme will also facilitate Mainland travellers to visit Hong Kong, especially business travellers and family visitors.

The HKTB has been actively planning to revive the tourism industry and will launch various initiatives in a timely manner, working with the Government, the tourism industry and related sectors, to drive the recovery of Hong Kong tourism.

A Media Snippet accompanying this announcement is available by clicking on the image or link below:

For media enquiries, please contact Jorge Lee, Tel: (800) 563-4582/(416) 366-2389 ext 206, [email protected].

Source: Hong Kong Tourism Board Canada
NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Epiq, a global leader to the legal industry and corporations, announced today Jenny Trang has joined its Class Action group as Vice President of Client Solutions.

Trang will be responsible for partnering with corporate counsel, outside defense counsel, plaintiffs counsel, and others on the successful resolution of high-profile class action and complex litigation matters. With a customer-first approach, she will explore innovative solutions and growth opportunities to enhance the services and experience delivered to clients.

Her move highlights Epiqs position as the globally-recognized authority in class action administration, having successfully managed some of the largest and most complex settlements in history.

Its rare to be able to add someone with the caliber of Jenny Trang, said Cameron Azari, Senior Vice President at Epiq. Her experience, energy, and ideas will be a welcome addition to our already highly respected team. We are eager to see what she will accomplish on behalf of our clients.

Prior to joining Epiq, Jenny held leadership positions at an innovation consultancy as well as a Fortune 500 company where she was responsible for driving strategies for customer discovery and development, digital adoption, and innovative solutions. She also worked with a leading class action settlement administrator for more than a decade, contributing to its impressive growth during her tenure. She earned her bachelors degree from Whittier College and her masters in business administration from Pepperdine Graziadio Business School. Jenny currently resides in New York City.

About Epiq

Epiq, a global technology-enabled services leader to the legal industry and corporations, takes on large-scale, increasingly complex tasks for corporate counsel, law firms, and business professionals with efficiency, clarity, and confidence. Clients rely on Epiq to streamline the administration of business operations, class action, mass tort, court reporting, eDiscovery, regulatory, compliance, restructuring, and bankruptcy matters. Epiqs subject-matter experts and technologies create efficiency through expertise and deliver confidence to high-performing clients around the world. Learn more at www.epiqglobal.com.

Press Contact

Carrie TrentEpiq, Director of Communications[email protected]

Source: Epiq
Friday, September 23, 2022 at 3:43PM

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Inspired by a 2014 real-life killing, Goddamned Asura explores the lives of six people involved in a ramdom shooting in a night market, including the perpetrator - a troubled teenager named Jan Wen. The film follows not only the lead-up to the shooting incident, but also the aftermath of the characters as they face the repercussions of the actions of Jan Wen.The result is a somber exploration of class, isolation, and violence that is unfortunately still timely and universal.

Goddamned Asura is Taiwan's official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards. In this interview, co-writer and director Lou Yi-an expounds on the origins and themes of the story as well as explaining some terms with their cultural context compared to their English translation...

[This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]

JUAN CARLOS OJANO: Congratulations on the film. You premiered the film last year and then screened it in Taiwan and in other film festivals. And now, you're submitted by Taiwan to be the official submission at the Oscars. How's the journey so far?

LOU YI-AN: I don't really think the final results would mean too much to me, but I just really want to let more and more people see this film and want to provide a different point-of-view other than the Western way of thinking.

I do want to start at the genesis of this film. The title card says that it was based on three in-depth articles about a random killing incident and one article on council estates. This was your third feature film as a director. What was it with that incident and these articles that made you go, "I wanna tell that story"?

As you said, I first started writing the story because I read the news article by the journalist Hu Muchyng. I started to think about the question "who really deserves to die?". During that time, the topic of whether to abolish death penalty was really a hot topic in Taiwan because of that random killing attack. So during that time, a lot of people are saying that [the perpetrator] deserves to die because of his crime. But I just keep wondering, is that true? Who really deserves to die because of this? And also, I was wondering if there is a kind of pureness in that person's heart that other people don't know about. I wanted to let people know through this film that people are actually multi-dimensional. And I wanted to let people see the kindness in humanity or just in humans.

The experience of watching this film was really moving to me because the film was very concerned about everyone involved. It wasn't just concerned in reenacting or depicting the said act of violence, but it's invested in knowing those characters. Why was it important to you to explore the other characters in addition to the perpetrator?

Even other than writing Asura, when I am writing any script, I try to find excuses for the characters just like we all do in our everyday lives. So I really wanted to not just focus on the negative side of people, but really to provide a point-of-view about the kinder and more positive side of those people.

The stories of those characters are actually based on a lot of my own experiences and also, they reflect some of my personalities and values. I sometimes wonder that if I had made some different decision back then or just a different decision at one moment in my life, would it be possible that I would become a totally different person. Everybody could have only known a cold-blooded and darker version of me and I wonder that maybe, it was just because of the randomness so I didn't become that. In the dialectical process of debating this, I try to prove whether humans are good or bad.

Like we said before, there was a random killing attack back in 2014 in Taiwan which was really shocking to the society in Taiwan. The main character in this film, people would relate the main character in this film to the perpetrator in that attack named Cheng Chieh. People are seeing this person as a demon, actually. I want to see if I could try to use this film to restore that person back to a human instead of just a demon.

The overall feeling that I got as I was watching the film is that the setup of having six characters builds a communal aspect to this story. And yet, in that communal experience, there is so much isolation going on. How was your process of trying to depict that paradox of them being together in isolation?

Originally, I wanted to just focus on the random killing event. But later on, I gradually wanted to portray this incident through people from different social classes, groups, and walks of life. And they will have their own stories and points-of-view. Some of them will be perpetrators, some of them will be victims or even family of the victims. And what they would all bring different aspects into this incident and I want to use all these inputs to give a more complete portrait of this incident. Instead of just telling people how poor the victim was or what was going around the perpetrator, I wanted to create a conversation with the audience.

*MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD*

The interior life of the characters are so rich and you provided so much context about the characters and yet, I know that I don't know everything about them. And that's what makes me keep digging into these characters and interested in knowing them more. And with the structure of the film  dividing it into three chapters  what was the importance of also exploring the what-ifs?

When I was first developing the script, in the first two years, the third chapter did not exist in the script at all. Later on, I realized I wanted to try to prove that people can have a lot of different aspects to their personality and people can be really different. But I realized I couldn't prove that people can be that different through what really happened with the random killing. So I realized I could develop the third chapter  the parallel world  and give [the perpetrator] an opportunity to make different decisions so that you can see that he can have a totally different life if he made that decision. He can try to prove that maybe, not all of us deserve to die, that bad people deserve to die. In the Chinese title of this film, " (Gaisi de)"  the "Goddamned" in the title  has a more specific meaning in Chinese that means "deserves to die". I just really want to delve into that and try to debate if he deserves to die.

*MINOR SPOILERS END*

That point about the translation was interesting. Now, it gives a different meaning to the character. Did you intend the film to be a commentary on the culture of violence in Taiwan or was it just on the event itself?

I don't consider the film to be any kind of commentary in real life events or phenomenon in our world, but I wanted to emphasize that the name of the third chapter ("Bridge of Hades") in Chinese is " (Naihe Bridge)". In traditional Chinese culture, we enter into another world when we die. In terms of reincarnation, after we walk through this bridge, we will forget everything and we are ready to start another new life. So " (Naihe Bridge)" means a turning point in that reincarnation cycle. I wanted to use this concept to give a little pessimistic portrait of our lives. It's hard to break out of this cycle. Maybe we can be different, but maybe we can't.

How do you merge depicting kindness and pessimism?

I think it's impossible to balance that, but I tried. A lot of my past works are a bit darker than this. But this time, I don't want the audience to walk out of the theater in a bad mood. I want to provide a little warmth to the audience and let them feel that it's not all hopeless. Maybe people are just not that bad.

It's so interesting that you mentioned the darkness of your past films because when I watch this film, despite its subject matter, it's so much more visually playful. Your use of color, light, framing, and depth of field. How did you decide on the overall visual style of the film?

Basically, we used colors to set the mood in the film. Especially for the different characters. For example, for Jan Wen, we used blue a lot in his scenes. We wanted to portray a world that's a little more emotionally repressed. In terms of Vita, we used yellow and brown more. We wanted to create a sense of openness. When we get into the third chapter, we wanted to provide colors that are more vivid. We wanted to create a feeling as if angels are around us and make us believe that something like fantasy is about to happen. It makes the audience believe that maybe, things can be different.

The visuals felt more intimate to the characters. They weren't just moving pieces in the story. The visual choices are invested in them. Did you shoot this during the pandemic?

Yes.

How did that, in any way, affect the way you made the film?

The pandemic didn't really affect the shooting of this film because this was shot in 2020. Back then, COVID cases in Taiwan were very few. And the only thing that's harder for the crew was to book locations in a hospital because of COVID. But other than that, it didn't really affect this film.

That's great to hear. I remember in 2020, I was so jealous of Taiwan. Like "aw, they were doing so well". Anyway, what are your hopes for Taiwanese cinema moving forward?

I think that, now, we have a feeling that it's pretty hard to reach international audiences these past few years. My hope is that Taiwanese cinema can have more different types of films that we can offer to the international audience. More different genres, for example.

I'm wishing you the best, not just in this Oscar season but in life and your future works. Feichang ganxie ni!

Thank you!

Check out the official trailer for the film:

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Monument Mining Limited (TSX-V: MMY and FSE: D7Q1) Monument or the Company is pleased to announce that the results from the Phase 2 diamond drilling (DD) have been received and confirmed the extension of gold mineralization, including high grades of up to 17.8g/t gold, for more than 150m vertical depth below the current Mineral Resource at the North of Alliance (NOA) group of deposits (NOA 1 to NOA 7/8, NOA9), offering the potential for significant future expansion of the Mineral Resource base.

The site work and data validation to wrap up the Phase 2 drilling program has now been completed at Burnakura. Together with the Phase 1 drilling program, the Company has tested greenfield targets and extensions to known mineralized structures, and successfully achieved initial objectives with the Phase 1 Junction target discovery and the Phase 2 drilling confirmation of gold mineralization extensions at depth at the NOA group of deposits highlighting the opportunity to grow the Murchison Project organically.

Monuments President and CEO, Cathy Zhai, said: These latest drilling results continue to demonstrate the potential of the Murchison Project and support our strategy to expand the existing Mineral Resource base that might turn Murchison Project into the Companys cornerstone project.

We see significant potential for near mine extensions at the NOA group of deposits and across our entire Burnakura and Gabanintha land package. The Murchison Project also presents unique opportunities for greenfield targeting and potential for additional discoveries in this mineral-rich geological setting. We will continue to explore all options and opportunities using systematic exploration techniques applied to Monuments land package.

HIGHLIGHTS OF BURNAKURA DRILLING RESULTS

The Phase 2 drilling Results

The Phase 2 drilling program is contained within the Companys two-year exploration program testing extensions of known mineralization down dip of the Burnakura tenements increasing the potential longer term production profile.

Phase 2 Diamond Drilling Results

Drilling results confirm the extension of gold mineralization, including high grades of up to 17.8g/t gold , for more than 150m vertical depth below the current Mineral Resource at the NOA group of deposits, offering the potential for significant future expansion of the Mineral Resource base.

, for more than 150m vertical depth below the current Mineral Resource at the NOA group of deposits, offering the potential for significant future expansion of the Mineral Resource base. Drilling demonstrates an increase in width, grade, and associated alteration of the mineralized package (mine sequence*) at depth, affirming that unlocking the potential for the NOA group of deposits rests with a focused exploration program to delineate additional Mineral Resources beneath the historic open pits for underground exploitation.

Drilling highlights the potential to exploit historic pits deeper and transition to underground mining.

Furthermore, the drilling program provides more confidence in extending the Mineral Resources beyond the current 1.6km strike limit to the immediate south of NOA 1 pit and north of NOA 7/8 deposits and offers the opportunity to deliver additional significant discoveries along the prospective NOA Shear zone.

Significant intercepts returned from the outstanding DD portion of Phase 2 drilling program include: 4m at 12.0g/t gold from 392.6m in 21BNRD057 at NOA 7/8 target. 1m at 1.2g/t gold from 260m, 1.6m at 1.6g/t gold from 267.8m, and 2m at 17.8g/t gold from 293m in 22BNRD006 at NOA 4-6 target. 2.2m at 1.6g/t gold from 441m in 21BNRD055 at NOA 7/8 target.



Phase 2 Reverse Circulate Drilling Results Recap:

Significant RC intercepts (Previously reported in News Release dated May 30, 2022):

4m at 32.0g/t gold from 218m (including 1m at 71.8g/t gold from 219m), 1m at 1.1g/t gold from 226m, 1m at 4.2g/t gold from 229m and 1m at 1.1g/t gold in 21BNRC050 at NOA 1 target.

from 218m (including from 219m), from 226m, from 229m and in 21BNRC050 at NOA 1 target. 2m at 5.3g/t gold from 140m in 21BNRC047 at NOA 1 target.

The Phase 1 Drilling Results Recap

The Phase 1 drilling results were previously reported in January 19, 2022, which initiated the Companys two-year exploration program to test unknown greenfield targets across the Burnakura tenements with the aim of increasing the potential longer-term production profile.

As previously announced on January 19, 2022, the Company is also increasingly encouraged by the discovery of a near-surface high-grade mineralization system at the Junction target with intercepts up to 3m at 10.2g/t gold , which could rapidly advance towards production through open-cut methods.

, which could rapidly advance towards production through open-cut methods. The early promising results at the Junction target, particularly given the near surface high grades, strengthen the Companys resolve that the Burnakura area remains highly prospective with several untested areas which could deliver another significant gold discovery.

Follow up Works

A critical technical evaluation, refinement and ranking of all known targets incorporating all data across the extensive tenement package are ongoing over Burnakura and Gabanintha project areas to ensure future exploration efforts continue to deliver the Companys long-term strategy of turning the Murchison Project into a cornerstone project.

Undertaken the following programs at Gabanintha: To conduct drilling targeting mineralization along strike of existing mineralization trends from the open pits and on parallel and splay mineralized structural trends identified from wide-spaced exploration drilling. To conduct drilling beneath the historic Terrells and Canterbury pits to test for mineralization extensions at depth which has not been closed off.

Further programs might be carried out at Burnakura in future also include but not limited to A follow up phase of drilling to provide coverage across the NOA group of deposits testing for a mineralized package deeper to approximately 300m below surface and then infill drilling to provide confidence to grow the Mineral Resources when the estimate is next completed. To systematically test for strike continuity along the NOA mineralized structure to delineate further potential open pit and underground Mineral Resources beyond the current 1.6km strike limit. Follow up on the new shallow high-grade Junction discovery by drill testing for extensions using RC drilling to potentially progress it rapidly to a Mineral Resource estimation.



1Press release on July 18, 2018, titled Monument Announces NI43-101 Mineral Resource Update at the Burnakura Property, Western Australia. Monument confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affect the information included in the announcement of July 18, 2018, and that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the Mineral Resources estimate in the announcement of July 18, 2018, have not materially changed, and continue to apply.

2Armstrong, B. 2007, NOA 2 Gold Project Resource Statement as at 1 January 2007, Page 10, Tectonic Resources NL. Cited in Independent Technical Report - NI 43-101 on the Mineral and Mining Assets within the Burnakura Project held by Tectonic Resources NL, Extract Resources NL located in the Murchison Mineral Field of Western Australia for ATW Venture Corp effective as at 22 November 2007.

3Wells, L. 2013, Due Diligence Report on Burnakura and Gabanintha Gold Prospects of Kentor Gold Limited Final, Page 9.

*The highly deformed and altered package of rocks contained within the BTZ is locally known as the mine sequence. The original lithologies are dominated by altered mafic with minor fine-grained felsic rocks.

PHASE 1 & 2 DRILLING PROGRAM AT BURNAKURA

Monument commenced Phase 1 of a two-year exploration drilling program in July 2021 and completed it in August 2021(refer to news releases dated December 15, 2021, and January 19, 2022). In November 2021, it commenced Phase 2 drilling (completed in April 2022), and, in May 2022, announced the results received from the RC portion of the program (refer to news release dated May 30, 2022).

Target areas for the Phase 1 and 2 drilling falls within the Companys Burnakura project area and are shown in Figure 1. The Burnakura area is considered highly prospective for discovering economic gold mineralization associated with the prolific Burnakura Thrust Zone (BTZ). This regional northeast-trending lineament dominates the area and is related to at least 15 deposits with pre-2005 historic gold production from 15 open pits and two underground operations amounting to 1.8Mt at 3.7g/t gold for a total of 216,000 ounces2. Subsequent underground mining campaigns were undertaken at NOA 2 from 2005 to 2007 (185,000 tonnes at an average grade of 7.1g/t gold for 42,289 ounces3) and in 2009 (81,150 tonnes averaging 5.81g/t gold for 13,462 ounces3).

Figure 1: Murchison Exploration Phase 1 and Phase 2 Target Areas

While a detailed discussion on Phase 2 drilling program is seen below, reader is recommended to refer to the News Release dated January 19, 2022 for Phase 1 drilling program discussion.

PHASE 2 DRILLING PROPRAGE DISCUSSION

The Phase 2 program focused on the New Alliance and NOA group of deposits, which have a combined Mineral Resource1 of 289Koz Indicated and 52Koz Inferred, to identify mineralized extensions aimed at increasing the scale of the previously mined open pits and underground deposits.

A combined 18 RC and DD holes for a total of 5,595.1m against a planned 18 holes for a combined RC and DD total of 5,546m was drilled for the Phase 2 program. The breakdown of the drilling completed is provided in Table 1. The drill locations and results reported in this press release are shown in Figures 2 and 3 and interpreted long sections and cross-sections in Figures 4, 6, 8 and 9, with all holes listed in Appendices 1 to 2.

Table 1: Completed RC and DD drilling for Phase 2

Target Number of holes Drill metres RC RCDD Total RC DD Total NOA 1 4 3 7 1,559.8 385.5 1,945.3 NOA 2 1 1 2 510.0 49.7 559.7 NOA 4-6 1 1 2 525.0 71.0 596.0 NOA 7/8 1 5 6 1,740.2 588.9 2,329.1 New Alliance 1 - 1 165.0 - 165.0 Total 8 10 18 4,500.0 1,095.1 5,595.1

All drill collars are accurately surveyed using Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) techniques. Coordinates and azimuth are reported in MGA 94 Zone 50. Downhole survey was completed by downhole gyroscopic method at regular intervals.

Geological logging was completed for all holes and representative across the deposits. The drill hole lithology, alteration, mineralogy, and structural characteristics of core were logged directly to a digital format following procedures and using Monument Mining geologic codes. All data was imported into a central SQL geological database.

Monument Murchison Quality Control and Quality Assurance (QAQC) protocol is considered industry standard with certified reference material (CRM) regularly submitted with routine samples to ensure ongoing quality control. CRMs and Blanks are inserted at a minimum of a 5% frequency rate.

An independent commercial laboratory, ALS Geochemistry, performed all sample preparation and gold assaying of primary samples in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. Samples were analyzed for gold by lead collection fire assay of a 50g charge with AAS finish.

Figure 2: Phase 2 drilling completed for NOA group, showing anomalous intercepts in DD (yellow boxes) and previously reported RC results (white boxes). All intercepts are downhole widths.

Figure 3: Phase 2 drilling completed for New Alliance target, showing anomalous RC intercepts previously reported.

The NOA Group Phase 2 DD Drilling

NOA gold deposits comprise NOA 1 to the south and NOA 7/8 to the north and are in a flat sheetwash area and underlain by felsic to intermediate volcanic rocks and associated sediments within mafic intrusive and volcanic rocks. Five of the known deposits NOA 2, NOA 4-6 and NOA 7/8, are colinear within a northerly trending dilational structure (NOA Shear Zone) that splays off the regional BTZ and dipping to the east at approximately 30- 60 (Figure 1). NOA 1 is offset to the east by some 200m on a different but related structure. The NOA Shear Zone intersects a dolerite sill which is interpreted as having intruded along a sequence of felsic pyroclastic flows and associated sediments and is the dominant feature at the NOA deposits that constrains and controls economic gold mineralization at depth within a strongly sheared and altered sequence of siltstone felsic volcanic and intrusive mafic rocks (Figures 1 and 2). The bulk of the mineralization occurs within massive quartz veins and quartz breccia within a large irregular silica-carbonate-sericite-pyrite (potassic) alteration halo.

The NOA 1 to NOA 4-6 deposits are in mining lease M51/116 and NOA 7/8 straddle mining leases M51/116 and M51/177. The surface RL in the area is approximately 460m, with the deepest portion at NOA 2 pit, which is about 80m below surface (Figure 4). Mining of the NOA group of deposits began in 1995 with underground ore sourced exclusively from the NOA 2 deposit. Currently, the combined unmined Mineral Resource total for the NOA area is 1.81Mt at 3.1g/t gold for 182,000 ounces of gold Indicated and 0.64Mt at 2.3g/t gold for 48,000 ounces of gold Inferred1.

The focus of the Phase 2 drilling at the NOA group of deposits was to identify extensions to existing Mineral Resources and increase the scale of the existing open pits and underground deposits at Burnakura.

Seventeen drill holes were designed to test the extensions of potentially economic mineralization down dip and down-plunge. Fourteen of the drill holes drilled intercepted the prospective horizon of quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration (mine sequence) with significant gold mineralization returned, including high grades of up to 17.8g/t gold. The mineralized package appears to continue down-plunge and down-dip of the current NOA group Mineral Resources, which remain untested by drilling along strike, down-dip, and down-plunge (Figure 4).

Figure 4 shows the interpretive NOA group long section looking west of recent and historic drilling with pierce point locations of the significant primary intercepts. The drill results confirm that the width, alteration, and grade of the prospective horizon are more pervasive at depth, providing significant potential for underground Mineral Resources discovery to the south of the NOA 1 open pit, further north beyond the NOA 7/8 deposit and underneath the existing NOA open pits (Figures 4, 6, 8 and 9).

These encouraging results indicate that significant potential for the NOA group of deposits hinges on a focused exploration program to delineate deeper Mineral Resources around the previously mined open pits for underground exploitation. In line with this, the Company plans to further test for mineralization extension to approximately 300m below surface to extend the underground Mineral Resource targets.

Figure 4: NOA Group Long Section Looking West showing recent and historic drilling (Drillhole ID is grey font) with pierce point locations of the primary intercepts shown in bold. RC drilling significant intercepts are shown in white boxes and DD significant intercepts are shown in yellow boxes. All intercepts are downhole widths.

NOA 1

NOA 1 lies east of NOA 2 and contains a north-south strike length of approximately 200m, with mineralization dipping to the east between 50 to 60 (Figure 2). Historic gold production has been from open pit, with approximately 16,200 ounces of gold recovered2. The deepest portion of the pit is approximately 75m below surface.

Before the Phase 2 drilling, drill density was limited below the pit (greater than 30m below surface) and immediately to the south, even though promising drill results indicated the potential for mineralized package to be open at depth and along strike to the south.

Seven drill holes totaling five RC (21BNRC047 to 21BNRC050 and 21BNRC052) for 1,235m and two RC pre-collars with diamond tails (RCDD) (21BNRD051 and 21BNRD053) totaling 611.3m were completed at NOA 1 area to test for possible additional Mineral Resources immediately south and down-dip of existing Mineral Resources in areas which are largely untested (Figures 2 and 4). The prospective horizon targeted is the highly sheared and altered Burnakura Thrust Zone.

Significant gold results include:

4m at 32.0g/t Au from 218m (including 1m at 71.8g/t Au from 219m), 1m at 1.1g/t Au from 226m, 1m at 4.2g/t Au from 229m and 1m at 1.1g/t Au in 21BNRC050 approximately 190m below surface and remains open. Visible gold was observed in RC chips associated with the 4m at 32.0g/t Au intercept (See picture in Figure 5 below).

from 218m (including from 219m), from 226m, from 229m and in 21BNRC050 approximately 190m below surface and remains open. Visible gold was observed in RC chips associated with the 4m at 32.0g/t Au intercept (See picture in Figure 5 below). 2m at 5.3g/t Au from 140m in 21BNRC047.

from 140m in 21BNRC047. 1.1m at 1.7g/t Au from 246m in 21BNRD051.

Au from 246m in 21BNRD051. 1m at 1.2g/t Au from 240m in 21BNRC049.

from 240m in 21BNRC049. 1m at 1.7g/t Au from 184m and 1m at 4.3g/t Au from 190m in 21BNRC048.

from 184m and 1m at 4.3g/t Au from 190m in 21BNRC048. 1m at 1.5g/t Au from 243m and 1m at 4.3g/t Au from 246m in 12BNRC052.

Figure 5: Visible gold sighted in RC hole 21BNRC050 at 219m downhole at NOA 1.

The northernmost drilled DD hole 21BNRD053 did not encounter mineralization and potentially indicates the boundary of the northern extent of the NOA 1 deposit.

The location of results from drillholes reported in this release is shown in the plan view in Figure 2 and in the interpretive long sectional view in Figures 4. The E-W sectional view in Figure 6 is an interpretive cross-section 7010000mN at the NOA 1 deposit with a clipping window of 100m on either side of the section line AA1 indicated on the plan view in Figure 2. The cross-sectional view shows significant intercepts of drilling within the clipping window reported in this release shown in yellow boxes and some previously reported drilling in white boxes.

Drillholes 21BNRC047, 21BNRC048, 21BNRC049, 21BNRC050, 21BNRC052 and 21BNRD051 were drilled to target the deeper portions of the NOA 1 high-grade gold mineralization, where previous drillholes 16MRC107 and 20MRD013 had intersected 7m at 9.0g/t Au from 140m and 1m at 7.6g/t Au from 243m respectively (Figure 6). The bulk of the gold mineralization within all drillholes is associated with the strongly sheared and altered BTZ occurring within quartz veins and quartz breccia within a large irregular silica-carbonate-sericite-pyrite (potassic) alteration halo. In diamond drill core, the mineralized zones are visually distinctive due to the presence of millimeter to centimeter wide quartz-carbonate veins that are commonly folded and display yellow-brown talc-carbonate selvages. The width of the prospective horizon appears to increase at depth and remain open as depicted in the cross section in Figure 6.

The promising results intercepted beneath the NOA 1 pit indicate the potential to host significant open pit underground amendable gold mineralization immediately south, down-dip and down-plunge of the deposit, which is largely untested.

Drilling is currently being planned to focus on delineating deeper economic mineralization around the NOA 1 pit to a depth of approximately 300m below surface and to continue to test the strike extensions to the south of the deposit for potential open pit and underground exploitation.

Figure 6: NOA 1 cross-section 7010000mN (AA1) 100m looking North showing Phase 2 anomalous intercepts in recent RC drilling previously reported (white boxes) and anomalous intercepts in DD drilling (yellow boxes) falling within the clipping distance of the section. Historic drillholes (white boxes with grey font for drillhole IDs). All intercepts are downhole widths.

NOA 2

Open pit mining commenced at NOA 2 in 1995 and was finalized in 1997 to a depth of approximately 80m below surface. From 2005 to 2007 and in 2009, underground mining was undertaken at NOA 2 to a total of 160m or 80m below the open cut. Approximately 26,000 ounces of gold was historically mined from open pit. Underground gold production from 2005 to 2007 at NOA 2 totaled approximately 185,000 tonnes at an average grade of 7.1g/t gold for 42,289 ounces3. Ore recovered underground in 2009 totaled 81,150 tonnes averaged 5.81g/t gold for 13,462 ounces3.

The ore structure at NOA 2 is approximately 400m in strike, dips eastward at approximately 40 and remains highly prospective for additional gold discovery.

Two RCDD holes, 22BNRD001 and 22BNRD002, totaling 336.7m, were completed at NOA 2, testing the potential for extensions to economic mineralized package at depth below the deposit (Figures 2). Neither drillholes intersected the prospective horizon due to mineralization offset by a fault (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Isometric view looking south of NOA 2 showing fault planes truncating mineralization in 22BNRD001 and 22BNRD002.

Several structures cut the NOA 2 deposit, with three main systems controlling the mineralization zones (Figure 7):

An east-west fault to the south end of the deposit separates NOA 1 and NOA 2 open pits.

A north-south NOA Fault separates the open pit mineralization from ore mined historically underground, and;

Northeast striking and steeply dipping series of late-stage reverse faults offsetting the mineralization.

Three main types of veins are identified to host economic gold mineralization at NOA 2 (Figure 7):

Northerly striking and westly dipping massive quartz veins and quartz breccias. This is the primary source of gold mineralization at depth.

The second set of gold bearing east-west striking northerly dipping narrow, high-grade veins.

The third-generation gold-bearing veins are generally northerly striking and westly dipping.

These drillholes will help to firm up the interpreted position of the encountered fault zone to assist in future targeting of the NOA 2 deposit.

NOA 4-6

The NOA 4-6 combined ore structure strikes approximately 400m and dips to the east. The pits have been mined down to about 30m below surface. Before commencing the Phase 2 drilling, the drill density was patchy from 100m below surface, leading to sections of the ore zones interpreted as pinching out at depth, and where it remains open, the grade appears low. This situation was interpreted to be due to paucity of drilling; potential exists for the ore structure to remain continuous and open at depth.

To test the NOA 4-6 Mineral Resource potential three drillholes comprising of one RCDD, 22BNRD006 totaling 316m, and two RC 22BNRC003 and 22BNRC005 for a total of 299m were completed to test the depth extent of economic gold mineralization. The location of results from drillholes reported in this release is shown in the plan view in Figure 2 and in the interpretive long sectional view in Figure 4. The E-W sectional view in Figure 8 is an interpretive cross-section 7010930mN at the NOA 4-6 deposit with a clipping window of 100m on either side of the section line BB1 indicated on the plan view in Figure 2. The cross-sectional view shows significant intercepts of DD drilling reported in this release shown in yellow boxes and some previously reported drilling in white boxes.

All the drill holes encountered mineralized package consistent with the prospective horizon confirming continuity at depth of mineralization previously encountered in 8NOAC013 of 1m at 2.6g/t Au from 206m and 3m at 1.4g/t Au from 145m (Figure 8). Results confirmed additional gold mineralization and show the NOA 4-6 mineralized packages width and alteration remaining consistent with grade getting better at depth. High grades encountered including up to 17.8g/t gold from the deepest DD holes at approximately 250m below surface indicate a significant potential for mineralization remaining open.

Significant gold results include:

1m at 1.2g/t Au from 260m, 1.7m at 1.5g/t Au from 267.8m, and 2m at 17.8g/t Au from 293m 22BNRD006 (the deepest drill holes indicating mineralization remaining open below 250m from surface);

from 260m, from 267.8m, and from 293m 22BNRD006 (the deepest drill holes indicating mineralization remaining open below 250m from surface); 3m at 1.8g/t Au from 204m in 22BNRC005

from 204m in 22BNRC005 2m at 2.2g/t Au from 293m in 22BNRC003.

The result from the drilling provides strong target for expanding on the Mineral Resources base of NOA 4-6 which remain open down-dip and down-plunge.

Overall, the NOA 4-6 results reaffirm the Companys resolve that there exists significant potential for expanding Mineral Resources and unlocking this potential rests with a focused exploration program to delineate deeper Mineral Resources around the mined out open pits for underground exploitation.

Further drilling is currently being planned to systematically target mineralization extensions further to approximately 300m below surface along the known strike extent of the NOA 4-6 zone.

Figure 8: NOA 4-6 cross-section 7010930mN (BB1) 100m looking North showing Phase 2 DD drilling completed; anomalous intercepts in recent DD drilling (yellow boxes) and anomalous intercepts in historic drilling (white boxes). All intercepts are downhole widths.

NOA 7/8

NOA 7/8 is the northernmost historic pit of the NOA group of deposits and contains a mineralized zone over a strike length of approximately 600m. The zone strikes approximately 40 and dips 50 to the east. Pit depth is down to 61m. Drill results show mineralization is open along strike to the north and south as well as open down dip. The structural setting for the gold mineralization is interpreted to be like that of the NOA 2 deposit with mineralization confined to the NOA shear zone. The host lithologies are predominantly sedimentary and felsic volcaniclastics units (Figure 9). The footwall of the mineralized zones changes from a felsic volcaniclastics below NOA 7 in the south, to an ultramafic lithology in the north below NOA 8.

Historic gold production totaled approximately 47,300 ounces of gold recovered from the open pits2. Currently, the combined unmined Mineral Resource for the NOA 7/8 total 776,000 tonnes at 4.6g/t gold for 114,000 ounces of gold Indicated and 35,000 tonnes at 3.9g/t gold for 4,000 ounces of gold Inferred1 presenting the opportunity to extend high grade mineralization which remain open at depth and along strike to the north of the deposit.

Five RCDD (21BNRD055 to 21BNRD058 and 22BNRD004) totaling 815.8m were completed to test the depth and northerly extensions for potential economic mineralized package at NOA 7/8 (Figures 2 and 4). All drillholes except 22BNRD004 encountered the NOA mineralized structure which potentially delineates the boundary of the southern extent of the NOA 7/8 deposit.

Significant intercepts assays include:

4m at 12.0g/t Au from 392.6m in 21BNRD057. This high-grade mineralization is encountered in the deepest drill hole further north and remains open at depth and on strike.

from 392.6m in 21BNRD057. This high-grade mineralization is encountered in the deepest drill hole further north and remains open at depth and on strike. 2.2m at 1.6g/t Au from 441m in 21BNRD055.

from 441m in 21BNRD055. 1m at 1.5g/t Au from 338m in 21BNRD058.

from 338m in 21BNRD058. 1m at 1.6g/t Au from 445m in 21BNRD056.

The location of results from drillholes reported in this release is shown in the plan view in Figure 2 and in the interpretive long sectional view in Figures 4. The E-W sectional view in Figure 8 is an interpretive cross-section 7011700mN at the NOA 7/8 deposit with a clipping window of 200m on either side of the section line CC1 indicated on the plan view in Figure 2. The cross-sectional view shows significant intercepts of from drill holes within the clipping window reported in this release shown in yellow boxes and some previously reported drilling in white boxes.

Figure 9: NOA 7/8 cross-section 7011700mN (CC1) 200m clipping looking North showing Phase 2 drilling completed within the clipping window, anomalous intercepts in recent DD drilling (yellow boxes) and anomalous intercepts in historic drilling (white boxes)

The bulk of the gold mineralization within all drillholes is associated with a highly deformed sequence of sedimentary and mafic to felsic rocks with quartz veins and quartz breccia within a large irregular silica-carbonate-sericite-pyrite (potassic) alteration halo (mine sequence). In diamond drill core, the mineralized structure or mineralized package is visually distinctive due to the presence of millimeter to centimeter wide quartz-carbonate veins that are commonly folded and highly deformed, consistent with the mine sequence constraining and controlling the economic gold mineralization defined at depth and historically mined at NOA 2 underground (Figure 10 - see picture of mineralized package intercepted in the 21BNRD057 core).

Figure 10: Picture of 21BNRD057 core showing intercepted mineralized package of highly deformed and altered sediments, mafic with minor fine-grained felsic rocks consistent with NOA Shear Zone.

The drill results indicate that the width, alteration, and grade of the mineralized package are becoming more pervasive at depth, and along strike providing significant potential for underground Mineral Resources discovery further north beyond the NOA 7/8 deposit and underneath the open pits. This again strongly suggests that unlocking the significant Mineral Resource potential at NOA 7/8 is reliant on focusing exploration program to delineate deeper Mineral Resources around the previously mined open pits for underground exploitation.

Drilling is being planned to target Mineral Resources down-plunge extension of the NOA 7/8 deposit to a depth of approximately 300m below surface, where the 4m at 12.0g/t Au intercept in 21BNRD057 indicates mineralization is open to the north beyond the current 600m strike extent.

New Alliance

One RC hole drilled to 165m at the New Alliance target, which has historically produced gold from an open pit (Figure 3). This hole targeted the high-grade mineralization plunge interpreted beneath the northern end of the pit. Significant assay returned include 1m at 2.4g/t Au from 45m and 1m at 2.8g/t from 116m in 21BNRC054. This zone of interpreted gold mineralization at New Alliance remains open, being mostly untested along strike and at depth.

NEXT STEPS

A critical technical evaluation, refinement and ranking of all known targets incorporating all data across the extensive tenement package are ongoing to steadily increase exploration over Burnakura and Gabanintha project areas to ensure future exploration efforts continue to deliver the Companys long-term strategy of turning the Murchison Project into a cornerstone project.

Burnakura Projects

The encouraging results from the Phase 1 and 2 drilling provide exploration upside and warrant a follow-up phase of drilling at all targets that delivered positive results to rapidly grow the current Mineral Resources at the Murchison Project. Immediate focus at Burnakura will be:

To conduct a follow up phase of drilling that will continue to unlock the significant exploration upside potential for Mineral Resources at NOA 1, NOA 4-6 and NOA 7/8 deposits focusing on delineating deeper mineralization beneath the mined open pits for underground exploitation to a depth of approximately 300m below surface.

To systematically complete step-out drilling along strike to the immediate south of NOA 1 and north of NOA 7/8 which presents large exploration targets open at depth and along strike and potentially extending the Mineral Resources beyond the current 1.6km strike limit of the NOA group of deposits.

Test for extensions to the shallow high-grade discovery at the Junction target using RC drilling to potentially progress it rapidly to a Mineral Resource estimation.

Explore other options at the Junction target to delineate additional shallow high-grade economic gold mineralized systems that remains untested and open within a strong shear zone and no known historic drilling or surface sampling. This will include: Completing geochemical sampling to the east of the most easterly drilled line in areas that are not under sheetwash. Continuing undertaking geological mapping to the east of the Junction target to help identify additional areas suitable for geochemical sampling and refine existing targets. Conduct air core drilling to the east and west of the high-grade drill line.



Gabanintha Project

The Gabanintha Project area is within trucking distance (approximately 21km northeast) of the existing Burnakura processing facility (Figure 13). The project contains six historic open pits on a 2.4km strike along the prolific Gabanintha Shear Zone, which provide immediate exploration targets proximal to mined areas. The pits were mined to depths of 40 to 70m and produced approximately 150,000 ounces of gold3. Significant opportunity exists to extend the mineralization at depth and along strike in these target areas due to limited exploration conducted since closure of the open pit operations some 27 years ago, limited deep drilling and an existing historic unmined potential Mineral Resource3 of 2.21Mt at 2.2g/t gold for 153,000 ounces.

The Company strongly believes this presents a significant opportunity to accelerate the expansion of the Mineral Resource base by extending, converting, and validating these historical Mineral Resources into current Mineral Resources under NI 43-101 guidelines. The following exploration activities are planned:

To conduct drilling to the north of the Yagahong pit for possible Mineral Resources, which may be amenable to exploitation by open pit mining as a potential cut-back (Figure 11). The Yagahong historic significant drill assays include high grades up to 3m at 60.2g/t gold (Figure 12).

(Figure 12). To conduct drilling beneath the Terrells, Canterbury and Canterbury South pits to test for mineralization extensions at depth as existing drilling is patchy and has not closed off mineralization. The anomalous mineralization intercepts with increasing depth indicate the potential for additional gold Mineral Resources beneath the pits. Historic high-grade intercept beneath the Terrells pit includes 2m at 21.5g/t gold, 4m at 4.5g/t gold and 13m at 3.1g/t gold at Canterbury (Figure 12).

and at Canterbury (Figure 12). To conduct drilling targeting mineralization along strike of existing mineralization trends from the open pits and on parallel and splay mineralized structural trends identified from wide-spaced exploration drilling. These represent the best potential for delineating further open pit amenable Mineral Resources at Gabanintha.

Figure 11: Local geology and mineralization trend of the Gabanintha historic pits

Figure 12: Interpretive cross section of the Gabanintha pits showing historic drill intercept results

BACKGROUND OF THE MURCHISON GOLD PROJECT

The Murchison Gold Project comprises 170km2 of highly prospective Archean Greenstone. The project area covers the eastern margin of the Meekatharra-Wydgee greenstone belt within the north-eastern Murchison domain (Figure 13). Historically the Murchison Goldfield has produced over 15 million ounces of gold since the 1900s and currently hosts significant gold producers in the region.

Figure 13: Monument Murchison Gold Project and surrounding gold production to date

Source of Gabanintha Historical Resources figures: Mapleson, D., (2013) Murchison Gold Project: Burnakura and Gabanintha Resource Inventory. By BMGS for Monument Mining Limited. December 2013;

Surrounding historical gold production is indicative only and collected by Monument geologists.

Qualified Persons Statement

The technical and scientific information in this press release has been compiled by Mr Ekow Taylor, MAusIMM CP (Geo), the Chief Managing Geologist at Monument Mining Limited, a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, and has been reviewed and approved by Roger Stangler, MEng, FAusIMM, MAIG, a Qualified Person as defined by NI43-101, retained by Golder Associates Pty Ltd.

About Monument

Monument Mining Limited (TSX-V: MMY, FSE: D7Q1) is an established Canadian gold producer that 100% owns and operates the Selinsing Gold Mine in Malaysia and the Murchison Gold Project in the Murchison area of Western Australia. It has 20% interest in Tuckanarra Gold Project jointly owned with Odyssey Gold Ltd in the same region. The Company employs approximately 200 people in both regions and is committed to the highest standards of environmental management, social responsibility, and health and safety for its employees and neighboring communities.

Cathy Zhai, President and CEOMonument Mining LimitedSuite 1580 -1100 Melville StreetVancouver, BC V6E 4A6

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION visit the company web site at www.monumentmining.com or contact:

Richard Cushing, MMY Vancouver T: +1-604-638-1661 x102 [email protected]

"Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release."

Forward-Looking Statement

This news release includes statements containing forward-looking information about Monument, its business and future plans ("forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements are statements that involve expectations, plans, objectives or future events that are not historical facts and include the Company's plans with respect to its mineral projects and the timing and results of proposed programs and events referred to in this news release. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". The forward-looking statements in this news release are subject to various risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks and certain other factors include, without limitation: risks related to general business, economic, competitive, geopolitical and social uncertainties; uncertainties regarding the results of current exploration activities; uncertainties in the progress and timing of development activities; foreign operations risks; other risks inherent in the mining industry and other risks described in the management discussion and analysis of the Company and the technical reports on the Company's projects, all of which are available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Material factors and assumptions used to develop forward-looking statements in this news release include: expectations regarding the estimated cash cost per ounce of gold production and the estimated cash flows which may be generated from the operations, general economic factors and other factors that may be beyond the control of Monument; assumptions and expectations regarding the results of exploration on the Company's projects; assumptions regarding the future price of gold of other minerals; the timing and amount of estimated future production; the expected timing and results of development and exploration activities; costs of future activities; capital and operating expenditures; success of exploration activities; mining or processing issues; exchange rates; and all of the factors and assumptions described in the management discussion and analysis of the Company and the technical reports on the Company's projects, all of which are available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

APPENDIX 1

Table 2: Drill Holes Details

Hole ID Depth (m) Dip Azimuth Grid_ID mEast mNorth mRL 21BNRC047 197 -63.8 272.6 MGA94_50 646170 7010073 460 21BNRC048 203 -65.3 273.5 MGA94_50 646166 7010035 460 21BNRC049 255 -59.3 270.3 MGA94_50 646228 7010007 460 21BNRC050 303 -58.3 267.9 MGA94_50 646274 7010001 4560 21BNRC052 277 -58.6 269.9 MGA94_50 646154 7010133 460 21BNRC054 165 -59.6 304.7 MGA94_50 645986 7008493 464 22BNRC003 299 -62.5 264.3 MGA94_50 645740 7011160 458 22BNRC005 280 -58.3 267.9 MGA94_50 645815 7010717 459 21BNRD051 329.1 -59.0 269.9 MGA94_50 646257 7010038 460 21BNRD053 282.2 -53.9 252.2 MGA94_50 646104 7010221 460 21BNRD055 459 -58.7 263.5 MGA94_50 645895 7011433 457 21BNRD056 456.5 -58.7 254.8 MGA94_50 645880 7011687 456 21BNRD057 420.5 -59.7 266.6 MGA94_50 645808 7011784 456 21BNRD058 356.8 -60.7 269.3 MGA94_50 645818 7011545 460 22BNRD001 336.7 -59.9 266.6 MGA94_50 646034 7010380 460 22BNRD002 321.5 -65.9 253.9 MGA94_50 646019 7010536 459 22BNRD004 336.6 -63.9 264.8 MGA94_50 645805 7011356 457 22BNRD006 316 -61.5 265.3 MGA94_50 645776 7010930 459

Table 3: Summary of Individual Significant Intercepts

Hole_ID mFrom mTo mWidth Au (g/t) 21BNRC047 140 141 1 4.5 21BNRC047 141 142 1 6.2 21BNRC048 184 185 1 1.7 21BNRC048 190 191 1 4.3 21BNRC049 240 241 1 1.22 21BNRC050 218 219 1 25. 21BNRC050 219 220 1 71.8 21BNRC050 220 221 1 2.0 21BNRC050 221 222 1 28.7 21BNRC050 226 227 1 1.1 21BNRC050 229 230 1 4.2 21BNRC050 247 248 1 1.1 21BNRC052 243 244 1 1.5 21BNRC052 246 247 1 4.31 21BNRC054 45 46 1 2.4 21BNRC054 116 117 1 2.8 21BNRD051 263.95 265 1.1 1.7 21BNRD055 441.0 442.1 1.1 1.2 21BNRD055 442.1 443.2 1.1 2.0 22BNRD006 260.0 261.0 1.0 1.2 22BNRD006 267.8 268.7 0.8 1.2 22BNRD006 268.7 269.5 0.8 1.9 22BNRD006 293.0 294.0 1.0 17.5 22BNRD006 294.0 295.0 1.0 18.1 22BNRD056 445.0 446.0 1.0 1.6 22BNRD058 338.0 339.0 1.0 1.5 21BNRD057 392.6 393.2 0.6 3.6 21BNRD057 393.2 393.8 0.6 2.8 21BNRD057 393.8 394.4 0.6 19.4 21BNRD057 394.4 395.1 0.7 1.1 21BNRD057 395.1 395.5 0.4 39.1 21BNRD057 395.5 396.1 0.6 23.3 21BNRD057 396.1 396.7 0.6 3.3

Notes:

The cut-off grade for reporting of each individual intercept is  1.0g/t Au with a maximum of 1m of consecutive internal dilution included within the intercept; only intercepts  1m are reported.

Samples are analyzed for Au (ALS Geochemistry Au-AA26 50g FA method) which is a 50g fire assay fusion with AAS instrument finish.

APPENDIX 2 - PHASE 2 DD DRILL RESULTS

21BNRD051 mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t 0 220 Not Assayed 231 232 0.01 246 247 0.01 261 262 0.01 220 221 0.0 232 233 0.5 247 248 0.01 262 263 0.01 221 222 0.7 234 235 0.01 251 252 0.01 263 264 0.62 222 223 0.1 235 236 0.01 215 252 0.01 264 265 1.63 223 224 0.01 236 237 0.01 252 253 0.01 265 266 0.03 224 225 0.01 241 242 0.01 253 254 0.20 266 267 0.01 225 226 0.3 242 243 0.01 254 255 0.02 267 268 0.01 226 227 0.01 243 244 0.4 255 256 0.01 227 228 0.01 244 245 0.1 256 257 0.01 230 231 0.01 245 246 0.02 260 261 0.01

21BNRD055 mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t 257 258 0.01 282 283 0.01 309 310 0.01 335 336 0.01 258 259 0.01 283 284 0.01 310 311 0.01 336 337 0.01 259 260.2 0.01 284 285 0.01 311 312 0.01 337 337.5 0.01 260.2 261 0.01 285 286 0.01 312 313 0.01 337.5 338 0.01 261 262 0.01 286 287 0.01 313 314 0.01 338 339 0.01 262 263 0.01 287 288 0.01 314 315 0.01 339 340 0.02 263 264.2 0.01 288 289 0.01 315 316 0.01 340 341 0.01 264.2 265 0.01 289 290 0.01 316 317 0.01 341 342 0.01 265 265.8 0.01 290 291 0.01 317 318 0.01 342 343 0.01 265.8 266.5 0.01 291 292 0.01 318 319 0.01 343 344 0.01 266.5 267.2 0.01 292 293 0.01 319 320 0.01 344 345 0.01 267.2 268 0.01 293 294 0.01 320 321 0.01 345 346 0.01 267.2 268 0.01 294 295 0.01 321 322 0.01 346 347 0.01 268 268.9 0.01 295 296 0.01 322 323 0.01 347 348 0.01 268.9 270 0.01 296 297 0.01 323 324 0.01 348 349 0.01 270 271 0.01 297 298.15 0.01 324 325 0.02 349 350 0.01 271 272 0.01 298.15 298.75 0.01 325 325.75 0.01 350 351 0.01 272 273 0.01 298.75 300 0.01 325.75 327 0.01 351 352 0.01 273 274 0.01 300 301 0.02 327 328 0.01 352 353 0.01 274 275 0.01 301 302 0.01 328 328.9 0.01 353 354 0.01 275 276 0.01 302 303 0.01 328.9 329.55 0.01 354 355 0.01 276 277 0.01 303 304 0.01 329.55 330 0.01 355 355.6 0.01 277 278 0.01 304 305 0.01 330 331 0.01 355.6 356.05 0.01 278 279 0.01 305 306 0.01 331 332 0.01 356.05 357 0.01 279 280.2 0.01 306 307 0.01 332 333 0.01 356.05 357 0.01 280.2 281 0.01 307 307.75 0.01 333 334 0.01 357 358 0.01 281 282 0.01 307.75 309 0.01 334 335 0.01 358 359 0.01

21BNRD055 - CONTINUED mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t 359 360 0.01 385.1 386 0.01 409.95 410.5 0.01 433.2 434.3 0.01 360 361 0.01 386 386.95 0.01 410.5 411 0.01 434.3 435 0.16 361 361.45 0.01 386.95 388 0.01 411 412 0.01 435 436 0.01 361.45 362.1 0.01 388 389 0.01 412 413 0.01 436 437 0.01 362.1 363 0.01 389 390 0.01 413 414 0.01 437 438 0.02 363 364 0.01 390 391 0.02 414 415 0.01 438 439.05 0.03 364 364.95 0.01 391 392 0.01 415 416 0.01 439.05 440 0.13 364.95 366 0.01 392 393 0.01 416 417 0.01 440 441 0.62 366 367 0.01 393 394 0.01 417 417.8 0.01 441 442.1 1.2 367 368 0.01 394 395 0.02 417.8 419 0.01 442.1 443.2 1.97 368 369.1 0.01 395 396 0.01 419 419.45 0.01 443.2 444.3 0.76 369.1 370 0.01 396 396.85 0.02 419.45 419.85 0.01 444.3 445 0.52 370 371.1 0.01 396.85 398 0.01 419.85 420.3 0.01 445 446 0.05 371.1 372 0.01 398 399 0.02 420.5 421.1 0.01 446 447 0.14 372 373 0.01 399 399.7 0.01 421.1 422 0.01 447 448 0.09 373 374 0.01 399.7 400.1 0.01 422 423 0.01 448 448.75 0.37 374 375 0.01 400.1 401 0.01 423 424 0.01 448.75 449.75 0.02 375 376 0.01 401 402 0.01 424 425 0.01 449.75 450.75 0.36 376 377 0.01 402 402.7 0.01 425 426 0.01 450.75 451.2 0.39 377 378 0.01 402.7 403.5 0.01 426 427 0.01 451.2 452 0.28 378 379 0.02 403.5 404.5 0.01 427 428 0.01 452 453 0.15 379 380 0.01 404.5 405.5 0.01 428 429 0.01 453 454 0.01 380 381 0.01 405.5 406.35 0.01 429 430.15 0.01 454 455 0.25 381 382 0.01 406.35 407 0.01 430.15 431 0.01 455 456 0.22 382 383 0.01 407 408 0.01 431 431.9 0.01 456 457 0.76 383 384 0.01 408 409 0.01 431.9 432.5 0.02 457 458 0.28 384 385.1 0.01 409 409.95 0.01 432.5 433.2 0.02 458 459 0.26

22BNRD006 mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t 255 256 0.01 263 264 0.01 270.53 271.5 0.01 292.13 293 0.21 256 256.8 0.01 264 265 0.01 271.5 272 0.01 293 294 17.5 256.8 258 0.03 265 265.92 0.01 286.33 287.18 0.07 294 295 18.05 258 259 0.43 265.92 266.63 0.03 287.18 288 0.03 295 296 0.01 259 260 0.11 266.63 267.8 0.49 288 289 0.09 296 297 0.07 260 260.98 1.21 267.8 268.65 1.19 289 290 0.35 297 298 0.01 260.98 262 0.02 268.65 269.45 1.92 290 291 0.23 298 299 0.01 262 263 0.01 269.45 270.53 0.02 291 292.13 0.09 292.13 293 0.21

21BNRD056 mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t 298.4 299 0.01 337.8 338.5 0.01 377 377.8 0.01 417 418 0.01 299 300 0.01 338.5 339.2 0.01 377.8 379 0.02 418 419.2 0.01 300 301 0.01 339.2 340 0.01 379 380 0.01 419.2 420 0.01 301 302 0.01 340 341 0.01 380 381 0.05 420 421.2 0.01 302 302.95 0.01 341 342 0.01 381 382.15 0.02 421.2 421.58 0.01 302.95 304 0.01 342 343 0.01 382.15 383 0.01 421.58 422.6 0.02 304 305 0.01 343 344 0.01 383 384 0.01 422.6 423.8 0.01 305 306 0.01 344 345 0.01 384 385.05 0.01 423.8 425 0.01 306 307 0.01 345 346 0.01 385.05 386 0.01 425 426 0.01 307 308 0.01 346 347 0.01 386 387 0.01 426 427.05 0.01 308 308.45 0.01 347 348 0.01 387 387.95 0.01 427.05 427.7 0.01 308.45 308.85 0.01 348 349 0.01 387.95 389.05 0.01 427.7 428.4 0.01 308.85 310 0.01 349 350 0.01 389.05 389.55 0.02 428.4 429.4 0.01 310 311 0.01 350 351 0.01 389.55 390.15 0.01 429.4 430.1 0.01 311 312 0.01 351 352 0.01 390.15 391 0.01 430.1 431 0.1 312 313 0.01 352 353 0.01 391 391.65 0.01 431 431.68 0.07 313 314 0.01 353 354 0.01 391.65 392.4 0.01 431.68 432.4 0.01 314 315 0.01 354 354.7 0.01 392.4 393 0.01 432.4 433.05 0.15 315 315.5 0.01 354.7 355.4 0.01 393 394 0.01 433.05 434 0.21 315.5 316 0.01 355.4 356.5 0.01 394 395.2 0.01 434 435 0.04 316 317 0.01 356.5 357 0.01 395.2 396 0.03 435 435.9 0.04 317 318 0.01 357 358 0.01 396 397 0.01 435.9 436.5 0.22 318 319 0.01 358 359 0.03 397 397.85 0.01 436.5 437.4 0.11 319 320 0.01 359 360 0.01 397.85 399 0.01 437.4 437.9 0.57 320 321 0.01 360 361 0.01 399 400 0.01 437.9 438.5 0.56 321 322 0.01 361 362 0.01 400 400.7 0.01 438.5 439.2 0.03 322 323 0.01 362 362.7 0.01 400.7 401.8 0.01 439.2 439.95 0.03 323 324 0.01 362.7 363.4 0.01 401.8 402.9 0.01 439.95 440.95 0.04 324 325 0.01 363.4 364 0.01 402.9 404 0.01 440.95 442 0.25 325 326 0.01 364 365 0.01 404 405 0.01 442 442.9 0.19 326 327 0.01 365 366 0.01 405 406 0.01 442.9 443.85 0.05 327 328 0.01 366 367 0.01 406 407 0.01 443.85 444.3 0.1 328 329 0.01 366 368 0.01 407 408 0.01 444.3 445 0.53 329 330 0.01 368 369 0.01 408 409 0.01 445 446 1.58 330 331 0.01 369 370 0.01 409 410 0.01 446 447 0.19 331 332 0.01 370 370.85 0.01 410 411.1 0.02 447 448 0.1 332 333 0.01 370.85 372 0.01 411.1 412 0.01 448 448.7 0.03 333 334 0.01 372 373 0.01 412 413 0.01 448 448.7 0.03 334 335.1 0.01 373 374 0.01 413 414 0.01 448.7 449.25 0.02 335.1 336 0.01 374 375 0.01 414 415 0.01 449.25 450.4 0.01 336 337 0.01 375 376 0.01 414 415 0.01 450.4 451.6 0.01 337 337.8 0.01 376 377 0.01 415 416.2 0.01 451.6 456.5 0.01

21BNRD058 mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t 311 312 0.02 323 324 0.01 335 336 0.01 346.45 317.25 0.01 312 313 0.01 324 325 0.01 336 337 0.01 317.25 348 0.01 313 314 0.01 325 326 0.01 337 338 0.01 348 349 0.01 314 315 0.01 326 327 0.01 338 338.98 1.51 349 350 0.01 315 316 0.01 327 328 0.01 338.98 339.75 0.05 350 351 0.01 316 317 0.01 328 328.95 0.01 339.75 341 0.23 351 352 0.01 317 318 0.01 328.95 330 0.01 341 342 0.1 352 353 0.01 318 319 0.01 330 331.15 0.01 342 343 0.03 353 354.2 0.01 319 320 0.01 331.15 332.1 0.01 343 344 0.07 354.2 355 0.01 320 321 0.01 332.1 333.1 0.01 344 344.6 0.04 355 356 0.01 321 322 0.01 333.1 334 0.01 344.6 345.85 0.01 356 356.8 0.01 322 323 0.01 334 335 0.01 345.85 346.45 0.05 346.45 317.25 0.01

21BNRD057 mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t 148 149 0.01 214 215 0.01 238 239 0.03 262 263 0.01 149 150 0.01 215 216 0.01 239 240 0.01 263 264 0.01 150 151 0.01 216 217 0.02 240 241 0.02 264 265 0.01 151 152 0.01 217 218 0.01 241 242 0.03 264 265 0.01 152 153 0.01 218 219 0.01 242 243 0.02 265 266 0.01 153 154 0.01 219 220 0.05 243 244 0.12 266 267 0.01 154 155 0.01 220 221 0.14 244 245 0.02 267 268 0.01 155 156 0.01 221 222 0.03 245 246 0.01 268 269 0.01 156 157 0.01 222 223 0.06 246 247 0.01 269 270 0.01 157 158 0.01 223 224 0.11 247 248 0.01 270 271 0.01 158 159 0.01 224 225 0.06 248 249 0.01 271 272 0.01 159 160 0.11 225 226 0.07 249 250 0.01 272 273 0.01 160 161 0.08 226 227 0.03 250 251 0.01 273 274 0.01 161 162 0.05 227 228 0.06 251 252 0.01 274 275 0.01 162 163 0.02 228 229 0.02 252 253 0.01 275 276 0.01 163 164 0.01 229 230 0.03 253 254 0.01 276 277 0.01 164 165 0.02 230 231 0.05 254 255 0.01 277 278 0.01 165 166 0.01 231 232 0.04 255 256 0.01 278 279 0.01 166 167 0.01 232 233 0.04 256 257 0.01 279 280 0.01 167 168 0.01 233 234 0.03 257 258 0.01 280 281 0.01 168 169 0.01 234 235 0.05 258 259 0.01 281 282 0.01 169 170 0.01 235 236 0.03 259 260 0.01 282 283 0.01 170 171 0.01 236 237 0.03 260 261 0.01 283 284 0.01 171 172 0.01 237 238 0.03 261 262 0.01 284 285 0.01

21BNRD057 -CONTINUED mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t 285 286 0.01 322 323 0.01 358 359 0.04 392.6 393.2 3.63 286 287 0.01 323 324 0.01 359 360.01 0.01 393.2 393.75 2.76 287 288 0.01 324 325 0.01 360.01 361.1 0.01 393.75 394.4 19.4 288 289 0.01 325 326 0.01 361.1 362 0.01 394.4 395.05 1.05 289 290 0.01 326 327 0.02 362 363 0.01 395.05 395.45 39.1 290 291 0.01 327 328 0.01 363 364 0.01 395.45 396.05 23.3 291 292 0.01 328 329 0.01 364 365 0.07 396.05 396.65 3.3 292 293 0.01 329 330 0.01 365 366 0.02 396.65 397 0.77 293 294 0.01 330 331 0.02 366 367 0.01 397 398 0.25 294 295 0.01 331 332 0.01 367 368.17 0.01 398 399 0.32 295 296 0.01 332 333 0.01 368.17 369.1 0.05 399 400.3 0.1 296 297 0.01 333 334 0.01 369.1 370 0.01 400.3 401 0.19 297 298 0.01 334 335 0.01 370 370.8 0.01 401 402 0.05 298 299 0.01 335 336 0.01 370.8 371.6 0.03 402 402.9 0.04 299 300 0.01 336 337 0.01 371.6 371.95 0.04 402.9 403.9 0.08 300 301 0.01 337 338 0.01 371.95 373 0.01 403.9 404.7 0.18 301 302 0.01 338 339 0.01 373 374 0.01 404.7 405.5 0.05 302 303 0.01 339 339.5 0.01 374 375 0.01 405.5 406.6 0.02 303 304 0.01 339.5 340.2 0.01 375 376.05 0.01 406.6 407.75 0.01 304 305.3 0.01 340.2 341 0.01 376.05 377.2 0.01 407.75 408.85 0.01 305.3 306.5 0.01 341 342 0.01 377.2 378 0.01 408.85 410 0.01 306.5 307.54 0.01 342 343 0.01 378 379 0.01 410 410.9 0.02 307.54 308.79 0.01 343 343.93 0.01 379 380 0.01 410.9 411.8 0.01 308.79 310 0.01 343.93 345 0.01 380 381.1 0.01 411.8 412.7 0.01 310 311 0.01 345 346 0.01 381.1 381.75 0.01 412.7 413.3 0.01 311 311.4 0.01 346 347 0.01 381.75 382.75 0.51 413.3 414.1 0.01 311.4 312.23 0.02 347 347.53 0.01 382.75 383.2 0.2 414.1 415 0.01 312.23 313.21 0.01 347.53 348.41 0.01 383.2 384 0.2 415 416 0.01 313.21 314.15 0.01 348.41 349.54 0.01 384 384.8 0.12 416 417 0.01 314.15 315 0.01 349.54 350.61 0.01 384.8 385.35 0.63 417 418 0.01 315 315.54 0.01 350.61 351.08 0.01 385.35 386.15 0.29 418 419 0.01 315.54 316.45 0.01 351.08 352 0.01 386.15 387 0.05 419 419.75 0.01 316.45 317.21 0.01 352 353 0.01 387 388 0.14 419.75 420.5 0.01 317.21 318.3 0.01 353 353.8 0.01 388 389 0.06 318.3 319 0.01 353.8 355 0.01 389 390 0.01 319 320 0.01 355 356 0.01 390 391 0.02 320 321.25 0.01 356 357 0.01 391 392.15 0.06 321.25 322 0.02 357 358 0.08 392.15 392.6 0.58

Infographics accompanying this announcement are available at:

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Figure 1 Murchison Exploration Phase 1 and Phase 2 Target Areas Figure 2 Phase 2 drilling completed for NOA group, showing anomalous intercepts in DD (yellow boxes) and previously reported RC results (white boxes). All intercepts are downhole widths. Figure 3 Phase 2 drilling completed for New Alliance target, showing anomalous RC intercepts previously reported. Figure 4 NOA Group Long Section Looking West showing recent and historic drilling (Drillhole ID is grey font) with pierce point locations of the primary intercepts shown in bold. RC drilling significant intercepts are shown in white boxes and DD significant intercepts are shown in yellow boxes. All intercepts are downhole widths. Figure 5 Visible gold sighted in RC hole 21BNRC050 at 219m downhole at NOA 1. Figure 6 NOA 1 cross-section 7010000mN (AA1) 100m looking North showing Phase 2 anomalous intercepts in recent RC drilling previously reported (white boxes) and anomalous intercepts in DD drilling (yellow boxes) falling within the clipping distance of the section. Historic drillholes (white boxes with grey font for drillhole IDs). All intercepts are downhole widths. Figure 7 Isometric view looking south of NOA 2 showing fault planes truncating mineralization in 22BNRD001 and 22BNRD002. Figure 8 NOA 4-6 cross-section 7010930mN (BB1) 100m looking North showing Phase 2 DD drilling completed; anomalous intercepts in recent DD drilling (yellow boxes) and anomalous intercepts in historic drilling (white boxes). All intercepts are downhole widths. Figure 9 NOA 7/8 cross-section 7011700mN (CC1) 200m clipping looking North showing Phase 2 drilling completed within the clipping window, anomalous intercepts in recent DD drilling (yellow boxes) and anomalous intercepts in historic drilling (white boxes) Figure 10 Picture of 21BNRD057 core showing intercepted mineralized package of highly deformed and altered sediments, mafic with minor fine-grained felsic rocks consistent with NOA Shear Zone. Figure 11 Local geology and mineralization trend of the Gabanintha historic pits Figure 12 Interpretive cross section of the Gabanintha pits showing historic drill intercept results Figure 13 Monument Murchison Gold Project and surrounding gold production to date

Source: Monument Mining
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Monument Mining Limited (TSX-V: MMY and FSE: D7Q1) Monument or the Company is pleased to announce that the results from the Phase 2 diamond drilling (DD) have been received and confirmed the extension of gold mineralization, including high grades of up to 17.8g/t gold, for more than 150m vertical depth below the current Mineral Resource at the North of Alliance (NOA) group of deposits (NOA 1 to NOA 7/8, NOA9), offering the potential for significant future expansion of the Mineral Resource base.

The site work and data validation to wrap up the Phase 2 drilling program has now been completed at Burnakura. Together with the Phase 1 drilling program, the Company has tested greenfield targets and extensions to known mineralized structures, and successfully achieved initial objectives with the Phase 1 Junction target discovery and the Phase 2 drilling confirmation of gold mineralization extensions at depth at the NOA group of deposits highlighting the opportunity to grow the Murchison Project organically.

Monuments President and CEO, Cathy Zhai, said: These latest drilling results continue to demonstrate the potential of the Murchison Project and support our strategy to expand the existing Mineral Resource base that might turn Murchison Project into the Companys cornerstone project.

We see significant potential for near mine extensions at the NOA group of deposits and across our entire Burnakura and Gabanintha land package. The Murchison Project also presents unique opportunities for greenfield targeting and potential for additional discoveries in this mineral-rich geological setting. We will continue to explore all options and opportunities using systematic exploration techniques applied to Monuments land package.

HIGHLIGHTS OF BURNAKURA DRILLING RESULTS

The Phase 2 drilling Results

The Phase 2 drilling program is contained within the Companys two-year exploration program testing extensions of known mineralization down dip of the Burnakura tenements increasing the potential longer term production profile.

Phase 2 Diamond Drilling Results

Drilling results confirm the extension of gold mineralization, including high grades of up to 17.8g/t gold , for more than 150m vertical depth below the current Mineral Resource at the NOA group of deposits, offering the potential for significant future expansion of the Mineral Resource base.

, for more than 150m vertical depth below the current Mineral Resource at the NOA group of deposits, offering the potential for significant future expansion of the Mineral Resource base. Drilling demonstrates an increase in width, grade, and associated alteration of the mineralized package (mine sequence*) at depth, affirming that unlocking the potential for the NOA group of deposits rests with a focused exploration program to delineate additional Mineral Resources beneath the historic open pits for underground exploitation.

Drilling highlights the potential to exploit historic pits deeper and transition to underground mining.

Furthermore, the drilling program provides more confidence in extending the Mineral Resources beyond the current 1.6km strike limit to the immediate south of NOA 1 pit and north of NOA 7/8 deposits and offers the opportunity to deliver additional significant discoveries along the prospective NOA Shear zone.

Significant intercepts returned from the outstanding DD portion of Phase 2 drilling program include: 4m at 12.0g/t gold from 392.6m in 21BNRD057 at NOA 7/8 target. 1m at 1.2g/t gold from 260m, 1.6m at 1.6g/t gold from 267.8m, and 2m at 17.8g/t gold from 293m in 22BNRD006 at NOA 4-6 target. 2.2m at 1.6g/t gold from 441m in 21BNRD055 at NOA 7/8 target.



Phase 2 Reverse Circulate Drilling Results Recap :

Significant RC intercepts (Previously reported in News Release dated May 30, 2022):

4m at 32.0g/t gold from 218m (including 1m at 71.8g/t gold from 219m), 1m at 1.1g/t gold from 226m, 1m at 4.2g/t gold from 229m and 1m at 1.1g/t gold in 21BNRC050 at NOA 1 target.

from 218m (including from 219m), from 226m, from 229m and in 21BNRC050 at NOA 1 target. 2m at 5.3g/t gold from 140m in 21BNRC047 at NOA 1 target.

The Phase 1 Drilling Results Recap

The Phase 1 drilling results were previously reported in January 19, 2022, which initiated the Companys two-year exploration program to test unknown greenfield targets across the Burnakura tenements with the aim of increasing the potential longer-term production profile.

As previously announced on January 19, 2022, the Company is also increasingly encouraged by the discovery of a near-surface high-grade mineralization system at the Junction target with intercepts up to 3m at 10.2g/t gold , which could rapidly advance towards production through open-cut methods.

, which could rapidly advance towards production through open-cut methods. The early promising results at the Junction target, particularly given the near surface high grades, strengthen the Companys resolve that the Burnakura area remains highly prospective with several untested areas which could deliver another significant gold discovery.

Follow up Works

A critical technical evaluation, refinement and ranking of all known targets incorporating all data across the extensive tenement package are ongoing over Burnakura and Gabanintha project areas to ensure future exploration efforts continue to deliver the Companys long-term strategy of turning the Murchison Project into a cornerstone project.

Undertaken the following programs at Gabanintha: To conduct drilling targeting mineralization along strike of existing mineralization trends from the open pits and on parallel and splay mineralized structural trends identified from wide-spaced exploration drilling. To conduct drilling beneath the historic Terrells and Canterbury pits to test for mineralization extensions at depth which has not been closed off.

Further programs might be carried out at Burnakura in future also include but not limited to A follow up phase of drilling to provide coverage across the NOA group of deposits testing for a mineralized package deeper to approximately 300m below surface and then infill drilling to provide confidence to grow the Mineral Resources when the estimate is next completed. To systematically test for strike continuity along the NOA mineralized structure to delineate further potential open pit and underground Mineral Resources beyond the current 1.6km strike limit. Follow up on the new shallow high-grade Junction discovery by drill testing for extensions using RC drilling to potentially progress it rapidly to a Mineral Resource estimation.



1Press release on July 18, 2018, titled Monument Announces NI43-101 Mineral Resource Update at the Burnakura Property, Western Australia. Monument confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affect the information included in the announcement of July 18, 2018, and that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the Mineral Resources estimate in the announcement of July 18, 2018, have not materially changed, and continue to apply.

2Armstrong, B. 2007, NOA 2 Gold Project Resource Statement as at 1 January 2007, Page 10, Tectonic Resources NL. Cited in Independent Technical Report - NI 43-101 on the Mineral and Mining Assets within the Burnakura Project held by Tectonic Resources NL, Extract Resources NL located in the Murchison Mineral Field of Western Australia for ATW Venture Corp effective as at 22 November 2007.

3Wells, L. 2013, Due Diligence Report on Burnakura and Gabanintha Gold Prospects of Kentor Gold Limited Final, Page 9.

*The highly deformed and altered package of rocks contained within the BTZ is locally known as the mine sequence. The original lithologies are dominated by altered mafic with minor fine-grained felsic rocks.

PHASE 1 & 2 DRILLING PROGRAM AT BURNAKURA

Monument commenced Phase 1 of a two-year exploration drilling program in July 2021 and completed it in August 2021(refer to news releases dated December 15, 2021, and January 19, 2022). In November 2021, it commenced Phase 2 drilling (completed in April 2022), and, in May 2022, announced the results received from the RC portion of the program (refer to news release dated May 30, 2022).

Target areas for the Phase 1 and 2 drilling falls within the Companys Burnakura project area and are shown in Figure 1. The Burnakura area is considered highly prospective for discovering economic gold mineralization associated with the prolific Burnakura Thrust Zone (BTZ). This regional northeast-trending lineament dominates the area and is related to at least 15 deposits with pre-2005 historic gold production from 15 open pits and two underground operations amounting to 1.8Mt at 3.7g/t gold for a total of 216,000 ounces2. Subsequent underground mining campaigns were undertaken at NOA 2 from 2005 to 2007 (185,000 tonnes at an average grade of 7.1g/t gold for 42,289 ounces3) and in 2009 (81,150 tonnes averaging 5.81g/t gold for 13,462 ounces3).

Figure 1: Murchison Exploration Phase 1 and Phase 2 Target Areas





While a detailed discussion on Phase 2 drilling program is seen below, reader is recommended to refer to the News Release dated January 19, 2022 for Phase 1 drilling program discussion.

PHASE 2 DRILLING PROPRAGE DISCUSSION

The Phase 2 program focused on the New Alliance and NOA group of deposits, which have a combined Mineral Resource1 of 289Koz Indicated and 52Koz Inferred, to identify mineralized extensions aimed at increasing the scale of the previously mined open pits and underground deposits.

A combined 18 RC and DD holes for a total of 5,595.1m against a planned 18 holes for a combined RC and DD total of 5,546m was drilled for the Phase 2 program. The breakdown of the drilling completed is provided in Table 1. The drill locations and results reported in this press release are shown in Figures 2 and 3 and interpreted long sections and cross-sections in Figures 4, 6, 8 and 9, with all holes listed in Appendices 1 to 2.

Table 1: Completed RC and DD drilling for Phase 2

Target



Number of holes Drill metres RC RCDD Total RC DD Total NOA 1 4 3 7 1,559.8 385.5 1,945.3 NOA 2 1 1 2 510.0 49.7 559.7 NOA 4-6 1 1 2 525.0 71.0 596.0 NOA 7/8 1 5 6 1,740.2 588.9 2,329.1 New Alliance 1 - 1 165.0 - 165.0 Total 8 10 18 4,500.0 1,095.1 5,595.1

All drill collars are accurately surveyed using Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) techniques. Coordinates and azimuth are reported in MGA 94 Zone 50. Downhole survey was completed by downhole gyroscopic method at regular intervals.

Geological logging was completed for all holes and representative across the deposits. The drill hole lithology, alteration, mineralogy, and structural characteristics of core were logged directly to a digital format following procedures and using Monument Mining geologic codes. All data was imported into a central SQL geological database.

Monument Murchison Quality Control and Quality Assurance (QAQC) protocol is considered industry standard with certified reference material (CRM) regularly submitted with routine samples to ensure ongoing quality control. CRMs and Blanks are inserted at a minimum of a 5% frequency rate.

An independent commercial laboratory, ALS Geochemistry, performed all sample preparation and gold assaying of primary samples in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. Samples were analyzed for gold by lead collection fire assay of a 50g charge with AAS finish.

Figure 2: Phase 2 drilling completed for NOA group, showing anomalous intercepts in DD (yellow boxes) and previously reported RC results (white boxes). All intercepts are downhole widths.









Figure 3: Phase 2 drilling completed for New Alliance target, showing anomalous RC intercepts previously reported.





The NOA Group Phase 2 DD Drilling

NOA gold deposits comprise NOA 1 to the south and NOA 7/8 to the north and are in a flat sheetwash area and underlain by felsic to intermediate volcanic rocks and associated sediments within mafic intrusive and volcanic rocks. Five of the known deposits NOA 2, NOA 4-6 and NOA 7/8, are colinear within a northerly trending dilational structure (NOA Shear Zone) that splays off the regional BTZ and dipping to the east at approximately 30- 60 (Figure 1). NOA 1 is offset to the east by some 200m on a different but related structure. The NOA Shear Zone intersects a dolerite sill which is interpreted as having intruded along a sequence of felsic pyroclastic flows and associated sediments and is the dominant feature at the NOA deposits that constrains and controls economic gold mineralization at depth within a strongly sheared and altered sequence of siltstone felsic volcanic and intrusive mafic rocks (Figures 1 and 2). The bulk of the mineralization occurs within massive quartz veins and quartz breccia within a large irregular silica-carbonate-sericite-pyrite (potassic) alteration halo.

The NOA 1 to NOA 4-6 deposits are in mining lease M51/116 and NOA 7/8 straddle mining leases M51/116 and M51/177. The surface RL in the area is approximately 460m, with the deepest portion at NOA 2 pit, which is about 80m below surface (Figure 4). Mining of the NOA group of deposits began in 1995 with underground ore sourced exclusively from the NOA 2 deposit. Currently, the combined unmined Mineral Resource total for the NOA area is 1.81Mt at 3.1g/t gold for 182,000 ounces of gold Indicated and 0.64Mt at 2.3g/t gold for 48,000 ounces of gold Inferred1.

The focus of the Phase 2 drilling at the NOA group of deposits was to identify extensions to existing Mineral Resources and increase the scale of the existing open pits and underground deposits at Burnakura.

Seventeen drill holes were designed to test the extensions of potentially economic mineralization down dip and down-plunge. Fourteen of the drill holes drilled intercepted the prospective horizon of quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration (mine sequence) with significant gold mineralization returned, including high grades of up to 17.8g/t gold. The mineralized package appears to continue down-plunge and down-dip of the current NOA group Mineral Resources, which remain untested by drilling along strike, down-dip, and down-plunge (Figure 4).

Figure 4 shows the interpretive NOA group long section looking west of recent and historic drilling with pierce point locations of the significant primary intercepts. The drill results confirm that the width, alteration, and grade of the prospective horizon are more pervasive at depth, providing significant potential for underground Mineral Resources discovery to the south of the NOA 1 open pit, further north beyond the NOA 7/8 deposit and underneath the existing NOA open pits (Figures 4, 6, 8 and 9).

These encouraging results indicate that significant potential for the NOA group of deposits hinges on a focused exploration program to delineate deeper Mineral Resources around the previously mined open pits for underground exploitation. In line with this, the Company plans to further test for mineralization extension to approximately 300m below surface to extend the underground Mineral Resource targets.

Figure 4: NOA Group Long Section Looking West showing recent and historic drilling (Drillhole ID is grey font) with pierce point locations of the primary intercepts shown in bold. RC drilling significant intercepts are shown in white boxes and DD significant intercepts are shown in yellow boxes. All intercepts are downhole widths.





NOA 1

NOA 1 lies east of NOA 2 and contains a north-south strike length of approximately 200m, with mineralization dipping to the east between 50 to 60 (Figure 2). Historic gold production has been from open pit, with approximately 16,200 ounces of gold recovered2. The deepest portion of the pit is approximately 75m below surface.

Before the Phase 2 drilling, drill density was limited below the pit (greater than 30m below surface) and immediately to the south, even though promising drill results indicated the potential for mineralized package to be open at depth and along strike to the south.

Seven drill holes totaling five RC (21BNRC047 to 21BNRC050 and 21BNRC052) for 1,235m and two RC pre-collars with diamond tails (RCDD) (21BNRD051 and 21BNRD053) totaling 611.3m were completed at NOA 1 area to test for possible additional Mineral Resources immediately south and down-dip of existing Mineral Resources in areas which are largely untested (Figures 2 and 4). The prospective horizon targeted is the highly sheared and altered Burnakura Thrust Zone.

Significant gold results include:

4m at 32.0g/t Au from 218m (including 1m at 71.8g/t Au from 219m), 1m at 1.1g/t Au from 226m, 1m at 4.2g/t Au from 229m and 1m at 1.1g/t Au in 21BNRC050 approximately 190m below surface and remains open. Visible gold was observed in RC chips associated with the 4m at 32.0g/t Au intercept (See picture in Figure 5 below).

from 218m (including from 219m), from 226m, from 229m and in 21BNRC050 approximately 190m below surface and remains open. Visible gold was observed in RC chips associated with the 4m at 32.0g/t Au intercept (See picture in Figure 5 below). 2m at 5.3g/t Au from 140m in 21BNRC047.

from 140m in 21BNRC047. 1.1m at 1.7g/t Au from 246m in 21BNRD051.

Au from 246m in 21BNRD051. 1m at 1.2g/t Au from 240m in 21BNRC049.

from 240m in 21BNRC049. 1m at 1.7g/t Au from 184m and 1m at 4.3g/t Au from 190m in 21BNRC048.

from 184m and 1m at 4.3g/t Au from 190m in 21BNRC048. 1m at 1.5g/t Au from 243m and 1m at 4.3g/t Au from 246m in 12BNRC052.

Figure 5: Visible gold sighted in RC hole 21BNRC050 at 219m downhole at NOA 1.





The northernmost drilled DD hole 21BNRD053 did not encounter mineralization and potentially indicates the boundary of the northern extent of the NOA 1 deposit.

The location of results from drillholes reported in this release is shown in the plan view in Figure 2 and in the interpretive long sectional view in Figures 4. The E-W sectional view in Figure 6 is an interpretive cross-section 7010000mN at the NOA 1 deposit with a clipping window of 100m on either side of the section line AA1 indicated on the plan view in Figure 2. The cross-sectional view shows significant intercepts of drilling within the clipping window reported in this release shown in yellow boxes and some previously reported drilling in white boxes.

Drillholes 21BNRC047, 21BNRC048, 21BNRC049, 21BNRC050, 21BNRC052 and 21BNRD051 were drilled to target the deeper portions of the NOA 1 high-grade gold mineralization, where previous drillholes 16MRC107 and 20MRD013 had intersected 7m at 9.0g/t Au from 140m and 1m at 7.6g/t Au from 243m respectively (Figure 6). The bulk of the gold mineralization within all drillholes is associated with the strongly sheared and altered BTZ occurring within quartz veins and quartz breccia within a large irregular silica-carbonate-sericite-pyrite (potassic) alteration halo. In diamond drill core, the mineralized zones are visually distinctive due to the presence of millimeter to centimeter wide quartz-carbonate veins that are commonly folded and display yellow-brown talc-carbonate selvages. The width of the prospective horizon appears to increase at depth and remain open as depicted in the cross section in Figure 6.

The promising results intercepted beneath the NOA 1 pit indicate the potential to host significant open pit underground amendable gold mineralization immediately south, down-dip and down-plunge of the deposit, which is largely untested.

Drilling is currently being planned to focus on delineating deeper economic mineralization around the NOA 1 pit to a depth of approximately 300m below surface and to continue to test the strike extensions to the south of the deposit for potential open pit and underground exploitation.

Figure 6: NOA 1 cross-section 7010000mN (AA1) 100m looking North showing Phase 2 anomalous intercepts in recent RC drilling previously reported (white boxes) and anomalous intercepts in DD drilling (yellow boxes) falling within the clipping distance of the section. Historic drillholes (white boxes with grey font for drillhole IDs). All intercepts are downhole widths.





NOA 2

Open pit mining commenced at NOA 2 in 1995 and was finalized in 1997 to a depth of approximately 80m below surface. From 2005 to 2007 and in 2009, underground mining was undertaken at NOA 2 to a total of 160m or 80m below the open cut. Approximately 26,000 ounces of gold was historically mined from open pit. Underground gold production from 2005 to 2007 at NOA 2 totaled approximately 185,000 tonnes at an average grade of 7.1g/t gold for 42,289 ounces3. Ore recovered underground in 2009 totaled 81,150 tonnes averaged 5.81g/t gold for 13,462 ounces3.

The ore structure at NOA 2 is approximately 400m in strike, dips eastward at approximately 40 and remains highly prospective for additional gold discovery.

Two RCDD holes, 22BNRD001 and 22BNRD002, totaling 336.7m, were completed at NOA 2, testing the potential for extensions to economic mineralized package at depth below the deposit (Figures 2). Neither drillholes intersected the prospective horizon due to mineralization offset by a fault (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Isometric view looking south of NOA 2 showing fault planes truncating mineralization in 22BNRD001 and 22BNRD002.





Several structures cut the NOA 2 deposit, with three main systems controlling the mineralization zones (Figure 7):

An east-west fault to the south end of the deposit separates NOA 1 and NOA 2 open pits.

A north-south NOA Fault separates the open pit mineralization from ore mined historically underground, and;

Northeast striking and steeply dipping series of late-stage reverse faults offsetting the mineralization.



Three main types of veins are identified to host economic gold mineralization at NOA 2 (Figure 7):

Northerly striking and westly dipping massive quartz veins and quartz breccias. This is the primary source of gold mineralization at depth.

The second set of gold bearing east-west striking northerly dipping narrow, high-grade veins.

The third-generation gold-bearing veins are generally northerly striking and westly dipping.



These drillholes will help to firm up the interpreted position of the encountered fault zone to assist in future targeting of the NOA 2 deposit.

NOA 4-6

The NOA 4-6 combined ore structure strikes approximately 400m and dips to the east. The pits have been mined down to about 30m below surface. Before commencing the Phase 2 drilling, the drill density was patchy from 100m below surface, leading to sections of the ore zones interpreted as pinching out at depth, and where it remains open, the grade appears low. This situation was interpreted to be due to paucity of drilling; potential exists for the ore structure to remain continuous and open at depth.

To test the NOA 4-6 Mineral Resource potential three drillholes comprising of one RCDD, 22BNRD006 totaling 316m, and two RC 22BNRC003 and 22BNRC005 for a total of 299m were completed to test the depth extent of economic gold mineralization. The location of results from drillholes reported in this release is shown in the plan view in Figure 2 and in the interpretive long sectional view in Figure 4. The E-W sectional view in Figure 8 is an interpretive cross-section 7010930mN at the NOA 4-6 deposit with a clipping window of 100m on either side of the section line BB1 indicated on the plan view in Figure 2. The cross-sectional view shows significant intercepts of DD drilling reported in this release shown in yellow boxes and some previously reported drilling in white boxes.

All the drill holes encountered mineralized package consistent with the prospective horizon confirming continuity at depth of mineralization previously encountered in 8NOAC013 of 1m at 2.6g/t Au from 206m and 3m at 1.4g/t Au from 145m (Figure 8). Results confirmed additional gold mineralization and show the NOA 4-6 mineralized packages width and alteration remaining consistent with grade getting better at depth. High grades encountered including up to 17.8g/t gold from the deepest DD holes at approximately 250m below surface indicate a significant potential for mineralization remaining open.

Significant gold results include:

1m at 1.2g/t Au from 260m, 1.7m at 1.5g/t Au from 267.8m, and 2m at 17.8g/t Au from 293m 22BNRD006 (the deepest drill holes indicating mineralization remaining open below 250m from surface);

from 260m, from 267.8m, and from 293m 22BNRD006 (the deepest drill holes indicating mineralization remaining open below 250m from surface); 3m at 1.8g/t Au from 204m in 22BNRC005

from 204m in 22BNRC005 2m at 2.2g/t Au from 293m in 22BNRC003.



The result from the drilling provides strong target for expanding on the Mineral Resources base of NOA 4-6 which remain open down-dip and down-plunge.

Overall, the NOA 4-6 results reaffirm the Companys resolve that there exists significant potential for expanding Mineral Resources and unlocking this potential rests with a focused exploration program to delineate deeper Mineral Resources around the mined out open pits for underground exploitation.

Further drilling is currently being planned to systematically target mineralization extensions further to approximately 300m below surface along the known strike extent of the NOA 4-6 zone.

Figure 8: NOA 4-6 cross-section 7010930mN (BB1) 100m looking North showing Phase 2 DD drilling completed; anomalous intercepts in recent DD drilling (yellow boxes) and anomalous intercepts in historic drilling (white boxes). All intercepts are downhole widths.





NOA 7/8

NOA 7/8 is the northernmost historic pit of the NOA group of deposits and contains a mineralized zone over a strike length of approximately 600m. The zone strikes approximately 40 and dips 50 to the east. Pit depth is down to 61m. Drill results show mineralization is open along strike to the north and south as well as open down dip. The structural setting for the gold mineralization is interpreted to be like that of the NOA 2 deposit with mineralization confined to the NOA shear zone. The host lithologies are predominantly sedimentary and felsic volcaniclastics units (Figure 9). The footwall of the mineralized zones changes from a felsic volcaniclastics below NOA 7 in the south, to an ultramafic lithology in the north below NOA 8.

Historic gold production totaled approximately 47,300 ounces of gold recovered from the open pits2. Currently, the combined unmined Mineral Resource for the NOA 7/8 total 776,000 tonnes at 4.6g/t gold for 114,000 ounces of gold Indicated and 35,000 tonnes at 3.9g/t gold for 4,000 ounces of gold Inferred1 presenting the opportunity to extend high grade mineralization which remain open at depth and along strike to the north of the deposit.

Five RCDD (21BNRD055 to 21BNRD058 and 22BNRD004) totaling 815.8m were completed to test the depth and northerly extensions for potential economic mineralized package at NOA 7/8 (Figures 2 and 4). All drillholes except 22BNRD004 encountered the NOA mineralized structure which potentially delineates the boundary of the southern extent of the NOA 7/8 deposit.

Significant intercepts assays include:

4m at 12.0g/t Au from 392.6m in 21BNRD057. This high-grade mineralization is encountered in the deepest drill hole further north and remains open at depth and on strike.

from 392.6m in 21BNRD057. This high-grade mineralization is encountered in the deepest drill hole further north and remains open at depth and on strike. 2.2m at 1.6g/t Au from 441m in 21BNRD055.

from 441m in 21BNRD055. 1m at 1.5g/t Au from 338m in 21BNRD058.

from 338m in 21BNRD058. 1m at 1.6g/t Au from 445m in 21BNRD056.

The location of results from drillholes reported in this release is shown in the plan view in Figure 2 and in the interpretive long sectional view in Figures 4. The E-W sectional view in Figure 8 is an interpretive cross-section 7011700mN at the NOA 7/8 deposit with a clipping window of 200m on either side of the section line CC1 indicated on the plan view in Figure 2. The cross-sectional view shows significant intercepts of from drill holes within the clipping window reported in this release shown in yellow boxes and some previously reported drilling in white boxes.

Figure 9: NOA 7/8 cross-section 7011700mN (CC1) 200m clipping looking North showing Phase 2 drilling completed within the clipping window, anomalous intercepts in recent DD drilling (yellow boxes) and anomalous intercepts in historic drilling (white boxes)

The bulk of the gold mineralization within all drillholes is associated with a highly deformed sequence of sedimentary and mafic to felsic rocks with quartz veins and quartz breccia within a large irregular silica-carbonate-sericite-pyrite (potassic) alteration halo (mine sequence). In diamond drill core, the mineralized structure or mineralized package is visually distinctive due to the presence of millimeter to centimeter wide quartz-carbonate veins that are commonly folded and highly deformed, consistent with the mine sequence constraining and controlling the economic gold mineralization defined at depth and historically mined at NOA 2 underground (Figure 10 - see picture of mineralized package intercepted in the 21BNRD057 core).

Figure 10: Picture of 21BNRD057 core showing intercepted mineralized package of highly deformed and altered sediments, mafic with minor fine-grained felsic rocks consistent with NOA Shear Zone.





The drill results indicate that the width, alteration, and grade of the mineralized package are becoming more pervasive at depth, and along strike providing significant potential for underground Mineral Resources discovery further north beyond the NOA 7/8 deposit and underneath the open pits. This again strongly suggests that unlocking the significant Mineral Resource potential at NOA 7/8 is reliant on focusing exploration program to delineate deeper Mineral Resources around the previously mined open pits for underground exploitation.

Drilling is being planned to target Mineral Resources down-plunge extension of the NOA 7/8 deposit to a depth of approximately 300m below surface, where the 4m at 12.0g/t Au intercept in 21BNRD057 indicates mineralization is open to the north beyond the current 600m strike extent.

New Alliance

One RC hole drilled to 165m at the New Alliance target, which has historically produced gold from an open pit (Figure 3). This hole targeted the high-grade mineralization plunge interpreted beneath the northern end of the pit. Significant assay returned include 1m at 2.4g/t Au from 45m and 1m at 2.8g/t from 116m in 21BNRC054. This zone of interpreted gold mineralization at New Alliance remains open, being mostly untested along strike and at depth.

NEXT STEPS

A critical technical evaluation, refinement and ranking of all known targets incorporating all data across the extensive tenement package are ongoing to steadily increase exploration over Burnakura and Gabanintha project areas to ensure future exploration efforts continue to deliver the Companys long-term strategy of turning the Murchison Project into a cornerstone project.

Burnakura Projects

The encouraging results from the Phase 1 and 2 drilling provide exploration upside and warrant a follow-up phase of drilling at all targets that delivered positive results to rapidly grow the current Mineral Resources at the Murchison Project. Immediate focus at Burnakura will be:

To conduct a follow up phase of drilling that will continue to unlock the significant exploration upside potential for Mineral Resources at NOA 1, NOA 4-6 and NOA 7/8 deposits focusing on delineating deeper mineralization beneath the mined open pits for underground exploitation to a depth of approximately 300m below surface.

To systematically complete step-out drilling along strike to the immediate south of NOA 1 and north of NOA 7/8 which presents large exploration targets open at depth and along strike and potentially extending the Mineral Resources beyond the current 1.6km strike limit of the NOA group of deposits.

Test for extensions to the shallow high-grade discovery at the Junction target using RC drilling to potentially progress it rapidly to a Mineral Resource estimation.

Explore other options at the Junction target to delineate additional shallow high-grade economic gold mineralized systems that remains untested and open within a strong shear zone and no known historic drilling or surface sampling. This will include: Completing geochemical sampling to the east of the most easterly drilled line in areas that are not under sheetwash. Continuing undertaking geological mapping to the east of the Junction target to help identify additional areas suitable for geochemical sampling and refine existing targets. Conduct air core drilling to the east and west of the high-grade drill line.







Gabanintha Project

The Gabanintha Project area is within trucking distance (approximately 21km northeast) of the existing Burnakura processing facility (Figure 13). The project contains six historic open pits on a 2.4km strike along the prolific Gabanintha Shear Zone, which provide immediate exploration targets proximal to mined areas. The pits were mined to depths of 40 to 70m and produced approximately 150,000 ounces of gold3. Significant opportunity exists to extend the mineralization at depth and along strike in these target areas due to limited exploration conducted since closure of the open pit operations some 27 years ago, limited deep drilling and an existing historic unmined potential Mineral Resource3 of 2.21Mt at 2.2g/t gold for 153,000 ounces.

The Company strongly believes this presents a significant opportunity to accelerate the expansion of the Mineral Resource base by extending, converting, and validating these historical Mineral Resources into current Mineral Resources under NI 43-101 guidelines. The following exploration activities are planned:

To conduct drilling to the north of the Yagahong pit for possible Mineral Resources, which may be amenable to exploitation by open pit mining as a potential cut-back (Figure 11). The Yagahong historic significant drill assays include high grades up to 3m at 60.2g/t gold (Figure 12).

(Figure 12). To conduct drilling beneath the Terrells, Canterbury and Canterbury South pits to test for mineralization extensions at depth as existing drilling is patchy and has not closed off mineralization. The anomalous mineralization intercepts with increasing depth indicate the potential for additional gold Mineral Resources beneath the pits. Historic high-grade intercept beneath the Terrells pit includes 2m at 21.5g/t gold, 4m at 4.5g/t gold and 13m at 3.1g/t gold at Canterbury (Figure 12).

and at Canterbury (Figure 12). To conduct drilling targeting mineralization along strike of existing mineralization trends from the open pits and on parallel and splay mineralized structural trends identified from wide-spaced exploration drilling. These represent the best potential for delineating further open pit amenable Mineral Resources at Gabanintha.





Figure 11: Local geology and mineralization trend of the Gabanintha historic pits













Figure 12: Interpretive cross section of the Gabanintha pits showing historic drill intercept results

BACKGROUND OF THE MURCHISON GOLD PROJECT

The Murchison Gold Project comprises 170km2 of highly prospective Archean Greenstone. The project area covers the eastern margin of the Meekatharra-Wydgee greenstone belt within the north-eastern Murchison domain (Figure 13). Historically the Murchison Goldfield has produced over 15 million ounces of gold since the 1900s and currently hosts significant gold producers in the region.

Figure 13: Monument Murchison Gold Project and surrounding gold production to date

Source of Gabanintha Historical Resources figures: Mapleson, D., (2013) Murchison Gold Project: Burnakura and Gabanintha Resource Inventory. By BMGS for Monument Mining Limited. December 2013;

Surrounding historical gold production is indicative only and collected by Monument geologists.





Qualified Persons Statement

The technical and scientific information in this press release has been compiled by Mr Ekow Taylor, MAusIMM CP (Geo), the Chief Managing Geologist at Monument Mining Limited, a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, and has been reviewed and approved by Roger Stangler, MEng, FAusIMM, MAIG, a Qualified Person as defined by NI43-101, retained by Golder Associates Pty Ltd.



About Monument

Monument Mining Limited (TSX-V: MMY, FSE:D7Q1) is an established Canadian gold producer that 100% owns and operates the Selinsing Gold Mine in Malaysia and the Murchison Gold Project in the Murchison area of Western Australia. It has 20% interest in Tuckanarra Gold Project jointly owned with Odyssey Gold Ltd in the same region. The Company employs approximately 200 people in both regions and is committed to the highest standards of environmental management, social responsibility, and health and safety for its employees and neighboring communities.

Cathy Zhai, President and CEO

Monument Mining Limited

Suite 1580 -1100 Melville Street

Vancouver, BC V6E 4A6

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION visit the company web site at www.monumentmining.com or contact:

Richard Cushing, MMY Vancouver T: +1-604-638-1661 x102 [email protected]

"Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release."

Forward-Looking Statement

This news release includes statements containing forward-looking information about Monument, its business and future plans ("forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements are statements that involve expectations, plans, objectives or future events that are not historical facts and include the Company's plans with respect to its mineral projects and the timing and results of proposed programs and events referred to in this news release. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". The forward-looking statements in this news release are subject to various risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks and certain other factors include, without limitation: risks related to general business, economic, competitive, geopolitical and social uncertainties; uncertainties regarding the results of current exploration activities; uncertainties in the progress and timing of development activities; foreign operations risks; other risks inherent in the mining industry and other risks described in the management discussion and analysis of the Company and the technical reports on the Company's projects, all of which are available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Material factors and assumptions used to develop forward-looking statements in this news release include: expectations regarding the estimated cash cost per ounce of gold production and the estimated cash flows which may be generated from the operations, general economic factors and other factors that may be beyond the control of Monument; assumptions and expectations regarding the results of exploration on the Company's projects; assumptions regarding the future price of gold of other minerals; the timing and amount of estimated future production; the expected timing and results of development and exploration activities; costs of future activities; capital and operating expenditures; success of exploration activities; mining or processing issues; exchange rates; and all of the factors and assumptions described in the management discussion and analysis of the Company and the technical reports on the Company's projects, all of which are available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

APPENDIX 1

Table 2: Drill Holes Details

Hole ID Depth (m) Dip



Azimuth



Grid_ID mEast mNorth mRL 21BNRC047 197 -63.8 272.6 MGA94_50 646170 7010073 460 21BNRC048 203 -65.3 273.5 MGA94_50 646166 7010035 460 21BNRC049 255 -59.3 270.3 MGA94_50 646228 7010007 460 21BNRC050 303 -58.3 267.9 MGA94_50 646274 7010001 4560 21BNRC052 277 -58.6 269.9 MGA94_50 646154 7010133 460 21BNRC054 165 -59.6 304.7 MGA94_50 645986 7008493 464 22BNRC003 299 -62.5 264.3 MGA94_50 645740 7011160 458 22BNRC005 280 -58.3 267.9 MGA94_50 645815 7010717 459 21BNRD051 329.1 -59.0 269.9 MGA94_50 646257 7010038 460 21BNRD053 282.2 -53.9 252.2 MGA94_50 646104 7010221 460 21BNRD055 459 -58.7 263.5 MGA94_50 645895 7011433 457 21BNRD056 456.5 -58.7 254.8 MGA94_50 645880 7011687 456 21BNRD057 420.5 -59.7 266.6 MGA94_50 645808 7011784 456 21BNRD058 356.8 -60.7 269.3 MGA94_50 645818 7011545 460 22BNRD001 336.7 -59.9 266.6 MGA94_50 646034 7010380 460 22BNRD002 321.5 -65.9 253.9 MGA94_50 646019 7010536 459 22BNRD004 336.6 -63.9 264.8 MGA94_50 645805 7011356 457 22BNRD006 316 -61.5 265.3 MGA94_50 645776 7010930 459

Table 3: Summary of Individual Significant Intercepts

Hole_ID mFrom mTo mWidth Au (g/t) 21BNRC047 140 141 1 4.5 21BNRC047 141 142 1 6.2 21BNRC048 184 185 1 1.7 21BNRC048 190 191 1 4.3 21BNRC049 240 241 1 1.22 21BNRC050 218 219 1 25. 21BNRC050 219 220 1 71.8 21BNRC050 220 221 1 2.0 21BNRC050 221 222 1 28.7 21BNRC050 226 227 1 1.1 21BNRC050 229 230 1 4.2 21BNRC050 247 248 1 1.1 21BNRC052 243 244 1 1.5 21BNRC052 246 247 1 4.31 21BNRC054 45 46 1 2.4 21BNRC054 116 117 1 2.8 21BNRD051 263.95 265 1.1 1.7 21BNRD055 441.0 442.1 1.1 1.2 21BNRD055 442.1 443.2 1.1 2.0 22BNRD006 260.0 261.0 1.0 1.2 22BNRD006 267.8 268.7 0.8 1.2 22BNRD006 268.7 269.5 0.8 1.9 22BNRD006 293.0 294.0 1.0 17.5 22BNRD006 294.0 295.0 1.0 18.1 22BNRD056 445.0 446.0 1.0 1.6 22BNRD058 338.0 339.0 1.0 1.5 21BNRD057 392.6 393.2 0.6 3.6 21BNRD057 393.2 393.8 0.6 2.8 21BNRD057 393.8 394.4 0.6 19.4 21BNRD057 394.4 395.1 0.7 1.1 21BNRD057 395.1 395.5 0.4 39.1 21BNRD057 395.5 396.1 0.6 23.3 21BNRD057 396.1 396.7 0.6 3.3

Notes:

The cut-off grade for reporting of each individual intercept is  1.0g/t Au with a maximum of 1m of consecutive internal dilution included within the intercept; only intercepts  1m are reported.

Samples are analyzed for Au (ALS Geochemistry Au-AA26 50g FA method) which is a 50g fire assay fusion with AAS instrument finish.

APPENDIX 2 - PHASE 2 DD DRILL RESULTS

21BNRD051 mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t 0 220 Not Assayed 231 232 0.01 246 247 0.01 261 262 0.01 220 221 0.0 232 233 0.5 247 248 0.01 262 263 0.01 221 222 0.7 234 235 0.01 251 252 0.01 263 264 0.62 222 223 0.1 235 236 0.01 215 252 0.01 264 265 1.63 223 224 0.01 236 237 0.01 252 253 0.01 265 266 0.03 224 225 0.01 241 242 0.01 253 254 0.20 266 267 0.01 225 226 0.3 242 243 0.01 254 255 0.02 267 268 0.01 226 227 0.01 243 244 0.4 255 256 0.01 227 228 0.01 244 245 0.1 256 257 0.01 230 231 0.01 245 246 0.02 260 261 0.01





21BNRD055 mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t 257 258 0.01 282 283 0.01 309 310 0.01 335 336 0.01 258 259 0.01 283 284 0.01 310 311 0.01 336 337 0.01 259 260.2 0.01 284 285 0.01 311 312 0.01 337 337.5 0.01 260.2 261 0.01 285 286 0.01 312 313 0.01 337.5 338 0.01 261 262 0.01 286 287 0.01 313 314 0.01 338 339 0.01 262 263 0.01 287 288 0.01 314 315 0.01 339 340 0.02 263 264.2 0.01 288 289 0.01 315 316 0.01 340 341 0.01 264.2 265 0.01 289 290 0.01 316 317 0.01 341 342 0.01 265 265.8 0.01 290 291 0.01 317 318 0.01 342 343 0.01 265.8 266.5 0.01 291 292 0.01 318 319 0.01 343 344 0.01 266.5 267.2 0.01 292 293 0.01 319 320 0.01 344 345 0.01 267.2 268 0.01 293 294 0.01 320 321 0.01 345 346 0.01 267.2 268 0.01 294 295 0.01 321 322 0.01 346 347 0.01 268 268.9 0.01 295 296 0.01 322 323 0.01 347 348 0.01 268.9 270 0.01 296 297 0.01 323 324 0.01 348 349 0.01 270 271 0.01 297 298.15 0.01 324 325 0.02 349 350 0.01 271 272 0.01 298.15 298.75 0.01 325 325.75 0.01 350 351 0.01 272 273 0.01 298.75 300 0.01 325.75 327 0.01 351 352 0.01 273 274 0.01 300 301 0.02 327 328 0.01 352 353 0.01 274 275 0.01 301 302 0.01 328 328.9 0.01 353 354 0.01 275 276 0.01 302 303 0.01 328.9 329.55 0.01 354 355 0.01 276 277 0.01 303 304 0.01 329.55 330 0.01 355 355.6 0.01 277 278 0.01 304 305 0.01 330 331 0.01 355.6 356.05 0.01 278 279 0.01 305 306 0.01 331 332 0.01 356.05 357 0.01 279 280.2 0.01 306 307 0.01 332 333 0.01 356.05 357 0.01 280.2 281 0.01 307 307.75 0.01 333 334 0.01 357 358 0.01 281 282 0.01 307.75 309 0.01 334 335 0.01 358 359 0.01





21BNRD055 - CONTINUED mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t 359 360 0.01 385.1 386 0.01 409.95 410.5 0.01 433.2 434.3 0.01 360 361 0.01 386 386.95 0.01 410.5 411 0.01 434.3 435 0.16 361 361.45 0.01 386.95 388 0.01 411 412 0.01 435 436 0.01 361.45 362.1 0.01 388 389 0.01 412 413 0.01 436 437 0.01 362.1 363 0.01 389 390 0.01 413 414 0.01 437 438 0.02 363 364 0.01 390 391 0.02 414 415 0.01 438 439.05 0.03 364 364.95 0.01 391 392 0.01 415 416 0.01 439.05 440 0.13 364.95 366 0.01 392 393 0.01 416 417 0.01 440 441 0.62 366 367 0.01 393 394 0.01 417 417.8 0.01 441 442.1 1.2 367 368 0.01 394 395 0.02 417.8 419 0.01 442.1 443.2 1.97 368 369.1 0.01 395 396 0.01 419 419.45 0.01 443.2 444.3 0.76 369.1 370 0.01 396 396.85 0.02 419.45 419.85 0.01 444.3 445 0.52 370 371.1 0.01 396.85 398 0.01 419.85 420.3 0.01 445 446 0.05 371.1 372 0.01 398 399 0.02 420.5 421.1 0.01 446 447 0.14 372 373 0.01 399 399.7 0.01 421.1 422 0.01 447 448 0.09 373 374 0.01 399.7 400.1 0.01 422 423 0.01 448 448.75 0.37 374 375 0.01 400.1 401 0.01 423 424 0.01 448.75 449.75 0.02 375 376 0.01 401 402 0.01 424 425 0.01 449.75 450.75 0.36 376 377 0.01 402 402.7 0.01 425 426 0.01 450.75 451.2 0.39 377 378 0.01 402.7 403.5 0.01 426 427 0.01 451.2 452 0.28 378 379 0.02 403.5 404.5 0.01 427 428 0.01 452 453 0.15 379 380 0.01 404.5 405.5 0.01 428 429 0.01 453 454 0.01 380 381 0.01 405.5 406.35 0.01 429 430.15 0.01 454 455 0.25 381 382 0.01 406.35 407 0.01 430.15 431 0.01 455 456 0.22 382 383 0.01 407 408 0.01 431 431.9 0.01 456 457 0.76 383 384 0.01 408 409 0.01 431.9 432.5 0.02 457 458 0.28 384 385.1 0.01 409 409.95 0.01 432.5 433.2 0.02 458 459 0.26





22BNRD006 mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t 255 256 0.01 263 264 0.01 270.53 271.5 0.01 292.13 293 0.21 256 256.8 0.01 264 265 0.01 271.5 272 0.01 293 294 17.5 256.8 258 0.03 265 265.92 0.01 286.33 287.18 0.07 294 295 18.05 258 259 0.43 265.92 266.63 0.03 287.18 288 0.03 295 296 0.01 259 260 0.11 266.63 267.8 0.49 288 289 0.09 296 297 0.07 260 260.98 1.21 267.8 268.65 1.19 289 290 0.35 297 298 0.01 260.98 262 0.02 268.65 269.45 1.92 290 291 0.23 298 299 0.01 262 263 0.01 269.45 270.53 0.02 291 292.13 0.09 292.13 293 0.21





21BNRD056 mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t 298.4 299 0.01 337.8 338.5 0.01 377 377.8 0.01 417 418 0.01 299 300 0.01 338.5 339.2 0.01 377.8 379 0.02 418 419.2 0.01 300 301 0.01 339.2 340 0.01 379 380 0.01 419.2 420 0.01 301 302 0.01 340 341 0.01 380 381 0.05 420 421.2 0.01 302 302.95 0.01 341 342 0.01 381 382.15 0.02 421.2 421.58 0.01 302.95 304 0.01 342 343 0.01 382.15 383 0.01 421.58 422.6 0.02 304 305 0.01 343 344 0.01 383 384 0.01 422.6 423.8 0.01 305 306 0.01 344 345 0.01 384 385.05 0.01 423.8 425 0.01 306 307 0.01 345 346 0.01 385.05 386 0.01 425 426 0.01 307 308 0.01 346 347 0.01 386 387 0.01 426 427.05 0.01 308 308.45 0.01 347 348 0.01 387 387.95 0.01 427.05 427.7 0.01 308.45 308.85 0.01 348 349 0.01 387.95 389.05 0.01 427.7 428.4 0.01 308.85 310 0.01 349 350 0.01 389.05 389.55 0.02 428.4 429.4 0.01 310 311 0.01 350 351 0.01 389.55 390.15 0.01 429.4 430.1 0.01 311 312 0.01 351 352 0.01 390.15 391 0.01 430.1 431 0.1 312 313 0.01 352 353 0.01 391 391.65 0.01 431 431.68 0.07 313 314 0.01 353 354 0.01 391.65 392.4 0.01 431.68 432.4 0.01 314 315 0.01 354 354.7 0.01 392.4 393 0.01 432.4 433.05 0.15 315 315.5 0.01 354.7 355.4 0.01 393 394 0.01 433.05 434 0.21 315.5 316 0.01 355.4 356.5 0.01 394 395.2 0.01 434 435 0.04 316 317 0.01 356.5 357 0.01 395.2 396 0.03 435 435.9 0.04 317 318 0.01 357 358 0.01 396 397 0.01 435.9 436.5 0.22 318 319 0.01 358 359 0.03 397 397.85 0.01 436.5 437.4 0.11 319 320 0.01 359 360 0.01 397.85 399 0.01 437.4 437.9 0.57 320 321 0.01 360 361 0.01 399 400 0.01 437.9 438.5 0.56 321 322 0.01 361 362 0.01 400 400.7 0.01 438.5 439.2 0.03 322 323 0.01 362 362.7 0.01 400.7 401.8 0.01 439.2 439.95 0.03 323 324 0.01 362.7 363.4 0.01 401.8 402.9 0.01 439.95 440.95 0.04 324 325 0.01 363.4 364 0.01 402.9 404 0.01 440.95 442 0.25 325 326 0.01 364 365 0.01 404 405 0.01 442 442.9 0.19 326 327 0.01 365 366 0.01 405 406 0.01 442.9 443.85 0.05 327 328 0.01 366 367 0.01 406 407 0.01 443.85 444.3 0.1 328 329 0.01 366 368 0.01 407 408 0.01 444.3 445 0.53 329 330 0.01 368 369 0.01 408 409 0.01 445 446 1.58 330 331 0.01 369 370 0.01 409 410 0.01 446 447 0.19 331 332 0.01 370 370.85 0.01 410 411.1 0.02 447 448 0.1 332 333 0.01 370.85 372 0.01 411.1 412 0.01 448 448.7 0.03 333 334 0.01 372 373 0.01 412 413 0.01 448 448.7 0.03 334 335.1 0.01 373 374 0.01 413 414 0.01 448.7 449.25 0.02 335.1 336 0.01 374 375 0.01 414 415 0.01 449.25 450.4 0.01 336 337 0.01 375 376 0.01 414 415 0.01 450.4 451.6 0.01 337 337.8 0.01 376 377 0.01 415 416.2 0.01 451.6 456.5 0.01





21BNRD058 mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t 311 312 0.02 323 324 0.01 335 336 0.01 346.45 317.25 0.01 312 313 0.01 324 325 0.01 336 337 0.01 317.25 348 0.01 313 314 0.01 325 326 0.01 337 338 0.01 348 349 0.01 314 315 0.01 326 327 0.01 338 338.98 1.51 349 350 0.01 315 316 0.01 327 328 0.01 338.98 339.75 0.05 350 351 0.01 316 317 0.01 328 328.95 0.01 339.75 341 0.23 351 352 0.01 317 318 0.01 328.95 330 0.01 341 342 0.1 352 353 0.01 318 319 0.01 330 331.15 0.01 342 343 0.03 353 354.2 0.01 319 320 0.01 331.15 332.1 0.01 343 344 0.07 354.2 355 0.01 320 321 0.01 332.1 333.1 0.01 344 344.6 0.04 355 356 0.01 321 322 0.01 333.1 334 0.01 344.6 345.85 0.01 356 356.8 0.01 322 323 0.01 334 335 0.01 345.85 346.45 0.05 346.45 317.25 0.01





21BNRD057 mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t 148 149 0.01 214 215 0.01 238 239 0.03 262 263 0.01 149 150 0.01 215 216 0.01 239 240 0.01 263 264 0.01 150 151 0.01 216 217 0.02 240 241 0.02 264 265 0.01 151 152 0.01 217 218 0.01 241 242 0.03 264 265 0.01 152 153 0.01 218 219 0.01 242 243 0.02 265 266 0.01 153 154 0.01 219 220 0.05 243 244 0.12 266 267 0.01 154 155 0.01 220 221 0.14 244 245 0.02 267 268 0.01 155 156 0.01 221 222 0.03 245 246 0.01 268 269 0.01 156 157 0.01 222 223 0.06 246 247 0.01 269 270 0.01 157 158 0.01 223 224 0.11 247 248 0.01 270 271 0.01 158 159 0.01 224 225 0.06 248 249 0.01 271 272 0.01 159 160 0.11 225 226 0.07 249 250 0.01 272 273 0.01 160 161 0.08 226 227 0.03 250 251 0.01 273 274 0.01 161 162 0.05 227 228 0.06 251 252 0.01 274 275 0.01 162 163 0.02 228 229 0.02 252 253 0.01 275 276 0.01 163 164 0.01 229 230 0.03 253 254 0.01 276 277 0.01 164 165 0.02 230 231 0.05 254 255 0.01 277 278 0.01 165 166 0.01 231 232 0.04 255 256 0.01 278 279 0.01 166 167 0.01 232 233 0.04 256 257 0.01 279 280 0.01 167 168 0.01 233 234 0.03 257 258 0.01 280 281 0.01 168 169 0.01 234 235 0.05 258 259 0.01 281 282 0.01 169 170 0.01 235 236 0.03 259 260 0.01 282 283 0.01 170 171 0.01 236 237 0.03 260 261 0.01 283 284 0.01 171 172 0.01 237 238 0.03 261 262 0.01 284 285 0.01





21BNRD057 -CONTINUED mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t mFrom mTo Au g/t 285 286 0.01 322 323 0.01 358 359 0.04 392.6 393.2 3.63 286 287 0.01 323 324 0.01 359 360.01 0.01 393.2 393.75 2.76 287 288 0.01 324 325 0.01 360.01 361.1 0.01 393.75 394.4 19.4 288 289 0.01 325 326 0.01 361.1 362 0.01 394.4 395.05 1.05 289 290 0.01 326 327 0.02 362 363 0.01 395.05 395.45 39.1 290 291 0.01 327 328 0.01 363 364 0.01 395.45 396.05 23.3 291 292 0.01 328 329 0.01 364 365 0.07 396.05 396.65 3.3 292 293 0.01 329 330 0.01 365 366 0.02 396.65 397 0.77 293 294 0.01 330 331 0.02 366 367 0.01 397 398 0.25 294 295 0.01 331 332 0.01 367 368.17 0.01 398 399 0.32 295 296 0.01 332 333 0.01 368.17 369.1 0.05 399 400.3 0.1 296 297 0.01 333 334 0.01 369.1 370 0.01 400.3 401 0.19 297 298 0.01 334 335 0.01 370 370.8 0.01 401 402 0.05 298 299 0.01 335 336 0.01 370.8 371.6 0.03 402 402.9 0.04 299 300 0.01 336 337 0.01 371.6 371.95 0.04 402.9 403.9 0.08 300 301 0.01 337 338 0.01 371.95 373 0.01 403.9 404.7 0.18 301 302 0.01 338 339 0.01 373 374 0.01 404.7 405.5 0.05 302 303 0.01 339 339.5 0.01 374 375 0.01 405.5 406.6 0.02 303 304 0.01 339.5 340.2 0.01 375 376.05 0.01 406.6 407.75 0.01 304 305.3 0.01 340.2 341 0.01 376.05 377.2 0.01 407.75 408.85 0.01 305.3 306.5 0.01 341 342 0.01 377.2 378 0.01 408.85 410 0.01 306.5 307.54 0.01 342 343 0.01 378 379 0.01 410 410.9 0.02 307.54 308.79 0.01 343 343.93 0.01 379 380 0.01 410.9 411.8 0.01 308.79 310 0.01 343.93 345 0.01 380 381.1 0.01 411.8 412.7 0.01 310 311 0.01 345 346 0.01 381.1 381.75 0.01 412.7 413.3 0.01 311 311.4 0.01 346 347 0.01 381.75 382.75 0.51 413.3 414.1 0.01 311.4 312.23 0.02 347 347.53 0.01 382.75 383.2 0.2 414.1 415 0.01 312.23 313.21 0.01 347.53 348.41 0.01 383.2 384 0.2 415 416 0.01 313.21 314.15 0.01 348.41 349.54 0.01 384 384.8 0.12 416 417 0.01 314.15 315 0.01 349.54 350.61 0.01 384.8 385.35 0.63 417 418 0.01 315 315.54 0.01 350.61 351.08 0.01 385.35 386.15 0.29 418 419 0.01 315.54 316.45 0.01 351.08 352 0.01 386.15 387 0.05 419 419.75 0.01 316.45 317.21 0.01 352 353 0.01 387 388 0.14 419.75 420.5 0.01 317.21 318.3 0.01 353 353.8 0.01 388 389 0.06 318.3 319 0.01 353.8 355 0.01 389 390 0.01 319 320 0.01 355 356 0.01 390 391 0.02 320 321.25 0.01 356 357 0.01 391 392.15 0.06 321.25 322 0.02 357 358 0.08 392.15 392.6 0.58

Infographics accompanying this announcement are available at:



https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e4032a55-75b8-43ec-9d3c-c1039aa463e7

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Toronto, ON, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A new feature documentary delves into ethical and moral challenges through a friendship between a foreign correspondent and a young Somali refugee. Premiering Tuesday, October 18, 2022, at 9 pm ET on TVO and streaming on TVO.org, YouTube and NFB.ca (starting November 1), TVO Original The Perfect Story considers the boundary between journalism and filmmaking. Which stories get told in the media and why? Who should tell them?

Co-produced with Frequent Flyer Films and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), the film follows the decade-long relationship between Canadian journalist Michelle Shephard and Ismael Abdulle, a young Somali refugee who had his hand and foot cut off by the terrorist group al-Shabab. Their story begins in 2010, when they met during one of Michelles reporting trips to Mogadishu. Her articles about Ismael sparked a movement within the Somali diaspora that helped him find refuge in Harstad, Norway. For nearly a decade, Ismael embraced his new home, learning to speak Norwegian fluently and attempting to adapt to his new country. When Ismael goes back to Mogadishu, an unexpected turn of events forces Michelle to defy one of journalisms golden rules: Report the story. Dont become part of it.

This film is an extraordinary achievement that weaves together the urgent and compelling stories of a young man's struggle to survive and thrive in a hostile and dangerous place, said John Ferri, VP of Programming and Content at TVO. The evolving relationship between a young man, and the reporter who tells the world of his plight and who is ultimately forced to turn the camera on herself, leads us all to the perfect story.

"Covering Ismael's story for more than a decade has been an incredible, challenging and humbling experience that has made me ask tough questions of myself and our profession," says Michelle Shephard. "I hope viewers can walk away with their own questions and continue the conversation about the stories we tell and why."

Michelle Shephard is the recipient of three National Newspaper Awards, earned over two decades of foreign reporting at the Toronto Star, as well as the Michener Award, one of the highest honours in Canadian journalism. Recently a story editor on TVOs award-winning podcast Unascertained, Shephards filmmaking credits include the Emmy-nominated feature, Guantanamos Child and The Way Out. She was also the creative content producer on the award-winning NFB co-production, Uyghurs: Prisoners of the Absurd.

TVO Original The Perfect Story is launching this fall with screenings in Calgary on September 24 and in Toronto on October 5 ahead of its October 18 premiere with TVO.

LIVE SCREENING DETAILS:

CalgaryThe Perfect Story will have its world premiere on Saturday, September 24 at 4:45 p.m. at the Calgary International Film Festival, with director Michelle Shephard in attendance for a live Q&A.

TorontoThe film will open Hot Docs Doc Soup series, with an in-person screening on Wednesday, October 5 at 6:30 p.m. at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, followed by a special curated panel led by guest host Adrienne Arsenault, CBC News chief correspondent and host of The National, and featuring Michelle Shephard, film subject and associate producer Sahal Abdulle, and Toronto immigration lawyer Hadayt Nazami. A second screening and Q+A with Michelle Shephard and Sahal Abdulle will take place on Thursday, October 6 at 9:15 p.m. Tickets are now available to Doc Soup subscribers as well as the general public. Doc Soup subscribers will also be able to view The Perfect Story online from Thursday, October 6 to Sunday, October 9 on the watch.hotdocs.ca portal.

Watch TVO Original The Perfect Story on Tuesday, October 18, 2022 at 9 pm ET on TVO and stream it anytime on TVO.org, YouTube and smart TV services. Catch it on your mobile device with the TVO Today app, available for iOS and Android users. The Perfect Story will also stream free to all Canadians on NFB.ca starting November 1. Press kit: The Perfect Story by Michelle Shephard (74 min.)mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/the-perfect-story

- 30 -

ABOUT FREQUENT FLYER FILMSFrequent Flyer Films is a Toronto-based production company dedicated to challenging character-driven films that tackle some of the most pressing issues of our time. Founders Bryn Hughes, an award-winning producer and veteran journalist and filmmaker Michelle Shephard, came together in 2018 to create Frequent Flyer Films, bringing with them two decades of experience working in some of the most difficult terrains in the world, with a keen eye to powerful and thought-provoking storytelling.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA (NFB)The NFB is Canadas public producer and distributor of award-winning documentaries, auteur animation, interactive stories and participatory experiences, working with talented creators across the country. The NFB is taking action to combat systemic racism and become a more open and diverse organization, while working to strengthen Indigenous-led production and gender equity in film and digital media. NFB productions have won more than 7,000 awards, including 12 Oscars. To access this unique content, visit NFB.ca.

ABOUT TVOTVO inspires learning that changes lives and enriches communities. Founded in 1970, we are a globally recognized digital learning organization that engages Ontarians of all ages with inclusive experiences and diverse perspectives. Through video, audio, games, courses, newsletters and articles, were investing in the transformative potential of education for everyone. Funded primarily by the Province of Ontario, TVO is a registered charity supported by thousands of sponsors and donors. For more information, visit TVO.me, TVO.org and TVOkids.com.

Smart TV streaming services: LG, Samsung, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Android

Media contacts:

Jennifer KnoxUnit Publicist, Frequent Flyer Films [email protected]

Jennifer MairPublicistC.: 416-436-0105[email protected] | @NFB_Jennifer

Paulo SenraDirector of Corporate CommunicationsTVO[email protected]

Social:

Twitter: @TVODocs Facebook: @TVODocs YouTube: /TVO

Twitter: @fffilms_Instagram: @frequent_flyer_films

Twitter: @thenfb

Source: TVO
Nexans to supply rsted  Eversource offshore wind project serving Connecticut and Rhode Island states

_PRESS RELEASE_

Nexans will deliver subsea export cables for Revolution Wind Farm, the second delivery of Nexans framework agreement to supply rsted and Eversource in the US . This award follows the cable installation contract announced in March 2022 .

rsted -Eversource is developing the Revolution Wind Fa r m that will generate clean energy to power more than 350,000 homes in Connecticut and Rhode Island .

L ocal c onstruction will begin in 2023 and the project is expected to be fully operational in 2025.

The contract is signed while Nexans has organized a day of key conversations focused on sustainability for Climate Week in New York and this contract shows its commitment to developing electrification that serves the local community.

Paris, September 22, 2022  Nexans, a global organization and key driver for the worlds transition to a more connected and sustainable energy future, today announced the finalization of a second U.S.-based contract with rsted and Eversource to supply the export cable system for the Revolution Wind Farm. Located more than 15 miles south of the Rhode Island coast and 32 miles east of the Connecticut coast, the project will connect the wind farm to the onshore grid.

The 704 MW Revolution Wind Farm will help both states achieve their ongoing commitments to develop offshore wind and address their energy needs, delivering electricity to more than 350,000 homes. By eliminating potential future emissions, the historic project will replace close to one million metric tons of carbon pollution  the equivalent of taking more than 200,000 cars off the road annually.

Revolution will be the 3rd project to be delivered from our continuously expanding Charleston, South Carolina facility confirming Nexans leadership in the US market.

The agreement was signed in December 2019 to accelerate the energy transition in North America by bringing Nexans industry-leading subsea cable technology to the U.S.

Ragnhild Katteland, Nexans Executive Vice President, Subsea & Land Systems, stated, Establishing our footprint in the United States and furthering our commitment to the U.S. offshore wind industry is at the core of our business operations. We have made several investments to deliver subsea transmission cables that are manufactured and installed in America, and the partnership with rsted and Eversource is the first step in bolstering supply chains with strong, local partners. We are committed to pushing the boundaries of what is possible as innovation is crucial to meet the needs of a territory as large as the United States. Closely aligning with our mission to electrify the future, Nexans is proud to support this important work in the clean energy sector and expedite our journey to net zero.

About NEXANS

For more than a century, Nexans has played a crucial role in electrifying the planet and is committed to electrifying the future. With 25,000 staff in 42 countries, the Group is driving the change towards the new world of electrification  a safer, more sustainable, renewable, carbon-free world, accessible to all. In 2021, Nexans generated 6.1 billion in standard sales. The Group is a leader in the design and manufacturing of cable systems and services in five main areas of activity: Energy Production & Transmission, Distribution, Uses, Industry & Solutions and Telecom & Data. Nexans was the first player in its industry to create a Corporate Foundation to support actions that promote access to energy for disadvantaged populations worldwide. The Group is committed to helping achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.

Nexans. Electrify the future.

Nexans is listed on the Euronext Paris stock market, compartment A.

For more information, visit www.nexans.com

Contact:

Global Communications







Edelman Agency

Delphine Bosc

Tel. : +33 (0)6 27 69 14 96

[email protected]







Emmanuel Guinot

[email protected]











US Communications







Christopher Minardi

Tel.: +1 929-459-4530

[email protected] Investor Relations







Elodie Robbe-Mouillot

Tel.: +33 (0)1 78 15 03 87

[email protected]

Attachment
Nairobi, Kenya, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Center on Adaptation CEO, Professor Patrick Verkooijen, was conferred with an honorary doctorate degree by the University of Nairobi at the institutions 2022 Commencement Ceremony in Nairobi, Kenya.

Professor Verkooijen was awarded a Doctor of Science, Honoris Causa, of the University of Nairobi in recognition of his long career and achievements in championing climate action globally and shaping bold action at scale in Africa.

The Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Stephen Kiama, presented the award, describing Professor Verkooijen as a champion of causesthat make the world a better place.

Today, the University of Nairobi is proud to confer the degree of Doctor of Science, Honoris Causa, to Professor Patrick Verkooijen in recognition of his distinguished academic and leadership career in climate change and adaptation Professor Kiama said. His impeccable personal character and high morals embody much of what we value and aspire to at our university as captured in our philosophy; and through this friendship, we will accelerate knowledge on climate adaptation for a more resilient Africa.

Ban Ki-moon, 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations and Chair of the Global Center on Adaptation, congratulated Professor Verkooijen on his award. With this honorary doctorate, I believe the University of Nairobi is recognizing a very special contribution to fighting the climate crisis he said. Professor Verkooijen has been a global leader in the fight against the climate breakdown for over a decade. His work at the helm of the GCA shows his tireless dedication to the cause of building sustainable, resilient future for all of us.

Previous recipients of honorary degrees from the University of Nairobi include Dr. Kofi Annan, 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations and Nobel Laureate Wangari Muta Maathai.

Verkooijen used the occasion to underline the climate emergency in Africa. He stated: Africa is climate crisis ground zero. If Africa loses out to the climate crisis, the world will lose out. Adapting Africa to the climate crisis is not just about survival. It is about Africas growth agenda. It is about jobs, development, and prosperity.

The sooner we stand together as a global community, the quicker we will all see ourselves through the great storm of the climate crisis. This University  and its students  are pioneering adaptation solutions right here in Kenya and can be an inspiration for all the world.

Recognizing his track record for transformative change, the University of Nairobi also appointed Professor Verkooijen as the Distinguished Chair of The Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies. The Institute represents excellence in experiential learning, transformational community outreach, and research for sustainable environment and culture of peace.

Professor Verkooijen is globally recognised as a climate leader who has combined academic excellence with bold policy leadership globally. He is Chair of the Ban Ki-moon Climate Adaptation Programme at the University of Groningen and Professor of Practice of Sustainable Development Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He earned a PhD from Wageningen University and an MPA from Harvard University.

Attachments

Alexandra Gee Global Center on Adaptation +447887804594 [email protected]

Source: Global Center on Adaptation
FILE PHOTO: Pump jacks operate at sunset in an oil field in Midland, Texas U.S. August 22, 2018. REUTERS/Nick Oxford

(This Sept 23 story corrects to remove paragraph 7 to take out quote, no other changes to text)

By Nell Mackenzie

LONDON (Reuters) - Hedge funds around the world fled positions in energy stocks, bonds and futures last week just in time to miss this week's whipsaw moves in oil, according to data from two banks.

Funds dropped their long and short positions in energy stocks, bonds and futures in the week ending Sept. 16 "more than any other time in recent months", and more than any other sector of the economy in the last 20 days, according to notes by Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan respectively.

It could be a sign that hedge funds, which often discover trading ideas from market trends, are finding it too tough to bring in the kind of paydays they received from the surge in oil prices earlier this year.

The move in positions in energy came just before oil jumped nearly 3% on Wednesday after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced an escalation of the war in Ukraine and then slid almost 4% on news that crude oil and gas supplies had risen in the United States.

And on Friday, oil prices hit their lowest since January as recession fears gripped world markets. Brent crude is still up about 12% in the year to date.

Hedge funds that trade with systematically programmed algorithms did not necessarily short the market but rather, vacated their positions because of a lack of any trend in the prices of oil, gas and other energy products, said David Gorton, the founder and chief investment officer of DG Partners, with $2.85 billion under management.

"Our commodities exposure is the lowest its been in years. In June, markets reversed hard and commodities have been chopping down and sideways ever since. For a trend follower thats a nightmare and why the model got out," said Gorton.

DG Partners is up 5.2% so far this month and 37% for the year, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The momentum that fueled a stable upward rise in oil prices has changed, said another manager who oversees more than $100 billion and for compliance reasons wished to remain anonymous.

(Reporting by Nell Mackenzie; Editing by Mark Potter and Peter Graff)
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 22, 2022) - Maritime Resources Corp. (TSXV: MAE) ("Maritime" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the closing of a non-brokered private placement (the "Offering") of 74,000,000 common shares (the "Common Shares") at a price of $0.05 per Common Share for aggregate gross proceeds of $3,700,000.

The net proceeds of the Offering shall be used for: (i) final permitting costs to be paid by the Company on or prior to December 31, 2022 with respect to the Hammerdown Project; (ii) remaining costs associated with the Company's feasibility study referenced in its public record; (iii) completing up to 5,000m of drilling on or prior to December 31, 2022 at the Hammerdown Project and/or the Orion Deposit; and (iv) general corporate and working capital purposes. Completion of the Offering is subject to final acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange").

"We are pleased to have the continued support of our largest institutional shareholders, Dundee Goodman Merchant Partners and Tembo Capital. We also welcome Gold Resource Corporation as a strategic investor in Maritime. Following the positive feasibility study results for the Hammerdown Gold Project, we are advancing the remaining permitting requirements and initiating a drill program with the aim of extending the mine life."

Pursuant to Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"), the Offering constitutes a "related party transaction" as insiders of the Company subscribed for 15,700,000 of the Common Shares sold in the Offering. The Company is relying on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority approval requirements of MI 61-101. The Company did not file a material change report more than 21 days before the expected closing of the Offering as the details of the related parties' participation in the Offering were not settled.

All securities issued pursuant to the Offering are subject to a hold period of four months plus a day from the date of issuance and the resale rules of applicable securities legislation.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States of America. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 (the "1933 Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons (as defined in the 1933 Act) unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws, or an exemption from such registration is available.

About Maritime Resources Corp.:

Maritime holds a 100% interest- directly and subject to option agreements entitling it to earn 100% ownership- in the Green Bay Property. This includes the former Hammerdown gold mine and the Orion gold project plus the Whisker Valley exploration project, all located in the Baie Verte Mining District near the town of King's Point, Newfoundland and Labrador. The Hammerdown Gold Project is characterized by near-vertical, narrow mesothermal quartz veins containing gold associated with pyrite. Hammerdown was last operated by Richmont Mines between 2000 and 2004. The Company also owns the gold circuit at the Nugget Pond metallurgical facility in Newfoundland and Labrador, the Lac Pelletier gold project in Rouyn Noranda, Qubec and several other exploration properties and royalty interests in key mining camps across Canada.

On Behalf of the Board

MARITIME RESOURCES CORP.

Toronto Office

1900-110 Yonge St., Toronto, ON M5C 1T4

For further information, please contact:

Garett Macdonald,

President and CEO

[email protected]

www.maritimeresourcescorp.com

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain of the statements made and information contained herein is "forward-looking information" within the meaning of National Instrument 51-102, Continuous Disclosure Obligations of the Canadian Securities Administrators. These statements and information are based on facts currently available to the Company and there is no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Forward-looking statements and information may be identified by such terms as "anticipates", "believes", "targets", "estimates", "plans", "expects", "may", "will", "could" or "would". This includes the use of proceeds of the Offering and receipt of all regulatory approvals for the Offering including from the Exchange. While the Company considers its assumptions to be reasonable as of the date hereof, forward-looking statements and information are not guarantees of future performance and readers should not place undue importance on such statements as actual events and results may differ materially from those described herein. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. All forward-looking information contained in this press release is given as of the date hereof, and is based on the opinions and estimates of management and information available to management as of the date hereof. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities laws.

Neither Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/138116
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 23, 2022) - SureNano Science Ltd.(CSE: SURE) (OTCQB: SURNF)("SureNano" or the "Company")today announced it has qualified to trade on the OTCQB Venture Market. The Company also has the intention to seek The Depositary Trust Company ("DTC") eligibility.

The common shares of SureNano will begin trading on the OTCQB, effective immediately, under the ticker symbol "SURNF." U.S. investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for the company on www.otcmarkets.com.

Mr. Charles MaLette, Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We are proud to qualify for a listing on the OTCQB marketplace. This is an important step for the Company as it aims to increase its presence among American retail and institutional investors. We believe that trading on this established US based public market will generate additional exposure of our Company among institutional investors both in Canada and the US."

SureNano will continue to trade on the Canadian Securities Exchange under its existing symbol "SURE".

About OTCQB Venture

The OTCQB Venture is the premier marketplace for entrepreneurial and development stage U.S. and international companies that are committed to providing a high-quality trading and information experience for their US investors. To be eligible, companies must be current in their financial reporting, pass a minimum bid price test, and undergo an annual company verification and management certification process. The OTCQB Venture quality standards provide a strong baseline of transparency, as well as the technology and regulation to improve the information and trading experience for investors.

About SureNano Science Ltd.:

The business of SureNano Science Ltd. is the sale and distribution of the SureNano" surfactant, which is a ready-to-mix food grade compound that provides the base for high performance nano-emulsions to create incredibly homogeneous and stable products while maximizing bioavailability, clarity, and taste. The Company has an exclusive license to distribute the SureNanoTM surfactant within Canada; Oklahoma, USA; and Colorado, USA.

ON BEHALF OF SURENANO SCIENCE LTD.

"Charles MaLette"

CEO, President, Director & Secretary

T: 604-428-5171

E: [email protected]

Forward-Looking Information:

This press release includes forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, concerning the business of SureNano. Forward-looking information is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the management of SureNano. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "will," "may," "would," "expect," "intend," "plan," "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "continue," "likely," "could" and variations of these terms and similar expressions, or the negative of these terms or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements in this press release include that (a) we have the intention to seek DTC eligibility, (b) we believe that trading on the OTCQB US based public market will generate additional exposure of our Company, and (c) we will continue to trade on the Canadian Securities Exchange. Although SureNano believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking information is based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information because SureNano can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

The Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or the accuracy of the contents of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/138170
Boulder, Colorado--(Newsfile Corp. - September 23, 2022) - Vault Fund, an investment management firm based in Boulder, Colorado, harnesses its unique investment approach to solve many of the challenges of the traditional venture, including substantial valuation risk and lengthy go-to-market cycles. Vault Fund addresses these issues by investing in company creation funds and venture studios that act as founders across a portfolio of high-growth companies. As founders, these company creation funds have capital efficient ownership percentages in multiple startups from idea to scale. Company creation funds maintain inception-level entry valuations in each of their companies and increase the speed to scale through a repeatable development process, which minimizes capital loss. Vault Fund is the only firm dedicated exclusively to this model of innovation and aims to define the next generation of world-changing companies.

"Vault Fund is a completely new investment vehicle and strategy within venture. Company creation funds have been around since the late 90's, but few have paid attention to their consistent ability to generate alpha. Company creation funds are a very different business model from traditional venture capital. The speed to scale and quality of innovation is remarkable," says Sarah Anderson, founding partner of Vault Fund.

As an investment firm, Vault Fund views itself as investing in founders who are creating a portfolio of new entities from concept into fully-scaled companies. These founders and their firms provide an initial team, strategic direction, shared services, and capital to test new ideas and capabilities, quickly identifying which ones have the potential to succeed in the market.

"I have seen the potential power of this model in my previous experience, and believe company creation funds will shape the way today's major problems are solved. We aim to be the leader in this space, and have conducted extensive research and due diligence on over 175 company creation funds and studios in order to provide our investors with a new and improved strategy for potential world-changing innovation at scale," concludes Ms. Anderson.

Company Profile

Vault Fund is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, United States and was founded by managing partner Sarah Anderson. Vault Fund is specifically focused on investing in company creation funds. They provide deep insights into the landscape of investment opportunities in this space, increase the quality of manager selection in an asset class with high dispersion, and provide access to high-performing managers while mitigating risk. To learn more, visit www.vaultfund.com.

Media Contact:

Name: Emily Kendall

Email: [email protected]

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/138282
Paid press release content from The Financial Capital. The StreetInsider.com news staff was not involved in its creation.

Deepak "Dee" Agarwal, C-Suite executive of several major online retailers and successful entrepreneur speaks on the importance of encouraging employees to take PTO in the midst of remote work."



The normalization of remote work has brought about a transformation of the typical work day as we once knew it. While a virtual working environment can offer flexibility for employees, it has also brought an increase in employee burnout and a range of mental health issues. Time spent commuting, socializing with colleagues, and taking breaks has been reallocated to working longer hours. In fact, research shows remote employees are working longer, spending time in more meetings, and having to keep up with more communication channels. Thats why now more than ever, employees utilizing their allocated paid time off is not only paramount to their wellbeing, but essential for the success of the business.

Naturally, employee burnout leads to low productivity, exhaustion, and a host of other issues that are starting to plague employees, workplaces, and companies. The impact of this only compounds when employees let their PTO time go to waste, says Deepak Dee Agarwal, entrepreneur and long-time C-suite executive.

According to a study by Qualtrics, only 27 percent of U.S. employees used all of their allotted paid vacation time in 2021. Employers can counteract this trend by nurturing a culture of work-life balance where employees feel comfortable using their allotted time off, which leads to a multitude of benefits in the long run, including decreased burnout, increased productivity, and overall employee well-being.

A tired employee is an unproductive employee. What some employers see as a loss in increased PTO time being taken, is actually a gain. Employees often return from their time-off with a refreshed perspective and increased vigor, Dee Agarwal says. Fortunately, there are tactics that employers and industry leaders can use to encourage their employees to take time off.

Take the Lead

When employers and industry leaders themselves take time off, it sends a message to employees about the need to balance work and life, ingraining it in the culture of the company.

Theres an old adage that is perfect for answering the question of why employers and leaders themselves need to take time off  lead by example, Deepak Agarwal points out.

Leading by example doesnt start and stop with employers taking their respective vacation days. How leaders use their time off also sets the standard that employees are likely to follow. If the leader takes PTO but then works throughout their vacation, employees will feel pressured to do the same.

Culture Matters

When speaking of employee burnout, a poor work-life balance is often a significant contributing factor. Cultivating a culture that prioritizes boundaries and balance between work and personal life is crucial to curbing employee burnout. Expecting employees to work beyond their hours, scheduling meetings or sending messages before/after work hours, or setting unrealistic expectations are all factors that contribute to a flawed work-life balance.

If you dont encourage your employee's work-life balance on an everyday basis, how can you expect them to feel supported taking time off to rest and recharge, noted Deepak Agarwal.

With the rise of remote work, its more critical than ever for employers to establish healthy work-life balance practices. When there is no natural start or stop of the traditional work day, the line between work life and personal life begins to blur, leaving employees feeling like theyre always on the clock.

Offset Their Workload

One of the most common reasons employees have a difficult time actually taking their designated time off is the fear that theyll return to a mountain of emails and overdue tasks that piled up. Employers can offset this by having support systems in place. For example, when an employee returns to work from their time off, encouraging management to meet with them to establish priorities for the next week, and express lenience for tasks is one way to offset their accumulated workload. Additionally, cross-training team members to be skillful in various areas of the business can help ease the pressure when an employee goes out of the office, knowing that their team is capable of handling their responsibilities during their absence.

Its not a shock that employees dont want to take their time off if it ends up making their life more stressful in the long run. Thats where it's up to the employer to put systems in place that support employees as best as possible prior to their time off, and upon return, adds Deepak Agarwal.

There are many different approaches to encouraging employees to take time off, but most of them start with leaders stepping up by taking a break themselves and prioritizing creating a culture of work-life balance throughout their organization.



Contact Info:

Name: Andrew Mitchell

Email: Send Email

Organization: Cambridge Global

Phone: 404-955-7133

Website: https://deeagarwal.com/



Release ID: 89082072

If you detect any issues, problems, or errors in this press release content, kindly contact [email protected] to notify us. We will respond and rectify the situation in the next 8 hours.
New Guide by BCG and the CMO Sustainability Accelerator Highlights Ways to Link Sustainability to Broader Related Needs and Remove Barriers to Growth for Customers for Whom Sustainability is a Concern, but Not a Primary Driver

BOSTON, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- 96% of US consumers say they at least sometimes try to behave in ways that protect the planet, its people, and its resources1. Reaching collective climate ambitions requires massive consumer change, and chief marketing officers (CMOs) are well-positioned to drive this growth by "bringing green to the mainstream," according to an action plan for growth released today by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the CMO Sustainability Accelerator, a coalition composed of the Association of National Advertisers, Sustainable Brands, and Adweek.

The report, titled The Future is Mainstream Green: Introducing a New Growth Strategy, outlines a roadmap for how to achieve Mainstream Green  defined as driving sustainable choices by all consumers, not just those who are moved by sustainable claims. Reaching Mainstream Green is a key opportunity for marketers to help close the intent-to-action gap by motivating customers to move beyond expressing concern for sustainability to adopting sustainable behaviors and purchasing sustainable goods/services.

"Organizations cannot achieve the environmental sustainability goals that they've pledged without inspiring consumers across the board to change their habits," said Lauren Taylor, a BCG managing director and partner and global leader of the firm's customer-centric sustainability topic, who coauthored the report. "However, we need to make sustainable options meet consumers' core needs, rather than expecting the majority to make tradeoffs when they choose a sustainable option. Making green truly mainstream will require activating large-scale collective action by companies, with CMOs playing a key role."

"As vital members of the C-suite core to business growth, CMOs and marketing leaders around the world are seeking new and actionable ways to drive sustainable practicestable stakes for thriving businesses in a new era," said Jenny Rooney, Chief Experience Officer at Adweek. "Adweek, ANA, SB, and BCG have come together to create a roadmap that provides direction to help marketing chiefs champion and implement sustainable business practices throughout their organizations. Adweek will continue the sustainability conversation and learnings through upcoming content and gatherings, including an event where our community can explore these guidelines and the C-level collaboration necessary for success."

"We know sustainability can play a key role in driving growth, which is the centerpiece of the ANA's Growth Agenda," said ANA CEO Bob Liodice. "The ANA is proud to produce this new report in collaboration with BCG and our partners in the CMO Sustainability Accelerator initiative. These guidelines and recommendations will help CMOs drive behavioral change in consumers and marketers who appreciate the benefits of being green but need guidance on how to fulfill the promise of true sustainability while growing their business."

"Most brands are somewhere on the journey to becoming a sustainably regenerative brand of the future, and we are delighted to provide this practical and applicable resource for CMOs to engage with their cross-functional stakeholders and help them collaboratively tackle the challenges toward good growth with their C-suite partners," said KoAnn Vikoren Skrzyniarz, founder and Chief Executive of Sustainable Brands.

The CMO is Key to Unlocking 'Mainstream Green'

Just 20% of consumers think they can personally have an impact on climate and sustainability issues and more significantly, approximately 70% of consumers are disillusioned2  wary of corporate claims about progress toward sustainability. But they are critical stakeholders, without whom companies can only achieve a portion of their environmental sustainability goals. It is up to marketers to link corporate climate and sustainability commitments to palatable growth drivers and show their customers that they are not merely performative. In addition to representing the voice and perspective of the customer, CMOs ensure cohesion across functions to realize business value from sustainability. As experts on customer needs and barriers, they can make complex topics digestible, and unfamiliar products desirable to ultimately activate significant consumer change.

Three Steps to Making Sustainability a Driver for Growth

Marketers can achieve Mainstream Green by putting customers at the center of a three-step strategy to make sustainability a driver for growth:

Understand drivers of choice. Customer-centric sustainability starts with understanding customers' drivers of choice and how they relate to environmental sustainability. Linking sustainability to broader related needs (such as health) can unlock two to four times the number of customers for whom sustainability is a concern but not a primary driver of choice. In addition, making sustainability a "bonus benefit" significantly expands the sustainable customer base to those for whom sustainability is not a driver of choice at all.

Customer-centric sustainability starts with understanding customers' drivers of choice and how they relate to environmental sustainability. Linking sustainability to broader related needs (such as health) can unlock two to four times the number of customers for whom sustainability is a concern but not a primary driver of choice. In addition, making sustainability a "bonus benefit" significantly expands the sustainable customer base to those for whom sustainability is not a driver of choice at all. Create a sustainable offering. To drive business and sustainability impact, the real barriers to Mainstream Green (such as value, efficacy, or taste) must be addressed. Innovation is a win-win-win solution that makes sustainability an "and," not an "or." Taking a customer-centric view also elevates sustainability out of a singular functional silo, ensuring cohesion, facilitating collaboration, and producing better outcomes.

To drive business and sustainability impact, the real barriers to Mainstream Green (such as value, efficacy, or taste) must be addressed. Innovation is a win-win-win solution that makes sustainability an "and," not an "or." Taking a customer-centric view also elevates sustainability out of a singular functional silo, ensuring cohesion, facilitating collaboration, and producing better outcomes. Promote sustainable choices. Leverage the full customer engagement toolkit to overcome perceived barriers and drive demand for sustainable choices. For early sustainability adopters, techniques focus on removing friction to purchase, strengthening customer connections, and amplifying advocates authentically. For sustainability laggards, techniques focus on building awareness and understanding, disrupting existing habits, and inspiring and empowering customers to choose greener options.

Download the guide for customer-centric sustainable growth here.

Media Contact:Eric Gregoire: +1 617 850 3783[email protected]

About the Association of National AdvertisersThe ANA's (Association of National Advertisers) mission is to drive growth for marketing professionals, brands and businesses, the industry, and humanity. The ANA serves the marketing needs of 20,000 brands by leveraging the 12-point ANA Growth Agenda, which has been endorsed by the Global CMO Growth Council. The ANA's membership consists of U.S. and international companies, including client-side marketers, nonprofits, fundraisers, and marketing solutions providers (data science and technology companies, ad agencies, publishers, media companies, suppliers, and vendors). The ANA creates Marketing Growth Champions by serving, educating, and advocating for more than 50,000 industry members that collectively invest more than $400 billion in marketing and advertising annually.

About Sustainable BrandsSustainable Brands is the premier global community of brand innovators who are shaping the future of commerce worldwide. Since 2006, our mission has been to inspire, engage and equip today's business and brand innovators to prosper for the near and long term by leading the way to a better future. Digitally published news articles and issues-focused conversation topics, internationally known conferences and regional events, a robust e-learning library, and peer-to-peer membership groups and brand collaboration initiatives all facilitate community engagement and industry progress throughout the year. For more information visit www.SustainableBrands.com.

About ADWEEKAdweek is the leading source of news and insight serving the brand marketing ecosystem. First published in 1979, Adweek's award-winning coverage reaches an engaged audience of more than 6 million professionals across platforms including print, digital, events, podcasts, newsletters, social media and mobile apps. As a touchstone of the advertising and marketing community, Adweek is an unparalleled resource for leaders across multiple industries who rely on its content to help them do their jobs better.

About Boston Consulting GroupBoston Consulting Group partners with leaders in business and society to tackle their most important challenges and capture their greatest opportunities. BCG was the pioneer in business strategy when it was founded in 1963. Today, we work closely with clients to embrace a transformational approach aimed at benefiting all stakeholdersempowering organizations to grow, build sustainable competitive advantage, and drive positive societal impact.

Our diverse, global teams bring deep industry and functional expertise and a range of perspectives that question the status quo and spark change. BCG delivers solutions through leading-edge management consulting, technology and design, and corporate and digital ventures. We work in a uniquely collaborative model across the firm and throughout all levels of the client organization, fueled by the goal of helping our clients thrive and enabling them to make the world a better place.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/achieving-mainstream-green-is-key-in-accelerating-transition-to-a-more-sustainable-economy-301631804.html

SOURCE Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
Study Was Evaluating the Use of Apixaban in Patients Treated with Mechanical Aortic Valves

ATLANTA, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --- Artivion, Inc. (NYSE: AORT), a leading cardiac and vascular surgery company focused on aortic disease, announced today that it has stopped the PROACT Xa clinical trial, a prospective, randomized, trial designed to determine if patients with an On-X mechanical aortic valve can be maintained safely and effectively on apixaban rather than on warfarin. The decision was based on the recommendation of the independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) of the trial due to lack of evidence supporting non-inferiority of apixaban to warfarin for valve thrombosis and thromboembolism.

The PROACT Xa trial randomized patients having an On-X aortic valve replacement to receive either warfarin or apixaban as their anticoagulant to prevent blood clots. The trial began enrolling in April 2020. The DSMB found that blood clots, resulting in stroke, occurred more frequently in patients receiving apixaban and that continuing the trial was unlikely to achieve the primary endpoint while possibly exposing patients to increased risk. Physician investigators at the trial's sites are being notified to change patients who are in the apixaban arm of the trial back to warfarin.

Dr. John Alexander, Chair of the PROACT Xa trial and Professor of Medicine/Cardiology at Duke University School of Medicine, said, "The PROACT Xa trial was designed to determine whether apixaban would yield equivalent safety to the standard anticoagulant, warfarin. Unfortunately, it appears that it does not. On behalf of all of the investigators, we appreciate the research effort into the science of managing patients with artificial heart valves."

Pat Mackin, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Artivion said, "The On-X aortic valve has a long track record of safe and efficacious outcomes and is the leading mechanical aortic valve in the United States and in other markets around the globe. Despite this setback, the On-X aortic valve provides significant clinical benefits to patients and remains the only mechanical aortic valve for which patients can be safely managed with reduced blood thinners, leading to a 60 percent reduction in bleeding."

Mr. Mackin continued, "We are disappointed to stop the PROACT Xa trial as a successful trial would have significantly benefited patients and significantly increased our addressable market opportunity beginning in 2025. Despite stopping the trial, we are reiterating our 2022 outlook of delivering double-digit top-line growth and we remain committed to delivering the financial expectations we communicated in our March investor meeting: Double digit top-line growth, expanding gross margins, and accelerated adjusted EBITDA growth through 2024. We had committed approximately $10 million in annual funding to this study through 2024 and will now redirect these funds to other development opportunities and to incremental EBITDA and cash flow in 2023 and 2024."

Webcast and Conference Call InformationThe Company will hold a teleconference call and live webcast later today, September 23, 2022, at 8:30 a.m. ET. To participate in the conference call dial 201-689-8261 a few minutes prior to 8:30 a.m. ET. The teleconference replay will be available approximately one hour following the completion of the event and can be accessed by calling (toll free) 877-660-6853 or 201-612-7415. The conference number for the replay is 13733128.

The live webcast and replay can be accessed by going to the Investors section of the Artivion website at www.Artivion.com and selecting the heading Webcasts & Presentations.

About ArtivionHeadquartered in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, Artivion, Inc. is a medical device company focused on developing simple, elegant solutions that address cardiac and vascular surgeons' most difficult challenges in treating patients with aortic diseases. This multinational company's four major groups of products include: aortic stents and stent grafts, prosthetic heart valves, cryopreserved cardiac and vascular allografts, and surgical sealants. Artivion markets and sells products in more than 100 countries worldwide. For additional information about Artivion, visit our website, www.artivion.com.

Forward Looking StatementsStatements made in this press release that look forward in time or that express management's beliefs, expectations, or hopes are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements reflect the views of management at the time such statements are made. These statements include our beliefs that the On-X aortic valve is the leading mechanical aortic valve in the United States and in other markets around the globe; that the On-X aortic valve provides significant clinical benefits to patients and remains the only mechanical aortic valve for which patients can be safely managed with reduced blood thinners, leading to a 60 percent reduction in bleeding; and our expectations that we will achieve our 2022 outlook of delivering double-digit top line growth; will deliver on the financial expectations we communicated in our March investor meeting: Double digit top-line growth, expanding gross margins, and accelerated adjusted EBITDA growth through 2022; and will redirect the funds we planned to invest in the PROACT Xa clinical trial into other development opportunities and to incremental EBITDA and cash flow in 2023 and 2024. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, estimates, and assumptions that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. These risks and uncertainties include the risk factors detailed in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including our Form 10-K for year ended December 31, 2021. Artivion does not undertake to update its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Contacts: Artivion Gilmartin Group LLC D. Ashley Lee Brian Johnston / Lynn Lewis Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Phone: 631-807-1986 Phone: 770-419-3355 [email protected]

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/artivion-follows-recommendation-to-stop-proact-xa-clinical-trial-301631774.html

SOURCE Artivion, Inc.
BEIJING, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Concord Medical Services Holdings Limited ("Concord Medical" or the "Company") (NYSE: CCM), a healthcare provider specialized in cancer treatment, research, education and prevention by establishing proton centers and cancer hospitals and operating an extensive network of radiotherapy and diagnostic imaging centers in China, today announced its unaudited consolidated financial results for the six months ended June 30, 2022[1].

2022 First Half Highlights

Total net revenues were RMB144.3 million (US$21.5 million) in the first half of 2022, representing a 25.2% decrease from total net revenues of RMB192.9 million in the same period last year. Total net revenues included the net revenues from the hospital business of RMB82.9 million (US$12.4 million) and the net revenues from the network business of RMB61.4 million (US$9.1 million).

Gross loss was RMB88.7 million (US$13.2 million) in the first half of 2022, compared to the gross profit of RMB2.4 million in the first half of 2021. The gross loss margin was 61.5% for the first half of 2022, compared to the gross profit margin of 1.2% for the same period last year.

Net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders in the first half of 2022 was RMB114.7 million (US$17.1 million), compared to RMB90.3 million in the same period last year.

Basic and diluted loss per share for Class A and Class B ordinary shares[2] in the first half of 2022 were both RMB0.87 (US$0.13), compared to RMB2.53, respectively, in the same period last year.

Non-GAAP[3] net loss in the first half of 2022 was RMB270.0 million (US$40.3 million), compared to non-GAAP net loss of RMB163.0 million in the same period last year. Non-GAAP basic and diluted loss per share for Class A and Class B ordinary shares in the first half of 2022 were both RMB0.93 (US$0.14), compared to RMB2.46 in the same period last year.

Adjusted EBITDA[4] (non-GAAP) was negative RMB194.3 million (US$29.0 million) in the first half of 2022, compared to negative RMB127.7 million in the same period last year.

Dr. Jianyu Yang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Concord Medical, commented, "In the first half of 2022, our business was affected by the resurgence of COVID-19 pandemic caused by the highly contagious Omicron variant. In particular, our three medical institutions located in Shanghai temporarily closed since April 2022 for approximately two or three months, respectively. Our network business was also restricted by the COVID-19 resurgence, which affected the progress of order completion in the first half of 2022.

"The good news is, however, the recent performance of our Shanghai Meizhong Jiahe Cancer Center ("Shanghai Outpatient Department") has gradually returned to the level before the COVID-19 pandemic. Shanghai Meizhong Jiahe Medical Image Diagnosis Limited ("Shanghai Imaging Center"), which is located in the Shanghai Xinhongqiao International Medical Park (the "Xinhongqiao Park"), will also usher in new business opportunities. We expect that the gradual opening of the other medical institutions with differentiated expertise in the Xinhongqiao Park will drive patients to our Shanghai Imaging Center for high-quality diagnostic imaging services and contribute to our revenue.

"Our Guangzhou Concord Cancer Center ("Guangzhou Hospital"), which commenced operation in June 2021, is in the ramp-up period with improving operational performance evidenced by several operating indicators, such as the occupancy rate of patient beds, and the number of outpatient and inpatient visits. Notably, the proton center of Guangzhou Hospital is expected to start clinical trials in the second half of 2022, reaching a new milestone."

"Our network business is currently on track. We will accelerate the completion of existing orders and execute our market expansion as planned. Let's look forward to the good performance of Concord Medical for the full year of 2022."

2022 First Half Financial Results

Net Revenues

Hospital Business

Net revenues from the hospital business were RMB82.9 million (US$12.4 million) in the first half of 2022, representing a 29.2% increase from net revenues of RMB64.2 million in the first half of 2021, mainly due to the launch and ramp-up of Guangzhou Hospital since June 2021.

Network Business

Net revenues from the network business were RMB61.4 million (US$9.1 million), representing a 52.3% decrease from net revenues of RMB128.7 million in the first half of 2021, mainly because the delivery and acceptance process of our medical solutions was negatively affected by the COVID-19 outbreak in the second quarter of 2022.

Cost of Revenues

Hospital Business

Cost of revenues of the hospital business in the first half of 2022 was RMB179.7 million (US$26.8 million), representing an 89.4% increase from cost of revenues of RMB94.9 million in the first half of 2021, mainly because the labor cost increased for Guangzhou Hospital, which has been in operation since June 2021.

Network Business

Cost of revenues of the network business was RMB53.3 million (US$8.0 million), representing a 44.3% decrease from RMB95.7 million in the first half of 2021, generally in line with the decrease in the net revenues from medical solutions caused by the COVID-19.

Gross (Loss)/Profit and Gross Margin

Hospital Business

Gross loss from the hospital business was RMB96.8 million (US$14.4 million) in the first half of 2022, compared to RMB30.7 million in the same period last year. The gross loss margin of the hospital business for the first half of 2022 was 116.8%, compared to the gross loss margin of 47.8% for the same period last year. The decrease in gross profit margin of the hospital business was primarily attributable to (1) the substantial labor cost for Guangzhou Hospital, which was still at the ramp-up stage with comparatively low utilization rate, and (2) the decrease in revenue generated from our medical institutions in Shanghai because of the regional resurgence of COVID-19 pandemic in the first half of 2022.

Network Business

Gross profit from the network business was RMB8.1 million (US$1.1 million), representing a 75.6% decrease from RMB33.0 million in the first half of 2021. The gross profit margin of the network business for the first half of 2022 was 13.2%, compared to the gross profit margin of 25.6% for the same period last year. The decrease in gross profit margin of the network business was primarily attributable to the decrease in gross profit margin of medical solutions in the first half of 2022.

Operating Expenses

Selling expenses were RMB26.4 million (US$3.9 million) in the first half of 2022, representing a 93.3% increase from RMB13.7 million in the first half of 2021. Selling expenses as a percentage of net revenues was 18.3% in the first half of 2022, compared to 7.1% in the first half of 2021. The increase in selling expenses was mainly due to the increases in marketing expenses and travel related expenses as a result of the opening of our Guangzhou Hospital since June 2021.

General and administrative expenses were RMB130.5 million (US$19.5 million) in the first half of 2022, of which employee benefit expenses were RMB75.7 million (US$11.3 million). In the same period of last year, general and administrative expenses were RMB172.6 million. The decrease was mainly because (1) the employee benefit expenses of Guangzhou Hospital's medical staff were recognized in general and administrative expenses before the formal operation of the Guangzhou Hospital, which were subsequently recognized in cost of revenues after the formal operation since June 2021, and (2) the network business reduced as a result of the negative impact of COVID-19. General and administrative expenses as a percentage of net revenues was 90.4% in the first half of 2022, compared to 89.5% in the first half of 2021.

Capital Expenditures

Comparing to RMB414.4 million in the first half of 2021, capital expenditures were RMB184.0 million (US$27.5 million) in the first half of 2022, mainly due to (1) the decrease in construction fees and medical equipment payment for our hospital business, and (2) the reduced demands of procuring equipment for our network business as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Accounts Receivable

As of June 30, 2022, accounts receivable were RMB89.3 million (US$13.3 million), representing a 30.2% decrease from accounts receivable of RMB127.9 million as of December 31, 2021. The average period of sales outstanding for accounts receivable (also known as days sales outstanding) was 286 days in the first half of 2022.

Bank Loans and Other Borrowings

As of June 30, 2022, the Company had bank loans and other borrowings totaling RMB2.9 billion (US$426.0 million).

[1] This announcement contains translations of certain RMB amounts into U.S. dollars at specified rates solely for the convenience of the reader. Unless otherwise noted, all translations of RMB into U.S. dollars are made at a rate of RMB 6.6981 to US$1.00, the noon buying rate in New York City for cable transfers payable in RMB, as certified for customs purposes by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on June 30, 2022. [2] The Company adjusts for the accretion of mezzanine equity in the calculation of loss attributable to ordinary shareholders of the Company used in the loss per share for Class A and Class B ordinary shares calculation. [3] Non-GAAP net loss and non-GAAP basic and diluted loss per share for Class A and Class B ordinary shares are defined as their most directly comparable GAAP measures excluding the impact of share-based compensation expenses. [4] Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income/(loss) plus interest expenses, net, income tax expenses, depreciation and amortization, share-based compensation expenses and other adjustments. Other adjustments include foreign exchange gain, net, and other income (expense), net.

About Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement the consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ("GAAP"), Concord Medical uses certain non-GAAP measures. The Company presents certain of its financial information that is adjusted from results based on GAAP to exclude the impact of share-based compensation expenses, such as non-GAAP net loss and non-GAAP basic and diluted loss per share for Class A and Class B ordinary shares. The Company believes excluding share-based compensation expenses from its GAAP financial measures is useful for its management and investors to assess and analyze the Company's core operating results, as such expense is not directly attributable to the underlying performance of the Company's business operations and do not impact its current cash earnings. Concord Medical also believes these non-GAAP measures excluding share-based compensation expenses are important in helping investors to understand the Company's current financial performance and future prospects and to compare business trends among different reporting periods on a consistent basis. In addition, Concord Medical also presents the non-GAAP measure of adjusted EBITDA, which is defined in this announcement as net income/(loss) plus interest expenses, net, income tax expenses, depreciation and amortization, share-based compensation expenses and other adjustments. Other adjustments include foreign exchange gain, net and other income/(expense), net. Furthermore, adjusted EBITDA eliminates the impact of items that the Company does not consider to be indicative of the performance of the network business and hospital business. The Company believes investors will similarly use adjusted EBITDA as one of the key metrics to evaluate its financial performance and to compare its current operating results with corresponding historical periods and with other companies in the healthcare services industry. The presentation of these additional measures should not be considered a substitute for or superior to GAAP results or as being comparable to results reported or forecasted by other companies. The non-GAAP measures have been reconciled to GAAP measures in the attached financial information.

About Concord Medical

Concord Medical Services Holdings Limited is a healthcare provider featuring a full cycle of premium oncology services including cancer diagnosis, treatment, education and prevention. The Company focuses on providing multidisciplinary cancer care in all aspects of oncology healthcare services in its cancer hospitals and equipping them with technologically advanced equipment such as the state-of-the-art proton therapy system. The Company is striving to improve the quality and accessibility of cancer care through its network of self-owned cancer hospitals and clinics as well as partnered hospitals across China. For more information, please see http://ir.ccm.cn.

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements can be identified by words or phrases such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to uncertainties and contingencies beyond the Company's control and based upon premises with respect to future business decisions, which are subject to change. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.

Concord Medical Services Holdings Co., Ltd. Consolidated Balance Sheets (in thousands) December 31, 2021 June 30, 2022 RMB(Audited) RMB(Unaudited) US$(Unaudited) ASSETS Current assets Cash and cash equivalents 157,386 74,984 11,195 Restricted cash, current portion 1,387 475 71 Accounts receivable 127,899 89,329 13,336 Prepayments and other current assets 257,019 339,847 50,738 Inventories 38,085 69,825 10,425 Net investments in direct financing leases, current portion 2,699 3,518 525 Total current assets 584,475 577,978 86,290 Non-current assets Restricted cash, non-current portion 138 - - Property, plant and equipment, net 3,145,025 3,223,423 481,244 Right-of-use assets, net 619,536 610,156 91,094 Net investment in direct financing leases, non-current portion 4,796 3,448 515 Goodwill 581,877 581,877 86,872 Intangible assets, net 657,837 643,123 96,016 Deposits for non-current assets 224,866 231,399 34,547 Long-term investments 390,625 421,012 62,855 Other non-current assets 20,776 18,565 2,772 Total non-current assets 5,645,476 5,733,003 855,915 Total assets 6,229,951 6,310,981 942,205 LIABILITIES AND EQUITY Current liabilities Accounts payable 102,508 107,815 16,096 Accrued expenses and other liabilities 382,177 348,882 52,086 Operating lease liabilities, current 20,484 23,272 3,474 Short-term bank and other borrowings 136,510 166,468 24,853 Long-term bank and other borrowings, current portion 162,842 167,418 24,995 Total current liabilities 804,521 813,855 121,504 Non-current liabilities Long-term bank and other borrowings, non-current portion 2,178,596 2,517,458 375,847 Deferred tax liabilities 184,424 187,346 27,970 Derivative liability 5,863 6,162 920 Operating lease liabilities, non-current 214,225 214,525 32,028 Other long-term liabilities 98,601 94,925 14,172 Total non-current liabilities 2,681,709 3,020,416 450,937 Total liabilities 3,486,230 3,834,271 572,441 Contingently redeemable noncontrolling interests 3,680,782 - - EQUITY Class A ordinary shares 68 68 10 Class B ordinary shares 37 37 6 Treasury stock (7) (8) (1) Additional paid-in capital 1,936,552 1,928,495 287,917 Accumulated other comprehensive loss (29,496) (71,385) (10,657) Accumulated deficit (3,277,270) (3,391,922) (506,401) Total Concord Medical Services Holdings Limited shareholders' deficit (1,370,116) (1,534,715) (229,126) Noncontrolling interests 433,055 4,011,425 598,890 Total equity/(deficit) (937,061) 2,476,710 369,764 Total liabilities, mezzanine equity and equity/(deficit) 6,229,951 6,310,981 942,205

Concord Medical Services Holdings Co., Ltd. Consolidated Profit & Loss (in thousands, except for number of shares and per share data) June 30, 2021 June 30, 2022 RMB RMB US$ (Unaudited) (Unaudited) (Unaudited) Revenues, net of business tax, value-added tax and related surcharges Hospital 64,150 82,865 12,371 Network 128,737 61,397 9,166 Total net revenues 192,887 144,262 21,537 Cost of revenues: Hospital (94,855) (179,686) (26,826) Network (95,652) (53,311) (7,959) Total cost of revenues (190,507) (232,997) (34,786) Gross (loss) / profit 2,380 (88,735) (13,248) Operating expenses: Selling expenses (13,665) (26,416) (3,944) General and administrative expenses (172,623) (130,466) (19,478) Operating loss (183,908) (245,617) (36,670) Interest expense (25,906) (68,325) (10,201) Foreign exchange gain, net 18,489 33,881 5,058 Interest income 2,551 3,562 532 Income from equity method investments 9,088 5,488 819 Other income/(expense), net 2,662 (850) (127) Loss before income tax (177,024) (271,861) (40,589) Income tax expenses 5,331 9,677 1,445 Net loss (171,693) (262,184) (39,144) Net loss attributable to noncontrolling interests (81,363) (147,532) (22,026) Net loss attributable to Concord Medical Services HoldingsLimited (90,330) (114,652) (17,118) Loss per share for Class A and Class B ordinary shares Basic (2.53) (0.87) (0.13) Diluted (2.53) (0.87) (0.13) Weighted average number of class A and class B ordinary shares outstanding: Basic 131,053,858 131,053,858 131,053,858 Diluted 131,053,858 131,053,858 131,053,858 Other comprehensive loss, net of tax of nil Foreign currency translation, net tax of nil 6,234 (41,890) (6,254) Total other comprehensive loss, net of tax 6,234 (41,890) (6,254) Comprehensive loss (165,459) (304,074) (45,398) Comprehensive loss attributable to noncontrolling interests (81,363) (147,532) (22,026) Comprehensive loss attributable to Concord Medical Services Holdings Limited's shareholders (84,096) (156,542) (23,372)

Reconciliations of non-GAAP results of operations measures to the nearest comparable GAAP measures (*) (in RMB thousands, except per share data unaudited) For the six months ended For the six months ended June 30, 2021 June 30, 2022 Non- Non- GAAP GAAP GAAP GAAP Measure Adjustment Measure Measure Adjustment Measure Operating loss (183,908) 8,647 (175,261) (245,617) (7,861) (253,478) Net loss (171,693) 8,647 (163,046) (262,184) (7,861) (270,045) Basic loss per share for Class A and Class B ordinary shares (2.53) 0.07 (2.46) (0.87) (0.06) (0.93) Diluted loss per share for Class A and Class B ordinary shares (2.53) 0.07 (2.46) (0.87) (0.06) (0.93) (*) The only adjustment is share-based compensation.

Reconciliation from net income to adjusted EBITDA(*) (in RMB thousands, unaudited) For the six months ended For the six months ended June 30, 2021 June 30, 2022 Net loss (171,693) (262,184) Interest expenses, net 23,355 64,763 Income tax expenses (5,331) (9,677) Depreciation and amortization 38,476 53,732 Share-based compensation 8,647 (7,861) Other adjustments (21,151) (33,031) Adjusted EBITDA (127,697) (194,258) EBITDA margin -66 % -135 % (*) Definition of adjusted EBITDA: Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net loss plus interest expenses, net, income tax expenses, depreciation and amortization, share-based compensation expenses and other adjustments. Other adjustments include foreign exchange gain, net and other income/(expense), net.

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SOURCE Concord Medical Services Holdings Limited
KANSAS CITY, Kan., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- EVERSANA, a pioneer of next-generation commercial services to the global life sciences industry, today announced that EVERSANA INTOUCH was awarded the 2022 Advertising Agency of the Year, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Faruk Capan was named Advertising Agency CEO of the Year at the 2022 PM360 Trailblazer Awards.

Now in its 14th year, the PM360 Trailblazer Awards recognize individuals and companies that demonstrate achievement in innovation, social responsibility, and talent development in the pharmaceutical industry. PM360 added a new CEO of the Year award this year, honoring the top decision-makers for innovative achievements, exceptional performance, and their ability to build a thriving company culture.

Combining the power of world-class creative, media and digital innovation with payer, patient, and healthcare communications expertise, EVERSANA INTOUCH is the first and only agency accelerating brand performance through insights and seamless connectivity to EVERSANA's integrated commercialization solutions. Capan founded the agency in 1999 and today, the multi-affiliate agency network includes more than 1,800 employees across more than 40 locations worldwide. Capan also serves as EVERSANA's Chief Innovation Officer.

"While our 'day job' is focused on delighting our clients and promoting their brands, today we take a moment to honor the entire EVERSANA INTOUCH team, and my friend Faruk Capan," said Jim Lang, CEO, EVERSANA. "Faruk is an inspiration to so many and has over the past 20 years elevated the industry. He's assembled an incredible team committed to creating 'what's next' in pharmaceutical marketing and ultimately improving healthcare worldwide."

The agency was also named a winner and finalist in eight categories on Thursday evening, September 22 at the Awards show in New York City. Accolades included:

Artificial Intelligence/Data Analytics Initiative Gold Winner: Ticking Lyme Bomb Detector (The Global Lyme Alliance and EVERSANA INTOUCH).

Product Launch of the Year: GEMTESA (Urovant Sciences, Inc., Area 23, An IPG Health Company, EVERSANA INTOUCH, Slate 360, and Carbon91).

Brand Champion Gastrointestinal Category: Chris Quesenberry, Chief Commercial Officer with Evoke Pharma, an EVERSANA COMPLETE Commercialization partner.

App/Digital Solution or Suite Finalist for its work on The Chrysalis Initiative's Erase the Line campaign.

Consumer Website/Online Finalist for its work on The Chrysalis Initiative's Erase the Line campaign.

Interactive/Immersive Marketing Program Finalist for its work on Kindness Over MD on the Fierce Against Muscular Dystrophy campaign.

Self-Promotion Finalist for its work on the NEXTMAKERS campaign.

Relaunch/Revitalization of the Year Finalist for its work with Lantheus on Definity.

Product Launch of the Year Finalist for its work with Lantheus on Pylarify The Clearer Picture.

The complete list of the 2022 PM360 Trailblazer award winners can be found here.

About EVERSANA

EVERSANA is a leading provider of global services to the life sciences industry. The company's integrated solutions are rooted in the patient experience and span all stages of the product life cycle to deliver long-term, sustainable value for patients, prescribers, channel partners and payers. The company serves more than 670 organizations, including innovative start-ups and established pharmaceutical companies, to advance life sciences solutions for a healthier world. To learn more about EVERSANA, visit eversana.com or connect through LinkedIn and Twitter.

About EVERSANA INTOUCH

EVERSANA INTOUCH is a global, full-service marketing agency network serving the life sciences industry, and is the first  and only  agency network to be part of a fully integrated commercialization platform through EVERSANA. EVERSANA INTOUCH provides marketing services  connected and powered by data-rich, digitally-forward analytics  through its affiliates: EVERSANA INTOUCH Solutions, EVERSANA INTOUCH Proto, EVERSANA INTOUCH Seven, EVERSANA INTOUCH Oxygen, EVERSANA INTOUCH Engage, EVERSANA INTOUCH B2B, EVERSANA INTOUCH Media, and EVERSANA INTOUCH International. The network employs more than 1,800 experts known for bold ideas and creative solutions that solve the most complex challenges facing the industry. To learn more, visit eversanaintouch.com or connect through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram.

CONTACT: Matt Braun, [email protected]

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SOURCE EVERSANA
ATHENS, Greece, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Intracom Telecom, a global telecommunication systems and solutions vendor, announces the enhancement of its E-Band radio portfolio features, by introducing support for extensive IP/MPLS functionality into its state-of-the-art xHaul radio, the UltraLinkTM-GX80. The company's solution will be showcased during the MWC Las Vegas 2022, 28-30 September, at its stand number W1.540.

UltraLinkTM-GX80, a high performance 10Gbit/s fully outdoor E-Band radio offering market-leading link range and spectral efficiency, now supports advanced Layer 3 (L3) networking functionality by hosting a full IP/MPLS software stack without requiring the use of additional dedicated networking units to host it. Communication service providers, such as fixed access network operators and mobile network operators, can take advantage of this functionality to deliver advanced L3 and L2 multi-gigabit networking services up to the edge of their network, to high-value enterprise customer sites or provision backhaul flows to 4G and 5G base stations.

UltraLinkTM-GX80 can support an extensive set of L3 networking functionality such as: IPv4 Routing (OSPF, IS-IS, BGP, RIPv1/RIPv2), MPLS LDP, RSVP-TE, MP-BGP, BFD, MPLS-OAM and delivers advanced end-to-end IP/MPLS-based services such as : L3VPN, L2VPN VPWS, L2VPN VPLS. The already installed radios can be updated with the new Software to support the IP/MPLS functionality allowing investment protection.

UltraLinkTM-GX80's L3 functionality support alleviates the need for the installation of extra networking units, which add cost, complexity and additional space and power consumption requirements.

John Tenidis, Marketing Director of Intracom Telecom's wireless solutions portfolio, noted: "Our investment on an IP/MPLS stack for our E-Band radios was made possible due to the flexible networking platform of the UltraLink-GX80 device. Foreseeing the time that 5G networking will become the dominant trend, we prepared ourselves and now we are ready with a pioneering offer. We are certainly helping our customers save significant amounts of money spent on cell site boxes hosting such software, suggesting a more elegant solution which respects also those customers who deployed already this device and can upgrade with just new software."

About Intracom Telecom

Intracom Telecom is a global telecommunication systems and solutions vendor operating for over 40 years in the market. The company has become the benchmark in fixed wireless access and it successfully innovates in the 5G/4G wireless RAN transport and small-cell SON backhaul international arena. Intracom Telecom offers a comprehensive revenue-generating software solutions portfolio and a complete range of ICT services, focusing on IoT, SDN/NFV, Big Data analytics & data-driven intelligence, and Smart City solutions. Moreover, it addresses the Energy & Utilities industry, emphasizing on smart metering and end-to-end IT solutions. Intracom Telecom is also active in the defense systems sector providing security integrated systems for critical infrastructure protection and border surveillance. The company has extensive know-how and a proven track record in the market, serving fixed and mobile telecom operators, public authorities and large public and private enterprises. Intracom Telecom maintains its own R&D and production facilities, and operates subsidiaries worldwide. For more information please visit www.intracom-telecom.com

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SOURCE Intracom Telecom
LONDON, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Orbia's Fluorinated Solutions business Koura has won the coveted award of Refrigeration Innovation of the Year at the 2022 Cooling Industry Awards.

At an awards ceremony last night (22 September) at London's Grosvenor House Ballroom, Koura Klea 473A was named the winning innovation from a shortlist of five, with judges praising the refrigerant's performance and sustainable industry applications.

Klea 473A is designed as a non-flammable refrigerant to achieve high performance with a significantly lower global warming potential (GWP) than existing refrigerants, R-23 or R-508B, in ultra-low temperature cooling applications such as high value cold chain, vaccine storage, climate test chambers, transportation, and other medical uses. This refrigerant has a unique combination of high capacity and energy efficiency coupled with low temperature glide as compared to other refrigerants developed as non-flammable alternatives for R-23 or R-508.

Today, manufacturers and users of ultra-low temperature refrigeration systems are forced to choose between acceptable cooling performance and the environmental impact of these systems. Existing non-flammable refrigerants R-23 and R-508B that are used in ultra-low temperature systems have GWP of 14,800 and 13,400 respectively. Klea 473A breaks this trade-off with energy efficiency comparable to R-23, capacity similar to R-508B, and a GWP of 1,830, which is a +85% reduction.

Optimum charge sizes per system are typically slightly reduced compared to R-23, giving a further potential reduction in GWP inventory per system. Customer trials are showing that existing system designs can easily adapt to this new refrigerant with little to no modification. New systems are also being actively designed to take advantage of the refrigerant's unique properties.

Although Klea R-473A is not the only non-flammable alternative refrigerant proposed for use in very low temperature cascade systems, it has a significantly lower temperature glide, higher vapor pressure, and higher latent heat than other R-23 alternatives, making the adaptation of existing system designs more straightforward. Extensive trialling has also shown that it's possible to operate climate chamber systems where the delivered chamber temperature is as low as -75C.

Gregg Smith, President of Orbia Fluorinated Solutions, said:

"We are delighted that Klea 473A was named Refrigeration Innovation of the Year at the 2022 Cooling Industry Awards. This award is fantastic recognition of our ongoing research and development program, and the hard work of all our teams. Koura is committed to innovation, providing customers across a variety of industries worldwide with new solutions and low GWP refrigerants to transform into a cleaner future.

"This product will offer an easy adaptation option for system designers working in the very low temperature application areas who wish to significantly reduce their usage of ultra-high GWP refrigerants and who are contemplating larger system designs where non-flammability is an essential requirement of the refrigerant."

For more information on Koura, please visit: www.kouraglobal.com

Notes for editors:

About Orbia

Orbia is a company driven by a shared purpose: to advance life around the world. Orbia operates in the Polymer Solutions (Vestolit and Alphagary), Building and Infrastructure (Wavin), Precision Agriculture (Netafim), Connectivity Solutions (Dura-Line) and Fluorinated Solutions (Koura) sectors. The five Orbia business groups have a collective focus on expanding access to health and wellness, reinventing the future of cities and homes, ensuring food and water security, connecting communities to information and accelerating a circular economy with basic and advanced materials, specialty products and innovative solutions. Orbia has commercial activities in more than 110 countries and operations in over 50, with global headquarters in Boston, Mexico City, Amsterdam and Tel Aviv. To learn more, visit: orbia.com.

About Orbia Fluorinated Solutions (Koura)

Orbia's Fluorinated Solutions business Koura is a global leader in the development, manufacture and supply of fluoroproducts that play a fundamental role in enhancing everyday lives and shortening the path to a sustainable, circular economy. Backed by over 35 years of experience, Koura's products are used in a vast range of applications including electric vehicles and energy storage, urban and rural infrastructure, indoor climate management, food and medicine refrigeration and even in treating respiratory conditions through the development of healthy and innovative low-GWP propellants for metered-dose inhalers. Koura has 1,600 employees and 13 manufacturing facilities worldwide, serving 60 countries through a global sales and distribution network.

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SOURCE Koura
GUANGZHOU, China, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Onion Global Limited ("Onion Global", the "Group" or the "Company") (NYSE: OG), a next-generation lifestyle brand platform that connects the world's fresh, fashionable, and future technology-based brands to young people in China and across Asia, today reiterated its commitment to executing on its refined operational plans to address the female market segment in response to the growing needs of female consumers. As part of Onion Global's strategic initiatives to upgrade its business, Onion Global will continue to promote and optimize a new business platform focused on women's personal growth and self-enhancement. Capitalizing on the new business platform, Onion Global will comprehensively empower female users in terms of knowledge, business, consumption, networking and social activities in an effort to lead and accompany female users on a journey of self-improvement, thereby creating a new long-term growth engine.

Three key principles underlie the upcoming launch of the new business platform:

Reach female users through precision marketing: Make a good division of the brand matrix according to the consumption needs of female users at different ages, create plans for product selections and events leveraging trending topics and festivals, and make real-time product recommendations to users. Shorten distance with female users through refined operation: Invite targeted groups to offline brand salons and create opportunities for them to communicate with brand executives and spokespersons to share their experiences and learn more about the brand concepts behind the products, thereby increasing user engagement and creating a tailor-made user experience; recruit product experience officers to try new products and promote them through word-of-mouth. Create diversified real-life scenarios for female users: Create immersive experiences embedded in real-life scenarios using technology; launch special live streams focused on hot topics related to female community; continue to address topics that capture female users' attention and help them achieve self-growth, thereby acquiring quality target users.

Mr. Cong (Kenny) Li, Founder, and CEO of Onion Global, commented, "As women increase their spending power in the economy, Onion Global will continue to enhance user engagement and build loyalty among our female users through building our private domain traffic pool, deepening the platform's connections with female users, and accelerating the commercialization of the platform. In the context of the overall upgrade in consumption habits, consumers demand not only products, but also a compelling brand concept, strong emotional resonance and an excellent consumption experience. Capitalizing on opportunities in the digital economy, Onion Global will use diversified media channels including live streaming and WeChat video accounts to improve interactions, and continuously work to empower women in order to deliver that excellent consumption experience to our female users."

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the Company's beliefs and expectations, the Company's forecasts, general observation of the industry, and business outlook, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties and a number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "expects," "anticipates," "target," "aim," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "potential," "estimates" "continue," "is/are likely to," or other similar statements. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in Onion Global's filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and Onion Global does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.

About Onion Global Limited

Onion Global Limited (NYSE: OG) is a next-generation lifestyle brand platform that connects the world's fresh, fashionable, and future technology-based brands to young people in China and across Asia. The Company's mission is to be the dream factory of lifestyle brands for young people. The Company's platform offers an integrated solution to develop, market, and distribute new and inspiring branded products, thereby reshaping the lifestyle shopping and consumer culture in China. Onion Global Limited has been listed on New York Stock Exchange since May 2021.

For more information, please visit: http://ir.msyc.com/.

Investor Relations ContactIn China:Onion Global Ltd.Investor RelationsE-mail: [email protected]

ChristensenMr. Eric YuanE-mail: [email protected]Tel: +86-10-5900-1548

In the United States:ChristensenMs. Linda BergkampE-mail: [email protected] Tel: +1-480-614-3004

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/onion-global-committed-to-meeting-growing-needs-of-women-consumers-through-new-business-platform-301631796.html

SOURCE Onion Global Limited
DeJoy outlines network transformation, service improvements as part of National Postal Customer Council Week

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In a keynote video address this week to partnership groups composed of Postal Service leaders and the nation's commercial mailers, USPS Postmaster General and CEO Louis DeJoy said the Postal Service is a different organization now than when he arrived more than two years ago.

"Together, we have now started to change the direction of the Postal Service. We are a better organization in a better financial position than we were just one year ago. And we have achieved this exciting momentum during the pandemic. The ball is now in our court to effect the operating and marketing strategies we need to accomplish this transformation," DeJoy said in his video remarks to over 90 Postal Customer Councils (PCCs) participating in National PCC Week.

"Guided by the strategies of the Delivering for America plan, we are all participating in the execution of initiatives to improve our operational precision, improve our service reliability, reduce our cost of performance, increase our revenue and create productive and enjoyable long-term career paths for all our employees. Through these efforts, we will erase a projected 10-year, $160 billion loss and avoid a government bailout," he added.

DeJoy said, "One of the biggest initiatives under Delivering for America is empowering employees to embrace the changes that are needed to succeed. This includes engaging a disciplined and collaborative management team, developing effective supervision, stabilizing and energizing the USPS workforce, and promoting diversity in leadership."

"On par with our employee strategy is our plan to create an efficient and integrated mail and package network to deliver to 163 million delivery points each day as required by law. We will reconfigure our network of 500 processing and distribution centers, 50,000 daily truckloads, 250 daily air flights, 19,000 delivery units, and over 200,000 carrier routes to create the most affordable and reliable delivery system on the planet," he said. "Our new strategy will logically sequence mail and package flows between selected new and renovated facilities. And we will standardize operations within facilities."

The initiatives being undertaken will "provide precise, efficient, repeatable and measurable operations," said DeJoy. "Implementing this strategy will substantially reduce transportation costs and greatly improve the reach of our route system to the American people and American businesses. This improved logistical performance, combined with our investment in new vehicles, will also significantly reduce our carbon footprint. We will not only become the most affordable and reliable delivery provider in the nation, but also the most environmentally friendly."

The Postmaster General said improvements to both the USPS national network and local operations will take years to accomplish, "but each plant or delivery unit tackled will provide immediate systemwide benefits and opportunities for you to improve or expand your service to your customers."

"To accomplish all this, we need you to be a part of this transformation. We need your continued interest in ideas. We need your operating and marketing prowess and your competitive spirit to help us win together in the marketplace," DeJoy said. "We are a Postal Service taking charge of our own destiny."

PCC Award Winners Recognized

As part of National PCC Week, the U.S. Postal Service recognized PCCs throughout the nation for their outstanding achievements and innovation during the past year. Each year, PCC Leadership Awards are presented by the Postal Service in recognition of exemplary work to strengthen and grow the PCC network.

Top honors were presented to PCC groups that achieved overall excellence in their efforts to serve their communities. The PCCs offered innovative solutions for unique issues during a year that has created greater challenges for businesses of all sizes.

PCC of the Year  Metro Market Greater Boston PCC PCC of the Year  Large Market Santa Ana District PCC PCC of the Year  Small Market Greater Madison Area PCC

Julie Gosdin (Greater Oklahoma, Tulsa, Central Arkansas and Northwest Arkansas PCCs) received the 2022 District Manager of the Year Award. Gosdin was recognized for her consistent leadership, support and involvement in all PCCs in her district.

The following categories recognized winners with gold, silver and bronze awards:

PCC Postal Member of the Year honors went to postal employees who excelled in efforts with their local PCCs.

Gold Sherwin Salla (Northeast Florida PCC) Silver James Chambers (Southwest Florida PCC) Bronze Grant Nakashima (Hawaii PCC)

PCC Industry Member of the Year award winners are tireless supporters of the Postal Service, constantly advocating postal products and services.

Gold Jennifer Hoyer (Greater Baltimore PCC) Silver Alice Gordon (Greater Boston PCC) Bronze Rob Hanks (Greater Madison Area PCC)

Innovation of the Year is presented to PCCs that demonstrate out-of-the-box thinking and implement creative ideas that can be replicated by other PCCs.

Gold Greater Boston PCC Silver Central Missouri PCC Bronze Sacramento PCC

Communication Excellence is awarded to PCCs that excel in effective and creative communication programs using various channels and methods to reach their members.

Gold Greater Oklahoma PCC Silver Chicago PCC Bronze Greater Baltimore PCC

Education Excellence is given to PCCs that have incorporated unique educational topics, speakers and workshops to increase knowledge within their PCC chapters.

Gold Greater Philadelphia PCC Silver Greater Cleveland PCC Bronze (tie) Twin Cities PCC Bronze (tie) Puerto Rico PCC

Membership Excellence recognizes PCCs that implement strategies to grow membership and keep members engaged.

Gold Greater Baltimore PCC Silver Central Arkansas PCC Bronze Sacramento PCC

About the Postal Customer Council

As part of National PCC Week, The Postal Customer Council is a postal-sponsored organization composed of local chapters that include Postal Service leadership and commercial mailers working in partnership to support the growth of the mailing and shipping industry. These groups meet primarily through networking and educational events to learn about new Postal Service products, services, changes, pilot programs and the strategic direction of the organization. More than 90 PCCs throughout the country participated in this week's activities.

The mission of the PCC is to foster a close working relationship between the Postal Service and commercial mailers. Those interested in joining a PCC can use the interactive map to determine which PCC is best for them, based on their location. Contact the Industry Engagement & Outreach team at [email protected] for additional assistance.

The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

Please Note: For U.S. Postal Service media resources, including broadcast quality video, audio and photo stills, visit the USPS Newsroom. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn. Subscribe to the USPS YouTube Channel, like us on Facebook and enjoy our Postal Posts blog. For more information about the Postal Service, visit usps.com and facts.usps.com.For reporters interested in speaking with a regional Postal Service public relations professional, please go to about.usps.com/news/media-contacts/usps-local-media-contacts.pdf.

Contact: Albert Ruiz [email protected] usps.com/news

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SOURCE U.S. Postal Service
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Salvation Army announced today that it will be hosting the 2022 Homelessness Symposium, which will be held Thursday, September 29th at the offices of Gibson Dunn in downtown Los Angeles. The Symposium will feature leading voices from the public and private sectors and will provide attendees valuable insights into the homelessness crisis facing the greater Los Angeles community.

The confirmed speakers to date include: City Attorney Mike Feuer, City Councilmember Joe Buscaino, LAHSA Chair Wendy Gruel, CCA CEO Jessica Lall, LABC Chair Mary Leslie, Gilmore & Associates CEO Tom Gilmore, Homelessness Blue Ribbon Commissioner Sarah Dusseault, Former LA Councilmember and current Chief Strategy & Advancement Officer for Kedren Community Health Center David Ryu, Union Rescue Mission CEO Andy Bales, Los Angeles Mission President & CEO Troy Vaughn, USC Professor Dr. Carl Castro, and Michael Lehrer, President and Founder of Lehrer Architects LA.

"There is no greater issue facing the city of Los Angeles than Homelessness and there are few organizations with as much depth, expertise and comprehensive capability as The Salvation Army," said Andrew Jameson, Chair of The Salvation's Army LA Metropolitan Advisory Board. "It is my hope that this symposium can stimulate productive, engaging and even disruptive conversation between thought leaders in the public and private sectors as we continue to confront and find ways to resolve this crisis."

Added Captain Sean Kelsey, The Salvation Army's Los Angeles Metro Coordinator, "We are excited to bring together some of the most influential leaders in the public and private sectors to discuss the problems of homelessness, but more importantly, pursue solutions to one of the greatest humanitarian crises that the city of Los Angeles has ever experienced."

The Salvation Army's Homelessness Symposium is an educational forum that seeks to ignite conversation and action around the most pressing homelessness issues facing the Los Angeles community. It will feature keynotes, fireside chats, panels, and Q&As.

Registration is available now at https://usawest.wufoo.com/forms/r18ho6uw1wnif57/ and parking has been arranged at the Gibson Dunn Office.

For more information about the event & to RSVP, please visit: https://westernusa.salvationarmy.org/la-metro/

About The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army annually helps more than 30 million Americans overcome poverty, addiction, and economic hardships through a range of social services. By providing food for the hungry, emergency relief for disaster survivors, rehabilitation for those suffering from drug and alcohol abuse, and clothing and shelter for people in need, The Salvation Army is doing the most good at 7,000 centers of operation around the country. In 2021, The Salvation Army was ranked No. 2 on the list of "America's Favorite Charities" by The Chronicle of Philanthropy. For more information, visit SalvationArmyUSA.org Follow us on Twitter @SalvationArmyUS and #DoingTheMostGood.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/salvation-armys-la-metro-2022-homelessness-summit-thursday-september-29th-from-9am-3pm-301632367.html

SOURCE The Salvation Army, California South Division
CEO, Education Consultant and Founder of Tutors International, Adam Caller, and his colleagues will speak at the 2022 Prestel and Partner Family Office Forum in New York on 11th October. Here, we take a look into their background in the private tuition sector.

OXFORD, England, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Adam Caller, CEO of elite private tutoring company Tutors International, along with his colleagues, Chief Operations Officer, Victoria Gibbs, and account managers Joanna Dunckley Phillips and Nathaniel Hannan, will take to the stage on Tuesday 11th October at the New York Prestel and Partner Family Office Forum, in a 30-minute presentation on the advantages of specialist private tutoring. Mr Caller and his colleagues have considerable personal experience in the private tuition field and have all worked for the company, either as a private tutor themselves and/or on the managerial side, for at least a decade. Each one of the team is in an ideal position to be able to offer their ultra-high net-worth audience an authoritative insight into the advantages of high-end specialist private tuition.

Tutors International

Specialising in high-quality, personalised tuition, Tutors International has extensive experience placing outstanding private tutors in full-time residential positions world-wide. Enquiries from families are diverse: some require full-time, residential homeschooling, others might be seeking extra support alongside mainstream education for the child who is struggling, or for the child who needs to be extended academically. There are families who search for tutors able to incorporate extra-curricular expertise into their child's academic curriculum or who wish to employ a tutor because their lifestyle makes for a difficult 'fit' with standard schooling. Tutors International is committed to finding the perfect tutor for the student and family and takes a great deal of trouble in recruiting for these placements. They are committed to finding not just the world's best tutors, but the world's best tutor for each specific child.

Adam Caller

Founder of Tutors International, Adam Caller, began teaching in 1987 while still an undergraduate at Glasgow University and received his teaching qualification from the University of York in 1991. He then taught in the private and state sectors for many years before a period as Project Manager on an ambitious eLearning platform. This was followed by a long period as a full-time private tutor to prestigious families in England and around the world. Mr Caller has received specialist training in the non-medicinal management of dyslexia and Attention Deficit Disorder and is very sensitive to children's educational needs.

A well-respected educational consultant and private tutoring expert with over twenty five years in the private tutoring sector, Mr Caller has perfected the process for sourcing bespoke tutoring solutions for HNW and UHNW families, and delivering elite education solutions. Mr Caller comments:

"The Family Office Forum provides a platform for Tutors International to showcase the exceptional nature of what we do. It gives us, as a company, the opportunity to explain to our audience of UHNWIs why personalised private tuition has positioned itself as a significant alternative to traditional mainstream education within the context of educating for the future. There is now sound, quantifiable evidence of the benefits of individualised, one-to-one tutoring that isn't purely anecdotal. Since Tutors International was founded in 1999, we have consistently observed students that have struggled in a traditional classroom environment setting thriving under specialist, one-to-one attention from our tutors. In the past, educational research hasn't always been reflective of this."

"In private tutoring, we see time after time how focusing on a child's individual interests and talents, and adapting teaching styles and lesson planning to compliment them, results in a child who is more interested and eager to learn. Tutors International deals with clients who are looking for 'outside the box' thinkers when selecting their private tutors. They want someone who can expose their child to a wide range of topics, concepts and ideas from an early age, and use new advancements in technology to their learning advantage. They want someone who can 'move with the times', and this paves the way for some very exciting job opportunities for forward thinking tutors, worldwide".

"I'm very much looking forward to sharing some of our personal experiences of private tutoring with the Family Office Forum audience whilst also being very careful to respect and protect the privacy of our families at all times".

Victoria Gibbs

Ms Gibbs joined Tutors International in January 2011. She has several integral roles within the company, demonstrating her depth and breadth of aptitudes. She prepares the finances of TI's international companies and financial transaction records in multiple currencies. Project management is also a central part of her role. She also conducts administrative functions for the domestic and international companies under the Tutors International umbrella, like Sea Tutors. She is also a Visa specialist and performs an HR role within the company. She sheds light on how her role has changed over her years at Tutors International:

"My job has changed enormously in the last 11 years. As the company has grown and developed, so has the complexity of my role. When I started out, we only had three companies to contend with: two in the UK and in America. Now, we have multiple UK companies, one in the US, one in Hong Kong, one in Canada and Holland, and, until recently, we were also running one in Singapore. In addition, we have explored both the Chinese and Japanese markets".

"Operating in so many jurisdictions has been a steep learning curve. As Chief Operations Officer I have had to redesign various admin systems and processes to deal with larger volumes of tutors, as well as responding to new legislation from within the UK".

Ms Gibbs also expands on why she believes Tutors International fills a specific niche in the education sector and why, for many families, private tutoring is the best educational option:

"We have seen troubled children get back on track, school refusers embrace their learning, and teenagers achieving goals  both personal and academic - that they never thought possible. All the work we do is in pursuit of these moments, and knowing that Tutors International makes such a positive difference on these young lives makes all the hard work and effort worth it."

Nathaniel Hannan

A graduate of Notre Dame and Oxford universities, Nathaniel Hannan began his teaching career at high schools in the Washington DC area, and has been working for Tutors International for sixteen years. Having lived and worked with privately-educated students in thirteen countries, his expertise in the private tutoring field is second to none. He now concentrates on homeschooling students who have special educational needs.

In his role as Education Manager at Tutors International, Mr Hannan ensures the verification of candidate credentials and references and coordinates the steps necessary to place tutors successfully. When asked why he prefers to work as a private tutor rather than in mainstream education Mr Hannan responded:

"I prefer to work as a private tutor because of the significant pedagogical advantages possible in one-to-one tuition. Personal attention enables me to understand how my student best learns; enabling my students to achieve their goals is tremendously satisfying. In my opinion, private tutoring is best for many students because each student's individual needs and talents are always not best served in a group-learning setting. Private tuition enables each student to flourish in ways impossible to accomplish from a one-size-fits-most approach".

Mr Hannan, who previously taught in a private school in Washington DC, firmly believes that the professionalism required in a private tutoring arrangement is very different to that required in a classroom:

"For all kinds of child protection reasons, being a school teacher requires a certain emotional distance. In a family environment that changes; it's important to be able to develop a sincere rapport with a family. I also believe that an important part of a tutor's role is to help students find out that their lives can have profound meaning separate from the family wealth that often surrounds them."

Joanna Dunckley Phillips

Joanna Dunckley Phillips has worked as a tutor for Tutors International for over a decade. Her position as Account Manager involves looking after specific contracts and liaising with Clients and Tutors to ensure the smooth running of the close relationships this kind of residential tutoring engenders. Ms Dunckley Phillips shares her thoughts about transitioning from the tutoring side of the business to the account management side:

"I have worked as a tutor for Tutors International for over 10 years now so I know the process from the 'other side' very well. I have been fortunate enough to travel in many positions and even organised a three-month round-the-world itinerary with two of my students. As a big believer in the learning experiences afforded by the exposure to different places, cultures and languages, the opportunity to travel is another of the huge benefits of having a private tutor. Whilst moving, the more formal classroom hours are few and far between; the learning becomes more experiential and location-oriented. These experiences have enabled me to understand the dynamics that form between tutors, their charges and the clients. This allows me to better support the team that are on the ground (parents/clients and tutors) working with the child/ren."

Prestel & Partner Family Office Forum New York 2022

The 2022 New York Prestel & Partner Family Office Forum will take place on the 11tht and 12th of October at Harvard Club of New York City. Tutors International will feature in the 'Learn from Peers' section of the programme on the 11th October at 3 pm. If you would like to hear more from Mr Caller and the Tutors International team and learn more about the private tuition sector, you can book a place at the conference by following the instructions found in this link.

About Tutors International

Tutors International provides an unparalleled private tutoring service that matches the right private home tutor with the right child, in order for the student to fully reach their personal potential and academic excellence. Delivering an international private tuition service for children of all ages at different points in their educational journeys, Tutors International is founded on a commitment to finding the perfect tutor to realise the specific goals and aspirations of each student. Tutors are available for residential full-time positions, after-school assistance, and home-schooling.

Founded in 1999 by Adam Caller, Tutors International is a private company based in Oxford, a city renowned for academic excellence. Our select clientele receives a personally tailored service, with discretion and confidentiality guaranteed.

Contact Details

Web: www.tutors-international.com

Email: [email protected]

Phone: +44 (0) 1865 435 135

Tutors InternationalClarendon House52 Cornmarket StreetOxfordOX1 3HJUK

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1900575/Tutors_International_team.jpgLogo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/699064/Tutors_International_Logo.jpg

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SOURCE Tutors International (TI Education)
PHOENIX, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation announced today that Judge Sarah S. Vance, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, is the 2022 recipient of the federal judiciary's highest honor  the Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award.

Judge Vance will be honored at a ceremony opened by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., in the Supreme Court courtroom, followed by a reception and dinner.

Justice Kavanaugh, appointed to Chair the Devitt selection committee for 2022-23 by Chief Justice Roberts, chose judges from the lower courts to assist him in selecting this year's honoree. His committee consisted of Judge Britt C. Grant, United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and Judge Christopher R. Cooper, United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Judge Vance was nominated by Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn, United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Her nomination was supported by more than 60 federal judges who presented lengthy documentation and praise for their colleague's outstanding performance, dedication, and service to the rule of law for the last 26 years.

In acknowledging her honor, Justice Kavanaugh said, "Judge Sarah Vance is an extraordinary federal judge who has devoted her career to improving the administration of justice and safeguarding the American rule of law. In her home state of Louisiana, she has served as a federal district judge for almost three decades, including as Chief Judge of the Eastern District of Louisiana from 2008 to 2015."

Justice Kavanaugh added, "Judge Vance is well known for her razor-sharp intellect, astounding work ethic, sound judgment, and superb judicial temperament. Judge Vance has also played a vital role in the administration and governance of the federal judiciary, including as a member of the Executive Committee of the Judicial Conference, as Chair of the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, and a member of the Federal Judiciary Workplace Conduct Working Group, among many other contributions."

Judge Vance said in a statement, "I am overwhelmed at the thought of joining the pantheon of judges who have received the Devitt Award. My heartfelt thanks go to Justice Kavanaugh and the Devitt Award Committee for choosing me for this singular honor. My entire judicial career has been a happy collaboration with my law clerks and staff, and the many dedicated judges and staff members who worked beside me in the Eastern District of Louisiana." She added, "The Devitt Award is the capstone of a judicial career that has already been highly rewarding. The news that I would receive it leaves me elated and immensely grateful that I have had the opportunity to serve as a federal judge."

The award was established in 1982 by Dwight D. Opperman while he was Chairman and CEO of West Publishing Company  creators of WestLaw. Mr. Opperman, the legal and judiciary community's greatest innovator and philanthropist of his day, was encouraged by Chief Justice Warren Burger to create an award that would honor the unsung heroes of the American judiciary. The Devitt Award epitomizes the highest standard of the federal bench. Dwight Opperman passed away in 2013, but the award continues in perpetuity through the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation, chaired by Julie Opperman.

"Judge Sarah Vance follows in the footsteps of the 2020-2021 Devitt Award honorees, Senior U.S. District Judge Rya Zobel, who grew up in Nazi Germany and later became the first woman to serve as a director of the Federal Judicial Center; and trailblazer and role model in the legal profession, Judge Julia Gibbons, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit," Julie Opperman said. "Judge Vance's incredible story began in Donaldsville, Louisiana, when she was born to a WWII veteran father and Italian immigrant mother. Her parents' belief in the American dream, and their daughter's determination and dedication to do the work, made her not only first in her class at Louisiana State University and Tulane Law School, but also positioned her at the very top of the American judiciary."

Justice Kavanaugh stated, "With my fellow selection members, Judges Britt Grant and Christopher Cooper, I am honored to recognize and thank one of America's most distinguished judges, the Honorable Sarah Vance."

Media Contact: [email protected]

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SOURCE Dwight D. Opperman Foundation
Fisher House Provides Free, Temporary Lodging to Military & Veteran Families

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System (VAAAHS) on Friday held the dedication ceremony for the VA Ann Arbor Fisher House. The Fisher House was dedicated to America's service men and women and their loved ones.

The Fisher House provides bedrooms, kitchen, dining and family rooms, laundry and outdoor patio space to Veterans and their families who are receiving extended care at VAAAHS. Since opening in June 2020, the 16-suite, 13,000+ sq.-ft. 'comfort home' has housed over 6,000 individual guests from more than 11 different states, saving Veteran and Military families over $1.2 million in lodging costs.

VAAAHS Medical Center Director Ginny Creasman was joined by U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell and Fisher House Foundation Chairman and CEO Ken Fisher at the Dedication. Medal of Honor Recipient Jim McCloughan also made remarks and presented a plaque from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

"The Fisher House has exceeded all our expectations since it's opening," said Dr. Creasman. "The convenience, healing atmosphere, and proximity to the medical center allows us to meet the needs of our Veterans and caregivers by reducing the overall stress and burden an extended stay at a hospital may bring. It is our honor to be able to provide this 'home away from home' while Veterans receive health care with us."

"Fisher House Foundation is honored to bring this first house to Michigan," said Chairman and CEO of Fisher House Foundation Ken Fisher. "This house, in Ann Arbor, has already shown how critical the need is for our military and veteran community. We are grateful to such a supportive community that helped to make this Fisher House possible."

"Many patients receiving care at the VA are far away from their homes, and we know that the support of loved ones can be the best medicine. I have been working for Ann Arbor and Detroit to have Fisher House since the day I walked into Congress. This fulfills a long-held dream and a lot of hard work by so many, and now we have one down and one to go," said U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell. "Fisher House makes a difference for countless families and patients during some of the most difficult times in their lives, and I will continue to serve as a champion in Congress for their important work."

The Ann Arbor Fisher House was the first to be opened in the state of Michigan. Planning and development of a second Fisher House near the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit is currently underway. Local fundraising efforts to support the construction and operations of both Fisher Houses are organized by Fisher House Michigan.

"Michiganders are pouring their hearts into this mission. We're overwhelmed by the generosity of donors from all 83 Michigan counties," said Fisher House Michigan President Mark Palmucci. "Each family staying in this 'brick-and-mortar support system' heals along with their Veteran. We can't wait to expand access to this invaluable resource for more Veteran families with a Fisher House in Detroit."

Fisher House Foundation proudly recognizes the generosity of the following contributors for their extraordinary support of our military and veteran families: Fisher House Michigan; Anonymous; Masco Corporation; the MacLeod Family; the Weiser Family; American Legion Department of Michigan Family; Brad Keselowski's Checkered Flag Foundation; CAPT Victor & Mrs. Carol Palmucci, USN (Ret); In memory of Scott Freestone & Ron Arenas; Specialist Matthew T. Drake, US Army, Iraq; Steven Tallman; CPT Arthur J. Holst; Patton's 3rd Army, 1943-1946; Erwin Prieskorn American Legion Post 46; First Nation Group; Kerri Childress; Mark Palmucci & Beryl Needham; Members of the Rotary Club of Ann Arbor; Members of UAW Local 900; Old National Bank; Richard & Jean Schmidt; Robert W. (Fletch) Fletcher; Spartan Capital Veterans Family Support Fund; Stutzmann-Moore Wealth Management; the Trinity Charitable Fund; University of Michigan - Michigan Medicine; Vehicles for Veterans; Vietnam Veterans of Michigan; and the many gifts of a grateful nation.

About VA Ann Arbor Healthcare SystemVA Ann Arbor Healthcare System (VAAAHS) provides state-of-the-art healthcare services to Veterans at eight locations of care in southeast Michigan and northwest Ohio. VAAAHS is a major tertiary care national and regional referral center and provides care at the Community-based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC) in Toledo, Ohio, and Jackson, Adrian and Flint, Michigan. A CBOC will be opening in Howell, Michigan during Fall 2022. The Medical Center campus includes the hospital, outpatient clinics, community living center, a radiation therapy facility, Fisher House, two research buildings, five administrative outbuildings, two parking garages, and an energy center. The facility includes state-of-the-art ambulatory care clinics, operating rooms, cardiac catheterization suite, intensive care units, laboratory, and diagnostic facilities.

About Fisher House FoundationFisher House Foundation is best known for its network of 92 comfort homes where military and veteran families can stay at no cost while a loved one is receiving treatment. These homes are located at major military and VA medical centers nationwide, and in Europe, close to the medical center or hospital they serve. Fisher Houses have up to 21 suites, with private bedrooms and baths. Families share a common kitchen, laundry facilities, a warm dining room and an inviting living room. Fisher House Foundation ensures that there is never a lodging fee. Since inception, the program has saved military and veteran families an estimated $547 million in out-of-pocket costs for lodging and transportation. www.fisherhouse.org

About Fisher House MichiganFisher House Michigan is a not-for-profit organization formed to improve the quality of life of US military members, retirees, Veterans, and their families and caregivers. FHM supports the construction and operations of comfort homes built near VA Medical Centers in Michigan, called "Fisher Houses." FHM works to inform the Veteran community, their families, and the general public about Fisher Houses, and provides necessary support to Fisher House operations as needed. Fisher House Michigan presently supports operations at the Fisher House at VAAAHS in Ann Arbor and is raising capital and program funds for the future Fisher House at the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit. www.fisherhousemichigan.org

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/va-ann-arbor-healthcare-system-holds-dedication-ceremony-for-fisher-house-301632504.html

SOURCE Fisher House Foundation
The Move and Acquisition Is Part of Wedgewood's Strategic Growth and Continued Focus to Put More Housing Inventory Back Into The Marketplace

BILLINGS, Mont. and LOS ANGELES, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Wedgewood Homes, a leading real estate group that revitalizes communities by buying homes in need of repair and returning them to the market, today announced it has expanded into Montana with the purchase of 54 homes, including 51 single-family residences and three duplexes  totaling $13 million. Today's expansion news means that Wedgewood is now offering its services to home sellers and real estate agents in 21 states across the country.

"This purchase from HomeFront allows us to do what we do best," said Jamie Bedner, Senior Vice President of Wedgewood Homes and Maverick Design. "And that's to renovate homes that need repair and/or are sitting vacant and recirculate them back to the market."

Kelsey Palmer and Sheila Larsen of PureWest Real Estate represented Wedgewood Homes on the acquisition of the 54 homes.

"I think the greatest significance for Wedgewood moving into Montana, particularly for Billings, is the importance they place on community," said Palmer. "From using local agents that understand the market to using local contractors, Wedgewood isn't just another large company trying to move in and change the culture of Montana."

Of the 54 homes purchased, 20 homes were immediately put on the market as-is to provide purchase opportunities for buyers battling supply shortages. Another 20 will be repaired and then sold. The remaining 11 homes and three duplexes will be rental properties for now. Ten of the acquired homes had tenants, all of whom have been offered the option to stay with Wedgewood honoring their respective leases. Wedgewood Homes will employ local vendors and contractors for all of the construction and renovation work.

Unlike institutional investors, which are known for buying, holding, and renting, Wedgewood Homes aims to restore and update the homes it acquires and return them back to the market by partnering with the real estate agent community. Through the buying and selling of thousands of homes last year, Wedgewood Homes contributed over $100 million dollars in gross commissions earned by its agent partners in 2021.

Read more on Wedgewood's blog, here.

Wedgewood Homes, an award-winning, real estate group that operates in 21 states and more than 800 cities across the United States, believes in the value of 'home' and the importance of providing home ownership opportunities. Wedgewood Homes' acquisition, renovation, and resale model utilizes local vendors and services, community real estate professionals, and nearly four decades of experience to revitalize neighborhoods, one home at a time. Employing a sustainable and strategic design approach, Wedgewood Homes specializes in restoring homes and placing them back on the market, providing new homeownership opportunities for thousands. Wedgewood, the parent company of Wedgewood homes, has been in business since 1985. Find Wedgewood and Wedgewood Homes online at www.wedgewood-inc.com and www.wedgewoodhomes.com.

CONTACT: Wicked+Alicia Mistry[email protected]

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wedgewood-homes-expands-to-billings-montana-and-purchases-54-homes-from-homefront-totaling-13-million-301632286.html

SOURCE Wedgewood LLC
Additional Information and Where to Find It

THE EXCHANGE OFFER MATERIALS (INCLUDING A PROSPECTUS/OFFER TO EXCHANGE, A RELATED LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL AND CERTAIN OTHER EXCHANGE OFFER DOCUMENTS) AND THE SOLICITATION/RECOMMENDATION STATEMENT ON SCHEDULE 14D-9 CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. ROMEOS STOCKHOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ THESE DOCUMENTS CAREFULLY (AS EACH MAY BE AMENDED OR SUPPLEMENTED FROM TIME TO TIME) BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION THAT HOLDERS OF THE COMPANYS SECURITIES SHOULD CONSIDER BEFORE MAKING ANY DECISION REGARDING TENDERING THEIR SECURITIES. The Prospectus/Offer to Exchange, the related Letter of Transmittal and certain other exchange offer documents, as well as the Solicitation/Recommendation Statement, are available to all holders of the Companys stock at no expense to them. The exchange offer materials and the Solicitation/Recommendation Statement are available for free at the SECs website at www.sec.gov . Additional copies may be obtained for free by contacting Investor Relations, Corporate Secretary at Romeo Power, Inc., 5560 Katella Avenue, Cypress, California 90630 (for documents filed by the Company) or Investor Relations, Corporate Secretary at Nikola Corporation, 4141 E Broadway Road, Phoenix, Arizona 85040 (for documents filed by Nikola).

Forward-Looking Statements

This communication contains forward-looking statements, within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, related to the Company and the acquisition of Romeo by Nikola that involves substantial risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as may, should, could, would, expect, plan, anticipate, contemplate, intend, believe, estimate, continue, goal, project or the negative of such terms or other similar terms. Forward-looking statements in this communication include, among other things, statements about the potential benefits of the proposed transaction, the Companys plans, objectives, expectations and intentions, the financial condition, results of operations and business of the Company, and the anticipated timing of closing of the proposed transaction. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or otherwise implied by the forward-looking statements, including the following: risks related to the ability of the Company to consummate the proposed transaction on a timely basis or at all; the satisfaction of the conditions precedent to consummation of the proposed transaction, including having a sufficient number of the Companys shares being validly tendered into the exchange offer to meet the minimum condition; the Companys ability to secure regulatory approvals on the terms expected in a timely manner or at all; the ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the proposed transaction, including the possibility that the expected benefits from the proposed transaction will not be realized or will not be realized within the expected time period; disruption from the transaction making it more difficult to maintain business and operational relationships; the negative side effects of the announcement or the consummation of the proposed transaction on the market price of the Companys common stock or on the Companys operating results; significant transaction costs; unknown liabilities; the risk of litigation and/or regulatory actions related to the proposed transaction, risks that the Company is unsuccessful in integrating potential acquired businesses and product lines; risks of decreased revenues due to pricing pressures or lower product volume ordered from customers; risks that our products, and services fail to interoperate with third-party systems; potential price increases or lack of availability of third-party technology, battery cells, components or other raw materials that we use in our products; potential disruption of our products, offerings, and networks; our ability to deliver products and services following a disaster or business continuity event; risks resulting from our international operations, including overseas supply chain partners; risks related to strategic alliances; risks related to our ability to raise additional capital in the future if required; potential unauthorized use of our products and technology by third parties; potential impairment charges related to

3
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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 8-K

CURRENT REPORT

Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported):

Edgemode, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Nevada 000-55647 47-4046237 (State of Incorporation) (Commission File Number) (I.R.S. Employer No.)

110 E. Broward Blvd. , Suite 1700 , Ft. Lauderdale , FL 33301

(Address of Principal Executive Offices, and Zip Code)

(707) 687-9093

(Registrants Telephone Number, Including Area Code)

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions:

 Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)  Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)  Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))  Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered None Not Applicable Not Applicable

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933 (230.405 of this chapter) or Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (240.12b-2 of this chapter).

Emerging growth company 

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. 

Item 1.01 Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement.

On September 19, 2022 (the Effective Date), EdgeMode, Inc. (the Company) entered into a common stock purchase agreement with Alumni Capital LP (Alumni) (the Purchase Agreement) pursuant to which Alumni has agreed to purchase from the Company, at the direction of the Company and in its sole discretion, up to $15,000,000 of common stock (subject to certain limitations) from time to time through December 31, 2023 (the Commitment Period). In consideration for entering into the Purchase Agreement, the Company issued to Alumni 2,521,008 shares of restricted common stock as a commitment fee (the Commitment Shares).

Under the terms of the Purchase Agreement the Company agreed, among other things, to use its reasonable best efforts to file a registration statement (the Registration Statement) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC), no later than 20 business days following the Effective Date to register for resale by Alumni under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Act), the shares of common stock that the Company may elect to issue and sell to Alumni from time to time under the Purchase Agreement.

The Company does not have the right to commence any sales to Alumni under the Purchase Agreement until each of the conditions set forth in the Purchase Agreement are satisfied, including the Registration Statement being declared effective by the SEC. Thereafter, and from time to time during the Commitment Period, the Company may, in its sole discretion, deliver written notice to Alumni stating the number of shares of common stock that the Company intends to sell to Alumni pursuant to the terms of the Purchase Agreement (the Purchase Notice), provided that the common stock in each Purchase Notice shall not exceed the lesser of: (i) 250% of the Average Daily Trading Volume 5 business days prior to the Purchase Notice or (ii) $500,000 (the Purchase Notice Limit). No Purchase Notice shall be sent if the Volume Weighted Average Price of the shares is at or below $0.01 during the five business days prior to the delivery of a Purchase Notice. During the Commitment Period, the Company shall not submit a Purchase Notice until the previous sale of shares of common stock under a prior Purchase Notice has been completed. No Purchase Notice will be made in an amount less than $25,000 or greater than the Purchase Notice Limit.

The closing of a Purchase Notice shall occur no later than the 5 business days following receipt of the shares of common stock by Alumnis custodian (the Purchase Notice Date). Alumni shall deliver an amount equal to the common stock in the Purchase Notice multiplied by eighty percent (80%) of the lowest daily Volume Weighted Average Price of the common stock 5 business days prior to the closing date (less $5,000 for clearing fees) by wire transfer of immediately available funds to an account designated by the Company.

In no event shall Alumni be entitled to purchase that number of shares of common stock, which when added to the sum of the number of shares of common stock beneficially owned (as such term is defined under Section 13(d) and Rule 13d-3 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the 1934 Act)), by Alumni, would exceed 9.99% of the common stock outstanding on the Purchase Notice Date, as determined in accordance with Rule 13d-1(j) of the 1934 Act.

The net proceeds under the Purchase Agreement to the Company will depend on the frequency and prices at which the Company sells shares of its stock to Alumni. The Company expects that any proceeds received by the Company from such sales to Alumni under the Purchase Agreement will be used for, but not be limited to, general corporate purposes.

This Current Report on Form 8-K shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any shares of common stock, nor shall there be any sale of shares of common stock in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction.

The foregoing description of the Purchase Agreement is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of the Purchase Agreement, a copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit 10.1, which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.

1

Item 3.02 Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities.

The disclosure set forth above under Item 1.01 regarding the issuance of the Commitment Shares to Alumni and the potential offering and sale of up to $15,000,000 of shares of common stock to Alumni from time to time though December 31, 2023 under the Purchase Agreement is incorporated herein by reference. Alumni represented to the Company, among other things, that it was an accredited investor (as such term is defined in Rule 501(a) of Regulation D under the Act), and the Company sold the securities in reliance upon an exemption from registration contained in Section 4(a)(2) under the Act.

Item 9.01 Financial Statements and Exhibits.

(d) Exhibits

Incorporated by Reference Filed or Furnished Exhibit # Exhibit Description Form Date Number Herewith 10.1 Common Stock Purchase Agreement between EdgeMode, Inc. and Alumni Capital LP dated September 19, 2022 Filed 104 Cover Page Interactive Data File (embedded within the Inline XBRL document)

2

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

Edgemode, Inc. Dated: September 23, 2022 By: /s/ Charles Faulkner Name: Charles Faulkner Title: Chief Executive Officer

ATTACHMENTS / EXHIBITS

COMMON STOCK PURCHASE AGREEMENT

XBRL SCHEMA FILE

XBRL LABEL FILE

XBRL PRESENTATION FILE

IDEA: R1.htm

IDEA: edgemode_8k_htm.xml

IDEA: Financial_Report.xlsx

IDEA: FilingSummary.xml

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0001427644 false 0001427644 2022-09-22 2022-09-22 0001427644 dei:FormerAddressMember 2022-09-22 2022-09-22 iso4217:USD xbrli:shares iso4217:USD xbrli:shares

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 8-K

CURRENT REPORT

Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported):

TELCO CUBA, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Nevada 000-53157 82-4099651 (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation) (Commission File Number) (IRS Employer Identification No.)

454 S Yonge Street , Suite 3A , Ormond Beach , Florida 32174

(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)

Registrants telephone number, including area code: 305 - 747-7647

4960 Southwest 52nd Street , #404 , Davie , Florida 33314

(Former name or former address, if changed since last report.)

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions (see General Instruction A.2. below):

 Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)

 Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)

 Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))

 Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered Common Stock QBAN OTCPK

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933 (230.405 of this chapter) or Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (240.12b-2 of this chapter).

Emerging growth company 

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. 

Item 4.01. Change in Registrant's Certifying Accountant

On September 1st 2021, the Auditing Committee and chairman of the Board of Directors of Telco Cuba, Inc., a Nevada corporation (the Company), approved the engagement of M&K CPAS, PLLC (MK) as the Companys independent registered public accounting firm for the Companys fiscal year ended November 30, 2015, November 30, 2016, and fiscal year 2017 effective immediately, and dismissed RBSM LLP (RBSM) as the Company's independent registered public accounting firm.

During the fiscal years ended November 30, 2014, and 2013, and the subsequent interim periods through August 31, 2015, there were (i) no disagreements (as described in Item 304(a)(1)(iv) of Regulation S-K and the related instructions) between the Company and RBSM on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure, or auditing scope or procedure, which, if not resolved to RBSMs satisfaction, would have caused RBSM to make reference thereto in their reports on the financial statements for such years, and (ii) no reportable events within the meaning of Item 304(a)(1)(v) of Regulation S- K. RBSMs audit reports on the Companys financial statements for the fiscal years ended November 30, 2014 and 2013 did not contain an adverse opinion or a disclaimer of opinion and were not qualified or modified as to uncertainty, audit scope or accounting principles, except that, the audit reports included an explanatory paragraph with respect to the uncertainty as to the Companys ability to continue as a going concern.

The Company provided RBSM with a copy of the disclosures it is making in this Current Report on Form 8-K and requested that RBSM furnish a letter addressed to the Securities and Exchange Commission stating whether or not it agrees with the statements made herein. A copy of RBSMs letter dated September 22, 2022, is filed as Exhibit 16.1 hereto.

During the fiscal years ended November 30, 2014, and 2013, and the subsequent interim periods through August 31, 2015, neither the Company nor anyone acting on its behalf has consulted with MK regarding (i) the application of accounting principles to a specific transaction, either completed or proposed, or the type of audit opinion that might be rendered on the Companys financial statements or the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, and neither a written report or oral advice was provided to the Company that MK concluded was an important factor considered by the Company in reaching a decision as to any accounting, auditing, or financial reporting issue, (ii) any matter that was the subject of a disagreement within the meaning of Item 304(a)(1)(iv) of Regulation S-K, or (iii) any reportable event within the meaning of Item 304(a)(1)(v) of Regulation S-K.

Item 8.01 Other Events

As of March 30, 2019, the Company moved its headquarters to 454 S Yonge Street, Ormond Beach, Florida 32174. The Companys mailing address is 454 S Yonge Street Suite 3A, Ormond Beach, Florida 32174. The Company's main telephone number remains the same, telephone: +1 (305) 747 - 7647.

Item 9.01. Financial Statements and Exhibits

(d) Exhibits



Exhibit Number Description 16.1 Letter of RBSM LLP dated September 22, 2022 104 Cover Page Interactive Data File (embedded within the Inline XBRL document)





SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

TELCO CUBA, INC. Date: September 22, 2022 By: /s/ William J Sanchez Name: William J Sanchez Title: President, Chairman of the Board, and Chief Financial Officer

ATTACHMENTS / EXHIBITS

LETTER OF RBSM, LLP

XBRL SCHEMA FILE

XBRL DEFINITION FILE

XBRL LABEL FILE

XBRL PRESENTATION FILE

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The Air Force awarded a nearly $1 billion contract for development of a new hypersonic missile system that could be fielded within five years, the service said Thursday.

Raytheon will be tasked with developing prototypes for a hypersonic attack cruise missile, which is an air-launched weapon designed to be used against high-value targets, the Air Force said. It is being developed in tandem with Australias air force.

The total value of the contract is $985 million.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown Jr. said the initiative showcases the importance of developing and integrating capabilities with key allies.

The system will give commanders more tactical flexibility in using fighter aircraft against high-value, time-sensitive targets while keeping bombers in reserve for other targets.

Hypersonic weapons systems have become a priority for the Pentagon, given recent technological advances by both Russia and China in the development of such systems.

The hypersonic attack cruise missile uses high vehicle speed to forcibly compress incoming air before combustion, which enables sustained flight at speeds of Mach 5 or greater, Raytheon said in a statement Thursday.

An advantage of hypersonic systems is their ability to maneuver at high speeds, making them harder to shoot down.
A Fort Hood soldier was arrested and charged this week in the shooting death of his girlfriend, who was found dead Monday in the home that they shared in the nearby Texas city of Killeen, according to local law enforcement.

Spc. Michael L. Moore, 35, was arrested by Fort Hood police, turned over to the Killeen Police Department on Monday. He was charged with murder and arraigned Wednesday with his bond set at $1 million, police said.

He was listed as an inmate in Bell County Jail on Thursday.

Killeen police were dispatched at about 7:56 a.m. Monday to a home in the 1100 block of Wales Drive where they found a 34-year-old woman dead with an apparent gunshot wound. An autopsy has been ordered. Police said they had not identified the victim as of Thursday because they were still trying to contact the womans family. Killeen police said she was not a soldier.

Moore and the woman were involved in a domestic dispute when Moore took out a handgun and shot her, according to police. Moore was next seen at Fort Hood for physical training at about 5:30 a.m. Monday, though police said they did not know the exact time of the shooting.

Moore was detained by military police at the base and transferred to the Killeen Police Department.

Moore enlisted in the Army as a plumber in October 2019 and is assigned to Fort Hoods 68th Engineer Construction Company, base officials said. A Fort Hood spokesperson declined to answer questions about Moores on-base arrest.

Army Criminal Investigation Division is assisting with the investigation.
ATLANTA  The Army has delayed the retirement of a general who relinquished command of Fort Benning, Ga., and the Maneuver Center of Excellence in July as the service completes an investigation of his use of social media, service officials said this week.

Maj. Gen. Patrick Donahoe was temporarily assigned as a special assistant to U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Commands top general, Gen. Gary Britto, as the Army works to complete administrative reviews, said Cynthia O. Smith, an Army spokeswoman. Army records show Donahoe remains assigned to Fort Benning, which falls under TRADOCs authority. Brito and TRADOC headquarters are housed at Fort Eustis, Va.

Smith declined to answer questions about the nature of the reviews involving Donahoe or what, if any, punishment the general could face once they are completed.

As the Armys review process is ongoing, we cannot provide any additional information at this time, she said Thursday.

The probe is related to Donahoes use of Twitter while he was the commander of the MCOE, an Army official familiar with the investigation said Friday. The official was not authorized to comment publicly about the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Donahoe regularly communicated via Twitter as the MCOE commander and amassed a following of some 23,000 users. But Army officials opened an investigation into his use of the social media platform sometime last year after Donahoe  along with other top Army officials  clashed with Fox News hosts about the popular internet network, the official said.

Donahoe first clashed with the conservative-leaning Fox News in March 2021 when he called out Tucker Carlson on Twitter after the television host aired a segment criticizing Pentagon leaders for taking new steps aimed at recruiting and retaining more female troops. Carlson decried the efforts, which included changes to grooming standards to allow new hairstyles for women and the introduction of a flight suit for pregnant troops, as softening the U.S. military.

While Chinas military becomes more masculine as it has assembled the worlds largest navy, our military needs to become as Joe Biden says more feminine, whatever feminine means anymore, Carlson said in the TV segment that characterized the efforts as a mockery of the U.S. military.

Donahoe later responded by tweeting a video of himself reenlisting a female staff sergeant at Fort Benning and writing it was just a reminder that @TuckerCarlson couldnt be more wrong.

The general was later targeted by Fox host Laura Ingraham, who in July 2021 aired a segment with a Marine veteran who had clashed with Donahoe on Twitter over coronavirus vaccine policy.

In that incident, Donahoe tweeted a message of Come get your boy to Hillsdale College in Michigan, where the veteran was a student, after the individual criticized the generals endorsement of mandating the inoculation for all service members. That tweet was later made private.

The Army official declined to estimate when the probe would be closed, comment on whether Donahoe was likely to be punished or disclose what potential repercussions the general might face.

Donahoe did not respond to a request for comment.

The general in July told local media, including WRBL news in Columbus, Ga., that he planned to retire from the service after more than 33 years in uniform and settle in Columbus, outside Fort Bennings gates. Donahoe led Fort Benning  one of the Armys premier training posts  for about two years after previously serving as the installations chief of staff.

Donahoe was commissioned an armor officer in 1989 after graduating from Villanova University in Pennsylvania. He is a veteran of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan
BUSAN, South Korea  A nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier steamed into South Koreas largest port Friday for the first time in five years as part of a scheduled maritime drills in the region.

The USS Ronald Reagan and its roughly 5,000 crew members arrived at Busan Naval Base as a testament to the tight bond between the U.S. and South Korean navies, U.S. Naval Forces Korea commander Rear Adm. Mark Schafer said during a news conference aboard the ship.

The Ronald Reagan was joined by the USS Barry, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, and the USS Chancellorsville, a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser. The USS Benfold, another destroyer, was ported roughly 25 miles west of Busan. The ships made their way to Busan after leaving Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, on Sept. 12.

South Korean navy Adm. Kim Kyung Cheol, director of the Maritime Operations Center, welcomed the Ronald Reagans crew and said he looked forward to enhancing their military alliance.

The ROK and U.S. alliance has mutually strived to promote peace and stability on the peninsula for the last 70 years, Kim said, referring to South Koreas official name, the Republic of Korea. The ROK and U.S. navies will conduct a variety of activities to bolster the navies friendship.

Rear Adm. Michael Buzz Donnelly, commander of Carrier Strike Group 5 and Task Force 70, said the two navies cooperation is a byproduct of a watertight alliance between the U.S. and South Korea.

We have a history of shared blood, we share common values, and have a clear vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific, Donnelly said during the news conference. The strike groups presence in Busan, he said, is a clear and visible  understanding and commitment to the alliance.

Donnelly declined comment on what message the previously scheduled port call was intended to convey and said he would leave the messaging to the diplomats.

Neither admiral provided details of the joint exercises or revealed how long the strike group would stay in Busan.

The Ronald Reagan last visited the coastal city in 2017, when the U.S. and South Koreas relations with North Korea were near their lowest point since the 1950-53 Korean War.

Then-President Donald Trump broke from his predecessors response to the Norths routine threats by warning Pyongyang in 2017 that it will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.

The carriers latest visit also comes amid heightened tensions with North Korea. The U.S. and South Korean militaries conducted a series of exercises, including Ulchi Freedom Shield, the largest by the allies since 2017. The North has carried out a record number of missile tests  more than 30 launches in 18 rounds  so far this year.

North Koreas leadership has rejected South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeols calls for peace and an offer of economic assistance in exchange for denuclearization.

Ready for their free time in Busan, a steady stream of crew members in civilian attire were administered COVID-19 tests by Army and Navy personnel after disembarking from the aircraft carrier.

The Ronald Reagans commander, Capt. Fred Goldhammer, said the health of the crew and the local community was a top priority and that he was confident with the protections put in place.

We are highly immunized and even since the days of the initial battery of vaccines being made available, weve had a significant portion of the personnel on board further boosted with additional immunizations past their initial series, he said.

As crew members boarded buses, roughly a dozen South Koreans protested the strike groups port call outside of the bases main gate.

U.S. troops, get out of Korea, one protester shouted on a loudspeaker as a bus left the base. Yankees, go home!
Military spouses have many common experiences, but they navigate them in uncommon and individual ways. Two new memoirs, Sub Wife: A Memoir from the Homefront by Samantha Otto Brown and Dispatches from the Cowgirl: Through the Looking Glass with a Navy Diplomats Wife by Julie Tully, beautifully illustrate the spectrum of military spouse life. Both authors are Navy wives, both married to submariners, yet the reader who expects their stories to be alike will be surprised and enlightened.

Sub Wife (MilSpeak Books) is an introspective and emotional journey that begins at a crisis point in the authors first deployment (underway in submariner terms) as a military spouse. With sometimes painful honesty, Samantha Otto Brown writes about coming to terms with her husbands dedication to military service and the cost it exacts from each of them. Samantha uses the imagery of water and waves to good effect, describing her childhood dreams of becoming a mermaid. An avid swimmer, she contrasts her love of being in the water with dark fears of losing her husband to the ocean or losing herself to the rising tide of his career.

Dispatches from the Cowgirl (W. Brand Publishing) is a different kind of journey, one anchored in the geography of dry land. Part journal, part travelogue, Julies book follows her global transitions as the spouse of a submariner-turned-foreign service officer from California to Germany, to Cameroon, to Nigeria, to Djibouti, and then to Italy. The narrative begins with an explosion and keeps a compelling pace through new cultures, languages and environments. With her cowgirl boots planted in the strong roots of her familys ranch in California, Julie reaches out to embrace the adventure of Africa, drawing vivid parallels between the people, food, and landscapes she encounters at home and abroad.

Sub Wife traces an inward journey and how it shapes the authors outward one, while Dispatches from the Cowgirl depicts an outward journey and how it reveals the authors inward one.

An insightful chapter in Sub Wife centers on a social-media description of the supposed qualities of a dutiful military wife. Sent to Samantha by a well-meaning relative, the message ended with a directive Cut and paste if youre a proud military wife. Although Samantha found she identified with portions of the description, her independent nature resisted the stereotype. If military life is a sea, she writes, you have to know how to swim if you hope to survive. There is more than one way to swim, is there not? So why does the message remain that there is only one way to be a proud military spouse? Cant I be proud without copying and pasting?

In Dispatches from the Cowgirl, Julie poignantly expresses her feelings of being an outsider among other military spouses after several years of embassy life in Africa. I was dropped back into a world I no longer fit into, she writes I had been a Navy wife for almost two decades, but then realized I was no longer the wife our Navy and its community expected.

As these memoirs reveal, there is no singular right way to live a military life, certainly no accurate cut-and-paste description of a military spouse. My military life is worlds away from both Samanthas and Julies, but I can learn from their stories. We can be strong individuals and also draw strength from one anothers perspectives and wisdom.

Samanthas description of kinship among military spouses is lovely and apt: The Navy did not seem to define them, only strung them together like pearls on a strand.

Julie says her experiences in Africa taught her to be true to herself in her military life: That amazing continent and our job there showed me that I could blaze a different path. It made me a different kind of military spouse  and I love this new version. Different is good. Different is great.

Indeed, it is. For reference, see Dispatches from the Cowgirl  see also Sub Wife. These memoirs reveal the diversity, creativity and tenacity common to those living the uncommon life of a military spouse.

Terri Barnes is a military spouse, book editor, and the author of Spouse Calls: Messages From a Military Life, based on her column in Stars and Stripes. Learn more online at terribarnesauthor.com.
(Tribune News Service) The United States is preparing to circulate a resolution at the United Nations Security Council on Monday that would establish a new framework for sanctioning Haitis gang leaders, and is not taking international intervention off the table as the country spirals into lawlessness, a senior State Department official told McClatchy.

Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian A. Nichols said in an interview that gang leaders fueling Haitis worst security crisis in decades  and those who finance and support them, including giving firearms  are in the crosshairs, and their actions to destabilize Haiti will be met with international travel and financial sanctions.

The Biden administration is hoping for swift passage of the resolution in the coming days, Nichols said.

The resolution will create a United Nations framework to place sanctions on gang leaders, and those who support and facilitate and fund their activities, he said. Those sanctions would target their financial resources and ability to travel.

The Haitian government has all but lost control over security in the Caribbean nation, and U.S. officials say the country reached a crisis not seen since the early 1990s.

On Friday, specialized teams of the Haiti National Police from Port-au-Prince were still trying to access a womens prison just north of the capital after 145 women escaped. Gangs blocked the police response by setting fire to a police substation and firing on cops. At the same time, a powerful gang leader  a former cop named Jimmy Cherizier, who goes by the moniker Barbecue  was on his ninth day of holding over 188,000 barrels of fuel hostage, blocking access in and out of the countrys largest fuel terminal.

You will get access to the terminal when we die, Cherizier said, directing comments to interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry while holding up an M-4 automatic weapon and standing amid the flaming barricade his gang coalition had erected in front of the Varreux fuel terminal.

Haitis neighbors have called for robust action from the United States and other permanent members of the Security Council. At least one, the Dominican Republic, has publicly requested a return of a multinational peacekeeping force, arguing that Haitis instability and rampant gang violence are increasingly becoming a threat to the region.

Such a move would require Haiti to once more go under what is known as Chapter 7, which is an article of the U.N. charter that enables the Security Council to deploy international forces in a peacekeeping mission. After 13 years, it was ended in Haiti in 2017 when the U.N. Security Council, pushed by the United States and others, finally withdrew its military and peacekeeping operations in Haiti.

If Haitis government asks for that assistance, the international community would certainly consider such a request, Nichols added.

But Haitian authorities have not asked for boots on the ground, he said, and there isnt currently any discussion of a Chapter 7 response to the situation in Haiti.

In lieu of a return of blue-helmet peacekeepers, the United States has been focused on bolstering the countrys beleaguered 12,000-plus Haiti National Police force.

The Biden administration has been vetting members for a new SWAT team for the Haiti National Police, as part of an effort with France to train members of a new anti-gang unit in Port-au-Prince. Canada and the United Nations have been pushing for support for a $28 million security basket fund, where donors can put their money, to help fund the ill-equipped force and a new shipping-container inspection project managed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

At the end of the donors meeting Friday, the United States announced a $3 million contribution to be added to Canadas donation of 10 million Canadian dollars. The Haitian government has also donated $1 million directly to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for the container project.

RESOLUTION MAY TARGET ILLICIT ARMS

This is not the first time sanctions have come up with respect to Haitian gangs. In December 2020, the United States Department of Treasury sanctioned Cherizier and two former members of then-President Jovenel Moises government for their involvement in a 2018 massacre in Port-au-Princes La Saline neighborhood that left scores dead.

Despite the sanctions, and despite massacres being widely condemned by the United Nations Security Council, Cherizier continues to roam freely, tightening his grip on the capital through his heavily armed coalition known as G-9 Families and Allies.

Over the summer, China had pushed for an end to the weapons supply to Haitis gangs and tried to push an embargo as the U.N. Security Council considered extending its political mission in the country. Though Beijing voted for the extension, it was disappointed that the final resolution did not have tougher language on a gang arms embargo.

Haiti observers point out that any sanctions will need to come with heft, given the ability of powerful and corrupt figures in the country to create chaos when their interests are threatened. Though the recent protests flared up after the government announced a hike in fuel prices, the government and others have blamed the violence and pillaging on arms traffickers, smugglers and oligarchs opposed to recent efforts at the seaports to crack down on $600 million in uncollected duties and the shipment of illegal arms and weapons.

At the same time, they would like for the United States to play a more active role in sanctioning and arresting Haitians, especially in light of recent comments by both a top Biden aide and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week that oligarchs and the elite are contributing to the instability in Haiti and influencing the dynamics in the region.

Nichols said that the United States would like to see the resolution include sanctions against those who would provide illicit weapons to the gangs in Haiti, but noted that the resolution had yet to be circulated among Security Council members.

I think thats also a very important step. However, nothing in the resolution should prevent the legitimate transfer of weapons to Haitis governmental security forces, he said. We carefully control the licensing of weapons sales to Haiti already. The challenge is tracking the illicit smuggling of weapons to gangs and other illicit persons.

The assistant secretary said the threat of sanctions in the last few days has had a calming effect on the situation on the ground in Haiti, although details of the potential resolution have not previously been made public.

In his address to the U.N. General Assembly this week, President Joe Biden called on the world to take action on Haiti and said the country is facing an enormous human crisis.

I think that the passage of a resolution and creation of a framework will continue that calming effect, Nichols said. Until specific individuals are referred to a sanctions committee, and then sanctioned internationally, thats when youll see the transformative nature of this. So I dont think just having the framework is sufficient. We have to designate specific people.

2022 Miami Herald.

Visit miamiherald.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The Coast Guards fast response cutter Oliver Henry returned home to Guam this week after completing a 43-day expeditionary patrol across Oceania intended to usher in a greater presence in the region by the service.

The 8,000-nautical-mile mission took the cutter to Papua New Guinea, Australia, the Federated States of Micronesia and along the coast of the Solomon Islands before returning to Guam on Monday.

What Oliver Henry did this past patrol was really trailblaze a path forward for continued presence in the region, Lt. Freddy Hofschneider, Oliver Henrys commander, said in a phone interview Wednesday from Guam.

The mission timing was ideal because many of the islands of Oceania  a vast geographical area that includes Australia, New Zealand, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia  are only now allowing ship visits after restricting access during the first years of the coronavirus pandemic, Hofschneider said.

The 154-foot-long Sentinel-class fast response cutters are the newest generation of patrol boats entering the Coast Guards force. Nearly 50 of the cutters have been added to its fleet over the past 10 years.

Oliver Henry was one of three fast response cutters commissioned in Guam last summer. The trio that included Frederick Hatch and Myrtle Hazard replaced the Coast Guards pair of 110-foot patrol boats on the island, which were designed primarily for search-and-rescue missions close to home.

The fast response cutters are capable of long-distance missions and can be used for drug interdiction, defense operations, maritime law enforcement and environmental protection. They are armed with four, .50-caliber machine guns and a remote-controlled, 25-mm cannon, can reach speeds up to 28 knots and can stay at sea for five days.

The fact that we can take these 154-foot ships with a crew of 25 and a lieutenant commanding officer and push them so far over the horizon, even as far as Australia  which is what Oliver Henry just did  is an incredible capability for the region, Capt. Nick Simmons, commander U.S. Coast Guard Forces Micronesia/Sector Guam, said in a news release Monday.

He commanded one of the 110-foot patrol boats while stationed in Guam from 2008 to 2010, which at the time were regarded as a very capable platform for operating in Oceania, Simmons said during a phone interview Wednesday. At least we thought so 15 years ago.

We're pushing these fast response cutters 1,000, 1,200, 1,500 miles in one direction on a single tank of gas to provide presence, search-and-rescue capability, law enforcement, enacting bilateral shiprider agreements with our partners, boarding on the high seas, he said.

Shiprider agreements allow law enforcement officers of a host nation to ride aboard Coast Guard vessels, an arrangement used for policing illegal fishing in a countrys exclusive economic zone.

In 2019, Adm. Karl Schultz, then the Coast Guard commandant, said that stationing three fast response cutters in Guam was a response to coercive and antagonistic behavior from China.

Beijings designs for Oceania became clearer in March when a leaked draft security agreement between China and the Solomon Islands seemed to authorize China to port warships and provide police assistance to the Solomons.

Both countries have denied that China will establish a military base there, but U.S. and Australian officials reacted with alarm over the prospect of China displacing their longtime leadership roles in the region.

In late August, the Oliver Henry was denied access for a scheduled port visit in the Solomon Islands. The boat instead docked at Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, to take on needed fuel and provisions.

Simmons described the missed port call in the Solomons as a processing issue and that partnering with that nation is certainly something on the table for us.

Another certainty, Simmons said, is that Guams three fast response cutters are not going to stay home and patrol just around Guam and [Northern Mariana Islands].

They will regularly be stretching their legs all the way into the rest of our search-and-rescue region, our off area, which includes all the way down to the Equator and north toward Japan and onto the high sea, Simmons said.
KYIV, Ukraine  A Kremlin-orchestrated referendum got underway Friday in occupied regions of Ukraine that sought to make them part of Russia, with some officials carrying ballots to apartment blocks accompanied by gun-toting police. Kyiv and the West condemned it as a rigged election whose result was preordained by Moscow.

Meanwhile, in a grim reminder of the brutality of the 7-month-old invasion, U.N. experts and Ukrainian officials pointed to new evidence of Russian war crimes. Kharkiv region officials said a mass burial site in the eastern city of Izium held hundreds of bodies, including at least 30 displaying signs of torture.

The referendums in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions were widely seen as a prelude to Moscow annexing the regions. The voting, which was overseen by authorities installed by Russia, is scheduled to run through Tuesday and is almost certain to go the Kremlin's way.

Authorities in the Kherson region said residents of a small Moscow-controlled area of the neighboring Mykolaiv province also will be able to vote, and that small area was incorporated into Kherson until all of Mykolaiv is taken over by Russian forces.

Ukraine and the West said the vote was an illegitimate attempt by Moscow to slice away a large part of the country, stretching from the Russian border to the Crimean Peninsula. A similar referendum took place in Crimea in 2014 before Moscow annexed it, a move that most of the world considered illegal.

Citing safety reasons, election officials carried ballots to homes and set up mobile polling stations for the four-day voting period. Russian state TV showed one such election team accompanied by a masked police officer carrying an assault rifle.

Ivan Fedorov, the Ukrainian mayor of Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region, told The Associated Press that Russians and residents of Crimea were brought into his city to urge people to vote.

The Russians see an overwhelming reluctance and fear to attend the referendum and are forced to bring people... to create an image and an illusion of the vote, he said. Groups of collaborators and Russians along with armed soldiers are doing a door-to-door poll, but few people open the doors to them.

Voting also occurred in Russia, where refugees and other residents from those regions cast ballots.

Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-backed separatist leader in the Donetsk region, called the referendum a historical milestone.

Lawmaker Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia's State Duma, said in an online statement to the regions: If you decide to become part of the Russian Federation, we will support you.

Thousands attended pro-Kremlin rallies across Russia in support the referendums, news agencies reported. Long live the one, great, united Russian people! one speaker told the large crowd at a central Moscow rally and concert titled, We Dont Abandon Our Own."

Luhansk Gov. Serhii Haidai accused officials of taking down the names of people who voted against joining Russia. In online posts, Haidai also alleged that Russian officials threatened to kick down the doors of anyone who didnt want to vote.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians in occupied regions to undermine the referendums and to share information about the people conducting this farce. He also urged Ukrainians to avoid being called up in the Russian mobilization announced Wednesday.

But if you do end up in the Russian army, then sabotage any enemy activity, interfere with any Russian operations, give us all important information about the occupiers. ... And at the first opportunity, switch to our positions," he said in his nightly address.

President Vladimir Putins partial mobilization of reservists could add about 300,000 troops, his defense minister said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed as false media reports of plans to muster up to 1.2 million troops.

Across the vast country, men hugged their weeping family members before departing as part of the call-up, which has raised fears that a wider draft might follow. Anti-war activists planned more protests Saturday.

Other Russian men tried desperately to leave the country, buying up scarce plane tickets and creating traffic jams hours or even days long at some borders. The lines of cars were so long at the border with Kazakhstan that some people abandoned their vehicles and walked  just as some Ukrainians did after Russia invaded their country Feb. 24.

Russian authorities sought to calm public fears over the call-up. Lawmakers introduced a bill Friday to suspend or reduce loan payments for those called to duty, and media emphasized that they would be paid the same as professional soldiers and that their civilian jobs would be held for them.

The Defense Ministry said many of those working in high tech, communications or finance will be exempt, the Tass news agency reported.

Amid the mobilization and referendums, the horrors of the conflict persisted.

Kharkiv regional Gov. Oleh Synyehubov and regional police chief Volodymyr Tymoshko said at least 30 of the 436 bodies exhumed so far in Izium bore signs of torture. Among them were the bodies of 21 Ukrainian soldiers, some found with their hands bound behind their backs, they said.

Russian forces occupied Izium for six months before being pushed out by a Ukrainian counteroffensive this month. The exhumations, which began a week ago, are nearing an end, as investigators work on identifying victims and how they died. A mobile DNA lab was parked at the edge of the burial site.

Each body has its own story, Synyehubov said.

Experts commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council also presented evidence of potential war crimes, including beatings, electric shocks and forced nudity in Russian detention facilities, and expressed grave concerns about extrajudicial killings the team was working to document in Kharkiv and the regions of Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy.

With world opinion pushing Moscow deeper into isolation over the war, Russia lashed out against the West. Its U.S. ambassador, Anataly Antonov, said at a Moscow conference Friday about the 1962 Cuban missile crisis that Washington is trying to bring Russia to its knees" and divide it into several fiefdoms" while stripping it of its nuclear weapons and its permanent seat at the U.N. Security Council.

In new reports of fighting, Ukraine's presidential office said 10 civilians were killed and 39 others wounded by Russian shelling in nine regions. Battles continued in the southern Kherson province during the vote, it said, while Ukrainian forces meted out 280 attacks on Russian command posts, munitions depots and weapons.

Heavy fighting also continued in the Donetsk area, where Russian attacks targeted Toretsk, Sloviansk and several smaller towns. Russian shelling in Nikopol and Marhanets on the western bank of the Dnieper River killed two people and wounded nine.

In other developments, Kyiv expelled Irans ambassador and reduced staff at the Iranian Embassy in response to Tehran's "supply of weapons to Russia for war on Ukrainian territory, said Oleh Nikolenko, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry. Ukraine reported shooting down an Iranian-made Mohajer-6 drone that can be used for surveillance or to carry precision-guided weapons, adding that it destroyed four other Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones.

Earlier Friday, Ukrainian officials said Russia had attacked the port city of Odesa with Iranian-made drones, killing one person.

Associated Press writer Lori Hinnant in Izium contributed.
ISTANBUL  Military-aged men fled Russia in droves Friday, filling planes and causing traffic jams at border crossings to avoid being rounded up to fight in Ukraine following the Kremlin's partial military mobilization.

Queues stretching for 10 kilometers (6 miles) formed on a road leading to the southern border with Georgia, according to Yandex Maps, a Russian online map service.

The lines of cars were so long at the border with Kazakhstan that some people abandoned their vehicles and proceeded on foot  just as some Ukrainians did after Russia invaded their country on Feb. 24.

Meanwhile, dozens of flights out of Russia  with tickets sold at sky-high prices  carried men to international destinations such as Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Serbia, where Russians don't need visas.

Among those who reached Turkey was a 41-year-old who landed in Istanbul with a suitcase and a backpack and plans to start a new life in Israel.

"I'm against this war, and I'm not going to be a part of it. I'm not going to be a murderer. I'm not going to kill people," said the man, who identified himself only as Yevgeny to avoid potential retribution against his family left behind in Russia.

He referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "war criminal."

Yevgeny decided to flee after Putin announced a partial military call-up on Wednesday. The total number of reservists involved could be as high as 300,000.

Some Russian men also fled to neighboring Belarus, Russia's close ally. But that carried risk.

The Nasha Niva newspaper, one of the oldest independent newspapers in Belarus, reported that Belarusian security services were ordered to track down Russians fleeing from the draft, find them in hotels and rented apartments and report them to Russian authorities.

Russian authorities tried to calm an anxious public about the draft.

Legislators introduced a bill Friday that would suspend or reduce loan payments for Russians called up for duty. News outlets emphasized that draftees would have the same status as professional soldiers and be paid the same, and that their civilian jobs would be held for them.

The Defense Ministry said that many people who work in high tech, communications or finance will be exempt from the call-up "to ensure the operations'' of those fields, the Tass news agency reported.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the fact that Russians were leaving their country to avoid conscription shows that the war in Ukraine is "unpopular."

"What Putin is doing  he is not coming from a place of strength," Jean-Pierre told reporters. "He is coming from a place of weakness."

The exodus unfolded as a Kremlin-orchestrated referendum got underway seeking to make occupied regions of Ukraine part of Russia. Kyiv and the West condemned it as a rigged election whose result was preordained by Moscow.

German government officials voiced a desire to help Russian men deserting military service, and they called for a European solution.

"Those who bravely stand up to Putin's regime and thereby put themselves in great danger can apply for asylum in Germany on the grounds of political persecution," the spokesman for German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said.

The spokesman, Maximilian Kall, said deserters and those refusing to be drafted would receive refugee status in Germany if they are at risk of serious repression, though every case is examined individually.

But they would first have to make it to Germany, which has no land border with Russia, and like other European Union countries has become far more difficult for Russians to travel to.

The EU banned direct flights between its 27 member states and Russia after the attack on Ukraine, and recently agreed to limit issuing Schengen visas, which allow free movement across much of Europe.

Four out of five EU countries that border Russia  Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland  also recently decided to turn away Russian tourists.

Some European officials view fleeing Russians as potential security risks. They hope that by not opening their borders, it will increase pressure against Putin at home.

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said Thursday that many of those fleeing "were fine with killing Ukrainians. They did not protest then. It is not right to consider them as conscientious objectors."

The one EU country that is still accepting Russians with Schengen visas is Finland, which has a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border with Russia.

Finland border guards said Friday that the number of people entering from Russia has climbed sharply, with media reporting a 107% increase compared with last week.

At Vaalimaa, one of the busiest crossings on the border, the line of waiting cars stretched for half a kilometer (a third of a mile), the Finnish Border Guard said.

Finnish broadcaster MTV carried interviews with Russian men who had just crossed into Finland at the Virolahti border crossing, including with a man named Yuri from Moscow who said that no "sane person" wants to go to war.

A Russian man from St. Petersburg, Andrei Balakirov, said he had been mentally prepared to leave Russia for half a year but put it off until the mobilization.

"I think it's a really bad thing," he said.

Valery, a man from Samara who was heading to Spain, agreed, calling the mobilization "a great tragedy."

"It's hard to describe what's happening. I feel sorry for those who are forced to fight against their will. I've heard stories that people have been given these orders right in the streets  scary."

Associated Press writers Frank Jordans in Berlin; Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Poland; Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark; and Zeynep Bilginsoy in Istanbul contributed.
Protests roiling Iran in recent days are creating more volatility for the regime, and some analysts see a chance that the domestic turmoil will crimp Iranian support for proxy groups that attack U.S. allies in the Middle East.

According to reporting Friday by The Associated Press, more than a dozen cities have seen clashes with Iranian security forces after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody. She was being held on suspicion of violating the countrys strict dress code.

They have their hands full trying to put this down and maintain the regime, said Eric Edelman, a senior fellow at the University of Virginias Miller Center. These protests are likely to divert the attention of leadership from foreign policy, at least for a little bit.

On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions on Irans morality police, which detained Amini and is being held responsible by the Biden administration for her Sept. 16 death.

Reports vary on the death toll and the extent of the protests. A Friday article in The Washington Post said more than 30 people have been killed.

According to a Fox News report Friday, demonstrations have occurred in all but one of Irans 31 provinces.

In a talk with reporters Monday at the Air Force Associations annual Air, Space and Cyber Conference in Maryland, Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the highest-ranking Air Force general in the Middle East, described the security situation in Iran as in stasis but added that theres always a danger that we would have another round of escalation.

The protests also coincide with U.S. attempts to salvage a deal that would limit Tehrans nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions.

But those efforts are considered at a take-it-or-leave-it inflection point, AP reported Thursday, with European Union officials warning that the window for securing a nuclear deal is about to close.

Conflict between the various countries allied with the U.S. and Iran-affiliated militias has been down in recent months in a pause that is extremely tenuous, said Naysan Rafati, senior Iran analyst for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

Even before the most recent unrest began, there was a risk that Iran might directly or indirectly step up regional provocation against U.S. and allied interests, especially if the nuclear negotiations continued to flounder and both sides move toward more adversarial footing, Rafati said.

However, considerable skepticism remains about the prospects for a drop-off in Irans malign activity in the region as a result of the demonstrations.

Experts say Iranian-backed groups such as Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels in Yemen can support themselves. Furthermore, they say, the elements of the Iranian government that deal with proxies are among the most powerful in the country.

Is Irans leadership a bit distracted? Probably, but theyre not going to change their foreign policy, said Barbara Slavin, the director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Washington-based Atlantic Council. Its like saying, If theres massive protests in the USA, will the U.S. Special Forces be affected?

In addition, Iranian security forces seem to be taking the recent protests seriously, shutting off Internet access and cracking down violently on dissenters, analysts noted.

Tehran has seen many protests throughout the years, some of which more ferocious and widespread than the current ones, said Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington.

This regime has 43 years of perfecting the art of repression, said Vatanka, who was born in Tehran.

While the current protests do not yet have a central leader, they are part of a larger trend of dissatisfaction in the country, he added.
DULLES, Va  Mina Stanekzai stared at the families happily greeting each other inside the Dulles Airport terminal, some of them holding flowers and balloons bearing "Welcome Home!" messages.

It had been more than a year since she had seen her father and oldest brother, the day a suicide bomb killed her mother outside the airport in Kabul - sending Mina, 8, and her other brother Faisal, 14, on a journey to Northern Virginia to live with their aunt, Ferishta, as they recovered from injuries caused by the explosion.

Now, the children's father, Wali, and older brother, Masi, 16, were due to arrive. Two hours after their plane landed Monday, they had not come through the security gate and were not responding to text messages.

Mina's initially cheerful demeanor was again darkening, the red velvet hair band she had put on that afternoon to impress her father appearing crooked and ready to fall off.

"My dad is not coming, why you do that to me?" she said to her aunt in English, after Ferishta had spotted a group of Afghans entering the baggage claim area and suggested that Wali and Masi were not far behind.

Mina had spiraled into anger and depression since the bomb at the Kabul airport wall changed everything. The explosion, set as the Taliban retook power last summer, killed 13 U.S. service members and at least 170 Afghans - a tragedy broadcast around the world.

Mina and Faisal would not learn of their mother's death until several months after they joined Ferishta in Alexandria, Va., a revelation that happened by accident. The fact that their father and brother were still hiding in Kabul made it even worse.

Despite becoming more acclimated to their American life, now easily speaking English and thriving in school, the girl's temper tantrums at home were intensifying.

Once, during an argument with Faisal over what to watch on TV, she threw a toy into the screen, shattering it. Other times, she would blame her aunt for her mother's death, insisting Ferishta could have helped from Alexandria.

After so many fits and starts, it was hard to trust that this day was real. The constellation of efforts that had brought them to this point was remarkable - one of thousands of stories of families fighting their way out long after the war had ended. Many remain.

But retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. John Bradley - a friend of Ferishta's who helped the family during their initial escape - had committed himself to ensuring this moment.

"I've spent a lot of time on it," the former chief of the Air Force Reserve said in March, sounding exhausted. "I work on it every day. Think about it every day."

Wali and Masi ranked behind hundreds of others the U.S. government was still trying to get out after the Taliban began in September 2021 allowing commercial flights out of Kabul.

Top priority went to American citizens and their immediate family members, the State Department told The Washington Post. After them were legal permanent U.S. residents and family members of American service members.

The Stanekzais were among the hundreds of cases of Afghan families separated during the Kabul airport chaos.

On paper, they were just ahead of the thousands of former Afghan interpreters and former contract employees who helped in the U.S. war effort and qualify for special immigrant visas. But many of those visa recipients were already being flown to the United States.

Bradley worked with polite insistency to get the State Department to treat the family's case with more urgency.

"We very much want to reunite the father and son with the father's two small children now in Alexandria, Virginia," he wrote to a State Department official in a November email shared with The Washington Post. "Losing their mother was a traumatic experience."

It was in November, after months of evasion on the topic, that Mina learned of her mother's passing - by stumbling upon photos of Zakya's body dressed for her funeral in Kabul that had been sent to Ferishta's smartphone.

During a phone call that day, Wali let the awkward apology to his angry, grieving daughter tumble out of his mouth, knowing the words were hollow.

He tried to explain to Mina that he was trying to spare her and Faisal more anguish when he asked Ferishta not to tell them about their mother's demise.

"My plan was to tell you when I get there," Wali, who spoke through an interpreter, recalled saying as his daughter listened in stony silence.

In reality, he could no longer see that day happening.

For several months, Wali and Masi lived in one room at the crowded Kabul home of a family who had agreed to secretly take them in.

Father and son lost all their documents in the bomb blast and, without IDs, felt stuck.

They were unwilling to venture into the city, where Taliban officials who might know that Zakya worked for a U.S. government contractor in Kabul before she died might decide to punish them for it.

Masi grieved for his mother, keeping close to him the small black purse she carried the day of the airport bombing that was retrieved along with her body.

Phone calls with his younger brother and sister - during which they shared details about their new lives in Northern Virginia - were painful reminders that he was left behind, no longer able to go to school.

"I have lost hope," Masi told Ferishta.

From his home in Nashville, Bradley continued to lobby State Department officials and recruited other people with influence, including several current and former members of Congress, to do the same - a mission driven in part by his guilt over sending the family to the airport that day with a letter meant to help them escape.

The office of Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) and former senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.) were soon helping. So were others, including the office of Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.), who joined the effort after Bradley's daughter, Leigh Ann Kosmas, wrote about the Stanekzais on Facebook. A friend from high school now married to one of the congressman's top staff members read her message.

That turned out to be a stroke of luck.

In December, after a phone call between Scott and A. Elizabeth Jones, the newly appointed State Department coordinator for Afghan relocation efforts, a senior State Department official assured Bradley that the agency would work to get Wali and Masi on a flight out of Afghanistan.

"They. Will. Be. Manifested," Bradley recalled her saying in a phone call about the flight manifest lists of outbound Afghan passengers kept by the State Department.

By then, Afghan government offices were partially functioning.

At Ferishta's urging, Wali and Masi ventured to a government administrative office in the now emptier city to procure new Afghan identity cards, which they did without incident.

The passports would be trickier because the Taliban was mainly issuing those to people in need of medical attention abroad.

Bradley wired $1,000 to a friend of Wali's that could be used to persuade a doctor to write a letter stating that Masi's depression required psychological treatment in Pakistan. The money would also be used to prod Afghan civil servants to expedite the paperwork.

But the country still heaved with violence.

In December, Taliban security fatally shot a woman who was trying to detonate a bomb at the entrance of the administrative office issuing passports, where several hundred people waited to get inside.

A few days after that incident, Wali and Masi headed there, arriving at 2 a.m. in hopes of getting a good spot in line when the office opened.

Several hundred people were already ahead of them and they were turned away. The same thing happened the following day.

On the third try, they got inside.

With their passports in hand, the machinery for a departure was in motion. A State Department contractor put Wali and Masi up in a hotel at an undisclosed site in Kabul with other Afghans anxious to leave.

Then, everything sputtered to a halt. A dispute between the Taliban and Qatari government - which handled logistics at the Kabul airport - kept all international flights from leaving Afghanistan.

Finally, in mid-April, came word that they would be leaving the following day.

"I can't believe this is happening," Masi told Ferishta in a phone call, alternately crying and laughing.

In Alexandria, Mina danced around their apartment, running from room to room in giddy excitement.

That night, Wali and Masi made a brief trip to Zakya's grave, where they prayed and said goodbye.

On the bus, Masi stared at the relatively empty airport grounds, swallowing the fear and excitement that took turns assaulting his belly.

He thought of the bombing that ripped apart his family, pleased that he had remembered to pack his mother's purse so she could in some way be with them in Northern Virginia.

"Everything was in front of my eyes," Masi said through an interpreter, recalling the site where Zakya died and where he wandered around in bare feet in the smoky aftermath that night searching for his family.

At the terminal entrance, a gate agent paused while reviewing Wali's documents and declared that the spelling of his name on the ticket didn't match what was on his passport.

"You have to come back tomorrow," the agent said, suggesting Wali get a new ticket.

Wali's heart dropped. But thanks to a flight delay, the State Department contractor had enough time to correct the error, allowing them to safely board.

Amid the confusion, however, their luggage never made it on the plane. Inside one suitcase, now lost for good, was Zakya's black purse.

Government bureaucracy and the fact that hundreds of other refugees were being processed to enter the United States had kept Wali and Masi inside a refugee camp for five months.

The wait gnawed at Mina and, when told the day of their arrival had finally come, she was incredulous.

At Dulles Airport, she distracted herself with a toy camera, taking silly pictures of Emran Ibrahimi, a family friend who was also there during the Kabul explosion and wound up chaperoning the children on their journey to the United States.

Two hours after the flight landed, the toy camera had been put away. Mina briefly stood vigil at the security gate and, when it looked like all the passengers had come through, gave up.

"I think they had the wrong flight," she told her aunt in English.

Then, suddenly, there they were.

"Hello, hello!" Mina shouted in Dari, hopping with laughter, while Ferishta held Wali in a tight embrace.

"I can't believe you are here," she told her brother through tears.

Faisal - who had grown quiet during his time in the United States - melted into Masi's grasp, holding his hand and beaming.

Bradley, who had flown from Tennessee for the reunion, was hoarse, sharing his relief again and again.

"I feel responsible for Zakya's death on a certain level," he said as everyone climbed into a shuttle van that would take them to Ferishta's two-bedroom apartment in Alexandria. "We had to get this problem solved."

Inside the apartment, festive balloons and a bounty of Afghan food awaited while friends arrived to celebrate, including Aleena Turekian, 13, a Washington, D.C. student who created an online book club for Afghan refugees that became a source of comfort for Mina and Masi.

As a jet-lagged Wali and Masi took it all in, the scene resembled a holiday gathering, minus a departed loved one. Ferishta scurried around to make sure everyone was eating while the others talked over one another, trading stories about the past year.

Mina bounced around the living room. Her ninth birthday, in early October, was approaching. This time, her father and brother would be there to help celebrate as they all built a new life together.

As the chatter continued, she began playing with one of the party balloons, tapping it, volleyball style, as it floated from person to person with specks of gold glitter inside twinkling in the light.
Boeing Co. will pay $200 million to settle charges that the company and its former CEO misled investors about the safety of its 737 Max after two of the airliners crashed, killing 346 people.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday that it charged the aircraft maker and former CEO Dennis Muilenburg with making significant misleading public statements about the plane and an automated flight-control system that was implicated in the crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.

Neither Boeing nor Muilenburg admitted wrongdoing, but they offered to settle and pay penalties, including $1 million to be paid by Muilenburg, who was ousted in December 2019, nine months after the second crash.

The SEC said Boeing and Muilenburg knew that the flight system, known as MCAS, posed a safety issue but promised the public that the plane was safe. The SEC said they also falsely claimed that there had been no gaps in the process of certifying the plane in the first place.

"Boeing and Muilenburg put profits over people by misleading investors about the safety of the 737 Max all in an effort to rehabilitate Boeing's image" after the crashes, said Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC's enforcement division.

Boeing said it has made "broad and deep changes across our company in response to those accidents" to improve safety and quality.

"Today's settlement is part of the company's broader effort to responsibly resolve outstanding legal matters related to the 737 Max accidents in a manner that serves the best interests of our shareholders, employees and other stakeholders," said the Arlington, Virginia-based company.

A new Max operated by Indonesia's Lion Air crashed into the Java Sea in October 2018, and another Max flown by Ethiopian Airlines nosedived into the ground near Addis Ababa in March 2019. In each crash, MCAS pushed the nose down after getting faulty readings from a single sensor, and pilots were unable to regain control.

The crashes led regulators around the world to ground the plane for nearly two years until Boeing made fixes to the flight-control system, which was designed to help prevent aerodynamic stalls when the nose points up too sharply. Neither plane that crashed was in danger of stalling.

The SEC accused Boeing of misleading investors in a press release after the Indonesia crash which said the plane was "as safe as any airplane that has ever flown the skies." Boeing knew when it made that claim that MCAS would need to be fixed and was already designing changes, the SEC said.

After the crash in Ethiopia, Muilenburg said on a call with investors and Wall Street analysts and during Boeing's annual shareholder meeting that the company had followed the normal process for getting the plane certified by regulators. But by then Boeing  in response to a subpoena from federal prosecutors  had already found documents indicating that it didn't disclose key facts about MCAS to the Federal Aviation Administration, the SEC charged.

Boeing reached a separate $2.5 billion settlement with the Justice Department last year. Most of that money went to airlines whose Max jets were grounded.
The Justice Department said Thursday that it will provide legal defense if necessary to Veterans Affairs medical workers who perform abortions to save a patients life, protect the mothers health or in instances when the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest  even if performed in a state where the procedure is illegal in those circumstances.

In an internal government opinion, Justice Department lawyers said that a recently adopted Department of Veterans Affairs policy permitting employees to provide abortion services to veterans and their eligible relatives is legally sound and can continue. The Veterans Affairs agency started offering abortions at its federal facilities earlier this month in the wake of a June Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, upending the right to terminate a pregnancy that had been enshrined in federal law for nearly 50 years.

In some states, including Alabama, officials have threatened to punish Veterans Affairs workers who perform abortions, saying it would violate state law. Alabama prohibits abortions in instances of rape and incest, but allows the procedure if the patients life is at risk. The opinion from the Justice Departments Office of Legal Counsel  which serves as a legal directive on another agencys policies  says states may not penalize any Veterans Affairs doctor or nurse for performing an abortion in certain circumstances. The federal law enforcement agency said it would represent those medical workers if they are penalized.

The rule is a lawful exercise of VAs authority, the opinion says. Moreover, states may not restrict VA and its employees acting within the scope of their federal authority from providing abortion services as authorized by federal law, including VAs rule.

The Justice Department opinion represents the Biden administrations latest attempt to try to protect access to abortion, to some degree, after the Supreme Court decision, though it would apply to relatively few women because it addresses only rare circumstances.

The United States has 19 million veterans, about 2 million of whom are women. About 9 million veterans are enrolled in VA care, along with their eligible family members. While the new abortion policy is an expansion of veteran health-care benefits, the regulations closely resemble existing care within the Defense Department, which for years has provided abortions at military hospitals using the same criteria. The active-military care is not widely used, with fewer than two dozen abortion cases on average every year, according to Pentagon data.

This narrowness of both policies  applying only to pregnancies that pose a high risk or stem from rape or incest  underscores just how few legal tools the Biden administration has since the Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization decision. In August, the Justice Department persuaded a judge to block the portion of an Idaho law that criminalizes performing abortions to protect the pregnant patients health.

The Justice Department hinged its Idaho lawsuit on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. Officials say the federal law, known as EMTALA, requires that hospitals participating in the federally funded Medicare program provide necessary, health-stabilizing treatment to all patients, even if that treatment is an abortion.

After Dobbs, the Department of Health and Human Services issued guidance to state officials and hospitals reminding them of requirements mandated by EMTALA, saying that abortions are considered stabilizing treatment. Texas successfully sued the government over that guidance and the Justice Department said this month that it intends to file an appeal. With the conflicting rulings from Idaho and Texas, it is possible the question of whether EMTALA includes abortions will ultimately end up before the Supreme Court.

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in an interview Thursday that the Justice Department is monitoring evolving state laws to ensure that they do not conflict with what the federal law enforcement agency views as guaranteed federal rights. Gupta heads a reproductive rights task force launched by the Biden administration in July. It aims to marshal federal resources to prevent overreach from state and local governments seeking to impose new abortion restrictions.

We will not hesitate to act where we see violations of federal law, Gupta said. This remains a top priority for the department.

On Monday, the Justice Department announced that a man had pleaded guilty to federal charges after breaking windows and destroying property at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Oregon.

In the VA opinion, the federal government argues that the Veterans Health Administration has a federally mandated duty to provide proper medical care to the nations veterans. Restricting abortion access in the prescribed circumstances would violate that mandate, the 10-page opinion states. It cites the Constitutions supremacy clause, which essentially says that when state laws conflict with federal laws, federal laws prevail.

Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University who has been pushing for the government to find legal avenues to protect abortion access, said he agreed with the Justice Departments reading of the VA policy.

If the federal law gives a right or even a duty to provide medical services then that supersedes any contrary state law, Gostin said. A reasonable judge should uphold that point of view because the supremacy clause makes that very clear.

The Washington Posts Alex Horton contributed to this report.
Sailors aboard the USS Nimitz recently found irregularities in the aircraft carriers potable water supply, leading to the discovery that it had been tainted with jet fuel, according to the Navy.

The crew detected trace amounts of Jet Propellant-5, a kerosene-based fuel primarily used by military aircraft on aircraft carriers, in the Nimitz water supply while the ship was off Southern California on Sept. 16, according to Naval Air Forces spokesman Cmdr. Zach Harrell.

Irregularities were noticed by some of the Nimitz crewmembers and reported to their leadership, he told Stars and Stripes by email Thursday. After the potable water system was secured, the commanding officer made an announcement on the ships PA system to inform the crew on the status of the potable water supply.

The Nimitz, which is homeported at Naval Base Kitsap, Wash., has since docked in San Diego. A system flush completed Sept. 19 restored fresh water to the carrier that is now safe for use, Harrell said.

The water system is also undergoing a full inspection to ensure the highest quality water is provided to the crew, he added.

The Nimitz was still in San Diego as of Thursday evening, where it is preparing for a pre-deployment exercise.

Several crewmembers either got sick from consuming the water or were injured after exposure to it, according to users on social media platforms such as Twitter and Reddits r/Navy forum.

Multiple sources claim that sailors on board have chemical burn/rashes from showering in the contaminated water, Twitter user @Terminalcwo wrote on Tuesday.

A Reddit user, kineticstar, wrote on Thursday that the crew wasnt warned to secure potable water use until after people got sick from the contaminated water.

Harrell dismissed these claims, saying that the crew was notified as soon as leadership was made aware of the contamination and that the crew was immediately provided bottled water for free.

Understandably, there have been some complaints about the water from the crew, but there have been no confirmed cases of illness nor injury related to contaminated water aboard the ship, Harrell wrote in his email. The Nimitz medical department continues to monitor our Sailors for any potential symptoms. The water onboard the ship is safe for use and the health and wellbeing of all our Sailors is a top priority.

While little is known about the effects of JP-5 on human health, people whove accidentally ingested kerosene have suffered effects on their respiratory, gastrointestinal and nervous systems, according to a 2017 report from the Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Kerosene is similar in composition to JP-5, according to the report.

The Nimitz water contamination comes just over a year after a jet fuel leak sickened thousands of military family members at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii. Around 20,000 gallons of petroleum product leaked into a nearby well that supplies water to 40,000 service members and their families.

Families exposed to the contaminated water, either through consumption or bathing, reported a range of maladies with known links to toxic exposure, including severe nausea and gastrointestinal complications, skin rashes and memory loss.
The United States for several months has been sending private communications to Moscow warning Russias leadership of the grave consequences that would follow the use of a nuclear weapon, according to U.S. officials, who said the messages underscore what President Joe Biden and his aides have articulated publicly.

The Biden administration generally has decided to keep warnings about the consequences of a nuclear strike deliberately vague, so the Kremlin worries about how Washington might respond, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive deliberations.

The attempt by the White House to cultivate whats known in the nuclear deterrence world as strategic ambiguity comes as Russia continues to escalate its rhetoric about possible nuclear weapons use amid a domestic mobilization aimed at stanching Russian military losses in eastern Ukraine.

The State Department has been involved in the private communications with Moscow, but officials would not say who delivered the messages or the scope of their content. It was not clear whether the United States had sent any new private messages in the hours since Russian President Vladimir Putin issued his latest veiled nuclear threat during a speech announcing a partial mobilization early Wednesday, but a senior U.S. official said the communication has been happening consistently over recent months.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russias Security Council, wrote Thursday in a post on Telegram that territory in eastern Ukraine would be accepted into Russia after the completion of staged referendums and vowed to strengthen the security of those areas.

To defend that annexed land, Medvedev said, Russia is able to use not only its newly mobilized forces, but also any Russian weapon, including strategic nuclear ones and those using new principles, a reference to hypersonic weapons.

Russia has chosen its path, Medvedev added. There is no way back.

The comment came a day after Putin suggested Russia would annex occupied lands in Ukraines south and east, and incorporate the regions formally into what Moscow considers its territory. He said he was not bluffing when he vowed to use all means at Russias disposal to defend the countrys territorial integrity  a veiled reference to the countrys nuclear arsenal.

Biden administration officials have emphasized that this isnt the first time the Russian leadership has threatened to use nuclear weapons since the start of the war on Feb. 24, and have said there is no indication Russia is moving its nuclear weapons in preparation for an imminent strike.

Still, the recent statements from the Russian leadership are more specific than previous comments and come at a time when Russia is reeling on the battlefield from a U.S.-backed Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Whereas previous Kremlin statements appeared to be aimed at warning the United States and its allies against going too far in helping Ukraine, Putins most recent comments suggested Russia is considering using a nuclear weapon on the battlefield in Ukraine to freeze gains and force Kyiv and its backers into submission, said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, a nonproliferation advocacy group in Washington.

What everyone needs to recognize is that this is one of, if not the most, severe episodes in which nuclear weapons might be used in decades, Kimball said. The consequences of even a so-called limited nuclear war would be absolutely catastrophic.

For years, U.S. nuclear experts have worried that Russia might use smaller tactical nuclear weapons, sometimes referred to as battlefield nukes, to end a conventional war favorably on its terms  a strategy sometimes described as escalate to de-escalate.

On Thursday, Vadym Skibitskyi, deputy head of Ukrainian military intelligence, told the U.K.s ITV News that it is possible Russia will use nuclear weapons against Ukraine to stop our offensive activity and to destroy our state.

This is a threat for other countries, Skibitskyi said. The blast of a tactical nuclear weapon will have an impact not only in Ukraine but the Black Sea region.

The Ukrainians have tried to signal that even a Russian nuclear strike wouldnt force them into capitulation  and in fact could have the opposite effect.

Threatening with nuclear weapons . . . to Ukrainians? Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, tweeted on Wednesday. Putin have not yet understood who he is dealing with.

In an interview with CBS Newss 60 Minutes that aired Sunday, Biden was asked what he would tell Putin if the Russian leader is considering using nuclear weapons in the conflict against Ukraine.

Dont. Dont. Dont, Biden said. You will change the face of war unlike anything since World War II.

Biden declined to detail how the United States would respond, saying only that the reaction would be consequential and would depend on the extent of what they do.

The Biden administration would face a crisis if Russia were to use a small nuclear weapon in Ukraine, which isnt a U.S. treaty ally. Any direct military U.S. response against Russia would risk the possibility of a wider war between nuclear-armed superpowers  the avoidance of which the Biden administration has made its No. 1 priority in all of its Ukraine policymaking.

Matthew Kroenig, a professor of government at Georgetown University and director of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council, has argued that the best option for the administration, if faced with a limited Russian nuclear strike in Ukraine, might be to step up backing for Ukraine and conduct a limited conventional strike on the Russian forces or bases that launched the attack.

If its Russian forces in Ukraine that launched the nuclear attack, the United States could strike directly against those forces, Kroenig said. It would be calibrated to send a message that this is not a major war coming, this is a limited strike. If you are Putin, what do you do in response? I dont think you immediately say lets launch all the nukes at the United States.

But even a limited conventional strike by the U.S. military against Russia would be viewed as reckless by many in Washington, who would argue against risking a full-scale war with a nuclear-armed Russia.

James M. Acton, co-director of the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said it doesnt make sense at this point to game out U.S. responses because there is such a wide range of possible Russian actions  from an underground nuclear test that doesnt hurt anyone to a large-scale explosion that kills tens of thousands of civilians  and there are no signs Putin is close to crossing the threshold.

If he was really thinking very seriously about using nuclear weapons very imminently, he almost certainly would want us to know that, Acton said. He would much rather threaten nuclear use and have us make concessions than actually have to go down the path of nuclear use.

U.S. officials have been stepping up efforts at the U.N. General Assembly this week to deter Russia from seriously considering what would be the first use of a nuclear weapon in a conflict since the atomic bombings of Japan by the United States in 1945.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking at a U.N. Security Council meeting Thursday, said Russias reckless nuclear threats must stop immediately.

This week, President Putin said that Russia would not hesitate to use and I quote, all weapons systems available in response to a threat to his territorial integrity  a threat that is all the more menacing given Russians intention to annex large swaths of Ukraine in the days ahead, Blinken said. When thats complete, we can expect President Putin will claim any Ukrainian effort to liberate this land as an attack on so-called Russian territory.

Blinken noted that Russia in January joined other permanent members of the Security Council in signing a joint statement declaring nuclear war can never be won, and must never be fought.

Hudson reported from the United Nations in New York.
NEW YORK  The tide of international opinion appears to be decisively shifting against Russia, as a number of non-aligned countries are joining the United States and its allies in condemning Moscow's war in Ukraine and its threats to the principles of the international rules-based order.

Western officials have repeatedly said that Russia has become isolated since invading Ukraine in February. Until recently, though, that was largely wishful thinking. But on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, much of the international community spoke out against the conflict in a rare display of unity at the often fractured United Nations.

The tide had already appeared to be turning against Russian President Vladimir Putin even before Thursday's U.N. speeches. Chinese and Indian leaders had been critical of the war at a high-level summit last week in Uzbekistan. And then the U.N. General Assembly disregarded Russia's objections and voted overwhelmingly to allow Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be the only leader to address the body remotely, instead of requiring him to appear in person.

That shift against Russia accelerated after Putin on Wednesday announced the mobilization of some additional 300,000 troops to Ukraine, signaling the unlikelihood of a quick end to the war. Putin also suggested that nuclear weapons may be an option. That followed an announcement of Russia's intention to hold referendums in several occupied Ukrainian regions on whether they will become part of Russia.

Those announcements came at the very moment that the General Assembly, considered the premier event in the global diplomatic calendar, was taking place in New York.

Numerous world leaders used their speeches on Tuesday and Wednesday to denounce Russia's war. That trend continued Thursday both in the assembly hall and at the usually deeply divided U.N. Security Council, where, one-by-one, virtually all of the 15 council members served up harsh criticism of Russia  a council member -- for aggravating several already severe global crises and imperiling the foundations of the world body.

The apparent shift in opinion offers some hope to Ukraine and its Western allies that increasing isolation will add pressure on Putin to negotiate a peace. But few are unduly optimistic. Putin has staked his legacy on the Ukraine war and few expect him to back down. And, Russia is hardly isolated. Many of its allies depend on it for energy, food and military assistance and are likely to stand by Putin regardless of what happens in Ukraine.

Still, it was striking to hear Russia's nominal friends like China and India, following up on last week's remarks, speak of grave concerns they have about the conflict and its impact on global food and energy shortages as well as threats to the concepts of sovereignty and territorial integrity that are enshrined in the U.N. Charter.

Brazil registered similar concerns. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa make up the so-called BRICS bloc of countries, which has often shunned or outright opposed Western initiatives and views on international relations.

Only one country, Belarus, a non-council member and Russia ally that was invited to participate, spoke in support of Russia, but also called for a quick end to the fighting, which it called a "tragedy."

"We hear a lot about the divisions among countries at the United Nations," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. "But recently, what's striking is the remarkable unity among member states when it comes to Russia's war on Ukraine. Leaders from countries developing and developed, big and small, North and South have spoken in the General Assembly about the consequences of the war and the need to end it."

"Even a number of nations that maintain close ties with Moscow have said publicly that they have serious questions and concerns about President Putin's ongoing invasion," Blinken said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was careful not to condemn the war but said that China's firm stance is that "the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be respected. The purposes of the principles of the U.N. Charter should be observed."

Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said "the trajectory of the Ukraine conflict is a matter of a profound concern for the international community." He called for accountability for atrocities and abuses committed in Ukraine. "If egregious attacks committed in broad daylight are left unpunished, this council must reflect on the signals we are sending on impunity. There must be consistency if we are to ensure credibility," he said.

And Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos Alberto Franca said immediate efforts to end the war are critical. "The continuation of the hostilities endangers the lives of innocent civilians and jeopardizes the food and energy security of millions of families in other regions, especially in developing countries," he said. "The risks of escalation arising for the current dynamics of the conflict are simply too great, and its consequences for the world order unpredictable."

Foreign ministers and top officials from Albania, Britain, France, Ireland, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Kenya, Mexico and Norway delivered similar rebukes.

"Russia's actions are blatant violation of the Charter of the United Nations," said Albanian Foreign Minister Olta Xhacka. "We all tried to prevent this conflict. We could not, but we must not fail to hold Russia accountable."

Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard called the invasion a "flagrant breach of international law" and Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said: "If we fail to hold Russia accountable we send a message to large countries that they can prey on their neighbors with impunity."

Unsurprisingly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was unapologetic and defensive at the same time and specifically targeted Zelenskyy. Citing a phrase often attributed to President Franklin Roosevelt, Lavrov called Zelenskyy "a bastard," but said Western leaders regarded him as "our bastard."

He repeated a long list of Russia's complaints about Ukraine and accused Western countries of using Ukraine for anti-Russia activities and policies.

"Everything I've said today simply confirms that the decision to conduct the special military operation was inevitable," Lavrov said, following Russian practice of not calling the invasion a war.

Russia has denied being isolated and the foreign ministry used social media to publicize a number of apparently cordial meetings that Lavrov has held with foreign minister colleagues at the UN in recent days.

Still, Blinken and his colleagues from other NATO nations seized on what they believe to be growing opposition to and impatience with Putin.

And, several speakers, including Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, pointed out that Lavrov skipped the meeting except for his speaking slot.

"I notice that Russian diplomats flee almost as quickly as Russian soldiers," Kuleba said, referring to Lavrov's hasty exit along with recent Russian troop retreats in Ukraine.

This story has been corrected to show the Indian official's title and name are Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, not Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jayashankar.
The court heard Jessica Kennedy (26) was hanging around with a bad crowd at the time of the incident.

Jessica Kennedy of St Mary's Terrace, Dunboyne, Co Meath admitted possession of cocaine

A former model was caught with more than 4,000 worth of cocaine hidden in her bra after gardai were alerted to suspicious activity in a west Dublin estate, a court heard.

Jessica Kennedy (26) was hanging around with a bad crowd at the time of the incident, her lawyer said.

Judge Gerard Jones ordered a probation report and adjourned sentencing to a date in December.

The defendant, of St Marys Terrace, Dunboyne, Co Meath, admitted possession of cocaine as well as having the drug for sale or supply.

The incident took place at Charnwood Grove, Blanchardstown on May 28, 2021.

Sergeant Walter Sweeney told Blanchardstown District Court that gardai searched a number of people at Charnwood Grove following reports of suspicious activity in the area.

Sgt Sweeney said Kennedy was searched under the misuse of drugs act and found with a bag of cocaine hidden in her bra.

Sgt Sweeney said the cocaine was later analysed by Forensic Science Ireland. It was 60 grammes and had a street value of 4,200.

Kennedy was arrested and taken to Finglas garda station where she was later interviewed. She said the cocaine was for her own personal use.

The court heard that the defendant had never been in trouble before.

Defence solicitor Damien Coffey said that Kennedy was associating with a group of people who were known to An Garda Siochana at the time of this incident.

Kennedy was the sole individual there with no previous convictions, Mr Coffey said.

The court heard that Kennedy was originally from Tallaght and had worked as a model for four years. She was currently unemployed and on social welfare.

Mr Coffey said also Kennedy was no longer associating with the same people.

The judge said he would require a probation report prior to finalising the matter.
Billy Burns (51) is charged with stealing a car in Killarney and stealing fuel at a Dublin filling station in October 2021.

Billy Burns (51) and of no fixed abode appeared before Judge Joanne Carroll at Tralee District Court on Wednesday charged with stealing a car in Killarney and stealing fuel at a Dublin filling station in October 2021.

Mr Burns is the son of Miriam Burns (75) who was found murdered in her home at Ardshanavooley, Killarney, on Monday, August 15.

He is charged with unlawfully taking a 141-reg white BMW in Killarney on October 3, 2021 and with the theft of 41 of fuel from Circle K, Donnybrook, Dublin the following day, October 4.

At a previous sitting, on August 18, Mr Burns was granted bail, subject to strict conditions, but was subsequently remanded in custody as he was unable to provide an address at which he could reside.

The courts have ruled that if a suitable address is provided to the courts and approved by Gardai, Mr Burns will immediately become eligible for bail.

At this weeks hearing Judge Carroll was told that Mr Burns has now furnished an address at which he can reside.

Judge Carroll said that if gardai approved the address he has supplied he will be released from custody on the same conditions as originally applied.

These are that he surrender his passport and travel documents; sign on daily at a garda station; observes a curfew from 10am to 8am and stays out of Killarney except for any court appearances he is required to attend.

The court heard a book of evidence has been served and Mr Burns has entered a guilty plea in relation to the charges against him.

His case has now been sent forward for sentencing at the next sittings of Tralee Circuit Criminal Court in October.
International authorities are teaming up to close in on gang leaders  like the Kinahan cartel bosses  who are based in the United Arab Emirates.

Christy Kinahan Snr is detained by Spanish police in 2010

The new deal provides EU authorities with access to crucial information that could help them close in on gangland criminals based in the Gulf State - such as Daniel Kinahan and his father Christy Snr.

Under the A Liaison Officer Agreement, law enforcement officers from the UAE will now have a permanent base at Europols headquarters in the Netherlands.

"The United Arab Emirates is a key security partner in the fight against the most pressing criminal threats of today, Europol Executive Director Catherine de Bolle said.

"I welcome this agreement which will mark a new level of cooperation in international policing by connecting Emirati law enforcement with their counterparts in all of Europes Member States and partner countries. By doing so, we are sending together a clear signal to criminals.

The deepening of links between the UAE and European member states is part of a clamp down on crime gangs like the Kinahans who have already been hit by major US sanctions and assets seizures.

The cartel was named as a top target of EU crime laws aiming to take down big and dangerous criminal organisations in May.

"Theyre very difficult to convict, these specific persons, Ylva Johansson, the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs said at the time.

But now we (can) make it possible in cases for example like the Kinahan cartel, where we have a huge cartel, but the bosses (we) have been unable to really go after.

"They are acting in Dubai, in Spain, In Ireland, and in a lot of other countries and they have been involved in drug trafficking, in firearms, in trafficking, in murders.

daniel kinahan

Todays deal between Europol and UAE authorities is a milestone in international police enforcement that will bring forces closer

Gardai have already expanded their network into the UAE with a senior Liason Officer based n the country since July.

This latest move will add pressure into he already beleaguered Kinahan Organised Crime Group (KOCG) after leading members were sanctioned by the US government.

In April, US law enforcement announced major sanctions against Christy Kinahan, his sons Daniel and Christopher Jnr, and others connected to the Kinahans.

US authorities have also offered a $5 million reward for information that would lead to convictions.

We also revealed recent that after their assets were frozen in Dubai, the leaders of the KOCG are said to be desperately trying to move their assets out of the Gulf State.

UAE officials recently froze all assets belonging to the key members of the Kinahan Cartel following a wave of negative publicity after they were sanctioned by the US government.
The father-of-six, who lived in London with his family, was pronounced dead at the Camber Sands holiday park in Lydd Road

Police who are investigating the murder of a convicted Sligo drug dealer at a holiday park in the UK have said they believe the entire incident was recorded by at least one witness who they are trying to track down.

Father-of-six Michael McDonagh (53), who lived in London with his family, was pronounced dead at the Camber Sands holiday park in Lydd Road near the East Sussex border last month following an altercation between a group of people.

Seven people who had have arrested on suspicion of murder after McDonagh died at the Lydd Road site shortly after midnight on Saturday, August 6, have been released under investigation while enquiries continue.

An appeal for witnesses was launched, but detectives say they are particularly keen to speak to people who may have recorded the incident on mobile devices.

At least one man, described as short and thin by witnesses, is believed to have recorded the incident from start to finish, Sussex Police said in a statement.

We would encourage this person to come forward or if anybody knows who this person is to make contact with the investigation team.

Anybody with footage, images or information that could help with the investigation is asked to contact police online or via 101, quoting Operation Molton.

In the wake of her fathers death one of McDonaghs daughters, Stephanie McDonagh, said she wanted justice for her father and to make sure it was "an incident that will never be repeated again".

Mr McDonagh's other daughter, Shannon, said: "This is just extremely shocking that in a park resort where you expect - you know there's families, there's children - you don't expect something like this to happen, you expect it to be safe."

McDonagh is believed to have got into the row after watching the opening match of the Premier League between Crystal Palace and Arsenal.

It has been reported that he was held down by a number of men and had stated he couldnt breathe.

In 2000, the Criminal Assets Bureau successfully seized McDonaghs home near Ballintogher, Sligo after proving that it was bought from the proceeds of crime before the courts.

Soon after that Mr McDonagh left Ireland, he returned and he stayed in local hotels with his family.

He was also on the radar of the National Crime Agency in Britain and was arrested in Amsterdam, Holland in November 2010 and extradited back to the UK on foot of an international warrant for his arrest.

He was subsequently jailed for seven years for drug trafficking.

The family of the Sligo dad had earlier said they were walking away with broken hearts and unanswered questions.

He was described as a man who was the centre of our world and the life and soul of every party.

On Saturday morning we found out we lost our father, a family member said. Michael was a loving and supportive husband of 32 years and a father of six, taken from us whilst on a family holiday.

His family meant everything to him. He came away to make memories with his wife and children and instead we are walking away with broken hearts and unanswered questions.

Its impossible to put into words how we all feel. Our dad was the centre of our world and the life and soul of every party.

Not only did my dad make such a huge impact on our family but also to countless people who knew him throughout his life. He will be greatly missed.

Michael was a kind-hearted man who died too young, leaving behind all those that loved him.

Sussex Police described the attack as an "isolated incident", saying the investigation was "complex and fast moving".

A spokesperson for Camber Sands holiday park, said: "The safety and wellbeing of everybody on our park is at the heart of everything we do.

"The police have issued a statement providing reassurance to the public that this was an isolated incident with no wider risk of harm.

"As this is a live police investigation we cannot comment further, but our park team is actively supporting the police and is doing everything they can to assist with their enquiries."
He suffered severe blood loss in accident and later died in hospital

A gangster who survived at least six attempts on his life as part of a feud more than a decade ago has died in hospital after suffering a fatal cut to his arm.

Gardai are not treating the death of John Paul Brennan (42) as suspicious after they were told he died in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, on Wednesday evening.

It is understood Brennan had been admitted to the hospital after suffering severe blood loss to his arm after he accidentally broke a window in the Cromcastle area of Coolock in the city.

It is amazing to think that after all the attempts over the years on this individuals life that he would die from such an innocuous incident, a source said.

The incident happened in an area policed by Santry gardai but it is understood they were not called as ambulance personnel attended scene and took Brennan to hospital.

Brennan had recently been living in Greencastle Crescent, Coolock, and had not come to garda attention recently.

However, he was a major participant in a Coolock feud over the proceeds of a 300,000 robbery which was further complicated by the gangsters fighting over women.

In more recent times, he was the chief suspect for shooting his younger criminal brother Michael Brennan (35) at their family home in Cromcastle Drive, Kilmore, on May 5, 2020, during the height of the first Covid lockdown.

John Paul, or JP as he was known to friends, was never charged in relation to the incident in which his brother was shot in the leg.

In perhaps the most high-profile attempt on the gangsters life, two innocent men were shot dead when the killers put a car tracker on the wrong vehicle in a planned assassination attempt on Brennan and his right-hand man at the time.

Gardai believe they were followed by a gang who intended to murder JP Brennan using a tracking device which had mistakenly been put on the car the men were travelling in

Cousins Mark Noonan (23) from Rathbourne Drive, Cabra, and Glen Murphy (19) of Drumalee Drive, North Circular Road, both Dublin, were shot dead at a city petrol station in a case of mistaken identity after they had gone to the shop to buy snacks on the night of November 23, 2010.

They had pulled into the Tesco Clearwater petrol station in Finglas when they were shot. Both suffered multiple gunshot wounds and died at the scene.

Mr Noonans Toyota Avensis car was very similar to a car which was driven by the intended targets.

Gardai believe they were followed by a gang who intended to murder JP Brennan using a tracking device which had mistakenly been put on the car the men were travelling in.

In another attempted murder, a gunman forced his way into Brennans then girlfriends home, and kicked and fired his way through the house as a one-year-old baby lay sleeping,

Brennan was at his girlfriends home at Drynam Drive in Kinsealy, Co Dublin, at 10pm on January 9, 2009, when a gunman kicked down the back door. The target was inside, along with his girlfriend, a second woman and a baby.

The hitman kicked down a locked bathroom door but found an innocent woman inside before locating Brennan, who had barricaded himself into a locked bedroom.

But the gunman fired shots at him through the door. Brennan was hit twice, in the neck and chest, by rounds that also passed through his forearm.

The baby, who was in another room in the house at the time, was not injured. The two women were also unharmed.

The gunman fled and the two women called the emergency services to help Brennan.

Brennan was taken to hospital but made a full recovery.
Plan for constructing social and affordable housing is not currently on track

Homelessness has increase by 30pc since last year but the number of rough sleepers had dropped over the same period. Photo: Niall Carson

Cabinet ministers have been warned the Governments landmark plan to address the housing crisis is missing key targets and will not deliver the number of properties needed to address the long-running property supply problem.

A private meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Housing was told the Housing For All policy needs to be urgently revised and additional budget funding for the 4bn plan may also be required if it is to meet its objectives.

A series of dire warnings about the States housing policy were set out in series of memos given to ministers who attended the monthly meeting last week.

This included officials saying it is clear that the viability of the Governments housing targets for the forthcoming two years is at considerable risk.

They were told the objective of delivering 24,600 homes this year is on target.

However, the plan will fall short in delivering the number of new social housing units they aimed to have constructed by the end of the year.

And in further bad news, ministers were told the targets set for developing new affordable homes will fall significantly short of target for the year.

The Governments plan for constructing social and affordable housing is not currently on track, senior Cabinet figures were told.

Key Housing For All objectives  such as developing a national policy on incentivising older people to downsize  have been delayed.

Deadlines to develop a healthcare model for homeless people have also been missed as have targets to empower local authorities to incentivise people planning to convert vacant commercial properties into residential homes. There has been a delay in developing official guidance on achieving appropriate tenure mixes within communities, including rules on how to engage with local people ahead of developing new housing.

A review of the Housing For All strategy should include discrete timelines for a number of measures that have yet to be introduced, the Cabinet Committee was told.

The delay in providing housing is partly due to the rising cost of construction and issues sourcing materials for building new homes, according to sources who attended the meeting.

The briefing also outlined how the lack of housing supply is causing significant problems across all aspects of the accommodation crisis.

The Cabinet committee was told the exodus of small landlords is exacerbating the problem in the rental market and called for new measures to be added to the Governments Housing For All plan to ensure there were enough tenancies for renters.

The overhaul of the Housing For All plan will have to take into account the long-term consequences of housing tens of thousands of people fleeing the war in Ukraine, the Cabinet committee was told.

Ministers were urged to fast-track or obtain greater benefits from the recently introduced Croi Conaithe scheme which provides funding to developers building houses in cities or refurbishing properties in rural towns and villages.

Government sources said they were taken aback by the lack of action on some of the measures which were promised by Housing Minister Darragh OBrien to address the housing crisis.

Details of the private briefing come at a time when homelessness figures are hitting record numbers due to the lack of social housing.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has added to the housing crisis with more than 45,000 refugees seeking accommodation.

The briefing included figures showing homelessness has increase by 30pc since last year with 10,568 people including children without their own home. However, it also pointed out the number of rough sleepers had dropped over the same period.

But the increased number of people seeking emergency accommodation is putting added pressure on the accommodation supply at a local authority level.

It was also noted there has been a significant increase in European Economic Area (EEA) citizens seeking emergency accommodation in Ireland over the last five years.

In 2016, figures show 9.6pc of people seeking emergency accommodation were from EEA countries while this rose to 19.4pc last year. In July, 26.2pc of single adults seeking accommodation were EEA nationals.

The rising number of notice to quit issued by landlords was also highlighted as a serious concern which is adding to the homelessness crisis.
There have been a flurry of energy price rises in the past few weeks.

Electricity bills are going up by 17pc, and gas bills by 23pc from October 26.

It is the sixth price rise from Flogas Energy since the start of last year, as there were four increases last year.

There is no rise in the standing charge this time. Flogas has some of the highest standing charges at up to 600 a year for electricity.

The supplier has over 25,000 customers.

The latest price rise will add around 340 a year to electricity bills and around 395 to gas bills, Daragh Cassidy of price comparison site Bonkers.ie said.

When all increases since the start of last year are added up it's adding over 1,700 a year to people's electricity bills and over 1,700 to their gas bills.

Help in next week's Budget cant come soon enough.

In the last few weeks there have been- price increases of between 20pc and 40pc from SSE Airtricity, Electric Ireland, PrePayPower, Energia, Community Power and Bord Gais Energy during the current wave of price hikes.

Since the start of 2021 there have around to 60 separate price-increase announcements.

These have meant the annual cost of supplying a typical home with electricity has more than doubled to 2,000.

There has been a similar rise in gas costs, with home-heating oil prices also doubling to around 1,280 for 1,000 litres of the fuel.

And it was revealed by this publication this week that standing charges have gone up by as much as 300, with some energy suppliers charging households 700 in standing charges for electricity alone.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said there was no room for energy companies to exploit the current energy crisis by hiking up standing charges for customers.

Flogas Energy said the latest rise was due to the continuing and unprecedented increases in wholesale gas prices and the associated increases in wholesale electricity costs.

Flogas general manager Sean OLoughlin said: Energy cost increases are affecting all suppliers and while we are continually looking at ways to minimise costs for our customers, we have no option but to increase our rates in the current environment.

The supplier of gas and electricity said it will customers affected by the new price rise through its customer service team.

It said it has a range of options, including payment plans, budget pay and pre-payment meters.

We would ask any Flogas customer who is facing financial pressure around their energy bills to contact us, Mr OLoughlin said.

Flogas said it was increasing the payment to homeowners and small businesses using solar panels under its SolarGen Microgeneration scheme to 24c per kWh.

This is the highest rate available to microgen customers in the market, it said.

Flogas encouraged all customers to ensure they are on a discounted contract, and where they have a smart meter installed, to switch to a Flogas Smart Tariff.
At Gort District Court on Thursday, Judge Mary Larkin convicted the ex-horse trainer of the assault causing harm of farmer, John Hughes on a County Galway boreen in October 2020.

Judge Larkin also convicted Mr Mahon of producing a horse whip in the course of a dispute which was capable of inflicting serious injury and likely to intimidate another on October 13th 2020 at the same location at Newtown, Kilcolgan, Co Galway.

That charge is contrary to Section 11 of the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act.

The court was told that there was bad blood between 53 year old father of two Mr Mahon and Mr Hughes arising from a 2014 incident involving the two.

In June of last year, Mr Mahon formerly of The Ranch, Kilcolgan, County Galway but now living in Co Meath was given the longest ban at four years ever handed out to a trainer in Ireland for breach of animal welfare rules.

The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) ban imposed was reduced by six months on appeal in September of last year.

In the case before Gort District Court, Mr Hughes told the court that on October 13th 2020 on his way back from herding cattle, Mr Mahon passed him on a horse on a boreen on Mr Mahons way to the way to the gallops

Mr Hughes said: Mr Mahon went on six or seven yards and said what the f**k are you laughing at. He got down off his horse and asked what are you smiling at.

He then left fly and hit me with the whip on the left hand side of the face just under my eye.

Mr Hughes stated that the whip was 18 inches long and Mr Mahon hit him with the ball end of the whip. The whip with the red ball top was produced as a Garda exhibit in court.

Mr Hughes stated that Mr Mahon then swung a second time. I put my hand up to protect myself and he got me on the knuckle and the left hand side of the face.

He added: I then rushed him. My eye was weeping like hell at this stage. I pushed him against the gate and in doing so knocked a couple of stones off a pillar.

Mr Hughes said that there was a bit of a struggle and Mr Mahon got free and kicked out at him twice.

Mr Hughes said that he has been left with a scar from a whip blow and pointed out the scar on his face to Judge Larkin.

Mr Hughes said that he has not spoken to Mr Mahon since 2014 and agreed that there was 'bad blood' between himself and Mr Mahon.

Mr Mahon denied that he assaulted Mr Hughes and in evidence alleged that Mr Hughes threw two rocks at him at the location.

In finding Mr Mahon guilty of the two offences, Judge Larkin said that it is not a case of one mans word against another.

Judge Larkin said: There is also the evidence of the injuries to Mr Hughes. They were viewed by Garda Phil O Donoghue on the day and they are consistent with Mr Hughess evidence.

Judge Larkin said: I am satisfied that the incident did take place as described by Mr Hughes. I found him to be a credible witness and I found Mr Mahon to be vague and possibly inventive in relation to what he said about the incident.

Counsel for Mr Mahon, Ernest White BL told Judge Larkin said that Mr Mahon is an ex horse trainer as you may well know. He has lost his licence and he tells me his life has been turned upside down over the past year with the loss of his licence and his livelihood".

Mr White said that Mr Mahon has two children aged 7 and 11 and has moved back to Meath and is trying to get some work in the horse business.

Insp Brian Boland of Loughrea Garda Station told the court that Mr Mahon has 14 previous convictions but none relate to assault or public order. Insp Boland said that six relate to the Control of Dogs Act with the remainder relating to road traffic matters.

Mr White said that there has been no further incidents between the two men since October 2020.

Judge Larkin said that she would adjourn sentencing to allow Mr Hughes provide a victim impact statement to court.

Judge Larkin said: I would be interested to know what the views of the injured party are and does he believe that this is all water under the bridge.

Judge Larkin adjourned the case to October 27th for sentence.
Gardai lifted a media blackout that was imposed last night

There was a peaceful conclusion to an incident in Letterkenny as night after a man barricaded himself into a room.

Gardai lifted a media blackout that was imposed after they were requested to assist a state agency in the execution of a Court Order at a residence in the Letterkenny area.

A Garda Operational Command protocol was initiated that saw an On-Scene Commander and local Garda negotiators attached to the National Negotiators Unit attend the scene with assistance from a number of other Garda Units.

However, as a result of negotiations, the incident was brought to a peaceful resolution shortly before 7pm.
For use in UK, Ireland or Benelux countries only Undated BBC handout photo of Tony Adams, one of the contestants for this year's Strictly Come Dancing on BBC1. Issue date: Friday September 16, 2022.   PA

Former England footballer Tony Adams says he accepted the challenge of Strictly Come Dancing after suffering a mental breakdown and nearly dying from a heart problem six years ago.

The 55-year-old captained Arsenal and England during his professional career, winning 66 caps for his country and appearing at four major tournaments.

As a result of his experiences with alcoholism and drug addiction, he later founded Sporting Chance, a charity to help sportspeople with mental health and addiction issues.

Ahead of the series launch on Friday, Adams recalled how coming close to death spurred him on to join the silly BBC One show.

He said: Ive been asked a few times. I had a mental breakdown when I was 49 and working too hard in China and Ive just got time now.

Im not working too much, my calendars pretty empty for the next three months so I just thought yeah, go for it.

After my heart procedure  I nearly died when I was 49  my main artery was 99% closed and the stress of life.

Im a bit of a born worrier, my mum was a worrier so I just decided to take things a bit easier and get myself on a silly show.

Adams said medical staff for the programme had given him a thorough examination and described the production as another level.

He added: My physio was quite damning because Ive got a new metal knee as well, she went no knee slides.

It was cant do this, cant do that  she kept saying youre not very good are you?. I said I am 55 now.

Adams was sentenced to four months in prison in 1990 for drink driving and said that experience would help him deal with any critical feedback on his dancing.

He joked: Im going to top you all because when I came out of prison they lobbed bottles at me and I had carrots thrown at me, so Ive trumped it.

Strictly Come Dancing launches on Friday September 23 at 7pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Fans of the Longford Love Island star hope she will be trading the villa for the jungle.

Love Island bombshell Maura Higgins might be heading into the jungle for the next season of Im a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!

The bets are on for the Longford lady who shot to fame as a fan favourite on Love Island to go Down Under.

Ladbrokes announced today that Maura is priced at 5/1 to take on a new reality show.

"Love Island fans have long been campaigning for Maura Higgins to do a stint in the jungle, Nicola McGeady of Ladbrokes says.

"Being no stranger to a trip or two abroad in the name of reality TV, the odds suggest that Maura could finally appear on Im A Celebrity later this year!

Maura is a well known Irish icon amongst Love Island fans since her time in the villa.

She finished in fourth place after a shock recoupling with pro-dancer Curtis Pritchard in the final days of the 2019 season.

The couple split shortly after.

Maura had a high profile break-up with Strictly Come Dancing pro Giovanni Pernice last year.

The pair said their relationship had reached a natural end in a joint statement posted on their social media accounts.

Im a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! hosted by duo Ant and Dec returns to the jungle this year ahead of an all-star season in 2023.

Fan favourites from the last two decades of the show will appear for a special series in South Africa.
Newly graduated Assistance Dog Jack provides crucial support for Bay of Plenty-based Callum, allowing the Newman family to begin to enjoy life again.

Callum was diagnosed at three months old with a range of neuro-disabilities, including Cerebral Palsy and Epilepsy, both of which present several associated behaviours and challenges for solo mum of two Melanie.

Since his diagnosis in November 2015, life has been a constant challenge as Callums needs became all-consuming.

His epilepsy has had significant impact on the familys ability to go out and enjoy life together as he suffers from daily and nightly seizures, involving regular ambulance callouts, hospital visits and 24/7 monitoring.

The Newmans are sharing their story as Assistance Dogs NZ Trust (ADNZT) fundraises during their Annual Appeal month of September, petitioning to the public to help fund the training and placement of more life-changing Assistance Dogs. With the reduction in cash giving and over 50 families still waiting for their dog, the trust has been virtually shaking their buckets this year, aiming to raise $75,000 to fund their vital work.

This will continue to address the escalating need within the New Zealand disabled community for assistance dogs that offer independence and crucial daily aid. ADNZT trains specialist public access dogs under Assistance Dogs International accreditation for clients with various neuro-disabilities including Autism and Cerebral Palsy.

In June, ADNZTs Jack was matched with Callum and delivered to his family home in the Bay of Plenty to begin his placement programme with the team. When Jack arrived  Callums reaction was one of immediate adoration.

Photo: Supplied.

Callum is extremely genuine in displaying his emotions and has no filter. You could see the joy on his face the moment he locked eyes with Jack. The more they played together, the more Jacks tail kept wagging and Callum was so happy  it was such a special moment to be a part of, explains mum Melanie.

During the two-week training programme with ADNZT staff  Mel learnt how to become Jacks primary handler, with Callum at his side.

The training involved learning his commands, heading out into places they would regularly need to go and interacting with their community. During this time they also simulated scenarios with Callum, such as hospital visits, school assemblies and trips.

At home, they fine-tuned his training to ensure Jack could perform all the tasks that Mel and Callum would need to make life a little easier.

Jacks purpose and training will continue to develop as he settles into life as a qualified working dog with his new family. Currently he performs tasks such as picking things up for Callum and lying on his stomach applying calming pressure when Callum has a melt-down (for his safety and comfort).

In these instances, Jack can help calm Callum quickly, turning screams into giggles as he nudges his new friend for cuddles and kisses.

They both enjoy playing together and lots of touch, and its clear that both Callum and Jack are having as much fun as each other wrestling and cuddling around the home.

Photo: Supplied.

Jack has become another member of the Newman family  primarily caring for Callum, but also providing new opportunities for the family to go out and enjoy their time together, something that was often too stressful to do before. They have gone to the beach and enjoyed swims, played fetch in the park and taken a little more time to slow down and appreciate each day.

As the pair develop and Callum grows, Mel hopes Jack will continue to support his seizures through the night and learn new tasks to support Callums future development and behaviour. For now, its clear that her son has found a best friend and life has become a lot happier.

The charity has begun to increase capacity over the past 18 months as they start to recover from COVID-19 lockdowns and are currently able to output 10 trained dogs per year. Plans are to increase this to 18-20 dogs trained annually by 2025, a goal that can only be made possible by the continued support of the public.

Established in 2008, ADNZT services 40 clients around New Zealand and has 25 puppies in training. With their waitlist over 5 years long with over 50 families on the list, they know the only way to address this need is to increase their breeding, dog training, volunteer base and client service capacity.

Funding Manager, Alex Williams, explains that, The Trust doesnt receive any government funding, and is funded solely by generous donations, grants and individual donors, including our puppy sponsorship programme.

Thats why our Annual Appeal month is critical to fund the ongoing costs of training our dogs and providing life-long support for the families in our care. With the reduction is cash and street collections, weve moved much of our fundraising online and have asked supporters to virtually shake their buckets for us if theyre not comfortable fundraising public.

The hard cost of training, placing, and supporting an Assistance Dog throughout their working life is $75,000 (which covers 2 years of development and training, and ongoing support until retirement at 11 years old).

Assistance Dogs NZ Trusts 2022 Appeal month runs to the end of September, calling for any donations you can make to street collectors this Friday and Saturday in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington and Christchurch, or online at www.assistancedogstrust.org.nz.
Despite the majority of Bay of Plenty Regional Council candidates agreeing climate change was an issue facing Tauranga, they all drove their car on World Car Free Day.

The revelation came during a Tauranga Constituency meet the candidate event last night.

It was held at the Trinity Conference Centre and Tauranga Business Chamber CEO Matt Cowley was the MC.

Twelve of the 17 candidates fronted for the evening, all vying for one of five available seats in the regional councils Tauranga Constituency.

The glut of candidates comes on the back of the 2019 election where five people stood and were elected unopposed.

Candidates at the event were Stephen Wheeler, Larry Baldock, Murray White, Bryan Deuchar, Jos Nagels, Ron Scott, Kat MacMillian and Mark Fogerty.

They were joined by current regional councillors Stuart Crosby, David Love, Paula Thompson and Andrew von Dadelszen, who are standing for re-election.

They were quizzed on everything from public transport and bus safety in Tauranga, to climate change, government reforms and co-governance with Maori.

The questions were a from a variety of sources including supplied questions from the public through the council website and those attending on the night, according to a regional council spokesperson.

During a round of quick fire yes or no questions, candidates were asked if they had driven a car on World Car Free Day, all of them had. They were also asked if they had used public transport in the past week and two out of the 12 had.

One of the deep dive questions about regional councils key impact areas was: Climate change is one of the council's key issues. What two things could the regional council do to prepare for the inevitable difficulties that climate change will bring to our region?

This question was posed to each of the candidates, while others were alternated or selected at random.

Love said, it was one of the biggest risks and threats we face and that the response so far was cosmetic rather than having any real effect on the climate itself.

He suggested concentrating on subsidies or interest free loans for solar power to utilise natural resources to protect our environment.

Wheeler agreed with Love about using solar more and said regional council had the ability to fund low interest loans for solar power.

Baldock said actions not words were needed and he had solar panels on his home, which needed to be incentivised, and he drove a hybrid vehicle.

The former Tauranga City Councillor wanted to focus on nitrogen dioxide pollution in the city because it was quite intense.

we need to switch a little bit, not forget about climate change. That climate change emergency thing. I mean, it was just words surely, said Baldock.

A crowd of around 40 people gathered to hear the Tauranga Constituents thoughts. Photo: Alisha Evans/SunLive.

Scott said: The biggest thing was to accept it [climate change] was happening and not pretend that we can make a big difference on a worldwide scale but do things to ameliorate the impact.

Fogerty said: We needed to look after our water resources better.

White said: With India and China punching out huge amounts of CO2. What we can save is diddly squat. My thinking is [to] mitigate, it is not to try and stop our emissions.

von Dadelszen said regional council was: very good at the hui not so good at the doey and the big issue was not sea level rise but storm effect, which needed to be mitigated.

We've set ourselves up as a climate emergency, and what have we really done, he said.

Other candidates focussed more on emission mitigation through public transport, which is one of the regional councils key roles in the region.

MacMillan said transforming the public transport system in Tauranga was needed as was getting people out of single driver cars.

Crosby agreed mitigation of emissions in the transport space was needed and said regional council was not doing a particularly good job  in the public transport space.

Nagels wanted to put in passenger rail as public transport claiming it would drop emissions by 20 per cent overnight and use prudent methods to reduce emissions.

Bus driver Deuchar wanted improvements to the bus network including more drivers and said flooding and heatwaves were an issue.

Thompson took a different approach, and said Tauranga needed a mantra of sustainable growth is good instead of growth is good.

The candidates not at the event were Jason Nicholls-Faitele, Mark Wassung, Matt Cooney, Murray Guy and Phil Ross.

Other events have been or will be held for the other five Bay of Plenty Regional Council Constituencies with information available on the councils website.

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.
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WTF?! A Tesla owner has seen his TikTok video about the car's apparent shortcomings go viral. Mario Zelaya said that he had been locked out of his Tesla Model S after the battery died, which would have cost him $21,000 to replace.

Zelaya, who lives in Toronto, Canada, said he paid $140,000 (Canadian) for the brand-new car back in 2013. According to Elon Musk, the batteries in these cards are designed to run for 300,000 to 500,000 miles or about 21 to 25 years before they have to be replaced. But Zelaya's EV needed a new one after just 77,000 miles.

Zelaya said the problem is that some 2013 and 2014 Tesla Model S vehicles had an issue in which fluid from the air conditioning system's drainage hose dripped onto the battery, causing it to rusttechnicians at the Transport Canada regulatory agency confirmed this was why his battery died.

Zelaya took the car to Tesla after a "high voltage battery" warning message appeared, only to be told the warranty didn't cover it. He asked for a free battery, but the request was refused, leaving him with the option of paying over $21,000 for a replacement or selling the car.

#car  original sound - Mario Zelaya @supermariozelaya Replying to @Mario Zelaya Here's an update and some clarifications on my dead ' Tesla. Also, someone is buying it tomorrow for $19K and is taking on the responsibility of opening up the car. I got 85 messages on FB Marketplace on it .... Guess I'm selling it for cheap? #tesla

With the battery dead, Zelaya could not access the vehicle or even get to the ownership documents inside. He says it would not respond to a charge, either. "This is why you should never buy a Tesla, people," he said in the video.

The owner believes the leaking and rusting started when the car was in the warranty period. Zelaya also claims that Tesla canceled his Uber credits, which were received when he went to get the car serviced, after he kept asking why the car needed a new battery.

Zelaya acknowledges that he could have accessed the Tesla by removing the front bumper or going in through the tire well but "didn't have time for that."

The situation ended when Zelaya sold the car after paying $30 for new ownership documents. It seems the new owner did find time to remove the bumper to gain access.

It seems unlikely that Zelaya will return to the car brand in the future: "I'll never buy another Tesla again," he said. "That's the long way of me saying stay the f**k away from Teslas. They're brutal cars, brutal manufacturing, and even worse, they're a 10-year-old company."

Last year, a Finnish man teamed up with a YouTube explosives channel to blow up his 2013 Tesla Model S after discovering he would have a buy a $22,600 battery because it had "outlasted its 8-year warranty."
What just happened? The US government might be introducing more tech restrictions against China, but it seems the increased tensions between the countries aren't affecting American firms' expansion plans. Microsoft is one of these, having just confirmed that it will add another 1,000 workers to its Chinese operations and upgrade its campuses over the next few years.

Microsoft employs more than 9,000 people full-time in China, around 80% of whom are research and development specialists and engineering technicians. The company has announced that its recruitment drive will bring that number above 10,000 across the next year.

Microsoft's plans extend beyond adding more employees in China. The Windows maker, which has offices in 13 Chinese cities, will also upgrade its campuses in Beijing, Shanghai, and Suzhou over the next three to five years.

Related read: US-China semiconductor battle: Second and third order consequences

The announcement came on the thirtieth anniversary of Microsoft's entry into the Chinese market. "We will continue to strengthen our confidence and determination to develop in the Chinese market and expand investment in human resources, campuses, education, and the local ecosystem to find new opportunities in China, boosted by China's accelerated development of the digital economy," said Microsoft Greater China chairman and CEO, Hou Yang,

The news comes at a time when relations between the US and China are at their frostiest. Earlier this month, US officials instructed Nvidia and AMD to stop selling their high-performance AI-focused GPUs to China and Russia without a license. There are also US export bans and sanctions on a number of Chinese companies, such as Huawei, which has seen its smartphone business suffer enormously since losing access to American-made technologies. China has been a vocal opponent of the Chips Act, too. And then there Taiwan.

The announcement is good news for the Chinese economy, which, like the US, has been experiencing a downturn due to global uncertainty. The country has also been dealing with increased regulatory scrutiny. The situation has led to layoffs at large tech giants such as Tencent, Alibaba, and Xiaomi, mirroring those US firms that have also reduced staff numbers this year.

The expansion plans are a reaffirmation that American companies are not losing faith in China and scaling back investment in the country. Like Microsoft, Tesla is continuing its expansion in the Asian nation via the Shanghai Gigafactory (above), already the EV-makers largest facility in the world.
In a nutshell: The Alliance for Open Media will launch a new brand to promote a royalty-free audio-video experience on consumer hardware, something Google has already achieved with the recently adopted AV1 codec. Should Dolby worry about the new venture?

Google has a plan to compete with the most recent and popular standards for audio and video contents controlled by Dolby, and it is internally known as "Project Caviar." During a presentation held behind closed doors for hardware manufacturers, Caviar was described as a means to create a "healthier, broader ecosystem" for premium media experiences without royalties.

Project Caviar involves the already established Alliance for Open Media, a partnership between some of the most important technology and media companies (Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Netflix, Nvidia, Samsung) and Google itself, promoting the adoption of open source and royalty-free audio-video codecs like AV1.

Dolby was never mentioned during the confidential meeting, and yet Google seems to have targeted the San Francisco company and its proprietary technologies once more. Project Caviar should bring a free alternative to 3D spatial audio (ie Dolby Atmos) and Dolby's own HDR standard for color-rich visual experiences (Dolby Vision).

Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision have essentially become the standard for high-end media consumption, either via a streaming service like Netflix or in the home video niche with Blu-ray releases and home theater devices. The final price of each one of these products includes a fee companies pay to Dolby, to include next-gen surround sound and high-dynamic range colors in their content.

Project Caviar strives to cut down the aforementioned fees, while winning support from hardware manufacturers at the same time. Thanks to its YouTube ubiquitous video streaming service, Google has already achieved excellent results in this area with widespread hardware support for the AV1 video codec, and now the company plans to try again with Dolby's most recent tech.

Unlike AV1 and the "codec wars" of the past years, however, this time there seems to be no talk about a brand-new audio or video technology: Project Caviar would adopt already existing codecs for both HDR and surround sound content while bringing a new, consumer-recognizable brand on the market at the same time.
Well, that was quick: London Police believe they have apprehended the GTA VI leaker. Law enforcement made the bust Thursday evening, just days after the FBI got involved. Officials have not released the name of the teenage suspect, nor have they announced the charges he faces. More details should surface in the coming days.

The teenager suspected of being behind this week's massive Grand Theft Auto 6 leak is in custody in the UK. The City of London Police arrested a 17-year-old Oxfordshire resident suspected of hacking Rockstar and Uber. Police officials say they were aided by the UK's National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU).

According to sources of former Reuters reporter Matthew Keys, the unnamed teen is suspected of belonging to the hacker group known as "Lapsus$." Lapsus$ uses the privacy-focused messaging app Telegram to organize, which the NCCU and other law-enforcement agencies have infiltrated and been monitoring for a while now. Keys also says the FBI was involved.

UPDATE: @CityPolice confirm 17-year-old arrested over hacking incident; source says the crime is related to intrusion on Rockstar Games and possibly Uber Technologies. https://t.co/lLHX2cpGfA $UBER  Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) September 23, 2022

At this point, the police have not revealed any arrest details other than the suspect is in custody. Since the alleged hacker is a minor, officials could withhold his name until they get the legal okay. London Police and the FBI will likely release more information within the next few days.

Events leading to the arrest started when a user on GTAForums, going by the username "teapotuberhacker," posted over 90 videos and screenshots from the still-under-development GTA VI. This leak occurred only days after a hacker using the name "teapot2022" breached Uber's internal systems and exposed 57 million customer records. A member of Lapsus$ with the handle "Tea Pot" claimed responsibility for both attacks. At that point, Uber began working with the FBI and others to identify Tea Pot. The FBI also opened an investigation into the Rockstar hack just days ago.

The teen's arrest is not the first that London Police have carried out. In March, UK law enforcement raided and arrested seven alleged members of Lapsus$. Police believed that one of them was Tea Pot, but officials have not confirmed whether the man detained in Oxfordshire was involved in the previous bust.
The viral TikTok Sept. 24 conspiracy is concerning many people. It all started after a video of a German politician trending on the rising social media platform.

(Photo : Photo by JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images)

A photo taken on December 14, 2018 in Paris shows the logo of the application TikTok. - TikTok, is a Chinese short-form video-sharing app, which has proved wildly popular this year. (Photo by JOEL SAGET / AFP)

The official seen in the footage was Friedrich Merz. Some copies of the video have low-quality audio.

But, thanks to the efforts of netizens, the statements of the German lawyer were properly put into texts.

"Dear Colleagues...September 24, 2022, will be remembered by all of us as a day which we will say, 'I remember exactly where I was...'" said the German official as reported by News.Com AU.

[VIRAL] New TikTok Sept. 24 Conspiracy

According to the New York Post's latest report, the viral TikTok conspiracy about Merz's video created an online panic.

(Photo : Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)

In this photo illustration, the social media application logo, TikTok is displayed on the screen of an iPhone on an American flag background on August 3, 2020 in Arlington, Virginia.

Also Read: 'TikTok Now' Application Launches Globally After Its Release in the US

]Some people even created various conspiracy theories about the statement of the German politician. One of these is that a massive solar flare will hit earth on the said date.



They added that this event would create catastrophic cyclones, resulting in mass destruction.



Meanwhile, other individuals believed that former U.S. President Donald Trump would announce his candidacy for the presidential position.



If you haven't watched the viral video yet, you can check the TikTok and Twitter footage below.

What the fuck are they planning on 24 september 2022



Why did Friedrich Metz, German Member of Parliament say, Dear ColleaguesSeptember 24, 2022 will be remembered by all of us as a day which we will say, I remember exactly where I was? pic.twitter.com/ldv4VstuAD  Cienepien (@Cienepien69) September 14, 2022

TikTok Conspiracy Debunked!

Lead Stories, a web-based fact-checking platform, debunked the latest TikTok Sept. 24 conspiracy.

The website confirmed that the German official only mistakenly mentioned the said date.

In the video, Merz was actually talking about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. He was supposed to say "February 24" instead of "September 24."

This means that the online claims about Trump's presidential candidacy and the giant solar flare are untrue. You can visit this link to see further details.

Recently, we reported that the social media company denied the alleged TikTok data breach.

Meanwhile, the new TikTok feature allows users to send daily notifications.

For more news updates about TikTok and other social media platforms, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: TikTok Ghost Filter Prank: Parents Participating in the Trend Now Criticized! Here's Why

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Written by: Griffin Davis

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A NASA astronaut boards a Russian Soyuz rocket, along with two other Russian cosmonauts, to fly to the International Space Station or the ISS.

The monumental launch comes several months after the geopolitical tension among the two giant nations has emerged since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has taken off.

(Photo : Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)

BAIKONUR, KAZAKHSAN - SEPTEMBER 21: In this handout provided by NASA, the Soyuz MS-22 rocket is launched to the International Space Station with Expedition 68 astronaut Frank Rubio of NASA, and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin of Roscosmos onboard, on September 21, 2022, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin will spend approximately six months on the orbital complex, returning to Earth in March 2023.

NASA Astronaut Boards a Russian Soyuz Rocket

The launch of the Russian rocket was streamed live by both space agencies of the two countries, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Roscosmos.

According to a recent report by Interesting Engineering, the cooperation between the United States and the Russian nation has become rarer these days, and the recent trip to the ISS is one of a few.

The Russian rocket launched straight from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which the world's largest country runs, on the morning of September 21.

The crewed mission includes a single NASA astronaut, Frank Rubio, and two cosmonauts, Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev.

Interesting Engineering notes that the folks at the crewed mission are staying in the space station for roughly six months.

As per a news story by CNN, the NASA astronaut, Rubio, is flying to space for the first time. But despite that, he is the flight engineer on his trip to the ISS via the Russian rocket.

NASA Astronauts, Russian Cosmonauts in the ISS

It is worth mentioning that they would be joining crew members that have been there before they arrived. It includes one astronaut from the Italian European Space Agency (ESA), three NASA astronauts, and three Russian cosmonauts.

Upon their arrival, the number of Russian cosmonauts on the ISS balloons to five, while NASA has four astronauts on board.

CNN notes in the same report that NASA used to rely on the Russian Soyuz for its flights to the ISS. In fact, the US space agency was paying roughly $90 million per seat on the Russian rocket until SpaceX entered the picture.

This time, the space firm of ultra-rich billionaire Elon Musk is boarding NASA astronauts in their missions to the space station. It has been the case since NASA started allowing private firms to launch their crewed missions.

Read Also: NASA Artemis: Cryogenic Demo Test a Success, Ready for Critical Safing Activities for Rocket

SpaceX to Fly Russian Cosmonaut

Interesting Engineering reports that a Russian cosmonaut is also flying on SpaceX spacecraft next month.

The only active female cosmonaut, Anna Kikina, is joining the Crew-5 mission of SpaceX to the space station in a few more days or on October 3.

Related Article: NASA Requests for Another Artemis Moon Lander - How About SpaceX's Starship Lander?

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Written by Teejay Boris

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Alibaba Cloud will commit to upgrading its global partner ecosystem by investing worth $1 billion as a strategic move for the company's overseas expansion, South China Morning Post reported.

(Photo : STR/AFP/GettyImages)

Chinese workers walk out from the Alibaba head office building in Hangzhou, in eastern China's Zhejiang province on May 21, 2012. Alibaba, China's top e-commerce player, will re-purchase a 20-percent state in itself from US portal Yahoo! for at least 7.1 billion USD, the companies announced. CHINA OUT AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read STR/AFP/GettyImages)

One of the reasons for making this move is that China's economy is stumbling at the moment. The company confirms that the investment will consist of two incentives, financial and non-financial, which will include funding, rebates, and go-to-market initiatives.

The funding will help Alibaba's partners on innovating its technology.

Alibaba Cloud Intelligence International President Selian Yuan stated that "Partners have always been a key focus for Alibaba Cloud, and we are committed to providing them with strong support, both technologically and commercially."

2022 Alibaba Cloud Summit

The announcement was held at the 2022 Alibaba Cloud Summit that will last for three days in Phuket, Thailand. Along with the investment, TechNode reported that an additional two announcements had been made.

These are the announcement of the new products on supporting technology innovation to the enterprises and the plans to improve the company's customer service as they want to support the digitalization journey of its customers.

The products like Cloud Enterprise Network, ESSD Auto PL, etc. will provide customers a much higher scope of cloud services for a network covering, storage, and even computing.

Also Read: Weird Alibaba EV 2022: Check Out This Hot Wheels-Like Electric Car! Price, Features, and MORE

Partners and Competitors

As per TechCrunch, Alibaba has 11,000 partners around the world, which include Salesforce, VMware, Fortinet, IBM, and Neo4j.

The company also had a 9.5% market share in 2021, which made the company surpass its competitors like Microsoft and Amazon.

Among other companies, Alibaba Cloud has a 34% share of the $7.3 billion domestic cloud market for the second quarter, which was analyzed by Canalys.

Meanwhile, the revenue for its cloud services went up to 10% or $2.4 billion, to the demand from different financial services, public services, and telecommunication industries.

This was a big success for the company as they recently encountered slow growth. Speculations from reports state that Alibaba lost one of its key clients, ByteDance.

No confirmations were given, but the company stated, "Partly offset by decline in revenue from the top Internet customer that has gradually stopped using our overseas cloud services for its international business due to non-product related requirements, online education customers as well as softening demand from other customers in China's Internet industry."

Alibaba was established in 2009, and it offers cloud services to different customers globally. These include elastic computing, database, storage, network, and more.

Related Article: China Calls Out Alibaba Execs Over Largest Data Theft; Retailer Left Dashboard Managing Tool Without Password?

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Written by Inno Flores

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Google's all-new Chromecast with Google TV (HD) is finally official, and it is cheaper than ever, suitable for folks who do not really bother getting 4K resolution support.

The base-model Chromecast took a couple of years before getting an upgrade. But now, the wait is finally over as Google introduced it with Google TV.

(Photo : screenshot from Google Store Chromecast with Google TV Listing )

Google's new Chromecast with Google TV is here. It comes with 4K variant, along with a much cheaper priced base-model.

New Chromecast with Google TV (HD)

The tech giant has introduced a new cheap Chromecast that now comes with all the good stuff that Google TV readily offers its users.

As per the latest report by Arstechnica, Google debuted the first Chromecast with Google TV back in 2020. However, it was a much higher-end model, thus its price tag significantly higher than the entry-level streaming device.

But this time, the renowned tech giant decided to give the base model a massive upgrade, bringing Google TV to a much more affordable price point.

It turns out that Google TV is actually the direct replacement of what was known as Android TV, Arstechnica notes in its story. And as such, the new Chromecast provides users with a pretty similar experience to smart TV users.

What to Expect from Chromecast with Google TV (HD)

Thanks to the Google TV upgrade, the entry-level streaming device now brings a full-blown home screen, which lets users access various apps or download straight from the Play Store. It also enables multiple accounts to sign in.

So if you are living with other folks at home, you could easily open your profile that suits your viewing interests. It prevents irrelevant movies or series from popping out of nowhere.

But despite all these upgrades, the new Chromecast still acts like the old one.

(Photo : LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP via Getty Images)

This illustration picture shows the US multinational technology and Internet-related services company Google logo displayed on a tablet in Paris on February 18, 2019.

It is worth noting that the previous base variant only acts as a streaming stick, which lets users stream videos from their smartphones. However, the all-new version knows its old tricks by simply pressing the Chromecast button from its remote.

And all of this comes with a surprisingly cheap price tag of only $29.99. Google is selling its new Chromecast (HD) for roughly $30, but it has yet to support the stunning 4K resolution. That said, this new offering might better suit those who have yet to upgrade their TVs at home - similar to folks that would prefer the cheaper Xbox Series X.

Read Also: Google Chromecast Streaming Gets Better in New Update: Wi-Fi Fixes, More Video Controls

Chromecast with Google TV (HD) vs. Chromecast with Google TV (4K)

First off, the Google Store notes that the 4K version and the HD counterpart differ mainly on the resolution that it supports. The latter could only get as high as 1080p HDR, while the higher-end option comes with 4K HDR.

But the rest are pretty much the same between the two. There's Google TV and a remote. Sure, the 4K costs hefty at $49.99.

Related Article: Chromecast Tricks That You Can Do On Your Google TV | Quick Tips to Follow

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Written by Teejay Boris

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Google brought an early reveal for its latest Pixel Watch to the world, and it shows the new minimalist smartwatch available for all, centering on its latest wearable from the company. This is the first reveal of Google's smartwatch under the Pixel brand, and the company showcases the watch in its full glory for all to see via the video.

Google Reveals the Pixel Watch Ahead of October Event

(Photo : Google via Store)

Google published a new video on YouTube that talks about "The Design of Google Pixel Watch," and it is the first public in-depth reveal from the company regarding their wearable device. Previous showcases from Google were teasers and images of the new smartwatch, and its appearance on videos before was quick.

However, this new video posted now is Google's full showcase of the Pixel Watch and it centers greatly on the many features of the device that will soon release to the world.

It brings the public an idea of how it would look on a person's wrists, as presented by the models in the video, as well as some of its features that got highlighted.

Read Also: Google Pixel 7 Preorder Dates Revealed Ahead of MadeByGoogle Launch Event-When?

Google Pixel Watch: Is it Worth it?

With the new Pixel Watch dropping soon after the company's showcase event, people are now contemplating whether to buy the smartwatch to complement their Pixel devices for their everyday use. According to CNET, the Pixel Watch rumors a starting price tag of $350 for the minimalistic wearable with Google-integrated features.

It seems that the Pixel Watch would be worth it for Google's Android-enabled devices, especially for the Pixel lineup.

Google Pixel Event

The MadeByGoogle event is taking place this October 6, and the world is awaiting its showcase to see the new devices from Google's development, having a different offer from last year. Google revealed the new colors of the Pixel 7 Pro lineup that will arrive as potato chip colors but is exclusive to the Japanese market only.

The Pixel Watch is one of the most anticipated releases from the upcoming event as it is the latest Pixel device there is for the world. It already boasts of longer battery life compared to other tech wearables in the industry, with Google claiming that it would suffice for more than 24 hours of regular use, but that is yet to be tested.

Google's latest release shows the many features of the Pixel Watch available to the world, especially with its looks and functions in the new video.

Pixel fans would have to wait more than a week to gander at the new devices from Google and have a chance to preorder them after the event, but it is yet unknown when these releases would drop in the market. Still, Google's latest showcase brings insight to the new smartwatch, giving the public a chance to decide whether to get it or not.

Related Article: Google Pixel Watch Reportedly Gets 24 Hours of Battery for a Single Charge-Is It Short?

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Written by Isaiah Richard

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Elon Musk's Starlink remains a myth in the past since many people do not believe that it can beat the speeds of the current internet services.

There's good news for airline customers: this inflight WiFi can offer about 100 Mbps to the JSX passengers after SpaceX conducted a speed test on it.

SpaceX's High-Speed Internet on JSX Flight

(Photo : Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images)

JSX customers would benefit from Starlink WiFi's insane speed.

Browsing the internet during a flight seems impossible since some airlines ban the use of electronic gadgets. This is because the devices could easily interfere with the flight equipment.

That's not the case with SpaceX, which has high-speed internet that can deliver 100Mbps from an airplane that's flying 30,000 feet from the ground.

According to a report by Mashable, SpaceX brings its Starlink WiFi to JSX customers. The "hop-on-jet" service provider announced its partnership with Elon Musk's company back in April.

At that time, Musk touted its Starlink internet to be the "best WiFi in the cosmos." It might sound strange at first, but that's how it works for the passengers - uninterrupted web browsing.

JSX is not the only airline that has ties with the space agency. CNBC reported that its service would provide WiFi on Hawaiian Airlines trips four months ago. It will be offered for free to all airline passengers.

Musk saw success in closing deals with Hawaiian and JSX, yet some corporations are skeptical about the plans of the company. Allegedly, Musk reached out to Delta to offer the wireless internet experience, yet it did not find any success in negotiating with the other four airline carriers in the US.

Indeed, Starlink has proven that its in-flight internet could break the barriers when it comes to airline internet.

Apparently, the company proves its critics wrong about its capability since JSX is living proof that Starlink can provide a seamless browsing experience to passengers.

Related Article: SpaceX Starlink Expands Internet Services to Antarctica

Musk Wants to Introduce Starlink to Iran

After announcing his plans to expand Starlink's internet service to Antarctica a week ago, Musk said they would introduce the satellite internet service to Iran soon.

The announcement caught the attention of Erfan Kasraie, a science reporter from Iran who grew curious as to how Musk would incorporate its service to the people.

"I'm sure you won't answer it Mr. Musk, but is it technically possible to provide Starlink to Iranian people? It could be a game changer for the future," Kasraie said.

With regards to it, Musk replied that he would ask the Iranian government to lift or limit the sanctions so they could pave the way for the launch of Starlink internet.

Meanwhile, Globalstar, an iPhone satellite provider, urges FCC to neglect SpaceX's request about the 2.4GHz spectrum access.

Read Also: SpaceX and T-Mobile Collab: Starlink Internet Monthly Fees Have Been Reduced To As Low as 50%

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Written by Joseph Henry

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COVID-19 cases have been steadily dropping over the past months worldwide, yet there's another threat that could strike fear in humans. Apparently, it is similar to the coronavirus, but there's a catch.

According to the latest report, the researchers discovered it from a Russian bat. Just like SARS-CoV-2, it can infect humans. The scary part about this virus is it can resist the available vaccines.

Khosta-2 Virus is a New Threat to Global Health

(Photo : Joao Manuel Lemos Lima via Wikimedia Commons)

Lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros) hanging on the roof of an abandoned house

According to a report by The Independent, Washington State University (WSU) researchers noted that spike proteins of the Khosta-2 virus are capable of infecting human cells.

The experts added that the newly-discovered virus on Russian bats also belongs to sarbecoviruses, a sub-category where the COVID-19 virus also belongs.

Michael Letko, a virologist from WSU, shared that their study suggests that sarbecoviruses are not just limited to Asia. These viruses can also thrive outside the continent, particularly in Western Russia-- the location of the Khosta-2 virus.

The research unlocks the possibility that global health organizations should create a more powerful vaccine that could bypass the other viruses and not just the current SAR-CoV-2 variants.

While the universal vaccines could only protect humans from the said variants, they do not fully protect us against sarbecoviruses.

"Unfortunately, many of our current vaccines are designed for specific viruses we know infect human cells or those that seem to pose the biggest risk to infect us. But that is a list that's everchanging. We need to broaden the design of these vaccines to protect against all sarbecoviruses," Letko added.

Related Article: COVID-19 Infected Humans Could Threaten Bats: How Likely Could This Happen?

Khosta-2 Can Recombine With Other Viruses

The discovery of the Khosta-2 virus in Russian bats can be traced back as early as 2020. At that time, the researchers concluded that both Khosta-1 and Khosta-2 viruses do not pose some threat to people.

That's until they ran some tests for these Russian viruses and found alarming information about them. Surprisingly, they gained a better understanding of them and how they vary from one another.

The Khosta-1 variant showed a low risk to the individuals yet the Khosta-2 displayed a somehow different outcome during the experiment.

As part of the research, Letko, along with viral immunologist Bonnie Gun and viral ecologist Stephanie Seifert who are also from WSU, witnessed that the current vaccines were not able to neutralize Khosta-2.

The extra test involves serum testing from people who are positive for the COVID-19 omicron variant. However, they saw that the antibodies had no effect on them, as well.

Second paper from the lab is out in PLoS Pathogens! The bat sarbecovirus, Khosta 2, is resistant to SARS2 vaccinated serum and is not fully neutralized by serum from omicron-recovered patients. A fun collaboration with @seifert_steph and @bmgunn31 https://t.co/byxMTazjDd  FunctionalViromics (@FViromics) September 22, 2022

While the COVID-like virus appears to be lacking the genes that it needs for pathogenesis, the experts are aware that recombination could still take place.

To view the study entitled "An ACE2-dependent Sarbecovirus in Russian bats is resistant to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines," visit the journal PLOS pathogens.

Read Also: Robot From China Can Perform COVID-19 Oral Swab Test in Just 35 Seconds

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Written by Joseph Henry

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Anonymous hacked Iran's CCTV cameras, as claimed by some of the hacking group's members. The cybercriminal organization confirmed this detail via their official Twitter account.

(Photo : Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

A security camera is seen across the street from the World Trade Center site July 9, 2007 in New York City. A London-style surveillance system, dubbed the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, is being planned to blanket the area with 3,000 security cameras and other measures in an effort to detect terrorists.

"#OpIran, we hear the calls of the Iranian people.We understand the abuse you suffer, and we will do our best to help the people of Iran as much as we can," said Anonymous via its official tweet.

#OpIran, we hear the calls of the Iranian people.

We understand the abuse you suffer, and we will do our best to help the people of Iran as much as we can.

Many hacktivists around the globe support the people of Iran and understand how repressive your government is.#Anonymous  Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) September 22, 2022

Why did the international hacktivist group decide to breach thousands of Iranian CCTV cameras?

Anonymous Hacks Iran's CCTV Cameras!

According to Independent UK's latest report, the latest hacking activities against Iran's CCTV cameras happened after they breached the Iranian government's websites.

(Photo : Photo credit should read Leon Neal/AFP via Getty Images)

A police CCTV camera observes a woman walking in the Embankment area of central London, 04 April 2007. A system of "talking" CCTV cameras which let operators shout at people who misbehave is being extended across England, ministers said Wednesday, fueling fears of a "Big Brother" society.

Also Read: Anonymous' Massive Epik Breach Reveals Identities of Various Far-Right Websites, Even Anonymize Consumers!

Members of the hacktivist group also managed to hack state TV channels as part of the #OpIran movement, which began after the death of Mahsa Amini.

Amini is a 22-year-old woman who died after Iran's morality police took her into custody. Reports stated that she was accused of violating the country's strict dress code.

People protested across cities and towns in Iran after her death was announced.

Now, some members of the hacking group said that they are among the hacktivists supporting Iranians against their "repressive" government.

How Many Iranian CCTVs Were Breached?

Around 2,000 Iranian CCTVs, as well as web-connected security cams, were allegedly breached by the hacktivist group.

Anonymous hackers are believed to have used IoT (Internet-of-Things) security vulnerabilities in the security cameras, allowing them to access the CCTV systems of Iran.

Because of this, the cybercriminals said they can now access the cameras Iran used for its streets, grocery stores, police stations, and other places.

You can click here to see further details about the latest hacking activity of Anonymous in Iran.

In September 2021, Anonymous hackers leaked Epik's database.

In June 2021, the international hacking organization uploaded an Elon Musk AI conspiracy video.

For more news updates about Anonymous and other related security topics, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Anonymous' Alleged Russia Central Bank Hack To Release Thousands of Hacked Files!

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By Azernews

By Sabina Mammadli

Moldova turns to Azerbaijan as an alternative supplier of gas, Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spinu said.

The remarks were made at the Romanian International Gas Conference, organized by the Romanian Oil and Gas Employers' Federation (FPPG).

In the long term, we are trying to find alternative supplies with our partners, such as Azerbaijan, and Romania. However, we need to overcome this winter first. Moldova is quite small, thus our demand is small as well. For us, this is more about affordability, than security, he said.

The minister pointed out that what Moldova needs right now is solidarity. He mentioned that new mechanisms have to be developed to help such countries as Moldova, or Ukraine, to overcome the immediate crisis.

Let me be very clear, Moldova is the first country to be hit by Gazproms supply cuts. In the case of Moldova, we do not have any resources. And when we are put under these circumstances, this hits the direct consumers, which are households and industries, he said.

Further, Spinu noted that the country has already been decreasing its gas consumption by almost 20 percent since the beginning of September.

Speaking with a similar notion, Bulgarian Energy Minister Rossen Hristov said that getting gas from such partners as Azerbaijan is a priority for Bulgaria.

We have been working heavily on reducing the gas supplies from Russia. Our priority is diversification, which is getting gas from such partners as Azerbaijan, or Turkiye. October 1 is the day when the IGB (Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria) will start working. The initial capacity of it is 3 billion cubic meters with a potential increase to 5 billion cubic meters of gas, the minister noted.

He added that investing in infrastructure is a key priority for the country and there is no single country that can deal with these challenges alone.

Moreover, Hungarian State Secretary of the Foreign Ministry Peter Sztaray noted that the increase in gas supplies from Azerbaijan is extremely important for Europe.

The minister stressed that Hungary is in close cooperation with its immediate partners such as Azerbaijan, Turkiye, and Georgia in finding ways to diversify its energy imports.

Hungary is in a very special position. We have already built gas interconnectors for six or seven of our neighbors. But there are still missing decisions and a lack of infrastructure. Until we can fully diversify our supplies, we cannot fully destroy our economies just for the sake of sanctioning Russia, he noted.

The IGB gas pipeline is designed to connect the Greek national gas transmission system (DESFA S.A.) and the Trans-Adriatic gas pipeline (TAP AG) in the area of Komotini (Greece), and with the Bulgarian gas transmission system (Bulgartransgaz EAD) in the area of Stara Zagora. The total length of the gas pipeline is 182 km, the diameter of the pipe is 32'', and a design capacity of up to 3 billion m3/year in the direction of Greece-Bulgaria.

The pipeline is designed to increase its capacity up to 5 bcm/y depending on market interest and the capacities of neighboring gas transmission systems.

The opening ceremony of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria was held in Komotini on July 8.
On Thursday, Botswana should diversify its economy to reduce its heavy dependence on diamonds, President Mokgweetsi Masisi told world leaders attending the general debate of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

Botswana is facing "an uphill battle" to attract investors to diversify its economy away from dependence on diamonds, the president said, while pointing out the resource is still the "bedrock" of its economy.

When Botswana achieved independence 56 years ago, it was among the world's poorest countries, but now it is an upper-middle-income country, Masisi noted, adding it was fortunate to discover "what has turned out to be the largest diamond reserve across the Kimberley Belt."

The president stressed that Botswana's recovery plan includes strengthening its protection system to ensure the inclusion of vulnerable groups and persons living with disabilities.

President Mnagagwa and his Botswana counterpart President Masisi examine a diamond gem, during the Governance of Natural Resources: Diamonds for Development Conference, in New York, United States. The conference was hosted by Botswana Government. pic.twitter.com/UKGW9x2rNg  ZANU PF (@ZANUPF_Official) September 23, 2022

As adequate financing is needed to achieve sustainable development, an effective mobilization of domestic and international financial resources, as well as their prudent use, are imperative, he said.

The president voiced support for the call of UN Secretary Antonio Guterres for a world in which "power, wealth and opportunity are shared more broadly and fairly" at the international level, saying Botswana aims to further broaden conversations with partners including the United Nations, governments, civil society and the private sector as it endeavors to realize the 2030 Agenda.

On COVID-19 vaccination, the president said that many countries in the Global South, especially in Africa, did not meet the World Health Organization's 70 percent vaccination rate by mid-2022, stressing the urgent need for vaccine equity.
The delirious series of Theo James in which he goes out naked almost all the time and of which (almost) nobody talks
Malaika Favorite has created a world in which frames struggle to contain the explosion of color on canvases.

Favorite holds up one frame, where color slides out of the bottom in a mix of reds, greens, yellows and blues. In another, colors push through the side in an abstract celebration.

In a third, the silent detonation all but obscures the frame.

"I call this one 'Stained Glass Escaping the Frame,'" Favorite said, balancing the piece in her hands.

But the painting really says more about the artist than it does stained glass. It's a metaphor for Favorite's journey as an artist and how even a lack of canvas and paint couldn't contain the color that was bursting from within.

While growing up along the Mississippi River in Geismar, Favorite's art aspirations were fed by only a few tubes of paint slapped onto her mother's and aunts' old washboards. She still has the washboards, most of which became part of the West Baton Rouge Museum's 2018 exhibition "Washboard City."

Each washboard told a story inspired by women who were paid to do others' laundry, women she now sees as early entrepreneurs, though they saw themselves as family members helping to make ends meet.

These days, Favorite's attention has turned toward the environment, with her Baton Rouge Gallery show "I am Everything, Everything is Me," exploring the relationship between people and the environment.

In the end, pieces in that show will join those of past exhibits within the metal walls of the studio behind her mom's Geismar home along La. 73, where she now lives. It all forms the continuous collage of Favorite's own story.

It's a story that began beneath a tin roof that sheltered her childhood home, where her family worked in sugar cane fields.

Like the colors on her canvases escaping the frames, Favorite's story would expand outside of Geismar's boundaries into LSU, where she'd earn her bachelor's and master's degrees in fine art.

LSU also is where she met her writer husband, Anthony Calvin, who would move them to his new job at Augusta University in Georgia. But Augusta wasn't a good fit for Favorite and her art, so the couple moved to Atlanta.

"Augusta wasn't really conducive to art, but Atlanta was a great art community," Favorite said. "So, my husband was commuting 2 hours every day to his job in Augusta, and after awhile, he said he couldn't do it anymore. So we moved back."

Still, Favorite's time in Atlanta was productive. The art world began taking notice of her figurative and abstract pieces, some created on canvas, some in mixed media.

She was commissioned for public murals there, and both the Harisfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Coca-Cola Co. purchased some of her pieces for its permanent collection.

Absolut Vodka also commissioned a piece for its collection, and her work has since been featured in several books, The Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, The Alexandria Museum of Art and The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati.

After Favorite moved back to Geismar in 2016, she was honored as the recipient of the Michael Crespo Fellowship in 2018.

Moving back to her hometown wasn't as much as her artistic journey as it was about her mom.

"Mommy," as Favorite calls her mother, was aging and needed help. She now lived in an elevated house further in town and needed someone there to guide her up and down the steps.

Favorite's brothers live nearby and are there when she and her husband visit his native Barbados. That's where Favorite exercises her own writing skills in poetry and prose.

Not to mention fiction. In fact, Favorite is working on a novel about  what else?  color. Or the lack thereof. The story amplifies her love of color by creating a world where no one sees it.

"The title is, 'After Color,'" she said. "I like speculative fiction, and I passionately love color. A friend of mine lost most of his sight, and it occurred to me that some people can't see color. So I said, 'Well, suppose we couldn't see any color.' And that's the theme. Nobody can see color anymore. The color is there, but we can't see it."

Favorite's studio is a reflection of a colorful life filled not only with memories from the past but plans for the future. She opens drawers to reveal sketches that could lead to new ideas. The drawers are surrounded by carefully stowed pieces from past shows, some on canvas, some covering wood, doors, tin and chairs and still others in sculptural form.

She knows each piece's origin, where it showed and where some are still scheduled to appear. Next up will be a survey show of her work in the Southern University Visual Arts Gallery in Frank Hayden Hall, along some works to be shown in the Southern University Museum of Art. Both shows are in October.

All will highlight Favorite's way of seeing the word in both small and large presentations always bursting in bright colors.

Yet sometimes these colors serve as a contradictory backdrop to spotlight such darker subjects as her "Eight Portraits of Missing Women," in the Baton Rouge Gallery exhibit. Though joyous on the surface, some of her washboards touch on darker times in American history.

Favorite pauses to take a glance at her studio. The storage space is sectioned off from the working space, which is sectioned off from a small living space with a couch, book shelves and microwave.

It's climate controlled, but she sometimes worries about the roof. Metal buildings aren't the most sturdy, and Louisiana's vicious storms sometimes try to tear its top.

"My brother has secured the roof against the winds, but there are always problems with it," she said. "I worry about it."

She can't let her concerns about the building stop her from spending her days in the studio, working to create more, because unlike her fiction, people do see color. She sees color, and it's more than art.

It tells her story.

"It's like you imagine all kinds of scenarios, and I'm just so thankful that God has given me these gifts," Favorite said. "I say to myself, I'm just going to work at this as long as I can, because I have so many ideas that I've not done art and writing wise. And I know that if I stop, I'll never get to do those things. So I keep going."
Photo that is part of memorial, seen Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022 on utility pole near where LSU student Allison Rice was shot around 2:19 a.m. Friday, Sept. 16 near the 1500 block of Government Street. She died at the scene after being shot multiple times.
SHORT STORIES

An Ordinary Ecstasy

Luke Carman

Giramondo, $26.95

Readers of Luke Carmans first collection of stories, An Elegant Young Man, may find themselves referring to the front cover of An Ordinary Ecstasy to ensure its the same writer. Carmans debut, which won the 2015 NSW Premiers Award for New Writing, built its energy out of a self-deprecating, ironic first-person narrator whose name was, inevitably, Luke Francis Carman. It was remarkable for the joy and playfulness in the text, presenting a writer equal parts profound and profane, whose fictional avatar roamed Liverpool and other parts of Sydney.

One reviewer assigned Carman the moniker bogan flaneur, a description that suits An Elegant Young Man perfectly well but is ill-fitting for the latest collection, which embraces the lives of others with a modernist focus on memory and interiority.

On a sentence level, Luke Carman may be one of Australias most eloquent writers. Credit:Marnya Rothe

In An Ordinary Ecstasy, Carman writes about an array of outsiders, chronic overthinkers, and wayward souls with a focus on their interior lives. What occurs externally  the events, the plots, the interactions  serve most often as the catalysts for mind excursions either into the past or a self-reflective fugue state. These characters are in quest of a secret of the universe preserved under excess of the ordinary.
Only a few days later, Premier Daniel Andrews placed Melbourne into its sixth pandemic lockdown. The stay-at-home orders would not end until late October, by which time Melbourne had staked a claim to being the most locked down city in the world.

On August 3 last year, Victorias chief health officer, Brett Sutton, tweeted a photo of swim coach Dean Boxall thrusting his crotch forwards and rolling his head backwards in celebratory ecstasy. Victoria had recorded no new cases that day. Sutton thought that the naysayers had been proven wrong. Victorias strategy to eliminate COVID-19 by locking down hard and fast had prevailed once again.

For decades, it is going to be asked: how on earth did it come to this? How did the people of a modern, freewheeling, cosmopolitan city end up consigned to their homes, shut out of their offices and their schools for so long?

Credit:

With Lockdown, The Ages chief reporter Chip Le Grand has written the book to which people will turn for answers. He knows the inner workings of Victorian politics better than anyone and he brings all this expertise to bear to the lockdown question.

Through a series of penetrating interviews with almost all the leading players  politicians, public servants, medical experts, journalists and commentators  Le Grand paints a searing portrait of a set of decision makers who, giddy with their remarkable early success, became fixated on a single strategy for dealing with the pandemic and were unable either to appreciate its costs and limitations or to consider alternatives.

Le Grand is careful  perhaps overly careful  to say that he does not blame anyone for the choices they made during COVID-19. These were extraordinarily stressful times. He also provides the evidence that shows that Australia as a whole emerged from the pandemic with far less loss of life than could have been expected.
With a world distracted by war in Europe and the pending famine in Africa it has accelerated, climate activists, dedicated heads of state, and even the United Nations secretary-general have struggled to maintain global focus on climate change at the UNs annual General Assembly this week.

In speeches to the General Assembly, many world leaders, who in previous global forums have emphasised climate, instead focused on Russias invasion of Ukraine. US President Joe Biden mentioned the issue in passing and on Wednesday, neither Biden nor his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, attended a climate function hosted by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, as an informal precursor to Novembers critical COP27 climate talks.

Though the UN General Assembly has been held in the shadow of climate disasters, the world bodys focus has shifted. Credit:Pervez Masih/AP Photo

Efforts to highlight climate were left largely to nations most at risk and from UN officials themselves.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose language on climate has grown steadily tougher since he was appointed in 2017, emerged from the meeting to offer some blunt criticism of world leaders and their performance since the last talks in Glasgow.
And men often times dont verbalise or talk about their problems perhaps as much as women, and so one of the issues is that they can suffer alone to a certain degree, says Quinn. Theyve obviously got their partner to chat, but theyre not likely to go down to the pub on a Friday night and chat to their mates and say, Were having issues and I have a low sperm count. So that suffering tends to be sort of quite an isolated sort of experience. Worse, says Cook, theyre sometimes mocked because of locker room humour men are often subjected to. If they disclose that the reason theyre going to see a whole lot of specialists is because they have a sperm problem, one of the most common remarks thats often made [to them] is Does that mean youre shooting blanks? he says. There are a growing number of high-profile men who have spoken publicly about the sorrow and stress that infertility and pregnancy challenges can bring to a relationship. Theres often a sense of inadequacy, that theyre not normal, and some of them will feel shame, says Quinn of many of the male patients he sees in his Sydney office. Often, this is because they have a low sperm count  or, in some cases, no sperm  which is why their partner is struggling, or unable, to become pregnant.

When a low sperm count leads to a mans partner having to undergo the invasive medical procedures involved with IVF  like injections to harvest eggs, and then an operation to collect them  the men often feel guilty, says Quinn. Loading And when men have no sperm, the emotional toll can be severe, partly as a result of a pervasive expectation in our culture that men will pass on their genes to the next generation, says Quinn. It puts pressure on the best relationships, he says. He feels guilty, and hes withdrawn. Because theyre [the men] thinking, Why am I having sex? I dont have any sperm, you cant get pregnant. For some men, that can present later on with basically frank depression. Its a scenario Melbourne psychologist Danielle Graber has seen on numerous occasions.

I had one client and he was incredibly supportive of his partner, and just got very much into a This will happen, this will happen [mentality], and it kept not happening, says Graber, of their failed IVF experiences. She [his partner] kept miscarrying. And he became really depressed. Because it was the first time in his life where he couldnt make something happen by being positive, by putting his mind to it. He became clinically depressed, quite significantly. Men who must consider having to use donor sperm in order to have a child with their partner often face other anxieties. Because the women are still carrying the child, the guys worried that theyre not going to bond and connect with the baby, says Graber, who frequently counsels couples through infertility crises. Like, that theyll know that its not theirs, and some deep primal thing will kick him and make him reject the offspring. Other men sometimes worry that their future children  should donor insemination be successful  will reject them. Ive run several therapy groups for men who are undergoing, as a couple, donor insemination, and [the men] would often say, Whats the child going to think about me, you know, when they get to be 13, 14, and we tell them how they were conceived? says Roger Cook, a psychologist and infertility counsellor who has researched the psychological effects of infertility on men. [Theyd say] We all know what adolescents are like, theyre going to say, Well youre not my father anyway.

Others thought they werent worthy husbands if they couldnt impregnate their wives. Loading They were the guys who would sometimes say to their wife, Oh look, Im not up to it here, Im not able to produce sperm, I cant get you pregnant, I know you want a child, why dont you separate and you can find somebody else who can, says Cook, an adjunct professor at Swinburne University, of men he has interviewed about infertility. He remembers the wives, in those scenarios, reassuring their partners and categorically rejecting this offer. But Graber has encountered clients who havent been as fortunate.

She recalls one couple that had undergone numerous cycles of IVF, with no success, before the husband decided that he was finished, when the wife wanted to keep trying. I think he wanted to stop getting his hopes up, and then having it [IVF] fail, says Graber. The couple went to court over the use of the remaining sperm that had been stored at the IVF clinic, which she wanted to retain. It had to be destroyed, says Graber, about the sperm, as the court case was unsuccessful. The couple divorced. Men also suffer distinct psychological stresses during IVF when it is their partner whose body is posing an obstacle to pregnancy, rather than their own. The focus really is on the woman and her experience of it, and it needs to be for a lot of it, but then they  the men feel like theyve got to be the strong one, and be there for her, and tend to neglect themselves, says Graber.

Then there is the stress they experience when forced to have sex on demand  at a time during their partners menstrual cycle when they are most fertile  in order to boost the chances of conception. So that means the woman has to say to her partner, OK, weve got to have sex tonight, now thats not always something that every man in the world can just do on demand, says Cook, adding that the stress of this scenario sometimes leads to erectile dysfunction. (Usually, he says, this resolves once the pressure is taken off.) Mens stress when confronting fertility problems is often compounded because of the stereotype that women are more maternal than men. Its just not even considered widely that this  sadness at a difficulty to have children  might be a thing for them, says Graber. [They get] Oh, youll be right. Youll get more holidays. Get to sleep in on Sundays.. Creating opportunities for the men in our lives to talk about their experiences is crucial and will ensure the problem isnt magnified, says Cook, who ran a clinic that supported people with fertility problems at Swinburne University for 20 years.
Wearing hi-vis vests, carrying toolboxes and wrangling massive amounts of commercial plastic, they looked like normal tradies.

But police say that Tung Huu Bui, Watcharaphong Aphichotnithithon and Sutthichai Torthititham were in fact high level organised crime figures responsible for the importation and failed distribution of more than 80 kilograms of methamphetamine.

Nine pallets of ice were allegedly imported into Australia. Credit:Police Media

What we have learnt about this syndicate is they were well organised and capable of importing prohibited drugs and dismantling their consignments, [and] moving the product between states, drug and firearms squad Commander Detective Superintendent John Watson told reporters on Friday.

The groups alleged modus operandi was simple: nine large pallets, each containing a 50-kilogram roll of commercial plastic, were imported to Sydney. Allegedly concealed inside each wrap were varying amounts of ice.
If we are looking for an elder statesman to represent Australia, we couldnt go further than Senator Patrick Dodson. A statesman for all of us. Joy Paterson, Mount Annan Naval gazing Your correspondent (Letters, September 23) seems to have missed the fact not all the naval ratings hauling the gun carriage at her majestys funeral were men; not that I dispute his maths. Women also pull their weight in the services. Jennifer Briggs, Kilaben Bay If the British royal family truly wanted to be known for their espousal of environmental causes, then an alternative to a 300kg coffin could have made a huge state statement. Cornelius van der Weyden, Balmain East Royal Navy Sailors walk ahead and behind the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Credit:Paul Ellis/AP

Has anyone checked how many of these suggestions on creating a republic come from monarchists just trying to confuse republicans? Jock Brodie, Port Macquarie The death of a king or queen prompts one-off events such as Thursdays public holiday. How about we commemorate the changing of the monarch by releasing all those in immigration detention and giving them work visas? Lesley McBurney, Wavell Heights (Qld) What a shame the time, money and preparation spent honouring the dead all occur after the event  unknown to those directly concerned. Personally, I would far prefer that any tributes be paid and displayed face-to-face  not with my face up when laying in a coffin, or buried. Edward Loong, Milsons Point Ditch construction taxes to make housing affordable Everyone is correct in saying that affordable housing is a problem (Letters, September 23) but no one gives a solution. The problem is not with developers who provide the built product but with the supply chain and cost of new housing. It can take years to gain approvals from local councils and then take years to construct. The cost of new houses is about 40 per cent tax and then you have holding costs and increasing interest rates. Doing away with incentives such as negative gearing will only reduce the supply by investors and put more pressure on rents. Housing is the highest-taxed commodity, my suggestion is to remove all the taxes on housing so that it can be produced at cost plus a margin. But I cant see that happening, and until it does, the problem will remain. Peter Icklow, Pymble

Since Labor attempted and failed in 2019 to address the problem of an unfair advantage for investors, we have had almost insanely low interest rates, which propelled property values to the stratosphere. Rents have also spiralled due to a shortage of accommodation, and financial impacts on landlords due to increasing expenses such as insurance and rates, increasing mortgage payments and rapacious state government land tax. To add fuel to the fire, the government intends to attract hundreds of thousands of temporary and permanent migrants a year, all of whom need housing. The only solution seems to be to significantly increase the availability of cheaper housing, but preferably close to public transport and services. State governments and councils should consider carefully any possible option to rezone residential areas for higher-density housing. Geoff Harding, Chatswood After the end of WWII, rents were high and building materials could not be had for love or money, so my mother turned part of her home into a small flat so my sister and her returned soldier fiance could get married. Mum and my sister were both quarrelsome women, so there were some problems, but at least the young couple could start married life. Has it come to this again? Will young couples be forced to live with parents in order to save for a home? Have we gone back to the 1940s? Coral Button, North Epping Credit:John Shakespeare As someone who currently has tenants in the home in which I will live when I retire, may I offer another perspective? During the first COVID lockdown I reduced the rent and have left it there, resisting suggestions from my agent to do otherwise. Some property owners are fair and reasonable. I like to think I am a responsive and responsible landlady, providing secure, decent, well-maintained housing for a family when they need it and while I am able. Meredith Williams, Northmead With the need for severe budgetary constraints and a period of rising interest rates, could there be a better time to eliminate new negative gearing concessions? Trevor Taylor, Port Macquarie

Business as usual Your correspondent (Letters, September 23) considered the damaging economic effect of yesterdays public holiday to honour Queen Elizabeth II. Im sure the retailers and cafe owners at my local large shopping centre werent crying over their losses  the place was packed with families enjoying a day of retail therapy and food. There was no recognition of the Queens 70 years of service with a silent pause at 11am. It passed without notice by the crowds.Christine Tiley, Albany Creek (Qld) If King Charles visits, can we have a national public holiday? Or perhaps we could have one every time a member of the nobility, major or minor, dies? Say, earls and up? Yesterdays holiday was really good. It was marred only by a garbled request in my local supermarket at 10.58 for a minutes silence. No one near me stopped shopping. We were enjoying ourselves too much. David Neilson, Finke (NT) Fine floodwater fools With another La Nina summer looming, the inevitable warnings about not driving through floodwaters are just as certainly going to be ignored. For a long time now weve had Total Fire Bans to reduce bushfire risk. Surely its time to introduce fines for those who endanger their lives and the lives of the SES and police by continuing to ignore the warnings about driving through floodwater? Weve heard these warnings countless times and those who continue to do it are either selfish or stupid. Fines of $5000 plus, or paying for the cost of their rescue, will hopefully change behaviour. Im sure our rescue services have better things to do. Matt Horne, Forster

Pomp it up Years ago, the Herald hosted a function at the Opera House in a pastoral reach to its correspondents (Letters, September 23). Those attending included Con Vaitsas, Edward Loong and Vicky Marquis. King Charles III has the good taste to share my daughters birthday, on November 14. Both ceremonies will be duly honoured with equal pomp and pageantry. Mike Fogarty, Weston (ACT) Choose humanity Mark Dreyfus has the opportunity to distinguish the Albanese government as a thoughtful, caring and considerate government, in stark contrast to its predecessor, by providing a quintessential outcome for Darko Desic and his supporters (Free Dougie: friends rally to save jailed fugitive, September 23). Divorce your decision from politics and decide based on facts, compassion and the will of the people. Bob Cameron, Coffs Harbour Title deed

There has been much discussion (Letters, September 23) regarding the possibility of cutting the apron strings with (not so Great any more) Britain after the death of the Queen and suggestions of what title the nominated person will be. One name that is overlooked is Head of Country. It gives honours and recognition to our Indigenous sisters and brothers, as well as righting the wrongs of history. My nomination would be Adam Goodes, a man of dignity and an excellent role model for all. Llieda Wild, Eastwood Lets go with The Wizard of Oz or maybe The Big Banksia Man (Ill exclude the bad). Heather Johnson, West Pennant Hills Top Bloke. Or if the other side gets in, Top Sheila. Brian Everingham, Engadine Its obvious: the head of state should be Old Mate. Philip Jirman, Wallabi Point Surely it is BOSS (Bloody Outstanding Supervisor Sort). George Zivkovic, Northmead

Im sure our rich and mellifluous Indigenous languages can provide a suitable term. Andrew Taubman, Queens Park Boss Cocky. Michael Pursche, Gordon Postscript The Queen figured strongly on the Letters pages again this week, as we worked our way through the funeral and the discussions afterwards. The funeral was either a fine and wonderful thing, or a dreadful waste of time and money, although generally the opinion was favourable. The pro letter writers were impressed by the outfits, the jewels, the horses, the overall pomp and the stamina of the royal marchers. They worried about the health and welfare of the young sailors pulling the gun carriage and the pallbearers. The con writers were disapproving of the whole box and dice, from the beginning to the endless postmortems, preferring to switch off the TV and do something useful instead.

Talk of the Queen segued nicely into further consideration of a possible Australian republic. Opinion here was for a republic, despite the survey this week that showed lowering support for a republic, with only a few people grimly hanging on to the monarchy. Writers then turned to a spirited discussion about what a new head of state could be called. Opinions range from president (really not popular, as it turned out) to purely Australian titles such as the ringer or the Boss Cocky. Is there really any point in having a referendum about this? The Herald letters writers seem to have it sorted, along with so many other problems in life.

Away from this, subjects ranged over the continuing housing problems for would-be owners and renters, the privatisation of Sydney buses, taxation (up or down?), whether any more places should be named for a royal personage and, back again, who or what to put on new banknotes with the change of monarch.

Harriet Veitch, acting letters editor To submit a letter to The Sydney Morning Herald, email letters@smh.com.au. Click here for tips on how to submit letters.
Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney has said she deeply believes Queen Elizabeth II understood the meaning of sovereignty never ceded, a central acknowledgment of reconciliation that recognises Aboriginal dispossession.

Burney, a Wiradjuri woman who is leading the push for an Indigenous Voice to parliament, said she grew up singing God save the Queen in primary school while not being counted as an Australian and being denied the same citizenship rights as her non-Indigenous peers.

Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney said she had attended funerals for two significant Indigenous women in recent days. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

In Aboriginal culture, sorry business is deeply important. Just this week I have been to two funerals of women of Elizabeth IIs generation, Aunty Esther Carroll in Sydney on Monday, and Aunty Nita Scott in Narromine on Tuesday, Burney told parliament, which returned on Friday for the first time since the Queens death on September 8 for a joint motion of condolence and a congratulatory message on the accession of King Charles III.

Two extraordinary women born at a time in the country when they were subject to the horrors of the NSW welfare board, which rendered every Aboriginal person a ward of the state.
Emergency housing provider Q Shelter says allowing granny flats to be rented out by homeowners will help relieve the housing shortage in Queensland at a low cost.

But the provider has immediately called for a specialist affordable housing expert unit to guide government decision-making.

The Queensland government intends to change legislation to allow granny flats to be rented out. Credit:iStock

Parking problems, flood access and suburban congestion issues will become touchpoints in many suburbs.

Q Shelter executive director Fiona Caniglia said the idea would have little impact on urban communities and could create quality small homes at a low cost.
Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner will press the state government again this week to release water from south-east Queenslands dams.

His request follows an initial call on September 5 to release dam water, which was rejected by Queensland Water Minister Glenn Butcher.

Brisbanes lord mayor Adrian Schrinner will again press the state government about releasing water from dams as the wet season begins. Credit:Fairfax Media

After Thursday evenings rain deluge in the states south-eastern corner, Schrinner on Friday afternoon repeated his call.

We now have a firm prediction from the Bureau of Meteorology of a third La Nina, Schrinner said.
London: Liz Truss has staked the two years of her premiership on the stunning gamble that borrowing billions to fund tax cuts for the rich and sacrificing company and healthcare tax revenues will spur Britains stagnant economy by the time of the next election.

Truss, who has been prime minister since the beginning of September, delighted the right wing of the Conservative Party that installed her to replace Boris Johnson as leader with the 45 billion ($75 billion) tax cuts, primarily for top income earners, unveiled by her new Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng on Friday (UK time).

UK Prime Minister Liz Truss has announced new tax cuts for the rich. Credit:Bloomberg

What was billed as a fiscal event turned out to be a seismic rerouting of the UKs economic approach, that included removing the 45 per cent tax rate for those on incomes of more than 150,000 ($250,000) and scrapped the cap on bankers bonuses that were imposed by the EU after the financial crisis.

The highest income tax rate will be 40 per cent and the planned lowering of the base rate of income tax from 20 per cent to 19 per cent will be brought forward by a year.
New York: Russias top diplomat has walked out of a United Nations Security Council meeting as the US and its allies stepped up their condemnation of Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine and accused Moscow of violating international law.

Less than two days after Putin announced Russias biggest conscription since World War II, a diplomatic showdown erupted at the UN on Thursday (US time) where Russian and Western officials clashed over alleged war crimes committed by Moscow.

Russias Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks during a high level Security Council meeting on the situation in Ukraine. Credit:AP

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived late to the Security Council meeting, delivered his speech and then left soon afterwards.

While he was there, he used the global platform to once again accuse the West of forcing Russia to launch its so-called special military operation to protect itself, and claimed that Ukraine and its allies were attempting to impose on us a completely different narrative about Russian aggression.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has urged China to use its clout as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council to prevail upon Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt his invasion of Ukraine.

On Ukraine  China is a great power, China is a P5 [permanent five council] member, China has signed up to the UN charter, Wong said in a press briefing after a meeting with her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong says Australias trade dispute with China was top of the agenda in her discussions with her counterpart, Wang Yi. Credit:afr

We believe, as does every country with the exception of Russia, that Russia is in breach of the UN charter through its illegal invasion of Ukraine. We encourage China as a P5 member with a special responsibility to uphold the UN charter, that they uphold the UN charter to use its influence with the war.

Wong said her second meeting with Wang, following their first face-to-face discussions at the G20 foreign ministers meeting in Bali in July, was constructive but the nations were still on a long road to better relations after the breakdown in communication during the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic.




Mr. Castillo participated in the ceremony to celebrate the Day of the Peruvian Armed Forces.

Within this framework, the top official indicated that the Peruvian State has the obligation to provide the Armed Forces with all the equipment and requirements for the effectiveness of their actions, as well as to watch over their personnel especially the troops.

"Therefore, I announce that as of October, a Supreme Decree will be signed to increase by a third, from S/8 (US$2.04) to S/12 (US$3.07), the concept of food for every Armed Forces troop member; it will benefit thousands of young people, who are part of the voluntary military service program," he expressed.

The Commander-in-Chief indicated that this decision comes in response to a clamor from the vigilant soldiers of the homeland, who for many years "had been left behind."

Within this framework, he paid tribute to Peru's Army, Navy, and Air Force tutelary institutions that are part of the history and structure of the rule of law, on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of Peru's Armed Forces.

President Castillo affirmed that military institutions are trained with a high degree of efficiency and rely on professional skills for national defense. Besides, they are committed to the consolidation of international peace through their increasing participation in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations.

Similarly, the top official specified that a multisectoral commission will be set up soon. It will craft a technical report for the efficient use of resources that allow the repowering and modernization of the Armed Forces and the National Police.

Unity and commitment

Moreover, the President specified that Peru is experiencing a decisive moment in its history.

Thus, he said this circumstance should remind the State powers, as well as political and social movements, business groups, workers, and all Peruvians "that the future of the country is in our hands."





"Let's work with unity, commitment, and responsibility; the stability of democracy lies in the ability to dialogue, above our differences, leaving aside confrontations and accusations. (...) No challenge is more important than the Peru Agenda to fight against poverty and inequality," he added.



El presidente del Consejo de Ministros, Anibal Torres, participa en la ceremonia central por el Dia de las Fuerzas Armadas, presidida por el jefe de Estado, Pedro Castillo, en la Plaza a la Bandera. pic.twitter.com/bVM3vMWzVf  Consejo de Ministros (@pcmperu) September 23, 2022

#AHORA | El presidente de la Republica @PedroCastilloTe lidera ceremonia por el Dia de las Fuerzas Armadas del Peru en la Plaza de la Bandera, distrito de Pueblo Libre. pic.twitter.com/73rbnHNPGx  Presidencia del Peru ???? (@presidenciaperu) September 23, 2022

(END) JCC/MVB

The President of the Republic Pedro Castillo on Friday announced the increase in the concept of food for the Armed Forces' troop personnel.Published: 9/23/2022
By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

An Azerbaijani-Turkish medical business forum and healthcare exhibition will expand current cooperation between the two countries, Turkiye's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said in Baku, Azernews reports.

Stressing that Turkiye and Azerbaijan are two important centers of power and their influence is increasing in the region, the minister also noted the close cooperation between the two countries in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I hope this forum will expand our current cooperation and pave the way for new plans," he said.

Portal for those wishing to go to Turkiye for treatment

Fahrettin Koca also stated that a special portal has been launched for those wishing to go to Turkiye for treatment.

"Persons going to Turkiye for treatment can choose a clinic and a doctor on the portal," he said.

Azerbaijani-Turkish Medical Business Forum and Healthcare Exhibition

Speaking at the forum, Azerbaijani Health Minister Teymur Musayev said that this forum and exhibition, organized for the first time, is another manifestation of the high level of cooperation between the two countries.

He noted that about 200 Azerbaijanis were sent to Turkiye for medical treatment through the YASHAT Foundation.

"Currently, more than 700 Turkish citizens are studying at Azerbaijan Medical University," he said.

Emphasizing that bilateral cooperation has become more intensive during the coronavirus pandemic, the minister noted that the TURKOVAC vaccine is being tested in the third phase in Azerbaijan.

"Relations with Turkiye are of specific nature to Azerbaijan. Cooperation with Turkiye is carried out not only in a bilateral format but also at the international level," he said.

Azerbaijani hospitals use Turkish-made medical equipment

Teymur Musayev also mentioned that most of the hospitals in Azerbaijan are using Turkish-made medical equipment and instruments.

He recalled that the roadmap for cooperation signed between the Health Ministries of Azerbaijan and Turkiye on May 17, 2022, envisages the regular organization of business forums in both countries.

"More than 1,000 Turkish medicines have passed state registration in Azerbaijan. Representatives of the pharmaceutical sector of both countries, manufacturers of medical equipment, and representatives of the field of medical tourism, he said.

Moreover, the minister expressed hope that cooperation between the two countries will continue to grow and the forum will open up new opportunities for investors.

Such interaction in the healthcare sector will help increase the satisfaction of our citizens with the healthcare system, improve the health of the population and the quality of life," he said.

COVID-19 pandemic nearing its end

The Azerbaijani health minister highlighted that the COVID-19 pandemic is nearing its end, adding that the WHO leadership has already expressed hope for the soonest end of the pandemic.

"The mortality rate from COVID-19 is at a minimum level in Azerbaijan. However, there are still cases of coronavirus infection," he said.

Outlining the sufficient supply of vaccines in Azerbaijan, he also urged those who have not yet been vaccinated to get vaccinated.
The red star marks the approximate location of the 3.4 magnitude earthquake that occurred 32 kilometres southwest of Prince George, B.C. on September 21, 2022. (Earthquakes Canada)

3.4 Magnitude Earthquake Rumbles Southwest of Prince George, BC

Earthquake Near Prince George

Almost 150 people reported feeling a recent 3.4 magnitude earthquake near Prince George, B.C., to Earthquakes Canada.

Most of the people who reported feeling the quakes effects described its intensity as weak, but 28 people described it as being a degree higher than that, according to the Community Internet Intensity report.

There are no reports of major damage or injuries and none are expected. Emergency Info B.C. stated, declaring the quake occurred just after 3 p.m. on Sept. 21, with a 3.4 magnitude, and at a depth of 5 kilometres.

Earthquakes with a magnitude less than 3.5 are recorded on local seismographs but generally not felt. In contrast, quakes at 3.5 to 5.4 magnitude are often felt but rarely cause damage, according to Earthquakes Canada.

It is very unlikely that an earthquake of magnitude less than five could cause any damage, Earthquakes Canada states on their website.

Yes! Very strong abrupt shake, felt like someone drove a truck into the house, or shook it by its shoulders. Im in Tabor Lake, one person commented on Twitter. Tabor Lake is about a 20-minute drive from northwest of Prince George.

According to Earthquakes Canada, the quake occurred 32 kilometres southwest of Prince George.

Seismologist Taimi Mulder with Natural Resources Canada said, earthquakes are not common in that area, however, they are not unknown. Its not unreasonable to have an earthquake of this magnitude but they are few and far betweenprobably once a decade.

The building code designs are such now that buildings wont collapse and this is just around the area where you might start to see the damage. In general, there is not too much worry for residents of Prince George, she said.

Dr. Fei Tong, an Assistant Professor of Seismic Engineering at UNBC, echoed a similar remark: Engineers carefully design these structures such that this damage will not cause the overall collapse of the building, telling the local media Prince George Now that the city is at very low risk for damage from earthquakes.

In March 1986, the highest magnitude earthquake in the region was recorded at 5.4 magnitude. Before that, the largest recorded in the region was in 1932 at 5.0 magnitude, according to Earth Quakes Canada.

Two other earthquakes in the region occurred in September with a higher magnitude. One was a 4.1 magnitude quake 112 km south of Port Alice, B.C., occurring at a depth of 10 kilometres on Sept. 20; and the other was a 3.6 magnitude quake, 218 kilometres west of Port Hardy, B.C., at a depth of 10 kilometres on Sept. 7.
In Western medicine, acne is considered a skin condition where the pores of the skin become blocked by hair, sebum, bacteria, and dead skin cells.

Traditional Chinese medicine looks deeper at the root cause of the skin condition: an experienced Chinese traditional medicine practitioner can identify the underlying internal organ issues by looking at the location of the acne.

Acne on the Forehead: Heart Needs Cooling

If you get acne on your forehead, in traditional Chinese medicine, it could be a sign of the heart having too much heat, which is due to stress or lack of sleep. Usually, when someone is stressed and cant sleep at night, acne could show up on their forehead.

Therefore, from the traditional Chinese medicines point of view, one would focus on cooling the heart to remove acne on the forehead. Relieving stress, adjusting sleep schedule, and staying hydrated are highly recommended.

Foods that help to cool the heart include lily bulbs, lotus seeds, mung beans, and chrysanthemum flowers.

Lotus seed and lily bulb soup: Place a handful of lotus seeds, lily bulbs, and dried jujubes in enough water to cover the ingredients, bring the water to boil, then simmer for 40 minutes.

The soup can cool the heart, strengthen the yin in the heart, and eliminate the acne on the forehead.

There are two acupuncture points that can be helpful in getting rid of acne on the forehead: the Shen Men point on the wrist and Tai Chong point on the foot. Massaging these points can calm the heart and unblock the liver.

Acne Between Eyebrows

If the acne appears in between the eyebrows, it might have something to do with the heart and lungs. Other symptoms such as heart palpitations and chest tightness might accompany this, or one may find breathing difficult when running. This could be caused by a sedentary lifestyle.

If one does not exercise much, one should not eat salty or heavily seasoned preserved foods, to prevent the body from bloating and to lighten the burden of the heart.

Massaging the Da Ling point and Nei Guan point on the wrist can have a calming effect.

Foods that help people sleep, help nourish the heart and lungs can target the root problem and eliminate the acne between the eyebrows. These include ophiopogon root tuber (maimendong), Chinese asparagus roots (tianmendong), American ginseng, and lotus seeds.

Turnip and two roots soup: First prepare a thick broth with 3 grams of ophiopogon root tuber, 3 grams of Chinese asparagus roots, 5 grams of American ginseng, and boiling water.

Then add your favorite stock, white turnip, 15 dried jujubes, 10 lotus seeds, and the broth into the pot. Put the pot lid on and simmer. Add a little salt before serving.

Acne on and Beneath the Nose: Spleen and Stomach Need Tonification

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the tip of the nose corresponds to the spleen, while the sides of the nose correspond to the stomach. So if blackheads and pimples show up on the nose, it might be because of the excessive consumption of nuts, fried or BBQd foods, and/or spicy foods. These foods put a heavy burden on the spleen and stomach and can cause acne on the nose.

Those with acne on the nose could also suffer from bloating, sour regurgitation, and difficulty with bowel movements. All of these symptoms are caused by the digestive tract having excessive dampness and heat.

Massaging the Zu San Li point and Feng Long point on the leg can help rebalance ones appetite: if someones appetite is too strong, massaging these points can decrease their appetite; when someone does not want to eat, massaging these points can increase their appetite. In addition, diarrhea can be treated by warming these two points.

A traditional recipe called four spirit soup can nourish the digestive tract. Parents commonly use it to increase a childs appetite and improve digestion.

Four spirit soup: Prepare equal amounts of Gordon Euryale Seeds (qianshi), lotus seeds, Chinese yams, Poria (fuling), and Jobs tears, boil and simmer them with pork ribs. Add a small amount of Chinese Angelica root (danggui) and rice wine to taste.

Acne on the Left Cheek: Liver Needs Tonification

When looking at the cheeks, there is a saying in traditional Chinese medicine: Left liver; right lung. So acne on the left cheek might be related to the liver.

Staying up late at night and alcohol intake can cause liver malfunction, and the symptoms can show up on the left cheek.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, to treat acne on the left cheek, one can massage Gong Sun point and Tai Chong point.

Foods that can cool the liver are mung beans, small cucumbers, and winter melons.

Wolfberry chrysanthemum tea is also very effective. Wolfberries (goji berries) can nourish the liver and moisten the lungs. Chrysanthemum flowers can cleanse the liver, brighten the eyes, and strengthen the gallbladder.

Acne on Right Cheek: the Lungs Need Tonification

Many people with allergic rhinitis have acne on their right cheek. This is because their lungs have too much heat or other imbalance.

Massaging the Lie Que point and Chi Ze point can help cool down and moisten the lungs, so as to remove acne on the right cheek.

Foods that are beneficial to the lungs are Jobs tears, wood ear mushrooms, almonds, and pears. They can thus improve the acne.

A very beneficial tea for the lungs consists of American ginseng, honeysuckle flowers and ophiopogon root tuber.

Honeysuckle flowers can reduce heat and inhibit the action of germs. American ginseng can replenish the energy in the lungs. This tea can moisten the lungs and is also very tasty.

Acne Around the Temples

The temples are related to the gallbladder. If one has acne around their temples, maybe this person has an irregular meal schedule, and they often skip meals, or just have one larger meal per day.

Massaging Tai Chong point, San Yin Jiao point, and Dan Nang point might help with the situation.

A fixed meal schedule also helps. Furthermore, bitter melon juice and winter melon soup can help alleviate the burden of the digestive tract.

Acne Around the Mouth

Acne around the mouth might occur if someone eats too much spicy food, too much meat, and an insufficient amount of vegetables. These people should eat more foods that are high in fiber.

Massaging Zu San Li point and Qu Chi point can help.

People with acne around their mouth can drink a type of tea called Yin Qiao, which consists of honeysuckle flowers, fructus forsythiae (lianqiao), mint, cassia seeds, and jujubes.

The cassia seeds must be fried before consumption. They can help reduce the edema caused by eating heavy and salty/spicy foods. Honeysuckle flowers and fructus forsythiae can clear fever and heat. Mint can regulate digestive functions.

Acne on the Chin: Endocrine System Needs Regulation

In traditional Chinese medicine, the chin corresponds to the genitourinary system. So acne on the chin might indicate an unbalanced endocrine system. Women might experience issues with their ovaries and uterus during monthly menstrual periods. Men might suffer discomfort in the genitourinary system. Resolving these issues first will clear up the acne.

Speaking from his clinical experience, Dr. Dawei Guo, president of the Fu Yuan Chinese Medicine Clinic in Taiwan, said that 80 percent of those who have acne on the chin enjoy eating overly spicy food.

He recommends they eat water spinach and bamboo shoots to encourage intestinal motility and clear the residual feces in the intestines. Men can also eat a lot of tomatoes, which are beneficial for their lower urinary tract.

Massaging the Xue Hai point and Shen Guan point can also help.

They can also drink tea made from honeysuckle flowers, fructus forsythiae, mint, cassia seeds, and jujubes.
NCAFP Trustee and Former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary Donald Blinken speaks onstage at the National Committee On American Foreign Policy 2017 Gala Awards Dinner in New York City on Oct. 30, 2017. (Mike Coppola/Getty Images for National Committee on American Foreign Policy)

Antony Blinkens Father, Former Diplomat and Banker, Dies

NEW YORKSecretary of State Antony Blinkens father, Donald, a former U.S. diplomat, investment banker, and modern art collector, died on Thursday. He was 96.

Blinken announced his fathers passing in a series of tweets while he was attending the annual UN General Assembly.

My family lost a parent and grandparent, a source of love and inspirationmy father Donald Blinken, he wrote.

A member of the U.S. Army Air Corps, a U.S. ambassador, president of the Mark Rothko Foundation, (chairman of the board) of the State University of New York, dad served his city, state, and country, Blinken said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken addresses the Media after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (unseen), at the prime ministers office in Jerusalem on March 27, 2022. (Jacquelyn Martin/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Donald Blinken died peacefully at his home in East Hampton, Long Island, a State Department official said.

Dad inspired me to public service, Blinken wrote. He lived with decency, dignity, and modesty. He loved his wife Vera and his family. He built a wonderful life and gave me a wonderful life. I love you dad.

Antony Blinken canceled several events he was to attend at the UN General Assembly on Thursday evening due to his fathers deteriorating medical condition and his schedule there on Friday will be adjusted to account for family commitments, the State Department official said.

Donald Blinken served as the chairman of the State University of New York system from 1978 to 1990 and was U.S. Ambassador to Hungary from 1994 to 1997, during the Clinton administration.
Arrest After 15-Year-Old Fatally Stabbed Outside UK School

A 16-year-old boy was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of the murder of a 15-year-old in Huddersfield, England.

The teenager was stabbed outside his school on Wednesday afternoon and was treated at the scene before being taken to hospital where he later died, police said.

The murder has rocked the west Yorkshire town and the pupils of North Huddersfield Trust School.

One of the pupils, Alfie Wilkinson, visited the school on Thursday to lay flowers at the scene.

Great student, great kid and now hes passed and he cant see his mum no more, Wilkinson told British broadcaster Sky News.

Police said the suspect was arrested shortly before 5 a.m. on Thursday.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during an event in the East Room of the White House in Washington D.C. on Sept. 15, 2021. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Australia Deeply Disappointed in Beijings Unfounded Criticism of AUKUS

The Australian government has pushed back on criticism from Beijing over the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, saying the statement contains numerous misleading and incorrect assertions.

It comes after the Chinese Embassy in Canberra released a statement claiming a report from the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agencys (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossim, was neither neutral nor objective.

In a statement released on Sept.21, the Australian government said that Beijings statement was incorrect.

We are deeply disappointed by Chinasa P5 member and nuclear weapons stateunfounded and harmful claims about the professionalism and independence of the IAEA, said the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

We welcome Director-General Grossis report to the September IAEA Board of Governors meeting, confirming his satisfaction with the AUKUS partners engagement with the IAEA to date and that naval nuclear propulsion is not prohibited by the NPT regime.

The Foreign Affairs Department said it was pleased the report affirmed Australias compliance with reporting obligations under the IAEA Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol, while noting the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) does not prohibit the acquisition of naval nuclear propulsion by non-nuclear weapon states.

Australias proposed acquisition of conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines will be fully consistent with our international obligations under the NPT regime, they said.

We reaffirm our commitment that Australia will not acquire nuclear weapons.

We are committed to setting the highest possible non-proliferation standard and to strengthening the global nuclear non-proliferation regime.

Beijing Rattled By AUKUS: Expert

International affairs expert Ron Huisken from the Australian National Universitys Strategic and Defence Studies Centre said it was not surprising Beijing felt threatened by AUKUS.

Beijings reaction was hardly surprising. Even against the background of the sharp deterioration a number of years earlier of AustraliaChina relations, resulting in an effective political and economic estrangement, the AUKUS pact was an utterly stunning development, Huisken wrote in a piece for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

The nuclear-powered submarine, even when equipped exclusively with conventional weaponry, is indisputably among the most formidable weapons systems ever devised.

He also said it might push Beijing to reconsider its own actions in the South China Sea and the deployment of several hundred short and medium-range ballistic missiles across the Taiwan Strait.

Each of these developments is having and will have profoundly important strategic consequences, he said.

He noted that AUKUS did not come out of nowhere.

AUKUS, and, for that matter, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, qualify as external checks and balances on the international behaviour of other states, he said. Broadly speaking, participating states go to the trouble and risk of devising external checks only when their concerns about the absence of internal constraints on the behaviour of a third party have accumulated and become acute.
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. There is no tangible progress in the border delimitation and demarcation between Armenia and Azerbaijan, opening of regional connections and the future peace treaty because Azerbaijan is using all those topics for territorial claims against Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in his speech at the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

For example  one of the most important subjects of peace treaty is bilateral recognition of territorial integrity between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We have already declared that we are ready to do so, but Azerbaijan hasnt done it so far. On the contrary, Azerbaijan has been publicly voicing that the entire South and East of Armenia and even the capital city of Yerevan, is an Azerbaijani land. On the other hand, Azerbaijan is keeping under occupation tangible territories of Armenia, and as I said the risk of new aggression by Azerbaijan remains very high.

In this regard Im posing an official and public question to the Azerbaijani president. Could you show the map of Armenia, that you recognize or are ready to recognize as the Republic of Armenia? Why Im asking this. Because it can come out that from the point of view of official Azerbaijan only half of Armenia and even less - is the Republic of Armenia. If Azerbaijan would recognize territorial integrity of Armenia, not theoretically, but concretely, I mean the integrity of our internationally recognized territory of 29.800 square kilometers, it would mean that we can sign peace treaty by mutually recognizing each others territorial integrity. Otherwise, we would have a phantom peace treaty and after that Azerbaijan will use border delimitation process for new territorial claims and occupation.

As you may know bilateral commission of border delimitation and border security was formed in May and two meetings of the commission have taken place. Before the formation of the commission, last year Azerbaijan occupied more than 40 square kilometer territories of Armenia. And then, one of the excuses of Azerbaijan about the reasons they have done this - was that Armenia, according to them, refuses to form border delimitation commission. Of course we didnt refuse to do that but only insisted that simultaneously a mechanism of border security should be established.

In the end, according to our international partners request, who argued that the border commission work itself will be a reliable factor for border security, we agreed to start the work. And now that border delimitation and security commission has been formed and is working, Azerbaijan initiated a new phase of aggression. And some of those international partners are silent. But what is now the explanation for aggression of Azerbaijan. You know, if someone has excess of aggressiveness the reason always will be there. As it is said in a movie it is always possible to find a reason. For example, why they killed prince Hamlet. Who killed, how, when and why  it doesnt matter. The reality is that Azerbaijan is trying and will continue to use delimitation process for territorial claims against Armenia.

Another such a topic is the opening of regional transport communication links. Azerbaijan is trying to represent Armenia as a destructive side in this discussion. The reality is, that Armenia is ready to open its roads for Azerbaijan in the framework of our national legislation. Moreover, recently the draft decision of government was published, that supposes to open three check points in the border with Azerbaijan for implementation of the article 9 of the trilateral statement from November 9, 2020. According to that draft, citizens and goods of Azerbaijan would be eligible to use the existing roads of Armenia to commute from main Azerbaijan to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. The Armenian government had political will to unilaterally accept that decision. But Azerbaijani officials tell us, that they dont want to have those routes. What do they want? They want a new route to be constructed. It is also acceptable for Armenia, but according to the 9th article of the trilateral statement from November 9, 2020, a new route can be constructed with the consent of the sides. Armenia is ready to construct such a route which would operate according to the legislation and within sovereign control of the Republic of Armenia.

So what is the point of Azerbaijani claims? Azerbaijan is hinting that Armenia has to provide an extraterritorial corridor and according to them the 9th article of the trilateral statement from November 9, 2020 is supposed to do that. The trilateral statement is a public document and in the 9th article there is nothing about corridor, extraterritoriality etc. So what is the purpose of Azerbaijan? To create a new crisis as a pretext for a new aggression against Armenia and for a new territorial claim.

We have shared packages of proposals with Azerbaijan on the topic of opening communications, and if Azerbaijan accepts that those routes must operate according to national legislations, we can decide on this very quickly.

By the way, the trilateral statements from November 9, 2020 and January 11, 2021 imply that not only Armenia should provide roads to Azerbaijan, but Azerbaijan should provide roads to Armenia too. And we havent received anything so far either.

As for the corridor wording, it is very important to note that in the trilateral statement from November 9, only one corridor is mentioned, and it is the Lachin corridor for Nagorno-Karabakh, Pashinyan said in his speech.
Major US bank CEOs testify during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Hearing on the Annual Oversight of the Nations Largest Banks on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 22, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Bank Chiefs Grilled On Restricting Gun Sales Via Firearm-Specific Merchant Codes

All seven bank chiefs testifying before Congress on Thursday committed to upholding the Second Amendment by promising not to restrict sales of guns following the adoption of new firearm-specific transaction codes that have sparked concern over whether the tracking data might be used by payment processors to curb sales of guns and ammunition.

The CEOs made the pledge while responding to Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), who pressed the heads of Americas biggest retail banks for a commitment to protect and process all transactions for legal goods and servicesincluding gunsin light of what he described as political pressure to legislate social policy through corporate boardrooms instead of through the democratic processes.

Cramer said that the adoption of the new firearm-specific Merchant Category Codes (MCC) for gun and ammunition stores was foisted on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) by liberal activists.

Major U.S. credit card companies have announced that they would implement the firearm-specific category codes, a move that was criticized by gun rights groups and two dozen Republican attorneys general as invasive, unfair, and ineffective at bolstering public safety.

Protecting All Legal Transactions

In light of the controversy surrounding the new gun-specific codes, which U.S. banks have committed to using, Cramer asked the chiefs to take a stand on protecting Americans Second Amendment rights.

I want to ask each of youas the carriers, as the acquirers, as the facilitators that are providing the capitalcan you commit in front of this committee, and the pay-per-view audience thats listening and watching, that your bank will process all transactions for the purchase of legal goods and services, and I might add constitutionally protected goods? the Republican senator asked.

All seven bank CEOs responded in turn, each committing to processing all transactions of legal goods and services, including firearms and ammunition.

Cramer pressed Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser for extra assurances in this regard given the banks history of restricting lending to gun manufacturers.

Citibank has in particular given me some pause. When your bank has voluntarily committed to restrict lending to firearm retail clients unless they meet your specific criteria, which in many cases exceeds the law, Cramer said.

I want extra assurances that law abiding gun purchasers across the country will not be discriminated against using this Merchant Category Code as a means to an end, the senator added.

Fraser replied by expressing Citibanks commitment to honoring Second Amendment rights.

We respect the Second Amendment. As I said, we do not intend to use the code to restrict or limit any purchases of firearm sales by our credit card customers. We do not do so today. We do believe in best practices for the sale of the retail sale of firearms and that is the policy that weve had for a while now, she said.

Pushback on Gun-Specific Codes

In a separate move, Cramer led his Republican colleagues on the Senate Banking Committee in penning a letter to the Bank Policy Institute (BPI), urging the organization to resist political pressure to insert financial institutions into controversial social issues.

The creation of the new [merchant category code] was celebrated widely by liberal Democrats and gun-control advocates. They have made it clear this is just the beginning of their campaign to block legal purchases of firearms, the Republicans wrote in the letter (pdf).

Cramer and the other Committee Republicans called on members of BPI, which include the megabanks whose CEOs gave testimony on Thursday before the Senate Banking Committee, to demonstrate a commitment to process all transactions, including guns and ammunition.

More generally, the bank chiefs were urged by Republicans during the Senate hearing not to take liberal stances on social and cultural issues.

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.), the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, called on banks to stop embracing a liberal [environmental, social, and governance] agenda that harms America.

Testifying were the heads of Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Truist Financial Corporation, U.S. Bancorp, and PNC Financial Services Group.
A 700-year-old manuscript that was used in the Beauvais Cathedral in France. (Will Sideri via AP)

Bargain Hunter Scores 700-Year-Old Medieval Times Document

PORTLAND, MaineA bargain hunter who went to an estate sale in Maine to find a KitchenAid mixer, a bookshelf or vintage clothing walked away with a 700-year-old treasure.

Instead of a kitchen appliance, Will Sideri stumbled upon a framed document hanging on a wall. It had elaborate script in Latin, along with musical notes and gold flourishes. A sticker said 1285 AD. Based on what hed seen in a manuscripts class at Colby College, the document looked downright medieval.

And it was a bargain at $75.

Academics confirmed the parchment was from The Beauvais Missal, used in the Beauvais Cathedral in France, and dated to the late 13th century. It was used about 700 years ago in Roman Catholic worship, they said.

An expert on manuscripts said the document, first reported by the Maine Monitor, could be worth as much as $10,000.

After spying the unusual manuscript, Sideri contacted his former Colby College professor, who was familiar with it because theres another page in the college collection. The professor reached out to another academic whod researched the document. They quickly confirmed the authenticity.

The parchment was part of a prayer book and priests liturgy, said Lisa Fagin Davis, executive director of the Medieval Academy of America and a professor of manuscript studies at Simmons University in Boston.

A 700-year-old manuscript that was used in the Beauvais Cathedral in France. (Will Sideri via AP)

The full missal was once owned by William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper publisher, before being sold in the 1940s and, much to the consternation of todays academics, was divvied up into individual pages, she said.

The practice was common in the early 20th century. Thousands of unique manuscripts were destroyed and scattered this way, Davis said.

Davis has painstakingly researched The Beauvais Missal, and has tracked down more than 100 individual pages across the country. All told, the missal numbered 309 pages in its original form.

The page purchased by Sideri is of particular interest to scholars.

Its a treasure both because of its age and condition, which is far better than the other page in the Colby collection, said Megan Cook, Sideris former professor, who teaches medieval literature at Colby.

The parchment is worth upward of $10,000, according to Davis. But Sideri said he has no intention of selling it.

He said he likes the history and beauty of the parchmentand the story of how he stumbled upon it.

This is something at the end of the day that I know is cool, he said. I didnt buy this expecting to sell it.

By David Sharp
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on Sept. 20, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden Administration to Host First Ever US-Pacific Island Summit Amid Beijing Influence Push

The Biden administration will push to reverse Beijings encroaching influence in the Indo-Pacific region when the first ever U.S.-Pacific Island Country Summit is held in Washington D.C. on Sept. 28-29.

The Summit aims to broaden existing partnerships between the United States and Pacific Island Countries and territories in which under the U.S.s Indo-Pacific Strategy, a free and open Indo-Pacificand other related objectivesare being sought.

The Summit will demonstrate the United States deep and enduring partnership with Pacific Island countries and the Pacific region that is underpinned by shared history, values, and people-to-people ties, according to a White House statement.

The Summit will reflect our broadening and deepening cooperation on key issues such as climate change, pandemic response, economic recovery, maritime security, environmental protection, and advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific.

The meeting comes after Beijing and the Solomon Islands signed off on a security pact in April, receiving strong pushback from the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.

In response, Kurt Campbell, the Biden administrations Indo-Pacific coordinator, said the U.S. would step up its game by supporting a variety of initiatives across the Pacific.

It is not just one or two meetingsthis is a very sustained effort that will involve almost all the key players in the U.S. government who have interests in the Indo-Pacific, he told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Sept. 18,

Weve seen in the past several years a more ambitious China that seeks to develop a footprint militarily and the like in the Indo-Pacific. I think that has caused some anxiety with partners like Australia, New Zealand, even countries in the region as a whole.

The United States will also look to organise greater military cooperation with Pacific Island governments.

US Presence in the Indo-Pacific

Robust aid and Peace Corps programs were initially staples of U.S. involvement in the Pacific, but over the years have been allowed to atrophy over time, said Campbell.

Theres also a deeper recognition that in the past we have perhaps paid lesser attention to these critical places than we should have. And I think being honest about that is important, he added. And now were in the process of rebuilding all of those and more.

Patricia OBrien, professor of history in the Asian Studies Program at Georgetown University, said that previously the U.S. premised its Pacific efforts on [Cold War] geostrategic competition, and once the Soviet threat was gone, the U.S. saw no need to be in the Pacific anymore, reported Politico.

[That] provided huge openings for China once they were ready to expand into the Pacific in the 2000s, OBrien said.

Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawaii), co-chair of the Congressional Pacific Islands Caucus said that closing embassies and discontinuing the Peace Corps was foolish.

Meanwhile Beijings efforts to fill that gapattached with conditionshas given Pacific Islands a hard choice.

Campbell added that while the U.S. system does not allow fundamental commitments for the next administration, he believed that the best policies are those that share bipartisan consensus.

And I would say, at a general level, the Indo-Pacific is one region in which you have substantial alignment between Republicans and Democratsnot all Republicans and not all Democratsbut you see some alignment, he said.

His comments come as the Washington-based United States Institute of Peace (USIP) published a report saying the U.S. should invest in the Freely Associated States (FAS)the Palau, the Marshall Islands, and Micronesiato limit Beijings influence.

Beijing sees Pacific Island nations as a low-investment, high-reward opportunity for China to score both symbolic and tactical victories in its global agenda, the report stated.

China has not focused on the FAS in its influence-building efforts in the Pacific to the degree it has focused on South Pacific nations, but nonetheless is positioning itself to take advantage of any deterioration in U.S.-FAS relations.
Newly-elected Philippine President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. delivers a speech during the inauguration ceremony at the National Museum in Manila, Philippines, on June 30, 2022. (Eloisa Lopez/Reuters)

Biden Says US Is Committed to Defending Philippines in First Meeting With Philippine President

President Joe Biden reaffirmed the United States ironclad commitment to the defense of the Philippines in his first bilateral meeting with the countrys new leader, as he seeks to bolster the U.S.Philippine alliance.

Biden on Thursday met with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Marcos, the son and namesake of the late Philippine dictator, took office on June 30.

The two leaders discussed the situation in the South China Sea and underscored their support for freedom of navigation and overflight and peaceful resolution there, according to a readout issued by the White House.

They also discussed expanding bilateral cooperation in energy security, climate action, and infrastructure. Biden commended the Philippines for condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The relationship between the United States and the Philippines, to state the obvious, has very deep roots. Weve had some rocky times, but the fact is its a critical relationship from our perspective, he said during a press briefing.

We thank the President of the United States, His Excellency Joseph R. Biden Jr., for meeting with us today. We talked about the deeply rooted relationship of both our countries and the millions of Filipino-Americans and Filipinos residing in the US that tie us together. pic.twitter.com/6a3MjzZbL9  Bongbong Marcos (@bongbongmarcos) September 23, 2022

Marcos expressed his intention to strengthen the U.S.Philippines alliance, noting that his country valued the United States role in maintaining peace in the region.

The 100-plus-year-old relationship between the Philippines and the U.S. continues to evolve as we face the challenges of this new century and the events that we have been watching over the past few months, Marcos said.

China has increased its influence in the South China Sea through its artificial islands and military buildup. The Chinese communist regime claims the majority of the South China Sea under its so-called nine-dash line despite competing claims with other nations.

Aside from the Philippines and China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei have all made their own overlapping claims in the South China Sea.

Philippine Protests Against China

Marcos had previously vowed to uphold The Hagues 2016 ruling in favor of the Philippines in the South China Sea dispute, saying that he will not allow China to encroach on a single square millimeter of our maritime coastal.

The Philippines have filed over 48 protests against Chinas sea incursions under the Marcos administration. His predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, filed 388 protests over his six-year term as president.

Philippine Defense Undersecretary Angelito de Leon said on Sept. 8 that Chinese vessels continue to swarm Philippine waters despite the protests, prompting the national coast guard to bolster maritime domain awareness and patrols.

The Philippines and United States are allies under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, which dictates that the United States and the Philippines will defend each other if either is attacked.

Earlier in July, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Chinas communist leadership that Washington was obligated to defend the Philippines if its forces, vessels, or aircraft came under attack in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.

We stand by our ally, the Philippines, in defending its rights and in opposing the PRCs provocations and intimidation, Blinken said, using the acronym for Chinas formal name, the Peoples Republic of China.

Andrew Thornebrooke contributed to this report.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia July 9, 2022. (Stefani Reynolds/Pool via Reuters)

Blinken Calls for Peace and Stability With Taiwan in Meeting With CCP Counterpart

Senior diplomats from the United States and China met on Sep. 23 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi shook hands but did not respond to questions from the media as they sat down for talks.

Blinken told Wang that the maintenance of peace and stability on the issue of Taiwan was vital to the relationship between the two nations.

A senior U.S. official told reporters that Taiwan was the focus of the meeting.

For our part, the Secretary made crystal clear, that in accordance with our long-standing one-China policy, which again has not changed, the maintenance of peace and stability across the Strait is absolutely, vitally important, the official said.

The meeting took place despite a truncating of Blinkens schedule, following the announcement that his father, Donald, had died the night before at the age of 96.

It also followed an exceptionally contentious week in Sino-American relations following the release of a 60 Minutes interview in which President Joe Biden stated that U.S. forces would defend Taiwan from an invasion by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Taiwan in Focus

The CCP, which rules China as a single-party state, claims that Taiwan is a breakaway province of China that must be united with the mainland. Its leadership has repeatedly said that it is willing to use military force to achieve this goal, and has previously threatened to start a war over the issue.

Taiwan has been a self-governing democracy since 1949, however, and has never been controlled by the CCP.

Formally, the United States recognizes, but does not endorse, the CCPs position, and the two sides have long agreed that neither side should attempt to unilaterally change the status quo.

Concerning the issue of whether the United States would defend Taiwan from a unilateral attempt from China, the nation has historically adhered to a policy of so-called strategic ambiguity, in which it neither confirms nor denies whether it would intervene militarily.

Bidens recent comments, the fourth such occasion on which the president said the United States would defend Taiwan from CCP aggression, appear to go against that doctrine. The White House has stated repeatedly, however, that there is no change to the United States commitment not to unilaterally change the status quo.

Prior to the meeting, the State Department released a statement saying that Blinkens meeting with Wang was part of Washingtons ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and manage competition responsibly.

When Wang addressed the U.N. with a speech earlier in the day, however, he accused the United States of provoking China into an all-out confrontation and compared Taiwans independence to a gray rhino charging toward us that must be stopped resolutely.

U.S. leadership appeared unphased by the commentary and, immediately before his meeting with Wang, Blinken met his counterparts from the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, an international strategic forum consisting of the United States, Australia, India, and Japan.

Likewise, Blinken met with leaders of the Partners in the Blue Pacific, an economic and diplomatic working group for Pacific Island nations that Chinese state-owned media has accused of being an American anti-China clique.

Were deeply committed to the Pacific and have built enduring partnerships here, Blinken said at a meeting of the Partners earlier in the day.

All of us have longstanding historical, geographical, and cultural connections to the Pacific and ties between our peoples that go back quite literally generations.

Reuters contributed to this report
Hundreds of unemployed Kentucky residents wait in long lines outside the Kentucky Career Center for help with their unemployment claims in Frankfort, Ky., on June 19, 2020 (John Sommers II/Getty Images)

By Fraud, $45.6 Billion in US Pandemic Unemployment Insurance Was Stolen, Says Labor Dept. IG

Criminals have fraudulently stolen $45.6 billion in unemployment benefits from U.S. government programs meant to assist Americans who lost their jobs during the pandemic.

The federal government started an unemployment aid program in March 2020 during the early days of the pandemic.

The hundreds of billions in pandemic aid immediately attracted criminals, who exploited the federal assistance program.

The scammers applied common tactics, such as the illegal use of Social Security numbers of those not eligible for unemployment insurance, between March 2020 and April 2022, according to a report released on Sept. 22 by the Department of Labors Office of the Inspector General (OIG).

These actions resulted in historic levels of fraud and other improper payments, reported Larry Turner, the Labor Departments inspector general.

Unemployment fraud cost the government about $163 billion in overpayments, with a significant portion attributable to fraud, testified Turner to Congress.

The department responded in a drafted letter to The Wall Street Journal that it agreed with its inspector general regarding the increase in federal assistance fraud during the pandemic, and said that it is committed to finding new tools and strategies to combat these criminal actions.

Investigating Pandemic Aid Fraud

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland launched a COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force in May 2021 to probe acts of fraud involving federal pandemic assistance programs, such as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), unemployment insurance, and Medicare.

The Department of Justice tapped federal prosecutor Kevin Chambers to assist in the investigation of false claims made during the pandemic, including stealing aid from government assistance programs.

The OIG reported an increase of $29.6 billion in potentially fraudulent payments, on top of the losses from last summers initial report, according to the federal watchdog.

The new figure is more than three times the $16 billion in fraudulent payments that were detected by the authorities in June 2021.

More than half of the fraudulent claims were allegedly by simultaneously filing for billions of dollars in unemployment claims in multiple states.

We determined 205,766 Social Security numbers of deceased persons were used to file claims for UI (unemployment insurance) pandemic benefits, said the report.

Others used the identities of deceased persons and federal prisoners, or those ineligible for payments and through the use of suspicious emails that were hard to trace by law enforcement.

In March 2022, federal prosecutors issued indictments for more than 1,000 cases of fraud involving jobless benefits during the pandemic.

The Justice Department announced on Sept. 20 that prosecutors had filed federal charges against 47 defendants for allegedly stealing $250 million from a U.S. government aid program meant to feed children in need during the pandemic.

Aimee Bock, the founder of Feeding Our Future, a Minnesota nonprofit organization, was accused of running the largest COVID-19 aid fraud scheme in the United States, along with 46 accomplices of Somali origin.

Bock has denied wrongdoing.

The pandemic assistance program gave those who lost their jobs an extra $600 a week in federal aid at first, which was later reduced to $300 a week.

The extra federal benefit package, which dished out $872 billion in aid, expired late last year.

At least 19 percent of unemployment aid was misspent during the pandemic, an increase of around 9 percent before the pandemic, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office in June.

However, the report said that some of the overspending was due to benefits sent to recipients after they had returned to work, rather than outright fraud.

Meanwhile, states across the country also saw a massive surge of unemployment fraud cases of their own after the pandemic hit.

Many state government assistance offices were swamped in early 2021 because of outdated technology that made it difficult to detect and sort through fraudulent claims.

It was also discovered that the federal government allowed more than $1.3 billion to be sent to foreign applicants, which raised concerns that money inadvertently was sent to fund overseas crime syndicates and terrorist organizations.

Congress and the End of the Pandemic Emergency

The scandal is now a bipartisan issue on Capitol Hill, as lawmakers have agreed that state and federal officials must crackdown on fraud in the future.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), for example, called for more oversight of pandemic relief funds, after his own his son was the victim of a $140,000 ID fraud scheme involving a federal PPP loan for a bogus construction company.

Theres no Durbin construction company, said Durban to reporters at the Capitol, and that somebody had stolen his identity.

Government-backed PPP loans were created to help small businesses survive the COVID pandemic.

The fraud associated with pandemic unemployment programs reached staggering levels, said Rob Portman (R-Ohio) in a press statement with Senators James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Mike Crapo (R-Ind.) in July.

Billions of hard-working Americans taxpayer dollars that were meant to help out-of-work Americans instead went to criminals and cheats. This legislation will give the states the incentives and tools necessary to recover this stolen money.

The report was released as the White House is seeking $22.4 billion in new COVID-19 aid from Congress, but Republicans are opposing this, especially after President Joe Biden declared the pandemic to be over.

The Biden administration said that funding is critical to acquire more vaccines, after claiming that 100 million Americans may become infected with a variant of the virus in the fall and winter.

If the pandemic is over, all of the presidents emergency powers predicated on a pandemic [and] the emergency powers of every governor should be voided tomorrow, wrote Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) in a tweet .
On Sept. 17, 2022, participants of the bus tour to support Taiwan standing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, CA, United States. (Nathan Su/The Epoch Times)

California Group Tours to Support Taiwan to Join the United Nations

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.A group of Taiwanese in Northern California on a bus tour stopped by different tourist spots on Sept. 17 in order to raise support for Taiwan to join the United Nations.

San Francisco has many famous tourist spots, and we want people from all over the world to hear our support for Taiwan to join the United Nations, said Hanwen Li, who organized, and led the bus tour with a few dozen participants.

On Saturday, the bus tour stopped by several popular places such as the Golden Gate Bridge, and Fishermens Wharf in the city. Li is the coordinator of Northern California South Bay Taiwanese Overseas Communities.

The Republic of China is the government in Taiwan, which has never been a part of the Peoples Republic of China, Li told The Epoch Times.

Since the Chinese communist regime was recognized by the United Nations as the official representative of China in 1971, the status of Taiwan in the international community has been a politically-fraught question.

The Chinese Communist Party views Taiwan as part of its own territory, even though the island has been ruled as an independent entity for more than 70 years and has never been under communist control. The regime has also vowed to bring Taiwan into its fold, by force if necessary.

Because of this, the Chinese regime has engaged in an aggressive campaign to isolate Taiwan from the international arena, and pressure the remaining 13 countries that recognize Taiwan to switch their diplomatic recognition to China.

While the United States does not have formal relations with Taiwan, it maintains robust ties with the island under the Taiwan Relations Act, under which Washington is bound to provide Taipei with the means to defend itself.

Li told the Epoch Times that Taiwan has its own people, land, government, and military. She said that the only reason that Taiwan has not been able to join the United Nations was that the Chinese regime has used its political influence to block Taiwans entry to the United Nations.

Out of all the places I have lived, Taiwan is probably the most civilized  that I have ever been to, said Tamer Abuelata, an Egyptian American who joined the bus tour. Abuelata told The Epoch Times that he loves Taiwan, and has been to Taiwan three times.

Abuelata said Taiwan has freedom of speech, which people in China dont have. In his trips to Taiwan, he found modernized public facilities and transportation systems, advanced education and environmental protection, and more importantly an amazing health care system.

Taiwans President Tsai Ing-wen (R) exchanges gift with U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) during a meeting at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Taiwan on Aug. 15, 2022. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)

He shared his personal story: when Abuelata went to Taiwan in March this year, he was in an accident in which he broke his chin and had to go to the hospital for a medical emergency. It could easily cost you thousands of dollars without insurance in the U.S. But I was only charged $120, Abuelata said.

Born in Egypt, immigrated to France when he was fours year old. Abuelata came to the United States in 2000 after high school and became a U.S. citizen in 2007. He believes Taiwan is a model of democracy and deserves strong support from the U.S. government.

Joe Zhou joined the bus tour as the president of the South Bay Taiwanese Association of Northern California. He said that the Chinese regime is similar to the Russian, which pays no respect to human rights and tries to use its military power to overthrow international orders. He hoped that Taiwan can build stronger relations with the United States, the European Union, Japan, and Australia so the island nation is fully prepared for a potential invasion from China. He believes that joining the United Nations should be a long-term goal.

Sophia Chuang, who joined the bus tour as Director of the Taiwanese Culture Center in Milpitas, said that regardless of the angles of the Ukraine war, supply chain issues, or the COVID pandemic, the world needs cooperation in order to survive many different crises.

To exclude Taiwan from the United Nations is a huge loss both to Taiwan and to the United Nations, Chuang asserted.
Canadas New Ambassador to China Highlights Beijing Regimes Human Rights Issues

Canadas newly appointed envoy to Beijing says there are many different human rights issues when it comes to China, and she will not shy away from shining the spotlight on such issues during her time as ambassador.

Jennifer May, who has worked as a diplomat for 30 years, told the the Toronto Star on Sept. 22 that as well as the abuses against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, theres a lot of other human rights issues that we have concerns about, whether its Falun Gong, whether its Christians, whether its a situation of people in Tibet.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Mays appointment as Canadas ambassador to China on Sept. 23, after the position was left vacant for almost a year. Her predecessor, Dominic Barton, left the position last December, a few months after Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were released from having been arbitrarily detained by Beijing for over 1,000 days.

In regard to Beijings tightening control in Hong Kong, May told the Star that Canada is really concerned that the regime is abandoning its commitments it agreed to when the British colony was returned to Chinese rule in 1997. She said the One Country-Two Systems needs to be respected, as well as the Hong Kong basic law that Canada has a stake in, as some 300,000 Canadians currently reside in the city.

May was posted to Hong Kong in 1998, after which she served in the Canadian mission in Beijing until 2004. She joined the Department of External Affairs in 1990, and most recently served as Canadas ambassador to Brazil starting in 2019.

May said Canadians view of China has not been favourable in recent years, but the Canada-China relationship nevertheless remains important.

[W]e have to deal with a China that is here in front of us, she told the Star. There are absolutely things where we will fundamentally disagree, and were going to push back and we need to be doing that.

Predecessors

Throughout his tenure as ambassador, Barton championed closer Canada-China ties, even while Kovrig and Spavor were behind bars in China as Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhous extradition hearings continued in Vancouver.

Barton is a former executive of the global consulting firm McKinsey & Company, which began doing business in China in the 1990s. He established extensive experience and relationships in China while at McKinsey, acting as the Asia chairman from 2004 to 2009 at the companys base in Shanghai.

Following the release of Kovrig and Spavor, Barton called for a rekindling of the Canada-China relationship in an exclusive interview with the Chinese Communist Partys propaganda mouthpiece Global Times, saying that the major emotional issue is now off the table.

John McCallum, who served as Canadas envoy to China before Barton, came under fire for providing legal arguments to Chinese-language media reporters in defence of Meng. He said at a press conference on Jan. 22, 2019, that Meng had a strong case in fighting extradition to the United States, adding that her extradition would not be a happy outcome. McCallums remark was widely seen as a political interference by a government official in a case that is before the courts.

On Jan. 26, Trudeau said in a statement that he had asked McCallum to resign.

Critics of Barton and McCallum had called on the Liberal government to appoint an ambassador that could better present the interests of Canada and its people.

Former Conservative Leader Erin OToole told The Epoch Times in a previous interview that McCallum and Barton were not effective in the position because of their friendly terms with Beijing.

I think we need a professional diplomat that can be in Beijing to assert our interests, to make sure that our voice is heard, and that our voice is heard as a country, OToole said.

This summer, Guy St-Jacques, Canadas envoy to China from 2012 to 2016, called on Ottawa to take a stronger stance against the communist-led regime.

It is high time for the government to adopt a much firmer attitude with China. Its the only language that China respects. It calls for concerted action [that] has to take place among like-minded democracies to counter China, St-Jacques said at a conference on June 3.
A radiology technician looks at a lung scan in Corsica, France, on Dec. 16, 2021. (Pascal Pochard-Casabianca/AFP via Getty Images)

Cancer, Dementia Deaths Up in Australia Following Pandemic Years

Australia in 2022 has so far seen an increase in deaths from cancer, dementia, and diabetes.

The findings from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) come after elective surgeries were suspended during the pandemic years over concerns hospitals could not cope with the volume of extra patients.

The ABS found 75,593 deaths occurred since the start of this year to May 31. This is 10,757 or around 16.6 percent higher than the historical average recorded from 2015 to 2019. The ABS attributed 4,465 deaths to COVID-19.

However, there was also an increase in the number of deaths from January to May due to dementia, including Alzheimers diseasedeaths increased from the historical average of 5,611 to 6,763, representing a 20.5 percent rise.

Deaths attributed to cancer rose from the historical average of 19,514 to 20,686, which is an increase of 6.0 percent.

Deaths attributed to diabetes increased from 1,806 to 2,168, representing a 20 percent increase.

Meanwhile, respiratory diseases like pneumonia and influenza saw a drop over the same period.

COVID-19 Took Focus Away From Other Conditions: Psychiatrist

Psychiatrist Tanveer Ahmed says developed countries will see more and more deaths in the above-mentioned categories due to the ageing population and low birth rate.

Dementia and cancer are the types of deaths that come from an ageing population, he told The Epoch Times.

He said that the decision to suspend elective surgeries during the pandemic years could have affected the latest statistics.

There is some evidence internationally that some peoplewho should have gone for a follow-up, a cancer screening and treatment, or done further testswere less likely to do that, he said.

A lot of things were shut down here. So I think theres a real risk with some of the cancer deaths in particular [because that requires regular check-ups], he said, but noted even some dementia patients may not have been treated as effectively for ailments like infection.

I think as a general rule, throughout the pandemic, people werent as keen to go to the doctor for things that didnt feel like COVID-19, he said.

During the pandemic, state governments delayed elective surgeries to give room to already-strained public hospitals to deal with the pandemic.

This year, the Victorian and New South Wales governments have pledged increased funding to catch-up on procedures.

In April, Victoria launched the COVID Catch-Up Plan to spend $1.5 billion ($1.12 billion) to increase the number of elective surgeries per year across the state.

We know that COVID, twice, has hit elective surgeries hard, Acting Premier James Merlino told reporters on April 3. This plan will see record numbers of Victorians get the surgeries they need while making sure our frontline workforce is supported.
Long-awaited action on police reform unfolds in Congress: a package of bills that Democrats say is the answer to rising crime, but Republicans say the timing is telling.

We spoke with Idaho Congressman Russ Fulcher about the Democrats efforts to fund the police and what he is hearing from the American people in his state of Idaho ahead of the midterms.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is stepping up the effort to crack down on fentanyl coming across the border. Hes blaming Mexican cartels for the current crisis.

Big bank CEOs were grilled over what they would do if China invaded Taiwan, as lawmakers warn them about funding the communist regime.

Former President Donald Trump is responding to the lawsuit filed against him by the New York attorney general. He calls it another witch hunt.

The pandemic ushered remote learning, opening the door for parents to see what their children have actually been learning in school. What they found out might surprise you.

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YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. As part of his working visit to New York, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan delivered a speech at the 77th session of the UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters, his Office said.

Below is the full speech of the Prime Minister of Armenia.

Mr. President,

Excellences,

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is an honor to return to the General Assembly, though I wish I was here with a more positive message, given all the challenges and tribulations the world has been through in the past few years.

But my statement will focus on the latest Azerbaijani unprovoked aggression against the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia and its overall impact on the stability in the South Caucasus.

On September 13, Azerbaijan launched an unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Armenia. Using heavy artillery, Multiple Rocket Launchers and combat UAVs, the Azerbaijani armed forces shelled 36 residential areas and communities, including towns of Goris, Jermuk, Vardenis, Kapan, Geghamasar deep within the sovereign territory of Armenia. This was not a border clash. It was a direct, undeniable attack against the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Armenia, which was condemned and addressed during the latest UN Security Council meetings and beyond.

The Azerbaijani attack deliberately targeted civilian population and vital civilian infrastructures: Jermuk is one of the main health tourism and resort places of Armenia and now as a result of Azerbaijani aggression all the hotels, resort and health centers of Jermuk are closed. All the residents of this town are displaced. Overall number of those temporarily displaced from Gegharkunik, Vayots Dzor, and Syunik regions of Armenia is more than 7600 persons, mostly women and elderly people, among them 1437 children and 99 persons with disabilities.

Around 192 houses, 3 hotels, 2 schools, 1 medical facility, 1 medical facility, partially or completely destroyed. 7 electrical infrastructures, 5 water infrastructures, 3 gas pipelines, 1 bridge were damaged. 2 ambulances, 4 private cars were shelled. The Kechut water reservoir was targeted and shelled. Journalists and ambulance vehicles were targeted and shelled as well.

As a result of the aggression, the number of victims and missing persons at the moment exceeded 207, among them 3 civilians were killed and 2 civilians are missing. 293 servicemen and 8 civilians were wounded, at least 20 servicemen were captured. There are evidences of cases of torture, mutilation of captured or already dead servicemen, numerous instances of extra-judicial killings, and ill-treatment of Armenian prisoners of war, as well as humiliating treatment of the bodies. The dead bodies of Armenian female military personnel were mutilated and then proudly video-recorded with particular cruelty by the Azerbaijani servicemen. The videos featuring such gruesome war crimes and crimes against humanity are being shared and praised on Azerbaijani social media by individual users.

No doubt, committing such unspeakable atrocities is a direct result of decades long policy of implanting anti-Armenian hatred and animosity in the Azerbaijani society by the political leadership.

In the wake of this offensive, the official narrative and other sources of information suggest that Azerbaijan intends to occupy more territories of Armenia, which needs to be prevented. I want to stress that the risk of new aggression by Azerbaijan remains very high, especially taking into account that every day Azerbaijan violates the ceasefire, and the number of causalities and those injured could change any moment. Another factor for further escalation can be inappropriate reaction to this situation by the regional security organizations, which raised very hard questions among Armenian society.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Despite the above-mentioned facts Azerbaijan is trying to pose itself as a country seeking peace in our region, peace with Armenia. Hearing from aside what Azerbaijan is saying, you can even be impressed by its devotion to peace efforts. And for staging this impression Azerbaijan is using the subjects of Peace treaty with Armenia, border delimitation, and regional communication opening agenda.

Why we have no tangible progress in these directions. The reason is very simple. Azerbaijan is using all those topics for territorial claims against Armenia. For example  one of the most important subjects of peace treaty is bilateral recognition of territorial integrity between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We have already declared that we are ready to do so, but Azerbaijan hasnt done it so far. On the contrary, Azerbaijan has been publicly voicing that the entire South and East of Armenia and even the capital city of Yerevan, is an Azerbaijani land. On the other hand, Azerbaijan is keeping under occupation tangible territories of Armenia, and as I said the risk of new aggression by Azerbaijan remains very high.

In this regard Im posing an official and public question to the Azerbaijani president. Could you show the map of Armenia, that you recognize or are ready to recognize as the Republic of Armenia? Why Im asking this. Because it can come out that from the point of view of official Azerbaijan only half of Armenia and even less - is the Republic of Armenia. If Azerbaijan would recognize territorial integrity of Armenia, not theoretically, but concretely, I mean the integrity of our internationally recognized territory of 29.800 square kilometers, it would mean that we can sign peace treaty by mutually recognizing each others territorial integrity. Otherwise, we would have a phantom peace treaty and after that Azerbaijan will use border delimitation process for new territorial claims and occupation.

As you may know bilateral commission of border delimitation and border security was formed in May and two meetings of the commission have taken place. Before the formation of the commission, last year Azerbaijan occupied more than 40 square kilometer territories of Armenia. And then, one of the excuses of Azerbaijan about the reasons they have done this - was that Armenia, according to them, refuses to form border delimitation commission. Of course we didnt refuse to do that but only insisted that simultaneously a mechanism of border security should be established.

In the end, according to our international partners request, who argued that the border commission work itself will be a reliable factor for border security, we agreed to start the work. And now that border delimitation and security commission has been formed and is working, Azerbaijan initiated a new phase of aggression. And some of those international partners are silent. But what is now the explanation for aggression of Azerbaijan. You know, if someone has excess of aggressiveness the reason always will be there. As it is said in a movie it is always possible to find a reason. For example, why they killed prince Hamlet. Who killed, how, when and why  it doesnt matter. The reality is that Azerbaijan is trying and will continue to use delimitation process for territorial claims against Armenia.

Another such a topic is the opening of regional transport communication links. Azerbaijan is trying to represent Armenia as a destructive side in this discussion. The reality is, that Armenia is ready to open its roads for Azerbaijan in the framework of our national legislation. Moreover, recently the draft decision of government was published, that supposes to open three check points in the border with Azerbaijan for implementation of the article 9 of the trilateral statement from November 9, 2020. According to that draft, citizens and goods of Azerbaijan would be eligible to use the existing roads of Armenia to commute from main Azerbaijan to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. The Armenian government had political will to unilaterally accept that decision. But Azerbaijani officials tell us, that they dont want to have those routes. What do they want? They want a new route to be constructed. It is also acceptable for Armenia, but according to the 9th article of the trilateral statement from November 9, 2020, a new route can be constructed with the consent of the sides. Armenia is ready to construct such a route which would operate according to the legislation and within sovereign control of the Republic of Armenia.

So what is the point of Azerbaijani claims? Azerbaijan is hinting that Armenia has to provide an extraterritorial corridor and according to them the 9th article of the trilateral statement from November 9, 2020 is supposed to do that. The trilateral statement is a public document and in the 9th article there is nothing about corridor, extraterritoriality etc. So what is the purpose of Azerbaijan? To create a new crisis as a pretext for a new aggression against Armenia and for a new territorial claim.

We have shared packages of proposals with Azerbaijan on the topic of opening communications, and if Azerbaijan accepts that those routes must operate according to national legislations, we can decide on this very quickly.

By the way, the trilateral statements from November 9, 2020 and January 11, 2021 imply that not only Armenia should provide roads to Azerbaijan, but Azerbaijan should provide roads to Armenia too. And we havent received anything so far either.

As for the corridor wording, it is very important to note that in the trilateral statement from November 9, only one corridor is mentioned, and it is the Lachin corridor for Nagorno-Karabakh.

Ladies and gentleman,

One of the crucial factors of regional stability is the comprehensive settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict where the rights and the security of the Armenians living in NK will be addressed and guaranteed.

Latest aggression is happening while the humanitarian consequences of the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh have not been addressed yet. The post-war rehabilitation of Nagorno-Karabakh, the psycho-social issues of the displaced population, the repatriation of Armenian POWs and the preservation of cultural and religious heritage remain on the agenda of our Government.

Nevertheless, the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh are in need of the support of the international community. We call to support the secure and unhindered access of UN humanitarian agencies to Nagorno-Karabakh in order to assess the humanitarian, human rights situation and ensure protection of cultural heritage on the ground. We think that the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the independent fact-finding mission of UNESCO should have access to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.

Unfortunately, Azerbaijan has been blocking both missions by making artificial, political preconditions, essentially blocking the access of an independent fact-finding mission in Nagorno-Karabakh.

It is also reprehensible that Azerbaijan stalls the repatriation of Armenian Prisoners of War, inter alia subjecting them to artificial trials in gross violation of international humanitarian law, its own commitments, and contrary to the calls of the international community.

Mr. President,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Sustainable regional peace and stability is our objective. Last year through democratic snap elections our people strongly supported the peace agenda of the Government and re-confirmed the commitment of Armenia to pursue the democratic path.

It is very important to state that the target of Azerbaijani attacks isnt only the independence,

sovereignty and territorial integrity of Armenia, but democracy of Armenia too. Despite the expectation of some forces Armenia stayed democratic after devastating war of 2020, using the tool of free fair and democratic elections as a way out from internal political crisis. International community unanimously recognized and praised this fact.

The Armenian democracy is struggling in an atmosphere, when Azerbaijan is using force every day, to impose its plans unilaterally, to bring to the end the Armenian statehood, independence and democracy.

But Im here to announce that we are determined to defend our democracy, independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity by all means. I want to underscore that diplomatic solutions are an absolute priority for us and the full engagement and support of international community is crucial. In this regard I would like to mention, that the international observation mission to the Armenia-Azerbaijan bordering areas would be an important factor for regional stability.



Undeniably, in the interests of regional stability and in accordance with norms and principles of international law Azerbaijani military forces must be withdrawn from the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia.

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to stress again: we are determined to build peace in our region, but we need the full support of international community, which will stand by the sovereign and democratic country and people subjected to aggression against the norms and principles of international law.

I believe in the potential of establishing long-term stability, security and peace and Armenia is committed to continuing diplomatic efforts to this end.

Thank you for your attention.
Aerial view of shipping containers sitting stacked at Yangshan Deepwater Port in Shanghai, China, on May 19, 2021. (Shen Chunchen/VCG via Getty Images)

China Steals Our Shipping Data

Logistics program tracks 90 percent of container ships in real time

Commentary

China stole a march on the United States by getting a major information technology system to market while we were dozing. The technology, called LOGINK, reportedly tracks 90 percent of the worlds container ships in real time, including granular details about thousands of containers per ship and packages per container.

Beijing provides the technology free of charge to ports and shippers globally. The cost is the confidentiality of shipping, price, customs, and even military information lost to Beijing, which almost certainly hacks it through LOGINK backdoors and without notifying users.

Beginning in 2007 as a Chinese provincial initiative, LOGINK grew to a regional network with Japan and South Korea in 2010 and globally after 2014, according to a Sept. 20 U.S. congressional report, which states, The state-sponsored and -supported platform has now expanded to partner with over 20 ports worldwide as well as numerous Chinese and international companies.

Only now, 15 years after its inception, is the United States gearing up to address the danger. The U.S.China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) report is 16 pages full of evidence about how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is stealing the worlds shipping data.

In July, Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.) introduced legislation to ban LOGINK.

Only the House version has been voted on, Steels staff stated in an email. That version included Rep. Steels amendment to ban the US military from using LOGINK. Rep. Steel introduced a separate bill that would ban the entire federal govt & govt contractors from using LOGINK.

A Cosco Shipping container ship passes the Golden Gate Bridge bound for the Port of Oakland, in San Franciso, Calif., on May 14, 2019. (Eric Risberg/AP Photo)

The Chinese system might sound like a backwater of the global economy. Still, the third-party logistics industry is worth almost $1 trillion, and the freight-forwarding services market is worth nearly $200 billion. Of course, the CCP wants a big part of that.

LOGINK has cooperation agreements with at least 24 ports, freeports, and port operators outside of China, including twelve in Asia, nine in Europe, and three in the Middle East, according to the USCC report.

Chinas biggest companies in shipping, including Alibaba and state-owned COSCO, are LOGINK partners. COSCO currently operates terminals at Long Beach, Los Angeles, and Seattle, potentially granting LOGINK a window into vessel, container, and other data at those ports, the report reads.

The Port of Los Angeles is a member of an international organization that may potentially share data with LOGINK on vessel and container status from 70 ports and 10 airports.

LOGINK is also expanding its cooperation with international organizations, including the United Nations and the International Organization for Standardization, to set standards regionally and internationally that would benefit Chinas leadership in not only shipping logistics, but other adjacent technologies.

LOGINK is integrated with Chinas Cainiao network of more than 200 global warehouses.

In the past few years, Cainiao has focused on expansion in Europe, building a major hub at Liege Airport in Belgium; launching regional warehouses in Madrid, Paris, Bremen, and Rome and announcing plans for several more in late 2021; and establishing an intra-Europe trucking fleet and system of delivery lockers throughout Europe, the report reads.

It notes that the system gives China a major business advantage, as streamlined logistics from a factory in China to a European wholesaler may make the difference between the wholesaler buying from China or from a supplier within the eurozone.

The LOGINK information system uses Chinas Beidou satellite navigation system, a key part of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (also known as One Belt, One Road), which is the economic core of Beijings plans for a mercantilist and global hegemony.

A Long March 3B rocket carrying the Beidou-3GEO3 satellite lifts off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Xichang, in Chinas Sichuan Province, on June 23, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

LOGINK is part of Chinas smart transportation system in a Digital Silk Road that could eventually make political control of international trade possible through Beijings centralized system.

The CCP can extend its global control by using LOGINK data to precisely target economic coercion against U.S. allies, or interdict U.S. military shipments during times of crisis, for example.

As with other areas of CCP expansion, the United States and its allies must get much tougher on LOGINKand quickly. In addition to Steels legislation, U.S., European, Japanese, and South Korean businesses should voluntarily stop using the system.

The United States and allies should work together to offer the worlds shippers an alternative shipping logistics information and facilitation system thats superior to LOGINK and free of charge.

This system should be extended to Africa, Latin America, and Asia while making clear that trade privileges in the economies of the United States and its allies are a privilege, not a right, and that countries and companies will only be afforded those privileges when they refuse to use information systems such as LOGINK that are associated with the CCP and other totalitarian regimes.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Chinas Wealthy Rush to Transfer Assets and Emigrate as Political Economic Situation Worsens

Concerned about Chinas worsening political climate and its economic repercussions, wealthy Chinese are accelerating the process of emigration and transferring of assets overseas.

Henley & Partners, an investment immigration consultancy based in London, estimates that about 10,000 high-net-worth Chinesewith assets of more than $1 million eachwill emigrate abroad in 2022. They will take with them about $4.8 million per capita, and an estimated $48 billion will flow out of China, ranking second in the world after Russias migration of millionaires.

A report published in July by the U.S. National Association of Realtors shows that over the past 12 months, Chinese buyers in the U.S. real estate market ranked first in foreign buyer transactions, with a total of $6.1 billion. Fifty-eight percent of these transactions were paid in cash, and the average transaction price was $1 million.

The main reason the affluent are transferring their assets and preparing to leave China appears to be that 2022 is the year of the five-year change of power at the top of the Chinese Communist Party.

According to established rules, Chinese leader Xi Jinping should step down at the end of this year when his term ends. But there are many signs that hes trying to change the rules in order to be reelected for another term during the 20th National Congress in October. As a result, the decade-long power struggle between the supporters of Xi and those of former leader Jiang Zemin is becoming more intense.

The political war between the two factions affects the rich Chinese and could have dangerous consequences for them. The recent incident involving Shanghai billionaire Guo Guangchang, chairman and co-founder of the Fosun International Limited conglomerate, demonstrates the situation.

Shanghai is the center of the Jiang faction. Commentators say that Guo got mixed up in the political struggle between the Xi and Jiang factions. According to Feng Chongyi, an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney, Guo has had close ties to the Jiang faction.

Recently, Fosun ran into trouble. This year, it found itself no longer expanding but stuck in a liquidity crisis with rising risks of debt default.

On Sept. 13, a notice from the Beijing State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council urged all enterprises under its jurisdiction to sort out their ties with Fosun and evaluate the risks. After the notice was circulated on the internet, Fosuns shares dropped.

That forced Fosun to sell its holdings in many companies including Tsingtao Brewery, Zhongshan Public, Hainan Mining, Jinhui Liquor, Fosun Pharma, and Fosun Tourism, eventually managing to raise roughly 10 billion yuan (about US$1.5 billion).

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
A Washington, DC, couple left stranded after their electric car ran out of battery was saved by none other than coal miners who were working nearby. Despite the ongoing push toward energy-efficient vehicles, the guys were more than happy to push the stranded car to the mine to get it recharged.

West Virginia State Senator Randy Smith (R-Tucker)who chairs the Senate Committee on Energy, Industry, and Mining and is also a safety coordinator at Mettiki Coal, which operates the minerecounted the incident on social media. And the response to the post has been phenomenal.

The somewhat ironic turn of events took place early this month when the pair, driving from Washington to the town of Davis in West Virginia, broke down right outside the Mountain View Mine. They were approximately 170 miles from home.

Smith said one of the company foremen received a call about the stalled car and went to see the driver, who told him they were en route to a weekend break, but found themselves stuck. The foreman returned to the mine, asking some of the coal miners to help.

This just shows you coal miners are good people and will go out of their way to help anyone friend or foe, Smith wrote in his post.

Five coal miners, slightly bemused but concerned for the couples plight, promptly arrived at the scene. They soon discovered they would not be able to pull the vehicle since the undercarriage, being made entirely of plastic, has no hook. So instead, they opted for good old elbow grease and pushed the electric car to the guard shack where it could be plugged in and charged up.

Smiths post has since gone viral, garnering thousands of likes and shares, with some netizens commenting on the ongoing controversy with coal power.

Praising the coal miners, one social media user wrote, May God bless every coal miner; they are not only the salt of the earth, they give power to us all!

Another commented, Great job guys, another clueless person is saved by hardworking coal miners. Worked for this company for over 30 years.

Smith wrote in his post that hes honestly glad the couples car broke down at the right place, where they could eventually get the help they needed, because they couldnt get a tow truck to come, being out in the middle of nowhere.

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
Conservative Group Asks IRS to Deny Tax Exemptions to Zuckerberg for 2020 Election Grants

A conservative activist group has filed a complaint with the IRS asking the agency to deny personal tax exemptions for Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, arising from the couples funding of grant programs to help municipalities pay for the 2020 general election.

In a second complaint, the Center for Renewing America (CRA) requested the removal of tax exemptions for three Zuckerberg-supported nonprofits: the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), the Center for Election Innovation & Research (CEIR), and the National Vote at Home Institute (NVAHI).

The complaints allege that the Zuckerbergs and the three organizations pumped almost $500 million into the 2020 election process in an effort to influence the outcome in favor of candidate Joe Biden and other Democrats.

CTCL alone distributed nearly $350 million in grants to local election departments with a stated mission of helping them conduct safe elections during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A woman holding her ballot walks past a Vote by Mail Drop Box for the 2020 U.S. Elections in Monterey Park, Calif., on Oct. 5, 2020. (Frederic Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

Mark Zuckerberg, through various non-profit organizations, contributed hundreds of millions of dollars towards efforts to rig the 2020 election, the CRA wrote in a Sept. 22 Twitter post. Today, we filed TWO formal IRS complaints against Zuckerberg to call him on this ILLEGAL activity.

CTCL brushed off similar allegations from conservative groups in December 2021 as disinformation, stating in its final report on the 2020 COVID-19 response grant program that partisan considerations played no role in the availability or awarding of funding.

The report states that nearly 2,500 election departments spread over 49 states received grants ranging from $5,000 to $19 million.

For years, conservatives have accused the Zuckerbergs and the three organizations of directing millions of dollars in grant funding to Democrat-leaning localities.

They allege that most of the money was spent on voter registration drives and get-out-the-vote efforts in the large cities of several swing states instead of on public health.

Statistics published by CTCL show that the city of Detroit, a Democrat stronghold, received more than $3.5 million in grant money in the runup to the 2020 presidential election, while most Republican-dominated jurisdictions received $5,000 grants or nothing at all.

Data from CTCLs report demonstrates that in Michigan, the top nine Democrat strongholds of Detroit, Flint, Pontiac, Lansing, Saginaw, Ann Arbor, Muskegon, Kalamazoo, and Benton Harbor received a combined $6.4 million in CTCL grant funding, representing 86 percent of the $7.4 million in grants distributed in Michigan.

The CTCL report explained this and similar situations in other states by saying, As their program needs changed during the pandemic, many larger urban areas, for example, required capital-intense investments to count a large volume of absentee and mail ballots in a short period of time.

Zuckerberg couldnt be reached for comment. Representatives for CTCL, CEIR, and NVAHI didnt respond by press time to a request from The Epoch Times for comment.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Unite and Win Rally in support of Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano at the Wyndham Hotel in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Aug. 19, 2022. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

DeSantis Announces Actions to Confront CCP Influence in Florida

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Sept. 22 signed a new executive order and unveiled a package of legislative proposals to combat malign foreign influence, particularly from communist China.

The number one source of that influence, not just in the United States but really around the world, is the Chinese Communist Party, DeSantis said during an event at Miami Dade College on Thursday.

Standing behind a podium with a Stop CCP Influence sign, DeSantis said he signed an executive order to address the cybersecurity risks posed by foreign companies, especially those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The last thing we want to see is the [CCP] getting their mitts onto peoples personal information, DeSantis said.

The new executive order, he said, prohibits Floridas government agencies from procuring or using technology products and services from companies connected to foreign countries of concern. He added that these counties include China, Iran, Russia, Cuba, and other types of regimes hostile to American interests.

This will prevent the exposure of Floridians personal information and technology systems in Florida to foreign entities and bad actors, he said.

One of the things they [the CCP] like to do is use technology to advance themselves and that includes trying to get personal information of Americans, DeSantis said. TikTok was popular among teens in the United States.

The governor singled out Chinese-owned TikTok, hugely popular among young Americans, as a concern.

They are amassing a lot of data, he said of the app. I think its a huge national security risk.

Users browse through the Chinese-owned video-sharing TikTok app on a smartphones in Amritsar, India, on June 30, 2020. (Narinder Nanu/AFP via Getty Images)

The short-video app is founded and owned by Bytedance, a Beijing-based tech giant. The social media companys Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Pappas confirmed to the Senate Homeland Security on Sept. 14 that its China-based employees have access to U.S. users data.

The TikTok representative insisted the company has very strict access controls around the type of data that they [China-based employees] can access. But the possibility that the CCP could access Americans data, given that Chinese laws compel companies to cooperate with security agencies when asked, prompted Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) to request Pappas to cut all U.S. data flows to China. Pappas didnt make the commitment during the hearing.

We really need to do much, much more, DeSantis said on Sept. 22.

The governor added that he has proposed new legislation to block government entities from contracting with companies owned by, controlled by, or domiciled in foreign countries of concern if the contract would provide access to Floridians personal information.

This is things like Social Security numbers; its things like your bank account information, and its things like your medical records, he continued. That should not be in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.

Purchases of US Land

In addition to the cybersecurity concerns, the governor of the Sunshine State warned about U.S. land being purchased by the groups and companies with ties to the CCP.

DeSantis noted the CCP-affiliated companies have already bought land near military bases in other states, like the Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota.

Why are they doing that? Of course, they want to get intelligence; they want to know whats going on here in the United States, he said.

Noting that Florida is home to 21 military bases from every branch of the armed forces, DeSantis announced a new proposed legislative action that would curb the purchase of agricultural land and lands near military bases by foreign countries of concern.

As of 2019, more than 5 percent of the agricultural land in Florida was owned by foreign investors, the fifth-highest in the United States, according to the Republican governor. While some of the owners are from friendly countries like the UK, he said millions of Floridians need a layer of protection from the CCP.

DeSantis has previously called out the CCP for Chinas massive investment in real estate in Florida. A July report by the National Association of Realtors showed that Chinese investors were among the top foreign buyers of U.S. real estate. From April 2021 to March, Chinese buyers spent $6.1 billion on existing homes, up 30 percent from a year ago. Florida was among the top destinations for their purchases.

I think its a huge problem, DeSantis said when asked about the report in a July interview with Fox News.

I dont think they should be able to do it, the governor said at that time. I think the problem is these companies have ties to the CCP, and its not always apparent on the face of whatever a company is doing.

Scrutinizing College Donations

DeSantis also wants to step up efforts to safeguard higher education institutions intellectual property from the CCP.

A 2021 bill required universities to disclose gifts and donations at the value of $50,000 or more from countries of concern. These countries are China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and Venezuela.

But even sub-$50,000 donations from individuals and groups pushing the agendas of hostile foreign powers on college campuses can undercut academic integrity, warp the perspectives of many students, and sway the research and writing of many professors to align with the interests and values of the sources of that funding, according to his office.

One of the new legislative proposals, DeSantis said, would ban any gift to a higher education institution in Florida from any individual, private entities, or government organizations that is domiciled in a foreign country of concern.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a press conference in Miami on June 7, 2021. (Kevin Jia/The Epoch Times)

The governor said he has witnessed incidents in recent years involving foreign students or researchers coming to American universities and taking intellectual property back to China.

In February 2021, a former University of Florida professor Lin Yang was indicted for concealing the CCP aid while collecting $1.75 million in U.S. taxpayer grant money for research that benefited a firm he secretly founded in China. However, Yang fled to China in 2019 and hasnt returned to the United States.

In 2019, the Florida-based Moffitt Cancer Center announced the resignation of its CEO and five other senior staff members for violations of conflict of interest rules through their work in China. The statement came after the research institutes internal review found the fives participation in the Thousand Talents Program, a recruitment plan designed by the CCP to attract top scientists and engineers to work in China.

Frank Fang, Eva Fu, and Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to the report.
Amy Hamm, a nurse from Vancouver, B.C., is seen in a file photo. (Courtesy of Amy Hamm/JCCF)

Disciplinary Hearing for BC Nurse Endorsing Sex-Based Rights Raises Concerns of Policing Speech: JCCF

A B.C. nurse is facing a disciplinary hearing after the provinces regulator for nurses and midwives alleged that her remarks about sex-based rights were discriminatory to transgender people.

The hearing, which began on Sept. 21, raises concerns that Canadian regulatory bodies are policing the speech of professionals, a legal advocacy group says.

In November 2020, the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives began investigating Amy Hamm, a registered nurse in Vancouver. The regulator referred Hamm to its Disciplinary Committee, which said in a citation that between July 2018 and March 2021, Hamm made discriminatory and derogatory statements regarding transgender people across various online platforms.

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) says the charges against Hamm came in response to public complaints about the nurses involvement in erecting a billboard in Vancouver that says I [love] JK Rowling, endorsing the British best-selling authors support for sex-based rights.

The Justice Centre is concerned that regulatory bodies across Canada are increasingly policing the speech of professionals with threats of disciplinary action, the group said in a news release on Sept. 21.

Lisa Bildy, lawyer and co-counsel for Hamm, says the regulatory bodys task is keeping patients safe and regulating the profession in the public interest, rather than to give social justice activists a tool for cancelling people with whom they do not agree or who have opinions outside of a narrow orthodoxy.

Professional governing bodies are created by statute and are therefore subject to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Bildy said in the release. Freedom of speech, thought, belief, opinion, and expression are Charter rights belonging to all people, even health professionals.

This case will set an important precedent for regulated professionals who engage in the public square in policy debates which may be contentious, as it seems virtually everything is in these times.

In an April 8 blog post, Hamm, a co-founder of Canadian Womens Sex-Based Rights, an advocacy group for women and girls, said her career as a nurse hangs in the balance due to the hearing.

Depending on the outcome of my disciplinary hearing, which could include being stripped of my nursing license, I will appeal the decision through Canadas court system if I feel my constitutional rights have been violated. But regardless of the outcome, the process itself is a kind of punishment, she wrote.

However, she said if she wins the case, the precedent will help ensure that we can call out gender-identity ideology without fear of reprisal or loss of livelihood.

The hearing, originally set for the spring of 2022, was adjourned and will now be held via videoconference from Sept. 21 to Sept. 23, with another three-day hearing to be held from Oct. 24 to Oct. 27, 2022. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. each day.

Womens Rights Are Not Transphobic

Hamm said in her blog post that the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM) informed her that two individuals made public complaints to the organization to the effect that I am transphobic and so might be incapable of provid[ing] safe, non-judgemental care to transgender and gender diverse patients.'

I am not transphobic by any reasonable or defensible definition of that word. Yet I now could lose my job because activists claim that I am a bigot, Hamm wrote.

She noted that she has never self-identified as a feminist activist, but has grown increasingly alarmed and has been fighting the harms that gender-identity ideology was inflicting on women and children, including the harms caused by gender clinics and puberty blockers for children.

Womens rights are not transphobic, Hamm wrote in a social media post dated April 8.

Medically Inaccurate Allegation Dropped

A previous version of the BCCNMs citation, served on April 1, said some of Hamms online statements on sex-based rights included medically inaccurate informationan allegation that was later removed from the citation updated on June 28.

Hamms lawyer previously said in an email to The Epoch Times that she was surprised to learn that the College intended to argue about whether Ms. Hamms statements constituted medically inaccurate information.

It appears they have since thought the better of it, Bildy said.

When asked to comment on Hamms case, BCCNM spokesperson Johanna Ward told The Epoch Times that a nurses actions outside of work have the potential to negatively impact both the publics perception of them and trust in the nursing profession, and that behaviours considered unprofessional conduct under the Health Professions Act fall under BCCNMs purview.

BCCNM recognizes that its not appropriate to regulate and discipline all conduct that occurs when a nurse is off duty, Ward said in a previous email to The Epoch Times. However, when there is a link between a nurses off-duty conduct and the profession that demonstrates a sufficiently negative impact on the profession or the public interest, we can and will take action.

BCCNM, regulating in the public interest, recognizes that all British Columbians should feel safe when interacting with registrants of the College. The College takes all allegations of discriminatory comments or conduct against any group seriously.

When asked for the criteria used to determine whether a nurses off-duty behaviour has a sufficiently negative impact on their work and image, the BCCNM said that it wouldnt comment further as the disciplinary hearings are ongoing.
The icebreaker Tor at the port of Sabetta in the Kara Sea shore line, on the Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic circle, some 1,500 miles from Moscow, on April 16, 2015. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images)

Drowning of Russian Executive Latest in a String of Mysterious Deaths

The recent death of a Russian executive who fell into the sea is the latest in a string of mysterious deaths among Russian executives, many with ties to the energy industry.

According to local media in the Russian Far East city of Vladivostok, Ivan Pechorin, the aviation director of Far East and Arctic Development Company (KRDV), sailed near the Russian island on Sept. 10 and fell overboard from the boat while drunk. His body was found washed ashore 100 miles from Vladivostok after a two-day search.

Two days before his death, he had attended the Eastern Economic Forum in the city, where he gave a speech on transportation. The forum focused on the economic development of Russias energy and mineral-rich far east. Russian President Vladimir Putin also attended the forum on Sept. 7 and gave a speech.

Pechorin, 39, was known as Putins man in the region. It was reported that Putin personally placed him in that position. Many consider his accident unusual.

He is not the first executive of the company to have died mysteriously. In February, the companys 43-year-old chief executive, Igor Nosov, died of a stroke. According to Russian economic daily RBC, Nosov fell ill after learning of his dismissal from the company at a meeting and died shortly thereafter. The report did not mention the reason for his dismissal.

Nosov had been in the post for just nine months, while his predecessor, Eduard Cherkin, who was also appointed by the government, had only been in office for four months.

KRDV is a key corporation in Putins project to develop the rich energy and mining resources of Russias easternmost region. Pechorin was responsible for improving aviation accessibility in the area by modernizing airport infrastructure.

The development of Russias far east, including the Arctic, has become increasingly important for the Russian economy in the face of severe sanctions from the West.

Experts: Energy Industry Secretly Funds Russian Intelligence Operations

In regards to the string of unusual deaths of Russian energy executives this year, Swedish economist Anders Aslund, author of the book Russias Crony Capitalism: The Path from Market Economy to Kleptocracy, feels that special agents are responsible.

There is a cleaning out going on and its difficult to pin down any one person  whos doing it, he told the New York Post. But this looks like Kremlin murders to me.

Citing his own Russian sources, Aslund told the newspaper that Russian intelligence drew up two lists of executives in the countrys energy sector, one in late 2021 and the other in early March. He said authorities suspected someone in the energy industry of leaking information about its funding of secret operations undertaken by Russian foreign intelligence, including the invasion of Ukraine.

Putin finances a lot of his operations through Gazprom and Gazprombank, and the executives who work there know all about this secret financing. The gas sector is the most corrupt sector in Russia, Aslant said.

According to an April report by the Warsaw Institute, a think tank, security officials at Gazprom, the worlds largest publicly traded Russian state-run natural gas company, were investigating four of the five executive deaths at the company.

At least two of the executives knew a lot about the companys financial flow, the report said. In all cases, there are widespread suspicions that the deaths may have been staged as suicides. But who did this and why? Possibly some senior Kremlin-linked people are now covering up the traces of fraud in state-run companies.

As early as last September, Mark Gyetvay, chief financial officer of Novatek, Russias largest liquefied natural gas producer, was charged by the U.S. Justice Department with tax fraud for concealing a large number of his offshore assets.

Mysterious Deaths of Four Gazprom Executives

On Feb. 25, Gazprom executive Alexander Tyulakov was found hanged in a garage near St. Petersburg. Tyulyakov was Gazproms Deputy General Director of the Unified Settlement Center (UCC) for Corporate Security. Police and the companys security department arrived at the scene almost immediately after the incident.

In late January, Leonid Shulman, head of the companys investment and transportation services, was found dead in his bathroom with multiple stab wounds. Rusian media reported that a note was found next to him, stating that he couldnt bear the pain from a leg injury.

On April 18, Vladimir Avayev, former vice president of Gazprombank, his wife and 13-year-old daughter were found dead in their Moscow apartment.

Investigators say Avayev, 51, killed his wife and daughter before taking his own life. His older daughter, 22, reportedly said that the door to the apartment was locked from the inside and there was no sign that anyone else was present at the time of the shooting.

However, people who contacted Avayev shortly before his death said he had been in a good mood and did not seem likely to shoot his family to death. Shortly thereafter, the companys two other senior executives were found dead in a mansion compound near St. Petersburg.

In addition to these four deaths, in July, Yuri Voronov, the founder of Astra-Shipping, a transportation and logistics company and a contractor for Gazproms arctic projects, was found dead in the pool of his luxury villa outside St. Petersburg, shot in the head at close range.

In addition to the theory that the top executives knew too much about fraud, some suspect they were murdered because they opposed the RussiaUkraine war, although none of them had publicly denounced Russias ongoing war in Ukraine.
This week, we feature an incisive analysis of the Goths sacking of Rome and an endearing novel about a boy saved from grief by a musical genius.

Fiction

From Grief to the Solace of Faith

The Great Passion

By James Runcie

Its 1727 and 13-year-old Stefan Silbermann is grieving the loss of his mother. When hes sent to school in Leipzig, her absence plagues him further. Then, the schools cantor, Johann Sebastian Bach, hears beauty in his voice and his life is forever changed.

Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022, 272 pages

A Meeting of Passions and Ideas

Possession

By A.S. Byatt

Two modern literary researchers, Maud Bailey and Roland Mitchell, explore the tangled lives of two Victorian poets, Randolph Ash and Christabel LaMotte. Byatts novel is jam-packed with poetry, letters, mystery, and love thwarted and found, all of which should delight lovers of literature. Back and forth we go between these two couples, who struggle to find their way through attachment and emotion. Over this story, too, hangs a cloud: the cunning of love and fate. This is a perfect read for autumn evenings.

Vintage, 1991, 576 pages

Biography

Einsteins British Fans

Einstein on the Run: How Britain Saved the Worlds Greatest Scientist

By Andrew Robinson

Albert Einstein was one of the 20th centurys great men. Although famous for his theory of relativity, he was an accomplished musician, a noted pacifist, and an Anglophile. He was also an assassins target in the 1930s. This book tells two tales: one of the mutual admiration between Einstein and Great Britain and the other of how England offered Einstein sanctuary when his life was in danger. This focused biography recounts Einsteins life in the context of his relationship with Britain.

Yale University Press, 2019, 376 pages

Memoir

The North Sea in World War I

Years of Endurance: Life Aboard the Battlecruiser Tiger 191416

By John R. Muir

At the beginning of World War I, John R. Muir was a Royal Navy surgeon. An avid yachtsman, he served as surgeon on the battlecruiser Tiger. He joined the HMS Tiger prior to its 1914 commission and remained with it past the 1916 Battle of Jutland. First published in 1936, this memoir describes life aboard the ship and its service during battle and as such offers a fascinating look at a Royal Navy surgeons life, ashore and afloat.

Naval Institute Press, 2022, 312 pages

History

The Goths Take Rome

At the Gates of Rome: The Fall of the Eternal City, AD 410

By Don Hollway

Don Hollway has given readers an incisive look into how Rome came to be sacked by the Goths in 410 A.D.: constant warring, usurpation, the untenable division of the empire between east and west, a city-state that turned on its protector, and a leader who sought revenge. Its a beautifully written and intriguing work on the fall of Rome.

Osprey, 2022, 368 pages

Classics

Loves Second Chance

Persuasion

By Jane Austen

After financial distress forces her family to rent out their beloved home to an admiral, Anne Elliott, 27, finds herself entangled once again with Capt. Frederick Wentworth. Hes brother to the admirals wife and the fiance Anne had broken up with seven years earlier under pressure from her family and a close friend. Austens final novel offers us a tender and oftentimes humorous tale of the renewed romantic interest between the pair, while underlining the meaning of true love and the intervention of fate and possibility.

Independently Published, 2021, 167 pages

For Kids

No Dog? Still Fun!

Three Stories You Can Read to Your Dog

By Sara Swan Miller

Youngsters (and maybe even the dog) will get a charge out of these tales: The Burglar, The Bone, and The Wild Dog. True Kelleys illustrations of this goofy pet and his exploits just add to the pleasure. This book is for preschool to Grade 3.

Houghton Mifflin, 1997, 48 pages

He Was Still Hungry

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

By Eric Carle

As a caterpillar eats his way through the week, young readers will learn colors, numbers, the days of the week, and the life cycle of a butterfly. Theyre sure to giggle at the repeating refrain after each of the caterpillars meals.

World of Eric Carle, 1981, 32 pages
Everyone Has a Right to Follow His Conscience: Military Chaplains Sue Pentagon Over Vaccine Mandate

A total of 42 military chaplains are suing the Department of Defense (DOD) over its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, arguing that it violates their constitutional rights to freedom of belief and other laws protecting religious freedom.

Vietnam War veteran and attorney Arthur A. Schulcz Sr., whos representing the chaplains, said theyre seeking a preliminary injunction to bar the vaccine mandate across all branches of service. Thus far, federal judges in other cases have issued preliminary injunctions to the Air Force, Navy, and Marines, preventing them from punishing service members in those branches who have sought religious exemptions to the vaccine mandate.

The lawsuit, filed in the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Aug. 15, is the first legal action taken exclusively by a group of chaplains who are seeking to challenge the vaccine mandate on the grounds of religion, according to Army Capt. Andy Hirko, one of the plaintiffs in the suit. Hirko spoke to The Epoch Times, emphasizing that his views are his own and dont reflect those of the Department of Defense or the Department of the Army.

Having been a pastor for 20 years and an Army chaplain for the previous 20 months, he considers the lawsuit a bellwether case on the resiliency of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Hirko said hes the only unvaccinated chaplain seeking religious accommodation to the mandate at Fort Campbell, home of the elite 101st Airborne Division. He said he was honored to stand shoulder to shoulder with the other 41 plaintiffs who want to serve God and country.

In August 2021, he submitted a religious accommodation request, which was subsequently denied in March. An appeal is still pending. He has also helped process the religious accommodation requests of many other service members who have also been denied or are still waiting for a response.

As Hirko pressed on to take a stand against the militarys vaccine mandate, he discovered that there are many, many other chaplains across the different branches [of the military] that also want to serve God and country and wanted to make sure that religious freedoms were also protected.

All 42 of us are fighting for not only our own religious freedoms and convictions in the military but also for all the service members that we serve, he said. If we cant ultimately help other service members in this fight, we dont believe that weve done our job.

The chaplains in this case are united and praying through it, according to Hirko.

Were trying to do everything we can to make sure Americas service members are taken care of, he said.

According to Hirko, this case shows that there are a number of chaplains within the Armed Forces that deeply cares about its members and their religious freedom. Its his desire that the case will send ripple effects throughout the Armed Forces and allow for religious freedom to prevail.

There are many reasons why service members are refusing the vaccine, including an objection to the use of aborted fetal cell lines used in testing and development, the use of mRNA gene therapy, its experimental nature, and others, he said.

For those of us who stand firm against the vaccine, we dont believe its too much to ask to serve our country without having to compromise our religious convictions, Hirko said.

Schulcz agreed, saying that the liberty Hirkoand each of the other chaplainsenjoy was given to them by God, and the Constitution offers protection of such liberty with the First Amendment.

The government should be neutral towards religion and not hinder it, the attorney said. Everyone has a right to follow his conscience, which is in fact, a religious issue.

In one of the lawsuits causes of action, the plaintiffs argue that the Department of Defense has failed to implement Section 533 of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) since its inception, Schulcz said.

Section 533 established the right of military personnel to follow their conscience as long as it did not impact on good order and discipline. It protects chaplains decisions that emanate from their conscience as formed by their faith.

Any retaliation against chaplains is forbidden by section 533, he said. This includes blanket denials of religious accommodation requests, promotion requests, and training opportunities.

The attorney likened the spirit of the chaplains legal fight to that embarked by the countrys Founding Fathers.

Our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, is actually a declaration of dependence on the God who formed the conscience of our Founders, Schulcz said.

Their conscience told them that their treatment by Great Britain and King George offended their understanding of who they were as men and women created in the image of God. It also violated their rights as Englishmen, and it was their duty was to oppose such a tyranny.

Like the nations Founders, the chaplains are appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions in accord with their conscience as formed by their faith, according to Schulcz.

They too are fighting a tyranny hostile to people of faith, he said.

A hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Sept. 28 in courtroom 701 at the Eastern District of Virginia courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia. Hirko and Schulcz are inviting the public to attend the court hearing if they wish to show support for the chaplains in their fight against the vaccine mandate. The address is 401 Courthouse Square, Alexandria.

The Pentagon didnt respond to a request for comment.
Missing Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng's wife Geng He (R2) joined by Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Scott Busby (R1), founder and president of ChinaAid, Bob Fu (L1), and President and CEO of Victims Of Communism Memorial Foundation, Andrew Brandberg (L2) at the Victims of Communism Museum in Washington D.C., on Sept. 20, 2022. (Li Chen/Epoch Times)

Family Marks 5th Year of Disappearance of Chinese Human Rights Lawyer

WASHINGTON, D.C.Prominent Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhishengs wife Geng He unveiled a sculpture of Gao at the Victims of Communism Museum in Washington D.C., on Sept. 20, the fifth anniversary of his disappearance. The sculpture is a floating portrait of Gao Zhisheng made by Geng He and their two children using 7,355 bullet shells.

Due to his work defending persecuted religious and ethnic minority groups, human rights activists, and Falun Gong practitioners, Gao Zhisheng has been subjected to enforced disappearance, torture, illegal house arrest, and detention by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for almost 2 decades. The last time Gao was kidnapped by the CCP police from his home in Shaanxi province was on Aug. 13, 2017. There has not been any information about Gaos whereabouts since then.

Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhishengs wife Geng He speaks at the event marking the 5th anniversary of Gaos disappearance in Washington D.C., on Sept. 20, 2022 (Li Chen/Epoch Times)

Gaos wife and two children escaped to the United States in 2009. Our family finally is reunited in this sculpture, spiritually, said Geng He at the event hosted by ChinaAid and Victims Of Communism Memorial Foundation. My husband has been persecuted by the CCP just because he adheres to his conscience and the professional ethics of a lawyer. Five years ago, he was illegally kidnapped, since then, no one knows if he is alive or dead.

Grateful to be a U.S. citizen, Geng He expressed her wish that the U.S. embassy officials in China could go to Gaos hometown to find him. Please lend a helping handno one can stand idly by in the face of such a humanitarian disaster.

Bullet Shells

Sculptor Chen Weiming, who designed the sculpture, spoke at the event. He talked about the significance of using bullet shells, the reason we use bullet shells is to symbolize that people like Gao and his family have been deflecting bullets from dictatorship for us who live in a free society.

Missing Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhishengs daughter Geng Ge (R) signing the floating sculpture of Gao Zhisheng, with Geng He watching, on Aug. 13, 2022. (Xu Manyuan/Epoch Times)

Chen said that the U.S. government is obligated to help free Gao Zhisheng. What has 30 years of appeasement policy [towards the CCP] brought to the U.S.? More hatred towards the U.S. and all-out infiltration into our democratic society by the CCP.

The bullet shells were collected by Gaos 18-year-old son from a shooting range in the Mojave Desert under the scorching southern California sun in June. The family worked day and night for 20 days straight to produce the sculpture.

Missing Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhishengs son Gao Tianyu signing the floating sculpture of Gao Zhisheng on Aug. 13, 2022. (Xu Manyuan/Epoch Times)

Chinese Government Must Account For Gaos Whereabouts

Scott Busby, Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, attended the event and said, We call on the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) to account for Gaos whereabouts and cease its efforts to silence journalists, lawyers, and others who seek to report the truth and defend human rights.

Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhishengs wife Geng He working on the sculpture made of over 7,000 bullet shells in the summer of 2022. (Courtesy of Geng He)

Busby says that the PRCs efforts in silencing human rights activists have been ongoing both inside and outside China, including in the United States, and that the U.S. is working to capture the PRCs transnational repression tactics, including in conjunction with our own law enforcement as appropriate to protect those targeted by the PRC.

The picture of Gao Zhishengs portrait sculpture was projected onto the outside wall of the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. on the evening of Sept. 20, 2022. (Courtesy of Geng He)

President and CEO of Victims Of Communism Memorial Foundation, Andrew Bremberg said, Gao Zhisheng has been missing since August 2017. We will continue to call on the Chinese government to unconditionally release all detained human rights lawyers and call on the US and other governments around the world to do the same. Its important for the international community and also for the people of China.

Congressman Chris Smith, Commissioner of United States Commission on International Religious Freedom Frank Wolf, and Chinese human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng also spoke at the event.

Chinese Epoch Times reporters contributed to this report.
GAVAR, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. 539 families (2121 people) have been evacuated from the border settlements of Vardenis community of Gegharkunik province as a result of the latest aggression of Azerbaijan against Armenia, Governor of Gegharkunik Karen Sargsyan told Armenpress.

He said that most of these families have sheltered in different settlements of Gegharkunik. Some of these peoples settled in Yerevan or other provinces, mainly in the homes of their relatives.

According to the preliminary data, 73 apartments have been damaged from the Azerbaijani attacks. 7 of these houses located in the village of Sotk are unfit for further living. The buildings of the school and the medical center in Sotk, as well as infrastructures in Kut, Azat and Tretuk have also been damaged.

Currently, need assessment is being done in order to return the evacuated people to their permanent places of residence. This work will end soon. Assistance, psychological support is provided to the evacuated people both with public support or by NGOs, international organizations. Steps are being taken to return them to their permanent places of residence. And in this respect the restoration of damaged houses and infrastructures is a priority, and we need some measures and time for that to be done. The government of Armenia has expressed its readiness to provide respective measures. After the needs assessment the houses that have been damaged relatively less will be renovated first. But as for the houses which are unfit for further living, will be built from zero, but it will already require some time especially when unfavorable months for construction works are coming. All evacuated families are under our spotlight. As of today, the number of evacuated families who have returned back to their places of residence is 442 (712 people), he stated.

Reporting by Khosrov Khlghatyan
Last spring, a Palestinian farmer was planting a new olive tree when his shovel hit a hard object. He called his son, and for three months, the pair slowly excavated an ornate Byzantine-era mosaic that experts say is one of the greatest archaeological treasures ever found in Gaza.

The discovery has set off excitement among archaeologists, and the territorys Hamas rulers are planning a major announcement in the coming days.

But it is also drawing calls for better protection of Gazas antiquities, a fragile collection of sites threatened by a lack of awareness and resources as well as the constant risk of conflict between Israel and local Palestinian militants.

The mosaic was uncovered just a half mile from the Israeli border. The floor, boasting 17 iconographies of beasts and birds, is well-preserved and its colors are bright.

A Palestinian sweeps dust off parts of a Byzantine-era mosaic floor that was uncovered by a farmer in Bureij in central Gaza Strip, Sept. 5, 2022. (Fatima Shbair/AP Photo)

These are the most beautiful mosaic floors discovered in Gaza, both in terms of the quality of the graphic representation and the complexity of the geometry, said Rene Elter, an archaeologist from the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem.

Never have mosaic floors of this finesse, this precision in the graphics and richness of the colors been discovered in the Gaza Strip, he said.

Elter says the mosaic pavement dates back to a time between the 5th and 7th centuries. But he said a proper excavation must be conducted to determine when exactly it was built and whether it was part of a religious or secular complex.

Elter, whos conducted research in Gaza in the past, hasnt been able to visit the site but viewed a series of photos and videos taken by local research partners.

A detail depicting birds on a Byzantine-era mosaic floor that was uncovered recently by a Palestinian farmer in Bureij in central Gaza Strip, Sept. 5, 2022. (Fatima Shbair/AP Photo)

The Gaza Strip, a Palestinian coastal enclave sandwiched between Israel and Egypt, was a bustling trade route between Egypt and the Levant in ancient times. The coastal strip is full of remains of ancient civilizations, from the Bronze Age to the Islamic and Ottoman eras.

However, the treasures are rarely protected. In the past, they were looted. In recent years, some were damaged or destroyed by development projects or fighting with Israel. An Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after the Hamas militant group took over Gaza in 2007 has ravaged the economy, leaving few resources for the protection of antiquities.

Hamas itself pays little attention to preserving the sites as it struggles to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population. More than 2.3 million people are squeezed in the strips mere 115 square miles (300 square kilometers). In 2017, Hamas bulldozers destroyed large parts of a site containing remains from a 4,500-year-old Bronze Age settlement to make housing projects for its employees.

Palestinians clean around a Byzantine-era mosaic floor that was uncovered recently by a farmer in Bureij in central Gaza Strip, Sept. 5, 2022. (Fatima Shbair/AP Photo)

Early this year, bulldozers digging for an Egyptian-funded housing project in northern Gaza unearthed a Roman-era tomb.

Among the few preserved sites in Gaza are the St. Hilarion monastery, which spans from the late Roman Empire to the Islamic Umayyad period, and the site of a Byzantine church that was restored by international aid organizations and opened this year in the northern Gaza Strip.

While these sites also have mosaics, Elter said the latest discovery, in the central Gaza town of Bureij, is exceptional.

The Hamas-run department of antiquities described the mosaic as a big archaeological discovery but refused to comment further, saying there will be a formal announcement later.

A detail depicting beasts on a Byzantine-era mosaic floor that was uncovered recently by a Palestinian farmer in Bureij in central Gaza Strip, Sept. 5, 2022. (Fatima Shbair/AP Photo)

The owner of the land, who refused to be identified before the official announcement, has covered the unearthed portion of the mosaic floor with tin sheets. He said he hopes to receive compensation for protecting the unique discovery on his property.

The patch of land holding the mosaic is about 5,400 square feet (500 square meters), and three dug-out spots reveal glimpses of the mosaic.

The largest of the holes in the ground, about 6 feet by 9 feet (2 meters by 3 meters), has the 17 drawings of animals. The other two show intricate patterns of tiles. Roots of an old olive tree have damaged parts of the mosaic, which appears to be about 250 square feet (23 square meters) altogether in size.

Details of a Byzantine-era mosaic floor are uncovered by a Palestinian farmer in Bureij in central Gaza Strip, Sept. 5, 2022. (Fatima Shbair/AP Photo)

Elter said the discovery is in immediate danger because it is so close to the Israeli separation fence.

Such areas along the fence are often the scene of intermittent clashes or Israeli incursions. Just last month, Israel and Gazas Islamic Jihad militant group fought a fierce three-day battle, which included Israeli shelling of militant posts and the landing of some misfired Palestinian rockets in the area.

Elter also worries that excavations by inexperienced people could damage the site. His hope is that a professional team can properly excavate, restore, and protect the mosaic.

It is imperative to quickly organize an emergency rescue intervention, Elter said.

Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Inspired newsletter at TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter
Fire at PG&Es California Tesla Battery Facility Fully Under Control

A fire outbreak at PG&E Corp.s energy storage facility that uses battery packs made by Tesla Inc. has been fully controlled, the Monterey County sheriffs office in California said late on Tuesday night.

The shelter-in-place advisory and all road closures have also been lifted, the county sheriffs office and the North County Fire Department said.

The incident, which caused a part of the Highway 1 in California to shut down, came about a year after another fire broke out in a Teslas Megapack battery unit in Australia during testing of one of the worlds biggest energy storage projects.

The California facility is one of the biggest utility-owned, lithium-ion battery energy storage systems in the world, and power producer PG&E said the incident has caused no electrical outage for customers.

The electric utilities company said upon detecting the issue the safety systems automatically disconnected the battery storage facility from the electrical grid and that no onsite personnel was injured due to the fire. The company said it became aware of the fire at around 01:30 a.m. on Sept. 20.

Tesla did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Tesla generates most of its revenue from its electric car business, but Chief Executive Elon Musk has pledged to grow its solar energy and battery storage business to roughly the same size as its car business for the long-term.

The company last year broke ground on its factory in Lathrop, California, to produce its large-scale, utility storage battery unit Megapack.

PG&E in April announced the commissioning of its 182.5-megawatt (MW) Tesla Megapack battery energy storage system (BESS)known as the Elkhorn Batterylocated at its Moss Landing electric substation in Monterey County.

PG&E said batteries are charged when energy demand is low or when solar production is high and then provide additional capacity by sending that reserved power to the grid as demand grows.

It was not immediately known who is the battery cell supplier for Teslas battery products.
Smoke rises from the New American Oil (NAO) refinery in Plaza Huincul, Neuquen Province, Argentina, on Sept. 22, 2022. (Fernando Ranni/Diario Rio Negro via AP)

Fire in Argentina Refinery Kills 3

BUENOS AIRES, ArgentinaA fire at an oil refinery in southwestern Argentina killed at least three people early Thursday, according to local authorities.

Firefighters worked throughout the morning to extinguish the blaze that started at a storage tank at the New American Oil refinery, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the provincial capital of Neuquen.

The fire quickly spread throughout the refinery and local media outlets published video showing a massive explosion followed by dark clouds of smoke rising from the facility.

Three workers at the refinery died, said Mayor Gustavo Suarez of the nearby town of Plaza Huincul,

The cause of the fire is under investigation, the Neuquen provincial government said.

The fire quickly took over the entire refinery, said Roberto Bello, a law enforcement officer with the Neuquen Police Department.

The Private Oil Workers Union of the Rio Negro, Neuquen, and La Pampa provinces called for a workers strike, saying it is fed up with the lack of commitment to the life of workers.
A group of illegal immigrants is brought in to Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the English Channel, on Sept. 22, 2022. (Gareth Fuller/PA Media)

French Police Bust IraqiKurdish Gang Smuggling Illegal Immigrants to UK

French police have busted a people-smuggling gang which had been using small boats to take illegal immigrants across the English Channel to the UK.

The gang, based in Lille and run by Iraqi Kurds, was detected thanks to intelligence sharing between authorities in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the UK, police said on Sept. 22.

Three Iraqi men and three French suspects were arrested on Sept. 19 and were subsequently charged, according to French news agency AFP.

Police found 13 inflatable boats, 14 outboard engines, 700 life jackets, 100 pumps, and 700 litres of fuel, according to Xavier Delrieu, head of French anti-illegal immigration agency Ocriest.

The ring is suspected of being behind 80 illegal crossings of the English Channel over the summer, of which 50 were successful. The human smugglers could earn around 80,000 euros ($78,000) for each successful trip.

Groups of illegal immigrants are housed in tents after being brought in to Dover, Kent, from Border Force vessels following a number of small boat incidents in the English Channel, on Sept. 22, 2022. (Gareth Fuller/PA Media)

Continuing Crisis

The number of illegal crossings has soared in recent years, with 28,526 people detected in 2021, compared to 8,466 in 2020, 1,843 in 2019, and 299 in 2018, according to figures from the Home Office.

Since the beginning of 2022, more than 30,000 illegal immigrants have crossed the Channel to reach the UK.

According to the UK Ministry of Defence, 21 boats were intercepted on Sept. 22 carrying 1,150 people, bringing the total to have made the crossing so far this year to 31,665.

The number of arrivals this week has led officials to erect special tents at Dover, Kent, to keep the illegal immigrants covered as they appear to be overflowing from existing facilities while being processed.

Rwanda Plan

In April, then-Home Secretary Priti Patel signed a deal with Rwanda that involved sending illegal immigrants who had crossed the channel to the African country.

The agreement was designed to be a deterrent to those making the journey by sea, but 26,397 people have arrived by boat since it was signed.

The first deportation flight to Rwanda was grounded amid legal challenges in June, and the matter isnt expected to be decided by the UK courts until October.

The way UK authorities have been handling the small boats crossing the Channel has been widely criticised.

Two recent reports criticised the Home Office over its ineffective response to the challenge of illegal immigration in the channel. One said the Border Forces approach to preventing the journeys was ineffective and possibly counter-productive, while the other said the initial processing of those who arrived has been ineffective and inefficient.

Lily Zhou and PA Media contributed to this report.
Germany: Teen Arrested for Alleged Extremist Attack Plans

BERLINA teenager accused of planning an Islamist-motivated attack in Germany was arrested Thursday, the federal prosecutors office said.

The dual GermanKosovar citizen detained in the western town of Iserlohn allegedly was under the influence of an ISIS terrorist group follower who posted propaganda on online messaging services, the prosecutors office said in a statement.

The teenagers exact age was not given, and he was identified only as Etrit P. for privacy reasons, according to the statement.

Investigators accused him of preparing a serious act of violence threatening the state and supporting a foreign terrorist organization.

In implementation of this decision, he already had himself taught how to build an unconventional explosive and incendiary device, the statement said.

Prosecutors think the suspect worried his alleged bombing plans would be foiled. They said he had therefore decided to attack police officers with a knife instead but was arrested before doing so, the statement said.
Kids who walk, skateboard, or ride their bikes to school when they are young are more likely to keep it up as they get older, reaping the health benefits, recent research suggests.

The walk to school is a wonderful moment in the day that provides children a glimpse of living an active lifestyle, said study co-author David Tulloch, a professor of landscape architecture at Rutgers University-New Brunswick in New Jersey. When people start walking early, it can have a lasting impact on their health.

About 11 percent of kids in the United States walk or ride their bikes to or from school, according to the National Household Travel Survey. This rate hasnt changed in a decade.

In the study, the researchers found that kids are much more likely to continue active commuting (traveling by foot, bike, or even skateboard) if they are taught to do it when they are young.

To see if active commuting stays the same over time, the researchers asked parents and caregivers about their kids school travel habits twicetwo to four years apartbetween 2009 and 2017. The families lived in Camden, New Brunswick, Newark, and Trenton, which are mostly low-income cities in New Jersey.

Tulloch and his team figured out how far away the school was and took note of the surrounding area.

The investigators found that more than 75 percent of kids who did active commuting at the studys start still did it two to four years later. And few who hadnt done it before started active commuting when researchers followed up.

Those who biked, walked, or skateboarded to school at the outset were seven times more likely to do so two to four years later, the study found.

Most kids dont achieve the 60 minutes per day of physical activity that theyre recommended to get, said lead author Robin DeWeese, an assistant research professor at Arizona State University. Active commuting to school is one way to get more of that activity.

To increase active commuting, DeWeese suggests schools and communities encourage it in the early grades because it may continue to help students later on.

Commuting methods varied by demographic characteristics and perceptions of the neighborhood. Kids whose parents were born outside the United States were less likely to walk or bike to school than those of U.S.-born parents. And kids whose parents considered their neighborhood safe were more than 2.5 times as likely to walk or bike to school.

Distance between home and school had the largest and most consistent effect on the commute, Tulloch said. The distance to school often increases as kids get older and the likelihood of active commuting drops once they reach high school age.

Smarter urban design can help reverse this trend, Tulloch said. Remote drop-offs and walking school buses (groups of students chaperoned by volunteer parents) can encourage children to actively commute at a young age. Tulloch added that infrastructure improvements, such as sidewalks and tree-lined streets, can make walking more pleasant.

One of the most visited tourist sites in New York City is the High Line, a green walkable space with no cars, Tulloch said in a university news release. We should be doing this type of planning everywhereespecially in school zones.

The findings were published in the journal Preventive Medicine Reports.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers more stats on physical activity behavior in children.

SOURCE:

Rutgers University, news release, Sept 6, 2022

This story was originally published on the HealthDay site.
Glock Switches: Turning Hand Guns Into Machine Guns Becoming Popular Among Gangsters

The rise in murders in recent years has been accompanied by another trendcriminals are increasingly modifying their firearms to enable fully automatic fire, converting simple handguns into tiny machine guns.

Houston police brought 19 cases involving guns furnished with these Glock switches earlier this year, including a shootout that left three police officers wounded. Last year, another Houston police officer was killed while serving a warrant after the criminal pulled a Glock with a switch and opened fire. In April, six people were killed in a large gang shootout in downtown Sacramento where one of the criminals used a gun with a Glock switch, according to authorities.

There are no comprehensive national statistics on the proliferation of Glock switches, but it seems they have only been used in a small fraction of violent gun crimes.

Its largely a novelty, one gun expert told The Epoch Times.

The switch allows the popular Glock handguns to rapidly fire rounds with a single pull of the trigger.

Machine guns are generally illegal to own in the United States. The exception is those made before 1986, which have become prohibitively expensive, and those held by licensed firearms dealers. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) considers Glock switches machine guns. Getting one illegally can thus land a person in federal prison for up to a decade.

In 2020, the ATF in Houston confiscated about 30 such switches. In 2021, the number rose to nearly 150, local media reported.

A Glock switch is a small device about an inch in diameter. It snaps onto the back of the gun and applies pressure on the trigger mechanism so that it doesnt stop after firing just one round. A regular Glock can eat through a 30-round magazine in about 2.3 seconds.

Such a firearm is highly impractical, as the rapid recoil and small size make it difficult to control and wildly inaccurate. Because most Glocks use 9mm ammunition, the recoil is rather strong and the muzzle will increasingly jerk up the longer one holds the trigger, explained Charles Heller, firearms instructor and radio host in Arizona.

If you run a Glock full-auto youre going to be shooting airplanes pretty quick, he told The Epoch Times.

Such a modified gun becomes more dangerous at close range, he said.

If you can put three to five rounds into somebody instead of one or two, it is more deadly.

There are a small number of such switches that are legally owned by people with the required license. Some law enforcement agencies have them, too, according to Heller.

Unlicensed switches have started to proliferate in the past several years after some people in China started to make them and sell them online. Theyre usually mailed to the United States directly or smuggled in through Mexico, according to the ATF. Some have also been made domestically on 3D printers. The agency has identified about 2,500 people who may have bought one, WGN TV reported in 2019.

An ATF spokesman told The Epoch Times that the agency hasnt released any statistics on switches in particular and was unable to verify the figure reported in 2019 based solely on the information in the article. He noted, though, that from 20172021, machinegun conversion devices recovered by ATF increased from less than 100 to more than 1,500.

That, however, includes other devices that enable full-auto fire, not just switches, he clarified via email.

In Hellers view, Glock switchesor machine guns, for that mattershouldnt be illegal in the first place, according to the Second Amendment, and since the switches are so primitive and can be 3D printed, it wont be possible to prevent people who are willing to break the law from acquiring them, he argued.

The genie is out the bottle on 3D printing, youre never going to be able to quash it, he said.
GOP Lawmaker Pushes to End COVID Emergency After Biden Says Pandemic Is Over

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) urged on Sept. 22 for the repeal of the years-long national emergency declaration following President Joe Bidens recent remarks that the COVID-19 pandemic is over.

The Republican lawmaker of Kansas introduced on Thursday a privileged resolution that calls for a vote to end the undergoing emergency declaration over the global pandemic, which has been in place since being firstly announced by then-President Donald Trump in March 2020.

GOP lawmakers in the House previously attempted in March to end the state of emergency yet failed to scrap the declaration.

The latest move came after Biden made the comments during CBSs 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday night. We still have a problem with COVID. Were still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over, the president said.

Since President Biden used his appearance on 60 Minutes to declare COVID is over, he must immediately terminate the COVID-19 national emergency declaration and wind down other emergency authorities that his Administration continues to force us to live under, Marshall said in a Sept. 22 statement.

The American people are fatigued and yearning to operate outside of the confines of supersized government. They long for their God-given freedoms, and for leaders to take their side, said Marshall. Its high time for Joe Biden and his Administration to stop using COVID to implement their partisan political agenda and focus on the surge in crime and the fentanyl epidemic.

The ongoing use of the emergency declaration has allowed the administration to leverage Congress into steer additional funds to address the pandemic, provides a legal basis for suspending payment interest and deadlines for student loans, and shut down ports of entry.

Hot Water

Bidens off-the-cuff comment has surprised his health officials and other Democrat colleagues, with White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci attempting to reshape the presidents narrative, warning that people should not be cavalier that were out of the woods.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration asked Congress for more than $22 billion in additional COVID-19 funding to support research on vaccines, testing, preparations, and treatment. Republicans argued that the additional relief funding isnt necessary given Bidens comment. Previously, GOP lawmakers signaled they arent willing to back the White Houses latest request.

Moreover, the president announced in August he would wipe out the federal student loan balances of millions of people with up to $20,000 in debt per recipient, using authority under the 2003 HEROES Act that allows the government to waive or modify student loans during national emergencies such as a war.

The executive action means that one-time forgiveness of $10,000 per borrower will cost about $300 billion for taxpayers, or $330 billion if the program continues over the next decade, according to a budget estimate from economists at Penn Wharton. In addition, eliminating the income limit threshold would lead to a 10-year cost of $344 billion.

On Monday, demonstrators suffering from long-term COVID-19 symptoms, such as myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome, protested outside the White House, calling on Biden to not end the pandemic, The Hill reported.

Officials from the White House didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.
The landing page for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit is seen in Toronto on Aug. 10, 2020. (Giordano Ciampini/The Canadian Press)

Government Recovers About a Third of $3 Billion Erroneous CERB Payments

The federal government has so far recovered about a third of the roughly $3 billion in COVID-19 relief benefits paid to ineligible people, the cabinet disclosed in records submitted to the House of Commons.

In an Inquiry of Ministry, obtained by Blacklocks Reporter, the cabinet said notices have been sent to roughly 1.7 million Canadians who do not qualify for but have received the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). A total of 8.9 million people received the benefit, meaning that ineligible applicants account for 19 percent of the recipients.

The intended total recovery amount cannot be predicted with accuracy at this time, Minister of National Revenue Diane Lebouthillier said in the records.

The records were disclosed at the request of NDP MP Peter Julian, according to Blacklocks Reporter.

CERB was one of the first COVID-19-related relief programs passed by Parliament on March 25, 2020just two weeks after the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus a global pandemic. The program provided a $2,000 relief fund to employed and self-employed Canadians who were directly affected by COVID-19, over a four-week period.

The program was initially budgeted at $24 billion, but by Aug. 16, 2020, roughly 8.6 million individual claimants had received $70 billion. The total payment made through the program reached up to $81.6 billion, the records show.

There is no doubt that when a program is created quickly, there is going to be some abuse of that program, Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux said during a parliamentary debate on Nov. 29, 2021.

The number of CERB claimants was roughly three times that of unemployed at the peak of COVID-19 lockdowns, the records show. A 2021 report from the Office of the Auditor General shows that the Canada Revenue Agency was aware of risks of fraudulent applications early on when running the program, as well as risks of people applying for multiple relief benefits when they should not.

As of 30 November 2020, payments were stopped for more than 30,000 potentially fraudulent applications. This represented approximately $42 million, the 2021 report says.

The new Inquiry of Ministry, however, disclosed much higher figures. Cabinet said it was trying to retrieve funds owed from more than 72,000 Employment Insurance claimants who received additional pandemic relief. So far, a total of $65.8 million has been retrieved.

Of a total $2.9 billion paid in error to 1.7 million claimants overall, less than a billion was recovered, the Inquiry of Ministry record shows.

Of these notices of debt $960,140,944 has been repaid, the record said. The government intends to recover the full amount of the debt, $2.9 billion.

No penalties or interest would be charged on benefit overpayments under the now-disbanded CERB program, Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough said in a statement on Nov. 25, 2021.

Canadians will not be put into financial hardship by having to repay emergency benefits they received, Qualtrough said.

At the same time, the government is committed to the financial stewardship of its programs and has zero tolerance for fraud.

In a separate Inquiry of Ministry, also obtained by Blacklocks Reporter, the cabinet said it was pursuing overpayments of as little as $7 and as much as $14,000. This record was disclosed at the request of NDP MP Daniel Blaikie.

The average amount of outstanding debt on these notices is $1,056, the Inquiry said.

The Canada Revenue Agency said it had spent $147.6 million worth of staff time auditing CERB accounts.

The Agency is committed to ensuring individuals receive only the benefits to which they are entitled, the Inquiry said.
A police truck is stationed in Abuja, Nigeria, on Nov. 2, 2021. (Kola Sulaimon/AFP via Getty Images)

Gunmen Kill 14 Villagers in Northcentral Nigeria

ABUJA, Nigeria Gunmen attacked two communities in Nigerias north-central region, killing 14 people and injuring many others, authorities said Thursday.

The attackers stormed the communities in Logo council area of Benue state Wednesday night, opening unprovoked fire on residents, said Paul Hemba, the states top security official.

Police in Benue confirmed the attack. The assailants shot 12 people to death in one community then moved on to another where they killed two more villagers, Hemba said. He said 15 people were seriously injured.

He identified the attackers as Fulani herdsmen, a group of mostly young pastoralists from the Fulani tribe caught up in Nigerias conflict between host communities and herdsmen over limited access to water and land.

In Nigerias middle belt and central regions, deadly clashes between local communities and herdsmen continue in a cycle of violence that has defied government measures, although security forces have recently announced some arrests and seizure of arms.

A similar attack in another part of Benue targeted a convoy of soldiers of the Nigerian army, but they were able to repel the assailants, Hemba said.

Many of the attacks in rural areas are similar. Motorcycle-riding gunmen often arrive in the hundreds in areas where Nigerias security forces are outnumbered and outgunned.

Authorities have in the past admitted that the inadequate number of security personnel in many of the affected areas is one of the major reasons the attacks have continued.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who came into office in 2015 on a wave of goodwill after promising to end the nations protracted security crisis, leaves office in 2023. Those security challenges are back on the front burner as political campaigns for next years election begin.

By Chinedu Asadu
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. The Supreme Judicial Council of Armenia made a decision to terminate the powers of judge of the Criminal Court of Appeals Alexander Azaryan, the SJC said.

The decision was made based on the application on resignation submitted by judge Alexander Azaryan on September 19, 2022.
Members of the New York Police Department (NYPD) Strategic Response Group stand outside NYPD headquarters in New York City, N.Y., on Feb. 17, 2016. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

House Democrats Pass Police Funding Bills Amid Crime Crisis

House Democrats passed a package of bills on Sept. 22 aimed at bolstering police funding and public safety after Republican lawmakers accused them of being soft on crime amid a surge in violent crime across the United States.

Lawmakers voted to pass four bills as part of the package, including the Mental Health Justice Act of 2022, the Invest to Protect Act of 2022, the Break the Cycle of Violence Act, and the Violent Incident Clearance and Technological Investigative Methods (VICTIM) Act of 2022.

The Mental Health Justice Act of 2022, sponsored by Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), would create a grant program for states and local governments to train and dispatch mental health professionals, as opposed to police, in response to emergencies involving behavioral health.

The Invest to Protect Act of 2022, sponsored by moderate Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), would raise funding for smaller police departments that employ fewer than 200 law enforcement officers.

The Break the Cycle of Violence Act, sponsored by Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), would provide grants to fund community violence intervention initiatives in areas with higher rates of homicide and community violence.

Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), who introduced the VICTIM Act, called its passing a major win for Americas public safety, and said it passed the U.S. House with support from Democrats and Republicans.

The bill would provide funding to local police departments to hire victim support personnel along with investigators to aid in solving unsolved homicides and violent crimes.

Specifically, the legislation would establish a Department of Justice grant program to hire, train, and retain detectives and victim services personnel to investigate shootings and support victims, Demings said in a statement.

The U.S. Capitol in Washington on Aug. 6, 2022. (Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)

Huge Win for the Safety of American Communities

Real life is different from television. Half of gun murders in the United States go unsolved, and victims are often left with no justice and little support, said Demings, the first female chief of police of Orlando, Florida.

I vividly recall being on the scenes of young people, dead as a result of violence, knowing that their families would soon receive devastating news. I saw as a detective, detective sergeant, and chief of police that violent crimes require a coordinated and professional response to ensure justice. Passage of the VICTIM Act is a huge win for the safety of American communities and will help us put away violent criminals and keep families safe, Demings added.

However, the packages, the result of lengthy negotiations between moderates and progressives, also exposed intraparty divisions, as some progressive Democrats were hesitant to accept the bills over concerns about increasing funding for local police departments, which threatened to derail the bills.

Four progressives joined Republicans in voting against the bill: Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) voted present.

Following nearly two hours of delayed negotiations, lawmakers voted 216215 in favor of a rule setting the terms of the debate on the legislation.

However, it remains to be seen if the package will receive enough support from Senate Republicans to pass.

Protesters hold up signs as they block the freeway during a demonstration calling for the removal of District Attorney Jackie Lacey and to defund the police, in Los Angeles, on July 1, 2020. (Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images)

They Dont Want to Fund the Police

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) in a speech on the House floor on Sept. 22 was vocal about his lack of support for the package of bills.

They dont want to fund the police, they want to addict the police to the federal dollar, Gaetz said. And that comes with a more efficient way to ensure centralized decision-making, not the localized decision-making that our Constitution promises and has offered great promise to this country for generations.

Do not buy this theory that this legislation is intended to help law enforcement. The best thing we could do for law enforcement is to get out of their way, have their back, and call out politicians who are trying to defund the police and devalue the commitment they make to our communities.

The latest package of bills comes as violent crime has soared across the United States, surging 4 percent in 2022 when compared to the same time period in 2021, according to a midyear comparison survey from the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA).

Robberies also rose by 12 percent in the first six months of this year compared to 2021, and aggravated assaults were up 2.5 percent. However, homicides were down 2 percent year over year, according to the MCCA data.

Meanwhile, calls across the country to defund the police and chronic law enforcement shortages have further exacerbated the situation.
EU and Hungarian flags fly in front of a Hungarian crest at the presidental palace in Budapest, Hungary, on March 30, 2012. (Attila Kisbenedek/AFP via Getty Images)

Hungary No Longer a Full Democracy?

Commentary

The European Parliament has voted to declare Hungary no longer a true democracy.

The resolution, passed on Sept. 15, describes the central European country as a hybrid regime of electoral autocracy and that while elections do occur, respect for democratic norms and stands is absent.

The resolution received 433 votes in favour and 123 votes against declaring Hungary in serious breach of the European Unions democratic norms.

The Parliament called on the European Councilconsisting of Heads of States and governmentsto consider imposing sanctions.

The resolution is based on Article 7(1) of the Treaty on European Union, which allows the European Council to determine if there is a clear risk of a serious breach  of the values referred to in Article 2. These values include respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and respect for human rights.

However, the meaning of the concept of democracy is not spelled out in Article 2, so it means whatever the Parliament wants it to mean.

The Parliament also indicated in its resolution that any delay in acting to protect EU values would itself be a violation of the rule of law. Additionally, the European Commissionthe executive arm of the EUhas expressed concerns at Hungarys situation.

The European Parliament accused Hungary of several alleged violations of EU values including a lack of judicial independence, suspicion of corruption, violation of LGBT rights, and the muzzling of academic and religious freedoms.

Hungarys Prime Minister Viktor Orban leaves after an emergency European Union (EU) summit at The European Council Building in Brussels, Belgium, on Feb. 25, 2022. (John Thys/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Your Democratic Values or Mine?

Of course, the accusation that Hungary violated EU democratic values depends on the definition of democracy. If the concept is not clearly defined, it becomes a meaningless concept with the European Parliament having complete discretion over how to apply it.

Legal theorist, Hans Kelsen, in his General Theory of Law and State argued that democracy connotes the principle of self-determination and that conformity with the will of the majority is the aim of democratic organization.

If this description of democracy were to be embraced, one can easily conclude that Hungary is democratic because its prime minister, Viktor Orban, won a fourth consecutive election in April this year.

This amazing electoral success indicates that the electorate strongly supports the direction Orbans ruling Fidesz party is paving for the countryprovided there has been no electoral fraud.

The EUs actions come after a contentious speech delivered by Orban in Romania in July.

He reportedly said that Western Europe deploys an ideological ruse that claims Europe by its very nature is populated by peoples of mixed race. He was roundly criticised for his comments, which some commentators have claimed could come straight from the script of Goebbels.

But it could also be argued that the EU has a problem with Orbans sympathies for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Orban has resisted attempts to support EU sanctions on the purchase of Russian gas imports, saying it would damage the Hungarian economy. He has also claimed that punitive sanctions against Russia have not worked, that Ukraine cannot win the war, and that the armed conflict can only be resolved through direct peace talks between the United States and Russia.

However, one true, lingering concern about Hungary is the legitimate concerns over a lack of judicial independence.

Demonstrators hold a flag in the colors of Hungary reading Hungary protects Europe as they arrive to listen to a speech by their prime minister in Budapest, Hungary, on March 15, 2018. (Attila Kisbenedek/AFP via Getty Images)

Indeed, judges are appointed by the president of the National Office for the Judiciary, a post created by Orbans government.

The EU Court of Justice has also ruled that a Hungarian law adopted in 2018, which threatened jail for people who assisted asylum seekers, is incompatible with EU law.

There is a gnawing suspicion that judicial independencea fundamental principle of democraciesis being eroded or at risk in Hungary.

Ultimately, the European Parliaments vote is not binding because unanimity among the 27 member states of the EU, including Hungary, is required to impose sanctions.

Under Article 7, Hungary could theoretically be threatened with losing its right to vote in the European Council. But because unanimity is required, the prospect of this happening is just as unlikely to happen (barring some fantastical interpretation of current laws).

This is the most recent episode of the tense relationship between Hungary and other EU members and continues the blocs ongoing struggles with unitya problem the EU will need to deal with to maintain the integrity of the union.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Cathay Pacific aircraft are seen parked on the tarmac at the airport, following the outbreak of the new coronavirus, in Hong Kong, China March 5, 2020. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters, File Photo)

IATA: Hong Kong Lost Its International Aviation Hub Under the CCP Zero-COVID Policy

Willie Walsh, Director General of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), spoke at an aviation conference in Doha on Sept. 21, saying that mainland Chinas Ultra-strict Zero-COVID policy, has devastated Hong Kong-a former British colony, and deprived Hong Kong of its status as a global aviation hub.

It has been three years since the outbreak of COVID-19, and with most of the countries canceling their travel restrictions, Hong Kong still follows mainland Chinas Zero-COVID policy, restricting the entry of overseas passengers. Lots of airlines are forced to cancel flights to and from Hong Kong, due to the severe restrictions on airlines.

Hong Kong has lost its position as a global hub and will struggle to regain it because other hubs have taken advantage of it, said Walsh.

Hong Kong International Airport has been an international aviation hub before the epidemic, but from April to June, it only received 591,000 passengers; and the number for Singapore Changi Airport is 7,300,000.

According to Cirium, a company providing data and analytics for aviation, that there were 45 foreign airlines were grounded on Hong Kong routes in September, including British Airways, Air France, and Etihad Airways of United Arab Emirates.

And there are 85 airlines flying to Hong Kong before the epidemic.

Virgin Air UK said that they had planned to resume flights to London from September, but due to the ongoing operational complexities, the schedule was postponed to March 2023.

As requested by the Hong Kong government, all the non-resident crew members must isolate at the airport hotel, under closed-loop arrangements after arrival. Until they board the flight and leave Hong Kong. They are not allowed to enter the Hong Kong community during the quarantine period.

Overseas tourists arriving in Hong Kong are subject to the 3+4 quarantine policy. They are subject to a compulsory quarantine for three days in the hotel, and then four days of stay-at-home for medical supervision.

All tourists are restricted by the vaccine pass and yellow code, and not allowed to enter high-risk places like no-masks-needed areas or group activities.

Before boarding the airline, they must present a record of two injections, the result of the PCR test within 48 hours, a health declaration, and the reservation confirmation of the designated quarantine hotel.

On Sept 20, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu was asked by reporters, when the government would relax the entry quarantine policy, whether to cancel the PCR test before the tourist boarding, etc. John Lee said the government will announce a detailed scheme with other new plans under the overall epidemic prevention policy, in the wish to connect with the world.
The new magnetically driven motor designed and built by a team at University of New South Wales. (Courtesy of Guoyo Chu)

Improving Electric Vehicles: Researchers Develop New High-Speed Motor

A team of researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has developed a new record-breaking high-speed motor that could improve the range of electric vehicles (EV).

The new motor is the fastest Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (IPMSM) that has ever been built with commercialised lamination materials, achieving speeds of 100,000 revolutions per minute, doubling the speeds of all previous high-speed records of laminated IPMSMs.

IPMSMs function using rated torque maximum continuous force available to push the rotor, the moving component in a motor, around an axis to generate power. The force is conjured by permanent magnets that are embedded in the steel rotor.

The maximum speed of current IPMSMs is limited because of iron bridges in their rotors, which cause the motor to suffer from low mechanical strength.

However, the team at UNSW improved the mechanical robustness of their IPMSM by developing a new rotor topology. The new rotor design also lowers the amount of rare earth materials needed per unit of power production.

The team, headed by Assoc. Prof. Rukmi Dutta and researcher Guoyu Chu from the UNSW School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications got the inspiration for the design of the motor from South Koreas Gyopo rail bridge which has a double-tied arch structure and compound-curve-based mechanical stress distribution technique.

The design of the new IPMSM motor took its ispiration from the double-tied arch rail bridge in Gyopo, South Korea. (Photo courtesy of Dr Guoyo Chu. Supplied to The Epoch Times by UNSW)

Improving the Mechanical Robustness

In an email to The Epoch Times, co-head Chu said that there are three reasons that the rotor has excellent mechanical robustness.

Firstly, the rotor structure is mechanically robust and has been successfully implemented and verified in civil engineering. Secondly, the team established a very accurate analytical model for the mechanical strength of IPMSM rotors.

The in-depth analysis helped us to modify and integrate the double-tied arch structure into the rotor design, Chu said.

Finally, the design of the rotor was optimized using a multi-physics and multi-objective optimization package that is based on a genetic algorithm.

This UNSW-developed advanced optimization package helped find the best balance between the rotors electromagnetic and mechanical design concerns, he said.

The optimization package evaluated 90 designs and nominated the best 50 percent of them; from this selection, the program generated a new range of designs. The optimization program repeated this process until it arrived at the optimum design, which in the case of this motor was the 190th generation that the program analysed.

What this Device Could Mean For Electric Vehicles

One of the trends for electric vehicles is for them to have motors which rotate at higher speeds, said Chu in a UNSW news release.

Every EV manufacturer is trying to develop high-speed motors, and the reason is that the nature of the law of physics then allows you to shrink the size of that machine.

Chu said usually, the bigger the IPMSM, the more rated torque and that the power of IPMSMs is equal to the rated torque multiplied by the speed how fast the rotor is being turned.

Therefore, higher speed means lower torque requirement for an IPMSM with a specific power rating, leading to a smaller motor size, Chu said.

And with a smaller machine, it weighs less and consumes less energy and therefore that gives the vehicle a longer range.

Fully electric Tesla car on an assembly line at Tesla Motors car factory in Tilburg, the Netherlands on Aug. 22, 2013. (Guus Schoonewille/AFP/Getty Images)

Power Density

Importantly, the new high-speed motor can produce a very high power density, allowing for the weight of the motor to be reduced, which is useful for electric vehicles as it increases the range for any given charge.

High speed can help reduce both size and weight of the motor, as well as the inverter. The reduced weight helps to reduce energy consumption; the reduced size will allow putting more batteries into the EV, Chu explained.

Moreover, if the whole drivetrain can be optimized for the high-speed motor, the system efficiency may also be increased.

Altering the Motor For Electric Vehicles

Chu noted that with the researchers had tried to achieve the absolute maximum speed they could with the project, recording over 100,000 revolutions per minute with the peak power density being around 7kW per kilogram.

He said that for an electric vehicle, the team would increase the power of the motor by somewhat reducing its speed.

We can scale and optimise to provide power and speed in a given rangefor example, a 200kW motor with a maximum speed of around 18,000 rpm that perfectly suits EV applications,he said.

He said that if an EV manufacturer wanted to use this motor in their cars, he believes that it would take only six to twelve months to modify the motor to satisfy their specifications.

We have our own machine design software package where we can input the requirements of speed, or power density and run the system for a couple of weeks, and it gives us the optimum design that satisfies those needs.

A General Motors worker assembles a Chevrolet Volt hybrid electric vehicle in Detroit on Nov. 30, 2010. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

Other Applications of the Motor

This new motor has many potential applications outside of its use in electric vehicles. For example, this high-speed motor could allow high precision Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines, which are highly sought after in the aviation and robotics industry, to drill or mill with minimal diameters.

This motor could also be useful in large heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, which, in order to use a new type of refrigerant that is more eco-friendly, require high-speed compressors. Another possible application is as an IDG (Integrated Drive Generator), providing power to aircraft systems from inside the engine of the machine.

Furthermore, the motor is less expensive than current technology and requires less rare earth materials such as neodymium.

Most high-speed motors use a sleeve to strengthen the rotors, and that sleeve is usually made of high-cost material such as titanium or carbon fibre, Chu said.

He noted that the sleeve is very expensive and needs to be precisely fitted, which increases the cost of manufacturing the motor.

Our rotors have very good mechanical robustness, so we dont need that sleeve, which reduces the manufacturing cost, he said.

And we only use around 30 per cent of rare earth materials, which includes a big reduction in the material cost  thus making our high-performance motors more environmentally friendly and affordable.
CNN's Don Lemonseen here at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government Institute of Politics taking part in a program titled "Race, Media and Politics" in Cambridge, Mass., on Feb. 22, 2019was taken aback in a Tuesday interview when he got an answer he wasn't expecting on racial reparations. (Paul Marotta/Getty Images)

In Discussing Reparations, Honest History of Slavery Makes the Left Uncomfortable

Commentary

The Left loves to promote reparationsbut only up until the point where history and truth run counter to its simplistic narratives about the past.

British royals expert Hilary Fordwich threw CNN host Don Lemon for a loop on Tuesday when he asked her if the British monarchy should pay reparations for colonialism and slavery.

Lemon said to Fordwich, [Y]ou have those who are asking for reparations for colonialism, and theyre wondering, you know, $100 billion, $24 billion here and there, $500 million there.

To cut to the clickbait, you wont believe what happened next.

First, Fordwich acknowledged that there are people asking for reparations, but then turned the discussion on its head. She said that looking to the British monarchy for reparations is the wrong place to go.

Instead, proponents of reparations should look first to the beginning of the supply chainthat is, to the African kingdoms that initially enslaved Africans and sold themrather than the British, who were a key force in eliminating slavery globally.

Which was the first nation in the world that abolished slavery? Fordwich asked rhetorically, then answered her own question. It was the British, she said.

In Great Britain, they abolished slavery. Two thousand naval men died on the high seas trying to stop slavery. Why? Because the African kings were rounding up their own people, she said. They had them [in] cages, waiting in the beaches.

She ended with this incredible finisher:

I think youre totally right. If reparations need to be paid, we need to go right back to the beginning of that supply chain and say, Who was rounding up their own people and having them handcuffed in cages? Absolutely, thats where they should start.

The segment is well worth watching, if only to see Lemons face and reaction when challenged with an honest discussion about slavery and history.

CNNs @DonLemon tells royal commentator Hilary Fordwich the royal family should pay reparations  immediately regrets it pic.twitter.com/LotCfBoAym  Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 20, 2022

Discussions about reparations are timely, given the release of The Woman King, a Hollywood production that tells the story of a group of 19th-century female African warriors from the kingdom of Dahomey. The movie portrays the protagonists as proto-pan-African liberators fighting imperialism and slavery, but the truth was in many ways quite the opposite.

Dahomeylocated in what is now the country of Beninand other African kingdoms were often enthusiastically pro-slavery. The port city of Anomabo, for instancewhich is in present-day Ghanabecame a powerful, central hub of the slave trade. Its considerable wealthbuilt mostly on the trans-Atlantic slave tradedried up when the British Empire and other Western powers not only turned on the practice of slavery, but used force to bring it to an end.

The near-universal, global practice of slaverywhich has dogged civilization throughout its historymostly came to an end because of the rise and power of the West. Are Ghana and Benin now on the hook to pay reparations?

These thorny issues somehow get glossed over in the debate about historical guilt and culpability. But they suddenly matter, given that the issue has been taken seriously by left-wing policymakers.

A recent Vox article laid out how reparations are being discussed by local governments and institutions to capitalize on the great awokening that began in earnest in 2020.

Its apparently becoming a serious proposal in some localities. From Vox:

Advocates continue to demand action on reparations from the federal government. But local governments and institutions arent waiting to try their hand at reparative justice.

Following the social justice uprisings of 2020, cities including Asheville, North Carolina; Providence, Rhode Island; and Burlington, Vermont, established reparations commissions and task forces. Voters in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Detroit approved commissions to study reparations through ballot measures.

California launched a Reparations Task Force in 2021 that was created to (1) to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans; (2) to recommend appropriate ways to educate the California public of the task forces findings; and (3) to recommend appropriate remedies in consideration of the Task Forces findings.

Its most recent findings suggested that racial disparities in society are based on institutional racism and white supremacy. Its recommendations for remedies range from essentially depolicing predominantly black neighborhoods to direct payments for black families in the state.

Many of its suggestions would likely create more inequality and misery for black Californians, but the underlying premise is essentially that governments need to pay up and keep paying up until equity improves.

But is that truly just or helpful?

The question of whether entire groups of people deserve reparations is already philosophically dicey. Sure, it might make sense that someone who was enslaved or lost their property due to enslavement would be directly compensated. But what about family members four, five, or six generations removed?

Sorting out specific history to find out who had truly been victimized can be quite problematic, too. Take for instance recent stories about the supposed mass graves of Indigenous children near a school in Canada that had been run by the Catholic Church. The story prompted vandalism and attacks on churches in Canada.

But upon further investigation, it appears the story wasnt true, or at least no evidence was found that it was.

Are reparations going to be based on a genetic test; specifically, a one drop of blood rule with the implications that one drop of DNA from an officially oppressed group will bring a stipend from the government for not only you, but for your posterity, too?

That seems to be the case with some of those local and federal initiatives.

For instance, in 2021, Oakland, California, launched a universal basic income program that would give money only to black, indigenous, and other people of color.

In January, Vermont announced that an early round of its released COVID-19 vaccines would be available to all black, indigenous residents, and other people of color who are permanent Vermont residents and 16 or older.

The Biden administration in April announced several Equity Action Plans that added racially conscious programs to the federal bureaucracy.

Such initiatives might be a violation of civil rights laws and the 14th Amendment, but its not stopping some local, state, and federal government agencies from trying. The new, woke position is that legal racial favoritism and segregation are good things, and proponents are clearly happy to bend or circumvent laws that stand in the way.

Legal or not, reparation plans are deeply flawed and often create new injustices in implementation. In the end, they are based on the premise that the only way to get ahead in society is to claim victimhood and shake down your neighbors.

This takes the U.S. along the path to ruin in many ways, wrote J.L. Reiter on the John Hulsman Substack website. Reparations are incalculable, in that none of the necessary variables exist; impracticable, in that they could not be carried out without grave economic damage; and impolitic, in that they would derail Americas steady progress toward racial equality, while exacerbating interracial animus.

Absolutely.

Most Americans outside of our most elite institutions likely already recognize this and oppose legal racial preferences and affirmative action. Poll numbers on reparations also show broad majorities against them.

Yet, the top-down woke revolution goes on, and so, we must take reparations proposals both seriously and literally. And reject them.

Reprinted by permission from The Daily Signal, a publication of The Heritage Foundation.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation Bans Research Papers From China

Medical ethics advocates have applauded a move by a nonprofit transplantation association to ban research papers from China about organ transplantation, over concerns about Beijings forced organ harvesting from nonconsenting donors.

The ban, the first of its kind in recent years declared by a medical organization, comes from the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT), the worlds largest organization dedicated to researching end-stage heart and lung disease.

Given the body of evidence that the government of the Peoples Republic of China stands alone in continuing to systematically support the procurement of organs or tissue from executed prisoners, submissions related to transplantation and involving either organs or tissue from human donors in the Peoples Republic of China will not be accepted by ISHLT, the organization said in a statement, which was made public in late June.

This policy, including whether other countries systematically engage in the use of organs or tissue from non-consenting human donors and should be subject to this restriction, will be reviewed on an annual basis pending independently obtained proof that these practices have ceased.

Professor Jacob Lavee, a member of the ISHLT ethics committee and an Israeli medical expert, told The Epoch Times on Sept. 18: The new policy is, in effect, a full academic boycott on any transplant-related clinical research from China.

The products of such research from China may not be submitted for publication in the Societys prestigious Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation and may not be presented in the Societys annual meetings.

Lavee said the policy reflects the societys desire to distance itself and its members from this atrocious transplant conduct.

Bloody Harvest

Falun Gong followers in a parade marking the 23rd year of the persecution of the spiritual discipline in China, in New Yorks Chinatown on July 10, 2022. (Larry Dye/The Epoch Times)

In recent years, annual reports on human rights by international organizations and the U.S. State Department have identified that the Chinese regime has systematically conducted forced live organ harvesting on detained Falun Gong practitioners, ethnic minorities, and other prisoners of conscience.

Falun Gong, a traditional spiritual practice based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 1999, and many adherents have disappeared over the years. Correspondingly, the year 2000 saw explosive growth in Chinas organ transplant industry, which continues to this day.

Beginning in 2006, Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas and former Canadian cabinet minister and human rights defender David Kilgour collected more than 40 pieces of evidence about the Chinese regimes crime of forced live organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners who had been illegally detained. They published their findings in the 2009 book Bloody Harvest: The Killing of Falun Gong for Their Organs, based on their 20062007 investigative report.

In response to accusations and mounting pressure from the international community, the Chinese regime claimed in 2015 that it had reformed its organ transplant system and adopted the practice of voluntary organ donation.

The ISHLT is the first transplantation organization to implement a ban on publishing Chinese research since the CCPs claim.

Ethan Gutmann and his book, The Slaughter, which provides critical evidence about organ harvesting. (The Epoch Times)

Until now, Beijings claims of transplant reform were endorsed by the medical leadership in The Transplantation Society, the World Health Organization, and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in Vatican City, said Ethan Gutmann, a research fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Gutmann authored the 2014 book The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and Chinas Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem.

This institutional stance was not just a brake on U.S. political action against Chinese organ harvesting. For the CCP, it was a license to kill.  Yet, the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation has just fired a shot and it will surely be heard around the world.

Matas told The Epoch Times, Yet another significance of the [ISHLTs] statement is that it is a rejection of the Chinese Communist Partys  propaganda about its transplant system, about sourcing of organs, that all organs come from donations, and about numbers of transplantsthat transplant numbers are a tiny fraction of their actual numbers.

Judgment

Tribunal chair Geoffrey Nice delivers the verdict of the independent tribunal assessing evidence of Chinas alleged rights abuses of the Uyghur people. The tribunal took place in London on Dec. 9, 2021. (Alberto Pezzali/AP Photo)

In its 2020 judgment, the Independent Tribunal Into Forced Organ Harvesting From Prisoners of Conscience in China wrote: The Tribunals members unanimously and beyond reasonable doubt, concluded that in China forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience has been practiced for a substantial period of time involving a very substantial number of victims. While the PRC has changed its rhetoric about the sources of organs for transplantation, the Tribunal found that its claims are unbelievable and that official statistics have been falsified.

In April, the American Journal of Transplantation published the results of a joint research project by Lavee, who previously served as president of the Israel Transplantation Society, and Matthew Robertson, a doctoral student at the Australian National University and a researcher on China at the Victims of Communism Foundation. The study indicates that in the past few decades, a number of organ donors in Chinas military and local hospitals were still alive when their hearts were removed; in other words, the surgery itself was the cause of death.

The ISHLTs policy provides the leverage to end transplant abuse in China, Matas said.

There are many national and international transplant associations and journals, he said. They all need to adopt similar policies.

Li Chen contributed to this report.

Correction: A previous version of this article gave an incorrect date for when the policy was made available online. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
Irrefutable Proof Study on mRNA Vaccines Causing Damage: Doctors Respond to WHO Fact-Checking Branch

'Quite simply a hit job without any scientific merit'

Two microbiologists wrote a counterargument to a piece by Health Feedback that challenged their August publication titled Vascular and organ damage induced by mRNA vaccines: irrefutable proof of causality.

Dr. Michael Palmer and Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi said in a statement sent to The Epoch Times on Sept. 18 that the Health Feedback article is quite simply a hit job without any scientific merit.

Throughout her entire commentary, [Health Feedbacks] Dr. Carballo-Carbajal has avoided to substantially address the evidence presented by Dr. Burkhardt and his colleagues, as well as our interpretations of it, Palmer and Bhakdi wrote.

Their study builds upon the findings of German pathologists Dr. Arne Burkhardt and Dr. Walter Lang using histopathology and immunohistochemistry to detect vaccine-induced expression of the spike protein.

In the foci of inflammation, the vaccine-induced expression of spike protein had also been demonstrated, indicating very strongly a causal chain from vaccination to vascular and organ damage and ultimately death, they stated in their recent counterargument.

Health Feedback published the rebuttal of the microbiologists study on Sept. 3. The author is Dr. Iria Carballo-Carbajal, science editor of the publisher.

Health Feedback said that the two authors of the article have a history of spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines, and cited a series of links.

Palmer answered: In support of this statement, she merely assembles a list of links, but she makes no argument as to the facts whatsoever. Her statement, therefore, amounts to no more than slander.

Health Feedback, which is a member of the Vaccine Safety Net led by the World Health Organization (WHO), did not respond to a request for comment by The Epoch Times.

Lipid Nanoparticle Distribution

Palmer and Bhakdi maintain that Health Feedbacks rebuttal has many issues, but they only addressed the main ones to save time.

One of these is the dispute on lipid nanoparticle distribution.

Palmer and Bhakdi cited biodistribution data submitted by Pfizer to Japans regulatory body Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) to support the claim that the vaccine quickly distributes through the body. However, this is misleading because Pfizers data actually showed that the majority of the lipid nanoparticles remained on the injection site, and only a tiny fraction traveled to other tissues, Health Feedback wrote.

As Health Feedback explained in an earlier review, pages 5 and 6 of the technical document submitted by Pfizer show that most of the lipid nanoparticles administered (52.6 percent) remained at the injection site at one hour post-injection, and 18.1 percent went to the liver at eight hours post-injection, the WHO group stated.

Bhakdi and Palmer responded to this issue: What [the author] does not mention is that already after two hours that value has dropped to below one third of the total. A problem with this entire data set, however, is that the total of all of the organs combined never adds up to 100 percent. Without going into too much detail, this is to be expected, given the technical difficulties of such measurements.

They further argue that the results would be much more variable in humans than in rats, and note that injection into the highly vascularized deltoid muscle of a young athlete should result in substantially higher systemic distribution than that into the typically much less used and less perfused muscle of an elderly person.

There have been recent reports of healthy athletes suddenly dying in larger numbers than usual.

A substantial fraction of the vaccine must be assumed to be taken up into the system, where it may give rise to spike protein expression and subsequent organ damageand no more than this was expressed in our article, the doctors joint statement read, adding that this is the crux of the matter.

Spike Protein Expression

Another focus for debate is the period of time that the spike protein is expressed in the human body after vaccination.

Health Feedback states that there is no evidence indicating that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines cause long-lasting expression of the viruss spike protein.

The idea that mRNA from COVID-19 vaccines can remain in our bodies in the long term is a common myth with no scientific basis. mRNA COVID-19 vaccines deliver the genetic instructions to the muscle cells to produce the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. Thus, they train our immune system to recognize and respond more rapidly to the virus if it encounters the virus in the future, Health Feedback said.

The microbiologists disagree: The common myth is in fact supported by solid evidence. The mRNA, and the spike protein expressed from it, were demonstrated in lymph nodes near the injection site for up to 60 days after injection by Roltgen et al.

Long-lasting persistence of the vaccine mRNA in skeletal muscle tissue distant from the injection site was recently reported by Magen et al, they said. Finally, long-lasting persistence of the spike protein in the bloodstream, and therefore again longlasting expression, was also confirmed by Bansal et al. Burkhardts detection of long lasting spike protein expression by immunohistochemistry thus fits the overall picture of the available evidence, but it does extend the time horizon of persistence to up to nine months after injection.

The final big point that was debated was Dr. Burkhardt and Dr. Langs pathological research of patients whose families requested a second verdict on their loved ones death.

The autopsy findings discussed in our article were provided to us by Dr. Arne Burkhardt, an emeritus professor of pathology with extensive diagnostic experiencehe has evaluated approximately 40,000 autopsies over the course of his career. He reviewed and approved the text of our article before its publication.

A detailed discussion on lymphocyte accumulation can be read here (pdf).
The Great Park balloon in Irvine, Calif., on May 15, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Irvine City Councilman Larry Agran Seeks Re-election to Take Care of Unfinished Business

Irvine City Councilman Larry Agran is running for re-election in November to take care of what he calls unfinished business.

He has served in office as a councilman and mayor for over 20 years, first elected in 1978. He was last elected to the city council to serve a two-year term in 2020.

I think I have demonstrated over the years the knowledge, experience, and the skills to actually get things done that are in the interests of the residents of the City of Irvine, he told The Epoch Times.

(Courtesy of the City of Irvine)

The UC Berkeley and Harvard Law School graduate has served as legal counsel to the state Senate Committee on Health and Welfare. He also taught legislation and public policy at UCLA and UC Irvine.

While in office, Agran helped create Irvines Great Park and the community park system, preserve open space in the city, and defeat a county plan to build an airport in Irvine.

But there is more work to be done now, he said.

Build the Veterans Cemetery

According to Agran a major source of motivation for his run is to build a veterans memorial park and cemetery at the now decommissioned El Toro Marine base at Irvines Great Park.

Residents launched a ballot initiative in 2020 to build the cemetery at the park, and collected enough signatures to force a vote on the issue by Irvine voters. Rather than put it on the ballot, the city council soon after voted to adopt the proposal.

The OC Great Park in Irvine, Calif., on May 6, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

But the council later did not break ground on the site, andwith the exception of Agranvoted last year to support building the cemetery in Anaheim Hills.

Agran said this betrayed the promise that was made to residents.

He said, if re-elected, he intends to fight for building the Great Park site.

About 100 acres would be designated as a veterans memorial park and roughly 20 acres for the cemetery, Agran said.

Disband the Orange County Power Authority

Agran said, if re-elected, he also intends to pull the city out of what he calls a catastrophic situation with the Orange County Power Authority (OCPA).

The OCPA, launched in 2020, serves as an alternative to Southern California Edison, selling power for businesses and residents in Irvine, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, and Buena Park.

However, the newly formed agency has been embroiled in allegations of mismanagement, rising costs, and a lack of transparency.

The county Board of Supervisors voted to launch an investigation in June into legal and financial risks associated with the OCPA. And the states Joint Legislative Audit Committee agreed in September to audit the agency.

It is a looming disaster, Agran said. We have to disengage from that.  Real damage is being done to the people of the city of Irvine right now.

Shut Down the Asphalt Plant

If re-elected, Agran said he also intends to shut down an asphalt plant in north Irvine, claiming its toxic fumes are releasing horrific odors to the nearby residents and contain cancer-causing chemicals.

The air quality agency which oversees the plant, South Coast AQMD, claims it has received more than 1,400 complaints from local residents since 2019 alleging the plant is releasing burnt-rubber-type odors.

Its a clear and present danger to public health and safety in the northern part of our city that calls for, in my judgment, injunctive relief, Agran said.

The roadway to the entry of All American Asphalt in Irvine, Calif., on Dec. 9, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

He said the facility should be rebuilt in a safe, remote location far from residences and commercial businesses.

Two spots on the city council are up for election in Irvine. Candidates are elected at large to represent the entire city, as opposed to by district.

Also in the running are current Irvine Councilman Anthony Kuo, as well as Scott Hansen, John Park, Kathleen Treseder, and Navid Sadigh.

Campaign finance disclosure documents show he has raised about $8,600 from this year through the end of June.
Khieu Samphan (R), the former head of state for the Khmer Rouge, sits in a courtroom during a hearing at the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Sept. 22, 2022. (Nhet Sok Heng/Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia via AP)

Khmer Rouge Tribunal Ends Work After 16 Years, 3 Judgments

PHNOM PENH, CambodiaThe international court convened in Cambodia to judge the Khmer Rouge for its brutal 1970s rule ended its work Thursday after spending $337 million and 16 years to convict just three men of crimes after the regime caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people.

In its final session, the U.N.-assisted tribunal rejected an appeal by Khieu Samphan, the last surviving leader of the Khmer Rouge government that ruled Cambodia from 197579. It reaffirmed the life sentence he received after being convicted in 2018 of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Busloads of ordinary Cambodians turned up to watch the final proceedings of a tribunal that had sought to bring justice, accountability and explanations for the crimes. Many of those attending Thursdays session lived through the Khmer Rouge terror, including survivors Bou Meng and Chum Mey, who had given evidence at the tribunal over the years.

Khieu Samphan, sitting in a wheelchair and wearing a white windbreaker and a face mask, listened to the proceedings on headphones.

He was the groups nominal head of state but, in his trial defense, denied having real decision-making powers when the Khmer Rouge carried out a reign of terror to establish a utopian agrarian society, causing Cambodians deaths from execution, starvation and inadequate medical care. It was ousted from power in 1979 by an invasion from neighboring communist state Vietnam.

No matter what you decide, I will die in prison, Khieu Samphan said in his final statement of appeal to the court last year. I will die always remembering the suffering of my Cambodian people. I will die seeing that I am alone in front of you. I am judged symbolically rather than by my actual deeds as an individual.

His appeal alleged the court made errors in legal procedures and interpretation and acted unfairly, making objections to more than 1,800 points.

But the court noted Thursday that his appeal did not directly question the facts of the case as presented in court. It rejected almost all arguments raised by Khieu Samphan, acknowledging an error and reversing its ruling on one minor count. The court said it found the vast majority of Khieu Samphans arguments unfounded, and that many were alternative interpretations of the evidence.

Thursdays ruling makes little practical difference. Khieu Samphan is 91 and already serving another life sentence for his 2014 conviction for crimes against humanity connected with forced transfers and disappearances of masses of people.

The court ordered that Khieu Samphan, who was arrested in 2007, be returned to the specially constructed jail where he has been kept.

His co-defendant Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouges No. 2 leader and chief ideologist, was convicted twice and received the same life sentence. Nuon Chea died in 2019 at age 93.

The tribunals only other conviction was that of Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, who was commandant of Tuol Sleng prison, where roughly 16,000 people were tortured before being taken away to be killed. Duch was convicted in 2010 of crimes against humanity, murder, and torture and died in 2020 at age 77 while serving a life sentence.

The Khmer Rouges real chief, Pol Pot, escaped justice. He died in the jungle in 1998 at age 72 while the remnants of his movement were fighting their last battles in the guerrilla war they launched after losing power.

The trials of the only other two defendants were not completed. The former foreign minister of the Khmer Rouge, Ieng Sary, died in 2013, and his wife, former Social Affairs Minister Ieng Thirith, was deemed unfit to stand trial due to dementia in 2011 and died in 2015.

Four other suspects, middle-ranking Khmer Rouge leaders, escaped prosecution because of a split among the tribunals jurists.

In a hybrid arrangement, Cambodian and international jurists were paired at every stage, and a majority had to assent for a case to go forward. Under the French-style procedures the court used, the international investigators recommended the four go to trial, but the Cambodian partners would not agree after Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen declared there would be no more prosecutions, claiming they could cause unrest.

Hun Sen himself was a middle-ranking commander with the Khmer Rouge before defecting, and several senior members of his ruling Cambodian Peoples Party share similar backgrounds. He helped cement his political control by making alliances with other former Khmer Rouge commanders.

With its active work done, the tribunal, formally called the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, now enters a three-year residual period, focusing on getting its archives in order and disseminating information about its work for educational purposes.

Bou Meng (2nd L), former S-21 prison survivor, is helped by a court spokesman into the courtroom before the hearings against Khieu Samphan, former Khmer Rouge head of state, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Sept. 22, 2022. (Heng Sinith/AP Photo)

Experts who took part in the courts work or monitored its proceedings are now pondering its legacy.

Heather Ryan, who spent 15 years following the tribunal for the Open Society Justice Initiative, said the court was successful in providing some level of accountability.

The amount of time and money and effort thats expended to get to this rather limited goal may be disproportionate to the goal, she said in a video interview from her home in Boulder, Colorado.

But she praised having the trials in the country where the atrocities occurred and where people were able to pay a level of attention and gather information about what was happening in the court to a much greater extent than if the court had been in The Hague or some other place. The Hague in the Netherlands hosts the World Court and the International Criminal Court.

Michael Karnavas, an American lawyer who served on Ieng Sarys defense team, said his personal expectations had been limited to the quality of justice his clients would receive.

In other words, irrespective of the results, substantively and procedurally, were their fair trial rights guaranteed by the Cambodian Constitution and established law afforded to them at the highest international level? he said in an email interview. The answer is somewhat mixed.

The trial stage was less than what I consider fair. There was far too much improvisation by the judges, and despite the length of the proceedings, the defense was not always treated fairly, said Karnavas, who has also appeared before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

On the substantive and procedural law, there are numerous examples where the ECCC not only got it right, but further contributed to the development of international criminal law.

There is a consensus that the tribunals legacy goes beyond the law books.

The court successfully attacked the long-standing impunity of the Khmer Rouge, and showed that though it might take a long time, the law can catch up with those who commit crimes against humanity, said Craig Etcheson, who has studied and written about the Khmer Rouge and was chief of investigations for the office of the prosecution at the ECCC from 2006 to 2012.

The tribunal also created an extraordinary record of those crimes, comprising documentation that will be studied by scholars for decades to come, that will educate Cambodias youth about the history of their country, and that will deeply frustrate any attempt to deny the crimes of the Khmer Rouge.

The bedrock issue of whether justice was served by the courts convictions of only three men was addressed by Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which holds a huge trove of evidence of atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge.

Justice sometimes is made of satisfaction, recognition, rather than the number of people you prosecute, he told The Associated Press. It is a broad definition of the word justice itself, but when people are satisfied, when people are happy with the process or benefit from the process, I think we can conceptualize it as justice.

By Sopheng Cheang and Grant Peck
Member for Bankstown Tania Mihailuk (left) and NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns arrive to address media during a press conference in Sydney, Tuesday, October 5, 2021. (AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts)

Labor MP Dismissed From Shadow Cabinet After Accusing Fellow Party Member of Corruption

New South Wales (NSW) Labor MP Tania Mihailuk has lost her position in the shadow ministry after criticising a fellow party member running for the states upper house.

Labor opposition leader Chris Minns on Friday said he had dismissed Mihailuk from his cabinet, accusing her of making political attacks by parliamentary privilege.

But NSW Liberal Premier Dominic Perrottet stood by Mihailuk, saying Labor was trying to silence people exposing alleged corruption by party members.

Mihailuk on Tuesday night raised concerns about Canterbury-Bankstown Mayor Khal Asfour linking him to corrupt former Labor Minister Eddie Obeid.

Obeid was charged with the offence of misconduct in public office following an investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). In 2021, he was found guilty of conspiring to grant a mining exploration licence in 2009, helping his family make $30 million from the deal.

Mihailuk alleged that Obeid went to Asfours wedding and adorned him with a generous gift while remaining committed to making sure he held the mayoral position during a period of major redevelopment.

I raise my legitimate and longstanding concerns regarding Asfours character and his unprincipled actions in furthering the interests of developers and identities, in particular Eddie Obeid, she told the NSW Parliament.

Candidacy for such a privileged position, you would expect, warrants comprehensive scrutiny, particularly because Labors recent ICAC woes, and well-documented ICAC findings against former ministers, which marred the last NSW Labor government.

Asfour is set to be endorsed by Labors state conference in October to contest the state election in March 2023.

Calls for Mihailuk to Back Claims With Evidence

Mihailuk also urged for an investigation into significant discrepancies in planning controls for Bankstowns central business district revitalisation, which involved several properties linked to the Obeid family.

She also said the plan resulted in valuable land becoming virtually worthless for ratepayers.

Asfour has denied the accusations calling them outrageous and unsubstantiated.

She has used parliamentary privilege to launch a cowardly attack on me and my family and I call on her to produce evidence of any wrongdoing to the relevant bodies, he said.

Labor leader Minns said he told Mihailuk her position in the shadow cabinet was no longer viable after giving her 24 hours to back up her accusations.

Obviously theres a need for discipline in the shadow cabinet, he told Sydneys 2GB radio on Tuesday.

There are correct ways of presenting information about potential or alleged illegal conduct and using parliamentary privilege at 11.30 at night in the NSW Parliament is not one of them.

But Premier Perrottet criticised Labors decision to strip Mihailuks of her position.

This is exactly the type of behaviour that allowed [former MP] Eddie Obeid to flourish, he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Friday.

Silencing strong women who are standing up and speaking out in relation to alleged corruption in the NSW Labor Party should not be tolerated.
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Red Cross Society, as an auxiliary organization to the Government in the humanitarian field, in cooperation and coordination with the government of Armenia, particularly with the Ministry of Labor and Social affairs, and local self-government bodies, is providing humanitarian assistance based on severe needs in the form of food, clothing, hygiene, basic necessities, bedding, First aid kits to the affected and displaced population of Gegharkunik, Vayots Dzor and Syunik provinces, the Armenian Red Cross Society said in a statement.

In addition to the initial response, the ARCS jointly with the ICRC conducts a rapid assessment of humanitarian needs of internally displaced persons in the aftermath of the recent escalation of the conflict, in order to continue an appropriate response.

The ARCS constantly updates the database of people applying through Hotlines, passing it onto the Primary Need Registration Platform of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of the Republic of Armenia.

The psychologists of the ARCS provide psychological aid to the relatives of wounded, dead and missing servicemen and the displaced families face-to-face (in the territory of the Central Clinical Military Hospital, in Vardenis, Martuni), online (Kndzoresk, Kornidzor, Tegh, Sotk, Mets Masrik), and through the Hotline (all provinces of Armenia).

The response is being implemented with close cooperation with the ICRC and the IFRC, the statement says.
Los Angeles Schools to Provide Overdose Antidote After Recent Teen Death

LOS ANGELESResponding to recent fentanyl overdoses by students, including the death of a 15-year-old girl in a Hollywood school bathroom, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) announced Sept. 22 the anti-overdose medication Narcan will be available at all of its campuses by mid-October.

Doses of Narcan, or naloxone, will also be provided to all LAUSD School Police officers, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said.

We are experiencing a devastating epidemic. Whether we talk about fentanyl or the many variations of fentanyl, there is an abundance of drugs that students are having ready access to, Carvalho said. Effective the second week of October, every one of our schools at L.A. Unified will be outfitted with the appropriate tools, including Narcan available for students who may experience a condition of overdose through the consumption, the ingestion of fentanyl in any type of format.

Narcan, if administered in a timely manner, can counteract the effects of an overdose and allow the patient to resume breathing. The treatment is only temporary, lasting between 30 and 90 minutes, but is designed to allow first responders to arrive and begin more permanent treatment.

The district will receive the Narcan doses free from the county Department of Public Health, according to the LAUSD.

Carvalho said the initial allotment of about 600 units will ensure Narcan is available at all of the districts high schools and middle schools.

That alone is not enough, he said. Not only do we want to effectively respond to this crisis as an incident occurs. But we actually want prevention. And prevention requires far more than the deployment of Narcan to our schools or in the hands of our officers.

Naloxone, known by the commercial name Narcan, reverses the effects of opioid overdoses. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The superintendent also announced plans for a district-wide education campaign, including a peer-to-peer effort to teach students about the consequences of fentanyl use.

There is nothing better than a student peer to explain the consequences associated with fentanyl to other students, he said.

He also said the district next week will roll out a massive online and in-person education campaign for parents to allow them to recognize the signs of drug use and learn about the effects of fentanyl. He said the campaign will be done in multiple languages, hitting every area of our district.

The district also plans to roll out a safety task force that will work with school police and other local law enforcement to provide a greater level of supervision in parks and other areas where students are believed to be obtaining drugs.

The opioid epidemic is a community crisis, and today Los Angeles Unified is taking concrete action to protect our studentsboth by making naloxone readily available and through proactive education and support, LAUSD board President Kelly Gonez said in a statement. Our board and superintendent are committed to doing everything we can to ensure student safety on our campuses and in our communities.

The announcement came one day after police confirmed the seventh overdose of a student in the past month from pills believed to have contained fentanyl.

The most recent overdose occurred Saturday morning, when a 15-year-old male student at STEM Academy of Hollywood was found unconscious by his mother in their Hollywood home, according to Lt. Letisia Ruiz of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The academy is one of three schools located on the Bernstein High School campus. The boy was treated at a hospital and is expected to survive, officials said.

A student carries her musical instrument outside Bernstein High School in Hollywood, Calif., on Sept. 3, 2020. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

LAPD Chief Michel Moore told the Los Angeles Times that officers responding to a report of hospitalization of a minor discovered that the boy had ingested a quarter of a pill that he believed to be Percocet but that police said possibly contained fentanyl.

Moore told the newspaper that 10 pills police seized last week during the arrest of a 15-year-old boy on suspicion of manslaughter tested positive for fentanyl. He described them as crude blue M30 pills believed to be counterfeit pills containing fentanyl and produced by illicit labs as a substitute for Percocet.

The 15-year-old boy, a student at Apex Academy, was arrested Sept. 22 for allegedly selling the fentanyl-laced pill that led to the overdose death of 15-year-old Melanie Ramos, a student at Bernstein High School, on Sept. 13. Apex Academy is an independent charter on the Bernstein campus.

Ramos and a 15-year-old female friend both overdosed at the school, police said. Ramos was found unconscious in the girls bathroom and was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics. Her friend was hospitalized.

A 16-year-old boy, also a student at Apex Academy, was arrested on his way to school last week and booked on suspicion of narcotics sales for allegedly selling pills to a Hollywood High School boy at Lexington Park, located a few blocks from Bernstein High, Moore said. Police didnt identify the boys because they are juveniles.

Police said a fourth person, also likely a student, overdosed at the park last week, but her identity is not known because she left the park after being treated before police could interview her.

Carvalho said last week that at least six LAUSD students, including three from Sept. 13, have been involved in the use of narcotics.

Moore said the exact number of students who ingested the pills is unknown because police believe others took the drug, survived, and may not have sought medical attention.
Cynthia Lewis (2nd L), Supervisor of Culturally Responsive Instruction at Loudoun County Public Schools, a Loudoun County School Board Curriculum & Instruction Committee meeting in Ashburn, Va., on Sept. 22, 2022. A new policy about parental notice of sexually explicit content in instructional materials is on the agenda. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

Loudoun County School Board Discusses New Policy on Sexually Explicit Content

ASHBURN, Va.A new policy (pdf) on parental notice of sexually explicit content in instructional materials was discussed at a Loudoun County School Board committee meeting on Sept. 22.

The policyPolicy 5055is required by a new law enacted in Virginia in April. The law stipulates that parents should be notified of sexually explicit content and have the right to request the use of alternative instructional materials for their children.

According to the law, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) shall issue model policies, and school boards shall adopt them or a more comprehensive version by Jan. 1, 2023. The tentative timeline discussed at the curriculum and instruction committee meeting was to refer the draft policy to the entire school board on Nov. 7 for discussions at the end of November and a vote by mid-December.

While LCPS school libraries have 90,000 books of different titles, eight books were challenged during the 20212022 school year, and oneGender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabewas removed from school libraries, Neil Slevin, Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) executive director of teaching and learning, said at the meeting.

Board member Harris Mahedavi asked if there would be a rating system to define what books would be appropriate for which age groups. While Slevin responded that he was not aware of any book rating systems, he said LCPS would try to implement more checks and balances in the book procurement process.

We are asking librarians to slow down, have a conversation with their principal, and have conversations with families and the community. There are connections with a lot of parent volunteers in our libraries. Have a conversation with central office library staff, he said.

During his presentation, he spoke about concerns regarding needing extra money and resources to review all instructional materials in LCPS. Library materials qualify in scope only when they are used for an assignment or an academic or extracurricular educational program. Reviewing dynamic content on online instructional platforms was another concern.

The model policies require a 30-day notice to parents about sexually explicit content. District officials expressed concern that this might affect the timeliness of deciding on books or materials for research or independent reading projects.

Ashley Ellis, LCPS deputy superintendent in charge of instruction, said that the Virginia School Board Association (VSBA) was expected to issue its policy guidance in October, and the guidance wouldnt be much different from the VDOE model policies.

Im not even sure why there would be separate model policies, to be honest, Ellis stated in response to committee Chair Ian Serotkins question about whether getting VSBA model policies was a normal process.

We are still on schedule per our normal process to release this information next month, Kenita Matthews, VSBAs director of communications, told The Epoch Times in an email. As for the overall status of Virginia school boards in getting ready for adoption by Jan. 1, that is determined locally at each individual school boards discretion.

Parent Felt Neglected and Offended

Michael Rivera, a detective at the Loudoun County Sheriffs Office who is running for the school board in November, during public comment at a Loudoun County School Board Curriculum & Instruction Committee meeting in Ashburn, Va., on Sept. 22, 2022. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

Michael Rivera, a detective at the Loudoun County Sheriffs Office and a school board candidate in the November election, said he contacted school board members three times but got no response. He questioned the material review process in the draft policy, which said the materials would be reviewed by district and school staff.

We may have all sorts of folks as a part of the group to review sexually explicit content. But parents are nowhere to be found, Rivera told committee chair Serotkin and Mahedavi. Atoosa Reaser, the third committee member, was absent.

What needs to happen is that [Policy] 5055 needs to include school and classroom library materials subject to the scrutiny of being sexually explicit, he added. Because the draft policy applies to instructional materials only, library materials qualify when they are used for an assignment or an academic or extracurricular educational program.

Clint Thomas, a father of two daughters currently in a Loudoun County high school and another three who graduated from LCPS, told the school board committee members, As a parent, Im really offended that we would even have to have a policy on how to administer and use sexually explicit content in our schools.

He advocated for allowing parents to opt-in with instructional materials instead of opting out until LCPS completed its review of materials.

Insult to Teachers

Erika Weiskopf speaks on behalf of her mother Andrea Weiskopf, an LCPS teacher, at a Loudoun County School Board Curriculum & Instruction Committee meeting in Ashburn, Va., on Sept. 22, 2022. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

Erika Weiskopf spoke on behalf of her mother, Andrea Weiskopf, an LCPS teacher. She urged LCPS not to blindly accept this mandate.

LCPS must stand up for its students and staff, she said.

This policy is a pretense to strip books about diverse characters and by diverse authors from our schools and our children. Additionally, requiring teachers to give 30 days notice before using material is an insult to teachers who have been licensed and endorsed by this very Commonwealth.

In November 2021, neighboring Fairfax County returned two booksKobabes Gender Queer and Jonathan Evisons Lawn Boyto school libraries after temporarily pulling them off the shelves due to a challenge.

Fairfax County Public Schools didnt respond to Epoch Times question about its current progress in adopting the model policies; The Epoch Times didnt find any public record of past or planned discussions on the subject.
A man looks out at a plane through a window at Beijing international airport. (Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images)

Mass Cancellation of Flights Across China; Reasons Unclear

Nearly 60 percent of flights across China were canceled Wednesday, according to state media.

Flight Master said 9,583 flights had been canceled nationwide as of 10:35 p.m. on Sept. 21, accounting for 59.66 percent of those total scheduled journeys of the day, reported China.com.

Based in Shenzhen, Flight Master provides information on flights and ticketing and travel services.

Some busy air transport hubs in China recorded over 50 percent cancelation rates, according to Flight Master:

Beijing Capital International Airport canceled 622 flights, with a cancellation rate of 60 percent

Shanghai Pudong International Airport had 652 cancelations of flights, with a cancellation rate of 54 percent

Shenzhen Baoan Airports 542 flights were canceled, accounting for 51 percent of its total flights

Airports with high cancellation rates include three airports in Chinas western provinces:

Guiyang Longdongbao Airport (Guizhou Province): 539 flights canceled, with a cancellation rate of 99 percent

Lhasa Gongga Airport (Tibet): 157 flights canceled, with a cancellation rate of 98 percent

Chengdu Tianfu Airport (Sichuan Province): 752 flights canceled, with a cancellation rate of 87 percent

Other Chinese airports also saw various cancellations of flights on the same day. Some of the airports cancellations and cancellation rates are listed below:

Urumqi Diwobao Airport (Xinjiang): 476 flights; cancellation rate being 79 percent

Tianjin Binhai International Airport (about 84 miles east of Beijing): 353 flights; cancellation rate being 74 percent

Harbin Taiping Airport (Heilongjiang Province): 275 flights canceled; cancellation rate being 56 percent

Xian Xianyang International Airport (Shaanxi Province): 555 flights canceled; cancellation rate being 56 percent

Nanjing Lukou International Airport (Jiangsu Province): 378 flights canceled; cancellation rate being 54

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (Guangdong Province): 560 flights canceled, cancellation rate being 40%

The logo of China Eastern Airlines is pictured at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing on March 21, 2022. (Tingshu Wang/Reuters)

No Official Explanation

There is no official explanation on Chinas top aviation bodys website.

But Netease, a major news portal in China, wrote yesterday that the cancellations were mainly due to recent COVID-19 flare-ups in multiple provinces in China.

Former Chinese investigative reporter Zhao Lanjian tweeted yesterday that hed contacted an aviation professional in China.

He wrote in his tweet that the reason [for the mass cancellations] is unclear, but [the mass cancellations] are true, and that such a nationwide mass cancellation was very rare.

According to Zhaos tweet: This mass cancellation of flights must be a military directive. Air traffic control authority is decided by the Chinese military, which in turn gives instructions to civil aviation management. The airspace is set aside so that military aircraft can fly at will. This is military planning, or at least with military prep.

Zhao is the reporter who investigated the chained woman, a victim of child trafficking and sexual persecution in Xuzhou, Chinas eastern Jiangsu Province. Zhao was targeted by local police and national security agents after posting his investigation online. He fled China via Malaysia and arrived in the United States in July.

The Epoch Times is not able to verify Zhaos tweet.

The reason for this mass cancellation is still unknown.

Li Jing contributed to the article.
Military Officer Gets Severe Reprimand for Speaking About Vaccine Risks While in Uniform

A Canadian Armed Forces officer who questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, and urged other military members not to follow the unlawful order of distributing them, was reprimanded and fined by a court martial on Sept. 22.

Officer Cadet Laszlo Kenderesi was issued a severe reprimand and a $4,200 fine. He was charged with one count of conduct to the prejudice of good order and discipline to which he pleaded guilty.

Military police originally charged the 60-year-old with one count of endeavouring to persuade another person to join in a mutiny, which carries a sentence of up to life imprisonment. Prosecutors withdrew the charge before the start of the court-martial.

Kenderesi also pleaded not guilty to a third charge of behaving in a scandalous manner unbecoming an officer. The charge was automatically stayed after presiding military judge Commander Martin Pelletier accepted Kenderesis guilty plea for prejudicial conduct.

The case related to a speech at a lockdown protest in Torontos Dundas Square on Dec. 5, 2020, in which Kenderesi appeared in full uniform and spoke out against the vaccines, questioning what they would do to peoples bodies.

The reason is because nobody knows what this vaccine will do to your body, he said at the rally. Next month? Five years? Ten years? Nobody knows.

The indemnification for these vaccine companies is that you have to sign a piece of paperbasically theyre not liable, especially if you get sick or you die, he added.

Kenderesi went on to urge other military members against distributing the vaccines requested by the governments.

Im asking you, military right now serving, truck drivers, medical engineers, whatever you are, do not take this unlawful order and distribution of this vaccine, he said.

The Armed Forces had only days earlier received formal orders to start planning for the distribution of vaccines across the country, as Health Canada entered the final stages of reviewing vaccine candidates from Pfizer and Moderna.

Private Views

Kenderesi delivered his apology at the start of his court-martial.

It was wrong for me to present myself as a Canadian Armed Forces member to publicly express my private views, Kenderesi said. I abused the trust that comes with the privilege of wearing the Canadian Armed Forces uniform. Im sorry.

He later added: It was not my place to question the orders of the chain of command. I breached the core principle of service by not supporting the lawful authority of the chain of command. Im ashamed of my public display of disloyalty.

Pelletier told Kenderesi during sentencing that he was not being punished for his personal views about vaccines, but for participating in and publicly expressing his support for the demonstrations while in uniform.

Its even more unacceptable for Officer Cadet Kenderesi to incite members of the Canadian Armed Forces to disobey orders in relation to foreseen tasks of assisting in the distribution of vaccine, the judge said.

In a separate affidavit read into the record, the court heard that Kenderesi was born and grew up in Hungary while the country was under the Soviet Unions influence. The lockdowns in 2020 had affected him emotionally and financially, it said.

The court also heard that Kenderesi first joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1978 and served as reserve cadet instructor for years in Borden, Ontario. He had virtually no contact with the military after 2018.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
Phone Numbers, Passport Details of 10 Million Australians Lost in Massive Telco Hack

The private information of 9.8 million Australians is at risk after major telecommunications firm Optus suffered a cyber attack that breached its firewall.

On Sept. 22, Optus confirmed that hackers got access to the names, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, and potentially the drivers licence, passport numbers, and addresses, of millions of current and former customers.

The company said attackers had not been able to steal payment details and account passwords, and that it was working with the Australian Cyber Security Centre to limit any risk to customers.

Optus also said it already notified the Australian Federal Police, the Office of the Australian Information Regulator, and other major regulators.

As soon as we knew, we took action to block the attack and began an immediate investigation, Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said in a statement.

While not everyone may be affected and our investigation is not yet complete, we want all of our customers to be aware of what has happened as soon as possible so that they can increase their vigilance.

We are very sorry and understand customers will be concerned. Please be assured that we are working hard to help safeguard our customers as much as possible.

Regulators Concerned for Customers

Delia Rickard, deputy chair of the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission, said the leak of so much data was of great concern.

These are all the things that you need for identity theft and also all the things you need to personalise a scam and make it much more convincing, she told Nines Today program.

In addition, Rickard said any Optus customers who suspected they are victim to fraud should request a ban on their credit records and also stay vigilant if they receive unexpected calls from people claiming to work for banks or government agencies.

General view of an Optus store in Sydney, Australia on Sept. 22, 2022. (AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi)

Meanwhile, Scamwatch advised Optus customers to change online account passwords and enable multi-factor authentication for banking to protect their personal information.

It also told affected customers to set limits and monitor unusual activities on their bank accounts, as well as request a ban on credit reports if they suspected fraud.

Scammers may use your personal information to contact you by phone, text or email, Scamwatch said in a statement.

Never click on links or provide personal or financial information to someone who contacts you out of the blue.

Liberal Senator James Paterson, a member of the federal Parliaments intelligence committee, called the attack one of the most serious data breaches ever suffered by an Australian business.

It is important to understand how this happened, who the attacker is, what mitigations can be made (and) what changes are necessary to prevent it from re-occurring, he said in a Twitter post.

These very concerning reports represent one of the most serious cyber attacks ever suffered by an Australian business. It is important to understand how this happened, who the attacker is, what mitigations can be made & what changes are necessary to prevent it from re-occurring. https://t.co/1xW1HjEpde  James Paterson (@SenPaterson) September 22, 2022
A newly installed license plate reading camera on the Finchville Turnpike in Mount Hope, N.Y., on Sept. 25, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

Mount Hope Police Add License Plate Cameras to Help Fight Crime

The town of Mount Hope, New York, is adding six license plate reading cameras to fight crimes such as car theft, according to Police Chief Paul Rickard.

Four cameras are already up and running, with two more to be added in the coming weeks, he said.

On their first day in operation, the cameras helped police locate a stolen car within hours of the complaint, Rickard told The Epoch Times.

The cameras capture a still image of any passing vehicle from the back and automatically translate the image into searchable information such as vehicle make, color, and license plate number. Images are stored for 30 days before they are overwritten by new ones.

They can help us investigate crime. They can help us with in-progress things. We can also use it for notifications to help at-risk citizens. There are all kinds of possibilities you could use with them, Rickard said.

For example, if a citizen is reported to be suicidalor homicidaland needs to be secured immediately, police can enter the citizens license plate into the system to locate the person, he added.

A car passes a newly installed license plate reading camera on the Finchville Turnpike in Mount Hope, N.Y., on September 25, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

The cameras are provided by Flock Safety company, which charges $2,500 for each camera every year for full-range services, including hosting the footage, software maintenance, and managing internet providers.

Police departments that use Flock services can connect and share data with one another, the police chief said.

Nearby Middletown has used the services for years, he said.

If there was a car-involved incident in Middletown, we could see if the car came to Mount Hope just by checking the plate. The whole system is interconnected, he said.

The cameras are just another tool that gives us the opportunity to help protect the community, investigate crime, and share information across different agencies, he added.

Starting in August, Rickard noticed an uptick in car thefts in town, mostly involving unlocked cars.

He warned town residents of the trend in an August 15 video, reminding them to roll up car windows, lock car doors, and take valuable things with them when they leave their carseven on their driveways.
Firefighters walk past backfire, flames lit by firefighters to burn off vegetation, while battling the Mosquito Fire in the Volcanoville community of El Dorado County, Calif., on Sept. 9, 2022. (Noah Berger/AP Photo)

Conservation Entity Aims to Fight Wildfires by Fixing Bad Laws

Wetlands, grazing rights also in focus

A new conservation law and policy center aims to promote good stewardship of the land without compromising private landowners property rights, including by cutting red tape to lower the risk of wildfires.

The center, founded by the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), intends to drive collaboration, and not the sort of conservation that pits people against each other through endless litigation, Jonathan Wood, PERCs legal director, told The Epoch Times in a Sept. 22 interview.

Education is one crucial focus for the center. PERCs work with Case Western University on an upcoming Supreme Court case that addresses the Clean Water Act, Sackett v. EPA, is the subject of a statement from the nonprofit research institute, which says on its website that its dedicated to advancing conservation through markets, incentives, property rights, and partnerships.

The organizations legal brief in the case sided with Mike and Chantell Sackett, a couple who wanted to construct a home on their own property. More specifically, PERC supported the Sacketts effort to get a hearing before the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court building in Washington on June 21, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The EPA claimed that the Sacketts property is a federally protected wetland, meaning they need a federal permit to build on it.

PERCs brief argues for a clear standard that landowners and others can reasonably apply on the ground, asserting that Sackett v. EPA could help the court articulate such a standard.

By contrast, environmental groups such as the Idaho Conservation League, the Izaak Walton League, and many others backed the EPA.

The Idaho Conservation Leagues brief contends that the Sackett wetlands are closely connected with Priest Lake, which they argue falls under navigable waters of the United States.

That connection, they argue, means the Sackett wetlands are themselves waters of the United States. The upshot: The Sackett property can be regulated through the Clean Water Act.

PERCs new center also tackles federal grazing rights, a continual source of conflict between ranchers and agencies.

Clashes over federal grazing rights led to a series of standoffs between members of the Bundy family and the Bureau of Land Management.

The Bundy family and their supporters fly the American flag as their cattle were released by the Bureau of Land Management back onto public land outside of Bunkerville, Nev. on April 12, 2014. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Review-Journal, Jason Bean)

In a new brief, PERC urges the Forest Service to make federal grazing rules more flexible to promote cooperation between landowners and the government.

While disputes over wetlands and grazing rights are far from trivial to landowners, federal agencies, and others, another top priority for the center may be an even more hot-button issue.

Every year, were facing terrible wildfire seasons that arent going to get better unless we do something about it, Wood said.

Wildfires Spark Forest Management Proposal

PERCs forest management advocacy comes near the end of a very active wildfire season.

Massive blazes have consumed millions of acres across California, Idaho, Oregon, and other Western states.

With the backing of PERC and other groups, including ranching and timber interests, Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Sept. 22 introduced a proposal to change that.

Their Promoting Effective Forest Management Act would make agencies set much broader targets for thinning acreage. It would also expand training for loggers and mandate forest carbon data reporting by the Forest Service, among other items.

The bills primary goal is to increase accountability for forest management, Wood said.

Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) speaks during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Jan. 11, 2022. (Sarah Silbiger/Reuters)

More generally, he thinks red tape and the threat of litigation are the biggest barriers to the use of controlled burns, mechanical thinning, and other methods that reduce the likelihood of devastating wildfires.

Wood also stressed the value of collaborative forest management, based on voluntary contributions from sources beyond federal agencies and timber harvesting on federal lands.

He pointed out that water utilities often have a vested interest in curbing the risk of wildfires.

When fires burn through, the consequences dont stop when the fire is put out, he said.

It will clog storage facilities for water and dramatically increase the cost to treat drinking water.

That makes them a natural partner for such collaborations.

Firefighter Trapper Gephart of Alaskas Pioneer Peak Interagency Hotshot crew takes a drink while battling the Mosquito Fire in the Volcanoville community of El Dorado County, Calif., on Sept. 9, 2022. (Noah Berger/AP Photo)

The Epoch Times has contacted other environmental groups regarding PERCs new center. Two of them, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Waterkeeper Alliance, have filed legal briefs supporting the EPA in the Sackett case.

A spokesperson for The Wilderness Society told The Epoch Times on Sept. 22 that PERCs new center is a bit far afield of their focus. The other groups didnt respond by press time.
A view of the New York City skyline of Manhattan and the Hudson River during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City, as seen from Weehawken, N.J., on April 18, 2020. (Jeenah Moon/Reuters)

New York Still Top, Moscow Sinks in Finance Centre Ranking

LONDONNew York remains far and away the worlds most favoured financial centre, with London still second and Singapore overtaking Hong Kong to come in third, latest rankings from the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) showed on Thursday.

Paris returned to the top 10 to replace Tokyo, but Moscow sank 22 places to 73rd as Western countries severed ties with the capital after Russias invasion of Ukraine in February, GFCI said.

GFCI, compiled by Z/Yen, a City of London think tank, and the China Development Institute, rated 119 centres using 66,121 assessments from 11,038 financial professionals, and quantitative data.

New York has held the top position among global financial centres ranked by GFCI for four years, overtaking London.

Londons second position looks secure but needs a significant global change to once again challenge for the top place, said Michael Mainelli, chairman of Z/Yen.

Britains new Prime Minister Liz Truss wants to unshackle the UK financial sector from rules which date to when the country was in the European Union in order to increase Londons attraction as a global financial centre.

A new bill before the UK parliament in July sets out many tweaks to financial rules, but Truss wants to go further, signalling the government may scrap a cap on bankers bonuses inherited from the EU.

New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles topped GFCIs separate fintech sector ratings, with London fourth and Shanghai fifth.

By Huw Jones
Newsom Signs Legislation to Protect Workers Who Use Cannabis Outside Work

California employers will soon be prohibited from firingor not hiringworkers over their use of cannabis outside of their workplace and work hours.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2188 on Sept. 18 to prevent employers from discriminating against a person in hiring, termination, or terms and conditions of employment based on a drug screening test finding the presence of non-psychoactive cannabis metabolites in their system or for the persons off-duty use.

Recreational use of cannabis is legal in the state.

AB 2188 was part of a series of legislation signed by the governor to strengthen Californias cannabis laws, expand the legal cannabis market and redress the harms of cannabis prohibition, according to a Sept. 18 statement by the governors office.

For too many Californians, the promise of cannabis legalization remains out of reach, Newsom said. These measures build on the important strides our state has made toward this goal, but much work remains to build an equitable, safe and sustainable legal cannabis industry. I look forward to partnering with the Legislature and policymakers to fully realize cannabis legalization in communities across California.

The California state capital building in Sacramento on April 18, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The legislations author, Assemblyman Bill Quirk (D-Hayward), said the measure was long overdue.

Thank you to the advocates and sponsors for your continued support, Quirk wrote on Twitter after the signing. I applaud the Governor for his commitment to redress the harms of cannabis prohibition.

The law goes into effect Jan. 1, 2024, and exempts those working in building and construction, and job positions that require federal background clearances.

The Drug Policy Alliance, a pro-legal marijuana organization co-founded by George Soros, advocated for the bills passage.

CA employees deserved the same rights as workers in other states like [New York and Nevada] that already passed laws protecting against workplace punishment for legal marijuana use off-the-clock, the alliance wrote on Twitter.

California NORML, a non-profit group dedicated to protecting and expanding cannabis consumers rights, sponsored the bill. The group told legislators workers have a right to engage in legal activity while away from the job, yet workers and applicants are losing job opportunities or being fired because they test positive for marijuana use.

Customers shop for marijuana products at Catalyst Cannabis Dispensary in Santa Ana, Calif., on Feb. 18, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The California Cannabis Industry Association told The Epoch Times in a previous interview the bill still allows employers to use tests to determine whether someone is under the influence of cannabis while actively on the job.

The bill does not prevent employers from drug-testing employees but rather states that a test for non-psychoactive cannabis metabolites linger in the body for up to months after someone uses cannabis, is not grounds for hiring or termination, the associations Executive Director Lindsay Robinson said.

The California Chamber of Commerce opposed the bill, saying it will still risk workplace safety and create a protected status for marijuana use in [Fair Employment and Housing Act].

California employers may face liability when they take legitimate disciplinary measures against their employees, the California Chamber of Commerce said, according to a bill analysis. If California policymakers wish to force a shift towards newer testing technologiesthat is one thing. But we do not believe marijuana should be elevated to a legally protected status above comparable drugs (like alcohol).

A file photo of a cannabis sample in Santa Ana, Calif., on Feb. 18, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The governor also signed several other cannabis-related bills, including the following:
No Evidence Republican Teen Killed in North Dakota Was Extremist: Highway Patrol Captain

North Dakota Highway Patrol Captain Bryan Niewind has dismissed Shannon Brandts claim that the 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson who he killed was a Republican extremist.

Brandt struck Ellingson with his SUV following a street dance in McHenry, North Dakota, early Sunday. Ellingson was admitted to a hospital in Carrington, where he was pronounced dead. Later that day, investigators arrested Brandt at his home, after which Brandt admitted to having purposely hit the boy following a political argument.

In the court document, Brandt said that he thought Ellingson was part of a Republican extremist group and that he had called for some people to go after Brandt, according to Fox.

There is no evidence to support the claim Brandt made about Ellingson, Niewind told Fox News.

Prior to his death, Ellingson had called his mother and asked whether she knew Brandt, the probable cause affidavit said. The teenager made another call a short while later, saying that he or they were chasing him, according to the affidavit. She could not reach her son after the call.

Brandt also told investigators that he had been drinking alcohol before hitting Ellingson. A chemical breath test showed Brandts blood alcohol content to be above 0.08 percentabove the legal limit for driving.

Brandt was taken to the Stutsman County Jail but was released on Tuesday after posting a bond of $50,000. He is being charged with criminal vehicular homicide and leaving the crash scene involving a death. Brandt had initially left the scene of the crime after hitting Ellingson but later came back, called 9-1-1, and left.

Bidens Speech

Ellingsons death has triggered further backlash against President Joe Biden, who had recently painted Republican supporters in an extremely negative light. In a primetime address on Sept. 1, Biden claimed MAGA Republicans are threatening the very foundations of our republic and that they held an extreme ideology.

There is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country, the Democrat said in front of an ominous red backdrop and flanked by two Marines.

In a Sept. 21 tweet, Karol Markowicz, a columnist at Fox News, blasted Bidens speech, stating that his rhetoric has consequences and that labeling those who have differing opinions as extremists leads to acts like that committed by Brandt against Ellingson.

The blood of that 18-year-old North Dakota Republicankilled by a man who called him an extremistis on Joe Bidens hands, radio show host Todd Starnes said in a tweet.

In a Twitter post, Mia Cathell, a reporter at Townhall, said that Brandt has been scrubbing his social media since his release.
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. The United States Embassy in Armenia is calling on Azerbaijan to return its troops to their initial positions, the embassy said in response to a query from First Channel News.

To the question, how do you assess Azerbaijan's actions towards the sovereign territory of Armenia? the US Embassy to Armenia answered: There can be no military solution to the conflict, and the use of force is not acceptable. We mourn the loss of life, including reports of multiple civilian deaths inside Armenia. We are glad that our continued engagement at high levels with Azerbaijan and Armenia has helped the sides reach a ceasefire, and we continue to engage on and encourage the work needed to reach a lasting peace.

First Channel News asked What is the US diplomatic missions position regarding the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan illegally located in the sovereign territory of Armenia? Do you consider their withdrawal from the internationally recognized territory of Armenia an urgent necessity? The US Embassy stated, We call on Azerbaijan to return troops to their initial positions. We urge that the cessation of hostilities and disengagement of military forces be maintained, and work to resolve all outstanding issues between Armenia and Azerbaijan through peaceful negotiations continued. The United States is prepared to do whatever it can to support these efforts.

To the question What is your position regarding Azerbaijan's targeting of civilian settlements and infrastructure in the territory of Armenia, as a result of which there are also victims?, the Embassy answered, We have observed first-hand damage to civilian infrastructure inside Armenia and have seen reports of Armenian civilian casualties, both of which are deeply concerning and underscore the need to prevent further hostilities and the importance of diplomatic engagement.

What is your position regarding Azerbaijan's capture of Armenian servicemen in the sovereign territory of Armenia, reports of torture against them, as well as non-return of them to the Armenian side? First Channel News asked. The answer was, We have seen reports of capture of Armenian servicemembers and reports of torture. The immediate, unconditional return of those captured in last weeks attacks, as well as the return of all other detainees, is an important step to achieving a lasting peace. The United States condemns torture wherever and whenever it occurs and strongly urges governments to abide by their international obligations and end impunity for these crimes.
Pedestrians shield themselves from heavy rain falling ahead of Hurricane Fiona making landfall in Halifax, on Sept. 23, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Darren Calabrese)

Historic Storm: Fiona Will Be Severe Event for Atlantic Coast, Hurricane Centre Warns

As Hurricane Fiona remains on course to hit land in Atlantic Canada early Saturday, the Canadian Hurricane Centre (CHC) is warning that it will be a severe event for the Atlantic provinces and eastern Quebec.

Fiona will impact Atlantic Canada and eastern Quebec with heavy rainfall and powerful hurricane force winds, the CHC said.

In an earlier statement, the agency said warnings are now in effect for what looks to be a historic storm for eastern Canada.

This satellite image provided by NOAA shows Hurricane Fiona in the Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda, moving north on Sept. 22, 2022. (NOAA via AP)

As of the morning of Sept. 23, Fionas maximum sustained winds were 204 kilometres per hour, with the storm moving northeast at around 50 kilometres per hour, said the CHC. It will eventually transform into a post-tropical storm with heavy rainfall and powerful winds.

Severe winds and rainfall will have major impacts for eastern Prince Edward Island, eastern Nova Scotia, southern and eastern New Brunswick, western Newfoundland, eastern Quebec, and southeastern Labrador, CHC said, noting that there will also be large waves.

Similar cyclones of this nature have produced structural damage to buildings. Construction sites may be particularly vulnerable. Wind impacts will be enhanced by foliage on the trees, potentially causing prolonged and widespread utility outages.

Nova Scotia Power is deploying about 800 utility workers across the province to be ready for outages and damage to power lines. The Construction Association of Nova Scotia is battening down construction sites and cranes. When Hurricane Dorian hit the province in 2019, a 73-metre crane in downtown Halifax was knocked over, damaging a building that was under construction.

Citizens are being warned to prepare for power outages and flooding.

According to CHC, 100-200 millimetres of rain is expected and rough and pounding surf will create waves as high as 12 metres.

A combination of storm surge and large waves could cause coastal flooding, which will be a threat for parts of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island including the Northumberland Strait, the Gulf of St. Lawrence region including Iles-de-la-Madeleine and eastern New Brunswick, and southwest Newfoundland, it said.

The Weather Network reported that Fiona was still a powerful Category 3 hurricane on the morning of Sept. 23.

The track of Fiona is different in terms of how historically hurricanes have moved over the East Coast, and this one is not conforming to the standard. Any time you get a unique storm like this, youre going to get big damage, the Weather Network stated.

This is not just a hurricane either, its more like a hurricane and a noreaster combined.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
Campaigners against the National Crime Agency's use of data hacked from EncroChat by French police protest outside the Old Bailey in London on May 27, 2022. (Chris Summers/The Epoch Times)

Officer Denies NCA Suppressed Evidence About EncroChat Phone Investigation

Hundreds of UK criminal prosecutions depend on outcome of tribunal

A National Crime Agency (NCA) officer has denied key facts were deliberately suppressed about what discussions took place with French law enforcement in the run-up to the hacking of EncroChatan encrypted phone network allegedly used by thousands of criminals across Europein March 2020.

On Friday, Wayne Johns was cross examined by Stephen Kamlish, KC at an Investigatory Powers Tribunal which is hearing legal challenges by 10 individuals on the use of encrypted conversations by the NCA from EncroChat, which resulted from a hack conducted by French law enforcement.

At the heart of the case are Targeted Equipment Interference (TEI) warrants, which the NCA obtained on March 25, 2020, in order to access up to 9,000 EncroChat devices in the UK and investigate the alleged owners of those devices.

Kamlish asked Johns about discussions between his colleague Emma Sweeting and Jeremy Decou, the senior investigating officer (SIO) in the French police, in January 2020.

French Offered to Explain How Rogue App Worked

In one email Decou offered to put technical experts at the NCA in touch with French technicians who could explain how our rogue app worked.

Kamlish asked, The main question is whether the material was selected from the database or stored on a server  that was the big question wasnt it?

Johns, who was given an OBE in the Queens birthday honours in June for his work on EncroChat, replied: Yes. It was the crux of knowing how we would be able to use the material.

Under English law evidence which is intercepted live, such as from phone tapping, is not permissible for use in a criminal trial, whereas emails, phone texts, and other messages are allowed. When it comes to EncroChat the key question is whether the hacked material was obtained by live interception.

Kamlish suggested the NCA had requested the information from the French, got the answer they didnt want, and then suppressed it.

An undated handout photo issued by the Police Service of Northern Ireland of police during a raid in Operation Venetic, an investigation into EncroChat, an encrypted phone network. (Police Service of Northern Ireland/PA Media)

At one time 50,000 peoplemore than 9,000 of them in Britainwere using EncroChat to send and receive secure messages.

But in March 2020 French police, using malware in the form of a software update, managed to hack into EncroChats network which was hosted on a server in the town of Roubaix in northern France, and infiltrated tens of thousands of encrypted messages.

The messages were shared with the NCA in Britain, which launched Operation Venetic and claimed to have identified hundreds of criminals who were dealing in drugs and guns and plotting murders.

In May this year Paul Fontaine, 36, from Hackney, east London, and Frankie Sinclair, 34, from Cardiff, Wales, were jailed for life for conspiracy to murder on the basis of EncroChat evidence.

Earlier this week Luke Shrimpton, a senior technical expert who has since resigned from the NCA, told the tribunal the NCA had purchased some EncroChat devices in 2017 and 2018 which he was trying to use to reverse-engineer the technology and break the encryption, before they discovered the French were already well advanced with their own hack.

NCA Officer Dumped Phone in a Bin

Kamlish asked Johns, Did you know that Luke Shrimpton had dumped his phone in a bin?

I knew he had got a new phone, Johns replied.

Kamlish asked if there had not been an internal inquiry at the NCA to find out how Shrimptons phone, which could have contained crucial messages, had been lost.

Johns replied, He has provided a witness statement and been cross examined at a number of trials.

Kamlish then asked a series of questions about the legal advice Johns and his team had received from the NCAs own legal department before they contacted the Crown Prosecution Service for permission for the TEI warrant.

Kamlish said: So 26 minutes after the warrant was granted you were asked by the CPS about NCA legals own advice and you said the actual legal advice document is privileged. That is a lie isnt it?

The National Crime Agency building in Westminster, London, on Oct. 7, 2013. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Johns denied it and said he could not remember why he had said the document was covered by legal privilege.

Earlier Abbas Lakha, KC challenged Johns about the NCAs assertion that EncroChat was used exclusively by criminals.

Lakha asked Johns about the NCAs assessment that only 294 of the 7,407 EncroChat devices which were accessed in the UK had not demonstrated a clear link to criminality.

Lakha pointed out that on one phone, which was not counted as one of those 294, there were 360 images of houses, cooking, and children, and 4,501 messages of a general, domestic, and non-criminal nature, as well as 708 deleted messages, all of which were non-criminal.

Johns said that there was not sufficient data for that device to be analysed and confirmed as having not demonstrated a clear link to criminality.

Later Johns added, The assessment is that the network was used exclusively for criminal use.

Lakha suggested the NCA had failed in its duty of candour when it came to disclosure.

A four-day hearing began on Tuesday, but on Thursday Lord Justice Edis announced he was suspending the Cloud Video Platform link, which had allowed around 30 journalists and lawyers to watch the proceedings, after it was allegedly recorded and a link put on Twitter.

The tribunal is due to conclude the evidence-taking part of the hearing in December and may not make a final ruling until early in 2023.

If it decides the NCA breached the Investigatory Powers Act it could mean hundreds of EncroChat convictions being quashed.
Operation Space Clean Up: Researchers Develop Novel Garbage Collection Methods

Australian researchers have set their sights on cleaning up the outer space junkyard orbiting Earth to avoid a chain reaction of self-sustaining debris collisions, using lasers and artificial intelligence technology.

Space debris expert Don Kessler, from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was the first to notice that space is at risk of becoming inaccessible to Earth. Kessler observed that once the amount of space debris in orbit reaches a critical point, unavoidable collisions will arise. These collisions will result in more debris, which will create a chain reaction of cascading collisions that cant be prevented; this phenomenon is titled the Kessler Syndrome.

Since the 1950s, thousands of rockets, satellites, and assorted objects have been sent into space, and the amount is exponentially growing. This year alone, SpaceX set the record for the number of satellites sent into space on one rocket, delivering 143 satellites into space on the Falcon 9.

The US Department of Defense and NASA have estimated that there are around 23,000 pieces of space debris that are larger than a softball in Earths orbit currently. This junk is kept company by half a million pieces of debris the size of a marble or larger and around 100 million pieces that are one millimetre (about 0.04 inches) or larger in size.

Yet because the world is reliant on satellite technology for navigation, weather forecasts, and communication, governments and agencies are not able to stop sending satellites into orbit.

NASA crash investigators place debris from the Space Shuttle Columbia on a grid on the floor of a hangar on March 4, 2003 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA/Getty Images)

Many scientists are working on the identification and collection of space debris in Earths orbit, some are using nautical techniques such as nets and harpoons to fish out the bigger fragments of junk. However, much of the junk is difficult for astronomers to perceive because Earth has what scientists call a shimmering atmosphere that can hide particularly small pieces of debris.

The shimmer of the atmosphere is caused by the turbulence or fluctuations in the air above us, Post Doctoral Research Fellow Sara Webb from the Swinburne University of Technology said in an email to The Epoch Times.

Our atmosphere is thick and always moving due to the physics of heat and gases. Its what causes the stars to twinkle, that light is being refracted and reflected in different directions constantly.

Overcoming Atmosphere With Lasers

To counteract the shimmering atmosphere, scientists use Electro Optic Systems (EOS) technology, which uses a laser attached to a telescope on Mount Stromlo in Canberra, Australia, to fire laser light into the sky. The shimmering action of the atmosphere distorts the laser light and allows the astronomers a chance to see the smaller space junk.

You can think of adaptive optics as trying to mimic the movements of the air above us to the mirror reflecting the light, said Webb.

We are trying to correct some of the refraction to sharpen and focus the light passing through the atmosphere.

By improving something we call the seeing we can resolve smaller objects like space debris. These otherwise would be too faint and their light too scattered for us to identify, she said.

The refined perception of these objects allows Australian astronomers to guide satellites, astronauts, and spaceships of both government and private agencies, away from the debris.

Another approach to removing smaller pieces of junk is firing a high-powered laser into the atmosphere. The pressure from the laser forces the space junk to lower its orbit toward Earth, where it then safely burns up as it enters the upper atmosphere.

This is something called a laser broom, and it can ablate space debris. This means to help it lose/shred material, and by doing so, the force of the material moving away from the object imparts a small thrust, Webb said.

It helps the debris slow down enough to fall lower towards the earth and burn up on entry.

Australia plays an integral part in the collection of space junk as they have space technologies that few countries in the Southern Hemisphere possess to monitor the immense sky.

A laser tests the optical waveguide of a chip for quantum computing in a laboratory in Stuttgart, Germany, on Sept.14, 2021. (Thomas Kienzle/AFP via Getty Images)

Could Artificial Intelligence Provide Better Guidance Through Space

However, given the exponentially growing amount of debris and satellites in space, relying on human guidance could lead to problems, given errors can occur. Scientists are thus positing that Artificial Intelligence (AI) guidance systems could be a better approach reported The Age.

A new range of smarter satellites that are guided by AI scientists argue could avoid space junk without human intervention whilst remaining complete and functional. However, the risk with AI is that the guided satellites cannot communicate with each other and, because of this, could trigger the cascading collisions that people are seeking to avoid.

If one satellite moves into the path of a second satellite to avoid debris, the second satellite may move into the path of a third, and so on.

A partnership project called Responsible AI in Space has been launched to establish an industry standard for AI satellites in outer world applications. The establishment of an industry standard is intended to ensure that AI satellites, across separate agencies, dont fulfil the above prophecy.

In the partnership, there are space scientists, experts in law and policy, government, the space industry, and practitioners in AI assurancea field focused on maximising the benefits of AI and minimising its dangers. The team will develop a framework to assess the trustworthiness of AI systems in space for companies, satellite operators, regulators, and insurers.
An Oregon education department study has shown student grades have been hurt by the closure of schools during the pandemic. File photo. (Fethi Belaid/Getty Images)

Oregon Student Test Scores Plummet After Pandemic Learning Loss

After two years of disruption caused by the pandemic, student test scores fell by nearly 10 percent in math, English, and science, according to data released on Sept. 22 by the Oregon Department of Education.

The first large-scale assessment of Oregon students since 2019 shows that as few as one-third of students statewide are reaching key benchmarks as they return to in-person learning.

According to the data for the 2021-22 school year, fewer than 44 percent of Oregon students in Grades 38 were proficient in English language arts. Thats down from 53 percent in 2019.

About 30 percent were proficient in math and just 29.5 percent in science, compared with 39 percent and 37 percent, respectively, in 2019.

Unlike most national findings about pandemic learning loss, school closures and education disruptions hit all demographic groups equally in Oregon.

In Grades 36, the number of white students, Latino students, and indigenous students who mastered English or math fell by 8 percent from 2019 to 2022, according to the report.

ODE says the testing further shows that students who were falling behind before the pandemic suffered the most learning loss.

Statewide assessment tests were not done in 2020 due to pandemic-related school closures. Oregon schools experienced some of the longest school closures in the nation.

The ODE had requested a waiver for the tests in 2021 as well, but U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona denied those blanket waivers. Instead, the state received a partial waiver, requiring English language, arts, math and science testing only for select grades.

ODE director Colt Gill explained that the state is taking a new perspective on how it looks at assessments. Instead of determining whether students are doing well or not individually, the assessments are a reflection of the system overall.

This creates for us a post-pandemic baseline that the future assessments can help us measure whether were making progress and helping our students address that unfinished learning, Gill said in a press conference.

We have already seen assessment scores rising for students who have had more time back in onsite learning.

ODE also said the assessment results should serve as a call to better fund schools and education institutions, as well as better support teachers and other staff.

But Oregon schools are already flush with cash, even as enrollment has declined by 5 percent since the beginning of the pandemic.

Oregon schools are receiving an additional $1 billion per year from a recently enacted Corporate Activity Tax. It also received a second one-time $1.7 billion in federal pandemic aid. Oregon school districts have just one more year to spend that aid.

Gill said districts should focus that money on techniques and services that have proven to accelerate learning.
Parents and residents protest against a display featuring the Bible next to "Gender Queer" and "Lawn Boy"the two challenged books returned to Fairfax County school libraries after the Thanksgiving holidayoutside Dolley Madison Public Library in McLean, Va., on Dec. 11, 2021. (Lisa Fan/The Epoch Times)

Parents Want Gay Sex How-To Book Removed From Texas School District

Transgender author gives advice on how to use sex apps

Parents in Katy, Texas, are pushing school libraries to remove books with sexual content, including one with step-by-step instructions on how to have gay sex and use sex apps to find partners.

The book was featured on The Katy Railway, an Instagram site fighting to remove sexualized content from schools in the highly-rated Katy ISD school district.

This Book is Gay, by transgender author James Dawson, appears in the library at Morton Ranch High School, according to the social media site. The author, who transitioned to female, now goes by Juno Dawson.

Katy ISD parents have objected to other books such as Looking for Alaska and Flamer, a graphic novel with explicit sex scenes. All three books have been part of a list contested by outraged parents around the country.

On the other side of the issue, liberal teacher unions and academics have taken the position that parents are trying to ban diverse books.

A self-proclaimed lesbian Marxist, Emily Drabinski, voted in as the American Library Association president this spring, wants to stop book bans on LGBT and race in libraries.

Katy resident Sarah Feigleson, education leader of the Fort Bend County Citizens Defending Freedom, told The Epoch Times that the entire system has failed parents and their children by allowing sexual content to become pervasive in schools.

Authors write explicit sexual books for 12- to 16-year-olds, which publishers willingly print, and schools readily adopt, she said.

Once you see it, you cant unsee this stuff, Feigleson said. This is a multilevel fail.

School librarians who spoke at an August school board meetings have said they vet books coming into Katy ISD schools.

Some of it [the content] is just so foul and disgusting you cant believe it, Feigleson said. And here we have all these library coordinators saying, Oh, we vet every single book.

A woman with signs Dont MAGA our schools and Kooks ban books at a rally outside the Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) administration building in Ashburn, Va., on Sept. 13, 2022. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

Another issue opposed by parents is allowing high school students to sit on committees to evaluate books with sexual content that some call pornographic. Feigleson said the Katy ISD board of trustees will vote on the issue on Sept. 25.

Feigleson pointed to her discovery of This Book is Gay in one high school library as an example of what parents face in the battle against the sexualization of children.

In the book, headings of Boy-on-Boy Sex and Girl-on-Girl Sex show sketches and include descriptions of what feels nice.

It guides inexperienced readers on how to upload photos to sex apps and meet up with other nearby gays.

Parent Terry Tauriello told The Epoch Times he has lived in Katy for 40 years and cant believe what hes seeing. His children attended Katy schools, and he now has a grandchild enrolled there.

One of my main points is there should absolutely be no pornography, Tauriello said. They dont need that.

He believes sexual content is another facet of Critical Race Theory creeping into the schools that parents once trusted. When his children went to school, he said that skin color, race, and gender werent topics of focus at schools.

His opinion: If schools allow books with sexual content into libraries, the state should defund them.

Now weve got to stand up and fight, he said. I would never have believed it in a million years.

The Epoch Times reached out to Lance Redmond and Greg Schulte, vice president and president, respectively, of the Katy ISD Board of Trustees, for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Pediatric Hospital Allegedly Trains Staff to Talk Parents Into Accepting Childrens Gender Transition

A clinic at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is purportedly training staff to hide from parents their teenage childs preferred gender identity before eventually persuading them to get on board with their child transitioning.

Parent and conservative activist Megan Eileen on Wednesday posted online four video clips of what she said are created by CHOPs Gender Clinic for training purposes. The scenario involves a teenage boy named Jacob, who is admitted to the hospital after fainting from not eating.

In the first clip, Jacob reveals to a nurse that he doesnt want to look like a guy or get big, but his mother wont get him hormone medication needed to suppress his puberty. The boy, who prefers to be called Amanda, says he stops eating in order to stay skinny and more female.

That makes a lot of sense, the nurse tells the boy. So youre not eating because you want to look feminine and feel more feminine?

Yeah, its kind of stupid, Jacob replies. The nurse then assures him that doing so isnt stupid, although his eating disorder is getting a little bit dangerous.

The next video shows the nurse joining two other hospital staff to discuss how to convince Jacobs mother into accepting that her son is now her daughter, without any further talking about Jacobs eating disorder or gender confusion. It sounds like mom doesnt know [what] Amanda really wanted us to know, the nurse tells her colleagues. We really just need to help mom get on board, so we can get Amanda the help she needs.

In the third clip, staff members continue to address the teenage patient as Jacob when the mother is present, and switch to Amanda in the mothers absence. The fourth and the last clip show the medical team explaining to a visibly worried mother that she has to start identifying Jacob as a female because thats how she identities.

You know, she loves you and she wants you to help, and you want to help, a staff member tells the mother, who eventually admits that she is unable to do that right away but will try.

According to Eileen, she found these clips online as a part of professional resources offered by the hospitals Gender and Sexuality Development Clinic. The clinics webpage that reportedly contained the videos is no longer accessible.

On its website, the clinic states that it partners with medical professionals and schools to provide insight and training that will increase transgender competent healthcare and create more supportive school environments. According to local news reports, the clinic was scheduled for April to train teachers and staff at Central Bucks School District, the third largest school district in Pennsylvania, but was canceled after schools were instructed to stop exposing students to transgender ideologies without their parents consent.

The hospital couldnt be immediately reached for comment.

The controversy comes amid a growing number of pediatric health care providers embracing gender affirmation care, a concept rooted in progressive gender ideology.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the national organization of pediatric health professionals, in its latest guidelines encourages pediatric providers to adopt a gender-affirmative care model and offer services that are oriented toward understanding and appreciating the youths gender experience.

In such a model, transgender identities and diverse gender expressions arent considered to be mental disorders but normal aspects of human diversity. The model also recognizes gender identity as something that evolves as an interplay of biology, development, socialization, and culture.
President Donald Trump made a key mistake while in office by trusting members of the establishment who ultimately betrayed him, according to Peter Navarro, former Trump adviser and author of the book, Taking Back Trumps America: Why We Lost the White House and How Well Win It Back. The former president now understands this, as he prepares to retake the White House, Navarro added.

We spoke with Navarro about what took place behind the scenes in the Trump White House, how Trump was undermined by the establishment, and how he could come back for a second term.

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CAQ Leader Francois Legault gestures toward Liberal Leader Dominique Anglade and Parti Quebecois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon during a leaders debate in Montreal, Sept. 22, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Ryan Remiorz)

Quebec Election: Party Leaders Back on the Hustings After Final Debate of Campaign

Coalition Avenir Quebec Leader Francois Legault is campaigning in the Montreal area this morning, a day after he faced targeted attacks from his four opponents during the final election debate.

Legault had to defend his proposals on climate change, the cost of living, and on the decline of the French language in the exchange broadcast on Radio-Canada.

The CAQ leader, however, focused many of his attacks on the left-wing Quebec solidaire party, which is making small gains in the polls and is trying to replace the Liberals as the official Opposition.

Meanwhile, Quebec solidaire spokesman Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois is to hold a news conference this morning in Montreal and participate in other events in the city.

Liberal party Leader Dominique Anglade is also starting her day in Montreal before heading to the Outaouais region in western Quebec, where she is to visit the municipalities of Cantley and Wakefield, and then Gatineau.

Conservative Party of Quebec Leader Eric Duhaime is holding a campaign rally this evening in Levis, Que., on the south shore of Quebec Citythe region where his party enjoys some of its strongest support.
Queen Elizabeth ll smiles amongst Australian flags being waved by the crowd after the Commonwealth Day Service in Sydney, Australia, on March 13, 2006. (Rob Griffith-Pool/Getty Images)

Quiet Dignity: Australian Leaders Praise the Queens Legacy During Memorial

Australian politicians gathered at Parliament Houses Great Hall to commemorate Queen Elizabeth IIs legacy during a National Memorial Service in Canberra on Thursday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, opposition leader Peter Dutton as well as federal MPs, premiers, and other guests attended the service commencing with a minute of silence.

Albanese praised the Queen as a rare and reassuring constant in a world of change for many people.

In an age of performative celebrity, the Queen embodied quiet dignity, he said.

In an era of fads and fashionable causes, the Queen did not seek to chase the timesinstead she held to qualities and virtues that are timeless: love of family, loyalty to country, service to community, kindness to those in need, respect for everyone she met.

She stood for things we loved and admired most about our own parents and grandparents. Their decency, their wisdom, their patience, their work ethic, their instinct for service above self.

Meanwhile, Dutton described the Queens rule as extraordinary, the like of which we will never see again.

A reign spanning 70 years with tens of thousands of public engagements. Its a legacy the little Lilibet could not have imagined, the opposition leader said.

She left the monarchy in a stronger position than the precarious one she inherited.

Dutton recalled the Queens speech in 1957 in which she said trouble is caused by unthinking people who carelessly throw away ageless ideals as if they were old and outworn machinery. They would have religion throw aside, morality in personal and public life made meaningless, honesty counted as foolishness and self-interest set up in place of self-restraint.

He noted that the Queens words were profound.

Perhaps Her Majestys greatest triumph will be a renaissance of the virtues and values she embodied in life.

Virtues and values which we still admire, but which are often wanting in a more retributive, revisionist and self-entitled world today.

Those of duty, of service, of sacrifice, of fortitude, of stoicism, of grace, of humility, of generosity, of forgiveness, and empathy.
Retired Lt. Gen. Flynn: We Have to Quit Playing Games With Illegal Immigration

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn said he doesnt agree with sending illegal immigrants to Marthas Vineyard and Washington, D.C., but he understands the political reasoning behind the efforts of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to draw more attention to the border crisis.

Its a horrible idea, Flynn told The Epoch Times in an interview preceding a Republican fundraiser in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Sept. 18.

I think that we should be sending all these illegals back across the border. I understand the [political] tactics  but essentially all theyre doing is exacerbating the problem. We have to quit playing games when it comes to the invasion of our country along our southern border, he said.

If the Biden administration wont stem the flow of unvetted illegal migrants crossing the border, then the governors of border states have a duty to step in and deal with the problem, he said.

The state of Texas does not have to accept these people. They can actually stop them there, he said.

While the strategy of sending immigrants to sanctuary states or cities is shining a national media spotlight on illegal immigration, Flynn said, having an open-borders policy is a threat to national security and must be addressed.

He warned against putting unvetted military age males on buses and into planes and sending them to different parts of the United States.

We need to send these people back because the problem is only going to get worse, said Flynn who served as national security adviser to then-President Donald Trump until he was accused of lying to the FBI.

With an estimated 4.9 million illegal immigrants entering the United States in less than two years under President Joe Bidens watch, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, were destroying the fabric of our county, Flynn said. We have too many.

Like other critics of the Biden administrations immigration policies, including former ICE director Tom Homan, Flynn said the crisis at the southern border is by design.

This administration made a conscious decision to have open borders, Flynn said. Vice President Kamala Harris is out of her mind when she said that the border is secure. Talk about a strategic blundera political blunder.

Situation Beyond Normal

Flynn, a lifelong Democrat until recently, said the U.S. political scene has shifted drastically in recent years.

This is so far beyond normal. This is not politics as normal in this country anymore. We have an attempted takeover of our country by a socialist movement, and theyve got control of many of the levers of power in our countrythe justice system, the rule of law system, our intelligence community, he said.

The United States is headed down this path to socialism because too many Americans have become complacent, he said.

If they dont see it then theyre foolish. Theyre blind. Theyre not listening and theyre not paying attention, and theyre not reading enough Epoch Times, he said. If people cared about the country, and the direction of the country, then I dont think wed have any of these problems.

Still, others are still so caught up in party politics and arguments over big government versus small that theyre missing the big picture, he said.

When asked who is behind the socialist takeover, Flynn replied: Well, let them define themselves. Youre talking to a guy who was a lifelong Democrat. I just changed parties a little over a year ago.

With gas prices soaring to more than $5 a gallon under the Democrats and even higher in California, Flynn said he misses Trumps energy independence policies.

According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, gas prices during the Trump administration reached a high of $2.96 in 2018 and a low of $1.77 in 2020. Prices during the Biden administration reached a high of $5.00 in June.

Flynn credited Trump for supporting businesses and pushing back against the Environmental Protection Agency.

He opened up the industries and he shut down all these environmental protection rules where people who own their own property that had the ability to take care of the environment couldnt even put a shovel in the ground, he said.

Foreign Threat

Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has three goals that affect the United States: power, resources, and geography, according to Flynn.

They want to take over the world leadership now and into the remainder of this century, at least as far out as I can see, he said. And thats been their goal for the last 50 to 70 years.

Secondly, China has its eyes on U.S. resources, principally energy, but also food production and water, because the CCP knows the United States has managed its natural resources wisely, Flynn said.

Flynn pointed out that according to some estimates, such as from the Heritage Foundation, the United States has enough energy resources to supply power at current rates for the next 500 years.

And then, the third big strategic goal is geography, he said. Because China has about 1.5 billion people, they could [eliminate] our entire populationthe United Statesand not even think twice about it.

Arizona Politics

At the fundraiser, Flynn applauded Arizona Republican candidate Mark Finchem, who is running for secretary of state.

There are so many problems with our election system, Flynn said. People have to understand how our constitution was designed, and Mark Finchem is one of those people who understands it.

Some mainstream media coverage of Finchem and Kari Lake, who is running for governor in Arizona, has been totally unprofessional, Flynn said.

They dont want to talk about the policies, and they dont want to have any kind of debates about the issuesthe real issues that Americans care about, he said.

Steve Bannon, a former adviser to Trump and host of War Room Pandemic, also attended the fundraiser along with more than 150 Republicans.
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. On September 23, on the margins of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, the Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan had a meeting with the Foreign Minister of the Arab Republic of Egypt Sameh Shoukry in New York City.

Minister Mirzoyan briefed his colleague on the details of the large-scale aggression carried out by Azerbaijan against the sovereign territory of Armenia, strongly condemning the deliberate targeting of the civilian population and civilian infrastructure by the Azerbaijani armed forces, as well as the violations of international humanitarian law. Ararat Mirzoyan particularly emphasized the importance of statements by the international partners addressed to Azerbaijan and the implementation of effective steps towards preventing new aggressions.

The settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and normalisation of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan were also touched upon.

The interlocutors have also touched upon the Armenian-Egyptian bilateral agenda. In this context, the interlocutors commended the Armenian-Egyptian high level political dialogue, the active interaction between the Foreign Ministries of the two countries based on mutual trust. Ararat Mirzoyan and Sameh Shoukry expressed their readiness to undertake active steps towards giving new impetus to the existing cooperation in trade and economic relations, tourism, scientific and cultural spheres.
Retiring California Sen. Jim Nielsen Dissects the State Budget Mess

Commentary

California is going to suffer a great loss after the November election when state Sen. Jim Nielsen (R-Red Bluff) departs the Legislature because of term limits. He graciously answered questions about his lengthy time serving the state, giving his perspective on the worsening of the budget process. This is crucial work in the Legislature, because governments run on money.

Nielsens service in the Senate began from 1978-90, and he was Republican leader from 1983-87. He spent some years tending his ranch and raising his family, although in 1992 he was appointed chairman of the California Board of Prison Terms. In 2008-12, voters sent him to the Assembly. And in 2013, he won a special election to return to the Senate.

From the start he has been an expert on the state budget, helping craft budgets with such Democratic leaders as Assembly Speakers Willie Brown and Leo McCarthy, both from San Francisco.

Budgets from the Gang of Five

California budgets long were crafted and presented to the Legislature by what was called the Gang of Five, consisting of the governor and the Republican and Democratic leaders (majority and minority) in both the Assembly and the Senate. That was because it required a two-thirds vote of both houses to pass a budget bill.

Two things changed this process. First, in 2010 voters passed Proposition 25, which dropped to a majority vote the threshold to pass a budget, except for tax increases. That meant the Republican minority largely was frozen out.

Second, since the 2018 election, Republicans have held a superminorityless than one-third of the votesin each house.

The older system was much better, Nielsen said. It was a matter of bipartisanship, and members were more concerned with the process and the procedures of the institution. We were making a statement and taking a stand that we can work together on some things and be effective.

And interestingly, over my career, some of my most successful landmark legislation has been done working with Democrat legislators, liberals. [San Francisco Assemblyman] Art Agnos, for example, and [San Jose Assemblyman] John Vasconcellos on the Master Plan for Education. It was interesting. The point being, it can be done. You just have to work with it.

The best known legislator in recent California history was Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), the Assembly speaker during Nielsens early Senate tenure. Brown was later mayor of San Francisco and a mentor to Gov. Gavin Newsom and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Willie Brown and I got along famously, Nielsen said. He once told Brown, If you made a deal with me, you delivered the votes. Well, you always delivered the votes. Although they had disagreements, Nielsen said, We dont take it personally. You can get along if you try. And the things [where] you cant get along, you just let it be.

Republican Superminority

That atmosphere changed with the Republicans dropping down to superminority status in 2018, Nielsen said. Now the Democrats just purposefully, and not inadvertently and not just even politically, just cut the Republicans out. Theres just no place. Thats disappointing. And it does not bode well for the institution. If theyre going to operate as a dictatorship, its not good for the people.

The worst problem of all is not what theyre doing with the Republicans, but theyre cutting out the public. For example, when we have hearings, we have at the end of a hearing public comments. Well, that used to people would come, and theyd stand up, and line up, and talk, and say what they wanted to say. The chair could control it, and keep it rolling along.

Well then, weve come to now, where you get two people three minutes for an issue, then two people three minutes against. Then everybody else gets to call in and all they get to say is, Im Jim and I like it or Im Jim and I dont like it. That is no public input. Its a disgrace and a fraud to call it that. And Ive complained about that. But they dont care. They dont care because this is convenient. And OK, its convenient, but it sure cuts the public out.

Centralized Power Abuses

The new budget process, Nielsen said, gives the Democrat leaders and the governor far too much power.

He referred to Newsoms March 4, 2020 Declaration of a State of Emergency at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of that state emergency remains in effect (pdf).

Speaking of state governors as well as the U.S. president, Nielsen said, The worst abuses of executive branchespluralis emergency authority, declarations of emergency. And the ability of the governor to usurp the power and center it more in the executive branch of government. Thats exactly whats happened. That cuts the Legislature out. And thats all purposely done.

Why didnt the Democrats who run the Legislature protest against the COVID emergency?

There will always be an ongoing emergency in effect, because its convenient for the governor, he said. The Democrats dont seem to care. They dont complain about it. They just go, OK. I put bills in that would have forced termination criteria external to the executive branch. They couldnt just unliterally decide when to put them on and when to put them off. But the point is, theres no real exit date60 days or 70 days or whateveryou have to extinguish the emergency. Or at least you have to stop, pause, and review it, and assess whether it still was required.

And again, this was more convenient government, and more centering of the power, and taking it away from the people.

Masks Deal With Communist China

A big controversy early in the pandemic was Newsoms $1 billion secret deal in April 2020 with BYD, an electric car manufacturer with deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party and military.

Was there any review by the Legislature of the $1 billion sent to Beijing? No, its all gone, Nielsen said. Never happened.

California Government Does Not Compute

Nielson also brought up the problems the state has suffered from bad computer systems, most notoriously the massive failure of the Employment Development Department 2020-21 to give timely assistance to millions of unemployed Californians after Newsom locked down large parts of the economy.

Our biggest problem is the darn tech companies, signing these contracts with the state for technological upgrades, costing billions of dollars, he said. None of them comes in on time. None of them comes in on budget. And its just like a blank check to Silicon Valley. The taxpayers get ripped off. These systems, Ive been a part of them for decades, as weve upgraded our technology.

Fi$Cal is the most recent disaster. It just sops up the money. Fi$Cal is the cutsey name for whats supposed to be a system unifying all state budgets. I reported on it in The Epoch Times earlier this year in, Californias Government Adds to Infamous History of Computer Problems.

Nielsen then brought up the California High-Speed Rail project. Even Newsom, in his 2019 State of the State address, said of it, But lets be real. The project, as currently planned, would cost too much and take too long. Theres been too little oversight and not enough transparency.

Nielsen said of the train, Thats the stupidest idea that I think anyone has come up with. It will never happen. But were spending billions of dollars on something that makes no sense. In fact, its ludicrous. For a while, the Senate was doing a pretty good job of oversight. Id say the last five years the Senate really stepped up its oversight. For example, KQED reported in 2016, Senators Ask Tough Questions About High-Speed Rail.

But today, Nielsen said, the Senate is again getting lax. Its too bad.

Controller AWOL on Financial Report

The last Annual Comprehensive Financial Report by Controller Betty Yee was for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2020, more than two years ago. All other states have filed their ACFRs for the subsequent fiscal year. Such delinquency makes it more difficult for legislators to craft a state budget because they lack an accurate picture of the states fiscal health. Her excuse has been the state departments have been late sending her the numbers. But she has not criticized Newsom for letting his departments off the hook.

I dont know the answer to that, Nielsen said of the delinquency. It has hardly been questioned or debated in the Legislature. But it is part of the apathy of the legislators to take control back and force the accountability of the agencies. The agencies have been out of control. The bureaucracy has ruled California for decades. And they do things just unilaterally. Its another example of how things get corrupted.

He remembered when he was a brand new senator and I teamed up with Leo McCarthy, the powerful speaker of the Assembly, 1974-80. The Administrative Procedures Act, we authored that. That was agencies, before promulgating regulations, had to have a review of the regulation, and of its need. And my contribution was they had to consider the economic impact of the regulation.

Well, agencies have just ignored that. And they govern by fiat. They simply put in place an emergency regulation. And nobody knows. And they make law in administrative law, not statutory law.

Term Limits, Good and Bad

Nielsen is leaving because of term limits, which voters passed in 1990 with Proposition 140 and modified in 2012 with Proposition 28. It has been criticized because it reduces the influence of legislators with extensive experience, who have to leave. There have been movements to repeal it entirely.

I dont think the voters want to do that because its their way of expressing their dissatisfaction with the Legislature, Nielson said. Now to the point. The good side of term limits is theres a more diverse population, meaning people of different backgrounds that now serve in the Legislature. Its not as much an insider deal. Thats good.

But the bad part, and its a telling bad part, is institutional memory does not exist. The curiosity is not there. And therefore the ability and accountability to govern have been diminished by it. And ironically, it accelerated the peoples loss of authority during the time of term limits because of the transfer of authority to the governor, noted above.

72 Hours to Review Bills

The legislative leadership long had a practice of putting bills before legislators shortly before votes were taken. Thats why in 2016 voters passed Proposition 54, requiring bills be printed 72 hours before a vote was taken.

Prop. 54 helped slightly, Nielsen said. The Democrats hate it. Now theyre touting it as their great idea and great reform. But theyre even chipping around at that. How did they do it? Well, our 72 hours begins to toll on Friday. Aint nobody watching. Thats how they do that. Then they run the clock up to the last minute on the next Monday.

For example, every year my team gets briefed just hours before we convene the next day to deliberate and vote on the budget. The Democrats throw a few documents our way. But most of the documents dont get there. The Democrat senators dont get them either. So its all a closed deal. And they have very effectively cut Republicans out of the picture. But worse, as I say in debate, you cut a million people that we represent out of the picture.

Each of 40 senators represents about 1 million Californians.

Gut and Amend Process

One of the Legislatures worst tricks is called gut and amend and is little known to the general public. One bill, say on naming a park, is gutted entirely, its wording replaced with an amended wording thats on an entirely new subject, such as spending on a pork project.

They absolutely love it, Nielsen said. Its the best way to make a sneaky deal. Its so covert. No review. No opposition Republican input. The Legislature has figured out how convenient that is.

End of session, the lobbyists poured in to me saying, Jim, Jim, we need to do this amendment here. Blah, blah, blah. I said, No. For years Ive tried to help out straightening this mess out. But Im done now. So you go find somebody else to do all this stuff. I dont like it. Its a scam. And you shouldnt get away with it. And the 72-hour rule has helped just a tiny bit.

The $100 Billion Surplus

This years $100 billion surplus was a missed opportunity, he said. For a few years there was a bit of accountability in the budget, such as when the state set up the Rainy Day Fund with Proposition 2 in 2014. But what now has happened, all that goes on in the budget is, what we always had, is incremental budgets. Everything last year gets a COLA [Cost of Living Adjustment].

And then we have all kinds of new, great, billion-dollar ideas for this year. Those billion-dollar ideas are long-term obligations. Most of them are not sunset. So you just keep building your base year after year after year. It puts the growth of the budget on automatic pilot. Probably the only good thing is the automatic COLAs have diminished.

Final Thoughts: Control to the People

I speak about it literally every day, in every forum, Nielsen said. My central theme for a long time here has been you, the citizens, have lost control of your government. You need to get it back. How do you do that? You have to get actively involved in your community, get personally acquainted with your legislators, and spend a lot of time with them, watching them, meeting with them, talking with them, communicating with them. And its going to require some energy. Just signing your name to a petition, or just a mass deluge of letters, doesnt help a bit. It doesnt even count. Youve got to re-establish relationships with your local legislators. So they see you, they know you, and you can help hold them accountable.

The best thing thats happened in the last two years is with COVID. All of a sudden, the schools have had more scrutiny than youve had before, because they were doing remote. Thats a boondoggle weve also got to stop, doing everything remote. But that said, the parents got to look into the classroom, and they didnt like what they saw. So what have they done? Well, theyve recalled a bunch of school board members across the country.

A few weeks ago, in committee, I ran a school board advocate out of the room. He was testifying he was there in support of a bill to make it harder to recall school board members. I said, Sir, I used to respect school board members. I dont anymore. You dont represent the students and their families. You represent you and your power. And Ive got no use for that. And now youve gotten scared that the public is going to make you accountable, by recalling you if they dont like the woke stuff youre putting into the classroom. Well, thats too bad, thats what its all about.

Ending on a personal note, when I was state Sen. John Moorlachs press secretary, 2017-20, he was a close ally of Nielsen, both being fiscal hawks. Moorlach lost his re-election to a freespender. Nielson soon will be gone. The Republican Caucus likely still will be a superminority.

Who will represent the peoples fiscal concerns when the surpluses dry up, and the dark days of deficits return?

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
(L) Karen Bass in Los Angeles on April 14, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Leon Bennett/Getty Images) (R) Rick Caruso in Los Angeles on Aug. 12, 2019. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Caruso)

Rick Caruso, Karen Bass Face Off During First One-on-One Debate

Los Angeles can be described in one word: crisis, according to Los Angeles mayoral contenders U.S. Congresswoman Karen Bass and real-estate developer Rick Caruso.

The two candidates faced off Sept. 21 during their first televised debate ahead of the Nov. 8 election at the Skirball Cultural Center.

Homelessness

Homelessness was discussed at length during the one-hour debate, which was moderated by Fox11 anchor Elex Michaelson, L.A. Times columnist Erika D. Smith, and Univision anchor Gabriela Teissier. According to polls conducted by the Los Angeles Times earlier this year, it is the top issue voters want leaders to tackle more aggressively.

The 2022 point-in-time count saw a 1.7 percent increase in homeless people in Los Angeles since 2020, with nearly 42,000 people recorded.

Bass and Caruso agreed on the seriousness of the issue but differed on how to combat it. Caruso vowed to build 30,000 new shelters, while Bass argued shelters do not work.

What we have done for too long is we have put people in shelters, Bass said. Now the shelters have become so dangerous, people dont even want to be in the shelters and are choosing to be outside on the street.

A fire burns in a homeless encampment while shredded boxes cover railroad tracks after ongoing theft in Los Angeles, Calif., on Jan. 20, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Caruso said shelters are a more efficient way to meet people where theyre at to provide resources, rather than outreach efforts conducted on the streets.

If you give services on the street, you just create the circle that we have and the problem continues to get worse, he said.

Bass argued, instead, for more permanent supporting housing.

His plan just calls for shelters  but you have to move people into permanent supportive housing, and then you have to mainstream them out of that, she said.

Crime

Regarding rising crime rates, Fox 11s Michaelson referred back to a previous debate during the June primary when candidates were asked, on a scale out of 10, how safe they felt in Los Angeles. At that time, Basss response was a 10 meaning she felt free from danger.

Recently, Basss home was burglarized, and two guns were stolen. Michaelson asked if that has caused her feelings to change.

I was making a reference to my neighborhood where I felt safe because of measures I personally took and also measures that were taken by my neighborhood, Bass said. Obviously, they failed. So, my sense of safety was shattered. If I had to grade [my feelings now], I would grade it as a five.

Police officers search for a suspect in Los Angeles on May 7, 2018. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Caruso touted his experience as president of the Los Angeles Police Commission from 2001 to 2005 as evidence he could turn the numbers around. The latest crime statswith homicides, robberies, and violent crime all up by double digits compared to 2020are a matter of life and death, he said.

Were trying to dig our way out of a hole, weve got to change, Caruso said. Theres a clear difference between the congresswomans plan and mine. My experience being a police commissioner working with LAPD [Los Angeles Police Department] and the leadership there, I dropped crime 30 percent with the team there.

Bass said she is in favor of cracking down on crime by hiring more LAPD officers and increasing the departments budget to hire between 200 to 400 officers during any given month.

At the same time, I believe in stopping crime today but preventing crime tomorrow and investing heavily in crime prevention strategies, she said.

Affordable Housing

To create more housing affordability, Caruso said whats needed are fewer regulations that increase costs for builders.

We have to strip away unnecessary regulation, I know how to do that, Caruso said. People arent building, thats why affordability is so upside down.

Bass agreed regulations need to be slimmed down and the process streamlined for developers.

One of the things that I would do immediately for anybody that wants to come and build housing, specifically for the homeless population  I would say you dont need to go to the front of the line, we need to have a completely separate line for you, she said.

Apartment buildings in Los Angeles, Calif., on Jan 6, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

While both candidates are Democrats, Caruso was a registered Republican in 2016, an Independent in 2019, and re-registered as a Democrat prior to entering the race.

Bass has been a long-standing Democrat and currently represents Californias 37th district. The congresswoman has a lengthy portfolio in politics and served six years on the California State Assembly between 2004 and 2010. Two of those terms were served as speaker.

Caruso is known for his lavish properties across Los Angeles, including the Grove, the Americana at Brand, and the Commons at Calabasas. In addition to serving as president of the Police Commission, he also was on the board for the L.A. Department of Water and Power, and chair of the USC Board of Trustees before resigning to run for mayor.

Bass and Caruso were the two frontrunners elected in the June primaries competing to replace soon to be termed-out Mayor Eric Garcetti after five and a half years in office.

Vote-by-mail ballots are mailed to all active registered voters no later than Oct. 10, 2022.

A person drops a ballot for the California gubernatorial recall election in Los Angeles on Aug. 31, 2021. (Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images)
A Luhansk People's Republic serviceman votes in a polling station in Luhansk, Luhansk People's Republic, controlled by Russia-backed separatists, eastern Ukraine, on Sept. 23, 2022. (AP Photo)

4 Occupied Regions in Ukraine Hold Referendums on Joining Russia

A Kremlin-orchestrated referendum got underway Friday in four occupied regions of Ukraine that sought to make them part of Russia. The move drew condemnation from Kyiv and Western nations who dismissed the votes as a sham and pledged not to recognize their results.

Voting in the provinces of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia in the east and southeast, representing about 15 percent of Ukrainian territory, was due to run from Friday to Tuesday.

Over 20.5 percent of voters eligible to vote in the Zaporizhzhia region and 15 percent of those in the Kherson region voted on Friday, Russias Interfax news agency reported, citing local electoral officials.

In our view, thats enough for the first day of voting, the head of Khersons Russian-installed election commission, Marina Zakharova, was quoted as saying.

Polling stations were also set up in Moscow, for residents of those regions now living in Russia. Flag-waving government supporters attended rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg in favor of the referendums and the Ukraine war effort.

Serhiy Gaidai, Ukraines Luhansk governor, said that in the town of Starobilsk, the population was banned from leaving and people were being forced out of homes to vote.

In the town of Bilovodsk, a company director told employees voting was compulsory and anyone refusing to take part would be fired and their names given to security services, he added.

Reuters could not immediately verify reports of coercion.

Ukraine, Western leaders, and the United Nations condemned the votes as an illegitimate precursor to illegal annexation. There are no independent observers, and much of the pre-war population has fled.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a nightly address that the votes would be unequivocally condemned by the world, along with the mobilization Russia began this week, including in Crimea and other areas of Ukraine occupied by Russia.

These are not just crimes against international law and Ukrainian law, these are crimes against specific people, against a nation, Zelenskyy said.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the military alliance would step up support for Ukraine in response to the referendums.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which monitors elections, said the outcomes would have no legal bearing.

The Group of Seven leading industrial democracies said: We will never recognize these referenda which appear to be a step toward Russian annexation and we will never recognize purported annexation if it occurs.

Moscow says they offer an opportunity for people in the region to express their view.

We are coming home! said Vladimir Rogov, an official of Zaporizhzhias Russian-installed administration.

After casting her ballot, Yulia Zodirako, a Donetsk Peoples Republic passport holder, said, I came first of all because weve waited for this for eight years, we are Russians, this is our victory.

Evgeniy Kapustin, whose mother still lives in Luhansk, said, I really hope for the positive changes with the help of Russia and so I voted for this.

Ive voted to make the quality of life of people there better, he added.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Cars coming from Russia wait in long lines at the border checkpoint between Russia and Finland near Vaalimaa, on Sept. 22, 2022. (Olivier Morin/AFP via Getty Images)

Russians Flee Putins Military Draft, Race to Borders to Escape Fighting Ukraine

Men have reportedly been fleeing Russia in droves after the nations leader Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of the army on Sept. 21 amid Moscows ongoing war with Ukraine.

Putins announcement, the first of its kind since World War II, came less than a day after pro-Russian leaders in four Ukrainian provinces: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia announced plans to hold separate referendums on whether or not to join Russia.

Russia has been dealt a series of blows in recent weeks amid a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has seen the latter take back large swaths of the northeastern Kharkiv region.

In response, Putin has called upon what could be as many as 300,000 reservists who have previously served in the Russian army and have combat experience or specialized military skills to fight in Ukraine.

Russias Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the call-up applies to those with experience as professional soldiers, and that students and conscriptsyoung men serving mandatory 12-month terms in the armed forceswould not be called up.

However, declining the draft is a criminal offense in Russia.

Russias President Vladimir Putin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu attend the opening of the Army 2022 International Military and Technical Forum in the Patriot Park outside Moscow, on Aug. 15, 2022. (Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Mass Exodus

The Washington Post reported that the majority of men were handed written notices at their homes. Russian law states that draft papers must be handed to the recipient in person. According to the Post, others were given orders by telephone and some were told to appear for a health check after having their identity documents checked on the street.

However, the partial mobilization of the Russian army prompted a mass exodus of men who are leaving the country in an effort to avoid the military call up; prompting queues at border crossings with Finland and Georgia while flights out of the country surged.

Video footage posted on social media on Thursday shows long lines of vehicles stuck in heavy traffic as they attempt to make it across the border with Georgia.

Further footage showed an allegedly massive queue forming at the border with Finland, however, that footage was later reported to have actually been posted on Sept. 19, two days before Putins mobilization call. Border agents have said though that while the situation near is calm, things are still busier than usual.

Meanwhile, flights to countries like Turkey, Dubai, or Tel Aviv; places that are visa-free to Russian citizens, soared in price, in some cases rising five times more than the average Russians monthly wage, before quickly selling out.

Google trends data showed a spike in searches for Aviasales, Russias most popular flight-booking site.

Multiple reports state that some men even went to extreme lengths to avoid being called up, and had resorted to breaking arms or legs so that they would be excused.

Russian army soldiers march in support of the soldiers involved in the military operation in Ukraine, at the Mamaev Kurgan, a World War II memorial in Volgograd, Russia, on July 11, 2022. (Alexandr Kulikov/AP Photo)

My Heart Sank

Oleg, a 29-year-old sergeant in the Russian reserves, told the Guardian on Thursday that due to his military experience he knew he would likely be the first to be called up if a mobilization was declared but had stayed in the country in the hopes that would not happen.

This week, that all changed.

My heart sank when I got the call-up, he said. But I knew I had no time to despair. Oleg packed everything he owns and booked a one-way ticket to Orenburg, a southern Russian city close to the border with Kazakhstan where he plans to stay for now.

I will be driving across the border tonight, he said in a telephone interview from the airport. I have no idea when Ill step foot in Russia again.

Ira Lobanovskaya, who started the Guide to The Free World NGO, which helps Russians against the war leave the country, told the publication: We are seeing an even bigger exodus than when the war started.

Police officers detain a woman following calls to protest against Russias partial mobilization in Moscow, on Sept.21, 2022. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images)

Protests also broke out across the country in multiple cities in response to the military call-up, with video footage showing large numbers of demonstrators taking to the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg chanting no to war.

Roughly 1,400 arrests, including 33 minors, were made at protests, according to OVD-Info, an independent group monitoring protest activity in Russia. Some of those who were detained were reportedly handed draft papers.

However, the Kremlin has fiercely denied reports of men fleeing the country, stating that such reports are being greatly exaggerated by Western media. The Russian military said Thursday that at least 10,000 people had volunteered to fight in the 24 hours since the order was announced.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Saudi Arabia's Prince Sultan bin Salman talks at the Global Aerospace Summit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, about his 1985 experience as the first Arab and Muslim to travel to space aboard NASA's Discovery shuttle, on March 8, 2016. (Aya Batrawy/AP Photo)

Saudi Arabia Plans to Send Female Astronaut to Space in 2023

DUBAI, United Arab EmiratesSaudi Arabia said Thursday it will launch a training program with the goal of sending its own astronauts, including a woman, into space next year.

The kingdom is actively promoting science and technology as part of its wide-ranging Vision 2030 plan to overhaul its economy and reduce its dependency on oil.

The plan, championed by Saudi Arabias powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also calls for greater integration of women into the workforce of the Muslim country. Saudi Arabia lifted a long-standing ban on women driving in 2018.

The Saudi Astronaut Program, which is an integral part of the kingdoms ambitious Vision 2030, will send Saudi astronauts into space to help better serve humanity, the Saudi Space Commission said in a statement.

One of the astronauts will be a Saudi woman, whose mission to space will represent a historical first for the kingdom.

The first Arab or Muslim to travel to space was Saudi Arabias Prince Sultan bin Salman, a half-brother of the crown prince, and an air force pilot who was part of the seven-member crew of NASAs Discovery mission in 1985. He later served as head of the Saudi Space Commission from 2018 until last year, when he was appointed an adviser to King Salman.

The neighboring United Arab Emirates has the Arab worlds leading space program, having launched a probe into Mars orbit in February 2021. The UAE plans to launch its first lunar rover in November. If the moon mission succeeds, the UAE and Japan, which is providing the lander, would join the ranks of only the United States, Russia, and China as nations that have put a spacecraft on the lunar surface.
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STORY AT-A-GLANCE

Autophagy refers to a self-eating process in which your body digests damaged cells. Its a cleaning out process that encourages the proliferation of new, healthy cells

The cyclicality of nutrition is an important component for health. Cells are either building or detoxing, and each phase has its own requirements

Cyclical ketosis and intermittent fasting suppress inflammation in your body and activate autophagy, a natural process that cleanses and detoxifies the cell and recycles the parts of the organelles that are no longer needed

To activate autophagy, eat fats first and carbohydrates last, whether youre intermittently fasting or not. Also include more autophagy-activating foods, such as citrus bergamot tea, green tea and turmeric

Cyclical exercise  doing 30 minutes of high-intensity interval training or resistance training every other day  also helps turn autophagy on and off

Naomi Whittel is the former CEO of Twinlab and has written an interesting book about how to achieve radiant health by activating your bodys natural autophagy processes. In Glow 15: A Science-Based Plan to Lose Weight, Revitalize Your Skin, and Invigorate Your Life, she shares a number of valuable strategies for doing this naturally. Her deep-rooted interest in healthy living was an outgrowth of her lifelong struggle with eczema, an autoimmune deficiency.

The inflammatory process just ravaged my body, she says. My skin would bleed, it would pus. My parents were so conscious, they would even be aware of the kinds of material I would wear because our skin needs to breathe  its our largest organ  and the foods that I ate. I was born on a biodynamic farm and yet this autoimmune disorder and so many [other health problems] that I developed over time controlled my life. So, I have always been trained to eat specific foods and drink certain types of water. My parents never let me have fluoridated water. I was never vaccinated. So much thought went into what I was putting on and into my body, and yet I couldnt squelch the inflammation. When I was in my mid-teens, I would constantly cover myself with long sleeves, kind of like what Im doing today. But it wasnt for the same reasons. I would cover myself because I was so ashamed of what I really looked like. It was the spring dance, and there was a boy that I really wanted to go to the spring dance with. My mother said to me at that time, You know, you shouldnt always cover yourself. You have a lot of friends. You can have some more self-confidence. I listened to her, and I wore short sleeves and shorts. My skin was exposed, and he got a glimpse of me, and he didnt invite me. That was a defining moment, because I had been so rejected by the way I looked.

From Natural to Conventional and Back

Following that spring dance rejection, Whittel decided to try the conventional route for a change. For a time, she used steroids to control her eczema, but the side effects prompted her to return to her all-natural roots. In her early 20s, she was able to eliminate about 95% of her eczema using a combination of Chinese herbs, acupuncture and fasting to detox.

Alas, when she was preparing for pregnancy a few years later, she discovered she had heavy metal toxicity, which her doctor attributed to the Chinese herbs she had taken, due to the soil they were grown in and the way they were processed.

I had poisoned my body through these herbs that had been so therapeutic, she says. That was the other defining moment for me. I decided I needed to know, from that moment forward, exactly where things came from. So, I started the process of always going to the source  Ultimately, I built a company called Reserveage, where we aimed to find where things come from. I started with the polyphenols, the antioxidants, that come from the red wine grape, and I searched all over the world for the grapes that had the highest levels of these different polyphenols, including resveratrol  I ultimately landed in Bordeaux, where the organic and biodynamic vineyards are so rich in these powerful nutrients. I was in Calabria, Italy, when I first started to really learn about the citrus bergamot fruit. The researchers over there were teaching me about drinking whole citrus bergamot tea. The lead researcher, Dr. Elzbieta Janda, was drinking four or five cups of this every day, and while I was there, I was doing that with her. I asked her, Why?  She said to me, I use it to activate my autophagy. That was the first time I had heard the word.

Auto in Greek means self, and phagy means to eat, so autophagy refers to a self-eating process in which your body digests damaged cells. Its basically a cleaning out process that encourages the proliferation of new, healthy cells. Reserveage, which was later sold to Twinlab, was founded on the principle that each and every ingredient is carefully sourced and processed in such a way to ensure the highest quality and purity possible.

This includes doing soil testing and working with the farmers and middlemen to understand and clean up each step of the process from farm to bottle. Unfortunately, few companies actually invest the time and resources necessary to do this. It surprises me, because its a disconnect, Whittel says. Ultimately, theres so many things that can go wrong along the way.

Fish Oils Dirty Little Secret

Whittel worked with Jeff Bland, Ph.D., on a trip to Alaska to investigate the manufacturing of cod liver oil. For me personally, fish oil is an important part of my health. Because of my autoimmune disorders, I grew up drinking a little shot every morning of cod liver oil  But when I built my company, Reserveage, I never could find a source other than krill, that I was comfortable bringing out into the market, she says. Whats the problem with most fish oil? Whittel explains:

What happens is the fish are caught in large nets. Even if you think the fish oil is coming from Norway or Europe, its caught in Central and South America in these large nets. The fish are then brought onto and thrown into the bottom of the boat  [where] they go completely rancid. Theyre just left there. By the time they get to Europe, the guts are so rancid that in order to get the omega-3s out, they have to go through a process of extracting these poisons and this rancidity. [In the end], youre left with something that has none of the cofactors. Its been so heavily contaminated to clean out the rancidity that if you want to get any of the benefits of the vitamin A or vitamin D, they have to be added back. So, theres a huge disconnect  When I learned about this, it just ruined my relationship to fish oils.

Finding Pure Cod Liver Oil

Bland told her hed partnered with David Little, an engineer and fisherman who owns six large fishing boats in Alaska. Little built and implemented a flash freeze process on his boats. As soon as the cod are caught, theyre flash frozen.

The fish are sold to the Japanese, but they werent doing anything with the livers and guts of the fish, which is where the fish oils are extracted. So, Bland and Little partnered up to extract the fish oils from the fish guts, while the rest of the fish gets shipped off to Japan.

The beauty of this process is that it preserves the specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPMs) in the oil  many of which are powerful anti-inflammatory components  along with the vitamin A and D. I was able to literally take the oil right out of the processing equipment and drink it, right there in the factory, Whittel says. It smells fresh, and it [tastes] good.

Thats why I, for the first time in my career, felt confident enough to bring a cod liver oil into the market  Theres nothing like it, from a cod liver perspective, out there.

This story is just one cautionary story of many, showing you really need to do your homework when it comes to food and supplements. Whittel estimates about 98% of the omega-3 products on the market are inferior due to the way the fish are caught and processed. Aside from this Twinlab cod liver oil, krill is another excellent source of marine-based omega-3 fats. Contrary to cod, krill are also a far more sustainable source of these valuable oils.

The Importance of Cyclical Autophagy

Like me, Whittel also reached the conclusion that it is important to cycle many lifestyle choices to improve your health. For her, it began with the intuitive understanding that cells are either building or detoxing, and each phase has its own requirements. Fasting, meaning abstaining from food altogether, turned out to be a crucial component that ultimately allowed her to control the inflammation in her body, and shes been doing cyclical fasting for nearly 25 years.
A visitor makes a photo at the TikTok exhibition stands at the Gamescom computer gaming fair in Cologne, Germany, Aug. 25, 2022.(The Canadian Press/AP, Martin Meissner)

Snap CEO Attributes TikTok Success to Billions and Billions of Dollars Spent by Communist China

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has spoken out about the influence of the Chinese regime in the success of TikTok, claiming that the communist regime has spent billions of dollars to equip the short video content app to dominate the market and edge out competitors.

Speaking at the Code Conference 2022, Spiegel warned of the influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over the social media app, beloved by teenagers for its infectious and digestible short videos and its startlingly effective content algorithm.

Though widely reputed as fun and addictive, the app has been targeted by those who see a sinister agenda behind the veneer of trendy dance videos: a concerted effort by the communist Chinese regime to influence the world by collecting data on the consumption habits of Americans and other foreigners.

During the Code Conference panel, NYU Stern professor Scott Galloway remarked that TikTok was kicking the [expletive] out of everybody, referring to the platforms domination of the marketplace.

The reason why this has been so challenging for companies to respond to in the United States, but also around the world, is the scale of TikToks investment, Spiegel responded.

What nobody had anticipated in the United States was the level of investment that ByteDance made into the U.S. market, and of course in Europe, because it was just something that was unimaginableno startup could afford to invest billions and billions and billions of dollars in user acquisition like that around the world, Spiegel continued.

Unfair Advantage

TikTok, funded by Chinese capital, has quickly become the largest social media app in the world, with over one billion monthly users. However, the Snap CEO attributes this explosive growth primarily to the astroturfing investments of the Chinese regime, which helped propel the app to the top of the market with an unfair advantage.

It was a totally different strategy than any technology company had expected before because it wasnt an innovation-led strategy; it was really about subsidizing large-scale user acquisition.

The TikTok logo on a smartphone in Tokyo, Japan, on Sept. 28, 2020. (Kiichiro Sato/File/AP Photo)

The ubiquity of TikTok has been accompanied by a host of deleterious effects, chief among these privacy and mental health concerns.

In one case study, Caroline Olvera of the Rush University Medical Center investigated the phenomenon of several TikTok users spontaneously developing symptoms of Tourettes syndrome, with one unusually specific pattern: All of the women studied spontaneously began to shout the word beans.

This pattern was attributed to the popularity of Tourettes-afflicted TikTok influencer thistrippyhippie, who naturally developed the beans tic. The prevalence of this tic suggested a psychosomatic illness, adding to a growing body of evidence of such ailments.

TikTok tics are distinct from what is typically seen in patients with Tourette syndrome, although share many characteristics with functional tics. We believe this to be an example of mass sociogenic illness, which involves behaviors, emotions, or conditions spreading spontaneously through a group, Olvera et al. concluded.

While the Snap CEO did not directly mention many of these issues, his comments attest to the growing concerns over the ubiquity of TikTok and the Chinese capital allegedly responsible for its success.

Spiegel also noted that he intended to compete with TikTok by emphasizing engagement with friends and family members rather than strangers, giving Snapchat a unique appeal based on personal connections rather than the impersonal and disposable content favored by TikTok.
A woman wearing a mask walks the Brooklyn Bridge in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak in New York City on March 20, 2020. (Victor J. Blue/Getty Images)

Spending on Domestic Violence Doing Little to Protect Those Truly in Need

Commentary

Australian governments have chosen not to properly resource life-saving domestic violence services, says a new petition asking that the next federal budget double funding for victims.

The womens groups demanding this huge funding boost argue womens lives depend on this protection: Every day violence services arent fully funded is another day women are left in danger.

No one would quarrel with providing proper support for a frightened woman escaping a dangerous man.

Our federal government spent $3 billion (US$2 billion) over the past decade on the safety plan to protect women and their children, with untold billions added from all the fundraising by state governments, community groups, and businesses across the country. People rightly dig deep for this important cause.

But the unfortunate truth is only tiny numbers of women in this country are actually in peril. Official statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that just over one percent of women have been physically assaulted by their partners in the past year.

Yet this critical fact is inevitably swamped by statistics which include emotional, psychological, and financial abuse and threats of violence for women over their lifetimes, to give a truly frightening impression of widespread risk for women.

The vast majority of these women are not in a dangerous situation.

The public doesnt realise they are paying out mainly to help women who are not under threat. They may have unpleasant partners who are reluctant to pay their credit card bills, but theres just no logic for the billions being spent to keep them safe.

A couple walk hand in hand down a lane lined with oak trees in the Port Arthur Historical Site in Australia, on April 18, 2016. (Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Help on Offer for Every Allegation

We have created this moral hazard, inviting all these women to think of themselves as victims and hence eligible for the services now on offer. We see this in the inflated figures shown in police reports, blown out by domestic violence allegations which give women a strategic advantage in family law battles.

No evidence of violence is required to make such an allegation. A womans report that she fears violence is enough to set the ball rolling, with the victim eligible for financial payouts, cheap services, and support. Ive made YouTube videos with two New South Wales police officers speaking out about what they see as rorting of the system.

The long list of domestic violence payouts is usually only available to female victims and simply requires someone to support the victims story, like a local DV centre, or doctor or police report. It is a system set up to automatically believe the woman and treat men as potential perpetrators.

State and federal governments compete to display their generosity towards victims: the $5,000 federal governments Escaping Violence Payment; victims compensation payments; a Commonwealth four week Crisis Payment; crisis accommodation which even puts victims into motels; help with rent, and priority for social housing; Staying Home Leaving Violence programs which moves the hubby out so women can stay in the marital home.

Meanwhile, male victims have nowhere to gotheres not a single government-funded centre offering refuge to men. Boys 14 and older are not welcome in womens refuges which take in their mums and siblings.

Naturally the big end of town happily doles out investors dollars to this worthy cause: banks like National Australia Bank give grants to women leaving violent relationships; utility companies offer discounted fees, debt waivers, all manner of special deals (pdf); and there are special arrangements for tenants in rental agreements.

Scales of Justice Tilted in Favour of One Group

Then theres domestic violence leave, giving victims time off to attend legal proceedings or to organise their affairs. The push is on for 10 days paid leave, a major impost on business which the Australian Chamber of Commerce estimates could cost a cool $2 billion annually (pdf).

The only proof required is the usual tick-a-box system dependent on victims stories which employers dont dare challenge.

For newcomers seeking to arrange permanent residency, the fast and sure route is a domestic violence claim. Law firms everywhere are touting for business in this lucrative field.

A woman is pictured in the centre dhebergement et de reinsertion sociale, a shelter dedicated to women, victims of domestic violence, in Chatillon, south of Paris, on Aug. 7, 2019. (Martin Bureau/AFP via Getty Images)

Yet this whole list of benefits palls into insignificance compared to the advantages of domestic violence victim status in family law battles.

An unproven allegation of domestic violence can set women up for a smooth sailing ride throughout family law proceedings, creating enormous, costly obstacles for their partners which can destroy the fathers relationships with his children and rob him of much of his lifes earnings.

Some men discover a divorce is on the cards only when police arrive at their door with an apprehended violence order. They are denied access to their homes and perhaps even contact with their children until matters are resolved in the courts, when mums are firmly established as the primary parent with dad on the outer.

Thats just the beginning. The family law system favours women alleging domestic violence in any number of ways: seizing of the marital home; free legal aid and court advocacy services; denying perpetrators cross examination of victims; and setting aside the rebuttable resumption of shared parental responsibility, which creates major impediments to a fathers ongoing relationships with children.

The couple is excluded from attending what is normally compulsory mediation and other alternate non-adversarial pathways; victims usually retain a larger slice of the assets in financial settlements, plus the man gets labelled a perpetrator and encounters profound prejudice through the process.

This inflated domestic violence campaign does our society a huge disservice by grossly distorting the numbers of women living with dangerous menan insult to the normal, caring men of Australia. It is also shameful how little of this massive effort and expenditure protects those genuinely in need.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The Hong Kong Jockey Club Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention at the University of Hong Kong released the latest data on suicide rate in Hong Kong in 2021, on Sept. 10, 2022. (Courtesy of the University of Hong Kong Jockey Club Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention)

Suicide Rate in Hong Kong Reaches Record High, Especially in Young People

Scholar: Parents should spend more time understanding their children's emotional angst

On Sept. 10, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Center for Suicide Research and Prevention (CSRP) at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) announced the suicide rates in Hong Kong. Based on data from the Trial Court of Deaths, the suicide rate in Hong Kong is predicted to be higher in 2022 than it was in 2020, particularly among adolescents.

Suicide in the Elderly

The report also shows that the elderly suicide rate has been high since the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China in 1997, and the recent number of people migrating or leaving permanently has reached a new high.

Some seniors feel abandoned as their families move away and leave them in Hong Kong, Professor Paul Ip Siu-fai said.

As population life expectancy in Hong Kong is better than in many other countries, the number of seniors continues to rise. Elders who live alone face severe anxiety about contracting COVID-19. During the fifth wave of the pandemic in March 2022, the number of elders who ended their lives was exceptionally high.

The estimated overall suicide rate in Hong Kong was 9.0 deaths per 100,000 people in 2021, the same as the international suicide rate of 9 in 2019. This data was adjusted based on the age structure of the global population.

Suicides in Young People Shot to a New High

In 2021, the suicide rate among adolescents under the age of 15 rose to an all-time high at 1.7, CSRP stated. Suicides in males under 15 increased the most, doubling from 1.2 in 2020 to 2.4 in 2021. However, the suicide rate in females under 15 was 1.0, dropped slightly from 1.2 in 2020.

The suicide rate for youth aged 15 to 24 was 9.3 in 2021, compared to 8.6 in 2020, and 9.6 in 2018.

The trend for females in that group has been rising yearly, from 4.4 in 2019, to 6.0 in 2020, and 6.5 in 2021. The suicide rate in males increased from 11.2 in 2020 to 12.0 in 2021.

The overall number of suicides is on a rising trend. The CSRP warns the public that the phenomenon merits attention. Based on the released data, the main suicides in children occur between the ages of 13 and 18. Ms. Leung Pi-yi, an education psychologist, explained, Under the pandemic circumstances, face-to-face school classes have been heavily affected. Classes have been suspended, shortened, or switched to online learning. Students have no choice but to take their summer holiday earlier.

Hong Kong students are under particular pressure to perform well in public exams and have found adapting to these sudden but drastic changes in learning to be challenging. Facing academic and social influences, children can experience difficulty expressing their emotions, which may result in suicide.

Trouble Communicating with Families and Focusing on Studies

In addition, nearly 40 percent of suicidal students mentioned quarrels, drama, and pressure from parents or families, that centered around the number of hours spent using electronic devices such as cell phones and computers. In Hong Kong, it is common for parents to put a lot of pressure on their childrens academic studies.

Twenty percent of the those questioned felt strained when talking about their relationship with their mom.

CSRP Director Professor Paul Ip Siu-fai said, The learning patterns during the ongoing pandemic have changed drastically. Not being at school and [not] having a social life can have consequential impacts on students mental health in the long run.

On Sept. 12, during a program on Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), Prof. Ip pointed out, The main support system of teenagers in Hong Kong stems from schools, families, and their peers. However, the pandemic and lockdowns have made these three supporting aspects more difficult [to access].

In other words, students often found themselves isolated or unsupported during the lockdowns.

Professor Ip said the center had analyzed the local suicide rate of young students with data from the Hong Kong Police Department. They found that about 25 percent of the suicides mentioned academic pressure and difficult relationships with families in their suicide notes.

What Parents Can do to Prevent Suicide

Professor Ip said children must stay home for a prolonged period during COVID-19 lockdowns. With little socialization or outlets to release pressure, conflicts are usually more common if parents work or have little time for their children.

Ip gave an example of how problems can start. A student was using the computer online at home. He was doing his homework. His parents mistook him for being lazy, thinking he was playing around with online games instead of studying.

Families living in tiny spaces are far more likely to have friction.

Without peer support, children feel cornered and have nowhere to relieve their emotions.

The professor suggests, Most of the schools now are half-day only. Learning might become more stressful for students. Schools should adjust curricula and provide students with more assistance and learning aids.

Prof. Ip also emphasizes how important it is for parents to spend time listening to their children and understanding their anxieties, feelings, or concerns.

The HKJC Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention points out that suicide prevention has become a global concern in public health. Professor Ip urges the public to join hands and help people in need to move forward.
Swiss TCM Practitioners: TCM Shows Promising Results for Rehabilitation After COVID-19

The use of traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) preventive measures and treatments for COVID-19 is gaining attention worldwide.

A study team from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland surveyed local TCM practitioners and therapists who treated patients in the first wave of the pandemic in 2020. It is found that over 70 percent of the TCM practitioners provided treatment for patients who suffered from COVID, had promising results in both preventing the disease and rehabilitation post-COVID. The team expects the demand for TCM in Switzerland to increase amid the pandemic and suggests that the existing medical system should include TCM in its treatment arsenal. The study report was published in BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies.

The team sent questionnaires to 2,102 qualified TCM practitioners and therapists in Switzerland and received valid replies from 102 practitioners and 218 therapists. Results showed that 76 percent of the respondents treated patients with COVID-19 mainly for prevention of recurrence or better recovery. However, the respondents found less data on treatment of patients with ongoing infection.

When asked which method was commonly used for preventing and recovering from COVID-19, the practitioners and therapists stated that acupuncture is the primary treatment. The most popular prescription for the prevention of COVID-19 was Jade Wind-Barrier Powder which uses three Chinese herbs: milkvetch root, Atractylodes, and Divaricate Saposhnikovia root. The Swiss Government restricted non-emergency medical services for anti-pandemic measures from March to April 2020. Hence, most Chinese medical clinics closed temporarily. However, some practitioners and therapists of TCM continued to serve patients via the telephone or by in person visits.

Researchers of previous studies mentioned that the death rate of COVID-19 patients was reduced after treatment with a blend of Western and Chinese medicines compared with solely Western medicine. They believe Chinese medicines work most effectively for the recovery phase of COVID-19 infection. The survey also showed that patients tended to seek TCM during recovery from COVID-19. The practitioners and therapists said that TCM facilitates the recovery process.

One Swiss report showed that 26 percent of COVID-19 patients still have sequelae six months after infection. The team suggested increasing the utilization of TCM for combating Long COVID, which is common, and currently lacks effective treatment.

Many studies on the effectiveness of acupuncture for eradicating the sequela of COVID-19 infection have been done. The University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center in Ohio published a report in the Medical Acupuncture journal showing that a 50-year-old woman had fatigue, loss of smell, chest distress, palpitations, coughing, and brain frog, eight months after the COVID-19 infection. She completely recovered after receiving six courses of acupuncture combined with physiotherapy.

Another retrospective study published in Medical Acupuncture indicated that acupuncture adjusts immunity, has anti-inflammatory effects, and enhances blood circulation, which alleviate the symptoms of Long COVID.

Several studies have shown that Chinese medicines have anti-toxicity effects on COVID-19.

For example, many Swiss TCM practitioners prescribe Jade Wind-Barrier Powder to prevent COVID-19. One of the major components, milkvetch root, is thought to boost immunity. Several universities in Taiwan concluded that milkvetch root accelerates the production of tiny RNA in cells which neutralize the toxicity of COVID-19. Milkvetch root also prevents the fusion of the coronavirus with body cells, so the virus no longer replicates. It also suppresses the inflammatory process aroused by factors inside cells.

The China Medical University in Taiwan made use of Jade Wind-Barrier Powder as a foundation to develop the Formula of TCM against COVID, which reduces the infection rate of COVID-19 by 70-80 percent at the cellular level.
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. On September 23, Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan had a meeting with Foreign Minister of Dominican Republic Roberto Alvarez in New York City.

The Foreign Minister drew the attention of his colleague to the aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia.

During the meeting, the bilateral agenda of Armenian-Dominican relations was discussed, views were exchanged regarding the joint steps aimed at further development of cooperation in the spheres of mutual interest. In this regard, the recent accreditation of Ambassadors by the two countries was highlighted.



Ararat Mirzoyan and Roberto Alvarez also discussed issues related to cooperation in international organizations.
Medicinal mushrooms have long been used in traditional Chinese medicine. New research confirms their promise for COVID-19 treatment. (Courtesy of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University)

Taiwanese Researchers: Medicinal Mushroom Shows Promise in Preventing, Treating COVID-19

Ganoderma is a medicinal mushroom long used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Species of ganoderma, commonly called lin-zhi () or reishi, have been used for thousands of years to treat a variety of illnesses. Now, researchers have shown that ganoderma microsporum, a species of ganoderma native to Taiwan, may prevent and alleviate COVID-19 infection.

Taiwan researchers found that ganoderma microsporum immunomodulatory protein (GMI), a protein isolated from the mushroom, shows a preventative mechanism against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and can effectively block the infection by affecting host cells.

GMI prevents viral infection in two ways: on the one hand, GMI attaches to the spike protein of the COVID-19 virus, and on the other hand, GMI reduces ACE2 expression in host cells.

ACE2, or angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, is a protein on the surface of many types of cells. The ACE2 protein in host cells binds to the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus prior to infection, making it the point of entry through which the COVID-19 virus infects human cells.

The study, conducted by a Taiwanese research team from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taipei, was published in the medical journal Phytomedicine last month. Tung-Yi Lin, an associate professor at the Institute of Traditional Medicine, and Ming-Han Tsai, assistant professor at the Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, led the research team.

The study indicated that GMI can not only interfere with virus binding to host cells, but also reduce the severity of viral infection.

Nebulized Form of GMI More Effective

Lin further hypothesized that since viruses infect host cells through the respiratory system, inhaled GMI would more effectively prevent viral infection.

Therefore, the research team experimented with aerosolized drug delivery, allowing mice to inhale the protein through a nebulizer. They found that aerosolized drug delivery was more effective in reducing ACE2 expression in the lungs of mice, confirming that aerosolized drug delivery of GMI could provide an emerging option in the prevention of COVID-19.

The teams discovery won a gold medal at the Moscow International Salon of Inventions and Innovative Technologies ARCHIMEDES competition.

Inspiration from Chinese Herbology

Lin has been engaged in the research of lin-zhi proteins for many years. His research started with inspiration from the Herbal Foundation Compendium (), an ancient Chinese medicine dictionary, which records that Lin-Zhi replenishes the lung qi. In traditional Chinese medicine, qi is a vital energy. Lins research led him to believe the Lin-zhi proteins could play a pivotal role in treating COVID-19.

As the SARS-coV-2 virus continues to mutate, research in supplementary treatments from traditional Chinese medicine may serve an important role in COVID-19 prevention and treatment. The research team emphasized that although more research is needed, ganoderma could be used as a daily supplement.
Taking on Big Tech and the Federal Government

'The subpoenas have gone out. Dr. Anthony Fauci got served,' said Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry

What we found, and what the whistleblowers found, was that the government and the White House were directly communicating with Big Tech on stories and information they either wanted to promote or suppress, says Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry.

On a recent episode of EpochTVs American Thought Leaders, host Jan Jekielek and Landry discuss assaults on the First Amendment by government and Big Tech. One of the most assertive attorneys general in the country, Landry has filed a number of lawsuits against the Biden administration over Big Tech censorship, the Biden administrations Disinformation Governance Board, COVID-19 mandates, illegal immigration, and election integrity.

Jan Jekielek: In May, you signed on with 19 different attorneys general against the establishment of this disinformation board, what some people call a Ministry of Truth, in the U.S. government. You sent a letter saying, This kind of board cannot stand. This is a big issue, correct?

Attorney General Jeff Landry: Its extremely troublesome when you have the federal government creating a disinformation board. Thats a prima facie violation of the First Amendment. Think about it. This is government that is going to filter information to the American people. They are basically going to ensure that some information gets out and some information doesnt.

Thats exactly why the First Amendment was established under our Bill of Rights. Thats exactly the kind of conduct the Founders in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights wanted to prevent. They didnt want the government censoring information.

Mr. Jekielek: Theres a lot of disinformation. Everyone will agree on that these days. So, what do we do about that?

Mr. Landry: The greatness about America was that information could flow freely between people. The citizenry could ascertain truth from fiction and then come up with their own decisions based upon that information. Recently, the government has decided, Theres some information we dont want the public to know. Thats concerning, especially when that information ends up being correct.

Thats why you saw attorneys general, like myself, go after the government the minute they announced this, saying, This is an incorrect use of federal authority.

Mr. Jekielek: Not too long after, you and Attorney General Eric Schmitt in Missouri decided to launch a lawsuit looking at Big Tech and government colluding to censor.

Mr. Landry: That lawsuit was instituted within 24 hours of the letter. Schmitt and I believe that if the government is censoring speech, then its violating your First Amendment rights. This was our theory. So if the government coerces or works with Big Tech and says, We want you to censor this information, and Big Tech does that, then Big Tech becomes a government actor and is violating citizens constitutional rights. That was the legal theory we had in play.

So, Schmitt and I filed the lawsuit in Louisiana. Three to five weeks later, some whistleblowers basically said: Theyre censoring information. The government is colluding with Big Tech and telling them this is the information we want you to put out, and this is the information we want you to suppress, which was the basis for our lawsuit. It was surprising to many, but it was affirming to us.

Mr. Jekielek: What is the substance of the lawsuit? Please explain it to me.

Mr. Landry: Lets think about it in a criminal context. We all are familiar with Fourth Amendment search and seizure. The police cant barge into your home to search for things. They have to have a reasonable belief that there is evidence connected to a crime.

Then, they have to go before a judge and say, Judge, under these conditions, this is the information we have. Then the judge says, OK, this is enough for a warrant to be granted. Thats a Fourth Amendment protection.

The police cant say: We dont want to go to a judge. Well get your neighbors to go into your house, because we know that you invite your neighbors into your house. We will tell them what to find, and then tell us if its in your house.

Thats illegal. Thats the government short-circuiting the Fourth Amendment. Its the same thing with speech, and thats what our lawsuit says about Big Tech and government. If we find this collusion to be true, then those platforms will be liable for violating citizens rights.

Mr. Jekielek: What examples did you find? Where were the specific areas? You suggested a lot of things around COVID.

Mr. Landry: What we found, and what the whistleblowers found, was that the government and the White House were directly communicating with Big Tech on stories and information they either wanted to promote or suppress.

We have a treasure trove of information that should come out shortly. The good news is that the judge in our case granted our motion for discovery, so the subpoenas have gone out. Dr. Anthony Fauci got served, along with other members of the presidents Cabinet. They have to send us the communications between them and the platforms. We believe well find communications telling the platforms what they should and shouldnt put out.

Mr. Jekielek: But you werent only looking at COVID-related issues in this lawsuit, correct?

Mr. Landry: Its not only those issues. Think about the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop and Russiagate with its dossier. Were seeing a disturbing pattern of the government taking information thats fictitious and then making it a fact. Then, they try to hide the cover of that false story from the American people. They use the power of these Big Tech companies to limit the information the American people are getting.

Think about how the federal government spied on a presidential campaign. The basis for which they did so was a false document, the dossier. Again, when the evidence showing that dossier as fictitious tried to come out, that information was suppressed.

Mr. Jekielek: Right now, theres much less appreciation of the value of freedom of speech than there once was. Once, it was sacrosanct. Now people are talking about balancing these things.

We have this technology that can create big narratives of information and can change in a moments notice. With the information landscape changing so much, people are arguing that new rules are required to balance these capabilities with freedom. We wouldnt want the wrong information to capture everyones mind in an instant. Things like that have happened.

Mr. Landry: There used to be a thing called journalistic integrity. One of the things I appreciate about The Epoch Times is that it has risen above the fray and brought back journalistic integrity. Journalism was about writing a story based on facts and letting the reader draw an opinion.

And we used to have a physical public square. And in that physical public square, the press was welcome. People were free to debate and say things in that public square. But the internet created a virtual public square, which at first seemed great. It was going to be a marketplace for ideas and connect more people. It was going to expand the physical public square. If you wanted to go and talk in New York, now you could do it through the internet and not have to travel to New York.

Unfortunately, the virtual public square is now controlled by just a handful of private corporationsBig Tech, as weve labeled them. Instead of the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment being the gateway of that information, Big Tech now controls what goes in and out of the virtual public square. And when the government joins them, they are absolutely violating the First Amendment when it comes to information.

Thats where we are right now. What has happened is a collision of antitrust law, the monopolistic power of Big Tech, and what people believe and appreciate about the First Amendment.

Mr. Jekielek: It seems to take the states to challenge the federal government.

Mr. Landry: Lets break it down to basics. Lets look at the Constitution as a contract. There are only two parties to that contract, the states and the people. The federal government is a byproduct of the Constitution. Its not even really a party to it, but its an outgrowth of the Constitution. That document is supposed to be a contract limited to the people and the states.

What youre seeing right now are attorneys general either trying to bring the federal government in check or trying to expand it, based upon their ideology.

Mr. Jekielek: Ill be watching to see what you come up with out of the Louisiana attorney generals office.

Mr. Landry: This case against the Biden administration and the Cabinet members whom weve subpoenaed is going to be interesting. We can peel back the layers of that discovery and the public can watch. Schmitt and I are excited to litigate that case, and I hope that you all stay on top of it.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Jan Jekielek Senior Editor Follow Jan Jekielek is a senior editor with The Epoch Times and host of the show, "American Thought Leaders." Jans career has spanned academia, media, and international human rights work. In 2009 he joined The Epoch Times full time and has served in a variety of roles, including as website chief editor. He is the producer of the award-winning Holocaust documentary film "Finding Manny."
The body of a Tesla Model S is transported by an automated crane at the Tesla factory in Fremont, Calif., on Oct. 1, 2011. (Reuters/Stephen Lam/File Photo

Tesla Countersues State Agency for Slapping It With Workplace Racism Complaint

Tesla, the worlds most valuable carmaker, filed a countersuit against the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) after the agency alleged that the companys Fremont plant fostered racial bias.

In its February complaint, the CRD called the plant a racially segregated workplace. The agency reported about a black worker at Fremont having heard racial slurs up to 50100 times a day. The workers also spotted racist graffiti at workstations, restroom walls, lunch tables, and other areas of the plant. Racial slurs are said to have been thrown around in Spanish, including words like negrita and mayate.

In the countersuit, Tesla calls CRDs conduct as entirely inconsistent with the principles of fair notice, neutral investigations, good faith conciliation, and mandatory pre-suit mediation embedded in the FEHA (Fair Employment and Housing Act).

The company argued in the lawsuit that the department adopted procedures for suing and investigating employers without seeking public commentsa decision that violated laws of the state.

On Jan. 3 Tesla was served with a one-page Cause Finding by the CRD. The page did not detail any evidence to justify the agencys reason to sue, according to the firm.

On Feb. 9, the agency filed a civil complaint, with causes for action filed in March. These actions of the CRD violated Californias FEHA policy, Tesla insisted.

The truth is that CRD did not engage in meaningful conciliation efforts or good faith mediation with Tesla, consistent with its underground regulation that no such pre-suit obligations apply to it under the FEHA, the company said in the countersuit.

Racism Complaints, Lack of Evidence

The Fremont factory accommodates more than 15,000 workers, and black workers are segregated to the lowest levels, the CRD complaint alleges.

Black workers make up 20 percent of factory operatives like engine and other machine assemblers, but only 3 percent of professionals, and there are no black executives, it says.

Black workers complained to the agency that they were assigned to more physically demanding roles, paid less, more often laid off than other workers, and given the lowest-level contract roles.

Black workers are disciplined more often than non-blacks and are often denied advancement opportunities, the complaint states.

The Epoch Times has reached out to Tesla.

In the countersuit, Tesla dismissed such accusations, pointing out that the agency failed to name a single Tesla employee who experienced such racial harassment. Neither does the complaint provide a date, location, or factual context for any of the alleged harassment, it pointed out.

In August, Tesla had tried to get a judge to dismiss the agencys lawsuit citing similar arguments. However, the state judge denied the request.
Texas University Pays $165,000 Settlement to Professor Fired for Mocking Microaggressions

University of North Texas (UNT) has agreed to pay $165,000 to settle a First Amendment lawsuit brought by a former math professor, who was fired after mocking the concept of microaggressions as garbage.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative Christian legal group representing professor Nathaniel Hiers in the case, celebrated the settlement as a win for free speech on public university campuses.

We hope this is the first step in the university restoring its role as a marketplace of ideas rather than an echo chamber for one viewpoint, said ADF senior counsel Tyson Langhofer.

The case stemmed from an incident in November 2019, when someone anonymously left a stack of flyers warning against microaggressions in the UNT mathematics departments faculty lounge.

The flyer, according to the complaint (pdf), discourages the use of certain apparently innocuous and non-threatening expressions to avoid these so-called microaggressions. Statements such as America is a melting pot, I believe the most qualified person should get the job, and America is the land of opportunity, are deemed microaggressive, because they propagate the myth of meritocracy and promote color blindness.

Hiers, an adjunct professor at the time, read through the leaflets and jokingly wrote on a nearby chalkboard, Dont leave garbage lying around, with an arrow pointing to the stack.

Hiers said his department chair pressured him to apologize for the comments and demanded that he attend extra diversity training, which he declined. In December 2019, he was told that the public university wouldnt renew his teaching contract specifically because of his chalkboard message and subsequent response.

Hiers sued UNT in April 2020 for violating his free speech and due process rights. In March, a federal district court dismissed some of his claims, but found the First Amendment retaliation claim plausible.

Taking these allegations as true and viewing them in the light most favorable to Hiers, it is plausible that the university officials unconstitutionally punished Hiers for refusing to affirm a viewthe concept of microaggressionswith which he disagrees, wrote Judge Sean D. Jordan, a Trump appointee.

In a statement regarding the settlement, those representing the university said they hope this will allow them to shift the focus back to their educational mission.

The agreement allows the university to devote our attention and resources to our mission rather than to years of protracted court proceedings, UNT said, adding that its commitment to our faculty members rights to free expression and to our students rights to an inclusive, nondiscriminatory educational environment remains unchanged.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, alongside House Democrats, holds the CHIPS for America Act, providing domestic semiconductor manufacturers with billions in subsidies to cut reliance on foreign sourcing, after signing it during an enrollment ceremony outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on July 29, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

The CHIPS Bill: Strange Mix

Washington throws $280 billionsome at the chips problem

Commentary

Washington has rushed to save computer chipmaking in the United States and has found $280 billion for the project. Even by the standards of modern Washington, thats a sizable sum. And as is typical of federal practice, the new legislation is about a lot more than manufacturing semiconductors.

Chipmaking will get a little less than a fifth of the total outlay. The rest will go to a wide range of activities favored by Congress. However the money is spent, the U.S. taxpayers will foot the bill.

The legislations official title is Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America Actthe CHIPS for America Act, for short (wonderful how good Washington is with acronyms). The legislation would do its spending over five years. Of the total, roughly $52 billion aims at increasing the production of these important tech products domestically, largely from grants, loan guarantees, and a 25 percent tax credit for domestic chip manufacturing operations.

The balance of the spending will go to a raft of projects, almost all being at least vaguely connected to technology and science and aimed at increasing Washingtons control over research and technological directions.

Despite the giveaway, some within the semiconductor industry arent entirely happy with the legislation. Their problem isnt with the amount but rather that the money is too narrowly focused. According to the governments assessment of how things will shake out, as much as $20 billionalmost 40 percent of the industrys takewill go to one company, Intel. The bulk of the rest will go to two other companies, Texas Instruments and Micron Technology.

It isnt so much favoritismalthough that isnt unheard of in Washingtonbut rather that these companies do most of their manufacturing domestically, while others, such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Qualcomm, and Nvidia, tap foreign partners to fabricate their chips. Management at AMD has argued that the law should be written more broadly to give these companies credit for the research and design work that they do domestically.

A chip used in central processing units and graphic processing units developed by AMD is displayed during a press conference held in Taipei, Taiwan, on May 24, 2011. (Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images)

AMDs point has merit, but the legislation was done to secure the supply of chips, and that would seem to demand domestic manufacturing, wherever the research and design are done. If others set up U.S. manufacturing operations, they would presumably also get the subsidies and tax breaks, and Intel would get relatively less of the total. Moreover, domestic supplies would be much less concentrated and hence more secure. Perhaps this logic captures the thinking of those who wrote the legislation.

Meanwhile, more than four-fifths of the allocated funds would go to activities other than chipmaking. About $100 billionalmost twice the share allotted to the chipmakerswould go to the National Science Foundation to set up technology hubs in regions of the country with little technology activity. Funds would also go to the Department of Energy for green energy initiatives. It may be a bit of a stretch to link green energy to chip security, but there it is in the legislation.

Funding would also go to establishing a Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnership with what appears to be a broad mandate to provide support for all sorts of technology.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) would receive substantial funds for its exploration of Mars. Other monies would go for research on blockchain, low-emissions steel manufacturing, and the production of more efficient, quieter airplanes. The legislation emphasizes STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education at all levels, from high school through post-graduate work. This way, perhaps, the effort can produce the staffing for the new technology hubs without the need for a great migration from existing hubs to new ones.

As with all Washington spending legislation, this one includes a long list of conditions before any entity can receive funding. Much of this focuses on the by now familiar issues of inclusion and diversity. More than 30 percent of the legislations language concerns diversity and sexual harassment issues, while 60 percent of its language dwells on requirements generally, including how products should be shipped.

The worth of all this is, of course, debatable. Its unclear whether the effort will do much to create more domestic chip manufacturing. After all, Intel was already planning new facilities. Now, it might just substitute government for private funding. On the many initiatives that make up the bulk of the legislation and the spending, the detail is so great that even the government scorers have refrained from drawing conclusions.

Whats sure is that Congress has just put the U.S. taxpayers on the hook for an additional $280 billion.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The Hegelian Logic of the Biden-Harris Administration

Commentary

Over the last three decades, law enforcement entities have become increasingly dependent on federal grants to fund their day-to-day operations.

The U.S. Department of Justice office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) was born after President Bill Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (H.R. 3355) in 1994. Since that date, the COPS program has distributed approximately $14 billion in grant money to U.S. law enforcement agencies who have or are transitioning toward the inclusion of a COPS program within their agency.

You should think of these grants in the same way we think of federal education dollars. A school district receives federal dollars in exchange for adopting federally directed teaching objectives and initiatives.

In both scenarios, the lessons of what works locally begins to take a backseat to what the pointy heads in Washington think will work nationally. In a nutshell, the law enforcement chain of command is slowly forced to incorporate some external voices in its decision-making and prioritization processes.

Dont get me wrong, the COPS program has done a considerable amount of good over the years, but like a hidden software hacking vulnerability, a latent back door for socialist/authoritarian manipulation was built right under our noses.

Criticism of Law Enforcement

During the 2020 election cycle, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and his vice presidential running mate Kamala Harris took advantage of every opportunity to virtue signal to the rioting woke mobs. Both were continuously critical of law enforcement at a time when their voices only increased the risk to those who wear the uniform. They are on record encouraging the diversion of funds from law enforcement agencies to social justice and ungoverned community investment programs. Our vice president even went so far as to provide direction to her supporters on how to contribute to the bail funds of those arrested during the violence of George Floyd 2020 riots.

President Biden doubled down several times on how and where law enforcement funds should be pulled and redirected. One of the interesting strategies that their handlers got the dynamic duo to invest in was the mayonnaise and no mayonnaise strategy. They fully encouraged those in the actual process of rioting, while breathing wind into the sails of those working 24-7 to destroy the budgets of law enforcement agencies. To provide a lifeline to Snopes fact checkers, much of their commentary would end with, but I condemn violence in any form. Without the statements of support given by Biden and Harris, a significant amount of law enforcement defunding would not have happened.

I would argue that these two would have said the exact opposite if they thought it would have helped them during the election cycle. Thats the simplicity of not having a core belief. You can say two things simultaneously and order a sandwich with mayonnaise and no mayonnaise. We must understand that the Biden-Harris administration doesnt hate the police. They just dont like the ones that are not directly in their chain of commandhence we come to the point of this article, which is the Safer America Plan.

The president, vice president, and woke governors bear significant responsibility for the sudden surge in homicides, rapes, and other violent crimes across the country. Their words have weight, and those words have hurt the public. In the true Hegelian sense, they have helped create a problem to which they already have an authoritarian solution.

Step 1: May 25 Executive Order

Step one of the solution was initiated on May 25 by executive order. The order is called, Advancing Effective Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety. Unpacking the naming convention would require another article, but suffice to say, it is likely to not advance accountability, justice, trust, or safety.

The executive order is quite extensive, and after wading through the ban on bayonets and grenade launchers, youll get deeper into the sections that guarantee diversity, inclusion, and equity, as well as a host of mechanisms that will ultimately be alternatives to federal incarceration.

Perhaps most applicable to our conversation is section 20, titled, Supporting Safe and Effective Policing Through Grantmaking. To be consistent, Bidens executive order author used an inversion of logic while titling the section. In essence, it requires all law enforcement entities receiving federal law enforcement-related grants (to include the COPS grants) to adhere to the tenets of the executive order or face a termination of funding.

Most authoritarian nations, whether they be fascist, Marxist, or somewhere in between, adopt a national or federal policing system. This has largely not been the case in the United States, where we have cherished the delegation of authority to the local level as practical. Sheriffs departments are the prime example of a law enforcement agencys accountability and relationship to the community, as the sheriff is an elected position.

Authoritarians dont like elections. Building consensus on constitutional interpretation may be slightly easier when youre dealing with your own appointees, especially when it comes to executive law enforcement leadership positions.

Step 2: Safer America Plan

Step two on our road to ruin lays in the presidents Safer America Plan that is buried in the 2023 budget. This $37 billion monstrosity would provide nearly $13 billion over the course of 10 years to hire 100,000 police officers through COPS program grants to local law enforcement. The other $20 billion would support prevention and criminal justice reform efforts while (without specifics) tightening gun laws. Again, we see the same sandwich ordered with mayonnaise and no mayonnaise.

Citizens on the periphery will hear the American Civil Liberties Union and other left-leaning organizations rail against the $13 billion and 100,000 hired. You will continue to hear them say that these oppressive organizations are outdated and dont provide increased levels of safety for the community. Of course, they are wrong, but simultaneously you will hear cash-starved agencies say the $13 billion isnt enough, and the second place cash winner should be those working on prevention and reform.

Since the Biden administration has proven that they are willing to print money into oblivion, the number followed by a B becomes the ultimate physical expression of the quote by Archimedes, Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. The Biden-Harris administration will leverage the very parties that should be scrutinizing the sudden federalizing of law enforcement through an even larger two digit number in front of the B. You must understand, they dont care about outcomes, they care about establishing a chain of command in which they are perched on top.

The Biden-Harris administration, as well as dozens of leftist governors, are responsible for much of the defunding of local law enforcement entities. They skillfully organized material support for, provided intellectual credence to, misrepresented facts for, and outright interfered with investigations of organizations scripting the defunding actions. I can come to no other conclusion than they took these actions in anticipation of gaining control of the federal checkbook and thus expanding their influence over those who are providing law enforcement services where we live.

The question I have for the reader is, why do they want this power, and what do they plan on doing with their influence when they get it?

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 7 will consider a New York Police Department detectives challenge to the citys COVID-19 vaccine mandate for municipal employees. The decision came one day after New York Mayor Eric Adams said the city will drop the mandate for private employers, but not city workers.

This article was originally published by The Defender  Childrens Health Defenses News & Views Website

The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 7 will consider a New York Police Department detectives challenge to the citys COVID-19 vaccine mandate for municipal employees.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas granted the request by the detective, Anthony Marciano, after Justice Sonia Sotomayor initially rejected it, Politico confirmed Tuesday.

Marcianos challenge seeks to strike down the mandate for the Emergency Use Authorized COVID-19 vaccine for all city workers  including firefighters, police and teachers.

According to data from the mayors office, as of Aug. 30, 1,761 city workers have been fired for not getting the vaccine, Daily News reported Wednesday.

That number now is likely higher after the New York City Department of Education this month fired another 850 teachers and other staff, bringing the total to nearly 2,000 school employees fired for failure to comply with the mandate, according to the New York Post.

The Supreme Courts decision to consider Marcianos request came one day after New York Mayor Eric Adams rescinded the citys COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private employers and student athletes  but not municipal employees.

Marcianos attorney, Patrica Finn, general counsel to the group Make Americans Free Again, on Wednesday tweeted that she resubmitted the request directly to Justice Thomas in a deliberate effort to circumvent Sotomayors dismissal.

Marciano v Adams, vaccine refusal case heads to SCOTUS#MAFA NY https://t.co/9aABtyBGMh  The Good Health Lawyer New York (@patriciafinnesq) September 21, 2022

According to Finn, the case is simple: state and federal laws prohibit the imposition of vaccine mandates without the recipients informed consent. Because Marciano did not consent to the vaccine, his due process rights are being violated.

Lawsuits against the citys mandate for city workers so far have failed, and Fabien Levy  Adams spokesperson  said the administration is confident the Supreme Court will side with the decision to maintain the municipal mandate, first implemented in November 2021 by former Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The Supreme Court has rejected numerous attempts to have it take up lawsuits on the vaccine mandate and a number of other courts have upheld the mandate, recognizing that it saves lives and is a condition of employment, Levy said.

That may soon change, Finn said.

It is a legal question, and facts are not in dispute, she said. I think the court has been waiting for a case like [Marcianos]. I think they are waiting for somebody to approach the issue in a very clean and straightforward way.

Finn and Marcianos case has the advantage of following a recent precedent-setting case in which a Manhattan judge ruled New York City police officer Alexander Deletto, 43, should be allowed to keep his job, the New York Post reported on Sept. 14.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arlene Bluth noted in the ruling that the city had given the Brooklyn police officer no explanation for why it had rejected his religious exemption application.

Mayor Ends Vaccine Mandate for Private Sector  but Not for Public Sector

Adams on Monday said the vaccine mandate for private employers and student athletes will end on Nov. 1.

When asked during a Tuesday press conference how he justified not lifting the mandate for city employees, he said, That is not on the radar for us.

But it is on the radar of others, including Patrick Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association, a union for officers. In a statement, Lynch said:

This announcement is more proof that the vaccine mandate for New York City police officers is arbitrary, capricious, and fundamentally irrational .

Now that the city has abandoned any pretense of a public health justification for vaccine mandates, we expect it to settle our pending lawsuits and reinstate with back pay our members who unjustly lost their jobs.

Ray L. Flores II, a health freedom rights attorney, told The Defender:

With New York Citys COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private-sector workers coming to an end on Nov. 1, it is time for either the mayor or the Supreme Court, to end the citys discriminatory practice.

Adams administration faces growing criticism for its inconsistent stance on the mandate for municipal employees, especially in light of the Biden administrations Aug. 31 announcement that it will not enforce its Executive Order 14042, which mandated the COVID-19 vaccines for federal contractors and President Bidens declaration last week that The pandemic is over.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month reversed its COVID-19 guidance, rescinding its previous distinctions between the vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Teachers, Firefighters Fight Back

Teachers for Choice on Sept. 14 won their battle to consolidate three lawsuits challenging the vaccine mandate for New York City teachers into a single case.

John Bursch of Alliance Defending Freedom  the new lead attorney  will argue the case in front of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Oral arguments are likely to take place within a few weeks, said Sujata Gibson, another attorney handling the case.

Gibson feels very confident in the case we have, especially with all the cases consolidated into one challenging virtually all of the remaining vaccine mandates in New York City, said plaintiff Michael Kane.

According to the Department of Education website, the district is one of the largest in the U.S., serving more than 1 million students.

Teachers arent the only ones fighting back. In February, workers marched from Metro Tech in Downtown Brooklyn, over the Brooklyn Bridge, and then made their way to City Hall to rally against the then-pending Feb. 11 deadline that would mean termination for many who declined vaccination.

Bravest for Choice, a group that helped organize the protest, raises money to support the citys firefighters, medics and/or EMTs who have lost their income after not complying with the vaccine mandates.

The group says on its website:

The Firefighters, Medics and EMTs who have been serving New York City throughout the entire pandemic are being sent home due an unjust, unnecessary mandate.

These men and women want to work. They want to keep serving the public. They simply can not comply with the mandate due to religious, medical or personal reasons.  Just let them work.

This article was originally published by The Defender  Childrens Health Defenses News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC

BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Childrens Health Defense.

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.
UK Prime Minister Liz Truss and Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng visit Berkeley Modular, in Northfleet, England, on Sept. 23, 2022. (Dylan Martinez - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

UK to Tighten Rules on Industrial Action to Stop Unacceptable Strike Disruptions

The UK government will tighten rules on industrial action to curb unacceptable strike disruptions, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has said.

Amid a wave of industrial action by hundreds of thousands of workers in multiple sectors, Kwarteng told the House of Commons, At such a critical time for our economy, it is simply unacceptable that strike action is disrupting so many lives.

Other European countries have minimum service levels to stop militant trade unions closing down transport networks during strikes, he said as he unveiled his mini-budget on Sept. 23.

So we will do the same, and we will go further, said Kwarteng.

We will legislate to require unions to put pay offers to a member vote, to ensure strikes can only be called once negotiations have genuinely broken down, he added.

A quiet platform during the rail strike at Euston train station, central London, on Aug. 18, 2022. (Stefan Rousseau/PA Media)

Held to Ransom

The planned clampdown on industrial action was part of the policy blueprint unveiled by Liz Truss during her campaign to become Conservative Party leader and prime minister.

She made clear that she would not allow unions to disrupt vital public services and would not let the country be held to ransom by militant trade unionists.

In an interview with the Daily Express newspaper in August, she said, As prime minister Ill crack down on the debilitating strikes that cripple the vital services that hard-working people rely on.

Her planned measures included introducing minimum service levels on critical national infrastructure to keep trains, buses, and other services running. She also planned to raise ballot thresholds to make it harder for strike action to take place across all sectors.

Union Backlash

Shortly after Kwarteng made his comments, the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) and the Unite union announced fresh strikes in a long-running rail dispute over jobs, pay, and conditions.

All the major rail unions are now taking strike action on Oct. 1, threatening a complete shutdown of the network for the first time since the row flared earlier in the year.

Responding to the chancellors comments, Mick Lynch, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime, and Transport (RMT) union, said, We already have the most severe anti-democratic trade union laws in Western Europe and this latest threat will rightly enrage our members.

RMT and other unions will not sit idly by or meekly accept any further obstacles on their members exercising the basic human right to withdraw their labour, he added.

TSSA General Secretary Manuel Cortes said, This new Tory proposal will serve only to elongate disputes and generate greater anger among union members.

PA Media contributed to this report.
The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and the guided-missile destroyer USS Milius, center, conduct a photo exercise with Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ships. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kaila V. Peters/Released)

US Aircraft Carrier Deployed to South Korea in Show of Alliance Against North Koreas Nuclear Threat

The U.S. Navy has deployed a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to South Korea for a joint military exercise aimed at demonstrating their strong alliance amid North Koreas nuclear threat.

The USS Ronald Reagan arrived at the southern port city of Busan on Friday, marking its first visit to South Korea in five years, the U.S. Navy said in a statement. It did not specify how long the ship would be in Busan.

Rear Admiral Michael Donnelly, commander of Carrier Strike Group 5, said the ships visit is a clear and unambiguous demonstration of the U.S. commitment to its defense alliance with South Korea.

The USS Ronald Reagan was last deployed to South Korea in 2017, involving two other aircraft carriers, for naval drills in response to North Koreas missile tests. The drills were later reduced to make room for diplomacy with North Korea.

The ships recent deployment came after the two allies held a vice ministerial-level meeting of the Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group on Sept. 16, in which they expressed serious concern over North Koreas nuclear law.

North Korea earlier approved a new law allowing it to conduct a nuclear strike against any hostile forces posing an imminent threat to the nation. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the law will make his countrys status as a nuclear weapons state irreversible.

In response, the United States and South Korea vowed to use all available levers, including diplomatic, informational, military, and economic instruments, to strengthen deterrence against the nuclear threat posed by North Korea.

They referred to the combined training of F-35A fighter jets in July and the deployment of the USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group in the region as a clear demonstration of such U.S. commitment.

The United States and [South Korea] reaffirmed that [a North Korean] nuclear test would be met with a strong and resolute whole-of-government response, they said in a joint statement.

North Korea has conducted a series of missile launches this year, including one involving its largest intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-17, all of which are banned under U.N. Security Council resolutions on Pyongyangs missile program.

South Korea and the United States have repeatedly called on North Korea to denuclearize and return to diplomacy, a call that the Kim regime has ignored over what it calls hostilities from the United States and its allies.
US Drops Charges Against Judge Who Allegedly Helped Illegal Immigrant Avoid Capture

A Massachusetts judge who allegedly helped illegal immigrants avoid capture by federal immigration officers will no longer be prosecuted, a U.S. attorney announced this week.

This case is about the conduct of a sitting state court judge, on the bench, in the course of her judicial duties. Its purpose has been to shed light on, and, as warranted, to secure accountability for that conduct, U.S. Attorney for the District of Rhode Island Zachary Cunha, a Biden appointee, said in a statement.

After I was assigned to oversee this matter, I undertook a full and comprehensive review of the evidence, the applicable law, and relevant equitable and prudential factors. Having done so, I have concluded that the interests of justice are best served by review of this matter before the body that oversees the conduct of Massachusetts state court judges, rather than in a continued federal criminal prosecution, he added.

Cunha dropped charges against Massachusetts state District Court Judge Shelley Richmond Joseph, who had been charged with obstruction of justice.

According to charging documents, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer entered Josephs courtroom on April 2, 2018, to secure Jose Medina Perez, an illegal alien who had a warrant for being in the country illegally after being deported.

Perez was appearing before Joseph on drug-related charges.

Joseph ordered the ICE agent to leave the courtroom, saying that Perez would go into the lobby after the proceedings were finished. But Perezs attorney later approached the bench and said that the best thing for us to do is to clear the fugitive issue, release him on personal [recognizance], and hope he can avoid ICE, according to the documents.

Joseph told the court clerk to cut off the device recording the hearing, in violation of state rules. Afterward, Joseph let Perez exit the courtroom through a stairway and Wesley MacGregor, a bailiff, used his card to let Perez out the back door.

Andrew Lelling, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts at the time, said the case was about the rule of law.

The allegations in todays indictment involve obstruction by a sitting judge, that is intentional interference with the enforcement of federal law, and that is a crime. We cannot pick and choose the federal laws we follow, or use our personal views to justify violating the law. Everyone in the justice systemnot just judges, but law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and defense counselshould be held to a higher standard. The people of Massachusetts expect that, just like they expect judges to be fair, impartial and to follow the law themselves, added Lelling, a Trump appointee.

Cunha took on the case after the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Massachusetts recused itself. Rachael Rollins, a Biden appointee, is in charge of the office at present.

Joseph has referred herself to the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct, which probes judicial misconduct allegations, Cunha said. The body makes recommendations on discipline to the Massachusetts Supreme Court.

McGregor, who is no longer employed by the state court system, previously entered into a deferred prosecution agreement for one count of perjury. U.S. prosecutors have moved to dismiss the other three counts against him.
As part of his working visit to New York, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan delivered a speech at the 77th session of the UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters, his Office said.

September 23, 2022, 09:50 Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyans speech at 77th session of UN General Assembly

STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 23, ARTSAKHPRESS: Below is the full speech of the Prime Minister of Armenia.

Mr. President,

Excellences,

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is an honor to return to the General Assembly, though I wish I was here with a more positive message, given all the challenges and tribulations the world has been through in the past few years.

But my statement will focus on the latest Azerbaijani unprovoked aggression against the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia and its overall impact on the stability in the South Caucasus.

On September 13, Azerbaijan launched an unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Armenia. Using heavy artillery, Multiple Rocket Launchers and combat UAVs, the Azerbaijani armed forces shelled 36 residential areas and communities, including towns of Goris, Jermuk, Vardenis, Kapan, Geghamasar deep within the sovereign territory of Armenia. This was not a border clash. It was a direct, undeniable attack against the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Armenia, which was condemned and addressed during the latest UN Security Council meetings and beyond.

The Azerbaijani attack deliberately targeted civilian population and vital civilian infrastructures: Jermuk is one of the main health tourism and resort places of Armenia and now as a result of Azerbaijani aggression all the hotels, resort and health centers of Jermuk are closed. All the residents of this town are displaced. Overall number of those temporarily displaced from Gegharkunik, Vayots Dzor, and Syunik regions of Armenia is more than 7600 persons, mostly women and elderly people, among them 1437 children and 99 persons with disabilities.

Around 192 houses, 3 hotels, 2 schools, 1 medical facility, 1 medical facility, partially or completely destroyed. 7 electrical infrastructures, 5 water infrastructures, 3 gas pipelines, 1 bridge were damaged. 2 ambulances, 4 private cars were shelled. The Kechut water reservoir was targeted and shelled. Journalists and ambulance vehicles were targeted and shelled as well.

As a result of the aggression, the number of victims and missing persons at the moment exceeded 207, among them 3 civilians were killed and 2 civilians are missing. 293 servicemen and 8 civilians were wounded, at least 20 servicemen were captured. There are evidences of cases of torture, mutilation of captured or already dead servicemen, numerous instances of extra-judicial killings, and ill-treatment of Armenian prisoners of war, as well as humiliating treatment of the bodies. The dead bodies of Armenian female military personnel were mutilated and then proudly video-recorded with particular cruelty by the Azerbaijani servicemen. The videos featuring such gruesome war crimes and crimes against humanity are being shared and praised on Azerbaijani social media by individual users.

No doubt, committing such unspeakable atrocities is a direct result of decades long policy of implanting anti-Armenian hatred and animosity in the Azerbaijani society by the political leadership.

In the wake of this offensive, the official narrative and other sources of information suggest that Azerbaijan intends to occupy more territories of Armenia, which needs to be prevented. I want to stress that the risk of new aggression by Azerbaijan remains very high, especially taking into account that every day Azerbaijan violates the ceasefire, and the number of causalities and those injured could change any moment. Another factor for further escalation can be inappropriate reaction to this situation by the regional security organizations, which raised very hard questions among Armenian society.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Despite the above-mentioned facts Azerbaijan is trying to pose itself as a country seeking peace in our region, peace with Armenia. Hearing from aside what Azerbaijan is saying, you can even be impressed by its devotion to peace efforts. And for staging this impression Azerbaijan is using the subjects of Peace treaty with Armenia, border delimitation, and regional communication opening agenda.

Why we have no tangible progress in these directions. The reason is very simple. Azerbaijan is using all those topics for territorial claims against Armenia. For example  one of the most important subjects of peace treaty is bilateral recognition of territorial integrity between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We have already declared that we are ready to do so, but Azerbaijan hasnt done it so far. On the contrary, Azerbaijan has been publicly voicing that the entire South and East of Armenia and even the capital city of Yerevan, is an Azerbaijani land. On the other hand, Azerbaijan is keeping under occupation tangible territories of Armenia, and as I said the risk of new aggression by Azerbaijan remains very high.

In this regard Im posing an official and public question to the Azerbaijani president. Could you show the map of Armenia, that you recognize or are ready to recognize as the Republic of Armenia? Why Im asking this. Because it can come out that from the point of view of official Azerbaijan only half of Armenia and even less - is the Republic of Armenia. If Azerbaijan would recognize territorial integrity of Armenia, not theoretically, but concretely, I mean the integrity of our internationally recognized territory of 29.800 square kilometers, it would mean that we can sign peace treaty by mutually recognizing each others territorial integrity. Otherwise, we would have a phantom peace treaty and after that Azerbaijan will use border delimitation process for new territorial claims and occupation.

As you may know bilateral commission of border delimitation and border security was formed in May and two meetings of the commission have taken place. Before the formation of the commission, last year Azerbaijan occupied more than 40 square kilometer territories of Armenia. And then, one of the excuses of Azerbaijan about the reasons they have done this - was that Armenia, according to them, refuses to form border delimitation commission. Of course we didnt refuse to do that but only insisted that simultaneously a mechanism of border security should be established.

In the end, according to our international partners request, who argued that the border commission work itself will be a reliable factor for border security, we agreed to start the work. And now that border delimitation and security commission has been formed and is working, Azerbaijan initiated a new phase of aggression. And some of those international partners are silent. But what is now the explanation for aggression of Azerbaijan. You know, if someone has excess of aggressiveness the reason always will be there. As it is said in a movie it is always possible to find a reason. For example, why they killed prince Hamlet. Who killed, how, when and why  it doesnt matter. The reality is that Azerbaijan is trying and will continue to use delimitation process for territorial claims against Armenia.

Another such a topic is the opening of regional transport communication links. Azerbaijan is trying to represent Armenia as a destructive side in this discussion. The reality is, that Armenia is ready to open its roads for Azerbaijan in the framework of our national legislation. Moreover, recently the draft decision of government was published, that supposes to open three check points in the border with Azerbaijan for implementation of the article 9 of the trilateral statement from November 9, 2020. According to that draft, citizens and goods of Azerbaijan would be eligible to use the existing roads of Armenia to commute from main Azerbaijan to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. The Armenian government had political will to unilaterally accept that decision. But Azerbaijani officials tell us, that they dont want to have those routes. What do they want? They want a new route to be constructed. It is also acceptable for Armenia, but according to the 9th article of the trilateral statement from November 9, 2020, a new route can be constructed with the consent of the sides. Armenia is ready to construct such a route which would operate according to the legislation and within sovereign control of the Republic of Armenia.

So what is the point of Azerbaijani claims? Azerbaijan is hinting that Armenia has to provide an extraterritorial corridor and according to them the 9th article of the trilateral statement from November 9, 2020 is supposed to do that. The trilateral statement is a public document and in the 9th article there is nothing about corridor, extraterritoriality etc. So what is the purpose of Azerbaijan? To create a new crisis as a pretext for a new aggression against Armenia and for a new territorial claim.

We have shared packages of proposals with Azerbaijan on the topic of opening communications, and if Azerbaijan accepts that those routes must operate according to national legislations, we can decide on this very quickly.

By the way, the trilateral statements from November 9, 2020 and January 11, 2021 imply that not only Armenia should provide roads to Azerbaijan, but Azerbaijan should provide roads to Armenia too. And we havent received anything so far either.

As for the corridor wording, it is very important to note that in the trilateral statement from November 9, only one corridor is mentioned, and it is the Lachin corridor for Nagorno-Karabakh.

Ladies and gentleman,

One of the crucial factors of regional stability is the comprehensive settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict where the rights and the security of the Armenians living in NK will be addressed and guaranteed.

Latest aggression is happening while the humanitarian consequences of the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh have not been addressed yet. The post-war rehabilitation of Nagorno-Karabakh, the psycho-social issues of the displaced population, the repatriation of Armenian POWs and the preservation of cultural and religious heritage remain on the agenda of our Government.

Nevertheless, the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh are in need of the support of the international community. We call to support the secure and unhindered access of UN humanitarian agencies to Nagorno-Karabakh in order to assess the humanitarian, human rights situation and ensure protection of cultural heritage on the ground. We think that the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the independent fact-finding mission of UNESCO should have access to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.

Unfortunately, Azerbaijan has been blocking both missions by making artificial, political preconditions, essentially blocking the access of an independent fact-finding mission in Nagorno-Karabakh.

It is also reprehensible that Azerbaijan stalls the repatriation of Armenian Prisoners of War, inter alia subjecting them to artificial trials in gross violation of international humanitarian law, its own commitments, and contrary to the calls of the international community.

Mr. President,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Sustainable regional peace and stability is our objective. Last year through democratic snap elections our people strongly supported the peace agenda of the Government and re-confirmed the commitment of Armenia to pursue the democratic path.

It is very important to state that the target of Azerbaijani attacks isnt only the independence,

sovereignty and territorial integrity of Armenia, but democracy of Armenia too. Despite the expectation of some forces Armenia stayed democratic after devastating war of 2020, using the tool of free fair and democratic elections as a way out from internal political crisis. International community unanimously recognized and praised this fact.

The Armenian democracy is struggling in an atmosphere, when Azerbaijan is using force every day, to impose its plans unilaterally, to bring to the end the Armenian statehood, independence and democracy.

But Im here to announce that we are determined to defend our democracy, independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity by all means. I want to underscore that diplomatic solutions are an absolute priority for us and the full engagement and support of international community is crucial. In this regard I would like to mention, that the international observation mission to the Armenia-Azerbaijan bordering areas would be an important factor for regional stability.



Undeniably, in the interests of regional stability and in accordance with norms and principles of international law Azerbaijani military forces must be withdrawn from the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia.

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to stress again: we are determined to build peace in our region, but we need the full support of international community, which will stand by the sovereign and democratic country and people subjected to aggression against the norms and principles of international law.

I believe in the potential of establishing long-term stability, security and peace and Armenia is committed to continuing diplomatic efforts to this end.

Thank you for your attention.
A student wears a facemask at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, Calif. on March 11, 2020. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

USC, Crew Members Sued Over Cinematographers Desert Death

LOS ANGELESThe parents of a cinematographer killed in an April off-road vehicle crash during a University of Southern California (USC) student film shoot are suing the university for negligence.

The Los Angeles Superior Court complaint was brought Sept. 19 by Hualan Wang and Hua Sun, the father and mother, respectively, of the late 29-year-old Peng Aaron Wang. The couple is seeking unspecified damages, plus compensation for funeral and burial expenses.

Also named as defendants were the films director, Ting Su, and producer, Biangliang Li, both of whom are USC students and Chinese nationals.

Asking film students to handle and oversee all of their own on-set safety without oversight is like asking an elephant to fly, according to USCs own faculty, the suit states.

In a statement Tuesday, USC responded to the suit, saying, USC was not responsible for Mr. Wangs tragic death. We will be sharing the facts about our robust safety procedures and safety record in court.

Wang was a Chapman University film student recruited by the USC students to serve as their cameraman for Finale, a movie about the hallucinations and death of a man in the desert, the suit states. Filming took place in the Glamis Dunes, east of Brawley, and Wang died from injuries sustained when a Can-Am off-road vehicle, driven by Li, rolled down one of the dunes on April 15, the suit states.

Wangs Imperial County death certificate, attached to the suit, states he died of blunt neck trauma.

USC documents and statements are clear that USC is aware of the risk of injury or death on student film projects in general, and particularly on film locations far from L.A., in the desert, and utilizing (off-road) vehicles, the suit states. USC had the responsibility and ability to exercise control over its students and its school film projects, according to the suit.

However, the university was negligent in the exercise of that control on the Finale production instead of fulfilling its obligation to protect Wang from harm, the suit states.

The suit contends USC actively recruits Chinese students such as Li and Su to enroll in its film school, yet fails to teach them to identify and react to the inherent dangers of film-making.

Su and Li themselves were negligent in their provision of planning, control, and safety in that they did not ensure Li had the proper training to drive the vehicle and that Wang would be protected, the suit states.
A pro-life activist holds plastic unborn babies during a protest on Capitol Hill in Washington, on July, 29, 2010. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

VA Doctors Performing Certain Abortions May Not Be Penalized by States: DOJ

The Justice Departments Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) issued a memorandum opinion for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) saying that U.S. states cannot restrict or penalize VA doctors for performing abortions in a manner authorized by federal law.

States may not impose criminal or civil liability on VA employeesincluding doctors, nurses, and administrative staffwho provide or facilitate abortions or related services in a manner authorized by federal law, including VAs rule, Christopher Schroeder, the assistant attorney general for the OLC, wrote in the memorandum opinion (pdf) published on Sept. 21.

Schroeder also wrote in his opinion that the VAs rule is a lawful exercise of VAs authority, affirming an interim final rule the VA had submitted to the Federal Register on Sept. 1.

The rule would allow the VA to provide access to abortion counseling andin certain casesabortions to pregnant Veterans and VA beneficiaries  regardless of state restrictions, the department said on its website on Sept. 2.

Specifically, VA will provide access to abortions when the life or health of the pregnant Veteran would be endangered if the pregnancy were carried to term, or when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, it said.

Supremacy Clause Cited

Schroeder in the memorandum opinion cited the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which gives federal laws priority over state laws.

Schroeder asserted that the clause means that state officials cannot penalize VA employees for performing their federal functions.

Specifically, he said state officials should be barred from pursuing criminal prosecution, license revocation proceedings, or civil litigation against VA employees who carry out abortions in cases of rape, incest, or threat to the life or health of the mother.

Before the VA issued its rule, this Office advised VA that the rule represented a reasonable exercise of the VA Secretarys discretion to provide medical services, Schroeder said.

The legal opinion comes two months after the Justice Department in July established a task force dubbed Reproductive Rights Task Force to identify ways to protect access to abortion. It comes after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24.

The Justice Department at the time said the task force will monitor and evaluate all state and local legislation and enforcement actions on abortion and coordinate appropriate federal government responses, including proactive and defensive legal action where appropriate.

Self-Reporting is Sufficient Evidence for Rape, Incest: VA

According to the VA, self-reporting from a Veteran or VA beneficiary will constitute sufficient evidence that an act of rape or incest occurred.

Meanwhile, the determination as to whether carrying the pregnancy to term would harm the life and health of the mother will be made on a case-by-case basis and will be the result of careful consultation between VA health care providers and the Veterans they serve, the department said on Sept. 2.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in a statement at the time that the rule is a patient safety decision.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough testifies during a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington, on Dec. 1, 2021. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Late on Wednesday, McDonough confirmed to members of the Senate VA Committee that the OLC had issued the memorandum opinion just hours prior to his testimony. I think this OLC opinion makes very clear the protections that are afforded VA providers, he told the senators.

The VA previously did not provide abortion services but it decided to do so after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Dr. Shereef Elnahal, VAs Under Secretary for Health, previously said in a statement on Sept. 2 that the VAs decision came after its officials listened to VA health care providers and veterans across the country, who contended that abortion restrictions are creating a medical emergency for those we serve. He said that providing abortion counseling and abortions in certain cases will save Veterans health and lives.

McDonough told senators late on Wednesday that the VAs medical system has carried out its first abortion procedure at one of its medical centers. A spokesperson declined to provide further details, citing the privacy of the mother who aborted her child, reported NBC.
Groups of asylum seeking illegal immigrants wait outside the Migrant Resource Center to receive food from the San Antonio Catholic Charities in San Antonio, Texas, on Sept. 19, 2022. (Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images)

Venezuela Empties Prisons, Sends Criminals to US Border: House Republicans

Venezuela is deliberately releasing prisoners, among them violent criminals, and having them travel to the U.S. southern border, a development that prompted 14 House Republicans to write to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), who is leading the Republican effort to have Mayorkas answer questions, said in the Sept. 22 letter that the decision by the Maduro regime has put the United States in grave danger.

We write you with serious concern about a recent U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intelligence report received by Border Patrol that instructs agents to look for violent criminals from Venezuela among the migrant caravans heading towards the U.S.-Mexico border, the letter says, citing a recent report from Breitbart.

The outlet reported on Sept. 18 that it had reviewed the DHS intelligence report from an unnamed source within U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The report warned that released prisonersincluding those convicted of murder, rape, and extortionhad been seen within migrant caravans traveling from Tapachula, Mexico, to the southern border, as recently as July.

The report also said the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service, Venezuelas intelligence agency, may have played a role in deliberately releasing prisoners.

Hours after Breitbart published the report, Nehls took to Twitter to announce that he had obtained confirmation from the DHS.

DHS confirms that Venezuela empties prisons and sends violent criminals to our southern border, Nehls wrote. President Trump warned us about this years ago.

Former President Donald Trump issued such a warning several times in 2021. He did it again last week while speaking to radio show host Hugh Hewitt, when he said America had become a dumping ground as other nations were emptying their prisons into the United States.

Illegal immigrants from Venezuela, who boarded a bus in Texas, wait to be transported to a local church by volunteers after being dropped off outside the residence of Vice President Kamala Harris, at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 15, 2022. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

Nehls later commented on the Breitbart report during an interview with Fox News contributor Sara Carter on Sept. 25.

This bombshell report confirms what weve known for years, Nehls said. Our adversaries despise what America stands for and take pride in emptying their prisons filled with the most violent and sick individuals to walk the earth and send them to our southern border, where they know theyll have no trouble getting in.

Our overworked Border Patrol agents can only do so much when President [Joe] Biden gives everyone a no-strings-attached invitation into this country.

Illegal Immigration

The letter comes as the United States is seeing an influx of illegal immigrants along the U.S.Mexico border. According to CBP data, the number of illegal aliens arriving at the southern border in fiscal year 2022 surpassed 2 million in August, with unprecedented numbers coming from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

The letter points out that there have been more than 130,000 encounters with Venezuelan nationals between October 2021 and July 2022.

As a result of the Biden Administrations disastrous border policies, it is unknown how many of the violent Venezuelan prisoners have been released into the interior of the U.S., as identifying Venezuelans with criminal records is nearly impossible unless the individual admits their records to U.S. authorities, the letter says. This will undoubtedly put our country in grave danger.

The 14 Republicans want Mayorkas to answer more than 10 questions about topics including the precautions DHS is taking to prevent these Venezuelan criminals from entering the United States.

Have any of the Venezuelan nationals encountered at the southern border this year been suspected to be released prisoners? the questions read. Does DHS have a projected headcount of how many released Venezuelan prisoners are expected to enter the U.S.?

Do you have reason to believe that the release of the convicts could be a purposeful geopolitical move specifically intended to impact U.S. national security?

Nehls wrote on Twitter, We need transparency and accountability from this administration.
The P4 laboratory on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on May 13, 2020. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

Wuhan Institute of Virology Vice Director Revealed to Be CCP Official in Charge of Biosafety

News Analysis

The vice director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), Yuan Zhiming, is a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official who was formally in charge of international cooperation and biosafety at the facility, according to a newly discovered email from 2013.

The institute is suspected by many to be the origin of the coronavirus pandemic.

The email is part of a large number of documents unearthed by the transparency group U.S. Right to Know through ongoing Freedom of Information Act litigation to uncover pandemic-related information held by U.S. institutions. Although the initial batch of documents was released in June, the email pertaining to Yuan, which was obtained from the Galveston National Laboratory, was only recently discovered by former Senate investigator Paul D. Thacker.

While it isnt a secret that every Chinese institution ultimately answers to the CCP, the discovery of Yuans true role as the CCPs praetorian and biosafety minder at the Wuhan lab is highly significant.

Yuans academic biography doesnt mention his role as Secretary of the Party Committee at the WIV and the institutes website doesnt provide information on the identity of the Secretary of the Party Committee. Publicly available information confirms that as of July 2021, Yuan was still a director at the WIV. Yuan claims to have previously worked at the Pasteur Institute in France, the Royal Danish University of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, the Danish National Institute of Environmental Research, and the University of Illinois.

It isnt known whether those institutions were aware that Yuan is a CCP official.

Yuan also is associated with James Le Duc, the director of the Galveston National Laboratory in Texas. The Galveston lab was built by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and operates under the auspices of Dr. Anthony Faucis National Institutes of Allergies and Health (NIAID).

The connections between the WIV and Le Duc go back to at least 1986, when Le Duc spent a year working at the WIV. Le Duc later trained Wuhan lab staff at his Galveston lab.

Le Duc also knew about Yuans true role at the WIV, since the 2013 email that exposed it was in response to a request from Le Ducs staff to the institute. Le Duc wanted to set up a meeting with the director of the biocontainment lab. Notably, the reply, which was sent by a staff member at the Wuhan lab, explained that there were two directors, the nominal director and the Secretary of the Party Committee.

Like almost all Chinese institutions, the WIV had an ostensible director and a CCP praetorian. Le Duc likely knew that the real power was vested with Yuan, whom he subsequently befriended.

On Feb. 9, 2020, a month before the pandemic erupted in the United States, Le Duc emailed his friend Yuan to ask for an investigation into the possibility that the Covid outbreak was the result of a release from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

That email was uncovered by a separate Freedom of Information Act request late last year. Le Duc attached a catalog of questions for Yuan, including asking when the WIV first started handling coronaviruses and where it had obtained its large collection of viruses.

Most significantly, Le Duc outright asked Yuan whether the Wuhan lab had conducted gain-of-function experiments that may have resulted in the creation of COVID-19.

Le Duc ended his email with an admonition to Yuan: If there are weaknesses in your program, now is the time to admit them and get them corrected.  I trust that you will take my suggestions in the spirit of one friend trying to help another during a very difficult time.

Despite Le Ducs decades-long affiliation with the WIV and his personal friendship with Yuan, he never heard back.

In April 2020, Le Duc contacted EcoHealth adviser David Franz to tell him about his outreach to Yuan, as well as the fact that Yuan had failed to respond.

EcoHealth is the organization through which Fauci had funded gain-of-function experiments on coronaviruses at the WIV. Its unknown why Le Duc reached out to Franz or what Franzs response was, if any. Franz previously was the commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick.

Chinese authorities have accused Fort Detrick of being the true origin of the COVID-19 virus.

At the same time, another former military official, Philip Russell, the former commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Commandalso located at Fort Detricksent Le Duc a link to an EpochTV documentary that concluded that the pandemic likely started at the WIV. Le Duc replied that he thought the virus came out of the Wuhan seafood market, but acknowledged that he couldnt argue with the comments against the Chinese Communist Party.

Le Duc stated: Its too bad that the global pandemic is being conflated with the challenges the world faces from the Chinese Communist Party. They are both important issues, but Im not convinced that they are linked.

As we now knowand as Le Duc knew at the timethe link between the WIV and the CCP was Le Ducs friend Yuan.

In an apparent effort to deflect Russells attention from the evidence of a lab leak, Le Duc praised the labs director, Shi Zhengli, claiming that she was a very talented scientist and a charming person.

Russell didnt fall for the decoy, responding: I have no doubt that Zheng Li Shi is a brilliant scientist and very charming. That does not rule out the possibility that one of the many bat coronaviruses isolated in the Wuhan lab infected a technician who walked out the door. No need for engineering the virus.

The flimsiness of the epidemiology pointing to the wet market, the absence of bats in the market, the failure to identify an intermediate animal host, the extraordinary measures taken by the Chinese government, including persecution and probable killing of two brave physicians to cover up the outbreak, the steps taken to silence the laboratory personnel, the change in leadership of the lab, all point to the lab as the source of the outbreak.

At that point, Le Duc replied that it was certainly possible that a lab accident was the source of the epidemic. Le Duc also revealed that he had reached out to Yuan about a lab leak but never heard back from him. Le Duc closed by betraying what appears to have been his real objective: We need to strike a balance such that we are not in an adversarial situation.

In other words, it appears Le Duc was motivated by a desire not to create a conflict with the CCP. Analogously, then-NIH head Dr. Francis Collins privately told Fauci and his group of scientists to suppress evidence of a lab origin in order to preserve international harmony.

There is little doubt that if it had been publicly known in March 2020 that the virus originated at a CCP-affiliated lab, the worldwide pressure on the CCP would have been immense.
A flag of the European Union flies above Parliament Square during a Unite for Europe march, in London, England, on Mar. 25, 2017. (Reuters/Peter Nicholls)

War Drums Beat (Over Europe)

Commentary

Mika Lintila, minister of economic affairs of Finland, stated in the Finnish Parliament on Sept. 8 that Finland is at war with Russia. This was an inexplicable statement from a Finnish minister. We have not been in war with Russia since the truce ending the Continuation War (a peace treaty was signed on Sept. 19, 1944), and we definitely are not in a war with Russia now.

The statement by Minister Lintila reflects the jingoism that has taken over most European leaders. They are actually waging a war against a country with the most nuclear weapons in the world! My question to European leaders is, have we not learned anything from our past?

I have been detailing the economic costs of the war inflicted mostly by the political decisions (sanctions), not the actual war. Europe is heading into a very dark period economically and politically, but it may turn to something much worse if we are not careful.

For years, our company refrained from forecasting one thing: war. However, we did make an exception in February, when it looked to us that the Ukrainian conflict was spiraling out of control.

We warned our Deprcon subscribers, on Feb. 12, 2022, that its possible that the conflict between Ukraine and Russia will escalate in the coming weeks. We continued:

Our risk assessment has changed mostly due to the stalemate between Russia and NATO allies. It is our view that Russia is trying to prevent Ukraine from becoming a member of the military bloc and possibly the European Union. It could be that President Putin is ready to play all the cards to prevent either of those from happening.

We changed our stance because we saw that the economic costs of the war would be massive. In our warning, on Feb. 12, we also wrote that:

If the crisis escalates, as it now seems likely, it could have serious and likely partly unknown consequences on the financial system and the economy. In the worst case, Russia would be shut off from SWIFT, i.e., the global interbank payment system.

As a retaliation measure, Russia would most likely cut gas supplies to Europe, causing a massive energy crisis on the continent. These would have heavily destabilizing effects on economies, societies, and the financial markets across the world.

We, unfortunately, turned out to be correct with our warning.

I, and we, naturally continued to monitor the situation in Ukraine, and on Sept. 13, I uncovered a startling scenario.

What if we have misinterpreted the goals of President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, and what if we, in the West, have relied rather blindly on Ukrainian propaganda regarding events on the ground? This would have shattering consequences in Europe going forward. On that day, I published my controversial and highly discussed scenario on Twitter.

On Sept. 15, I published the whole (worst-case) alternative scenario in my newsletter. It relied on three assumptions:

It has never been the intention of President Putin to invade the whole of Ukraine, but to create a land corridor to Crimea and to fortify the position of the eastern annexed states as part of Russia. The military movements conducted by Russia reflect this, implying that the whole northern operation has been mostly smoke and mirrors. The Russian military losses in Ukraine have been exaggerated, possibly to a massive degree.

If these assumptions hold trueand I hope they wontthey would imply that:

Europe is about to walk into a trap both militarily and economically, and that We (Europeans) are going to annihilate our economies for no reason.

I will not go into details of my analysis here, which you can read in my newsletter, but I want to point out the dangers Europe and the world would be facing if the above scenarios hold true.

The original, publicly stated goal of the strict sanctions against Russia was that it would force President Putin into peace talks or even facilitate a coup in Russia. Now, it seems, that the narrative has changed to that sanctions should be used to destroy Russia and force a coup in the country. These are very dangerous goals/statements.

As I mentioned previously, the economist John Maynard Keynes warned the League of Nations, in 1924, against sanctioning the foes. He explicitly stated that sanctions would always run the risk of not being efficacious and of not being easily distinguished from acts of war. Based on a recent speech by President Putin, the latter is now materializing in the thinking of the Russian regime and the former is looking more and more likely.

As I detailed in my previous article, the European economy is sinking. Russia is naturally suffering, too, but the situation is not looking there as dire as it is in Europe.

Russia has, for example, been racking up a record amount of money from it oil sales. It is likely that there will be buyers for Russian oil even after the European Union sanctions them. The government of Russia is, naturally, running a budget deficit, but it seems to be less than many (including me) first assumed.

Most important, Russia holds not only a massive upper-hand in energy but also in commodities and metals production. Russia, for example, is the leading exporter in palladium, nickel, and small diamonds. The nation also is a major global exporter of platinum, gold, enriched uranium, and coal. Thus, while the Russian economy will suffer, it is unlikely to collapseand at least ordinary Russians will have electricity and heat through the winter, which cannot be guaranteed for Europe.

President Putin has also established a Stalin-like command-and-control grip on Russia. This, rather straightforwardly, implies that a coup is unlikely.

Dont get me wrong. We should not accept any forced annexations or wars on our continent (or anywhere else, for that matter). Nevertheless, we Europeans should also understand and remember, very vividly, where the precipitation of war, or war drums, will eventually lead to.

I dearly hope that we Europeans have the wisdom and courage to avoid setting the world ablazefor the third time.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, has put top police commanders on the alert as 2023 electioneering campaigns kick off.

In a strategic meeting with Deputy Inspectors-General of Police (DIGs) and Assistant Inspectors-General of Police (AIGs) as well as Commissioners of Police from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, the IGP reportedly restrained Southwest Security Network, Amotekun and Eastern Security Network ESN from covering election campaigns.

The meeting which was held in Abuja, was deemed necessary to map out road as security is concerned ahead of the forthcoming general political campaigns.

The Police boss noted that the national political space will soon become active and the possibility of increase in politically related offences may become heightened across the country.

He also tasked the media to place national security interests above other sentiments and avoid projecting news items that could engender tension and violence within the political space as the political campaigns commence.

Usman Baba said the 2023 general election and the processes leading to it would certainly put the police to test.

He charged the DIGs, AIGs and the CPs to upscale their deployments to dominate the public space to ensure that criminal elements do not take advantage of the active political space to manifest their criminal intents.

Drawing on our widely commended performances in recent elections, however, I am very confident, and I trust that you shall not fail both the Police institution and the country in the upcoming electoral engagements, he said.

He asked the commanders to maintain an oath of neutrality in accordance with the Electoral Act, be always at alert during electoral security deployments and exhibit a high degree of professionalism and fairness in their dealings with all parties.

As you are aware, in compliance with Sec. 94(1) of the Electoral Act 2022, INEC has confirmed that electioneering campaigns by all political parties would officially commence on 28th September, 2022.

As the lead security agency in the election security process, the political campaigns security governance is, primarily, the statutory obligation of the Nigeria Police Force.

In this regard, I must remind you that the provision of the requisite professional leadership to achieve our election security mandate rests squarely on the shoulders of all of you that are here seated.

In the performance of this strategic responsibility, the Electoral Act 2022 and the Code of Conduct and Rules of Engagement for Security Personnel on Electoral Duty which was issued in 2020 by the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) must remain our guide.

He added: These two election security instruments grouped the mandate of the Police into four key fields as follows: ensuring the safety and security of all persons and properties that will be involved in the entire electoral process without bias; strict enforcement of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Criminal/Penal Code as well as the Electoral Laws without fear or favour; security, traffic and crowd management at venues of political parties campaigns, rallies and other activities relating to the elections.

The security of the public space towards guaranteeing a crime-free and enabling environment for the political campaigns and other components of the electoral process to thrive.

We are also expected to adopt a professional orientation that emphasises democratic values, and respect for human rights and dignity, while being mindful of the duty imposed on us by the law to protect all electorates against illegal acts and dispense our duties without discrimination.

As critical actors in the electoral process, the outcome of the credibility of the 2023 general election will be measured by the extent to which we abide by these professional and legal standards as well as the nature of our decisions and actions as we interface with political parties in emplacing appropriate machineries to guarantee a peaceful electioneering campaign process.

We must leave no citizen in doubt of our commitment to national peace and security, as well as our unwavering determination to advance the democratic and national security interests of our beloved nation.

In aid of this process and as the ban on public campaigns by political parties is lifted by INEC, you must note the following: Familiarize yourself fully with the Electoral Act and the Code of Conduct and Rules of Engagement for Security Personnel on Electoral Duty and situate all your decisions and actions within them as well as your legal obligations under the Constitution, Nigeria Police Act, and other extant laws. Note and be strictly guided by the fact that all quasi-security outfits that were established by the various State governments and local communities and which are operating under different nomenclatures, structures, and orientations have no legal roles under the Electoral Act 2020 and within the electoral process.

Hence, you are charged to ensure that they are not in any way or manner utilised by any political or community actor for any role during the electioneering campaign and other electoral processes in the countdown to the 2023 general elections. Such will amount to acts in illegality, and a potent threat to national security which could be inimical to our nations democratic interest.

The IGP also tasked the officers cops to liaise with the Resident Electoral Commissioners and the leaderships of all the political parties in their commands towards mutually coming up with a campaign timetable that would address possible conflicts both in date, time, and venues.

He added, The political campaign timetable for each state should be forwarded to the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Department of Operations, who will collate and forward the comprehensive layout to my office not later than 27th September 2022, submit an Election Security Action Plan that will detail your deployment plans for the security of all the venues of the political campaigns as they affect your commands.

This should also be submitted to my office through the DIG (Operations) not later than 27th September, 2022.

He also asked the commanders to convey the decision banning all quasi-security outfits in the various states and local communities from electioneering campaigns and other politically related activities to state governors, local government chairmen, community leaders, and leaderships of all political parties in their commands for their guidance.

He said it should be clearly emphasised to them that any unauthorised quasi-security agent found to be engaging in any election or political activities stands the risk of being arrested and prosecuted along with their collaborators.

Baba also asked the commanders to redirect their intelligence activities to monitor possible elements that might be attempting to threaten the electioneering campaign process, promptly isolate them and frustrate their illegal and undemocratic intentions.
By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov held meetings with Greece Environment and Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas, Bulgarian Energy Minister Rossen Hristov, and Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Deputy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar on the margins of the 5th Romanian International Gas Conference, Azernews reports.

Cooperation with Greece

During the meeting with the Greek minister, the parties discussed the expansion of the Southern Gas Corridor and natural gas supplies from Azerbaijan.

They discussed the importance of the energy dialogue and strategic partnership document signed with the European Union on doubling gas exports from Azerbaijan to Europe. In this regard, they emphasized the importance of accelerating the process of expanding the corridor and providing it with the necessary support.

They added that this year gas exports to Greece are projected at 1.1 billion cubic meters.

"We discussed cooperation with @KostasSkrekas, Greek Minister of Environment and Energy, the expansion of the #SouthernGasCorridor, and the supply of #NaturalGas from #Azerbaijan. This year, our gas exports to #Greece are predicted to be 1.1 bcm," Parviz Shahbazov wrote on his official Twitter page.

Cooperation with Bulgaria

During the meeting with the Bulgarian minister, the development of bilateral energy cooperation was discussed, and the increase in gas exports from Azerbaijan to Bulgaria was highly appreciated.

They noted that by the end of 2022, it is planned to export 600 million cubic meters of gas to Bulgaria, which means its 19 percent of gas consumption will be met by Azerbaijan.

Moreover, they discussed the start of commercial operation of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) in October, the supply of additional gas to Bulgaria, and future cooperation on electricity.

"In Romania, we discussed the development of bilateral energy cooperation with Rossen Hristov, Bulgarian Energy Minister. By the end of the year, 19% of #Bulgaria's gas demand will be supplied by #Azerbaijan," Parviz Shahbazov twitted.

Cooperation with Turkiye

During Parviz Shahbazov's meeting with Alparslan Bayraktar, they exchanged views on the development of the Southern Gas Corridor and the joint contributions of Azerbaijan and Turkiye to energy security.

"We exchanged views with @aBayraktar1, Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources on the development of the #SouthernGasCorridor and our joint contributions to #EnergySecurity," Parviz Shahbazov wrote.
On September 23, at around 07:40, the units of the Azerbaijani armed forces again violated the ceasefire, by opening fire from various caliber firearms at the Armenian combat positions located in the eastern direction of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, the Armenian Ministry of Defense said.

September 23, 2022, 09:54 Azerbaijan again violates ceasefire, opens fire at Armenian positions

STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 23, ARTSAKHPRESS: The fire was suppressed by countermeasures.

There are no casualties on the Armenian side.
The British Empire should have expired an ignoble death after World War II, and the monarchy disbanded. I believe that if President Franklin Roosevelt had his druthers, that was his intention.

In her article below, my colleague, Nancy Spannaus, creator of the website, americansystemnow.com provides a glimpse of President Roosevelts displeasure with British imperialism. President Roosevelt was especially distressed by British treatment of people in the underdeveloped sector, especially Africa. He wanted to develop Africa with American System policies of economic growth after the war. Sadly, President Roosevelt died, before he could implement his Grand Design.

During recent weeks, much of the world was focused on the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the coronation of King Charles III. While people were subjected to nonstop media coverage of ceremonial pomp and celebration of the British monarchy, Africans and true friends of Africa have nothing to celebrate. There should be nothing but shame for the horrific inhumane practices by the British monarchy in Africa.

The British Empire did no good for the Africa, which it dominated through its imperialist power. Its repulsive brutality in conquering and maintaining its rule in Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe (Rhodesia), Ghana, and Nigeria to name a few nations, is well documented. Its divide and conquer tactics are infamous. This included its promotion of ethnicity and manipulating ethnic groups against each other to keep nations divided as a means to prevent them from achieving sovereignty. The ugly legacy of British colonialism is evident in Africa today, where Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa are still suffering internal political discord resulting from British rule, as evidenced in recent elections.

As colonialism dominated Africa in the twentieth century following the Berlin Conference, the British Empire became the foremost imperialist force on the continent. It murdered African people, plundered their resources, intentionally thwarted industrialization, and set up structures to prevent Africans from realizing their full economic sovereignty after the Winds of Changeswept through the continent.

Is it not nobler for us today, to advocate for the dismantling of the British monarchy instead of mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth, who oversaw the barbaric treatment of Africans in the twentieth century.

This post is not meant to provide a detailed history of British Colonialism in Africa. Additional articles on this subject are available on this website.

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. He is also the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com . Mr. Freemans stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton.
Worship4Change , a leading not-for-profit organization in Nigeria will on October 3, 2022, hold 'Green Worship 5.0', a benefit concert organised to raise awareness and support for indigent children, orphans and children with special needs. The annual concert, which is in its 5th edition, will hold at Pistis Conference Centre (Elevation Church), Lekki, Lagos, starting at 3PM.

The Convener and Chief Responsibility Officer, Worship4Change , Pastor Wale Adenuga, announced this at a pre-concert media parley at The Gateway, Iganmu Lagos on Thursday.

According to Pastor Adenuga, this years Concert Benefit will have in attendance leading gospel acts from Nigeria and United States, including Nathaniel Bassey, Dunsin Oyekan, Panam Percy Paul, Bob Fitts, Moses Bliss, Victoria Orenze and 121 Selah.

Green Worship 1: The Founder of Puresouls Learning Foundation, Mrs. Dotun Akande; The Convener and Chief Responsibility Officer, Worship4Change, Pastor Wale Adenuga; and Founder, Cerebral Palsy Kids Learn Foundation, Tobiloba Ajayi, during the press conference to create awareness for this years 'Green Worship 5.0', a benefit concert in support for indigent children, orphans and children with special needs, organised by Worship4Change, in Lagos on Thursday

Other artistes billed for the five-hour long concerts are Gaise Baba, Sinmidele, Psalmos, Mairo Ese, Folake Umosen, Kng James, Chigozie Wisdom and Laolu Gbenjo..

Adenuga who called on interested individuals and corporate organisations to register to attend at https://worship4change.org/ , said that one key additional feature to this years event is that we are not just focusing on the event day for donations, we are earmarking the entire month to receive, solicit for and receive donations.

He named the beneficiaries of this years benefit concert to include A.I.M. Special Children Centre, Kaduna, Puresouls Learning Foundation, RECDOT Foundation, The Leprosy Mission Nigeria, The Let Cerebral Palsy Kids Learn Foundation.

in addition to taking donations at this years benefit concert, we are making the October a month of giving and our hope is that this campaign will enable us to raise robust support for the children we seek to help, Adenuga said.

Green Worship 2: The Founder of Puresouls Learning Foundation, Mrs. Dotun Akande; The Convener and Chief Responsibility Officer, Worship4Change, Pastor Wale Adenuga; and Founder, Cerebral Palsy Kids Learn Foundation, Tobiloba Ajayi, during the press conference to create awareness for this years 'Green Worship 5.0', a benefit concert in support for indigent children, orphans and children with special needs, organised by Worship4Change, in Lagos on Thursday

He called on corporate organisations, individuals and kind-spirited Nigerians to support the cause by attending the free concerts and donate generously towards meeting the objectives, adding that We plan to surpass what we raised last year by raising N75 million. This amount will go a long way in meeting the needs of the five selected beneficiaries for the Green Worship 5, Adenuga noted.

The Founders of two of the beneficiaries who were in attendance at the Press Conference praised the efforts of Worship for Change, noting that its intervention remains the biggest of such support they have received over the years.

The Founder of Puresouls Learning Foundation, Mrs. Dotun Akande, whose foundation engages and supports indigent children living with autism, took time to appreciate the efforts of Worship4Change, and called for media support through enlightenment and highlighting the challenges faced by children with special needs.

Green Worship 3: The Founder of Puresouls Learning Foundation, Mrs. Dotun Akande; The Convener and Chief Responsibility Officer, Worship4Change, Pastor Wale Adenuga; and Founder, Cerebral Palsy Kids Learn Foundation, Tobiloba Ajayi, during the press conference to create awareness for this years 'Green Worship 5.0', a benefit concert in support for indigent children, orphans and children with special needs, organised by Worship4Change, in Lagos on Thursday

Also, the founder, Let Cerebral Palsy Kids Learn Foundation, Tobiloba Ajayi, who herself lives with Cerebral Palsy (CP) shared how her foundation has engaged with over 500 families with children that have CP.

We have been able to get over a hundred children living with CP mainstreamed in to schools and we have also trained teachers and had their capacity to engage with these special children enhanced. We are convinced that with the support of Worship4Change, we will reach more homes, touch more lives and bring smiles to the faces of hundreds of indigent children living with CP, Ajayi said.

With respect to this years event, Mr. Adenuga said, in addition to taking donations at this years benefit concert, we are making the October a month of giving and our hope is that this campaign will enable us to raise a more robust support for the children we seek to help.

Over the years, Worship4Change has raised and disbursed over N75 million to 34 charity institutions, thereby directly impacting thousands of underprivileged children across Nigeria.

In 2021, Leprosy Mission, Farid Centre, Godswill Orphanage and Irede Foundation were beneficiaries of Green Worship concert, receiving N1.8 million each.
Cambodia Khmer Rouge court upholds conviction in final ruling

PHNOM PENH: Cambodias UN-backed Khmer Rouge war crimes court gave its final verdict yesterday (Sept 22), upholding the genocide conviction and life sentence imposed on the regimes last surviving leader.

deathcrimeviolencemurdermilitary

By AFP

Friday 23 September 2022, 11:43AM

Ex-Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan in the court room at the Extraordinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in Phnom Penh yesterday (Sept 22). Photo: AFP

The tribunal was ruling on an appeal by Khieu Samphan, head of state for the murderous communist regime, which wiped out a quarter of the Cambodian population in less than four years in the 1970s.

Survivors welcomed the verdict, the last that will be issued by the tribunal, which has cost more than US$330 million (B12.3 billion) and prosecuted only five Khmer Rouge leaders, two of whom died during proceedings.

The Supreme Court chamber finds no merit in Khieu Samphans arguments regarding genocide and rejects them, Chief Judge Kong Srim said in the lengthy ruling.

The court also upheld the 2018 convictions against the 91-year-old for multiple crimes against humanity - including murder, torture and enslavement - on the basis of a joint criminal enterprise, even if he did not personally take part in all crimes.

It backed the earlier ruling that Khieu Samphan had direct contemporaneous knowledge of the commission of crimes and shared the intent for their commission.

But it reversed convictions on murder and persecution charges relating to two specific locations.

Around 500 people packed into the courtroom to hear the verdict, including Buddhist monks, diplomats, government officials and Khmer Rouge survivors.

Chum Mey, 91, one of only a handful of people to survive the S-21 torture prison, where around 18,000 were butchered, welcomed the verdict.

I am happy, the sentence is reasonable, it gives me justice, he said.

Lim Ching, who lost more than 20 relatives, including her mother, told AFP that the sentence is the right one - the Pol Pot regime did bad things and killed people.

Heinous crimes

The hybrid court, with both Cambodian and international judges, was set up to try the senior leaders of the genocidal regime, which wiped out about two million people through starvation, torture, forced labour and mass executions during its 1975-79 rule.

Regime chief Pol Pot, known as Brother Number One, never faced justice, dying in 1998 before the court was set up.

Khieu Samphans genocide conviction relates to the persecution of ethnic-minority Vietnamese, seen by the Khmer Rouge as treacherous enemies within.

Judge Kong Srim said the charges related to some of the most heinous events during the Khmer Rouges blood-soaked rule.

The frail Khieu Samphan sat hunched in a wheelchair in the dock, listening intently to the lengthy ruling through headphones.

His argument that the Khmer Rouge was simply a political movement, aimed at improving the lives of Cambodians, was rejected by the court.

By no stretch of the imagination could it be seriously stated that the CPK revolution was implemented in a benevolent or altruistic manner, the ruling said, using an abbreviation for the Communist Party of Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouges official name.

Historic work

Alongside Khieu Samphan in the 2018 case, Brother Number Two Nuon Chea was also sentenced to life for genocide and other crimes, including forced marriages and rapes.

Nuon Chea died in 2019.

Both men were given life sentences by the court in 2014 for crimes against humanity in another case related to the violent forced evacuation of Phnom Penh in April 1975, when Khmer Rouge troops drove the population of the capital into rural labour camps.

The only other person convicted by the special court was Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, head of the S-21 interrogation centre where about 18,000 people were murdered.

Duch also died several years after being convicted.

Ly Sos, a Cham Muslim survivor, said yesterdays ruling would bring some comfort to his community, which was also persecuted by the Khmer Rouge.

This is good news for Cambodia that the only surviving Khmer Rouge leader has been convicted - I am happy, but I regret that we could not convict those who died, the 63-year-old said.

While the tribunal, formally known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), has secured few convictions, experts say it has done valuable work promoting national reconciliation.

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Bin Chhin told reporters after the verdict that the court was internationally recognised as a model for other countries looking to prosecute cases after wars or internal conflicts.

The Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), which conducts research on the Khmer Rouge regime, said the verdict represents the international communitys next step forward in atrocities crimes prevention.

Former colonial power France hailed the ruling, with the foreign ministry saying the court had contributed to peace in Cambodia.
End of state of emergency and COVID-19 centre

BANGKOK: The government will on Oct 1 lift the state of emergency imposed to cope with the coronavirus pandemic and dissolve the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).

COVID-19Coronavirus

By Bangkok Post

Friday 23 September 2022, 03:24PM

Dr Taweesilp Visanuyothin signs off as spokesman for the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) on Friday after announcing the end of the state of emergency for COVID-19 response and the dissolution of the CCSA on Oct 1. Image via Bangkok Post

CCSA spokesman Taweesilp Visanuyothin said after Fridays (Sept 23) meeting that the centre resolved to end the state of emergency imposed since March 24, 2020, and dissolve itself, because the local and global COVID-19 situation was improving, with new cases and fatalities declining, reports Bangkok Post.

"People and businesses have resumed normal activities and the Public Health Ministry is redefining COVID-19 as a communicable disease under surveillance, instead of a dangerous communicable disease," Dr Taweesilp said.

On Oct 1 the Public Health Ministry would label COVID-19 a communicable disease instead of a dangerous communicable disease.

The government would continue to provide people with free COVID-19 vaccinations, but the response to COVID-19 would be under the jurisdiction of the public health minister, Dr Taweesilp said.

The spokesman also said the number of visitors to the kingdom rose from 427,869 last year to 5.2 million visitors this year as of Wednesday, and they had spent 211.97 billion baht in the country.

During the same period this year Thais made 98.7 million domestic trips and spent B432.89 billion.

Dr Udom Kachinthorn, an adviser to the CCSA, said there were 800-1,000 new COVID-19 inpatients and 13,000-14,000 people testing anti-gen positive for the disease on an average day.

"The number of infected people whose cases are not logged would 2-3 times as many. So, there are 30,000-40,000 new COVID-19 cases a day. Most have mild symptoms and this is the reason why COVID-19 is redefined as a communicable disease under surveillance instead of a dangerous communicable disease," he said.

However, Dr Udom advised people to keep wearing face masks unless they were outdoors because, he said, the fatality rate of COVID-19 cases had not dropped below 0.1%.

"COVID will continue to be an issue for at least another year before becoming an endemic disease. So people must take care of themselves by wearing face masks and keeping their distance," he said.

He also said that vaccination was still necessary, to prevent severe illness and death and that booster shots could protect people from long COVID effects.
Kata Hill lane to close again, resulting in detour

PHUKET: The Phuket Highways Office has announced that the westbound lane over Kata Hill will be closed again next Tuesday (Sept 27) so that workers can continue to remove the roadside power poles as part of the road repairs and road-safety improvement project.

transport

By The Phuket News

Friday 23 September 2022, 11:33AM

Image: Phuket Highways Office

The westbound lane over the hill, heading from Chalong to Kata, will be closed from 9am to 5pm, the Phuket Highways Office announced in a notice posted online.

The section of lane to be closed is from km.1+575 to km.2+300 around the Khuan Sato curve, westbound heading from Chalong to Karon.

Motorists driving from Karon to Chalong will not be affected.

During the lane closure, motorists travelling westbound from Chalong Circle towards Kata will be forced to make a U-turn in front of The Green Man Pub and Restaurant.

Motorists are advised to travel south from Chalong Circle then turn right into Soi Suksan 1 (Route 3025) and rejoin the hill road further up the hill.

However, according to the map of the detour posted by the Phuket Highways Office, the redirected traffic will rejoin the road over the hill along a section of the road marked red, meaning it is supposed to be closed to traffic.

The Phuket Highways Office apologised for any inconvenience caused by the lane closure.
Lot 20 cheap goods fair arrives in Patong

PHUKET: The Lot 20 cheap goods fair by the Phuket Commerce Office has arrived in Patong, where it will offer more than 80 essential household goods at discounted prices to help alleviate financial stress on people during the current economic situation.

patongeconomics

By The Phuket News

Friday 23 September 2022, 12:24PM

The poster promoting the Lot 20 Fair in Patong. Image: Patong Municipality

The fair is being held at Wang Kee Oan Waterfall Learning Centre on Phra Phisit Korani Rd, located near the intersection with 50 Year Rd (Ha-sip Pee Rd), today through Sunday (Sept 23-25).

Many of the household essentials available are heavily discounted through state support via the Ministry of Commerce, with the Lot 20 fairs being held in every province in the country through to Nov 12.

In Phuket, the fair is a mobile market set up in selected locations for three days each time.

At the market now in Patong, red pork has been discounted from B200 per kilo to B160 per kilo, chicken thigh quarters have been reduced from B90/kg to B65/kg.

Size 3 chicken eggs have been reduced from B115 to B95 per tray, white sugar costs B20 per bag and vegetable cooking oil has been reduced to B50 per bottle.

Brand-name shampoo has been reduced from B199 to B169 per bottle.

Patong Municipality and the Phuket Commerce Office have urged people to take advantage of the special prices.

Patong Municipality touted that some of the products are on offer at half price.
Officials silent on Phuket police review

PHUKET: Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew met with top-ranking police on the island earlier this week as part of the Phuket Provincial Police Administration and Monitoring Committee, yet details of the meeting have yet to become public.

policetourismSafetypatong

By The Phuket News

Friday 23 September 2022, 06:46PM

Photo: Phuket Provincial Police

The meeting, held at the Phuket Provincial Police headquarters in Phuket Town on Wednesday (Sept 21), was joined by Phuket Provincial Police Commander Maj Gen Sermphan Sirikong.

According to official reports, the meeting discussed the efforts by police in providing security during the recent APEC 2022 Conference and the 28th IMT-GT Ministerial Meeting held in Phuket.

Also discussed were preparations for the bid for Phuket to host Expo 2028 as well as the new law on marijuana and the new Traffic Act.

The committee has expressed opinions on various matters in order to make the work of the police officers to be more proactive in order to build confidence among the people and tourists in the measures to maintain safety, one official report said.

However, no mention was made of recent incidents in Phuket directly affecting the safety of local residents and tourists, including the brawl involving three passenger van drivers at a popular tourist souvenir store on Tuesday that resulted in one of the drivers being struck on the head with an axe.

Road safety was not mentioned, despite a Russian man dying on Tuesday after slamming head-on into a passenger van after he was reportedly unable to control the motorbike he was riding while descending the hill into Karon. The man marked the 71st road fatality in Phuket so far this year, equalling the tally for all of last year despite 2022 still having three months to go.

Also not mentioned was Maj Gen Sermphan himself ordering Patong Police Chief Col Sujin Nilabadee to take action against a man reported by the public as openly selling drugs on Bangla Rd, Patong, as reported only last Sunday (Sept 18).

The man had already been taken into custody by Patong Police in April for intimidating foreign tourists on Bangla Rd with a gun loaded with blanks.

No legal action against the man was ever confirmed by Patong Police.
Power outage to affect part of Cherng Talay

PHUKET: The Thalang branch of the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) has announced a power outage in part of Cherng Talay today (Sept 23).

construction

By The Phuket News

Friday 23 September 2022, 08:00AM

The power outage, from 9am to 4:30pm, will affect the area of Soi Bang Tao 1 in tambon Cherng Talay (opposite Lotuss Cherng Talay).

The areas to be affected include Soi Ban Tak Daet, Cherng Talay Tambon Administration Organisation (OrBorTor) Office, local branches of Bangkok Bank and Krungthai Bank, Cherng Talay Municipal Water Filtration Plant.

The electricity supply will be shut off so workers can make necessary improvements on high-voltage power lines in the area, the Thalang PEA explained in a notice.

The Thalang PEA apologised for any inconvenience caused by the power outage and invited people with queries to call the office at 076-386882 or the PEA hotline 1129.
Slippery road blamed for motorcyclists death in Phuket

PHUKET: Police have warned road users to exercise extra caution while driving on wet roads after a 38-year-old motorcyclist died in a single-vehicle accident in Pa Khlok.

accidentsdeath

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Friday 23 September 2022, 05:38PM

At about 4am today (Sept 23), Lt Col Kornphumphot Pongphaiboon, Deputy Chief of Thalang Police Station, was informed of an accident in front of the SuperCheap store on Route 4027 in Pa Khlok, some 500 metres from the Heroines Monument.

According to the information received by Lt Col Kornphumphon, a motorcyclist lost control on a slippery road resulting in him crashing into a power pole.

Pa Khlok Municipality rescue workers took the severely wounded rider to Thalang Hospital where he was later pronounced dead. The deceased was identified by his Thai ID card as Seksit Seeyangnok, 38.

Having checked the scene and questioning witnesses, Lt Col Kornphumphot learned that Mr Seksit died in a single-vehicle accident which did not cause in any damage to third parties or government property. The man just lost control of his motorcycle and fell down, Lt Col Kornphumphot was told.

Mr Seksits body was later transferred to Vachira Phuket Hospital for autopsy and will be given to his relatives for funeral rites after that.
539 families (2121 people) have been evacuated from the border settlements of Vardenis community of Gegharkunik province as a result of the latest aggression of Azerbaijan against Armenia.

September 23, 2022, 15:39 539 families evacuated from border settlements of Armenias Vardenis as a result of latest Azeri attacks

STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 23, ARTSAKHPRESS: Governor of Gegharkunik Karen Sargsyan told Armenpress.

He said that most of these families have sheltered in different settlements of Gegharkunik. Some of these peoples settled in Yerevan or other provinces, mainly in the homes of their relatives.

According to the preliminary data, 73 apartments have been damaged from the Azerbaijani attacks. 7 of these houses located in the village of Sotk are unfit for further living. The buildings of the school and the medical center in Sotk, as well as infrastructures in Kut, Azat and Tretuk have also been damaged.

Currently, need assessment is being done in order to return the evacuated people to their permanent places of residence. This work will end soon. Assistance, psychological support is provided to the evacuated people both with public support or by NGOs, international organizations. Steps are being taken to return them to their permanent places of residence. And in this respect the restoration of damaged houses and infrastructures is a priority, and we need some measures and time for that to be done. The government of Armenia has expressed its readiness to provide respective measures. After the needs assessment the houses that have been damaged relatively less will be renovated first. But as for the houses which are unfit for further living, will be built from zero, but it will already require some time especially when unfavorable months for construction works are coming. All evacuated families are under our spotlight. As of today, the number of evacuated families who have returned back to their places of residence is 442 (712 people), he stated.
Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to occasional showers overnight. Low near 45F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%.

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to occasional showers overnight. Low near 45F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%.

Tomorrow

Showers early then scattered thunderstorms developing later in the day. High 64F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
BNSF: Rail accident victims should have to use arbitration

BNSF Railway says in a federal lawsuit that victims of an Amtrak derailment in Missouri should be required to seek settlements through arbitration, rather than filing lawsuits
Actions by Facebook and its parent Meta during last years Gaza war violated the rights of Palestinian users to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, political participation and non-discrimination
FILE - The exterior of the General Motors Toledo Transmission Operations facility is shown in Toledo, Ohio, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021. General Motors says it will spend $760 million to renovate its transmission factory in Toledo, so it can build drive lines for electric vehicles.
Irate that a session to discuss a proposed smoking ban during a casino industry conference was canceled, casino workers and patrons opposed to smoking in the gambling halls held a noisy protest outside the meeting Thursday in New Jersey
A negotiation process between Moscow and Kiev could be useful, but there are no preconditions for that yet, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday, reports TASS.

September 23, 2022, 16:11 Russia sees no preconditions for negotiations with Ukraine  Kremlin spokesman

STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 23, ARTSAKHPRESS: A negotiations process is, of course, useful. It is useful for achievement of our goals. But, as we have said it already, we see no preconditions for a negotiations process, the spokesman said.

He noted that Ukraine withdrew from the negotiations process several months ago and states on various levels - from high to the highest - that it plans to solve problems on the battlefield.

You are well aware of our Presidents reaction, Peskov concluded.
President Joe Biden says the full force of the federal government is ready to help Puerto Rico recover from the devastation of Hurricane Fiona
A referendum on the Montana ballot in November raises the prospect of criminal charges for health care providers unless they take all medically appropriate and reasonable actions to preserve the life of an infant born alive, including after an attempted abortion
Bob Foley: If you ignore it, will it go away?
Job Title: Administrative Assistant

Organisation: United States US Embassy, US Mission in Uganda

Duty Station: USAID / Uganda, Kampala, Uganda

Salary Range: UGX 50,500,012  73,751,394 per annum equivalent to FSN-07

Reports to: Office Director

About US Embassy:

The United States Embassy in Kampala, Uganda has enjoyed diplomatic relations with Uganda for over 30 years. Ambassador Natalie E. Brown currently heads the U.S Mission to Uganda. The Mission is composed of several offices and organizations all working under the auspices of the Embassy and at the direction of the Ambassador.

Among the offices operating under the U.S Mission to Uganda are:

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

Peace Corps

Job Summary: The Administrative Assistant serves as the principal administrative support person for the Office Director and reports to him/her directly and/or his/her designee, operating independently to ensure that administrative functions are performed effectively, efficiently, and in a manner that promotes harmony and problem-solving, ensuring other Office staff members may be more effective. The Administrative Assistant is the primary contact person responsible for Office customer service to internal and external partners and other stakeholders, including Mission staff, contractors and grantees and potential contractors and grantees, Implementing Partners (IPs), host-government officials, the Embassy, USAID/Washington, and other customers. In this capacity, the Administrative Assistant is responsible for coordinating information about the Office and making sure that information gets to customers on a timely basis and in a professional manner.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

The Administrative Assistant receives and places phone calls, sends and receives e-mail and faxes, and sets up meetings and makes appointments at the request of the supervisor and other Office staff with Mission, Host Government, Implementing Partners (IPs), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO), donor organizations, private-sector, and other contacts; arranges transportation, as needed; and takes minutes when requested.

The Administrative Assistant schedules appointments based on a good knowledge of the Office Directors commitments and maintains the Office calendar, reminding the supervisor and others of meetings and appointments.

The Administrative Assistant takes messages in the absence of the Office Director and other staff, directing callers to other staff members, or answering questions personally; prepares visitor access requests, receives and assists visitors, answers questions, or directs them to a staff member who can assist them; schedules meetings for the Office Director, and ensures that attendees are briefed or provided proper background material for meetings; and, participates in arranging for conference/meeting room space as required by the size of the group and maintaining conference/meeting room schedules, in coordination with other Mission administrative staff.

The Administrative Assistant meets with other Mission support staff on a regular and recurring basis to update and improve standard operating processes.

The Administrative Assistant maintains control of correspondence for the Office, including program/project/activity files provided by Contracting/Agreement Officers Representatives (CORs/AORs) and other Specialists, establishing and maintaining computerized tracking systems to track Office actions, providing weekly reports to the Office Director, receiving and screening Office mail not addressed to a particular individual, drafting responses to routine correspondence and letters, distributing incoming official mail to Office personnel and attaching pertinent background material, and searching files and records to assemble background information for correspondence and other pending actions.

The Administrative Assistant reviews outgoing mail for proper address, routing, attachments, etc., prior to dispatch, reviewing outgoing correspondence for accuracy and conformance with Mission formatting procedures and special instructions.

The Administrative Assistant distributes internal policies and procedures and, as necessary, maintains a tracking system of when staff received new policies and/or procedures.

The Administrative Assistant establishes and maintains files according to standards set by the Mission Correspondence and Records (C&R) Technician/Supervisor in the Executive Office (EXO) and by USAID/Washington, marks correspondence and other documents for filing, and files accordingly.

Reviews all correspondence prepared in the Office or elsewhere for the supervisors signature, corrects errors by drafters and edits correspondence, and ensures that responding correspondence meets requirements posed by incoming correspondence to which it pertains.

The Administrative Assistant maintains and updates handbooks, operating procedures, and other documents, such as visitors lists, telephone listings, personnel rosters, and leave, travel, and training schedules.

The Administrative Assistant uses computer and web-based word processing, spreadsheets, and software applications in the performance of a variety of assignments.

The Administrative Assistant drafts electronic country clearances (cCCs); reports time and attendance; assists incoming personnel with check-in procedures and departing personnel with checkout procedures; prepares travel requests for the Office staff for official travel.

The Administrative Assistant types a variety of correspondence, creates electronic trackers, develops charts, and prepares other documents in draft and final form, proof-reading for format and consistency with standard formatting requirements prior to submitting for signature.

As required, the Administrative Assistant tracks and manages documents in clearance with the Program Office, including locating documents routed for clearance, and obtaining and tracking clearances and signatures.

As required by workload, the Administrative Assistant may be assigned to the Front Office, or assigned to support other office Administrative Assistants, during the absence of the job holder.









Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

The applicant for the USAID Administrative Assistant job should have two or more years of post-secondary schooling in Secretarial Science or Business Administration, or other related field equivalent to a US junior college or community college diploma, is required.

A minimum of three years of administrative or secretarial work experience, of which two years should be in related work with a U.S. Government Agency, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), other donor organizations, host-government organizations, or private-sector institutions is required.

The Administrative Assistant should be familiar, or able to quickly become familiar with the responsibilities and activities of the Office of assignment, as well as possess a general knowledge of standard office procedures and practices.

The Administrative Assistant should have the ability to develop an excellent understanding of USG file management, mail handling, and correspondence formatting.

The Administrative Assistant should display strong interpersonal skills, flexibility and ability to work creatively with a variety of colleagues.

The Administrative Assistant must be proficient in keyboarding and in operating computers with standard software, including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and other software programs as designated.

The Administrative Assistant must be proficient in using the Internet and E-mail.

The Administrative Assistant should possess a strong work ethic, the ability to prioritize tasks effectively in a fast-paced environment and produce high-quality work.

Language Proficiency: Level 4 (advanced professional proficiency) English and local language proficiency (if appropriate), both oral and written, is required.

How to Apply:

Offers must be submitted as detailed in Section IV of the solicitation document and shall include:

A typed and signed (hand or electronic signature) (around Section 6  Declaration) DS-174 Employment Application for Locally Employed Staff or Family Member (https://eforms.state.gov/Forms/ds174.pdf; Version Exp. 06/2022).

Cover letter (addressed to the USAID Supervisory Executive Officer) clearly indicating the position for which you are applying and describing how you meet the minimum requirements.

Completed curriculum vitae/resume as detailed in the solicitation document.

Supplemental [separate] document specifically addressing each QRF as outlined in the solicitation.

Copies of Academic Transcripts

All offers must be e-mailed to: kampalausaidjobs@usaid.gov

Offers should be in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf). No other file types will be accepted. All documents should be scanned into one (1) document (one (1) ATTACHMENT) which should not exceed 10MB.

NB: Only electronic submissions will be accepted and only short listed offerors will be contacted.

Deadline: 4th October 2022

For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline
ABBY BUTREMOVIC, Wheeler Volleyball, Sophomore; Butremovic had 23 digs as Wheeler beat Montville in three sets for its second victory of the season.

KATIE ANBARI, Stonington, Field Hockey, Sophomore; Anbari scored with 57 seconds remaining for the games only goal, lifting the Bears past East Lyme. Anbari leads the team in goals with four this season.

RACHEL FEDERICO, Westerly, Volleyball, Senior; Federico had nine kills, six digs and served for two aces in a win over Mt. Hope. Westerly was unbeaten in Division II through Sept. 24.

MYLES PRICE, Chariho Football, Senior, Price returned a lateral from teammate Collin Fitts on a punt return for the winning touchdown on the games final play to lift the Chargers over Coventry. Price ran about 25 yards across the width of the field after receiving the ball from Fitts.

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The G9 is its latest family SUV with a new silicon carbide battery that can be charged from 10-80% in a quarter of an hour

It has set out intentions to enter the UK market, potentially within three years

One of the biggest issues motorists have with converting to an electric car is the time it takes to recharge their batteries compared to driving into a filling station and refuelling with petrol and diesel.

But the latest zero-emission model to come out of China might just eradicate that with claims it can add 124 miles of range from a five-minute charging session.

It's called the Xpeng G9 and is said to be the 'fastest-charging mass-produced SUV on sale'. And it might soon be sold in Britain.

The fastest-charging electric SUV yet: This is the new Xpeng G9 - a battery-powered family car that when plugged in for as little as five minutes can add 124 miles of driving range

The G9 will be the first volume-production electric family car launched to the Chinese market to feature an 800V silicon carbide battery.

The use of silicon carbide in EV batteries boosts thermal conductivity by three times over that of standard silicon, meaning faster heat dissipation and therefore improved efficiency from smaller units.

This translates to both longer driving ranges and much faster charging speeds than what's currently available from EVs on sale in Britain today.

The new SUV supports charging speeds of up to 480kW. This exceeds even the faster ultra-rapid devices in the UK right now, which offer up to 350kW. And that seems to be the case in China too...

Only Xpeng's own network of supercharging stations are currently compatible with the G9's full charging capacity. There are 300 available in China today, though it expects to have 2,000 of supercharging locations across the country by 2025.

Plugged into one of these 480kW S4 chargers for five minutes will see the car gain 124 miles - 200km - of range.

Keep it plugged in for a quarter of an hour and it should be able to boost the battery from 10 to 80 per cent charge, the brand says.

And with the battery fully replenished to 100 per cent capacity, Xpeng's range-topping G9 will be able to go for over 350 miles before needing to find another chargepoint.

Keep it plugged in for a quarter of an hour and it should be able to boost the battery from 10 to 80 per cent charge, the brand says

The super-quick charging times are thanks to its 800V silicon carbide battery, which is a first for any volume-production vehicle in China

The SUV supports charging speeds of up to 480kW, which exceeds the highest available devices in the UK right now and are only matched by Xpeng's own network of superchargers

Xpeng G9: Will it fit in my garage? On sale: October (China), likely 2023 in Europe Price: from 309,900 (approx 39k) Doors: 5 Seats: 5 Battery: 800V silicon carbide Drivetrain: Single (RWD) or double (AWD) electric motors Max power: 308bhp/543bhp Max range: 286-254 miles 0-62mph: 6.4secs/3.9secs Top speed: 124mph Dimension: Length: 4,891mm Width: 1,937mm Height: 1,680mm Wheelbase: 2,998mm Boot capacity: 660 litres/1,576 litres

The car manufacturer quotes official ranges - using European test cycles - of between 286 and 354 miles, depending on which of six different powertrain options available to customers, which includes the choice of rear-wheel drive only with a single electric motor or a pair of motors, one at each axle, driving all four wheels.

Every variant will have a limited top speed of 124mph.

The most potent all-wheel drive model packs an impressive 543bhp and is capable of sprinting from a standstill to 62mph in less than four seconds. The 308bhp RWD versions take 6.4 seconds.

The SUV is also said to possess 'powerful braking capabilities' and can come to a complete stop from 62mph in 34.6 meters, which is only fractionally longer than the stopping distance of a Porsche 911.

Owners will have the choice of seven driving settings, one of them being 'Boost' mode that promises to deliver the drivetrain's maximum torque within 0.15 seconds of the driver flooring the throttle pedal.

The SUV also boasts fully-adjustable air suspension, meaning it can be raised and lowered in ride height by 10cm, in case customers might want to venture off-road.

With the battery fully replenished to 100%, Xpeng range-topping models will be able to go for over 350 miles before you would need to go hunting for another chargepoint

The SUV also boasts fully-adjustable air suspension, meaning it can be raised and lowered in ride height by 10cm, in case customers might want to venture off-road

The car manufacturer estimates that the G9 will be able to cover between 286 and 354 miles depending on which of six different powertrain options customers choose

At 4.9-metres long and 1.9-metres wide, is almost as large as the new Range Rover, meaning it should have plenty of road presence.

Inside, the cabin is plush and clutter-free with two screens, one acting as the driver's instrument panel and the second - much larger display - the infotainment touchscreen.

The driver and their passengers will be able to activate different features and adjust settings via a voice assist feature that is tuned to respond to up to 600 commands made from any seat in the cabin.

In terms of practicality, the five seater's boot offers 660 litres of space, which is 74 litres more than a Skoda Enyaq but around 195 litres less than a Tesla Model Y.

Fold the rear backrests down and the total loading space is increased to a van-like 1576 litres.

The most potent combination available will send an impressive 543bhp to all four wheels, meaning it is capable of sprinting from a standstill to 62mph in less than four seconds

Inside, the cabin is plush and clutter-free with two screens, one acting as the driver's instrument panel and the second - much larger display - the infotainment touchscreen

In terms of practicality, the boot offers 660 litres of space, which is 74 litres more than a Skoda Enyaq but around 195 litres less than a Tesla Model Y

It also gets a full suite of advanced driver assistance features, which are powered by a next-generation chip that's claimed to be able to carry out a trillion operations per second.

This works in unison with a lidar system linked to 31 sensors and a forward-facing camera to detect pedestrian, cyclists and other obstructions up ahead and automatically brake the car to mitigate accidents.

The lidar also powers the G9's self-driving features, with semi-autonomous vehicles already legal in some parts of China. From 2023, most cities in the country are expected to have legislation in place to allow for self-driving vehicles.

He Xiaopeng, Xpeng's CEO, describes the G9 as 'the world's fastest-charging mass-production SUV' that also 'boasts the industry's first full-scenario Advanced Driver Assistance System'.

He adds: 'This is topped off with a dual-chamber air suspension system and a luxurious smart cabin that includes a ground-breaking 5D music experience we call Xopera.

'G9 is a fusion of many technical innovations woven together into an elegant design and marks a significant milestone after eight years of dedication.

'We believe it will become the new benchmark for smart EVs, representing the last step before the realization of truly autonomous vehicles,'

Xpeng cars are already sold in parts of Europe, though mainly Scandinavia. Countries where its models are available include Norway, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands

First deliveries in China are expected to begin from next month, with prices ranging from 309,900 to 469,900, which works at in pound sterling as 38,870 to 59,000

The company has recently said it aim is to be selling EVs in the UK in the coming years as it looks to expand its offering across Europe

First deliveries in China are expected to begin from next month, with prices ranging from 309,900 to 469,900, which works at in pound sterling as around 39,000 to 59,000.

It will later be made available in European markets where Xpeng is already selling cars - this includes Norway, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.

The company intends to enter the UK market too, reportedly within the next three years and likely starting out with pop-up showrooms, like its Westfield store recently opened in Holland.

Want to know about other manufacturers you've likely never heard of that are likely to break into the UK market? Here's ten new electric car brands we might see on our roads very soon.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer will today set out plans for a wave of financial deregulation that has been dubbed Big Bang 2.0.

Kwasi Kwarteng is to reveal some of the reforms alongside a mini-Budget which is expected to represent the biggest set of tax-cutting measures in more than 30 years.

The deregulation plans will herald a wider package of measures to be set out later in the autumn.

Growth targets: Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's (pictured) mini-Budget is expected to represent the biggest set of tax-cutting measures in more than 30 years

Though details were last night yet to be made public, the idea of pushing ahead with the long-promised scrapping of red tape won a broad welcome in some quarters.

Lord Tyrie, the former MP who once led the Commons Treasury committee and later chaired the UKs competition watchdog, said: The regulatory framework needs frequent review if it is to remain effective and proportionate.

The idea echoes the original Big Bang of 1986 when deregulation of the City of London under the Thatcher government prefigured its rise as a global financial centre.

Kwarteng proposed a Big Bang 2.0 during a meeting with banking bosses on his first full day in office this month. He told 14 executives that the Government would pursue an unashamedly pro-growth agenda.

The package looks set to include reform to regulation of pension funds and insurers so that they can release more capital for investment, as well as changes to stock market listings rules to make the UK more attractive for company flotations.

Prime Minister Liz Truss told a business round table in New York this week: We want the City to be the most competitive place for financial services in the world, and we see that as a key part of the levelling up agenda.

When we unblock capital, that capital will be used across the UK to make every industry become more productive and competitive.

The plans look likely to build on proposed financial services legislation introduced to Parliament earlier this year. The new government has already signalled that it wants to scrap a cap on bankers bonuses.

A spokesman for industry lobby group The City UK said the Government looked keen to go even further than what was already in the bill before Parliament but cautioned: Regulation cannot be done at a mile a minute. Changes you make have implications on your trading relationships around the world.

Dealing with Solvency II  rules governing the insurance industry  is among issues on the cards. Also likely to be in the spotlight will be MiFID, a package of EU regulation including rules on company research seen as hindering the ability of small companies to raise capital.

There would be broad applause across industry should the Government be able to move more quickly, the spokesman for The City UK said.
An Australian family was left stranded in the middle of the ocean, after going on a cruise-ship organised dive in Fiji.

Last month, Newcastle mum Justine Clark and her two sons, Felix, 18 and Max, 20, went diving off Mana Island.

The dive was coordinated by a company subcontracted by Captain Cook Cruises Fiji, the ABC reported, and the three were with another tourist and divemaster.

A storm was brewing as the boat took the party of five to the offshore diving site known as The Supermarket. Ms Clark said they were about 20km away from any island.

The party was below the surface for just under an hour, only to find their boat was gone. Out at sea, it was windy and the swell was about two metres. The sky was growing dark due to the clouds.

Ms Clark said the divemaster was shocked they had just been left there.

Justine Clark and her two sons were left stranded in the ocean in Fiji while on a diving tour. Source: ABC

Group swims for 50 minutes before being saved

The five people on the diving trip started swimming for an island that was visible in the distance, at the instruction of the divemaster.

"I can't impress how concerned I was for everyone's health, sharks and the sense of determination I had to reach the island in a calm manner," Ms Clark told the ABC.

"The maternal drive in me was something I had not felt since the birth of my first son."

About 50 minutes into the swim back to shore, the divemaster noticed a small boat was travelling in their direction.

The group inflated their marker buoys, hoping they would attract attention.

The garbage collector on board the tiny boat ended up saving the group of divers. Ms Clark said they were all so happy he had saved them.

Not long after being rescued by the garbage collector, the boat tender who left them in the middle of the water came over to the group.

The boat left the group in the middle of the ocean, after they met bad weather. Pictured is a Captain Cook Cruises ship in Fiji's Yasawa Islands. Source: Jumping Rocks/Universal Images Group via Getty Images (file pic)

Ms Clark said he apologised and said he was "so scared". He apparently told the captain over the radio he had lost the group.

Captain Cook Cruises Fiji told the ABC in a statement the tender boat was blown away in the conditions and was having trouble tracking the divers' bubbles.

Story continues

An internal review has already been undertaken, and safety precautions have been changed. The company said the incident was unprecedented.

However, Ms Clark stressed the importance of operators being prepared for those types of situations.

"I have no desire to damage the tourism of the area and lives of the local Fijians dependent upon this trade,' Ms Clark said, reported Daily Mail Australia.

"However, Captain Cook Cruises should be applying safety standards consistent for such sea emergencies in the countries they operate outside Australia."

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play.
The asset management firm set up by Jacob Rees-Mogg is exploring a sell-off that could net millions for the new Business Secretary.

Somerset Capital, which manages about 4.4billion, could merge with another money manager. Chief executive Dominic Johnson is preparing to step down ahead of a potential move into politics.

Johnson, a former Conservative party vice-chairman, co-founded Somerset with Rees-Mogg 15 years ago.

Payout: Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg founded Somerset Capital, which manages about 4.4bn, with former Conservative party vice-chairman Dominic Johnson

The Business Secretary still owns a stake in the low to mid-teens and receives dividends, while Johnson has around 15 per cent.

Somersets own value has suffered in recent years, with profits falling thanks to a sell-off in emerging markets and a general global market downturn.

Its profits were down 34 per cent to 9.7million during the 12 months to March 2021, while turnover slumped by 20 per cent.

But analysts believe it could still fetch as much as 70million. It is understood one potential buyer is Emso Asset Management, which also specialises in emerging markets.

Rees-Mogg has had limited input in recent years, having resigned from his advisory role at Somerset in 2019 when he was appointed to the Cabinet.
The Finger Lakes Ski Club will kick off its 49th season with a party and general meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 4, at the Knights of Columbus, 47 Market St., Auburn.

All skiers and boarders are invited to join the club. Area ski representatives will be at the event, and there will also be food, beer, door prizes and more.

This year the club will head to Stratton, Vermont, in late February, and Zermatt, Switzerland, in March. The latter trip is sold out but there are still openings for the Vermont one. Registration is requested by Oct. 10. For more information, or to register, visit fingerlakesskiclub.com/events.

Members of the club receive discounts at area resorts and access to year-round club events and activities. It costs $21 for individuals and $32 for couples or families, including children younger than 21. Membership also includes access to discounts and special days through the club's affiliation with the New Jersey Ski Council and the Eastern Pennsylvania Ski Council.

For more information about the Finger Lakes Ski Club, call (315) 406-0791 or email service@fingerlakesskiclub.com.
Uganda has confirmed seven cases of Ebola including in a man who died this week, and seven other deaths are being investigated as suspected cases of a strain for which the authorities do not yet have a vaccine, officials said on Thursday.

The 24-year-old man who died had developed a high fever, diarrhoea and abdominal pains, and was vomiting blood. After initially being treated for malaria, he was diagnosed as having contracted the Sudan strain of the Ebola virus.

As of today, we have seven confirmed cases, of whom we have one confirmed death, Kyobe Henry Bbosa, Ebola incident commander at the Ugandan Ministry of Health, told a briefing.

But also we have seven probable cases that died before the confirmation of the outbreak.

Bbosa said their investigations had not yet pinned down the index case or patient zero but said the outbreak appeared to have started around the beginning of September when people started dying in a small village in Mubende district in central Uganda.

Uganda last reported an outbreak of the Ebola Sudan strain in 2012.

The strain is less transmissible than Ebola Zaire, Patrick Otim, health emergency officer at the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa said at the briefing, adding that it had a lower fatality rate in previous outbreaks.

However, Otim said the Sudan strain posed a greater threat because the world did not yet have a vaccine for it like it has with the Zaire strain.

So its very, very critical that at this point we treat this outbreak as serious because we may not have the advantage that we have gained in terms of advancement in medical countermeasures, he said.

Mubende lies on a highway that starts from the capital Kampala, connecting Uganda to Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Otim said this meant there was a threat of cross border transmission.

In 2019, Uganda experienced an outbreak of Ebola Zaire. The virus was imported from neighbouring Congo which was battling a large epidemic in its northeastern region.

In August, a new case of Ebola virus was confirmed in the city of Beni in eastern Congo.

SOURCE: REUTERS
The Government has rubberstamped the publication of the Work Life Balance Bill that will introduce paid leave for victims of domestic violence.

The Bill will bring in a range of measures to improve family-friendly work practices and support women in the workforce.

Once the legislation is enacted, those who are suffering or at risk of domestic violence will be entitled to five days of paid leave per year.

The Government will put in place support for employers to help them develop domestic violence workplace policies and to support employees experiencing domestic violence.

The Bill also contains three key measures to support families and carers.

These include a right to request flexible working arrangements for caring purposes, for parents and carers; a right to leave for medical care purposes, both for employees with children up to age 12 and carers.

It also includes an extension of the current entitlement to breastfeeding and lactation breaks from six months to two years.

Minister for Children Roderic OGorman said: I am pleased to have secured Cabinet approval for publication of the Work Life Balance Bill.

We are committed to ensuring that every child gets the best start in life, and supporting all parents to spend more time with their children in those precious early years is a big part of that.

Through a wide-ranging suite of measures, it will provide additional flexibility to ensure that parents and carers can be supported to balance their working and family lives.

Importantly, the Bill will also provide significant assistance to those who are suffering domestic, sexual or gender-based violence.

The Government has always prioritised the issue of domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence, and Ireland will now become one of the first countries in Europe to introduce a right to paid leave for victims of domestic violence.

The Government also approved the Domestic Violence Leave Report which includes recommendations on how best to support employees experiencing domestic abuse.

The report makes two key recommendations.

These include that a form of domestic violence leave be introduced and that supports for employers are put in place to assist them in developing domestic violence workplace policies to complement the leave and better support employees experiencing domestic violence.

The department also said the minister intends to introduce legislative provisions providing for a form of domestic violence leave as Committee Stage amendments to the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill.
A Bill introducing paid leave for victims of domestic violence has been approved for publication by the Irish government.

The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022 will feature a range of measures to improve family-friendly work practices and support women in the work force.

Once enacted, those suffering or at risk of domestic violence will be entitled to five days of paid leave per year.

Commenting on the Bill, Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic OGorman said, "I am pleased to have secured Cabinet approval for publication of the Work Life Balance Bill. We are committed to ensuring that every child gets the best start in life, and supporting all parents to spend more time with their children in those precious early years is a big part of that.

"Through a wide-ranging suite of measures, it will provide additional flexibility to ensure that parents and carers can be supported to balance their working and family lives.

"Importantly, the Bill will also provide significant assistance to those who are suffering domestic, sexual or gender-based violence. The Government has always prioritised the issue of domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence, and Ireland will now become one of the first countries in Europe to introduce a right to paid leave for victims of domestic violence.

The Bill contains three key measures to support families and carers, including a right to request flexible working arrangements for caring purposes, parents and carers, a right to leave for medical care purposes both for employees with children up to age 12 and carers, and an extension of the current entitlement to breastfeeding/lactation breaks from six months to two years.

As well as the Bill's approval for publication, the Domestic Violence Leave Report has also been approved by Government.

It makes two recommendations including the introduction of a form of domestic violence leave, and the creation of supports for employers to assist them in developing domestic violence workplace policies.
Man who was 1 of 8 injured in Chicago apartment blast dies

A man who was one of eight people injured in an explosion that tore through the top floor of a Chicago apartment building has died
In this quick collection we check more deets on court cases, alleged misdeeds and all manner of police action and aftermaths.

Check TKC news gathering . . .

3 shops on Troost Avenue get back to business after break-ins Some Kansas City businesses along Troost Avenue near 55th Street are picking up the pieces and moving forward after break-ins that occurred early Wednesday morning.A burglar was captured on surveillance video inside Urban Cafe after he broke through the glass door and tried to pry open an empty cash register."We had got robbed at gunpoint earlier this year.

Former Oak Park teacher, coach serving 30-day shock time LIBERTY, Mo. - A former teacher in the North Kansas City School District is behind bars after admitting he had an inappropriate relationship with a student. Greg Sims pleaded guilty to one count of having sexual contact with a student during a hearing earlier this week.

Extra police called to GM Fairfax Plant Thursday KMBC file image SOURCE: KMBC file image Extra police officers were called to the GM Fairfax Plant on Thursday afternoon.KMBC reached out to a GM spokesman, who released the following statement:"We have a third party who was escorted off property after making threatening comments.

3 Kansas City-area business owners accused of wiring drug money to Mexico KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Three Kansas City area business owners are among 44 people who've been indicted on a drug trafficking conspiracy worth $4.7 million. The U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri's office announced the indictments on Thursday. Ana Lilia Leal-Martinez, Ana Poala Banda and Maria de Lourdes Carbajal all own money wiring businesses.

'Rent-a-vet' federal contracting scheme in KC leads to third sentencing - Kansas City Business Journal A third participant was sentenced in a $335 million scheme to score federal contracts designated for veterans and minority-owned businesses. The Riverside company fronted a Black, service-disabled veteran as the owner, but three other men actually ran the business - and took most of the profits.

Parkville man sentenced to 8 years in federal prison in multi-million dollar fraud case KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A Parkville man who helped plot a fraud scheme to get federal contracts meant for veterans and minorities is headed to federal prison. A federal judge sentenced Patrick Dingle, 51, to eight years in federal prison Thursday, according to a news release from the U.S.

KC Unsolved: Daughter still searches for justice 12 years after Ronald Burns homicide RIVERSIDE, Mo (KCTV) - For more than 12 years, a daughter has waited to see her father's killer caught.Erricka McCullen insists she won't give up on receiving justice for her dad. McCullen remembers her father, Ronald Burns, as a giving and caring man who did not deserve what happened to him inside his Riverside apartment.

Developing . . .
The Cayuga County Soil and Water Conservation District has been awarded over $800,000  more than any other council soil and water district  to implement practices that combat climate change.

Cayuga County's $811,920 will support projects on nine farms. According to the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, the grant will be used to plant 5,200 acres of cover crops and implement residue and reduced tillage/no-till management on 16,785 acres of farmland.

The project's description says the practices "will decrease soil erosion, reduce runoff, enhance soil health, and increase soil organic matter." By using reduced tillage/no-tillage management, the department said the farms will decrease fuel consumption, which will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The state grant, which is provided through the Climate Resilient Farming Program, will cover most of $1 million project. Cayuga County farms will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2,971 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the grants on Thursday. Overall, the state is providing $7.9 million for projects on more than 70 farms that will reduce carbon emissions by an estimated 68,495 metric tons annually.

"New York's farmers are on the front lines of the fight against climate change and among the first to feel the devastating effects of extreme weather events that have become all too common in recent years," Hochul said.

The Climate Resilient Farming Program, she continued, "gives farmers the resources they need to prepare for and respond to whatever weather events the future holds and continue their critical work contributing to our local economies, and producing fresh, healthy products for all New Yorkers."

The program was established in 2015. Nearly $20 million has been awarded through six rounds of funding, according to Hochul's office.
Sure, this is just a manufacturing survey and the global economy now relies on the endurance of Asian youngsters to support it . . . Still, the big picture is that the stagflation fear might soon be realized as winter approach and the impact of rate hikes take hold.



More deets here for our nerdy readers . . .



The Tenth District manufacturing survey's composite index fell to 1 in September from 3 in August, the lowest reading since July 2020. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected the index to come in at 5.



The indicator gauges manufacturing activity of firms located in the western third of Missouri, all of Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Wyoming, and the northern half of New Mexico. A value greater than zero signals that activity in the region grew over the month.



"Regional factory activity was sluggish overall in September," said Chad Wilkerson, vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
As we start the weekend . . . Let's help the discourse by trying to distinguish betwixt two contenders competing for hearts & minds in the 4th District.

A lot of people forget but Crissy Dastrup was once an administrate aide for Council Dude Bunch. Now she's after his job.



We think that's interesting in its own right and it's kinda weird that there are so many progressive blogs out there but NONE of them have bothered to mention this fun fact.



There's more to write about this contest but for now let's just focus on the basics . . .



- Crissy Dastrup is a recent arrival to KC by way of Arkansas which is cool. Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure Council Dude Bunch was spawned from a 90s Dockers commercial.



- Both of their policies lean toward progressive goals with Council Dude Bunch bowing to Bike Supremacy whilst Ms. Dastrup showing a preference for parks.

- Social Justice seems to dominate the agenda of both candidates. Councilman Bunch proved to be a fierce critic of KCPD leadership during his first term. Meanwhile, we notice Ms. Dastrup seems to be a bit more ideologically focused.

We noticed some signage on Ms. Dastrup's campaign website that highlighted her affinity for BLM. Meanwhile, Council Dude Bunch has seems to be playing things a bit more cool amid election time.

In any event . . .

There are some similarities for 4th District voters but we look forward to these candidates distinguishing themselves during the campaign by way of debate and public statements.

What we're afraid might happen is that so many KCMO politicos will use the lingering news about the pandemic as an excuse to tweet their way into an office.



Developing . . .
Here's a quick look at local free speech defiance along with the over-exaggerated fear that the po-po have time to police reading material . . .



"This week, for Banned Books Week the Kansas City Public Library is hammering home that point with a banner below the books showing the row in miniature with a red x over each one that has been banned or challenged somewhere in the world. People passing by are taking notice."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Downtown library reimagined for Banned Books Week If you've ever passed by the giant bookshelf painted on the Kansas City Public Library's downtown parking garage, you know it's a collection of classics. You might not know that a third of the featured books have been challenged or banned at one time or another.

In related news here's a dramatic story wherein NOTHING really happened . . .



"The visits from law enforcement didnt result in any actions, but they highlight the potential stakes of Missouris new law criminalizing certain books in schools."

Check-it . . .

School librarian recalls 'surreal' police visits over books months before new Missouri law Last fall, at school board meetings across the country, parents who were upset about COVID-19 precautions began to speak out about another grievance - school library books. In the St. Louis region, groups of parents went to board meetings to read aloud passages they said were sexually explicit, calling the books "criminal."

You decide . . .
The answer is confusing and hinges on nuance that most voters wont' bother to understand . . .

How are trans people defined . . . Or how are genders defined at all???



TKC Caveat . . . What our conservative friends always miss in this conversation is that the debate needs to be approached compassionately given that we're talking about student youngsters and how to protect the safety and well-being of ALL OF THEM.

And so . . .



Check this recent explainer put on blast across the mainstream news and notice the highlighted keyword "subset" which allows a great deal of rhetorical liberty . . .



You may have seen my opponents attacks, she (Governor Kelly) said in the ad. So let me just say it: of course men should not play girls sports. OK, we all agree there.



The rest of the ad calls out her opponent, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt (R), for his support of cutting school funding.



Her statement is true: these laws are not about stopping boys or men from playing girls or womens sports, theyre about banning a subset of girls and women  those who are transgender  from participating in school sports. Like most mainstream Democrats, Kelly is in favor of transgender people getting access to full educations  sports education included  but isnt in favor of removing gender distinctions in schools.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
Costume designer Jennifer Johnson says Marilyns black turtleneck and white capri pants are the most "iconic" look in the film, signifying the actors desire to move away from sexy pin-up.
I had some of the best meals of my life deep in the middle of nowhere in Italy
Tiny towns, big creative spirit:In Newfoundlands Bonavista Peninsula, I find makers dreaming up pieces with a sense of place

All up and down the peninsula, theres always been an artists community welcoming new ideas.
City

 Scott A. Meyer, 33, transient, Auburn, was charged Sept. 19 with petit larceny.

 Jay L. Garrigan, 40, transient, Auburn, was charged Sept. 19 with petit larceny.

 Tylor J. McCracken, 23, 45 Grant Ave., Auburn, was charged Sept. 19 with petit larceny.

 Audrey N. Saphara, 27, 46 Orchard St., Apt. 1, Auburn, was charged Sept. 20 with second-degree menacing, criminal obstruction of breathing, third-degree criminal possession of weapon and second-degree burglary.

 Jabari A. Penda, 29, transient, Auburn, was charged Sept. 20 with obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest.

 Zachary C. Trufant, 33, 4 Van Patten St., Auburn, was charged Sept. 20 with two counts of second-degree criminal contempt.

 Matthew P. Murray, 36, 101 Quill Ave., Auburn, was charged Sept. 20 with endangering the welfare of a child.

 Adam Thomas, 21, 19 Cross St., Auburn, was charged Sept. 21 with aggravated family offense, second-degree criminal contempt, first-degree criminal contempt and second-degree unlawful imprisonment.

 Jason M. Rielly, 40, 112 E. Genesee St., Auburn, was charged Sept. 21 with resisting arrest.

 Gregory A. Latz, 45, transient, Auburn, was charged Sept. 22 with petit larceny.

 JamieLyn L. Spaulding, 41, 227 Genesee Ave., Auburn, was charged Sept. 22 with petit larceny.

 Evan T. Lusk, 30, 142 Wall St., Auburn, was charged Sept. 22 with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, first-degree criminal contempt and endangering the welfare of a child.

County

 Allan M. Loury, 28, 7445 County House Road, Sennett, was charged Sept. 20 with third-degree assault.

 Corey J. Matzen, 38, 988 Toll Gate Hill Road, Locke, was charged Sept. 20 with third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

 Christopher J. Rouse, 31, 38 Holley St., Auburn, was charged Sept. 20 with driving while intoxicated-first offense.

 Arthur W. Dec, 58, 99 SE Mizner Blvd., Boca Roton, Florida, was charged Sept. 22 with driving while intoxicated-first offense and aggravated driving while intoxicated.

State

 Nathan J. Delaney, 22, Skaneateles, was charged Sept. 20 with second-degree course of sexual conduct against a child.

 Jay L. Garrigan, 40, Auburn, was charged Sept. 23 with second-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and petit larceny.

 Cody J. Reyome, 41, Port Byron, was charged Sept. 23 with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and operation of a motor vehicle while registration or privilege is suspended or revoked.
First 100 families get free pumpkins at this harvest party in North York
Iain Reids new literary thriller We Spread: Just what is going on at the Six Cedars retirement home?
U.S. Rep. John Katko was one of nine Republicans who broke with their party's leadership to vote for a bill that would reform the 135-year-old Electoral Count Act and, the sponsors hope, prevent a repeat of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

The legislation, co-authored by U.S. Reps. Liz Cheney and Zoe Lofgren, would ensure that the vice president's role in the count is ceremonial and require that one-third of each house is needed to object to a state's electoral votes, up from one member of each house.

The bill would also set requirements for states to submit certificates verifying their counts and prevent officials from refusing to certify presidential election results.

The House passed the measure by a 229-203 vote on Wednesday. Eight of the nine Republicans who voted for the bill, including Katko, also voted to impeach former President Donald Trump for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The attack occurred as Congress met to certify the 2020 presidential election results.

"There is significant bipartisan interest in reforming the Electoral Count Act of 1887," Katko said in a statement. "I supported the bill before the House (on Wednesday) because it moves this process forward; however, it is essential that the House and Senate move expeditiously to arrive at a consensus reform package."

A similar bill has been introduced in the Senate and has the support of at least 10 Republicans  enough to overcome a filibuster and allow for a final vote. Like the House bill, it would ensure that the vice president's role in overseeing the certification of the election is ministerial.

One key difference between the House and Senate bills is the threshold needed to object to a state's results. The Senate bill would require a minimum of one-fifth of members from both houses to file an objection.

The Senate has yet to vote on its bill, but President Joe Biden has signaled that he would sign an electoral count reform bill if it clears Congress.

Before the House voted on its proposal Wednesday, the White House released a statement supporting the bill's passage.

"The administration shares the Congress' interest in safeguarding the electoral process to preserve the will of the people, as expressed through democratic procedures established by law," the statement reads. "Since the Electoral Count Act was enacted in 1887, several close or contested elections have revealed the need for greater precision in the statutory structure."
As state Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon considers whether to lower the overtime threshold for New York farmworkers, Republican state senators hope she will reject the plan.

Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt and members of his conference sent a letter to Reardon urging her to oppose lowering the overtime standard from 60 to 40 hours a week. The 40-hour threshold was recommended by the Farm Laborers Wage Board, which voted 2-1 to send its report to Reardon for review.

"If the final report is accepted by the labor commissioner, we will see livelihoods across our state ruined and a mass exodus of farmworkers," Ortt, R-North Tonawanda, said. "The damage will go beyond our farming industry and increase the price of consumer goods that many New Yorkers are already struggling to afford."

The wage board was established as part of the Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act that was signed into law in 2019. The measure gave farmworkers certain labor rights, including collective bargaining and a day of rest. It also set the overtime threshold at 60 hours a week, but the wage board's task was to examine whether it should be lowered.

COVID-19 disrupted the wage board's work, but the three-member panel  former Buffalo Urban League President Brenda McDuffie, former New York State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes and New York Farm Bureau President David Fisher  held virtual meetings and public hearings. The board voted in January to recommend a lower overtime threshold for farmworkers, then finalized the report earlier this month.

If Reardon accepts the recommendation, the overtime threshold for farmworkers would be lowered by four hours every two years  from 60 to 56 in 2024, 56 to 52 in 2026, 52 to 48 in 2028, 48 to 44 in 2030 and 44 to 40 in 2032.

Proponents of the change believe it will align farmworkers with those in other industries who get overtime after working more than 40 hours a week. Opponents say it could harm the agricultural industry and farms may leave the state.

Republicans have spoken out against the proposal. State Sen. George Borrello introduced legislation in August to abolish the farm wage board. The bill is unlikely to pass in the Democratic-led state Legislature.

"While it is common to hear state leaders praise the invaluable contributions of our farming community, nice words ultimately do nothing to help New York farmers who are struggling under the weight of ever-expanding state mandates and rising costs," said Borrello, who serves as the ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

He continued, "The decision on whether to accept the wage board's misguided recommendation that the overtime threshold be lowered is an opportunity to back up words with action. By rejecting the adoption of a 40-hour threshold, Governor Hochul and Commissioner Reardon can save our farming community from a long, painful demise and ensure this vital industry has a future in our state."

Reardon's final decision is expected in mid-October. If she accepts the wage board's recommendation, the state Department of Labor will issue new regulations.
Russia's decision on mobilization is a frank admission that their regular army, which has been prepared for decades to take over a foreign country, did not withstand and crumbled.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said this in his video address, Ukrinform reports.

Ukrainians!

All our defenders!

Today I want to say special words of gratitude. Gratitude to all our people who defend our state, defend independence.

Ukraine held out after a full-scale attack by Russia. Ukraine managed to unite the world around the struggle for freedom. Ukraine managed to liberate a significant part of the territory the Russian troops invaded. Ukraine liberates people from Russian captivity.

And Ukraine managed to change the course of the war so that every occupier, even the most inadequate one, felt that we can win and are moving towards victory.

I am thankful to everyone who fights and works for this! For the sake of our victory.

It is precisely to the fact of Ukrainian strength that the leadership of Russia reacts, changing tactics and trying to draw even more Russian citizens and resources into the war.

Russia's decision on mobilization is a frank admission that their regular army, which has been prepared for decades to take over a foreign country, did not withstand and crumbled. And now, due to mobilization, Russia's war against Ukraine for the majority of Russian citizens is not something on TV or on the Internet, but something that has entered every Russian home.

Ive held a meeting of the Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief today. The questions are clear. Frontline. Provision of our military. And new threats created by Russia.

I will note right away: any decisions of the Russian leadership do not change anything for Ukraine. We should care only about our tasks. This is the liberation of our country, the protection of our people and the mobilization of global support for the implementation of our tasks.

Diplomatic mobilization of the entire international community is now taking place.

The circle of those who support us now is not limited to our traditional partners and those who openly supported our state after February 24. Now almost everyone supports us - this is the reaction to new Russian escalation steps.

In particular, the farce with the preparation of sham referenda in the occupied territory demonstrates what happened in 2014 in Crimea and Donbas.

And I am grateful to everyone in the world who supported us. Who clearly condemned another Russian lie.

Grateful to President Biden and all American friends. To President Macron, Chancellor Scholz, the President of Finland and all our Polish brothers, the Baltic states, Mr. Borrell, Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen, Charles Michel, the OSCE and all Europeans from Iceland to Romania, who will never be deceived by Russia again.

I am thankful to Britain for the support! Turkiye! Thank you Canada! Thanks also to all those who now privately express their support for Ukraine.

When Russia declares that it supposedly wants negotiations, but announces mobilization... When Russia knows Ukraine's clear position about the impossibility of a diplomatic process after Russia holds any sham referenda...

Everything is clear to everyone. Russia itself buries the prospect of negotiations with its own hands.

I will explain to the Russians what is happening in Russian.

Protests against mobilization took place in the cities of Russia - albeit not massive, but they took place. And they take place. And this is an indicator. Not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg. We know the real mood in the regions of Russia.

We see that people in Dagestan, in Buryatia, in other national republics and regions of Russia understand that they were simply thrown. Thrown to death.

Why, for example, Dagestanis or anyone else should die in the Kharkiv region or near Donetsk? Because one person in Russia decided so - for all the citizens of Russia. There is no other reason. Thats what he wants.

You are already accomplices in all these crimes, murders and torture of Ukrainians.

Because you were silent. Because you are silent.

And now it's time for you to choose. For men in Russia, this is a choice to die or live, to become a cripple or to preserve health. For women in Russia, the choice is to lose their husbands, sons, grandchildren forever, or still try to protect them from death, from war, from one person.

Just think about the number of people they want to take away!

We know for sure that the conscription letters for 300,000 people were printed and signed in advance, even before this decision on mobilization appeared. Our intelligence has proven it. But the Russian leadership is preparing to take up to a million men into the army - this is the key thing they are now silent about.

We know that they will take everyone indiscriminately. Not only the military in the reserve, but any men. Anyone who will be so intimidated that he will be more afraid of avoiding war than of dying in war.

55 thousand Russian soldiers died in this war in six months. Tens of thousands are wounded and maimed. Want more? No? Then protest. Fight back. Run away. Or surrender to Ukrainian captivity. These are options for you to survive.

Russian mothers! Have no doubt that the children of the top officials of your state will not be sent to the war against Ukraine. Those who make decisions in your country take care of their children. And they do not even bury your children.

And we return ours.

A very important briefing was held today. Head of the Office Yermak, Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Budanov, Head of the Security Service Maliuk, Minister of Internal Affairs Monastyrskyi. They told the details of our operation to release 215 warriors, the details of the exchange. We do everything so that society and the world can see how Ukraine protects people and basic human values.

Once again, I congratulate 215 families and our entire country on the return of the heroes.

I am thankful to everyone who helps Ukraine!

Eternal glory to all who fight for Ukraine!

Glory to our indomitable and brave people!

Glory to Ukraine!
Germany handed Ukraine another six Gepard anti-aircraft self-propelled artillery guns along with ammunition.

This follows from the updated list of military supplies, posted on the website of the German Federal Government, Ukrinform reports.

A total of 6,000 anti-aircraft munitions pieces go along with the self-propelled guns. Also, 3,000 shells for 155-mm artillery were handed over.

Thus, the Armed Forces of Ukraine already have in service a total of 30 Gepards

Being preparing for transfer are five Panzerhaubitzen 2000 self-propelled guns with a set of ammunition; MARS II MLR systems with ammunition; 50 Dingo General Defense vehicles, and a "Winter Pack" (warm uniforms, generator sets, tents, and food rations, etc.).

Earlier, the Bundestag discussed the issue of providing Ukraine with heavy weapons, in particular, Leopard main battle tanks and Marder infantry fighting vehicles, but no vote took place as the issue was forwarded to a specialized committee.

Instead, on September 21, the defense ministers of Germany and Slovenia agreed on a "ring exchange", according to which Slovenia is expected to supply Ukraine with 28 M-55S main battle tanks of the Soviet design in exchange for modern German military trucks from Bunderswehr stocks. Similar schemes already operate with the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Greece.

Germany is currently the largest arms supplier to Ukraine in the EU and the third in the world after the USA and Great Britain. As of September 19, Germany has sent to Ukraine weapons and equipment worth over EUR 733,634,486.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine is able to provide opportunities for the construction of capacities for the production of tens of millions of tonnes of pure green and cheap ammonia.

The president made the statement while speaking at the Forbes 400 philanthropy summit, Ukrinform reports with reference to the presidential press service.

"The whole world needs fertilizers for food production. Why make or buy them from Russian gas? It is possible to build facilities for the production of tens of millions of tons of pure green and cheap ammonia in Ukraine. You can make money from this and help not only food security, but also peace - peace on our planet," Zelensky emphasized.

Also, the president reiterated the idea that Ukrainian electricity can help replace dirty Russian energy resources.

The Ukrainian leader added that Ukraine has tremendous opportunities in developing f hydrogen energy and transmission of green hydrogen to Europe.

"The sun, wind, nuclear energy, green hydrogen - all this is in Ukraine, and it's not just billions of dollars that can be invested and earned, but billions of dollars that will work to help different countries and peoples - tens of millions of people. New green clean energy requires lithium, graphite and other rare earth metals. We have enough of them. Therefore, by investing in Ukraine, one can accelerate the development of green energy in other countries as well," Zelensky noted.

The head of state also noted that every year, Ukraine generates tens of millions of cubic meters of wood, while ensuring the restoration of its forests.

Therefore, in his opinion, investing in the production in Ukraine of environmentally-friendly goods from wood and cellulose is a way to reduce global use of petroleum products and plastic.

As reported by Ukrinform, President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the issue of expanding Ukraine's ability to export electric power to EU member states.

Photo: Ukrainian Presidents Office
At a meeting with Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal emphasized the need for international pressure on Russia to continue the "grain initiative" and Ukrainian grain exports from the Black Sea ports.

As Ukrinform reports with reference to the Government Portal, the meeting took place on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

"In cooperation with the UN, we have achieved an opportunity to export Ukrainian grain, in particular to countries in Asia and Africa, which need it the most. 200 ships have already left Ukrainian ports, and we call on all countries to continue putting pressure on Russia at the international level to prevent it from derailing the initiative. This is rather critical in the issue of ensuring global food security," Shmyhal said.

For his part, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi noted that Iraq supported the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and advocated the continuation of the Ukrainian grain exports.

According to the Prime Minister of Iraq, good relations have developed between the two countries in the field of education and economy, and they strive to develop them further. Moreover, Iraq stands ready to continue providing humanitarian support for Ukrainians.

Shmyhal emphasized that Ukraine appreciated the diplomatic efforts of Iraq within the Arab Leagues contact group regarding the situation in Ukraine, aimed at ending the war unleashed by the Russian Federation. The PM of Ukraine expressed hope that Iraq would continue to support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, in particular within the framework of the UN.

As Shmyhal noted, Iraq is an important and promising partner, and Ukraine is interested in continuing mutually beneficial cooperation in various spheres of the economy. In particular, one of the common interests of the countries may be the participation of Iraqi businesses in the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine.

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The situation in Ukraine remains very important to Italy, and Italian partners support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Ukrainian state.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this after a meeting with Italian Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini, Ukrinform reports, citing the Telegram channel of the head of state.

"For Italy, despite many internal issues, the situation in Ukraine remains very important. We feel the constant support for our sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as for the struggle for our existence, from Prime Minister Mario Draghi, the government, and the Italian people," he said.

Zelensky thanked Guerini for the "meaningful meeting," stressing that the strengthening of the Armed Forces is a vital priority for Ukraine today.
Japan will reopen its embassy in Kyiv and fully resume the work of its diplomatic mission.

Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal wrote this on Telegram following a meeting with Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida, Ukrinform reports.

"Japan and the Japanese people stand side by side with Ukraine in defense of true values. I once again made sure of this during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in New York. I thanked for supporting Ukraine during the Russian aggression. An important topic of our conversation - the safety of nuclear facilities," he said.

Shmyhal informed the Prime Minister of Japan about the situation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP and Russia's shelling of the South Ukraine NPP.

It is noted that the prime ministers coordinated positions on measures to demilitarize the ZNPP. "We count on Japan's assistance in this matter at the G7 level," Shmyhal noted.

In addition, he thanked Japan for its participation in the Crimea Platform, financial, humanitarian and political support. The parties also discussed the need for increasing sanctions pressure on the Russian Federation and creating a tribunal to hold the top leadership of the Russian Federation accountable for crimes against Ukrainians.

During the meeting, Fumio Kishida assured that his country would continue to be a "powerful advocate for Ukraine" at the G7 level and at the UN.

Photo: Denys Shmyhal/Telegram

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The exchange of five commanders of the Azov Regiment released from Russian captivity took place in Ankara after the verification and identification procedure and the transfer of Viktor Medvedchuk to the Russian Federation.

"Two hundred people were exchanged on the [UkraineRussia] border, five  in Turkey, and ten more  in Saudi Arabia. In Turkey, the exchange took place in Ankara and five of our defenders were transferred after the procedure of verification and identification of persons, as well as after the physical handover of Medvedchuk," Ambassador of Ukraine to Turkey Vasyl Bodnar told Ukrinform in a comment.

According to the diplomat, the exchange took place at four locations and was preceded by many days of intense work.

"These exchanges are coordinated by Head of the Presidents Office Andriy Yermak. In Ankara, this operation was personally guided by Minister of Internal Affairs Denys Monastyrskyi and Head of the Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense Kyrylo Budanov and their teams. The exchange was preceded by many days of intense work, and there were difficult moments, which may one day be revealed to the public. The process was completely secret and various mediators were involved, primarily Turkey and Saudi Arabia," the Ambassador said.

Bodnar explained that the details had not been disclosed not to disrupt the exchange at the last moment.

"Considering how much Azov [Regiment] and Mariupol defenders overall were demonized in Russia, one can imagine how important it was for Putin to return Medvedchuk and take a step that somehow shows readiness for negotiations as well. The current exchange is the result of the implementation of agreements between President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This is the hard work of a whole team of negotiators and mediators. But this is also a consequence of our counteroffensive," the diplomat noted.

Bodnar also believes that the prisoner swap, which took place almost simultaneously with the announcement of partial mobilization in the Russian Federation, indicates the instability of the situation in Russia itself and speaks of the uncertainty of its leadership in further steps.

As reported, more than 200 Ukrainian defenders, as well as 10 foreigners, were returned from Russian captivity within the exchange on September 21. The released five commanders of the Azov Regiment will stay in Turkey until the end of the war.

MP Viktor Medvedchuk, suspected of high treason, and 55 Russian soldiers were returned to Russia.

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The United States for several months has been sending private communications to Moscow warning Russias leaders of the grave consequences that would follow the use of nuclear weapons.

Thats according to the Washington Post, citing U.S. officials, Ukrinform reports.

The Biden administration deliberately kept vague their warnings about the consequences of a nuclear strike, to make sure the Kremlin is anxious about how Washington might respond, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The attempt by Washington to create strategic ambiguity comes as Russia has further escalated its rhetoric about the possible use of nuclear weapons amid a recently-launched partial mobilization effort to replenish military losses in Ukraine.

While the U.S. State Department has been pursuing private communications with Moscow, officials would not reveal who delivered the messages or their content.

It also remains unclear if any new messages were conveyed to Moscow following Vladimir Putins latest address, which held nuclear threats.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the Pentagon said Russias nuclear threats would not affect further military assistance to Ukraine.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine informed charge d'affaires ad interim of Iran in Ukraine about the decision to revoke the accreditation of the Ambassador of Iran to Ukraine and to significantly reduce the number of embassys diplomatic personnel due to the facts of the use of Iranian-made weapons by the Russian troops.

This is stated in the statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

"To fulfill the request of the President of Ukraine to take urgent measures to respond to the facts of the use of Iranian-made weapons by the Russian troops in the territory of Ukraine, the charge d'affaires ad interim of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Ukraine was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on September 23," the statement reads.

The Iranian side was told that the supply of Iranian weapons to Russia for its further use by Russian troops against the Ukrainian civilian population and the Defense Forces directly contradicts the position of neutrality and respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, publicly declared by the top leadership of Iran.

"Supplying weapons to Russia for waging war against Ukraine is an unfriendly act that deals a serious blow to UkraineIran relations," the statement underscores.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs notes that the Ukrainian side decided to revoke the accreditation of the Ambassador of Iran to Ukraine and to significantly reduce the number of diplomatic personnel of the Embassy of Iran in Kyiv in response to such an unfriendly act.

As reported, the Russian troops intensified air attacks using Iranian Shahed-136 kamikaze drones in the south of Ukraine. In particular, the enemy once again attacked the port infrastructure of the town of Ochakiv, Mykolaiv region, with these drones. One of the two drones was shot down by Ukrainian units, the other hit a port tug.

On September 23, the President of Ukraine requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to respond to the facts of the use of Iranian-made weapons by Russian troops.

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Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak had a telephone conversation with new British Prime Minister's National Security Adviser, former British Ambassador to Ukraine Timothy Barrow.

Barrow pointed out the importance of the recent release of 215 people from Russian captivity, including five UK citizens, the press service of the Presidents Office informs.

"This was a priority for us. Great Britain is extremely grateful for the release of its citizens. And I can imagine how important it is for you to liberate your fellow citizens and true heroes of your country," he said.

As noted, the interlocutors discussed ways for even closer cooperation between the two countries, which are true partners and friends.

According to Yermak, weekly briefings are held at the President's Office with the participation of Ukrainian service members for military representatives from the US and Great Britain to inform them about the latest developments at the front.

The Head of the Presidents Office also talked about the successful practice of online meetings with members of the US Congress and suggested organizing similar communication with British parliamentarians.

"It is very important that the members of the British Parliament be informed about the current situation, the success of the Ukrainian army and our needs. This will allow us to continue moving forward and liberate Ukrainian territories," Yermak believes.

The Head of the President's Office also told Barrow about the recommendations developed by the Yermak-Rasmussen international working group regarding future security guarantees for Ukraine, which were sent to the British side.

Barrow noted that Great Britain was impressed by the success of the Ukrainian military and would continue to support Ukraine and its Armed Forces.

"Rest assured that every day when we talk with the Prime Minister, we talk about Ukraine," he said.

As reported, more than 200 Ukrainian defenders, as well as 10 foreigners, were returned from Russian captivity within the exchange on September 21.

ol
Sept. 23, 1992

The neo-Nazi sect that came to Auburn about 10 days ago is well-known to civil rights officials across the country.

They say at least some adherents of the United States of America Nationalist Party belong to the Identity Church  a "pseudo-religious" umbrella for a variety of white supremacist groups, including Aryan Nations, the Possee Comitatus and the Ku Klux Klan.

Although the neo-Nazis who have set up shop in Auburn say they are non-violent, civil rights officials say the Identity Church has a rich history of brutality against African Americans, Jews and other perceived enemies.

And, they say, Identity Church members across the country have been captured with explosive weapons similar to those city police confiscated from a Grover Street apartment a week ago.
Refugees from Ukraine wait to be registered at UNHCR's cash assistance enrolment centre in Warsaw, Poland.  UNHCR/Maciej Moskwa

GENEVA  Seven months after the onset of the international armed conflict in Ukraine, refugees remain grateful for the warm reception that they have received across Europe and most plan to stay put for now.

The majority are highly educated and willing to work and contribute to their host countries, but they need sustained support to help ensure socio-economic inclusion, according to a survey released today by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

Based on 4,800 responses from Ukrainian refugees hosted in countries across Europe and beyond, between August and September, Lives on Hold: Intentions and Perspectives of Refugees from Ukraine, provides insights into the challenges they are facing, as well as their intentions.

With the conflict in Ukraine still tearing millions of families apart, the majority of Ukrainian refugees (81 per cent) intend to return home to reunite with their families, but only 13 per cent plan to do so in the next three months, the survey found.

In host countries, many refugees mentioned positive factors, such as their links to family or friends, security and stability, the availability of medical services, access to education, and the overall economic situation.

Some 70 per cent of refugees possess higher education qualifications, and two-thirds were previously working in Ukraine. Refugees are eager to reenter the labour market, which would lessen their reliance on welfare, but currently, less than one-third are employed or self-employed.

Refugees are seeking to play a more active role in their host countries, but they need additional support to do so. New needs have emerged as displacement has continued. Many mention that they need classes in local languages, support to ensure their skills are formally recognized, and importantly, help with childcare services which would enable them to work outside the home.

Three-quarters of those surveyed reported that they intended to send their children to school in their host country, while 18 per cent preferred remote learning using the Ukrainian curriculum.

Without work, many are struggling to make ends meet and find adequate housing. Nearly half (41 per cent) are staying with hosts, 20 per cent are living in collective sites or hotels, while a quarter is renting. Many are deeply concerned about finding alternative sustainable solutions ahead of winter.

Other pressing needs remain psychological support and specialized help for children with disabilities and older people. Some 87 per cent of refugees are women and children, and almost a third of respondents reported a family member with at least one disability.

Large parts of Ukraine remain devastated, with towns and livelihoods destroyed in many areas. The onset of winter and spiralling energy prices  or the lack of power -- make return home at the moment difficult for many of the displaced.

Almost seven million people are displaced in the country, and UNHCR is conducting repairs and insulation on homes for vulnerable families preparing for winter. More than 815,000 have received food and non-food items, including winter clothes, while more than 31,000 have received emergency shelter materials. UNHCR aims to distribute emergency shelter kits for over 100,000 people by year-end.

With more than 7.4 million refugees from Ukraine across Europe, UNHCR is urging continued support for generous host countries to ensure refugees have access to adequate assistance, as well as socio-economic inclusion.

The qualitative and quantitative survey is the second by UNHCR on the profiles and intentions of refugees from Ukraine across Europe and covers refugees in a wider range of countries than the first.

For more information on this topic, please contact:
Rohingya refugee women make bags from jute at Kutupalong refugee settlement in Bangladesh.  UNHCR/Kamrul Hasan

New York - During a high-level joint event organized on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and Dr. Muhammad Al-Jasser, President of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), represented by Dr. Mansur Muhtar, Vice President for Operations and Dr Hiba Ahmed, Director General of the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD) announced the launch of the Global Islamic Fund for Refugees (GIFR).

A first-of-its-kind Shariah-compliant financing tool, the GIFR aims to provide innovative sustainable financial resources to support developmental and humanitarian assistance to displacement crises. The GIFR was launched with an initial capital investment by ISFD and UNHCR, inviting various interested entities and individuals to donate to the fund.

Director General of the ISFD Dr. Hiba Ahmed stated: The GIFR offers a unique opportunity to invest in responding to the developmental and humanitarian needs of millions of forcibly displaced people. She added: We are proud to launch the GIFR in partnership with UNHCR, which will pave the way for initiatives and efforts to assist forcibly displaced persons and host communities in IsDB member countries.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, commended the humanitarian partnership with IsDB and said: Over 100 million people have fled for safety due to the devastating effects of war, conflict, persecution, discrimination and the climate emergency with increasing needs for humanitarian assistance and sustainable solutions. He added: Innovative and sustainable funding is essential to ensure that help reaches people in need. The GIFR is a new approach that will not only help refugees but is also another tangible example of the strong solidarity that exists throughout the Islamic world with refugees.

As part of the Global Islamic Fund for Refugees, donor contributions will be invested and the proceeds from investments will be utilized to respond to forced displacement situations. Donors who contribute US$10 million or more to the Fund, will be able to join the GIFR Steering Committee and take part in the decisions to allocate funds in support of humanitarian efforts in IsDB member countries, which produce and host the largest number of refugees and displaced persons in the world.

For more information, please contact:
 UNHCR

The shipwreck off the coast of Syria late Thursday is simply tragic.

The boat had reportedly set off towards Europe on Tuesday from the port of Miniyeh, near Tripoli, Lebanon, carrying between 120 and 170 migrants and refugees, mostly Syrians, Lebanese, and Palestinians. Passengers included women, children, men and elderly people.

Search and rescue operations have confirmed that at least 70 people died so far. They were found in Syrian waters. Early reports indicate that 20 people were transferred to the hospital in the city of Tartous, some in a serious condition.

In Lebanon, the three agencies are following up with the relevant authorities and will offer support to bereaved families. UNHCR in Syria is also providing some material support to survivors in Tartous.

This is yet another heart-wrenching tragedy and we extend our deepest condolences to all those impacted, said Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. We call for full solidarity from the international community to help improve the conditions of forcibly displaced people and host communities in the Middle East, particularly in countries neighboring Syria. Too many people are being pushed to the brink.

People looking for safety should not be compelled to take such perilous and often deadly migration journeys, said Antonio Vitorino, IOM Director General. We must work together to increase safe and legal pathways to regular migration to help reduce loss of life and protect vulnerable people on the move.

This is just tragic. No one gets on these death boats lightly. People are taking this perilous decisions, risking their lives in search of dignity. We must do more to offer a better future and address a sense of hopelessness in Lebanon and across the region, including among Palestine refugees said Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini of UNRWA.

In response to increased sea departures from the region over the past months, IOM, UNHCR, and UNRWA call on coastal states to increase efforts to build their capacity to provide search and rescue services and to work to ensure predictability in identifying safe places of disembarkation.

However, it is even more critical that action be taken to address the root causes of these movements and for the international community, in line with the principle of responsibility-sharing, to strengthen access to safer, alternative pathways to stop people resorting to dangerous journeys. Much more humanitarian and development support must also go to those displaced and host communities throughout the region to help stem their suffering and improve their living conditions and opportunities.

Failing this, refugees, asylum-seekers, migrants, and internally displaced people will continue to take dangerous journeys in search of safety, protection, and a better life.

For more information, please contact:

UNHCR

In Amman: Rula Amin, [email protected] , +962 (0)790 04 58 49

IOM
By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan and Romania have discussed priorities of energy collaboration, such as gas supply from Azerbaijan and transmission of renewable energy through the Black Sea submarine line, Azernews reports.

The discussions took place during a meeting between Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov and Romanian Energy Minister Virgil-Daniel Popescu on the margins of the 5th Romanian International Gas Conference.

"We discussed with my counterpart @vpopescu68 the priorities of our energy collaboration such as gas supply from Azerbaijan and transmission of #RE through the Black Sea submarine line. Azerbaijan, Georgia, Hungary, and Romania have great partnership opportunities for #GreenEnergy," Parviz Shahbazov twitted.

During the meeting, satisfaction was expressed for Romania's cooperation with Azerbaijan on crude oil, oil, and petrochemical products for many years. The parties assessed the activity of SOCAR's 69 petrol stations in 26 regions of Romania as an indicator of beneficial bilateral energy relations.

The sides exchanged views on the activities of the working group and the preparation of the feasibility study of the project, noting that the project will contribute to the access of the Eastern European market to affordable electricity by connecting the Georgian energy system to the Romanian and European energy systems.

Additionally, they emphasized that the development plans for both the Southern Gas Corridor and the green energy corridor will add strategic importance to the Azerbaijani-Romanian Energy Partnership.

Azerbaijan and Romania are cooperating in various spheres of the economy. The two countries established diplomatic relations on June 19, 1992. The embassy of Romania in Azerbaijan was opened on November 3, 1998, and the embassy of Azerbaijan in Romania on May 19, 2001.

The trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $215.5 million in 2021, with exports amounting to $120.5 million, and imports to $94.9 million.
For the Gasgoo Awards 2022, the NOA driving and parking Solution from Yihang Intelligence has applied for the Top 100 Players of China's New Automotive Supply Chain.

Description:

Yihang intelligence's NOA docking integration scheme realizes point-to-point automatic driving capability in typical scenarios with high cost performance, and creates immersive driving experience through leading fusion sensing algorithm and rich sensing devices, opening a new era of human-machine co-driving.

Photo credit: Yihang Intelligence

Unique Advantages:

Five unique advantages of Yihang's NOA solution

1) Full function: The most complete form of NOA function is realized - with 16 driving functions, automatic overtaking and automatic road network switching (ramp driving) are its core capabilities; 10 parking functions, among which 1000 meters memory parking and fusion parking are the industry leaders.

2) Cost-effectiveness: Based on TI TDA4 platform, the cost of NOA is reduced by more than 50% compared to the NOA mass production solution already launched in the market, and can cover models within 150,000 RMB. Two solutions are offered, single/dual TDA4, where the single TDA4 solution can replace L2 ADAS functions, achieving higher-order functions with a better driving experience at the same cost.

3) High safety: ENCAP five-star rating certification, greatly improving active safety capabilities, mass production models exported to Europe.

4) Energy evolution: support data return and OTA online upgrade to promote continuous iterative upgrade of the autonomous driving system.

5) Good experience: 5R11V+12USS rich configuration with advanced fusion sensing algorithm brings centimeter-level control accuracy and creates an immersive driving experience.

Application:

Freeways, city ring roads, and urban expressways, with point-to-point autonomous driving from automatically entering the ramp to exiting the ramp.

Prospects:

The realization of the ultimate goal of autonomous driving cannot be achieved without the large-scale accumulation of high-quality data and the iterative upgrading of deep learning algorithms nourished by data, and whoever has mastered the data will have the initiative of development. Yihang intelligence NOA line parked one already has a large-scale promotion basis, can provide high-quality human-machine co-driving data, is a new starting point for automatic driving data accumulation.
With Gasgoo Daily, we will offer daily important automotive news in China. For those we have reported, the title of the piece will include a hyperlink, which will provide detailed information.

XPeng: CATL is no longer the biggest battery supplier

Hongdi Brian Gu, president of XPeng Inc., claimed in an interview that CATL is no longer the companys biggest source of battery, as XPeng has made diversification arrangements regarding its battery suppliers. The adjusted list of suppliers will help with the launch of the new G9 model. Other quality battery suppliers of XPeng include EVE Energy and CALB.

G9; photo credit

SERES works with CATL on M3P battery to cut reliance on precious metal

SERES disclosed that the company is working with CATL in power batteries, including the collaborative M3P new-type battery. The M3P battery is able to offer an improved performance and range while cutting cost and reliance on precious metal like cobalt.

CATL applies for M3P trademark

According to Chinas corporate database Tianyancha, CATL has recently filed for two M3P trademarks under the international category of scientific instrument, transportation facility.

Toyota China to recall 8,308 imported Lexus vehicles

Starting from September 28, 2022, a total of 8,308 Lexus NX 260, NX 350H, and NX 400H + vehicles imported between March 31, 2021 and April 26, 2022 will be recalled by Toyota in China.

Jiangsu Provinces Wuxi opens up whole-city intelligent vehicle road test as Chinas first

On September 22, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, unveiled the latest version of the Implementing Rules for Road Test and Demonstration Application Management of Intelligent Connected Vehicles in Wuxi City (the Rules).

Changan Automobiles board passes motion to set up intelligent driving company

On September 22, Chinas major automaker, Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., Ltd. ("Changan Automobile"), announced the completion of a board meeting, voting on matters including the establishment of an intelligent driving company, which was passed unanimously.

NavInfo-backed Cennavi partners with mobility service platform Dida Chuxing

Cennavi, a navigation-focused subsidiary of NavInfo, announced on September 23 the strategic cooperation with Chinas mobility service platform, Dida Chuxing, for an elevated ride-hailing experience.

Great Wall Motor inks memo for KD assembly in Kazakhstan

Great Wall Motor inked a KD assembly (knocked-down) cooperation intention memorandum with the companys partner in Kazakhstan, Astana Motors, marking a milestone in the Chinese automakers deployment in the local market.
Beijing (Gasgoo)- On September 22, Chinas major automaker, Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., Ltd. ("Changan Automobile"), announced the completion of a board meeting, voting on matters including the establishment of an intelligent driving company, which was passed unanimously.

Photo credit: Changan Automobile

On September 23, Changan Automobile's patent involving a vehicle autonomous driving method and device, electronic equipment, storage media was made public on the Chinese corporate database, Tianyancha.

According to the patent abstract, the autonomous driving method works by obtaining the ambient optical flow information of the current vehicle and multiple collision determination factors, among which the collision determination factors include radar perception information, image perception information, and map location information.

Specifically, the vehicle position information includes the data acquired in the tunnel entrance area or inside the tunnel. According to the vehicle position information, the factor weights of each collision determination factor are determined respectively, with the radar weights corresponding to the tunnel entrance area less significant than those corresponding to the inside of the tunnel.

According to the comparison results between the driving collision probability and the preset probability threshold, the current vehicle collision avoidance status will be determined, and the vehicle is controlled based on the said status.

The patent can more accurately calculate the driving collision probability and ensure the driving safety of vehicles in the process of automatic driving, based on its driving collision probability which calculate the significance of each radar factors.
CANBERRA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Sep, 2022 ) :The British government formally lifted a ban on fracking for shale gas in England on Thursday and confirmed support for new oil and gas licensing round.

According to a statement published Thursday, to "bolster the country's energy security," the British government has lifted the moratorium on shale gas production in England.

The government has also confirmed plans for a new oil and gas licensing round, launching by the North Sea Transition Authority in early October, paving the way for more than 100 new licences for exploration, which could involve fracking. These licences will enable developers to search for commercially viable oil and gas sources.

Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg said strengthening Britain's energy security is "an absolute priority." In 2019, the British government said that fracking would resume only if "the science shows categorically that it can be done safely." However, the Department for business, Energy and Industrial Strategy argued Thursday that lifting the ban would enable further data to be collected.

The moratorium on shale-gas production has been in place in England since 2019 following concerns over earth tremors. According to an Oil and Gas Authority report, it is not possible with current technology to accurately predict the probability of tremors associated with fracking.
(@FahadShabbir)

Beijing, Sept 23 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Sep, 2022 ) :Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Chinese foreign ministry said Friday.

Thursday's meeting was the first between the two since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February -- though they have held two phone calls in that time.

On Friday, the Moscow-held regions of Ukraine are voting on whether to become part of Russia in referendums that Kyiv and its allies have condemned as an unlawful land grab.

Wang told Kuleba that the "sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries must be respected... the legitimate security concerns of all countries must be taken seriously, and all efforts that are conducive to the peaceful settlement of the crisis must be supported," the ministry said in a statement.

Beijing has refused to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as President Xi Jinping pursues a close strategic alliance with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to counter the United States.

China has repeatedly called for a peaceful resolution of the conflict through dialogue, but has not taken action to facilitate it.

Wang told Kuleba that "China has always been committed to promoting peace talks, never stands idly by, never adds fuel to the fire and never takes advantage of the situation for self-interest".

"China always stands on the side of peace, and will continue to play a constructive role," he added.

Kuleba confirmed the meeting on Twitter.

"My counterpart reaffirmed China's respect for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as its rejection of the use of force as a means of resolving differences," he wrote.

- 'Sham' referendums - Beijing has had several high-level meetings with Moscow in recent months, including Wang's meeting on Wednesday with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, also on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Xi had a high-profile meeting with Putin in Uzbekistan earlier this month during his first state visit overseas since the pandemic began.

The meeting with Kuleba comes during a series of escalations by Putin after Ukrainian forces recaptured most of the formerly occupied Kharkiv region earlier this month.

The referendums in the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions, as well as in the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, have been dismissed as a sham by Kyiv's Western allies.

UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres called them a "violation of the UN Charter and international law".

The voting, which spans five days, comes after Putin announced this week a mandatory troop call-up for about 300,000 reservists, which triggered mass protests and an exodus of thousands of military-age men from Russia.

Wang is also scheduled to meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Friday, as the two rivals attempt to contain spiralling tensions over a range of issues.
New York, Sept 23 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Sep, 2022 ) :US securities officials fined Boeing $200 million over the aviation giant's misleading assurances about the safety of the 737 MAX airplane following two deadly crashes, regulators announced Thursday.

Boeing agreed to the penalty to settle charges it "negligently violated the antifraud provisions" of US securities laws, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement, saying the company and its leader "put profits over people." Boeing's former chief executive, Dennis Muilenburg, also agreed to pay $1 million to settle the same charges in the civil case.

The settlement marks the latest hit to Boeing over the MAX following the Lion Air Crash in Indonesia in October 2018 and the Ethiopian Airlines crash in Ethiopia in March 2019, which together claimed nearly 350 lives.

One month after the first crash, a Boeing press release approved by Muilenburg "selectively highlighted certain facts," implying pilot error and poor aircraft maintenance contributed to the crash.

The press release also attested to the aircraft's safety, not disclosing that Boeing knew a key flight handling system, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), posed safety issues and was being redesigned.

After the second crash, Boeing and Muilenburg assured the public that there was "no surprise or gap" in the federal certification of the MAX despite being aware of contrary information, the SEC said.

"In times of crisis and tragedy, it is especially important that public companies and executives provide full, fair, and truthful disclosures to the markets," said SEC Chair Gary Gensler in a press release.

"The Boeing Company and its former CEO, Dennis Muilenburg, failed in this most basic obligation. They misled investors by providing assurances about the safety of the 737 MAX, despite knowing about serious safety concerns." The SEC said both Boeing and Muilenburg, in agreeing to pay the penalties, did not admit or deny the agency's findings.

Boeing said the agreement "fully resolves" the SEC's inquiry and is part of the company's "broader effort to responsibly resolve outstanding legal matters related to the 737 MAX accidents in a manner that serves the best interests of our shareholders, employees, and other stakeholders," a company spokesman said.

"We will never forget those lost on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, and we have made broad and deep changes across our company in response to those accidents." US air safety authorities cleared Boeing's 737 MAX to resume service in November 2020 following a 20-month grounding after the crashes.

A principal cause of the two crashes was identified as the MCAS, which was supposed to keep the plane from stalling as it ascended but instead forced the nose of the plane downward. The Federal Aviation Administration required Boeing to upgrade this system to address the flaw.

In January 2021, Boeing agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle a US criminal charge over claims the company defrauded regulators overseeing the 737 MAX.
(@FahadShabbir)

New York, Sept 23 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Sep, 2022 ) :West African leaders agreed at an emergency summit Thursday to impose gradual sanctions on Guinea's junta over its inflexibility on setting a date to return to civilian rule.

"We have decided to take sanctions against Guinea," Omar Alieu Touray, president of the commission of the ECOWAS bloc, told AFP.

The leaders from the Economic Community of West African States -- minus those of Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso, suspended due to coups -- met in New York where they were attending the UN General Assembly.

A summary of the meeting said that the leaders agreed on "gradual sanctions" on a list of people linked to the Guinean junta who will be identified "very soon" by the bloc's leadership.

Poor but mineral-rich Guinea has been ruled by the military since a coup in September 2021 that ousted president Alpha Conde, in power since 2010.

Guinea's junta-appointed prime minister, Bernard Gomou, earlier slammed ECOWAS chief Umaro Sissoco Embalo, describing him as a "puppet wearing the mantle of a statesman." In a statement, Gomou said Embalo, who is also president of Guinea-Bissau, was an "overexcited" man who "forced his way in" to the ECOWAS presidency.

The prime minister also pointed to the two countries' geographical closeness and blood ties, but warned "no political upstart, let alone a badly briefed opportunist, will lead us to destroy this precious heritage." During a visit to Guinea, Embalo had said he had secured an agreement with the junta to give way to elected civilians after two years.

Three years in power before a return to civilian rule is "unacceptable for ECOWAS," Embalo said on Wednesday in an interview with France's RFI and France 24 broadcasters.

Embalo warned in the interview that if the junta maintained that timetable, there would be sanctions -- "heavy sanctions, even." Colonel Amara Camara, a senior junta figure, earlier on Thursday accused Embalo of "lies." "Crude lies and intimidation are backward steps that dishonor (Embalo) and at the same time tarnish ECOWAS' image," Camara said in a video received by AFP.

The West Africa bloc has been struggling with a string of military coups in the region in the past two years.

Camara accused Embalo, who took over the rotating presidency of the conference of West African heads of state a few weeks ago, of being "distinguished by his personal positions in defiance of his fellow presidents." He accused Embalo of "putting on a show" and of disregarding the ECOWAS presidency, of forcing his West African counterparts to hold a summit outside West Africa and of wanting to force through sanctions against Guinea.

"We are not in... a reality tv relationship," Camara said, accusing Embalo of "bawdy" diplomacy.

"By forcing his peers to hold this summit outside his geographical space, his leadership will have allowed an opportunity for others not to take us seriously." Mali underwent coups in August 2020 and May 2021, followed by Guinea in September 2021 and Burkina Faso in January.

ECOWAS has lifted tough sanctions that had been imposed on Mali's military regime, accepting a March 2024 return to civilian rule.

But Mali and Guinea remain suspended from ECOWAS bodies.
(@FahadShabbir)

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Friday visited the flood-affected areas of Badin, and spent time with the affectees in the relief and medical camps

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Sep, 2022 ) :Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Friday visited the flood-affected areas of Badin, and spent time with the affectees in the relief and medical camps.

He also met the army troops busy in rescue and relief activities in Malkani Sharif, Badin district, an Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) press release said.

Later, the COAS had an aerial reconnaissance of the flood-affected areas of Badin and its surroundings.

General Bajwa also interacted with the business community in Karachi. During the interaction, the COAS said the business community had always helped the countrymen whenever a natural calamity hit Pakistan, including the recent floods.

The business community members acknowledged the role and sacrifices of the Pakistan Army for ensuring a safe environment for the country's economic prosperity, and assured the COAS of maximum support for the flood affected people.
Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail on Friday said in the wake of climate related disaster, Pakistan was seeking debt relief from bilateral Paris Club creditors only, not from commercial banks or the Eurobond creditors

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Sep, 2022 ) :Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail on Friday said in the wake of climate related disaster, Pakistan was seeking debt relief from bilateral Paris Club creditors only, not from commercial banks or the Eurobond creditors.

"Given the climate-induced disaster in Pakistan, we are seeking debt relief from bilateral Paris Club creditors.

We are neither seeking, nor do we need, any relief from commercial banks or Eurobond creditors", he said in his tweet.

"We have a $1 bn bond due in December which we will pay on time and in full", he said, adding that the government had been servicing all the commercial debt and would continue to do so.

He said Pakistan's Eurobond debt was only $8 billion due till 2051 which was not a large burden. "A significant portion of our debt is from friendly countries who have said they will re-roll their deposits", he added.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

NEW DELHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th September, 2022) Pakistan and India should resolve the issue of disputed Jammu and Kashmir by peaceful means, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Friday.

"Pakistan's urgent priority right now is to ensure rapid economic growth and lift millions out of poverty and hunger. To enable any such policy momentum, Pakistan needs a stable external environment. We look for peace with all our neighbors including India. Sustainable peace and stability in South Asia, however, remains contingent upon a just and lasting solution of Jammu and Kashmir dispute," Sharif said in his speech at the 77th United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The prime minister noted India should realize that trying to resolve the issue by war rather than by diplomacy would hamper the development of the two countries, leading to poverty and unemployment.

India and Pakistan have fought several wars over Kashmir since gaining independence in 1947. However, their ties hit rock bottom in 2019 after the Indian government stripped the Jammu and Kashmir state of its special status and broke it up into two union territories.

India controls the southern part of the Kashmir region, while Pakistan and China hold its northwestern and northeastern parts, respectively.
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Friday said despite negligible carbon emissions, Pakistan's economy and people were paying the dual cost of climate injustice and high global warming leading to devastating floods that required the world leader to take immediate remedial actions

UNITED NATIONS, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Sep, 2022 ) :Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Friday said despite negligible carbon emissions, Pakistan's economy and people were paying the dual cost of climate injustice and high global warming leading to devastating floods that required the world leader to take immediate remedial actions.

"It is high time we take a pause from the preoccupations of the 20th century to return to the challenges of the 21st. The entire definition of national security has changed today, and unless the leaders of the world come together to act now behind minimum agreed agenda, there will be no earth to fight wars over. Nature will be fighting back, and for that humanity is no match," the prime minister said while addressing 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

"As I stand here today to tell the story of my country, Pakistan, my heart and mind have not been able to leave home. No words can describe the shock we are living through or how the face of the country lies transformed." "I have come here to explain first hand, the scale and magnitude of this climate catastrophe that has pushed one-third of my country under water in a super storm that no one has seen in living memory," he added.

The prime minister said for 40 days and 40 nights "a biblical flood poured down on us, smashing centuries of weather records, challenging everything we knew about disaster, and how to manage it.

"Even today, huge swathes of the country are still under water, submerged in an ocean of human suffering. In this ground zero of climate change, 33 million people, including women and children, are now at high risk from health hazards, with 650,000 women giving birth in makeshift tarpaulins." "More than 1,500 of my people have perished in the great flood, including over 400 children. Far more are in peril from disease and malnutrition. As we speak, millions of climate migrants are still looking for dry land to pitch their tents on, with heart-breaking losses to their families, their futures and their livelihoods," he added.

The prime minister said the early estimates suggested that more than 13,000 kilometers of metalled roads had been damaged, over 370 bridges swept away, a million homes destroyed and another million damaged.

"More than a million farm animals have been killed. Four million acres of crops have been washed away, stripping the people of their breadbasket, and damage of an unimaginable scale," he added.

\More
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Sep, 2022 ) :President Dr Arif Alvi Thursday said he was trying to make the government and the opposition sit together and find a middle ground to resolve issues.

Talking to a private television channel, he said negotiations would benefit everybody and would help in resolving major issues facing the country.

The government and the opposition should hold talks on the issues of economy and elections, he added.

"If something is done while remaining within the constitutional bounds it will be beneficial.

" He supported the suggestion of early elections, adding if elections were announced today, at least three months would be needed to hold them.

He said the role of electronic voting machines was important for holding transparent elections.

The president said he took the matter of right of vote for overseas Pakistanis to the court in 2008.It was unfortunate that religion card was used in the matter of politics, he added.
WASHINGTON  When members of Congress speak glowingly of Canada, it is most typically progressive members envious of the nations gun laws or single-payer health care system. But many members who have expressed their frustrations with the U.S. mining permitting system have pointed to the Great White North as a model to be emulated.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., has repeatedly pointed to the Canadian system as he pushes for changes to the U.S. system, arguing that our northern neighbors have demonstrated how to have a more efficient process.

The Canadians are ahead of us on critical metal refining and processing, and we have much to learn from them about how theyre able to responsibly permit these activities and timelines that blow our timetables out of the water, Manchin said at a May hearing on the U.S.-Canada energy and mineral partnership.

At the same hearing, the committees ranking member John Barrasso, R-Wyo., similarly praised the Canadian system, noting that it takes 10 years, on average, to permit a mine in the United States. It took us less time to get to the moon.

In Canada it can take as little as two years for similar permits, Barrasso added. We should learn from Canadas best practices.

The National Mining Association has also praised the Canadian system, writing in response to an Interior Department request for information on Aug. 30 that permitting in Australia and Canada, which have similar environmental standards and practices as the U.S., take between two and three years. The permitting process in the United States can take between seven and 10 years, according to the NMA.

Christopher Smith, chief government affairs officer at Ford Motors, similarly cited Canada when he encouraged the federal government to overhaul mining regulations to encourage domestic production of critical minerals needed for the transition to electric vehicles.

Justyna Laurie-Lean, vice president of environment and regulatory affairs for the Mining Association of Canada, said the timeline of less than four years often cited is not a realistic assessment and that even in Canada the permitting process can reach the decade mark.

Hard to compare

Laurie-Lean said it is impossible to compare the two systems one to one, in part because of the differences between subsurface rights in the two nations and because the system can vary widely across the provinces and territories.

But while lawsuits have delayed many notable projects in the U.S., litigation over mining projects is extremely rare in Canada, which Laurie-Lean attributes to its less prescriptive laws.

And that has pluses and minuses. By being less prescriptive, its more flexible and its harder to litigate, said Laurie-Lean. But mushy rules can be difficult to navigate, she said. You kind of muddle through, and no two are alike.

Most Canadian provinces also have in place regulations that require mine operators to consult with indigenous tribal governments prior to exploring for mineral resources. Danielle Woodring, manager of SAFEs Center for Critical Minerals Strategy, said this can help ensure they have the social license to operate.

On Sept. 16, a coalition of tribes, Indigenous organizations and environmental groups petitioned the administration to adopt regulatory reforms that include meaningful Tribal consultation and Indigenous resource protections, among other reforms, to address the impact of these projects.

Recognizing that the United States will need to drastically expand critical mineral mining in the coming years, the Biden administration in February convened representatives from tribes, the mining industry and elsewhere to examine how it can update the General Mining Law of 1872 to ensure meaningful community consultation and consultation with Tribal nations.

However, even though these processes are outlined in Canadian law, Laurie-Lean said that if companies operating in Canada did only what was required of them legally they would not have a good relationship. The Mining Association of Canada requires its members to participate in a sustainable mining program, which outlines additional protocols for community and Indigenous relations.

The Canadian permitting process has also drawn criticism from environmental groups.

The legal regime put in place to oversee the assessment of mining projects greatly favors the interests of companies to the detriment of local populations who have difficulty obtaining independent advice in a timely manner, Jamie Kneen, Canada program co-lead for the environmental activist group MiningWatch Canada, said in an email.

At the same time, Canadian officials have cited the need to reform their own permitting process in order to get mines in operation sooner, citing similar needs to increase production of those minerals needed for electric vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines and other clean energy technologies.

At a speech in June at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada conference, Canadian Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said that rapid development of these sources is urgently required, adding that lengthy permitting times must be shortened.
BAKU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2022) Armenia has shelled Azerbaijani positions in three border regions, the Azerbaijani defense ministry said on Friday.

"From the evening of September 22 until the morning of September 23, Armenian armed forces units on the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border fired at the positions of the Azerbaijani army in the direction of the settlements of (three border regions) .

.. The Azerbaijani army units took adequate response measures," the ministry said in a statement.
UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2022) Budapest sees no "rational reason" to pursue another package of sanctions against Russia and will not give its consent to anything that is against its national interests, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Friday.

"Our position is crystal clear. And I do not say that only because I know where you are from. This is our position that we do not see any rational reason to go for another package of sanctions, especially when it comes to energy," Szijjarto told journalists after the meeting with Russian Foreign Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, adding that "energy is a clear red line for us. We are not ready to force Hungarian people to pay the price of a war which they are absolutely not responsible for."

The foreign minister said that Budapest will take part in the discussion on new sanctions against Russia, adding that "we will not give our consent to anything that is against our national interest.

"

Szijjarto noted that the European economy "is heading into a recession."

"And we think it is totally against the interest of Europe and the European people... We hope there is gonna be peace as soon as possible because this is our interest that would be a solution for everything. So we are praying for it," the foreign minister said.

On February 24, Russia began a military operation in Ukraine responding to calls for help from the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. The West and its allies imposed comprehensive sanctions against Russia, with the European Union pledging to end its dependence on Russian energy supplies. The bloc has already approved seven packages of sanctions against Moscow, including a gradual phase-out of Russian oil. The Ukraine crisis and sanctions have resulted in disruptions of supply chains and a spike in energy prices worldwide.
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The possibilities of the Austrian Federal Agency for Reception and Support Services (BBU) have been exhausted, the primary reception points amid strong influx of refugees from Ukraine are overcrowded, the agency's director Andreas Achrainer said in an interview with Kleine Zeitung newspaper

VIENNA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th September, 2022) The possibilities of the Austrian Federal Agency for Reception and Support Services (BBU) have been exhausted, the Primary reception points amid strong influx of refugees from Ukraine are overcrowded, the agency's director Andreas Achrainer said in an interview with Kleine Zeitung newspaper.

"Yes, our possibilities are exhausted. Of course, we are in the process of searching for alternative premises. But this cannot be a solution in the long term," Achrainer said, adding that soon there will simply be no free places at reception and accommodation points for refugees, because "we have reached the capacity limit of our facilities."

The agency is not allowed to provide more places for arriving refugees due to fire and general safety reasons, Achrainer said, adding that the numbers are certainly always mobile, and many refugees who have arrived in Austria leave for other countries.

Answering the question about the increase in energy prices for households that provided Ukrainian refugees with shelter, Achrainer said that he was also concerned about this issue.

"I see a challenge here. Some subsidies for providing (population with electricity) have already been increased, and now we are also striving to provide easy and centralized access to the necessary information. But yes, if the supply costs increase significantly, it will have to be improved again," the head of the agency said, adding that partner organizations in other countries are also turning to Austria because the shelter allocated there to Ukrainian refugees is unsuitable for living in winter conditions.

Achrainer explained that refugee movements always occur in waves, which means that when conditions such as security, food supply or temperature change, people hit the road.

On August 8, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, reported that 7.6 million Ukrainian nationals had entered the EU from Ukraine and Moldova since the beginning of the Russian military operation in February.
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President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has ruled Equatorial Guinea with an iron fist for more than 43 years, will seek a new term in November presidential elections, the vice president said Friday

Libreville, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Sep, 2022 ) :President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has ruled Equatorial Guinea with an iron fist for more than 43 years, will seek a new term in November presidential elections, the vice president said Friday.

"Because of his charisma, his leadership and his political experience", the ruling party unanimously chose Obiang as its candidate for the November 20 poll, Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue -- who is also Obiang's son -- wrote on Twitter.

President Obiang, 80, is the longest ruling head of state in the world excluding monarchs.

His Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) holds 99 of the 100 seats in the outgoing lower house of parliament and all 70 of the senate seats.

But it had not been clear who would be named as the party's candidate in the presidential ballot.

At one point, Obiang's wealthy jet-setter son Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, nicknamed "Teodorin", seemed to have been lined up to stand in the elections. In the end, however, he was not chosen as a candidate last year.

The PDGE was the country's single legal political movement until 1991, when multi-party politics were introduced.

But Obiang himself has never officially been re-elected with less than 93 percent of the vote.
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2022) The defense team of Russian national Vladislav Klyushin, who is accused in the United States of committing economic crimes, has found errors in the testimony of an FBI agent and is petitioning to remove the charge of insider trading, a representative of the defense team told Sputnik.

"Vladislav Klyushin's defense insists on holding a hearing on errors and omissions in the affidavit of FBI Special Agent Kang, which was used to obtain search warrants for access to Klyushin's electronic data, and the exclusion of insider trading from the charges," the representative said.

The corresponding petitions were filed by the lawyers of the Russian businessman in a Federal court in Massachusetts.

According to the representative, FBI special agent B.J. Kang unreasonably obtained a search warrant for Klyushin, relying only on the possible similarity of the transactions of another defendant in the case.

"The very fact of parallel trading in securities does not in any way allow anybody to assert that Klyushin could be involved in insider trading on the basis of the fact that one position (shares of one company) was allegedly traded simultaneously with another participant in the prosecution. This accusation is not supported by any other evidence and analytical data reflected in the affidavit filed with the judge by FBI special agent B.

J. Kang to obtain a search warrant for electronic devices and personal accounts of Vladislav Klyushin," the representative said.

According to him, the FBI agent did not have enough evidence to request access to all the data in Klyushin's iCloud and Google accounts but simply used numerous conjectures. At the same time, Kang had previously been caught in distorting facts and evidence in another high-profile case against businessman Raj Rajaratnam, the representative added.

A motion to drop the insider trading charge against Klyushin could become a high-profile court precedent. According to the arguments of the defense, Klyushin can only be accused of allegedly "hacking" corporate networks, but not of insider trading in securities. A positive decision on this petition could set a precedent in the state of Massachusetts, which will inevitably lead to changes in the law, writing the name of the judge in the state's judicial history.

The next motion review meeting will be held on October 31, with a pre-main hearing scheduled for January 5, 2023. The main hearing in the form of a final meeting with the participation of the jury will take place on January 30.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2022) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres have discussed the implementation of the Black Sea grain deal and confirmed the need for its full implementation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

"(They) substantively discussed the implementation of the Istanbul agreements on the export of Ukrainian food products from the Black Sea ports and the unimpeded export of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers. The parties confirmed the need to ensure their package nature and full implementation," the ministry said in a statement following the meeting on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

On July 22, Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey signed an UN-brokered initiative to provide a humanitarian maritime corridor for ships with food and fertilizer exports from Black Sea ports. Three key Ukrainian ports  Odesa, Chornomorsk, and Yuzhne  were unblocked to resume exports. The Istanbul-based Joint Coordination Center (JCC) was set up to monitor the implementation of the initiative, including ensuring that cargo ships do not carry unauthorized goods or personnel.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will hold meetings with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Somalian President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, as well as with ministers of a number of other countries at the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) later on Friday, the Russian delegation said

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2022) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will hold meetings with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Somalian President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, as well as with ministers of a number of other countries at the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) later on Friday, the Russian delegation said.

"Meetings are planned with the presidents of Serbia, Somalia, the prime ministers of Jordan, Ethiopia, the foreign ministers of the UAE, Cuba," the delegation told reporters.

A ministerial meeting between Russia and the Gulf Cooperation Council is also expected, the delegation added.

Earlier in the day, Lavrov and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly's high-level week to discuss energy cooperation.
UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2022) Madagascar supports reforming the UN Security Council to include African nations, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Madagascar Richard Randriamandrato told Sputnik.

"We are definitely supporting that reform.

The United Nations has done a lot since the end of World War II, so now it is time to turn the page, to start a new chapter for openness for the African countries," Randriamandrato said. "So we join our voice with Senegal to make that proposal along with the African Union."

Randriamandrato pointed out that Madagascar remains neutral when it comes to the conflict in Ukraine.
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WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2022) New Jersey resident Timothy Louis Hale-Cusanelli has been sentenced to four years in prison on felony and misdemeanor charges committed during the events at the US capitol on January 6, 2021, the US Justice Department said.

"Hale-Cusanelli drove to Washington on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021. He joined a mob of rioters that illegally breached a police line attempting to secure the Capitol grounds. He commanded others in the mob to 'advance' on the Capitol, a command he continued once inside," the Justice Department said in a press release after the sentencing on Thursday.

Hale-Cusanelli, a former US Army reservist, stayed in the Capitol for more than half-an-hour and harassed and shouted derogatory statements at Capitol Police officers, the release said.

Law enforcement arrested Hale-Cusanelli on January 15, 2021, and he has been in detention since. Meanwhile, he was discharged from the US Army Reserves and barred from the Navy base after his arrest, the release said.

On May 27, Hale-Cusanelli was found guilty in a jury trial of a felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding, and four related misdemeanors: entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol Building; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol Building, the release said.

After serving the prison term, Hale-Cusanelli will be placed on a three-year supervised release and will have to pay $2,000 in restitution, according to the release.
DONETSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2022) The referendum on joining Russia has begun throughout the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Vladimir Vysotsky, the head of the DPR central election commission, told Sputnik on Friday.

"Today at 08.00 Moscow time (05:00 GMT), the process of holding a referendum on the DPR joining Russia as a subject began. Voting takes place according to the previously established form throughout the territory of the DPR, controlled by the authorities of the republic," Vysotsky said.
Somewhere around when TikTok videos were analyzing, with the intensity of the Zapruder film, whether spit flew at the Venice Film Festival premiere of Olivia Wilde's Don't Worry Darling, it became clear that the melodrama of the movie's promotional tour had easily eclipsed the movie, itself.

The tabloid frenzy that engulfed Don't Worry Darling was so public, so out in the open that it quickly passed into something kind of exhausting. I would definitely rather re-watch Don't Worry Darling the movie than replay that media storm. But in some ways, the on-screen and off-screen dramas go hand-in-hand. Like that fraught Venice debut, Wilde's movie, set in a Palm Springs fantasy world, brings together beautiful faces in a sunny, fashionable locale with the possibility of sinister doings afoot.

Don't Worry Darling, which opens in theaters Friday, takes a kind of Stepford Wives or Truman Show concept and reorients it with a potent #MeToo lens. All the ingredients are here for a powerful dystopic drama: Wilde, an ascendant filmmaker coming off her terrific debut, the 2019 teen comedy Booksmart"; Florence Pugh, one of the most electric young actors working in film today; Harry Style's pop presence; and some sensational mid-century modern production design thanks to Richard Neutra's Kaufmann Desert House.

Yet for all its promise, Don't Worry Darling" at every twist and turn lacks the right balance of suspense. Wilde, working from a script by Katie Silberman, conjures a kind of '50s-style utopia in which the young married couple Alice (Pugh) and Jack Kramden (Styles) live on a picturesque cul-de-sac. Every morning the devoted housewives kiss their suit-clad husbands goodbye before they drive off to a mysterious dirt mountain in the desert to do whatever keeps this strange male fantasy humming.

At least since Shirley Jackson's The Lottery, marrying routine and ritual with ominous cracks in a social facade has been a fine foundation for conspiratorial thrillers of all kinds, from The Twilight Zone to Get Out. And though it's a compelling starting framework for Don't Worry Darling, every little revelation is bluntly over-the-top, sapping the movie of any mystery. The town is named Victory and its only Black resident is a traumatized woman (KiKi Layne) who shouts Why are we here? before quickly being disappeared. No more subtle is the town's cult-like leader, Frank (Chris Pine, smoothly devious), preaching about keeping chaos at bay.

But it's still easy enough to go along with the film because, well, Pugh. If her devotion to the film has been uncertain during its release, Pugh's commitment to the role is far harder to question. It's often riveting following her increasingly paranoid psychology as Alice's growing suspicions cause her to doubt everything, maybe even her own seemingly perfect husband.

For a while, Don't Worry Darling seems to be an almost perfect Hollywood embodiment of the King Princess song, 1950." ("I like it when we play 1950.") Pugh and Styles have a glamorous chemistry together, even if their codified gender roles  Alice greets him at the end of the day at the front door with a cocktail in hand  are increasingly dubious. Style's performance, along with his in the upcoming My Policeman,  hint at real possibility for him as a movie star of cryptic allure.

Don't Worry Darling is ultimately neither worthy of all the off-screen fuss nor quite the on-screen disappointment it's been made out to be. It's a promising but clunky thriller that feels to me like it's mistaken two acts for three, overly drawing out the portentous set-up and leaving off the story, after its big twist ending, just as it's getting interesting.
LUHANSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2022) The referendum on joining Russia has begun throughout the territory of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), the LPR central election commission told Sputnik on Friday.

"Starting from 08.00 (Moscow time, 05:00 GMT), polling stations begin their work," the commission said.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2022) The United States Marine Corps Logistics Group is expected to arrive in Finland for training for two months, the Finnish navy said on Friday.

"A unit from the United States Marine Corps' 2nd Marine Logistics Group will be coming to Finland to train with Finnish units. It will be training with the Nyland Brigade from October until early December," the navy said in a statement.

The majority of US marines will be arriving in Finland early next week.

"The entire unit of 150 persons will be accommodated in Nyland Brigade and mainly operates in the brigade's training area. In November-December the unit will participate in the Finnish Navy's main exercise of the autumn, Exercise Freezing Winds 22," the statement read.

In the past several months the cooperation between the navies of Finland and the US has increased. The military drills that took place in May and August have improved the interoperability of units and familiarized US forces with the environment of the Finnish coast, according to the navy.

On May 18, three months after Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine, Finland and Sweden submitted their NATO membership applications, abandoning decades of neutrality. Finland and Sweden are awaiting the ratification of their NATO applications. As of September 23, 27 countries out of 30 have already completed the formal procedure to welcome Finland and Sweden to the alliance. The applications have not yet been ratified by Slovakia, Turkey, and Hungary.

Moscow has repeatedly stated that NATO is an alliance aimed at confrontation. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in early April that further expansion of the alliance eastward is aggressive in nature and will not make Europe more secure. At the same time, he noted that the Kremlin did not consider the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO an existential threat to Russia.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th September, 2022) The United States is considering the possibility of providing 50 military aircraft to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in exchange for help in countering terrorism in Afghanistan, the Politico newspaper reported, citing officials familiar with the matter.

The deal covers the US-donated aircraft which Afghan air force pilots used to flee the country to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan after takeover by the Taliban (under UN sanctions for terrorism) last summer, the report said.

According to one of the officials, the goal is to provide part of the aircraft in exchange for an informal agreement with the Tajik and Uzbek governments to "deepen security relationships" on border security and counterterrorism.

The Taliban demand the return of the aircraft, a mixture of light attack planes and helicopters, that the US supplied to the ousted Afghan government, as they consider it their property.

Uzbek authorities said in August that they do not plan to return said aircraft to the Afghan side as those were the property of the US.

The Taliban came to power in Afghanistan in August 2021 and prove unable to curb the deepening economic, humanitarian and security crises in the country. Thousands of Afghans have fled the country fearful of the Taliban, widespread violation of human rights, and the deprivation of women and girls of their freedoms.
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th September, 2022) The United States will work with its partners to impose additional economic costs on Russia in response to the expected accession of four regions to Russia during popular referenda, US President Joe Biden said.

"The United States will never recognize Ukrainian territory as anything other than part of Ukraine," Biden said in a statement on Friday. "We will work with our allies and partners to impose additional swift and severe economic costs on Russia. The United States stands with our partners around the world - and with every nation that respects the core tenets of the UN charter - in rejecting whatever fabricated outcomes Russia will announce.

"

The Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics as well as the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions are holding referenda on whether to join Russia. The areas have been largely secured by Russian forces during Moscow's special military operation in response to requests for help from the regions due to mistreatment by the Kiev regime.
Updated 4:45 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 29 

The University of South Florida continues to monitor impacts of Hurricane Ian to our region and our community. The safety of our students, faculty and staff remains our highest priority as we develop our reopening plans.

Since Thursday morning USF staff members have been working to survey buildings on all our campuses to assess the readiness for return. Fortunately, our campuses did not suffer significant damage.

Business operations and all classes, including online classes, will resume on Monday, Oct. 3. USF staff are working to restore select on-campus services, including housing, dining and recreational facilities, beginning on Friday. Hours of operation for all on-campus facilities will be updated with other FAQs here.

Only USF employees who are (1) classified as essential personnel, (2) identified by their supervisors as vital to campus operations or (3) working in a facility that is reopening before Monday should report to work prior to normal business operations resuming on Monday, in consultation with their supervisors. Employees who do not fall into these categories are not expected to work, remotely or otherwise, until Monday. Please contact your supervisor if you are unsure of your status.

Faculty and researchers who wish to come back to campus to assess lab space will be able to do so once the readiness check is complete. Additional guidance will be provided by the Provosts Office and USF Health.

USF residence halls on the Tampa campus are open. Residential students on the Tampa campus who left campus for the storm may begin to return today. Residence halls on the St. Petersburg campus will reopen at noon on Friday, Sept 30. St. Petersburg residential students who were relocated to Tampa during the storm have been transported back to St. Petersburg.

USF Health clinical facilities will reopen on Friday, Sept. 30. Anyone with questions can call the USF Health appointments hotline at 813-821-8038.

Students who left the region because of the storm and wont be able to return in time for Mondays classes should notify their instructors as soon as possible. Employees who left the region and wont be able to return by Monday should notify supervisors as soon as possible. Faculty members and supervisors are asked to be patient and understanding with their students and staff during these unique circumstances. More information and resources from USF Human Resources can be found here.

If there are any further significant updates regarding the universitys operating status, they will be provided via usf.edu, USFs official social media channels, MyUSF and email.

Updated 11:15 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 28 

Hurricane Ian continues to pose a significant threat to the Tampa Bay region. The safety of our community is our highest priority.

Classes are canceled and will resume on Monday, Oct. 3. Additionally, business operations are closed, resuming Monday, Oct. 3, except for essential personnel. This includes those who have been identified by supervisors as vital to campus operations, including staff to help restore campus operations, assuming safe conditions. All USF buildings, except residence halls, will close and move to emergency mode at noon today.

Only USF employees who are classified as essential personnel and/or those identified by their supervisors as vital to campus operations should report to work, come to campus or work remotely while campuses are closed. Non-essential staff are not expected to work, remotely or otherwise, while campuses are closed. Please contact your supervisor if you are unsure of your status. Please do not return to campus until notified that it is safe to do so.

Residential students from St. Petersburg who remained on campus as of Tuesday morning have been relocated to the Tampa campus, where residence halls are open. USF staff are prepared to support residential students through the duration of the storm.

For frequently asked questions, including hours of operation of our student centers, libraries, dining facilities, campus recreational facilities and wellness services, please see our FAQs here. The FAQs will continue to be updated as more information is available.

We urge students, faculty and staff to plan carefully, follow local weather reports and monitor updates from county and state emergency management officials. The USF Hurricane Guide also serves as a valuable resource for the university community.

USF leadership will continue to monitor the storm and provide updates as needed. Any significant updates regarding changes to normal business operations will be shared via www.usf.edu, USFs official social media channels, MyUSF and email. The USF Call Center will be available from 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday at 855-699-2710.

Updated 7 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 26 

As you are aware, Hurricane Ian is expected to impact Florida in the coming days. The safety of our students, faculty and staff is our highest priority.

For this reason, classes are canceled and will resume on Monday, Oct. 3.

All USF campuses and business operations will close beginning tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept. 27, through at least Thursday, Sept. 29. A decision regarding business operations on Friday, Sept. 30, will be announced on Tuesday, Sept. 27.

Only USF employees who are classified as essential personnel and/or those identified by their supervisors as vital to campus operations should report to work, come to campus or work remotely while campuses are closed. Non-essential staff are not expected to work, remotely or otherwise, while campuses are closed. Please contact your supervisor if you are unsure of your status. Please do not return to campus until notified that it is safe to do so.

Academic and research buildings will move to emergency mode at noon on Tuesday to allow emergency teams to prepare for impending weather. Once buildings move to emergency mode, only emergency personnel will be permitted to enter until campuses re-open.

Residence Halls in Tampa remain open at this time. Residence halls in St. Petersburg have been ordered to evacuate. Residential students from St. Petersburg who do not have alternative housing options will be relocated to the Tampa campus at 9 a.m. Tuesday; USF Housing and Residential Education staff are coordinating directly with impacted students to provide instructions. If the Tampa campus is required to evacuate, students remaining on campus would be transported to approved county shelters until it is safe to return.

For hours of operation of our student centers, libraries, dining facilities, campus recreational facilities and wellness services, please see our FAQs at www.usf.edu/news/2022/usf-hurricane-ian-faqs.aspx.

USF Health clinical facilities will close at noon on Tuesday, Sept. 27 and will remain closed Wednesday, Sept. 28, and Thursday, Sept 29. A decision about USF Health clinical operations for the rest of the week will be made at a later time. USF Health patients may also call the USF Health appointments hotline at 813-821-8038 to reschedule appointments.

We urge students, faculty and staff to plan carefully, follow local weather reports and monitor updates from county and state emergency management officials. The USF Hurricane Guide also serves as a valuable resource for the university community.

USF leadership will continue to monitor the storm and provide updates as needed. Any significant updates regarding changes to normal business operations will be shared via www.usf.edu, USFs official social media channels, MyUSF and email. Find answers to frequently asked questions on our website. The USF Call Center will be available between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday at 855-699-2710.

Updated 3 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 26 

USF has compiled a list of frequently asked questions related to Hurricane Ian. They can be viewed here. An additional update will be shared later this afternoon.

Updated 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 25 

The University of South Florida continues to closely monitor Tropical Storm Ian and any potential impacts to the Tampa Bay region. The path of the storm remains highly unpredictable and could change in the coming days. That said, the safety of our students, faculty and staff is our highest priority as we track the storm.

Based on the latest weather information and related closures in our region, all USF classes will be canceled starting on Monday, Sept. 26, through Thursday, Sept. 29. This will allow for students to make any necessary preparations or travel ahead of the storm.

Business operations will continue on Monday. Employees should work with supervisors to determine operational needs; Supervisors are encouraged to provide appropriate flexibility wherever possible.

All campuses will begin closing Tuesday, Sept 27. Specific details about building closure times will be communicated on Monday. Only USF employees who are classified as essential personnel and/or those identified by their supervisors as vital to campus operations should report to on-campus while buildings are closed. Please contact your supervisor if you are unsure of your status.

At this time, residence halls and residential dining facilities on the USF Tampa and USF St. Petersburg campuses remain open. Additional communication will be sent separately to residential students. Student support facilities, including the libraries, counseling, wellness and recreation facilities, the Marshall Student Center on the Tampa campus and University Student Center on the St. Petersburg campus, remain open at this time; Revised hours for the week will be posted online on Monday, Sept. 26.

USF Health clinical operations will continue with normal business hours on Monday, Sept. 26, and Tuesday, Sept. 27. USF Health clinical facilities will close on Wednesday, Sept. 28, and Thursday, Sept 29. A decision about USF Health clinical operations for the rest of the week will be made at a later time and will be communicated separately.

We urge students, faculty and staff to plan carefully, follow local weather reports and monitor updates from county and state emergency management officials. The USF Hurricane Guide also serves as a valuable resource for the university community.

USF leadership will continue to monitor the storm. Our next update will be sent on Monday, Sept. 26. All updates regarding changes to normal business operations will be shared via www.usf.edu, USFs official social media channels, MyUSF and email.

Updated 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 23 

The University of South Florida is monitoring the projected path of the tropical system currently developing in the Caribbean and the possibility of any impacts to the Tampa Bay region. The safety of students, faculty and staff is our highest priority as we track the storm.

At this time, normal business operations and classes will continue as scheduled. Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to review their personal hurricane plans and monitor local weather reports.

The USF Hurricane Guide also serves as a valuable resource for the university community.

Any significant updates regarding changes to normal business operations will be shared via usf.edu, USFs official social media channels, MyUSF and email.
As director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Clara Buie focuses on inclusive excellence to support the university community and promote the value of multiple perspectives. Buie uses an intersectional approach, which considers accessibility, social economic status, sexual orientation and race, to create a sense of belonging for everyone.

Buie partners closely with several university partners, such as the Office of Multicultural Affairs, to ensure that faculty and staff have the resources they need to help their students succeed. During Hispanic Heritage Month, Buie celebrates as a community leader and as an Afro-Latina from the Dominican Republic. The month allows us to highlight the strength and resilience of our community, Buie said. And we will continue to do that throughout the year as we focus on our other communities and heritage celebrations.

Boundless Bulls is a collection of stories about what truly makes USF great  the people. It is a focus on our community footprint, our impact and the trajectory of where we can go together. To nominate a member of the USF community for Boundless Bulls, please fill out this submission form.
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Members of the Christian communities and NGOS protesting against the new anti-conversion law in Karnataka state (ANSA)

Karnataka states Legislative Council passes the controversial Right to Freedom of Religion Bill which criminalizes religious conversions, amid concerns of Christians and other religious minorities for religious freedom in India.

By Vatican News staff reporter

Despite fierce opposition from Christians and opposition parties, a controversial new law cracking down on allegedly illegal religious conversions in Karnataka passed its final hurdle last week, when it was approved by the upper house of the local parliament, making Karnataka the tenth Indian state with anti-conversion laws.

The Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill 2021 was introduced last year by the local leading pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It had already been approved by the state Legislative Assembly in December, but at the time didnt have enough support from the Legislative Council, whose final sanction is necessary for any law to go into effect.

However, the measure was enforced in May this year by an ordinance signed by the local governor, Thawar Chand Gehlot, a senior member of BJP, a move challenged as unconstutional by the opposition and the Church. On September 15, the ruling nationalist party managed to muster enough votes in the upper house of the state to go ahead with the legislation.

Three to five-year imprisonment for illegal conversions

The new law prescribes imprisonment of three to five years along with heavy fines in case of conversion due to force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by a promise of marriage. According to its provisions, any person who is a "victim" of attempts of "forced conversion," his or her relatives, or even an acquaintance, can file a complaint.

The offence is considered so serious that it does not allow for release on bail. Anyone wanting to change religion will have to file a declaration before designated government authorities at least 30 days in advance, citing the reasons for the decision.

On the issue of interfaith marriages, the law further states that any marriage which has happened with the sole purpose of unlawful conversion or vice-versa by the man of one religion with the woman of another religion either by converting himself before or after marriage or by converting the woman before or after marriage shall be declared as null and void.

Furthermore, in case of accusations of forced conversion, the law establishes that the burden of proof lies with the accused.

Concerns of the Christian community



Christians in Karnataka, who make up less than 2 percent of the state population, are among the strongest opponents to the new legislation, which they say, leaves space for arbitrariness, is vexasius and, in fact, targets social and educational activities promoted by the Church.

Their concerns have been repeatedly voiced by Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore, head of the Karnataka Bishops' Conference, who, before the signing of the ordinance in May, handed the Karnataka governor a memorandum listing the reasons for religious minorities' opposition to the legislation. He subsequently challenged the ordinance in the states high court.

In a statement released after the approval of the bill into law by the Legislative Council, the Archdioces of Bangalore said the Bishops of Karnataka, all Christian leaders and others who uphold the secular fabric of our democratic society will take a decision to find a legal recourse and challenge the Act in its totality, reiterating that its content remains bitter, brutal and abrasive.



For its part, the local government maintains that the legislation will only protect people from forced conversions, arguing that they are becoming more and more frequent.

Anti-conversion laws in other Indian States



The first Indian State to adopt an anti-conversion law was Orissa back in 1968, followed by Madhya Pradesh in the same year and Arunachal Pradesh in 1978.

But the number of states introducing these restrictive measures has increased significantly in the 2000s with the rise of the Hindu nationalist BJP party, which has become the country's dominant party and has ruled India uninterruptedly since 2014.

Growing intolerance against Christians and other minorities



Laws criminalizing religious conversions have also been introduced in Chhattisgarh (2000), Gujarat (2003), Himachal Pradesh (2006), Jharkhand (2017), Uttarakhand (2018), and Uttar Pradesh (2020), amid growing intolerance against religious minorities, including Christians and Muslims, who have been repeatedly attacked under the pretext of illegally converting poor people from Hinduism.

Main source: Uca News
Following Pope Francis meeting with the bishops of Brazils Sao Paulo, Aparecida, and Sorocaba regions on Friday, Cardinal Odilio Pedro Scherer says the Pope urged them to be near to God, their brother bishops, priests, and the faithful.

By Salvatore Cernuzio

Concerns and recommendations about the Church of Brazil, the life of the country, and the people, as well as political and cultural situations: these topics formed the focus of the two-hour ad limina visit of a group of Brazilian bishops with Pope Francis.

The group of 25 prelates from the provinces of Sao Paulo, Aparecida, and Sorocaba (the Southern Region 1 of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops, CNBB) was received on Friday morning in the Apostolic Palace, after having visited several Dicasteries of the Roman Curia in recent days and celebrated Masses in the four papal Basilicas.

After their papal audience, Cardinal Odilio Pedro Scherer, the Archbishop of Sao Paulo, told Vatican News Bianca Fraccalvieri that their dialogue with the Pope was very fraternal.

It was a very intense, beautiful moment of renewal of faith and adherence to the faith of Peter and the mission.

"Fraternal" dialogue

The fraternal atmosphere of the meeting between the Pope and Brazilian bishops was also a "beautiful episcopal collegiality," according to several bishops.

"The Pope told us that we are here as brothers," they recount.

During the two-hour visit, the themes of synodality, episcopal fraternity, care of the clergy, closeness to the people, problems, and conflicts were addressed.

The Pope gave the floor to all the bishops who asked to speak, and each asked questions or recounted their own experiences and initiatives for evangelization in their dioceses.

Cardinal Scherer: spontaneous conversation with the Pope

"It was a very pleasant conversation, with as much freedom and spontaneity, said Cardinal Scherer. He was also very spontaneous, and we addressed several issues that are part of our episcopal mission."

Each question was answered by the Pope with an indication, always aimed at encouraging the bishops to live fully the expiscopal mission, because, he saidaccording to those presentthat "bishops can truly be witnesses to the truth of Christ and the Gospel."

Pope Francis also recounted some examples from his priestly and episcopal life, something the bishops said was "a profound moment of friendship, trust, joy."

Exchange of gifts

Pastors close to the people

"We listened to the Holy Father, his concerns, his recommendations, about the big issues part of his ministry for the whole Church and humanity," Cardinal Scherer noted. "Some of the recommendations he gave us are very good, starting with the recommendation to be pastors close to the people."

"Four ways of being near"

Pope Francis also reminded the group of Brazilian bishops of "the four proximities," already expounded in past conversations with other bishops: "closeness to God, to other bishops, to the clergy, and to the people."

The Pope also urged them to care for their neighborhoods "every day of our ministry," said the Archbishop of Sao Paulo. "He also urged us to be shepherds of hope, to look ahead, not to be frightened in the face of the challenges of our time, because there has never been a time without challenges and difficulties, so we must not be afraid or even discouraged, starting from the joy of the Gospel that must stimulate us to continue our mission."
Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

By Alessandro De Carolis

We must always engage in dialogue, "because there is always the possibility that in dialogue we can change things."

Pope Francis spoke those words last week on the flight back to Rome from Kazakhstan, as he talked to journalists.

The Pope was speaking about the Holy Sees diplomatic mission, especially in regard to Russias war in Ukraine.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, offered further proof of that guiding principle on Thursday, as he met with Sergei Lavrov, Russias Foreign Minister.

The encounter took place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, which is taking place in New York.

Cardinal Parolin calling for a ban on nuclear testing

Separately, on Wednesday, the Cardinal had spoken at the 10th meeting of the Friends of the CTBT  a group established in 2002 and consisting of Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands.

On that occasion, the Secretary of State reaffirmed that as global tensions rise and we hear rhetoric threatening the use of nuclear weapons, it is more crucial than ever to bring the CTBT into force with rising global tensions and rhetoric threatening the use of nuclear weapons. (CTBT stands for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty)

Peace begins when weapons are silent

Cardinal Parolin's statement echoes Pope Francis countless calls to disarmament and the need to put a stop to the arms trade.

Even on Wednesday, at the General Audience, Pope Francis reiterated his closeness and support for the Ukrainian people, whom he called "noble and martyred."

He also emphasized how in this "tragic war" some people "are thinking about nuclear weapons, calling it a madness."

The Pope also shared with those present the account of Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the Papal Almoner, who recently returned from his latest mission from war-torn Ukraine.

"He told me of the pain of this people, the savage actions, the monstrosities, the tortured corpses they find," said the Pope. And again he insisted on the only path forward: "Let us not forget: peace is possible when weapons are silent and dialogue begins!"
Vietnams new data localization regulation requires domestic and certain foreign companies to locally store personal data. It is unclear how the regulation can be enforced without reneging on its pledge against forced data localization as part of the CPTPP trade agreement. The announcement has rattled business groups and trade partners.

Vietnam will introduce a new law on October 1, mandating that all domestic companies and certain foreign firms providing services in areas like telecommunications, e-commerce, and online payment will have to store specific types of data in-country for a minimum period of 24 months.

The new rules were unveiled in August and require firms to locally store personal data, including credit card information, email addresses, recent logins, phone numbers, and the groups users interact with. The regulation has been met with opposition from business groups, notably those from the United States, as well as Vietnams Pacific free trade partners.

US business groups warn that the new regulation will create uncertainty and could have a considerable impact on investment. Vietnam has emerged as a popular investment destination amid rising geopolitical tensions between the West and China. The Southeast Asian country  known for its beaches, rivers, Buddhist pagodas, and bustling cities  offers low labor costs, international market access, and less political risk than neighboring manufacturing powerhouse, China.

International firms will have 12 months to ensure that they comply with the new regulations once instructions are received from the Minister of Public Security. Vietnams Communist Party has particularly strict media censorship laws and has enacted regulations to increase its oversight in the internet domain  this started with a cyber security law in 2019 and moved forward in 2021 with guidelines on social media.

Whats in the new regulations?

The measures were unveiled within Decree 53/2022/ND-CP (Decree 53) can be summarized in the three following areas:

Owners of information deemed important are required to, among others, (a) provide certain prescribed information to the relevant government authorities, and (b) comply with prescribed security measures.

The degree provides authorities with the power to require companies to take certain measures  such as deleting data, providing authorities with data, and suspension of domain names  when the law has been violated, or if there is an infringement of national security, social order, and safety.

Domestic companies, and certain foreign companies providing specified services (e.g., telecommunications, e-commerce, online payment), will have to store specific types of data in Vietnam for a minimum period of 24 months. System logs relating to violations of the law must be stored for at least 12 months. Foreign companies impacted by the regulatory changes are also required to set up a branch or representative office in Vietnam.

Man-Hung Tran, partner and head of Baker McKenzie Vietnams IPtech practice, told Bloomberg that the decree will help establish a legal basis from which local authorities can take action against illegal activities in cyberspace.

The nature of the law has similarities to those introduced in China in an effort to crack down on dissenting activity, especially online. Discussing Vietnams new regulation, law firm Tilleke & Gibbins said that offenses include content that infringes national security, propagandizes against the state; incites violence; disrupts security or public order; is humiliating or slanderous or damages the economy.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Man-Hung Tran contended that it is reasonable to expect that Vietnamese authorities will be more proactive once their cybersecurity enforcement efforts take effect.

How will this impact business and investment?

Although there remains some ambiguity around the law and its enforcement, Decree 53 provides more explicit guidelines by specifying 10 types of services that are subject to the data localization requirements. The 10 businesses/services of foreign enterprises subject to storage of regulated data in Vietnam are:

telecom services;

services of data storage and sharing in cyberspace (cloud storage);

supply of national or international domain names to service users in Vietnam;

e-commerce;

online payment;

intermediary payment;

service of transport connection via cyberspace;

social networking and social media;

online electronic games; and

services of providing, managing, or operating other information in cyberspace in the form of messages, phone calls, video calls, email, or online chat.

It also provides the triggering conditions that lead to foreign enterprises being required to store regulated data and establish a branch or representative office in Vietnam. Operating in one of the above services is the first trigger. The second is being warned by the Department for Cybersecurity and Prevention of High-Tech Crime (A05) under the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) that the services it provides have been used to commit a breach of the law on cybersecurity.

In short, the regulation is likely to create unwanted costs for businesses associated with data localization and setting up representative offices.

Opposition from US business groups

US business groups have raised concerns that the new regulation could have a considerable impact on investment. In a joint letter to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, the US Chamber of Commerce, the American Chamber of Commerce Hanoi, and the Asia Internet Coalition contended that the new regulation would make it impossible for companies to accurately assess the cost of doing business in Vietnam.

The groups requested, in their letter, that the government provide more detailed guidance on the interpretation of the regulation. The wording of certain articles/clausesis ambiguous and creates uncertainty as to what compliance actions are necessary, the letter reads.

BSA  a global software trade body funded by Amazon Web Services, Siemens, and others  concurred with the US business groups concerns. The trade body said that the decree would put companies at a competitive disadvantage, impairing their ability to choose vendors and find clients.

Data localization does not improve the security or availability of data to customers or law enforcement, Jared Ragland, BSA Asia-Pacific policy senior director, told Nikkei Asia. Ragland added that the new regulations enhanced the risk that companies will shift to other regional markets with more welcoming policies.

A challenge for the CPTPP

Concerns have also been raised by trade partners, including Japan and Canada, both of which, along with Vietnam, are members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Canada continues to urge Vietnam to implement its laws and regulations applicable to the transfer and storage/processing of data in a manner that is consistent with its commitments in Chapter 14: Electronic Commerce of the [CPTPP], Global Affairs Canada Spokesperson Lama Khodr said in an email correspondence with Nikkei Asia. Khodr added that Ottawa is following the issue.

Meanwhile, the Japanese government has also highlighted that the CPTPP trade deal  a free trade agreement between 11 countries (12 should the UKs accession proceed as planned)  prohibits data localization and has already expressed concerns about the original cyberlaw.

The Japanese government will keep our close watch on the consistency between the Law on Cybersecurity and Vietnams obligations under relevant international agreements, including CPTPP and RCEP, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry told Nikkei Asia.

Compromising Vietnams unique opportunity

Amid growing tensions between Beijing and the West, Vietnam has emerged as an alternative to China as a foreign direct investment destination, particularly around manufacturing. Risks associated with investing in China, especially for manufacturing operations, have become heightened since the start of the trade war with the US in 2018. Concerns have grown in 2022 with Beijing refusing to cut ties with Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine.

Vietnam is an attractive investment destination for companies with a China footprint seeking to diversify their supply chains. Unlike China, Vietnam is a member of the CPTPP free trade pact but offers comparable or even lower labor costs and low material costs in addition to a fast-growing domestic market. The countrys abundant and young workforce is another key appeal.

However, policy moves such as the introduction of data localization laws are likely to detract from this attractiveness, especially as other contenders emerge in the region. There are clear concerns about how the measures will impact the cost of doing business in Vietnam, but equally Western organizations may also be wary of increasing state powers to crack down on dissenting voices.
Monica and her husband moved to Flagstaff this spring, and though they had planned to live here for the long term, they are already planning a move to Salt Lake City in October.

The cost of living is too high here, said Monica, who asked that her last name not be used in this story. And their jobs pay less.

We just knew we werent going to be able to get a house here. Its too competitive, she said. Its really disheartening, because I think its a really cool area and I would love to stay here.

The couple first visited Flagstaff in the summer of 2020.

On a whim we decided to come out, Monica said.  ... We stayed for a week and fell in love with the city and the little town and all the outdoor activities, the climate and how its a local feel.

As soon as they returned home from their Flagstaff trip, they planned a longer stay for the following summer -- and after that trip, they knew they wanted to try to make Flagstaff their home. So they started making plans.

We knew that the housing market was a little crazy, but we thought, 'OK, well just get to an apartment and itll calm down, well be able to find something, Monica said. Which I don't believe is the case at all.

One of their first steps was meeting with a realtor, who said their budget, already about twice as much as the couples previous house in Georgia had sold for, wouldnt be enough to buy a house in Flagstaff.

Monica is a paralegal and her husband is a traveling nurse who recently took board exams to become a nurse practitioner. Both work, the husband locally and Monica remotely for her Georgia firm.

She said both had earned more in similar-level jobs in Georgia than in positions in Flagstaff, and that they expected to find higher-paying work in Salt Lake City.

You cannot live off of $17 per hour in this town, she said. You just cant do it, unless you live with your parents or you have five roommates in a [expletive] apartment. Even groceries are higher. The taxes inside the city are higher. I dont know why the wages are so low.

She said open jobs for nurse practitioners were often filled by people with connections, or kept reopening the same positions. Quotes shes seen for paralegal work here are about $10 an hour less than what she made in Georgia.

It could just be that its a small town, but regardless ... it doesnt keep up with how much it costs to live here. I dont know what people are doing to afford to live here, she said.

The couple moved into an apartment in Flagstaff in mid-March, with a plan to begin more thoroughly looking for a house to purchase once they arrived. Finding the apartment wasnt difficult, Monica said, but only because her husbands work as a traveling nurse meant they had a higher budget than usual.

She said their current rent -- around $2,200 a month for a 1,000-square-foot loft -- is more than I have ever paid in my entire life for rent. [Its] only because of the travel nurse per diem and stipend that we can even afford the rent here."

Their search for a house in Flagstaff was even more shocking.

If it was a single-family home, it may be 1,000 to 1,200 square feet and it would be something you would see on "Fixer Upper." They want half a million dollars for it; it was built in the 1960s and it hasnt been touched since the 1960s. No upgrades -- you would have to go in and totally redo the insides, she said of the homes they were seeing.  ... Every single listing we saw, it always said great investment opportunity, great for an Airbnb, no HOA, cash buyers only, thank you.

The couples realtor told them to expect to pay at least 10% over the listed price, plus closing costs, with at least a $20,000 down payment. Monica said shed also spoken to people who told her the way to get into a decent, affordable house in Flagstaff was to know someone whos getting ready to leave.

A 'completely different direction'

She said they were getting more downtrodden about the search around the beginning of May.

Between meeting people and talking to them about the housing market and then seeing ... I would get paid more for a job in Augusta, Georgia, than I would living in Flagstaff, but the cost of living in Flagstaff is probably three to four times higher. It doesn't even make sense, she said.

She added: "Thats why we ultimately decided to leave, because its a great area and we would love to lay down roots here. Im seeing now, it seems like a more retirement or getaway town. ... I think the Airbnb situation is what has just driven this market and has ruined it for people. Were millennials, so we can set roots here and help cultivate the community and get involved, bring a younger perspective, but I think the town is going in a completely different direction.

Her husbands travel contract was recently renewed, but its possible expiration is what led to their decision to move away from Flagstaff. They began looking at other areas of the western United States and a job in Salt Lake City fell in [her husbands] lap.

At that point, it was like, 'OK, well this seems good, the housing market is better and Utah still has outdoor activities .... and it still provides all of that with better housing, better economic opportunities,' Monica said.  ... It just provides more opportunities for us.

According to Realtor.com, the median listing price for a house in the couples former town in Georgia was $210,000 in June 2022, an increase of 23.6% year over year. The site lists Flagstaffs median listing price as $725,000 for the same month and Salt Lake City's as $579,000.

The couples house in Georgia, in which they had lived for about 10 years, was about 1,800 square feet with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and was located on a quarter-acre lot in a cute little subdivision. It sold for $286,000, which was over the asking price -- and, Monica said, the highest price a home in the neighborhood had ever sold for, despite also being the smallest house.

We made a pretty good profit off of that, but that doesnt even compare to anything out West, she said. We knew we were already going to be at a disadvantage.

Their budget to buy a house in Flagstaff was about $500,000. Monica said the houses and townhomes they looked at in that price range usually had two bedrooms, one bath, were about 1,000 square feet and could be described as dilapidated.

It would just need a lot more [work], because a lot of people are putting their homes on the market in Flagstaff and not doing a thing to get it ready to sell, she said.

They are now looking to buy in Salt Lake City. From the early stages of their search there, Monica said, she expects they will be able to find a three-bedroom, two-bath town house on the same $500,000 budget.

In Flagstaff, all they were looking for was a home in their price range, but in Salt Lake City, Monica has a wish list -- updated kitchen, nice area, and an HOA to avoid Airbnb neighbors.

In Flagstaff, I couldn't be picky, and I was like, 'OK, we can settle for that,' but now we're moving somewhere else, I get to be a little picky, she said.

Before leaving the city, Monica said, they hope to try all the local restaurants and coffee shops downtown, run as much as possible and hike Humphreys at least one more time.

I feel like when we moved, it was like, 'This is where were meant to be,' she said. You know, you meditate or pray about it or just think about it, trying to make the right decision and we really thought we feel like Flagstaffs where were meant to be. After being here since April, its like, well, maybe this was just supposed to be our transition time or a very costly mistake.

Its been an interesting summer. Ive really enjoyed our time here and Im sad we cant stay here longer, figure out how to make it work, but just financially, it doesnt make sense for us to try and stay here. ... In a way, its a little sad, but Im glad we tried it just to see if we could make it work, but its clear that we cant. Its like were breaking up with Flagstaff.
The international court convened in Cambodia to judge the Khmer Rouge for its brutal 1970s rule ended its work Thursday after spending $337 million and 16 years to convict just three men of crimes after the regime caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people.

In its final session, the U.N.-assisted tribunal rejected an appeal by Khieu Samphan, the last surviving leader of the Khmer Rouge government that ruled Cambodia from 1975-79. It reaffirmed the life sentence he received after being convicted in 2018 of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Busloads of ordinary Cambodians turned up to watch the final proceedings of a tribunal that had sought to bring justice, accountability and explanations for the crimes. Many of those attending Thursday's session lived through the Khmer Rouge terror, including survivors Bou Meng and Chum Mey, who had given evidence at the tribunal over the years.

Khieu Samphan, sitting in a wheelchair and wearing a white windbreaker and a face mask, listened to the proceedings on headphones.

He was the groups nominal head of state but, in his trial defense, denied having real decision-making powers when the Khmer Rouge carried out a reign of terror to establish a utopian agrarian society, causing Cambodians deaths from execution, starvation and inadequate medical care. It was ousted from power in 1979 by an invasion from neighboring communist state Vietnam.

No matter what you decide, I will die in prison, Khieu Samphan said in his final statement of appeal to the court last year. I will die always remembering the suffering of my Cambodian people. I will die seeing that I am alone in front of you. I am judged symbolically rather than by my actual deeds as an individual.

His appeal alleged the court made errors in legal procedures and interpretation and acted unfairly, making objections to more than 1,800 points.

But the court noted Thursday that his appeal did not directly question the facts of the case as presented in court. It rejected almost all arguments raised by Khieu Samphan, acknowledging an error and reversing its ruling on one minor count. The court said it found the vast majority of Khieu Samphan's arguments unfounded, and that many were alternative interpretations of the evidence.

Thursdays ruling makes little practical difference. Khieu Samphan is 91 and already serving another life sentence for his 2014 conviction for crimes against humanity connected with forced transfers and disappearances of masses of people.

The court ordered that Khieu Samphan, who was arrested in 2007, be returned to the specially constructed jail where he has been kept.

His co-defendant Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouges No. 2 leader and chief ideologist, was convicted twice and received the same life sentence. Nuon Chea died in 2019 at age 93.

The tribunals only other conviction was that of Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, who was commandant of Tuol Sleng prison, where roughly 16,000 people were tortured before being taken away to be killed. Duch was convicted in 2010 of crimes against humanity, murder, and torture and died in 2020 at age 77 while serving a life sentence.

The Khmer Rouges real chief, Pol Pot, escaped justice. He died in the jungle in 1998 at age 72 while the remnants of his movement were fighting their last battles in the guerrilla war they launched after losing power.

The trials of the only other two defendants were not completed. The former foreign minister of the Khmer Rouge, Ieng Sary, died in 2013, and his wife, former Social Affairs Minister Ieng Thirith, was deemed unfit to stand trial due to dementia in 2011 and died in 2015.

Four other suspects, middle-ranking Khmer Rouge leaders, escaped prosecution because of a split among the tribunals jurists.

In a hybrid arrangement, Cambodian and international jurists were paired at every stage, and a majority had to assent for a case to go forward. Under the French-style procedures the court used, the international investigators recommended the four go to trial, but the Cambodian partners would not agree after Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen declared there would be no more prosecutions, claiming they could cause unrest.

Hun Sen himself was a middle-ranking commander with the Khmer Rouge before defecting, and several senior members of his ruling Cambodian Peoples Party share similar backgrounds. He helped cement his political control by making alliances with other former Khmer Rouge commanders.

With its active work done, the tribunal, formally called the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, now enters a three-year residual period, focusing on getting its archives in order and disseminating information about its work for educational purposes.

Experts who took part in the courts work or monitored its proceedings are now pondering its legacy.

Heather Ryan, who spent 15 years following the tribunal for the Open Society Justice Initiative, said the court was successful in providing some level of accountability.

The amount of time and money and effort thats expended to get to this rather limited goal may be disproportionate to the goal, she said in a video interview from her home in Boulder, Colorado.

But she praised having the trials in the country where the atrocities occurred and where people were able to pay a level of attention and gather information about what was happening in the court to a much greater extent than if the court had been in The Hague or some other place. The Hague in the Netherlands hosts the World Court and the International Criminal Court.

Michael Karnavas, an American lawyer who served on Ieng Sarys defense team, said his personal expectations had been limited to the quality of justice his clients would receive.

In other words, irrespective of the results, substantively and procedurally, were their fair trial rights guaranteed by the Cambodian Constitution and established law afforded to them at the highest international level? he said in an email interview. The answer is somewhat mixed.

The trial stage was less than what I consider fair. There was far too much improvisation by the judges, and despite the length of the proceedings, the defense was not always treated fairly, said Karnavas, who has also appeared before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

On the substantive and procedural law, there are numerous examples where the ECCC not only got it right, but further contributed to the development of international criminal law.

There is a consensus that the tribunals legacy goes beyond the law books.

The court successfully attacked the long-standing impunity of the Khmer Rouge, and showed that though it might take a long time, the law can catch up with those who commit crimes against humanity, said Craig Etcheson, who has studied and written about the Khmer Rouge and was chief of investigations for the office of the prosecution at the ECCC from 2006 to 2012.

The tribunal also created an extraordinary record of those crimes, comprising documentation that will be studied by scholars for decades to come, that will educate Cambodias youth about the history of their country, and that will deeply frustrate any attempt to deny the crimes of the Khmer Rouge.

The bedrock issue of whether justice was served by the courts convictions of only three men was addressed by Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which holds a huge trove of evidence of atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge.

Justice sometimes is made of satisfaction, recognition, rather than the number of people you prosecute, he told The Associated Press. It is a broad definition of the word justice itself, but when people are satisfied, when people are happy with the process or benefit from the process, I think we can conceptualize it as justice.
From the moment Cambodian-American lawyer Theary Seng was charged to the day she was convicted, she never had a chance at a fair trial, according to the American Bar Association, which released a report last week calling her case one of many ongoing attempts by the Cambodian government to suppress dissent.

Theary Seng was among dozens of critics and opposition figures found guilty as part of a mass trial that concluded on June 14 in Phnom Penh. While protesting against her conviction outside the court, wearing a makeshift Statue of Liberty costume, she was arrested and sent to a prison in Cambodias northern Preah Vihear province.

The American Bar Association's Center for Human Rights observed her trial in the Cambodian capital as part of the Clooney Foundation for Justices TrialWatch initiative and released its findings in a report on Sept. 16.

From the outset, the authorities repeatedly violated Ms. Sengs fair trial rights, the report said, noting that she was named as part of a long list of defendants accused of incitement, without any specific explanation of what she had done.

She was then denied a lawyer of her own choosing (herself), prevented from obtaining the casefile against her, and questioned before being given access to materials on the charges against her  all in violation of her legal rights, the report said.

Furthermore, Ms. Sengs conviction despite the complete lack of evidence regarding the offenses allegedviolated her right to be presumed innocent and indicated that the court hearing her case was neither independent nor impartial, it said.

Theary Seng was a prominent figure in Cambodias human rights circles long before her trial, having spent nearly two decades leading non-profits working on behalf of Khmer Rouge victims and fighting for democratic freedoms in modern Cambodia.

However, she became a face of resistance to Prime Minister Hun Sens government during the hearings that followed her indictment in November 2020. She dressed in outfits ranging from a classical Apsara dancer to bright red gowns, and delivered tirades against what she described as the unfair, unjust and corrupt court system.

Theary Sengs lawyer in Cambodia, Choung Chou Ngy, has appealed her six-year prison sentence, while international human rights lawyer Jared Genser says he is pressing the U.S. government and United Nations to apply pressure for her release.

The ABA report urged the Appeal Court to immediately overturn Theary Sengs conviction and free her, while also calling on the Cambodian government to stop targeting individuals for exercising their right to free expression and amend the incitement article in the criminal code, which has been repeatedly used as a tool for repressing dissent.

Justice Ministry spokesman Chin Malin told VOA Khmer this week that Theary Seng had ample opportunity to select a lawyer and make her case, but instead insisted on representing herself and insulting the judiciary.

Indeed, she exercised her right to self-defense too much, he said, adding that her critiques of the system were not an effective criminal defense. Accusations without a legal basis are not a legal means of assisting defendants in the judicial proceedings of Cambodia, an independent and sovereign state.

Chin Malin added that Theary Seng was not jailed to silence her criticism but was prosecuted and convicted for committing criminal acts in support of longtime opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who lives in exile and who widely publicized plans to return to Cambodia in November 2020, in what the government claims was an attempted coup.

Mr. Sam Rainsy's actions are intolerable criminal acts, and she is involved in all of them. Thus, this legal measure is not due to the exercise of legal rights and freedoms but to the act of violating Cambodian law, which requires the legal responsibility of Cambodias enforcement, the Justice Ministry spokesman said.

Sam Rainsys return was thwarted when he was barred from boarding a Thai Airways flight to Bangkok, apparently at the behest of Cambodias government.

The evidence of Theary Sengs support for Sam Rainsys return  and by extension her alleged incitement  were a series of Facebook posts. The ABA report details her cross-examination during her trial, which focused on those posts.

Under questioning by the presiding judge, Theary Seng affirmed that she frequently posted statuses that criticized the government leadership and acknowledged that she had probably reshared Sam Rainsys social media post, which called the Hun Sen regime a dictatorship. She also affirmed that she supported Sam Rainsy and wanted to gather people to stand up for democracy, but that she was not aware of all of his activities, according to the report.

The prosecution then asked Theary Seng similar questions about her support for Sam Rainsy, and then asked her about comments made by the opposition leader during speeches, such as a call to dismantle the Berlin wall and another for military forces to turn their guns against the government.

Notably, the ABA report said, the prosecution did not allege that Ms. Seng herself had reposted this specific clip or that she had used those same words in any of the Facebook posts introduced as evidence against her.

At a later hearing, Theary Seng was asked by the presiding judge and prosecutor to wash off her makeup, which she eventually did. The court then heard a police officer read excerpts from Sam Rainsys speeches ahead of November 2019 in which he said he was returning to Cambodia to arrest Hun Sen for treason, along with other Cambodians who desire change.

While the police officer concluded that the speeches showed that Sam Rainsy sought to topple the Hun Sen government, when asked if there was evidence that Theary Seng was involved in those efforts, the officer could not answer the defense lawyers question, per the ABA report.

The only evidence presented at other hearings was Facebook photos showing her support for the opposition. On June 14, the court found Theary Seng and her co-defendants guilty of treason and conspiracy to incite social disorder.

The courts written judgment was made available about a month after the verdict was handed down.

What little analysis it contains (approximately three pages) lacks specificity and factual details, the ABA report said.

Instead, the judgment merely states that the court agreed with the prosecution that there were sufficient elements to prove the conspiracy and incitement to social disorder charges against Ms. Seng (and her co-defendants) based on Sam Rainsys plan to return to Cambodia on November 9, 2019.

Additional reporting from VOA Khmer's Kann Vicheika in Phnom Penh.
A human rights expert blasted the international community in a report released Thursday for failing to protect and uphold the rights of the people of Myanmar in the face of mass atrocities allegedly committed by the countrys military rulers.

In his report, U.N. Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews presented a scorching picture of the military juntas relentless cruelty towards Myanmars people. He said conditions have gone from bad to worse since the military launched a disastrous coup last year. He said millions of people are subject to an endless spiral of abuse and violations of their human rights.

Andrews cited a list of horrific violations, including the destruction of more than 28,000 homes and the burning of entire villages. He said more than 12,000 people, including hundreds of children, are arbitrarily detained in deplorable conditions, and the country has been plunged into a state of economic distress.

The Myanmar military is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity on a daily basis, including sexual violence, torture, the deliberate targeting of civilians, and murder, he said.

Myanmars military government has not responded to the report.

Andrews noted the people of Myanmar are deeply disappointed by the response of the international community to this humanitarian crisis, which, he says, has become a humanitarian catastrophe.

They are frustrated, and they are angered by U.N. Member States that are actually working to prop up this illegal and brutal military junta with funding, with trade, with weapons, and with the veneer of legitimacy, said Andrews.  But they are also disappointed by those nations that voice support for them, but then fail to back up their words with action.

The report said conflict is spreading throughout the country as more and more civilians take up arms against the junta. Andrews warned escalating conflict between the military and armed ethnic groups could lead to another mass exodus of refugees like that which occurred five years ago.

Persecution and massive violence against the Rohingya Muslims sent more than 700,000 fleeing for safety to Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh in August 2017. The Special Rapporteur said the discrimination, repression, and human rights that triggered that exodus persist to this day.

Andrews said many people in Myanmar believe the world has forgotten them, or simply does not care. He appealed to the UN human rights council to prove them wrong. He urged U.N. member states to stand with these courageous people who are fighting for their lives, their children, and their future.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Thursday the United States has allocated more than $170 million in additional humanitarian assistance for ethnic Rohingyas living both inside and outside of Myanmar.

In a statement, Blinken said the latest assistance package includes more than $93 million administered through the State Department and more than $77 million through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). He said that $138 million is for programs specifically for host communities in Bangladesh.

The secretary of state said the latest allocation brings the total humanitarian aid to the Rohingya refugee crisis to nearly $1.9 billion since August 2017.

"It provides life-sustaining support to the over 940,000 Rohingya refugees, many of whom are survivors of a campaign of genocide and crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing," Blinken said.

Earlier this year, the U.S. government declared Myanmar's campaign against the Rohingya to be genocide.

In Thursday's release, the top U.S. diplomat said the last package of aid will provide more than 940,000 Rohingya refugees and 540,000 host community members in Bangladesh food, safe drinking water, health care, protection, education, shelter and psychosocial support.

Blinken urged other donors to contribute robustly to the humanitarian response and increase support to those driven from Myanmar and affected by violence there. He said the United States applauds the generosity of the people and government of Bangladesh as well as other Rohingya hosting nations.

Recognizing that conditions in Myanmar do not currently allow for the safe, sustainable return and reintegration of displaced Rohingya, the secretary said the U.S. is working with Bangladesh, the Rohingya and those within Myanmar to resolve the crisis.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been gripped by violence since Feb. 1, 2021, when the military overthrew an elected government in a coup. The latest U.S. assistance comes as violence continues in the Southeast Asian country.

"We're deeply frustrated by the regime's escalating violence against the people of Burma," State Department counselor Derek Chollet told VOA on Thursday, citing this week's incidence in which Myanmar army helicopters fired at a school and killed 13 people, including children.

He said the United States has a "rigorous process" to ensure the aid does not get into the wrong hands.

This week, Chollet met with Myanmar's pro-democracy representatives from National Unity Government and Ethnic Armed Organizations on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

"We're considering a number of avenues to ramp up support for the pro-democracy movement," Chollet said, adding the U.S. does not support the "sham elections" that Myanmar junta plans to conduct next year.
Two Tehrans have been on show since Mahsa Amini died in morality police custody last week  the city of black-clad women castigating "improper" dress and a rival city that resents being told what to wear.

For the past week since the 22-year-old's death three days after being arrested for wearing the Islamic headscarf "improperly," protesters have taken to the streets each evening in various parts of the capital.

According to images spread on social media, female demonstrators have even taken off their headscarves and burned them in protest at the omnipresent morality police charged with enforcing the dress code Amini was alleged to have breached.

Under rules imposed shortly after the Islamic revolution of 1979, women are required to conceal their hair with a headscarf and to wear loose fitting trousers under their coats. Ripped jeans and less than full-length trousers are banned.

On Friday, outside Tehran University, supporters of the mandatory dress code gathered for a counter-rally not far from Hijab Street, one of the locations of nightly protests.

Women clad in black cloaks joined men brandishing the Islamic republic flag and placards expressing appreciation for the security forces.

"For many opponents of the morality police, the hijab issue is just a pretext to disrupt our country's security," complained the prayer leader of a nearby mosque, wearing the black turban that is the mark of a descendant of the prophet Mohammed.

"Wearing the headscarf is part of Iranians' national and religious identity," said the 40-year-old cleric, who gave only his family name Nadali.

"Certainly, the way the morality police work needs to be reviewed but it's not going to be put right by rioting."

Other demonstrators nodded their approval but when the cleric asserted that "the real Iranians are the people gathered here today," a student from the nearby polytechnic university interrupted him.

"We are all one people, one nation," retorted Hossein Zarin-Eghbal, 24, who nonetheless said he had joined the counter-demonstration in response to a call from the Islamic Development Coordination Council, one of Iran's revolutionary institutions.

"I was saddened by Mahsa Amini's death. I came to support the Islamic republic, not the morality police, because I believe that they do need to be reformed."

Burning bins

In the streets around the university, the charred remains of truck tires burned by protesters were still visible on the highway and the rubbish bins had all been removed to be set alight.

"We have a problem in this country. We have no mechanism for protest in Iran," said Zarin-Eghbal, who said he could understand the anger of his fellow citizens even though he opposed their resort to violence.

"During the 43 years of the Islamic republic, not once has the government allowed people to hold a peaceful demonstration to criticize the main tenets of the political establishment," he said.

Near Parkway Bridge, in a well-to-do Tehran neighborhood, Fatemeh, 37, said she had taken part in the protests triggered by Amini's death.

"As an Iranian woman, I don't feel safe on the streets," she said, asking to be identified by her first name only out of concern for her personal safety.

"The police frighten me when I see them and my 10-year-old daughter worries about what we're wearing around them.

"The hijab should be optional. All women should be free to wear it or not," said Fatemeh, a clothing shop manager, whose own headscarf slipped down her head repeatedly as she spoke.

"The Islamic republic, our [supreme] leader and our president should hear the people."


U.N. Security Council members on Thursday condemned Russia for escalating the war in Ukraine, criticizing its mobilization of more troops and President Vladimir Putins threat to use nuclear weapons.

Every council member should send a clear message that these reckless nuclear threats must stop immediately, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a special session of the councils foreign ministers held on the sidelines of the General Assemblys annual gathering.

This is a war of annexation. A war of conquest, Britains new Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said, to which President Putin now wants to send even more of Russias young men and women, making peace even less likely.

Putin announced Wednesday that he is calling up 300,000 more troops for his special military operation in Ukraine.

Yesterday, Putin announced mobilization. But what he really announced before the whole world was his defeat, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. You can draft 300,000 or 500,000 people, but he will never win this war. Today, every Ukrainian is a weapon, ready to defend Ukraine and the principles enshrined in the U.N. Charter.

The Russian president has also announced plans to hold referenda in four occupied parts of Ukraine in an apparent attempt to annex them.

It is an attempt to change internationally recognized borders by use of force  and no sham referendums can change that basic fact, Irelands Foreign Affairs and Defense Minister Simon Coveney said. It cannot be allowed to stand.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the council that the latest developments are dangerous and disturbing.

The idea of nuclear conflict, once unthinkable, has become a subject of debate, he said. This in itself is totally unacceptable.

Allies' discomfort

Even Russias allies expressed their growing unease with the wars direction.

The trajectory of the Ukraine conflict is a matter of profound concern for the entire international community, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said. The future outlook appears even more disturbing. The nuclear issue is a particular anxiety.

Chinas foreign minister urged the parties to resume talks without preconditions.

Include reasonable concerns into negotiations and put feasible options on the table so that talks can produce results and bring about peace, Wang Yi said. He also urged the parties to exercise restraint and avoid escalating tensions.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov did not listen to the criticism of his counterparts, leaving his deputy and a junior ambassador to fill his seat during most of the three-hour meeting. He showed up only to deliver his remarks.

Lavrov did not address the military mobilization or Putins latest nuclear threats. Of the referenda, he said they are the consequence of Russo-phobic statements by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who he said told people who feel they are Russian to go to Russia.

I think the decisions that have been adopted by a whole range of regions of Ukraine about conducting referendums are the result of his advice, Lavrov said of the planned votes in the south and east of Ukraine.

We have no doubt that Ukraine has become a completely totalitarian, Nazi-like state where the norms of international humanitarian law are trampled on, he added.

Accountability

Thursdays meeting was originally called to discuss the atrocities that have come to light in Ukrainian cities after Russian troop withdrawals.

Mass graves have been found in several cities, including Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol and most recently Izium.

In April, Russian troops were driven out of Bucha, leading to the discovery of mass graves with hundreds of bodies.

Lavrov told council members that Bucha was a propaganda operation, and there is no doubt in anyones mind that it was staged.

The International Criminal Court has been mandated to investigate possible mass crimes in Ukraine. Chief prosecutor Karim Khan has conducted three field visits.

When I went to Bucha and went behind St. Andrews Church, the bodies I saw were not fake, he told the council.

In May, the ICC deployed teams of investigators to the country. He said the picture is troubling.

One has seen a variety of destruction, of suffering and harm that fortifies my determination and my previous finding that there are reasonable grounds to believe the crimes within the jurisdiction of the court have been committed, he said.

Morally and politically, Russia has already lost the war, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told the council. And increasingly, it is losing on the battlefield, as well. Ukraine will prevail.

Speaking at another event about accountability, Ukraines prosecutor-general said his office is investigating more than 35,000 war-related crimes, including attacks on civilian infrastructure, indiscriminate shelling, murders, torture, sexual violence and forced mobilization.

These numbers will increase as we de-occupy towns and cities in the east and south of the country and new crimes are revealed, Andriy Kostin said.

In his video speech to the General Assembly on Wednesday, Zelenskyy called for a special tribunal to be established to punish Russia and demanded financial compensation for the destruction its invasion has caused.

Peace calls

In March, the International Court of Justice ruled that Russia had wrongfully claimed a genocide in Ukraine to justify its invasion and ordered it to suspend its military operation. Russia has rejected the court's jurisdiction.

The U.N. General Assembly also overwhelmingly demanded on March 2 that Russia immediately and unconditionally stop its military operations and withdraw its troops from the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine.

At the Security Council, Mexicos foreign minister offered a proposal from his president to form a committee of nations to support U.N. mediation efforts to end the war. Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon said it would include several leaders, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pope Francis.

The objective would be very clear: generating new mechanisms for dialogue and creating additional spaces for mediation that foster trust, reduce tensions and open the path to lasting peace, he said.

After the council meeting, Ukraines foreign minister said he would discuss the proposal with Ebrard at a meeting later in the day.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong called on China to use its influence to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Wong spoke to reporters Thursday after a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Wong said she held a "constructive" meeting with her Chinese counterpart.

Australia wants China to use its position as a permanent U.N. Security Council member to urge Moscow to stop the war in Ukraine.

Australia has promised to continue to provide military support to Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin escalated the conflict this week, including threatening the use of all weapons and ordering a mass mobilization of reservists, the first time since World War II.

Wong condemned Russia's aggression in her remarks Thursday.

"These threats are unthinkable and they are irresponsible," she said. "His claims of defending Russia's territorial integrity are untrue. No sham referendum will make them true. Russia alone is responsible for this illegal and immoral war, and peace must first lie with Russia withdrawing from Ukrainian territory."

Australia is the largest non-NATO contributor of military aid to Ukraine. It has sent missiles and armored personnel carriers as well as humanitarian supplies and imposed sanctions on hundreds of Russian politicians, military commanders and businesspeople.

Canberra has so far spent an estimated $240 million on armaments and military support to Ukraine. Since February, Australia has granted visas to almost 9,000 Ukrainian refugees.

Opposition lawmakers want Australia to follow the United States and increase its assistance to Ukraine.

Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Birmingham said the world must continue to apply maximum pressure to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Cameroons military says three members of its airborne battalion this week attacked civilians and killed two mothers in Nylbat, an English-speaking village in Andeck district.

A statement signed Wednesday by military spokesperson Serge Cyrille Atongfack says the troops were dispatched to fight separatists in the troubled Northwest region.

The troops violated orders from military hierarchy and started shooting indiscriminately on civilians, the military says, adding that one shooter killed two harmless mothers.

The government says family members of the killed mothers rushed to the scene and collected corpses when the government troops left.

Dianne Ngeka, a relative of one victim, said civilians sealed their businesses and refused to go to their farms for three days as a sign of protest against Mondays killings.

"It is disturbing that the military, which is supposed to protect us, is against us women," Ngeka said. "It is not safe anymore for anybody. When you see the military, you run, whether you are innocent or not. You just need to run helter skelter."

Ngeka spoke via the messaging app WhatsApp from Andeck. She said business activity resumed timidly on Thursday. The government said it had arrested the three troops that fired upon unarmed civilians.

Eyong Tarh, an official with the Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, says rights groups in Cameroon will continue exerting pressure until the military punishes all of its troops who have committed atrocities.

"I have a worry whether the culprits will be brought to book, because similar cases have taken place but we don't know what has happened to the perpetrators," Tara said. "And that is why the others are still doing the activity, because they know that they may not actually be punished as deserved."

Tarh did not give details about the type of pressure rights groups intend to exert.

Activist groups also accuse Cameroon government troops who were deployed to secure schools when the academic year opened on September 5 of killing scores of villagers in western towns and villages, including Andeck, Wum, Boyo, Bamenda and Kumba.

The military describes the accusations as unfounded but promises to punish troops who killed civilians in Andeck. The government has not said what the punishment will be, and the accused soldiers whereabouts remain unknown.

In April, Cameroon's government also acknowledged that soldiers had killed three women and 10 children in a February massacre that they then tried to cover up by torching houses and blaming rebels.

Rights groups have repeatedly accused both Cameroon's military and anglophone separatists of killing civilians and torching their homes during their five years of fighting. Each side rejects the accusations as intended to tarnish its image.
Italians will vote on Sunday in what is being billed as a crucial election as Europe reels from repercussions of Russias war in Ukraine. For the first time in Italy since the end of World War II, the election could propel a far-right leader into the premiership.

Soaring energy costs and quickly climbing prices for staples like bread  the consequences of Russias invasion of breadbasket Ukraine  have pummeled many Italian families and businesses.

Against that bleak backdrop, Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy party  with neo-fascist roots and an agenda of God, homeland and Christian identity  appear to be the front-runners in Italys parliamentary election.

They could be a test case for whether hard-right sentiment is gaining more traction in the 27-nation European Union. Recently, a right-wing party in Sweden surged in popularity by capitalizing on peoples fears about crime.

Melonis main alliance partner is right-wing League party leader Matteo Salvini, who blames crime on migrants. Salvini has long been a staunch ideological booster of right-wing governments in Hungary and Poland.

Elections in the middle of a war, in the midst of an energy crisis and the dawn of what is likely to be an economic crisis ... almost by definition are crucial elections, said Nathalie Tocci, director of Rome-based think tank the International Affairs Institute.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered Moscows invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, is gambling that Europe will break under the weight of economic and energy problems brought on by the war, Tocci told The Associated Press.

Salvini, who draws his voter base from business owners in Italys north, has donned pro-Putin T-shirts in the past. Salvini has also questioned the wisdom of maintaining Western economic sanctions against Russia, saying they could hurt Italys economic interests too much.

The publication of polls was halted 15 days before Sundays vote, but before then they indicated Melonis party would be the biggest vote-getter, just ahead of the center-left Democratic Party headed by former Premier Enrico Letta.

A campaign alliance linking Meloni to conservative allies Salvini and former Premier Silvio Berlusconi confers a clear advantage over Letta under Italys complex system of divvying up seats in Parliament.

Letta had hoped in vain for a campaign alliance with the left-leaning populist 5-Star Movement, the largest party in the outgoing legislature.

While it is a fraught moment for Europe, Sundays election could see modern Italys lowest-ever turnout. The last election, in 2018, saw record-low turnout of 73%. Pollster Lorenzo Pregliasco says this time the percentage could drop to as low as 66%.

Pregliasco, who heads the YouTrend polling company, says Italys last three different governing coalitions have left Italians disaffected, disappointed. They dont see their vote as something that matters.

The outgoing government is headed by former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi. In early 2021, Italys president tapped Draghi to form a unity government after the collapse of the second ruling coalition of 5-Star leader Giuseppe Conte.

In what Pregliasco called an apparent paradox, polls indicate that most Italians like Draghi and think his government did a good job. Yet Meloni, the sole major party leader to refuse to join Draghis coalition, is polling the strongest.

As Tocci put it, Melonis party is so popular simply because its the new kid on the block.

Draghi has said he doesnt want another term.

To Melonis annoyance, voters are still concerned that she hasnt made an unambiguous break with her partys roots in a neo-fascist movement founded by nostalgists for dictator Benito Mussolini after his regimes disastrous role in World War II. During the campaign, she declared that she is no danger to democracy.

Some Italian political analysts say worries about the fascist issue arent their main concern.

I am afraid of incompetence, not the fascist threat, said Roberto DAlimonte, a political science professor at LUISS, a private university in Rome. She has not governed anything.

Meloni served as youth minister in Berlusconis last government, which ended a decade ago.

Instead, her main right-wing coalition partner is worth worrying about, DAlimonte told The AP.

Salvini will be the troublemaker, not Meloni, he said. It is not Meloni calling for the end of sanctions against Russia. It is Salvini. It is not Meloni calling for more debt or more deficit. It is Salvini.

But recent incidents have fed worries about Brothers of Italy.

A Brothers of Italy candidate in Sicily was suspended by his party after he posted phrases on social media showing appreciation for Hitler. Separately, a brother of one of Melonis co-founders was spotted giving what appeared to be the fascist salute at a funeral for a relative. The brother denied that.

For years, the right wing has crusaded against unbridled immigration, after hundreds of thousands of migrants reached Italys shores aboard smugglers boats or vessels that rescued them in the Mediterranean Sea. Both Meloni and Salvini have thundered against what they see as an invasion of foreigners not sharing what they call Italys Christian character.

Letta, who wants to facilitate citizenship for children of legal immigrants, has, too, played the fear card. In his partys campaign, ads on buses, half the image depicts a serious-looking Letta with his one-word motto, Choose, with the other half featuring an ominous-looking image of Putin. Salvini and Berlusconi have both expressed admiration for the Russian leader. Meloni backs supplying arms so Ukraine can defend itself.

With energy bills as much as 10 times higher than a year ago, how to save workers jobs ranks high among Italian voters worries.

But with the exception of Salvini, who wants to revisit Italys closed nuclear power plants, candidates have largely failed to distinguish themselves in proposing solutions to the energy crisis. Nearly all are pushing for a EU cap on gas prices.

The perils of climate change havent loomed large in the Italian campaign. Italys tiny Greens party, a campaign partner of Letta, is forecast to capture barely a few seats in Parliament.
Julia Wright and her family recently purchased a house in Flagstaff after nearly a year of searching.

While it was a difficult process, Wright said she knows theyre one of the lucky ones.

She lives with her husband and two kids: a son who started at Northern Arizona University this fall and a daughter who is just beginning high school. Wright teaches math and personal finance online, and her husband works in construction project management in the Valley.

The family had lived in Flagstaff for three years starting in 2000, before Wrights husband was transferred to work in the Valley. They moved to Phoenix but kept their house in Kachina Village to stay in during the summer. They recently returned to live in it full time.

Weve always loved it here, Wright said. ... Once we got married and we moved here, it was, Why would you want to live anywhere else? But, you know, the story with Flagstaff is its really hard for two people to have good jobs, so when he was transferred, it was, You have to go where the job is sometimes. But we always wanted to be here.

The Kachina Village house has been in the family since 1998. An increasing presence of short-term rentals (almost 80% of their neighborhood, Wright said) made the family want to move, however.

It was a lovely community, and in the last four years, it seems like everything became an Airbnb, Wright said. The house directly behind us was an Airbnb. The house kitty-corner from us was one of those party houses. ... In the last year that we were there, an empty lot next to us was purchased to become two houses on the lot -- one of which was supposed to be an Airbnb -- and then the fire station was purchased and that turned into what we heard was a multi-unit Airbnb. That was kind of the last straw.

As of July, VRBO lists 98 short-term rental options in Kachina Village and Airbnb lists 167.

The "party house" was especially disruptive at night, Wright said, with drunken laughter and conversations drifting through the windows, regardless of the day or time. She recounted a time her mother, who also lives in Kachina Village, had to talk to neighboring vacationers who had emptied the ashes from the fireplace into a garbage can in their Airbnb -- it was on fire.

"That was always a concern: Are the people who don't live here going to respect the fire restrictions?" Wright said. "Especially Kachina. There aren't a whole lot of ways in and out of that community, so that was always frightening to me."

She added: "I have nothing against Airbnbs; its just really unfortunate when youre surrounded by them.

The family's first step in finding a new place to live was selling their houses in both Kachina Village and Phoenix to be able to afford a down payment.

I knew we were going to need cash to buy here in Flagstaff because of the highly competitive market," Wright said. " ... We started looking at every house on the market within our criteria, starting in March or April 2021. We finally had cash in hand to buy after we sold our house in Phoenix.

Selling was the easy part, Wright said. The Kachina house had multiple offers and sold within hours of being posted, for over the asking price, and the Phoenix house sold for asking within days.

To sell? Piece of cake," she said.

The Kachina Village house sold in March 21 and the Phoenix house sold in October 2021. The family moved in with Wrights parents, storing their belongings in the RV garage. Wright said shed assumed theyd be there for a month or two. By the time they moved into their current home, it had been close to a year.

At that point, we thought we were going to have a cash offer," Wright said. " ... But we still needed a loan, even after selling two houses, to buy the house we bought.

They started looking in April, and really in earnest in October, once they had enough cash to make a instant offer.

I knew thats what it was going to take in order to get a house and that is what it took when we got this house, Wright said.

They were hoping to find something that was at least 2,000 square feet with a fenced yard for dogs, but they looked at every house that came up for sale.

We looked at every single house that came on the market, even the ones that were like, 'Oh, its a little small, but lets go anyway,' or 'Oh, its a little expensive, but lets go anyway.' Any one that we could, we went and looked at,l Wright said.  ... I would say it was lack of inventory; there was really nothing to choose from.

In March, they found a 2,800-square-foot home in southeast Flagstaff and made an offer. Wright said they got really lucky because they had cash and had additional flexibility due to living with her parents.

She'd heard that 50 people had toured the house the first weekend it was on the market and that her family was one of 10 offers. Being able to make a cash offer (while they had to borrow money that came from family), with a flexible closing time (it ended up being six weeks), waiving the appraisal and only doing an as-is inspection helped them be selected as buyers.

Wright also wrote a letter to the sellers, telling them about her family. She said she thought it helped that they were planning to live in the home rather than use it as a short-term rental.

We were able to be flexible because we were able to freeload with my parents, Wright said. Had I been coming directly out of another house, theres no way this could have happened.

Despite all the difficulty in finding it, Wright said, she is happy with the new home. It did end up being more than they were hoping to spend, costing about $1 million, about $300,000 more than their initial range.

"It was way more than we wanted to spend," she said, "but were very happy where we are. Its a great house, its in a great neighborhood and my son can walk to NAU. Were thrilled with what we ended up with, but we spent a quarter million more than what we had ever thought we would have to pay.

She said she didn't know what to tell other people looking to buy a home in Flagstaff, other than to be flexible and save as much as possible.

The rule is always to buy within your means -- which is really hard right now. If you look at the average salary in Flagstaff right now compared to the average home cost, it really is an issue, and I feel for people who are trying to buy in this market," she said. "What I tell my own children is that they are welcome to live at home and save as long as they can.

Correction:

The original article said the old firehouse in Kachina Village had been turned into a multi-unit Airbnb. The owner lives in part of the firehouse and rents to long-term tenants as well as through Airbnb.
Aid groups say more than 37 million people in the Horn of Africa are struggling with hunger fueled by a deadly record drought that has killed nearly 9 million animals. The worst situation may be in Somalia, where more than 700 children have died of malnutrition this year.

Exacerbated by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russias war in Ukraine, the global hunger situation is getting worse by the day, according to experts.

Dr. Deepmala Mahla, vice president for humanitarian affairs at CARE International, said the world "is facing a devastating global hunger crisis, and this is happening in this world of abundance. We are talking about 50 million people just being one step away from starvation.

The crisis has grown especially dire in the Horn of Africa, which is now dealing with a fifth consecutive failed rainy season and a prolonged drought that began in October 2020.

In Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, over 36 million people are dealing with chronic hunger, according to CARE International. Experts say Somalia's humanitarian crisis will further deteriorate in the coming months as famine is already projected in two regions of the country.

Alinur Aden, executive director of Gargaar Relief and Development Organization, a humanitarian organization in Somalia, said the "COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, locust invasion and four years [of] consecutive failure of rain have contributed to all these problems.

Women and children are bearing the brunt of hunger. According to the World Food Program, 942,000 children under age 5 and 135,000 pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers are acutely malnourished and in need of treatment in arid and semiarid regions that are under drought in Kenya.

We do see already alarming rates of mortality and malnutrition occurring in all the three countries," said Abyan Ahmed, global humanitarian nutrition adviser at CARE. "We have seen increased admission rates across those countries in the first quarter of 2022, and the number of severe cases has increased by up to 15% in the last five months, which basically means that in every minute, one extra child is becoming malnourished, severely malnourished and has an increased risk of dying without any intervention.

Mahla said urgent interventions are needed, "so we call upon world leaders, international communities, governments, to step up. Allocate immediate, flexible, multiyear resources so that we can deliver a humanitarian response to help people now, because the people in the Horn of Africa need for us to act right now and not later.

The U.S. Agency for International Development has provided nearly $1.3 billion in humanitarian assistance in the Horn since 2020.

During his speech to the U.N. General Assembly this week, President Joe Biden pledged $10 billion to fight global hunger, but it was not clear how much of this will go to the Horn of Africa.
As Iranian women bare their heads and burn Islamic veils in demonstrations that have met nationwide repression, hopes and emotions are also running high among those living abroad.

In Iran, at least 17 people have died in protests that broke out after Iranian authorities announced the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, on September 16.

Amini, who was from the northeastern province of Kurdistan, was arrested by the Islamic Republic's feared morality police, enforcers of the strict dress code for women.

Activists say she died after a fatal blow to the head, an account denied by authorities, who have promised an investigation.

"[She] went to Tehran to visit her family. I told my mum that could easily have been me, or my sister, or my cousins," said Sara, 48, a teacher living in France. Like several others interviewed, she asked that her last name not be published.

"That girl wasn't even an activist, just a normal girl like me. ... That's what's different about this time," she added. "It's what's affected and shocked people."

Sara nervously recalled how she herself was arrested by the morality police on a trip to Iran when she was in her 30s.

Held in the same Iranian detention center where Amini was kept, she was "very afraid," she said.

'Women leading the charge'

Iranians, women among them, have staged highly visible demonstrations against the regime before, most memorably in 2009.

"What's unprecedented about these protests is that women are leading the charge," said Azadeh Kian, a sociology professor specializing in Iran at University of Paris.

"The economic crisis, unemployment and political immobility" have been the main focus of demonstrations over the past five years, Kian said, "but this time, we're hearing protests not just against the general situation in the country, but also for women's rights. That's an important change."

Videos posted on social media have documented many female participants at demonstrations removing their veils to reveal their hair and angrily brandishing their head coverings.

They chant slogans, including "Woman, life, freedom!"

Women, especially in Kurdistan province, have "burned their veils to burn the ideological foundations of the regime," said Kian. "It's a very strong symbol."

Other women have posted videos of themselves cutting their hair in protest.

But there has been a harsh response to the demonstrations.

Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights has reported 31 civilians killed  nearly twice the official toll of at least 17.

"My heart and stomach are so tense that I can't speak," said Mona, an Iranian researcher in her 40s.

Someone she knows was caught in clouds of tear gas unleashed by police in Tehran on Wednesday.

"It's hard to think about things over there right now. My brain freezes up," Mona added. "Several people I know are now in prison."

'Pressure cooker'

Under the morality police, Iranian women must cover their hair. They are also forbidden from wearing coats that do not reach below the knee, tight trousers, jeans with holes or brightly colored outfits.

Sara remembers her accusers targeting her for her short trousers and lack of socks. She was taken in a minibus to the detention center, where women were held in underground cells.

"I was terrified because I'd heard rumors about violence," she said. "I grabbed one of the posts in the stairway, crying and shouting."

In Sara's case, her mother was able to free her about midnight on the day of her arrest, although she had to leave her identity card until her daughter had completed an hours-long "behavioral correction" course.

Sara said there had been "a buildup of repression for 43 years," ever since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

"It's like a pressure cooker, and now it's exploded. I hope it will keep going," she said.

She believes the women joining today's demonstrations are mostly "young, around 20, with no fear and so much hope."

"We've been waiting for these days in Iran for so long," said Saeideh Mirzaei, 38, a doctoral student at the University of Manitoba in Canada who has organized demonstrations in Winnipeg.

Her feelings were split between "rage" and "joy," Mirzaei said. She will continue protesting "as long as people are on the streets in Iran," she said.

Outside the U.N. building in New York, health care professional Fereshteh, 44, was taking part in a noisy protest "to support Iranians inside Iran, who are fighting for their rights, risking their lives."

Women in Iran "set their veils on fire in front of the police, which means so much when you are dealing with murderers," she added. "They are risking their lives, which means they are done and so sick and tired of this crazy regime which is in power."

In Geneva, Azadeh, 63, was demonstrating outside U.N. headquarters.

"We have a rage which we can't really control," she said, her thoughts with her family still living in Iran.

"The veil should no longer be compulsory. We ought to be free!" she said.

"Iranians are very angry. They've dared to say that they've had enough" of the morality police and other forms of repression," Azadeh added. "When will they stop?"
Iranian security forces, including the pro-government Basij militia, are trying to quell growing nationwide protests that erupted after a woman died in the custody of the morality police last week.

Four members of the Basij were killed in the unrest, including one who was stabbed, Iranian media said.

Here are some facts about the Basij, shock troops that have been at the forefront of repressing popular unrest, making them a direct target for protesters angered by the lack of political and social freedoms in Iran.

History

The Basij, formally known as the Organization for the Mobilization of the Oppressed, was created as a paramilitary volunteer militia by the founder of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in 1979.

The Basijis, most of whom stem from poor, rural backgrounds, are famed for their "human waves" attacks against Saddam Hussein's troops in the 1980-88 war with Iraq, which were intended to overwhelm the defenders by the sheer weight of numbers and regardless of high casualties.

In peacetime, they enforce Irans Islamic social codes, acting as a morality police at checkpoints and parks, at other times crushing protests. The force is also deployed during natural disasters and has a presence in government institutions.

Analysts say Basij volunteers may number in the millions, with 1 million active members.

In 1981, the Basij was incorporated into the organizational structure of the Revolutionary Guards, the main paramilitary force in charge of protecting the Shiite clerical ruling system and revolutionary values. After Iran's war with Iraq ended in 1988, the Basij were not disbanded and continued as a religious militia that provides the countrys establishment with manpower and a heavy presence during pro-government rallies.

The morality police are often made up of and backed by the Basij, which often acts as the state's iron fist when protests erupt.

Basij have a presence in every Iranian university to monitor people's dress and behavior as higher learning is where Iranian male and females meet for the first time in a mixed educational environment.

A Basiji usually belongs to parts of Iran's religiously traditional and pro-regime youth. They are tightly affiliated to the country's hardline faction and represent one hand of Irans own culture war, pitting its more conservative elements against more liberal citizens.

Role in latest demonstration

Semi-official media outlets have reported the death of at least five security personnel in different Iranian cities over the past week, including four members of the Basij.

Pro-government media said the slain security forces had been targeted by "rioters and gangs" while trying to bring back order and stop protesters from destroying public property. One Basij died from stab wounds while another was killed by gunshot, according to media.

Fars news, an agency close to the Revolutionary Guards, shared a video on Telegram of the work of the Basij during the current unrest. The footage showed the volunteers putting out small fires burning in waste containers as they cleared up streets after the protests.

Basij interviewed in the video said "rioters" had closed roads in the capital city, endangered ordinary people, destroyed public property, and removed conservative veiling from religious women.

They added they were mobilized late at night to protect the "honor and property of the people" and that they would not allow "a few sissies" to disrupt the order of the country. "We will stand till the end (to protect the regime)," one was heard saying in the footage. Reuters could not verify the video.
One person was killed and two others wounded in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday during a demonstration against the M23 rebel group, local officials said.

Civil society groups staged the rally in the town of Rutshuru in North Kivu province to protest the army's perceived inaction against the M23  which has captured swathes of territory since the summer.

A mostly Congolese Tutsi group, the M23 first leapt to prominence in 2012 when it briefly captured North Kivu's capital of Goma before being driven out.

M23 rebels resumed fighting in late 2021 after lying dormant for years. They have since seized territory across North Kivu, including the strategic town of Bunagana on the Ugandan border.

Congo has repeatedly accused its smaller central African neighbor Rwanda of backing the M23, although Kigali denies the charge.

On Thursday, protesters gathered outside the office of the military administrator in Rutshuru on the 100th day of the M23's occupation of Bunagana.

Police officers shot at demonstrators, killing one and wounding two, according to Justin Bin Serushago, a spokesperson for a local civil society group.

"We will not move until military operations have resumed against the M23," he told AFP.

An official at Rutshuru general hospital who requested anonymity confirmed that one person  a young man  had died after he was shot in the chest.

A senior police officer in Rutshuru told AFP that several people had been wounded in the protest, without offering further details.

The front between the army and the M23 has remained relatively calm in recent weeks, with soldiers and rebels observing each other from their positions without engaging.

The protest in Rutshuru comes after Congos President Felix Tshisekedi met his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame on Wednesday in New York, in a meeting brokered by French President Emmanuel Macron in a bid to calm regional tensions.
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in June to end the constitutional right to abortion, many Americans are wondering: Is abortion legal in my state?

In many parts of the country, the answer is often not clear-cut. In overturning Roe v. Wade, a 1973 ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion, the Supreme Court left it to each of the 50 states to decide whether to allow the procedure.

The result has been an ever-shifting patchwork of state laws and policies.

While Democratic-led states have rushed to enhance protections for abortion access, many conservative-leaning states have moved in the opposite direction, seeking to ban or severely restrict the procedure.

With more states considering new bans even as abortion providers challenge the restrictions, so muddied has the terrain for abortion access become that even in places where the procedure is legal, many opt to seek out-of-state care.

"What it's plunged our country into is a state of uncertainty and chaos," said Alaap Shah, a health care attorney at the Epstein Becker Green law firm. "We have yet to see how things will really play out with respect to enforcement of the laws and how it will really affect the various states and the citizens of those states. It's a work in progress."

Trigger laws

Before the Supreme Court ruling known as Dobbs, 13 Republican-controlled states had enacted so-called trigger laws  abortion bans that would go into effect once the decision was announced.

Three months out, eight of the trigger laws are in effect while most of the rest are facing court challenges, according to Elizabeth Nash, principal policy associate at the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research group.

"It wasn't like a light switch going on or off," Nash said. "It has been that some of them went into effect immediately, like in Missouri, for example. But others, like the trigger ban in Tennessee, Idaho and Texas, went into effect at the end of August."

In all, a dozen states  in the South and Midwest  have banned abortions, another two states have implemented six-week bans, while two other states  Florida and North Carolina  have 16-week and 20-week bans, respectively, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

With more states considering bans, "it does look like we will get closer to half the country living under an abortion ban in the next several months," Nash said.

The bans have had far-reaching effects, forcing pregnant women seeking abortions to travel to states where the procedure is legal or opt to bring unwanted pregnancies to term, advocates say.

"We're looking at 17.2 million women of reproductive age that now live in a state without abortion access," Nash said.

Legal challenges

But abortion providers and rights advocates have been pressing for greater access, filing at least 15 major lawsuits to block the bans, many in states with a constitutional right to privacy or equality, according to Nash.

The state courts have responded in a variety of ways. In about half the cases, the courts have blocked laws banning abortion while in several others, judges have allowed the bans to remain in effect while legal challenges continue. All that has made for a deeply fragmented abortion access landscape.

Shah said, "We have to look state by state to see: What does the law say? Is someone enforcing that law? Is that enforcement up for debate because there's another case challenging that enforcement?"

Take South Carolina. The Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe came down on a Friday and by Monday a 2021 state law banning abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy went into effect.

The law, known as the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act, remained in force for a full seven weeks before the state Supreme Court, responding to a lawsuit filed by abortion providers, issued an injunction against its enforcement pending the outcome of the case.

As a result, a preexisting law allowing abortion before week 20 of pregnancy went back into effect.

But that wasn't the end of the abortion debate in South Carolina. To muddy the waters further, Republican state lawmakers then launched a bid to enact a total ban on abortion. The effort failed after several GOP lawmakers refused to support the measure.

"I think it's safe to say that the average South Carolinian is thoroughly confused about what is going on with abortion access in South Carolina now," said Ann Warner, chief executive officer of Women's Rights and Empowerment Network.

But lingering uncertainty over the legality of abortion is likely driving others to seek out-of-state care, Warner said.

That's because "they don't know or they're concerned about even hostility towards getting the care that they need here in South Carolina, given everything that's going on," Warner said.

Law enforcement

It's not just the ever-changing state laws that have added to mass confusion over the legal status of abortion. Adding to the uncertainty are mixed signals coming from law enforcement authorities, according to Shah.

In Texas, local prosecutors have split over enforcing the state's new six-week ban. In Dallas County, the state's second largest, the district attorney has vowed not to prosecute women seeking an abortion. But in two neighboring counties, local prosecutors say they will treat a violation of the ban like any other felony.

In Wisconsin, a 19th-century ban on abortion went into effect in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling. But the state's Democratic attorney general, Josh Kaul, says he won't enforce the law while the Democratic governor, Tony Evers, is pushing for its repeal.

Nevertheless, all abortion clinics in the state have shut down, forcing women to travel to neighboring Illinois to end a pregnancy.

"People are shying away from engaging in those activities, even if there's no real prosecutorial risk, and it's because people are unsure about what the scope of these laws are and how enforcement will happen," Shah said.

In both Wisconsin and Texas, the new abortion bans are facing legal challenges.

'Stabilizing treatment'

Anti-abortion activists, who long advocated for the repeal of Roe, see the legal challenges as a threat to their long-term goal of banishing the procedure.

"These court cases are very serious," said Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League. The court battles could go on for years, potentially ending up before the Supreme Court.

One potential Supreme Court case could arise out of a pair of lawsuits recently filed by the Justice Department challenging abortion bans in Idaho and Texas under a decades-old federal law known as the Emergency Treatment and Active Labor Act.

The law says that hospitals receiving federal funds must provide "necessary stabilizing treatment" to patients arriving in an emergency condition. That means if a doctor determines that the "necessary stabilizing treatment" is an abortion, state law can't prohibit it, according to the Justice Department.

Federal judges in the two states have issued split rulings in response. While a federal judge in Idaho has issued an injunction against the state's total abortion ban when it conflicts with the federal statute, in Texas a federal judge sided with the state.

If appellate courts issue similarly different rulings, the Supreme Court will likely get involved, Scheidler said.

"I'm sure these battles will continue for years," Scheidler said. "If, let's say, Planned Parenthood were successful in suing a state and got that state Supreme Court to limit their law, they're going to try it again in another state."
Iranian counterprotesters gathered across the country on Friday in a show of support for authorities after nearly a week of anti-government protests and unrest over the death of a young woman who was being held by the morality police.

Thousands attended a rally in the capital, Tehran, where they waved Iranian flags, and similar demonstrations were held in other cities. The government claimed the demonstrations of support were spontaneous. Similar rallies have been held during past periods of widespread protests.

The pro-government demonstrators chanted against America and Israel, according to state media, reflecting the official line that blames the latest unrest on hostile foreign countries.

State TV suggested late Friday that the death toll from this week's unrest could be as high as 35, raising an earlier estimate of 26. Anti-government protesters and security forces have clashed in several major cities in the most severe political violence since 2019, when rights groups say hundreds were killed amid demonstrations against a hike in state-controlled gasoline prices.

Iran has also disrupted internet access and tightened restrictions on popular platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp, which can be used to organize rallies.

In response, the U.S. Treasury Department said it would allow American tech firms to expand their business in Iran to boost internet access for the Iranian people. Iran is under heavy U.S. and international sanctions.

Social, political repression

A state TV newswoman said late Friday that 35 protesters and policemen had been killed since the protests erupted last Saturday after the funeral of Mahsa Amini, 22, without elaborating. She said official statistics would be released later, but authorities have not provided a full accounting of deaths and injuries during past unrest.

A tally by The Associated Press, based on statements from state-run and semiofficial media, shows that at least 11 people have been killed. Most recently, the deputy governor of Qazvin, Abolhasan Kabiri, said that a citizen and paramilitary officer had been killed there.

The crisis unfolding in Iran began as a public outpouring of anger over the death of Amini, a young woman who was arrested by the morality police in Tehran last week for allegedly wearing her Islamic headscarf too loosely. The police said she died of a heart attack and was not mistreated, but her family has cast doubt on that account.

Amini's death has sparked sharp condemnation from Western countries and the United Nations. Iranians across at least 13 cities  from the capital, Tehran, to Amini's northwest Kurdish hometown of Saqez  have poured into the streets, voicing pent-up anger over social and political repression.

"The death has tapped into broader antigovernment sentiment in the Islamic Republic and especially the frustration of women," wrote political risk firm Eurasia Group. It noted that Iran's hard-liners have intensified their crackdown on women's clothing over the past year since former judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi became president.

"The prospect of the leadership offering concessions to Iranian women is minimal," it said. "In the cold calculus of Iranian leaders, the protests have likely gone far enough and a more forceful response is required to quell the unrest."

Raisi condemned the protests as he arrived back in Iran after addressing the United Nations General Assembly earlier this week.

"We have announced many times that if anyone has a fair comment, we will listen to it. But anarchy? Disturbing national security? The security of people? No one will succumb to this," he said.

Open challenge to theocracy

Videos on social media show protesters in Tehran torching a police car and confronting officers. Others show gunfire ringing out as protesters bolt from riot police, shouting: "They are shooting at people! Oh my God, they're killing people!"

In the northwestern city of Neyshabur, protesters cheered over an overturned police car. Footage from Tehran and Mashhad shows women waving their obligatory headscarves, known as hijab, in the air like flags while chanting, "Freedom!"

Separately, hackers have targeted a number of government websites in recent days, taking some of them down at least briefly. On Friday, hackers interrupted Iran's Channel 3 on a popular streaming website and played videos in support of the protests. Normal programming was restored a couple of minutes later.

The protests have grown into an open challenge to the theocracy established after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The chants have been scathing, with some chanting "Death to the dictator!" and "Mullahs must be gone!"

Local officials have announced the arrest of dozens of protesters. Hasan Hosseinpour, deputy police chief in the northern Gilan province, reported 211 people detained there on Thursday. The government of the western Hamadan province said 58 demonstrators had been arrested.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday that at least 10 reporters have been arrested since the start of the protests, many of them during late-night raids on their homes by security forces who did not identify themselves.

London-based watchdog Amnesty International has accused security forces of beating protesters with batons and firing metal pellets at close range. Videos show police and paramilitary officers using live fire, tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators.

Nuclear talks

Iran has grappled with waves of protests in the recent past, mainly over a long-running economic crisis exacerbated by American sanctions linked to its nuclear program. In November 2019, the country saw the deadliest violence since the revolution, as protests erupted over gas price hikes.

Economic hardship remains a major source of anger today as the prices of basic necessities soar and the Iranian currency declines in value.

The Biden administration and European allies have been working to revive the 2015 nuclear accord, in which Iran curbed its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief, but the talks have stalled for months.

The Eurasia Group said the protests make any immediate return to the agreement less likely, as Iran's government will be more hesitant to make concessions at a time of domestic unrest and the United States will be reluctant to sign a deal as Iran violently cracks down on dissent.
Here is a compilation of videos of this week's anti-government protests in Iran, vetted by VOA Persian from video clips sent by audience members. VOA cannot independently verify the incidents seen in the videos because it is barred from reporting inside Iran.
Russian-orchestrated voting has begun in occupied regions of Ukraine in referendums that ask voters if they want their regions to become part of Russia.

The voting began Friday in Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.

The voting, widely viewed as a way for Russia to justify the annexation of the regions, has been widely condemned by the West.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the referendums are illegal.

Any elections or referenda on the territory of Ukraine can only be announced and conducted by legitimate authorities in compliance with national legislation and international standards, the OSCE said in a statement. Therefore the planned referenda will be illegal.

Fridays voting follows Russian President Vladimir Putins announcement that he intends to call up 300,000 more troops for his special military operation in Ukraine.

Putin said in a televised address this week the mobilization of reserves, which followed Ukrainian gains in a counteroffensive in northeastern Ukraine, is necessary to protect Russias homeland and sovereignty.

Putin said the West is trying to weaken and destroy Russia, and that his country will use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people.

Street protests against the mobilization erupted in Moscow and other Russian cities, with police arresting 1,300 demonstrators.

The British Defense Ministry said in its intelligence report Friday: In the last three days, Ukrainian forces have secured bridgeheads on the east bank of the Oskil River in Kharkiv Oblast. ... To the south, in Donetsk Oblast, fighting is ongoing as Ukrainian forces assault the town of Lyman, east of the Siverskyy Donets River, which Russia captured in May. The battlefield situation remains complex, but Ukraine is now putting pressure on territory Russia considers essential to its war aims.
U.N. investigators say there is evidence that Russian forces who invaded Ukraine in February 2022 committed war crimes. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine presented its findings Friday to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

The commission centered its inquiry on events from late February and March in the regions of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy. It says it documented many human rights violations, including the illegal use of explosive weapons, indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas, torture, and sexual and gender-based violence.

Commission Chair Erik Mese said Russia's illegal use of explosive weapons has caused immense suffering among the civilian population, and accounts for most of the deaths recorded by United Nations monitors.

He said investigators were struck by the large number of executions in 16 towns and settlements they visited.

"Common elements of such crimes include the prior detention of the victims as well as visible signs of executions on bodies, such as hands tied behind backs, gunshot wounds to the head, and slit throats," Mese said.

The commission interviewed more than 150 victims and witnesses. Mese said witnesses have provided consistent accounts of ill-treatment and torture. Some reported they had been transferred to prisons in the Russian Federation, where they were subjected to beatings, electric shocks, and other violations.

Mese said investigations into cases of sexual and gender-based violence found the victims of sexual abuse by Russian soldiers ranged in age from four to 82 years.

"The commission has documented cases in which children have been raped, tortured, and unlawfully confined," Mese said. "Children have also been killed and injured in indiscriminate attacks with explosive weapons."

Anton Korynevych, ambassador-at-large for Ukraine Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said these crimes perpetrated by Russia must not go unpunished. He is calling for the establishment of a special tribunal with specific jurisdiction over the crime of aggression against Ukraine.

The Russian Federation did not show up for the hearing, a fact that the president of the council said he deplores.

Mese said the commission's "attempts to engage in a constructive dialogue with Russian Federation authorities have, regretfully, so far not been successful, but we will persist in our efforts."

Reuters reports Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov defended Moscow's war in Ukraine at the U.N. Security Council on Thursday. He accused Kyiv of threatening Russia's security and "brazenly trampling" the rights of Russians and Russian speakers in Ukraine, adding that it "simply confirms the decision to conduct the special military operation was inevitable."


Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud vowed this week that his government will eradicate the threat of al-Shabab and other terrorist groups in his country.

"We are now confident that with enhanced public support, our government will eliminate terrorism from Somalia," Mohamud said in his address Sept. 22, 2022, to the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Somali army forces backed by local militias have retaken dozens of villages from the al-Shabab militant group in recent weeks, mostly in the central Hiran and Galgudud regions.

The U.S. military, which has backed the Somali government with airstrikes against Islamist militants for a decade, said Wednesday it had killed 27 fighters from al-Shabab in an airstrike in the Hiran region.

Mohamud said that the Somali government will take a leading role in the fight against terrorism and will continue to work with all its partners, including the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia, but added that Somalia needs international support to implement its plans.

"We are fully committed to doing the heavy lifting to secure our future," Mohamud said.

"In Somalia we have a wise saying and it is: 'One finger cannot wash the whole face.' If we work together sincerely, collaboratively as a community of nations  no challenge, no matter how big it is  is insurmountable."

According to the president, terrorism in Somalia is a "persistent and complex challenge" that exacerbates all other crises, such as food insecurity, the displacement of people from their homes, and climate change.

The U.N. has warned that because of the persistent drought, hundreds of thousands in Somalia are already in danger of starving and that shocking levels of malnutrition are anticipated among children under the age of five.

The president called on Somalia's partners to do everything possible to help avert a looming famine, which he said also threatens the wider Horn of Africa region.

"We urge all our partners to heed our call and work with us to provide immediate support and relief to the most affected communities," he said.

Climate change

In order to spearhead the urgent process of tackling the catastrophic effects of environmental deterioration, Mohamud said Somalia has for the first time formed a new ministry of environment and climate change.

"Somalia is caught between floods and droughts annually, owing to climate change and poor infrastructure. Our people, who have a long tradition of living harmoniously with nature and barely contributing to poisonous emissions warming the Earth, are the ones who are paying with their lives today," said the president.

"We know that climate change is real, and we are living with the evidence of its painful and destructive reality today. We also know that Somalia, and the rest of the world, cannot develop sustainably without the global climate crisis being jointly addressed quickly and effectively."


An Arizona man is facing federal charges that he tampered with evidence after he was arrested on a highway with young girls in an enclosed trailer. Samuel Bateman was indicted this month on three counts of destroying records and tampering with criminal proceedings. He pleaded not guilty Thursday in federal magistrate court in Flagstaff. A judge ordered that he remain behind bars while the case continues. A state police agency arrested Bateman in Flagstaff in late August after someone spotted small fingers through a gap in the trailer's rear door. Bateman has pleaded not guilty to child abuse charges in that case.
The United Nations refugee agency is appealing for greater donor support to help the millions in the Horn of Africa who have fled their homes to escape record drought, conflict and hunger.

Okash Adan Abdullahi, 34, fled the town of Sakow in the Middle Juba region of Somalia. He is the owner of two farms, but due to failed rains, he was forced to flee the country and crossed to the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya.



The father of 14 said there are many problems in the camp. He said he arrived in August, but has yet to receive any assistance from the U.N. humanitarian organizations in the camp. At first, he was without a registration card, but he now has a food ration card. However, he has not yet gotten food.



Amina Hassan, a farmer, fled the town of Jilib in southern Somalia for Kenya last month. The mother of six said she has been to the registration center multiple times, but has yet to be accepted as a refugee. She said she has no food to cook for her family.

The Kenyan government stopped issuing refugee registration cards to refugees in 2016, as it keeps threatening to close the camps. Consequently, tens of thousands of people live in the camp without proper documentation.

However, the aid agencies say they provide humanitarian assistance whether a person is registered as a refugee or not.

Like the other countries in the Horn of Africa, Somalia is facing its worst drought in 40 years, and more than 7 million people in the country are experiencing severe food insecurity. It is estimated that at least one million Somalis are internally displaced, and tens of thousands have fled to Ethiopia and Kenya.

Adan Ali, 27, said he recently left Jilib town in Somalia because the unpredictable weather made life as a farmer difficult for him and his family. There is nothing there but drought, he said, and everyone is moving to save their families.

Jilib is a town under the control of militant group al-Shabab. Aid agencies have struggled to reach those in need there and in many other places under the control of the group.



Faith Kasina, U.N. refugee agency spokesperson for Eastern Africa, the Horn of Africa and Great Lakes region, said the aid agency supports more than 185,000 people in Somalia and those who crossed the border to other countries in the region.

"In the counties that Somalis are also moving into, we're similarly supporting them through shelter and hygiene," she said, adding, "[we are] essentially ensuring that they have all the necessary support for their lives to be saved as we continue appealing for additional funding to ensure that they are supported to move from the humanitarian stage of this response to more livelihood-oriented activities that will ensure that they are able to earn an income when conditions allow and rely on themselves."

In June, the U.N. refugee agency requested $42.2 million to cover humanitarian needs in refugee camps and IDP settlements in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia until the end of the year.



The World Food Program on Friday received $194.5 million from the U.S. government. The WFP said the funding would help scale up the drought response and support over half a million refugees living in the camps in Kenya.


Gusts of 160 kilometers per hour and driving rain buffeted Bermuda early Friday, leaving thousands without power and fearing coastal damage as Hurricane Fiona, a powerful Category 3 storm, slid past the Atlantic island.

At 6:00 am local time (0900 GMT), Fiona's center was located about 250 kilometers northwest of the British territory, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC), which downgraded the storm to Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale in its latest advisory.

Overnight, several areas reported power outages, with more than 7,000 people affected, according to the main electric utility.

On Thursday, with hurricane warnings in effect and the NHC forecasting sustained winds at the center of the storm of more than 200 kilometers per hour -- with even higher gusts -- Bermuda residents said they were taking no chances.

"This storm is going to be worse than the last one," Richard Hartley, a store owner in the capital Hamilton told AFP as he and his wife covered the shop's cedar-lined windows with metal sheets.

Hurricane-force winds extended more than 112 kilometers from the storm's eye, and tropical-storm-force winds up to 321 kilometers, the NHC said, predicting up to 10 centimeters of rain along with "large and destructive" waves and storm surge.

The island of about 64,000 people is no stranger to hurricanes -- but it is also tiny, just 54 square kilometers, and one of the most remote places in the world, 1,030 kilometers from its closest neighbor, the United States.

That means there is nowhere to evacuate to when a big storm hits.

"You have to live with it because you live here, you can't run anywhere because it's just a little island," said JoeAnn Scott, a shopworker in Hamilton.

Bermudians try to "enjoy it as it comes," she said. "And pray and pray. That's what we do, pray and party," she added with a laugh.

At Bermuda's famed Horseshoe Bay Beach, where onlookers came to assess the pounding waves and stretch their legs ahead of a long night inside, resident Gina Maughan said the island would be ready.

"It's always interesting to come down and see the surf," she said, watching two kite surfers soar into the air.

"These guys are a little crazy," she added.

Construction 'built to last'

Because of the island's isolation, preparations are taken seriously.

Many boats were taken out of the water earlier in the week, outdoor furniture was moved inside, and the storm shutters bordering windows on most houses were checked.

Public schools will be closed on Friday, and the government announced that an emergency shelter would be opened. Buses and ferries had stopped running by late Thursday.

The Royal Bermuda Regiment was on standby to help with clearing operations, and National Security Minister Michael Weeks implored residents to stay inside until the all- clear was given.

"Please Bermuda, no driving around, no venturing out to take pictures, no reckless behavior," he told a press conference.

In addition to laying in supplies of candles and food, some Bermudians were also drawing buckets of water and filling bathtubs from the tanks at the side of their homes ahead of the expected power outages.

There is no fresh water source on the island, so all buildings have white, lime-washed roofs that are used to catch rainwater that is directed into tanks and pumped into homes as the main water supply.

Bermuda, whose economy is fueled by international finance and tourism, is wealthy compared to most Caribbean countries, and structures must be built to strict planning codes to withstand storms. Some have done so for centuries.

"The construction is really built to last, and we don't see the devastation ever that the Caribbean has experienced over the years," resident Elaine Murray said.

Fiona killed four people in Puerto Rico earlier this week, according to U.S. media, while one death was reported in the French overseas department of Guadeloupe and another in the Dominican Republic.

President Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory that is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria five years ago.

In the Dominican Republic, President Luis Abinader declared three eastern provinces to be disaster zones.

Farther north in Bermuda, islanders were calm.

"I've been through a lot of hurricanes, so no, I'm not worried," said resident Rochelle Jones.

But if things do go wrong, Bermudians will "all come out together and we help each other," she said.
Sudan is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis because of poor harvests, skyrocketing prices, political instability and lack of financial support, U.N. agencies warn.

Nearly one-third of Sudan's roughly 45 million people do not have enough to eat. And the World Food Program, or WFP, warns the number of hungry people is likely to rise to 18 million by the end of the month if donors do not come up with the money to feed them.

WFP Sudan Representative and country director Eddie Rowe said Sudan imports about 80 percent of its wheat from Ukraine. He said the war in Ukraine has sent the price of food, fuel and other basic commodities soaring, and is making it more difficult to get the money needed for humanitarian operations.

Rowe said the WFP is broke and has been forced to cut food rations in half for 2.4 million beneficiaries in Sudan. This includes 600,000 refugees who are completely dependent on international aid.

"We are on the verge of suspending or halting critical other activities," he warned. "For example, we plan to reach 2 million students with school meals, and this seems to be a far-fetched reality given that we do not have funding."

UNICEF's representative in Sudan, Mandeep O'Brien, said Sudan is facing a malnutrition crisis as well as a hunger crisis.

"Three million children under 5 years of age are acutely malnourished in Sudan," O'Brien said. "As we speak today, 650,000 kids are suffering from severe acute malnutrition. If not treated, half of them will die."

She noted that tens of thousands of children have missed out on lifesaving vaccines because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and 7 million children are out of school.

U.N. agencies warn the time to provide lifesaving assistance for 10.9 million of Sudan's most vulnerable people is fast running out. They note only 36 percent of the U.N.'s $1.9 billion Humanitarian Response Plan for this year is funded.
Thousands of Russians are trying to flee the country to escape the partial mobilization of civilians into the military. The move was announced Wednesday in a televised address by President Vladimir Putin, after Russian armed forces suffered significant losses in recent weeks of their invasion of Ukraine.

Some European officials say this poses a security threat at their borders, and they intend to shift the onus to Putin at home by keeping their borders closed.

The Associated Press reports Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said Thursday that many of those fleeing were fine with killing Ukrainians. They did not protest then. It is not right to consider them as conscientious objectors.

Border chaos

At land borders in the countrys east, south and west, lines of cars stretched several kilometers Friday, as Russian citizens  mostly men of conscription age  tried to escape the draft.

Footage obtained by Radio Free Europe (VOAs sister organization) showed long lines of cars and trucks at the Zemo Larsi crossing into Georgia. Russian citizen Ivan, who did not want to give his full name, said the crossing took 12 hours.

I think the Russian border guards were letting people through very slowly. For example, yesterday before midnight you could cross the border much more quickly. After midnight, either lots of cars arrived or the border guards started to work more slowly, he told Reuters.

Increased traffic and long lines also were reported at Russias borders with Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

In the far west, Finnish border guards reported that traffic from Russia has more than doubled in the past 48 hours. Among those fleeing the draft was 34-year-old Nikita, who did not want to give his full name.

I am afraid. Because it's a very big mistake, for Russia, for Europe, and of course for Ukraine citizens, he told Reuters.

Asylum seekers

Germany said it would offer protection to Russians fleeing the mobilization on a case-by-case basis.

Deserters threatened with serious repression can, as a rule, obtain international protection in Germany. Anyone who courageously opposes Putin's regime and thereby falls into great danger, can file for asylum on grounds of political persecution, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in an interview published Friday in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.

Several other European countries, including those neighboring Russia, such as the Baltic states and Finland, are restricting entry for Russian citizens.

Flights unavailable

Many European and North American countries banned Russian airlines from their airspace, and since Moscow imposed reciprocal measures, leaving Russia has become increasingly difficult.

Flights to countries that dont require a visa, including Turkey, Serbia and Dubai, reportedly were sold out by Thursday. Russian citizen Alex, who also did not want to give his family name, flew to Istanbul Thursday to escape the military draft.

Partial mobilization is one of the reasons why I am here. [Its a] very poor step and it seems to be that it can lead to lots of problems for lots of Russian citizens. I didn't believe that the next step would be mobilization, and I feel that not many Russian people want to fight and want to be mobilized and want to go to the army, he told Reuters.

Putins plan

In Wednesdays televised address, Putin announced the partial mobilization of around 300,000 military reservists, maintaining that only those with previous combat experience would be mobilized.

Alex Titov, a Russia analyst at Queens University Belfast, said the policy represents a watershed moment in the invasion of Ukraine.

The initial plan to conduct a swift military operation with only [the] professional army involved has failed, and now they have to turn to something very unpopular and something they tried to avoid and tried to delay, the official mobilization of the civilian population. There is no way of knowing how many actually will be called up over what period. There's no clear end to it either, Titov told VOA.

The Russian government denied that people are fleeing the mobilization. The information about the hype at airports and so on is very much exaggerated  There is a lot of fake information about this, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday.

Stiff opposition

A continuing exodus of Russians escaping the draft could present a problem for Putin, says analyst Titov.

If the exodus is large, then perhaps they might put formal restrictions on men traveling abroad, particularly of a certain age, or require them to have formal papers permitting them to leave and so forth, Titov said.

How significant it is? It's really hard to say because the type of people who are fleeing are maybe not the people [who] are actually being called up, in the sense that they usually go for more remote and less urban areas for conscription. There is a general trend toward more and more kind[s] of disillusionment and annoyance about the war. But whether it kind of reaches a critical point, I'm not sure, Titov told VOA.

The Russian government said those being drafted have specific military experience or training. However, there are widespread reports of regular civilians being forced to enlist.

Dmitry, a student from Moscow who did not want to give his full name, was handed mobilization papers Thursday and was driven away from his residence in a minibus. Dmitrys father, who also did not want to give his name, told The Associated Press that his son has no links with the military. The president's decree said no students would be recruited. And then it happened, they recruited him without any explanation. This is not right, he said.

Many draftees are being brought in from the remote regions of Russia. Pavel Sokolov, from the eastern city of Yakutsk, served in the Russian army 10 years ago. He received draft papers Thursday.

I didn't expect it. I went to the kindergarten with my daughter, and they gave [the draft paper] to me in the street. I came here at once. I'm fine, keeping calm. I won't be away for long hopefully, Sokolov told The Associated Press.

Protests escalate

There have been widespread protests against the mobilization in cities across Russia. Human rights groups claim that about 1,400 demonstrators have been arrested since Wednesday. There are reports that some of those detained are being handed mobilization papers while in custody.

The jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny Thursday called for mass protests against the war.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
Western nations and Ukraine say voting is a sham that began Friday on Russian referendums aimed at annexing four occupied regions of Ukraine. Some local officials said voters were being intimidated and threatened.

In the balloting, scheduled to run from Friday to Tuesday in the provinces of Luhansk, Kherson and the partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions, voters are being asked if they want their areas to become part of Russia.

Polls also opened in Russia, where refugees and other residents from those areas could vote.

The West and Ukraine said the voting is illegal under international law.

Any elections or referenda on the territory of Ukraine can only be announced and conducted by legitimate authorities in compliance with national legislation and international standards, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe a said in a statement. Therefore, the planned referenda will be illegal.

Ukrainian officials said people were banned from leaving some occupied areas until the vote was over, armed groups were going to homes to force people to cast ballots, and employees were told they could be fired if they did not participate.

Serhiy Haidai, Ukraine's Luhansk governor, said in the town of Starobilsk, the population was banned from leaving and people were being forced out of their homes to vote.

"Today, the best thing for the people of Kherson would be not to open their doors," said Yuriy Sobolevsky, the displaced first deputy council chairman of Kherson region.

The results of the referendums, expected soon after the voting, are almost certain to support joining Russia.

"We are returning home," said the Russian-backed leader of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin. "Donbas is Russia."

"All of us have been waiting for a referendum on joining Russia for eight long years," said Leonid Pasechnik, the Russian-backed leader of Luhansk. "We have already become part of Russia. There remains only a small matter  to win [the war]."

Ukraine says it will never accept Russian control of any of its territory.

The referendums were quickly organized after Ukraine earlier this month recaptured large swaths of the northeast in a counteroffensive.

By incorporating the four areas, Moscow could portray attacks to retake them as an attack on Russia itself - potentially even using that to justify a nuclear response.

In a televised address this week, Russias President Vladimir Putin said the West is trying to weaken and destroy Russia and that his country will use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people.

With Putins announcement that he intends to call up 300,000 more troops for his special military operation in Ukraine, the Kremlin appears to be trying to regain the upper hand in the grinding conflict.

Russias mobilization campaign is not likely to generate effective soldiers and is creating a public backlash, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War.

Russian authorities are forcibly recruiting Russian citizens to fight in Ukraine on flimsy pretexts, violating the Kremlins promise to recruit only those with military experience, the institute reported. Russian authorities are also demonstrably mobilizing personnel [such as protesters] who will enter the war in Ukraine with abysmal morale, it said.

Meanwhile, United Nations experts and Ukrainian officials have pointed to new evidence of war crimes in Ukraine.

The head of a U.N.-mandated investigation body said Friday war crimes including rape, torture and confinement of children have been committed in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.

"Based on the evidence gathered by the commission, it has concluded that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine," Erik Mose, who heads the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

He did not specify who was to blame but the commission has focused on areas previously occupied by Russian forces, such as Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy.

Investigators from the commission, created by the rights council in March, visited 27 places and interviewed more than 150 victims and witnesses.

They found evidence of a large number of executions, including bodies with tied hands, slit throats and gunshot wounds to the head, Mose said.

He also noted investigators had identified victims of sexual violence who were between the ages of four and 82. While some Russian soldiers had used sexual violence as a strategy, the commission "has not established any general pattern to that effect," Mose added.

A U.S. envoy told the council, "Numerous sources indicate that Russian authorities have interrogated, detained and forcible deported between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens.

U.S. Ambassador Michele Taylor, U.S. permanent representative to the council added, "We urge the commissioners to continue to examine the growing evidence of Russia's filtration operations, forced deportations and disappearances.

Russia denies deliberately attacking civilians.

Russia was called on to respond to the allegations at the U.N. Human Rights Council meeting but its seat was left empty. There was no immediate official reaction from Moscow.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
The spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that the U.N. chief met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in New York this week and raised human rights issues in light of Iranian security forces' ongoing crackdown on protesters.

At a news briefing, spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters Guterres met with the Iranian president Thursday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meetings at U.N. headquarters. He said, The secretary-general raised a number of issues with him [Raisi], including the issues of human rights.

Dujarric said the secretary-general is very concerned "about reports of peaceful protests being met with excessive use of force leading to dozens of deaths and injuries." He called on the security forces to refrain from using unnecessary or disproportionate force and appealed to all to exercise restraint to avoid further escalation.

Dujarric added that the U.N. was calling on Iranian authorities to respect the rights and freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association as well as women's rights, and to take further steps to eliminate forms of discrimination against women and girls and implement effective measures to protect them from other human rights violations in accordance with international standards.

Dujarric also reiterated the call from the acting high commissioner for human rights for an impartial and effective investigation into the death of Mahsa Amini.

Aminis death last week after being taken into custody by Irans morality police has sparked days of protests that have been met by force from Iranian security forces.

U.N. Women also issued a statement on Aminis death, calling it a tragedy and a matter of particular concern.

The group, which is a global champion for women's and girls rights, echoed the high commissioner for human rights' call for a prompt, impartial and effective investigation by an independent, competent authority into her death.
Iran said on Thursday that it saw no point in reviving a 2015 nuclear pact without guarantees the United States would not withdraw again and unless U.N. inspectors closed probes of Tehran's atomic program, a stance a U.S. official rejected as "unreasonable."

Signaling failure of attempts at the U.N. General Assembly to overcome an impasse, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said: "What is the use of having a revived deal without assuring guarantees that the U.S. will not violate again?"

After a meeting with Raisi on Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that "the ball on reaching a nuclear deal with Iran is now in Tehran's camp."

But Raisi, in a televised news conference, blamed the deal's European parties and the United States for failure to revive it.

"How can we have a lasting agreement if these probes are not closed? We can have a good deal if Americans and Europeans fulfill their commitments."

In addition to seeking guarantees, the Islamic Republic wants the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, to drop its years-long probes of unexplained traces of uranium found at three undeclared sites in Iran.

Speaking to reporters, a senior U.S. State Department official rejected putting pressure on the IAEA to close those investigations unless Iran provides satisfactory answers.

"In a nutshell, weve hit a wall because of Irans position, and I think their position is so unreasonable in terms of what theyre asking for with regards to the IAEA probe into the unexplained presence of traces of uranium particles," he said.

"Theyre asking us and European countries to put pressure on the IAEA and its director-general to close these probes, something we will not do," the U.S. official added. "We respect the independence of the IAEA and the integrity of the IAEA."

Critical point

Resolution of the so-called "safeguards" investigations is critical to the IAEA, which seeks to ensure parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty are not secretly diverting nuclear material that they could use to make a weapon.

Iran denies any such ambition. The 2015 agreement limited Irans uranium enrichment activity to make it harder for Tehran to develop nuclear arms, in return for lifting international sanctions.

But then-U.S. President Donald Trump ditched the deal in 2018, saying it did not do enough to curb Irans nuclear activities, ballistic missile program and regional influence, and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Irans economy.

In response, Tehran breached the deal by rebuilding stockpiles of enriched uranium, refining it to higher fissile purity and installing advanced centrifuges to speed up output.

Months of indirect talks between Iran and U.S. President Joe Biden's administration appeared near revival in March in Vienna, but negotiations broke down over obstacles such as Iran's demand that the United States provide guarantees that no future U.S. president would abandon the deal and IAEA guarantees.

Biden cannot provide such ironclad assurances because the deal is a political understanding rather than a legally binding treaty.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday that he hoped to speak to Iranian officials about investigation, but insisted it would not simply disappear. Western diplomats have said they will not back down on this issue and that it is up to Iran to make the right choice.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Chinese counterpart discussed on Friday the need to maintain open lines of communication to manage the relationship between Beijing and Washington, especially during times of tension.

Following their meeting in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, a statement from State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Blinken "stressed that preserving peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is critical to regional and global security and prosperity."

In its statement on the meeting, Chinas foreign ministry said the U.S. is sending a very wrong and dangerous signal on Taiwan and that the more rampant the Taiwan independence activities are, the less likely a peaceful solution will be.

"The Taiwan issue is an internal Chinese matter, and the United States has no right to interfere in what method will be used to resolve it," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, according to the ministrys statement released Saturday.

Tensions between Beijing and Washington have risen in recent months, following pledges from President Joe Biden that the U.S. will defend the self-governed island, which China claims as its own, should Beijing attack. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Taiwan in August also drew Beijing's criticism for what it said was meddling in what it considers an internal issue.

Earlier this week, Biden said in an interview that U.S. troops would be involved in defending Taiwan, "if in fact there was an unprecedented attack."

Later, White House officials insisted the president's remarks were consistent with Washington's long-standing "one China" policy, which remains committed to maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait. Since 1979, Washington has said the People's Republic of China is the "sole legal government of China," but the U.S. has never recognized Beijing's claims of sovereignty over Taiwan.

Beijing has said a draft bill in the U.S. Congress would violate Washington's "one China"policy. The Taiwan Policy Act could significantly increase American support for Taiwan by providing billions of dollars in defense capabilities.

One sponsor of the bill, Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, told VOA Mandarin this week that the president's view about the U.S. commitment to defend Taiwan was shared by many in Congress.

"I think that what's important now is to strengthen Taiwan's ability to deter China from going ahead and seeking to invade, so that we don't have conflict. At the end of the day, we don't seek conflict, but we also don't want Taiwan to be taken by force," he said.

Republican Senator Rob Portman, another supporter of the bill, told VOA that the U.S. has an obligation in Taiwan.

"We look what's happening in Ukraine, where the United States, at least 45 other countries have stepped forward to provide military assistance, so that Ukraine can defend itself. That might be a similar analogy," he said.

The Taiwan legislation has bipartisan support, but it's unclear if the measure will pass this year.

Other lawmakers told VOA that the measure is aimed at avoiding conflict by ensuring it does not start.

"I think we are very much committed to resolving the status of Taiwan peacefully. The message is very clear to mainland China that force would not be acceptable," Democratic Senator Ben Cardin told VOA.

Earlier this week, Wang told an audience in New York that Taiwan is "growing into the biggest risk in China-U.S. relations. Should it be mishandled, it is most likely to devastate our bilateral ties," according to a transcript provided by China's foreign ministry.

Next week, Vice President Kamala Harris is to visit Japan and South Korea for meetings with top officials and for the funeral of former Prime Minster Shinzo Abe. The White House told reporters Friday that she was expected to discuss a range of security and diplomatic initiatives with the leaders of Japan and South Korea, including the importance of preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

Yi-Hua Lee, Patsy Widakuswara, Margaret Besheer and VOA's Mandarin Service contributed to this report.
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Clashes are escalating between Iranian security forces and protesters over the death of a young woman in police custody. Several U.S. senators told VOA they admired the protesters for standing up for the rights of women. VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
The U.S. Treasury Department said Friday that it was updating guidance to U.S. tech firms to expand the range of internet services available to Iranians, countering a move by Irans government this week to block internet access to its citizens.

On Wednesday, as street protests continued in Iran, the Iranian government cut off internet access for most of its 83 million citizens, the Treasury Department said, to prevent the world from watching its violent crackdown on peaceful protesters.

People took to the streets this week to demonstrate following the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who died after being taken into custody by the morality police for improperly wearing her headscarf. Iran security forces have responded by violently cracking down on the protests, leading to at least nine deaths so far. According to The Associated Press, Iranian state TV suggested the death toll could be as high as 26.

In a statement, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said the changes issued Friday through the departments Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) will call on U.S.-based tech companies to provide more digital services to people in Iran  from access to cloud computing services to better tools  to enhance their online security and privacy.

Adeyemo said, With these changes, we are helping the Iranian people be better equipped to counter the governments efforts to surveil and censor them. In the coming weeks, OFAC will continue issuing guidance to support the administrations commitment to promoting the free flow of information, which the Iranian regime has consistently denied to its people.

In his own statement Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the steps taken by the Treasury Department would help ensure the Iranian people are not kept isolated and in the dark.

This is a concrete step to provide meaningful support to Iranians demanding that their basic rights be respected, he said.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has proposed a national U.S. abortion ban barring the procedure after 15 weeks. This push to restrict abortion access across the country follows a rash of new state laws passed by Republicans after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.

If American history is any guide, these efforts will ultimately neither reduce abortions nor remain settled law.

I am a historian who has studied American culture and law in the wake of the 1873 Comstock Act -- the first U.S. effort to restrict access to birth control and abortions. My research finds that previous state and federal efforts to regulate the sexual expression and reproduction of Americans led to unintended consequences -- and, in the long term, these laws failed.

Already, I see signs that new anti-abortion laws are triggering a similarly undermining backlash.

In 1873, Congress hurriedly passed a law making it illegal to send obscenities through the U.S. mail. The legislation was branded the Comstock Act after its most vigorous proponent: Anthony Comstock, a U.S. postal inspector and evangelical Christian who believed sexual activity was a sin unless it occurred between a married man and woman for the purpose of procreation.

Birth control and substances used to induce abortion were included in the definition of obscenity. The law also banned mailing erotic images and literature. In Comstocks expansive view, this category included images of athletes wearing tights.

State versions of the original Comstock Law soon swept the U.S. By 1900, 42 states had passed similar legislation outlawing the production, sale, possession or circulation of obscene matter.

These statutes ruled until the Supreme Court declared a right to privacy in medical decision-making nearly 100 years later, in Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965. This is the same ruling that was cited eight years later to protect the right to have an abortion in the now defunct Roe v. Wade.

Comstock zealously enforced the laws hed advocated for, both as a detective for the privately funded New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, and as an inspector for the U.S. Post Office Department. In attempting to eradicate contraceptives -- including condoms and early forms of diaphragms -- Comstock organized the arrests of many defendants.

But he had difficulty getting prosecutors, juries and judges to see the seriousness of many of the crimes he investigated. In the late 19th century, wealthier Americans already regularly used birth control.

Of all the indictments prior to 1878, pending in the Court of General Sessions, not one has been tried the past year, Comstock wrote in his 1879 annual report.

Enforcing new anti-abortion laws is similarly unpopular with many legal professionals today. Shortly after the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Dobbs, more than 80 elected prosecutors vowed not to bring indictments in cases involving abortion.

As they recognize, conservative courts in jurisdictions with zealous anti-abortion prosecutors will soon be filled with a host of extremely sympathetic defendants: relatives who assist children who are victims of rape in obtaining an illegal abortion, doctors saving the lives of mothers at risk, and those who choose to help pregnant cancer patients in making the best decisions for their health.

Enforcement of Americas new Comstock laws will likely again make witnesses and defendants more sympathetic in the eyes of judges and jurors -- and the public -- undermining whatever support remains for these laws.

Beyond prosecutions, the tactics necessary to prevent women from obtaining abortions are even less practical today than they were in the late 19th century.

Enforcing anti-abortion laws may include restricting interstate travel, blocking interstate and international postal services and attempting to censor information about sexual health. All of these would require laborious investigations and extensive cooperation from law enforcement agencies and private corporations.

And thats assuming that any of these methods survive court challenges.

By the time of Comstocks death in 1915, backlash to his zealous overreach had provoked growing solidarity among activists and attorneys determined to defeat his agenda.

Once again, post-Dobbs, disparate individuals and groups are raising their voices in common cause. Obstetricians have begun lobbying politicians and forming their own pro-choice political action committees. TikTok influencers are rallying young citizens to vote for pro-choice politicians.

Kansas roundly rejected an anti-abortion referendum in August 2022. And more states will soon vote on state constitutional protections for abortion, including Michigan.

Viewing the past as prologue suggests unpopular anti-abortion laws will cause unintended consequences that, in the long run, will render them ineffective and ultimately futile.
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U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price spoke with VOA Persians State Department Correspondent Guita Aryan outside the United Nations in New York on Thursday.
With Russian President Vladimir Putin accelerating war efforts and threatening to use nuclear weapons, White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara spoke with Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology at the Biden administration's National Security Council, on the possibility of increased cyber warfare on Ukraine and her allies. Neuberger also spoke of the recent Iranian cyberattacks on Albania, and the administration's view of NATO's collective defense principle in cyber warfare.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

VOA: Anne Neuberger, thank you so much for joining VOA today. I'm going to start with Russia. President Vladimir Putin has significantly increased his war efforts. He's announced mobilization, referendums, threatening nuclear attacks. Are we also expecting an increase in cyberattacks?

DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER FOR CYBER AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGY ANNE NEUBERGER: So first, thank you so much for having me here. Its really great to be here. Throughout the conflict, beginning when Russia first did its further invasion of Ukraine, we've seen Russia use destructive cyberattacks as well as intelligence collection to advance its war mission. We saw the initial destructive attacks on satellite systems, then later on Ukrainian government systems and additional critical infrastructures systems. So one would expect that as Russia further redouble its efforts, that will include cyberattacks as well.

VOA: Have you actually seen indications of it starting?

NEUBERGER: Of additional cyberattacks?

VOA: Of cyberattacks, yes.

NEUBERGER: It's been a consistent part of Russia's war effort in Ukraine. So it's something we expect. Do we have particular indications of an increase in that way at this time? We don't.

VOA: How are you helping the Ukrainians defend themselves?

NEUBERGER: Such a great question. So beginning back when Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2015-16 and conducted disruptive cyberattacks against Ukraine's energy infrastructure, we began to work with Ukraine to really strengthen the resilience of its critical infrastructure. That partnership continued up through the months as we were concerned about heightened war activity, and that included work on cybersecurity resilience of critical infrastructure, included our sending in a team from the U.S. Cyber Command, again to work on cybersecurity, teams from the Department of Energy working closely to improve resilience, and ongoing information sharing regarding tactics and techniques used to conduct malicious cyberattacks. So that remains an ongoing partnership all the way from resilience efforts to practical information sharing to help defense systems.

VOA: Are you also working in terms of strengthening their counterattack systems?

NEUBERGER: We're very focused on cybersecurity resilience systems.

VOA: In that sense, whether it's deterrence, defense or counterattacks, we're hearing a lot about these volunteer hackers called the Ukrainian IT army, and I want to hear what your sense of how good and how successful they have been in deterring or thwarting or even stopping Russian attacks. And what kind of support is the administration providing them?

NEUBERGER: We've seen quite a bit of volunteer hacking activity with regard to Ukrainian activity to defend accounts. I don't think we have really good insights in terms of understanding whats Ukrainian government versus volunteer hacking activity. And, of course, our assistance is government to government. With regard to, as I mentioned earlier, some of the cybersecurity activities assisting the Ukrainian government to build and strengthen its resilience and its defense.

VOA: So just to be clear, your support and your interaction is with the Zelenskyy government, not with groups outside who are also supporting them, like the Ukrainian IT army.

NEUBERGER: Yes, our support is really, along with all of our security systems, government to government.

VOA: You mentioned earlier that, you know, the Russian attack has been consistent. And we also heard that there's been warnings of major Russian cyberattacks on Ukrainian infrastructure  critical infrastructure. At the beginning or before the start of the war, we heard warnings that that's how the war is going to start. I'm not quite sure that actually did happen. And in fact, throughout the war, we haven't really heard any kind of major cyberattack that's actually crippling Ukrainian critical infrastructure. Is that the case or are we just not hearing about it? What are your thoughts on this?

NEUBERGER: It's a good question. So first, as Russia began its further invasion of Ukraine, we did see Russia conduct a destructive attack on Ukrainian communication systems, satellite communications systems, the ground parts, as well as on Ukrainian government websites and government systems. That initial attack, the Ukrainians were able to quickly recover and bring back up those systems. The U.S. government, because there was a ripple effect across Europe from their first Russian destructive attack on communication systems, the U.S. government and the European Union called out that activity and said this is irresponsible activity, but the Ukrainian government was able to quickly recover those websites and quickly recover from those destructive attacks, which is really a tribute to all the cybersecurity resilience and focus they put on improving the security of their systems, disconnecting their energy grid from the Russian grid, reconnecting to the European grid and the work they had done to really harden that. So that preparedness and frankly that partnership between various countries assisting the Ukrainians on that work, although the Ukrainians really led that work, was key to their defense. There have been ongoing Russian cyberattacks. The Ukrainians have been very successful at, you know, catching those, and really remediating and addressing them quickly so that they didn't have significant impact.

VOA: Is the support given to them, government to government, U.S. to Ukraine, or is it also through NATO?

NEUBERGER: The support is from individual governments, the U.S. government, the European individual governments are providing various cybersecurity assistance.

VOA: OK, on the flipside, what do we know about the Russian cyber operations support? I mean to what extent is Russia getting support from other countries? Do we see a strategic alignment in terms of cyber warfare between Russia, China, North Korea, Iran?

NEUBERGER: Russia has a very capable cyber program and one of our focus areas both for the U.S. and for the Europeans has been to really improve our own preparedness, to ensure we lock our doors, lock our digital windows so that we can prepare in case there are heightened Russian cyberattacks as well. So it's clearly been a focus for us on the U.S. side.

VOA: Have we seen so far that there are strategic alignments or at least tactical alignments between these adversaries in cyber warfare?

NEUBERGER: In the cyber context, no, we haven't.

VOA: The war in Ukraine is the first conflict where we see some sort of coordination between cyberattacks and kinetic military assault. So in that sense, what are we learning about this hybrid warfare and what are we learning about the Russian capabilities in that realm?

NEUBERGER: I think we're fundamentally learning that as countries think about their national defense for crisis or conflict, the digital systems they operate at, whether they're individuals, whether they're companies, whether theyre governments  need as much to be defended, and the preparation work to understand what are the most important components of your power systems, your water systems, your oil and gas pipelines, and ensuring that they're up to snuff. The cybersecurity is capable to defend against a capable adversary. And that's the core message. That doesn't happen in a moment because these elements of critical infrastructure were digitized in many countries without necessarily considering security baked in at the beginning. And that's one of the reasons in the U.S. and with partners around the world we're working to quickly improve the security of critical infrastructure, recognizing that it's a component of adversaries work in crisis and conflict to either coerce a population, or coerce the government by potentially destabilizing or disrupting digital systems.

VOA: I want to talk some more about what the U.S. is doing in terms of building this responsible state behavior in the cyber realm, but first I just want to talk a little bit on this Iranian cyberattack on Albania. The administration has slapped fresh sanctions on Iran as punishment, yet that didnt stop them from launching a second attack. Are we not doing enough? Is there nothing else that we can do to deter them and how are we helping the Albanians?

NEUBERGER: It's such an interesting question. So cyber deterrence is a very new field, and it draws on lessons and the approach weve used in other domains, sea, air. How do we build coalitions among countries regarding what's responsible state behavior in cyberspace and what's irresponsible because it's one global commons at the end of the day. Many countries signed up for the United Nations voluntary norms for peacetime, which include a number of norms, and that was signed in both 2015 and 2019. One of those includes not disrupting critical services. And as such, in order to make forms actually be enforced, it requires countries and as big of a coalition as possible to call out behavior that's not in alignment with those norms, and when possible to impose consequences. So that's the reason that when we saw the Iranian governments attack on the Albanian government, really disrupting Albanian government services for quite a period of time to their citizens, we and other countries came together to call out that activity, to say to the Iranians  to attribute it to the Iranians, and then to impose consequences. The Albanian government imposed consequences, we, the U.S., sanctioned the chief and deputy of an Iranian entity as well. And we do that as part of building cyber deterrence. It won't happen in one or two cases. It happens if repeatedly, quickly, we did this far more quickly than in the past. Also, to achieve those strategic goals of enforcing international cyber norms. But if we do this repeatedly, as a community of countries, we believe that can build cyber deterrence.

VOA: The fact of the matter is, as you're trying to build these international cyber regimes, there is no consensus at the U.N. Security Council, obviously Russia and China are a part of it. There are U.N. frameworks that cannot be enforced. So under these circumstances, how do you move forward?

NEUBERGER: So Russia is one of the countries who signed the 2015/2019 Governmental Group of Experts norms. So countries that have agreed to those norms, the key we believe is enforcing those norms. And we believe, as I mentioned, that it's each time, time by time, pointing to countries when they conduct behavior thats not aligned with those norms, and then continuing to deepen that coalition so that more countries join it, we do it more quickly, and then we eventually mature to also impose consequences. So we believe it will take some time, but those are the steady steps we're taking along with partners and allies.

VOA: And so that is behind the strategy of this name and shame that you're applying?

NEUBERGER: Its part of a broader strategic effort of moving to where we say, in this global shared space, that is cyberspace, where we need collective defense. One key aspect is, as you noted, improving cybersecurity resilience, locking our digital doors, one key aspect is gaining agreement among countries of what is not appropriate behavior  the framework for responsible state behavior in cyberspace and gaining agreement among more countries to enforce those.

VOA: Beyond your Western allies, is there an understanding of the need to do this from, you know, the rest of the world?

NEUBERGER: We believe so, because in many ways, the weaker countries are the ones who are most vulnerable to being coerced via cyberattacks on their government systems, cyberattacks on companies or theft of intellectual property in that way. So we believe it's in all countries' interests, whether large or small, because we've all digitized. Clearly, some of us have digitized more than others, but we've all digitized to where there's risk to our citizens if critical services are disrupted or if governments are disrupted in moments of crisis.

VOA: Im going to go back to Iran and Albania real quick. Groups associated with Iran penetrated various systems in Albania, including the prime minister's emails. Are you concerned that Iran may have gained access to sensitive NATO data via this breach? I mean we also heard about Portugal recently where hundreds of NATO documents may have been stolen as well.

NEUBERGER: So clearly, good cybersecurity practices are needed among all NATO members, right? Every member of NATO has to recognize that they bring risks to the broader member if they don't put in place adequate cybersecurity practices. That's one of the reasons that we've been working very closely in the NATO context in terms of cybersecurity, and to build incident response capability at NATO to mature NATO cyber capabilities, because, as I mentioned earlier, clearly more work needs to be done. Youve cited a couple of examples that highlight the need for it. I think there's now a much deeper recognition at NATO and a much deeper recognition to bring allies together to have in place common thresholds of cybersecurity, for important information.

VOA: And still on NATO, as a NATO ally both Albania and Portugal are technically protected under the collective defense principle. So can you explain what the administration's view of NATOs principle, an attack on one is an attack on all, in terms of cyber warfare? At what point does a cyberattack merit a counterattack? Are there any criteria? Is there a red line?

NEUBERGER: So this is an area of evolving policy. It's a very new area. You've seen NATOs policy that one or more cyberattacks could rise to the level of an armed attack. Clearly, that's a very high threshold of what that is. The work we're doing at NATO is focused on, first, cybersecurity resilience. Therell be a NATO Cyber Defense Pledge conference in Rome that will focus both on what are the standards that NATO members have in place for their critical systems, building an incident response capability at NATO so if an ally is attacked, there is a NATO capability that countries can come together and virtually offer support, as well as then using that as an alliance to enforce international norms, but thats an area we're still working to evolve.

VOA: One last question on behalf of the VOA audience who may live in countries where there's not a lot of internet penetration. Why should they care about cybersecurity?

NEUBERGER: In each of our lives, there's data that's really important to us, and there is information related to our work, and our country's economies that are important to the continued growth of our economies and jobs. So there's easy steps we can take to ensure that our data is safe and, frankly, our families and our children are safe online as well. And that's really the core reason: that there's really more  there is connectivity. Countries want to be connected because of the opportunities, the jobs, the commerce that it enables, so building security in from the beginning is the best way to be safe online.



Editor's note: An earlier version of this transcript misidentified Albania as Armenia. VOA regrets the error.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price discussed protests in Iran after the death of a 22-year-old woman while in the custody of the country's morality police, as well as Russia's war in Ukraine, in an interview with VOA Persian's State Department correspondent Guita Aryan.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

VOA: So the Iranian president talked a lot about justice in general, and specifically about Iran, but at the same time we've seen demonstrations, people have taken to the street regarding Mahsa Amini's death while in custody of Iran's morality police. Can you talk a little about that?

STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON NED PRICE: It's a very simple fact. Mahsa Amini should be alive today. The only reason she's not is because of the brutal repression that the so-called morality police exercised against her. And what we're seeing, the same type of repression and brutality that Iranian authorities are implementing or employing against their own citizens, their own citizens for undertaking what is a universal right to them to people around the world  the right to peaceful assembly, to freedom of expression. We've seen these protests continue in recent days. Again, peaceful protests being met with horrific violence. This is a hallmark of the Iranian regime, and it's something that the whole world is watching.

VOA: The Treasury today sanctioned a number of people affiliated with the morality police. Do you think sanctioning is going to make any difference?

PRICE: It's one important measure of accountability. We want to do two things. We want to make very clear that the United States and the rest of the world stands with people around the world who are exercising rights that are universal, rights that belong as much to the people of Iran as they do to citizens of any other country. Freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom to communicate. We stand with all of those who are peacefully exercising that right.

So, we did take action today against the morality police, we did sanction that as an entity. We sanctioned seven additional individuals. We'll continue to look for ways to hold to account those Iranian officials who are behind this repression, who are behind this violence, who were behind this brutality.

VOA: Critics of the Iranian president (Ebrahim Raisi) being here are saying that given what's going on in Iran, he shouldn't have been allowed here. Not only what's going on right now, but also his background in having a hand in repression of people or killing of other people. What do you have to say to them?

PRICE: Well, as the host of the U.N., we are generally obligated to grant visas to world leaders who are traveling here to attend U.N. meetings. The Iranian mission, the Iranian delegation here is under restrictions in terms of where they can go and what they can do in New York City other than attend meetings here at the U.N. But it's also important that while he's here, the Iranian president is hearing very clear messages, messages from around the world, from the United States, from countries around the world standing with those who are exercising what is their universal rights, the right to peaceful, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression.

VOA: Regarding the nuclear negotiations, the Iranian president said that Iran is not looking for nuclear weapons, and that the ball is in the U.S. court. So where do we go from here?

PRICE: Well, the opposite is, in fact, true. And I think you know that we have been engaged in a sincere and steadfast effort for the past 18 months or so, to see if we can achieve a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA, because we want to see these verifiable, these permanent limits, once again, imposed on Iran's nuclear program, and in a way that would allow the entire world to see and to verify what Iran's president says is the case, that Iran's program is entirely peaceful. The virtue of the Iran deal is that it would be verifiable, it would allow the world to see for itself the truth of those statements.

The only reason we haven't been able to achieve a mutual return to compliance with the Iran deal is because of the intransigence of the Iranian delegation. As you know, we've been exchanging proposals on that text that the European Union put forward. Unfortunately, the latest Iranian response did not put us in a position to close the deal. In fact, it took us backwards. We continue to believe that there's a window of opportunity to return to the Iran deal on a mutual basis. We're going to pursue that outcome for as long as it remains in America's national security interests.

VOA: The Russian war against Ukraine is a major issue and topic of discussion at the U.N. Is there an actionable way of stopping, preventing people, Ukrainians, from getting killed?

PRICE: Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken delivered a very simple message today, and in some ways, you can distill it down to one sentence. He said, "If Russia were to stop fighting today, the war would end. If Ukraine were to stop fighting today, Ukraine would end." This is a war of territorial aggression that Russia has been waging against its peaceful neighbor. And what's most important, and one of the core objectives of some of today, was to continue to galvanize the rest of the world to speak clearly, to speak consistently and to speak with one voice about the need for Russia to end this brutal war, about the need to stand against this aggression, and to stand with our Ukrainian partners.

We and dozens of other countries around the world are doing that. We are providing them with billions of dollars in security assistance, more than $15 billion since the start of this Russian aggression, as are other countries. And we're holding Russia to account. We, just as we said we would, have enacted massive costs and consequences on key Russian leaders, on key Russian institutions responsible for this war. We're going to continue to provide support to our Ukrainian partners and to increase pressure on Russia for as long as it takes.

VOA: But that doesn't seem like it has stopped Russian President Vladimir Putin from continuing the war.

PRICE: Russia is increasingly isolated. I think it was pretty telling that today in the Security Council, [Russian] Foreign Minister [Sergey] Lavrov ... came in just before he delivered his remarks and left just after he delivered his remarks. If anything, that's a sign of weakness. It's a sign of the fact that Russia increasingly recognizes that even its long-standing partners are distancing themselves from Russia. We saw this in Samarkand [Uzbekistan] last week when tough messages were delivered to Vladimir Putin. We saw that earlier today in the Security Council, where country after country condemned this aggression and called for Russia to halt its invasion of Ukraine.
Detained Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) lawmaker, Job Sikhala, says he is a political prisoner together with 15 other party members, who were arrested three months ago for allegedly inciting violence and obstructing the course of justice.

In a letter to Zimbabweans, Sikhala said, We are victims of our beliefs, beliefs which we dearly hold, the belief that Zimbabwe must be a free society devoid of callous murders and killings of those holding differing views and opinions. We are suffering and being persecuted for loving our Country and the downtrodden in our society, with all our hearts and soul.

Beloved Zimbabweans, we dearly love our Country and everyone living in it to the core, Zimbabwe belongs to all of us and we will strive forever for a society of equality and happiness. Your overwhelming support is echoing here through the walls of Chikurubhi Maximum Security Prison. We are NOT criminals. We are political prisoners of a regime that is scared of its people. It must be known, however, that Zimbabweans are not fools nor cowards as envisaged. They are just cautious and patient.

Sikhala said former president Hassan Omar Al Bashir thought likewise in Sudan before people power taught him otherwise.

The people of Zimbabwe are boiling with anger and it has reached a tipping point. Even accomplices in our persecution know it. Zimbabwe is a Country of unhappy, poverty-stricken and tormented souls. Our persecution and torment are a testimony of the generality of every Zimbabwean.

Only the evil and looters and their compt kins rejoice in our suffering, whilst I and you live like paupers in our own country. The hour of the peoples power shall come and we shall have tears of joy. We shall be witnesses to this grand occasion during our lifetime. Your support, dear Zimbabweans, is needed most during this crucial hour of our countrys history. We seek your full resolve to stand with us and speak out about the injustices of the movement being perpetrated upon us.

Sikhala and another CCC lawmaker Godfrey Sithole, together with 14 others arrested in Nyatsime following the killing of party activist Moreblessin Ali by suspected Zanu PF activists, have been detained for 100 days.

Sikhala said, Our arrest was followed by the arrest of 14 other innocent citizens, 3 of them with us here at Chikurubhi Maximum Security Prison and the other 11 detained at Harare Remand Prison. As correctly pointed out by Prof Ibbo Mandaza and 115 others petition, our arrest is purely political persecution by a regime afraid of dissent and democratic discourse in the Country.

Mandaza, who is a political analyst and over 100 other Zimbabweans, recently signed a petition seeking the release on bail of Sikhala and other activists locked up at Chikurubi Maximum Prison.

Prison officials were unreachable for comment as they were not responding to calls on their mobile phones.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa says Zimbabwe is on a re-engagement drive designed to develop and entrench democracy in the southern African nation, which has been isolated by the West over the past few decades amid claims of electoral fraud and election rigging.

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, Mnangagwa urged the West to remove targeted sanctions imposed on ruling party officials, claiming that they are hurting the country.

He said Zimbabwe is ready to engage all nations as the nation has opened space for free and fair elections.

At international level, Zimbabwe has adopted an engagement and re-engagement policy. The policy is underpinned by the principles of mutual understanding and respect, cooperation, partnership and shared values with other members of the international community. We desire to be a friend to all and an enemy to none.

But critics said Mnangagwas government is cracking down on dissenting voices following the arrest of over 52 opposition members accused of inciting public violence.

Khethiwe Bhebhe, a government critic, said, Its clear that Mnangagwa no longer has friends in the West. He is looking for friends everywhere. The bottomline is that you dont look for friends as friends come to you when they realize that you are doing good things. With all the arrests happening right now in Zimbabwe where people are being jailed for being opponents of the government, I dont see his government making it in terms of getting friends in the West.

He is aligning himself with countries like Venezuela, Cuba, China, Russia and others that have well-documents human rights violations. These are the only friends that Zimbabwe will ever have. As for the West, he must forget about it.

In his address, Mnangagwa also said, My country is greatly concerned that more than 20 years after the Durban Declaration and program of action, hate crimes, xenophobia, racial discrimination and intolerance have continued to increase at an alarming rate, including at international level.

Some Zimbabweans living in USA are planning to stage public protests outside the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday expressing dismay over Mnangagwas participation at the annual event. Mnangagwa has already left the country for Cuba.
Thousands of Russians are trying to flee the country to escape the partial mobilization of civilians into the military. The move was announced Wednesday in a televised address by President Vladimir Putin, after Russian armed forces suffered significant losses in recent weeks of their invasion of Ukraine.

Some European officials say this poses a security threat at their borders, and they intend to shift the onus to Putin at home by keeping their borders closed.

The Associated Press reports Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said Thursday that many of those fleeing were fine with killing Ukrainians. They did not protest then. It is not right to consider them as conscientious objectors.

At land borders in the countrys east, south and west, lines of cars stretched several kilometers Friday, as Russian citizens  mostly men of conscription age  tried to escape the draft.

Footage obtained by Radio Free Europe (VOAs sister organization) showed long lines of cars and trucks at the Zemo Larsi crossing into Georgia. Russian citizen Ivan, who did not want to give his full name, said the crossing took 12 hours.

I think the Russian border guards were letting people through very slowly. For example, yesterday before midnight you could cross the border much more quickly. After midnight, either lots of cars arrived or the border guards started to work more slowly, he told Reuters.

Increased traffic and long lines also were reported at Russias borders with Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

In the far west, Finnish border guards reported that traffic from Russia has more than doubled in the past 48 hours. Among those fleeing the draft was 34-year-old Nikita, who did not want to give his full name.

I am afraid. Because it's a very big mistake, for Russia, for Europe, and of course for Ukraine citizens, he told Reuters.

Asylum seekers

Germany said it would offer protection to Russians fleeing the mobilization on a case-by-case basis.

Deserters threatened with serious repression can, as a rule, obtain international protection in Germany. Anyone who courageously opposes Putin's regime and thereby falls into great danger, can file for asylum on grounds of political persecution, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in an interview published Friday in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.

Several other European countries, including those neighboring Russia, such as the Baltic states and Finland, are restricting entry for Russian citizens.

Flights unavailable

Many European and North American countries banned Russian airlines from their airspace, and since Moscow imposed reciprocal measures, leaving Russia has become increasingly difficult.

Flights to countries that dont require a visa, including Turkey, Serbia and Dubai, reportedly were sold out by Thursday. Russian citizen Alex, who also did not want to give his family name, flew to Istanbul Thursday to escape the military draft.

Partial mobilization is one of the reasons why I am here. [Its a] very poor step and it seems to be that it can lead to lots of problems for lots of Russian citizens. I didn't believe that the next step would be mobilization, and I feel that not many Russian people want to fight and want to be mobilized and want to go to the army, he told Reuters.

Putins plan

In Wednesdays televised address, Putin announced the partial mobilization of around 300,000 military reservists, maintaining that only those with previous combat experience would be mobilized.

Alex Titov, a Russia analyst at Queens University Belfast, said the policy represents a watershed moment in the invasion of Ukraine.

The initial plan to conduct a swift military operation with only [the] professional army involved has failed, and now they have to turn to something very unpopular and something they tried to avoid and tried to delay, the official mobilization of the civilian population. There is no way of knowing how many actually will be called up over what period. There's no clear end to it either, Titov told VOA.

The Russian government denied that people are fleeing the mobilization. The information about the hype at airports and so on is very much exaggerated  There is a lot of fake information about this, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday.

Stiff opposition

A continuing exodus of Russians escaping the draft could present a problem for Putin, says analyst Titov.

If the exodus is large, then perhaps they might put formal restrictions on men traveling abroad, particularly of a certain age, or require them to have formal papers permitting them to leave and so forth, Titov said.

How significant it is? It's really hard to say because the type of people who are fleeing are maybe not the people [who] are actually being called up, in the sense that they usually go for more remote and less urban areas for conscription. There is a general trend toward more and more kind[s] of disillusionment and annoyance about the war. But whether it kind of reaches a critical point, I'm not sure, Titov told VOA.

The Russian government said those being drafted have specific military experience or training. However, there are widespread reports of regular civilians being forced to enlist.

Dmitry, a student from Moscow who did not want to give his full name, was handed mobilization papers Thursday and was driven away from his residence in a minibus. Dmitrys father, who also did not want to give his name, told The Associated Press that his son has no links with the military. The president's decree said no students would be recruited. And then it happened, they recruited him without any explanation. This is not right, he said.

Many draftees are being brought in from the remote regions of Russia. Pavel Sokolov, from the eastern city of Yakutsk, served in the Russian army 10 years ago. He received draft papers Thursday.

I didn't expect it. I went to the kindergarten with my daughter, and they gave [the draft paper] to me in the street. I came here at once. I'm fine, keeping calm. I won't be away for long hopefully, Sokolov told The Associated Press.

Protests escalate

There have been widespread protests against the mobilization in cities across Russia. Human rights groups claim that about 1,400 demonstrators have been arrested since Wednesday. There are reports that some of those detained are being handed mobilization papers while in custody.

The jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny Thursday called for mass protests against the war.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
Victoria Amunga

NAIROBI, KENYA  Kenya's wildlife authorities have launched a free mobile phone app that allows users to track sightings of rare mammals to help authorities protect them.

The Mammal Atlas Kenya, or Makenya, allows any user who spots a wild mammal to identify it and log the location.

Kenya is home to nearly 400 species of mammals, 22 of them natives to regions of Kenya, according to national figures. Authorities say it is getting more difficult to protect them, as climate change and human activities take a toll on their natural habitats.

So the National Museums of Kenya, the Mammal Committee of Nature Kenya and partners designed the mobile app, which also provides a way to upload photographs and details, such as the number of mammals sighted and their exact locations.

"You can also add the behavior," said Dr. Simon Musila, a researcher at the National Museums of Kenya. "When you see this animal, what are they doing? Are they resting? Are they running away? Are they feeding? What are they doing at the moment you see them?

Musila said its important to engage the public using technology to help the countrys limited number of mammal specialists. Wildlife authorities said staff would keep records of the animals changing environment and survival conditions.

There's a need "to bring in many people who can contribute a lot of data," he said. "These are people like safari guides. These are people like students, tourists, people who go out and come across animals and will be willing to submit data."

Samson Onyuok uses the Makenya app. Users like him have reported more than 2,500 mammal sightings since the app launched in August.

"First, I think I take pride in contributing to conservation initiatives in the country," he said. "I think as a Kenyan, that is my little way of contributing to the conservation initiatives. So, yes, there is a fulfillment that comes with that."

Experts say Africa contributes minimally to climate change but is bearing the brunt of its consequences. Dr. Philip Muruthi, vice president of the African Wildlife Foundation, told VOA that reproduction of the rare mammals and the survival rate of young ones are dropping.

"It is very hard to benefit or manage what you don't know," he said. "That is why this is so important. It is going to tell us which species we have, where they are, and maybe which ones are highly endangered, what we need to do about them. And especially not just the big things but also the small things, like the bats."

Wildlife officials say Kenya is a habitat to at least a third of mammal species in Africa and are hopeful app users will boost efforts to protect them.
By Azernews

By Fuad Muxtar-Aqbabali

Azerbaijani president visits strategic gateway city of Lachin

Azerbaijani tricolor flag again flies in liberated city

New infrastructure projects kicked off in Lachin

No one can accuse Azerbaijan without border delimitation

Azerbaijan in control of large swathes of land stretching from Murov Mountain to the Araz River

Ahead of the upcoming second anniversary of the start of the Second Karabakh War, President Ilham Aliyev traveled to the strategic gateway city of Lachin on the border with Armenia to raise the nations tricolor flag and once again demonstrate his staunch belief and determination to rebuild and reconstruct the destroyed Karabakh.

The city and two remaining villages around it came under Bakus control on August 25, 2022, after a brand new road linking Xankandi to Armenia was commissioned.

The trip to the geo-strategically and geo-politically critical city on the heels of the September 12-13 clashes with the Armenian army is a testimony to the sweeping objectives of the Azerbaijani leader.

Clad in military fatigues and standing under the gently flying tricolor flag, Ilham Aliyev repudiated as groundless Armenias accusations that the Azerbaijani troops advanced into its territory during the recent cross-border clashes.

After the second Karabakh war ended, we have accessed our borders. If Armenia wants to accuse us of entering their territory, there is no basis for it. First, if the border was where they said it was, they should have established the border, built border lines there, established communications and carried out engineering work. They were under the impression that all of Karabakh and Zangazur would remain for them, which is why they did not do anything on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief said in a sharp and decisive way.

Ilham Aliyevs serrated and momentous response reverberated in the ears of both the Armenian leadership and those who rushed from overseas to show solidarity with the Pashinyan team.

However, if the enemy commits provocations against us, we will give it a fitting rebuff. Armenia should think carefully today. No one can speak to us in the language of ultimatums. They should not count on anyone. I want to say again that no one and nothing can stop us. We are protecting and have restored our territorial integrity. We have been able to show the whole world what we are capable of doing. We have liberated our land by force, and we are proud of that. All the people of Azerbaijan, all Azerbaijanis of the world are proud of this. We are proud of our martyrs, our Army, and our soldiers, and our tricolor flag flying here today is a symbol of our Victory.

On September 13, the Azerbaijani army responded and put the enemy back in place yet again. No one's call, no statements or initiatives can stop us. We are on our own land and we are protecting our own land, the president said.

Our positions along the border allow us the opportunity to anticipate any Armenian provocation and take necessary measures. We are in favorable positions on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border all the way from Mount Murov to the Araz River. These positions give us both a military advantage and the possibility of visual control over a large area, including control over important communication lines, and we are already based in these areas, Ilham Aliyev added.

Armenia and its supporters clearly heard these messages as they were a wake-up call for Yerevan that the triumphant army with absolute control of the archenemys strategic roads is and will unhesitatingly deal a heavy blow to complete the mission.

The Azerbaijani leader also rapped Armenia for delaying the border delimitation process and for not fulfilling some items of the November 10, 2020 peace statement. Armenia had not even proposed a route of a transport corridor that would link mainland Azerbaijan with Naxcivan, the president said, bashing at official Yerevan for dragging out time again.

Azerbaijan has proposed five principles for the signing of a peace treaty with Armenia and they accepted them, but we do not see it in practice, Ilham Aliyev said, censuring it for a stalling tactic.

In conformity with the act of capitulation, signed by Armenia on November 10, 2020, the Armenian armed forces should have withdrawn from Karabakh. They have not fully withdrawn yet. Armenia was supposed to provide a corridor that would ensure a connection between mainland Azerbaijan and Naxcivan.

So far not only have they failed to provide the corridor, but also the route of the corridor has not been communicated to us. No specific work has been done. We have now built the railway to Zangilan. We built the highway to Zangilan. At the end of next year, we will bring both the railway and the highway to the border with Armenia. However, nothing is being done on the territory of Armenia, and it seems they are unwilling to do anything. They are still delaying time, the president said.

On his way to Lachin city, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev familiarized himself with the construction of a 2,400-meter-long entrance tunnel to the Lachin International Airport on the 35th kilometer of the Kalbajar-Lachin highway.

Loyal to the strategy of rebuilding the destroyed Karabakh and providing residents with all cutting-edge infrastructure, the president laid the foundation of the 110/35/10 kV Lachin junction substation to be built by Azerenergy company.
There are marked differences in the mission and vision of the U.S.-dominated North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The former believes in power projections and military interventions to force the sovereign nations succumb to its dominance and to abide by the American-ordained governance system.

Released in July, the aggressive tone of the NATO 2022 Strategic Concept sought to divide the world and destabilize international peace by calling Russia the "most significant and direct threat" to the alliance's peace and security and alleging China's "stated ambitions and coercive policies" challenge its interests, security and values.

Standing in sharp contrast, the SCO is not an anti-American, anti-European or anti-global organization. A creative amalgam of developing and emerging economies  representing roughly 60 percent of Eurasia, half of the world population and 30 percent of global GDP (gross domestic product) on purchasing power parity  doesn't believe in political or military interventions and to focus on security and economic cooperation to inject more momentum to the international economy and stability.

NATO was a military alliance built against Russia. Once the coalition lost a cohesive force that could unite member states in the absence of an adversary; French President Emmanuel Macron in 2019 called it a "brain-dead," emphasizing terrorism was its "common enemy."

Still, the U.S. took no notice of one of its key affiliates and is trying to reestablish its relevance by fueling the flames of war in Ukraine. But the motive to exploit the Russia-Ukraine conflict to its advantage is thwarted by widening internal divisions as NATO member states disagree over policy toward China and Russia.

The SCO has no military ambitions against any state or intent to impinge on the independence of any nation; the Eurasian grouping has historically limited itself to forging a consensus on fighting extremism, terrorism, separatism and transnational threats. The organization, unlike NATO, hasn't ever engaged in actual military, anti-terrorist or even peacemaking operations.

In 2017, Pakistan and India became full members of the SCO. Their inclusion contributed to regional stability, since the SCO brought together two regional rivals on a single platform. In October, Pakistan is likely to participate in counter-terrorism drills under the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure in India. The rare opportunity gives Islamabad and New Delhi a chance to calm matters down and improve coordination for regional peace.

Clashes between the forces of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on contested border areas are not new. It was important the leaders of the two sides agreed in a meeting in Uzbekistan on a troop pullback and lowering the temperature. So is the case with Armenia and Azerbaijan, which have gotten embroiled in a decades-old dispute in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. They negotiated a ceasefire to bring an end to the flare-up. By drawing the leaders of contending countries near each other, the SCO could defuse such unwanted tensions and promote peace.

Linking the bilateral territorial disputes to label the SCO as a "Rogue NATO" or anti-NATO cannot blunt the significance of the organization. The organization doesn't intervene in bilateral disputes; as it facilitates engagement between the fellow states by providing a forum to peacefully hold consultations on issues they are willing to discuss. This instrumental contribution to peace deserves special commendation.

NATO asserts it is a defensive alliance and poses no threat to any country. Yet the organization's encroachment on the sovereignty of the Asian nations, such as the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in defiance of international law, rebutted its claims outright. Washington, on the other hand, coerces its transatlantic allies to spend 2 percent of GDP to exercise America's dominance on the world.

The SCO doesn't require members to raise their respective defense spending or arouse pro-war sentiments against other countries. It is more diverse than NATO for the Eurasian alliance pursues peace, security and stability; jointly countering challenges and threats; and strengthening trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian relations in the region.

China or the SCO isn't anti-Western; either of the two opposes an anti-peace approach of political and military interventions and discriminating economic policies that seeks U.S. supremacy in Asia and around the world.

Against the backdrop of the growing geopolitical paradoxes practiced by Washington to stoke regional conflicts, the concept of the "Shanghai Spirit" encourages all countries to respect territorial integrity, sticking to the principle of non-interference and teaming up for peace, shared growth and common development.

The organization's mission and vision of peace and prosperity for all has drawn interest from all parts of Asia, including the Middle East and North Africa join the SCO with Iran signing the memorandum of commitments to become a SCO member. The inclusiveness of the organization; its ability to act as a bridge among regional states and the geographic proximity of the member states holds the potential to better integrate Eurasia to drive growth and thwart security challenges.



The author Azhar Azam works in a private organization as a market and business analyst and writes about geopolitical issues and regional conflicts. (Source: CGTN)


One of Billings' best fall events is back. "Voices of the Past," a living history event, will be held at Mountview Cemetery on Saturday mornings, Sept. 24 and Oct. 1.

Presented by the Western Heritage Center in conjunction with Billings Parks and Recreation, "Voices of the Past" is a unique way to educate the community on local history, using professional performers and riveting scripts that feature stories full of humor, heartbreak, and the true stories of life in early Yellowstone County.

This years featured historic figures are P.B. and Mattie Moss, early Billings socialites, entrepreneurs, and civic leaders; Jessie Mahler, a Huntley Project homesteader and victim of the Flu of 1918; J.G. Link, a nationally known architect and local leader, whose work included St. Patricks Co-Cathedral and the Montana Capitol Building; Augusta Schuster: an early Billings resident, wife, mother, and society scandal victim; Dr. Frank Bell: first pilot in Montana, aviation innovator, and Billings dentist; and Dorothy Gray: the first female landscape architect in Montana and visionary designer of Pioneer Park.

Guests will have the opportunity to tour the Mountview Cemetery grounds, including the Billings Mausoleum, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Regular tickets are $25, with a student price of $18, and youth under 5 are free. Groups of 10 or more may purchase tickets together for $18 each. Tickets are now available at ywhc.org/museum-programs/special-events. Guests will select an entry time when buying tickets, and can stay as long as they like to see performances.

All those attending will receive a map so they can self-guide throughout the grounds. Most guests choose to walk from site to site, but those needing accommodation may drive through (please call the Western Heritage Center if you have any accessibility-related concerns). Tickets may also be purchased at the Western Heritage Center during normal hours (Tues-Sat, 10 a.m.  5 p.m.).

The event is sponsored by ExxonMobil, Northwestern Energy, and Mayor Bill and Anne Cole. Proceeds go to support operations, education, and outreach at the Western Heritage Center.
Our cities share the same name.

Although 1,200 miles apart, Billings, Montana and Billings, Missouri have a strong historical connection. Both were named after the famous railroad baron, lawyer, and conservationist Frederick H. Billings.

Last week, a group from that Billings traveled to this Billings to meet with Mayor Bill Cole for a potential sister city kick-off.

We had an excellent visit with the group of ambassadors from Billings, Missouri. It was an honor to host them and make compelling historical connections. We packed a lot of conversation into our three-hour visit, and I hope to make a trip of my own there one day to connect more dots between our two railroad towns, said Cole.

Sponsored by local businesses and families, the group of four made the drive on their Harley Davidson motorcycles.

We have worked very, very hard and were very excited to come up here because of the opportunity to see exactly how you grew, Mike McCoy, ambassador for Billings, MO, said to Cole.

Theres a stark contrast in population size between the two cities.

Billings, MO is just a few community members shy of 1,000 residents.

Billings, MT had just over 117,000 residents, according to the 2020 census.

Despite the smaller population, Billings, MO does surpass Billings, MT in another aspect. Missouris Billings is 10 years older than Montanas Billings.

In 1872, Frederick Billings offered to give the town of Billings, MO $1,000 to build a church in exchange for naming rights.

Billings, MT was established in 1882, and named in honor of Billings, who served as president of the Northern Pacific Railway from 1879 to 1881.

The group from Missouri presented Mayor Cole with gifts to share and display, including a photo of their city council standing in front of the Billings, MO city hall.

Some other gifts included a letter from their Mayor Mickey Brown, a framed map of their route, a copy of the original Billings, MO plat map, gear from the Billings High School Wildcats, and railroad spikes that were once hand driven into the tracks that go through town.

It was a thriving community. Billings had the second largest livestock market in the state. We had a car dealership down there and there were a lot of great opportunities for Billings, said Jeff (Jumper) Yates, another member of the ambassador group.

Cole gave the group several items with the Billings, Montana logo and showed them the USS Billings display thats located inside the Billings Public Library.

Local historian and executive director of the Western Heritage Center, Kevin Kooistra, was also invited to share some Billings history.

With Springfield, Missouri only 11 miles away and the family vacation destination city of Branson less than an hour's drive away, the Missouri ambassadors are hopeful anyone visiting the area from Billings, MT will take time to stop by their city.

We would love to have you guys come down there. Im sure we have gaps in our history. Maybe theres some way we can fill those in by talking to each other, McCoy told Cole and Kooistra.

One of Coles favorite parts of Billings, MO history that he learned during the visit is the fact its home to the first compound bow.

Holless Wilbur Allen had a shop on Washington Avenue in Billings where he invented and sold his bow in the 1960s and 1970s. An ad found online shows Allen promised Knock Down Power No Other Bow Can Equal.

As far as further establishing the sister city relationship, Cole said hed like to think that were already sister cities.

Billings, Missouri is our older sister. We were born into the Billings family, and we are proud to be part of it, said Cole.

McCoy and Yates are business owners in Billings, MO. They were accompanied by Chad Atnip and Travis Cook.

McCoy owns Twisted Grip BBQ and Yates owns the Bank Tavern, a bar located inside a historic bank.

Together, they own the Twisted Tavern Coffee Company, serving up drive-thru coffee.

Were really hoping in the future that the folks from Billings, Montana can come all the way down to Missouri, Yates said.

Cole echoed those thoughts and said he also hopes establishing this relationship will persuade residents to explore his citys own history and the man it was named after. Frederick Billings was an honorable man with a fascinating history of entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and conservation. Those are timeless values that are in our citys DNA.
Adjunct Faculty: Fundraising for Cultural Heritage

The American University of Rome is looking for an instructor to teach the course Fundraising for the U.S. accredited MA in Cultural Heritage. The course involves 15 contact hours during the period from the end of January to mid-March 2022 and is scheduled on a Friday. The course is aimed at graduate students of Cultural Heritage who have no prior experience of fundraising and will involve supervising practical group work as well as teaching theory.

Required qualifications:

Experience in fundraising for cultural heritage work

Excellent knowledge of English

Relevant academic education, to at least MA or MBA level and preferably Ph.D. level

Desirable qualifications

Previous teaching experience with North American university programs

About AUR and the M.A. Program

Since 1969, The American University of Rome has provided an American liberal arts education to students from all over the world seeking a unique and extraordinary educational experience. It is the oldest American degree-granting institution in Rome, Italy, and currently offers 10 Bachelor degrees and 3 Master degrees. All programs are taught in English.

The M.A. program in Cultural Heritage: Sustainability and Community trains graduates to face the most important challenge in the heritage industry today: its long-term viability. The Cultural Heritage program focuses on the community, not on state structures or institutional responses to heritage. AURs program aims to train students in skills that lead to roles in the heritage sector working with communities, NGOs, and other organizations to ensure the restoration and protection of sites of cultural importance.

How to apply:

Please send your motivation letter and CV in English to applications@aur.edu, quoting ref: HR1/2022 Adjunct Faculty for the Master in Cultural Heritage.

All applicants must have the right to work in Italy.

The American University of Rome provides equal opportunity for all qualified individuals in its educational programs and activities. The university does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, marital status, personal appearance, sexual orientation, family responsibilities, political affiliation, source of income, or Vietnam-era veteran status. It conforms to all applicable federal and state nondiscrimination laws. The policy of equal opportunity applies to every aspect of the operations and activities of the university generally and includes admissions and employment.
On the eve of Italy's election, Berlusconi gives his version of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Italy's former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi came to the defence of Vladimir Putin on Italian television on Thursday night, claiming the Russian president was "pushed" into ordering the invasion of Ukraine.

Berlusconi, the leader of the centre-right Forza Italia party, made his controversial comments on the prime time show Porta a Porta on Italian state television network RAI, days before Italy votes in a general election on Sunday.

Forza Italia forms part of a rightist alliance, with the far-right Fratelli d'Italia of Giorgia Meloni and the right-wing Lega of Matteo Salvini, that is expected to win the election this weekend.

The programme's host Bruno Vespa noted that Putin has "decided to intensify and recall the reservists, to threaten - albeit indirectly - the use of nuclear power after the invasion of Ukraine", asking Berlusconi what happened to his "old friend".

Berlusconi, who before the war in Ukraine had long boasted of his 20-year friendship with Putin, claimed the Russian president had "fallen into a difficult and dramatic situation" after a delegation from "the two pro-Russian republics of Donbass went to Moscow" to speak to ministers and carry out a media campaign.

Senza parole.

Nel senso che restiamo senza parole.

Mai avremmo immaginato di sentire simili parole. pic.twitter.com/66e5bWJGsL Fondazione Luigi Einaudi (@fleinaudi) September 22, 2022

In Berlusconi's version of events, the delegation said that Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky had "increased the attacks of his forces against us and our borders, we have reached 16,000 dead, defend us because if you don't, we don't know where we can go."

The Donbass mission in Moscow - according to Berlusconi - saw Putin "pushed by the Russian people, his party and his ministers to invent this special operation".

The Forza Italia leader, 85, went on to claim that the plan was for Russian troops to enter Ukraine and reach Kyiv "within a week" and "replace Zelensky's government with a government of decent people" before returning to Russia a week later.

However they were met with "unexpected resistance" from Ukrainian soldiers, equipped with "arms of all kinds" supplied by the West, Berlusconi said, adding that in his view Russian forces should have stayed around Kyiv rather than spread out all over Ukraine.

Berlusconi also stressed that he "feels bad" when he hears about the deaths "because I have always believed that war is the greatest madness of all."
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Whether pressured to return or wooed with free breakfast, many workers are filing back into downtown offices. But few are going in five days a week, and many dont plan to for the foreseeable future. Thats because employers can do little about the primary pain point thats keeping people at home: commuting. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Office avoidance is most dramatic in big metro areas where commutes are especially painful. According to US Census Bureau data, 1 in 10 workers has a one-way commute that lasts over an hour, but in New York, almost 23% do. Other expensive metro areas  such as San Francisco (19.4%) and Washington (18.3%)  arent far behind. All of these cities had office occupancy rates under 50% as of Sept. 14, according to data from Kastle Systems. Meanwhile, major cities with shorter commute times  such as Austin, Houston and Dallas  have long had occupancy rates over 50%.

The most miserable commutes are associated with public transportation. The average one-way journey for a commuter rail rider is 71.2 minutes; for a subway rider, its 48.8 minutes. Its 46.6 minutes for those taking the bus. And theres not much office-thirsty CEOs can do to shorten those journeys. Even if companies decide to offer free transit passes to workers, they cant make our buses, subways and trains run any faster or more reliably.

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Its a very intractable problem, says Diane Davis, a professor of regional planning and urbanism at Harvards Graduate School of Design. People spend so much time commuting because of the way were building our cities.

When setting out to write this column, I (with breathtaking naivete) thought that by talking to the right people, I might be able to offer some concrete suggestions on how to improve commutes, at least around the edges. The benefits go far beyond RTO: There are plenty of people who cant work from home and whose lives would be immeasurably improved by better transit. Instead, I came away with a new appreciation of just how difficult the commuting problem is.

Im now more convinced than ever that the work-from-home toothpaste cannot be forced back into the tube. Just as Napster heralded the end for Tower Records, and Netflix spelled doom for Blockbuster, the Covid-19 pandemic has changed something fundamental in the calculation about traveling to an office.

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In the second quarter of 2022, about 42% of North Americans visiting an office were doing so just once a week, according to Basking.io, a company that provides workplace-occupancy data to real-estate companies, while just 20% were in the office four or five days a week. Average peak occupancy is lowest in the biggest cities, indicating that commute time is one of the biggest hurdles for the companies to get people back in the offices. I cant stop thinking about what one reluctant worker told the Wall Street Journal back in February: Youre not going to get me on the train for two hours for free bagels.

Before the pandemic, workers endured long trips because there didnt seem to be an alternative. Thats no longer the case. People have a new frame of reference now, says Jennifer Moss, author of The Burnout Epidemic. Weve come to understand we can be productive and meet our objectives without having to spend all this time commuting. This makes long journeys to the office feel even more painful than they did in 2019.

Can cities make brutal commutes better? In theory, yes, but the needed changes are logistically difficult, politically costly and financially expensive.

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Any plan has to start by reducing traffic congestion. That means convincing more drivers to take public transit. That, in turn, means making such transportation more reliable, pleasant and frequent. People are driving because there are limited [other] options, not necessarily because they prefer the experience. It could very well be that the bus stops running at 6pm, and thats not an exaggeration, says Tiffany-Ann Taylor, vice president for transportation at the Regional Plan Association.

Implementing fees to drive into city centers, as London has done and New York City is considering, can help. Those funds can also then be used to beef up transit options, like express bus lanes, biking infrastructure, more-frequent train service and new ferry routes.

But even if US cities do adopt congestion charges  a big if  translating the extra money into major transit improvements would require a heroic effort. To really be able to rely on transit, a subway train or city bus has to come often enough that people dont need to think about it. Thats closer to every four minutes than every 20, says Hayley Richardson of TransitCenter, an advocacy organization. (I laughed bitterly at this, since the train that visits my suburb runs only once an hour, even during rush hour.) And transit lines would have to expand into more neighborhoods, since if a stop is more than a 10-minute walk away, people tend not to use it.

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Any rewards from major improvements would also be decades away. Harvards Davis says it took Stockholm  a model of improved commuting  20 years to get it right. Londons glistening new Elizabeth Line, which opened earlier this year, was formally approved 15 years ago (and suggested generations earlier).

Experiments in making buses or trains free or much cheaper  like those conducted in Boston and Germany earlier this year  are unlikely to make a big difference either if service isnt dramatically improved. We could spend millions  billions, trillions!  on improvements to transit, and it would likely only shave a few minutes off the average persons commute.

There is, of course, a different way to improve commuting: Get rid of the idea of a central business district ringed by neighborhoods where people live. Mix up where people live and work. That density is one reason a city such as Vienna, Austria, manages to have an average one-way commute time of 13 minutes  half the US average. But the major zoning changes needed to achieve European-style density in the US seem wildly unrealistic. Even if changes to city structure were politically feasible, Davis says, theyd likely have limited effects on commuting. So many people work on the internet anyway. So why should they go into an office to do something that they could do at home? Why, indeed.

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Which brings us right back to where we started.

Its not that improving the commute in a car-centric country is impossible. Toronto, for example, has buses that serve its suburbs every 10 minutes. Im sure Torontonians still have plenty to complain about, but if a bus visited my Boston suburb every 10 minutes, Id be dancing.

Its also important to note that commuters are not totally helpless in improving our lot. More people could walk or bike to work  currently, only 3% of Americans walk to work, and about 1% bike to work, even though about 29% of Americans live less than five miles from their offices. People with physically active commutes tend to like commuting more (or, maybe more accurately, hate it less).

But compared with the trials of commuting, managing the challenges of hybrid and remote work seem relatively straightforward. We arent going to see a full RTO until people are willing to RTC  return to commuting. Which is to say, never. Because it seems many of us would rather do anything but commute ... even spend all day on Zoom.

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More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 The Kanye-Gap Breakup Will Be Tough on Adidas: Andrea Felsted

 Can E-Bikes Rescue the Covid Bicycle Boom?: Chris Bryant

 I Cant Be the Only One Who Doesnt Want to WFH: Paul J. Davies

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Sarah Green Carmichael is a Bloomberg Opinion editor. Previously, she was managing editor of ideas and commentary at Barrons and an executive editor at Harvard Business Review, where she hosted HBR IdeaCast.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

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Having received armed Iranian drones for his war in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin owed Ebrahim Raisi a favor. The Russian leader duly did a solid for his Iranian counterpart this week, by sparing Raisis blushes at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Putins dramatic raising of stakes in the war  he announced the mobilization of up to 300,000 reservists and made unsubtle threats to use nuclear weapons  drew international attention away from Iran, where the death of a young woman in police custody has set off protests nationwide against the Raisi regime.

Mahsa Amini, 22, fell into a coma and died after being detained last week, apparently because she had not sufficiently covered her hair. There were suspicions that she had been tortured by the so-called morality police, reports that her head had been slammed repeatedly against a hard surface.

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Mistreatment at the hands of security forces is commonplace in the Islamic Republic, but Aminis death was the proverbial last straw for many Iranians, especially women. Social media platforms quickly filled with videos of women removing and burning their headcovers  the theocrats in Tehran deem the hijab compulsory  and cutting their hair.

The regime responded with a characteristically heavy hand. As Raisi took his turn at the UNGA lectern to issue a tired tirade against Western perfidy, his security forces were clubbing and shooting protesters. But videos also showed civilians fighting back, beating cops and setting fire to their vehicles. Demonstrators were calling for the very thing Raisi and his boss, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, routinely accused foreigners of plotting: regime change.

In New York, Raisi was met by protestors outside the UN as well as criticism in the great hall. Some of it came from unexpected sources: Chiles President Gabriel Boric name-checked Amini in his call to mobilize efforts to stop violence against women. And President Joe Biden expressed solidarity with the protesters: Today we stand with the brave citizens and the brave women of Iran who right now are demonstrating to secure their basic rights.

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But the remark went almost unnoticed, since the meat of Bidens (somewhat undercooked) speech was about Putin and the escalation of nuclear danger in Ukraine. Raisi was not in the audience as the US president spoke, but he doubtless muttered a sotto-voce spasiba to his Russian benefactor for sucking all the oxygen out of the UNGA.

As he heads back to Tehran, Raisi will be counting on Bidens attention  and the worlds  remaining on Russia as the Iranian regime deals with the protests the only way it knows how. There are ominous signs of a violent crackdown akin to that of 2019, which led to the killing of more than 1,000 Iranians who participated in demonstrations against gasoline prices.

As of this writing, the death toll in Iran is 17, but the government has moved to shut down access to the internet and other forms of communication, which is usually a tell that it wants to keep word of state brutality from reaching a wider audience.

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The challenge for Biden is to help the protesters without allowing the regime to portray them as American stooges. The most useful thing the US can do is amplify the voices of the protesters and help them evade the regimes blackouts, the better to communicate with each other and coordinate their protests.

One practical way to achieve this is to exempt from international sanctions Elon Musks Starlink satellite system, which can provide internet connectivity to Iranians. The US Treasury has said some satellite internet equipment can be exported to Iran.

At the diplomatic level, the State Department should also use every opportunity to draw attention to the protests and encourage American allies to do likewise. Every statement relating to the negotiations over the revival of the Iran nuclear deal should be accompanied with a strong reiteration of solidarity with the protesters and an equally forceful denunciation of the crackdown.

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Finally, the White House should make it clear that any Iranian official linked to abuses against protesters will be subject to sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act. Here, too, the Biden administration has made a good start, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken announcing sanctions against the morality police.

Irans protesters know the grave risks they take when they challenge the regime, but Mahsa Aminis example has inspired them to rise up rather than be cowed down. Biden should reward their bravery by helping them to be heard above the noise created by Putin.

More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 Its Time for Plan B on Iran: The Editors

 Biden Shouldnt Ignore Republicans on Iran Nuclear Deal: Bobby Ghosh

 Irans New Ploy to Disrupt the Mideast Is Laying Claim to Bahrain: Hussein Ibish

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Bobby Ghosh is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering foreign affairs. Previously, he was editor in chief at Hindustan Times, managing editor at Quartz and international editor at Time.

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The relationship between Donald Trump and the Republican-aligned media is symbiotic  and dysfunctional, at least for the Republican Party. Trump had a bad day on Wednesday, with New York State filing suit against him for inflating the value of his properties and a federal appellate court ruling against him in his battle with the federal government over his possession of classified documents. So what did the former president do? He went on Sean Hannitys prime-time show on Fox News to complain. He had a completely bizarre diatribe about, among other things, how he could declassify things while president just by thinking it (uh, no) and his even goofier theory that the FBI may have been looking for Hillary Clintons emails at Mar-a-Lago.

What Fox News gets out of all this is clear: viewers. What Trump gets out of it is also clear: the attention he craves, which also helps him remain the most prominent Republican in the nation  which helps his chances of winning the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 if he wants it.

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What the Republican Party gets out of this is  well, nothing good. To begin with, boosting the chances of a candidate who may well wind up under federal indictment, and remains unpopular except with the most intense Republican voters (and, given his many scandals, is likely to remain so), doesnt help the party. Most of the time, when its candidate loses a presidential election, a political party moves on  and thats with a candidate untouched by scandal.

As for the long-term effects on the party and its voters  well, thats nothing good, either. Think about what Republican-aligned media  not just Fox News, but other TV, talk radio and online outlets  are teaching Republican voters. As the Washington Posts Greg Sargent noted after watching Trumps performance on Hannity, what viewers are experiencing is the hermetically sealed-off Fox News universe, where actual legal arguments against him were treated as if they simply dont exist.

But the worst effects may be on Republican politicians. The lesson theyre getting is that, within the party, anything goes. They dont have to come up with strong arguments to defend themselves or their ideas  they can just say any fool thing, and party-aligned media will treat it as if its brilliant. They are also learning that, especially on Fox News, its dangerous to speak out about even very obvious wrongdoing by anyone in the party.

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(The exception that proves the rule was the case of Madison Cawthorn, the young House Republican that Fox News turned against  and who then lost his primary.)

The problem comes when this closed information loop collides with the rest of the world. For Trump, that collision is taking place in the judicial system, which is not impressed with his bluff and bluster.

For the Republican Party, however, the problem is manifesting itself in the form of a historically poor crop of candidates. Just this week, two House Republican candidates ran into trouble, one for having campaigned on combat experience in Afghanistan that was reported to be fiction.

As the political scientist Brendan Nyhan points out, this is an expected consequence of nominating inexperienced candidates. But its more than that: Its what happens when one of the core beliefs of a political party is that nothing matters  not just experience, but policy and maybe even truth itself. If thats the case, then not only are qualifications irrelevant, but so are policy positions that are unpopular with swing voters.

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Its hard to say how much all of this will matter this November, but it certainly is putting what should be a great year for the party  with an unpopular Democratic president in office  in serious danger. The Senate and gubernatorial races are already more competitive than anticipated, and now it appears the House is as well.

Of course, ratings for Fox News and for Republican-aligned talk radio will probably be higher if Democrats do well in November, as Trump and other Republicans go on the air to rail against the continued outrages of President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress. Now thats what I call symbiotic.

For weekend reading, here are some of the best recent items from political scientists:

 Here at Bloomberg Opinion, Dave Hopkins understands how passing legislation helps and doesnt help Biden.

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 Natalie Jackson on polling averages.

 Matt Grossmann talks with Joshua Kalla and Kevin DeLuca about how campaigns persuade voters.

 Caitlin Talmadge at the Monkey Cage on Putin and the nuclear threat.

 Dan Drezner on Putins latest efforts.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

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A campaign by Republican governors in several states to transport thousands of asylum seekers to Democratic-controlled areas is a callous political stunt  and also an indictment of the federal governments failure to control the countrys borders. Rather than deflect blame for the crisis, President Joe Biden needs to acknowledge the scope of it and mobilize an effective response.

So far this year, border officials have reported a record 2.2 million encounters with migrants attempting to enter the country from the south. Rules put in place at the start of the pandemic allowed the US to expel many of these migrants to Mexico or to their home countries, but in recent months, increasing numbers have come from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, whose authoritarian governments refuse to cooperate. As a result, tens of thousands of asylum seekers have been released into the US while their cases are adjudicated.

In April, Texas Governor Greg Abbott began busing migrants to Washington, D.C., a program he later expanded to New York City and Chicago. Not to be outdone, Floridas Ron DeSantis helped fly some 50 Venezuelan asylum seekers to Marthas Vineyard in Massachusetts, supposedly in retaliation for the federal governments sending migrants to Florida without notice.

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If these stunts were intended to catch Democratic leaders in northern cities unprepared, theyve succeeded. Neither Abbott nor DeSantis alerted the receiving cities before acting. Having received more than 11,000 migrants since May, New York City is considering cruise ships as temporary housing. Washingtons mayor has declared a public-health emergency. Massachusetts and Illinois have mobilized the National Guard.

All told, this spectacle has been a national embarrassment. Republican governors may have a point about border security, but theyve forfeited any moral authority by treating vulnerable people as props. Although Biden has (rightly) denounced the relocation stunts as un-American, his administration has contributed to the problem by haphazardly unwinding restrictions on entries while failing to establish adequate alternatives. For its part, Congress has failed to pass commonsense immigration reforms that would clamp down on illegal border crossings while expanding legal pathways for the immigrant workers the country needs.

So what now?

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First, all asylum seekers need temporary shelter and basic services. Currently, their welfare is at the mercy of whichever municipality they end up in or whatever charity offers them aid. Congress should increase Federal Emergency Management Agency funding for migrant assistance, which at the moment totals just $150 million  barely enough to help the thousands coming to New York, let alone the rest of the nation. Federal assistance to border states should be boosted on the condition that no money be diverted to transport migrants to other communities without the agreement of local authorities. Big cities such as Washington and New York should expect to devote more of their own funds to handle the continued influx, particularly if theyve advertised themselves as sanctuaries.

At the same time, the government needs to address the underlying problems that have led to this crisis. Most important, it needs to fix the system for adjudicating asylum claims. The US spends $750 million a year on immigration courts, compared to $7.2 billion on border enforcement. A shortage of asylum officers, judges and clerks has contributed to a backlog of 2 million pending immigration court cases, which often take years to resolve. Thats simply unsustainable. A sizable increase in funds for this system should be paired with reforms  such as empowering asylum officers to fully adjudicate cases, while allowing for appeals to a judge  that would accelerate processing, reduce backlogs and potentially limit the perverse incentives that have led so many migrants to try their luck in the first place.

Above all, ending the partisan bickering and gamesmanship over the chaos at the border requires leadership. It may be naive to expect Biden to call attention to such a crisis in an election year. But its his responsibility to work with leaders on both sides to fix it.

More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 Texas and Florida Are Going Full Belarus on Migrants: Andreas Kluth

 The Solution to US Border Woes Is No Secret: Eduardo Porter

 Immigrants on Marthas Vineyard Expose US Immigration Hypocrisy: Tyler Cowen

The Editors are members of the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

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Vladimir Putins decision to declare a partial mobilization of Russian military personnel was intended as a show of strength. Instead, its exposed the weak position the Russian president finds himself in, with his forces suffering heavy losses in Ukraine and running short of men and materiel. In response to Putins latest threats, the US and Europe should redouble their commitment to help Ukraine defend itself  and warn Putin and those around him that any attempts to escalate the conflict would be a grave mistake.

Putins mobilization order came in the wake of stunning Ukrainian battlefield gains that have pushed Russian forces out of areas they had occupied for months. In addition to rushing sham votes in occupied territories as a prelude to annexation, the Kremlin has called up 300,000 reservists and said it will increase weapons production.

While partly aimed at placating nationalist hawks, these policies amount to an admission that Putins invasion has been a disaster. No successful special military operation requires snap referendums; and while Moscow claims that only 5,937 troops have died over the past seven months, the mobilization order appears to confirm Ukrainian and Western estimates of far bigger Russian losses. It also undermines the Kremlins efforts to convince Russians to ignore the war altogether, out of the belief it would be swift and painless. Within hours of Putins announcement, thousands scrambled over the border by car or filled up available flights. The largest street protests in months resulted in more than 1,300 arrests  a modest figure by Western standards, but large by Russian ones, due to repression and the threat that detained men will be immediately drafted.

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In the short term, simply putting more troops in uniform is unlikely to help Russia much in Ukraine. Russias military lacks the infrastructure to deploy the recruits quickly. It remains unclear how these young men will be turned into competent fighters, nor how they will be housed, equipped and added to existing units. Even so, Putins moves are evidence of his intention to continue prosecuting the war, regardless of its human and economic costs. In his speech Wednesday, Putin explicitly threatened to use nuclear weapons to defend the territorial integrity of our country  which he has broadened to include illegally annexed areas in eastern Ukraine.

In response to such bluster, the US and its NATO allies must remain firm. US President Joe Biden and European leaders should demonstrate to Putin and his cronies that Western unity isnt fraying and that the Kremlin cant hope to outlast it. They should sustain the flow of weaponry to Ukraine, which Kyivs forces have shown they can use to great effect. Economic sanctions on Russia, which has already seen its oil and gas revenues drop, should be cranked up, along with efforts to help talented Russians leave the country. At the same time, the US should enlist China, India and other ostensibly neutral powers losing patience with Putin to pressure him to back down from his threats of escalation.

Of course, a humiliated autocrat can lash out, and the most hawkish voices around Putin are certainly encouraging that. He could also still turn the course of the war, but thats looking ever more difficult. Putins in a tight spot, and the West should keep him there.

More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 A Decision Tree for Biden If Putin Goes Nuclear: Andreas Kluth

 Take Putins Nuclear Threat Seriously, But Not Too Seriously: Hal Brands

 An Off-Ramp for Putin Is Repugnant But Necessary: Clive Crook

The Editors are members of the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

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A final, more detailed analysis of damage to the Custer Gallatin National Forest caused by this years flooding is pegged at $38.5 million, the agency announced Friday.

It will take several years to bring recovery back to the forest, said Mariah Leuschen-Lonergan, a public affairs officer for the forest.

Damage has been documented at 150 sites across the forest, including 66 along roads, 26 road bridges, 13 recreation sites, 25 trail sites and 12 trail bridges.

The forest was initially awarded $5.7 million in ERFO funds by the Federal Highway Administration designated only for Emergency Relief for Federally Owned Roads.

Upon submitting the request for the initial $5.7 million in emergency funding, we knew this only accounted for a portion of the damage needs (approximately 25%) for our transportation infrastructure, said Mary Erickson, Custer Gallatin Forest supervisor, in a statement.

Not covered by the federal highway dollars, the Forest Service has identified 88 recreation sites, trails, roads, bridges, and watershed repairs at a price estimated at more than $10 million.

These facilities and repair needs serve the public and permittees, including outfitters and guides, campground concessionaries, organization camps, recreation residence holders, range permittees, local communities, and the local tourism industry, the Forest Service said.

Finding money for the work will require the agency to request internal Disaster Relief Supplement funds, as well as seeking partnerships with other groups.

Underway

In the meantime, the Chicken Creek Bridge on the West Rosebud Creek has been repaired to allow recreation access to the popular Mystic Lake Trail, re-opening the route to the public.

On the Main Fork Rock Creek, south of Red Lodge, a contract has been awarded for repairs to the bridge across Rock Creek at the Parkside Campground, as well as work to reroute Wyoming Creek after it jumped its banks and flooded the campground and road.

Along the popular Beartooth Highway  which also suffered extensive damage that was repaired in a separate construction contract negotiated by the Montana Department of Transportation  Greenough, Limberpine and M-K campgrounds were closed the entire summer and Parkside was open on a first-come, first-served basis.

Parts of the two roads to the Glacier Lake and Hellroaring Plateau trailheads, which are across from the campgrounds, are covered with downed trees and rocks. Leuschen-Lonergan said work on those roads is dependent on weather, which could push it back to next year.

Repairs to Mill Creek, in the Paradise Valley, and the Taylor Fork, south of Big Sky in the Gallatin Canyon, are also scheduled for October.

Just outside of Red Lodge, up the West Fork Rock Creek, the Forest Service hopes to have a contract let soon to repair a bridge and washed out areas of the road. That route is a popular cross-country ski trail in the winter and provides access to the Quinnebaugh Meadows Trailhead for summer hikers.

In the works

Still in the design phase is a temporary road to East Rosebud Lake, with the possibility of a contract for construction coming sometime next year.

Weve completed the aerial topographic surveys, which allows us to evaluate a route for a temporary road, Leuschen-Lonergan said. She added the damaged road is so littered with rocks and debris that using it even for a temporary road seems unlikely.

The lake is one of the few places on the forest where cabin owners have had their only access route cut off following the flooding. The historic mid-June deluge destroyed about 3 miles of the road into the cabins, as well as blocking access to three popular trailheads. Vehicles stranded by the flood at East Rosebud Lake were flown out by helicopter this summer in a deal negotiated by cabin owners.

Despite the widespread damage, the Custer Gallatin National Forest hosted about 20 displaced outfitters and guides, permitted for work in Yellowstone National Park and by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, to help them maintain their businesses through the summer.
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Kanye West wants to go it alone. The musician told Bloomberg News last week that he was done with his corporate partners and plans to branch out his fashion empire solo. Gap Inc. is winding down its deal with the rapper and his Yeezy fashion label, after a public spat in which Ye, as he is known, criticized the company, Bloomberg News reported.

Signing Ye two years ago was a major coup for Gap, which was trying to pull off a turnaround, but it was always risky. While Gap is already dealing with the fallout, what Kanye does next may also be a threat to the Yeezy cash cow at Adidas AG, which has worked with him for almost a decade.

Under the terms of the agreement with Gap, the chain will continue to sell its existing Yeezy products into the first half of 2023, according to Bloomberg. Thereafter, it must do without its most high-profile partner.

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This is a blow to the retailer, which has recently parted company with Chief Executive Officer Sonia Syngal, withdrawn its 2022 guidance and just this week cut 500 corporate jobs. Gap did not respond to requests for comment. Ye could not be reached for comment.

Although Gap had billion-dollar ambitions for the Yeezy line, the partnership is still in its infancy. That means the impact on sales will be limited. What Gap will miss is the Kanye cool factor. Without Ye, it must address the issues it faces  most urgently fixing Old Navy, which generates over half of the groups sales  without the celebritys halo effect.

But if losing Ye is a problem for Gap, it would be an even bigger headache for Adidas.

Yeezy and the sportswear group struck a deal in 2013, initially focusing on high-priced, limited-edition sneakers. But in 2018, CEO Kasper Rorsted announced plans to democratize Yeezy and ramp up supply. Analysts at Cowen estimate that Yeezy now generates annual sales of 1 billion ($986 million) to 1.5 billion euros, roughly 4% to 8% of Adidas revenue.

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If the partnership were to end in 2026, when the current contract is said to expire, Adidas would feel some financial pain  especially if the worst-case scenario happened and existing Yeezy styles are taken off of shelves. (The two could agree to keep Yeezy Boosts and Slides on the market, but this is by no means guaranteed.) Adidas declined to comment.

Yet a breakup neednt tank the company. While Ye commands an almost fanatical following, and brought Adidas a younger, more diverse customer base, particularly in the US, the collaboration has probably run its course. And Kanye doesnt come cheap. Adidas pays him a royalty on Yeezy sales, estimated by Cowen to be a low double-digit percentage. Other analysts suggest his cut may be even higher.

Rorsted will step down next year, and the company is hunting for a successor. A new leader will have an opportunity to put their own stamp on the companys relationships. Yes recent attacks on Adidas must be an unwanted distraction.

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In the event of a split, replacing Ye with another cultural icon would be a mistake. True, Adidas has Beyonces Ivy Park collection, which hasnt yet reached its full potential and could be turbo-charged, perhaps by enlisting Jay-Z to expand its menswear offering. But unless both person and product are a perfect fit, any replacement risks looking like a poor substitute for Kanye.

Theres a more promising route forward anyway: Adidas teamed up with Prada SpA in 2019 and has produced three collections with the Italian luxury brand, which is currently enjoying a Gen Z revival. This year Adidas has also debuted two collaborations with Kering SAs Gucci. Given that rival Nike Inc. wants to be a luxury brand, betting on bling is wise.

An even better blueprint would be to dig deep into Adidass own archive and find another way to bolster its fashion offering, particularly among younger consumers, where it is lagging Nike. Right now, the US sportswear giants styles, such as Air Force Ones and Air Jordan high tops, are the Gen Z sneakers of choice. Reebok would have provided rich pickings for a 90s inspired revival, but Adidas sold the business last year. Hiring a new chief executive with experience of developing successful products, or building brands, should be Adidass first step.

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As for Ye, going it alone wont be straightforward. Although he has the profile and fan base to drive sales, hell also need the retail infrastructure. That includes not only translating his vision into wearable designs, but managing production, distribution, logistics, marketing and financials.

Retail is detail, so the old adage goes. That applies to the companies facing life beyond Ye, but itll also be true of the musician himself.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Andrea Felsted is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering consumer goods and the retail industry. Previously, she was a reporter for the Financial Times.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

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US regulators and some politicians seem to be missing the real story in American banking. Blocking mergers and higher capital charges were the key financial questions fired at the chief executive officers of seven US megabanks by congressional committees this week  when financial issues got a hearing amid the more nakedly political grilling anyway.

But whats going to be far more important for the future shape of the banking industry is technology. The biggest banks, with the greatest profits, are already investing vastly more in faster, cheaper, easier-to-use digital apps than smaller banks can afford. Technology is helping big banks gain market share and is more likely to drive consolidation in the years ahead than regional bank mergers.

On the Republican side, one concern for the future was that the Federal Reserves new vice chair for supervision, Michael Barr, will hike capital demands as he aligns US rules with global standards. Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO, and Citigroup Inc.s Jane Fraser  smarting from recent increases in capital requirements  put a marker down ahead of the hearings, saying the growing demands would hurt lending to the US economy. The CEOs repeated the message before the committees. JPMorgan has said it is holding back loan growth while it builds more capital, although the bank hasnt said what types of loans or quantified the impact.But capital fears are a red herring. The Fed, like European regulators before it, will likely aim to have a neutral effect on large banks capital needs after any changes to the rules, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Barr could have a more chilling effect on regional bank mergers, where hes pledged to protect competition and is considering new guidance on what deals will be allowed.

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With nearly 5,000 banks, the US financial sector is highly fragmented compared with many other countries. That sounds like a lot of competition, but it isnt when so many are too small to compete in a world where the fixed costs of regulation and reporting are high, and where technology is racing away from those who cant afford to spend billions each year.

As an example, JPMorgans investment budget for technology and growth in consumer and small business banking this year is $7.5 billion. Thats greater than the 2021 revenue of all but nine banks in the S&P 500. Of that investment, $2.8 billion is purely for technology, which is roughly the same as the revenue at three S&P 500 banks: Signature Bank, Comerica Inc, and Zions Bancorp NA.Brian Moynihan, Bank of America Corps CEO, told the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday that Truist Financial Corp was a stronger competitor now than either of the banks that merged to form it three years ago had been individually.

Like JPMorgan, Bank of America is a big investor in digital technology and both have been winning a disproportionate share of the growth in deposits as a result, according to Mike Mayo, an analyst at Wells Fargo.

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Both banks have about $1 trillion in consumer deposits, and JPMorgan grew its market share nationally from 8.9% to 10.3% between 2017 and 2021. Its share is greater and has grown by more in the US states it has operated in longest. And Dimon has said theres no reason why it cant get to 20% of the US market some day. Both banks also have a high and growing share of customers that join them digitally rather than through a branch.Mayo estimates that the two banks have increased total deposits over the past two years by an amount that is equivalent to the total deposit base of the sixth biggest US bank. The proposed new law to limit regional bank deals may as well be called the Protect Jamie Dimon Act, Mayo said.

Banking is increasingly a scale game where the biggest players are most able to absorb high fixed costs and generate the best returns. Advantage begets advantage as profits can be plowed back into making services cheaper and continuing to build smarter technology that customers want to use.

In areas like trading stocks and bonds, the biggest US banks have already raced ahead of weaker European rivals. The same dynamic is coming to corporate and consumer banking  maybe not to quite the same levels of industry concentration, but you better believe that JPMorgan and Bank of America, for example, are going to be much bigger tomorrow than today.

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If politicians and regulators want to worry about market power and financial stability, they shouldnt be blocking mergers or even worrying that much about capital levels  they should be thinking about the power of technology.More from Bloomberg Opinion: Sorry, Bankers, Youll Never Have an Easy Life: Paul J. Davies Real Stress Hurts Bank Buybacks More Than a Test: Paul J. DaviesApple, JPMorgan Turn to Pay Now Grow Later: Paul J. Davies

Want more Bloomberg Opinion? Click here.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Paul J. Davies is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering banking and finance. Previously, he was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

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BUSAN, South Korea  The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan arrived in the South Korean port of Busan on Friday ahead of the two countries joint military exercise that aims to show their strength against growing North Korean threats. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The joint drills will be the first involving a U.S. aircraft carrier in the region since 2017, when the U.S. sent three aircraft carriers including the Reagan for naval drills with South Korea in response to North Korean nuclear and missile tests.

The allies this year have revived their large-scale military drills that were downsized or shelved in previous years to support diplomacy with Pyongyang or because of COVID-19, responding to North Koreas resumption of major weapons testing and increasing threats of nuclear conflicts with Seoul and Washington.

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The South Korean navy said the training is meant to boost the allies military readiness and show the firm resolve by the Korea-U.S. alliance for the sake of peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

The commitment of the U.S. carrier strike group operating in and around the peninsula illustrates our commitment to stand together and our desire and focus ensuring that we are interoperable and integrated to face any challenge or threat whenever we are required, Rear Adm. Michael Donnelly, commander of the carrier strike group, said in a news conference.

The North Korean threat is also expected to be a key agenda when U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris visits South Korea next week after attending the state funeral in Tokyo of slain former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The Reagans arrival in South Korea comes after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told Pyongyangs rubber-stamp parliament this month he would never abandon his nuclear weapons and missiles he needs to counter what he perceives as U.S. hostility.

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North Korea also passed a new law that enshrined its status as a nuclear power and authorized the preemptive use of nuclear weapons over a broad range of scenarios where the country or its leadership comes under threat.

Sung Kim, the Biden administrations special representative for North Korea, met with South Korean counterpart Kim Gunn on Thursday in Seoul, where they expressed serious concern over the Norths escalating nuclear doctrine spelled out in the new law, South Koreas Foreign Ministry said.

The diplomats reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea in the event of a nuclear war with the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear. The allies also maintained their months-old assessment that North Korea is gearing up to conduct its first nuclear test since 2017 and discussed stern countermeasures to such an action, the ministry said.

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North Korea has dialed up weapons testing to a record pace in 2022, launching more than 30 ballistic weapons including its intercontinental ballistic missiles since 2017, as it exploits a divide in the U.N. Security Council deepened over Russias war on Ukraine.

While North Koreas ICBMs garner much of U.S. attention because they pose a potential threat to the American homeland, the North has also been expanding its arsenal of nuclear-capable, shorter-range missiles designed to evade missile defenses in South Korea.

North Koreas expanding arsenal and threats of preemptive nuclear attacks have triggered concerns in South Korea over the credibility of the U.S. nuclear umbrella protecting its allies in the event of war.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative who took office in May, has vowed to enhance South Koreas conventional missile capabilities and work with the Biden administration to develop more effective strategies to deter North Korean attacks.

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Senior U.S. and South Korean officials met in Washington this month for discussions on the allies deterrence strategies and issued a statement reaffirming that any (North Korean) nuclear attack would be met with an overwhelming and decisive response. The statement said the United States reiterated its ironclad and unwavering commitment to draw on the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear (one) to provide extended deterrence to South Korea.

North Korea has so far rejected U.S. and South Korean calls to return to nuclear diplomacy, which have been stalled since 2019 over disagreements in exchanging the release of U.S.-led sanctions against the North and the Norths disarmament steps.

North Korea has harshly criticized Yoon for continuing military exercises with the U.S. and also for letting South Korean civilian activists fly anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets and other dirty waste across the border by balloon, even dubiously claiming the items caused its COVID-19 outbreak.

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South Korean activists have continued to launch balloons after North Korea last month warned of deadly retaliation, triggering concern North Korea may react with a weapons test or even border skirmishes.

South Koreas Unification Ministry, which deals with inter-Korean affairs, pleaded for activists to stop, citing safety reasons. Lee Hyo-jung, the ministrys spokesperson, also said Friday that South Korea was prepared to sternly respond to any North Korean retaliation over leafletting.

___

AP video journalist Yong Jun Chang contributed. Kim Tong-hyung reported from Seoul.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  Iranian counterprotesters gathered across the country on Friday in a show of support for authorities after nearly a week of anti-government protests and unrest over the death of a young woman who was being held by the morality police. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russias war in Ukraine. ArrowRight Thousands attended a rally in the capital, Tehran, where they waved Iranian flags, and similar demonstrations were held in other cities. The government claimed the demonstrations of support were spontaneous. Similar rallies have been held during past periods of widespread protests.

The pro-government demonstrators chanted against America and Israel, according to state media, reflecting the official line that blames the latest unrest on hostile foreign countries.

State TV suggested late on Friday that the death toll from this week's unrest could be as high as 35, raising an earlier estimate of 26. Anti-government protesters and security forces have clashed in several major cities in the most severe political violence since 2019, when rights groups say hundreds were killed amid demonstrations against a hike in state-controlled gasoline prices.

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Iran has also disrupted internet access and tightened restrictions on popular platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp, which can be used to organize rallies.

In response, the U.S. Treasury Department said it would allow American tech firms to expand their business in Iran to boost internet access for the Iranian people. Iran is under heavy U.S. and international sanctions.

A state TV newswoman said late Friday that 35 protesters and policemen had been killed since the protests erupted last Saturday after the funeral of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, without elaborating. She said official statistics would be released later, but authorities have not provided a full accounting of deaths and injuries during past unrest.

A tally by The Associated Press, based on statements from state-run and semiofficial media, shows that at least 11 people have been killed. Most recently, the deputy governor of Qazvin, Abolhasan Kabiri, said that a citizen and paramilitary officer had been killed there.

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The crisis unfolding in Iran began as a public outpouring of anger over the the death of Amini, a young woman who was arrested by the morality police in Tehran last week for allegedly wearing her Islamic headscarf too loosely. The police said she died of a heart attack and was not mistreated, but her family has cast doubt on that account.

Aminis death has sparked sharp condemnation from Western countries and the United Nations. Iranians across at least 13 cities from the capital, Tehran, to Aminis northwest Kurdish hometown of Saqez have poured into the streets, voicing pent-up anger over social and political repression.

The death has tapped into broader antigovernment sentiment in the Islamic Republic and especially the frustration of women, wrote political risk firm Eurasia Group. It noted that Irans hard-liners have intensified their crackdown on womens clothing over the past year since former judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi became president.

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The prospect of the leadership offering concessions to Iranian women is minimal, it said. In the cold calculus of Iranian leaders, the protests have likely gone far enough and a more forceful response is required to quell the unrest.

Raisi condemned the protests as he arrived back in Iran after addressing the United Nations General Assembly earlier this week.

We have announced many times that if anyone has a fair comment, we will listen to it. But anarchy? Disturbing national security? The security of people? No one will succumb to this, he said.

Videos on social media show protesters in Tehran torching a police car and confronting officers. Others show gunfire ringing out as protesters bolt from riot police, shouting: They are shooting at people! Oh my God, theyre killing people!

In the northwestern city of Neyshabur, protesters cheered over an overturned police car. Footage from Tehran and Mashhad shows women waving their obligatory headscarves, known as hijab, in the air like flags while chanting, Freedom!

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Separately, hackers have targeted a number of government websites in recent days, taking some of them down at least briefly. On Friday, hackers interrupted Irans Channel 3 on a popular streaming website and played videos in support of the protests. Normal programming was restored a couple of minutes later.

The protests have grown into an open challenge to the theocracy established after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The chants have been scathing, with some chanting Death to the dictator! and Mullahs must be gone!

Local officials have announced the arrest of dozens of protesters. Hasan Hosseinpour, deputy police chief in the northern Gilan province, reported 211 people detained there on Thursday. The government of the western Hamadan province said 58 demonstrators had been arrested.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday that at least 10 reporters have been arrested since the start of the protests, many of them during late night raids on their homes by security forces who did not identify themselves.

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London-based watchdog Amnesty International has accused security forces of beating protesters with batons and firing metal pellets at close range. Videos show police and paramilitary officers using live fire, tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators.

Iran has grappled with waves of protests in the recent past, mainly over a long-running economic crisis exacerbated by American sanctions linked to its nuclear program. In November 2019, the country saw the deadliest violence since the revolution, as protests erupted over gas price hikes.

Economic hardship remains a major source of anger today as the prices of basic necessities soar and the Iranian currency declines in value.

The Biden administration and European allies have been working to revive the 2015 nuclear accord, in which Iran curbed its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief, but the talks have stalled for months.

The Eurasia Group said the protests make any immediate return to the agreement less likely, as Irans government will be more hesitant to make concessions at a time of domestic unrest and the United States will be reluctant to sign a deal as Iran violently cracks down on dissent.

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ISLAMABAD  Pakistan deployed thousands more doctors and medics to battle the outbreak of disease as the death toll from the unprecedented floods that have gripped the country this summer surpassed 1,600 on Friday, officials said. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russias war in Ukraine. ArrowRight The disaster management agency said 10 more people had died from the floods in the past 24 hours  four in Sindh, the worst-hit province in the deluge, and six in Baluchistan province  bringing the overall number of fatalities to 1,606 across Pakistan.

In Sindh, where thousands of makeshift medical camps for flood survivors have been set up, the National Disaster Management Authority said outbreaks of a spate of illnesses such as typhoid, malaria and dengue fever have killed at least 300 of the flood victims.

Some of the doctors who refused to work in Sindh province have been fired by the government, according to the provincial health department. Floods have killed 728 people, including 313 children and 134 women in the province since July.

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The monsoon rains and flooding, which many experts say are fueled by climate change, have also affected 33 million people and destroyed or damaged 2 million homes across Pakistan. About half a million flood survivors are homeless, living in tents and makeshift structures.

Over the past two months, Pakistan sent nearly 10,000 doctors, nurses and other medical staff to tend to survivors in across Sindh. About 18,000 doctors and nearly 38,000 paramedics are treating survivors in the province, according to the latest data from the health department.

Floods have also damaged more than 1,000 health facilities in Sindh, forcing some survivors to travel to other areas to seek medical help.

Waterborne and other diseases in the past two months have killed 334 flood victims, authorities said. The death toll prompted the World Health Organization last week to raise the alarm about a second disaster, with doctors on the ground racing to battle outbreaks.

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Some floodwaters in Pakistan have receded, but many districts in Sindh are still submerged, and displaced people living in tents and makeshift camps face the threat of gastrointestinal infections, dengue fever and malaria, which are on the rise amid stagnant waters.

Also Friday in Sindh, teams of fumigators fanned out across flood-hit areas, spraying in an effort to keep mosquitos at bay and prevent further outbreaks of dengue fever and malaria. Over 134,000 cases of diarrhea and 44,000 cases of malaria were reported in the hardest-hit areas of Sindh this past week.

Dengue fever is also on the rise, especially in Karachi, the provincial capital, where health teams were spraying insecticide onto puddles of water in the streets.

The devastation has led the United Nations to consider sending more money than it committed during its flash appeal for $160 million to support Pakistans flood response.

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Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who is in New York, spoke Friday at the U.N. General Assembly, detailing the level of the devastation in his country and seeking more help from the international community. Sharifs office said he met earlier with President Joe Biden at a reception for the world leaders gathering in New York.

On Thursday, Sharif tweeted his thanks to Biden for highlighting the plight of flood victims and urging the world community to help Pakistan as it was still underwater and needed help. Washington is a key supporter for Pakistans response to floods.

Pakistans Foreign Ministry says 123 flights carrying aid from various countries and U.N. agencies have ferried in desperately needed help. Local authorities are distributing these supplies, which include tents, food items, kitchen sets and bottles of drinking water, among flood survivors across the country.

On Wednesday, Julien Harneis, the U.N. resident coordinator in Pakistan, said the humanitarian situation remains dire, with widespread damage to physical infrastructure and ongoing harm to people and livestock. Outbreaks of diarrhea, typhoid and malaria are increasing rapidly as millions of people sleep in temporary shelters or in the open, he said.

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ISTANBUL  Military-aged men fled Russia in droves Friday, filling planes and causing traffic jams at border crossings to avoid being rounded up to fight in Ukraine following the Kremlins partial military mobilization. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russias war in Ukraine. ArrowRight Queues stretching for 10 kilometers (6 miles) formed on a road leading to the southern border with Georgia, according to Yandex Maps, a Russian online map service.

The lines of cars were so long at the border with Kazakhstan that some people abandoned their vehicles and proceeded on foot  just as some Ukrainians did after Russia invaded their country on Feb. 24.

Meanwhile, dozens of flights out of Russia  with tickets sold at sky-high prices  carried men to international destinations such as Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Serbia, where Russians dont need visas.

Among those who reached Turkey was a 41-year-old who landed in Istanbul with a suitcase and a backpack and plans to start a new life in Israel.

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Im against this war, and Im not going to be a part of it. Im not going to be a murderer. Im not going to kill people, said the man, who identified himself only as Yevgeny to avoid potential retribution against his family left behind in Russia.

He referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal.

Yevgeny decided to flee after Putin announced a partial military call-up on Wednesday. The total number of reservists involved could be as high as 300,000.

Some Russian men also fled to neighboring Belarus, Russias close ally. But that carried risk.

The Nasha Niva newspaper, one of the oldest independent newspapers in Belarus, reported that Belarusian security services were ordered to track down Russians fleeing from the draft, find them in hotels and rented apartments and report them to Russian authorities.

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Russian authorities tried to calm an anxious public about the draft.

Legislators introduced a bill Friday that would suspend or reduce loan payments for Russians called up for duty. News outlets emphasized that draftees would have the same status as professional soldiers and be paid the same, and that their civilian jobs would be held for them.

The Defense Ministry said that many people who work in high tech, communications or finance will be exempt from the call-up to ensure the operations of those fields, the Tass news agency reported.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the fact that Russians were leaving their country to avoid conscription shows that the war in Ukraine is unpopular.

What Putin is doing  he is not coming from a place of strength, Jean-Pierre told reporters. He is coming from a place of weakness.

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The exodus unfolded as a Kremlin-orchestrated referendum got underway seeking to make occupied regions of Ukraine part of Russia. Kyiv and the West condemned it as a rigged election whose result was preordained by Moscow.

German government officials voiced a desire to help Russian men deserting military service, and they called for a European solution.

Those who bravely stand up to Putins regime and thereby put themselves in great danger can apply for asylum in Germany on the grounds of political persecution, the spokesman for German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said.

The spokesman, Maximilian Kall, said deserters and those refusing to be drafted would receive refugee status in Germany if they are at risk of serious repression, though every case is examined individually.

But they would first have to make it to Germany, which has no land border with Russia, and like other European Union countries has become far more difficult for Russians to travel to.

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The EU banned direct flights between its 27 member states and Russia after the attack on Ukraine, and recently agreed to limit issuing Schengen visas, which allow free movement across much of Europe.

Four out of five EU countries that border Russia  Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland  also recently decided to turn away Russian tourists.

Some European officials view fleeing Russians as potential security risks. They hope that by not opening their borders, it will increase pressure against Putin at home.

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said Thursday that many of those fleeing were fine with killing Ukrainians. They did not protest then. It is not right to consider them as conscientious objectors.

The one EU country that is still accepting Russians with Schengen visas is Finland, which has a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border with Russia.

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Finland border guards said Friday that the number of people entering from Russia has climbed sharply, with media reporting a 107% increase compared with last week.

At Vaalimaa, one of the busiest crossings on the border, the line of waiting cars stretched for half a kilometer (a third of a mile), the Finnish Border Guard said.

Finnish broadcaster MTV carried interviews with Russian men who had just crossed into Finland at the Virolahti border crossing, including with a man named Yuri from Moscow who said that no sane person wants to go to war.

A Russian man from St. Petersburg, Andrei Balakirov, said he had been mentally prepared to leave Russia for half a year but put it off until the mobilization.

I think its a really bad thing, he said.

Valery, a man from Samara who was heading to Spain, agreed, calling the mobilization a great tragedy.

Its hard to describe whats happening. I feel sorry for those who are forced to fight against their will. Ive heard stories that people have been given these orders right in the streets  scary.

___

Associated Press writers Frank Jordans in Berlin; Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Poland; Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark; and Zeynep Bilginsoy in Istanbul contributed.

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ARIDA BORDER CROSSING, Lebanon  At least 77 people were killed when a boat carrying migrants from Lebanon sank off Syria this week, the countrys health minister said Friday, amid fears the death toll could be far higher. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russias war in Ukraine. ArrowRight The incident was deadliest so far as a surging number of Lebanese, Syrians, and Palestinians have been trying to flee crisis-hit Lebanon by sea for a better future in Europe. Tens of thousands have lost their jobs while the Lebanese pound has dropped more than 90% in value, eradicating the purchasing power of thousands of families that now live in extreme poverty.

Syrian authorities said victims relatives have started crossing from Lebanon into Syria to help identify their loved ones and retrieve their bodies. The vessel left Lebanon on Tuesday and news of what happened first started to emerge on Thursday afternoon. The boat was carrying Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinians.

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Syrian state-run TV quoted Health Minister Mohammed Hassan Ghabbash as saying 20 people were rescued and were being treated at al-Basel hospital in Syrias coastal city of Tartus. He added that medical authorities have been on alert since Thursday afternoon to help in the search operations.

An official at al-Basel, speaking on condition of anonymity under regulations, told The Associated Press that eight of those rescued were in intensive care. The official also confirmed the 77 deaths. There were conflicting reports on how many people were on board the vessel when it sank, with some saying at least 120. Details about the ship, such as its size and capacity, were also not clear.

Lebanese Transport Minister Ali Hamie said the survivors included 12 Syrians, five Lebanese and three Palestinians. Eight bodies have been brought back to Lebanon early Friday, according to Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi.

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After sunset Friday, bodies of more victims, including two Palestinians, were brought to Lebanon. They were taken in seven ambulances and headed south from the Arida border crossing toward the northern city of Tripoli.

Syrian state media said authorities handed over the bodies of nine Lebanese and two Palestinians to the Lebanese Red Cross at the Arida border crossing.

Palestinian Salim Khalaf, whose relative is missing in the disaster, spoke at the border crossing. The migrants, he said, had no choice but to take the dangerous trip to escape misery in Lebanon.

Letting the fish just eat us is better than living here, he said of Lebanon. Then, speaking about those who perished, Khalaf added: They reached a point where they want to die at sea.

Earlier in the day, Tartus governor Abdul-Halim Khalil told the pro-government Sham FM Radio that the search was underway for more bodies off his countrys coast. Khalil said the boat sank on Wednesday.

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Syrias state news agency, SANA, quoted a port official as saying that 31 bodies were washed ashore while the rest were picked up by Syrian boats in a search operation that started Thursday evening.

Wissam Tellawi, one of the survivors being treated at al-Basel, lost two daughters. His wife and two sons are still missing. The bodies of his daughters, Mae and Maya, were brought to Lebanon early Friday and buried in their northern hometown of Qarqaf.

He told me by telephone, I am fine but the children are lost, said Tellawis father, who identified himself as Abu Mahmoud. The father told the local Al-Jadeed TV that his son gave smugglers the familys apartment in return for taking him and his family to Europe.

In the aftermath of the disaster, the Lebanese army said troops stormed Friday the homes of several suspected smugglers, detaining four in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanons second-largest and most impoverished. Three others were detained in the nearby village of Deir Ammar.

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The military said the suspects were involved in smuggling of migrants by sea while others were planning to buy boats for the same reason.

Lebanon, with a population of 6 million, including 1 million Syrian refugees, has been in the grips of a severe economic meltdown since late 2019 that has pulled over three-quarters of the population into poverty.

For years, it was a country that received refugees from Mideast wars and conflicts but the economic crisis, rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement, has changed that dramatically.

Prices have been skyrocketing as a result of hyperinflation, forcing many to sell their belongings to pay for smugglers to take them to Europe as the migration intensified in recent months.

In April, a boat carrying dozens of Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians trying to migrate by sea to Italy went down more than 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Tripoli, following a confrontation with the Lebanese navy. Dozens were killed in the incident.

On Wednesday, Lebanese officials said naval forces rescued a boat carrying 55 migrants after it faced technical problems about 11 kilometers (7 miles) off the coast of the northern region of Akkar. It said those rescued included two pregnant women and two children.

____

Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

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LONDON  The daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu has been barred from officiating at a funeral in a church in England because she is married to a woman, the BBC reported Friday. Mpho Tutu van Furth, who is an ordained Episcopal priest in the U.S., had been asked to oversee the funeral of her godfather, Martin Kenyon.

The BBC reported that the Church of England had ruled she could not lead the service in a church. The Diocese of Hereford told the broadcaster that advice was given in line with the House of Bishops current guidance on same-sex marriage.

The global Anglican Communion is divided over same-sex marriage. The Church of England allows its clergy to be in same-sex unions only if they are celibate. The U.S. Episcopal Church permits clergy to preside over, and enter into, same-sex marriages.

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Tutu van Furth told the BBC that the Church of England decision seemed really churlish and hurtful.

The BBC said that because of the church ruling the funeral on Thursday was moved from St. Michael and All Angels Church in the village of Wentnor to an outdoor marquee nearby so Tutu van Furth could preside over it.

Kenyon, who died Sept. 7 at the age of 92, was a long-time friend of Desmond Tutu. The South African anti-apartheid icon died in December, aged 90.

In 2020, Kenyon was one of the first people in the world to get a COVID-19 vaccine, and his matter-of-fact interview with CNN outside a London hospital went viral.

I hope I dont get the bloody bug now, he said. Theres no point in dying now when Ive lived this long, is there?

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An adult female grizzly bear captured in the Gardiner Basin after raiding a chicken coop inside an electric fence, along with other incidents, was euthanized due to its repeated conflicts with humans, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks reported on Friday.

FWP bear specialists captured the grizzly on private land on Sept. 20. In the weeks prior to the capture, the bear had broken into a fenced compound and frequented a home that had no unsecured attractants or natural foods. The bear was largely undeterred by hazing efforts, which included rubber bullets, paintballs, electric fencing and noise-making devices. The bear also had been captured and relocated twice in prior years because of similar conflicts.

Due to the recent incidents and the bears history, and in consultation with the U.S. Fish Wildlife Service, FWP euthanized the bear on Sept. 21.

The female grizzly was accompanied by a small cub, which was captured on Sept. 21. The cub will be transferred to a zoo in the coming weeks.

In addition to this incident, several hunters have reported encounters with grizzly bears this year.

On Sept. 20, FWP received a report of an adult male grizzly bear that was shot and killed in self-defense by a group of hunters on private land west of Emigrant. The hunters were not injured. FWP and the USFWS confirmed the grizzly bear mortality and are investigating the incident.

On Sept. 14, a group of hunters reported they were charged by a grizzly bear near Rock Creek in the Tom Miner Basin. One of the hunters shot at the bear with a pistol, and the bear ran away. The U.S. Forest Service issued a temporary road closure while FWP wardens and bear specialists investigated the incident. After searching from the ground and from a helicopter, no sign of an injured bear or bear tracks were found. The area was reopened with an advisory of high bear activity.

In recent weeks, FWP game wardens and bear specialists have also responded to numerous conflicts with black bears in residential areas of Bozeman, Belgrade, Big Sky, Helena and Butte. Several black bears have had to be euthanized after they gained access to garbage and other unsecured attractants, creating human safety risks and habituated bear behavior.

Bear Aware

Unsecured attractants, such as garbage and bird feeders, can lead to human safety risks and property damage. Relocating and releasing bears that have associated human activity with food usually leads to further conflicts because bears often return to the same area where they were captured to look for food. Unfortunately, bears in these situations cant be rehabilitated, so they often must be euthanized.

Montana is bear country. Grizzly bear populations continue to become denser and more widespread in Montana, increasing the likelihood that residents and recreationists will encounter them in more places each year. Bears also become more active in late summer and fall as they spend more time eating in preparation for hibernation.

Avoiding conflicts with bears is easier than dealing with conflicts. Here are some precautions to help residents, recreationists and people who work outdoors avoid negative bear encounters:

 Keep garbage, bird feeders, pet food and other attractants in a secure building. Keep garbage in a secure building until the day it is collected. Certified bear-resistant garbage containers are available in many areas.

 Never feed wildlife. Bears that become food conditioned lose their natural foraging behavior and pose threats to human safety. It is illegal to feed bears in Montana.

 Carry bear spray and be prepared to use it immediately.

 Travel in groups whenever possible and make casual noise, which can help alert bears to your presence.

 Stay away from animal carcasses, which often attract bears.

 Follow food storage orders from the applicable land management agency.

 If you encounter a bear, never approach it. Leave the area when it is safe to do so.

Tips

Hunting in places that have or may have grizzly bears  which includes areas of Montana west of Billings  requires special precautions:

 Look for bear sign and be cautious around creeks and areas with limited visibility.

 Be aware that elk calls and cover scents can attract bears.

 Bring the equipment and people needed to help field dress game and remove the meat from the kill site as soon as possible.

 If you need to leave part of the meat in the field during processing, hang it at least 10 feet off the ground and at least 150 yards from the gut pile. Leave it where it can be observed from a distance of at least 200 yards.

 Upon your return, observe the meat with binoculars. If it has been disturbed or if a bear is in the area, leave and call FWP.

Grizzly bears in the lower 48 states are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Management authority for grizzlies rests with the USFWS, working closely in Montana with FWP, the Forest Service, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Geological Survey, Wildlife Services, and Native American tribes. This collaboration happens through the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee.

For more information and resources on bear safety, visit fwp.mt.gov/conservation/wildlife-management/bear.
Online news outlet Crikey is mocking News Corp co-chairman Lachlan Murdoch on billboards in Melbourne while the parties are locked in a defamation fight, his barrister has told the Federal Court.

Murdoch, chief executive of Fox Corporation and elder son of media baron Rupert, filed defamation proceedings against Crikey last month over a June 29 article naming his family as unindicted co-conspirators of former US president Donald Trump following the deadly US Capitol riots in 2021.

Private Media chair Eric Beecher (left), the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and Lachlan Murdoch (right). Credit:Thom Rigney, AP, Getty Images

Federal Court Justice Michael Wigney indicated at a preliminary hearing in Sydney on Friday that the case would not proceed to trial until next year, when Murdoch is expected to give evidence in court.

Sue Chrysanthou, SC, acting for Murdoch, said her client was enthusiastic about securing the earliest possible trial date. Michael Hodge, KC, acting for Crikey, said his client was also seeking an early trial date.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Book critics Cameron Woodhead and Steven Carroll cast their eyes over recent fiction and non-fiction titles. Here are their reviews. Fiction pick of the week Credit: The 156-Storey Treehouse

Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton, Pan, $14.99 Look, if you havent heard of the Treehouse series by now, you probably dont know many kids. This is the 12th childrens book from writer-illustrator team Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton about a treehouse chock-full of mischief, wonder and imagination. (You can tell because 13 new storeys get added to the place with each volume, and everyone knows their 13-times tables, right?) This time around, the fantastical base boasts a newly installed wishing well, an office for lost property (and lost sausages), an elaborate TV quiz show with a robotic host, a sandwich-maker that reads your mind, a whole level devoted to super sticky stuff  and much more.

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Friends Andy and Terry and Jill have more than enough bizarre amusements to occupy them for Christmas, and their comic adventures in this bestselling series seem inexhaustible. Credit: New Australian Fiction 2022

Ed., Suzy Garcia, Kill Your Darlings, $24.95 The fourth annual anthology of short fiction published by Kill Your Darlings offers a snapshot of contemporary concern and experimentation in Australian literature. Editor Suzy Garcia has curated a high-quality volume with an arresting assortment of new voices, although the most impressive entry is a narrative poem from an established one: Maxine Beneba Clarkes Heat immerses us in the world of a sharp-eyed (and sharp-haired) girl living with her family in Footscray council flats, and riffs intimately on the discrimination she observes. Climate change hovers insistently in some pieces: Elizabeth Tan tosses up a heatwave-induced ghost story, A.E. Macleod haunts us with vanishing amphibians in more unassuming tone. Yet this book includes a heartening diversity of Australian experiences and takes bold chances with narrative form and style. Its essential reading to keep abreast of emerging local talent.

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Credit: Cut

Susan White, Affirm Press, $32.99 Doctor and author Susan White takes a knife to sexism in Australian hospitals in her first work of adult fiction. Cut follows Carla, a young doctor attempting to become the first female surgeon at an elite Melbourne hospital. Doors do not open easily; networks of male colleagues and the casual misogyny they permit turn most women off seeking top jobs in the field. Carla thinks she can handle all that, but when she is assaulted after an alcohol-fuelled work function, she faces a fight for justice that risks adding to her trauma, and an industry more than willing to turn a blind eye to toxic workplace culture. White knows whereof she writes. Her portrayal of callousness and entitlement rife among medical students (as well as the inhuman workload they face) will ring true to anyone with lived experience of them, and her #MeToo medical drama is more grotesque and disturbing for that. Credit: Charm, Strangeness, Mass and Spin

Stephen Dedman, Norstrilla Press, $27.99

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Those with a taste for sci-fi, fantasy, horror, or speculative fiction will be tantalised by this weird and wide-ranging collection from West Australian Stephen Dedman. Its full of uninhibited excursions into genre writing, and although style plays second fiddle to its obsessive imaginative drive, the prose is neat and can be devoured without distraction. The range of tales is vast, from alternate history featuring an encounter between Fritz Lang and Adolf Hitler to a ghoulish homage to the stories of Edgar Allan Poe; from Lee Harvey Oswald saving a life in his later years to a clever reworking of Arthurian legend. And that doesnt even begin to cover the welter of genre tropes Dedman draws into his orbit. The book is crowded with ghosts, monsters, dinosaurs, dream-girls, clones, aliens, time-travel, gangsters: if you can name it, youll probably find it. Genre fiction nerds should find it irresistible. Non-fiction pick of the week Credit: The Story of Russia

Orlando Figes, Bloomsbury, $32.99 There was a popular joke in Soviet times that ran, Russia is a country with a certain future, it is only its past that is unpredictable. Figes, who calls his history of Russia a story because its not only the facts that matter, its the myths that the country in its varying forms feeds itself as well, the past being continually enlisted to justify the present.

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A crucial case in point is the belief that the Rus, a branch of the Vikings, were asked by warring Slavic tribes to rule their lands in 879. The Rus accepted and the Kievan Rus, the first Russian state, was born. Hence the centrality of Kyiv. Putin is a firm believer in this view of history and the view that Russia has always been an empire that incorporates the Ukraine and Belarus. This is a brilliant condensation  his analysis of Soviet Russia is superb  of a seriously complex tale.

Credit: Bad Gays: A Homosexual History

Huw Lemmy & Ben Miller, Verso $29.99 Theres something distinctly iconoclastic about this history of homosexuality written by two gay men. They are, at heart, interrogating the term itself, stating,  white, male homosexuality as a political, identarian, and emancipatory project, has failed. One symptom of this failure is the privileging of good gays over bad ones. Everybody knows the noble tale of Oscar Wilde, but not so much his lover, the petulant and cruel son of the British aristocracy, Bosie (writer of the line, the love that dare not speak its name). Why? Hes not good  like this assembled gallery of fascists and criminals, from J. Edgar Hoover to gangster Ronnie Kray. But, the authors argue, their story is as intrinsic a part of the story of homosexuality and the emergence of LGBTQ+. Its an interesting mix of roller-coaster ride and demanding theory.

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The best stories, when its all boiled down, are about love of some kind. Tales about cat burglars, say, or over-fulfilling the target for maize production can be riveting  but love is better. So says Robert Dessaix, sharing his views at the Ubud festival in 2017, the speech now bedded into Abracadabra (Brio Books, 2022), a collection of the authors words over the years.

The love riff continues for a few more paragraphs, until the twist. As a reader, I went from being casual to enthralled. Complicit. For here was no plain essay but a confession, as the speaker admits: Its time after all these years to speak frankly: I love you.

Every dictionary visit is a dip into serendipity, a mystery tour of Englishes.

Or je taime, in Roberts case, as his heart belongs to the Collins Robert Unabridged French-English English-French Dictionary. I felt a sting of recognition. A jolt. In one remark, Id found a kindred soul who could see me.

What delights youve offered, Dessaix adds, and with what largesse  in every season. In love, in sorrow, in flirtation, in gratitude, in friendship  youve rarely left my side. Sometimes I just sit with you and feast on the inner you!
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Its fair to say that Andrew Dominiks Blonde, a project 14 years in the making, emerges into a very different world from the one in which it was conceived. To be precise, it arrives into a world in which the established certainties of Roe v Wade have been overturned by the US Supreme Court, which makes its use of fetus cam and its heroines overarching regret about babies-that-never-were seem even more heavily charged than they might otherwise have been. Theres nothing I can do about that, the New Zealand-born, Melbourne-raised Dominik says via Zoom from Los Angeles. If people are looking at Blonde as having a position on abortion, it does have a position and its position is that, if youre an unwanted child, pregnancy is going to be deeply ambivalent. Blonde tells the story of Marilyn Monroe from her early childhood in the 1920s and 30s as Norma Jeane Mortenson, later Norma Jeane Baker, to her death in 1962 from a drug overdose. Like Joyce Carol Oates sprawling 738-page novel on which it is based, the movie is both roughly biographical and broadly metaphorical, seeing in Monroes act of self-creation something mythic, and in her exploitation by the studio system and the men who run it something political and tragic. It is simultaneously a portrait of an individual and a critique of a system. Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe in Andrew Dominiks film Blonde. Credit:Netflix Best known locally until now for Chopper, Dominik isnt afraid to shock. He says delightedly that two people fainted at screenings of his 22-year-old debut feature at the Melbourne International Film Festival a few weeks ago. I was very proud of that, he says. I thought, Wow, Choppers still got it. With its intrusions into Marilyns body, Blonde is certain to make viewers squirm too. But its biggest challenge is less visceral than psychological; it wants to take us inside Norma Jeanes mind. It is a dream film, more concerned with the meaning of Marilyn Monroe, if you like, than with the biographical facts, Dominik says.

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Thats not to say he was cavalier with the vast history of Monroe, by any means. Ive read everything about her, Ive read everything about people that were in her life as well, so I feel like I pretty much understand where its true and where it isnt, he says. But I feel like everything thats written about Marilyn Monroe  whether its written by Gloria Steinem or whether its written by Norman Mailer  is essentially a kind of rescue fantasy. Its this sense that the artist has this special relationship to her, they can see her and, had they been around, disaster could have been avoided. Not that his film is any different, he readily concedes. The relationship is between the viewer and her, and nobody else in the story understands her, and it creates an uncommon feeling of connection or protectiveness towards her. And then you just have to watch her make all these self-destructive choices like shes in a car with no brakes and you cant avoid disaster. Thats the idea of the movie, but it is rendered in a kind of Freudian, Lacanian fever dream. Crucial to this reclaiming and reframing of what Monroe means is the co-opting of so much of the well-known imagery of the most photographed woman alive, as she was described at the height of her fame and stardom in the late 1950s. Dominiks cinematographer, Chayse Irvin, was tasked with recreating many of those images. Andrew wanted the film to feel like a seance, he has said. So we would recreate certain images of Marilyn exactly. We would put the exact same lens on and put the camera in the exact same position, and we were in the exact same place where she stood and took that image. If that was in colour, we would do it in colour and if it was in black and white, black and white.

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The famous subway grate scene from Seven-Year Itch, one of many iconic images recreated in the film. Credit:Matt Kennedy/Netflix It was, Dominik tells me, all about trying to change the meaning of those images according to her own internal drama. In other words, the film aims to bring the context of what Monroe is experiencing as those images are being framed to the recreation of those images. Perhaps the best example is the famous subway scene from The Seven Year Itch, in which Marilyns skirt billows up to reveal her white underwear beneath, a titillating and somewhat scandalous image at the time. Except now we see not just the scene being created, but the faces of the people, almost all male, gathered to watch (or, rather, to leer). We see, too, her new husband Joe DiMaggio (Bobby Cannavale) looking on furiously, a precursor to the beating he will soon dish out as a mark of his disapproval (the marriage between the pair lasted just four months). The film is constantly taking these familiar images and saying, This is not how it was, Dominik says. Its changing the meanings. It would be very difficult to do that with somebody whose life you dont already carry inside you in terms of images. For all the craft and intellect at play here, Blonde would be nothing without its star, the Cuban actress Ana de Armas, who is in almost every scene. Though the internet was quick to pounce on the traces of her accent in early footage from the movie (and its true that it is occasionally noticeable), hers is a stunning performance in which jagged emotion sits just below flawless skin, intellect jostles with ambition and submission, desire battles with shame. A sometimes gleesome threesome: Marilyn enjoys the company of Cass Chaplin (Xavier Samuel) and Eddie Robinson Jr (Evan Williams). Credit:Matt Kennedy/Netflix It just couldnt work without her, Dominik says of his leading lady. The whole movie is her face, pretty much.

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Finding the right actor for the role was a big part of why it took so long to make, he says. Everyone would read it and go, Well whos gonna play Marilyn Monroe? You watch [the real] Marilyn Monroe and you feel like its a person on a tightrope, and part of the drama of watching her is feeling she could fall at any minute, you know. And I was looking for somebody who could do that, and thank God I found her. The men in Monroes life come and go, some of them outright abusers (the studio boss who rapes her before giving her her first break), some of them casually exploitative (her bisexual lovers, Cass Chaplin and Eddie Robinson, played by Xavier Samuel and Evan Williams respectively), some of them able to see her only in the roles they had created for her (DiMaggios fantasy domestic goddess, playwright Arthur Miller  played by Adrien Brody  seeing her as a reincarnation of his first love, risen from the ashes of the Holocaust). In Blondes telling, though, the relationship that really defined her was with her mother, Gladys (Julianne Nicholson), who saw the young Norma Jeane not as a gift but as a curse, the only thing that stood between her and a happy-ever-after with the unnamed actor who fathered this unwanted child. Adrien Brody as The Playwright (aka Arthur Miller), with Marilyn in a rare moment of contentment. Credit:Netflix I think the real villain is the mother, Dominik says. But certainly the industrial Hollywood meat grinder didnt help. The absence of a baby hangs over the narrative like a shroud because having a child would have been for Norma Jeane an opportunity to reparent herself  to repair the trauma that was done to her, Dominik says. In the context of whats going on around womens rights in the States, he can see how that might be a little triggering. But, he adds, Im not sure the film is saying, Oh, if she just had a baby, and had given up on her career, she would have been happy.

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Its been a curious past fortnight for many Blackfullas in this country. It began when we realised on September 9 that the Koori flag was flying at half-mast for a dead Queen who signified a system that violently dispossesses us of our lands and waters. It took some hours delay before the wider public really began to notice that discrepancy in reasoning.

Today, we are asked to not only endure a public holiday for the deceased monarch  termed a National Day of Mourning, no less  but our freshly elected prime minister additionally requested that all Australians observe a minutes silence to pay respect to our faithful monarch for the past 70 years, her majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks during the Queens national memorial service. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

I encourage all Australians to reflect on her remarkable life of dedication and service with one minutes silence at 11am, Albanese said earlier this week. I was otherwise occupied, but as our federal parliament commenced its national memorial service this morning, a few points that have occurred to me over the last 14 days took form.

The term cognitive dissonance has been recurring through my head all this time, but particularly earlier this week when the mourn porn hit its peak with blanket media coverage of the royal funeral service. I managed to keep myself busy elsewhere  covering our state premiers disgraceful decision to rename Maroondah Hospital in honour of the deceased monarch, as it happens  but I did notice that it wasnt just Dan Andrews embarrassing himself with expressions lacking in tact and consideration.
Authorities have arrested a 16-year-old boy in connection with a fatal shooting Friday at a motel in Bismarck that police are treating as a homicide.

Officers responded around 12:40 a.m. to Motel 6 for a report of a person shot in the chest. Officers found 28-year-old Maurice Thunder Shield, of McLaughlin, South Dakota, unresponsive, and witnesses performing CPR. Thunder Shield was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead.

Witnesses and other evidence led police officers and detectives to believe the teenager shot Thunder Shield and left the scene, according to police. Lt. Luke Gardiner said the suspect and Thunder Shield knew one another.

The investigation led to Warren, Minnesota, where the Marshall County Sheriff's Department took the Bismarck boy into custody around 7:10 a.m. Friday.

The teenager was being held at a juvenile detention facility in Minnesota. His name wasn't released because of his age. An extradition process will unfold to return him to Burleigh County to face a murder charge, according to police.

Authorities would not release information related to circumstances that led to the shooting, a possible motive and specific evidence, citing potential hindrance of prosecution.

Police said in a statement, "This was a targeted attack on a another person." The reason for the shooting is under investigation, according to Gardiner.

Motel 6 is in north Bismarck, between Interstate 94 and the old Kmart building.

It's the fifth homicide in the capital city this year.
The states north is on high alert after more than 200mm of rain was recorded across just three hours in some parts of the Northern Rivers, as the region faces its third flooding event this year.

Flooding is expected to continue across the rain-soaked region until Friday afternoon before the weather system heads towards Port Macquarie. The Bureau of Meteorology has warned the system will most likely make its way to the Blue Mountains over the weekend.

As of Friday afternoon, warnings remain for 22 rivers across NSW.

Severe thunderstorms are forecast for coastal areas from the Queensland/NSW border to Port Macquarie on Friday, with the chance of thunderstorms extending further south to the Blue Mountains on Saturday, the bureau said in a statement on Friday afternoon.
Kyiv: A Kremlin-orchestrated referendum has unfolded in occupied regions of Ukraine that sought to make them part of Russia, with some officials carrying ballots to apartment blocks accompanied by gun-toting police. Kyiv and the West condemned it as a rigged election whose result was preordained by Moscow.

In a grim reminder of the brutality of the seven-month-old invasion, meanwhile, UN experts and Ukrainian officials pointed to new evidence of Russian war crimes. Kharkiv region officials said a mass burial site in the eastern city of Izium held hundreds of bodies, including at least 30 displaying signs of torture.

People from Luhansk and Donetsk regions, the territory controlled by a pro-Russia separatist governments, who live in Crimea, get their ballots to vote in a referendum in Sevastopol, Crimea. Credit:AP

The referendums in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions on Friday (Ukraine time) were widely seen as a prelude to Moscow annexing the regions. The voting overseen by authorities installed by Russia, scheduled to run through Tuesday, is almost certain to go the Kremlins way.

Authorities in the Kherson region said residents of a small Moscow-controlled area of the neighbouring Mykolaiv province also will be able to vote, and that small area was incorporated into Kherson until all of Mykolaiv is taken over by Russian forces.
Ukraines stunning recent success on the battlefield, which saw it liberate vast swathes of the country from Russian control, was always going to trigger a response from Vladimir Putin.

Would the Ukrainian gains prompt the Russian president to begin winding back his costly and largely botched invasion? Or would they prompt Putin to double down and escalate the war in a bid to again swing momentum his way?

Putins paranoid and provocative Wednesday televised address  in which he announced a partial military mobilisation and floated the spectre of deploying nuclear weapons  answered that question definitively. He is in the war for the long haul, and if escalation is the price to pay, then so be it.

Russian President Vladimir Putin alarmed the world by escalating the war in Ukraine. Credit:Pool Sputnik Kremlin

Putins address laid bare his desperation, but also his determination.
Dubai: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Thursday that acts of chaos are not acceptable, in a warning to protesters who have taken to the streets across the country to vent their fury over the death of a woman in the custody of the morality police.

Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Raisi added that he had ordered an investigation into the case of Mahsa Amini, 22, who died last week after being arrested for wearing unsuitable attire.

There is freedom of expression in Iran ... but acts of chaos are unacceptable, said Raisi, who is facing the biggest protests in the Islamic Republic since 2019.

People gather in protest against the death of Mahsa Amini in Tehran. Credit:Getty

Women have played a prominent role in the demonstrations, waving and burning their veils, with some cutting their hair in public in a direct challenge to clerical leaders.
There is little indication that an 18-year-old who died after being struck by an SUV in North Dakota was a political extremist like the driver claimed. Investigators say none of the witnesses they have interviewed support the idea that there was a political argument beforehand. Shannon Brandt struck Cayler Ellingson with his vehicle on Sept. 18 in McHenry. A family friend said the teen wasnt active in politics. Court documents said Brandt told a 911 dispatcher that he felt threatened after having a political argument with Ellingson, and that he believed the teen was part of a "Republican extremist group. North Dakota Highway Patrol Capt. Bryan Niewind says authorities have talked to dozens of witnesses, and the confrontation doesn't appear political at all.
A North Dakota man who prosecutors say intentionally ran over an 18-year-old at a street dance has been charged with murder. Shannon Brandt was initially charged with criminal vehicular homicide in the Sept. 18 killing of Cayler Ellingson. But that charge has been dropped and prosecutors announced the upgraded charge against the 41-year-old on Friday. Brandt is also charged with leaving the scene of a crash. Brandt initially told authorities that there had been a political argument and that Ellingson was part of a Republican extremist group. But investigators say the case is not political. A man who knows the family has said Ellingson was not a political person.
"My children are devastated and inconsolable. They cried for hours, yesterday. No good deed goes unpunished; clearly that is a harsh lesson for young people to learn."

-- Maddock resident Erin Christensen, after authorities killed a wild raccoon she had been illegally trying to nurse back to health. Authorities wanted to test the animal for rabies after Christensen brought the animal into a bar.

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I think winter is a bigger challenge right now. If we have extreme temperatures, or big, long cold spells, where the wind doesnt blow as much, then were in big trouble.

-- North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak, on electrical grids in the Upper Midwest holding up despite continuous warnings of rolling blackouts this past summer.

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"We have put a focus on teaming specifically in the area of literacy, which has paid off in our academic success. We have also been innovative in promoting a sense of belonging for all, which allows for students to feel safe and take risks."

-- Brenda Beiswenger, principal of Bismarck's Roosevelt Elementary, one of 297 schools recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School for 2022.

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"If the world seems to want this carbon initiative to be a focus, North Dakota should certainly with all its farming and ranching and energy production should be able to find ways to value the grass and the crops that we have growing each year."

-- North Dakota Petroleum Council President Ron Ness, commenting on a $1.1 million project in western North Dakota that seeks to determine whether grazing land can be used to store climate-warming carbon dioxide as a way to mitigate emissions from energy companies.

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I went about things the wrong way.

-- Former western North Dakota bank employee Kelly Huffman, while being sentenced to supervised release and a $5,000 fine in federal court for his role in a bank fraud scheme.

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"I believe the southwest will still provide really good hunting, lodging and dining opportunities that will draw people who enjoy the overall North Dakota upland hunting experience, even if they have to work a little harder to bag their limit. Numbers in the southwest are still better this year than they were in 2018 or 2019, and hunters still came those years."

-- State Tourism Division Outdoor Promotions Manager Mike Jensen, commenting on a drop in bird numbers in North Dakota's prime pheasant territory. The pheasant population statewide is up from last year.

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"I hope it to improve every year, as far as people being familiar with it."

-- North Dakota Game and Fish Department Business Operations Manager Brian Hosek, on participation in electronic land posting in the state more than doubling.

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A great deal of thought and research has gone into designing and building this facility for students so that they can receive world-class, hands-on education as both engineers and leaders in business and industry. And we can see that this approach is not only working but thriving: the University of Marys engineering graduates are being sought after even before graduation to help solve the engineering shortage in North Dakota and throughout the U.S."

-- Harold Hamm, founder and chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a pioneer in developing the Bakken oil fields of western North Dakota, speaking at the dedication of the Hamm School of Engineering at the University of Mary.

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The taxes that are levied to city residents for county services just blow my mind.

-- Mandan Mayor Tim Helbling, expressing frustration with what he believes is double-taxation for city residents for services such as law enforcement protection.
If you know of local business openings or closings, please notify us here.

PREVIOUS OPENINGS AND CLOSINGS

- Monocacy Development will demolish an existing structure and put up a new building with 55 apartments and retail space on the first floor at 128 E. Third St. in Bethlehem.

- The Bethlehem Historic Conservation Commission approved materials and designs for ArtsQuest's new cultural center at 25 W. Third St. in the city.

- The gangster-themed restaurant Capo & Co. in Emmaus held a ribbon-cutting last week for its speakeasy-style bar and restaurant.

- An attraction that started in downtown Easton may go global, as Crayola said it has reached a licensing agreement for at least five more Crayola Experience venues over the next five years.

- Curaleaf marijuana dispensary has taken the place of the old Chess N Checkers bar on Airport Road in Hanover Township, Lehigh County.

- Ms. Velvet's Cafe held a ribbon-cutting last week for the new restaurant in honor of owner Carlos Marrero's sister Ruby, who died in 2017 after a hit-and-run accident.

- Pressed Bouquet, which preserves flowers in a variety of forms, recently held a ribbon-cutting with the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce.

- The Bethlehem Township Board of Supervisors approved the subdivision plan for River Hills, a Kay Builders plan for 44 single-family dwellings and 36 multi-family units on 29 acres near Shannon Avenue.

- Bethlehem City Council delayed a decision on the certificate of appropriateness for Skyline West, a plan is for 40 apartments in a five-story building overlooking Monocacy Creek and the city's Moravian industrial quarter.

- The Pocono Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting for Ideal Property Management, a manager of vacation rental properties.

- The Palmerton branch of KeyBank on Delaware Avenue and the Sellersville branch on Main Street will close Dec. 2 as KeyBank and other companies move toward online finance.

- The Quakertown-area theater Regal Cinemas in Richland Township has closed after its parent company, Cineworld, filed for bankruptcy.

- Saint Rocco's Treats, a Pipersville-based gourmet kitchen for dogs, will hold a ribbon-cutting Friday, Oct. 14 from noon to 1 p.m., in conjunction with the Upper Bucks County Chamber of Commerce.

- Two diners on Route 22 in Warren County caught fire on the same day: Catch 22 and Key City Diner.

- After 22 years, the casual restaurant Sullivan's on the Main in Phillipsburg has been sold.
Allentown, PA (18103)

Today

Mostly cloudy, still cool, and breezy. We can't entirely rule out a stray shower, but pretty much all of that rain should remain south of the area. .

Tonight

Cloudy. We can't entirely rule out a stray shower late. There will likely be a little bit more rain, certainly late, to the south.
Reading, PA (19601)

Today

Mostly cloudy, still cool, and breezy. We can't entirely rule out a stray shower, but pretty much all of that rain should remain south of the area. .

Tonight

Cloudy. We can't entirely rule out a stray shower late. There will likely be a little bit more rain, certainly late, to the south.
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COMFORTE RECOMMENDS THE 2021 DATA BREACH INVESTIGATIONS REPORT Verizon has issued their comprehensive 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report. If you havent given much attention to the report in the past, now is a good time to check it out. Open this summary of the report to gain some expert advice and insights on data protection.

COMFORTE - Discovery and ClassificationSB_comforte_Data_Protection Comfortes Data Discovery and Classification solution can enable organizations to detect and analyze all usage of data and its lineage without relying upon organizational knowledge of the existence or location of that data. Open this solution brief to learn more.

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Leading Canadian bank achieves compliance for themselves and their customers through data protection Comforte enables Canadas largest bank to minimize the impact of data breaches, to achieve compliance with regulations like PCI DSS and to offer additional value to their customers by taking them out of PCI scope, hence saving them costs. Access this case study to learn how it was done.

Enterprise Tokenization with SecurDPS Classic perimeter defense, anti-virus solutions and access control are reducing the vulnerability of your business to malicious attacks. However, threat actors have been successful in bypassing those controls. Download this white paper learn how can help you to take complete control of your sensitive data.

Global Payment Service Provider Achieves PCI Compliance and Protects the Data of their Customers via Tokenization Comforte has enabled one of the worlds largest Payment Service Provider (PSPs) to protect sensitive data associated with billions of cards and therefore achieve compliance with data privacy standards and regulations like PCI DSS and GDPR. Access the case study to learn how it was done.

NACHA AND TOKENIZATION Tap into this white paper to explore the new Nacha data security rule as an example of how leveraging the right approach to tokenization can be used to meet these moving targets.

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Major Oil Company Chooses Tokenization to Achieve PCI Compliance A large oil company responsible for a vast POS network spanning 14,000 gas stations was struggling to achieve PCI compliance. After searching for a new tool, the organization decided to implement SecurDPS. Find out why they chose SecurDPS and the benefits they experienced after installation in this case study.

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CAGUAS, Puerto Rico (AP)  Hurricane Fiona transformed into a post-tropical cyclone late Friday, but meteorologists warned it could still bring hurricane-strength wind, heavy rain and big waves to the Atlantic Canada region and had the potential to be one of the most severe storms in the countrys history.

Fiona, which started the day as Category 4 storm but weakened to Category 2 strength late Friday, was forecast to make landfall in Nova Scotia early Saturday.

The Canadian Hurricane Centre issued a hurricane watch over extensive coastal expanses of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Fiona should reach the area as a large and powerful post-tropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds.

This is is definitely going to be one of, if not the most powerful, tropical cyclones to affect our part of the country," said Ian Hubbard, meteorologist for the Canadian Hurricane Centre in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Its going to be definitely as severe and as bad as any Ive seen."

Fiona was a Category 4 hurricane when it pounded Bermuda with heavy rains and winds earlier Friday as it swept by the island on a route heading for northeastern Canada. Authorities in Bermuda opened shelters and closed schools and offices ahead of Fiona. Michael Weeks, the national security minister, said there had been no reports of major damage.

The U.S. center said Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (165 kph) late Friday. It was centered about 140 miles (220 kilometers) southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, heading north at 46 mph (74 kph).

Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 185 miles (295 kilometers) from the center and tropical storm-force winds extended outward up to 345 miles (555 kilometers).

Hubbard said the storm was weakening as it moved over cooler water and he felt it highly unlikely it would reach land with hurricane strength. Hurricanes in Canada are somewhat rare, in part because once the storms reach colder waters, they lose their main source of energy. and become extratropical. But those cyclones still can have hurricane-strength winds, though with a cold instead of a warm core and no visible eye. Their shape can be different, too. They lose their symmetric form and can more resemble a comma.

Bob Robichaud, Warning Preparedness Meteorologist for the Canadian Hurricane Centre, said the center of the storm was expected to arrive in Nova Scotia on Saturday morning, but its winds and rains would arrive late Friday.

Its going to a bad one, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. We of course hope there wont be much needed, but we feel there probably will be. And we will be there for that. In the meantime we encourage everyone to stay safe and to listen to the instructions of local authorities and hang in there for the next 24 hours.

Officials in Prince Edward Island sent an emergency alert warning of severe flooding along the northern shore of the province. Immediate efforts should be taken to protect belongings. Avoid shorelines, waves are extremely dangerous. Residents in those regions should be prepared to move out if needed, the alert read.

Authorities in Nova Scotia sent an emergency alert to phones warning of Fionas arrival and urging people to say inside, avoid the shore, charge devices and have enough supplies for at least 72 hours. Officials warned of prolonged power outages, wind damage to trees and structures and coastal flooding and possible road washouts.

A hurricane warning was in effect for Nova Scotia from Hubbards to Brule; Prince Edward Island; Isle-de-la-Madeleine; and Newfoundland from Parsons Pond to Francois.

Fiona so far has been blamed for at least five deaths  two in Puerto Rico, two in the Dominican Republic and one in the French island of Guadeloupe.

People across Atlantic Canada were stocking up on last-minute essentials and storm-proofing their properties Friday ahead of the arrival.

At Samsons Enterprises boatyard in the small Acadian community of Petit-de-Grat on Nova Scotias Cape Breton Island, Jordan David was helping his friend Kyle Boudreau tie down Boudreaus lobster boat Bad Influence in hopes it wouldnt be lifted and broken by winds .

All we can do is hope for the best and prepare as best we can. Theres something coming, and just how bad is yet to be determined, said David, wearing his outdoor waterproof gear.

Kyle Boudreau said he was worried. This is our livelihood. Our boats get smashed, our traps gets smashed  its stuff you dont have to start your season next year, he said.

Aidan Sampson said he had been working 11-hour days in his father-in-laws boatyard for the past week, lifting fishing vessels out of the water.

Meanwhile, the National Hurricane Center said newly formed Tropical Storm Ian in the Caribbean was expected to keep strengthening and hit Cuba early Tuesday as a hurricane and then hit southern Florida early Wednesday.

It was centered about 385 miles (625 kilometers) southeast of Kingston, Jamaica late Friday. It had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 12 mph (19 kph). A hurricane watch was issued for the Cayman Islands.

Before reaching Bermuda, Fiona caused severe flooding and devastation in Puerto Rico, leading U.S. President Joe Biden to say Thursday that the full force of the federal government is ready to help the U.S. territory recover.

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi of Puerto Rico activated the National Guard to help distribute diesel fuel to hospitals and supermarkets. The force is also supplying generators used to operate potable water plants and telecommunications towers. Hundreds of people remained isolated by blocked roads.

Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press journalist Maricarmen Rivera Sanchez in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed.
New musical Cake - A Parisienne Dance Gig inspired by Marie Antoinette, will embark on a new tour in March 2023.

A blend of gig, musical, ballet anymore, the show has a book co-written by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm (who wrote the award-winning Emilia) and Tasha Taylor Johnson (associate artist at Curve in Leicester), with songs also by Taylor Johnson and music by Jack McManus (co-writer of "From The Rooftops"). It is directed and choreographed by Drew McOnie (Jesus Christ Superstar, King Kong), and tells the story of the famous French queen who is implicated in a crime. Expect a blend of rap, RnB and 18th century politics.

It opens at the Mayflower Studios in Southampton on 13 Mach before visiting the Lowry in Salford, the Drum in Plymouth, Curve in Leicester and Norwich Theatre.

The news comes as the hit new musical festival MTFestUK (where Cake started its life) sets its return, playing at the Turbine Theatre in London from 30 January to 11 February 2023 at The Turbine Theatre in Battersea.

Artistic director of the Turbine Theatre Paul Taylor-Mills said: "We are thrilled to announce that, Cake - A Parisienne Dance Gig inspired by Marie Antoinette, will be going on a UK tour in Spring 2023. We're delighted to be partnering with some of our leading regional theatres to present a development production of this brilliant new show.

I first commissioned the show at The Other Palace five years ago and seeing it evolve over the last few years has been a real privilege. To be working with some of the best theatre makers we have; Drew McOnie, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, Tasha Taylor Johnson and Jack McManus, is a real honour. The show started life at our first MTFestUK and it's great to see all the regional theatres involved be as passionate about its future as I am.

Also, importantly, submissions are open for MTFestUK 2023. We want to hear from you, and see if your show can be the next one we bring to the stage."

The Turbine is accepting submissions for the festival until 29 October via [email protected]
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has discussed multidimensional cooperation, as well as regional situation with foreign colleagues on the margins of the 77th UN General Assembly in New York, Azernews reports, citing the ministry.

International Crisis Group

During the meeting with International Crisis Group President and CEO Dr. Comfort Ero in New York, Bayramov spoke about Azerbaijan's efforts to restore regional peace and stability following the 44-day war, as well as rehabilitation and reconstruction work being carried out in the liberated lands. The sides exchanged views on a regional peace proposal and stability.

Bayramov emphasized that, despite Armenia's recent provocations, Azerbaijan remains committed to the peace negotiations to take the process ahead.

At the meeting, issues related to the reports, compiled by the International Crisis Group on Azerbaijan, were brought to the attention of the opposite side, and the group's concerns on a number of issues were addressed.

North Macedonia

Bayramov and his North Macedonian counterpart Dimitar Kovacevski discussed the Azerbaijani-North Macedonian bilateral relations and the regional situation in New York.

Bayramov expressed his pleasure with Azerbaijani and North Macedonian cordial relations. Azerbaijan's efforts in the energy sector, as well as future plans, were brought to the attention of the opposite side.

The minister gave detailed information about the 30-year-long occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia, which ended in the 2020 second Karabakh war, as well as the destruction of cities and villages in Karabakh, including the new regional situation that has emerged after the 44-day war, the work done by the country to implement the trilateral statements, as well as the latest provocations (September 12-13, 2022) committed by Armenian on the state border.

Kovacevski expressed his interest in the deepening of relations between the two nations, emphasizing the need for institutional interactions. The importance of Azerbaijan's contribution to Europe's energy security was stressed.

The parties also addressed collaboration within the OSCE and other international organizations, as well as other areas of mutual interest.

Poland

Bayramov and his Polish counterpart, the acting chairman of the OSCE Zbigniew Rau, discussed cooperation within the framework of the organization on the sidelines of the 77th UNGA session on September 22.

The sides exchanged views on regional and international security issues, as well as on Armenia's constant provocations, causes for and consequences of the recent tensions in the region.

Serbia

Similarly, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov met his Serbian counterpart Nikola Selakovic in the same venue.

"Glad to meet with FM of Serbia Nikola Selakovic and discuss the issues on the agenda of friendship and strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and Serbia, cooperation with international organizations, as well as regional security," Bayramov tweeted.

Venezuela

Bayramov and his Venezuelan counterpart Carlos Rafael Faria Tortosa discussed the Azerbaijani-Venezuelan relations, as well as the perspectives and cooperation within Azerbaijan's chairmanship in the Non-Aligned Movement on the margins of the 77th UNGA session.

The meeting also focused on other multilateral platforms, as well as regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Bayramov also attended an official reception organized by US President Joe Biden in New York.
I've been really enjoying the new season of Collective Action Comics, a new-ish podcast that closely examines superhero comics from a radical leftist perspective. While the first season looked at DC Comics' Justice League International storyline from the late 80s, Season 2 explores a comic book that's much closer to my own heart: The Ultimates, Marvel's re-imagined version of the Avengers from the turn of the millennium. Written by Mark Millar with art by Bryan Hitch, the smash-hit Ultimates would go on to serve as a major blueprint for the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of the Avengers  all the way down to the introduction of a new version of Nick Fury specifically drawn to look like Samuel L. Jackson.

The first issue of The Ultimates came out in March 2002, and remains a fascinating cultural icon of those early days of the War on Terror. These superheroes are government-sanctioned and jingoistic. Captain America, for example, is no longer this idealist, inspirational icon, but your typical hard-ass "Greatest Generation" grandpa, completely with all the bigotry, waking up abruptly in a post-9/11 world.

Reading The Ultimates as a fledging teenage punk rock nerd, it was clear to me at the time that writer Mark Millar (a Scot, curiously, and not an American) was trying to satirize the machismo of Bush-era hawkishness. But something about the book never sat right with me back then  and as an adult, I can look back and see how Millar's send-up gleefully embraced the very same tropes it claimed to be criticizing.

And it's in this contradiction where Collective Action Comics does its best work. Each episode of the podcast focuses on a different issue of the comic, keenly analyzing its role in the immediate cultural context, as well as the ways in which the story reflects the broader, uglier history of US Imperialism. I typically like to think of myself as being pretty informed when it comes to US national security issues, but I've genuinely learned so much from listening to Collective Action Comics. Host Nat Yonce has a clear and unabashed love for the superhero genre, and he brings that passion and deep understanding to his discussions  even as he points out just how much fucked up propaganda fits inside those 4-colored pages. He draws fascinating parallels between seemingly-throwaway lines on the page and the real-life horrors of the US military industrial complex  connections that are simultaneously direct and accidental, as if Millar bumbled his way into an allegory that he never even knew about.

Basically: if you like the idea of super heroes, and you're fascinated by Anarcho-Marxist-type cultural analyses, Collective Action Comics should absolutely be at the top of your podcast streaming list.

Image via YouTube
The United States Central Intelligence Agency has launched a podcast.

The mission of The Langley Files: A CIA Podcast is to educate and connect with the general public, sharing insight into the Agency's core mission, capabilities, and agility as an intelligence leaderand to share some interesting stories along the way," they state. So far, the podcast reveals the tedium of the CIA's work, at least the work they're willing to share. From Variety:

"We do usually operate in the shadows, out of sight and out of mind," [CIA Director Bill] Burns said in the premiere. However, he continued, "in our democracy, where trust in institutions is in such short supply it's important to try to explain ourselves the best we can and to demystify a little bit of what we do."

According to Burns, one of the biggest misconceptions people have about the CIA stems from Hollywood's depictions of intelligence field agents. Many people think CIA is a "glamorous world" of "heroic individuals who drive fast cars and defuse bombs and solve world crises all on their own"  a la Jason Bourne, James Bond and Jack Ryan. (Bond is a British spy, but you get the drift.) On the podcast, Burns shared that he drives a 2013 Subaru Outback "at posted speed limits."
Nearly a year after announcing plans to link the Great Sauk State Trail in Sauk County with the Walking Iron Trail in Dane County, officials are seeking offers to build the bridge over the Wisconsin River to create a path from Madison to the Mississippi River.

Sauk County Board supervisors voted 29-1 with Sup. Tom Dorner as the sole vote against a resolution to edit an intergovernmental agreement between the two counties and allow a request for development proposals to be published Friday.

Land Resources and Environment Committee Chairperson Marty Krueger explained to fellow county board members during the meeting Tuesday that the next steps seeking companies to develop funding services, construction documents, regulatory permits and construction administration of the bridge is crucial to ensuring it takes place because of other entities involved, like the railroad which owns the tracked area intended for future use as recreational trails.

Thats why we wanted to get the RFP out, it is important, Krueger said. It starts the clock ticking on all the other things that need to happen.

The partnership began in April 2019, when supervisors voted to join Dane County in an endeavor to join the two counties. In October, Sauk County board members and officials pledged $2 million alongside Dane County Executive Joe Parisi as they convened in Sauk City. The money was set aside in each countys 2022 budget to pay for the design and engineering of a century-old railroad bridge partially demolished after a pier failed during 2018 flooding.

Sauk County has budgeted $2 million of funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. The estimated total cost of building the bridge is between $9 to $10 million.

More than one person in higher places of state government tell me that now is the time to get this going, Krueger said. That now is the time to do this; that if we wait one or two years, that money may not be there.

The counties jointly funded a feasibility study by MSA Professional Services Inc. for the bridge in 2019. Geotechnical services were completed by Braun Intertec after approval in July 2021. A work group formed after the October announcement, made up of stakeholders with interest in the success of the project.

Krueger said they plan to start work in summer of 2024, which is aggressive, but he noted that the longer they wait, the more expensive work will become.

Sup. Smooth Detter expressed concerns over the possibility of the project never coming to fruition, referring to the bridge to nowhere along U.S. Highway 12 north of Middleton as something the county should avoid repeating.

I would love for time not to always be shoved down our throat, Detter said.

Supervisors agreed to fund half of the $1.4 million for consultant costs. They also voted to extend the intergovernmental agreement through 2025.

A second resolution was unanimously approved by board members to allocate for a request for proposals at the cost of more than $716,000 to design the extensions of the Great Sauk State Trail heading west throughout the county, allowing for connections to Devils Lake State Park and to the 400 State Trail in Reedsburg.

The work will span up to 30 miles and include spur or offshoot trails to community facilities or other recreational areas. Once completed, the Great Sauk State Trail would extend from Sauk City to Reedsburg with connections to the state park as well as the city of Baraboo, village of West Baraboo and either through spur trails or direct connection, include the villages of North Freedom and Rock Springs.

After the trail is established, there are also plans to install feature points of interest and interpretive signage as well as rest areas, connections to other features along the Baraboo River and historical sites. The trail will not only accommodate hikers, but also serve as a corridor for cyclists, other hobbyists and snowmobiles during the snowy months.
National Research Foundation accolades for Wits scientists

The Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience won the National Research Foundation Science Team Award while seven Witsies received A-ratings.

The 2022 NRF Awards took place on Thursday, 1 September 2022 at Century City Conference Centre, Cape Town.

Regarded as the benchmark for research excellence, the annual awards recognise individual academics and teams for their recent outstanding scientific achievements.

The NRF assesses scientists internationally competitive work for its contribution to the field of study, research quality, and societal impact.

Science Team Award for advancing human genetics in Africa

Professor Michele Ramsay is the Department of Science and Innovation-NRF Research Chair in Genomics and Bioinformatics of African Populations and the Director of the SBIMB.

She and her senior research team, including Professor Scott Hazelhurst, Dr Ananyo Choudhury, Distinguished Research Professor Collen Masimirembwa, and Professor Chris Mathew, won the 2022 NRF Science Team Award.

This award recognises a teams contributions, creativity and achievements in expanding the boundaries of scientific research in Africa, producing science outcomes which have positively impacted society, and raising South Africas international stature as a world-class research destination.

It means a great deal to receive this recognition and is the culmination of the work of a great team, supported by postdocs and students and partnerships with many collaborators both within and beyond Wits, says Ramsay.

The SBIMB was established in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits in 2014. The institute has been key to advancing multidisciplinary knowledge and developing the next generation of African scientists in the fields of genomics, population genetics, bioinformatics, biomedical informatics, computational and structural biology, and epidemiology.

Under Ramsays leadership the SBIMB has contributed world-class biomedical research that addresses some of Africas most critical health challenges. Current research includes genetic and environmental factors that contribute to cardio-metabolic diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, glaucoma, cancer, and the role of the microbiome in obesity, diabetes and hypertension.

In February 2022, SBIMB scientists were part of the team that published research in Nature Medicine, which interrogated how and why Africans need to participate in genetic studies to ensure that these underrepresented populations benefit from research that explores how unique genetics affect health.

Newly minted as A-rated

Seven Wits researchers were awarded, or re-awarded, NRF A-ratings. To obtain an NRF A-rating, a researcher must be recognised by their peers as a leading international scholar in their field based on the high quality and high impact of their recent research output.

The NRF awarded A-ratings for the first time to Emeritus Professor of English Victor Houliston, Applied English Language Studies Emeritus Professor Hilary Janks, and endocrinologist Professor Derick Raal.

Emeritus Professor Victor Houliston is a literary historian, bibliographer and textual critic. His recent research has focused on a multi-volume, multi-lingual edition of The Correspondence and Unpublished Papers of Robert Persons, for the Royal English College in Valladolid, Spain. Houliston has played a leadership role in the Southern African Society for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, both as President of the Society and Editor of the journal. His reputation is founded on his monograph Catholic Resistance in Elizabethan England and the publication of the first volume of the Persons Correspondence, with a second volume in press and a third in preparation.

The research of Emeritus Professor Hilary Janks focuses on the relationship between language, literacy and power as well as early childhood education. She holds degrees in English Literature and Applied Linguistics. She has published two widely cited books: Literacy and Power and Doing Critical Literacy. Janks received the Medal of Honour from the Education Association of South Africa and was the first recipient of the Literacy Association of South Africas Significant Contribution to Literacy award. She is a Fellow of the American Education Research Association and a member of the Reading Hall of Fame.

Professor Derick Raal is a leading expert on familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH). He is the Head of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism and the Director of the Carbohydrate and Lipid Metabolism Research Unit at Wits. He is a member the European Atherosclerosis Society and the World Heart Federation, and on the Steering Committee developing a worldwide registry of homozygous and heterozygous FH subjects. Over the last eight years, he has published 119 peer-reviewed articles and seven book chapters and delivered 31 keynote addresses.

Consistently world-class

Mathematician Professor Florian Luca, medical anthropologist Professor Lenore Manderson, and Wits own Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation, Lynn Morris, an HIV virologist, were awarded A-ratings for the second time, while Emeritus Research Professor of African Ecology, Norman Owen-Smith was A-rated again for an astonishing fifth time.

Professor Florian Lucas mathematical sciences and applied mathematics research interest is Number Theory with a focus on the areas of Diophantine equations and Multiplicative Number Theory. He is a Distinguished Research Professor at Wits. He has published more than 750 articles and is a leading contributor to major journals such as the Journal of Number Theory and Acta Arithmetica. He has supervised 11 PhD students with another one currently in progress.

Professor Lenore Mandersons work focuses on the intersections of health, inequality and structural divides. After completing her PhD in Asian Studies at the Australian National University, she held various academic positions in Australia. She is currently a Distinguished Professor of Public Health and Medical Anthropology in the School of Public Health at Wits. She has authored and co-authored more than 90 articles, over 35 book chapters, and authored and edited seven scholarly books. She has made major contributions to global policy through her work with the WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases.

Professor Lynn Morris is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation at Wit and the Founding Director of the Antibody Immunity Research Unit at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. Morris was formerly the Interim Executive Director of the NICD and Principle Medical Scientist. Her research interest is in HIV/Aids, particularly the development of a vaccine and HIV prevention. She has published more than 270 papers in journals including Nature Communications and The Lancet HIV. She served on South African Medical Research Council Board as well as on various working groups during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Professor Norman Owen-Smiths research investigates the ecology of large mammalian herbivores and their interactions with vegetation, supported by computational models to advance theory and conservation science. He consulted to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research before joining Wits, where he held a number of positions. He is currently Emeritus Research Professor of African Ecology at the University. He has written or edited seven books and published more than 40 articles in peer-reviewed journals since 2013. His work has earned numerous scientific awards, including the Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship and the Bill Venter/Altron Literary Award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and an Honorary Life Member of the Ecological Society of America, amongst others.
A native of San Antonio, TX, and a non-traditional student at Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in San Antonio, Adan Medrano needed a name for the food he grew up eating, a name that was NOT Tex-Mex.

Adan Medrano has a history of big projects. He started the then-Chicano, now Latino, Film Festival in 1977. "Medrano is a food author and chef, specializing in the indigenous foods of Texas and the AmericasHe spent 23 years working throughout Latin America, Europe and Asia, and during his travels came to recognize the cultural importance of food. He returned to the US in 2010 to focus his attention on the culinary traditions of the Mexican American, Native American communities of Texas and the indigenous cooking of the Americas. He is currently President of 'The Texas Indigenous Food Project.'" As emphasized in the New York Times article from 2019 "Don't Call it Tex-Mex:"

"Tex-Mex is a cuisine that should be respected and celebrated, he said. It's just that Tex-Mex standards like queso and combo fajitas piled high with chicken and shrimp don't speak of home to those whose Texas roots go back some 12,000 years."

This may come as a surprise if you thought Tex-Mex was a historical term. And, of course, it is. But there are always different genealogies to shared historical narratives. Tex-Mex was Mexican food made, "by Anglos, for Anglos."

Don't Count The Tortillas by Adan Medrano
The city of Lakewood, New Jersey, eliminated their homeless shelter and made the process of getting access to their remaining services hard for people to navigate, however, their town square wasn't cleaning up. Rather than allow homeless people to rest in the shade of their trees, the city has cut down over 30 trees, ruining the park for everyone.

Slate:

Lakewood Mayor Ray Coles told the Asbury Park Press, which led reporting on the decision, that the move was necessary. He cited complaints received by the police department's Quality of Life unit about homeless people. "They were harassing people, defecating between the cars and residents were complaining," he said, according to the paper.

Brigham said there was no warning or debate. One morning, when he came to deliver donated produce from a local farm to local homeless people (something he often does), the trees had already been cut down and thrown into a dumpster. "It didn't take me long to figure out that they did it just because of the homeless," he told me. "I said to myself, 'That's pretty extreme.' "

We sat at a concrete bench with a built-in chessboard. Brigham craned his neck, trying to help me imagine what it had looked like before the trees were cut. "I'm just gonna count on this side: one, two, three, four, five, six." He turned to the other side and continued. "One, two, three, four, five, six. That's 12. Then there's on the outside. They cut maybe around 30 trees." We'd only been sitting a few minutes, but I could see Brigham turn slightly red, and sweat began to bead down the side of his face. "I mean, it was beautiful. These trees were big. They were probably about 15 feet tall. The shade would cover this table. We'd be sitting in the shade here," he said.



There were two high school boys with bikes sitting in the municipal parking lot with their backs to the town square. I asked Onesimo, a 15-year-old, if he knew what happened here. "They cut the trees down, I guess, which is sad because it really helped the beauty of the place," he said. People came to "chillax in the shade. Kids would come here and play, but the sun is really strong now. You're basically asking to get sunburn, so no one comes here anymore."
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Iranians are risking it all to protest. Their families say some of them aren't coming home
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  A Kremlin-orchestrated referendum got underway Friday in occupied regions of Ukraine that sought to make them part of Russia, with some officials carrying ballots to apartment blocks accompanied by gun-toting police. Kyiv and the West condemned it as a rigged election whose result was preordained by Moscow.

In a grim reminder of the brutality of the 7-month-old invasion, meanwhile, U.N. experts and Ukrainian officials pointed to new evidence of Russian war crimes. Kharkiv region officials said a mass burial site in the eastern city of Izium held hundreds of bodies, including at least 30 displaying signs of torture.

The referendums in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions were widely seen as a prelude to Moscow annexing the regions. The voting overseen by authorities installed by Russia, scheduled to run through Tuesday, is almost certain to go the Kremlin's way.

Authorities in the Kherson region said residents of a small Moscow-controlled area of the neighboring Mykolaiv province also will be able to vote, and that small area was incorporated into Kherson until all of Mykolaiv is taken over by Russian forces.

Ukraine and the West said the vote was an illegitimate attempt by Moscow to slice away a large part of the country, stretching from the Russian border to the Crimean Peninsula. A similar referendum took place in Crimea in 2014 before Moscow annexed it, a move that most of the world considered illegal.

Election officials carried ballots to homes and set up mobile polling stations in the four-day voting period, with officials cited safety reasons. Russian state TV showed one such election team accompanied by a masked police officer carrying an assault rifle.

Ivan Fedorov, the Ukrainian mayor of Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region, told The Associated Press that Russians and residents of Crimea were brought into his city to urge people to vote.

The Russians see an overwhelming reluctance and fear to attend the referendum and are forced to bring people... to create an image and an illusion of the vote, he said. Groups of collaborators and Russians along with armed soldiers are doing a door-to-door poll, but few people open the doors to them.

Voting also occurred in Russia, where refugees and other residents from those regions cast ballots.

Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-backed separatist leader in the Donetsk region, called the referendum a historical milestone.

Lawmaker Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia's State Duma, said in an online statement to the regions: If you decide to become part of the Russian Federation, we will support you.

Thousands attended pro-Kremlin rallies across Russia in support the referendums, news agencies reported. Long live the one, great, united Russian people! one speaker told the large crowd at a central Moscow rally and concert titled, We Dont Abandon Our Own."

Luhansk Gov. Serhii Haidai accused officials of taking down the names of people who voted against joining Russia. In online posts, Haidai also alleged that Russian officials threatened to kick down the doors of anyone who didnt want to vote.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy only briefly mentioned the sham" referendums in an address. He switched from speaking Ukrainian to Russian to tell Russian citizens that under President Vladimir Putin's partial mobilization order Wednesday, they were being thrown to their deaths.

You are already accomplices in all these crimes, murders and torture of Ukrainians, he said. Because you were silent. Because you are silent. And now its time for you to choose. For men in Russia, this is a choice to die or live, to become a cripple or to preserve health. For women in Russia, the choice is to lose their husbands, sons, grandchildren forever, or still try to protect them from death, from war, from one person.

Putins partial mobilization of reservists could add about 300,000 troops, his defense minister said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed as false media reports of plans to muster up to 1.2 million troops.

Across the vast country, men hugged their weeping family members before departing as part of the call-up, which has raised fears that a wider draft might follow. Antiwar activists planned more protests Saturday.

Other Russian men tried desperately to leave the country, buying up scarce plane tickets and creating traffic jams hours or even days long at some borders. The lines of cars were so long at the border with Kazakhstan that some people abandoned their vehicles and walked  just as some Ukrainians did after Russia invaded their country Feb. 24.

Russian authorities sought to calm public fears over the call-up. Lawmakers introduced a bill Friday to suspend or reduce loan payments for those called to duty, and media emphasized that they would be paid the same as professional soldiers and that their civilian jobs would be held for them.

The Defense Ministry said many of those working in high tech, communications or finance will be exempt, the Tass news agency reported.

Amid the mobilization and referendums, the horrors of the conflict persisted.

Kharkiv regional Gov. Oleh Synyehubov and regional police chief Volodymyr Tymoshko said at least 30 of the 436 bodies exhumed so far in Izium bore signs of torture. Among them were the bodies of 21 Ukrainian soldiers, some found with their hands bound behind their backs, they said.

Russian forces occupied Izium for six months before being pushed out by a Ukrainian counteroffensive this month. The exhumations, which began a week ago, are nearing an end, as investigators work on identifying victims and how they died. A mobile DNA lab was parked at the edge of the burial site.

Each body has its own story, Synyehubov said.

Experts commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council also presented evidence of potential war crimes, including beatings, electric shocks and forced nudity in Russian detention facilities, and expressed grave concerns about extrajudicial killings the team was working to document in Kharkiv and the regions of Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy.

With world opinion pushing Moscow deeper into isolation over the war, Russia lashed out against the West. Its U.S. ambassador, Anataly Antonov, said at a Moscow conference Friday about the 1962 Cuban missile crisis that Washington is trying to bring Russia to its knees" and divide it into several fiefdoms" while stripping it of its nuclear weapons and its permanent seat at the U.N. Security Council.

In new reports of fighting, Ukraine's presidential office said 10 civilians were killed and 39 others were wounded by Russian shelling in nine regions. Battles continued in the southern Kherson province during the vote, it said, while Ukrainian forces meted out 280 attacks on Russian command posts, munitions depots and weapons.

Heavy fighting also continued in the Donetsk area, where Russian attacks targeted Toretsk, Sloviansk and several smaller towns. Russian shelling in Nikopol and Marhanets on the western bank of the Dnieper River killed two people and wounded nine.

In other developments, Kyiv expelled Irans ambassador and reduced staff at the Iranian Embassy in response to Tehran's "supply of weapons to Russia for war on Ukrainian territory, said Oleh Nikolenko, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry. Ukraine reported shooting down an Iranian-made Mohajer-6 drone that can be used for surveillance or to carry precision-guided weapons, adding that it destroyed four other Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones.

-

Associated Press writer Lori Hinnant in Izium contributed.
Business and council leaders urge UK Government to remove contract from failing Avanti West Coast

North Wales business and local authority leaders are calling on the UK Government to remove the passenger contract from Avanti West Coast.

The Growth Track 360 partnership is urging the UK Department for Transport (DfT) to take away the contract to operate West Coast passenger rail services following the withdrawal of all direct trains between North Wales and London.

There is currently only one direct service per day between London, Chester and Wrexham whilst a shuttle service links Crewe and Holyhead via Chester.

When implementing service reductions across its West Coast network in August, Avanti claimed that these were due the industrial relations climate, severe staff shortages, increased sickness levels and the majority of drivers making themselves unavailable for overtime in a coordinated fashion and at short notice.

Growth Track 360 is made up of business and local authority leaders from North Wales, the Wirral and Cheshire West and Chester

The group made representations to the UK Rail Minister of State in August, urging pressure be placed on Avanti to restore  at least partially  direct services between London, Chester and North Wales but the company has made no progress.

Leader of Flintshire Council and Vice Chair of Growth Track 360, Councillor Ian Roberts, said: Civic leaders in North Wales and neighbouring communities in North West England have worked hard to build a collaborative relationship with Avanti but their managements actions show they regard our Chester and North Wales main line as an unimportant branch.

It is shocking to realise that the same company has been tasked with introducing passenger train services onto HS2. 

The UK Department for Transport must get a grip of the crisis at Avanti West Coast by placing its routes under the control of the public sector Operator of Last Resort which has handled well similar failures by operators in other parts of Britain.

Growth Track 360 Business Representative, Ashley Rogers, Chief Executive of the North Wales Mersey Dee Business Council, said: We cannot stand by whilst our North Wales and Mersey Dee tourist destinations brace themselves for the next holiday season without the prospect of even a partial return of the full London, Chester and North Wales timetable of direct train services.

UK Government has to stand up for our cross-border regional economy and our businesses.

An immediate change of management is needed for the West Coast Mainline, otherwise our region continues to pay the price with lost economic growth when we need it most.
The World Socialist Web Site will have further coverage of the debate in the coming days. The full video can be accessed at WillforUAWpresident.org/debatelive and is also embedded below.

In a historic debate Thursday night, UAW presidential candidate and rank-and-file worker Will Lehman made a powerful case for his campaign to abolish the United Auto Workers bureaucracy and establish rank-and-file power on the shop floor.

The debate was moderated by former New York Times reporter Steven Greenhouse and organized by the court-appointed monitor overseeing the operations of the UAW following the massive corruption scandal. It included, in addition to Lehman, UAW President Ray Curry, longtime UAW bureaucrat Shawn Fain, Local 163 Shop Chairman Mark Gibson and Brian Keller.

In his opening statement, Lehmana tiered worker at Mack Trucks in Macungie, Pennsylvaniaclearly established that his campaign is giving voice to and is directed at rank-and-file workers.

The only reason there is an election, he said, is because the UAWs leadership was convicted for taking bribes from the companies and selling us out. This isnt a question of a few bad individuals but of the bureaucracy as a whole. The UAW bureaucracy is a part of management. There are 450 bureaucrats who make over $100,000 in our dues money. The richest 15 UAW executives made a combined $3 million just in 2021. Ray Curry alone has made $2.7 million since 2004.

It is necessary, he said, to replace the rule of the apparatus with workers committees in each factory and workplace to build real rank-and-file power. It is the workers who must make the decisions and establish genuine workers democracy in our workplaces. This means transferring power from the unaccountable apparatus onto the shop floor, to fight for what we need, not what the UAW says the company wants.

The debate largely took the form of efforts by the various representatives of the apparatus to defend themselves against Lehman, who combined a fight for rank-and-file power with a call for a socialist and internationalist perspective.

At one point in the debate, Greenhouse directed a question to Lehman, quoting from his campaign statement, which reads, The UAW is a union in name only. Its leadership, including two past presidents, were convicted for robbing us of dues money and selling us out in exchange for bribes from the corporations. This is not the case of a few bad apples. The UAW bureaucracy is a subdivision of the companies, suppressing resistance to low pay and horrible working conditions. It doesnt unite us.

Greenhouse asked, If you are elected UAW president, how will you work with that bureaucracy?

Lehman replied: I dont intend to work with any of them. My pivot the entire time has been to workers on the factory floor, forming rank-and-file committees and making the decisions ourselves. I dont intend to use the same bureaucratic methods that have sold us out for decades.  My turn is to workers on the factory floor, to organize, because that is where all the power is.

[There are] two very distinct layers that we are talking about, he added. The bureaucrats here wont like that, but I am not speaking to them. I am speaking to the workers, wherever they are, whatever industry theyre in: We need to reorganize society, based on human need, not the system of private profit, of bargaining with the companies and doing what the companies say they will allow. We need a system that works for us.

In response, all the other candidates lined up to defend the apparatus. Keller declared that any effort to abolish the bureaucratic apparatus was divisive. Fain said he didnt know how anyone was going to come in and eliminate the entire bureaucracy. Gibson declared that we are here to unify and not divide. Curry, the handpicked representative of the UAW apparatus, meekly sought to defend the Administrative Caucus that is mired in corruption while spouting nationalist rhetoric.

Lehman replied: They try to divide us up, the working class, based on country. And that has seen nothing but losses for the working class.  The only division that I am sowing is: Workers, not parasites.

Following a statement from Fain, who was posturing as a reformer, that weve had corruption in our ranks which has set the union back, Lehman replied:

Again, to all the workers listening, we have not had corruption in our ranks on the working shop floor. We have had zero corruption. It is the bureaucracy that has had corruption. It is the bureaucracy that is under the watch of a federal Monitor.  We have been forced contracts that we hate. We have been divided up by the bureaucracy.  The bureaucracy has given [everything] away while they maintain their comfortable positions. We are not the same. The workers are different from the bureaucrats, and every worker needs to understand that they should have power directly in their hands.

After this statement, both Curry and Fain declined to reply. Im good, declared Fain.

In the course of the debate, Lehman made a powerful case for socialism. I am a socialist, Lehman said.

What every worker needs to understand watching this is that we are the ones generating all the profit. Everyone else is just a parasite on that profit. All the bureaucrats, all the companies. We dont need them. They need us. We are the ones in the factories, the nurses in the hospitals, the teachers in the schools, we are the ones that keep society moving. It is not the owners. Its us, the working class, and we should be able to decide how we distribute that profit.

In his concluding statement, Lehman summed up the issues confronting workers in the UAW and all workers. This statement, in full, declared:

Brothers and sisters, we must take power from the UAW bureaucracy into our own hands. These bureaucrats claim we need them, but we dont need them at all. On the contrary, we need to abolish the bureaucracy in order to unlock the tremendous potential power we have as part of the international working class. Ray Curry and Shawn Fain do have experience. They have experience making six figures in our dues money while they sell us out. In the years of the worst corruption, when the UAW leaders were taking bribes and buying each other luxury gifts with our dues money, they were there, their salaries kept increasing, they rose to the top of the trash heap. Ray Curry and the UAW opposed having direct elections in the first place! It makes me sick to my stomach to hear them claim their experience is a positive. What about the experiences of the rank and file who are watching this debate? While Curry makes $272,000 and Fain makes $156,000, there are autoworkers who are homeless, who work two jobs because UAW wages are so low, who get hurt and sick and die at work because the UAW tells us the companies can do whatever they want. The companies are only able to do what they want because the UAW bureaucracy allows it. What about the experience of towns like Lordstown and Hamtramck, where the UAW has closed plants and ruined entire communities? What about the experience of retirees on fixed incomes, of TPTs [temporary part-time workers] who pay union dues but receive no benefits, of workers who get paid less to perform the same work as the people next to them on the line? These bureaucrats plan is to rob us all to enrich themselves and help the companies profit. The entire working class has the power to change things, but we must take power ourselves. We must build rank-and-file committees in our workplaces to link up with one another and form an alternate power structure to fight for what we need. We must link our struggles with autoworkers in Mexico, in Canada and across the world. We must fight alongside rail workers, teachers, nurses, steel workers and longshoremenall sections of the working class exploited by the same network of corporations, who control both political parties and run the government under capitalism. I am asking you to vote for me, but thats not all Im asking. Im asking you to take a stand and help build this movement. Nobody is going to do it for us. If you agree with me, let me tell you: You are not alone. Workers everywhere want to fight. I am sticking my neck out running in this election, and Im asking you to stand up and fight back. Dont just do it for yourself, do it for your children and for your co-workers. With an international rank-and-file strategy we can unleash the power of the working class and change the course of history.

In the hours following the debate, workers have been sending in support for Lehmans campaign. A GM worker in Flint, Michigan, said, What a debate! Lehman killed it! They all early on kept trying to push the false notion that Will is basically opposed to the whole union and thus its working members. His responses were great in explaining the class layers and the parasitism of the bureaucracy.

A worker at the Volvo Trucks New River Valley plant in Dublin, Virginia, the site of a historic strike last year that was shut down by the UAW apparatus, said, Will kicked butt, Ol Ray [Curry] was lying his ass off. About the retirees, he literally said, What can we do for them, they are retired, and the company wont even talk to us about them? And he sits there and says he has got them more.

A worker at Dana Corporation, where workers voted overwhelmingly to strike but had a sellout contract forced on them last year, said, I got to watch some of the debate, and it was really amazing to see us workers get represented in that and for Will to really not let up on any of those guys.

For more information on the campaign of Will Lehman for UAW president, visit WillforUAWPresident.org.
Following New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arderns announcement last week ending mask mandates and most other public health measures, the Labour Party-led government and corporate media are attempting to sow as much complacency as possible about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

On September 21, Public Health Agency head Dr Andrew Old held what he said would be the last routine COVID press briefing. As with the recent decision to switch from daily to weekly reporting of COVID deaths, the aim is to reduce public awareness of the pandemic and minimise scrutiny of the governments response.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaking to the media on September 12, 2022. [Photo by Jacinda Ardern]

During the press conference, Dr Old was asked to respond to US President Joe Bidens lying statement to 60 Minutes that the pandemic is over. He said Biden was wrong, but added: He is right in that the pandemic is at its lowest level since early 2020 However, nowhere in the world has completely eliminated COVID-19 and we expect that the pattern of new variants and repeated waves is going to continue for some time.

In fact, COVID deaths and infections are climbing in the US, with 400 people dying from the virus each day. Worldwide, the pandemic has killed an estimated 22 million people, many of whose deaths are not counted in the official figures. The policy of mass infection, adopted by nearly every government, including New Zealand, guarantees that deaths and severe illnesses will continue to rise and the coronavirus will mutate into new, more dangerous and vaccine-evading variants.

In New Zealand, the winter wave of infections and deaths has subsided somewhat since July, when the country had one of the highest per-capita death rates in the world. However, for the week ending September 18, the Ministry of Health reported 74 more people had died within 28 days of a COVID infection, and there were 175 COVID patients in hospital. According to official figures, a total of 1,972 people have died of COVID and a further 357 deaths are classified as unconfirmed.

It is only a matter of time, perhaps just weeks, before cases will again rise sharply due to the removal of public health mandates.

Reporters did not challenge Dr Olds false claim that nowhere in the world has eliminated COVID-19. China, the worlds most populous country, continues to maintain a largely successful zero-COVID policy, with periodic outbreaks quickly suppressed through the use of temporary lockdowns, mass testing and isolation of positive cases.

New Zealand also succeeded in remaining COVID-free for most of the pandemic, using similar measures, until Ardern announced last October that the government was abandoning its elimination policy. This decision was dictated by the interests of big business, which demanded the full reopening of workplaces and schools and an end to lockdowns.

In a significant admission, Dr Old said during a Newsroom interview published August 12: there is a real, fundamental and probably irreconcilable difference between the need for certain companies to deliver profits to shareholders and the ideals and aspirations of public health. He added, thats just a reality we need to deal with.

The vast majority of New Zealands 2,000-plus COVID deaths are the result of the Labour government adopting the same criminal policy of profits before lives as the US and other countries. It is estimated that half the population has now been infected.

While the government pretends that the worst of the pandemic is over, hospitals remain overwhelmed, struggling to cope with hundreds of COVID patients, plus a backlog of thousands of procedures that were delayed due to COVID.

Primary health services are also severely under-resourced. A general practitioner in the Wellington region recently sent patients a letter informing them that the funding for COVID related consultations has decreased, so there may be a consultation fee applied. Most people with COVID are now only entitled to funded GP consultations during the first two weeks of their illness, and just one funded COVID-related consultation during weeks two to six.

Thousands of people are suffering from debilitating Long COVID, with very limited access to diagnosis, treatment and support. Scout Barbour-Evans, a 27-year-old single parent with Long COVID, told the New Zealand Herald: My symptoms range from the fatigue and the post-exertion malaise, to being more prone to other infections, to my blood pressure tanking when I stand up, as well as dizziness.

After struggling alone for months, Barbour-Evans was only able to get medical support after speaking out in the media. Theyve had 2.5 years to plan for this and it was utterly negligent to let Covid spread without a plan. Im angry, Im lonely, and I am too exhausted to be fighting like this, Barbour-Evans said.

The government also appears to be cutting spending on masks, which are still mandatory in healthcare and aged care settings. An aged care nurse in Wellington told the World Socialist Web Site that workers at his facility are no longer being given N95 masks, which provide strong protection against COVID. They are now receiving cheaper and much less effective surgical masks.

COVID has spread like wildfire through many aged care centres. The nurse said eight residents at his facility had died of COVID, and in the last few months more than 80 percent of our residents and most of the staff got the virus. We cant prevent it from spreading.

Some workers have been infected as many as four times, placing additional strain on the already understaffed facility. Some staff have to work more than 14, 15 hours a day, under conditions where workers dont have as much energy as before, because of post-COVID symptoms. They have lethargy, and are easily distracted and getting angry. Staff are getting more back pain and injuries.

The nurse also criticised the removal of mask mandates in supermarkets and other public spaces, and the scaling back of advertising to encourage vaccination. Just over half the population has received a third dose (or booster) of the Pfizer vaccine, which is essential to reduce the risk of severe illness from the Omicron variant. Only 11 percent of people have received a fourth dose (second booster), which is restricted to those aged 65 and over, or who have disabilities or chronic health conditions.

The decision to allow COVID to spread, driven by the need to deliver profits to shareholders, poses immense dangers to the health and lives of working people. It also reveals the bankruptcy of capitalism and the urgent need for a socialist movement to put an end to it. The trade unions, which have herded people back to work and back to school, are complicit in the governments criminal agenda. Workers must therefore take matters into their own hands by building rank-and-file workplace committees to fight for a fully-funded elimination strategy to stop the pandemic and save lives.
When John Rzeznik and Robby Takac started the Goo Goo Dolls 35 years ago, they quite likely never dreamed that decades later, theyd be headlining the largest concert venue in their hometown on a day that has now officially been declared The Goo Goo Dolls Day in Erie County. But thats exactly what will happen on Saturday, as the band wraps the current leg of its tour with a 7:30 p.m. show at KeyBank Center.

The Goo Goo Dolls are tremendous ambassadors for our community who proudly represent the Buffalo music scene on an international basis, said Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz in a press release announcing the honor. They have always remained proud of being from Western New York and have never forgotten about us despite their worldwide recognition in the recording industry.

Poloncarz highlighted the bands success, which includes some 15 million albums sold worldwide and multiple Grammy Award nominations, noting that, despite their massive commercial clout, Rzeznik and Takac have never shied away from their Buffalo roots and have even embraced the ambassador role representing out region worldwide. The official proclamation also praises the bands work with such organizations as the Variety Kids Telethon, Compass House and Feedmore WNY.

It is with a heartfelt thank you to John and Robby for all they do for our community and for inspiring so many with their music in their over 30 year career, the proclamation concludes.

The proclamation will be presented to Rzeznik and Takac backstage, prior to Saturdays show at KeyBank Center.
With little more than a week before the October 2 presidential election in Brazil, the Workers Party (PT) and its candidate, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, are trying to hide the rotten state of Brazilian bourgeois democracy. This includes threats by fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro to repeat the January 6 US Capitol scenario and carry out an electoral coup if he is not named the winner. As is the case in all bourgeois elections, the total cover-up of the real political, economic and social situation, as well as its causes, adds up to numerous false promises.

The central theme of the electoral campaign of the PT and Lula is that they will reconstruct and transform Brazil if elected on the basis of a nationalist and pro-corporate program. It hopes this can restore its role as the preferred party of rule of the national bourgeoisie, and at the same time bring it international support.

Crosses in front of Brazil's National Congress commemorating COVID deaths (Marcelo Camargo/Agencia Brasil)

One key element of its ever-diminishing set of promises to workers is that the party will take an opposite, scientifically guided approach to public health, strengthening the national Unified Health System (SUS), and particularly pandemic response. The party feigns horror at Bolsonaros homicidal herd immunity policy, which led to almost 700,000 official COVID-19 deaths in the country. Calling Bolsonaros response to the COVID-19 pandemic genocidal has become a staple of TV ads and rallies during the electoral campaign.

However, any pretense that the PT has represented in the past three years or will represent in the future an alternative to Bolsonaros barbaric pandemic policy is exposed by its own statements on the issue.

In election propaganda about the Bolsonaro governments pandemic policy, the PT says, Bolsonaro mocked the pandemic that killed 670,000 Brazilians. 400,000 lives could have been saved. From the outset, the PT considers that 270,000 deaths are acceptable and were inevitable. It does not even remotely make reference to the scientifically proven possibility of COVID-19 being eliminated. If Brazil had followed a Zero COVID policy such as the one implemented in China, less than 800 deaths would have been recorded throughout the pandemic.

Of the 121 paragraphs of the campaign platform of the electoral slate headed by the PT, only one deals with the COVID-19 pandemic: It is urgent ... to attend to people with Long COVID and resume the recognized national vaccination program. This represents a total downplaying of the danger still posed by the pandemic in Brazil, a disregard of the possibility that the situation may worsen with new variants, and the defense of the unscientific claim that only vaccination can contain the pandemic. It expresses the class alignment of the PT and the other parties in its coalitionincluding the pseudo-left Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL)with the policy of the world ruling elite, led by the Biden administration in the US, to declare COVID-19 endemic, without any basis in scientific facts, but only serving corporate needs.

The PT unions and governors advance a fraudulent opposition to Bolsonaro

The PTs main concern during the COVID-19 pandemic was to further boost its ties with sectors of Brazils ruling class fearful that Bolsonaros cruel and undisguised offensive against workers health and living standards threatened the country with a social explosion, bringing into question the very continuity of capitalism.

Any pretense that the fight against the pandemic in the Northeastern states the PT controlled would be guided by science, with the closing of schools and businesses in general, was exposed less than a year later. The coordinator of the regions scientific committee, longtime PT supporter and renowned neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis, was forced to quit his position just before the second wave exploded in Brazil in early March 2021.

Contrary to the press propaganda that people were tired of and opposed social isolation measures, they were crucial for the partys electoral gains in the local November 2020 elections. But as Nicolelis explained in an interview with the WSWS in October 2021: In the first wave... we managed to flatten the curve with social isolation and some regional lockdowns, especially in the Northeast ... But after the electoral calendar was settled [in November 2020], and thats what apparently they [the Northeast governors] were interested in, they stopped. Because in the second wave they did nothing.

At the height of the original Omicron wave, Nicolelis again exposed the partys policy in another interview with the WSWS. He said, The PT governors themselves, who I know very well because I worked with them, stopped doing what had to be done a long time ago. So, who is progressive in this story? I have seen conduct of so-called progressive people that is very similar to Bolsonaros. They just had the veneer and the stamp of progressives.

Instrumental in the PTs fraudulent opposition to Bolsonaro was the claim that vaccines alone could stop the virus. In early March 2021, when the second wave exploded in Brazil after numerous alerts that experts had been issuing since the beginning of that year. The PTs Northeastern governors announced a so-called national pact against the pandemic, which was reduced to accelerating the purchase of vaccines and ineffective measures such as curbs on the sale of alcohol.

The PT took the lead in the herd immunity policy when in August 2021, as deaths were in a slight decline from horrific months-long levels of over 1,000 a day, state governors imposed the largest reopening of schools in Brazil since the pandemic began, implying that the previous mass levels of infection could contain new emergences of the virus. In the state of Bahia, PT governor Rui Costa cut the wages of teachers on strike against the reopening of schools and threatened to fire them.

By October 2021, after overturning social distancing in classrooms, three of the four PT state governors had made student presence mandatory in unsafe schools. The presence of students in schools was a precondition for the general reopening of the economy. By October, the PT-ruled states had also removed virtually all restrictions on business.

Mask mandates in schools were abandoned in all Brazilian states in April of this year after the Omicron BA.1 wave. The presence of unprotected children in precarious schools found the perfect environment for the spread of a range of infectious diseases, such as acute bronchiolitis, which filled pediatric ICUs in several states and led to dozens of infant and child deaths. Between January and May of this year, nearly 300 children under the age of four died, infected by the so-called mild Omicron BA.1, twice as many as in the same period last year. In May, in the beginning of the wave driven by Omicron BA.4/5, more than half of the cases of COVID in the PT-ruled Ceara state occurred in children under nine.

When massive youth-led demonstrations erupted against the herd immunity policy from May 29, 2021, the PT, PSOL and all other parties of the pseudo-left, horrified by the possibility of being overrun by them, redoubled their efforts to channel opposition behind a super petition for the impeachment of Bolsonaro. This was backed by representatives of the Brazilian right and far right, many of them former allies of Bolsonaro who were trying to distance themselves from the fascistic president.

The PT and the PSOL backed integration with the hated right-wing Bolsonaro dissidents, claiming, in the words of PSOLs president Juliano Medeiros, that for the removal of the president to proceed, it is necessary that part of the center-right breaks with the government. Soon, all demonstrations were demobilized based on vain hopes that the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry in the Brazilian Senate investigating the Bolsonaro governments actions during the pandemic would provide the final push to the impeachment, which never came.

On the other hand, the CUT, Brazils largest union federation, controlled by the PT, played a central role in the herd immunity policy by holding regular meetings with governors, such as Sao Paulos Joao Doria, to ensure that factories would not close, and advancing the change of factory shifts to allow them to operate despite fraudulent lockdowns.

Also instrumental was the PT-controlled Sao Paulo teachers union, APEOES, which criminally sabotaged a strike against the reopening of schools at the beginning of the 2021 school year, just one month before the second wave exploded in March.

The local reproduction of Bolsonaros herd immunity policy earned the PT an increase in its electoral coalition from three parties in 2018 to nine parties today, the largest in the country. It includes those that until recently the PT denounced as putchists for having supported the fraudulent impeachment of former PT President Dilma Rousseff, first and foremost the four-time Sao Paulo governor Geraldo Alckmin.

The case for the global elimination of COVID-19 and the struggle for socialism

Since the beginning, the International Committee of the Fourth International has insisted that the COVID-19 pandemic was not only a health problem, but predominantly a political one. The response to it has been determined by class interests.

Developments over the past three years have shown that there are no qualitative differences between the Bolsonaro government and the PT, the pseudo-left, and the unions regarding the pandemic. By prioritizing corporate profit interests, they have been instrumental in keeping businesses and schools open throughout the pandemic, either by eliminating the few mitigation measures and creating the illusion that the pandemic is over, or by blocking the development of social opposition.

The only scientifically based response to the pandemic that represents the interests of workers is the global elimination of COVID-19. This requires a conscious break with the PT, the pseudo-left and the unions, and the development of a struggle against the source of the world ruling elites herd immunity policy, the capitalist system. The growing movement of the Brazilian and international working class must raise this demand to put an end to the pandemic as part of a broader struggle for international socialism.
In a significant reversal that will further intensify conflicts within the Republican Party and the ruling class as a whole, late Wednesday night it was reported that Virginia Thomas, 65, wife of arch-conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has agreed to testify before the January 6 House Select Committee.

Virginia "Ginni" Lamp Thomas in 2017 [Photo by Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0

Thomas attorney Mark Paoletta had previously rebuffed the committees request to speak to Thomas, writing in a June 28 letter to the congressional body that he did not believe there is currently a sufficient basis for Thomas to appear.

Thomas has previously attacked the committee and called on Republicans to oust any members of their party who participate in it.

However, late Wednesday night, CNN reported that a source close to the committee informed their reporters that Thomas, a life-long Republican operative, deeply implicated in former President Donald Trumps failed coup, had agreed to be interviewed by the panel in the coming weeks.

In a statement sent to CNN and other major news networks, Paoletta confirmed the report, writing: As she has said from the outset, Mrs. Thomas is eager to answer the Committees questions to clear up any misconceptions about her work relating to the 2020 election. She looks forward to that opportunity.

The day before Thomas lawyer confirmed she would speak before Congress, chairman of the committee Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi) confirmed that the next hearing of the committee will be on September 28 at 1 p.m.

By choosing to hold the hearing on a Wednesday afternoon, the committee is ensuring that whatever revelations they are willing to disclose will not be seen by a mass audience of people who will be at work at that time. This is part of the committees efforts to keep the working class unaware of the advanced fascist rot that has permeated all levels of the federal government and a majority of the Republican Party who have and continue to support Trumps efforts to establish a dictatorship.

A September 14 report from statesuniteddemocracy.org found that in at least three states, Alabama, Arizona and Michigan, Republicans running for governor, attorney general and secretary of state have backed Trumps claims that the 2020 election was stolen and that Biden is illegitimate.

In the 2022 midterms voters will be forced to choose between a Democrat or an election denier in half of the races for governor, 44 percent of secretary of state races and 10 out of 30 attorney general races, per the report.

Speaking to reporters in Washington D.C. on Tuesday about next weeks hearing, Thompson said that unless something else develops, this hearing at this point is the final hearing. But its not in stone because things happen.

In line with the committees efforts to obfuscate the broad support Trumps coup had and retains within the ruling class and the US government as a whole, including in the Supreme Court, in a video interview published by Politico Thompson said that the last hearing will focus on the fact that former President Trump knew he had lost, he was told by a number of people that he had lost and just continued to promote the lie that the election had been stolen.

The committee chairman was asked about his vice-chair, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming), an ultra-conservative war hawk who voted with Trump 93 percent of the time while he was president, losing her primary to a Trump-endorsed candidate.

Thompson described Cheney as a principled person, who put democracy above politics. Heaping praise on the right-wing politician, he added, If we had more people like her, our country would be far better off.

Thomas decision to appear before the committee is the latest in a series of setbacks for the aspiring dictator Trump. Following the unprecedented FBI raid on Trumps Mar-a-Lago compound last month, the Justice Department leaked to press outlets that it has subpoenaed over 40 of Trumps allies, including high-level advisors, such as former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, concerning their efforts to keep Trump in power.

On Wednesday, New York state Attorney General Letitia James announced a hefty $250 million civil suit against Trump, the Trump Organization and three of his adult children, accusing the family and the company of committing multiple crimes including tax and insurance fraud. James said she had referred evidence of criminal charges to the IRS and the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Last month, Trumps consigliere, Allen Weisselberg, an employee for over four decades, including as chief financial officer of the Trump organization, pleaded guilty to 15 criminal charges, including engaging in a criminal conspiracy, fraud and grand larceny.

As part of his plea agreement, Weisselberg must pay nearly $2 million in back taxes and testify in court on his role within the organization. Weisselberg is expected to serve only five months in prison, but his sentencing will not take place until after he testifies.

While Trump himself has yet to be publicly charged with any crimes for trying to overthrow the government, some of his endorsed candidates, such as Michigan Republican candidate for state attorney general Matthew DePerno, are currently facing criminal charges for trying to help their leader in his scheme to remain in power despite losing the election.

DePerno and eight other Trump-allies, including Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf, are facing felony charges for tampering with voting machines.

On Thursday, CNN reported on a series of emails they had obtained through a public records request, which revealed that on March 17, 2021, DePerno personally sent a subpoena to an election clerk in Barry County, Michigan, demanding to have access to voting equipment, election tapes, logsand ballots, which had been sealed and stored after the election.

CNN said at least eight county clerks in Michigan received subpoenas from DePerno, all of which were rejected by a judge.
The Railroad Workers Rank-and-File Committee is hosting a public meeting Wednesday, September 28, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Organize independently to defeat government and union-backed sellout! All railroaders and their supporters are urged to attend and register for the meeting here. To join or contact the committee, send an email to railwrfc@gmail.comor fill out the form at the bottom of this page.

A former top railroad union official has floated the idea of union bureaucrats forcing through a sellout contract even if workers vote it down, either by unilaterally declaring it passed or having it enforced by the government by sending it to binding arbitration.

In an article published in Railway Age, Frank Wilner, a former director of public relations for SMART-TD and a Bill Clinton-appointed chief of staff of the Surface Transportation Board, reported that union officials have refused to rule out the possibility.

Wilner writes: One union official, while declining to answer specifically, said only that it would be irresponsible for Railway Age to report on the possibility and asked not to be identified. In fact, such speculative reporting has appeared elsewhere, and overrides of ratification votes have occurred.

In other words, the unions are directly considering it but do not want the membership to be alerted to that fact.

Significantly, Wilner admits that the idea of the unions unilaterally imposing a deal was earlier proposed by a far-right right-to-work campaigner on Fox Business Network. This further shows how the entire political establishment, both right and nominally left, have come together against the railroaders. Last week, both parties had prepared separate legislation to block strike action.

This would not be the first time that such a maneuver took place. Wilner notes that in 1996 the United Transportation Union (UTU, now SMART-TD) overruled a rejection of a tentative agreement and sent the deal to binding arbitration, where the arbiter sided with the company and forced workers to accept the sellout contract. More recently, the Teamsters union, which is the parent union of both the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division (BMWED), overrode a majority no vote to enforce a contract at UPS in 2018.

According to a union official quoted by Railway Age, the rail unions can simply ignore a no vote and take the agreement to binding arbitration as the UTU did in 1996. If this is done, the arbiter may simply force workers to take the rejected contract. The unnamed official said, Some arbitrators have ruled that the membership lacks the authority to second-guess the agreed upon best efforts of the carrier and union leadership.

Wilners commentary expresses the fear of the union bureaucracy before the massive opposition of railroaders to the state-brokered deal which they announced last week in order to block a national rail strike. The deal has failed to quell or demoralize this opposition as the unions had hoped but only enraged workers and convinced them of the need to organize independently of the apparatus.

This finds expression in the growing authority of the Railroad Workers Rank-and-File Committee, which held a public meeting attended by 500 railroaders the night before the deal. Comments in the corporate press have raised the possibility that the deal could still be voted down by workers.

On Wednesday, railroaders took part in shift change pickets at many terminals and yards around the country. This appears to have been organized by local officials aligned with Railroad Workers United, as well as the pseudo-left outlet Labor Notes, but rank-and-file workers participated in the pickets to express their anger with the deal.

Wilner warned, Fringe factions of rail labor have been predictingeven urgingno votes. Mainstream media, in reporting on those efforts and discontent among rail union members, has provided nattering nabobs of negativism credibility and a pulpit from which to preach against ratification. This is clearly in reference to the Railroad Workers Rank-and-File Committee. It is also not the first time that Wilner has referenced it as a fringe group. One member of the Committee retorted, So the 90 percent of the railroaders who voted to strike are fringe groups?

Earlier this month, thousands of workers from District 19 of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) voted down a separate tentative agreement by more than 60 percent, while voting more than 80 percent to authorize a strike. The extended cooling-off period, which was self-imposed by the IAM bureaucracy, expires next Thursday, September 29, at which point thousands of machinists could go on strike.

Wilner warned that the consequence could be a de facto national strike: A strike by even a small union could trigger a full-blown nationwide rail shutdown by causing members of all other unionseven those who have ratified tentative agreementsto honor picket lines. While rail labor contracts prohibit so-called sympathy strikes, a loophole allows unionized workers to honor picket lines of other unions if members personally feel threatened were they to cross them.

The IAM, however, is clearly desperate to prevent walkouts. A letter sent by the IAM to members acknowledged the rejection of the contract and authorization for a strike but immediately declared that negotiations would resume. It framed the no vote as merely a strong message to the companies and justified the extension of the cooling-off period as a chance for a new tentative agreement.

Voting is also underway at the BMWED on its own deal, patterned after the settlement proposed in August by Bidens Presidential Emergency Board (PEB). The union itself admitted in a presentation that the contract would result in a decline in real wages by 3.8 percent, the first decline since 1991. Health care costs would also increase by 4.8 percent every year.

During a town hall held by the BMWED on Wednesday, the union repeatedly attempted to claim to workers that they would never get a better contract because Congress would simply impose the terms of the PEB. When pressed by workers on their refusal to call a strike and the rotten contents of the agreement, the union responded by disabling the chat.

The unions are not interested in convincing workers but in intimidating them and demoralizing them by claiming that nothing can be done. The BMWEDs claims were echoed by the IAMs letter, which declared that without last weeks deal, Its a real possibility that Congress would have imposed a contract on us.

New hidden concessions are still being uncovered in the rail contracts. Elsewhere, a letter from Brendan Branon, head of the National Carriers Conference Committee (NCCC), to Leo McCann, president of the American Train Dispatchers Association (ATDA), admitted that the union agreed that that health care contributions that rise beyond the 15 percent cap after 2025 will be taken from back pay given to workers in the next contract. It also agreed that this clause will not be used to justify any increase in pay to offset the increased health care costs.

SMART-TD also finally released language from its tentative agreement, which had not been completed for days after Wednesdays deal. The language on time off, which has been one of the most significant issues for workers, is woefully inadequate. Workers are awarded a single extra paid personal day. Road service assignments will have assigned days off, but they will have to be negotiated by General Committees of Adjustment. Workers in unassigned service are given three days for medical exams/care without attendance demerits, but they must be scheduled 30 days in advance and may only be scheduled on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.

In a separate announcement, SMART-TD unveiled the time frame for a vote, which it is deliberately extending as long as possible. Voting will not even begin until mid- to late October, the union says, and even then will last 21 days, before finally being tallied in mid-November. This confirms workers suspicions that a key motivation in the unions agreement was to spare the Democrats from having to move against railroaders in the critical weeks ahead of the midterm elections in early November.

Wilners commentary must be taken as a serious warning that there is no barrier that the unions will not cross in order to enforce a contract. They function not as workers organizations but as extensions of the government and enforcers of de facto injunctions.

However, their self-serving claims that workers are powerless to oppose the deal are entirely false. Bidens comments last Sunday on CBS, which brushed off the pandemic and nuclear war but described a rail strike as not thinkable, show the immense power that railroad workers have. The ruling class fears American workers more than any other danger it faces. They know a struggle on the railroads would win widespread support, far more than the White House, Congress or any of the other discredited and hated government institutions.

This power, however, must be organized and directed by workers themselves. Railroaders must build up the Railroad Workers Rank-and-File Committee into a national network enabling them to organize themselves to countermand the unions betrayals and establish the principle of rank-and-file control.
On Thursday, after Russian President Vladimir Putin called up 300,000 reservists and warned that he was prepared to use nuclear weapons in case of a NATO attack on Russia, European Union (EU) officials recklessly pledged to continue escalating the conflict. They announced new sanctions on Russia, which will further raise food and energy prices that are devastating workers budgets, and continued arms deliveries to Ukraine.

We decided to bring forward as soon as possible additional restrictive measures against Russia in coordination with partners, EU Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell said after a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York. The EU will study, we will adopt new restrictive measures, both personal and sectoral targeting Russian industries, he added.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias) [AP Photo]

Borrell admitted that Putins warnings that he would use all weapons systems available to us to defend Russian territory from NATO attack are genuine. The threat of nuclear war, Borrell said, is a real danger to the whole world, and the international community must react. However, Borrell made clear that the EU plans to accelerate delivery of billions of euros in weapons to the far-right Ukrainian regime, which has repeatedly attacked Russian-speaking areas of the country.

Putins references to nuclear weapons do not shake our determination, resolve and unity to stand by Ukraine, Borrell said.

The reckless and utterly irresponsible statements of Borrell, echoed by other EU officials, are leading Europe and the world straight to nuclear war.

Washington and the EU powers have delivered tens of billions of dollars in weapons to Ukrainian army units and far-right militias to hit targets deep inside Russian-claimed territory. On Wednesday, Putin said the Kremlin has concluded that the NATO powers aim to weaken, divide and ultimately destroy our country. He added that his threat to use Russias full military arsenal, thus including nuclear weapons, was no bluff.

Top Russian officials have since repeated Putins threats that Russia would respond to attacks on territory, including Russian-speaking areas of Ukraine it currently holds, by using nuclear weapons. Yesterday, former President Dmitri Medvedev declared: The Donbas (Donetsk and Luhansk) republics and other territories will be accepted into Russia.  Russia has announced that not only mobilization capabilities, but also any Russian weapons, including strategic nuclear weapons and weapons based on new principles, could be used for such protection.

Already last week, Medvedev warned that NATOs unrestrained pumping of the Kiev regime with the most dangerous types of weapons could provoke Russian military escalation.

The firing of strategic nuclear weapons by Russia and the NATO powers would lead to hundreds of millions of deaths at the very least and possibly the destruction of humanity. A Russian RS-28 strategic nuclear missile carries 15 independently-targetable warheads, each with an explosive yield of up to 25 megatons of TNT. That is over a thousand times the power of the US nuclear bombs that annihilated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

French media have cited Russian reports that a single RS-28 missile can destroy a territory the size of Texas or of France, which is the largest EU country by land area.

Other Russian officials also emphasized that they had nothing to propose besides military escalation, including Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who briefly appeared at the UN Security Council meeting in New York to make a statement denouncing the NATO powers before leaving, without listening to any remarks from other diplomats present.

Accusing Kiev of brazenly trampling the rights of Russians and Russian-speakers in Ukraine, Lavrov said this simply confirms the decision to conduct the special military operation was inevitable. He added that the intentional fomenting of this conflict by the collective West remained unpunished.

Both the desperate and belligerent remarks of the representatives of Russias post-Soviet capitalist regime and the aggressive and reckless statements of the European imperialist powers must be taken as warnings: The deep crisis of the capitalist system is threatening to lead to all-out nuclear war between the major world powers.

The bankruptcy of the Kremlin and the disastrous consequences of the Stalinist dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 are now apparent. The NATO imperialist powers not only waged war in the Middle East and the Balkans, freed from any concern about a military and political counterweight to imperialism. They also stirred up conflicts among the former Soviet Republics that now have exploded into all-out war. The Moscow regime, no longer able to make any social appeal to workers internationally and oscillating between attempts to reach a deal with imperialism and to threaten it with its military power, is left with the choice of capitulation or nuclear escalation.

The NATO powers for their part are pouring fuel on the fire. Having provoked the conflict in Ukraine by backing a far-right, anti-Russian coup in the Ukrainian capital Kiev in 2014, they are now using the war to justify a vast expansion of military-police forces, such as the German governments drive to rearm and implement an aggressive military foreign policy.

Yesterday, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht and her French counterpart, Sebastien Lecornu, met in Berlin to stress that the EU powers would continue to arm Ukrainian army units and far-right militias even if this risks nuclear war.

Our response is really consistent and, most importantly, resolute and joint: there will be no deviations, we will continue to support Ukraine in its courageous struggle in the future, Lambrecht said. She boasted that huge successes of the Ukrainian army were in part due to military aid from Germany and France.

Lambrecht added that Berlin and Paris would continue to run roughshod over Russian warnings of nuclear escalation and support attacks on Russian-held territory. For us, these referenda [in Donetsk and Luhansk] will be of no significance as this is the territory of Ukraine and will remain so, she said. Its good that we are sending a clear signal: This Putin reaction to Ukraines successes only encourages us to continue supporting Ukraine.

The warmongers in the media are overflowing with calls for a rapid escalation. One should not be blackmailed by Putins nuclear saber rattling, demands the editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Berthold Kohler in a commentary. In the tussle with Putin, the West will only remain a credible opponent if it actually continues to stand by Ukraine, at least to the extent it has done so far. Anything else would be appeasement and betrayal of its own values and interests.

Clemens Wergins, chief foreign affairs correspondent, demands in Die Welt: Ukraine must now quickly get all the weapons it needs to quickly liberate the occupied territories, including, for example, modern Western tanks like the Leopard 2 or infantry fighting vehicles like the Marder. He said it is in Germanys interest that the Russian front also collapses in other places in the coming months as it did recently in Kharkiv, when Ukraine succeeded in panic-striking Russian troops into flight and capturing vast swaths of territory in a lightning advance.

Then he adds, Because the more clearly this war is lost for Russia when the new recruits come to the front, and the less Ukrainian land the invaders then still occupy, the sooner this war will come to an end.

This cynical reasoning corresponds to the murderous logic of German militarism in the 20th century. The leading representatives of the Kaiserreich and the Nazis also argued that the rapid and maximum mobilization of the German war machine was necessary to achieve a quick victorious peace (Siegfrieden) or final victory (Endsieg). In reality, this strategy of escalation led to total war, with tens of millions of war dead and barbaric crimes.

Behind the current imperialist warmongering is a similar toxic mix of insane geopolitical ambitions and deep internal crisis. As in the 1930s, the ruling class is responding to the collapse of capitalism and explosive opposition in the working class by turning to militarism, fascism and world war. The working class must counter the capitalist madness that threatens the survival of all humanity with its own strategy of world socialist revolution.
The death of Queen Elizabeth II revealed much about the state of the British bourgeoisies institutions. It also shed light on their impact on cultural life.

Artists have been fawning over the late monarch in an uncritical way that speaks badly for the general artistic climate. It says something that novelty Irish pop siblings Jedward stood heads above the crowd of serious artistes for bravely speaking out against British imperialism and calling for an end to the monarchy.

Simon Armitage [Photo by Paul Hudson / CC BY 4.0

The limitations of court-sanctioned roles are seen in the work of the current Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, a talented writer. His Floral Tribute, on Elizabeths death, demonstrates, unsurprisingly, that no one with an ounce of artistic integrity should ever accept such a roleno matter how they try and justify doing so to themselves.

Previously a life appointment, the position of Poet Laureate has been a 10-year tenure since 1999. Remuneration is an honorarium of around 6,000 a year and 720 bottles of sherry over the duration. There is no requirement to produce poems on the royal family, but there remains an expectation that national occasions will be marked.

Armitage had written about a dozen laureate poems before his first royal piece. He was appointed in 2019. After working as a probation officer, he has held various academic posts teaching creative writing and as Professor of Poetry at Oxford and Leeds. He is a good critic and advocate of poetry and access to literature, which he is evidently trying to use his Laureateship to advance. He is spending a week each year of his tenure touring selected libraries, giving a poetry reading, sometimes introducing a local guest poet, and trying to involve communities where English might not be the first language.

Most of his laureate poems show similar, healthy impulses. Armitage has written frequently of science and nature, produced pieces for the bicentenary of John Keatss death, and inaugurated a new orchestral rehearsal venue.

He is a generally sympathetic and liberal writer. This comes across well in lyrics responding to Covid-19, commissioned by the Huddersfield Choral Society from their choristers experiences. The Song Thrush and the Mountain Ash, set to music by composer Daniel Kildane, is poignant:

She said she liked the flowers I sent but wondered why they had no scent, and why the food had lost its taste, and why the nurse had covered her face?

But the conformism of Armitages royal poems strips away their artistic merit. His first royal poem followed Prince Philips death. The Patriarchs  An Elegy portrayed a noble self-sacrifice alongside his spouse:

Husbands to duty, they unrolled their plans across billiard tables and vehicle bonnets, regrouped at breakfast. What their secrets were was everyones guess and nobodys business.

The jubilee poem Queenhood again reiterated official presentations of Elizabeth as a noble individual, able through personal sacrifice and heroic acceptance of duty to stand above the realities of the class structures she embodied: A priceless freight for a young woman to bear, / but, draped and adorned, a monarch walks forward / into the sideways weather of oncoming years.

The more he embraces this position, the worse the writing:

Queenhood: it is law and lore, the dream life and the documentary, a truthful fantasy. For generations we will not know such majesty.

His Floral Tribute to the queen on her death is a double acrostic, the first letter of each of its lines spelling Elizabeth twice. Armitage has described this as a problem to which the poem becomes a solution, enabling him to stretch [his] imagination and encode Elizabeths name, connecting it with the little signs and signals of poetry of Elizabeth Is age (1558-1603). That sounds a little desperate.

The technical accomplishment, and use of that conceit, cannot disguise that the poem is an uncritical acceptance of how the queen was represented. Armitage calls his lily/poem a token of thanks.

What results, among some good lines, are banalities driven by the official message he is conveying: A promise made and kept for life  that was your gift, and, The country loaded its whole self into your slender hands, / Hands that can rest, now, relieved of a centurys weight. This is embarrassing.

The problem is not Armitages talents, but the dead weight of the institutions he has embraced. The former Laureate Carol Ann Duffys poem on the queens death, Daughter, failed miserably for the same reasons, It is so bad that it makes Armitages effort look good by comparisonat times barely intelligible, fawning, with dreadful lines like, Soon enough they would come to know this had long been the Age of Grief; / that History was ahead of them.

Bowing before the weight of history narrative, Duffy even writes of iPhone torches linking back to medieval flame.

Just as Elizabeths death ends any notion the monarchy could be apolitical it also disproves the ludicrous illusion that the Laureate can be independent of its patronage.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Coronation portrait, June 1953, London, England.

The role has always been political. Establishing laureateship as an office within the royal household was linked with the development of a constitutional monarchy after the English revolution.

John Dryden, the first Laureate, was appointed by Charles II in 1668. In 1689, Drydena Catholic convertbecame the only Laureate ever removed from office. He refused to take the Oath of Allegiance to William and Mary, whose consolidation of bourgeois power in 1688 is still gratefully called The Glorious Revolution by the bourgeoisie.

Political safety has always been a criterion in selection. Since 1790, the Laureate has been nominated by the prime minister for the monarchs approval, hence the appointment of bad poets, or decent poets of known secure establishment sympathies. William Wordsworth became Laureate in 1843, long after his early contact with radicalism was over, succeeding the thorough-going reactionary Robert Southey, who was mocked at every turn by Lord Byron.

Political sensitivities excluded excellent poets. After Alfred, Lord Tennysons death in 1892, the post remained vacant for four years, in part because the outstanding potential successors included people like the socialist William Morris. It went eventually to the unreadably bad Alfred Austin.

Following the death of royalist Ted Hughes in 1998, the move to 10-year appointments was bound up with efforts by Tony Blairs Labour government to rehabilitate the royal family after the death of Princess Diana. The cultivation of images of a monarchy somehow above politics and the state was accompanied by suggestions that the Laureate might be seen as unconnected with them, or untainted by the association.

Not all poets bought that. Ruling himself out, Tony Harrison wrote:

Im appalled to see newspapers use my name as widely-tipped for a job Id never seek. Swans come in Domestic, Mute, and Tame and no swan-uppers going to nick my beak.

His earlier imaginary Celebratory Ode on the Abdication of King Charles III had wondered, Why has it taken all this while / desceptring this sceptred isle?, promising:

and hymn the Crowns demise I will with this black goose-feather quill Ive saved for ages just to write: Goodbye! Good riddance, Divine Right!

Occasional poetry is not always his best work, but Harrisons use of classical verse and poetic history here is a striking contrast to Armitages liberalism. In 1999 Andrew Motion was appointed. Harrison was coruscating on Motions paean to Diana, noting of the tercentenary of the execution of Charles I that the anniversarys gone by with not a line / from toadies like Di-deifying Motion.

Even Motion later called the job very, very damaging to his work. By 2009, more poets were openly against the post. Wendy Cope called for its abolition, echoing Rudyard Kipling that a poet has no business being a paid employee of the state.

Cope said the Laureateship blurs the distinction between worldly and artistic success, resulting in bad verse produced to order by good poets. Armitage is not the first Laureate to believe it could be used to popularise poetry.

Cope acknowledged similar efforts by Motion, but delivered the necessary verdict on such schemes: Perhaps there is a role for a poetry advocate ... But I believe that the best way for a poet to serve the art is to remain free to get on with writing the poems that he or she wants to write.
The novelist Hilary Mantel has died suddenly, aged 70. Reactions to her death express a widespread yearning for the serious, thoughtful and uncompromising in artistic work.

Mantel is best known for her critically acclaimed Wolf Hall trilogy of novels about Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIIIs political fixer. The first two, Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring Up The Bodies (2012), are the only consecutive novels by an author to have both won the Booker prize, with the second also winning the Costa book of the year. The concluding novel, The Mirror and the Light (2020), was longlisted for the Booker.

These were her breakthrough novels, garnering fulsome reviews and wide readerships. To date the trilogy has sold more than five million copies globally and been translated into 41 languages.

The books were popularised further by hugely successful stage and screen adaptations in which Mantel was closely involved. The actor Ben Miles collaborated on a series of stage adaptations for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), in which he played Cromwell. The BBCs Wolf Hall was a powerful six-part series based on the first two novels, featuring an outstanding performance from Mark Rylance as Cromwell.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel [Photo]

Mantel was born in Derbyshire in 1952 and studied law at the London School of Economics and Sheffield University. She experienced ill health throughout her life, suffering from a severe form of endometriosis that went undiagnosed for many years. She required a surgical menopause in her late twenties. Unable to have children, she needed continued treatment for the rest of her life.

Her younger years were informed by a wide range of experiences and interests. She worked as a social worker and lived in Botswana and Saudi Arabia until the mid-1980s. In 1972, she married the geologist Gerald McEwan. They divorced in 1981 and remarried the following year.

After her return to Britain, Mantel became a film critic at the Spectator. She continued to review widely throughout her career. Her literary agent Bill Hamilton has spoken of the huge array of her journalism and criticism.

Alongside authoring 17 booksnovels, short stories and a memoirshe was a regular public speaker, giving the BBCs 2017 Reith lectures on history and culture. A wide-ranging critic, she was supportive of younger writers and a forceful defender of literature.

By the late 1980s Mantel was beginning to win literary prizes regularly. Her fourth novel, Fludd (1989), won three awards. When A Place of Greater Safety was finally published, it won the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1990. Her 2014 damehood was awarded for services to literature.

That she earned such respect and popularity both for her work and her reflections on such themes points to a broad and genuine striving for informed artistic engagement with history.

Through her extensive historical research, Mantels aim was to create an immediacy in the situations she portrayed, giving a sense of real contemporary development moving forward with imperfect information and perhaps wrong expectations, but in any case moving forward into a future that is not predetermined.

She sought to place the reader in that time and that place  not to judge with hindsight, not to pass judgement  when we know what happened.

The Wolf Hall novels treat the political and religious upheaval of the English Reformation. This was not a new historical turn for Mantel. She had been attracted by history at university, but chose law. She ultimately could not afford to finish her legal training. Later deciding against being a social worker after a year working in a geriatric hospital and wanting to move on from selling dresses in a department store, she began reading extensively around the French Revolution.

She wanted to write about it but felt that without training as an historian she could only write the subject as fiction. This care resulted in close attention to the factual historical record, which she developed through experimental fiction writing that owed much to her student reading of Bertolt Brecht.

The result was A Place of Greater Safety (written in 1974 but not published until 1992), a fictionalised account of the lives of Danton, Robespierre and Camille Desmoulins. She returned to the period with The Giant, OBrien (1998), set in London in the 1780s, which dealt with the Irish giant Charles Byrne and the anatomist surgeon John Hunter as figures within the Age of Enlightenment.

Mantel was considered and thoughtful on the role of history in culture, and extremely cautious about easy, shallow and inappropriate historical comparisons. She became a fascinating and compelling speaker on the subject, and her popularity was achieved without intellectual concession or compromise.

Personal testimonies point to a sharp intelligence and wit, while Miles praised her gentle tenacity. There was an appealing and determined independence of thought about her. She was brought up a Roman Catholic but stopped believing aged 12. She said the upbringing had left her with a very intense habit of introspection and self-examination and a terrible severity with myself like installing a policeman, and one moreover who keeps changing the law.

She later described the Catholic Church as not an institution for respectable people, leading one bishop to accuse her novels on the Reformation of an anti-Catholic thread.

Her caution about making easy and inappropriate parallels was driven by a determination to see the reality in any given historical moment. It is refreshing and salutary that she rejected attempts to co-opt her books in this way, on the grounds that it prevented clearer thinking about present realities.

Thomas Cromwell, 15321533, Hans Holbein the Younger

She persistently disputed shallow comparisons between Boris Johnsons former adviser Dominic Cummings and Thomas Cromwell, for example, simply because I prize the long view so much. And thats why I wont make the parallels. I think that if you do, it turns real people into these kind of fantasy figures and unfortunately, theyre not. Theyre real, present and dangerous.

If anything, she saw the sharp lurch to the right of British politics in the last decade as a tearing up of any historical lessons. In 2014, she called the governments portrayal of poor and unfortunate people as being morally defective a return to the thinking of the Victorians. Even in the 16th century, Thomas Cromwell was trying to tell people that a thriving economy has casualties and that something must be done by the state for people out of work.

Even back then, you saw the tide turning against this idea that poverty was a moral weakness. Who could have predicted that it would come back into style? Its myth making on a grand scale, and its poisonous.

She said the governments austerity programme was not really a question of resources. Its a question of ideology, which is moving to the right. It wishes to reduce the role of government and it strives for a small state.

She recently expressed concern at the speed at which we are consuming history now, the way that the past, the very recent past, is being made into a version and real-life people walking around have to live with their representatives and so on.

She remained a careful thinker about contemporary social situations, critical without being particularly radical. An opponent of Brexit, she and McEwan were planning to move to Ireland to become a European again.

In these days, even this might be enough to draw hostility. Mantel attracted right-wing ire repeatedly for some cautious historical prognoses, like her recent comment that the British monarchy might be facing the endgame and may not outlast [Prince] William.

In 2013, she wrote of views of Kate Middleton as a plastic princess, constructed solely to produce an heir to the throne. Mantel was hardly championing a radical republicanism, but rather discussing the way we maltreat royal persons, making them one superhuman and yet less than human.

Such nuance was enough to bring denunciations from then Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and then leader of the Labour Party Ed Miliband.

The following yearthe year she received her damehoodMantel wrote a short story, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher. There were Tory demands for a police investigation, which Mantel said was beyond anything I could have planned or hoped for, because it immediately exposes them to ridicule.

Her historically grounded, serious and wonderfully written body of work will earn her an enduring place in literary history.
Buffalo police on Wednesday arrested 62-year-old Ronald Cohen of Buffalo on charges in connection with a string of burglaries this month in the Elmwood Bryant neighborhood.

Cohen is suspected of committing five burglaries on the 300 block of Linwood Avenue, one burglary on the 100 block of Linwood, and a petit larceny on the 500 block of Elmwood Avenue between Sept. 4 and Sept. 20, according to a release from the Buffalo Police Department.

Cohen was charged with six counts of third-degree burglary, three counts of second-degree criminal mischief, three counts of fourth-degree grand larceny; two counts fourth degree criminal mischief, two counts petit larceny; one count third-degree criminal mischief and one count of attempted petit larceny.

Police previously arrested him on Aug. 25 on a criminal mischief charge for an incident that occurred on the 500 block of Elmwood. He was also arrested on Aug. 27 and charged with burglary, criminal mischief and petit larceny for an incident on the 1300 block of Main Street.

The arrest was made without incident. The investigation is ongoing.
Attorneys for victims of the May 14 massacre at Buffalos Jefferson Avenue Tops are weighing lawsuits against six internet platforms that, if successful, would fundamentally alter the nature of U.S. internet law.

Attorneys believe those platforms  which include the messaging site Discord, the anonymous message board 4chan and the livestreaming site Twitch  may have played a role in radicalizing the accused gunman, Payton Gendron, and spreading his racist message. Ten people died and three were wounded in the attack, which targeted Black residents.

Two local law firms are laying the groundwork for such suits, though none has been filed.

But four internet law experts told The Buffalo News that plaintiffs will face a steep uphill battle if they seek to hold internet platforms accountable for the May 14 attack.

At the same time, the lawsuits could fuel further calls to reform or abolish an increasingly controversial, 26-year-old statute that shields internet platforms from liability for what their users post. At a recent White House summit, attended by Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and victims of the May 14 attack, President Biden said he would push Congress to get rid of special immunity for internet services.

The liability shield of Section 230 is not unlimited and we are exploring those limits," said Terrence Connors, an attorney for families of the May 14 victims.

On fringe social media sites, Buffalo mass shooting becomes rallying call for white supremacists Counterterrorism researchers have repeatedly warned that a network of anonymous message boards and encrypted messaging channels are incubating the next generation of white supremacist terror.

Gendrons digital trail

Victims attorneys have signaled interest in six platforms they say played a role in the May 14 massacre. Those include the Amazon-owned livestreaming site Twitch, where alleged gunman Payton Gendron streamed the first minutes of his attack, and the messaging platform Discord, where for months Gendron maintained a private diary detailing his plans.

Attorneys are also investigating file-hosting services from Google and Mediafire, where Gendron uploaded a so-called manifesto in the days before the massacre, and the anonymous message boards 4chan and 8chan, which he credited for introducing him to violent extremism.

In late December 2021, Gendron wrote in his Discord diary that users on an infamous 4chan board called /pol/  which has been linked to other acts of extremist violence, including the 2019 massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand  persuaded him to press ahead with the attack after he began second-guessing it. He also took credit for a November 2021 post that warned a brenton tarrant event will happen again soon, referring to the Christchurch attack.

Experts in domestic extremism have said that social media plays a critical role in modern white supremacist terror, allowing the leaderless movement to recruit new members and goad them to violence.

Every time I think maybe I shouldnt commit to an attack I spend 5 min [on] /pol/, then my motivation returns, Gendron said.

Attorneys for the May 14 victims said its too early to discuss their legal strategy. Merely investigating the full role of internet platforms could take months, said John V. Elmore, an attorney for families of the May 14 victims.

The New York Attorney Generals Office is also investigating several platforms in connection with the attack, including Twitch, Discord, 4chan and 8chan.

It appears that [Gendron] was radicalized by social media and that he openly discussed his plans on social media, Elmore said.

But proving that 4chan truly radicalized Gendron  and that the sites owners are directly responsible  will likely prove a high legal bar, said Corynne McSherry, the legal director of the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation. The national advocacy group, which supports legal immunity for internet platforms, has filed briefs defending them in dozens of cases, including several involving mass shootings and terrorist attacks.

Those cases pretty much always lose, McSherry said.

Courts have dismissed, for instance, lawsuits filed against Twitter, YouTube and other tech companies by victims of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting and several ISIS terrorist attacks.

In many of these cases, plaintiffs have failed to show that social media played a direct and significant role in causing the attack, said Eric Goldman, a professor at Californias Santa Clara University School of Law and a leading expert on internet litigation. In others, they have run afoul of the First Amendment, which  with narrow exceptions - protects free speech that many would consider racist, dangerous or abhorrent.

The largest hurdle, however, is a federal statute called Section 230, a key component of the 1996 Communications Decency Act and the foundation for much of Americas internet law. By classifying internet platforms as intermediaries, not publishers, Section 230 shields them from lawsuits involving the content users post unless they played some proactive role in creating that material.

A recent case called Gonzalez v. Google illustrates the extent of platforms immunity under the law. Last year, a U.S. appeals court affirmed that the family of a woman who died in an ISIS attack could not sue Google subsidiary YouTube merely for hosting videos the organization used to recruit new terrorists.

The court also wrote, however, that one narrow piece of the lawsuit could proceed on the grounds that YouTube made small financial pay-outs to ISIS through a revenue-sharing program. It recommended that Congress and the courts revisit Section 230 liability, as well.

The lawsuit is the only case that alleges a social media platform provided material support for terrorists that has even partially overcome Section 230s protections, said Goldman. It has been appealed to the Supreme Court.

Section 230 means that you can always go after the person who did something wrong directly  but you cant go after the intermediary, said Catherine Gellis, a San Francisco-based attorney who specializes in internet speech cases.

New strategies, scrutiny

Tops shooting survivor intends to sue accused gunman's parents, seeks court order Documents filed ask a judge to order Payton Gendron's parents to appear in court for pretrial depositions and also to preserve numerous records regarding their son's behavior, his mental health evaluations and his purchases of weapons and other items used in the attack.

Buffalo plaintiffs may benefit, however, from the changing political mood toward both Section 230 and large internet platforms  a phenomenon sometimes called the techlash. Thanks in part to concerns that social media companies have taken too little action to curb dangerous, abusive and extremist material, federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have proposed dozens of Section 230 reforms in the past two years, ranging from carve-outs for terrorist activity to a total repeal of the law.

Courts have also ruled that Section 230 does have limits, such as in cases where online platforms encouraged illegal content or failed to warn users about illegal activity. More recently, courts in several states have entertained Section 230 suits that target a social platforms design, software or recommendation algorithm, instead of the content it hosts.

Some of these new arguments are working, Goldman said. The bigger question is, can plaintiffs win these cases at the end of day? And thats a lot less evident.

Goldman and other technologists say they also worry about the type of precedent that lawsuits in Buffalo could set. Should they succeed, despite all the legal obstacles, these suits could open the floodgates for cases targeting a wide range of internet speech, said Gellis.

Hateful and abusive content may also increase without strong Section 230 protections, the laws defenders argue. As written, the statute allows social media platforms to moderate content without fear theyll lose legal immunity, McSherry said. Without Section 230, however, platforms may find it safer, from a liability standpoint, to not moderate at all. That would raise thorny new questions about who should be responsible for online hate and vitriol.

This is tricky in cases where really terrible things have happened, said Gellis. But whenever we talk about Section 230, we have to look at the full context.
Prosecutors allege that the former Town of Hamburg finance director bought personal items with the town credit card over a 17-month period. And now she is facing misdemeanor charges, including official misconduct.

Samantha Tarczynski was fired from the town Sept. 22, 2021, after an investigation by Hamburg town police found probable cause that she misused a credit card.

Tarczynski, 33, of Hamburg, pleaded not guilty in Hamburg Town Court Friday on charges of official misconduct, fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and petit larceny.

Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn said in a news release that Tarczynski is accused of knowingly misusing a town credit card between May 17, 2019, and Oct. 24, 2020, to buy personal items valued at less than $1,000. He said the state comptroller's office assisted in the investigation.

This defendant was trusted to oversee finances on behalf of the residents of Hamburg, but instead she allegedly misused a town credit card to purchase items for herself," Flynn said. "My office is committed to restoring our citizens trust in public employees and will continue to prosecute cases involving the misuse of taxpayer dollars."

Any betrayal of trust by a public official is unacceptable. As finance director and a public servant, Samantha Tarczynski had the duty to protect taxpayer money. Instead, she allegedly used public money for her personal expenses, state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said.

Tarczynski was hired as director of administration and finance Jan. 23, 2017. She was paid $87,400, according to minutes of the Town Board.

Former Town Supervisor James Shaw said in 2021 that someone filed a Freedom of Information Law request for all credit card purchases made on the town credit account in the Finance Department. The person brought the report to Shaw, who said some of the things looked a "little suspicious," and he handed over the information to the Police Department. Shaw said Tarczynski at the time denied it to him and "had some excuses."
The names of some potential witnesses against the New Jersey man accused of trying to kill Salman Rushdie must be withheld from him until about a week before his trial would begin, a Chautauqua County judge has ruled.

Judge David W. Foley on Wednesday granted prosecutors' request for a protective order that bars Hadi Matar's defense attorneys from sharing with him the names of civilian witnesses in the case, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Judge grants attorneys for accused Rushdie attacker, but not their client, access to witness names Judge David W. Foley ordered the DA's office to provide Hadi Matar's defense team with names and contact information of witnesses whose identity they want to have shielded from Matar.

District Attorney Jason Schmidt sought the order because he said he has concerns for the witnesses' safety.

The witness names will be provided to Matar's defense attorney, Nathaniel Barone II, the county's chief public defender, but Barone is barred under the order from sharing them with his client.

The judge this week also extended the deadline for prosecutors to turn over evidence to the defense until Nov. 20, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors push to block accused Rushdie attacker from having access to witnesses' names A Chautauqua County judge wants to hear more from prosecutors about why they believe they should be allowed to shield the identities of witnesses from the New Jersey man accused of trying to kill author Salman Rushdie until shortly before his trial.

Matar, 24, of Fairview, N.J., has been charged with second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault in connection with the Aug. 12 attack at Chautauqua Institution. Rushdie suffered stab wounds to the stomach, chest, eye, hand and thigh, authorities have said. The man who was to introduce Rushdie also was injured.

Schmidt has said the number of witnesses in the case is potentially in the hundreds, "if not thousands."

Rushdie was stabbed near the start of an event about protections for writers in exile and freedom of expression.

The late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini put a $3 million bounty on Rushdie's head after the publication of his 1988 book, "The Satanic Verses," which depicted the prophet Muhammad in ways that the hardline leader found offensive.

The district attorney has mentioned the religious decree when asked about the cause for his concerns about potential threats to witnesses. He also said he had other "specific information" that Matar poses a threat to witnesses, but further discussion on the topic was held without public access to the court proceeding.

Chautauqua County DA requests more time to review files in Rushdie stabbing case The Chautauqua County District Attorney said Wednesday that the prosecution needs more time to review more than 30,000 files produced by state police in its ongoing investigation of the Aug. 12 attack on novelist Salman Rushdie.

State law allows prosecutors to obtain rulings from judges, known as protective orders, that prevent certain information, including the names of witnesses, from being shared by defense attorneys with their clients. Protective orders are not uncommon, especially in violent crime cases. For example, there is an order in the case involving the shooting and stabbing earlier this year outside McKinley High School.

Schmidt wanted the judge to grant the order for all witnesses, but the judge ruled prosecutors cannot shield names of law enforcement witnesses from Matar. He also asked for more time to provide discovery to the defense because of what he called an "exceptionally voluminous" amount of investigative material turned over by state police.
Japanese businesses poised to increase investment in Vietnam

Many Japanese enterprises have plans to expand their investment activities in Vietnam, which is considered by the Japanese business circle as the second most attractive investment destination after the US, according to Nakajima Takeo, chief representative from the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO).





Numerous Japanese enterprises have plans to expand their investment activities in Vietnam.



Speaking at a recent conference held with foreign investment enterprises with the theme 'Overcome challenges, seize opportunities, cooperate for development', Takeo said that despite direct investment from Japan dropping in the first half of the year, Vietnam recorded an impressive growth rate of more than 59% in 2021 and more than 45% this year.



This represents the highest figure ASEAN states.



The survey conducted by the JETRO in 2021 indicates that 55% of Japanese enterprises in Vietnam are set to expand their business and are becoming increasingly interested in value-added products.



Another JETRO survey of more than 1,700 companies in Japan highlights the view that the Vietnamese market is second only to the US in terms of attractiveness.



In an earlier interview conducted with "The World and Vietnam" in early May, Sasaki Nobuhiko, CEO of JETRO, said that the number of Japanese companies operating in Vietnam is increasing, with roughly 2,000 Japanese enterprises is currently operating in the country.



Japan's total investment capital stands at US$64.5 billion across 4,935 projects in Vietnam. He also reiterated that the nation is Japan's third largest export market whilst the Far East country is the fourth largest export market for Vietnamese goods.



Explaining the nations attractiveness to Japanese businesses, Hayashi Nobumitsu, governor of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), praised Vietnamese efforts in maintaining macroeconomic stability, while describing Vietnam as an attractive destination for Japanese financiers.



In response, Vladimir Kolotov, director of the Ho Chi Minh Institute at St.Petersburg National University, commented that many factors serve to attract investment in Vietnam. This includes the stability of the political regime, the transparency and predictability of the investment environment, the gradual openness of some sectors of the economy for the entry of foreign capital, along with the fine-tuning of laws.



Another key advantage is that Vietnam boasts a young population with citizens from 25 to 54 years old accounting for nearly 45% of the national population, while 17.8% are people aged 15 to 24.



Vietnam has also sent its best students to study in Japan, the US, Australia, Russia, and other countries.



Kolotov emphasised that countries like Japan have received tens of thousands of international students and technical interns from Vietnam.



Upon their return, they utilise their experience and often work at Japanese firms.



In Japan, labour costs are very high, whilst Vietnam has been successful in combining the use of foreign business experience with a healthy patriotism.



Kolotov affirmed, "Vietnam is actively integrating into the global production chain, which is facilitated by the presence of large multinational companies in the country, namely Japanese car giants."
By Azernews

By Sabina Mammadli

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and his Mongolian, Syrian and Somalian counterparts Battsetseg Batmunkh, Faisal Mekdad, and Abshir Omar Huruse respectively discussed activities and cooperation within the framework of the Non-Aligned Movement.

The discussion took place within the framework of participation in the high-level week of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Bayramov expressed gratitude for the support provided to Azerbaijans initiatives during its chairmanship in NAM and informed colleagues about the upcoming plans.

The sides stated their intention to further expand cooperation with Azerbaijan within NAM, as well as on a bilateral basis.

Azerbaijan-Slovakia ties

At the same event, the Azerbaijani foreign minister and his Slovak colleague Rastislav Kacer also discussed issues of cooperation within the framework of international organizations and other areas of mutual interest.

Congratulating his counterpart on his appointment, Bayramov noted that bilateral relations between the two countries are developing in a number of areas and there is great potential for expanding this cooperation. The importance of consistent work in order to develop bilateral cooperation in the economic sphere, as well as to encourage mutual investment was emphasized.

Further, the Azerbaijani official informed about the new situation in the region after the 44-day war, the measures taken by Azerbaijan in connection with the implementation of the tripartite statements, the behavior and latest provocations of Armenia contrary to its obligations, as well as the mine threat in the liberated territories.

In turn, the Slovak minister noted the importance of continuing the existing political dialogue between the two countries. He stressed the importance of observing the principles of international law, which are the basis of interstate relations.

Taking into account Slovakia's extensive experience and technology, he emphasized the intention to support demining efforts.

Azerbaijan-OIC

Bayramov also took part in the meeting of ministers of the Contact Group of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking at the event, Bayramov noted that Azerbaijan supports a peaceful settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir issue in accordance with the norms and principles of international law, consistent with the resolutions of the UN Security Council.

He stressed the importance of a peaceful settlement of all issues related to Jammu and Kashmir, which will ensure peace and security in South Asia.

Azerbaijans chairmanship in NAM

Speaking at the meeting, Bayramov informed about the work, initiatives, and future plans under Azerbaijan's chairmanship in NAM.

He emphasized that the world has gone through great transformational changes, and experienced such unprecedented difficulties as a pandemic, armed conflicts, climate change, and numerous challenges in the context of global security and development architecture.

The historical significance of the summit of the Contact Group of the Non-Aligned Movement on the pandemic, held at the initiative of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, the Parliamentary Network of the Non-Aligned Movement, established in Madrid, as well as the establishment of the Youth Organization was brought to attention.

The minister informed the participants about the work on reconstruction and peaceful construction in the liberated territories.

Azerbaijan has put forward a proposal to sign a peace agreement with Armenia based on the norms and principles of international law. Despite that, on September 12, the Armenian armed forces carried out another military provocation that disrupted efforts for peace and construction in the region. Along with this, it was noted that the mine threat creates serious difficulties, facts were provided about the ongoing mining by Armenia of Azerbaijani territories. It was emphasized that Azerbaijan is not interested in violating stability and will continue efforts to ensure peace in the region.

Furthermore, the parties discussed effective and joint responses to current challenges and adopted the Political Declaration of the meeting. The meeting was attended by up to 50 foreign ministers of the NAM member states, as well as deputy ministers and permanent representatives to the UN.
A man who pleaded guilty to killing a Niagara Falls woman and then sawing her body into pieces in 2015 was sentenced Thursday to serve 18 years to life in prison by Niagara County Court Judge John Ottaviano, according to the Niagara County District Attorney's Office.

Guilty plea in 2015 Niagara Falls dismemberment case County Judge John Ottaviano promised to sentence Yasin Abdu-Sabur to 18 years to life in prison at his sentencing, the District Attorney's Office said.

Yasin Abdu-Sabur, 38, of Niagara Falls, pleaded guilty to killing 46-year-old Terri Lynn Bills inside Abdu-Sabur's Pierce Avenue home on June 6, 2015. Bills' dismembered body was found 10 days later in an abandoned house on Willow Avenue. Abdu-Sabur later moved to Spartanburg, S.C., where he was arrested in February 2020.

In a statement released Thursday, District Attorney Brian Seaman said his office will do everything in its power to make sure Abdu-Sabur stays in prison the rest of his life.

"We will make sure that all the information about how this defendant not only murdered Terri Lynn Bill, but then dismembered her body, causing untold trauma to her family and the entire community, is made known to all future parole boards. This defendant should never be released," Seaman said.
A retired Buffalo police detective was charged with multiple misdemeanors related to a domestic violence incident Wednesday morning in Lake View.

James R. Kaska, 50, of Hamburg was arraigned later Wednesday on charges of second-degree menacing, fourth-degree criminal mischief and second-degree harassment before Hamburg Town Court Justice Carl W. Morgan.

According to the Erie County District Attorney's Office, at about 8:20 a.m. Kaska allegedly hid inside a woman's vehicle that was parked in a driveway. Police had previously asked Kaska to leave the home following a domestic incident.

Prosecutors say Kaska then confronted the victim inside the car and she tried to leave at which he allegedly pushed her back in the car, hit her arm and held her wrists. He is also accused of taking her cellphone away as she tried to call 911. The Hamburg police department investigated the case.

Kaska was released on his own recognizance because the crimes he's charged with don't qualify for bail. The judge issued a temporary order of protection on behalf of the victim.

Kaska is scheduled to return to court on Oct. 6.
South Jersey Police Update

MOORESTOWN  Police have arrested a Bronx man following a round of catalytic converter thefts in Moorestown in September.

The authorities are also were seeking two other reported suspects and the car all of them were driving.

Moorestown Police Chief Walter Walczak described the car involved as a grey BMW with black wheels, tinted windows and a loud exhaust; it last seen on North Stanwick Road, he added.

This was the second rash of catalytic converter thefts in Moorestown in less than week. On Sept. 17, a Saturday, thieves stole the highly valued converters, which contain several precious metals, from nine gas-powered school buses sat the township depot in the Moorestown High School parking lot.In what police described as a rare arrest in these type of thefts, Walczak announced Friday that John R. Villar Villa, 20, of the Bronx, New York, has been charged with one of several Thursday morning thefts of catalytic converters from cars parked on three different streets: East Linden Street, West Central Avenue and Locust Street.

Villar Villa also was charged with obstructing police by fleeing.

However, after Villar Villa's arrest the chief said another theft of a converter was reported on West Central Avenue at 6:28 a.m., also involving the suspect vehicle.

Walczak said officers were dispatched at 4:16 a.m. Thursday to the 200 block of Linden Street for the report of two subjects in possession of a Sawzall power tool who were stealing catalytic converters from vehicles and were operating a dark-colored vehicle with a loud muffler.

He said two officers caught Villar Villa in the act when they arrived and then were able to capture him after he fled the scene on foot. He was arrested a short distance away in the 300 block of North Stanwick Road.

During the foot chase the police saw the car suspected to be involved in the thefts on North Stanwick Road southbound, moving at a high rate of speed. Police, focused on capturing Villar Villa, could not immediately pursue the vehicle, according to the chief.

Story continues

Moorestown Police Lt. Howard Mann said he believes the three alleged thieves are members of a ring operating out of New York City.

It's hard to catch thieves like this because they come during darkness, late at night or early in the morning... Thats why we depend on residents to call us if they see or hear anything suspicious, Mann explained.

Walczak said there were more police who responded to the scene because he recently implemented more patrols from midnight to 6 a.m. because of an uptick in crime during those hours.

After Villar Villa was was processed and issued a summons to appear on a future date in Superior Court in Mount Holly, Mann said he was immediately released because he was not required to post any bail.

The charges against Villar Villa are only allegations and he has not been convicted in connection with this case.

Anyone having information regarding these incidents is asked to contact the police criminal Investigations bureau tipline at 856-914-3092 or emailing detectives@moorestownpd.com

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Bronx man arrested in catalytic converter thefts in South Jersey
French President Emmanuel Macron

Thierry Monasse/Getty Images French President Emmanuel Macron at the EU Summit Held In Brussels Day II

More than a month after the FBI seized a document containing information about the "President of France" from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home, French President Emmanuel Macron says he "would be delighted" to find out exactly what that document includes.

Speaking to CNN's Jake Tapper in an interview aired this week, 44-year-old Macron said he had heard about the existence document in the news, but was unfamiliar with what it might contain.

"If you have more information, I would be delighted [to hear it]," Macron told Tapper, adding: "I'm not part of the FBI, I'm not one of President Trump's lawyers, I have no information about that."

Macron continued: "I would not say it's pleasant to see this type of information. I try to be less paranoiac these days so, I mean, I'm cool, I'm here and I would be delighted to have more information."

RELATED: Donald Trump Reportedly Bragged About Having Intel on French President's Love Life

An inventory of the items taken in the FBI's recent search of Trump's residence at his Palm Beach, Florida, resort in early August shows 11 sets of classified documents. A three-page list of the items seized describes one document as containing "info re: President of France."

Also among the many boxes of items taken were binders of photos, an unspecified handwritten note and the executive grant of clemency for former Trump aide Roger Stone. Some were marked as top secret, which the Wall Street Journal notes should only be available in special government facilities.

According to the now-public search warrant executed at the search, the former president is being investigated for potentially obstructing justice and violating the Espionage Act.

Trump has said on his social media platform Truth Social that any documents in his possession had been declassified.

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.

Macron's comments on the document come after a source told Rolling Stone that Trump, 76, "often" peddles gossip, and has claimed to those in his circle that he has knowledge of Macron's "naughty" ways (claims he says come via "intelligence").

Trump and Macron's relationship as world leaders was the subject of numerous reports during the former president's four years in office. At times, Trump appeared eager to forge a friendship with Macron, though he later reportedly lashed out at the French president behind closed doors.
On Thursdays The Tonight Show, host Jimmy Fallon had a string of jokes that showed just how baffling a claim it is that Donald Trump could declassify documents just by thinking about it, as the former president told Sean Hannity in a now-viral interview Wednesday. Fallon also joked that such a gaff will only help Florida governor Ron DeSantis presidential prospects for 2024.

Ron DeSantis was watching at home going, Well, I guess we gotta start printing those campaign posters  here we go!,' Fallon said while leading into his monologue.

Also Read:

Facebook to Review Donald Trump Suspension, President Nick Clegg Says: Need to Act With Great Caution

Sitting with Hannity in an exclusive interview Wednesday, Trump told the Fox News program that it doesnt have to be a process, as I understand it to declassify top secret documents, defending the fact that he didnt follow protocol with the documents found at Mar-a-Lago. Different people say different things, but as I understand it, there doesnt have to be. If youre the President of the United States, you can declassify just by saying, Its declassified, even by thinking about it.

Fallon looked absolutely confused after playing the clip for this in-studio audience, pretending to do a Jedi mind-trick bit while holding his hands to his temples and concentrating.

Hannity was like, Oh I get it youre gonna plead insanity,' he then joked. Now its making sense.'

I felt like he was this close to using the word abracadabra, Fallon continued.

Also Read:

Seth Meyers Says Trump Is in What Constitutional Scholars Refer to as An Ass Load of Trouble (Video)

Diving further into Trumps Hannity interview, Fallon then pulled up a second clip where the twice-impeached former president suggested that the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago to look for Hillary Clintons notoriously deleted emails.

Story continues

Because of what they did, the severity of the FBI coming and raiding Mar-a-Lago, were they looking for the Hillary Clinton emails that were deleted but they are around someplace?, Trump said in the clip.

Wait youre not saying you had it?, Hannity responded, clearly confused.

No they may be saying, they may have thought, that it was in there, Trump said.

At that point, even QAnon people were like, OK that conspiracy seems a little nuts, thats a little much for us,' Fallon joked.

Youve gotta give Trump credit though: He knows how to say something so crazy that it actually makes the last crazy thing he said seem normal, the late night host concluded.

Watch the full monologue in the video above.

Also Read:

The View Hosts Mock Trumps Claim About Declassifying Docs: Im Thinking Him Into Jail (Video)
Former NATO commander says he's not losing 'a lot of sleep' over Putin's nuclear threats as the Russian leader ups the ante in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/AFP/Getty Images

A former NATO commander said he's not losing "a lot of sleep" over Putin's nuclear threats.

James Stavridis said using such action would "create a huge movement away from" Putin around the world.

Putin threatened nuclear force as he announced a partial military mobilization this week.

Retired Adm. James Stavridis, a former supreme allied commander of NATO, told MSNBC on Friday that he's not particularly concerned about Russian President Vladimir Putin's nuclear threats.

"I don't see Putin deciding to use a nuclear weapon," Stavridis said. "Bottom line: Putin is upping the ante," he added, "but I think the storm clouds are rising for Vladimir Putin."

As Putin announced plans for partial military mobilization earlier this week, taking immediate steps to begin calling up 300,000 reservists, the Russian leader threatened the use of nuclear force in the event of a "threat" to Russia's "territorial integrity."

"We will certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us. This is not a bluff," Putin said.

His recent remarks were not the first time since he launched his war in Ukraine that Putin has issued a warning pertaining to Russia's nuclear arsenal, which is the largest in the world. The US has repeatedly accused Putin of nuclear saber rattling.

"President Putin has made overt nuclear threats against Europe, in a reckless disregard for the responsibilities of the non-proliferation regime," President Joe Biden said of his Russian counterpart during a speech at the UN General Assembly this week..

"A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought," Biden said, decrying Russia for "making irresponsible nuclear threats."

Western officials and Russia watchers have repeatedly warned that Putin could decide to use a nuclear weapon if he feels backed into a corner in Ukraine, with some worrying that the likelihood of such a scenario has increased given Ukraine's recent capture of a significant chunk of territory previously held by the Russian army as part of a counteroffensive. The US has for months privately warned Russia there would be serious consequences if it employs a nuclear weapon, according to a Washington Post report.

Story continues

But Stavridis said he's not losing "a lot of sleep" over Putin's nuclear rhetoric.

The former NATO commander said the use of a nuclear weapon by the Russian leader would "create a huge movement away from him  dramatically  in world opinion."

In an op-ed for Bloomberg published this week, Stavridis said the "nuclear threat is a repetition of Putin's bluster from months ago."

"He is highly unlikely to use even a low-yield tactical nuclear weapon given the obvious threat of starting World War III and also the immense damage it would do in his efforts to keep Brazil, India, Nigeria, South Africa and other large nonaligned countries in neutrality," Stavridis wrote.

Stavridis also said that Putin's military mobilization and nuclear threats were moves that "smack of desperation," a point many other expert observers have also argued.

Ivo Daalder, a former US ambassador to NATO, expressed similar views in comments to Insider on Wednesday.

Putin is "acknowledging that the 'special military operation' isn't going well," Daalder said, adding that "any mobilization  partial or whole seven months into a war means you're losing, not winning."

And in reference to Putin's nuclear threat, Daalder asserted that "anyone who finds it necessary to say that he's not bluffing most likely is."

Read the original article on Business Insider
After Hurricane Fiona crushed Puerto Rico, leaving many on the island without power, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Thursday that New Jersey will send help.

In a tweet, Murphy said two waves of 74 New Jersey State Police officers and a doctor will be on the ground in Puerto Rico.

"NJ knows all too well the devastating effects of hurricanes and we'll do what we can to support Puerto Rico in its time of need," the governor tweeted.

Im authorizing aid to Puerto Rico to assist in #HurricaneFiona recovery efforts. Two waves of 74 @NJSP & 1 medical doctor will be on the ground.



NJ knows all too well the devastating effects of hurricanes and we'll do what we can to support Puerto Rico in its time of need.  Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) September 22, 2022

The storm caused mudslides, flooding and mass power outages, even as Puerto Rico continues to recover from the catastrophic effects of Hurricane Maria in 2017, and hammered the Dominican Republic, including Paterson's sister city of Higuey.

To help the recovery effort, Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh and council members Luis Velez and Maritza Davila announced the city's relief effort Tuesday. The city is asking residents to donate non-perishable and hygiene items, as well as volunteer for the Hurricane Fiona Relief Drive scheduled for October.

In Passaic, a tricky-tray and raffle will be held at 1 p.m. on Nov. 5 at St. Anthony of Padua Parish Hall, 101-103 Myrtle Ave. to benefit disaster victims. There will be a $10 door charge and both monetary donations and non-perishable supplies will also be accepted. All proceeds will go toward relief efforts. For further information on the tricky-tray, email sararivera2011@aol.com.

Staff Writer Nicholas Katzban contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Hurricane Fiona Puerto Rico aid on the way from New Jersey
Masih Alinejad said she "doesn't care" if the Iranian regime kills her, because they will never kill the idea of women's freedom.

The journalist and activist faces constant death threats after launching a campaign against Irans compulsory hijab law. As part of the movement, Iranian women share videos of themselves removing their hijabs.

They can kill me she told the Independent, But they cannot kill an idea. The idea of fighting for dignity, for freedom, thats beautiful.

Last week Iranian women began shaving their heads and burning hijabs after the death of Mahsa Amini, who was allegedly beaten and died after Irans morality police arrested her for wearing an improper hijab.
An unmanned, hurricane-chasing drone has captured footage of nearly 50 feet waves at the centre of Hurricane Fiona.

Saildrone 1078 recorded the enormous waves and wind speeds over 100 mph on Thursday in the midst of the first Category 4 hurricane of the 2022 Atlantic season.

Hurricane Fiona has wreaked a path of destruction across Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands this week, leaving up to eight people dead and hundreds of thousands without power and water.

The storm pummeled Bermuda with heavy rains and winds on Friday, and is now tracking towards the province of Nova Scotia with warnings that it could be the strongest-ever hurricane to hit Atlantic Canada.

It is the second year of the joint project between the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Saildrone, the company behind the autonomous, wind-powered vehicles, which are providing new insights into intensifying hurricanes.

The climate crisis is driving up ocean and air temperatures globally, and supercharging hurricanes with more heavy rain and powerful winds.

SD 1078 is one of seven hurricane saildrones operating in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico this hurricane season, gathering data to better understand the physical processes of hurricanes. The aim is to improve forecasting and reduce loss of life during the extreme weather events.

Hurricane Fiona intensified from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane just before hitting Puerto Rico, causing significant damage and loss of life, said Richard Jenkins, Saildrone founder and CEO, in a statement.

The data Saildrone vehicles are gathering will help the science community better understand rapid intensification, giving people living in our coastal communities more time to prepare.

A Canadian meteorologist told CNN that Hurricane Fiona could be Canadas version of (Hurricane) Sandy, the catastrophic 2012 hurricane which slammed into the US East Coast.
Image via Getty/Ron Sachs

Johnny Depp is reportedly dating his lawyer Joelle Rich, who had previously represented the embattled actor during his losing UK trial against The Sun tabloid newspaper.

The Pirates Of The Caribbean actor sued The Suns publishing company News Group Newspapers back in 2020 over an April 2018 article that detailed accusations of abuse against his ex-wife Amber Heard, referring to him as a wife-beater.

Over the course of nearly three weeks that summer, Justice Andrew Nicol listened to grueling testimonial accounts from both Depp and Heard in which the pair accused the other of abuse. Nicol ruled later that fall that Heards statements were substantially true, and that he found the great majority of alleged assaults of Ms. Heard by Mr. Depp had been proved to the civil standard.

Rich was among Depps legal counsel who said it would be ridiculous if the actor didnt appeal the ruling.

TMZ has reportedly confirmed that the pair are now romantically seeing each other, and that the mother of two is currently in the process of getting divorced from her husband.

While Rich was not a part of Depps legal team during his Virginia defamation case, she was reportedly present in the courtroom for support, according to Us Weekly.

This news arrives a few months after Depp was rumored to be dating his U.S. lawyer Camille Vasquez, but she shut down those rumors in an interview with People.

I guess it comes with the territory of being a woman just doing her job, Vasquez said at the time. Its disappointing that certain outlets kind of ran with it or said that my interactions with Johnny  who is a friend and Ive known and represented for four-and-a-half years now  that my interactions in any way were inappropriate or unprofessional. Thats disappointing to hear.

TMZ had reported at the time that Depp and his entire legal counsel had grown very close during his summer defamation hearing, which he emerged victorious from after suing Heard for accusing him of abuse in a Washington Post op-ed. Vasquez said they would spend many late nights together working on Depps case, sometimes staying up until 5 a.m.

Story continues

I care very deeply about my clients, and we have obviously become close. But when I say we, I mean the entire team, and of course that includes Johnny, Vasquez said at the time. And, Im Cuban and Colombian. Im tactile. What do you want me to say? I hug everyone. And Im not ashamed about that.

The jury in that case found that Depp had, among other things, proven elements of defamation and that Heard acted with actual malice. Depp was awarded $10 million for compensatory damages and punitive damages of $5 million, Amber Heard and her legal team have said she plans to appeal the ruling.

Heard said in a widely viewed interview following the ruling that she had always told the truth.

I would not blame the average person for looking at this and how its been covered and not think that it is Hollywood brats at their worst, Heard said on NBC. But what people dont understand is its actually so much bigger than that. This is not only about our First Amendment right to speak.

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King Charles Is 'Moved' by Public Support After Queen's Death: He 'Expects to Be the One Who Disappoints'

Now the work begins for King Charles III.

As retreats from the frenetic public-facing role of the last two weeks at his Scottish home, Birkhall, the public has seen plenty of evidence of the man who is now King. His character  flaws and all  have been on display, but he has largely come through it with the backing of the British people, a biographer says.

"It's been interesting because he's been clearly buoyed and moved by the public support for him," says Catherine Mayer, whose book Charles: The Heart of a King has been recently updated. "I know him well enough to know he'd be surprised by that. He always expects to be the one who disappoints. But the excitement has lifted him."

RELATED: Queen Camilla Tells Well-Wishers 'We're Doing Our Best' After Queen Elizabeth's Death

Prince William, Prince of Wales, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, King Charles III, Camilla, Queen Consort, Princess Anne, Princess Royal and Princess Beatrice observe the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II as it is transferred from the gun carriage to the hearse at Wellington Arch following the State Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey on September 19, 2022 in London, England. Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born in Bruton Street, Mayfair, London on 21 April 1926. She married Prince Philip in 1947 and ascended the throne of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth on 6 February 1952 after the death of her Father, King George VI. Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on September 8, 2022, and is succeeded by her eldest son, King Charles III.

Andy Stenning - WPA Pool/Getty

There have been, as Mayer puts it, "signs of dissent" on some outings, and she assesses that his character has divided people at times. The incidents with pens  at both his Accession declaration, when he was tetchily bothered by an ink well in front of him, and then when signing the visitors' book in Northern Ireland  "divided interestingly along demographic lines but not what you'd expect," Mayer says.

"It was the young who liked his pen incident, as they saw that as humanizing and authentic," she says. "Yet the older people were complaining because it wasn't what the Queen would have done."

Mayer says the King's irritability amid extreme stress displayed on those occasion was very much in character. "He's a very engaging and funny and warm but absolute peevish when things don't go his way. We got glimpses of that," she tells PEOPLE.

King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort depart following a Service of Prayer and Reflection for the Life of The Queen at Llandaff Cathedral on September 16, 2022 in Cardiff, Wales.

Matthew Horwood/Getty

"He has struggled his whole life to subdue his emotions. He's an emotional person but is stuck in a role that puts him on show. He always sublimates his emotions to the spectacle," she adds. "The week showed he's quite good at doing a straight face, but you can see the emotions tracing themselves across his face. And that's a humanizing thing."

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"And there have been times he's been on the edge of laughter as he and [Queen Camilla] are terrible gigglers," she says. "You've seen from his least attractive quantity, which is his peevishness, to his sorrow for his mother to his sense of humor beginning to break through."

Queen Elizabeth II Funeral - King Charles

BBC America King Charles III

Just like his mother before him, the daily papers of state have been arriving for King Charles in red boxes to his home on the Balmoral estate in the Scottish Highlands. He's been absorbing them, and, no doubt, planning the days and weeks ahead as leader of the monarchy that he took over upon his mother's death. Of course, Charles had to wait to 73 to "do this thing that he's been told his whole life that's what he's on the earth to do," as Mayer says.

In that, he has had the best training, funeral guest Ralph Goodale says. Goodale, Canadian High Commissioner in London, says the preparation will stand him in good stead.

"He has had the longest apprenticeship for this role. And he's had the most amazing role model and remarkable teacher in his mother to get ready," Goodale tells PEOPLE. "Still, at a human level it must be one of the most difficult weeks of his life."

King Charles III and Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales walk behind the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, adorned with a Royal Standard and the Imperial State Crown

DANIEL LEAL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images King Charles and Prince William

He adds of the rest of the royal family in Westminster Abbey during Monday's state funeral, "You could see in some of the stoic looks on the faces of the family that the reality of having lost this wonderful person is beginning to sink in a bit."

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"This was the final farewell. All the ceremonies and parades and services  had been leading up to the Abbey. And that was sinking in for a lot of people. There was intense sadness because of that," he adds. "Also in the air there was a sense of gratitude and celebration for all of the joy and all of the good that Queen Elizabeth II represented. That photograph with that beaming smile that the palace released was a message that this is the way they want us all to remember  with that big grin and sparkling eyes."
This Law & Order: Organized Crime premiere recap is for the first hour of a three-way crossover involving Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order. Make sure to check out our recaps of Parts II and III.

When a young girl is shot in cold blood, various squads in the New York City Police Department team up to find the people responsible, then the District Attorneys office works to hold them accountable Yep: Its time for Law & Orders first-ever crossover with SVU and Organized Crime! (Read a Part 2 recap here, and a Part 3 recap here.)

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The event opens as Cosgrove is hanging out with his teen daughter, whos lobbying him to let her be homeschooled because shes afraid of something terrible happening while shes in her school. He says no and assures her that bad things rarely come to pass and just then, a young, bleeding girl runs by their table at an outdoor cafe.

Shes a Ukranian whose entire family was killed in the Russian invasion in March, and we saw her escape from a yacht after fighting a man. Shes so out of it that she gets hit by a car, and while Frank is signaling for an ambulance to come closer, a masked assailant walks up to her and shoots her where shes lying in the middle of the street.

Det. Shaw (played by Supergirls Mehcad Brooks), who is new to homicide after working in narcotics, arrives on the scene. Pretty soon, it looks like hes going to work the case with Cosgrove. We soon learn that the girls name is Ava, and she was reported missing months before.

Cosgrove shepherds Shaw through his first death notification (Avas distraught aunt slaps him) and his first autopsy, which shows evidence that Ava was the victim of repeated sexual trauma. That, along with caviar in her stomach and salt water on her skin, lead the detectives to Chelsea Piers, where Cosgrove intimidates a dock manager into giving him surveillance footage of a mega yacht that was parked there the night before. And when Shaw says that maybe they can just get a subpoena next time, we learn that Cosgroves new (temporary?) partner is a lawyer as well as a cop.

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The detectives learn more, which leads them to think that Ava was sex trafficked. And that brings them to SVU, where Capt. Benson hooks them up with some NYPD security camera footage that helps bring them to the man they think is the shooter. Frank gets up in the guys face, putting his hands on him, and that makes Stabler very mad when he finds out.

Turns out, Organized Crime has been working a case involving the guy for six months, and  as Elliot loudly informs Frank in the middle of the precinct  hes worried that the shooter has been spooked and will take off.

Over at OC, Bell and a much calmer Stabler explain that the shooter, Maxim Sirenko, is deeply involved in a drug-and-other-bad-stuff ring. Theyre hesitant to spook him and his gang, so they want to hold off and investigate more before attempting to bring him in. But then Cosgrove guilt-trips Stabler about how he thought hed be more passionate about avenging the death of an innocent girl and Bell says its Stablers call and then Stabler is meeting with his criminal informant and having him clone Sirenkos phone in a bid for the NYPD to nab some damning evidence about the murder.

Though its a very close call, the CI gets the job done. And Jet is able to pull downloaded surveillance footage from the phone, which gives them visuals of a potential witness (another girl) and her female pimp. Liv has Rollins, Velasco, Fin and the rest of the squad comb their records for, like, 90 seconds before Velasco has a lead on the pimp. Soon after, Cosgrove, Stabler and a SWAT unit are raiding the womans house. Theres some shooting, but they take her into custody with no casualties. Upstairs at the house, a young woman comes at Cosgrove with a kitchen knife, but he easily disarms her and warns all the other officers not to shoot. As he cuffs her, the woman cries and repeatedly begs him to shoot her.

Now its your turn. What did you think of Organized Crimes premiere/the first hour of the crossover? Grade it via the poll below, then hit the comments with your thoughts!

Launch Gallery: <I>Law & Order: Organized Crime</I> EP: A Reflective Stabler Will Seek a 'Different Kind of Solace' in Season 3

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A 165-foot-tall Ultra High Demolition excavator continued to tear into the north side of the Great Northern grain elevator Friday, as an attorney for a preservation organization said an appeal in court is at least two weeks away.

But Paul McDonnell, president of the Campaign for Greater Buffalo History, Architecture & Culture, said the damage to the 400-foot-long grain elevator since demolition began on Sept. 16 is fairly minimal. Archer Daniels Midland, which owns the Great Northern, has estimated it will take eight months to bring down the entire hulking structure.

"They've taken down less than 5% of the building, so that's on our side," he said. "That means there is a lot left to save. It's not too late."

Hank Balling, a civic engineer and construction manager, said the structure, which is longer than a city block, could still be rebuilt at the point where the last bay  there are 10 in all  is harmed if the court challenge proves successful.

"Whenever this could be stopped, there will still be enough brick with the rest of the structure to be renovated," he said.

Balling said he considers the demolition of the Great Northern, once the largest grain elevator in the world and the first to use steel bins, "a mistake."

"The thing that got me going is not that it's just a historic structure, but the last one in the country," Balling said. "This would be the biggest mistake since the Larkin Administration Building came down."

Campaign for Greater Buffalo attorneys Richard Lippes and Richard Berger said their brief for the appellate division is a necessarily lengthy process with few shortcuts.

"We hope to have the brief and the record on appeal filed on or about Oct. 7," Berger said. "We are doing this as quickly as possible, but the normal process of preparing a record on appeal and briefs takes a few weeks.

"It can't be done any sooner because there is a substantial record on appeal and the reporting companies we hire have to have time to put it all together," he said.

State Supreme Court Justice John M. Curran of the Appellate Division in Rochester denied a temporary restraining order hours after the demolition began on Sept. 16, following 10 months of the case being tied up in the courts. The appeal being planned would go before five appellate judges in Rochester, Berger said.

The crane has removed almost all of the north wall first damaged by a fierce windstorm on Dec. 11, six days before James Comerford, the city's then-commissioner of permit and inspection services, ordered an emergency demolition. The crane was busy on Friday pulling out sections of the first two large steel bins of the 30 that have been encased inside the grain elevator's brick walls for 125 years.

State Supreme Court Justice Emilio Colaiacovo denied the Campaign for Greater Buffalo a temporary restraining order on Jan. 5 and again on July 5. He was forced to reconvene the case after a panel of appellate judges in Rochester unanimously sent the case back to allow an expert witness to testify for the preservation organization.

After Colaiacovo issued his last ruling, he waited until Sept. 15 to dismiss the case, preventing the Campaign for Greater Buffalo from appealing his decision for almost 10 weeks.

McDonnell said the demolition has served to validate one of the preservation organization's claims presented during court that the damaged north wall from the windstorm had no impact on the steel structure as a whole.

"We have always said the steel structure was totally independent of the brick wall, and therefor the damage to the brick wall in December had no bearing on the structural stability of this building," McDonnell said. "The fact that they have removed rafters that connected the cupola to the brick wall, and the cupola hasn't moved an inch, proves we were right."
In October, people in the US will observe LGBT+ history month, a period during which we reflect on and celebrate the history and achievements of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

The month-long period of observance, which is different than Pride Month in June, was created in 1994 by Missouri high school history teacher Rodney Wilson, the first openly gay public school teacher in the state. Wilson chose October because the first and second LGBT Marches on Washington, in 1979 and 1987, took place during the month.

It was also during the mid-to-late 1980s that the language used to refer to the gay community changed, according to PinkNews, as the acronym LGB was first introduced, to refer to those who were lesbians, gay or bisexual. By the 1990s, the acronym was updated to include the letter T, which refers to those who are transgender.

As awareness around the LGBT+ community has grown, so have the words used to describe different sexualities - with the language surrounding the spectrum of sexuality constantly evolving.

In recent years, the queer community has most commonly been referred to as the LGBT or LGBTQ community.

The acronym is also seen with a + sign at the end, which has its own significance.

Although not everyone in the queer community chooses to subscribe to specific labels, this is the most commonly used list of terms to refer to non-hetero sexualities.

LGBT is an initialism for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. The acronym, which is often used as a blanket term to refer to the queer community, first became popular in the 1980s when it replaced the term gay to reference all those who do not identify as heterosexual.

It has since grown to LGBTTQQIAAP, to encompass numerous other sexual and gender identities.

What do the additional letters mean?

As understanding about sexuality and sexual identity has grown, a fifth letter has been added to the acronym with increasing frequency.

The Q often placed at the end of LGBT refers to queer or questioning, according to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center.

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Previously, Cleo Anderson, an employee of the LGBT rights group GLAAD told USAToday: Queer is anything that exists outside of the dominant narrative. Queer means that you are one of those letters [LGBT], but you could be all of those letters and not knowing is okay.

Anderson also said the Q is useful because it can be used to convey the nuances of race and culture and how that intersects with an individuals gender identity and sexual orientation.

The acronym has also expanded to include an I and an A at the end, making it LGBTQIA.

According to the LGBT youth support group OK2BME, the I stands for intersex.

Intersex is an umbrella term that describes bodies that fall outside the strict male/female binary, according to Planned Parenthood.

The A on the end of the acronym also has multiple meanings, used to represent those who identify as asexual, those who are agender, and those who identify as allies of the LGBT community.

What does the plus sign stand for?

As noted by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual Resource Center (LGBTQIARC) at the University of California at Davis, which has built a glossary, there are numerous other letters and terms in use by the LGBT community as well.

To represent those who do not identify with one of the letters in the acronym, such as those who identify as pansexual, a plus sign is often used.

The plus sign also represents the experiences and realities of those who identify as members of the LGBT community.

Speaking to Elite Daily, Louis Ortiz-Fonesca, Senior Program Manager for LGBTQ Heath and Rights with Advocates for Youth, said: I explain it by simply saying that the plus is an inclusive and intentional way of representing different identities and experiences.

As the LGBT community continues to fight for representation and equal rights 50 years on from the first pride march, it is important to acknowledge the different sexualities, groups and identities represented in the continually evolving acronym.

While many pride celebrations have been cancelled this year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, there are still ways to support and celebrate the LGBT community.
bria lemirand tiktoker

Bria Lemirand

As part of the 50 Food Faves package, PEOPLE named our top tastemakers  including Selena Gomez, Eric Adjepong, TikTok's Bria Lemirande and more  who made an impact on the culinary world with their cooking and creativity in 2022. Meet Lemirande below, and for the full list, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

TikToker Bria Lemirande's videos used to only be seen by her sisters and close friends until a seemingly inconspicuous video of herself using a salad chopping tool blew up. One year later, nearly 2 million followers have stuck around for her casual cooking videos, Trader Joe's grocery hauls and the social media star's sunny personality.

"It is so crazy," the Wisconsin-based foodie tells PEOPLE of her overnight internet fame. "I feel like it happened so fast that I still don't really understand the impact that I can potentially have."

Part of her appeal is that Lemirande's recipes are far from intimidating, as is she. From salmon dinners and parmesan roasted potatoes to overnight oats with strawberry lavender syrup, the influencer walks viewers through recipes with a smile on her face.

"My whole life, I've just loved food and I always loved taking pictures of my food," she says. "I don't know who I'm even doing this for, but I still love taking pictures of my food."

RELATED: Inside Eric Adjepong's Favorite Sunday Tradition of Going to Church and Baking with His Daughter

Arguable her most famous recipes of the year revolved around cowboy caviar. The beloved Southern dip is similar to salsa and combines as many (or as few) ingredients as you like, typically beans, black-eyed peas, corn, avocado, tomatoes, peppers and onions, plus a dressing. Her most popular video making the dip currently has more than 17 million views and 2.7 million likes.

Lemirande never claims to have invented the Texan dish, she merely makes it in several TikToks and adapts the recipe for what ingredients she has in her house. Some of the cowboy caviar iterations that Lemirande made this summer follow fans' recommendations to add mangoes, peaches or pomegranate seeds. This flexibility when cooking is something that the social media star maintains for all her meals.

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"I feel like that's what is the most fun is just opening your fridge and being like, 'What can I make out of what I have?'" she says. "For a long time, I took cooking really seriously. Everything's got to be perfect. I've got to have every ingredient. But now I feel like I've grown more into a, fake it till you make it  just keep trying it and just keep experimenting with food. See what works, what doesn't. I just love throwing stuff together and making it work, however I can."

Not only do fans watch and like her cooking clips, but they also follow Lemirande's grocery shopping suggestions. TikTok videos showing her favorite snack, Trader Joe's Crunchy Curls, garnered so much virality that grocery stores across the country sold out of the potato-lentil curls.

Among these devout Crunchy Curls fans are celebrities like Madison Beer, who has reached out to Lemirande to share her thoughts on the Trader Joe's snack.

"So many bigger name people will be like, 'Oh my God, I'm so sick of not finding the Crunchy Curls at Trader Joe's,'" says Lemirande. "Madison Beer did DM me once and was like, 'Oh my God, girl, I love Crunchy Curls.' I was like, this is actually crazy, how is this happening? I've been pinching myself sometimes."

The celebrity DMs are a fun part of her fame but the connections she makes with her followers are one of her favorite parts of the gig.

RELATED: Meet Meredith Hayden: the TikToker Who Spends $2,000 on Groceries as a Private Chef in the Hamptons

"It's just been cool to connect with different people. Even if we're just connecting over sharing the love for Crunchy Curls, a little simple snack, or just people who have reached out and talked about how I've helped them with their view of food and how they feel around food," says Lemirande, who is recovering from an eating disorder. "Genuinely, these random strangers have just changed my life in the past year."

She is not the only one blown away by her quick rise to fame. Lemirande explains that her friends and family are supportive, but some members of the family required a little extra explanation about her job.

"It's a whole thing trying to explain TikTok to my grandma," she laughs. "She did not understand and was like, 'What do you mean by that? How are you going to make money?'"

"For the most part, I don't even consider it a job," she adds. "I don't feel like I'm working which is the coolest thing ever. I'm cooking meals and making different recipes and just enjoying the little things."
Mindy Kaling NYC apartment for sale

Tommaso Boddi/Getty; Compass

Mindy Kaling is letting go of her New York apartment!

The Mindy Project creator, 43, has listed her downtown apartment for $2.75 million. Carl Gambino and Reilly Adler of Compass hold the listing.

She decorated the two-bedroom, two-bathroom home in 2017 with help from One Kings Lane and shared the finished product.

When she walked into the completed space, she said she felt like she was in the wrong house. "I thought, 'who is this chic person who lives here? It's not me, it looks amazing!'" Of the big reveal, she recalled, "I got to be surprised like in a reality television show. I desperately didn't want to mess it up because it's so chic and clean."

While her family has since outgrown the two-bedroom, two-bath property, she said at the time she was saving her guest room for some special visitors: "So I don't know, George Clooney if he needed a place to stay in New York City if he's not in Lake Como or his mansion in the Hollywood Hills. I think he and Amal would enjoy this room and there would be something for each of them to love."

Kaling also owns a home in Los Angeles, which she opened up to Architectural Digest in a 2017 feature.

RELATED: Mindy Kaling, B.J. Novak Joke About Their 'Insanely Complicated' Relationship While Presenting at Emmys

Mindy Kaling NYC apartment for sale

Compass

The condo, which has since been decorated with a more neutral scheme that appeals to a wide range of buyers, has an open concept, 10-foot ceilings, a chef's kitchen, and plenty of closet space. Both bathrooms are outfitted in Blue de Savoie tile and the primary en-suite features a deep Kohler soaking tub.

The luxury development it's a part of offers a host of white glove services and amenities, including a 24-hour doorman, and a fully-equipped fitness center. Designed by architect Richard Gluckman, the townhouse features wall-to-wall windows with unobstructed views of the Williamsburg Bridge, Kenmare Street, and Petrosino Square.

RELATED: Mindy Kaling Celebrates 'The' 'Mindy Project' 's 10th Anniversary with a Nod to the Show's Body Positivity

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Mindy Kaling NYC apartment for sale

Compass

Kaling recently opened up about the simple pleasures of being at home with her two kids, Katherine "Kit" Swati, 4, and 2-year-old Spencer Avu.

The actor-writer-producer told PEOPLE in April that for her family, the current sweet spot for when she and her kids are happiest is right after their early dinners.

"There's this time in the [early evening] before my children have become demons, just after dinner that I think is really happy," Kailng said. "Because they're full of food and have a lot of energy, but they're not over-tired for the day. And that's when it's great to go for a walk, or we run around the yard and I'll threaten to throw my daughter into the pool."

She also said the extra time at home during the pandemic has also been made joyful because of her son's adorable toddler antics and his emerging engaging personality.

"He's probably brought me the most joy in the past 18 months and he could not have come at a better time," she explained. "That was a nice distraction from the pandemic and he's so fun and his personality is unlike anything in my family on either side."

Mindy Kaling NYC apartment for sale

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The Emmy Award nominee spoke in September about some of the parenting advice her pal B.J. Novak gave her about daughter when she appeared on Meghan Markle's Archetypes podcast.

"I grew up always feeling ugly, overweight, othered. And so with my daughter I'm always telling her that she's beautiful," she explained. "To the point where my friend B.J. is like 'You can tell her other compliments.'

"It's funny to realize 'Oh, I'm focusing too much on this.' Every morning I'm like 'You're so beautiful,' to the point where that's not healthy either. But I do think that's how we can change things," Kaling added.
62nd Annual GRAMMY Awards - Inside - Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

Noah Cyrus has shared a particularly moving new version of her song about overcoming addiction, Noah (Stand Still), this time featuring her father, Billy Ray Cyrus.

Noah (Stand Still) opens Cyrus new debut album, The Hardest Part. Cyrus originally wrote the song after visiting her father in Nashville as she began her recovery from a Xanax addiction. As the lyrics of the song suggest, it was Billy Ray who gave Noah the advice to take a moment to stand still when life becomes too overwhelming.

More from Rolling Stone

While Cyrus sings the song solo on The Hardest Part, this new version finds her trading verses with Billy Ray, before father and daughter come together on the chorus: My grandfather told my father/It dont get easier just harder/Yes it will/Remember just stand still/And when all the hope and joy you feel/Turns into paranoia/Cause it will/Remember just stand still.

After releasing a string of EPs and singles over the years, Cyrus finally released The Hardest Part last week. Shes set to embark on a North American tour in support of the album next month, with the trek kicking off Oct. 4 in Phoenix, Arizona, and wrapping Nov. 4 in Los Angeles.

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Photo credit: NurPhoto - Getty Images

North Koreas government passed new laws authorizing a nuclear counter strike if North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is killed.

In the event North Koreas leadership is incapacitated, the military is authorized to launch a counter strike.

No matter what Kim says, however, the hard reality is that the use of nuclear weapons would mean the end for him and his regime.

North Koreas government has spelled out brand new conditions under which it would use nuclear weapons, and theyre fairly broad. The country will launch a preemptive nuclear attack if it detects signs another country is preparing to attack ita break from previous policy. The regime spelled out what other conditions could lead it to using nukesincluding tactical nuclear weaponsto reverse failures on the battlefield.

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The laws, NK News reports , were passed at the Supreme Peoples Assembly held in North Koreas capital city Pyongyang, on September 9. The Supreme Peoples Assembly is North Koreas version of the U.S. Congress but completely lacking in political opposition, resulting in a legislative body that rubber stamps any laws Kim Jong-un wants passed. This gives the dictators reign a thin veneer of legitimacy.



The laws loosen the circumstances in which the country would use nuclear weapons. According to the new laws, North Korea will now not only retaliate if attacked, it will launch a preemptive attack if it detects signs that it is about to be attacked. It can also launch due to unspecified reasons that threaten the survival of the regime and its people.

Photo credit: AFP Contributor - Getty Images

The law also expands the use of nukes outside of strategic, all-out nuclear warfare, allowing their use when it is unavoidable due to tactical reasons. This hints at the use of smaller tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield, in case North Korea invaded South Koreaor vice-versa. It can also be used to respond to non-nuclear attacks. Attacks against the countrys core strategic targets would also face a nuclear response.

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One of the biggest changes is a new policy of what nuclear experts call pre-delegation, in which the sole decider for launching nuclear weapons sets conditions for others, usually the military, to act in their absence. Under the new policy, the North Korean Peoples Army can launch its nukes automatically if the core command leadership (read: Kim Jong-un) is in danger or already killed.



This policy is in direct response to South Koreas buildup of conventionally-armed precision-guided cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. This arsenal has one goal: to decapitate North Koreas leadership and decouple it from its nuclear arsenal in a crisis. The reasoning is that Kim Jong-un himself must be made to fear for his life if there is a crisis, to dissuade him from using nukes; or barring that, separate him from the ability to issue launch orders.



Kim has apparently taken these preparations personally, and South Koreas plans for a decapitation strike have clearly gotten under his skin. Under the new law, if Kim is trapped by a South Korean attack in an underground bunker, his internet and telephone lines cut, his generals will still retaliate with nuclear weapons.

Photo credit: Handout - Getty Images

North Koreas old nuclear policy was actually fairly restrained. Previously, North Korea stated it would only use nukes in the event it was first attacked with nukes. This policy, known as  No First Use , is the official policy of China and India and is meant to be stabilizing in a crisis. If youre at war with either Beijing or Delhi, you dont have to worry about their nukes, unless you plan on using your own. The problem with Kim Jong-uns policy is that its made by a dangerous dictator, accountable to no one, who can easily change his policy at a moments whim. So, his policy doesnt really mean much.

How much of a big deal are Kims new nuclear laws? A lot of this is merely window dressing: in a dictatorship like North Korea, whatever Kim wants is the law and thats that. Passing a law during a meeting of the enormous Supreme Peoples Assembly just amplifies the message and ensures that everyone hears about it.

Photo credit: JUNG YEON-JE - Getty Images

Another inspiration for the new laws is probably the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russias invasion of Ukraine, once considered by some an inevitable victory for Moscow , has run into serious problems, and the war is now in doubt. North Koreas ability to invade South Korea has been degrading for decades, as the countrys economy makes it no longer possible to fully modernize and supply its massive, 1.2-million-member army. North Koreas statement it could use nukes for tactical reasons in wartime is likely meant to put teeth back into any invasion threat.

The official policy of the United States is to still aim for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, according to the National Security Council, as reported by Politico. And despite Kims big reveal, North Korea has to operate under one dominating constraint: if it uses nukes, the United States will likely launch a devastating nuclear counter strike that will kill Kim Jong-un and the rest of the countrys senior leadership.

Kim must walk a fine line between saber-rattling and boasting, and being seen as a rational actor who understands this new existential danger he has put his countryand himselfin.

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Paul Haggis can argue at his civil sexual assault trial in New York that the Church of Scientology is behind the claims of rape, a judge ruled Friday.

Haggis faces trial next month in New York, where publicist Haleigh Breest accused him of raping her after a film premiere in January 2013. The two-time Oscar-winning Crash director maintains the encounter was consensual, and that Scientology operatives are out to smear him for leaving  and then openly and harshly criticizing  the church.

Lawyers for Breest sought to block that theory, but Judge Sabrina Kraus ruled Friday to allow it, according to documents obtained by TheWrap. However, Kraus did block Haggis from brining up a previous lawsuit he filed against Breest for inflicting emotional distress, which was dismissed; their settlement talks; and any reference to her financial condition.

Also Read:

Paul Haggis Says Sexual Assault Accuser Appeared Rehearsed': I Most Certainly Dont Have a Problem With Women

Fridays ruling references Haggis stormy exit from The Church, and detailed what he intends to argue in New York State Supreme Court.

He was a member of The Church for over 30 years. As a routine part of membership in The Church, he had to report any sexual transgressions outside his marriage to The Church. He rose to a top position in The Church. In an interview in 2011 with The New Yorker, Haggis predicted there would be an allegation made against him, that The Church would be behind the allegation, the ruling states.

In a statement provided to TheWrap, The Church of Scientology denied any connection to the cases.

The Church has nothing to do with the claims against Haggis nor does it have any relation to his accusers, the statement reads. The claim is absurd and patently false.  [He] continues to shop his scripted story to any who will buy it.

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Breest was the first woman to accuse Paul Haggis of sexual assault in her 2017 civil lawsuit, a case that was delayed nearly six years due to the pandemic and court backlogs. Four more women have since come forward with accusations  three in support of Breests lawsuit, and a British national who accused Haggis of raping her at a film festival in Italy in June.

Haggis was arrested and held at his hotel room for more than two weeks before an Italian judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence to continue to detain him. Kraus on Friday also ruled that Breest could not bring up the Italian case at the trial.

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Eric Weinberg, Co-Executive Producer on Scrubs and Californication, Arrested on Multiple Rape Charges

However, Kraus did allow testimony of the three Jane Does who came forward with similar allegations to support Breests claims. The judge cited the prior bad acts ruling in People v. Weinstein  in which testimony from multiple Harvey Weinstein accusers was admitted into evidence  as precedent for her decision.

Weinstein was convicted in 2020 of rape and sexual assault in New York, and faces trial next month for similar charges in Los Angeles.
Iranians Protest Against Islamic Regime

<b>Istanbul, Turkey</b> Iranians holding pictures of Mahsa Amini chant "Death to the Dictator" during a protest after Amini's death, in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sept. 20, 2022. Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, was arrested and later killed by the Morality Police in Iran over allegedly breaking hijab rules. Credit - Ashkan ShabaniRedux

In Iran, the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody of the countrys morality police last week has sparked sweeping protests internationally, calling not only for an end to the hijab mandate, but also to the Islamic Republic.

The morality police, which enforce Irans requirements for women to behave and dress conservatively, arrested Amini in Tehran on Sept. 13 after they accused her of violating the hijab law. She died three days later of what police said was a heart attack, but her family and protesters argue that wasnt the case.

Iranian police have released closed-circuit footage showing Amini collapsing on the back of a chair at a detention center before falling to the floor. Her family has accused authorities of lying about her death and argued that she had no pre-existing heart condition, according to Emtedad news, an Iranian pro-reform media outlet.

Tehran, Iran People gather during a protest for Mahsa Amini, who died after being arrested by morality police allegedly not complying with strict dress code in Tehran, Iran on September 20, 2022. Protests spread to 15 cities across Iran overnight over the death of the young woman Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the countrys morality police. In the fifth night of street rallies, police used tear gas and made arrests to disperse crowds of up to 1,000 people, the official IRNA news agency said. Middle East Images/Redux

Since her death, outraged Iranians have led protests across dozens of cities. Some female protesters burned their hijabs or cut their hair in an act of defiance. The government reported Thursday that 17 people, including two security officers, had died since demonstrations began. Mobile networks have been disrupted and access to Instagram and WhatsApp has been restricted.

Protests have also spread internationally, including in Lebanon, Germany, Turkey the U.S. and Greece.

The United Nations has called for an impartial inquiry into Aminis death. We strongly condemn the use of physical violence against women and the denial of fundamental human dignity when enforcing compulsory hijab policies ordained by State authorities, UN experts said in a Sept. 22 statement. Her death has also drawn criticism from the U.S., which is trying to revive the Iranian Nuclear Deal.

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Senior Iranian officials, including President Ebrahim Raisi, have promised an investigation will ensue. In the meantime, the protests have morphed into a broader critique of the ruling partycriticizing not only an infringement on womens rights but also anger over the effects of crippling U.S. sanctions on the economy and corruption.

Tehran, Iran A picture obtained by AFP on Sept. 21, 2022, shows Iranian demonstrators burning a rubbish bin in the capital Tehran. AFP/Getty Images

Lebanon, Beirut On 21 Sept. 2022, Kurdish women wave head scarves while they hold pictures of Mahasa Amini. Marwan NaamaniAP

Berlin, Germany A female protester yells while cutting her hair with scissors as an act of solidarity with women in Iran during a demonstration on Sept. 23, 2022. Sean GallupGetty Images

New York, NY People participate in a protest against Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi outside of the United Nations on Sept. 21, 2022 in New York City. Stephanie KeithGetty Images

Athens, Greece Demonstrators scuffle with riot police, during a protest following the death of Mahsa Amini, outside the Iranian Embassy, in Athens, Greece, Sept. 22, 2022. Costas BaltasReuters

New York, NY A person dressed as Iranian President Ebrahim Rasi covered in blood with snakes on his shoulders participates in a protest against Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during a rally in New York City on Sept. 21, 2022, amid the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Alex KentAFP/Getty Images

Berlin, Germany A demonstrator holds hair during a protest in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, Sept. 23, 2022. Christian MangReuters

Tehran, Iran Newspapers from Sept. 18, 2022 with a cover picture of Mahsa Amini. Majid AsgaripourWest Asia News Agency/Reuters

Tehran, Iran People gather during a protest for Mahsa Amin in Tehran, Iran on Sept. 19, 2022. Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Istanbul, Turkey Nasibe Samsaei, an Iranian woman living in Turkey, reacts after she cut her hair during a protest outside the Iranian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey on Sept. 21, 2022. Murad SezerReuters

Tehran, Iran A pro-government demonstrator holds a poster of the late Iranian revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini while attending a rally after the Friday prayers to condemn recent anti-government protests over the death of a young woman in police custody, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Sept. 23, 2022. Vahid SalemiAp

Tehran, Iran Thousands of people marched through Iran's capital during a pro-hijab rally Friday, Sept. 23, 2022 paying tribute to security forces who have moved to quell a week of protests by what media called "conspirators". AFP/Getty Images

Los Angeles, California Californian Kurds hold a demonstration and candlelight vigil to honor the memory of Mahsa Zhina Amini in front of the Federal Building on Sept. 22, 2022 in Los Angeles. Apu GomesGetty Images

Los Angeles, California Californian Kurds hold a demonstration and candlelight vigil to honor the memory of Mahsa Zhina Amini in front of the Federal Building on Sept. 22, 2022 in Los Angeles. Apu GomesGetty Images

New York, NY People participate in a protest against Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi outside of the United Nations on Sept. 21, 2022 in New York City. Stephanie KeithGetty Images

New York, NY Photos showing the victims of the 1988 massacre of Iranian political prisoners are displayed during a protest against Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi outside of the United Nations on Sept. 21, 2022 in New York City. Spencer PlattGetty Images

Lebanon, Beirut Kurdish women wave head scarves at a protest on Sept. 21, 2022. Marwan NaamaniPicture Alliance/Getty Images
SOUTH HAVEN  Dozens of people from the surrounding community and across the nation attended a hybrid meeting Thursday, Sept. 22, meant to discuss plans to decommission Palisades Nuclear Plant in Covert.

Many of the public comments, however, expressed support or opposition for a different plan  a grant application to reopen the plant.

The Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Covert was shut down May 20, 2022. A meeting to discuss the plant's decommissioning was held Sept. 22, but many public comments instead focused on potential reopening of the plant.

The meeting was hosted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission at Lake Michigan Colleges campus in South Haven, located near the plant. Members of the public could also participate and make comments virtually.

The purpose of the meeting was to solicit comments on the Post Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR) for Palisades. That plan was submitted by Holtec Decommissioning International in December 2020, well before Holtec officially became owners of Palisades in June.

More:In surprise move, Whitmer announces plan to reopen shuttered Palisades nuclear plant

More:Palisades owner says number of hurdles need to be cleared to reopen plant

Around two dozen people, in-person and online, offered their thoughts, with some virtual commenters hailing from Michigan, Maryland, New York and California.

One of the main concerns was how Holtec plans to fund decommissioning. The company has said it'll use a decommissioning trust fund  a requirement for nuclear plants, in the event they go bankrupt.

But several attendees questioned the lack of funds in the decommissioning trust fund, and wondered whether Holtec will be able to gather the cash needed to complete the process.

In Holtecs PSDAR, a dormancy period of around 10 years is planned, during which the company plans to fundraise through investments to pay for the remaining decommissioning.

Palisades Nuclear Control Operator Danny Wright safely takes the reactor at Palisades Power Plant off the grid for the final time on Friday, May 20, 2022.

NRC officials said the trust fund is monitored by an independent third party, and the organization receives annual reports to ensure Holtec is meeting goals for growth.

Several people also raised concerns about the potential environmental effects of decommissioning, including Holtec potentially shipping nuclear waste in barges across the Great Lakes.

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A handful of people called for more oversight and real-time monitoring of Holtecs activities at Palisades.

More:Palisades nuclear plant's radioactive material could be moved by barge on Lake Michigan

More:Palisades Nuclear Plant has shut down 10 days early, owners announce

But many commenters didn't focus on decommissioning at all. Instead, they focused on Holtecs application to the Civil Nuclear Credit Program, which could lead to the plants reopening. Seven people specifically said they were against reopening Palisades, while nine said the plant should be reopened.

Commenters against reopening cited the safety, or lack thereof, at the plant  with one referring to Palisades as a time bomb. They mentioned delayed maintenance projects, including a failed control rod drive seal that led to the plant shutting down earlier than planned.

I had a sigh of relief when it was shut down before it blew up, Kathryn Barnes said.

The Palisades Nuclear Power Plant was sold to Holtec following its closure in May 2022.

Those supporting reopening called for energy sources other than fossil fuels, which could be used to supplement the loss of energy from Palisades shutting down.

Restarting Palisades will save American lives, said Ryan Pickering of Mothers for Nuclear. We will use less of other types of energy that are more dangerous.

Subscribe: Receive unlimited digital access to your local news coverage

NRC officials told the public they're not the ones making a decision on reopening the plant.

Im just going to repeat that the NRC is a safety regulator, said Bruce Watson of the NRC. We dont make any decisions on the restart of the plant, other than that it has to be done safely. (Same) with decommissioning, we make sure it is done safely.

A full transcription of the comments from Thursdays meeting will be posted online at a later date.

Some decommissioning activities are already underway at Palisades, but major activities cannot proceed until the NRC completes its review of the PSDAR. Public comments on the PSDAR will be accepted until Dec. 27. To comment, visit regulations.gov/document/NRC-2022-0158-0001.

To view the full PSDAR for Palisades, visit bit.ly/3S9ipcF. Holtecs application to the CNC, which is supported by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, could be acted on by early October.

 Contact reporter Mitchell Boatman at mboatman@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @SentinelMitch.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Public disagrees on potential Palisades reopening plan
Shawn Mendes has announced that he will release an original song for the soundtrack of the movie Lyle, Lyle Crocodile next week.

The Canadian pop sensation appears in the upcoming film, which is set to be released on October 7, providing the voice for the character Lyle. The likes of Javier Bardem, Constance Wu, and Brett Gelman will also star in the movie.

While sharing the tracklist for the soundtrack on Instagram, Mendes announced that one of its tracks would arrive next Friday (September 30), a week before the full album. He described Heartbeat, the track in question, as an original song I wrote in the movie.

Mendes is also credited as a performer on a further seven songs on the OST, with him teaming up with Bardem on Take A Look At Us Now and a reprise of that track, and with Wu on Rip Up The Recipe. Elsewhere, the soundtrack features appearances from Stevie Wonder on Sir Duke and Elton John on Crocodile Rock, while some of the original songs on the record were penned by the songwriting team behind The Greatest Showman.

According to an official synopsis, Lyle, Lyle Crocodile is based on the best-selling book series by Bernard Waber and brings the story to life through live-action/CGI musical comedy. When the Primm family (Constance Wu, Scoot McNairy, Winslow Fegley) moves to New York City, their young son Josh struggles to adapt to his new school and new friends, it reads.

All of that changes when he discovers Lyle  a singing crocodile (Shawn Mendes) who loves baths, caviar, and great music  living in the attic of his new home. The two become fast friends, but when Lyles existence is threatened by evil neighbor Mr. Grumps (Brett Gelman), the Primms must band together with Lyles charismatic owner, Hector P. Valenti (Javier Bardem), to show the world that family can come from the most unexpected places and theres nothing wrong with a big singing crocodile with an even bigger personality.

Earlier this month (September 15), Mendes launched the Wonder of Music program in his hometown of Toronto, with funding from the Shawn Mendes Foundation. The program, to which a $1 million commitment was made, will provide music therapy and education at the Hospital for Sick Children, known throughout the city as SickKids.

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Pre-save the Lyle, Lyle Crocodile official soundtrack.

Lyle, Lyle Crocodile OST tracklist:

Shawn Mendes  Top Of The World

Pete Rodriguez  I Like It Like That

Javier Bardem & Shawn Mendes  Take A Look At Us Now

Shawn Mendes  Heartbeat

Claire Rosinkranz  Bye Bye Bye

Stevie Wonder  Sir Duke

Shawn Mendes & Constance Wu  Rip Up The Recipe

Anthony Ramos  We Made It

The Gap Band  Steppin Out

Javier Bardem & Shawn Mendes  Take A Look At Us Now (Reprise)

Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band  Express Yourself

Shawn Mendes  Take A Look At Us Now (Lyle Reprise)

Shawn Mendes  Carried Away

Shawn Mendes  Take A Look At Us Now (Finale)

Elton John  Crocodile Rock

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.
Road trip? People who have been to Cuba cannot then travel to the US with the usual Esta (Simon Calder)

In one of his last acts as US president, Donald Trump added Cuba to the American list of state sponsors of terrorism. His successor, Joe Biden, has left the designation in place.

As a result, any British holidaymaker who been to Cuba in the past 11 years is disqualified from using the Esta scheme with which the vast majority of UK travellers visit the US. They must instead pay 137 for a visa  and wait months for an interview appointment.

A family of four who have visited the Caribbeans largest island and now want to go to the US face a bill of over 500 to comply with the rule.

The outgoing president put Cuba on the same list as Iran, North Korea and Syria on 11 January 2021  barely a week before he was replaced by Mr Biden.

The classification is applied to nations that have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.

The government in Havana strenuously rejects the accusation.

But its effect is to disqualify any prospective visitor to the US who has been in Cuba since 1 March 2011 from using the swift online application process known as Esta (the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation).

Instead, they must try to get a tourist visa  which requires payment of $160 (137) and for the traveller to attend an appointment at the US embassy in London or consulate-general in Belfast.

But because of delays incurred during the coronavirus pandemic, there is a serious backlog for appointments.

The US embassy in London says: Please note that due to an increasing backlog of visa appointment requests, you may experience a significant delay between paying your visa fee and scheduling an interview appointment.

By paying the visa fee, you acknowledge that it may take several months to schedule an interview appointment.

Anyone who has been to Cuba and obtains Esta clearance for the US will be breaching the rules, and could in theory be turned away upon arrival

But some travellers have told The Independent that they have successfully visited the US using passports issued since their trips to Cuba.

Earlier this month, Cubas deputy foreign minister, Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, described the US position as illegitimate, unsustainable and immoral.
After six years of planning, a monument honoring African American military veterans will be unveiled at a ceremony from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday in the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park.

The $1.5 million monument is the first in the U.S. to honor Black military veterans who have fought in every American war to date, according to Warren K. Galloway, chairman of the committee that spearheaded the project.

"African Americans have been involved in every conflict that this country has been in, from the Revolutionary War to where we are now," Galloway said Friday in a telephone interview with The Buffalo News.

"Often African American soldiers were fighting two wars, the war against the enemy abroad and the war against racism and discrimination at home," he added.

Steven Tedesco, director of education at the Naval & Military Park, said the interactive monument's unveiling coincides with an exhibit, "Two Wars: The Road to Integration," that opened earlier this year at the military park museum. That exhibit focuses on World War II and the desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces under an executive order signed by President Harry S. Truman on July 26, 1948.

"We're looking forward to tying a lot of that into the unveiling of the new monument and working together with the African American Veterans Monument group," Tedesco said.

With fundraising target met, construction soon will begin for monument to Black veterans The memorial, to be located at the Buffalo & Erie County Naval and Military Park on Buffalo's waterfront, will be the first in the U.S. to honor Black military veterans who fought in every American war to date, organizers say.

"It's two separate things, but the timing worked out really well for when we opened this exhibit," he added.

The monument is composed of a dozen black concrete pillars, each 10 feet high and 3 feet wide, placed in a chronological sequence designed to correspond to the date of each of the country's 12 major military conflicts. The spacing between the pillars represents the peace time between each war.

The top of each pillar will illuminate, representing the candles that military families used to put in the windows of their homes as a beacon to guide a soldier home. The light from the pillars will glow continuously as an eternal reminder of the commitments made by African American military veterans.

The design for the monument was created by Jonathan Casey and the team at Solid 716.

It also will include audio capabilities within the monument that will work through a smartphone app to allow visitors to hear  as well as read  information included in the pillars.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, Assembly Majority Leader Crystal D. Peoples-Stokes and Rep. Brian Higgins are scheduled to attend the unveiling.

Gen. Gary M. Brito, the commanding general of the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command since Sept. 8, will be the keynote speaker at Saturday's ceremony.

The new monument will join others dedicated to Hispanic American military veterans, Polish American military veterans and veterans of the Persian Gulf wars located in the Naval & Military Park.
Donald Trump was banned from Twitter two days after the January 6 Capitol riot. Alex Brandon/AP

In July, the Jan. 6 panel played a recording of an interview with an anonymous Twitter employee.

The whistleblower said the company was reluctant to take stronger actions against Trump's account.

The employee, Anika Collier Navaroli, spoke with The Washington Post on why she decided to testify.

The Twitter whistleblower who anonymously testified before the January 6 panel and argued that her company's leadership was reluctant to take strong actions against Donald Trump's account publicly stepped forward Thursday.

Anika Collier Navaroli spoke with The Washington Post months after she testified before the committee. In her conversation, she shared why she decided to speak with congressional investigators and the fears she had for the future of democracy after she saw the former president spread false claims of a rigged election.

"My fear within the American context is that we have seen our last peaceful transition of power," Navaroli, whose identity was also revealed earlier on Thursday by Rep. Jamie Raskin, told The Post. She added that Trump is not alone in spreading false claims of election fraud and that leaders around the world are using "the same playbook."

Navaroli was a policy expert for Twitter's team that created the platform's content-moderation rules. In July, the House select committee investigating the riot played an interview with Navaroli while hiding her identity.

It was during the testimony when Navaroli revealed how Twitter's executives "relished in the knowledge that they were also the favorite and most-used service of the former president" and were reluctant to impose any strong punishments on Trump's account.

When Rep. Raskin, a member of the January 6 panel, asked Navaroli if Trump would have been able to keep his account for so long if he were any other user, the former Twitter employee said "absolutely not."

"If the former President Donald Trump were any other user on Twitter, he would have been permanently suspended a very long time ago," she said.

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Navaroli also foresaw the violence of the insurrection, which killed five people and injured many more, months before January 6, 2021.

After Trump told the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by" in September 2020, Navaroli urged the company to adopt a stricter content moderation policy  but to no avail.

"My concern was that the former president for seemingly the first time was speaking directly to extremist organizations and giving them directives," she told the committee. "We had not seen that sort of direct communication before and that concerned me."

And when Trump tweeted in December 2020 about a "big protest in DC on January 6th" and how it would "be wild," Navaroli sounded the alarm at her company once again.

"I had been begging, and anticipating, and attempting to raise the reality that if we made no intervention into what I saw occurring, people were going to die, and on January 5th, I realized no intervention was coming," she said to the panel.

Twitter's executives have previously said that Navaroli left out "unprecedented steps" the company took during the 2020 election, according to The Post.

Navaroli left Twitter last year. She's now a fellow at Stanford University, studying the impacts of moderating speech.

Navaroli told the newspaper that she sat with multiple interviews for the January 6 panel. A more complete report from the committee that will be released this year could include full transcripts of her interviews, The Post reported.

"There's a lot still left to say," she told The Post.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Two American veterans held captive by Russian separatists in Ukraine since June returned to the United States on Friday, arriving at JFK International Airport shortly after noon, a relative of one of the men told USA TODAY.

Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, and Alexander Drueke, 39, were both freed Wednesday as part of a larger prisoner exchange months after their capture in Ukraine's Kharkiv region. Both men are from Alabama and are military veterans who sought to help Ukrainian troops.

The men would spend time with family over the next day or two, said Dianna Shaw, Drueke's aunt. Drueke's mother, Bunny Drueke, and Huynh fiancee, Joy Black, were still en route Friday afternoon after delays in reaching New York, Shaw told USA TODAY.

U.S. government officials assisted in getting the pair safely to a hotel, Shaw said. The families plan to return by vehicle to Alabama as soon as Saturday.

PREVIOUSLY: A look at the United States' options to help free American volunteers

Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, right, and Alexander Drueke, left, chat as they arrive at the TWA Hotel on Friday, Sept. 23, 2022, in New York. The two U.S. military veterans who disappeared three months ago while fighting Russia with Ukrainian forces were among 10 prisoners released this week by Russian-backed separatists as part of a prisoner exchange mediated by Saudi Arabia.

U.S. Rep Robert Aderholt of Alabama announced the men had returned Friday on Twitter, writing that he had "been informed that Andy and Alex are back on American soil. These are definitely answered prayers!"

This week, Huynh and Drueke were first transferred to Saudi Arabia, which helped broker a swap with Russian-backed separatists that included eight other prisoners from four countries, including five British nationals. Family members said the men went through medical checks in Saudi Arabia.

During a briefing Friday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre thanked Saudi Arabia and Turkey for facilitating the exchange of prisoners between Ukraine and Russia.

"We look forward to these U.S. citizens being reunited with their families," she said.

Jean-Pierre also reiterated past administration warnings about the risks of traveling to Ukraine and participating in the fighting.

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"We continue to urge Americans to devote their energies toward the many other opportunities that exist to help the country of Ukraine and also the people of Ukraine," she said.

Black, Huynh's fiancee, told USA TODAY earlier this week that she was at work when her phone showed an incoming call from Saudi Arabia. She let it go to voicemail. The message? It was the U.S. Embassy telling her the men had been freed.

Black, 21, said she was happy for the first time in like four months.

Shaw said there had been no forewarning of the swap was coming.

"I asked Alex yesterday if he knew he was being freed and he told me that they did not understand what was going on for several hours," Shaw said Friday.

ABOUT THEIR CAPTURE: Two U.S. military veterans felt compelled to fight Russia. They've been captured in Ukraine.

Huynh and Drueke didnt know each other in Alabama but became friends in Ukraine, where they both went to aid Ukraine in its war with Russia, family members have said.

Huynh served as a Marine from 2014 to 2018. Drueke served as a chemical operations specialist in the Army Reserve from 2002 to 2014 and deployed to Kuwait in 2004 and to Iraq in 2008.

Around the time of their capture, two Britons and a Moroccan were sentenced to death by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine after prosecutors claimed they were mercenaries and not entitled to protections afforded prisoners of war.

Chris Kenning is a national news writer. Reach him at ckenning@usatoday.com and on Twitter @chris_kenning.

American's Andy Huynh, right, and Alex Drueke are seen arriving a New York hotel on Friday after returning from Saudi Arabia.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Americans captured by Russian separatists in Ukraine arrive in US
New evidence uncovered during discovery of the case of Ethan Crumbley allegedly shows that Oxford High School teachers and school officials failed to respond to warning signs exhibited by the accused school shooter in the months leading up to the November 2021 shooting, attorney Ven Johnson, who represents the victims and their families in a lawsuit, told reporters Thursday.

The evidence was allegedly uncovered as several lawsuits against the school, school officials, the school district, Crumbley and his parents have been filed. At least eight lawsuits accuse the school district and others of wrongdoing and failure to act in the months and days leading up to the shooting, despite teachers and counselors allegedly being aware of concerning behavior exhibited by the accused shooter.

Oakland County Circuit Judge Rae Lee Chabot ordered the release of evidence in June, including school surveillance footage from the shooting. District Court Judge Mark Goldsmith also enjoined coordinated discovery and other matters for eight civil lawsuits brought against the Oxford, Michigan, school and school officials.

MORE: Michigan judge orders release of Oxford school shooting evidence, including surveillance footage

Crumbley, who was a student at the school, is charged with 24 counts after he allegedly shot and killed four of his classmates on Nov. 30, 2021.

PHOTO: Ethan Crumbley is led away from the courtroom after a placement hearing at Oakland County Circuit Court on Feb. 22, 2022, in Pontiac, Mich. (Pool/Getty Images, FILE)

His parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, are charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter after allegedly failing to recognize warning signs about their son in the months before the shooting.

All three Crumbleys have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Johnson, in a press conference Thursday, said new details were revealed after deposing teachers and school employees who had direct contact with the accused shooter prior to the Nov. 30 shooting, including email correspondence between school employees and several instances where Crumbley's concerning behavior was not addressed.

Evidence allegedly uncovered included a school assignment submitted by Crumbley in late August 2021 on which he drew what Johnson alleged might be a magazine full of bullets, or a building. In sworn testimony, the teacher who discovered this drawing alleged she only saw the drawing on Nov. 29, just one day before the shooting.

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In another instance, a Sept. 8 email from a Spanish teacher to the school's counselor discusses a school assignment in which Crumbley allegedly wrote that he feels "terrible" and that his family "was a mistake," Johnson said on Thursday.

Despite the school counselor being informed of this instance, the counselor allegedly never spoke to Crumbley, Johnson alleged.

Weeks later, a teacher sent an email to the school counselor on Nov. 10 raising concerns about Crumbley, saying he is having a rough time and that he may need to speak to the counselor, Johnson alleged.

The counselor testified in his deposition that he went down to Crumbley's classroom and asked him to step out into the hallway. The counselor then allegedly told Crumbley that if he is having a tough time, the counselor was available to speak with him. Crumbley allegedly responded "okay," according to Johnson.

MORE: Victims, parents of Oxford school shooting victims sue school employees

Johnson criticized the counselor's actions, saying more needed to be done and that the counselor needed to follow up with Crumbley, considering this was the second time concerning behavior had been flagged to the counselor. According to Johnson, another email uncovered was sent from a teacher to the dean of students and another school official, telling them that Crumbley was seen in class looking at photos of bullets on his cell phone. The teacher then looked at some of Crumbley's previous work completed earlier in the year and said it "leans a bit toward the violent side," Johnson alleges the email said.

The parents of Tate Myre, Justin Shilling and Keegan Gregory, all victims of the shooting, were present at the press conference with Johnson and criticized the school board's lack of transparency in the months after the shooting, saying its members should resign. Its president resigned last week after receiving months of backlash.

The school board had declined several offers from the state attorney general to investigate the shooting, saying it will launch a third-party investigation as soon as litigation in civil suits brought against the district conclude.

Separately, a Michigan judge ruled Thursday that Ethan Crumbley will remain in Oakland County Jail for adults, as part of monthly procedural hearing. Crumbley's trial was initially scheduled to begin in September, but was pushed to January 2023.

Attorneys for the Oxford Community School District did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.

New evidence alleges Ethan Crumbley exhibited more warning signs ahead of school shooting originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Arizona Republican secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem revealed during Thursday's debate that he has been interviewed by both the Justice Department and Jan. 6 committee about his alleged involvement in the Capitol attack.

This was the first time Finchem has publicly confirmed speaking on the matter with federal officials.

"They asked me, why was I there? I said, 'Well, I think you already know. I was there to deliver an evidence package to Representative Paul Gosar,'" Finchem, who was subpoenaed by the committee earlier this year, told reporters after the debate.

The four-term, far-right Arizona lawmaker, who continues to espouse the "Big Lie" and is running to be the state's chief election officer, revealed the Jan. 6 interview and Justice Department involvement in a back-and-forth on the debate stage with his opponent, Democrat Adrian Fontes.

"I was interviewed by the DOJ and the J-6 commission as a witness," Finchem said. "So for him to assert that I was part of a criminal uprising is absurd. And frankly, it is a lie." Finchem told reporters after the debate that the meeting was "a couple of months ago."

PHOTO: Arizona Secretary of State Republican candidate Mark Finchem listens to instructions prior to debating Democratic challenger Adrian Fontes, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022, in Phoenix. (Matt York/AP)

Fontes, the former Maricopa County elections recorder during the 2020 election, prompted the comment by bringing up Finchem's efforts to decertify President Joe Biden's win, Finchem's presence at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and affiliation with the Oath Keepers militia group.

Related video: How are the Proud Boys, QAnon and the Oath Keepers connected?

"Good," Fontes told reporters after the debate regarding the revelation that Finchem sat for investigators. "I hope they investigate, and if he did something wrong, I hope that they prosecute and convict him."

ABC News has asked Finchem's campaign whether he sat for more than one interview with federal investigators and whether he traveled to Washington for the sit-down.

MORE: Election denials take on new relevance in battleground states: The Note

Finchem, leaving the Arizona PBS studio immediately after the debate while reporters chased after him, said he was not asked by investigators about "Stop the Steal" coalition organizer Ali Alexander specifically, and when asked about Alexander's characterization of him as a "close friend," Finchem distanced himself, saying, "That's probably an exaggeration."

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But on the debate stage, Fontes repeatedly tied Finchem to the insurrection.

"He's part of an organization that has called for the violent overthrow of our government. He has supporters and he himself has called for a civil war in this country, the stockpiling of ammunition for this very war," Fontes said. "It is an unhinged and violent aspect of Mr. Finchem that he'd rather not discuss."

PHOTO: Arizona Secretary of State Democratic candidate Adrian Fontes, right, and Republican candidate Mark Finchem, left, go over ground rules prior to their debate, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022, in Phoenix. (Matt York/AP)

"Last time I checked, to be at a place when something is happening is not illegal," Finchem countered. "I've been treated as a witness, not a subject."

Finchem claimed he was in Washington, D.C., at the time of the attack to deliver a book of information to Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., which he said contained evidence of irregularities in the 2020 election.

"I was there to develop  or to deliver  an evidence book to two congressional members of my constitutionally elected congressional caucus, so that they had the information that they needed to have in the well of the Senate, when they went to argue for a question in controversy," he said.

MORE: 'Stop the Steal' organizer Ali Alexander appears before federal grand jury

While maintaining that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election, Finchem said he has "no idea" if there were irregularities in the August primary, which he won, adding, "It is what it is."

When asked what changed from 2020 to 2022, Finchem said, "The candidates."

"Not the process, not the people running things, not the rules," Fontes replied, calling Finchem's comment "most telling."

PHOTO: Arizona Secretary of State Democratic candidate Adrian Fontes speaks prior to debating Republican challenger Mark Finchem, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022, in Phoenix. (Matt York/AP)

On mail-in voting, Finchem said he doesn't support every Arizonan getting a mail-in ballot, like Fontes tried to have enacted in Maricopa County in 2020, and dismissed concerns he would try to restrict mail-in voting. He said, "I don't care for mail-in voting. That's why I go to the poll."

Fontes, who supports early and mail-in voting  an option the vast majority of Arizonans use to cast ballots  said, "Mr. Finchem wants to strip Arizonans of their capacity to vote by mail. That's dangerous."

Finchem has also previously said he supports getting rid of electronic voting machines in favor of a full hand-count of ballots.

MORE: Voters say abortion, inflation among their key issues: Swing-state residents speak out on their views

When asked about the role of the federal government in Arizona's elections, Finchem said, "I think the federal government needs to butt out of states' rights. It is the legislature who names the time, place and manner of election, not the federal government."

Fontes interrupted to say, "I think Article One, Section Four of the Constitution of the United States of America would disagree with Mr. Finchem's assertion about who is charged with the time, place and manner of elections that clearly Congress plays a significant role and that happens to be the federal government, for your information, sir."

Fontes, who lost his reelection as Maricopa County elections recorder to Republican Stephen Richer, has used his 2020 loss to defend Arizona's election process.

"This could be the last election in our lifetime," Fontes told ABC News in a recent interview, expressing concern about the number of candidates on his ballot who deny the validity of the last election. "We can't depend on the legislature. We can't depend on the courts. We have to depend on the American people and Arizona's voters."

Voting starts in Arizona on Oct. 12.

In heated debate, Arizona secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem reveals he sat for Jan. 6, DOJ interview originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
What to know about 'referendums' announced in Ukraine 'republics' to join Russia

A so-called "referendum" to join Russia announced by pro-Russian authorities of the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine has raised alarm bells globally as experts and leaders see it as a manipulative farce by Russia to force control over parts of Ukraine as Ukrainian forces are pushing back on Russian forces.

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink referred to the referendums, as well as increased military mobilization, as "signs of weakness, of Russian failure," echoing many opinions that Russia is acting out under pressure in response to Ukrainian advances.

"The United States will never recognize Russia's claim to purportedly annexed Ukrainian territory, and we will continue to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes," Brink tweeted Tuesday.

MORE: Russia-Ukraine live updates

The voting is planned for Sept. 23 to 27. Self-appointed Kremlin-backed officials of the occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions also announced they would hold referendums on the same dates.

"We believe it is more timely than ever to make a strong-willed decision on the immediate holding of a referendum on the unification of the Kherson region with the Russian Federation," the local so-called Public Council said at a meeting Tuesday.

PHOTO: A meeting with heads of the territorial election commissions of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic in Luhansk, Ukraine, Sept. 21, 2022. The parliament decided to hold a referendums on joining the Russian Federation. (EPA via Shutterstock)

The Russian Central Elections Commission said it would set up polling stations in Russia. Voters would be presented with one question: "Are you in favor of the secession of the Zaporizhia region from Ukraine, the formation of an independent state by the Zaporizhia region and its entry into the Russian Federation as a subject of the Russian Federation?"

This decision of the Kremlin's proxies to stage sham referendums marked a significant escalation of the conflict and has been widely condemned by world leaders.

The office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Russian statements a "sedative" for the Russian audience.

MORE: What are the Ukraine 'separatist' regions at the crux of the Russian invasion

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"There is global consensus and international law," Mykhailo Podolyak, the adviser to the head of the office of the president posted on Twitter. "It is unambiguous: Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea are Ukraine. Any attempts to repaint flags are a fiction that will not change anything for us nor for our partners."

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that any referendum in Russian-occupied territories will not have any legal consequences.

"No matter how much the Russian Federation holds illegal votes in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, the result will be the same: all Ukrainian territories will be freed from Russian occupation, and the Russian leadership will be brought to the strictest responsibility for organized terror, war crimes and crimes against humanity on Ukrainian soil," the statement said.

PHOTO: A Ukrainian soldier sets up a National flag on the stele on a symbolic border between the Kharkiv and Donetsk areas, Ukraine, Sept. 20, 2022. (Yevgen Honcharenko/EPA via Shutterstock)

U.S. President Joe Biden also criticized what he called Russia's "outrageous acts" in a speech at the United Nations on Wednesday.

"Just today, President Putin has made overt nuclear threats against Europe and reckless disregard of the responsibilities of a nonproliferation regime," he said. "Now, Russia is calling up more soldiers to join the fight and the Kremlin is organizing a sham referendum to try to annex parts of Ukraine, an extremely significant violation of the U.N. Charter."

The eastern part of Ukraine has been occupied by Russian proxies since 2014. In late February 2022, right before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the "independence" of the so-called DPR and LPR. Since then, the leaders of the unrecognized republics have called for integration with Russia, but Moscow has reiterated that such a decision is not timely.

MORE: Has the war in Ukraine reached a turning point?

Parts of southern Ukraine were occupied by Russian forces during the 2022 invasion. The occupational authorities there have tried to hold unofficial referendums to proclaim "independence" following Russia's 2014 invasion of the Donbas region. The efforts have so far failed and the referendums have been postponed several times.

Now, such a possibility looks much more realistic.

In a speech Wednesday, Putin said Russia would support any decision the electorate makes and provide security for the referendums.

Meanwhile, the Russian leader announced partial mobilization across the country that would draft up to 300,000 men to be sent to war in Ukraine, according to the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

PHOTO: Members of the Luhansk regional election commission listen to a speaker as they plan to hold a referendum in Luhansk People's Republic controlled by Russia-backed separatists, in Luhansk, Ukraine, Sept. 21, 2022. (AP)

The timing of the referendums and mobilization, is not a coincidence, experts say. Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War believe Ukraine's ongoing northern counter-offensive is panicking proxy forces and some Kremlin decision-makers.

In early September, the Ukrainian Armed Forces astonished the world with its lightning counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region, moving the Russians more than 30 miles east in just a few days. Videos showed Russian soldiers running away, leaving behind vehicles and ammunition.

In all, the Ukrainian Armed Forces says it has liberated more than 3,700 square miles of territory so far, according to the Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Maliar. This also includes some areas in the southern Kherson region, where Ukrainians are moving forward slowly but steadily, liberating village by village.

MORE: Ukraine recaptures swath of land in 'breakthrough' offensive

Russia's retreat from the Kharkiv region sparked not only praise of the Ukrainian Army in the West, but also criticism of Russian authorities even amid the Russian propagandist media. Some military bloggers expressed the idea of "freezing" the war in Ukraine, which they claim would be beneficial to Russia itself.

U.K. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace believes Putin's decision to mobilize parts of his population and the illegal annexation of parts of Ukraine are "an admission that his invasion is failing."

"No amount of threats and propaganda can hide the fact that Ukraine is winning the war," he said in a statement Wednesday, according to Reuters.

What to know about 'referendums' announced in Ukraine 'republics' to join Russia originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Whether youre single or in a LTR, experts say you need to take care of yourself before you can show up for someone else.

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When you hear the term self-care, chances are you think of scheduling a way overdue pedicure or maybe taking a weekend yoga class. And all too often, its illustrated not as a must-do but as something that would be nice to do if you can somehow squeeze it into your hectic schedule. But taking time to take care of yourself is really a must for any healthy relationship  whether youre hoping to swipe right on the future love of your life or you already have a significant other.

Its important that you invest as much time and energy into your own care as you give to the people you love, says Dana McNeil, PsyD, LMFT, founder of The Relationship Place in San Diego. Self-care is not a luxury or an indulgence, because if you dont have any gas in the emotional tank left you are not going to be able to show up and give back, notes McNeil. You cant physically, emotionally, or mentally give to others if you are wiped out.

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And not only can prioritizing your physical, emotional, and mental well-being preempt burnout, but it can also set you up for a more satisfying dating life or relationship.

Being connected to yourself is key to having relationships that are fulfilling, explains Stephanie Macadaan, a licensed marriage and family therapist in the Bay Area, California. When you can identify, express, and ask for your needs to be met, you can connect with others in an authentic way. You can take care of yourself versus relying on others to try to guess your wants, which can often lead to disappointment and disconnection.

Here, several self-care habits to consider incorporating into your routine that can bolster your love life.

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Invest in your wellness routine.

Drinking enough water, moving your body, and eating nutrient-dense foods is often touted as the best way to feel your best, but caring for yourself physically is connected to your relationships, as well, says Kederian.

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After all, if youre not caring for your body and feeling well physically, it can be nearly impossible to show up fully in a partnership. Kederian recommends finding a practice that soothes your nervous system, such as yoga, meditation, prayer, journaling, and acupuncture.

She also recommends finding time to get sunlight and be active daily, as itll boost your mood and positivity, which can lead not only a sunnier outlook but improved self-image. These habits will help boost confidence when you're in the dating process too, says Kederian.

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Engage in self-pleasure.

Any kind of physical self-care allows you to build more comfort and confidence in your body, points out Lauren Cook, PsyD, MMFT, a San Diego-based psychologist. I see so many folks who are so detached from their bodies, she notes. Theyre so in their head that they dont know how to be in their bodies, whether thats sexually, emotionally, and certainly [in ways in which] those tie together.

For that reason, she recommends engaging in activities that will boost your comfort level with your own body. That could be as simple as looking at yourself in the mirror when youre getting out of the shower or engaging in self-pleasure (whether that involves touching your body sensually or enjoying full-blown solo sex). This helps you certainly when youre with a partner and youre trying to build a [physical] relationship, she notes.

Pursue deep, intellectually-stimulating conversations.

Continuing to build curiosity and learning throughout your life is so important when it comes to mental self-care, explains Cook.

Think about how stagnant life can feel, especially in the fall and winter, when youre in a continuous loop of work, watch Netflix, eat dinner, sleep, repeat. The antidote to this  and a valid, useful form of self-care that can boost your dating life and relationships  is seeking intellectual stimulation, explains Cook.

Learning how to sit with your emotions and getting comfortable with vulnerability are valuable investments of your time, and it opens you up to being vulnerable in a relationship too.

She recommends reaching out to friends and loved ones and pursuing deeper conversations that go beyond small talk. Not only will the experience bolster your bond but it also improves your ability to connect emotionally and to be vulnerable with others  a skill thats undoubtedly helpful in romantic relationships.

Learning how to sit with your emotions and getting comfortable with vulnerability are valuable investments of your time, and it opens you up to being vulnerable in a relationship too, she points out. Great relationships are built on trust, communication, play, [a shared] sense of curiosity, so if you can cultivate that in yourself and then share that with a partner, youre setting yourself up for success.

Dive into self-work with a therapist.

By committing to self-work and meeting with a therapist on a regular basis, you cant help but gain self-awareness, which Macadaan refers to as a superpower thats particularly helpful when seeking a partner or already building a life with someone.

By talking through everyday situations and past patterns, you can come to understand more about your inner self, including ways you may block vulnerability and connection, and how to implement healthy relationship dynamics, says Macadaan, all of which will set you up for a more successful bonding experience in the present.

Christie Kederian, Ph.D., a nationally-renowned psychologist and licensed marriage and family therapist specializing in the psychology of relationships, adds that everyday life with a long-term partner can set off a variety of triggers  and therapy can help you understand their root cause. Are they about your partner or are they about your past? she asks. You really have to know the difference, so you don't end up self-sabotaging in relationships.

And if youre single, therapy can help you gain clarity on the relationships youve seen modeled for you over the course of your life and how that connects to what youre looking for  and why, says Kederian. Having that objective space where you can almost re-meet yourself is going to help you attract the type of partner that you want to build a life with, she explains.

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Avoid judging your emotions.

If youre feeling inexplicably blue as the days get shorter and darker, you might feel guilt or frustration. Even experiencing excitement when a friend bails on your happy hour plan could make you feel a bit shameful. In these moments, you have an opportunity to build an emotional self-care habit: accepting feelings as they come up.

Instead of seeing emotions  like happiness or excitement  as good or other emotions  like anger, disappointment, or fear  as bad, build your bandwidth to experience your emotions as you do, no judgment, says Cook.

After all, those emotions are bound to arise when youre dating or in a relationship, and being in touch with your feelings and inner knowing can make it easier to navigate challenges in your love life. If you can tune into your body and your heads reaction to feeling excited about a date or feeling nervous or scared about a date, thats all really important information, says Cook.

Even once youve gotten into a LTR, this practice will benefit your bond. As Cook explains, It allows you to integrate and apply that into the relationship as well, so that you can start sharing feelings in your relationship  and being seen in that particular way.


There is so much to do on the island, or, if you choose, your days can be filled doing absolutely nothing.

Belize has some of the most spectacular landscapes in the world with its crystal-clear sea and its lush rain forests. Sports Illustrated Swimsuit models Kate Bock, Hunter McGrady, Jasmine Sanders, Leyna Bloom, Natalie Mariduena and cover star Maye Musk all experienced the countrys beauty as well as its rich culture and great food while down there for their 2022 issue photo shoots. When not in front of the camera, Bock ziplined through the jungle and swam with sharks and stingrays, McGrady learned survival skills and Musk took part in a Mayan healing ceremony.

There is so much to do on the island, or, if you choose, your days can be filled doing absolutely nothing. Stay in Belize City  the largest city  if you are looking for history and architecture as well as a vibrant nightlife. In the middle of the country, San Ignacio is a small town set near the Guatemalan border. It is the perfect base for outdoor adventurers and for travelers wanting to see famous Mayan ruins.

For those visitors needing some downtime, San Pedro on Ambergris Caye is a boat ride or quick flight away from Belize City and is a top destination thanks to its laid-back atmosphere, stunning views and wonderful restaurants. If boats are not a favored mode of transportation, a three-hour drive south from Belize City will lead you to Placencia. Some of the most luxurious resorts in the country can be found here mainly because of its sandy beaches and easy access to the southern part of Belizes reef.

Spend time in one area or island hop for the duration of your stay. Mix it up and do a quaint and charming boutique hotel or a resort with over-the-top amenities. No matter which you decide, keep scrolling for our top recommendations in all four locations.

Belize City

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Fort George Hotel & Marina serves as an ideal stepping stone to the best of Belize. It exudes an old-world charm that meets modern style with its spacious guest rooms, outdoor swimming pool and proximity to everything Belize City has to offer.

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Villa Boscardi is a lovely bed and breakfast option in a quiet residential area in Belize City. This luxurious bed and breakfast boasts wonderfully designed guest rooms, a fabulous complimentary breakfast buffet and a common kitchen. The hotel is also close to various dining establishments and is a short drive to Philip S.W. Goldson International Airport.

Placencia

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Turtle Inn is a seafront hideaway that combines natural wonders with luxury style. The individual thatched cottages are decorated with handcrafted Balinese furnishings. The resort features two infinity swimming pools overlooking the Caribbean, a spa, dive shop and three restaurants.

Chabil Mar Resort offers stylish villas with partial and full sea views. This all-villa boutique resort features individualized decor crafted from locally grown hardwoods and the colorful artwork of local artisans. To soak up the sun, you can lounge on the resorts private beach.

San Ignacio

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Kaana Resort is an oasis of style, culture, personalized service and modern amenities for well-seasoned adventurers and tastemakers alike. Its location is on the doorstep of an ancient Maya city that inspired Kaanas name, which means Heavenly Place.

Chaa Creek is rated one of the worlds best eco lodges and is a pioneer in adventure travel to Belize. Located in the heart of Maya civilization in the jungle, Chaa Creek is set along the banks of the Macal River and stretches toward the foothills of the Maya Mountains. Chaa Creek continues to provide unique adventure travel experiences for visitors looking for an in-depth yet civilized vacation, with a focus on Belizes ecology, natural history and vibrant multicultural society.

San Pedro/ Ambergris Caye

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Victoria House Resort and Spa features more than 40 rooms of various shapes and sizes. Whether you stay in a spacious pool villa, luxurious suite, well-appointed stateroom or a romantic tropical casita, Victoria House provides the perfect venue for total relaxation and comfort. Perched at the edge of one of the most stunning natural wonders of the world, the Belize Barrier Reef, the resort also offers a variety of exhilarating adventures, from exploring Mayan ruins to diving the world-renowned Great Blue Hole.

Cayo Espanto is a private islandone of approximately 450 islands of the Belize Barrier Reefoff the coast of the country that consists of a five-star, world class resort. Spend your evenings enchanted and your days engulfed in the Caribbean waters that surround each private villa.

Styled after Tahitian cottages on the Polynesian island of Bora Bora, Ramons cabanas are built from native materials by craftsmen utilizing the same skill and techniques the islanders used in the days of the great sailing ships. Ramons Village is a sanctuary nestled in a tropical garden of royal palms, bougainvillea, lilies, hibiscus and dozens of other types of tropical flora.
A student passing through a college campus in Cambridge Universitiy, UK.

On Thursday, the University of Cambridge stated that it had historically reaped the benefits of slavery. In addition, it promised to offer more scholarships for Black students and allocate money to dig deeper into its troubling history.

Cambridge had done its own investigation and said there was no evidence that the university itself ever owned plantations or slaves. However, the results showed it had gained significant benefits from slavery. The investigation also revealed that university benefactors did in fact make money from the slave trade.

Read more

The school invested in companies that engaged in it. It also received money from families that owned plantations. Fellows from Cambridge colleges had ties to the East India Company and investors in the Royal African Company also had connections to Cambridge; both of those two companies participated in the slave trade.

The University of Cambridge acquired donations from investors in both companies. It also directly invested in the South Sea Company, which was active in the slave trade. The Legacies of Enslavement report said that even though prominent abolitionists studied at Cambridge, their legacies will need to be revisited.

Cambridges Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology believe that its Benin Bronzes, which was acquired in a violent military campaign in the 19th century from a territory that later became part of Nigeria, should be returned. The British university said the museum would have an exhibition about slavery and power dynamics next year.

It also has plans on developing a center dedicated to research regarding the legacies of enslavement. The university wants to strengthen connections with colleges in the Africa and the Caribbean as well as develop postgraduate scholarships for Black British students.

Acknowledging and taking accountability for its brutal history as well as making a plan for inclusion are steps in the right direction for having real diversity.
CHEF'STORES hopes to become a part of the Spartanburg culinary scene and to help local restaurants to grow, store executives said.

The warehouse-style grocery store held its ribbon-cutting Friday, Sept. 23, and invited some guests to attend the event. The store is located at 300 W. Blackstock Road in Spartanburg across from WestGate Mall, and will open to customers at 6 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 24, with free food and gift card raffles every hour.

US Foods Holding Corp. said CHEF'STORE is meant to be a "one-stop shop." The store will offer everything restaurant operators, chefs, community groups and families could need for their kitchens. Store hours are 6 a.m. through 6 p.m. from Monday to Saturday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.

Michael Krippinger, director of Store Sales & Marketing for CHEFSTORE, said there is no better location than Spartanburg due to the growing community in the culinary world.

"It's a great, vibrant community with a great restaurant scene," Krippinger said. "It's exciting for us because it's our fourth store in South Carolina, and it's a great opportunity for us to be a part of a great restaurant scene. We hope to be partners with them [restaurants] to help them grow."

The new 33,000-square-foot CHEF'STORE is the 83rd location in the nation. Before Friday, there were only three CHEF'S STORES in the state of South Carolina, located in Myrtle Beach, Columbia, and Charleston.

CHEF'STORES is continuing to expand in the nation, and Krippinger hopes the opportunity will present itself to further expand in the state.

Unlike other wholesale markets, CHEF'STORE does not require customers to obtain a membership in order to shop. Products are delivered daily so customers can obtain fresh ingredients.

"We have hundreds of products on the produce side, where we have regular deliveries for," Krippinger said. "We have wholesale pricing and feel that we are competitive in the market. We feel that we give a great selection for our wholesale prices."

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Depending on your needs for a product, CHEF'STORE offers both bulk and individual. The store also provides tax exemption for all businesses, whether they are purchasing supplies for a restaurant, school or any organization.

"For people with a tax exemption ID or restaurant license, you can get the tax benefits for South Carolina," Krippinger said.

William Cooper, owner of River Falls Cafe, said the new CHEF'STORE is an opportunity for local businesses to be able to get the supplies they need.

"My restaurant has a lot of different stuff, it's very diverse," Cooper said. "I need a lot of different stuff, and as far as I can see, this place has it covered."

Cooper previously used trucking companies and traveled to Greenville to supply his restaurant

"Mostly, I would have to travel to Greenville but this [CHEF'STORE] is right next to my house," Cooper said. "It's a plus having this place in Spartanburg. Nobody has to go to Greenville or wait on a truck. The restaurant scene in Spartanburg is building, and so I think this place is going to do really well."

CHEF'STORE has nearly 5,000 products in the store, ranging from fresh meats, seafood, produce, frozen appetizers, ingredients and equipment for kitchens and cleaning products. CHEF'STORE also provides customers with weekly specials, which can include baking and cooking supplies, wholesale food and more.

"It allows customers to get fresh ingredients from us on a same-day basis," Krippinger said. "We are open to everyone, seven days a week."

CHEF'STORE has chefs on hand to work with restaurant owners in helping set menus and recipe ideas, hoping to help new restaurants get on the right path for them.

"We have chefs on staff and experts on staff in our store to help people with their menu needs or back of the house," Krippinger said. "For us being able to partner with them, it gives them the great opportunity and resources for them to be able to start their own business, grow their business, whatever the case may be."

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: CHEF'STORE opens in Spartanburg, providing culinary world endless options
The legislation that legalized the recreational use of marijuana last year included provisions to expunge and reduce prior convictions related to the use and sale of cannabis.

On Saturday, legal experts will explain how that process can be navigated.

The Erie County District Attorney's Office is working with attorneys from the Assigned Legal Counsel Program and the Legal Aid Bureau to host a clinic on the topic from 2 to 4 p.m. in Elim Christian Fellowship church, 70 Chalmers Ave. The clinic is free and it's the second that the legal community has offered on the topic.

While in many cases, those convictions are supposed to be expunged automatically, it doesn't happen instantly. Courts have until March 31, 2023, to implement the system to clear those records.

Also certain marijuana-related charges related to the sale and possession of large amounts of marijuana aren't automatically expunged. They may be eligible to be cleared or a charge or sentence reduction.

To speed along the process or to get the more complicated cases going, a motion must be filed in court.

A criminal conviction, even for a low-level marijuana crime, can be a barrier for people trying to find new housing, job or education, District Attorney John J. Flynn said in a statement.

"African Americans have been disproportionately impacted by the criminalization of cannabis, which has hindered their pursuit of certain opportunities in life," Flynn said. "I hope to give a fresh start to our citizens who have been living with these criminal convictions by offering legal support to expedite the expungement or reduction process."

"Expungement gives people the ability to apply for employment, schooling and housing without having a marijuana conviction negatively affect the better future they are hoping to achieve, said Sarah Ryan of the Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo, Inc. in a statement.

To pursue a conviction reduction or expungement, attendees must show proof of identity and fill out an application and financial eligibility forms to allow attorneys to access court records and criminal history. Legal experts will appear at the sessions to answer questions about the expungement process, as not all marijuana convictions are included in the legislation.

Courts will automatically vacate convictions for most low-level marijuana offenses, including possession and sale of small amounts and growing cannabis at home. For some charges, the convictions are eligible for expungement only if the controlled substance involved was concentrated cannabis and not also something else.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to supporters at a campaign stop on the Keep Florida Free Tour at the Horsepower Ranch in Geneva, Florida. Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Rep. Bennie Thompson wants DOJ and DHS to investigate Ron DeSantis' migrant trafficking.

Thompson urged both agencies to investigate the Florida governors' activities ASAP.

Thompson joins other Democratic leaders who want AG Merrick Garland to shut down DeSantis.

Attorney General Merrick Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas should immediately look into any laws Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis might have broken while flying unsuspecting migrants around the country, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson strongly urged the Biden administration.

The chair of the House Homeland Security Committee called DeSantis' behavior into question in a letter to the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security leaders.

"I write with grave concern regarding the allegations that the migrants who were flown to Martha's Vineyard on September 14th were coerced to board the flight through false information," Thompson wrote, citing media reports about the disconnect between what the displaced Venezuelans said they were promised while being scooped up in Texas and what happened after they were dumped off the coast of Massachusetts.

Thompson requests "an immediate review" of what the migrants have gone through as part of DeSantis' bid to make immigration policy a deciding factor in the midterm elections.

When asked whether he expects the administration to follow up, Thompson told reporters at the US Capitol, "I think a letter from the chairman  asking for them to review it would be enough."

Thompson joins a growing chorus of voices demanding investigations into DeSantis' polarizing stunt.

Massachusetts state representative Dylan Fernandes and state senator Julian Cyr, both of whom represent Martha's Vineyard, implored Garland to investigate the "conduct of all of those involved" a day earlier.

Former Rep. Charlie Crist, who is challenging DeSantis this fall as the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, almost immediately tried to pull Garland into this fight. "Justice needs to be served here," Crist said within hours of the migrants stepping foot on Martha's Vineyard.

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Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, and Democrat of Texas, on Monday, announced that he'd opened his own criminal investigation into the matter.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has also urged Garland to investigate DeSantis.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell cheered DeSantis on, telling congressional reporters that he thought the politically disruptive project was "a good idea."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Fifth-grade students in Fairfield Elementary School play during recess on the first day of school Sept. 6 in Eugene, Oregon. Students can now play with different classes during recess, a loosening of COVID protocols.

Ohio reported 20,552 new cases of coronavirus in the week ending Sunday, down 5.4% from the previous week. The previous week had 21,731 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Ohio ranked eighth among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week coronavirus cases in the United States decreased 7.7% from the week before, with 436,694 cases reported. With 3.51% of the country's population, Ohio had 4.71% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, 24 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.

Sandusky County reported 123 cases and zero deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 83 cases and zero deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 15,938 cases and 245 deaths.

Across Ohio, cases fell in 53 counties, with the best declines in Butler County, with 636 cases from 841 a week earlier; in Lucas County, with 728 cases from 887; and in Hamilton County, with 1,200 cases from 1,353. a

>> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases

Within Ohio, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Athens County with 445 cases per 100,000 per week; Meigs County with 397; and Harrison County with 346. The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week.

Adding the most new cases overall were Cuyahoga County, with 2,175 cases; Franklin County, with 1,946 cases; and Hamilton County, with 1,200. Weekly case counts rose in 35 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week's pace were in Cuyahoga, Franklin and Mahoning counties.

In Ohio, zero a people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 11 people were reported dead.

A total of 3,117,109 people in Ohio have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 39,675 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 95,658,236 people have tested positive and 1,053,419 people have died.

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>> Track coronavirus cases across the United States

Ohio's COVID-19 hospital admissions rising

USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, Sept. 18. Likely COVID patients admitted in the state:

Last week: 2,200

The week before that: 2,125

Four weeks ago: 2,155

Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation:

Last week: 57,618

The week before that: 58,248

Four weeks ago: 66,210

Hospitals in 15 states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in 14 states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in 22 states admitted more COVID-19 patients in the latest week than a week prior, the USA TODAY analysis of U.S. Health and Human Services data shows.

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Sandusky County reported 123 additional COVID-19 cases this week
A tropical depression brewing in the Caribbean could form into Hurricane Ian this weekend as it heads towards Florida, according to forecasts from the National Hurricane Center and the National Weather Service (NWS) Tampa Bay.

"Probably in the next couple of days, it could go into a Tropical Storm," said Christianne Pearce, a meteorologist at NWS Tampa. "Then it's going to start to kind of move more west and eventually turn north."

Hurricane Ian: Sarasota-Manatee still in path of storm expected to become Hurricane Hermine

Hurricane Guide 2022: What do you need to know?

Tropical Depression 9 formed in the Caribbean as Hurricane Fiona moved away from Bermuda Friday, Sept. 23, 2022.

Pearce said the tropical depression is currently predicted to near the Sarasota-Manatee area of Florida's coast as a hurricane early to mid-next week.

"The track is still kind of uncertain. The center (of the storm) wobbles in the early stages. We're also not sure that it'll certainly make that turn towards Florida."

The latest information from the National Hurricane Center casts a cone of uncertainty encompassing all of south Florida.

"Since most of the peninsula is within the cone, the center could fall anywhere," Pearce said.

If Tropical Depression Nine becomes a named storm, it would likely be called Ian, since another storm in the eastern Atlantic will likely develop into a Tropical Storm more quickly and take the name Hermine.

Manatee County partially activates Emergency Operations Center

Bill Logan, the information outreach manager for the county, said Manatee County is partially activating their Emergency Operations Center this afternoon, but without permanent staff for now, referring to it as a move of extraordinary caution.

"We've been in contact with the emergency officials on the state level. We're monitoring this in a very certain way," Logan said to the Herald-Tribune. "We're urging our residents to begin making their preparations."

There are no sandbag locations determined as of now, according to Logan.

Stay up to date on the storm: Download the updated Herald-Tribune app

Story continues

Hurricane Shelters: Where are Sarasota-Manatee hurricane shelters? When should I go?

Logan advised Manatee County residents to sign up for emergency alerts by texting "MANATEEREADY" to 88877. Also, those with special needs (such as those dependent on supplemental oxygen or electricity for survival) should visit mymanatee.org/needs to register ahead of time for evacuation transportation or shelter assistance.

"It's going to be a lot of waiting, watching and seeing which way the storm ends. Don't ignore this storm. It may have a significant impact on us by next week."

The current track of Tropical Depression 9, which is expected to become Hurricane Ian, ends with a landfall near Sarasota-Manatee on Wednesday.

Sarasota County issues statement

Sarasota County officials put out a statement on social media Friday, stating they are monitoring the storm's progression.

(1/2) Sarasota Countys Emergency Operations Center is actively monitoring Tropical Depression 9.



Sarasota County continues to communicate with local, state & federal partners, including the Florida Division of Emergency Management and the National Weather Service.#SRQCountyES https://t.co/UYtYhJA0sg  SCG Emergency Services (@scgovEOC) September 23, 2022

"As the path and intensity of the depression remain uncertain, all of Sarasota County is encouraged to review their emergency preparedness plans in the event the storm will have an impact on our community," part of the statement said.

"We're not activated (for an emergency) just yet," said Brianne Grant, a media relations officer for the county. "We're monitoring all activity and recommend residents to review their plans, prepare go-kits and visit our website for storm checklists and tips.

Community members can visit scgov.net/beprepared for preparedness information and updates from Sarasota County. To sign up for emergency alerts and notifications from Sarasota County, go to AlertSarasotaCounty.com.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota and Manatee County officials eye potential Hurricane Ian
UConns adventure at Michigans Big House played out the way nearly all were expecting. The Wolverines were in a different class, on both sides of the ball, and pummeled the Huskies 59-0 Saturday before more than 100,000 fans and a national TV audience.

Michigan chose to start on offense and set a blistering tone. The fourth-ranked Wolverines took yardage in big bites, 72 in four plays, to score its first TD.

UConn made a stop on the second possession, but Michigan scored on six of eight first-half possessions to open a 38-0 lead.

Blake Corum scored four TDs in the half, and A.J. Henning scored on 61-yard punt return. Everything Michigan did worked. They swamped UConn punter George Caratan, and the block set up another score.

Tight end Luke Schoonmaker, from Hamden and Hamden Hall, made a 31-yard catch at the goal line to position Corum for a score. Quarterback J.J. McCarthy completed 10 of 13 passes for 187 yards before turning the game over to Cade McNamara.

The Huskies (1-3) couldnt do anything on offense against the Wolverines overall size and speed on defense. Freshman quarterback Zion Turner, often hurried, made few accurate throws, misfiring on 11 of his first 14 throws, with few drops by receivers. The best news for UConn was that running back Nate Carter, who left the game with an elbow injury, was able to return. though there wasnt much room to run.

This story will be updated.
WASHINGTON, D.C.  Doug Jensen, the Iowa construction worker who was one of the first rioters to enter the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was found guilty on all seven criminal counts related to the assault in a trial that ended Friday.

After deliberating for about four hours, the 10-man, 2-woman jury unanimously found Jensen guilty of crimes ranging from civil disorder to obstruction. Sentencing on the five felonies and two misdemeanors is scheduled for Dec. 16.

The Des Moines resident's case was among the most high profile for individuals who stormed the Capitol last year in hopes of halting the certification of Joe Biden's presidential victory.

At times during the trial, Jensen kept a close eye on exhibits that were presented. In others, he looked down at his lap, wearing dark jeans and a salmon colored checkered shirt  attire that is in stark contrast to the QAnon T-shirt he wore when he was in the Capitol building.

Who is Doug Jensen?: What we know about Doug Jensen, the Des Moines man convicted for taking part in the Capitol riot

As the guilty verdicts were announced, Jensen's wife April quietly cried as she sat in the second row of the courtroom behind him. Jensen blew a kiss to his wife when he came in to receive the verdict and she blew a kiss back when he was on his way out. In custody before the trial, Jensen remained in custody after the verdicts.

"We had a very conscientious jury and respect their verdict," Jensen's attorney, Christopher Davis told reporters afterwards. "This is a sad case. Doug Jensen is a good man who was struggling back when all of this occurred. He has a loving wife and family. I hope they can come back from all of this."

The most serious charge against Jensen was obstructing an official proceeding, which carries a maximum 20-year sentence, compared to maximum terms of five years for civil disorder or one year for entering restricted grounds or impeding a police officer. But defendants typically dont receive maximum sentences under federal guidelines.

Story continues

Related video: Capitol rioter Guy Wesley Reffitt given harshest penalty yet

Capitol riot arrests: See who's been charged across the U.S.

"Doug Jensen would not be stopped on Jan. 6 until he got what he came for: to stop the peaceful transfer of power," prosecutors said in their closing argument.

William Miller, a spokesperson for the D.C. attorney general's office, said the prosecution would not comment on the case beyond what was stated or submitted in court, but told USA TODAY a news release is forthcoming.

Any post-trial motions made by the defense must be filed by Oct. 14. The prosecution's response is due Oct. 28.

Jensen's prior record mostly involved minor offenses: a dismissed shoplifting charge in 1997, when he was 18, driving with a suspended license as a habitual traffic offender in 2001, and trespassing in 2006.

The most serious charge came in 2015 in Rochester, Minnesota, where Jensen was arrested and charged with two counts each of assault, domestic assault and disorderly conduct. He pleaded guilty to one count of domestic assault and one count of disorderly conduct.

Jensen trial opening remarks: 'Not a whodunnit case': Capitol rioter Doug Jensen's trial begins

Capitol Police testify in Jensen trial: 'Complete chaos': Hero officer Goodman recounts harrowing moments of Capitol riot in attacker trial

Trump supporters, led by Doug Jensen, 41, of Des Moines, confront U.S. Capitol police in the hallway outside of the Senate chamber in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.

Longer sentences so far from Jan. 6 crimes have tended to go to defendants who attacked police officers. The longest was 10 years given to a retired New York police officer and Marine veteran, Thomas Webster, who attacked and choked an officer.

Prosecutors have recommended seven years, two months for Iowan Kyle Young, who pleaded guilty to assaulting, resisting or impeding a police officer. He is set to be sentenced Sept. 27.

Federal prosecutors have charged more than 850 people in 48 states with participating in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, and arrests continue. Jensen's case was only the ninth to go to trial.

Jan. 6 hearings: Pressure campaigns, predictable violence: What we learned from all eight Jan. 6 hearings

Capitol riot in pictures: Seven startling images from the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol

It was never a question whether Jensen was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

"This is not a 'whodunnit' case," Davis said in his closing remarks, a comment he also made in his opening remarks.

"We know whodunnit," Davis added, describing Jensen as the "Where's Waldo" of the Capitol attack.

The prosecution's case leaned heavily on extensive video and photographs of Jensen parading through the Capitol, along with testimony from several members of law enforcement who clashed with him in the building.

"Jensen was the rioter who would not back down," prosecutors argued. "If it wasn't all recorded from at least 10 different angles, it'd be pretty hard to believe."

Central to the prosecution's argument was Capitol police Officer Eugene Goodman  who a reporter's viral video showed being pursued by Jensen up a Capitol stairway  and other officers who testified in the trail portrayed Jensen as "aggressive, "arrogant," and at one point, the "leader of the mob."

Jensen's pursuit of Goodman "was not a game of follow the leader; that was Officer Goodman in survival mode," prosecutors said.

The defense argued that despite Jensens confrontational demeanor, he did not wield weapons like many of the other protesters and did not act in concert with the other rioters in the building, urging the jury to judge Jensen on his actions alone.

"Jan. 6 is not sitting at that table; Doug Jensen is," Davis said in his closing remarks.

surveillance image from the U.S. Capitol shows a person whom prosecutors believe to be Iowan Doug Jensen scaling the outside of the building during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in Washington, D.C.

Goodman, who was hailed as a hero for steering protesters away from Senate chamber, where lawmakers were being evacuated, testified that QAnon Shaman Jake Angeli held a flag that appeared to be sharpened like a spear and that other protesters had bats and flags that they used to prod officers. Jensen did not, he conceded.

The defense also made a distinction between the Capitol rioters "dressed in costume" and those "dressed for battle," claiming Jensen was among the former.

Jensen's outfit that day  a beanie and the black shirt with a giant "Q" on it, in homage to the conspiracist movement QAnon  makes him easily identifiable in images from the riot.

He told FBI agents in an interview at Des Moines police headquarters a few days after the riot that he wore the shirt so Q, the anonymous purported government official who is the purported voice of the conspiracy theory, would get credit for the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

In closing arguments, the defense asked members of the jury to remember how they felt during the pandemic, when cities were ghost towns and isolation was the norm.

Davis, Jensen's attorney, claimed that the pandemic "did weird things to everyone"  perhaps, Jensen more than others, he argued. He repeatedly described Jensen as "a confused man."

"He believed (QAnon)," Davis said. "He honestly believed it...There's no other explanation for what he did that day."

Contributing: Bart Jansen

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Doug Jensen trial: Iowa rioter guilty in Jan. 6 assault on Capitol
Cooler temps, changing leaves, pumpkin-spice everything  it's official: Fall is here. Russians flee the country as military mobilization begins. And whose cellphones did the FBI take?

 Hey! Laura Davis here. It's Thursday  and fall has definitely arrived here in Denver! I've got my hoodie on, and I'm locking down leaf-peeping plans in the mountains this weekend. Hope you have a good one! Now, let's get to the news.

But first, need a smile?  Four paws up for funny, furry friends! See photos that sum it all up from the Comedy Pet Photographer of the Year competition.

The Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe to the newsletter here or text messages here.

 What's the weather up to in your neck of the woods? Check your local forecast here.

It's fall, y'all! Or is it autumn?

Is it more accurate to say Sept. 22 is the start of "fall" or "autumn"? Both words originated from Britain, according to Merriam-Webster. "Autumn," however, was the first of the seasonal names to emerge back in the 1300s, originating from the Latin word "autumnus." It would take 300 years for "fall" to come into the picture. After many poets began using the phrase the fall of the leaves, the word itself became associated with the season during the 1600s. Eventually, "fall" made its way to the New World.

In short: Autumn leaves, autumn sneeze, fall breeze and fall trees ... say whichever one you please. 

Visual guide: Just what is the autumnal equinox anyway?

When is the autumnal equinox? Should I turn my clock back? What to know.

Harald Wenske drives a Spreewald barge fully loaded with pumpkins across a river in the early morning in Lehde, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. Autumn time is pumpkin time. Traditionally, the 72-year-old also grows potatoes, horseradish and beets in addition to the pumpkins on his field, which is surrounded by waterways known as rivers.

Russians protest, flee country as military mobilization begins

Russia's announcement of a partial military mobilization set off protests resulting in hundreds of arrests  and a run on plane tickets out of the country. The plan to boost troop numbers in the face of Ukraine's counteroffensive was in full swing Thursday: Conscripts answered summonses, schools were commandeered for recruit intake, and there was plenty of controversy. President Vladimir Putin said the mobilization was necessary because his country is fighting not just Ukraine but the entire Western world. The military is adding 300,000 soldiers from the ranks of 25 million reservists, officials said. But some draftees said they had no military experience.

Story continues

 Photo gallery: Protests erupt in Russia over Putin's declaration of mobilization.

Police detain demonstrators during a protest against mobilization in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a partial mobilization of reservists in Russia, effective immediately.

What everyone's talking about

The Short List is free, but several stories we link to are subscriber-only. Consider supporting our journalism and become a USA TODAY digital subscriber today.

'We are not OK': Life in one Puerto Rico town after Fiona

The island is digging out. Days after Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico, more than 1 million people remained without power and nearly half of people were still without water service. In the town of Comerio, some residents were without water and running low on food. Others don't have refrigeration for medicine. And they are struggling to cope with the loss of "some very precious things." What it's like on the ground.

Maria de Jesus Medina, 83, sits with her daughter, Jesusa Vilches, 60, who is diabetic and hasn't had insulin in days after flooding damaged the refrigerator that stored her medication.

Fiona still making waves: As the Category 4 storm churned toward Bermuda, weather conditions are expected to deteriorate on the island Thursday before the storm heads toward Atlantic Canada. Though Fiona is expected to weaken on its march north, it is still forecast to be "a large and powerful post-tropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds" when it hits Canada, forecasters said.

Hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico? There could be one soon, which poses the "most significant threat to the U.S. mainland" so far this hurricane season, forecasters warned Thursday. Most computer forecasts predict the system  probably at hurricane strength  will curl into the Gulf of Mexico around the middle of next week, threatening Florida's Gulf Coast.

Whose cellphones did the FBI seize?

Cellphones contain vast amounts of information, including email, text messages and geographic locations. As the Justice Department investigates efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, it has subpoenaed dozens of Donald Trump's high-profile associates, including a Republican congressman. The FBI has been seizing cellphones and other devices from nine people connected to Trump. Here's a look at what was taken, when, and why.

Trump claims in interview he can declassify documents "even by thinking about it."

Poll: Third of the public doesn't believe Trump had classified materials at Mar-a-Lago.

The FBI has been seizing cellphones and other devices from nine persons connected to Trump.

Real quick

They're undocumented and retiring without money. What happens next?

Millions of Latino immigrants came to the U.S. throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, seeking better fortunes than they could find in Mexico or Central America. They raised families. They paid taxes. They settled down. They became elderly. But now they are aging without care. With about 40% of the undocumented population expected to reach 55 or older by 2038, some say the situation is a looming public health crisis. A look at what happens next.

A break from the news

Laura L. Davis is an Audience Editor at USA TODAY. Send her an email at laura@usatoday.com or follow along with her adventures  and misadventures  on Twitter. Support quality journalism like this? Subscribe to USA TODAY here.

This is a compilation of stories from across the USA TODAY Network. Want this news roundup in your inbox every night? Subscribe to the newsletter here or text messages here.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: First day of fall, Russian military mobilization, Puerto Rico, Hurricane Fiona. Thursday's news.
For the second time in five years, devastating infrastructure failure in Puerto Rico after a hurricane has raised the question of governmental status of the Caribbean island, a U.S. territory whose residents cant vote for president or for voting members of Congress.

More than 1 million customers remained without electricity, and nearly half of a major water authority's customers lacked running water in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona. The island's fragile power grid and infrastructure result from a lack of political power because of inadequate governmental representation, critics say.

This year, House Democrats introduced a bill that would give Puerto Rico residents, who are U.S. citizens, a self-determination vote. Proposed changes include statehood or independence.

What is Puerto Rico's governmental status?

Puerto Rico, acquired by the United States from Spain in 1898 after the Spanish-American War, is a commonwealth, or self-governing state, subject to the authority of Congress. Residents can vote in presidential primaries but not the general election. The island has a nonvoting member of Congress but no voting representatives or senators, as states have.

In contrast, residents of Washington, D.C., which also has been mentioned as a candidate for statehood, have no voting members of Congress but do get to vote for president. The district has three electoral votes.

Puerto Rico has given its residents the opportunity to express their opinion on the island's governmental status, holding various nonbinding votes on its relationship to the United States. In a 2020 ballot measure that asked a single question about statehood, 52.3% of voters said they favored Puerto Rico becoming a state. In three earlier nonbinding plebiscites between 1967 and 1998, a majority of Puerto Rican voters favored remaining as a commonwealth. Other residents favored outright independence.

Story continues

Reminder of Maria: 5 years later, Puerto Ricans are still struggling with Hurricane Maria's devastation. Then came Hurricane Fiona.

Hurricane wreaks damage: Bermuda faces risk of strong waves, damaging winds as Hurricane Fiona intensifies

Aid needed: Puerto Rico governor requests major disaster declaration; Fiona grows stronger

View of a damaged bridge after Hurricane Fiona hit Villa Esperanza in Salinas, Puerto Rico, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022.

What does it mean for Puerto Rico to not be a state?

Puerto Ricans are still dealing with the repercussions of powerful Hurricane Maria, which ravaged the island five years ago this week. That has aggravated Hurricane Fiona recovery and provides a fresh reminder of Puerto Rico's disadvantages under the current governmental system, according to those favoring a change in status.

The island's failed power grid "has become the poster child of the decay of the colonial system, its institutions and a very vulnerable population," said Cecilio Ortiz Garcia, co-founder of the University of Puerto Ricos National Institute of Energy and Island Sustainability.

The federal response after Maria was considered slow compared with aid provided after similar disasters in U.S. states, according to critics.

Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, Puerto Rico's nonvoting congressional representative and an advocate for statehood, sees "a direct connection" between Puerto Rico's governmental status and its frayed infrastructure.

"Puerto Rico, as a territory of the United States, needs to comply with a lot of federal laws. But we do not receive the same resources as a state," she told NPR. "And that means that this economic situation on the island, where you have a 47% of poverty rate, it's higher than any other state. Once Puerto Rico become a state, that will allow the island to normalize our economy, like it happened with Hawaii and with Alaska many, many years ago."

What is being done to try to change Puerto Rico's status?

During the current session of Congress, representatives and senators have introduced bills that would give Puerto Rico an opportunity to reconsider its status with the U.S. At least one House bill, introduced last year, would grant Puerto Rico statehood.

Puerto Rican legislators and its governor, Pedro Pierluisi, a Democrat, were in Washington last week pushing Congress to pass the Puerto Rico Status Act, which calls for a binding 2023 vote by residents of Puerto Rico on the island's status.

A man collects donated water bottles for drinking after Hurricane Fiona damaged water supplies in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022.

It is time to end colonialism within America. It is time to end the territorial relationship of Puerto Rico with the United States, Pierluisi said in Washington.

What is the likelihood that Puerto Rico's status will change?

Gonzalez-Colon, a Republican, expresses high hope for congressional approval of the self-determination bill, citing passage by a congressional committee and the support of some Republicans. But, in the face of history and current opposition, it faces a high bar.

The question of statehood for Puerto Rico highlights significant party divisions. Granting statehood to Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.  both expected to lean Democratic politically  has been advocated by some Democratic activists as a means of balancing what is considered a Republican structural advantage in the Senate and the Electoral College.

Many Republicans oppose statehood, with some saying it is a Democratic ploy to increase the party's power in Congress. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the Senate GOP leader, said in 2020 that Puerto Rican statehood wouldn't happen if he were the Senate majority leader.

Possibility of statehood? Could DC, Puerto Rico become the next US states? Here's what Congress is considering

And, in a 2020 interview, then-U.S. Sen. Martha McSally, a Republican from Arizona, laid out GOP concerns: "They're going to make D.C. and Puerto Rico a state and get four new Democrat senators. We'd never get the Senate back again."

Contributing: Amanda Perez Pintado, Grace Hauck, Adrianna Rodriguez and Chelsey Cox, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Will Puerto Rico ever become a state? Hurricane Fiona renews debate
The problem with laws  especially broad ones, no matter how necessary  is that they are blunt objects. They dont deal well with the inevitable nuances and variations that may come under their authority. So it is with the state law on nursing home staffing.

That a state response to problems in nursing homes was necessary was evident, given the substandard care in many of them, documented by a series of article in The Buffalo News. The question facing legislators, overseers and nursing homes is whether and how to discipline nursing homes that, despite their best efforts, cannot meet the standards of the 2021 law.

Its an important debate, but one that needs to be resolved with the interests of residents at the top of the list of priorities. The issue cannot be resolved simply by cutting the legs from a duly passed law.

A proposed solution is drawing criticisms from supporters of the law, including industry watchdogs and a prominent labor union. Draft regulations issued last month would eliminate the minimum penalty of $300 per day for nursing homes that can prove mitigating circumstances  conditions that notably include an acute labor shortage in the area where the nursing home is located. In that regard, the State Health Department, with the help of the Labor Department, plans to issue a quarterly assessment of whether such a shortage exists in any region. If so, under the draft regulation, no fine would be levied.

Other exceptions  likely less controversial  would include natural disasters or a national emergency affecting the nursing home.

It shouldnt be controversial to observe that staff shortages have been common across the country, spread among just about every industry. It would be no surprise that nursing homes might similarly struggle  at least for now.

But its also true that nursing home pay can be so low that many potential staffers would decline to take on what can be trying and difficult work. So, a question: If a labor shortage stems from low compensation, should that qualify for an exemption? Were doubtful.

The staffing law requires nursing homes to provide 3.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Of those hours, no fewer than 2.2 must be provided by a certified nursing assistant or nurse aide and at least 1.1 hours must come from a registered nurse or licensed practical nurse. Its a real hurdle for some nursing homes, but New York isnt alone in this; other states have similar laws.

The Health Department is promoting the proposed exceptions. The idea, a spokesman said, is to provide the department greater discretion in assessing penalties.

But critics see an effort to negate a law duly passed by the Legislature and signed by former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

Its a shame that the Department has capitulated to industry interests when the law and the genesis of the law are clearly intended to ensure that nursing home residents in New York State have appropriate minimum staffing every day, said Richard J. Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition. If we dont hold providers accountable for that in a meaningful way, it will never happen.

The big labor union, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, agreed. It represents thousands of health care workers in Western New York.

There are no easy answers. A actual labor shortage, not caused by low wages, isnt a made-up excuse  not if it affects more than one nursing home and if staffing falls short despite diligent, documented efforts. It should be fair to consider that in determining whether a fine is appropriate, but it cant be a cop-out, either. The question is whether a nursing home is being penalized for failing to meet an impossible standard.

Still, the driver in this conflict has to be the welfare of nursing home residents, too many of whom receive substandard care. These individuals may be frail and may lack someone to advocate for them. They need quality care. So the puzzle: When, via a fine, is it useful to take away the resources needed to provide it?

  

Whats your opinion? Send it to us at lettertoeditor@buffnews.com. Letters should be a maximum of 300 words and must convey an opinion. The column does not print poetry, announcements of community events or thank you letters. A writer or household may appear only once every 30 days. All letters are subject to fact-checking and editing.
Iran is facing some of its worst unrest in years as protests erupt over the death of a 22-year-old woman in the custody of the states morality police.

Mahsa Amini had been arrested for allegedly wearing a hijab improperly, in violation of Irans strict dress code.

Amini died three days after collapsing at a detention center in Tehran, and reports suggest she was severely beaten while detained, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office. Iranian authorities claimed Amini died of a heart attack, and the U.N. office called for an investigation.

Outrage has overtaken the country in the week since Aminis death, and the capital city of Tehran is awash with unrest as Irans police and paramilitary Revolutionary Guard reportedly try to control the demonstrations with live ammunition, pellet guns and teargas, according to the UN.

Thousands of protesters in cities throughout Iran are said to have taken part in the protests so far.

At least nine people have been killed in the fighting, though a tally on Iran state television reportedly put the count at 17, according to CBS. Other estimates suggest the number may be even higher.

The protests have garnered international attention, and international leaders  including some in the United States  have moved to condemn Iran for both its treatment of women and its reaction to the protesters.

The Iranian government needs to end its systemic persecution of women and allow peaceful protest. The United States will continue to voice our support for human rights in Iran and hold those who violate them to account, said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday sanctioned the morality police for abuse and violence against Iranian women and the violation of the rights of peaceful Iranian protestors, asserting in a release that the police were responsible for Aminis death.

We condemn this unconscionable act in the strongest terms and call on the Iranian government to end its violence against women and its ongoing violent crackdown on free expression and assembly, said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in a statement.

Story continues

The department also sanctioned seven Iranian security leaders for overseeing the violence.

President Biden mentioned the ongoing protests in remarks before the United Nations General Assembly Wednesday.

Today, we stand with the brave citizens and the brave women of Iran who right now are demonstrating to secure their basic rights.

Biden also underscored the longstanding U.S. effort to keep nuclear weapons out of Iran.

We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon  We cannot let the world now slide backwards, nor can we turn a blind eye to the erosion of human rights, Biden said.

The administration has been working to revive the nuclear deal from which former President Trump withdrew in 2015.

A group of U.N. experts said Amini is another victim of Irans sustained repression and systematic discrimination against women and the imposition of discriminatory dress codes that deprive women of bodily autonomy and the freedoms of opinion, expression and belief.

Women in Iran have been burning their hijabs and cutting their hair in protest of the restrictive modesty requirements.

In 2017, the head of the morality police announced that arrests under the dress code would cease, but the practice appears to have been resumed under current Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, according to The Associated Press.

CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour on Thursday was set to conduct the first U.S.-soil interview of Raisi during the United Nations General Assembly session.

The plan fell through when Amanpour declined Raisis insistence that she wear a headscarf during the on-camera interview.

As protests continue in Iran and people are being killed, it would have been an important moment to speak with President Raisi, Amanpour said on Twitter.

Iran is no stranger to protest within its borders. Unrest broke out in 2019 over high fuel prices in the country, and protests surged in 2021 over water and electricity shortages.

As Iran tries to control the protests, the internet has been shut down in some places and access to platforms like WhatsApp has been blocked, quelling protesters ability to communicate and share information on social media.

Raisi addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, saying Iran rejects some of the double standards of some governments vis-a-vis human rights, but didnt directly mention the ongoing protests on his home turf.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Russians are leaving the Russian Federation en masse

"If Russians want to come to us on some business, stay here for a period and then leave  there should be no questions, we can not restrict it," he said.

According to him, Russia and Kazakhstan are members of the Eurasian Economic Union, so "there are certain obligations".

"There is an agreement that we signed, Ashimbaev said.

If Russians are coming now, we cannot limit it. But we really hope that the situation in Ukraine will be stabilized.

Read also: Latvia to refuse entry to Russians fleeing mobilization, says FM

After Putin's announcement of mobilization, Russians are fleeing Russia enmasse, causing huge traffic jams on the borders with neighboring countries.

On Sept. 21, Putin declared a partial mobilization in Russia and espoused his readiness to use nuclear weapons in the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of Russia. He also said he would support the holding of sham "referendums" to annex the occupied territories of Ukraine.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu  who stated that Russia is not at war with Ukraine, but with the "collective West"  announced that 300,000 reservists would be called up during the partial mobilization. He estimated the mobilization resource of Russia at almost 25 million people.

The statements were made shortly after a rapid counteroffensive by the defenders of Ukraine: On Sept. 14, the Ministry of Defense reported that since Sept. 6 (in the space of one week), the Armed Forces of Ukraine had liberated 388 settlements and about 8,500 square kilometers in Kharkiv Oblast alone.

Earlier, on Sept. 20, the Russian State Duma, the Kremlins rubber-stamp parliament, rushed through votes introducing the concepts of mobilization, martial law, and armed conflict into Russias Criminal Code.

Now, desertion, absence from service and voluntary surrender will be punished more severely.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Sarah Townsend, a 21-year-old Murray State University student originally from Farmville, Virginia, was found shot to death Friday, March 26, 2021, in Calloway County, Kentucky. A 22-year-old man was later charged with murdering her and stealing her vehicle.

Update: Sotomayor was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

The body of a Murray State University student was found Friday morning in Calloway County, and Kentucky State Police said a man has been charged with her murder.

With the help of a student profile and family members, detectives were able to identify Sarah Townsend, 21, whose body was discovered early Friday morning in southern Calloway County in a ditch on Fox Road near McCuiston Drive.

Preliminary autopsy reports determined Townsend, originally from Farmville, Virginia, died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to a Saturday morning Kentucky State Police news release.

On Friday evening, Kentucky State Police investigators learned that Murray State University Police were asked to conduct a welfare check on Townsend after she failed to report to work that afternoon, per the news release.

Investigators began interviewing friends and relatives once Townsend was identified, and state police said that allowed them to determine her last known whereabouts.

More: Legendary coach Howard Schnellenberger dies at 87. See him through the years

With help from various intelligence services, state police learned Townsends vehicle, a Toyota Camry, was seen on traffic cameras in central Georgia.

Further investigation led state police to a suspect who also had ties to the same area in Georgia, the news release said.

Early Saturday, detectives determined the Toyota Camry was back in Kentucky, and they located the suspect, Julius Sotomayor, 22, about 4 a.m. near his home in Dexter, Kentucky.

Julius Sotomayor, 22, of Dexter, Kentucky, was charged with the murder of Murray State University student Sarah Townsend, 21, whose body was found Friday, March 26, 2021, in Calloway County, Kentucky.

Townsends Toyota Camry, which state police accuse Sotomayor of stealing, was found nearby, the news release said.

The unincorporated community of Dexter is about 10 miles north of Murray in Western Kentucky.

Detectives found sufficient probable cause to arrest Sotomayor and charge him with murder, theft by unlawful taking (auto) and tampering with physical evidence in connection with Townsends death, the news release said.

Story continues

Sotomayor is being held in the Calloway County Jail on a $1 million bond, and he was appointed a public defender ahead of an April 7 court hearing, per online records.

Kentucky State Police investigators were assisted by numerous agencies, including the Calloway County Sheriffs Office, Murray State University Police and officials with the university.

State police said the investigation is ongoing.

Murray State University President Bob Jackson told the campus community in a message that he was deeply saddened to inform them of the tragic news of Townsends death.

Sarah was a student majoring in pre-veterinary medicine/animal/veterinary technology and a Residential Advisor at College Court Apartments, Jackson said. Murray State University is one Racer family and this loss is felt deeply by all of us.

Students may contact University Counseling Services at 270-809-6851 and msu.counselingcenter@murraystate.edu. Faculty and staff needing assistance are encouraged to contact the Universitys Employee Assistance Program at 800-441-1327, Jackson added. Please keep the family and friends of Sarah in your thoughts and prayers.

Reach Billy Kobin at bkobin@courierjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Murray State student Sarah Townsend found dead; Kentucky man arrested
An attorney representing the families of children killed in a mass shooting at Michigan's Oxford High School in November 2021 has claimed that accused shooter Ethan Crumbley showed violent tendencies months before the attack.

Ven Johnson, the attorney representing the families, shared the information about Mr Crumbley during a press conference on Thursday.

Oxford Community Schools, as you all know, has done nothing but cover up and conceal this information from not just the public [and] to my clients obviously who have sustained losses unbearable for most of us to even think about, he said.

Law & Crime reports that Mr Johnson is representing the relatives of Tate Myre and Justin Shilling, who were two of the four students killed in the shooting. The other two students who died are Hana St Juliana and Madisyn Baldwin.

He claimed there were numerous warning signs ahead of the shooting, and claimed the school district ignored the warning signs "adding insult to injury."

What we now know is this: from literally the beginning of school, Ethan Crumbley was evidence and signs of being [a] highly troubled individual to stay the least, he said.

The attorney showed a piece of evidence at the press conference which appeared to be a notecard with a sketch drawn on it. Mr Johnson claims the notecard included a picture Mr Crumbley drew of himself holding a gun, which he gave to a teacher. He claimed that the gun was later erased. In the image of the card, the figure's arms appear to have no hands.

Mr Johnson said the card was turned in as part of an introductory assignment around the first day of school in which students were asked to tell the teacher "a little bit about yourself" including "what you like" and "what you don't like."

The teacher reportedly did not look at the card until the day before the shooting in November of last year. Mr Johnson was sceptical of that claim.

So, even though he drew it and he gave it to her, she claims she didnt look at it, so I would just ask us to think about that, he said.

Story continues

The teacher reportedly admitted that an image drawn to the left of the figure could be a sketch of a firearm magazine. She claimed in a deposition she would have done something had she seen the card earlier.

Mr Johnson reiterated that the notecard was turned in on one of the "first days of school."

The attorney also shared an email between a Spanish teacher at the school and one of its counselors that raised concerns about Mr Crumbley.

Mr Crumbley was reportedly given an assignment to make an autobiographical sketch and responded by writing that he "feels terrible and that his family is a mistake."

The Spanish teacher said Mr Crumbley had "unusual responses for sure."

According to Mr Johnson, the counselor spoke with the teacher but not with Mr Crumbley. During a deposition, the counselor, Shawn Hopkins, said he did not pursue the issue because he believed the response was simply to the assignment and not a reflection of Mr Crumbley's personal feelings.

The attorney was also skeptical of this, saying the assignment was described as "autobiographical."

The teacher reportedly sent the counselor another email just 20 days before the shooting saying Mr Crumbley was "having a rough time right now."

Mr Hopkins reportedly pulled Mr Crumbley out of class and offered to help him, but Mr Crumbley's only response was "okay."

Mr Johnson claimed that Mr Hopkins "did virtually nothing."

He also pointed out that the day before the shooting, English teacher Jacquelyn Kubina emailed the school's Dean of Students and Assistant Principal Nicholas Ejak and another official named Pam Fine that she found Mr Crumbley looking at bullets on his phone.

Ms Kubina said that Mr Crumbley was "on my radar" but could not follow up on the issue because it occurred at the end of her class period.

In that exchange she also warned that Mr Crumbely's work thus far in the class "leans a bit toward the violent side," which made her "concerned."

Mr Johnson claimed the school officials failed to follow up on the English teacher's concerns.

On the day of the shooting, Allison Karpinski, a special education teacher, found Mr Crumbley watching violent video on his phone. She sent an email to Mr Hopinks and Ms Fine about the incident.

Today hes watching videos on his phone of a guy gunning down people, Mr Johnson said of the email. It looks like a movie scene and not security footage/a real event, but definitely concerning when taking into account some of his other behaviors.

Mr Crumbley is being tried as an adult and has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder. His parents have also been arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter relating to the attack. All three have pleaded not guilty.
The president of South Korea has been caught on camera calling US lawmakers idiots and saying that they could possibly embarrass US President Joe Biden if they dont approve funding for global public health initiatives.

Mr Biden has just met Yoon Suk-yeol, a political newcomer without prior experience in elected office who became president in May, at the Global Funds Seventh Replenishment Conference hosted in New York.

Mr Biden had promised that the US would provide $6bn to the public health operation battling AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria around the world. But the funds would have to be greenlit by the US Congress.

It would be so humiliating for Biden if these idiots dont pass it in Congress, Mr Yoon could be heard telling aides in a video that soon went viral in South Korea.

On Thursday, the office of the South Korean president tried to smooth things over by rejecting the idea that the remarks were aimed at American elected officials. A spokeswoman said that Mr Yoon didnt mention Mr Biden by name and that it was supposedly mistaken for a word that sounds similar. Kim Eun-hye claimed that Mr Yoon had been speaking about the South Korean parliament, not the US Congress, according to The Washington Post.

But South Korean critics slammed that response, with the opposing Democratic Partys floor leader Park Hong-geun saying that the excuse was ill-founded and that the office of the president was attempting to deflect from a diplomatic disaster.

A US National Security Council spokesperson said on Thursday that the council would not comment on the hot mic comments, according to The Post.

Our relationship with the Republic of Korea is strong and growing, the spokesperson said in a statement. President Biden counts President Yoon as a key ally. The two leaders had a good, productive meeting on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly yesterday.

Both of the presidents were present in New York City to attend the UN General Assembly, during which they spoke on Wednesday.

Story continues

In a readout of the meeting, the White House said that the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen the US-ROK alliance and ensure close cooperation to address the threat posed by the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The Presidents also discussed our ongoing cooperation on a broad range of priority issues including supply chain resilience, critical technologies, economic and energy security, global health, and climate change, the readout stated.

Tensions are growing between the US and South Korea concerning the passage of the Inflation Reduction act and its new rules on electric vehicle subsidies.

The new law removes consumer tax credits for South Korean car makers that dont have active factories in the US making electric vehicles.

President Yoon asked for close cooperation so that the U.S. administration can resolve our concerns in the process of enforcing the Inflation Reduction Act, Mr Yoons said, according to The Post.
Tropical Storm Ian formed Friday in the eastern Caribbean Sea and forecasts show it strengthening into a major Category 3 hurricane as it potentially approaches Florida by the middle of next week.

It would be the first hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. this year.

The National Hurricane Center said the system is expected to hit Cuba early next week as a hurricane and then Florida on Wednesday. The NHC added residents in Cuba, the Florida Keys and the Florida Peninsula should have hurricane plans in place, though it's "too soon to determine the exact magnitude and location" the hurricane will impact.

SATURDAY UPDATES: What we know as Florida braces for major hurricane next week

The forecast track of the storm shows it hitting the west coast of Florida as a major hurricane on Wednesday.

"Should the system get into the Gulf of Mexico, which appears to be one of the more likely scenarios at this time, areas from the Florida Peninsula to the Florida Panhandle will be at risk for a direct strike by a strong hurricane," AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist Bernie Rayno said.

Where is Ian now?

As of 5 p.m. EDT Friday, the storm was located about 430 miles east-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica. It had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph and was moving at 15 mph.

A depression becomes a named tropical storm when its sustained winds reach 39 mph. It becomes a hurricane once its winds reach 74 mph.

FIONA HEADS FOR CANADA: Hurricane Fiona hurtles through Bermuda; Atlantic Canada braces for 'historic storm'

Where is Ian headed?

The Hurricane Center said Friday, "On the forecast track, the center of the cyclone is forecast to move across the central Caribbean Sea through Saturday, pass south of Jamaica on Saturday night and Sunday, and approach the Cayman Islands on Sunday night and early Monday."

HURRICANE CLASSIFICATIONS: What is the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind speed scale?

How will the storm impact Florida?

Early next week, the system is forecast to move near or over western Cuba as a strengthening hurricane and then approach the Florida Peninsula at or near major hurricane strength, with the potential for significant impacts from storm surge, hurricane-force winds, and heavy rainfall, the Hurricane Center said.

Story continues

FIONA'S DAMAGE IN PUERTO RICO: See the scope of Hurricane Fiona's damage in Puerto Rico in charts and graphics

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tweeted Friday that "while the eventual track of (the storm) is uncertain, Floridians should remain vigilant and ensure their households are prepared for a potential impact."

In response to the looming threat of a strike from the storm, Gov. DeSantis declared a pre-landfall state of emergency late Friday afternoon for 24 counties that are at risk of being struck, AccuWeather reported.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tropical Storm Ian forecast to hit Florida as a major hurricane
Sieu Sean Do was 12 when Khmer Rouge soldiers ordered his family out of their Phnom Penh home and into the Cambodian jungle, where labor camps, starvation and persecution in the regimes notorious killing fields would ultimately leave 1.7 million dead.

Do witnessed mass killings and torture before his family escaped, eventually moving to the United States. But lasting trauma and a desire to see justice stayed with him.

On Thursday, Cambodias 16-year tribunal supported by the United Nations to prosecute leaders of the 1970s regime ended after securing just three convictions at cost of more than $330 million.

For Do and other Cambodian-American survivors, it fell well short of the justice they sought. But some said it still created a vital legal and historical record of the Cambodian genocide.

In this photo from West German television, a Khmer Rouge soldier waves his pistol and orders store owners to abandon their shops in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on April 17, 1975.

The tribunal process allowed the survivors to have an opportunity to finally voice what they had gone through, Do, now 59, told USA TODAY.

The Khmer Rouge in 1975 attempted to create a classless agrarian society, forcing city residents into the country to work in forced labor. Mismanagement led to starvation and disease. The regime targeted teachers, lawyers, doctors and clergy, according to the University of Minnesota's Holocaust and Genocide Studies. The Khmer Rouge was ousted by a Vietnamese invasion in 1979.

In Phnom Penh this week, busloads of Cambodians came to watch the final proceedings of a tribunal that had aimed to bring justice, accountability and explanations for the crimes.

NEWS AT NIGHT: Sign up for USA TODAY's free Evening Briefing newsletter

In its final session, the U.N.-assisted tribunal rejected an appeal by Khieu Samphan, the last surviving leader of the Khmer Rouge government that ruled Cambodia from 1975-79. It reaffirmed his life sentence following his 2018 conviction for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The court previously convicted Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouges No. 2 leader, and Kaing Guek Eav, who commanded the Tuol Sleng prison, where roughly 16,000 people were tortured before being taken away to be killed. Both have since died.

Story continues

The tribunal  created in 2006 after many Khmer Rouge officials died, including top leader Pol Pot, who perished in the jungle in 1998 at age 72 while fighting a guerrilla war long after losing power  was long criticized for being slow.

In this photo released by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Khieu Samphan, the former head of state for the Khmer Rouge, sits in a courtroom on Thursday during a hearing at the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

David Scheffer, a former U.S. ambassador at large for war crimes issues who also served as the special expert on U.N. assistance to the tribunal from 2012 to 2018, said the tribunal faced a number of challenges. That included disputes over who could be prosecuted.

Cambodias long-serving Prime Minister, Hun Sen, is a former Khmer Rouge commander who defected when the group was in power and was installed as part of a new government.

While the tribunal fell short of its potential, Scheffer argued it still produced an important measure of justice while helping to expand school education about the Khmer Rouge period.

Justice has been accomplished. Does that mean that justice for every single death has been achieved, against every perpetrator of death and injury and destruction during the Pol Pot regime... of course not, he said.

Do, who lives in San Francisco, said he had "spoken with many angry survivors who shared their disappointment" about the time the tribunal took for so few convictions.

"People are quick to note the tribunal's flaws, especially political interference. And that was an albatross for the court," Rutgers University anthropology professor Alexander Hinton, who studies genocide and was in Cambodia for the tribunal's final hearing, told USA TODAY via email.

He added, "There were too few trials, but the ones that were held were significant and critical to helping Cambodia heal and move forward after one of the worst genocides in history."

In Long Beach, California, Richer San, 58, a board member of the community group called Cambodia Town, Inc., told USA TODAY he also survived the Khmer Rouge as a young boy.

Horrible things happened, said San, who recalled being forced out of the city at gunpoint. My generation and older, you know, still experiences PTSD.

The tribunal, formally called the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, will now enter a three-year residual period, focusing on organizing ts archives and disseminating information about its work for educational purposes.

We dont forget the past  because we were there, San said. But we also look forward."

Contributing: The Associated Press

Chris Kenning is a national news writer. Reach him at ckenning@usatoday.com and on Twitter @chris_kenning.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cambodia ends Khmer Rouge tribunal after 16 years. Was justice served?
737 Max is displayed during the Farnborough Airshow, in Farnborough, on July 18, 2022.

Boeing is to pay out $200m (177.5m) over charges that it misled investors about two fatal 737 Max crashes.

The US stock market regulator said the aviation giant and its former chief executive Dennis Muilenburg made false statements about safety issues.

Boeing "put profits over people" in an effort to rehabilitate its image, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The 737 Max was grounded for 20 months after two crashes killed 346 people.

As part of the settlement Mr Muilenburg will also pay a penalty of $1m.

"In times of crisis and tragedy, it is especially important that public companies and executives provide full, fair, and truthful disclosures to the markets," SEC chairman Gary Gensler said in a statement.

Boeing and Mr Muilenburg "failed in this most basic obligation," he added.

The SEC's statement also said that both Boeing and Mr Muilenburg did not admit or deny the regulator's findings.

"We will never forget those lost on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, and we have made broad and deep changes across our company in response to those accidents," Boeing said in response to the SEC's announcement.

"Fundamental changes that have strengthened our safety processes and oversight of safety issues, and have enhanced our culture of safety, quality, and transparency," the company added.

The SEC said a fund will be established for investors who suffered losses due to the misleading information between 2018 and 2019.

Analysis box by Theo Leggett, business correspondent

This settlement is largely symbolic. The 737 Max scandal has already cost Boeing tens of billions - another $200m will barely register.

But it does give the SEC the chance to call out Boeing and its ex-chief executive Dennis Muilenburg for making assurances about the plane's safety, when they already knew it had a serious problem - thereby misleading investors.

Story continues

It's unlikely this will cause Boeing any meaningful harm. Its corporate reputation had already been severely damaged by the affair. The company is now working hard to restore it, and regain public and investor confidence.

For Mr Muilenberg himself, the financial consequences of the settlement won't be that painful either. He received some $60m in compensation and benefits when he left the company. But the fact that the SEC chose to charge him personally sends out a powerful signal.

There have been criticisms in some quarters that the ex-boss has not been properly held to account for his role in the affair. On this occasion, though, the finger has been pointed squarely in his direction.

On 29 October 2018, Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, killing all 189 passengers and crew.

Less than five months later, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, another Boeing 737 Max on its way to Kenya, crashed six minutes after leaving Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa. All 157 people on board were killed.

The crashes were linked to a flight control system called the "Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System" (MCAS) in the Boeing 737 Max.

The SEC said that "after the first crash, Boeing and Mr Muilenburg knew that MCAS posed an ongoing airplane safety issue, but assured the public that the 737 Max was safe to fly.

The crashes have cost Boeing more than $20bn, including payments to families of those killed in the crashes.

In the wake of the incidents, the US Congress passed new legislation reforming how the country's aviation regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), certifies new planes.

A small number of trials are expected to start next year to resolve outstanding claims.

You may also be interested in:
Sep. 23Democratic lawmakers and others called on the Republican Party of New Mexico on Thursday to disavow a political mailer the Democrats condemned as racist.

The mailer paid for by the state GOP and targeting Democrats in at least nine competitive House districts uses a stock photo that was altered to darken the skin tone of the hands of a person who represents a sex offender cutting a boy's hair.

"These images leave scars," the Rev. Charles E. Becknell, a longtime civil rights leader and president of the New Mexico chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said during a news conference in Albuquerque.

"I say to my fellow New Mexicans: It is time that we put an end to this kind of crap. Excuse my French. But we're better than this, and we need to demonstrate to our fellow New Mexicans this is not acceptable," he said.

In a statement issued earlier in the day, Becknell said "digitally darkening the skin tone of the person in this ad, while suggesting they are a sexual predator, is blatantly racist and completely inexcusable."

House Republican Whip Rod Montoya, R-Farmington, called the accusation of racism "ridiculous" and "just stupid" and said Democrats were trying to deflect from what he characterized as their soft-on-crime agenda.

Montoya said the stock photo was edited to make the person cutting the boy's hair a shadowy gray figure.

"These progressives in the Legislature just continue to choose the rights of convicted criminals over victims and over public safety," he said. "That's the issue, so they're trying to make this about racism when the person is obviously gray. The hands look more like Gollum from Lord of the Rings."

Montoya noted Democrats targeted in the ads were also cast in a gray tint.

"All of the Democrat legislators on the other side of the ad, they were all darkened," he said. "But it wasn't darkened in the way of making it black. The page was darkened to make it look gloomy."

Story continues

The mailer cites two bills pertaining to occupational licenses.

One of the bills, introduced in 2019, sought to "prohibit the exclusion from processional licensure of persons convicted of certain felonies" unless "the conviction was for a crime related to the profession for which the individual seeks licensure." That bill also called for a board that grants professional licensure to "explicitly list the specific criminal convictions that could disqualify an applicant from receiving a license."

The bill passed both chambers, including with support from every Republican in the chamber when it went up for a vote, but was vetoed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

The other bill, introduced last year, dealt specifically with the licensing and regulation of barbers and cosmetologists and eliminated the term "conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude" as grounds for refusal to issue a license, among other things.

Even though the bill had Republican support, the mailers the state GOP sent to voters accuse Democratic lawmakers of voting to "allow convicted sex offenders to receive professional licenses for activities such as cutting hair or working as a nail technician  leaving unsuspecting women and children vulnerable to predators."

During a floor debate on the bill, Rep. Stefani Lord, R-Sandia Park, introduced an amendment to exclude convicted sex offenders from eligibility. Although the amendment failed, the bill still passed the House floor, including with support from seven Republicans.

"The reason why I voted for that bill is I believe once you've served your full debt to society, I think we need to do everything we can to rehabilitate you," Rep. T. Ryan Lane, R-Aztec, one of the Republicans who supported the bill, said in a telephone interview.

At Thursday's news conference, House Majority Leader Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque, said the GOP mailer may have been sent to thousands of voters across the state.

"I've been in politics a long time, both as an elected official [and] as an advocate probably more than 20 years," he said. "This is one of the most vile examples of racist dog whistles that I have ever seen. ... Luckily, New Mexicans are way too smart to fall for these hateful tricks."

Follow Daniel J. Chacon on Twitter @danieljchacon.
WASHINGTON  In focus groups in Pennsylvania this week, swing voters were shown video of Senate Democratic nominee John Fetterman speaking at successive events since his May stroke. The consensus, according to two people familiar with the responses given to Democratic operatives, was that persuadable voters believe Fetterman is fit to serve and getting sharper.

But the fact that Democrats are asking voters about Fettermans health suggests at least some lingering concern about whether it will affect a tightening race, even as the candidate consolidates his support among the party faithful, ramps up his public schedule and prepares for an Oct. 25 debate with Republican rival Mehmet Oz.

Four months after the stroke, Fetterman has not released his medical records. For much of the summer, as he recuperated, he made few public appearances. He agreed to a single debate showdown with Oz, who has trailed in the polls and has accused him of dodging more debates to hide any infirmity.

Fetterman has said that his main challenge is a lingering auditory processing problem, which means that he can have trouble  particularly in noisy settings  picking out which sounds to listen to.

Earlier this month, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who is retiring after two terms and supports Oz, questioned whether the Democrat could function in the Senate.

As someone who served in the United States Senate for almost 12 years now, I have a really good understanding of how the place works, Toomey said Sept. 6. If John Fetterman were elected to the Senate, and hes not able to communicate effectively, if hes not able to engage with the press, if hes not able to engage with colleagues, he will not be able to do the job.

Democrats say Oz is pursuing a risky strategy because Fettermans capability is increasingly evident at rallies, in campaign events with small groups and in one-on-one interactions. Beyond that, they say, voters are turned off by Oz  a doctor  attacking a stroke victims health, a conclusion supported by some of the focus group participants.

Story continues

I was with him Saturday in Scranton  he had 1,000 people! Ive been at a lot of gatherings and rally-type settings for Senate races  there arent a lot of Senate races that get 1,000 people, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said in an interview, praising Fettermans connection to voters. That connection is very strong. The other side is trying to break that and theyre having real trouble because they dont have that same connection. Thats what the race is about.

There are plenty of pressing policy issues for Pennsylvania voters  from the state of the economy to abortion and crime. But Oz has made sure that Fettermans health problems remain a top topic of political conversation. Fetterman now has the chance to put those concerns to rest in a high-stakes campaign that could tip control of the Democratic-led Senate and determine the fate of President Joe Bidens agenda.

John is communicating effectively with the people of Pennsylvania and running one of the best Senate campaigns in the country, said Fetterman adviser Rebecca Katz, a former Senate leadership aide. We dont need to speculate about whether he can be an effective leader in January, after hes had four more months to recover. Hes effective right now.

Two sitting senators, Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., have had strokes this year and returned to work.

Brooke Hatfield, associate director of health care services at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, an advocacy group for professionals and scientists work in communication-assistance fields, likened auditory-processing challenges in stroke victims to being dropped in a foreign country where you know the language but dont speak it every day, adding that the brain has to work harder.

But, she added, auditory-processing issues do not affect decision-making or problem-solving and noted that a senator would have staff and technology  such as the closed-captioning Fetterman uses now  to help.

There are a lot of supports available for people with communication differences, Hatfield said. I cant think of a reason that someone with communication challenges  wouldnt be able to do the things that they need to do.

Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz (Michelle Gustafson / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Earlier this summer, Pennsylvania Democrats privately expressed concerns about Fettermans health and lack of transparency, but Fetterman seems to have eased their fears. The party has coalesced around a message: highlighting his recent crowd sizes, playing up his bond with voters and pointing to Ozs New Jersey roots.

Still, the race appears to have closed in the Keystone State. In a recent CBS News poll, Fetterman led Oz by 52% to 47%. Fetterman led Oz by 49% to 44% in a Morning Call/Muhlenberg College poll released Thursday.

The CBS survey revealed Ozs persistent vulnerabilities within the GOP. While independents split evenly between the two candidates with 49% for each candidate, 13% of Republicans said they would vote for Fetterman over Oz (compared to just 5% of Democrats who chose Oz over Fetterman).

Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., lamented the ugly GOP nominating contest that drove down Ozs image.

Theres nobody beating Republicans up more than other Republicans in primaries, he said, adding that Ozs biggest problem is probably the Republicans who say Im not sure that hes a real Republican.

But operatives in both parties believe that the race has tightened in recent weeks because Republicans are coming home to Oz and that the fight is for traditional swing voters.

Oz spokeswoman Brittany Yanick said in an email that Fettermans weaknesses are resonating in the campaigns internal polling.

John Fettermans lead in the Senate race has evaporated because Dr. Oz is talking to voters  Republicans, Democrats, and Independents  who want to see a change from the failed policies of the past, Yanick said. John Fetterman this entire campaign has failed to be honest about two things: his health and his support for releasing convicted murderers back on the streets.

The CBS poll, conducted Sept. 6-12, found that voters say 59% to 41% that Fetterman is in good enough health to serve in public office. Among independents, it was 55% to 45%.

That helps explain why Republicans have been split on how much to focus on Fettermans health. Much of their ad spending has focused on allegations that Fetterman, who served on a state parole board, is soft on crime and too far left on economic issues.

Aside from Toomey, national Republicans have shied away from direct claims that Fetterman lacks the facilities to be a senator, instead suggesting that he should be more transparent and pivoting to policy critiques.

Hes got to come clean about his health, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., the chair of the Republican campaign arm, said when asked if Fetterman has what it takes to do the job. And then hes also got to come clean about his radical policies like wanting to release a third of the criminals in the state and legalize all the drugs.

Democrats say Ozs strategy has been risky because some voters find a doctor attacking a stroke victim unseemly  and because he has set the bar for Fettermans debate performance so low that it will be easy to clear.

State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, one of Fettermans rivals for the Democratic nomination who have since rallied around him, said in an interview, he believes Ozs attacks on Fettermans health showed a sliminess that will turn off voters.

Kenyatta added that hes been encouraged by what hes seen and heard from Fetterman since he resumed campaigning.

That was very scary for a lot of people, Kenyatta said of the stroke. And I think people are happy to see that he took the time that he needed to get back up to a place where he could keep up the type of robust schedule that he has kept up since he came back to the campaign trail.

Andy Harkulich, chair of the Mercer County Democratic Party in western Pennsylvania, hosted Fetterman at a late August rally and said the lieutenant governor seemed to be recovering well.

If hes having any problems, its slight, said Harkulich, who huddled with Fetterman backstage. But if you want to talk about mental, I mean, still very sharp. Remembered stuff that weve talked about before. I think hes fine.

The question is whether her fellow Pennsylvanians will feel the same on Nov. 8.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Round led by Target Global with additional investors Alameda Research, Jump Crypto

Funding will be used to enhance the trading bots ecosystem and develop new automated DeFi trading tools

TALLINN, Estonia, September 23, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In subhead and first paragraph, first sentence of release dated September 22, 2022, replace company name "Jump Capital" with "Jump Crypto".

The updated release reads:

LARGEST CRYPTO TRADING BOT AND INVESTMENT PLATFORM 3COMMAS RAISES $37M IN SERIES B FUNDING ROUND

Round led by Target Global with additional investors Alameda Research, Jump Crypto

Funding will be used to enhance the trading bots ecosystem and develop new automated DeFi trading tools

3Commas, an automated crypto trading bot investment platform, has raised $37M in a series B funding round led by leading crypto and financial technology investors Target Global, Alameda Research, Jump Crypto and Dmitry Tokarev, founder and CEO of Copper. 3Commas currently offers advanced trading tools and automated strategies managed by trading bots that have proven to help users earn profits through all market conditions.

The raise allows 3Commas to further develop their ecosystem of industry-leading digital asset trade automation and portfolio management technologies. Users currently benefit from 3Commas trading bots and ecosystem by having access to historical performance of different strategies and tools to easily replicate them through 3Commas automated trading features. Capital will be used to advance its proven machine learning and artificial intelligence trading bots to deliver higher profitability, expand its trading ecosystem, and enhance developers access to Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to create apps used by 3Commas traders within the ecosystem.

Additionally, 3Commas has used this investment to hire a robust research and development team to create DeCommas, a recently launched subsidiary which provides users with easier access to trade automation in decentralized finance (DeFi).

Story continues

"3Commas was created with the goal to help people achieve financial freedom by expanding access to complex, crypto trading strategies through powerful trading bots. Through this fundraise, our investors have shown overwhelming confidence that we are executing this vision," said Yuriy Sorokin, CEO and founder of 3Commas. "We are excited to continue to build technology that democratizes access to the transformational benefits of crypto by relentlessly advancing our technology and offering a suite of developer tools to make 3Commas the destination for investment app innovation."

3Commas is a product ecosystem - a complex of various interconnected products for retail users, power users, developers and enterprise level professionals, that complement each other by sharing their trading strategies and signals and, thus, providing more value. It democratizes trading for end-users and allows them to generate more revenue - each month over 70% of 3Commas users get profit from closing the deals through the platform. All traders have access to the same set of manual and automated tools, offering an equal opportunity for all to earn profits.

"The leadership and talent 3Commas has put in place has put them in a very strong position to be the dominant platform to onboard the next 100 million users to crypto through their automated trading and portfolio management capabilities," said Mike Lobanov, Founder and Partner at Target Global. "By creating an ecosystem of tools that work both in CeFi and DeFi 3Commas family of products provides unparalleled access to prosperity for the vast majority of crypto users."

3Commas raised $3M in their seed round in November 2020, which Alameda Research also participated in. This new funding is a strong signal of the continued growth, despite varying market conditions.

About 3Commas

3Commas is a crypto investment ecosystem that offers both manual and automated trading strategies. Founded in 2017 by Yuriy Sorokin, Egor Razumovskii and Mikhail Goryunov, the companys mission is to make trading crypto more accessible to millions of users seeking new pathways towards profitability and financial freedom. Whether users are a novice or experienced trader, 3Commas offers a complete suite of manual or fully automated bots and trading strategies as well as risk and portfolio management solutions, all underpinned by a vast, low-latency cloud infrastructure.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220922005579/en/

Contacts

3commas@wachsman.com
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IDB directors recommend firing Claver-Carone

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Wave of indigenous women run for Brazil's Congress

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Former Brazilian president steps back from election debate

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Argentine oil workers strike after deadly refinery blast

Sept 22 (Reuters) - The latest in Latin American politics today:

Evo Morales takes swipe at Gabriel Boric over sea access

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales on Thursday addressed the president of neighboring Chile, Gabriel Boric, over his position on a restoration of sea access for Bolivia.

Bolivia lost access to the Pacific Ocean in 1884 following a war with Chile.

After Boric condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the violation of its neighbor's sovereignty at the United Nations this week, Morales tweeted: "I have confidence that you will assume the same position in relation to the 1879 invasion and reaffirm your proposal of #SeaForBolivia."

Boric has in the past expressed openness to restoring sea access for Bolivia, but walked back the position after taking office in March. The two countries have not had formal diplomatic relations since 1978.

IDB directors vote to recommend firing Claver-Carone

WASHINGTON - The Inter-American Development Bank's (IDB) board of directors voted unanimously to recommend the removal of President Mauricio Claver-Carone following an independent ethics investigation, two sources familiar with the vote said.

The IDB's governing board will make a final decision within the next week on the removal of the president of Latin America's largest development bank, the sources said.

Claver-Carone met earlier Thursday with the bank's 14 directors to discuss an investigation by law firm Davis Polk that found evidence to support whistleblower allegations that he had an intimate relationship with a subordinate.

Indigenous women eye Brazil's Congress in Bolsonaro backlash

SAO PAULO - A record number of 60 indigenous leaders, including 31 women, is running for federal office in Brazil's election next month, in a backlash against the policies of President Jair Bolsonaro.

Story continues

Many say their main objective is to unwind the policies of Bolsonaro, who has stopped designating any new indigenous territory and pushed for mining and industrial farming on existing reservations, emboldening violent land grabs and illegal miners.

Meanwhile, of over 30 transgender candidates running for office, researchers say 80% have received threats or been intimidated this election cycle.

Brazilian ex-president makes what could be last voter pitch

Brazil's influential former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who served two terms between 1995 and 2002, said in a tweet he would step back from political debate due to his age, but offered final thoughts on the coming Oct. 2 presidential vote.

"I'm old and though I don't have any serious health problems, I no longer have the energy to actively participate in the pre-election political debate," he tweeted, adding that he asks voters to back whoever is "committed to fighting poverty and inequality... and the strengthening of institutions," among other largely liberal causes.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had in May published a photo of the two former presidents fist-bumping in masks, a move seen to bring Brazil's left and center closer to uniting against Bolsonaro, who is trailing Lula in the polls.

Argentine oil workers strike after deadly refinery blast

BUENOS AIRES - Argentina's largest oil union said it launched an indefinite strike on Thursday to demand greater safety measures after an explosion at a refinery in the western province of Neuquen killed three people.

Neuquen officials said the cause of the fire, which broke out at dawn in a storage tank at the New American Oil refinery, is still under investigation.

The Private Oil and Gas Union of Rio Negro, Neuquen and La Pampa covers some 25,000 workers and activities at Vaca Muerta, the world's second-largest shale gas reserve. (Compiled by Sarah Morland; Editing by Jonathan Oatis; Editing by Sam Holmes)
People sing songs of praise at "Unite OKC," a community worship service led by City Night of Worship, on Sunday Sept. 11, 2022, at Scissortail Park.

Attendance at the gathering far exceeded expectations, so much so that organizers ran out of the Communion supplies they had purchased for 2,000 attendees.

Amy Frazier, founder of City Night of Worship, heard about the shortage, looked out over the crowd at Scissortail Park and realized that "Unite OKC" had done as its name implied. The evening of worship that City Night of Worship (also called CNOW) led on Sept. 11 had brought together thousands of people of different races and ethnicities from different areas of the community and various denominations.

As the event unfolded, Frazier felt that her vision from the Lord had come true. She said about 20 years ago, he had shown her a diverse group of Christians filling a building as large as the Paycom Center, all worshipping together. The park setting that Sunday night was different from her vision, but the unity, love and goodwill emanating from the crowd was the same.

"There's just something special about coming together," Frazier said. "It's like being in heaven because there's no denominations there and we're all going to be at one voice praising God. Well, we got to witness a little bit of that at Scissortail Park. And I think that this is just the beginning."

A 'beautiful evening'

Frazier said casting the vision for Unite OKC took lots of effort because City Night of Worship, the nonprofit, nondenominational ministry she'd started to bring together worship leaders for mentorship and discipleship, was only about a year old.

But it didn't take the team of 14 worship leaders long to figure out that the time had come to bring the Christian faith community together in much the same way they had come together  across the denominational lines and other barriers preventing unity.

Frazier and others involved with the evening of worship said many churches and groups were ready for such an event.

"We have seen a hunger for Gods people to come together in worship, centered around Christ," she said.

Story continues

Unite OKC was deemed a success because an estimated 6,000 people showed up for collective worship and prayer. Frazier said her organization partnered with Kimray, Westmoore Community Church where she serves as worship leader and Timber Creek Fellowship Church in Norman which each donated funding for the event.

Other partners included Salt and Light Leadership Training, particularly the organization's executive director Ingrid Lewis; March For Jesus; Hope For A Change; Beautiful Restoration; Bikers For Christ; Crossings Community Church; All Saints Community Church; New Covenant United Methodist Church in Edmond; Emily Blood from Burn 24/7; First United Methodist of Oklahoma City; Freedom Church in Piedmont; KLOVE Radio and many other churches and groups who canceled their individual Sunday evening worship services and gatherings to join with Unite OKC.

The evening included songs of worship and praise led by City Night of Worship and a special Unite OKC Choir. The groups led the crowd in singing a song written by Marcy Priest especially for the event. Bikers For Christ coordinated with five Christian motorcycle groups to attend the gathering. Frazier said members of the faith-based biker organizations helped share the Gospel with event attendees and they also registered people interested in joining their groups. Gideon International representatives distributed free Bibles and Hope For a Change coordinated with homeless ministries and gave out clothing and sacks of food and hygiene items to the homeless.

Wes Lane, founder of Salt and Light Leadership Training, described the event as a "beautiful evening."

"It was inspiring to me to see all those people turn out from so many different churches and backgrounds," he said. "I think it's just an indication of what's taking place in our city right now. There's just a increasing spirit of the church unity."

Kaylene Balzer, co-founder of Beautiful Restoration, shared similar comments. The Edmond-area ministry provided volunteers to pray for people in the crowd who sought spiritual support. The group also connected people with members of the faith community for ongoing discipleship.

"We believe that Oklahoma City is a city on a hill and that there's a revival that's going to start here," Balzer said. "We believe that people in other states and cities will come here eventually, before long and they'll say what are you guys doing? Because what you're doing, we need to go back to our cities and do it."

Balzer said she could tell that people felt welcome at the recent worship event and she also noted that they were of different races and from different denominations. Beautiful Restoration, she said, has similar diversity and that's one of the reasons she understood Frazier's vision for the special evening.

Future plans

Frazier said the City Night of Worship group hopes to welcome more members and plans are in place for a retreat in November. She said the group wants to have another Unite OKC event in Scissortail Park in 2023. And she thinks local churches will join in the effort just as they did for the recent inaugural event.

"I feel like our Church really does want to get together," she said. "After COVID and after all these other things that have happened to keep us apart, I think there's a craving for this. We are more powerful together than we are apart."

Frazier said secular organizations come together and draw large enthusiastic crowds to support their causes and there's no reason that Christian groups can't do the same thing  for the cause of Christ.

"Why can't the body of Christ do that?" she said. "Well, we can."

To learn more

City Night of Worship, or CNOW, holds worship events on a regular basis at Coffee Slingers Roasters Shop at 1015 N Broadway Ave. For more information about future events, go to www.citynightofworship.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Unite OKC event draws crowd to Scissortail Park for worship
Programming Note: As we navigate through another school year impacted by COVID, John Baileys policy and research briefings will be shifting to an every-other-week schedule at The 74. Watch for our next edition in your inbox Oct. 7  and click here to see the full archive.

This Weeks Top Story

Scientists Debate How Lethal COVID Is. Some Say Its Now Less Risky Than Flu

We have all been questioning, When does COVID look like influenza?  Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco told NPR. And, I would say, Yes, we are there.

So unless a more virulent variant emerges, COVIDs menace has diminished considerably for most people, which means that they can go about their daily lives, says Gandhi, in a way that you used to live with endemic seasonal flu.

We are now seeing consistently that more than 70% of our COVID hospitalizations are in that category, says Dr. Shira Doron, an infectious disease specialist at the Tufts Medical Center and a professor at the Tufts University School of Medicine. If youre counting them all as hospitalizations, and then those people die and you count them all as COVID deaths, you are pretty dramatically overcounting.

If deaths were classified more accurately, then the daily death toll would be closer to the toll the flu takes during a typical season, Doron says. If this is true, the odds of a person dying if they get a COVID infection  whats called the case fatality rate  would be about the same as the flu now, which is estimated to be around 0.1%, or perhaps even lower.

Ill probably feel more comfortable saying something like, Oh, COVID is similar to the flu when we actually see a pattern that resembles that, says Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston in the division of health policy and public health. Were sort of just starting to see that, and I havent really seen that in a sustained way.

The Big Three  September 23, 2022

Federal Judge Strikes Down Biden Administrations Head Start Vaccine, Mask Mandate

Doughtys injunction applied to the 24 state governments that acted as plaintiffs in this case, reports The Hill.

These states were: Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

President Biden Says the Pandemic Is Over

Wake-up Calls: New Parent Survey Shows 9% Enrollment Drop in District Schools

Districts faced persistent annual enrollment challenges due to a set of factors we call the Three Ds: dropouts, demographics and deferments. As The 74 reports, from spring 2021 to spring 2022, a new survey estimates a decline of roughly 300,000 students in district public school enrollment due to these three factors.

Parents report their top reasons for changing schools are concerns with academic quality and safety considerations.

In addition, our analysis determined that parents political beliefs had little to no impact on their reasons for changing their childs school. Conservative, liberal and moderate parents alike ranked academic quality and safety as their top motivations.

City & State News

CALIFORNIA: Via The 74: California Poll Finds Parents Leaving Traditional Public for Charter Schools.

The poll found a higher percentage of school switches among Democrats, white parents, families with English as a primary language and households earning more than $150,000 per year.

Among parents surveyed that switched their childs school, the 52% that originally attended traditional public schools dropped to 41%  an 11 percentage point decline. In contrast, the 15% that attended charter schools grew to 23%  an 8 percentage point increase.

38% of parents decided to switch schools because they wanted a different educational experience for their children. The poll also found 31% of parents dissatisfied with COVID-related safety measures at their childrens school and 30% dissatisfied with mental health support or one-on-one learning help.

COLORADO: COVID relief money helps Colorado schools pay for math and reading curriculum.

The curriculum grants come at a time when many Colorado districts are adopting new K-3 reading curriculum to comply with a 2019 state law that requires them to use programs backed by research on how children learn to read, reports Chalkbeat Colorado. While theres no similar law covering math curriculum, education department rules say the grants can only be used for certain math programs  specifically, those that earned top green ratings from EdReports, a national curriculum reviewer.

ILLINOIS: Gov. J.B. Pritkzer ends COVID-19 test mandate for unvaccinated school and day care workers

NEW YORK: New York City is lifting its private sector COVID-19 vaccine mandate Nov. 1

NORTH CAROLINA: Wake County schools reports 343 teaching positions remain open as of Sept. 1, which represents about 3% of the district total. The number is higher for child nutrition workers, where the vacancy rate is 13%.The highest vacancy rate is for school bus drivers, with 30% of positions, or 267 drivers, still unfilled.

OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma Supreme Court rules school masking requirements dont need governors approval

TENNESSEE: TCAP Family Portal Now Includes Lexile Reader Levels for Students

VIRGINIA: Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed an executive directive that aims to address teacher shortages through strategies that include hiring retired educators and targeting recruitment and retention efforts toward communities most in need

WASHINGTON: Shifting Students: A Look at Washington State School Enrollment from 2020 to 2022: Via CRPE

There were 16,371 fewer students enrolled in all Washington schools in the 2021-22 school year than in 2019-20.

Enrollment in Washingtons district-run public schools declined 2% per year on average from September 2019 to September 2021.

During the same period, private school enrollment increased by 10% per year on average, enrollment in homeschool increased by 27% per year on average and enrollment in charter schools increased by 28% per year on average.

Policy recommendations

Federal Updates

ED: K12 Dive reports, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona sent a letter to state education leaders clarifying how states should distribute funds from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Priority for funding should go to districts with high rates of poverty and one of the following:

A high student-to-mental health professional ratio

High rates of chronic absenteeism, exclusionary discipline, and/or referrals to the juvenile justice system, bullying/harassment, community and school violence, or substance abuse

Students who recently experienced a natural disaster or traumatic event

Supreme Court to Consider Taking Up Challenge to New Yorks Vaccine Mandate: Via Politico.

Resources to Support Governors Advisers With Tracking Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Programs: Via NGA

COVID-19 Research

CDC Expects Omicron COVID Boosters for Kids by Mid-October: Via Reuters.

The CDC said in a document released on Tuesday that it expects to make a recommendation in early to mid-October on the use of the new bivalent vaccines in the group, if they are authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The CDC said it expects Pfizer-BioNTechs, bivalent vaccine to be available for children aged 5-11 years, and Modernas vaccine for those aged 6-17 years, pending FDA authorization.

U.S. Delivers Over 25 Million COVID Boosters: Modernas shot in limited supply.

According to the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, retail pharmacies will be receiving millions more doses of Moderna this week and that production is ramping up.

Omicron Sublineage BA.2.75.2 Exhibits Extensive Escape from Neutralising Antibodies: Study on the variant we highlighted back on July 5 and 7

In recent serum samples from blood donors in Stockholm, Sweden, BA.2.75.2 was neutralised, on average, fivefold less potently than BA.5, representing the most neutralisation resistant variant evaluated to date. These data raise concerns that BA.2.75.2 may effectively evade humoral immunity in the population.

Twitter thread

Viewpoints

The Case for Curriculum: Why Some States Are Prioritizing It With COVID Relief Funds: Via EdWeek

A new CCSSO brief details the ESSER spending decisions of those states that are part of the groups High-Quality Instructional Materials and Professional Development (IMPD) Network. The collective, formed several years before the pandemic, aims to encourage schools to use curricula aligned to state standards and get students engaged in grade-level work.

Advocates for a more standardized, district-led approach say that using the same curriculum across schools can ensure that all students are receiving grade-level work and that lessons progress in a clear sequence, building knowledge and skills as students move through the grades. As some states have urged districts to adopt high-quality materials, theyve also offered aligned professional development and coaching to support teachers.

Several IMPD network states, including Massachusetts and Tennessee, are using these funds to adopt new curricula or support schools in purchasing core reading and math materials. In some cases, states have introduced a quality-control element: In Nebraska, districts have to pick curricula that are high-quality, which is defined as meeting expectations on the nonprofit reviewer EdReports evaluations.

Confronting COVIDs Lost Generation: Very long and important piece in Politico

New Directory of Innovative School Models Aims to Encourage Experimentation: Via EdSurge on the Innovative Models Exchange.

 And on a Reflective Note

Remembering Queen Elizabeth: Kirsty Young delivers an emotional monologue as she signs off the BBCs 11 days of coverage.

She made history, she was history. Queen Elizabeth II has gone, but she will surely never be forgotten.

Kirsty Young delivers an emotional monologue as she signs off the BBCs eleven days of coverage.



She made history, she was history. Queen Elizabeth II has gone, but she will surely never be forgotten. pic.twitter.com/CuilUUiGya  Charlie Proctor (@MonarchyUK) September 19, 2022

Queen Elizabeth II Has Completed Her Final Journey to St. Georges Chapel: Where she will be laid to rest alongside her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

For even more COVID policy and education news, subscribe to John Baileys daily briefing via Substack.

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to The 74.
Proudly displayed in Narelda Jacobs' childhood home in Australia was a photo of her father, Cedric, meeting Queen Elizabeth II.

"As a kid, I grew up looking at her in an aspirational way and thinking: 'Gosh, that's the Queen! And that's my dad receiving an [MBE] order from the Queen!'" the Aboriginal Australian television presenter says.

"She's someone that I always looked up to."

But as Ms Jacobs grew older, the meaning of the photo shifted.

When she looks at it now, she sees a sovereign standing in front of a man who dedicated his life to having the sovereignty of his own people recognised.

"And he died waiting for that recognition," the Whadjuk Noongar woman tells the BBC.

Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have spoken of complicated emotions after the Queen's death.

The oldest continuing cultures on Earth, they suffered greatly from colonialism. The arrival of Captain James Cook in 1770 set off events that dispossessed Indigenous Australians of their land. Massacres, profound cultural disruption, and intergenerational trauma followed.

When Queen Elizabeth II first visited Australia in 1954, First Nations people were not counted as part of the population, and children were still being forcibly removed from their families to be assimilated into white households. In some parts of her tour, Aboriginal Australians were actively hidden from view.

An estimated 70% of Australia's population saw the Queen on her first visit

Much has changed since, but Indigenous Australians remain disproportionately worse off in terms of health, education and other measures compared to non-Indigenous Australians.

"We're still not doing as well and that's because of colonial rule," Wiradjuri academic Sandy O'Sullivan says.

Mixed feelings

As a result Australia has struggled with the question of how to celebrate her life while acknowledging some of the country's darkest chapters.

A decision to lower the Aboriginal flag to half-mast in her honour - in line with other official flags - drew some criticism, as did the decision to suspend parliament for a fortnight. A promise to rename a Melbourne hospital from an Aboriginal word, Maroondah, to Queen Elizabeth II Hospital has been attacked as "tone deaf".

Story continues

Controversially, the Australian Football League Women's decided against mandating a minute's silence for the Queen last week because it was Indigenous Round. But the National Rugby League fined and suspended an Indigenous player after she wrote an offensive post about the Queen that some defended as freedom of speech.

For University of Canberra Chancellor and Aboriginal elder Tom Calma, the Queen led a life of service "with a whole lot of dignity and humanity".

"She inherited, at a very young age, a whole lot of global challenges. We've seen a lot of change and she's been at the helm of that," says Prof Calma, a Kungarakan and Iwaidja man.

She seemed sympathetic, he says, to the desires of First Nations people - such as in 2000 when she called for the government to "ensure prosperity touches all Australians", pointing out many Indigenous people felt "left behind".

But some say the Queen's legacy in Australia is impossible to separate from the invasion and colonisation of the country.

Among them is Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe, who referred to the Queen as a coloniser while taking her oath in parliament earlier this year.

Indigenous people never ceded their sovereignty, the Djabwurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman wrote in the Guardian Australia last week.

"The institutions that British colonisation brought here, from the education that erases us to the prisons that kill us, are designed to destroy the oldest living culture in the world," wrote Ms Thorpe.

"That's the legacy of the Crown in this country."

For others, there is criticism of what the Queen herself didn't do. Many Indigenous Australians made appeals to her for greater support during her reign.

Among them was Ms Jacobs' father, an Anglican reverend and one-time National Aboriginal Conference chair. Though he was always "very fond" of the Queen, Cedric Jacobs had spoken to her about his people's desire for a treaty.

"Could there have been something that she could have done?" Ms Jacobs asks.

Narelda Jacobs with her father, Cedric

Prof O'Sullivan says: "I don't have a lot of time for people who want to celebrate the idea of somebody passing away."

But it's not fair to paint the Queen as simply a "kindly grandmother" given she was so influential and had "enormous wealth", the academic adds.

She used that power to be an "incredibly eloquent" advocate for some causes, Prof O'Sullivan says. "[But] she certainly didn't do anything to make our lives better."

Prof Calma argues the Queen inherited colonial tensions she had no part in creating.

"There's always an argument that more could have happened, but that's not always in the hands of the monarch," he says.

"We can't continually blame the Crown, when we've had our own constitution since 1901. It is the Australian government who has to step up."

'An opportunity'

Some argue an Australia that recognises the harm colonisation has done to First Nations people, cannot remain subject to a British monarch.

But a referendum on a republic looks at least three years away. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has committed to first holding a referendum on recognising Indigenous people in Australia's constitution and giving them a Voice to Parliament - a new advisory body.

And even if Australia becomes a republic it may not leave the Commonwealth, Prof Calma says.

Some urge the monarchy to embrace a new era.

"This is an opportunity for a clean slate," Prof O'Sullivan says. "I have a lot of a lot of hope."

Tom Calma, left, pictured with King Charles on one of his visits to Australia

Some Indigenous Australians want King Charles III to make an apology for the damage done by colonialism - like that offered to New Zealand's Maori in 1995.

There are also calls for reparations - financial compensation, the return of land and artefacts, and the repatriation of ancestral remains located in British museums.

The King could also consider lending his support to the campaign for the Voice to Parliament, some say.

All the BBC spoke to said they wanted the King to meet with First Nations people, and to listen.

"It is really frustrating. These are the same conversations that our leaders would have had with his mum," Ms Jacobs said.

"But I don't want anybody else to die waiting to have their sovereignty as a First Nations person recognised."
Republican Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem revealed during a debate Thursday that he was interviewed as a witness by both the U.S. Department of Justice and the congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

His comments came as he debated his Democratic opponent, Adrian Fontes, in a raucous back-and-forth that focused on whether election results are trustworthy and the value of early voting.

Finchem was in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 and took part in the Stop the Steal march to the Capitol, although he said he did not go into the building that was breached by rioters. He has maintained the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump and on Thursday invoked the "2,000 Mules" conspiracy documentary as evidence that there was fraud in the election  three terabytes' worth.

After the debate, he offered scant details about his talks with federal and congressional investigators, saying only that the interviews happened several months ago.

That federal officials interviewed Finchem is new information; all that was known publicly to date was that he was subpoenaed by the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol. He has declined to comment on whether he complied with that subpoena. Any involvement with the Justice Department also is a new revelation.

Mark Finchem, Republican candidate for secretary of state, attends a debate sponsored by the Arizona Clean Elections Commission at the Arizona PBS studios at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University in Phoenix on September 22, 2022.

Who won the election in 2020?

Moderator Ted Simons of "Arizona Horizon" on Arizona PBS opened the debate with the question that has defined much of this year's electoral contests: who won the 2020 presidential race and would the candidates, if they were secretary of state, have signed off on the official results?

Finchem said there were "too many hypotheticals" for him to have faith in the results, but those questions arose only after the election concluded. Given what is now known, Finchem said the election in Arizona was "irredeemably compromised" in several counties, including Maricopa, Pima and Yuma.

Story continues

Pressed for evidence, Finchem pointed to recent actions by the state attorney general in Yuma County. The criminal cases in Yuma County were unrelated to the 2020 general election.

2022 election: These candidates still deny or question 2020 Trump election results

You have at least three people who have been indicted," he said. He tried to draw a distinction between overturning an election  the handful of improper ballots would not have made a difference  and loss of confidence in what he called a mismanaged election.

Im talking about if an election is mismanaged what recourse do the people have? Finchem said.

Fontes, who oversaw the 2020 election as Maricopa County recorder, answered that the courts and the rule of law are the recourse. He accused Finchem of repeating lies that have undermined faith in elections.

What we now have is an entire set of fiction that has somehow managed to make a lot of money for some people outside of the regular norms that we expect," he said. This is a chaotic way of redressing a political loss.

Adrian Fontes, Democratic candidate for secretary of state, attends a debate sponsored by the Arizona Clean Elections Commission at the Arizona PBS studios at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University in Phoenix on September 22, 2022.

Criticism of election management

Finchem jumped on that comment, saying that Fontes' tenure as recorder was chaotic. He criticized Fontes' decision in 2020 to send ballots to all Democratic voters for the presidential preference election  a move that current secretary of state and fellow Democrat Katie Hobbs told him to not do and that a court blocked him from carrying out.

Fontes defended the move as in the best interest of voters, given the preference election was happening in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and people were afraid to leave their homes.

End early voting? Ban machines?: Here's where Arizona's secretary of state candidates stand on elections

In comments after the debate, Fontes didn't back down from his decision, arguing that his guiding light is doing what is best to serve voters.

"If we can make it easier for them while maintaining security and accountability, that's what I'm going to fight for," he said.

Finchem also criticized Fontes' conduct of the 2018 election, in which some polls did not open on time and others were without all the needed equipment.

"You want to talk about predictability? he said. He said Fontes' performance led to him losing his reelection bid in 2020.

If you cant handle one county, how can you handle 15? he said, referring to the oversight role the secretary of state has over the counties, which actually run elections.

Adrian Fontes, Democratic candidate for secretary of state, attends a debate sponsored by the Arizona Clean Elections Commission at the Arizona PBS studios at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University in Phoenix on September 22, 2022.

Questions about August primary

Co-moderator Richard Ruelas of The Arizona Republic asked Finchem how, given his distrust of the 2020 election, he viewed the Aug. 2 primary that resulted in him winning the GOP nomination for secretary of state.

I have no idea. It is what it is," Finchem said. Asked what changed, he said the candidates," adding that no one has really dug into how ballots were processed.

Fontes called the response most telling.

Finchem singled out the candidates, Fontes said. "Not the process, not the people running things, not the rules, generally speaking. That, he suggested, is inserting personal beliefs ahead of what the facts show.

Differing views on early voting

The candidates also offered differing views on Arizona's early voting, or vote by mail, system.

Fontes charged that Finchem wants to force voters to stand in long lines on Election Day and eliminate the longstanding and popular early voting system.

Finhem is a critic of the system, saying it opens up the potential for fraud, and has advocated for a return to a process where people go to the polls to cast their ballots, with allowances for absentee voting.

The two are vying for the seat that Hobbs is vacating as she runs for governor.

Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com and follow her on Twitter @maryjpitzl.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Finchem, Fontes debate as GOP candidate reveals new Jan. 6 interview
Booker Prize winning novelist Dame Hilary Mantel has died aged 70.

Best known for her best-selling historical trilogy about the life of Thomas Cromwell, she won the Booker twice - for Wolf Hall and its sequel Bring Up the Bodies. The books were filmed for TV and became hit West End shows.

Dame Hilarys death was announced on Friday by her literary agents, A.M. Heath and publishers Harper Collins, who said she died suddenly yet peacefully yesterday, surrounded by close family and friends.

Her Wolf Hall trilogy has been translated into 41 languages and has sold more than 5 million copies.

Claire Foy as Ann Boleyn in the BBC drama inspired by Mantels books (BBC)

Born in Derbyshire, she studied at the London School of Economics before living and working in Botswana and Saudi Arabia then returning to the UK as her career took off.

Always critically acclaimed, she started to find a wider audience with another historical epic - A Place of Greater Safety which was set during the French revolution.

She was awarded a CBE in 2006 and made a Dame in 2014.

Dame Hilary Mantel holding her Dame Commander of the British Empire medal presented to her by the Prince of Wales for services to literature at an Investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace in central London. (PA)

Her agent Bill Hamilton, who began representing her in 1984, said it had been the greatest privilege to work with her.

He said: Her wit, stylistic daring, creative ambition and phenomenal historical insight mark her out as one of the greatest novelists of our time. She will be remembered for her enormous generosity to other budding writers, her capacity to electrify a live audience, and the huge array of her journalism and criticism, producing some of the finest commentary on issues and books.

Emails from Hilary were sprinkled with bon mots and jokes as she observed the world with relish and pounced on the lazy or absurd and nailed cruelty and prejudice. There was always a slight aura of otherworldliness about her, as she saw and felt things us ordinary mortals missed, but when she perceived the need for confrontation she would fearlessly go into battle.

And all of that against the backdrop of chronic health problems, which she dealt with so stoically. We will miss her immeasurably, but as a shining light for writers and readers she leaves an extraordinary legacy. Our thoughts go out to her beloved husband Gerald, family and friends.

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Among those paying tribute was fellow novelist Philip Hensher who said her kindness was unexampled.

Hilary Mantel, RIP. Her kindness was unexampled, her ambition immense, her clarity of mind an inspiration.  Philip Hensher (@PhilipHensher) September 23, 2022

Harry Potter author JK Rowling hailed her as a genius.

Another tribute came from Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon who said it was impossible to overstate the significance of the literary legacy Hilary Mantel leaves behind.
Republicans hammer crime in key Wisconsin races; Democrats say they want to distract from abortion

Republicans are going on the attack in Wisconsin -- drawing a "fact check" in rebuttal from the state's Democratic governor -- as they press what they see as an advantage on the issue of crime and law enforcement support in the final weeks before crucial midterm races there.

A recent spate of ads released by GOP groups attacking the Democratic nominees running for office have pushed them to go on the defense, with incumbent Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday working to debunk, he said, a TV spot from the Republican Governors Association that claimed his policies played a role in the release of hundreds of violent criminals by the state's parole commission.

Democratic operatives say conservatives' focus on crime is a distraction from other key issues on which voters view them less favorably, like abortion access post Roe. Evers' Republican challenger, Tim Michels, opposes abortion in almost all cases. "I'm principled; my wife and I, we know we have to answer to somebody higher than anybody on the face of this earth. We're pro-life because of our faith," he has said.

MORE: GOP strong on crime, boosted by trust in inflation: POLL

But a Marquette University Law School Poll released earlier this month analyzing Wisconsin's Senate and governor race showed that 61% of registered voters were concerned about crime. The issue ranked among the top-five issues for voters in the state.

In response to the RGA ad, which sought to link Evers to the release of "over 800 convicted criminals," "270 murderers and attempted murderers" and "44 child rapists," the Evers campaign said "of the 884 convicted criminals released under Gov. Evers' administration, nearly half were released because their release was required by law."

His campaign stressed that, in Wisconsin, "only the parole chair can decide who gets let out of prison on parole. The governor has no role in these decisions," adding that the parole chair, John Tate, "never received a full confirmation hearing" and that he was unanimously recommended for confirmation by a Republican-controlled Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety.

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PHOTO: Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels, left, speaks as former President Donald Trump, right, listens at a rally, Aug. 5, 2022, in Waukesha, Wis. (Morry Gash/AP, FILE)

And as to the RGA ad's claims that the governor's "liberal policies" have made local communities less safe, Evers' campaign pointed out that the governor signed a bill in April preventing violent criminals and sex offenders from being released early from prison in the future. Evers contrasted that with Michels, who opposes gun law changes including so-called "red flag" legislation, which would allow law enforcement to remove firearms from people they believe may present a danger to themselves or others.

Michels said in June: "It's not the guns. It's a cultural problem today. And a lot of it is a byproduct of the whole 'defund the police' movement, where cops became bad guys."

The Republican Party and their Wisconsin nominees have also spotlighted two members of the law enforcement community who have publicly announced that they never actually endorsed Democratic Senate nominee Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, despite their names being initially filed under a list by the campaign detailing officers who support him.

Both La Crosse County Sheriff's Captain John Siegel -- who is running for county sheriff -- and Racine County Deputy Malik Frazier's names were listed but have since been removed by the Barnes campaign. The coalition of law enforcement that supports Barnes now includes 15 members, two of whom are active-duty sheriffs from Rock County and Green County.

MORE: Beasley and Demings show how 'unique' swing-state Democrats are embracing law enforcement

Wisconsin Right Now first reported on Siegel's removal from the list. Siegel told the outlet that he never endorsed the lieutenant governor and that he did not plan to endorse anyone in the state's Senate race.

When reached by ABC News, Lt. Michael Luell, a spokesman with the Racine County Sheriff's Office, said that Deputy Malik Frazier "expressed some level of surprise" when he saw his name on the list of law enforcement who supported Barnes.

"[Frazier] stated that he may be personally supporting Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, but he did not intend to professionally endorse him, and that professional endorsement was a mistake made by the Barnes' campaign," Luell said. (La Crosse County Sheriff's Captain John Siegel did not respond to a request from ABC News for comment.)

PHOTO: Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers speaks during an event attended by President Biden at Henry Maier Festival Park in Milwaukee, Sept. 5, 2022. (Susan Walsh/AP)

The Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican-aligned super PAC, has recently published multiple ads targeting Barnes' support to eliminate cash bail, an issue that its supporter say would remove an excessive financial burden on people accused of even minor infractions -- but which the GOP ad contends would set "accused criminals free into the community before trial."

In a statement to ABC News in response to the negative ads, Maddy McDaniel, a Barnes campaign spokeswoman, said: "Ron Johnson defended the criminals whose insurrection injured 140 police officers. He loves to point fingers about crime, but then voted against police funding while Lt. Governor Barnes and Governor Evers actually invested in public safety and law enforcement."

Some outside Democratic strategists cast the Republican ads focusing on crime as "fear mongering" and a distraction from their other weaknesses on the trail.

"There's no question that [Republicans] want people to be scared," said Democratic strategist Joe Zepecki, adding, "They're trying to create an alternative environment that they think is better for them politically. But we know that the biggest story in American politics this year is the attack on women's reproductive freedom."

A new Spectrum News/Siena College poll released this week showed Evers with a 5-point lead over Michels in a race that FiveThirtyEight says favors Evers. The Spectrum/Siena poll also asked voters about their take on the U.S. Supreme Court decision in June that overturned Roe v. Wade, with 72% of Wisconsinites polled saying they want a new abortion law in the state versus relying on the state's "1849 law" that broadly bans the procedure.

PHOTO: Sen. Ron Johnson speaks to journalists while walking to the Senate Floor during a vote on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 8, 2022. (Tom Brenner/Reuters)

In a Marquette Law School poll released last week, 51% of Wisconsin voters surveyed said Republican incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson "doesn't share their values" versus 41% for Lt. Gov. Barnes.

Zepecki, the strategist, said that he believes "nobody buys" that Evers is "just flinging open the jail cell or ushering people out into the streets. That's insane."

As for the two members of law enforcement who were removed from the list of endorsements for Barnes, Zepecki said he does not foresee that negatively influencing the relatively small share of undecided voters in Wisconsin.

"I think this is much ado about nothing," he argued. "This is the stuff that happens when you got campaigns that are trying to do 7,000 things with not enough staff and not enough time before Election Day, so I have a hard time believing that this has got to change anybody's mind in this election, particularly talking about the truly undecided voters."

Alec Zimmerman, a spokesperson for Johnson's campaign, had another view: "Mandela Barnes can't even tell the truth about who is endorsing his campaign -- voters shouldn't believe a word that comes out of his mouth."

On Wednesday, Johnson's campaign announced a bipartisan coalition of 51 sheriffs who had endorsed him.

ABC News' Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.

Republicans hammer crime in key Wisconsin races; Democrats say they want to distract from abortion originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Enrollment at South Dakotas six public universities has grown by 235, or less than 1 percent, this school year, according to an enrollment report released by the South Dakota Board of Regents on Tuesday.

While its a small increase system-wide, its a better outcome than the system has seen since 2018, when enrollment started declining system-wide and continued to decline for four years until now. The current system-wide total headcount is 33,690 students.

SDBOR executive director Brian Maher attributed the success to a slight increase in high school graduates statewide, and the goal of making tuition flat in the years to come, as the BOR has continued to set tuition freezes the last two years.

South Dakota Board of Regents executive director attributes enrollment success in 2022 to a slight increase in high school graduate numbers statewide, and recent tuition freezes. Maher, as seen in this Dec. 9, 2019 file photo at the Sioux Falls School District Office.

Its also the first year of the Freedom Scholarship, Maher said, a needs-based scholarship for students who will stay and work in the state three years after graduation. At SDSU, for example, 478 students received a Freedom Scholarship this school year.

Each of those components is what will keep South Dakota's public colleges growing in enrollment, and affordability, for years to come, Maher said. South Dakotas public colleges also welcomed a total of 5,259 first-year freshmen this school year, an increase of 6.3% for the university system.

2021's enrollment numbers: Board of Regents reports enrollment loss of 121 students, 4 years of declining enrollment

Were excited to see so many new faces on campus, Maher said in a news release. Having more than 5,000 incoming first-year students is encouraging for higher education in South Dakota.

Enrollment increased at all public universities in South Dakota except SDSU and Black Hills State.

South Dakota State University

2021 headcount: 11,465

2022 headcount: 11,331

Enrollment decreased by 134 students at SDSU, but despite this, credit hours have increased at the university, from 134,324 last year to 134,786 this year.

SDSU attributes the decrease in overall headcount to fewer students in graduate school courses, particularly those who were not seeking a degree, but taking an advanced course for professional development.

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We are seeing our graduate school reset itself following the COVID-19 pandemic, SDSU President Barry Dunn said in a news release. It is not uncommon for land-grant universities to see an increase in graduate-level classes being taken during a disruption in the economy such as a recession, or as in the case the past two years, a global pandemic."

Dunn said there's continued growth and interest in the educational fields of animal science and agriculture on campus.

SDSUs first-time freshman class includes 2,192 students this year, which is the largest freshman class at SDSU since 2017.

55% of SDSU's student population is from South Dakota residents, a figure the university reports is consistent with last year. Freshman-to-sophomore retention remained steady at 78.8%

SDSU's international student population also increased to 621 this year, up from 589 students last year.

University of South Dakota

2021 headcount: 9,464

2022 headcount: 9,856

Enrollment increased by 392 students at USD.

USDs first-time freshman class includes 1,326 students this year, an increase of 7.7%, the university reports. Enrollment is up in each of USD's schools and colleges, with the College of Fine Arts leading the way at more than 43% new undergraduate enrollment growth.

The freshman-to-sophomore retention rate sits at 81.7%, USD reports.

Enrollment from Nebraska reached a historic high this year, followed by Iowa and Minnesota.

International student enrollment saw a historic high, too, with 219 incoming students coming from 35 countries, including India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Nigeria. USD has a total of 400 international students.

Native American undergraduate student enrollment continues to increase at USD, too, the university reported, with a 17.9% improvement from last year.

USD President Sheila Gestring said the university has had to turn away 20 graduate students this year, despite new graduate enrollment being up over 17.7% from last year, the largest number of new graduate students enrolled over the past five years.

Some temporary lounges in student dormitories have been used in the past for the housing needs on campus, Gestring explained; but, by spring, things will open up and officials can move more students into regular housing.

There are plans to renovate all residence halls in the next few years, Gestring said, and the campus is in conversation with hotels for next fall.

Black Hills State University

2021 headcount: 3,539

2022 headcount: 3,425

Enrollment decreased by 114 students at BHSU.

BHSUs first-time freshman class includes 481 students this year.

Northern State University

2021 headcount: 3,340

2022 headcount: 3,344

Enrollment increased by four students at NSU.

NSUs first-time freshman class includes 299 students this year, and is the "most academically prepared" freshman class in over 20 years, as the new freshman class has an average high school grade point average of 3.40, the highest since the university started tracking it in 1998. 69% of the freshman class are South Dakota residents.

Northern reported a 19% increase in new, first-time graduate students as well on Tuesday. Since 2018, NSU has seen a 45% increase in new, first-time graduate students.

Northern also had a 32 percent increase in undergraduate credit hours at Huron Community Campus.

NSU also boasts a 74% freshman-to-sophomore retention rate.

Dakota State University

2021 headcount: 3,219

2022 headcount: 3,241

Enrollment increased by 22 students at DSU, and DSUs first-time freshman class includes 372 students this year.

The university points to increases in total headcount, full-time equivalent students, undergraduates, new freshmen, transfer students, students from South Dakota and online students as positive signs "given several factors in higher education in recent years," according to a press release from DSU.

DSU's freshman class size increased 1.6% this year, graduate enrollment up 3.42% to 484 students, and transfer student numbers increased 15%, to 210 students. DSU's freshman-to-sophomore retention rate also improved to 74.5%, the highest the university has reported since 2007.

DSU has 501 student-athletes this fall, compared to 471 last year. 811 students live in DSU's residence halls, marking the first time occupancy has been over 800. Last year's occupancy was 770. DSU also enrolls 123 international students from 52 countries.

South Dakota Mines

2021 headcount: 2,418

2022 headcount: 2,493

Enrollment increased by 75 students at Mines, and Mines first-time freshman class includes 538 students this year.

The number of classes students are taking has also increased by 800 credit hours from this time last year, Mines reports. The university also boasted an 82% freshman-to-sophomore retention rate in a news release.

STEM professionals are in great need across the country and were proud to educate the next generation of thought leaders, Mines President Jim Rankin said in a news release. Our graduates are continually advancing the frontier of innovation. The Mines students of today are the problem solvers our nation needs tomorrow.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota universities see slight enrollment growth in 2022
The Department of Treasury announced Friday it was updating guidance to expand internet service to Iranians, most of whom have been cut off from the internet by their own government amid its violent crackdown on peaceful protests.

While Irans government is cutting off its peoples access to the global internet, the United States is taking action to support the free flow of information and access to fact-based information to the Iranian people, the Treasury said in a press release.

The Iran government on Wednesday cut off global internet access for most of its 80 million citizens, preventing Iranians from sharing footage of the countrys brutal response to peaceful protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, in the custody of Irans Morality Police. Amini was allegedly detained for violating Irans ultraconservative dress code.



The polices violent clashes with protesters continued Friday, with State TV suggesting on Thursday that the death toll from the unrest could be as high as 26 people.

The Treasury Department said Friday it was issuing Iran General License D-2  an updated license that will expand internet services to people in Iran by bringing U.S. sanctions guidance in line with the changes in modern technology since its initial issuance.

The new guidance will offer more options of secure internet platforms and services. The new license addresses a range of internet freedom issues, such as adding covered categories of software and services including social media platforms and video conferencing, as well as providing additional authorization for communication tools to assist ordinary Iranians in resisting repressive internet censorship.

With these changes, we are helping the Iranian people be better equipped to counter the government's efforts to surveil and censor them, Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in the press release.

A senior Treasury official said on a call with reporters on Friday that the department will endeavor in the coming weeks to issue additional guidance to help businesses and NGOs take advantage of the new authorizations under the updated license.

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The U.S. government will continue to identify those opportunities to support the Iranian peoples right and ability to communicate freely and without fear of government reprisal, the Treasury official said.

A senior State Department official on the call clarified that while the action is meant to support the free flow of information to the Iranian people, it does not erase the tools Irans government has to hinder its peoples ability to communicate with the outside world. But the official said the updated license will make it much easier for the Iranian people to confront the governments repressive communications tools.

This general license does not remove every tool of communications repression that the government of Iran has to direct at its own people, the State Department official said. It will over time give the Iranian people more tools to address those efforts from the Iranian government.
U.S. aircraft carrier arrives in South Korea as warning to North U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan is anchored at a port in Busan

By Josh Smith

BUSAN, South Korea (Reuters) -A U.S. aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea on Friday for the first time in about four years, set to join other military vessels in a show of force intended to send a message to North Korea.

USS Ronald Reagan and ships from its accompanying strike group docked at a naval base in the southern port city of Busan ahead of joint drills with South Korean forces.

Its arrival marks the most significant deployment yet under a new push to have more U.S. "strategic assets" operate in the area to deter North Korea.

Strike group commander Rear Admiral Michael Donnelly told reporters aboard the ship that the visit was designed to build allied relations and boost interoperability between the navies.

"We are leaving messaging to diplomats," he said, when asked about any signal to North Korea, but added that joint drills would ensure the allies were able to respond to all threats.

"It's an opportunity for us to practice tactics and operations," Donnelly said.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has pushed for more joint exercises and other displays of military power as a warning to North Korea, which this year conducted a record number of missile tests and appears to be preparing to resume nuclear testing for the first time since 2017.

North Korea has denounced previous U.S. military deployments and joint drills as rehearsals for war and proof of hostile policies by Washington and Seoul. The drills have also sparked protests by peace activists who say they raise regional tensions.

Last week the United States said the carrier's visit was a "clear demonstration" of its commitment to deploy and exercise strategic assets to deter Pyongyang and enhance regional security.

In announcing the visit, however, the U.S. Navy made no mention of North Korea, referring only to a "regularly scheduled port visit" and emphasising crew members visiting Busan to volunteer at orphanages and explore the K-pop music scene.

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Officials declined to provide details of the upcoming joint drills, but said the carrier would be in port for "several days." Just hours after the ship docked, long lines of crewmembers formed as they took COVID-19 tests before being bussed into the city.

One crew member, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said that they were looking forward to a break but that the geopolitical tensions were a constant presence.

"You can't ever really forget what we're all here for," the crew member told Reuters.

The visit is the first to South Korea by an American aircraft carrier since 2018. Many drills were since scaled back or cancelled due to diplomatic efforts with North Korea or because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The carrier visit is useful for political signalling, reassuring Seoul, and training with South Korean forces, but likely does little to further deter North Korea, said Mason Richey, a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.

"A carrier group visit certainly doesn't do much - in fact, it likely does the opposite - to discourage Pyongyang from developing more nuclear weapons and delivery systems, as well as conventional capabilities," he said.

It nevertheless underscores that under Yoon the allies see tighter military coordination and interoperability as the best way to deal with North Korea, Richey added.

Questions have risen over the role the roughly 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea might play if conflict erupts over Taiwan.

Donnelly said such questions are for policymakers above him, but said that operating with like-minded allies such as South Korea is a key part of the U.S. Navy's efforts to maintain the regional security and stability that has existed for more than seven decades.

(Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Gerry Doyle)
Jasper Kenzo Sundeens reporting for the Yakima Herald-Republic is possible with support from Report for America and community members through the Yakima Valley Community Fund . For information on republishing, email news@yakimaherald.com.
WA state trooper drives himself to Walla Walla hospital after being shot in face
Lisa M. MacKinnon is a sustainability and program evaluation coordinator in Dane County.

Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less.
Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business.
The DA said all indications are that this homeowner defended himself against attack in his own home, when his own home had been illegally entered.
LaJuan Jones, who went missing from the Community Corrections Center-Lincoln in December 2021, was arrested Tuesday in Dallas.

Jones was sentenced to eight to 10 years for burglary and theft charges in Douglas County. He began serving his sentence on Oct. 31, 2017, with a tentative release date of Feb. 11 of this year.

He left the corrections center, a low-security facility, on the morning of Dec. 13, 2021. The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services said he removed his electronic monitoring device and didn't report to his work assignment.

Texas authorities found him at a family member's residence.
Mercedes-Benz G-Class is one of the most famous SUVs among the celebrities in Hollywood and Bollywood as well. The owner list of G-Class in India includes prominent celebrities like Rohit Shetty, Hardik Pandya, Sara Ali Khan, Jimmy Shergill, and many others. Though this premium SUV is already at the top of its class. But even among the multiple variants, the Mercedes-AMG G-63 comes out as the zenith of its evolution. Recently, enjoying this evolution, Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty was spotted in a Mercedes-AMG G63 SUV worth over Rs 2.28 crore (ex-showroom) in India.

We can see Shilpa Shetty's husband Raj Kundra's brand new rose gold-colored Mercedes-AMG G63 in a YouTube video uploaded by CS 12 Vlogs. Kundra's company is the one that owns the G63. The new Mercedes-AMG G63 was recently purchased in August 2022, according to the RTO Parivahan app. It is to be noted that the G63 has a unique Rose Gold colour which separates it from the others in its category.

The performance-oriented Mercedes-AMG G63 seeks power from a 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 petrol engine. The engine works with an AMG Speedshift TCT 9G. Since the SUV has been designed for performance, it gets a power output of 430 kW (576 hp) and a peak torque of 850 Nm. All of this is capable of taking the SUV from 0-100 kmph in 4.5 seconds and hitting a top speed of 220 km/h, which is electronically limited. If one opts for the AMG driver's package, the top speed is increased to 240 kmph.

Also read: Video of an elephant goofing around with a Hyundai Santro in Assam goes VIRAL: Watch

With its capabilities and price, Shilpa Shetty's Mercedes-AMG G63 stands toe-to-toe with the world's best SUVs like Aston Martin DBX, Lamborghini Urus, Range Rover Sport, and Maserati Levante Trofeo.

That being said, Shilpa Shetty seems to have a soft spot for cars like these; she has also been seen with a Range Rover LWB version. Apart from this, she also owns cars from brands like Bentley, BMW, and Lamborghini.
Delhi Traffic Police is proceeding with its road safety awareness in the national capital and ensuring strict implementation of traffic rules. As part of the proceedings, the Delhi Police fined 25 people for not wearing seatbelts in the rear seat of the car. The news was shared through the official Twitter handle of the Delhi Traffic Police. The strict action of the national capital's police department is in sync with the government's goal of implementing road safety rules and spreading awareness on the use of rear seat belts while driving a car.

Along with this, Delhi Traffic Police also fined 65 people for tinted glass windows on their cars. It is to be noted that having tinted car windows is illegal and a rule often overlooked by people at times. In addition, the police department also challaned 273 people for driving their vehicles on the wrong side of the road. They also fined one 1 minor for driving a vehicle.

Today, #DelhiTrafficPolice fined 65 for tinted glass, 01 for minor driving, 25 for rear passengers not wearing seat belts and 273 for driving on the wrong side.#IssFilmParAwardNahi#FollowTrafficRules pic.twitter.com/obbmYf8O2o  Delhi Traffic Police (@dtptraffic) September 22, 2022

Delhi Traffic Police started the road safety awareness drive on September 14 and, at the time, fined 17 people for not using rear seatbelts. The traffic police conducted compliance checks on Barakhamba Road near Connaught Place in central Delhi on the first day of the special drive. The drive comes after former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry (54) died in a car accident on September 4 in Maharashtra's Palghar district. Mistry, who was sitting in the back seat, was not wearing a seatbelt, according to police.

Also read: Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty spotted in Rose Gold Mercedes-AMG G63 worth over Rs 2.28 crore

"The Delhi Traffic Police is already running a campaign to spread public awareness regarding (the importance of) wearing seat belts. We are also taking legal action," the officer said at the time. According to official data, more than 1,900 people died in Delhi last year in road accidents involving negligence on the part of drivers or passengers of vehicles. The Delhi Traffic Police issued over 1.2 crore notices last year to offenders for not wearing seat belts, improper parking, jumping red lights, and speeding.
"The biggest private vehicles are often the most expensive ones." Elaborating on it, on land limousines are the biggest types of cars that ones for transportation, in water it's a yacht and similarly, in the air, it's the private jets. All of these have one common factor: the big fat bills associated with them. However, here we are not focused on its "expensive" part. Instead, it's the "biggest." Some wealthy people often want the best for themselves, which often means going "BIG." And here we have a list of the biggest private jets owned by some wealthiest folks.

Joseph Lau owned Boeing 747-8 VIP

Joseph Lau owns the biggest private jet on earth. The business tycoon's private plane is worth $367 million. However, the aircraft was originally priced at $153 million, but the price increased after Lau added modifications to it, worth $214. The plane claims the record with its huge size measuring 445 square meters on the inside. It is essential to mention that it is also the second largest commercial aircraft in the world.

Prince Al Waleed bin Talal's owned Boeing 747-400

The title of the second largest private jet is claimed by Saudi Prince Al Waleed bin Talal's 747-400. The wealth of the Saudi Prince is displayed well with the second largest private jet in the world. The jet has been modified to have two double bedrooms, a dining room, and a golden throne. The plane was added to the prince's collection in 2003 and later modified with all the aforementioned luxuries.

Also read: Flight tickets out of Russia SOLD OUT after President Vladimir Putin's mobilization call on Ukraine

Alisher Usmanov's Airbus A340

Any list of private jets without a Russian oligarch's name seems incomplete. Hence, here we have Alisher Bourkanovich Usmanov with his Airbus A340 claiming the title of being the third biggest private jet in the whole wide world. The Oligarch's beloved private jet is worth $1.4 billion and is named 'Bourkhan' after his father. There have been reports that suggest that the plane has been modified with multiple luxuries to increase its value to $450 million.

Roman Abramovich owned Boeing 787-8

Roman Abramovich is famous for being Chelsea's boss and also in his role as a Russian Oligarch who owns 'The Bandit,' one of the biggest private jets in the world. The private jet has a black strip on its front end, making it look like a mask. Hence, 'The Bandit.' Like all the private jets owned by wealthy people, the aircraft is loaded with luxurious amenities to suit the Oligarch's needs.

Drake's Boeing 767-200 private jet

Rapper Drake is known for his flashy luxurious lifestyle complemented by his luxurious cars. Adding to that the celebrity also owns a flashy private jet. Though technically the aircraft is owned by Ontario-based Cargojet. The Boeing aircraft got associated with Drake's name in 2019 and has been the same ever since.
US Air Force is all set to lift the covers off the B-21 Raider stealth bomber. Northrop Grumman Corporation will host the ceremony to unveil the fighter jet at its facilities in Palmdale, California. It is to be noted that this is one of the most ambitious projects of the US Air Force. The B-21 rollout plans were first revealed by Andrew Hunter, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, at the Air & Space Forces Association's 2022 Air, Space, and Cyber Conference. Since then, military observers and aviation specialists have been waiting impatiently for the big announcement.

Well, this is going to be the first time that Air Force is taking the veils off a new bomber since 1988 when the department showcased the B-2 Spirit. The new B-21 bomber has only been showcased in the concept form till now. However, its first flight is expected to take off around 2023, soon after the rollout. An announcement from the company also confirms that the B-21s first flight will be based on the ground tests results.

As of now, there are a total of 6 B-21 aircrafts that are in the process of assembly at Northrop Grummans Palmdale facility. Tests for the aircraft involve testing the planes sub-systems, applying coating, and powering up the bomber. In May this year, the B-21 Raider bomber successfully performed various tests related to structural rigidity.

Also read - IAF to induct Made-in-India Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) on THIS day: IN PICS

The B-21 Raider bomber was expected to have its first flight by December 2021. However, the schedule changed a little. Talking of operating bases, the Ellsworth Air Force Base, situated in South Dakota will be used as the main base for the B-21, whereas the Dyess Air Force base in Texas and Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri remain secondary ones.
New Delhi: Actress Parineeti Chopra will next be seen in 'Code Name Tiranga'. This is the first time that she will be seen doing an out-and-out action film where she is playing an agent on-screen, It is helmed by Ribhu Dasgupta. The actress has wowed everyone with her gritty action avatar in the teaser of the film that dropped a day back.



Excited about her action flick, Parineeti said, "As an actor, we are constantly blessed to have many firsts all through our career. Im thrilled that in my 11th year in cinema Im doing my first full blown action film and Im ecstatic about the reaction that I have been getting for Code Name Tirangas teaser. It is hugely encouraging for someone who has never dabbled in this genre."



She added, "The teaser is just a glimpse of what to expect from the trailer and my performance on screen. I have pushed myself and my body for this intensely physically challenging film but I have thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. I had always wanted to present myself in an entirely new way on screen with the action genre and I couldnt have found a better film to do the same because it has allowed me to express freely and show audiences what I can do when presented with an opportunity like this!"





Parineeti says that as a child she wanted to grow up and be an agent for India and is thrilled that her childhood wish has come true on screen. "Talking about firsts, I also play an agent for the first time on screen. Growing up, I fantasized being an agent for my country and protecting it with all my heart. I used to carry a toy gun and pretend that Im the best agent in service of India. So, Im also getting to fulfil my childhood dream in Code Name Tiranga", she said.



Pari added, "I felt the same rush that I felt as a debutant while prepping for the film and on the set every single day because of this. Im really happy that people are loving our teaser and I hope that they love our trailer too!"



Code Name Tiranga will release in theatres on October 14, 2022. Parineeti has been paired opposite Harrdy Sandhu in this espionage thriller.
Ministry of Coal today said that government-owned Cola India will be inking three major Memorandum of Undertaking (MoU) on September 27, 2022, in New Delhi with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and GAIL (India) for setting up four Surface Coal Gasification (SCG) projects. The ministry said that the move will ease the way for setting up of coal-to-chemical projects through the SCG route.

The ministry said that it will help reduce forex outgo and will lead to the creation of 23,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities.

Through the SCG route, coal is converted into syngas (a fuel gas) that can be subsequently processed for downstream production of value-added chemicals. These are otherwise produced through imported natural gas or crude oil. "Envisaged end products would be di-methyl ether, synthetic natural gas and ammonium nitrate. With the twin objectives of self-reliance and energy independence, the Ministry of Coal has set a target for achieving 100 million tonne coal gasification by 2030," said the ministry.

The government had earlier said that the target to gasify 100 million tonnes of coal by 2030 will entail an investment of over Rs 4 lakh crore.

This 100 MT coal gasification will happen in three phases, the government had said. In the first phase from 2020-2024, 4 million tonnes (MT) of coal will be gasified and around Rs 20,000 crore will be invested for the same. In the second phase from 2020-2026, 6 MT of coal will be gasified which will involve an investment of Rs 30,000 crore. In the third phase from 2022-2030, 90 MT of coal will be gasified and Rs 3.6 lakh crore will be invested for the same.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on the occasion of the country's national holiday.

Your Majesty,

Dear Brother,

I cordially congratulate you and through you, your entire people on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan on the occasion of the National Holiday of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia  Announcement of the Kingdom.

Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia are united by the bonds of friendship and brotherhood nurtured by the shared spiritual values of our people. Our constantly expanding political dialogue and high level of interstate relations greatly contribute to the comprehensive development of our collaboration. Currently, it is gratifying to see the successful development of our partnership based on these good traditions, mutual trust, and support.

Our people never forget the constant support and fair position of your brotherly country for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, its sovereignty and inviolability of its internationally recognized borders in line with international law norms and principles, and the requirements of relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council.

The restoration of our countrys territorial integrity has further opened up our cooperation opportunities in economic, and particularly energy areas. At the same time, the construction of a Wind Power Plant in Azerbaijan by ACWA Power, one of the leading companies in Saudi Arabia is a clear example of our beneficial interaction in the renewable energy sector.

I am confident that the friendly Azerbaijani-Saudi relations and our bilateral and multilateral cooperation based on strong Islamic solidarity will continue to expand and strengthen through our joint efforts in accordance with the will of our brotherly peoples.

On this festive day, I wish you strong health, success in your activities, and everlasting peace and prosperity to the brotherly people of Saudi Arabia.

Sincerely,
In hopes of further housing development, two areas in Columbus have been designated as blighted and substandard.

The first  known as Redevelopment Area 11  is southeast of the intersection of First Street and 14th Avenue while the second  Redevelopment Area 12  is east of 48th Avenue between 34th Street and 36th Street.

The citys planning commission recommended designating both areas as blighted and substandard following studies done on those areas. The Columbus City Council gave final approval during its regular meeting Sept. 19.

As noted during public hearings held Sept. 19, both areas would hopefully be turned into housing developments with the help of tax-increment financing (TIF).

NeighborWorks Northeast Nebraska has joined with other partners to develop a tract of land in Redevelopment Area 11. Roger Nadrchal spoke at a public hearing held Sept. 19 to ask for the city councils support in designating the area as blight and substandard.

Once the blight is approved, Nadrchal said, a preliminary plat will be developed and then they will be looking at applying for TIF funds to help with developing roughly 44 acres of land. There is a purchase agreement with the current land owner to purchase all 44 acres in stages, he added. Currently the first phase is planned to be the north half of the land with the south portion being the second and third phases. The number and types of units have not yet been decided.

During the public hearing for Redevelopment Area 12, a resident asked about the criteria used during the blight study, namely an old farmhouse and the state of streets and drainage in that area.

This is a pretty typical situation in an area like what we're seeing right now. We rely a lot on existing houses in order to see some things develop. We also look at some of the issues with streets and sidewalks and lack of sidewalks, said Keith Marvin of Marvin Planning Consultants, the firm that did the blight study. He noted that drainage can be a problem.

One of the reasons that we look at the drainage issue is because of problems a lot with the issue of West Nile these days, and I know that we've started seeing some cases in the state of Nebraska right now. Those are fairly real issues.

Marvin added the firm has done a number of these studies in communities across Nebraska.

It's not uncommon to have a lack of some of these areas, especially with newer development of raw land, Marvin said. Unfortunately, our legislature hasn't given us a lot of tools to deal with, in regard to development issues. We have to take advantage of what we have out there, and that includes tax-increment financing.

Mark Otto, who said he was associated with the developer of the project, said there would be 300 units that would be market rate.

As often happens with the city, you end up with a piece that kind of time forgot. And so when you look at the storm drainage issues there, it's going to be the lift station particular for this ground, its own detention area, and a lot of dirt, Otto said.

Otto noted the development is still being designed. The same one is currently being built in Grand Island and a variation of it has been constructed in Kearney, he added.

It's really meant to be something that you can market your community with and draw people in, Otto said.

In other business, the council approved the purchase of two new items for the Columbus Police Department.

The first was a Trimble Forensics Scanning System for $53,671.95. As noted in a memo, it is included in the departments budget.

Police Chief Charles Sherer told the council that the system assists with the reconstruction of crime and accident scenes and can be used in conjunction with the departments drone.

What that does is it goes up and it points plots on the ground, and then we're able to draw in computerized detail what that crime scene and what that accident scene would look like, Sherer said. We currently have a total station that we bought on a grant years ago. It's no longer supported, so it had to be replaced.

The second item was GreyKey software in the amount of $28,461.05, which was a one-time fee for a 3-year contract. It was also in the departments budget.

Sherer said the software would allow the departments IT/forensics personnel to open phones and computers to search for explicit content containing underage individuals or people visiting websites containing that type of content. They currently do not have this type of software, he added.

As technology moves, it becomes outdated  this is the newest and best approach to this type of technology, so I'm hoping this will set us up for the future. And we won't be making any more of these types of purchases in the near future, Sherer said.

Additionally, the council approved budget matters, including the citys 2022-2023 budget and property tax request.

The tax request this year is $6,366,055.08, a 6% increase from last years request of $5,977,541. The citys tax rate remained the same as last year, meaning the increase was due to the countys valuations going up.

The City of Columbus and Columbus Public Schools will be taking part in a joint public hearing on Sept. 26 at 6:30 p.m. at Columbus Middle School.

The hearing is required for political subdivisions whose property tax request is increasing greater than the allowable growth percentage.

Like the City of Columbus, CPS tax request has also increased due to increased valuations.
Electric cars are praised for their performance, environment-friendly nature, and neck-snapping acceleration runs. In the Indian market, the paradigm shift to adopt electric mobility has already started taking shape. Thankfully, homegrown carmakers are also taking steps to help the new technology evolve, but it has remained out of access for mass-market buyers or we should say the entry-level car market. Now, a couple of affordable entry-level cars are ready to make their entry in the Indian market that will certainly help in revolutionising the Indian car market as these models will be able to replace the existing mass-market ICE models. Well, read the list to find out what these cars are.

The electrified version of Tata Motors best-selling hatchback will soon be making its entry in the Indian market. The Tata Tiago EV is set to make its debut by September 28. For now, it wont have any competition in the market, whatsoever. Pricing-wise, Tata Tiago EV will cost as much as any other premium hatchback. It will have a range of around 300 km with its high-voltage powertrain.

Citroen C3 Electric

The French brand has just launched the Citroen C3 hatchback in India, and it is managing to clock 3-digit sales numbers on the tally with its new model. The company has started testing the electrified iteration of the Citroen C3 in India, it will sit on the rather affordable end of the EV band. A 300 km range on a full charge can be expected, along with a slightly higher price tag than the ICE model.

Another car of Indian origin on this list is the Mahindra XUV400, which is slated to launch early next year. The electric SUV has been already unveiled in the country, and it gets a range of around 456 km. The Mahindra XUV400 can do 0-100 kmph in just 8.3 seconds, with its peak torque of 310 Nm.

MG Electric Car

The Chinese-owned British brand has earlier confirmed that it is developing an electric for the masses, which will cost less than Rs 10 lakh. The MGs electric hatchback is likely to spawn a 2-door layout, and it will be designed as a city car with enough capabilities to run around the town for daily chores. Therefore, expect a driving range of only around 200-250 km.

Also read - New TVS Jupiter Classic launched at Rs 85,866; Celebrates 5 million scooter sales in India

Hyundai entry-level EV

The second-largest carmaker of the country will also get on to the EV bandwagon soon. As per speculations, it is expected to be either an affordable entry-level hatchback developed ground-up or the electrified version of the Venue that will go against the likes of the Tata Nexon EV and upcoming Mahindra XUV400.
New Delhi: India witnessed heightened cyber activity over the past few months, with hackers, mostly from outside the country, infiltrating or trying to infiltrate government websites and accounts in the backdrop of the Nupur Sharma incident. While enemy countries often employ cyber espionage tactics to steal data or cripple critical infrastructure, this time, it was mostly mischief mongers trying to prove a point. The government has a robust mechanism to avoid such unwanted incidents, but the same cannot be said for other websites, which are often found wanting on the cyber security front. It is for this reason that incidents of hacking into government websites and accounts comprise only a fraction of the total cyber breaches in India.

According to Lok Sabha data, a total of 160,560 Indian websites were hacked between 2016 and 2021. This translates to a mind-boggling 73 websites every day! Notably, government websites accounted for only 0.5 per cent (812) of the total websites targeted. With 28,897 cyber attacks, including on 186 government websites, 2021 reported the highest such incidents in the last four years.

Some of the major cyber attack and data breach incidents in the recent past involved SBI (2019), Covid-19 test results (2021), Air India (2021) and Dominos (2021).

A CERT-In analysis showed that the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of computers from where the attacks originated belonged to China, Pakistan, Russia, France, Taiwan, Algeria, Tunisia and some other countries. CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team), which operates under the ministry of electronics and information technology, is the nodal agency to deal with cyber security threats.

The Indian government has taken several measures to enhance cyber security and prevent attacks. CERT-In issues regular alerts and advisories regarding the latest cyber threats and has formulated a Cyber Crisis Management Plan for implementation by all government departments. All government websites and applications are audited before and after their hosting. Training is also provided to stakeholders and mock drills are conducted to deal with such issues.
Purnia: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is on a two-day visit to Bihar on Friday to prepare the party to become a formidable force ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to counter the Mahagathbandhan government in the state.

To give further impetus to the party, the Bihar unit of the BJP has come up with a new slogan urging people to support the party for the development of the state. The party has introduced the slogan "Aao chale Bhajpa ke sath, Kare Bihar ka Vikash" (let`s support BJP for the development of Bihar).

Shah`s first trip to the state comes after chief minister Nitish Kumar parted ways with the BJP and joined hands with RJD, Congress and others to form a grand alliance government.

Amit Shah will address `Jan Bhavna Mahasabha` in the Seemanchal area for the first time in Bihar. Seemanchal area includes Katihar, Araria and Kishanganj districts.

The visit of Shah to Bihar reflects BJP`s strategy to win maximum seats in 2024 Lok Sabha and 2025 Bihar Assembly elections.

Amit Shah will address a gathering `Jan Bhavna Mahasabha` at around 12 noon on Friday at Rangbhoomi Ground in Purnia. The BJP is in high gear ahead of Shah`s visit to Seemanchal (bordering) districts of Bihar Purnia and Kishanganj districts.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal (United) already started questioning BJP for planning a `Jan Bhavna Mahasabha in the Seemanchal region.

Whether it is RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav or Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, all are alleging that the BJP has chosen the Seemanchal area so that Amit Shah can do religious polarization.

Addressing media persona in Patna, Tejashwi Yadav said, "If Amit Shah is coming, then I want to ask.... whether the centre will give special status to Bihar or not? What is the motive for his visit? He will speak against Muslims and incite Hindus. When he comes he will say there is Jungle Raj."

Meanwhile, responding to Yadav, BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal said that JD(U) leader (Rajya Sabha) and former Finance Commission chairman NK Singh has said that special status is not possible in today`s situation.

While exuding confidence that BJP will form government in the state in 2025, Jaiswal said, "For decades no BJP leader has become the Chief Minister of Bihar, but in 2025, the party will form the government in the state and there will be Chief Minister of BJP in Bihar."

Shah will later hold a meeting with MPs, MLAs and former ministers of Bihar BJP around 4 pm at Mata Gujri University in Kishanganj city.

The Minister will be chairing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State Core Committee meeting around 5 pm at Mata Gujri University.

On Day 2 of his visit to the state, the Minister will offer prayers at Budhi Kali Mata Temple around 9.30 am at Subhashpally Chowk in Kishanganj.

The Home Minister will visit Border outpost Fatehpur and inaugurate BOP buildings of Fatehpur, Pekatola, Beria, Amgachi and Raniganj around 10.30 am at Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) Campus.

The Minister will later review the meeting on border security with Director Generals and senior officers of Border Security Force (BSF), SSB and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) at 12 noon at BSF Campus, Kishanganj.

The Home Minister will attend the `Sundar Subhumi` program organized on the occasion of the ongoing `Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav` celebrations at 3.30 pm at Mata Gujri University. Shah will blow the poll bugle in the state for the party gunning for big wins at the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Union Minister and party`s firebrand MP from Begusarai, Giriraj Singh has been made in charge of the rally to be attended by Shah in the Seemanchal (bordering) districts of Bihar`s Purnia and Kishanganj districts.

To prepare for Shah`s rally, several State BJP leaders have been camping in the bordering Purnia and Kishanganj districts for several days and meeting with local people and leaders to make the rallies successful.

The Seemanchal area of north Bihar consists of four districts -- Purnia, Kishanganj, Katihar and Araria -- where the Muslim population is in sizeable number to influence the success of a political party`s candidate in both Assembly and General elections. The four districts share their border with West Bengal and Bangladesh, from where a large number of immigrants have infiltrated and settled to change the demography there, BJP leaders claimed.

The four districts represent 24 Assembly seats and four Parliamentary seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, BJP won just one seat of Araria, while JD(U) had victories in two seats of Purnia and Katihar and the Kishanganj seat went to the Congress party. In 2019, both BJP and JD(U) fought elections together as allies.

However, political experts said that the political trend of the Seemanchal area "influences the electoral course of other adjoining districts like Supaul, Bhagalpur, Madhubani and Darbhanga as well".

There are 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar out of which 17 are presently held by the BJP while JD(U) has 16 seats. Further, Lok Janshakti Party has six seats and Congress has one seat.
New Delhi: The police have launched an investigation into the missing case of Ankita Bhandari of Srikot village in Pauri Garhwal's Nandalsun belt, who went missing from Yamkeshwar Vidhan Sabha's Ganga Bhojpur resort in Pauri district under suspicious circumstances. In the case, three people have been arrested, including Pulkit Arya, the son of former state minister Vinod Arya. Renu Bisht, MLA of Yamkeshwar, and SDM Yamkeshwar Laxman have arrived at the Jhula police station. The investigation will be completed soon. Police and SDRF are searching in Shakti Canal near the District Power House. According to a report of Amar Ujala

Ankita Bhandari, was a 19-year-old receptionist. The girl's family fears murder. Ankita Bhandari had been missing from the resort for the previous five days. When the family learned of this, they filed a missing person report for Ankita with the Revenue Police, but no action was taken in the meantime.

Following that, the police was conducting a search operation by reducing water near the Rishikesh Chila barrage. However, nothing has been cleared by the police administration. Local residents, on the other hand, want to use bulldozers on the resort. According to reports, this resort belongs to a BJP leader whose son Pulkit Arya has been arrested. Ankita's father, on the other hand, has stated unequivocally that if he does not receive his daughter

The District Magistrate of Pauri intervened in the matter and It was transferred from Revenue Police to Regular Police. After which the police took action and arrested 2 other persons including Pulkit, the owner of the resort. The matter of Ankita's murder has come to light during interrogation.
New Delhi: The Kerala High Court expressed its displeasure on Thursday with the boards and flags placed on highways as part of the Congress' 'Bharat Jodo Yatra.' "Illegal Installations have been made by a particular political party on every side of the National Highway from Trivandrum to Thrissur and even beyond; and even though the Police Authorities and other statutory authorities are fully aware of this, they have chosen to turn a build eye to it," the court observed. This was observed by a single bench of Justice Devan Ramachandran while considering the issue of illegal banners and boards on roads. Nati

The court went on to say, "These illegal installations cause great danger to motorists since their attention would be distracted while moving through Highway; and there is also the real danger of some of these installations coming loose and creating havoc, particularly concerning two-wheelers. There is also the problem of such installations being disposed of and the waste generated by it becoming incapable of being handled by the Local Self Government Institutions or by any other competent authority. Why the official Authorities are not aware of such issues, particularly when our State can no longer take the climate or weather for granted."

Court also suggested that "the mainline political parties appeared to be engaging in such illegal actions. These are the entities to which the citizens of this Court look up for direction, particularly in our quest for creating a better and a new Kerala. Large sums have been expended to create a modern environment, good roads, pedestrian spaces, recreational spaces etc., but such areas are now being taken up by such illegal installations, by persons who believe that they can act with impunity."

The careless actions of a few, as well as the indifference shown to it by the official authorities, will not deter this Court from its determination to make Kerala a safer place. The case was postponed until Friday by the Court. It also requested that the Additional Advocate General obtain instructions from the Principal Secretary of the Local Self Government Department, the Chief Secretary, and the State Police Chief regarding how these illegal installations were set up and why they have not been removed.
New Delhi: After former ally, JD(U) stepped out of the BJP-led NDA on August 9, Union Home Minister Amit Shah embarked on a two-day visit to Bihar from Friday to set the tone for the 2024 General elections. Amit Shah will address a mega rally named `Jan Bhavna Mahasabha` in Bihar`s Purnia at `Rangbhoomi ground` this afternoon. Notably, the BJP is likely to have a direct battle with the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, which holds 40 Lok Sabha seats.

To make Amit Shah`s rallies successful, several state BJP leaders including Union Ministers, MPs, and MLAs are camping in the bordering districts, including Purnia, Kishanganj, Katihar, and Araria, for several days and meeting with local people and leaders. The Seemanchal region of north Bihar comprises four districts of Purnia, Kishanganj, Katihar and Araria, where the Muslim population is in sizeable number to influence the success of a political party`s candidate in both Assembly and General elections.

The four districts, which share their border with West Bengal and Bangladesh, represent 24 Assembly seats and four Parliamentary seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, BJP won just one seat of Araria, while JD(U) had won two seats of Purnia and Katihar while Kishanganj seat went to the Congress party. In 2019, both BJP and JD(U) fought elections together as allies.

Also read: Amit Shah in Bihar to prepare ground for 2024 Lok Sabha Polls

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will also address a meeting of Bihar BJP MPs, MLAs and former ministers at Mata Gujri University, Kishanganj, besides addressing the Bihar BJP Core Committee meeting.

Union minister Giriraj Singh has been camping in Seemanchal for a while to supervise the preparations for Shah's visit while making headlines with comments on alleged "demographic change" in Seemanchal and activities of the PFI. The MP from Begusarai has been pulling no punches while blaming "appeasement politics" for terrorism, unchecked population growth and infiltration of illegal immigrants.

Also read: NIA searches underway at PFI office in Bihar's Purnia

Speaking about Amit Shah's visit to Bihar, MoS Home, Nityanand Rai told ANI, "There is great enthusiasm among the people about this `Jan Bhavna Mahasabha`. Besides the workers of the BJP, the common people themselves have made preparations for the success of this huge rally". Rai hit out at the ruling Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar and said that people are outraged due to the "collapse of law and order" in the state since the takeover of the new government.

Former Deputy Chief Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Modi said that the BJP cadre is happy with the exit of Nitish Kumar from the alliance adding that the party will now be able to win more seats in the state. ANI quoted Sushil Modi as saying, "Today`s rally of Amit Shah will boost the morale of BJP leaders and cadres. Now party does not need support from JD(U). Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah`s face is good enough to win a majority of Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 general election."

The Rajya Sabha MP alleged that Nitish Kumar "hatched a conspiracy" to bring the "Jungle Raj part-2" in Bihar with the support of RJD, adding "But the same time Chief Minister and Tejashwi Yadav forget that time has changed now and the people of Bihar understand very well that crime, corruption and nepotism are no more acceptable in an era of BJP-led NDA government at the Centre."

On condition of anonymity, another BJP leader said that Amit Shah will set the tone for the party for the upcoming general elections with today`s rally as BJP plans to win over 35 seats out of 40 in the state.

Notably, the loss of power, in the third week of August, came as a rude shock for the BJP which had, less than a month earlier, held with much fanfare a two-day conclave in Patna -- attended by Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda. The BJP has been accused of having tried to break the JD(U) through former Union minister RCP Singh, whose induction had caused controversy.

(With ANI/PTI Inputs)
New Delhi: Major changes are expected as the Parliamentary Standing Committees are all set to be reconstituted in the coming few days. As per top sources, the principal opposition Congress is all set to lose out on vital Chairmanship of the Standing Committee for Home Affairs, which is a Rajya Sabha-chaired panel and Lok Sabha-chaired panel for Communication and Information Technology. The IT committee was chaired by Shashi Tharoor from Congress. Post the retirement of Anand Sharma, this committee temporarily was being headed by Abhishek Manu Singhvi. "The committees are constituted every few years and it has been a precedent to rotate chairmanship accordingly," a source tells ANI.

In a letter written to the Leader of the House Piyush Goyal by the Leader Of Opposition, Mallikarjun Kharge, it was cited that as per parliamentary niceties the post of chairman of the Home Committee has always been given to the opposition. An excerpt of the letter written by Kharge to Piyush Goyal, accessed by ANI reads, "As is understood, the post of Chairperson in respect of the Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change is being given to INC. The purpose of my present letter is to request that this time also, the post of Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Home Affairs may be given to Congress. "

Trinamool Congress which has one panel chairman in the form of Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay will not chair any Committee."We have seen how the Trinamool Congress has been with the BJP in the state of Bengal and it`s time for them to get a dose of their own medicine as they have been extremely unkind in their approach towards opposition in the state", a source aware of the development told ANI.

A source adds to the developments, hinting that the Government has already told Congress their demand cannot be accepted." Congress does not have the numbers to get more panels like Home. During the 10th Lok Sabha from 1993 to 1996 the Congress party which was in government, the Home panel Chairman was from the Congress party itself.
Patna: Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav dismissed Union Home Minister Amit Shah's rally in the state's Purnea on Friday as "nothing but a comedy circus". "While Amit Shah was addressing the rally, I do not like to describe him. I am not going into it but I must say that it looks like a comedy circus was going on in Purnea," he said. Tejashwi Yadav said that he had tweeted the piece of speech of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, delivered in Purnea in 2014, promising a special package, special status, and special attention for Bihar.

"What happened to it with 8 years gone by? Now, they do not talk about the special status of Bihar. I have already said that Amit Shah is coming to Bihar but will not say anything on special package or status and it became true in the rally as Amit Shah avoided this issue from the public platform," he said.

Also Read: 'Nitish Kumar backstabbed BJP': Amit Shah hits out at Bihar CM in Purnea's Jana Bhavna Mahasabha

"I also said that Amit Shah will claim `Jungle Raj` of Bihar. Amit Shah is living in Delhi and the crime graph in Delhi is higher than in Bihar. This is not my data but the NCRB data reveals that Delhi has a higher crime rate than Bihar. On the point of Bihar Jungle Raj, Amit Shah is fooling the people of Bihar. The people of Bihar are alert and smart enough to differentiate what is wrong and what is right," he added.

Tejashwi Yadav also said that Amit Shah claimed when his government comes to Bihar, he will make it the number one state, but "BJP was part of the NDA government in Bihar for 15 years, why his party had not made Bihar a number one state".
Amid the buzz over the next Congress president, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday took potshots at the Congress and said the presidential poll is nothing but an eyewash as the next party chief would be remotely controlled by the Gandhis.

BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla on Friday slammed Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and the Congress party saying that Gehlot`s statement had let the cat out of the bag about Congress` so-called elections which were nothing but an eyewash. Gehlot when asked about Rajasthan`s future CM, told mediapersons, "Party president Sonia Gandhi will decide further proceedings (for Rajasthan) along with general secretary incharge Ajay Maken when I become the party president.

"Responding to Gehlot`s statement Poonawalla said, "What capacity will she have? She will be the ex-president! Should not the Congress MLAs decide their CM? If Gandhis will have the remote control then why is this `Farzi chunav?" Poonawalla further said that senior Congres leader and former Union minister P Chidambaram too had said that whoever be the next president, Rahul Gandhi will have the pre-eminent position in the party.

"This is the proof that the next president of Congress will be a proxy of the Gandhis and will be remotely controlled by Gandhis like Manmohan Singh was remotely controlled by Sonia Gandhi," said the BJP spokesperson. Poonawalla said that this was a coronation not an election and many Congress leaders who demanded electoral rolls to be made public had exposed this farce of an exercise.

Congress` presidential election will be held on October 17 and the election results would be declared on October 19.Earlier today, Rajasthan CM Gehlot confirmed his candidature for the upcoming Congress president election and said that Rahul Gandhi has made it clear that "no member of the Gandhi family" would become the next party chief.Speaking to the media, Gehlot, who is in Kerala to take part in the Bharat Jodo Yatra, said, "I said earlier that I will request him (Rahul Gandhi) to accept this post when all the Congress Committees are passing resolutions in this regard.

He made it clear that no one from the Gandhi family will become the next chief. He said he has decided this due to some reasons, a non-Gandhi family member will become the party chief". Earlier on Thursday, Rahul Gandhi emphasised the "one person, one post" norm and said he believes the commitment to the party`s Udaipur declaration would be maintained in the election for the party`s top post. Describing the post of Congress president as an "ideological post", Rahul Gandhi said the position "represents a set of ideas and belief system and vision of India".

Further, party MP Shashi Tharoor has also given an indication of contesting polls and had met Sonia Gandhi on Monday. He met Congress Central Election Authority chief Madhusudan Mistry on Wednesday. Clearing the air of speculation over his nomination for the All India Congress Committee (AICC) presidential election, Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Friday said that he was not in the race for the party chief. The nomination process for the post of Congress president will begin on September 24 and conclude on September 30.
Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh): Clearing the air of speculation over his nomination for the All India Congress Committee (AICC) presidential election Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Friday said that he was not in the race for the party chief. Addressing a press conference in Jabalpur, the veteran leader said that he would not contest the Congress Presidential election, but he would follow the instruction given to him by the higher authority in the party.

There is an intense build-up to the Congress president election after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot confirmed his candidature on Friday. Gehlot also confirmed that Rahul Gandhi has made it clear that "no member of the Gandhi family" would become the next party chief. With this, a reshuffle in the Rajasthan cabinet is also expected because if Gehlot holds the post of party chief, he will have to resign from his CM post as Rahul Gandhi on Thursday made it clear that there will be "one person, one post" norm.

In that case, there is also a possibility that Sachin Pilot could be elevated in RajasthanDescribing the post of Congress president as an "ideological post", Rahul Gandhi said the position "represents a set of ideas and belief system and vision of India".

Meanwhile, with Digvijay Singh`s clearance, Ashok Gehlot and Shashi Tharoor are the top contenders for the post now and this has brought the congress leaders to two different edges.

The Congress leader Gourav Vallabh on Thursday slammed at Shashi Tharoor over his possible president poll bid and said that Tharoor has given his only major contribution to the party to write a letter to Sonia Gandhi at the time she was hospitalised. Talking about Ashok Gehlot and Shashi Tharoor as a contender for party president, Gaurav Vallabh said that there is no comparison between both of them and his choice is simple and clear in case Rahul Gandhi would not contest for the post.

Also read: Congress asks spokespersons to refrain from commenting on candidates

"Like crores of workers, my first wish is that Rahul Gandhi ji should provide his leadership to the Congress and the country. But if Rahul Gandhi ji remains firm on his decision of not taking up the Congress chief post and one has to choose between the two names that are appearing in public discussion, then there is no comparison between the two," Vallabh said in a series of tweets.

"On one hand, there is Ashok Gehlot who has the experience of being a Union minister, three times chief minister, five times MP, five times MLA, and who has defeated PM Modi- Amit Shah in a direct contest and who has had 45 years of spotless political life," he said in another tweet.

Also read: Ashok Gehlot loyalists ready to accept any CM appointed by Congres

"On the other hand there is Shashi Tharoor sahib who has only one major contribution to the party in the last 8 years -- sent letters to Congress President Sonia Gandhi ji when she was hospitalized, this act caused pain to crores of party workers like me. The choice is very simple and clear," he said.

Notably, a letter was sent to Sonia Gandhi in August 2020 by G 23 leaders, including Tharoor seeking large-scale reforms in the party. On September 19, Shashi Tharoor met Sonia Gandhi at her residence in the national capital where he expressed his wish to contest the polls to "make internal democracy" in the party stronger.

Gandhi giving her nod to the Thiruvananthapuram MP said that anybody can contest elections. Tharoor had also met with the party`s Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry on Wednesday.The process of filing nominations for the post of party chief will begin on September 24 and will continue till September 30. The election is scheduled for October 17 and the counting of votes will take place on October 19.
It is the goal of the Nebraska Nurse Honor Guard to pay respect to every nurse who passes away in the state of Nebraska. Since 2019, they have amassed approximately 140 members across the state, and now a Columbus area division is joining their ranks.

The Nebraska Nurse Honor Guard attends funerals whenever called and provides a short but meaningful service to signify the life and legacy of the nurse, according to Founder Debra Zobel.

Carol Busch, who has been chosen to head the Columbus area group, said that for those who have given their life and career to the cause of helping others, it's a fitting way to pay respect to those who have passed.

"Their life has been serving others. They put their nursing career ahead of everything else to serve others. I think its important to represent them," Busch said.

Busch will be officially inducted in an onboarding ceremony on Oct. 8 at the Butler County Health Care Center.

Busch, a nurse of 35 years herself, initially wanted to start a David City division, but the board of directors had been eyeing Columbus as a hub of operations for the greater Columbus area for some time.

"Since it was bigger we would have Columbus be the headquarters and David City would be one of the surrounding areas we would serve," Busch said.

Nurse honor guards exist in other states, Nebraska Nurse Honor Guard Secretary and retired nurse of 43 years Ann Anderson said, but in 2019 Zobel thought Nebraska needed one. That summer, several nurses gathered and laid the foundation of the organization.

"There were only four of us in the beginning. We started meeting at my house at my kitchen table and started brainstorming how we were going to get this off the ground," Anderson said.

By October, they were able to start doing services. The services themselves are short but poignant, Anderson said, consisting of a reading of the American Nurses Association's Nightingale Tribute, with the name of the nurse replacing the word "nurse" throughout.

"It's a really old way to honor a nurse. The Nightingale Tribute goes through all the things nurses do and stand for," Anderson said.

Following the reading, a single white rose is placed next to the urn or casket, a symbol of comfort, care and kindness, Anderson said. Next, the nurse's name is read three times, each followed by the ringing of a triangle, similar to a police or fire funeral service.

"That acts as a sort of last call, and we sat they have now been officially released from their nursing duties," Anderson said.

To close, a ceramic lamp is lit, a half-tribute to Florence Nightingale, "The lady with the lamp" and a metaphor for knowledge.

"The lamp is lit at the beginning of a nurse's career and extinguished at the end. We say a few lines and snuff it out, with a snuffer, and give the lamp to a family member," Anderson said.

The services are done in full nurse regalia, white uniforms, navy blue caps and nurse's hats. In some cases, the honor guard will also do tributes to those who are still alive but on hospice, as a show of respect. They are even available to do video services when travel isn't possible.

In addition, the honor guard has a wall of nurses on nebraskanursehonorguard.com showcasing nurses in the state who have passed on. Zobel's mother's nurse is even on the list, she said.

"That's our way of honoring our nurses with a living legacy that's going to be there forever," Zobel said.

Zobel, who just retired Sept. 21 after 46 years in nursing, said ultimately, all their services are a show of respect for their colleagues in the nursing profession.

"We just want to be able to honor nurses at the time of their death. We feel nursing is a calling, not only a career. You're a nurse for a lifetime," Zobel said. "This is a way to thank our colleagues who dedicated their life to their career."
New Delhi: A day after Congress leader Gourav Vallabh slammed Shashi Tharoor over his probable AICC president poll bid, the party on Friday urged all its spokespersons and communication department office bearers to refrain from commenting on any colleague contesting the elections.

Vallabh on Thursday had hit out at Tharoor over his probable AICC president poll bid, saying his "only major contribution" to the party was to send letters to Sonia Gandhi when she was hospitalised.

In the first indicator of leaders taking sides in the upcoming contest for the top post, Vallabh had also voiced support for another contender, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who many believe has the backing of the current leadership.

According to sources, AICC general secretary in-charge Communications Jairam Ramesh said in a message to all spokespersons and office bearers of the communication department, "I would strongly urge all Spokespersons and office bearers of Communications Department of AICC to refrain from making any comment of any kind on any colleague of ours contesting the elections for the post of Congress President."

"We all have our individual preferences but our job is to only highlight that the Congress is the only political party to have a democratic and transparent system in place for election to the post of its president," the sources said.

According to the sources, Ramesh told the spokespersons and office bearers of the communications department that their job is to highlight that the Congress is the only political party in India to have an independent election authority to conduct organisational elections.

"A person wanting to contest needs no nod from anybody to do so except from 10 PCC delegates for filing nomination form. The election authority ensures free and fair elections. Spokespersons have to ensure that elections are seen to be free and fair," the sources said.

"If elections have to be held on October 17th so be it. We welcome it. Even so the focus of the entire party organisation should be and indeed is to make the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which has already evoked tremendous response even more of a resounding success," the sources quoted the Congress general secretary as saying.

Vallabh is also a party spokesperson but he asserted his comments were as a Congress worker and not spokesperson.

"Like crores of workers, my first wish is that Rahul Gandhi ji should provide his leadership to the Congress and the country. But if Rahul Gandhi ji remains steadfast on his decision (of not taking up the Congress chief post) and one has to choose between the two names that are appearing in public discussion, then there is no comparison between the two," Vallabh had said in a series of tweets in Hindi.

On the one hand, there is Gehlot who has the experience of being a Union minister, three times chief minister, five times MP, five times MLA, and who has defeated Narendra Modi-Amit Shah in a direct contest and who has had 45 years of "spotless" political life, he said.

"On the other hand there is Shashi Tharoor sahib who has made only one major contribution to the party in the last eight years -- sent letters to Congress President Sonia Gandhi ji when she was hospitalised, this act caused pain to crores of party workers like me. The choice is very simple and clear," he had said.

Vallabh's remarks were a reference to the letter sent by a group of 23 leaders, including Tharoor, to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 seeking large scale reforms in the party.

In a late night tweet, Tharoor posted former US president Theodore Roosevelt's famous speech known as "The Man in the Arena".

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat," Roosevelt had said in the speech posted by Tharoor.

Many saw the post by Tharoor as his response to Vallabh and other critics, as well as a reference to his probable All India Congress Committee (AICC) presidential post run.

After over two decades, the Congress is set to see a contest for the post of party chief. Gehlot and Tharoor are being seen as the likely contenders.

The Congress' central election authority on Thursday issued a notification for the AICC president polls, setting the ball rolling for electing the successor to the longest-serving party chief Sonia Gandhi.
New Delhi: As the monsoon recedes, a heavy downpour was witnessed in several parts of Delhi. Rains continued to lash parts of the national capital, leading to waterlogging and affecting traffic movement in several areas of the city. Delhi has been witnessing an incessant spell of light to moderate rain for the past two days, an the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted more rains on Friday (September 23, 2022).

The weather department has issued a 'yellow alert', cautioning people about moderate rain at most places in the city.

"Light to moderate intensity rain would occur over and adjoining areas of many places of entire Delhi and NCR ( Loni Dehat, Hindon AF Station, Ghaziabad, Indirapuram, Chhapraula, Noida, Dadri, Greater Noida, Gurugram, Faridabad, Manesar, Ballabhgarh), Gulaoti, Siyana, Sikandrabad, Bulandshahar, Jahangirabad, Anupshahar, Shikarpur, Khurja, Pahasu, Debai, Narora, Gabhana, Atrauli, Aligarh (U.P.) Bhadra, Pilani, Bhiwari, Jhunjunu (Rajasthan) during next 2 hours," IMD's RWFC tweeted at around10 am.

Residents of the city can be seen enjoying the pleasant weather as the rains give relief from the scorching heat.

The fresh spells of rains just before the withdrawal of monsoon from the National Capital Region will help cover the large deficit (46 per cent till September 22 morning) to some extent. It would also keep the air clean and the temperature in check.

On Tuesday, the Met Office said the southwest monsoon had withdrawn from parts of southwest Rajasthan and adjoining Kutch, three days after the normal date of September 17.

Usually, it takes around a week after its withdrawal from west Rajasthan for the monsoon to retreat from Delhi.

The withdrawal of southwest monsoon is declared if there has been no rainfall in the region for five days along with the development of anti-cyclonic circulation and water vapour imagery indicates dry weather conditions over the region.

(With agency inputs)
Gorakhpur: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held a "Janata Darshan" in Gorakhpur on Friday and told people not to panic as his government was there to address all their issues. The Chief Minister displayed the same compassionate attitude toward justice, problem-solving, and providing medical care during the Janta Darshan programme at the Gorakhnath temple. He said, "Do not panic, Mai hu na."

People submitted their applications to the Chief Minister and urged him to address them. Subsequently, the CM instructed the officers to handle complaints in a thorough and satisfactory manner and reassured those seeking treatment for serious illnesses that no one would forego care due to a lack of funds.

Yogi Adityanath met nearly 250 visitors who had come for Janta Darshan. CM Yogi approached patients who were seated in chairs outside Digvijaynath Smriti Bhavan one by one. The CM accepted applications from the public, listened to their issues and then forwarded the applications along with pertinent instructions to the appropriate personnel, assuring people of all help.

The senior superintendent of police (SSP) was given cases involving the police to handle, while the District Magistrate was given the ones involving revenue and other issues. The CM gave the ADG and the commissioner the applications after hearing about the issues raised by complainants from other districts.

Also Read: UP govt's BIG STEP: Bill denying anticipatory BAIL to RAPE accused PASSED

"Specific orders were given to ensure stern action against criminals and mafia who are found guilty of a crime against complainants. Abuse of any type in this situation won't be tolerated", CM Yogi said.

People who came to seek financial aid for the treatment of serious diseases were asked by CM Yogi about the state of their medical care and treatment. In addition, he asked them to prepare an estimate and give it to the administration. The government will provide enough funding for the treatment, he assured.

He instructed the officers to finish the formalities quickly so that nobody's medical care would be hampered by a lack of funds. Many women from minority communities also attended the Janta Darshan of CM.

One of the women mentioned the issue of the tile house collapsing in the rain. The Chief Minister gave the officers instructions to make plans to offer housing in accordance with eligibility in this regard. The Chief Minister bestowed his blessings on children, who came to Janata Darshan with their mothers and gifted them chocolates.
Protests over Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's comments on employment ahead of Durga Puja 2022. BJP MLAs sell 'Ghugni' and 'Jhalmuri' in front of the gate of the West Bengal Assembly. Making 'Jhalmuri' with a knife in hand! BJP MLAs took part in a novel protest at the gate of the Assembly, mocking a comment of the Chief Minister.

What did Mamata Banerjee say?

Recently, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has advised people to do business by collecting kashful from the streets, starting with tea-biscuits, ghugni, telebhaja. Mamata said, "I am saying, take one thousand rupees, buy a kettle with it and buy some earthen pots. Have some biscuits with it. It will increase slowly. In the first week, take some biscuits, then in the next week ask your mother to make some ghugni. Next week, fry some Telebhaja. Sat down with a tool and another table. Durga Puja is coming. I assure you that you will not be able to match the demand of the people. If someone sarcastically says you are doing this? Say this is how I will become a millionaire."

BJP MLAs Sell Ghugni, Jhalmuri

Recently, the Chief Minister said this at an official function in Kharagpur. After this, the BJP MLAs joined the protest at the end of the Assembly session on Thursday. In front of gate number 2 of the Legislative Assembly, some MLAs sell Ghugni, some MLAs sell tea and some other Jhalmuri!

Formula to Become a Millionaire

Asansol South BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul said, "We also want to become millionaires, the formula has been given by the Chief Minister, so we are doing it." Incidentally, several questions have been raised about employment in the state. The Saffron camp has already protested against the ruling party on the issue of not getting a job despite passing, and getting a job without sitting the exam. However, BJP MLAs took to the streets with the dream of turning the unemployed into millionaires.

TMC Defends Mamata

Finance Minister and Trinamool MLA Chandrima Bhattacharya said, " The Chief Minister did not say this. There will be no profit in making such a drama." Chandrima further reminded, "The Chief Minister said that a total of 30,000 people in all districts will be given job certificates before Puja. Besides, 89 thousand teachers will be appointed in the coming days. Those who have taken skill training can also teach. The TMC government has already appointed 2 lakh 63 thousand teachers. 10 thousand professors have been appointed in the college."
United Nations: India on Thursday told the UN Security Council that the need of the hour is to end the conflict in Ukraine and return to dialogue and said the nuclear issue is a particular anxiety, underlining Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assertion to Russian President Vladimir Putin that this cannot be an era of war.

"The trajectory of the Ukraine conflict is a matter of profound concern for the entire international community. The future outlook appears even more disturbing. The nuclear issue is a particular anxiety," External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the 15-nation UN Security Council briefing on Ukraine Fight against impunity'.

The briefing, chaired by French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna, was held Thursday as world leaders gathered in the UN headquarters for the high-level 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

Addressing the Council briefing were UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and UK Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs James Cleverly and Foreign Ministers of other UNSC members.

Jaishankar told the Council that in a globalised world, the impact of the conflict is being felt even in distant regions. "We have all experienced its consequences in terms of surging costs and actual shortages of food grains, fertilizers and fuel."

"On this core too, there are good grounds to be worried about what awaits us," he said.

He said the Global South, especially, is feeling the pain very acutely. "We must therefore not initiate measures that further complicates the struggling global economy. That is why India strongly reiterates the need for an immediate cessation of all hostilities and a return to dialogue and diplomacy, Jaishankar said.

Referring to Modi's remark to Putin on the sidelines of the 22nd meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Uzbekistan's Samarkand that "today's era is not of war, Jaishankar said at the UN Security Council "Clearly, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphasized, this cannot be an era of war."

"On our part, we are also providing both humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and economic support to some of our neighbours under economic stress," he said.

Jaishankar emphasised that the need of the hour is to end this conflict in Ukraine and return to the negotiating table.

"This Council is the most powerful contemporary symbol of diplomacy. It must continue to live up to its purpose," Jaishankar said. "The global order that we all subscribe to is based on international law, UN Charter and respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states. These principles too must be upheld, without exception."

India has not yet condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and it has been maintaining that the crisis must be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue.

On Wednesday, Jaishankar met Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at the UN headquarters here and apprised him of India's principled position that emphasises cessation of all hostilities and return to dialogue and diplomacy.

Ahead of his remarks, he reminded the Council that India is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, nor a member of the International Criminal Court.

Guterres voiced deep concern that Russia's war in Ukraine shows no sign of letting up. "The past seven months have seen unspeakable suffering and devastation. The latest developments are dangerous and disturbing. They are further steps away from any prospect of peace; and towards an endless cycle of horror and bloodshed."

Guterres further said that the "senseless war has unlimited potential to do terrible harm in Ukraine, and around the world.

"The idea of nuclear conflict, once unthinkable, has become a subject of debate. This in itself is totally unacceptable. All nuclear-armed states should recommit to the non-use and total elimination of nuclear weapons."

Putin on Wednesday announced a partial mobilisation of some 300,000 reservists with immediate effect in the wake of setbacks suffered by Russia in its raging conflict with Ukraine, saying it was necessary as Moscow is fighting the entire military machine of the collective West.

Putin made the announcement in a televised address to the nation in which he also said that Russia will use all the means at its disposal to protect its territory, warning the West that this is not a bluff.

Since early September, Ukraine forces have swiftly recaptured large swaths of land in Ukraine's Kharkiv region that Russian troops took over in early weeks of the war which began on February 24.

The stretched-out frontline, the constant shelling of Russian borderline areas by the Ukrainian military and attacks on liberated regions required the call-up of servicemen from the reserve, Putin said in his address.

His speech comes a day after the Lugansk and Donetsk People's Republics, as well as Russian-controlled Kherson and Zaporozhye regions on Tuesday announced that they would hold referendums on whether to join Russia from September 23-27.

Guterres said he is also deeply concerned by reports of plans to organize so-called referenda in areas of Ukraine that are currently not under government control. Any annexation of a State's territory by another State resulting from the threat or use of force is a violation of the UN Charter and of international law.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Zee News staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi: Former vice president M Venkaiah Naidu will release a collection of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's selected speeches on Friday. The book titled 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas Sabka Vishwas'- Prime Minister Narendra Modi Speaks (May 2019-May 2020)' will be released in the presence of Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan at a function here organised by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The book focuses on 86 speeches of the prime minister on various subjects. "It will be my honour to release the book, Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikas, Sab Ka Vishwas, comprising selected speeches of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a function graced by Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur," Naidu said.

The book portrays the prime minister's vision of a 'New India', which is self-reliant, resilient and capable of converting challenges into opportunities, an official statement said on Thursday.

The book, being published in Hindi as well as English, will be available at the sales outlets of the Publications Division as well as its website.
New Delhi: Police arrested 30 Naurangpur village residents, including a former block Samiti chairman, on Tuesday for allegedly obstructing the construction work of a master dividing road in Sector 78/79, threatening workers and officials of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) with guns, and forcing them to construct a patch of the road overnight in the village. While police claimed that Hoshiar Singh, the former chairman of the block Samiti, instigated the fracas to get a road built in front of a petrol pump he owns, Singh refuted the claim, claiming that all villagers wanted a road built at the site because over 20 mishaps had occurred there in the previous few months and all their pleas to the authorities to reconstruct the road had fallen on deaf ears.

According to the complainant, the suspects were armed with weapons and sticks and abused the team.The tender was already allotted and a private contractor was completing the work. But the miscreants visited the spot and forcefully took them to another site that was not listed under the tender and got a road constructed there, he quotes. As per a report by the Hindustan Times.

As per a senior GMDA official, when the matter was brought to their attention, they acted quickly and filed a police complaint against the villagers. GMDA does not tolerate such actions--interfering with the government projects and manhandling the staff members while on duty. Strict action has been initiated by the police, he said.

On Tuesday, police said they registered a case at Kherki Daula police station under 149 (unlawful assembly), sections 148 (riots), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 323 (causing hurt), 427 (causing damage), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

According to Rajender Singh, station house officer of the Kherki Daula police station, they are conducting an investigation and raids to apprehend the suspects. One of the suspects, identified as Hoshiar Singh, forcefully got a road constructed in front of a petrol pump he owns. He held all the staff members and workers of a private contractor at gunpoint to complete the task. The villagers accompanied him and assaulted the team members who were working on Tuesday, he quotes.

Meanwhile, Singh stated that they had to resort to such tactics because, despite several reminders, GMDA officials were not responding to their requests to reconstruct the stretch. "At least 20 accidents occurred on the stretch in the last two months." Throughout the year, the entire stretch is potholed and waterlogged. We met with all of the officials and filed formal complaints, but nothing was done. "We all decided to get together and finish the repairs," he explained.

Even if they are arrested, Singh claims that villagers can now travel on the stretch safely. This is no crime to save the lives of our people. Many small children have also suffered injuries and the entire stretch is not my personal property, it is used by the villagers, says Hoshiar Singh. However, the GMDA officials stated that they had received no complaints from villagers about the potholed road.
Raipur: Keeping in mind the concern for women's safety and their empowerment in society, the Chhattisgarh government has announced the 'Hamar Beti-Hamar Maan' campaign in this state. "The society in which daughters are safe and empowered, that society moves on the path of continuous progress. I would like to share with you that keeping in mind the daughters' safety, the Chhattisgarh government is going to start the 'Hamar Beti-Hamar Maan' campaign. #Hamar_Beti_Hamar_Maan," CM Baghel said in a series of tweets.

' -  '                  



         ,     #___ pic.twitter.com/oEMv5QdvfB  Bhupesh Baghel (@bhupeshbaghel) September 23, 2022

Via his tweets, the CM informed that under the campaign, the girls here will be taught about various necessary subjects, including their legal rights, good touch-bad touch, and sexual crimes.

"Women officers and employees of the state police will communicate, guide, and teach the daughters in schools and colleges about their legal rights, good touch, bad touch, molestation, sexual abuse, cyber crime, protection from social media crimes and their rights," he added.

Adding further, he said that a helpline number will also be issued under the Hamar Beti Hamar Maan campaign so that prompt action could be taken on the crimes against any woman after they complain about it through that number.

"A special team of police will patrol the girl's schools, colleges, and other prominent places with the specific presence of females," CM Baghel said.

He further announced the state government's other decision that the investigations into these matters shall be taken up by the women investigators within a stipulated time.

"We have also decided that the investigation of crimes related to women will be done on a priority basis by women investigators. Moreover, the IG Range will be responsible for ensuring that the probe in such matters is completed within a stipulated time and a challan is also presented," he added.

He further said that the women in educational institutes of the state will be trained regarding the usage of the application developed specifically for women's safety by visiting the schools and colleges here.
IAF AFCAT 2 Result 2022: The Indian Air Force Common Admission Test, IAF AFCAT 2 result 2022 is expected to be released soon. However, no official date for the 2022 AFCAT result declaration has been announced by the IAF. When results are available, candidates who registered for the AFCAT 2022 can access them at the official website, afcat.cdac.in. Candidates must submit information such as their name and ID number in order to view their IAF AFCAT 2 results.

Candidates called to the Air Force Selection Board in 2022 who pass the AFCAT exam (AFSB). Exams for the AFCAT 2022 were held on August 26, 27, and 28, 2022. The scoring system for the AFCAT 2 results states that each accurate response will receive three points, each wrong response will receive one point, and questions that are not attempted will receive no points.

AFCAT 2 Result 2022: Here's how to check

Step 1: Visit the official website of IAF - afcat.cdac.in

Step 2: Click on AFCAT-2/2022 Result on the home page (once released)

Step 3: Enter email ID, password, and captcha code

Step 4: The result is displayed on the screen

Step 5: Download the result and take its printout

AFCAT result 2022: Details mentioned on scorecard

Registration number

Name of candidate

Exam name

Cut off marks

Marks scored by the candidate

Congratulatory note

AFSB selection process and details

AFSB selection slot booking

The performance of applicants in the AFCAT exam 2022 and AFSB interview will be taken into account when releasing the final AFCAT 2022 result. Candidates will be hired for various services within the IAF if they pass all levels of testing (officer intelligence rating test, psychological test, and Flying Branch - Computerised Pilot Selection System (CPSS).
New York: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who is in New York, praised the leadership skills of Prime Minister Narendra Modi while recalling the attack on the Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan near the Indian Consulate and while India was coordinating evacuations from the country.

Recalling the situation in Afghanistan in the year 2016, EAM Jaishankar attending a book discussion event here on Thursday said, "It was past midnight, and our consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, was under attack. And we were using phones, trying to figure out what happened."

"All of this was happening and youre juggling phones, trying to keep everybody updated. And then, my phone rang. When the prime minister calls, there is no caller ID. His first question was - Jaage ho? (Are you awake?)," Jaishankar said.

The EAM was speaking at an event to discuss the book Modi@20: Dreams Meet Delivery."Jaage ho?...achaa tv dekh rahe ho...toh kya ho raha h waha (what`s happening there?)," PM Modi asked Jaishankar over the call, responding to which the EAM responded and informed the PM that help was on its way.

Jaishankar said during the address citing the phone call with Prime Minister. "I told him that it might take a couple of more hours and that I would call up at his office. To this, he responded - `Mujhe phone kar dena` (Call me please)," Jaishankar said.

Praising the leadership skills of PM Modi the EAM said, "To handle the consequences of very big decisions, that is a singular quality."

The external affairs minister also recalled his first meeting with the prime minister. "I frankly liked PM Modi before I met him. I am on some levels, as many would complain, a micromanager. I can be quiet a pain. But the level of preparation he had done was commendable," Jaishankar said.

The EAM also pointed out that PM Modi "starts his day at 7:30 am... and carries on, and does not drop, while others might."

The EAM also recounted India`s evacuation effort from Afghanistan after the country fell to the control of Taliban last year.

India evacuated almost all its citizens who wished to return from Afghanistan by conducting several rescue operations on Afghan soil during the crisis. India airlifted its citizens from Kabul. It also airlifted its citizens through Dushanbe in Tajikistan and Qatar.

Jaishankar has over the last three days he has met with envoys and heads of states from around the world on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

The highlights of Jaishankar`s meetings particularly with developing countries from Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Small Islands are sharply focused on the reform of the UN Security Council.

Jaishankar will address world leaders at the General Assembly on Saturday, after which he will leave for Washington and a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Bengaluru: The Congress on Friday intensified its campaign targeting Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai with the top party leaders putting up 'PayCM posters' at public places ignoring state government's direction to investigate the matter. The Chief Minister hit back saying that the Congress has no moral right to speak about corruption. Former chief minister Siddaramaiah, state Congress chief D K Shivakumar, All India Congress Committee general secretary and Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala and several senior MLAs and others participated in the campaign.

They put up the PayCM poster on the Race Course wall in the city opposite the Volvo office. Later, the Congress leaders were arrested and the posters were removed from the public place. Congress leaders such as B K Hariprasad and others pasted the posters on the bus which police had brought to take away the leaders to the police station.

The Congress state chief Shivakumar alleged the police did not take action against those who put up birthday and other posters of politicians illegally but arrest only the Congress people. "This campaign will go to every nook and corner of the state. We will not stop it here," Shivakumar said.

Surjewala who too was arrested, tweeted, "The #40PercentCommission Bommai Govt is so unnerved that it has given #Karnataka Police the job of tearing up posters & arresting Opposition leaders instead of maintaining law & order. People are waiting to throw out the BJP Govt mired in unbearable stench of corruption."

The #40PercentCommission Bommai Govt is so unnerved that it has given #Karnataka Police the job of tearing up posters & arresting Opposition leaders instead of maintaining law & order.



People are waiting to throw out the BJP Govt mired in unbearable stench of corruption. pic.twitter.com/RnymFPDHlV  Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) September 23, 2022

The party also pasted the 'PayCM' posters at the BJP's Nelamangala office on the outskirts of Bengaluru on Friday.

Also Read: 'PayCM Karo': Congress TARGETS BJP govt in Karnataka with posters of CM Basavaraj Bommai

The party later shared the pictures of its PayCM campaign with media.

Chief Minister Bommai retaliated against the charge on Friday.

He alleged the Congress party was involved in multiple scams and it has no moral right to talk about corruption.

He also said the government has given a detailed reply on the corruption charges levelled by a Contractors' Association, which had alleged that ministers allegedly charge 40 per cent commission for the public works.
New Delhi: In an unfortunate turn of events, three people, including a child, were killed and two others injured after they were struck by lightning in separate incidents here on Friday according to officials. UP has been experiencing heavy rains in the past few days which has caused unfavourable situations for the people. Schools were shut due to heavy rains and railways were affected as well.

The deceased were identified as Naresh (40) from Tevara village, Usman (15) from Beli village and Raja Babu (13) from Kathauti village, the district administration said in a statement. Ram Singh (34) from Tevara village and Gyal (25) from Beli village were injured in lightning strikes, it said. The bodies of the deceased have been sent for a post-mortem examination, while the injured have been hospitalised, the statement said.

Also Read: UP CM Yogi Adityanath conducts aerial survey of flood-hit areas, directs District Magistrates to expedite relief operation

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday conducted an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas and directed concerned district magistrates to expedite relief operations. The districts surveyed by the CM from a helicopter that took off from Gorakhpur, included Gorakhpur, Sant Kabir Nagar, Basti, Ayodhya, Gonda and Barabanki through which the Saryu river passes. CM Yogi issued necessary instructions to the district magistrates to accelerate relief work in the flood-affected areas. The Chief Minister also asked the DMs for a full report on the flood relief efforts being made in the flood-hit villages of the affected districts.

Furthermore, the CM issued an order for quick distribution of relief supplies and permissible medical aid in cases of human or animal casualties. In the last 24 hours, about 25 mm or more rainfall was recorded in 16 districts of the state. At present, 247 villages in 14 districts are affected by floods in the state.
MUMBAI: Former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday appealed to his supporters to maintain discipline during the partys annual Dussehra Rally at the iconic Shivaji Park in Mumbai minute after a favourable verdict from the Bombay High Court in this regard. The Shiv Sena chief asked his cadres to ensure that the decades-old tradition is not tarnished. Welcoming the Bombay High Court order, Uddhav Thackeray said, Our faith in judiciary vindicated. The appeal from the Shiv Sena president came shortly after the Bombay High Court granted permission to hold its annual Dussehra rally at the iconic Shivaji Park ground in central Mumbai on October 5.

The venue, where the Sena had been holding its Dussehra rally year after year, got embroiled in a legal battle after the rival faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde too applied for holding its rally there on the same day.

A division bench of Justices R D Dhanuka and Kamal Khata said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) decision not to grant permission to either faction was a "clear abuse of the process of law."

The Thackeray faction had challenged the BMC order before the court. "In our view, the BMC decision was not bonafide (in good faith). The petitioner has been granted permission to hold the Dussehra rally at the Shivaji Park in the past," it noted. The BMC order refusing permission merely on the ground that there was a second application filed to hold the rally at the same place is a clear abuse of the process of law," the order said.

The civic body "misused its power on a flimsy ground," the court remarked. The bench allowed the Thackeray faction to use the ground from October 2 to 6 while maintaining law and order. It also directed the police to video record the entire rally.

"There shall be no hindrance caused to the police work," it warned. "I informed Uddhav Thackeray about the order and he too is happy. This rally is for the people of Maharashtra and there is no politics in it. It is a custom and tradition that has been going on for many years. Satyameva Jayate," Sena leader Anil Desai told reporters in the court.

The BMC had on September 21 said it was refusing permission for the rally because if permission was granted to any one group, it would lead to law and order problems.

The corporation had also cited a report submitted by the Shivaji Park police station expressing this apprehension. MLA Sada Sarvankar, who had sought permission from the BMC for the rally on behalf of the Shinde group, had also moved the HC.

His plea opposed the Thackeray group's petition saying the court should not decide the matter as the dispute as to who represents the real Sena was pending before the Supreme Court. The court rejected this application noting that Sarvankar had no "locus" (right) to intervene.

"In our view, the issue of who is the real Shiv Sena is pending before the Supreme Court and the Election Commission of India and this petition regarding the Dussehra rally has nothing to do with the same and hence we are afraid we cannot go into these contentions," the bench said.

The bench also noted that the applications for permission were pending since August 22. "Only after this petition was filed on September 21, the corporation sought a report from the police and then on the same day passed its order refusing permission. The corporation is unable to explain why the application couldn't be decided before," it said.
Kolkata: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday criticised the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal for its alleged neck deep involvement in the school teachers' recruitment scam and wondered when will it wake up from its "slumber" and give justice to aspirants of school jobs. Pradhan's comment drew a sharp reaction from the Trinamool Congress which said his statements were blatant lies to malign the state government.

The Union Education Minister accused the TMC government of not being keen to redress the grievances of candidates who have been protesting against the School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam even though a former state minister and several officials have been arrested in the case.

There has been rampant corruption regarding recruitment of school teachers in West Bengal. The corruption in the state's education system has come to the forefront. We had written to the state government in August last year to ensure that the protesting job aspirants get justice. But no action was taken. Even the court had made few observations, he said.

Continuing with his condemnation, Pradhan told reporters that several senior TMC leaders and state ministers have been arrested in the scam but the state government is yet to ensure that aspirants get justice. "When will the state government wake up from its Kumbhakarna-like slumber and give justice to the candidates who have been agitating for a long time?"

Kumbhakarna is the brother of Ravana, the demon king of Lanka in the epic 'Ramayana' who used to sleep for six months a year.

Former West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee and his alleged close associate Arpita Mukherjee were arrested on July 23 by the Enforcement Directorate, which is probing the money trail in the School Service Commission recruitment scam.

The agency claimed to have seized cash, apart from bullion, jewellery and property deeds from the latter's flats in Kolkata. The CBI on Monday arrested North Bengal University vice-chancellor Subires Bhattacharyya in connection with its probe into the assistant teachers' recruitment irregularities in 2016.

The TMC hit back, dubbing Pradhan's accusations as a bunch of lies aimed at maligning the state government.

"It is shameful that Dharmendra Pradhan has come to West Bengal and is spreading lies and canards against the state government. He is behaving like a BJP leader rather than a union minister, TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said.

If Pradhan is so concerned about corruption in the education system then he should first visit BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh where several people have been killed in connection with the Vyapam scam.

He should also go to BJP-ruled Tripura and stage a protest against the teacher recruitment scam there. TMC has zero tolerance on the issue of corruption, he said.

Pradhan, who was in the city to participate in organisational meetings as part of BJP's 'Pravas' campaign across the country, urged state leaders of the party to strengthen the booth-level organisation in the state.

Reacting to Pradhan's advice to the saffron party workers on using the issue of corruption for the 2024 Lok Sabha poll. Ghosh said, The BJP is a spent force in West Bengal. BJP is on its deathbed in West Bengal. No amount of pep talk will help revive the party in the state, he said.

The BJP central leadership has launched the 'Pravas' campaign in a bid to strengthen its organisation in over 144 Lok Sabha constituencies across the country. The party has designated a union minister or central leader as a "pravas" minister and a cluster in charge, who will be in charge of four to five Lok Sabha seats.
New Delhi: Outgoing senior woman Supreme Court judge Justice Indira Banerjee on Friday, September 23, hoped that more women would be appointed as judges of the top judiciary in the coming days. Justice Banerjee, who is the fifth senior-most judge in the apex court would be demitting office after serving for over four years. Besides her, other women judges in the apex court are Justices Hima Kohli, B.V. Nagarathna, and Bela M Trivedi. Justice Banerjee was the eighth woman judge to be appointed to the Supreme Court and now with her retirement, there would be three women judges in the apex court.

The Supreme Court, which came into being on January 26, 1950, has seen very few women judges since its inception and in the last over 72 years - only 11, starting with Justice M Fathima Beevi in 1989. Other female judges appointed to the apex court were - Justices Sujata V Manohar, Ruma Pal, Gyan Sudha Misra, Ranjana P Desai, R Banumathi, and Indu Malhotra.

On the last working day, Justice Banerjee shared the ceremonial bench with Chief Justice of India U U Lalit who praised her contribution to the judiciary in her over two-decade-long career.

We all will be missing our sister, Justice Banerjee. In twenty years of judicial career, she has given everything. Hard-working - yes. Intelligent - No doubt. She has all the qualities which a judge should have. We all will be missing her on the bench and of course, she will always remain in our hearts. So, good luck sister! Wish you all the best!, said the CJI.

Justice Banerjee, who was elevated to the top court on August 7, 2018, from Madras High Court where she was the Chief Justice, acknowledged the assistance of the bar in judgements delivered by her. She recalled her first day in the top court as the judge saying that it seemed just like the other day when she was sharing the bench with Justice (since retired) Dipak Misra on August 7, 2018.

I acknowledge the assistance which I have received from the members of the bar. If I gave judgments, it was because of their (lawyers') assistance, she said, adding that the apex court bar is very strong, independent and intelligent.

I do hope that there will be more women in the future...Hope there is cooperation for the weaker, and there be equality and justice in the shortest span of time. Thank you all, she said in her concluding remarks.

The retirement of justice Banerjee would bring down the number of serving judges in the top court to 29 against the sanctioned strength of 34 including the CJI. The SCBA (Supreme Court Bar Association) would hold a formal function to bid farewell to Justice Banerjee, the senior judge among the four women judges in the top court, in the evening.

As per the Constitution, Supreme Court judges retire at the age of 65. Attorney General K K Venugopal, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, SCBA president, and senior advocate Vikas Singh paid rich tributes to Justice Banerjee on her last day in office.

We have very few women judges on the bench and it is very sad that we are losing one of the best amongst them, the top law officer said.

Justice Banerjee, born on September 24, 1957, did LL.B from the College of Law of Calcutta University and enrolled as an advocate on July 5, 1985. She practised both in the Original and Appellate Sides of the Calcutta High Court in all branches of law except Criminal law, with appearances in the Supreme Court, other Courts, and Tribunals.

She was elevated as a permanent Judge of Calcutta High Court on February 5, 2002, was transferred as the Judge of the Delhi High Court on August 8, 2016, and also became the chairperson of the Delhi State Legal Services Authority. She was sworn in as Chief Justice of Madras High Court on April 5, April 2017, and was later elevated as Supreme Court Judge on August 7, 2018.
New Delhi: Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday underlined the need for de-politicising the discussions on health policy and infrastructure and adopting a more holistic approach across the whole spectrum of the populace. He also asserted that a new India is prepared to deal with any threat in the healthcare sector.

"A healthy India will be a wealthy India," Mandaviya said speaking at the Public Affairs Forum of India's (PAFI) 9th Annual Forum 2022.

He said the new India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an empowered nation and is well prepared to face any crisis. The difference has been made by the proactive planning of the prime minister, he said, adding health infrastructure is being propagated across the country via the PPP model with a microcosm of public hospitals mushrooming along with private medical colleges. Mandaviya said 22 AIIMS have been planned across the country to improve the tertiary level of health infrastructure.

Elaborating on the country's management of COVID-19, he said the government had started efforts to understand the virus much before it came to India, and accordingly planned and prepared beforehand to face the pandemic.

Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: Raju Srivastava suffered cardiac arrest - What are the causes of chest pain in 55 plus age group, expert advice on healthy heart!

Mandviya on health and GDP

Talking about why the health infrastructure to GDP ratio is declining in India, Mandaviya said, "Every country has its own model specific to its people. In India, healthcare expenditure is lower as compared to other nations. Still, the Government is very much concerned about the health of its people and has assigned a budget of Rs 100 crore for each district to implement the Ayushman Bharat Scheme in the next five years."

Giving the details of the PPP model in healthcare, Mandaviya said the government is following a holistic approach in planning and building healthcare models for the country. He said the government is following two models for healthcare.

While under one it has launched the Nishchay Mitra scheme for the eradication of TB from India by 2025 and asked people to adopt nine lakh TB patients, under the second PPP arrangement, the Ayushman Bharat Scheme has been extended to 24,000 plus private hospitals, enabling the business to private hospitals and ensuring healthcare for all.
Coimbatore: After a massive crackdown on the Popular Front of India (PFI) by multi-agency teams led by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), a bottle filled with inflammable substance was hurled at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office here on Thursday. The BJP workers staged a protest, and the police reached the spot to pacify the protest.

One BJP worker Nandkumar told ANI, "Petrol bomb thrown at our office, this is how terror attacks come, today raids (against PFI) took place at several places, it is the anniversary of Hindu Munnani leader and BJP National president too is in the state."

Coimbatore, TN | Petrol bomb thrown at our office, this is how terror attacks come, today raids (against PFI) took place at several places, it is the anniversary of Hindu Munnani leader & BJP National president too is in state: Nandkumar, BJP worker (22.09) pic.twitter.com/yIkYJLj0Fo  ANI (@ANI) September 22, 2022

Notably, BJP national chief JP Nadda on Thursday evening addressed a well-attended rally at Karaikudi in the Sivaganga district, calling upon the people to "rid" the dynasty party from the state. The BJP, he said has a bright future in Tamil Nadu and Lotus will bloom in this holy land, the land of great warriors like Marudhu Pandi brothers, Velu Nachiyar and Puli Thevar.

Also read: PFI Protest: Kerala police beefs up security in the state

Nadda said that the regional parties in several States like Punjab, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have reduced to the stature of family parties like the DMK in Tamil Nadu, adding that the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu has no regional aspirations and like several regional political parties across the country it is keen on continuing dynasty politics.

It may be noted here that during the NIA and ED raids on the premises of PFI, as many as 106 leaders and activists of the radical Islamic outfit were arrested on Thursday in near-simultaneous raids in 15 states for allegedly supporting terror activities in the country. The states where the raids were conducted included Andhra Pradesh (4 places), Telangana (1), Delhi (19), Kerala (11), Karnataka (8), Tamil Nadu (3), Uttar Pradesh (1), Rajasthan (2), Hyderabad (5), Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, West Bengal, Bihar and Manipur.

(With Agency Inputs)
Purnea: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar backstabbed the BJP to join hands with RJD and Congress to fulfil his prime ministerial ambitions, claimed Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his party's rally in Purnea on Friday. "Nitish-ji, you did the same thing in 2014. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the people of Bihar will rout this Mahagathbandhan. BJP will form a government with a full majority after the 2025 assembly polls," Shah claimed, adding "We believe in politics of service and development, instead of selfishness and power."

Union Home Minister further said, "Wanting to become prime minister, Nitish Kumar backstabbed, and is now sitting in the lap of RJD and Congress," adding that the Bihar chief minister has only one ideology -- "my chair should remain intact". Addressing the `Jana Bhavna Mahasabha` in Bihar`s Purnea, the first ever since the split of the BJP and JD(U) alliance in the state, Shah said, "Can Nitish Kumar become the Prime Minister by switching alliances? Can this government-run in Bihar?"

Slamming the law and order situation in the state, Amit Shah said that there is an "atmosphere of fear" in the state since the Mahagathbandhan government returned to power, adding "Today when I`m here in border districts, the duo of Lalu Yadav (RJD chief) and (CM) Nitish Kumar have a stomachache. Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar say that I am coming to create conflict."

Also read: Cong Prez poll: Digvijay decides not to contest; now it's Gehlot vs Tharoor

"Lalu ji, there is no need of mine to create conflict, you are sufficient to do this. You have done this all your life. I have come here to say that when Lalu has joined the government, and Nitish Kumar is sitting on his lap, there is an atmosphere of fear here. I have come to tell you there is no need to be scared. There is the Narendra Modi government here," Shah added.

Lalu-Nitish duo will be wiped out in 2024 general elections: Amit Shah

Amit Shah said that the people of the state will "wipe out the Lalu-Nitish duo" in the 2024 general elections and the party will come to power in the state in 2025, adding "In 2014, you (Bihar CM Nitish Kumar) only had 2 LS seats, `naa ghar ke rahe the, naa ghaat ke`. Let the 2024 LS elections come, the Bihar public will wipe out the Lalu-Nitish duo. We`re, with a full majority, going to come to power here in 2025 polls".

He further said, "Bihar public gave you (CM Nitish Kumar) the benefit of the doubt for long, now they know that neither Lalu`s party nor your party will come this time. Only PM Modi`s lotus will bloom in Bihar this time," adding that Nitish Kumar does not favour any political ideology, and can join hands with any party to stay in power.

Also read: PFI office bearers were recruiting Muslim youth to join: NIA

Shah said, "Nitish Kumar is not in favour of any political ideology. Nitish ji can leave socialism and go with Lalu ji also, can do casteist politics. Nitish ji can leave socialism and sit with the Left, Congress. He may also leave RJD and join BJP. Nitish has only one policy - my chair should remain intact."

The Home Minister said that there is a danger of "`Jungle-raj` is looming over Bihar", adding "I`d like to ask Nitish Kumar and new minister Lalan Singh if people engaging in the fodder scam became ministers in your cabinet, how will you catch them? And then he`s (CM) attempting to think of banning CBI under Lalu`s pressure. The danger of `Jungle-raj` looms over Bihar."

Notably, Amit Shah is on a two-day visit to the state. He will be holding a meeting with MPs, MLAs and former ministers of Bihar BJP at Mata Gujri University in Kishanganj city. On day two of his visit to the state, he will offer prayer at Budhi Kali Mata Temple around 9.30 am at Subhashpally Chowk in Kishanganj, besides visiting border outpost Fatehpur and inaugurate BOP buildings of Fatehpur, Pekatola, Beria, Amgachi and Raniganj around 10.30 am at Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) Campus.

(With ANI Inputs)
New Delhi: As the battle for the Congress presidential poll intensifies, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday (September 23, 2022) said that party leader Rahul Gandhi had made it clear that no one from the Gandhi family should become the next party president.

Ashok Gehlot, the probable candidate for the Congress chief post, has been trying to convince Rahul Gandhi to take up the key post he gave up after the party's debacle in the 2019 Lok Sabah election.

"I have requested him (Congress MP Rahul Gandhi) multiple times to accept everyone's proposal of becoming the Congress president. He made it clear that no one from the Gandhi family should become the next chief," Gehlot said.

#WATCH | Kerala: "I have requested him (Congress MP Rahul Gandhi) multiple times to accept everyone's proposal of becoming the Congress President. He made it clear that no one from the Gandhi family should become the next chief," said Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot pic.twitter.com/yEodA4l7fW  ANI (@ANI) September 23, 2022

While addressing the media in Kerala today, Gehlot added that he would file his nomination for the election soon. He said the Opposition needs to be strong considering the current position of the country.

Ashok Gehlot and party MP Shashi Tharoor are seen as the likely contenders for the upcoming election.

Gehlot's confirmation has added to the buzz over the Rajasthan chief minister's office, which the Congress leader may have to vacate in lines with the party's Chintan Shivir reforms that called for one party, one post.

Gehlot said Rajasthan state in-charge Ajay Maken and Sonia Gandhi would decide on the matter.
Pittsburgh: In yet another proof of Prime Minister Narendra Modis growing international stature, Mexico has now proposed to the United Nations to set up a committee that would include the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pope Francis and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to mediate permanent peace between Russia and Ukraine.

The proposal was put forward by Marcelo Luis Ebrard Casaubon, the foreign minister of Mexico while participating in a UN Security Council debate on Ukraine in New York, during which he lauded PM Modi's effort and hoped that the ongoing war can end through his mediation.

This came days after PM Modi, who met Putin on the sidelines of the 22nd meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan's Samarkand, told the Russian leader that "today's era is not of war".

PM Modi's remarks have been welcomed by the western world including the United States, France and the United Kingdom. "Based on its pacifist vocation, Mexico believes that the international community must now channel its best efforts to achieve peace," Casaubn said.

"In this regard, I would like to share with you the proposal of the President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, to strengthen the mediation efforts of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, through the formation of a Committee for Dialogue and Peace in Ukraine with the participation of other heads of state and government, including, if possible, His Excellency Narendra Modi and His Holiness Pope Francis."

He said the objective of the committee would be to generate new mechanisms for dialogue and create complementary spaces for mediation to build confidence, reduce tensions and open the way for lasting peace.

Casaubon said the Mexican delegation will continue with the necessary consultations to contribute towards generating broad support for the mediation efforts led by the UN secretary-general as well as for the committee, "whose formation we hope will proceed with the support of the UN member states that so decide".

"As the Secretary-General has said, it is time to act and commit to peace. To settle for war is always to go to the precipice," he said. The Mexican foreign minister argued that peace can only be achieved through dialogue, diplomacy and by building effective political channels.

"Indifference is unacceptable, just as it is unacceptable to simply lament the fact that, so far, in the case in question, the Security Council has not been able to fulfil its essential responsibility," he said.

"The reasons why this Council can become dysfunctional are well known. It is up to us to correct them. The time is right to consider, in all seriousness, the structural reforms required to do so," Casaubon added.
As the first phase of Russias new partial mobilization got underway on Thursday, videos appeared on social media purporting to show newly mobilized men preparing to be deployed.

In the city of Neryungi  six time zones east of Ukraine  a community video channel posted clips of families saying goodbye to a large group of men, as they boarded buses. The video shows a woman crying and hugging her husband goodbye, while he reaches for his daughters hand from the bus window.

More men were shown in other videos apparently awaiting transport in the region of Yakutiya, a vast Siberian territory, and at Magadan Airport in the Russian far east. CNN has not been able independently to geolocate or date all the videos posted.

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week called for partial mobilization of Russias population to support the war in Ukraine, at a time when a sudden counteroffensive from Kyiv has recaptured thousands of square miles of territory and put Moscow on the backfoot. Experts say Russias forces have been significantly depleted.

The announcement would see 300,000 reservists called up, according to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

In an early sign of how seriously Moscow is ramping up its efforts, the Human Rights Council of Russia has proposed that immigrants from central Asian countries who have had Russian citizenship for less than 10 years will undergo compulsory military service in Russia for a year.

We are preparing proposals for new citizens of the Russian Federation who have Russian citizenship for less than 10 years to do compulsory military service for a year for people from Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, council member Kirill Kabanov wrote on Telegram Thursday.

Refusal to perform military duty should entail the deprivation of Russian citizenship not only for a person liable for military service, but also for members of his family, he added.

Controversy in Russia

In his speech, Putin said those with military experience would be subject to conscription, and stressed that the accompanying decree  which was already signed  was necessary to protect our homeland, its sovereignty and its territorial integrity.

Story continues

But the decree appears to allow for wider mobilization than he suggested in his speech. Ekaterina Schulmann, a Russian political scientist and associate fellow at the Chatham House think tank, said on Telegram that while the decree describes the mobilization as partial, it sets no parameters of this partiality, either territorial or categoric.

According to this text, anyone can be called up except for those working in the military-industrial complex who are exempt for the period of their employment. The fact that the mobilization applies only to reservists or those with some particularly necessary skills is mentioned in the address, but not in the decree.

Russian human rights lawyer Pavel Chikov said that the decree sets out mobilization in the broadest terms.

The president is leaving it at the Defense Ministers discretion. So in fact it is the Russian Defense Ministry that will decide who will be sent to war, from where and in what numbers, Chikov said on Telegram.

Following the speech, at least 1,300 people were detained across Russia on Wednesday for participating in nationwide anti-war protests  with some directly conscripted into the military, according to a monitoring group, after leader Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of citizens for his faltering invasion of Ukraine.

Images and videos show police cracking down on demonstrators in multiple cities, with footage showing several protesters at a demonstration in central Moscow being carried away by the police and authorities in St. Petersburg attempting to contain a crowd chanting no mobilization outside Isakiivskiy Cathedral.

Police detained the protesters across 38 cities in Russia on Wednesday, according to figures released shortly after midnight by independent monitoring group OVD-Info. The groups spokeswoman Maria Kuznetsova told CNN by phone that at at least four police stations in Moscow, some of the protesters arrested by riot police were being drafted directly into Russias military.

One of the detainees has been threatened with prosecution for refusing to be drafted, she said. The government has said that punishment for refusing the draft is now 15 years in jail. Of the more than 1,300 people detained nationwide, more than 500 were in Moscow and more than 520 in St. Petersburg, according to OVD-Info.

Just over half the detained protesters whose names were made public are women, OVD-Info also said, making it the biggest anti-government protest by share of women in recent history. The watchdog specified the full scale of the arrests remains unknown, however.

Nine journalists and 33 minors are also among the detained, it said, adding that one of the minors was brutally beaten by law enforcement.

The specter of nuclear weapons

Putin also raised the specter of nuclear weapons in his address, saying he would use all the means at our disposal, if he deemed the territorial integrity of Russia to be jeopardized. He also endorsed referenda on joining Russia that Russian-appointed leaders in four occupied regions of Ukraine announced they would hold this week.

Concern among Russian citizens was palpable on Wednesday, with travel agency websites showing a dramatic increase in the demand for flights to places where Russians do not need a visa. Flight sale websites indicate direct flights to such countries sold out through Friday at least.

On Thursday, a spokesperson for the European Commission acknowledged that there had been numerous requests by Russian citizens hoping to enter European Union countries. They said that the EU is planning to establish a joint position on the matter.

The European Commission also noted that, for now, each member state will need to assess entry requests on a case-by-case basis, adding that external border management of the EU must be carried out in line with EU law and comply with fundamental rights and all of the legislation in place for asylum procedures.

Riot police detain a demonstrator during an anti-war protest in Moscow, Russia on September 21. - Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

The protests in Russia, most of which appeared to have attracted a few dozen people, were another strong signal of the desperation felt by some. Dissent is typically swiftly crushed in Russia and authorities have placed further constraints on free speech following the invasion of Ukraine.

Footage from social media showed several protesters in Ulan Ude in eastern Siberia carrying signs reading No to war! No to mobilization! and Our husbands, fathers, and brothers do not want to kill other husbands and fathers!

We want our fathers, husbands, and brothers to remain alive  and not to leave their children as orphans. Stop the war and dont take our people! one protester said.

Video from Yekaterinburg in western Russia showed police scuffling with several protesters. CNN could not independently verify the footage from either city.

Another video posted by a journalist from the Moscow internet publication The Village shows dozens of people in Arbatskaya street chanting Let him go as one man is carried away.

The Moscow prosecutors office on Wednesday also warned citizens against joining protests or distributing information calling for participation  reminding people that they could face up to 15 years in jail.

When asked on Thursday about reports of people detained at anti-war rallies being handed subpoenas for military conscription, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the practice is not against the law. There is no violation of the law here.

Russia wants war

Putins announcement was condemned Wednesday by Western leaders, many of whom were meeting at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

In a rare joint statement, UK Prime Minister Liz Truss and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, said that both agree Putins announcement of a partial mobilization of Russian citizens is a sign of weakness.

European Union foreign ministers agreed in New York to push forward with a new round of sanctions against Russia, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters.

Ukraine remained defiant in the face of Putins announcement, with President Volodymyr Zelensky telling the UNGA in a pre-recorded address Wednesday that Russia was afraid of real (peace) negotiations, and pointing to what he characterized as Russian lies.

Russia talks about the talks but announces a military mobilization, Zelensky said. Russia wants war.

On Thursday, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said that Putins partial mobilization only strengthens the countrys support for Ukraine. French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said his country would continue its support for Ukraine in terms of arms and training, but added that France needed cooperation within NATO to do so.

Meanwhile, analysis by researchers from the Institute for the Study of War said that the move wont have a marked impact on the wars immediate outcome.

The analysis said that it would take weeks or months to bring reservists up to combat readiness, that Russian reservists are poorly trained to begin with, and that the deliberate phases of deployment outlined by Russias defense minister are likely to preclude any sudden influx of Russian forces that could dramatically shift the tide of the war.

CNNs Katya Krebs, Uliana Pavlova, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Anastasia Graham-Yooll, Sugam Pokharel, Clare Sebastian, Idris Muktar, Nadine Schmidt, Lauren Kent and Stephanie Halasz contributed to this report.

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Thiruvananthapuram: As many as 500 people were arrested and 400 others put under preventive detention on Friday in connection with violent protests during the twelve-hour strike called by PFI to protest the arrest of the organisation's leaders. The protests also saw stone pelting at an RSS office in Mattannur in Kannur, police said. Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Law and Order, Vijay Sakhare told ANI that 500 people had been arrested so far in connection with the protests.

The ADGP also gave details of another incident where arrests were made for carrying an explosive device."In another case, two persons on a motorcycle with a bomb were arrested. Three more people were arrested later. All five have been arrested. Currently, the situation is normal and under control," Sakhare said. Earlier in the day, a petrol bomb was also hurled at the RSS office in Mattannur during the protest against the arrest of the PFI activists.

According to reports, two persons on a scooter hurled a petrol bomb at the Sangh office which resulted in the shattering of window panes. A day after PFI leaders were arrested in massive nationwide raids by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and other agencies, the controversial organisation had called for a dawn-to-dusk shutdown on Friday.

Also Read: PFI's Kerala bandh tuns violent: Protestors pelt stones at buses, vehicles; 2 policemen injured in Kollam

The hartal (strike) started at 6 am and will continue for 12 hours till 6 pm, informed a protester. According to the police, stone-pelting incidents were reported at various places in the state during the protest. Visuals showed the protestors pelting stones at the Kerala State Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus at Panamaram village in Wayanad district. The bus was going to Kozhikode. KSRTC buses were also attacked in Kozhikode, Kochi, Alappuzha and Kollam." Two miscreants on a bike at Pallimukku in the Kollam district abused police officials and hit them after they attempted to stop them," police said. The injured police officials identified as Antony and Nikhil have been admitted to the hospital. The police said the accused will soon be taken into custody.
New Delhi: After the radical Islamic outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) called for a state-wide protest on Friday, Kerala police increased security and directed district police chiefs to maintain law and order. The PFI called the dawn-to-dusk protest against the raids on its leaders' offices and residences, as well as their subsequent arrests on Thursday by the NIA and other agencies for allegedly supporting terror activities in the country. According to a police statement, those who break the law will face harsh punishment. "All the policemen in the state will be deployed for the maintenance of law and order, " the statement said. Meanwhile, the state-run KSRTC has stated that it will continue to operate as usual. Special services to hospitals, airports, and railway stations will be arranged, and police protection will be sought if necessary, according to the transportation corporation.

The PFI announced on Thursday that the state will go on strike on September 23 "against the RSS-controlled fascist government's attempt to silence dissenting voices using the central agencies." The hartal would last from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., according to A Abdul Sathar, state general secretary of the PFI. The employees of this organisation marched to the locations of the raids on Thursday, raising slogans against the Centre and its investigating agencies. However, as part of bolstering security, central forces were already deployed in all such locations.

Also Read: NIA raids PFI, SDPI offices; activists stage protests in Mangalore, ask officials to 'go back'

On Thursday, multi-agency teams led by the NIA arrested 106 PFI officials in near-simultaneous raids at 93 locations in 15 states for allegedly supporting terror activities in the country. Officials said PFI state president C P Mohammed Basheer, national chairman O M A Salam, national secretary Nasaruddin Elamaram, former chairman E Abubacker, and others were among those arrested in Kerala, where PFI has some strong pockets.
New Delhi: Rajasthan's political turmoil has heightened following indications of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot becoming Congress president and resigning as CM. The six BSP-origin MLAs have hinted at a shift in their old stance in the event of a new CM. Even as the Sachin Pilot camp made noises, the BSP turncoats were considered Gehlot loyalists and supported him throughout. On the question of making Sachin Pilot or anyone else the CM, Minister of State for Rural Development Rajendra Singh Gudha, a staunch Gehlot supporter, has stated that they are in agreement with the party's high command and will follow the direction. "Anyone being made the CM by the high command is acceptable. We are with the decision that Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra take. Even if Bharosi Lal Jatav is made the CM, we are still together," While interacting with the media here Mr Gudha said this.

Gudha stated, in contrast to Ashok Gehlot's statement on the selection of the next CM, "Whatever decisions are taken in the Congress, the decision of the high command is valid." At the very least, we six MLAs in Group Six have assurances that they are all with the high command.

Also Read: Rajasthan reported highest number of rape cases in 2021

"We are members of the Congress. Whatever decision is taken by our Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, we will accept it. As far as I know, there are no if or buts in it. The decision taken by Delhi will be valid for all."

The minister said, "We have been in the government twice. The decision, which is made by the high command, according to my knowledge, all the MLAs will accept. Even if Sonia Gandhi will make Bharosi Lal Jatav the Chief Minister, we are still together. Those who are seeing that Ashok Gehlot is becoming the national president, know more about everything in this matter. Whatever big leaders do in this matter, they will do it with understanding, we are with them."

Gudha has sent a political message by deviating from Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's statement. Gudha has stated that the MLAs associated with G-6 will support the party rather than any individual.
Language is the infinite use of finite means, goes the famous quote by the late Wilhelm von Humboldt, the famous Prussian philosopher and linguist. In todays times, if there is one language one must learn, it is English. English has been widely recognized as a global language. If you are an Indian who has got a job in Spain, you can manage as long as you know how to speak basic English. No matter which part of the world you live in, it is imperative that you have a basic understanding of English as a language.

In India, a large number of competitive examinations are conducted in English. So, even if you have studied in a Hindi medium or a Gujarati medium school, you need to have a decent command over English. There are many people in the country who give up on the idea of learning English as they find the conventional methods like reading books or attending classes tiresome or uninteresting.

Now, a young woman is teaching English through her Instagram page. Riti Boochra, who can be found at @learnenglishwithriti, has been promoting English literacy and has been operating as, what one would call, an e-teacher for the last two years.

Talking about her journey as an educator, Riti says, I often came across people around me who were trying to learn English but not able to get a hold of the language. These days, most people spend a lot of time browsing through the internet and checking out social media apps on their smartphones. While one cant stop them from doing that, one can work towards creating the kind of tools or content that help them learn something new. With this thought, I decided to promote English literacy through my Instagram page.

Riti, who has over 2 Lakh followers on Instagram, has co-authored and edited more than a hundred books. She has also written reference or guide books on English and Economics. She always had a keen interest in studies and went on to pursue her LLB and LLM degrees.





Technology can be used as a wonderful medium to promote English literacy. The growth that I have seen on my page indicates that there are several people out there who are willing to learn English. Sometimes, people dont find a method that complements their learning abilities or temperament. Through the internet and social media, people are learning different things and thats a positive sign, she says.
Noida: In the wake of heavy rainfall in Noida, all government and private schools from classes 1 to 8 in the city will remain closed on Friday, District Magistrate Suhas L Yathraj informed. The notification was issued after the weather department issued an alert due to rains in the region. District Basic Education Officer of Aligarh district also ordered to close all schools on September 23 and 24 in view of the heavy rainfall forecast.

"India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a warning that western UP will witness heavy rainfall. Admin is on alert," said Sudhir Garg, Principal Secretary of Revenue Department.

A fresh cloud is approaching towards Delhi leading to possibility of light to moderate rainfall at most places with intense spells occasionally at a few places over Delhi and adjoining areas of NCR during next 3-4 hours. pic.twitter.com/vYB9gbJKNc  India Meteorological Department (@Indiametdept) September 22, 2022

On Thursday, parts of Uttar Pradesh and the national capital region (NCR), including Gautam Buddh Nagar witnessed heavy rainfall throughout the day. Some areas of the state also reported a loss of lives and property due to the heavy downpour.

One child died and eight others were injured in a wall collapse incident following heavy rain in the district and normal life was disrupted in Uttar Pradesh`s Firozabad.

"District administration provided immediate help and relief to the people affected by heavy rains. 13 people died due to heavy rain while 3 died due to lightning. 10 people died due to the wall collapse in Etawah," said Sudhir Garg.

Meanwhile, the Gurugram Disaster Management Authority has advised all corporate offices and private institutions in the district to guide employees to work from home to avoid traffic congestion and to ensure repair work of roads and drains are carried out smoothly by civic agencies.

Keeping in view heavy downpour on Thursday & forecast of heavy rains on 23 September too, Gurugram District Administration has issued advisory for all corporate companies, private institutions to allow their employees to work from home in larger public interest. pic.twitter.com/w1tOZhvQPZ  DC Gurugram (@DC_Gurugram) September 22, 2022

The authority also advised to close all schools and colleges on Friday in the larger public interest. "In view of heavy rainfall prediction for the district Gurugram on September 23, 2022, there are chances of waterlogging and traffic congestion," advisory read.

"Therefore, all Corporate offices and private institutions in the district are advised to guide their employees to work from home on September 23, 2022, so that traffic congestion can be avoided and repair works of roads and drains can be carried out smoothly by civic agencies. All Private education institutions are advised to close the school/colleges on September 23, 2022, in the larger public interest," the advisory further stated.

Rains in Delhi-NCR, Water logging in Gurugram

On Thursday, heavy rainfall led to waterlogging in several parts of Gurugram, leading to traffic jams as police struggled to decongest roads. Following this, pedestrians were compelled to walk through severely inundated lanes and main roads.

Waterlogging was also reported in several parts of the national capital. The Delhi-Gurugram expressway, heavily jammed, witnessed the usual traffic on a rainy day.

"Due to continuous heavy rainfall in Gurugram, there is waterlogging at some places and the traffic is moving at a slow speed. Therefore, we request all of you that you should come out of the house only when necessary," read the traffic police advisory issued on its Twitter handle.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an orange alert, cautioning people about heavy rain which could reduce visibility, disrupt traffic and damage roads.
Kolkata: West Bengal Speaker Biman Banerjee expressed displeasure over legislators not attending meetings of the assembly standing committees.

Banerjee, who had earlier criticised the MLAs for not being regular when the House is in session, said he has noticed that some legislators sign the attendance sheet of the standing committee meetings to avail the allowances but do not attend it.

"This is unacceptable... The standing committee meetings are held to discuss and deliberate important issues and policies. But this is not being done. I request all legislators to attend these meetings," he said on Thursday.

According to the norms of the assembly, a legislator is allotted membership in two committees -- a departmental standing committee and a committee of the House.

Reacting to the speaker's comment, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay said it is the opposition BJP MLAs who do not attend such meetings and leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari must look into it.

"Yes, legislators not attending meetings have been an issue. But for the last few sessions, the attendance in the treasury benches and also in the standing committee meetings have improved," he said.

BJP chief whip Manoj Tigga said most of the MLAs of his party have been regular in attending meetings of the standing committees.

"I am not aware if our MLAs are irregular. But it is good if every MLAs regularly attend standing committee meetings," he added.
KOLKATA: Mahua Moitra, the Trinamool Congress MP from Krishnanagar, has taken a fresh dig at the BJP dispensation ruling at the Centre over its poll expenses, which she termed as a very costly affair. Through a tweet, Moitra shared that the BJP spent Rs 340 crores in five state elections in 2022. Of this, Rs 221 crore was spent on the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections alone.

"This is declared expenditure. Much more than this never even makes it to official hisaab," wrote Moitra adding Ram Rajya is clearly an expensive affair.

BJP spent 340 crores in just 5 state elections in 2022 - 221 crs in UP alone. This is declared expenditure, Much more than this never even makes it to official hisaab.



Ram Rajya is clearly an expensive affair.  Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) September 23, 2022

Mahua, in a similar fashion, has taken a jibe at the ruling BJP over Bhagavad Gita. Taking to Twitter, Mahua said that she would be carrying a copy of the Bhagavad Gita to the sitting of the Parliamentary Standing committee when the Department of Telecom officials are called to depose before it next time.

The TMC MP from Krishnanagar also termed the holy Hindu scripture as clearly essential reading material.

Interestingly, Mahua Moitra also tagged senior Congress leader Karti Chidambaram, DMK MP Dr Thamizhachi Thangapandian and Kerala Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who had backed her during the Kali remark controversy surrounding her.

Kerala Congress MP Shashi Tharoor then supported Moitra and said that he was shocked to see the attack on the TMC MP for what every Hindu knows.

Moitras tweet came in the wake of a decision taken by the BJP-ruled Karnataka government to include teachings of the Bhagavad Gita in schools and colleges from December, which has triggered a debate.

Announcing it in the Assembly on Monday, Karnataka Education Minister BC Nagesh stated that Gita was not a religious book like Quran and that the teachings of the holy Hindu scripture would form a part of the `Moral Education` syllabus.

"There is no proposal before the government to teach `Bhagavad Gita` to students along with the present syllabus as a special subject," he said.
Mumbai: In a big victory for the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction, the Bombay High court on Friday granted it permission to hold its annual Dussehra rally at Mumbai's iconic Shivaji Park. Welcoming the Bombay High Court's decision, the Uddhav faction said "its faith in the judiciary stood vindicated." Welcoming the decision, party spokesperson Manisha Kayande said this year's rally will be grand.

"Our faith in the judiciary stands vindicated. For the last many years, the Dussehra rally has been taking place at `Shiv-tirtha' (as the Sena refers to Shivaji Park), but this time attempt was made through the Shinde faction and BJP to create obstacles. Thankfully, the court rejected it," said Sena secretary Vinayak Raut.

Mumbais civic body  BMC  had earlier denied permission for the Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park to both factions of Shiv Sena citing law and order concerns. The dispute over the iconic venue then moved to the Bombay High Court which passed its order after hearing the petitions filed by the rival factions today. The order was passed by a division bench of Justices R D Dhanuka and Kamal Khata.

#UPDATE | Bombay HC allows petition by Uddhav Thackeray faction for permission for Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park in Mumbai. HC observed that Municipal Council misused its powers in deciding application of petitioners



Ground to be given to Shiv Sena for preparations from 2-6 Oct pic.twitter.com/MteODGPokK  ANI (@ANI) September 23, 2022

In its order, the Bombay HC court said, "Video recording of the entire function will be done and if it's found that petitioners are responsible for creating any law and order situation, it would affect their permission in future." The High Court then directed the Uddhav-led Shiv Sena to approach the BMC ward officer with this order and seek permission afresh as per the GR of 2016.

The Uddhav Thackeray faction has been maintaining that it would hold the annual event at Shivaji Park despite the denial of permission while accusing the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) of following the BJP's script. The Shiv Sena, founded by Bal Thackeray, has been holding its annual Dussehra rally at the Shivaji Park since 1966 except for the last two years of the coronavirus pandemic, it said.

Deputy municipal commissioner (zone-2) in separate letters sent to the two factions on Wednesday denied permission to use the ground in central Mumbai's Dadar area. The Shinde faction had last week obtained the nod for holding the rally at the MMRDA ground in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) on the same day, October 5, as an alternative.

The Thackeray group too has sought permission from the BMC to hold its rally at the MMRDA ground, though Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday vowed to hold the event at the Shivaji Park. In its letters rejecting the applications, the BMC cited remarks by the Shivaji Park police station that "if any one of the applicants is granted permission to hold the rally, this may create a serious problem of law and order in the sensitive area of "Shivaji Park".

On August 22, Anil Desai of the Thackeray-led Sena applied to the BMC for permission for Shivaji Park. On August 30, MLA Sada Sarvankar of the Shinde faction also made a similar application.

Following the BMC's decision, the Bombay High Court on Thursday allowed the Thackeray-led Sena to amend its earlier petition so as to challenge the denial of permission. In the original petition, the Sena had sought a direction for the BMC to decide its application.

The Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government, which comprised the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, collapsed in June this year after a revolt led by Eknath Shinde against the Sena leadership. Shinde was later sworn in as chief minister with BJP's Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy. Kiran Pawaskar, the spokesperson of the Shinde camp, said it will keep trying to get the Shivaji Park for its event till the last moment.
Addressing the 'Ganga Ka Lal' program at Constitution Club of India, Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said, 'We do not have any shortage of water, i'ts just lack of good management. We should think on how can we make proper use of water in agriculture sector, and manage it because most of the water used, is being utilised in agriculture."

"We need to conserve rain water to maintain our water eco system. We should think on, what is our duty towards water conservation and we all must join this campaign," he added.

On this occasion, Shekhawat honored eminent social worker, environmentalist and scholars from all over the country, who had made special contribution in water conservation. He conferred the "Ganga Ka Lal" award to columnist and political analyst Abhishek Gupta, who made people aware about pollution-free society & water conservation through his articles. Gupta is writing on social issues for a long time. Along with Gupta, Sanjay Yadav was also honored for his social work.

In this program, various topics related to water including water conservation, conservation of glaciers, ground water level, drinking water, water pollution were discussed in depth. Special guest Anubhav Mohanty (MP, Kendrapara Odisha), Justice Karuna Nand Bajpai and Guest of Honor Ravindra Kumar (District Magistrate, Jhansi) expressed their views on the issues related to water conservation.

It's notable that Indian government is aggressively making moves towards water conservation. To encourage social workers and other contributors working in the field of water conservation, government keeps honoring them from time to time.
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday conducted an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas and directed concerned district magistrates to expedite relief operations. The districts surveyed by the CM from a helicopter that took off from Gorakhpur, included Gorakhpur, Sant Kabir Nagar, Basti, Ayodhya, Gonda and Barabanki through which the Saryu river passes. CM Yogi issued necessary instructions to the district magistrates to accelerate relief work in the flood-affected areas. The Chief Minister also asked the DMs for a full report on the flood relief efforts being made in the flood-hit villages of the affected districts.

Furthermore, the CM issued an order for quick distribution of relief supplies and permissible medical aid in cases of human or animal casualties. In the last 24 hours, about 25 mm or more rainfall was recorded in 16 districts of the state. At present, 247 villages in 14 districts are affected by floods in the state.

As many as 8 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams have been sent to the state`s seven districts, including Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Lakhimpur Kheri, Varanasi, Bahraich, Ayodhya, and Bareilly, to perform rescue services. As per reports, a total of 10 districts in the state, including Barabanki, Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Moradabad, Bareilly, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Etawah, Ayodhya, and Mirzapur, have got 15 State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) teams deployed there.

At the same time, 44 teams of 17 companies of PAC have been deployed in 46 districts of the state. At present, a total of 67 teams have already been deployed for carrying out the rescue operation in 44 districts of the state.

Also Read: Do not panic, Main Hoon Naa: CM Yogi addresses people's grievances at Janta Darshan in Gorakhpur

Earlier in the day Yogi Adityanath held a "Janata Darshan" in Gorakhpur on Friday and told people not to panic as his government was there to address all their issues. The Chief Minister displayed the same compassionate attitude toward justice, problem-solving, and providing medical care during the Janta Darshan programme at the Gorakhnath temple. He said, "Do not panic, Mai hu na."

People submitted their applications to the Chief Minister and urged him to address them. Subsequently, the CM instructed the officers to handle complaints in a thorough and satisfactory manner and reassured those seeking treatment for serious illnesses that no one would forego care due to a lack of funds.

Yogi Adityanath met nearly 250 visitors who had come for Janta Darshan. CM Yogi approached patients who were seated in chairs outside Digvijaynath Smriti Bhavan one by one. The CM accepted applications from the public, listened to their issues and then forwarded the applications along with pertinent instructions to the appropriate personnel, assuring people of all help.

The senior superintendent of police (SSP) was given cases involving the police to handle, while the District Magistrate was given the ones involving revenue and other issues. He instructed the officers to finish the formalities quickly so that nobody`s medical care would be hampered by a lack of funds.

Many women from minority communities also attended the Janta Darshan of CM.The issue of the tile house collapsing in the rain was mentioned by one of the women. The Chief Minister gave the officers instructions to make plans to offer housing in accordance with eligibility in this regard. The Chief Minister bestowed his blessings on children, who came to Janata Darshan with their mothers and gifted them chocolates.
A St. Francois County Jail inmate awaiting trial for murder is facing new charges this week after two other inmates reported being sexually assaulted at the jail facility.

Jasson Joseph McCormick, 37, of Farmington, has been charged in St. Francois County with two counts of second-degree sodomy.

According to a probable cause statement from the St. Francois County Sheriff's Department, earlier this year in February, reports of sexual assault were made involving inmates at the St. Francois County Detention Center.

The report states that one of the alleged victims, a jail inmate, had been taken to the emergency room at Parkland Health Center in Farmington for treatment in accordance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act.

During a recorded interview with investigators, the alleged victim reportedly identified McCormick as the person that had committed the assault. The man said McCormick told him he would stab him if the man did not have sexual intercourse with McCormick. The inmate told police he feared bodily injury from McCormick if he did not comply.

The report states another inmate at the jail spoke to investigators alleging that McCormick had sexually assaulted him as well.

In a recorded interview, the second alleged victim reportedly told authorities that he woke up to McCormick having anal sex with him without his consent. The sexual assault allegedly occurred while all three individuals were incarcerated in St. Francois County, according to authorities.

After the new case was filed this week, McCormick's bond was set at $50,000. The man has been incarcerated at the county jail since Dec. 30, 2019, when he was charged with murder. His bond in the murder case is set at $1 million cash-only.

The first-degree murder case against McCormick was filed after the body of a Park Hills woman was found in her apartment on Dec. 26, 2019. McCormick, along with 23-year-old Dylan Murray, of Valles Mines, was charged in St. Francois County with first-degree murder, armed criminal action, felony stealing, and stealing a motor vehicle.

According to a probable cause statement from the case, on Dec. 26, 2019, at 4:58 p.m., officers with the Park Hills Police Department were dispatched to an apartment on Seventh Street to check the well-being of a female since identified as 38-year-old Jessica Cerchi.

The woman's family members had not heard from her in an inordinate amount of time and notified local authorities.

When officers arrived on the scene, they reportedly detected an odor that they believed to be from the decomposition of a body. Upon entering the apartment, officers located an apparent crime scene and the deceased woman's body.

Officers obtained a search warrant, and the crime scene was processed. According to police, while processing the crime scene, it became apparent that a homicide had taken place.

It was reported that an autopsy was performed on Dec. 27, 2019, which revealed the victim suffered from more than 20 puncture wounds and had evidence of apparent ligature strangulation.

Further information was developed that the victim's vehicle, a 1998 Ford Expedition, was missing. Through further investigation, it was determined that the SUV was involved in a traffic accident in Jefferson County on Dec. 11, 2019, at approximately 8:55 a.m., where two men were occupying the vehicle. The men were identified as McCormick and Murray.

On Dec. 26, 2019, McCormick was interviewed at the St. Francois County Sheriff's Department. During the interview, he reportedly admitted being at the scene at the time of the incident and advised that Murray assaulted and stabbed the victim on Dec. 9, 2019, between 3 and 6:30 a.m. During Murray's interview, he indicated that McCormick attacked and stabbed the woman.

Following the homicide, McCormick and Murray reportedly took the alleged victim's vehicle and traveled out of state to a casino using a credit device and EBT card belonging to the victim. They returned to Missouri, where they wrecked the vehicle in Jefferson County.

The 2019 cases against Murray and McCormick are still pending, and both men have pleaded not guilty. In McCormick's case, a four-day jury trial is scheduled to begin on March 6. McCormick has a case review scheduled on Feb. 17, where he can either change his plea or proceed with the trial. Murray is due in court next for a trial setting on Jan. 20.

A preliminary hearing in the newly filed sodomy case against McCormick is set for Oct. 18.
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly on Friday passed the Code of Criminal Procedure (Uttar Pradesh Amendment) Bill 2022 which bars granting of anticipatory bail to rape accused. UP Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna, while speaking on the amendment bill in the house, said that a provision has been made to not grant anticipatory bail to those accused of offences under the POCSO Act and 'durachaar' (misconduct) with women.

Denying anticipatory bail in sexual offenses against young people and women will reduce the chances of the accused destroying the evidence, he said. The provision will also help prevent the accused from intimidating or harassing the victim and other witnesses, Khanna said.

The assembly also passed the Uttar Pradesh Public and Private Property Damage Recovery (Amendment) Bill, 2022 which extends the time period in which a claim can be filed from existing three months to three years.

Khanna said that the amendment bill empowers a claims tribunal to compensate anyone killed in riots with Rs 5 lakh.

The compensation money will be recovered from the guilty person, the bill provisions.

Now the victim or the dependent of the person whose life is lost in the disturbance or riot can also appeal for compensation, Khanna said, adding that with the amendment, the claims tribunal will also have the right to take suo moto cognizance of such cases.

The amendment bill also provisions that the cost of police action in such cases will be borne by the guilty. The government had earlier invoked the Uttar Pradesh Public and Private Property Damage Recovery Act, 2020' to constitute a Claims Tribunal for such recovery.

The mechanism to determine who will be responsible for the loss caused during a demonstration or strike has also been made clear in the amendment.

Both the bills, which were tabled in the house on Thursday, were passed by a voice vote in the absence of the main Opposition Samajwadi Party, and its ally RLD, which had earlier boycotted the proceedings.
New Delhi: The Pentagon has said that it has a "limited security partnership" with Pakistan, key comments in the backdrop of the recent Washington's announcement of a $450 million package for Islamabad to sustain its F16 fleet. The Biden govt decision, which was announced earlier this month reverses the decision of the previous Trump govt and helps Pakistan sustain its F16 programme. Speaking to a select group of reporters, U.S. Asst Sec of Defense Dr Ely S. Ratner explained that the US has been engaging with its Indian counterparts on the issue "both in advance of the announcement.." and "during the " mini 2+2 that happened earlier this month in Delhi. Dr Ely Ratner, along with Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary of State (South and Central Asian Affairs) were in Delhi for the India-U.S.A 2+2 Inter-sessional Dialogue with Indian diplomat Vani Rao. Rao is the Additional Secretary (Americas) in the Ministry of External Affairs.

Ratner said, "It is important to be as transparent as we could with Indian counterparts both in advance and during the decision and good opportunity for health exchange on both the US rationale for its limited security partnership with Pakistan and good opportunity to hear India's concern about that". In the aftermath of the US announcement on F16, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and Indian Defence minister Rajnath Singh spoke to each other in which the latter raised New Delhi's concerns. The package doesn't include any upgrades.

Also Read: One million Tesla electric cars recalled in the US for THIS issue, see if you should worry

In response to the question, the Pentagon official also clarified that the package was not "designed as a message to India, as it relates to its relation to Russia." He pointed out that the "decision inside US govt around F16 issue was made predicated on US interest associated with our defence partnership with Pakistan which is primarily focused on counter-terrorism and nuclear security". US comments come even as Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif is in New York.

India and US defence ties have increased in the past few years significantly. In 2016, the defence relationship was designated as a Major Defence Partnership (MDP). Several defence agreements have been signed in recent years. These include Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Association (August 2016); Memorandum of Intent between the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the Indian Defense Innovation Organization  Innovation for Defense Excellence (2018); Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (September 2018); Industrial Security Agreement (December 2019); Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (October 2020).
Mumbai: Equity indices fell sharply by nearly 2 per cent each, extending their decline for the third day running on Friday, amid an overall bearish trend in global markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 1,020.80 points or 1.73 per cent to settle at 58,098.92. During the day, it tumbled 1,137.77 points or 1.92 per cent to 57,981.95.

The NSE Nifty plummeted 302.45 points or 1.72 per cent to end at 17,327.35.

Among the 30-share Sensex pack, Power Grid slumped 7.93 per cent. The other major laggards were Mahindra & Mahindra, State Bank of India, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, NTPC, HDFC and IndusInd Bank.

Sun Pharma, Tata Steel and ITC were the only gainers.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong ended lower.

European bourses were trading in the red in mid-session deals. The US markets ended in the negative territory on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the international oil benchmark Brent crude declined 1.87 per cent to USD 88.77 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded shares worth a net Rs 2,509.55 crore on Thursday, according to data available with the BSE.
New Delhi: The Dhak Dhak girl of Bollywood, Madhuri Dixit Nene enjoys a massive fan base across the globe - thanks to her charming smile and power-packed performances over the years. She is a terrific dancer to top it all and recently she was spotted on the sets of a dance reality show but guess what? Her appearance hogged attention for not-so-right reasons.

MADHURI DIXIT TROLLED ONLINE

The gorgeous face was recently spotted on the sets of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa and she posed for the waiting shutterbugs. She wore a shimmering designer red saree with a belt. But what caught netizens' fancy was her looks. Many pointed out that she has taken 'too much botox' while some hailed her beauty.

MADHURI DIXIT NEW FILM

On the work front, Madhuri is all set to be seen in Maja MA. Gajraj Rao, Ritwik Bhowmik, Barkha Singh, Srishti Shrivastava, Rajit Kapur, Simone Singh, Sheeba Chaddha, Malhar Thakar and Ninad Kamat are also a part of the film.

Talking about her film, ANI quoted as saying: "With Maja Ma, what I am most excited about is my character. It is a role with complex nuances that I have never played before. Pallavi Patel carries enormous responsibility around - as a mother, as a wife and as a contributing member of society with such ease and grace, that it becomes easy to overlook her strength, conviction, and resilience. She goes through a multitude of emotions that could have strong repercussions on her life and the lives of people she loves."

Maja Ma will be out on Prime Video on October 6.
New Delhi: Well, the Ranbir Kapoor fans are gonna love him even more after reading this bit of news about him. The actor, who was recently seen in massive success - Brahmastra: Part One - Shiva didn't really charge a penny for his part. Yes! you read that right.

In an interview with film critic and trade analyst Komal Nahta, filmmaker Ayan Mukerji opened up on how much did Ranbir and Alia charge for the part. "The truth is that the film has been made because of a lot of personal sacrifices. It is true that the amount that Ranbir would make as a star actor, he didnt take anything for the making of Brahmastra. This is a very, very big thing, because it would not be possible to make this film," he said.

About Alia, he quipped, "When she joined the film, this was 2014, she only had a couple of releases. She isnt the star that she is today. The amount that was fixed for Alia in this film was not a very big amount, but even that small amount, by the time we completed the film, even Alia said that all of it has gone into the making of the film."

However, Ranbir Kapoor in clear words confessed to not having charged a single Rupee for Brahmastra Part One. He said, "Aapne jo prashna pucha ki maine kuch charge kiya ya nhi kiya, actually maine kiya. This is an equity I have for life, I'm also part producer of the film. Meri nazariya aur soch long run hai. Maine part one me paese nhi liye but eventually jo faith aur belief hai ki 3 parts m jo yeh film bana sakti hai, that is beyond anything I'd get as an actor, price as an actor."

Brahmastra is produced by Karan Johar, Apoorva Mehta, Ranbir Kapoor, Ayan Mukerji, Namit Malhotra and Marijke DeSouza. It features Amitabh Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt

Mouni Roy and Nagarjuna Akkineni in pivotal parts.

Shah Rukh Khan's cameo as a scientist became talk of the town upon the film's release.
Washington: American rapper and record producer Kanye West, who mounted a failed US presidential bid in 2020, has said he isn`t done with politics.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, during a recent ABC News interview, West was asked if had "future political aspirations" and the rapper answered, "Yes, absolutely."

In the portion of the interview he declined to specify which offices he might be interested in running for, but a day after Election Day in 2020, when he appeared to concede with an Instagram post, he wrote "Kanye 2024." In his this year`s song `Keep It Burnin` Kanye had also teased his political aspirations by rapping "When you run for `24, I bet your spouse gon` be with you / Who put this together? Me, that`s who."

As per The Hollywood Reporter, Kanye, who was formerly married to Kim Kardashian took many disputes with her and her ex-boyfriend Pete Davidson public as Kanye and Kardashian were divorcing, also apologized in the interview for "any stress that I have caused, even in my frustration, because God calls me to be stronger."

Kim filed to end her marriage to Kanye in February 2021 and was declared legally single in March. In a music video from earlier this year, Kanye rapped about beating "Pete Davidson`s a--," in addition to other comments that appear to suggest violence toward Davidson. In the video, an animated Davidson is abducted and murdered by an animated Kanye.
New Delhi: Model-actress Urvashi Rautela recently had a chance meeting with gorgeous Deepika Padukone on a flight from Dubai to Mumbai. The two stunning ladies greeted each other with hugs and kisses, well literally! A video of Urvashi planting a kiss on Deepika's cheeks is going viral on social media platforms.

In the photo, Deepika is seen sitting on the seat with a pillow in her hand and Urvashi is seen holding her face as she plants a kiss on her cheeks. Deepikas reaction to the kiss was very warm as she closed her eyes and had a wide smile on her face.

Urvashi Rautela often shows her love and appreciation for Deepika Padukone through her Instagram stories and posts. Recently when reports surfaced online about Deepika being rushed to the hospital after her heart rate had increased, Urvashi wished her a speedy recovery. She posted a video of her and Deepika hugging at an event and wrote, "Please take care of your health youre precious DP.

On the work front, Urvashi is making her big Hollywood debut along with 365 Days star Michele Morrone which will be produced by Netflix, Tomasz Mandes, and will be directed by 365 Days director Barbara Bialowas. Urvashi will be soon seen in 'Inspector Avinash' opposite Randeep Hooda in the lead role.

The actress is going to play the lead role in a William Shakespeare bilingual thriller Black Rose based on the Merchant of Venice, along with the Hindi remake of the superhit Thiruttu Payale 2. Urvashi will also be seen opposite international superstar Jason Derulo in her next international music single.
New Delhi: Following RBI's directive barring Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd (MMFSL) from engaging a third party for recoveries in cases of loan default, the company said it has stopped repossessions through third-party agents.

In a late night communication on Thursday, Mahindra Finance said it has a detailed policy in place for compliance of third parties with regard to repossession of vehicles.

"In light of the recent tragic incident, we have stopped third-party repossessions and will further examine whether and how third-party agents will be used in the future," Ramesh Iyer, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Mahindra Finance, said in the statement.

Following the death of a 27-year-old pregnant woman in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh district, who was allegedly crushed to death under the wheels of a tractor by recovery agents last week, Reserve Bank on Thursday barred MMFSL from carrying out any recovery or repossession activity through third party agents with immediate effect till further orders.

The RBI said the non-banking finance company (NBFC) may continue to carry out recovery or repossession activities through its own employees.

This action is based on certain material supervisory concerns observed in the said NBFC with regard to the management of its outsourcing activities, the RBI added.

In connection with the death of the woman, the police had arrested one Roshan, an employee of Team Lease, a firm hired by Mahindra Finance.

Mahindra Group chief executive officer and managing director Anish Shah had condoled the death and assured that the incident would be investigated from all aspects.
Mumbai: Reserve Bank on Thursday barred Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd (MMFSL) from carrying out any recovery or repossession activity through third party agents with immediate effect till further orders.

The RBI's decision follows the death of a pregnant woman (27) in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh district who was allegedly crushed to death under the wheels of a tractor by recovery agents last week.

However, the MMFSL, a non-banking finance company, may continue to carry out recovery or repossession activities, through its own employees, the central bank said in a statement.

"The Reserve Bank of India has today...Directed Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd. (MMFSL), Mumbai, to immediately cease carrying out any recovery or repossession activity through outsourcing arrangements," the statement said.

This action is based on certain material supervisory concerns observed in the said NBFC, with regard to the management of its outsourcing activities, the RBI added.

In connection with the death of the woman, the police had arrested one Roshan, an employee of Team Lease, a firm hired by Mahindra Finance.

Mahindra Group chief executive officer and managing director Anish Shah had condoled the death and assured that the incident would be investigated from all aspects.
New Delhi: Apple has finally announced that a Diwali sale will be held on its official website. The company has confirmed that the sale offers will be available on September 26, which is next week. While the company has not revealed the specifics of the deals, it has stated that there will be some limited-time offers. It will almost certainly offer free gifts with the purchase of iPhones.

Apple is expected to include AirPods with the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini for free. Last year, Apple gave away free AirPods with the iPhone 12 and its mini version. Apple announced the same festive offer with the iPhone 11 series in 2020. As a result, a similar offer is likely this year as well.

Apple has yet to announce whether or not it will offer a flat discount on iPhones. During the launch of the iPhone 14 series, the company recently reduced the price of the iPhone 13. As a result, Apple is unlikely to offer any further discounts. It is possible that it will offer discounts based on bank cards.

The official price of the iPhone 13 is Rs 69,900. However, during Flipkart Big Billion Days, interested customers can get this device for as little as Rs 56,990. Flipkart was selling for around Rs 48,000 on September 22. However, it appears that this was a limited-time offer, as the price has now been raised to Rs 56,990. As a result, those who were fortunate enough to purchase it at the lowest price did so. Similarly, the iPhone 12 was previously available for Rs 42,999 on Amazon, but it is now available for Rs 44,999.

It's unclear whether Apple will offer discounts on products like iPads, MacBooks, and earphones. People will have to wait a few more days to learn more about the possible deals on Apple products.
The Desloge Board of Aldermen met Monday night to discuss issues pertinent to the city, including amending the Parks and Recreation director job description and recognizing the employee of the quarter.

To start the meeting, Mayor David Shaw recognized Chief Water Operator Paul Pilliard as the employee of the quarter. Being able to recognize people is one of the better experiences of being the mayor, according to Shaw.

Pilliard has worked for the city since 2019.

Like Ive said, weve got a lot of real fine folks in the city government, said Shaw, I think this gentleman right here is one of the best. He comes to work with a smile on his face, with an attitude of help, and he gets called out late at night and he always responds.

"He responds to our city, and sometimes he has to respond to other folks who may need his expertise. He never turns them down, he always gives us 110%. I think were very fortunate to have you working for the city of Desloge.

After recognizing Pilliard, the board heard from citizens, including a resident asking why former City Administrator Dan Bryan was relieved of duties, saying she had heard various rumors about Bryan's departure. Shaw confirmed the reason of Bryans departure was not due to any criminal or immoral reasons.

The board also discussed an ordinance relating to school zones in the city, as well as speed regulations. The ordinance defines what a school zone is, saying a school zone is any school traffic safety zone clearly identifiable by use of a sign and/or flashing lights. A sign may indicate the times during which the school zone speed limit applies, and flashing lights indicate the school zone speed limit is in effect.

The ordinance also states when signs, with or without the warning flashing lights, have been erected to establish a school zone, the speed limit in school zones shall be effective on any day school is in session. School zones will be clearly identified by three options: a yellow, pentagon shaped sign to indicate a school crossing, a white sign to indicate to the driver the school zone speed limit, and the hours during which the school zone is active and/or a flashing light or lights to indicate a school zone is currently active.

The school zones are Oak Street from County Lane Drive to Lincoln Street, Locust Street from Lincoln Street to Wilson Street, Elm Street from Lincoln Street to State Street, Chestnut Street from Country Lane Drive to Cantwell Lane, Olive Street from Lincoln Street to School Street, Walnut Street from Country Lane Drive to Wilson Street, Ash Street from Desloge Drive to Grant Street, Evergreen Street from Grant Street to Harding Street, Cedar Street from Grant Street to Harding Street, Country Lane Drive from Walnut Street to Highway P, Waller Street from Walnut Street to Highway P, Parkside Street from Walnut Street to Highway P, Monroe Street from Walnut Street to Chestnut Street, Lincoln Street from Walnut Street to Cherry Lane, Grant Street from Cedar Street to Locust Street, Harding Street from Cedar Street to Locust Street, Roosevelt Street from Walnut Street to Locust Street, Madison Street from Walnut Street to Poplar Street, Wilson Street from Walnut Street to a dead end, the alley from the dead end of Wilson Street west to Madison Street, Harry Junior Street from Elm Street to a dead end, and Cantwell Lane from Elm Street to a cul-de-sac.

In other business, the board:

 Amended the Parks and Recreation director job description to include the Parks and Recreation Director to be supervisor of the library.

 Amended the ordinance related to the library, stating the librarian shall be the chief executive officer, as well as the administrative officer for the library and all personnel.

 Approved the purchase of two saws for the fire department for the total of $4,884, one for each truck.

 Discussed and approved the purchase of a new trash truck. Public Works Director Jason Harris stated the new truck will be like the previous 2018 truck. The price of the truck complete would be $203,000.

 Harris brought up two different options related to the trash service, and the board asked him to type up the two options and present it to the board.

 Approved the new Desloge Police Department Policy and Procedures bringing the city in line with state statues.
New Delhi: Garena Free Fire releases redeem codes on an everyday basis. The 12-digit redeem code consists of alphabets and numbers. Players can get rewards such as skins for in-game weapons and characters to improve their gaming experience.

Garena Free fire is banned in India. However, if you are located outside India, you can access the reward codes and redeem them. For that you will be required to visit official Garena Free Fire reward site and log in to your Facebook, Google, and Twitter IDs to access the Free Fire redemption page. (Also read: WhatsApp entering film-making biz, movie to premiere on Amazon Prime Video and YouTube)

Check out the Garena Free Fire Redeem Codes for September 20, 2022

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(Also read: OMG! An 18-year boy hacks Uber, employees' thoughts someone is joking)

How to Redeem Garena Free Fire codes for today, September 20, 2022

Step 1: Go to the official Garena Free Fire redemption portal



Step 2: Log in on the portal with either your Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Google, VK, or Huawei ID.



Step 3: Enter a redeem code in the designated text box.



Step 4: Click on the Ok button to get free rewards in your game account.

(Disclaimer: Garena Free fire is banned in India. Hence we advise people to adhere to government rules)
New Delhi: Microsoft has unveiled a new security feature in Windows 11 that will make it extremely diffficult for hackers to steal user credentials.

Called the SMB authentication rate limiter, it is available in Windows 11 Insider and Windows Server Insider builds and makes it more time-consuming for cyber criminals to target the server with password-guessing attacks.

"If your organisation has no intrusion detection software or doesn`t set a password lockout policy, an attacker might guess a user`s password in a matter of days or hours. A consumer user who turns off their firewall and brings their device to an unsafe network has a similar problem," said Microsoft security expert Ned Pyle.

The company said that the SMB server service now defaults to a two-second default between each failed inbound New Technology LAN Manager (NTLM) authentication.

SMB refers to the Server Message Block (SMB) network file-sharing protocol, while Windows NTLM is a suite of security protocols offered by Microsoft to authenticate users` identity and protect the integrity and confidentiality of their activity.

"This means if an attacker previously sent 300 brute force attempts per second from a client for 5 minutes (90,000 passwords), the same number of attempts would now take 50 hours at a minimum. The goal here is to make a machine a very unattractive target for attacking local credentials through SMB," informed Pyle.

SMB refers to the Server Message Block (SMB) network file-sharing protocol. Windows and Windows Server come with the SMB server enabled. NTLM refers to the NT Lan Manager (NTLM) protocol for client-sever authentication with, for example, Active Directory (AD) NTLM logons.

Microsoft is rolling out several secure defaults in Windows 11, including a default account lockout policy to mitigate RDP and other brute force password attacks.
New Delhi: 'National Daughters Day' is celebrated each year to remind and appreciate the young women and girls in our lives. To commemorate this day, parents of &TV female protagonists express their pride, joy, and appreciation.

These include the parents of Neha Joshi (Yashoda, Doosri Maa), Kamna Pathak (Rajesh Singh, Happu Ki Ultan Paltan), and Vidisha Srivastava (Anita Bhabi, Bhabiji Ghar Par Hai).

Yashoda in &TVs Doosri Maa, Neha Joshis mother Hema Joshi, shares, The first time I held Neha in my hand is still so fresh in my mind. I was filled with emotions when she looked at me, and tears rolled down my cheeks. A lot of people present there thought I was crying because it was a baby girl and started consoling me. And I had to correct them: "No, these are tears of joy because I was hoping for a baby girl" (laughs). That moment was so precious and could not be expressed in words. Neha has always been a very compassionate, loving, disciplined, studious, and creative child."

Further, she added, "She used to entertain all her friends and family members through her singing and dancing. I supported her in every way, and apart from her studies, I gave extra care to her extracurricular activities. Today, I am immensely proud to see her successfully balancing her personal and professional life. Her simplicity and understanding of the situations make her different from others. Even after moving to Mumbai and currently shooting for her show Doosri Maa, Neha never missed a day, no matter how busy she was, to call and ask Aai Jevlis? Did you finish your meal?"

"My bond with her is more of a friend than a mother. She is someone who calls me at random hours, and we share everything. There are a lot of times when I seek advice from her, and she also corrects me if I do something wrong. I have complete faith in her and she is the one who knows all my secrets. Whenever Neha visits home, she is like a chirpy bird who fills the house with happiness and positivity. On National Daughter's Day, I would like to tell all the parents to acknowledge and appreciate their daughters by telling them how important they are to them," she concluded.

Rajesh Singh, in &TVs Happu Ki Ultan Paltan, Kamna Pathaks father, Ajay Kumar shares, The day Kamna was born, I remember telling my wife, "Aaj Hamari mano Kamna poori hui. And thats how my father and I decided to name her Kamna for the rest of her life and she is the only fortunate grandchild in the family named by my father. Kamna's presence in my life is extremely important. The house we live in Indore is also known as "Kamna", as I saw all my hopes and dreams for the future beginning to blossom."

"Whenever somebody comes and tells me that we saw your daughter in Happu Ki Ultan Paltan and she is an amazing actor, I feel extremely proud. Kamna was very upset when she had to leave us and shift to Mumbai for her work commitments. But let me tell you, she still makes sure to celebrate all her special days with her family, right from her birthday to the festival. Despite her busy schedule, she keeps a regular check on us. She speaks with my wife and me and hears us out. Rather than being proud, I feel blessed to have a daughter like her," he added.

Anita Bhabi in &TVs Bhabiji Ghar Par Hai, Vidisha Srivastavas mother Meena Srivastava, shares, "God has blessed me with two lovely daughters, Vidisha and Shanvi. And I feel no one can understand a mother better than her daughter. Being a working parent, I always removed time for my daughters and that made our bond even stronger."

She added, "Whatever time we used to get, they made sure to be with me and share everything they had on their mind and heart. When they grew up, they started cooking and arranging things to make my life easier. Both are successful actresses today, but I feel proud to see how they balance their names, fame, and families. I cannot imagine my life without my daughters, as they make me feel complete. On this day, I would like to say, celebrate having a daughter every day"

Watch Doosri Maa at 8:00 pm, Happu Ki Ultan Paltan at 10:00 pm, and Bhabiji Ghar Par Hai at 10:30 pm, airing every Monday to Friday only on &TV!
New Delhi: Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi cancelled an interview with a US journalist on Thursday because she refused to wear a hijab. This comes amid widespread protests in Iran, which erupted following the death of a woman named Mahsa Amini, in police custody for violating hijab laws. Iranian President's interview with CNN's Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour was abruptly cancelled after the journalist refused to wear the Hijab. Amanpour stated on Twitter that she was asked to wear a headscarf but after she declined, the interview got cancelled. In a series of tweets, the anchor stated that she planned to discuss the increasing number of protests in Iran, including numerous incidents in which women are burning their hijabs to protest the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody, among other topics. "This was going to be President Raisi`s first ever interview on US soil, during his visit to NY for UNGA. After weeks of planning and eight hours of setting up translation equipment, lights and cameras, we were ready. But no sign of President Raisi," Amanpour quotes in a tweet. The female journalist waited for 40 minutes for Raisi to come for the interview but at the end, the interview got cancelled.

"40 minutes after the interview had been due to start, an aide came over. The president, he said, was suggesting I wear a headscarf, because it`s the holy months of Muharram and Safar. I politely declined. We are in New York, where there is no law or tradition regarding headscarves. I pointed out that no previous Iranian president has required this when I have interviewed them outside Iran," Amanpour said this as she posted a picture of herself, without a hijab, sitting in front of an empty chair.

Also Read: Unacceptable: Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi calls anti-hijab protests act of chaos

The interview was eventually cancelled after Amanpour repeatedly refused to wear the Hijab. "And so we walked away. The interview didn`t happen. As protests continue in Iran and people are being killed, it would have been an important moment to speak with President Raisi," she tweeted.

On Wednesday, demonstrators threw stones at security forces as part of the ongoing protests in Iran. Protesters set fire to vehicles and chanted anti-government slogans as Iran's oppression of strict dress codes for women continued. According to CBS, police used tear gas and arrested people to disperse crowds of up to 1,000 people on Wednesday as street rallies spread to 15 cities, citing Iranian state media. Meanwhile, UN experts strongly condemned the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, on Thursday. According to a press release from the UN Human Rights Office, the experts also condemned Iranian security forces' violence against peaceful protesters and human rights defenders demanding accountability for Amini's death in cities across the country.

They urged the Iranian authorities to avoid further unwarranted violence and to immediately cease the use of lethal force in policing peaceful demonstrations. "We are shocked and deeply saddened by the death of Amini. She is another victim of Iran`s sustained repression and systematic discrimination against women and the imposition of discriminatory dress codes that deprive women of bodily autonomy and the freedoms of opinion, expression and belief," the experts says.

According to Al Jazeera, Mahsa Amini, 22, was on a family visit to Tehran when she was detained by the specialist police unit. After some time in detention, she suffered a heart attack and was immediately taken to the hospital with the assistance of emergency services.

"Unfortunately, she died and her body was transferred to the medical examiner`s office," state television said on Friday, reported Al Jazeera. The announcement came a day after Tehran police confirmed Amini had been detained alongside other women for "rules instruction." Following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, several women protesters cut their hair and burned hijabs to protest the mandatory veiling of women. Following the incident, which sparked outrage on social media, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi directed the interior minister to launch an investigation. Amini's death comes amid mounting criticism both inside and outside Iran of the morality police, known formally as the Gasht-e Ershad (Guidance Patrol).

According to Al Jazeera, the mandatory dress code, which applies to all nationalities and religions, not just Iranian Muslims, requires women to cover their hair and neck with a headscarf. Women have increasingly resisted, particularly in major cities, by wearing their headscarves far back on their heads to reveal their hair.
New Delhi: The death toll from protests over the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody has risen to more than two dozen, according to Iranian state television, without providing any additional information as the unrest continues. On Thursday, an anchor on Iran's state television suggested that the death toll from the mass protests could be as high as 26, but he did not elaborate or explain how he arrived at that figure.

Unfortunately, 26 people and police officers present at the scene of these events lost their lives, the state TV anchor also said that the official statistics would be released later. According to The Associated Press, clashes between Iranian security forces and protesters have killed at least 11 people since the violence erupted over the weekend.

Also Read: Unacceptable: Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi calls anti-hijab protests act of chaos

The Iranian protests began as an emotional outpouring in response to the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained by the country's morality police for allegedly violating the country's strictly enforced dress code. The police claim she died of a heart attack and was not mistreated, but her family disputes that claim.

Also Read: Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi cancels interview after female anchor refuses to wear 'hijab'

This week state-run media in Iran has reported hundreds of people protesting in at least 13 cities including the capital, which is Tehran. The Iranian authorities restricted binternet access and blocked access to social media sites and applications like WhatsApp and Instagram. After the Friday prayer, people in Tehran and other cities planned to hold a counter protest rally.

(With Agencies Inputs)
Dubai: Iranian counterprotesters gathered across the country on Friday in a show of support for authorities after nearly a week of anti-government protests and unrest over the death of a young woman who was being held by the morality police. A few thousand people attended a rally in the capital, Tehran, where they waved Iranian flags, and similar demonstrations were held in other cities. The government claimed the demonstrations of support were spontaneous. Similar rallies have been held during past periods of widespread protests.

The pro-government demonstrators chanted against America and Israel, according to state media, reflecting the official line that foreign countries are fomenting the latest unrest. State TV, meanwhile, suggested the death toll from this week's unrest could be as high as 26. Anti-government protesters and security forces have clashed in several major cities in the most severe political unrest since 2019, when rights groups say hundreds were killed amid demonstrations against a hike in state-controlled gasoline prices.

Iran has also disrupted internet access and tightened restrictions on popular platforms used to organize rallies like Instagram and WhatsApp.

A state TV anchor said late Thursday that 26 protesters and policemen had been killed since the protests erupted last Saturday after the funeral of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, without elaborating on how authorities reached that figure. He said official statistics would be released later, but during past periods of unrest authorities have not provided a full accounting of deaths and injuries.

A tally by The Associated Press, based on statements from state-run and semiofficial media, shows that at least 11 people have been killed. Most recently, the deputy governor of Qazvin, Abolhasan Kabiri, said that a citizen and paramilitary officer had been killed in unrest that rocked two cities in the northwestern province.

The crisis unfolding in Iran began as a public outpouring of anger over the the death of Amini, a young woman who was arrested by the morality police in Tehran last week for allegedly wearing her Islamic headscarf too loosely. The police said she died of a heart attack and was not mistreated, but her family has cast doubt on that account.

Amini's death has sparked sharp condemnation from Western countries and the United Nations, and touched a national nerve. Hundreds of Iranians across at least 13 cities from the capital, Tehran, to Amini's northwest Kurdish hometown of Saqez have poured into the streets, voicing pent-up anger over social and political repression. Authorities have alleged that unnamed foreign countries and opposition groups are trying to foment unrest.

The death has tapped into broader antigovernment sentiment in the Islamic Republic and especially the frustration of women, wrote political risk firm Eurasia Group, noting that Iran's hard-liners have intensified their crackdown on women's clothing over the past year since former judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi became president.

The prospect of the leadership offering concessions to Iranian women is minimal, it said. In the cold calculus of Iranian leaders, the protests have likely gone far enough and a more forceful response is required to quell the unrest.

Also Read: Hijab row: 'About 26 people dead from protests,' says Iranian state TV

Videos on social media show protesters in Tehran torching a police car and confronting officers at close range. Elsewhere in the capital, videos show gunfire sounding out as protesters bolt from riot police, shouting: They are shooting at people! Oh my God, they're killing people!

In the northwestern city of Neyshabur, protesters cheered over an overturned police car. Footage from Tehran and Mashhad shows women waving their obligatory headscarves, known as hijab, in the air like flags while chanting, Freedom!"

The scenes of women cutting their hair and burning their hijabs feed into a broader political debate over the role of religious strictures in a modern-day republic ? questions that have plagued the Islamic Republic since its founding in 1979.

But the protests have also grown into an open challenge to the government. The chants have been scathing, with some chanting "Death to the dictator!" and "Mullahs must be gone!"

Iran's intelligence ministry warned citizens against joining the "illegal" street rallies on Thursday, threatening prosecution. Local officials have announced the arrest of dozens of protesters. Hasan Hosseinpour, deputy police chief in the northern Gilan province, reported 211 people detained there on Thursday. The government of the western Hamadan province said 58 demonstrators had been arrested.

Tehran University announced that it would move classes online for the next week amid the unrest, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported. London-based watchdog Amnesty International has accused security forces of beating protesters with batons and firing metal pellets at close range. Videos show police and paramilitary officers using live fire, tear gas and water cannons to disperse the demonstrations.

Iran has grappled with waves of protests in the recent past, mainly over a long-running economic crisis exacerbated by American sanctions linked to its nuclear program. In November 2019, the country saw the deadliest violence since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, as protests erupted over gas price hikes.

Economic hardship remains a major source of anger today as the prices of basic necessities soar and the Iranian currency declines in value. The Biden administration and European allies have been working to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear accord, in which Iran curbed its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief, but the talks have stalled for months.

The Eurasia Group said the protests make any immediate return to the agreement less likely, as Iran's government will be more hesitant to make concessions at a time of domestic unrest and the United States will be reluctant to sign a deal as Iran violently cracks down on dissent.
New Delhi: Mexico formally proposed on Thursday the creation of a peace committee with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to find an end to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said that to bolster the mediation efforts of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, a panel for dialogue and peace in Ukraine should be created with Modi, Pope Francis and other leaders.

"The objective would be very clear, generating new mechanisms for dialogue and creating additional spaces for mediation, which foster trust, reduce tension and open the path towards lasting peace", Ebrard said at the Security Council's briefing on impunity in Ukraine.

He presented to the Council the proposal made by Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday at his Independence Day speech.

In that speech, Obrador said that the panel with Modi and Francis "should immediately seek a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine and the start of direct talks" with Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.

The Security Council - and the international community - have been unable to find a way to end the invasion given that Russia has a veto in the Security Council.

India has maintained a sort of neutrality on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, abstaining on substantive votes in the Council and in the General Assembly condemning Moscow.

But New Delhi, which has close historic ties with Moscow, has consistently called for an end to the war.

Last week, Modi delivered a stern message in person to Putin against the invasion.

"Today's era is not an era of war. We have discussed this with you on phone several times, that democracy, diplomacy and dialogue touch the entire world," Modi told him when they met in Samarkand.

Speaking at the Council after Ebrard, India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, reiterated New Delhi's call to end the conflict and return to dialogue.

Pope Francis, on the other hand, has unequivocally condemned Russia.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Zee News staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Women politicians from Kansas and Missouri celebrated the anniversary of the Greater Kansas City Women's Political Caucus on Thursday.(Allison Kite/Missouri Independent).

Sipping pink pussyhat punch and empowerment cocktails, women leaders from Kansas and Missouri gathered Thursday in downtown Kansas City vowing to smash the patriarchy by encouraging more women to run for office.

Hundreds of politicians and activists turned out for the 50th anniversary of the Greater Kansas City Womens Political Caucus, where a parade of candidates for office promised to champion reproductive rights and lauded Kansas recent vote to keep abortion protected under the states constitution.

Im the woman, Trudy Busch Valentine, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri said, pausing for emphasis, whos going to stop Eric Schmitt.

The crowd  mostly women and overwhelmingly Democrat  erupted in cheers.

Valentine spoke alongside Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who is up for reelection. When Kelly was introduced, the crowd burst into chants of four more years.

All night, girl power feminism was front and center. Even the front of the venue was painted with a stylized diagram of the female reproductive system emblazoned with the words our body our choice.

But Valentine and Kelly were speaking to a room of overwhelmingly like-minded, politically engaged individuals, where their promises to protect abortion access were uncontroversial. The caucus describes itself as bipartisan, but pro-abortion rights.

While heavy on symbols of feminism, including art of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the event was light on any discussion of how to capitalize on the surge of political engagement among women or the droves of Republicans in Kansas who voted to protect abortion rights.

Last month, Kansas became the first state where voters got to decide the fate of abortion rights after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that found the U.S. Constitution contained a right to abortion. What was expected to be a close race turned out to be a resounding 59-41 victory for abortion rights.

In rural areas of Kansas, where former President Donald Trump twice won counties by 30 or 40 percentage points, the abortion race was close. And the more than 900,000 votes cast looked more like presidential election turnout than a primary.

Kelly lauded the Kansas vote and joked that Kansas would annex Kansas City, Missouri, if Mayor Quinton Lucas asked.

Im proud to lead a state with a storied history in womens rights, Kelly said, noting the state elected the first female mayor in the U.S., was among the first states to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and was the first to hold a referendum on suffrage, which failed.

She called the defeat of the anti-abortion amendment in Kansas one of our biggest victories yet.

This result would not have happened without tireless organizing from women and the men that support them, Kelly said.

She noted that in the week after Roe v. Wade was overturned in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, women made up 70% of newly registered voters.

But there are no final victories or defeats in politics, she said. There is still so much on the line this November.

Like a balanced budget in Kansas.

In Novembers gubernatorial election, Kelly faces Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who was long considered a moderate and is now running a conservative campaign with an endorsement from Trump. A poll released this week showed Kelly with a 2-percentage-point lead over Schmidt, which is inside the margin of error.

Kelly then moved onto other topics, including fully funding public schools, expanding Medicaid and legalizing medical marijuana, quickly acknowledging the fight over abortion rights isnt over.

And she called on women in the room to organize and show up. After her remarks, she said she hoped that was the message members of the crowd remembered.

By virtue of making your voices heard so loudly, some people are starting to question the positions theyve taken on some of these issues, she said in an interview. I think that happens when politicians recognize theres a force to be reckoned with and their vote is being watched.

Valentine called on the crowd to do all they can to protect democracy.

As weve seen all across the country and this state, we know its women who are leading that charge, Valentine said.

Valentine, a first-time candidate and heiress to the Anheuser-Busch beer fortune, is facing off with Schmitt, Missouris Republican attorney general, in a race most consider a major uphill battle for Democrats.

Following Thursdays event, Valentine said women would be important in the November election.

Women are going to be able to figure out if they feel that women have the ability to get abortion care and that you cant make it a mandate. We have to reverse (Dobbs), Valentine said. We cant take women back 50 years. We have to have women that have more autonomy and more equality.
The Missouri Department of Conservation will be hosting a Hunter Education Skills Session on Oct. 22 at the Farmington Elks Lodge from 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Before attending, students must complete one of the following:

Online Course

Learn the information online through a computer or mobile device. The online course includes audio, video, images, graphs, and interactive animation to enhance the learning experience. Simply log on to mdc.mo.gov and search Hunter Education.

Self-Study Manual

Students can learn at their own pace by getting a student manual, complete with colorful pictures and graphs, from the MDC Cape Office in Cape Girardeau at 573-290-5730 (pick up or can be shipped), or order online through mdc.mo.gov

Classroom Session

Register and attend a four-hour classroom session with a Hunter Education instructor. The class includes lecture, discussion and videos.

To gain admission to the skills session, students must present a completed Hunter Education manual with all the review questions completed or provide a certificate of completion from the online course or classroom session. No admission will be granted without proof of completion.

Youths less than 16 years of age do not need Hunter Education as long as they are hunting with a qualified adult parent or mentor. MDCs Apprentice Hunter Authorization lets people 16 years of age and older try hunting before taking Hunter Education as long as they hunt with a qualified adult mentor.

MDC requires that hunters born on or after Jan. 1, 1967, and who are 16 or older, successfully complete an approved Hunter Education course to buy firearms hunting permits and participate in managed hunts. Certain exemptions apply. Hunters who have completed an approved Hunter-Education course in another state, and have proof of completion, are not required to take Missouris Hunter Education course.

New Online Course

Those who are 16 and older may now obtain Hunter Education with the all online course. This new course allows users to take Hunter Education at their own pace and eliminates the need for attending the skills session. There is a processing fee associated with this course.

Register online at http://my.register-ed.com/ or by going to mdc.mo.gov or the South East Regional Office 573-290-5730.
Vote Spanberger to make government work for you

Editor,

Theres more bashing of federal government than ever going around these days. Sure, the federal government sometimes does wrong things, and sometimes does the right things inefficiently. But to focus on mistakes and inefficiencies at a small scale is to lose sight of everything the federal government does right on a larger scale. There are a lot of things that the private sector has not done and will not do to improve our standard of livingthings the federal government does that we take for granted.

Take the interstate highway system. Without it, stuff from year-round strawberries to giant construction cranes would take far longer to get from any point A to point B. Economic activity would slow way downnot to mention your own personal travel. Those of us who grew up while the interstate highway system was being created have some idea of just how inefficient travel was in the 1950s compared with today. The interstate highways were planned and funded largely by the federal government. Its unimaginable to think of private enterprise doing the same thing. Its not just a matter of money, its a matter of coordinating decisions and activities across hundreds of multiple jurisdictions, from states down to cities and counties. The benefits to private businesses, to you and me, are incalculable. But the interstate highway system, like much of what the government does for us, is just taken for granted.

Take the Internet. That, too, was a federal government project. As with interstate highways, collaboration between multiple sources of innovation and expertise made it possible. When the government approached AT&T and IBM to build it, they declined, believing that such a network was a threat to their business. They would not or could not take the risktheyd rather the federal government take the risk, which it did, and enabled scores of private individuals to take credit for innovations that have been layered on top of the Internet. Now those same individuals claim that government is getting in their way. The Internet is taken for grantedits just background. Background without which the self-congratulatory high tech sector would never have existed.

In data and communications technology, national defense, physics, chemistry, materials science, medicine, pharmaceuticals, fire and flood control, and many other avenues to progress we take for granted, basic research and development initiated and funded by the federal government have been key, and will continue to be. They enhance our standard of living.

Because a government that works for us is so important, we need a representative in Congress who will advance our interests within government. That representative, running for reelection in the 7th Congressional District, is Abigail Spanberger. She wants to make government work for us. Her opponent has advocated that we should shut the government downan idea that is contrary to our best interests. It is short-sighted, narrow-minded, and dangerous. Vote for Abigail Spanberger to raise our standard of living.

Sincerely,

Mark Heinicke

Ruckersville
Plans are moving forward as Greene County transitions to its own utility system.

Earlier this year, supervisors in Madison, Orange and Greene counties adopted resolutions approving agreed terms for the latters exit from RSA. The terms, which were negotiated between the three county board chairmen, stated that RSA will transfer its assets within Greene County to the county at no charge by June 30. That date wasnt met as the three counties, as well as RSA, are still awaiting approval of the withdrawal by both the SCC and Virginia Resources Authority. However, Greene County is preparing for the transfer by setting up their own utility department.

Recently, the Greene County Board of Supervisors announced the hire of Greg Lunsford. Lunsford will serve as the director of the countys new water and sewer department. He is currently in the process of hiring staff members for the department. At last weeks RSA meeting, Greene County Supervisor and RSA Board Member Bruce Bowman said three staff members have been hired for the department, including Lunsford. Approximately 10 are needed.

There are a lot in the queue that have to be reviewed and interviewed, Bowman said. We have lots of feelers out. As soon as [Greg] says we have enough staff, were good to go.

Weve been in contact with VRA and the SCC, Lunsford added. None of that can take place until staff is in place. Thats our hurdle right now.

After staff is hired, equipment will be purchased; billing and payment processes and the website design will be established and then both VRA and SCC approval can be obtained. However, there will still be inspections after that before a transfer of assets. The lawsuit, of which Madison County is still part of, will then be dismissed and the department will officially launch.

Lunsford presented a budget to supervisors last week of approximately $1.5 million for fiscal year 2023, which is estimated to be seven months as opposed to a full 12 months.

Bowman thanked Frame for his assistance in coordinating the obtaining of documents from RSA by Greene County.

I know we all want the transition to go smooth, Bowman said. He said he hopes the Greene County staff will be able to work with RSA staff during the period of transition to focus on continuing to delivering quality services.

Lunsford is a go-getter, Greene County Board of Supervisors Chairman Marie Durrer said. He has lots of ideas.

Frame said to his knowledge all of the pertinent documents RSA has have been handed over to Greene County officials.

Im not sure we have everything youre looking for, he said.

And you may not have some of the stuff, Bowman added.

There is not currently a firm timeline on when Greene County will officially take hold of the applicable RSA assets. Both Madison and Orange counties have already adopted a resolution establishing RSA as a two-county organization post-withdrawal.
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

The Azerbaijani naval forces have concluded the command-staff drills in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea held under the approved combat plan, Azernews reports, citing the Defense Ministry.

The ships left the harbor on alert and anchored in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, where they organized the protection of the energy infrastructure, the ministry said.

The Azerbaijani naval crew professionally fulfilled their tasks during the live-fire drills, eliminating surface attack means, floating mines, and air targets, as well as terrorist-sabotage groups of an imagined opponent.

All the assigned tasks were successfully accomplished during the exercises held to improve the skills of commanders and staff officers in organizing combat operations and managing forces during the battle.

All assigned tasks were effectively completed during the drills undertaken to develop the abilities of commanders and staff officers in arranging combat operations and controlling forces during a battle.

Earlier, the Azerbaijani seamen ranked first in the international Sea Cup contest held as part of the International Army Games-2022 in Azerbaijan's territorial waters in the Caspian Sea.

Azerbaijan periodically holds drills to improve the combat readiness of the armed forces.

The drills also aim to improve interaction and combat coordination between the servicemen during operations, as well as to develop commanders' military decision-making and unit management skills.




A former University of Virginia doctor who pleaded guilty to transmitting child pornography got his jail sentence on Tuesday and his freedom on Thursday.

"He was released an hour ago," said Col. Martin Kumer, when asked Thursday afternoon if David Ari Lapides, 38, was still incarcerated at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. Kumer, the jail's superintendent, said that Lapides had been there since July 22, 2021, the day of his arrest.

Lapides pleaded guilty in January to two counts of receiving or transmitting child pornography. He was sentenced on Tuesday to five years in prison for each count, with five years of probation. The sentences were ordered to be served consecutively, meaning that he effectively received a 10-year sentence with all but a year and two months suspended, the time which he was in jail.

"It's a serious and significant sentence," Charlottesville Commonwealth's Attorney Joe Platania, who prosecuted the case. It's more than double the high end of the guidelines. And he lost his career, his wife, and his children; and he'll have to register as a sex offender."

Previous reporting indicated that the Kik messaging application, which is known for its privacy, detected two videos allegedly shared by Lapides that might contain depictions of sexually exploited minors and then notified authorities.

The case was picked up by a regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in coordination with the Charlottesville Police Department.

The videos allegedly depict pre-pubescent girls engaged in sexually exploitive positions, according to a prior report.

That sharing led to the distribution charges and may have ended his career as a neurologist reportedly licensed to practice medicine in 29 states.

His court file is filled with requests from numerous state medical boards asking for records from Charlottesville. That includes the board in Richmond.

"You are hereby given notice that your license to practice medicine in the Commonwealth of Virginia has been mandatorily suspended," said the March 18 notice from the Department of Health Professions.

In a recent New Hampshire proceeding, where Lapides was practicing tele-medicine, the case file includes Lapides fighting to retain his medical license.

Lapides brought a letter from his psychiatrist explaining that he has a recognized psychiatric condition, that he's getting treatment, and that he poses no risk to tele-medicine patients. It didn't work. In April, New Hampshire joined the crowded field of states in revoking Lapides' license.

In advance of a bail hearing last year, 21 friends and family members submitted letters complimenting Lapides. His little brother said he looked up to him.

"When we were young," wrote Benjamin Lapides, "he always made sure I had my dollar and twenty-five cents if the ice cream truck came by, even if it meant he didn't have enough for his own waffle cone."

Local optometrist David Sweeney wrote of how the Sweeney and Lapides families quarantined together during the pandemic.

"The strongest endorsement of David's character I can give," wrote Sweeney, "is that I have trusted my children's lives and safety to him and would continue to do so."

Neither Lapides nor his attorney could be reached for comment.

According to a now-deleted video posted online by UVa, Lapides had sub-specialty training in auto-immune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's and epilepsy.

Experts suggest that consumption of electronic child pornography contributes to the harm of children.

Retired forensic psychologist Jeffrey Fracher says that each shared piece of child pornography raises the likelihood that another juvenile will be exploited or abused.

"Almost to a person, and I've seen a lot of these kiddie porn offenders over the years, particularly fathers of kids at home, they are in denial of the harm they're causing," said Fracher. "They would say, 'Huh, I had no idea, I thought it was a victimless crime.' It was one of the most striking things for me and it was so predictable."

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that at least 100,000 American children a year are victimized, many to fulfill the desires of a person sitting at home on a computer.
Jeffrey Alan Pearce, who drowned earlier this month in the Willamette River, was known by many around Corvallis simply as Bird Man.

The 45-year-old unhoused man loved birds and other animals from the time he was a kid, wrangling ducks and walking them on leashes, according to his family.

His friends say he led a chaotic life at times, but he had a heart of gold when he wasnt battling personal demons. Even after falling on hard times, there was one constant in his life  the birds.

Reports of Pearces death drew hundreds of sympathetic comments on social media. Judging by those sentiments, Bird Man and his feathered friends were beloved in Corvallis. He seems to have touched a lot of lives in his time.

Raised in Napa County in California, Pearce grew up on Lake Berryessa. He and his mom would raise baby ducks and release them to the lake to bolster the population, according to Marcia Macholz, Pearces sister who lives in Fairfield, California.

Hes always been this bird guy, Macholz said. It started with the ducks.

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Pearce would video chat or call Macholz whenever he could, she said, noting that he seemed to be doing fine when they last spoke, although he had an admittedly rough life on the streets. She said hed been living in a tent and trying to get housing  no easy task with a loud flock of birds in tow.

The birds came to Pearce in various ways throughout the years. Some were given to him by people who realized they couldnt handle their pets, others he bought or found online, Macholz said.

Since his death, its not clear where all the birds went. Some landed with family and friends.

It's also not clear how Pearce died. Benton County Sheriffs Office marine deputies reportedly found Pearces body in the Willamette River near downtown Corvallis at around 5 p.m. Sept. 2, nine days after his 45th birthday. The cause was determined to be drowning, but the circumstances are unknown.

Macholz believes Pearce had a seizure, fell into the Willamette and drowned, based on what she said witnesses saw from a distance. She said his death must have been medically-related because he was a good swimmer.

Pearce was cremated and some of his ashes will be spread at Lake Berryessa in Napa County, she said.

In the days before his death, Pearce was staying at the Mens Shelter, one of the facilities under Unity Shelter. Shawn Collins, Unity Shelter executive director, said Pearce  and sometimes a few of his birds  periodically would stay there and was well known by some staff.

He was a pretty sweet and gentle guy who loved his birds, Collins said, noting Pearce appeared to be doing well. I was very sad to learn of his passing.

Since 2020, Collins counts 27 Unity Shelter clients who have died, but he believes thats an undercount. He and other social service providers have pulled together to ask Corvallis and Benton County governments to help the homeless population through a rolling moratorium on camp sweeps.

While the idea is not yet concrete, Collins envisions well-publicized, temporary bans on sweeps at rotating locations. That way, the sweeps that do occur wouldn't be random and homeless individuals would know they have a safe place to relocate. The idea is aimed at reducing harm to the unhoused.

He was homeless for about a month before he passed away, Kimb Brown, a friend of Pearce, said.

Brown coordinated a memorial for Pearce on Tuesday, Sept. 20 in the parking lot of First Christian Church downtown. A pair of photo collages showed Pearce with numerous birds over his lifetime and bags of birdseed.

The last person to have contact with Pearce said he was in good spirits the day he died, Brown said. But he was having problems from not taking diabetes medication, she said, adding that he hadnt yet connected with a new supply of medication from the Benton County Health Department.

Bird Man always took care of his birds, Chris Gray said during the memorial. He rescued birds that people would give him  people with houses, people with lots of money. When Animal Control took a bird away from someone who was mistreating them, they gave it to him. And he nursed them back to health.

When deputies found Pearce, there were no indications of violence, according to Detective Sgt. David Iverson, who said his body had been in the water for several hours. A toxicology report is pending.

Anyone with information about Pearces death is asked to contact Iverson at 541-766-0139.
Corvallis police are investigating a gunshot in South Corvallis.

According to a Police Department news release, officers responded to the 100 block of Southwest Tunison Avenue at around 5:13 a.m. Friday, Sept. 23. A caller reported hearing a gunshot and an unknown man yelling.

After arriving, officers could not locate any involved individuals or injured individuals. According to the news release, officers did find evidence of at least one gunshot.

The incident happened adjacent to Lincoln Elementary School, but police said there is no evidence the gunshot is related to the school.

Officers continue to investigate, but there is no current danger to the public.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Corvallis PD at 541-766-6924.
A bus driver for Greater Albany Public Schools has been placed on administrative leave after allegedly telling elementary school-aged children he would put them under the bus and run them over.

The mother of a child on the bus, Krystina Mendez, posted a video on the community Facebook page Whats Up Albany Oregon of a confrontation she had with the bus driver. In the video she says, Did you tell my kids that you would put them under the bus and run them over?

The driver responded, I was joking.

After about a minute of back and forth among two parents and the driver, the driver closed the doors and drove away.

According to an article by KEZI, the children were singing Happy Birthday on the bus when the incident occurred. Children got scared and called their parents when the driver started yelling, according to KEZI.

The incident occurred on Bus 13, which was transporting children home from Sunrise Elementary School. Principal Kimberly Jordan sent an apologetic message to parents.

I am very sorry this has occurred and am confident the investigation will lead to a satisfactory conclusion, the message said.

The school district also acknowledged the incident, posting on Facebook that officials saw the video.

We are actively investigating, and during this time the driver will be placed on leave, the post said. Outside of this statement, we will not comment on individual personnel matters. The safety of our students remains our number one priority.

The district is facing a dire shortage of bus drivers, just like the rest of the country's school district and municipalities. After routes were condensed during the 2021-22 school year, GAPS incentivized bus drivers to apply by offering various bonuses throughout their time with the district.
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has addressed global and regional security, as well as cooperation issues on the margins of the 77th UN General Assembly session in New York, Azernews reports, citing the ministry.

CICA

As part of his visit to New York, Bayramov attended the informal meeting of the foreign ministers of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) on September 22.

Addressing the meeting, chaired by Kazakhstan, Bayramov underlined the growing need for regional engagement and cooperation in light of the mounting threats to global security. In this regard, he stressed CICAs importance as a platform for encouraging communication and cooperation, as well as developing confidence and maintaining regional security and prosperity.

He emphasized the importance of respecting international legal norms and principles, particularly sovereignty, territorial integrity, and border inviolability, to preserve regional and global peace and stability. The importance of the CICA for the implementation of confidence-building measures was noted.

Moreover, CICAs confidence-building measures on safe and efficient transport corridor systems, which have been coordinated by Azerbaijan, were underlined.

The minister stressed that Azerbaijan is actively promoting communication projects such as East-West and North-South transit corridors between the CICA member nations. In this context, the minister underlined the relevance of the Zangazur Corridor, which would significantly contribute to regional and global peace by promoting local, regional, as well as trans-regional trade.

During the meeting, matters concerning the preparations for the CICAs Astana Summit were also addressed.

Organization of Islamic Cooperation

On September 22, Bayramov attended the annual coordination meeting of the foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states in New York.

In his address to the meeting chaired by Pakistan, Bayramov reaffirmed Azerbaijan's commitment to Islamic solidarity, as well as to the Islamic ideals of peace, tolerance, togetherness, harmony, and justice for the benefit of humanity's progress and prosperity.

The top diplomat described the OIC, as the main international organization, as well as one of the key actors in ensuring peace and stability in the Muslim world. Moreover, Azerbaijans concern over the escalating insecurity and conflict in various Muslim countries was underlined.

Bayramov briefed the participants about Azerbaijans contribution to multiculturalism and interreligious dialogue, underlining the importance of the Baku Process, which has been operating since 2008.

Bayramov thanked the OIC for the extensive and continuous support to Azerbaijan both during the occupation of its territories by Armenia, as well as in the post-conflict period. The minister also spoke about Azerbaijans steps in ensuring regional peace and stability.
The John Coffee Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and Wiregrass Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution joined forces to observe a 21th Constitution Week Observance at the Enterprise Country Club Sept. 15.

Several local people were honored by DAR Regent Jacque Hawkins and SAR President Travis Parker.

Hawkins presented the Good Citizen Award to Bob Cooper for his work with multiple veteran organizations.

Parker presented the Law Enforcement Commendation Medal to Twelfth Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney Jon Folmar for long and outstanding service in his office. The Fire Safety Medal was presented to Chaplain John Logsdon, who works in this capacity with various volunteer fire departments as well as the state AMVETS and the local AMVETS Post 7. Jeff Jones received the Emergency Medical Service Commendation for his going above-and-beyond as a paramedic trainer and mentor.

Special Speakers were Alabama DAR Southeastern Director Jessica Maddox and SAR State President Bill Daniel.

Constitution Week was started by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in 1955 when the group petitioned Congress to set aside Sept. 17-23 annually to dedicate for this occasion. The resolution was later adopted by the U.S. Congress and signed into public law on Aug. 2, 1956, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Azerbaijan attaches importance to establishing close relations with Jewish communities across the world, Azernews reports, citing Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov.

Bayramov made the remarks at the meeting with leaders and representatives of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the coalition of American Jewish organizations on the margins of the 77th UN General Assembly session in New York.

At the meeting, topics such as cooperation with US Jewish organizations, as well as future prospects, and the regional situation were discussed.

Bayramov stressed that Azerbaijan attaches a high value to maintaining close links with Jewish communities across the world, recalling the existence of several synagogues, Jewish cultural institutions, and schools in the country.

The recent situation in the South Caucasus, as well as the activities carried out by Azerbaijan in the post-conflict period following the 44-day war, was discussed at the meeting.

Bayramov briefed the opposite side about the large-scale restoration and construction work carried out by Azerbaijan in the territories liberated from the Armenian occupation. He also spoke about the deliberate destruction of Azerbaijani territories and the cultural heritage by Armenia during the occupation.

The interreligious harmony, tolerance, multiculturalism, mutual understanding, friendly neighborliness, and peace between the Muslim, Christian, and Jewish populations of Azerbaijan were highly appreciated by the Jewish organizations.

It was highlighted that Azerbaijan's Jewish population, which has lived in peace and serenity in the nation for generations, contributes to the establishment of strong cooperation between Azerbaijan and Israel.

At the meeting, views were also exchanged on the development prospects of Azerbaijan's relations with the United States of America.
A Geneva County woman pleaded guilty this week to murder in the 2020 death of another woman.

According to court records, Andrea Charlene Wambles pleaded guilty on Wednesday with a 25-year sentence imposed along with a $10,000 fine.

Wambles, now 42, was arrested and charged with the June 29, 2020, shooting death of 40-year-old Danah Hudson Johnson. At the time, law enforcement believed the shooting stemmed from an ongoing feud between the two women over a male acquaintance of both women.

Johnson was found lying in the road on Craven Street in Geneva Countys Bellwood community. She had been shot multiple times in the upper torso area and died on the scene, according to previous Dothan Eagle reports.

During the 2020 investigation, officers found Wambles vehicle hidden in the woods near the scene. Inside the vehicle was a pistol believed to be the one used in the shooting. According to court records, Wambles lived just a few blocks from where the shooting occurred.

Wambles trial has been continued numerous times since her arrest in 2020. Witnesses had been subpoenaed yet again for a jury trial set to begin Monday.
Vietnam ranked 63rd out of 113 economies in digital environment and support system for entrepreneurs, according to an index developed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The ADB index measures the quality of the environment for digital entrepreneurs by looking at the level of digitalization in eight areas: culture, institutions, market conditions, infrastructure, human capital, knowledge, finance, and networking.

Singapore has the worlds best digital environment and support system for entrepreneurs, according to the Global Index of Digital Entrepreneurship Systems, released on Sept. 21 as part of the Asian Development Outlook 2022 Update. The U.S. ranks second, Sweden third, Thailand 59th, Vietnam 63rd, Indonesia 71st, India 75th, and the Philippines, 79th.

Up to 17 of 21 developing Asian economies are ranked toward the bottom, underscoring the need for many to nurture digital entrepreneurship, the ADB said, noting that digitalization offers big growth opportunities for businesses in Asia and the Pacific.

Digitalization is a driver of innovation, which is key for economies striving to achieve high-income status. It can also make economies more resilient, with digital technology having helped many businesses survive the Covid-19 pandemic, and promoting inclusive growth by lowering the cost of starting a business, according to the bank.

"Digital entrepreneurship helped economies stay afloat during the Covid-19 pandemic, and it can become a major engine of growth and innovation in the post-pandemic world. For this to happen, there needs to be a supportive environment enabled by conducive policies and incentives," said ADB Chief Economist Albert Park.

In addition to investing in digital infrastructure like broadband networks, governments need to promote political stability, reliable legal systems, open and competitive markets, and strong property rights. An ADB analysis shows that strong rule of law has a positive effect on enterprise innovation, while less corruption in a society correlates with an increase in the entry of new entrepreneurs to the market.

For Asia and the Pacific as a whole, an insufficiently supportive culture is among the biggest weak spots when it comes to nurturing digital entrepreneurship, according to the ADB. One example is a general lack of public appreciation for the vital role that entrepreneurs play in economic progress. One way to change this is to improve the public perception of entrepreneurship through education, said the bank.
Fisheman Nguyen Van Thanh (R) reunites with his children, wife and mother at Da Nang airport, September 22, 2022. Photo by VnExpresws/Nguyen Dong

Malaysian police handed over 37 fishermen from Quang Nam Province they had detained for more than three months to Vietnamese authorities Thursday night.

They were put on flights from Kinabalu through Kuala Lumpur and HCMC to Da Nang, where they arrived at 10 p.m.

The reunion with their loved ones after five monthsthey had set sail on April 5was teary.

Some family members could not wait and flew to HCMC to see them a few hours sooner.

Tran Van Viet, 31, one of the released men, said he was preparing fishing tools on June 11 when he noticed a Malaysian Coast Guard ship following them with its siren sounding.

His boat crew panicked, the pilot tried to flee and others tried to call for help from other fishermen via the radio, but the Malaysian ship rammed and almost sank them.

All 42 fishermen were arrested.

Five of them were released after a month on health grounds while the remaining 37 were held.

"I did not think I would live," Viet said.

"Every second, every minute of the past three months we yearned to reunite with our families."

The Vietnamese vessel was seized at the Tanjung Simpang Mengayau Kudat area with Malaysian authorities saying it violated their fishery regulations.

But a statement by the Quang Nam Peoples Committee on June 29 said its border guards surveillance system showed the boat had been nine nautical miles from a reef in Vietnams Spratly Islands.

Surveillance data from Quang Nams agriculture department showed that between April 25 and June 11, the ship was operating within Vietnams legal fishing areas.

Tran Van Manh, 41, the captain, who has never been arrested or otherwise punished for trespassing in his 13 years at the job, said: "We followed the map, we were not clear if we intruded into [Malaysian] territory."

Manh was fined 150,000 ringgit ($32,800) by a court in Malaysia on August 30, and the rest of the crew had to pay 20,000 RM each. They paid after the trial and it took 20 days for them to be sent home.

Captain Tran Van Manh arrives at Da Nang airport, September 22, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong

Besides the penalties, the fishermen's families also had to pay for lawyers. The 37 families said they had paid more than VND5 billion ($210,800) in all.

Manh's ship worth more than VND6 billion was also seized.

Legal expert Hoang Viet said Vietnam and Malaysia have demarcated their continental shelves but not exclusive economic zones.

"Any conflict can thus only be solved via diplomatic efforts because there's no third party at sea. Normally, when a country's Coast Guard arrests Vietnamese fishermen, their courts will deal with them according to local law."

He said Vietnam should quickly establish clear boundaries with other countries in overlapping areas and initiate joint patrols.
Authorities in the central province of Quang Binh have allowed travel agencies to launch new tours to explore the Son Boi cave system and Bru-Van Kieu culture.

Qualified travel companies will be allowed to open short-day tour itineraries to the Khe Kieu and Son Boi cave systems that retain their pristine beauty.

The tour, limited to those aged 16 and above, will also enable visitors to explore the mountain-village life of the Bru-Van Kieu ethnic minority.

Quang Binh has long been famous for tours to Son Doong, the world's largest cave, Tu Lan and other smaller equivalents.

The province's authorities are striving to boost tourism following a two-year slump caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Earlier this month, they licensed two private travel firms to offer paragliding services above Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park.

In the first nine months of this year, Quang Binh received over 1.58 million visitors, up 189% from 2021.
Michael R. Olsen, 41, of Elko was arrested Sept. 17, 2022, at Lamoille Highway and 12th Street for felony possession of a controlled substance, two counts of drug paraphernalia, driving without a drivers license, failure to obey stop sign, and violation of probation or condition of suspended sentence.

Cheyenne C. Ward, 27, of Sacramento was arrested Sept. 17, 2022, at 95 Spruce Road for intent to utter a fictitious bill, note or check; felony possession of a controlled substance; and drug paraphernalia. Bail: $10,640

Cody J. Kapphahn, 32, of Spring Creek was arrested Sept. 19, 2022, at 1415 Mountain City Highway for possessing, receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle. Bail: $10,000

Rowena L. Numkena, 41, of Elko was arrested Sept. 20, 2022, at 1400 Mountain City Highway for felony possession of a controlled substance and failure to appear after bail on a misdemeanor crime. Bail: $6,640

Michael J. Tognarnelli, 40, of Carlin was arrested Sept. 20, 2022, at 1400 Mountain City Highway for felony possession of a controlled substance. Bail: $5,000

Jacob A. Braunschweig, 30, of Elko was arrested Sept. 20, 2022, at Washoe County Jail for failure to appear after bail on a felony crime.

Kris E. Brown, 50, of Spring Creek was arrested Sept. 20, 2022, at 737 Holiday Drive for fugitive felon from another state.

Gustavo M. Martinez, 47, of Elko was arrested Sept. 20, 2022, at Humboldt County Jail for violation of probation or condition of suspended sentence.

Christopher C. Suarez, 30, of Murray, Utah was arrested Sept. 21, 2022, at 1855 W. Wendover Blvd. for felony possession of a controlled substance and fugitive felon from another state.

Lindsey K. Thomson, 23, of Roy, Utah was arrested Sept. 21, 2022, at 1855 W. Wendover Blvd. for driver disobeying peace officer, felony possession of a controlled substance, reckless driving disregarding safety, driving without a drivers license and speeding 11-15 mph over limit.

Kaylah S. Harris, 28, of Henderson was arrested Sept. 21, 2022, at Elko County Jail for felony possession of a controlled substance. Bail: $5,000

Halee A. Mehlbauer, 37, of Tooele, Utah was arrested Sept. 21, 2022, at 1200 Wendover Blvd. for possession of stolen property, possession of a controlled substance, and drug paraphernalia. Bail: $25,740

Jessica M. Saldana-Jacinto, 27, of Reno was arrested Sept. 21, 2022, at Carlin Conservation Camp for conspiracy to furnish alcohol to a state prisoner and furnishing an intoxicant to a city or county prisoner. Bail: $10,000
ELKO  Thrive Cannabis Marketplaces business license to operate in Jackpot has been conditionally renewed for another year, but only if the company provides the necessary financial papers to the Elko County Sheriffs Department within 30 days.

Sheriff Aitor Narvazia told Elko County Commissioners that Thrive had not yet provided any paperwork for the license renewal, and he asked commissioners to give the company a 30-day extension. If Thrive fails to comply, the county can go after the license.

The marijuana dispensary opened last October in the northern Elko County community along the Idaho border under a business license the county granted that requires annual renewal. Commissioner Jon Karr said the confusion over the renewal involves how many financial details are required.

He said he thought the overall financials on the business would be enough for renewal, rather than going into extensive background checks again this year on the individual finances of all the partners.

Theyve been wrongfully in my mind thinking they need to do every one of the business partners -- five or 10 or whatever they are -- personal finances, Karr said, reminding commissioners this week that thorough background checks were done on everyone for the initial license.

I am in favor of 30 days, Karr said, adding that he felt a full background check should be done on any new partner that comes into the business in the future, however.

Thrive representative Dave Brown said on a call to the meeting that he agreed there was confusion over the financial records required. He said he was under the impression that full financials were required but the company already has the financial statements for the business itself that can be submitted.

Commissioner Cliff Eklund said there are a lot of opportunities in the cannabis business to do illegal things, but the sheriff said his office has never had any issues with Thrive, and that the company is very professional.

Chairman Delmo Andreozzi said the delay was a red flag for me, frankly. I think this is a privileged business, and this is way more than a misunderstanding. He also said he didnt have sympathy for the cash business that knew financials were required.

Andreozzi then suggested an alternative that would be conditional approval of the license with the requirement that the proper paperwork be filed, or the county would start action to revoke the license, and this would allow approval without the license coming back to commissioners.

They need to know the license is revoked if they dont meet that 30-day deal, Commissioner Wilde Brough said.

I have no appetite to deny the license, and I dont think anyone else does either, Commissioner Rex Steninger said.

Elko County District Attorney Tyler Ingram cautioned commissioners that the agenda item stated that the sheriffs office had conducted the required background checks and recommended approval of the license.

Andreozzi said the agenda item was probably written that way because the sheriff thought he would have the financial information in time for the meeting.

The original motion for a 30-day extension was amended to allow for conditional approval for Thrive Cannabis Marketplace, which also does business as Cheyenne Medical LLC. The conditional approval wont require further action by commissioners if the paperwork is filed within the 30 days.

Elko County Commissioners initially opposed a cannabis outlet in the unincorporated town of Jackpot, but when Jackpot suffered huge economic impacts during the COVID-19 pandemic after local casinos were shut down, commissioners shifted their stance and established conditions for a dispensary.

The $1.4 million Jackpot dispensary is Thrives sixth location in Nevada. The Times-News in Twin Falls, Idaho, wrote last year that it is the closest dispensary to southern Idaho, where marijuana is illegal.
CARSON CITY  Lander County Manager Bartolo Bert Ramos has agreed to pay a $5,000 penalty for two ethics violations, the Nevada Commission on Ethics reported this week.

The Commission previously granted a partial motion for summary judgment against Ramos for his role in negotiating contracts and disclosure obligations relating to a business owned by a family member. Also resolved this week was an additional pending matter in which it is alleged that Ramos failed to properly disclose and abstain from participation in a county lease that benefited a family member.

As part of the stipulated agreement, Ramos also must schedule ethics training for himself and Lander County staff.

The Commission also approved a stipulation with Douglas County Sheriff Daniel Coverley resolving a case related to the use of a Sheriffs uniform to support a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Nevada.

The agreement included the admission of one non-willful violation of the Ethics Law with required training for both the Douglas County Sheriff and his staff.
A former deputy Nevada attorney general has been arrested in Reno as a suspect in a 1972 homicide in Hawaii. Seventy-seven-year-old Tudor Chirila Jr. was being held Thursday in the Washoe County Jail without bail on a fugitive charge. He once ran for the state Supreme Court and later was affiliated with the infamous Mustang Ranch brothel. Honolulu police accuse him of second-degree murder, saying DNA evidence links him to the fatal stabbing of 19-year-old Nancy Anderson in her Waikiki apartment 50 years ago. In March, police say they used a DNA sample to identify Chirila's son the biological child of a DNA sample found at the crime scene.
Source: Internet

Singapore has the worlds best digital environment and support system for entrepreneurs, according to the Global Index of Digital Entrepreneurship Systems, released on September 21st 2022 as part of the Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2022 Update. The United States ranks second, while Sweden takes third place among 113 economies on the list. But 17 of the 21 developing Asian economies included are ranked toward the bottomunderscoring the need for many of them to nurture digital entrepreneurship.

Digitalization offers big growth opportunities for businesses in Asia and the Pacific. Its a driver of innovation, which is key for economies striving to achieve high-income status. It can also make economies more resilient, as seen when digital technology helped many businesses survive the COVID-19 pandemic, and it can promote inclusive growth by lowering the cost of starting a business.

Digital entrepreneurship helped economies stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it can become a major engine of growth and innovation in the post-pandemic world, said ADB Chief Economist Albert Park. For this to happen, there needs to be a supportive environment enabled by conducive policies and incentives. While the environment for Asias digital entrepreneurs made substantial strides in the past couple of years, theres still a lot of room for improvement.

The index measures the quality of the environment for digital entrepreneurs by looking at the level of digitalization in eight areas: culture, institutions, market conditions, infrastructure, human capital, knowledge, finance, and networking.

In addition to investing in digital infrastructure such as broadband networks, governments need to promote political stability, reliable legal systems, open and competitive markets, and strong property rights. An ADB analysis shows that strong rule of law has a positive effect on enterprise innovation, while less corruption in a society is correlated with an increase in the entry of new entrepreneurs in the market.

For Asia and the Pacific as a whole, an insufficiently supportive culture is among the biggest weak spots when it comes to nurturing digital entrepreneurship. One example is a general lack of public appreciation for the vital role that entrepreneurs play in economic progress. One way to change this is to improve the public perception of entrepreneurship through education./.
A shrimp processing factory in Vietnam (Photo: VNA)

The output comprises 3.87 million tonnes from aquaculture (up 7%) and 2.88 million tonnes from fishing (down 2.5%).

In the nine-month period, the export of fishery products brought home 7.6 billion USD, a surge of 37.3% year on year, meeting 84.8% of the yearly plan.

Fishery export revenue is likely to reach 10 billion USD this year, the ministry said.

Vietnam ranks 63rd out of 113 economies in new global index of digital entrepreneurship systems

Accoridng to VNA, Vietnam is ranked 63rd out of 113 global economies in a global ranking of digital environment and support systems for entrepreneurs, a new index developed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Released earlier this week as part of the Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2022, the Global Index of Digital Entrepreneurship Systems (GIDES) puts Singapore in the first place, followed by the United States and Sweden.

Digital entrepreneurship helped economies stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it can become a major engine of growth and innovation in the post-pandemic world, said ADB Chief Economist Albert Park.

For this to happen, there needs to be a supportive environment enabled by conducive policies and incentives. While the environment for Asias digital entrepreneurs made substantial strides in the past couple of years, theres still a lot of room for improvement.

The index measures the quality of the environment for digital entrepreneurs by looking at the level of digitalisation in eight areas, namely culture, institutions, market conditions, infrastructure, human capital, knowledge, finance, and networking.

In addition to investing in digital infrastructure such as broadband networks, governments need to promote political stability, reliable legal systems, open and competitive markets, and strong property rights.

For Asia and the Pacific as a whole, an insufficiently supportive culture is among the biggest weak spots when it comes to nurturing digital entrepreneurship. One example is a general lack of public appreciation for the vital role that entrepreneurs play in economic progress. One way to change this is to improve the public perception of entrepreneurship through education.

Vietnams rice exports to surpass annual target

Vietnams rice export is likely to surpass the target set for this year, VNA cited the saying of Chairman of the Vietnam Food Association Nguyen Ngoc Nam.

During a conference co-hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Peoples Committee of the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on September 22, Nam said Vietnam earned nearly US$2.4 billion from exporting 4.97 million tonnes of rice in the first eight months of this year, up 20.7% in volume and nearly 9.9% in value from the same period last year.

Vietnams rice exports to surpass annual target

Vietnam plans to ship 6.3-6.5 million tonnes of rice this year, or 100,000200,000 tonnes more than 2021.

Asia is the biggest buyer of Vietnamese rice, accounting for more than 50%, followed by Africa and America.

The Philippines alone bought over US$1 billion worth of Vietnamese rice, or nearly half of Vietnam's total export, mostly jasmine and hi-quality rice, up more than 47% year on year.

Photo for illustration (Source: baodantoc.vn)

In the past eight months, China bought over 520,000 tonnes of rice from Vietnam, or about 10% of Vietnam's rice exports, down 29% annually. At present, the neighbouring country has huge demand for glutinous rice but supplies in Vietnam are insufficient.

Ghana and the Ivory Coast remained stable markets for Vietnam, with more than 18% of the total rice export.

Vietnamese movie to compete in Tokyo International Film Festival

A Vietnamese film titled "Tro tan ruc ro", known as Glorious ashes in English, by director Bui Thac Chuyen will compete for a prize in the Competition category at the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) to be held from October 24 to November 3 in Japan.

A scene in Vietnamese film titled "Tro tan ruc ro", known as Glorious ashes in English, by director Bui Thac Chuyen (Photo: TIFF)

Adapted from short stories produced by renowned Vietnamese writer Nguyen Ngoc Tu, the film won the Busan Award in the Asian Project Market of the Busan International Film Festival 2017.

Furthermore, the movie was also presented at the Cannes Cinefondation LAtelier 2018.

This year the film has been selected from a total of 1,695 works submitted by directors from 107 countries and territories worldwide.

A total of 15 films have been chosen to compete in the Competition category at the Tokyo International Film Festival, including the Vietnamese movie.

The Tokyo International Film Festival was first established in 1985 and was held biennially from 1985 to 1991, with the event being held annually thereafter. It is widely considered to be the largest film festival in Asia.
By Trend

Armenia, having committed a large-scale provocation on the border with Azerbaijan in the direction of the Dashkasan, Kalbajar and Lachin districts during the night of September 12, once again demonstrated its revanchist intentions to the international community, the Board Chairman of MUSIAD [Independent Industrialists and Businessmen's Association] Azerbaijan Rashad Jabirli told Trend.

According to Jabirli, the powerful Azerbaijani army, adequately responding to the Armenian provocation, put the Armenian armed forces in their place.

"The President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in his speeches declares that he knows well what and when must be done. Namely decisive position of the head of state and his political victory once again showed the whole world that Azerbaijan is ready to immediately respond to any step threatening its sovereignty, he said. Another military the provocation of the Armenian aggressor is an undesirable situation that has its negative impact, creating obstacles, and delaying the process of establishing long-term peace and stability in the region.

MUSIAD Azerbaijan expresses its strong support for the territorial integrity and inviolability of the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan. We express our condolences to our people, and the families of martyrs. May Allah rest the souls of our martyrs. We wish recovery to the injured soldiers," added Jabirli.
The delegation visits and works with the World Smart Cities Forum. (Photo: HNMO)

The delegation worked with a number of agencies in London on planning, planning management, conservation of works of historical and cultural value, waste and wastewater treatment, environmental protection, and public transport.

Also in London, the delegation worked with the World Smart Cities Forum.

The World Smart Cities Forum is a non-profit organization established to assist city governments in solving urban development problems through smart city construction and development.

During the meeting with the World Smart Cities Forum Chairman Jaewon Peter Chun, he introduced the forum's goals, models and technology applications in building smart cities in the world.

Speaking at the meeting, Chairman of the Hanoi People's Council Nguyen Ngoc Tuan said that the information at the meeting was very meaningful and practical, especially for big cities like Hanoi in the process of urban development. He added he wished that the World Smart Cities Forum will continue to consult for Hanoi city in the construction and development of a smart city.

Also within the framework of the business trip in the UK, the Hanoi delegation visited and worked with officials and employees of the Vietnamese Embassy in the UK.

Ambassador to the UK Nguyen Hoang Long expressed his pleasure and appreciated the purpose and significance of the Hanoi delegation's business trip, and emphasized the development in the relationship between Vietnam and the UK, especially in the context that the two countries are aiming to celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2023. This will open up opportunities for comprehensive cooperation in the coming time, including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, with localities in the UK, especially in the fields of investment, trade, import-export, urban development, information technology, digital transformation, education and training, he said, suggesting that Hanoi study to implement cultural exchange and cooperation activities with London.

Chairman of the City People's Council Nguyen Ngoc Tuan suggested that the Vietnamese Embassy in the UK continue to promote the image of Hanoi capital to international friends; enhance friendly relations between Hanoi and localities; and strengthen investment promotion and cooperation in various fields./.
Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh attends the 77th session of the UN General Assembly. (Photo: VGP)

According to Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son, Vietnam officially became the 149th member of the UN on September 20, 1977. Since then, Vietnam has always been a reliable partner, an active member and made many important contributions to the implementation of UN missions. In the renewal process, cooperation between Vietnam and the UN has developed strongly, extensively and effectively.

The 13th National Party Congress continued to affirm the important position of the UN in the foreign policy of the Party and State. Accordingly, the country targets to raise the level of multilateral diplomacy, actively participating in and promoting Vietnam's role in multilateral mechanisms, especially ASEAN, the UN and other important cooperation frameworks and mechanisms of strategic importance, in accordance with the requirements, capabilities and conditions of the country.

Implementing that right policy, Vietnam continues to attach importance to and strengthen cooperation with the UN; being steadfastly independent and self-reliant, ensuring the highest interests of the nation on the basis of the UN Charter and basic principles of international law, equality, cooperation and mutual benefit; making efforts to promote the core role, leading and mediating in international issues; continuing to promote multilateral cooperation, and cooperation between the UN and regional organizations, including ASEAN, to jointly find long-term solutions to handle security and development challenges in the world.

The world situation is changing rapidly and complicatedly, but the big trend and the earnest aspiration of nations and peoples have always been to maintain peace and expand development cooperation. Vietnam continues to make every effort to contribute to strengthening the central role of the UN in the global governance system, striving together for sustainable peace, national independence, democracy, development cooperation and social progress./.
Photo taken on March 30, 2021 shows an exterior view of the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. (Xinhua/Chen Junxia)

"(COVID-19) pandemic is not over, but the end is in sight ... Being able to see the end does not mean we are at the end," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated at a press briefing on Thursday.

GENEVA, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday warned again against complacency in fighting COVID-19, urging for coordinated action and political commitments to save lives and prevent economic and health damage from the ongoing pandemic.

"(COVID-19) pandemic is not over, but the end is in sight ... Being able to see the end does not mean we are at the end," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated at a press briefing on Thursday.

He cited as reasons that the pandemic is still inflicting a death toll of 10,000 per week, most of which could be prevented, while large vaccination gaps exist especially in low- and middle-income countries.

"That means everyone needs to use, when needed, the simple tools that are available to stay safe: distancing, masks and ventilation. And it means everyone needs access to the medical tools to stay safe: vaccines, tests and treatments," he added.

The video screenshot taken on May 7, 2021 shows World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attending a press briefing in Geneva, Switzerland. (Xinhua)

The WHO chief's remarks came as a working group of ACT-Accelerator Facilitation Council released on Thursday its latest report, warning that the global pandemic is not over and that it's no time for COVID-19 complacency.

Co-founded by WHO and partners, the ACT-Accelerator is a global collaboration to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines.

The report concludes that many countries are far from meeting global targets on vaccination coverage, testing rates, and access to treatments and PPE. And while progress is being made, the global threat of COVID-19 is far from over, particularly for high-risk groups in lower-income countries.

According to the report, COVID-19 vaccination rates in low-income countries stand only at 19 percent, compared to almost 75 percent in high-income countries; and the roll-out of new lifesaving COVID-19 treatments including oral antivirals in low and lower-middle income countries remain limited or non-existent.

Students wait in queue to receive a dose of COVID-19 vaccine at a school in Lahore, Pakistan, Sept. 20, 2022. (Photo by Sajjad/Xinhua)

The working group recommends that equitable access to COVID-19 countermeasures and preparation for the delivery is critical for countries to integrate the management of the virus into their primary health systems, as part of a longer-term strategy.

It highlights the decline in testing rates and the lack of equitable access to new antiviral treatments for COVID-19, emphasizing that diagnostics and therapeutics, as well as associated test-to-treat strategies, are fundamental components of pandemic response, both for COVID-19 and future health threats.

Editor: GSY
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attends a high-level video dialogue with representatives of the Japanese business community in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 22, 2022. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)

BEIJING, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday said China is ready to work with Japan to upgrade the all-round, wide-ranging and multi-level cooperation, noting that China welcomes the Japanese business community to continue seizing development opportunities and actively expand its presence in the Chinese market to achieve win-win results.

Li made the remarks during a high-level video dialogue with representatives of the Japanese business community. He exchanged views with the representatives on a wide range of topics, including China-Japan relations, economic and trade cooperation, global economic and financial challenges, climate change, and aging populations.

Noting that China and Japan will mark the 50th anniversary of their normalization of diplomatic relations in a few days, Li said China and Japan are important neighbors and the world's second and third-largest economies, respectively. Maintaining the sound and steady development of bilateral ties serves the interests of both sides, promotes the well-being of the two peoples, and safeguards the peace, stability and development of the region and the world.

Over the past 50 years, China-Japan relations have made great progress overall. The two sides should strive for peaceful and friendly coexistence, abide by the principles set out in the four political documents between the two countries, view each other's development in an objective and rational way, and push for the steady and long-term development of China-Japan relations, Li said.

China and Japan have complementary economic advantages, and their cooperation shows great resilience and potential, Li said. China is ready to work with Japan to upgrade the all-round, wide-ranging and multi-level cooperation, and make good use of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to tap regional economic growth potential.

"China will increase direct flights between China and Japan in an orderly manner to further facilitate personnel exchanges on the premise of COVID-19 prevention and control," the premier said.

He said China is firmly committed to peaceful development, calling on the two countries to respect each other, treat each other as equals, enhance mutual trust, handle differences properly, jointly maintain a peaceful external environment and stable regional environment, and realize the common development of China, Japan and other countries in the region.

Li noted that this year, the downward pressure on the Chinese economy has increased due to the impacts of factors that exceeded expectations. China has responded decisively, made timely adjustments, and worked to stabilize employment and prices. The Chinese economy has continued to run within an appropriate range and is showing an overall recovery trend.

Li stressed that China will take a realistic approach and do its best to work toward reasonable results in economic development for the whole year. China remains committed to the basic state policy of opening-up and will only open its doors wider to the outside world.

China will continue deepening reform to delegate power, streamline administrative procedures and optimize government services, Li said. It will also create a market-oriented and law-based international business environment, and ensure regulations are transparent, stable and predictable, he said.

China will also relax market access further and ensure intellectual property rights are protected strictly, Li added.

"We hope the Japanese business community will continue seizing China's development opportunities, actively expand its presence in the Chinese market, strengthen cooperation with Chinese partners, and achieve more mutual benefits and win-win results," Li said.

Representatives of the Japanese business community said that Japan and China are very important cooperative partners. The Japanese business community is optimistic about the prospects of China's economic development, and said it will actively expand its business in the country and strive to build Japan-China economic relations that meet the requirements of the new era.

The representatives also expressed hope that the two countries would take the opportunity of the RCEP's enforcement to expand cooperation on the economy, trade, environmental protection, health and aging populations, enhance people-to-people exchanges, and promote peace and development of the two countries, the region and the world.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attends a high-level video dialogue with representatives of the Japanese business community in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 22, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attends a high-level video dialogue with representatives of the Japanese business community in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 22, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Editor: GSY
A helicopter transferring Gan Yu (back row, R) arrives at Luding County, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Sept. 21, 2022. Chinese hydropower station worker Gan Yu, who went missing for 17 days following a 6.8-magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan Province, has been found alive.(Xinhua)

CHENGDU, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese hydropower station worker, who went missing for 17 days following a 6.8-magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan Province, has been found alive.

Gan Yu, a 28-year-old worker at a hydropower station in Sichuan's Luding County, was rescued by a local villager on Wednesday. He is receiving treatment at West China Hospital of Sichuan University.

Ni Taigao, the villager who found Gan, decided to join the search for Gan because he was familiar with local mountains, according to a video clip posted by the state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV).

On Wednesday morning, Ni heard someone yelling for help on a mountain slope and found Gan lying in the woods, CCTV reported.

Gan told Ni that he had survived the ordeal by eating wild fruits and drinking spring water.

Gan suffered from multiple soft tissue injuries, several fractures, and severe infections, said Wu Hong, vice president of the hospital.

Despite physical weakness, his vital signs were stable, according to the hospital.

On Sept. 5 when the earthquake struck Luding, Gan and his colleague chose not to evacuate but remain at their posts at the hydropower station, saving villages downstream from being flooded. His colleague was rescued on Sept. 8.

As of Sept. 11, the earthquake had killed a total of 93 people.

A helicopter, which is designated to transfer Gan Yu to Luding County of Sichuan Province, prepares to take off in Shimian County, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Sept. 21, 2022. Chinese hydropower station worker Gan Yu, who went missing for 17 days following a 6.8-magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan Province, has been found alive.(Xinhua)

Medical workers check the health condition of Gan Yu at West China Hospital of Sichuan University in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, Sept. 21, 2022. Chinese hydropower station worker Gan Yu, who went missing for 17 days following a 6.8-magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan Province, has been found alive.(Xinhua)

Medical workers prepare to check the health condition of Gan Yu at West China Hospital of Sichuan University in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, Sept. 21, 2022. Chinese hydropower station worker Gan Yu, who went missing for 17 days following a 6.8-magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan Province, has been found alive.(Xinhua)

Medical workers discuss treatment plans for Gan Yu at West China Hospital of Sichuan University in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, Sept. 21, 2022. Chinese hydropower station worker Gan Yu, who went missing for 17 days following a 6.8-magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan Province, has been found alive.(Xinhua)

Editor: GSY
Alfa-Bank Ukraine's additional capitalization for $1 billion at the expense of shareholders who fell under European sanctions is proposed to be carried out in the form of a "perpetual subordinated loan", Roman Shpek, the head of the bank's supervisory board, said.

"There was no 'perpetual subordinated loan' instrument in the country. This money is in the form of an eternal debt that is never repaid, interest can be paid on it, but this is a subordinated loan that goes into Tier 1 capital," he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

"There is no other tool. Firstly, it is wartime, and secondly, because of sanctions, we cannot enter the markets," Shpek said.

The banker found it difficult to predict in what terms the necessary permission from European regulators could be obtained in practice and additional capitalization could be carried out in practice.

"Because this is the first time this path has been taken, no one knows how long it will take," he explained.

According to Shpek, if this happens in half a year, then it will be "normal," while such terms as a year are not considered.

He clarified that at present the bank's appeal with the necessary confirmations from Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven is in the legal directorate of the Council of Ministers of the European Union, which deals with sanctions issues.

"Now we plan to hold working meetings at the end of this month or the beginning of the next, when they are ready to talk to us, in those authorized bodies of the Council of the European Union," he added.

He clarified that since the funds are on the accounts of a British bank, but in a branch in the EU, the decision to lift sanctions for $ 1 billion for additional capitalization of the bank is made in the EU.

"If it were in the UK or the US, the procedure would be simpler. Since in the EU, decisions must be made by representatives of all member countries. In addition, the US has a precedent for adjusting sanctions, while the EU does not," Shpek said.
Head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell has said that Russia has morally and politically already lost the war it unleashed in Ukraine, the website of the diplomatic service of the European Union has reported.

Morally and politically, Russia has already lost the war. And increasingly, it is losing on the battlefield as well. Ukraine will prevail, Borrell said in his speech at the UN Security Council, stressing that Russia must halt its invasion [into Ukraine] immediately.

He also noted that the West will never recognize Russia's illegal annexation of the sovereign territories of Ukraine, where the Russian Federation is preparing to hold a referendum.

At the same time, Borrell stressed that now world security is in danger and he called on the world leaders gathered at the UN to send a clear and unified signal about the inadmissibility of the use of weapons of mass destruction [nuclear conflict].

I am encouraged by the many statements I heard here today about this issue, the head of the European diplomacy stressed.

Borrell believes that it will not be possible to intimidate Ukraine and the countries supporting it.

But how many more men, women and children need to die before the Russian President decides to silence his guns? he asked.

The head of European diplomacy said that the war unleashed by Russia on the territory of Ukraine is more than a war in Europe, and the protection of weaker states from stronger ones is at stake. He also stressed that this war is a tragedy in many senses and therefore the European Union will do everything possible to counter the consequences, in particular, the victims and destruction inflicted in Ukraine, as well as the world's involvement in the economic downturn and the global food crisis.

According to Borrell, European support for global food security amounts to more than EUR 7.7 billion until 2024.

We support the Black Sea Grain Initiative facilitated by the UN Secretary-General [Antonio Guterres] and Turkey. Together with our European Union Solidarity Lanes, this has helped to lower global food prices  but unhappily not to cancel it. Two-thirds of the Ukraine grain exported this way goes to those countries that need it most - not to Europeans, he stressed.

The head of diplomacy also noted that the Russian occupiers should be held accountable for their crimes, mass killings, destruction, rape and forced migration of Ukrainian citizens and promised that the European Union would do everything possible to ensure justice.

We have seen the recent images from the massacres in Izium [which] follow the pattern we saw in Bucha and elsewhere. As Russian troops are expelled, we discover the true horrors of their occupation  We rely on the International Criminal Court and on the Ukrainian authorities, Borrell said.
The losses of the Russian occupiers for the day amounted to 550 people of military personnel, 18 tanks, 20 combat vehicles, 14 artillery systems, one aircraft and one helicopter. In total, since February 24, the enemy has lost 56,060 people, according to the General Staff of Ukraine.

"The total combat losses of the enemy from February 24 to September 23 approximately amounted to: about 56,060 people of military personnel (plus 550), 2,254 tanks (plus 18) units, 4,796 armored combat vehicles (plus 20) units, 1,355artillery systems (plus 14) units, 326 MLRS (plus eight) units, 170 air defense equipment (plus one) units, 254 aircraft (plus one) units, 219 helicopters (plus one) units, 950 operational-tactical level UAVs (plus nine), 240 cruise missiles, 15 ships/boats, 3,659 motor vehicles and tankers (plus 29) units, and 126 units of special equipment (plus one)," the message reads.

The enemy suffered the greatest losses in the Kramatorsk and Donetsk directions.
Canadian FM: Holding of referendum by Russia on territory of Ukraine with predetermined results to have zero legitimacy

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly strongly condemns the holding of a referendum by the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine, such a vote with certain results will have zero legitimacy, the website of the Canadian government reports.

Canada strongly condemns the sham referendums planned in occupied regions of Ukraine. These phony exercises with predetermined results will have zero legitimacy, and Canada will not recognize them. Borders will not change. Ukraines territory will remain Ukraines, the message reads.

According to Joly, Russias war has never been about legitimate security interestsit has been about President Vladimir Putins desire to redraw the map using force  This is a blatant attack on the principles of rules-based international order and human rights, as well as a clear violation of international law.

Also, according to her, the sham referendums in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson are not about democracy but about a desperate attempt to legitimize conquest and limit a surging Ukrainian counteroffensive.

The Canadian Foreign Minister called on the leaders of other countries to prevent Russia's illegal attempts to annex Ukrainian territories.

The international community must act to protect Ukraines sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence. We urge other countries to join in rejecting Russias illegal attempts to steal Ukrainian lands through violence and terror. Canada has always stood with Ukraine, and we will continue to do so for as long as it takes, Joly stressed.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi has presented an initiative to create a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the Zaporizhia NPP at a meeting with Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko and U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm in Pittsburgh, the United States on September 22.

"Rafael Grossi informed about the main results of the work of the IAEA mission and presented an initiative to create a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the plant," the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine reported on its website.

As the ministry reported, the parties discussed the need and ways for the speedy de-occupation and demilitarization of the Zaporizhia NPP and its return under the control of the legitimate operator.

"Herman Haluschenko said that the situation at the ZNPP is becoming more and more threatening due to the constant shelling of Russian troops. Russian troops also resort to shelling of the territory and infrastructure around the Pivdenoukrainska NPP," the ministry said.

The meeting participants also agreed on the need to take quick and coordinated steps to restore the safety of civilian nuclear facilities, the Ministry of Energy said.
By Trend





Draft laws 'On amendments to Laws', 'On unemployment insurance and 'On Chamber of Accounts' were submitted for the discussions in Azerbaijani Milli Majlis (Parliament) Committee on Economic Policy, Industry and Entrepreneurship, Trend reports.

Amendment to the law 'On budget system' was prepared with the aim to implement the law No. 440-VIGD of December 24, 2022 (hereinafter referred to as the Law).

The Law determines that extra-budgetary funds can also be established as targeted state financial funds that have cash, without creating a legal entity. Income and expenses of the fund for ensuring obligations on the state debt and guarantee are excluded from the consolidated budget.

The article regulating the budgetary rule by the said Law has been amended. According to the new edition, in the medium term perspective, it's established that the ratio of the non-oil base deficit of the consolidated budget to non-oil GDP and the ratio of public debt to GDP can't exceed the upper limits set by the president of Azerbaijan, and these upper limits should be calculated based on the export price of crude oil, established by the Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan.

The article regulation documents prepared together with the draft law of state budget and presented in Azerbaijani Parliament (Milli Majlis) excludes the total financial balance on the territory of Azerbaijan and comparison of revenues and expenditures for the next budget year with the actual results of the previous year and the expected results of the current year (according to the classification of income, at the paragraph level of the functional, economic and organizational classification of expenditures), and other changes are made to this article.

Monthly reports of budgetary organizations and organizations receiving financial assistance from the state budget on the use of these funds are cancelled. The State Debt and Guarantee Obligations Fund is defined as an independent extra-budgetary fund without the formation of a legal entity.

A number of amendments are made to the article regulating the relationship between the state budget and state non-budgetary funds. The management of state extra-budgetary funds, the use and accounting of their funds are determined in accordance with laws and other regulatory legal acts regulating the activities of state extra-budgetary funds. The implementation of coordination of operations on the preparation, execution and control over the execution of the state budget, budgets of state extra-budgetary funds through the action plan refers to state extra-budgetary funds, provided for in Article 1.1.31 - 1 of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan (hereinafter - the Law) 'On budget system'.

It was also established that the upper limit of expenditures of state off-budget funds established without the creation of a legal entity cannot be higher than the balance of these funds at the beginning of the budget year and the amount of funds received during the year, and that annual reporting on their financial operations isn't submitted together with the report on the implementation of the state budget.

The mentioned amendment created the necessity to remove inner contradiction in the Law, making the following change 'On unemployment insurance' and 'On Chamber of Accounts'.

In connection with the exclusion from Article 12 of the Law of the total financial balance for the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan (12.1.9), at the suggestion of the Ministry of Finance, which prepared this document, the Law provides for the exclusion of the concept of 'total financial balance' (Article 1.1.22). According to Article 27.2 of the Law, when expenses of state off-budget funds are included in the expenses of the consolidated budget, operating expenses of the State Oil Fund and expenses related to the placement of funds in international banks and other financial institutions are excluded. This circumstance creates the need to exclude the last item of expenditure, as it contradicts the recently introduced article 1.1.31-2.

The amendment in the articles 15.4 and 19.4 of the Law are aimed at clarifying the wording and eliminating the contradiction with Article 22-1.3 of the Tax Code of Azerbaijan. In accordance with Article 27.5 of the Law, the forms of reporting on income and expenses of state extra-budgetary funds, provided for in Article 1.1.31-1 of the Law, and the frequency of their submission are determined by the Ministry of Finance, taking into account the opinion of the Chamber of Accounts and state extra-budgetary funds.

These extra-budgetary state funds publish these reports in the press once a quarter, with presentation to the head of state, the Ministry of Finance and Chamber of Accounts. For the avoidance of contradiction, the State Social Security Fund and the Unemployment Insurance Fund are excluded from Article 27.9. Taking into account Articles 1.1.5, 1.1.31-1 and 1.1.31-2 of the Law, it is proposed to amend Article 20.1 of the Law "On Unemployment Insurance" to accurately reflect that the Unemployment Insurance Fund is a state non-budgetary fund established without education legal entity.

According to the change in Article 27.7, Chamber of Accounts gives an opinion only on draft budgets of state extra-budgetary funds provided for in Article 1.1.31-1 of the Law 'On budgetary system', and annual reports on the execution of these extra-budgetary state funds. With this in mind, amendments to the law 'On Chamber of Accounts' are proposed.

After discussions, the draft law was recommended for consideration at the plenary session of the Parliament.

Moreover, the new edition of the Law provides the concepts of budget loans, the upper limit of the expenditures of the consolidated budget, the non-oil base deficit of the consolidated budget and the medium term prospect.
Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine (Odesa), together with the CheckEye startup, is implementing artificial intelligence technologies for the early diagnosis of visual impairment in patients with diabetes.

The clinic told Interfax-Ukraine that the CheckEye technology, in particular, will make it possible to diagnose diabetic retinopathy at an early stage, which is one of the most common complications in patients with diabetes. It can lead to partial or complete loss of vision.

The CheckEye solution improves the accuracy and availability of diabetic retinopathy diagnostics by using the power of artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence, using special algorithms, analyzes the image of the patient's fundus for the presence of symptoms of the disease and promptly informs the doctor about the results of the diagnosis.

Artificial intelligence can correctly diagnose a disease by integrating into a software solution a database with information on the course of the disease, access to which is available to experts from the Filatov Institute. With considerable experience and access to clinical materials, they help to fill the database with a variety of fundus images of patients with diabetic retinopathy at different stages of the disease. Thanks to the received materials, artificial intelligence is able to conduct a comparative analysis between the images of the diseased and healthy eye and provide detailed results to the doctor. Having received the information, the specialist will be able to develop and offer the patient a treatment plan as soon as possible.

Diabetic retinopathy is a diabetic retinal disease that is completely controlled in the early stages. It is one of the most severe complications of diabetes. It manifests itself in the form of diabetic microangiopathy affecting the vessels of the retina of the eyeball, observed in 90% of patients with diabetes mellitus. It most often develops with a long course of diabetes mellitus. Complete loss of vision in patients with diabetes occurs 25 times more often than among people who do not suffer from this disease.

Amid war and increased levels of stress among the population, a significant increase in the number of cases of diabetes can be expected in the coming years  up to 25%, which makes the introduction of CheckEye technology even more important.
USA preparing to send new batch of ammunition to Ukraine

The U.S. Department of Defense is preparing to send another batch of ammunition to Ukraine, the ministry's press service reports on Twitter.

USA Air Force airmen assigned to Dover Air Force Base, Del., load munition packages bound for Ukraine onto a C-17 Globemaster III during a security assistance mission, the message reads.
Russia will not win the war against Ukraine, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said and called on the Russian Federation to end the war, stop suffering in Ukraine, stop sending more Russian citizens to death and stop fictitious referendums.

Bucha, Mariupol, Izium. When we talk about the horrors of the unfolding war in Ukraine, we are not talking about abstract reports. We are talking about children. We are talking about mothers. About brothers, about fathers, about grandparents, women and men whose pain is raw. Therefore, I urge Russia: This is a war you will not win. So end the war. Stop the suffering in Ukraine. Stop sending more of your own citizens to their death. Stop your sham referendums, which are as unlawful as the war they are supposed to legitimize, Baerbock said at a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York on Thursday.

She noted that after 200 days of Russia's brutal war in Ukraine, the latest statements by Russian President Putin, it becomes clear that Russia is not conducting a so-called special operation.

Russia is leading a full-fledged war of aggression with war crimes, with torture, with rape, even of children. Russia's war that has lasted 200 days so far is also increasing hunger, poverty and insecurity in the world  all around the globe, Baerbock stressed.
The G7 Foreign Ministers and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy have condemned Russia's statement on holding fictitious referenda and promise to continue further targeted sanctions against Russia.

The G7 Foreign Ministers and the High Representative strongly condemned Russias announcement to conduct sham referenda on sovereign Ukrainian territory, which is temporarily under Russian control. Any referenda held under conditions of Russian military presence, intimidation, and forced deportation cannot be free or fair, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in a statement as chair of the G7 meeting of Foreign Ministers.

The Ministers stressed that any annexation of Ukrainian territory would be a gross violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and the UN Charter. They called on all States to unequivocally condemn any referendums and not recognize their results.

The G7 will also pursue further targeted sanctions and are committed to sustained economic and political pressure on Russia, the statement reads.

The G7 foreign ministers expressed regret over Russia's deliberate escalation steps, including partial mobilization of reservists and irresponsible nuclear rhetoric.

Russia must immediately stop its aggression, withdraw its troops and military equipment from Ukraine and respect Ukraines sovereignty and the territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. The G7 further called on Russia to immediately cease its filtration operations and forced deportations of Ukrainian civilians to Russia, the document says.

The G7 Foreign Ministers and the High Representative expressed deep concern over the latest reports of atrocities committed in the recently liberated parts of Ukraine by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, including, in particular, reports of numerous graves, crime scenes and torture sites in the town of Izium and in Kharkiv region.

The G7 Foreign Ministers and the High Representative agreed that the swift and thorough preservation of evidence on the ground is of utmost importance in order to hold the perpetrators accountable for crimes committed. Ukraine can rely on the support of the G7 in this regard, they assured.

In addition, the G7 Foreign Ministers and the High Representative reaffirmed Ukraine's legitimate right to defend itself from Russia's ongoing, unprovoked and unjustified aggressive war in order to regain full control over its territory within its internationally recognized borders. They welcomed the courage and success of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the current counteroffensive, which allowed them to liberate large areas of Ukraine's territory from Russian control.

The G7 Foreign Ministers and the High Representative were unanimous in their unwavering commitment to continue and sustain economic, financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support for Ukraine for as long as necessary and to the extent necessary, to ensure Ukraines path to freedom, peace, reconstruction and economic development, the foreign ministers stated.
Adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podoliak called on representatives of national minorities of the Russian Federation to sabotage the mobilization and noted its disproportionate intensity in national republics.

Disproportionate mass forced conscription in national republics of Russia  Buryatia and Yakutia  is a real ethnic cleansing of local population from the Moscow. Time for RF ethnic groups to remember their national dignity and not send their children to die in someone else's war, Podoliak said on Twitter Friday.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal says that the IAEA plans to extend its mission at Zaporizhia NPP.

"By its actions at Zaporizhia NPP, Russia has brought the whole of Europe to the brink of a nuclear catastrophe. The safety of our nuclear facilities is one of the key challenges for everyone in the world. We discussed this issue at the UN with the president of France, the prime ministers of Japan and New Zealand, the foreign ministers of Great Britain, Germany and India, with the leadership of the EU, as well as with the head of the IAEA, Mr. Grossi. Everyone understands the importance of the demilitarization of Zaporizhia NPP and the safe operation of the facility. As one of the steps in this direction, the IAEA plans to extend its mission at the station," Shmyhal said.

According to him, the Ukrainian government is also working to organize international UN and EU missions to Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.

"Russia arranges provocations and shelling of ZNPP almost every day. They want to disconnect this largest nuclear power plant in Europe from the Ukrainian network and continue to use the station as a military base. Therefore, it is so important that Russian troops be withdrawn not only from Zaporizhia NPP, but also from Energodar. A 30-kilometer security zone should be created," Shmyhal stressed.
The presentation of the Olena Zelenska Foundation, wife of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, took place at a charity evening in New York at the venue presented by the Metropolitan Opera.

As reported on the website of the head of the Ukrainian state on Friday, the Foundation's primary goal is to restore Ukraine's human capital "so that every Ukrainian feels physically and mentally healthy, protected, and able to exercise their right to education, work, and build a future in Ukraine."

"Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, we have managed to do a lot. We have organised 20 convoys of life, which made it possible to evacuate more than 550 children with cancer to hospitals in Europe, the USA and Canada. We hosted the First Ladies and Gentlemen Summit to raise money and purchase more than 80 ambulances. We evacuated children from orphanages for their temporary stay abroad. We provided humanitarian aid to family-type orphanages. But every day brings more and more requests and needs. More funding is needed. That is why I am creating the Foundation. The Foundation will make it possible to significantly scale assistance to people and provide proper treatment and decent education to everyone who needs it," Olena Zelenska said.

The Foundation has three key directions: medicine, education and humanitarian aid. Within these areas, it will provide targeted assistance, invest in reconstructing preschool and school education institutions, polyclinics and outpatient clinics, and provide grants for training and scientific developments. For anyone interested in learning more about the Foundation, please visit zelenskafoundation.org for more information.

"The war goes on, but so does life. It paves its way to recovery even during the war. The task of the Foundation is to help life win. And for this, we need hospitals, schools, and education," Olena Zelenska said.

The First Lady noted that global political and business leaders gathered this week for the 77th UN General Assembly in New York. They also became the guests of the charity evening on the occasion of the Foundation presentation. In particular, the event was attended by: former US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom James Cleverly, General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York Peter Gelb, American TV host and actor Jimmy Fallon, actor Matt Damon, actress Brooke Shields, as well as a wide circle of diplomats and businessmen. All guests of the charity evening on the occasion of the Foundation presentation could contribute to the reconstruction projects in Ukraine.

The President of Ukraine joined the charity evening remotely from Kyiv. "We are fighting for freedom and protecting our people. We are doing everything possible to engage our friends  friends of freedom  worldwide who are willing to contribute to our struggle," Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Maasikas: Ukraine will get all our help to win war, have Russian war criminals prosecuted

Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Matti Maasikas has visited the town of Izium in Kharkiv region, which had been liberated from the Russian forces in early September.

"With a group of European diplomats in recently liberated Izium. Mass graves. Detention chambers. Much of the city destroyed. Less than a third of inhabitants remaining. Ukraine will get all our help to win the war and have Russian war criminals prosecuted," he said on Twitter on Friday.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that at the moment he does not have a channel of communication with China, but he would like to get help from this state against amid Russia's invasion.

"Before the large-scale invasion, there were communication channels between our countries, we had a lot of economic and trade cooperation," Zelensky said in an interview with a number of French media outlets, Ouest France newspaper reports.

However, at present, he said, he does not have a channel of communication with China.

"And this is a shame. I would like them [China] to help Ukraine," the president said, answering a question about China's ambiguous attitude towards the Russian war in Ukraine.

Zelensky also added that as of today, a call with his Chinese president "would be difficult."

The head of the Ukrainian state acknowledged the "weak point" and "mistake" of Ukrainian diplomacy, which is the lack of presence in certain regions of the world, including the Caribbean.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that in the war against Russia, Ukraine loses about 50 of its servicemen every day.

"We have estimates of losses per day, they are not accurate. It is almost 50 people per day. But these are not exact numbers, because it is not known how many soldiers and civilians remained on the territory," Zelensky said in an interview with a number of French media, reports Ouest France newspaper.

At the same time, according to the president, he has accurate data on losses in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but does not want to disclose them.

"The main issue is accurate data. I have data that I receive and that are provided to me. We need to be very careful with the numbers, because we are talking about human lives. The position of our military is not to provide the exact number of killed or wounded Ukrainian servicemen," the Ukrainian president said.

As Zelensky noted, the losses of the Ukrainian military are five times less than the losses of Russian soldiers.
By Trend

European Union ministers agreed to push ahead with new sanctions targeting Russia at an informal meeting on Wednesday, the bloc's foreign policy chief said, Trend reports citing Reuters.

Speaking to reporters in New York, Josep Borrell said the 27 states had made the political decision to apply new sectorial and individual measures.

The ministers had also agreed to continue supplying more weapons to Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin wants the restoration of the USSR, and people are only expendable material for him, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with famous French actor Alain Delon, shown on the air of the telethon.

"He [Putin] understands perfectly well what he is doing. He knows how many people are dying. But for him this is an integral part of the plan," Zelensky said.

At the same time, he believes that Putin has made the majority of the nation believe in what he is doing. "There are social networks. We understand how people react. Many have been brainwashed by the information war, dirty information. Many have gone crazy and rejoice when they kill us. It looks scary," Zelensky said.

"Historically, they will lose, but the people on this Earth will pay the highest price. Many living things will die," he said.

Zelensky said that recently the Ukrainian authorities "received the body of a Briton, a volunteer who came to help the civilian population." "He was in captivity. For a month and a half they did not give out the body. It was without parts," he said.

"This is an indicator. They think they are intimidating people. These are terrible signals," the President also said.
The National Bank of Ukraine has approved amendments to the charter of Alfa-Bank Ukraine on renaming it as Sense Bank, Roman Shpek, the head of the commercial bank's supervisory board, said.

"The message has just come that the National Bank approved on changes to the charter. But there is still more work to be done, other documents to be prepared," he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

Shpek specified that it is planned to complete the renaming process in December this year.

"Believe me, it is morally and psychologically important for us, the team, not to be associated with the Russian Alfa-Bank. This is the main reason for changing the name at this time," he stressed.

According to the banker, he expects that the bank's customers will also react positively to its renaming.

Commenting on the decrease in the bank's assets, Shpek called it rather a positive sign, indicating a high level of control and management of the loan portfolio. The service level for corporate loans is 85%, he added.

"Of course, there were panic moods in the first months of the war, including because of the news about the sanctioning of the final beneficiaries or against the background of fakes that have been constantly spreading about us lately. But the situation is leveling off. In August, we recorded an increase in funds for urgent deposits," he said.

He added that next year, based on the overall macroeconomic situation, the bank's financial condition is unlikely to improve significantly, but the bank clearly sees how to maintain operating profitability.
Iran is awaiting the release of about $7 billion in funds frozen abroad, state media said Sunday, after it allowed an Iranian-American to leave the country and released his son from detention.
The upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) will address African concerns on climate, including the implementation of climate pledges, given that the conference is being held in Africa for the first time, Sameh Shoukry said on Wednesday

Shoukry, who is also the president-designate of COP27, which will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh in November, made the comments during a speech at a meeting of the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC) held on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Shoukry said that COP27 will also address other African concerns on climate, including a just transition towards a green economy, adaptation to climate change and the loss and damage suffered as a result, as well as providing appropriate climate finance for developing countries.

Shoukry added that the global event will adopt a comprehensive approach that ensures the effective engagement of all stakeholders in international climate action, including the private sector and civil society.

During the meeting, the Egyptian foreign minister also conveyed the greetings of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to his Kenyan counterpart William Ruto on assuming his duties as CAHOSCC coordinator, noting that Africa is counting on the committee to enhance climate change-related African action.

Meeting with US Chamber of Commerce in New York

Addressing an event organised by the American Chamber of Commerce on the sidelines of the General Assembly, Shoukry said that Egypt seeks to reach balanced results on all priorities of international climate action, especially issues of adaptation to climate change, mitigation of its effects, and the provision of climate finance, Shoukry said.

Shoukry also said that the private sector in developing countries has a special responsibility to shift towards environmentally-friendly economies by investing in the green economy and providing technological solutions.

The FM also expressed Egypt's hope that COP27 will contribute to implementing climate-related pledges, and that recent global developments will not affect efforts to confront climate change.

Shoukry affirmed Egypt's confidence that cooperation among all bodies concerned, including the private sector, is necessary to achieve climate action goals.

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Egypts Foreign Minister and the President Designate of the 27th session of the United Nations Climate Conference (COP27) Sameh Shoukry discussed on Wednesday the ways to contain the current global food and energy crises with European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell, the Egyptian foreign ministry said.

In a meeting on the sidelines of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, Shoukry and Borrell discussed how the EU can support Egypt in mitigating the negative impacts of the food crisis.

The top officials also reviewed Egypts capabilities to achieve a strategic partnership with the EU in the field of energy, especially with its status as a regional hub for the circulation, production and distribution of energy, whether liquefied gas, green hydrogen or electrical interconnection.

The Egyptian FM also stressed the importance of moving forward with the implementation of the projects that were agreed upon within the EU-Egypt Partnership priorities agreement that was declared in June 2022, as well as to continue the dialogue between Egypt and the EU to overcome obstacles hindering the increase of trade exchange between the two sides.

The foreign minister also highlighted Egypt's efforts to increase its exports to European markets by benefiting from the European strategic transformation process.

Egypt is willing to enhance cooperation with the European Union in a way that reflects the depth of the long-standing economic partnership between the two sides, Shoukry noted.

The Egyptian foreign minister and the Top EU official also discussed the latest developments in Ukraine and Libya.

Shoukry, the president-designate of COP27, also discussed the latest preparations for the conference, which will be held in November in Sharm El-Sheikh.

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Egypts Minister of Transportation Kamel El-Wazir witnessed Wednesday the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the training of drivers from the Egyptian National Railways (ENR) by German railway company Deutsche Bahn (DB).

According to the MoU, the pilot project will begin with about 20 train drivers and five instructors on 1 October, the ministerial statement said.

According to the cooperation agreement, the DB will train drivers in Egypt and Germany according to German standards for 18 months.

Afterwards, DB will permanently employ the drivers as Germany suffers from a lack of skilled labour.

The ENR also intends to provide the German railways company with train drivers who meet the necessary requirements.

In addition, DB will train Egyptian train driving instructors for a period of nine months in Egypt and Germany according to German standards and methodologies, including work culture.

In August, Egypts Ministry of Transport signed a preliminary agreement with DB and the Egyptian private-sector company El-Sewedi Electric on the management and operation of the country's first high-speed electric train network.

The agreement defines the basic terms for the management and operation of the three-line, high-speed electric train network in Egypt that covers 2,000 kilometres, according to a statement from the transport ministry.

The step comes in preparation for signing a final contract to hand over the management and operation of the network to the German company for a period of 15 years, extendable for another 15 years, the statement read.

The agreement guarantees the transfer of expertise, including training of Egyptian engineers and technicians, according to El-Wazir at the time.

Both agreements are part of Egypts plan to cooperate with the private sector and capitalise on international companies' know-how in the field of management and operation of modern transport projects.

DB operates 34,000 kilometres of railways in Germany. It also operates railways in the US, the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland, Canada, Uruguay, India and the UAE.

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The liaison group of the League of Arab States tasked with following the Ukrainian crisis is fully ready to mediate between the Russian and Ukrainian sides to find a solution to the crisis, Egypts Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry said on Thursday.

Shoukry's remarks came during a meeting of the liaison group Thursday on the sidelines of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The meeting was held within the framework of the Arab mediation effort to develop a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis, read a statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry.

The Egyptian foreign minister reviewed the impact of the Russia-Ukraine crisis on food security and fuel prices for countries in the region, according to the statement.

The meeting was attended by Ahmed Abul-Gheit, the secretary-general of the Arab League, and Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia.

Lavrov welcomed in his remarks at the meeting the Arab groups endeavours to settle the crisis.

The Egyptian FM called for formulating a vision to overcome the crisis through dialogue, trust building measures and diplomatic tracks.

The liaison group was formed in March during the 157th session of the Council of the Arab League to tackle the impacts of the Ukraine crisis on the Arab region.

The group includes representatives from Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, Iraq, Sudan and the UAE  a current member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

In April, the liaison group held talks with Russias Lavrov in Moscow and Ukrainian FM Dmytro Kuleba in Warsaw in an attempt to forge a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

Egypt has repeatedly called for a political solution to the crisis based on dialogue and warned of the global crisis impact on the Arab countries in the political, security and economic levels.









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Israel is deliberately destroying a two-state solution and can no longer be considered a reliable partner in the peace process, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told the United Nations on Friday.

Repeating grievances against Israel's government and security forces, Abbas said Israel has acted with total impunity against people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and that Palestinians' trust in the prospects for peace is regressing.

Israel "is, through its premeditated and deliberate policies, destroying the two-state solution," the Palestinian Authority president said in a speech to the UN General Assembly.

"This proves unequivocally that Israel does not believe in peace," he added.

"Therefore, we no longer have an Israeli partner to whom we can talk."

Abbas, 87, said Israel has been engaged in a campaign of land confiscation in the occupied territories and was giving the military total freedom` to kill or otherwise use excessive force against Palestinians.

"This is the truth: they are an apartheid regime," he said.

In demanding the international community hold Israel accountable "for the massacres they have committed," Abbas accused members of the United Nations of "protecting Israel" from such accountability.

He reiterated the Palestinians' position that the case of Israel be brought before the International Criminal Court so that it is forced to "shoulder its legal, political, moral and financial responsibilities."

The United States has been urging the Palestinian Authority not to pursue a case at the ICC, arguing it is not a sovereign state and that the court unfairly targets Israel.

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Egypts Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry said Cairo supports the fulfillment of constitutional entitlement in Lebanon in order to achieve stability and help the country overcome current challenges.

Shoukry made the remarks in a meeting on Thursday with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on the sidelines of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

For his part, Mikati called on Egypt to continue its support to Lebanon at the regional and international levels.

The meeting agreed on continuing coordination and consultations between Cairo and Beirut during the coming period that will see important political and constitutional entitlements in Lebanon, the statement said.

The term of incumbent President Michel Aoun ends in on 31 October.

In recent months, Egypt has provided economic and medical aid to the Lebanon to help the country deal with impact of the coronavirus pandemic as well as the repercussions of the disastrous blast in the Beirut port in 2020.

In June, Lebanon signed a deal with Egypt to import natural gas from the Egyptian territories via Syria in order to overcome its energy crisis.

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Egypt's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry urged on Thursday the resumption of negotiations in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process to implement the two-states solution.

Shoukry made the call during a meeting with representatives of US Jewish organisations on Thursday on the sidelines of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the Egyptian foreign ministry said.

The top Egyptian diplomat also discussed a number of global challenges, including climate change, energy and the food crises, with the group.

The meeting affirmed the need for coordination between Egypt and the United States to curb the impacts of challenges facing the region, according to the statement.

Supporting UNRWA

During a ministerial-level meeting for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on Thursday, Shoukry also highlighted the necessity of resuming the Palestinian-Israeli peace process based on the principal of the two-state solution and relevant international resolutions.

Shoukry said Egypt supports all solutions to preserve the current programmes of UNRWA in line with the agency's mandate and the internationally-recognised legal status of Palestinian refugees.

The ministerial-level UNRWA meeting, which was attended by the secretary-general of the UN, delivered a collective political message in support of the agencys work in light of the critical challenges it faces in secure sufficient funding for its work, Shoukry said.

He hailed UNRWA's role in embodying the international communitys legal and political commitment to the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.

Coordinating aid delivery

Meanwhile, at another ministerial-level meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC), which coordinates the delivery of aid to Palestinians, Shoukry stressed that Egypt supports the AHLC efforts to deliver aid to the Palestinian people.

The AHLC is a model of effective coordination and consultations among different international parties in providing economic support to the Palestinians, he said.

The committee's work lays an economic foundation that a Palestinian state can depend on as part of the two-state solution, he added.

Shoukry blamed the deterioration in the Palestinian territories primarily on the absence of a political horizon for an establishment of an independent self-sustaining Palestinian economy.

A number of delegations from Arab, Western and European countries as well as representatives of international funding institutions attended the AHLC meeting.

These included EUs High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell and Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh.

Establishing an independent state

In a separate meeting also on Thursday with the Palestinian PM Shtayyeh, the Egyptian fopreign minister affirmed the necessity of ending the stalemate in the peace process in a way that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people in establishing their independent state.

For his part, Shtayyeh praised Cairo's support the Palestinian cause, including Egyptian efforts to achieve Palestinian reconciliation and complete the reconstruction process in the Gaza Strip to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinians there.

Shtayyeh also praised Egypts efforts to push forward the peace process between the Palestinian and Israeli sides through the various international frameworks, including the Munich Group, which met on the ministerial level on Wednesday.



Shoukry meets with the Palestinian PM Shtayyeh

Resolving conflict, stopping unilateral acts

The Munich Group (Munich Format), which consists of the foreign ministers of Egypt, France, Germany and Jordan, had stressed during their meeting on Wednesday the need to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of the two-state solution as indispensable for comprehensive regional peace.

In a joint statement, the Informal Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Munich Group called for resuming direct, serious, meaningful, and effective negotiations between both sides at the earliest possible point in time.

The group called for refraining from unilateral measures that undermine the two-state solution, especially Israeli settlement activities and the eviction of Palestinians from their homes in violation of international law.

The Munich Group also hailed the role played by Egypt and UNSCO in stopping the last round of escalation in and around Gaza, calling on all parties to fully respect the announced ceasefire.

A Cairo-brokered ceasefire between the Israeli and Palestinian sides in Gaza came into effect on 7 August to end three days of renewed conflict between Israel and Islamic Jihad in the enclave, with Israeli airstrikes claiming the lives of 43 Palestinians, including children.

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By Trend

Tajikistan and Kuwait have signed several agreements on bilateral cooperation, Trend reports referring to the Ministry of Economic Development of Tajikistan.

During the 3rd session of the Tajikistan-Kuwait Intergovernmental Commission, which was held on September 19-22, the following documents were signed

- Memorandum of Understanding between the Tajik-Kuwaiti aviation authorities to resume regular flights between the capitals of the two countries;

- Protocol on the introduction of amendments and additions to the agreement on the prevention of double taxation between Tajikistan and Kuwait.

Moreover, at the end of the meeting, the protocol on economic, trade, scientific and technical cooperation between the two countries was also signed.
Protesters across Iran continued to clash violently with security forces early Friday following the death of a young woman in police custody, as Iranian state TV suggested the death toll from the unrest could be as high as 26, without offering details.

Although the scope of the protests across some dozen Iranian cities and towns remains unclear, the movement represents the widest unrest since 2019, when rights groups said hundreds of people were killed in a violent crackdown. Iran has also disrupted internet access to the outside world, according to internet traffic monitor Netblocks, and tightened restrictions on popular platforms used to organize rallies like Instagram and WhatsApp.

An anchor on state TV said late Thursday that 26 protesters and policemen had been killed since the protests erupted last Saturday after the funeral of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, without elaborating on how authorities reached that figure. He said official statistics would be released later, but in past times of turmoil the Iranian government has not offered official death tolls.

The unrest has killed at least 11 people according to a tally by The Associated Press, based on statements from state-run and semiofficial media. Most recently, the deputy governor of Qazvin, Abolhasan Kabiri, said that a citizen and paramilitary officer had been killed in unrest that rocked two cities in the northwestern province.

The crisis unfolding in Iran began as a public outpouring over the the death of Amini, a young woman from a northwestern Kurdish town who was arrested by the country's morality police in Tehran last week for allegedly violating its strictly-enforced dress code. The police said she died of a heart attack and was not mistreated, but her family has cast doubt on that account.

Amini's death has sparked sharp condemnation from Western countries and the United Nations, and touched a national nerve. Hundreds of Iranians across at least 13 cities from the capital, Tehran, to Amini's northwest Kurdish hometown of Saqez have poured into the streets, voicing pent-up anger over social and political repression. Authorities have alleged that unnamed foreign countries and opposition groups are trying to foment unrest.

``The death has tapped into broader antigovernment sentiment in the Islamic Republic and especially the frustration of women,'' wrote political risk firm Eurasia Group, noting that Iran's hardliners have intensified their crackdown on women's clothing over the past year since former judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi became president.

``In the cold calculus of Iranian leaders ... a more forceful response is required to quell the unrest,'' the group added.

Videos on social media show protesters in Tehran torching a police car and confronting officers at close range. Elsewhere in the capital, videos show gunfire sounding out as protesters bolt from riot police shouting, ``They are shooting at people! Oh my God they're killing people!''

In the northwest city of Neyshabur, protesters cheered over an overturned police car. Footage from Tehran and Mashhad shows women waving their obligatory hijab head coverings in the air like flags while chanting, ``Freedom!``

The scenes of women cutting their hair and burning their hijabs feed into a broader political debate over the role of religious strictures in a modern-day republic _ questions that have plagued the Islamic Republic since its founding in 1979.

But the protests have also grown into an open challenge to the government. The chants have been scathing, with some calling for the downfall of the ruling clerics. The protesters cry, ``Death to the dictator!'' and ``Mullahs must be gone!''

Iran's intelligence ministry warned citizens against joining the ``illegal'' street rallies on Thursday, threatening prosecution. Local officials have announced the arrest of dozens of protesters. Hasan Hosseinpour, deputy police chief in the northern Gilan province, reported 211 people detained there on Thursday. The government of the western Hamadan province said 58 demonstrators had been arrested.

Tehran University announced that it would move classes online for the next week amid the unrest, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported.

London-based watchdog Amnesty International has accused security forces of beating protesters with batons and firing metal pellets at close range. Videos show police and paramilitary officers using live fire, tear gas and water cannons to disperse the demonstrations.

Iran has grappled with waves of protests in the recent past, mainly over a long-running economic crisis exacerbated by American sanctions linked to its nuclear program. In November 2019, the country saw the deadliest violence since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, as protests erupted over a rise in the state-controlled price of gasoline.

Economic hardship remains a major source of anger today as the prices of basic necessities soar and the Iranian currency declines in value.

The Biden administration and European allies have been working to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear accord, in which Iran curbed its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief, but the talks have stalled for months.

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Washington announced Friday it was easing export restrictions on Iran to expand access to internet services, which have been curbed by the government amid a crackdown on protesters.

In the aftermath of a woman's death in the custody of the country's morality police, Tehran moved to cut off the internet in what the US Treasury said was a bid "to prevent the world from watching its violent crackdown on peaceful protestors."

The new measure will allow technology companies to "expand the range of internet services available to Iranians," Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement.

"As courageous Iranians take to the streets to protest the death of Mahsa Amini, the United States is redoubling its support for the free flow of information to the Iranian people," he said.

Iran has been rocked by a week of bloody protests over the death last week of Amini, who was arrested for "improperly" wearing the Islamic headscarf.

The 22-year-old Kurdish woman spent three days in a coma after being detained by the morality police.

The US Treasury said it was taking action to allow access to software, including anti-virus and malware tools, as well as video conferencing services to support "access to fact-based information to the Iranian people."

"With these changes, we are helping the Iranian people be better equipped to counter the government's efforts to surveil and censor them," Adeyemo said.

Billionaire Elon Musk said recently he would ask the Treasury to allow an export license to authorize his Starlink satellite internet firm to provide services to Iran, but Friday's move focuses on software rather than hardware.

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Egyptian factories making nitrogen fertilisers will soon have to pay more for their energy, passing on additional costs to customers.

The government has adjusted the price of natural gas for nitrogen fertiliser factories on the basis of a new calculation that factors in the price per ton of urea both locally and for export.

The mechanism will be updated monthly. The decision does not affect companies for which the price of natural gas is already stipulated in contracts with the government or companies that produce other types of fertilisers. The latter will continue to receive natural gas at $5.75 per million British thermal units (BTU).

The government purchases 55 per cent of the output of domestic fertiliser plants and supplies it to local farmers at subsided prices.

The new measure is likely to reduce the profitability of nitrogen fertilisers because the new calculation method effectively raises the price of the natural gas the factories need to operate, according to a report by Beltone Financial, an investment bank.

There are two types of fertiliser plants in Egypt: the producers of nitrogen fertilisers, which include Abu Qir Fertilisers and Chemical Industries, MOPCO, and Alexandria Fertilisers, and the producers of phosphate and potash fertilisers, such as the Evergrow Company.

According to the Beltone report, the impacts of the price hike on the companies will vary depending on their ratios of local and export sales and cost structures. The report estimates that the new calculation method will raise the cost of the natural gas the government supplies to nitrogen fertiliser factories to $7.67 per million BTU.

Despite the anticipated 33 per cent hike in the cost of natural gas, it predicts that the global prices of fertilisers will offset this to some extent.

In taking the measure, the government aims to take advantage of a significant rise in the prices of urea fertiliser. The profits of local fertiliser firms have increased dramatically in the past 18 months, presenting the government with an opportunity to increase its natural gas supplies to them and its revenues from this resource.

International fertiliser prices began to shoot up at the beginning of last year due to the growing demand for fertilisers after the Covid-19 pandemic subsided. The prices shot up further because of Western sanctions against Russia, the worlds largest fertiliser exporter. The cost of urea has since doubled to reach $850 a ton.

The fertiliser companies affected by the decision will need to assess their profitability. The impact could be considerable, especially given that they benefited from previous price supports that enhanced their ability to source and supply new export markets.

According to a statement by the Exporters Council, if the cost of supplying natural gas to the companies equals the international cost, Egyptian fertiliser products will find it harder to compete in export markets.

It added that the old natural gas prices had helped fertiliser companies to reinvigorate their export sectors and open new markets in Brazil and Argentina. The new pricing system could erode their profitability due to the increased cost of the most important raw material.

Exports of the chemical and fertilisers sector rose by 35 per cent in the first half of 2022 over the same period in 2021, increasing from $3.2 billion to $4.3 billion and making this Egypts biggest export sector, according to the Export and Import Control Authority.

The governments decision had taken the fertiliser companies by surprise, said Hassan Abdel-Alim, CEO of the Helwan Fertilisers Company. He said his company stood to lose around $50 million of the profits it had earned last year, since the cost of natural gas represents 70 per cent of the cost of production.

Abdel-Alim said that the price of fertilisers can fluctuate considerably depending on supply and demand. Last month, a ton of fertiliser for export cost $880. A week ago, India submitted a tender offering it for $600.

According to the Beltone, Abu Qir Fertilisers is likely to be the hardest hit by the new decision because of the companys fixed cost structure that is contingent on the cost of natural gas supplies. The companys ratio of exports to domestic sales is 55 to 45 per cent.

The Alexandria Fertiliser Company, a subsidiary of the Egyptian Kuwaiti Holding Company, will also be adversely affected by the decision, according to Beltone, expected at times of high urea prices, which drive the cost of natural gas supplies to levels higher than the current $5.75 per million BTU.

Nevertheless, the report said that in this case the effect would be minor during the next two years because of the rising cost of urea.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 22 September, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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In the biggest crisis facing the Iranian authorities since President Ebrahim Raisi took office last year, angry demonstrations continued to protest against the killing of an Iranian-Kurdish woman at the hands of the countrys morality police for not wearing the hijab or Islamic headscarf appropriately.

The demonstrations that spread to Tehran, Mashhad, and Kerman among other cities reflect growing resentment against the Raisi government, which since taking power has tightened its grip on public space, strengthened control over what women wear, and increased arrests of women who do not wear the headscarf in an approved way.

Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman from western Iran, was visiting the capital Tehran with her family when she was detained by police as she exited a metro station. They accused her of not complying with the countrys hijab regulations and took her to a police station, telling her family she would be released after a re-education session.

But she suffered a heart attack and slipped into a coma while in custody, state-affiliated media said. Her family insisted that she had no previous health problems, and activists asserted that she may have been beaten by police.

In a sign of the difficulties the Iranian authorities are facing in quelling the popular anger, there have been conflicting reports related to the suspension of the head of Irans morality police.

Several Iranian news outlets reported that Ahmed Mirzaei, the head of the morality security police of Greater Tehran, had been suspended from his role after the death of Amini, but Tehran police denied he had been suspended or fired.

Speaking at a press conference, Greater Tehran Police Commander Hossein Rahimi said Aminis death in custody was an unfortunate incident he did not want to see repeated.

He said that Amini was stopped by the morality police, known as the Gasht-e Ershad, while walking in a park because her hijab was inappropriate. He claimed the police had not made mistakes and railed against the cowardly accusations being made against them.

There was no negligence on the part of the police, not even a small slip; all the words published in cyberspace about the cause of death are pure lies.

There was no argument or resistance during Aminis detention, he said, claiming she was even joking while inside the morality police van. He admitted that guidance patrol officers are equipped with body cameras, but in this instance they had no camera.

Details of what happened at the police station were not released, but the Tehran police force published edited video of the arrest and detention.

The CCTV footage showed a woman they identified as Amini talking with a female official, who grabs her clothing. She is then seen holding her head in her hands and collapsing to the ground. The interior minister said on Saturday that Amini apparently had previous physical problems.

Iranian news outlets said that a CT scan of Aminis head had showed a bone fracture and haemorrhage, seemingly indicating that she had died due to being struck on the head and in conflict with police sources that implied she had died due to a heart condition or epilepsy.

An Iranian reformist politician who previously worked with the government of former president Mohammad Khatami said that internal popular anger was more dangerous to Iran than sanctions and external threats.

The government creates serious problems for itself by being preoccupied with restricting personal freedoms, arresting women, and restricting freedom of expression, he told Al-Ahram Weekly.

It has been a year since the government took office, yet there has been no noticeable improvement in the economic situation, and the nuclear negotiations are stalling even though reaching a new deal will ease pressures on the economy, the riyal, the national currency, and the ordinary citizen.

President Ebrahim Raisi, who since his election last year has tightened the enforcement of the headscarf law, spoke to Aminis family by telephone on Sunday. Your daughter is like my own daughter, and I feel that this incident happened to one of my loved ones. Please accept my condolences, state media reported him as saying.

Although the police launched an investigation into the death, public anger did not subside amid fears that evidence would be tampered with in order not to hold those responsible for her murder to account.

Her death sparked immediate outrage over the governments increasingly strict enforcement of dress codes for women. Last month, a video appeared to show a woman detained by Irans increasingly assertive guidance patrols being thrown from a speeding van.

In a show of defiance, Iranian women photographed themselves without headscarves and posted the pictures on social media.

In Tehran, several hundred people marched in the capital, including women who took off their hijabs, the ISNA news agency reported. Police responded with baton charges and teargas.

The US called for accountability, with a White House spokesperson saying that Mahsa Aminis death after injuries sustained while in police custody for wearing an improper hijab is an appalling and egregious affront to human rights.

The EUs foreign affairs spokesperson said that the Iranian authorities must ensure the fundamental rights of its citizens are respected and that those who are under any form of detention are not subject to any form of mistreatment.

Raisi is in New York this week, where he will address the UN General Assembly meetings. He told reporters at Tehran airport that he has no plans to meet with US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the event, AP reported.

Indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran appear to be close to stalling.

Frances foreign minister urged Iran on Monday to take the last offer on the table to revive the deal, saying the window of opportunity is about to close. A high-ranking EU official said he did not expect progress on the issue this week at the annual gathering of world leaders.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 22 September, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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On 10 August, Egypts Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli announced plans to reduce the countrys electricity consumption through a number of austerity measures, including turning off the lights in government buildings after working hours, reducing street lighting, and not allowing shopping malls to have their air-conditioning set at below 25 degrees Celsius.

The government has argued that such steps will help Egypt save 15 per cent of the natural gas used in generating electricity. Exporting it instead will increase Egypts earnings from natural gas exports by $450 million per month, it says.

The decision came as a result of domestic and international pressures and the challenges and opportunities faced by the Egyptian state. These global and domestic problems need to be understood in order to appreciate the governments decision, the solutions which it offers, and the gains which Cairo hopes to reap from them.

The European continent, Egypts neighbour to the north of the Mediterranean Sea, is facing an energy shortage due to the Russian-Ukrainian war that started in February. The shortage is even more severe because of the high demand for energy during the post-Covid-19 economic recovery.

As the Russian-Ukrainian war has raged, and the West has reacted by imposing economic sanctions on Russia, Moscow has reacted by reducing its natural gas supplies to what it calls unfriendly countries in what some European diplomats have called a gas war.

Europe is highly dependent on energy imports from Russia. In 2021, the EU got 40 per cent of its natural gas, close to 45 per cent of its total imports, from Russia, amounting to 155 billion cubic metres of gas. The rest of Europes natural gas supplies come from Norway, Algeria, Qatar, and other exporters. In 2021, the EU also got 27 per cent of its petroleum and 46 per cent of its coal from Russia.

Energy shortages as a result of restrictions on Russian exports have led to an increase in energy prices and the general cost of living in Europe. Natural gas prices have increased in Europe by 127.6 per cent since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In Germany, energy now costs 35 per cent more than it did at the same time in 2021. In the UK, energy prices have reached record highs, and the economic situation is such that some people have had to make a choice between eating or heating.

Europe is in a race against time to find a replacement for Russias natural gas. In March, the EU announced a strategy called REPowerEU, which aims to reduce Europes dependence on Russian natural gas by two-thirds over a year and to make it independent of Russian fossil fuels by 2030.

Europe has also introduced austerity measures to reduce energy consumption and its reliance on Russian natural gas. In July, EU member states reached a deal to voluntarily reduce the use of natural gas by 15 per cent between August 2022 and March 2023, although countries can file for exemptions under certain conditions. EU member states also announced that they would temporarily shift electricity generation from natural gas to coal, in order to reduce their dependence on Russian gas.

Meanwhile, Moscow has been using Russian gas as a weapon to retaliate against western economic sanctions. It has drawn up a list of unfriendly states, including those who refuse to pay for their gas purchases from Russia in roubles, in order to increase the demand for the Russian currency and support it despite the Western sanctions. Russia is also cutting off its gas supplies to the European countries.

It is refusing to operate the Nord Stream 1 pipeline at full capacity, for example. This carries Russian natural gas from the port city of Vyborg across the Baltic Sea to the city of Greifswald in Germany. The pipeline closed for a few days in July for routine maintenance, but was then reopened a few days later. However, Moscow is refusing to operate it at full capacity and has reduced its gas exports through the pipeline.

Moscow has also refused to receive a turbine necessary for the operation of Nord Stream 1. This was sent from Germany to Canada for maintenance, but then it was said that allowing the turbine back into Russia would go against the European sanctions on technology shipments to Russia. Germany is arguing that sending the turbine back to Russia, and Russias agreeing to receive it, would not go against the sanctions.

Russia has said that it will not take back the turbine due to missing documents and technical issues, both of which are denied by the Europeans.

It has announced that it will reduce natural gas shipments to Germany by 40 per cent and from 160 million cubic metres per day to only 100 million. Germany is Russias partner in the Nord Stream pipeline and the industrial powerhouse of the EU. Italy, too, has seen a reduction in its Russian gas deliveries by half.

The Russian gas company Gazproms deliveries to Europe are now less than 30 per cent of what they were before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Moscow has completely cut off gas supplies to Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, the Netherlands, and Denmark. It has also greatly reduced supplies to other European countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.

Russia is using gas as a weapon, said President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. The worst case scenario of a total cut-off of Russian gas is probable, she stated, adding that Europe would refuse to surrender to Moscows blackmail.

But the energy crisis between Europe and Russia is an opportunity for other gas exporters around the world. Kadri Simson, the EU commissioner for energy, has announced plans for Europe to replace the natural gas it exports from Russia with gas from alternative exporters such as Azerbaijan, the US, Canada, Norway, Israel and, more importantly, Egypt.

DOMESTIC BACKGROUND

For years, Egypt have been aiming to turn itself into a global energy hub that would export energy to importers in the region through the exportation of natural gas from Egyptian gas fields and the liquefaction of gas at plants in Edko and Damietta.

The energy crisis in Europe may be an opportunity for Egypt to take a further step in this direction. Egypt produces about 66 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year, and before the governments energy austerity decisions in August, it consumed 62 billion cubic metres of this, with the surplus of $4 billion worth of gas being exported.

The western European countries are currently suffering from energy shortages because of the cutting of Russian gas supplies due to the Russian-Ukrainian war. The price of one million British thermal units of gas (mbtu) has risen to $30, and this rise in price is also an opportunity for Egypt.

Exporting natural gas, instead of consuming it locally, would raise the governments earnings. Natural gas is sold by the ministry of petroleum to the ministry of electricity for the purpose of local consumption for only LE3 per Mbtu. If exported, it could be sold for $30 in the European market.

Before the energy austerity measures were introduced in August, 60 per cent of natural gas consumption in Egypt was used for electricity generation. If the energy austerity measures are properly implemented, and a part of Egypts natural gas is shifted to exportation, then they could shift about 174 million cubic metres, or 570 million cubic feet, of natural gas per day from local consumption to exportation. This is about a third of Egypts export capacity.

According to the government, the amount of electricity generated in Egypt would not be affected by the reduction of the use of natural gas in electricity generation. This is because the gas would be replaced by another type of fuel  mazut fuel oil.

This also did not start with the austerity measures in August, as since October last year the government has been shifting the countrys power stations from using natural gas to mazut, in order to save more natural gas for exportation, a step which has led to an increase in export revenues from $100 to $150 billion over the past few months.

However, Egypt has not completely stopped using natural gas to generate electricity. It will still be used for electricity generation even if the current changes are fully implemented, but the share of natural gas in the energy mix will decline, while that of mazut will increase.

The advantage of using mazut instead of natural gas to generate electricity is that mazut is cheaper than natural gas, as each mbtu of mazut costs only $14, while natural gas can be exported at $30 per mbtu. Mazut has a significant disadvantage, however, as it causes more environmental damage. Both types of fuel are polluting, but mazut emits twice as much carbon dioxide as natural gas.

This is a classic example of the trade-off between protecting the environment versus enhancing economic performance, something that causes a lot of debate and controversy in every country.

ECONOMICS

The government has decided that economic performance is for the moment more important than sustaining the environment through these hard economic times.

This is especially the case given Egypts recent shortage of foreign-currency reserves. These fell from $33.38 billion in June to $33.1 billion in July. One way of trying to raise them is by exporting natural gas instead of consuming it locally.

The preference for economic performance over the environment also comes at a time of opportunity for Egypt because of the energy crisis in the EU, which means a good export market for gas in Europe. It has recently been announced that the EU will aim to replace natural gas from Russia with gas from alternative exporters, including Egypt.

Egypt had started taking steps in the direction of turning itself into a global energy hub even before the August austerity measures. On 15 June, on the margins of the seventh East Mediterranean Gas Forum meeting in Cairo, an important agreement was signed between Egypt, Israel, and the EU on exporting Israeli natural gas to the EU after liquefying it in Egypt. The agreement was signed by EU Commissioner Simson, Israeli Energy Minister Karine Elharrar, and Egyptian Minister of Energy and Petroleum Tarek Al-Molla.

Elharrar said that the agreement showed Egypt and Israels commitment to share our natural gas with Europe and to help with the energy crisis. Al-Molla said that it was official recognition from Europe that Egypt is a regional hub for gas trading and a global hub in the field of energy and that the European Union considers us as among their primary suppliers.

Egyptian diplomats said the agreement would not have a negative effect on Egyptian-Russian relations, because Moscow was aware of Egypts strategic importance and of Cairos desire to have good relations with all parties. They said that the agreement, which includes Israel, would not reduce Cairos commitment to the Palestinian cause.

On the same day, von der Leyen granted Egypt 100 million euros in food relief. Egypt relies on Russia and Ukraine for 80 per cent of its wheat, and it has lost a significant amount of these supplies because of the war. She said at a press conference with President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi that Russias war against Ukraine has exposed our European dependency on Russian fossil fuels, and we want to get rid of this dependency We want to diversify to trustworthy suppliers, and Egypt is a trustworthy partner. She commended Egypt for its sun and wind, the energies of the future.

However, the agreement did not state a definite schedule or set a timetable for Israel and Egypt to export a definite amount of gas to Europe at a particular time. The details and conditions of the agreement are still vague. Furthermore, the amount of natural gas exported to Europe from Egypt and Israel (vast as both countrys natural gas resources may be) will never be as large as those provided by Russia, the country with the worlds largest natural gas reserves and largest exports. Therefore, Russia still holds a considerable amount of leverage.

These gas-exportation opportunities, auspicious as they may be, are also not long term. Fossil fuels like petroleum and natural gas will probably remain the main components of the global energy mix for decades to come. However, the EU and others have plans to gradually reduce the fossil-fuel component of their energy mix and are moving towards less polluting forms of energy such as nuclear, solar, and wind.

The steps that have been taken by the government will have a positive effect on the overall economy today, but in the longer term Egypt will have to adapt to the global movement towards sustainable energy and sustainable development.

*The writer is a political science lecturer at the British University in Egypt, a member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs and the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, UK.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 22 September, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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Voting began in Russian-held regions of Ukraine on referendums to become part of Russia, Moscow-backed officials there said Friday as Ukrainian and United Nations officials reported evidence of war crimes during the nearly seven-month war in the country.

The Kremlin-orchestrated referendums, which have been widely denounced by Ukraine and the West as shams without any legal force, are seen as a step toward annexing the territories by Russia. The votes are being held in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.

The governor of the Kharkiv region, which was mostly held by Russian forces before a Ukrainian counteroffensive this month, reported Friday that 436 bodies have been exhumed from a mass burial site in the eastern city of Izium, 30 of them with visible signs of torture.

Gov. Oleh Synyehubov and the region's police chief, Volodymyr Tymoshko, told reporters in Izium that three more grave sites have been located in areas retaken by Ukrainian forces.

A team of experts commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council also presented evidence Friday of crimes including beatings, electric shocks and forced nudity in Russian detention facilities, as well as executions in the regions of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy. But the commission's chairman didn't specify who or which side in the war committed most of the alleged crimes.

The referendum votes follow Russian President Vladimir Putin's order of a partial mobilization of reservists, which could add about 300,000 Russian troops to the fight. The balloting will continue for five days through Tuesday.

The referendums ask residents if they want their regions to be part of Russia, is certain to go Moscow's way. That would give Russia the pretext to claim that attempts by Ukrainian forces to regain control are attacks on Russia itself, dramatically escalating the war.

As the votes were getting underway in the occupied regions, Russian social media sites were full of dramatic scenes of tearful families bidding farewell to men departing from military mobilization centers.

In cities across the vast country, men hugged their weeping family members before departing as part of the draft. Russian anti-war activists, in the meantime, planned more protests against the mobilization.

Election officials will be bringing ballots to people's homes and setting up makeshift polling stations near residential buildings during the first four days of the referendums, according to Russian-installed officials in the occupied regions, who cited safety reasons.

Tuesday will be the only day when the voters will be invited to come to regular polls, polls also opened in Russia, where refugees from the occupied regions can cast their votes.

Denis Pushilin, separatist leader of Moscow-backed authorities in the Donetsk region, called the referendum on Friday ``a historical milestone.''

Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, addressed the occupied regions Friday in an online statement, saying: ``If you decide to become part of the Russian Federation _ we will support you.''

Valentina Matviyenko, chair of Russia's upper parliament house, said that residents of the occupied regions were voting for ``life or death'' at the referendums.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy only briefly mentioned the ``sham referenda'' in his nightly address in which he switched from speaking in Ukrainian to Russian to directly tell Russian citizens they are being ``thrown to their deaths.''

``You are already accomplices in all these crimes, murders and torture of Ukrainians,'' he said. ``Because you were silent. Because you are silent. And now it's time for you to choose. For men in Russia, this is a choice to die or live, to become a cripple or to preserve health. For women in Russia, the choice is to lose their husbands, sons, grandchildren forever, or still try to protect them from death, from war, from one person.''

The voting takes place against the backdrop of incessant fighting in Ukraine, with Russian and Ukrainian forces exchanging fire as both sides refuse to concede ground.

Ukraine's presidential office said Friday at least 10 civilians were killed and 39 others were wounded by Russian shelling in nine Ukrainian regions over the last 24 hours.

It said that fighting has continued in the Russia-held southern Kherson despite the voting, while Ukrainian forces troops meted out 280 attacks on Russian command posts, munitions depots and weapons in the region.

Heavy fighting also continued in the Donetsk region where Russian attacks targeted Toretsk and Sloviansk as well as several smaller towns. Russian shelling in Nikopol and Marhanets on the western bank of the Dnieper River resulted in the deaths of two people and the wounding of nine in Marhanets.

Vitaliy Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine that borders the Kherson region, said explosions rang out in the city of Mykolaiv in the early hours of Friday.

Pro-Russia officials in the Zaporizhzhia region reported a loud blast in the early hours of Friday in the center of Melitopol, a city that Moscow captured early on in the war. Official Vladimir Rogov didn't offer any details as to what caused the explosion and whether there was damage and casualties.

Moscow-backed authorities in the Donetsk region also accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the city of Donetsk, the region's capital, and the nearby city of Yasynuvata.

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The mosque compound in the Old City of Israel-annexed east Jerusalem has been the focus of tensions for years, but Palestinians have voiced increasing anger at the rising number of visits by Jews, who revere the compound as their holiest site, the Temple Mount.

The Al-Aqsa compound is Islam's third holiest site and is managed by Jordan.

Mahmud Zahar, a senior member of Hamas, warned that "the continuation of the Zionist aggression and their brutality against Jerusalem and the holy shrines will be the cause of a major battle."

Speaking in a rare press conference in Gaza's Omari mosque, Zahar alluded to Palestinian concerns that a longstanding convention by which Jews may visit but not pray in Al-Aqsa compound, Islam's third holiest site, was being covertly flouted.

He said Israel would be held "fully responsible for the repercussions of these violations."

Beyadenu, a group that encourages Jews to visit the compound, said it was committed to increasing such visits.

"We broke the 50,000 visitor barrier on the Temple Mount" this past year, Beyadenu said ahead of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana.

Tom Nissani, the group's chief executive said: "the goal is 100,000 visitors next (Jewish) year", which begins on Sunday night.

Israeli far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has led multiple actions in Jerusalem in the past designed to provoke Palestinians, tweeted Thursday that he "went up to the Temple Mount this morning to pray and exercise sovereignty in the holiest place for the people of Israel."

Thousands of Jews -- Israelis and tourists -- are expected to visit Jerusalem's Old City during the high holidays, which run into mid-October.

Since 2003, the Israeli occupation authorities have allowed settlers into the compound on an almost daily basis, with the exclusion of Friday, the Muslim day of rest and worship.

The Islamic Waqf, the Jordanian authority in charge of the holy sites in Jerusalem, has repeatedly described the settlers' presence in Al-Aqsa Mosque as "provocative", saying that Palestinian worshippers and guards at Al-Aqsa feel uncomfortable with the presence of Israeli police and settlers touring the Islamic holy site.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa Mosque is located, in 1967 in a move that has not been recognised by the international community.
The usual symbols for gents and ladies are disappearing too and being replaced by more politically correct ones. An educational facility in southwestern Seoul run by the Seoul Metropolitan Institute for Lifelong Education started the trend.

More and more bathrooms are becoming gender-neutral in Korea. Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital in northeastern Seoul opened unisex bathrooms in February and the student union at Sungkonghoe University decided to open them on campus this summer.

The biggest impetus comes from changing perceptions of gender and increasing awareness of minority rights. In a survey in February by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, many transgender Koreans said they try to drink less when they are out of the house in order to avoid having to use gender-specific bathrooms or to use no public toilets at all.

Building equal numbers of toilets for men and women creates long lines in front of ones used by ladies, so now "family" bathrooms are being increasingly built in highway rest areas. According to the Korea Expressway Corporation, 182 out of 199 highway rest stops have family bathrooms.

Gender-neutral bathrooms have been a feature of life in the U.S. and Europe since the 1990s, when the sitcom "Ally McBeal" blazed a trail. They reached the White House in 2015 during the Obama administration and are spreading to state government buildings and universities. A majority of public bathrooms in northern Europe are gender neutral, but some feminists warn that they are an open invitation for rapists, peeping Toms and other miscreants.

Chang Young-ho, an industrial art professor at Hongik University, said, "The emergence of gender-neutral bathrooms and family restrooms manifests a public responsibility to treat gender minorities equally."

Choi Chang-shik, a professor of architecture at Hanyang University, said, "I think the time has come to actively design buildings that consider the needs of minorities."
"But it's also in large part due to her own personal appeal. And I would single out here, for example, her way of talking, which is very down to earth. It's very effective in connecting with ordinary voters," Scazzieri added. "Finally, she also benefits from not having been anywhere near government for the past 10 years, and so she can credibly say that she represents something new."

Meloni has overseen a sixfold increase in support for her party since the last election. "In part it's about her policy platform, her socially conservative views, her economic views -- which are also quite social in a way in terms of, for example, raising people's pensions or benefits," said analyst Luigi Scazzieri of the Centre for European Reform.

"When the election campaign opens, the fascist alarm goes off. As you can understand, it's quite ridiculous to retrieve videos of what I thought when I was 15, 16 or 17," Meloni said.

Brothers of Italy traces its roots to neo-fascism after 1945. In her teenage years, Meloni was a far-right activist who praised fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. She says she has changed.

Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party is leading the polls with around 25 percent of the vote. The 45-year-old is on course to become Italy's first female prime minister. She has a simple campaign message. "My greatest desire is to lift up, to lift our nation up again from decline," Meloni told Reuters in a recent interview.

Italians head to the polls this Sunday to choose a new government, after the collapse of the ruling coalition led by Mario Draghi. A right-wing party with past links to fascism looks set to win the most votes, raising concerns among allies.

 Salvini, Berlusconi

Among the coalition partners is Matteo Salvini, the outspoken populist former interior minister and leader of the League Party. While in government, he oversaw a crackdown on migrants arriving on Italys southern shores from North Africa.

He is currently on trial on kidnapping charges stemming from an incident in 2019 in which he is accused of preventing more than 100 migrants who were rescued by a charity vessel from landing in Italian ports, which he denies. Salvini has pledged further tougher border controls if his party enters government again.

Political veteran Silvio Berlusconi, who turns 86 four days after the election, will also likely be part of the right-wing coalition as leader of the Forza Italia party. He was thrown out of office 10 years ago after a sex scandal and was stripped of his Senate seat in 2013 over a tax fraud case. He has survived major heart surgery and prostate cancer. In 2021, he nearly died from COVID-19.

On the campaign trail, all three members of the likely right-wing coalition have launched attacks on the European Union and pledged to stand up for Italy's national interests in Brussels.

The European Union fears Italy could become a political headache, Scazzieri said. The fears are partly due to "the state of Italy's economy -- the fact that its public debt is over 150 percent of GDP," he said. "There's also concerns because of Meloni's past in the post-fascist Italian social movement, of whether she might have a very authoritarian streak -- for example, whether Italy might become more like Hungary and Poland."

However, Scazzieri said, the EU fears may be unfounded. "If you read the coalition program, it's quite clear that they tried to present a very moderate face. They make very clear that this is a government that will stick to its obligations in the EU, in the euro and in NATO," he told VOA. "The reality is that Italy can ill afford confrontation with the EU because of the relative weak state of its economy."

 Russia-Ukraine

In the past, the Italian far right has had close links to Moscow. However, Meloni has repeatedly stated her support for Ukraine. "Our standing in the Western field is crystal clear, as we have demonstrated once again by condemning -- without ifs and buts -- Russia's brutal aggression against Ukraine and by helping, from the opposition, to strengthen Italy's position in European and international forums," Meloni said in a campaign video on Aug. 10.

For many Italians, the economy, jobs and the rising cost of living are the biggest concerns. Food banks report a sharp rise in the number of people needing help just to survive.

In Italy's south, economic prospects have long lagged behind the richer north. Antonio Mela, a retired barman from the city of Salerno in Campania, started visiting the local soup kitchen run by the Catholic charity Caritas after the price of food increased sharply in recent months. "I have a very small pension. I pay the rent, the electricity bill, and then I've got nothing left over for food. That's the situation," Mela told Agence France-Presse.

The centrist coalition led by former Prime Minister Enrico Letta is trailing in the polls by around 15 percent. The bloc insists it can still win. The government that emerges from Sunday's vote will be Italy's 70th administration since 1945. Many observers say the coalition led by Meloni is already showing signs of political instability -- and Italy could soon face another election.
Their appeals are remarkable because while the expression of complaints or critical views is risky anywhere in the Chinese state, Tibetans are monitored more heavily and face harsher repercussions than people elsewhere because of the political sensitivity of the region.

Tibetans, in a rare outburst of open despair, have gone online to Weibo, Douyin and other Chinese social media platforms to draw attention to the situation in the camps that lack adequate hygiene, food and medical care.

VOA Tibetan made repeated calls to the Chinese Embassy in Washington for comment but received no response. Xi has made "zero-covid" his signature policy for containing the virus with stringent lockdowns and restricted movement, and required testing, tracking and quarantining.

Social media videos from Lhasa show people waiting to be bused at night to an estimated 20 makeshift quarantine camps. For Lhasa residents the "midnight bus" represents their fears of what they may find once they arrive at crowded and locked quarantine sites. In one social media video shot in the Muslim Wobaling neighborhood, passengers are seen boarding buses parked in front of one of the city's two mosques.

Beijing's actions in Tibet reflect the draconian "zero-covid" policy of President Xi Jinping that has caused discontent and even protests in major cities such as Shanghai and Chengdu.

The harsh COVID-19 containment restrictions China is imposing across Tibet are leading to public resentment in the capital of Lhasa, where residents who have tested positive are being quarantined in empty stadiums, schools, warehouses and unfinished buildings.

In one post, a Tibetan woman said people were being treated like criminals instead of patients. If the authorities are incapable of properly managing these quarantine camps, she said, then they should allow those who test positive to isolate in their homes. "Even if they die, they can at least die in their homes," she said.

Another Tibetan woman said her husband and her three young children were taken to the Lhasa Beijing Middle School Quarantine Center after her COVID-19 test was inconclusive. Authorities required the entire family to quarantine with 800 people. She said her children developed fevers in the school facility where there were no doctors, medicine or medical treatments.

In a viral audio recording, a Tibetan father pleads with a government official at one of the Lhasa quarantine centers to not separate him from his year-old child. "We were first brought to this quarantine camp even though we tested negative for COVID. Now we have tested positive, and you want to take away our child. If we need to move again, we want [to] move together as a family," he said. "If you separate us from our child, I am willing to die right here." The man then says to listeners, "Please come collect my body after I die."

In Lhasa, the restrictions have been especially difficult for the many people who come from rural areas for low-paying service jobs in the city. One young woman took to Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, to appeal to the government to let migrant workers return to their villages. She posted she is running out of hard-earned money and food. If allowed to return home to her village, she said she would not have to pay rent and she would at least have enough to eat.

Other posts describe how authorities are conducting mandatory COVID-19 tests on people once a day under lockdown. In certain areas, people are required to undergo testing twice a day.

 Results Via Phone

Test results are delivered via cellphone, leaving people anxiously checking their cellphones throughout the day. A "red" color notification indicates a positive result, which means the recipient is likely to end up in one of the quarantine camps -- with his or her entire family.

People who have tested positive report online that since receiving results their only human contact has come from authorities in white hazmat suits conducting further tests.

Last weekend, some social media posts on some platforms were deleted, and an official warning was issued that accounts sharing these posts would be shut down. A young Tibetan woman then went online to Douyin to tell her followers that she had been receiving threatening calls from the police. "If I disappear, you know what has happened to me," she said.

On Saturday, a Lhasa municipal spokesperson apologized online for conditions at the camps, saying authorities had been unable to meet people's needs due to the size of the camps.

This is the first time a state official has apologized to people since China seized Tibet more than six decades ago. Even though the overwhelming majority of those in quarantine camps are Tibetan, and most of the complaints being made on social media are in the Tibetan language, the municipal official apologized in Chinese.

On Sunday, Lhasa public security announced that three people had been arrested for posting untruthful information related to the pandemic. The announcement said the "internet is not a lawless land."
By Trend

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan Jeenbek Kulubaev with his Slovenian counterpart Tanja Fajon signed an agreement on economic cooperation on September 22, Trend reports citing the Ministry's press service

During the meeting on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, Kulubaev and Fajon noted the need to intensify political, trade, economic, cultural, and humanitarian cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and Slovenia.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this agreement will create favorable conditions for building up bilateral economic cooperation:

- the creation of joint Kyrgyz-Slovenian ventures;

- implementation of investment projects;

- launching the work of the Kyrgyz-Slovenian Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation.

In addition, the importance of strengthening the legal framework between Slovenia and Kyrgyzstan was also highlighted.
Ticket prices skyrocketed amid apparent fears that Russia's borders could soon close or that Putin might announce a general mobilization. Large numbers of Russians have already left the country since Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine almost seven months ago.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a televised interview that 300,000 reservists with relevant combat and service experience would initially be mobilized.

Numerous Russians have rushed to reserve one-way tickets out of the country after President Vladimir Putin decreed a partial mobilization of military reservists for the war in Ukraine.

Air Serbia, the only European carrier besides Turkish Airlines to maintain flights to Russia despite a European Union flight embargo, saw tickets for the Moscow-Belgrade flight quickly sell out for the next several days, while the price for flights from Moscow to Istanbul or Dubai reached as much as $9,119 for a one-way, economy-class fare.

A Belgrade-based group called Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, and Serbs Together Against War tweeted that there were no available flights to Belgrade from Russia until mid-October. It said flights to Turkey, Georgia, and Armenia also sold out.

Russians can enter Serbia without a visa. Belgrade has not joined Western sanctions against Russia for its aggression in Ukraine. Allies such as Belarus and China also have not imposed sanctions on Russia.

Some social media postings alleged people already had been turned back from Russia's land border with Georgia and that the website of the state Russian railway company had collapsed because too many people were checking for ways out of the country.
Renesas is one of the world's top three automotive chipmakers along with NXP of the Netherlands and Infineon of Germany. Other industry insiders expect the chip shortage to ease around the end of this year, but sporadic deficiencies are expected to continue, according to Shibata.

"The problem is not a shortage of key semiconductors, but a lack of minor chips used in peripherals," said Renesas CEO Hidetoshi Shibata (50) in Tokyo on Sep. 13. He said people might be surprised the "minor" chips even exist and it will "take time" for the shortage to ease.

The head of automotive semiconductor manufacturer Renesas Electronics has said the current chip shortage is bound to continue until the middle of next year.

The Japanese company, born out of the 2010 merger of the microchip units of Hitachi, Mitsubishi and NEC, generated record sales of 993.9 billion yen and an operating profit of 173.8 billion yen last year. Its estimated sales in the first nine months of this year stand at 1.1 trillion yen.

Shibata was responsible for a 130 billion yen investment in Renesas when he was an executive of a fund operated by the Japanese government and the private sector to spur innovation.

An engineering graduate of the University of Tokyo, Shibata received an MBA from Harvard University. He moved to Renesas despite warnings that the shift would be "suicide."

"It was terrible at first. There were too many people and factories," he recalled. "The first step was to slim down to fit the business."

Renesas had 47,000 workers just after the merger, but the new CEO drastically trimmed that down to 20,000 and arranged badly needed infusions of money.

He then went on an acquisition drive, buying U.S. chip maker Intersil in 2017, Integrated Device Technology in 2019, the U.K.'s Diaolog Semiconductor and Israel's Celeno in 2021 and U.S.-based Reality AI and India's Stradian in 2022.

As a result, Renesas emerged as a major player in the market for embedded chips, which are being increasingly used in home appliances and cars. Shibata said he wanted to grow Renesas into a major player in the embedded semiconductor market instead of the memory chip sector that is dominated by Korea and Taiwan.

"Until now, computing capabilities were only necessary in computers and smartphones, but from now on, computing power will be needed in all daily objects," Shibata claimed. "Demand for semiconductors will surge in cars, robots, healthcare and factory automation." He added that the strength of Renesas is that it has products and technologies "throughout the whole fields of semiconductor chips" not just making memory chips.

Renesas is viewed as the leader in the revival of Japan's semiconductor industry, but Shibata said, "I really don't know. Japan disappeared from the global semiconductor map and has only just returned. I want the company to grow over the next eight to 10 years so it can aim for the top spot."
South Korea will co-sponsor UN's semi-annual resolution condemning North Korea's human rights abuses for the first time in four years.

The previous administration pointedly refrained from taking any leading role in the forlorn hope of appeasing the renegade North.

A government official on Thursday said, "It is very important for President Yoon Suk-yeol to condemn crimes against human rights in North Korea and urge the regime to make improvements as he values freedom, democracy and human rights."

The resolution is being drafted by the EU, which aims to have it ready by the end of October. It is expected to be adopted for the 18th consecutive year by the UN General Assembly at the end of the year.

The international community has welcomed South Korea's return as a co-sponsor.

"Demonstrating international unity is critical in urging [North Korea] to respect and protect human rights. We would, therefore, welcome co-sponsorship of the resolution by as many UN member states as possible," including South Korea, the EU said Wednesday.

In addition to expressing concerns over systematic and serious human rights violations in the North, the resolution calls for their immediate cessation and access for humanitarian organizations.
KYODO NEWS - Sep 23, 2022 - 13:11 | Arts, All, Japan, World

Rare footage of The Beatles' 1966 visit to Japan recorded by police will be screened on Saturday after a legal battle for the release of the video documenting the legendary rock band's iconic trip.

The footage of the band's first visit to Japan will finally be seen, but with the faces of fans and police officers obscured, after a Nagoya-based nonprofit organization lost a lawsuit seeking the release of the uncensored footage.

According to the NPO, Joho Kokai Shimin Center, the 35-minute and 40-second long, black-and-white silent footage will be shown at a citizen ombudsman's conference in Tottori Prefecture, western Japan.

It includes the arrival of the band at Tokyo's Haneda airport on June 29, 1966, with the members wearing traditional Japanese-style "happi" coats, as well as the reactions of fans.

Over three days from June 30, the band performed at the Nippon Budokan hall in the capital five times and the footage includes what appears to be the never-before-seen final performance.

The censored footage was recently released to the center, which says that although the faces of people other than The Beatles have been obscured and there is no sound, it provides an interesting record of the Showa Period (1926-1989).

Related coverage:

Rural Japan snapshot reminiscent of the Beatles' Abbey Road cover goes viral

Stay 1 Beatles apart: Japan design firm's take on social distancing

"The disclosure is an example of how information belongs to the people," said Satoshi Shinkai, a lawyer and head of the center, which helps facilitate the disclosure of public records.

The center had requested that the Metropolitan Police Department release the footage after its existence came to light in 2014.

In 2015, the police only agreed to a partial disclosure, prompting the center to launch a court case for the footage to be released uncensored. The center eventually lost, with the Supreme Court ruling finalized in 2018.
WINDHOEK, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- Namibian Minister of Health and Social Services Kalumbi Shangula on Thursday said people visiting Namibia will no longer be required to produce a vaccination certificate or a negative PCR test result at the ports of entry.

Shangula said in a statement that the current epidemiological situation no longer supports the retention of this requirement.

"Consequently, the entry requirement into Namibia by foreign travelers of vaccination license and a negative PCR test result has been scrapped," he said.

The ministry last month decided to cease daily updates on COVID-19 and replaced them with weekly reports on Thursdays.

Shangula added that the weekly COVID-19 updates will be discontinued immediately, given that COVID-19 cases have exponentially decreased. 
The lighting Eiffel Tower is seen in Paris, France, Sept. 22, 2022. Lights will be switched off at the Eiffel Tower at 23:45, as soon as the last tourist leaves, instead of the current 1:00 from Sept. 23 in order to help save energy. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

A man films the sparkling Eiffel Tower with his mobile phone in Paris, France, Sept. 22, 2022. Lights will be switched off at the Eiffel Tower at 23:45, as soon as the last tourist leaves, instead of the current 1:00 from Sept. 23 in order to help save energy. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

The lighting Eiffel Tower is seen in Paris, France, Sept. 22, 2022. Lights will be switched off at the Eiffel Tower at 23:45, as soon as the last tourist leaves, instead of the current 1:00 from Sept. 23 in order to help save energy. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

A man looks at the sparkling Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, Sept. 22, 2022. Lights will be switched off at the Eiffel Tower at 23:45, as soon as the last tourist leaves, instead of the current 1:00 from Sept. 23 in order to help save energy. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

The lighting Eiffel Tower is seen in Paris, France, Sept. 22, 2022. Lights will be switched off at the Eiffel Tower at 23:45, as soon as the last tourist leaves, instead of the current 1:00 from Sept. 23 in order to help save energy. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

The lighting Eiffel Tower is seen in Paris, France, Sept. 22, 2022. Lights will be switched off at the Eiffel Tower at 23:45, as soon as the last tourist leaves, instead of the current 1:00 from Sept. 23 in order to help save energy. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

The lighting Eiffel Tower is seen in Paris, France, Sept. 22, 2022. Lights will be switched off at the Eiffel Tower at 23:45, as soon as the last tourist leaves, instead of the current 1:00 from Sept. 23 in order to help save energy. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

The lighting Eiffel Tower is seen in Paris, France, Sept. 22, 2022. Lights will be switched off at the Eiffel Tower at 23:45, as soon as the last tourist leaves, instead of the current 1:00 from Sept. 23 in order to help save energy. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)
BEIJING, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- The development of China's industrial clusters accelerated recently, with the output value of 25 advanced manufacturing clusters growing steadily in the first half of the year, an official said on Friday.

The 25 advanced manufacturing clusters generated an output value of 6.2 trillion yuan (about 886.73 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-June period, rising 6.1 percent from the same period last year, Wang Wei, an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told a press conference.

These clusters encompass more than 1,000 "little giant" companies, representatives of the novel elites of China's small and medium-sized enterprises that specialize in a niche market, boast cutting-edge technologies, and show great potential.

Friday's press conference also showed that China established 445 national-level demonstration zones for new industrialization based on previous development zones and industrial parks.

The demonstration zones have contributed nearly 30 percent of the country's total value-added industrial output and more than 30 percent of its imports and exports, serving as a driving force in promoting high-quality development of the regional manufacturing sector, data from the ministry showed. 
BEIJING, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- At the invitation of the Japanese side, Wan Gang, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, will attend the funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as the representative of the Chinese government, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday.

Noting China and Japan both are neighbors and important countries in the region, Wang Wenbin, the spokesperson, said to maintain and develop friendly and cooperative relations between China and Japan serves the fundamental interests of the two countries and two peoples.

Wang said as a responsible major country, China has made contributions to regional and world peace, stability and prosperity, which is witnessed by all.

"We hope that Japan will abide by the principles set out in the four China-Japan political documents, work with China in the same direction and jointly build a China-Japan relationship that meets the needs of the new era," Wang added. 
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (C, front) attends the United Nations (UN) Security Council foreign ministers' meeting on Ukraine at the UN headquarters in New York, on Sept. 22, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended on Thursday the United Nations (UN) Security Council foreign ministers meeting on Ukraine at the UN headquarters in New York.

Noting that China's stance on the Ukraine issue is consistent and clear, Wang said the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be safeguarded, the purposes and principles of the UN Charter upheld, the legitimate security concerns of all parties taken seriously and all efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of the crisis supported.

On the current situation, Wang said, China has put forth a four-point proposal.

First, it is a must to keep to the direction of promoting dialogues and negotiations. It is imperative that the parties concerned resume dialogues as soon as possible, integrate legitimate concerns into negotiations and put feasible options on the table so as to bring about outcomes for peace, Wang said.

Second, joint efforts must be made to ease tensions. All parties concerned should exercise restraint and refrain from words and deeds that aggravate confrontation, Wang said, adding that the international community should play a constructive role in helping cool the situation.

There is no room for trial and error as far as the safety of nuclear facilities is concerned, and any risk of accidents must be avoided, Wang said.

Third, the humanitarian situation must be alleviated. Wang said the international humanitarian law should be observed to minimize civilian casualties.

International investigations should be objective and fair, based on facts and avoid politicization, said Wang, adding that UN humanitarian agencies should be supported in continuing to provide assistance to the affected people.

Fourth, full efforts must be made to contain spillover effects. Wang called for joint efforts to ensure the stable operation of the global energy market and support for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in resolving the issue of food shipments from Russia and Ukraine.

Welcoming countries to actively respond to China's initiative on international food security cooperation, Wang said unilateral sanctions should not be imposed arbitrarily, and that developing countries should not be forced to pay the bill.

Wang stressed that the Security Council should uphold the basic principle of objectivity and justice, follow the right direction of stopping fighting and promoting talks, give priority to using mediating tools and push forward the process of political settlement. 

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (C, front) attends the United Nations (UN) Security Council foreign ministers' meeting on Ukraine at the UN headquarters in New York, on Sept. 22, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)
Video: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Sept. 22, 2022 that the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Egypt (COP27) must make broad progress in a video message for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) leaders' breakfast. (Xinhua)

"COP27 must demonstrate that the world is making progress on all pillars of the Paris Agreement. We urgently need to address loss and damage in a meaningful and credible way," says UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday that the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Egypt (COP27) must make broad progress.

"COP27 must demonstrate that the world is making progress on all pillars of the Paris Agreement. We urgently need to address loss and damage in a meaningful and credible way," he said in a video message for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) leaders' breakfast.

Loss and damage are happening now -- at 1.1 degrees of warming. The floods in Pakistan have inundated a third of the country, he said. "We can only imagine the fate of small islands if we go beyond 1.5 degrees. Two degrees of warming is unthinkable and must be avoided at all costs."

"We need a targeted, ambitious global response, including how to finance loss and damage, beyond our capacity to adapt," he said. "Polluters must pay. At the same time, we need to resolve access to finance. Grants and concessional financing currently fail to account for your islands' unique vulnerabilities."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks at the opening of the General Debate of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 20, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Rui)

AOSIS has long championed the highest level of ambition on climate, often leading by example, he said. "You have also brought solutions and built consensus. Your voices, as climate leaders, problem-solvers and bridge-builders, are needed now more than ever."

The United Nations will continue to push for more ambition and climate action by all, especially the Group of 20, which account for 80 percent of global emissions.

It will continue to call for a renewables revolution, and for developed countries to provide developing countries with the finance and technology they need to transition to a net-zero and climate-resilient future, he said.

"We will continue to push developed countries to make good on their 100-billion-U.S. dollar climate finance commitment. We will push for developed countries to provide clarity this year on their Glasgow commitment to double adaptation finance. And we will push to ensure your eligibility and access to that finance," said Guterres.

"You can count on the continued support of the United Nations for your priorities, and those of all developing countries," he said. 
37 Vietnamese fishermen return after release by Malaysian authorities

Nearly forty Vietnamese fishermen landed at Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCM City on Thursday afternoon after being detained by Malaysian authorities for four months.









Fishing boat QNa 95005 TS, along with its 42 crew members, was intercepted by Malaysian authorities on June 11 for violating its fishing laws. The crew were arrested. Five fishermen, who were either underage or had underlying health conditions, were immediately released and returned to Vietnam while the remainder were held in the country.







Right after being informed of the arrest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted Malaysia to verify the situation and provided support for the arrested fishermen.







The fishermen were greeted by their relatives upon arrival at the airport. They then took a flight to their hometown in Danang.







Tran Thi Tinh, the wife of the boat owner Tran Van Manh cried after meeting her husband at the airport.







"I'm very happy to see him and all the other crew members come back safe and sound now," she said in tears. "I was so worried that I couldn't sleep properly during the past four months after he was detained with the crew."







The boat owner Tran Vanh Manh also cried tears of happiness when seeing his wife. He was so moved that he was left speechless.







The fishermen had a light meal while waiting for the transit flight to Danang City.



A crew member, Tran Van Tuan, said that they had experienced very hard days during their time being kept in Malaysia. They didn't have enough food and could only borrow a telephone once to call home. "We all burst into tears when we were informed that we would be released," Tuan said.


By Trend

The bill approving the "Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the State of Israel on air traffic" was submitted for discussion at the session of the Committee on International Relations and Inter-Parliamentary Relations of the Azerbaijani Parliament, on September 23, Trend reports.

The MPs stressed that the new agreement would contribute to improving relations between the two countries.

Following the Parliament's discussion, the document was recommended for the discussion at the plenary session.
Video: North America's leading clean energy show wrapped up on Sept. 22, 2022 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Southern California. (Xinhua)

Global warming calls for urgent efforts for promoting renewable energy, which offers significant opportunities for the clean energy industry, says Jae Y. Yang.



by Xinhua writer Tan Jingjing

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- North America's leading clean energy show is held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Southern California this week, focusing on innovative ways and business opportunities to move the clean energy industry forward.

The show, named "RE+ 2022", brings together clean energy industry experts, leaders and professionals across the United States and overseas to expand business prospects and share best practices.

The events focus on sustainable solutions in such areas as solar and wind power, energy storage, green hydrogen, electric vehicles, microgrids and more, to promote business opportunities among participants and identify ways to facilitate the clean energy industry.

Mission Solar, an American company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, exhibited their solar energy modules at the show.

An exhibitor talks with a visitor at the exhibition area of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL), a leading Chinese battery manufacturer and clean energy technology company, during "RE+ 2022" show in Orange County, California, the United States, on Sept. 21, 2022. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)

Jae Y. Yang, president and CEO of Mission Solar, told Xinhua that climate change poses increasing challenges to the whole world. Texas has seen severe heat wave and drought this year. Extreme weather has happened more frequently than before.

Global warming calls for urgent efforts for promoting renewable energy, which offers significant opportunities for the clean energy industry, he said.

The company plans to expand its current capacity and reach out to more distributors in the U.S. residential market at the show, Yang told Xinhua.

"The world needs to make a right choice for promoting renewable energy consumption, and needs joint cooperation to meet the goal for emission reduction," Mauricio Ochoa, director of plant operation at Mission Solar, told Xinhua.

An exhibitor talks with visitors at the exhibition area of Chinese company REPT Energy during "RE+ 2022" show in Orange County, California, the United States, on Sept. 21, 2022. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)

REPT Energy, headquartered in Wenzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province, is one of the Chinese companies participating in the four-day show. A series of the company's battery pack, battery system and cell are on show, attracting lots of visitors.

Jason Hong, overseas sales director of REPT Energy, told Xinhua that during the pandemic, cell production in China had seen great development, while the consumption markets overseas also grew a lot.

Face-to-face interactions with overseas markets were caught by the pandemic for nearly three years, he said.

"We hope to reach out to more customers at the expo, better understand North American market and explore more opportunities," Hong told Xinhua.

People visit "RE+ 2022" show held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Orange County, California, the United States on Sept. 21, 2022. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)

A series of workshops were held at the show, addressing topics such as innovative solutions to enable faster, simpler, and fairer interconnection of solar energy, wind energy, and energy storage; the latest emerging technologies in clean energy industry; and preparations for the transition to a carbon-free future.

More than 80 exhibitors have participated in the show running from Monday to Thursday.

"RE+" held its inaugural show as "Solar Power International" in 2004 to bring together people, products, and professional development opportunities that drive the solar marketplace.

The event has since evolved alongside the industry, bringing together an extensive alliance of clean energy professionals to become a leading gathering in the clean energy industry in North America. 
Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, presides over a biweekly consultation session held by the 13th CPPCC National Committee in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

BEIJING, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese national political advisors convened a bi-weekly seminar on Friday to discuss how vocational education can better contribute to the country's rural revitalization programs.

Vocational education should take root in the country's reality while pushing forward reform and innovation to develop a Chinese model of vocational education that serves agricultural and rural development, said Wang Yang, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, who presided over the meeting.

Vocational education institutions should train more talented young people who are highly skilled and competent in business operations and management to provide strong support for rural revitalization, said Wang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

Eleven political advisors and experts put forward their suggestions at the meeting, while 126 expressed their views on an online platform, said a statement issued after the meeting.

They proposed that local governments allocate more manpower and resources to vocational education programs that serve agricultural and rural development and that more vocational colleges be founded in county seats.

Political advisors also suggested that more students enroll in majors such as agricultural technology, eco-friendly agriculture, intelligent agriculture, e-commerce and logistics, and rural tourism. Efforts should also be made to foster more competent teaching staff and innovate education methods in vocational schools, such as incorporating online and offline schooling and introducing part-time programs. 
ROME, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Italy's population shrank below 60 million for the first time in years last year, and there is no indication of a rebound in the foreseeable future, Italy's National Statistics Institute (ISTAT) has said.

Citing freshly released census data, ISTAT said last year's census had counted 59.2 million residents, down from 60.3 million in 2020 -- a year which itself had a negative balance of 100,000 residents compared to the previous census.

Even more dramatic are the projections for the future: ISTAT expects Italy's population to shrink to 57.9 million in 2030, 54.2 million in 2050, and 47.7 million in 2070.

By 2049, ISTAT predicts that twice as many residents will die each year than be born, which translates to 788,000 deaths compared to 390,000 births per year.

Recently, there have been around three people aged between 15 and 64 (active working years) for everyone outside this bracket. By 2050, ISTAT expects this ratio to be one-to-one.

ISTAT also estimates that four out of five Italian cities will have a declining population within a decade. This number will be nine out of 10 among rural communities.

While ISTAT expects the number of families to increase, their size will continue to shrink. By 2041, only one in four families will have children, ISTAT predicts.

These trends will have implications for the country's long-term economic growth, pension policies, geopolitical influence, and social factors. 
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi expounds on the right way for China and the United States to develop relations in the new era while making a keynote speech at the headquarters of Asia Society in New York, the United States, Sept. 22, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

NEW YORK, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, making a keynote speech here on Thursday at the headquarters of Asia Society, expounded on the right way for China and the United States to develop relations in the new era.

Following his speech, Wang also answered questions at the headquarters regarding the role of the head-of-state diplomacy in stabilizing China-U.S. relations, as well as on the status quo of the Taiwan question.

Wang said in his speech that the implications of the China-U.S. relations have gone far beyond the bilateral level to have global influence. It is the common expectation of the international community that China and the United States play a leading role in international affairs, shoulder the responsibility undertaken by major countries, stabilize the bilateral ties and promote global cooperation.

The heads of state of the two countries shared the view that efforts should be made only to improve rather than sabotage the bilateral relations, that China and the United States should not engage in conflicts or confrontation, and that the two sides should enhance communication and cooperation, Wang said.

He said that the United States repeatedly provokes China when it comes to issues related to China's core interests as well as its development rights and interests, all the while proposing that stability of the bilateral relations be maintained, that conflicts and confrontation between them be avoided.

Such acts are contradictory both logically and practically, he said.

The root cause for this inconsistency is the misperception of the United States about China, the world and itself, Wang said, adding that be it inciting "all-out confrontation" with China or agitating "strategic competition" with China, they all deviate from the right track of China-U.S. relations.

As for the right way for the two countries to get along with each other, Chinese President Xi Jinping has already presented a clear answer, that is Beijing and Washington should respect each other, coexist peacefully and forge win-win cooperation, he noted.

Without respect, there is no trust, and without trust, there is no way to avoid conflicts or to carry out real cooperation, Wang said, calling it important experience gained from China-U.S. exchanges and a basic prerequisite for China-U.S. relations to return to the right track.

China will not become another United States, Wang said, adding neither is the United States able to change China based on its own likes and dislikes.

Since neither China nor the United States can knock the other over, they should respect each other's choices, he said.

China is glad to see an open, confident, developing and progressive United States, and so should the United States respect the development path chosen by the Chinese people, which is socialism with Chinese characteristics, Wang said.

This path has brought the Chinese people real human rights and democracy, Wang said.

China will unswervingly follow the path and the direction it has chosen independently, and will march forward more steadily and make greater progress, he said.

On peaceful coexistence, Wang said whether China and the United States are partners or adversaries, and whether they should cooperate or confront with each other -- these are fundamental issues in China-U.S. relations on which disruptive mistakes must not be made.

Wang made it clear that China chooses peace, sticks to peaceful development, and regards peaceful coexistence as its most essential expectation for China-U.S. relations.

In order to realize peaceful coexistence, China and the United States should abide by the rules agreed by both sides, which, on a bilateral level, are the three Sino-U.S. joint communiques and the important consensuses reached between the two leaders, rather than domestic laws imposed upon one another, and which, on a global level, are the basic norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, Wang said.

On win-win cooperation, Wang said that no cooperation can be based on a "You-lose-I-win" scenario, and that win-win cooperation is not only possible, but also a must, which is the reality the two sides experienced over the past half-century, and also the common goal they should continue to strive for.

China does not deny that there are competitions between the two countries in such areas as economy and trade, and neither is China afraid of such competitions, Wang said.

What China does not agree, though, is to simply define China-U.S. relations as those of competitions, because by no means does such a definition represent the totality and mainstream of China-U.S. relations, Wang said, adding that in the meantime, competitions should have boundaries, and more importantly, be fair.

The two countries should have healthy competitions where they chase each other down, rather than unhealthy competitions where they fight each other to the death, he said.

Wang said the Chinese side is willing to forge more beneficial cooperation with the United States under the premise of equality and respect.

Win-win cooperation is inseparable from the necessary conditions and atmosphere, he said, noting that the U.S. side cannot be on the one hand harming China's core interests and on the other requiring China for unconditional cooperation.

In the Q-and-A session after the keynote speech, Wang stressed that the head-of-state diplomacy plays an irreplaceable strategic leading role in China-U.S. relations.

U.S. President Joe Biden has made the commitments that the United States does not seek a new Cold War with China; it does not aim to change China's system; the revitalization of its alliance is not targeted at China; the United States does not support "Taiwan independence" and it has no intention to seek a conflict with China, which, apparently, have not been honored by Biden's governing team in either its detailed policies or its actions toward China, Wang said.

In his speech, Wang also elaborated on the Taiwan question, which he said is the core of China's core interests.

The one-China principle is the foundation of the political foundation for China-U.S. relations, and the three Sino-U.S. joint communiques are the most important "guardrails" of China-U.S. relations, Wang stressed.

The Taiwan question has been posing ever bigger risks in China-U.S. relations, and it would very likely cause disruptive impacts on bilateral relations if handled improperly, he said.

From the Shanghai Communique in 1972, to the China-U.S. Joint Communique on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations in 1978, and to the August 17 Communique in 1982, the United States has put a clear commitment down in black and white that there is but one China in the world, that Taiwan is part of China, and that the Government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government of China, Wang said.

Successive U.S. governments have all made it clear to abide by the one-China policy, and many U.S. presidents have stated their positions against "Taiwan independence," all of which have been put on record, he noted.

The Taiwan question arose as a result of weakness and chaos in the Chinese nation, and will surely be resolved as China realizes national rejuvenation, Wang said, adding that this meets the trend of history and reflects the aspiration of the people.

The United States should stand on the right side of history, he stressed.

The Chinese foreign minister said in the Q-and-A session after his speech that China has been clear in its policy on the Taiwan question, that is, it will strive for peaceful reunification with all-out efforts and utmost sincerity.

This policy has maintained continuity and stability, he added. 
HARARE, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe received 352,719 tourist arrivals in the first half of the year, up 115 percent from 164,062 tourist arrivals the country had during the same period last year, according to Environment Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu.

He said tourism is on a growth trajectory following the relaxation of COVID-19-induced travel restrictions and lockdowns, with tourist receipts increasing by 121 percent in the first months of the year to 337.5 million U.S. dollars, compared to 152.8 million dollars during the same period last year.

Ndlovu, whose portfolio also covers tourism, said domestic entries into national parks rose 90 percent from 90,909 in 2021 to 172,481 during the January-May period this year, The Herald, a state-owned daily newspaper, quoted Ndlovu as saying, Thursday.

A 79 percent increase in new investments in the sector worth 96.5 million U.S. dollars was also registered during the first half of this year, the minister said.

"I am happy that the tourism sector is now on a growth trajectory due to the relaxation of COVID-19 induced travel restrictions and lockdowns, and the opening of doors for both domestic and international travel," Ndlovu said. "Let us take advantage of this phase to work with all stakeholders to design and offer competitive products and services in order to attract more tourists to Zimbabwe."

He said tourism was one of the critical sectors of the economy with great potential to turn around the economy.

Zimbabwe is aiming to achieve a 5-billion-U.S.-dollar tourism economy by 2025.

"It is my hope that as we are emerging from the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, we have taken a closer look at the national tourism recovery and growth strategy to assess our targets, our strategies and that we are identifying areas that need more emphasis for us to meet and possibly surpass the initial targets," he said.

Zimbabwe's recorded 380,820 tourist arrivals in 2021, a 40 percent decline from 639,356 in 2020, according to the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority. 
by Marwa Yahya

CAIRO, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Egypt was granted the status of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) dialogue partner at the SCO summit held on Sept. 15-16 in the city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan.

Some Egyptian experts said that this is "a very important step" for promoting security and social and economic cooperation due to the SCO's active regional and international role.

PROMOTING SECURITY AND EXCHANGE OF INTELLIGENCE

"Since its founding in 2001, the SCO, now with nine full members, three observer countries, and multiple dialogue partners, has been mainly dealing with security cooperation in a broadening form covering all areas, like economic, social, and cultural development," Ali al-Hefny, Egypt's former deputy foreign minister, told Xinhua.

For decades, conflicts, tensions, and growing extremist ideologies have hit the Arab region and the Middle East, affecting regional security, stability and development.

Nourhan el-Sheikh, a professor of international relations at Cairo University, said that the SCO's anti-terrorism agenda almost identically matches Egypt's security stances.

With the new move, Egypt will expand security and anti-terrorism cooperation, and intelligence exchange with SCO members, el-Sheikh added.

SCO INJECTS MORE POSITIVITY INTO DEVELOPMENT

"The SCO encourages development, economic and social cooperation via containing the causes of terrorism and other potential security threats," el-Sheikh added. "No economic development could be achieved without uprooting terrorism."

Meanwhile, Karim Al-Omda, a professor with the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, said that "the interest of the SCO in economic and social cooperation to achieve better development gives opportunities to launch and finance large development projects among the member states."

"Egypt will find more opportunities in the framework of the SCO development plan," Al-Omda said.

The step could enhance the means for cooperation within the SCO, like using local currencies in trade and other economic activities, which would increase investments, trade and tourism, the economic expert added.

NON-ALLIANCE, ANTI-POLARIZATION OF SCO BRINGS MUTUAL INTERESTS

Al-Hefny said that as the first country on the African continent to participate in the SCO, Egypt maintains close and friendly relations with almost all SCO countries and values the group's pivotal regional role.

At the latest SCO summit, Iran officially became a full SCO member. China and other SCO members also started the procedure for Belarus' accession, granted Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar the status of SCO dialogue partners, and reached agreement on admitting Bahrain, the Maldives, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Myanmar as new dialogue partners.

Al-Hefny sees that the expansion of the SCO counts mutual benefits for all sides and sends an important message that "the SCO is against polarization and can accommodate everyone."

The Shanghai Spirit -- mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diverse civilizations and pursuit of common development -- can play a pivotal role in scaling differences and disagreement among its members, he added.

According to al-Hefny, non-intervention in the internal affairs of member states is essential to reinforce multilateralism, international cooperation and solidarity to address global challenges and concerns for common interests, and help accelerate global trade.

The SCO has already become a very important international organization that restructures the international order and makes it more just and pluralistic, he added. 
HEFEI, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- The global carbon reduction ambition and the transformation of the automobile industry have created tremendous opportunities for China-Germany cooperation in the new-energy vehicle (NEV) sector, industry experts said at the Sino-German Forum on the Development of the NEV Industry.

As part of the 2022 World Manufacturing Convention held in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, the forum was attended by experts and heads of NEV enterprises from the two countries.

"Both China and Germany are leading car-producing countries and have developed complementary advantages in automobile technology and the market. Cooperation in the automobile industry between the two countries has been carried out in multiple fields and achieved remarkable results," said Xiong Meng, an official of the China Federation of Industrial Economics.

China has a booming NEV market, with both sales and production ranking first globally for seven consecutive years. The promising performance of the Chinese NEV market has injected confidence into cooperation work.

In August alone, China's NEV sales volume was 530,000 units, a year-on-year expansion of 111 percent. This kind of sales achievement showed that the future market has huge potential, said Erwin Gabardi, CEO of Volkswagen Anhui.

Many Sino-German cooperation projects covering both the upstream and the downstream of the NEV industrial chain are advancing at full speed.

In June, Chinese battery cell manufacturer Gotion High-Tech held an opening ceremony for Gotion Germany at its Gottingen base in Germany. China's leading automaker FAW and German carmaker Audi launched a project in the same month to produce purely electric vehicles in Changchun, capital of northeastern Jilin Province.

Volkswagen Anhui will begin the pre-series production of its first model next month, with mass production scheduled for 2023.

NEV cooperation is closely linked to the green and low-carbon vision shared by the two countries.

Hildegard Muller, president of the German Association of the Automotive Industry, said profound changes are taking place in the automobile industry. The European Union aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, according to the European Green Deal, and China has announced that it will peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. These goals present great challenges for the automobile industry.

"We're committed to making carbon neutrality possible, but we're only able to achieve the goals jointly," Muller said.

The concept of green manufacturing is deeply anchored in China's industrial development strategy, said Gabardi. Volkswagen's new MEB plant in Anhui will be powered by green energy and incorporate energy-saving strategies to reduce overall carbon emissions, he said.

Li Ming, general manager of Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Corp., Ltd., said that the new trends in the automobile industry, including electrification, networking and intelligentization, bring Sino-German cooperation into a new era.

Li said that new bilateral cooperation will not only promote coordinated development in the era of intelligent connected vehicles and realize a green transformation, but also deepen economic and trade cooperation between the two countries and foster global economic growth.

The global NEV industry has recently been greatly affected by chip shortages and the rising cost of batteries. Attendees at the forum said they believe that close cooperation between NEV enterprises in China and Germany could help enhance the resilience of industrial and supply chains.

"China and Germany should deepen the integrated and coordinated development of industrial chains based on their own advantages, and join hands to tackle chip shortages and skyrocketing commodity prices," Li said. 
Ethiopian entrepreneur Nael Hailemariam makes a keynote report in Djibouti City, capital of Djibouti on Sept. 15, 2022. (Xinhua/Dong Jianghui)

DJIBOUTI CITY, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- "When you are in China, you don't realize how much you are absorbing and learning and how much you are adapting to a very fast-paced and high technological society," Deliah Nalukwago, a young Ugandan entrepreneur, recalled her 11-year experience in China.

"I would say China helped awaken my entrepreneurial spirit. When you come back to Africa, for every problem you see a solution because you have that reference point from life in China," said Nalukwago, who was among nearly 30 young African entrepreneurs from Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda that learned business operations and shared their entrepreneurial experiences during an eight-day training program supported by Chinese enterprises.

The first training camp of the Center of Innovation and Maritime Excellence, which Deliah participated in with the theme "Digital innovation and cross-border e-commerce," ended Wednesday in Djibouti City, the capital of Djibouti.

After graduating from high school, Deliah applied for a scholarship in China, where she earned a bachelor's degree in medicine and a master's degree in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

She returned to Uganda after completing her studies and founded a healthcare technology startup in the capital city Kampala in 2019 called "My Musawo," which means "my doctor" in Luganda, the main local language. The company's eponymous mobile app, launched in May of this year, works with the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council to provide users with professional online consultation services and healthcare advice.

It was a Chinese doctor and TCM that set Deliah on her path to study medicine. "When I was 8 years old, my mother had a nerve disorder and all hopes with Western medicine failed. That's when she met our family doctor, and the first TCM doctor in Uganda." After acupuncture and massage therapy for a few months, her mother returned to normal, and the TCM doctor cured Deliah's chronic asthma. "He was like a mentor to me and inspired me to enter the medical field, particularly in China to study TCM that helped my mother."

After having gained her undergraduate degree, she took a year off to intern at a hospital in Uganda. This year-long experience allowed the young African, excited to live out her dream career, to realize that the local healthcare system was flawed in terms of efficiency and management.

"From then on, I wanted to be part of the solution to these problems," Deliah said, adding that she saw in China how quickly people could get the medical information and advice they needed through the Internet and mobile apps, and the rapid growth of smartphone penetration in Uganda and across Africa inspired her to work with her partners to develop an app to help more Ugandans.

Another camp participant, Nael Hailemariam, is a young Ethiopian with entrepreneurial ties to China as well. After receiving a master's degree from Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School in China, he returned to his home country to start a digital finance company that provides online payment services.

Nael said that China's culture of innovation and efficiency had a profound impact on his entrepreneurial endeavors and that he was inspired by China's great success in e-commerce. He also organized a trip to Ethiopia in 2019 for Tsinghua University students from China for exchanges in science, innovation and culture with young local entrepreneurs. "I want to let Chinese students understand Africa, but more importantly, I want to let African youth understand Chinese development and Chinese speed."

According to the participants, the camp helps entrepreneurs who lack technical and business backgrounds to learn relevant knowledge, and also creates a network for young African entrepreneurs so that they can interact with fellows from different backgrounds for their future cooperation. "We young people are the future of Africa, we have to seize all resources and opportunities to build Africa," said Mahad Abdourazak, a participant from Djibouti, who expressed his happiness for the opportunities China has been providing for young entrepreneurs in Africa in recent years.

As a world leader in the digital innovation industry, China provides experience and technical support for Africa's digital economy development from e-commerce, digital infrastructure, mobile application and payment. Inspired by their experiences in China, some African youth will be the main force behind their country's leapfrogging digital economy and innovate with local needs in mind.

Talking about the cooperation between China and Africa in youth innovation, Deliah believes that "China is a very good partner for us compared to any other countries." She said China not only funds many large-scale projects in Africa, but also reaches out to young African entrepreneurs. "African youth will be the future of the continent, and I am glad to see that they are willing to understand and help us grow." 

Ugandan entrepreneur Deliah Nalukwago (L, front) talks with a Chinese staff member at an exhibition area of cross-border e-commerce platforms at the Djibouti International Free Trade Zone in Djibouti City, capital of Djibouti, Sept. 14, 2022. (Xinhua/Dong Jianghui)

Ethiopian entrepreneur Nael Hailemariam (1st R) shares his experiences and thoughts at a round-table discussion in Djibouti City, capital of Djibouti on Sept. 15, 2022. (Xinhua/Dong Jianghui)

Young African entrepreneurs learn the operation of Djimart, a cross-border e-commerce platform, from a Chinese business manager at the Djibouti International Free Trade Zone in Djibouti City, capital of Djibouti, Sept. 14, 2022. (Xinhua/Dong Jianghui)

Ugandan entrepreneur Deliah Nalukwago (R) learns Chinese culture during a Chinese culture program in Djibouti City, capital of Djibouti on Sept. 18, 2022. (Xinhua/Dong Jianghui)
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (2nd R) meets with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto (2nd L) on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, the United States, Sept. 21, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

NEW YORK, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met here on Wednesday with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

Wang said that thanks to the strategic guidance by the two countries' leaders, China and Hungary enjoy a good relationship, as both countries always adhere to an independent policy, sincere friendship with each other and win-win cooperation.

China appreciates Hungary's firm stance on friendly policies towards China, firm adherence to the one-China principle and upholding of a fair stance on issues related to China's core interests, said Wang.

The high-level development of the China-Hungary ties is in line with the fundamental interests of the two countries and their people, Wang said, adding that facing changes unseen in a century, China will continue to design bilateral relations from a strategic height, cement strategic mutual trust, practice genuine multilateralism, resist unilateral bullying and uphold the basic norms of international relations.

Wang said that China will keep on encouraging capable Chinese enterprises to invest in Hungary, expecting Hungary to maintain policy continuity, stability and persistence.

Noting that Hungary is the first European country that has signed the Belt and Road cooperation documents, Szijjarto said Hungary-China cooperation has played an important role in boosting Hungary's economic development.

Hungary firmly adheres to the one-China policy and opposes confrontation between camps, he said, adding that Hungary will continue to unswervingly carry out cooperation with China and take an active part in China-Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) cooperation.

For his part, Wang said that China and CEE countries have carried out mutually beneficial cooperation on a voluntary basis and have continuously yielded fruitful results, which not only meets each other's needs, but also helps to draw on each other's strengths and opens new cooperation channels.

China is fully confident in the future of China-CEE cooperation, he added. 
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, the United States, Sept. 21, 2022. (Xinhua)

NEW YORK, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday met with Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

Wang recalled the third plenary session of China-Poland Intergovernmental Cooperation Committee in June this year, which synergized and implemented bilateral cooperation in various fields.

Not long ago, the two countries' heads of state had a successful phone conversation, providing strategic guidance for maintaining the healthy and stable momentum of China-Poland relations, Wang added.

The two sides have understood and supported each other on issues concerning each other's core interests, offering a solid political guarantee for the development of bilateral ties, he said.

The two countries jointly practice genuine multilateralism, uphold the important principle of non-interference in internal affairs, and continue to inject new impetus into the China-Poland cooperation, Wang said.

China is willing to strengthen strategic alignment with Poland and promote cooperation in various fields including China-Europe freight train services, civil aviation, agriculture, and investment, said Wang, adding that China also wishes to steadily advance the China-Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) cooperation on the basis of deepening bilateral cooperation.

Noting that Poland is a major country in Central and Eastern Europe and an important initiator in the China-CEE cooperation, Wang said China supports the establishment of a China-CEE countries' agricultural wholesale market in Poland to build a regional agricultural products' distribution center.

For his part, Rau said that Poland regards China as a friendly and reliable strategic partner, and that the two countries have maintained close high-level exchanges and communication at all levels. The two sides share common views on safeguarding independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, he added.

Poland adheres to the one-China policy and appreciates China's consistent pursuit of a foreign policy of peace, said Rau, adding that Poland is committed to promoting the China-CEE cooperation and is willing to strengthen agricultural trade cooperation with China.

Poland attaches importance to China's international status and influence, and hopes that China can play an important role in restoring peace in Europe, he said.

Wang said that an expanded, prolonged Ukraine crisis is not in the interests of any party, hoping that the crisis would end as soon as possible and peace talks could resume.

China always stands for the establishment of a balanced, effective, and sustainable European security framework to provide a lasting guarantee for peace, and will remain committed to promoting peace talks, he said. 
Finastra and Visa has announced a Banking as a Service (BaaS) collaboration to co-develop new functionality on its payments hub solutions and implement Visa Direct  which provides access to more than two billion accounts through push to account offerings.

The new capability will give Finastras bank customers around the world access to cross-border payouts capabilities for small- and medium-sized businesses, and individuals, in multiple currencies and countries.

This BaaS partnership will allow banks to offer their customers greater choice in how to route cross-border payments, with banks essentially embedding Visa products, said Barry Rodrigues, EVP Payments Business Unit at Finastra. We are excited to partner on this proposition with Visa as it provides a very attractive solution for banks seeking to help increase overall customer satisfaction and loyalty through a transparent and cost-effective digital payments option.

Deploying a custom-built cross-border payment solution in the current environment could be both expensive and time-consuming. The out-of-the-box processing capability offered by Finastras Payments Hub solutions, enabled by Visa Direct and available on premises or in the cloud as SaaS, will enable banks to bypass these complexities with an integration to the Visa network through Finastras FusionFabric.cloud open development platform. They will be able to offer quick, low cost payments for their customers, with great transparency.

Innovation in cross-border money movement is accelerating at an incredible pace and banks are under pressure to quickly implement and launch programs for their customers that stay ahead of their expectations, said Ruben Salazar Genovez, SVP, Global Head of Visa Direct. We are excited to partner with Finastra to support the enablement of their bank customers worldwide with simple access to Visa Direct. Together, we are bringing benefits of our global network to thousands of banks globally, providing a wide range of new and existing case studies to clients. - TradeArabia News Service
People visit the exhibition area of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL), a leading Chinese battery manufacturer and clean energy technology company, during "RE+ 2022" show in Orange County, California, the United States, on Sept. 21, 2022. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL), a leading Chinese battery manufacturer and clean energy technology company, has struck a new deal with a U.S. energy storage solution provider at North America's largest clean energy show in Southern California.

The show, running from Monday through Thursday, brings together clean energy industry experts, leaders and professionals across the United States and overseas to expand business prospects and share best practices.

Under its new deal, CATL will supply 10 GWh of its leading energy storage equipment for FlexGen Power Systems, Inc. (FlexGen), a leading U.S. energy storage technology company headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

CATL will provide FlexGen with EnerC, a containerized liquid-cooling battery system. FlexGen's energy management system platform will power the energy storage systems deployed with CATL to provide advanced and reliable capability for utility, competitive power market, as well as municipal and cooperative utility projects in the United States.

CATL is among the Chinese companies seeking opportunities at the leading clean energy show, named "RE+ 2022." More than 80 exhibitors were on the show floor at the Anaheim Convention Center in Southern California.

As the world is facing with pressing challenges brought by climate change, countries around the world are in great needs for transition from fossil to renewable energy sources to meet global decarbonization goals.

Energy storage solutions play a vital role in enabling the shift, and innovation is key to unlocking the potential of renewable energy by reducing energy storage system cost, increasing service life, durability, energy density, and safety.

"To create a cleaner future for all, replacing fossil fuel in stationary energy systems with high-efficient renewable energy is paramount," said Tan Libin, vice president of CATL.

SYL Battery (SYL), a Chinese energy service solution provider and manufacturer headquartered in Ningbo city in east China's Zhejiang Province, showcased its solar panel equipment and energy storage solutions at the show, attracting lots of visitors.

"We hope to take the opportunity to have face-to-face exchanges with our current and potential customers, and seek more opportunities in the North America market," Stacy Si, sales manager of SYL, told Xinhua.

She said currently the company has some energy storage projects under commissioning in U.S. states such as North Carolina, California and Texas. SYL expects to further expand business with its partners and jointly address energy crisis.

Another Chinese company REPT Energy, headquartered in Wenzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province, exhibited its battery pack, battery system and cell at the show.

Jason Hong, overseas sales director of REPT Energy, told Xinhua that during the pandemic, cell production in China had seen great development, while the consumption markets overseas also grew a lot.

Face-to-face interactions with overseas markets were caught by the pandemic for nearly three years, he said.

"We hope to reach out to more customers at the show, better understand the North America market and explore more opportunities," Hong told Xinhua.

The competency and dominance of Chinese companies in offering clean energy solutions also got full recognition from their overseas counterparts.

"FlexGen and CATL have partnered for many years on advancing energy storage deployments. The significant commitment we are making to CATL and the energy storage market is built upon the quality, performance, and positive results this partnership has delivered to our customers," said Kelcy Pegler, CEO of FlexGen.

"Without China, we can't reach our goals for global emission reduction," Jae Y. Yang, president and CEO of Mission Solar, told Xinhua.

Global warming calls for urgent efforts for promoting renewable energy, which offers significant opportunities for the clean energy industry, he said.

"RE+" held its inaugural show as "Solar Power International" in 2004 to bring together people, products, and professional development opportunities that drive the solar marketplace.

The event has since evolved alongside the industry, bringing together an extensive alliance of clean energy professionals to become a leading gathering in the clean energy industry in North America. 

An exhibitor talks with a visitor at the exhibition area of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL), a leading Chinese battery manufacturer and clean energy technology company, during "RE+ 2022" show in Orange County, California, the United States, on Sept. 21, 2022. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)

An exhibitor talks with visitors at the exhibition area of Chinese company REPT Energy during "RE+ 2022" show in Orange County, California, the United States, on Sept. 21, 2022. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)

An exhibitor shows a product to a visitor at the exhibition area of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL), a leading Chinese battery manufacturer and clean energy technology company, during "RE+ 2022" show in Orange County, California, the United States, on Sept. 21, 2022. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, the United States, Sept. 22, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Rui)

NEW YORK, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has pointed out that sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries must be respected, the purposes and principles of the UN Charter must be fully observed, the legitimate security concerns of all countries must be taken seriously, and all efforts that are conducive to the peaceful settlement of the crisis must be supported, Wang said.

This is China's most authoritative exposition on the Ukraine issue, and it is also China's fundamental principle in viewing and handling this issue, Wang said, adding that as a responsible major country and permanent member of the UN Security Council, China has always been committed to promoting peace talks, never stands idly by, never adds fuel to the fire, and never takes advantage of the situation for self-interests.

China always stands on the side of peace, and will continue to play a constructive role, he said.

Wang also said that he thanked the Ukrainian government and people for their help and care during the evacuation of Chinese personnel in Ukraine, especially overseas students, which demonstrated the friendly feelings between the people of the two countries.

Noting that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between China and Ukraine, he said that China is willing to take this opportunity to plan for the development of bilateral ties in the next stage, carry forward the traditional friendship and better benefit the people of the two sides.

For his part, Kuleba said Ukraine attaches importance to China's international status and important influence, and expects China to play an important role in alleviating the current crisis, adding that Ukraine is willing to conduct dialogue and negotiations in line with national interests.

Ukraine has always pursued the one-China policy, supported China in safeguarding its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and looks forward to strengthening exchanges and cooperation with China in various fields, he said. 
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, the United States, Sept. 22, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Rui)

NEW YORK, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

Wang said that as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China is open to dialogue and exchanges with NATO, and is willing to jointly promote the sound and steady development of bilateral relations.

The two sides should enhance communication and mutual understanding on the basis of frankness and mutual respect, and prevent misunderstanding and false information, he said.

Stoltenberg said that China plays an important role in global issues with its growing economy and influence.

Noting that NATO does not regard China as a rival, he said the organization attaches importance to maintaining and strengthening engagements with China and has a positive attitude towards developing relations with China.

Stoltenberg said NATO will stay committed to its original geographical location when it was established, and expected to explore cooperation with China in arms control, climate change and other fields so as to better cope with global challenges.

NATO and its member countries follow the one-China policy and remain unchanged in their position on the Taiwan question, he said, adding that he expected China to play an important role in ending the conflict in Europe.

Wang expressed hope that NATO will handle the current international situation objectively and calmly, instead of simply drawing a dividing line based on "political correctness."

On the issue of peace and security, he said China is a major country with the best record. China has no genes for external expansion, and has never invaded other countries, engaged in proxy war, sought spheres of influence, exported ideology, interfered in other countries' internal affairs, or participated in military blocs.

China has decided to follow a path of peaceful development, which is enshrined in law, Wang said, adding that he hoped NATO will establish a rational and correct understanding of China.

China is willing to carry out necessary cooperation with NATO on global issues and contribute to peace and stability, he said.

Wang also clarified China's consistent position on the Ukraine issue and its constructive role in promoting peace talks. He said it is necessary to explore the establishment of a balanced, effective and sustainable European security framework to ensure long-term stability in Europe. 
Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and head of the Central Leading Group on Hong Kong and Macao Affairs, presides over a video conference in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 23, 2022. During the video conference, Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Ho Iat Seng gave a report on the SAR's current economic situation and other related work. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

BEIJING, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Vice Premier Han Zheng on Friday voiced full support for Macao in accelerating its infrastructure construction and appropriately diversifying the economy.

Han, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and head of the Central Leading Group on Hong Kong and Macao Affairs, made the remarks at a video conference during which Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Ho Iat Seng gave a report on the SAR's current economic situation and other related work.

The central government fully recognizes the efforts the chief executive and the SAR government have made, and is giving Macao full support in containing COVID-19, easing difficulties for businesses, improving people's livelihoods, and appropriately diversifying its economy, Han said.

Noting that it has been one year since the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin was officially put into operation, Han called on Macao to seize the important opportunity that the cooperation zone presents and inject new impetus into the SAR's long-term economic development.

Guangdong and Macao should tap fully into their respective strengths, enhance their level of cooperation, and develop the cooperation zone into a new platform to boost Macao's appropriate economic diversification and a new space to facilitate the lives and employment of Macao residents, Han said. 
Photo taken on Dec. 4, 2021 shows children in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. (Photo by Aria/Xinhua)

What Afghans say about U.S. aid to their country:

-"America's 20-year presence in Afghanistan had no results. All of them were here for their own interests."

-"U.S. gave the aid because of the expansion of its hegemony, presence and survival in Afghanistan. When U.S. left Afghanistan, it took everything away."



-"The U.S. presence in Afghanistan under the name of democracy was a deception."

BEIJING, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Farid, a local Afghan bus driver, just arrived in Kabul from the country's southern Kandahar province.

"The road is completely broken," the 35-year-old grumbled after bumping along the Kabul-Kandahar highway. "If the road were in a good condition, I would have arrived in four hours, but now it takes 12 hours."

Nineteen years after its completion, the Kabul-Kandahar highway is in dilapidated condition from poor construction, years of landmine explosions, heavily loaded trucks and a lack of maintenance.

Once the showpiece of America's reconstruction effort in Afghanistan, the 483-km highway, at a cost of at least 300 million U.S. dollars, has now become a glaring symbol of America's failures.

"U.S. once spent billions of dollars in Afghanistan but everything has been wasted and stolen," Farid moaned.

Since 2001, Washington has sent more aid in Afghanistan than in any country ever, allocating 145 billion dollars for reconstruction, aid programs and the Afghan security forces.

However, U.S. aid to developing countries has never been aimed at promoting the economic development and social progress of recipient countries, but as a means of exporting American values and instigating internal changes in other countries, analysts say.





SO-CALLED "AFGHANISTAN RECONSTRUCTION"

In October 2001, the United States launched the war in Afghanistan to defeat al-Qaeda and its Taliban hosts. In the following 20 years, Washington has poured massive resources in the landlocked country, backing its government, training its army. But as yet the upshot of it all has been far from what was intended.

The foreign aid-built infrastructure in Afghanistan, including roads, schools and health facilities, is not a self-sustaining private sector, critics point out.

The money often went into projects that were "not sustainable with existing Afghan revenues or other ways they could support it going forward without the U.S.," according to Brown University's Professor Catherine Lutz.

A man stands in the rubble of a damaged house in Paktika province, Afghanistan, July 18, 2022. (Photo by Sabawoon/Xinhua)

Much of the aid flowed through U.S. contractors to allay the U.S. prime concerns, such as counterinsurgency and counterterrorism, in contrast with meagre scraps reaching Afghans and Afghan-owned businesses.

In his 2010 memoir, "Decision Points," former U.S. President George W. Bush wrote that Washington had a moral obligation to leave behind something better. "We also had a strategic interest in helping the Afghan people build a free society," he wrote.

But two decades later, Afghanistan is more volatile, divided and impoverished than it was in 2001, with terrorist groups still rampant, transnational crimes including drug trafficking posing a huge threat to national security and more than half of the Afghan population in need of humanitarian assistance.

America during its presence in Afghanistan frequently described its mission as fighting terrorism, building governing system, ensuring security and building infrastructure, but "we Afghans can't see it in our life," said Najibullah Jami, a professor of politics and international relations at Kabul University.

"Instead of improving our living conditions, America had dropped bombs on, killed and arrested Afghans, created enmity between Afghanistan and its neighboring countries, and backed extremist groups in central Asia," he said.

"America's 20-year presence in Afghanistan had no results. All of them were here for their own interests," said Khair Mohammad, a local Afghan in his sixties. Mohammad makes a living by helping others lift heavy items but can only earn 2,000 afghani (22 dollars) per month at most.

Adding to the Afghan people's sufferings was Washington's confiscation of 9.5 billion dollars in Afghanistan's currency reserves last year, which is equivalent to about 40 percent of its economy. This, coupled with the U.S. sanctions on the Taliban, is paralyzing Afghan banks and plunging the country deeper into an economic and humanitarian crisis.

Afghans protest against recent U.S. decision regarding the frozen Afghan assets in Mazar-i-Sharif, capital of Balkh province, Feb. 15, 2022. (Photo by Kawa Basharat/Xinhua)

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, over 24 million people -- more than half of the Afghan population -- are in need of humanitarian assistance in 2022, an increase of 30 percent from last year.

"Twenty years ago when Americans came to Afghanistan, we didn't have electricity and we don't have it now. Twenty years ago, poor people didn't have houses and they don't have houses now either," said Nasir Ahmad Amiri, a teacher at a disability rehabilitation center in Kabul.

"U.S. gave the aid because of the expansion of its hegemony, presence and survival in Afghanistan. When U.S. left Afghanistan, it took everything away," said the 50-year-old man.

"The U.S. presence in Afghanistan under the name of democracy was a deception," said political analyst Abdul Nasir Rishtia.





STAGNANT INFRASTRUCTURE PLANS

Besides Afghanistan, the United States has tried to woo developing countries in other regions into its camp by presenting aid programs, but few of them prove to be trustworthy.

In June, U.S. President Joe Biden announced the G7's Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) initiative, pledging to mobilize by 2027 600 billion dollars in public and private funding for developing countries in four areas: health and health security, digital connectivity, gender equality and equity, and climate and energy security.

However, the PGII, according to analysts, is nothing new but a rebranding of the Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative, put forward at the 2021 G7 summit to "help narrow the 40+ trillion dollars infrastructure need in the developing world."



Since its launch, the B3W has "languished" with announced projects worth "a paltry 6 million dollars," a far cry from the billions Biden has promised, said Foreign Affairs in an article published in June.

"There is a generalized agreement that B3W has not delivered what it promised," said Jorge Heine, former Chilean ambassador to China.

As a result of internal challenges and Washington's underlying aim of exerting influence on other countries, the PGII is facing a grim prospect, analysts say.

Domestically, due to the strong opposition of Republicans and months of Democrat infighting, a roughly 2 trillion-dollar domestic infrastructure plan unveiled in 2021 was finally reduced to 1 trillion dollars, and the United States itself faces 2.59 trillion dollars shortfall in infrastructure needs from 2020 to 2029.

Photo taken on Aug. 10, 2021 shows the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

"The question is, if the U.S. Congress won't put up hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild its own country, how might Biden convince lawmakers to offer comparable amounts to build infrastructure in other countries?" said a South China Morning Post columnist.

Given possible risks, U.S. private companies have little appetite for investing overseas. The approach of the PGII is actually "a gamble," said Conor Savoy, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonprofit policy research organization headquartered in Washington.

"To date, this notion remains more promise than reality," he wrote in an article in June.

Observers say the fundamental purpose of Washington's global infrastructure projects, including the B3W and the PGII, is to exert influence on other countries.

The country has "often worked to overthrow democratically elected governments that didn't follow a course that business interests in the U.S. wanted," said Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research based in Washington.

The United States completely ignores African reality and puts its interests above those of Africans, Bissau-Guinean international politics commentator Seco Cassama told Xinhua.

"It only wants hegemony in Africa," he said.

A healthcare worker prepares a vial of the COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site in Times Square, New York, the United States, on June 22, 2022. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)

VACCINE NATIONALISM

Apart from development aid, Washington has long boasted about its efforts to provide humanitarian aid to other countries, such as COVID-19 vaccines. Actually, the United States has become "one of the world's leading practitioners of vaccine nationalism," the Harvard Political Review reported.

By February 2021, Washington has hoarded 1.11 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines, far more than 656.4 million for two doses for every American, and its surplus doses were estimated to reach 1.27 billion by the end of 2022, reports said.

Though Washington has pledged since June 2021 to donate at least 1.1 billion doses of vaccines, only 616.6 million doses have been delivered to date, data from the U.S. State Department showed.

The United States also exported vaccines very close to expiration to Africa, leading some African countries to destroy them and even refuse its further donations.

For instance, early donations of AstraZeneca shots to Africa often arrived with little time left before they expired. It is reported that a batch of 191,000 AstraZeneca vaccines rejected by South Africa and reallocated to South Sudan last year arrived there just two weeks before their expiry date. Some 59,000 vaccines were destroyed as a result.

The African Vaccine Acquisition Trust, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and COVAX issued a joint statement last November, calling for "predictable and reliable" donations, while the United States discarded 82.1 million vaccine doses from December 2020 through mid-May in 2022, just over 11 percent of the doses the federal government distributed, NBC News reported. 
Villagers sort out chili peppers in Donglang Township of Congjiang County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Sept. 15, 2022. Chinese farmers' harvest festival, which coincides with the Autumn Equinox each year, falls on Sept. 23 this year. (Photo by Wu Dejun/Xinhua)

CHENGDU, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of millions of Chinese farmers celebrated the fifth harvest festival on Friday, as the country expects a bumper harvest despite COVID-19 and extreme weather.

After overcoming the impact of last year's rare autumn floods in the north, late sowing of winter wheat, the sporadic resurgences of COVID-19 cases, and severe heat and drought in some southern regions, China has seen output increases in summer grain and early rice and is expecting another bumper harvest this year.

At an agri-expo park in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, one of the venues of this year's harvest festival celebration, residents from Xinjin District attended several farming-themed activities on Friday morning, such as product exhibitions, ceremonies to award "best-performing farmers," and fitness competitions.

"Thanks to technological advances, I have reaped bumper tangerine harvests and witnessed an increase of annual income these years," said Tan Jing, a participant who owns a tangerine planting area of over 2,000 mu (about 133.33 hectares) in Jinlong Village of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province.

Initiated in 2018, the Chinese farmers' harvest festival coincides with the autumnal equinox each year, which is one of the 24 solar terms of the Chinese lunar calendar and usually falls between Sept. 22 and 24 during the country's agricultural harvest season.

China's total grain output consists of three parts -- early rice, summer grain, and autumn production. Autumn grain production makes up about 75 percent of the annual grain output. The country aims to achieve a grain output of more than 650 billion kg this year. 

A villager carries newly-picked walnuts at a planting base in Dalin Village of Baokang County in Xiangyang City, central China's Hubei Province, Sept. 15, 2022. Chinese farmers' harvest festival, which coincides with the Autumn Equinox each year, falls on Sept. 23 this year. (Photo by Yang Tao/Xinhua)

Aerial photo taken on Sept. 15, 2022 shows villagers sorting out and packaging yellow peaches in Dongjiuzhai Town of Zunhua, north China's Hebei Province. Chinese farmers' harvest festival, which coincides with the Autumn Equinox each year, falls on Sept. 23 this year. (Photo by Liu Mancang/Xinhua)

Aerial photo taken on Sept. 12, 2022 shows villagers drying hot peppers in Youhe Village of Qiaocheng District in Bozhou, east China's Anhui Province. Chinese farmers' harvest festival, which coincides with the Autumn Equinox each year, falls on Sept. 23 this year. (Photo by Zhang Yanlin/Xinhua)

A farmer dries grains in Wucun Village of Nanhe District in Xingtai City, north China's Hebei Province, Sept. 22, 2022. Chinese farmers' harvest festival, which coincides with the Autumn Equinox each year, falls on Sept. 23 this year. (Photo by Geng Zhao/Xinhua)

Villagers pick kiwi fruits in Qianliang Village of Qicun Township in Zaozhuang, east China's Shandong Province, Sept. 17, 2022. Chinese farmers' harvest festival, which coincides with the Autumn Equinox each year, falls on Sept. 23 this year. (Photo by Sun Zhongzhe/Xinhua)

Fishermen catch fish at Shengzhong Lake in Nanchong City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Sept. 21, 2022. Chinese farmers' harvest festival, which coincides with the Autumn Equinox each year, falls on Sept. 23 this year. (Photo by Yu Zhonghua/Xinhua)

Villagers pick grapes in Bacheng Township in Kunshan, east China's Jiangsu Province, Sept. 17, 2022. Chinese farmers' harvest festival, which coincides with the Autumn Equinox each year, falls on Sept. 23 this year. (Photo by Wang Xuzhong/Xinhua)

Aerial photo taken on Sept. 5, 2022 shows a villager drying sorghum in Shuanghe Village of Kaiyang County, southwest China's Guizhou Province. Chinese farmers' harvest festival, which coincides with the Autumn Equinox each year, falls on Sept. 23 this year. (Photo by Yuan Fuhong/Xinhua)

Farmers harvest rice in terraced fields in Jiayi Village of Rongjiang County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Sept. 22, 2022. Chinese farmers' harvest festival, which coincides with the Autumn Equinox each year, falls on Sept. 23 this year. (Photo by Yang Chengli/Xinhua)

A harvester works in a field in Koudian Town of Yibin District in Luoyang, central China's Henan Province, Sept. 21, 2022. Chinese farmers' harvest festival, which coincides with the Autumn Equinox each year, falls on Sept. 23 this year. (Photo by Zhang Yixi/Xinhua)

Aerial photo taken on Sept. 17, 2022 shows villagers drying rice grains in Wulong Village of Shahe Township in Ganzhou City, east China's Jiangxi Province. Chinese farmers' harvest festival, which coincides with the Autumn Equinox each year, falls on Sept. 23 this year. (Photo by Zhu Haipeng/Xinhua)

Villagers harvest rice in a paddy field in Shimen Township of Longnan City, northwest China's Gansu Province, Sept. 21, 2022. Chinese farmers' harvest festival, which coincides with the Autumn Equinox each year, falls on Sept. 23 this year. (Photo by Ran Chuangchang/Xinhua)

A villager shows harvested sweet potatoes in Cangtou Village of Jurong City, east China's Jiangsu Province, Sept. 22, 2022. Chinese farmers' harvest festival, which coincides with the Autumn Equinox each year, falls on Sept. 23 this year. (Photo by Zhong Xueman/Xinhua)

A villager loads corn cobs onto a vehicle in Huajian Village of Anding District in Dingxi City, northwest China's Gansu Province, Sept. 22, 2022. Chinese farmers' harvest festival, which coincides with the Autumn Equinox each year, falls on Sept. 23 this year. (Photo by Wang Kexian/Xinhua)

A villager harvests sorghum in Shangjiang Village of Chun'an County in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Sept. 21, 2022. Chinese farmers' harvest festival, which coincides with the Autumn Equinox each year, falls on Sept. 23 this year. (Photo by Mao Yongfeng/Xinhua)

Aerial photo taken on Sept. 22, 2022 shows villagers harvesting rice in a paddy field at a planting base in Gusheng Village of Dali City, southwest China's Yunnan Province. Chinese farmers' harvest festival, which coincides with the Autumn Equinox each year, falls on Sept. 23 this year. (Photo by Liang Zhiqiang/Xinhua)
NANCHANG, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- The water level at Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake in the eastern province of Jiangxi, dropped to its lowest on Friday morning since record-keeping began in 1951, said local authorities.

The water level at the lake's landmark Xingzi hydrological station receded to 7.10 meters at 6 a.m. on Friday, said the provincial hydrologic monitoring center.

The previous record, set in February 2004, stood at 7.11 meters.

The center noted that the lake saw a rapid decrease in water levels due to continuous high temperatures and low precipitation in Jiangxi since late June and relatively less water flowing in from the Yangtze River.

Poyang Lake entered dry season this year on Aug. 6, 92 days earlier than the average since 1951.

The center issued a red alert for low water on Friday for the first time since the warning system was established in 2013 in Jiangxi. Red alert is the most severe warning in this system.

The alert reminds all work units and the public along Poyang Lake to strengthen preparedness and response to ensure drinking water security, production water supply, and ecological water use.

Relatively little rain is the forecast for the upcoming week in Jiangxi. The prospect will further shrink China's largest freshwater lake. 
MACAO, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- The 10th Macao International Travel (Industry) Expo opened Friday in China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) to deepen "tourism plus" integration, drawing together members of the tourism and related sectors from worldwide.

Running under a hybrid of online and offline format, the expo presented seven major highlights to support the tapping of business opportunities online, showcase colorful cultures, present Macao as a platform linking China and Portuguese-speaking countries, and brand the city as a wedding destination.

The Guangdong-Macao in-depth cooperation zone in Hengqin, Zhuhai city, which is adjacent to Macao, joins as a new exhibitor to expand tourism cooperation between Hengqin and Macao.

Lei Wai Nong, secretary for economy and finance of the Macao SAR government, said at the opening ceremony that he hopes the expo can continue to radiate the unique strengths and role of Macao as a platform and create more opportunities for exchange and cooperation among members of the regional and international travel industry.

The expo is scheduled to host about 50 tourism presentation sessions, forums and activities, including those held by mainland provinces and municipalities as well as a high-level forum on tourism development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, according to the Macao Government Tourism Office, organizer of the event.

The exhibition floor covers about 23,000 square meters and accommodates 830 booths. The expo was first held in 2013. 
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with the high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy Josep Borrell Fontelles on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, the United States, Sept. 21, 2022. (Xinhua)

NEW YORK, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met here on Wednesday with European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

As the world enters a period of turbulent evolution, China and the EU, as two major forces in a multi-polar world, should shoulder their due responsibilities, stick to the basic position of being strategic partner each other, and maintain the sound momentum of dialogue and communication, Wang said, expressing belief that the EU will maintain strategic autonomy and work with China to promote the steady and sustained growth of bilateral relations.

The two sides should adhere to mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, reject attempts at decoupling or severing supply chains, Wang said, noting that the two sides should uphold multilateralism and oppose camp confrontation.

The two sides should also seek common ground while shelving differences, refrain from treating each other as rivals, and refrain from reducing cooperation because of competition, he added.

The two sides should hold a new round of high-level strategic dialogue at an early date, and strive to launch high-level dialogues on economy and trade, green development, digital as well as people-to-people and cultural exchanges within this year, Wang said.

The two sides should also step up dialogue and cooperation in the fields of macro-economy, finance, supply chain, energy and climate change to jointly address global challenges, he added.

Noting that today, the world is out of order and Europe faces challenges to stability, Borrell said that the EU attaches great importance to China's status and role as a major country, which is indispensable to addressing global challenges and safeguarding the postwar order.

The EU is willing to continue to maintain strategic communication with China and give full play to the role of high-level dialogue mechanisms in various fields, Borrell said.

The EU is deeply concerned about the possibility of nuclear proliferation and hopes that China will exert its important influence to jointly find a way out of the problem, he said.

Wang said that at the moment, the Ukraine situation is showing a trend of prolongation and expansion, and that its negative spillover effects are becoming more severe, which China does not want to see. He noted that at present the most pressing task is to bring the conflict to an end.

China will neither stand by nor add fuel to the fire, but will continue to play its role in its own way, Wang said, adding that China supports the EU and major European countries to continue to actively mediate and make every effort to strive for peace.

The two sides also discussed human rights issues, agreeing that communication and dialogue should continue and that human rights issues should not be politicized. 
The Tourism Development Fund (TDF) has signed an agreement with the Saudi Endeavor Network (SEN), the local representative of Endeavor International, aiming to enhance opportunities for entrepreneurs in the tourism sector.



This will enable local and international entrepreneurs to benefit from support programs, financing and investment solutions, and services provided by both parties.



The memorandum of understanding (MoU) will contribute to promoting the development of entrepreneurs within tourism sector. The MoU aims to enrich tourism experiences in the Kingdom, positively reflect the prosperity of the tourism sector, and create high-quality projects for tourism destinations by increasing opportunities for entrepreneurs, thereby boosting the economic development of the Kingdom.



The agreement was signed at the third edition of the Future Hospitality Summit, which was hosted in Dubai, UAE, in the presence of TDF's Chief Business Officer, Wahdan Alkadi, and the CEO of Saudi Endeavor Network, Latifa Al-Waalan.



Furthermore, the two parties will build on their existing integration for their mutual benefit, in support of local and international entrepreneurs in the tourism sector. It will also give the targeted entrepreneurs the opportunity to get to know and meet with investors in the Kingdom, in order to create new investment opportunities in the tourism sector commensurate with the nature of the entrepreneurs' businesses.



This networking opportunity will also facilitate marketing opportunities for the entrepreneurs within the tourism ecosystem. Endeavor will identify entrepreneurs within the Endeavor global network and empower them with the Fund's various programs and products. The network will promote investment opportunities and programs offered by TDF, as well as preparing research and reports on entrepreneurship in the tourism sector in the Kingdom.



Qusai bin Abdullah Al-Fakhri, CEO of TDF, said: TDF affirms its keenness, through this MoU, to support and empower entrepreneurs, and to offer the best global experiences in entrepreneurship, as well as to improve the tourist experience by creating high-quality projects. TDFs aim is to link the private and public sectors to jointly support tourism development in the Kingdom, developing Saudi Arabia as a global tourist destination, in line with both the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 and the National Tourism Strategy."



The CEO of the Saudi Endeavor Network, Latifa Al-Waalan, said: The Saudi Endeavor Network aims to support entrepreneurs, providing technology and innovation to build successful projects that positively affect the economy.



Cooperation with TDF is an important opportunity to enhance and support promising entrepreneurs in this sector, especially since developing tourism is one of the keys to success for the Kingdoms Vision 2030, she added.



TDF is participating for the second time as an enabling partner in the Future Hospitality Summit, demonstrating that the tourism and hospitality sectors are forming the future economy of the Kingdom. The Fund's sponsorship of the Summit is a qualitative opportunity that enhances its close communication with the target group of investors and developers for the tourism and hospitality industry.



The Fund will also advertise, through its exhibition in the summit, its most prominent financing solutions and programs on offer, introducing investors and entrepreneurs to support mechanisms and benefits.  TradeArabia News Service
Ugandan Ministry of Health holds a press conference in Kampala, Uganda, Sept. 20, 2022. (Photo by Hajarah Nalwadda/Xinhua)

African countries are on alert, strengthening screening and surveillance after a relatively rare strain of Ebola virus broke out earlier this week in Uganda which has reported seven confirmed cases, including one death.

BRAZZAVILLE, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- African countries are on alert, strengthening screening and surveillance after a relatively rare strain of Ebola virus broke out earlier this week in Uganda. The central African country has reported seven confirmed cases, including one death.

The strain detected is a relatively rare strain, called the Sudan strain, which doesn't have an approved vaccine that can prevent its spread. It's been a decade since this strain was reported globally.

RARE EBOLA STRAIN

Uganda has reported seven confirmed cases, including one death, amid the latest outbreak of the relatively rare Sudan strain of Ebola virus, announced Thursday by Henry Kyobe, incidence commander with Uganda's Ministry of Health.

The file photo shows pupils queueing to wash their hands with chlorinated water to prevent the spread of Ebola at Quality Model Primary School in Kasese district, western Uganda, June 18, 2019. (Xinhua/Nicholas Kajoba)

Kyobe announced at an online press briefing held by the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa, based in Brazzaville, capital of Congo, that the epidemic "appears to have started around the beginning of September."

So far, seven cases, including one death, have been confirmed to have contracted one of the six species of the Ebola virus genus.

Forty-three contacts have been identified and 10 people suspected to have caught the virus are receiving treatment at the Mubende Regional Referral Hospital in the town of Mubende, where the disease was confirmed earlier this week.

It is the first time Uganda has detected the Sudan Ebolavirus since 2012.

Ebola is a severe, often fatal illness affecting humans and other primates. It has six different strains, three of which, Bundibugyo, Sudan, and Zaire, have previously caused large outbreaks.

Case fatality rates of the Sudan strain have varied from 41 percent to 100 percent in past outbreaks, according to the WHO. Current evidence shows that the ERVEBO vaccine, which is highly effective against the Zaire Ebola virus, doesn't provide cross-protection against the Sudan Ebolavirus.

POSSIBLE SPILLOVER

Mubende is in the central region of Uganda and is about a two-hour drive from the capital of Kampala. It sits along a busy road leading to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has been long plagued by the virus.

There are gold mines in the area, which attract people from different parts of Uganda, as well as other countries. The mobile nature of the population in Mubende increases the risk of the possible spread of the virus, warned the WHO.

The WHO has deployed a technical team to the Mubende district. In addition, five international experts will be deployed, with numbers increasing if needed, according to the WHO.

"Africa's stronger homegrown emergency readiness is proving ever more crucial in tackling outbreaks such as Ebola," said Abdou Salam Gueye, the regional emergency director with the WHO Regional Office for Africa.

NEIGHBORS ON ALERT

Due to Uganda's previous outbreaks and the threat of importation of cases from the neighboring DRC which has fought several outbreaks, other neighboring countries have intensified their surveillance to prevent transmission of the Ebola virus.

Mutahi Kagwe, cabinet secretary in the Kenyan Ministry of Health, said Wednesday at a briefing in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, that critical personnel had been deployed at the Ugandan border in western Kenya to help identify potential cases.

The file photo shows people screened for Ebola virus disease (EVD) at the Kenya-Uganda border in Busia, Kenya, June 19, 2019. (Xinhua/Fred Mutune)

Tanzanian health authorities on Wednesday claimed to have activated surveillance teams in high-risk regions of Kagera, Mwanza, Arusha, Mara, Kigoma, and Dar es Salaam, Aifello Sichalwe, the chief medical officer in the Ministry of Health, told Xinhua over the phone.

The South Sudanese government said Tuesday it is stepping up vigilance along its borders following an outbreak of the Ebola-Sudan strain in neighboring Uganda.

Victoria Anib Majur, the undersecretary in the South Sudanese Ministry of Health, advised communities living along the border with Uganda and the DRC to report any suspicious case of Ebola to health authorities.

The Africa CDC on Wednesday also urged neighboring and affected districts to enhance their disease surveillance and laboratory testing, and implement appropriate infection prevention and control measures. 




CHENGDU, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- The 5th Chinese farmers' harvest festival falls on Friday as the country is poised to embrace another bumper grain harvest.

In an agricultural expo park in Chengdu in Sichuan Province, nearly 20 paddy fields were well designed to symbolize a bumper harvest.

To complete these paddy field drawings, the technical team used satellite positioning and 3D technologies to conduct digital mapping.

Linzhou County in Lhasa in China's Tibet has also welcomed a harvest of highland barley.

The crop has been planted in Tibet for more than 3,500 years.

In a modern agricultural industrial park of Suqian in Jiangsu Province, more than 50,000 kg of hairy crabs were transported from here to other parts of China each day recently.

Initiated in 2018, the Chinese farmers' harvest festival is celebrated on the autumnal equinox each year, which is one of the 24 solar terms of the Chinese lunar calendar and usually falls between Sept. 22 and 24 during the country's agricultural harvest season.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service




UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera praised China on Thursday for waiving interest-free loans for over a dozen African nations.

"I commend the People's Republic of China for leading by example by fulfilling the pledge it made at last year's Forum on China-Africa Cooperation to forgive interest-free loans owed by 17 African countries," the president said at the general debate of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

Chakwera recalled that Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva recently called on the world's major lenders to show leadership by relieving vulnerable countries of the debts that are shackling them because "even loans that were given and received in good faith have become unsustainable in the recent and current climate of relentless and unforeseen external shocks."

Reiterating the call with the IMF chief, Chakwera thanked China for taking action.

"Let this be the beginning of breaking the chains holding vulnerable countries back, not the end, because when we say that we are leaving no one behind, this is one way to put our money where our mouth is," said the president.

"I recognize that we too must prove ourselves worthy of such assistance by using it to cushion our citizens against the worsening financial volatility, trade cost, and human suffering the debt and other external factors are causing," he added.

The president underscored that leaving no one behind "has to be practiced, not just preached."

"If we are truly one UN family, we must get out of political posturing and welcome more helping hands in resolving the problems," said the president. 
PHNOM PENH, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- A boat carrying Chinese nationals sunk off southwestern Cambodia's sea on Thursday evening, the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia confirmed on Friday.

According to the Chinese embassy, they received a notification from the Cambodian Police Department on Thursday night, saying that the police found a sunken ship which used to have 41 Chinese citizens on board, with 18 having been rescued and the remaining 23 still missing. Two Cambodian crew members involved have been arrested.

According to the rescued personnel, the people on board departed from Guangzhou, China on Sept. 11 and were in distress shortly after arriving in the waters of Preah Sihanouk province.

The embassy said after receiving the information, Ambassador Wang Wentian immediately deployed staff to contact the Cambodian Ministry of National Defense, the police department, the Sihanoukville Provincial Government and other relevant departments to request rescuing the missing ones. Li Jie, counselor and consul general of the embassy, rushed to Preah Sihanouk on Thursday night to coordinate relevant rescue operations.

So far, the search and rescue operation was still going on. 
WELLINGTON, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand government announced Friday funding for projects that will cut plastic waste and reduce its impact on the environment.

The first four investments were announced to be made from the 50 million-NZ dollar (29.2 million-U.S. dollar) Plastics Innovation Fund, which was set last year, Environment Minister David Parker said in a statement.

The projects include Marley NZ, partnering with Waste Management and Unitec, to minimize construction waste by breaking down old plumbing pipes made of PVC and HDPE and using the material to make new pipes.

The total funding for the four Plastics Innovation Fund projects amounts to 5.57 million NZ dollars (3.25 million U.S. dollars)

"Together, these projects help to turn Kiwi innovation and imagination into reality, and change the way we make, use and dispose of plastics," Parker said.

The minister said the government is also utilizing funding from the Waste Minimization Fund to help design a regulated plastic packaging product stewardship scheme for New Zealand. Once in place it will require producers, brand owners, importers, retailers and consumers to take responsibility for collecting and dealing with plastic packaging.

An estimated 60 percent of plastics imported into New Zealand is used by the packaging sector, statistics showed.

The investment will help reduce the amount of plastic waste that gets into the environment and into landfill, Parker said, adding that they build on the decisive action the government has already taken to tackle the problem of plastic pollution, including the ban on single-use plastic bags, polystyrene food and drink packaging and other single use plastic items. 
BEIJING, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Farid, a local Afghan bus driver, just arrived in Kabul from the country's southern Kandahar province.

"The road is completely broken," the 35-year-old grumbled after bumping along the Kabul-Kandahar highway. "If the road were in a good condition, I would have arrived in four hours, but now it takes 12 hours."

Nineteen years after its completion, the Kabul-Kandahar highway is in dilapidated condition from poor construction, years of landmine explosions, heavily loaded trucks and a lack of maintenance.

Once the showpiece of America's reconstruction effort in Afghanistan, the 483-km highway, at a cost of at least 300 million U.S. dollars, has now become a glaring symbol of America's failures.

"U.S. once spent billions of dollars in Afghanistan but everything has been wasted and stolen," Farid moaned.

Since 2001, Washington has sent more aid in Afghanistan than in any country ever, allocating 145 billion dollars for reconstruction, aid programs and the Afghan security forces.

However, U.S. aid to developing countries has never been aimed at promoting the economic development and social progress of recipient countries, but as a means of exporting American values and instigating internal changes in other countries, analysts say.

SO-CALLED "AFGHANISTAN RECONSTRUCTION"

In October 2001, the United States launched the war in Afghanistan to defeat al-Qaeda and its Taliban hosts. In the following 20 years, Washington has poured massive resources in the landlocked country, backing its government, training its army. But as yet the upshot of it all has been far from what was intended.

The foreign aid-built infrastructure in Afghanistan, including roads, schools and health facilities, is not a self-sustaining private sector, critics point out.

The money often went into projects that were "not sustainable with existing Afghan revenues or other ways they could support it going forward without the U.S.," according to Brown University's Professor Catherine Lutz.

Much of the aid flowed through U.S. contractors to allay the U.S. prime concerns, such as counterinsurgency and counterterrorism, in contrast with meagre scraps reaching Afghans and Afghan-owned businesses.

In his 2010 memoir, "Decision Points," former U.S. President George W. Bush wrote that Washington had a moral obligation to leave behind something better. "We also had a strategic interest in helping the Afghan people build a free society," he wrote.

But two decades later, Afghanistan is more volatile, divided and impoverished than it was in 2001, with terrorist groups still rampant, transnational crimes including drug trafficking posing a huge threat to national security and more than half of the Afghan population in need of humanitarian assistance.

America during its presence in Afghanistan frequently described its mission as fighting terrorism, building governing system, ensuring security and building infrastructure, but "we Afghans can't see it in our life," said Najibullah Jami, a professor of politics and international relations at Kabul University.

"Instead of improving our living conditions, America had dropped bombs on, killed and arrested Afghans, created enmity between Afghanistan and its neighboring countries, and backed extremist groups in central Asia," he said.

"America's 20-year presence in Afghanistan had no results. All of them were here for their own interests," said Khair Mohammad, a local Afghan in his sixties. Mohammad makes a living by helping others lift heavy items but can only earn 2,000 afghani (22 dollars) per month at most.

Adding to the Afghan people's sufferings was Washington's confiscation of 9.5 billion dollars in Afghanistan's currency reserves last year, which is equivalent to about 40 percent of its economy. This, coupled with the U.S. sanctions on the Taliban, is paralyzing Afghan banks and plunging the country deeper into an economic and humanitarian crisis.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, over 24 million people -- more than half of the Afghan population -- are in need of humanitarian assistance in 2022, an increase of 30 percent from last year.

"Twenty years ago when Americans came to Afghanistan, we didn't have electricity and we don't have it now. Twenty years ago, poor people didn't have houses and they don't have houses now either," said Nasir Ahmad Amiri, a teacher at a disability rehabilitation center in Kabul.

"U.S. gave the aid because of the expansion of its hegemony, presence and survival in Afghanistan. When U.S. left Afghanistan, it took everything away," said the 50-year-old man.

"The U.S. presence in Afghanistan under the name of democracy was a deception," said political analyst Abdul Nasir Rishtia.

STAGNANT INFRASTRUCTURE PLANS

Besides Afghanistan, the United States has tried to woo developing countries in other regions into its camp by presenting aid programs, but few of them prove to be trustworthy.

In June, U.S. President Joe Biden announced the G7's Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) initiative, pledging to mobilize by 2027 600 billion dollars in public and private funding for developing countries in four areas: health and health security, digital connectivity, gender equality and equity, and climate and energy security.

However, the PGII, according to analysts, is nothing new but a rebranding of the Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative, put forward at the 2021 G7 summit to "help narrow the 40+ trillion dollars infrastructure need in the developing world."

Since its launch, the B3W has "languished" with announced projects worth "a paltry 6 million dollars," a far cry from the billions Biden has promised, said Foreign Affairs in an article published in June.

"There is a generalized agreement that B3W has not delivered what it promised," said Jorge Heine, former Chilean ambassador to China.

As a result of internal challenges and Washington's underlying aim of exerting influence on other countries, the PGII is facing a grim prospect, analysts say.

Domestically, due to the strong opposition of Republicans and months of Democrat infighting, a roughly 2 trillion-dollar domestic infrastructure plan unveiled in 2021 was finally reduced to 1 trillion dollars, and the United States itself faces 2.59 trillion dollars shortfall in infrastructure needs from 2020 to 2029.

"The question is, if the U.S. Congress won't put up hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild its own country, how might Biden convince lawmakers to offer comparable amounts to build infrastructure in other countries?" said a South China Morning Post columnist.

Given possible risks, U.S. private companies have little appetite for investing overseas. The approach of the PGII is actually "a gamble," said Conor Savoy, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonprofit policy research organization headquartered in Washington.

"To date, this notion remains more promise than reality," he wrote in an article in June.

Observers say the fundamental purpose of Washington's global infrastructure projects, including the B3W and the PGII, is to exert influence on other countries.

The country has "often worked to overthrow democratically elected governments that didn't follow a course that business interests in the U.S. wanted," said Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research based in Washington.

The United States completely ignores African reality and puts its interests above those of Africans, Bissau-Guinean international politics commentator Seco Cassama told Xinhua.

"It only wants hegemony in Africa," he said.

VACCINE NATIONALISM

Apart from development aid, Washington has long boasted about its efforts to provide humanitarian aid to other countries, such as COVID-19 vaccines. Actually, the United States has become "one of the world's leading practitioners of vaccine nationalism," the Harvard Political Review reported.

By February 2021, Washington has hoarded 1.11 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines, far more than 656.4 million for two doses for every American, and its surplus doses were estimated to reach 1.27 billion by the end of 2022, reports said.

Though Washington has pledged since June 2021 to donate at least 1.1 billion doses of vaccines, only 616.6 million doses have been delivered to date, data from the U.S. State Department showed.

The United States also exported vaccines very close to expiration to Africa, leading some African countries to destroy them and even refuse its further donations.

For instance, early donations of AstraZeneca shots to Africa often arrived with little time left before they expired. It is reported that a batch of 191,000 AstraZeneca vaccines rejected by South Africa and reallocated to South Sudan last year arrived there just two weeks before their expiry date. Some 59,000 vaccines were destroyed as a result.

The African Vaccine Acquisition Trust, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and COVAX issued a joint statement last November, calling for "predictable and reliable" donations, while the United States discarded 82.1 million vaccine doses from December 2020 through mid-May in 2022, just over 11 percent of the doses the federal government distributed, NBC News reported. 
LONDON, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- The British government formally lifted a ban on fracking for shale gas in England on Thursday and confirmed support for new oil and gas licensing round.

According to a statement published Thursday, to "bolster the country's energy security," the British government has lifted the moratorium on shale gas production in England.

The government has also confirmed plans for a new oil and gas licensing round, launching by the North Sea Transition Authority in early October, paving the way for more than 100 new licences for exploration, which could involve fracking. These licences will enable developers to search for commercially viable oil and gas sources.

Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg said strengthening Britain's energy security is "an absolute priority."

In 2019, the British government said that fracking would resume only if "the science shows categorically that it can be done safely." However, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy argued Thursday that lifting the ban would enable further data to be collected.

The moratorium on shale-gas production has been in place in England since 2019 following concerns over earth tremors. According to an Oil and Gas Authority report, it is not possible with current technology to accurately predict the probability of tremors associated with fracking. 
STOCKHOLM, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Forty-eight people have been shot dead so far in Sweden this year, making 2022 the deadliest year the country has seen since 2016, the Swedish Police Authority said on Friday.

The previous annual record was set in 2020, when 47 people died of gun-related injuries.

In recent years, most fatal shootings occurred in the Stockholm region. The Police Authority told the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter (DN) in August that the situation was "particularly serious, especially in Stockholm, because many of the most serious criminal conflicts take place there." The authority said it was working "to increase its preparedness to prevent gross violence and gang crime."

"Despite the fact that we have made the largest investment in history in law enforcement and have more police officers than ever before, and despite record numbers of criminals being arrested and sentenced to long prison terms, the shootings continue," Minister for Justice and Home Affairs Morgan Johansson said. "This is because for every perpetrator arrested, there is at least one other who is ready to fill the shoes that become empty."

A report presented by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention last spring showed that Sweden was the only one among 22 compared countries in Europe where the trend of fatal shootings was on a steady increase.

The rise in fatal shootings in Sweden began in the mid-2000s, but the increase gained new momentum in 2013 and has since continued.

According to the report, eight out of ten fatal shootings in Sweden took place in a gang environment. The Police Authority identified 61 areas in the country that were "particularly vulnerable" to street crime and drug trafficking.

Crime and gun violence topped the agenda in Sweden's recent general elections, and politicians from all major parties vowed to tackle the soaring crime levels. The elections saw the far-right, anti-immigration Sweden Democrats become the country's second largest party with more than 20 percent of popular support. 
by Xinhua writer Tai Beiping

BEIJING, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- After losing reliable and more affordable supplies from Russia, the European Union (EU) is facing a very difficult energy sector structural readjustment and may slip into economic recession this winter or next spring, a Chinese scholar on European studies has said.

"If there were no Russia-Ukraine conflict, the next 10 or 20 years could be good days for Europe. It would play a leading role in renewable energy transformation, and at the same time it could continue to use convenient and affordable energy from Russia," Cui Hongjian, director of the department for European studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

However, since EU countries followed the United States to impose sanctions on Russia, things have changed.

Energy supply from Russia, notably natural gas pipelined via the Baltic Sea, was seriously reduced. Up to 40 percent of the natural gas used previously in the EU to heat homes and power businesses came from Russia. Now this figure has fallen to around 9 percent.

An energy crisis hits European countries especially hard as they rely heavily on imported energy, which is key to their economies, said the scholar.

"Europe is a relatively energy-poor continent. Of course, the Europe we are talking about now is Europe other than Russia," he said. In this context, Europe has proposed engaging in green transition and directing its energy supply toward more renewables and less fossil fuel.

Under its original plans, the period from now to 2030 would serve as an important energy transition period for EU, Cui said. During this period, Europe could gradually reduce dependence on fossil energy. Now the balance has been broken, and many tasks that had been scheduled for the future must be done immediately.

"The EU has given itself a task: By 2027, it has to complete replacing Russian energy. In other words, now 40 percent of natural gas and more than 30 percent of oil have to be found elsewhere. The task is very arduous since the world energy market is relatively saturated," he said.

The economic structure of European countries makes them particularly vulnerable to an energy crisis, the scholar said. "When we look at the economic structure of Europe, on one hand they lack energy, and on the other, Europe lacks a large market."

He explained that for a long time Europe has been taking advantage of globalization, importing raw materials and exporting high-level industrial products and finished goods. The profits of the European industrial system are mainly from huge intermediate added value.

As the energy crisis intensifies, Europe could slip into a recession this winter into next spring, Cui warned.

"Germany, the locomotive of the European economy, has stagnated in the second quarter. There is a high probability that the European economy represented by Germany is likely to experience a recession."

To make things worse, it will also have an impact on the existing industrial system, including some current fiscal structures, as well as the current welfare systems in Europe, he added.

As EU countries suffer from the lingering energy crisis, the United States becomes the biggest beneficiary, the scholar said, adding that Europe is reluctant to abandon Russian energy, which is more convenient and cost-effective, and switch to buying expensive American liquefied natural gas.

"(Former U.S. President Donald) Trump tried desperately to sell to Europe before, but at the time Europe was reluctant to accept it because of market and economic reasons. But the Ukraine crisis is changing all that," he said.

In June, the quantity of liquefied natural gas purchased by Europe from the United States exceeded the pipeline transported gas purchased from Russia, which means that the United States is replacing Russia and may become Europe's largest energy supplier, Cui said.

Meanwhile, such purchases, made in haste, can't enjoy the favorable prices locked through long-term contracts. Europeans can only buy at short-term contract prices that are remarkably higher.

"Therefore, we can see that the United States is the biggest beneficiary of this energy crisis. Huge profits flow into the pockets of U.S. natural gas suppliers."

The United States has not only destroyed Russia's energy supply to Europe, but also replaced it, making Europe not only more dependent on it for security, but also for energy in the future, Cui said. 
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness speaks during the General Debate of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly at the UN Headquarters in New York, on Sept. 22, 2022. (Cia Pak/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Thursday stressed the need for climate action to ensure the survival of small island developing states.

"Climate Change is an immediate existential threat for small island developing states like Jamaica," Holness told the General Debate of the UN General Assembly, noting that a single climate event could wipe out 100 percent of the economy of a small island developing state in a few hours.

"Concerted action to slow down and halt global temperature rise is literally a question of our survival. While we will continue to develop our own resilience and play our part in mitigating climate change, we cannot, by our action alone, change the trajectory," he said.

Jamaica looks forward to the convening of the UN Climate Change Conference in Egypt later this year. It calls on all countries to meet their commitments and contributions to climate targets, and calls on the developed world to increase their commitments and ambitions in climate financing, particularly for adaptation and for loss and damage.

Small island developing states and some middle-income countries have particular vulnerability to climate shocks and external economic shocks, which have an oversized impact relative to their national budgets, and often crippling impact on their infrastructure, he said.

For small island developing states to survive economic shocks and recover lost and damaged infrastructure, they are forced to borrow, only to be confronted again in a few years with another round of natural disasters, which could wipe out significant infrastructure and force them to add to their already high debt, said Holness.

Jamaica believes that a comprehensive and targeted approach to accessing development finance is needed," he said. "We eagerly anticipate an era of truly equitable access to concessional financing and other funding support which will enable us to invest in resilient infrastructure and create fiscal buffers so that we can withstand and recover quickly from the next economic, health or climate shock with little borrowing."

The prime minister warned that without the acknowledgment of vulnerability as a basis for access to finance, small island developing states will continue to struggle and will be unable to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. 


51-year-old Ghulam Ali Khatana from Jammu has worked with the RSS affiliated Muslim Rashtriya Manch and has held several positions within the BJP.

Ubair Ul Hameed | TwoCircles.net

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SRINAGAR  Ghulam Ali Khatana, a little-known political activist affiliated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the President of India.

The development has come as a surprise in the political circles in Jammu and Kashmir.

51-year-old Khatana is the second Gujjar leader from Jammu and Kashmir to be nominated for the upper house of the parliament. Prior to Khatana, a senior Congress Gujjar leader Chowdhary Mohammad Aslam from Poonchs Lassana village too had been a Rajya Sabha MP from June 2006 to November 2008.

Khatana is a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) Tribal Morcha and Minority Morcha, a party spokesman for Jammu and Kashmir, and a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Khatana, a Jammu native, participated in student politics while studying electrical engineering. He joined the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party in 2001. In 2008, he joined the RSS and later on, he moved to the BJP where he has held different positions.

Political observers in the region believe that the BJP nominated Khatana to woo the Gujjar tribes, who make up to 15 per cent of J&Ks population.

Community leaders from the Gujjar community welcomed the move and said that the BJP would benefit electorally from this.

Tribal rights activist and Gujjar leader Javed Rahi said the community in J&K has been overlooked in the political arena for decades, and Khatanas nomination will help fill that void.

After the abrogation of Article 370, we were expecting steps for the betterment of Gujjars and Bakarwals. This decision is historic for the tribal population, he was quoted as saying by The Tribune.

Ravinder Raina, the BJPs Jammu and Kashmir president, said Khatannas nomination was a deliberate choice made after months of talks. He said that numerous names were discussed, but his name received permission from the highest level.

Raina said that Khatana joined the party when no one would have imagined BJP coming to power at national level or in Jammu and Kashmir.

Through all difficult times he remained a committed worker of the party without any personal interest, Raina said.

The Gujjar community, according to Raina, has always been fiercely patriotic and nationalistic, and their sacrifices deserve to be honoured and acknowledged.

Before Ghulam Ali Khatana, Chowdhary Mohammad Aslam, a prominent Congress Gujjar politician from Poonchs Lassana hamlet, served as a Rajya Sabha MP from June 2006 until November 2008.

Nine seats were set aside for Scheduled Tribes (STs), mostly Gujjars and Bakerwals when the 90 Assembly districts in J&K were recently delineated. The BJP, which has a solid support base in approximately 30 seats in the Jammu area that are primarily populated by Hindus, is now asking for assistance from the Gujjars and Bakerwal group to win a majority.

In J&K, the Gujjar and Bakerwal communities were designated as a scheduled tribe (ST) by the then-Congress-led central government in 1991, but in 2022, the Narendra Modi-led BJP government granted them a political quota.

According to the BJP, Khatanas nomination may also affect other regions of the nation, such as Rajasthan, where there are a sizable number of Gujjars. Gujjars are primarily Hindu throughout the rest of the country but are Muslim in J&K.

Khatana has played a vital role in garnering support for the BJPs decision to repeal Article 370 among his community. Soon after the abrogation, he organised a national-level gathering in Jammu that was attended by important Muslim leaders and intellectuals.

Ubair ul Hameed is a fellow with the SEED-TCN Mentorship Program. He tweets at @UbairUlHameed
WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden has drawn criticism for saying the COVID-19 pandemic "is over" even as the coronavirus continues to take hundreds of lives across the country a day.

"The pandemic is over," Biden said during an appearance on a CBS program, 60 Minutes, which was recorded when he visited the Detroit Auto Show in Michigan earlier this month.

Though Biden acknowledged that the United States still has "a problem with COVID," he doubled down on the statement that "the pandemic is over," stressing that "if you notice, no one's wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape."

PANDEMIC "NOT OVER"

The Washington Post penned an editorial this week in response to Biden's comments, writing straightforwardly that "the pandemic is surely not over."

"The pandemic is still raging -- in the sense that a dangerous virus is infecting, sickening and killing people, mutating to survive and haunting the globe," the article wrote. "The pandemic has shifted -- and normalcy has returned in many ways -- but it is not over."

The seven-day moving average of new COVID-19 deaths in the United States is over 350 while nearly 60,000 infections have been reported each day, according to the latest COVID data tracker weekly review released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In total, the United States has seen nearly 96 million COVID-19 cases and more than 1 million related deaths. Both numbers remain the highest in the world.

Eric Topol, professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research, a nonprofit American medical research institution, wrote in an opinion piece published by the Los Angeles Times that "all the data tell us the virus is not contained" in the United States, as "far too many people are dying and suffering."

Topol pointed out that actual new infections are "a multiple of" registered numbers considering the untested and unreported cases, arguing that "the virus is still fulfilling its principal objective of finding a huge number of new or repeat hosts to help spread and perpetuate itself."

"We will remain vulnerable if we pretend the pandemic is over," he warned.

Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine and surgery at the George Washington University School, tweeted that the United States is "still in a pandemic" if "hundreds of thousands of people are becoming infected every day and thousands are dying every week."

SEVERE CONSEQUENCES

Due to COVID-19, the average life expectancy of Americans fell in 2020 and 2021, the sharpest two-year decline in nearly a century, according to a report published by the CDC in late August.

Besides, the virus has become the third-leading cause of death in the United States after heart disease and cancer, said the CDC, while "long COVID" -- defined as symptoms lasting three or more months after first contracting the virus -- continues to impact the life and work of millions of Americans.

A group of protesters -- including those suffering from myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), due to "long COVID" -- demonstrated outside the White House this week, calling out Biden for his remarks about the pandemic.

"We are sick and disabled with ME/CFS and long COVID but we are here today, putting our bodies on the line, to tell President Biden that the pandemic is not over, (and) that millions of us are being disabled from post-viral disease, and we need urgent action from our government," said Ben HsuBorger, a person with ME/CFS.

"COVID death and disability continues to heavily impact Black, Latin, Indigenous and low-income communities. We are not in 'pretty good shape,' and we will not forget that President Biden is throwing us away with his denial of the pandemic," said Claudia Carrera, a person with ME/CFS.

VIGILANCE URGED

Steven Thrasher, a journalism professor at Northwestern University, tweeted that he believes Biden's assertion that the COVID-19 pandemic is over is both "reckless" and "irresponsible."

Thrasher also expressed concern that many businesses, state and local governments, no-profits, and educational institutions across the United States would "end all attempts at mitigation, support, and care" as a result of the remarks.

Lawrence Gostin, director of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law and professor at Georgetown Law, tweeted that he's worried that members of the public may relax masking and even delay getting vaccinated.

"As we move to respiratory virus season & launch a vaccine campaign, we must urge vigilance," Gostin said. 
UNITED NATIONS: The BRICS countreis, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa expressed concern over the rise in and persistence of conflicts around the world and reaffirmed their commitment to the peaceful resolution of differences and disputes through dialogue. They backed all initiatives aimed at a "peaceful settlement" of the situation in Ukraine.

Carlos Alberto Franco Franca, the foreign minister of Brazil, met with Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, S. Jaishankar, Wang Yi, the foreign minister of China, and Naledi Pandor, the minister of international relations and cooperation of the Republic of South Africa, on Thursday. The gathering took place in conjunction with the high-level UN General Assembly session.

The ministers "committed to respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all States, stressed their commitment to the peaceful resolution of differences and disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation, and supported all efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of the situation in Ukraine," according to a press release from the Ministry of External Affairs.

The Ministers "raised concern on the growing and ongoing conflicts in many parts of the world," according to a news release issued following the meeting, which was presided over by South Africa in its capacity as the incoming BRICS Chair for 2023. They emphasised the necessity of upholding the fundamental standards of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence established as well as the strict adherence to international humanitarian law. In the statement, it was stated that they "recalled their national stances regarding the situation in Ukraine as voiced in the appropriate fora, notably the UNSC and UNGA."

The trajectory of the Ukraine crisis is a source of grave concern for the whole international community, Jaishankar stated earlier in the day at a UN Security Council meeting. "The prospect for the future is much more unsettling. Particularly unsettling is the nuclear problem. Jaishankar told the UN Security Council that it is urgent to put a stop to the violence in Ukraine and resume communication and diplomacy, reiterating Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remark to Russian President Vladimir Putin that this cannot be a time of war.

The BRICS Ministers emphasised their commitment to the peaceful resolution of differences and disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation and supported all initiatives conducive to the peaceful settlement of crises. The BRICS Ministers stressed their commitment to respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all States.

They reaffirmed their commitment to joint initiatives for the peaceful resolution of conflicts through political and diplomatic channels and acknowledged the UNSC's role as the principal institution in charge of preserving world peace and security. They emphasised the necessity of abstaining from any coercive actions that are not supported by international law and the UN Charter once more.

The Ministers discussed intra-BRICS initiatives as well as significant global and regional concerns on the United Nations' agenda in the political, security, economic, financial, and sustainable development domains.

At the 77th United Nations General Assembly, they spoke about the potential for mutual support of their projects. They voiced support for the BRICS nations' sustained collaboration in areas of shared interest, including regular interactions between their Permanent Missions to the UN.

The UN's "central role in an international system where sovereign states cooperate to maintain peace and security," the advancement of sustainable development, and the promotion and protection of democracy, human rights, and fundamental freedoms for all were all emphasised by the Ministers as they reaffirmed their commitment to multilateralism through upholding international law, including the goals and principles enshrined in the UN Charter as its indispensable cornerstone.

The Ministers reaffirmed their dedication to bolstering and reforming the multilateral system, particularly the UN and its main organs, in order to make the institutions and tools of global governance more inclusive, representative, participatory, revitalised, and democratic as well as to facilitate greater and more meaningful participation of developing and least developed countries, particularly in Africa, in international decision-making processes and structures.

The Ministers emphasized the need for the global governance system to be inclusive and effective as well as the G20's significance in this regard as a leading multilateral forum for economic cooperation that brings together significant developed and developing nations on an equal footing for their mutual benefit. They firmly believed that the G20 should carry on operating in a fruitful manner, concentrating on the production of tangible results, and making decisions by consensus.

They expressed their appreciation for the current Indonesian Presidency's skillful management of this platform and pledged to make a positive contribution to the success of the future G20 Bali Summit, which will take place on November 1516, 2022. They demanded that the means necessary to carry out the 2030 Agenda be mobilised in order to implement it in its three dimensions -- conomic, social, and environmental -- in a manner that is balanced and integrated.

Regulation passed to conserve the oldest stretch of Great Wall of China

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Homo Sapiens may be the most wise yet we fail to understand what exactly are our priorities, a piece of cloth or someones life. Or is it the fact that for some countries their so-called beliefs are more important than the lives of women? Because I am not talking only about the incidents that are taking place in Iran, but all over the world, which is why it brings the question, where exactly did we go wrong? The fight is not only about the rights of women, neither it is the fight about feminism or of feminists, as it seems that we are so busy in our fights, we forget that no matter what, someones LIFE comes first!

Women , life , freedom .

Iranian women and girls are fighting for their freedom in the streets .

Hoping for freedom .#_ #MahsaAmini#OpIran pic.twitter.com/v09g0U4LOD uG , (@i_ugac) September 23, 2022

However, it is very important to know EXACTLY what is going on in Iran, and not be misinformed about it and see it as a trend like many other situations where the life of a Human being, a Woman ended up being a trend with herself being long forgotten, so here is a rundown:

Mahsa Amini, 22, was killed by Iran's morality police, Gasht-e-Ershad (Guidance Patrols), for wearing an "improper hijab," which has caused widespread protests around the nation and a contentious discussion on social media over hijabs and women's rights. In Montreal, protesters have also come to the streets to demand justice and freedom for Iranian women.

The protest has now turned into he said she said, and the Public vs the Authorities, with over 40 killed. Demonstrators were killed by security forces in Urmia, Piranshahr, and Kermanshah, according to activists, and few of them were women. Authorities claim that demonstrators are responsible for the deaths of a police officer in Shiraz and two civilians in Kermanshah.

3)

Another woman, Hananeh Kia, 23 Yr old was shot by Iranian security forces while she was protesting over the murder of #MahsaAmini in Nowshar city.

She is one of the dozens of ppl lost their lives during the ongoing protests. The world must take action against our killers pic.twitter.com/hNoBRknHpg Masih Alinejad (@AlinejadMasih) September 23, 2022

After three days in a coma, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman from the northwestern city of Saqez passed away in the hospital on Friday. She was detained by morality police while in Tehran with her brother on the grounds that she had disobeyed the legislation requiring women to cover their arms and legs with loose clothing and their hair with a hijab, or headscarf. Soon after collapsing at a correctional facility, she entered a coma. According to accounts, police reportedly used a baton to strike Ms Amini in the head and hit her head against one of their cars, according to acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada al-Nashif. She was not harmed, according to the police, who claimed she had "sudden heart failure." However, her relatives said that she was in good health.

"Mahsa Amini's tragic death and allegations of torture and ill-treatment must be promptly, impartially and effectively investigated by an independent competent authority, that ensures, in particular, that her family has access to justice and truth," Ms Nashif said. "The authorities must stop targeting, harassing, and detaining women who do not abide by the hijab rules," she added, calling for their repeal.

Iran's internet connection will be completely restricted soon!

I hope even after that, we won't be forgotten...#_ #MahsaAmini #Mahsa_Amini

 pic.twitter.com/7tWFgSojse hasti (@hsti_mes) September 23, 2022

The Hijab Laws in Iran:

After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iranian authorities enforced a strict dress code requiring all women to cover their faces and bodies in public by donning loose-fitting garments.

The "Gasht-e Ershad" (Guidance Patrols) morality police are in charge of, among other things, making sure ladies dress according to what the authorities consider to be "appropriate." Officers have the authority to stop women and determine whether their hair is showing excessively, whether their overcoats and pants are too short or tight, or whether they are sporting excessive amounts of makeup. Fines, jail time, or public whipping are possible penalties for breaking the rules.

In 2014, Iranian women started sharing pictures and videos of themselves publicly flouting the hijab laws as part of an online protest campaign called "My Stealthy Freedom". It has since inspired other movements, including "White Wednesdays" and "Girls of Revolution Street".

We are killed for the sin of being a woman#MahsaAmini #_ pic.twitter.com/mZT8H5ix4d    (@Gheisariov) September 17, 2022

The death of the 22-year-old has ignited increased Islamophobia and support for hijab bans in countries such as France, Denmark and India. However, amongst all this, we fail to understand that by banning the hijab and by making it mandatory, no one is winning or losing, however, what actually will be happening is that the authorities will yet again get a chance to decide what a woman should or should not be wearing.

Women in Iran who remove and burn their hijabs are not criticising the hijab but rather demanding the freedom of choice that Islam grants women but which the government has taken away. By refusing to allow the government to dictate what they should and should not wear, Iranian women are asserting the right to freedom and choice. Their use of phrases like "Down with the oppressor, whether Shah or a Rehbar" and "Zen, Zindagi, Azadi (Woman, Life, Freedom)" is an attack on the state rather than on religion.

This is Iran today. A woman proudly burning the most visible symbol of religious dictatorship; compulsory hijab.

Hijab police killed #MahsaAmini but now there are millions of Mahsa in Iran who are shouting NO to Forced hijab NO to gender apartheid regime.#_ pic.twitter.com/9tzd9IRwgB Masih Alinejad (@AlinejadMasih) September 19, 2022

Mahsa Amini's death is tragic and ought to be denounced. However, it shouldn't be used as justification for regulating the hijab and the bodies of Muslim women, or of any Woman, be it Iran, France, America, or India. As, the moment we decide to ban a piece of cloth or mandate a piece of cloth on behalf of women, claiming that it is only for their own good, we as a society leave behind all the progress we have made so far in the fight for equality.

'First wear Hijab then...,' Iranian president refuses to give interview

No Hijab Needed! 40 protesters died, Internet closed.., Women's protests turned more violent in Iran

'Dictator should...', 'Anti-hijab' women's fierce protest against Islamic country's supreme leader
NAIROBI: The United Nations has warned that a severe drought will affect at least 36.1 million people in the Horn of Africa in October, including 24.1 million people in Ethiopia, 7.8 million people in Somalia, and 4.2 million people in Kenya.

The figure reflects a huge increase from July, when it was projected that 19.4 million people were afflicted by drought, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as per reports.

OCHA said, humanitarian organisations are already in a race against time and are working around the clock to address this catastrophe, which is rapidly getting worse.

In its latest humanitarian brief on the drought, which was posted on Wednesday night, OCHA said that "urgent extra funding is required to scale up and sustain the response."

Communities in the Horn of Africa are reportedly under immediate threat of starvation as the October-December rainy season is expected to be less successful than average, making it the fifth consecutive unsuccessful season in some regions of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia.

OCHA said, two districts in Somalia are immediately in danger of going hungry, and between October and December, at least 21 million people are expected to experience severe food insecurity as a result of droughts in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. The awful droughts in 2010-2011 and 2016-2017 have now been eclipsed in both time and intensity by the horrific droughts in 2020-2022 and will continue to worsen in the months to come, with disastrous repercussions." it said.

According to the report, food prices are skyrocketing in many drought-affected areas as a result of a confluence of macroeconomic difficulties, below-average harvests, and increased food and fuel prices on global markets, notably as a result of the conflict between the Ukraine and Russia.

According to price monitoring data from the World Food Program (WFP), the cost of basic foods in Somalia's drought-stricken districts has risen above both the levels seen during the 2017 drought and the 2011 famine. According to the WFP, the price of the local food basket grew by more than 33% in Ethiopia between January and June 2022.

Families are being forced to sell their hard-earned assets and properties in order to buy food and other essentials due to rising prices that make it impossible for them to afford even basic necessities. There are also effects on programmes that provide food for refugees, which are already negatively impacted by lower rations as a result of a lack of financial support.

Hungary's Orban declares war on Brussels?

China Announces Precision-Strike Reconnaissance Drone to Strengthen Defense at India Border

Fundamental tenets of the United Nations are in danger
EU seeks deal to cap Russian oil prices after Putins threats, reports Bloomberg 23 September, 03:01 PM Russian dictator Vladimir Putin (Photo:Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via REUTERS)

EU leaders want to conclude an agreement within the next few weeks to limit the price of Russian oil, U.S. financial news outlet Bloomberg reported on Sept. 22, with reference to its sources.

According to these sources, this initiative received a new impetus after Russian dictator Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization in Russia, and is likely to be presented as part of a new package of sanctions from the European Commission.

At the same time, it is noted that this initiative faces many obstacles and a positive outcome is not certain. In the European Union, decisions on sanctions require unanimity, and each EU member has its own energy needs.

Video of day

Bloomberg writes that representatives of EU member states will meet with the European Commission this weekend to discuss the new sanctions package  the eighth since the start of the full-scale war. In addition to limiting oil prices, these may include additional sanctions against individuals, as well as the technology sector and luxury goods.

Bloomberg sources say that many details still need to be agreed on, in particular, at what price to set the limit, and it is not yet clear how exactly this scheme would function in practice. It also remains unclear how such a limit will be applied along with the EU embargo on Russian oil and the ban on services necessary for its delivery.

However, Bloomberg notes that price restrictions on Russian oil must be adopted before the embargo comes into force on Dec. 5.

Representatives of national governments in Brussels will seek to reach a preliminary agreement on price caps before an informal meeting of EU leaders in Prague on Oct. 6. Hungary is expected to be one of the biggest opponents of the new restrictions.

According to Bloomberg, the adoption of the restriction will require member states to put aside national interests in favor of European solidarity. EU states that have received exemptions for oil coming through their pipelines will want to ensure that they are maintained, while countries importing oil by sea may try to link the price cap to the current full embargo on maritime supplies to level the playing field.

G7 finance ministers confirmed their intention to set a price ceiling for Russian oil in early September. It was reported then that the restrictions could come into force on Dec. 5.

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Medvedchuk leaves Turkey for Russia 23 September, 08:14 PM Viktor Medvedchuk (Photo:Office of the President)

Former Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, recently swapped in a prisoner ex-change, has left Turkey for Russia, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sept. 23, according to Turkish state news agency Anadolu.

We have 200 people under our control, Erdogan said.

On one of them (Medvedchuk - ed.) Putin insisted in particular. We have already sent him to Russia.

According to him, the persons released as part of the exchange are guests of Turkey.

On Sept 21., Ukraine returned 215 defenders from Russian captivity in the largest prisoner swap since the beginning of the full-scale war. 108 of them members of the Azov Regiment, captured following the fall of Mariupol.

Video of day

Five of the released Azov commanders were exchanged for 55 Russian soldiers. They will re-main in Turkey under guarantees of protection and security.

In exchange for the remaining 210 fighters, Ukraine transferred Medvedchuk, who is charged with treason, to Russia.

The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said that the exchange was traumatic for Medvedchuk.

As a political factor, as an oligarch, as a businessman, as an agent of influence, he is completely declassed, they noted.

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Ukraine conducts largest prisoner swap, Kuleba goes on The Late Show, and Yovanovitch speaks out about Ukraine 23 September, 02:50 PM

Newsletter by Romeo Kokriatski, Managing Editor, New Voice of Ukraine Friday, September 23th, 2022.

 Ukraine and Russia conduct the largest prisoner swap since the start of the full-scale invasion.

215 Ukrainians were traded for 56 Russian prisoners on Sept. 21, including 108 members of the Azov Regiment. Notable figures from the Ukrainian side include five top Azov commanders, as well as ten international volunteers  many of whom had previously been sentenced to death by a court of the Donbas puppet authorities. Ukraine, meanwhile, sent Russia Viktor Medvedchuk  the pro-Russian politician whose daughter is Putins goddaughter.

Video of day

 Photos of the momentous event have been made available. Meanwhile, some of the Ukrainians that have been returned are survivors of the Olenivka POW camp, which was struck by a Russian false flag attack.

 The EU has agreed to step up sanctions on Russia in light of its partial mobilization.

EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Josep Borrell said that Russias recent statements "showed panic and desperation, and a result, "It's clear that Putin is trying to destroy Ukraine. After a briefing by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, EU ministers agreed to instruct their teams to prepare an eighth package of sanctions, which will target "more relevant sectors of the Russian economy and continue targeting people responsible for the war of aggression in Ukraine.

 The International Atomic Energy Agency has begun negotiations on the creation of a safe zone around the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Following a meeting between IAEA head Rafael Grossi and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Kuleba revealed that the discussions revolved around ways to restore security at the ZNPP and stressed that Russia must withdraw its troops and specialists from the plant, and return it to Ukrainian control. Grossi also met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, presumably on the same topic. During a press briefing following the meeting, the IAEA Director General said he hoped to travel to Ukraine and Russia soon to speed up security talks, and stressed that a decision must be made as soon as possible.

 A Russian strike on the Kharkiv train station destroys several refrigerated carriages carrying the bodies of killed Russian servicemembers.

The number of carriages destroyed was not specified by the Ukrainian government. However, Ukraines General Staff has continuously reported on efforts by the Russian military leadership to hide the scale of losses the Russian army has taken in Ukraine. According to official data from the Russian Ministry of Defense, only 6,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine  compared to Ukraines claim of over 55,000 killed. Documents leaked from the Russian Federation suggest the Ukrainians number is more accurate, however.

 The World Bank has invested in Ukraine for the first time since the start of the full-scale war.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is part of the World Bank, has allocated $30 million for investments in Ukraine and Moldova, according to a statement released by Ukraines Economy Ministry. The funds will be channelled through a $200 million trust fund managed by U.S-Ukrainian investment company Horizon Capital. It is reported that the funds will be channelled through a $200 million trust fund managed by the U.S-Ukrainian investment company Horizon Capital.

 Capping off his New York trip, Foreign Minister Kuleba makes an appearance as a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Commenting on Ukraines counter-offensive in Kharkiv Oblast, Kuleba said that it demonstrates that Ukraine knows how to win. It proves not only to us but to the entire world that we know how to win and we will, he said. After this, the audience gave the minister a standing ovation. In turn, Kuleba forwarded this applause to the Ukrainian people and the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

 The days long-read: NV interviews former U.S. ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.

During the 17th Yalta European Strategy summit on Sept. 9-10, NV was able to catch the former ambassador, now a lecturer at the prestigious U.S. School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, for a brief chat regarding her time in Ukraine, Russias actions, and Donald Trumps involvement.

 Dont miss: Military expert Oleksandr Musienko on Putins desire to fight until the last Russian.

Musienko believes that Putin is deliberately stretching out the war, because his imperial obsession with Ukraine, and even the huge losses that Russia continues to suffer in the invasion are not enough to dissuade the dictator.

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Home  Politics  Proportional representation parliamentary seats, meant for the marginalised, are being captured by the powerful in Nepal

Election Commission. Photo: Chanda Bahadur Ale

While the country was celebrating Constitution Day earlier this week, political parties submitted their closed list of the proportional representation candidates for the November elections of the House of Representatives and provincial assemblies to the Election Commission Nepal.

The goal behind the implementation of the proportional representation electoral system was to reduce the long-standing inequality based on regions, communities, genders, classes, etc, and to guarantee inclusive representation in the legislature. But, looking at the list, it can be said that the parties have prioritised the leaders who already have political access to resources.

In other words, the parties that competed to express commitment to implement the constitution ironically did the opposite and prepared a non-inclusive list. Hence, serious questions have once again been raised about the commitment and honesty of the parties towards the constitution.

The political leadership should have thought about the spirit and intention of the proportional representation electoral system. But, if they just want to exploit the loopholes and serve those who are members of parliaments and ministers in the proportional representation quota, we can just follow one system (first-past-the-post or proportional), comments Bipin Adhikari, a senior constitutional expert and policy analyst.

Adhikari adds that the leaders of major parties that have contested direct elections and keep losing are misusing the proportional representation system.

Capture by the powerful

Political parties have included names of powerful leaders on their lists of proportional representation candidates for the 2022 elections.

The CPN-Maoist Centre, which claims to have proportional inclusion as its agenda, has prioritised Krishna Bahadur Mahara who already has won multiple elections and enjoys parliamentary and political benefits. He won elections from Rolpa-2 in 1991, Dang-3 in 2007, Rolpa-1 in 2013 and Dang-2 in 2017.

The party championed Mahara even though he had to resign as the speaker after facing allegations of sexual violence. Mahara is also currently the vice-chairperson of the Maoist Centre.

He says. I fought directly five times and won, so I asked them to put me in the proportional representation system this time.

Nepali Congress shares the same case. From Gopal Man Shrestha, who has been the acting chief (of the Nepali Congress Democratic party) to Bimalendra Nidhi, who has claimed the leadership of the party, are also giving their candidacy under the proportional representation system. Nidhi, who carries the family legacy of Congress founder Mahendra Narayan Nidhi, won the 2008 elections from Dhanusha.

Congress joint general secretaries Jeevan Pariyar and Farmullah Mansur are also on the proportional representation candidacy list. Both are leaders in national politics.

What more? They have also kept Arzu Rana Deuba, who might be the successor of the party leadership, on the list. Deuba, who contested in the 2017 election from Kailali-5, was still recommended from the same constituency.

Another strong example of that is Prem Bahadur Singh. Singh, who entered the UML last March by sharing the same platform together with actress Karishma Manandhar, is also on the list. Singh had already formed a separate party and became MP and won elections under the proportional representation system in 2007 and 2013.

Nainkala Thapa is another name on the UMLs list. On June 10 last year, UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli appointed Thapa as the minister for communications (though only for two weeks) whereas she is the wife of UML Vice-Chairman Ram Bahadur Thapa.

CPN-Unified Socialist has also placed its leaders, who have a stronghold, on the proportional representation candidate list. Vice-chairman Pramesh Hamal, deputy general secretary Gangalal Tuladhar and secretary Nagendra Chaudhary are on the list. All these three are leaders who have good influence within the party and even in national politics.

The infamous trend

File: Nepals Parliament building

This trend of listing political leaders, who can and have won direct elections, in the proportional representation candidate list started with Girija Prasad Koirala. In the 2007 elections, the then Prime Minister and Nepali Congress President Koirala sat at the top of the list. Given Koiralas age or seniority and previous roles (interim prime minister and head of state), no one from the party opposed it either.

Meanwhile, protests broke out because the parties started including rich people with controversial backgrounds on the proportional representation candidate list. But, the parties did not make any corrections and the trend continued.

Parties have assigned ministerial and advisory responsibilities to rich and influential leaders who came with the benefit of the proportional representation electoral system.

Constitutional expert Bipin Adhikari says the system adopted by the parties now does not allow the participation of marginalised communities, castes, genders and regions, going against the purpose of the system altogether.

A suitable example of this is the current Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand. Khand has been a central member of Congress since 1996 and a strong contender for the leadership of the party. But, he too used the quota to get into the parliament in 2017.

The trend also shows that those without political background or merit have become ministers through the proportional representation system.

Moti Lal Dugar, who held the position of special economic advisor to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, became an MP from the proportional representation in the 2017 elections. Not only did Oli make him the MP from the Madheshi cluster but he also appointed him as the state minister for industry.

Earlier, in 2007, the UML also made billionaire Binod Chaudhary a member of parliament under the proportional representation system. It was the same case with Lharkyal Lama. Lama even became the state minister for finance when Jhala Nath Khanal was the prime minister. But, Chaudhary and Lama did not stay long in the UML.

Although the leaders speak in favour of the trend of appointing people from the business background, the perception of it has always been negative. It is a popular thought that they have bought their way to party and parliament.

This trend is still in order in the current government. Prime Minister Deuba drew heavy criticism when he appointed Umesh Shrestha, a member of parliament under the proportional representation system, as the state minister for health in July last year.

This story was translated from the original Nepali version and edited for clarity and length.
Home  Business  South Korea offers Rs 2 billion in grant to Nepal to help integrate returning migrant workers

Finance Secretary Krishna Hari Pushkar and South Korean Ambassador to Nepal Park Chong-Suk signed an agreement, in Kathmandu, on Friday, September 23, 2022.

Kathmandu, September 23

South Korea has offered Nepal Rs 2 billion in grant assistance to help integrate returning migrant workers and strengthen the Cyber Bureau of Nepal Police.

Finance Secretary Krishna Hari Pushkar and Korean Ambassador to Nepal Park Chong-Suk signed an agreement in this regard in Kathmandu on Friday.

For each project, the Seoul government will give Nepal USD 8 million, and together it will be equivalent to Rs 2 billion.

The first project will help Nepali migrant workers returning from South Korea get entrepreneurship skills and contribute to the countrys social and economic development.

Under the second project, the Cyber Bureau will construct its modern building and work on capacity building of its personnel.
Yogesh Shrestha has been a farmer all his life, and for the past 15 years, he has been doing vegetable farming in Jhapa. When 46-year-old Shrestha was stuck at home in Kathmandu, another initiative was working in favour of the farmers in rural areas of Nepal, in particular those living in the Terai (the southern plains).

The initiative is Super Krishak which started during the peak of the Covid lockdown. The team behind the initiative took the opportunity for networking with farmers. So, the team put up a survey on Facebook to know about the farmers plight and how to ease them. And, soon after, they started their mobile app, encouraging local farmers to benefit from the little effort.

The seed

Super Krishak was one of those digital platforms where people got active during the lockdown. Hardik Sapkota, an agriculture researcher in the team, says, At the peak of the lockdown, we started with a Facebook group, where we connected with the farmers through Google Forms, SMS and phone calls. After that, we conducted training every fortnight (second Wednesday) starting with farming techniques to grow rayo saag [mustard green].

However, they felt that reaching more farmers was getting more difficult now through Facebook with its changing algorithm. So, they developed their platform to connect to the farmers and launched their android app in January 2022.

This began the rigorous app development phase with several brainstorming sessions. Considering the trend of the farmers and their behaviours, the Super Krishak team got a fair idea of what to work on and how to include them in the app.

In these last eight months, the team already has achieved 3,000+ downloads and 2,600+ profiles including those of the farmers and aspiring agro/forestry students. According to Sapkota, so far, they have conducted over 13 digital training events with over 200 participants.

With more farmers and students getting involved in the network, they now have 50 to 60 repeating users.

Behind the idea

Farmers experimenting with tomato farming. Photo Courtesy: Super Krishak

Super Krishak is an initiative of Gham Power, a company working in solar energy. The company had already established itself in the field starting from the time when electricity power cut was at its peak. But, when the electricity power cut was not a problem, we wanted to venture out. So, when we researched what we can do more, we found that the farmers in the Terai were having big challenges in irrigation, shares Sapkota.

The Gham Power team then started integrating their expertise to promote solar water pumping technology. But, since the technology was more expensive for farmers, they also started focusing on different forms of subsistence farming so that the farmers can get a better return on their investment.

Now with our help, the farmers are commercialising agriculture. We focus on farming cash crops and food crops as well as horticulture. Apart from that, we are also focusing on fishery and beekeeping for farmers in our network, says Sapkota.

According to Shrestha, after taking the training some six months ago, he started experimenting with tomato grafting on his farm. The new technique proved to be very effective as he could grow tomatoes, shift the plants and even pick the tomatoes as they ripened.

He adds, They give out the information primarily on the Super Krishak mobile app and through SMS and calls as well as counselling sessions for the farmers, increasing our output. The tomato grafting has now enabled me to grow tomatoes in off-seasons too. They also last longer. When you sell off-seasons, you earn more.

Farmers app

Local farmer sharing how she uses Super Krishak messenger chat services. Photo Courtesy: Super Krishak

Super Krishaks team of seven people does extensive research to gather information, to arrange and compile them. Since the farmers are from Terai mainly, the team has also developed the app in the Nepali language.

The Super Krishak app has also developed a chatbot that has been incorporated with Facebook Messenger, making it easier and more accessible for farmers to share their queries and get the answers.

The app has three main features. One is training, which is completely free and focuses on the topics that the farmers are interested in. The second is the agriculture quiz, which includes multiple choice questions, and true-false questions. The quizzes are posted on the app daily at 8:30 in the morning. Users can also participate and track their positions on the leaderboard.

The third and most important is giving out information, for which we prepare the collected information in the form of snippets that the farmers can read and understand easily as well as get a real-time rate of fresh fruits and vegetables as in Kalimati vegetable market. All the information is collected in collaboration with the Kalimati Bazaar, says Sapkota.

The whole team does its research and sometimes it does get hectic, whether it is to prepare for the training or gather and arrange the information. We usually refer to research articles and academic papers. But, they are shallow in numbers and not updated timely, says Sapkota and shares that the vast gap in updated information has been a constant challenge for Super Krishak.

But, the teams hard work has been showing good results as the farmers are able to get solutions at least to remove the pests and diseases that are common in tomatoes. Then, they can also upload photos and videos through the app and get feedback.

Achieving more

Farmers share their growth straight from their farms. Photo Courtesy: Super Krishak

On the sidelines, the Super Krishak team is also focusing more on gamification and increasing engagement so that the farmers can benefit more. So far, the farmers get coins and badges after finishing quizzes and games. But, we are soon setting up a system in which they can use or redeem them. We are also expanding Kishan Pathshala and developing Kishan Chautari, a platform where they can engage with their fellow farmers more interactively.

With the use of GIS, we are also soon looking forward to integrating the location tracking feature so that the team can give farmers more concrete information about weather and their crop cycles based on the satellite imageries, says Sapkota.

Getting all the information from satellites might be difficult for the Super Krishak team, which is why it is in talks about setting up sensors and collaborating with the Meteorological Forecasting Division for more accurate info.

Yogesh Shrestha, the farmer in Jhapa, says his production this year got affected by excessive rainfall, stating prior information can in fact help him. If we get at least two days of weather information, we can prepare better and save our harvest from being spoiled. It will consequently increase production and minimise input while increasing economic benefits too.

But, the teams challenges still majorly include the difficulty in reaching out to more farmers, who are physically and digitally distant. But, the Super Krishak app still lacks certification that can give its courses more value and get more engagement. When it happens, Sapkota says, users can get their respective certificates upon completion after answering a few questions.

Nevertheless, the team is combating their challenge regarding how to integrate more farmers into the initiative. We are also discussing collaboration with local microfinance companies to reach out to the farmers to get them into their network and also benefit other farmers with different schemes.

Last but not the least, the Super Krishak team is also thinking of packaging its courses that can be capitalised on and also be used as educational programmes for those farmers who are on the other side of the digital divide as well as physically located in poorly accessible places.
Description

In Process is the The Watermill Centers ongoing series of studio visits that invite the community to gain insight into the creative process of our international Artists-in-Residence, cultivating an understanding of how artists from across the globe develop new work.

Joyce Ho works across diverse mediums from painting, video, to installation. By integrating the deconstruction of movements and fragmentation of daily rituals with rich and illusory light and shadow, the artist demonstrates the intimate and isolating tensions between people and reality. The artists works simultaneously captivate her viewers while keeping them in a state of confrontation, rendering the quotidian action depicted in her work as a momentary ritual. Ho has exhibited internationally, including Phantasmapolis: Asian Art Biennial, Taichung, Taiwan (2021); We Do Not Dream Alone: the Asia Society Triennial, Asia Society Museum, New York, NY, U.S.(2021); Yokohama Triennale: Afterglow, Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan (2020); Meditations in an Emergency, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China (2020); Sunset on a Dead End: The Notorious and Their Inexplicable Modes of Existence, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China (2019); NO ON: Joyce Ho Solo Exhibition, TKG+, Taipei, Taiwan (2019); 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, and Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia (2018). Joyce Ho is a recipient of the 2022 Baroness Nina von Maltzahn Fellowship for the Performing Arts at The Watermill Center.

Ogemdi Ude is a Nigerian-American dance artist, educator, and doula based in Brooklyn, New York. Her performances focus on Black femme legacies and futures, grief, and memory. She aims to incite critical engagement with embodied Black history as a means to imagine Black futurity. Her work has been presented at Issue Project Room, Recess Art, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Danspace Project, Gibney, Center for Performance Research, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Streb Lab for Action Mechanics, and for BAMs DanceAfrica Festival. As an educator, she serves as Head of Movement for Theater at Professional Performing Arts School. In collaboration with Rochelle Jamila Wilbun she facilitates AfroPeach, a series of free dance workshops for Black postpartum people in Brooklyn. She is a 2021 danceWEB Scholar, 2021 Laundromat Project Artist-in-Residence, and 2021 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Creative Engagement Grantee. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in English from Princeton University.
The production of natural gas in the United States is likely to increase year over year in 2022 per the latest report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and continue driving stocks in the Zacks Utility Gas Distribution industry. The distribution companies offer services to transport natural gas from the region of production to millions of consumers across the United States.

Sempra Energy SRE, with its widespread natural gas infrastructure and systematic investments in infrastructure development projects, is poised to benefit as natural gas production volumes are expected to increase in the 2022-2023 time period. Steady investments and expanding infrastructure in key production regions should drive the performance of Atmos Energy Corporation ATO, National Fuel Gas Company NFG and NewJersey Resources Corporation NJR.







About the Industry

The shale revolution has substantially increased natural gas production. Its clean-burning nature is steadily boosting demand for natural gas in the electric power, industrial, commercial and residential markets. Natural Gas distribution pipelines play a vital role in delivering natural gas from intrastate and interstate transmission pipelines to consumers through small-diameter pipelines. The natural gas network in the United States has nearly 3 million miles of pipeline that ensures a steady supply to millions of customers. The concerns for the distribution industry are aging infrastructure and increasing investment costs required to upgrade and maintain the vast network of pipelines due to the hike in interest rates. In addition, competition from other clean sources of energy can lower the demand for natural gas, consequently pushing down demand for pipelines.

Factors Shaping the Future of the Gas Distribution Industry

Production and Export Volumes of Gas to Increase: The short-term energy outlook released by the EIA indicates that domestic dry natural gas production will grow 3.8% year over year to 97.09 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2022 and 3.4% year over year to 100.36 Bcf/d in 2023. EIA also expects U.S. natural gas consumption to increase 4.33% in 2022 to 86.56 Bcf/d due to higher consumption from all customer groups, while 2023 consumption is expected to drop by 2.2% to 84.63 Bcf/d due to the expectation of milder winter temperature and lower consumption from the residential and commercial customer group. EIA expects U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) export volumes to increase 12.8% year over year to 11.01 Bcf/d in 2022. EIA expects LNG export volumes to increase 12.1% to 12.34 Bcf/d in 2023. The higher production and export volumes will definitely increase the usage and demand for natural gas pipelines in the United States.



Aging Distribution Infrastructure: The existing U.S. natural gas distribution pipelines are aging. Leakage or breakage in these old cast iron and bare steel pipelines may result in disruption of services. At present, natural gas distribution utilities provide services to over 75 million residential and 5 million commercial customers in the United States. Per a report from Business Roundtable, replacing the old pipelines will cost around $270 billion. To lower the possibility of interruption in services, the Department of Energy announced $33 million funding for 10 projects involved in natural gas pipeline retrofitting to rehabilitate existing old cast iron and bare steel pipes. The Rapid Encapsulation of Pipelines Avoiding Intensive Replacement or the REPAIR program will ensure the minimum extension of the service life of distribution pipelines by 50 years and lower the replacement cost of old pipelines by nearly 10 to 20 times per mile. At present, pipe excavation and replacement costs can go up to $10 million per mile. The rising interest rates will increase the overall project financing cost for the utilities compared with what these companies have enjoyed in the past two years.



Scope for Fresh Investments: The clean-burning nature and wide availability across the United States are driving the demand for natural gas. The distribution network should continue to play a major role in transporting natural gas to nearly 75 million customers in all parts of the United States. The demand from the rising natural gas customer volume and usage of natural gas to produce electricity will play a pivotal role in the utilities gradual transition toward clean energy. With LNG export volumes rising each year and three new LNG export terminals are being developed in the United States, which will increase demand for natural gas pipeline services to transfer the gas from production areas to these terminals. Per EIA, once completed, the three new LNG projects will increase the combined export capacity by 5.7 Bcf/d by 2025. As production and demand for natural gas are increasing, more pipelines will be required to safely transfer the natural gas to end-users, which will create new growth opportunities for natural gas pipeline operators.

Story continues

Zacks Industry Rank Indicates Bright Prospects

The groups Zacks Industry Rank, which is basically the average of the Zacks Rank of all the member stocks, indicates dull near-term prospects.



The Zacks Utility Gas Distribution industry  a 15-stock group within the broader Zacks Utilities sector  currently carries a Zacks Industry Rank #159, which places it in the top 22% of the 251 Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperforms the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.



The industrys positioning in the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries is a result of a positive earnings outlook for the constituent companies in aggregate. Since March-end, earnings estimates have gone up by 0.8% to $3.93 per share.



Before we present a few Gas Distribution stocks that you may want to consider for your portfolio, lets take a look at the industrys recent stock-market performance and valuation picture.





Industry Beats S&P 500 and Sector

The Gas Distribution industry has outperformed the Zacks S&P 500 composite and its sector over the past year. The stocks in this industry have collectively returned 20.5% in the same time frame, while the Utility sector has gained 5.5%. The Zacks S&P 500 composite has declined 16.1% in the said period.

One Year Price Performance







Gas Distribution Industry's Current Valuation

Since utility companies have a lot of debt on their balance sheets, the EV/EBITDA (Enterprise Value/ Earnings before Interest Tax Depreciation and Amortization) ratio is commonly used to value them.



The industry is currently trading at a trailing 12-month EV/EBITDA of 10.19X compared with the S&P 500s 11.54X and the sectors 19.06X. Over the past five years, the industry has traded as high as 13.7X, a low of 9.58X, and at the median of 10.66X.

Utility Gas Industry vs S&P 500 ( Past 5 yrs)

Utility Gas Industry vs Sector( Past 5 yrs)







4 Gas Distribution Stocks to Keep a Close Watch On

Below are four stocks that have been witnessing positive earnings estimate revisions. Only one out the four natural gas distribution stocks mentioned below presently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). The rest carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.



Sempra Energy: This San Diego, CA-based energy services holding company is involved in the sale, distribution, storage and transportation of electricity and natural gas. Sempra Energy has plans to invest $36 billion in the 2022-2026 time frame to strengthen its operation and transmission and distribution infrastructure. Worldwide demand growth for LNG continues to rise, Sempra Energy is well-positioned with strategically-located opportunities in North America. The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.



The Zacks Consensus Estimate for SREs 2022 earnings has moved up 1.05% to $8.65 per share over the past 60 days. The current dividend yield of SRE is 2.75%. In the past year, the stock has gained 26.5% compared with the industrys rally of 20.4%. Its long-term earnings growth (three to five years) rate is pegged at 5.8%.

Price and Consensus: SRE



Atmos Energy: This Dallas, TX-based company is engaged in the regulated natural gas distribution and storage business. Atmos Energy is planning to invest in the range of $13-$14 billion from fiscal 2022 through 2026, out of which more than 80% will be allocated to enhance the safety of the existing operations. The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.



The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ATOs fiscal 2022 earnings has moved 0.4% higher to $5.57 per share over the past 60 days. The current dividend yield of ATO is 2.41%. In the past year, the stock has gained 28.5%. The long-term earnings growth rate is pegged at 7.5%.

Price and Consensus: ATO





National Fuel Gas Company : This Williamsville, NY-based, integrated energy company has natural gas assets located in the prolific Appalachian basin and oil-producing assets in California. National Fuel Gas Companys presence across the natural gas value chain through Upstream, Midstream and Downstream activities gives it a competitive advantage and allows it to lower operating costs. NFG has more than $500 million worth of investments planned over the next five years for the modernization of pipeline transportation and distribution systems. The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.



The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NFGs fiscal 2022 earnings has moved 3.5% higher to $5.99 per share over the past 60 days. The current dividend yield of NFG is 2.79%. In the past year, the stock has gained 30.3%. The long-term earnings growth rate is pegged at 13.6%.

Price and Consensus: NFG

New Jersey Resources: This Wall, NJ-based company provides regulated gas distribution, and retail and wholesale energy services to its customers. New Jersey Resources has plans to invest $1-$1.3 billion in the fiscal 2022-2023 time period to strengthen its infrastructure. NJRs strategic investments to expand natural gas transmission and distribution pipelines will allow it cater to increasing demand from its expanding customer base. The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.



The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NJRs fiscal 2022 earnings has moved 4.2% higher to $2.46 per share over the past 60 days. The current dividend yield of NJR is 3.3%. In the past year, the stock has gained 27.2%. Its long-term earnings growth rate is pegged at 6%.

Price and Consensus: NJR









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Sempra Energy (SRE) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Atmos Energy Corporation (ATO) : Free Stock Analysis Report



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NewJersey Resources Corporation (NJR) : Free Stock Analysis Report



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Dublin, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "5G Monetization and Adoption Strategies in Asia-Pacific" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.





The Asia-Pacific (APAC) 5G market generated revenue of $6.59 billion in 2021, and it is likely to reach $35.22 billion in 2026, increasing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 39.8% from 2021 to 2026. Market focus is shifting even more towards growing the enterprise segment, which makes commercial sense. 5G monetization in APAC for both the consumer and enterprise segments is being driven by intelligence and automation that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to address local behaviors, needs, and preferences. Contribution from 5G network slicing to revenue is delayed, but the publisher expects that by 2025, it will account for 43.9% of total 5G revenue in APAC.



Simplification, digital, agile, managed, and value creation are fast becoming hygiene factors to cope with the increasingly complex 5G era. To stay relevant, timely, and competitive, the joint enablement of new digital services and new viable business models that can create new options or possibilities will be helpful to drive both 5G and economic growth. Beyond enabling strategic partnerships, industry players must extend the level of support that is necessary to overcome gaps and broaden boundaries.



For successful 5G monetization, industry competitors should work to apply technology that can create new dimensions and new ways of working or living. Innovative technology should not be used to replace old processes and systems that use older or cheaper solutions. Instead, the need isfor visionaries to dream up a new world for the techies to build using new technology. This is a space where 5G is strong and will excel. 5G monetization requires out-of-the-box thinking, which is why the publisher looks towards the innovative companies of the world as the movers whowill capitalize on it.



With the journey to the cloud settling on multi-cloud or hybrid cloud rather than cloud-native as the solution, the next uncertainty and wave of growth is in the direction personalization will take. This will be an interesting space to watch and understand how well technology can get to know a person to serve its intended purpose. The metaverse concept seems promising; however, the concept is still at a nascent stage and is not ready to impact 5G during the duration of this study (2021-2026).

Story continues

Key Topics Covered:





1. Strategic Imperatives

Why is it Increasingly Difficult to Grow?

The Strategic Imperative 8T

The Impact of the Top 3 Strategic Imperatives on the 5G Industry

Growth Opportunities Fuel the Growth Pipeline EngineT

2. Growth Opportunity Analysis

Scope of Analysis

Customer Segmentation

Key Competitors

Growth Metrics

Growth Drivers

Growth Restraints

Forecast Assumptions

Revenue Forecast

Revenue Forecast by Customer Segment

Revenue Forecast by Product

Revenue Forecast Analysis

Competitive Environment

3. Growth Opportunity Analysis - Consumer

Growth Metrics

Revenue Forecast

Forecast Analysis

Discussion on 5G Monetization

4. Growth Opportunity Analysis - Enterprise

Growth Metrics

Revenue Forecast

Forecast Analysis

Discussion on 5G Monetization

5G Enterprise - Checklist for 5G Monetization

5G Enterprise - Cisco Case Study

5G Enterprise - Microsoft Case Study

5. 5G Adoption Strategies

Plans for Incorporation of 5G into Company - Malaysia

Benefits of 5G to Company - Malaysia

Challenges Faced in Planning the Incorporation of 5G - Malaysia

Risks Faced in the Incorporation of 5G - Malaysia

Approach to the Incorporation of 5G - Malaysia

Business Drivers Supporting Incorporation of 5G - Malaysia

Solution Drivers Supporting Incorporation of 5G - Malaysia

Discussion on 5G Adoption Strategy - Malaysia

Discussion on 5G Adoption Strategy - APAC

6. Respondent Demographics

Survey Respondents by Industry

Survey Respondents by Role

7. Growth Opportunity Universe

Growth Opportunity 1: Private 5G Networks for the Enterprise Segment

Growth Opportunity 2: E2E Solutions for the Enterprise Segment

Growth Opportunity 3: Customer Experience Improvements for Customer Segments

8. The Last Word

Conclusions and Recommendations

9. Appendix

List of Other Companies

10. Next Steps

Your Next Steps

Why Frost, Why Now?

List of Exhibits

Legal Disclaimer



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/sq3wt9

CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood,Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./ CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900




Future Market Insights Global and Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

North America is expected to have a market share of 11.1% during the forecast period. Due to strong median household incomes and a growing female labor force, North America has a modest market share for baby food. Europe is anticipated to control 20.8% of the global market for baby food

NEWARK, Del, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the estimations by Future Market Insights, the global baby food market is anticipated to grow with a stable CAGR of 4.6% over the assessment period from 2022 to 2032. The market is expected to be valued at US$ 73.8 billion in 2022 and reach US$ 115.8 billion by 2032.



Baby food continues to gain traction as one of the fastest-growing retail products in the entire food & beverage industry, by capitalizing on increasing consumer spending by lower and middle-class parents, which is likely to accumulate the baby food market share.

Parents from all around the world are exclusively purchasing baby food products in order to give their infants all the organic nutrients and healthier meal options. Being in high demand, BRIC organic baby food is a crucial trend in the baby food industry.

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Key Takeaways

The baby food market is expected to be driven by surging organized retail marketing activities and urbanization rates. In addition to that, falling infant mortality rates, rising numbers of working women, and an increase in consumer knowledge of cutting-edge baby food products globally have resulted in higher demand for baby food.

The baby food market is predicted to witness a phenomenal growth rate across the forecast period as parents become increasingly concerned about the health of their infants. Due to widespread awareness about the negative consequences of synthetic additives, the market for organic baby food is growing exponentially.

Owing to the widespread application of baby food in the development of the babys brain, muscles, and neurological system, among other things, the baby food market is expected to fuel. Furthermore, the rising consumer awareness of various advantages of baby foods is expected to fuel its growth.

In order to address the nutritional needs of newborns and toddlers all over the world, industry-processed baby food is gaining traction within the global market, because of the rising number of growing parental concerns about nutrition and contemporary time restrictions.

Owing to the parents hectic lifestyles and their rising interest in food, especially organics, have both significantly contributed to the baby food markets recent changes. Kitchen cabinets are seen to be stocked with expertly crafted foods, available in a variety of liquid and solid flavors for children between the ages of six months and two years. Owing to the rising awareness among parents, the baby food market is expected to spur.

Research conducted by the Organic Trade Association found that 84% of parents prefer organic food for their infants. Foods growing with as less chemicals as possible are much safer and recommended choices for baby meals.

Consumer tastes are rapidly evolving especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, which is resulting in causing a rise in baby food through online channels so that consumers can avoid going outside.





Story continues

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Competitive Landscape

The competition in the baby food market is high due to the presence of big regional and domestic enterprises in several nations. Innovation in baby food products is attracting new investors in order to enter the baby food market with various new technologies and revenue-generating strategies.

Leading manufacturers are paying special attention to avoiding unforeseen outcomes, such as eliminating items from the market that lack nutritional advantages or the ones reducing the presence of one element while increasing the other, as a result of efforts to minimize arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury in foods.

Key Players: Danone SA, Ausnutria Dairy Corporation Ltd, Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC, Abbott Laboratories, Nestle SA, Feihe International Inc, Shijiazhuang Junlebao Dairy Co. Ltd, Yili Group, Royal Friesland Campina NV, The Kraft Heinz Company

More Insights into the Baby Food Market

Europe is expected to dominate the market growth by accounting for about 20.8% of the global market for baby food. Owing to the increased modern retail penetration, product awareness, rising disposable incomes, and rising purchasing power, the food market is expected to expand exponentially.

North America is anticipated to possess a market share of about 11.1% throughout the forecast period, Due to strong median household incomes and a growing female labor force, North America has a modest market share for baby food.

Baby Food Market by Category

By Category:

Organic

Conventional

By Type:

Milk Formula

Dried Baby Food

Ready-to-Feed Baby Food

Other Types

By Distribution Channel:

Drugstores/ Pharmacies

Supermarkets/Hypermarkets

Convenience Stores

Online Channels

Other Distribution Channels





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Table of Content

1. Executive Summary

1.1. Global Market Outlook

1.2. Demand-side Trends

1.3. Supply-side Trends

1.4. Technology Roadmap Analysis

1.5. Analysis and Recommendations

2. Market Overview

2.1. Market Coverage / Taxonomy

2.2. Market Definition / Scope / Limitations

3. Market Background

3.1. Market Dynamics

3.1.1. Drivers

3.1.2. Restraints

3.1.3. Opportunity

3.1.4. Trends

3.2. Scenario Forecast

3.2.1. Demand in Optimistic Scenario

3.2.2. Demand in Likely Scenario

3.2.3. Demand in Conservative Scenario

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Explore FMIs related ongoing Coverage on Food and Beverage Domain

Hypo Anti Allergic Baby Food Market Size: Hypo Anti Allergic Baby Food Market - Global industry segment analysis, regional outlook, share, growth and forecast 2017 to 2027.

GCC Functional Food Market Share: GCC Functional Food Market is projected to expand at a CAGR of 10.9% during the forecast period 2015-2020.

Baby Oil Market Analysis: Baby Oil Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size and Forecast, 2017 to 2027.

Infant Formula Market Growth: Infant Formula Market sales are poised to increase at an impressive CAGR of 10.60% through 2026.

Infant Nutritional Premix Market Trends: Infant Nutritional Premix Market size was estimated at USD 235 million in 2021 and expected to reach USD 370 million in 2032, at 4%.

About Future Market Insights, Inc.

Future Market Insights, Inc. is an ESOMAR-certified business consulting & market research firm, a member of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce and is headquartered in Delaware, USA. A recipient of Clutch Leaders Award 2022 on account of high client score (4.9/5), we have been collaborating with global enterprises in their business transformation journey and helping them deliver on their business ambitions. 80% of the largest Forbes 1000 enterprises are our clients. We serve global clients across all leading & niche market segments across all major industries.

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GUYSBOROUGH, NS, Sept. 23, 2022 /CNW/ - Today, Mike Kelloway, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard and Member of Parliament for Cape BretonCanso, on behalf of the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities, and Vernon Pitts, Warden of the Municipality of the District of Guysborough (MODG), announced over $3.9 million in joint funding to extend the network of sidewalks in the Guysborough community, a growth center in MODG. This investment will increase pedestrian safety by taking residents and visitors from adjacent communities off the gravel shoulder on Route 16 and onto an expanded network of sidewalks.

The project will construct over 2,500 metres of sidewalk, as well as benches, signage, and crosswalks. 980 metres of new sidewalk will connect the existing sidewalk along Main Street, to medical facilities, as well as senior and nursing homes on the northern side of Guysborough. An additional 1,610 meters of sidewalk towards the south will connect residents to essential businesses and services, including grocery and hardware stores, as well as provincial government offices and employment services.

Once completed, the sidewalk extension will provide safe, inclusive transportation options for residents and a healthier means of travel with a significantly reduced carbon footprint. By investing in infrastructure, the Government of Canada is growing our country's economy, increasing the resiliency of our communities, and improving the lives of Canadians.

Quotes

"Investments in active transportation infrastructure help build inclusive, connected communities, where everyone can access essential services and local businesses. Paving sidewalks on busy roads is essential to keep residents safe as they move around the community, go to work each day and pick up groceries for their families. The expansion of active transportation networks in Canadian communities is an important way in which our Government is working to reduce congestion and emissions, promote healthier lifestyles, and protect our environment, all together making our communities safe for everyone."

Mike Kelloway, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard and Member of Parliament for Cape BretonCanso, on behalf of the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities

"An expansion of the sidewalk network in Guysborough has been on the radar of the Municipality of the District of Guysborough for many years. This investment in active transportation infrastructure allows the designated Growth Center of Guysborough to become an inclusive and more cohesive community on the move. This expansion greatly improves walkability in the Shiretown of Guysborough by creating safe connectivity between the healthcare facilities, school, recreational facilities, government offices, retail and service providers, all the while promoting an active and healthy lifestyle for our residents and visitors to the area."

Vernon Pitts, Warden of the Municipality of the District of Guysborough

Quick facts

The Government of Canada is investing $2,374,800 for this project through the Active Transportation Fund, while the Municipality of the District of Guysborough is providing $1,583,200.

Federal funding for this project is conditional on fulfilling all requirements related to consultation with Indigenous communities.

The Active Transportation Fund will provide $400 million over five years to support an increase in the 'modal share' of active transportation, in support of Canada's first National Active Transportation Strategy.

Municipal governments  local and regional governments such as service districts  and Indigenous organizations are eligible recipients for the Active Transportation Fund. Provinces, territories, and not-for-profit organizations are also eligible in specific circumstances.

Canada's National Active Transportation Strategy is the country's first coast-to-coast-to-coast strategic approach for promoting active transportation and its benefits. The strategy's aim is to make data-driven and evidence-based investments to build new and expanded active transportation networks and to create safe environments for more equitable, healthy, active and sustainable travel options to thrive.

Active transportation provides tangible benefits to communities, shortening commute times for families, creating good middle-class jobs, growing the economy, promoting healthier lifestyles, cutting air and noise pollution, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The funding announced today builds on the Government of Canada's work through the Atlantic Growth Strategy to create well-paying middle-class jobs, strengthen local economies, and build inclusive communities.

Associated links

Active Transportation Fund:

https://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/trans/index-eng.html

National Active Transportation Strategy:

https://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/trans/active-strat-actif-eng.html

Infrastructure in Nova Scotia:

https://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/prog-proj-ns-eng.html

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Web: Infrastructure Canada

SOURCE Infrastructure Canada

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CATL won the Daimler Truck Supplier Award for state-of-the-art battery systems, which will be used on the newly released eActros LongHaul

A strategic partnership agreement is reached between CATL and Trailer Dynamics to promote long haul e-transportation for zero emissions logistics in Germany

CATL also signed an MOU for distribution with KYBURZ Switzerland to promote electrification of various commercial applications

HANOVER, Germany, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- At IAA Transportation 2022, CATL, a global leader of new energy innovative technologies, reached cooperation agreements with multiple leading OEM customers and won Daimler Truck Supplier Award at the fair, further demonstrating its innovative capabilities and achievements in the new energy industry.

"At CATL, we are dedicated to delivering innovative technologies and solutions that enable a more sustainable future for mankind and our partners. IAA Transportation 2022 presents an important opportunity to demonstrate technological and product strengths and further expand our global partnership network," said Li Xiaoning, Executive President of Overseas Commercial Application, CATL. "We are proud to be one of the key drivers advancing the vibrant commercial vehicle industry along with other global leaders."

CATL won the Daimler Truck Supplier Award in the category "Innovation" for the development and production of state-of-the-art high-voltage battery systems with a range of up to 500 kilometers, extremely long service life and fast-charging capability. The battery systems will be used in the new eActros LongHaul, which was unveiled at IAA this year.

It is the first time that Daimler Truck presents its Supplier Award as an independent company. With the award, it recognizes CATL for above-average performance and cooperation in a spirit of partnership.

At the exhibition, CATL has strengthened cooperation with multiple leading OEMs in the sector. It signed a strategic partnership agreement with Trailer Dynamics, the German startup that is shaping long haul e-transportation for zero emissions logistics with the e-Trailer. Trailer Dynamics intends to use CATL platform-based system products in its e-Trailer projects with configurations in different kWh capacity dimensions.

Story continues

Equipped with CATL's CTP-based LFP battery system, which features exceptionally long battery life and high thermal stability, the semitrailer offers increased efficiency and vehicle performance, lower fuel consumption and consequently lower carbon emission.

Trailer Dynamics and CATL also plan to collaborate closely to extend the e-Trailer products into dedicated major markets, to explore battery swapping solutions for e-Trailers, and to bring in more coordinated actions to achieve reduction of carbon emission.

During this year's IAA exhibition, CATL also signed an MOU for distribution with KYBURZ Switzerland, the largest manufacturer of electric vehicles in Switzerland. The two companies intend to enter into a distribution agreement to promote the sales of CATL products.

Based on the practical needs of business development in Switzerland, the two parties also intend to extend current cooperation to more electrification applications projects, thus promoting the electrification of transportation in Europe.

KYBURZ develops, produces and distributes high-quality electric vehicles for delivery companies, industry and private individuals. The company's 3-wheeled electric vehicles for postal delivery have become an integral part of the road scape in many countries.

Featuring high energy density, long service life, high reliability and adaptability to various hard environments, CATL's offerings at the show will be an opportunity advance electrification in the transportation sector with partners worldwide. CATL will announce more partnerships in the electrification of commercial applications in the near future.

CATL's innovative technologies and products have been well received by the market, and it has established and strengthened partnership with top-tier OEMs of commercial applications including Daimler Truck, VWCO, Yutong, FAW Group, Dongfeng and King Long.

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SOURCE Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited
National Carrier awarded the Best Airline Staff Service in Australia & Pacific

SUVA, Fiji, Sept. 23, 2022 /CNW/ -- Fiji Airways has been named winner of the award for the Best Airline Staff Service in Australia & Pacific at the prestigious World Airline Awards, held today at the historic Langham Hotel in London.

It is the second time passengers have chosen Fiji Airways for this top prize for the Best Airline Staff Service in Australia & Pacific, after the airline previously won the award in 2019.

The Best Airline Staff Service Awards assess all frontline service contact points across both the airport and on-board environment, including check-in, lounges, service assistance, boarding and arrivals, as well as the full range of on-board cabin staff service.

Managing Director and Chief Executive of Fiji Airways Mr Andre Viljoen said "it truly is an honour for our airline to be recognized for our commitment to service. I thank all the hard working staff at Fiji Airways who made this award possible. We won this same award in 2019, and I am proud of the fact that we have not been complacent despite the challenging period that Fiji Airways and indeed the entire aviation industry has faced due to the pandemic."

"Fiji Airways is focused on major plans to enhance our products and service to continue evolving and offering the best to all our guests," he added.

Edward Plaisted of Skytrax said: "Fiji Airways have embarked on the most comprehensive review and upgrade of product and service during the last 2 years, and the airline management and staff should be delighted with this recognition for having the Best Airline Staff Service in Australia & Pacific. In addition to this success for front line staff service, Fiji Airways should also be delighted with their performance in 2022 which sees the airline rise into the world's top 50 airlines this year."

THE 2022 WORLD AIRLINE AWARDS

The World Airline Awards are wholly independent and impartial, introduced in 1999 to provide a customer satisfaction study that was truly global. Travellers across the world vote in the largest airline passenger satisfaction survey to determine the award winners. The awards are referred to by media around the world as "the Oscars of the aviation industry".

Story continues

All costs of the Survey and Awards event are paid by Skytrax, and airlines do not pay any entry or registration fee. There are no charges for use of the Award logos and results.

The online customer survey operated from September- 2021 to August 2022, together with invitations sent to previous year respondents in the survey database. The customer survey is provided in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Japanese and Chinese. Over 100 customer nationalities participated in the 2021/2022 survey with 14.32 million eligible entries counted in the results. Survey entries are screened to identify IP and user information, with all duplicate, suspect or ineligible entries deleted. More than 300 airlines are featured in the final Award results.

About Fiji Airways: Founded in 1951, Fiji Airways Group comprises of Fiji Airways, Fiji's National Airline and its subsidiaries: Fiji Link, its domestic and regional carrier, Pacific Call Comm Ltd, and a 38.75% stake in the Sofitel Fiji Resort & Spa on Denarau Island, Nadi. From its hubs at Nadi and Suva International Airports, Fiji Airways and Fiji Link serve 108 destinations in over 15 countries (including code-share). Destinations include Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, the UK, Hong Kong (SAR China), Singapore, India, Japan, China, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. The Fiji Airways Group brings in 64 percent of all visitors who fly to Fiji, employs over 1000 employees, and earns revenues of over FJD$1 billion (USD $460m) pre-COVID. Fiji Airways rebranded from Air Pacific in June 2013. Visit www.fijiairways.com for more information

IMAGES: download here.

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By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL, Sept 23 (Reuters) - A series of gaffes and controversies is overshadowing South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol's first major overseas tour, sending his ratings plunging and inviting scathing criticism from some lawmakers even within his own party.

This week, Yoon visited London for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth and then New York in his first U.S. trip to attend the U.N. General Assembly, before arriving in Canada on Thursday.

In the highest profile controversy, Yoon was caught cursing on a hot mic as he left an event in New York on Wednesday after a brief chat with U.S. President Joe Biden.

"What an embarrassment ... if these bastards refuse to approve it in parliament," Yoon told Foreign Minister Park Jin in a video aired by South Korean broadcasters, which went viral on social media.

Opposition lawmakers accused Yoon of insulting Biden and disgracing South Korea as media initially reported Yoon was saying Biden would be embarrassed if the U.S. Congress did not pass a bill relating to funding of a global initiative.

His press secretary, Kim Eun-hye, dismissed the accusation, saying Yoon was referring to the South Korean parliament without mentioning Biden.

Reuters could not independently verify what exactly Yoon said.

Yoon's crude comments prompted criticism from some members of his own party, with its floor leader calling it "greatly regrettable."

Officials had hoped the trip would be a chance to show Yoon's vision for what they called a "global pivotal state," deterring North Korea's weapons tests and address other pressing issues including U.S. subsidies for electric vehicles.

Opposition lawmakers also accused Yoon of "demeaning national prestige" by failing to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth on his first day in London, for which his office blamed heavy traffic. Traffic was tightly controlled in London as mourners queued for miles to see the queen's coffin, and some high-level guests including French President Emmanuel Macron arrived there on foot.

Story continues

They also criticised Yoon for failing to hold proper summits with Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, describing his trip as a "diplomatic disaster."

Yoon and Biden had planned informal talks in New York, but ended up having just a 48-second chat at the Global Fund. Yoon's office said that was a "Plan B" due to changes in Biden's schedule, and said they also met in London when Yoon raised the EV subsidies issue.

Earlier, controversy erupted after Japanese media reported Kishida had considered cancelling a meeting with Yoon.

An official at Yoon's office said there was a "disparity in opinions" over the timing of the announcement of the talks and Tokyo seemed "cautious" as both sides explore ways to improve strained ties.

The diplomatic controveries could make it more difficult for Yoon to win the support of the opposition that holds a majority in parliament to pass legislation or boost his policy drive and

have helped cut short his voter honeymoon after his May election win. Yoon's his approval ratings fell to 28% in a survey by Gallup released on Friday from last week's 33%. (Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
DUBLIN, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Ireland B2C Ecommerce Market Opportunities Databook - 100+ KPIs on Ecommerce Verticals (Shopping, Travel, Food Service, Media & Entertainment, Technology), Market Share by Key Players, Sales Channel Analysis, Payment Instrument, Consumer Demographics - Q2 2022 Update" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Research and Markets Logo

Ireland's B2C market is expected to grow by 17.16% on an annual basis to reach US$15,915.1 million in 2022.

The medium to the long-term growth story of the B2C Ecommerce industry in Ireland promises to be attractive. The B2C Ecommerce is expected to grow steadily over the forecast period, recording a CAGR of 12.80% during 2022-2026. The country's B2C Ecommerce Gross Merchandise Value will increase from US$13,583.9 million in 2021 to US$25,769.1 million by 2026.



This report provides a detailed data-centric analysis of B2C ecommerce market dynamics, covering over 100 KPIs in Ireland. It details market opportunities across key B2C verticals - Retail Shopping, Travel & Hospitality, Online Food Service, Media and Entertainment, Healthcare and Wellness, and Technology Products and Services.

It provides market share by key players across key verticals and sales channels (Platform to Consumer, Direct to Consumer, Consumer to Consumer). In addition, it provides spending patterns by payment instruments along with a snapshot of consumer behaviour in Ireland.



The report also covers niche trends such as market size by live streaming engagement model and cross-border purchases. It also covers ecommerce spend share by operating systems, devices (mobile vs. desktop) and cities.



In addition to detailed data-centric analysis, this report provides analyst commentary on key trends, drivers, strategies, and innovations in the B2C ecommerce industry in Ireland.

Reasons to buy

In-depth Understanding of B2C Ecommerce Market Dynamics: Understand market opportunities and key trends along with forecast (2017-2026). Understand market dynamics through essential KPIs such as Gross Merchandise Value, Volume, and Average Value Per Transaction.

Insights into Opportunity by B2C Ecommerce Categories: Get market dynamics by sales channel to assess emerging opportunities across various segments.

Detailed analysis of market share by key players across key B2C ecommerce verticals.

Insights into Opportunities across key B2C verticals: Retail shopping, travel & hospitality, online food service, media and entertainment, healthcare and wellness, and technology products & services.

Develop Market Specific Strategies: Identify growth segments and target specific opportunities to formulate a B2C ecommerce strategy; assess market-specific key trends, drivers, and risks in the B2C ecommerce industry.

Get Insights into Consumer Attitude and Behaviour: Drawing from proprietary survey results, this report identifies and interprets key B2C ecommerce KPIs, including spend by age, gender, and income level.

Story continues

Companies Mentioned

Argos Distributors

Currys

Pixmania

Shop Direct

Tesco

Deliveroo

Flipdish

Just Eat

Manna

Cassidy Travel

ClickAndGo

FREE NOW

Lynk Taxis

Rove

Scope



Ireland B2C Ecommerce Market Size and Future Growth Dynamics

Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis

Average Value Per Transaction Trend Analysis

Gross Merchandise Volume Trend Analysis

Ireland User Statistics and Ratios of Key Performance Indicators

User Statistics

Card Abandonment Rate and Product Return Rate

B2C Ecommerce Per Capita and GDP Per Capita

GDP Per Capita Trend Analysis

Ireland B2C Ecommerce Market Share by Key Players

Ireland Retail Shopping Ecommerce Market Share by Key Players (Argos, Currys, Pixmania, Shop Direct, Tesco )

Ireland Travel Ecommerce Market Share by Key Players (Cassidy Travel , ClickAndGo, FREE NOW, Lynk Taxis, Rove)

Ireland Food Service Ecommerce Market Share by Key Players (Deliveroo, Flipdish, Just Eat, Manna)

Ireland B2C Ecommerce Market Size and Forecast by B2C Ecommerce Segments (Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2017-2026)

Retail Shopping ( breakdown by clothing, footwear & accessories, health, beauty and personal care, food & beverage, appliances and electronics, home improvement, books, music & video, toys & hobby, auto)

Travel and Hospitality (breakdown by air travel, train & bus, taxi service, hotels & resorts)

Online Food Service (breakdown by aggregators, direct to consumer)

Media and Entertainment (breakdown by streaming services, movies & events, theme parks & gaming)

Healthcare and Wellness

Technology Products and Services

Other segments

Ireland B2C Ecommerce Market Size and Forecast by Retail Shopping Sales Channel

Platform to Consumer

Direct to Consumer

Consumer to Consumer

Ireland B2C Ecommerce Market Share by Travel and Hospitality Sales Channel

Market Share by Travel and Hospitality Sales Channel

Aggregator App - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis

Direct to Consumer - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis

Ireland B2C Ecommerce Market Size and Forecast by Online Food Service Sales Channel

Aggregator App

Direct to Consumer

Ireland B2C Ecommerce Market Size and Forecast by Engagement Model (Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2017-2026)

Website Based

Live Streaming

Ireland B2C Ecommerce Market Size and Forecast by Location (Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2017-2026)

Cross Border

Domestic

Ireland B2C Ecommerce Market Size and Forecast by Device (Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2017-2026)

Mobile

Desktop

Ireland B2C Ecommerce Market Size and Forecast by Operating System

iOS/macOS

Android

Other Operating Systems

Ireland B2C Ecommerce Market Size and Forecast by City

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Ireland B2C Ecommerce Market Size and Forecast by Payment Instrument (Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2017-2026)

Credit Card

Debit Card

Bank Transfer

Prepaid Card

Digital & Mobile Wallet

Cash

Other Digital Payment

Ireland B2C Ecommerce Consumer Demographics

Market Share by Age Group

Market Share by Income Level

Market Share by Gender

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/id4e7h

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

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SOURCE Research and Markets
L'OREAL

NEWS

RELEASE

LOreal signs an agreement to acquire Skinbetter Science,

a physician-dispensed American skincare brand

Clichy, September 23, 2022  LOreal signed an agreement to acquire Skinbetter Science, a physician-dispensed American skincare brand backed by cutting-edge, dermatological science, combining patented efficacious ingredients with luxurious sensorial textures.

Skinbetter Science was co-founded in 2016 by pharmaceutical industry professionals, Jonah Shacknai, Justin Smith and Seth Rodner, and has since become one of the fastest growing medical-dispensed skincare brands in the United States. Skinbetter Science is known for formulating innovative products with active ingredients for anti-aging, moisturizing, cleansing, exfoliating, skin peeling and sun protection. The brand is strongly supported by deep knowledge of skin and chemistry with clinical trials led by board-certified dermatologists.

Skinbetter Sciences products are mainly available through a network of leading dermatology, plastic surgery and medical aesthetics practices throughout the United States, powered by a national medical sales team.

Skinbetter Science recorded nearly USD 95 million of sales in the trailing-twelve-months that ended August 31, 2022. Headquartered in Arizona, the brands leadership team will continue to run the business following the acquisition and will be integrated under the leadership of Christina Fair, President of the Active Cosmetics Division within LOreal USA.

Commenting on the acquisition, Myriam Cohen-Welgryn, Worldwide President of LOreals Active Cosmetics Division, said, Skinbetter Science is a perfect complement to the Active Cosmetics Divisions brand portfolio. It will contribute greatly to the LOreal Active Cosmetics Divisions long-standing mission to pioneer health and beauty with advanced science-based skincare innovations. I am confident this high-growth US brand has great international potential.

David Greenberg, Chief Executive Officer, L'Oreal USA and President, North America Zone, added, We are thrilled to welcome the Skinbetter Science team to LOreal. I am confident the brand will strengthen our North America dermatological beauty business, an area that we believe has dynamic growth potential. Together with Christina Fair and our Active Cosmetics Division, we see an opportunity to draw on the strength of the fantastic team behind the brand and reinforce the relationships of trust that they have built with their healthcare professional partners to take this part of our business to the next level.

Story continues

Jonah Shacknai, Founder & Executive Chairman of Skinbetter Science, said, The entire Skinbetter Science team is excited to be joining the LOreal family. LOreal is the leading beauty company in the world, and its extraordinary leadership, resources and international reach will allow us to maximize opportunities for medical aesthetics practices, patients and our Skinbetter colleagues. We are very proud of all we have accomplished as an independent brand and look forward to collaboration with such an innovative and socially responsible global organization. We genuinely believe there to be superb mission and values alignment between our companies.

The closing is expected to occur in early Q4 2022, subject to the standard regulatory approvals and other customary conditions.



About LOreal

For over 110 years, LOreal, the worlds leading beauty player, has devoted itself to one thing only: fulfilling the beauty aspirations of consumers around the world. Our purpose, to create the beauty that moves the world, defines our approach to beauty as inclusive, ethical, generous and committed to social and environmental sustainability. With our broad portfolio of 35 international brands and ambitious sustainability commitments in our LOreal for the Future programme, we offer each and every person around the world the best in terms of quality, efficacy, safety, sincerity and responsibility, while celebrating beauty in its infinite plurality.



With 85,400 committed employees, a balanced geographical footprint and sales across all distribution networks (e-commerce, mass market, department stores, pharmacies, hair salons, branded and travel retail), in 2021 the Group generated sales amounting to 32.28 billion euros. With 20 research centers across 11 countries around the world and a dedicated Research and Innovation team of over 4,000 scientists and 3,000 tech professionals, LOreal is focused on inventing the future of beauty and becoming a Beauty Tech powerhouse.

More information on https://www.loreal.com/en/mediaroom

"This press release does not constitute an offer of sale or solicitation of an offer to purchase L'Oreal shares. If you wish to obtain more comprehensive information about L'Oreal, please refer to the public documents registered in France with the Autorite des Marches Financiers, also available in English on our website www.loreal-finance.com.

This press release may contain forecast information. While the Company believes that these statements are based on reasonable assumptions as of the date of publication of this press release, they are by nature subject to risks and uncertainties which may lead to a discrepancy between the actual figures and those indicated or suggested in these statements.

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JAKARTA, INDONESIA / ACCESSWIRE / September 23, 2022 / Musim Mas

Today, Musim Mas, one of the world's largest fully integrated palm oil corporations, announced that the current batch of independent farmers from its smallholders' extension program has successfully sold their RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil to international buyers through the RSPO's trading platform.

2,295 independent smallholders from farmers' associations in North Sumatra Province (Rantauprapat) and Riau Province (Pelalawan, Rokan Hilir, and Rokan Hulu) have received almost IDR 11 billion, or USD 733K from the transaction. Combined with similar sales in 2020 and 2021, these four associations have earned close to USD 1.3 million.

The associations are part of Musim Mas' independent smallholders' training and RSPO certification program that started more than five years ago as part of the Indonesian Palm Oil Development Scheme for Smallholders (IPODS). Musim Mas developed the original IPODS program with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as a way to encourage and enable independent oil palm farmers to obtain certification by the globally-recognized Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

"It is a significant achievement for smallholders to be certified because it opens more doors for them to sell their palm oil volume to global buyers seeking sustainable palm oil," said Rudman Simanjuntak, Musim Mas' Manager of Independent Smallholders.

Integrating independent smallholders into a sustainable palm oil supply chain

Smallholders manage a substantial 41% of Indonesia's total oil palm plantation. They play a key role in producing oil palm for domestic and international markets and are the key to increasing the amount of palm oil that meets sustainability standards (RSPO and ISPO). However, independent smallholders struggle due to a lack of technical knowledge, limited access to quality planting materials, and financing. They rely on friends and neighbors, who often have little formal training.

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Musim Mas engages with independent smallholders directly and provides them with agronomic training, access to financial support and global markets, and education on legal requirements. This training uses a comprehensive curriculum that mirrors the RSPO's Principles & Criteria (P&C) to help smallholders close the gap between their old farming practices and those required for RSPO certification. RSPO-certified smallholders have access to global sustainable palm oil supply chains and premium markets.

"Trying to transform an industry is a process - the RSPO Credits supply chain model is an important entry point for smallholder members to become certified sustainable," says Guntur Cahyo Prabowo, RSPO's Acting Head of Smallholder Program. "In the long term, their efforts will help to transform the market into a more socially just and environmentally sustainable industry. The premium received is not only a viable business opportunity but also a reward for contributing to market transformation."

Encouraging entrepreneurship

Musim Mas, a 100% RSPO-certified oil palm major, believes in investing in smallholders. This training program is part of Musim Mas' commitment to improving the livelihoods of palm oil farmers in remote areas of Indonesia by helping them enhance their incomes. The program assists the smallholders with access to financing, allowing them to replace aging palms, plant higher-yielding seedlings, and manage their oil palms while meeting certification standards.

Most smallholders farm relatively small plots of land; the average size is about two hectares. Many were not familiar with modern, science-based methods prior to joining the program. "One important lesson we learned in the program is focusing on increasing yields, not deforesting new areas," said Kateni, Chairman of the Rokan Hilir Association of Independent Oil Palm Smallholders in Riau. "This training taught our members better and more sustainable methods of growing oil palm."

The training program includes modules on financial management and health and nutrition. "Joining the program and then becoming RSPO certified brought significant improvements to our quality of life, and we are thankful for that," said Joko Prasetyo, Chairman of Pelalawan Siak Association of Independent Oil Palm Smallholders in Riau. "Our members are very proud to be recognized as sustainable and responsible farmers."

RSPO certification unlocks new markets

By obtaining RSPO certification, the independent smallholders can then qualify to join RSPO's PalmTrace trading platform. Selling on the platform allows smallholders to earn a premium on their certified oil palm products. Because the traded on PalmTrace are certified as sustainable, major international buyers use the RSPO platform to source sustainable supply. This most recent sales by the four associations saw Unilever, Nestle, ACT Commodities, and Waitrose Ltd as buyers.

"The purchase of the RSPO credits is essential to encourage the production of certified sustainable palm oil and a sustainable supply chain," said Rudman Simanjuntak, Musim Mas' Manager of Independent Smallholders. "As our smallholders' program scales up, we hope to see more smallholders get benefits from the certification."

As smallholders depend on environmental services for their livelihood, it is essential to promote sustainable oil palm production to ensure resilience and long-term economic growth.

Ikhsan Gunawan, Chairman of the Rokan Hulu Group of Independent Oil Palm Farms in Riau, said, "We used to grow oil palm in the old-fashioned way. We would never have imagined we could do business with international companies. The RSPO certification made it possible."

"Empowering independent smallholder farmers is fundamental to Unilever's approach to sustainable sourcing," states Rauf Prasodjo, Senior Manager of Sustainable Sourcing at Unilever. "Smallholders are critical to the success of any sustainable supply chain, and we know that investing in certifying independent smallholders through the RSPO and purchasing the associated credits can drive positive change."

Megane Chesne, Global Sustainable Sourcing Leader, Palm Oil at Nestle, said, "Supporting smallholder farmers to produce sustainably is integral to our ambition to advance regenerative food systems at scale. We will continue to work with our direct suppliers like Musim Mas to help improve the resilience and livelihoods of palm oil smallholders. This includes buying RSPO credits from independent smallholders to support their journey towards sustainable palm oil production."

Musim Mas contact details

For additional information, please contact:

Reza Rinaldi Mardja, Corporate Communications

Email: Communications@musimmas.com

Hp: +62-811-606-3237

About Musim Mas

Musim Mas is one of the largest, integrated palm oil corporations with an operational presence in 13 countries across Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Americas. Our main operations are in Indonesia, spanning from cultivation to refining and manufacturing. Our global workforce pursues innovative and sustainable developments, ensuring product quality, safety and efficiency as the industry evolves.

As one of the most prominent players in the industry, it aspires to be a responsible leader in the evolution of the industry, driving a new era of sustainability with innovation. To that end, we take active steps to go beyond industry-recognized sustainability standards and will continue to step up in response to critical industry issues in our quest to contribute to a more sustainable industry and equitable world.

About the Training for Smallholders program

Musim Mas together with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank, developed the Indonesian Palm Oil Development Scheme for Smallholders (IPODS) in 2015 following a diagnostic study on smallholders by the IFC in 2013. IPODS was piloted in four of Musim Mas' mills in North Sumatra (Rantauprapat) and Riau (Pelalawan, Rokan Hilir, and Rokan Hulu), Indonesia.

These mills, which source mainly from independent smallholders, still continue to engage with these smallholders but the training program has now been replicated and expanded to cover 36,000 smallholders farming 76,800 hectares in Sumatra (Aceh, North Sumatra, Riau, South Sumatra), West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan.

The Training for Smallholders program seeks to improve the livelihoods of smallholders by integrating them into sustainable palm oil supply chains. The integration would bring about not only financial value but also sustainable value, where their surrounding environment and community benefits.

Musim Mas, Friday, September 23, 2022, Press release picture

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Musim Mas on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Musim Mas

Website: https://www.musimmas.com/sustainability/

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Musim Mas





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/717216/Musim-Mas-Program-Helps-Indonesian-Oil-Palm-Farmers-Receive-USD-733K




ReportLinker

Major players in the neuroprosthetics market are Medtronic plc, Cochlear Ltd, Abbott Laboratories, Boston Scientific, LivaNova Plc, Second Sight Medical Products Inc, MED-EL, Retina Implant AG, Sonova, Neuropace, NDI Medical LLC, Demant AS, Oticon, St.

New York, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Neuroprosthetics Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06316477/?utm_source=GNW

Jude Medical Inc and Biomet Inc.



The global neuroprosthetics market is expected to grow from $7.1 billion in 2021 to $8.04 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.3%. The neuroprosthetics market is expected to grow to $13.77 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 14.4%.



The neuroprosthetics market consists of sales of neuroprosthetics solutions by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships) that are defined as the study of neuroprostheses and brain-machine interfaces.Neuroprosthetic devices substitute the cognitive or sensory functions that have been impaired due to nervous system disorders.



They encompass various artificial devices or systems, which can enhance the output or input of a neural system. The major purpose of neuroprosthetics is to allow brain-injured patients to participate in day-to-day life and improve their quality of life.



The main types of neuroprosthetics are motor neuroprosthetics, auditory neuroprosthetics/ cochlear implants, visual neuroprosthetics/ retinal implants, and cognitive neuroprosthetics.As an orthosis, motor neuroprosthesis (MN) includes electrical stimulation of brain areas to promote the activities and involvement of persons who have had a stroke in their natural environment.



The various techniques used are spinal cord stimulation, deep brain stimulation, vagus nerve stimulation, sacral nerve stimulation, and transcranial magnetic stimulation which are applied in various disorders such as motor neuron disorders, physiological disorders, and cognitive disorders.



North America was the largest region in the neuroprosthetics market in 2021.Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the forecast period.



The regions covered in neuroprosthetics market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa.



The neuroprosthetics market research report is one of a series of new reports that provides neuroprosthetics market statistics, including neuroprosthetics industry global market size, regional shares, competitors with a neuroprosthetics market share, detailed neuroprosthetics market segments, market trends and opportunities, and any further data you may need to thrive in the neuroprosthetics industry. This neuroprosthetics market research report delivers a complete perspective of everything you need, with an in-depth analysis of the current and future scenario of the industry.



The rising patient population suffering from neurological disorders and nerve injuries is expected to propel the growth of the neuroprosthetics market.Neurological disorders are referred to as disorders that affect the brain and the nerves present in the human body and the spinal cord.



Nerve injuries are the damages caused to nerves due to pressure, cuts, or stretching during an accident or any unpredicted event.Neuroprosthetics help patients with such disorders and injuries to restore their lost motor and sensory functions.



For instance, according to the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019, a study conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research and other public health institutions, the contribution of non-communicable neurological disorders to total disability-adjusted life-years in India increased to 8.2% and the contribution of injury-related neurological disorders increased to 0.6%. Therefore, the growing patient population suffering from neurological disorders and nerve injuries is driving the growth of the neuroprosthetics market.



Technological advancements are shaping the neuroprosthetics market.Technological advancement is defined as a discovery of knowledge that advances technology to provide an enhanced product to the customers.



For instance, in July 2021, the University of California San Francisco Parnassus Campus (UCSF), a US-based academic medical center, developed Speech Neuroprosthesis.The new achievement was developed by researchers of UCSF, which enabled paralysis patients to directly translate the signals from their brain to the vocal tract, which appear as text on the screen.



The technology used is Brain-Computer Interface Restoration of Arm and Voice which uses human vocabulary with advanced computer algorithms that are used to recognize brain activity.



In February 2021, Flow Neuroscience, a Sweden-based developer of a brain stimulation device, acquired Halo Neuroscience, for an undisclosed amount.With this acquisition, Flow Neuroscience aims at providing more personalized solutions related to brain disorders.



Halo Neuroscience is a US-based developer of brain stimulators that develops muscle memory faster and develops and designs neuroprosthetics.



The countries covered in the neuroprosthetics market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06316477/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



__________________________

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CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001




The event marks a new milestone in Taiwan's exports of system integration solutions

TAIPEI, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The opening ceremony of Taiwan's overseas demonstration facility Thailand-Taiwan Smart Park (TTSP) was held at SynHub Digi-Tech Community in Pathum Thani, Thailand on the morning of September 19, 2022. Over 80 guests from Taiwan and Thailand attended the ceremony, including several Thai and Taiwanese government officials who were also present for the inauguration and the ribbon cutting, among them IDB's Information Technology Industries Division deputy head, Michael Yen; SynHub's co-CEOs and co-founders Niti Mekmok and Rassamee Suebchompoo; Thailand's Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA) executive vice president, Supakorn Siddhichai; Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Thailand Economic Division first secretary Jung Tzu Niu; and Institute for Information Industry International Division deputy director Shun Jung Tu. The event not only demonstrates the high value that both parties have placed on the park but also marks a new milestone in their collaborations in the fields of system integration and smart cities.

The inauguration and ribbon cutting ceremony of Thailand-Taiwan Smart Park: SynHub co-CEO and co-founder Rassamee Suebchompoo (first from left), Thailand's DEPA executive vice president, Supakorn Siddhichai (second from left), SynHub co-CEO and co-founder Niti Mekmok (third from left), IDB's Information Technology Industries Division deputy head, Michael Yen (third from right), Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Thailand Economic Division first secretary Jung Tzu Niu (second from right), and Institute for Information Industry International Division deputy director Shun Jung Tu (first from right).

TTSP, Taiwan's first overseas demonstration park for smart solutions, employs a cooperation model whereby Taiwanese manufacturers supply smart solutions while SynHub Digi-Tech Community provides a site for their implementation and demonstration. In the future, the demonstration park will offer park-wide tours to local vendors and serve as a consulting center that helps to further the global implementation of solutions from Taiwan.

"The establishment of TTSP with SynHub Digi-Tech Community allows for an onsite validation of Taiwan's smart solutions in overseas markets while providing local manufacturers in Thailand with direct access to these solutions," said Mr. Yen. "The park is also expected to deepen surrounding countries and regions' understanding of the results of Thai-Taiwanese collaborations in the realm of smart solutions, furthering industry-level cooperation between Taiwan, Thailand and other Southeast Asian markets in this regard."

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TTSP will incorporate Taiwan's smart solutions in seven key areas, including the economy, transportation, energy, housing, culture, policies and the environment, with the aim of promoting the development of Thailand's smart cities. With the implementation and demonstration of solutions from Taiwan, the overseas demonstration park is well-positioned to speed up Thai-Taiwanese collaborations by serving as a platform through which Thai manufacturers develop an understanding of these solutions and validate the feasibility of related services. Through the establishment of TTSP, Taiwan, by virtue of its strong competence in technology, also looks to establish and deepen partnerships with other Southeast Asian markets beyond Thailand in building smart cities.

Currently, five Taiwanese solutions providers - CAMEO InfoTech, 3Egreen Technology, Chiun Mai Communication Systems, Intumit, Inc. and Chicony Power Technology - will be providing TTSP with a number of solutions, including air quality monitoring and AI analysis, energy consumption checks, artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) technology-based fall detection/SOS GPS positioning, conversational AI chatbots, and smart building solutions. The companies also plan to implement and demonstrate a wider range of smart solutions within the park via a new cooperation model that is expected to accelerate Taiwan and Thailand's collaborative efforts in building smart cities.

SOURCE Institute For Information Industry (III)
Industry Research

This report studies the Polyimide (PI) market, covering market size for segment by type (Film, Resin, etc.), by application (Aerospace Industry, Electrical Industry, etc.), by sales channel (Direct Channel, Distribution Channel), by player (SABIC, DuPont, Kaneka Corporation, Evonik Fibres, Ube Industries, etc.) and by region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America and Middle East & Africa).

Pune, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 2022-2030 REPORT ON GLOBAL POLYIMIDE (PI) MARKET BY PLAYER, REGION, TYPE, APPLICATION AND SALES CHANNEL:

Global Polyimide (PI) Market 2016-2030 report discovers comprehensive insights on key manufacturers with share information, market size and projection, key dynamics, growth factors, and new company profiles. The report provides detailed information about the market overview, prevalent trends, demand, and recent developments impacting the market growth in the coming years. Polyimide (PI) Market opportunities analysis, strategic growth analysis, product launches, marketplace expanding, and technological innovations are also highlighted. The report uncovers Polyimide (PI) market size, potential growth, trends and expansion strategies followed by top prominent players.

Get a Sample PDF of the report @ https://www.industryresearch.biz/enquiry/request-sample/20744468

This report provides detailed historical analysis of global market for Polyimide (PI) from 2016-2021, and provides extensive market forecasts from 2022-2030 by region/country and subsectors. It covers the sales/revenue/value, gross margin, historical growth and future perspectives in the Polyimide (PI) market.



Moreover, the impact of COVID-19 is also concerned. Since outbreak in December 2019, the COVID-19 virus has spread to all around the world and caused huge losses of lives and economy, and the global manufacturing, tourism and financial markets have been hit hard, while the online market/industry increase. Fortunately, with the development of vaccine and other effort by global governments and organizations, the negative impact of COVID-19 is expected to subside and the global economy is expected to recover.



This research covers COVID-19 impacts on the upstream, midstream and downstream industries. Moreover, this research provides an in-depth market evaluation by highlighting information on various aspects covering market dynamics like drivers, barriers, opportunities, threats, and industry news & trends. In the end, this report also provides in-depth analysis and professional advices on how to face the post COIVD-19 period.



The research methodology used to estimate and forecast this market begins by capturing the revenues of the key players and their shares in the market. Various secondary sources such as press releases, annual reports, non-profit organizations, industry associations, governmental agencies and customs data, have been used to identify and collect information useful for this extensive commercial study of the market. Calculations based on this led to the overall market size. After arriving at the overall market size, the total market has been split into several segments and subsegments, which have then been verified through primary research by conducting extensive interviews with industry experts such as CEOs, VPs, directors, and executives. The data triangulation and market breakdown procedures have been employed to complete the overall market engineering process and arrive at the exact statistics for all segments and subsegments.

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Get A Sample Copy Of The Polyimide (PI) Market Report 2016-2030

Polyimide (PI) Market Top Manufacturers Analysis : The report covers extensive analysis of the key market players along with their business overview, expansion plans, and strategies. Top Key Players covered in the report are:

SABIC

DuPont

Kaneka Corporation

Evonik Fibres

Ube Industries

Solvay

SKCKOLONPI

Saint-Gobain

Taimide Technology

Mitsui Chemicals

Qinyang Tianyi Chemical

Asahi Kasei

HD MicroSystems

Shengyuan

HiPolyking

Mitsubishi Gas Chemical

The report focuses on the Polyimide (PI) market size, segment size (mainly covering product type, application, and geography), competitor landscape, recent status, and development trends. Furthermore, the report provides detailed cost analysis, supply chain. Technological innovation and advancement will further optimize the performance of the product, making it more widely used in downstream applications. Moreover, Consumer behavior analysis and market dynamics (drivers, restraints, opportunities) provides crucial information for knowing the Polyimide (PI) market.

Based On Product Types, the Polyimide (PI) market from 2016 to 2030 is primarily split into:

Film

Resin

Plastic

Others

Based On Applications, the Polyimide (PI) market from 2016 to 2030 covers:

Aerospace Industry

Electrical Industry

Machine Industry

Others Industry

Enquire before purchasing this report - https://www.industryresearch.biz/enquiry/pre-order-enquiry/20744468

Geographically, the report includes research on production, consumption, revenue, market share and growth rate, and forecast (2016 -2030) of the following regions:

North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)

Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Russia and Spain etc.)

Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia and Southeast Asia etc.)

South America (Brazil, Argentina and Colombia etc.)

Middle East & Africa (South Africa, UAE and Saudi Arabia etc.)

Major Highlights of Polyimide (PI) Market Report:

Define and discuss the growth of the global Polyimide (PI) market

Analyze the various segments and dynamics of the Polyimide (PI) market

To identify and make suitable business plans according to industry and economic shifts.

The key objective of presenting an in-depth research study on the global Polyimide (PI) market is to conduct an extensive analysis and Polyimide (PI) performance.

The report highlights the latest trends, market drivers, and investment avenues for the new entrants and the market players looking for market expansion.

It is helpful to combine relevant facts and offers a wealth of information and analysis on the global Polyimide (PI) market.

This report assesses the performance and profit potential of the global Polyimide (PI) market. Different variables are used to analyze attractiveness and strengths.

TO KNOW HOW COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND RUSSIA UKRAINE WAR WILL IMPACT THIS MARKET - REQUEST SAMPLE

What ideas and concepts are covered in the report?

The assessments accounted by all the zones and the market share registered by each region are mentioned in the report.

The study sums up the product consumption growth rate in the applicable regions along with their consumption market share.

Data regarding the Polyimide (PI) Industry market consumption rate of all the provinces, based on applicable regions and product types is inculcated in the report.

Region-based analysis of the Polyimide (PI) Industry market:

The Polyimide (PI) Industry market, with regards to the provincial scope, is segmented into USA, Europe, Japan, China, India, South East Asia and more. The report also includes information regarding the products use throughout the topographies.

Some of the key questions answered in this report:

Which are the five top players of the Polyimide (PI) market?

How will the Polyimide (PI) market change in the upcoming years?

Which product and application will take a share of the Polyimide (PI) market?

What are the drivers and restraints of the Polyimide (PI) market?

Which regional market will show the highest growth?

What will be the CAGR and size of the Polyimide (PI) market throughout the forecast period?

What is the current market size, what will the market size be in 2030 and what will the growth rate be?

What are the challenges to grow in the market?

What are the market opportunities and challenges faced by the key vendors?

Who are the major competitors and what is their strategy?

What are the barriers to entry for new players in the market?

Purchase this report (Price 2500 USD for a single-user license) - https://www.industryresearch.biz/purchase/20744468

With tables and figures helping analyze worldwide Global Polyimide (PI) market trends, this research provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.

Detailed TOC of Polyimide (PI) Market Forecast Report 2016-2030:

Chapter 1 Polyimide (PI) Market Overview

1.1 Polyimide (PI) Definition

1.2 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size Status and Outlook (2016-2030)

1.3 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size Comparison by Region (2016-2030)

1.4 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size Comparison by Type (2016-2030)

1.5 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size Comparison by Application (2016-2030)

1.6 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size Comparison by Sales Channel (2016-2030)

1.7 Polyimide (PI) Market Dynamics (COVID-19 Impacts)

1.7.1 Market Drivers/Opportunities

1.7.2 Market Challenges/Risks

1.7.3 Market News (Mergers/Acquisitions/Expansion)

1.7.4 COVID-19 Impacts

1.7.5 Post-Strategies of COVID-19



Chapter 2 Polyimide (PI) Market Segment Analysis by Player

2.1 Global Polyimide (PI) Sales and Market Share by Player (2019-2021)

2.2 Global Polyimide (PI) Revenue and Market Share by Player (2019-2021)

2.3 Global Polyimide (PI) Average Price by Player (2019-2021)

2.4 Players Competition Situation & Trends

2.5 Conclusion of Segment by Player



Chapter 3 Polyimide (PI) Market Segment Analysis by Type

3.1 Global Polyimide (PI) Market by Type

3.1.1 Film

3.1.2 Resin

3.1.3 Plastic

3.1.4 Others

3.2 Global Polyimide (PI) Sales and Market Share by Type (2016-2021)

3.3 Global Polyimide (PI) Revenue and Market Share by Type (2016-2021)

3.4 Global Polyimide (PI) Average Price by Type (2016-2021)

3.5 Leading Players of Polyimide (PI) by Type in 2021

3.6 Conclusion of Segment by Type



Chapter 4 Polyimide (PI) Market Segment Analysis by Application

4.1 Global Polyimide (PI) Market by Application

4.1.1 Aerospace Industry

4.1.2 Electrical Industry

4.1.3 Machine Industry

4.1.4 Others Industry

4.2 Global Polyimide (PI) Revenue and Market Share by Application (2016-2021)

4.3 Leading Consumers of Polyimide (PI) by Application in 2021

4.4 Conclusion of Segment by Application



Chapter 5 Polyimide (PI) Market Segment Analysis by Sales Channel

5.1 Global Polyimide (PI) Market by Sales Channel

5.1.1 Direct Channel

5.1.2 Distribution Channel

5.2 Global Polyimide (PI) Revenue and Market Share by Sales Channel (2016-2021)

5.3 Leading Distributors/Dealers of Polyimide (PI) by Sales Channel in 2021

5.4 Conclusion of Segment by Sales Channel



Chapter 6 Polyimide (PI) Market Segment Analysis by Region

6.1 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size and CAGR by Region (2016-2030)

6.2 Global Polyimide (PI) Sales and Market Share by Region (2016-2021)

6.3 Global Polyimide (PI) Revenue and Market Share by Region (2016-2021)

6.4 North America

6.4.1 North America Market by Country

6.4.2 North America Polyimide (PI) Market Share by Type

6.4.3 North America Polyimide (PI) Market Share by Application

6.4.4 United States

6.4.5 Canada

6.4.6 Mexico

6.5 Europe

6.5.1 Europe Market by Country

6.5.2 Europe Polyimide (PI) Market Share by Type

6.5.3 Europe Polyimide (PI) Market Share by Application

6.5.4 Germany

6.5.5 UK

6.5.6 France

6.5.7 Italy

6.5.8 Russia

6.5.9 Spain

6.6 Asia-Pacific

6.6.1 Asia-Pacific Market by Country

6.6.2 Asia-Pacific Polyimide (PI) Market Share by Type

6.6.3 Asia-Pacific Polyimide (PI) Market Share by Application

6.6.4 China

6.6.5 Japan

6.6.6 Korea

6.6.7 India

6.6.8 Southeast Asia

6.6.9 Australia

6.7 South America

6.7.1 South America Market by Country

6.7.2 South America Polyimide (PI) Market Share by Type

6.7.3 South America Polyimide (PI) Market Share by Application

6.7.4 Brazil

6.7.5 Argentina

6.7.6 Colombia

6.8 Middle East & Africa

6.8.1 Middle East & Africa Market by Country

6.8.2 Middle East & Africa Polyimide (PI) Market Share by Type

6.8.3 Middle East & Africa Polyimide (PI) Market Share by Application

6.8.4 UAE

6.8.5 Saudi Arabia

6.8.6 South Africa

6.9 Conclusion of Segment by Region



Chapter 7 Profile of Leading Polyimide (PI) Players

7.1 SABIC

7.1.1 Company Snapshot

7.1.2 Product/Service Offered

7.1.3 Business Performance (Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share)

7.2 DuPont

7.3 Kaneka Corporation

7.4 Evonik Fibres

7.5 Ube Industries

7.6 Solvay

7.7 SKCKOLONPI

7.8 Saint-Gobain

7.9 Taimide Technology

7.10 Mitsui Chemicals

7.11 Qinyang Tianyi Chemical

7.12 Asahi Kasei

7.13 HD MicroSystems

7.14 Shengyuan

7.15 HiPolyking

7.16 Mitsubishi Gas Chemical



Chapter 8 Upstream and Downstream Analysis of Polyimide (PI)

8.1 Industrial Chain of Polyimide (PI)

8.2 Upstream of Polyimide (PI)

8.3 Downstream of Polyimide (PI)



Chapter 9 Development Trend of Polyimide (PI) (2022-2030)

9.1 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size (Sales and Revenue) Forecast (2022-2030)

9.2 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size and CAGR Forecast by Region (2022-2030)

9.3 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size and CAGR Forecast by Type (2022-2030)

9.4 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size and CAGR Forecast by Application (2022-2030)

9.5 Global Polyimide (PI) Market Size and CAGR Forecast by Sales Channel (2022-2030)



Chapter 10 Appendix

10.1 Research Methodology

10.2 Data Sources

10.3 Disclaimer

10.4 Analysts Certification

Detailed TOC of Global Polyimide (PI) Market @ https://www.industryresearch.biz/TOC/20744468

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Major players in the plywood market are Georgia-Pacific LLC, PotlatchDeltic Corporation, Boise Cascade Company, UPM-Kymmene Oyj, SVEZA Forest Ltd. , Latvijas Finieris AS, Austral Plywoods Pty Ltd. , Eksons Corporation Berhad (BHD), Metsa Wood (Metsaliitto Cooperative), Uniply Industries Ltd, Hefei Sinoply wood, Subur Tiasa Holdings Berhad and Jaya Tiasa Holdings Berhad.

New York, Sept. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Plywood Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06316978/?utm_source=GNW





The global plywood market is expected to grow from $50.83 billion in 2021 to $54.79 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.8%. The plywood market is expected to grow to $79.65 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 9.8%.



The plywood market consists of sales of plywood by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships) which is a type of manufacturing board, which a made of thin wood layers that are glued together and have an outer layer that is plastic-like, a resin-impregnated paper which improves the durability of plywood.This plywood has high structural strength and flexibility and also works better against moisture.



Plywood is widely being used in interior design and furniture work. Apart from being economical and durable, it also is a more eco-friendly option than normal wood.



The main types of plywood markets are softwood and hardwood.Softwood plywood has a front and back veneer of softwood and is used for decorative purposes such as furniture making.



These are used in furniture, flooring and construction, automotive interiors, packaging, marine, and other applications and are used by residential, and commercial.



Asia Pacific was the largest region in the plywood market in 2021.Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the forecast period.



The regions covered in the plywood market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, and Africa.



The plywood market research report is one of a series of new reports that provides plywood market statistics, including plywood industry global market size, regional shares, competitors with a plywood market share, detailed plywood market segments, market trends and opportunities, and any further data you may need to thrive in the plywood industry. This plywood market research report delivers a complete perspective of everything you need, with an in-depth analysis of the current and future scenario of the industry.



The growth of the interior design and furniture industry is propelling the demand in the plywood market.Interior designing and furniture refer to the designing of homes or organizations.



The interior design and furniture industry use large amounts of plywood as a better alternative to raw wood, as a result, the growth of interior design and furniture increases the demand for the plywood market.For instance, the report from the Institute of Logistics and Aviation, an aviation institute based in India suggested that the Indian furniture market was expected to grow at a rate of 26% in 2019.



Thus the growing furniture and Interior design industry are propelling the growth of the Plywood market.



Strategic partnerships are shaping the plywood market.Many companies operating in the plywood market are undergoing partnerships to meet customer demands.



For instance, in January 2022, Boise Cascade Millwork, a US-based manufacturer of plywood partnered with Simpson Door Company, a US-based company manufacturer of the interior, exterior, and custom wood doors.With this partnership, Boise company will expand its offering of top-notch doors and services to its customers in Atlanta.



Further, in another partnership, Quant, a Sweden-based company operating in industrial maintenance partnered with Metsa Wood, a Finland-based company that manufactures plywood. With this partnership, the companies want to develop proactive and predictive maintenance to the next level together to meet customer demands.



In February 2021, West Fraser, a Canada-based plywood manufacturer acquired Norbord for an undisclosed amount.With this acquisition, the two top-caliber employee teams manufacturing sustainable products that are essential for a low-carbon economy position West Fraser well going forward and marks a new era for all West Fraser company employees and shareholders with the completion of the Norbord transaction.



Norbord is a Canada-based company that manufacturers plywood.



The countries covered in the plywood market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06316978/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001




DeJoy outlines network transformation, service improvements as part of National Postal Customer Council Week

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In a keynote video address this week to partnership groups composed of Postal Service leaders and the nation's commercial mailers, USPS Postmaster General and CEO Louis DeJoy said the Postal Service is a different organization now than when he arrived more than two years ago.

(PRNewsfoto/U.S. Postal Service)

"Together, we have now started to change the direction of the Postal Service. We are a better organization in a better financial position than we were just one year ago. And we have achieved this exciting momentum during the pandemic. The ball is now in our court to effect the operating and marketing strategies we need to accomplish this transformation," DeJoy said in his video remarks to over 90 Postal Customer Councils (PCCs) participating in National PCC Week.

"Guided by the strategies of the Delivering for America plan, we are all participating in the execution of initiatives to improve our operational precision, improve our service reliability, reduce our cost of performance, increase our revenue and create productive and enjoyable long-term career paths for all our employees. Through these efforts, we will erase a projected 10-year, $160 billion loss and avoid a government bailout," he added.

DeJoy said, "One of the biggest initiatives under Delivering for America is empowering employees to embrace the changes that are needed to succeed. This includes engaging a disciplined and collaborative management team, developing effective supervision, stabilizing and energizing the USPS workforce, and promoting diversity in leadership."

"On par with our employee strategy is our plan to create an efficient and integrated mail and package network to deliver to 163 million delivery points each day as required by law. We will reconfigure our network of 500 processing and distribution centers, 50,000 daily truckloads, 250 daily air flights, 19,000 delivery units, and over 200,000 carrier routes to create the most affordable and reliable delivery system on the planet," he said. "Our new strategy will logically sequence mail and package flows between selected new and renovated facilities. And we will standardize operations within facilities."

Story continues

The initiatives being undertaken will "provide precise, efficient, repeatable and measurable operations," said DeJoy. "Implementing this strategy will substantially reduce transportation costs and greatly improve the reach of our route system to the American people and American businesses. This improved logistical performance, combined with our investment in new vehicles, will also significantly reduce our carbon footprint. We will not only become the most affordable and reliable delivery provider in the nation, but also the most environmentally friendly."

The Postmaster General said improvements to both the USPS national network and local operations will take years to accomplish, "but each plant or delivery unit tackled will provide immediate systemwide benefits and opportunities for you to improve or expand your service to your customers."

"To accomplish all this, we need you to be a part of this transformation. We need your continued interest in ideas. We need your operating and marketing prowess and your competitive spirit to help us win together in the marketplace," DeJoy said. "We are a Postal Service taking charge of our own destiny."

PCC Award Winners Recognized

As part of National PCC Week, the U.S. Postal Service recognized PCCs throughout the nation for their outstanding achievements and innovation during the past year. Each year, PCC Leadership Awards are presented by the Postal Service in recognition of exemplary work to strengthen and grow the PCC network.

Top honors were presented to PCC groups that achieved overall excellence in their efforts to serve their communities. The PCCs offered innovative solutions for unique issues during a year that has created greater challenges for businesses of all sizes.

PCC of the Year  Metro Market Greater Boston PCC

PCC of the Year  Large Market Santa Ana District PCC

PCC of the Year  Small Market Greater Madison Area PCC

Julie Gosdin (Greater Oklahoma, Tulsa, Central Arkansas and Northwest Arkansas PCCs) received the 2022 District Manager of the Year Award. Gosdin was recognized for her consistent leadership, support and involvement in all PCCs in her district.

The following categories recognized winners with gold, silver and bronze awards:

PCC Postal Member of the Year honors went to postal employees who excelled in efforts with their local PCCs.

Gold Sherwin Salla (Northeast Florida PCC)

Silver James Chambers (Southwest Florida PCC)

Bronze Grant Nakashima (Hawaii PCC)

PCC Industry Member of the Year award winners are tireless supporters of the Postal Service, constantly advocating postal products and services.

Gold Jennifer Hoyer (Greater Baltimore PCC)

Silver Alice Gordon (Greater Boston PCC)

Bronze Rob Hanks (Greater Madison Area PCC)

Innovation of the Year is presented to PCCs that demonstrate out-of-the-box thinking and implement creative ideas that can be replicated by other PCCs.

Gold Greater Boston PCC

Silver Central Missouri PCC

Bronze Sacramento PCC

Communication Excellence is awarded to PCCs that excel in effective and creative communication programs using various channels and methods to reach their members.

Gold Greater Oklahoma PCC

Silver Chicago PCC

Bronze Greater Baltimore PCC

Education Excellence is given to PCCs that have incorporated unique educational topics, speakers and workshops to increase knowledge within their PCC chapters.

Gold Greater Philadelphia PCC

Silver Greater Cleveland PCC

Bronze (tie) Twin Cities PCC

Bronze (tie) Puerto Rico PCC

Membership Excellence recognizes PCCs that implement strategies to grow membership and keep members engaged.

Gold Greater Baltimore PCC

Silver Central Arkansas PCC

Bronze Sacramento PCC

About the Postal Customer Council

As part of National PCC Week, The Postal Customer Council is a postal-sponsored organization composed of local chapters that include Postal Service leadership and commercial mailers working in partnership to support the growth of the mailing and shipping industry. These groups meet primarily through networking and educational events to learn about new Postal Service products, services, changes, pilot programs and the strategic direction of the organization. More than 90 PCCs throughout the country participated in this week's activities.

The mission of the PCC is to foster a close working relationship between the Postal Service and commercial mailers. Those interested in joining a PCC can use the interactive map to determine which PCC is best for them, based on their location. Contact the Industry Engagement & Outreach team at PCC@USPS.gov for additional assistance.

The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

Please Note: For U.S. Postal Service media resources, including broadcast quality video, audio and photo stills, visit the USPS Newsroom. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn. Subscribe to the USPS YouTube Channel, like us on Facebook and enjoy our Postal Posts blog. For more information about the Postal Service, visit usps.com and facts.usps.com.



For reporters interested in speaking with a regional Postal Service public relations professional, please go to about.usps.com/news/media-contacts/usps-local-media-contacts.pdf.

Contact: Albert Ruiz

albert.ruiz@usps.gov

usps.com/news

Cision

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SOURCE U.S. Postal Service
NEW YORK, Sept. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The power tools market in Europe has been segmented by technology (electric, pneumatic, and engine-driven), application (commercial, residential, and industrial), and geography (Germany, France, UK, Belgium, and Rest of Europe). The market size is expected to grow by USD 1.59 billion from 2021 to 2025, according to the latest report from Technavio. In addition, the growth momentum of the market will accelerate at a CAGR of 4.06% during the forecast period.

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Power Tools Market in Europe

Download Our FREE PDF Sample Report and gain access to a comprehensive report

summary describing the market size and forecast along with research methodology

The power tools market in Europe report offers a comprehensive analysis of the strategies adopted by vendors and the trends, drivers, and challenges affecting the market growth. This report presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources by an analysis of key parameters.

The power tools market in Europe covers the following areas:

Power Tools Market In Europe Sizing

Power Tools Market In Europe Forecast

Power Tools Market In Europe Analysis

Revenue-generating Technology Segment

The electric segment will be the largest contributor to market growth during the forecast period. Electric power tools can be further categorized into corded and cordless tools. Corded tools are preferred for cutting and nailing applications that require powerful motors. Corded tools are extensively used in applications where freedom of movement is not required.

Vendor Analysis

The power tools market in Europe is fragmented. Vendors are deploying various organic and inorganic growth strategies to compete in the market. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

Apex Tool Group LLC, C. & E. Fein GmbH, Emerson Electric Co., Hilti Corp., Ingersoll Rand Inc., Koki Holdings Co. Ltd., Makita Corp., Robert Bosch GmbH, Stanley Black & Decker Inc., Techtronic Industries Co. Ltd., among others, are the main players in the market. The key offerings of some of these vendors are listed below:

Story continues

Apex Tool Group LLC - The company offers power tools under Weller, APEX, and Cleco brand names. Some of the products under these brands include NeoTek Corded Electric Nutrunners, CellCore - Cordless Electric, LiveWire 2 - 17 Series - Cordless Electric screwdriver, and 12LF Series - Die Grinder amongst others.

C. & E. Fein GmbH - The company offers ASCD 18-1000 W34 SELECT cordless impact wrench/driver, FEIN cordless grinders, and other power tools.

Emerson Electric Co. - The company offers RIDGID brand of power tools such as RIDGID Brushless 18V Hammer Drill/Driver and 3-Speed Impact Driver Combo Kit, RIDGID 12V Drill/Driver and Impact Driver Combo Kit, and JobMax Right Angle Impact Driver Head, among others.

Hilti Corp. - The company offers SDS Plus Rotary Hammers, SDS Max Rotary Hammers, Demolition Hammers and Breakers, Drill Drivers, and Screw Drivers, among others.

Ingersoll Rand Inc. - The company offers W5132 Cordless Impact Wrench, G1621 Cordless Polisher/Sander, and 35MAX Ultra-compact Impact Tool amongst others.

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Related Reports

Industrial Gear Motors and Drives Market by End-user, Type and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026: The industrial gear motors and drives market share is expected to increase by USD 4.76 billion from 2021 to 2026.

Industrial Safety Integrated Components Market by End-user, Product and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026: The industrial safety integrated components market share is expected to increase by USD 2.53 billion from 2021 to 2026.

Power Tools Market in Europe Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 4.06% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 1.59 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 3.25 Regional analysis Germany, France, UK, Belgium, and Rest of Europe Performing market contribution Rest of Europe at 65% Key consumer countries Germany, France, UK, Belgium, and The Netherlands Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Apex Tool Group LLC, C. & E. Fein GmbH, Emerson Electric Co., Hilti Corp., Ingersoll Rand Inc., Koki Holdings Co. Ltd., Makita Corp., Robert Bosch GmbH, Stanley Black & Decker Inc., and Techtronic Industries Co. Ltd. Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and future consumer dynamics, and market condition analysis for the forecast period. Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Browse Industrials Market Reports

Key Topics Covered

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Market characteristics

Value chain analysis

Market Sizing

Market definition

Market segment analysis

Market size 2020

Market outlook: Forecast for 2020 - 2025

Five Forces Analysis

Five forces summary

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

Market Segmentation by Application

Market segments

Comparison by Application

Commercial - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Residential - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Industrial - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Market opportunity by Application

Market Segmentation by Technology

Market segments

Comparison by Technology

Electric - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Pneumatic - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Engine-driven - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Market opportunity by Technology

Customer landscape

Geographic Landscape

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

Germany - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

France - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

UK - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Belgium - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Rest of Europe - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Market opportunity by geography

Market drivers

Market challenges

Market trends

Vendor Landscape

Competitive scenario

Vendor landscape

Landscape disruption

Industry risks

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

Apex Tool Group LLC

C. & E. Fein GmbH

Emerson Electric Co.

Hilti Corp.

Ingersoll Rand Inc.

Koki Holdings Co. Ltd.

Makita Corp.

Robert Bosch GmbH

Stanley Black & Decker Inc.

Techtronic Industries Co. Ltd.

Appendix

Scope of the report

Currency conversion rates for US$

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provide actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: media@technavio.com

Website: www.technavio.com/

Newsroom: newsroom.technavio.org/news/power-toolsmarket

Power Tools Market in Europe

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SOURCE Technavio
A memorial to victims of a 2014 incel-linked attack

Discussions on a major forum for incels are growing more violent, a new study by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) has warned.

Incels - short for Involuntary Celibate - hold misogynistic beliefs, and some have launched violent attacks.

The CCDH research suggests that, on average, a post about rape was published to the forum every 29 minutes.

The report's authors want tech firms to do more to counter the problem.

For 18 months, researchers from CCDH's new Quant Lab used machine learning to help analyse in excess of a million posts on the forum.

The report does not name the forum - to avoid giving it publicity - but says it is the largest online, with more than 17,000 members and 2.6 million visits a month. Women are barred.

The forum is one of a number of online incel communities "promoting a hateful and violent ideology linked to the murder or injury of 100 people in the last 10 years, mostly women", the researchers write.

According to one definition, incels are men who are "unable to find sexual partners despite wanting them, and who express hate towards people whom they blame for this".

Flowers left at the scene of killings in Plymouth, Devon in 2021

To the CCDH researchers' alarm, violent rhetoric on the forum increased significantly during the study, with posts mentioning incel mass murders rising by 59% between 2021 and 2022.

While the security service MI5 has said most incels are not violent, the movement has been linked to a number of attacks.

In Isla Vista, California, in 2014, Elliot Rodger murdered six people and injured 14 before killing himself,

Rodger left a 137-page manifesto detailing his wish "to punish everyone who is sexually active", and to bring about the "second phase" of a "War on Women".

'Coherent movement'

In 2021, a gunman killed five people in a suburb of Plymouth in Devon.

The alleged perpetrator, 22 year-old Jake Davison, is thought to have been active on social media discussing the incel movement. Bereaved families urged the government to take action against incel culture.

Story continues

CCDH chief executive Imran Ahmed told the BBC: "This is a coherent movement of men who not just pose a threat of mass attacks, but also a significant threat to any woman in their lives."

Mr Ahmed said their research showed acts of incel violence should not be treated as the work of lone wolves.

"They are not socially isolated. They're embedded in a community of fellow travellers. And there is a well-developed, constantly negotiated, constantly discussed ideology that underpins their belief system and underpins their actions."

UK agencies do not currently define incel beliefs as a terrorist ideology, but say it is possible that some individual acts may cross the threshold and be regarded as single-issue terrorism.

But a spokesperson for Counter Terrorism Policing said they took the threat from incels seriously, adding: "We have resources dedicated to analysis and assessment of the threat this ideology poses to the public."

Flowers fill bullet holes after the Isla Vista attack

The report also considers users' support for acts of sexual violence.

Its analysis suggests that the clear majority of posts about rape were supportive, similarly "discussions of paedophilia show 53% of posters are supportive".

Keywords associated with paedophilia occurred in posts made by "1,143 unique users, or 28% of the active users in our dataset", the researchers said.

Mr Ahmed fears there may be many unreported acts of violence that can be linked to the incel movement.

"It's almost certain that offences have been committed, that women have been harmed, and we haven't attributed that to incels in the past because we focused on the mass attacks.

"We've also got a focus on the wider threat to women and girls we discovered in this country."

Analysis

By Marianna Spring, disinformation and social media correspondent

Misogyny online sits along a spectrum - and some of these posts on incel forums would be considered the most extreme. This report tells us how the worst appear to be getting worse.

It's in keeping with a broader escalation in violent rhetoric we've seen from groups on social media, whether linked to conspiracies or far-right ideologies.

More specifically, it seems to fit into a wider pattern of increasing anti-women hate online.

This was a topic I investigated for BBC Panorama, exposing how social media algorithms can push anti-women hate to accounts that have started to express an interest in this kind of content.

The dummy account I set up was driven towards content that discussed sexual violence and condoned rape. It suggested that, if you're already susceptible to misogyny online, algorithms can make it worse.

Anecdotally, I've noticed how abuse sent to me online more and more frequently includes threats of sexual violence. Many women I've interviewed and spoken to about trolling have expressed concerns over how the same kind of rhetoric they're seeing in messages online could translate into action offline.

Police in high-vis jackets doing crowd control

Teenage boys are being drawn into the movement, with the researchers finding young forum members who expressed an interest in violence.

A user claiming to be 15 discussed wanting to "go ER" in one post, a phrase that refers to emulating the Isla Vista killer, in committing a mass shooting.

Another user, who described themselves as a school student, said he had also considered going "ER". He asked for help from other forum members after claiming to have been flagged to Prevent - the UK counter-extremism programme - for carrying a knife in his school bag.

Other users offered him advice on using a virtual private network to avoid surveillance, and congratulated him on a decision to stop taking anti-psychotic medication, researchers found.

Online safety

The report makes a number of recommendations, several of which urge big tech to deplatform incel sites, including:

Google should make sure incel sites are deranked in its search results

Incel YouTube channels should be deplatformed

Infrastructure companies such as Cloudflare should not provide services to incel sites

Authorities should design and implement anti-extremism interventions for incels

According to Google, its search ranking systems are designed to avoid exposing people to hateful and harmful content if they are not explicitly looking for it.

YouTube policies prohibit hate speech, harassing and sexual content and, on review, it said it had removed or age-restricted several videos on two of the channels cited in the CCDH report.

The CCDH has in the past suggested that the Online Safety Bill could be an important tool in tackling harmful incel content. However, ministers have recently said rules that would require tech firms to address material that is harmful but legal on their platforms will be changed.

Mr Ahmed urged the government not to water down these provisions in the bill.

"We've got to be not just tough on terrorists, but tough on the causes of terrorism," he said.

"Here we can see a community that is very cautious about never tripping the line into actual criminal behaviour online, but nevertheless, collectively pose an incredibly serious threat.

"So it's absolutely crucial that government stick to their guns in a piece of legislation that's already had more scrutiny than almost any bill normally does."

A DCMS spokesperson told the BBC that the main aim of the Online Safety Bill is to protect children and tackle abhorrent criminal activity online.

"Hate crime, child sexual exploitation and encouraging violence or rape are illegal and all companies in scope - including small websites and chatrooms - will have to remove and limit people's exposure to this content or face massive fines from Ofcom".
(Removes Umm Slal and Georgiy Ushakov after they leave the ports; shows which tankers are docked) Sept 23 (Reuters) - The following liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers are expected to arrive in Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands in the coming weeks. Estimated arrival dates, often revised by port authorities and AIS Live ship-tracking data on Refinitiv Eikon, are updated below. Some tankers heading for Belgium and Britain may be loading at the terminal. Those expected to load are indicated with an (L). Those likely to perform ship-to-ship transfers are indicated with (STS). Tankers that have docked are indicated with (A). For the Reuters LNG guide, click here: LNG TANKER CAPACITY in EXPECTED ARRIVAL FROM PORT cubic metres BRITAIN Golar Penguin 155,000 Sept. 21 (A) United States Dragon Gaslog HongKong 174,000 Sept. 22 United States Isle of Grain Al Mafyar 261,000 Sept. 23^ Qatar South Hook Gaslog Seattle 155,000 Sept. 24* Algeria Isle of Grain Flex Rainbow 174,000 Sept. 24 Nigeria Dragon BW Pavilion Leeara 162,000 Sept. 25 United States Isle of Grain Arctic Discoverer 155,000 Sept. 26 Norway Isle of Grain Ribera DEl Duero Knutsen 173,000 Sept. 29 United States Dragon Al Samriya 258,000 Sept. 29 Qatar Milford Haven LNG Enterprise 174,000 Sept. 29 United States Isle of Grain BW Pavilionaranthera 171,000 Sept. 30 United States Isle of Grain Golar Glacier 162,000 Oct. 10 United States South Hook Cool Runner 158,000 Oct. 17 United States South Hook BELGIUM Fraiha LNG 206,000 Sept. 22 (A) Qatar Zeebrugge Simaisma 143,000 Sept. 25 Qatar Zeebrugge BW Tulip 171,000 Sept. 28 United States Zeebrugge Al Sheehaniya 206,000 Sept. 30 Qatar Zeebrugge Al Ruwais 210,000 Oct. 8 Qatar Zeebrugge Lusail 143,000 Oct. 10 Qatar Zeebrugge NETHERLANDS British Listener 174,000 Sept. 22 (A) United States Gate Maria Energy 174,000 Sept. 23 United States Gate Yiannis 170,000 Sept. 23 (A) United States Gate LNG Rosenrot 177,000 Sept. 29 United States Gate Sources: Ports, AIS Live ship tracking, Refinitiv Eikon data. (^) Partial unload (*) Arrival date estimated based on flows data (Reporting by Nina Chestney)
Tesla couldn't get a judge to dismiss a case alleging racial bias at the automaker's Fremont factory, so the automaker is now countersuing the agency responsible instead.

The luxury electric vehicle maker on Thursday filed a complaint in state court in Alameda County saying the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) adopted "underground regulations" in its investigations of Tesla's factory. The CRD originally sued Tesla in February after allegations of a racially segregated workplace where Black workers were subject to mistreatment, harassment, unequal pay and a hostile work environment.

Since the suit was filed, Tesla has been attempting, unsuccessfully, to have the case dismissed for the very same reasons it is now countersuing the CRD. In Tesla's case against the CRD, the automaker claims the agency did not first notify Tesla of the claims of racial discrimination at its factory or give the company a chance to settle outside of court.

The company is alleging that the CRD violated state law by not seeking public comment before adopting procedures for investigating and suing employers. In June, Tesla also filed a petition with the Office of Administrative Law for the same reasons in an attempt to temper the CRD's authority by insisting it follow additional steps before suing employers.

Tesla is now using this lawsuit to try to get the CRD barred from following its allegedly unlawful procedures in the investigation of any employer. The lawsuit also hopes to get the agency to adopt new regulations through a formal rulemaking process.

But it's not all for the good of future employers getting sued by the agency. The complaint might give Tesla's lawyers insight into the CRD's practices, as well as its investigations of Tesla, which could then help Tesla's efforts to have the original case dismissed.

The CRD did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's request for comment.
PORT-GENTIL, Gabon, September 23, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:

The Combined Shareholders Meeting of TotalEnergies EP Gabon (Paris:EC) was held, today in Libreville, under the chairmanship of Mr. Henri-Max NDONG NZUE.

The Shareholders adopted all the resolutions approved by the Board of Directors, including distribution approval of a net dividend at $55.56 per share for a total payment of $250 million.

A detailed breakdown of the vote tallies will be posted on the Companys website www.ep.totalenergies.ga in the coming days.

The $55.56 per share dividend will be paid in euro from September 30, 2022, in an equivalent amount of 56.96 per share, based on the European Central Banks rate of $0.97 per euro on September 23, 2022.

About TotalEnergies EP Gabon

TotalEnergies EP Gabon is 58.28% owned by TotalEnergies S. E, 25% by the Gabonese Republic and 16.72% by the public.

About TotalEnergies

TotalEnergies is a global multi-energy company that produces and markets energies: oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables and electricity. Our 100,000 employees are committed to energy that is ever more affordable, cleaner, more reliable and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130 countries, TotalEnergies puts sustainable development in all its dimensions at the heart of its projects and operations to contribute to the well-being of people.

@TotalEnergies TotalEnergies TotalEnergies TotalEnergies

Cautionary Note

The terms "TotalEnergies", "TotalEnergies Company" and "Company" appearing in this document are used to refer to TotalEnergies SE and the consolidated entities that TotalEnergies SE controls directly or indirectly. Similarly, the terms "we", "us", "our" may also be used to refer to these entities or their employees. The entities in which TotalEnergies SE holds a stake directly or indirectly are separate and autonomous legal persons. TotalEnergies SE cannot be held liable for acts or omissions emanating from these companies.

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This document may contain forward-looking statements. They may prove to be inaccurate in the future and are dependent on risk factors. Neither TotalEnergies SE nor any of its subsidiaries undertakes or assumes any commitment or responsibility to investors or any other stakeholder to update or revise, in particular as a result of new information or future events, any or all of the statements, forward-looking information, trends or objectives contained in this document. Information regarding risk factors that could have a material adverse effect on TotalEnergies' financial results or operations is also available in the most up-to-date versions of the Universal Registration Document filed by TotalEnergies SE with the Autorite des marches financiers and Form 20-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC").

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220923005460/en/

Contacts

TotalEnergies EP Gabon

actionnariat-epgabon@totalenergies.com

Media Relations: +33 (0)1 47 44 46 99 l presse@totalenergies.com l @TotalEnergiesPR

Investor Relations: +33 (0)1 47 44 46 46 l ir@totalenergies.com
The news release "Trevi Therapeutics Announces Pricing of $[50 Million] Public Offering", issued 22-Sept-2022 by Trevi Therapeutics, Inc. over PR Newswire was erroneously and prematurely issued by PR Newswire. The complete, corrected release follows:

Trevi Therapeutics Announces Pricing of $55 Million Public Offering

NEW HAVEN, Conn., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Trevi Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRVI), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing an investigational therapy, Haduvio (oral nalbuphine ER) for the treatment of chronic cough in adults with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and the treatment of prurigo nodularis (PN), today announced the pricing of its underwritten public offering of 14,252,670 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $1.93 per share, and, to certain investors in lieu of common stock, pre-funded warrants to purchase 14,247,330 shares of common stock at a price of $1.929 per pre-funded warrant, for total proceeds of approximately $55 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and expenses payable by Trevi. The purchase price per share of each pre-funded warrant represents the per share public offering price for the common stock, minus the $0.001 per share exercise price of such pre-funded warrant. All of the shares and pre-funded warrants in the offering are being sold by Trevi. In addition, Trevi has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 4,275,000 additional shares of its common stock at the public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions. The offering is expected to close on September 27, 2022, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Trevi Therapeutics, Inc. www.trevitherapeutics.com (PRNewsfoto/Trevi Therapeutics, Inc.)

SVB Securities, Stifel and Oppenheimer & Co. are acting as joint bookrunning managers for the offering. Needham & Company is acting as lead manager for the offering and Aegis Capital Corp. is acting as co-manager for the offering.

The shares and pre-funded warrants are being offered by Trevi pursuant to a shelf registration statement that was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on June 26, 2020 and declared effective by the SEC on July 2, 2020. This offering is being made only by means of a prospectus and prospectus supplement that form a part of the registration statement. A preliminary prospectus supplement relating to and describing the terms of the offering has been filed with the SEC and may be obtained for free by visiting the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. A final prospectus supplement relating to the offering will be filed with the SEC. When available, copies of the final prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus may also be obtained from SVB Securities LLC, Attention: Syndicate Department, 53 State Street, 40th Floor, Boston, MA 02109 by email at syndicate@svbsecurities.com or by phone at (800) 808-7525, ext. 6105; Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Attention: Syndicate, One Montgomery Street, Suite 3700, San Francisco, CA 94014, by telephone at 415-364-2720 or by email at syndprospectus@stifel.com; or Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., 85 Broad Street, 26th Floor, New York, NY 10004, Attn: Syndicate Prospectus Department, telephone: (212) 667-8055 or by email at EquityProspectus@opco.com.

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This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of, these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

About Trevi Therapeutics, Inc.

Trevi Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of the investigational therapy Haduvio for the treatment of chronic cough in adults with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and prurigo nodularis. These conditions share a common pathophysiology that is mediated through opioid receptors in the central and peripheral nervous systems.

Founded in 2011, Trevi is headquartered in New Haven, CT.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements contained in this press release regarding matters that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the anticipated closing of the public offering, and other statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," and similar expressions. Risks that contribute to the uncertain nature of the forward-looking statements include: uncertainties related to market conditions and whether the conditions for the closing of the public offering will be satisfied as well as other risks and uncertainties set forth in the "Risk Factors" section of the preliminary prospectus supplement filed with the SEC on September 22, 2022, in Trevi's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2022 filed with the SEC, and in any subsequent filings with the SEC. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date on which they were made. Trevi undertakes no obligation to update such statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made except as required by law.

Investor Contact

Katie McManus

Trevi Therapeutics, Inc.

203-304-2499

k.mcmanus@trevitherapeutics.com

Media Contact

Rosalia Scampoli

914-815-1465

rscampoli@marketcompr.com

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SOURCE Trevi Therapeutics, Inc.
Tridel Earns the Home Building Industry's Top Distinction for the Sixth Time

TORONTO, Sept. 23, 2022 /CNW/ - Tridel, one of Canada's largest builder of condominium homes, was named Ontario Builder of the Year at the 30th Ontario Home Builders' Association (OHBA) Awards of Distinction ceremony, held in Niagara Falls on Tuesday, September 20th. This milestone marked the sixth time the industry-leading home builder has been awarded the provincial association's highest honour, for its commitment to building sustainable communities, quality, community engagement, and its customers.

Tridel Logo (CNW Group/Tridel Corporation)

The Ontario Builder of the Year Award is presented to a company that demonstrates the highest levels of performance, creativity and ingenuity, based on the areas of sales and marketing excellence, innovation, floor plan design, community service, support of the industry and its ability to remain a market leader.

"It's with great honour and pride that Tridel accepts this award from the OHBA." says Jim Ritchie, President of the Tridel Group of Companies. "For more than eight decades, Tridel has been progressing the boundaries of our industry, advancing the various aspects of our business that make us the best home builder in Ontario. This award recognizes our collective efforts to elevate the architecture and design, construction quality, and sustainability of the communities we build. It also represents our long-standing commitment to the home building industry and the commitment that goes into building thriving, vibrant communities that meet the needs of our residents."

Tridel maintains a clear, shared purpose to be Built For Life. This commitment is reflected in everything the company builds and does, with excellence embedded into all areas of the organization, from community involvement and innovation to social responsibility, design and customer service. Tridel communities are developed with thoughtful design: considering location, how people live in their homes, the evolving lifestyles of its customers, the environment, and much more.

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To Tridel, 'Built for Life' extends beyond building quality homes, to contributing to communities and making a lasting, positive impact. In 2021, the home builder invested over $200,000 in social enterprises, businesses owned and/or operated by equity-deserving groups, community organizations, and non-profits; donated 400+ backpacks filled with school supplies for youth in its revitalization communities; donated nearly 300 toys and gift cards to support families during the holidays, diverted more than 610lbs. of e-waste and 1,000+ lbs. of clothing from landfills among other community-driven initaitves.

Tridel is also TCHC's developer-partner in three revitalization communities, offering equitable, outcome-based Community Economic Development (CED) opportunities that support the socio-economic integration of vulnerable populations by advancing local programs and resident-led businesses. The company recently launched its Partners in Community (PIC) Program to offer opportunities for training, mentorship, apprenticeship, and employment, and is the first residential developer to include CED & Benefits Schedules into construction tenders and agreements, committing Tridel, its trades, and consultants, to various levels of CED support for the revitalization communities.

As the principal and founding sponsor of the BOLT Foundation, which connects under-resourced youth to education and careers in construction through training and financial awards, Tridel has helped engage 168 youth through career-exploration events, job-shadowing opportunities, and training sessions. BOLT has awarded 500+ scholarships across 27 schools and 40+ programs, totaling $1.6 million.

With over 18,000+ 'green suites' in the marketplace and multiple LEED Gold, Silver, and Platinum certifications for its communities, Tridel leads sustainable condominium development in Canada. The company continues to take action to protect and preserve the environment by emphasizing low carbon energy solutions, integrating district energy systems, optimizing direct current power, improving buildings' resiliency and performance, incorporating sustainable materials and renewable energy into its construction practices and more.

Recent community launches from Tridel include The Dupont and Queen Church downtown Toronto, and Harbourwalk at Lakeview Village, released just earlier this month. For more information on these communities and more, visit www.tridel.com.

About Tridel

Tridel is Canada's leading developer and builder of condominium residences with more than 85 years of homebuilding experience. To date, the Tridel Group of Companies is responsible for producing over 87,000 homes. Tridel is determined to develop condominium communities that meet the needs of today's homeowners while safeguarding the well-being of future generations. The company is working to meet this goal by focusing on innovation including environmentally sustainable design, performance in construction and corporate stewardship.

Tridel is committed to building the highest quality condominiums possible and has won virtually every award in the industry for design, customer service, sales, marketing and construction excellence. Tridel looks forward to continuing the long, proud history of award-winning excellence with over 20 new condominium communities currently under development in the Greater Toronto Area.

For background information, images and to schedule interviews, please contact Tridel.

SOURCE Tridel Corporation

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(Bloomberg) -- Volkswagen AG is exploring ways to help its broad supplier network in Europe counter a shortage in natural gas, including making more parts locally and shifting manufacturing capacity.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Volkswagen, Europes biggest carmaker, said Thursday that relocation of production capacity for some component makers is among options in the medium term if gas shortages last much beyond this winter. Suppliers in central and eastern Europe are most reliant on Russia gas, while VW has major factories in Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia as well as facilities in southern Europe.

As mid-term alternatives, we are focusing on greater localization, relocation of manufacturing capacity, or technical alternatives, similar to what is already common practice in the context of challenges related to semiconductor shortages and other recent supply chain disruptions, Geng Wu, Volkswagens head of purchasing, said in a statement.

Russias decision to throttle gas supplies to Europe has raised concerns that Germany might be forced to ration its fuel. Recent news that gas storage levels hit 90% ahead of schedule has soothed fears of acute shortages this winter, but Germany faces a challenge in replenishing depleted reserves next summer without contributions from Russia.

Southwestern Europe or coastal zones of northern Europe, both of which have better access to seaborne liquefied natural gas cargoes, could be the beneficiaries of any production shift, a Volkswagen spokesman said by phone. Suppliers relocating to those areas would gravitate toward existing Volkswagen group car factories in Portugal, Spain and Belgium.

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Labor Hurdles

VWs comments echo concerns among other carmakers about the ability of their suppliers to keep making parts as energy prices surge. Mercedes-Benz AG said it has been working to identify Germany-based suppliers that would be at risk in a gas-rationing scenario and is in talks with them about shifting production to locations outside of Germany.

Politicians must also curb the currently uncontrolled explosion in gas and electricity prices, said Thomas Steg, the companys head of external relations. Otherwise small and medium-sized energy-intensive companies in particular will have major problems in the supply chain and will have to reduce or stop production.

READ: Covestro CEO: Investments in Europe Unlikely Due to Energy Costs

While gas supplies for VWs plants are currently secured, the company has identified potential savings at its European sites to cut gas consumption by a mid-double-digit percentage, said Michael Heinemann, managing director of VWs power-plant unit.

(Corrects story from Sept. 23 to say that VW is weighing options to help suppliers affected by Europes energy crisis. A previous version said VW was exploring reallocation of vehicle production within its European network.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2022 Bloomberg L.P.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Set in the magic of The Walt Disney World Resort, The Global Exchange Conference 2022 (GXC) is a professional, four-day conference of continuing education presentations, experiential workshops, industry expo, and networking events. Never before has a conference converged with these three disciplines under one roof: Mental Health, Addiction Treatment, and Wellness. GXC will offer attendees the opportunity to learn within their own and other aligning disciplines from world-renowned experts in these fields, and to inspire an exchange of thought-provoking perspectives and pathways that will lead to a more vibrant and productive approach of therapeutic methods to help those in need.

For the first time in history, The Inaugural Global Exchange Conference will bring together a powerful gathering of Mental Health, Addiction Treatment, and Wellness Health Care Professionals at the Walt Disney World Resort, November 1-4, 2022 with four days of engaging continuing education presentations, experiential workshops, industry expo, and networking events. www.theglobalexchangeconference.com

The Global Exchange Conference is bringing together Mental Health, Addiction, & Wellness Professionals Nov. 1-4, 2022.

From The Global Exchange Conference originator and CEO of High Watch Recovery Center, Jerry Schwab, "In a time where we must all work together for the well-being of individuals and communities, The Global Exchange Conference is perfectly positioned to bring together health care professionals for a restorative conference of caring, connecting, collaboration, and change." Jerry continues, "Our agenda is extensive, and attendees will have the additional opportunity to engage with industry exhibitors from all conference disciplines at the GXC Expo."

Michael Cabot, Certified Recovery Residence Administrator, and the Board President of the Florida Association of Recovery Residences says, "GXC offers continuing education credits with expert speakers who explore multi-disciplinary models and approaches that will focus on implementing change towards body, mind, and spirit recovery. This is a great opportunity to learn and unite health care providers to further traditional and innovative care methods, assisting patients in their journey." Additionally, there are more than 50 educational sessions to choose from at the conference. All sessions will be available to all in-person attendees via GXC's on-line educational partner, TPN, for 30 days post event.

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Among the many elite industry speakers and presenters who will teach, train, and exchange knowledge are Deepak Chopra, Dr. Gabor Mate, Margaret Trudeau, Dr. James Flowers, Marianne Williamson, Russell Brand, and Dr. Tian Dayton. Guest Speakers are Whoopi Goldberg, who is an advocate for humanitarian efforts including substance abuse and has provided a video introduction available on the GXC website, and actor Rob Lowe who embraced sobriety and reflects on his past battle with drug and alcohol addiction, along with his dedication and support of other's journey to recovery.

Registration is open and special accommodations are available at select hotels at The Walt Disney World Resort. For a full list of speakers, topics, and activities, please visit https://theglobalexchangeconference.com/ .

SUMMARY | For the first time in history, The Inaugural Global Exchange Conference will bring together a powerful gathering of Mental Health, Addiction Treatment, and Wellness Health Care Professionals at the Walt Disney World Resort, November 1-4, 2022.

www.theglobalexchangeconference.com | info@theglobalexchangeconference.com | 844.572.7250

CONTACT | Jason Perillo, Global Exchange Conference Media Relations, Mobile: (203) 627-3030, jperillo@highwatchrecovery.org https://theglobalexchangeconference.com/

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SOURCE The Global Exchange Conference
A Stafford woman was killed and a Milford teenager was critically injured in separate accidents in Caroline County, police said.

The first accident occurred at 10:53 p.m. Wednesday on southbound Interstate 95, about two and a half miles south of the Carmel Church exit. Virginia State Police Sgt. Jessica Shehan said a 2012 Cascadia Freghtliner tractor-trailer was stationary on the left shoulder because of a flat tire when a 2007 Jeep Liberty ran off the road and struck the rear of the tractor-trailer.

The Jeep driver, 23-year-old Ilona A. Bailey of Stafford, died at the scene. She was wearing a seat belt, police said. The truck driver, 65-year-old Juan L. Quintana of Miami, was not injured.

At 10:25 a.m. Thursday, Shehan said, a 2001 Ford Explorer was traveling on southbound State Route 601 (Golansville Road) near Murphy Lane in Caroline when the driver lost control, overcorrected and ran off the right side of the road. The Explorer struck several trees before overturning.

The driver, 18-year-old John Holtzman, and his 17-year-old passenger were both transported to the VCU Medical Center. The younger teen was ejected from the vehicle and was in critical condition Thursday evening.

Holtzman suffered serious injuries in the crash, Shehan said. A state police crash reconstruction team is investigating the incident.
A Fredericksburg man is accused of pulling a gun on another motorist after she blew her horn at him at a stoplight in Stafford County Wednesday morning, police said.

According to the Sheriffs Office, the victim reported that she was in the area of Warrenton Road (U.S. 17) and Celebrate Virginia Parkway when the light turned green. Police said she was behind a white Chrysler that did not move because he was looking at his phone.

When she honked her horn, the other driver got out of his vehicle and pointed a handgun toward the victims car while cursing at her, police said. He then got back into his vehicle and drove off.

The victim followed him while on the phone with police. Capt. D.M. Stout found the Chrysler on Holly Corner Road and detained the driver. A Taurus 9mm handgun was found in the vehicle.

Danarian Thompson, 48, was charged with brandishing a firearm, unlawful stopping on a highway and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Police said there was a young child in the victims vehicle.

Thompson was released by a magistrate on an unsecured bond.
Voters can begin casting their ballots for the Nov. 8 general election as early as this morning to choose the next Congressional representative for the Fredericksburg region.

Both Democrat Abigail Spanberger, the incumbent, and Republican Yesli Vega will be on this years ballot. The candidates are vying for Virginias new 7th Congressional District, which now includes Fredericksburg and a large portion of Prince William County, all of Stafford, Spotsylvania, King George, Caroline, Orange, Culpeper, Madison and Greene counties, and a small sliver of Albemarle County. Rep. Rob Wittmans 1st Congressional District used to include the city and some of those counties, but has shifted east and still includes Colonial Beach.

As a result of redistricting following the Census, local jurisdictions were required to adjust or change their respective voting district boundaries. In some cases, additional voting precincts were needed.

Those changes could affect where some voters need to go to cast their ballots on Election Day. Local election officials encourage voters to check before they head to their usual polling places.

Spotsylvania registrar Kellie Acors said every eligible voter in Virginia will receive information on new polling locations for the Nov. 8 general election by mail.

We just got notification that ours are going out today or tomorrow, Acors said Wednesday.

In Stafford, early in-person voting begins Friday at 8:30 a.m. in the ABC conference room located on the second floor of the countys government center at 1300 Courthouse Road. Polls are open until 4:30 p.m. and an absentee ballot drop box will be available at the registrars office during normal business hours.

Most registrars in the region are following similar hours until Election Day.

In Spotsylvania, early in-person voting begins at 8:30 a.m. Friday at Spotsylvanias Office of Elections at 4708 Southpoint Parkway. A secure absentee ballot drop box is available at the same location.

Voting starts a half-hour earlier Friday in King George, where the polling station at 10459 Courthouse Road opens at 8 a.m., along with a secure absentee ballot drop box at the same location. In addition to the congressional race in King George, a special election for the James Madison District School Board representative will be on the ballot in the Courthouse and Passapatanzy precincts. School Board appointee Cathy Cutright faces Catherine Hoover in that race.

In Fredericksburg, voters can cast their ballots beginning at 8:30 a.m. Friday at the Executive Plaza at 601 Caroline St., or voters can drop absentee ballots in a secure absentee ballot box at the same location.

The last day for in-person early voting statewide is Nov. 5. Additional voter information including polling station locations, hours of operation and more, is available at city or county registrar websites. Visit elections.virginia.gov for more information.
Ninety-five percent of Fredericksburg-area public schools are fully accredited this year, according to ratings released Thursday by the Virginia Department of Education.

Four area schools are accredited with conditions: WalkerGrant Middle in Fredericksburg; Bowling Green Elementary and Caroline Middle in Caroline County; and Post Oak Middle in Spotsylvania County.

This is the first year since the pandemic that the VDOE has released accreditation data. Accreditation was waived for all public schools for the past two years.

Under the accreditation system adopted by the state Board of Education in 2017 and implemented the following year, schools are evaluated on multiple indicators, not just overall achievement on state assessments.

The school quality indicator for academic achievement provides equal credit for students who pass state [assessments] and for non-passing students who showed significant improvement, according to the VDOEs school quality profiles.

The indicators are grouped in three categories: academic achievement, achievement gaps and student engagement and outcomes. Performance on each indicator is rated at one of the three levels. Level 1 schools meet or exceed state standards and show sufficient improvement; level 2 schools are near state standards and improvement levels and level 3 schools are below.

Schools that are accredited with conditions score at a level 3 on one or more indicators.

The inclusion of the growth measurement means the academic achievement indicator for an individual school tells a different story than that told just by SOL pass rates.

For instance, at Hugh Mercer Elementary in Fredericksburg, 50% of all students passed the English reading SOL test this past spring, and 40% passed math, according to assessment data released last month.

But according to the 2022 accreditation data released Thursday, 82% of Hugh Mercer students met state standards for academic achievement, growth or progress in English, and 80% met the standards for math.

In FCPS, we have been pleased with our overall student growth rates in reading and math. Although our diverse learners demonstrate varying levels of proficiency on standardized tests in those subjects, FCPS students consistently make significant growth, said Lori Bridi, chief academic officer for Fredericksburg City Public Schools. We are thankful the state recognizes student progress through the accreditation process by acknowledging that although students may not reach proficiency in one year, they may demonstrate significant improvement from fall to spring. Those children and their teachers should be commended for their efforts and achievement.

Overall, 89% of Virginias public schools earned full accreditation for the 202223 school year, down three points from the 201920 school year.

Jillian Balow, state superintendent for public education, said in a press release from the VDOE that the school ratings call into question the effectiveness of our accreditation standards in identifying schools where students are struggling to achieve grade-level proficiency.

Accreditation is one of the primary drivers of state interventions and local efforts to improve outcomes for students, and frankly, the school ratings we are releasing today fail to capture the extent of the crisis facing our schools and students, Balow said.

In a statement released Thursday, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said, Todays accreditation ratings do not reflect catastrophic learning loss and growing achievement gaps facing Virginias students.

Atif Qarni, who served as secretary of education under Youngkins predecessor Ralph Northam, released a statement responding to Youngkin, in which he noted that the revised Standards of Accreditation are more rigorous and provide a deep flashlight into academic achievement of subgroups of students.

The facts are that our hardworking educators and staff worked with our amazing, resilient children [during the COVID pandemic] to make sure academic achievement was not as severely hindered, Qarni continued.

Locally, Caroline County Public Schools Superintendent Sarah Calveric said that using multiple data sources is part of the divisions daily practice.

There is always good work to be done, and these pandemic period accreditation data reflect this continued call to action, Calveric said. Utilizing multiple data sources, including student growth metrics, crafting focused improvement plans, providing robust student interventions and staff professional learning, and increasing parental engagement are at the core of Carolines daily business.

In Caroline, Bowling Green Elementary is accredited with conditions because it received a level 3 score on the academic achievement indicator for science and on the student engagement and outcomes indicator for chronic absenteeism.

Just under 26% of students were chronically absent last yearmeaning they missed 10% or more of the school year, regardless of reason. The target for level 1 in this indicator is to have no more than 15% of students be chronically absent.

Caroline Middle is also accredited with conditions this year, receiving level 3 scores in English academic achievement and achievement gaps in English and math. The achievement gaps in English and math for Black students and students with disabilities were below state standards.

In Fredericksburg, WalkerGrant Middle School received level 3 scores on academic achievement for science and academic achievement gaps in English and math. The achievement gaps in English and math for Black and economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities were below state standards.

In Spotsylvania, Post Oak Middle School received a level 3 score for academic achievement gaps in English, with Black students and students with disabilities scoring below state standards.

The four area schools that are accredited with conditions will develop corrective action plans.

Thomas Taylor, superintendent of Stafford County schools, said he is pleased that all county schools remain fully accredited and that students are showing growth, but stressed that performance in literacy and science is still a concern.

Our support for students with mental health needs, students with disabilities, and our English language learners are areas that require additional attention and investment, he said.
Caroline County Public Schools has received a five-year grant from the Office of Head Start to offer the Head Start preschool program to families in the county.

CCPS has been awaiting the opportunity to apply for the Head Start grant for years and is so excited to welcome more eligible three and four year old students and families into the CCPS preschool program! Andrea Ross, the divisions director of federal programs, said in a press release issued Wednesday.

The Head Start and Early Head Start programs are administered by the Office of Head Start within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families.

The office awards grants to public and private nonprofit and for-profit agencies to offer free early education opportunities to low-income 3- and 4-year-olds.

In the past, the grant has been awarded to private entities in Caroline, which ran the program with classrooms and office space provided by the public school division but separate from the divisions preschool program.

As of Nov. 1, 2022, CCPS will be responsible for fiscal, operations, and instructional oversight, ultimately blending our current Virginia Preschool Initiative and Title I programs with Head Start under one Caroline County Preschool Program, the school division announced in the press release.

With the Head Start grant, the school division will be able to offer early childhood education to 95 more preschool students, according to the press release.

CCPS will work with the current Head Start staff over the next 40 days to plan for a seamless transition, the press release states.

For more information on preschool enrollment, contact the CCPS Office of Federal Programs at 804/633-5088.
Mandy Carr is on the opposite side of the Atlantic from Michel and Hilary Gras, but during more than four decades of visits to each others homes, theyve learned to appreciate how much theyre alikeand respect the areas where theyre different.

Carr, the Fredericksburg Sister City Associations publicity chair and a Spotsylvania County resident, was talking about the familiarity she shares with the Grases, whom she met on her first visit to Frejus, France in 1981. Theyre so comfortable with each other that Carr jokes she treats them like family, not guests.

On the Grases first morning in the United States, Carr didnt pull out the fancy dishes, but served breakfast on (gasp) paper plates because they were in a hurry.

Its rather amazing, Hilary Gras said, we havent seen each other for seven years, but when we arrive 

 We pick up right where we left off, Carr said.

You lose the distance with time, Hilary Gras added. You say hi and its just like it was yesterday.

While the three may treat each other like family, theyre still polite enough to say that the other hasnt changed a bit over time. Normally, the French couple and American woman, all retired educators, would see each other every five years, but the pandemic postponed visits in 2020 and 2021.

The exchanges resumed this year, with French students visiting in July and about 20 adults in Fredericksburg this month for eight days, until Wednesday. Its the first time the group has visited in early fall since the formal partnership was signed in 1980, making the FredericksburgFrejus program the oldest of the citys five sister-city relationships.

Organizers have planned various activities for the guests and host families, ranging from an opening nightet une soiree en foret, or evening in the forest, hosted by Phyllis Whitley at her Spotsylvania hometo trolley rides through the city. Some in the group will visit Washington museums while others want to see Jamestown and Williamsburg.

Carr and fellow host Cathy Herndon will provide some uniquely American experiences such as a visit to the Virginia State Fair, which runs through Oct. 2 at The Meadow Event Park in Caroline County and tastings at local wineries.

Bourbon is expensive in France, so Carr also plans to take her guests to the A. Smith Bowman Distillery in Spotsylvania. She also has other bourbon samples for the Grases to taste as Michel Gras has mentioned that, while he enjoys the official program of events, it would be fine to stay home and have a bourbon and coke.

The three met in 1981 on Carrs first of seven visits to France. The Grases had their second daughter a month earlier so Hilary Gras, whos from Liverpool, England, was somewhat preoccupied, but Carr was able to meet the couples children.

On her most recent trip to France, she met those childrens children.

The three have shared highlights of each others lives over the decades. The Grases always asked about Carrs Mum, who regularly took the French couple to lunch during their visits. Carr shared news of her death 18 months ago, just as Michel Gras told her the same news about his parents, who lived in a small village in the region of LeVar.

The three exchange Christmas cards and other holiday greetings and the Frejus families always remember us on 9/11, Carr said.

Philippe and Maryse Rigoulot, a French couple who seem to hold the record for number of visits to Fredericksburg with nine, also created another celebration thats enjoyed on each side of the pond.

As Thanksgiving is an American holiday, the Fredericksburg group treated their French visitors to a holiday feast during one summer visit. Philippe Rigoulot has continued that tradition by connecting families virtually on the fourth Thursday in November.

While Americans gather around the turkey about 2 p.m., the Frenchwho are six hours aheaddo the same about 8 p.m. and toast each others health.

We enjoy dinner together on the screen, Hilary Gras said. It is amazing.

Carr believes sharing those kinds of unique experiences has been the reason enthusiasm for the FrenchAmerican sister-city bond hasnt waned over time. However, the Grases worry what may happen in the future, as it seems younger people in both countries arent as willing to get involved with the organization.

While the trio looks for ways to get the next generation involved, they continue to nurture their long-lasting friendships. Michel Gras, a linguist who speaks English with such a perfect British accent that his didnt know he was French the first time they met, said its great being on the same wavelength with people more than 4,200 miles away.

Its like brothers and sisters, he said, except you dont chose brothers and sisters, whereas you chose your best friends.
IF THERE WERE a land made for trains, it would be the countryside between Madrid and Cordoba in central and south-central Spain.

The tracks for the state-owned Renfe AVE (Alta Velocidad Espanola, or Spanish high speed train) runs through the heart of rolling, fertile valleys that produce some of the best olives in the world. Cruising by trees at speeds that can top 167 mph, rows upon rows upon rows of olive trees are framed by golden hills that influence weather patterns and make this region perfect for the popular, fleshy fruit.

The ride is as beautiful as any youll see in Europe.

Its hard not to ask, therefore, if such a system wouldnt work here in America, and in particular along the Northeast corridor. American companies, citizens, and governments are certainly looking into it.

In Texas, Renfe was chosen to design, build, and be the early operator for a high-speed train running between Dallas and Houston. That train promises to reach speeds of nearly 240 mph and cover the 240 miles between the two cities in about 90 minutes. (The trip from Madrid to Cordoba is 244 miles and takes an hour and 45 minutes.)

Critics, however, are pushing equally hard to keep it from happening.

The free-market oriented CATO Institute, for example, published a compelling study last year after Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg made a push for high-speed trains. Among CATOs concerns are that bullet train technology is antiquated, as CATO argues it has been since the advent of the 707 aircraft. They also point to the high costs of building such a system and claim that building dedicated infrastructure is to build wasted infrastructure.

Theres plenty to pick over here, but the biggest issue I have with CATOs analysis is found in this reports early statement: this train is likely to carry less than 2 percent of the nations passenger travel and no freight.

CATO assumes that an efficient high-speed system like the one in Spain would not pull drivers from their cars or airplanes. But in Spain, trains carry more passengers than planes according to pre-pandemic data. And ridership, which was breaking records every year prior to the pandemic, is again growing now that COVID is in check.

Spaniards have been drawn to the train by many factors. One is speed, obviously. Another is ride quality and convenience. Renfe trains are nothing if not comfortable, with lots of room to stretch your legs and enjoy the ride. Further, trains leave major cities every few minutes, making them very convenient.

And then there are the environmental benefits. Bullet trains in Spain are far less harmful to the environment than are planes.

Is it unreasonable to believe that Americans wouldnt follow Spaniards and embrace high-speed trains?

There are surely some who will complain about a government-run train system, claiming that government can do nothing right. But in Spain, the problem isnt the government, which has done a great job getting the project going.

With an experienced partner like Renfe, surely the U.S. government can make it work. The problem here will be that Americans continue to think more about themselves and their short-term needs than about the long-term public good.

I spoke with a dual U.S.Spanish citizen at length on the flight to Spain about the differences between our two nations.

They noted that while both countries are great, they are very different in some profound ways. Perhaps one of the more important is Spaniards willingness to place other citizens above their own self-interest.

No one likes to pay taxes, she said, but if our taxes can make life better for all then we will support that.

Continuing to force an over-reliance on airplanes and fossil-fuel-powered cars is only prolonging the inevitable: we are gong to have to address climate change.

The bullet train helps do that, and creates a far more comfortable, and certainly speedier, way to travel.

It need not be a nationwide system, as Spain has. Americas population is clustered in urban areas. The Northeast corridor, West Coast, and possible routes like the one coming to Texas, or between Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Durham, and Raleigh in North Carolina, or between Miami and Orlando could be, like the run from Madrid to Cordoba, ideal for a bullet rail system.

For my money, its an easy call. Bullet trains over cars and planes any day.

Our younger generations seem to get this better than older folks like myself. But even we old-timers can have our heads turned by high-speed rail, justlike mine was by olive trees whizzing past the window on a comfortable, speedy ride back to Madrid.
Welcome to Gandhara's weekly newsletter. This briefing brings you the best of our reporting from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

If youre new to the newsletter or haven't subscribed yet, you can do so here.

This week's Gandhara Briefing highlights our reporting on the devastation caused by the floods in Afghanistan, an Afghan woman accusing a Taliban official of rape, and the militants holding their first film festival.

Rising Pakistan Taliban Extortion

I report on the growing The Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Pakistani Taliban, extortion campaign in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.



The TTP began raising money in this way to increase its control in the region after hundreds of its militants returned there amid a standstill in peace talks with Islamabad.



"The TTP is demanding extortion from everyone they think can pay," Jamshid Khan, a businessman in Peshawar, told me after paying a big shakedown to the militants. "Most, if not all, wealthy individuals have paid it already."



Ayesha Siddiqa, a Pakistan security expert at the University of London, sees Islamabad as unwilling to go after the militants without Western funding.



"What will start in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will not end in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa," she warned. "It will extend all over the country."

Defiant Afghans Demand Girls' Education

RFE/RL's Radio Azadi reports on why Afghan elders, schoolgirls, and parents defy the Taliban by protesting the recent closure of schools for teenage girls in Paktia.



Their activism on the ground and online proves wrong the Taliban claim that Afghans don't want their teenage daughters to get an education.



"We are 100 percent in favor of opening schools," said Aminullah, a father of three teenage daughters who would go to the eighth, ninth, and 12th grades if schools were open. "We want the girls to have a better future."



Matiullah Wisa, an Afghan education activist, said people are disappointed by the school closures in Paktia.



"People expect schools from the government," he said. "It's an unfair decision. People are left in the dark."



(Read the charticle by Giovana Faria showing the dramatically curtailed rights of Afghan women and girls a year into the Taliban's rule)

Exiled Afghan Journalists In Limbo

Majeed Babar reports on the nearly 200 exiled Afghan journalists in Pakistan whose lives are in limbo as they see little prospects of finding a permanent home despite promises by Western governments and nongovernmental organizations.



"You work to tell the truth only to face death threats and find there is no one to protect us," said Nasrin Shirzad, who fled to Pakistan after the Taliban takeover.



The 42-year-old mother of three covered sensitive issues often clashing with the Taliban's hard-line views. She has so far been unsuccessful in convincing Western embassies that she needs asylum abroad.



"I don't know where to go," Sodaba Nasiry, a young journalist with the former Afghan parliament's television channel, told us.



Her e-mails and applications to the global press freedom watchdogs and the German, French, Italian, and Canadian embassies have so far not given her any hopes of settling abroad.

No Relief In Turkey

Radio Azadi reports on the plight of Afghan refugees and asylum seekers in Turkey, which has deported nearly 43,000 Afghans this year.



Ankara has ignored international calls to protect Afghans fleeing Taliban persecution and the economic collapse in their country.



"I see Afghans being rounded up every day and sent back to Afghanistan," said Faridoon, 39, who made a perilous journey to Istanbul through Iran with his four children.



"I worry about myself and my family," he said of the constant fear he lives under. "One day they will force us to leave, too."

Taliban's Faith Test

The Taliban's Finance Ministry is testing whether its employees have extensive knowledge of Islam to qualify as good Muslims entitled to keep their jobs.



All ministry employees are required to take the test outlined in a 10-page booklet. It addresses 53 topics ranging from testing an employee's knowledge of the five pillars of the Islamic faith to recognizing the signs that judgment day is imminent.



"When there is a lot of sin on Earth [and] when people disobey their parents," are two of the options listed to answer the question: "What are the signs of Judgment Day?"

That's all from me this week.

If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do so here. I encourage you to visit our website and follow us on Twitter and Facebook..

You can always reach us at gandhara@rferl.org.
The Pikes Peak Regional Airshow returns to the Colorado Springs Airport this weekend for its first exhibition since 2019. First-time visitors who arent quite sure what to expect Saturday and Sunday, or how to prepare, can follow these tips provided by airshow organizers.

How does it work?

Airshows are composed of two parts: performances and displays. There will be 10 performances in all, following the same schedule for both Saturday and Sunday. The first performance begins at noon with the national anthem and parachute jump and the last begins at 2:40 p.m.

Displays offer on-the-ground looks at aircraft old and new. Visitors can peruse the displays until the event closes at 4 p.m.

The performances are thrilling, but do take time to visit the displays, which include the latest in aviation technology and rare vintage aircraft and warbirds, along with demonstrations, the airshows advice sheet reads.

Where is it?

The show takes place at the Colorado Springs Airport's A/DACG facility at 7250 Getting Heights, located on the southwest section of the property.

Visitors are invited to take photos of both performing and display aircrafts. But photos for performing aircraft are limited to before and after the show. The hot ramp, where performing aircraft are parked, is open for photos from the time gates open at 8 a.m. until 10:15 a.m. The ramp reopens after the show from 3:15 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Concessions feature a huge variety of international food and beverage. ATMs will also be on site, although most vendors take both cash and credit cards.

The planes and exhibitions

- The air show also will feature the U.S. Navys EA-18G Growler demonstration team and, for those who thought slapstick only worked on the ground, barnstorming exhibition pilot Kyle Franklin and his Ben Whabnoski comedy flight. A KidZone brings experiential activities focused on flight and aimed at inspiring interest in STEM education.

- The Commemorative Air Forces Flying Fortress, Texas Raiders, was one of the last B-17s having been built in July of 1945, it remained in service into the Korean War.

- The F-35A Lightning II is a stealthy, multirole, all-weather air-to-air and surface attack fighter. It will replace the U.S. Air Forces aging fleet of F-16 Fighting Falcons and A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, which have been the primary fighter aircraft for more than 40 years, according to information provided by the airshow.

Click or tap here for a full schedule.

How should I prepare?

Those new to Colorado might not be acquainted with the suns extra-potent rays. Higher elevation leads to higher solar intensity. Put simply, sunscreen, hats and other sun-protective measures are essential since there are no indoor facilities. Leave the umbrellas at home, though, as a courtesy to others.

Ear protection is also encouraged for children and those sensitive to loud noises. Aircraft engines are loud and will continue to be so for the duration of the show.

Bring a chair

Given the shows location in an airfield, seating will not be provided. Visitors should bring their own chairs unless they prefer to stand.

Coolers, glass bottles and pets are not allowed at the event, nor are airborne drones, skateboards, bicycles or rollerblades. Weapons are also prohibited.

There is an uphill trek from the parking area to the aircraft. Visitors should plan ahead with wheelchairs or strollers for those who need them. Handicap transportation is not provided, but the ticketing and entry facility is built for handicap access.

Above all, the sheet reads, relax, have fun, and be prepared to see rare aircraft flown by highly skilled pilots!
Jimmy Sengenberger is host of The Jimmy Sengenberger Show Saturdays from 6-9am on News/Talk 710 KNUS. He also hosts Jimmy at the Crossroads, a webshow and podcast in partnership with The Washington Examiner.
Reporter

Stephanie Earls is a news reporter and columnist at The Gazette. Before moving to Colorado Springs in 2012, she worked for newspapers in upstate NY, WA, OR and at her hometown weekly in Berkeley Springs, WV, where she got her start in journalism.
A man who accidentally shot and killed his friend during a party-turned-tragedy in May could face rehabilitation, rather than imprisonment, after pleading guilty to manslaughter, a Class 4 felony, on Thursday.

Eric Terrell Lockhart Jr., 19, entered the plea four months after the shooting death of Malaya Marie Leary, 18, on May 21. He also pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a weapon by a previous offender, a Class 5 felony.

Prosecutors charged Lockhart with manslaughter because he "unlawfully, feloniously and recklessly," rather than intentionally, killed Leary, Judge Catherine Mitchell Helton said.

On the night of Leary's death, Lockhart and several friends were drinking at an apartment in southeast Colorado Springs when he began playing with his friend's pistol, "pretending as if he was shooting a music video," according to an arrest affidavit.

Lockhart continued to play with the gun even after his friend warned him to stop, the affidavit said. When speaking with police about the shooting, Lockhart said he accidentally fired the weapon because he believed he was engaging the safety switch.

The affidavit states that Lockhart told police "repeatedly" that he didn't intend to shoot Leary, who was pronounced dead on scene.

At the time of the shooting, Lockhart should not have been handling the gun because he was on parole for aggravated robbery, according to past Gazette reporting.

Under the prosecution's plea agreement, Lockhart will likely spend four years in Colorado's Youthful Offender System in Pueblo, which is designed to keep individuals aged 16-22 convicted of violent crime out of adult prisons, according to Lockhart's defense attorney, Josh Tolini.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the YOS functions to "divert young offenders and replace criminal thinking with pro-social values and accepted norms" on the belief that "youthful offenders can be habilitated, offering a positive and productive future."

Tolini said individuals undergo a kind of "boot camp" in the first phase of YOS before entering the vocational phase, when they learn trade skills related to plumbing, carpentry or other occupations, or earn college credits. He said the last phase allows the individual to temporarily pair with an employer and reintegrate into the community.

Should Lockhart fail to complete the program, he would face 12 years in prison.

While Tolini said he doesn't anticipate "any issues" regarding Lockhart's acceptance to YOS, Lockhart's guilty plea is contingent on that acceptance, which is still pending.

Both Helton and the prosecutor agreed that Lockhart would be allowed to change his plea if that acceptance is denied.

After the hearing, Tolini told the Gazette that Leary's family, who was present in court Thursday, "believes this is a fair resolution."

"I want Eric (Lockhart) to know that I forgive him," April Leary, the victim's mother, said through tears during a previous hearing in June. "As bad as I'm hurting, I forgive him."

Lockhart's sentencing hearing is scheduled for Dec. 1, but could occur earlier if he is accepted to YOS.
One woman has died after a stabbing in a northwest Colorado Springs neighborhood Thursday evening, according to the Colorado Springs Police Department.

At around 7:20 p.m., police responded to the stabbing in the 1200 Block of Dancing Horse Drive and found two adult victims suffering from life threatening injuries," police said. The victims were taken to a hospital, where the adult female later died. The adult male is in "stable condition," police said.

The 31-year-old suspect, whose name has not been released, is reportedly a family member of the victims. He was treated for self-inflicted wounds and taken to the El Paso County Jail, police said, and has been charged with murder and aggravated assault.

A fourth person witnessed the incident but was not injured, police said. There are no other suspects.

This incident is an ongoing investigation, officials said. Anyone with information is urged to call 719-444-7000 or, to remain anonymous, the Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 719-634-7867 or 1-800-222-8477.

Violent Crimes detectives continue to investigate the stabbing. The crime poses no threat to the community, according to CSPD.
Defense attorneys in the cases against Brianne Escamilla and Matthew Urias, who are accused of killing 5-year-old Emily Canales, squared off not against the prosecution but each other in an abnormal preliminary hearing Thursday.

During the more than eight-hour-long hearing, defense attorneys attempted to convince 4th Judicial District Judge Marcus Henson that their client was less responsible for the young girl's death, and thus shouldn't be held without bond and not be charged with first-degree murder.

Canales is the daughter of Escamilla, 27, who was living with her and Escamilla's boyfriend Urias, 27, at the time of her death in January.

The couple weren't arrested for Canales' death until June, when a report from the coroner's office was complete that indicating homicide was the cause.

An affidavit acquired by The Gazette detailed the abuse suffered by Canales, and the significant and obvious decline in her health in the days leading up to her death.

Despite Urias and Escamilla recognizing Canales was acting strangely and saying she was not feeling well in the days leading up to her death, neither called 911 until she died on Jan. 13.

Four witnesses took the stand Thursday to present evidence to the court that Canales' death was a result of the extensive physical abuse she suffered.

The defense attorneys for both Urias and Escamilla did not argue over the findings that physical abuse led to the death of Canales, but rather that the other defendant was the one primarily responsible for the child's death.

The defense attorneys for Urias argued during cross-examination of the witnesses that Escamilla was the primary abuser in the household, and that Canales viewed Urias as more of a parental figure than her own mother, Escamilla.

Those claims stem from Urias' interview with Colorado Springs Police Department detective Scott Warren, who was one of the prosecution's witnesses. In the interview with Warren, Urias claimed that Escamilla was the primary abuser, stating that she would often hit her child in the head, even leading to her knocking her head against the bathroom counter just days before her death.

Warren testified that Urias told him "this happens all the time," in reference to Escamilla hitting Canales in the head.

During the testimony of Warren, he stated that Urias approached his brother and sister-in-law months before Canales' death to find an alternative to physical punishment for Canales because it made him uncomfortable.

It was also pointed out by the defense at the conclusion of the hearing that Urias told Warren that he had been the one attempting to persuade Escamilla to call 911 the day before Canales death, but Escamilla refused because she thought her daughter was being "dramatic."

The defense for Escamilla, however, argued that Urias had serious anger management issues and that there was evidence proving Urias was an abuser of not just Canales, but Escamilla, as well.

The defense team for Escamilla pointed to an October 2021 incident that had Urias accused of two counts of misdemeanor domestic violence charges, tampering and harassment.

Court records show that Urias has not been convicted in this case at this time.

Escamilla's defense attorneys even called in a witness of their own, CSPD detective Rebecca Joines, a very uncommon occurrence from defense attorneys during a preliminary hearing.

Joines testified that she had spoken with a former neighbor of the couple who stated that on several occasions in 2021 they could hear Urias screaming at people in their apartment.

On one occasion, Joines stated that the neighbor could hear Canales yelling "help" and "stop" over and over again as well as Escamilla yelling "please stop."

The prosecution's stance was that despite both parties' substantial efforts to implicate the other defendant, both defendants had admitted to at least some level of physical abuse against Canales; and that the extensive level of injuries suffered by the young girl meant both were responsible and should be charged with first-degree murder as a result.

This was cooperated by Emily Russell, a forensic pathologist with the El Paso County Coroner's Office. Russell testified that it wasn't one specific hit or injury that led to Canales' death, but rather the cumulation of all of her injuries.

Russell testified that Canales had bruises all over her head, back, shoulders, stomach, arms, buttocks, thigh, knees and foot. Additionally, Russell stated there was also significant internal bleeding, several broken ribs, a punctured pancreas and brain damage.

Russell testified there was "absolutely no way" for those injuries to be self-inflicted, something Urias and Escamilla claimed may have been the case in interviews with detectives.

At the end of the hearing, Henson agreed with the prosecution and found that the extent of the injuries suffered by Canales means that although law enforcement isn't sure which specific injury caused her death, there's probable cause to continue to have all charges bound over to trial.

Urias and Escamilla are facing charges of first-degree murder, child abuse causing death and two counts of child abuse knowingly causing death. The charge of first-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison .

Henson additionally found that there was enough evidence presented to continue to hold Urias and Escamilla in El Paso County jail on no bond.

The couple will return to court on Nov. 1 for an arraignment hearing, where each defendant can enter a plea on all charges .
El Paso County resident Thomas Patrick Hamner was sentenced to 30 months in prison on Friday for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.

Hamner, 49, of Peyton is accused of having been part of the mob on the West Lawn of the Capitol and engaging in a "tug-of-war" with a police officer over a bike rack being used as a barricade.

Hamner was arrested on Nov. 9, 2021, in Colorado Springs in connection with the riot.

Initially, Hamner faces six charges  five of which were felonies  but he pleaded guilty to just one felony charge of interfering with law enforcement officers during a civil disorder, according to the release.

Following his 30-month prison sentence, Hamner will be placed on three years of supervised release, according to the release.

Hamner was sentenced in the District of Columbia, but the release states that "valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Colorado."

The release notes that more than 870 people have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riots, and "over 265 individuals (have been) charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement."
The parents of a 1-year-old girl who died after ingesting fentanyl at a Brighton home on just the second day of 2022 face first-degree murder charges in a case that illustrates the drug's pernicious hold in Colorado, which has seen a dramatic spike in overdose cases over the years, particularly from opioid abuse.

Fentanyl is literally killing children from every age group, 17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason said at a press conference from his Brighton office Thursday.

The toddler was the first of five Colorado children to die of fentanyl-involved poisoning this year.

No child ever died of fentanyl poisoning before the year 2020, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which tracks the data.

Mason announced that a grand jury has indicted the child's parents, Alonzo Montoya and Nicole Casias, both 31, on seven charges, including first-degree murder of a victim under 12 by a person in a position of trust.

Montoya and Casias face six other charges, in addition to the murder count, including racketeering and various child abuse charges in relation to a second female child.

The indictment alleges Montoya and Casias were running a serious drug business, selling heavy narcotics like cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl disguised as oxycodone  blue pills marked with "M-30." It said they often brought clients into their bedroom, even making transactions in front of their two children. It alleges they were exposing their kids to the drugs at all hours of the day and night.

The couple used cellphones and social platforms, such as Facebook Messenger, to contact clients and then turned to CashApp and Venmo to collect their money, according to the court document.

Montoya was the primary dealer and Casias packaged the product, cutting the cocaine powder with baking soda and selling it as crack, the indictment alleges.

The document alleged that the couple deployed foot soldiers, who bought the drugs wholesale, paying around $5 apiece for one fentanyl pill. Besides their regulars, several major clients, some unnamed and some named, also funneled in and out of the couple's home for drugs.

On New Year's Day, the couple obtained a large amount of fentanyl and opened up their home to sell it, the indictment states. Just after midnight on Jan. 2, the 1-year-old was found dead from acute fentanyl toxicity, the Adams County coroner said.

Her autopsy states that she died from ingesting the poisonous drug.

Mason said its easy for a child to mistake the small, multicolored pills for candy.

People are even referring to these pills as Skittles, Mason said. A child wont know that a small, beautifully colored pill isnt safe to take.

Mason said the cartels manufacture the pills to look like candy on purpose. He wouldnt say how many pills the baby ate.

The indictment says the couple continued to run their business until March 2022, three months after their baby died from the product they allegedly sold.

The couple is also accused of putting a second child, a female of unknown age, in danger. That child is safe, Mason told reporters Thursday.

The indictment identifies several regular clients and claims that one of them, a Joshua Brewster, spent thousands of dollars buying hundreds of pills from the alleged drug operation that Montoya and Casias ran at a bulk price. Montoya and Brewster would meet to exchange money and drugs at bars, in parks and at Brewsters home, the indictment adds.

In addition to the drug operation, the couple is accused of scheming to pocket extra money, defrauding the government of thousands of dollars. The indictment describes one instance where they sold food stamps for cash, and adds that, in April 2021, they applied for a Payroll Protection Program loan of $15,625.

The couples 1-year-old was one of four children  ages 9 and under  who have died from fentanyl poisoning from January to July of this year, according to statistics provided by CDPHE's Kirk Bol. Thats compared to the entire year of 2021, when five children died of fentanyl poisoning, and to 2020, when one or two died.

There is no record that any Colorado children under 9 died from ingesting fentanyl before the year 2020.

The indictment serves as a stark contrast to prosecutor's decision not to pursue charges in the high-profile deaths of five people in Commerce City last March. In the case, Mason said his office simply lacks the evidence to bring charges against anyone.

Mason said that the case of the 1-year-old child is different in that a grand jury listened to all of the evidence.

We were not in that posture on the Commerce City case unfortunately," he said. "We did not have the evidence to prove or charge anyone with those deaths.
Members of the El Paso County Sheriffs Office and Fountain Police Department responded to a possible malfunctioning alarm at a local middle school Friday morning, according to a spokesperson with the school district.

Sam Briggs, the director of communications at Widefield School District 3, said a faulty alarm at Watson Junior High School went off around 7:30 a.m., causing a lockdown. After going room to room to investigate, members of the sheriff's office gave the "all-clear" around 8:30 a.m., she said.

D-3 also said that as of 8:30 a.m., its security team and sheriff's office personnel were at the school talking with parents and students. See their full statement below:

PARENTS: EPSO personnel and the WSD3 Security Team are addressing parents and students in person currently and the school district will send out messaging pertaining to information on school schedule for the day.

PARENTS: EPSO personnel and the WSD3 Security Team are addressing parents and students in person currently and the school district will send out messaging pertaining to information on school schedule for the day. https://t.co/wvXM1zJIA9  widefieldd3 (@WidefieldD3) September 23, 2022

Though a string of "swatting calls," or false active shooter reports, affected four different Colorado school districts on Monday alone, Briggs said staff at WJHS knew the alarm was a result of a malfunction, as the system had been making strange noises before it sounded, she said.

But the district's mental health specialists will be on hand at the school today and into next week, Briggs said, due to the potential distress caused by these situations, "real or fake."
Residents on Thursday called on the Colorado Springs Planning Commission to rework the proposed zoning code ahead of a vote in October to preserve rights for more people to appeal city decisions, protect neighborhood character and promote affordable housing.

Residents with the Historic Neighborhoods Partnership called out specific changes in the proposed code, known as Retool Colorado Springs, they want to see to protect neighborhoods, such as restoring a rule that can prevent older homes from getting scrapped in favor of a bigger house; adding a rule to buffer gas stations from homes, schools and other gathering spaces; and implementing parking requirements for developers expanding residential buildings in historic neighborhoods.

Residents offered their comments on a new draft of the zoning code that could be adopted in the coming months and reshape how the city develops in the coming decades.

"ReTool is complex and there is new language in this current draft that we have not seen before. ... Frankly, we do have big concerns," said Dianne Bridges, chairwoman of the Historic Neighborhoods Partnership.

At the same time, Colorado Springs Faith Table representatives called for greater flexibility in the proposed zoning code to allow for more variety of homes in single-family neighborhoods to help address the housing shortage.

While the two groups could at times sound at odds, Susan Bolduc, with the Faith Table, said affordable housing options don't necessarily need to impinge on existing neighborhood's architecture and character and can include promoting options such as duplexes and triplexes.

"We need missing-middle housing for smaller households," she said.

She noted that a vast majority of the community is zoned for single-family homes and that does not account for smaller families that have become more common in recent decades. The absence of affordable housing can also hurt the economy by preventing residents from living close to their employers, she said.

Despite the thousands of apartments that have been built or are in the planning stages in town, the cost of housing continues to rise, in part because of the high demand. The average apartment rent has jumped more than $300 a month to $1,571 in the last three years, the Gazette reported previously.

Bolduc and others asked the city for more flexible zoning in existing neighborhoods because the current proposal leaves existing residential zoning in place. Those interested in building higher density housing in an older single-family neighborhood would have to ask Colorado Springs City Council for a zoning change. The city is offering more flexible zoning options for neighborhoods that have yet to be built.

Historic Neighborhoods Partnership members asked for specific changes to the proposed code, including the restoration of limits on lot coverage, that could allow for much larger homes in single-family neighborhoods. The elimination of the limits could allow more people to tear down older homes on smaller lots and build much larger homes, a trend known as scrap and build that has happened in other areas of Colorado, said Mike Anderson, one of several people who spoke on behalf of the partnership. Such a trend would reduce options for more entry-level housing, he said.

The advocates also called for new required setbacks to give neighborhoods, schools, parks, churches and other gathering places a greater buffer from gas stations. The lack of required buffers between homes and gas stations was highlighted by a high-profile fight over a new convenience store planned for South Eighth and West Brookside streets. The council approved the gas station in August that will be 20 feet from residents' bedroom and bathroom windows.

Residents asked for changes to the new rules around who can appeal planning department decisions to allow for greater participation. Currently, anyone can appeal a decision. The proposed rules would require appellants to own or rent property within 1,000 feet of a project. It would also allow those within 2 miles of a project to appeal if they have participated in the city process previously by commenting at a public meeting or submitting written comments.

The advocates asked for the city not to require prior participation to appeal a decision.

The preservation advocates were also concerned the city did not plan to ask developers to add parking when they expand historic buildings. Some older homes don't have driveways or garages and residents must already park on the street, creating a parking deficit in older parts of town.

"I get more calls on parking than anything else," Old North End President Dutch Schulz said.

He also called for the same parking regulations to apply to short-term rentals as bed and breakfasts and for the city to think carefully before reducing parking requirements near bus stops, since bus routes can be moved and an area could have a parking deficit and no bus service, he said.

The commission is scheduled to vote on the new zoning code in October and the council may vote on it in November and December, said Morgan Hester, planning supervisor.
FILE PHOTO - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas arrives with his wife, Ginni Thomas, for a State Dinner for Australias Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the White House in Washington, U.S. September 20, 2019. REUTERS/Erin Scott
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Lega (League) leader Matteo Salvini, Forza Italia leader Silvio Berlusconi and Brothers of Italy leader Giorgia Meloni gesture during the closing electoral campaign rally of the centre-right's coalition in Piazza del Popolo, ahead of the September 25 general election, in Rome, Italy, September 22, 2022. REUTERS/Yara Nardi
FILE PHOTO - President of Sudan Abdel Fattah al-Burhan addresses the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. Headquarters in New York City, U.S., September 22, 2022. REUTERS/Mike Segar
After a mid-week cooldown, temperatures in Colorado Springs are expected to warm back up Friday in time for weekend festivities around the area, including Oktoberfest, the Pikes Peak Regional Airshow, the Pueblo Chile Festival and more.

Friday could see clear, sunny skies with a high near 80 degrees, according to the National Weather Service in Pueblo. Saturday could be much the same, with a forecast high near 79. Temps may drop slightly Sunday, which could see a sunny high near 73.

Here is the full forecast from the National Weather Service.

Today: Sunny, with a high near 80. East northeast wind 10-15 mph becoming west southwest in the afternoon.

Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 79. Light and variable wind becoming south southeast 5-10 mph in the morning.

Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 73. North northwest wind 5-15 mph becoming south southeast in the afternoon.
Chinese, Somali FMs meet on sidelines of UNGA session

Xinhua) 17:00, September 22, 2022

NEW YORK, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday met here with Somali Foreign Minister Abshir Omar Huruse on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

Wang said the traditional friendship between China and Somalia is an important component of China-Africa friendship.

Somalia is the first East African country that established diplomatic relations with New China, said Wang, adding that the two countries always respect each other and support each other on issues concerning each other's core interests.

China has always advocated that all countries, big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, are equal, said Wang.

China will continue to be a reliable friend of Somalia, provide support and assistance to Somalia within its capacity so as to achieve common development and prosperity, he added.

Huruse noted China and Somalia enjoy a time-honored friendship and words are not enough to describe the friendship between the two sides, saying that Somalia sincerely thanks China for standing with Somalia at critical moments, especially for firmly supporting Somalia in safeguarding its sovereignty.

Huruse said his country firmly adheres to the one-China principle and opposes interference by any external forces in China's internal affairs. Somalia is proud to have China, a major country with significant international influence, as a friend, he added.

Developing relations with China is neither make-shift nor interests-driven, said Huruse. Although Somalia is a small country, it has never wavered in upholding its position on the international stage, he added.

Wang said China firmly supports the governance of the new Somali government and believes that Somalia's peaceful development will continue to move forward.

China appreciates Somalia's firm adherence to the one-China principle and supports Somalia in safeguarding its sovereignty, dignity and territorial integrity, he said, adding that China will continue to stand with Somalia in the international arena to support its legitimate demands.

He said China stands ready to strengthen solidarity with all developing countries, oppose unilateral bullying and jointly uphold non-interference in other countries' internal affairs, which is the basic norm of international relations.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Local farmers and property owners near to 410th Street in rural Kensett will be voicing their opinion against Summit Ag LLP and their proposed CAFO, or concentrated animal feeding operation next week. A public hearing will be held Monday, September 26 at 9:30 a.m. at the Worth County Courthouse in Northwood.

Summit Ag LLP and Sphinx Inc. submitted a proposal to the Worth County Board of Supervisors to construct a large-scale hog confinement between Wheelerwood and Fir Avenues.

The board performed a site visit, along with a representative from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources on Thursday.

Opponents to this CAFO say they werent informed, they dont want to deal with the flies, smell and noise, not to mention the drop in property values. Legislation has even been changed so abutting property owners have no recourse to sue for ordinance violations.
WASHINGTON  Just as the wheels left the tarmac for flight SY 8651, the 94 veterans on board were already made to feel special.

Martin Anderson, the pilot on the early Wednesday morning trip out of Waterloo Regional Airport, wanted to honor those on board as they began their day-long trek to the nations capital.

As Lee Greenwoods God Bless the USA blared on the cabin speakers, the 28th Sullivan-Hartogh-Davis Cedar Valley Honor Flight was on its way.

The Boeing 737 carrying the veterans and their guardians landed at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport at 9:45 a.m. and everyone filed onto buses to begin the tour.

On one of the three buses was volunteer Bob Alexander, who gave riders a guided tour of the Washington, D.C., area. For him, the motivation to volunteer to greet veterans at the airport and give tours is twofold.

After spending 27 years in the Air Force, Alexander hoped to honor his father, who flew on a B-17 bomber crew in World War II, and the troops that he led as a squadron commander.

The first stop was the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial and then the Air Force Memorial, the newest of the armed forces memorial sites.

Veterans were able to witness the Changing of the Guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, where the golden rule is silence is golden.

The crowd stood attentively and solemnly as they watched one rifleman be relieved by another, as is done every half hour at the top and bottom of the hour.

All day long, the veterans were thanked by passing tourists, by employees at the airports or active service men and women whom they bumped into at the memorials.

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. David Cole, a Waterloo native, stood at the World War II Memorial in the uniform he wore at his retirement ceremony in 1991 alongside his wife, Connie. He was ready to greet the veterans, just as he has for all 27 previous Cedar Valley honor flights.

My wife and I have met all 28 honor flights. I get rejuvenated every time I come down and meet these fine veterans, Cole said. Especially veterans from Waterloo.

From there, the convey headed to the longest stop of the day, toward the Lincoln Memorial and the nearby Vietnam and Korean War memorials.

Veterans in their commemorative red shirts and white hats walked by the Reflecting Pool at the Washington Monument toward the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where more than 58,000 names are etched into the wall. Many veterans searched for familiar names.

One such man was David Will, a Vietnam Army veteran. A teacher at Columbus Catholic High School in Waterloo, Will was looking for the name Michael OConner. OConner is the only Columbus graduate to have been killed in Vietnam, Will said.

I took the day off from work to come, so I figured Id better come check on Michael, he said.

Not having known any other veterans on this Honor Flight didnt matter to Will, who said he made some new friends after the days events.

It was a fantastic experience, he said. Everybody should do it.
A North Iowa man is looking at a pair of felony burglary charges after a DNA sample turned up two hits.

Police say Jesse Keenan Rafael, 27, of Mason City is behind two separate burglaries, one in May of this year which resulted in injury, and one in November of 2017.

According to court documents, police took a report in May of a male who had been attacked and injured by Rafael. A sample of a blood at the scene was collected for analysis.

Officers interviewed Rafael, who denied his involvement, and ultimately collected a cheek swab. Rafael's DNA came back as a match to the blood at the assault scene, as well as to the scene of a break-in and theft which occurred at a Mason City residence in 2017.

Rafael was arrested on Wednesday, and charged with one count of first-degree burglary in connection with the assault and one count of third-degree burglary in connection with the 2017 theft.
The LOSST vote Sept. 13, asking voters whether or not they wanted to continue the local option sales and service tax, is officially complete.

The measure passed with over 84% of the vote.

Votes were canvassed at a special meeting of the Cerro Gordo Board of Supervisors Tuesday. County Auditor Adam Wedmore said the ballot scanner count and canvass count matched perfectly.

The outcome of the vote was not official until the canvass was completed. Depending on voter turnout and absentee ballots returned, it may take several days or even weeks to certify the results.

Wedmore explained that the board canvasses the numbers from every precinct to make sure they match the ballot scanner printout. If they match, they certify the results as official, he said.

The canvass of votes went fairly quickly as only 6.7% of Mason Citys 19,043 registered voters cast a ballot. Of the 1,284 votes cast, 1,106 were yes and 178 were no.

In Iowa, all items purchased, with the exception of food and prescription medication, have a 6% sales tax. In addition, all 99 counties have adopted a local option sales and service tax (LOSST) of 1%.

In order for the LOSST to remain in effect it needed to be periodically reapproved by voters. Wedmore said Iowa Code has changed, allowing for it to be approved and remain in effect until the City Council votes to rescind the tax or to change how it is used. It would then need to be voted upon one more time to repeal or modify it.

Mason City uses 50% of its LOSST funds for property tax relief. The other 50% is used for city infrastructure and public services.
Former Vice President Mike Pence will headline a fundraiser alongside Iowa Rep. Bobby Kaufmann next week in Wilton, marking another visit to Iowa and bolstering speculation around a 2024 presidential run.

According to an invitation for the event, Pence will be the featured speaker at the 15th annual Kaufmann Family Harvest Dinner on Sept. 29 in Wilton. The invitation says other candidates and state leaders will be at the fundraiser, but no others besides Pence and Kaufmann are named.

Bobby Kaufmann has been a champion for Iowa, his district and the conservative movement, Pence said in a statement. I look forward to joining Bobby at the Kaufmann Family Harvest Dinner and meeting Republicans from his district to discuss our shared conservative values and vision for Iowas future.

Pence was last in Iowa in August at the Iowa State Fair, joining Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley on a tour of the fair. Hes attended party fundraisers and speaking engagements intermittently in the state since the 2020 election, including a November speech at the University of Iowa.

He didnt give any indication of his potential presidential ambitions at the State Fair, telling reporters he and his family would reflect and pray on where we might next serve, where we might next contribute, after the 2022 election.

Having national leaders like Vice President Pence visit small rural towns like Wilton really gets to the heart of what Iowa truly is, Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann, Bobby Kaufmanns father, said in a statement. Iowans in every town across the state get to ask tough questions and meet candidates face to face.

The event last year drew U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), another potential 2024 contender.

The fundraiser begins at 5:30 p.m. Basic tickets are $50, with optional donations up to $2,500 for a private roundtable before the event with Pence.

Bobby Kaufmann is running for reelection to Iowas 82nd House District, which covers Cedar County and parts of Muscatine and Scott Counties. He faces a challenge from Libertarian Clyde Gibson of Montpelier.

Grassley endorsement

Incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassleys campaign announced a coalition of veterans supporting his reelection on Wednesday.

The coalition includes veterans from all 99 counties and its leadership team includes Republicans Sen. Joni Ernst, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and former Gov. Terry Branstad, all of whom are veterans. The group is chaired by Republican former Iowa attorney general and retired Army Reserve Maj. Gen. Evan Hultman of Waterloo.

Grassley is seeking reelection to his eighth term in the U.S. Senate, facing Democratic challenger Mike Franken, a retired Navy admiral.

"Our veterans dedicated their lives to serving our country, Grassley said in a news release. I work to make sure the federal government keeps its promises to them, which includes my support for the PACT Act this year, every step of the way. I'm proud to represent veterans and honored to have their support.

In a statement, Frankens campaign spokesperson highlighted the Democratic candidates military experience and his opposition to the war in Iraq.

Admiral Mike Franken spent nearly four decades in the military fighting for American democracy here at home and around the world, Frankens spokesperson C.J. Petersen said. As a veteran who knows the cost of war, Admiral Franken will always seek to avoid war whenever possible and isnt afraid to speak truth to power  which is why he opposed the disastrous failed invasion of Iraq, something Senator Grassley supported.

 Lee-Gazette Des Moines Bureau

New Reynolds ad

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds newest reelection campaign ad (https://youtu.be/jxPI1P8Eo7A) starts with some sleight of hand to tie her political opponent to a policy stance she has not taken.

Reynolds, a Republican who has been Iowas governor since 2017, is running for another four-year term. The Democratic challenger is Deidre DeJear, a Des Moines small businesswoman.

Reynolds latest ad begins with her watching a TV that shows an interview in which U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, a Democrat from Missouri, is shown saying, Defunding the police has to happen.

Bush is a Black woman, like DeJear. But DeJear has not called for any manner of reducing law enforcement agencies budgets. In January, she told Axios (https://www.axios.com/local/des-moines/2022/01/18/deidre-dejear-sits-kim-reynolds-state-address) that Iowa law enforcement officers, deserve more than a pat on the back and a one-time $1,000 bonus (that Reynolds created).

After the clip of Bush, Reynolds in the ad says, Watching the news you wonder, has the rest of the country lost its mind? Attacks on police, open borders, paying people not to work. Arent you glad you live in Iowa?

Libertarian Party candidate Rick Stewart also is on the ballot in Iowas gubernatorial campaign.

 Lee-Gazette Des Moines Bureau

Stewart ad

Rick Stewart, the Libertarian Partys candidate for governor, released a new campaign ad (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srP6EfTP5qs) that features his call to legalize marijuana in Iowa.

In the ad, Stewart notes that marijuana is legal in other states, including Iowas eastern neighbor, Illinois.

How come I can grow corn but I cant grow weed (in Iowa)? Theyre both plants, Stewart says in the ad.

Stewart is running against Republican incumbent Gov. Kim Reynolds and Democratic challenger Deidre DeJear.

 Lee-Gazette Des Moines Bureau
EDEN  Chris White was recently named the new fire chief for the City of Eden.

White took the helm, replacing Todd Harden, on Sept. 21. Harden retired on Sept. 1 after serving for more than 20 years. Deputy Chief James Slaughter served as interim acting chief of the department until White assumed his post.

I am thankful for this opportunity to serve as fire chief of this wonderful city, White said in a recent news release from the City of Eden.

I look forward to serving the citizens of this city, working with the youth promoting public fire education and being available and accessible to the citizens of Eden. I am thankful and grateful for this opportunity.

Born and raised in Eden, White holds an associates degree in Fire Science from Orange Beach, Ala.-based Columbia Southern University and a bachelors degree in Fire Administration/Fire Investigation, also from Columbia Southern.

White is a Level II Instructor in fire safety, certified by the Office of the State Fire Marshall (OSFM). He is also a Level II Fire Officer and is working on his Level II Inspection certification.

White and his wife, Lisa, have been together for 12 years and are members of Eden Baptist Church.
GREENSBORO  If county and school leaders were hoping for smooth sailing in getting approval for $1.7 billion in school bonds from North Carolinas Local Government Commission, thats not exactly what happened on Thursday.

Instead of voting as planned, the commission tabled the motion for 10 days to allow time for Guilford County officials to pull together information on past and projected trends on public and private school student enrollment numbers as requested by a member of the commission.

The commission oversees finances for all municipalities in North Carolina. Counties and cities must seek approval from the Local Government Commission before borrowing money.

According to its website, the commission looks at whether the amount being borrowed is adequate and reasonable for the planned projects and whether it is an amount a local government can reasonably afford to repay.

Guilford County went through the same process, successfully, for the $300 million in bonds that voters approved in 2020.

State Treasurer Dale Folwell chairs the commission. The body also includes the secretary of state, state auditor and House and Senate leaders among others.

City Council member Nancy Hoffmann is a member of the commission, but was not present at the meeting due a medical appointment. Hoffmann said she planned to speak with other commission members to learn more about what questions or concerns were raised at the meeting.

At the start of the meeting, the Guilford County school bonds vote was part of the commissions consent agenda  a large group of items that are voted on together  without further discussion on the individual items. The Guilford County school bonds, however, were pulled from the consent agenda to be dealt with separately.

At the beginning of the discussion, Folwell said he was concerned about getting out, too far out, over your skis as far as debt, and quizzed Guilford County officials about the expected impact of the school bonds on local property taxes and homeowners.

Commission members also had questions about school enrollment in the county, among others. While enrollment is growing in some areas and some schools are over capacity, district enrollment has dropped during the pandemic and has also been affected by the launching of new charter schools in the county in recent years.

Guilford County Manager Michael Halford and Angie Henry, a senior adviser to the superintendent, explained that the main reason for the bond referendum was the identification of schools in poor and unsatisfactory condition, rather than expected growth.

And they said the county is trying to catch up on needed school renovations and replacements  especially in comparison to the spending on school construction in the last few decades in Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Wake County.

Folwell supported tabling the vote to allow time for getting the enrollment data, but also struck a note that sounded more positive to the Guilford bonds request than how he started the meeting.

We understand ... there is a need for repair and renovation regardless of how many students are there, he said. Weve got enough common sense. Well apply all that.
HIGH POINT  A nearly $9.8 million federal grant will help High Point Universitys Stout School of Education help local schools train teachers and principals.

The university will receive $9,786,041 from the U.S. Department of Education to fund two graduate programs for teachers and principals for the next five years. The Teacher Quality Partnership grant is designed to attract diverse teacher and principal candidates who want to work in a communitys most highly impacted schools.

Upon graduation, these teachers and principals will have the capacity to transform schools and improve outcomes for all students, Amy Holcombe, dean of the Stout School of Education, said in a news release.

HPU said it is the second largest federal Teacher Quality Partnership grant awarded to 22 universities in the nation.

It is also the largest competitive grant awarded to High Point University, Holcombe said. The universitys education school previously won a $4 million Teacher Quality Partnership Grant in 2018.

The new grant will support a partnership for a Master of Arts in teaching program that includes the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools and N.C. A&T and a masters in education program with principal licensure in partnership with Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, the Alamance-Burlington School System and Vance County Schools.
The adult children of two longtime local physicians have returned to Helena with an M.D. behind their names.

On Aug. 28, Dr. Matthew Goldes joined St. Peters Health as a general and vascular surgeon. He is the son of Dr. Jeffry Goldes, who has been practicing dermatology in Helena for 32 years, since 1990.

"Most of my patients will show me like a spot on their arm and say, He took this off of me," Matthew Goldes said. "So, the fact that he has this reputation is a little intimidating, and with Dr. Harper retiring, theyre really big shoes to fill.

Dr. William Harper was a general vascular and thoracic surgeon at St. Peter's Health who served the Helena community for 35 years before retiring. Matthew Goldes was the planned succession recruit.

He became interested in medicine at a young age because his family is made up of dentists, nurses, ER physicians and dermatologists.

"Seeing (his father's) satisfaction with his career and my other family that was involved in medicine and their care for the people around them sort of urged me towards (medicine)," he said. " ...It was probably during my pre-med years in college when I was a hospice volunteer where we got exposed to specialties of medicine that I realized I wanted to pursue it seriously.

When Matthew Goldes was an infant, his parents moved from the east coast to Helena to be closer to family after the death of an uncle.

Matthew Goldes attended C.R. Anderson Middle School and then Capital High School. In 2013, he was accepted into the WWAMI Medical Education Program through Montana State University and attended University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, where he met his wife.

Matthew Goldes moved to Miami, where he completed his residency in general surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Together with his wife, they have a cat, Sir Isaac Newton, and distant plans of a possible second feline in the house. He does not see himself leaving Helena any time soon.

Its really cool to be back in my hometown, a lot of people dont get to do that. Being a part of the community, its serendipitous that it worked out," said Matthew Goldes.

Drs. Katrina and Robert Maher are siblings who both grew up in Helena and attended Capital High School. Their father, Dr. James Maher, practiced medicine in Helena for over 33 years and worked at St. Peter's before retiring in 2015.

There were a lot of times growing up, that you know the vacations maybe started a bit later because he had to stop by the hospital and see someone or things like that, said Katrina Maher. You know that was always something I really respected As a kid it was a little harder, but now it really is impressive, the work ethic a lot of our docs from that era had.

Katrina Maher earned her bachelor's of arts in biology and art history from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. Her art history degree focuses mostly on prehistoric art. She said this helped her a lot in med school because it's mostly memorization of details.

Like her father, she attended medical school at Wayne State University School of Medicine. She's a board-certified member of the American Board of Family Medicine. She arrived at St. Peters as a primary care provider with a specialty in family medicine in March of 2020.

I tried pretty hard to see if there was anything else I found more interesting than (medicine). I double majored in art history and thought about doing something along those lines, but I just love being able to interact with people, helping take care of them. I really enjoy all aspects of it, so with time, it seemed like (medicine) was the best option for me.

Before coming back to Montana, Katrina Maher held temporary positions in Washington and New Zealand.

I love to travel, but there are things you just cant find outside of Helena, and Ive looked... Growing up in Helena, it doesnt feel like its big enough, but as Ive left and come back, I just really appreciate the community, and the fact that it is a community," she said.

Katrina Maher is a member of the Clay Arts Guild of Helena. In her free time, she hikes, does photography and hangs out with her two cats, Jackson and Zoey.

Robert Maher attended the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, where he received a bachelor's of science in chemistry. Like his sister and father, he too studied medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine. He completed his general surgery residency at the University of Arizona-Phoenix School of Medicine and is a board-certified member of the American College of Surgeons.

I enjoy helping people. I enjoy the sciences, so this seemed to be the best compromise between the two of them, said Robert Maher. Both my wife and I are from Helena, so it was a long-term plan to come back here. All of our families are here. We both really enjoyed growing up here.

Robert Maher started at St. Peter's in August of 2021 as a general surgeon. He and his wife have a little baby boy together.

The truth is, raising a kid around family is a lot more fun, a lot easier than doing it elsewhere, he said. That was another one of the draws to come back here is that our son could be raised with his grandparents and his aunt and everyone else.

Robert Maher is an avid runner when not in scrubs. He just ran in the Helena Ultra Runner League's Elkhorn Endurance Run 50k in early August.

In addition to medicine, the Maher siblings also share an appreciation for the arts and their hometown's art scene.

Its a great community as far as the people go. The fact that we have so many trails right outside. We have a vibrant art scene with the symphony, with Grandstreet Theater Robert Maher said. I really love ceramics and the fact that we have the Archie Bray and Clay Arts Guild (of Helena) is great as well. Theres all the things you could get in a big city, all the things that I love, right here.
Rise Up Against Addiction community walk

Show your support for those in recovery from a substance use disorder, still struggling with a SUD and honor those who have lost their lives to this disease by participating in the Montana Rise Up Against Addiction Walk.

The Rise Up Against Addiction Montana walk will take place Saturday, Sept. 24, from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at Spring Meadow Lake State Park. You can register individually or as part of a team. You can also walk in your local community or show support by registering even if you are unable to participate in person.

The Helena Indian Alliance will be at the event providing information and training on harm reduction and distributing Naloxone (Narcan) to interested participants.

While the walk is a fundraiser for Shatterproof, registration is free. For more information or to register visit: https://bit.ly/3zFEVSz or contact Laurine Wolf, Shatterproof Volunteer Ambassador, at 406-594-1203; wolfa1203@outlook.com. For more information about Shatterproof, visit shatterproof.org.

Saluting Branches event at Fort Harrison

The eighth annual Saluting Branches event is taking place Wednesday, Sept. 28, at the Fort Harrison VA Medical Center and the State Veterans Cemetery outside Helena.

Arborists from across Montana are coming together to do what we do bestprovide exceptional tree careto keep our Veterans state cemetery, and other Veterans facilities safe and beautiful for all those who visit, said arborist Tom Molitor.

With one in every 10 Montanans a Veteran, Montana VA Health Care System (MTVAHCS) appreciates the ongoing support from local and statewide organizations for Montana Veterans. Over 25 volunteers from around Montana will be on campus to prune and maintain trees on the 138-acre campus.

The MTVAHCS serves over 47,000 enrolled Veterans across Montanaan area roughly 147,000 square miles in size.

Webinar will discuss right of privacy

"Privacy: Our Right To Be Let Alone" is the title of an upcoming webinar on Montanas constitutional right of privacy, at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 3.

Montanas right of privacy protects womens right of reproductive choice, as well as the privacy of Montanans medical records, their medical decisions, their phone conversations and much more.

The panel, co-sponsored by the Montana League of Women Voters of the Helena Area and Lewis & Clark Library, is part of a series of events the LWV is holding this year to mark the Montana Constitutions 50th anniversary.

Four speakers will address Montanans unique state constitutional protections and current threats:

Attorney Mae Nan (Robinson) Ellingson, a 1972 Constitutional Convention delegate, will discuss the role of state constitutions, the legal development of the right of privacy and the delegates decision to include an explicit right of privacy in the 1972 Montana Constitution;

Retired Montana Supreme Court Justice Patricia Cotter, who served on the court 2000-2016, will address that Montanans right to abortion is not superseded by decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as Montana Supreme Courts long-recognized opinions that a persons medical decisions and medical records are private matters;

Retired Montana Supreme Court Justice Jim Nelson, who served on the court 1993 to 2013 and is a former county prosecutor, will talk about the Montana Supreme Courts Armstrong decision that recognizes womens right to seek and obtain abortion services without government interference; and

Trial attorney Raph Graybill, who was legal counsel for Gov. Steve Bullock and the Democratic 2020 nominee for Montana attorney general, will discuss the current landscape of privacy litigation in Montana.

To sign up for the webinar, use this link https://tinyurl.com/3dkbc6ah.

For more information, visit https://my.lwv.org/montana/local-leagues/helena.

Lewis and Clark County board opening

Airport Authority Board: The City of Helena and Lewis & Clark County adopted Joint Resolution 10677 creating the Helena Regional Airport Authority. The powers of the authority shall be vested in a 7-member Airport Commission. Three members shall be appointed by the county, three members by the city and the 7th member shall be jointly appointed. Members terms shall be three years. Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 11:30 a.m., Airport Conference Room.

Applications are available at http://www.lccountymt.gov/bocc/boards.html or by calling 447-8304 and can be submitted to the Lewis and Clark County Commissioners Office, 316 N. Park Avenue, Room 345, Helena, MT 59623.

Free Prepared Parenting classes continue

This free class is led by a St. Peters Health Family Nurse Practitioner and Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and discusses the benefits of breast milk, the anatomy and physiology of lactation, the elements that promote successful feedings, determining adequate milk intake, and how to return to work while breastfeeding.

A link to the pre-recorded module will be sent upon registration for the class that can be viewed at your convenience. The class leader will then host a Q & A session on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 5:30-6:30 p.m.

Registration is required at https://www.sphealth.org/community-health/community-education/prepared-parenting. This class is part of an eight-week Prepared Parenting series taught by a variety of specialists and professionals to help parents with all preparations, expectations and details surrounding a new baby.

Dogsledding dryland training camp

Learn about dogsledding, skijoring or dryland mushing Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 8-9, at Seeley Creek Pavilion, east side of highway and up the hill on Morrell Creek Road. There is primitive camping near the Seeley Creek Pavilion.

Saturday's events begin at 9 a.m. and go into the evening. Sunday is from 9-11 a.m.

We will instruct beginners along with running our own dogs. No experience necessary and it is free. Experienced mushers are always welcome to join in.

Any type of wheeled rig (4-wheelers, dog scooters, bikes or carts) and your dogs are welcome. If you bring dogs, please have a tie-out system such as a picket line for them. Be prepared for any type of weather and bring mid-morning snacks and water for your dogs. Please dont bring unvaccinated pups.

Clinic Topics: dogs, training, equipment, nutrition and venues with lots of time to ask questions.

REGISTRATION FORMS: Request forms or direct questions to adanac@adanacsleds.com or download form at www.montanamountainmushers.com. Call (406) 881-2909 or (406) 677-3141 for additional information. Registration deadline is Oct. 4. Please pre-register so we have enough 4-wheelers and instructors. Email the form to adanac@adanacsleds.com, or by mail to MMM Training Camp, Box 76, Olney, MT 59927.

Red Cross seeks blood donations

The American Red Cross urges eligible donors to help end the ongoing critical need for blood with a blood donation. The Red Cross needs donors of all blood types to give now and help ensure lifesaving transfusions are on the sidelines for those who rely on them.

Appointments can be made by downloading the Red Cross Blood Donor App, visiting RedCrossBlood.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or enabling the Blood Donor Skill on any Alexa Echo device.

Nar-Anon family group meeting

The Helena Nar-Anon Family Group, a 12-step program for families and friends of addicts, meets Mondays and Thursdays, 5:30-6:30 p.m. in the Library of St. Pauls Methodist Church, 512 Logan.

The library is located on the lower level of the main church building. Please enter using the Cruise Avenue entrance.
Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton, back from a conference in Arizona, gave Helena residents a bleak summary of what he saw, and warned of trouble headed our way.

Dutton said he attended a law enforcement conference to talk about the importing of illegal drugs.

I wish I could say they will stay in the middle of the United States and not make it here but that would not be true, he said Thursday to members of Hometown Helena, a grassroots organization.

The cartels own the border. They do, he said. Im sorry to say they own our United States borders.

Dutton said in about two months Montana is going to have an epidemic of methamphetamine, and the drug is on its way to Montana schools. He said that historically, when there is a trend at the border, it takes two months to get to Montana.

Its coming here and its going to be available for a cheap price and its going to wreak havoc, Dutton said.

He said part of the conference involved looking for illegal immigrants coming across the border from Mexico.

I have to tell you it changed my perception. ... My heart sank when I saw the women, Dutton said, adding they are being raped and they are beat down and haggard."

He said he hates the cartels for what they do to people just for money.

Im not being political. I am telling you what I saw," he said.

If you have a heart and go down and see what is happening to the human race -- I dont care of the origins, they are not all Mexicans," he said. "There are 168 countries going through there.

Dutton, who is up for reelection against John Doc Holiday, said the immigrants on the border are coming here in search of a better life.

"They want the opportunity to take what we take for granted..." he said. "They see the United States as a dreamland and they are paying big bucks to get it.

He said the cartels treat these people like cattle and stack them in cargo trailers.

Dutton said a wall does help, but if you build a 30-foot wall they will build a 31-foot ladder.

Jim Smith, moderator of Hometown Helena, said it was something to see a grown man emotionally moved by such an experience.

He said he hoped those convicted of such crimes are put away forever.
MOWEAQUA  Two Central A&M High School student were injured, with one requiring surgery, following a car crash Thursday.

Principal Charles Brown posted on the school's Facebook page that neither student has life-threatening injuries. One is expected to go home Thursday evening; the other will undergo surgery for a broken leg.

"Thank you for the prayers. It was very gut-wrenching for this community to know another student was taken away from an accident by helicopter," Brown wrote on the page. "We thank God that the prognosis is good."

Additional details about the crash were unavailable

The news comes to the district only two months after two students were killed in a collision at U.S. 51 and East Leafland Street in Assumption on July 12. Keegan Virden, 15, and 16-year-old Connor Rowcliff, both of Assumption, died of their injuries in that crash. The two other passengers, Kingsley Heinemann and Damien Smith, both 14-year-olds from Assumption, were seriously injured but have since made steps toward recovery.

The Illinois Department of Transportation reduced the speed limit along that stretch of highway from 65 mph to 55 mph after the crash.

This story will be updated.
DECATUR  Starting Monday, some Decatur homeowners will have a chance to apply for grants to fund their home repair projects.

The city of Decatur on Thursday officially launched its new owner-occupied Small Home Improvement Program (SHIP), a grant program aimed at low- to moderate-income homeowners in Decaturs urban core.

City officials hope the project will lead to improvements in some of Decaturs declining housing units.

Neighborhood revitalization has been a huge goal of the Decatur City Council for many, many years, but that's about more than just tearing down abandoned houses and old buildings, said Decatur Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe. It's about trying to build up the community.

The citys goal, Moore Wolfe said, is not to demolish everything but to regrow these neighborhoods.

Moore Wolfe and other city officials on Thursday presented a $450,000 check to the Northeast Community Fund, which will provide the grants to Decatur residents.

The council approved the funding earlier this month. The program is just one of many neighborhood revitalization efforts funded by the citys federal American Rescue Plan monies.

Northeast will begin to accept SHIP applications on Monday. Representatives from the organization said program will help improve the living conditions of many deserving community members.

Given our organizations mission, it was hard for us to hear that we had people in our community who wanted to stay in their home but live paycheck to paycheck, or better yet, on a fixed income, and could not afford to make the necessary or needed repairs to their homes, said Angel Lawrence, Northeast's executive director.

Everybody has a right to food and to shelter, said Taylor Hardy, the agency's micro finance director.

Homeowners must meet multiple requirements to be eligible for SHIP, including owning a home in the designated neighborhood and being free of delinquent taxes or outstanding charges owed to the city of Decatur.

SHIP will cover a variety of eligible home repairs including, but not limited to: roofs, porches and exterior steps, foundation and structural improvements, accessibility improvements for occupants with disabilities and lead remediation.

More SHIP eligibility requirements, including the designated neighborhood map and a full list of eligible and ineligible repairs, can be found on the citys website.

Cordaryl Patrick, community development director for the city of Decatur, said the city has seen a decline in housing conditions over the past decade.

SHIP, he said, will help change that.

This program is designed to assist our great citizens of Decatur with much needed assistance to improve their living conditions and change the narrative in generational culture, to say it is not okay to live in Decatur with a hole in your roof, Patrick said. It is not OK to live in a home in Decatur with lead and asbestos. It is not Ok to live in a home in Decatur with boarded up windows. It is not OK to live in a home in Decatur that has accessibility challenges and inefficient utilities.
Far-right activist Dan Proft has proved time and time again that he is very effective at calling attention to himself and getting under Gov. J.B. Pritzkers skin in the worst way.

Profts newspapers have, for instance, published several articles with photos of Pritzkers daughter. Sometimes the stories were wrong, like when a false claim was made that Pritzkers daughter was sitting outdoors at a Chicago restaurant with several friends in violation of the 10-person rule during the pandemic.

It wasnt her, Pritzker told reporters back in November of 2020, when COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations were rising sharply. But the picture falsely identifying her started making the rounds on social media, helped along by the trolls who permeate these social media platforms these days. My office put out a statement making clear this wasnt my daughter. But that didnt stop Republican elected officials, a network of propaganda publications in the state and some radio shock jocks from telling people that the picture was of my daughter, despite knowing that this was a lie.

Put yourself in the shoes of a high school girl who is being weaponized against her father by his political opponents. Weaponized with lies, Pritzker said. Even so, the photo and the story are still online.

The papers, owned by parent company Local Government Information Services (LGIS), have run articles showing the young woman partying in the Bahamas outdoors, riding on a horse outdoors and having fun with friends outdoors at Lollapalooza.

Proft also co-hosts a morning radio show with Amy Jacobson, who spoke at a public rally against the governors pandemic mitigations and regularly showed up to Pritzkers press conferences to ask loaded questions, to the point where she was eventually banned from the pressers, although the ban was lifted not long after.

Profts exact affiliation with LGIS is not clear. The print version is being mailed unsolicited on a regular basis to large numbers of registered voters. The latest edition features a front-page claim that Pritzker and his transgender aunt (a wealthy Republican who supported Bruce Rauner) are in league to eliminate the myth of gender, a claim that has been circulated by far-right websites for months.

The papers have also been accused of publishing incendiary racist stories about accused criminals who would soon be released into suburban communities. Pritzker himself addressed that edition, calling it messaging thats coming from a racist political consultant. The paper also printed wildly false claims by a states attorney who warned that the reforms in the now-notorious SAFE-T Act would bring the end of days.

Its unclear who is funding the papers, but Proft also heads the People Who Play by the Rules PAC, an independent expenditure committee backing Darren Baileys gubernatorial campaign and funded solely by far-right billionaire Dick Uihlein.

Last week, a Shaw Local newspaper story about the Proft papers noted in passing that LGIS was using Paddock Publications postage permit. According to a recent Illinois Press Association news release, Paddocks Schaumburg printing facility is owned by the Daily Herald Media Group.

Many journalists and others were stunned by the revelation. Profts papers have been accused of deliberately spreading disinformation and amplifying racism and homophobia. The Illinois Press Association has tried its best to point out that LGIS is not a member and the companys papers are not actually news. That a respected publisher was printing and mailing those papers came as a shock, particularly since the Daily Herald has taken an active role in the Illinois Press Association.

Pritzker then goosed the story into overdrive by backing out of a debate hosted in part by the Daily Herald. Hours later, Paddock Publications announced that it had dropped its printing and mailing contract with LGIS, claiming it wanted no part in the fight between Pritzker and Proft, but denying that it did anything wrong. In a bitter response, Proft claimed that he was a longstanding client of the Daily Herald, so you gotta wonder how long the Daily Herald has been doing this.

The big loser in all this is the Daily Herald, which lost an incalculable amount of respect for its integrity that it may never regain because of its active participation in a tsunami of viral disinformation during dangerous times. Pritzker prevailed and was able to keep the focus off other important campaign issues. And Proft got attention for himself and his radio show and a platform to say things like calling Pritzker a bedwetting, spoiled brat.
When we were contacted to erroneously pay unemployment fees that were difficult to navigate and impacted the growth of our business, Senator Turner stepped in and handled the situation amicably. Her presence has benefited us as well as others in the community. We highly regard responsive elected officials because they are necessary to a communitys wellness and advancement.

Although our political beliefs do not often align with those of the Democratic Party, Sen. Doris Turner has been a staple of productivity and action. Throughout her career, Sen. Turner has evidently made public service a top priority. It is reflected through her lifes work, including her most recent legislation.

Her platform highlights a variety of topics, which includes expanding economic opportunity. The senator supports the growth of local businesses and the development of greater employment opportunities.

As a pillar of this community, she has shown that she will actively fight for our entrepreneurs and laborers. We are proud to say we have witnessed her character and initiative firsthand, and because of that, she has our support in this upcoming election.

Mike Monseur, Decatur

John Leskovisek, Decatur
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In a response to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality last week, the city of Bristol, Virginia, admitted no one was monitoring storm water at the landfill the first seven months of the year.

The Sept. 15 response submitted by SCS Engineers Environmental Consultants and Contractors was requested by DEQ after the state regulatory agency sent the city a warning letter on Aug. 26 stating storm water discharge monitoring reports due July 10 had not been submitted by the city. The warning letter also said an onsite visit had determined there were no routine facility inspections or quarterly visual inspections of storm water discharges.

The letter stated the city could be fined up to $100,000 for the violations. Bristol Virginias City Council allocated $100,000 to DEQ fines from the citys fund balance during its meeting last week.

The response letter from SCS said storm water samples had been collected for benchmark monitoring Aug. 21 but admits, no sampling was conducted during the first semi-annual 2022 monitoring period. That period is from Jan. 1 to June 30. The Aug. 21 sample was received back from the lab Sept. 12.

As for the violation of not having routine facility inspections, the SCS response says a routine facility inspection was completed Aug. 31 and a quarterly visual inspection of storm water discharge was completed at two locations Aug. 30 and Sept. 10.

City Manager Randy Eads has not responded to emailed questions about the reason the monitoring was not performed the first half of 2022.

The violation comes during a period when landfill operations were under increased scrutiny as state politicians authorized a panel of landfill experts to visit Bristol in March to make recommendations on strategies to control landfill emissions that have negatively affected the quality of life for many residents in both Bristol, Virginia, and Bristol, Tennessee.

One of the recommendations of the panel was to close the landfill. That step occurred Friday, Sept. 9.
Catawba County election officials emphasized the security and integrity of elections during a town hall held Wednesday evening at the Hickory Metro Convention Center.

The event in Hickory is part of a series of informational town halls put on by the North Carolina Network for Fair, Safe and Secure Elections, which is an initiative of The Carter Center founded by former President Jimmy Carter.

Jennifer Roberts, the Democratic former mayor of Charlotte, and Bob Orr, a former Republican N.C. Supreme Court justice, are heading up the initiative and both appeared at Wednesdays event in Hickory.

The event consisted of a series of panels moderated by Catawba College politics and history professor Michael Bitzer, who read questions of his own as well as questions written on note cards and submitted by the audience.

Speakers on the various panels included Orr and another former Republican N.C. Supreme Court Justice Bob Edmunds, who spoke about the role of courts in elections, as well as Randy Cress, the assistant county manager and chief information officer for Rowan County who discussed cybersecurity.

But for most of the evening attendees heard from three Catawba County elections officials: Democratic Catawba County Board of Elections Chair Barry Cheney, Republican board Secretary David Hood and Catawba County Election Director Amanda Duncan, whose position is nonpartisan.

All three expressed confidence in the procedures in place to ensure safe and accurate elections in North Carolina.

Hood emphasized the bipartisan nature of the states election process from the state and county elections boards to the staff at elections offices to people working in polling places and conducting election auditing.

So if one party or the other really wanted to get it over on the other party, they wouldnt be able to because weve got members of each party involved in every step of the process, Hood said.

The group fielded questions on such topics as election security and absentee voting.

One question from the audience read: Theres no such thing as cybersecurity. Forget digital. Go all analog.

The board members pushed back on that sentiment, arguing for the accuracy, security and efficiency of machine counting.

Duncan said the voting machines are not connected to the internet. She and Hood also pointed to the hand count audit of the more than 16,000 votes at the Highland Recreation Center which exactly confirmed the machine total.

Cheney said the process of doing that count took several days and switching to a complete non-machine approach would be costly, take more time and would give less accurate results than can be obtained through machine counting.

Humans make mistakes, Cheney said. You get tired. You misread the Scantron, you know? Youre going to make a mistake whereas if you do it by machine, as it shows, every time we audit, were always on track, 100%.

They also pointed to the use of paper ballots and data from the precincts which can be used for auditing and checking for discrepancies.

Hood also defended the process of absentee voting by mail against criticisms raised by Republicans in recent years.

Up until 2020, that was something that predominantly Republicans did was mailed in their absentee ballot, Hood said. Because of various reasons in 2020 that flipped but the people that are now concerned about it, it was the same party that used to promote it and vice versa.

He added: Weve got really good processes in this state thats run by bipartisan boards to prevent the kind of thing that youre worried about and I really think that maybe there ought to be some other questioning done of where people are getting their information.

Note: This story was updated at 5:09 a.m. Friday to correct the spelling of Randy Cress' name.
For more than 25 years, beginning in the early 1990s, the murder rate in the United States declined. Remarkable progress in curbing violence, it seemed, was made. By 2019, the level of violent crime in America had nearly been cut in half.

But then there was a stark reversal. There were 24,500 homicides in the United States in 2020, an increase of 28% from the previous year. Violent crime rates have remained high. Much of the progress in curbing crime over more than two decades has been erased.

What accounts for the recent spike? And how do we get back on track?

There is not a simple answer. The causes of violent crime are varied and complex. The timing of the increase in homicides nonetheless provides some clues as to what some of the driving forces for the recent surge in violence might be.

COVID-19 came to the United States in 2020. The pandemic may have affected the crime rate in several ways.

With households under lockdown across the United States, increased stress, anxiety, use of substances and financial difficulties among partners living in quarantine increased the risk of domestic violence. Limited social services made it more difficult for victims of domestic violence to escape their households or otherwise obtain the help that they needed.

Though one might have expected the rate of domestic abuse to increase as a consequence of COVID lockdowns, the rate of violent crime outside of the home might have been expected to decline given that fewer people were out and about. The crime rate did, in fact, decrease in some countries for certain types of crimes. The number of murders in France fell in 2020, as did the number of the murders in Britain during the first year of the pandemic.

But the trend moved in the opposite direction in the United States. The increase in violent crime was remarkable not only because it occurred during the pandemic but also because it ran contrary to the two-and-a-half decade trend to that point.

There are several reasons why the pandemic might have resulted in an increase in violence in the streets. The pandemic left many out of work. Idle time, financial stress, increased use of drugs and alcohol, and high levels of general anxiety can lead to violence within the home but also outside of it for those who venture out. The limiting or shutting down of social services resulted in fewer neighborhood interventions, fewer available alternatives to engaging in violence, and less support for victims. Policing may have become less effective due to social distancing practices, emboldening criminals.

But a puzzle remained. COVID-19 spread throughout the world. Why did the violent crime rate in the United States increase while it decreased in places elsewhere?

Just a few months into the beginning of the spread of COVID-19 in the United States, George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. The murder was part of a broader trend in which unarmed Black men, such as Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner and others, had been killed at hands of white police officers.

The highly publicized killings of unarmed Black men (and others in the African American community such as Breanna Taylor) that culminated in Floyds death had cascading effects. Distrust in the police increased, likely leading to less cooperation with law enforcement in pursuing and prosecuting crime. Police forces lost officers due to retirements and resignations. Those who stayed on the job may have pulled back, fearing backlash.

Violence can snowball as a result of fewer crimes being solved. Criminals operate with a greater sense of impunity. There are more retaliatory killings as a result of perpetrators not otherwise being brought to justice. More people may choose to carry guns for protection, increasing the risk of gun violence. Distrust of the police may erode further.

The aftermath of Freddie Grays death while in a police van in 2015 provides an illustrative example. Murder rates after the killing increased in Baltimore and have remained high since. Given that Floyds death and the pandemic occurred concurrently, it is difficult to separate out the effects of the pandemic from the effects of Floyds murder. Freddie Grays death, which did not coincide with the pandemic, illustrated what the isolated effects of a highly publicized killing of an unarmed Black man by police can be.

Along with situational effects, there are, of course, long-term factors, some of which are cyclical, that impact the murder rate. The murder rate typically surges as the weather gets warmer, for example, as a result of more people being outside socializing.

Distrust of the police, furthermore, is the result of not only high-profile cases such as George Floyds murder but also longtime policing practices. Young Black men are often stopped and searched as a result of profiling or for minor infractions, increasing resentment toward law officials. Murder rates tend to be particularly high in cities that are most segregated, where officers often do not live in the communities that they police and may therefore be viewed as outsiders.

When there are viral episodes of gun violence, gun sales tend to increase as more people seek to provide for their own protection. But the relationship between gun ownership and homicides is clear. Countries with permissive gun laws such as the United States tend to have much higher rates of gun violence than countries that have more restrictive laws, such as Japan and the United Kingdom.

As the effects of the pandemic fade, perhaps the rise in the homicide rate in the United States will begin to slow. But ultimately, to address the problem of violence in America, long-term structural factors will need to be addressed. Highly publicized cases of violence focus our attention. We must maintain that focus if we want to reestablish the trend of declining rates of violent crime in the United States.
Scientists have found an amazing ingredient in the 5.4 grams of debris brought back from the asteroid 300 million kilometers from Earth by the Japanese Hayabusa-2 spacecraft: a drop of water, the Guardian wrote on Thursday. The discovery could give new ground to the theory that certain conditions for life on Earth did not develop on the planet, but may have come from space.

According to Nakamura Tomoki, a researcher at Tohoku University and the lead scientist of the research team of about 150 researchers that analyzed the sample, the water drop has enormous significance. Many scientists believe that water comes from space, but we are the first to actually discover water on the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, he said.

The Japanese space agencys (JAXA) Hayabusa-2 probe was launched in 2014, reached the near-Earth, diamond-shaped asteroid Ryugu in June 2018 and returned two years ago. The 5.4 gram asteroid debris landed in the South Australian desert on December 5, 2020. Based on the probes observations, the asteroid is rich in carbonaceous, carbonate rocks, porous (i.e. relatively porous), and may originally have been part of a larger asteroid.

The debris has already enriched science with a lot of valuable information: it contains, for example, organic substances that have shown that certain building blocks of life on Earth, some amino acids, could have been created in space. Already in August, the researchers published a study in the journal Nature Astronomy, according to which samples from the asteroid Ryugu can be used to help decipher how the oceans formed on Earth billions of years ago.

The drop of water containing carbonate rock containing salt and organic matter is the latest discovery by the Japanese research team, which Nakamura says supports the theory that celestial bodies like asteroid Ryugu may have brought the water containing salt and organic matter to our planet during a collision with Earth. This could be directly related evidence for the origin of, for example, the oceans or terrestrial organic matter, the researcher added.

Kenszej Kobajasi, an astrobiologist and professor emeritus of the Yokohama National University, who is independent from the research team, believed that it was surprising that water was found in the sample, since there was a high chance that it would be destroyed in space considering its fragility. According to him, this suggests that the asteroid could have contained not only ice, but also liquid water, and that organic matter could have formed in this water.

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Ryan Grantham Canadian actor sentenced to life in prison after mother pleads guilty Barbara Waite In his 2020 murder. The 24-year-old man who played Jeffery Augustine in the Riverdale in the teen drama, was sentenced on Wednesday in the Supreme Court of the Province of British Columbia in Vancouver. According to prosecutors Justin Trudeau he also planned to kill the Canadian Prime Minister, reports the BBC.

Grantham admitted to shooting his mother in the back of the head as she played the piano at their home north of Vancouver, the court heard. In a Go-Pro video shot after the murder, the actor filmed his mothers body as he said: I shot her in the back of the head. In the moments that followed, he knew it was me.

After drinking beer and smoking marijuana for hours after the murder, he packed a car with three firearms, ammunition and 12 Molotov cocktails he had made, along with camping equipment and directions to Prime Minister Trudeaus Rideau Cottage residence. He drove about 200 kilometers before turning around and driving to a Vancouver police station, where he told an officer, I killed my mother. The court also heard that on the way Grantham considered committing an act of mass violence at Vancouvers Lions Gate Bridge or at Simon Fraser University, where he was a student, before turning his car around and giving himself up.

Former child actor Grantham (pictured above in 2013) in 2019 on The CW Riverdale appeared in an episode of his series and starred in Supernatural in the fantasy drama, as well as in many other youth films and series.

Grantham has been in custody for the past two and a half years, Vancouver law enforcement officials said, and has been in a mental health program since his arrest. During the trial, his lawyers argued that he suffered from anxiety and clinical depression and had expressed a desire to kill himself and harm others in the months leading up to his mothers murder. He will not be eligible for parole during the first fourteen years of his life sentence.
Friday, September 23

The Concord Duplicate Bridge face-to-face games through Concord Parks and Recreation at Hartsell Recreation Center, 60 Hartsell School Road, at noon. Cost is $5 per player. You must have a partner and provide proof of vaccination.

Heavenly Hot Dogs at Mount Olivet United Methodist Church, 301 Mount Olivet Road, will be offered from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Free delivery for orders of more than $15, and takeout is available. Homemade desserts and chicken noodle soup are available. For more information, visit www.mtochurch.com or call 704-782-8846.

Hot dogs at McGill Baptist Church, 5300 Poplar Tent Road, will be sold along with fried bologna and barbecue sandwiches and desserts from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Saturday, September 24

The Piedmont Farmers Market is open from 8 a.m. to noon at 518 Winecoff School Road. It features lots of local produce, meat, flowers and other products.

Hot Dogs at Center United Methodist Church at 1119 Union Street S, are offered on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. Dine in and take out. Call in orders are welcomed. 704-782-1785.

Concord Wildlife Alliance, the local chapter of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, is hosting a Kids in Nature Day from 9 a.m. until noon at Woodlands Discovery, 8755 Poplar Tent Road. The event is free and open to all area families.

Monday, September 26

The Concord Duplicate Bridge face-to-face games through Concord Parks and Recreation at Hartsell Recreation Center, 60 Hartsell School Road, at noon. Cost is $5 per player. You must have a partner and provide proof of vaccination.

Tuesday, September 27

TOPS #437 (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) meets every Tuesday at 10 a.m. (weigh-in begins at 9:30 a.m.) at Lakeview Baptist Church, 2532 Lane St. Kannapolis. Visitors are welcome.

The Salvation Army Women's Auxiliary will hold its first General Meeting of the business calendar year at The Salvation Army of Cabarrus County headquarters at 216 Patterson Ave SE, Concord, NC 28025. Socializing and refreshments begin at 9:30 a.m. prior to the meeting at 10. Existing members, prospective members, or if you're simply interested in what the Women's Auxiliary is all about, you are welcome! There will be pre-owned books available for sale, with proceeds to be used to buy new books for the Christmas Angel Tree project. The Salvation Army Women's Auxiliary functions as a fund raising and volunteer service group in support of The Salvation Army's programs and activities in the community. Please plan to wear a mask.

Wednesday, September 28

The Farmers Market @ Rocky River Presbyterian Church is from 3 to 6 p.m. on the front lawn of the church located at 7940 Rocky River Road, Concord. Enjoy the freshest produce, sweets, breads, and honey along with craft and food vendors. Details here: https://rockyriver.org/ministries/the-farmers-market.

Thursday, September 29

Epworth UMCs famous hot dogs and taco soup, 9:30 a.m. -2 p.m. 1030 Burrage Road NE, Concord. For free delivery call 704-786-5500.

Friday, September 30

The Concord Duplicate Bridge face-to-face games through Concord Parks and Recreation at Hartsell Recreation Center, 60 Hartsell School Road, at noon. Cost is $5 per player. You must have a partner and provide proof of vaccination.

Heavenly Hot Dogs at Mount Olivet United Methodist Church, 301 Mount Olivet Road, will be offered from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Free delivery for orders of more than $15, and takeout is available. Homemade desserts and chicken noodle soup are available. For more information, visit www.mtochurch.com or call 704-782-8846.

Hot dogs at McGill Baptist Church, 5300 Poplar Tent Road, will be sold along with fried bologna and barbecue sandwiches and desserts from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Saturday, October 1

The Piedmont Farmers Market is open from 8 a.m. to noon at 518 Winecoff School Road. It features lots of local produce, meat, flowers and other products.

Hot Dogs at Center United Methodist Church at 1119 Union Street S, are offered on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. Dine in and take out. Call in orders are welcomed. 704-782-1785.

Cabarrus College of Health Sciences will host a fall festival for the community as the culminating event in a yearlong celebration of its 80th anniversary. The festival will be held from 9 a.m. to noon at the college, 401 Medical Park Drive in Concord, NC, on the campus of Atrium Health Cabarrus

Sunday, Oct. 2

Candidates for the Cabarrus County Board of Education will participate in a forum sponsored by the Eastern Cabarrus Historical Society at 2:30 p.m. at Mt. Pleasant Town Hall. The forum will be moderated by The Honorable William Hamby, retired district court judge.

Monday, October 3

The Concord Duplicate Bridge face-to-face games through Concord Parks and Recreation at Hartsell Recreation Center, 60 Hartsell School Road, at noon. Cost is $5 per player. You must have a partner and provide proof of vaccination.

Tuesday, October 4

TOPS #437 (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) meets every Tuesday at 10 a.m. (weigh-in begins at 9:30 a.m.) at Lakeview Baptist Church, 2532 Lane St. Kannapolis. Visitors are welcome.

Wednesday, October 5

The Cabarrus Senior Center Photo Club is alive and clicking away. If you like taking photos, come join the members on the first and third Wednesdays of the month from 1:30-3 p.m. at the Cabarrus Senior Center, 331 Corban Ave. SE, Concord, and share your photographic creativity. Whether you are a seasoned photographer or strictly amateur, all are welcome.

Thursday, October 6

Epworth UMCs famous hot dogs and taco soup, 9:30 a.m. -2 p.m. 1030 Burrage Road NE, Concord. For free delivery call 704-786-5500.

Friday, October 7

The Concord Duplicate Bridge face-to-face games through Concord Parks and Recreation at Hartsell Recreation Center, 60 Hartsell School Road, at noon. Cost is $5 per player. You must have a partner and provide proof of vaccination.

Heavenly Hot Dogs at Mount Olivet United Methodist Church, 301 Mount Olivet Road, will be offered from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Free delivery for orders of more than $15, and takeout is available. Homemade desserts and chicken noodle soup are available. For more information, visit www.mtochurch.com or call 704-782-8846.

Hot dogs at McGill Baptist Church, 5300 Poplar Tent Road, will be sold along with fried bologna and barbecue sandwiches and desserts from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Saturday, October 8

The Piedmont Farmers Market is open from 8 a.m. to noon at 518 Winecoff School Road. It features lots of local produce, meat, flowers and other products.

Hot Dogs at Center United Methodist Church at 1119 Union Street S, are offered on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. Dine in and take out. Call in orders are welcomed. 704-782-1785.

Concord Wildlife Alliance, the local chapter of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, is hosting a Kids in Nature Day from 9 a.m. until noon at Woodlands Discovery, 8755 Poplar Tent Road. The event is free and open to all area families.

2022 Community Connections presented by Cabarrus Recovery Alliance will be held from 3-7 p.m. Find you path to recovery at the resource and education event at Atrium Ballpark, 210 Oak Ave., Kannapolis. For more information and support, visit cabarrusreccoveryalliane.org.

Monday, October 10

The Concord Duplicate Bridge face-to-face games through Concord Parks and Recreation at Hartsell Recreation Center, 60 Hartsell School Road, at noon. Cost is $5 per player. You must have a partner and provide proof of vaccination.

Tuesday, October 11

TOPS #437 (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) meets every Tuesday at 10 a.m. (weigh-in begins at 9:30 a.m.) at Lakeview Baptist Church, 2532 Lane St. Kannapolis. Visitors are welcome.

Thursday, October 13

Epworth UMCs famous hot dogs and taco soup, 9:30 a.m. -2 p.m. 1030 Burrage Road NE, Concord. For free delivery call 704-786-5500.

Friday, October 14

The Concord Duplicate Bridge face-to-face games through Concord Parks and Recreation at Hartsell Recreation Center, 60 Hartsell School Road, at noon. Cost is $5 per player. You must have a partner and provide proof of vaccination.

Heavenly Hot Dogs at Mount Olivet United Methodist Church, 301 Mount Olivet Road, will be offered from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Free delivery for orders of more than $15, and takeout is available. Homemade desserts and chicken noodle soup are available. For more information, visit www.mtochurch.com or call 704-782-8846.

Hot dogs at McGill Baptist Church, 5300 Poplar Tent Road, will be sold along with fried bologna and barbecue sandwiches and desserts from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Saturday, October 15

The Piedmont Farmers Market is open from 8 a.m. to noon at 518 Winecoff School Road. It features lots of local produce, meat, flowers and other products.

Hot Dogs at Center United Methodist Church at 1119 Union Street S, are offered on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. Dine in and take out. Call in orders are welcomed. 704-782-1785.

Got news or events?

Does your community group or nonprofit agency have an upcoming event that would be of interest to the public? Email it to mplemmons@independenttribune.com.
Not many people are letting their fingers do the walking anymore. I guess its computers and cell phones.

No. 1

The new phone book came out this week. Remember when all those strong men would rip that thick phone book to show how strong they were. I ripped the latest Windstream Yellow Pages with my thumbs and index fingers.

No. I am not that strong. I probably can bench press 125 pounds on a good day. The phone book is thin. Its so thin that Windstream mailed it.

The Cabarrus South Rowan County edition, which includes Locust and Stanfield, is only 78 pages for the white pages and 88 pages for the Yellow Pages.

Are you still listed in the phone book? Im not but I still have the same number I had when I signed up with the Concord Telephone Company for service in January, 1984. I had my number ported out to my cell service.

Computers and cell phones have really changed things.

No. 2

Building wasnt empty long. Tuffy Tire & Auto Service has moved into the old auto repair shop on Concord Parkway in front of Lowes Home Improvement. It is the first Tuffy in Cabarrus County. There are a handful of locations scattered around the Charlotte area. The company is in more than 20 states and has more than 175 locations.

The building had previously been occupied by NTB  National Tire and Battery.

All those cars, trucks and SUVs that keep you stuck traffic need a lot of maintenance and work and it looks like this section of Concord Parkway is a hot shop for repair Take 5 Oil Change and Take 5 Carwash is nearing completion across the street from Tuffy and almost next door is SpeeDee Oil Change and Auto Service. And thats not mention Charlies just up the hill and AutoZone.

Cars havent gone the way of landline phones.

No. 3

More apartments are coming. Or they might be coming if they can get a sewer allocation. The Charlotte Business Journal is reporting a company called FastStache LLC bought a 35-acre site at 2802 Lane St., Kannapolis, with the intention of building a 266-unit apartment complex.

The sales price is a reported $1.15 million. It looks like The Business Journal has more but I was unwilling pay $15 a month for a digital subscription. They are right proud of their publication  who do they think they are, The Charlotte Observer?

I searched the ACCELA Citizen Access site, which usually has permit information, but didnt find anything more. FastStache LLC is Charlotte-based and the registered agent is Alexander Ricks, East 7th Street, Charlotte.

My question remains: who the heck is going to live in all these apartments? And what is the occupancy rate on the ones that are already built?

No. 4

Dreaming about potato cakes. You ever have a strange dream that you dont really understand? Early Thursday morning I woke after dreaming about making potato cakes. I couldnt get the shredded potatoes to stick together.

I tried putting flour on the outside but they still fell apart. I tried wetting the flour with water and it turned into paste and made a nasty mess. Finally I decided to add an egg to the paste and I think it worked because I woke up. I woke up hungry.

I couldnt tell you last time I had a good potato cake. My mom used to make them for Luke and me. It also got me to thinking about salmon patties. I love those too.

We always called them sal-mon not sam-un. Why the heck do they put an l in the word?

I Googled it. Apparently it is Latin, but the English got it from the French and the French dont pronounce the l.

Native Americans call the fish wy-kan-ush.

Now you see where a strange potato cake dream can lead you.

No. 5

TikTok is wrong on dental health. You see all the videos on social media that give you advice or show you how to do something. Im always wondered if they work. I tried one: ice pops, cool pops, you know the frozen treat that comes in plastic. Instead of cut the end, just snap it in the middle. It works.

The N.C. Dental Society sent us a press release about a hack that doesnt work:

The viral Coca-Cola hack made waves on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. The DIY Coca-Cola imitation is a sugar-free concoction made with balsamic vinegar and sparkling water. Without the added sugars, influencers suggest this hack is a healthier alternative. But is it actually healthier than Coca-Cola? Dentists say otherwise.

Unfortunately, both balsamic vinegar and sparkling water contain acids that can cause tooth erosion, said Dr. Christian Yaste of Charlotte. Mixing two acids is not ideal. Its best to consume balsamic vinegar in moderation on dishes like salads, while drinking non-carbonated purified or fluoridated water. Flat water is best for your oral health.

The North Carolina Dental Society shares three simple tricks to help avoid enamel erosion.

Use a straw: While consuming sugary, carbonated or caffeinated beverages its best to use a straw to avoid contact with teeth. Also, remember to brush twice a day and floss regularly.

Chew Sugarless Gum: Studies show that chewing sugarless gum for 20 minutes can help prevent tooth decay. Look for the ADA Seal on the package, youll know its sugar free and a safe treat for your teeth.

Rinse with water: Be sure to drink water after meals or consuming sugary beverages. Water will help rinse your mouth of the sugars and acids that cause cavities.

If you have a Friday Five, story suggestion or something I can rant about email mplemmons@independenttribune.com or call or text 704-786-0001.
include_once "/home/jwreview/public_html/$theme/includes/sidebar.php"; ?> Does being a political star require winning, rather than losing, elections?

That's the question that may confront Stacey Abrams after her rematch with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in November. She's trailing in almost all the polls, and, although it's not out of the question that she mounts a comeback, she's a decided underdog.

Of course, Abrams has been widely celebrated in the years since her 2018 run, which she lost. Like former President Donald Trump, though, she managed to spin away her defeat to the satisfaction of her supporters and allies as a result of nefarious forces beyond her control.

The narrative about her has been that, unbowed and undefeated, she's fighting a righteous battle against the voter suppression that denied her her rightful victory the first time around, and  as a charismatic figure of unbounded talent  she's heading for bigger and better things than narrow defeats in statewide elections.

As it happens, she may be headed for an even less narrow defeat in exactly the same statewide election. Come November, she may look more like Beto O'Rourke than Barack Obama.

There's no doubt that Abrams is a talented organizer whose voter registration and turn-out efforts helped move the needle in Georgia. She also has performative ability, and the enthusiastic support of a cadre of loyalists  a category of people that seemingly includes everyone who does a profile of her.

New York Magazine wondered in the headline of its 2019 profile if she'd run for governor, senator, vice president or president  the world was her oyster. Vogue asked, "Can Stacey Abrams save American democracy?" A Washington Post Magazine piece about her famously included an arty, moody picture of her staring off into the distance wearing what looked like the cape of a superhero.

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The problem is that all the hagiography never grappled with the reality of her defeat in 2018, instead taking for granted her version that unfair voting restrictions sank her. Nor did it sufficiently take into account what is required to get elected statewide in Georgia as a Democrat in the normal course of things (i.e., when Trump isn't sabotaging his own side), which is either some crossover appeal or, failing that, genuine once-in-a-generation political talent.

Although you'd never know it reading her press, Abrams hasn't demonstrated either.

To her credit, she did come close in 2018, but her case against the Georgia election system as a sink of racist voter suppression never made any sense.

Georgia adopted both no-excuse absentee voting and widespread early voting more than a decade ago. The state has had automatic registration since 2016, and allows people to register online.

Turnout in recent elections has been highly robust. In 2018, for instance, it far exceeded the prior midterm election in 2014.

Her specific complaints about the 2018 election don't hold up, either. She's made much of precincts closing down across the state. But this wasn't a state-level or Republican initiative. Counties make these decisions on their own, and it's usually for budgetary reasons or to get a polling place out of rundown buildings.

She assailed the so-called "use it or lose it" rule that removes voters from the rolls when they become inactive. This wasn't a draconian or arbitrary provision, though. It used to take about seven years from beginning to end, after someone didn't vote in multiple elections and didn't reply to multiple notes; now the process lasts about nine years. (If someone was removed in error, he or she could always re-register.)

She complained bitterly of the so-called "pending" file, an intermediate status if a registration didn't match a driver's license or Social Security records. But voters got more than two years to address such issues, and they could still show up and vote with an ID at polling places.

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Trump's legal troubles are mounting. And his support is consolidating.

No one bothered to examine any of her claims particularly closely; instead, it simply became Democratic gospel that the election had been stolen from her. When Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren hit Kemp for signing Georgia's election law last year, she said, "The Republican who is sitting in Stacey Abrams' chair just signed a despicable voter suppression bill into law to take Georgia back to Jim Crow."

Lately, Abrams has been at pains to soften her claims about 2018, probably worried about seeming like a sore loser and mindful of comparisons with Trump. She said recently, "I refuse to concede [to] a system that permits citizens to be denied access. That is very different than someone claiming a fraudulent outcome."

In reality, it's not that different. It's true that she hasn't alleged that anyone double-counted votes or that Venezuela tampered with the machines. When she says, though, in her book, that Kemp is "a racist demagogue who carefully disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of Georgians," and the state "slashed voters from the rolls, ensured thousands could not cast ballots, and blocked thousands more from being counted," she's obviously calling into question the legitimacy and fairness of the election.

That's wrong when Trump does it, and wrong when she does it.

The cataract of attention Abrams got in the wake of her first gubernatorial run must have been gratifying  who doesn't welcome gushingly positive press?  yet it has surely played into her struggles this time. In 2018, she was a fresh figure; now she's well-defined as a national progressive celebrity, a status that would be an unalloyed benefit in California or New York, but not in Georgia.

It would take considerable deftness to work around this, and instead Abrams has added to her problems.

The MLB pulling the All-Star game out of Atlanta because of the new voting law put her in an awkward spot. She didn't support boycotts of Georgia in response to the law.

In a USA Today op-ed, she wrote, "Boycotts are complicated affairs that require a long-term commitment to action. I have no doubt that voters of color, particularly Black voters, are willing to endure the hardships of boycotts. But I don't think that's necessary  yet."

The problem, though, is that if you use your platform and credibility to depict your state as the home of hideously racist voter suppression, it's hard to expect corporations that are hyper-sensitive to charges of racism not to react.

On the other hand, for whatever reason, Abrams also found a way to be somewhere else when Joe Biden came to the state to give a major address on her signature issue of voting rights last year.

Whether she just wanted to avoid associating herself with Biden, or didn't want anyone else stealing her thunder on the issue, it was a strange, too-clever-by-half choice.

More consequently, she recently deemed Georgia the "worst state in the country to live." Her stab at cleaning it up was to call the remark "inelegant," which is a euphemism for an unforced error that from the moment she uttered it was clearly going to dog her every single day going forward. And so it has.

In recent polls, she's been trailing by as little as 2 points or as many as 11. A couple of weeks ago the New York Times ran a piece headlined, "Democrats Fret as Stacey Abrams Struggles in Georgia Governor's Race," perhaps the harshest thing that's been written about her in a mainstream national publication.

The Times examined various reasons she might be under-performing, including the effects of sexism. That idea feels like a test-run of what will be a new excuse  and not a very plausible one, given that neighboring Alabama has a female governor  if Abrams again doesn't make it over the top.

A more legitimate reason is that she's running against Kemp, an entrenched incumbent who has proven himself an incredibly deft politician. How many Republican officials have frankly defied Trump, as Kemp did after the 2020 election, and lived to tell the tale? (The next time, by the way, that Kemp poses in a photo shoot for a flattering profile in Vanity Fair or Teen Vogue will presumably be the first.)

Toppling him was never going to be easy, but it's such challenges that make genuine political stars.

(COMMENT, BELOW)
include_once "/home/jwreview/public_html/$theme/includes/sidebar.php"; ?> One thing that unites us, across the political spectrum, is our capacity for self-deception.

Whether we are on the left or the right, we can find information and analysis that tells us that our side is just and true and all our setbacks and disappointments are the result of foul play by the other side.

So it must have been comforting for progressives to read this headline recently in the New York Times: "Majority of Latino Voters Out of G.O.P.'s Reach, New Poll Shows." Republican dreams of "a major realignment of Latino voters drawn to G.O.P. stances on crime and social issues," the story explains, "have failed to materialize."

There were, the report concedes, "worrying signs for the future of the Democratic message," as subgroups of Hispanics are drifting away from the party. What it does not give readers is any numerical comparison between the current poll result and the behavior of Latino voters in the past. The poll says they favor Democrats over Republicans 56%-32%. Those look like pretty strong numbers for the Democrats. Until you look at the ones for the last midterm election, in 2018, when Latinos went 69%-29% for Democrats. The margin has shrunk from 40 to 24 percentage points.

The poll suggests that Republicans are not doing better than they did in 2020, when Biden won Hispanic voters by 21 points. But the 2020 results were themselves widely heralded as a Republican breakthrough. If Republicans are holding on to those gains, it's bad news for the Democrats, who for the last generation have expected the growth of the Hispanic population to cement a national majority for them. Republicans do not, of course, need a majority of Hispanics to win a comfortable majority nationally.

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But spinning poll numbers is pretty standard practice; sometimes the stories we tell ourselves are even more fantastic. So it was with another front-page article, in the next day's New York Times, about how Russian troll farms had conducted an operation to divide organizers of the 2017 Women's March and discredit its leaders, in particular the activist Linda Sarsour. The trolls took her words out of context and outright lied, claiming she favored violent jihad and wanted to impose Islamic law on the U.S.

The piece includes a number of caveats. The divisions the Russians tried to widen already existed before their efforts. The influence of their campaign cannot easily be isolated. There's even a passing reference to the number of tweets  a mere 2,642, as compared to the hundreds of millions of tweets that are sent per day  that can be traced to these trolls.

But there is nothing about Assata Shakur, who murdered a state trooper and fled the country for Cuba  or about the march organizers' public birthday greeting to her. Nor is there a mention of Sarsour's statement that the state of Israel is based on Jewish "supremacy."

Instead there are scattered hints that perhaps Sarsour and her colleagues were responsible for some of the controversy surrounding them. One source says that on several occasions she denounced bigoted attacks on Sarsour, only to find that the activist had made new "indefensible" comments. There's no way to judge how objectionable her comments were, and how much criticism she deserved, because nothing Sarsour said is mentioned.

Readers might have gotten a better sense of the debate if the story had noted that the Biden campaign denounced Sarsour's views in 2020. Maybe the Russians got to the Democrats too?

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Here's an alternative theory: The leaders of the Women's March, including Sarsour, made a decision to position themselves on the far left and to tolerate anti-Semitism. Vladimir Putin didn't make them defend Louis Farrakhan, and many Americans needed no help from Russian bots to find it sickening. And that's why the march had an epic meltdown that in the end saw even Alyssa Milano fleeing from it.

There are lessons in this story for progressives and Democrats: about the moral and political dangers of the no-enemies-to-the-left stance that has historically disfigured their movements; about the need to vet leaders before gushing about them; about the internal divisions that come easily to a movement with contemporary progressive assumptions about identity.

But learning these lessons would require self-reflection, as would any Democratic attempt to change their tactics or attitudes toward Hispanic voters. And for Democrats, as for most Americans, self-deception is the path of least resistance. The difference is that liberal self-deception is often enabled by liberal bias in the mainstream media  which serves liberals as poorly as it does readers.

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Ramesh Ponnuru has covered national politics and public policy for 18 years. He is an author and Bloomberg View columnist.
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"I do not believe that I neglected him. No, I believe that playing in the park is something that... was appropriate to his development level, to who he is right now."

Tucson, Arizona, mom Sarra X was testifying at a hearing to determine if she was guilty of neglect for letting her son, 7, and his friend, 5, play in the park while she shopped for a Thanksgiving turkey in 2020. (To protect Sarra's privacy I'm not using her last name.)

Spoiler alert: She lost. But in a rare bit of good news, last week a judge temporarily blocked the Department of Child Safety (DCS) from putting Sarra's name on a child abuse blacklist, pending an appeal.

Thank goodness! Because I testified for Sarra as an expert witness, and I can tell you that her only crime was being rational.

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The facts are not in dispute: Someone saw Sarra's son and his friend playing in the park and called the cops. In return for pleading guilty to contributing to the delinquency of a minor and taking a life skills course, the criminal charges were dropped. But DCS was not as easily appeased.

At the hearing, the department argued that any number of horrible things could have happened to Sarra's son in those 30 minutes: He could have been attacked by homeless people, witnessed drug abuse, sprained an ankle, broken an arm or stepped on glass or needles (he took off his shoes). Or he could have been abducted by a daytime kidnapper undeterred by all the dog walkers, park workers and people attending a tai chi class being taught by Sarra's friend. Arguing that those things weren't likely to happen  and didn't  was Sarra's defense.

And that's what did her in.

The fact that there hadn't been a child abduction in over a decade, according to the Tucson Police Department's own records, which the defense dug up? Didn't matter. That Sarra went back to the park to scour for needles and found none? Pshaw. How about the fact that she had actually worked as a statistician early in her career, so she had an above-average understanding of risk?

All irrelevant, according to the DCS attorney, Kayla Peckard. "Arizona courts have reasoned that in dealing with 'probable cause,' we deal with probabilities. These aren't technical or factual."

Got that? "Probabilities" don't actually have to be probable! Indeed, Peckard added, "Adopting statistical data as part of the standard of 'probable cause' runs contrary to the legal precedent."

So Sarra's ability to reality-check actually worked against her.

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At the hearing, Sarra's lawyer, Thea Gilbert, told the court: "Government intrusion on parental rights has to be reasonable."

In this case, I testified, the intrusion was based only on the unreasonable, helicopter-parenting belief that "the second you take your eyes off your kids, you're a bad mom."

Yes, the DCS attorney won this round by insisting that, "There's an unreasonable risk... if any child is left anywhere unsupervised." In her world, unreasonable fear is interchangeable with unreasonable risk. So, if a child protection worker can imagine a danger, however remote, it's treated as an actual danger that a terrible parent willfully ignored.

But the tides are starting to turn. The Pacific Legal Foundation and Goldwater Institute have taken on this case. Their work got Sarra temporarily off the "Central Register" of child abusers and neglectors, pending her appeal. Being on the Register would mean Sarra could not continue her work helping refugees with employment and child care, because registrants can't work with kids. And registration lasts 25 years.

Meanwhile, with the help of my nonprofit, Let Grow, four states have passed "Reasonable Childhood Independence" laws saying neglect is when you put your child in actual and likely danger, NOT anytime you take your eyes off them. We're working in five more states this year, for one simple reason:

Paranoia should not be policy.
In the dead of winter, after dusk on a cold, gray January afternoon, a slow burning fuse leading to a manmade bomb was lit.

A fire of still-unknown origin at a nondescript fertilizer plant crept toward railcars laden with some 600 tons of ammonium nitrate which, given the right set of conditions and circumstance, could have touched off an explosion large enough to level an entire neighborhood.

And for several long days and nights, the only thing that residents, firefighters and city officials could do was wait.

The fact of the matter is that at the beginning of this incident, there was enough ammonium nitrate on hand for this to be one of the worst explosions in U.S. history, Fire Chief William Trey Mayo said in February after the initial danger had lessened.

Nearly eight months later, neither definitive answers nor plausible explanations for the biggest near-miss in Winston-Salem history have been offered.

Well-reasoned legislative response, necessary to strengthen outdated building codes and safety requirements, has been non-existent. And lawyers chasing money have waded in, muddying calls for transparency and answers.

All because of a dormant bomb sitting in plain view since the 1930s at the Winston Weaver plant that smoldered for the better part of a week.

Warning signs

For most of its history, the Winston Weaver Fertilizer plant sat quietly on North Cherry Street, a large company with a handful of employees who mixed the compounds upon which farmers rely.

Neighbors, of course, knew the plant and that it made fertilizer. But much of the rest of the city  especially those in tonier, whiter areas  did not.

If (the plant) had exploded, (it) would have wiped out the north side of town, said Lisa Clower, one of some 6,500 nearby residents who evacuated the area with barely the clothes on their backs.

Some residents, particularly those who live off Polo Road and Harmon Avenue barely two miles from the Weaver plant, learned the hard way about the danger.

The night after Christmas, a handful of neighbors began calling and texting each other with questions about hazy, acrid smoke wafting through the area that was so caustic it caused eyes and lungs to burn.

I didnt know anything about the plant, Wilson Somerville said in February, days after the massive second fire. That was the first time I had heard the name Weaver.

City officials, including high-ranking firefighters tasked with handling disasters, were well aware, however.

Still, it took the city nearly a month (and a written public records request) to even acknowledge the first fire and the hazards posed by the Weaver fertilizer operation.

A 7-page report released in March shows that a plant employee called to report a fire in the vicinity of where ammonium nitrate was stored. Firefighters, the report states, quickly located it and flooded the area with water.

Further, a routine inspection five days prior showed that Weaver had been cited for an unknown electrical problem. Electrical problem can describe a lot of things, from a wire hanging down or a missing socket faceplate, Chief Mayo said at the time. Its not always something eye-popping that a regular person would notice.

Still, it is interesting to note the reason for the Dec. 26 fire.

The cause of this incident was due to an electrical failure which caused machinery to stop operating properly, the report read. The pile of material was smoldering due to equipment used in the manufacturing process dropping hot materials into the pile.

At no point did the pile produce any flames or fire damage.

The fuse had been extinguished  but only temporarily.

Lots of talk, no action

No sooner than the city was able to exhale once the danger from the massive Jan. 31 fire had passed, a series of disturbing revelations came to light.

Chief among them: Two of the five buildings at the Weaver plant, which opened in 1939, were built from wood. And the plant did not have a sprinkler system nor fire alarms.

Why?

Because neither outdated state building codes nor state law require those things. The Winston Weaver plant was allowed to operate under rules in place in 1939.

The official cause of the fire has not been determined  an outcome Chief Mayo indicated months ago was possible.

Other aspects uncovered in the post-mortem of the near disaster at the Winston Weaver plant have been shrouded by officials cowed by a pile of litigation and class-action lawsuits  including efforts by the city to recoup the hundreds of thousands it spent to deal with the fire.

They cite an ongoing criminal investigation  a standard wide-ranging (and perfectly legal) fig leaf that can allow unpleasant facts to remain under wraps for months or years  as reason enough to duck calls for transparency.

Perhaps more alarming is the complete lack of action by state and local officials to correct obvious deficiencies which allow such manufacturing hazards to exist without modern safety equipment.

No bills or proposals have been forwarded in the General Assembly, which could, if legislators valued public safety more than the financial costs to business  particularly in economically challenged areas where dangers similar to those posed by the Weaver plant tend to exist.

And at the local level, City Council has managed little more than talking in committees about stronger requirements.

With all the media exposure that the plant fire gained, you would think it would have led to more public attention, said Mike Causey, the state Insurance commissioner, earlier this summer.

Youd think.

The fuse to a bomb, fueled by tons of volatile ammonium nitrate, smoldered for nearly a week in January before disaster was averted.

Troubling questions still hang in the air like so much acrid smoke. And definitive answers  as well as decisive preventative action  are no closer to being delivered than they were in the dead of a long, dark winter.
Reported gunfire and a fight involving 30 to 40 people sent police to the parking lot of a Winston-Salem apartment complex Thursday night. Police say one shooting victim later showed up at a local hospital with a gunshot wound to her buttocks.

The call about a brawl on Bethabara Pointe Circle came in to police around 9 p.m. Thursday. No one involved in the alleged fight was there when police arrived, but investigators said they found approximately 11 spent handgun casings and one spent shotgun shell in the parking lot.

Two vehicles also were struck by gunfire, police said.

A statement from police said that the parking lot fight broke out between numerous females and that, during the brawl, at least one suspect began shooting.

At 9:15 p.m., Jameshia Cleshay Sansbury, 28, arrived at a local hospital with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, police said.

Anyone with information regarding the investigation is asked to call Winston-Salem police at 336-773-7700 or Crime Stoppers, either at 336-727-2800 or on the Spanish language line at 336-728-3904.

Crime Stoppers of Winston-Salem Forsyth County is also on Facebook.

The Text-A-Tip line for sending information, photos and video to police is 336-276-1717.
The city of Winston-Salem has hired Raftelis Financial Consultants Inc. of Charlotte to conduct a nationwide search for Winston-Salems next police chief.

Police Chief Catrina Thompson announced in late July that she will retire in December.

President Joe Biden has nominated Thompson to serve as the U.S. Marshal for the Middle District of North Carolina.

Raftelis has conducted more than 120 executive searches for local governments throughout the United States, including seven for police chiefs, the city said Friday in a statement.

The company will begin its work immediately with a goal of helping the city bring in three finalists by December, the city said.

Company officials will work with Patrice Toney, assistant city manager for public safety, in developing a candidate profile, the city said.

That process will include gathering input from Thompson, City Manager Lee Garrity, Mayor Allen Joines and members of the Winston-Salem City Council, police employees and city residents, the city said.

After the candidate profile is completed, the company will place job postings with national, state and regional professional organizations, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Police Executive Research Forum, and the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Executives.

The jobs also will be advertised with the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives, the Hispanic American Police Command Officers Association, the N.C. Association of Chiefs of Police and other organizations, the city said.

The three finalists for the police chiefs job will be invited to Winston-Salem for interviews, tours, meetings with Joines and council members as well as forums with city residents and police officers, the city said.

The city will hold the forum for city residents later this year.

Thompson, 54, was named as the citys police chief in 2017.

Thompson leads a police department with a 2022-2023 budget of $87.19 million.

Thompsons annual salary is $197,958.

There are 526 sworn police officers in the department, and 172 civilian employees, Toney said. The department has a shortage about 100 sworn officers.

Thompson began her career as a city police officer in 1994 and moved up the ranks to become assistant police chief to then-Chief Barry Rountree in 2016.

A native of Detroit, Mich., Thompson replaced Rountree upon his retirement on Sept. 1, 2017.

Thompson received a bachelors degree in criminal justice from Wayne State University in Detroit, and a masters degree in public administration from Appalachian State University.

Thompson also is a graduate of the Public Executive Leadership Academy at UNC School of Government, the West Point Leadership Program at Methodist University, the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Leadership Association program and Leadership Winston-Salem.
SAN DIEGO  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is angling for a new job. In fact, the brazen self-promoter has already begun to reel in supporters.

Apparently, DeSantis aspires to be the human trafficker-in-chief. He is a natural. He enjoys preying upon poor and desperate people who have been traumatized. Unencumbered by consciences or hearts, he and his surrogates make false promises to migrants and transport them across state lines. All the while, DeSantis profits by getting attention and earning praise from MAGA supporters, including White folks who seem to delight in seeing people of color humiliated.

It was a thirst for humiliation that, in the spring of 1962, inspired white southerners to trick black Americans into boarding buses headed for northern cities with false promises of jobs and housing. The segregationists dubbed these bus rides "reverse Freedom Rides." They were poking fun at the courageous Freedom Rides, where civil rights activists seeking to desegregate interstate travel were beaten by white mobs in the South for riding on Greyhound buses in defiance of the color codes of Jim Crow.

Real human smugglers usually move migrants on the ground and foot the bill themselves by charging exorbitant fees; DeSantis chartered two private planes to fly 50 Venezuelans to Martha's Vineyard, and he used public funds to pay for the trip to Massachusetts.

In fact, DeSantis might have misused those public tax dollars. So much for Republicans being the fiscally responsible party.

The state funds were intended to remove migrants from Florida, but DeSantis poached migrants from a shelter in San Antonio. When asked why, the governor said, "the problem is, we're not seeing mass movements of them into Florida  It's just coming in onesie-twosies."

Just to be clear, according to DeSantis, Florida is not being invaded by illegal immigrants. And that's a problem?

By the way, Venezuelans are perfect recruits for the Republican Party. They are fleeing socialism and a repressive regime. So why would a Republican governor send these future voters to a blue state?

DeSantis set out to make a point, but he did it in such a sloppy manner that he crossed a line  several, in fact.

Everything that comes out of the governor's mouth, in trying to justify the stunt, is either false or foolish.

He frames the issue as illegal immigration, but all the passengers on the soon-to-be-bankrupt DeSantis Airlines were in the country legally, because they had turned themselves in to authorities, to apply for asylum.

He says that the migrants volunteered to get on the planes, but he leaves out that many of them claim they were lied to and told they were going to Boston to get jobs only to be stranded on an island.

He claims that he wanted to send the migrants to a "sanctuary destination." But Martha's Vineyard has no such sanctuary status, and neither does Massachusetts.

Besides, DeSantis is a mediocre communicator with terrible social skills. I haven't seen an elected official this smug and unlikable since Al Gore left politics. The great ones love people. DeSantis only loves DeSantis.

You know who I bet isn't too keen on the Florida governor right about now? Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who invented this stunt of shipping migrants to cities run by liberals  New York, Washington D.C., Chicago. That's all Abbott's handiwork. A former Texas Attorney General, he seems to have been a lot more careful than DeSantis.

The Florida governor was trying to horn in on Abbott's gimmick. But he did it clumsily and made mistakes. He is giving all demagogues a bad name. Expect Abbott  and other Republicans  to distance themselves from DeSantis as more details emerge.

The heat is on. First, there is a criminal investigation by Bexar County (Texas) Sheriff Javier Salazar into whether DeSantis committed any crimes in victimizing the migrants  perhaps fraud. Second, there is also a federal class-action lawsuit by Boston-based Lawyers for Civil Rights, in conjunction with the nonprofit Alianza Americas, on behalf of the migrants. Third, Massachusetts state Rep. Dylan Fernandes, whose district includes Martha's Vineyard, wants the Department of Justice to launch a federal investigation into whether DeSantis engaged in human trafficking. And fourth, California Gov. Gavin Newsom  a potential candidate for the 2024 Democratic nomination for president  has asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to look into whether transporting individuals under false pretenses constitutes kidnapping or another federal crime.

When I first heard the words "trafficking" and "kidnapping," I scoffed. Not anymore. There is something here. And, in the 2024 White House sweepstakes, that something could disqualify DeSantis.

Given the size of the egos involved, there was never much of a chance that DeSantis and former president Donald Trump would wind up sharing a ticket. But now, they might end up sharing a cell.
GWAR with Nekrogoblikon and Crobot, 7 p.m. Sunday, Bourbon Theatre. Lincoln is, apparently, a very good market for GWAR, who played the Bourbon last December and is back just 10 months later. The rotating lineup of grotesquely costumed interplanetary heavy metal shock rockers includes no original members. But that makes no difference for fans, who will pack the Bourbon for a chance to get sprayed by fake bodily fluids.

Igor and The Red Elvises, 6 p.m. Tuesday, Zoo Bar. Everyones favorite crazy Russian folk/rock n roll band brings its Siberian surf music back to the Zoo Bar for the second time this year. This time leader Igor Yuzov and the rest of the band is joined by Mikayla Theone Khramov on bass, the daughter of Igor Kharmov, who with Yuzov was part of Limpopo, the Red Elvises predecessor.

Reggie King Sears, 6 p.m. Wednesday, Zoo Bar. The great Solomon Burke tagged Reggie King Sears as the future of soul and blues and referred to him as his godson back when Sears was a teenager. A child prodigy guitarist who joined legends like Burke, Charlie Musselwhite, Pinetop Perkins and Bobby Rush on stage, the now 31-year-old Sears played the Chitlin Circuit for years, putting out a half-dozen albums and receiving all kinds of nominations and awards. Hes making his Zoo Bar debut Wednesday.

Harbour with America Part Two and Kelsey Bou, 8 p.m. Thursday, Bourbon Theatre. Another quick returnee, Harbour last played Lincoln in June. The Cincinnati indie pop-rock outfit has been making their catchy, hooky summertime music for eight years, putting out three albums, including a self-titled 2020 gem, while expanding their touring range from Ohio to festivals and clubs across the country.
LOS ANGELES  A whole lot of Betty White's estate is going on sale this weekend.

More than 1,500 lots of the late actor's property  representing her life and her prolific career  will be auctioned off over three days  Friday, Saturday and Sunday  in person and online at www.julienslive.com, by Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills.

White's Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award is among the highlights, along with scripts from notable TV episodes, including Part 1 of "The Golden Girls" finale. That one is signed by White and her co-stars Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty.

There's also a handwritten note from Mary Tyler Moore and NBC executive Grant Tinker, a framed cast photo from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" with "Betty" engraved on it, White's 2015 People's Choice Award for favorite icon, her original director's chair from the set of "The Golden Girls" and a number of gowns she wore on award show red carpets.

Buyers can also pick up art, furniture, fine jewelry and more from her homes in Brentwood and Carmel in California.

There will also be another offering that might grab the hearts of romantics everywhere: White's diamond-set wedding band and the wedding band worn by her third and final husband, Allen Ludden, whom White called "one of the nicest, dearest people."

Ludden bought the ring for White after she initially turned down his proposals of marriage, according to E! News, then he wore it on a chain around his neck for three months so she couldn't miss it.

"It got full of soap and suntan oil," she said in "Betty White in Person," her 1987 memoir, "but he vowed he would only take it off for one reason."

The two finally married in 1963 and stayed together until Ludden's death in 1981. The inscription inside the ring reads "6-14-63 I really do," marking their wedding date.

Alas, some of White's most iconic items won't be available for purchase, as they were recently donated to the National Comedy Center and have been installed at its museum in Jamestown, New York.

Among the museum's goodies?

There are five Emmy statuettes marking White's wins for "Life With Elizabeth" in 1952, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" in 1975 and 1976, "The Golden Girls" in 1986 and guest host of "Saturday Night Live" in 2010. The blue-and-white sweater White wore in her 2010 Snickers Super Bowl ad is there as well, along with a tracksuit from "Hot in Cleveland" and sweater from "The Golden Girls."

White died in December 2021 at age 99.
State Education Commissioner Matthew Blomstedt announced Friday he is stepping down from his position after nearly nine years.

His departure is effective Jan. 3. The Nebraska State Board of Education will appoint one of Blomstedt's deputy commissioners as interim by January, then begin a search to find his successor. A timeline for finding a permanent replacement is unknown.

In his resignation letter to the board, Blomstedt said he came to the decision "after several weeks of contemplation and as a result of opportunities that exist for me personally and professionally."

Blomstedt, 50, said there isn't one particular reason for stepping down. He always envisioned staying in the position for about 8-10 years, although he said the events of the past two years "takes its toll."

"I don't think it's any one thing," he told the Journal Star on Friday. "It feels like the right time and a good opportunity to make that shift personally and professionally."

Blomstedt, a native Nebraskan who lives in Central City, said he has a job lined up with a national education policy consulting firm, although he couldn't share specifics.

He has led the Nebraska Department of Education since 2014 after a stint as the executive director of the Nebraska Educational Service Unit Coordinating Council.

Blomstedt also served in a variety of policy research roles and was appointed to the Nebraska School Finance Review Committee as the school finance expert.

As commissioner, he oversaw the implementation of the Nebraska State Board of Education's 2016 strategic plan and a comprehensive state accountability system to meet new federal requirements under the Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced the No Child Left Behind Act.

Blomstedt pointed to his work to begin addressing inequities in student achievement outcomes, a particularly important issue to him, he said.

There are many things I am proud of in my nearly nine years of service to the State of Nebraska, but I am most proud of the opportunity to have served with so many dedicated board members, staff and partners in this work over the years, Blomstedt said in a statement.

It was the past two years, however, that proved the most challenging.

In March 2020, the coronavirus pandemic shuttered classrooms across the state, forcing schools to rethink how education was delivered. The next school year, however, Nebraska became one of a number of states to quickly reopen schools for in-person learning, albeit under a new normal.

By March of 2021, Blomstedt and the state education board had a totally different crisis on their hands after the Nebraska Department of Education released draft health education standards.

The standards, which the state has never before written, covered topics such as gender identity, sexual orientation and same-sex family structures, inciting a wave of backlash that is still felt today.

The draft standards were reworked  stripped of many controversial themes  before the board eventually shelved them altogether over questions about the standards-writing process.

Then last June, Blomstedt expressed frustration after he and the board were unable to come to an agreement about renewing his contract, ostensibly over concerns about how performance goals are set.

His current contract ran until June 30, 2024, under which he is paid $242,019. The proposed contract changes would have raised his salary to $246,764.

Despite the divisiveness of the past two years, Blomstedt says he's optimistic about Nebraska education.

"The fact of the matter is, kids are making it to school," he said. "Every day they show up in the classroom and every day they're learning."

The state board, which chooses the state education commissioner, will begin the search to find Blomstedt's successor.

In a statement, Board President Patsy Koch-Johns said Blomstedt has been "a champion for all students and families."

"During his tenure, our state has become a national leader in education, and he inspired us to work in the best interest of all Nebraskans. We wish him well and thank him for his service.

Half of the eight-member Board of Education will be decided in November's general election, with showdowns pitting four conservative candidates endorsed by the Protect Nebraska Children political action committee against candidates endorsed by the state teachers union.

The new board will be seated in January.
"We believe that we have located all evidence that we reasonably feel will be located," police said in a news release that did not describe what evidence they found at the landfill.
DENVER (AP)  A man accused of using an AK-47 to kill a woman and wound her boyfriend as they walked their dog was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder on Thursday.

Prosecutors alleged Michael Close, 38, had gotten into a verbal exchange with Isabella Thallas, 21, and Darian Simon as they were encouraging their dog to relieve itself outside Closes apartment near Coors Field on June 10, 2020.

Close had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but jurors concluded that he knew what he was doing when he opened fire, The Denver Post reported.

Close yelled out the window at the couple as they urged the dog to go potty before getting the AK-47, which he had taken from a friend who was a Denver police sergeant. Prosecutors said he fired 24 times.

Closes public defender, Sonja Prins, said Close had suffered a mental break, saying an abusive childhood, a string of job losses, a breakup and the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to his poor mental health at the time of the shooting.

Close cried as the verdict was read, as did members of Thallas' family.

Thallas' mother, Anna Thallas, said she felt numb.

Weve been waiting 2 years for this day and what happened in there just went by almost as fast as my daughter was slaughtered, she said through tears. And our lives were changed forever.
More than a million people in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic are waking up without power again Thursday after Hurricane Fiona wreaked havoc on critical infrastructure earlier this week, also leaving some residents without running water as the Category 4 storm nears Bermuda.

The forceful storm has killed at least five people across the Caribbean, including one in Guadeloupe, two in Puerto Rico and two in the Dominican Republic. And many residents are now enduring the aftermath of what became the first major hurricane of this year's Atlantic season.

"This was something incredible that we've never seen before," Ramona Santana in Higuey, Dominican Republic, told CNN en Espanol.

"We're in the streets with nothing, no food, no shoes, clothes, just what's on your back," Santana said. "We don't have anything. We have God, and the hope help will come."

In Puerto Rico, where Fiona delivered flooding rains and an island-wide blackout as it made landfall Sunday, more than one million homes and businesses were still without power Wednesday, according to the government's emergency portal system.

Additionally, more than 450,000 people across the island were without water service or experiencing intermittent service as of Wednesday night, according to the website.

In the Dominican Republic, where Fiona made landfall early Monday morning, nearly 350,000 homes and businesses were blanketed in darkness Wednesday, according to Maj. Gen. Juan Mendez Garcia, director of the country's emergency operations center. And there was no running water for more than a million customers, he said.

More than 600 homes were destroyed and some communities were cut off from aid due to the storm, Garcia said.

As Fiona hit the Dominican Republic in the middle of the night Monday, Iverice Viera said she was in waist-deep floodwater as she rushed to wake up her neighbors in Higuey.

She is now trying to dry out her belongings. "The rooms are empty, I had to throw away a lot, there's no electricity or water to wash anything," Viera told CNN en Espanol.

Puerto Rico is making some progress on the relief front: President Joe Biden approved a major disaster declaration for the US territory Wednesday, FEMA said. The move allows residents to access grants for temporary housing and home repairs as well as low-interest loans to cover uninsured property losses.

"This ensures that our people will have access to additional help from FEMA to recover from the damage caused by this event," Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said in a tweet.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams deployed a team of representatives from various city agencies to Puerto Rico to help officials surveying the damage.

"The team will include representatives from New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM), New York City Department of Buildings, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and the New York City Department of Design and Construction," according to a news release from the mayor's office.

Fiona on path to impact Bermuda next

Packing sustained winds of 130 mph early Thursday, Fiona was located about 600 miles southwest of Bermuda and about 1,300 miles south-southwest of Nova Scotia, Canada, according to CNN Meteorologist Robert Shackelford.

The center of the storm is expected to pass just west of Bermuda early Friday.

"The National Hurricane Center is certain that Bermuda will experience tropical-storm-force winds. Once Fiona passes by Bermuda, the storm is forecast to impact Nova Scotia by Saturday afternoon," Shackelford said.

Officials in Nova Scotia held a news conference Wednesday to warn residents of the impact they may face this weekend.

Jason Mew, director of the emergency management office, said residents should prepare by securing outdoor items, trimming trees, charging cell phones and creating an emergency kit.

Mew added that shelters will be open to house people experiencing homelessness and anyone else who needs them.

Meanwhile, US officials issued a travel advisory, warning Americans not to travel to Bermuda as Fiona approaches.

The State Department has also authorized family members of US government personnel to leave Bermuda due to the impending storm.

Bermuda is currently under a tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch because hurricane-force winds could extend out 45 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend out up to 195 miles, Shackelford said.

Turks and Caicos also experiencing power outages

After Hurricane Fiona battered Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, it also menaced parts of the Turks and Caicos on Tuesday.

Many areas on Turks and Caicos were still without power Wednesday, specifically on Grand Turk, South Caicos, Salt Cay, North Caicos and Middle Caicos, according to Anya Williams, the acting governor of the islands.

Officials there said they were relieved no one was killed in the storm as they began visiting several islands and making repairs.

Meanwhile in Puerto Rico, crews have faced setbacks in restoring power to the island.

Many lines believed to have been repaired were temporarily knocked back offline because of various equipment issues, Josue Colon, executive director of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority said Wednesday.

The repairs are taking place almost exactly five years after Hurricane Maria plunged the island into an extended blackout in 2017.

Across the island, more than 800 people were housed in dozens of shelters Wednesday, according to Puerto Rico's Housing Secretary, William Rodriguez.

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Roughly 200 people filled an Omaha conference center Thursday to take in and pitch ideas for $335 million worth of recovery dollars earmarked for underserved areas of the state.

It was the last of four public hearings held by a special legislative committee created to identify projects for the funding. Through all four hearings, 77 people testified with ideas, according to legislative staffer Trevor Fitzgerald, including 30 on Thursday.

None of the testimony counted as an official proposal, however. State Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha, the leading lawmaker on the project, said all ideas must be submitted on the projects website, omahaeconomicrecovery.com, for them to be considered.

Among the ideas pitched Thursday: expanding a Malcolm X memorial, a 56-bed youth shelter, multiple health care centers and expanding several Creighton University programs.

Those who testified ranged from vice provosts and CEOs to everyday residents. Outside the main conference center, Wayne said the committee invited multiple architects and engineers who attendees could work with to hash out project details.

We dont want to turn down any ideas, Wayne said.

One of the most common proposals pitched Thursday were affordable housing projects, with at least four people testifying in favor of specific developments.

Housing is desperately needed all over the state, one attendee said.

About $20 million of the $335 million is already devoted to an affordable housing project in Omaha, along with $60 million for an industrial park near Eppley Airfield. However, Fitzgerald said that doesnt necessarily mean that additional affordable housing proposals will be considered a lower priority.

The special committee is working with engineering firm Olsson to vet all proposals for their generational impact, according to Wayne. Ideas can be submitted until Oct. 9, at which point Olsson will review all the proposals and submit recommendations to the committee by early December.

The committee will then use the recommendations to draft a bill to allocate the money for the selected projects during the Nebraska Legislatures next session, which begins in January.

The first step of this project, LB1024, dubbed the Economic Recovery Act, was signed into law this year. It set aside the funding to help historically underserved areas in North and South Omaha, along with some other low-income communities in Lincoln and rural Nebraska.

Of the $335 million allocated for LB1024, about $250 million comes from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. Most of the remaining money comes from Nebraskas general fund, cash reserve and a coronavirus capital projects fund.
RACINE  The former head of Wisconsins Parole Commission says paroles and public safety are being wrongly conflated by politicians seeking political gains.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels has been on the attack in recent weeks against Gov. Tony Evers for the more than 880 paroles approved since the Democrat took office in January 2019, even though the governor has no direct role in the Parole Commission.

John Tate II, who is president of the Racine City Council and holds a masters degree in social work, led the Parole Commission until June 10 when he resigned at Gov. Tony Evers request amid growing criticism over the planned (and later rescinded) parole of a man  Douglas Balsewicz  who murdered his wife, Johanna, in front of their children in 1997. Family members of Johanna went public with their opposition to Balsewiczs planned parole, especially after they found out about Balsewicz being paroled through a friend and not from government officials.

Tate said during a phone interview Thursday that there is a fundamental misunderstanding about public safety and convicts being released from prison.

Parole is entirely a data-driven process. We use specific metrics and factors to determine if someone is a reasonable risk to return to their community, Tate said in a phone interview Thursday.

Tate said that paroling older convicts in particular pose virtually no added risk to public safety. According to Tate, public safety and the release of inmates who have served decades in prison are being improperly connected in TV advertisements supporting Michels and U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, who is in a tight re-election campaign against Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes. Evers and Barnes have both advocated for shrinking Wisconsins prison population.

Offenders being paroled is not tantamount to setting aside their offense, Tate said; rather the data tells us, at a certain age, people will naturally or inherently begin to reduce their risk for criminality  The older person is less likely to do something (criminal). Certainly, there are outliers that exist, but the likelihood of them engaging in those behaviors diminishes just based on time alone.

Anna Kelly, spokesperson for Michels campaign, responded in an email Friday: Child rapists, wife decapitators, and brutal murderers are being released back into Wisconsin communities to the horror of their victims families, who often say they werent notified.

When the Wisconsin Legislature put Truth in Sentencing laws into effect in 2000, it effectively ended the possibility of parole for anyone convicted after 2000. Thus, the only people eligible for parole now were convicted in the 1990s or prior and have spent at least two decades behind bars.

Federal Department of Justice data indicates that those ages 16-24 are more than twice as likely to commit violent crime as those ages 35-40 and are five times more likely to commit violent crime than those ages 50-64.

Republicans  are attributing the current reality  which is increased crime in the community, increased concerns of public safety  to things that have no bearing on those things from a data perspective. Anybody who purports themselves to be a leader should be driven by the information and the data, not the ideology, Tate said. Unfortunately, thats what were seeing with Republicans  theyre being driven by ideology  not the reality of the data.

Tate pointed to a trio of factors that he asserts cause rises in crime: unemployment, pervasive poverty, gang culture.

For Michels, he has primarily blamed anti-police sentiments  and a perceived lack of support for police among national and state leaders  for recent increases in violent crime.

When speaking at a Waukesha Donald Trump rally Aug. 5, Michels said Crime is at a 30-year high in Wisconsin. Murder, assault, violent crime had a 30-year high (in 2020). And most of it happened in the last two years. Why? I believe its a byproduct of the defund the police movement. How did we get to this point in America where less police is better, where police are bad?  How did this cultural shift happen in America? It happened through bad leadership. Its because people like Joe Biden and Tony Evers want to coddle the criminals  What about the 99.9% of the law-abiding citizens that are the victims of these crimes? Thats who Im going to stand up for.

Tax burden According to the Vera Institute, a nonprofit opposed to mass incarceration, the average taxpayer cost per prison inmate in Wisconsin per year is $38,644  thats slightly higher than the U.S. average. Keeping older people behind bars longer also costs taxpayers more than locking up younger people due to older inmates likelihood of requiring more medical care as they age. The National Institute of Corrections pegged the annual cost of incarcerating those 55 or older who have chronic and terminal illnesses at two to three times that for all others on average, Pew Research Center reported in 2018.

Parole and safety

There has not been much widespread research into what effect paroles have on public safety.

A 2013 study, conducted by a Princeton University economics professor, found that inmates who had been eligible for parole but then had their eligibility revoked by legislative action in Georgia ended up becoming more dangerous in prison. Inmates who lost parole eligibility as a consequence of the reform accumulated more disciplinary infractions, completed fewer prison rehabilitative programs and recidivated at higher rates after the reform than did a control group not subject to it, the author of the study, Ilyana Kuziemko, wrote. Kuziemko also wrote that release policies (i.e. allowing parole) can incentivize inmates to lower their incarceration and recidivism costs by investing in their own rehabilitation.

However, Michael LaForest of Penn State University found that  according to Pennsylvania data  inmates released from prison before serving their full sentence had slightly higher recidivism than inmates who served their full sentence before being released.

Tate said that Michels, by opposing all paroles and supporting longer sentences for those who commit crimes, is implicitly implying that either taxes will need to be raised or community services will need to be cut. Theres a cost to everything that we do, and everything we dont do.

Three governors

Evers campaign responded to Michels criticism by noting that nearly half (of those paroled) were released because their release was required by law and that Evers parole commission has released fewer inmates via discretionary parole than Gov. Scott Walker (from 2011-2019), and nearly 50 times less than Gov. Tommy Thompson (from 1987-2001).

However, Walker served longer than Evers has, and the Parole Commission under Evers has been granting discretionary paroles at a slightly higher rate since Evers took office than when Walker was governor. Walker and Thompson are both Republicans, and Thompson has endorsed Michels.

During Thompsons 14 years as governor, largely prior to Wisconsins Truth in Sentencing law being enacted, more than 23,000 discretionary paroles were granted.

In a public letter Michels sent to Evers Sept. 19 that advocated for the cessation of all paroles through the end of 2022  which would not be legal; only ceasing discretionary paroles would be possible  Tate was criticized by name. It is nothing short of stunning that it took political pressure during an election year to finally convince you to fire John Tate, Michels wrote. However, I know from my time as a private sector business leader that simply firing someone is a poor substitute for actual leadership.

Kelly said Friday: Halting paroles for the rest of the year is the least Tony Evers can do to ensure public safety in Wisconsin, although his actions in letting Kenosha burn, allowing cities to defund the police, and trying to eliminate felony bail jumping have already proven that he will always prioritize coddling criminals over protecting Wisconsin families.
In her second State of Education Address, state Superintendent Jill Underly renewed her call for more state funds directed toward education while also condemning efforts by the GOP-led Legislature to limit teaching in Wisconsin schools on the history and effects of racism and sexism.

Underlys comments Thursday come weeks after the Department of Public Instruction and Gov. Tony Evers unveiled the agencys 2023-25 budget request, which tops out at about $16.9 billion in state funds, marking a more than $2.4 billion increase from the current budget.

Some Republicans in the Legislature, who have been reluctant to increase K-12 funding to the level sought by their Democratic colleagues, have increased pressure for proposals to expand private school vouchers in the state and prohibit the teaching of how American political and social systems can perpetuate racism.

The only way to teach the complete story of the United States is to include the history of racism, Underly said. Grappling with difficult concepts, including discrimination, is essential, it is culturally relevant, and it is accurate teaching. Saying otherwise is problematic  and racist.

The differing viewpoints on the future of Wisconsin schools has set the stage for an education policy battle in the Nov. 8 election between Evers, a former educator and state superintendent, and businessman Tim Michels, a Republican who has pledged to expand school choice offerings across Wisconsin while banning the teaching of critical race theory, a theoretical framework sometimes discussed or explored in graduate-level college classrooms that examines how American institutions may perpetuate racial inequality.

Literacy is the foundation of all learning, but instead of making sure that kids can read, Tony Evers and Jill Underly are focused on imposing woke politics and gender ideology in the classroom, Michels said.

Evers and Underly earlier this month unveiled the 2023-25 budget proposal, which seeks to spend more than $240 million on mental health aid for students, which the Democratic governor said would allow each school district to hire at least one full-time mental health professional. It would also expand access to subsidized school meals and spend $750 million over the 2023-25 biennium to increase aid for special education.

The rate at which special education in Wisconsins public schools is funded has been on a steady decline, from 70% in 1973, according to a 2019 report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, to the current rate of roughly 30%, as costs increase.

Speaking with WisconsinEye Newsmakers host Lisa Pugh on Wednesday, Dan Rossmiller, director of government relations for the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, said inadequate special-education funding forces schools to transfer money from their regular education programs to cover those mandated special-education services.

That means that they face choices of either larger class sizes, cutting programs or going to referendum to maintain their programming and staffing, Rossmiller said.

The proposed DPI budget would also increase school district revenue limits by $350 per pupil in the 2023-24 school year and another $650 per pupil in the following year. Per-pupil aid would also increase under DPIs plan, by $24 per student in the 2023-24 school year and $45 in the following year. In addition, officials have said directing about $800 million in new state aid to schools would ensure that per-pupil aid increases do not raise property taxes.

Such a proposal may face an uphill battle in next years budget deliberations, however, as it will need approval from the GOP-led Legislature. The Republican co-chairs of the Legislatures powerful budget committee have said Evers plan lacks a plan to protect parents rights to have more choices and involvement in their childs education.

School choice

Jim Bender, Badger Institute consultant and member of the recently created Wisconsin Coalition of Education Freedom, a conservative coalition aimed at giving parents and students more options like expanded school choice, said simply throwing more money at schools is not the answer.

That seems to be the questions that were getting, Bender told WisconsinEye. If youre going to invest more money, what are the changes you are going to see for investing more money?

Republicans passed a bill last session that would have implemented a Parental Bill of Rights, another measure supported by the coalition. It aims to let parents sue a school district or school official if they dont allow parents to determine the names and pronouns used for their child while at school, review instructional materials and outlines used by the childs school and access any education-related information regarding the child, among other measures.

Evers blocked the legislation, stating in an April 15 veto message he opposed it because I object to sowing division in our schools, which only hurts our kids and learning in our classrooms.

School vouchers

Evers also vetoed a measure that would have vastly expanded private school vouchers by eliminating the income limits in the statewide, Milwaukee County and Racine County private school voucher programs, as well as create a temporary education expense reimbursement program for public school students. A fiscal report estimated the bill could raise property taxes as much as $577 million.

While Dr. Underly, Governor Evers and their liberal allies continue to ignore the importance of parental engagement, Republicans have provided historic investments in schools, while working to ensure parents have a seat at the table, said Rep. Mark Born, co-chair of the Legislatures budget committee.

While the current state budget increased state funding for schools, district revenue limits are also capped by the Legislature, limiting how much school districts can raise in property taxes. Many districts have asked voters to approve levy increases that exceed the state revenue limits in order to cover costs and maintain staffing levels.

Previous budgets

Evers requested roughly $14.2 billion in state funding for the Department of Public Instruction in his 2019-21 biennial budget, but that was later pared down to about $13.2 billion by the GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee. The final budget signed by Evers came in at just over $13.3 billion after the Democratic governor used his partial veto power to boost school funding by about $65 million.

For the current 2021-23 budget, Evers requested about $15.3 billion for the agency. Republicans ultimately approved spending about $14.2 billion in the budget that Evers signed last summer.

When Evers was state superintendent, DPI requested more than $46.6 billion in state funds for schools over the four budgets that spanned 2011-19. The combined spending in the four budgets ultimately passed and signed by the GOP Legislature and then-Republican Gov. Scott Walker amounted to about $44.6 billion in total state funds, according to data from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

Speaking with reporters, Underly said current funding levels represent an abdication of responsibility by the GOP-led Legislature.

That is their job  to fund our public schools and we need to hold them accountable for that job, Underly said.
Korea is in the news on several fronts, with even more noteworthy developments than usual.

First, the negative news. In the latest outrageous declaration from North Korea, leader Kim Jong-un has decreed nuclear weapons may be used preemptively to defend the nation. The puppet parliament of his totalitarian nightmare state, the Supreme Peoples Assembly, this month rubber-stamped a law confirming the point.

This follows a public rejection last month of a proposal from new South Korea President Yoon Suk-yeol to provide economic assistance. The people of North Korea, suffering in desperate poverty for decades, are in extreme need of such relief. The privileged ruling elite make clear they couldnt care less.

In a switch from routine, North Korea leader Kim did not address this subject. Rather, his sister Kim Yo-jong, also a senior official, rejected the offer, fueling always-active speculation mills. The new nuclear declaration indicates Kim Jong-un, rumored to be sick, is still the leader.

More important is what is now taking place in South Korea. The government in Seoul has just imposed heavy fines on global tech companies for aggressively harvesting personal data on their customers.

Google and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, are being fined a combined total of the equivalent of $72 million. South Korea officials have concluded after review of evidence that the massive information and communications companies are not open and transparent about their practices, especially in collecting information from customers using other platforms and services.

Predictably, the corporations issued immediate denials of any unfair predatory practices, along with expressions of alarm that they are targeted. As is usually the case when a powerful company pleads victimization, at least some healthy skepticism is in order.

Google and Meta are enormously successful players in an intensely competitive, high-stakes business environment. They can take care of themselves, and have the option of appealing in court the penalties they face.

Finally, on September 16 an extremely important military ceremony took place on a runway at Incheon International Airport in South Korea. With practiced discipline, a Republic of Korea Army (ROK) honor guard of nine soldiers stepped precisely, uniformly toward a line of counterparts from the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) of China.

The ROK soldiers carefully placed nine ornate polished boxes on a table. Ambassador Xing Haiming, Chinas representative to South Korea, ceremonially placed the flag of China on each box, which contained the remains of a Chinese soldier killed during the Korean War.

A PLA honor guard carefully carried the nine boxes into a massive Y-20 China transport aircraft. Soldiers and diplomats similarly honored more boxes of remains and personal effects of the dead. In total, 88 boxes containing Chinas deceased were loaded on the imposing transport.

Similar ceremonies accompanied the arrival of the aircraft in China and burial of the remains. Two of Chinas state-of-the-art J-20 stealth jet fighters escorted the transport plane during landing.

North Korea invaded South Korea in June 1950, launching the Korean War, and initially made sizable gains. United Nations forces defending South Korea turned the tide and invaded North Korea. This sparked Chinas massive military intervention.

The war became a stalemate along roughly the border dividing North and South Korea. Newly inaugurated President Dwight D. Eisenhower achieved the 1953 armistice.

Repatriation of PLA soldiers remains began in 2014. According to South Korea defense officials, the effort reflects international law and the spirit of humanity.

This also deters North Korea.
1. Yes. All council members should get a good idea of whats at stake for Fort Hoods future.

2. Yes. Sending a large delegation shows the citys commitment to the Army post.

3. No. Its a waste of taxpayer money. Sending a smaller group would be more efficient.

4. No. Harker Heights and Copperas Cove arent sending anyone. The trip is unnecessary.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say what the value is, before knowing how the conference turns out.

Vote

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NABLUS, West Bank  Nablus was a battered city. Shops gaped open to the street, their windows smashed. Street signs were overturned. Ash stained the roads. Armored vehicles roamed the city center, still pockmarked and splattered with paint from a day of protests.

The destruction resembled the aftermath of firefights between Palestinian youths and the Israeli military in the occupied West Banks second-largest city, where posters of killed Palestinians paper the old city's limestone walls. But this time, Israel was not involved. The violent chaos on Tuesday that left a 53-year-old man dead erupted between Palestinians and their own security forces, who coordinate with Israel in an uneasy alliance against Islamic militants.

The rare outburst, coming amid the deadliest violence in the West Bank since 2016, underscored the internal divisions tearing at Palestinian society and cast a spotlight on the growing ranks of disillusioned, impoverished young men taking up arms.

Many have spent their entire lives in a territory occupied by Israel, scarred by infighting and segmented by checkpoints. They have not known a national election since 2006. They have no hope in the long-stalemated peace process. Their aging president, Mahmoud Abbas, is in his 18th year of what was supposed to be a four-year term. They see his Palestinian Authority as a vehicle for corruption and collaboration with Israel.

The clashes erupted after Palestinian forces arrested two men, including Musab Ishtayyeh, a popular local militant wanted by Israel. A 26-year-old man who lives in the area said that although the sides reached a truce, further violence was likely unless Ishtayyeh is released.

I do not recognize the presidency of Abu Mazen," he said, voicing a popular sentiment in the neighborhood. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared arrest.

There is no difference between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, he added, saying the Palestinian security forces want to burn the resistance and kill those who fight."

The latest violence stems from a series of deadly Palestinian attacks inside Israel last spring, which triggered a surge in nightly Israeli arrest raids across the territory. Some 90 Palestinians have been killed in the crackdown. Israel says many were militants or local youths who hurled stones and firebombs at troops, though several civilians have also died.

Experts say the escalation has deeper roots in a power struggle, as Palestinian leaders vie over the succession of the 87-year-old Abbas.

The leadership vacuum is trickling down from the top all the way down. High-level members are trying to rally their supporters for doomsday, said Tahani Mustafa, an analyst at the International Crisis Group. In these sorts of contexts, radicalism really thrives.

A lack of opportunity and political horizon has also fueled the unrest. Israel captured the West Bank in 1967, and its military occupation shows no signs of ending.

The last round of substantive peace talks broke down in 2009, and Israel has steadily consolidated its control of the territory with ever-expanding construction of settlements that are now home to some 500,000 Jews. The Palestinians seek all of the West Bank, along with Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, for a future state.

Widely disenchanted with the PA, young Palestinians are flocking to an array of militant groups to get weapons. Palestinian security has struggled to assert control in flashpoint cities in the northern West Bank, like Nablus and Jenin.

The instability has consequences for Israel, which depends on cooperation with Palestinian security, and for the United States and other countries that have relied on the PA to establish order in the West Bank and serve as a partner in stalled peace negotiations.

We need the PA to operate as a buffer between us and all the (Palestinian) organizations," said Michael Milstein, a former head of the Palestinian department in Israeli military intelligence. The test has only just begun.

Palestinian security officials declined to comment on this week's violence or the reasons for their unpopularity.

In recent months, the Israeli military has grown frustrated with what it describes as the PA's reluctance to maintain order in flashpoint cities under its control.

Wednesday's truce temporarily halted the fighting, but the streets still bristled with tension and an armed group vowed to continue the battle on behalf of their arrested comrades.

We will not abandon our brother  who is wanted by the occupation forces and is currently kidnapped, the militant group, named the Den of Lions, wrote to the AP.

Many Palestinians see their security forces as protecting Israel against Palestinian protests, not Palestinians from Israeli assaults. The forces also have faced widespread criticism over brutal tactics, like last year when riots erupted over an anti-corruption activists death in custody.

Ghassan Khatib, a former Palestinian peace negotiator and Cabinet minister, acknowledged there is little public faith in the Palestinian leadership. He blamed a lack of hope and repeated Israeli measures that have weakened the Palestinian Authority.

If everybody would maintain the same attitude and practices," he warned, "we are going gradually toward the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, and chaos in Palestinian society.
Celebrated British author Hilary Mantel died Thursday at age 70, her agent and publisher said in a joint statement Friday.

Mantel won the U.K.s prestigious Man Booker Prize, now just called the Booker Prize, twice. She scored the award in 2009 for Wolf Hall and then in 2013 for Bring Up the Bodies  the first two books in a trilogy about the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII.

Her latest work, The Mirror and the Light, released in 2020 as the final volume in the trilogy, was longlisted for the same award.

It is with great sadness that A.M. Heath and HarperCollins announce that bestselling author Dame Hilary Mantel DBE died suddenly yet peacefully yesterday, surrounded by close family and friends, the statement from her agent and publisher read.

Hilary Mantel was one of the greatest English novelists of this century and her beloved works are considered modern classics. She will be greatly missed, the statement added.

A cause of death has not yet been revealed, but in an interview with the Financial Times published earlier this month, Mantel said that her health is unpredictable and a daily source of tension. But I am always looking for improvement.

In her 2003 memoir Giving Up the Ghost, Mantel wrote about her lifelong struggle with endometriosis, a gynecological condition that left her unable to have children.

We are heartbroken at the death of our beloved author, Dame Hilary Mantel, and our thoughts are with her friends and family, especially her husband, Gerald, HarperCollins U.K. tweeted Friday. This is a devastating loss and we can only be grateful she left us with such a magnificent body of work.

Born in Glossop, near Manchester, England in 1952, Mantel studied law at the London School of Economics and Sheffield University. She was employed as a social worker and lived in Botswana and Saudi Arabia before returning to Britain in the mid-1980s.

Mantel, who married geologist Gerald McEwen in September 1972, went on to publish 17 acclaimed books, according to her agent.

The first two books in the Wolf Hall trilogy were turned into an award-winning BBC drama that premiered in 2015. The six-part series was directed by Peter Kosminsky and featured a cast that included Damian Lewis, Claire Foy, Tom Holland and Jonathan Pryce.

Charlie Redmayne, CEO of HarperCollins U.K., wrote about the terrible, tragic news, calling Mantel a writer to the core, and one of the greatest of her generation, of the age  a serious, fearless novelist with huge empathy for her subjects.


Fort McCoy Garrisons senior enlisted leader, Command Sgt. Maj. Raquel DiDomenico, served as one of 50 guardian escorts Sept. 10 for nearly 100 veterans who were part of the most recent Freedom Honor Flight from La Crosse to Washington, D.C.

Freedom Honor Flight is a La Crosse-based organization founded in April 2008, said Patti Lokken, a founding board member. Its goal is to fly veterans to Washington, D.C., to visit the memorials that stand in their honor.

When we started out in 2008, we were flying mainly World War II veterans, Lokken said. Now we are still flying World War II veterans first, and then Korean War veterans, and Vietnam War veterans after that. The flight we held on Sept. 10 was our 27th flight, so weve flown thousands of veterans so far.

DiDomenico said she was proud to be a part of the latest flight. With her group of six Korean War veterans and 93 Vietnam War veterans, they visited all of the special memorials in Washington and Arlington, Va., areas, including the Air Force Memorial, Marine Corps Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington Monument, Korean War Veterans Memorial, Women in Military Service to America Memorial, World War II Memorial, and Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for the Changing of the Guard ceremony.

I was the guardian for Mr. John First Class Jack Westgard from Rochester, Minn., said DiDomenico. It is a humbling experience, hanging out with these veterans. They get up incredibly early for the 6 a.m. chartered flight out of La Crosse. They see the whirlwind of sites throughout the day.

Then, they return late at night, and you can see their faces light up when they see the Welcome Home party in their honor, DiDomenico said. The entire day is completely free for the veteran, including meals. There are plenty of donations from extremely generous supporters and an awesome display of selfless service from a huge team of coordinators.

Lokken said she got behind starting the Freedom Honor Flight partly because her father was a World War II veteran who never got to see the World War II monument but donated to it.

He was a staff sergeant with who had served with the 3rd Infantry Division and in the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, Lokken said. He died before he could see any of this, and I know he wanted to see it happen.

Lokkens father, former Army Staff Sgt. Denzle Robison also has Fort McCoy ties.

Toward the end of the war, he was at (Camp) McCoy helping with the outprocessing of Soldiers, Lokken said. He didnt talk a lot about his service but he did tell us that he worked at McCoy during the end of the war.

DiDomenico and Lokken said those who serve as a guardian escort have to pay a $500 fee to participate. That fee includes the flight, meals, and everything for the day, Lokken said.

People who want to consider being a guardian escort, or who might know a veteran to go on the Freedom Honor Flight should visit their website at https://www.freedomhonorflight.org.

On the website, people can submit applications for a veteran or to be a guardian, Lokken said. Its a pretty easy process and easy to understand.

DiDomenico said the experience is worth it.

There are some very cool things that they do, such as escorting a flag onto the plane for a veteran who was scheduled for the flight but passed away before they were able to attend, DiDomenico said. And Soldiers or others who want to support but cant be guardians can show up for the morning send-off or the evening welcome home ceremony. They stand on the flight line and wave to the veterans. Its a huge morale booster.

Because they are an all-volunteer organization, Freedom Honor Flight states on their website, that they are not available to answer questions at all business hours.

People can email the organization at info@freedomhonorflight.org.
An arrest was made after a man became violent and was found with drugs.

Wyatt Walters, 42, of Onalaska was charged Thursday with possession of methamphetamine, misdemeanor intimidation of a victim and disorderly conduct.

Per the criminal complaint, officers were called for a domestic abuse incident in West Salem. The victim stated Walters came to the residence for assistance with his phone and began rambling before becoming angry. Walters began throwing items and screaming at the victim.

When the victim attempted to call for help, Walters wrestled the phone out of her hands, the complaint says.

Officers located Walters near his residence and placed him in handcuffs. On his person were a smoking pipe and a baggie of methamphetamine.

Judge Scott Horne set a $1,000 signature bond with conditions of no contact with the victim and no drugs without a prescription.
Three members of the 13-seat Wisconsin Technical College System board continue to serve in those positions despite their terms ending in May of 2021.

The trio  Becky Levzow, Kelly Tourdot and Mary Williams, a former Republican state legislator  were all appointed by former Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican.

In June, the right-leaning majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that a Walker-appointed member of the states Department of Natural Resources board, Fred Prehn, who had also refused to resign despite his term expiring, could not be removed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers without cause. That court decision opened the door for the three members of the technical college board to remain indefinitely past the ends of their terms.

Reached by phone and asked why she is staying on the board when her term was ended, Williams had the following to say:

I think its a rule, she said in the short interview before ending it to take another call. You stay and as soon as the Senate takes up that person, and they go through what they have to do, thats when Im gone.

Levzow, a dairy farmer from Rio, and Tourdot, a construction trade association executive from Waunakee, did not return several messages seeking comment. Regardless of what happens in the Republican-controlled state Senate, board members with expired terms could step down at any time, but the state Supreme Court decision severely restricts the governors ability to force them out.

Since Evers became governor in 2019, the state Senate has refused to confirm many of his appointees, including for the DNR board and the technical college board. Evers appointees would replace the Republican-appointed members who now refuse to depart the boards despite their terms ending.

And Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) said in January the state Senate would not confirm any more for the rest of 2022.

Its kind of a sad commentary on the way that politics is going these days, said Joseph Heim, a UW-La Crosse political science professor emeritus. It seems to me its a groundbreaking tactic that just adds to the overall turmoil in the government in Wisconsin.

Should Evers win re-election this fall, other Republican-appointed members of state boards might continue the practice of staying on past the expiration of their terms. When reached by The Badger Project in July, two other Walker-appointed members of the DNR board refused to say whether they would step down next year when their terms end. Prehn staying on the board past the end of his term ensures a Republican majority for the time being. And the president of the technical college board Rodney Pasch, who was also appointed by Walker, would not commit to stepping down when his term expires next year, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

The terms of state boards are staggered with the intention that an incoming governor from an opposing party cannot immediately remake its membership with their preferred appointees.

But GOP norm-breaking has allowed the political party to maintain control of the DNR board and could flip other boards to their control sooner if they win the governors seat this fall, experts say. A Republican governors nominees are likely to be approved by the state Senate, which is controlled by Republicans now and highly unlikely to be retaken by Democrats this year. This is due to the fact that all state legislators must run in district maps drawn by Republicans that maximize their electoral advantage.

Ed Miller, a political science professor emeritus at the UW-Stevens Point, wrote in an email that my view is a term is a term. Once the term is over, the position is vacant.

Allowing the past appointee to go beyond the term is unconstitutional by violating the Constitutions allocation of powers and a violation of the statute that created the term, he wrote. The court majority is just making up the decision to adhere to their partisanship, Miller wrote. Reflects badly on the court.

In her majority opinion for the courts right-leaning bloc, Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Annette Ziegler wrote that Prehn could stay past the end of his term until his successor is confirmed by the state Senate.

This conclusion complies with the plain language of the Wisconsin Statutes and does not raise constitutional concerns, she wrote.

The courts three left-leaning justices disagreed.

The majoritys absurd holding allows Prehns six-year term on the Board of Natural Resources  which expired over a year ago  to last for as long as Prehn wants it to, so long as he refuses to leave and the Senate doesnt confirm a successor nominated by the governor, Justice Rebecca Dallet wrote in her dissent.
Nadalee Thao, a high school junior from Milwaukee, had heard that the University of WisconsinLa Crosse was a good science school, and she was interested in checking it out.

She had the opportunity to do so as a participant in My River Adventures Camp (MRA), a pre-college summer camp at UW-La Crosse supported in part by the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin.

The counselors were awesome, and all the people there made it really fun, Thao says. I learned how to be a leader. I also learned a lot about biology and environmental science.

The weeklong camp in July was part of the universitys efforts to recruit students for careers in STEM, specifically water-related sectors, such as biology, ecology and aquatic science, where skilled professionals are in high demand.

A primary goal of the camp was to address the lack of diversity in the water sector and to expose students from underrepresented communities to careers in STEM. Funding from the Freshwater Collaborative made it possible to provide the camp, as well as food and lodging, free of charge to 30 students. These funds greatly increased the camps accessibility, regardless of a student's socioeconomic status.

The importance of this camp is to provide a campus-based experience for students who may not have normally had an opportunity like this, says Laura Lauderdale, pre-college coordinator at UW-La Crosse and the camps director. Participating in faculty sessions in college academic buildings makes the possibility of attending college tangible and attainable for these students.

Faculty members Adam Driscoll, Tisha King-Heiden, and Brian Pompeii from the universitys River Studies Center led instructional sessions and visits to regional rivers and marshes in the surrounding area for fieldwork and observation. Participants were also assigned an undergraduate mentor who worked one-one-one with them as they engaged in various hands-on activities, including using GPS to navigate marshlands, flood plains and natural habitats; analyzing and identifying fish and plant species as part of DNR sampling activities; learning about water-quality sampling; and viewing specimens under a microscope.

I learned a lot about bodies of water, fish and wildlife in the marsh and rivers, says sixth-grader Matheo Huerta Perez.

The experience also offered leadership and hands-on learning opportunities to the nine camp mentors. UWL undergraduate Maddie Renaud is majoring in middle childhood/early adolescent education and minoring in at-risk youth and childcare, and shes been involved in the universitys pre-college programs since 2018. Working as the camp assistant and a mentor will be beneficial when she graduates in December.

I have learned many valuable skills and lessons throughout my experience with the MRA camp  both about the value of our local water sources as well as the confidence to be able to facilitate, engage and build meaningful connections with Wisconsin youth, Renaud says. I am extremely grateful to have been a part of this collaboration and hope to see this program continue in the future, as the city, staff and community partners of UW-La Crosse enlightened these kids lives in a multitude of ways.

In addition to the science component, camp participants and their undergraduate mentors learned more about careers within the STEM fields and freshwater sciences. And students were encouraged to try new things.

I stepped out of my comfort zone and did activities I usually wouldnt do, says Blossom Xiong, a ninth-grader from Altoona. I also learned about the different creatures in the marsh and how chemicals in the water can affect them.

Seeing students push themselves is one of the things Lauderdale enjoyed most about running the camp.

The students we worked with were truly phenomenal, she says. They embodied our challenge by choice mentality and stepped outside of their comfort zone all week.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  A federal judge sentenced an Arizona woman on Thursday to six years in prison for using a cutting torch to damage the Dakota Access pipeline in Iowa and setting fire to pipeline equipment in three counties in 2016 and 2017.

The judge also ordered Ruby Katherine Montoya, 32, to pay nearly $3.2 million in restitution together with Jessica Reznicek, a woman who helped her.

Montoya pleaded guilty to conspiracy to damage an energy facility. She admitted to helping Reznicek and others damage the pipeline in several locations in Iowa.

The sentence imposed today demonstrates that any crime of domestic terrorism will be aggressively investigated and prosecuted by the federal government, U.S. Attorney Richard D. Westphal said in a statement. He said the seriousness of the actions warranted a significant prison sentence and should deter others who might consider engaging in domestic terrorism.

Reznicek was sentenced to eight years in prison in June 2021 after pleading guilty to a similar charge. She appealed the sentence, but it was upheld by a federal appeals court in June.

Dakota Access, a subsidiary of Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, constructed the controversial $3.8 billion, 1,168-mile pipeline that cuts through North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa, ending in Illinois.

Environmental groups opposed the pipeline, which they said risked an oil spill disaster. Some landowners also opposed the use of eminent domain to force farmers to allow its construction on their land, and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe fought the pipeline, claiming the environmental impact review was inadequate.

Montoya's attorney did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Wilson's family has for weeks demanded he be returned to the hospital for better treatment after he was shot by two Division of Criminal Investigation agents in early February.
This transcript appears in the September 23, 2022 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.

[Print version of this transcript]

Helga Zepp-LaRouche

The Opening of the LaRouche Library

A Revolutionary Intervention

This is the edited transcript of Helga Zepp-LaRouches Keynote address to Panel 3, Sept. 11, 2022, of the Schiller Institutes Sept. 10-11 Conference, Inspiring Humanity To Survive the Greatest Crisis in World History. Mrs. LaRouche is the founding director of the LaRouche Legacy Foundation. The full video of Panel 3 is available here.

View full size

Schiller Institute Helga Zepp-LaRouche

Hello, good day! Im extremely proud and happy to have the fantastic task to announce to you, the participants of this conference commemorating the 100th birthday of Lyndon LaRouche, my late husband, and the world, the opening of the digital library of his work, both in written, audio, and video forms. This means that from now on, students and scholars, as well as ordinary citizens, will have access to his enormous production of ideas.

This is absolutely revolutionary, because the international oligarchy has run a huge concerted international operation to suppress not only his writings, but even his existence. Maybe only historians will find out one day how that was the most elaborate operation to suppress the ideas of an individual ever. So now, in every country around the globe, people will be able to access, eventuallyand I disagree with Dennis Small in terms of the number of books; I think it will be hundreds of books, thousands of articles, numerous recorded speeches and lectures. What will you find when you do that? Well, many people who knew him personally have stated repeatedly that he was the most educated, most knowledgeable person they ever met.

I had the fortune of travelling together with him to many countriesprobably around 40 countriesand what always struck me, and naturally also other people, was that he was able to talk with the most diverse groups of people: Be they scientists in Russia, fishermen in Peru, shoemakers in Italy, military men in France, political leaders from Africa, philologists in India, musicians from many countries, historians from Europe, engineers and farmers from the United States, industrialists from Germanyand the list could go on for a very long time. He would always leave his interlocutors with the impression that he was an expert in their field, knowing more about the matter than they themselves.

Just to give you one example. After he spent two full days of discussion about the principles of Classical music, musical composition, Motivfuhrung, and the art of understanding the intention of the composer, with no one other than the very, very top world artist Norbert Braininthe first violinist of the famous Amadeus Quartet and decades-long friend of hisNorbert concluded that Lyn knew more about music than he! And that means a lot, because Norbert Brainin was a genius in his own field.

Despite his universal knowledge, there was not one iota of arrogance or ego in Lyn. He lived so much in the heights of ideas that he was able to evoke in his discussion partners a creative spark, a self-subsisting impulse to think with greater clarity, so that the person he was speaking with always would feel self-elevated, motivated to explore new areas of knowledge and different viewpoints. In this way, he touched the lives of a very large number of people in his long and extremely productive life.

A Truly Universal Thinker

He was truly a universal thinker, proving that, despite the complexities of our times, it is absolutely possible to know the essential fields of knowledge, and that the compartmentalization of experts was not the fate of somebody who mastered the method of acquiring knowledge, rather than being a Brotgelehrtersomebody who only works for his money. He was truly a philosophical mind in the way Friedrich Schiller talks about in his essay, Why Do We Study Universal History.

Lyndon LaRouche was primarily an economist. Readers of the digital library will be able to find an unparalleled account of both the evolution of the science of physical economy, from the ancient roots in astronomy, geometry, city building, infrastructure building, etc., as well as the foundations of physical economy in Leibniz, Hamilton, List, Carey, Witte, and related scientists, such as Gauss, Riemann, Vernadsky, and Einstein. As well as the theoreticians of the opposite, oligarchical school of slave-holding societies and empires, such as the different schools of the Physiocrats, monetarists, and proponents of the free trade doctrine.

He revived the almost forgotten knowledge about the fundamental difference between the American and the British systems of economy. If any student wants to learn how to build a successful economy for his or her country, LaRouche has provided the historical examples, as well as the theoretical building blocks, to do so.

Given the obvious crisis of economic science, in which none of the established schoolsfrom the Austrian school to the Chicago one, from the Keynesians to the Friedmaniteshave been even approximately able to have a correct prognosis about the economy, the study of LaRouchean economics is a must for anybody who wants to avoid the bungling of a Paul Volcker or a Robert Habeck. Just think of the many economists who wrote shortly before the systemic crisis of 2007-8, that from now on, the boom would go on forever and everybody could become a millionaire by making the right investments in the stock market.

Also, the student of universal history will find an unmistakable guideline to study the evolution of the oligarchical system, which he described, for example, as a slime mold, which over the centuries may change color and shape, but which essentially always remains in the same character, being a slime mold: Namely, a system where a small oligarchical elite tries to keep all the privileges for themselves, and whose basic interest is to keep the population as backward as possible.

This system was the dominant form in much of the world until the 15th century, when the emergence of the sovereign nation-state, for the first time, produced the idea of the common good as the purpose of the state. Since then, these two orientationsthe oligarchical versus the nation-statehave been in a continuous battle, still waiting to be decided.

The writings of LaRouche provide a pathway from the early forms of civilization to the essential battles of especially European history of the last two and a half thousand years. Based on his profound knowledge of history as essentially a battle of opposing ideas, LaRouche was able in an amazing way to conceptualize any new historical occurrence. When others were puzzled by sudden changes in the strategic or political situation, he was able to place this event and give it a proper name. The reason for his capability had, again, to do with his method of thinking, which had to do with his total mastery of the universe of Platonic ideas and all major thinkers who followed in that tradition, such as Augustinus, the controversies among the neo-Platonists, Nicholas of Cusa, Kepler, Leibniz, et al. As well as his understanding of the complex domain, and the thinking in terms of analysis situs, a notion coming from the geometric considerations of Leibniz.

A whole other area of different strategic proposals and policy outlines, which even if they were made for specific historic situations, still contain valid principles which are applicable today. One such example is the Strategic Defense Initiative, whicheven though it was designed as a solution to the middle-range missile crisis between NATO and the Warsaw Pact in the beginning of the 1980s for the Reagan Presidency and the Soviet government at that timestill remains the most elaborated proposal to establish a new international security and development architecture to replace the curse of geopolitics, until the present day. It contains the essential idea that the only realistic form of disarmament is the agreement to make nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction technologically obsolete, and to enter a form of cooperation which both takes into account the interest of the other, as well as granting more benefit to all sides, than to maintain the adversarial position.

It will be surprising for many to see that LaRouches familiarity with the most profound principles of poetry, drama, and music are as deep as his knowledge of universal principles in the sciences. And it is only from that standpoint that he was able to overcome, methodologically, the artificial division between Naturwissenschaften [cognitive practice of physical science] and Geisteswissenschaften [art and moral law] which had developed in Europe since the times of Savigny and Kant.

The continuous interest of LaRouche, however, was with the issue of creativity per se, as that specific capacity which separates the human species from all other living forms of existence. He was, therefore, most concerned about all aspects and processes which further the creativity of the human mind, and equally about those which lower that capacity, as something which had to be overcome. So, if the student wants to find the key to his own creativity, there is no better way than to study LaRouche, who was convinced that every human being has the potential to become a genius, even if that may take many different forms, since in the realm of creativity the degrees of freedom are limitless.

I have to issue a warning at this point. When I once asked Lyn, how it came to be that he had become such an all-round genius, covering so many areas of knowledge, making so many fundamental breakthroughs in so many fields, he had a very sobering answer. He said, Its a lot of work.

Thank you.
This editorial appears in the September 23, 2022 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.

EDITORIAL

London Ventriloquists Have Their Ukrainian Generals Call for a Preemptive Nuclear Strike on Russia

[Print version of this editorial]

Sept. 14Over the last week, Global NATO has shifted into operational high gear in their plan for war and world dictatorship, in an effort to stop those countries and political forces internationally that are organizing to replace the bankrupt trans-Atlantic financial system with a just, new world economic orderand whose alternative is also now quickly becoming operational.

The shift occurred around the Sept. 8 meeting of NATO and allied countries at the U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany, the now-monthly meeting of the so-called Ukraine Defense Contact Group, whose purpose is to coordinate the war Global NATO is waging against Russia on Ukrainian territory. In preparation for that meeting, the chief of the Ukrainian armed forces Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi co-authored an article published on the Ukrainian news site Ukrinform Sept. 7, which claimed that there were indications that Russia was preparing for a nuclear strike in Ukraine, and that it is therefore extremely necessary  [that] any Russian attempts at practical steps in the use of tactical nuclear weapons must be preempted by employing the entire arsenal of means at the disposal of world powers.

Preempted by employing the entire arsenal of means?!

Be clear: such an outrageously dangerous and provocative article could never have been written, let alone published, without the prior approval of the U.S., UK, and NATO forces running the war.

In fact, on Sept. 13 Kiev released a document specifying its security wish-list in the form of a Kiev Security Compact, drafted by a working group on security co-chaired by Ukraines Chief of the Presidential Office Andrii Yermak and former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The document demands NATO Article 5-type guarantees for Ukraine, meaning direct deployment of NATOs full military might on Ukraines behalf, against Russia.

Russian former President and current Security Council Deputy Chair Dmitry Medvedev slammed the Kiev Security Compact as little more than a prologue to a third world war.

Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche today reiterated the warning she issued yesterday in an interview with Radio China International, that these developments bring us really one step closer to world war. I think people have to wake up: This present policy of confrontation against Russia, and by implication against China as well, is bringing the world very close to a possible world war. She again stressed the import of the Sept. 12 statement by Russias Ambassador to Berlin Sergey Nechayev, that Germanys decision to send advanced weapons to Ukraine is a red line that the German government  should not have crossed.

All of this, on the eve of the Sept. 15-16 meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, which will pull together heads of state and government representing 40% of the worlds populationincluding China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran, and many others. Their discussions will center on the current crisis as a turning point to bring into being a new security and development architecture for their region and the world, broadly centered on Chinese President Xi Jinpings Belt and Road Initiative and its associated Global Development Initiative. This is more than evident to the Western financial establishment. Bloomberg yesterday published an annoyed article under the headline Xi Returns to World Stage with Putin To Counter U.S. Dominance, which grumbled that Xi will be reemerging this week alongside Russias Vladimir Putin to showcase his vision for a viable alternative.

That viable alternative is required in short order if the Wests current economic collapse and war drive are to be defused and defeated. But fortunately there is one at hand. The outspoken and highly respected Russian economist Sergei Glazyev hit the nail on the head in a video-message he sent to Helga Zepp-LaRouche on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of her husband, Lyndon LaRouche:

This year progressive people around the world are observing the centenary of the birth of the brilliant thinker and, I wouldnt hesitate to say, prophet of our time, Lyndon LaRouche. If the leaders of the worlds nations had listened to the voice of Lyndon LaRouche, then perhaps we might have managed to avoid the social upheavals we confront today as a result of the collapse of the world financial and economic system. If Lyndon LaRouche had been elected President, the world today would be developing in a stable fashion. There would not be the growing chaos, there would not be the worldwide wars and provocations.

May his memory live forever.
African Nations Raise Real Issues at UN General Assembly Debate

Sept. 22, 2022 (EIRNS)The real inflection point will be the world attending fully to the needs of the marginalized and forgotten. Our greatest global challenges are poverty, inequality, joblessness, and feeling excluded, said South Africas Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Dr. Naledi Pandor, in her address to the UN General Assembly debate. South Africa, like many other developing countries, faces huge developmental challenges, including in our energy sector, she said. We need to globally address global energy shortages.

In order to achieve development, a new paradigm is needed in the world. She pointed to the need to implement a new mode of collaboration at the UN: It is unacceptable that 77 years after its establishment, five nations wield disproportionate decision-making power in the United Nations system as a whole. Transformation must include more representative, transparent, and accountable organs of global governance. For the UN to be effective, the General Assembly must be revitalized, the Security Council must be reformed. We also cannot have a credible organization if persistent transgressors of the Charter are not held accountable.

She singled out one in particular, and it wasnt Russia: Israel must be held accountable for its destructive actions that have significantly impaired the possibility of a two-state solution.

Kenyas President William Samoei Ruto also called for reforms of the United Nations: Let me express the strong collective conviction of my country that the relevance, legitimacy, and moral authority of the United Nations will forever remain deficient, undermined by the absence of comprehensive reforms of the United Nations Security Council, which he said cannot properly execute its mission if it is undemocratic and unrepresentative.

Both nations called for an end to sanctions against Zimbabwe and Cuba.

President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo added his voice to Security Council reform, calling for two additional non-permanent seats for Africa, and two (perhaps rotating) permanent seats, with veto privileges.

While European leaders spoke about Ukraine, democracies vs. autocracies, and denigrated the Belt and Road Initiative, many nations of the world want a deliberation structure conducive to and an international order oriented around sovereign development, not the pathetic geopolitical intrigues characteristic of humanitys infancy. For example, Kenyas President Ruto stated: Kenya joins the Secretary General in calling for the strengthening of multilateralism as the only sustainable path to a peaceful, stable and prosperous world for all. This is the imperative of our time, and the call of this moment. It is time to work on the trust deficit with stronger conviction that none of us is really safe until all of us are safe.
Ukrainian Social Media Attack on Helga Zepp-LaRouche

Sept. 22, 2022 (EIRNS)A crude attack video, denouncing Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche as a Putin mouthpiece that emits lies, was posted yesterday by a YouTube site called VolunteerInfoN, a site as of July 28, 2022. The 80-second video was produced by Underdog Ukraine, whose Facebook account dates back to April 2022, that produces juvenile superhero cartoon images of Ukrainian heroes. Their lead image is one of a muscular Ukrainian superhero smashing Putins chin, as the Kremlin burns in the background.

The 80-second video shows clips of Zepp-LaRouche with menacing music and the following subtitles:

The Faces of Russian Propaganda

In Germany, the Schiller Institute has turned into a Russian propaganda channel. Its founders promote the narratives that are consistent with what Russia says despite an officially declared neutral stance of this analytical center. Helga Zepp-LaRouche is the founder of the institute. She is one of the voices of the Kremlin in Europe. In her articles and speeches, the politician accuses the West of deliberately attempting to demonize Russia for decades. Zepp-LaRouche blames NATO for the war which the Kremlin started in Ukraine. The Alliance provokes Russia, says Helga Zepp-LaRouche. Instead of supporting Ukraine, world leaders should have listened to Putin and blocked its accession to NATO and the EU, says the Schiller Institute founder. Like the Kremlin, Zepp-LaRouche alleges widespread Russophobia in the world. Freedom of speech, she says, exists today only in Russia. Like most pro-Russian politicians, Helga Zepp-LaRouche speaks against sanctions on Russia. Do not let yourself be deceived! #stoprussianpropaganda

VolunteerInfoN, as one might suspect, has an empty page in their About section, but one can quickly grasp their psychotic mindset. They followed the attack on Zepp-LaRouche by taking video from the city of Donetsk of dead and bloody corpses of women, bombed yesterday by Ukrainian artillery, along with a bombed-out bus, with the explanation: Russian troops shell a market area in Donetsk. Just out-of-control psychotic. (Imagine showing footage of concentration camp victims with a headline, American troops slaughter Jews.)

This doesnt stop contributions to VolunteerInfoN from being handled by Mir & Co Foundation, an outfit founded in August 2014, with a November 2014 grant from George Soross International Renaissance Foundation. For eight years now, Mir & Co has been raising private donations to provide ammunition and equipment for Ukrainian forces. (In 2015, a major delivery provider in Ukraine, Nova Poshta, added Mir & Co to its list of groups that get free serviceso the ammunition shipments qualify.) Mir & Cos role in handling contributions for the startup VolunteerInfoN, is the only other lead presently as to the crude attack upon Zepp-LaRouche; but the SBU has been assigned the role of dealing with her war crime of strategizing and acting for peace.
EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 23, 2022

Will We Survive the Birth Pangs of a New Paradigm?

Sept. 22, 2022 (EIRNS)Are you sure the sun will rise for you tomorrow? Will you still be alive next week? Dont count on it unless you act on it.

The white-hot danger of nuclear war is staring us in the face. It has been coming since the 2014 beginning of the proxy war against Russia conducted on the territory of Ukraine. It has come closer with the series of escalations made by NATO in the face of the unavoidable Russian response to threats to its security. Now that Russian President Putin has come out and said it, has said that nuclear weapons are at Russias disposal if its existence is threatened, even some of those who have swallowed the propaganda up to now are seeing more clearly the awful potential of the end of civilization as we know it.

Referenda are scheduled to begin on Sept. 23 in the Donetsk and Lugansk Peoples Republics, and the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions of Ukraine. If these regions vote to join Russia, and Russia accepts, will Ukrainian military activity there be met as would an attack on Russia itself today? Will you, personally survive, the endgame in that scenario?

As the NATO nations piously and hypocritically gripe about Russia at the UN General Assembly, as they denigrate the Belt and Road Initiative of China, as they demand fealty to the Malthusian God of Climate Change and an end to reliable and economical power, much of the rest of the world has simply had enough.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has called for dialogue, for negotiation, for open channels of diplomacy and economic exchange, as the way to achieve peace. Kenyan President William Samoei Ruto called for multilateralism as the only sustainable path to a peaceful, stable, and prosperous world for all.... It is time to work on the trust deficit with stronger conviction that none of us is really safe until all of us are safe.

Nations watch the United States and the countries of Europe throw away generations of development and advancement as they destroy their economies and living standards in the name of defeating Putin, as they risk global nuclear war rather than tolerate a challenge to unipolarity that they dont even control and certainly dont benefit from.

May the magnitude of the terrifying danger we face provide an opening to bring into being the better world, the economic advance, social progress, and scientific advancement championed by the LaRouche movement.

If you arent scared of the present threat of nuclear extinction, you are not in reality. And if youre not acting to prevent it, soon we may all not exist.
LEXINGTON  The Dawson County District Court has order a psychological evaluation of an Elwood man of discharging a gun and injuring a deputy with a knife while being arrested.

Jeremy Bendler, 36, has been charged with assault of an officer, a Class 2 felony, use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony, Class 2 felony and a second subsequent offense of resisting arrest, a Class 3A felony.

Bendler had been moved to the Reception and Treatment Center in Lincoln while his case was being processed in county court.

Bendler ultimately waived his right to a preliminary hearing and his case was bound over to district court.

Kenneth Harbison, Bendlers attorney, requested a psychological evaluation to determine his competency to participate in further proceedings.

Arraignment in the case has been set for Oct. 17 at 9:30 a.m.

On Tuesday, June 21, deputies with the Dawson County Sheriffs Office arrived at a residence located at Plum Creek Canyon Dr. 12C with a search warrant and an arrest warrant for Bendler, according to court documents.

Chief Deputy Greg Gilg said deputies had approached Bendler regarding a criminal mischief complaint from June 19. However, when they made contact with Bendler at his home, the situation escalated and they ended contact and obtained search and arrest warrants.

Arriving at the home, Bendler was observed on the front porch, naked, according to deputies.

The deputies approached the south side of the residence and stacked up as an entry team, some equipped with shields. They entered the house through an unlocked door and found Bendlers bedroom door, which was locked.

The door was kicked down and the deputies observed what appeared to be a person on the bed, under a bed sheet. This was pulled back and revealed Bendler, allegedly with a gun in his right hand and a knife in his left.

One of the deputies pinned Bendlers right arm down using a shield and he allegedly refused several commands to drop the gun and the knife, according to court documents. Bendler discharged the gun several times before it was taken from him.

During the struggle for the knife, Sgt. Edd Albrecht sustained 1.5 inch and .5 inch lacerations to different parts of his left hand.

Bendler was tased and after visible weapons were taken from him he was placed into handcuffs and moved to a patrol vehicle. Bendler complained of feeling light headed and head pain and was transported to Lexington Regional Health Center. He was later booked into the Dawson County Jail.
At a time when labor market trends  from the Great Resignation to Quiet Quitting  are rattling the business community, some Greater Madison-area organizations continue to stand out as Top Workplaces.

Theyre the ones who provide outstanding cultures, ethics, employee support, fringe benefits and values.

Now is the time to nominate these high-performing area organizations for recognition in Top Workplaces 2023.

Because of the interest in Top Workplaces, the deadline for nominating extraordinary employers in Dane, Sauk, Columbia and Rock counties has been extended to Friday, Nov. 4. Nominations of these public- and private-sector organizations can be made at topworkplaces.com/Madison or by calling 608-234-5446.

This is the fifth straight year that the Wisconsin State Journal has partnered with Energage, a Pennsylvania-based employee engagement and workplace improvement research firm, to identify and recognize workplaces that excel.

Any employer with 35 employees or more can be nominated, from publicly traded firms to early-stage ventures, governmental agencies and nonprofits. The nominations can come from anyone  the public, employees, customers or the organizations themselves.

After the nominations are in, Energage reaches out to them to conduct a free, simple, 24-question employee survey. It then tabulates the results to arrive at the Top Workplaces rankings.

The rankings will be published online on Madison.com and in spring 2023 in a special section in the Wisconsin State Journal. To read last springs special section, visit: bit.ly/topworkplaces22.

In this challenging labor market, Top Workplaces helps organizations attract and retain top talent, boost employee morale and elevate their profile in the community.

Energage conducts Top Workplaces in more than 60 media markets across the nation, including Washington, D.C., Denver, Dallas and Boston.
Michelle Obama is set to embark on a six-city tour this fall behind her upcoming new book, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times.

The full itinerary is listed below.

Tickets go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. local time Sept. 30, ticketmaster.com. Fans can also try for tickets for ducats through Ticketmasters Verified Fan presale platform, which is available at https://verifiedfan.ticketmaster.com/michelleobama through Monday.

The former first lady will be supporting her highly anticipated new book, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times. This book  which follows her No. 1 bestselling memoir Becoming  is due out Nov. 15. In a statement, Obama described Light We Carry as a collection of perspectives and practices Ive used to keep me afloat amid uncertainty.

For more information, visit www.michelleobamabooks.com.

I am so excited to share that I will be heading across the country soon to talk with you all about my new book, The Light We Carry,' Obama said in a statement. Im looking forward to making some new connections  and of course, seeing some familiar faces from the last tour. On this tour, Ill be sharing some personal stories and lessons that have helped me along my path, and I cant wait to tell you more.

Obamas tour stops include Nov. 15 at Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C., Nov. 18 at The Met in Philadelphia; Dec. 3 at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta; Dec. 5 at Chicago Theatre in Chicago; Dec. 10 at The Masonic in San Francisco; and Dec. 13 at YouTube Theater in Los Angeles.


Police were called Wednesday to East High School for an attack on a student and two fights broke out among other students off campus, police and the Madison School District said.

Police said they were called to the school at 2222 E. Washington Ave. just before 2 p.m. after a 16-year-old who had been alone in a classroom during lunch was attacked by four others, including two 17-year-olds who arent East students but attend a different district program.

The parties appeared to have had some past disagreements that led up to this incident, police spokesperson Hunter Lisko said in a statement.

The victim was taken for medical treatment and is expected to make a full recovery, he said.

Separately, in an email to parents Wednesday, East Principal Mikki Smith said three separate altercations, which originated outside of school, took place between a small number of students during the lunch hour, with two of these altercations occurring off campus.

Staff called police to respond to one of the off-campus fights, district spokesperson Tim LeMonds said, but the other was over more quickly. Smith said students returning from lunch off campus were required to show their school IDs to get back into the building. District staff have said lunchtime is often when fights break out.

The Office of School Safety is working with (Madison police) to further investigate these events, Smith said in the email, and East staff will determine disciplinary consequences outlined in the behavior education plan for those students involved.

LeMonds said staff were working with the families of the students involved and it was determined there was no need for additional safety measures beyond what is provided on a daily basis at the school.

Lisko said the investigation into the attack on the 16-year-old is ongoing and that at least two 17-year-olds are expected to face charges, but that the department was not releasing their names.

The incidents Wednesday follow a 2021-22 school year that saw multiple fights or other violence at East that required a police response, including one in November that drew more than 15 police officers and sent five students to the hospital after suffering exposure from police use of pepper spray.

Last school year was the first fully in-person school year since buildings were closed in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the first fully in-person year since the School Board voted to remove police officers, known as school resource officers, from the districts four main high schools.

Police Chief Shon Barnes is asking for money in next years city budget to assign a police officer to the neighborhoods around each of the four main high schools as part of an effort to reinvigorate the citys longtime neighborhood policing program thats been cut in recent years as the department has struggled to meet the need for regular patrol services.

LeMonds has declined to say directly whether the district supports Barnes proposal.

In response to last years violence at East, the new volunteer group Moms on a Mission has been stationing people at the high school during the lunch hour to provide snacks, form relationships with students and de-escalate conflict.

Data on whether the schools and the areas around them have become more dangerous have been muddled or unavailable. Police said in August that from Sept. 1, 2021, to June 15, police had hundreds of calls to the high schools at all hours of the day  specifically, 220 to East, 158 to La Follette, 170 to Memorial and 92 to West.

Editor's note: This story was corrected on Sept. 23, 2022, to specify that the substance used at East High School in November was pepper spray, not tear gas.
Madison will reduce speed limits on two more streets in the final push this year in the citys Vision Zero campaign aimed at curbing traffic deaths.

On Monday, the speed limit on a section of about 1.8 miles of Portage Road from East Washington Avenue to Churchill Heights Park will be cut from 30 miles per hour to 25 miles per hour.

Seven people have been seriously injured since 2016 in crashes on Portage Road, city officials said.

Portage Road is a residential street near Dane County Regional Airport that features many apartment buildings and homes, along with a school and a park.

The city also plans to build an island in the curve on Portage Road in the future, which will help slow traffic along the bend.

Temporary digital signboards and new permanent signs will be used to alert drivers to the speed limit changes.

The final street scheduled for a speed limit reduction this year will be Segoe Road from University Avenue to Odana Road, which will be cut from 30 mph to 25 mph in October.

Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway launched the Vision Zero campaign in 2020 with the goal of eliminating traffic-related deaths and injuries by the end of the decade.

The program also has seen speed limit reductions on portions of East Washington Avenue, Whitney Way, Mineral Point Road, Park Street, John Nolen Drive and Old Sauk Road.
A Sun Prairie woman who last year drove into her partner, pinning his leg beneath a car tire, and barely missed running over her 2-year-old daughter, was sentenced to two years in prison Thursday but could be released sooner if she successfully completes drug treatment.

Alicia L. Walker, 36, was high on multiple drugs when she drove a Ford Fusion into her partner, Aaron Blacks, and three children on Dec. 2 because she was angry with Blacks for not giving her money, prosecutors have said.

Blacks was able to push two of the children, ages 2 and 4, out of the way, but a 2-year-old girl ended up underneath the car and suffered abrasions to her face and leg, Dane County Assistant District Attorney Tracy McMiller said at Walkers sentencing hearing.

Walker pleaded guilty June 3 to two felony counts of recklessly endangering safety with the use of a dangerous weapon and one misdemeanor count of causing injury while driving under the influence.

Blacks on Thursday told Dane County Circuit Judge Chris Taylor that despite suffering a broken leg in the attack, he believed Walker had taken responsibility for it and wanted her released on probation so she could come home.

Ive been hearing the word reunification, he said, which is lovely.

The two have been together more than a decade, he said, and their children miss their mother.

Walker, who has a long criminal record related to her long history of drug abuse, told Taylor that what she did and being separated from her children during the nearly 10 months shes been in the Dane County Jail were the worse possible thing in the world but that Im not a monster and I just dont want you to think that Im this horrible person.

A sentencing memo on Walker from the state Public Defenders Office detailed Walkers troubled upbringing in a home where her mother was an addict and her father was abusive and often in trouble with the law. During an earlier stint in prison, her daughter died from an overdose at the hands of her mother, who had been caring for the child, the report said.

You did not get what you needed and deserved as a child, and I am so very sorry for that, Taylor told Walker, but the case was too serious to sentence her to probation.

She ordered Walker to complete drug treatment while in prison, noting that if she does, she could be eligible for early release.

You hurt (your children) when they see you using drugs, Taylor said. They need you to be sober.

According to prosecutors and the criminal complaint in the case:

Blacks told police that on the day of the attack, Walker picked him up from work while intoxicated. He then took the wheel, and they went to pick up the children and to Walmart, during which she was flipping out and asking him for money.

He eventually stopped in traffic, took the children out of the car and began walking and told investigators he tried to call friends or a social worker to pick them up.

As they walked, he said, he saw Walker, now in the drivers seat of the car, first following them, then coming at them. He said he grabbed their 2-year-old daughter and pushed the other two children out of the way before he was struck by the car.

The girl slipped from his hands, he said, and she ended up next to the cars front passenger side tire, under the cars front bumper, while his leg was pinned under the car.

Walker will also have to complete four years of extended supervision once released from prison.
Chinese economy reshaped by decade of phenomenal development

Xinhua) 08:16, September 23, 2022

Photo taken on Jan. 2, 2021 shows the light show at the Lujiazui area in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Wang Xiang)

BEIJING, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- China's economic landscape has been reshaped over the past decade. From higher incomes to carbon-conscious policies to wider opening-up, phenomenal progress has been achieved in the country.

China's gross domestic product (GDP) crossed the 100-trillion-yuan (about 14.33 trillion U.S. dollars) threshold in 2020, a new milestone for the world's second largest economy. The figure further expanded to over 114 trillion yuan in 2021, contributing over 30 percent to world economic growth.

Back in 2012, its GDP stood at around 53.86 trillion yuan, accounting for about 11.5 percent of the global total.

Sustained economic expansion has brought about encouraging improvements at home: people have more money in hand, and growth has been guided toward a path that features green development and high-level opening-up.

BETTER LIFE FOR PEOPLE

Hu Zucai, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that the country had made historic advances in people's quality of life over the past decade, with visible changes seen in various aspects.

In 2021, China declared the elimination of absolute poverty, having lifted nearly 100 million rural poor out of poverty over the previous eight years.

Supported by rapid growth, Chinese people have become more affluent. Official data showed that per capita disposable income in the country hit 35,128 yuan in 2021, more than double the level in 2012.

Higher incomes have shored up the rise of the middle-income group, with China now boasting over 400 million middle-income earners, compared with the 2010 level of over 100 million.

People's health has been made a policy priority. Over the past decade, the world's most populous country has continued to press ahead with medical and healthcare system reform, seeking to provide affordable and quality medical services for the public.

So far, China has managed several instances of centralized bulk-buying of drugs and high-value medical consumables, helping people slash a total of 300 billion yuan off their medical bills.

PURSUIT OF SUSTAINABILITY

In 2020, China announced that it will peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, a move that has won wide recognition in the international community.

Domestically, across-the-board improvements in the environment, as reflected in major air and water quality indicators, mirrored its consistent efforts to decarbonize the economy, tackle pollution and protect the natural ecosystem.

The low-carbon shift requires a higher share of renewables in energy structure. During the past 10 years, China has phased out coal used in heating in over 27 million rural households, while stepping up the development of installed renewable energy capacity. The country is top globally in its installed capacities of wind, photovoltaic, hydro and biomass power.

Aimed at spurring carbon-cutting endeavors, China launched a national carbon-trading market in July 2021, the world's largest in terms of the amount of greenhouse gas emissions covered.

Institutional innovation has also been achieved to protect and treasure the ecosystem. After introducing ecological "red lines" in 2017, China completed drawing up ecological conservation lines nationwide last year, demarcating no less than 25 percent of its land area for protection.

Thanks to its green drive, China has cut its carbon emission intensity by 34.4 percent over the past 10 years. Green has become a prominent color in economic and social development, said Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu.

UNWAVERING OPENING-UP

Uncertain and volatile as the world has been over the past decade, China has remained committed to pursuing high-level opening-up, building itself into a land of opportunity, while engaging more deeply in the global economy.

China's trade in goods and services totaled 6.9 trillion U.S. dollars in 2021, expanding from 4.4 trillion U.S. dollars in 2012 and securing the top position globally for two consecutive years.

Also expanding is its "friend circle." While cementing economic ties with traditional trading partners, the country has actively explored emerging markets in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Africa and beyond.

As a popular destination for foreign investment, China has held its appeal over the past decade with faster institutional opening-up at home.

The country's negative list for foreign investment has been shortened for five consecutive years since 2017, and laws and regulations, including the Foreign Investment Law, were put into force to step up protection for foreign investors.

Even in the pandemic-battered year of 2021, foreign direct investment in the Chinese mainland, in actual use, surpassed 1 trillion yuan for the first time. It marked the country's first double-digit growth in nearly a decade.

On top of that, China has also been active in setting up platforms to facilitate trade. Despite disruptions caused by the pandemic, multiple expos have been hosted, including the China International Import Expo, the China International Fair for Trade in Services, and the China International Consumer Products Expo.

Building on these hard-won achievements over the past decade, the country has set goals for the new development stage, and is poised to pen new stories of economic success.

China will strive to make new strides in economic development, with measures to take new steps in reform and opening-up, achieve new progress in building an ecological civilization, and boost the wellbeing of people, among others, according to the country's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025).

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
The University of Wisconsin System has seen its highest new student enrollment since 2018, before the COVID-19 pandemic, at its main campuses this year, but overall enrollment has dropped 1% compared to last year, according to data released Thursday.

Preliminary estimates based on the first day of classes show 26,442 first-year students, including freshmen and first-year transfers, enrolled this fall compared to 25,869 in fall 2021 and 25,602 in fall 2018, according to the System.

Overall enrollment dropped 1%, or about 1,500 students, from 162,980 in 2021 to 161,430 in 2022, according to the estimates. This result was expected after the pandemic affected two years of enrollment, UW System spokesperson Mark Pitsch said in a statement.

Campuses seeing enrollment increases are UW-Madison, UW-Green Bay and UW-Superior. Enrollment at UW-La Crosse has remained even, and the remainder of the campuses have decreased, the estimates show.

The UW-Stevens Point Wausau campus saw the largest enrollment decrease of 25%  from 531 students in fall 2021 to 397 students in 2022. The UW-Green Bay Manitowoc campus saw the largest enrollment increase of 24%  from 341 students in fall 2021 to 422 in 2022. UW-Madison, the Systems largest campus, saw a 5% increase in enrollment, from 47,824 in fall 2021 to 50,001 in 2022.

The System attributed the overall enrollment drop to fewer high school graduates in the pipeline and uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic. But System President Jay Rothman said the first-year enrollment figures this fall suggest an improved outlook in enrollment.

The System has implemented strategies to increase access to post-secondary education on UW campuses, which include making ACT scores optional, an easier application process to multiple universities, and an application fee waiver.

We will continue to demonstrate to students, parents, and the public that theres no better value than the UW System, Rothman said. Wisconsin is counting on us.

Rothman said he hopes the Wisconsin Tuition Promise  an initiative due to start in fall 2023 to allow students who come from families making less than $62,000 annually to attend a UW university without paying tuition or fees  will encourage more low- and middle-income students to enroll in the coming years.

Wisconsin is facing ongoing workforce challenges, and it is critical that the UW relentlessly focus on developing talent and graduates to ensure our state is competitive and economically vibrant, Rothman said.

Final enrollment figures based on the 10th day of classes  the standard measure of enrollment and the figure that will be officially reported to the U.S. Department of Education  will differ slightly from the preliminary estimates based on the first day of classes. Some students enroll or discontinue studies after the first day of classes, Pitsch said.
HUTCHINSON, Kan.  Governors races often are overshadowed by the fight for control of Congress during midterm elections. But this fall, which candidate wins a states top executive post could be pivotal for the nations political future.

With abortion rights, immigration policies and democracy itself in the balance, both parties are entering the final weeks before the Nov. 8 election prepared to spend unprecedented amounts of money to win seats for governor. Those elected will be in power for the 2024 election, when they could influence voting laws as well as certification of the outcome. And their powers over abortion rights increased greatly when the U.S. Supreme Court in June left the question to states to decide.

Governors races matter more than ever, said North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, chair of the Democratic Governors Association, the group working to elect Democrats to lead states.

For Democrats, Cooper said, governors are often the last line of defense on issues that have been turned over to states, including gun laws and voting rights in addition to abortion. Thats been especially true in places with Democratic governors and Republican-controlled legislatures, such as Wisconsin and Kansas  states both parties have made top targets for victory in November. Democrats are leading Republican candidates in two important battleground states with GOP-led statehouses, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Kansas again

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly is the only Democratic governor running for reelection in a state carried by former President Donald Trump in 2020. The former legislator won the office in 2018 against a fiery conservative after running as a moderate who promoted bipartisanship.

She now faces three-term state Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who has repeatedly tried to tie her to President Joe Biden and criticized her as too liberal for the red state. Schmidts campaign has been hurt, however, by a third-party bid from a conservative state lawmaker.

During a debate at the Kansas State Fair this month, Schmidt portrayed Kellys position on abortion as too extreme, telling a crowd she supports abortion without restrictions.

Kansas has been the unlikely site of Democratic hopes in regard to abortion rights. In August, Kansas voters overwhelmingly defeated a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would have allowed the GOP-controlled Legislature to greatly restrict or ban abortion. Kelly opposed the measure, though she has tried to focus her campaign elsewhere.

Schmidt said he respects the outcome of the vote but that the abortion debate isnt over.

What was not on the ballot was Governor Kellys position, he said.

Throughout nearly two decades in elective politics, Kelly has opposed nearly every restriction on abortion now in Kansas law. But asked about Schmidts characterization of her position on abortion, she said, You know, I have never said that.

Kelly hasnt emphasized abortion as an issue, though many Democrats think it would help her. Instead, she has been touting the states fiscal strength and her work to lure businesses and jobs.

Maybe Im not flashy, but Im effective, she said at the end of the state fair debate.

Wisconsin

In Wisconsin, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers warns voters that democracy is on the ballot this fall and notes he has vetoed more bills than any governor in modern state history, including measures Republicans pushed to change how elections are conducted.

Evers faces businessman Tim Michels, who was endorsed by Trump. Michels has claimed the 2020 presidential election was rigged  a lie Trump has pushed in an effort to overturn his loss to Biden  and supports changes to voting and election laws in the state, a perennial presidential battleground.

Michels is among several Trump-backed nominees who emerged from sometimes brutal GOP primaries. In some cases, more moderate or establishment Republicans warned that the far-right pick endorsed by Trump would struggle to win in a general election.

Arizona

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, chair of the Republican Governors Association, acknowledged the intraparty turmoil during a discussion at Georgetown Universitys Institute of Politics and Public Service last week.

Were a divided nation right now, and it is very tribal. And much of that crept into this cycle, said Ducey, who is term-limited.

The RGA doesnt endorse in primaries. But as governor, Ducey endorsed businesswoman Karrin Taylor Robson for Arizonas GOP nomination for governor. She lost to former TV news anchor Kari Lake, who had Trumps backing.

Ducey and Trump have feuded over the governors refusal to cede to Trumps wishes and overturn the 2020 election results in his state. Lake has said she would not have certified Bidens victory, even though it has been affirmed by multiple reviews.

Cooper said the DGA will be leaning in hard in Arizona as well as in a tight contest in Georgia, where GOP Gov. Brian Kemp is facing Democrat Stacey Abrams, a former state legislative leader who lost a close 2018 race to him. In the primary, Kemp easily defeated former Sen. David Perdue, who was endorsed by Trump.

Plenty of money

Both the Democratic and Republican governors associations entered 2022 having raised record amounts of money  over $70 million each  in what they say is a sign that voters are increasingly focused on state races. Cooper attributed some of the increased interest to Trumps efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

The RGA is bullish about defending Republican governorships in Arizona and Georgia, and is heavily focused on picking up a handful of blue states in the West, including Oregon and New Mexico.

At the top of the list is Nevada, where Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo is among Republicans most prized recruits this election cycle and is challenging Gov. Steve Sisolak.

In Oregon, GOP hopes rest on an independent candidate siphoning enough support from the Democrat and allowing the Republican to pull out a victory.

Democrats, meanwhile, are confident they will take back governorships in Massachusetts and Maryland, two blue states currently led by moderate Republicans, after far-right Republicans won their partys nominations.

Pennsylvania, a top presidential battleground, is another state where the GOP nominee could hurt Republicans chances in November. GOP voters chose Doug Mastriano from a crowded field, picking a Trump-backed candidate who opposes abortion rights without exceptions, spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and organized bus trips to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the day of the violent insurrection. He faces Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

Asked about the race during the discussion at Georgetown, Ducey was blunt.

Another axiom that we have at the RGA is that we dont fund lost causes, and we dont fund landslides, he said.

In Michigan, a swing state where Trump and his allies also tried unsuccessfully to overturn his 2020 loss, Trump-backed nominee Tudor Dixon won a chaotic GOP primary. Democrats have repeatedly criticized Dixon for her stance against abortion, including in cases of rape or incest. A measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution also will be on the November ballot, and Democrats are hoping it will help their candidates.

First-term Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has millions more in her campaign fund than Dixon, but said after an appearance at the Detroit Auto Show that she was taking nothing for granted.

This is Michigan, and its always tight in Michigan, she said.
With cathedral ceilings and spa-like treatment rooms, the $70 million Usona Institute building going up next to Promega Corp.s campus in Fitchburg is expected to become a national hub for the use of psychedelic drugs to treat depression and other mental health conditions.

Usona, co-founded by Promega CEO Bill Linton in 2014, is spearheading an effort to get psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, approved for major depressive disorder. The nonprofit is also providing psilocybin for research on other uses, which may include anxiety, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and nicotine, alcohol, opioid and methamphetamine addiction.

The institute is developing a synthetic version of 5-MeO-DMT, a psychoactive substance found in the venom of the Sonoran Desert toad, and plans to start the first U.S. study in humans this fall. Usona scientists are also tweaking and screening chemical compounds in an effort to discover other mind-altering drugs that might be therapeutic.

The 93,000-square-foot facility, expected to open in fall 2023 on 17 wooded acres northwest of Promegas headquarters off East Cheryl Parkway, will feature education and training areas for psychedelic drug researchers and providers from around the country.

In a floating pool, sauna, steam room and botanical room, patients will be able to prepare themselves for guided, hallucinogenic experiences in serene spaces, with the goal of helping them break free from the grip of mental anguish. Three residential cottages are planned.

Their hope is for some sort of personal transformation, Linton said. Its my belief that people are undergoing a change in self-awareness, a re-set of who am I?

The development of a headquarters for Usona, now housed in other Promega buildings, comes amid a growing national profile for psychoactive medicine. Its a comeback of sorts, after studies of psilobycin, LSD and other psychedelics for mental disorders in the 1960s were stopped after what were considered excesses of recreational use resulted in the drugs becoming illegal in 1970.

By the first half of 2024, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve MDMA, sometimes called Ecstasy or Molly, for PTSD, federal officials said in May.

The drugs act on specific brain receptors to change perception and cognition, with psilocybin having a very low risk of addiction because it doesnt seem to involve the addictive reward circuitry of the brain, scientists say. The benefits can come from just one or two doses.

There has been a resurgence, I think, of the interest in psychedelic drugs, which for a while were sort of considered not an area that researchers legitimately ought to go after, Dr. Francis Collins, then-director of the National Institutes of Health, said during a U.S. Senate budget hearing last year. I think as weve learned more about how the brain works, weve begun to realize that these are potential tools for research purposes and might be clinically beneficial.

Transformative experience

It was a friends relief from depression during late-stage cancer that got Linton tuned into the psychedelic revival. In a study at Johns Hopkins, the friend, whom Linton identifies publicly only as Betty, took psilocybin and was transformed, he said. The experience greatly improved her life and her familys lives during the few months before she died, he said.

Her whole demeanor changed, Linton said. She went from this state of deep depression to a sense of gratitude, feeling that each day was a gift.

Linton and Dr. Malynn Utzinger, a family medicine and integrative medicine provider who graduated from the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, created Usona to shepherd psilocybin through the multi-phase clinical trial process required for FDA approval.

Usona expects to start a phase 1 study of 5-MeO-DMT, the toad compound, in Kansas City in November. While recreational use of the substance and studies in Europe have involved inhaling it as a vapor, Linton said Usonas approach is an injection into the arm.

Studies have suggested 5-MeO-DMT might have benefits for anxiety, depression and stress, but its not clear what condition Usona will target. We believe it offers a lot of therapeutic potential, but we havent decided what that indication is going to be, Linton said.

Usonas synthetic versions of psilocybin and 5-MeO-DMT have been manufactured in Northern Ireland. But production is being transferred to Promegas new Chappelle Manufacturing Center, on Sub-Zero Parkway about three miles west of Promega headquarters. The facility can make psilocybin, 5-MeO-DMT and other compounds in clean-room conditions required for commercial use.

Scaling up

In Usonas research and development lab at Promega, medicinal chemist Alex Sherwood and his colleagues are synthesizing metabolites of psilocybin and 5-MeO-DMT to be used as references in the analysis of blood samples from clinical study participants.

In an effort to understand the mechanisms of action of psychedelics to develop improved drugs, theyre studying MDMA, LSD, mescaline and other psychoactive substances, synthesizing reconfigured compounds and participating in the National Institute of Mental Healths Psychoactive Drug Screening Program.

The goal of this lab is to produce small amounts of many things, Sherwood said.

Next door, Sam Williamson is refining ways of making large quantities of psilocybin and 5-MeO-DMT.

The idea is to have the perfect process to make these huge, massive batches, said Williamson, a process development research scientist.

In 2020, Usona scientists published their process for synthesizing psilocybin, allowing others to produce their own supply for research. Scientists can also obtain psilocybin for studies from Usona at minimal cost. Usona provides psilocybin, 5-MeO-DMT and other compounds to some 120 research centers around the world.

Patent challenges

Last year, Usona started Porta Sophia, an online library of research findings and other information on psilocybin and other psychedelics, to show patent seekers and examiners what is already in the public domain.

Porta Sophia has challenged numerous claims in Compass patent applications. They include some describing the setting in which psilocybin is given, such as the patient using an eye mask and being in a room with muted colors and soft furniture. The company recently canceled those claims.

We support good patents, on things that are truly innovative, Linton said.

Denver became the first U.S. city to effectively decriminalize psilocybin in 2019, with 10 other cities and the state of Oregon now having taken that step or made possession of small amounts the lowest law enforcement priority, according to Psychedelic Alpha.

While Linton supports decriminalization, he said Usona and its new facility are focused on helping people with major depression, with which an estimated 21 million Americans have at least one episode each year.

This is the first center ... specifically designed with this in mind, Linton said. It offers an opportunity for that change to occur with one single treatment, which is quite remarkable.
The man who shot and seriously injured a Kenosha police officer in August 2020 was sentenced to 48 years in prison Wednesday afternoon.

Jonathan T. Massey, 31, was sentenced to 48 years in prison for attempted first-degree intentional homicide, possession of a firearm by a felon and two counts of bail jumping.

Massey shot Officer Justin Pruett after the officer stopped to speak to him because he matched the description of a suspect in a vehicle entry complaint in the 4600 block of Sheridan Road on Aug. 8, 2020.

In an encounter partially captured on squad video, Massey shot Pruett in the abdomen around 5 a.m. around 13th Avenue and 50th Street. He shot Pruett after the officer deployed a Taser when Massey refused to cooperate, became combative and began pulling something out of his pants.

Pruett sustained serious injuries and had to undergo emergency surgery to save his life.

Massey, a convicted felon with a long criminal history, fled the state after shooting the officer. He was eventually arrested by U.S. Marshals on Aug. 12, 2020, in Gary, Indiana.

Pruett told the court theres things that will never be healed and that his family worries about him whenever he leaves for work.

Pruett, a U.S. Navy veteran, said that the injury left him unable to hold his newborn child after he was born because he couldnt lift more than a few pounds after his surgery.

Still, Pruett said I love this job, I love what I do, I love this community.

Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley told the court that Massey will simply not abide by any rules and he will engage in violence to those in authority.

This is a lifetime pattern of (criminal) conduct, Graveley added. Ive never seen an individual who showed less remorse.

In an interview with the Kenosha News following the sentencing Graveley said its heartening to hear that Pruett is still proud to serve the citizens of Kenosha.

Massey said he believes he did nothing wrong.

If I wanted to kill him I would have kept shooting, Massey said. Im furious. Im angry.

Massey became increasingly argumentative Wednesday during his sentencing hearing before Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Jason Rossell. Massey, who repeatedly cursed at Rossell and the local law enforcement officials in the courtroom, was escorted out by sheriffs deputies when he refused to cooperate and listen to the judges sentencing instructions.

Masseys actions in court Wednesday echoed the disorderly conduct he displayed when convicted of his crimes in June. Following the guilty verdict, Massey threw a water pitcher across the courtroom and threatened Rossell and law enforcement officers.

You dont handle (anger) well, Rossell told Massey before he was escorted out. You shot Officer Pruett because you were angry. ... You have no ability to control your anger.

I think the sentence is one the will protect the public and thats the priority in this case, Graveley told the News.

Massey was represented by attorney Michael Cicchini.

Long criminal history

Masseys criminal history includes numerous felony convictions, beginning with a 2006 armed robbery case that landed Massey in state prison for five years. That case involved a victim and her three children being robbed at gunpoint.

Other convictions, according to records, include:

In 2012, he was convicted of misdemeanor counts of battery and disorderly conduct and received 10 months in the Kenosha County Jail.

In 2014, a conviction for felony substantial battery, which ended with an 18-month state prison sentence that ran concurrently to the 2006 case.

In 2019, Massey was convicted of misdemeanor marijuana possession, which landed him with a six-month county jail term.

Also in 2019, he was convicted of felony bail jumping and misdemeanor obstructing and was given one year in the county jail.

He is also facing felony charges for his June outburst when he threatened those in court. Hes schedule to appear in court in October.
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The Badgers travel to Columbus, Ohio, to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes, arguably the toughest team in the Big Ten (and definitely the most evil). Bucky will have to be as brash and resourceful as Han Solo to defeat this Evil Empire.
Republicans' chances of beating Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona are fading, a sign of the broader struggle the party is experiencing of late as it fights to retake the Senate majority, according to one prominent political handicapper.

On Thursday, the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter moved the Arizona race from its "toss up" category to "leans Democratic," signaling that Kelly now has the advantage over Republican nominee Blake Masters.

In explaining the ratings change, Cook Political Report Senate editor Jessica Taylor notes that Kelly has crushed Masters in fundraising --- and that has translated into a massive edge in terms of TV ad spending. "Democratic groups and Kelly have spent or reserved nearly $65 million during the general election period, compared to almost $16.2 million for GOP groups and Masters," she writes. (Taylor adds that Masters' campaign isn't running any ads at all this week.)

Masters' past controversial statements -- he has praised the Unabomber, suggested that the January 6 attack was a false flag operation, theorized that the US should not have gotten involved in World War I or II, etc. -- also appear to have done real damage with voters.

"In conversations with several Republicans both in the state or watching the overall Senate battleground, Arizona has moved down their list of flippable states, with many even seeing Pennsylvania -- a rating which we shifted last month but where Democrat John Fetterman has faced an onslaught of ads on crime and persistent questions about his health -- as more likely now to stay in the GOP column than winning Arizona," concludes Taylor.

Arizona's new rating is notable because at the outset of the 2022 election cycle, the race, along with Georgia, was seen by many as the most likely pickup opportunity for Republicans. The state had long been a Republican stronghold, although Democrats had made gains of late with Joe Biden carrying it in 2020 and Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema winning in 2018.

But the problems experienced by Masters -- and the Arizona GOP more generally -- are indicative of how Donald Trump (and Trumpism) have roiled the party and left it more vulnerable in general elections.

Masters emerged from a crowded primary in August thanks in no small part to Trump's endorsement. "Blake knows that the 'Crime of the Century' took place, he will expose it and also, never let it happen again," Trump said in announcing his pick. Masters responded by calling Trump "a great man and a visionary."

Once Masters won the nomination, however, he immediately began trying to scrub -- literally -- some of his past positions. Gone from his website was previous language on abortion restrictions. Ditto his views on election denialism. By way of explanation, Masters' campaign has said that the candidate himself updates the policy section of his website and views it as a "living document" as opposed to a static set of beliefs.

Masters is not alone in struggling to adjust to the differing challenges of the general election. In Pennsylvania, Republican Mehmet Oz has fallen behind Fetterman in the state's open-seat Senate race. And in Ohio, Republican JD Vance finds himself in a surprisingly close contest with Democrat Tim Ryan in the race to replacing retiring GOP Sen. Rob Portman.

All three Republicans find themselves stuck in the horns of the dilemma currently facing the GOP. To win their primaries, they needed to embrace Trump and the often extreme positions of the Republican base. (All three won the former President's endorsement.) But now, as their party's nominees, those same policies are decidedly detrimental to their chances of winning a general election.

And that awkward dance is jeopardizing Republicans' chances in what once looked like a near-certainty: winning the Senate majority this fall.

The-CNN-Wire

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CASTLEFORD  Castleford School District will celebrate the opening of its new preschool program with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house 5:30-7 p.m. Wednesday at the school.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at 5:45 p.m.

We are thrilled to be able to offer preschool for the first time, Castleford School District Superintendent Dena Allred said. Early childhood education is one of the best ways to help young children prepare for elementary school and start learning.

The preschool will help fill a void because there are no licensed childcare centers in Castleford, meaning the only available options are miles away in Twin Falls and Filer, school officials said.

The new preschool program opened earlier this month and enrollment is 11 students, ages 4-5. It operates from 7:40-11:30 a.m. Tuesday-Friday.

The preschool program is the result of partnerships between the Castleford School District, the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children and the Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health, which supported the district with $45,000 in funding.
TWIN FALLS  Yogurt giant Chobani has committed to hiring 200 refugees over the next three years as part of an effort to support people who have fled Ukraine and other countries.

The announcement was made Monday during the U.S. Business Summit on Refugees, organized by the Tent Partnership for Refugees, a group founded by Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya.

Chobani is one of 45 major employers who recently announced new commitments to hire 22,725 refugees in full-time positions in the U.S.

The commitment will involve positions in both the Twin Falls and Norwich, New York, locations.

Amazon officials said it will hire at least 5,000 refugees over three years.

The summit is the first in a series of milestones to continue to mobilize companies in support of refugees, organizers said.

The American business community is showing incredible leadership, and I am so proud of the companies standing up for refugees today, Ulukaya said. These companies will benefit from welcoming these hard-working, loyal, and resilient individuals.

The U.S. is set to welcome hundreds of thousands of refugees in the coming years, including almost 100,000 Afghans, 100,000 Ukrainians who have fled Russias invasion, and up to 125,000 refugees per year from other parts of the world who will arrive through the resettlement program, officials said.
Somehow it just doesnt seem right, Sharla Bessire said, who has family members buried at the cemetery and has bought plots in the section near where the pipes will be laid. Maybe I just dont understand what the city is doing.
Shooter was what she heard, a witness said, before she pulled her mother and 4-year-old daughter down to the ground at Macys.

Her mother still held the shoes she intended to buy when they began to run for their lives.

My 4-year-old daughter still doesnt want to go to the mall because she is scared that the man will come and kill her, a mother of five wrote in a witness statement originally in Spanish. I live in horror listening to my 4-year-old say this. Since that day, I can no longer live my life peacefully without being afraid.

The shooter walked through the Boise Towne Square mall for 24 minutes before opening fire last October, killing two and injuring several more.

Police investigations into the matter detail the minute-by-minute events on the afternoon of Oct. 25, and how a chance encounter with 26-year-old security guard Jo Acker, a transgender woman, prompted a man to open fire on her.

He then fired more bullets into a crowded shopping mall and killed a second person, Roberto Padilla Arguelles, a Latino man. Police were at the scene of the crime in under three minutes.

Hundreds of pages of recently released documents obtained by the Idaho Statesman through a public records request  including officer incident reports, investigative documents and witness statements  paint an image of the shooter, who investigators found was estranged from his family and had sent messages to relatives that had disturbed them.

The shooter also had a YouTube channel, as previously reported by the Statesman, and was a strident proponent of open-carrying guns.

Bystanders hid in bathrooms, under tables and in racks of clothing. One woman was on the phone with her neighbor when she heard gunshots and hid.

She saw Jacob Bergquist come over near where she and others were hiding and look right at them before shooting near them. I am going to kill you all, she heard him say.

Bergquist shot himself in the head behind a dumpster near Dave and Busters. This took place less than seven minutes after he began shooting in the mall, according to police.

Authorities said they found no motive in the killings and do not think he knew the victims. But his YouTube channel contained hateful comments and racial slurs about Hispanic groups, and in a phone call during the shooting spree, his father recalled him saying the word transgender.

Treasure Valley police also had contact with the shooter prior to that day, in documented reports where officers were suspicious about a man carrying a gun. After fleeing the mall, the shooter encountered and fired upon police officers. A stray bullet of his struck a woman in the face as she drove on Milwaukee Street. The 465-page police report, released by the Boise Police Department nearly a year after the events, was first reported by the Idaho Press.

Sequence of events

Bergquist, 27, entered the Dillards department store at the mall at 1:26 p.m. Oct. 25. After walking around, he bought food at Sbarro, a pizzeria, and stayed in the malls food court until 1:41 p.m., the report found. He then walked through the mall and was contacted by Acker, who was wearing a bright yellow uniform.

At 1:50 p.m. the two spoke for about 20 seconds before Bergquist turned to walk away, then drew the gun from the holster on his left hip, turned and fired multiple times, striking and immediately killing (Acker), the report said. He shot Acker four times.

Bergquist then fired into the mall, striking another victims clothing.

He went into Macys and shot at Padilla Arguelles, 49, who was on an escalator. An officer later found what appeared to be gunshot wounds on Padilla Arguelles lower right arm, right chest, back shoulder (two), right cheek and the upper right of his head.

He was declared dead at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise around an hour after the shooting.

Bergquist continued to fire his gun as he ran through the department store, including at three women hiding under a table, the report said. The women were injured but not hit by bullets.

After leaving the mall, Bergquist encountered two Boise police officers inside a marked vehicle and fired at them. Bullets hit the car, and one broke apart and hit an officer in the eye. The woman driving on Milwaukee Street was hit by a bullet on the right side of her jaw, and the bullet continued through the drivers side window. She survived.

Shortly afterward, Bergquist was seen by an officer sitting and wearing a hooded sweatshirt that was covered in blood, according to the report.

I cannot erase the shooter's face from my mind'

The mother of five was at Macys when she heard gunshots and saw a man in dark clothing shooting outside the store. She pulled her mother and daughter down on the floor.

After hearing more gunshots, they ran. Once at an emergency exit, the womans mother still had the shoes she was going to buy.

She asked me what she should do with them, the woman said, and she told her to leave the shoes inside.

The three of them ran through the parking lot.

We were very scared, crying because we did not know anything about my grandma, the woman said. She was also with us at the mall but she was at a different store.

The woman stopped a couple in their car and asked for help, and were given a ride to their car. After talking to a man by her car, the woman finally saw her 81-year-old grandmother walking through the parking lot.

It was a very, very horrible experience; it is not the same to see a shooting happen on television or for someone to tell you there was a shooting, she said, noting she has trouble sleeping. I cannot erase the shooters face from my mind. I feel the sound of the bullets in my ears.

Strange and delusional' text messages

Police identified Bergquist as the lone suspect in the mall shooting.

About 37 minutes after he shot himself, Ada County Dispatch received a call from a man believed to be his father who wanted to check on him.

The man, whose name is redacted, noted that Bergquist had many guns.

At 1:51 p.m., seconds after Bergquist shot Acker, the man received a call from him, in which Bergquist stated he had just killed or shot a lot of people, according to a police interview.

Bergquist told the man that he and the family were to blame for what happened.

Bergquist was breathing heavily and was mumbling, and the man recalled Jacob saying the word transgender during this call, according to the interview.

Before hanging up, Bergquist said, I have to go kill myself now.

Investigators found that Bergquist was very interested in firearms and open-carried a handgun on his left hip, the report said.

But police said they did not find motivating documents.

No evidence was found during the search of Bergquists residence, cellphone and social media that would indicate he had any documented plans to carry out such an act of violence. There is nothing to suggest Bergquist knew any of the victims, the report said. Security officers reported having contact with Bergquist in the past, but nothing had been documented.

Before the shooting, Bergquist had made efforts to reconcile with his family after being estranged, police interviews found. He told family he felt he was going to die soon and believed the family had turned against him and was playing a joke on him.

One family member believed he worked at a dry cleaning business in Boise, and police said they believed he moved to Idaho at the end of 2020 or in early 2021.

A woman who lived in the same mobile home park as Bergquist told police he had lived there about six months and was always dressed in black and armed with a pistol. Occasionally, he carried an AR-15 rifle.

Two days before the shooting, she said, she saw him pacing in front of her trailer, talking loudly and looking angry. The day before the shooting, he sent strange and delusional texts to a family member, which continued into the night and the following day, up until a half-hour before the shooting, according to one interview.

After the shooting, the man who appeared to be Bergquists father told police he was hopeful his son had been confused about what occurred.

Jacob had not been in trouble for any violent crimes in the past and had moved to Idaho because he could legally open carry his firearms, the man told police.
Career politicians Mike Simpson and Russ Fulcher are refusing to debate their opponents because they cannot defend the extreme positions they have taken, say Wendy Norman and Kaylee Peterson.

Norman is running against Simpson in Idahos 2nd Congressional District; Peterson opposes Fulcher in the 1st Congressional District.

These professional politicians think their party labels and their huge war chests will carry them through, so they feel free to do whatever furthers their careers, Norman said. They are afraid to face the voters and try to defend the things they have done that are against Idahos interests.

Peterson said Fulcher votes with the extreme right-wing in Congress but runs from his record at home. He consistently puts politics over country. Refusing to debate is a slap in the face to voters.

Public discourse is a bedrock principle of our democracy, Norman said. It is insulting to the people of the 2nd District for Simpson to turn his back on them.

Peterson and Norman said voters should send a message in November. We need to hold their feet to the fire, they said. If we let them get away with this, theyll continue to put their own interests ahead of the interests of Idaho. We need to remind them of who they work for.
NAMPA  A 57-year-old woman has been arrested after police alleged she attempted to hire someone to kill her husband.

Hsiang Jung Chen of Nampa was arrested on suspicion of criminal solicitation to commit first-degree murder, according to a news release from the Nampa Police Department.

Chen was booked into the Canyon County Jail on Thursday without incident, according to police and online jail records.

At 11:24 a.m. Thursday, the department received information about the alleged felony from Chens husband, police said. A Nampa officer then contacted the husband and detectives, with the help of an unidentified person that had a business relationship with Chen, were able to set up a controlled meeting with Chen, according to Nampa police.

Nampa Police spokesperson Carmen Boeger told the Idaho Statesman by email that the department has been in contact with the man that Chen attempted to hire and he wont be facing any criminal charges because he didnt do anything illegal.

Authorities said the husband is safe and uninjured and the investigation is ongoing.
TWIN FALLS  Its been a tough irrigation year, the canal companys general manager said.

No doubt about it.

But with the irrigation season winding down, Twin Falls Canal Co. general manager Jay Barlogi says most farmers got their crops grown.

On Thursday, the company announced its shutoff date of Oct. 14.

I think by and large they made it, Barlogi said. They have been supportive of us and I think they are thankful that we tried to extend the water supply.

The canal company started the year delivering five-eighths of an inch per share and in late July cut it to one-half inch.

Now, Barlogi is hoping for a wetter winter and for the drought to ease.

It is too early to predict what the water supply for the 2023 irrigation season will be at this time, Barlogi said in a written statement, however, knowing that the reservoir system is extremely low going into the winter months, leaves us no doubt that we need an above normal snowpack this winter.

As of Thursday, the Upper Snake River Reservoir System held only 15% of its overall capacity. The two reservoir systems that hold Twin Falls Canal Co. storage rights are American Falls Reservoir at 5% capacity, and Jackson Lake Reservoir at 19%.

With the reservoir systems water storage at just 41 percent of average, its essentially the same situation that southern Idaho was facing at this time last year, said Jeremy Dalling with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamations Upper Snake Field Office.

Dalling saw a year in which many canal companies reduced deliveries or ended deliveries early. The Big Wood Canal Co. ended deliveries after about 70 days of water.

While irrigation demand has decreased, Dalling said he expected the reservoir system to continue to be drawn down to about 13% capacity by mid-October.

Recent rains have been extremely helpful to reducing irrigation demand, he said.

Water saved at the end of this growing season will improve carryover for next year.

Water users are encouraged to call their ditch riders when they are done with their water so that headgates can be turned off, Barlogi said. This will help reduce water flows at Milner Dam and conserve as much water in the reservoir system in preparation for the 2023 water season.

Irrigation water will continue to drain throughout the canal system for several days after Oct. 14 until the canal system is dry, Barlogi said.

Canal company crews will begin winter maintenance projects in October.
Guatemala decided Thursday to open a consulate in Dakhla, while reaffirming its support for the autonomy plan under Moroccan sovereignty as the only solution to the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara. Guatemala reiterated its clear position on the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara, considering that autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the solution to this dispute and announces the decision to open a consulate in the city of Dakhla to take advantage of its economic potential and its openness to the rest of the African continent, said a joint statement issued after a meeting between Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Abroad, Nasser Bourita, and his Guatemalan counterpart, Mario Bucaro Flores. For us, the concepts of sovereignty, peace and territorial integrity are very important. We support Moroccos position on this issue and we will continue to support Morocco forever, said Guatemalas FM, in a statement to the press, at the end of this meeting held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Bucaro Flores highly appreciated the reforms undertaken in Morocco under the leadership of HM King Mohammed VI, as well as His role and contribution to the resolution of the problems of Africa and the Arab world by peaceful means. He also highlighted the importance of strengthening bilateral cooperation relations. Bourita welcomed, for his part, the efforts of the Guatemalan government led by His Excellency the President of the Republic, Alejandro Giammattei, in terms of reforms, as well as its role at the regional and international levels for peace. The two ministers discussed, on this occasion, the various aspects of bilateral cooperation and exchanged views on regional and international issues, welcoming the convergence of views on all issues addressed. Morocco and Guatemala have decided to give impetus to bilateral cooperation in the fields of tourism, training and energy, with particular emphasis on agriculture and fertilizers, at a time when the world is facing an acute food crisis, read the joint statement.
The ruling junta in Guinea on Thursday made a very violent attack on the current chairman of ECOWAS shortly before a summit of that organization, denouncing remarks made on Wednesday as a disgrace and accusing him of practicing clown diplomacy.

The crude lie and the remarks which are similar to intimidation are nowadays retrograde practices which do not honor its author and tarnish at the same time the brand image of ECOWAS. We cannot bear this shame, said Colonel Amara Camara, one of the juntas figures and secretary general of the so-called transitional presidency, in a video. We are not in a relationship of puppets or reality TV, he added.

Colonel Camara blamed the current chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Umaro Sissoco Embalo of Bissau-Guinea, for his statements to the French media RFI and France 24 on Wednesday.

Mr. Embalo had warned that Guinea would face heavy sanctions if the junta, which came to power by force in September 2021, persisted in wanting to stay in power for three years. He reaffirmed that during a visit to Guinea he had obtained an agreement with the junta to hand over to elected civilians after two years, which Colonel Camara described as a lie.

The leaders of ECOWAS member states met at a summit on Thursday afternoon in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, with the situation in Guinea and the crisis between Mali and Cote dIvoire at the top of their agenda.
Authorities in Equatorial Guinea say they have foiled a planned attack concocted by a group of opponents united in the Coalition of Leaders of the Illegal Opposition of Equatorial Guinea (Coalipge). At least six people are under arrest.

A group of 20 individuals were going to blow up four gas stations simultaneously, two in each of the countrys main cities. And secondly, they were going to attack members of the government in cold blood in their residences, reads the countrys official news portal.

The plan, which also included setting fire to embassies, was supposed to be carried out on September 29, according to Nicolas Obama Nchama, the minister in charge of security.

After four people shown on state television, two other individuals were detained as part of the investigation into the series of attacks planned for Malabo and Bata, according to the state prosecutor, Anatalio Nzang Nguema. The people involved in this case will be prosecuted for attacking the authority and for acts of terrorism, said the prosecutor.

Among those heard by the prosecutor was Ricardo Mangue Obama Nfubea, who served as prime minister from 2006 to 2008. He returned home free. Also in the box of suspects is an opposition leader, Gabriel Nse Obiang Obono, head of the Citizens for Innovation party, which was dissolved in 2018.

On Tuesday, the security minister met with the diplomatic corps accredited to Malabo. We already have the heads and the investigation is ongoing, however I guarantee you that the situation is already under control, said Nicolas Obama Nchama.

The regime wants to force a situation of turbulence, a situation of instability to extinguish any hint of opposition in order to strengthen the presidential aspirations of Teodoro Nguema Obiang, said Joaquin Eloy Ayeto, coordinator of the human rights NGO Somos+.

Equatorial Guineans have been called to the polls on November 20 for an early presidential election, which will now be held at the same time as legislative and municipal elections. President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, 80 years old and in power since 1979, is running for his own succession.
The research team of Dr Chen Jianping (right) and Dr Liu Li (left) discovered a broadly reactive SARS-CoV-2 entry inhibitor derived from Chinese medicine.

A research team comprising members of the School of Chinese Medicine, AIDS Institute, Department of Microbiology, School of Clinical Medicine and State Key Laboratory for Emerging Infectious Diseases, the LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong (HKUMed) have discovered a natural product SSP derived from a Chinese herb Spatholobus Suberectus Dunn that demonstrated broad antiviral activities against SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, influenza, and HIV-1 as an entry blocker.

Critically, it shows comparable activities against all major pandemic strains of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern tested. Since SSP has been prepared in a cost-effective manner under safe manufacturer practices and do not cause toxicity in animals, it has great potential to be developed into a preventive drug for eliminating the spread of SARS-CoV-2. The findings are now published online in the journal Phytotherapy Research.

The world suffers from continuous waves of SARS-CoV-2 caused by newly emerged viral variants that can evade vaccine-induced immune protection. The development of novel vaccines against escape viral variants is far behind the speed of their evolution. Therefore, identifying alternative interventions to eliminate the continuous spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants is necessary. To this end, the search for viral entry inhibitors with a broad spectrum of activities and cost-effectiveness becomes essential for the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 variants.

The HKUMed research team screened extracts derived from a Chinese herb named Spatholobus Suberectus Dunn (SSD) against diverse types of viruses including SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, influenza H5N1 and HIV-1. They found that the SSD-derived extract (SSP) exhibits broad activities against all the aforesaid viruses. Subsequent studies confirmed that SSP has comparable potency against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern including alpha (B.1.1.7), beta (B.1.351), gamma (P1), delta (B.1.617.2), and omicron (BA.1, BA.2 and BA.4/5). SSP blocked both SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein and the host ACE2 receptor. Critically, intranasal administration of SSP significantly reduced live omicron BA.2 challenge in human ACE2-transgenic mice. Since SSP has been GMP-produced at low costs, it has great potential to be developed as an intranasal drug for the prevention and treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

"We have been studying this Chinese medicine for over 20 years. SSP acts as a potential antiviral agent, making it useful in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Since there are few effective preventive drugs in the world, SSP is a new antiviral agent that can be developed to prevent COVID-19," explained Dr. Chen Jianping, Principal Lecturer of School of Chinese Medicine, HKUMed. After a rodent model investigation comparing low and high dose administrations of SSP, no toxicity was caused , thus considered safe.

"These findings suggest that SSP may have broad antiviral activities against different types of respiratory viral infections," said Dr. Liu Li, Research Assistant Professor of the AIDS Institute and Department of Microbiology, School of Clinical Medicine, HKUMed, who made the breakthrough discovery. "Since different GMP-batches show consistent antiviral activities, we are confident of the clinical development of SSP."

Explore further Study reports broadly neutralizing antibody protects hamsters against SARS-CoV-2 omicron variants

More information: Qingqing Liu et al, Broadspectrum antiviral activity of Spatholobus suberectus Dunn against SARSCoV 2, SARSCoV 1, H5N1 , and other enveloped viruses, Phytotherapy Research (2022). Qingqing Liu et al, Broadspectrum antiviral activity of Spatholobus suberectus Dunn against SARSCoV 2, SARSCoV 1, H5N1 , and other enveloped viruses,(2022). DOI: 10.1002/ptr.7452
Girls with type 1 diabetes may fare worse than boys when it comes to blood sugar control and other critical aspects of their health, a new research review finds.

The review of 90 published studies by researchers in the Netherlands found some consistent patterns in how girls and boys with type 1 diabetes differed. In general, girls tended to have higher blood sugar levels, were more likely to be overweight, and reported an overall poorer quality of life.

The reasons are not clear, experts said. But the findings bring attention to the fact that girls with type 1 diabetes may face particular challenges that need attention.

Type 1 diabetes differs from type 2, which is mostly diagnosed in adults and is often associated with obesity.

Type 1 usually strikes in childhood, and affects more than 1 million children and teenagers worldwide. It's caused by a misguided immune system attack on pancreatic cells that produce insulina hormone that moves sugars from food into body cells to be used for energy.

Without insulin, sugars build up in the blood, and body cells are starved. So people with type 1 diabetes need to take synthetic insulin in order to survive. That can be done through injections, taken multiple times a day, or by wearing a "pump" that delivers insulin throughout the day via a small tube just under the skin.

It's a big burden for kids, and experts said there could be multiple reasonsranging from biological to psychological and socialthat girls tend to fare worse than boys in some respects.

One difference is that girls tend to develop type 1 diabetes earlier than boys do, said Sanjoy Dutta, vice president of research at the nonprofit JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). Longer duration of diabetes can mean more complications.

Then there's puberty. The hormonal surges kids experience cause blood sugar levels to rise, and both girls and boys need to start taking more insulin.

But those hormonal changes typically have a greater impact on girls' blood sugar control than boys', Dutta said.

Girls' insulin needs even change during the course of the monthly menstrual cycle, said Dr. Kimber Simmons, a pediatric endocrinologist with the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

Beyond biology, kids with type 1 diabetes are dealing with the anxieties and social pressures of growing up, which can make the meal planning, insulin tweaking and other aspects of managing the disease even harder.

And, Simmons said, research shows that girls are typically harder hit, facing more issues with body image, "disordered eating" and depression.

An estimated 30% of girls with type 1 diabetes have depression, Simmons noted. When teens with type 1 have depression, their blood sugar levels tend to be higher, and they face a greater risk of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), according to JDRF.

DKA refers to a dangerous buildup of acids in the blood due to very high blood sugar. It happens when a person does not take enough insulin, or has an illness that drives up blood sugar levels.

Girls, the research review found, have a higher risk of DKA than boys.

The new findings are based on an analysis of 90 published studies worldwide involving children and teenagers with type 1 diabetes.

Across the studies, the researchers found, girls generally showed higher A1C levelsa measure of blood sugar control over the previous three monthsversus boys. They also had a higher rate of obesity and high cholesterol, along with lower scores on surveys gauging quality of life.

The study is looking at averages, and the results do not mean that any one girl with type 1 diabetes is doomed to fare poorly, both Dutta and Simmons noted.

But, they said, the findings bring needed attention to the fact that girls do face some higher risks.

That includes issues that extend beyond blood sugar control, into girls' mental and emotional well-being, Simmons pointed out. It's important for parents and doctors to pay attention to the whole picture, she said.

The American Diabetes Association recommends routine depression screening for adolescents with type 1 diabetes. As for what families can do, Simmons said that showing your support goes a long way.

"I hope that kids with diabetes never feel they are alone in this," she said. "As they get older, we want them to become independent, but they'll always need a support person."

Lead researcher Silvia de Vries, of Amsterdam University Medical Centers in the Netherlands, presented the findings Wednesday at a meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, in Stockholm. Research presented at meetings is typically considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Explore further Study reveals sex differences in care and outcomes of children and teens with type 1 diabetes

More information: JDRF has more on living with JDRF has more on living with type 1 diabetes.

Copyright  2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Professor Shudong Wang. Credit: University of South Australia

An experimental drug being trialed for advanced solid tumors, including the most aggressive brain cancerglioblastomahas passed the first phase with flying colors, raising hopes for an effective new treatment.

University of South Australia (UniSA) Professor Shudong Wang and Adelaide biotech company Aucentra Therapeutics are now recruiting up to 50 glioblastoma patients for the second phase, trialing the drug Auceliciclib.

The first phase, which started in June 2021, involved patients with glioblastoma, as well as cervical, colon, gastrointestinal, pancreatic and uterine cancers, ensuring that Auceliciclib was safe at different dosages.

In the second stage the drug's effectiveness against solid tumors will be tested.

The progress into glioblastoma treatment has been announced on the eve of World Cancer Research Day, Saturday 24 September.

"Phase one usually takes up to two years if there are any safety concerns with a new drug, but we didn't experience any issues with Auceliciclib, which is very encouraging," Prof. Wang says.

The second phase, in combination with the chemotherapy drug Temozolomide, will be focused on glioblastoma patients, whose life expectancy is very limited, with a survival time of just 1218 months after diagnosis.

"Despite surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, glioblastoma is an incurable cancer. One reason is due to late diagnosis where the tumor has already spread in a way that makes surgical removal very difficult," Prof. Wang says.

"Also, there are very few existing drugs that can cross the blood-brain barrier. The brain does an excellent job of protecting its most vital organ from toxins and pathogens. The downside is that it keeps out vital medication."

Auceliciclib has demonstrated in pre-clinical models that it can cross the blood-brain barrier, which makes it an ideal drug candidate for brain cancer.,

Worldwide, an estimated 300,000 people were diagnosed with a primary brain tumor in 2020, with very little hope of an effective treatment.

Auceliciclib has two key advantages over other drugs in development. It is more target-specific, reaching cancer cells in the brain more effectively, and is less toxic.

If the drug proves successful in the clinical trial, it will also be an important breakthrough for brain tumors metastasized from other cancers including breast and lung.

Prof. Wang says progress is limited by funding, with the trials costing more than $15 million.

"Aucentra Therapeutics has played a critical role in raising the capital needed to undertake the clinical trials, but we need a lot more support."

Clinical trials are currently being undertaken in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne. Contingent on funding, the team hopes to expand the trial sites to all capital cities across Australia.

A separate trial is ongoing for Auceliciclib as a monotherapy for patients with a range of late-stage cancers, including breast, lung, ovarian and colorectal.

Explore further Clinical trial identifies new breast cancer drug as a potential therapy for glioblastoma

More information: For more details on eligibility for the clinical trials, visit For more details on eligibility for the clinical trials, visit https://www.aucentra.com/
Receptor-Binding Domain and Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 Interaction Inhibition in Patients With Hematologic Malignant Neoplasm With or Without B CellTargeting Treatment Nominal P values without correction for multiple testing were calculated using Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Bars represent the IQR, whiskers represent the 25th/75th percentile  1.5x IQR, and horizontal lines indicate the median. Credit: JAMA Oncology (2022). DOI: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2022.4226

A research team led by Matthias Preusser from MedUni Vienna's Division of Oncology had already demonstrated that cancer patients benefit from a third vaccination to protect them against COVID. A recent study now also supports fourth vaccination for this vulnerable group. However, passive immunization by administering an antibody combination to cancer patients does not seem to provide adequate protection. The study has now been published in the journal JAMA Oncology.

Seventy-two patients with various types of cancer participated in the study. Fifty-four of them received a fourth vaccination with one of the currently approved vaccines (active immunization), and 18 underwent passive immunization with the antibody combination tixagevimab/cilgavimab. In order to assess immunity, the investigators compared antibody levels and their inhibitory effect against the SARS-CoV-2 subvariants omicron BA.1 and BA.4 after three and four vaccinations and following administration of the antibody combination tixagevimab/cilgavimab.

Significant increase in antibody levels following vaccination

Patients with solid tumors and those with hematological cancers not on anti-B cell therapy showed a significant increase in antibody levels after a fourth dose of one of the currently approved vaccines. Based on the obtained data, study leader Matthias Preusser from the Division of Oncology at MedUni Vienna's Department of Medicine I concludes that the administration of a fourth vaccination in cancer patients should be endorsed in patients with cancer, even in the absence of variant-specific vaccines.

However, this is not the case for passive immunization of patients: "Our results suggest that immunization with tixagevimab/cilgavimab does not effectively block the most recently dominant BA.4 variant," said first author of the study, Maximilian Mair from MedUni Vienna's Division of Oncology. Further studies are now required to confirm the results to back up the vaccination recommendations. Moreover, there is still a lack of reliable information allowing the definition of a valid threshold for sufficient antibody levels to provide adequate protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Society must protect vulnerable group

Cancer patients are often on immunosuppressive therapies. As a result, cancer patients are particularly at risk of developing severe clinical courses of COVID-19, underscoring the importance of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination.

"We recommend a prompt fourth vaccination for the particularly vulnerable group of patients with cancer. In addition to this, our patients continue to rely on the protection provided by a responsible society and control measures such as isolation of infected individuals and the wearing of facemasks in indoor settings. Furthermore, even mild cases of COVID-19 can lead to deferral of urgently needed cancer treatments, which can adversely affect the cancer prognosis," said study leader Matthias Preusser, as COVID restrictions are increasingly being lifted.

More information: Maximilian J. Mair et al, Inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 and BA.4 Variants After Fourth Vaccination or Tixagevimab and Cilgavimab Administration in Patients With Cancer, JAMA Oncology (2022). Journal information: JAMA Oncology Maximilian J. Mair et al, Inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 and BA.4 Variants After Fourth Vaccination or Tixagevimab and Cilgavimab Administration in Patients With Cancer,(2022). DOI: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2022.4226
Autoantibodies Targeting IL-1RA in Myocarditis after SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination. Blood plasma samples were obtained from 69 patients with suspected myocarditis after receipt of vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In 61 patients, endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) was performed, and myocarditis was confirmed on EMB in 40 patients (Panel A). Plasma samples that were obtained from 8 patients with no confirmatory investigation on EMB, from 21 patients in whom the diagnosis of myocarditis was ruled out, and from 40 patients in whom myocarditis was confirmed on EMB were analyzed for antibodies against endogenous interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA) and progranulin by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Data are shown sorted according to the age of the study participants (Panel B). OD 490 denotes optical density as measured at a wavelength of 490 nm. The frequency of antiIL-1RA antibodies in plasma samples from patients with vaccine-associated myocarditis was confirmed or ruled out on EMB and was sorted according to age. Control participants were 214 healthy adults who had samples obtained 1 week after receipt of the second dose of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and 127 patients with myocarditis whose samples were obtained before 2020 (Panel C). Credit: New England Journal of Medicine (2022). DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc2205667

A multidisciplinary, international team formed around Drs Lorenz Thurner and Jochen Pfeifer (both University Hospital Homburg/Saar, Germany) as well as Dr. Christoph Kessel (University Children's Hospital, Munster, Germany) and Prof. Karin Klingel (University Hospital Tubingen, Germany) provides new observations in the context of myocarditis after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, pinpointing a potential role of autoantibodies towards IL-1Ra in the pathophysiology.

Myocarditis as a very rare side effect of mRNA vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 particularly in male adolescents and young men was described just recently in an Israelian study. It usually occurs in a close temporal context after mRNA vaccination and often shows a milder course compared with classical viral and noninfectious myocarditis.

In the current study, blood samples from male and female patients (age 14 to 79 years) were analyzed, most of whom also had a myocardial biopsy. In particular, in male adolescents and young men with histologically confirmed myocarditis, autoantibodies against a key endogenous anti-inflammatory agent called interleukin-1 receptor antagonist were detected.

Interleukin-1 (IL-1) is an important signaling molecule involved in alerting and mobilizing the immune system during infections. However, in case of prolonged or high IL-1 release, inflammatory responses can get out of control.

"Especially with regard to inflammations of the pericardium, myocardium, and vessels, we already know about the central importance of IL-1. However, our immune system can normally cool down inflammatory responses by itself, and especially highly potent signaling molecules such as IL-1 have natural counterparts that can, if necessary, slow down excessive inflammatory reactions," explains the immunologist Christoph Kessel, Ph.D., who heads the Translational Inflammation Research Center of the Department of Pediatric Rheumatology and Immunology at Munster University Hospital (UKM).

The interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1-Ra) is one such natural antagonist that can block the docking site for IL-1 on the cell surface and thus shuts down the signaling pathway.

"However, in patients with myocarditis, we found an atypical form of IL-1-Ra, which carries a specific chemical modification in form of an additional phosphorylation. The immune system then interprets this as an unknown, potentially harmful structure and thus starts to produce antibodies against it. These then deplete and neutralize IL-1Ra as a major inhibitor of inflammation and can thus pave the way for unrestricted IL-1 signaling," says Dr. Lorenz Thurner, MD, head of a research group at the Jose Carreras Center of the Clinic for Internal Medicine I of Saarland University Hospital (UKS) in Homburg, which focuses on misdirected immune reactions in cancer or autoimmune diseases.

"Initial observations in the very rare cases of myocarditis following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination occured out of coincidence and in association with our previous studies identifying such autoantibodies in both MIS-C and severe and critical courses of COVID-19," Thurner continues.

"In any case, it must be stressed in this context that vaccinations against SARS-CoV-2 are save and have prevented countless severe courses of disease and saved millions of lives. We are firmly convinced that the benefit of mRNA vaccinations with the resulting protection against severe SARS-CoV-2 infections and serious complications far outweighs the risk of mild myocarditis, which can be caused by the overall very rare IL-1Ra autoantibodies we have described," says Karin Klingel, MD, Head of Cardiopathology and Infectious Diseases Pathology at the University Hospital Tubingen.

"Collectively, this research project could only be achieved through a highly interdisciplinary team effort, that made participation in the project both so exciting and successful," says Jochen Pfeifer, MD, of the Pediatric Cardiology Department at Saarland University Hospital (UKS).

Many other cardiologists and pediatric cardiologists, internists and pediatricians from Germany, Israel and Austria and other scientists (including from the UKS Virology Department) contributed to the work.

Taken together, the present study is of particular importance as it contributes to a better understanding of the potential underlying mechanisms in a very rare concomitant of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination. However, despite this substantial gain in knowledge, many questions remain yet unanswered and the team is currently working on addressing those.

The research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Explore further New study updates evidence on rare heart condition after COVID vaccination

More information: Lorenz Thurner et al, IL-1RA Antibodies in Myocarditis after SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination, New England Journal of Medicine (2022). Journal information: New England Journal of Medicine Lorenz Thurner et al, IL-1RA Antibodies in Myocarditis after SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination,(2022). DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc2205667

Provided by Universitat des Saarlandes
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Natalie Stake-Doucet is haunted by deaths she witnessed working as a long-term care nurse in Montreal during the early waves of the pandemic.

"Where I worked, half the residents died in six weeks," says Stake-Doucet, president of the Quebec Nurses' Association. Now on leave, she panics at the thought of returning to a long-term care facility and seeing more death. "I still have nightmares about it," she says.

More than 80% of all COVID-19 deaths in Canada during the first waves of the pandemic occurred in long-term care, mostly in Quebec and Ontario.

The crisis exposed shocking neglect and instances of substandard care, with some residents suffering malnutrition and lying in soiled bedding for days as staff struggled to contain outbreaks.

Better infection control practices and the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines to older adults and health care workers helped to stem the tide of deaths. But Stake-Doucet and others worry that many of the problems that contributed to the disaster remain unaddressedespecially now that pandemic precautions are being abandoned and vaccine efficacy is waning.

Lagging vaccine uptake

Widespread vaccination was "probably the single most important thing that happened to protect a lot of homes from the subsequent COVID waves," says Stake-Doucet.

By the end of 2021, more than four in five nursing and seniors' homes reported that at least 95% of staff and residents had received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, according to a recent report from Statistics Canada. This strong uptake helped to reduce infections and deaths among long-term care residents by more than 90%.

However, uptake of booster vaccines, which can help maintain that protection, has been weaker. As of mid-August, just over half of Canadians aged 70 and older were fully up to date with four vaccine doses. And the federal government has since dropped that age group from its key updates on vaccination rates.

Pandemic precautions relaxing

Nearly all long-term care facilities reported adopting at least one new infection prevention and control measure in the first year of the pandemicmost commonly, improvements in hand hygiene, personal protective equipment, and screening.

But less than half of nursing and seniors' homes continued improving upon those measures in 2021, according to Statistics Canada. And despite calls for facilities to improve airflow and reduce crowding, less than a third updated ventilation systems, while fewer than one in five converted multi-bed rooms to become private or semi-privatea change that experts estimated could have prevented hundreds of deaths in Ontario alone.

Constantly changing ministry directives complicated the early pandemic response, says Morgan Hoffarth, past president of the Register Nurses' Association of Ontario and director of care at a long-term care facility in London, Ontario.

"It was really confusingthe amount of changes, the frequency of changes and the timing of the changesand they didn't always come with a very clear explanation," Hoffarth says.

No way to track outbreaks

National guidelines on infection control in long-term care brought clarity, but they haven't been updated since last year.

Some recommended measures, like mask mandates, remain in place in facilities across the country. Others, including vaccination requirements in Ontario and Quebec, and health screening in Alberta, have fallen by the wayside.

Brad LaFortune, a seniors' advocate and executive director at Public Interest Alberta, worries his province dropped precautions too soon. In 2021, when Alberta lifted most pandemic restrictions for the general public, more than half of long-term care homes in the province had at least one resident with COVID-19, surpassing Ontario and Quebec's counts at the time.

Now, "people at the door won't have to ask or check for symptoms or ask about recent travel for people who are coming in and out of the facility, and that's a big one," says LaFortune. "Is that going to hasten another wave?"

Provinces have been sharing less information on long-term care outbreaks since they began easing restrictions on the sector earlier this year, making it difficult to know what's happening across the country.

According to Samir Sinha, director of health policy research at the National Institute on Aging, it's no longer possible to track COVID-19 cases and deaths in long-term care in an "accurate and reliable way."

Worsening staffing shortages

Inadequate staffing is widely acknowledged as having been a major factor in the early pandemic crisis in long-term care.

More than four in five facilities reported at least one staffing-related challenge in 2020, according to Statistics Canada. And half or more nursing and seniors' homes have reported increasing challenges since then, including critical staffing shortages impacting resident care and worker safety.

According to a report by the University of Alberta's Parkland Institute, inadequate staffing is contributing to burnout among long-term care staff, which in turn is leading to higher rates of workplace injury and staff turnover, and lower quality care.

"Those working in long-term care are burned out, underfunded, under-resourced," says LaFortune. More workers are needed to meet minimum staffing ratios, he says, "so that every single person in the system receives the same basic level of care according to their needs."

More full-time positions would also reduce dependence on part-time staff working in multiple facilitiesanother factor implicated in the rapid spread of COVID-19 among residents.

British Columbia was one of the first provinces to limit the movement of health care staff between facilities, "making sure that people feel gainfully employed," according to Roger Wong, a clinical professor of geriatric medicine and vice dean of education at the University of British Columbia's faculty of medicine. Other provinces implemented similar orders, but most have since rescinded them.

Problems go beyond pay

Quebec's ministry of health says several measures are underway to recruit more staff, including an accelerated training program for practical nurses accompanied by a scholarship.

The federal government has provided provinces and territories up to $3 billion to raise wages of low-income essential workers, including in long-term care, as well $1 billion through its Safe Long-Term Care Fund to improve infection prevention and control.

Even before the pandemic, "workers in long-term care were really poorly paid," says Steven Grover, a professor of medicine at McGill University. "British Columbia, which was probably as good as it got, might have been up around $19 or $20 an hour, Quebec was down in the $16 or $17 range, and Ontario was in-between," he says.

While compensation for long-term care workers in Quebec has since increased to nearly $26 an hour, Grover says it's still not enough to retain staff.

Stake-Doucet says provinces must also address the poor working conditions, including long hours, that are driving staff away from long-term care.

According to Hoffarth, the same is true for Ontario. A report by the province's now disbanded COVID-19 science table looking at lessons from the early pandemic crisis identified staffing as one of the "foremost areas to address."

Improving working conditions and creating more full-time positions with better pay could reduce staff shortages and turnover, according to the report. Yet, "years of reports and commissions calling attention to the same staffing issues have had little impact."

Accountability lacking

Some long-term care workers feel that older people are not a priority for provincial governments.

"There was a huge focus in the first wave of COVID-19 around acute care and how our intensive care units are going to be overwhelmed but it was the long-term care sector that was hit hardest," says Hoffarth.

Starting in November, hospital patients waiting for long-term care spots in Ontario will be charged $400 a day if they refuse to move to homes not of their choosing up to 150 kilometers away. The policy aims to free up 1,800 beds in hospitals grappling with emergency room closures but has sparked outrage from seniors and advocates.

Stake-Doucet was shocked by a similar policy of Quebec hospitals offloading COVID-19 patients to long-term care homes early in the pandemic, even though those facilities had less space and fewer oxygen supplies. At the same time, officials reallocated personal protective equipment from long-term care homes to hospitals.

"Long-term care in this country is a bit like the Wild West," Stake-Doucet says. "There's very little accountability."

In a report on Quebec's handling of the pandemic in long-term care, the province's health and welfare commissioner noted that the ministry of health and social services has a paternalistic attitude toward older people, evident in the lack of consultation of seniors during the pandemic response.

According to Grover, limited government oversight exists to ensure adequate staffing and other standards. "The average nursing home [in Quebec] gets inspected once every three years, and typically gets inspected during the daytime when staffing is at its peak."

In Alberta, too, "what we're seeing from this government is just a general paralysis towards seniors' care," says LaFortune.

Spokespeople for Quebec and Alberta say older adults have always been a focus for their respective governments and both increased funding for long-term care in their 2022 budgets. Ontario did not respond to requests for comment.

Quebec will invest nearly $2.9 billion over the next five years to implement a new long-term care action plan. Most of the money will be spent on addressing staffing shortages, including hiring more orderlies, nurses, pharmacists, dentists and managers.

Alberta, meanwhile, committed nearly $3.7 billion for community care, continuing care and home care programs in its latest budget, up 6.3% from 20212022. The province plans to open 1,515 new continuing care beds over the next year, including long-term care and mental health beds.

Explore further Pandemic is leaving US with shortage of long-term health care workers
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The gurus of the psychedelic era of American pop culture extolled the experience of the "acid trip." But the U.S. government and much of the public remained leery of LSD, with President Richard Nixon declaring it and assorted other drugs "public enemy No. 1."

Now, half a century after Nixon launched the War on Drugs, a Miami-area private research clinic has kicked off a federally approved clinical trial to test LSD as a possible treatment for generalized anxiety disorder.

The milestone trialbilled by the drug developer as the largest study of LSD for potential commercial use ever conducted in the United Statesreflects a growing body of research that suggests those hippies were maybe on to something: That the mind-altering power of LSD, mushrooms and a host of other hallucinogensif administered in controlled amounts under medical supervisionmight have some beneficial properties, particularly in treating psychological problems.

The inaugural dose of the latest trial was administered to a patient on Aug. 24 by Segal Trials, at its Center for Psychedelic and Cannabis Research in Miami Lakes.

The proprietary "pharmaceutically optimized" form of LSD is named MM-120 and owned by MindMed, a small psychedelic biotechnology company based in New York. MindMed's study could be a significant step in the long process of potentially bringing a new treatment for generalized anxiety disorder to the market. The study spans 20 clinics nationwide, including Segal Trials.

Rishi Kakar, medical director and chief scientific officer at Segal, said Miami-Dade's large population and diverse demographic make the county a perfect site for the medical trial.

"There are more patients here who have anxiety and don't have enough access to treatment, or the treatment is not meeting their goals," he said. "We as a geography are uniquely positioned for that in Miami. We have a breadth of diverse patient populations."

The study, kicking off a second phase, is designed to monitor both the drug's effects and to find the most effective dosage. Patients will receive one of four different dose strengths while others will get a placebo. Segal Trials will likely contribute 10 to 20 patients out of the 200 MindMed is testing in this second phase.

Patients who receive doses will be monitored in a room designed to feel more like home than a sterilized clinic. The first patient in Miami Lakes, Kakar said, reclined on a couch while under the influence of the drugheadset, eye mask and blanket provided. Two guides with experience overseeing psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy monitored the patient for the entire duration of its psychoactive effects, which Kakar estimated to be about 12 hours.

Psychedelicslike LSD or "acid", Psilocybin or "magic mushrooms," among othersare not new, not in a recreational nor a therapeutic context. The psychoactive drugs were widely studied and administered to curb alcohol addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression in the United States until they became criminalized in 1968. Now, after steadily increasing community demand, they're reentering psychiatric research in a big way.

The past decade has been fruitful for research. Promising studies on Psilocybin as a treatment for anxiety, depression and addiction have multiplied alongside research into MDMA (Methylenedioxymethamphetamine)"club drugs" more commonly called ecstasy or mollyas a potential treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction.

LSD was also widely studied, though mostly before the 1968 ban. The National Institutes of Health funded more than a hundred grants for the drug's study prior to its prohibition. Some of those studies also found use for the compound in quelling anxiety and addiction. Bill Wilson, founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, famously credits LSD for helping him on his road to sobriety.

Those studies and breakthroughs ran largely dry following the ban. But studies like MindMed's are sparking renewed interest in LSD, and a broad umbrella of possible psychedelic treatments.

Joseph Lichter, a chemist who teaches a "Psychedelic Renaissance" course at Florida International University's honors college, believes that such research could prove promising for the future of American psychiatry. The mind-altering substances have been feared or considered dangerous for decades, but are powerful non-toxic compounds that have captivated scientists and researchers since long before they were outlawed.

"We definitely need to see more science before we start putting these things into healthcare professionals' hands to use with clients, but it's really a good thing for us to work toward destigmatizing LSD," Lichter said. He believes there's no better place to kick start a psychedelic renaissancea resurgence of research on the taboo substancesthan Miami-Dade County.

"Anytime something is happening here in Miami-Dade County, I'm excited by it because we're a big metropolis," Lichter said. "I think the psychedelic renaissance right now is in a research-heavy period, and things like the trials at Segal are the correct steps forward."

Clinics offering Ketamine, a psychoactive sedative, already exist across the county. Psilocybin has also gained medical traction; Segal Trials conducted its own trials of Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for treatment of depression at its Miami Lakes center last summer.

"There is such a renewed interest, there is such a large unmet need in our community in that particular area," Kakar said. "And psychedelics look like they are getting more normalized in the minds of patients and communities versus being on the fringes of recreational use."

What sets MM-120 and other psychedelic treatments apart from more traditionally prescribed treatments for anxiety and depression is the length of effect. Rather than daily use, the drug candidate is being studied as a one-time treatment that promisesat least potentiallylasting benefits.

"Unlike current medications that have to be taken on a daily basis for a very long time and hopefully have a realized effect many weeks down the line, we believe if this medication is taken once under structured conditions, it can have a potential effect on anxiety that lasts for a very long time," Kakar said. "So we believe it works in a very different way pharmacologically than any other drug that has to be taken on a daily basis."

Robert Barrow, CEO of MindMed, has touted the potential in company press releases, pointing to one recent research paper from a partner in the MM-120 study.

MindMed, he wrote, is working with the University Hospital of Basel, Switzerland, which is the world's top research center for LSD in medical applications. Earlier this month, the University Hospital of Basel published a paper with results from its own study on how well LSD curbs anxiety.

"This paper further reinforces the positive preliminary evidence for LSD in patients who suffer from anxiety disorders," Barrow said. "Acute administration of LSD produced long-lasting and notable reductions of anxiety and co-morbid depression symptoms for up to 16 weeks. These results are encouraging."

It's unclear how long the second phase of the trial will last. Once there is enough data across all participating sites, MindMed will approve a specific dose of MM-120 to be studied in phase three. The third and final phase will test a larger pool of patients with only the approved dose. It will be the last step before MindMed can submit the drug to the Food and Drug Administration for approval and possible future prescription usage. The company estimates the entire process will be complete by November of next year, but that could be subject to change if the phases drag on longer than expected.

But despite the promising research, LSD still arguably gets the worst rap out of all the psychedelics. The drug has a tarnished reputation for being associated with counterculture, anti-war protests and "bad trips." It's powerful even in small amounts and, when taken in too high a dose or in an unstructured environment, can cause extreme stress or unsafe conditions for the user.

The stigma attached to LSD is why Lichter teaches his students a phrase coined by Humphrey Osmond, a British psychiatrist who coined the word psychedelic.

"'To fathom hell or go angelic, just take a pinch of psychedelic' is the phrase Osmond came up with," Lichter said. "There's a risk of going into a hellish place with this compound or a potential to go into an angelic place. We all have to have that recognition that there is a huge risk."

But, he said, there is a lot of room in between those extremes and the potential benefits are too enticing for some scientists not to support.

"In reality it's just a chemical compound that binds to a serotonin receptor and causes changes to the way people think or feel," Lichter said. "And if that change can actually help them, which is what some of these studies are showing, we need to destigmatize it and give it hope, give it the attention it deserves."

Explore further Psychedelics face corrupting influence of financial interests

2022 Miami Herald.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
At least 4.4 million Americans have received the updated COVID-19 booster shot.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted the count Thursday as public health experts decried President Joe Biden's televised claim that "the pandemic is over."

The White House estimates that more than 5 million people have actually received the reformulated booster, accounting for lags in state reporting, according to the Associated Press.

Public health officials expect demand for the new booster to surge in the next few weeks.

"We've been thinking and talking about this as an annual vaccine like the flu vaccine," said White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha. "Flu vaccine season picks up in late September and early October. We're just getting our education campaign going. So we expect to see, despite the fact that this was a strong start, we actually expect this to ramp up stronger."

While some Americans rolled up their sleeves as soon as the new boosters were available, others are waiting because they recently had COVID or received a booster in later summer. That's in line with public health advice.

Others may be timing shots to be closer to holiday gatherings and winter months.

Still others may be hoping to choose the Moderna booster over the Pfizer shot. Both companies created bivalent vaccines that target both the original COVID strain and recent Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5.

Some pharmacies canceled appointments for Moderna boosters due to a temporary shortage while government regulators finished inspecting and approving batches of the vaccine, AP noted.

"If we start to see a large uptick in cases, I think we're going to see a lot of people getting the [new COVID] vaccine," said Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

The U.S. has ordered 171 million doses of the new boosters for Americans, the AP reported. It's too early to say whether demand will match that.

Earlier boosters did not have the uptake public health experts hoped to see.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president's chief medical adviser, told a panel of biodefense experts that he's concerned that half of vaccinated Americans have never gotten a booster.

"We have a vulnerability in our population that will continue to have us in a mode of potential disruption of our social order," he said. "I think that we have to do better as a nation."

But some Americans were more than eager for the updated vaccine, interviews with the Associated Press revealed.

"Give me all the science you can," said Jeff Westling, 30, a Washington, D.C., attorney, who got both the COVID booster and a flu shot on Tuesday, one in each arm. He participates in the combat sport jujitsu, and wants to protect himself from infections that may come with close contact. "I have no issue trusting folks whose job it is to look at the evidence," he told the AP.

Jeanie Murphy, 69, of Shawnee, Kan., plans to get the new booster after having minor surgery. The retired hospital chaplain said she sees high interest among her neighbors on the Nextdoor app.

"There's quite a bit of discussion happening among people who are ready to make appointments," Murphy said. "I found that encouraging. For every one naysayer, there will be 10 or 12 people who jump in and say, 'You're crazy. You just need to go get the shot.'"

New York City photographer Vivienne Gucwa, 44, got her new booster already, even though she had received the two initial Moderna shots and no other booster. Gucwa has had COVID twice, once before vaccines were available and again in May.

"When I saw the new booster was able to tackle Omicron variant, I thought, 'I'm doing that,'" Gucwa said. "I don't want to deal with Omicron again. I was kind of thrilled to see the boosters were updated."

Mixed messaging may be adding to confusion, the AP reported.

On CBS' "60 Minutes" Sunday, Biden made comments about the pandemic that have been widely repeated on social media.

"We still have a problem with COVID. We're still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over," Biden said. "If you notice, no one's wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And so I think it's changing."

Biden later backpedaled, saying that the pandemic is "not where it was."

Josh Michaud, associate director of global health policy with the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, D.C., told the AP the president's comment is adding to the public confusion. He said people aren't sure when the time is right to get boosted or even where to find out.

"Any time you have mixed messages, it's detrimental to the public health effort," Michaud said. "Having the mixed messages from the president's remarks makes that job that much harder."

University of South Florida epidemiologist Jason Salemi fears Biden's comments may stall prevention efforts.

"That soundbite is there for a while now, and it's going to spread like wildfire. And it's going to give the impression that 'Oh, there's nothing more we need to do,'" Salemi said.

"If we're happy with 400 or 500 people dying every single day from COVID, there's a problem with that," he said. "We can absolutely do better because most of those deaths, if not all of them, are absolutely preventable with the tools that we have."

More information: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on COVID-19 boosters

Copyright  2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

New research, being presented at this year's European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Annual Meeting in Stockholm, Sweden (1923 Sept), found that testing positive for SARS-CoV-2the virus that causes COVID-19is associated with an increased incidence of new-onset type 1 diabetes in people aged younger than 35 years, but this is restricted to the first month after infection, and is more likely explained by increased testing around the time of diabetes diagnosis and COVID-19 precipitating diabetes in those already developing it.

The study linked data on COVID-19 tests results to the Scottish diabetes register for the period between March 2020 and November 2021, and tested whether this period of COVID-19 infection was associated with an increased risk of diabetes.

"Our findings call into question whether a direct association between COVID-19 and new-onset type 1 diabetes in adults and children exists," says co-lead author Professor Helen Colhoun from Public Health Scotland and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. "One recent report by researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), analyzing two large insurance-claim databases of those under age 18, found that children with COVID-19 were 2.5 times as likely to be diagnosed with diabetes over a month after infection than those who were never infected. If replicated, this is going to create a large number of people with newly diagnosed diabetes and might also alter the riskbenefit balance for COVID-19 vaccination in young children. Importantly, we did not confirm that finding."

In type 1 diabetes, which usually appears during childhood or adolescence, the immune system attacks insulin-producing cells, but it is not known why. One theory is that the immune system may be triggered by a viral infection and then accidentally also attacks insulin-producing cells. It has also been suggested that viral infections may increase the rate of progression of type 1 diabetes in people who still have normal blood sugar levels.

In this study, Colhoun and colleagues linked individual-level data on PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections from the Electronic Communication of Surveillance Database, which captures all PCR tests for COVID-19 nationally, with precise dates of all new type 1 diabetes diagnoses from the national register in Scotland (that is updated daily).

During the study period a confirmatory PCR test was mandatory for all those with a positive lateral flow test.

The important aspect of this study is the exact dates of diabetes diagnosis were available, unlike in some earlier studies, ensuring that the time sequence of COVID-19 and type 1 diabetes could be established.

Between March 2020 and November 2021, a total of 365,080 children and adults had at least one detected SARS-CoV-2 infection, and 1,074 were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

The analysis found no association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and new-onset type 1 diabetes 30 days or more after infection, or in those aged younger than 16 years, contrary to several previously reported studies.

However, the researchers did find that children and adults with a first positive SARS-CoV-2 test were 2.5 times as likely to be diagnosed with diabetes within 30 days of infection compared to those who did not have a previous registered infection; this risk was more than three times higher in those younger than 16 years.

But the authors stress strong arguments against a causal effect of COVID-19 underlying this association.

Further analyses investigating the pattern of COVID-19 testing in relation to type 1 diabetes diagnosis found an increased frequency of SARS-CoV-2 testing in the days before and after diabetes presentation, for both negative and positive results. This suggests, says the authors, that the association may partly be explained by higher detection of infection at this time.

The authors also note that the average time from the onset of type 1 diabetes symptoms to diagnosis in those aged younger than 16 in England is around 25 days. So, it is likely that many of those who tested positive for COVID-19 within 30 days of a diabetes diagnosis already had type 1 diabetes at the time of infection.

The analyses also found no association between COVID-19 vaccination status and new-onset type 1 diabetes in adults (few children were vaccinated during the study period), providing further evidence against a causal effect of SARS-CoV-2 infection on the development of diabetes.

The researchers also looked at trends in type 1 diabetes incidence in Scottish children aged 014 years before and during the pandemic, finding that the incidence in 20202021 was around 20% higher than the 7-year average for 20152021.

However, they point out that based on estimates from England, the time course of the increase in diabetes incidence in those aged 014 years predated most of the cumulative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in this age group (June 2021 onwards), suggesting a lack of causal association between COVID-19 and rates of diabetes.

"Our findings show that causes other than COVID-19 infection itself need to be considered in relation to the increased incidence of type 1 diabetes," says co-lead author Professor Paul McKeigue from Public Health Scotland and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. "We need to consider what has happened regarding the spread of viruses such as enteroviruses during the pandemic, and whether there are any other environmental factors, such as sunlight exposure and vitamin D levels, that might have altered during lockdown that might also be relevant."

The authors point out that although their study was large, further analyses capturing the more recent part of the pandemic and more recent variants is needed. They also note that until mass testing was rolled out in the third quarter of 2020, most cases of COVID-19 in younger people were not detected, which could limit the conclusions that can be drawn.

More information: Paul M. McKeigue et al, Relation of Incident Type 1 Diabetes to Recent COVID-19 Infection: Cohort Study Using e-Health Record Linkage in Scotland, Diabetes Care (2022). Journal information: Diabetes Care Paul M. McKeigue et al, Relation of Incident Type 1 Diabetes to Recent COVID-19 Infection: Cohort Study Using e-Health Record Linkage in Scotland,(2022). DOI: 10.2337/dc22-0385
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade in June, the future of abortion and reproductive rights for women is uncertain and varies by state.

Experts say improved access to contraception and emergency contraception would decrease the number of unwanted pregnancies. Sarah Vordenberg, clinical associate professor of pharmacy, discusses the role of pharmacists in dispensing reproductive health medications and how the Dobbs decision has changed their jobs.

Have things changed for pharmacists since the Dobbs decision?

The practice of pharmacy is regulated by state and federal laws, so pharmacists' experiences vary by state. Contraceptives and emergency contraception continue to be legal in all states and therefore can be dispensed in community pharmacies. However, pharmacists must ensure that they are meeting all legal requirements in their state when dispensing medications that can be used during a medication abortion or risk penalties that could include revoking their professional license, civil lawsuits or criminal prosecution.

What does this mean for patients?

Medications are often prescribed for a variety of reasons. If a medication is not allowed in some circumstances (abortion) but is allowed in others (miscarriage) and the prescriber didn't indicate the reason for the medication, the pharmacist must clarify this before dispensing the medication to the patient. Some pharmacy companies have implemented additional policies to ensure that their staff follow these new state laws, which is controversial because the process may delay patient care.

Can U.S. pharmacists prescribe birth control or other reproductive health medications without a doctor's order?

Currently, pharmacists in at least 17 states and the District of Columbia may provide contraceptive care without requiring medical visits, and requirements for pharmacists and patients are set by state policies. For example, in many states patients answer screening questions to ensure contraceptives are safe options. In about half the states minors are excluded and must see another health care professional for a prescription. Some states require patients to have a medical visit within a specified period of time in order to continue receiving a pharmacist-prescribed contraceptive.

The Food and Drug Administration has received an application from HRA Pharma to switch the prescription progestin-only oral contraceptive, Opill, to an over-the-counter medication. This change is supported by several professional medical associations including the American College of Obstetricians. If successful, this medication that was originally approved nearly 50 years ago will be the first oral contraceptive that would be available directly to consumers in the U.S. The FDA decision is expected in early 2023. In the meantime, pharmacist prescribing of these products may be an intermediate step toward increasing access to effective and safe prescription-only contraceptives.

What is the status in Michigan?

Per the Michigan Public Health Code, physicians licensed in the state of Michigan may delegate authority to prescribe self-administered contraceptives to pharmacists. In practice, this model hasn't been widely adopted and few pharmacists prescribe contraceptives in Michigan. However, that may change with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Sept. 19, 2022, announcement that it now directly supports this practice in most cases. Additionally, Michigan House Bill 5655 seeks to allow pharmacists to be able to prescribe contraceptives in Michigan without requiring delegated authority from a physician, and is currently assigned to the Health Policy Committee for consideration.

What are the pros and cons of pharmacists dispensing these reproductive health medications without a doctor's order?

Individuals seeking to prevent pregnancy frequently use prescription medications in addition to or instead of over-the-counter options such as condoms and contraceptive sponges. If pharmacists prescribe contraceptives, patients' access to birth control will increase as the need for expensive or time-consuming medical exams decreases. Pharmacists are trained to educate patients on proper use of prescription contraceptives and can also provide education about related topics such as complementary forms of contraception that can protect against sexually transmitted infections.

However, some patients may not be good candidates for pharmacist-prescribed contraceptives, such as those who may be pregnant, have a complex medical history or are at higher risk for side effects. Additionally, contraceptives that cannot be self-administered (e.g., intrauterine devices) are not available by pharmacists.

Also, patients seeking pharmacist-prescribed contraceptives may need to pay a consultation fee that may not be covered by their health insurance, and this consult doesn't replace the need for health screenings (screenings for high blood pressure, diabetes, breast cancer, cervical cancer) that are often provided during medical visits where contraceptives are traditionally prescribed.

Explore further Two states to allow pharmacists to prescribe birth control
Schematic representation of precision genome editing in treating inherited retinal diseases. Credit: PNAS

In a new paper, University of California, Irvine researchers explain how precision genome editing agents have enabled precise gene correction and disease rescue in inherited retinal diseases (IRDs). The study, titled, "Precision genome editing in the eye," was published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The paper describes current preclinical successes and clinical genome editing approaches for treating inherited retinal degenerative disease and stresses there is hope that in vivo gene editing will be the future treatment paradigm for IRDs. Currently, there are no effective treatments for these devastating diseases, which commonly result in blindness.

"Genome editing technologies are an excellent approach for targeting the root causes of genetic disorders," explained Krzysztof Palczewski, Ph.D., Donald Bren Professor of Ophthalmology at the UCI School of Medicine and corresponding author. "Technologies in genome editing have continuously evolved to enable precise genome editing with fewer side effects and risks, making precision genome editing possible."

The paper describes progress toward using genome editing for treating IRDs and important considerations for robust clinical translation.

"More and more CRISPR-based treatment approaches are being tested in clinical trials," said Palczewski. "We believe that there will be an increasing number of clinical trials for targeting IRDs and that any mutation that causes them will be amenable to treatment with this approach."

Programmable CRISPR-Cas nucleases are effective tools for gene disruption, but they are poorly suited for precisely correcting pathogenic mutations in most therapeutic settings. Improvements are needed for clinical translation.

Inherited retinal diseases (IRDs) are a genetically heterogeneous group of blinding disorders characterized by a progressive degeneration of the photoreceptors as well as the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). These disorders affect 1 in 3,000 individuals worldwide and profoundly impact patients' quality of life. IRDs are caused by mutations in genes that are critical for development and/or function of the retina or RPE, and more than 270 causative genes have been identified.

Over the past two decades, major advances in gene therapy have engendered new hopes for successful treatment of these IRDs. Most recently, precision genome editing agents, including base editors (BEs) and prime editors (PEs), developed by The Liu Lab, have enabled efficient and precise target gene correction, rather than gene disruption, in various therapeutic settings, including mouse models of IRDs. Precise target gene correction greatly expands the potential therapeutic applications of genome editing technologies, since most genetic disorders cannot be treated by gene disruption.

"Precision medicine for IRDs has a promising outlook, as basic science has consistently led to the development of therapeutic tools to target patient-specific genetic mutations," said Palczewski. "The results of initial clinical trials, that use in vivo gene editing to treat IRDs, will be essential for informing the design and translation of future precision genome editing therapies."

Explore further Study reveals restoration of retinal and visual function following gene therapy
Unadjusted Kaplan-Meier curves for all-cause mortality by church attendance. Credit: PLOS ONE (2022). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0273806

Faith-based communities have long provided members with life enhancing benefits. Beyond offering messages of hope, churches and other spiritual institutions offer members many support services that enrich lives and strengthen family bonds.

For men of color, faith-based organizations become increasingly important as they approach their senior years. Whether they're members of a church, mosque, synagogue or other center of worship, Black men are discovering life affirmingand life extendingrewards of belonging to a community of worship.

A new study led by the University of Houston's Marino Bruce suggests that regularly attending religious services may lower mortality rates for Black men in their 50s and older. These findings were recently published in journal PLOS One, in the article "Religious Service Attendance and Mortality Among Older Black Men."

Using data from the National Health and National Examination Survey (NHANES), Bruce and co-authors observed trends suggesting that mortality risks decreased for Black men in their 50s and older who attended services at places of worship on a weekly basis.

Bruce, director of UH Population Health's Collaboratories and an associate dean for research in the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine, said that spiritual institutions are stress-free zones for Black men. Places of worship are often viewed within communities of color as sanctuaries where Black males feel safe and free of judgment or suspicion.

"Black men have been oppressed, commodified, surveilled and criminalized like no other group in U.S. history and they often experience disproportionately high levels of social and psychological stress from structural racism, institutional discrimination and unfair treatment from early childhood through late adulthood," Bruce and collaborators reported in the article.

Stressors such as this have a significant impact on Black men's health, Bruce said.

"Churches and similar institutions represent a safe space," he said. "They receive affirmation, and the messages delivered are intended specifically for them."

Using NHANES, Bruce and his fellow researchers tracked data from a random sample of Black men spanning for more than 17 years. Information included health records and national death indexes. Details on church attendance/social support, nutrition, physical activity and household status also were included. Through this information, Bruce and fellow researchers tracked health status and ultimately were able to generate mortality rates.

Within the sample observed by Bruce and researchers, 36.4% of respondents reported attending religious services at least once weekly; 31.7% attended at least three times or fewer monthly; 31.9% did not attend at all. Other findings indicated that respondents attending services at least once weekly had better health profiles than those who attended less frequently or did not attend. Likewise, the sample of regular attendees had a higher percentage of non-drinkers and non-smokers.

While religious institutions provide a safe space for Black men, Bruce and researchers concur that Black churches in particular provide members with an environment conducive for social and spiritual bonding. They also have an enhanced connection with those communities they serve.

"Black houses of worship have traditionally been centers of advocacy," he said.

"Churches and church leaders have a history of being catalysts for social change that has transformed the lives of African Americans and other marginalized populations. Churches have been at the center of efforts to improve the daily lives of community residents by providing information related to jobs, health, recreation and general well-being. These institutions have launched educational institutions, including several Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and have even served as community health centers. Black houses of worship have offered and continue to offer resources that touch individuals and their loved ones during every phase of life."

Ultimately, African American institutions of worship provide much more than spiritual support, Bruce said. For men 50 and older, the additional resources become more relevant as they advance in age.

Bruce and collaborators also point to the powers of both prayer and positivity as they relate to health. In the article, they cite studies suggesting that prayer and meditation reduce cardiovascular disease risks, treat post-traumatic stress disorder and potentially improve mortality rates.

Bruce is quick to admit that places of worship are not antidotes or cure-alls, but can be therapeutic for individuals at multiple levels.

"The tradition of worship includes time and space where individuals can lay their burdens down," he said. "When people participate in practices such as standing before an altar and participating in corporate prayer, they can realize that they are not alone, and their troubles are not insurmountable. These longstanding practices can help people get through whatever is ailing them. They're not a cure-all, but those long-held traditions provide positive energy needed to take on challenges and perhaps provide a new outlook on life."

More information: Marino A. Bruce et al, Religious service attendance and mortality among older Black men, PLOS ONE (2022). Journal information: PLoS ONE Marino A. Bruce et al, Religious service attendance and mortality among older Black men,(2022). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0273806
Women in health research find it more difficult to be published in scientific journals compared to men, according to recent analyse. Credit: Gerd Altmann (https://pixabay.com/users/geralt-9301/) from Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/illustrations/4646251/)

Health research from the global South is "twice as likely" to be attributed to a man than a woman, analysis shows.

Irene Offei Owusu has often grappled with the hard choice between family and careeroccasionally being forced to sacrifice one for the other.

"One challenge I have encountered is work-family balance," says the epidemiology postdoctoral research fellow at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research at the University of Ghana.

"It is difficult having to work in the field of science effectively and taking care of family," Owusu tells SciDev.Net.

Yet Owusu's predicament is just a glimpse of the challenges women face in the uneven health research landscape.

Globally, women in health find it more difficult to publish in scientific journals than men, according to recent analyses.

This is more apparent for women in low- and middle-income countries, and especially Sub-Saharan Africa, where women experience greater inequities due to systemic barriers beyond those faced by women in higher-income countries, according to a study published in BMJ Global Health.

"Women researchers in Sub-Saharan Africa lag far behind women in the European Union and North America in their contributions to the health research literature as lead or single authors," say the researchers. "They face substantial gender inequalities in publishing in prestigious authorship positions in academic journals."

Health research inequity

The BMJ Global Health study, jointly led by policy and data analysts Anwaar Baobeid, Tara Faghani-Hamadani and Sara Sauer, examined the authorship positionswhether they were positioned as the prestigious first, last, or single authorsof Sub-Saharan Africa's female researchers between 2014 and 2016. The study also examined policies and practices at ten journals with the highest rates of female authors publishing in first position from the region, to identify barriers to women in publishing.

"Recently, women have become more likely to be first authors, a junior stature authorship often given to a student or early career researcher, yet they are less likely to be last authors, a position given to principal investigators, or those who secured research funds," the researchers said.

Based on global and regional analyses, the study found the greatest authorship inequity in health research publishing in Sub-Saharan Africa, where men were lead authors in more than half of the publications. Male authors further accounted for 65% and 66% of last and single authors, respectively.

Although women accounted for at least 20% of last authors in 25 countries across the region, greater publishing success went to women researchers from South Africa and Nigeria.

The journals that published the most Sub-Saharan Africa women as prominent authors are based in the region, the report notes.

Only one journal explicitly discussed authorship diversity and encouraged submissions from the global South, while two journals offered implicit statements in support of diversity. Five out of the ten journals studied included statements that processing fees could be waived for authors from low- and middle-income countries.

Africa's francophone researchers face particular difficulties, as just one out of the ten journals published in both French and English. This linguistic isolation further exacerbated inequity among Francophone women researchers, the authors say.

Meanwhile, global health and medical research fails to consistently apply a sex and gender lens and remain largely a preserve of high-income countries, according to a 2021 study by Global Health 50/50, an advocacy group for gender equality in healthcare.

There were twice as many male first and last authors as women from low-income countries, according to the study, while first and last authors from high-income countries were 19 times as prevalent as authors from low-income countries.

The number of first and last authors from Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, Oceania and Sub-Saharan Africa combined was lower than the number of authors from either Europe or North America, the study found.

"Despite a variety of policies and guidance on incorporating sex and/ or gender into research, publications remain largely sex and gender blind," the authors said.

"Failing to appreciate sex and gender differences in medical and health research results in missed opportunities for identifying and responding to the impact that these factors have on health and well-being for all people.

"The lack of representation from populations that are the center of much global health research limits knowledge production."

Policy and funding

Francisca Mutapi, co-director of the Global Health Academy at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, says traditional health research in the global Southand particularly in Africahas been driven by local needs guided by domestic policies.

Mutapi says that women must be involved in health research for diversity, inclusivity and equity.

"Inclusivity in health research and policy is critical to provide equitable healthcare," she tells SciDev.Net. "All health research needs to be inclusive of the target population it purports to serve."

Owusu adds, "The scientific community now seems to be realizing the impact of women in the field, thus making more funds available so women can also do good quality research."

Language barriers are just one of many additional obstacles that women health researchers from low- and middle-income countries face, says Rebecca Grais, executive director of the Pasteur Network, a humanitarian organization advocating for knowledge transfer and free access to information.

"Acknowledging and taking these barriers into account is a step forward, but also recognizing the importance of supporting the research ecosystem as a whole and inherent power imbalances is a step forward in addressing these inequalities," she tells SciDev.Net.

Grais maintains that health research publishing organizations have made great progress by making scientific literature available through open access, but adds that other barriers such as article publishing charges (APCs) still existmeaning that while authors may have access to the literature, they remain excluded from publishing in these very journals.

"There are many other reasons for the relatively lower number of research papers emerging from the global South and APCs are only one such example," says Grais, the former director of research at Epicentre, the epidemiology and research arm of Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Explore further Study finds persistent gender gap in medical paper publication

More information: Anwaar Baobeid et al, Gender equity in health research publishing in Africa, BMJ Global Health (2022). Journal information: BMJ Global Health Anwaar Baobeid et al, Gender equity in health research publishing in Africa,(2022). DOI: 10.1136/bmjgh-2022-008821

Provided by SciDev.Net
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

People who wear reusable contact lenses are nearly four times as likely as those wearing daily disposables to develop a rare sight-threatening eye infection, finds a study led by UCL and Moorfields researchers.

The case control study, published in Ophthalmology, identifies multiple factors that increase the risk of Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK), including reusing lenses or wearing them overnight or in the shower.

AK is one type of microbial keratitis (corneal infection)a condition that results in inflammation of the cornea (the eye's clear protective outer layer).

Lead author Professor John Dart (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) said, "In recent years we have seen an increase of Acanthamoeba keratitis in the UK and Europe, and while the infection is still rare, it is preventable and warrants a public health response. Contact lenses are generally very safe but are associated with a small risk of microbial keratitis, most commonly caused by bacteria, and which is the only sight threatening complication of their use. Given that an estimated 300 million people across the globe wear contact lenses, it is important that people know how to minimize their risks for developing keratitis."

Contact lens use is now the leading cause of microbial keratitis in patients with otherwise healthy eyes in countries in the global north. Sight loss resulting from microbial keratitis is uncommon but Acanthamoeba, although a rare cause, is one of the most severe and is responsible for about half of those contact lens users who develop sight loss after keratitis. Up to 90% of AK cases are associated with avoidable risks, although the infection remains rare, affecting fewer than 1 in 20,000 contact lens wearers per year in the UK.

AK causes the front surface of the eye, the cornea, to become painful and inflamed, due to infection by Acanthamoeba, a cyst-forming microorganism. The most severely affected patients (a quarter of the total) end up with less than 25% of vision or become blind following the disease and face prolonged treatment. Overall, 25% of people affected require corneal transplants to treat the disease or restore vision.

For the study, the researchers recruited over 200 patients of Moorfields Eye Hospital who completed a survey, including 83 people with AK, and compared them with 122 participants who came to eyecare clinics with other conditions, who acted as a control group.

People who wore reusable soft contact lenses (such as monthlies) had 3.8 times the odds of developing AK, compared to people who wore daily disposable lenses. Showering with lenses in increased the odds of AK by 3.3 times, while wearing lenses overnight increased the odds by 3.9 times. Among daily disposable wearers, reusing their lenses increased their infection risk. Having had a recent contact lens check with a health professional reduced the risk.

With further analysis, the researchers estimated that 30-62% of cases in the UK, and potentially in many other countries, could be prevented if people switched from reusable to daily disposable lenses.

A recent study led by Professor Dart found that AK is increasing in prevalence in the UK. By reviewing incidence data from Moorfields Eye Hospital from 1985 to 2016, he and his team found an increase starting in 2000-2003, when there were eight to 10 cases per year, to between 36 and 65 annual cases at the end of the study period.

First author Associate Professor Nicole Carnt (UNSW, Sydney, UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital) said, "Previous studies have linked AK to wearing contact lenses in hot tubs, swimming pools or lakes, and here we have added showers to that list, underlining that exposure to any water when wearing lenses should be avoided. Public pools and coastal authorities could help reduce this risk by advising against swimming in contact lenses."

Professor Dart added, "Contact lens packaging should include information on lens safety and risk avoidance, even as simple as 'no water' stickers on each case, particularly given that many people buy their lenses online without speaking to a health professional. Basic contact lens hygiene measures can go a long way in avoiding infections, such as by thoroughly washing and drying your hands before putting in your lenses."

Explore further Outbreak of preventable eye infection in contact lens wearers

More information: Nicole Carnt et al, TEMPORARY REMOVAL: Acanthamoeba keratitis risk factors for daily wear contact lens users: a case control study, Ophthalmology (2022). Journal information: Ophthalmology Nicole Carnt et al, TEMPORARY REMOVAL: Acanthamoeba keratitis risk factors for daily wear contact lens users: a case control study,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2022.08.002
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Artificial intelligence (AI) medical image analysis techniques have developed rapidly in recent years. The field of dermatology is considered to be a promising area for AI image analysis techniques. In response to this, a team of scientists from China has published a perspective paper, sharing their experiences and observations about the use of AI tools in the field of dermatology.

Their perspective was published in journal Health Data Science on August 8, 2022.

"Artificial intelligence has great potential to assist dermatologists' clinical practice. At the same time, the importance of transdisciplinary communication and collaboration has never been so prominent as today," said Hang Li, a professor at Peking University First Hospital.

"We think understanding the actual needs of clinicians forms the foundation for making the best out of the technology and improving the health outcomes of patients with dermatoses. These drove us to write the perspective paper sharing our experiences, observations, and thoughts with AI-assistant tools from real practice, to facilitate the communication between dermatologists and data scientists, and improve AI tools' performance."

Because the diagnosis of skin diseases is mainly based on the morphology, or the form and structure, of lesions, AI analysis techniques based on deep learning and machine learning could prove to be useful clinical tools. Understanding clinical practice's real needs is the crux of developing valid and helpful AI tools.

In their perspective paper, the scientists share the needs of caring for patients with skin defects or lesions, known as dermatoses. They consider three clinical scenarios where AI techniques might be used. The first scenario involved screening for severe dermatoses in a primary care setting. In the second scenario, they explored AI techniques used by hospital dermatologists to improve their diagnostic performance. In their third scenario, they considered how AI could be used in the long-term management of chronic dermatoses.

The scientists see great potential in AI as a tool to assist clinicians in providing quality healthcare services for patients with skin diseases and improving the efficiency and accessibility of healthcare. Yet they also note that the accuracy of AI tools needs improvement. The lack of interpretability impedes doctors' and patients' confidence in the predicted results.

A gap exists between the technology and the expectations for safety and reliability derived from the "first, do no harm" principle. To close the gap, the joint efforts of dermatologists and AI scientists are the crux to translating the potential of AI healthcare into the real benefits for patients.

The scientists make several recommendations for ways to improve AI-assisted diagnosis systems. They propose that the data can be improved by establishing a robust database of clinical information, lesion images, dermatoscope images, and high-resolution imagery called reflectance confocal microscopy. The scientists also propose that AI algorithms should be better adapted to existing real-world databases. Their last recommendation is that researchers should systematically design better strategies and processes for human clinicians and the machines used in AI diagnostics.

Looking to the future, the scientists see the need for stronger collaboration between clinicians and data scientists. "We think the most important message to express here is that clinical practice is very complex due to the diverse requirements embedded in various scenarios," said Li. "That means there is no one-fit-all modal for AI tool development."

For example, in their paper, they described the different needs of general practitioners and hospital dermatologists for AI tools that prioritize different aspects of the tool's performance, related to sensitivity and specificity. Communication and collaboration between clinicians and data scientists across disciplines are the pathways to realizing AI healthcare's real benefits for patients. The scientists believe that their perspective on the use of AI in dermatology might also prove to be applicable in other disciplines of medicine.

Explore further Applying astronomy ideas to mole identification

More information: Yicen Yan et al, Artificial Intelligence in Skin Diseases: Fulfilling its Potentials to Meet the Real Needs in Dermatology Practice, Health Data Science (2022). Yicen Yan et al, Artificial Intelligence in Skin Diseases: Fulfilling its Potentials to Meet the Real Needs in Dermatology Practice,(2022). DOI: 10.34133/2022/9791467

Provided by Health Data Science
Graphical abstract. Credit: JCI Insight (2022). DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.155128

Researchers at Queen's University Belfast have uncovered a key process that contributes to vision loss and blindness in people with diabetes. The findings could lead to new treatments that can be used before any irreversible vision loss has occurred.

Diabetic retinopathy is a common complication of diabetes and occurs when high blood sugar levels damage the cells at the back of the eye, known as the retina. There are no current treatments that prevent the advancement of diabetic retinopathy from its early to late stages, beyond the careful management of diabetes itself. As a result, a significant proportion of people with diabetes still progress to the vision-threatening complications of the disease.

As the number of people with diabetes continues to increase globally, there is an urgent need for new treatment strategies, particularly those that target the early stages of the disease to prevent vision loss.

The retina demands a high oxygen and nutrient supply to function properly. This is met by an elaborate network of blood vessels that maintain a constant flow of blood even during daily fluctuations in blood and eye pressure. The ability of the blood vessels to maintain blood flow at a steady level is called blood flow autoregulation. The disruption of this process is one of the earliest effects of diabetes in the retina.

The breakthrough made by researchers at Queen's University Belfast pinpoints the cause of these early changes to the retina. The study, published in the journal JCI Insight, has discovered that the loss of blood flow autoregulation during diabetes is caused by the disruption of a protein called TRPV2. Furthermore, they show that disruption of blood flow autoregulation even in the absence of diabetes causes damage closely resembling that seen in diabetic retinopathy.

The research team are hopeful that these findings will be used to inform the development of new treatments that preserve vision in people with diabetes.

Professor Tim Curtis, deputy director at the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine at Queen's and corresponding author, explains, "We are excited about the new insights that this study provides, which explain how the retina is damaged during the early stages of diabetes. By identifying TRPV2 as a key protein involved in diabetes-related vision loss, we have a new target and opportunity to develop treatments that halt the advancement of diabetic retinopathy."

Explore further When diabetes strikes, eye exams can save your sight

More information: Michael O'Hare et al, Loss of TRPV2-mediated blood flow autoregulation recapitulates diabetic retinopathy in rats, JCI Insight (2022). Journal information: JCI Insight Michael O'Hare et al, Loss of TRPV2-mediated blood flow autoregulation recapitulates diabetic retinopathy in rats,(2022). DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.155128
Credit: Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology

What's small and smart and worn all over?

It's not a riddle, but a list of attributes envisioned by Nancy McElwain, a professor of human development and family studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, as she searched for a data collection tool compatible with her youngest research participants.

McElwain's research focuses on attachment processes, or the relationships children form with their parents in infancy, and how those relationships shape social, emotional, and physiological development.

One challenge for McElwain is collecting information from children too young to self-report or operate a smart device on their own. This prompted her to connect with Mark Hasegawa-Johnson and Romit Roy Choudhury, professors of electrical and computer engineering.

Working together, the trio of researchers developed LittleBeats, a small wearable device that collects data via electrocardiogram, audio, and motion sensors. Concealed in the front pocket of a specially designed, infant-sized shirt, LittleBeats enables remote data collection from the comfort of a participant's own home. Data from the device helps researchers evaluate infant stress regulation and physiological responses in the context of their everyday interactions with parents and siblings.

"Our end goal is to give back to the community and use LittleBeats as a tool for intervention and prevention. More broadly, it could be used as a way for parents to gain a detailed view of their child's daily interactions," McElwain said.

LittleBeats data collection is still in its early stages, but the researchers are optimistic about future applications for the device.

"If parents and care providers can monitor a child's development with this device, early identification of a motor or language delay, behavioral disturbance, or sleep disturbance could be possible," McElwain said.

The ability to collect information using multiple measurements is a critical component of the project.

"We want to use electrocardiogram, audio, and motion sensors together to provide a better, more precise detection of the child's emotions or behavior than any one sensor could do by itself," McElwain said.

Her main measure of interest is respiratory sinus arrhythmia, which measures the "rest and digest" branch of the nervous system and is tracked by electrocardiogram. Audio capture enables researchers to record parent-child interactions without the intrusion of video; pairing audio with electrocardiogram provides insight into stress regulation. Electrical and computer engineering researchers' interest in motion data led to the inclusion of a motion sensor.

LittleBeats is testament to the innovation made possible through interdisciplinary work at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Child development researchers provide suggestions for metrics to track, and engineers design algorithms to meet those needs. The new algorithms developed have enabled richer data collection and faster processing. The collaboration allows HDFS students to learn the basics of machine learning and gives ECE students insight into real-world application of their algorithms.

Engaging in interdisciplinary research does require some navigation between disciplines.

"We speak different scientific languages, so we have to find ways to bridge that divide," McElwain said. "Our research can be very compartmentalized, but at the same time we're helping each other generate ideas. Those questions at the boundary of the disciplines inspire new discussions and new ideas that are beneficial to everyone."

Participation in this interdisciplinary effort benefits not only researchers, but the 150-plus families enrolled so far. The LittleBeats team has partnered with researchers and clinicians at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Arkansas Children's Research Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Cincinnati Children's Hospital to recruit families from across the country.

"We are attuned to the need for a diverse sample, both socioeconomically, racially, ethnically, and geographically. It is critical for child development research to study samples that reflect the entire population," McElwain said.

Participant feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, according to project manager Jordan Bodway. Parents are eager to participate, finding the device easy to set up and pleasant to use.

"Many families we've recruited are from the local community, so they value research and what's being accomplished at the university," Bodway said.

The research team is also developing a visualization tool to assist parents in interpreting their own child's data.

"LittleBeats families have been extremely generous with their time, and we're excited to return their data to them in a format that will allow them to easily see patterns of behavior their child is experiencing in the home. We want LittleBeats to have a positive impact on the families who use it," McElwain said.

This insightful and innovative research would not have been possible without the use of the gold-standard data collection equipment housed at Beckman.

"I'm very appreciative for Beckman being the place where we feel at home doing this interdisciplinary research, where we feel supported, and where we've benefited immensely from the highly collaborative environment," McElwain said.

Explore further How toddler-mother attachment impacts adolescent brain and behavior

More information: Project website: Project website: littlebeats.hdfs.illinois.edu/
The term mountain music, though broad, could describe the sweep and intent and supply of a great deal of the contemporary vibrations flowing out of Montana.

While iconic mountain music-producing states such as Virginia and Kentucky have an associated history thats well-blended and long-storied, Montana is still casting its chronicles.

The Bozeman-based Kitchen Dwellers purvey an elated, folk-spirited type of modern mountain music, a burgundy flannel wearing, coffee simmering, camp stove and flickering firelight resonance that serves up movement and discovery, as well as something coming within reach of cultural commodity.

We definitely feel like at times that we are ambassadors for our home state of sorts, said Shawn Swain of the Kitchen Dwellers. Right now, a lot of people are pretty fascinated with life in the West and Montana, specifically. So, telling people what things are really like in Montana is always fun, too.

The Kitchen Dwellers perpetuate a style of sound and culture that was created in the remoteness of the Appalachian Mountains  stringed instruments, region-specific ballads, hymns, spontaneous conviviality, gathered fiddles, and an overall relished seclusion from high-density urban areas. At the same time, they have striven to find their own character within that world.

We've got these influences from the Appalachian genres, but it's absolutely something really unique thats happening here now," Swain said. "There are a lot of bands in Montana now and I would say that we're all similar to each other, but that each one of us sounds incredibly different. ... What I noticed the most about the Montana music scene is that, as far as, say, bluegrass style music goes, you can go to Nashville, and a lot of traditional bluegrass bands will sound pretty much the same. Whereas, what we're doing in Montana  the Kitchen Dwellers, the Li'l Smokies, among other acts  we all are pretty unique in our voice. That's the coolest thing about Montana folk music, compared to the area where it originated and came from.

Swain said that no member of the band has ever been too wrapped up in the pedantic nature of studying music or adhering to textbooks or lessons. Other than the occasional bit of instruction here and there, they have ignited their spark and lit their fuse through the lamplight of engagement.

To a large extent, most of us are self-taught on our instruments, and that has allowed us to do it naturally, and without being contrived," he said. "Music just came along in a truly organic manner. It's almost like we took what we had in our own lives, and we unintentionally used that to create the sound of the Kitchen Dwellers, rather than reaching out to try to create something specifically already in mind.

Rural heritage is one of the core common elements that united the band professionally and a partiality for and an attachment to all things rustic has kept them connected on a personal basis.

Banjo player Torrin Daniels was born in Casper and grew up in Montana, but the rest of us moved in from elsewhere, said Swain. I grew up in southwestern Colorado and moved to Bozeman in 2009. And our bassist is from Juneau, Alaska, and we have a guitar player who grew up in the Midwest. But the one thing that is probably the most significant unifying factor about all of our backgrounds is everybody is from a smaller community. And I think that really plays a large role in creating the fundamentals on somebodys personality.

Bozeman felt like a big, big city to Swain when he arrived there in the mid-2000s to attend MSU. Random chance  class schedules, conversations, mutual friendships, and club memberships  brought the members of the band together.

The Kitchen Dwellers formed in 2010 and their initial gigs found them cutting their teeth at open-mic nights at the Haufbrau House and then testing the waters of originals at the American Legion Post No. 14, both in Bozeman.

For some reason, the Legion Post just kind of became a crazy college bar about 10 years ago, said Swain.

From there, the band started appearing regularly at the Filling Station in Bozeman. Their first out-of-town gig didnt happen for a few years, until the band slowly inched into places such as McLeod, where they played at Hollys Road Kill Saloon, and other neighboring rural communities. Then came the jump to Billings. And, eventually, they decided that they would venture for one week to Colorado every summer.

We were blindly reaching out to venues nationwide and started kind of just driving around without an idea of what the hell we were doing," he said. "Luckily, we got the attention of some people who had started helping us out. Dave DiCianni found us and came up to me after the show in Denver and was like, hey, you guys have something special and we should work together. Id say he's been the most instrumental part in helping us keep this thing off the ground.

No matter where the ride steers, stops, or perhaps ends, Bozeman was the formative spot, the fertile setting, and the investigational laboratory, and for that Swain said that he is indebted to it.

Bozemans music community is definitely really tight-knit and inclusive, said Swain. It seems like the same 20 people are in the same 10 bands. And while that may sound weird, it really provides an awesome sense of that camaraderie, where there's not really a sense of rivalries, or trying to one-up other bands, or trying to outsell other bands in the town. Thats why everybody's kind of just out there to make music and enjoy what comes from it.

The bands newest offering pays homage to one of the states most visually appealing and remote and at times marred rivers. Wise River was completed in February 2021, though Swain waited until the spring of 2022 to release it.

Record companies and record production got really backed up, said Swain. We decided to not play a large amount of those songs for anybody until the album was actually out. So when a lot of our fans got the album, they expected to hear a lot of songs we'd been playing live. But, the exciting thing was that six of the 10 songs, they'd never heard before. I think that that helped push people's excitement about the album in general.

Swain said that he chose the Wise River as the title and recurrent subject of the new recording because of its richly allegorical and paradoxical nature.

That whole area is like this beautiful pristine spot, but because of the mining history in it, there are very few fish," he said "It's beautiful and looks pristine when, in reality, a lot of it is beat up, and the Big Hole is drying up. The beef industry is drying up. The mines are all dried up. The question is, what will an area like that become?

It's interesting to see a spot like that decline in size. The rest of our places in Montana seem to be growing at a rate that freaks us all out a little bit. To know a place like that exists, even if there's melancholiness around it, helps me to feel comfortable amongst the great growth.

Certain songs tap into the economic and social depression wrought from the lost mining industry, while others capture the odd, ineffable energy of the Pioneer Mountain Scenic Byway, the boom and bust feeling, the ghost stories, the lingering heaviness of the Battle of the Big Hole, the kooky vortex of space and time that inhabits and shapes the unexplained sensation of the living there.

Paradise Valley alludes to the strange, puritanical saga of Elizabeth Clare Prophet who founded the Church Universal and Triumphant. She and her followers moved to the Paradise Valley in 1981. Messianic and militaristic, Prophet said that she received Cold War-reverberating messages from divine sources that indicated that the struggle between the forces of freedom (the United States) and totalitarianism (the Soviet Union) was about to devolve into a hellacious battle. The ranch that housed her organization was later discovered to be stockpiling weapons and hoarding ammunition. Prophet died in 1999, and even though her influence has faded, she still maintains a small amount of devotees in the area.

Im a history buff and the CUT is interesting, said Swain, who finds his peace in books. People talk about them in past tense, but thats not the case.

Buddy Years is a song that extracts and recasts the experiences of a friend of Swains who is a wildland firefighter and harrowingly survived a large blaze of nearly 200,000 acres of land that, in August 2020, wiped out the town of Beachie Creek, Oregon, and killed five people.

He was on one of the last trucks to get out of this fire, and in his rearview mirror, he told me about seeing a car of two local residents, and how a burning tree fell down in front of them. That was the end of that for them.

Other songs articulate the exasperating and corrosive dreariness of pandemic isolation and the harsh mental consequences of its mandated idleness on the psyche and spirit.

There are some themes within 'Bottom Shelf' and 'Sundown' about what basically doing nothing can do to your mind and body and how that messes with your perception of time. The period the album was written under, everybody was stuck in the house. A few of the songs have a theme around the elasticity of time. How time can change, whether it feels slow or fast, depending on how much complacency you fall into.

Swain said that he presumes that the Wise River release wont be the final installment of folk music coming from the Kitchen Dwellers to depend on the conditions of Montana past and present for inspiration. Indeed, its dominance is at times mystifying, even to Swain.

It has a grandeur to it that's a little bit different, a little harder to describe, and you almost feel like you're a little bit in a different country. Whether it's auditory, visual, mental, or emotional, there's a lack of overall noise in Montana, and that really inspires you to tap into another place in your brain.
FRIDAY, Sept. 23, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- The overall mortality rate for type A acute aortic dissection (TAAAD) is about 6 percent at 48 hours, according to a study published online Aug. 24 in JAMA Cardiology.

Kevin M. Harris, M.D., from Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, and colleagues examined early mortality rates in the initial 48 hours after hospital arrival for 5,611 patients with TAAAD identified from the International Registry of Acute Aortic Dissection (1996 to 2018).

The researchers found that 91.4 percent of patients were intended to be treated surgically, while 8.6 percent were intended to be treated medically. Advanced age (141 patients), comorbidities (281 patients), and patient preference (81 patients) were the top reasons for medical management. Mortality for all patients within the first 48 hours was 5.8 percent. Mortality was 0.5 percent per hour (23.7 percent at 48 hours) for those medically managed versus 4.4 percent for those whose intended treatment was surgical. However, in the surgical group, 1 percent of patients died before the operation.

"Hospital mortality at a high-volume center like University of Michigan, where aortic dissection patients are taken care [of] only by highly experienced aortic surgeons, can be as low as 5 percent, while the same patient operated on at a low-volume center may be 20 percent or higher," a coauthor said in a statement. "With this new information, it is clear that the 'cost,' or risk, of a four- to six-hour delay caused by transfers is more than offset by the lower risk of surgery at experienced hospitals."

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the health care technology and global materials science industries.
John and Janet Duncan signed an agreement to move into a house in Turah on Sept. 30, 2021. Nearly a year later, the couple is still waiting to move into their completed home.

The Duncans are just a few of the homeowners plagued by delays and other hang-ups in the Turah Meadows neighborhood east of Missoula and south of I-90. Levi Miller, a developer registered in Washington who is also in hot water after methane gas was discovered in his Oregon housing development, has failed to finish numerous residences there, forcing families to wait, find other housing and, in some cases, withdraw completely from the development.

I think the key thing here is the delays go way beyond the issues that all contractors have faced this year, which are a shortage of materials and labor, John Duncan said. This is just not in the same realm.

The developers failure to fulfill his obligations to homebuyers has escalated to the point that the Turah Meadows Homeowner Association has turned off water to four unfinished houses in an attempt to influence Miller to complete the unfinished projects.

The Turah Meadows construction activity involves about 80 homes. Miller is connected to more than 20 houses in the development. Of those, several including the Duncans, continue to languish without water or a move-in date in sight.

Barely 24 hours after the Duncans signed their buy-sell agreement in 2021, the closing date was amended to estimated only.

With the promise of an approximate fall closing date, however, the Duncans sold their house in Ennis. As construction dragged on for well over a year, the pair found themselves staying in motels and Airbnbs, couch-surfing with family members, buying and selling a travel trailer, moving back to Ennis and, eventually, living in a Missoula campground.

Besides the financial and logistical problems, there is a huge emotional impact, Janet said.

The incessant delays are just one of the many problems the Duncans have faced as they wait to move into their new home.

Our primary frustration is the lack of communication in terms of scheduling, John said. Theyve gone back. Theyll say something and then it doesnt happen.

Millers representative, Realtor Jeremy Williams with Bannack Real Estate Group, did not return a request for comment.

Even when the Duncans do eventually get the chance to move into their house, they wont be getting settled into the home they originally agreed to purchase.

Like many of their neighbors-to-be, the Duncans experienced numerous changes to the elements of their home without any warning from the developer. The floor plan, the flooring and the bathroom tiles were all changed in the Duncans house, and the couple only discovered the modifications by walking into their property. John said Williams told them those changes were game-day decisions.

The Missoulian checked and found numerous liens from private contractors against Miller for work on homes in the Turah Meadows subdivision.

Now the Duncans are hopeful they can buy the home as-is and finish the remaining tasks with their own private contractors, but they will need Miller to sign off on selling the house in order to go that route. In the past few weeks, theyve been stuck in negotiations about buying the house, with Miller recently increasing the price to buy the house outright.

The Duncans Realtor, Jen Clement, said Millers operation at Turah Meadows is unlike anything shes ever seen after almost 20 years in the real estate industry.

Driven out

The complications at Turah Meadows have been enough to drive some would-be residents out of the neighborhood for good.

Connie Spottiswood signed a deal in April 2021 for a home that was supposed to be completed in fall 2021.

After she sold her Minnesota home, she needed to move in by spring 2022 at the latest. She was assured her Turah Meadows house would meet her deadline, but when she came to Missoula on June 10, 2022, she said, nothing was done.

Desperate for housing, Spottiswood withdrew from Turah Meadows and quickly sought out an alternative, spending over $10,000 on hotel rooms throughout the process. She recently closed on her second-choice house and received her money back from the failed Turah Meadows deal, but still, Spottiswood said, Were really sad.

We waited and waited, she said. Lie after lie after lie.

Families have just been turned upside down, Spottiswood added.

After the flood

One of those families is the Bakers, some of the Turah Meadows buyers who have been fortunate enough to move into their home already. While Byron Lee Baker considers himself lucky, his experience at Turah Meadows has been riddled with challenges like others in the development.

The Bakers faced lengthy delays, unexpected changes and incomplete projects in their house. One project alone, landscaping, cost them $8,000 to complete themselves after waiting nine months for the developer to fulfill his promise.

Then, two days after the Bakers finally finished all of the final touches on their own, a poorly installed hose popped loose and flooded their new flooring. The entire floor had to be ripped out, and as of Thursday, the Bakers were living amid an army of dehumidifiers loudly trying to salvage the homes infrastructure.

I wouldnt wish this on anybody, Baker said Thursday. I love a challenge, but this guy (Miller) is something else.

The Bakers are currently wearing earplugs just to walk around their home, and they dont expect the new flooring to be completed by a private contractor for another six weeks.

Baker said hes most bothered by the indifference of the builder toward the plight of homeowners like him.

We did not get what we bought, he said. I hope Levi Miller never hammers another nail in Montana.
A mass COVID-19 vaccine clinic is scheduled to run all day on Oct. 11 at the Missoula County Fairgrounds.

Missoula Public Health is hosting the clinic from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the fairgrounds' commercial building, the same building that previously hosted vaccine clinics in early 2021, according to a Missoula County health department press release.

Booster shots and primary series will both be offered for free, and health insurance is not required, according to the Missoula County health department. Registration is also not needed.

Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax doses will be available. The newer Novavax vaccine is authorized for ages 12 and up.

Fall 2022 COVID-19 booster doses, also called bivalent boosters, will also be offered. They're for anyone over 12 years old who previously had a COVID-19 primary series or booster two or more months ago.

"The updated booster increases immunity against the newer omicron variants, which account for most current strains, as well as prior strains," the press release stated. "Staying current on COVID-19 vaccines provides protection against the worst outcomes of COVID-19 including severe illness, hospitalization, and death."

The Oct. 11 clinic isn't the only option for COVID-19 vaccines in Missoula.

Missoula Public Health's regular immunization site at 301 West Alder St. still offers shots, and clinics offering both flu and COVID-19 booster vaccines will run throughout September and October in Missoula County.

Starting Oct. 3, the health department's Alder Street clinic will be walk-in only on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and by appointment only on Wednesdays. Call 406-258-3363.

Seeley-Swan High School will have one on Sept. 29, followed by the Frenchtown Fire Station on Sept. 30. Both will run from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The Lolo Community Center's clinic will run on Oct. 6 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Finally, on Oct. 13 the elections center in Missoula will host a clinic all day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
CHICAGO (AP)  A Chicago state senator pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of lying to the FBI and seeking a bribe to oppose legislation that would have required a statewide evaluation of red-light camera systems.

Sen. Emil Jones III, the latest public official implicated in the bribery scheme, entered the plea by telephone before U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood.

I plead not guilty, your honor, he said in a calm voice.

Jones has an unsecured bond of $10,000.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday called for Jones to resign his seat, one day after Jones stepped down from his unpaid post as deputy leader for the Senate Democrats and his $11,098-per-year committee chair position at the request of Senate President Don Harmon.

Jones is running unopposed in the Nov. 8 general election.

Prosecutors allege that Jones, a South Side Democrat, told an individual with an interest in the camera system operator SafeSpeed that he would protect it from legislation in the General Assembly in exchange for $5,000 and a job for an unnamed associate.

Prosecutors have not named the red-light camera company, but SafeSpeed issued a statement Tuesday indicating that a former associate was involved.

Neither SafeSpeed nor its current owners have been charged with any wrongdoing.
Attorney Monica Tranel has represented farmers and ranchers across Montana in support of locating wind turbines on their property. A one-year lease for a wind turbine can generate as much as $10,000 a year to a landowner. The landowner thrives and their local governments gain almost as much income from increased property taxes.

Monicas ranch upbringing provided her with first-hand knowledge of the challenges of rural life. She understands the boom and bust cycles agriculture producers face. In addition, she recognizes lowering utility costs for Montanans comes by embracing the rich renewable energy resources Montana holds.

Monicas opponent for Montanas new U.S. House seat is untrustworthy. His ads state he supports public lands, yet under his watch as Secretary of Interior, he introduced plans to shrink Bears Ears National Monument by 85 percent, and cut Grand Staircase-Escalante to about half its size.

Five Indian tribes and environmental groups sued, noting the Antiquities Act authorized presidents to designate national monuments, not reduce them. Zinke eventually resigned as Secretary after evidence revealed he misused public money as Secretary just as he had in the Navy Seals. He resigned from the Navy after he was denied future promotions because he mis-used funds that he was charged with overseeing.

As Secretary, Mr. Zinke again used federal dollars for personal travel. He also partnered with Halliburton on plans to develop Montana land while he was Secretary of the Interior. He denied a Native American tribes request to develop a casino after being heavily lobbied by MGM, which owned a competing casino.

Who can be trusted to represent us? Is it the person who lives full-time in Montana and has been publicly active in doing good work throughout her career or is it the person who again and again has demonstrated his dishonesty and penchant to use public offices for personal gain?
When you campaign against wasteful government spending, you shouldnt run up a $1.2 million legal bill defending actions your own government warned you not to do. Especially when your own government only budgeted $100,000 for such expenses. So we offer at least 1.2 million chokecherries to Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobson, Gov. Greg Gianforte and the Montana legislators who together approved a slate of laws hobbling voter services in the state. These included eliminating election-day voter registration, requiring special identification from college student voters and limiting the ability of Montanans to assist others in delivering ballots.

Well send a few more bushels of chokecherries to Attorney General Austin Knudsen, who opted to let the Secretary of States office depend on private attorneys instead of providing defense from his state stable. Perhaps he was too busy suing President Joe Biden over firearms regulations, school lunch policies, child immigration, and Donald Trumps hoarding of classified state secrets in his Florida closet. Were looking forward to see the bills and results from all that legal work on behalf of Montana taxpayers. And Knudsen might want to spare a staff attorney or two to help the Department of Public Health and Human Services follow a judges orders to stop using a birth certificate rule that the court had suspended. As the judge noted DPHHSs claims of confusion regarding his order were demonstrably ridiculous, that job shouldnt take too many billable minutes.

Wed like to save the huckleberries for hungry bears at this time of year, but were happy to share a bush or two with Bob and Jeanne Summerfield of Alberton for their Bear Smart efforts at protecting fruit trees. A family group of black bears have been raiding the Summerfields family orchard, doing a lot of permanent damage to the branches in the process. The humans have responded by seeking community help setting up an electric fence around the 3-acre plot, which has been proven highly effective at keeping ursine raiders away. Bob Summerfield should know  hes a retired U.S. Forest Service grizzly bear habitat coordinator and biologist. In a sad update to Missoulian reporter Joshua Murdocks story about the Summerfields fencing project, a sheriffs deputy shot and killed one of the suspect bear cubs on Wednesday in a tree by the Alberton post office. Weve also received work that some residents along nearby Houle Creek Road think its OK to leave their roadside trash cans unattended all week (letting other neighbors pick up after the regular bear raids) because they dont want bears on their property. Its the responsibility of each resident of bear country (and nowadays, everywhere in western Montana is bear country) to keep human food and trash out of bears reach. Huckle up, folks.
Butte police reports

Fake news

A man living on Greenwood Avenue stopped at the police station Thursday afternoon to set the record straight.

Apparently, he had been reported missing and he wanted to let police know that he was not missing at all.

Brought to Butte

Officers from Flathead County brought Gaven Lee Harrison, 31, of Whitefish to the Butte jail Wednesday afternoon.

Harrison had two felony warrants out for his arrest out of Butte District Court for violation of release condition (two counts) and another felony warrant out of Beaverhead County.

Arrest warrant

During a traffic stop Wednesday afternoon near the intersection of Walnut and Garfield, an officer learned there was a felony arrest warrant out for Cole Michael Jacob, 31, of Butte.

The warrant was out of Powell County. He was taken to jail without incident.

Other crimes

 A work truck parked at the Copper King Inn, 4655 Harrison Ave., was broken into. Items taken included clothing, bolt cutters, and electric meter, and were valued at $400.

 Neighbors were arguing in the 500 block of Dakota Street, but when officers arrived, one of the neighbors had made himself scarce.

 A man living in the 1300 block of Evans Avenue called to report his neighbor cut part of his tree down and he was not happy about it.

 Someone living in the 600 block of South Dakota Street reported witnessing a man urinating across the street from the residents home.

 A woman was reportedly assaulted by her boyfriend at Eddys Motel. When officers arrived, the man was gone. The case is under investigation.

 A license plate was stolen from a car while it was parked outside Butte Central High School, 9 S. Idaho St.

 A thief broke a window on a car parked outside the Columbus Plaza, 1515 Oregon Ave., and took a cell phone.

 A shed in the 400 block of Drifter Drive was broken into. A doll house was stolen, along with a bike trailer.

 The window of a car parked in the 1000 block of Farrell Street was broken and the thief took some $1 bills, along with some already-used checks.

 A bicycle was stolen while parked outside St. James Healthcare, 400 S. Clark St.

 A man causing problems at Montana Lils Casino at 1400 Harrison Ave., was asked to leave, but was taking his time, so police were called. Once they were called, he hightailed it out of there.

 Two women reportedly got into a fist fight outside the Party Palace, 1 W. Park St. One of the budding pugilists had already left when officers reached the scene.
By her own admission, Kay Olsen was an equal opportunity user.

At various times in her life, between the ages of 11 and 31, she tried everything  to excess  be it alcohol, prescription drugs, cocaine or methamphetamine.

Born and raised in Butte, Olsen grew up being very familiar with addiction.

It runs in my family, she explained, but I never thought it would be me.

As a teenager, she viewed alcohol and drugs as a fun escape. That sentiment followed her into her 20s.

I had no fear, she said.

When it stopped being a choice and became a necessity, fear set in.

Olsens journey to sobriety is nothing short of miraculous.

Four years ago, Olsen was a bartender at night and a cosmetologist by day. One night, after her bartending shift, she made the decision to drink and drive and ended up rolling her car.

She walked away from the wreck, but not without injuries. She called her mom to take her to the hospital, and in the immediate aftermath, Olsen realized she had a problem with alcohol.

I really messed up, she said. I was no longer in control.

Following the accident, Olsen vividly recalled making the conscious decision to quit drinking, but that only lasted a week and she was back to using.

I switched to meth to help get rid of my reality, Olsen explained.

During what could only be described as Olsens darkest days, she seriously considered suicide.

I felt extremely hopeless, she said.

That hopelessness only compounded the problem. The mother of two had now lost everything due to her addictions and was homeless. Friends were scarce due to her long-term behavior and while her family was supportive, none would enable her. Olsen was now completely alone.

I felt like the last piece of my soul had just broke, she said.

Olsen would continue to spiral out of control until Christmas Eve 2019, when she checked herself into a Billings treatment facility.

Butte was too close, she said. I was afraid I would walk out.

Although she completed the Billings program, she immediately relapsed, convincing herself she wasnt a true addict and she could use once again, just not to excess.

The guilt, shame and failure all came back, she said.

Oddly enough, the relapse helped to fuel her recovery because she went right back into rehab on Feb. 3, 2020, and has been sober since.

In the midst of her recovery, the pandemic arrived and Olsen was shaken.

COVID and the whole isolation period terrified me, she said.

From the get go, Olsen became very involved with the 12-step programs in Butte and the recovery community and is a regular at sweat lodges.

They are all very essential in my life, she explained.

Its been a rough road for Olsen, but she is now learning to live again.

I get to be a productive member of society, she said, with pride, and give back to the community.

Now, no longer a cosmetologist, nor a bartender, Olsen provides peer support at the Montana Chemical Dependency Center.

Im helping others like me find recovery, she said.

In her job, Olsen uses her life story to help others as they start on their own journeys.

The opposite of addiction is connection, she said, and having the ability to share your own experiences with another helps you connect.

Olsen loves her job and is happy to be surrounded with people who truly care and want to help.

She no longer lives in the past and wont look to the future, either. Instead, her focus is on the present.

I am learning how to live again, she said, and create a life that means something.
The first crop of pheasants reared at Montana State Prison were released this week on wildlife management areas across the state ahead of the weekend youth hunt.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist Adam Grove arrived at Lake Helena Wildlife Management area Friday morning to release about 45 birds. As he flipped crates, both roosters and hens flushed from their confines and flew out across the grass and cattails. Grove planned to release another 135 at Canyon Ferry Wildlife Management Area that afternoon.

FWP spokesman Greg Lemon said Friday the agency has seen some added excitement at youth hunting kickoff events around the state. The releases are aimed at recruiting new hunters rather than establishing or bolstering pheasant populations.

Although only male pheasants may be shot by hunters, hens were included in the releases.

The purpose of those birds is to release them and in reality, there is going to be a percentage of chicks that are hens, Lemon said.

Youth bird hunting weekend Montanas youth pheasant and waterfowl weekend runs Sept. 24 and 25. Licensed hunters, age 15 and under, will be able to hunt pheasants, ducks, mergansers, geese and coots statewide on these two days. The two-day youth hunt is open to: Legally licensed 12-15 year olds who have completed hunter education and who are accompanied by a non-hunting adult at least 18 years of age; and properly certified and legally licensed apprentice hunters 10-15 years of age who are accompanied by a non-hunting adult "mentor" at least 21 years of age. Pheasant release sites North Shore WMA

Canyon Ferry WMA

Lake Helena WMA

Freezout Lake WMA

Grant Marsh WMA

Yellowstone WMA

Vandalia WMA

Cree Crossing WMA

Sleeping Buffalo WMA

Fresno WMA

Rookery WMA

Isaac Homestead WMA

Fridays release was the culmination of a nearly 18-month at times controversial process that started at the Legislature last year. House Bill 637, a wide-ranging wildlife management bill, included an appropriation of $1 million toward a new state pheasant rearing and release program. With a mix of federal and state wildlife dollars, the program is housed at the state prison and operated by inmates, with a goal of producing up to 50,000 birds annually.

Last month, the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission authorized the program for the next five years with the stipulation that FWP provide annual reports on spending and hunter satisfaction.

The goal though for this program is to recruit youth hunters to harvest birds and provide more opportunities, Deb ONeill, special projects director for FWP, told the commission. We do know a bird in hand will inspire hunters to continue hunting.

Officials with the prisons work program, Montana Correctional Enterprises, have lauded the pheasant rearing program after the prison lost a major contract for its inmate-run dairy. The loss of a $1.5 million contract with Darigold resulted in a major reduction of the prisons dairy cow herd and loss of inmate jobs.

Development of the pheasant rearing program has helped to fill that void, officials say.

Its really helped backfill the loss of the dairy program, Gayle Butler, Montana Correctional Enterprises administrator said in a previous interview. It keeps inmates trained, educated and working, and even if they dont plan to raise pheasants when theyre released, those are important job skills.

But a number of conservation groups and some state lawmakers have slammed the releases as returning to a long-abandoned policy. The state once ran a number of pheasant-rearing facilities, but shuttered those operations in 1982 in favor of focusing on habitat for wild birds.

Criticism includes fiscal, ethical and biological concerns, arguing that given the low survivability of pen-raised pheasants, $1 million would be better spent on habitat.

Its wishful thinking to put thousands of birds on the landscape and somehow sort of magically turn these teenage girls and boys into hunters, Thomas Baumeister, a former FWP employee who now volunteers with Montana Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, told the commission. It sounds good, it feels good, folks it doesnt work. It takes a lot more to recruit hunters and retain hunters.

Groups also raised concerns about disease after an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza earlier this year.

FWP and the Montana Department of Corrections said biosecurity measures such as testing would minimize the potential for disease spread.

FWP is also proposing legislation to redirect some funding from a separate program for bird habitat.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  Dr. Jeanne Corwin traveled about two hours on Friday from her hometown of Cincinnati to an Indianapolis abortion clinic, where she saw the clinic's first 12 patients the day after an Indiana judge blocked the state's abortion ban from being enforced.

It's a trip Corwin has made several times over the past few months, as her Ohio medical license allows her to sign off on required paperwork for Women's Med patients in Indiana to access care in the clinic's sister location in Dayton.

But with Indiana's abortion ban temporarily on hold  paired with a judge's Sept. 14 blocking of an Ohio ban on nearly all abortions  Women's Med and other Indiana abortion clinics resumed seeing patients on Friday while anticipating further change amid mercurial abortion access in the country following the U.S. Supreme Court's June decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

Its a glimmer of hope and common sense, Corwin said of Thursdays ruling blocking Indianas abortion ban.

One patient who went to the clinic on Friday was an Indianapolis woman who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity due to privacy concerns. It was for the 31-year-olds second abortion, she said. Her first was at 16, when she was afraid of caring for a child and worried what her parents would think about her being pregnant.

At the time, I felt like I was too young to have a child, the patient said. I cant even imagine what life would be like now.

Now focused on a career and with a son she had at 25, the patient said she chose an abortion because she and her partner decided another child would not be best for them right now.

Hours after Owen County Judge Kelsey Hanlon on Thursday issued a preliminary injunction against Indianas abortion ban, the state filed a promised appeal and motion asking the states high court to take up the case.

Under Indianas ban, which has exceptions, abortion clinics would have lost their licenses and been prohibited from providing any abortion care, leaving such services solely to hospitals or outpatient surgical centers owned by hospitals.

The ban also only permits abortions in cases of rape and incest before 10-weeks post-fertilization; to protect the life and physical health of the patient; or if a fetus is diagnosed with a lethal anomaly.

With Indiana's law on hold, bans on abortion at any point in pregnancy are in place in 12 Republican-led states. In Wisconsin, clinics have stopped providing abortions amid litigation over whether an 1849 ban is in effect. Georgia bans abortions once fetal cardiac activity can be detected. And Florida and Utah have bans that kick in after 15 and 18 weeks gestation, respectively. In Arizona, a judge ruled Friday that the state's near-total ban on abortions could be enforced.

The Indiana state attorney generals office had asked Hanlon to uphold the states ban, saying arguments against it are based on a novel, unwritten, historically unsupported right to abortion in the state constitution.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, which is representing the abortion clinics, filed the lawsuit Aug. 31 and argued the ban would prohibit the overwhelming majority of abortions in Indiana and, as such, will have a devastating and irreparable impact on the plaintiffs and, more importantly, their patients and clients.

Ken Falk, the ACLU of Indianas legal director, said Friday that the plaintiffs now have 15 days to file their response to the states request for the stay. He said he did not expect any immediate hearings on the matter.

Mike Fichter, president and CEO Indiana Right to Life, said in a statement that the organization is encouraged by the judges acknowledgement of the states legitimate interest in protecting unborn babies and hopeful the blockage will be brief.

While such legal conflicts play out in the background, Women's Med will provide abortions while it can, most likely starting next week, said Dr. Katie McHugh, an abortion provider at the clinic.

The patients that came through the clinic's doors Friday signed state-required consent forms ahead of their second appointment, which is when the abortion will take place. Indiana has an 18-hour waiting period on abortions, while Ohios is 24 hours.

A short-staffed Indiana clinic will also continue sending Indiana patients to Ohio for the procedure until Women's Med is back to normal numbers. Clinic staff has traveled between the two states to keep each clinic afloat when the other was closed, McHugh said.

The last three months since the Dobbs decision have been so out of normal that we've had to, you know, make do with the time and the staff and the resources that we had, McHugh said. We're trying to get our footing again.

Elsewhere in Indiana, Amy Hagstrom Miller  president and CEO of Whole Woman's Health  said that the South Bend abortion clinic is trying to "piece together adequate staff in order to see patients again.

Jody Madeira, professor in the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, said the judges interpretation of the Indiana Constitutions article on liberty is encouraging for abortion-rights groups, who say liberty rights include bodily autonomy.

This is quite a different argument than one might expect from a Republican judge, who tend to read the text of the Constitution narrowly, said Madeira, who anticipates the Indiana Supreme Court will ultimately decide on the bans legality.

There are separate licensing procedures for abortion clinics and hospitals, another burden that proposes legitimate and reasonable rationale for ending" the clinic's licenses, the judge's order states.

The question of whether the state constitution protects abortion rights is undecided. A state appeals court ruled in 2004 that privacy is a core value under the state constitution that extends to all residents, including women seeking an abortion.

But the Indiana Supreme Court later upheld a law requiring an 18-hour waiting period before a woman could get an abortion, though it didnt decide whether the state constitution included the right to privacy or abortion.

You can have the right," Madeira said. But not the access or the infrastructure.

Arleigh Rodgers is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Arleigh Rodgers on Twitter at https://twitter.com/arleighrodgers
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen should give Elon Musks satellite Internet service Starlink clearance to operate in heavily sanctioned Iran as the country faces widespread protests, a bipartisan group of lawmakers said.

Musk recently stated that SpaceX would seek a license to provide its satellite-based Starlink Internet service to Iran, the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Yellen.

If such a license request is submitted, we urge you to approve it immediately. Musk called for the exemption in a tweet on Monday.

Starlink will ask for an exemption to Iranian sanctions in this regard  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 19, 2022

The letter was led by Representatives Claudia Tenney, a New York Republican, and Tom Malinowski, a New Jersey Democrat, and signed by a number of other lawmakers.

They also asked Treasury to clarify its policies for fostering communications access in sanctioned countries and urge the department to issue any necessary comfort letters to entities that may seek to provide communications services under previously issued general licenses.

Congress is calling on the Treasury Department to do everything in its power to help the Iranian people stay connected to the Internet, Tenney said in a statement.

We need to cut through any bureaucratic red tape and get this done.

Demonstrations in Iran started last Friday following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a young woman who fell into a coma after Tehrans so-called morality police arrested her for allegedly flouting Islamic dress codes.

Protests have since been reported in scores of towns and cities including the capital Tehran as well as Karaj, Shiraz, Tabriz, Kerman, Kish Island, Yazd, Neyshapur, Esfahan and Mashhad.

Iranians are taking to the street demanding justice for Mahsa, Malinowski said.

We need to do our part to ensure that Iranians remain connected to the outside world.

Representative Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement that the US must do everything in our power to help the brave Iranians protesting against injustice.

A Treasury spokesperson said the department already allows some services related to Internet communications, including those that use satellite terminals as Starlink does, and that it welcomes applications for specific licenses related to Internet freedom in Iran.

Daniel Tannebaum, a partner at Oliver Wyman, said companies are sometimes wary of exposing themselves to the risk of running afoul of US sanctions even when the service they provide is expressly authorized by Treasury.

This is especially true in the case of heavily sanctioned jurisdictions such as Iran.

It becomes a business decision based on risk appetite in the space, Tannebaum said in an interview. You need to trust that you have the right controls in place to stay on the right side of the exemption.

Treasury has begun advertising for a chief sanctions economist who officials say will help mitigate these types of concerns.
Naledzani Mosomane: Head, Enterprise Development, Standard Bank Business and Commercial Clients

Bank accounts present small businesses a lifeline in tough times

Entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of South Africas economy and central to the country reaching its growth and development potential.

While small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across South Africa represent 98% of businesses and employ more than half of the countrys workforce, theyre also the most at risk financially.

The COVID-19 pandemic and recent economic downturn has placed SMEs across South Africa under pressure, especially informal businesses that rely almost exclusively on cash.

In tough times moving away from cash by getting banked can help informal businesses become more secure, more profitable, and more efficient, says Naledzani Mosomane, Head of Enterprise Development at Standard Bank South Africa.

Mosomane shares four reasons for small businesses to open a bank account.

1. When banked youll earn more, work better and save more

Stats dont lie. The World Bank reports that formalising a business improves productivity, makes it more profitable and provides access to finance.

Salaries in formal businesses are also, on average, 19% better salaries for workers compared with salaries in the informal economy.

Using a bank account is one of the most important steps in formalising your business, and as weve said in the past, will keep your money safe, let you earn interest on earnings, make money more accessible, and help you achieve your financial goals more quickly, says Mosomane.

2. A bank account provides the financing and access to advice key to building bigger, better businesses

In sub-Saharan Africa, 51% of businesses lack access to funding. Having a bank account, however, means that SMEs can access blended finance solutions such as concessional debt and technical assistance grants in addition to equity, giving SMEs the opportunity to access third party capital without bankrupting themselves.

At Standard Bank weve been deliberate in building a range of non-banking solutions that strengthen enterprises.

Our Enterprise Direct virtual environment, for example, provides entrepreneurs a team of business bankers and specialists who understand SME needs and are able to match businesses with the right set of solutions, says Mosomane.

3. A bank account means having an institution that cares on call

During the COVID-19 pandemic, SMEs and other smaller enterprises struggled to survive lockdowns, shutdowns and hybrid working models.

Most banks around the world, on the other hand, provided their clients financial support and relief measures. In short, SMEs with bank accounts were assisted by their banks to survive disruption, or pivot to new products or services.

At Standard Bank, our top Covid priority was to support our business clients to continue to manage their financial commitments and honour payments to their employees.

We offered a 3 month moratorium on loan payments, loan extensions, restructurings, and payment holidays. It wasnt easy, but we knew we had to work as fast as our clients to make sure they survived, says Mosomane.

4. Bank accounts provide access to digital solutions that streamline your work

McKinseys report on how banks can better serve SMEs, shows that banks generally assist SMEs with product innovation while strengthening their digital channels.

Mobile credit options, and other sector specific digital solutions available through banks are critical in helping SMEs and even smaller enterprises succeed.

Standard Banks digital enterprise model has virtual capabilities, so that regardless of the size, turnover, and location of a client business, they are always able to access a team of business bankers able to help and guide them, says Mosomane.

In short, a bank account provides small informal business with the access to capital, advice and technology key to survival by including them in the formal economy.

A bank account also levels the playing field between small and larger businesses by increasing the ability of small businesses to punch about their weight and compete effectively with the big guys, concludes Mosomane.

Click here for more information about Standard Bank
Photo: The Canadian Press Alberta's provincial flag flies on a flag pole in Ottawa, Monday July 6, 2020. Grant Sneesby, who is 72, was sentenced Thursday to 11 years for killing an Indigenous woman in northern Alberta and later moving her body to Manitoba. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

A man was sentenced Thursday to 11 years for killing an Indigenous woman in northern Alberta and later moving her body to Manitoba.

Grant Sneesby, 72, stabbed Gloria Gladue multiple times in October 2015 before destroying her cellphone, burning her clothes, wrapping her body in plastic and storing it in a trailer.

At his trial, court heard that at some point Sneesby transported the body of the 44-year-old woman to Manitoba.

Gladue, a member of Bigstone Cree Nation, was last seen in Wabasca, Alta., about 330 kilometres north of Edmonton, in October 2015 and reported missing by her family a month later.

Her remains were found in rural Manitoba almost three years later by undercover RCMP officers.

In June, a jury convicted Sneesby of manslaughter instead of the initial charge of second-degree murder. He had pleaded guilty to causing indignity to Gladues remains.

"This was a brutal and callous killing," said Queen's Bench Justice Paul Belzil during sentencing in Peace River, Alta. "Gloria Gladue's life was senselessly ended by the actions of Mr. Sneesby."

Sneesby was credited seven years for his time in pretrial custody, leaving him three years and 221 days left to serve.

In addition to his prison sentence, Sneesby has a lifetime firearm ban.
The Wine Valley Lodge is set to fully transform into the Valley Lodge Apartments by March next year, bringing 54 units of permanent supportive housing to Napa's houseless residents.

The former motel property, located at 200 South Coombs Street in the city of Napa, was officially acquired by Burbank Housing on a 55-year lease last month, after some delays. Burbank was originally hoping to begin providing services to homeless residents starting in September 2022, according to past Register reporting, though negotiations over the property took longer than anticipated.

Most of the funding for the conversion comes from the state of Californias Project Homekey initiative, a multi-billion dollar effort to increase the quantity of supportive housing for homeless residents across the state. But in order to fully fund the project and demonstrate local support, the city of Napa and Napa County kicked in several million dollars as well.

Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help. Subscribe today! Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Napa Valley Register.

In total, the cost of the project has added up to roughly $24.4 million, with a cost per unit of $443,836, according to Burbank. Now, rehabilitation work is scheduled to start up and run through February 2023. That work effectively represents the last hurdle toward actually housing people. Once the Valley Lodge Apartments are up and running, Abode Services is set to provide services for residents of 40 of the units, and VOICES will serve homeless or at-risk youth in 14 units set aside specifically for that purpose.

Patrick Montgomery, communications and public relations manager for Burbank, said in an email the rehabilitation work includes adding new kitchenettes into each unit, which includes adding two electric burners, a sink and refrigerator. Additionally, a new fire sprinkler system will be installed in each unit, and the units will receive new flooring and painting.

Six of the units also need to be modified to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, with additional features added for those with visual or hearing impairments, Montgomery wrote. He also noted that residents wont be occupying the Valley Lodge Apartment units until all the rehab work is completed and full occupancy is expected in March.

Napa officials, along with representatives from the multiple organizations involved in the project, celebrated the upcoming opening of the Valley Lodge Apartments at a Wednesday ceremony.

Larry Florin, chief executive officer for Burbank, said at the ceremony that hed long envisioned using the Wine Valley Lodge to house homeless residents, and the Project Homekey funding, along with the support of the city and county, essentially made it possible.

I dont know how many of you know, but the city manager actually baked a cheesecake, I think it was, to be able to entice the owners to sell, Florin said at the ceremony. He was willing to go above and beyond to ensure that this happened.

Ryan Gregory, chair of the Napa County Board of Supervisors, noted that housing for homeless residents isnt talked about as much as workforce housing or low income housing, though it is harder, much harder, to pull off. City of Napa Mayor Scott Sedgley said the project would help fill a great need in the community and talked about how happy he was to see it moving forward.

The beautiful, old school, neglected property is going to come back to life serving this community in ways that we havent seen before, Sedgley said.

Molly Rattigan, the city's point-person on homelessness, noted at a Tuesday Napa City Council meeting that more units of permanent supportive housing will soon be coming. Heritage House and Valle Verde will be leased up for an additional 88 permanent supportive housing units no later than December 2023, along with other affordable housing units. And the third round of Project Homekey grant applications will be opening up soon, likely in February or March of 2023, Rattigan said.
According to information published by the US DoD on September 22, 2022, forces from Israel and the U.S. completed a four-day exercise in the Gulf of Aqaba.

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Vessels from the Israeli Navy and NAVCENT in the Gulf of Aqaba with two USVs, a Devil Ray T-38, top, and Saildrone Explorer, bottom, during exercise Digital Shield (Picture source: DVIDS)

The exercise, called Digital Shield, was a bilateral training event between U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) and Israeli naval forces that focused on enhancing maritime awareness using unmanned systems and artificial intelligence in support of vessel boarding operations.

U.S. participants included members of NAVCENTs unmanned systems and artificial intelligence task force, Task Force 59, and the U.S. Coast Guard. A Devil Ray T-38 and Saildrone Explorer unmanned surface vessel also participated.

The Saildrone Explorer is a 23-foot-long, 16-foot-tall USV reliant on wind power for propulsion. The vessel houses a package of sensors powered through solar energy for building a shared picture of the surrounding seas.

The Saildrone is powered by a 5 m (15 ft) wing, which is effectively sail-like on a sailboat, but of a design more similar to the wing on an airplane. Wind passing over the wing produces thrust, and a small tab on the end of the tail attached to the wing controls the angle of attack.

The rudder controls the direction of the hull, and the keel keeps the Saildrone upright. They are equipped with GPS and an onboard computer, enabling the vehicles to navigate following prescribed waypoints, while staying in a safety corridor, taking winds and currents into consideration autonomously.
According to information published by the US DoD on September 23, 2022, the U.S. Navys only forward-deployed aircraft carrier and the flagship for Carrier Strike Group 5 (CSG 5), USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), along with USS Chancellorsville (CG 62) and USS Barry (DDG 52), arrived in Busan, Republic of Korea (ROK) for a regularly scheduled port visit.

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The Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, Busan, South Korea. (Picture source: DVIDS)

During the port visit, Ronald Reagan is scheduled to host several U.S. and ROK dignitaries aboard the ship at a Big Top reception and conduct several key leader engagements ashore. USS Benfold (DDG 65) pulled into Chinhae as part of the strike groups visit.

This visit is the ships first to Busan in nearly five years, and first to the ROK in nearly four years.

About the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan

USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) is a Nimitz-class, nuclear-powered supercarrier in the service of the United States Navy. She was built at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Virginia, and was commissioned on 12 July 2003.

The Nimitz-class aircraft carriers have a length of 1,092 ft (333 m) overall and 1,040 ft (317 m) at the waterline, with a beam of 252 ft (77 m) overall and 134 ft (41 m) at the waterline; the individual ships have slight variations in their dimensions.

They were initially designed with a full-load displacement of 87,000 long tons (88,000 t; 97,000 short tons) and a draft of 37 ft (11 m) but the ships would be delivered several thousand tons heavier, particularly for later members of the class.

As the vessels were overhauled and installed more equipment, loaded displacement would climb to exceed 100,000 long tons (100,000 t; 110,000 short tons).

All ships of the class are powered by two A4W nuclear reactors, housed in separate compartments. The resulting steam spins four propeller shafts, producing a maximum speed of over 30 knots (56 km/h) and maximum power of 260,000 brake horsepower (194 MW).

The reactors produce heat through nuclear fission which heats water. This is then passed through four turbines which are shared by the two reactors. The turbines power the four bronze propellers, each with a diameter of 25 feet (7.6 m) and a weight of 66,000 pounds (30 t). Behind these are the two rudders which are 29 feet (8.8 m) high and 22 feet (6.7 m) long, and each weigh 110,000 pounds (50 metric tons).

The weapon systems of the CVN-76 include 1624  RIM-7 Sea Sparrow air defense missile and Phalanx CIWS for defense against airborne threats such as anti-ship missiles and helicopters or RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) is a small, lightweight, infrared homing surface-to-air missile.
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Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan of Armenia on Thursday participated in, and delivered remarks at, the Ministerial Meeting of the Ancient Civilizations Forum in New York. In his remarks, the FM noted as follows, in particular:

Armenia considers this Forum as a platform for cultural dialogue and cooperation that can play a significant role in meeting the challenges that todays globalized world is facing. We are committed to actively supporting and contributing to joint efforts on strengthening intercultural dialogue, mutual understanding and acceptance.

We are convinced that optimized multicultural collaboration, knowledge exchange, and policies focused on fostering culturally inclusive dynamics, innovation, solidarity and sustainability can consolidate unfailing tolerance, respect for difference and peace.

As we speak, Armenian cultural heritage is being destroyed by Azerbaijan in the territories of Nagorno-Karabakh [(Artsakh)] that came under their control after the 2020 war. By pursuing its policy of destruction and eradication of the Armenian culture in the region both in peacetime and during the recent war, Azerbaijan wants to deny the very essence of this heritage. It is more than urgent for the international community to act and provide firm responses to prevent these barbaric acts that jeopardize peace efforts and the establishment of stability and security in the region. The intentional destruction of cultural heritage sites by Azerbaijan is a challenge not only to Armenia but to the whole of mankind, and it must be strongly condemned and dealt with. In this regard, we highly value UNESCOs proposition to dispatch an independent expert mission to Nagorno-Karabakh, which so far has been and is still being blocked by Azerbaijan.

Armenia has repeatedly expressed its readiness to collaborate with international partners to achieve fair implementation of measures aiming to protect cultural heritage and invest in global efforts to enhance intercultural dialogue and cultural diversity.
Azerbaijan intends to seize new territories from Armenia. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted about this in his address Thursday at the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

He reflected on the large-scale military aggression of Azerbaijan on the sovereign territory of Armenia on September 13, noting that the Azerbaijani military shelled 36 Armenian residential areas and communities.

This was not a border clash. It was a direct, undeniable attack against the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Armenia, which was condemned and addressed during the latest UN Security Council meetings and beyond, Pashinyan added.

He noted the Azerbaijani attack deliberately targeted civilian population and vital civilian infrastructures, including Jermuk city and some resort places of Armenia.

Pashinyan stated that as a result of this military aggression, the number of Armenian civilians and missing persons at the moment exceeded 207, a total of 293 servicemen and 8 civilians were wounded, and spoke about the inhuman treatment of the Armenian detainees by the Azerbaijani side.

In the wake of this offensive, the official narrative and other sources of information suggest that Azerbaijan intends to occupy more territories of Armenia, which needs to be prevented. I want to stress that the risk of new aggression by Azerbaijan remains very high, especially taking into account that every day Azerbaijan violates the ceasefire, and the number of causalities and those injured could change any moment, the Armenian premier said.

Pashinyan added that another factor for further escalation can be inappropriate reaction to this situation by the regional security organizations, which, according to him, has raised very hard questions among Armenian society.

In his words, despite the above-mentioned facts Azerbaijan is trying to pose itself as a country seeking peace in the region and peace with Armenia.

And for staging this impression Azerbaijan is using the subjects of Peace treaty with Armenia, border delimitation, and regional communication opening agenda, Pashinyan added.

The Armenian PM noted Azerbaijan is periodically hinting in its political speech that Armenia has to provide an extraterritorial corridor to Azerbaijan, and according to them the 9th article of the trilateral statement from November 9, 2020 is supposed to do that.

The trilateral statement is a public document and in the 9th article there is nothing about corridor, extraterritoriality, etc., he said, noting that Azerbaijans respective objective is to create a new crisis as a pretext for a new aggression against Armenia and for a new territorial claim.

Nikol Pashinyan stated that the Armenian democracy is struggling in an atmosphere, when Azerbaijan is using force every day, to impose its plans unilaterally, to bring to the end the Armenian statehood, independence and democracy.

But Im here to announce that we are determined to defend our democracy, independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity by all means. I want to underscore that diplomatic solutions are an absolute priority for us and the full engagement and support of international community is crucial, he said.

In this regard I would like to mention, that the international observation mission to the Armenia-Azerbaijan bordering areas would be an important factor for regional stability.

Undeniably, in the interests of regional stability and in accordance with norms and principles of international law Azerbaijani military forces must be withdrawn from the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, the premier noted, adding that Armenia needs the full support of international community in this regard.

At the end of his address, Nikol Pashinyan said he believes in the potential of establishing long-term stability, security and peace, and that Armenia is committed to continuing diplomatic efforts to this end.
There is no tangible progress in peace treaty, delimitation of borders, and opening of regional communication because Azerbaijan is using all these topics for territorial claims against Armenia. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted about this in his address Thursday at the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

For example  one of the most important subjects of peace treaty is bilateral recognition of territorial integrity between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We have already declared that we are ready to do so, but Azerbaijan hasnt done it so far. On the contrary, Azerbaijan has been publicly voicing that the entire South and East of Armenia and even the capital city of Yerevan, is an Azerbaijani land. On the other hand, Azerbaijan is keeping under occupation tangible territories of Armenia, and as I said the risk of new aggression by Azerbaijan remains very high.

In this regard Im posing an official and public question to the Azerbaijani president. Could you show the map of Armenia, that you recognize or are ready to recognize as the Republic of Armenia? Why Im asking this. Because it can come out that from the point of view of official Azerbaijan only half of Armenia and even less - is the Republic of Armenia. If Azerbaijan would recognize territorial integrity of Armenia, not theoretically, but concretely, I mean the integrity of our internationally recognized territory of 29.800 square kilometers, it would mean that we can sign peace treaty by mutually recognizing each others territorial integrity. Otherwise, we would have a phantom peace treaty and after that Azerbaijan will use border delimitation process for new territorial claims and occupation.

As you may know bilateral commission of border delimitation and border security was formed in May and two meetings of the commission have taken place. Before the formation of the commission, last year Azerbaijan occupied more than 40 square kilometer territories of Armenia. And then, one of the excuses of Azerbaijan about the reasons they have done this - was that Armenia, according to them, refuses to form border delimitation commission. Of course we didnt refuse to do that but only insisted that simultaneously a mechanism of border security should be established.

In the end, according to our international partners request, who argued that the border commission work itself will be a reliable factor for border security, we agreed to start the work. And now that border delimitation and security commission has been formed and is working, Azerbaijan initiated a new phase of aggression. And some of those international partners are silent. But what is now the explanation for aggression of Azerbaijan. You know, if someone has excess of aggressiveness the reason always will be there. As it is said in a movie it is always possible to find a reason. For example, why they killed prince Hamlet. Who killed, how, when and why  it doesnt matter. The reality is that Azerbaijan is trying and will continue to use delimitation process for territorial claims against Armenia.

Another such a topic is the opening of regional transport communication links. Azerbaijan is trying to represent Armenia as a destructive side in this discussion. The reality is, that Armenia is ready to open its roads for Azerbaijan in the framework of our national legislation. Moreover, recently the draft decision of government was published, that supposes to open three check points in the border with Azerbaijan for implementation of the article 9 of the trilateral statement from November 9, 2020. According to that draft, citizens and goods of Azerbaijan would be eligible to use the existing roads of Armenia to commute from main Azerbaijan to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. The Armenian government had political will to unilaterally accept that decision. But Azerbaijani officials tell us, that they dont want to have those routes. What do they want? They want a new route to be constructed. It is also acceptable for Armenia, but according to the 9th article of the trilateral statement from November 9, 2020, a new route can be constructed with the consent of the sides. Armenia is ready to construct such a route which would operate according to the legislation and within sovereign control of the Republic of Armenia.

So what is the point of Azerbaijani claims? Azerbaijan is hinting that Armenia has to provide an extraterritorial corridor and according to them the 9th article of the trilateral statement from November 9, 2020 is supposed to do that. The trilateral statement is a public document and in the 9th article there is nothing about corridor, extraterritoriality etc. So what is the purpose of Azerbaijan? To create a new crisis as a pretext for a new aggression against Armenia and for a new territorial claim.

We have shared packages of proposals with Azerbaijan on the topic of opening communications, and if Azerbaijan accepts that those routes must operate according to national legislations, we can decide on this very quickly.

By the way, the trilateral statements from November 9, 2020 and January 11, 2021 imply that not only Armenia should provide roads to Azerbaijan, but Azerbaijan should provide roads to Armenia too. And we havent received anything so far either.

As for the corridor wording, it is very important to note that in the trilateral statement from November 9, only one corridor is mentioned, and it is the Lachin corridor for Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian PM stated.
Photo: Nelson Bennett. Xcoal Energy and Resources CEO Ernie Thrasher predicts high coal prices will persist.

Over the last year and a half, the renaissance of coal  both kinds  has been gobsmacking.



No one saw coal prices of US$400 to US$600 per tonne coming, including those in the coal industry.



If, a year ago, fifteen months ago, you had said to people thermal coal could be $440, and coking coal could be $600, theyd call the ambulance and recommend a nice doctor, Neil Bristow, managing director of H&W worldwide Consulting, said Thursday at day two of a three-day Coal Association of Canada conference. Who would believe it?



While Russias invasion of Ukraine has roiled energy markets and driven up coal prices, the reality is that thermal coal prices had been surging months before the invasion, as Europe was already in a self-induced energy shortage and resorting back to coal power.



Five or six years ago, thermal coal sold for about US$60 to US$80 per tonne, Bristow said. Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, thermal coal prices had soared to around US$200 per tonne.



The fundamentals that caused those prices to increase in Q3 and Q4 of 2021 are still there, and theyve only been exacerbated by the sanctions on Russian coal, said Ernie Thrasher, CEO of Xcoal Energy and Resources.



Never in Bristow's lifetime has he seen thermal coal (burned to produce power) worth more than metallurgical coal, which is used to make steel, but it is now.



Metallurgical coal (also called coking or steelmaking coal) briefly touched US$600 per tonne, Bristow said, but has since settled down to about US$270 per tonne. Thats still a high price, but less than thermal coal at the moment, which is well above US$300 per tonne.



The usual market forces of supply and demand that would normally see producers responding to high prices with increased production simply isn't happening with coal.



In the U.S., the coal mining industry is half the size it was a couple of decades ago, and simply cant suddenly reverse coarse. Australias coal production peaked in 2016 and it seems unlikely it can respond to the sudden demand for thermal coal either. B.C. is a major producer and exporter of metallurgical coal, but Canada exports little if any thermal coal.



Xcoal estimates the UK and Europe alone will need to find 47 million tonnes of coal that used to come from Russia. Its unlikely to come from the U.S.



Theres just not much the U.S. can do, Thrasher said. Weve basically dismembered our coal industry."



Even if American coal mines could increase production, there is limited coal terminal capacity for exports, which is why coal produced in Montana and Wyoming is shipped through B.C. export terminals. And right now, one of those terminals -- Westshore -- has been paralyzed by a strike.



There is just no elasticity in the supply chain thats allowing people to respond to these prices, and the old adage of the best thing for high prices is high prices is not holding true," Thrasher said.



In total, Xcoal estimates the global coal supply gap at 96 million tonnes.



These high coal prices are occurring at a time when the Chinese economy is just dead flat on its back, Thrasher added. If Chinas economy were to suddenly recover and grow, that would put even more pressure on both thermal and coking coal prices.



Who can supply 96 million tonnes to fill that gap?" Thrasher wondered. "Its probably only China and India. Theres just not a lot of other countries in the world where theres the ability to produce the coal that needs to fill this gap.



As for steelmaking coal, which is B.C.'s second most valuable export, a global recession might cool demand and temper prices somewhat. But Bristow predicts prices will remain high over the next few years, as there simply not enough new metallurgical coal mines being built.



My models do not show enough coking coal to meet the demand in the world after about 2027, 2028, Bristow said. We desperately need new mines.



Im going to be bold and say it will not stay $400 or $500 a tonne for very long, Thrasher said of coking coal prices. But I think the days of seeing sub-125, 150 dollars per metric tonne of coking coal for any period of time are in the rear-view mirror, and its because the coal simply is not being produced.



Thrasher said he can envision stagflation resulting from the shortage of coal, if there is a global recession.



If we get into a major global economic slowdown, it certainly is going to put a damper on our products, Thrasher said. The question is, if you go back and look at those supply shortfalls, will a 5% global economic slowdown be enough to solve the problem if youre 10% short in energy supply? You basically have a stagflation environment where the global economy is crashing but you still need energy and the energy prices stay high.



It will affect thermal more than coking coal. It could be something we havent seen in 40 or 50 years.


In normal times, the latest upsurge in violence in the South Caucasus would have attracted a lot more attention. UK journalist Thomas de Waal, who is also a senior fellow with Carnegie Europe specializing in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus region, wrote this in an article published for Carnegie Europe. De Waal added as follows, in particular:

Nearly 300 soldiers died in a large-scale Azerbaijani incursion into the territory of Armenia on September 1314. Armenia says that 202 of its soldiers and five civilians died or are missing. Azerbaijan has put its losses at 80 soldiers. Lets not forget that these are countries with small populations where these awful numbers resonate even more strongly.

A ceasefire has stopped what was by far the worst violence since the forty-four-day war of 2020 between the two countries, but Azerbaijani forces appear to be still in control of territory in border areas of Armenia.

What happened?

The fighting occurred only two weeks after a fourth round of EU-mediated high-level talks in Brussels between the two leaders, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, where progress was being made. Importantly, it followed on the heels of Russias military humiliation by Ukraine in the Kharkiv province.

Some media reports have misleadingly described the fighting as border clashes and made reference to the disputed territory of Nagorny Karabakh, the locus of conflict for more than thirty years. But no fighting took place in Karabakhnow a base for Russian peacekeepersor indeed in Azerbaijani territory; it was all inside the territory of Armenia.

Azerbaijan said there were Armenian provocations, a claim which cannot be verified. Eyewitnesses describe heavy shelling of military targets and civilian infrastructure in, amongst other places, the village of Sotk and the resort town of Jermuk, whose civilian population was evacuated. There are credible reports of atrocities and the hideous desecration of two dead Armenian female soldiers.

Since winning an overwhelming victory in the war of 2020, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has used what a senior Azerbaijani described to me as a strategy of coercive diplomacy against Armenia: a mix of negotiations and force.

Having achieved most but not all of his war aims in 2020, Aliyev has new goals. The first one is compelling Armenia to sign a peace treaty in which it renounces claims on the Armenian-majority region of Karabakh. The second a demarcation of the Armenia-Azerbaijani border that suits Azerbaijan. The third is a new road rail and link across Armenian territory to the exclave of Nakhchivanwhat it calls the Zangezur Corridorwith minimal checks and controls.

The latest round of violence is the most brutal and dangerous since 2020. It seems aimed as much against Russia as against Armenia. Russia is obliged to assist Armenia both thanks to a bilateral defense treaty and to their joint membership of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

But Russia is also of course almost flat on its back in Ukraine. Azerbaijan looks intent on proving both that Russia is slow to support its ally and that the CSTO is a paper tigeras its failure to act over Tajikistans cross-border attacks in Kyrgyzstan also demonstrates.

All this year, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been engaged in negotiations, mediated by Charles Michel, president of the European Council. The violence last week does not mean, as some commentators have asserted, that the talks were a sham or a waste of time. They had actually made a lot of progress.

The two sides agreed the substance of a deal on transportation routes earlier in the summer before the Russians raised some complications, which halted everything. Over the summer they worked intensively on texts which square an interstate treaty (Azerbaijans demand) with provisions for the rights and security of the Karabakh Armenians (Armenias demand).

The problem is one that has dogged all mediators in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since 1991: no one pays a price for saying no. Condemnation for bad behavior is weak (). Leaders feel they can renounce in public what they agreed to in private, play for time, or use force.

There is also the problem of forum shopping. Russia is still a mediator with powerful interests, even if it is not trusted as an honest broker. Moscow has also reportedly come up with a draft peace treaty, which indefinitely postpones the issue of the status of Karabakha formula that the Armenians like more than the European proposal.

Simultaneously, the United States, while strongly supportive of the EU, also raised Armenian hopes by appointing a new Caucasus envoy, Phil Reeker, who is named as co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, the previous mediation mechanism that Yerevan favors. The blitz solidarity visit to Armenia by U.S. Congress speaker Nancy Pelosi sends more mixed messages.

The EU itself comes across as ambiguous.

In July, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Baku on a mission to buy Azerbaijani gas. In her public remarks she called Azerbaijan a reliable, trustworthy partner and did not mention the words peace or conflict once. Azerbaijanis interpreted this as a big PR victory.

Whatever he intended or knew, this may be the moment when President Aliyev overplayed his hand. The latest fighting has undermined the domestic standing of a serious interlocutor, Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan who had committed himself to talks with both Azerbaijan and Turkey in the teeth of domestic opposition.

It has also triggered dissent inside Azerbaijan for the first time, even among some who supported the 2020 war. A pro-peace activist was sentenced to thirty days in prison. A prominent independent expert called Aliyev maximalist and irredentist and blamed him for squandering a historic opportunity to make peace with Armenia.

For it to have any chance of success, the Charles Michel processcurrently the only viable oneneeds much stronger support, from the European Commission, EU member states, and the United States. If it peters out or fails, the two dismal alternatives are that mediation again defaults to Moscow, or, worse: that the two sides get ready to fight the next war.
Photo: pixabay

A man who alleged he was sexually abused by Mission Roman Catholic priests and a seminary employee has reached an undisclosed settlement to end the case.

Mark O'Neill was seeking damages for sexual abuse he alleges he suffered as a teen during his time at a Mission Roman Catholic seminary from 1974 to 1978. He was 13- to 17-years-old at the time.

The defendants listed in the suit included the Seminary of Christ the King; Westminster Abbey Ltd.; the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver, a Corporation Sole; Emerick Lazar; Harold Vincent Sander, a.k.a. Dom Placidus Sander; Shawn Rohrbach; and John Doe.

A trial in the case had been due to start Sept. 12.

Allegations detail sexual and physical abuse

O'Neill alleged Rohrbach, a college student employed at the seminary, sexually abused him while he was a student. He alleges Rohrbach performed oral sex on him and that he pestered younger boys in a shower room.

O'Neill alleged Lazar, a priest, broke his arm. Sander, also a priest, then allegedly delayed access to medical treatment to conceal the fracture. Sander died in 2021, according to the suit.

The claim alleges the defendants were systematically negligent and had acted complicity in a culture of entrenched clericalism and distorted beliefs. That culture implicitly promoted the psychosexual immaturity of priests and seminarians, added the claim, perpetuating sexually deviant behaviour.

O'Neill is one of three men making such claims.

The settlement

In a statement, lawyer Sandra Kovacs said ONeill has elected to settle his claim with the defendants, including the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver, Westminster Abbey, and Seminary of Christ the King.

Mr. ONeills injuries were profound: he suffered a continuum of sexual abuse, physical abuse, and spiritual harm, starting at age 13 in 1974 and continuing until 1978, Kovacs said.

O'Neill suffered gravely when he fell from the seminary's gym roof in 1977. At the time, he was 15 years old, and had been recruited to provide free labour, said Kovacs, who added O'Neill had never been given a harness.

The lawyer said O'Neill broke his arm in two separate incidents. But according to Kovacs, the defendants in the case argued B.C.'s statute of limitations barred him from making a claim over the injuries.

Also factoring into his decision to settle the case, Kovacs said, ...Mr. ONeill is fatigued: physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Earlier in the case, ONeill and lawyer Kovacs had challenged the papal ambassador in Ottawa to disclose documents. That prompted the federal government to send a letter to the B.C. Supreme Court asserting diplomatic immunity for Rev. Ian Jurkovics.

Kovacss statement called ONeill a champion for justice.

O'Neill made his first complaint to police in 1993, which led to criminal proceedings against Fr. Placidus Sander. When the criminal trial was heard in 1997, "the world was not yet aware of the nature and scope of clergy abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, said Kovacs.

Placidus, was ultimately acquitted because the trial judge found there was a reasonable doubt as to criminal guilt, said Kovacs.

Regardless of the outcome, she added, He has carried the torch for survivors of abuse at Seminary of Christ the King for decades.
YEREVAN.  Speaker of the Republic of Armenia National Assembly (RA NA), Alen Simonyan, on Friday received Spains new Ambassador to Armenia, Marcos Gomez Martinez, the NA informs Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The RA NA President congratulated Martinez on being appointed to the aforesaid diplomatic mission, wishing him further successes. Congratulating the Ambassador on the 30th anniversary of Armenias diplomatic relations with Spain, Simonyan noted that the Armenian-Spanish cooperation is based not only on the centuries-old ties of the two peoples, but also on the fundamental values of democracy, protection of human rights and rule of law.

At the ensuing meeting, the interlocutors affirmed the importance of the definition of intensification of bilateral interaction and new perspective directions of mutually beneficial cooperation.

The RA NA President expressed satisfaction with the decision of the Government of Spain to open a permanent representation in Armenia.

The sides touched also upon the military aggression carried out by Azerbaijan on September 13 against Armenia and the fragile ceasefire. The RA NA President called on all international colleagues, including Spain, to strictly and directly condemn the Azerbaijani military aggression, and the gross violations of the principle of prohibition of the threat and use of force against the territorial integrity enshrined by the UN Charter.

Thanking the NA President for the reception, the Ambassador of Spain underlined that the living and dynamic democracy of Armenia is a good example, which will be laid down in the core of future projects.
Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), the Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, citing Azerbaijans most recent attacks on Armenia, called on the Biden Administration to halt all security assistance to Azerbaijan and review all assistance programs to the country, reported the Armenian National Committee of America.

In a letter Thursday to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Chairman Menendez asserted, The United States must play no part in supporting authoritarian brutality, pledging to work with Senate and House colleagues to eliminate the presidential waiver authority of Section 907 (Public Law 107-115) restrictions on U.S. aid to Azerbaijan.

Senator Menendez stressed that a Government Accountability Office review he had commissioned detailing U.S. aid to Azerbaijan had shown that the State Department failed to meet statutory reporting requirements to Congress on the impact of U.S. assistance during the period considered. While the Department of State has concurred with the GAO on its recommendations to ensure the necessary requirements are met to invoke the waiver, it has not yet provided action plans to the GAO on how it will address this concern.

He went on to emphasize that the Administration must not to minimize the Azerbaijani assault in an effort to appear impartial. President Biden said in his 2022 State of the Union Address, when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos. The United States has an important opportunity to stand with the Armenian people as they attempt to repel an authoritarian assault.

The full text of Senator Menendezs letter is available here.
A discussion was held Thursday at the provincial subdivision of the Human Rights Defenders Office in Kapan, Syunik Province, regarding the consequences of the Azerbaijani aggression and military attack on Armenia, which was launched on September 13, informed the Office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia.

The discussion was organized within the context of the visit conducted by a delegation headed by the Acting Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in Armenia Lila Pieters Yahia, to Syunik Province. The delegation was also composed of the Representative of UNICEF Armenia, Christine Weigand; the Head of Office of UNFPA Armenia, Tsovinar Harutyunyan; the Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP Armenia, Konstantin Sokulsky; Head of the Protection Department of UNHCR, Andrey Aryupin; the representatives of other UN agencies; and the Representative of WHO Armenia, Jihane Tawilah.

In her speech, the Resident Coordinator of the UN in Armenia, Lila Pieters Yahia, thanked the Defenders Office for the large-scale work conducted and the presentation of the registered information during these days.

During the meeting, the Head of the International Cooperation Department of the Defenders Office, Anna Karapetyan presented the ad hoc report prepared by the defenders Office on the consequences of Azerbaijans military attack on Armenia and the facts of the war crimes committed by Azerbaijan.

The representatives of NGOs presented the consequences of the Azerbaijani aggression, and the humanitarian problems in the province, including addressing security issues, ensuring children's right to education, health care, provision of shelters, and other issues. The NGOs highlighted the importance of the implementation of the provisions of the UN Security Council resolution (S/RES/1325) on Women, Peace, and Security N1325.

At the conclusion of the discussion, the high-level representatives of the United Nations assured that within the framework of their visit to Syunik Province, they are pursuing the goal of recording the needs of the residents and addressing them within the context of the implementation of their projects.
Photo: The Canadian Press Climate activists attend a demonstration in Cologne, Germany, Friday.

Youth activists staged a coordinated global climate strike Friday to highlight their fears about the effects of global warming and demand more aid for poor countries hit by wild weather.

Protesters took to the streets in Jakarta, Tokyo, Rome and Berlin carrying banners and posters with slogans such as We are worried about the climate crisis and It's not too late.

The demonstrations were organized by the Fridays for Future youth movement that took its cue from activist Greta Thunberg, who began protesting alone outside the Swedish parliament in 2018.

We're striking all over the world because the governments in charge are still doing too little for climate justice," said Darya Sotoodeh, a spokesperson for the group's chapter in Germany.

People all over the world are suffering from this crisis and it's going to get worse if we don't act on time," she said.

Thousands of people attended the rally in Berlin, which featured calls for the German government to establish a 100-billion-euro fund for tackling climate change.

In Rome, some 5,000 young people turned out for a march that ended near the Colosseum.

One placard read: The climate is changing. Why arent we? Students highlighted among their priorities the need to rethink Italys transport policies. The country's ratio of cars per inhabitant is one of the highest in Europe.

In Italys election campaign, which wraps up on Friday evening ahead of the Sept. 25 vote for Parliament, climate change policies didnt figure heavily at candidates rallies.

The protests follow warnings from scientists that countries aren't doing enough to meet the 2015 Paris climate accord's top-line target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) this century compared to preindustrial times.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders this week that the fossil fuel industry, which is responsible for a large share of planet-warming gases, is feasting on hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies and windfall profits while household budgets shrink and our planet burns."

Guterres urged rich countries to tax the profits of energy companies and redirect the funds to both countries suffering loss and damage caused by the climate crisis and those struggling with the rising cost of living.

Demands for poor nations to receive greater financial help to cope with global warming, including the destruction already wrought by deadly weather events such as the floods in Pakistan, have grown louder in the run-up to this year's U.N. climate summit.
The number of Armenian prisoners of war captured as a result of the aggression of the Azerbaijani side on September 13 is about 20, but the fact-finding is not yet finished, and the confirmations are in progress. Lawyer Siranush Sahakyan, the representative of the Armenian detainees interests at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), told Armenian News-NEWS.am about this.

She noted that there are already confirmed cases of being captured, but the exact number can be discussed later.

Reflecting on the fact that on Thursday, Azerbaijan was supposed to respond to the ECHR regarding the issue of Armenian prisoners of war, but there is no information about it, Sahakyan said that this response should have been addressed to the Armenian governmentand within the framework of the interstate complaint.

"Regarding individual cases, I can say that we have received correspondence from the court, Azerbaijan's positions have not been sent to us yet, but we are waiting for information in the coming days. There is a response from the court that these requests are addressed to the government of Azerbaijan and a deadline is given for providing information. Against the background of these inquiries, Azerbaijan has already confirmedthrough the Red Crossthe circumstance of the capture of a number of persons," the lawyer said.

According to her, in the case of the actions of the authorities of Baku, the Armenian side has had many cases when even the video of the capture was not confirmed, even in group cases.

"If there are a lot of evidences, under the pressure of these evidences, it is more likely to see to it that the authorities of Azerbaijan also will confirm the case," the attorney said.

Commenting on the case of Davit Gishyan, an Armenian soldier who was killed recently in Azerbaijani captivity, Siranush Sahakyan emphasized that in such cases, the Armenian side immediately informs the courts, also explaining how important the active engagement of international organizations is to organize the return of the captives as soon as possible.

"The issue of violation of the right to life should be raised. Killing a captive is a war crime, and there should be a more far-reaching goal; that is, to achieve the criminal accountability of the Azerbaijani servicemen and commanders responsible for this incident. If Azerbaijan is not interested in the matter of punishing its murderers, then the international organizations should think about imposing sanctions on Azerbaijan," the lawyer said.

When asked whether the Red Cross has visited Armenian prisoners of war held in Baku and what the respective practice is, Sahakyan said that in the case of confirmed prisoners of war, the Red Cross is permitted to meet and see them, and ensure contact with their family members.

"As to when they enter, the permission of the Azerbaijani authorities is important here. In the war of 2020, the [Armenian] prisoners of war did not have the opportunity to see the representatives of the Red Cross for quite a long time. Not ensuring contact with the outside world aims to hide the traces of violence, too," the attorney noted.

When asked about the effective options for the return of captives, Siranush Sahakyan said that the negotiations of the leaders of the countries could be more effective.

"The negotiating platform should have been able to immediately resolve the issue of the return of detainees. If the parties are able to reach an agreement on the main issue, as a rule, the return of detainees should not pose any difficulties at all. In this case, the negotiation process has failed. The Armenian side meets disproportionate political demands in favor of Azerbaijan, which threaten even the statehood of Armenia. The negotiating side has politicized also the issue of prisoners of war. This issue is not being discussed independently, but it has been linked to the political agenda, and Azerbaijan is keeping hostages with the knowledge of the Armenian side. The Armenian side should have been able to reposition itself in the negotiation process, the probability of which is small, and secondly, to take the path of judicial protection, which is time-consuming," the lawyer said.

She noted that Armenia can to petition to the international courts against Azerbaijan under the Hostages Convention.

"It will ensure a faster response to the matter of our detainees. At the moment, Armenia has not addressed with this matter and has included the matter of detainees under the matters of the Discrimination Convention. I believe it would have been more effective for Armenia to separate this matter and separately, on the basis of Hostage, also have an interstate lawsuit at the UN Court of Justice," the lawyer said.

And when asked about the problems the Armenian side faces regarding the identification of the detainees, Siranush Sahakyan responded: "The problem is the quality of the videos, the visibility of the faces of the people in those videos, and, also, Azerbaijan circulates videos from other conflicts, or videos made in earlier times, in which case, if professional work is not done, there is an identification error. If the videos are of high quality and it is possible, for example, to check the place where the video was taken, the boys have visibility, we combine several circumstances, talk with experts, then errors are excluded in the case of identification."
The first political consultations between the Foreign Ministries of Armenia and Canada were held in Ottawa on Wednesday. Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan and Canadian Deputy Foreign Minister Sandra McCardell represented the Armenian side.

During the consultations, the parties discussed issues related to the implementation of Canadian Ambassador Stephen Dion's report on supporting democracy in Armenia, Armenian MFA press service informed NEWS.am. Both sides attached importance to Canada's decision to open an embassy in Armenia to further develop and expand Armenian-Canadian friendly relations. The sides also discussed the issue of interaction within the international organizations.

The sides touched upon issues related to regional security and current issues on the international agenda. In this context, Hovhannisyan presented the recent Azerbaijani aggression against the sovereign territory of Armenia and its consequences, as well as the efforts of the partner countries towards the establishment and maintenance of the cease-fire regime and the current situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.

During the visit, the Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister also met with Canadian Deputy Foreign Minister Cynthia Termorshuizen, Deputy Minister of International Trade David Morrison and others.

Hovannisyan also met with members of the Canada-Armenia Parliamentary Friendship Group. He also gave a lecture on Armenia's foreign policy at Carleton University in Ottawa.
Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the breaking news as of 23.09.22:

- As part of his working visit to New York, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan delivered a speech at the 77th session of the UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters.

Pashinyan noted that there is no tangible progress in peace treaty, delimitation of borders, and opening of regional communication because Azerbaijan is using all these topics for territorial claims against Armenia.

Azerbaijan intends to seize new territories from Armenia, the PM noted.

The PM reflected on the large-scale military aggression of Azerbaijan against on September 13, noting that the Azerbaijani military shelled 36 Armenian residential areas and communities.

Pashinyan said as a result of this military aggression, the number of Armenian civilians and missing persons at the moment exceeded 207.

The PM also added that one of the most important subjects of the peace treaty is bilateral recognition of territorial integrity between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

In this regard, Pashinyan asked the Azerbaijani president to show the map of Armenia that he is ready to recognize as the Republic of Armenia.

If Azerbaijan would recognize territorial integrity of Armenia and the integrity of our internationally recognized territory of 29.800 square kilometers, it would mean that we can sign a peace treaty by mutually recognizing each others territorial integrity, the PM added.

Talking about the opening of regional transport communication links, the PM said that Azerbaijan is trying to represent Armenia as a destructive side in this discussion.

We have shared packages of proposals with Azerbaijan on the topic of opening communications, and if Azerbaijan accepts that those routes must operate according to national legislations, we can decide on this very quickly, Pashinyan added.

During his speech, Pashinyan also noted that one of the crucial factors of regional stability is the comprehensive settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict where the rights and the security of the Armenians living in NK will be addressed and guaranteed.

The Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh are in need of the support of the international community, the PM noted.

According to him, Azerbaijan stalls the repatriation of Armenian POWs, inter alia subjecting them to artificial trials in gross violation of international humanitarian law, its own commitments, and contrary to the calls of the international community

- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia on Thursday met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on the margins of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

The Prime Minister referred to the large-scale military aggression launched by Azerbaijan against the sovereign territory of Armenia, attaching importance to the clear positions and evaluations of the US regarding what happened.

Pashinyan emphasized the importance of the international community's condemnation of the Azerbaijani actions and the immediate withdrawal of the Azerbaijani units from the sovereign territory of Armenia.

Blinken emphasized the willingness of the US to continue its efforts aimed at the negotiation and peace process

The PM on Thursday also had a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

Talking about the Azerbaijani aggression, Pashinyan said 36 settlements were targeted by the Azerbaijani armed forces.

The Secretary General of NATO noted that he is extremely concerned about the events that took place on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Also, Stoltenberg highlighted the need for the settlement of regional problems through negotiations and making consistent efforts in that direction, including with the support of international partners.

PM also met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

During the meeting, Pashinyan expressed satisfaction with Iran's clear assessments over the Azerbaijani firings and stressed the close bilateral cooperation in the current situation.

According to Raisi, Iran has a clear position on the territorial integrity of states and inadmissibility of border changes in the region, and Iran's ties with Armenia must not be jeopardized.

- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan doesnt rule out the possibility of meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Prague, Anadolu reported.

Erdogan said that he is considering participating in the European Political Community meeting in Prague in early October, and if a decision is made to travel to Czech Republic then presumably the Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan will also be there and a meeting could take place.
Photo: Glacier Media

A Surrey woman who attended a Coquitlam Roman Catholic church as a child has filed a B.C. Supreme Court civil action alleging three priests sexually abused her between the ages of 9 and 13.

The woman, known only as LV in a notice of civil claim filed in court Sept. 14, makes her main allegations against the estate of Father Georges Chevrier who died in August 2003.

Also named in the suit are the Order of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in B.C.; OMI Lacombe, Canada, Inc.; Missionary Oblates  Grandin Province; Oblates of Mary Immaculate  St. Peters Province; Roman Catholic Parishes and Missions in the Diocese of St. Albert; Le Diocese de Saint-Paul, the Catholic Diocese of Edmonton; the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver; John Doe #1 and John Doe #2.

Chevrier was a priest at Coquitlams Our Lady of Fatima Parish from 1971 to 1977, according to a claim filed by lawyer Sandra Kovacs.

The claim alleged Chevrier assaulted the disabled girl in the confessional, a gym storage area, a kitchen, living room, bathroom and rectory bedroom.

The court document alleges the priest kissed and touched her, forced her to perform a number of sexual acts, held her head underwater, and restrained her on a bed.

The woman recalls the John Does observing and participating in an incident in the rectory kitchen, according to the claim.

She said the abuse was part of a continuum of grooming in which she was targeted, and that the priest took advantage of her vulnerability.

The claim said John Doe #1 may be the late Father Joseph Coutier and John Doe #2 could be the late Father Clement Frappier.

Ordained in the Order of Oblates of Mary Immaculate in June 1944, Chevrier held a number of positions across Alberta into the 1980s  including at St. Michaels Indian Residential School, in Bonneyville, St. Albert, Onoway and Sandy Lake, as well as in Edmonton and Calgary  before taking up a post in B.C.

The various church bodies named as co-defendants were responsible for Chevriers employment, according to the claim, and ought to have known the alleged risk of harm Chevrier posed. The claim added that as employers, they were negligent, reckless or wilfully blind in not preventing harm.

LV is seeking multiple forms of damages in the case including aggravated and punitive damages, loss of earning capacity and the loss of capacity to form an interdependent relationship.

Glacier Media reached out to the various dioceses and archdioceses for comment.

Andrew Ahrkamp of the Archdiocese of Edmonton confirmed Chevrier served at Paroisse Saint-Joachim in Edmonton from about May 1, 1965, to Sept. 30, 1971, and at St. Rose of Lima parish in Onoway, Alta., from Aug. 1, 1984, to July 31, 1986.

As there is an active claim before the B.C. courts, the Archdiocese of Edmonton cannot comment any further, Ahrkamp said.

Vancouver archdiocese spokesperson Makani Marquis said it cannot comment on cases before the courts.
Armen Gevorgyan, member of the Armenian Delegation to PACE, Armenian NA deputy from 'Armenia' bloc said his compatriots refuse to believe that the promise of access to Caspian Sea gas and oil can cloud the minds of our organization members. His remarks came during the session of the Commission on Social Affairs, Health Care and Sustainable Development of the Parliamentary Association of the Council of Europe on Friday in Izmir, Turkey.

He particularly said:

"Madam Chairman,

Dear Committee Members,

I would like to inform the members of the Committee about the recent developments in our region.

At midnight on September 13 Azerbaijan unprovoked and unjustified armed invasion into the territory of Armenia. As a result of that massive aggression, which lasted for days, more than 200 Armenian servicemen died, some of whom are being held captive. Nearly 20 more are being held captive. Three female soldiers were not only killed, but their bodies were also desecrated in a manner typical of ISIS militants. The nature of the Jermuk resort, which is famous for its healing mineral waters, has been severely damaged.

Azerbaijan has seized new territories in Armenia, in addition to those occupied since May 2021.

This war has disrupted ongoing negotiations mediated by Russia, the European Union and the United States. Virtually all members of the UN Security Council on September 15 severely criticized this encroachment on peace and called for a return to negotiations. Some members, without even masquerading in diplomatic language, clearly pointed to the aggressor state. The UNSC discussion confirms that the Karabakh conflict has not been resolved, as the Azerbaijani authorities are trying to portray it.

Colleagues,

In this organization we are still facing a difficult choice. One member state periodically attacks another member state, while the Council of Europe fails to take active steps. This organization, unlike many others, prefers to limit itself to vague and obscure statements, avoids objective assessments and sanctions against the offending state.

The silence of our organization and our voluntary isolation, in fact, further encourages aggression by states such as Azerbaijan, which is in no way punished for its aggression against its neighbor and continues to confirm its own fabrications.

My compatriots refuse to believe that the promise of access to Caspian Sea gas and oil can cloud the minds of our members. We do not want to see the global programs of Turkic states to physically unite parts of their states by occupying or annexing the sovereign territory of Armenia and at the cost of the lives of hundreds of innocent citizens.

In fact, we are witnessing double standards and geopolitics. How else can we explain the fact that even wars provoke different attitudes and reactions in our organization? Objectively, there cannot be good and bad, right and wrong wars. Nevertheless, we often witness this in our decisions and actions.

Dear Commissioners,

a few days ago, September 21 was Armenia's Independence Day. Although the Armenians of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh have recently struggled to overcome truly enormous challenges, our nation will continue to struggle and live with dignity. We have always built and created, no matter where we live - in our homeland or scattered around the world.

This also applies to Turkey today, a large part of whose heritage has Armenian roots or Armenian traces, be it the Hagia Sophia Cathedral or the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul.

As well as in Baku, where Armenians built and created many things, in Izmir, where the development of the rich Armenian cultural and historical heritage was interrupted in 1922. By the way, many famous political, state and public figures of Armenian origin from different countries come from ancient Smyrna. Among them are the late French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, Egypt's first Prime Minister Nubar Pasha, the famous American businessman and philanthropist, Armenia's national hero Alec Manoogian and others.
China's consumption market expands with strong impetus over decade: report

Xinhua) 08:24, September 23, 2022

People dine in a restaurant during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, Sept. 11, 2022.(Photo by Su Yang/Xinhua)

BEIJING, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- China's consumer market has logged rapid development in the last decade, with its structure becoming more balanced and new business forms gaining steam, an official report showed on Thursday.

Retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of the country's consumption strength, hit a record high of 44 trillion yuan (about 6.3 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2021, 2.1 times the figure in 2012, according to the report released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

China has kept its economic growth within a reasonable range, which is leading to the steady growth of personal incomes, the report said, noting that the country's consumer market has great potential and resilience.

Despite the disruptions brought by COVID-19, China's total retail sales of consumer goods rose 12.5 percent year on year in 2021, and the average annual growth during the 2020-2021 period hit 3.9 percent, the data showed.

China's urban consumption logged stable growth over the past decade thanks to rapid urbanization progress. In the 2013-2021 period, retail sales of consumer goods in urban areas climbed 8.1 percent on average each year.

During the same period, retail sales of consumer goods in rural towns and villages respectively expanded an average of 10.4 percent and 9.8 percent each year, as rural residents saw their income growth surpass that of urban residents, narrowing the urban-rural income gap.

Over the last decade, online shopping has become a bright spot in China's consumer market, and it is a typical example of the country's emerging forms of consumption.

From 2015 to 2021, the average annual growth of online retail sales of physical goods topped 20 percent, and online retail sales of physical goods accounted for 24.5 percent of China's total retail sales of consumer goods in 2021.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Photo: Twitter

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is naming longtime diplomat Jennifer May to be Canada's new ambassador to China.

The post has been vacant since last December, when Dominic Barton stepped down three months after the release of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, who were released in September 2021 after being detained in China for nearly three years.

Canada believes their arrests were politically motivated retaliation after Canadian authorities arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the request of the United States.

May's job will include working to rebuild the Canada-China relationship.

The federal government also says May will also be "advancing Canada's work" to stand up for "democratic values, human rights and the rule of law."

May has worked for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs since 1990, most recently as Canada's ambassador in Brazil.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan discussed with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres the consequences of Baku's large-scale aggression against the sovereign territory of Armenia, the press service of the Armenian Cabinet of Ministers informed.

The meeting was held on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Pashinyan stressed the importance of the discussions initiated by Armenia in the UN Security Council and the clear position of the UN Security Council member states regarding the Azerbaijani aggression.

The Armenian Prime Minister stressed the importance of the adequate response of the international community regarding the immediate withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from the sovereign territory of Armenia, as well as the need for consistent and continuous monitoring to prevent new aggressions by Azerbaijan.

The Prime Minister also touched upon the grave violations of international humanitarian law and the facts of shelling of civilians and infrastructure by Baku.

In his turn Guterres expressed his concern over the continuing tension on the border and stressed the need to solve the problems through negotiations.
Emory University students may request excused absences from class, rescheduled assignments and other adaptations for their religious observances under the new university-wide religious accommodation policy, which took effect Aug. 1.

Emory University seeks to create a campus climate that is welcoming and inclusive of religious, philosophical and nonreligious diversity, the policy states. Emorys Equal Opportunity and Discriminatory Harassment Policy prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion, and Emory seeks to provide reasonable accommodation for the sincerely held religious beliefs and practices of employees and students, unless such accommodation would impose an undue hardship (more than a minimal burden on university operations).

The policy, which is supported by the Emory University Office of Spiritual and Religious Life (OSRL), applies to all university faculty, staff and students. It notes that holidays and forms of observance vary widely both among and within religious traditions.

Religious observances may include attending services and may also require abstaining from work and certain other activities (such as writing, carrying things outside of the home, or the use of electronics) altogether on religious holidays and at other significant times of the year, it explains.

Students and employees should request accommodations as early as possible, the policy states:

Students should submit requests in writing to their faculty members, noting their needs and requested accommodations. If that is not effective, they may speak with the chair of the department (or the program director), the academic dean in their school, or with the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance (OIEC) regarding Emorys Equal Opportunity and Discriminatory Harassment Policy.

Employees should submit requests to their supervisor, department chair or dean. If that is not effective, they should speak with Emory University Human Resources and/or consult with OIEC regarding Emorys Equal Opportunity and Discriminatory Harassment Policy.

The OSRL and the Ombuds Office are also available to provide support in this process. In addition, diversity, equity and inclusion officers in each Emory school often assist students, faculty and staff in determining and securing reasonable accommodations.

We are grateful to the president, provost, the deans of each school and the University Senate for reviewing and approving this policy that arose from student feedback and will help to advance Emorys efforts to support our growing religious and philosophical diversity, says Gregory W. McGonigle, dean of religious life and university chaplain, who leads Emory OSRL.

Such policies are customary at Emorys peer institutions. What is new about this policy, says McGonigle, is that it applies university-wide, it outlines a process for seeking accommodations and it connects accommodations to Emorys nondiscrimination commitments. It also offers guidance about some common questions that have arisen over time.

Academic accommodations

Students receiving accommodations for religious observances are still responsible for completing any coursework that they missed, according to the policy. Reasonable accommodations must be consistent with academic standards and may not include modifications of requirements essential to any program or licensing requirement, or modifications that impose an undue burden on the university, it notes.

The policy encourages faculty to include a statement about the religious accommodations policy on their course syllabi (a sample statement is provided in the policy) and notes that such accommodations should be considered separately from other excused absences.

There is no set number for approved religious accommodation absences, and if a student needs to use excused absences for sickness or other emergencies, that should not subtract from possible religious accommodation absences, the policy states. This principle, however, does not outweigh the fact that regular attendance in class may be essential for meeting academic standards and licensing requirements.

I know that our faculty is dedicated to supporting our students in multiple ways, both inside and outside the classroom, says Deboleena Roy, senior associate dean of faculty of Emory College of Arts and Sciences. This includes embracing the rich diversity of our students and providing accommodations so that they may observe religious holidays over the course of the academic year.

Major religious holidays

Each year in May, the OSRL publishes a list of major religious holidays observed by sizeable religious demographic groups within the Emory community. Faculty and staff are encouraged to consult the list to help avoid conflicting with these dates when planning syllabi, exams, assignment deadlines, required meetings and major programs.

The OSRL list of select major religious holidays in the 2022-23 academic year can be viewed here. A few highlights:

Rosh Hashanah: Eve Sept. 25 through Sept. 27, 2022, after nightfall

Yom Kippur: Eve Oct. 4 through Oct. 5, 2022, after nightfall

Ramadan: Eve March 22 through day April 21, 2023

Passover (first two days): Eve April 5 through April 7, 2023, after nightfall

Eid al-Fitr: Eve April 21 through day April 22, 2023

Members of the university community may also request accommodations for holidays that are not on the list, the religious accommodations policy states, and the chaplains in the OSRL are available for consultation and support.

Our institutional commitment to justice, equity, diversity and inclusion means we bring our whole selves with us when we show up in our respective spaces, says Carol Henderson, Emorys chief diversity officer, vice provost for diversity and inclusion and adviser to the president. This includes creating pathways of belonging that honor our many faiths, spiritual and philosophical beliefs. These intersectional identities make up the beautiful mosaic that is Emory.
Imagine being part of an Emory course where you are the content. In your very first semester.

Thats the promise behind 10 flourishing seminars being piloted as part of the First-year Seminar program in Emory College of Arts and Sciences. Following Provost Ravi V. Bellamkondas introduction of student flourishing as an overarching theme a year ago, the university has sought ways to deepen Emorys legacy of preparing students to think critically, act ethically and work collaboratively.

Student flourishing embraces the full arc of students lives and offers experiences designed to foster personal and professional success, says Bellamkonda, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. In these first-year seminars, students will come to understand flourishing through different modes of thinking and being, suggesting the wide range of paths that lead to meaningful outcomes.

An innovative partnership between the Office of the Provost and Emory College of Arts and Sciences, the flourishing seminars seek to not only deepen what students know but also who they aspire to be, says faculty member John Lysaker.

As the William R. Kenan Professor of Philosophy, Lysaker is, in many ways, the ideal chief architect for this project. Well respected among faculty and an admired teacher, he is someone whose discipline provides insight into thriving. Lysaker will be teaching a course  Flourishing, or The Good Life  which will ask students to interrogate: How does your flourishing relate to the flourishing of others, including more than the human world?

Traditionally, students follow two paths: making sense of the discourse of their lives and the discourse of their courses. Those tend to be fairly separate. For a philosopher like myself, that is a failure. Philosophy speaks to the voice we use to orient ourselves in the world. That is true of a liberal arts education all the way to its roots, says Lysaker.

In the case of Emory students, Lysaker acknowledges starting from a position of strength. We say liberal arts, and we presume students know how to do it. Mostly, they do. The students who come here are unbelievable. But why not give them, early on, some key concepts that can travel through their years of undergraduate study and invite them to discover other concepts? asks Lysaker.

What makes the courses tick, individually and together

Each course offers a multidisciplinary approach and an opportunity for students to apply what they learn to their own lives. Already inherent in these courses, which predated the pilot, were three concepts germane to flourishing.:

Flourishing is accomplished through connection . The courses acknowledge, some more explicitly than others, that one of the principal conditions for flourishing is a capacity for justice  for seeing, as Lysaker says, that some people face a steeper climb in one or more dimensions as they seek connection.

Attaining liberal arts literacy requires establishing connections between courses. Students in the seminars will gain this experience as each course looks outward to two other courses in the cohort.

Each course is, in some sense, about the student. Students will be encouraged to reflect on how the courses subject matter bears upon their well-being.

In The Science of Study, Andrew Kazama vows  tongue partially in cheek  that he will encourage his students to absorb their courses like amoebas and make them their own, building a better version of themselves.

The colorful metaphor stems from Kazamas background in animal behavior and neuroscience; he earned a PhD in psychology from Emory in 2010. He serves as director of undergraduate research, psychology lecturer and research associate at the Emory National Primate Research Center.

Kazama considers the courses to be about so much more than the content they cover; they are also training students to think in particular ways. Its the diversity in thought processes and the ability to tackle a problem from multiple viewpoints that lead to innovative thinking but also intellectual humility.

The Science of Study will cover ways to optimize study and performance by covering the history of learning and memory principles as well as understanding how to evaluate peer-reviewed literature.

Both Kazama and Lysaker emphasize that liberation stands at the heart of liberal arts. According to Lysaker, Liberal arts is an education in how to meaningfully exercise your freedom.

Kazama adds that a willingness to role-play is key: In these seminars, students will have the ability to think like a philosopher, or an artist, or a neuroscientist using whatever approach/discipline suits that particular problem.

A feast of thought, and dinner is served

Kazamas students will interact with the classes for Buddhism and Human Flourishing as well as The Power of Storytelling. For the former, students will band together for a morning waterfall meditation in Lullwater followed by a discussion of Thich Nhat Hanh and the science of mindfulness meditation. In association with the storytelling course, Kazamas class will share a story-circle exercise followed by a discussion on how stories can be used to memorize and store large amounts of information.

Robyn Fivush and Kim Loudermilk co-teach the storytelling course. Fivush is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology and director of the Institute for the Liberal Arts. Loudermilk is director of the Undergraduate Program in American Studies and IDEAS Fellowship as well as senior lecturer. Both have worked effectively with Kazama previously through the LINCed program and welcome this new take on interdisciplinarity.

Beyond our exploration of the world of stories  which connect us, transform us and allow us to express our deepest understanding of ourselves and the world  we look forward to partnering with the other seminars to better understand personal flourishing and scholarly perspectives from other subject areas that also touch on the human condition, says Loudermilk.

If you are a biologist, you call what we are assembling through these dinners an ecology. If you are an engineer, it is a network. By any definition, it is an opportunity. Emorys leaders and faculty are deeply invested in the welfare of our students, and their presence at these dinners will be one manifestation of that care, notes Lysaker.

Perhaps most intriguing, students will be asked to write a letter to their future self about what that self needs to know in order to flourish. The letters will be gathered anonymously and archived but also will be sent to the students in the middle of their junior year. That is known to be a turning point in undergraduate careers, the time students decide how to spend the next years of their life.

The flourishing seminars and their accompanying dinners model the kind of educational experience we are intent for all students to have at Emory, combining deep intellectual engagement, self-reflection and nourishment. Our faculty are as excited as our students to convene meaningful discussions and deep exploration of ideas and to extend these from the classroom to the dining table, says Freeman.

I see the flourishing seminars as among our newest and most exciting rituals in Emory College and am thrilled by the range of topics and breadth of disciplines represented this year. I expect these to flourish and become a defining feature of the first-year experience, she adds.

Advisers in the Office of Undergraduate Education indicate that the lineup of flourishing seminars has students motivated to begin. Their formal responses, once the semester ends, will be measured in two ways, according to Heather Mugg, associate vice provost for undergraduate affairs. At the course level, we will seek students feedback; there also will be a section of the ECS 101 survey, required of all first-year students, that covers the flourishing seminars, says Mugg.

Lysaker hopes the seminars are expanded in subsequent years and, to him, that does not just mean broadening access but also allowing them to grow and change. As he notes, If something is good, it should inspire meaningful succession and innovation.
An Emory University-led collaborative project has been awarded $8.3 million for the first of a five-year CDC award to implement Together TakeMeHome (TTMH), a national HIV self-testing program designed to increase awareness and diagnoses of HIV infections in the U.S.

HIV testing is a proven strategy for HIV prevention and a key first step in the continuum of care, yet still, too many people are unaware of their HIV status. TTMH addresses common barriers to testing, such as stigma, privacy concerns, cost and lack of access to HIV clinics by offering free HIV self-tests through mail delivery.

Testing is a critical entry point for HIV prevention and treatment services, especially for people most affected by HIV, says Dr. Travis Sanchez, professor at Emory Universitys Rollins School of Public Health and executive director for the program. Together TakeMeHome leverages proven HIV prevention strategies by allowing people to get tests delivered directly to their doorsteps and gives people who otherwise might not have tested an opportunity to know their status.

By early 2023, TTMH will begin distributing a free HIV self-test to people who enroll through its website. Orders will be processed through Amazon and mailed in discreet packages to all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Emory University will evaluate the program by assessing who used the tests, how many new diagnoses were made, and how many began HIV treatment or pre-exposure prophylaxis. The program will be monitored and evaluated with data from multiple sources, including order information, web traffic/referral tracking, surveys and qualitative interviews.

HIV self-testing is a key innovation that supports the national goal to diagnose all people with HIV as early as possible, said Robyn Neblett Fanfair, MD, MPH, and acting director of CDCs Division of HIV Prevention. Evidence demonstrates high demand for HIV-self tests  particularly among people who have never previously tested for HIV and populations that are not equitably reached by HIV testing, effective treatment and prevention tools.

Following a successful pilot program in 2020-2021, this will be the largest nationwide mailed HIV self-testing program to date. Multiple studies have demonstrated the value of self-testing for increasing the frequency of HIV testing, identifying new diagnoses and reaching people who reported that they have never previously tested for HIV. Scaling up TTMH to one million tests can have a resounding impact on HIV prevention efforts in the U.S., but its success will rely heavily on collaborative efforts.

Several organizations will play crucial roles in the successful implementation of the program. Building Healthy Online Communities, which created the program, will lead outreach and engagement with participants. Signal Group will manage the technical aspects of TTMH, including the website and back-end development. NASTAD will lead public health and community engagement activities. As the sole manufacturer of FDA-approved HIV self-tests, OraSure Technologies will be responsible for the production and logistics of the HIV self-test kits, and the CDCs Lets Stop HIV Together campaign team will lead the marketing activities.

TTMH will be supported by CDC under award number 1NU62PS924790. The total amount of the award over five years is up to $41.5 million.
Photo: Brendan Kergin.

The Independent Investigations Office of the BC has launched an investigation after shocking video of a Vancouver Police Department vehicle striking a pedestrian in Vancouver was released earlier this week.

A tweet by account Always Film the VPD shows a man standing in the middle of the street in the 100-block-of East Hastings Street at approximately 3:20 a.m. on Sept, 20, 2022.

The video shows the man bent over in the street when a police vehicle driving eastbound strikes him.

The man was transported to hospital with serious injuries.

"The IIO is asking any person with relevant information, dashcam or other video footage of the incident to please contact the Witness Line toll-free at 1-855-446-8477 or via the contact form on the iiobc.ca website," states a news release from the IIO.

TW @VancouverPD hit a #DTES community member in a 30km zone. pic.twitter.com/spIgW0Rsru  Always Film The VPD (@LeeLeeBeeLeeLee) September 21, 2022

CTV News Vancouver is reporting that Vancouver police claim bystanders "attempted to interfere with evidence at the collision scene by removing property that belonged to the man who had been struck."

The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users tweeted out that police arrived on the scene with guns drawn and refused to give their badge numbers.

UPDATE: Media confirmed the man run over by @VancouverPD this morning is alive. Community continues to investigate.



In 2010, VANDU successfully advocated to reduce speed limits in the #DTES due to years of driver negligence & pedestrian injury



? Report:https://t.co/o6xqbiXHfW pic.twitter.com/RBWrvlXIwr  VANDU (@VANDUpeople) September 20, 2022

In an email to Vancouver Is Awesome the VPD said the man was standing in the road.

"We trust this investigation will shed light on what factors led to the collision, including the reason why the pedestrian was standing motionless in the middle of the road, why the officers did not see the person, the speed of the police vehicle, and other contributing factors," reads the email from the VPD.
A truly inclusive workplace requires invention and reinvention, mistakes and humility, adaptation to a changing world, constant self-reflection, and, sometimes, significant sacrifice. In this exclusive interview, Dr. Ella F. Washington talks about her new book, The Necessary Journey: Making Real Progress on Equity and Inclusion.

Camille Lloyd is the Director of the Gallup Center on Black Voices. Follow her at @policyresrchbuf

Dr. Ella F. Washington is the CEO of Ellavate Solutions and a Professor of Practice at Georgetown McDonough School of Business. Follow her at @EllaFWashington

Learn more about the Gallup Center on Black Voices at gallup.com.

Below is a full transcript of the conversation, including time stamps. Full audio is posted above.

Camille Lloyd 00:11



Hello everyone. Thanks for tuning in to Cultural Competence. This week, we're airing an exclusive interview with Gallup Editor in Chief Mohamed Younis is talking to our very own cohost Dr. Ella Washington about her new book, The Necessary Journey: Making Real Progress on Equity and Inclusion, which is available for preorder. Many organizations have largely missed the mark when it comes to creating environments where all employees thrive in an equal and equitable way. And that's because they treat diversity, equity and inclusion as a program that gets done rather than the necessary and difficult journey it is. A truly inclusive workplace requires invention and reinvention, mistakes and humility, adaptation to a changing world, constant self-reflection, and, sometimes, significant sacrifice. Dr. Washington writes about companies that are making the necessary journey. These include Slack, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Best Buy, Denny's and many others. I hope you enjoy this special episode.



Mohamed Younis 01:28

For Gallup, I'm Mohamed Younis. This week, we delve into the subject of diversity, equity and inclusion. Is it about making people feel better, or is there a real science behind these concepts? Dr. Ella Washington is the founder of Ellavate Solutions, a professor at Georgetown University and, most importantly, a Gallup senior scientist. Her new book, The Necessary Journey: Making Real Progress on Equity and Inclusion, and it's available for preorder today. Ella, welcome to the podcast.



Ella Washington 01:57

Hi, Mohamed. Thank you so much for having me.



Mohamed Younis 02:00

I wanted to start off by asking you, why did you want to write this book?



Ella Washington 02:05

So this book started with how I was feeling in 2020, as well as my experience as a career long DEI researcher and practitioner. So from an individual perspective, I was in D.C., I'm a Black woman. I'm seeing the racial reckoning unfold in real time. I'm having helicopters outside of my windows for days on end, as the protests were happening, and I'm like, wow this is the first time I'm living through something like this, you know, especially in our country, right? And there was fear there, there was confusion, there was anger. There was also wondering, what should I be doing? Because, you know, COVID-19 was still very much raging. And so there was this moment of like, how can I help with the movement? And I realized that my platform is in teaching and writing and speaking and being a voice of the people in that way. You know, getting into protesting, we all have a role in the movement, right? And so I thought about all those things.



Ella Washington 03:03

And then from the DEI practitioner lane, I had companies coming to me for the first time ever, in many instances. And they were, for the first time, thinking about, you know, what should we be doing about DEI? We're not doing enough; we haven't done enough. We want to make meaningful change. And instead of business as usual, I wanted to be thoughtful about how to actually help these companies. And, you know, during that summer, you know, I remember CEOs and chief human resource officers. Every single time I had a new meeting, they would pull me aside at some point in the meeting or after the meeting and say, "So really, like, where are we on the DEI journey? Like, tell me, where are we?" And then, inevitably, the very next question would be, "How do we compare to other people? What we really want to know is how are we stacking up?" Because that's how leaders think, right; we're always trying to compare and understand how we're doing in the grand scheme of things.





Ella Washington 3:54

And after I got that question, tens and twenties and thirties of times, I said, OK, there must not be this information out here, in terms of how organizations can really bring this concept of DEI -- to your point in your opening -- to tactical solutions and how do we actually make change? The idea of a journey is something that people have always said around DEI: It's a journey. It's a journey. But what does that really mean? And I found that there were so many questions around that, it led me to want to spend the next two years researching and creating what is now the book, The Necessary Journey.



Mohamed Younis 04:28

I love how you took a situation where a lot of us were, like, what the hell do I do? and really turned it into a book. That's amazing! So many people in our space have that thought and those feelings, but they never get to this spot. So I'm just so happy for you. I read the book. I can't express how important it is to really consume this information and educate ourselves, no matter who you are. I think one of the things for me after the George Floyd murder was -- and I know, Ella, we talked about this a lot at the time -- how none of this was new. But it was kind of new for corporate America and leaders across industries, in the sense that it felt like they were taking the issue of inequality way more seriously than before.



Mohamed Younis 05:25

I can only imagine what your life was like those days. I remember the first few weeks of getting an email from every corporation I've ever bought something from, saying basically, Black lives matter; Black people are human beings, you know, a lot of things that are like, wow, you needed a newsletter to let me know that? And you're one of the people that was really continues, and, and really started helping organizations do something beyond a statement. Let me ask you that question: What, how did you handle that?



Ella Washington 05:58

You know, it was truly shocking in a way, because I have spent my entire career in this space, and, you know, for many years, it felt like DEI was on the outskirts and on the fringe of things. And it was, to me it was shocking, fascinating, exciting, all at the same time, to see companies making these huge statements, you know, very publicly calling out things like White supremacy and racial inequity and saying, we stand for social justice. That was great. But at the same time it also was a little bit scary because I'm like, you know, this work is not new, and so what's so different now? And it made me wonder if anything would really change beyond the moment. And that's where you start to hear a lot of those "moment or movement" type of sayings that were going around. And still people are like, OK, the moment has passed. You know, what happened to the movement?



Ella Washington 06:48

And, you know, I think it's really important. And one thing I talk about, I lay out in the first chapter of my book is for people to understand, to your point, DEI is not new. The history of diversity management, as it was first called in the late '80s and early '90s, you know, from an academic and corporate perspective, is not something that just happened in 2020. And then if you think about the study of social movements in general, such as the civil rights movement, the women's movement, the LGBTQ movement, all of those movements have also had an impact on DEI, but even from a corporate perspective, DEI is not new. And so it's one thing I really want people to understand, because if we don't understand that this wasn't a new thing, then we forget that we've been here before, and we could be here again if we don't do something really different as we move forward. And so that's why it's really important, I think, you know, to know your history and you know, the history of DEI in this country and more broadly. Because if not, you know, in five or 10 years, we'll be right back here where we were, you know, in 2020.



Mohamed Younis 07:51

In the book, you tackle this term, which I love, called "workplace utopia." What is it? And why is it important to understand that concept?



Ella Washington 08:01

Yeah. You know, I always start with, we're not talking about butterflies and unicorns, and that's what comes to mind when we think about workplace utopia, but we're really talking about, how can we make work environments where everyone can thrive? Everyone can bring their whole selves, and they are able to have bits and pieces of their workday and work experience that they feel like they really belong, right? No workplace is perfect, first of all, but we can have workplaces that people feel welcomed and they can, they can be their whole selves.



Ella Washington 08:31

And so workplace utopia, for me, is putting that idea out there, like what is an ideal work environment for me? Because it looks different for every person, right? And so the more that we get people to talk about, you know, what it would feel like or look like for them to belong and feel included and feel like they had equal opportunities for success, the more we can start to tactically move towards those things. I think for a long time, people don't think about workplace utopia because especially, you know, Black people, other people of color, women, we feel like we're in these workplaces, and we just have to take whatever is given to us. Like, you know, they say they want us to be included, but they don't really mean that; I just need to assimilate, or I just need to, you know, get through the day. And so workplace utopia is kind of dismantling that idea that we have to be an other self at work, or dismantling the idea that workplace, you know, inclusion is only for certain people. It's really for everyone. How do we get to a place of utopia that everyone can see themselves in?



Mohamed Younis 09:28

If I'm, I'm going to ask you, like, a really hard-core question: If I lead a company, why should I care about diversity, equity and inclusion? And why should I care about people bringing their whole self to work?



Ella Washington 09:41

Well, if you're leading a company, what's probably top of mind for you is your bottom line and the success of your company. And again, there have been decades of research that talk about the business impact of diversity and inclusion, specifically, from, you know, how much our teams produce, because we get more from ourselves when we can be our best selves. We get more creative ideas. We're able to better, you know, come up with decisions as a group when we communicate and we feel included. From that level to, you know, how we're reaching our customers. If we don't understand our consumer base, how can we, you know, really market and meet diverse market needs, right? And so there's so, there's a plethora of information on the business case around having more diverse teams, diverse companies, and having people feel included, because you can't have one without the other if you really want to see an impact.



Ella Washington 10:34

But further, you know, as a CEO, I would I would ask you, what is the mission and purpose of your organization? So it's, you know, there's this moral case versus the business case argument; to me, it's both, right? And so we can clearly lay out the business case for you. If you give me your organizational data and some time with your HR teams, I can lay out the business impact of having diverse, equitable and inclusive teams. But then when you think about who you want your organization to be, it's one thing that I work with a lot of leaders on is, what's the purpose of your organization, and how does DEI fit and align with that purpose and mission? A lot of organizations, you know, just jump to doing DEI work, and in the book, how I lay out, you know, they're at the tactical stage. They're doing things, and they can be great things, you know, in different pockets, but it's not integrated into the business strategy; it's not integrated into the core cultural fabric of the organization. So as a CEO, as a leader, those are the things I would tell you that you should consider if you really want to have an impact, both from a business perspective, but also for an organizational identity.



Mohamed Younis 11:39

In the book, you talk about a necessary journey that organizations need to take or leaders need to take. What is that journey, and is it the same for everyone?



Ella Washington 11:48

The journey is not a one-size-fits-all, which is probably the most frustrating things for leaders who are used to having a playbook.



Mohamed Younis 11:55

Tell me what to do.



Ella Washington 11:56

Yeah, tell me, tell me how to get an "A" on the test, right? Which is why they say things like, "What are the low-hanging fruit," you know, "What are the things that we can kind of check the box?" Even though they really do, I think, for the most part, want to make progress, their mindset is that, how do we do the thing, get the results and move on to the next thing? And the hard and frustrating part about that is, is DEI, there is no end. And so, while I provide a framework for people to understand kind of where they are on the journey and the things that they should be doing to progress and mature in that journey, the hard part is that even companies at the final stage of being sustainable, they still have to continue to evolve, because DEI is about elevating humanity in the workplace.



Ella Washington

And so as long as there are people working in some facet of your organizations, people will change and grow and more. And my idea is that, you know, hopefully we are shifting what we're focusing on in the next five and 10 years in the DEI conversation, but it will not evolve. You know, it will really just continue to grow and change as our society grows and, grows and changes. And, you know, if, if we think about an endpoint for DEI, then we get lost in that, and we get frustrated. And that's where people, you know, quit and they say, OK, we've been doing this thing, we put all these resources, you know, we checked all the boxes, we wrote all the transparency reports, and we're still not seeing change. It's because you're not seeing it as a human artifact of the organization. You're seeing it as just, just another strategy. So there should be a strategy, but it has to have a human element in it.



Mohamed Younis 13:29

Is it fair to say that this is really more of a practice than it is a one-time decision on the part of organizations to really keep DEI first and foremost on the minds of their leaders?



Ella Washington 13:43

I would go even further -- I think it's a mindset. I think if our mindset is that we want this organization to be an inclusive place where there are diverse perspectives and where we have set the organization up so everyone has an opportunity to thrive, acknowledging that there are societal limitations and historical factors that do come into play. Because we wish we could keep all that outside of our organization, but it shows that within our organization. But within the span of control of our sphere of influence in this organization, we are truly committed to, you know, diversity, equity, inclusion, that's a mindset. That's not just a program; that's not a Black history month speech; that's not a Pride month rainbow. That is a mindset.



Ella Washington 14:27

And when you have that mindset, and you make that a core tenet of your organization, your expectations change. Your expectations for what success looks like changes. Your expectations for what managers should be doing on a daily basis changes. It goes from DEI up in this corner with HR, and that's just the chief diversity officer's responsibility to, no, this is part of everyone's responsibility. And if one person drops the ball, we're all dropping the ball.



Mohamed Younis 14:56

Maybe that's a great segue or you answered my question before I ask it. My final question really is, if there's one thing you want people to take away from this book, what would it be?



Ella Washington 15:07

I would say that, you know, the journey is never ending. And though that can be scary, I think we can shift our mindset and think about it as something beautiful. If we are elevating humanity in the workplace by being thoughtful and intentional around DEI, it should be a beautiful thing to welcome people; it should be a beautiful thing for people to finally feel heard and seen and valued. And by the way, it makes our organizations better. It makes us have better business. It makes us have better outcomes. And so the one thing I would say to take away: you know, it is a journey, but you can do it. You know, you can take the first step; you can continue on the journey; and you can see progress.



Mohamed Younis 15:46

On that note, Dr. Ella Washington. Her new book is called The Necessary Journey: Making Real Progress on Equity and Inclusion. It is available for preorder today. Ella, it's so great to have you with us.



Ella Washington 15:59

Thanks for having me.



Camille Lloyd 16:02

That's our podcast. To subscribe to Cultural Competence from any podcast app, just search "Cultural Competence." You can learn more about the Gallup Center on Black Voices by visiting gallup.com. Cultural Competence is directed by Curtis Grubb and produced by Justin McCarthy. I'm Camille Lloyd.



Ella Washington 16:19

And I'm Dr. Ella Washington.



Camille Lloyd 16:21

Thanks for tuning in to Cultural Competence. A diversity and inclusion podcast.
China, Australia diplomats hold 'constructive' talks

China, Australia diplomats hold 'constructive' talks

Australia is aiming for a stable relationship with China despite differences in particular on trade, Australia's foreign minister said, as she called on China to use its influence as a great power to help end the war in Ukraine.



Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong met with her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Thursday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.



She later described their meeting as constructive.



China is Australia's largest trading partner, but relations have atrophied in the last five years over a number of disputes.



"I think it is a long road on which many steps will have to be taken by both parties to a more stable relationship," Wong said.



"In terms of issues of difference, obviously first amongst them is the issue of trade blockages, and that is the issue I focused on at the outset."



Wong also urged China, as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (P5), to use its influence to help end the Ukraine crisis.



"China is a great power... We encourage China as a P5 member with a special responsibility to uphold the UN charter to use its influence to end the war," she said.



Thursday's meeting with Yi, the second in three months, comes as the recently elected Labor government looks to rebuild ties with China after a sharp deterioration during the term of the previous conservative government. Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has suggested he is open to meeting President Xi Jinping at the G20 in Bali in November. (Agencies)
HK travel agents expect surge in trips to Japan

The Travel Industry Council says the relaxation of Covid restrictions by Japan is good news for Hong Kong travel agencies. Photo: Shutterstock

The Travel Industry Council on Friday said the planned abolition of some border controls by Japan is good news for travel agencies here, as the country is a top holiday destination for Hong Kong people.



Japan has announced it will abolish a series of Covid-19 restrictions for travellers from October 11.



The TICs executive director Fanny Yeung said the move will help Hong Kong travel agents.



Japan is always the most popular destination for Hong Kong people, she said.



With the relaxation and visa-free [travel], we will expect a significant growth in the tourists from Hong Kong going to Japan... It will definitely help on outbound travel.



Steve Huen, executive director of EGL Tours which specialises in trips to Japan, said he expects a surge in the number of Hong Kong people travelling to the country in the coming months.



He said many people are eager to go on holiday there as the Japanese yen is currently very weak.
The country can prioritise disaster response over debt repayment, the Financial Times cited a UN policy memo as saying, Samaa TV reported.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) is expected to share the memorandum with the Pakistan government this week.

The UN, in its memo, has said that Pakistan should suspend international debt repayments and restructure loans with creditors after recent floods added to the country's financial crisis, Samaa TV reported.

During his visit to Pakistan earlier this month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had said that Pakistan has suffered unprecedented flood destruction and its losses stood at $30 billion and counting.

Both the Pakistan government and Guterres have blamed climate change for the monsoon on steroids' that triggered monster floods in the country.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV aired on Friday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also made an urgent appeal for debt relief from rich nations as catastrophic floods exacerbated by climate change displaced millions in the country.

Sharif has made an urgent appeal for relief in the repayment of debts from rich nations, reminding them that the country is bearing the brunt of environmental damage caused by them to cater to their greed, Geo News reported.

As per Sharif, there is a "yawning gap" between what Pakistan is asking for and what is available, warning that the nation is facing the imminent threat of epidemics and other dangers.

"God forbid this happens, all hell will [break loose]," he said.

In his conversation with Bloomberg TV, Sharif said that Pakistan recently signed a deal with IMF under "very tough" conditions, including taxes on petroleum and electricity.

--IANS san/arm

( 297 Words)

2022-09-23-20:34:02 (IANS)
Seattle (Washington) [US]/Sonipat (Haryana) [India], September 23 (ANI/OP Jindal University): Dean Anthony Varona, Seattle University School of Law, and Vice-Chancellor Professor C. Raj Kumar, O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU), signed two key agreements creating new opportunities for law students in India and the United States to pursue a global education. As per the MoU signed between the universities, students of JGLS will have opportunities to pursue an LLM degree at Seattle University School of Law while they finish their final year at JGLS with concentrations in American Legal Studies or in Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship. As part of the academic credit system, the programme also offers opportunities to work with Seattle-based employers, including multi-national corporations (including Amazon, Microsoft, and Boeing), international tribunals, and government agencies. Students from India will have the opportunity to study with world-class professors and gain real work experience to become globally trained lawyers. Reciprocally, students at Seattle University School of Law will have the opportunity to participate in an India Immersion Programme in March 2023, which includes lectures, workshops, study tours to legal and other public institutions, and cultural visits. Institutional leaders from Seattle University School of Law and JGU welcomed the partnership as an advancement towards building a legal community with global imaginations and spirit. Emphasizing the need for garnering global imagination in an increasingly integrated world, Professor Anthony E. Varona, Dean, Seattle University School of Law, observed, "As more legal work transcends national borders, lawyers with significant global knowledge and experience will be in high demand. Students of both JGU and Seattle University School of Law will benefit from these programmes, which in turn will provide meaningful ways to learn about foreign legal systems, norms, and traditions." Professor (Dr) C. Raj Kumar, Founding Vice Chancellor of JGU and Founding Dean of JGLS, remarked that, "This partnership will help students build a strong foundation in academic fundamentals and at the same time provide the required skills and knowledge necessary to compete in a global marketplace. I am certain that partnerships like this one will help build young professionals who are ready to take up global challenges. JGU has always been driven by global ambitions, aiming to partake in India's progress to the centre-stage of global happenings. I am delighted that we have taken yet another step in that direction" Seattle University School of Law has strong connections to India and the study of its legal system. Associate Professor of Law Sital Kalantry, whose scholarship focuses on India, founded the India Center for Law and Justice, which works with law schools in India to promote legal education and mentor emerging law scholars. It also promotes engagement with India among the students at Seattle University School of Law. In her additional role as Associate Dean for International and Graduate Programmes, she has been working to develop legal education programmes specifically for international students. Prof. Kalantry has been associated with JGU since its inception in 2009. Drawing on her association with JGU for more than a decade, Professor Sital Kalantry, Faculty Director, India Centre for Law and Justice, Seattle University School of Law observed that "JGU is now the number one private university in India, and our law school is thrilled to work with such an exceptional institution. We look forward to providing an exciting learning experience to the students from India in one of the most exciting and innovative cities in the world, significantly adding to their skills and positively shaping their law careers." On this special occasion, Professor (Dr) Sreejith S.G., Executive Dean, JGLS, reiterated the global ambitions of JGU and observed, "For a law school like JGLS, which is deeply committed to impart global legal education, international collaborations are part of its evolution and expansion. Through international collaborations, the school creates spaces of 'interculturality' for providing global experience to its students." The beneficiary of the collaborations would be Jindal Global Law School (JGLS), which has been ranked 70th globally and 1st in India by the QS World University Rankings by Subject, 2022. Seattle University is the largest independent university in the Pacific Northwest, and its legal writing programme ranks #6 in the U.S. News and World Report and clinical programme in the top 30. This story is provided by OP Jindal University. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/OP Jindal University)
Bollywood actor Kartik Aaryan, on Thursday, shared a glimpse from the sets of his upcoming romantic saga film 'Satyaprem Ki Katha'. Taking to Instagram, the 'Dhamaka' actor shared a picture on his story which he captioned, "Night shoots like these." Kartik shared a picture of clapboard with the title of the film 'Satyaprem Ki Katha' written on it. Apart from Kartik, Bollywood actor Kiara Advani is also a part of the film. 'Satyaprem Ki Katha' marks the second collaboration of Kartik and Kiara after their blockbuster hit horror comedy film 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2'. Helmed by Sameer Vidhwans, and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala, the film is all set to hit the theatres on June 29, 2023. The film will face a big Bollywood clash with Ayushmann Khurrana and Ananya Panday's upcoming comedy film 'Dream Girl 2'. Recently, On the occasion of Kiara's birthday, actor Kartik revealed that the name of their upcoming project 'Satyanarayan Ki Katha' has been changed to 'Satyaprem Ki Katha'. The film sparked controversy due to its title 'Satyanarayan Ki Katha', which translates to the story of Satyanarayan, which is another name for the Hindu god Vishnu. Last year, director Sameer Vidwans issued a statement to announce the change in title. The 'Luka Chuppi' actor also reposted the statement on his official Instagram account which said that the title will be changed to avoid hurting sentiments, even if that's purely unintentional. The title of the film is something that emerges organically through the creative process. We have taken a decision to change the title of our recently announced film 'Satyanarayan ki Katha' to avoid hurting sentiments, even if that's purely unintentional. Producers of the film and the creative team also are in complete support of this decision. We will be announcing a new title for our love story in due course of our journey. Sincerely, Sameer Vidwans," the statement read. Meanwhile, Kiara will be next seen in 'Govinda Naam Mera' alongside Vicky Kaushal and Bhumi Pednekar. Kartik, on the other hand, will be seen in 'Shehzada' opposite Kriti Sanon. The film is helmed by David Dhawan's son Rohit Dhawan and is slated to release on February 10, 2023. Apart from that, he will be sharing the screen space with Alaya F in 'Freddy'. Produced by Ekta Kapoor, the film is touted to be a romantic thriller. He also has Hansal Mehta's 'Captain India' in his kitty. Bankrolled by Ronnie Screwvala and Harman Baweja, the film revolves around India's most successful rescue operations from a war-torn country. (ANI)
The show introduces audiences to a rarely explored fun dimension in their lives through their cuisine preferences.

On the show's launch, Lakshmi Manchu commented: "For the Manchu family, food has always been a passion! It's that one element that brings us all together and, like most families, is a focal point for any special occasion. Good food should bring you joy in just the experience of it. I'm so happy to be part of Chef Mantra 2 because it once again gave me a chance to meet my digital fans."

Streaming every Friday at 2 p.m. from September 30 on aha Telugu, each week will feature influential Tollywood personalities Malavika Mohan, Ritu Verma, and Vidyu Raman, among others.

Chef Mantra 2, spanning eight episodes, features famous Telugu film stars in the company of their friends and family, where they take a trip down memory lane and discuss the memories associated with their comfort food.

--IANS pvn/kvd

( 211 Words)

2022-09-23-19:00:04 (IANS)
Assam Police on Thursday recovered and seized 270 packets weighting 1,483 kg of ganja from a vehicle at the Gossaigaon Police Station area in Kokrajhar district. The Police also arrested the accused. "Based on secret information, the police of Kokrajhar district launched an operation and recovered and seized 270 packets weighting 1483 kg of ganja from a vehicle at Gossaigaon police station area," said police. Further investigation is underway. Earlier on September 19, at least 47 cattle seized by police died due to overcrowding as the animals were fully packed in a truck in Assam's Golaghat district. According to police, based on intelligence input about illegal cattle transportation, the police team of Bokakhat police station on Monday morning intercepted a truck and recovered and seized 48 cattle from the vehicle. Anita Hazarika, Sub-Divisional Police Officer of Bokakhat in Golaghat district said the seized cattle were fully packed in the truck. "When we searched the truck, we found several cattle inside the truck and many cattle were found dead. When police properly checked the vehicle, they found 47 cattle dead. We have apprehended the driver of the truck and interrogation is going on. The cattle were transported from the Bihora market area towards Samaguri in the Nagaon district. The condition of one cattle is very bad. We will dispose of the bodies of the cattle as per the direction of the court," Anita Hazarika said. The police official further said that a case had been registered at Bokakhat police station in connection with this. (ANI)
Manipur's opposition Congress on Thursday vehemently criticised the BJP-led state government's decision for prior approval of all the books on the state's history, culture, tradition and geography by a government committee before their publications Various civil society organisations and writers also criticised the state government's decision. Manipur Pradesh Congress Vice-President Hareshwar Goshwami said that they are not surprised by such acts of BJP and "it is simply a clear manifestation of their true fascist nature". "Their message is loud and clear. Think, what I think, or face the consequence. The new system is to shut our mouths before we speak. To stop our pens before we write. It completely violates the right to freedom and expression granted by our Constitution," said Goshwami, also a renowned author. "How can I share my hard earned data and materials with others before I publish my book ? I am a writer and I will definitely defy this order and face any consequence," he added. State Congress spokesperson Ningombam Bupenda Meitei said that the decision is "deeply disturbing and of seriously concern to the future of intellectual freedom and academic rigour among the intellectual community and authors, readers and thinkers of Manipur". "It is cannot be accepted that the BJP government would decide what book to be published and what matters are to be read and thought about," Meitei said. Congress' Rajya Sabha member and former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh tweeted : "This is Modi's India where a BJP state govt appointed committee will decide which book can be published and which cannot. This is worse than censorship if such a thing exists! Outrageous !" Announcing a 15-member committee, headed by Manipur Education Minister, the state's Higher and Technical Education Department, on September 15, issued an order, stating: "Any person or group desirous of publication of books on the history, culture, tradition and geography of the state may submit an application to the Director, University and Higher Education, Manipur along with a copy of the manuscript of the book who shall place the matter before the Committee for its approval. The Committee shall convene its meeting as and when required." "Any publication of a book in violation shall be liable to be punished under the relevant law," the order read. The order said that it has come to the knowledge of the state government that some books published on the history, culture, tradition and geography of the state contains material which may either distort facts or disturb the peaceful co-existence amongst the various communities in the state or both. "In order to ensure that books on the history, culture, tradition and geography of the state are published with accurate information, the Governor of Manipur do hereby constitute the committee ... to accord approval for publication of books," it said. Various Manipuri civil society organisations, authors and experts have also criticised the decision. --IANS sc/vd ( 493 Words) 2022-09-22-20:32:03 (IANS)
In a bid to tighten the noose around unauthorised constructions, the enforcement wing of the Manesar Municipal Corporation (MCM) has reportedly razed an illegal construction in Bar Gujjar village, said to be belonging to gangster Sube Gujjar. "Sube Gujjar of Bar Gujjar village is a notorious criminal, who is involved in 42 criminal cases of murder, attempt to murder, extortion and Arms Act which are registered against him in Gurugram, Mewat, Rewari, Palwal and Delhi which are under trial," Subhash Boken, spokesperson of Gurugram Police, said on Thursday. A source with the MCM said the construction in the village was illegal. The corporation had also served notice but when there was no compliance by the owner, they demolished it. "Police does not have the power to demolish. Police only provide protection to civil authorities for such drives," Kala Ramachandran, police commissioner, Gurugram told IANS. "The demolition drive continued for two hours from 4.30 p.m. to 6.30 p.m. Several police personnel were stationed on the spot at the time of the drive to deal with any resistance. The drive was conducted by an enforcement team of the MCM," Rajender Kumar, SHO of Kherki Daula police station told IANS. Meanwhile, the family members of Sube Gujjar alleged that the MCM team without any prior notice illegally demolished the boundary walls of their house. "It was our ancestor's property located in Bar Gujjar village. How the corporation can demolish it," a family member of Gujjar alleged during the drive. It was reported that the MCM team also faced some resistance from the villagers during the drive but despite the resistance, the team successfully razed the boundary walls and the main gate of the house. MCM officials have not made any comments yet. --IANS str/pgh ( 301 Words) 2022-09-22-22:32:02 (IANS)
(Mayor) Colin Basrans family have lived in Kelowna since 1902, when his grandfather moved here from India. They settled in Rutland.

Colin (has seen) Kelowna grow from a small town into the fastest growing community in Canada. Now, as a family man, he wants to see his children, and eventually his grandchildren, thrive. This is a man who wants the best for this place we call home.

The boundaries around this city mean growth is limited as water and mountains surround us. Council has divided us into five areas of growth and each one needs attention with long-range planning to prevent too much expensive urban sprawl and for optimal growth.

Planning is vital for our community and Colin always looks ahead to ensure this is done well. He expresses ideas for this, through increasing housing for families and rental and condo units to bring down rental costs.

He and the province are hard at work providing containment for those who are unable to cope in our society due to mental illness and/or criminal behaviours. There are now 30 beds for these individuals, so they no longer go through the revolving door of our justice system and threaten our population.

He is in constant touch with the province to ensure our health care improves.

Colin has the expertise, knowledge and contacts to see our city grow well and safely so we are prepared to be leaders in Canada in every respect.

I (will) vote for Colin, who has guided us through this difficult time. I encourage everyone to listen to one of his talks and vote for him.

Flo Masson, Kelowna
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is the key driving force behind the country's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is a prominent organisation which has ardent followers and staunch critics in equal proportion. However, the recent meeting of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat with Muslim intellectuals and his Tursday's meeting with the head of All India Imam Organisation at a mosque in Delhi, which was followed by a visit to a madrasa here, have drawn everyone's attention -- in the political as well as apolitical circles. Bhagwat on Thursday visited a madrasa in the old Delhi area where he interacted with the teachers and students. Earlier, he met the chief of the All India Imam Organisation, Imam Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, at a mosque in Kasturba Gandhi Marg. On August 22, the RSS chief had met a group of Muslim intellectuals. The recent developments are being termed as RSS' attempt to strengthen the communal harmony in the country. Also, the meetings, interactions and the deliberations have been happening in the backdrop of allegations by the Opposition leaders, including former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, that the BJP and the RSS are trying to fan communal tension in the country. Several questions have been popping up of late following Bhagwat's hobnobbing with the key personalities of the Muslim community. The prominent among them are: * Is RSS' stance towards Muslims changing? * What could be the agenda of RSS behind these meeting? * What exactly Mohan Bhagwat is trying to achieve? To get a deeper insight into the recent developments, IANS reached out to RSS Prachar Pramukh Sunil Ambekar, who maintained that the Sangh has always opposed terrorism and separatism. He said: "Everyone should strive to create a spirit and environment of cordiality by opposing extremism. This is everyone's collective responsibility." "RSS never had any problems with anyone's ways of worship or offering prayers," he added. Responding to questions doing the rounds around Bhagwat's meeting with the Muslim intellectuals, Ambekar said: "The RSS is always ready for holding discussions for the betterment of the society and the nation. The Sangh has always kept its doors open for this purpose. Even on the Ayodhya issue, we had held discussions with everyone." "To promote cordiality, we always insist on holding discussions with various sections of the society. There is nothing new in this. It's part of a routine process," he said. RSS leader and patron of Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), Indresh Kumar, said that right from former RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan's tenure, the members of Muslim and Christian communities have been trying to understand the Sangh not through any religious or political leaders, but on their own. "That is why an organisation like MRM came into existence," he said. Meanwhile, sources in the know of things also said that in the coming days, the RSS chief may hold deliberations with the Christian religious leaders as well as intellectuals of the minority community. It is being said that to communicate seamlessly with the religious leaders and intellectuals of both Muslim and Christian communities, the RSS has set up a committee of four senior Sangh leaders. Besides Indresh Kumar, the panel comprises senior leaders Krishn Gopal, Manmohan Vaidya and Ram Lal. In fact, the RSS had initiated an effort to bring a change in the mindset of the Muslim community since the era of former Prime Minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee. However, the overall scenario was much different then as key issues such as Ram Janmabhoomi was yet to see any solution. Also, several matters were pushed into the cold storage since the government was functioning on the back-up of alliance parties. In fact, the MRM has held several functions wherein communications were established with the members of Muslim as well as Christian community. Sources said that those programmes have been mostly successful. --IANS stp/pgh/arm ( 655 Words) 2022-09-22-22:36:02 (IANS)
Plan for the entire action, in which investigative agencies NIA and ED conducted raids on Popular Front of India (PFI) premises and arrested more than 100 PFI leaders and functioneries from various states across the country, were discussed in details in two high-level meetings of MHA officials with the central agencies, if sources are to be believed. Sources related to NIA have informed that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had held an important meeting with the officials of NIA, ED and IB on August 29. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla were also present in that meeting. Officials of all the agencies concerned were asked to prepare a report with evidence against the PFI. In the meeting, instructions were given to take action against the people associated with PFI. Thereafter, when all the central agencies completed the preparations, a meeting of the officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the officers of the investigating agencies was held on September 19. All the agencies were ordered to conduct raids in coordination. Thereafter, raids were conducted on the homes and offices of PFI cadres in about 11 states of the country between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m. on Wednesday and Thursday. This was done at night so that the raiding teams do not face opposition. According to the information, more than 250 officers and staff of investigating agencies were involved in this entire proceedings. The NIA has also arrested PFI National Chairman OMS Salam and Delhi PFI Chief Parvez Ahmed. All these people have been accused of organising terrorist camps, terror funding and teaching bigotry to the people. In fact, the NIA and the MHA were keeping an eye on the activities of the PFI for a long time. In 2017, the NIA, in its detailed report submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs, had demanded a ban on the PFI for its involvement in terrorist activities. Many states have also demanded the ban on the Front (PFI). According to sources, the NIA had filed a report in connection with the arrest of the four accused after raids in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on September 19. It was said in the report that PFI is trying to plot terrorist activities. At the same time, a conspiracy was being hatched through PFI to establish Ghazwa-e-Hind in Bihar's Phulwari Sharif, where the NIA had raided recently. Apart from this, NIA had recently arrested karate teacher Abdul Kader from Nizamabad in Telangana. His confession revealed that in the guise of teaching karate, people were being trained to make terrorists. The NIA was aware of many such locations of PFI. Controversies involving the PFI are not new. In recent past, its name has come up in many anti-national activities. Kisan Andolan: The agencies had come to know about the violence from the PFI side during the farmers' movement. After this, raids were conducted on the hideouts of PFI at many places including Meerut. Nupur Sharma controversy and violence: After the Nupur Sharma controversy, an attempt was made to spoil the atmosphere after Friday prayers in about eight cities in Uttar Pradesh. People associated with this organisation were arrested in a conspiracy to incite violence from Kanpur to Prayagraj. CAA-NRC: Even when there were violent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Delhi and many states of the country, it was said that PFI was behind it. In UP, then the police had arrested many members of PFI. Hijab controversy: The name of the PFI also came up in the Hijab controversy in the schools of Karnataka. It was claimed on behalf of the government in the Karnataka High Court, that the CFI has created a ruckus for Hijab and it is a extremist organisation. The CFI is believed to be the student union of the PFI. RSS leader murder: In 2016, RSS leader Rudresh from Bengaluru was murdered by two unidentified bike riders. In this murder, the police had arrested four people and all four were associated with the PFI. --IANS spt/uk ( 686 Words) 2022-09-22-22:40:04 (IANS)
Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Choudhury, has expressed his dismay in a letter to Speaker Om Birla over the government's decision to withdraw the allocation of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology (IT) from the largest opposition party in the Lower House. The Parliamentary panel, which is headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, is being reconstituted as its tenure ended on September 13. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi has written to Choudhury, informing him that the chairmanship of the Standing Committee on IT is being taken away from the Congress. Referring to Joshi's letter, Choudhury has urged the Lok Sabha Speaker "to reconsider and reverse this ill-thought-out decision and to restore to the Congress the Chair of the Standing Committee on Information Technology". "I was dismayed to learn from Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Prahlad Joshi, that in a departure from existing conventions, which have been honoured by successive governments irrespective of which party is in power, a decision has been taken to withdraw the allocation of the role of Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, which, as you know, is chaired by Shashi Tharoor of the Congress," Choudhury wrote to Birla. There are 16 Parliamentary standing committees in the Lok Sabha and eight in the Rajya Sabha. Out of the 16 Lok Sabha committees, 10 are currently with the BJP, while the remaining six are with Congress (the one on IT), DMK, Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena, Biju Janata Dal and JD(U). All the 24 standing committees of both the Houses combined are being reconstituted this month as their tenures ended on September 13. While it is solely the ruling party's discretion to allot chairpersonship of these panels to opposition parties, it has been a political convention that opposition MPs, especially those from the principal opposition party, are given key panels to head, like on Home Affairs (a Rajya Sabha committee) and Finance (a Lok Sabha comittee). However, the Lok Sabha Standing Committee on Finance is headed by BJP MP Jayant Sinha, and even panels on key subjects like defence and external affairs are also headed by the ruling BJP members in the Lower House. Now with BJP not in a mood to give the lone panel on IT's chairpersonship to the Congress, there are apprehensions that it may not get even a single panel to head in the Lok Sabha. Sources informed that even Trinamool Congress, whose MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay heads the Lok Sabha panel on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, has been informed by the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry that his party would not be heading the panel after its reconstitution. The Lok Sabha Standing Committee on Energy headed by JD(U) MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh Lalan is also being reconstituted. Incidentally, with the JD(U) now no more an ally of the ruling NDA, there is a likelihood that the panel, which incidentally is looking at the controversial Electricity Amendment Bill, may go to the ruling BJP, sources said. It would be interesting to see whether the other three Lok Sabha committees which are headed by DMK (Chemicals and Fertilisers), Shiv Sena (Rural Development) and Biju Janata Dal (Labour, Textile and Skill Development), will remain with them. Even in the Rajya Sabha, leader of the House Piyush Goyal informed leader of the opposition Mallikarjun Kharge that due to Congress' depleting strength in the Upper House, it would not get the chairpersonship of the key panel on Home Affairs. Choudhury in his letter to Lok Sabha Speaker raised apprehensions at the ruling BJP's intentions, saying, "This is deeply troubling for a number of reasons. For one, while for a similar decision in the Rajya Sabha, the marginally reduced size of the Congress was the reason cited by the government, there has been no such change in the Lok Sabha, which raises ominous questions about the real intent behind such a decision. "As floor leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, I strongly protest this proposed decision to interfere with the distribution of chairpersonships in the middle of a Lok Sabha, which marks yet another instance of this government's scant regard for Parliamentary convention, as well as the well-established principles of consultative deliberation and legislative oversight that are the bedrock of any Parliamentary democracy." --IANS ans/arm ( 734 Words) 2022-09-22-22:48:03 (IANS)
In a major crackdown on the PFI, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday raided premises linked to PFI in 15 states across the country and arrested several of its top leaders and functionaries.

"We welcome the move by the government. We deem that this action has been taken to safeguard the country. The views expressed by the PFI are dangerous. The rallies of PFI and its uniform remind us of Hezbollah, a terrorist organisation," said Muhammad Yunus, executive director, AIPMM.

He said that every citizen of India has the right to express his views, but the way the PFI was carrying out its activities was highly condemable.

Yunus said the PFI put every Muslim of this country under the lens of agencies due to its activities.

He also said that PFI has insulted Isalam and its teachings with its activities.

"PFI was fooling the poor and uneducated Muslim youth. We strongly condemn its acts," he said.

--IANS atk/arm

( 204 Words)

2022-09-22-23:16:04 (IANS)
In the wake of heavy rainfall in Noida, all government and private schools from classes 1 to 8 in the city will remain closed on Friday, District Magistrate Suhas L Yathraj informed. The notification was issued after the weather department issued an alert due to rains in the region. District Basic Education Officer of Aligarh district also ordered to close all schools on September 23 and 24 in view of the heavy rainfall forecast. "India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a warning that western UP will witness heavy rainfall. Admin is on alert," said Sudhir Garg, Principal Secretary of Revenue Department. On Thursday, parts of Uttar Pradesh and the national capital region (NCR), including Gautam Buddh Nagar witnessed heavy rainfall throughout the day. Some areas of the state also reported a loss of lives and property due to the heavy downpour. One child died and eight others were injured in a wall collapse incident following heavy rain in the district and normal life was disrupted in Uttar Pradesh's Firozabad. "District administration provided immediate help and relief to the people affected by heavy rains. 13 people died due to heavy rain while 3 died due to lightning. 10 people died due to the wall collapse in Etawah," said Sudhir Garg. Meanwhile, the Gurugram Disaster Management Authority has advised all corporate offices and private institutions in the district to guide employees to work from home to avoid traffic congestion and to ensure repair work of roads and drains are carried out smoothly by civic agencies. The authority also advised to close all schools and colleges on Friday in the larger public interest. "In view of heavy rainfall prediction for the district Gurugram on September 23, 2022, there are chances of waterlogging and traffic congestion. Therefore, all Corporate offices and private institutions in the district are advised to guide their employees to work from home on September 23, 2022, so that traffic congestion can be avoided and repair works of roads and drains can be carried out smoothly by civic agencies. All Private education institutions are advised to close the school/colleges on September 23, 2022, in the larger public interest," the advisory reads. On Thursday, heavy rainfall led to waterlogging in several parts of Gurugram, leading to traffic jams as police struggled to decongest roads. Following this, pedestrians were compelled to walk through severely inundated lanes and main roads. Waterlogging was also reported in several parts of the national capital. The Delhi-Gurugram expressway, heavily jammed, witnessed the usual traffic on a rainy day. "Due to continuous heavy rainfall in Gurugram, there is waterlogging at some places and the traffic is moving at a slow speed. Therefore, we request all of you that you should come out of the house only when necessary," read the traffic police advisory issued on its Twitter handle. India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an orange alert, cautioning people about heavy rain which could reduce visibility, disrupt traffic and damage roads. (ANI)
As the national capital and its adjourning areas continue to witness incessant spell of light to moderate rain which led to severe waterlogging in several parts of the city, health expert believes that dengue cases might rise in next couple of weeks in Delhi. Dr Suranjit Chatterjee, Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital told ANI, "It's raining in Delhi, so dengue cases might rise in the next couple of weeks. Cases so far aren't serious and do not require ICU care. Early diagnosis is helping in the management of cases." Dr Chatterjee further advised to wear full-sleeve clothes and to ensure that there is no waterlogging or stagnant water around the house. The national capital has reported 396 cases of dengue this year so far, according to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) data. Till September 17, a total of 152 dengue cases have been recorded in this month itself, while 75 cases of dengue were reported in the entire month of August. It is also the highest number of dengue cases logged during the January 1 to September 17 period since 2017 when the corresponding figure was 1,465. On the other hand, no death has been reported so far this year due to the disease. Moreover, 92 cases of malaria and 17 cases of chikungunya have been reported. According to MCD reports, in the month of September, 43 cases of malaria and 3 cases of chikungunya have been reported. Earlier in June, there were 32 cases of dengue in the national capital. MCD data shows that between January 1 and June 25 this year, Delhi reported 134 dengue cases. Curiously, the monthly dengue cases, since January, have been the highest ever recorded since 2017, when the civic agency started proper bookkeeping. Last year, 9,613 dengue cases were recorded in the national capital, which was the highest number in the last five years. Further, 4,431 cases were reported in 2016 and 4,726 cases in 2017, while in 2018 the cases sharply dropped to 2,798 cases and 2,036 cases were registered in 2019. In 2020, the infections dropped nearly by 50 per cent as a total of 1,072 infections were reported last year, the lowest in the period ranging from 2016-2021. Meanwhile, last year, 23 deaths were reported in the city, which was the highest since 2016. In 2017 and 2016, a total of 10 people died in the city. In the years that followed, four, two and one death was reported in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. (ANI)
The Delhi High Court on Thursday reserved order on the plea of Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena seeking direction to restrain the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its leaders from making "false and derogatory" allegations against him and his family. Saxena has also sought to injunct Aam Admi Party and its leaders to delete or take down the alleged false and libellous posts or tweets or videos circulated and issued on social media. Saxena has moved a suit of civil defamation against AAP and its leaders Atishi Singh, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Durgesh Pathak, Sanjay Singh and Jasmine Shah (who was appointed as Vice Chairperson of the Dialogue and Development Commission) for allegedly making derogatory remarks in a press conference and in social media. He has also sought damages and compensation of Rs 2.5 crore along with interest from the political party and its five leaders. AAP leaders claimed that Saxena was involved in a Rs 1,400 crore scam during his tenure as Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) chairman. Justice Amit Bansal reserved the order after hearing the arguments of the parties for two hours on the application seeking interim relief to LG Saxena. Saxena's counsel urged the High Court to direct Twitter and YouTube (Google Inc) to take down or remove the tweets, re-tweets, posts, videos, captions, taglines along with pictures of the plaintiff and his family members. The counsel for AAP and its leaders argued that one of the statements was that during Saxena's tenure as KVIC Chairman, his daughter was given a contract of designing of Khadi lounge which was against the rules of KVIC. The counsel said she was given the contract was a statement of fact and no one has denied it. The counsel for the plaintiff submitted that the statement made against him and his family members is per se defamatory and she should be taken down/deleted from all social media platforms. It is alleged that the AAP leaders made false allegations against the daughter of LG that she was given a contract for designing the Khadi Lounge in Mumbai. The counsel for the plaintiff said there was not any contract as there was not any consideration. On the other hand, the counsels for AAP leaders submitted that what was said or share on social media was not fabricated but a matter of fact. They argued that the "KVIC matter is being investigated by the CBI. It is a fact, not a fabrication." (ANI)
Congress leader Gourav Vallabh on Thursday claimed that the meeting of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat with the All India Imam Organization president is the impact of the party's Bharat Jodo Yatra, and asked the RSS chief to join Rahul Gandhi in uniting the country. The RSS chief, who is engaged in a campaign to increase contact with Muslims, on Thursday visited Masjid and Madarsa in Delhi and met Chief Imam of All India Imam Organisation Dr Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, who called the RSS chief "the Father of the Nation". His visit to the Masjid earlier and to the Madarsa has grabbed eyeballs, as it is for the first time that he has been to a Madarsa. Speaking to media persons, Vallabh said that the results of the party's Bharat Jodo Yatra are evident from the fact that for the first time Bhagwat has visited a Madarsa. "Only 15 days have passed since the Bharat Jodo Yatra has begun and the results are out. A BJP spokesperson has said Godse Murdabad on television. Mohan Bhagwat went to the house of a person of another religion. This is the effect of Bharat Jodo Yatra," said Vallabh. He further said that by the time the Bharat Jodo Yatra is completed, the hate and the divisions created by the ruling dispensation will disappear from the country. "We would like to urge Mohan Bhagwat that if this 15-day yatra has had such an impact on you, so you should participate in the Bharat Jodo Yatra for an hour and walk with Rahul Gandhi with a tricolour in hand," he added. Reacting to it, Congress leader Pawan Khera also in a tweet said, "It has only been 15 days since the Bharat Jodo Yatra has started and BJP spokesperson started saying "Godse Murdabad", ministers have become concerned over the hatred spread through the media and Bhagwat has reached out to imams. Let's see what happens next." Earlier, after visiting a Masjid at Kasturba Gandhi Marg, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat went to the Azad Market Madrasa Tajweedul Quran in Old Delhi, interacted with the children and also had a piece of advice for them. Madarsa director Mahmudul Hasan, while talking to ANI said, "The chief stayed inside the Madrasa for about an hour and met the teacher and the children." His visit to the Masjid earlier and to the Madarsa has grabbed eyeballs, as it is for the first time that he has been to a Madarsa. The RSS chief, who is engaged in a campaign to increase contact with Muslims, also met with Dr Imam Umair Ahmed Ilyasi, head of All India Imam Sangathan, on August 1 last month. Earlier, in the day he had also met with many Muslim intellectuals, including the Chief Imam, Dr Imam Umer Ahmed Ilyasi. As per sources close to the RSS, issues like the Hijab controversy, Gyanvapi and maintenance of peace and harmony among religions were discussed in the meeting. Other than Bhagwat, senior RSS members, including Dr Krishna Gopal, Indresh Kumar, Ramlal and Karish Kumar also participated in today's meeting. Sunil Ambekar, the Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh of RSS told ANI that the meeting was a part of the 'Samvad' process. "RSS Sarsanghachalak meets people from all walks of life. It's the part of a continuous general "Samvad" process," Ambekar said. The controversy over Hijab erupted from a Karnataka college and is currently being heard in the Supreme Court. It also came up in the findings of intelligence agencies that PFI was behind triggering the controversy. After the controversy erupted regarding Gyanvapi also, the RSS Chief met with Muslim intellectuals and academicians. Earlier on Tuesday, RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat met with many Muslim intellectuals and discussed recent controversies and ways to strengthen religious inclusivity in the country. As per the sources close to RSS, the meeting was held for propagating the ideas of Sangh and for promoting the theme of religious inclusivity. Recent incidents like the Gyanvapi controversy, the Hijab controversy, and population control were discussed in the meeting. The meeting was attended by many intellectuals like former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) S Y Qureshi, former Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) Najeeb Jung, former Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Lieutenant General Zameer Uddin Shah, former MP Shahid Siddiqui and businessman Saeed Shervani. Earlier, during the time of Ram Mandir's judgment as well, RSS played an active role. The senior RSS members met with Muslim intellectuals and propagated the message that whatever order comes out, everybody will be accepting it peacefully. RSS has always specified that nationalism should be in everyone's heart irrespective of one's religious leaning. (ANI)
Haryana Congress leader Bhupinder Hooda met Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on Friday. This comes ahead of the Congress presidential election. "In our meeting today, we spoke about the party and how to strengthen it. She said that she has a neutral stand regarding the Congress president election" Hooda said. Congress General Secretary Madhusudan Mistry, via an official notification, on Thursday, announced the schedule for the upcoming election for the post of Congress President. The elections for the party's new president are slated to be held on October 17 at all PCC, with results to be announced on October 19, immediately after the counting of votes. As per the notification, the nominations for the president post are to be filed from September 24 to September 30. Meanwhile, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday confirmed his candidature for the upcoming Congress president election and said that Rahul Gandhi has made it clear that "no member of the Gandhi family" would become the next party chief. Speaking to mediapersons, Gehlot, who is in Kerala to take part in the Bharat Jodo Yatra, said, "I said earlier that I will request him (Rahul Gandhi) to accept this post when all the Congress Committees are passing resolutions in this regard. He made it clear that no one from the Gandhi family will become the next chief. He said he has decided this due to some reasons, a non-Gandhi family member will become the party chief". Rahul Gandhi on Thursday emphasised the "one person, one post" norm in the party and said he believes the commitment of party's Udaipur declaration would be maintained in the election for the party's topmost post. Party MP Shashi Tharoor has also given indication of contesting polls and had met Sonia Gandhi on Monday. He met Congress Central Election Authority chief Madhusudan Mistry on Wednesday. There are speculations that former union minister Manish Tewari is also in the fray to run as a contender for Congress party chief post. (ANI)
State office bearers and district presidents of the morcha were present in the meeting.

Nadda is on a two-day visit to Tamil Nadu from Thursday to chalk out a strategy for the party in an effort to increase the voter base in southern states ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Post this meeting, Nadda will also take a meeting of state office bearers, district presidents and prabhari's at the same venue, as per the BJP sources.

Nadda also offered prayers at Pillayarpatti Vinayagar temple and had breakfast at the residence of the BJP Mandal President in Sivaganga today ahead of his meeting.

As per the party sources, Nadda will meet the voters of Tamil Nadu today. He will meet those people who are considered influencers such as doctors, teachers, professors and businessmen among others.

In the evening, the BJP chief will pay rich tributes to great freedom fighters (Marudhu Brothers) at his house in Tirupattur.

Prior to this visit, Nadda was on a two-day visit to poll-bound Gujarat starting from September 20.Nadda participated in a meeting with farmers and meet public representatives of the party who won various elections in the state since the last assembly polls. (ANI)
Taking on Nitish Kumar in the first ever rally since BJP's split with JD(U) in Bihar, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday addressed the 'Jan Bhavna Mahasabha' rally said that the people of the state will "wipe out the Lalu-Nitish duo" in the 2024 general elections and the party will come to power in the state in 2025. Addressing the 'Jana Bhavna Mahasabha' in Bihar's Purnea, Shah said, "In 2014, you (Bihar CM Nitish Kumar) only had 2 LS seats, 'naa ghar ke rahe the, naa ghaat ke'. Let the 2024 LS elections come, the Bihar public will wipe out the Lalu-Nitish duo. We're, with a full majority, going to come to power here in 2025 polls". "Bihar public gave you (CM Nitish Kumar) the benefit of the doubt for long, now they know that neither Lalu's party nor your party will come this time. Only PM Modi's lotus will bloom in Bihar this time," he added. Shah said that Nitish Kumar does not favour any political ideology, and can join hands with any party to stay in power. "Nitish Kumar is not in favour of any political ideology. Nitish ji can leave socialism and go with Lalu ji also, can do casteist politics. Nitish ji can leave socialism and sit with the Left, Congress. He may also leave RJD and join BJP. Nitish has only one policy - my chair should remain intact," he said. The Home Minister said that there is a danger of "'Jungle-raj' is looming over Bihar". "I'd like to ask Nitish Kumar and new minister Lalan Singh if people engaging in the fodder scam became ministers in your cabinet, how will you catch them? And then he's (CM) attempting to think of banning CBI under Lalu's pressure. The danger of 'Jungle-raj' looms over Bihar," he said. Shah is on a two-day visit to the state. Shah will later hold a meeting with MPs, MLAs and former ministers of Bihar BJP around 4 pm at Mata Gujri University in Kishanganj city. The Minister will be chairing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State Core Committee meeting around 5 pm at Mata Gujri University. On day two of his visit to the state, the Minister will offer prayer at Budhi Kali Mata Temple around 9.30 am at Subhashpally Chowk in Kishanganj. The Home Minister will visit Border outpost Fatehpur and inaugurate BOP buildings of Fatehpur, Pekatola, Beria, Amgachi and Raniganj around 10.30 am at Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) Campus. The Minister will later review the meeting on border security with Director Generals and senior officers of Border Security Force (BSF), SSB and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) at 12 noon at BSF Campus, Kishanganj. The Home Minister will attend the 'Sundar Subhumi' program organized on the occasion of the ongoing 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' celebrations at 3.30 pm at Mata Gujri University. After the JD (U) snapped ties with BJP recently to form the Mahagathbandhan government in the state, this will be Shah's first visit to Bihar, which is significant as it is learnt that it would sound the bugle of poll preparedness for the party gunning for big wins at the 2024 Lok Sabha election. (ANI)
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers who questioned Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader A. Raja for his 'controversial' comment on Manusmrithi was arrested by the Tamil Nadu police on the charge of 'causing social unrest' on Wednesday.

Uthama Ramasamy along with 11 other party workers was arrested for the Road Roko protest on the "Manu Sastra" issue.

Despite PFI raids, the Hindu Munnani functionary Sasikumar death Anniversary was observed yesterday and BJP national president JP Nadda was in Tamil Nadu.

Targetting this only the series of bomb hurdling took place in various places in Coimbatore, alleged BJP.

A bottle filled with the inflammable substance was hurled at the BJP office in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore on Thursday night triggering tension in the area.

Following this, BJP workers protested in the area demanding action against the culprits. According to BJP, this is a kind of "terror attack".

Speaking about it G.K. Nagaraj said, "The bomb hurdled at the BJP office was not petrol bomb, it was a kerosene-filled bottle bomb."

Police reached the spot to take control of the situation and conducted a preliminary investigation.

Speaking to reporters, Nandkumar, a BJP worker said, "Petrol bomb was thrown at our office, this is how terror attacks come. Today raids (against PFI) took place at several places. It is the anniversary of Hindu Munnani leader and BJP National president too is in the state."

The incident came hours after National Investigation Agency, Enforcement Directorate and the state police forces jointly carried out coordinated searches at the houses and offices of the top Popular Front of India (PFI) leaders and members across India on Thursday, including Tamil Nadu.

Searches were conducted at 93 locations in 15 states of India on Thursday. The states where the raids were conducted included Andhra Pradesh (4), Telangana (1), Delhi (19), Kerala (11), Karnataka (8), Tamil Nadu (3), Uttar Pradesh (1), Rajasthan (2), Hyderabad (5), Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, West Bengal, Bihar and Manipur. (ANI)
The Election Commission of India (ECI) held review meetings today on the preparedness for the incoming Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh with Deputy Commissioners and Superintendent of Police, IG, DIG and CAPF and Nodal Officers of 12 districts. Speaking to Media, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said, "Today we held a meeting with all the political parties. Representatives of all national political parties and office bearers were present. They told us about how they wanted a free and fair election. We also had a word with the Chief Secretaries of State, DG, and the health secretaries, and now we're going to talk to the DCs and SPs in order to how to have a fair election". He further added that they had an extensive discussion regarding the lack of motivation among the 18+ voters to come forward and cast their votes. "When people above the age of 80 can come to the polling booth and cast their votes, why can't they come? Will discuss all of these", Rajiv Kumar said. The ECI is to hold a press conference tomorrow in Shimla where Kumar would brief the media about the meetings that are being conducted. Currently, they have been meeting with the DCs with SPs, further details about the matter would be revealed on Saturday. A high-level team of the Election Commission of India, led by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, along with Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey, undertook a three-day visit to Shimla to review the poll preparedness for forthcoming assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh. On the way to Shimla, the team visited the Polling Station at Government Senior Secondary School Dharampur in Solan district and inaugurated the fascia of the polling station, the release stated. As per the release, CEC also felicitated and interacted with the elderly voters, People with disabilities (PWD) Voters, and transgenders by presenting them with shawls and an appreciation letter. The ECI team also met and felicitated the first-time voters and gave them an Epic-Kit, containing their Voter i-card, pocket Voters guide and voters pledge (Shapath Patra). Chief Electoral Officer, Himachal Pradesh, Maneesh Garg welcomed and honoured the ECI team at Dharampur. Earlier, a team of EC also visited Ahmedabad from September 16-18 to take stock of election preparedness in the state ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections. "The team comprised Hridesh Kumar, Nitesh Vyas, Dharmendra Sharma, NN Butolia, Yashvendra Singh, Deepali Masirkar, S B Joshi, Shubhra Saxena, Anuj Chandak,' the release stated. As per the release, ECI and Chief Electoral Officer P Bharathi held the review meeting with district election officers, Police superintendents and Police commissioners regarding election preparedness. (ANI)
Arora was to travel to Belgium, Netherlands and Germany for a knowledge exchange program on new and renewable energy between September 24 and October 2.

"My journey was stopped due to political reasons, the Center does not want the Delhi and Punjab governments to solve the problem of pollution. On the stubble burning issue, the central government highlights the shortcomings of the Punjab government, but does not allow to go to a place where the solution could be found," claimed Arora.

"Solutions to the problem of pollution and stubble can be extracted from green hydrogen," the Punjab minister added. He added that the government did not have to spend even one rupee on the journey.

Earlier, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was also refused permission to visit World Cities Summit in Singapore by the Centre in August.

The BJP, which rules at the Centre and the AAP, which rules Delhi and Punjab, have entered into political confrontation over a range of issues. (ANI)
In line with the decision of the Government of India, a total of 1,924 Private Security Agency (PSA) security personnel will be deployed at 60 airports in place of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) posted at non-core duty posts, said the officials on Friday. The above decision will reduce the security expenditure and these CISF personnel can be deployed at other airports which will further strengthen the security set-up. This will further help in operationalization of new Domestic and International Airports. "Airports Authority of India (AAI) has appointed 581 Security personnel from Directorate General Resettlement (DGR) sponsored Security Agencies for Non-Core posts at 45 Airports. These Security personnel will be deployed after completion of the Aviation Security (AVSEC) training program at selected airports. As on date, 161 DGR personnel for 16 airports are attending AVSEC training programs and they will be deployed after completion of training from 24thSeptember 2022," read a statement by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. At Kolkata Airport, already 74 DGR Security personnel have been deployed from September 9 this year after attending the AVSEC training program. The deployment process of the remaining security personnel is under process. (ANI)
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has thanked the state Assembly Speaker for cancelling the backdoor appointments in the Vidhan Sabha. Talking to ANI regarding the backdoor appointments in the Vidhan Sabha, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said, "I had already requested the Speaker of the Assembly to get the disputed appointments investigated and to cancel the recruitments found to be wrong. Take action". He further thanked the Speaker of the Assembly for cancelling the recruitment through illegal ways and means. The state Special Task Force (STF) is investigating the Uttarakhand Subordinate Service Selection Commission (UKSSSC) paper leak case but there is a demand for the CBI probe. Regarding this, the Chief Minister said that I have also said earlier that cases of wrongful recruitment have been coming for many years. Now that the matter has come before me, we have given the police to investigate and hand over the case to STF. "We have not drawn any 'Lakshman Rekha' for investigation," he said after being asked whether his government will recommend a probe by CBI or any other agency in near future. He said that if we feel that in the near future, then all the avenues are open for us to investigate whether it is CBI or any other agency. He said that we have not drawn any "Lakshman Rekha" for investigation. Regarding women's reservation, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that for women's reservation, our government will go to the Supreme Court and we will fight as far as we have to fight further. Dhami government is continuously working towards making Uttarakhand a corruption-free state. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said, "The government is working with determination towards good governance. Corruption of any kind will not be tolerated". "The government has transferred the Subordinate Service Selection Commission and other recruitments to the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission to conduct them transparently. Now the examination process is moving with renewed transparency. Uttarakhand Public Service Commission has also released the calendar of dates for the first phase of examinations", added Dhami. In the campaign against corruption, Chief Minister Dhami took tough decisions as soon as he received complaints of irregularities in the Group C recruitment examination in different departments conducted by the Subordinate Services Selection Commission. So far, 41 accused involved in the paper leak case in the Subordinate Services Selection Commission recruitment examination have been arrested, while 18 accused have been charge-sheeted, and the judicial remand of 21 accused has been approved for the Gangster Act. On the other hand, one accused has been arrested in the 03 Secretariat Guard Recruitment in Forest Inspector case. The Chief Minister said, "no injustice will be allowed to the youth of the state. He urged the youth to start preparing for the examinations with full enthusiasm and diligence. Presently the recruitment process for 7000 exams is in progress. Apart from this, they are also working on an action plan for recruitment to more than 12 thousand posts". Dhami also addressed the issue to the girl Ankita Bhandari of Pauri district, who was missing for a few days, saying, "this is a very sad incident, it is a very heinous crime. Police are doing their job. The police have done all the work regarding the arrest, in this case, the harshest action will be taken, whoever the culprit is, will not be spared". (ANI)
Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav dismissed Union Home Minister Amit Shah's rally in the state's Purnea on Friday as "nothing but a comedy circus". "While Amit Shah was addressing the rally, I do not like to describe him. I am not going into it but I must say that it looks like a comedy circus was going on in Purnea," he said. Tejashwi Yadav said that he had tweeted the piece of speech of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, delivered in Purnea in 2014, promising a special package, special status, and special attention for Bihar. "What happened to it with 8 years gone by. Now, they do not talk about the special status of Bihar. I have already said that Amit Shah is coming to Bihar but will not say anything on special package or status and it became true in the rally as Amit Shah avoided this issue from the public platform," he said. "I also said that Amit Shah will claim 'Jungle Raj' of Bihar. Amit Shah is living in Delhi and the crime graph of Delhi is higher than Bihar. This is not my data but the NCRB data reveals that Delhi has a higher crime rate than Bihar. On the point on Bihar Jungle Raj, Amit Shah is fooling the people of Bihar. The people of Bihar are alert and smart enough to differentiate what is wrong and what is right," he added. Tejashwi Yadav also said that Amit Shah claimed when his government comes to Bihar, he will make it the number one state, but "BJP was part of the NDA government in Bihar for 15 years, why his party had not made Bihar a number one state". --IANS ajk/vd ( 297 Words) 2022-09-23-20:04:03 (IANS)
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday launched a direct attack on Leader of Opposition N. Chandrababu Naidu's bastion Kuppam with a public meeting. It was Jagan Mohan Reddy's first public meeting in Kuppam, the Assembly constituency in Chittoor district held by Naidu since 1989. Aiming to win all 175 Assembly seats in the 2024 elections, Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) has already started working on its plans to wrest Kuppam from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo and former Chief Minister. The YSRCP is upbeat after its series of victories in Kuppam in gram panchayat, ZPTC and MPTC elections and municipal polls and is now aiming to wrest the seat represented by Naidu for seven consecutive terms. Last year, the YSRCP bagged Kuppam Municipality along with four ZPTCs and 62 out of 65 MPTCs, and 75 out of 89 gram panchayats in the constituency. The Chief Minister told Kuppam people that if they elect Member of Legislative Council Bharath in the next elections, he would make him a minister. He noted that the Bharath has been part of the implementation of the schemes in the constituency. At the massive public meeting, he slammed Chandrababu Naidu over failing to solve the problems of the constituency. "Your MLA (Chandrababu Naidu) is local to Hyderabad and non-local to Kuppam. He was a Kuppam MLA for 33 years in his 45-year political career. Even though he was CM for 14 years, Chandrababu could not solve the drought in Kuppam," he said. Listing out the development done in Kuppam, the Chief Minister said water came to Kuppam canal, municipality status to Kuppam, and a revenue division was given by his government while Chandrababu Naidu, who was Chief Minister for 14 years before could not take up any development activity, and is known for his "backstabbing" politics. From Rs 6.5 crore Reddipalli Ramkuppam power substation to Railway under bridge, to integrated office complex to sanctioning of Rs 20 crores to Dravida University all were done by this government, he said. Jagan Mohan Reddy announced that the YSR Pension Kanuka amount would be hiked to Rs 2,750 from Rs 2,500 effective from January 2023. He reiterated that it will reach the promised figure of Rs 3,000 soon. At the public meeting, he provided financial assistance to eligible women to create livelihood opportunities and deposited of Rs 4,949.44 crore into the bank accounts of 26,39,703 beneficiaries across the State under YSR Cheyutha scheme. The government has been at the forefront of empowering the women and making them self-reliant and providing financial assistance to beneficiaries belonging to SC, ST, BC, and minorities in the age group of 45 to 60 years, he said. "Total financial assistance provided till date by our government under YSR Cheyutha is Rs 14,110.62 crore, including the present financial assistance of Rs 4,949.44 crore. In the past 3 years each individual beneficiary received total assistance of Rs 56,250 at the rate of Rs 18,750 per annum on a regular basis," he said. He also highlighted that Rs 19,617 crore were disbursed under Amma Vodi to 44.50 lakh beneficiaries by the present government. Under YSR Asara Rs 12,758 crore were given to 78.74 lakh beneficiaries while Rs 3,615 crore were given under the YSR Zero Interest scheme. In all, the government has given Rs 3.12 lakh crore under DBT and non-DBT of which Rs 2.39 lakh crore was given only to women. --IANS ms/vd ( 585 Words) 2022-09-23-20:22:04 (IANS)
The Special Cell of Delhi Police has arrested a member of an inter-state gang of robbers, who was evading arrest for the past two-and-a-half years in an armed robbery case, an official said on Friday. The accused, identified as Mashroof alias Mashroor, had a long history of committing crime for more than 11 years. He was previously involved in five criminal cases, including armed robbery in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), Pramod Kushwah, said, "On September 19, a specific information was received that Mashroof will be in the Sarai Kale Khan area at about 7 pm to meet one of his associates for planning a robbery in Delhi," the DCP said. Acting on the tip-off, a trap was laid around the IGL pump in Sarai Kale Khan from where the accused was nabbed. During his search, one semi-automatic pistol and four live cartridges were recovered from his possession. Kushwah said that in 2011, Mashroof along with his associates had committed an armed robbery of Rs 2.5 lakh in Hasanpur, Uttar Pradseh. He was arrested in this case in 2011 and was booked under the Gangster Act. He was released on bail after one year. "Thereafter, he along with his associates robbed Rs 10 lakh from a collection agent at gunpoint in Delhi's Seelampur in February 2015 before robbing Rs 9.5 lakh from a man in New Usmanpur in March. "He was arrested the same year and was released on bail after four years in 2019. However, he jumped the bail period and was absconding since then," the officer said. --IANS uj/arm ( 281 Words) 2022-09-23-20:50:03 (IANS)
"I have already said... and I am reiterating that I am not interested in becoming the party's national president," the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister told reporters.

The senior Congress leader made the remarks while interacting with the mediapersons during his visit to Jabalpur.

Singh's statement has come a day after he visited the party headquarters in Delhi.

He had also participated in "Bharat Jodo Yatra" with former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and other party leaders in the southern part of the country.

On Friday, he joined a tribute gathering for "Shankaracharya" - Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, who breathed last at his Ashram in Madhya Pradesh's Narsinghpur district on September 11. Hundreds of seers from different religious places came to attend "tribute sabha".

On his was on his way to Narsinghpur, he interacted with reporters and responded to queries about Congress' party presidential elections and contestants in the race for the highest post in the party.

Meanwhile, Digvijaya Singh claimed that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's visit to a madrasa in Delhi was the result of "Bharat Jodo Yatra".

He also thanked Bhagwat for his visit to the madrasa and for meeting a Muslim religious leader.

"It's not been two weeks that Bharat Jodo Yatra has been started by the Congress, and the results started coming.... RSS chief started visiting madrasa. I think he may have got this inspiration from the Bharat Jodo Yatra. I express my gratitude to Mohan Bhagwat for his visit to the madrasa."

--IANS pd/pgh

( 280 Words)

2022-09-23-21:50:04 (IANS)
Illinois residents have until Saturday to submit claims for their cut of a $100 million class-action settlement reached this spring in a lawsuit against Google over alleged violations of the states biometric privacy law.

Anyone who appeared in a photo on Google Photos between May 1, 2015, and April 25, 2022, while they were an Illinois resident is eligible to submit a claim and can do so on the settlement website or by mail. Attorneys estimate class members will receive between $200 and $400 each, though the exact amount of the payments will depend on how many people submit claims.

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The lawsuit alleges Googles face grouping tool, which sorts faces on Google Photos by similarity, violated the states biometric privacy law. The law, known as the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, requires companies to get users consent for the use of such technology.

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A sign is shown on a Google building at the company's campus in Mountain View, California, in 2019. A lawsuit alleges Googles face grouping tool violated Illinois biometric privacy law. (Jeff Chiu/AP)

Google did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement. In April, company spokesperson Jose Castaneda said the company would roll out opt-in consent to face grouping in Illinois and more gradually across the U.S. He confirmed Friday that opt-in consent had been fully rolled out in Illinois.

A final approval hearing in the case is scheduled for Wednesday before Cook County Circuit Judge Anna M. Loftus, who granted preliminary approval of the settlement agreement this spring. If the settlement is approved, claimants could receive their cash within 90 days of the approval, though any appeals would slow the process down.

The Google Photos settlement resolves a group of lawsuits filed by five named plaintiffs, the first of which was filed in 2016 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Two plaintiffs filed suit in state court in 2019 after a judge found they lacked standing to sue in federal court; additional plaintiffs later filed their own lawsuits. Each of the five named plaintiffs is eligible for payments of $5,000. Their attorneys will be able to apply for up to $40 million in fees plus costs and expenses, to be paid out of the settlement fund.

Illinois biometric privacy law is among the strictest in the U.S. and has sparked hundreds of lawsuits since its passage in 2008.

Another class-action claim deadline looms in November for state residents who use Snapchat. The apps parent company, Snap Inc., reached a $35 million settlement in a lawsuit last month over allegations its lenses and filters violated state law.

The deadline to submit claims in the Snapchat settlement is Nov. 5; residents can do so on the settlement website. Attorneys estimate payouts will range between $58 and $117.

Snap did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement. The company said last month it vehemently denies its technology violates Illinois law and said it has rolled out in-app consent in the state out of an abundance of caution.

This spring, some Illinois Facebook users received payouts of almost $400 after Facebook reached a $650 million class-action settlement over its facial tagging feature. Final approval in the case was issued in February 2021 but payments were delayed by an appeal.
The Chinese government recruited scientists, who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, for assisting China to advance key military and dual-use technologies in areas such as hypersonics, deep-earth penetrating warheads, unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAV) and jet engines, according to a report released by Strider Technologies. Strider Technologies is a security and intelligence firm located in Salt Lake City, Utah in US. The intelligence think tank enables clients to proactively identify, manage, and respond to nation-state-directed IP theft and supply chain vulnerabilities. The report highlighted that in 3 decades over 160 researchers returned to China to help nuclear and other advanced weapons programs. "Between 1987 and 2021, at least 162 scientists who had worked at Los Alamos returned to China to support various domestic research and development (R&D) programs. And fifteen of those scientists worked as permanent staff members at Los Alamos," the think tank report revealed. Of those fifteen, thirteen were recruited into Chinese government talent programs; some were responsible for sponsoring visiting scholars and postdoctoral researchers from the PRC, and some received US government funding for sensitive research. At least one of these staff members held a US Department of Energy (DOE) "Q Clearance" allowing access to Top Secret Restricted Data and National Security Information. China is employing a Talent Superpower Strategy designed to incentivize academics, researchers, and scientists to go abroad, deepen their expertise, and return to China to advance its strategic interests, according to "The Los Alamos Club" titled report. The program, which began in the 1980s to send young talented Chinese people overseas, has evolved to incorporate initiatives that seek to harness these individuals' efforts for China's gain and, ultimately, encourage them to return to the PRC to work in key technology sectors. "The PRC's success among former Los Alamos affiliates, along with support for China's talent programs from Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping and other top CCP leaders, suggest that similar recruitment efforts may be widespread among US government-funded laboratories, academic research institutions, and major centres of innovation," a 32-page report said. "Moreover, the Los Alamos case shows how China's rapid advances in certain key military technologies are being aided by individuals who participated in sensitive US government-funded research," the report added. Since returning to China, Los Alamos alumni have helped China to advance the key military and dual-use technologies in areas such as hypersonics, deep-earth penetrating warheads, unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAV), jet engines, and submarine noise reduction. Dr Chen Shiyi, a world-renowned fluid dynamics and turbulence expert, is a crucial member of the "Los Alamos Club." After returning to China, Chen served as president of the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), where he excelled at recruiting scientists with links to Los Alamos. "In recent years, China's state-sponsored talent programs have drawn increased scrutiny from Washington not only because of counterintelligence and intellectual property (IP) theft risks but also because these programs are leveraging taxpayer-funded research to advance the PRC's economic development and military modernization," the report said. The US government has begun to take steps to mitigate the risks posed by China's Talent Superpower Strategy. "However, more can be done by government-funded laboratories, research institutions, and private industry to identify potential counterintelligence and IP theft risks posed by individuals whose talent the PRC is seeking to leverage in its race for scientific and technological dominance," the report added. The report also said that it is an urgent national security imperative for like-minded nations to work together to protect their innovation centres and compete with China to attract, retain, and protect leading talent. (ANI)
Foreign Ministers from Brazil, Russia, India and China extended their full support to South Africa for its BRICS Chairship in 2023 and also for holding the fifteenth summit. BRICS foreign ministers held their annual meeting on the margins of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where the ministers said that they are looking forward to the Standalone Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs and International Relations in South Africa in 2023. According to the statement released by BRICS, ministers were briefed on the preparations for South Africa's Chairship of BRICS in 2023. The Ministers called for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in its three dimensions - economic, social and environmental - in a balanced and integrated manner by mobilising the means required to implement the 2030 Agenda. According to the statement, "The ministers welcomed the Transforming Education Summit convened by the UN Secretary-General from 16-19 September 2022. They reaffirmed that the BRICS countries are committed to implementing the UN Education 2030 Agenda, promoting education accessibility and equity, accelerating the development of quality education and training, encouraging exchanges among the youths, strengthening the cultivation of knowledge on sustainable development, and providing BRICS contributions for global governance." The member countries also welcomed the first "BRICS Anti-Corruption Ministerial Meeting," which was held virtually on July 13. The ministers encouraged the BRICS Working Group on Anti-Corruption to strengthen cooperation including experience and information sharing on anti-corruption issues among the BRICS countries on the basis of full consultation and consensus and to explore further areas of cooperation against corruption. The Ministers reiterated their commitment to further strengthening the cooperation within the BRICS Anti-Drug Working Group in accordance with the existing international drug control regime. 20. The Ministers, while emphasizing the formidable potential of the ICTs for growth and development, recognized the new possibilities they bring for criminal activities and threats, and expressed concern over the rising level and complexity of criminal misuse of ICTs. "They welcomed the ongoing work in the UN Open-Ended Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Committee of Experts to elaborate a comprehensive international convention on countering the use of ICTs for criminal purposes and reaffirmed their commitment to cooperating in the implementation of the mandate adopted by the UN General Assembly resolution 75/282," the statement reads. "The Ministers reiterated the need for all countries to cooperate in promoting and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms under the principles of equality and mutual respect. They agreed to continue to treat all human rights including the right to development in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing and with the same emphasis. They agreed to strengthen cooperation on issues of common interests both within BRICS and in multilateral fora including the United Nations General Assembly and Human Rights Council, taking into account the necessity to promote, protect and fulfil human rights in a non-selective, non-politicised and constructive manner and without double standards," the statement added. (ANI)
External Affairs minister S Jaishankar in New York praised the leadership skills of Prime Minister Narendra Modi while recalling the attack on the Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan near the Indian consulate and while India was coordinating evacuations from the country. Recalling the situation in Afghanistan in the year 2016, Jaishankar attending a book discussion event here on Thursday said: "It was past midnight, and our consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, was under attack. And we were using phones, trying to figure out what happened." "All of this was happening and you're juggling phones, trying to keep everybody updated. And then, my phone rang. When the prime minister calls, there is no caller ID. His first question was -Jaage ho? (Are you awake?)," Jaishankar said. The External Affairs minister was speaking at an event to discuss the book Modi@20: Dreams Meet Delivery. "Jaage ho?...achaa tv dekh rahe ho...toh kya ho raha h waha (what's happening there?)," Modi asked Jaishankar over the call, responding to which the EAM responded and informed the PM that help was on its way. Jaishankar said during the address citing the phone call with Prime Minister. "I told him that it might take a couple of more hours and that I would call up at his office. To this, he responded - 'Mujhe phone kar dena' (Call me please)," Jaishankar said. Praising the leadership skills of PM Modi the EAM said, "To handle the consequences of very big decisions, that is a singular quality." The external affairs minister also recalled his first meeting with the prime minister. "I frankly liked Mr Modi before I met Mr Modi. I am on some levels, as many would complain, a micromanager. I can be quiet a pain. But the level of preparation he had done was commendable," Jaishankar said. The EAM also pointed out that PM Modi "starts his day at 7:30 am... and carries on, and does not drop, while others might." The EAM also recounted India's evacuation effort from Afghanistan after the country fell to the control of Taliban last year. India evacuated almost all its citizens who wished to return from Afghanistan by conducting several rescue operations on Afghan soil during the crisis. India airlifted its citizens from Kabul. It also airlifted its citizens through Dushanbe in Tajikistan and Qatar. Jaishankar has over the last three days he has met with envoys and heads of states from around the world on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. The highlights of Jaishankar's meetings particularly with developing countries from Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Small Islands are sharply focused on the reform of the UN Security Council. Jaishankar will address world leaders at the General Assembly on Saturday, after which he will leave for Washington and a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. (ANI)
The Supreme Court of Nepal on Friday will hear the writ petitions filed against President Bidhya Devi Bhandari against her decision not to authenticate the Citizenship Bill. "The hearing is set to start from today," confirmed Supreme Court spokesperson, Bimal Paudel. Notably, five separate writ petitions were filed on Thursday against the Office of the President over which a joint hearing would start from today. Advocate Sagar Baral has filed the writ petition with a student from Tribhuwan University Raj Baral and Kathmandu School of Law Abinesh Adhikari and a resident of Morang's Rangel Municipality Dev Sharma. In the writ petition, the petitioners have claimed President Bhandari of not fulfilling the constitutional obligation as per Act 113 (4) of the Constitution of Nepal seeking a mandamus from the apex court. The petitioners also have claimed that the President doesn't have the right of discretion as per the constitution and also have asked the verdict from the court over the case to be set as precedent. In the registered petition, it also is claimed that the latest decision of the President has also jolted the fundamental human rights ensured by the constitution in Articles 10-15. Nepal President Bidhya Devi Bhandari on Tuesday midnight passed the deadline for authenticating Citizenship Bill sent by the Federal Parliament. The Constitution of Nepal -2072 only gives the timeframe of 15 days to the President to authenticate the bill. The controversial citizenship bill was sent to the president by the then Speaker of the house Agni Prasad Sapkota for the second time on September 5. Therefore, as mentioned in Article 113, Sub-section 4 of the Constitution, the President had to certify it if the same Bill was submitted for authentication for the second time. "If the President returns a bill with a message, both Houses will reconsider such a bill and if such a bill is passed as presented or resubmitted with amendments, the President will certify it within fifteen days of its submission," according to the Constitution. Earlier on August 14, President Bhandari returned the Citizenship Bill passed by the House of Representatives and the National Assembly and sent for authentication. Even though the President returned the Bill to the House for reconsideration, the House of Representatives and the National Assembly made no changes to the Bill. (ANI)
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa on Thursday called for UNSC reform that should include representation of India, Brazil and Africa continent at the UN Security Council. Addressing the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Costa advocated for a Security Council that incorporates a comprehensive view of security and gives fair representation to small countries. "We need a representative, agile and functional security council that is able to respond to the challenges of the 21st century without being paralyzed and whose actions are scrutinised by the other members of the United Nations," he said. "A security council that incorporates a comprehensive view of security. A security council where the African Continent, Brazil and India have seats. And where small countries are fairly represented," he added. During his address, the Portuguese PM said many children and adults globally have never known peace. "In Europe, we are confronted with an unjustified and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, in a flagrant violation of international laws, primarily the charter of the United Nations Nations." "We therefore cannot fail to condemn the Russian aggression and here to reinforce Portugal's support sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Russia must cease hostilities and allow the creation of a sustained ceasefire and peace-oriented dialogue," he said. Costa welcomed the efforts of the United Nations, particularly the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, to resolve this conflict and mitigate its damaging effects such as the food crisis. Portuguese PM's call for UNSC reform came the same day as the Group of Four (G4) foreign minister met and expressed concern at the continued lack of meaningful progress in the Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) on Security Council (SC) reform. They also renewed their determination to work towards commencing text-based negotiations without further delay in the IGN. On September 22, the Foreign Ministers of the G4 countries, Carlos Alberto Franco Franca, Foreign Minister of Brazil, Annalena Baerbock, Federal Foreign Minister of Germany, S Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister, and Yoshimasa Hayashi, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, met in the margins of the opening of the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, to exchange views on reform of the UN Security Council. In a joint press statement after the meeting, the G4 Ministers assessed that conflicts around the globe as well as increasingly complex and interconnected global challenges have brought to the forefront the urgency of reforming the United Nations and updating its main decision-making bodies. They agreed that the inability of the Security Council to effectively address these challenges vividly demonstrates the urgent need for UN Security Council reform in order to better reflect contemporary geopolitical realities, and to enhance its effectiveness and the legitimacy and implementation of its decisions. The Ministers expressed disappointment at concerted attempts to stall this process, and renewed their commitment to addressing the issue in a decisive manner and with increased urgency in the 77th Session of the UNGA. The Ministers agreed on the need for enhanced role and presence of developing countries and of major contributors to the United Nations to enhance the capacity of the Council to respond effectively to the complex and evolving challenges the world faces today on questions of international peace and security. (ANI)
External affairs minister S. Jaishankar, who contributed to a special book titled 'Modi@20: Dreams Meet Delivery' which commemorates 20 years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in public life, read excerpts from the book and shared candid moments of his work relationship with the Prime Minister. 'Modi@20: Dreams Meet Delivery" is a compilation of chapters written by S Jaishankar, Amish Tripathi, PV Sindhu, Anupam Kher, Amit Shah and Sudha Murthy, among others. In the book, Jaishankar penned down how he first met the Prime Minister and shared the same with members of the Indian-American Community in New York. The External Affairs Minister very eloquently recalled the first time he met PM Modi back when he was the ambassador in China and Prime Minister Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. "No question he stood out. And I frankly liked Mr Modi, before I met Modi," Jaishankar expressed. He distinctly remembered PM Modi's eye for detail and preparedness. "He wanted a political briefing, which normally chief ministers are not bothered about, but he gave me an excellent reason. He said, "Look, I'm abroad. I'm from a different political party. But I do not want to say something which is even a millimetre different from what is my national policy," Jaishankar said during the address. Jaishankar further shared when he once again met PM Modi. "it's not like you know, we had some huge prior personal connect It's someone I have known really for about 10 years. What stood out for me were his really exceptional working habits and his commitment and his desire... that fire in the belly to change the country was very visible," Jaishankar concluded. This book traces the journey of PM Modi that started from the moment he became the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2001. After his landslide victory in 2014, he was re-elected in 2019 after he won over the public with his charisma and his terms of work. Unlike any of his predecessors, PM Modi managed to create a wave of mass approval that built the pillars of his 20-year-long hold as the head of the government. Union Minister Jaishankar in his conversation shared the reason behind the rise of somebody from an extremely humble background to the ultimate seat of power in India. "I would say Modi himself is a product of that change. That is the fact that someone like him eventually has become prime minister of India itself shows how much the country has changed," Jaishankar asserted. In this book, the compilation of chapters about PM Modi's model of governance has been contributed by domain experts and eminent critics. Starting from the grassroots-level transformation in Gujarat to the changing political fabric of India, Modi@20 is an expansive exploration of the Indian Prime Minister's governance. (ANI)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Thursday on the sidelines of the ongoing 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. During the meeting, the two ministers exchanged views on Ukraine and discussed UN reform. "Good to catch up with FM @ABaerbock of Germany. Useful exchange of views on Ukraine and UN reform," Jaishankar tweeted. Jaishankar also met the Foreign Minister of Greece, Nikos Dendias and discussed the ongoing conflict in Ukraine alongside the Mediterranean and Indo-Pacific. Taking to Twitter, the EAM wrote, "Always enjoy meeting FM @NikosDendias of Greece. Discussed the Ukraine conflict, the Mediterranean and Indo-Pacific." Furthermore, Jaishankar conversed with his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi and wished Japan success in their upcoming UNSC tenure. The External Affairs Minister, who is on a 10-day visit to the United States, interacted with his counterparts from Mexico, Paraguay and Moldova on the fourth day of his stay in New York. "A traditional BRICS gathering on the sidelines of #UNGA 77. Exchange of perspectives on the global situation, international economy and regional issues. Made the case for Reformed Multilateralism. Wished Naledi Pandor and South Africa all success for their Chairship," Jaishankar tweeted. Jaishankar is in the US for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meeting. He met the Foreign Minister of Paraguay. "Wonderful to see my dear friend Foreign Minister Julio Cesar Arriola of Paraguay again. The #UNGA is such a great meeting place," Jaishankar said in a tweet. Apart from that, the External Affairs Minister also met the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Nicu Popescu and his Mexican counterpart Marcelo Ebrard. "So glad to meet DPM and FM @nicupopescu of Moldova. Thanked him for support during #OperationGanga. Appreciate his enthusiasm for expanding our ties. Look forward to seeing him in India soon," Jaishankar wrote on Twitter. Jaishankar has more than 50 official engagements in total. The highlights of Jaishankar's meetings particularly with developing countries from Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Small Islands are sharply focused on the reform of the UN Security Council. Jaishankar will address world leaders at the General Assembly on Saturday, after which he will leave for Washington and a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. (ANI)
Indian Ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava and Nepal's Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand on Friday jointly performed a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the Nepal Police Academy in Kavrepalanchowk, Nepal. The foundation stone of this project was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and late Prime Minister of Nepal Sushil Koirala during the former's visit to Nepal in November 2014. The project is being constructed under the Government of India's grant assistance at the cost of NRs. 1000 crores. The Nepal Police Academy project is one of the biggest grant projects that the Indian government is undertaking in Nepal. The event also coincides with India@75 Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav" which celebrates 75 years of India's independence. "This Academy Campus will come up in an area of approx. 84 acre land with a total built-up area of approx. 1.10 lacs sqm. The buildings in the academy will be a perfect blend of local architecture with modern technologies. It will also incorporate green building features, energy efficiency measures, and sustainable development norms. The infrastructure will be equipped with modern facilities and once completed, this facility will provide state-of-the-art training infrastructure in a fully developed campus to the Nepal Police," the Indian Embassy stated in a release. In his remarks during the event, the Indian Ambassador expressed hope that implementing team of the NPA Project will be able to complete the work within the stipulated time with the cooperation and support from all. He also assured full support of the Government of India for successfully implementing the prestigious Project, another milestone in the close relationship between India and Nepal. Nepal Home Minister Khand, in his remarks, thanked the Government of India for this project and continuous support from India under development partnership and bilateral cooperation. India and Nepal enjoy a multi-faceted and multi-sectoral development partnership that reflects the closeness of the people of both countries. The implementation of this Project reflects the continued support of the Government of India in complementing the efforts of the Government of Nepal. (ANI)
India on Friday issued an advisory for Indian nationals and students in Canada to remain vigilant amid increasing incidences of crimes and anti-India activities in the country. In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said Indian missions in Canada have taken up these incidents with the Canadian authorities and requested them to probe these crimes. "There has been a sharp increase in incidents of hate crimes, sectarian violence and anti-India activities in Canada. The Ministry of External Affairs and our High Commission/Consulates General in Canada have taken up these incidents with the Canadian authorities and requested them to investigate the said crimes and take appropriate action," the MEA said in a statement while stressing that "the perpetrators of these crimes have not been brought to justice so far in Canada." "In view of the increasing incidences of crimes as described above, Indian nationals and students from India in Canada and those proceeding to Canada for travel/education are advised to exercise due caution and remain vigilant," the statement added. The advisory also said Indian nationals and students from India in Canada may also register with the High Commission of India in Ottawa or the Consulates General of India in Toronto and Vancouver through their respective websites, or the MADAD portal madad.gov.in. "Registration would enable the High Commission and the Consulates General to better connect with Indian citizens in Canada in the event of any requirement or emergency," the advisory said. This advisory comes a day after India on Thursday termed the so-called Khalistan referendum conducted by separatist groups as a "farcical exercise". Speaking at a weekly media briefing, MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said India had conveyed concerns to Canada about the use of its territory by politically motivated "extremist elements". India has deeply objected that "politically motivated exercises by extremist elements" are allowed to take place in a friendly country like Canada, he said. "We would term it as farcical exercise. A farcical exercise was held by extremists and radical elements supporting the so-called Khalistan referendum in Canada," Bagchi said. He said India has taken up the issue with Canadian authorities and they reiterated respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India. "The matter has been taken up with the Canadian authorities through diplomatic channels. The government of Canada has reiterated that they respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India and they will not recognise the so-called referendum which is taking place in Canada," the MEA spokesperson said. (ANI)
After Iran restricted the use of social media amid the ongoing protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, WhatsApp on Friday said that it has not blocked Iranian contacts and is working to ensure that Iranian friends stay connected. "We are trying so that our Iranian friends can stay in touch with each other and we do not hesitate to do anything within our means to keep our communication services continuously active," WhatsApp said in a series of tweets. It said that access to private and confidential means of communication is the right of all people, and so it has not blocked the phones in Iran. "Our main goal is to provide the possibility of confidential communication anywhere in the world. We believe that access to private and confidential means of communication is the right of all people. We have not blocked the phones related to Iran." "We exist to connect the world privately. We stand with the rights of people to access private messaging. We are not blocking Iranian numbers. We are working to keep our Iranian friends connected and will do anything within our technical capacity to keep our service up and running," the tweet added. As per Al Jazeera, Iran shut down Internet services across the country since the protests erupted over the death of Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after her arrest for allegedly failing to comply with Iran's strict rules on women's dress by wearing an "improper hijab". The ongoing protests intensified on Wednesday, demonstrators hurled stones over security forces. The protestors burned vehicles and chanted anti-government slogans as the oppression against strict dress codes for women continued in Iran. Citing the Iranian state media, CBS reported that police used tear gas and arrests to disperse crowds of up to 1,000 people on Wednesday as street rallies spread to 15 cities. Meanwhile, the UN experts on Thursday strongly condemned the death of Mahsa Amini. They called on Iranian authorities to hold an independent, impartial, and prompt investigation into Amini's death, saying that the use of physical violence against women and the denial of fundamental human dignity when enforcing compulsory hijab policies ordained by state authorities is shameful. In a press statement, the UN Human Rights Office said the experts also denounced the violence directed against peaceful protesters and human rights defenders demanding accountability for Amini's death in cities across the country by Iranian security forces. "We are shocked and deeply saddened by the death of Amini. She is another victim of Iran's sustained repression and systematic discrimination against women and the imposition of discriminatory dress codes that deprive women of bodily autonomy and the freedoms of opinion, expression and belief," the experts said. Amini fell into a coma at the detention centre and died in hospital on September 16. Iranian authorities said she died of a heart attack, and claimed her death was from natural causes. However, some reports suggested that Amini's death resulted from alleged torture and ill-treatment, the experts said. Following the protests, prolonged Internet disruptions have been reported in Tehran, Kurdistan provinces, and other parts of the country since September 19. This is the third widespread Internet shutdown recorded in Iran over the past 12 months, according to UN Human Rights Office. "Disruptions to the internet are usually part of a larger effort to stifle the free expression and association of the Iranian population and to curtail ongoing protests. State mandated internet disruptions cannot be justified under any circumstances," the experts said, warning against a further escalation of crackdown against civil society, human rights defenders and peaceful protesters. As per Al Jazeera, Mahsa Amini, 22, was on a visit to Tehran with her family when she was detained by the specialist police unit. During detention after some time, she suffered a heart attack and was immediately taken to hospital with the cooperation of the emergency services. "Unfortunately, she died and her body was transferred to the medical examiner's office," state television said on Friday, reported Al Jazeera. The announcement came a day after Tehran police confirmed Amini had been detained with other women for "instruction" about the rules. Following the death of Mahsa Amini, several women protesters cut their hair and burnt hijabs to protest against the mandatory veiling of women. Since September 16, thousands have taken to the streets in many cities, including Tehran, Ilam, Isfahan, Kermanshah, Mahabad, Saqez, Sanandaj, Sari and Tabriz to demand accountability for the death of Amini and to put an end to violence and discrimination against women in Iran, particularly compulsory veiling for women. The peaceful protests have been met with excessive use of force, including birdshot by Iranian security forces, the experts said. According to reports, at least eight individuals, including a woman and a 16-year-old child, have been killed, dozens more injured and arrested. Following the incident that sparked fury on social media, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi ordered the interior minister to open an inquiry into the case. Amini's death comes amid growing controversy both inside and outside Iran over the conduct of the morality police, known formally as the Gasht-e Ershad (Guidance Patrol). The mandatory dress code, which applies to all nationalities and religions, not just Iranian Muslims, requires women to conceal their hair and neck with a headscarf, reported Al Jazeera. Over the decades, women have increasingly pushed back, particularly in the big cities, wearing their headscarves far back on their heads to reveal their hair. (ANI)
Boeing Co. will pay $200 million to settle allegations that the company and its former CEO misled investors about the safety of its 737 Max after two of the airliners crashed, killing 346 people.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday that it charged the aircraft maker and former CEO Dennis Muilenburg with making significant misleading public statements about the plane and an automated flight-control system that was implicated in the crashes.

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Neither Boeing nor Muilenburg admitted wrongdoing, but they agreed to orders that include penalties of $200 million for Boeing and $1 million for Muilenburg, who was ousted in December 2019, nine months after the second crash.

The SEC said Boeing and Muilenburg knew that the flight system, known as MCAS, posed a safety issue but promised the public that the plane was safe. The SEC said they also falsely claimed that there had been no gaps in the process of certifying the plane in the first place.

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Boeing and Muilenburg put profits over people by misleading investors about the safety of the 737 Max all in an effort to rehabilitate Boeings image after the crashes, said Gurbir Grewal, director of the SECs enforcement division.

Boeing reached a separate $2.5 billion settlement with the Justice Department last year. Most of that money went to airlines whose 737 Max jets were grounded for nearly two years.
In a breach of diplomatic etiquette, China skipped Bangladesh's discussion over Myanmar's military activities on the border. Dhaka did not take China's non-response as normal. The Ministry of External Affairs says they have "noticed" the matter. On the other hand, experts say that they are not "surprised" by China's stance on Myanmar, reported Bangladesh Live News. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the ambassadors and high commissioners of non-ASEAN countries working in Dhaka to inform them about Myanmar's military activities on the border. However, the Chinese ambassador Li Ji Ming did not participate in it. This meeting was held on Tuesday morning at Rashtriya Guest House Padma. Ambassadors of Russia and India were not present but sent representatives. Only China was absent, reported Bangladesh Live News. In addition to the European Union member countries, representatives of almost all countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Egypt, South Korea, Turkey, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Japan participated in the meeting. Experts see China's absence as a breach of diplomatic etiquette. At the same time, they consider this incident as China's clear support for Myanmar, reported Bangladesh Live News. An official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who did not wish to be named, told NewsBangla, "Although the heads of missions of almost all countries were called at a very short notice, they or their representatives came." "However, we did not find any representative of China. The ambassador might be busy with important work, but he could send a representative if he wanted. We are a little surprised that it was not sent," he added. Despite being part of China's Belt and Road Initiative and enjoying growth in trade and investments, Bangladesh refuses to be China's lackey. Moreover, Bangladesh is suffering from the unethical behaviour of Chinese companies as the country authorities have found many cases of tax evasion by Beijing-based firms or their subsidiaries in Dhaka. The Chinese companies trading in Bangladesh have been continuously engaging in tax evasion and smuggling of items ranging from cigarettes, and alcohol, among other items. The unscrupulous behaviour of Chinese companies is causing heavy loss to the exchequer of Bangladesh, reported Bangladesh Live News. (ANI)
Veronika Loginova, 18, could be facing 6 years in prison for using Instagram. Veronika Loginova/Instagram

Russian influencer Veronika Loginova could be facing 6 years in prison for using Instagram.

Instagram and Facebook have been banned in Russia since March.

Loginova said she had never posted anything political, and said the decision was "bullshit."

Russian influencer Veronika Loginova, 18, could be facing 6 years in prison for using Instagram. She posted a statement on the app on Wednesday, where she has 556,000 followers, saying her mother had phoned her in August because police had turned up to her family's house. She attached photos of a letter she received from Russian prosecutors.

Loginova stated in the post that two men turned up with a notice that threatened her with a jail term for using Instagram, claiming that she was drawing too much attention. Her 14-year-old brother was in the house at the time, confused at why officers had come looking for her.

This is the first case of an individual in Russia being persecuted for using Instagram, which has been banned with Facebook in the country since March for being "extremist," according to Roskomsvoboda  a Russian digital rights group that fights internet censorship. The ban followed Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine in February, which led to the country becoming increasingly isolated from the global internet and major social media platforms.

The letter was sent by Kuntsevo Interdistrict Prosecutor's Office, Roskomsvoboda reported, and accuses Loginova of performing "actions to attract users on the social networks Facebook and Instagram" and that her continuing to post on there "can be considered as a form of participation in the activities of an extremist organization."

To the allegations, Loginova wrote "Are you serious? Me? An 18-year-old girl and fashion blogger?" She also denied having posted anything political on her social media at all.

She added that she would consider leaving Instagram and escaping from Russia, and would be posting updates on Instagram about whatever she decides. Loginova said she had support, and that she wanted as many people to know about her situation as possible  adding that it was "complete bullshit."

Story continues

Cataline Goanta, associate professor in private law and technology at Utrecht University, told Insider that when government agencies see what is happening on social media, there's "a lot of cherry picking." In Loginova's post, she says she doesn't understand why she is being targeted. Goanta said it may be because someone reported her specifically, although there's no way to know for sure.

"It shows a problem with justice and equality," Goanta said. "And the fact that basically you're going to go after the people who you see."

Sargis Darbinyan, the head of the legal practice of Roskomsvoboda, said in the organization's statement that a Russian citizen being perspecuted for using Instagram means "everything is under attack, even those who post cats."

Someone who asks people to follow them on Instagram could face up to 14 years in prison, Darbinyan said, according to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Darbinyan added that Roskomsvoboda sent an appeal to the prosecutor's office asking for more clarification on Loginova's charges.

There's also a strange dynamic at play in the case, Goanta said, because if Loginova were to name other influencers it would potentially incriminate them too.

"Maybe some others also received these visits and were too afraid to write about it," she said.

Insider has reached out to Instagram for comment.

Read the original article on Insider
Reuters

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian troops said on Saturday they had taken the key bastion of Lyman in occupied eastern Ukraine, a stinging defeat that prompted a close ally of President Vladimir Putin to call for the possible use of low-grade nuclear weapons. The capture came just a day after Putin proclaimed the annexation of four Ukrainian regions - including Donetsk, where Lyman is located - and placed them under Russia's nuclear umbrella, at a ceremony that was condemned by Kyiv and the West as an illegitimate farce.
STOUGHTON  Police Chief Donna McNamara said Friday that three now-former Stoughton police officers had "inappropriate relations" with Sandra Birchmore, a young woman who looked up to police and hoped to become a cop.

She was pregnant when she killed herself in February 2021 in a Canton apartment, according to the Norfolk County district attorney's office. She was 23.

"What I am here to talk about today is her life and how she was failed by, manipulated by and used by people of authority that she admired and trusted right up until her final days," McNamara said at a press conference held at police headquarters Friday, Sept. 23.

McNamara presented the results of a 19-month Stoughton police internal affairs report, prepared by Deputy Police Chief Brian Holmes.

"The evidence demonstrates that (former Stoughton Police Officer) Matthew Farwell began an inappropriate relationship with her when she was 15 and he was 27," the chief said.

Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara, right, with Deputy Police Chief Brian Holmes beside her speaks at a press conference on Friday, Sept. 23, 2022, at police headquarters. McNamara revealed the results of an internal investigation, which found that three now-former Stoughton police officers engaged in inappropriate relationships with a young woman who took her own life while pregnant last year.

The report also alleges that former Stoughton police officers William Farwell  Matthew's twin brother  and Robert C. Devine also had inappropriate relationships with Birchmore.

Although not detailed in the report, McNamara said a fourth man, who is now an officer with a Massachusetts agency she declined to name, also took advantage of Birchmore.

A fifth man, a military recruiter, had "inappropriate communications" with Birchmore, the chief said. McNamara said she has been in contact with supervisors and commanding officers of those people.

'Why are we fixating on a broken man?': Soupman may be liquidated amid family drama

The internal affairs report says a past participant in the Stoughton Police Explorers Program saw "inappropriate behavior" by Devine and the Farwell twins. The witness reported "hugging, kissing and inappropriate contact in a closet" and statements to the effect of "come back and see me when you turn 18."

Former Stoughton police Officer Matthew Farwell, with his dog Orry, in an undated photo.

According to the report, Matthew and William Farwell both were members of the Explorers program during their teenage years and later acted as instructors at Devine's request.

Story continues

Devine was in charge of the Explorers program from 2002-2014.

Sandra Birchmore was a member beginning in 2010 when she was 13 and remained in the program until 2016, when she graduated from Stoughton High School.

'Nightmare neighbors': Brockton residents fed up with 'residential nightclub' on Pearl St.

Sandra Birchmore, right, is pictured with then-Deputy Police Chief Robert Devine when she was a member of the Stoughton Police Explorers Program as a teenager.

McNamara said she ordered the internal affairs investigation. She said she found the results "deeply troubling to me as a human being and a police chief."

"Ms. Birchmore was a vulnerable person who had one constant in her life: An unwavering admiration for police officers, of those serving in the military. People in uniform," McNamara said.

"People with oaths and duties to protect and serve. The admiration led her to form relationships with men who were willing to take advantage of her."

William Farwell had "multiple inappropriate physical encounters" with Birchmore and exchanged explicit messages and photos with her while he was on duty, the chief said. McNamara said the evidence also shows that William Farwell tried to introduce Birchmore to other men.

Matthew Farwell told investigators that he went to Birchmore's apartment on Feb. 1, 2021, to end their relationship and had a "pretty nasty argument" with her. She was found dead three days later.

McNamara said she is seeking to have all three former officers barred from working as police officers in Massachusetts or elsewhere.

Devine once served as deputy chief of Stoughton police, but was demoted to patrol officer for abusing his power, she said.

Devine was demoted and received a 60-day unpaid suspension in 2016 after a past internal affairs investigation found that he improperly ordered an investigation into a possible violation of harassment orders, using department resources and technology.

The orders were taken out by him and his then-wife against an Easton woman with whom Devine was having an extramarital affair.

More: Stoughton deputy police chief linked to sex scandal

More: Experts surprised at demotion for former Stoughton deputy police chief

Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara held a press conference on Friday, Sept. 23, 2022, at police headquarters where she revealed the results of an internal investigation, which found that three now-former Stoughton police officers engaged in inappropriate relationships with a young woman who took her own life while pregnant last year.

"My commitment to the Stoughton community is unwavering," McNamara said Friday.

"I will not betray their trust and I will always strive to bring the Stoughton Police Department to the highest level of service because, simply stated, it is what this community deserves."

McNamara said she has turned the report over to the Norfolk County district attorney's office, which would be the agency to bring any criminal charges against the former officers.

'A vibrant person'

Michael Varner, co-owner of Maxx Training Center across the street from the police station, started teaching Birchmore when she was 11. Over the years, she took Brazilian jiu-jitsu and cardio kickboxing at the gym. He called the men who allegedly took advantage of her "dirtbags."

"They took advantage of her insecurities and vulnerabilities," said Varner.

On Friday, Sept. 23, 2022, Michael Varner, co-owner of Maxx Training Center across the street from the Stoughton police station, speaks about Sandra Birchmore, whom he knew since she was 11. Over the years, she took Brazilian jiu-jitsu and cardio kickboxing at the gym. He called the Stoughton police officers who allegedly took advantage of her "dirtbags."

Varner pulled up his phone and showed text messages between him and Birchmore going back years.

"Sandra was a beautiful individual. She admired authority and authority took advantage of her," Varner said. "She was a vibrant person who was lost."

Send your news tips to reporter Chris Helms by email at CHelms@enterprisenews.com or connect on Twitter at @HelmsNews. Thank you, subscribers. You make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Brockton Enterprise.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Stoughton: Report finds 3 cops had inappropriate relations with teen
Five doctors pleaded guilty in a pain pill prescription scheme involving clinics in West Virginia and Virginia, federal prosecutors said Monday.

The scheme was tied to the Hope Clinic and involved prescribing oxycodone and other controlled substances that werent for legitimate medical purposes from 2010 to 2015. Some prescriptions provided up to seven pills per day, and several Hope locations averaged 65 or more daily customers during a 10-hour workday with only one practitioner working, prosecutors said in a news release.

Hope Clinic had offices in Beckley, Beaver, and Charleston, West Virginia, and in Wytheville, Virginia.

Four of the physicians each pleaded guilty in federal court in Charleston to a felony count of aiding and abetting obtaining a controlled substance by fraud, the statement said.

Those physicians are William Earley, 66, of North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Brian Gullett, 45, of Clarksville, Pennsylvania; Roswell Tempest Lowry, 88, of Efland, North Carolina; and Vernon Stanley, 79, of Fayetteville, West Virginia.

Mark Clarkson, 64, of Princeton, West Virginia, pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor counts of aiding and abetting the misbranding of a drug involved in interstate commerce, the statement said.

These pleas show our offices continuing effort to protect lives and prevent future overdoses through all means possible, U.S. Attorney Will Thompson said. A lot of effort has gone into this case.

Gullett, Earley and Stanley signed numerous oxycodone prescriptions for a customer at a Charleston Hope Clinic in 2013. They admitted that the customers medical chart did not support the prescriptions, which were not for a legitimate medical purpose, prosecutors said.

In August 2014, Lowry signed prescriptions for a Hope customer in Charleston for 180 oxycodone pills. He admitted intentionally not reading the customers chart to determine if those prescriptions were necessary. Instead, Lowry issued the same prescriptions for the customer that were provided by previous physicians, the statement said.

Story continues

Gullett, Earley, Lowry and Stanley admitted the customers reported being addicted to pain medication, had failed or had abnormal drug screenings several times, bought pills on the street and sold pills from their Hope prescriptions to others. The physicians did not discuss the possibility of addiction or the need for addiction treatment with these customers, the statement said.

Clarkson admitted to helping Hope Clinic issue prescriptions after major retailers had stopped filling them and smaller pharmacies could not meet the demand of Hope customers. In 2014, Clarkson wrote illegitimate prescriptions for a total of 635 oxycodone pills for five different Hope customers in Virginia that were filled at Adkins Pharmacy in Gilbert, West Virginia, prosecutors said. Adkins Pharmacy agreed in 2020 to pay a $88,000 fine.

Sentencing for the physicians is scheduled for Dec. 22. Gullett, Earley, Lowry and Stanley face up to four years in prison and a $250,000 fine apiece. Clarkson faces up to five years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

The physicians were indicted in 2018 along with the owners, managers and other physicians associated with Hope Clinic and a group that managed Hopes daily operations. The remaining defendants are awaiting trial.
Anna Kim/Insider

Insider talked to five former House candidates who lost primaries to more-experienced politicians.

The younger candidates said they generally got little to no support from official party leaders.

One candidate was told to "wait your turn." Another found consultants unwilling to help.

Read more from Insider's "Red, White, and Gray" series.

For young political candidates, the road to elective office is often turbulent.

When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018 decided to challenge Rep. Joe Crowley in a New York district anchored in the Bronx and Queens, scores of state and local officials lined up behind the longtime Democratic incumbent, who was seen as a likely House speaker-in-waiting.

But Ocasio-Cortez wasn't discouraged, convinced that voters in the district were dissatisfied with the way issues like minimum wage and the climate crisis were being addressed.

Fueled by grassroots energy from millennials and progressives, the then-28-year-old Ocasio-Cortez defeated Crowley by nearly 14 percentage points.

Since then, Ocasio-Cortez has become the face of the younger side of Congress, a cohort that has come to include members such as the 27-year-old GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina  who will exit the House in January after losing his party primary  and Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, who at 35 is the youngest sitting member of the upper chamber.

But for many millennial and Generation Z office seekers, simply trying to get local leaders on board with a candidacy can be a frustrating experience with minimal financial or party support.

For every candidate like Ocasio-Cortez or Maxwell Alejandro Frost  the 25-year-old Democratic nominee to represent the Central Florida-anchored 10th congressional district and who is poised to be the House's first Gen Z lawmaker  there are dozens of enthusiastic young candidates who are willing to serve but are instead mired in institutional hurdles.

Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam competed in this year's Democratic primary for North Carolina's 4th Congressional District. REUTERS/Jonathan Drake

'I was told over and over again to wait my turn'

Four months in the making, Insider's "Red, White, and Gray" series explores the costs, benefits, and dangers of life in a democracy helmed by those of advanced age, where issues of profound importance to the nation's youth and future  technology, civil rights, energy, the environment  are largely in the hands of those in the twilight of their careers.



One former candidate who couldn't break through the establishment is Nida Allam, a 28-year-old Durham County commissioner who ran to represent North Carolina's 4th Congressional District. She was defeated by state Sen. Valerie Foushee, 66, who captured the Democratic nomination over Allam by 9 points, 46% to 37%, in this year's primary.

Story continues

Young leaders-in-waiting often can't help remaining engaged in public policy because they still want to be involved in their communities. But their experiences on the campaign trail reveal some of the obstacles built into the American political system.

When Democratic Rep. David Price  who has served in Congress almost continuously since 1987  announced last year that he was stepping down after the 2022 midterm elections, Allam reflected on the now-82-year-old congressman's legacy and her own future.

"He's someone that I've looked up to my entire life in the state," she told Insider. "I've been able to build a really great friendship and relationship with him. And I wanted to see this district be represented by a new generation of leadership and someone who could follow in his footsteps but also push our own state party and our leaders to look at issues in a different way."

Allam is a progressive who was backed by Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, along with several local elected officials and national groups like the Sanders-aligned Our Revolution and the climate-focused Sunrise Movement. She said she felt that it was important to give voters  and especially younger voters  a reason to cast ballots.

But when she first sought a seat on the Durham County Board of Commissioners in 2020, Allam said, she wasn't exactly encouraged to run  a sentiment that extended to her House campaign.

"When I was running for the congressional seat, but even when I ran for county commission, I was told over and over again to wait my turn," she said. "We constantly hear young people being told that narrative as if these policy decisions aren't going to impact us. You can't just keep saying, 'Oh, we want to excite young voters,' but then you don't actually create an opportunity for them."

Allam  the first Muslim woman elected to office in North Carolina  credited Republicans for building a farm team of elected officials that she said Democrats hadn't replicated.

"Here in North Carolina they recruit folks to run for local office," she said of the state GOP. "They build them up to run for the state legislature and then for statewide and federal offices. And we need to have an infrastructure like that on the Democratic Party side. And that means investing in young people."

Living in a congressional district that includes Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where an issue like the climate crisis has strong resonance, Allam said some politicians had skirted around the subject, alienating younger voters.

"We have folks who are in elective office and climate change is not something that's going to impact them 50, 60 years down the road," she said. "They don't act with the sense of urgency that our generation does."

Former House candidate John Isemann faced ex-state lawmaker Tom Kean Jr. in the Republican primary for New Jersey's 7th Congressional District. Caleb Isemann/Isemann Media

'Don't tell anyone I answered this call'

When John Isemann decided to run for Congress for the first time as a Republican in northern New Jersey's highly competitive 7th Congressional District, he knew he'd be taking on the scion of local GOP royalty: former state Sen. Tom Kean Jr.

But Isemann, 28, told Insider he wasn't deterred.

"I didn't come from money, but I believed I had the skills to build the organization, movement, and brand and was fortunate to have supporters that also believed in that," he said.

Kean, the 54-year-old son of the popular 1980s Republican Gov. Tom Kean, served in the state legislature for nearly 21 years. He also ran for Congress in 2000, was the Republican US Senate nominee in 2006, and launched a House bid in 2020. He announced in July 2021 that he would run for Congress against Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski in a rematch of their 2020 contest, which he narrowly lost.

Neither Kean Jr. nor Malinowski  who has been the subject of a congressional inquiry and failed to disclose numerous stock trades last year  brought a different kind of politics to the historically Republican district, which stretches from the suburbs of New York City to the Pennsylvania line, Isemann said.

"The incumbent now is under congressional investigation, for ethics reasons, which is still open," he said. "And then on the other side, you have someone who is a Mayflower, generational politician who's been running for this specific seat since I was 6 years old."

When Isemann was mulling over entering the race, he said, one particular incident crystallized the roadblocks that he would face in challenging Kean.

"As soon as you go out to DC consultants and Jersey consultants and say, 'Hey, I'm going to run against Tom Kean Jr.,' I had people hang up the phone immediately and say, 'Don't tell anybody I answered this call,'" Isemann said. "I had other folks pitch me on, 'Hey, I could set you up for a congressional seat in California or North Carolina  just don't run in that race.'"

Kean won the GOP primary in June, securing nearly 46% of the vote, followed by Phil Rizzo, a former pastor, with roughly 24% support. Isemann came in fifth place, receiving about 5% of the vote.

Despite his defeat, Isemann said he was grateful to have focused on policy during his campaign, rejecting the sensationalism that he argued has become an all too common part of politics.

"It's going to take a sacrifice on behalf of Republicans and it's going to take a sacrifice on behalf of like-minded Democrats to get us out of this high pace of polarization that we're in," he said.

Unlike Allam, he argued that Democrats had been more effective at cultivating political activism among younger voters.

"I think the challenging party does a very good job of bringing out youth  the rise of AOC in the blue wave," Isemann said. "But I think we have yet to see a true voice of conservatives and Democrats rise up from the millennial generation or Gen Z."

J. Miles Coleman, the associate editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, told Insider it's only a matter of time before younger voters "get more into the political bloodstream."

"The earliest wave of Gen Z can start running for Congress this cycle, so I'm sure that some of the candidates who lost will have other chances in the future," he said.

Ray Reed, who worked on the policy team of then-Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, ran for the Democratic nomination in the suburban St. Louis-anchored Second Congressional District. Channa Steinmetz/Startland News

'You got to go through them to get elected'

Ray Reed also contends that Gen Z's time "isn't coming  it's here."

Reed, who ran in Missouri's 2nd Congressional District, which draws in much of suburban St. Louis, said he didn't feel as though his current representative  GOP Rep. Ann Wagner  was fighting for his community.

He also wasn't convinced that state Rep. Trish Gunby was the right choice to represent Democrats in a congressional district the party had been unable to flip over the past decade.

So the 25-year-old Democrat  who served on the policy team of former Gov. Jay Nixon and also worked for the Missouri Democratic Party  decided to jump into the race himself.

"I felt that she would fit the same mold as candidates who had lost time and time again," Reed told Insider, referring to Gunby. "We knew that we'd get a lot of attention because I was 25 years old, and our job was to capitalize off that."

But Reed said Gunby's status as a sitting state lawmaker gave her a major boost with voters.

"I think what ended up really hurting us was that I ran against someone who had already been elected to a state House seat and had a serious iron grip on the stakeholders in the district," he said. "You got to go through them to get elected."

Reed continued: "I was running against an older, middle-aged white woman in my race. And here I am  this skinny 25-year-old Black kid talking about forgiving student loans and free healthcare."

In the August Democratic primary, Gunby defeated Reed 85% to 15%.

Despite the loss, Reed had a positive view of his campaign, which included his advocacy of gun control, reproductive rights, and an extension of the child-tax credit.

"We still got a lot of folks involved who normally would not have gotten involved, especially young people in the race," he said. "That's why I ran."

Reed also spoke highly of Rep. Cori Bush, who was 44 when she defeated the longtime Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr. in a Democratic House primary two years ago. The 2020 contest was Bush's second try at unseating Clay, whose father had previously occupied the seat for decades.

Bush, along with Ocasio-Cortez, is part of the Squad, a group of progressive lawmakers pushing for policies like "Medicare for All" and universal childcare.

"Lacy Clay didn't show up for the community in the way that Congresswoman Bush does," Reed said. "It matters what you do with your influence in Washington."

Immigration attorney Jessica Cisneros ran against Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar in 2020 and 2022. AP Photo/Eric Gay

'People were just waiting for someone to step up'

In 2020, an immigration attorney named Jessica Cisneros ran in a primary against Rep. Henry Cuellar, an anti-abortion Democrat, in the South Texas-based 28th Congressional District.

Cisneros  a first-time candidate who in 2014 interned in Cuellar's Washington, DC, office  came up short in the intraparty contest, earning 48% of the vote to the congressman's 52%.

"Nobody had really been running against Cuellar and mounting a serious challenge for a very long time, really since he was elected," Cisneros told Insider. "And then, here comes a 26-year-old candidate, born and raised in the district and ready to put up a fight."

While Cuellar had the support of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Cisneros did earn the backing of other Democrats, including Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders, Warren, and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro.

"It was a big leap of faith," Cisneros, now 29, said of her first campaign. "It felt incredibly validating to know that I wasn't alone. People were just waiting for someone to step up."

Cisneros, who ran on enacting the Green New Deal and establishing a $15 federal minimum wage, was also critical of the 67-year-old Cuellar over his abortion stance. (Weeks after the May contest, the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.)

When Cisneros ran against Cuellar for the second time, she held the congressman below 50% of the vote in the initial primary before narrowly losing the runoff election (49.7% to 50.3%).

Cisneros said the results reflected a "really tough fight" but also presented an opportunity for the party to engage with newly eligible voters.

"We talk about the Democratic Party being a big-tent party," she said. "Like this is our chance, right? To show that is true, one thing that I really want to stress to people is not to alienate all of these voters but instead bring them into this conversation about what our priorities as the Democratic Party need to be."

Attorney and professor Suraj Patel ran against veteran Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerry Nadler in the Democratic primary for New York's 12th Congressional District. AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson

'Only one campaign in this race was talking about the future'

Suraj Patel, a 38-year-old attorney and professor, ran for the Democratic nomination in a Manhattan-based congressional district in 2018, 2020, and 2022.

When he announced his first campaign, he said, local and state Democrats "completely shunned" his campaign.

"You get phone calls not returned," Patel told Insider. "You get no sort of support in any manner."

His campaign this year focused on housing, immigration, and the economy, among other issues.

In all of his races, Patel faced Rep. Carolyn Maloney, winning 41% in his first campaign and 39% on his second try, when he came within 4 points of victory. In his third primary race, last month, he also faced Rep. Jerry Nadler, who ran in the new 12th District as a result of court-ordered redistricting. Patel earned 19% of the vote.

Nadler, 75, ousted Maloney, 76, from office. The two lawmakers combined have nearly 60 years of experience on Capitol Hill.

But where does that leave candidates like Patel who feel as if their major issues aren't being addressed?

"Only one campaign in this race was talking about the future," Patel said of his efforts. "At the end of this race, two campaigns were talking about the bills from 1992 or 1994 or contributing to a problem in New York City that's a livability crisis, an inflation crisis, and a rent crisis, all of which stem from a 1990s worldview about development in this city."

"If we don't have a new set of leaders with new perspectives on these things," he added, "we are not going to be able to govern this country much longer."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Nine House Democrats voted against a bill on Thursday that calls for providing federal grants to small law enforcement agencies, bucking the party on the highly anticipated vote.

The House approved the bill, titled the Invest to Protect Act, in a 360-64 vote. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) sponsored the measure.

All nine Democrats who voted against the bill are members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus: Reps. Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Cori Bush (Mo.), Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.), Mark Pocan (Wis.), Andy Levin (Ill.), Maxine Waters (Calif.) and Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.).

A total of 153 Republicans supported the bill, while 55 voted no. House Republican leadership did not whip against any of the four policing and public safety measured brought to the floor on Thursday.

The measure seeks to award federal grants to law enforcement agencies with fewer than 125 officers, which could go towards purchasing body cameras, offering de-escalation training and bolstering recruitment and retention, among other uses.

Bush, a freshman lawmaker, signaled her opposition to the Gottheimer bill Thursday morning: Her spokesperson released a statement outlining the congresswomans concerns over a lack of accountability measures in the legislation.

That opposition, along with concerns from other members of the progressive Squad, put passage of the bill and other policing and public safety measures in jeopardy and delayed debate by roughly three hours. Bush, Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Bowman voted against the rule to begin debate on the package of law enforcement bills, and Pressley voted present.

After the procedural vote, Bush voiced concerns about a lack of accountability measures in the Gottheimer bill, arguing that the legislation is full of unchecked, unmonitored money.

Where is police accountability? You know, when does that happen? When does that come into play? When does that prioritize? she asked reporters in the Capitol.

Story continues

Asked what accountability measures she was hoping to see, Bush said basic provisions from the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act  which passed the House last year but has since languished in the Senate  could have been included.

Ocasio-Cortez, also a member of the progressive Squad, took issue with the fact-track process by which the Gottheimer bill was brought to the floor for a vote. The measure did not make its way through committee, as is customary for regular order.

I have not heard an explanation as to why those two bills arent being properly introduced to the floor on their own merits. And why must they be packaged with a piece of legislation whose final version no one saw before yesterday, who did not get introduced to committee, did not get debated, why we are doing this? she asked reporters.

And why are some people allowed to completely subvert our democratic processes internally, and why some of us sort of are held to higher standards than others? she added.

The House on Thursday also passed three other measures addressing policing and community safety. All voting Democrats supported those measures.

Some Republicans, however, voted against the party on those bills.

Three Republicans voted for the Mental Health Justice Act  sponsored by Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.)  which seeks to provide funds that would go towards training and assigning mental health professionals to help with situations involving individuals who have special behavior needs, rather than deploying a law enforcement official to respond.

GOP Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Jaime Herrera Beutler (Wash.) and Michelle Steel (Calif.) supported the bill.

Fitzpatrick was the only Republican to vote for the Break the Cycle of Violence Act, sponsored by Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), which seeks to allocate grants for coordinated community violence projects in locations that have a disproportionate number of homicides and community violence.

The fourth bill, titled the VICTIM Act and sponsored by Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), passed with widespread bipartisan support: All Democrats present and 30 Republicans voted yes. The measure would direct the Justice Department to establish a grant program to bolster local investigators use of technology to crack cold cases, especially those involving gun violence.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Three orphaned chimpanzees are being held in a heartbreaking scene for a six-figure ransom following their abduction from a sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A video of the animals in a bare brick room was sent to the Lubumbashi sanctuary showing one chimp, Monga, with her hands tied above her head as the other two terrified animals, Hussein and Cesar, try to scramble from their abductors.

You can see how terrified they are, Franck Chantereau, the founder of the sanctuary, the J.A.C.K. Primate Rehabilitation Centre, told The Times of London.

Chantereau said in a tweet that the abductors have also threatened the life of his wife and to kidnap his children.

We need your prayers, he tweeted in French.

KIDNAPPING CHIMP/JOUR 12 -" #Menaces sur la vie de ma femme.Enlevement planifie de mes enfants et demande de #rancon consequente... Les #ravisseurs des #chimpanzes n'ont pas de limites.Voici une video recue des 3 bebes pour vous montrer notre #cauchemar (Franck, Fondateur JACK) pic.twitter.com/JlAlI93DHn  J.A.C.K. - Jeunes Animaux Confisques au Katanga (@JackChimps) September 20, 2022

CHIMP KIDNAPPING - DAY 12- " #Threats to the life of my wife. Planned kidnapping of my children and hefty #ransom demand. The #chimp#kidnappers have no limits. Here's a video of the 3 babies to show you the #nightmare we have been going through"

(Franck - Founder of JACK)  J.A.C.K. - Jeunes Animaux Confisques au Katanga (@JackChimps) September 20, 2022

The abductors, who snatched the chimps early this month, have threatened to kill the animals, ages 2 to 5 years old, and send their heads to the center if their demands for the unspecified amount of money arent met.

Story continues

Chantereau has vowed not to pay the ransom because he believes doing so would only encourage more abductions, but the center is working with law enforcement to locate the abductors and save the chimps.

Chantereau is pessimistic about seeing the chimps again because theyre worth about $11,000 each on the black market.

It is a nightmare  it was such a disaster, Chantereau told online environmental publication Mongabay. We have faced a lot of challenges for ... years now. But we have never experienced anything like this: the kidnapping of apes.

The abducted chimps had been orphaned by the illegal traffic in wildlife, according to Chantereau, which involves the murder of baby chimps families. The most recently rescued chimp, 2-year-old Cesar, had been at the center only a few weeks before he was taken.

They had all been given a second chance, but now this fresh horror, Chantereau told the Times. Since he founded the sanctuary 16 years ago, he said the illegal wildlife trade has become a war, and the roughly 100 endangered apes at his facility are now under armed guard.

Adams Cassinga, director of ConservCongo, a Congolese nonprofit organization that investigates and helps prosecute wildlife crimes, says the incident is a worrying sign that wildlife traffickers are becoming bolder in the absence of effective law enforcement.

This is the first time I have heard of people literally kidnapping animals so that they can ask for money, he said.

Chimpanzees, humans closest relatives, are listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

An estimated 1 million chimpanzees roamed the forests of western and central Africa in the early 1900s. Now their numbers haven dwindled to as few as 150,000. The largest population, around 115,000, is found the DRC, Cameroon and Gabon.

The biggest threats to the chimpanzee are habitat loss, poaching and disease. They are captured and sold as pets and are killed for their meat.

Hussein is one of the three chimps abducted early this month for ransom from the J.A.C.K. Primate Rehabilitation Centre. (Photo: Courtesy J.A.C.K. Primate Rehabilitation Centre)

Hussein is one of the three chimps abducted early this month for ransom from the J.A.C.K. Primate Rehabilitation Centre. (Photo: Courtesy J.A.C.K. Primate Rehabilitation Centre)

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
Beer fads come and beer fads go. But Oktoberfest is eternal.

Germanys legendary beer celebration long ago hopped the Atlantic and into a hearty embrace by countless small brewers across the United States. Even those that have pivoted to the intensely fruity hazy IPA craze and sugary sweet stouts  and maybe even, gasp, hard seltzer  often return to beers roots every fall to make the truest form of Oktoberfest they can.

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Chicago celebrates with particular fervor, and this weekend marks the peak of local Oktoberfest events, which unfold across the city and suburbs as a cornerstone of beer culture and appreciation.

[ 30 Chicago Oktoberfest events and specials, from a 2-pound pretzel to stein-holding contests ]

To get ready, we tasted every locally made Oktoberfest we could get our hands on  more than 25  to find the best of the best, or der beste of der beste, if you prefer. Most local breweries make the traditional marzen style of Oktoberfest beer; others make the lighter, more modern festbier style. Many we tasted were respectable, and only a few were outright duds. But four stood out from the rest. While your best bet will be getting pours at the brewery itself, most of these beers will be available on limited store shelves (we recommend calling ahead first to confirm).

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What makes for a great Oktoberfest beer? Like most things, it comes down to balance. In this case, that means pronounced malt character with a toasty depth and maybe a touch of fruitiness or caramel character before drying out. Too malty, it becomes a goopy mess. Too dry or too bitter, it becomes astringent and abrasive.

Ultimately, if you can happily hoist a liter or two of it  thats nearly 34 ounces at a time  its a quality Oktoberfest. These are the four Id most want in my stein, along with several more that will have you exclaiming a hearty Prost!

The Fab Four

Afterburner (Metropolitan Brewing)

This has long been a local staple of Oktoberfest beers, and it remains so in 2022. A rich and complex aroma veers into light fruitiness  even hints of melon and vague toffee-vanilla territory. But theres nothing fussy about this beer. It leans heavily on its toasted malt character before drying out in a finish thats both elegant and accessible. Metropolitan celebrates Oktoberfest Saturday at the brewery (3057 N. Rockwell St.) from 11 a.m. until 11 p.m. A half-liter stein filled with Afterburner costs $15; a liter stein is $35. The glass is yours to keep. 6.1% alcohol

Fruhauf (Pollyanna Brewing)

This beer won a bronze medal at the 2016 Great American Beer Festival. Does it hold up? Indeed, it does  if I had to pick a favorite from a week of Oktoberfest tasting, this is it. Though lighter in alcohol, Fruhauf comes across as brawnier than Afterburner: darker, more bready and boasting a touch of rye-like spice. Pollyannas Oktoberfest celebration is Saturday at The Forge (1001 Main St., Lemont) from noon to 11 p.m. Tickets cost $10 in advance and $15 at the gate. 5.4%

Oktoberfest (Sketchbook Brewing)

Chicago Tribune readers picked Sketchbook as the areas best under-the-radar brewery and, well, you were right on  especially when Oktoberfest rolls around. This beer splits the difference between Afterburner and Fruhauf; its toasty and lightly fruity, without tacking too hard in either direction. Its not a flashy example of the style but threads the needle wonderfully. Sketchbook hosts three days of Oktoberfest celebrations at its Evanston (821 Chicago Ave.) and Skokie (4901 Main St.) breweries Friday through Sunday, including the requisite stein-holding contests. 5.4%

[ Garrett Popcorn brown ale: Heres how the popcorn-packed Revolution Brewing collab tastes. ]

Spiteful Oktoberfest (Spiteful Brewing)

The lightest of these four in terms of color and character, but that only works to its advantage. Instead of a heavier, bready character, Spitefuls Oktoberfest evokes a softer, toastier note  think of it as lightly toasted bread instead of dark. The result is refreshing and brighter on the palate, but still wonderful depth of flavor and body. Spitefuls Oktoberfest party was last weekend, but the beer remains available at the brewery (2024 W. Balmoral Ave.) on draft and in 16-ounce cans. 5.5%

Honorable mentions

1872 Oktoberfest Lager (Short Fuse Brewing): Drinks bigger and rounder but has that nice toasty middle and touch of creaminess in the texture.

Artoberfest (Art History Brewing): Easy drinking with a silky texture and a malty middle, with a mild bitter heft.

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Festbier (Alter Brewing): Brighter and more refreshing than many local Oktoberfest beers, with a mild malty note.

Festbier (Dovetail Brewery): The booziest Oktoberfest on this list, but layered and nuanced, with slight spice and bite in the finish.

P3 Oktoberfest (Phase Three Brewing): This amber-hued easy drinker is refreshing and clean on the palate.

Pipeworks Festbier (Pipeworks Brewing): The rare local Oktoberfest beer thats more festbier than marzen, with more pale straw character than toasty malt presence. It drinks light but remains formidable.

Take Me to Your Liter (Hailstorm Brewing): Leans sweeter, lighter and rounder than most other Oktoberfest beers, but what it does, it does well.

Waddle (Off Color Brewing): The purists may be put off by this beer  its darker and drinks bigger, bolder and a bit sweeter than many others  but its tasty, with no wonky flavors.

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jbnoel@chicagotribune.com
A retired guidance counselor said she worked for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools for almost 16 years when she started having health issues and needed to take time off.

She wasnt worried about losing income because she had short-term disability, but the woman contacted Channel 9 after she spent about two years trying to get paid.

ALSO READ: Scammers may ask you to download this program so they can access your device

Judith Osho said she was dealing with some serious health issues a few years ago and stopped working.

She said the school district paid part of her salary and that short-term disability was supposed to pay the rest ($14,400) but it didnt.

Fortunately, for me, I am married and my husband had to just step in and pay more, she told Action 9s Jason Stoogenke.

She contacted the insurance company, Trustmark, but she said she kept getting a lot of roadblocks.

Osho said she had to gather and send the company dozens of documents to support her claim and they went back-and-forth for about two years.

She even talked to a lawyer and the North Carolina Department of Insurance, but still couldnt get her money.

Stoogenke emailed Trustmark and a few weeks later the company emailed him this response:

Thanks again for bringing this to our attention. As mentioned (the week before), we escalated this to our customer service team, and they were able to connect with the insured directly. They apologized as this is not the standard of service Trustmark is known for and the claim was resolved to her satisfaction.

The only thing I (knew) to try after watching you on TV was to see if you could look into it and maybe get this resolved, she told Stoogenke. I was like 100% sure if I had never reached out and got you involved, I wouldnt have gotten my benefit.

ALSO READ: Charlotte mom owed hundreds by phone company after sons death

Stoogenke says if you have problems receiving short-term disability:

- Keep good records.

- Be patient, but not too patient. Osho said she should have reached out to Action 9 sooner.

Story continues

- File a complaint with the state Department of Insurance.

- If it all else fails, you may want to hire a disability lawyer, which may sound pricey, but many offer free consultations and only charge if you win.

(Watch below: Action 9 helps homeowner get $3,700 from home warranty company)
Adam Levine and Maroon 5 will still perform at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Oct. 1 as the musician battles cheating allegations.

The band is currently on tour, and Levine has no plans to let the scandal stop him from performing. After Maroon 5s performance in Las Vegas, the group is set to head overseas to Singapore in November.

Levine, 43, has been dominating the headlines since Instagram model Sumner Stroh said the two had a yearlong affair while Levine was married to Behati Prinsloo. She shared screenshots of the "Sugar" singer allegedly asking if he could name his third child "Sumner."

Adam Levine is set to perform in Las Vegas in October as he battles cheating allegations. Shlomi Pinto

Four other women have come forward, claiming Levine sent them flirtatious texts and DMs.

Levine denied the affair with Stroh but acknowledged that he had "crossed the line."

ADAM LEVINE DENIES AFFAIR AFTER CHEATING RUMORS BUT ADMITS HE 'CROSSED THE LINE'

"In certain instances, it became inappropriate; I have addressed that and taken proactive steps to remedy this with my family," Levine wrote in a statement.

"My wife and my family is all I care about in this world. To be this naive and stupid enough to risk the only thing that truly matters to me was the greatest mistake I could ever make," he added. "I will never make it again. I take full responsibility. We will get through it. And we will get through it together."

From left, Matt Flynn, Adam Levine, Jesse Carmichael and James Valentine of Maroon 5. Paras Griffin

"He maintains that none of these interactions became physical," a source close to Levine told Fox News Digital.

ADAM LEVINE ACCUSED OF SENDING FLIRTATIOUS TEXTS TO 20-YEAR-OLD: I KNEW IT WAS WEIRD

The latest accuser to come forward is Ashley Russell. Russell, now 21, shared screenshots with the Daily Mail and explained that Levine began corresponding with her after viewing her Instagram stories. The daily direct message exchanges happened earlier this year, the outlet reported.

Allegations continue to surface as women accuse Adam Levine of inappropriate behavior. Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Baby2Baby

Before Russell, Levine's former yoga teacher, Alanna Zabel, claimed she received text messages from Levine that led to a violent outcome.

Story continues

ADAM LEVINE ACCUSED OF CHEATING: 7 MORE WILD CELEBRITY INFIDELITY SCANDALS

Zabel shared to her since-deleted Instagram story, "One day he texted me saying I want to spend the day with you naked. I was in the bath but my jealous ex saw it and went into a rage."

She continued on, writing, "I assured my ex that I was sure it was meant for Adam's then girlfriend, Becky, and was a mistake. I texted Adam to ask if that was the case. Adam didn't replyand my ex became violent, breaking my wrist."

Zabel went on to allege Levine did not acknowledge the serious abuse she had suffered at the hands of her ex-boyfriend.

"Massive life changing, destructive moment, and when I told Adam he ignored it, never apologized, removed me from the (sic) upcoming tour and iced me out during one of the most devastating times of my life, all from his one flirtatious text," she alleged.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER

Levine, who is married to former Victoria's Secret Angel Behati Prinsloo, is expecting his third child with his wife of eight years. Prinsloo shared the news to her Instagram, just days before Stroh released her bombshell video.

A source on behalf of Prinsloo told People magazine on Tuesday that Levine is "trying his best to make things better."

The pair was spotted out and about together in Montecito, California, on Wednesday as they appeared to be chatting and laughing among each other.

Fox News Lauryn Overhultz and Caroline Thayer contributed to this report.
EXCLUSIVE: The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) in Colorado is encouraging cadets to apply for a fellowship program for "gender minorities" that specifies "cisgender" men need not apply.

The academy sent an email on Sept. 14 informing cadets that the 2023 application for the Brooke Owens Fellowship for "undergraduate women and gender minorities interested in aerospace" is due by Oct. 10.

The application on the fellowships website says, "If you are a cisgender man, this program isnt for you."

"If you are a cisgender woman, a transgender woman, non-binary, agender, bigender, two-spirit, demigender, genderfluid, genderqueer, or another form of gender minority, this program is for you," the application states. "If you are a cisgender man, this program isnt for you... but we encourage you to check out our spinoff programs, the Patti Grace Smith Fellowship and the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program."

Air Force Academy cadets salute during the national anthem at Falcon Stadium for their graduation ceremony on May 25, 2022, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images

AIR FORCE ACADEMY DIVERSITY TRAINING TELLS CADETS TO USE WORDS THAT INCLUDE ALL GENDERS, DROP MOM AND DAD

The USAFAs email said the Brooke Owens Fellowship is a "nine-week paid internship at a leading aerospace company" and that any undergraduate who is a "woman or gender minority" is welcome to apply.

Another nine-week paid internship mentioned in the email, the Patti Grace Smith Fellowship, is only available for Black cadets pursuing aerospace careers.

Fox News Digital obtained the email from a concerned cadet who requested anonymity in order to avoid retaliatory measures/professional repercussions. The cadet alleged that the USAFA is hyper-focused on diversity and inclusion (D&I) instead of the military threats the country faces.

"It's a little worrying that we have more briefs about D&I than briefs about foreign adversaries, emerging technologies or current events across the world," the cadet said.

Fox News Digital reported Thursday that a D&I training by the USAFA instructs cadets to use words that "include all genders" and to refrain from saying things like "mom" and "dad."

Story continues

The slide presentation titled, "Diversity & Inclusion: What it is, why we care, & what we can do," provided to Fox News Digital by Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., advises cadets to use "person-centered" and gender-neutral language when describing individuals.

"Some families are headed by single parents, grandparents, foster parents, two moms, two dads, etc.: consider parent or caregiver instead of mom and dad,'" the presentation states. "Use words that include all genders: Folks or Yall instead of guys; partner vs. boyfriend or girlfriend."

"Not Colorblind or I dont see color, but Color Conscious," it adds. "We see Color/Patterns AND VALUE people for their uniqueness."

Waltz, a Green Beret and Afghan War veteran, pointed out during an interview with Fox News Digital on Wednesday that "it's been a tradition in the military to get letters from mom and dad or your boyfriend and girlfriend for as long as there's been a military."

"Now we're instructing every cadet entering the Air Force to not say mom and dad, to not say boyfriend or girlfriend, and this kind of drive towards gender neutrality," he said. "I think the Air Force should be worried about the macro aggressions against America that are happening all over the world."

The USAFA also offers a "Cadet Wing Diversity and Inclusion Program," where graduates are given a purple rope to wear across their left shoulder "symbolizing their position as a diversity representative" so that they can "advise students on diversity," according to a press release.

Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., conducts a news conference with House Republicans in the Capitol Visitor Center after a briefing by administration leaders on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan on Aug. 24, 2021. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

An Air Force Academy spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital on Wednesday that the D&I training is to help prepare cadets for "warfighting effectiveness."

"As part of the Diversity & Inclusion Cadet Leadership Program, this conversation was developed by cadet leaders and USAFA staff to introduce all cadets to Department of the Air Force definitions of diversity and inclusion, as well as how these concepts enhance our warfighting effectiveness," the spokesperson said. "USAFA develops leaders of character that can lead diverse teams of Airmen and Guardians inclusively, to enhance innovation and win future conflict.

"It is the diversity of Airmen and Guardians coming from all corners of our nation who perform the Department of the Air Forces hundreds of critical mission sets that make us the best, most innovative Air and Space Forces the world has ever known," the spokesperson said.

In a second statement Thursday afternoon, the USAFA clarified that it "does not prohibit the use of 'mom and dad' or other gender specific terms."

"The Air Force Academy does not prohibit the use of 'mom and dad' or other gender-specific terms," Superintendent Lt. Gen. Rich Clark said. "The recent briefing on diversity and inclusion is being taken out of context and misrepresented; the slide in question was not intended to stand alone."

"First and foremost, the briefing centered on respect for others and the warfighting imperative of leveraging diverse perspectives to solve our nation's most difficult national security problems," Clark added. "Our strategic competitors are doing the opposite. Our American diversity is a strategic advantage and opens the door to creative solutions, providing a competitive edge in air, space and cyberspace."

The academy did not respond to Fox News Digitals inquiries Thursday about the Brooke Owens Fellowship.
TipRanks

The stock market is often a game in reverse psychology. That is, when the mood gets too euphoric, its often a sign it is time to sell. Likewise, when sentiment hits the skids, that could be the ultimate signal the time is right to load up the truck. And on that subject, J.P. Morgans Marko Kolanovic thinks we are at  or at least near  the bottom. The firms global market strategist believes the Feds hawkish stance has left stocks very oversold, and while inflation remains persistently high
Kentuckys chief prosecutor has delivered, figuratively speaking, an indictment with no evidence.

Attorney General Daniel Cameron sent a fund-raising email Sept. 15 that said, The media is actively coordinating messaging efforts with Democrats and their Propaganda Machine to destroy the GOPs chances this November.

There are several problems with that; the biggest is that Cameron wont provide evidence to back it up.

Kentucky Fried Politics reported the email Saturday. Monday, I asked Camerons campaign to provide specific evidence General Cameron has of such coordination, which could constitute serious violations of journalistic ethics.

President Donald Trump, left, brought candidate for Kentucky attorney general Daniel Cameron up to the stage after he made remarks supporting him at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky. on Nov. 4, 2019.

More:Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron comes to Trump's defense in Mar-a-Lago case

As I write this, two days have passed, and there has been no response. Thats typical of Camerons campaign, say reporters covering it. His official staff refers political inquiries to the campaign, so the only way to ask him questions, other than buttonholing him at some public event, is to email info@cameronforgovernor.com. We have no idea who reads the emails, and we cant go to his campaign office; the only address listed for it is a mail drop in Lexington.

Such treatment of the news media is becoming more common, especially among Republicans, who have long suspected or believed that reporters are operating with political motives, partly because most national political reporters are registered Democrats. But Cameron isnt accusing journalists of bias or poor judgment; hes alleging partisan conspiracy.

Almost all reporters I know have no political allegiance; their allegiance is to the truth, and to the audiences they serve. Those are the first two tenets of The Elements of Journalism, a book by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, which lays out the responsibilities of journalists in a democratic society  and the rights and responsibilities of citizens when it comes to the news. I recommend it; heres a summary of the tenets.

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That book or website are obviously not on the reading list of Donald Trump, who calls the news media the enemy of the people, or of Daniel Cameron, whose campaign has an official-looking letterhead that identifies him as attorney general and Trump-endorsed Republican for Kentucky governor.

More from Al Cross:How much is Trumps endorsement worth now? Or later?

That line isnt designed for discerning readers, and neither was Camerons email. He wrote about this falls elections, in which he is not running; he was seeking money for his gubernatorial candidacy, which isnt on the ballot until May.

Playing on the presidents unpopularity, he wrote, Biden is counting on KY Dems to win so he can enforce his far-left agenda in the Commonwealth. That makes no sense, because Democrats have no hope of gaining a majority in either house of the legislature in November.

A few finer points: Saying The media is ignores the fact that the media are plural, despite the more common usage of the singular; and Cameron was talking about the news media, a term they need to use more often to differentiate themselves from social media. The third tenet of the Elements of Journalism is, Its essence is a discipline of verification. Social media have no discipline and no verification.

When Kentucky journalists are finally able to ask Cameron about his unfounded charge, he might claim he was referring to national news media. However, the emails subject line was The KY GOP needs your help. But the help Cameron sought goes to him!

Perhaps Cameron thinks that the targets of his solicitation arent smart enough to see through his obfuscations as he follows Trumps lead in making unfounded allegations for political gain.

It remains a mystery how Cameron obtained Trumps endorsement, but more and more, they seem made for each other. Or perhaps Cameron, a protege of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is trying to remake himself in Trumps image  and make sure he keeps Trumps sole endorsement in the governors race now that it includes Kelly Craft, who Trump appointed ambassador to Canada and then the United Nations.

On Tuesday, Cameron joined 10 other Republican attorneys general in a friend of the court brief to a federal appeals court hearing the Justice Departments appeal of a Trump-appointed judges decision to name a special master to review materials the FBI seized at Trumps home. The brief is more political screed than legal argument, mentioning the Biden administration 30 times in 21 pages.

Cameron had much promise when he got into politics. Now he is devolving, along with many in his party. They have fallen into the Trump trap, fearing what his followers will do to them if they arent Trumpist enough. Camerons official-looking letterhead suggests formation of a faction  one that needs to fail, for the good of the party and the country. Maybe thats why McConnell called a good idea the cruel immigration stunt in Massachusetts by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is Republicans leading alternative to Trump for 2024. A lesser evil, but not by much.

Al Cross, a former Courier Journal political writer, is professor and director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky. He writes this column for the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism. Reach him on Twitter @ruralj.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Al Cross: Is Daniel Cameron remaking himself in Trumps image?
WATERBURY, Conn. (AP)  Lawyers in the defamation trial of Alex Jones agreed Friday not to return him to the stand until next week after a contentious day of testimony Thursday about his promotion of the lie that the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax.

Jones lawyer, Norm Pattis, told the judge he would waive his right to cross-examine the Infowars host and instead call him again as a defense witness next week.

We think that this will streamline the proceeding, lower the temperature level and help the jury focus on what it needs to decide, Pattis said in Superior Court in Waterbury, Connecticut, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the elementary school in Newtown where 20 first graders and six educators were killed.

The jury was sent home around noon. It will determine how much in damages Jones and Infowars' parent company, Free Speech Systems, should pay relatives of five children and three adults killed at the school, for saying the shooting didn't happen and inflicting emotional distress. An FBI agent who responded to the shooting also is a plaintiff.

In his first day of testimony Thursday, Jones got into a heated exchange with plaintiffs' attorney Christopher Mattei, accusing the lawyer of ambulance chasing and saying he was done apologizing for claiming the shooting was staged. In recent years, Jones has acknowledged the massacre happened, but says the families of victims are being used to push a gun-control and anti-free speech agenda.

Outside the courthouse and on his Infowars show, Jones has referred to the proceedings as a show trial and a kangaroo court and called Judge Barbara Bellis a tyrant, posting an image of her with lasers shooting from her eyes.

Jones on Friday was still complaining about the case, including the limits on what he can say on the witness stand.

Basically it would be like a boxing match where one guy has his arms tied behind his back and a gag in his mouth, he said outside the courthouse. So this is totally rigged. Its an absolute total fraud.

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Jones also said that if he could, he would tell the jury to research history and understand how dangerous it is when theyll pick one event of speech that they can say is hurtful, to then use that to set the precedent, to try to knock over all the dominoes and take everybodys free speech away.

The comments drew immediate concern from the plaintiffs' lawyers, who accused Jones of trying to undermine the trial and taint the jury. They informed Bellis about Jones' statements.

Before dismissing jurors for the day, Bellis repeated her daily instructions that they should not discuss the case with anybody, not view any media coverage and not do any outside research. Because of Jones comments Friday, she also told jurors they should avoid any news conferences outside the courthouse.

The plaintiffs' lawyers sent Bellis' clerk a link to a video of what Jones said earlier Friday, for her to determine whether any sanctions were warranted. Bellis asked Pattis to convince Jones to stop making such statements, and he agreed to try.

Bellis last year found Jones and his company liable by default for damages to plaintiffs without a trial, a consequence for what she called his repeated failure to turn over documents to their lawyers.

Earlier in the trial, victims' relatives gave often emotional testimony describing how they endured death threats, in-person harassment and abusive comments on social media by people calling the shooting a hoax. Some moved to avoid the abuse.

Pattis is arguing that any damages should be limited and accused the victims relatives of exaggerating the harm the lies caused them.

Bellis has ordered Jones not to mention in his testimony several topics, including free speech rights and his claims he only discussed Sandy Hook in a small percentage of his shows.

In a similar trial last month in Austin, Texas, home to Jones and Infowars, a jury ordered Jones to pay nearly $50 million in damages to the parents of one of the children killed in the shooting, because of the hoax lies. A third such trial in Texas involving two other parents is expected to begin near the end of the year.

The Connecticut trial is scheduled to resume Tuesday.

___

This story was corrected to show that the plaintiffs include relatives of eight Sandy Hook shooting victims, not eight of the children killed.

____

Associated Press writer Michael Hill contributed to this report from Waterbury.
(Allison Rice/Facebook )

Police have said they have no indication the fatal shooting of Louisiana State University student Allison was the result of gang violence.

The Baton Rouge Police Department held a press conference Thursday on the murder of 21-year-old Rice, who was found shot dead inside her car on Government Street at around 2am on 16 September.

Theres a lot of things being looked at that Im not going to go over right now. I do understand that there was a rumour going around that this was some kind of gang initiation and this was a targeted attack. We have zero indication that that is the case, Chief Murphy Paul said.

The FBI, the DEA and the ATF have joined the investigation. Authorities believe Rice was shot multiple times while waiting for a train to pass as she returned home from a gathering with friends. A motive behind the attack has not been established.

The press conference to address the rising crime in Baton Rouge came a day after the senior marketing student at LSU was laid to rest. Her killing has shaken the community, with more than 500 people attending her funeral, her father Paul Rice told Fox News.

Although police have not found a connection between gang violence and Ms Rices killing, the presser was called after law enforcement compiled worrying intel about eight gangs currently operating in the city.

This day, in particular, was selected just yesterday, based on investigative intelligence, which suggests that gun violence between specifically identified gangs in our city are looming, Mr Paul said.

FBI 2020 data shows that Baton Rouge is one of the cities with the highest homicide rates in Louisiana. According to the World Population Review, the city had a total of 83 homicides in 2019  a murder rate of 33.5 per 100,000, compared to the national homicide rate of 5 murders per 100,000 people.

Baton Rouge mayor Sharon Weston said Thursday that city officials can not turn a blind eye to continuous offences by the same groups of individuals.

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Allison Rice, 21 was killed on 16 September while she returned home froma .gathering with friends (Allison Rice/Facebook)

My heart goes out to the family, loved ones, and classmates of Allison Rice, a young LSU student who had her entire life ahead of her, Ms Weston said last week. This senseless violence is completely unacceptable and Baton Rouge Police officers are thoroughly investigating to bring the perpetrator to justice.

Mr Rice told Fox News that law enforcement had finished processing her daughters car, which was riddled with bullets by the assailants. The front and drivers side windows were completely shot out, he said.

Speaking about seeing his daughters face at the funeral on Wednesday, Mr Rice told Fox: She looked so peaceful, and she had a tiny little smirk on her face. You could see that little bit of an Allie smile. You look at her, its almost like shes pretending to be asleep, and youre waiting for her to open her eyes at any moment.

You would never know the child had 10 bullet holes in her.

On Monday, Mr Rice told The Independent that police have not received any clues that indicate the attack was targeted.

From what were understanding, their best call at the moment is it seems to be a wrong place at the wrong time scenario, he said.
Iranian demonstrators take to the streets of the capital Tehran on 21 September, 2022 (AFP via Getty Images)

Anonymous has hacked thousands of security cameras in Iran in support of widespread protests in the country, the hacking collective has claimed.

The latest action follows cyber attacks on government websites and state TV channels this week as part of #OpIran, which comes in response to the death of Mahsa Amini.

The 22-year-old woman died after being taken into custody by the countrys morality police, who had accused her of violating Irans strict Islamic dress code by wearing her headscarf too loosely.

Her death prompted protests in towns and cities across Iran, with some women publicly removing and burning their mandatory headscarfs.

Online activists claiming to be part of Anonymous have also organised online, coordinating their efforts to disprupt state-run media and infiltrate security infrastructure.

More than 2,000 CCTV and web-connected security cameras in Iran were reportedly compromised by exploiting Internet of Things (IoT) security vulnerabilities.

We hear the calls of the Iranian people, a popular Anonymous-affiliated account tweeted on Thursday.

We understand the abuse you suffer, and we will do our best to help the people of Iran as much as we can. Many hacktivists around the globe support the people of Iran and understand how repressive your government is.

the most accurate result , i am controlling more than 1000+ cameras of iran ( like street , police station , office , house , grocery store , etc ) They will pay for what they did, we will continue to attack Iran#Anonymous#OpIran pic.twitter.com/3JnGn2x4Lm  Anonymous VietNam (@Anonymous_VNPC) September 22, 2022

Earlier this week, a separate Anonymous-affiliated Twitter account posted a video announcing the latest operation against the dictatorial Iranian government.

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The #OpIran hashtag trended globally on the platform shortly after the video was posted, as users called for solidarity with those protesting Aminis death.

The Iranian people are not alone, the video stated. Anonymous will not keep the Iranian government alive on the internet as long as they fight the dictatorial rule and fight the murderous cops.

Now Anonymous will shut you down and your own people will remove you from power. Its too late for expect us; We are here.

There have been reports of violent crackdowns at the protests, with human rights groups saying that at least 36 people have died.

Ebrahim Raisi, the president of Iran, said at a news conference on Thursday in New York, where he is attendint the UN general assembly, that acts of chaos would not be tolerated.

He also said that Aminis death and the actions of the morality police must certainly be investigated.
A former actor on the CW series "Riverdale" has been sentenced to life in prison after admitting to killing his mother and planning to assassinate Canadian Prime Minister Justice Trudeau.

Ryan Grantham, 24, was sentenced at British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver on Tuesday. The actor is also ineligible for parole for the next 14 years.

Grantham had previously pled guilty to the second-degree murder of his 64-year-old mother Barbara Waite.

Waite was reportedly playing piano in the family's Squamish, British Columbia home on March 31, 2020, when her son shot her in the back of the head.

RIVERDALE STAR LILI REINHART REVEALS AN IMPOSTER HAS BEEN POSING AS HER IN INTERVIEWS

Actor Ryan Grantham arrives at 2013 UBCP/ACTRA Awards on November 24, 2013, in Vancouver, Canada. Andrew Chin/Getty Images

During a June hearing, prosecutors said that the young actor recorded a GoPro video in the wake of the killing and recorded his mother's dead body.

"I shot her in the back of the head," Grantham reportedly admitted on video. "In the moments after, she would have known it was me."

Grantham reportedly wanted to shield his mother from witnessing the acts of violence he planned to commit after, according to prosecutors. Her body was soon found by Grantham's sister, Lisa.

The day after the killing, the actor reportedly packed his truck up with Molotov cocktails, guns and ammunition and drove east with the intention of killing Trudeau in Ottawa.

Grantham then turned around after thinking about committing a mass shooting at Simon Fraser University, where he was enrolled. He eventually turned himself in to the Vancouver Police Department that night.

CANADIAN PM TRUDEAU SLAMMED FOR SINGING ROCK SONG DURING QUEEN'S MOURNING PERIOD: 'AN INTERNATIONAL DISGRACE'



Grantham admitting to planning to assassinate Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before eventually turning himself in. DAVE CHAN/AFP via Getty Images

The young actor had reportedly experienced feelings of depression and self-hatred, which prosecutors believe was exacerbated by isolation, smoking an excessive amount of cannabis and watching gory videos on the Internet.

In a journal entry written the day of the killing, Grantham reportedly apologized to his family and said "no one" would understand him.

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"I'm so sorry mom, I'm so sorry Lisa... I hate myself," he wrote, according to prosecutors. "There's a lot of media of me out there film and TV hundreds of hours of me that can be viewed and dissected... No one will understand."

Justice Kathleen Ker noted that Grantham was receiving counseling in prison and appeared to be improving, according to the CBC.

Ryan Grantham portrayed teenager Jeffery Augustine on the horror-crime series "Riverdale," which is inspired by the "Archie" comic book series. He appears in Season 4 for killing a main character, Fred Andrews, with his father's truck.

His other credits include minor roles in the TV series "Supernatural" and the 2013 movie "Diary of a Wimpy Kid."
Hilary Mantel, winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, poses with a copy of her book 'Bring up the Bodies', shortly after the award ceremony in central London, on Oct. 16, 2012. (Lefteris Pitarakis/AP)

LONDON  Hilary Mantel, the Booker Prize-winning author who turned Tudor power politics into page-turning fiction in the acclaimed Wolf Hall trilogy of historical novels, has died, her publisher said Friday. She was 70.

Mantel died suddenly yet peacefully on Thursday surrounded by close family and friends, publisher HarperCollins said.

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Mantel is credited with reenergizing historical fiction with Wolf Hall and two sequels about the 16th-century English powerbroker Thomas Cromwell, right-hand man to King Henry VIII  and in Mantels hands, the charismatic antihero of a bloody, high-stakes political drama.

The publisher said Mantel was one of the greatest English novelists of this century.

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Her beloved works are considered modern classics. She will be greatly missed, it said in a statement.

Author J.K. Rowling tweeted: Weve lost a genius. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said it is impossible to overstate the significance of the literary legacy Hilary Mantel leaves behind.

Mantel won the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction twice, for Wolf Hall in 2009 and its sequel Bring Up the Bodies in 2012. Both were adapted for the stage and television.

The trilogys final instalment, The Mirror and the Light, was published in 2020.

Nicholas Pearson, Mantels longtime editor, said her death was devastating.

Only last month I sat with her on a sunny afternoon in Devon, while she talked excitedly about the new novel she had embarked on, he said. That we wont have the pleasure of any more of her words is unbearable. What we do have is a body of work that will be read for generations.

Born in Derbyshire in central England in 1952, Mantel attended a convent school, then studied at the London School of Economics and Sheffield University. She worked as a social worker at a geriatric hospital, an experience she drew on for her first two novels, Every Day Is Mothers Day, published in 1985, and Vacant Possession, which followed the next year.

In the 1970s and 1980s she lived in Botswana and Saudi Arabia with her husband, Gerald McEwen, a geologist.

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Mantel had been a published novelist for almost 25 years when her first book about Cromwell made her a literary superstar. Before Wolf Hall, she was the critically acclaimed but modestly selling author of novels on subjects ranging from the French Revolution (A Place of Greater Safety) to the life of a psychic medium (Beyond Black).

For most of my career I wrote about odd and marginal people, Mantel said in 2017. They were psychic. Or religious. Or institutionalized. Or social workers. Or French. My readers were a small and select band, until I decided to march on to the middle ground of English history and plant a flag.

Mantel turned Cromwell, a shadowy Tudor political fixer, into a compelling, complex literary hero, by turns thoughtful and thuggish.

A self-made man who rose from poverty to power, Cromwell was an architect of the Reformation who helped King Henry VIII realize his desire to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn  and later, to be rid of Boleyn so he could marry Jane Seymour, the third of what would be Henrys six wives.

The Vaticans refusal to annul Henrys first marriage led the monarch to reject the authority of the pope and install himself as head of the Church of England.

The dramatic period saw England transformed from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant nation, from medieval kingdom to emerging modern state, and it has inspired countless books, films and television series, from A Man for All Seasons to The Tudors.

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But Mantel managed to make the well-known story exciting and suspenseful.

Im very keen on the idea that a historical novel should be written pointing forward, she told The Associated Press in 2009. Remember that the people you are following didnt know the end of their own story. So they were going forward day by day, pushed and jostled by circumstances, doing the best they could, but walking in the dark, essentially.

Mantel also turned a sharp eye to Britains modern-day royalty. A 2013 lecture in which she described the former Kate Middleton, wife of Prince William, as a shop-window mannequin, with no personality of her own drew the ire of the British tabloid press.

Mantel said she wasnt talking about the duchess herself but rather describing a view of Kate constructed by the press and public opinion. The author nonetheless received criticism from then-Prime Minister David Cameron, among others.

Right-wing commentators also took issue with a short story entitled The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, which imagined an attack on the former Conservative leader. It was published in 2014, the same year Queen Elizabeth II made Mantel a dame, the female equivalent of a knight.

Mantel remained politically outspoken. An opponent of Brexit, she said in 2021 that she hoped to gain Irish citizenship and become a European again.

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In addition to her fiction, Mantel wrote a 2003 memoir, Giving Up the Ghost, that chronicled years of ill-health, including undiagnosed endometriosis that left her infertile.

She once said the years of illness wrecked her dream of becoming a lawyer but made her a writer.

Mantels literary agent, Bill Hamilton, said the author had dealt stoically with chronic health problems.

We will miss her immeasurably, but as a shining light for writers and readers she leaves an extraordinary legacy, he said.

Mantel is survived by her husband.
The Daily Beast

Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesThe widespread media attention to recent events at Berkeley Law are stunningly misleading and inaccurate.An opinion column in the Jewish Journal, which is titled, Berkeley Develops Jewish-Free Zones, paints a grossly misleading picture of what happened at Berkeley Law.To state it plainly: There is no Jewish-Free Zone at Berkeley Law or on the UC-Berkeley campus. The Law Schools rules are clear that no speaker can
Armie Hammer (left) and Elizabeth Chambers in 2019. (Photo: Amy Sussman via Getty Images)

Armie Hammer (left) and Elizabeth Chambers in 2019. (Photo: Amy Sussman via Getty Images)

A woman who accused Armie Hammer of sexual assault is now speaking out against the actors estranged wife, Elizabeth Chambers, following an interview in which Chambers said she supported her husbands efforts to prioritize his healing.

Speaking to E! News, Chambers confirmed that she has moved on to a committed relationship with wellness therapist Ricardas Kazinec, though her divorce from Hammer has not yet been finalized. Still, she emphasized that she and the Social Network actor are in a great place and talk all the time as they learn to co-parent their two children.

Kids need their mom; kids need their dad, Chambers said. So theres nothing we wont do. She went on to note that Hammer has been focused on his healing and that shes here to support that process.

On Wednesday, however, Hammers accuser  identified only as Effie  shared a series of screenshots to her House of Effie Instagram account that appear to show messages sent by Chambers encouraging her to go public with her assault allegations against Hammer.

Hes truly a psychopath, one of the messages reads. And hes never been with kids all day. Ever.

In a separate message, Chambers allegedly tells Effie that she needed Hammer to leave the Cayman Islands, where the actors family relocated as the allegations against him continued to mount.

I forced him to come here via court order to try and be a father and now hes a risk to them, the message reads. He needs to go. Had a few days with them, but then drunk/high/violent.

According to People, Effie concluded her series of Instagram stories  many of which can be found here  with a note that read: Just some things to keep in mind before anyone else keeps wishing rapists healing.

In an email statement to HuffPost, a representative for Chambers dismissed the implication that Chambers had urged Effie to come forward.

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Given the extent and nature of allegations that were made, Elizabeth sought to determine the veracity of those allegations. She was very sensitive to all parties involved, the statement read. The safety and well being of their children remains her priority.

Hammers professional life was thrown in a tailspin last year when House of Effie posted screenshots of messages that appeared to have been sent from the actors account that included references to violent sexual acts and cannibalism.

Though Hammer denied the claims, the controversy that ensued prompted him to withdraw from a number of high-profile projects, like the Jennifer Lopez comedy Shotgun Wedding and the Broadway production of The Minutes.

About two months after the messages were posted, Effie came forward at a news conference organized by her former attorney, Gloria Allred. She accused Hammer of having raped her in 2017, and said that the two were in a four-year relationship that ended sometime in 2020.

Shortly afterward, Hammer checked himself into a treatment facility to address issues related to drugs, alcohol and sex. He has maintained a low profile for most of 2022, and in July was reportedly seen working at a hotel resort in the Cayman Islands.

The accusations leveled against Hammer by Effie and other women are examined in-depth in a Discovery+ docuseries, House of Hammer, released last month.

Need help? Visit RAINNs National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Centers website.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

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SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia is aiming for a stable relationship with China despite differences, especially on trade, Australia's foreign minister said, as she called on Beijing to use its influence as a great power to help end the war in Ukraine.

Australia's ties with its largest trading partner are at a low after disputes over a number of issues, including the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, trade and Australian accusations of Chinese interference.

"I think it is a long road on which many steps will have to be taken by both parties to a more stable relationship," Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong told reporters after meeting her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Thursday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

"In terms of issues of difference, obviously first amongst them is the issue of trade blockages, and that is the issue I focussed on at the outset," she said.

In the meeting, the Chinese minister emphasised the importance of stable bilateral ties, which he said ought to be more resilient and not be prone to "accidents" given 50 years of diplomatic relations, according to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry on Saturday.

China is willing to "properly resolve differences and promote the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations", Wang said.

Wong, who said the meeting was constructive, also urged China, as one of the five permanent, veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council (P5), to use its influence to help end the Ukraine crisis.

"China is a great power," she said. "We encourage China as a P5 member with a special responsibility to uphold the U.N. charter to use its influence to end the war."

She said Russia's invasion of Ukraine was illegal and President Vladimir Putin's threat to use nuclear weapons was "unthinkable and irresponsible".

Wong said she raised with Wang the issue of Australian journalist Cheng Lei and blogger Yang Hengjun, who have been detained in China and face espionage charges.

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Thursday's meeting, the second of the two diplomats in three months, comes as Australia's recently elected Labor government looks to rebuild ties after a sharp deterioration during the term of the previous conservative government.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said this week "there was a belligerence in the way in which the former government spoke", and his government was looking to change the tone.

(Reporting by Lewis Jackson and Renju Jose; Additional reporting by Ryan Woo in Beijing; Editing by Robert Birsel and William Mallard)
CANBERRA, Australia (AP)  Australian lawmakers paid tribute Friday to Queen Elizabeth II, with some also weighing in on the republic debate, after they returned to parliament from a break taken to observe the queen's death.

An obscure and longstanding protocol in Australia bars parliament from sitting for 15 days following a British monarchs death. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese decided to follow the protocol.

Albanese has previously said he wants an Australian president to replace the British monarch as the nations head of state, although he has avoided getting entangled in the republic debate since the queen's death.

Each chamber of Australias parliament  the Senate and the House  spent Friday passing condolence motions for the late monarch as well as congratulating King Charles III on his accession to the throne.

Albanese said it was hard to grasp that the queen was now just a memory after her seven-decade reign.

She was a rare and reassuring constant amidst rapid change, Albanese said.

Elizabeth visited Australia 16 times during her reign.

She got to know us, appreciate us, embrace us, and the feeling was very much mutual, Albanese said.

The prime minister offered his condolences to King Charles III.

We think of King Charles, who feels the weight of this sorrow, as he takes on the weight of the crown, Albanese said. At the dawn of his reign, we wish His Majesty well.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton said Australians had drawn on the wisdom of the queen's words and the comfort of her voice.

She admired that Australian trait to honor those who go about their essential business without fuss or media attention," Dutton said. But of course, wherever the queen went, crowds choked the streets cheering, and clapping, and waving their flags to express their adoration.

Adam Bandt, leader of the small Australian Greens party, expressed his condolences but reiterated his support for Australia to become a republic.

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The queens passing means that we get a new head of state without having any say in the matter. It is absolutely the appropriate time to talk respectfully about whether that is right for us as a country, he said.

We can offer our condolences to those grieving her personally, while also talking respectfully about what it means for us as a people, Bandt added.

Lawmakers also spoke about the link between the monarchy and colonization.

For many Indigenous Australians, the legacy of the monarchy is fraught  a complex, difficult, and painful reminder of the impact of colonization," said Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney. This week has seen many wrestling with swirling emotions."

She said many Indigenous people respected Elizabeth.

The queens relationship with Indigenous Australians reflects both how far we have come and how far we still have to go, Burney said.

British High Commissioner Vicki Treadell was at parliament to hear the tributes.
A caller reported seeing someone throw a plastic tote over a Central Florida bridge from a moving vehicle this week, according to a Thursday Facebook post from Orlando-based Orange County Animal Services,.

An incident report from the Orange County Sheriffs Office said the witness, who was out walking her dog, flagged down a deputy for help.

The concerned resident, looking from the top of the span, said a dog could be seen curled up inside the bag.

A rescue officer along with a deputy with the Orange County Sheriffs Office, responded. They discovered a young female inside the small blue plastic tote that had been thrown away like garbage, said the post.

READ MORE: See how a dog got stuck (and then unstuck) in a gate in Florida

The pair climbed down the steep embankment, and were eventually able to pull the animal, a beige pit bull, to safety.

The deputy named her rescue Daisy, said the incident report.

The 2-year-old pup wasnt injured, and shortly after her ordeal, she was adopted. The sheriffs office shared the post of the pup, which looks in excellent shape, with the caption:

Looks like Daisy has found a home! That makes us happy!

READ MORE: A Florida woman drowned a dog and then put the video on social media, cops say

The rescue organization ended the post saying despite the story having a happy ending, its still unclear why someone would toss the poor thing in the water in the first place.

READ MORE: Someone on his morning walk heard a noise from a storm drain. See the rescue

We dont know why this happened, said animal services. The location where Daisy was dumped is a short drive from the shelter. There are literally hundreds of private rescues that would be willing to take in a sweet and gentle dog for foster or adoption. And yet someone chose instead to commit this act of cruelty.

Daisy lucked out that a bystander saw the incident, the animal services group said: If you see something, say something. There is no reason for animals to be treated like this.

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Commenters wholeheartedly agreed.

Honestly, I will die never understanding how people could have such black, cold, disgusting souls, wrote a social media user.

Some humans can be so heartless, wrote another.

WTF IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE! yet another posted in all caps.

Another person gave a shoutout to the rescue organization.

I rescued my baby from OCAS and shes my angel, the queen of my house. I will never understand how she was abandoned, shes in a better place now.
Barbra Streisand has become the ambassador for the Ukraine governments official fundraising platform, United24, after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Streisand, whose grandparents emigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine, donated $24,000 to 24,000 Friends of Ukraine, which asks for $24 monthly subscriptions to help doctors plan the procurement of medical supplies on the frontlines of the countrys war against Russia, which invaded in February.

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The goal is to sign up 24,000 subscribers, which would result in more that $500,000 per month in money raised.

Coming from my Jewish heritage with Ukrainian roots, I feel especially moved by [Ukrainians fight for freedom], Streisand told Zelenskyy. The capability and courage of the Ukrainian people is an inspiration for all those worldwide who promote democracy and fight authoritarianism. You and the Ukrainian people have my full support.

Said Zelenskyy: The world may get a little tired of thinking about Ukraine daily, but the U.S. and European communities continue supporting and helping us. It is very important for us that such talented and world-famous people support the United24 platform.

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Sep. 23A Berea man has been charged after a domestic dispute escalated and a woman was transported by EMS to a Berea hospital to be treated for her injuries.

Hunter Wagers, of berea, was arrested Friday, Sept. 15 and charged for assault following an incident between Wagers and a romantic partner on Aug. 10.

According to the arrest warrant, Berea Police Department (BPD) responded to a call of a possible domestic in progress. When the BPD officer arrived on the scene, the victim was not at the location of the incident but was later located at intersection off N. Broadway Street in Berea.

The responding officer alleged that he observed that the female victim had red marks on her face and neck with blood coming from her mouth' when approached, the woman claimed to being having jaw pain.

The victim stated BPD that Wagers had become aggressive towards her and began accusing her of cheating. The woman advised BPD in her statement that the verbal argument escalated when the defendant repeatedly struck her face with his fist and kicked her.

At the time of the incident, Madison County EMS, transported the victim to a local hospital to be treated for her injuries.

While the female was receiving treatment shortly after the incident, Wagers called her several times.

The victim answered and placed the call on speakerphone where Wagers could be heard by BPD asking who she was with several times, according police documents.

The responding officer allegedly heard Wagers threaten to kill the woman if he found out that she was "with someone". The police document states thevictim reported to law enforcement that this wasn't the first time Wagers physically assaulted her

Hunter Wagers, of Berea, was arrested Sept. 15 and charged with fourth-degree assault, domestic violence (minor injury). The defendant has bail set at $2,500.

The Register collects and publishes police reports as a public service to its readers. The reports often contain allegations against individuals and does not mean the individuals committed a crime. All people named in connection with a crime are presumed innocent until guilty in court of law.
By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Twenty-three foreign visitors landed in Bhutan on Friday, the first to arrive as the Himalayan kingdom reopened its borders after more than two years following the COVID-19 pandemic, with officials looking to tourism to help revive the local economy.

Wedged between China and India, the country known for its natural beauty and ancient Buddhist culture, first opened to wealthy tourists in 1974. In March 2020 it shut its borders to visitors - a major source of income - after detecting its first case of COVID-19.

The constitutional monarchy of fewer than 800,000 people has reported just over 61,000 infections and only 21 deaths, but the $3 billion economy contracted in the last two fiscal years, pushing more people into poverty.

Tourism for us is more than just revenue, said Dorji Dhradhul, Director General of the Tourism Council of Bhutan (TCB), after receiving the first visitors at the country's only international airport at Paro, near the capital city of Thimphu.

He said the tiny country was keen to be "very much a part of the whole world".

"We feel through tourism we can do that ... take advantage of their support and goodwill," he told Reuters from Bhutan, referring to the international community.

Each visitor who arrived aboard the first flight from Kathmandu in neighbouring Nepal was offered small packs of organic honey, tea, Bhutanese turmeric and a local SIM card all in a tote bag as a gift, the authorities said.

In July, Bhutan raised its Sustainable Development Fee to $200 per visitor per night from the $65 it had charged for three decades saying it was keen to welcome more tourists who could spend money.

Officials said the fees would be spent on projects like planting trees, upskilling tourism workers, maintaining hiking trails, reducing reliance on fossil fuels and electrifying transportation vehicles to offset tourists' carbon footprints.

About 315,600 tourists visited in 2019, up 15.1% from the year before, with visitors contributing about $84 million on average each year to the economy for the three years before the pandemic hit, TCB data showed.

(Reporting by Gopal Sharma)
Shalan and Christopher Webb with their daughter Mary on the day Christopher deployed to Iraq, Oct. 29, 2006

Shalan Webb's husband, Christopher, had served nearly 10 years in the military when he was killed by an IED in Iraq in 2007, leaving her to raise their 6-month-old daughter.

"I just remember him saying, 'I have so many stories to tell you when I get home,'" she said. "I never got to hear all his stories."

Over the years, Webb found community with other surviving spouses and made a new life for herself. The benefits she received as surviving spouse paid for a master's degree in museum professions  a degree she still uses as the Museum Collections Specialist for the JIA Historical Division on Jekyll Island in Brunswick, Georgia.

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"It was like a miracle, I mean, to have those benefits and to be able to do something I really love and also set a really good example for my daughter that despite life's challenges you can ... make your dreams come true," Webb said.

If she remarried before the age of 55, she would have lost all of her benefits.

"I haven't remarried, not for any reason other than I haven't met the right person," she said. "But I had a child, we had a child, a little girl who was 6 months when her dad was killed, and it definitely was something I thought a lot about as far as the remarriage part. ... I've always thought that the remarriage limitation, waiting until we're 55, was sort of ridiculous."

Webb is one of about 700 surviving military spouses in Georgia, according to the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, an organization for surviving spouses. Webb connected with TAPS after Christopher's death, and met other spouses in similar situations. Some of her friends did remarry and lose the benefits. Others lived with new partners without marrying to avoid losing the benefits.

Story continues

FILE - Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., leaving the Senate chamber on May 11, 2022. Last week, Warnock introduced a bill that would let Gold Star spouses keep their survivor benefits after remarrying.

"The opportunity to move forward"

Last week, Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jerry Moran, a Republican senator from Kansas, introduced the "Love Lives On Act," a law that would allow surviving military spouses to keep their benefits after remarrying.

"One of the things we hear repeatedly from our surviving spouses is that they really should have the opportunity to move forward with their lives, that their service member earned these benefits, and that these are benefits that as a military spouse they earned as well," said Candace Wheeler, TAPS director of Government & Legislative Affairs. "Often times it's hard for military spouses to put in to a retirement saving or survivor plan, and so often times their retirement is tied up in their service member's retirement. And what a survivor benefit plan is ... it's a replacement for that retirement if that service member dies due to their connection to military service."

Jerry Moran

These benefits are significant: $1,400 a month for a surviving spouse plus $250 per child until they are 18, education benefits equivalent to the GI Bill for the spouse and children, healthcare, and access to bases and commissaries.

"If you're a firefighter or a police officer, your survivors are able to remarry before the age of 55, at any age," said Wheeler. "And that's what we're asking for, that these are benefits that have been earned."

According to Ashlynne Haycock-Lohmann, deputy director of Government and Legislative Affairs for TAPS, the average age of a surviving spouse is 25, meaning they have to wait 30 years to remarry or lose benefits.

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After working with Warnock last year on another Gold Star family bill, TAPS approached him about remarriage, Haycock-Lohmann said, and Warnock was interested.

"One in 10 Georgians is somehow connected to our military, and I can tell you as we move all across our state, these service members are the best among us," Warnock told the USA Today network. "But here's the thing, they're not the only ones that serve. Their families serve, often moving from place to place, in order to support the military service of their service members.

"So this bill will ensure that the surviving spouses of folks who lost their lives standing up for us maintain their benefits even as their lives move on."

"Over the finish line"

Warnock said he hopes to get this bill introduced as an amendment to this year's National Defense Authorization Act.

"Hopefully we will get this over the finish line by the end of the year," he said.

TAPS says there are 75,000 surviving spouses under 65 in the United States. The legislation has received an estimate score from the Congressional Budget Office of $2 billion over 10 years.

Candace Wheeler, TAPS Director of Government & Legislative Affairs, left, and Ashlynne Haycock-Lohmann, TAPS Deputy Director of Government and Legislative Affairs.

The legislation has received not only bipartisan support but also support from about 30 veteran organizations, according to Haycock-Lohmann. As for Webb, she is fully in support of the legislation.

"I really hope that it definitely passes, and I wish they had done it a lot sooner," she said. "But later is better than never."

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Warnock bill would let surviving military spouses remarry, keep benefits
Director Reginald Hudlins Sidney was made with the full and keenly interested cooperation of the Poitier family, following a template of access many documentaries favor or, in some cases, settle for.

This is one of the good ones. Its format limitations (a stand-alone feature, under two hours) and the personnel involved lead, perhaps inevitably, to more of a classy overview of a singular breakthrough artist than a deeper examination of Poitiers impact. Plainly, the man deserves something of the breadth of the six-hour HBO series on Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. But with Poitiers death earlier this year, at 94, Sidney serves as both a timely remembrance and a reminder of how stardom intersects with the world, sometimes, and what Poitier did to keep his sanity in the face of uniquely burdensome expectations.

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Oprah Winfrey produced the documentary, along with Derik Murray, and Winfreys 2012 interview footage with Poitier (just him alone on camera) provides the through-line. Straight to the lens, in that unforgettable, gently Bahamanian cadence, Poitier recalls his early years on Cat Island in the Bahamas. Race was not a concept, or a threat, to young Sidney, until he left Nassau (where he saw his first mirror, his first car) for Miami, at his fathers arrangement, at age 15. Poitier was born in Miami during his parents visit; two months premature, he was not expected to live.

As a teenager on the mainland in Florida, he lived with his brother and worked various jobs including department store bike delivery. How this gig led to a chilling encounter with the Ku Klux Klan put Poitier on notice: America was not built with his interests or his humanity in mind.

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He got to New York in 1943, by Greyhound, where he floundered in his first audition with the American Negro Theatre. Years later, he got in, having worked methodically, carefully, on adopting a kind of acceptable American stage dialect. This is where he met longtime friend and sometime rival Harry Belafonte; when Belafonte couldnt perform one night in a Broadway production (his day job intervened), understudy Poitier went on, and a Hollywood agent in the audience that night lit the fuse of Poitiers career.

In the 2012 interview footage in Sidney, Poitier is a spellbinder, pure and simple. He speaks of his pre-stardom days, with his family back in the Bahamas, waiting for a letter (and some financial support) from their ambitious son. I cut home off, he says at one point. I didnt write because I couldnt put anything in the envelope.

He made a huge impact in Joseph L. Mankiewiczs tough, forward-looking drama No Way Out, and he had the guts not to take a role, five years later, in The Phenix City Story because his character was given zero screen time to react to the murder of his little girl (that same year he appeared in Blackboard Jungle). Later, he made sure the unscripted slap in a key scene in In the Heat of the Night made it into the picture. That made history, and changed things, in a second.

Sidney, premiering Sept. 23, 2022, on Apple TV+. (Bob Adelman/AP)

A decade earlier, The Defiant Ones (1958) also made history: The first Black actor to receive an Academy Award nomination for a leading role, the one chained to fellow nominee Tony Curtis. It was also, as writer Nelson George says in Sidney, a dubious magic Negro moment, a film in which Poitiers character sacrifices his own freedom to stick with his newly enlightened white friend.

This is the complicated legacy of Poitier, cemented in his biggest decade of stardom, the 1960s: He made movies for white people, many of those films still vital, others (Guess Whos Coming to Dinner?) cringy and stodgy. Yet even that, for many, including Winfrey, Halle Berry and others, meant progress at a particularly volatile moment in America.

Gingerly, Sidney deals with Poitiers affair with Paris Blues co-star Diahann Carroll, and on camera Poitiers first wife, Juanita Hardy, looks down and away when quietly addressing the matter of what Poitier was using his separate apartment for besides writing projects. His second, 46-year marriage to Joanna Shimkus lasted until Poitiers death. She too is in the documentary, while film luminaries from Denzel Washington to Spike Lee to Robert Redford pop in to praise the actor, civil rights activist, director and north star they knew.

I truly, truly try to be better tomorrow than I was today, Poitier says at one point, straight to the camera, speaking from the past (the 2012 interviews) but to the future. A better human being. Not a better actor. Just a better human being.

Sidney  3 stars (out of 4)

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MPAA rating: PG-13 (for adult themes and racial slurs)

Running time: 1:51

How to watch: Premieres Sept. 23 on Apple TV+. Also at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St., Sept. 23-29.

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

mjphillips@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @phillipstribune

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Big screen or home stream, takeout or dine-in, Tribune writers are here to steer you toward your next great experience. Sign up for your free weekly Eat. Watch. Do. newsletter here.
Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman met in late August.

Their meeting helped broker a Ukraine-Russia prisoner swap announced Thursday, Bloomberg reported.

Ukraine handed over 55 captives, while Russia turned over more than 200 prisoners, including 10 foreigners.

Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in late August in a meeting that ultimately led to a prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia, Bloomberg reported Friday, citing three sources.

Few details of Abramovich's involvement were reported.

In a major prisoner swap announced Thursday, Ukraine handed over 55 captives, including pro-Russian tycoon Viktor Medvedchuk.

In return, Russia turned over 215 Ukrainians, the majority of whom fought to defend the Azovstal steel plant in the besieged city of Mariupol.

Among the prisoners handed back by Russia were 10 non-Ukrainians  five Brits, two Americans, a Moroccan, a Croat, and a Swede, Bloomberg said.

In tweets sent Thursday, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry thanked Saudi Arabia for playing an "essential" role in negotiations to free the 10 foreign prisoners, who were flown to Riyadh after their release.

Saudi Arabia confirmed on Friday that Mohammed Bin Salman had been involved in mediation efforts that led to the release of the overseas prisoners, but did not give further details on the process. It also said Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked the prince for his contribution over a phone call.

The Saudi, Ukrainian, and Russian governments did not immediately respond to separate requests for comment from Insider on the prisoner swap Friday.

The Sun newspaper reported Thursday that Abramovich was on a private jet used to transport the freed foreign prisoners from Russia to Saudi capital Riyadh. The newspaper added that Abramovich gave the prisoners each phones to allow them to call home.

Abramovich attended peace talks between Russia and Ukraine earlier this year. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged President Joe Biden not to sanction him at the time, saying he may prove useful to the process.

Not long after the peace talks took place, Zelenskyy said the talks had reached a "dead end because we will not trade our territory and our people."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Sean Rayford/Getty

This week offered several reminders of something we have long known: Donald Trumps political survival was enabled by ostensibly normal establishment Republicans.

Lets start with exiled GOP Rep. Liz Cheneys remarks on Monday at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI): There was a moment right after [January] 6 when if [House Minority Leader] Kevin McCarthy had said, This is completely unacceptableWere going to impeach. He should have been convicted, we would be living in a very different country right now, Cheney said. But instead, Cheney continued, Kevin McCarthy decided to go to Mar-a-Lago and welcome Donald Trump back into the party before January was even over.

Trump Owes It All to McConnells Disgraceful Dereliction of Duty

Did McCarthys quick surrender allow Trump to get back off the mat? It feels plausible. But it wasnt just McCarthy. His counterpart in the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, also blinked at the very moment when he might have delivered the coup de grace.

Weve all known that Trump is crazy, McConnell said immediately in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot (according to an excerpt of the forthcoming book Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Congresss Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump). Im done with him. I will never speak to him again.

Soon, though, McConnell saw that members of his caucus were rationalizing Trumps behaviorand their opposition to impeaching him.

After Cheney urged McConnell to publicly support impeachment, McConnell settled on a more passive strategy: Lets just ignore him, he reportedly said.

This inert approach never works out. The idea that ignoring Trump will cause him to go away is reminiscent of the GOP official who, sometime around Nov. 10, famously asked: What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time?

As the authors of Unchecked write, McConnell never actually encouraged his colleagues to convict. Instead, he told them the verdict would be a vote of conscience.

Story continues

Its certainly reasonable to think that a strong and unwavering united front from McConnell and McCarthy might have made the difference. What is arguably even more dispiriting, however, is that so many members of so-called Team Normal (Republicans who correctly believe Joe Biden is the legitimately elected President of the United States) are continuing to enable not just Trump, but a very un-American idea that Trump normalized: election denial.

Take Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, for example. He was elected in 2021 by riding culture-war issues like opposition to critical race theory, but hes basically an establishment Republican, in the mold (temperament-wise) of Mitt Romney. So why was it reported this week that hes going to Arizona to campaign for election denier Kari Lake?

Want Trust in Media to Improve? Do Basic Fact Checking.

As Nick Catoggio notes at The Dispatch, Youngkins capitulation is especially demoralizing because If even the partys most Romney-esque newcomer cant muster neutrality, at a minimum, when asked to choose between an autocrat and a Democrat in Arizona, then the distinction between normies and the rest of the party feels functionally meaningless.

And Youngkin isnt the only member of Team Normal backing Lake. During the primary campaign, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey called Lake a fake who was misleading voters by putting on an act. Then, after she won the Republican nomination, he endorsed her, prompting an Arizona Republic columnist to ask whether Ducey was lying about Lake then or now.

It is worth noting that Ducey primarily hit Lake from the right. He didnt stress that she was an election denier (in fairness, he did say she was misleading voters about it), instead focusing on the fact that she wasnt a true conservative.

In 2020, Ducey earned our respect by standing up to Donald Trumps attempt to overturn the Arizona election results. So why is he abdicating his responsibility in 2022?

We might also direct this question at Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who likewise bravely resisted Trumps attempt to overthrow his states 2020 election results by pressuring state officials to find the votes.

These days, however, The Bulwarks Amanda Carpenter writes that Kemp is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with one of the states top election deniers. That man is his running mate, the GOP candidate for lieutenant governor, Burt Jones.

At this point, Id be surprised to find a prominent Republican who isnt backing a proponent of The Big Lie.

Trump Is Making Love to QAnon and We Should All Be Terrified

To get a sense of the level of depravity infecting todays GOP, look no further than Wednesday, when a mere nine House Republicans (including Cheney) voted for the Electoral Count Act. This commonsense reform was intended to make it less likely that any future attempts to overthrow an election would succeed. As far as Im concerned, this reform should have passed unanimously. Yet 203 Republicans voted no.

And it gets worse. As Politico notes, most of the nine Republicans who voted for the bill have either lost their primaries or announced their retirements. It truly is a sad state of affairs. For those of us holding on to hope that someday normal Republican leaders will retake their party, Im starting to wonder how many even exist.

In the book of Genesis, Abraham bargains with the Lord, getting Him to agree to save the city of Sodom if he could find as few as ten righteous people.

Todays Republican Party couldnt live up to that low standard, either.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Friday discussed the need to maintain open lines of communication between the two countries, the State Department said on Friday.

Blinken told Wang the United States is committed to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and highlighted the implications if Beijing was to support Russia's Ukraine invasion, it said.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Rami Ayyub; Editing by Chris Reese)
A body found in Bristol Township more than a month ago has been identified as a missing Philadelphia man.

The Bucks County Coroner's Office said in a news release Friday that the body found in the vicinity of Route 413 and Maple Avenue on Aug. 21 has been identified as 46-year-old Abdool Nazim.

He had been reported missing from Philadelphia on July 31.

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Bristol Township Lt. Ralph Johnson said previously the body was found near an old skating park just off the south driveway leading under the Burlington-Bristol Bridge at the Delaware River. Investigators did not find any sign of foul play related to his death.

Philadelphia police said in a news release Aug. 18, just days before Nazim's body was found, that he had last been seen in the 12000 block of Knights Road about 7 p.m. July 31.

The cause and manner of Nazim's death remain under investigation. The FBI helped in identifying Nazim.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Bristol Township police at 267-812-3056 or the Bucks County Coroner's Office at 267-880-5656.

The Bucks County Coroners Office has approved the following information for immediate release.Bucks County Coroner, Meredith Buck, announced today that with the assistance of the FBI, the body found on Sunday, August 21, 2022, in the vicinity of Rt. 413 and Maple Avenue in Bristol Township has been positively identified as Abdool Nazim, a 46 y.o. Guyanese/South American male. He was reported missing from Philadelphia on July 31, 2022. His next of kin have been notified and the Bucks County Coroners Office offers his family and friends sincerest condolences.The cause and manner of death continue to be under investigation. We are asking anyone with information to contact the Detective Kitchenman of the Bristol Township Police Department at 267-812-3056 or the Bucks County Coroners Office at 267-880-5656

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Body found in Bristol Township identified as Philly man missing since July
Microsoft boss Satya Nadella told the BBC that workplaces need to overcome "productivity paranoia"

A major new survey from Microsoft shows that bosses and workers fundamentally disagree about productivity when working from home.

Bosses worry about whether working from home is as productive as being in the office.

While 87% of workers felt they worked as, or more, efficiently from home, 80% of managers disagreed.

The survey questioned more than 20,000 staff across 11 countries.

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella told the BBC this tension needed to be resolved as workplaces were unlikely to ever return to pre-pandemic work habits.

"We have to get past what we describe as 'productivity paranoia', because all of the data we have that shows that 80% plus of the individual people feel they're very productive - except their management thinks that they're not productive.

"That means there is a real disconnect in terms of the expectations and what they feel."

Remote working peaked?

Both Mr Nadella and Ryan Roslansky, the boss of Microsoft-owned LinkedIn, said employers were grappling with perhaps the biggest shift in working patterns in history.

The number of fully-remote jobs advertised on LinkedIn soared during the pandemic but Mr Roslansky said data suggested that type of role might have peaked.

He told the BBC that of some 14 or 15 million job listings that are typically live on LinkedIn, about 2% of those involved remote working before the pandemic. Some months ago, that stood at 20%, and it has since come down to 15% this month.

At a time of acute labour shortages, employers are having to work harder to recruit, enthuse and retain staff. That even includes Microsoft itself, according to Mr Nadella.

"We had 70,000 people who joined Microsoft during the pandemic, they sort of saw Microsoft through the lens of the pandemic. And now when we think about the next phase, you need to re-energize them, re-recruit them, help them form social connections."

Story continues

Microsoft employees can work from home up to 50% of the time as standard. More than that requires management approval or a move to part-time working.

Some companies have struggled to impose new working arrangements and expectations.

There has been resistance to calls at Apple to return to the office three days a week from September, while Tesla boss Elon Musk has demanded 40 hours a week in the office sending an email saying: "If you don't show up, we will assume you have resigned."

An unprecedented number of people have also changed jobs since the start of the pandemic. A phenomenon Microsoft has dubbed "the great reshuffle", sees workers born after 1997 (so-called Generation Z) nearly twice as likely to switch jobs.

"At the peak of our 'great reshuffle' we saw a year-on-year increase of 50% of LinkedIn members changing jobs. Gen Z was at 90%," the report said.

By 2030, Generation Z will make up about 30% of the entire workforce so managers need to understand them, according to LinkedIn's boss.

As you might expect, alongside its new observations Microsoft has new products aimed at easing this potential mismatch in expectations. It is focusing on helping companies' younger workers feel a sense of belonging to, and an ability to learn in, an organisation in the way staff did in the past.

Its new Viva software, for example, allows direct contact to senior managers, online teaching and a channel to share personal photos - somewhat like a company intranet site with bells on to ring in a new world of work, which employers in particular are struggling to navigate.
District Attorney Keith Higgins announced that Ricky Darrell Morrow, 58, of Brunswick, was found guilty of felony murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during commission of a felony, following a criminal jury trial that began on Sept. 19 in Glynn County Superior Court.

STORY: Jags taking so what approach to road skid, West Coast woes

On the night of Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, the victim, Michael Allen Propes, 23, of Waycross, Ga., and a friend were at the home of Ricky Darrell Morrow on Blythe Island in Glynn County. Morrow, who knew Propes, had invited him and his friend to his home to socialize. They were there for about an hour when Morrow indicated to Propes that he was ready to do a shot of methamphetamine, which Propes had apparently bought earlier with $100 that Morrow had given him. All three were methamphetamine addicts.

Morrow gave Propes friend a syringe to prepare a shot of methamphetamine for himself. Morrow then became upset that there should be more methamphetamine than what Propes produced. Propes insisted that was it and he had not shortchanged Morrow. Morrow then walked to another room and returned with a revolver. He again questioned Propes about the quantity of drugs, saying dont do me like this.

He then shot Propes in the back one time. The bullet struck Propes in the heart and a lung, and he died at the scene soon afterward.

STORY: Dogs that wont stop barking could now cost owners in Atlanta up to $1,000

Morrow told Propes friend and responding officers that it was an accident, and he didnt mean to shoot Propes. However, he never explained how it was an accident. Morrow refused to give a statement to the investigators from the Glynn County Police Department, and he declined to testify at trial.

In his closing argument, Chief Assistant District Attorney Nigel Lush told the jury that this was another example of the tragedy of drug addiction and how guns and drugs dont mix: Propes paid the ultimate price for his addiction, and Morrow needed to be held responsible for his.

Story continues

The jury deliberated for two hours before returning the guilty verdicts. Following the jury verdict on Sept. 21, Judge Roger B. Lane sentenced Morrow to life in prison with the possibility of parole plus an additional five years in prison for the gun charge.

In Georgia, life with the possibility of parole means a person must serve 30 years before becoming eligible for parole. As such, Morrow will be 87 years old when he becomes eligible.

STAY UPDATED: Download the Action News Jax app for live updates on breaking stories
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodian rescue teams searched on Friday for 23 Chinese nationals missing after their boat sank near islands off a coastal town popular with tourists and gamblers.

Authorities rescued 18 people after the boat went down early on Thursday off the town of Sihanoukville, the provincial government said in a statement.

It was not clear what caused the boat to sink. Authorities are questioning survivors, who were taken to a nearby island.

The provincial government gave no details about the identity of the Chinese nationals and it was not clear if any Cambodians were among those rescued or the missing.

Cambodia is popular with tourists and business people from China but many Chinese people have been unable to travel over the past couple of years because of Chinese COVID-19 restrictions.

One of the survivors, 27-year-old Chengui Sheng from China's Fujian province, told authorities the boat had been carrying 41 people, including three women, the provincial government said.

Border police conducted an initial search and authorities have asked fishermen to join the effort, offering a reward of 2 million riel (about $480) for every rescue.

Sihanoukville is home to several casinos and the town has in recent years also seen police raids on suspected cybercrime operators, some with links to China, police have said.

(Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Robert Birsel)
By Steve Scherer

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Friday agreed to deepen cooperation on critical minerals used in electric vehicles (EVs) batteries as both countries seek to cut emissions to fight climate change.

Yoon visited London for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, and then New York in his first U.S. trip to attend the U.N. General Assembly, before arriving in Canada on Thursday. On Friday, Yoon met Trudeau in Ottawa, and then they both spoke to reporters.

"Yoon and I discussed ways to collaborate in a variety of areas, including essential minerals, batteries for electric vehicles, and emerging technologies, including AI (artificial intelligence)," Trudeau told reporters.

Canada has many of the critical minerals - like lithium, cobalt and nickel - that are now used to make batteries for EVs, and the government is in the process of seeking to help producers and processors scale up production.

"Canada, as a global leader in the production of minerals, and Korea, a major semiconductor and battery maker - each play crucial roles in global supply chains," Yoon said through an interpreter.

"The governments and businesses of our two nations will work together for the mineral resources sector to build a cooperative architecture... to respond to the shocks resulting from the changing world order," Yoon added.

China is currently by far the dominant global supplier of critical minerals used in EVs. Yoon said it was strategically important for both countries to find an alternative supplier.

Canada and South Korea are already cooperating in the sector, Trudeau pointed out.

In March, Stellantis, the parent of Jeep and Chrysler, said it would build an EV battery plant in a joint venture with South Korea's LG Energy Solution in Windsor, across the border from Detroit.

In a joint statement, the two countries said they agreed to deepen their "strategic partnership on supply chain resiliency" and would seek to position themselves as "competitive players in the critical minerals supply chain and battery and EV value chains".

To that end, both countries agreed to develop a memorandum of understanding in the coming months to "support clean energy transition and energy security, including with respect to critical minerals".

(Reporting by Steve Scherer; Editing by Sandra Maler)
An opening night makes a glorious sound, regardless of whos around to hear it.

Maybe it was the fall chill, back-to-school blues or something else entirely. Whatever the reasons, the Chicago Symphony Orchestras 132nd season opened on Thursday with far less fanfare than usual. Four principal players and several section musicians were missing from their stations  almost unheard of for an opening night  and noticeably thinner crowds milled around Symphony Center. As surveyed from a perch in the lower balcony, Orchestra Hall appeared to be less than half full.

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Not even nonpareil evening soloist Yefim Bronfman could fill seats, apparently. Nor the prospect that this was the CSOs last opening night with music director Riccardo Muti, who steps down at the end of this season.

A certain subduedness was all but guaranteed, but Bronfmans eloquent, understated account of Johannes Brahmss Piano Concerto No. 1 was proof that one doesnt have to speak loudly to captivate a room. His entrance on the pathos-rich theme  usually stark enough to shock when the orchestra drops away to reveal the piano, practically disrobed in its vulnerability  sounded inevitable, even laissez-faire. And the second-movement Adagio? Even by Bronfmans celestial metric, Thursdays recitation was something special: weightless, reverent, honest. It was enough to make a couple CSO players break their usual poker face, beaming warmly at the pianist from behind.

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Brahms offers plenty of opportunities for the soloist to rip up the keyboard. Goodness knows Bronfman has, in the past, seized them. But even he resisted muscling his way through those moments, as if feeding off the energy in the room. He played his solo passages with the sympathy of a chamber musician  not as a high-throned soloist, not as one of two brawny interlocutors, but as the same voice as the orchestra, telling the same story.

If Thursdays performance is any indication, the keyboard auteur has mellowed. His touch has lightened even since his statuesque Brahmss Second  a Bronfman calling card  here in 2015, also with Muti. Hes no longer Bronfman the brontosaur, as Philip Roth memorably wrote of him 20 years ago in The Human Stain. Maybe, in this repertoire, he knows his two hands dont have to milk all the sound out of a concert grand they can muster when his heart does the trick.

Soloist Yefim Bronfman performs with music director Riccardo Muti as he conducts members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra while performing Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor at the Chicago Symphony Center on Sept. 22, 2022. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

Muti and CSO held up their end of the bargain, meshing splendidly with Bronfman  with one notable exception. In the middle of the first movement, Muti turned to the violins and spun his arms in gusty windmills, egging on a tempo that appeared to take the pianist by surprise. (Its not the first time the conductor has appeared to wrest the wheel away from a soloist during a performance.) But Bronfman, a perfect pro, gamely matched Muti after a couple bars of on-the-fly adjustment. Bronfman did not retake his seat for an encore  who needed it, after that Brahms?  but he and Muti evidently made up during their extended bows, each mischievously and graciously trying to cajole the other into accepting more applause.

Mutis tenure at the CSO resists easy generalization, but it touts one indisputable crowning jewel: Hes dusted off dozens of 19th century works either never or rarely heard in the U.S. The latest is Samuel Coleridge-Taylors Solemn Prelude, performed Stateside for the first time on Thursday after the unpublished orchestral score was rediscovered in the British Library.

The Solemn Prelude is pretty much what it says on the tin: a 10-minute curtain-raiser, cast in a slow B minor that resolves to glowing B major by works end. But what happens in between makes one wonder if the 24-year-old Coleridge-Taylor  in the middle of a hugely productive period when he wrote the work for Britains Three Choirs Festival in 1899  was sweating under a deadline. Muti and CSO gave an impassioned and all-in performance, but even this dream team couldnt quite maneuver the Preludes more awkward transitions. (Better attention to balance between instrumental sections likely would have sweetened its reception, too.) Its not Coleridge-Taylors most inspired work, but even this middle-of-the-road opus is anthemic and decadent  still a worthy addition to any orchestras tool kit.

Thursdays languor sloughed off some after intermission with Tchaikovskys Symphony No. 2, once (and still occasionally) dubbed The Little Russian for its use of Ukrainian folk songs. Those tunes were never far from Tchaikovskys sonic sightlines, but the Russian symphonist likely heard them up close for the first time in 1864, when he lodged for a summer at an estate in Trostyanets, 20 miles from the modern Russian-Ukrainian border. Later, Tchaikovsky would spend even more time in Kamyanka, in central Ukraine, where he wrote much of the Second Symphony.

For Ukrainians, that Little Russian moniker has always smarted. Now, it chills to the bone. Trostyanets became an early punching bag in the Russian invasion, Tchaikovskys erstwhile estate and a nearby statue of the composer both sustaining damage. Kamyanka, like so many Ukrainian towns, is threatened by a nearby battlefront.

Members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform Coleridge-Taylors "Solemn Prelude" Sept. 22, 2022, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

Muti, usually not shy to make of-the-moment comments onstage, let the CSOs selection of this work speak for itself. His recent interpretations of Tchaikovskys major symphonies have been unafraid to take risks on the backs of those warhorses. He was less daring here, in the lesser-performed Symphony No. 2. There was little lightness to be found in Thursdays performance, even in sections where the orchestration practically dances off the page  a Solemn Prelude to an unexpectedly solemn symphony.

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But heres the surprise: It didnt not work. Whether he meant to or not, Mutis interpretation rejected approaching the symphony as a virtuoso retooling of folk materials, as indeed 19th century Russian audiences might. After all, behind the tunes are a people, proud and brave and dignified. Ive yet to hear an opening to the fourth movement  which precedes Modest Mussorgskys similar The Great Gate of Kyiv from his suite Pictures at an Exhibition, by two years  as scene-setting and grand as Thursday nights.

Tchaikovskys early symphony can, in other hands, sound lithe compared to his later work. But as that moment, as well as the second-movement Andantino marizale demonstrated, there was meat on these slim bones. A seven-minute-or-so swell that manages to be both good-natured and martial, the Andantino could be one of the symphonys breeziest movements. Not so on Thursday. Muti took the tempo molto comodo, somewhere between a march and a pastoral  troops slowing to marvel at a land theyve sworn to protect. Sure, it could sound sleepy in moments where the movements internal motor was laid bare. But when the striding theme was picked up at a fortissimo tutti by the whole orchestra, its poise and gravitas made up for how long it took to get there.

Right here, right now, its all too easy to project a narrative on this symphony. Clearly, Im guilty of it here. But life doesnt end at the double doors of the concert hall, as much as we wish we could shrug off its crushing weight. It was a Symphony No. 2 I wish Kamyanka could hear.

Muti & Bronfman repeats 1:30 p.m. Sept. 23 and 7:30 p.m. Sept. 27, $45-$399. Yefim Bronfman performs Mozarts Piano Concerto No. 22 and the CSO reprises Solemn Prelude for Symphony Ball, Sept. 24, $49-$175. Both at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave., cso.org

Hannah Edgar is a freelance writer.

The Rubin Institute for Music Criticism helps fund our classical music coverage. The Chicago Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content.
People plan vacations around all sorts of themes, from outdoor adventure to pop culture fandom and wine. In recent years, a newer travel area has become increasingly popular: cannabis tourism.

Cannabis tourism can be defined as leisure travel done for the purpose of indulging in marijuana use in areas where it is legal, Sean Roby, CEO of the cannabis-friendly lodging marketplace Bud and Breakfast, told HuffPost.

It is akin to the wine industry, where travelers gather from all over the world to check out the vineyards in a specific region, Roby added. Similar is the case with cannabis tourism, when people visit the places where pot is legal. They can spend some time there, not just indulging in cannabis consumption but also doing other recreational things during the visit.

As more states and countries legalize marijuana for medical and recreational use, so grows the number of out-of-town visitors arriving in search of cannabis-based experiences.

So, what should travelers know about cannabis tourism, or canna-tourism?

Below, experts break down the offerings, history, controversy and projections for the future.

The cannabis tourism experience

As a growing area of the travel industry, cannabis tourism entails an increasingly wide range of activities and experiences.

Cannabis travel activities today center around well-being, said Brian Applegarth, founder of the Cannabis Travel Association International and California Cannabis Tourism Association. Cannabis is approached by travelers as a tool to improve quality of life and enhance experiences while on vacation. Cannabis visitors to a destination are medical-minded, leisure-orientated, or often a blend of both. Todays travelers often include cannabis and CBD-infused activities like spa treatments as part of their destination itinerary.

There are also opportunities to learn about the history of the herb with cannabis tours and educational seminars. From farm stays to apartment rentals and weed-friendly hotels, various lodgings have their own unique offerings as well.

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Our top hosts that are now sold out for three to six months in advance are the ones that have a bud bar, a cannabis yoga class, a professional chef that cooks micro-dosed infused meals for the guests, a CBD-infused masseuse on call, sushi and joint rolling, puff and paint, a zip line over a pinot noir and cannabis field, Roby said. Weve seen them all and our hosts are getting very creative, to say the least.

At a minimum, a basic Bud and Breakfast host might offer lodging that allows marijuana (though perhaps requires that any smoking take place outside in the yard) and can provide information about nearby dispensaries or other recommendations. These accommodations may appeal to those who simply want a safe place to enjoy cannabis as part of their lifestyle  or even to medical travelers seeking treatment for themselves or their children.

The platforms super hosts, however, go a step further by curating all-inclusive experiences.

Really, in our eyes, what defines a super host is that they are basically a Wikipedia of all things cannabis, Roby explained. They have their finger on the pulse of all related activities/events that go well with cannabis and help the guest really experience the entire stay through the eyes of a local within this genre of travel.

Increasing legalization of marijuana in different states and countries has led to a boom in cannabis-related travel offerings. (Photo: Stefan Milosevic / EyeEm via Getty Images)

Increasing legalization of marijuana in different states and countries has led to a boom in cannabis-related travel offerings. (Photo: Stefan Milosevic / EyeEm via Getty Images)

The rise of marijuana-motivated travel

Although cannabis tourism has started getting more attention in recent years, its not exactly new.

I became aware of cannabis travel experiences in Amsterdam in the 1990s  I remember hearing about The Bulldog and other cannabis cafes and coffee shops that were one-of-a-kind experiences for travelers to enjoy, Applegarth said. Going back a bit further with the cannabis travel trend, if you look closely at the history of the Silk Road, the hippie trail, or the surf culture of the 1950s, cannabis was absolutely a central part of it. After California legalized medical cannabis in 1996, the state welcomed patients from around the world seeking help.

The legalization of recreational marijuana in individual states starting in 2012 helped cannabis tourism grow into a more active sector of the travel industry. In fact, a 2022 report from Forbes estimates that cannabis tourism is a $17 billion industry in its own right.

Cultivar Strategies, Applegarths cannabis travel consulting firm, partnered with the hospitality marketing agency MMGY Global to conduct research on the growing field.

The research revealed that 37% of the active leisure travel audience in the United States are cannabis-experience motivated, up 8% from 2020, Applegarth explained. Cannabis, hemp and CBD sales soared during the pandemic as people needed to cope with difficult and unpredictable situations. Today, 70% of Gen Z travelers say that legal access to cannabis while on vacation matters.

In the U.S., destinations like Oakland, California, have embraced the opportunity to stimulate the local economy through cannabis-motivated travel. The citys official tourism bureau, Visit Oakland, even developed the Oakland Cannabis Trail to inspire travel plans, support local businesses and keep visitors comfortable and engaged along the way.

We created a program to capitalize on the growing cannabis travel trend and enrich our visitor experience, said Peter Gamez, president and CEO of Visit Oakland. If cannabis is part of ones lifestyle, visitors want to access products while traveling. This has been good for local dispensaries in Oakland and beyond, as well as product makers across the country. Visitors can now access everything from edibles to health aids to cannabis strands that address different needs and appeal to an array of tastes.

Bud and Breakfast began in 2002 with a coastal inn in Mendocino, California, and expanded over time to connect a broader number of travelers to weed-friendly accommodations and experiences around the world.

Because more and more people are using cannabis and wanting it when they travel, this has opened up the door for business owners to fill a gap to accommodate 420 travelers, Roby said.

Ayanna Lawson believes marijuana-based tourism offers a lower risk path into a highly volatile industry. Her company, Front Row Travels, offers curated travel experiences for cannabis users, as well as education for marginalized community members looking to build a brand in cannabis tourism.

Far too often people try to the enter the industry through dispensary ownership or grow facilities not anticipating the hardships that many owners face, Lawson explained. Cannabis tourism is unique in that it touches multiple sectors within the cannabis industry  farming/agriculture, technology, hospitality, arts/music, etc. The possibilities are endless. Cannabis-friendly destinations such as Mexico, Canada and Uruguay are also generating millions of dollars through cannabis-focused tourism.

The lingering controversy

Although theres been a great deal of progress in the understanding and acceptance of marijuana usage, stigma remains.

Cannabis travel is a controversial topic because it is still misunderstood by many, Applegarth said. Fear or judgment about cannabis itself and cannabis travel and tourism activities comes from those who are uninformed, and are often hyperfocused on smoking and the negative impacts from activated THC overconsumption.

Roby pointed out that the legalization of recreational cannabis only started within the last decade.

As with alcohol prohibition, it will take a few years to normalize on a social level but one only needs to look at states like Colorado, California, Massachusetts and most other recreational states to see how quickly attitudes change post-prohibition, with cannabis becoming a welcome attribute to the local people and economy, Roby said.

Although theres been a great deal of progress in the understanding and acceptance of marijuana usage, stigma remains. (Photo: Westend61 via Getty Images)

Although theres been a great deal of progress in the understanding and acceptance of marijuana usage, stigma remains. (Photo: Westend61 via Getty Images)

Beyond giving travelers the opportunity to relax and have fun, the growing cannabis tourism industry can educate people about the drug and help break down the stigma.

For decades we have been told misinformation and lies about cannabis and cannabis users, Lawson said. But people are starting to unlearn what theyve been told about cannabis. Cannabis tourism can provide the answers to the questions many have through farm tours, workshops, networking events, infused dinners and more.

Even in states where the drug is legal, marijuana still feels outside many peoples comfort zones. Theres a lingering sense of taboo as it remains illegal on a federal level.

Over 30 states have a medical cannabis program and over 15 states have said yes to adult recreational cannabis, Lawson explained. Despite an overwhelming majority of U.S. citizens voting to decriminalize cannabis in some capacity, cannabis is still currently listed as a Schedule I drug and is federally prohibited. So, you essentially have an industry that is illegal and legal at the same time. This conflict is wreaking havoc on the cannabis industry.

The idea of cannabis tourism also presents a stark contradiction when you consider that more than 40,000 Americans are currently estimated to be incarcerated for marijuana-related offenses. Its tough to reconcile the idea of people languishing behind bars because of weed while others have the privilege to plan vacations around it.

Outside the U.S., theres further confusion around the implications of recent decisions to decriminalize or legalize marijuana in various countries or regions within them. (And movies like Midnight Express and Return to Paradise instilled a sense of panic around drugs for many would-be international travelers.)

A patchwork of complicatedlaws and regulations regarding recreational cannabis use by overseas tourists means questions remain about the legality of consumption, the transport of cannabis vape pens overseas as well as issues of insurance coverage and health care, during and after travel, Michael ORegan wrote in The Conversation in June.

Wherever your travels take you, do your best to research the regulations in place before making marijuana part of the experience.

The future of cannabis tourism

Despite the lingering stigma and legal confusion, industry experts remain optimistic about cannabis tourism.

Cannabis tourism will continue to grow, Gamez predicted. There are ready, willing, and surprisingly affluent cannabis travelers that prefer cannabis experiences while on vacation. Restaurants, attractions, shops, hotels and more will find ways to incorporate this in their daily offerings.

Applegarth pointed to the trend of effect pairing cannabis thats taking off in certain sectors.

Like food pairs with wine, cannabis pairs with activities and experiences, he explained. Effect pairing is the art of selecting and consuming cannabis in an effort to optimally enhance an activity or experience. An example of this is a cannabis cultivar that when consumed, stimulates appetite and sharpens the palate prior to enjoying a Michelin star meal while on vacation.

Applegarth also believes cannabis tourism will continue to center around wellness-related experiences, both in a medical or leisure travel sense.

Cannabis, hemp and CBD will continue to intersect with culinary, spa, and beyond, Applegarth said. For altered state THC-rich cannabis travel experiences, mindset and setting will increasingly become an area of focus and high-touch curation, playing up sensory experiences.

Unlike wine-related travel, which is limited to specific regions that specialize in quality production, cannabis tourism has wider geographic potential.

Cannabis is everywhere around the world in urban locations, rural locations and everything in between, which means it will exponentially grow much larger, Roby said. And there is no shoulder season with cannabis tourism. Our hosts have cannabis activities all year round.

And with countries like Germany moving to legalize cannabis on a federal level, Roby believes the market potential is endless. He noted that Bud and Breakfast had seen a triple increase in revenue every year until the pandemic slowdown and has finally returned to pre-pandemic levels of record growth.

Cannabis tourism is just getting started and will grow into the hundreds of billions of dollars within a few years time, Roby said. This will occur in conjunction with nations around the world developing compassionate and rational policies towards cannabis and its use.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
Sep. 23The percentage of people experiencing food insecurity in West Central Indiana is at 14.2%, the second highest rate in Indiana, and the total of children suffering from it represents the state's third highest number.

But the Catholic Charities Foodbank is combating those numbers at a ferocious pace, Assistant Director Jennifer Tames told those attending a lunchtime information session at the food bank on Thursday.

The new foodbank, now about three years old, boasts twice the space of its previous space but has three times the capacity to hold food, providing efficiency and safety, Tames said.

Catholic Charities is part of the Feeding America Network, a consortium of 60,000 food programs nationwide that combined served 60 million people in 2020.

Feeding America's goal is to reduce food insecurity to a mere 5% by 2030, so much work will have to be done locally.

In this area, Catholic Charities distributed 3.9 million pounds of food in 2021  the equivalent of 3.2 million meals  including 9,913 sack lunches on weekends and holidays. The Loaves & Fishes Soup Kitchen has served individuals every day for the past 35 years without a pause.

The Ryves Youth Center hosted 456 children between the ages of 5 and 17, providing them with more than 11,000 tutoring sessions and sending them home on weekends with a backpack full of food. The center's Kid's Cafe served 7,976 dinners last year.

Bethany House Emergency Shelter served 40 adults and 19 children last year, 21 of whom were victims of domestic violence and 31 of whom went on to a permanent housing arrangement.

The Christmas Store served 963 children and 648 adults by providing clothing, toys and hygiene products. The Christmas Store hosted an open house Thursday afternoon.

Vigo County Commissioner Brendan Kearns, who has worked with Catholic Charities for the past 10 years, said, "Growing up in a Catholic family, I was aware of them, but when I started getting involved with their outreach to the homeless, that was more of an eye-opener as to what their impact is. When you look at how much food is in this building today, it's a reflection of a serious problem in this community.

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"Fortunately, we have a great resource to provide food to people in need," Kearns added. "Catholic Charities has really stepped up their game to provide not just in Vigo County, but surrounding counties. Every time there is a need, they step up."

Kearns touted Catholic Charities' Blue Truck Cavalry, which distributes food to children in rural areas. "Jen and John [Etling, agency director] have an idea of areas in Vigo County that need food. The mobile outreach pantry is a big deal  bringing food to those areas makes a huge difference. That's an example of how they go above and beyond."

David Kronke can be reached at 812-231-4232 or at david.kronke@tribstar.com.
Charlize Theron is getting candid about her personal life.

The actress, 47, spoke with Harpers Bazaar for their October cover issue all about parenting, navigating the dating world and her experience after 25 years in Hollywood.

"I feel like Im at a place where it is what it is," Theron said of her career. "Working more isnt, I think, going to change my level of fame. It just has always been a mediocre ride. Ive never been one of those people thats at a Kim Kardashian level. But I feel like its just always been this thing."

Charlize Theron got candid on her career in Hollywood after 25 years. Photo by Frazer Harrison

Theron grew up on a farm in South Africa, just outside of Johannesburg. At 16, she came to America to start a career in modeling, which was the jump start to her career.

CHARLIZE THERON SAYS SHES SHOCKINGLY SINGLE: SOMEBODY JUST NEEDS TO GROW A PAIR AND STEP UP

"I didnt grow up in America," Theron said, "so I always find myself kind of trying to keep my head above water with the school system and exams, because its not familiar to me. My education was just so different than what my kids are having in America. And so there are a lot of bells and whistles that come with being a parent that I didnt grow up with."

The "Mad Max" star touched on how Hollywood was when she started her career and said she had to be "loud" to be noticed.

Charlize Theron grew up in South Africa and came to America at 16 to pursue a modeling career. Photo by Stefanie Keenan

"The majority of my 20s and my 30s, and just the way I was raised, was very much  it was a time where you had to be a loud b-ch to just find some space in the room," she said. "I dont necessarily really like being that person, but there was definitely a time in my life where that was the only way I knew how to function."

Along with being a devoted single mother to her two daughters: Jackson, 10 and August, 7 for the past decade, she has found a balance in raising her children and balancing her career. The "Monster" actress adopted her two children.

CHARLIZE THERON CONSIDERS LEAVING AMERICA: 'RACISM IS MUCH MORE ALIVE AND WELL'

"It is so all-consuming," she said. "There are moments with my children where, yeah, I sit in the car and theyre in the back and Im pulled over because I dont want to lose a call. But I love it. I dont think I could do it if I didnt love it."

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Theron launched her production company, Denver & Delilah, in 2003. "Having absolutely no control over what youre wearing is a big one that really f-king annoyed me for years," she said of her career prior to launching her company.

Theron launched her production company, Denver & Delilah, in 2003. Photo by Tibrina Hobson

"Having some guy make you have a fitting almost in front of themstuff like that, its really belittling. When I started, there was no conversation around it. It was like, This is what youre wearing. And I remember one movie in particular, this male director who just kept bringing me in, fitting after fitting after fitting after  And it was just so obvious that it was to do with my sexuality and how f-kable they could make me in the movie. And when I started out, that was just kind of the norm," Theron explained.

Making a change in the entertainment industry was not something the longtime actress took lightly.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER

"Theres a natural fight in me to want to create environments that feel like the things that I wish I had 30 years ago when I started," she said. "The Old Guard," which Theron produced, had a cast and crew that was 85 percent women, which she noted that she is proud of.

"I dont always get it right," Theron said as her role as a producer, "but I am very aware of looking at the big picture and saying, Is this really the best we can do?"

Theron has been a single mother to her two daughters for the past decade. Photo by Steve Granitz/FilmMagic

Along with being a single mother, balancing her career in Hollywood, she has also found the time to be a devoted fan of the reality show "The Real Housewives."

"I always say to my kids, Just diversify a little bit, and my little one will go, Are you watching the Housewives again? And I go, Yes, I am.  Well watch a little Fellini later," she said.

The "Bombshell" actress, who has been a single mother for the past decade, shared that she is currently single and has no intention of ever getting married.

"During COVID, somebody was interested in doing this thing with me," she said. "It was just a deep dive into a relationship. And I was just like, I dont know if I wanna.  I just feel so out of practice."
Drag performer Cherry Valentine  whose legal name is George Ward  has died, according to their family. They were 28 years old.

In 2019, Valentine gained notoriety after starring as a contestant during Season Two of RuPauls Drag Race UK.

World of Wonder  the production company behind the BBC Three reality series  confirmed the death of Valentine with a statement on social media.

"We are heartbroken to learn of the passing of George Ward, AKA Cherry Valentine," the statement began. "As an artist, nurse and an activist Cherry will always remain a beloved member of our 'Drag Race' family. Cherrys love and irresistibly infectious laugh touched the lives of so many. Our deepest condolences go out to her family and friends."

According to Variety, Valentine's family released a statement as well mourning the loss of the queen.

It is with the most heart wrenching and deepest sadness to inform you that our George  Cherry Valentine  has tragically passed away, the statement reportedly said. This will come as a profound shock to most people (and) we understand there is no easy way for this to be announced.

As his family, we are still processing his death and our lives will never be the same, the statement continued. We understand how much he is loved and how many lives he has inspired and touched. All we ask is for your patience and your prayers in this time. We love you Georgie.

Valentines family did not disclose an exact cause of death.

In 2022, a BBC Three documentary called Cherry Valentine: Gypsy Queen and Proud examined Valentine's expulsion from the Roma community they grew up in after coming out. During the documentary, Valentine explored how to meld their drag persona and Roma roots. The documentary also followed Valentine's work as a mental health nurse throughout UKs COVID-19 vaccine rollout. War was asked by the COVID-19 vaccination they worked at to appear as Cherry Valentine to promote vaccines.

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The impact of Valentine's presence in the drag community can be measured in response to the news of their death on social media.

So sad to hear. A bright star and a lovely person. @TheCValentine Always in our hearts. https://t.co/cA0TsMZ0PN pic.twitter.com/78xdx6Vvef  RuPaul (@RuPaul) September 23, 2022

RuPaul, who worked with Valentine during their time on the series, commented on the news with a post shared on Twitter.

So sad to hear. A bright star and a lovely person. @TheCValentine, the host of the series, wrote. Always in our hearts.

The official Twitter account for RuPauls Drag Race UK also confirmed the news in a post that described Valentine as a kind soul.

We are heartbroken that Cherry has passed away. She was a kind soul who brought joy and a distinctive laugh to everyone she met. She brought flair, verve and charm to #DragRaceUK, we will miss her so deeply. pic.twitter.com/4LG7oHaVZj  RuPaul's Drag Race UK (@dragraceukbbc) September 23, 2022

We are heartbroken that Cherry has passed away, said the tweet. She was a kind soul who brought joy and a distinctive laugh to everyone she met. She brought flair, verve and charm to #DragRaceUK, we will miss her so deeply.

Our hearts ache at the loss of #CherryValentine  a proud member of our community, a cousin, a shining star that paved a glorious path for young Romany seeking representation, the podcast Roma Unraveled wrote in a tweet. He brought bright smiles and laughter to all that knew him. May your final road be forever peaceful.

Bimini Bon-Boulash, a fellow contestant of Valentine's during season 2 of Drag Race, also took to Twitter to grieve.

At a loss for words. One of those souls so pure, so raw, so real. Im incredibly lucky to have known George and witnessed their infectious spirit. Their patience and kindness was their superpower. They saw you for you and not many people have that empathetic trait. My heart   BIII (@biminibabes) September 23, 2022

At a loss for words. One of those souls so pure, so raw, so real. Im incredibly lucky to have known George and witnessed their infectious spirit, they wrote. Their patience and kindness was their superpower. They saw you for you and not many people have that empathetic trait. My heart.

Fans of Valentine also gathered to share sentiments and mourn. Many were quick to highlight their more memorable moments as Cherry Valentine while on RuPauls Drag Race UK.

RIP Cherry Valentine  thank you for bringing so much fun & laughter during quarantine  pic.twitter.com/r4WRBqMJo5  laura (@lust4lifelaura) September 23, 2022

RIP Cherry Valentine, another tweeted. thank you for bringing so much fun & laughter during quarantine.

Cherry Valentines laugh appreciation post. She was great. pic.twitter.com/eySdMipxMa  Lee (@JustifyMyLee) September 23, 2022

Cherry Valentines laugh appreciation post. She was great, another fan wrote with a video compilation of Valentine on Twitter.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
China has engaged in a decades-long campaign to insert and recruit allied researchers from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, according to a report from information security firm Strider Technologies.

The report asserted that between 1987 and 2021, at least 162 scientists who passed through the nuclear research lab returned and worked with the Chinese government.

FORMER CHINESE JUSTICE MINISTER SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR HELPING CRIMINALS, TAKING BRIBES

Of these, 15 were permanent staff members, many carrying very high levels of security clearances.

The scientists "returned to the [People's Republic of China] to support a variety of domestic research and development (R&D) programs," according to the report.

FILE - A sign greets visitors to the Los Alamos National Laboratory campus in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Joe Raedle/Newsmakers

US MILITARY LEADERS WARN CHINA COULD MILITARIZE THE PORTS IT OWNS IN LATIN AMERICA

The assessment continues, "Of those fifteen, thirteen were recruited into PRC government talent programs; some were responsible for sponsoring visiting scholars and postdoctoral researchers from the PRC, and some received U.S. government funding for sensitive research."

Strider Technologies found that "at least one of these staff members held a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) 'Q Clearance' allowing access to Top Secret Restricted Data and National Security Information."

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Inspector General said in 2015 that a lack of managerial oversight at the laboratory led to improper disclosures of sensitive information.

The Los Alamos Laboratory and the town of Los Alamos, June 14, 1999. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

In 1999, scientist Wen Ho Lee was accused of mishandling nuclear weapons codes, but the government's case fell apart and ended with a plea bargain that freed the Taiwanese-born scientist.

The next year, two computer hard drives with top-secret nuclear-related material disappeared, only to turn up mysteriously behind a copy machine.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The main perpetrator involved in the brutal assault on four women at a restaurant in Tangshan, China, has been sentenced to 24 years in prison.

On Friday, the Guangyang District Peoples Court in Langfang, Hebei province, determined Chen Jizhi, 41, to be the ringleader of a gang that has conducted criminal activities since 2012.

Chen and four other men were caught on camera violently beating four women at a barbecue restaurant in Tangshan on June 10 after one of the woman rejected his sexual proposal. In CCTV footage that previously made international headlines, a woman can be seen being dragged by her hair, hit with bottles and repeatedly kicked in the head by a group of assailants.

Chen was found guilty of eight charges relating to the attack and other criminal activities that were uncovered by the police during their investigation. He was convicted of multiple charges, including picking quarrels and provoking trouble, intentional injury, robbery and running gambling operations.

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He was fined 320,000 yuan (approximately $45,000), according to reports. In addition, he and six others who were arrested were ordered to reimburse the victims medical treatments arising from the Tangshan attack.

Two of the victims suffered second-degree minor injuries, while the other two women had slight injuries, according to the Hebei court.

The court has also sentenced 27 other defendants with terms ranging from six months to 11 years. Nineteen of Chens accomplices were also given a fine between 3,000 yuan and 135,000 yuan (approximately $420 to $19,000).

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[The group] organized for evil, oppressed the people, disrupted the order of local economy and social life, and caused detrimental social impact, the court statement read.

Last month, authorities said they were also investigating 15 officials for corruption involving evil organizations associated with the attackers. There were eight civil servants, including the head of a district police station in Tangshan, detained on suspicion of accepting bribes and offering protection to the defendants.

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The incident has prompted an international discussion of gender-based violence and concerns regarding womens safety in mainland China despite widespread censorship. The graphic video of the brutal attack became widely shared on social media, causing outrage among netizens who have since spotlighted gender inequality and violence against women in the country.

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Featured Image via Reuters

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A man who led a vicious attack on four women eating in a restaurant in China has been sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Chen Jizhi was found guilty of the assault in the north-eastern city of Tangshan in June which began when one of the women rejected his advances.

Another 27 men were convicted over the violence, in which they used bottles, chairs and fists to beat the women.

Surveillance video went viral, sparking debate about gender violence in China.

After the attack, two of the women spent time in intensive care, while the other two women were seen in photos covered in blood, although their injuries were initially classed by police as only "minor".

Chen was fined 320,000 yuan (40,000, $45,000) in addition to his 24-year prison sentence,

The other defendants were sentenced to between six months and 11 years in prison.

The court ordered Chen and five defendants to compensate for the four victims' medical expenses and other losses, the Global Times reports.

Women's rights campaigners say domestic abuse remains pervasive and under-reported in China.

A report released soon after the assault found the handling of the case by the local deputy director of district police and other officers had been "slow and improper".

Chinese authorities censored online debate about attacks on women, and tried to paint the assault as gang crime, correspondents say.

The viciousness of the attack sparked outrage and heated debate on social media, taking up one of the most-discussed topics on Weibo, a popular social media platform in China.
As Iran erupted in violence over the death of a young woman in the custody of the morality police, CNNs chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, had her own run-in over a headscarf with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

Raisi suddenly pulled out of a long-planned interview in New York after Amanpour refused his last-minute demand to wear a headscarf. It was very unsettling, Amanpour said Thursday on CNNs New Day.

The unusual confrontation occurred as protesters battled police in the wake of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody. She had been arrested last week by Iranian morality police because her headscarf was allegedly too loose to comply with the nations strictly enforced Islamic clothing restrictions for women.

Police claimed she died of heart failure, but her family said she was in perfect health with no history of heart problems.

Amanpour said tension over such repression has been mounting in Iran, but it has grown increasingly volatile since the election of the current hard-line government, including Raisi. Treatment of women is always the barometer of Iranian government politics, Amanpour noted.

Amanpour, who grew up in Tehran, said she has always worn a headscarf working in Iran because its the custom, otherwise you just couldnt operate as a journalist there, she added.

Here in New York, or anywhere else outside of Iran, I have never been asked by any Iranian president  and I have interviewed every single one of them since 1995  either inside or outside of Iran, never been asked to wear a headscarf, Amanpour said

But Raisi was already 40 minutes late for the interview Wednesday night at the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan when his aide suddenly told Amanpour that the president needed her to wear a headscarf.

Raisis aide said it was a matter of respect, referred to the current holy month as well as the situation in Iran, Amanpour said.

The aide made it clear that the interview would not happen if I did not wear a headscarf. He said it was a matter of respect, and referred to the situation in Iran - alluding to the protests sweeping the country. 5/7  Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) September 22, 2022

And so we walked away. The interview didnt happen. As protests continue in Iran and people are being killed, it would have been an important moment to speak with President Raisi. 7/7 pic.twitter.com/kMFyQY99Zh  Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) September 22, 2022

It would have been Raisis first interview on American soil.

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I very politely declined on behalf of myself and CNN, and female journalists everywhere because it is not a requirement, and it was lobbed at us at the very last minute, Amanpour said.

I think that he did not want to be seen with a female without a headscarf in this moment, she added.

As of Friday, at least nine people have been killed amid clashes between Iranian security forces and protesters furious about Aminis death, according to The Associated Press.

The scope of ongoing unrest, the worst in several years, remains unclear, but protests have erupted in at least a dozen cities over the repression and mounting economic and social crises, AP noted.

Many Iranians, particularly the young, view Aminis death as part of the Islamic Republics far too heavy-handed policing of dissent and the morality polices increasingly violent treatment of young women.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
The U.S. Coast Guard has denied guardsmen religious accommodation requests and is still taking action to keep unvaccinated service members from being promoted and trained, while continuing involuntary terminations, despite the country moving on from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a lawsuit filed Sept. 16 by the Thomas More Society against the Coast Guard and other government agencies on behalf of a class of over 1,200 service members seeking religious exemptions from the Pentagon's COVID-19 vaccination mandate, the organization alleges that the Coast Guard is "categorically denying virtually all" religious accommodation requests.

Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTJG) Alaric Stone told Fox News Digital in an interview that he had submitted his first religious accommodation request last year, which was denied in January, and then an appeal, which was also denied in May. He said that his denial was "virtually identical" to those of other unvaccinated service members, despite his mission and unit.

A Coast Guard spokesperson denied that any members have been penalized for seeking religious accommodations.

"No Coast Guard members have been penalized for seeking religious accommodations from the COVID-19 vaccine requirement. Coast Guard policy prohibits taking retaliatory actions against a member for seeking a religious accommodation, and all religious accommodation requests are processed in accordance with standard agency guidance and policy," the spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

Stone said he had "successfully served on board one of the highest up-tempo units within the Coast Guard without any COVID disruptions whatsoever. You know, I never missed a single day of work during the entire period," which he mentioned in his accommodation request.

As for any penalties he's endured since the denial of his appeal, Stone said he's not eligible for certain trainings and promotions that would advance his career.

"I've been denied training several times. Training is directly associated with duties that I'm meant to be filling in the billets that I'm in. You know, this puts me at a pretty significant disadvantage, because, you know, I have certain tasks and jobs that I'm supposed to be doing, and I'm not necessarily getting the formal training that is supposed to go along with those," said Stone, who graduated at the top of his Coast Guard class in 2016.

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BIDEN DECLARED THE PANDEMIC OVER, BUT UNVAXXED AIR FORCE PILOTS ARE STILL GROUNDED

Stone noted that despite the punishments he personally faces, he "by no means" has received the "harshest punishments" facing other guardsmen, including involuntary separation from the military.

A spokesperson for the Coast Guard confirmed to Fox News Digital that it is in the process of discharging any members without approved exemption requests.

"At the height of the pandemic, restrictions on training, travel and leave were implemented in order to protect the Coast Guard workforce and the public. These restrictions were applicable to all Coast Guard members and were at no time focused on members who had filed or were awaiting decision on religious accommodation requests," said the Coast Guard spokesperson.

"The Coast Guard is in the process of discharging all military members who do not have an approved medical or administrative exemption or religious accommodation, and who have not followed the order to become vaccinated," the spokesperson continued.

The Coast Guard received over 1,200 accommodation requests and only accepted 12 total, all of whom were already in the process of retiring or separating from the military, plaintiff attorneys said. That amounts to a 99% denial rate.

"I'm already aware of one service member who, as of Monday this week, was discharged for being unvaccinated and standing up for his religious beliefs. And I personally know of dozens more who stand to be discharged in actually just the coming weeks," Stone told Fox News Digital.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks at a news briefing at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on July 20, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

"The White House proclaimed the pandemic is over, but as the Pentagon just reiterated, the purge continues, as they systematically drive out of the Coast Guard [and all branches of the military] the best and the brightest, like LTJG Stone and our other plaintiffs," Steve Crampton, one of the plaintiff attorneys, told Fox News Digital.

"Meanwhile, they use cookie-cutter form denial letters citing nonsensical excuses for their religious discrimination. For example, they told LTJG Stone that he was not 'worldwide deployable' due to his unvaccinated status, despite the fact that he had just completed four worldwide deployments, during which time he missed not a single day of work while no less than 12% of his fully vaccinated shipmates were quarantined with COVID," Crampton continued.

PENTAGON IN 'POTENTIAL NONCOMPLIANCE' WITH LAW AFTER DENYING VACCINE RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION REQUESTS: IG

Boatswain Mate 1st Class Eric Jackson was also denied a religious accommodation request and appeal.

The Coast Guard in Jackson's final denial letter said that his unvaccinated status was inconsistent with the Coast Guard's interest in "a ready military workforce," ignoring a statement by his commander that his ship would still be able to "maintain mission readiness with no hindrance to operations" if Jackson was granted religious accommodation.

The Pentagon's watchdog said the Department of Defense is in "potential noncompliance" with standards for reviewing and denying religious exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, according to a report obtained by Fox News Digital last week. The Coast Guard is part of the Department of Homeland Security but says its religious accommodation process is similar to the DoD's.

NAVY QUIETLY ROLLED BACK PUNISHMENTS FOR SEALS SEEKING RELIGIOUS EXEMPTIONS TO THE COVID VACCINE

"The Coast Guard issued service-wide policy regarding requests for religious accommodation last summer. Although the Coast Guards religious accommodation process is similar to that of the DoDs, it is a separate process," said the spokesperson. "The Coast Guard carefully reviews and processes any members request for a religious accommodation on a case-by-case basis. This process follows Coast Guard policy applicable to all religious accommodation requests."

U.S. Coast Guard personnel and members of the media. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

It has been reported recently that the Coast Guard Academy disenrolled seven cadets for failing to comply with the militarys COVID-19 vaccination mandate, after their requests for religious exemptions were denied and they were ordered to leave campus.

COAST GUARD ACCUSED OF 'MODERN-DAY INQUISITION' OVER VETTING OF REQUESTS FOR RELIGIOUS EXEMPTIONS TO VACCINE

The academy in New London, Connecticut, confirmed the disenrollments on Sept. 1, and a lawyer for several of the cadets said they were told on Aug. 18 that they had to leave campus by 4 p.m. the next day.

The cadets names have not been released.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.